The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1844-08-15

ing wrong in holding slaves, and as a
consequence released the six, and alter
ward saw his error and went into slave
trading, you surely would be very I'M
generous in charging this upon him as o
morally wrong act! But | take it for
granted that you would have the people
believe The acts of continuing The slave in
bondage and receiving the five hundred
dollars as the avails of the sale, constitu>
ted the crime. Taking this as your de-
sign | will now present so much of Mr..
B;fney's letter, as pertains to this charge
which was addressed to Col. Stone of
New York, and dated May 2, 1886.
Gin the month of May, 1884, I be-
came so convinced of the right of my
slaves to their freedom, and of my duty
as a christian to give it to them, that l
prepared, as we'll as now l remember,
on the first of June, a deed of enlancl-
patton tor the six | had bro't with me
from Alabama, and had it duly entered
on record in the office of the County
Clerk ofthe county in which | lived.
They all remained with me, receiving
such wages-with the exception of the
little girl-as were customary in the
country
In the previous month of January or
February, a young negro man, held by
the late Judge Boyle, of Kentucky,
earnestly solicited me to buy him, lest
| at the sale of the estate he might be
sold to some person of whose character
and temper he knew nothing. AT first
objected, on the ground that | inten-
ded never again to purchase a slave, to
be held in the absolute sense.
He left me, but returned again bring
ing as an aid to his own importantly the
recommendation of the brother-in-law of
Judge b., who held as slaves some other
members of the family. He prevailed,
on this second application and paid
the price of him to the Executors. Be
fore | consented to do so, we had this
understanding; that so Don as by the
allowance offair wages he should return
me the money | had advanced, he should
90 free; that, in the mean time, | would
have him taught to read, and if he pro-
we'd apt to learn, writing and the ele-
mentary rules of arithmetic-that |
would ask of him no unreasonable SER
vlces--but that if he should fail to per-
form with fidelity what l required Of him
l should return HIM to the state of abso-
lutte slavery, from which | considered |
was taking him. 1t was but a short
time before l became satisfied that his
character had been grossly, though |
will not suffer myself to think intention
ally, misrepresented to me. He proved
triaing, lazy, and troublesome among
The rest of the servants. Especially
provoking to me was his reiterated
harsh treatment of the little girl above
mentioned, for whom, as she had no
relatives near her, l felt almost a pa
rental tenderness. After bearing with
him for several months, and after per-
suading and admonishing him, found
it was out of the question to keep him
about me any longer. In the month of
July l think it was, l gave him a writing
authorizing him to obtain for his master
any one who would give me within one
hundred dollars of the price l had paid
for him, although l think it probable, had
l offered for the highest price, without
regard to the character of the purchaser
| might have received for him one hun
dreddollars more than l gave. 1t turned
out, that the gentleman who had un
warily recommended him to me, offered
to become the purchaser; if | would
grant a longer credit for part of the
sum than | had proposed in my written
note: To this l assented; the same
gentleman had, a short time previous
became the owner, by purchase, of the
farm belonging to the estate Of Judge
Boyle; so that the young man was re-
turned to the very place from which [
had taken him Before the last pay
ment fell due, | became convinced,
notwithstanding what | had done was
nothing more than a literal execution of
an arrangement to which he had assented
ifsuch a thing can be predicated of a
Slave that | had done wrong in selling
him. l wrote the gentleman who haG
bought him that | wished to repurchase
the slave, that | might give him his
freedom. His reply informed me that
he was out of his power, as he
had sent him down the Mississippi with
a Southern planter. This case has
given me mote uneasiness Of mind than
any of the others, whilst most persons
under the same pressure Of influence
which was then bearing on me, would
probably have acted as | did, yet do
not seek to JUS tify it. The influence
which warped and obscured my moral
vision, | ought to have resisted"
There gentlemen, you have Mr.. Bir-
ney's confession of his error. Dare you