The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin Read online

  THE KEY

  to

  UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; presenting

  THE ORIGINAL FACTS AND DOCUMENTS UPON WHICH

  THE STORY IS FOUNDED.

  together with

  CORROBORATIVE STATEMENTS

  VERIFYING THE TRUTH OF THE WORK. by

  HARRIET BEECHER STOWE,

  author of “uncle tom's cabin.” LONDON:

  CLARKE, BEETON, AND CO., 148, FLEET STREET;

  and

  THOMAS BOSWORTH, REGENT STREET.

  [The Author reserves the right of Translation of this Work.]

  E

  449

  S8961

  1853

  12084

  london:

  salisbury, beeton, and co., printers, bouverie street;

  and primrose hill, fleet street.

  Preface.

  The work which the writer here presents to the public is

  one which has been written with no pleasure, and with much

  pain.

  In fictitious writing, it is possible to find refuge from the

  hard and the terrible, by inventing scenes and characters of a

  more pleasing nature. No such resource is open in a work

  of fact; and the subject of this work is one on which the

  truth, if told at all, must needs be very dreadful. There is

  no bright side to slavery, as such. Those scenes which are

  made bright by the generosity and kindness of masters and

  mistresses, would be brighter still if the element of slavery

  were withdrawn. There is nothing picturesque or beautiful in

  the family attachment of old servants, which is not to be found

  in countries where these servants are legally free. The tenants

  on an English estate are often more fond and faithful than if

  they were slaves. Slavery, therefore, is not the element which

  forms the picturesque and beautiful of Southern life. What is

  peculiar to slavery, and distinguishes it from free servitude, is

  evil, and only evil, and that continually.

  In preparing this work, it has grown much beyond the

  author's original design. It has so far overrun its limits that

  she has been obliged to omit one whole department--that of the

  characteristics and developments of the coloured race in various

  countries and circumstances. This is more properly the subject

  for a volume; and she hopes that such an one will soon be pre-

  pared by a friend to whom she has transferred her materials.

  The author desires to express her thanks particularly to those

  legal gentlemen who have given her their assistance and support

  in the legal part of the discussion. She also desires to thank

  those at the North, and at the South, who have kindly furnished

  materials for her use. Many more have been supplied than

  could possibly be used. The book is actually selected out of a

  mountain of materials.

  The great object of the author in writing has been to bring

  this subject of slavery, as a moral and religious question, before

  the minds of all those who profess to be followers of Christ in

  America. A minute history has been given of the action of

  the various denominations on this subject.

  The writer has aimed, as far as possible, to say what is true,

  and only that, without regard to the effect which it may have

  upon any person or party. She hopes that what she has

  said will be examined without bitterness--in that serious and

  earnest spirit which is appropriate for the examination of so

  very serious a subject. It would be vain for her to indulge the

  hope of being wholly free from error. In the wide field which

  she has been called to go over, there is a possibility of many

  mistakes. She can only say that she has used the most honest

  and earnest endeavours to learn the truth.

  The book is commended to the candid attention and earnest

  prayers of all true Christians throughout the world. May they

  unite their prayers that Christendom may be delivered from so

  great an evil as slavery!

  Contents.

  page.

  PART I. Introductory...1

  Mr. Haley...2

  Mr. and Mrs. Shelby...8

  George Harris...17

  Eliza...34

  Unole Tom...37

  Miss Ophelia...51

  Marie St. Clare...57

  St. Clare...61

  Legree...68

  Select Incidents of Lawful Trade...84

  Topsy...91

  The Quakers...98

  The Spirit of St. Clare...109

  PART II. Introductory...124

  What is Slavery?...132

  Souther v. Commonwealth--the ne plus ultra of Legal

  Humanity...149

  Protective Statutes...156

  Protective Acts of South Carolina and Louisiana.--

  The Iron Collar of Louisiana and North Carolina...165

  Protective Acts with regard to Food and Raiment...171

  The Execution of Justice...177

  The good old Times...

