January 18, 1850
Under the Refuge of Oppression column Southern Traffic in Slaves and Souls of Men!
This title heads a listing of slaves to be sold, or “servants” to be hired-out, listed as they appear in the Mobile Advertiser, Dec 12, 1849
January 18, 1850
Notice of Mr. Mason’s bill, providing ‘for the more effective execution of the third clause of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States,’ is as follows: (then follows the content of the bill), then this: “Mr. Mason has given notice that he intends to prosecute the consideration of this bill, and has desired the Judiciary Committee to report it back as soon as convenient, for the action of the Senate. It is a deliberate movement to arrest the proceedings of the fugitive slave conspiracies and underground railroads in the North, for running off, harboring and aiding in the escape of the slaves of the South from their masters. It is clearly a measure based upon the Constitution, and will test the good faith of the North to that instrument.”
January 18, 1850
From the Boston Pilot — “Everybody knows that Mr. Garrison is not a popular man in New England; no wonder is made of the fact. And yet it may be considered wonderful enough, in the midst of a population almost entirely in favor of doing away with the slavery of the black population. But the secret of it is — or rather the no secret of it is – that Mr. Garrison is a political fanatic and an impracticable; a man who would put human nature into his hot-house and force it. No more forcible condemnation of his fierce policy could be found than in the unpopularity among of his policy among his own people.” The article goes on to comment on the “tottering condition” of the paper, and its political irrelevance.
January 18, 1850
An announcement that the editor has received a copy of Whittier’s Poems, published by Mussey & Co., 1850. The editor comments on his first acquaintance with Whittier’s “poetic genius”, while he was in Newburyport. “Whittier needs no man’s commendation; his reputation is established; his genius stands confessed on both sides of the Atlantic. He is not only a distinguished American poet, but there have been few poets in any age to compare with him.”
February 15, 1850
Here is a series of letters, between a free colored woman, a Mr. Harnard, Esq., of New York, and Bruin & Hill, slave dealers from Alexandria. Mrs. Nancy Cartwright, who has purchased her own freedom, and some of her children from slavery, receives a letter from a daughter, Emily Russell, pleading for her mother to come and get her, because she fears that she “may go away” soon. Mr. Harnard has received a copy, and writes to Mr. Joseph Bruin, and inquires about the price by which he might sell the daughter to her mother. The reply, from Bruin & Hill, from Alexandria, dated Jan 31, 1850, says, in part: “All I have to say about the matter, is that we paid very high for the negroes, and cannot afford to sell the girl Emily for less than EIGHTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. This may seem a high price to you, but cotton being very high, consequently slaves are high. We have two or three offers for Emily from gentlemen from the South. She is said to be the finest looking woman in this country. … We expect to start South with the negroes on the 8th of February, and if you intend to do any thing, you had better do it soon.”
The editor comments: “Henry Clay proposes to bind the North not to interfere with such accursed transactions as are here developed. What say the people of the North?
February 15, 1850
Here is a letter addressed to the Editor, from Thomas Paul Smith.
Here are excerpts: “We are colored men, exposed alike to prejudice and oppression; our interests are all identical – we rise or fall together. We believe colored schools to be institutions, when properly conducted, of great advantage to the colored people. We believe society imperatively requires their existence among us. ….while those who profess to desire the abolition of colored schools claim such an immense majority, they could show on their petitions only 227 names, according to their own count, including children as young as three years — and that out of a population of 1950! And furthermore, a petition of 170, at least, was presented against them, including some of our clergymen…..”
March 1, 1850
A notice of Feb 22, signed by Samuel May, Jr, appears under the title, Caution.
In it May tells of William Jones, a former slave, now going from place to place collecting money on the pretence of wishing to purchase his wife and children. He had promised to deposit money collected with May, for safe keeping. May had provided him with a letter of recommendation, but he now withdraws that commendation, and here warns all against being further deceived by him.
February 22, 1850
From the Boston Transcript comes comment on the recent Anti-Slavery Convention in Faneuil Hall, during which there was a resolution passed with a censure upon Longfellow, on account of some lines which appear in his poem, “The Building of the Ship”. (Those lines do not appear here.) In the Transcript, the resolution was quoted, but it is not here. The Transcript article claims to “afford a fair index of the minds of those in our own community, whose zeal far exceeds their wisdom, and whose career affords abundant evidence that they cannot tolerate toleration — who demand freedom of conscience, yet refuse to grant it – who execrate persecution, yet persecute as far as their ability extends…”
March 8, 1850
Here is a letter to Taylor, signed by Francis Jackson, President, and Edmund Quincy, Secretary, of the Mass. Anti-Slavery Society. It had been intended that the letter was to have been presented to him during his last autumn tour of the North. Circumstance prevented his contemplated visit, and the letter was not delivered, so is here it is made public. Here are some excerpts: “You are the chief magistrate of a nation claiming to be free, republican, Christian. The office ceases to deserve respect, when the people desecrate it by the election of a tyrant to fill it. …aside from your deep participation in a war unsurpassed for the enormity of its object, you are holding in slavery, for your sole benefit and as absolute property, men, women and children , created in the image of God, and born with an inalienable right to liberty. …..It is said that you are a honest man. This cannot be true, as you are daily plundering those whom you are driving to unrequited toil under the lash of brutal drivers…..As President of the United State, aid the cause of universal emancipation by liberating all your slaves….”
March 15, 1850
“Among the half a dozen men in Congress, the utterance of whose sentiments, in times of deep excitement, command the national attention, and exert in all sections of the country a strong influence over the popular mind, for good or evil, Mr. Calhoun stands prominent. Yet he has no breadth of character, no greatness of spirit, no generosity of purpose, no comprehensiveness of view. No man was ever more sectional in his feelings and aims.
In no aspect does he present an American front; he is a Southern man against the North; the welfare of the South, not of the republic is the object of solicitude; the extension and perpetuity of slavery, not the preservation and enlargement of liberty, are the ends of his public labors……”