Part 9
Woe to those who became sick or exhausted during the long march to the markets! If unable to stagger on any longer they were, to set an example for the others, either butchered on the spot, or left behind to perish by hunger and thirst, or to be torn by wild beasts.
In the further transportation of such kidnapped men and women no regard was paid to their comfort. In the best of slave-ships the height between decks in the quarters set aside for the living cargo was five feet and eight inches. Even in these not all the slaves had so much head room. Around the sides of the vessel, halfway up, ran a shelf, giving room for a double row of slaves, one above and one below. This was stowed with undersized negroes, including women, boys, and children. In the worst class of slavers the space between decks was no more than three feet, compelling the wretched occupants to make the entire journey in a sitting or crouching position, as they were oftentimes, in fact most of the times, so crowded together that lying down was an impossibility. In fact, the more ingenious traders often so figured out the available space that the slaves were packed in with their feet and legs across one another’s laps. To prevent revolt, the men were manacled in couples with leg irons and stowed below. The irons were fastened to the ceiling. As a rule the women were not handcuffed but crowded into compartments under grated hatches and locked doors. At sea there might be a faint possibility of a breath of air’s penetrating into those quarters, but under all circumstances the mortality among the slaves was frightful.
“In the literature of the slave trade,” says Metcalff, “the horrors of the path of commerce stand out as prominently as the persecutions of the Roman emperors in the history of Christianity. When the sea gives up its dead there will come from this highway of cruelty a prodigious army of martyrs to man’s inhumanity to man. The best authorities agree in estimating that of all the slaves taken from Africa at least one-eighth—some authorities say more than a quarter—died or were killed in transit. It staggers the imagination to think of how thickly the traffic in these helpless savages, continued through almost four centuries, must have strewn with corpses the lower depths of the Atlantic.
“Of course it was necessary, if any part of the cargo was to be delivered alive, that the negroes should occasionally be brought on deck and exercised. This was done with a few at a time, although their masters never went so far as to free even these from their irons. Often it was found when a couple was to be brought up that one of them had died and that his mate had spent hours, days even, in the stifling atmosphere of between-decks, manacled to and in constant contact with a corpse. It is small wonder that, as often happened, when the slaves were brought on deck they began jumping overboard in couples, sooner than return to the heat, thirst, stench, and filth of the hold, where the scalding perspiration of one ran to the body of another and where men were constantly dying in their full view. Sooner than endure these tortures even the savage Africans sought refuge in death by starvation. This was a contingency provided for in advance by the experienced trader, and if the gentle persuasion of the thumb-screw failed to cure the would-be suicide, the ships were always provided with a clever device to compel the human animal to take the nourishment which kept in him the life without which he ceased to possess any pecuniary value. This instrument consisted of a pair of iron compasses, the legs of which were driven into the mouth when closed and then forced open and held open by the action of a screw. Even the African negro, stoic to the pains incident to a life of savagery, would renounce the privilege of death by starvation to escape the immediate agony of forcibly distended jaws, especially when at the same time his thumbs were under the pressure of the screw with blood exuding from their ends.”
Branded like cattle, the negroes, after their arrival in the American harbor, were sold by auction. And now the slave was, as the Civil Code of Louisiana said, “subject to the power of his master in such a manner that the master may sell him, dispose of his person, and of his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but that may belong to his master.”
Of course this master had also the right to punish the slave for any neglect or wrong. To be sure, there were laws against excessive punishment, but as most of the plantations were far from the cities, such laws were practically ineffective against those who wished to violate them.
We quote once more J. S. Metcalff: “Almost every plantation had its whipping post, consisting of an upright set in the ground with a short crosspiece near the top. The thumbs or wrists of the negro to be whipped were securely tied together, and placed around the upright above the crosspiece, so that the toes barely touched the ground. Sometimes the offending slaves were sent to the nearest jail to be whipped by the jailor, who was an expert in his line of work, and provided with the right kind of whips as well as a strong arm and an accurate eye to make his blows inflict the most pain. In other cases, this official paid regular visits to the plantation, and inflicted the punishments accumulated since his preceding visit. Thus the terror of anticipation was often added to the agony of realization. These events were occasions on the plantations, and the other slaves were compelled to witness the punishments and sufferings of their fellows as a deterrent to wrongdoing on their own part. In the case of some offenders which seemed cardinal against the foundation principles of slavery, such as striking a master, engaging in a conspiracy with other slaves, or aiding a fugitive, the punishments were made extraordinarily severe, and slaves from surrounding plantations were obliged by their masters to gather to witness them.