  Moderate Correction and Accidental Death...193

  Principles established.--State v. Legree; a Case not in

  the Books...199

  The Triumph of Justice over Law...201

  A Comparison of the Roman Law of Slavery with the

  American...207

  The Men better than their Laws...213

  The Hebrew Slave-law compared with the American

  Slave-law...223

  Slavery is Despotism...233

  PART III. Does Public Opinion protect the Slave?...239

  Public Opinion formed by Education...249

  Separation of Families...257

  The Slave-trade...279

  Select Incidents of Lawful Trade, or Facts stranger

  than Fiction...298

  Milly Edmondson...306

  Emily Russell...331

  Kidnapping...340

  Slaves as they are, on Testimony of Owners...346

  Poor White Trash...365

  PART IV. The Influence of the American Church on Slavery...381

  Martyrdom...439

  Servitude in the Primitive Church compared with

  American Slavery...450

  Is the System of Religion which is taught the Slave

  the Gospel?...480

  What is to be done?...493

  KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

  CHAPTER I.

  At different times, doubt has been expressed whether the

  scenes and characters pourtrayed in “Uncle Tom's Cabin” con-

  vey a fair representation of slavery as it at present exists. This

  work, more, perhaps, than any other work of fiction that ever

  was written, has been a collection and arrangement of real

  incidents, of actions really performed, of words and expressions

  really uttered, grouped together with reference to a general result,

  in the same manner that the mosaic artist groups his frag-

  ments of various stones into one general picture. His is a

  mosaic of gems--this is a mosaic of facts.

  Artistically considered, it might not be best to point out

  in which quarry and from which region each fragment of the

  mosaic picture had its origin; and it is equally unartist
ic to

  disentangle the glittering web of fiction, and show out of what

  real warp and woof it is woven, and with what real colouring

  dyed. But the book had a purpose entirely transcending the

  artistic one, and accordingly encounters at the hands of the

  public demands not usually made on fictitious works. It is

  treated as a reality--sifted, tried, and tested, as a reality; and

  therefore as a reality it may be proper that it should be

  defended.

  The writer acknowledges that the book is a very inadequate

  representation of slavery; and it is so, necessarily, for this

  reason--that slavery, in some of its workings, is too dreadful

  for the purposes of art. A work which should represent it

  strictly as it is would be a work which could not be read; and

  all works which ever mean to give pleasure must draw a veil

  somewhere, or they cannot succeed.

  The author will now proceed along the course of the story,

  from the first page, and develope, as far as possible, the incidents

  by which different parts were suggested.

  CHAPTER II.

  MR. HALEY.

  In the very first chapter of the book we encounter the cha-

  racter of the negro-trader, Mr. Haley. His name stands at the

  head of this chapter as the representative of all the different

  characters introduced in the work which exhibit the trader, the

  kidnapper, the negro-catcher, the negro-whipper, and all the

  other inevitable auxiliaries and indispensable appendages of what

  is often called the “divinely-instituted relation” of slavery. The

  author's first personal observation of this class of beings was

  somewhat as follows:

  Several years ago, while one morning employed in the duties

  of the nursery, a coloured woman was announced. She was

  ushered into the nursery, and the author thought, on first survey,

  that a more surly, unpromising face she had never seen. The

  woman was thoroughly black, thickset, firmly built, and with

  strongly-marked African features. Those who have been accus-

  tomed to read the expressions of the African face know what a

  peculiar effect is produced by a lowering, desponding expression

  upon its dark features. It is like the shadow of a thunder-cloud.

  Unlike her race generally, the woman did not smile when smiled

  upon, nor utter any pleasant remark in reply to such as were

  addressed to her. The youngest pet of the nursery, a boy about

  three years old, walked up, and laid his little hand on her knee,

  and seemed astonished not to meet the quick smile which the

  negro almost always has in reserve for the little child. The

  writer thought her very cross and disagreeable, and, after a few

  moments' silence, asked, with perhaps a little impatience, “Do

  you want anything of me to-day?”

  “Here are some papers,” said the woman, pushing them

  towards her; “perhaps you would read them.”

  The first paper opened was a letter from a negro-trader in

  Kentucky, stating concisely that he had waited about as long as

  he could for her child; that he wanted to start for the South,

  and must get it off his hands; that, if she would send him two

  hundred dollars before the end of the week, she should have it;

  if not, that he would set it up at auction, at the court-house

  door on Saturday. He added, also, that he might have got

  more than that for the child, but that he was willing to let her

  have it cheap.

  “What sort of man is this?” said the author to the woman,

  when she had done reading the letter.

  “Dunno, ma'am; great Christian I know--member of the

  Methodist church, anyhow.”

