BOSTON:
L E 0 IV A li 17 C . B O W L K S .
18 -it).
THE
LIBERTY CAP.
BY ELIZA LEE FOLLEN.
BOSTON:
LEONARD C. BOWLES.
1846.
/"^ "!VT TV T r ra /-*
Pago
The Liberty Cap, 5
Am I not a Man and a Brother ? 8
Pic-nic at Dedham, - - - 10
Lines on hearing of the Terror of the
Children of the Slaves at the
Thought of being sold, - -22
Dialogue, 23
Agrippa, - - - - -31
T II E
LIBERTY CAP.
It was a custom of the Romans
when a slave was made free to take
him to the temple of the goddess Fero-
nia, and there to place upon his head a
cap in sign of his liberation, and ever
after the goddess, in whose temple the
ceremony was performed was supposed
to be his guardian and protector.
The Romans lived before the time
of the great teacher of our religion,
and with but little of the light of the
pure and perfect truth he taught. They
were men of war and blood, who be-
lieved that the strong should use the
6
THE LIBERTY CAP,
weak for their own selfish purposes,
and who really knew no better : and
so they believed that slavery was right,
though they did not believe, as some
who call themselves Christians say they
do, that their Gods had marked one
race of men with a black skin to point
them out as slaves. Their slaves were
the captives they took in war and
their descendants, without distinction
of color.
We pretend to be a Christian nation,
to believe the religion of him who told
us to do as we would be done by, who
said that the substance of religion was
to love God with all our heart and
our neighbor as ourselves^ and that our
neighbor was the poor and the suffering
and the ODDressed. who told us that
Jt X '
God was our Father and that we were
all brethren, who told us to love one
another even as God loved us,, I say
we preterd to believe this : every week
THE LIBERTY CAP
7
we hear it preached ; wc call ourselves
Christians, and pity the Bey of Tunis,
though he has freed all the slaves in
his dominions, because he is a heathen.
And yet in our country are three mil-
lions of our brethren, groaning under
a slavery far worse than that of the
heathen and bloody Romans. We hold
them in bondage — we ourselves- — for
their pretended masters could not keep
them if it were not for our help. Yes,
we even go to war and fight bloody
battles to defend and perpetuate this
infamous wickedness.
Shall we do it any longer ? Shall
there not be in all this Christian land,
one temple where the bondman can
find freedom ? Here where we profess
to love our brethren, shall there be no
guardian spirit, to go forthwith its holy
influence, for the protection of the suf-
fering and oppressed ? Yes. Let that
temple be our hearts. Let that spirit
8 AM I NOT A MAN
be our words and deeds, mighty with
all the power of truth and right. Let
us not cease from laboring till the Cap
of Liberty shall be placed upon the
head of every slave, and their guardian
shall be a better than the heathen
goddess, even the spirit of him who
preached perfect peace and perfect
love. w. p. a.
West Roxbury, Mat 9, 1846.
AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?
My country that nobly could dare
The hand of oppression to brave,
Oh how the foul stain canst thou bear
Of being the land of the slave ?
His groans, and the clank of his chains
Shall rise with the shout of the free,
And turn into discord the strains
They raise, God of mercy, to Thee.
AND A BROTHER?
The proud knee at His altar they bend,
On God as their Father they call ;
They cell Him their Father and Friend,
And forget He 's the Father of all.
His children He does not forget,
His mercy, His power can save ;
And sure as God liveth, he yet
Will liberty give to the slave.
Oh talk not of freedom and peace
With the blood of the slave on your sod ;
Till the groans of the negro shall cease
Hope not for a blessing from God.
He asks, Am not I man ?
He pleads, Am not I a brother ?
Then dare not, and hope not you can
The cry of humanity smother.
'T will be heard from the south to the north,
In our halls and in poverty's shed ;
'Twill go like a hurricane forth
And wake up the living and dead.
The dead whom the white man has slain,
They cry from the ground and the waves ;
They once cried for mercy in vain,
They plead for their brothers the slaves.
