FootNote
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documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
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While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
These two letters are simply introduced to
show what the state of my feelings was with reference to
slavery at the time they were written. I had just heard
several facts with regard to my parents, which had awakened
my mind to great excitement.
To My Father, Mother, Brothers, And Sisters.
The following was written in 1844:
Dearly Beloved In Bonds,
About seventeen long years have now rolled away, since in
the Providence of Almighty God, I left your embraces, and
set out upon a daring adventure in search of freedom. Since
that time, I have felt most severely the loss of the sun and
moon and eleven stars from my social sky. Many, many a thick
cloud of anguish has pressed my brow and sent deep down into
my soul the bitter waters of sorrow in consequence. And you
have doubtless had your troubles and anxious seasons also
about your fugitive star.
I have learned that some of you have been sold, and again
taken back by Colonel 覧. How many of you are living and
together, I cannot tell. My great grief is, lest you should
have suffered this or some additional punishment on account
of my Exodus.
I indulge the hope that it will afford you some consolation
to know that your son and brother is yet alive. That God has
dealt wonderfully and kindly with me in all my way. He has
made me a Christian, and a Christian Minister, and thus I
have drawn my support and comfort from that blessed Savior,
who came to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up
the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them, that are bound. To
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of
vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn. To appoint
unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be
glorified.
If the course I took in leaving a condition which had become
intolerable to me, has been made the occasion of making that
condition worse to you in any way, I do most heartily regret
such a change for the worse on your part. As I have no
means, however, of knowing if such be the fact, so I have no
means of making atonement, but by sincere prayer to Almighty
God in your behalf, and also by taking this method of
offering to you these consolations of the gospel to which I
have just referred, and which I have found to be
pre-eminently my own stay and support. My dear father and
mother; I have very often wished, while administering the
Holy Ordinance of Baptism to some scores of children brought
forward by doting parents, that I could see you with yours
among the number. And you, my brothers and sisters, while
teaching hundreds of children and youths in schools over
which I have been placed, what unspeakable delight I should
have had in having you among the number; you may all judge
of my feeling for these past years, when while preaching
from Sabbath to Sabbath to congregations, I have not been so
fortunate as even to see father, mother, brother, sister,
uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or cousin in my congregations.
While visiting the sick, going to the house of mourning, and
burying the dead, I have been a constant mourner for you. My
sorrow has been that I know you are not in possession of
those hallowed means of grace. I am thankful to you for
those mild and gentle traits of character which you took
such care to enforce upon me in my youthful days. As an
evidence that I prize both you and them, I may say that at
the age of thirty-seven, I find them as valuable as any
lessons I have learned, nor am I ashamed to let it be known
to the world, that I am the son of a bond man and a bond
woman.
Let me urge upon you the fundamental truths of the Gospel of
the Son of God. Let repentance towards God and faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ have their perfect work in you, I beseech
you. Do not be prejudiced against the gospel because it may
be seemingly twisted into a support of slavery. The gospel
rightly understood, taught, received, felt and practised, is
anti-slavery as it is anti-sin. Just so far and so fast as
the true spirit of the gospel obtains in the land, and
especially in the lives of the oppressed, will the spirit of
slavery sicken and become powerless like the serpent with
his head pressed beneath the fresh leaves of the prickly ash
of the forest.
There is not a solitary decree of the immaculate God that
has been concerned in the ordination of slavery, nor does
any possible development of his holy will sanctify it.
He has permitted us to be enslaved according to the
invention of wicked men, instigated by the devil, with
intention to bring good out of the evil, but He does not, He
cannot approve of it. He has no need to approve of it, even
on account of the good which He will bring out of it, for He
could have brought about that very good in some other way.
God is never straitened; He is never at a loss for means to
work. Could He not have made this a great and wealthy nation
without making its riches to consist in our blood, bones,
and souls? And could He not also have given the gospel to us
without making us slaves?
My friends, let us then, in our afflictions, embrace and
hold fast the gospel. The gospel is the fullness of God. We
have the glorious and total weight of God's moral character
in our side of the scale.
The wonderful purple stream which flowed for the healing of
the nations, has a branch for us. Nay, is Christ divided?
"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to
(for) all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from
all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works." Titus II. 11-14.
But you say you have not the privilege of hearing of this
gospel of which I speak. I know it; and this is my great
grief. But you shall have it; I will send it to you by my
humble prayer; I can do it; I will beg our heavenly Father,
and he will preach this gospel to you in his holy
providence.
