Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

Chapter 10: Prudence Crandall.—1833.

Prudence Crandall to W. L. Garrison.

Canterbury, Jan. 18th, 1833.

¹ Mr. Garrison: I am to you, sir, I presume, an entire stranger, and you are indeed so to me save through the medium of the public print. I am by no means fond of egotism, but the circumstances under which I labor forbid my asking a friend to write for me; therefore I will tell you who I am, and for what purpose I write. I am, sir, through the blessing of divine Providence, permitted to be the Principal of the Canterbury (Conn.) Female Boarding School. I received a considerable part of my education at the Friends' Boarding School, Providence, R. I. In 1831 I purchased a large dwelling-house² in the centre of this village, and opened the school above mentioned. Since I commenced I have met with all the encouragement I ever anticipated, and now have a flourishing school.

Now I will tell you why I write you, and the object is this: I wish to know your opinion respecting changing white scholars for colored ones. I have been for some months past determined [316] if possible during the remaining part of my life to benefit the people of color. I do not dare tell any one of my neighbors anything about the contemplated change in my school, and I beg of you, sir, that you will not expose it to any one; for if it was known, I have no reason to expect but it would ruin my present school. Will you be so kind as to write by the next mail and give me your opinion on the subject; and if you consider it possible to obtain 20 or 25 young ladies of color to enter this school for the term of one year at the rate of $25 per quarter, including board, washing, and tuition, I will come to Boston in a few days and make some arrangements about it. I do not suppose that number can be obtained in Boston alone; but from all the large cities in the several States I thought perhaps they might be gathered.

I must once more beg you not to expose this matter until we see how the case will be determined.

Yours, with the greatest respect,

Prudence Crandall.

The response must have been favorable, for ten days later a note was placed in Mr. Garrison's hands, which ran thus:

Prudence Crandall to W. L. Garrison.

Boston, January 29th, 1833.

³ Mr. Garrison: The lady that wrote you a short time since would inform you that she is now in town, and should be very thankful if you would call at Mr. Barker's Hotel⁴ and see her a few moments this evening at 6 o'clock.

Yours, with the greatest respect,

P. Crandall.

The nature of this interview may be inferred from a third letter:

Prudence Crandall to W. L. Garrison.

Canterbury, February 12th, 1833.

⁵ Mr. Garrison: I can inform you that I had a very pleasant passage home. Arrived here Saturday evening about 8 o'clock;⁶ [317] saw Mr. Packer⁷ on Monday; told him the object of my visit to Boston. He said he thought the object to be praiseworthy, but he was very much troubled about the result. He is fearful that I cannot be supplied with scholars at the close of one year, and therefore he thinks I shall injure myself in the undertaking.

If you have not yet sent on to New York the information you intend, I would thank you if you would do it immediately, for I am expecting to take the next boat for New York⁸ and shall be in the city early on Friday morning. I have not the least acquaintance there, but a friend of mine will give me an introductory letter to Mr. Miller, one of the colored ministers in the city.

The evening after I left Boston I called on Mrs. Hammond,⁹ who soon collected some of her friends, among whom were Mr. George [W.] Benson and a brother of his, who appeared to¹⁰ possess hearts warmed with fellow-feeling and awake to the cause of humanity. They engaged to do all for me in their power, and I have no doubt they will.¹¹ Saturday morning, called on Mrs. H. again, and she walked with me to the residence of three families of color, with whom I was much pleased. They seemed to feel much for the education of their children, and I think I shall be able to obtain six scholars from Providence. When I return from N. Y., I think I shall be able to lay the subject before the public.

Yours, &c.,

P. Crandall.

Why did Miss Crandall contemplate so revolutionary a step, and why did she seek counsel, before all others, of William Lloyd Garrison? Her own account, given in 1869, is as follows:

The reason for changing my school of white pupils for a¹² school for colored pupils is as follows: I had a nice colored girl, now Mrs. Charles Harris, as help in my family, and her intended husband regularly received the Liberator. The girl took the paper from the office and loaned it to me. In that the condition of the colored people, both slaves and free, was truthfully portrayed, the double-dealing and manifest deception of the Colonization Society were faithfully exposed, and the question of Immediate Emancipation of the millions of slaves in the United States boldly advocated. Having been taught from early childhood the sin of slavery, my sympathies were greatly aroused. Sarah Harris, a respectable young woman and a member of the church (now Mrs. Fairweather, and sister to the before-named intended husband), called often to see her friend Marcia, my family assistant. In some of her calls I ascertained that she wished to attend my school,¹³ and board at her own father's house at some little distance from the village. I allowed her to enter as one of my pupils. By this act I gave great offence. The wife of an Episcopal clergyman who lived in the village told me that if I continued that colored girl in my school, it could not be sustained. I replied to her, That it might sink, then, for I should not turn her out! I very soon found that some of my school would leave not to return if the colored girl was retained. Under these circumstances I made up my mind that if it were possible I would teach colored girls exclusively.

The first publication of the intended change was made in the Liberator of March 2, 1833, when the editor¹⁴ announced, ‘with a rush of pleasurable emotions,’ the insertion of ‘the advertisement of Miss P. Crandall (a [319] white lady), of Canterbury, Conn., for a High School for young colored Ladies and Misses. This is,’ he continued, ‘a seasonable auxiliary to the contemplated Manual Labor School for Colored Youth. An interview with Miss C. has satisfied us that she richly deserves the patronage and confidence of the people of color; and we doubt not they will give her both.’

