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 this edition I decided to cover all the poems and plays from a selection of editions – primarily the first twelve. I decided to do these two formats as I believed they were the most interesting. Children are often told stories and fables to teach them moral lessons, but by communicating these messages through differing formats creates a different impact upon the children reading them. Provided with more time, I would have attempted to transcribe the entire editions to have a fully accessible version of these underrepresented texts available for researchers and intellectuals, however I transcribed the most I could with the given time. In future I hope to continue working on this project, adding to the pages more than just the poems and plays, adding images of the given text, creating more annotations, and making the website more user friendly by adding a navigation bar, index, etc. There is still much work to do on this project, however, I believe this edition paints a fair picture on the content of The Slave’s Friend as it exists in its current form.
Did you ever know, Papa, that slaves were sold by the pound before Mr. Birney wrote that letter?
Certainly I did. Did you never hear that before?
What, sell boys and girls, like Julia and me, as they do pigs and fish! Is it so, father? Tell us.
It is indeed true, my son. If you will look into Mr. Bourne's book,Picture of Slavery, you will see some slaves weighing a little girl in a pair of scales.
How much will she weigh?
I suppose about fifty pounds.
How much do they get a pound for the poor slaves?
Four dollars, and sometimes five: If that little girl weighted fifty pounds, and her master got four dollars a pound for her, she was sold for two hundred dollars.
Ah! That's the reason they dont want to emancipate the slaves; they get so much money by selling them: Isn't it so, father?
Here, Mungo, said he, look at this apple, and then look at that chestnut.
I do Massa; I see them.
Well, this apple is the white man, and that chestnut is the negro.
O, Massa, what you say is true. The chestnut has a dark skin, just like poor black man. But its kernelis all white, and sweet. The apple, though it looks so pretty, has many little black grains at the heart.
Now little boys and girls can't be abolitionists until they get rid of all these black grains in their hearts. And they can't be good while they have such wicked eharts. Jesus will not love them who hate the poor negro, or hate God.
Mother, I like that hymn, "I was not born a little slave," but do you think those little boys in my Slave's Friend were born slaves?
Probably they were, my dear.
But why are these little boys slaves more than I?
They are black.
Black! well, I wonder what color my skin is.
It is called white.
O that is the reason they are slaves; jsut because they are black. I do not want all black boys to be slaves.
All are not slaves.
But, mother, were the slaves always born slaves?
No: in the first place they were stolen.
O dear, dear, I thought it was very wicked to steal even a pin, and do they steal children? Where do they get them, an how? Do tell me, mother.
From Africa. I will tell you a story about three children that were stolen.
O do mother, and I will be a good boy, and sit very still.
These three children lived with their father and mother, in Africa, about a mile from the sea side. They were as free as the little birds whose voices they heard from the topmost boughs of cocoa treel they loved dearly to run in the woods, chase butterflies, gather wild flowers, and dress themselves with the palm leafs. One day their mother sent them to get some yams, (like our potatoes;) they took their baskets and went, little thinking they were to see their parents no more. As they were digging yams, the youngest boy looked up and said, "O sister, what is that?" She replied, "I do not know," for she had never seen a white man before. The men showed them beads and other trinkets. while the children were looking at them, these men-thieves came behind them and stuck plasters over tehir mouths. Then they caught them up and ran with them to the boat, that soon took them to the horrid slave ship.
O how very wicked, but could not the children cry?
No, because their mouths were covered with the plasters.
Mother, I did not think it possible for any one to be so cruel?
Yes, my son, the love of money makes men so. Do you remember that good Mary Ann who used to live with us?
Yes indeed I do.
Well, one of these boys was her father. How much he suffered in the slave ship, and after he got to America, I must tell you some other time.
Did you ever hear of a little colored boy who was taken out of school in this city, and carried to prison?
No. What did they do that for?
I will tell you. He, and his parents, had been slaves. His father had run away, and took Henry with him. Mr. Wright went to the prison to see them. He asked the judge to let him take Henry home with him.
Did he let him go?
Yes, but he made Mr. Wright promise to bring him back next day. Poor Henry was so afraid that he could hardly fall asleep. He would speak out in his dream, "I wont go. I wont go."
O, he is hte boy so many children gave their pennies to have set free. Isn't he?
Yes, Mary. He is free now, and at school in the country somewhere. Instead of being brought up like a beast, he will, I hope, be a good scholar, and pergaps a minsiter! An't you glad, sister Mary?
Isn't it a wicked thing to keep slaves?