You, dear father and mother cannot have much longer to live
in this troublesome and oppressive world; you cannot bear
the yoke much longer. And as you approach another world, how
desirable it is that you should have the prospect of a
different destiny from what you have been called to endure
in this world during a long life.
But it is the gospel that sets before you the hope of such a
blessed rest as is spoken of in the word of God, Job III.
17, 19. "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there
the weary be at rest; there the prisoners rest together;
they hear not the voice of the oppressors. The small and
great are there; and the servant is free from his master."
Father, I know thy eyes are dim with age and weary with
weeping, but look, dear father, yet a little while toward
that haven. Look unto Jesus, "the author and finisher of thy
faith," for the moment of thy happy deliverance is at hand.
Mother, dear mother, I know, I feel, mother, the pangs of
thy bleeding heart, that thou hast endured, during so many
years of vexation. Thy agonies are by a genuine son-like
sympathy mine; I will, I must, I do share daily in those
agonies of thine. But I sincerely hope that with me you bear
your agonies to Christ who carries our sorrows.
O come then with me, my beloved family, of weary
heart-broken and care-worn ones, to Jesus Christ, "casting
all your care upon him, for he careth for you." 2 Peter
verse 7.
With these words of earnest exhortation, joined with fervent
prayer to God that He may smooth your rugged way, lighten
your burden, and give a happy issue out of all your
troubles, I must bid you adieu.
Your son and brother,
Jas. P.
Alias J.W.C. Pennington.
To Colonel F覧 T覧,
Of H覧, Washington County, Md. 1844.
Dear Sir,
It is now, as you are aware, about seventeen
years since I left your house and service,
at the age of twenty. Up to that time, I
was, according to your rule and claim, your
slave. Till the age of seven years, I was,
of course, of little or no service to you.
At that age, however, you hired me out, and
for three years I earned my support; at the
age of ten years, you took me to your place
again, and in a short time after you put me
to work at the blacksmith's trade, at which,
together with the carpentering trade, &c, I
served you peaceably until the day I left
you, with exception of the short time you
had sold me to S覧 H覧, Esq., for seven
hundred dollars. It is important for me to
say to you, that I have no consciousness of
having done you any wrong. I called you
master when I was with you from the mere
force of circumstances; but I never regarded
you as my master. The nature which God gave
me did not allow me to believe that you had
any more right to me than I had to you, and
that was just none at all. And from an early
age, I had intentions to free myself from
your claim. I never consulted any one about
it; I had no advisers or instigators; I kept
my own counsel entirely concealed in my own
bosom. I never meditated any evil to your
person or property, but I regarded you as my
oppressor, and I deemed it my duty to get
out of your hands by peaceable means.
I was always obedient to your commands. I
labored for you diligently at all times. I
acted with fidelity in any matter which you
entrusted me. As you sometimes saw fit to
entrust me with considerable money, to buy
tools or materials, not a cent was ever
coveted or kept.
During the time I served you in the capacity
of blacksmith, your materials were used
economically, your work was done
expeditiously, and in the very best style, a
style second to no smith in your
neighbourhood. In short, sir, you well know
that my habits from early life were
advantageous to you. Drinking, gambling,
fighting, &c., were not my habits. On
Sabbaths, holidays, &c., I was frequently at
your service, when not even your
body-servant was at home.
Times and times again, I have gone on Sunday
afternoon to H覧, six miles, after your
letters and papers, when it was as much my
privilege to be "out of the way," as it was
C覧.
But what treatment did you see fit to return
me for all this? You, in the most unfeeling
manner, abused my father for no cause but
speaking a word to you, as a man would speak
to his fellow-man, for the sake simply of a
better understanding.
You vexed my mother, and because she, as a
tender mother would do, showed solicitude
for the virtue of her daughters, you
threatened her in an insulting brutal
manner.
You abused my brother and sister without
cause, and in like manner you did to myself;
you surmised evil against me. You struck me
with your walking-cane, called me insulting
names, threatened me, swore at me, and
became more and more wrathy in your conduct,
and at the time I quitted your place, I had
good reason to believe that you were
meditating serious evil against me.
Since I have been out of your hands, I have
been signally favoured of God, whence I
infer that in leaving you, I acted strictly
in accordance with his holy will. I have a
conscience void of offence towards God and
towards all men, yourself not excepted. And
I verily believe that I have performed a
sacred duty to God and myself, and a
kindness to you, in taking the blood of my
soul peaceably off your soul. And now, dear
sir, having spoken somewhat pointedly, I
would, to convince you of my perfect good
will towards you, in the most kind and
respectful terms, remind you of your coming
destiny. You are now over seventy years of
age, pressing on to eternity with the weight
of these seventy years upon you. Is not this
enough without the blood of some half score
of souls?
