Slave’s Friend

Editor: Jessica Nero

Introduction:

        Issues of justice affect everyone – and children are no different. In the early nineteenth century, abolitionists worked to encourage young people to join the fight against slavery and the injustices against black people in America. One way in which they did this was through a children’s magazine entitled Slave’s Friend. This periodical was filled with anti-slavery rhetoric, featuring poems, prayers, short stories, and brief general news for children to read. The magazine was created by the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 (the first edition getting published in 1836) where they raised $30,000 to create a series of publications to spread the anti-slavery message across America. The magazine was offered through both subscription and for free via mail and reached high levels of circulation with an average of about 10,000 copies per issue. While the main objective of the magazine was to encourage a new generation of abolitionists, it also contained general lessons that many children’s stories focus on like “the golden rule” or respecting one’s parents, which aligns with their target audience of six to twelve year olds. The magazine advocated for nonviolent approaches to abolition and promoted the equal treatment of black people among both white and black children. Not only did this magazine share stories (fictional and factual), but it also inspired action by instructing children to boycott certain slave-made food products, spreading the word through the innocent mouths of the youth. These are only a few of the numerous things this publication encouraged throughout its thirty-eight issues. In the following edition, I fully transcribed one issue of the magazine, including a short story, poems, and other frequent magazine additions. In transcribing, I removed the use of racial slurs and fixed minor spelling errors to allow for ease of use for today’s scholars. Regarding the format, some changes were made since this digital version does not have the same format as the pamphlets the magazine was originally designed for, but the page numbers of the original version are included to both show how short the pages were, as well as to provide a way for people to locate the source material if they look at the original copy. This feat in the anti-slavery movement is one that is all too often forgotten which is why I chose to create a digital edition of it and share it with a wider audience today. It not only shows the horrors of slavery and the many efforts taken to make positive change, but it shows the power of younger generations and the belief that they can change history, even in the smallest of ways.

The Slave’s Friend

No. XI.

The lips of the wise disperse knowledge - Prov. xv.7.^[1]

FOR SALE AT THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, 144 Nassau-street, New-York.

Price — One cent single; 10 cts. A dozen ; 80 cts. Per hundred ; $6.50 per thousand

Postage — This contains no half sheet. Postage under 100 miles 3-4cent ; over 100 miles 1 1-2cts.

Pg. 2

Seth: She is supposed to be a slave-vessel.

Rufus: I heard that the collector of New York had seized that brig, just as she was ready for sea, and that the captain and part of the crew had been taken before the United States Judge. What made them think it was a slaver?

Seth: She was built very sharp, so as to sail fast, and take but little cargo. That shows she was not intended for a merchant ship. The English ships of war cruise on the coast of Africa, and they will capture slave ships if they do not sail very fast. Then she had large water tanks that would hold upwards of one hundred and twenty gallons of water each. This shows that they expected to have a large number of people on board to drink this water. Merchant vessels take water in casks. There were also cannon, muskets, cutlasses, and pistols on board.

Rufus: But I heard someone say she might belong to the navy, or be a privateer?

Pg. 3

Seth: If she had been either they would have shown their commision. Besides, there were iron-gratings for the hatchways.

Rufus: What use could they make of the gratings?

Seth: They put them over the hatchway so that light and air can go down into the hold of the vessel and the slaves can still be kept from escaping^[2]. Slave vessels always have them. And the witnesses who had seen slave-vessels had no doubt from her general appearance that this brig was one. The cargo consisted of such goods as the slave-traders take to Africa to exchange for slaves. There were, beside other articles, twenty-five boxes of muskets, and five hundred kegs of powder! They can buy a slave in Africa for a musket or a flask of gunpowder.

Rufus: O, dreadful! What wicked men! But could not they make the sailors tell where they were going? And what they were going for?

Pg. 4

Seth: No, they would not confess anything before the Judge. But two of them, who were Italians, had told a few days before, that they were going to Africa “after n—” and when they had brought them to the island of Cuba, they were going to sell them. So the Judge sent these two sailors to prison, and they will be tried, and as there was not evidence enough to commit the rest they were set at liberty^[3].

Rufus: What will be done to such people and to the brig, if the men are proved to be guilty?

Seth: The vessel will be confiscated, that is taken from them; besides they will have to pay a large fine, and be put in prison. Now, Rufus, what will you say when I tell you this brig was built at Baltimore, and that people in this country join with wicked men of other nations, in fitting out vessels for the slave-trade, every year?

Pg. 5

Rufus: What will I say? Why, that it is a disgrace to this country, and a horrible wickedness in the sight of God. I read the other day about these wicked brokers in the trade of blood, who buy, and sell, and steal, for gold.