“A case of this latter sort was the one of a negro and his wife, who had given their owner a severe beating. In spite of the fact that the first cause of the trouble was the rejection by the woman of the master’s advances, the offence was so flagrant that neighboring slave-owners feared to let it go by without severe and public punishment. At the time set the slaves from neighboring plantations were gathered, and the man and woman fastened to posts near each other. The man was to receive a hundred and fifty lashes and the woman a hundred. As the first strokes fell on the man’s back and loins he gave no sound, but the agony betrayed itself in the ashening of his dark skin, and in the involuntary contortion of his features. Meanwhile the woman encouraged him with crude expressions of pity and love. As the blows increased in number the torture became unbearable, and the sound of the regularly landing lash was punctuated with the shrieks of its agonized victim. Finally a blessed unconsciousness came to his relief, and he hung from the post a limp, unfeeling mass of bruised and bleeding flesh. While his back was being washed, the whipping of the woman began. The first blows brought shrieks of anguish from her lips, but as the whipping went on these subsided into a murmur of sobs, prayers, and appeals for mercy. With the exception of an occasional rest for the tired arm of the man wielding the whip, her punishment was carried to its end without her losing consciousness, although it was apparent that there had come some numbing influence to her faculties closely akin to insensibility. The man had now been restored to his senses and his punishment was resumed. When it was finished the wounds of both were washed with salt water, to intensify the effect of the blows, to prevent blood-poisoning and to heal the wounds more quickly, so that the slaves could resume their accustomed labor. This matter of the slave’s ability to work was always taken into account, and we have one instance of two economical lady slave-owners in Georgia who always inflicted their punishments Sunday mornings, so that by Monday the slaves would be able to go into the fields.”
As the slave-holders were absolute masters over the negroes, they made their dusky female slaves only too often the objects of their passions. The effects of this intermingling were soon seen in all slave-holding countries of America in the mixed character of the population, which, gradually extending itself as time wore on, resulted in the race of the mulattoes. From the intercourse of these again with the whites or among themselves, innumerable shades of color sprang up, giving rise to the distinctions of octoroons, quadroons, terceroons, quinteroons, etc. To all these people, regular or irregular in birth, light or dark in color, were given the various names of “people of color,” “sang melée,” or “mulattoes.” Notwithstanding the fact, that some of these quadroons and octoroons could hardly be distinguished from white people in appearance, their condition followed always that of their mothers, and they were therefore chattels to be bought or sold.
“On the plantations where negro children were brought up to be sold, it was,” as Metcalff states, “not an unheard-of thing for a master to sell his own son or daughter. In the break-up of family estates it sometimes happened that the heir was compelled to sell his own half-brother or half-sister. These relationships were seldom or never recognized.”
In the slave-markets of New Orleans and the other large cities the personal appearance of the younger women was a decided element in fixing their value. The languorous beauty of the Southern quadroon and octoroon is famous the world over, and on the auction block and at private sale they brought the highest prices.
The glory of having written the first formal protest against slavery and its countless cruelties, belongs to a small band of Mennonites from Germany, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1683, in the neighborhood of which city they started a settlement called Germantown.
