14 10 136 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource For Frederick Douglass' Paper (Letter to the Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Letter advocating for free labor Description An account of the resource AURORA, N.Y., March 14, 1855. FRIEND DOUGLASS: - On looking over your paper of March 9, I see a piece entitled a New Association ; and as you thereby invite the thoughts of your readers as to how slavery shall be got rid of, I venture to give you mine on the subject, (hoping you will have many thoughts form others also, for in the multitude of counselors there is safety.) We all know it is a great work, and a mighty opposition may reasonably be expected; but happily for, us the world affords us one example of such a work being effected; (I mean the English emancipation;) and in this work, no one person can expect to work alone, but everyone may help, and a most effectual help I conceive it would be, if everyone would thoroughly wash their hands of participation in the guilt and sin of slavery, as this seems a very plain question; that as the slave-owner steals the labor to produce the fruits of the earth, such goods, whether cotton, tobacco or sugar, or anything else, are stolen goods; and the indisputable proverb, that the receive is as bad as the thief, seems to hold good, if he knew it to be stolen I would suggest, then the propriety of something like a pledge to be signed by every person, man, woman or child, capable of knowing the purpose, not to sue in any way, slave produce . If only a goodly portion of the inhabitants of the Northern States would sign such a pledge, and strictly keep it, then we might reasonably appeal to the masses of England to cooperate in the work; and I have no doubt that a vast number of the inhabitant of England would, if appealed to on the subject, enter into it heartily; for I believe that full ninety-nine out of a hundred of the English are opposed to slavery, and would do any reasonable thing to help exterminate it. If, then, the people of the free States here, and then the people of England, could be brought to refuse slave goods, and let slave produce accumulate in their wharves and warehouses, till they were all full, and hard to find a market anywhere, then, when we had made our efforts felt in the right quarter, begin to think of getting up petitions to Congress to do away with slavery, and relieve the Southerners of this difficulty in not being able to sell their produce ; and, after all, I believe it would be the greatest blessing to the South, in the long run, if it could be expected it is easy to suggest this plan on paper, but it would require a long pull, as strong pull, and a pull all together, to carry it out in practice. I hardly see how anyone can object to this plan, let him belong to what denomination, sect or party he may, if he professes the religion of the Bible; and if anyone feel like stumbling at the laws of this land, in regard to slavery, he would do well to remember the words of Peter and other apostles in the 5th ch. Of Acts, 29th verse: "We ought to obey God, rather than men;" and I would ask, what would become of slavery if all professing Christians would obey this one precept in the 58th ch. Of Isaiah, 6th verse: "Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free , and that ye break every yoke?" and the next verse is in direct opposition to the carrying out of the Fugitive Slave Law. Ah! that a people boasting of their freedom would obey God rather than man. I know that some try to excuse, palliate, or even justify slavery from the Bible; but I think on one, with any knowledge of the precepts of Christianity, need fear to take up the weapons of his warfare against such blind leaders of the blind. Wishing success to every effort for truth and righteousness, I bid you a hearty and affectionate farewell, WILLIAM EMPSON. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource William Empson Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <em>Frederick Douglass' Paper</em> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 4.20.1855 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Collins Free Produce Association - it's advantages, &c. (Article) Description An account of the resource The people of Collins, are very much like the people elsewhere, being quite willing that a few of their number should do all the labor and have all the honor of a work of reform until it is nearly consummated, when they are equally willing to share in the triumph if anything is to be gained by it. This remark will apply politically although intended for another purpose. For some years there have been in this vicinity two persons who are not content with the usual duties of the Abolitionist, in the common acceptation of that term. They have chosen to apply their labors in every direction calculated to cripple the energies of the slave power or hasten the overthrow of slavery. Accordingly they have singly and alone applied the abstinence principle to the products of slave-labor. More recently finding some to sympathise with them and a consequent increase in numbers, there has been an organization formed bearing the name of the heading of this article. The members of this organization calculate beforehand about how much sheeting, sugar, calico, &c., they will need respectively, and pay the estimated cost in advance, which is forwarded to New York or the American Free Produce Depot in Philadelphia, accompanied with the account of the kinds and amount of good wanted. They regard slave products the price of blood and oppression. The advantages as already to some extent witnessed are: 1st. A testimony against slavery that will ere long be felt and appreciated, and without which no Abolitionist can be consistent. 2nd. The removal of the sectarian bigotry and prejudice previously exhibited. 