Slavery and the ConstitutionBowditch, William I. (William Ingersoll)
Religion
Slavery and the Constitution
Bowditch, William I. (William Ingersoll)
Enslaved persons -- United States -- Social conditions; Slavery -- United States
"In the course of eight or nine weeks, Mr. Walker had his cargo of
human flesh made up. There was in this lot a number of old men and
women, some of them with gray locks. We left St. Louis in the
steamboat Carlton, Captain Swan, bound for New Orleans. On our way
down, and before we reached Rodney, the place where we made our
first stop, I had to prepare the old slaves for market. I was
ordered to have the old men's whiskers shaved off, and the gray
hairs plucked out, where they were not too numerous, in which case
he had a preparation of blacking to color it, and with a
blacking-brush we would put it on. This was new business to me, and
was performed in a room where the passengers could not see us. These
slaves were also taught how old they were by Mr. Walker; and, after
going through the blacking process, they looked ten or fifteen years
younger; and I am sure that some of those who purchased slaves of
Mr. Walker were dreadfully cheated, especially in the ages of the
slaves which they bought."--Pp. 45, 46: "The next day we proceeded
to New Orleans, and put the gang in the same negro-pen which we
occupied before. In a short time the planters came flocking to the
pen to purchase slaves. Before the slaves were exhibited for sale,
they were dressed and driven out into the yard. Some were set to
dancing, some to jumping, some to singing, and some to playing
cards. This was done to make them appear cheerful and happy. My
business was to see that they were placed in those situations before
the arrival of the purchasers, and I have often set them to dancing
when their cheeks were wet with tears."
Can such treatment result in any thing but brutalizing every noble
faculty? If advertisements of stallions and boys, blood-horses and men
and women, blooded colts and young slave-girls, are considered so very
similar as to be placed in the same paragraph, or alongside each other,
how great a difference can there be in the treatment by the public of
the two kinds of stock? Is the auction-block a scene for cultivating the
affections of a poor slave-girl? Are the coarse and unfeeling jests
there perpetrated calculated to increase her purity, or strengthen her
moral sensibilities? Treat a man as you would have him to be, is a good
maxim. Respect him, and he will respect himself. Continually disregard
his holiest and best purposes, and in time he will do the same.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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