The Fugitive Blacksmith

The Fugitive Blacksmith

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Title: The Fugitive Blacksmith or, Events in the History of James W. C.
Pennington
Author: James W. C. Pennington
Release Date: February 21, 2005 [EBook #15130]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE FUGITIVE BLACKSMITH; OR, EVENTS IN THE HISTORY
OF JAMES W.C. PENNINGTON, PASTOR OF A PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH, NEW YORK, FORMERLY A SLAVE IN THE STATE
OF MARYLAND, UNITED STATES.
"Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them
from the face of the spoiler."--ISAIAH xvi. 4.
Second Edition.
LONDON: CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT.
1849

[_Transcriber's Note: This project was transcribed from a contemporary
printing of the work, not from the 1849 edition. Certain spellings may
have been modernized and typographic and printer's errors changed
from the original._]

MR. CHARLES GILPIN,
MY DEAR SIR,
The information just communicated to me by you, that another edition
of my little book, "The Fugitive Blacksmith," is called for, has
agreeably surprised me. The British public has laid me under renewed
obligations by this mark of liberality, which I hasten to acknowledge. I
would avail myself of this moment also, to acknowledge the kindness
of the gentlemen of the newspaper press for the many favourable
reviews which my little book has received. It is to them I am indebted,
in no small degree, for the success with which I have been favoured in
getting the book before the notice of the public.
Yours truly,
J.W.C. PENNINGTON.
_Hoxton, Oct. 15th, 1849._

PREFACE.
The brief narrative I here introduce to the public, consists of outline
notes originally thrown together to guide my memory when lecturing
on this part of the subject of slavery. This will account for its style, and
will also show that the work is not full.
The question may be asked, Why I have published anything so long
after my escape from slavery? I answer I have been induced to do so on
account of the increasing disposition to overlook the fact, that THE SIN
of slavery lies in the chattel principle, or relation. Especially have I felt
anxious to save professing Christians, and my brethren in the ministry,
from falling into a great mistake. My feelings are always outraged
when I hear them speak of "kind masters,"--"Christian masters,"--"the
mildest form of slavery,"--"well fed and clothed slaves," as
extenuations of slavery; I am satisfied they either mean to pervert the
truth, or they do not know what they say. The being of slavery, its soul
and body, lives and moves in the chattel principle, the property

principle, the bill of sale principle; the cart-whip, starvation, and
nakedness, are its inevitable consequences to a greater or less extent,
warring with the dispositions of men.
There lies a skein of silk upon a lady's work-table. How smooth and
handsome are the threads. But while that lady goes out to make a call, a
party of children enter the apartment, and in amusing themselves,
tangle the skein of silk, and now who can untangle it? The relation
between master and slave is even as delicate as a skein of silk: it is
liable to be entangled at any moment.
The mildest form of slavery, if there be such a form, looking at the
chattel principle as the definition of slavery, is comparatively the worst
form. For it not only keeps the slave in the most unpleasant
apprehension, like a prisoner in chains awaiting his trial; but it actually,
in a great majority of cases, where kind masters do exist, trains him
under the most favourable circumstances the system admits of, and
then plunges him into the worst of which it is capable.
It is under the mildest form of slavery, as it exists in Maryland,
Virginia, and Kentucky, that the finest specimens of coloured females
are reared. There are no mothers who rear, and educate in the natural
graces, finer daughters than the Ethiopian women, who have the least
chance to give scope to their maternal affections. But what is generally
the fate of such female slaves? When they are not raised for the express
purpose of supplying the market of a class of economical Louisian and
Mississippi gentlemen, who do not wish to incur the expense of rearing
legitimate families, they are, nevertheless, on account of their
attractions, exposed to the most shameful degradation,