THE RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE. VOL. III.—No. 2. FEBRUARY, 1836. FREE COLORED PEOPLE AT THE NORTH. The remark is frequently made in the discussions respecting slavery, that the condition of the southern slaves is preferable to that of the free blacks at the north. There seem to be many who suppose that the condition of the slave is, at least, not worse than that of our own colored community. This is a mistake. And as it is always desirable to rectify error and ascertain truth, we will endeavor to show what is the real condition of the northern colored man, compared with that of his brethren who are in slavery. 1. No man at the north, is allowed to deprive colored parents of their children. The dwelling of the black man is protected by the same laws, which protect the dwelling of the white man. The colored mother, as well as the white mother, feels that her children are her own; they cannot be taken from her, and she regards this as one of the most signal blessings which freedom can confer. And when she hears that the children of the slave mother are not her own, but the property of her master, and are as much an article of merchandize, when he wishes to dispose of them, as are his calves and his pigs, she feels that she would rather die than exchange conditions with the slave. It is no small privilege for parents to feel that their children cannot be taken from them. This security every northern colored parent feels, except those who are so unfortunate as to be in the vicinity of the slave-holding states. Their children are indeed frequently kidnapped and sold into bondage. A gentleman was a short time ago, crossing the Potomac in a ferry boat, and saw a man in one part of the boat on horseback, and in another part, a little negro boy, about ten years old, crying very bitterly. "What is the matter, my boy?" said the gentleman. "Master has sold me," the boy replied, in a voice hardly articulate through the violence of his sobs, "to that gentleman on horseback who is carrying me to the south, and I shall never see my mother and brothers and sisters any more." Thousands of similar cases are annually occurring at the south. The northern colored man has no such woes to fear. He is a free man in his own quiet dwelling, and the children, who play at his door, or gather around his evening fire, are under the protection of the same laws which give peace and security to his white neighbor's dwelling. 2. The northern colored man is secure in his marriage relationship. The husband and the wife are free in their choice in the formation of this union. The matrimonial rites are as legally performed and as sacredly binding in the case of the colored population, as in that of the white. No one can deprive the colored husband of his rights, or the colored wife of her protection. And she is by law as sacredly protected from insult in her person, as is the most accomplished lady in the land. No one can take the husband from the wife, or the wife from the husband. They go in and out of their own dwelling in freedom, year after year, with none to molest and none to make afraid. Not so with the slave. He holds his wife but by permission from his master. and when his master says the word, he must give his wife to another, and take another to himself. If his master meditate any wrong, no matter what it is, he must not remonstrate, and his wife must submit in silence. If the master desire to sell the husband or the wife, so as to separate them forever, there is no remedy. The ties of affection, be they ever so strong, must be rent. The affee tions of the slave are continually lacerated by these heartrending separations. The free colored man at the north, secure in the affections and the virtue of his wife, and in the possession of his children, feels that he would rather part with his life, than exchange situations with the slave. And who is there that does not sympathize with him in the feeling, that liberty has proved to him an inestimable blessing. 3. The northern free black feels that the virtue of his daughters is safe, and under the protection of law. A gentleman of our acquaintance was a short time since in New Orleans. He went to the slave market where a number of very pretty mulatto girls were for sale. "Do you wish to buy a wife," said the auctioneer, as he invited his attention to the personal charms of the girls thus offered to the licentiousness of the highest bidder. This traffic is continually going on, in the daughters of the slave. Many a pious girl at the south is now entirely under the control of the profligate white man. There is no arm of law which can rescue her. Her supplications fall heedless upon every ear but that of God. Such scenes are not witnessed in the northern cities. No one can enter the dwelling of the northern colored man, and lead out his daughters to the market. Their virtue is as precious in the eye of the law as the virtue of any lady in the Union. The free colored man of the north considers it an inestimable privilege that he can be the protector of his daughters, and unite them with their associates in lawful and honorable marriage. We have recently been informed of a case in