Seth: I have read also what Jonathan Edwards^[4] said, forty-three years ago, – “To steal a man, or to rob him of his liberty, is a greater sin than to steal his property, or to take it by violence. And to hold a man in a state of slavery, who has a right to his liberty, is to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing.” I wish that all ministers, nowadays, would preach the truth so faithfully. Then, as your father said yesterday, slavery would soon come to an end; and when there is no slavery there will be no slave-trade.

James: I have just heard that the St. Nicholas has gone to sea! The grand jury have indicted the captain; but the consignees had given bonds for a quarter of the brig, and so away went the pirate-brig!!

Pg. 6

THE GOOD OLD MAN.

Pg. 7

In Slave’s Friend, No. VI, there was an account given of a good old man, who used to hear some children read, and give them little picture books. Some wicked boys used to pelt these children with stones, and call them n—-, so that they did not love to go to school. Therefore this good old gentleman used to teach them, in front of his cottage. I thought my little readers would like to see the picture once more.

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LETTER FROM AN INFANT SLAVE TO THE CHILD OF ITS MISTRESS – BOTH BORN ON THE SAME DAY

Baby! Be not surprised to see

A few short lines coming from me,

        Addressed to you;

For babies black of three months old

May write as well, as I’ve been told,

        Some white ones do.

There are some things I hear and see,

Which very much do puzzle me,

        Pray don’t they you?

For the same day our lives begun,

And all things here beneath the sun,

        To both are new.

Pg. 8

Baby, sometimes I hear you cry,

Any many run to find out why,

        And cure the pain;

But when I cry from pains severe,

There’s no one round who seems to hear,

        I cry in vain.

Except it be when she is nigh,

Whose gentle love, I know not why,

        Is all for me;

Her tender care soothes all my pain,

Brings to my face those smiles again,

        She smiles to see.

With hunger faint, with grief distressed,

I once my wretchedness expressed,

        With urgent power;

Some by my eloquence annoyed,

To still my grief rough blows employed;

        Oh, dreadful hour!

Why first thy father saw his child,

With hope, and love, and joy, he smiled —

        Bright schemes he planned;

Mine groaned, and said with sullen brow,

Another slave is added now

        To this free land.

Why am I thought so little worth,

You prized so highly from your birth?

        Tell, if you know;

Pg. 9

Why are my woes and joys as nought,

With careful love your’s shunned or sought

Why is it so?

My own dear mother, it is true,

Loves me as well as your’s does you;

        But when she’s gone,

None else to me a care extends;

Oh, why have you so many friends,

        I only one?

Why must that one be sent away,

Compelled for long, long hours to stay

        Apart from me?

I think as much as I she mourns,

And is a glad when she returns,

        Her child to see.

One day I saw my mother weep,

A tear fell on me when asleep,

        And made me wake;

Not for herself that tear was shed,

Her own woes she could bear, she said,

        But for my sake.

She could not bear, she said, to think,

That I the cup of woe must drink,

        Which she had drunk;

That from my cradle to my grave,

I too must live a wretched slave,

        Degraded, sunk.

Pg. 10

Her words I scarcely understood,

They seemed to speak of little good,

        For coming years;

But joy with all my musings blends,

And infant thought not far extends

        Its hopes or fears.

I ponder much to comprehend

What sour of beings, gentle friend,

        We’ve got among;

Some things in my experience,

Do much confound my budding sense

        Of right and wrong.

Baby, I love you; ‘tis not right

To love you less because you’re white;

        Then surely you

Will never learn to scorn or hate,

Whom the same Maker did create

Of darker hue.

Beneath thy pale uncolored skin,

As warm a heart may beat within,

        As beats in me.

Unjustly I will not forget,

Souls are not colored white or jet,

        In thee or me.

Your coming of the tyrant race,

I will not think in you disgrace,

Since not your choice;

Pg. 11

If you’re as just and kind to me,

Through all our lives, why may not we,

        In love rejoice?

                                E.T.C.

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BAYLEY COOLEY’S FAMILY.

This worthy man was a slave in Virginia. He earned money enough to purchase his freedom, and to buy a small piece of land on Long Island. The past winter he has been going around to beg for money to buy his wife, and some of his children, and to remove them to his little farm. He showed a paper like this : –

        This is to certify, that we have agreed, for the accommodation of Bayler, to sell to him the said Bayler, his wife and five young children, namely, Lucy, Nancy, Charity, Charlotte, and Nelly, for the sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars, provided he shall call for them by the first of March next. Given under our hands this 10th day of December, 1835.

P. W. B.

J. R. B.

        I had a desire to know the ages of these children, and what the slave-holders asked for each of them.

