5, 1852
Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. Ex-senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of the peculiarities2 of American institutions. It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year by dealers3 in this horrid4 traffic. In several states this trade is a chief source of wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave trade) “the internal slave trade.” It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave trade is contemplated5. That trade has long since been denounced by this government as piracy6. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave trade as a most inhuman7 traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. The duty to extirpate8 and destroy it is admitted even by our doctors of divinity. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa. It is, however, a notable fact, that, while so much execration9 is poured out by Americans, upon those engaged in the foreign slave trade, the men engaged in the slave trade between the states pass without condemnation10, and their business is deemed honorable.
Behold11 the practical operation of this internal slave trade—the American slave trade sustained by American politics and American religion! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. They inhabit all our southern states. They perambulate the country, and crowd the[355] highways of the nation with droves of human stock. You will see one of these human-flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad procession as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch12 who drives them. Hear his savage13 yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching14 sun, her briny15 tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes, weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn. The drove moves tardily16. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength. Suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters17 clank, and the chain rattles18 simultaneously20; your ears are saluted21 with a scream that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul. The crack you heard was the sound of the slave whip; the scream you heard was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered22 under the weight of her child and her chains; that gash23 on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction24; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally25 exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs27 that arose from that scattered28 multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun, can you witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave trade, as it exists at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States.
I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave trade is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot street, Fell’s Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves29 the slave ships in the basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes30 of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft31 them down the Chesapeake. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt street, by Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed, “cash for negroes.” These men were generally well dressed, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. The fate[356] of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mothers by bargains arranged in a state of brutal26 drunkenness.
The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot32 at Baltimore. When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile or to New Orleans. From the slave-prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the anti-slavery agitation33 a certain caution is observed.
In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. The anguish34 of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle19 of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.
Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is to-day in active operation in this boasted republic. In the solitude35 of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the south; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail36 of fettered37 humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder38. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust39, caprice, and rapacity40 of the buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight.
Is this the land your fathers loved?
Is this the earth whereon they moved?
But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains43 to be presented. By an act of the American congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. By that act, Mason and Dixon’s line has been obliterated44; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves, remains no longer a mere45 state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. The power is coextensive with the star-spangled banner and American christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for the sportsman’s gun. By that most foul47 and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are[357] put in peril48. Your broad republican domain49 is a hunting-ground for men. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your president, your secretary of state, your lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics50, enforce as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Not fewer than forty Americans have within the past two years been hunted down, and without a moment’s warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned51 to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had wives and children dependent on them for bread; but of this no account was made. The right of the hunter to his prey52, stands superior to the right of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God included! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, nor religion. The fugitive53 slave law makes MERCY TO THEM A CRIME; and bribes55 the judge who tries them. An American judge GETS TEN DOLLARS FOR EVERY VICTIM HE CONSIGNS56 to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. The oath of an(sic) two villains57 is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment58, to send the most pious59 and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws60 of slavery! His own testimony61 is nothing. He can bring no witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side, and that side is the side of the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian46 America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their office under an open and palpable bribe54, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a man’s liberty, to hear only his accusers!
In glaring violation62 of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap63 the defenseless, and in diabolical64 intent, this fugitive slave law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe having the brass65 and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select.
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1 oration | |
n.演说,致辞,叙述法 | |
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2 peculiarities | |
n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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3 dealers | |
n.商人( dealer的名词复数 );贩毒者;毒品贩子;发牌者 | |
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4 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
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5 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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6 piracy | |
n.海盗行为,剽窃,著作权侵害 | |
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7 inhuman | |
adj.残忍的,不人道的,无人性的 | |
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8 extirpate | |
v.除尽,灭绝 | |
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9 execration | |
n.诅咒,念咒,憎恶 | |
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10 condemnation | |
n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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11 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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12 wretch | |
n.可怜的人,不幸的人;卑鄙的人 | |
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13 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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14 scorching | |
adj. 灼热的 | |
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15 briny | |
adj.盐水的;很咸的;n.海洋 | |
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16 tardily | |
adv.缓慢 | |
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17 fetters | |
n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 );束缚v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18 rattles | |
(使)发出格格的响声, (使)作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 ); 喋喋不休地说话; 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动,堕下或走动; 使紧张,使恐惧 | |
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19 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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20 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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21 saluted | |
v.欢迎,致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 );赞扬,赞颂 | |
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22 faltered | |
(嗓音)颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 ); 支吾其词; 蹒跚; 摇晃 | |
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23 gash | |
v.深切,划开;n.(深长的)切(伤)口;裂缝 | |
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24 auction | |
n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖 | |
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25 brutally | |
adv.残忍地,野蛮地,冷酷无情地 | |
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26 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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27 sobs | |
啜泣(声),呜咽(声)( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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28 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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29 wharves | |
n.码头,停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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30 cargoes | |
n.(船或飞机装载的)货物( cargo的名词复数 );大量,重负 | |
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31 waft | |
v.飘浮,飘荡;n.一股;一阵微风;飘荡 | |
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32 depot | |
n.仓库,储藏处;公共汽车站;火车站 | |
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33 agitation | |
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动 | |
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34 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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35 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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36 wail | |
vt./vi.大声哀号,恸哭;呼啸,尖啸 | |
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37 fettered | |
v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 bidder | |
n.(拍卖时的)出价人,报价人,投标人 | |
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39 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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40 rapacity | |
n.贪婪,贪心,劫掠的欲望 | |
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41 toiled | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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42 slumber | |
n.睡眠,沉睡状态 | |
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43 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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44 obliterated | |
v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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45 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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46 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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47 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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48 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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49 domain | |
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围 | |
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50 ecclesiastics | |
n.神职者,教会,牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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51 consigned | |
v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的过去式和过去分词 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃 | |
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52 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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53 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
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54 bribe | |
n.贿赂;v.向…行贿,买通 | |
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55 bribes | |
n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 );向(某人)行贿,贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 );向(某人)行贿,贿赂 | |
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56 consigns | |
v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的第三人称单数 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃 | |
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57 villains | |
n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 );罪犯;(小说、戏剧等中的)反面人物;淘气鬼 | |
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58 enactment | |
n.演出,担任…角色;制订,通过 | |
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59 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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60 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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61 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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62 violation | |
n.违反(行为),违背(行为),侵犯 | |
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63 entrap | |
v.以网或陷阱捕捉,使陷入圈套 | |
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64 diabolical | |
adj.恶魔似的,凶暴的 | |
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65 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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