MR. EDITOR — I regret that the former account I was sent of
your labors of our excellent brothers Thompson and Phelps, was so meager a
statement of their untiring efforts among us.
Circumstances, however, obliged me to compress into a small space, what
was worthy of being given at much greater length; and for the benefit of those
who have not the privilege of listening to the discussion of a question of so
much importance to every American citizen as that of slavery, a fuller sketch
of the remaining meetings shall be given.
As my remarks will be confined for the most part to the speeches of Mr.
Thompson, it must not be supposed that I can give anything like an adequate
idea of the cogency of his arguments or of the power of his eloquence. To eulogize him as an orator would be
idle. It would be like daubing paint
upon a finished portrait, which would only soil it instead of adding to its
beauty. Those who would form any just conception of Mr. Thompson as a public
speaker and a christian philanthropist, must both see and hear him, and those
who have once listened to him, are well aware that even an analysis of a speech
of his , so closely joined in all its parts, so replete with profound thought,
and so profusely embellished with rhetorical flowers of every hue and ever
ordour, cannot be embodied in a single brief paragraph. I shall therefore not attempt to give his own
expressions, but merely a general description of his discourse.
On Sunday evening, July 12th, Mr. Thompson addressed a
crowded audience, from Ezekiel xxviii. 14, 15, 16 – “Thou art the anointed the
cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain
of God: thou hast walked up and down in the midst of these stones of fire. Thou
wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was
found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst
of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as
profane out of the mountain of God: I will destroy thee, O covering cherub,
from the midst of the stones of fire.”
Mr. Thompson remarked that though this was a passage of
inimitable beauty, it was one of tremendous and awful import. While it drew the
picture of the wealth and grandeur of ancient Tyre, it contained the prediction
of its downfall. Mr. Thompson then proceeded to portray in matchless colors the
prosperity and glory of the renowned city, whose “builders had perfected her
beauty, whose borders were in the midst of the sea, whose mariners were the men
of Sidon, and who was a merchant to the people of many islands.” Her fir trees
were brought from Hermon, her oaks from Bashan, her cedars from Lebanon, her
blue and purple and fine linen from Egypt, her wheat and oil and honey from
Judea, her spices and gold and precious stones from Arabia, her silver from
Tarsus, her emeralds and coral and agate from Syria, her warriors from Persia,
and her slaves from Greece. Her palaces were radiant with jewels, and many
kings were filled with the multitude of the riches of her merchandise. But
iniquity was found in her. She had kept back the hire of the laborer by
fraud. By the multitude of her riches she was filled with violence. She made
merchandise of the bodies and souls of men, therefore she should be cast down.
Many nations should come up against her and destroy her walls and break down
her towers. All this had been literally fulfilled.
Mr. Thompson then applied his subject to America. Your
country, said he, is peculiarly an anointed cherub. Heaven smiled upon the
self-denying enterprise of your praying, pilgrim fathers, and in two centuries
a great nation has risen into being — a nation whose territories stretches from
the Canadas to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains
— a nation whose prowess by land and by sea is unsurpassed by any people that
have a name — a nation whose markets are filled with the luxuries of every
clime, and whose merchandise is diffused over the world. The keels of your
vessels cut all waters. Your ships lie along the docks of every port of Europe,
and are anchored under the walls of China. The deer and the buffalo fall before
the aim of your hunters, and the eagle is stricken down from his eyry. Your
hardy tars visit the ice-bound coasts of the North, and transfix the monsters
of the polar seas. Your coasts are thronged with populous and extended cities,
and in the interior may be seen the spires of your churches towering above the
beautiful villages that surround them. Above every other nation under heaven,
yours is distinguished for its christian enterprise. You can give the Bible to
every family within the limits of your own territory, and pledge it to the
world. Your missionaries are in all quarters of the globe, and your seventeen
thousand clergy are preaching salvation, in the midst of your own population.
Other nations of Christendom behold with complacency the good effected by your
charitable societies, and would be proud to emulate you. No nation has ever
been so peculiarly blessed. You are placed upon the holy mountain of God, and
walk up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, but you have sinned. Ye
make merchandise of the bodies and souls of men. Ye have torn the African from
his quiet home, and subjected him to interminable, bondage in a land of
strangers. Violence is in the midst of you, and the oppressor walks abroad
unpunished. One-sixth part of your whole population are doomed to perpetual
slavery. The cotton tree blooms, and the cane field wanes, because the black
man tills the soil. The sails of your vessels whiten the ocean, their holds
filled with sugar, and their decks burdened with cotton, because the black man
smarts under the driver's lash, while the scorching rays of a tropical sun fall
blistering upon his skin. He labors and faints, and another riots on the fruits
of his unrequited toils. He is bought and sold as the brute, and has nothing
that he can call his own. Is he a husband? the next hour may separate him
forever from the object of his affections. Is he a father? the child of his
hopes may the next moment be torn from his bleeding bosom, and carried he knows
not whither, but at best, to a state of servitude more intolerable than death.
