Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 | Page 3

people from the never-ceasing charge of a
fitness for servile positions.
Abolitionists ought to consider it a legitimate part of their great work,
to aid in such an enterprise--to abolish not only chattel servitude, but
that other kind of slavery, which, for generation after generation,
dooms an oppressed people to a condition of dependence and
pauperism. Such an Institution would be a shining mark, in even this
enlightened age; and every man and woman, equipped by its discipline
to do good battle in the arena of active life, would be, next to the
emancipated bondman, the most desirable "Autograph for Freedom."
[Illustration: (signature) Chas. L. Reason]

Massacre at Blount's Fort.
On the west side of the Appalachicola River, some forty miles below
the line of Georgia, are yet found the ruins of what was once called
"BLOUNT'S FORT." Its ramparts are now covered with a dense
growth of underbrush and small trees. You may yet trace out its
bastions, curtains, and magazine. At this time the country adjacent
presents the appearance of an unbroken wilderness, and the whole
scene is one of gloomy solitude, associated as it is with one of the most
cruel massacres which ever disgraced the American arms.

The fort had originally been erected by civilized troops, and, when
abandoned by its occupants at the close of the war, in 1815, it was
taken possession of by the refugees from Georgia. But little is yet
known of that persecuted people; their history can only be found in the
national archives at Washington. They had been held as slaves in the
State referred to; but during the Revolution they caught the spirit of
liberty, at that time so prevalent throughout our land, and fled from
their oppressors and found an asylum among the aborigines living in
Florida.
During forty years they had effectually eluded, or resisted, all attempts
to re-enslave them. They were true to themselves, to the instinctive
love of liberty, which is planted in every human heart. Most of them
had been born amidst perils, reared in the forest, and taught from their
childhood to hate the oppressors of their race. Most of those who had
been personally held in degrading servitude, whose backs had been
seared by the lash of the savage overseer, had passed to that spirit-land
where the clanking of chains is not heard, where slavery is not known.
Some few of that class yet remained. Their gray hairs and feeble limbs,
however, indicated that they, too, must soon pass away. Of the three
hundred and eleven persons residing in "Blount's Fort" not more than
twenty had been actually held in servitude. The others were descended
from slave parents, who fled from Georgia, and, according to the laws
of slave States, were liable to suffer the same outrages to which their
ancestors had been subjected.
It is a most singular feature in slave-holding morals, that if the parents
be robbed of their liberty, deprived of the rights with which their
Creator has endowed them, the perpetrator of these wrongs becomes
entitled to repeat them upon the children of their former victims. There
were also some few parents and grandchildren, as well as middle-aged
persons, who sought protection within the walls of the Fort against the
vigilant slave-catchers who occasionally were seen prowling around the
fortifications, but who dare not venture within the power of those
whom they sought to enslave.
These fugitives had planted their gardens, and some of them had flocks

roaming in the wilderness; all were enjoying the fruits of their labor,
and congratulating themselves upon being safe from the attacks of
those who enslave mankind. But the spirit of oppression is inexorable.
The slaveholders finding they could not themselves obtain possession
of their intended victims, called on the President of the United States
for assistance to perpetrate the crime of enslaving their fellow men.
That functionary had been reared amid southern institutions. He
entertained no doubt of the right of one man to enslave another. He did
not doubt that if a man held in servitude should attempt to escape, he
would be worthy of death. In short, he fully sympathised with those
who sought his official aid. He immediately directed the Secretary of
War to issue orders to the Commander of the "Southern Military
District of the United States" to send a detachment of troops to destroy
"Blount's Fort," and to "seize those who occupied it and return them to
their masters."[1]
General Jackson, at that time Commander of the Southern Military
District, directed Lieut.-Colonel Clinch to perform the barbarous task. I
was at one time personally acquainted with that officer, and know the
impulses of his generous nature, and can readily account for the failure
of his expedition. He marched to the vicinity of the Fort, made the
necessary