The Great Stain

by Noel Rae

  This last clause was followed in 1793 by the Fugitive Slave Act, “an act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping the service of their masters.” Under this law owners could retrieve slaves who had escaped to a free state by having them arrested, often by professional slave-catchers, and brought before a judge or local magistrate. There was no trial by jury, or appeal from the judge’s decision. Anyone sheltering a fugitive slave could be fined the large sum of $500. For the fugitives, this law meant that so long as they remained anywhere in the United States they were never free of the threat of being returned to slavery; hence the exodus to Canada. Owners also were unhappy with the law since the trouble and expense of capturing fugitives fell upon them, and not upon officials. Also, many of the free states passed “personal liberty laws” which increased the slave-owner’s burden of proof and allowed for jury trials and appeals from judges’ decisions.

  The Constitutional Convention shirked the issue of slavery largely because of the flat refusal of Georgia and South Carolina to make it a concern of the national government. They would accept such federal benefits as the three-fifths rule, help in arresting and returning runaways, and assistance in putting down a slave insurrection, but in all other respects slavery was a matter for the states only; otherwise they would refuse to join the Union. None of the demi-gods called their bluff, despite the fact that because of its large slave population South Carolina, more than any other state, needed the support of a strong central government. Georgia too could hardly have afforded to remain outside the Union, being, in the words of Washington, “a weak state with powerful tribes of Indians in its rear, and the Spanish on its flank.”

  Faced with this obduracy, and comforted by the vague hope that slavery would somehow or other just fade away, most members of the convention agreed with Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut that “the wisdom and morality” of slavery were “considerations belonging to the States themselves.” George Mason of Virginia was one of the few to oppose the compromise, warning that “Providence punishes national sins by national calamities,” and prophesying that slavery would “bring the judgment of Heaven.” In the end, Mason refused to sign, declaring that “he would sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands.”

  ABOLITION IN THE NORTH

  “I wish most sincerely there was not a Slave in the province,” wrote Abigail Adams during the Revolutionary War to her husband, John. “It always appear’d a most iniquitous scheme to me—fight ourselfs for what we are daily robbing and plund’ring from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”

  A few years later Abigail got her wish when her husband was elected to the convention that was to draft a new constitution for Massachusetts. The convention began by appointing a committee of thirty, which in turn appointed a sub-committee of three, which then left everything to John Adams, who was happy to oblige. He began, as must all writers of constitutions, with a preamble setting forth a number of general principles, the first of which was that “all men are born equally free and independent.” However, the sub-committee and then the full committee modified this so that all men were “born free and equal,” which was not quite the same thing, but enough to end slavery in his state.

  This principle was enforced a little over a year later when a slave called Quock Walker (Quock probably being a form of the Ghanaian name Kwaku, meaning “boy born on Wednesday”) sued for his freedom on the grounds that it had been promised him when he turned 25. The promise had been made by a former owner who had died, and his new owner refused to honor it. The case came to trial in 1781 in Western Massachusetts and concluded with the judge declaring: “As to the doctrine of slavery and the right of Christians to hold Africans in perpetual servitude, and sell and treat them as we do our horses and cattle, that, it is true, has been heretofore countenanced by the Province Laws.” But now “a different idea has taken place with the people of America, more favorable to the rights of mankind, and to that natural, innate desire of Liberty, with which Heaven (without regard to color, complexion, or shape of noses) has inspired all the human race. And upon this ground our Constitution of Government … sets out with declaring that all men are born free and equal—and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property—and in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves. This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature.”

  Since fewer than two per cent of its population were slaves, abolition caused no great upheaval in Massachusetts. Vermont, which had almost no slaves, had banned slavery outright as early as 1777. Other northern states followed suit, most of them declaring slavery to be wrong but nevertheless abolishing it only gradually. Pennsylvania, while allowing that slavery was “disgraceful to any people, and more especially to those who have been contending in the great cause of liberty themselves,” did not free children born after March 1, 1780, until they reached the age of twenty-eight. (Technically they were indentured servants rather than slaves, but this did not lessen their obligation to their masters.) In 1788 the law was amended to prevent owners from getting around it by moving their pregnant slaves out of the state. It also declared that husbands, wives and children were not to be separated, and imposed a ban on building and supplying slave ships. In Connecticut slave children born after March 1, 1784, were not freed until they were twenty-five, and New York had similar provisions. As a result of this gradualism, in 1810 there were still 27,000 slaves in the North; on the other hand, the number of free blacks had grown from a few hundred at the start of the Revolution to about 100,000.

  For the most part, emancipation did not mean full citizenship. Once freed, most slaves went to live in cities, where they were resented by working-class whites, routinely excluded from the better jobs and kept from voting by property qualifications—as de Tocqueville observed, “the prejudice which repels Negroes seems to increase in proportion as they are emancipated.” On the positive side, they could no longer be sold, could keep what they earned, start their own small businesses, choose their own names, marry whomever they chose, and establish their own churches and way of life.