which a pious female slave, about 18 years of age, a member of the Methodist church, was compelled to be the servant of her master's dissolute son, when he came home from his college vacations. She went to a Christian friend with her sorrows. But there was no remedy. A word of complaint would have been followed by the lash. From the very nature of slavery and human passion, this must be the case in thousands of instances. The free negro at the north has law, wholesome and efficient law, to protect his family from such fearful woes. And no young man at the north can bid defiance to these laws, without incurring the penalty of the dungeon and the gallows. Can any parent hesitate in deciding which situation is preferable, that of the northern colored man or the southern slave? The one has all the protection which the law under any circumstances can give. The other is almost entirely at the disposal of an irresponsible master. If the master is a good man, as is often the case, his will is some protection from these gross outrages. But many a good man has dissolute sons, and woe betide the female slave who thwarts the wishes of these sons. Law, stern unyielding law, protects the freeman. Who then would be a slave. 4. No one can deprive the northern colored man of his wages. When he goes to his humble home on Saturday evening, he carries with him the earnings of the week. All the proceeds of his labor are his own. No man can deprive him of it. He puts, if he pleases, a carpet upon his floor, and curtains to his windows, and a sofa by his fireside. He goes freely to the book-store and purchases books for his children. He subscribes for the newspaper, and the publisher is very glad to add his name to the subscription list. If his daughters go out to service, they receive their regular wages; no one thinks of depriving them of their dues. And they do what they will with their own. The southern slave toils for life without any remuneration. Every dollar he earns goes into the pocket of his master. The fruits of his toil do not adorn his own poor cabin, but are expended in giving splendor and luxury to his master's parlor. He can buy no books for his children. The money he earns is expended in educating his master's sons. He can purchase no ornaments for his daughters, all his hard-earned gains are spent in purchasing silks and jewelry for his master's daughters His children are born to the same inheritance with himself, to years of unalleviated and unrecompensed toil. He and they die poor slaves in their comfortless cabin, after having added many thousands of dollars to the wealth of their wealthy master. Is the situation of the northern colored man as undesirable as that of the southern slave? Are there no blessings in freedom that the colored man should desire it? 5. No man can punish the northern colored man unless he has committed crime, and is found guilty by the same laws to which his white neighbor is amenable. No man at the north can strike a colored man without being liable to prosecution and punishment. The law is not a dead letter; it is in full and active force. The colored man is just as secure of protection as is the white. He is respected in our courts of justice, and his rights as strenuously defended as those of the most distinguished of our citizens. But the southern slave must go to the whipping post, whenever his master says the word. Guilty or not guilty, it makes no difference; he has no protection, no appeal. When his back is lacerated and bleeding under the lash, he must patiently submit; there is no law to which he can appeal; no one to protect him; no one to plead his cause. Who can conceive of a more deplorable condition, than to be thus outlawed from justice? Many masters desire to be just and merciful, and will not apply the driver's whip to the back of the slave, unless they think the occasion demands it. But there are also many masters who are unreasonable and passionate and cruel. The sound of the lash and the cry of the sufferers are daily heard from their plantations. Besides, the most merciful of masters must die, and their slaves pass into other hands, and they are as liable to pass into the hands of cruelty, as into those of mercy. Who then can hesitate in deciding which is the most desirable situation, that of the southern slave or that of the northern freeman? 6. There are no laws in the northern states to prevent the children of the colored man from being instructed. Though a Connecticut judge has pronounced our colored population to be no citizens, and though a Canterbury mob has torn down a school-house, which had been occupied for their instruction, the decision of the judge and the proceedings of the mob are generally considered as equally unconstitutional, and are held in equal abhorrence. Both parties have fixed upon themselves a stain of disgrace, which can never be wiped away. Our northern legislatures generally encourage their hopes and animate their exertions for improvement. They think that wise legislation demands of them that ignorance should be removed from our states, and that knowledge should be extended as widely as possible. Our school committees are always well pleased |