EXCERPT FROM NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE WRONG OF SLAVERY (1832, by Mary B. Black Ford)

Mary B. Black Ford kept a journal recording the cruelty of the slave trade she witnessed in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Fear of social ostracism kept Ford from publicly announcing her anti-slavery views, but her journal continually calls out the immorality of buying and selling human beings who feel love, loyalty, and fear. She lamented the slaves' loss of freedom, the destruction of their families, and their constant isolation from the protections of the law. When she was unable to convince the mother of a local slave trader to let one of the trader's male slaves say a final farewell to his own mother, Ford underscored how deeply she feels slavery can degrade the moral facilities of even her "own sex."

While Ford dared not publicly advocate emancipation, she could discuss colonization; she brought to a woman she knew pamphlets from the American Colonization Society (ACS). Founded in 1816 in Washington, D.C. to aid the colonization of Africa by free blacks, the ACS enjoyed the support of many in the South. With aid from Congress, the ACS purchased land in West Africa and helped establish the country of Liberia in 1822. By 1885, over fifteen thousand blacks had been transported there by the ACS. Although these were modest successes at best, these colonization efforts sought to allay the seemingly intractable differences between the races by keeping them, literally, an ocean apart.

Mark D.Baumann,
New York University

See also Antislavery ; Slavery .

Directly across the street from our house in Fredericksburg lives a Negro trader of the name of Finnall. Last summer a young negro man was sold to him who was strongly suspected of the crime of wishing to make his escape to one of the Free States. So his Mistress sold him to this Trader, who confined him in his cellar, not having a jail at hand then. The Mother of this young man was an old woman whom I knew, an excellent and pious woman. This was her only son, her greatest earthly comfort. She would often come to visit him in his cellar. She had sometimes been admitted as far as the iron grated door, but that favour was only granted by the special interposition of the gentleman with whom she lived; after awhile this was denied. Her son remained several months in this confinement; about twilight those confined used to be brought out and walked about the garden for exercise.

When the time drew near for them all to be driven South, the Mother came to the house and every earnestly solicited the young man who had charge of them (the Trader being away), to permit her to see him once more. This was refused!!! She came over the street to our house. When I discovered the cause of her silent grief, for she made no complaint, I asked her if she thought my intercession would do any good. She answered, perhaps it might. So I put on my bonnet and went over with her, she waiting at the gate while I went to the door. The young man I spoke of, I addressed, pleading for permission for the Mother to take leave, face to face, of the Son, but in vain. Though he was quite a youth, his heart seemed quite hardened toward these poor people. I asked him how he would feel were he in the place of the young man now in confinement and his mother waiting to take a last farewell of him. Wearied with my importunities he said he would step in and ask Mrs. Finnall, that she had the liberty to permit it if she chose. I then begged him to see her, hoping from one of my own sex to find that mercy I looked for in vain from a man. I was still standing at the door. She would not come down stairs, but sent me word that she had nothing to do with it. The only reason the young man gave for this unnecessary cruelty was that when Henry saw his Mother it caused him to give himself airs for some time after.

When I found all hope of prevailing with them was over, I fixed my eyes steadily upon the hardhearted being before me and asked him if he did not fear the judgments of an offended God. I warned him that such cruelty could not long go unpunished, and reminded him of the affair at Southampton which had just occurred. He seemed to quail under my rebuke. After it was over I wondered at my own courage but I was entirely carried away by the enthusiasm of my feelings. He had then many human beings, who had committed no crime in close confinement in a damp cellar, I believe handcuffed and chained.

I saw them some weeks after set off, the men chained two & two; the women and little children in large Carryalls, an indulgence not always allowed. The Mother I interceded for was down there. She clasped her son to her bosom, but he was quickly called away by his inhuman driver.

Large droves continually pass here, the men often chained, the women limping after, and their stern Drivers bringing up the rear. Not long since a slave about to be carried off in one of Smith and Finnall's droves cut the sinews of his wrist so as to render his right hand useless.

1833. A call was made not long ago upon the charity of some ladies of my acquaintance in behalf of a negro woman who had been left by a Trader to be confined. The child it appears was his own, though he had left the wretched Mother destitute, depending upon her supporting herself. This she could not do during her confinement, she had not even clothes to put on the poor naked infant but for the charity of these ladies, who felt it more than the hard hearted father. It is one of the most dreadful circumstances of this traffic that the women frequently become the prey of the brutal lust of their oppressors, even those who perhaps have torn them from the arms of a beloved husband and children.

