January 7, 1832
“As a people, we of New England, are lamentably ignorant of the subject of slavery, but even our ignorance is exceeded by our apathy. When we hear of the cruel conduct of the slaveholders, we often kindle into a flame, and our judgments tell us that they are without excuse. We can hardly believe that such beings exist in our land. This is a righteous indignation; these feelings of abhorrence are creditable to our humanity. But what if it should appear, on a candid examination, that we are as guilty as the slave owners? that we uphold a system which is full of cruelty and blood? that the chains which bind the limbs of the slaves have been riveted by us? Let us see whether we are indeed implicated in this bloody business.
“In its origin, slavery was a common crime; it is equally so in its continuance, as well as a common curse; in its removal we are all bound to assist. The foundation of the system was laid in Massachusetts and Virginia. Other colonies immediately began to build thereon; and if the free states have since overturned the wings of the superstructure, they have also assisted in furnishing material to enlarge the main edifice. For thirty-two years after the Declaration of Independence, the ships of New England were actively engaged in stealing victims on the coast of Africa. …..Moreover, the transportation of domestic slaves (a trade equally atrocious with the foreign) is almost exclusively effected in eastern vessels……..”
April 12, 1839
An item from New Orleans claims that a ship, named the Gibraltar, from Boston, has “lots of Negroes on board”. The item says, “Who are the owners of the vessel? If we can ascertain their names, we will publish them, that the people of Boston, of Massachusetts, of New England, will know who are the men that dare, at this time of day, to engage in the nefarious business of transporting slaves for the accommodation of the vile traders in human flesh.”
January 7, 1842
Under Refuge for Oppression, with a title, A Northern Apologist for Slavery!. “A recreant New Englander is writing a series of letters for the Puritan in this city, from Byran County, Georgia, in extenuation of the infernal system of slavery. Hear this puritanical knave!” (No city is named, and the following is signed only “N.H. A. M.” The writer begins with an assertion that, on the subject of domestic slavery, the North and South are in disagreement, and that “each has its errors”. The argument presented seems to say, first, that slavery does not always mean that slaves are sunk to some very low social level. The writer then admits that slavery “is not the natural relation in which the different members of society ought to stand to each other.”. But still, the system exists; the question is how is it to be done away. There is then a strong denial of immediate abolition, and the article commends “an increased interest which is felt at the South in the religious improvement of the colored population.”
March 19, 1847
Signed only as “Q”, the letter is a rebuke to the Editor of the Courier, who is criticized for an inability to see the connections of the North, to slavery. “Does he not know that we of the North, or at least the more sagacious of us, are making money out of slavery? Does he not know, in consequence of this circumstance, that the capital of the North, as represented by merchants, manufacturers, mechanics and traders, is in close communion and firm league with southern capital, which consists of slaves, and is wholly and entirely represented by slaveholders?….”
March 9, 1860
Comments on the speech, generally find it praiseworthy, but conclude in part, with a comment from the editor, pointing out some “objectionable features of the speech – its disparagement of the colored race – its monstrous assertion that the slaves at the South are among the admirers of the Union – its exaltation of Carolina over England or any other foreign State – its treatment of John Brown and his freedom-seeking enterprise – its promise that the North will ever stand ready to assist the South to arrest and execute all such as may imitate Brown’s example – etc., etc., — remain to be commented upon in detail in another number. Senator Seward, it is incomparably better to be true to the cause of liberty than to be President of the United States!”