Becoming aware that in the colonies slaves were sold without the disapproval of the Puritans and Quakers, who claimed to be defenders of human rights, the Mennonites drew up a protest against slavery on February 18th, 1688. It was the first written in any language. This remarkable document, still preserved in the archives of the “Society of Friends” in Philadelphia, was directed to the Quakers and reads as follows:
“This is to ye Monthly Meeting at Richard Warrel’s. These are the reasons why we are against the traffic of men Body, as followeth: Is there any that would be done or handled at this manner? to be sold or made a slave for all time of his life? How fearfull and fainthearted are many on sea when they see a strange vessel, being afraid it should be a Turk, and they should be taken and sold for slaves into Turkey. Now what is this better done as Turks do? Yea rather it is worse for them, which say they are Christians; for we hear that ye most part of such Negers are brought hither against their will and consent; and that many of them are stollen. Now, tho’ they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men, like as we will be done our selves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase them, are they not alike? Here is liberty of conscience, which is right and reasonable; here ought to be likewise liberty of ye body, except of evil-doers, which is another case. But to bring men hither or to robb and sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are many oppressed for conscience sake; and here there are those oppressed which are of a black colour. And we, who know that men must not commit adultery, some doe commit adultery in others, separating wifes from their husbands and giving them to others; and some sell the children of those poor creatures to other men. Oh! doe consider well this things, you who doe it, if you would be done at this manner, and if it is done according Christianity? You surpass Holland and Germany in this thing. This makes an ill report in all those countries of Europe, where they hear off, that ye Quakers doe here handel men like they handel there ye cattel. And for that reason some have no mind or inclination to come hither, and who shall maintain this your cause or plaid for it? Truly we can not do so, except you shall inform us better hereof, that Christians have liberty to practice this things. Pray! What thing on this world can be done worse towards us, then if men should robb or steal us away, and sell us for slaves to strange countries, separating husbands from their wifes and children. Being now this is not done at that manner, we will be done at, therefore we contradict and are against this traffick of menbody. And we who profess that it is not lawful to steal, must likewise avoid to purchase such things as are stollen, but rather help to stop this robbing and stealing if possible; and such men ought to be delivered out of ye hands of ye Robbers and sett free as well as in Europe. Then is Pennsylvania to have a good report, instead it hath now a bad one for this sake in other countries. Especially whereas ye Europeans are desirous to know in what manner ye Quackers doe rule in their Province; and most of them doe look upon us with an envious eye. But if this is done, well, what shall we say is done evil?
“If once these slaves (which they say are so wicked and stubborn men) should joint themselves, fight for their freedom and handel their masters and mastrisses as they did handel them before, will these masters and mastrisses tacke the sword at hand and warr against these poor slaves, like we are able to believe, some will not refuse to doe? Or have these Negers not as much right to fight for their freedom, as you have to keep them slaves?
“Now consider well this thing, if it is good or bad? and in case you find it to be good to handel these blacks at that manner, we desire and require you hereby lovingly, that you may inform us here in, which at this time never was done, that Christians have such a liberty to do so, to the end we shall be satisfied in this point, and satisfie likewise our good friends and acquaintances in our natif country, to whom it is a terrour or fairfull thing that men should be handeld so in Pennsylvania.
“This is from our Meeting at Germantown held ye 18. of the 2. month 1688. to be delivered to the monthly meeting at Richard Warrel’s.
“gerret hendericks derick op de graeff Francis Daniell Pastorius Abraham op Den graeff.”
This document, set up by the humble inhabitants of Germantown, compelled the Quakers to think. Becoming aware that the traffic in human beings did not harmonize with the Christian religion, they introduced in 1711 an act to prevent the importation of negroes and Indians into Pennsylvania. Later on they also declared themselves against the slave trade. But as the Government found such laws inadmissible, the question dragged along, until 150 years later, by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, this black spot on the escutcheon of the United States was wiped out.
* * * * *
The Germans of Pennsylvania were also compelled to protest against other gross abuses, of which white men and women had become the victims. To review early immigration into America means to open one of the blackest pages of Colonial history. The constant wars, prevailing in Europe, the horrible persecutions to which the followers of certain religious sects were exposed, the frequent times of famine and pestilence led many thousands of unhappy beings to sail for the New World, where such sufferings would not be encountered. But the means of travel, then existing, did not meet the demands. Vessels, fit for the transportation of large numbers, were few and their accommodations extremely poor. Authorities took no interest in the proper treatment of the emigrants. Everything was left to the owners of the ships, who were responsible to nobody.
What sort of people were these shippers? Many were smugglers and pirates, always on the lookout for prey. Others were slave-dealers, making fortunes in trading negro-slaves. No doubt, the moral standard of these gentlemen was very low. Do we wonder that many of these unscrupulous men established also a regular trade in =white= slaves, for which the increasing exodus from Europe to America opened most alluring inducements. If smart enough, they would amass great wealth and would no longer have to make the perilous voyage to Guinea, to kidnap black people at the risk of their own lives. For the white slaves could be seduced by a bait that had a flavor of high-spirited benevolence.
Pretending willingness to help all persons without means, the ship-owners offered to give such persons credit for their passage across the ocean, on condition that they would work for it after their arrival in America, by hiring out as servants for a certain length of time to colonists, who would advance their wages by paying the passage money to the ship-owners. As the persons were redeeming themselves by performing this service, they were therefore called “Redemptioners.”
With this harmless-looking decoy many thousands of men and women were lured on to sign contracts, only to find out later that they had become victims of villainous knaves and had to pay for their inexperience with the best years of their lives.
