LETTER FROM HIRAM WILSON.
St. Catharine’s, (C.W.) May 28, 1851.
WM. L. GARRISON:
MY DEAR FRIEND – Presuming a few lines from my pen will be acceptable to your readers, I take the liberty to write, though I must confess that is is more congenial with my feelings to labor silently in the cause of philanthropy, than to report progress. This is mainly the reason why you hear from me so unfrequently. I am aware that neither the dejected slave in his chains, nor the more favored yet desolate, homeless fugitive from slavery, have truer-hearted friends on earth, than are many, VERY MANY, of the readers of your paper.
It is proper that such, whether American or transAtlantic, should be well informed as to the nature of this asylum for the oppressed – its government and laws – its climate, soil, production, &c., and the present state and prospects of its now numerous and rapidly increasing colored population. The time has never been when reliable information respecting Canada was more needed than at present. The atrocious Fugitive Slave Law is doing a desperate work. It has already disturbed the peace of thousands, and driven them to this country, and many more are yet to come. It has been executed at the East with a sort of fiendish infatuation, which brands with infamy and covers with deep and damning guilt, those who aided or abetted in its execution. Had poor Sims been taken to the Great Elm on Boston Common, and put to death by hanging upon the first limb, and his agony and death-struggles, as an innocent sufferer, been witnessed by a horrified multitude covering the whole Common, it could not have caused a greater stigma upon the good name of Boston, or caused the infliction of a deeper wound upon Christianity and civilization, than the giving him up to the Georgia claimant.
If such scenes occur in the heart of New England, where the highest professions of regard for law and order are emblazoned to the world, what hope is there for trembling thousands in the nominally free States, but in flight to civilized countries?
The colored people of the North are bound to regard liberty as dearer than life, and shun slavery rather than death; their professed friends are sacredly bound to make common cause with them in their afflictions, and sooner sacrifice their own lives than suffer a brother, of whatever hue, to be dragged into slavery.
Every abolitionist, who deserves the name, should, with a martyr zeal, maintain this position at the peril of life or of being called an anarchist or an infidel. But with respect to Canada, as an asylum, let me say: this is the land of hope and promise – not for the vagrant – not for the idler – not for the vicious or intemperate – but for the hard-handed, noble-hearted sons and daughters of toil, who will cheerfully give themselves to industry, and be content with the ample rewards of industry. The face of the country is generally level, or moderately undulating; the soil is fertile and productive; when properly cultivated, it yields, in great abundance, all kinds of grain, fruits, vegetables, &c., such as are common in the Northern and Western States. The great lakes, which almost encircle the upper province, afford the best of facilities for navigation, and abound with fish. The resources of our everlasting forests, which are among the finest in the world, have not yet been half developed; pioneer settlers have frequently made a profitable use of their valuable timber while preparing to stir the rich soil which produced it. The forests abound with oak, elm, chestnut, black walnut, white walnut, hickory, poplar or white wood, basswood, button wood, bench, mable, ash, (black and white,) cherry, &c., and, in certain parts, vast forests of pine. I have travelled nearly twenty miles upon a stretch through the midst of lofty pines, many of which were 150 feet high.
The government and laws of this country are so well known that it is hardly necessary to speak of them. The government knows no man by the color of his skin, and the laws are equitable and impartial. Colored men are eligible to office, if educated and competent to fill offices, yet the prejudices of color are strong with the majority of the people. Fortunately for the colored population, the British Constitution and laws, which prevail in Canada, are better than the white people would make them. They are subject to many grievances on account of prejudices, but if their rights are infringed upon, they can as readily had redress by recourse to law, as any other people. A large slíare of the Canadian population, including the most wealthy and influential, government officers, &c., possess kindly sympathy towards, and doubtless rejoice to see them prosperous and happy; but, with many, the same malevolent feeling, which is the main basis of colonization, prevails. Here, if they would have such respect from others as would be worth having, they must respect themselves. Their condition varies with their variation of character, disposition, habits, &c. With regard to worldly substance, many of them are prospering; many more of them are able barely to live in what is, to them, a comfortable state; others, again, are in a deplorably destitute condition, partly on account of intemperate and idle habits, and partly owing to causes which were unavoidable, such as honest leanness, attendant upon emigration to Canada, loss of health, &c. They are generally a vigorous, healthy people in this country, and can find employment, if they have a mind to work. Very few need be idle, either in summer or winter, for lack of employment; and if less prosperous in the winter from want of employment, they have more time and better advantage for the cultivation and discipline of the mind. Though much has been done to enlighten them and improve their condition, they are still, to a great extent, an ignorant and degraded people. Their degradation is mainly the fault of others, but partly their own. Their prospect of becoming an intelligent, useful and happy people is hopeful. They need, however, to be more docile, and to receive and appreciate good wholesome advice upon various points, upon which they have already had ‘line upon line, precept upon precept.’ With regard to their religious meetings, educational advantages, social habits of life, &c., they are too clanish, and quite too exclusive for their own good. Their clanish tendencies incline them to perform low, menial services in cities and towns; whereas they should scatter, for the purpose of breathing the wholesome air of the country, and becoming enrolled with Nature’s nobility as independent tillers of the soil. I frequently advise them to go back into the country among farmers, and those who do are respected, and most of them are doing well. I have had much to do this winter to preserve the poorer class of the refugees in this quarter from suffering. It is to be hoped that they will never again have to encounter so rigorous a winter as the last, the first part of which was more severe than I have known in Canada for fifteen years.
