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Go directly to the collection, From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.
The materials of From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American
Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909, reflect the complexity of slavery
in the United States and provide challenging opportunities to analyze
documents and debates, such as religious arguments for and against slavery.
Materials reflecting colonization and conversion efforts in Africa can
be used to evaluate the relationship between language and culture. Other
items support investigations into the history of slave laws and less-familiar
aspects of the time period such as the appearance of white supremacist
literature in the North.
Chronological Thinking Skills
The “History
of American Abolitionism” is a valuable resource for understanding
the far-reaching impact of slavery as well as the many factors that
shaped the complex debates surrounding it. Such factors include the
Mexican-American war, British influence, slave rebellions, the influence
of abolitionist groups, and territorial expansion.
| This pamphlet chronicles slavery laws in the United
States from 1787 to 1861. In addition to providing information (with
an anti-slavery bias) about legislation such as the Missouri Compromise
and the Wilmot Proviso, the pamphlet features statistics such as
the slave population in each state in 1790 and 1850 (page
55). Use such information to create timelines of legislation
and abolitionist efforts and maps that depict territorial expansion,
changes in slave populations, and the admission of free and slave
states in the Union. These items will aid in understanding the momentum
of the debate and the violence surrounding slavery. |
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From
the Cover of "History of American Abolitionism," 1861.
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Historical Comprehension: 18th Century Slave Trade Legislation
The slave trade was a source of tension in the United States even
before the formation of the federal government. Eighteenth-century legislation,
beginning with the Constitution, set a legal precedent for the debate
that would rage for the next seventy-five years. When the Constitution
was ratified in 1787, it included two compromises on the slavery issue.
First, only three-fifths of the slaves in a state were counted for taxation
and representation purposes. Second, Congress was prohibited from ending
the importation of slaves for twenty years.
“Disunion and Slavery,” a collection of letters from Republican Henry Raymond to Alabama Congressman W.L. Yancey, includes a November 23, 1860 letter that quotes the Congressional record in its description of how northern states called for immediate power to prohibit the slave trade but “yielded their consent to its continuance for twenty years, only to threats of secession on the part of South Carolina and Georgia.”
The 1824 pamphlet, “A
View of the Present State of the African Slave Trade,” chronicles
the laws introduced to curb the slave trade (page
5). This history includes a brief discussion of such legislation
as the 1794 prohibition of U.S. residents from transporting slaves to
foreign countries and the 1800 law preventing residents from working
on or owning slave trade vessels.
- Why did Congress establish laws that prohibited activities related
to the slave trade?
- How do you think these laws affected the ability to carry out the
slave trade?
- Were such laws in violation of the compromise established in the
Constitution? Were these laws in violation of the spirit of that compromise?
If so, was that unethical?
- How might the importation of slaves have affected the population
count and the subsequent representation of the states in Congress?
- What was the rationale for counting only three-fifths of the slaves?
Who benefitted from this stipulation?
- Why do you think that South Carolina and Georgia threatened to secede
if Congress possessed the power to immediately prohibit the slave
trade?
- Do you think that the debate over the slave trade was more about
states’ rights or about the economic benefits of slavery? Why?
- How did the legislation of the eighteenth century foreshadow congressional
decisions of the nineteenth century?
Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Slavery and the Church
The debate over slavery often moved from the houses of government
to the houses of God. The abolitionist tract, “The
American Churches, the Bulwarks of American Slavery,” claims, “The
extent to which most of the Churches in America are involved in the
guilt of supporting the slave system is known to but few in this country,”
(page
3).
“Both thy bondmen and bondmaids, which thou shalt
have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you . . . And ye shall take
them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a
possession; THEY SHALL BE YOUR BONDMEN FOR EVER; but over your brethren, the
children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor . . .” (Lev.
25:40--46, with v. 55.)
The distinction here made between the temporary servitude of the Israelite and the perpetual bondage of the heathen race, is too plain for controversy.
page 3
- How might these scriptural texts, such as Hopkins used, have contributed to perceptions of African Americans and the relationship between master and slave, and thus between the races?
- What does the equation of slaves with heathens imply about the conversion
of slaves to Christianity? What was the actual effect of the Christianization
of slaves?
- How might the equation of slaves with heathens have influenced the African-American experience of Christianity?
“An
Address to the Anti-Slavery Christians of the United States”challenges
the notion that the American slave trade is justified because people
in Biblical times held non-Christians as slaves: “[I]t is wholly immaterial
whether the Jews held slaves or not, since . . . they acted by virtue
of a special and express permission from God, while it is equally admitted
that no such permission has been given to us,” (page
4)
Searches on terms such as Bible, church, and scripture
offer a number of other pamphlets that use biblical passages to make
their case. Direct responses to Hopkins’s claims are also available
in pamphlets such as “Remarks
on Bishop Hopkins' Letter on the Bible View of Slavery” and “Review
of Bishop Hopkins' Bible View of Slavery.” The latter tract argues
that “Bishop Hopkins' pamphlet is made up of several groundless assumptions
and assertions, and of attempted answers to certain objections made
against the advocates of slavery,” (page
4).
- What was the potential benefit of using the Bible to accept or condemn
the institution of slavery?
- Who was the intended audience of these pamphlets?
- What was the importance of the “Address to the Anti-Slavery Christians” and its effort to refute the precedent of slavery that appears in the Bible?
