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_Various
Incidents_
NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE--UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION--THE
OBJECTIONS TO IT--THEIR PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED--MOTIVES FOR COMING TO
ROCHESTER--DISCIPLE OF MR. GARRISON--CHANGE OF OPINION--CAUSES LEADING TO
IT--THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHANGE--PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR--AMUSING
CONDESCENSION--"JIM CROW CARS"--COLLISIONS WITH CONDUCTORS AND
BRAKEMEN--TRAINS ORDERED NOT TO STOP AT LYNN-- AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE--SEPARATE
TABLES FOR MASTER AND MAN-- PREJUDICE UNNATURAL--ILLUSTRATIONS--IN HIGH
COMPANY--ELEVATION OF THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR--PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE.
I have now given the reader an imperfect
sketch of nine years' experience in freedom--three years as a common laborer on
the wharves of New Bedford, four years as a lecturer in New England, and two
years of semi-exile in Great Britain and Ireland. A single ray of light
remains to be flung upon my life during the last eight years, and my story will
be done.
A trial awaited me on my return from England to
the United States, for which I was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans
for my then future usefulness as an anti-slavery advocate were all settled.
My friends in England had resolved to raise a given sum to purchase for me a
press and printing materials; and I already saw myself wielding my pen, as well
as my voice, in the great work of renovating the public mind, and building up a
public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery and oppression to the
grave, and restore to "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" the
people with whom I had suffered, both as a <305 OBJECTIONS TO MY NEWSPAPER
ENTERPRISE>slave and as a freeman. Intimation had reached my friends in
Boston of what I intended to do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find
them favorably disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was
mistaken. I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my starting a
paper, and for several reasons. First, the paper was not needed; secondly,
it would interfere with my usefulness as a lecturer; thirdly, I was better
fitted to speak than to write; fourthly, the paper could not succeed. This
opposition, from a quarter so highly esteemed, and to which I had been
accustomed to look for advice and direction, caused me not only to hesitate, but
inclined me to abandon the enterprise. All previous attempts to establish
such a journal having failed, I felt that probably I should but add another to
the list of failures, and thus contribute another proof of the mental and moral
deficiencies of my race. Very much that was said to me in respect to my
imperfect literary acquirements, I felt to be most painfully true. The
unsuccessful projectors of all the previous colored newspapers were my superiors
in point of education, and if they failed, how could I hope for success?
Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the undertaking. Some of my
English friends greatly encouraged me to go forward, and I shall never cease to
be grateful for their words of cheer and generous deeds.
I can easily pardon those who have denounced me
as ambitious and presumptuous, in view of my persistence in this enterprise.
I was but nine years from slavery. In point of mental experience, I was
but nine years old. That one, in such circumstances, should aspire to
establish a printing press, among an educated people, might well be considered,
if not ambitious, quite silly. My American friends looked at me with
astonishment! "A wood- sawyer" offering himself to the public as
an editor! A slave, brought up in the very depths of ignorance, assuming
to instruct the highly civilized people of the north in the principles of
liberty, justice, and humanity! The thing looked absurd.
Nevertheless, I per<306>severed. I felt that the want of education,
great as it was, could be overcome by study, and that knowledge would come by
experience; and further (which was perhaps the most controlling consideration).
I thought that an intelligent public, knowing my early history, would easily
pardon a large share of the deficiencies which I was sure that my paper would
exhibit. The most distressing thing, however, was the offense which I was
about to give my Boston friends, by what seemed to them a reckless disregard of
their sage advice. I am not sure that I was not under the influence of
something like a slavish adoration of my Boston friends, and I labored hard to
convince them of the wisdom of my undertaking, but without success. Indeed,
I never expect to succeed, although time has answered all their original
objections. The paper has been successful. It is a large sheet,
costing eighty dollars per week--has three thousand subscribers--has been
published regularly nearly eight years--and bids fair to stand eight years
longer. At any rate, the eight years to come are as full of promise as
were the eight that are past.
It is not to be concealed, however, that the
maintenance of such a journal, under the circumstances, has been a work of much
difficulty; and could all the perplexity, anxiety, and trouble attending it,
have been clearly foreseen, I might have shrunk from the undertaking. As
it is, I rejoice in having engaged in the enterprise, and count it joy to have
been able to suffer, in many ways, for its success, and for the success of the
cause to which it has been faithfully devoted. I look upon the time,
money, and labor bestowed upon it, as being amply rewarded, in the development
of my own mental and moral energies, and in the corresponding development of my
deeply injured and oppressed people.
