An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America

Authors

Henry Highland Garnet

Date of this Version

8-16-1848

Citation

Published in Henry Highland Garnet, Walker’s Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life. And also Garnet’s Address to the Slaves of the United States of America. New-York, Printed by J. H. Tobitt, 1848, pages 89–96.

Comments

Delivered before the National Convention of Colored Citizens, Buffalo, New York, August 16, 1843. Published in Henry Highland Garnet, Walker’s Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life. And also Garnet’s Address to the Slaves of the United States of America. New-York, Printed by J. H. Tobitt, 1848.

I am endebted to Professor Derrick Spires for guiding me to the proper text of this work.

Abstract

Brethren and Fellow-Citizens :

Your brethren of the north, east, and west have been accustomed to meet together in National Conventions, to sympathize with each other, and to weep over your unhappy condition. In these meetings we have addressed all classes of the free, but we have never until this time, sent a word of consolation and advice to you. We have been contented in sitting still and mourning over your sorrows, earnestly hoping that before this day, your sacred liberties would have been restored. But, we have hoped in vain. Years have rolled on, and tens of thousands have been borne on streams of blood, and tears, to the shores of eternity. While you have been oppressed, we have also been partakers with you ; nor can we be free while you are enslaved. We therefore write to you as being bound with you.

Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, the first of our injured race were brought to the shores of America. They came not with glad spirits to select their homes, in the New World. They came not with their own consent, to find an unmolested enjoyment of the blessings of this fruitful soil. The first dealings which they had with men calling themselves Christians, exhibited to them the worst features of corrupt and sordid hearts ; and convinced them that no cruelty is too great, no villainy and no robbery too abhorrent for even enlightened men to perform, when influenced by avarice, and lust. Neither did they come flying upon the wings of Liberty, to a land of freedom. But, they came with broken hearts, from their beloved native land, and were doomed to unrequited toil, and deep degradation. Nor did the evil of their bondage end at their emancipation by death. Succeeding generations inherited their chains, and millions have come from eternity into time, and have returned again to the world of spirits, cursed, and ruined by American Slavery.

Let your motto be RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! —No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resis­tance. What kind of resistance you had better make, you must decide by the cir­cumstances that surround you, and according to the suggestion of expediency. Brethren, adieu! Trust in the living God. Labor for the peace of the human race, and remember that you are three millions.