  The expression of sullen irony with which this was said was a

  thing to be remembered.

  “And how old is this child?” said the author to her.

  The woman looked at the little boy who had been standing at

  her knee with an expressive glance, and said, “She will be three

  years old this summer.”

  On further inquiry into the history of the woman, it appeared

  that she had been set free by the will of her owners; that the

  child was legally entitled to freedom, but had been seized on by

  the heirs of the estate. She was poor and friendless, without

  money to maintain a suit, and the heirs, of course, threw the

  child into the hands of the trader. The necessary sum, it may

  be added, was all raised in the small neighbourhood which then

  surrounded the Lane Theological Seminary, and the child was

  redeemed.

  If the public would like a specimen of the correspondence

  which passes between these worthies, who are the principal

  reliance of the community for supporting and extending the

  institution of slavery, the following may be interesting as a matter

  of literary curiosity. It was forwarded by Mr. M. J. Thomas, of

  Philadelphia, to the National Era, and stated by him to be “a

  copy taken verbatim from the original, found among the papers

  of the person to whom it was addressed, at the time of his arrest

  and conviction, for passing a variety of counterfeit bank-

  notes:”--

  Poolsville, Montgomery Co., Md.,

  March 24, 1831.

  Dear Sir,--I arrived home in safety with Louisa, John having been rescued

  from me, out of a two-storey window, at twelve o'clock at night. I offered a reward

  of fifty dollars, and have him here safe in jail. The persons who took him, brought

  him to Fredericktown jail. I wish you to write to no person in this State but

  myself. Kephart and myself are determined to go the whole hog for any negro

  you can find, and you must give me the earliest information, as soon as you do

  find any. Enclosed you will receive a handbill, and I can make a good bargain

  if you can find them. I will, in all cases, as soon as a negro runs off, send you a

  handbill immediately, so that you may be on the look-out. Please tell the

  constable to go on with the sale of John's property; and, when the money is

  made, I will send on an order to you for it. Please attend to this for me; like-

  wise write to me, and inform me of any negro you think has run away--no matter

  where you think he has come from, nor how far--and I will try to find out his

  master. Let me know where you think he is from, with all particular marks,

  and if I don't find his master, Joe's dead!

  Write to me about the crooked-fingered negro, and let me know which hand

  and which finger, colour, &c.; likewise any mark the fellow has who says he got

  away from the negro-buyer, with his height and colour, or any other you think

  has run off.

  Give my respects to your partner, and be sure you write to no person but my-

  self. If any person writes to you, you can inform me of it, and I will try to buy

  from them. I think we can make money, if we do business together; for I have

  plenty of money, if you can find plenty of negroes. Let we know if Daniel is still

  where he was, and if you have heard anything of Francis since I left you. Accept

  for myself my regard and esteem.

  Reuben B. Carlley.

  John C. Saunders.

  This letter strikingly
illustrates the character of these fellow-

  patriots with whom the great men of our land have been acting

  in conjunction, in carrying out the beneficent provisions of the

  Fugitive Slave Law.

  With regard to the Kephart named in this letter, the com-

  munity of Boston may have a special interest to know further

  particulars, as he was one of the dignitaries sent from the

  South to assist the good citizens of that place in the religious

  and patriotic enterprise of 1851, at the time that Shadrach was

  unfortunately rescued. It, therefore, may be well to introduce

  somewhat particularly John Kephart, as sketched by Richard

  H. Dana, Jun., one of the lawyers employed in the defence of

  the perpetrators of the rescue:--

  I shall never forget John Caphart. I have been eleven years at the bar, and in

  that time have seen many developments of vice and hardness, but I never met

  with anything so cold-blooded as the testimony of that man. John Caphart is a

  tall, sallow man, of about fifty, with jet-black hair, a restless, dark eye, and an

  anxious, care-worn look, which, had there been enough of moral element in the

  expression, might be called melancholy. His frame was strong, and in youth he

  had evidently been powerful, but he was not robust. Yet there was a calm, cruel

  look, a power of will and a quickness of muscular action, which still render him a

  terror in his vocation.

  In the manner of giving in his testimony, there was no bluster or outward

  show of insolence. His contempt for the humane feelings of the audience and

  community about him was too true to require any assumption of that kind. He

  neither paraded nor attempted to conceal the worst features of his calling. He

  treated it as a matter of business, which he knew the community shuddered at,