3d. A discouragement of the further multiplication of the Non-producers in the world. Aside from the subject of slavery then, there is this decided use: it prevents mercantile monopoly and saves the profits on the goods for the use of the consumer. When this system is perfected, there must of course be more producers and consequently less oppression. It is to be hoped that the contemplated National League will incorporate the free produce principle into its constitution. I would ask, that the readers of the North Star would seriously consider whether they are not losing much of the influence they possess by neglecting the scriptural injunction of "touch not, taste not, handle nor the unclean thing," the present use of which is rendering such aid to slaveholders. L.M. COLLINS CENTER, 11th mo. 1849. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <em>The North Star</em> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 11.23.1849 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Free Labor Movement (Article) Description An account of the resource FREDERICK DOUGLASS' ESTEEMED FRIENDS: I have been giving thy address at Corinthian Hall, another reading. I value it for the view it takes of the great field of anti-slavery, and that taken from the "standpoint" occupied by the Liberty party. I am at a loss to understand how any strict abolitionists can object to its principles, as defined in that address, especially if " it makes a clean sweep of slavery EVERYWHERE." The "Free Labor people" are also spoken of in that address. I felt really thankful that they were obtaining a little more attention, for the sake of their principles. Allowing the Liberty Party to e the right hand of anti-slavery, the Free Labor movement, will put in a claim to be considered one of its fingers, and, peradventure, may some day be invited to a place " up higher ." The "Free Labor people" are understood to reassert the doctrine, that slavery cannot be legalized anywhere neither in Congress nor out of Congress neither in the cotton-field nor out of the cotton-field neither in the cotton-mill nor on the counter of the store -keeper nor in anti-slavery bazaars nor on the tables nor backs of those who cry aloud, and "spare not," when they are denouncing slavery in all its ramifications. Free labor people claim the right to prefer the "higher law," that says, 'the laborer is worthy of his hire" to the "lower law," that says, "price must be consulted before principle." Accordingly, when a slaveholder offers them a bale of cotton he has whipped out of the labor of some "Uncle Tom," they say, to sell or buy, that cotton, cannot be legalized without the owner's consent that that cotton has been obtained through fraud and cruelty of the deepest tint we cannot buy it or use it without acknowledging the legality of the transaction or acting the part that is down below any respectful attention. "The hire of the laborer that has been kept back by fraud, crieth" out of that bale of cotton, and all the eloquence or arguments that expediency can use, cannot stifle that heart sickening moan! Under these impressions, they cannot go to the slaveholder with a protest against his unholy calling, or to the slave, and affect sympathy for him, and then turn round and falsify it all by becoming accomplices it the guilt. They are willing to hope that their "society is quietly doing its work;" but a part of the work it undertakes, is by no means agreeable, however necessary it may be; it is not agreeable to attempt to show, that to go before the world, with well written addresses, setting forth what some honest, thorough-going anti-slavery people did some years ago, at great personal sacrifice, and trying to make anti-slavery capital out of it, while the speakers are, at the same time, justifying themselves in purchasing stolen cotton, to run their mills upon, or fill up their stores , or ornament their person with, is mere twaddle, and can no more aid in the abolition of slavery, than the beating the wind with a fan, can drive back the tempest. They have long been converts to the doctrine so well expressed in thy paper of the 30th, ult., viz.: "Christianity does not modify or regulate iniquity. It seeks to abolish it. It is a gross reflection upon its purity, to even insinuate that it tampers, it the least degree, with any species of iniquity." Hence, they believe it to be the duty of the church to take this anti-slavery business in hand, and to see if the members of each of its branches are acting up to the principles it has after mature deliberation adopted, regardless of the plea set up by custom or convenience. Being willing to be tested themselves in this way, they see no impropriety in testing the anti-slavery of the day in the same manner, wherever it proclaims itself. We frequently meet with persons who, when we endeavor to set before them the claims of the Free Labor movement, reply, of the correctness of your principles, there can be non doubt. I admit it fully; and if you will come and open a Free Labor store in this place, I will give you my patronage; and I have no doubt you would be well sustained, if you could sell your goods as low as other goods are selling; there are a great many anti-slavery people in this place. So said the people to Robert Fulton, when he made his first attempt with his "tiny bark" on the Hudson. There can be no doubt but it would be a great accommodation to the public to travel in that way. We shall keep an eye upon you, and if you succeed, you may rely upon our patronage. But, sys Fulton, no thanks to you for such patronage; the patronage that will be useful to me is what I can feel the benefit of at the present time! Free Labor people wish to avoid censoriousness in themselves, and take no comfort in seeing it indulged by others. They intend to use great plainness of speech, without being uncourteous. They aim at calling the attention of anti-slavery people to a few facts they deem worthy of more notice than they have hitherto obtained. Cotton growing, by slave labor, and slave breeding, have grown up side by side of each other, and are believed to be ultimately connected. There is no necessity in going to slaveholders for our supply of cotton; it is believed there were nearly 100,000 bales of that a commodity raised last year, in the Southern States, by non-slaveholding planters . This cotton might have been selected, (a portion of its