Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself | Page 9

their ears, and jam their heads
together like sheep. If they are likely to hurt each other very bad, their
masters would rap them with their walking canes, and make them stop.
After fighting, they make friends, shake hands, and take a dram
together, and there is no more of it.
But this is all principally for want of moral instruction. This is where
they have no Sabbath Schools; no one to read the Bible to them; no one
to preach the gospel who is competent to expound the Scriptures,
except slaveholders. And the slaves, with but few exceptions, have no
confidence at all in their preaching, because they preach a pro-slavery
doctrine. They say, "Servants be obedient to your masters;--and he that
knoweth his master's will and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many
stripes;--" means that God will send them to hell, if they disobey their
masters. This kind of preaching has driven thousands into infidelity.
They view themselves as suffering unjustly under the lash, without
friends, without protection of law or gospel, and the green eyed
monster tyranny staring them in the face. They know that they are
destined to die in that wretched condition, unless they are delivered by
the arm of Omnipotence. And they cannot believe or trust in such a
religion, as above named.
The poor and loafering class of whites, are about on a par in point of
morals with the slaves at the South. They are generally ignorant,
intemperate, licentious, and profane. They associate much with the
slaves; are often found gambling together on the Sabbath; encouraging
slaves to steal from their owners, and sell to them, corn, wheat, sheep,
chickens, or any thing of the kind which they can well conceal. For
such offences there is no law to reach a slave but lynch law. But if both

parties are caught in the act by a white person, the slave is punished
with the lash, while the white man is often punished with both lynch
and common law. But there is another class of poor white people in the
South, who, I think would be glad to see slavery abolished in self
defence; they despise the institution because it is impoverishing and
degrading to them and their children.
The slave holders are generally rich, aristocratic, overbearing; and they
look with utter contempt upon a poor laboring man, who earns his
bread by the "sweat of his brow," whether he be moral or immoral,
honest or dishonest. No matter whether he is white or black; if he
performs manual labor for a livelihood, he is looked upon as being
inferior to a slaveholder, and but little better off than the slave, who
toils without wages under the lash. It is true, that the slaveholder, and
non-slaveholder, are living under the same laws in the same State. But
the one is rich, the other is poor; one is educated, the other is
uneducated; one has houses, land and influence, the other has none.
This being the case, that class of the non-slaveholders would be glad to
see slavery abolished, but they dare not speak it aloud.
There is much superstition among the slaves. Many of them believe in
what they call "conjuration," tricking, and witchcraft; and some of them
pretend to understand the art, and say that by it they can prevent their
masters from exercising their will over their slaves. Such are often
applied to by others, to give them power to prevent their masters from
flogging them. The remedy is most generally some kind of bitter root;
they are directed to chew it and spit towards their masters when they
are angry with their slaves. At other times they prepare certain kinds of
powders, to sprinkle about their masters dwellings. This is all done for
the purpose of defending themselves in some peaceable manner,
although I am satisfied that there is no virtue at all in it. I have tried it
to perfection when I was a slave at the South. I was then a young man,
full of life and vigor, and was very fond of visiting our neighbors slaves,
but had no time to visit only Sundays, when I could get a permit to go,
or after night, when I could slip off without being seen. If it was found
out, the next morning I was called up to give an account of myself for
going off without permission; and would very often get a flogging for

it.
I got myself into a scrape at a certain time, by going off in this way,
and I expected to be severely punished for it. I had a strong notion of
running off, to escape being flogged, but was advised by a friend to go
to one of those conjurers, who could