Reading the American Past: Printed Page 196

DOCUMENT 10–3

A Slave Demands That Thomas Jefferson Abolish Slavery

In early December 1808, President Thomas Jefferson received a long letter from an unknown person who signed the letter, “A Slave.” Internal evidence suggests the author was a man and may have been a well-educated slave, although it is impossible to be certain. The author described the horrors of slavery and called on Jefferson to end it. In the excerpt below, A Slave repeatedly referred to Jefferson's own indictments of slavery in the Declaration of Independence and his Notes on the State of Virginia and demanded that Jefferson act in accordance with his beliefs. The letter illustrates the enormous power of revolutionary ideals as well as the glaring contradiction of slavery that Jefferson and other major political leaders tried to ignore. Jefferson never answered A Slave's letter.

A Slave to Thomas Jefferson, November 30, 1808

Our burdens are heavy & call loud for justice! Call loud for mercy! I Therefore, take the liberty Sir, to address you myself upon the subject of slavery, and ask you a few questions. ... [C]an you plead ignorance in . . . this inhuman slavery? If not, what can be your reasons (since you have been rais'd to the highest office in the government) for suffering us to be used in this bruital manner? Can any man who is not over-aw'd by a tyrant, sway'd by prejudice, in love with slavery & oppression, or who lives himself in idleness, drunkenness & debauchery, say, that there is either, honour, honesty, humanity, piety, charity, virtue, or religion in such conduct? O! merciful God, is this humanity? is this concistant with thy holy law, and agreeable to thy divine will? . . . Its quite good enough for Negroes, who the sainted pilgrims say, are only a black beast . . . with a flat nose, thick lips, woolly head, ivory teeth; and with a face somewhat resembling the human, but clearly not a human being. To prove our human-nature, sir, and our rights as citizens of these states, we have only to appeal to the Declaration of Independence which says, We hold these truths self-evident; that all men, (not all white men) are created equal; that they are endued by their Creator with inherent & inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness. What think you now sir; are we men, or are we beasts. If this is not sufficient to prove our human-nature; our rights and our citizenship, take another section from the original draft of [the Declaration of Independence]. ... In speaking of the oughtrages commited by the king of England, you say, He has waiged cruel war against humman-nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or incur miserable death in their transportation thither: this piratical warfare . . . is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain, Determined to keep open a market where MAN shall be bought and sold. This is sufficient one would suppose, to convince any unprejudiced mind; but it seem that it has not carried conviction into the flinty hearts of the sainted pilgrims in America, & I fear nothing will but the sword. ...

[T]he greatest part of all the manual labour that is done in the southern states is performed by slaves; and . . . they in general git nothing for it (except kicks and curses) and that their haughty lordling masters live in idleness drunkenness and debauchery, and aggrandize themselves and families at the expence of the honest labours of the unfortunate people. ... What can a nation do more readily to destroy happiness, prosperity and religion, than to enslave her citizens? Is it not a speices of every evil which a nation can be guilty of to destroy all these principles? . . .

Slavery is unjust because it destroys the rites of women & children. It is a mere state of barberism, in which neither the delicacy and chastity of sex, nor the debility & ignorance of little children are regarded. The situation of the female slaves is more deplorable and degrading than that of the untutored savage. For little as savages respect the rights of women & children, their women have exemption from labour, & protection from insult during those delicate & painful periods which are peculiar to their sex; & their children are instructed in all the knowledge which is by them deem either useful or ornamental. The degree of servitude to which savage women are bound, is trifling in comparison with the task of a female slave; and inasmuch as their husbands & children reap the fruits of their labor, & in some measure repay it by acquiring a superior skill in hunting & war their labour becomes rather a pleasure than a burden. But what is to mitigate the labour of the poor female slave, with the precious burden of her affections at her breast. ...

He who contributes by manual labour to the great stock of wealth, must in justice be entitled to some reward; but in vain does the wretched slave fell the forests, clear the grounds, prepare them for seed; watch & cultivate the tender plant, reap down & geather in the harvest, & bear it to market.

Our inhuman tyrants take the whole to riot in drunkenness & debauchery, & to aggrandize themselves & families, and we who have bourn the heat and burden of the day, git nothing but kicks and curses, for all our labour. “With what execration should the states man be loaded, who permiting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, & these into enemies, destroys the morals of one part, and the amor patriae [patriotism, love of country] of the other. With the morals of the people, their industry also is destroye'd; for in a warm climate, no man will labour for himself who can make another labour for him.” [The quotation is from Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia.] This sufficiently proves my assertions, and justifies me in saying, that a majority of the American agents in the southern states, are a set of inhuman scoundrils, and ought to be tar'd and feather'd and tyed to the tale end of a dung cart; and horse-whipt throughout the country, from state to state, and forever after banished from human society.