You are aware that your right to property in
man is now disputed by the civilized world.
You are fully aware, also, that the
question, whether the Bible sanctions
slavery, has distinctly divided this nation
in sentiment. On the side of Biblical
Anti-slavery, we have many of the most
learned, wise and holy men in the land. If
the Bible affords no sanction to slavery,
(and I claim that it cannot,) then it must
be a sin of the deepest dye; and can you,
sir, think to go to God in hope with a sin
of such magnitude upon your soul?
But admitting that the question is yet
doubtful, (which I do only for the sake of
argument,) still, sir, you will have the
critical hazard of this doubt pressing, in
no very doubtful way, upon your declining
years, as you descend the long and tedious
hill of life.
Would it not seem to be exceedingly
undesirable to close an eventful probation
of seventy or eighty years, and leave your
reputation among posterity suspended upon so
doubtful an issue? But what, my dear sir, is
a reputation among posterity, who are but
worms, compared with a destiny in the world
of spirits? And it is in light of that
destiny that I would now have you look at
this subject. You and I, and all that you
claim as your slaves, are in a state of
probation; our great business is to serve
God under His righteous moral government.
Master and slave are the subjects of that
government, bound by its immutable
requirements, and liable to its sanctions in
the next world, though enjoying its
forbearance in this. You will pardon me then
for pressing this point in earnest good
faith. You should, at this stage, review
your life without political bias, or
adherence to long cherished prejudices, and
remember that you are soon to meet those
whom you have held, and do hold in slavery,
at the awful bar of the impartial Judge of
all who doeth right. Then what will become
of your own doubtful claims? What will be
done with those doubts that agitated your
mind years ago; will you answer for
threatening, swearing, and using the cowhide
among your slaves?
What will become of those long groans and
unsatisfied complaints of your slaves, for
vexing them with insulting words, placing
them in the power of dogish and abusive
overseers, or under your stripling,
misguided, hot headed son, to drive and whip
at pleasure, and for selling parts or whole
families to Georgia? They will all meet you
at that bar. Uncle James True, Charles
Cooper, Aunt Jenny, and the native Africans;
Jeremiah, London, and Donmore, have already
gone a-head, and only wait your arrival,
Sir, I shall meet you there. The account
between us for the first twenty years of my
life, will have a definite character upon
which one or the other will be able to make
out a case.
Upon such a review as this, sir, you will, I
am quite sure, see the need of seriousness.
I assure you that the thought of meeting you
in eternity, and before the dread tribunal
of God, with a complaint in my mouth against
you, is to me of most weighty and solemn
character. And you will see that the
circumstances from which this thought arises
are of equal moment to yourself. Can the
pride of leaving your children possessed of
long slave states, or the policy of
sustaining in the state the institution of
slavery, justify you in overlooking a point
of moment to your future happiness?
What excuse could you offer at the bar of
God, favoured as you have been with the
benefits of a refined education, and through
a long life with the gospel of love, should
you, when arraigned there, find that you
have, all your life long, laboured under a
great mistake in regard to slavery, and that
in this mistake you had died, and only
lifted up your eyes in the light of eternity
to be corrected, when it was too late to be
corrected in any other way.
I could wish to address you (being bred,
born, and raised in your family) as a father
in Israel, or as an elder brother in Christ,
but I cannot; mockery is a sin. I can only
say then, dear sir, farewell, till I meet
you at the bar of God, where Jesus, who died
for us, will judge between us. Now his blood
can wash out our stain, break down the
middle wall of partition, and reconcile us
not only to God but to each other, then the
word of his mouth, the sentence will set us
at one. As for myself, I am quite ready to
meet you face to face at the bar of God. I
have done you no wrong; I have nothing to
fear when we both fall into the hands of the
just God.
I beseech you, dear sir, to look well and
consider this matter soundly. In yonder
world you can have no slaves, you can be no
man's master you can neither sell, buy, or
whip, or drive. Are you then, by sustaining
the relation of a slaveholder, forming a
character to dwell with God in peace?
With kind regards,
I am, sir, yours respectfully,
J.W.C. Pennington.
The Fugitive
Blacksmith; or Events in the History of
James W. C. Pennington, 1849