10
X'IC-NIC AT DEDHAM.
Oh let them, my country, be heard,
Be the land of the free and the brave,
And send forch the glorious word,
This is not the land of the slave.
PIC-NIC AT DEDHAM.
, August 3, 18 ! 'i
Dear Mother,
You asked me when I left you, to
write to you ; I well remember what a
choaky feeling I had in my throat,
when I was standing in our porch, and
1 felt your arm round my neck, as you
said, " You will write often to me, Hal"
and yet I have written only once.
Well ! I mean to make up now, and
write you a real long letter ; and one
reason is, I have got something to
write about. Uncle told us the day
before yesterday that he was going to
take us the next dav, to the pic-nic at
PIC-NIC AT DEDHAM
11
Dedham, for they were going to cele-
brate the first of August, and he must
be there. I did not think much what
it was all for, but I knew it was a holi-
day, and that was enough for roe.
You may be sure I was up betimes :
we started soon after seven ; uncle let
me drive ; George you know is a little
chap, and he sat on the back seat with
aunt. We got to Dedham a little after
nine, and went directly to the Town
Hall ; there we found a great many
people round the door, and a long
stream of folks just arrived from Bos-
ton in the cars, and there was Dr.
Bowditch and a number of other gentle-
men with stars on their coats, arranging
them so as to form a procession. They
had ever so many beautiful banners.
Uncle joined them, and left me in the
wagon with aunt. After the procession
was formed, they turned and passed
directly by us, so that I saw every
PIC-NIC AT DEDHAM,
thing ; and what was the best of the
whole, the band of music was formed
entirely of boys, and they played first
rate. They walked so slowly that I
could see what was on their banners,
and read the inscriptions ; I cannot re-
member all, but 1 do some of them.
One had on it a fine figure of a
black man, with his arms thrown up,
exultingly, and his broken chains fall-
ing to the ground, and his foot upon a
whip ; the words over him were, " This
is the Lord's doing," and underneath,
" Slavery abolished in the West Indies,
August 1st, 1834, Laus Deo." The
figure was finely done, and the poor
negro's face was full of joy ; I thought
it almost handsome, and mother I do
wonder that I never heard you or father
speak of the 1st of August, The next
one I remember was a banner borne
by a boy about my age ; on it were
these words, " Shall a republic which
PIC-NIC AT DKOHAM.
could not bear the bondage of a Kin<r«
cradle a bondage which a King has
abolished ?" Aunt told mc that the
boy who bore this banner, was the son
of the man who wrote the words, and
that his father had gone to that land
where there was no slavery, and 1 felt,
mother, that if I had been so unhappy
as to lose my father, I should love to
carry a banner with his words on it, for
f should feel as if 1 was doing some-
CD
thing to carry on his work.
Another banner had a liberty cap on
it, with these words, " God never made
a tyrant or a slave." Another, " Our
fanaticism ; " All men are created free
and equal." " Thou shalt love thv
neighbor as thyself." When you and
lather speak of the fanaticism of the
abolitionists, you can't mean this, I'm
sure. Another banner had these words
on it, " The Almisrhtv has no attribute
that can take sides with the slave-
14 PIOJNiO AT D ED II A.M.
holder," and Thomas Jefferson's name
under them : and yet Jefferson held
slaves, and so did Washington, but
Washington freed his in his last will.
One more 1 particularly noticed, for
our friend Dr. Channing's name was
on it. These were the words, " The
Union : we will yield every tiling to it
but truth, honor, and liberty : These
we will never yield. 57 1 forsrot to men-
tion that one banner had on it the ini-
tials of Garrison's name surrounded
with an oaken wreath ; and underneath
it this inscription, " I am in earnest !
1 will not equivocate ! I will not excuse !
I will not retreat a single inch, and 1
will be heard!" Uncle helped me re-
member this. Well ! the whole pro-
cession, men, women, and children, all
marched to the boys' music, which was
real good, to a line large pine grove
about half a mile off We w ent round
by another road so as to get there first
P IONIC AT DEDJIAM.