Already, however, the town of Canterbury had been thrown into an uproar by the news not only that Miss Crandall would not dismiss Sarah Harris, but would practically dismiss her white pupils instead, and make Canterbury the seat of the higher education of ‘niggers.’ ‘The good people of Canterbury,’ writes Arnold¹⁵ Buffum from Providence, on March 4, ‘I learn, have had three town meetings last week to devise ways and means to suppress P. Crandall's school, and I am informed that the excitement is so great that it would not be safe for me to appear there. George [W.] Benson, however, has ventured and gone there on Saturday afternoon last, to see what can be done in the case.’ Mr. Benson found that Miss Crandall had already been visited by a committee of gentlemen, who represented ‘that by ¹⁶ putting her design into execution she would bring disgrace and ruin upon them all.’ They ‘professed to feel a real regard for the colored people, and were perfectly willing they should be educated, provided it could be effected in some other place!—a sentiment,’ adds Mr. Benson, ‘you will say, worthy of a true colonizationist.’ He also learned of the calling of another town meeting for the 9th instant, at which S. J. May, of the adjacent village of Brooklyn, had promised to be present as Miss Crandall's attorney,¹⁷ and his own services in the same capacity were gladly accepted. They were subsequently reinforced by Arnold Buffum. On the eve of the meeting, Mr. Garrison wrote from Boston to Mr. Benson: [320]

W. L. Garrison to George W. Benson.

Boston, March 8, 1833.

¹⁸ Although distracted with cares, I must seize my pen to express my admiration of your generous and prompt defence of Miss Crandall from her pitiful assailants. In view of their outrageous conduct, my indignation kindles intensely. What will be the result? If possible, Miss C. must be sustained at all hazards. If we suffer the school to be put down in Canterbury, other places will partake of the panic, and also prevent its introduction in their vicinity. We may as well, ‘first as last,’ meet this proscriptive spirit, and conquer it. We—i. e., all true friends of the cause—must make this a common concern. The New Haven excitement has furnished a bad precedent—a¹⁹ second must not be given, or I know not what we can do to raise up the colored population in a manner which their intellectual and moral necessities demand. In Boston, we are all excited at the Canterbury affair. Colonizationists are rejoicing, and abolitionists looking sternly.

The result of the meeting to be held in C. to-morrow will be²⁰ waited for by us with great anxiety. Our brother May deserves much credit for venturing to expostulate with the conspirators. If any one can make them ashamed of their conduct, he is the man. May the Lord give him courage, wisdom, and success!

The result of the meeting was reported to the Lib-²¹ erator of March 16, by Henry E. Benson, in a letter to which Mr. Garrison gave the caption, ‘Heathenism Outdone,’ and prefixed a brief comment, saying: ‘We put the names of the principal disturbers in black letter— black as the infamy which will attach to them as long as there exists any recollection of the wrongs of the colored race. To colonize these shameless enemies of their species in some desert country would be a relief and blessing to society. This scandalous excitement is one of the genuine flowers of the colonization garden.’ The meeting, refusing to allow Messrs. May and Buffum to be heard on Miss Crandall's behalf, on the ground of their being foreigners and interlopers, voted unanimously²² their disapprobation of the school, and pledged the town to oppose it at all hazards. [321]

The story of this remarkable case cannot be pursued here except in brief. It has been fully related in easily²³ accessible works, and from this point Mr. Garrison's connection with the progress of events ceased from force of circumstances. It will be enough to say that the struggle between the modest and heroic young Quaker woman²⁴ and the town lasted for nearly two years; that the school was opened in April; that attempts were immediately made under the law to frighten the pupils away and to fine Miss Crandall for harboring them; that in May an act prohibiting private schools for non-resident colored persons, and providing for the expulsion of the latter, was procured from the Legislature, amid the greatest rejoicing in Canterbury (even to the ringing of church bells);²⁵ that, under this act, Miss Crandall was in June arrested and temporarily imprisoned in the county jail, twice tried (August and October), and convicted; that her case was carried up to the Supreme Court of Errors, and her persecutors defeated on a technicality (July, 1834), and that pending this litigation the most vindictive and inhuman measures were taken to isolate the school from the countenance and even the physical support of²⁶ the townspeople. The shops and the meeting-house were closed against teacher and pupils;²⁷ carriage in the public conveyances was denied them; physicians would not wait upon them; Miss Crandall's own family and friends were forbidden under penalty of heavy fines to visit her; the well was filled with manure, and water from other sources refused; the house itself was smeared with filth, assailed with rotten eggs and stones, and finally set on fire. [322]

Such conduct on the part of a civilized and Christian community—the most respectable cooperating with the vilest citizens—was, after all, faintly described by Mr. Garrison's phrase, ‘heathenism outdone,’ applied, and justly applied, only to the initial proceedings. It was his last comment upon the affair, and very short, but the severity of it touched the Canterbury persecutors to the quick, particularly the five men whose names were printed in black letters—the magnates of the little village. ‘Your remarks in the last Liberator were awfully²⁸ cutting,’ writes Henry Benson; and Miss Crandall herself interposed with a prudential consideration:

Permit me to entreat you to handle the prejudices of the²⁹ people of Canterbury with all the mildness possible, as everything severe tends merely to heighten the flame of malignity amongst them. “Soft words turn away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.” Mr. May and many others of your warmhearted friends feel very much on this subject, and it is our opinion that you and the cause will gain many friends in this town and vicinity if you treat the matter with perfect mildness.