- When two parties interpret a work differently, is either side necessarily
wrong? Why or why not?
| For some Christians, the ethical questions
surrounding slavery were as open to interpretation as the biblical
passages they cited. In “The
Church, The Ministry, and Slavery,” Reverend George Fisher attempts
to distinguish between the sin of slavery and the Christian slaveholder
who commits that sin. When describing an encounter that he had with
a slaveholding friend, Fisher explains that this man was a good
Christian despite his moral flaw: |
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From
the Cover of "The Church, The Ministry, and Slavery," 1850.
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If he could have seen the wrong, he would have forsaken
it . . . He has always dwelt in the midst of slavery, and of course
been under its blinding influence . . . That brother, though a slaveholder,
I believe was a christian . . . and I regard him in that light now .
. . You may charge me with countenancing and fellowshipping slavery,
but I can bear that, knowing how baseless . . . the charge would be.
page
12
- How does Fisher justify the actions and beliefs of his companion?
- Why does Fisher emphasize the Christian nature of this person?
- What does this stance imply about his concepts of social and religious
obligations?
- Do you think that Fisher is “countenancing and fellowshipping slavery”?
- In what ways might "most of the Churches in America" have been "involved in the guilt of supporting the slave system?"
Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making: Language and Culture
From the Cover of "The English Language in Liberia," 1861.
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The opportunity to explore the relationship between
language and culture is available in Reverend Alex Crummell’s 1860
address, “The
English Language in Liberia.” Crummell notes that English is
not the native language of Liberian colonists. Rather, Crummell
says, English is representative of the colonist’s history as victims
of political conquest: “No people lose entirely their native tongue
without the bitter trial of hopeless struggles, bloody strife, heart-breaking
despair, agony and death!” (page
10). |
- How was the English language introduced to African slaves?
- What is the relationship between a group’s use of the English language
and their political power?
Although Crummell discusses the negative effects of the English language
upon African-American slaves, he later characterizes it as “a language
of unusual force and power” and “the language of freedom” (page
13). The strengths of English are exemplified in the education
of African natives:
Christianity is using the English language on our coast as a main and mighty lever for Anglicising our native population, as well as for their evangelization . . . Hundreds of native youth have acquired a knowledge of English in Mission Schools, and then in their manhood have carried this acquisition forth, with its wealth and elevation, to numerous heathen homes.
page
21
- Why might missionaries have been interested in the colonizing of
Africa?
- What was the purpose of teaching the English language in mission
schools in Africa?
- How did Crummell imagine students using this language outside of
the schools?
- Is it possible to reconcile the idea of the English language as
a dominant force that stripped African Americans of their native culture
and the idea of it as a valuable acquisition to be shared in “numerous
heathen homes”?
- Do you think that a language really conveys and even imposes characteristics
of a culture? If so, how?
- What happens to the native language of students who are taught a
second, foreign language?
- Is it necessary to prohibit their native language to ensure that
the English language will take hold?
- Are there situations in which a native language is still necessary
for these students?
- Are there limitations to which such students can understand this
second language?
- Do you think two languages and cultures can peacefully co-exist
without one dominating the other? What types of cultural and political
concessions would need to be made?
- What leads to a “creolization,” or blending, of two languages and
cultures into a unique third possibility?
- Do you think that the English language should be the official language
in America? What are the implications of that decision on non-English
speakers?
Historical Research Capabilities
This collection is a rich resource of
materials that can support a thorough, in-depth investigation into
the complex history of the institution of slavery and the issues
surrounding it. One facet of this history is the colonization effort
that began in 1816 with the formation of the American Colonization
Society. A search
on Liberia results in a number of documents discussing Liberia,
including a report on the Navy’s role in repatriation, “The
U.S. Navy in Connection with the Foundation, Growth and Prosperity
of the Republic of Liberia” and an 1869
address to the American Colonization Society by the first president
of Liberia. Additional information on the history of Liberia is
available in the exhibit, The
African-American Mosaic, and in the American Memory collection,
Maps of
Liberia, 1830-1870, which includes a special presentation
of a timeline
of the nation’s history.
- What was the role of the federal government in colonizing Liberia?
- How did Liberia develop into an independent nation in 1847?
- What were the potential benefits for African Americans moving to Liberia?
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Joseph
Jenkins Roberts, 1851, First and Seventh President of Liberia.
America's
First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotypes, 1839-1864. |
The collection’s Subject
Index also offers information that is closer to the domestic slavery
debate. The term, White Supremacist Literature, introduces a
number of arguments against emancipation from citizens of the North.
“The
Mediator Between North and South” claims, “The time of punishment
has arrived, and will persecute us until we have found a remedy to cure
the evil, which would be how to get rid of the negroes, with a clear
conscience and profit to the nation,” (page
6). “African
Slavery Regarded from an Unusual Stand-point” argues“that this modern
idea of the equality of the races of men is disproved by the experience
of the world and sound science,” (page
3).
- What is the basis for these arguments against emancipation?
- What were the social, scientific, and religious ideas introduced
in these pieces?
- What does the language of these pieces suggest about the argument
made?
- Who were the white supremacists? What might have been their motivation
for printing this material? What might have been their goal?
- Might this literature be an outgrowth of class tensions?
- Given that such materials were created in the 1860s, might these
ideas have been in reaction to attitudes specific to the historical
events or the political climate of the era?
- How do these arguments compare to some of the speeches presented
in Congress at the time?
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