From motives of peace, instead of issuing my
paper in Boston, among my New England friends, I came to Rochester, western New
York, among strangers, where the circulation of my paper could not interfere
with the local circulation of the _Liberator_ and the _Standard;_ for at that
time I was, on the anti-slavery question, <307 CHANGE OF VIEWS>a faithful
disciple of William Lloyd Garrison, and fully committed to his doctrine touching
the pro-slavery character of the constitution of the United States, and the
_non-voting principle_, of which he is the known and distinguished advocate.
With Mr. Garrison, I held it to be the first duty of the non-slaveholding states
to dissolve the union with the slaveholding states; and hence my cry, like his,
was, "No union with slaveholders." With these views, I came into
western New York; and during the first four years of my labor here, I advocated
them with pen and tongue, according to the best of my ability.
About four years ago, upon a reconsideration of
the whole subject, I became convinced that there was no necessity for dissolving
the "union between the northern and southern states;" that to seek
this dissolution was no part of my duty as an abolitionist; that to abstain from
voting, was to refuse to exercise a legitimate and powerful means for abolishing
slavery; and that the constitution of the United States not only contained no
guarantees in favor of slavery, but, on the contrary, it is, in its letter and
spirit, an anti-slavery instrument, demanding the abolition of slavery as a
condition of its own existence, as the supreme law of the land.
Here was a radical change in my opinions, and in
the action logically resulting from that change. To those with whom I had
been in agreement and in sympathy, I was now in opposition. What they held
to be a great and important truth, I now looked upon as a dangerous error.
A very painful, and yet a very natural, thing now happened. Those who
could not see any honest reasons for changing their views, as I had done, could
not easily see any such reasons for my change, and the common punishment of
apostates was mine.
The opinions first entertained were naturally
derived and honestly entertained, and I trust that my present opinions have the
same claims to respect. Brought directly, when I escaped from slavery,
into contact with a class of abolitionists regarding the <308>constitution
as a slaveholding instrument, and finding their views supported by the united
and entire history of every department of the government, it is not strange that
I assumed the constitution to be just what their interpretation made it. I
was bound, not only by their superior knowledge, to take their opinions as the
true ones, in respect to the subject, but also because I had no means of showing
their unsoundness. But for the responsibility of conducting a public
journal, and the necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite views from
abolitionists in this state, I should in all probability have remained as firm
in my disunion views as any other disciple of William Lloyd Garrison.
My new circumstances compelled me to re-think
the whole subject, and to study, with some care, not only the just and proper
rules of legal interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers,
and duties of civil government, and also the relations which human beings
sustain to it. By such a course of thought and reading, I was conducted to
the conclusion that the constitution of the United States--inaugurated "to
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessing of liberty"--could not well have been designed at the same time to
maintain and perpetuate a system of rapine and murder, like slavery; especially,
as not one word can be found in the constitution to authorize such a belief.
Then, again, if the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern the meaning
of all its parts and details, as they clearly should, the constitution of our
country is our warrant for the abolition of slavery in every state in the
American Union. I mean, however, not to argue, but simply to state my
views. It would require very many pages of a volume like this, to set
forth the arguments demonstrating the unconstitutionality and the complete
illegality of slavery in our land; and as my experience, and not my arguments,
is within the scope and contemplation of this volume, I omit the latter and
proceed with the former. <309 THE JIM CROW CAR>
I will now ask the kind reader to go back a
little in my story, while I bring up a thread left behind for convenience sake,
but which, small as it is, cannot be properly omitted altogether; and that
thread is American prejudice against color, and its varied illustrations in my
own experience.
When I first went among the abolitionists of New
England, and began to travel, I found this prejudice very strong and very
annoying. The abolitionists themselves were not entirely free from it, and
I could see that they were nobly struggling against it. In their
eagerness, sometimes, to show their contempt for the feeling, they proved that
they had not entirely recovered from it; often illustrating the saying, in their
conduct, that a man may "stand up so straight as to lean backward."
When it was said to me, "Mr. Douglass, I will walk to meeting with you; I
am not afraid of a black man," I could not help thinking--seeing nothing
very frightful in my appearance--"And why should you be?" The
children at the north had all been educated to believe that if they were bad,
the old _black_ man--not the old _devil_--would get them; and it was evidence of
some courage, for any so educated to get the better of their fears.
