Paper on David Walker’s Appeal and Henry Highland Garnet assignment

University of Nebraska – Lincoln
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8-16-1843
An Address to the Slaves of the United States of
America, Buffalo, N.Y., 1843
Henry Highland Garnet
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Garnet, Henry Highland, “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America, Buffalo, N.Y., 1843” (1843). Electronic Texts in
American Studies. 8.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/8
AN ADDRESS
TO THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(REJECTED BY THE NATIONAL CONVENTION, 1843.)
BY HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET.
______________________
PREFACE.
The following Address was first read at the National Convention
held at Buffalo, N.Y., in 1843. Since that time it has been slightly
modified, retaining, however, all of its original doctrine. The document elicited more discussion than any other paper that was ever
brought before that, or any other deliberative body of colored persons, and their friends. Gentlemen who opposed the Address, based
their objections on these grounds. 1. That the document was warlike, and encouraged insurrection; and 2. That if the Convention
should adopt it, that those delegates who lived near the borders of
the slave states, would not dare to return to their homes. The Address was rejected by a small majority; and now in compliance with
the earnest request of many who heard it, and in conformity to the
wishes of numerous friends who are anxious to see it, the author
now gives it to the public, praying God that this little book may be
borne on the four winds of heaven, until the principles it contains
shall be understood and adopted by every slave in the Union.
H.H.G.
Troy, N.Y., April 15, 1848.
ADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED STATES
2
An Address to the Slaves of the United States of
America, Buffalo, N.Y., 1843
rethren and Fellow-Citizens:—Your brethren of the North,
East, and West have been accustomed to meet together in National Conventions, to sympathize with each other, and to weep
over your unhappy condition. In these meetings we have addressed
all classes of the free, but we have never, until this time, sent a word
of consolation and advice to you. We have been contented in sitting
still and mourning over your sorrows, earnestly hoping that before
this day your sacred liberties would have been restored. But, we
have hoped in vain. Years have rolled on, and tens of thousands
have been borne on streams of blood and tears, to the shores of
eternity. While you have been oppressed, we have also been partakers with you; nor can we be free while you are enslaved. We, therefore, write to you as being bound with you.
Many of you are bound to us, not only by the ties of a common
humanity, but we are connected by the more tender relations of
parents, wives, husbands, children, brothers, and sisters, and
friends. As such we most affectionately address you.
Slavery has fixed a deep gulf between you and us, and while it
shuts out from you the relief and consolation which your friends
would willingly render, it afflicts and persecutes you with a fierceness which we might not expect to see in the fiends of hell. But still
the Almighty Father of mercies has left to us a glimmering ray of
hope, which shines out like a lone star in a cloudy sky. Mankind are
becoming wiser, and better—the oppressor’s power is fading, and
you, every day, are becoming better informed, and more numerous.
Your grievances, brethren, are many. We shall not attempt, in this
short address, to present to the world all the dark catalogue of this
nation’s sins, which have been committed upon an innocent people.
Nor is it indeed necessary, for you feel them from day to day, and
all the civilized world look upon them with amazement.
B
HENRY
HIGHLAND
GARNET
3
Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, the first of our injured
race were brought to the shores of America. They came not with
glad spirits to select their homes in the New World. They came not
with their own consent, to find an unmolested enjoyment of the
blessings of this fruitful soil. The first dealings they had with men
calling themselves Christians, exhibited to them the worst features
of corrupt. and sordid hearts: and convinced them that no cruelty is
too great, no villainy and no robbery too abhorrent for even enlightened men to perform, when influenced by avarice and lust. Neither
did they come flying upon the wings of Liberty, to a land of freedom. But they came with broken hearts, from their beloved native
land, and were doomed to unrequited toil and deep degradation.
Nor did the evil of their bondage end at their emancipation by
death. Succeeding generations inherited their chains, and millions
have come from eternity into time, and have returned again to the
world of spirits, cursed and ruined by American slavery.
The propagators of the system, or their immediate ancestors, very
soon discovered its growing evil, and its tremendous wickedness,
and secret promises were made to destroy it. The gross inconsistency of a people holding slaves, who had themselves “ferried o’er
the wave” for freedom’s sake, was too apparent to be entirely overlooked. The voice of Freedom cried, “Emancipate your slaves.”