15
and see them enter: they passed under
a beautiful arch of oak leaves and
evergreens, and slowly ascended the
side of a hill covered with seats, under
the tali pines which made a line amphi-
theatre ; at the foot was a raised plat-
Conn for the speakers, round which
they placed the banners, and pictures,
which I forgot to tell you about. After
all had taken their places, Dr. Bow-
ditch called for three cheers for the
glorious occasion that had called them
together, and oh! mother, they made
the old grove ring well with their hur-
ras, and how the hats and handkerchiefs
did fly round! my great straw hat did
good service, and you know i can
make a pretty good noise when I try for
it. Then they sang a beautiful hymn
written by Mr. Pierpont, and then Mr.
Allen prayed, he did not, as you say,
make a prayer, he prayed : it was heart
work, his prayer, Vm sure. While he
i'K -inR A i Dj^jlmj a.ii .
was praying I looked far, far up into
the clear blue sky through the open-
ings in the trees, and I never felt so
much as if God heard our prayers; and
oh, how I did wish that the time might
come when we might be thanking God
that our slaves were all free. Then
some appropriate passages from the
Bible were read. Alter this thev sans
another hymn written by Mr. James
Lowell, and mother it was very beauti-
fid, I have got it for you, and you must
read it. After this Mr. Pierpont spoke,
he was very entertaining, he put it to
vote which was most likely to make
men work, cash or lash — cash had the
vote: he told us that freedom was
working as well for the masters as for
the slaves. Mr. Stetson spoke beauti-
fully, but mother, some how or other he
always makes me laugh. I can't tell
you much about the speeches, at last
the same boy that carried the banner-
lMC-NIC AT DKOIIAM. 17
iv'citcil a poem called The Christian
Slave. Mr. Pierpont told the audience
that when they put up a slave on the
miction table, the auctioneer would
sometimes mention that she or he was
a Christian, in order to <>'et a higher
price, and this was the subject of the
poem — it made my blood run cold to
drink of selling Christians. The boy
spoke well enough, and I think that if
the men don't all do something about
slavery soon, we boys had better see
what we can do, for it is too wicked.
Alter this came the collation, we had
to walk in a procession and place our-
selves four or five deep at the table,
and then get what we could ; I hoped
lo get some of annt/s cake that we
carried with us, but I did not, though f
uot enouirh of somebody's else ; for
ihey put the children forward, and J
remembered, mother, to help my neigh-
bors, artvt you alad of that f
18
PIC-NIC AT DEDIIAM.
After dinner there was a great deal
> — >
more speaking and some real good
singing; but what pleased me most
was an address from a man who had
been a slave. He was as white as J
am, and a fine looking fellow : he
spoke very well : he said that they had
all come together to rejoice that eight
hundred thousand human beings who
had been slaves were made free-men,
but if they knew what he knew, and
had felt as he had what slavery was,
they would gladly all meet to rejoice
that one single man was free ; then he
spoke of what slavery was, and oh, dear
mother, I never felt so about slavery
before ; every boy ought to know what
American slavery is. When the whole
was over, and it was time to go, they all
joined together before they parted, in
sinmn^ Old Hundred. Now dear mo-
ther just imagine a grand large grove
of tall pine trees, with their branches
IUC-XTC AT DEDII AM.
19
c'rof=sin<r each other, so as to look like
the arches of a irrand cathedral with
^ — ^
the blue skv for a ceiling and at. least
fifteen hundred people joining most ol
thern with their voices, and all looking
as if they did with their hearts in sing-
ing "From all who dwell below the
sky," and to that glorious old tune : it
seemed to me as if the spirit of old
Martin Luther was there. I never had
such a feeling of awe in my life, f
wanted you and father to be there ; !
never felt so religious ; England m ay
be forgiven a thousand sins for this
one act. Why do not all Christians
rejoice on this day ?