  THE SOUTH

  Here the story was very different. For a while Virginia flirted with the idea of gradual emancipation, but this went nowhere, and in the meantime other states were busy tightening their laws. William Wells Brown summed up the result in Extracts from the American Slave Code, which he published as an appendix to his autobiography. “The following are mostly abridged selections from the statutes of the slave states,” he wrote. “Most of the important provisions here cited, though placed under the name of only one state, prevail in nearly all the states, with slight variations in language, and some diversity in the penalties.” Here are some of the laws he quoted:

  Louisiana: “A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master … Slaves are incapable of inheriting or transmitting property … No slave can be party in a civil suit, or witness in a civil or criminal matter, against any white person … Every slave found on horseback without a written permission from his master shall receive twenty-five lashes … It is lawful to fire upon runaway Negroes who are armed, and upon those who, when pursued, refuse to surrender … A slave for willfully striking his master or mistress, or the child of either, or his white overseer, so as to cause a bruise or shedding of blood, shall be punished with death … Any person cutting or breaking any iron chain or collar used to prevent the escape of slaves, shall be fined not less than two hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned not more than two years nor less than six months … All slaves sentenced to death or perpetual imprisonment, in virtue of existing laws, shall be paid for out o
f the public treasury, provided the sum paid shall not exceed $300 for each slave.”

  Mississippi: “Penalty for any slave or free colored person exercising the functions of a minister of the gospel, thirty-nine lashes; but any master may permit his slave to preach on his own premises, no slaves but his own being permitted to assemble … Penalty for teaching a slave to read, imprisonment for one year. For using language having a tendency to promote discontent among free colored people, or insubordination among slaves, imprisonment at hard labor, not less than three, nor more than twenty-one years, or death, at the discretion of the court … Every Negro or mulatto found in the state not able to show himself entitled to freedom, may be sold as a slave.”

  Alabama: “No slave can be emancipated but by a special act of the Legislature.”

  Georgia: “Penalty for any free person of color (except regularly articled seamen) coming into the state, a fine of one hundred dollars, and on failure of payment to be sold as a slave …Penalty for permitting a slave to labor or do business for himself, except on his master’s premises, thirty dollars … Every colored person is presumed to be a slave, unless he can prove himself free … Any person who sees more than seven men slaves without any white person, in a high road, may whip each slave twenty lashes.”

  Most southern states had laws barring unusually cruel punishments, but these were rarely enforced since slaves could not testify in court against whites. This left sadistic owners free to come up with devices such as this. The prongs sticking out from the collar were to prevent the wearer from resting his head when lying down.

  South Carolina: A few additions had been made to the draconian laws passed in the wake of the Stono Insurrection: “A slave endeavoring to entice another slave to run away, if provision be prepared for the purpose of aiding or abetting such endeavor, shall suffer death … Meetings for religious worship before sunrise, or after nine o’clock P.M., unless a majority are white persons, are forbidden.”

  Tennessee: “No slave can be emancipated but on condition of immediately removing from the state, and the person emancipating shall give bond, in a sum equal to the slave’s value, to have him removed.”

  William Wells Brown claimed that these laws cut only one way. “Has the case ever occurred where the slaveholder has been sent to the state’s prison, or anything of the kind, for ill-treating or for murdering a slave? No such case is upon record.” This was not quite true. For example, in December, 1839, in North Carolina, a man called Hoover was put on trial for the murder of his slave, named Mira. “Through a period of four months, including the latter stages of pregnancy, delivery, and recent recovery therefrom, he beat her with clubs, iron chains and other deadly weapons, time after time; burnt her; inflicted stripes over and often, with scourges, which literally excoriated her whole body; forced her out to work in inclement weather without being duly clad; provided for her insufficient food; exacted labor beyond her strength, and wantonly beat her because she could not comply with his requisitions. These enormities, besides others too disgusting to be particularly designated, without his heart once relenting … he did not relax even up to the last hours of his victim’s existence.” Hoover’s excuses were “that she stole his turnips and sold them to the worthless people in the neighborhood, and that she had attempted to burn his barn, and was disobedient and impudent to her mistress.” Hoover was convicted but such cases were rare.

  PLANTATIONS

  Although by the time of the Civil War most owners had fewer than ten slaves—some of whom would have been domestic servants—it was the large plantations that set their stamp on the peculiar institution. Three first-person descriptions of plantation life appear in the next two chapters. In the meantime, here are some features of the system:

  Overseers: “On larger estates, employing fifty or a hundred, or perhaps two hundred hands, an overseer is deemed indispensable. These gentlemen ride into the field on horseback, without an exception, to my knowledge, armed with pistol, bowie knife, whip, and accompanied by several dogs. They follow, equipped in this fashion, in rear of the slaves, keeping a sharp lookout upon them all. The requisite qualifications in an overseer are utter heartlessness, brutality and cruelty. It is his business to produce large crops, and if that is accomplished, no matter what amount of suffering it may have cost.”