Mr. Garrison was, however, making war on the common enemy, and his ‘harsh language’ was still in order. He had also put his finger on the right spot when he declared the Canterbury mania to be ‘one of the genuine flowers of the colonization garden.’³⁰ ‘Be it so,’ cried Andrew T. Judson, one of the five, and then or shortly afterwards a life-member of the American Colonization Society, as was also Dr. Andrew Harris, of the same black-list.³¹ ‘Be it so,’ said Squire Judson, in an address³² to the Colonization Society signed by the civil authority and selectmen under date of March 22, 1833. ‘We appeal to the American Colonization Society, to which our statement is addressed—we appeal to every philanthropist, to every Christian—we appeal to the enlightened [323] citizens of our native State and the friends of our country; and in making that appeal we assure them all that they may rely upon the facts here stated, and we ask them to apply to these facts those wholesome principles which we believe are universally cherished in New England, and the issue we will abide.’ He declared that the ‘school was to become an auxiliary in the work of immediate abolition,’ with the Liberator for its mouthpiece; that Miss Crandall had denounced colonization as a fraud; and that ‘once open this door, and New England will become the Liberia of America.’ As town clerk he recorded the vote of the town meeting on April³³ 1, to petition for a law against the bringing of colored people from other towns and States for any purpose, ‘and more especially for the purpose of disseminating the principles and doctrines opposed to the benevolent colonization scheme’; and as one of the committee he drew up the petition. He was, in fact, the soul of the persecution, for which he boldly invoked and secured the complicity of a Society whose hostility to any attempt to raise the condition of the colored people in the land of their nativity was once more shiningly demonstrated. It was his mission, also, in the pursuit of professional and political advancement, to illustrate the malevolence towards Mr. Garrison which now began, on the part of the Colonization managers, to assume a murderous intensity.³⁴

In February, the Colonization agent, Danforth, in the midst of a public debate with Arnold Buffum at Lyceum Hall, Salem, taunted Mr. Garrison with not going South to preach to the slaveholders, and, recalling the handsome rewards offered for him, pointed him out in the audience, ‘with a significant gesture,’ as ‘this same³⁵ William Lloyd Garrison’ for whom he himself had been offered $10,000 by an individual. This incentive to kidnapping was not a harmless device to throw odium on an adversary. Mr. Amasa Walker reported, at the annual [324] meeting of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, that ‘he had lately heard all abolitionists³⁶ denounced in State Street as mischievous men, and one had lately said to him that he wished he had the Editor of the Liberator in an iron cage—he would send him to the Governor of Georgia, who would know what to do with him.’ Nor did Danforth's malice end there. In a letter written from Boston under date of March 28, 1833, to Col. William L. Stone, editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser and chairman of the executive committee of the Colonization Society in that city, he used the following still more ‘significant’ language:

In the midst of all these successful endeavors [to found³⁷ Liberia and people it], there appears a young man within the last two years, of the name of Garrison, whose pen is so venomous that the laws enacted for the peace of the community and the protection of private character have, in one instance, actually confined him in jail, as they would a lunatic. This man, who, according to his own account, has only since 1830 turned against the Colonization cause, in favor of which he delivered his sentiments in public twelve years after the Society was formed; this man, who is considered such a disturber of the tranquillity of Southern society³⁸ that $10,000 reward have been offered me for his person, and the most touching appeals as well as official demands made to us in this region that he should be publicly discountenanced, and even given up to justice; who is in fact this moment in danger of being surrendered to the civil authorities of some one of the Southern States; this man, in connection with a few like-minded spirits, has been engaged in forming what they call “The New-England Anti-slavery Society,” one object of which is, “to effect the abolition of slavery in the United States.” . . .

I have conversed freely with the Governor of this ³⁹ Commonwealth, and other leading men, on this subject, and they express a decided disapprobation of Garrison's course. For a while he tried the effect of his Liberator upon the Governor by [325] sending it to him. His Excellency, however, did not think it worth the postage, and ordered it stopped. Garrison is now preparing to go to England, doubtless to repeat viva voce the defamation of the South and the Colonization Society which has been already sent over in print, and re-echoed in this country as authentic British opinions.

The sequel will show that this clerical instigation to a forcible detention of Mr. Garrison, if nothing worse, was kept in mind by the colonizationists. The mission to England had been talked of during his tour in Maine the previous year, and hastily concluded upon, but the Liberator of November 10, 1832, reported its postponement.⁴⁰ The following correspondence shows the prime conception of it:

The Liberator had reached England early in the summer of 1831, where it met with a warm welcome, and at once induced a friendly interchange of documents and private correspondence between the abolitionists of the [328] mother country and their unexpected allies. The subsequent formation of a society in the United States for immediate emancipation was still more cheering: ‘I did indeed feel it as a cordial to my heart,’ wrote James⁴⁸ Cropper to Arnold Buffum in August, 1832. Meantime Elliott Cresson's activity among the wealthy and philanthropic denomination of which Cropper was so admirable a representative, was practically unchecked, though his unscrupulousness had been discovered. He lost no time⁴⁹ after his arrival out⁵⁰ in visiting Wilberforce, whom he failed to convince of the practicability of transporting the blacks to Liberia; and the blind Clarkson, whom he deceived by the most outrageous fictions in regard to the emancipatory intentions and influence of the Society, and committed to a guarded approval of it in terms⁵¹ which nevertheless betrayed the misrepresentations to which the writer had been subjected. Transmitted by Cresson to the home organ, the endorsement was seen to be fatal to the Society's standing at the South, so that to publish it honestly would have been suicidal. It was therefore suppressed, and a garbled version ultimately substituted,⁵² which compares as follows with the original:

Clarkson to E. Cresson, December 1, 1831.

This Society seems to me to⁵³ have two objects in view— first, to assist in the emancipation of all the slaves now in the United States; and, secondly, by sending these to Africa, to do away the slave-trade, and promote civilization among the natives there.

African Repository, November, 1832.

He [Clarkson] considers the object of the Society two-fold: first, to promote the voluntary Emigra-Tion to Africa of the colored population of the United States; and second, the suppression of the slave-trade, and the civilization of the African tribes.