When we were all seated in the
wagon again, and on our way home, I
told uncle that I had had a beautiful
time. He said that " it was the most
glorious day in the year to him ;**
"greater," I said, u than the fourth of
Julv." "Yes," he said, " because it
20 V\C NIC AT DKDiFAM,
celebrated a bloodless victory, it was
won by persevering love and justice,
against selfishness and tyranny, It is
such a victory as this .Hal- that we
abolitionists strive for, pray for, and are
willing to puller for." Then uncle told
aunt an anecdote he had just heard,
that I think mother, you wiil like to
hear. He said that " live years ago
on this same dav, the 1st of August, a
blind old man, a minister of religion,
wished very much that there should be
some public celebration of the event
that was then taking place in the West
indies, that we republicans should join
these eight hundred thousand souls in
thanks to God, that they were free,
that they were acknowledged to be
men. The good man could not inspire
those around him with his feelings
about it ; but all the more did lie keep
tiie hour holy 'in his own heart, so he
and his daughter *at up that night till
PIC-NIC AT DEI) II AM.
iho clock struck twelve, ami then he
usked her to play a solemn tune on the
piano, and the blind old man and his
child sang by themselves at midnight a
song of thankfulness and praise to God,
that at that moment the chains of sla-
very were unloosed from eight hundred
thousand of their fellow beings, and
that thev were restored to the rights
and dignity of men. " Surely," said
uncle, " those two weak voices in the
stillness of that solemn night, were
heard with more favor by the Ahnighty,
I han the roaring of our cannons, and
the peals of our bells on the fourth of
July" — and mother, I could not help
thinking so too. Is not this a good,
long letter r 1 hone vou will not think
it is too long, but I could not help
telling you all about the first of August
I shall never forget it. Give my love
to father.
Your affectionate sou.
Haf..
LINES.
L I N E S
O JV II E A 11 INCr 0 F T 11 F.
TERROR OF THE CHILDREN OF THE SLAVES
AT THE THOUGHT OF BEING SOLD.
*
WriEN children play the livelong day
Like birds and butterflies,
As free and gay sport life away,
And know not care or sisrhs,
Then all the air seems fresh and fair,
Around, below, above,
Life's flowers arc there, and everywhere
Is innocence and love.
When children pray with fear all day
A blight must be at hand ;
Then joys decay, and birds of prey
Are hovering o'er the land.
When young hearts weep as they go to sleep,
Then all the world is sad,
The flesh must creep and woes are deep,
When children are not <?'lad.
j DIALOGUE. 23
DIALOGUE.
" I have been to aunt Elizabeth's
this afternoon," said a warm hearted
boy to his mother, "and have heard a
Polish gentleman tell her of the cruel-
lies inflicted upon his countrymen by
the Russian emperor. Why, mother,
they are too horrible to believe ; and
because they have made an effort late-
ly to recover their freedom, the empe-
ror has offered a large reward for the
head of every Polish nobleman, and a
great many hundred heads have been
carried to him. The poor Poles have
no liberty, they are banished to Siberia
for the least offence, and they make the
Polish girls marry Russians whether
they like them or not/'
" 1 do pity the poor Poles, and I do
hate the Russians."
24
DIALOGUE,
" And so do I pity, the Poles," said
the mother ; " but, Robert, there is a
nation as wicked and cruel as the
Russians that you perhaps have not
read any complete history of, and
which you ought to know something
about, and in many respects I think
them worse than the emperor of Rus-
sia. No correct history has yet been
written of this people, for their histori-
ans are afraid to tell the truth of them
because they fear the people would be
angry and not read their books. Shame
on them for their mean cowardice and
want of principle ! A few of their
poor exiles, like this Polish gentleman,
tell of their wicked deeds, and now and
then a traveller goes there, and brings
back information about them, but if he
is not very cautious while there, his life
would be in danger. They are a very
extraordinary people, and the Christian
world is but just getting acquainted
DIALOGUE
25
with their true character and history.
Shall I tell you about them, Robert,
and then you shall judge whether the
Russians are any worse than they. 5 '
" Do, mother," said the boy.
