but the moral nature of which he was utterly indifferent to, beyond a certain
secret pleasure in thus indirectly inflicting a little torture on his hearers.
I am not, however, altogether clear, to do John Caphart justice, that he is
entirely conscience-proof. There was something in his anxious look which leaves
one not without hope.
At the first trial we did not know of his pursuits, and he passed merely as a
policeman of Norfolk, Virginia. But, at the second trial, some one in the room
gave me a hint of the occupations many of these policemen take to, which led to
my cross-examination.
Question. Is it a part of your duty, as a policeman, to take up coloured per-
sons who are out after hours in the streets?Answer. Yes, sir.
Q. What is done with them?
A. We put them in the lock-up, and in the morning they are brought into
court and ordered to be punished--those that are to be punished.
Q. What punishment do they get?
A. Not exceeding thirty-nine lashes.
Q. Who gives them these lashes?
A. Any of the officers. I do sometimes.
Q. Are you paid extra for this? How much?
A. Fifty cents a head. It used to be sixty-two cents. Now it is fifty. Fifty
cents for each one we arrest, and fifty more for each one we flog.
Q. Are these persons you flog men and boys only, or are they women and
girls also?
A. Men, women, boys, and girls, just as it happens.
[The government interfered, and tried to prevent any further examination; and
said, among other things, that he only performed his duty as police-officer under
the law. After a discussion, Judge Curtis allowed it to proceed.]
Q. Is your flogging confined to these cases? Do you not flog slaves at the
request of their masters?
A. Sometimes I do. Certainly, when I am called upon.
Q. In these cases of private flogging, are the negroes sent to you? Have you
a place for flogging?
A. No. I go round, as I am sent for.
Q. Is this part of your duty as an officer?
A. No, sir.
Q. In these cases of private flogging, do you inquire into the circumstances, to
see what the fault has been, or if there is any?
A. That's none of my business. I do as I am requested. The master is
responsible.
Q. In these cases, too, I suppose you flog women and girls, as well as men?
A. Women and men.
Q. Mr. Caphart, how long have you been engaged in this business?
A. Ever since 1836.
Q. How many negroes do you suppose you have flogged, in all, women and
children included?
A. [Looking calmly round the room.] I don't know how many niggers you
have got here in Massachusetts, but I should think I had flogged as many as you've
got in the State.
[The same man testified that he was often employed to pursue fugitive slaves.
His reply to the question was, “I never refuse a good job in that line.”]
Q. Don't they sometimes turn out bad jobs?
A. Never, if I can help it.
Q. Are they not sometimes discharged after you get them?
A. Not often. I don't know that they ever are, except those Portuguese the
counsel read about.
[I had found, in a Virginia report, a case of some two hundred Portuguese
negroes, whom this John Caphart had seized from a vessel, and endeavoured to
get condemned as slaves, but whom the Court discharged.]
Hon. John P. Hale, associated with Mr. Dana as counsel for
the defence in the Rescue Trials, said of him in his closing
argument:--
Why, gentlemen, he sells agony! Torture is his stock-in-trade! He is a
walking scourge! He hawks, peddles, retails, groans and tears about the streets
of Norfolk!
See also the following correspondence between the two
traders, one in North Carolina, the other in New Orleans:
with a word of comment by Bishop Wilberforce, of Oxford:--
Halifax, N. C., Nov. 16, 1839.
Dear Sir,--I have shipped in the brig Addison--prices are below:
Dollars.
No. 1. Caroline Ennis 650.00
” 2. Silvy Holland 625.00
” 3. Silvy Booth 487.50
” 4. Maria Pollock 475.00
” 5. Emeline Pollock 475.00
” 6. Delia Averit 475.00
The two girls that cost 650 dollars, and 625 dollars, were bought before I
shipped my first. I have a great many negroes offered to me, but I will not pay
the prices they ask, for I know they will come down. I have no opposition in
market. I will wait until I hear from you before I buy, and then I can judge what
I must pay. Goodwin will send you the bill of lading for my negroes, as he
shipped them with his own. Write often, as the times are critical, and it
depends on the prices you get to govern me in buying. Yours, &c.
Mr. Theophilus Freeman,
New Orleans.
G. W. Barnes.
The above was a small but choice invoice of wives and mothers. Nine days
before, namely, 7th November, Mr. Barnes advised Mr. Freeman of having
shipped a lot, of forty-three men and women. Mr. Freeman, informing one
of his correspondents of the state of the market, writes (Sunday, 21st Sept.,
1839), “I bought a boy yesterday, sixteen years old, and likely, weighing one
hundred and ten pounds, at 700 dollars. I sold a likely girl, twelve years
old, at 500 dollars. I bought a man yesterday, twenty years old, six feet high
at 820 dollars; one to-day, twenty-four years old, at 850 dollars, black and
sleek as a mole.”
