ANTI-SLAVERY OPINIONS
BY WILLIAM FREDERICK POOLE
Anti-Slavery Opinions
BEFORE THE YEAR 1800
READ BEFORE THE CINCINNATI LITERARY CLUB, NOVEMBER 16, 1872
BY WILLIAM FREDERICK POOLE
Librarian of the Public Library of Cincinnati
TO WHICH IS APPENDED A FAC SIMILE REPRINT OF DR. GEORGE BUCHANAN'S
ORATION ON THE MORAL AND POLITICAL EVIL OF SLAVERY, DELIVERED
AT A PUBLIC MEETING OF THE MARYLAND SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, BALTIMORE, JULY 4, 1791
CINCINNATI
ROBERT CLARKE & CO.
1873
ANTI-SLAVERY OPINIONS
Before 1800.
I purpose this evening to call the attention of the Club to the state
of anti-slavery opinions in this country just prior to the year 1800.
In this examination I shall make use of a very rare pamphlet in the
library of General Washington, which seems to have escaped the notice
of writers on this subject; and shall preface my remarks on the main
topic of discussion with a brief description of the Washington
collection.
In the library of the Boston Athenæum, the visitor sees, as he enters,
a somewhat elaborately-constructed book-case, with glass front, filled
with old books. This is the library of George Washington, which came
into possession of the Athenæum in 1849. It was purchased that year
from the heirs of Judge Bushrod Washington--the favorite nephew to
whom the General left all his books and manuscripts--by Mr. Henry
Stevens, of London, with the intention of placing it in the British
Museum. Before the books were shipped, they were bought by Mr. George
Livermore and a few other literary and public-spirited gentlemen
of Boston, and presented to the Athenæum. Mr. Livermore, as
discretionary executor of the estate of Thomas Dowse, the "literary
leather-dresser" of Cambridge, added to the gift one thousand dollars,
for the purpose of printing a description and catalogue of the
collection, which has not yet been done.
The collection numbers about twelve hundred titles, of which four
hundred and fifty are bound volumes, and seven hundred and fifty are
pamphlets and unbound serials. Some books of the original library of
General Washington still remain at Mt. Vernon, and are, or were a few
years since, shown to visitors, with other curiosities.
Separated from association with their former illustrious owner, the
bound volumes, which are mostly English books, present but few
attractions. Among them are a few treatises on the art of war and
military tactics, which evidently were never much read. These were
imported after his unfortunate expedition with Braddock's army, and
before the revolutionary war. There are books on horse and cattle
diseases; on domestic medicine; on farming, and on religious
topics--such works as we might expect to find on the shelves of a
intelligent Virginia planter. It is evident that their owner was no
student or specialist. Many of the books were sent to him as presents,
with complimentary inscriptions by the donors. The bindings are all in
their original condition, and generally of the most common
description. The few exceptions were presentation copies. Col. David
Humphreys, Washington's aid-de-camp during the revolutionary war,
presents his "Miscellaneous Works," printed in 1790, bound, regardless
of expense, by some Philadelphia binder, in full red morocco, gilt and
goffered edges, and with covers and fly-leaves lined with figured
satin. As the book was for a very distinguished man, the patriotic
binder has stamped on the covers and back every device he had in his
shop. Nearly all the volumes have the bold autograph of "Go.
Washington," upon their title pages, and the well-known book-plate,
with his name, armorial bearings, and motto, _Exitus acta probat_,[1]
on the inside of the covers.
There are persons at the present day who have very positive opinions
on the subject of prose fiction, believing that great characters like
Jonathan Edwards and George Washington never read such naughty books
when they were young. Let us see. Here is the "Adventures of Peregrine
Pickle; in which are included the Memoirs of a Lady of Quality," by
Tobias Smollett, in three volumes. On the title page of the first
volume is the autograph of George Washington, written in the cramped
hand of a boy of fourteen. The work shows more evidence of having been
attentively read, even to the end of the third volume, than any in the
library. Here is the "Life and Opinions of John Buncle," a book which
it is better that boarding-school misses should not read. Yet
Washington read it, and enjoyed the fun; for it is one of the few
books he speaks of in his correspondence as having read and enjoyed.
The present generation of readers are not familiar with John Buncle.
Of the book and its author, Hazlitt says "John Buncle is the English
Rabelais. The soul of Francis Rabelais passed into Thomas Amory, the
author of John Buncle. Both were physicians, and enemies of much
gravity. Their great business was to enjoy life. Rabelais indulges his
spirit of sensuality in wine, in dried neats' tongues, in Bologna
sausages, in Botorgas. John Buncle shows the same symptoms of
inordinate satisfaction in bread and butter. While Rabelais roared
with Friar John and the monks, John Buncle gossiped with the ladies."
It is the good fortune of the youth of our age that they are served
with fun in more refined and discreet methods; yet there is a
melancholy satisfaction in finding in the life of a great historical
character like Washington, who was the embodiment of dignity and
propriety, that he could, at some period of his existence, unbend and
enjoy a book like John Buncle. He becomes, thereby, more human; and
the distance between him and ordinary mortals seems to diminish.
Thomas Comber's "Discourses on the Common Prayer," has three
autographs of his father, Augustine Washington, one of his mother,
Mary Washington, and one of his own, written when nine years of age.