was,) purchased t the current price of other cotton, manufactured and sol to ultra abolitionists; and through this means the non-slaveholding planter might be made to understand that they, too, had sympathizers in the free States. There is no necessity in mixing the free grown with the slave-grown cotton, in the process of manufacturing. There is a cotton-mill now in operation near Philadelphia, under the care of respectable, trustworthy men, G.W. Taylor and others, where the free grown cotton alone is used, and where fabrics suitable for domestic use are now in the process of manufacture. With these facts before them, Free Labor people feel warranted in asking everyone pledged o the side of freedom Will the moral law sustain you in giving the preference to slave-grown cotton? In concluding my long letter, (I have not room to speak of the premiums for free -grown cotton, that will probably be paid this year by the friends of this movement,) allow me to express my desire, that all our anti-slavery organizations may be brought back to first principles. Let us have a new organization (if needful) with " no political , ecclesiastical, nor commercial union with slaveholding," for our motto ! Very restfully, thy friend, HENRY MILES, Cor. Sec'y of Free Produce Association of Western Vermont. MOUKTON, April 5, 1855. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Henry Miles Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <em>Frederick Douglass' Paper</em> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 4.20.1855 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lockport, May 13, 1855 (Letter to the Editor) Subject The topic of the resource An letter to Frederick Douglass' Paper asking for support for a free labor store in Rochester. Description An account of the resource FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ.: DEAR SIR: - We have organized, in this village, a Free Labor Produce Association, and have ninety-eight names pledged to support a Free Labor Produce Store. Those names have all been obtained in this village, and but few of whom are residents in our towns of our County, where little or non effort has been made to obtain signatures to our Constitution; and if I could make the necessary effort, I have no doubt several hundred signatures could be obtained to our Constitution, who would stand pledged to support a free labor store. And now, what we want most, is some trustworthy person of sufficient capital to establish a dry goods and grocery free labor store; and I would thank you to confer with your anti-slavery friends in Rochester or elsewhere, on the subject of coming here and opening such a store, which, I think, would be well sustained. I find many who approve of the principle of giving preference to the use of free labor produce, that decline pledging themselves to abstain altogether form the use of slaver labor produce. They want to see the goods on the shelves and behind the counter, before they sign a pledge. I presume you are aware that cotton goods, manufactured form free labor raised cotton, can be obtained in Philadelphia, also from England, through George W. Taylor, of Philadelphia, who is a manufacturer of free labor cotton in Philadelphia who sent me samples of goods manufactured in England, form free labor cotton sent there by friends Taylor. These samples compare well in price and quality, with the like style of goods in the store here. I am, respectfully yours, MARCUS STICKNEY. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marcus Stickney Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <em>Frederick Douglass' Paper</em> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 5.18.1855 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Free Produce Convention (Article) Description An account of the resource "In accordance with previous notice a number of friends of abstinence from the productions of Slavery, met in Convention at Salem, Union Co., Ia., 11th mo. 19th, 1850. The meeting was organized by the appointment of Wm. Beard President, Joel Parker and Thomas Freeman Vice Presidents, and Walter Edgerton and Reuben Macy Secretaries. On motion, a committee of seven was appointed to prepare business for the action of this meeting. The following persons constituted said committee, viz: Walter Edgerton, Wm. H. Brisbane, Levi Coffin, Wm. Hough, Jonathan Swain, Sarah Franklin, Jemmima Maxwell and Nathan Thomas. After the reading of a chapter from the sacred volume, and a solemn pause, an excellent letter from Judge Jay to the colored citizens of New York, relative to the bearing of the infamous Fugitive Slave Law upon the colored population was read, and also a letter from H.H. Garnet, a black man, who is now advocating the cause of abstinence from Slave-grown produce in England, to the editor of the ""Non-Slaveholder,"" setting forth the cheering progress of the cause in that country. On motion, Wm. H. Brisbane of Cincinnati, was called upon to address the meeting, who came forward and interested the audience in an able and impressive manner till the close of the session. On motion, the Convention adjourned till 5 o'clock this evening. EVENING SESSION. The Convention met according to adjournment, - the President in the chair. The Committee on business through its chairman reported the following preamble and resolutions, which were separately taken up, discussed and unanimously adopted: Whereas, Slavery is an evil professedly deprecated by the great mass of the christian community, especially in the non-slaveholding portion of our country; Therefore, 1. Resolved, That it becomes our imperative duty, if we would maintain any character for consistency, to avoid as much as practicable giving any countenance or support to that most wicked institution. 