" These wicked people, Robert, have
agreed among themselves to take a
certain number of their infants as soon
as they are born, when they cannot help
themselves, and condemn them to the
most wretched life that a human being
can endure. They say to each one of
these poor innocents, « Although the
good God has sent you into his beauti-
ful world that you may be happy and
enjoy existence, and learn to know and
love him, and by your obedience to his
laws here, make yourself fit for a higher
state of existence, yet we will as far as
we are able, deprive you of ail these
blessings. The mother that bore you
and has suffered so much pain for you,
on whose bosom you are now lying, to
3
26
DIALOGUE.
whose eyes you are looking up with
such trusting love, shall have no right
over you, we will take you from her
when we please for our own purposes.
If you are a boy, when you grow
strong and your father feels proud of
his boy, then we will tear you from his
arms and send you for our advantage
among strangers, who may be cruel to
you if they will. If you are a girl your
fate shall be yet worse, and your mother
who now presses you to her heart shall
pray for your death. If your father or
mother should dare to defend you,
death shall be their reward. You shall
never learn to read : all that good and
wise men have uttered, all their inspir-
ing and inspired words embalmed in
books, you shall know nothing of ; you
shall wear the meanest clothing ; you
shall be fed as the horses and pigs are
fed : there shall be no true love for
you ; you shall marry and unmarry at
DIALOGUE.
our bidding, for your husband, or your
wife shall not belong to you, but to us ;
the light of your intellect shall be dark-
ened, the fire of your soul shall be
quenched, your spirit shall be broken*
We will shut out from you the know-
ledge of the Universal Parent ; you
shall know God only as a tyrant, not as
your Father in Heaven. Life shall be
hateful to von if vou have a soul, 5 "
" Horrible, mother, horrible ! Can
this be true of any people ?"
" Yes, my son, and this is not all.
When in spite of all their efforts com-
mencing at the cradle to extinguish the
souls of these poor, helpless beings,
some of them when thev are grown up
come to a sense of their own rights and
try to escape from these: savages, they
hunt them with dogs and shoot them
down like wild beasts. And if their
victims do escape, they do as the em-
peror of Russia does, they offer a re-
28
DIALOGUE.
ward to whoever will bring them back,
not, to be sure for their heads, because
their heads would not be of any service
to them, but alive that they may have
possession of them, and use them for
their own purposes, and then they often
punish them for having run away, so se-
verely that death would be preferable."
" Mother," said Robert, " this is too
horrible : what neonle can ho. so wick-
ed ? where is this country ?"
u You are living in it, my son ; you
are one of its citizens; your father
pays taxes to support the government
which sanctions and defends these
crimes against innocent beings. This
country is now at war, as you know,
with Mexico who has abolished slavery,
for the purpose of making this infamous
system more secure and extending it
farther."
" Mother," said Robert, " I knew we
had slaves, and I always thought slave-
DIALOGUE.
29
ry was wicked, but I never knew it
was so bad. 1 never thought of their
treating children so ; I supposed they
were kind to children,"
" They are, I suppose, as kind to
them as they are to little pigs, but they
are defrauded of all the rights of intel-
lectual and immortal beings. I have
not told you half of its horrors. 1
would not harrow up your young heart
by a relation of all the slaves have to
endure, of all their bodily sufferings, of
horrors too bad to think of. But all
I have told you is strictly true."
" Whom, mother, do you mean by
the exiles who relate these things ?"
" Whoever, Robert, dares to tell the
whole truth about slavery, and says he
will have nothing more to do with it
in any way, is an exile from that part
of our country where these wicked
things are done. A Polish nobleman
would be as safe with the emperor of
3*
30
DIALOGUE.
Russia as an abolitionist in our South-
ern States. Georgia has offered a re-
ward of five thousand dollars for the
head of William Lloyd Garrison. And
even here in the free States, abolition-
ists are spoken ill of and the world
hates them, and the friends of the
Southern slaveholders say ail sorts of
evil things against them."