Humanity supplicated with tears for the deliverance of the children
of Africa. Wisdom urged her solemn plea. The bleeding captive
pleaded his innocence, and pointed to Christianity who stood
weeping at the cross. Jehovah frowned upon the nefarious institution, and thunderbolts, red with vengeance, struggled to leap forth
to blast the guilty wretches who maintained it. But all was vain.
Slavery had stretched its dark wings of death over the land, the
Church stood silently by—the priests prophesied falsely, and the
people loved to have it so. Its throne is established, and now it
reigns triumphant.
Nearly three millions of your fellow-citizens are prohibited by
law and public opinion (which in this country is stronger than law)
from reading the Book of Life. Your intellect has been destroyed as
much as possible, and every ray of light they have attempted to
ADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE
UNITED STATES
4
shut out from your minds. The oppressors themselves have become
involved in the ruin. They have become weak, sensual, and rapacious—they have cursed you—they have cursed themselves—they
have cursed the earth which they have trod.
The colonists threw the blame upon England.. They said that the
mother country entailed the evil upon them, and that they would
rid themselves of it if they could. The world thought they were sincere, and the philanthropic pitied them. But time soon tested their
sincerity. In a few years the colonists grew strong, and severed
themselves from the British Government. Their independence was
declared, and they took their station among the sovereign powers of
the earth. The declaration was a glorious document. Sages admired
it, and the patriotic of every nation reverenced the God-like sentiments which it contained. When the power of Government returned
to their hands, did they emancipate the slaves? No; they rather
added new links to our chains. Were they ignorant of the principles
of Liberty? Certainly they were not. The sentiments of their revolutionary orators fell in burning eloquence upon their hearts, and with
one voice they cried, Liberty or Death. Oh what a sentence was that!
It ran from soul to soul like electric fire, and nerved the arm of thousands to fight in the holy cause of Freedom. Among the diversity of
opinions that are entertained in regard to physical resistance, there
are but a few found to gainsay that stern declaration. We are among
those who do not.
Slavery! How much misery is comprehended in that single word.
What mind is there that does not shrink from its direful effects?
Unless the image of God be obliterated from the soul, all men cherish the love of Liberty. The nice discerning political economist does
not regard the sacred right more than the untutored African who
roams in the wilds of Congo. Nor has the one more right to the full
enjoyment of his freedom than the other. In every man’s mind the
good seeds of liberty are planted, and he who brings his fellow
down so low, as to make him contented with a condition of slavery,
commits the highest crime against God and man. Brethren, your
oppressors aim to do this. They endeavor to make you as much like
brutes as possible. When they have blinded the eyes of your mind—
HENRY
HIGHLAND
GARNET
5
when they have embittered the sweet waters of life—when they
have shut out the light which shines from the word of God—then,
and not till then, has American slavery done its perfect work.
To such Degradation it is sinful in the Extreme for you to make voluntary Submission. The divine commandments you are in duty bound
to reverence and obey. If you do not obey them, you will surely
meet with the displeasure of the Almighty. He requires you to love
him supremely, and your neighbor as yourself—to keep the Sabbath
day holy—to search the Scriptures—and bring up your children
with respect for his laws, and to worship no other God but him. But
slavery sets all these at nought, and hurls defiance in the face of Jehovah. The forlorn condition in which you are placed, does not destroy your moral obligation to God. You are not certain of heaven,
because you suffer yourselves to remain in a state of slavery, where
you cannot obey the commandments of the Sovereign of the universe. If the ignorance of slavery is a passport to heaven, then it is a
blessing, and no curse, and you should rather desire its perpetuity
than its abolition.. God will not receive slavery, nor ignorance, nor
any other state of mind, for love and obedience to him. Your condition does not absolve you from your moral obligation. The diabolical injustice by which your liberties are cloven down, neither God;
nor angels, or just men, command you to suffer for a single moment.
Therefore it is your solemn and imperative duty to use every means, both
moral; intellectual and physical that promises success. If a band of heathen men should attempt to enslave a race of Christians, and to
place their children under the influence of some false religion,
surely, Heaven would frown upon the men who would not resist
such aggression, even to death. If, on the other hand, a band of
Christians should attempt to enslave a race of heathen men, and to
entail slavery upon them, and to keep them in heathenism in the
midst of Christianity, the God of heaven would smile upon every
effort which the injured might make to disenthral themselves.