2. Resolved, That the African Slave Trade - the wars, and incalculable loss of human life incident thereon - the horrors of the ""middle passage"" in the Slaver - the unutterable agony of tens of thousands of our fellow-men and women as they cross the briny deep, the victims of the man-thief's cupidity, together with the scarcely less infamous but legalized traffic in the bodies and souls of men carried on in the midst of this liberty-loving Republic! the tearing asunder of husbands and wives, parents and children, and the application of the chain, the iron collar, the hand-cuff, the knotted-lash and branding-iron, to the quivering flesh of the unfortunate who have fallen among thieves, and all the rest of the pharaphernalia of human torture which the ingenuity of the most inhuman tyrant can invent, depend almost, if not exclusively upon the consumption of the produce of the labor of the slave; Therefore: 3. Resolved, That the consumers of slave produce are the primary supporters of this most infamous scheme from first to last. 4. Resolved, That with these views it is our duty to endeavor to put in train a set of measures by which we can be furnished with articles of consumption in common use free from the blood of the slave, and that we appoint a committee who shall digest a plan of operations and present it to a future session of the convention. The following persons were appointed a committee as contemplated in the above resolution, viz: Walter Edgerton, Levi Coffin, Nathan Thomas, Joel Parker, and Dr. Brisbane. On motion, adjourned till 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. MORNING SESSION. Eleventh mo. 20th, pursuant to adjournment the Convention again met - the president in the chair. The committee on business reported the following resolution which was unanimously adopted. Resolved, That we recognize the Non-Slaveholder as an able and efficient advocate of the abstinence cause, and would therefore recommend it to the friends of that cause, and solicit for it their hearty patronage. The Committee to digest and propose a plan by which we may be furnished with articles of consumption in common use free from the blood of the slave, reported the following resolutions. Resolved, That this Convention recommend the formation of a joint stock company raised upon shares of five dollars each to be under the control of twelve directors, and to be regularly chartered, for the establishment of a wholesale free -produce store in Cincinnati, Ohio. Resolved, That Dr. Brisbane, Thos. Freeman, Samuel Lewis, Levi Coffin, Thomas Franklin and Richard Gaines, be a committee to make arrangements to carry the foregoing plan into execution, to - detail such regulations as may be necessary for the formation of said company upon the most efficient principles, and shall have power to fill all vacancies which may occur in their own body and are directed to prosecute the concern till the company is duly formed, and stock sufficiently taken to accomplish the above object. Resolved, That the Fugitive Slave Law is so wicked, barbarous and unjust in its features and requirements, that no good honest citizens can without disgracing himself yield the slightest obedience to it. On motion adjourned till early candle-lighting, this evening. EVENING SESSION. At early candle-lighting the convention met. On motion, Resolved that the Secretary be directed to forward the proceedings of this Convention to the True Democrat, the Anti-Slavery Bugle and Ohio Standard for publication. On motion, adjourned sine die . WM. BEARD, PRES'T. W. EDGERTON, Sec'y." Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The North Star Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1.2.1851 https://productsoffreelabor.com/files/original/f1f12d3b0cfd980a5c982abc7f4d82eb.jpeg 2a568e0265da67e892037d035f18f30a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Free Labor Movement (Article) Description An account of the resource One of the saddest features of American Slavery, is its mournful reaction upon the whole country, both north and south. Its influence surrounds us like the atmosphere; we gather around the social board, and one of the first things which meets our gaze, is some luxury wrung from the reluctant, trembling hands of the crushed and weary slave. We enter the wardrobe and the sighs and groans of the slave are lingering around the seams of our clothes, and floating amid the folds of our garments. But who will say, when Carolina's rice, with snowy whiteness, tempts the taste, perhaps the hands that gathered this were severed form some loved and lost embrace? Who will gaze upon the manufactured cotton, and see the stain, the stain of blood and tears upon its warp and woof? Who will look beneath the delicate proportions of the sugar cane, and see the stinging ad clotted lash, and on their surface, trace the agony of years? Our moral influence against slavery must be weakened, our testimony diluted, if, while we denounce slavery as robbery of the basest kind, oppression of the most shameful stamp, an aggression upon the very citadel of life, robbing a human heart of its liberty and fights, its energies and manhood, we are constantly demanding rice from the swaps, cotton form the plantations and sugar from the deadly mills, even if every rood and acre, on which they grew, had been the scene of outrage, injustice, and crime, even if the soil on which they were raised, were red with blood and wet with servile tears, even if desolate bosoms were trampled upon to produce them, bleeding, or weary hearts crushed to procure them. Taking this view of the matter, we may hail the free labor movement, as a harbinger of hope, and ensign of progress, and a means of proving the consistency of our principles, and the earnestness of our zeal. By so-doing we may prove to the south, that we not only denounce slavery as robbery and piracy, but we are endeavoring to shake our hands from sharing in its spoils, and participating in its crimes. By so doing may we not set influences at work to girdle the deadly upas of slavery, and compel it to wither and die, for want of sustenance and support? And under the auspices of free and intelligent labor , the south may yet blossom and bloom like the rose, and slavery cease to write upon the land, cursed is the ground for my sake. FRANCIS ELLEN WATKINS. LEWISTON, Me., 1855. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <em>Frederick Douglass' Paper</em> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 6.29.1855