He looks back upon the past, and remembers his many stripes and tears. He looks
forward, and no gleam of hope breaks in upon his sorrow-stricken bosom. Despair
rankles in his heart and withers all his energies, and he longs to find rest in
the grave. But his dark mind is uninformed of his immortal nature, and when he
dies he dies without the consolations of religion, for in christian America
there is no Bible for the slave. Your country being thus guilty, it behoves
every citizen of your republic to consider lest the fate of Tyre be yours.
Mr. Thompson closed by expressing his determination to labor
in behalf of those in bonds, till the last tear was wiped from the eye of the
slave, and the last fetter broken from his heel; and then, continued he, then
let a western breeze bear me back to the land of my birth, or let me find a
spot to lay my bones in the midst of a grateful people, and a people FREE
indeed.
Never did the writer of this article listen to such
eloquence; and never before did he witness an audience hanging with such
profound attention upon the lips of a speaker. But those who take the trouble
to read this article, must not suppose that what I have here stated is given in
Mr. Thompson's own words. Perhaps I may have made use of some of his
expressions, but my object has been to give a general view of this surpassingly
excellent address of our beloved brother.
On Monday evening, Mr. Thompson gave a lecture on St.
Domingo. It being preliminary to subsequent lectures, it was mostly statistics
from the time of the discovery of the island, down to the year 1789. Mr.
Thompson remarked that he had a two-fold object in view in giving an account of
St. Domingo. First, to show the capacity of the African race for governing
themselves; and, second, to show that immediate emancipation was safe, as
illustrated by its effects on that island. St. Domingo, he said, was remarkable
for being the place where Columbus was betrayed — for its being the first of
the West India Islands to which negro slaves were carried from the coast of
Africa — for the cruel treatment of the first settlers in the Island to the
aborigines — for the triumph of the liberated slaves over the French, and those
of the islanders who joined them — for being the birth place of the noble
minded, the gifted, the honored, but afterwards, betrayed Toussaint L’Ouverture,
who was born a slave, and a great part of his life labored as a slave, yet as
soon as his chains were broken off, he rose at once to a man — to a general to
a commander-in-chief, and finally to the Governor of a prosperous and happy
Republic.
At the close of the exercises, Mr. Thompson informed the
audience, that on the next evening they would be addressed by Wm. Lloyd
Garrison, Editor of the Liberator, — the much despised and villified Wm. Lloyd
Garrison was to address the citizens of Andover on the subject of slavery.
Tuesday evening arrived, and with it arrived Wm. Lloyd
Garrison, Editor of the Liberator. The house was crowded by many, who, we doubt
not, came from mere curiosity, to see the man who had been held up to the world
as the “enemy of all righteousness — the “disturber of the public peace — the
“libeller of his country” — the “outlawed fanatic”—the reckless incendiary, who
was propagating his seditious sentiments from one end of the land to the other,
and yet in this free country, suffered to live notwithstanding.
After prayer and singing, brother Garrison arose, and said,
he stood before them as the one who had been represented to the public as the
propagator of discord, and the enemy of his country — that almost every
opprobrious epithet had been attached to his name; but since one term of
reproval had been spared him — since his enemies had never called him a slaveholder,
he would forgive them all the rest, and thank them for their magnanimity.
He spoke for some time on the supercilious inquiry so often iterated and
reiterated by our opponents; Why don't you go to the South? He remarked,
that the very individuals who made this inquiry, and were denouncing us as
fanatics, well knew that death would be the lot of him who should broach such
sentiments at the South, and should the advocates of abolition throw away their
lives by recklessly throwing themselves into the hands of those who were
thirsting for their blood, then indeed, might these haughty querists smile over
their mangled bodies, and with justice pronounce them fanatics. He touched upon
several other important points which I must pass over in silence. His manner
was mild, his address dignified and dispassionate, and many who never saw him
before, and whose opinions, or rather prejudices were formed from the false
reports of his enemies, and confirmed by not reading his paper, were
compelled, in spite of themselves, to form an idea entirely the reverse of what
they had previously entertained of him. His address did much towards removing
the prejudice that many had against him, and proved an excellent catholicon to
the stomachs of those who are much given to squeamishness, whenever they hear the
name of Garrison mentioned.
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Thompson was to have continued his
remarks on St. Domingo, but a heavy rain prevented most of the audience from
coming together, and by the request of those present, the address was deferred
until the next evening, and the time spent in familiar conversation. An
interesting discussion took place, and lasted about an hour and a half. Many
important questions were canvassed, to the entire satisfaction, we believe, of
all who listened to them.