The custom of providing separate cars for the
accommodation of colored travelers, was established on nearly all the railroads
of New England, a dozen years ago. Regarding this custom as fostering the
spirit of caste, I made it a rule to seat myself in the cars for the
accommodation of passengers generally. Thus seated, I was sure to be
called upon to betake myself to the "_Jim Crow car_." Refusing
to obey, I was often dragged out of my seat, beaten, and severely bruised, by
conductors and brakemen. Attempting to start from Lynn, one day, for
Newburyport, on the Eastern railroad, I went, as my custom was, into one of the
best railroad carriages on the road. The seats were very luxuriant and
beautiful. I was soon waited upon by the conductor, and ordered out;
whereupon I demanded the reason for my invidious removal. After a good
deal of parleying, I was told that it was because I <310>was black.
This I denied, and appealed to the company to sustain my denial; but they were
evidently unwilling to commit themselves, on a point so delicate, and requiring
such nice powers of discrimination, for they remained as dumb as death. I
was soon waited on by half a dozen fellows of the baser sort (just such as would
volunteer to take a bull-dog out of a meeting-house in time of public worship),
and told that I must move out of that seat, and if I did not, they would drag me
out. I refused to move, and they clutched me, head, neck, and shoulders.
But, in anticipation of the stretching to which I was about to be subjected, I
had interwoven myself among the seats. In dragging me out, on this
occasion, it must have cost the company twenty-five or thirty dollars, for I
tore up seats and all. So great was the excitement in Lynn, on the
subject, that the superintendent, Mr. Stephen A. Chase, ordered the trains to
run through Lynn without stopping, while I remained in that town; and this
ridiculous farce was enacted. For several days the trains went dashing
through Lynn without stopping. At the same time that they excluded a free
colored man from their cars, this same company allowed slaves, in company with
their masters and mistresses, to ride unmolested.
After many battles with the railroad conductors,
and being roughly handled in not a few instances, proscription was at last
abandoned; and the "Jim Crow car"--set up for the degradation of
colored people--is nowhere found in New England. This result was not
brought about without the intervention of the people, and the threatened
enactment of a law compelling railroad companies to respect the rights of
travelers. Hon. Charles Francis Adams performed signal service in the
Massachusetts legislature, in bringing this reformation; and to him the colored
citizens of that state are deeply indebted.
Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged,
by this prejudice against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet
amusement. A half-cured subject of it is sometimes driven into awkward
straits, especially if he happens to get a genuine specimen of the race into his
house. <311 AMUSING SCENE>
In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and
lecturing, in company with William A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana.
Anti- slavery friends were not very abundant in Indiana, at that time, and beds
were not more plentiful than friends. We often slept out, in preference to
sleeping in the houses, at some points. At the close of one of our
meetings, we were invited home with a kindly-disposed old farmer, who, in the
generous enthusiasm of the moment, seemed to have forgotten that he had but one
spare bed, and that his guests were an ill-matched pair. All went on
pretty well, till near bed time, when signs of uneasiness began to show
themselves, among the unsophisticated sons and daughters. White is
remarkably fine looking, and very evidently a born gentleman; the idea of
putting us in the same bed was hardly to be tolerated; and yet, there we were,
and but the one bed for us, and that, by the way, was in the same room occupied
by the other members of the family. White, as well as I, perceived the
difficulty, for yonder slept the old folks, there the sons, and a little farther
along slept the daughters; and but one other bed remained. Who should have
this bed, was the puzzling question. There was some whispering between the
old folks, some confused looks among the young, as the time for going to bed
approached. After witnessing the confusion as long as I liked, I relieved
the kindly-disposed family by playfully saying, "Friend White, having got
entirely rid of my prejudice against color, I think, as a proof of it, I must
allow you to sleep with me to-night." White kept up the joke, by
seeming to esteem himself the favored party, and thus the difficulty was
removed. If we went to a hotel, and called for dinner, the landlord was
sure to set one table for White and another for me, always taking him to be
master, and me the servant. Large eyes were generally made when the order
was given to remove the dishes from my table to that of White's. In those
days, it was thought strange that a white man and a colored man could dine
peaceably at the same table, and in some parts the strangeness of such a sight
has not entirely subsided.
Some people will have it that there is a
natural, an inherent, and <312>an invincible repugnance in the breast of
the white race toward dark-colored people; and some very intelligent colored men
think that their proscription is owing solely to the color which nature has
given them. They hold that they are rated according to their color, and
that it is impossible for white people ever to look upon dark races of men, or
men belonging to the African race, with other than feelings of aversion.