Yes, very wicked. And people are beginning to think so.
What does the Bible say about it?
I long to see all slaves free; to have the children attend Sabbath schools; to have them taught to read, write, and cipher. What a joyful time that will be, Ann! Then there will be no slaves in this free country, and all can sing, "Hail Columbia, happy land.'
Do you see that good man teaching that boy?
Yes, I see him. Who is he, dear brother? Oh, I guess I know. Isn't it Mr. Andrews?
No, Ellen, it is not he. He has gone to Michigan, I am told. But I will tell you who it is. It is Joshua Coffin,of Philadelphia.
I know him. Papa said he went into his evening school, and saw them writing, ciphering, and studying. They looked very happy. Now I think of it, don't they call that school the "African School?"
By no means. Mr. Coffin would not let them call it so. All his scholars are Americans.
But I saw on a school-house, in the city of New-York, these words painted, "The African Free School." What do they call it so for?
Because people have felt that the colored people among us were foreigners. They might just as well call our school-house, "the English or Irish School," because our great grandfathers came from England and Ireland.
I thought, father, you did not mean to have such long words in the Slave's Friend.
I can not always help it. If you find any word you do not understand, you must ask the meaning of it.
I will, papa. Do tell me what that great long word, a r i t h m e t i c i a n s, menas?
It means those who study arithmetic, my son.
Is that all? Why, father, I'm ashamed that I asked you such a question. The word looked so long, I did no tthink I knew what it meant.
I want to tell you something about mental arithmetic. It is to reckon in your head. Cyphering, you know, is to do it with a slate, or pen and ink. The Africans reckon in their heads. Their money is a kind of shell. They are called cowries. It takes a great many to make a small sum. Travellers are suprised to see the Africans calculate, in their heads, so well as they do. They say we cannot reckon so well.
Dont that show that the blacks have as much sense as we have?
It shows that some of them have more. And I want to tell you, my son, and all my little readers, that it is very rash, and very offensive to God, for white people to think he has made them superior to black people. If the colored people only had the same advantages the whites have, they would be equal to them. This has always been the case.
I am glad you bought that pretty book, in Boston, for me to read, Papa. I love Miss Susan Paul, for writing it. James was a good boy, wasn't he?
A very good boy. And he was not seven years old, Charles, when he died.
May I read to you, dear Papa, a little in this book? It is very interesting, indeed.
I shall be glad to hear you, my son.
"James thought he should be glad to keep the holy Sabbath, just as the Lord would have him. A few Sabbaths after James had learned this command, his mother put some coffee into the coffee-mill, and told him to grind it for breakfast. James took the mill and began to turn; but soon he almost stopped, and seemed thinking of something. His sister seeing this, said, 'Ma, shall I grind the coffee for you?' After a moment, her mother said, 'Yes, I guess you must; James is lazy this morning.' James looked mildly on his mother, with a tear in his eye, and said, 'Ma, did I not split wood for you, yesterday?' 'Yes, James; but that has nothing to do with grinding the coffee, this morning.' 'Well, Ma, is not this the Sabbath?' 'Yes.' Then James said to his mother, 'The commandment says, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. On it thou shalt not do any work; and now, Ma, ought I to grind the coffee?' His mother was surprised. James set the mill down on the floor. Then his mother said, 'Well, James, you need not grind the coffee.'"
You may read, now, what he said to the doctor, just before he died.
I will, sir; here is is.
"While he was in great pain, the physician came in; and after standing a few moments by his bed-side, he went to another part of the room, where James could not see him. James asked his mother if the doctor had gone. When he was told he had not, 'Well,' said he, 'I want to see him.' The doctor came to the bed-side, and said, 'What do you want, James?' He replied, 'I want to know if you love God, my Saviour?' 'What do you say, James?' said the doctor. James repeated, with as much strength as he could, 'Do you know God, my Saviour?' The doctor, as he turned his face from the little sufferer, said, 'That is a happy child.'"
Father, what is the meaning of the word mob? I don't find it in the Bible.
I suppose not, but there are many mobs spoken of in the Bible, though under some other name. the word means a parcel of men and boys got together to do mischief.
Do tell me about the mobs in the Bible.
I will, my child, just mention a few out of a great many. When Jesus went to Nazareth and preached, the wicked peple of that day "were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow, or edge of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong."
Why did they do so, dear father?
Because Jesus told them of their sins so plainly.
Will you tell me of another mob?