The writer has drawn in this work only one class of the negro-
traders. There are all varieties of them, up to the great whole-
sale purchasers, who keep their large trading-houses; who are
gentlemanly in manners and courteous in address; who, in many
respects, often perform actions of real generosity; who consider
slavery a very great evil, and hope the country will at some time
be delivered from it, but who think that so long as clergyman
and layman, saint and sinner, are all agreed in the propriety and
necessity of slave-holding, it is better that the necessary trade in
the article be conducted by men of humanity and decency, than
by swearing, brutal men, of the Tom Loker school. These men
are exceedingly sensitive with regard to what they consider the
injustice of the world, in excluding them from good society,
simply because they undertake to supply a demand in the com-
munity, which the bar, the press, and the pulpit, all pronounce
to be a proper one. In this respect, society certainly imitates
the unreasonableness of the ancient Egyptians, who employed a
certain class of men to prepare dead bodies for embalming, but
flew at them with sticks and stones the moment the operation
was over, on account of the sacrilegious liberty which they had
taken. If there is an ill-used class of men in the world, it is
certainly the slave-traders; for, if there is no harm in the insti-
tution of slavery--if it is a divinely-appointed and honourable
one, like civil government and the family state, and like other
species of property relation--then there is no earthly reason why
&
nbsp; a man may not as innocently be a slave trader as any other kind
of trader.
CHAPTER III.
MR. AND MRS. SHELBY.
It was the design of the writer, in delineating the domestic
arrangements of Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, to show a picture of the
fairest side of slave-life, where easy indulgence and good-natured
forbearance are tempered by just discipline and religious instruc-
tion, skilfully and judiciously imparted.
The writer did not come to her task without reading much
upon both sides of the question, and making a particular effort
to collect all the most favourable representations of slavery which
she could obtain. And, as the reader may have a curiosity to
examine some of the documents, the writer will present them
quite at large. There is no kind of danger to the world in
letting the very fairest side of slavery be seen; in fact, the horrors
and barbarities which are necessarily inherent in it are so terrible
that one stands absolutely in need of all the comfort which can
be gained from incidents like the subjoined, to save them from
utter despair of human nature. The first account is from Mr.
J. K. Paulding's Letters on Slavery; and is a letter from a Vir-
ginia planter, whom we should judge, from his style, to be a
very amiable, agreeable man, and who probably describes very
fairly the state of things on his own domain.
Dear Sir,--As regards the first query, which relates to the “rights and duties
of the slave,” I do not know how extensive a view of this branch of the subject is
contemplated. In its simplest aspect, as understood and acted on in Virginia, I
should say that the slave is entitled to an abundance of good plain food; to coarse
but comfortable apparel; to a warm but humble dwelling; to protection when
well, and to succour when sick; and, in return, that it is his duty to render to his
master all the service he can consistently with perfect health, and to behave sub-
missively and honestly. Other remarks suggest themselves, but they will be more
appropriately introduced under different heads.