Brethren, it is as wrong for your lordly oppressors to keep you in
slavery, as it was for the man thief to steal our ancestors from the
coast of Africa. You should therefore now use the same manner of
resistance, as would have been just in our ancestors, when the
ADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE
UNITED STATES
6
bloody footprints of the first remorseless soul-thief was placed upon
the shores of our fatherland. The humblest peasant is as free in the
sight of God as the proudest monarch that ever swayed a sceptre.
Liberty is a spirit sent out from God, and like its great Author, is no
respecter of persons.
Brethren, the time has come when you must act for yourselves. It
is an old and true saying that, “if hereditary bondmen would be
free, they must themselves strike the blow.” You can plead your
own cause, and do the work of emancipation better than any others.
The nations of the old world are moving in the great cause of universal freedom, and some of them at least will, ere long, do you justice. The combined powers of Europe have placed their broad seal
of disapprobation upon the African slave-trade. But in the slaveholding parts of the United States, the trade is as brisk as ever. They
buy and sell you as though you were brute beasts. The North has
done much—her opinion of slavery in the abstract is known. But in
regard to the South, we adopt the opinion of the New York Evangelist—“We have advanced so far, that the cause apparently waits
for a more effectual door to be thrown open than has been yet.” We
are about to point you to that more effectual door. Look around
you, and behold the bosoms of your loving wives heaving with
untold agonies! Hear the cries of your poor children! Remember the
stripes your fathers bore. Think of the torture and disgrace of your
noble mothers. Think of your wretched sisters, loving virtue and
purity, as they are driven into concubinage and are exposed to the
unbridled lusts of incarnate devils. Think of the undying glory that
hangs around the ancient name of Africa:—and forget not that you
are native-born American citizens, and as such, you are justly entitled to all the rights that are granted to the freest. Think how many
tears you have poured out. upon the soil which you have cultivated
with unrequited toil and enriched with your blood; and then go to
your lordly enslavers and tell them plainly, that you are determined
to be free. Appeal to their sense of justice, and tell them that they
have no more right to oppress you, than you have to enslave them.
Entreat them to remove the grievous burdens which they have imposed upon you, and to remunerate you for your labor. Promise
HENRY
HIGHLAND
GARNET
7
them renewed diligence in the cultivation of the soil, if they will
render to you an equivalent for your services. Point them to the increase of happiness and prosperity in the British West Indies since
the Act of Emancipation. Tell them in language which they cannot
misunderstand, of the exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and of a future judgment, and of the righteous retributions of an indignant
God. Inform them that all you desire is freedom, and that nothing
else will suffice. Do this, and for ever after cease to toil for the
heartless tyrants, who give you no other reward but stripes and
abuse. If they then commence the work of death, they, and not you,
will be responsible for the consequences. You had far better all
die—die immediately, than live slaves, and entail your wretchedness
upon your posterity. If you would be free in this generation, here is
your only hope. However much you and all of us may desire it,
there is not much hope of redemption without the shedding of
blood. If you must bleed, let it all come at once—rather die freemen,
than live to be the slaves. It is impossible, like the children of Israel, to
make a grand exodus from the land of bondage. The Pharaohs are
on both sides of the blood-red waters! You cannot move en masse, to
the dominions of the British Queen—nor can you pass through
Florida and overrun Texas, and at last find peace in Mexico. The
propagators of American slavery are spending their blood and
treasure, that they may plant the black flag in the heart of Mexico
and riot in the halls of the Montezumas. In the language of the Rev.
Robert Hall, when addressing the volunteers of Bristol, who were
rushing forth to repel the invasion of Napoleon, who threatened to
lay waste the fair homes of England, “Religion is too much interested in your behalf, not to shed over you her most gracious influences.”
You will not be compelled to spend much time in order to become inured to hardships. From the first moment that you breathed
the air of heaven, you have been accustomed to nothing else but
hardships. The heroes of the American Revolution were never put
upon harder fare than a peck of corn and a few herrings per week.