Thank God! that I am permitted to breathe the pure air of Heaven! that no one can deprive me of this privilege unless I have broken through such laws as are essential to the order and well being of Society. Forever praised be His name! that I live in a land where no white man at least can be unjustly thrown into confinement until just cause can be shown why. Thank God!!! that I live in the land where the "Writ of Habeas Corpus" exists for the white man and woman. And may I live to see the time when the poor down trodden negro too shall enjoy this great privilege!

These feelings have been called forth by the delightful sensations I experienced just now (a clear October evening), on walking out, and breathing the fresh air of Heaven. In the midst of these feelings of pleasure, I remembered with shame there are at this moment in the negro jail very near here 3 men whom I can see (when I look that way) through the iron grating of the windows. They belong to Smith and Finnall, traders in human beings, who keep this jail to confine men whose only crime is that they wish to return to their families.

Between Fredericksburg and Mountain, about half way, there is a pleasant little way side inn, white washed, with a pretty green yard before it, where I like to stop to eat my lunch and to enjoy the intelligent conversation of its Mistress, who is deeply interested in the best welfare of our negroes. She is in the habit of circulating pamphlets in favor of the Colonization Society that I leave with her. She told me of her giving one of these to a Negro trader that stopped there with a gang of Slaves he was taking South. Twenty of the men were handcuffed, two and two, a chain passing between them. There were beside women who were not chained. A gentleman there asked one of these women, "Are you willing to go?" She answered, "No, I am not willing." She then said, "Master, do you know why God has sent this cholera among the people?" (It was then raging in this country) He asked her why. She answered by pointing to the twenty men chained together. It is remarkable that the opinion was universal (when the cholera was approaching Virginia) among the negroes, that they should be exempt, because it was a judgment from the Allmighty for our sins in holding them in slavery.

I was greatly struck by an instance of conjugal affection that occurred not long since, and have determined to record it as one among many proofs that such feelings exist among the negroes, notwithstanding the course of treatment pursued by the whites toward them in continually slighting their marriage ties though performed in the most solemn manner.

A woman owned by Mr. Richard Carmichael had her husband (owned by another person), to whom she was much attached, sold to a Negro trader for some slight offence. He was not even allowed to come to town a mile or two to take leave of her, but was carried off immediately. Her distress was so great that she was almost heart-broken. After a short time it settled into a deep melancholy, she was never seen to smile and her mind appeared unsettled. One day when old Mrs. Carmichael called to see her she found her, as she believed, utterly deranged, her pulse low, her flesh perfectly cold, restless, and continuing to exclaim, "No one cares for me. I have no friend. Old Mistress, are you my friend? I have secret, I have a secret." After a while it was discovered that her husband had returned, and this was the secret. She feared it would be discovered and he would be returned to the Trader from whom he had escaped. Some time before she had gone into the cellar about twilight to get wood when he had clasped her in his arms. The suddenness and the joy, together with the apprehension that he would be taken was too much for her and had nearly proved fatal to her reason, perhaps her life. Her husband, in company with another slave, had returned after travelling five hundred miles. They had observed the rout they had gone over narrowly, watching for an opportunity to escape, but had gone five hundred miles before such an one presented itself. They lived on roots and berries, fearing to ask for other food from the risk of being taken up. They secreted themselves during the day and travelled all night. All this danger and hardship encountered for the slender hope of being kept near his wife. Their strong affection interested several persons in his favour who went to see his Master to try what could be done. It proved however that his Master had already repented selling him for he was an excellent Blacksmith, and was glad to make arrangements to keep him at home.

29th February. To day Finnall, the Negro trader who lives diagonally opposite to us, set off with a large gang of Slaves for the Southern Market. There were many women, girls and boys who set off from this place, the men coming afterwards. They are generally chained and handcuffed. Capt. Henry Philips, who lives very near us, has sold to go in this gang, a little girl twelve or thirteen years old, named Melinda, tempted by the price offered, though he is rich. She was a favorite with those who knew her. My good neighbor, Mrs. Stevenson, that when she came to take leave of her "every limb of her delicate frame trembled." The sale had been very sudden. The only reason given for selling her was that Mrs. Philips said she could do her own work. I saw the company of females weeping as they walked before the Drivers, stopping occasionally as they proceeded, to take leave of their friends and relatives as they met them.

Think what it is to be a Slave!!! To be treated not as a Man, but as a personal chattel, a thing that may be bought and sold, to have no right to the fruits of your own labour, no right to your own wife and children, liable at any moment to be seperated at the arbitrary will of another from all that is dearest to you on earth, & whom it is your duty to love & cherish. Deprived by the law of learning to read the Bible, compelled to know that the purity of your wife and daughters is exposed without protection of law to the assault of brutal white men! Think of this, and all the nameless horrors that are concentrated in that one word Slavery.