Judas came with a mob to take Jesus. The holy Savior went into a garden, in the evening, with his disciples, to pray. Judas came upon him with "a great multitude with swords and staves, and lanterns and torches." He had told them the truth, and they would not bear it. They did not want to give up their sins. So they took him and put him to death.
What cruel men to murder the dear Savior!
I will now tell you of another mob. When Stephen preached, the people got angry, came upon him, caught him, and told lies about him. "They were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth." Soon "they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him."
Who was Aesop, dear father?
He wrote Aesop's Fables, that you love so much to read.
I know that, sir, but where was he born, and who was he?
He was born in Asia, nearly 600 years before Christ. He was deformed, and a slave. His nose was flat, his lips were thick, and his skin was dark. He used to say, when any one asked him where he was born,"I am a negro."
Aesop a slave, father! I did not know that before.
He was, my son. But he had a fine mind; one of his masters had him taught Greek. And Aesop told one he must not look at the color of his skin, but at his mind.
That was a very pretty remark, wasn't it papa? It seems then they let slaves learn to read in old times.
Yes, no slaves but American slaves have been denied books. How I blush for America! Aesop composed his fables to soften the hardship of being a slave. Learning did not hurt him, you see; and it will not hurt any one. On the cover of the Slave's Friend, it is said, The lips of the wise disperse knowledge. This is from the Bible. This precious book says also, Fools hate knowledge.
What is the difference, Mr. Sherwood, between a thief and a robber? siad Alfred to his teacher.
A thief is one that takes what is not his own by stealth, that is, secretly. A robber is one that plunders by force.
The robber then runs more danger than the thief, does he not, sir?
Certainly. He risks more personal danger.
Then it is meaner and more cowardly, to be a thief than a robber, I should think.
It doubless is; but both are great crimes—against the laws of God and man.
Is a slave-holder a thief or a robber?
Both, I think. He takes men, women, and children, by stealth, and by force. In Exodus 21:16, it is said, "And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Man-stealing, in those days, you see, was considered a very great crime. the apostle Paul, in 1 Tim. 1:10, says, "The Law is made for men-stealers." Stealers of men are all those who bring off slaves or freemen, an keep, sell, or buy them. Bishop Horsely said, "We have reason to conclude, from the mention made of 'slave-traders' or 'men-stealers' by the apostle Paul, that if any of them should ever find their way to heaven, they must go thither in company with murderers and parricides."*
Was Washington a slave-holder, Papa?
Yes, he was. But he knew it was not right to hold men as property.
I read in Washington's Will that he gave a good many slaves their freedom at his death.
He did so, and it would have been better if he had let them go free in his lifetime.
Is it a good excuse, father, for any one to say, "Washington was a slave-holder."
By no means. A person might as well attempt to justify drunkenness by saying, Governor A. drank brandy. There, my son, read what Washington himself, said of slavery.
"I can only say, that there is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it, (slavery)."Letter to Robert Morris. "Your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country." – Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette. "I never mean, unless some paritcular circumstance should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law." –Letter to John F. Mercer.
What Ship is that?
That is not a Ship, dear brother, but a Brig. Her name is Saint Nicholas.
Is that the slaver?
She is supposed to be a slave-vessel.
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?
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.
But I heard someone say she might belong to the navy, or be a privateer?
If she had been either they would have shown their commision. Besides, there were iron-gratings for the hatchways.
What use could they make of the gratings?
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. 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.
O, dreadful! What wicked men! But could not they make the sailors tell where they were going? And what they were going for?
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.
What will be done to such people and to the brig, if the men are proved to be guilty?
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?
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.
I have read also what Jonathan Edwards 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.
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!!
Here, you black rascal, you have been stealing, have you?
"Yes, masssa. Me know me got dem tings from Tom dere. ME tink Tom 'teal dem too; but what den, massa? Dey be only a piccaninny knife, and a piccaninny corkscrew. An' me pay Tom honestly for dem, massa."
A pretty story, truly! You knew they were stolen, and yet excuse yourself by saying you paid honestly for them. Don't you know, Pompey, that "the Receiver is as bas as the Thief?" You shall be whipt!
"Very well, massa; it be all right, I 'spose. But if de black rascal be whipt for buying 'tolen goods, me hope de white rascal be whipt too, for same ting, when you catch him."
To be sure.
"Well den, here be Tom's massa - hold him fast, constable! He buy Tom, as I buy de piccaninny knife, and de piccaninny corkscrew. He knew berry well Tom be stole from his old fadder and mudder. De knife and de corkscrew hab neder!"