  —SOLOMON NORTHUP

  Some overseers, like this letter-writer to De Bow’s Review, prided themselves on the efficiency of their management techniques. For example, slaves should not be allowed to cook for themselves for two reasons. One, “the cooking being done in a hurry, is badly done.” Two, “to make one Negro cook for all is a saving of time. If there be but ten hands, and these are allowed two hours at noon, one of which is employed in cooking their dinner,” that hour could have been “spent in ploughing or hoeing, and would be equal to ten hours work of one hand.”

  Overseers should also see to it that the hands got enough sleep. “They are thoughtless, and if allowed to do so will sit up late of nights.” The length of daytime rest periods should vary according to the weather; the hotter the day, the longer the rest—in spring “a hand need not be allowed any more time at noon than is sufficient to eat,” but “in July and August, three hours rest at noon.” Result: “hands have better health, and can do more work,” and “will certainly last much longer.”

  “While at work, they should be brisk. If one is called to you or sent from you, and he does not move briskly, chastise him at once. If this does not answer, repeat the dose and double the quantity. When at work, I have no objection to their whistling or singing some lively tune, but no drawling tunes are allowed in the field, for their motions are almost certain to keep in time with the music.” Another point: “Implicit obedience should be required and rigidly enforced. Firmness of manner and promptness to enforce obedience will save much trouble, and be the means of avoiding the necessity for much whipping. The Negro should feel that his master is his law-giver and judge, and yet is his protector and friend, but so far above him as never to be approached save in the most respectful manner.”

  Drivers. “Besides the overseer, there are drivers under him, the number being in proportion to the number of hands in the field. The drivers are black, who in addition to the performance of their equal share of the work, are compelled to do the whipping of their several gangs. Whips hang around their necks, and if they fail to use them thoroughly, they are whipped themselves.”

  SOLOMON NORTHUP

  The Whip. “The whip used by the overseers on the cotton plantations is different from all other whips that I have ever seen. The staff is about twenty or twenty-two inches in length, with a large and heavy head, which is often loaded with a quarter or half a pound of lead, wrapped in cat-gut … The lash is ten feet long, made of small strips of buckskin, tanned so as to be dry and hard, and plaited carefully and closely together, of the thickness, in the largest part, of a man’s little finger, but quite small at each extremity. At the farthest end of this thong is attached a cracker, nine inches in length, made of strong sewing silk, twisted and knotted until it feels as firm as the hardest twine. This whip, in an unpractised hand, is a very awkward and inefficient weapon,” but “when wielded by an experienced arm, it is one of the keenest instruments of torture ever invented.”

  —CHARLES BALL

  “Husbands always went to the woods when they know the wives was due for a whipping, but in the field they dare not leave. Had to stay there, not daring even look like they didn’t like it. Charlie Jones was one slave that had his wife working in the same field with him. Was planting tobacco—he was setting out and she was hilling. Annie was big with child and getting near her time, so one day she made a slip and chopped a young shoot down. Old man Diggs, the overseer, come running up screaming at her and it made her more nervous and she chopped off another one. Old overseer lift up that rawhide and beat Annie cross the back and shoulders till she fell to the ground. And Charlie, he just stood there hearing his wife scream, and a-staring at the
sky, not daring to look or even say a word.”

  —JORDAN JOHNSON

  The Paddle. “The paddle is made of a piece of hickory timber, about one inch thick, three inches in width, and about eighteen inches in length. The part which is applied to the flesh is bored full of quarter inch auger holes, and every time this is applied to the flesh of the victim the blood gushes through the holes of the paddle, or a blister makes it appearance. The persons who are thus flogged are always stripped naked, and their hands tied together. They are then bent over double, their knees are forced between their elbows, and a stick is put through between the elbows and the bend of the legs, in order to hold the victim in that position while the paddle is applied.”

  —HENRY BIBB

  Dogs. A typical advertisement:

  “The undersigned having an excellent pack of HOUNDS for trailing and catching runaway slaves, informs the public that his prices in future will be as follows for such services:—

  “For each day employed in hunting or trailing………………… $2.50

  “For catching each slave……………………………………… $10.00

  “For going over ten miles and catching slaves……………….. $20.00

  If sent for, the above prices will be exacted in cash. The subscriber resides one mile and half south of Dadeville, Ala. September 1, 1852. B. Black.

  —HARRIET BEECHER STOWE: A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  “They had bloodhounds too; they’d run you away in the woods. Send for a man that has hounds to track you if you run away. They’d run you and bay you, and a white man would ride up there and say, ‘If you hit one of the hounds I’ll blow your brains out.’ He’d say, ‘Your damn brains.’ Them hounds would worry you and bite you and have you bloody as a beef, but you dassent to hit one of them. They would tell you to stand still and put your hands over your privates. I don’t guess they’d have killed you, but you believed they would. They wouldn’t try to keep the hounds off of you. They would set them on you to see them bite you. Five or six or seven hounds biting you on every side and a man setting on a horse holding a doubled shotgun on you.”