The Thoughts had greatly assisted Cropper and Stuart in baffling the ‘fit agent of a Society which can⁵⁴ succeed only by stratagem and deception’; but the representations of these and other English friends had doubtless induced the managers of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society to consider their duty in the premises. In carrying out, therefore, the resolution of September 24, already cited, to solicit means abroad for the⁵⁵ Manual Labor School, it would clearly be a gain to send some one capable also of confronting Cresson; and who should be preferred to the author of the Thoughts? Accordingly, in the first week in March, 1833—

The Board of Managers of the New-England Anti-Slavery⁵⁶ Society hereby give notice to the public, that they have appointed William Lloyd Garrison as their Agent, and that he will proceed to England as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made, for the purpose of procuring funds to aid in the establishment of the proposed Manual Labor School for colored youth, and of disseminating in that country the truth in relation to American Slavery, and to its ally, the American Colonization Society.

The Board are confident that the friends of emancipation will require no apology for this step, and that little need be said to secure their efficient aid in the accomplishment of an object so highly important. The fact is generally known that Elliott Cresson is now in England as an agent for the Colonization Society, and that he has procured funds to a considerable amount, by representing that the object of the Society is, “to assist in the emancipation of all the slaves now in the United States.” It is important that the Philanthropists of that country should be undeceived, and that the real principles and designs of the Colonization Society should be there made known.

The Board have the most entire confidence in the success of this Agency. The people of England have long since taken the ground of immediate abolition, and their philanthropy and benevolence are too well known to admit a doubt of their readiness to cooperate with us, in the establishment of an institution which shall afford to colored youth the means of acquiring that knowledge of which they have so long been deprived.

As the Society has but a small amount of funds, the Board are compelled to call upon the friends of emancipation throughout [330] the country for aid in effecting this object. And they hereby invite all those who are disposed to contribute for this object, to do so without delay. . . .

To this Mr. Garrison editorially added an announcement of his purpose to sail in the course of a few weeks, leaving the Liberator ‘in the hands of a gentleman [Oliver Johnson] in all respects qualified to make it an interesting and efficient publication.’ He returned ‘his grateful acknowledgments to the Colored Female Religious and Moral Society of Salem, for some valuable presents to him in anticipation of his voyage.’⁵⁷ His preparations for departure were now earnestly begun; and with mind elated at the prospect of visiting kindred spirits in the Old World, we find him composing his formal farewells, yielding once more (after a whole year's preoccupation) to the inspiration of the poetic muse,⁵⁸ and reviving an old friendship in the pursuit of a new. Some Haverhill young ladies—schoolmates at Derry, N. H.—styling themselves ‘Inquirers after Truth,’⁵⁹ had by their sympathetic letters caused a lively emotion in an always susceptible bosom; so much so that, dates considered, an [331] incidental avowal in the Liberator of March 16—‘We⁶⁰ declare that our heart is neither affected by, nor pledged to, any lady, black or white, bond or free’⁶¹—was perhaps intended to be read as an advertisement, between the lines. A trip to Haverhill and an address there were the result of the correspondence which ensued:

W. L. Garrison to ‘Inquirers after truth.’

Boston, March 4, 1833.

⁶² You excite my curiosity and interest still more by informing me that my dearly beloved Whittier is a friend and townsman of yours. Can we not induce him to devote his brilliant genius more to the advancement of our cause, and kindred enterprises, and less to the creations of romance and fancy, and the disturbing incidents of political strife?

Boston, March 18, 1833.

⁶³ You think my influence will prevail with my dear Whittier more than yours. I think otherwise. If he has not already blotted my name from the tablet of his memory, it is because his magnanimity is superior to neglect. We have had no correspondence whatever, for more than a year, with each other! Does this look like friendship between us? And yet I take the blame all to myself. He is not a debtor to me—I owe him many letters. My only excuse is an almost unconquerable aversion to pen, ink and paper (as well he knows), and the numerous obligations which rest upon me, growing out of my connection with the cause of emancipation. Pray, secure his forgiveness, and tell him that my love to him is as strong as was that of David to Jonathan. Soon I hope to send him a contrite epistle; and I know he will return a generous pardon.

W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot.

Boston, March 19, 1833.

⁶⁴ A thought has just occurred to me. Suppose I should visit Haverhill, previous to my departure for England: is it probable that I could obtain a meeting-house in which to address the [332] inhabitants on the subject of slavery? (probably I should deem it expedient to say nothing derogatory to the Colonization Society.) If I can be sure of a house, I will try to come Sabbath after next. I will consult my friend Whittier, and see what can be done.

Boston, March 26, 1833.

⁶⁵ I have written to Whittier respecting my visit to Haverhill, but have heard nothing from him. Nevertheless, I shall visit your beautiful village on Saturday next, even should no⁶⁶ arrangements be made for the delivery of an address.

Boston, April 3, 1833.

⁶⁷ Although it is midnight, and in a few hours I expect to bid adieu to Boston, yet I cannot consent to woo

Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,

until I express to you—very imperfectly, indeed—the pleasure which I received from my recent visit to Haverhill. Beautiful village! it has almost stolen my heart. . . .

During my brief sojourn in H., my spirit was as elastic as the breeze, and, like the lark, soared steadily upward to the gates of heaven, carolling its notes of joy. How invigorating was the atmosphere! how bright the sun! how cheerful each field and hill! how magnificent the landscape! What have I not lost by a residence in this ‘populous solitude’—this city of bustle, dust and bricks!

But, pleasant as it is to behold the face of Nature, it has no beauty like the countenance of a beloved friend. Sweet is the song of birds, but sweeter the voices of those we love. To see my dear Whittier once more, full of health and manly beauty, was pleasurable indeed.