Pg. 12

So Mr. Cooley said that his wife’s name was Clara, and that they asked for her three hundred dollars. That Lucy was about ten years old, and the price for her was two hundred dollars. That Nancy was five, and they asked for her one hundred dollars. That Charity was three, and the price for her was fifty dollars; and that Charlotte and Nelly were twins, and will be two years old next May, if they live. The slaveholders asked for both these little girls one hundred dollars.

        I asked him if he had any other children. He said, “yes, but they asked so much for them, I do not expect to be able to buy them, I do not expect to be able to buy them.” John Albert is twenty-one years of age; aurenia Ann is nineteen; Moses is fourteen; and Joshua is twelve.^[5]

Pg. 13

LITTLE SLAVE’S COMPLAINT.

By Montgomery.

Who loves the little slave? Who cares

        If well or ill I be?

Is there a living soul that shares

        A thought or wish for me?

I’ve had no parents since my birth,

        Brothers and sisters — none:

O, what is all this world to me,

        Where I am only one!

I wake, and see the sun arise,

        And all around me gay;

But nothing I behold is mine,

        No— not the life of day!

No ! not the very breath I draw —

        These limbs are not my own;

A master calls me his by law,

        My griefs are mine alone.

Ah, these they could not make him feel —
        Would they themselves had felt

Who bound me to that man of steel,

        Whom mercy cannot melt.

Yet not for wealth or ease I sigh,

        All are not rich and great:

Many may be as poor as I —

        But none so desolate.

Pg. 14

For all I know have kin and kind,

        Some home, some hope, some joy;

But these I must not look to find—

        Who knows the colored boy?

The world has not a place of rest

        For outcasts so forlorn —

‘Twas all bespoken, all possest—

        Long before I was born!

Affection, too, life’s sweetest cup,

        Goes round from hand to hand;

But I am never ask’d to sup—

        Out of the ring I stand!

If kindness beats within my heart,

        What heart will beat again?

I coax the dogs, — they snarl and start, —

        Brutes are as bad as men.

The beggar’s child may rise above

        The misery of his lot,

The g—- may be loved and love —

        But I — but I — must not.

Hard fare, cold lodgings, cruel toil,

        Youth, health, and strength consume;

What tree could thrive in such a soil?

        What flower so scathed could bloom?

Pg. 15

Should I outgrow this cripling work,

        How shall my bread be sought?

Must I to other lads turn Turk,

        And teach what I am taught?

O! might I roam with flocks and herds

        In fellowship along!

O! were I one among the birds —

        All wing, all life, all song!

Free with the fishes may I dwell,

        Down in the quiet sea;

The snail in his cobeastled shell —

        The snail’s a king to me.

For out he goes in April showers,

        Lies snug when storms prevail,

He feeds on fruits, he sleeps on flowers —

        I wish I was a snail.

No: neyer ! do the worst they can,

        I may be happy still;

For I was born to be a man —

And with God’s leave, I will.

        We have altered the title of this sweet little poem, and a word or two in a few of the verses.

– Ed. ^[6]

Pg. 16

INTERESTING ANECDOTE.

The following is from Mr. Birney’s newspaper, the Philanthopist^[7], printed at New Richmond, Ohio.

        A few days since a physician of Cincinnati, — called in to minister to one of the members of a respectable and pious family who are, by no means, abolitionists, — on leaving the house, presented to one of the little daughters a late number of she “Slave’s Friend.” On calling again a day or two afterwards, he was informed by the mother, that she had been found weeping and apparently in great distress; and that on being asked to tell the cause of her tears, she said she could not help crying, when she thought of the poor little negro boy about whom she had been reading in her little book. This same little book was, after this, read by all the family.

Bibliography

Geist, Christopher D. “The ‘Slave’s Friend’: An Abolitionist Magazine for Children.” American Periodicals, vol. 9, 1999, pp. 27–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20771128. Accessed 30 May 2024.

Greene, Lorenzo J. “Mutiny on the Slave Ships.” Phylon (1940-1956), vol. 5, no. 4, 1944, pp. 346–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/272039. Accessed 30 May 2024.

Johansen, John H. “The Hymns of James Montgomery.” Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society, vol. 16, no. 1, 1954, pp. 14–29. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41179335. Accessed 30 May 2024.

Martin, Asa Earl. “Pioneer Anti-Slavery Press.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 2, no. 4, 1916, pp. 509–28. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1886909. Accessed 30 May 2024.

Minkema, Kenneth P. “Jonathan Edwards on Slavery and the Slave Trade.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 54, no. 4, 1997, pp. 823–34. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2953884. Accessed 30 May 2024.

Perkins, Haven P. “Religion for Slaves: Difficulties and Methods.” Church History, vol. 10, no. 3, 1941, pp. 228–45. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3160252. Accessed 30 May 2024.