The voyage across the ocean took as many weeks as it takes days at present. The ship-holds were in such horrible condition that words fail to describe them. And these dirty rooms were always packed beyond capacity. The food was poor and insufficient. Some captains kept their passengers on half rations from the day of the start, pretending that it was necessary to prevent famine. In consequence of the poor nourishment and the overcrowded quarters, all sorts of sickness prevailed and the mortality was terrific. For medical help and all other services excessive prices were charged. So it came that at the end of the journey almost all the passengers were deeply in debt. According to their amount and the physical condition of each immigrant the length of time was fixed for which he or she should serve any person, willing to pay the captain the amount of the immigrant’s debt. This servitude extended always from four to eight years, and sometimes to more. The captains had no difficulty in turning the bonds, signed by redemptioners, into cash. Cheaper labor could be obtained nowhere, and for this reason the colonists were always eager to secure the services of redemptioners. The offers were made through the newspapers or at the “Vendu,” the place where negroes were bought and sold. When applicants came, the redemptioner was not allowed to choose a master or to express wishes about the kind of work that would suit him. Members of the same family must not object to separation. So it happened frequently that a husband became parted from his wife or children, or children from their parents for many years or for life. As soon as the applicant paid the debt of a redemptioner, the latter was obliged to follow him. In case this master did not need his servant any longer, he could hire, transfer or sell him like chattel to someone else.
As in such a case the redemptioner received no duplicate of his contract, the poor creature depended entirely upon the good will of his new master, who had it in his power to keep him or her in servitude far beyond the expiration of the true contract time. If any dispute arose, a redemptioner enjoyed no greater protection than a negro, like whom he was treated in many respects. If found ten miles away from home without the written consent of his master, he would be regarded as a run-away and submitted to heavy physical punishment. Persons guilty of hiding or assisting such fugitives were fined 500 pounds of tobacco for each twenty-four hours such fugitive had remained under their roof. Who captured a run-away was entitled to a reward of 200 pounds of tobacco or 50 dollars. And to the run-away’s servitude ten days were added for every twenty-four hours absent, to say nothing of the severe whipping he was liable to get.
The redemptioners went through all sorts of experiences, according to the different tempers of their masters. Some were lucky enough to find good homes, where they were well treated. But many fell into the hands of heartless, selfish people, who in their eagerness to get as much as possible out of the redemptioners, literally worked them to death, to say nothing of providing insufficient food, scanty clothing and poor lodging. Many owners made use of the right to punish redemptioners so frequently and so cruelly, that a law became necessary whereby it was forbidden to apply to a servant more than ten lashes for each “fault.”
Female redemptioners were quite often exposed to lives of shame, which some of the laws seemed to invite. For instance in Maryland a law was passed in 1663 providing that any freeborn white woman, who married a colored slave, should together with her offspring become the property of the owner of that slave.
Originally this abominable law was intended to deter white women from intermarriage with colored men. But many depraved colonists misused this law purposely and compelled their white female servants by threat or deceit to marry colored slaves, as the master then would legally secure permanent possession of the white freeborn woman as well as the children she might bear. Though everybody knew that such devilish tricks were practiced extensively, this law remained in force until 1721, when a peculiar incident led to its repeal. When Lord Baltimore, the founder of Maryland, visited his province in 1681, he brought over an Irish girl, Nellie, who had agreed to redeem the cost of passage to America by doing service. Before her time ended, Lord Baltimore returned to England. Prior to his departure he sold the unexpired term of Nellie’s service to a resident of Maryland, who some weeks thereafter gave Nellie to one of his negroes, making her thereby, together with two children that were born, forever his slave. When Lord Baltimore heard of this, he caused the abolishment of the law of 1663. But all efforts to release his former servant and her children were in vain. The case dragged along for years, until the courts decided, that Nellie and her children must remain slaves, as the latter were born before the annulment of the law.
Incidents of similar character stirred the German citizens of Philadelphia to revolt against the unjust treatment to which their immigrant countrymen and women were subjected. At a meeting on Christmas Day of 1764, they formed “=The German Society of Pennsylvania=,” with the purpose of securing laws for the abolishment of all abuses which had grown out of the treatment of immigrants. Such a law was secured on May 18th of the following year.
The “German Society of Pennsylvania” became the model for many similar institutions in all parts of America. By uncovering evils and by vigorous persecutions of guilty persons, by continuously framing and recommending effective laws, these societies secured at last a better treatment of the immigrants on the ocean as well as after landing. With full justice these societies may be called the true originators of our modern immigration laws.—