It would, perhaps, be difficult to find equally rapturous praise of a New England landscape in March from a runaway apprentice revisiting the scene of his ⁶⁸ misdirected training. Mr. Whittier, it should be said, had abated nothing of his friendship, having already in his portfolio a poetical tribute to Mr. Garrison which he withheld from print till after their interview. He secured the church for the Sunday discourse, and though

Too quiet seemed the man to ride the winged Hippogriff Reform,

Leave-taking began at the quarterly meeting of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society held March 25 in the Hall of the House of Representatives, at which Mr. Garrison offered a resolution declaring the Colonization Society a hindrance to the progress of emancipation, and made a speech in support of this view. No better statement of the contrary aims of the two organizations could be desired than that involved in his valedictory:

Brethren—Whether I shall ever again have an opportunity⁷⁰ to address you, He who holds the winds in his fists and the seas in the hollow of his hands, alone can tell. Whatever may be the event with me, see to it that you grow not weary in well doing. The command rests upon you to “plead the cause of the poor and needy” —fulfil it in the letter and the spirit. Suffer no discouragement to depress, no obstacle to hinder, no persecution to deter, no power to awe, no opposition to defeat you in your great and glorious enterprise. Your principles, if cherished and vindicated, cannot fail to procure for you a splendid triumph. Remember that He who is for you is greater than they who are against you—and that this is a cause in which one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Shall not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this? “The needy shall not always be forgotten—the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.”

While the Colonization Society is striving hard to suppress inquiry and discussion on the subject of slavery, be sure yourselves to agitate it on all suitable occasions. While that Society is endeavoring to cover up the bloody abominations of the foul system, fail not to hold up those abominations to the gaze of the people until their hearts shall sicken, and rivers of repentant tears wash away the pollutions of the land. While that Society is constantly alleviating the pressure of guilt upon the consciences of the planters, pile upon those consciences mountains, “and cut away the props.” While that Society is consulting [334] the convenience, selfishness, prejudice and cruelty of the oppressor, do you consult nothing but truth and duty. While that Society is demanding the banishment of the slaves as the price of freedom, do you contend for their freedom and education at home. While that Society is urging a slow, imperceptible, indefinite emancipation, do you insist upon immediate restitution. While that Society is persuading the people of the free States that they have no right to meddle with the slave system, do you show the people that they are constitutionally involved in the guilt and danger of slavery—that, consequently, they are bound to revise and alter that Constitution, and release themselves from their present bloody responsibility. While that Society is maintaining that here the colored population must be forever useless, degraded and miserable, do you rebuke the spirit of pride and prejudice, and encourage that population to aspire after knowledge and to hope for better days. While that Society is aiming to cast upon the shores of Africa large masses of ignorance and depravity for the relief of this country and—the Christianization of that continent, do you pray that none but enlightened and Christian missionaries may be sent thither on errands of mercy. And while you feel and express the strongest moral indignation, in view of the conduct of Southern oppressors, “be angry, and sin not” —cherish nothing but the most ardent love for their temporal and eternal interests, for their bodies and souls. Be actuated by a holy zeal and boldness, but repudiate animal passion and all malignity.

In conclusion, the speaker pointed out the wonderful progress of the anti-slavery movement, just culminating across the water in the impending freedom of the 800,000 slaves in the British West Indies, within six years after the doctrine of immediate emancipation had been embraced by British philanthropists.

On the 2d of April a farewell meeting was held at the Belknap-Street Church, when Mr. Garrison read an address prepared for his colored friends, and subsequently repeated to them in many cities.⁷¹ He is sad at parting, [335] perhaps for the last time, from those to whom he owes so much. Yet both abroad and at home there are clearing skies and signs of great promise—the repentance of Great Britain, the heroism of the abolitionists. ‘If ever there was a cause which established the disinterestedness and integrity of its supporters, yours is that cause.’ The national attention has been fixed on slavery. ‘What has created the mighty discussion which has taken, or is taking, place in almost every debating society or lyceum throughout the Union, and which cannot cease till the cause of it, slavery, is overthrown?’ The truth has found a prominent medium in the Liberator, which shall not go down while body and mind endure. Admit its incendiary character: it is a rising sun.

But the Liberator is said to be destructive in its character⁷² and tendency. That charge, also, I admit is true. It is putting whole magazines of truth under the slave system, and I trust in God will blow it into countless fragments, so that not the remnant of a whip or chain can be found in all the South, and so that upon its ruins may be erected the beautiful temple of freedom. I will not waste my strength in foolishly endeavoring to beat down this great Bastile with a feather. I will not commence at the roof, and throw off its tiles by piecemeal. I am for adopting a more summary method of demolishing it. I am for digging under its foundations, and springing a mine that shall not leave one stone upon another. I leave colonizationists to pick up the leaves which are annually shed by the Bohon Upas of our land, with the vain hope of exterminating it; but as for myself, I choose rather to assail its trunk with the axe of justice, and strike with all my nerve such blows as shall cause “this great poison-tree of lust and blood, and of all abominable and heartless iniquity, to fall before it; and law and love, and God and man, to shout victory over its ruin.”

But the Liberator uses very hard language, and calls a great many bad names, and is very harsh and abusive. Precious cant, indeed! And what has been so efficacious as this [336] hard language? Now, I am satisfied that its strength of denunciation bears no proportion to the enormous guilt of the slave system. The English language is lamentably weak and deficient in regard to this matter. I wish its epithets were heavier—I wish it would not break so easily—I wish I could denounce slavery, and all its abettors, in terms equal to their infamy. But, shame to tell! I can apply to him who steals the liberties of hundreds of his fellow-creatures, and lacerates their bodies, and plunders them of all their hard earnings, only the same epithet that is applied by all to a man who steals a shilling in this community. I call the slaveholder a thief because he steals human beings, and reduces them to the condition of brutes; and I am thought to be very abusive! I call the man a thief who takes my handkerchief from my pocket; and all the people shout, “Right! Right! So he is!” and the court seizes him and throws him into prison. Wonderful consistency! . . .