On Thursday evening, Mr. Thompson resumed his account of St.
Domingo. Commencing with the year 1790, he showed that the beginning of what
are termed “the horrid scenes of St. Domingo,” was in consequence of a decree
passed by the National Convention, granting to the free people of color the
enjoyment of the same political privileges as the whites, and again in 1791, another
decree was passed, couched in still stronger language, declaring that all the
free people of color in the French islands were entitled to all the privileges
of citizenship. When this decree reached Cape Francais, it excited the whites to great
hostility against the free people of color. The parties were arrayed in arms
against each other, and blood and conflagration followed. The Convention, in
order to prevent the threatening evils, immediately rescinded the decree. By
this act, the free blacks were again deprived of their rights, which so enraged
them, that they commenced fresh hostilities upon the whites, and the Convention
was obliged to re-enact the former decree, giving to them the same rights as
white citizens. A civil war continued to rage in the island until 1793, when,
in order to extinguish it, and at the same time repel the British, who were
then hovering round the coasts, it was suggested that the slaves should be
armed in defence of the island. Accordingly in 1793, proclamation was made, promising
“to give freedom to all the slaves who would range themselves under the banners
of the Republic.” This scheme produced the desired effect. The English were
driven from the Island, the civil commotions were suppressed, and peace and
order were restored. After this, the liberated slaves were industrious and
happy, and continued to work on the same plantations as before, and this state
of things continued until 1802, when Buonaparte sent out a military force to
restore slavery in the Island. Having enjoyed the blessings of freedom for nine
years, the blacks resolved to die rather than again be subjected to bondage.
They rose in the strength of free men, and with Toussaint L’Ouverture at their
head they encountered their enemies. Many of them, however, were taken by the
French, and miserably perished. Some were burnt to death, some were nailed to
the masts of ships, some were sown up in sacks, poignarded, and then thrown
into the sea as food for sharks, some were confined in the holds of vessels,
and suffocated with the fumes of brimstone, and many were torn in pieces by the
blood hounds, which the French employed to harass and hunt them in the forests
and fastnesses of the mountains. At length the scene changed. The putrifying
carcases of the unburied slain poisoned the atmosphere, and produced sickness
in the French army. In this state of helplessness they were besieged by the
black army, their provisions were cut off, a famine raged among them so that
they were compelled at last to subsist upon the flesh of the blood hounds, that
they had exported from Cuba as auxiliaries in conquering the islanders. The
French army being nearly exterminated, a miserable remnant put to sea, and left
the Island to the quiet possession of their conquerors. Mr. Thompson concluded
with the following summary: First, the revolution in St. Domingo originated
between the whites and the free people of color, previous to any act of
emancipation. Second, the slaves after their emancipation remained
peaceful, contented, industrious, and happy, until Buonaparte made the attempt
to restore slavery in the Island. Third, the history of St. Domingo proves the
capacity of the black man for the enjoyment of liberty, his ability of
self-government, and improvement, and the safety of immediate emancipation.
Friday evening, Mr. Thompson closed his account of St. Domingo, by giving a
brief statement of its present condition. He showed by documents published in
the West Indies, that its population was rapidly multiplying, its exports
annually increasing, and the inhabitants of the Island improving much faster
than could be reasonably expected.
After the address, opportunity was given for any individuals
to propose questions. A gentleman slaveholder commenced. He made several
unimportant inquiries, and along with them, abused Mr. Thompson, by calling him
a “foreign incendiary.” Mr.
Thompson answered in his usual christian calmness and dignity, not rendering
reviling for reviling. The discusion continued to a late hour, and when it
closed the audience gave evidence of being well satisfied with the answers
given, and some who attended that evening for the first time, subscribed their
names to the Constitution. Thus closed Mr. Thompson's labors with us for the
present, and he left town on Saturday, July 18th. Mr. Phelps remained and
addressed us on Sabbath evening, but the small space left to me, will not admit
of my giving any account of it. As to the good accomplished by the labors of
Messrs. Thompson and Phelps, some further account may be given hereafter. At
present, I will only say, that upwards of 200 have joined the Anti-Slavery
Society since they came among us.
Yours, in behalf of
the A. S. Society at Andover,
R. REED, Cor.
Secretary.
SOURCES: Isaac Knapp, Publisher, Letters and
Addresses by G. Thompson [on American Negro Slavery] During His Mission in the
United States, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835, p. 77-83; “Anti-Slavery
Meetings at Andover,” The Liberator,
Boston, Massachusetts, Saturday, August 8, 1835, p. 1.