I notice that some minister of the gospel has written from Jamaica in favor of emigration of colored people to the West Indies instead of coming to Canada and has referred to a letter of mine in the American Missionary, descriptive of the intense cold and consequent suffering of a few of the sable refugees. My letter was truthful at the time, as describing what then existed, but having relation to that which was an exception, of extremely rare occurrence, and of course and unsuitable data upon which to found an argument in favor of emancipation to the West Indies. There are serious evils, attendant upon emigration to the West Indies, unknown to the liberty-loving emigrants, who plant themselves in Canada, and which far outweigh the evil of our brief wintry chills.
I was called on yesterday by a fine-appearing man, a refugee from Arkansas, who was a fellow-slave with poor Nelson Hackett, prior to his (Hackett’s) escape to Canada. This man found his wife at Hamilton, she having escaped to this country a few months before him. The circumstances of their escape and reunion in Canada was remarkable. He was held near the Western limit of Arkansas by Alfred Wallace, from whom Hacket had fled; his wife was held upon a neighboring plantation. But a few months ago she was sold, and brought, by her purchaser, with her two small children, on their way to the State of Kentucky. On coming up the river, she left her master, and secreted herself on a boat, freighted with cotton. This brought her and her children part of the way, when, in the night, she took another boat to Cincinnati. She there found friends who soon conveyed her Northward. At length, she found herself safe in a free country. She was not long in this province till she wrote back to her former master and family in Arkansas, dating her letter in Canada, but not in any particular place. She wrote that she was well, and free, and happy, and if she should never see her husband again on earth, she hoped to meet him in heaven. He, however, soon became aware that his wife had been heard from. This he learned providentially, through a little girl in the family, but four or five years old, who, in her childish simplicity, told him that they had been talking about his wife – that she was in Canada, and that her father had a letter from her. The bereft husband’s anxiety was great, and his curiosity excited to the highest pitch. It was strange news to him, and he knew not what to make of it. At length, he cautiously inquired of an elder sister of the little girl, about 18 [possibly 10] years old, who got the letter, in the absence of her parents, and privately read it to him, but charged him not to let it be known that she had done so. This encouraged him to seek for liberty, and at the same time for his absent wife and children, and he was soon missing. He came down the Arkansas river some three or four hundred miles to the Mississippi, and over to Canada West. Not knowing where to find his wife, he looked first about Sandwich and Malden, came thence to Chatham, thence to London. Not content to stop in either of those places, he came down to Hamilton. There he knew not that his wife was in the place, till happily he met her in the street – and indescribably joyful must have been the meeting! She soon conducted him to her humble cot, where he renewed the happy greetings of liberty, with his children. His name is Wm. Murdock. The poor fellow is in need of a little assistance, which it is not at present in my power to render him. William informs me that Nelson Hackett was brought back by Wallace, his master, who had four hundred and fifty slaves on his plantation – that he was kept in handcuffs and fetters for some time, and closely watched besides – that he was flogged with great severity five or six times, and then sold off to the interior of Texas – that the first whipping, which was done in the presence of all the slaves, consisted of 150 lashes upon his naked body. His whippings afterward varied from 39 to 50 or 60 lashes at a time. So much for the punishment, by savage barbarians, of a human chattel, for running off with a horse chattel for freedom!
I have in possession other interesting narratives, but no time at present to communicate them.
Yours, for God and humanity,
HIRAM WILSON.