The fly-leaves he had used as a practice book for writing his father's
and mother's names and his own, and for constructing monograms of the
family names.[2]
The pamphlets in the collection have intrinsically more value than the
larger works. They were nearly all contemporaneous, and were sent to
Washington by their authors, with inscriptions upon the title pages
in their authors' handwriting, of the most profound respect and
esteem. Some of these pamphlets are now exceedingly rare. In a bound
volume lettered "Tracts on Slavery," and containing several papers,
all of radical anti-slavery tendencies,[3] is the one to which I wish
especially to call your attention. It is so rare that, having shown
this copy for fifteen years to persons especially interested in this
subject, and having made the most diligent inquiry, I have never heard
of another, till within a few days since, when I learn from my friend,
Mr. George H. Moore, the librarian of the New York Historical Society,
that there is a copy in that society's library. Its title is: "An
Oration upon the Moral and Political Evil of Slavery. Delivered at a
Public Meeting of the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of
Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes and others unlawfully held in
Bondage, Baltimore, July 4, 1791. By George Buchanan, M. D., Member of
the American Philosophical Society. Baltimore: Printed by Philip
Edwards, M,DCC,XCIII." Twenty pages, octavo.
A Fourth-of-July oration in Baltimore, on the moral and political
evils of slavery, only four years after the adoption of the
Constitution, is an incident worthy of historical recognition, and a
place in anti-slavery literature. The following extracts will give an
idea of its style and range of thought:
"God hath created mankind after His own image, and granted them
liberty and independence; and if varieties may be found in their
structure and color, these are only to be attributed to the nature
of their diet and habits, as also to the soil and the climate they
may inhabit, and serve as flimsy pretexts for enslaving them.
"What, will you not consider that the Africans are men? That they
have human souls to be saved? That they are born free and
independent? A violation of these prerogatives is an infringement
upon the laws of God.
"Possessed of Christian sentiments, they fail not to exercise them
when opportunity offers. Things pleasing rejoice them, and
melancholy circumstances pall their appetites for amusements. They
brook no insults, and are equally prone to forgiveness, as to
resentments. They have gratitude also, and will even expose their
lives to wipe off the obligation of past favors; nor do they want
any of the refinements of taste, so much the boast of those who
call themselves Christians.
"The talent for music, both vocal and instrumental, appears
natural to them; neither is their genius for literature to be
despised. Many instances are recorded of men of eminence among
them. Witness Ignatius Sancho, whose letters are admired by all
men of taste. Phillis Wheatley, who distinguished herself as a
poetess; the Physician of New Orleans; the Virginia Calculator;
Banneker, the Maryland Astronomer, and many others, whom it would
be needless to mention. These are sufficient to show, that the
Africans whom you despise, whom you inhumanly treat as brutes, and
whom you unlawfully subject to slavery, are equally capable of
improvement with yourselves.
"This you may think a bold assertion; but it is not made without
reflection, nor independent of the testimony of many who have
taken pains in their education. Because you see few, in comparison
to their number, who make any exertion of ability at all, you are
ready to enjoy the common opinion that they are an inferior set
of beings, and destined to the cruelties and hardships you impose
upon them.
"But be cautious how long you hold such sentiments; the time may
come when you will be obliged to abandon them. Consider the
pitiable situation of these most distressed beings, deprived of
their liberty and reduced to slavery. Consider also that they toil
not for themselves from the rising of the sun to its going down,
and you will readily conceive the cause of their inaction. What
time or what incitement has a slave to become wise? There is no
great art in hilling corn, or in running a furrow; and to do this
they know they are doomed, whether they seek into the mysteries of
science or remain ignorant as they are.
"To deprive a man of his liberty has a tendency to rob his soul of
every spring to virtuous actions; and were slaves to become
fiends, the wonder could not be great. 'Nothing more assimulates a
man to a beast,' says the learned Montesquieu, 'than being among
freemen, himself a slave; for slavery clogs the mind, perverts the
moral faculty, and reduces the conduct of man to the standard of
brutes.' What right have you to expect greater things of these
poor mortals? You would not blame a brute for committing ravages
upon his prey; nor ought you to censure a slave for making
attempts to regain his liberty, even at the risk of life itself.
"Such are the effects of subjecting man to slavery, that it
destroys every human principle, vitiates the mind, instills ideas
of unlawful cruelties, and subverts the springs of government.
"What a distressing scene is here before us? America, I start at
your situation! These direful effects of slavery demand your most
serious attention. What! shall a people who flew to arms with the
valor of Roman citizens when encroachments were made upon their
liberties by the invasion of foreign powers, now basely descend to
cherish the seed and propagate the growth of the evil which they
boldly sought to eradicate? To the eternal infamy of our country
this will be handed down to posterity, written in the blood of
African innocence. If your forefathers have been degenerate enough
to introduce slavery into your country to contaminate the minds of
her citizens, you ought to have the virtue of extirpating it.
"In the first struggles for American freedom, in the enthusiastic
ardor of attaining liberty and independence, one of the most noble
sentiments that ever adorned the human breast was loudly
proclaimed in all her councils. Deeply penetrated with the sense
of equality, they held it as a fixed principle, 'that all men are
by nature, and of right ought to be, free; that they were created
equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. Nevertheless, _when_ the blessings of peace were
showered upon them; _when_ they