How, then, ought I to feel, and speak, and write, in view⁷³ of a system which is red with innocent blood, drawn from the bodies of millions of my countrymen by the scourge of brutal drivers;—which is full of all uncleanness and licentiousness;— which destroys the “life of the soul” ;—and which is too horrible for the mind to imagine, or the pen to declare? How ought I to feel and speak? As a man! as a patriot! as a philanthropist! as a Christian! My soul should be, as it is, on fire. I should thunder—I should lighten. I should blow the trumpet of alarm, long and loud. I should use just such language as is most descriptive of the crime. I should imitate the example of Christ, who, when he had to do with people of like manners, called them sharply by their proper names— such as, an adulterous and perverse generation, a brood of vipers, hypocrites, children of the devil who could not escape the damnation of hell. . . . No! no! I never will dilute or modify my language against slavery—against the plunderers of my fellow-men—against American kidnappers. They shall have my honest opinions of their conduct.

He appeals to them against the charge that he is inciting them to revenge against the whites, whereas he urges their mutual improvement through association.⁷⁴ [337] He has been accused of unduly exciting their hopes, but the Colonization Society is already smitten and tottering. He describes the nature of his mission to England, ‘at the unanimous request of the Managers of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, and satisfied in my own mind, after great consideration, that the finger of Providence points out the way.’ His principal object is to assist in raising $50,000 for the National Manual Labor School, by invoking the cooperation of wealthy philanthropists. Another is to head off Elliott Cresson, ‘who has been long in the country, and has succeeded in duping the British people out of large sums of money to promote the objects of the brazen handmaid of slavery.’

Another important object I have in view is, to establish a⁷⁵ regular correspondence between the abolitionists of England and those of this country, and to secure a union of sentiment and action. Much useful information may be obtained, and many valuable anti-slavery tracts and publications collected for distribution among us. We deem it important to learn, precisely, the methods adopted by the friends of abolition in England, in operating upon public sentiment; upon what principles, and by what regulations, their anti-slavery societies are conducted; in what manner female influence has been so widely secured, and so powerfully exerted against slavery; and, in short, to gather up all those facts, and obtain all those instructions, in relation to this great cause which can in any degree assist us in destroying the monster oppression, and placing your whole race upon a footing of equality with the rest of the world.

The Address, whose opening was figurative and florid, well suited to a colored audience, closed with exhortations to moral behavior during his absence, and to faith in the God of Israel in Egypt.

On Friday, April 5, Mr. Garrison set out from Boston. His progress up to his embarkation will be best described in extracts from his private correspondence, as the Lib- [338] erator contained but few particulars. It was announced that he could be addressed in care of William Goodell at New York:

Henry E. Benson to Isaac Knapp.

Providence, April 9, 1833.

⁷⁶ We had a very short but delightful visit from Mr. Garrison last week, though for the life of me I could not help feeling sorrowful on reflecting he was about to leave us for so long a period. On Friday evening he delivered a most excellent⁷⁷ address before a large and highly respectable audience of our colored inhabitants, in which he took an affecting leave of them all. After the meeting, the poor creatures wept and sobbed like children—they gathered round him anxious to express their gratitude for what he had done for them, and tell him how well they loved him. . . .

On Saturday morning your partner and my brother started for Brooklyn, from whence he probably departed on Monday for Hartford. . . .

P. S. My brother has returned; says our friend delivered a highly satisfactory address in Mr. May's meeting-house on Sunday evening, and has removed a mountain of prejudice. After he left Brooklyn Monday noon, a sheriff came up from ⁷⁸ Canterbury with a writ. Do not know whether they proceeded to Hartford after him, or not; brother said he could not ascertain. Believe they are going to take him up for the heading put to the letter of March 12th, respecting the town meeting, on the ground that it is libellous. My father says he will see that he has bonds (if necessary) to any amount required.⁷⁹ Miss Crandall was at Brooklyn, and is in excellent spirits.

W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot.

Hartford, April 9, 1833.

⁸⁰ On Tuesday evening last I bade farewell to my colored friends⁸¹ of Boston, in a public address, and on Friday evening to the people of color in Providence. On both occasions the highest interest and most intense feeling were felt and exhibited by the [339] audience. They wept freely—they clustered around me in throngs, each one eager to receive the pressure of my hand and implore Heaven's choicest blessings upon my head. You cannot imagine the scene, and my pen is wholly inadequate to describe it. As I stood before them, and reflected it might be the last time I should behold them on earth, . . . I could not but feel a strong depression of mind. . . . It is the lowness of their estate, in the estimation of the world, which exalts them in my eyes. It is the distance which separates them from the blessings and privileges of society, which brings them so closely to my affections.⁸² It is the unmerited scorn, reproach and persecution of their persons, by those whose complexion is colored like my own, that command for them my sympathy and respect. It is the fewness of their friends, and the great number of their enemies, that induce me to stand forth in their defence, and enable me, I trust, to exhibit to the world the purity of my motives. . . .

On Sabbath evening, I delivered an address to a large and⁸³ attentive audience of white people in Brooklyn, where I have long been regarded as a terrible monster. I am happy to learn that the effects of the address are most salutary.

This evening, I bid farewell to the colored inhabitants of⁸⁴ Hartford, in their meeting-house.

To-morrow I start for New Haven, in which place I shall⁸⁵ stay two or three days, in order to have my portrait taken and engraved upon steel. This I do reluctantly; but my friends are imperious, and I must gratify them. This sticking up one's face in print-shops, to be the ‘observed of all observers,’ is hardly consistent with genuine modesty, but I can in no other way get rid of the importunities of those who would pluck out their eyes to give me.

Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn to W. L. Garrison, in Boston.

New Haven, March 29, 1833.