" Are our men here willing to bear
these things, mother ?"
" All but the abolitionists submit
quietly to them, and some even vindi-
cate Southern slavery."
" What do the abolitionists do, mo-
ther, what can they do against slavery ? v
" I will tell you, Robert, what they
do, and what they have done, and what
they wish to do ; but I must defer this
to another time, and then I will tell you
all about the abolitionists and their
purposes."
AGRIPPA.
31
AGRIPPA.
In the village of Stockbridge lives a
black man by the name of Agrippa
Hull, who served in the Revolutionary
war. At the close of it he was honora-
bly discharged ; in testimony of which
he shows a certificate signed by Gene-
ral Washington. He was for some
years the servant of General Kosciusko,
of whose generous and humane char-
acter he speaks with grateful love and
admiration.
Agrippa has an uncommonly fine
head, and is remarkable for his excel-
lent understanding and good character.
By his industry he has become possess-
ed of a valuable farm, which he now.
at the age of seventy-six, cultivates
himself. He is eminent for his piety,
32
AGRIPPA.
and those who have heard him speak
at conference meetings which he is in
the habit of attending with his white
neighbors, say that in prayer he is dis-
tinguished for fervor and eloquence,
and for the peculiar originality and
richness of his language.
The acuteness and wisdom of his
views upon most subjects, and the wit
and force of his illustrations, make his
conversation so impressive that you re-
member what he has said, long after
you have parted from him. During
an interview of perhaps half an hour
with him, I was so struck with his re-
marks that as soon as he left me, 1
wrote down his very w r ords, as I here
transcribe them, without any alteration
or embellishment.
When I expressed to Agrippa my
opinion upon the subject of prejudice
against color, he said,
AGRIPPA.
33
" When there is a flock of sheep,
and some black ones among them, I
always think that, if they behave well,
they have as good a right to be fed as
the white ones. God will not ask what
is our color, but what has been our
conduct. The Almighty made all
colors. If we find fault with the work,
we find fault with the workman. His
works are all good. A black, ugly
bottle may have just as good spirits in
it as the cut glass decanter. Not the
cover of the book, but what the book
contains is the question. Many a good
book has dark covers. Which is the
worst, the white black man, or the
black white man ? When a white man
says any hard thing to me about my
color, I tell him I pity him, but I ask
him which is the worst, to be black
outside, or in ? When a black man is
treated ill on account of his color by a
34 AGRIPPA.
white man, and he bears it patiently
and only pities him, 1 think that he has
a chance to take a very high place over
the white man."
" Once," said Agrippa, " when I
was a servant to a gentleman who was
very overbearing and haughty, we both
went to the same church. One Sun-
day, a mulatto gentleman, by the name
of Haynes, preached. When we came
out of meeting, my master said to me,
4 Well Agrippa, how do you like nig-
ger preaching ? J 6 Sir,' I answered,
< he was half black and half white ; I
liked my half; how did you like
yours?' "
Upon the assertion that the slave-
holders cannot abolish slavery, Agrippa
said, " No one is obliged to do wrong.
When the drunkard savs lie cannot
live without spirit, 1 tell him to take
temperate things for a time, and see if
AGRIPPA
35
he is not better. It is bis will that is
in fault. There is no necessity to do
wrong. God never makes us do
wrong."
He put his hand on a little boy's
head, and said, " I love children ; I
love to see them well brought up. It
is a good thing to feed the minds of
children, 55
When speaking of the abolitionists,
he said, " It will be a great while be-
fore the abolitionists can succeed in
their purpose : but they will do great
good to the black men by inducing
them to keep down their bad feelings,
because they know that they will have
help at last. 55
" The abolitionists have the great
happiness of working for a cause in
which they know that they will have
God on their side, 55
In a cause the merit of which de-
pends upon the question whether the
36
AGRIPPA.
black man is a man, no further testi-
mony is needed than the remarks of
Agrippa ; and what greater encourage-
ment can the abolitionists desire than
that contained in his words, " God is
on their side" ?