2nd. The domestic relations of master and slave.--These relations are much
misunderstood by many persons at the North, who regard the terms as synonymous
with oppressor and oppressed. Nothing can be further from the fact. The con-
dition of the negroes in this State has been greatly ameliorated. The proprietors
were formerly fewer and richer than at present. Distant quarters were often kept
up to support the aristocratic mansion. They were rarely visited by their owners;
and heartless overseers, frequently changed, were employed to manage them for a
share of the crop. These men scourged the land, and sometimes the slaves. Their
tenure was but for a year, and of course they made the most of their brief
authority. Owing to the influence of our institutions, property has become sub-
divided, and most persons live on or near their estates. There are exceptions to
be sure, and particularly among wealthy gentlemen in the towns; but these last
are almost all enlightened and humane, and alike liberal to the soil and to the
slave who cultivates it. I could point out some noble instances of patriotic and
spirited improvement among them. But, to return to the resident proprietors:
most of them have been raised on the estates; from the older negroes they have
received in infancy numberless acts of kindness; the younger ones have not
unfrequently been their playmates (not the most suitable, I admit), and much
good-will is thus generated on both sides. In addition to this, most men feel
attached to their property; and this attachment is stronger in the case of persons
than of things. I know it, and feel it. It is true there are harsh masters; but
there are also bad husbands and bad fathers. They are all exceptions to the rule,
not the rule itself. Shall we therefore condemn in the gross those relations,
and the rights and authority they imply, from their occasional abuse? I could
mention many instances of strong attachment on the part of the slave, but
will only adduce one or two, of which I have been the object. It became
a question whether a faithful servant, bred up with me from boyhood, should
give up his master, or his wife and children, to whom he was affectionately
attached, and most attentive and kind. The trial was a severe one, but he
determined to break those tender ties, and remain with me. I left it entirely
to his discretion, though I would not, from considerations of interest, have
taken for him quadruple the price I should probably have obtained. For-
tunately, in the sequel, I was enabled to purchase his family, with the excep-
tion of a daughter, happily situated; and nothing but death shall henceforth
part them. Were it put to the test, I am convinced that many masters
would receive this striking proof of devotion. A gentleman but a day or two
since informed me of a similar, and even stronger case, `afforded by one of his
slaves. As the reward of assiduous and delicate attention to a venerated parent,
in her last illness, I proposed to purchase and liberate a healthy and intelligent
woman, about thirty years of age, the best nurse, and, in all respects, one of the
best servants in the State, of which I was only part owner; but she declined to
leave the family, and has been since rather better than free. I shall be excused
for stating a ludicrous case I heard of some time ago. A favourite and indulged
servant requested his master to sell him to another gentleman. His master re-
fused to do so, but told him he was at perfect liberty to go to the North, if he were
not already free enough. After a while he repeated the request; and, on being
urged to give an explanation of his singular conduct, told his master that he con-
sidered himself consumptive, and would soon die; and he thought Mr. B--was
better able to bear the loss than his master. He was sent to a medicinal spring,
and recovered his health, if, indeed, he had ever lost it, of which his master had
been unapprised. It may not be amiss to describe my deportment towards my
servants, whom I endeavour to render happy while I make them profitable. I
never turn a deaf ear, but listen patiently to their communications. I chat fami-
liarly with those who have passed service, or have not begun to render it. With
the others I observe a more prudent reserve, but I encourage all to approach me
without awe. I hardly ever go to town without having commissions to execute
for some of them; and think they prefer to employ me, from a belief that, if their
money should not quite hold out, I would add a little to it; and I not unfrequently
do, in order to get a better article. The relation between myself and my slaves is
decidedly friendly. I keep up pretty exact discipline, mingled with kindness, and
hardly ever lose property by thievish, or labour by runaway slaves. I never lock
the outer doors of my house. It is done, but done by the servants; and I rarely
bestow a thought on the matter. I leave home periodically for two months, and
commit the dwelling-house, plate, and other valuables, to the servants, without
even an enumeration of the articles.
3rd. Th
e duration of the labour of the slave.--The day is usually considered long
enough. Employment at night is not exacted by me, except to shell corn once a
week for their own consumption, and on a few other extraordinary occasions. The
people, as we generally call them, are required to leave their houses at daybreak,
and to work until dark, with the intermission of half an hour to an hour at break-
fast, and one to two hours at dinner, according to the season and sort of work.
In this respect I suppose our negroes will bear a favourable comparison with any
labourers whatever.
4th. The liberty usually allowed the slave--his holidays and amusements, and
the way in which they usually spend their evenings and holidays.--They are pro-
hibited from going off the estate without first obtaining leave; though they often
transgress, and with impunity, except in flagrant cases. Those who have wives
on other plantations visit them on certain specified nights, and have an allowance
of time for going and returning, proportioned to the distance. My negroes are
permitted, and indeed, encouraged, to raise as many ducks and chickens as
they can; to cultivate vegetables for their own use, and a patch of corn for sale;
to exercise their trades, when they possess one, which many do; to catch musk-
rats and other animals for the fur or the flesh; to raise bees; and, in fine, to
earn an honest penny in any way which chance or their own ingenuity may
offer. The modes specified are, however, those most commonly resorted to, and
enable provident servants to make from five to thirty dollars a-piece. The corn
is a different sort from that which I cultivate, and is all bought by me. A
great many fowls are raised; I have this year known ten dollars' worth sold by
one man at one time. One of the chief sources of profit is the fur of the
muskrat; for the purpose of catching which the marshes on the estate have
been parcelled out and appropriated from time immemorial, and held by a tenure
little short of fee-simple. The negroes are indebted to Nat Turner* and
Tappan for a curtailment of some of their privileges. As a sincere friend to
the blacks, I have much regretted the reckless interference of these persons, on
account of the restrictions it has become, or been thought, necessary to impose.
The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin Page 2