⁸⁶ I am desirous to have you sit to my brother for a portrait before you leave for England. I suppose you will have but little time for such a purpose, but if you can be here but one or two days he can get the likeness and finish the painting afterwards. He is now painting a portrait of Ashmun⁸⁷ for the [340] Colonization Society, which is to be engraved. It is my design to engrave yours whilst you are in England, and publish the print. I have long thought that your friends and foes would view your portrait with interest; and as the Lord has been pleased to give you a head bearing none of the destructive disposition which opposers ascribe to you, it may not be amiss to lead them by a view of the outward man to a more favorable examination of your principles. I am confident that this is the effect where your face is seen, and why not where its imitation should be viewed? I hope, for the pleasure of your friends, at all events, that you will consent to spend a day or two here in the way proposed. Besides, as my brother is acquainted in London, and with one of the principal anti-slavery men, William Allen, you may perhaps spend your time with him to advantage. I am anxious to see you on various accounts. . . .

I hope you will get back as soon as is consistent. We shall have a rough time, probably, before the year is out. The struggle will be great, no doubt, but God will redeem the captives. . . . We are all determined to sustain Miss Crandall if there is law in the land enough to protect her. She is a noble soul. . . . Miss C. has no doubt more praying friends in the United States drawn to her by her persecutions than the whole number of the population of Canterbury. . . . Should not some course be taken for publishing another edition of your Thoughts previous to your return?

W. L. Garrison to Isaac Knapp.

New Haven, April 11, 1833.⁸⁸

According to appointment, I addressed our colored friends in Providence on Friday evening last; and although they had but a short notice, they gave me a large audience. At the close of the address, they voluntarily made a collection in aid of my mission, which, with the contributions of some white friends, amounted to the handsome sum of thirty dollars. In addition to this, the colored ‘Mutual Relief Society’ gave $15.00, at the hands of their Treasurer, Ichabod Northup. The colored ‘Female Literary Society’ also presented me $6.00, and the colored ‘Female Tract Society’ $4.00—making, in all, $55.00!—All this was given, too, without any application being made to them.

On Saturday, friend G. W. Benson took me to Brooklyn in a⁸⁹ chaise, where I tarried until Monday, under the hospitable roof of his parents. My excellent brother May was delighted to see [341] me, and my pleasure was equally great in taking him by the hand. I did not expect to deliver an address in B., but could not easily avoid a compliance with the wishes of my friends. Accordingly, I occupied Mr. May's pulpit on Sabbath evening⁹⁰ last. . . .

Miss Crandall, having obtained information that I was to hold forth, came up from Canterbury with her sister (a beautiful⁹¹ girl, by the way). She is a wonderful woman, as undaunted as if she had the whole world on her side. She has opened her school, and is resolved to persevere. I wish brother Johnson⁹² to state this fact, particularly, in the next Liberator, and urge all those who intend to send their children thither, to do so without delay.

The stage for Hartford on Monday morning neglected to call⁹³ for me; and half an hour had elapsed, after its departure, before I was aware of the fact. As time was precious, I took a common wagon, and followed on in pursuit, and at the end of the seventh mile overtook the stage. I was in a wretched plight, covered over with mud, and wet—for it rained heavily. I arrived in Hartford late that evening, and the next morning⁹⁴ thought of starting for New Haven; but, at the urgent solicitations of the colored friends, I gave them an address in the evening in their church. They collected four dollars. On Wednesday morning, I took the stage for New Haven. On⁹⁵ passing through Middletown, I saw the Rev. J. C. Beman and a few other colored friends, and it was with as much difficulty as reluctance I tore myself from their company. I was disappointed in not seeing friend Jocelyn in New Haven, as he had⁹⁶ gone to New York; but his brother gave me a welcome, and commenced upon my portrait. To-day noon (Friday) I start⁹⁷ for New York, but shall pass on to Philadelphia without delay. I must return to New Haven again to address the colored people, and have my portrait completed. Friend Robert B. Hall has been very attentive.

Philadelphia, April 17, 1833.

This letter was begun in New Haven, and must now be completed in this city. No doubt you are all scolding about me heartily. I arrived here on Saturday, and found friend ⁹⁸ Sharpless and his family in good health. Last evening, I gave an address to the colored people. The audience was pretty large, but the colored Philadelphians, as a body, do not evince that interest and warmth of attachment which characterize my [342] Boston friends—nor is it to be expected, as I have associated with scarcely a dozen of their number. I have not, as yet, made any call upon them for pecuniary assistance in aid of my mission, but shall consult to-day or to-morrow with friends Forten, Cassey, Hinton, Purvis, etc. I am glad to find that the mission meets with a general approval. At the request of Mr. Purvis, I have been sitting for my portrait, and the artist (Brewster）⁹⁹ has succeeded pretty well. On Friday morning, I¹⁰⁰ start for New York, where I shall tarry until Monday morning,¹⁰¹ and then go to New Haven, in company with the Rev. Mr. Bourne. I shall sail in the packet for Liverpool for May 1st,¹⁰² provided the necessary funds be raised and my enemies do not throw any hindrances in my path.

I saw brother Jocelyn in New York. He showed me a letter¹⁰³ which he had just received from Miss Crandall, in which she stated that I had not left Brooklyn more than half an hour before a sheriff from Canterbury drove up to the door of Mr. Benson at full speed, having five writs against me from Andrew T. Judson and company; and finding that I had gone, he pursued after me for several miles, but had to give up the chase. No doubt the Colonization party will resort to some base measures to prevent, if possible, my departure for England. . . .

I wish the Board of Managers to give me a letter of introduction to James Cropper.

W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot.

Philadelphia, April 22, 1833.

¹⁰⁴ On Friday afternoon I arrived in New York from this city,¹⁰⁵ and had the pleasure of receiving your favor of the 9th inst. I was immediately told that the enemies of the abolition cause had formed a conspiracy to seize my body by legal writs on some false pretences, with the sole intention to convey me South and deliver me up to the authorities of Georgia,—or, in other words, to abduct and destroy me. The agent who was to carry this murderous design into operation, had been in New York several days, waiting my appearance. As a packet was to sail the next day for Liverpool from Philadelphia, my [343] friends advised me to start early the next morning for this city, in the steamboat, hoping I might arrive in season to take passage therein, and thus baffle the vigilance of the enemy— but the ship sailed in the morning, and I did not get here till the afternoon; consequently, I failed to accomplish my ¹⁰⁶ purpose. My only alternative, therefore, is, to return again to New York to-morrow evening, and stealthily get away, if¹⁰⁷ possible, in the Liverpool packet¹⁰⁸ that sails the next morning. Probably I shall not start in the ship, but go down the river in a pilot-boat and overtake her.