You have not become enervated by the luxuries of life. Your sternest
energies have been beaten out upon. the anvil of severe trial, SlavADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE
UNITED STATES
8
ery has done this, to make you subservient to its own purposes; but
it has done more than this, it has prepared you for any emergency.
If you receive good treatment, it is what you could hardly expect; if
you meet with pain, sorrow, and even death, these are the common.
lot of the slaves.
Fellow-men! patient sufferers! behold your dearest rights crushed
to the earth! See your sons murdered, and your wives, mothers and
sisters doomed to prostitution. In the name of the merciful God, and
by all that life is worth, let it no longer be a debatable question,
whether it is better to choose Liberty or death.
In 1822, Denmark Veazie, of South Carolina, formed a plan for
the liberation of his fellow-men. In the whole history of human efforts to overthrow slavery, a more complicated and tremendous
plan was never formed. He was betrayed by the treachery of his
own people, and died a martyr to freedom. Many a brave hero fell,
but history, faithful to her high trust, will transcribe his name on the
same monument with Moses, Hampden, Tell, Bruce and Wallace,
Toussaint L’Ouverture, Lafayette and Washington. That tremendous movement shook the whole empire of slavery. The guilty soulthieves were overwhelmed with fear. It is a matter of fact, that at
that time, and in consequence of the threatened revolution, the slave
States talked strongly of emancipation. But they blew but one blast
of the trumpet of freedom, and then laid it aside. As these men became quiet, the slaveholders ceased to talk about emancipation: and
now behold your condition today! Angels sigh over it, and humanity has long since exhausted her tears in weeping on your account!
The patriotic Nathaniel Turner followed Denmark Veazie. He
was goaded to desperation by wrong and injustice. By despotism,
his name has been recorded on the list of infamy; and future generations will remember him among the noble and brave.
Next arose the immortal Joseph Cinque, the hero of the Amistad.
He was a native African, and by the help of God he emancipated a
whole ship-load of his fellow-men on the high seas. And he now
sings of liberty on the sunny hills of Africa and beneath his native
palm-trees, where he hears the lion roar and feels himself as free as
that king of the forest.
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET
9
Next arose Madison Washington, that bright star of freedom, and
took his station in the constellation of true heroism. He was a slave
on board the brig Creole, of Richmond, bound to New Orleans, that
great slave mart, with a hundred and four others. Nineteen struck
for liberty or death. But one life was taken, and the whole were
emancipated, and the vessel was carried into Nassau, New Providence.
Noble men! Those who have fallen in freedom’s conflict, their
memories will be cherished by the true-hearted and the God-fearing
in all future generations; those who are living, their names are surrounded by a halo of glory.
Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is
the day and the hour. Let every slave throughout the land do this,
and the days of slavery are numbered. You cannot be more oppressed than you have been—you cannot suffer greater cruelties
than you have already. Rather die freemen than live to be slaves. Remember that you are four millions!
It is in your power so to torment the God-cursed slaveholders,
that they will be glad to let you go free. If the scale was turned, and
black men were the masters and white men the slaves, every destructive agent and element would be employed to lay the oppressor low. Danger and death would hang over their heads day and
night. Yes, the tyrants would meet with plagues more terrible than
those of Pharaoh. But you are a patient people. You act as though
you were made for the special use of these devils. You act as though
your daughters were born to pamper the lusts of your masters and
overseers. And worse than all, you tamely submit while your lords
tear your wives from your embraces and defile them before your
eyes. In the name of God, we ask, are you men? Where is the blood
of your fathers? Has it all run out of your veins? Awake, awake;
millions of voices are calling you! Your dead fathers speak to you
from their graves. Heaven, as with a voice of thunder, calls on you
to arise from the dust.
Let your motto be resistance! resistance! resistance! No oppressed
people have ever secured their liberty without resistance. What
kind of resistance you had better make, you must decide by the cirADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED STATES
10
cumstances that surround you, and according to the suggestion of
expediency. Brethren, adieu! Trust in the living God. Labor for the
peace of the human race, and remember that you are four millions.
―――――――
Delivered before the National Convention of Colored Citizens, Buffalo, New York, August 16, 1843. Published in Henry Highland
Garnet, Walker’s Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life. And also Garnet’s Address to the Slaves of the United States of America. New-York,
Printed by J. H. Tobitt, 1848, pages 89–97.

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