My experience, both serious and mirthful, combats this conclusion. Leaving
out of sight, for a moment, grave facts, to this point, I will state one or two,
which illustrate a very interesting feature of American character as well as
American prejudice. Riding from Boston to Albany, a few years ago, I found
myself in a large car, well filled with passengers. The seat next to me
was about the only vacant one. At every stopping place we took in new
passengers, all of whom, on reaching the seat next to me, cast a disdainful
glance upon it, and passed to another car, leaving me in the full enjoyment of a
hole form. For a time, I did not know but that my riding there was
prejudicial to the interest of the railroad company. A circumstance
occurred, however, which gave me an elevated position at once. Among the
passengers on this train was Gov. George N. Briggs. I was not acquainted
with him, and had no idea that I was known to him, however, I was, for upon
observing me, the governor left his place, and making his way toward me,
respectfully asked the privilege of a seat by my side; and upon introducing
himself, we entered into a conversation very pleasant and instructive to me.
The despised seat now became honored. His excellency had removed all the
prejudice against sitting by the side of a Negro; and upon his leaving it, as he
did, on reaching Pittsfield, there were at least one dozen applicants for the
place. The governor had, without changing my skin a single shade, made the
place respectable which before was despicable.
A similar incident happened to me once on the
Boston and New Bedford railroad, and the leading party to it has since been
governor of the state of Massachusetts. I allude to Col. John Henry
<313 AN INCIDENT>Clifford. Lest the reader may fancy I am aiming to
elevate myself, by claiming too much intimacy with great men, I must state that
my only acquaintance with Col. Clifford was formed while I was _his hired
servant_, during the first winter of my escape from slavery. I owe it him
to say, that in that relation I found him always kind and gentlemanly. But
to the incident. I entered a car at Boston, for New Bedford, which, with
the exception of a single seat was full, and found I must occupy this, or stand
up, during the journey. Having no mind to do this, I stepped up to the man
having the next seat, and who had a few parcels on the seat, and gently asked
leave to take a seat by his side. My fellow-passenger gave me a look made
up of reproach and indignation, and asked me why I should come to that
particular seat. I assured him, in the gentlest manner, that of all others
this was the seat for me. Finding that I was actually about to sit down,
he sang out, "O! stop, stop! and let me get out!" Suiting the
action to the word, up the agitated man got, and sauntered to the other end of
the car, and was compelled to stand for most of the way thereafter.
Halfway to New Bedford, or more, Col. Clifford, recognizing me, left his seat,
and not having seen me before since I had ceased to wait on him (in everything
except hard arguments against his pro-slavery position), apparently forgetful of
his rank, manifested, in greeting me, something of the feeling of an old friend.
This demonstration was not lost on the gentleman whose dignity I had, an hour
before, most seriously offended. Col. Clifford was known to be about the
most aristocratic gentleman in Bristol county; and it was evidently thought that
I must be somebody, else I should not have been thus noticed, by a person so
distinguished. Sure enough, after Col. Clifford left me, I found myself
surrounded with friends; and among the number, my offended friend stood nearest,
and with an apology for his rudeness, which I could not resist, although it was
one of the lamest ever offered. With such facts as these before me--and I
have many of them--I am inclined to think that pride and fashion have much to do
with <314>the treatment commonly extended to colored people in the United
States. I once heard a very plain man say (and he was cross-eyed, and
awkwardly flung together in other respects) that he should be a handsome man
when public opinion shall be changed.
Since I have been editing and publishing a
journal devoted to the cause of liberty and progress, I have had my mind more
directed to the condition and circumstances of the free colored people than when
I was the agent of an abolition society. The result has been a
corresponding change in the disposition of my time and labors. I have felt
it to be a part of my mission--under a gracious Providence to impress my sable
brothers in this country with the conviction that, notwithstanding the ten
thousand discouragements and the powerful hinderances, which beset their
existence in this country--notwithstanding the blood-written history of Africa,
and her children, from whom we have descended, or the clouds and darkness (whose
stillness and gloom are made only more awful by wrathful thunder and lightning)
now overshadowing them--progress is yet possible, and bright skies shall yet
shine upon their pathway; and that "Ethiopia shall yet reach forth her hand
unto God."
Believing that one of the best means of
emancipating the slaves of the south is to improve and elevate the character of
the free colored people of the north I shall labor in the future, as I have
labored in the past, to promote the moral, social, religious, and intellectual
elevation of the free colored people; never forgetting my own humble orgin{sic},
nor refusing, while Heaven lends me ability, to use my voice, my pen, or my
vote, to advocate the great and primary work of the universal and unconditional
emancipation of my entire race.
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