My friends are full of apprehension and disquietude; but I cannot know fear. I feel that it is impossible for danger to awe me. I tremble at nothing but my own delinquencies, as one who is bound to be perfect, even as my heavenly Father is perfect.

The second trip from New York to Philadelphia was, perhaps, made by the usual route, namely, by steamboat to Amboy, cars to Bordentown, N. J., and steamboat again to Philadelphia. The return was by another, with a view to eluding possible pursuit. Robert Purvis, acting on the suggestion of Lewis Tappan, drove Mr. Garrison with a fast horse to Trenton, some thirty miles, in three hours. Before reaching this place an incident occurred more full of peril than the machinations of kidnappers and colonizationists. A passing steamboat on the Delaware excited Mr. Garrison's curiosity to witness the pretty spectacle from a nearer point than the river road. Mr. Purvis accordingly turned his horse to the bank, where the view was unobstructed, but when driven away the jaded animal refused to go forward and began to back. Realizing the danger, Mr. Purvis jumped from the carriage, but Mr. Garrison sat in apparent indifference (probably the helplessness he always felt when behind an unruly horse) until roused by the sharp appeal of his friend—‘Sir, if you do not get out instantly you will be killed’—when he, too, made a timely escape, the horse being stopped just on the brink.¹⁰⁹ [344]

From New York Mr. Garrison proceeded once more to New Haven, to renew his sittings to Nathaniel Jocelyn,¹¹⁰ which lasted three days. During this time he was kept shut up by the artist in a room adjoining the studio, so arranged that in case of an attempt to seize him he could make a safe exit. Without such precautions, in a city swarming with colonizationists and where his person was known to many, it would have been foolhardy to venture within reach of the truculent Judson, whom he may well have passed on the way thither. ‘I hope,’ wrote Almira Crandall to Henry Benson, from Canterbury, on April 30, ‘that our friend Garrison will be¹¹¹ enabled to escape the fury of his pursuers. Our anxieties for him were very great at the time Judson went to New York, as we expected his business was to take Mr. G.’ Despite this and all other dangers, the time was consumed without molestation until the packet was ready to be boarded.

W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot.

below the harbor of New York,¹¹² May 1, 1833.

I am now fairly embarked for Liverpool, on board the ship Hibernia, Captain Maxwell. We lie about ten miles below the city, at anchor; and here we must remain twenty-four hours. . . . [345]

Since the transmission of my last letter, I have been journeying from place to place, rather for the purpose of defeating the designs of my enemies, than from choice. I expected to have sailed in the packet of the 24th ult., but applied too late, as every berth had been previously engaged. I do not now regret the detention, as it enabled the artist at New Haven to complete my portrait; and I think he has succeeded in making a very tolerable likeness. To be sure, those who imagine that I am a monster, on seeing it will doubt or deny its accuracy, seeing no horns about the head; but my friends, I think, will recognize it easily. . . .

Last evening I had a large audience of colored persons in¹¹³ the Methodist African Church in New York, who came to hear my farewell address. Alas, that the value of my labors in their behalf bears so small a proportion to their unbounded gratitude and love!—Mr. Finley, the General Agent of the Colonization Society, was present, and witnessed a tremendous assault upon his darling scheme.

The pursuit was not given over till the last moment. ‘About two and a half hours after friend Garrison went on board the ship,’ reports Arnold Buffum, who¹¹⁴ had gone to New York to see him off, ‘inquiry was made for him by a lad from a lawyer's office, from which we conclude that the distinguished gentlemen of Canterbury were in pursuit of him; but they happened to be a little too late.’¹¹⁵ Before the winds themselves abandoned their opposition, Mr. Garrison addressed a farewell letter to William Goodell, for publication in his Moral Daily Advertiser, embracing ‘a few poetical lines¹¹⁶ which have been composed in great haste,’—a sonnet, namely, beginning

Unto the winds and waves I now commit
     My body, subject to the will of Heaven,

So, all adieus uttered, every duty discharged, and every care removed,¹¹⁸ the special agent of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society sailed out of the harbor of New York on the second day of May, 1833.¹¹⁹ A young man, not yet twenty-eight; without means or social standing or a numerous following; despised, hated, hunted with a price upon his head; armed only with the blessings of an outcast race and the credentials of an insignificant body of ‘fanatics,’ was to present himself before the honorable, powerful, and world-famous advocates of British emancipation—before Clarkson and Wilberforce and Macaulay and Buxton—in the midst of their parliamentary triumph, and before the British public, in opposition to a society which, with all its lying pretences, could truthfully say of itself through its emissary, Cresson, that it had the support of the wealth, the respectability and the piety of the American people. If ever a sense of personal littleness and deficiency was natural, it was here. But on the other hand the task was less formidable than that which the youth was leaving behind him; the potency of the truth was the same on both sides of the Atlantic; already acquaintances and [347] introductions had been prepared for him; and the expectation of meeting the abolition apostles whose names he spoke only with reverence, and whose example he strove to imitate, with their coadjutors of all ranks and degrees, could only have had an exhilarating effect on his imagination. All difference of station, fortune, and training vanished in the equality which the anti-slavery cause gave to its promoters everywhere, and left no room for anything but a manly self-confidence and a manly ambition for recognition in the cause. To these reasons for buoyancy of feeling at starting, must be added Mr. Garrison's discovery that his affections were at last captivated. A new image haunted and consoled him amid the physical discomforts of the voyage.