If slavery has become so firmly established in the country, as not to be avoided or garded against, it is such a pleasing object, as to be no longer odious and irreligious, but a source of happiness and prosperity, its high time for America to giv up all pretensions to liberty & freedom. ...

But we have not lost all hopes; we can't yet believe, sir, that you have become so deprav'd as to be in love with slavery or have done reflecting upon the wrath of a just God, or that his justice cannot sleep forever. Yet there appears to me to be something in your administration, sir, very misterious. What your reasons can be for keeping open that execrable market where MAN shall be bought and sold, which you wrote so warmly against in the year '76, and condemn'd as a mark of disgrace, of the deepist dye in the Christian king of G. Britain, I cannot conceive. Is a crime of this execrable nature any more criminal in the Christian Crown of Britain, than in the Christian Executive of America? If not, what are your reasons, sir, for suffering us since 30th Nov. '81 [the significance of the date is unknown; it might be the birthday of the author of the letter] to be trodden under foot & abused in such an inhuman and bruital matter? Are not Our rites as well secured to use by every law of natures God as any man's in the universe? we think so; therefore, sir we consider ourselves intitled to our yearly wages from that very hour, and no man in the government (except a tyrant) can dispute our demand a single moment. And you m[a]y depend on this sir, that we shall never be reconciled to this government till we git it, & our freedom with it. I think sir, you can't do yourself & your country a greater honour, nor your unfortunate countrymen a greater piece of justice and mercy, then by freeing your slaves & paying them their yearly wages from '81 to this day. And then, if any slave-holder in America shall hereafter refuse or neglect so to do, let him or them be made an example of, and their heads be hung in gibbets [gallows] for an everlasting monument: & a terror to tyrants & evil doers. O! Thomas, you have had a long nap, and spent a great number of years in ease & plenty, upon our hard earned property, while we have been in the mean time, smarting under the cow hide and sweating in the fields to raise provision to nurse tyrants to cut your throat and perpetuate our own bonds. Why you should wish, in a free republick, to nurs, educate and exercise your children in such a tyrannical manner, I cannot conceive, since you so early saw, and confes'd the error; and must ere this most severly have felt the effects of your folly. ...

It is high time for you, sir, to decide, whether or not you will any longer use us in this bruital manner, or adopt us as brethren, for, in our opinion: on this single circumstance alone, depends the future prosperity, or destruction of these states, and the safty of your own life in perticular. ...

These are painful truths which no person can deny, who has ever lived three months among slave-holders. This being our unhappy condition, we humbly beseech you, sir, to lay our cause before the agents of this government, & request them to interpose between us & our inhuman tyrants, or other-wise, necessity will ere long oblidge us to seek our own safty, by takeing away the lives of our tyrants, & freeing ourselves at once from such inhuman monsters. ... Let me once more request you sir, to lay our grievances before the sovreign people of these states — Don't neglect it sir, unless you take delight in tyranny & oppression, or are thursting after blood. ...

Once more let me repeat it, as no subject can be dwelt upon which borders so strong on justice & mercy as the abolition of slavery; I say, sir, you cannot do your self & country so great an honour, nor your country-men a greater kindness; nor will virtue in no act of your life shine so conspicuous as in the freedom of your slaves, & by reparation for the insult offered them. Such an example, in a cause of so much magnitude to human-nature, must inevitable throw such a luster on your character that no diamond in the universe could outshine it. And I flatter myself, that such an example in a man of your character, would have such an influence on the minds of slave-holders in general in America . . . that they would not only free their own, but would make use of all their influence to effect a general immancipation; and free their country from this inhuman slaviry & disgrace. ... Your compliance sir, will revive the expiring hopes of two millions of the most miserable of all the human race. ... We hope at least sir, that you will deign to make known our miserable condition to the agents of the sovreign people of these states, that we may shortly hear whether or not they will interpose between us and our inhuman masters, in order if possable, to mitigate our pains, ease our burdens, & heal our smarting wounds.

From A Slave to Thomas Jefferson, November 30, 1808, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.

Questions for Reading and Discussion