68. One of the attornies having addressed letters to several respectable citizens of Delaware, for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the correctness of the statements of the captives, an answer was received relative to the female, of which the following is an extract:—
69. "Your letter of the 30th ult. I received by yesterday's mail, and am happy to find the unfortunate negro woman is once more rescued from the fangs of the ——s and others, as vile a banditti as ever were permitted to disturb the peace of society. The statement by —— [the woman] is no doubt true. This poor creature was rescued from the ——s some time last winter, and seems in the case which occurred then, as well as that which you relate, to have been saved by an almost miraculous intervention. The ----s stand now indicted for taking her off last winter.—Their gang is numerous, daring—full of money, &c."
70. Understanding that several of the persons concerned in the cases had been arrested, and having been informed by one of the representatives to congress, from Delaware, that the laws of that state inflict corporeal punishment for offences of this kind, such as whipping, cropping the ears, and exposure in the pillory, I wrote a reply to the above letter, of which the following is an extract:
71. "Not for vengeance, but for the sake of humanity, I hope this fell banditti, with which the free (or ought to be free) soil of America is polluted, may be routed. But, for Heaven's sake, and for the sake of their wives and children, and for my sake, let the wrath of justice and law be so managed, that their animal bodies shall not be tormented, in consequence of my exertions to arrest the progress of their outrageous and unpardonable conduct, equal to the scratch of a pin. Yet I cannot help charging that state jurisprudence, which permits the easy repetition of the crimes of which they have been guilty, with being exceedingly defective. It seems to me, that where there is no work-house in a state, such persons should be limited under sufficient securities and penalties, to their own farms, or some prescribed boundaries;—and, in case they transgress these, to be declared to be outlawed, and liable to be estimated and treated no other than as wolves and tygers, to which they have already assimilated themselves of their own accord."
72. Governor Miller of North-Carolina, says in his speech already alluded to, "The principle will be conceded, that the end of punishment is the prevention of crimes." Lacerations and mutilations of the human frame, exasperate its occupant in the highest degree, and are very likely to excite an obstinate perseverance in crimes, by way of retaliation and spite. Imprisonment, with labour, if it does not reform the disturber of the public peace, by the opportunity of reflection and salutary instruction, it certainly restrains his career for a specific time, effectually.
73. The satisfaction of beholding the yellow man, and the black woman, with her two female infants, (one of them having been born but a short time previous to their release,) seated in the stage, under the care of one of the senators of the legislature of Delaware, who had attended the court as a witness in behalf of the woman; afforded me a rich reward for thus having performed an indispensable duty, which I owed to their Creator, to them as their neighbour, to the principles of our social and political system, and to myself.
74. The specimen here given of man-stealing, forms but a mere speck in an extensive system of this nefarious profession, which for many years has been, and continues to be pursued, with increasing vigor and pecuniary profit, in all the middle states. Even the city of Philadelphia is not exempt from this moral pestilence.
75. To enumerate all the horrid and aggravating instances of men-stealing, which are known to have occurred in the state of Delaware, within the recollection of many of the citizens of that state, would require a heavy volume. In many cases, whole families of free coloured people have been attacked in the night, beaten nearly to death with clubs, gagged and bound, and dragged into distant and hopeless captivity and slavery, leaving no traces behind, except the blood from their wounds.
76. During the last winter, since the seizure of the woman and infant, as related above, the house of a free black family was broken open, and its defenceless inhabitants treated in the manner just mentioned, except, that the mother escaped from their merciless grasp, while on their way to the state of Maryland. The plunderers, of whom there were nearly half a dozen, conveyed their prey upon horses; and the woman being placed on one of the horses, behind, improved an opportunity, as they were passing a house, and sprang off; and not daring to pursue her, they proceeded on, leaving her youngest child a little farther along by the side of the road, in expectation, it is supposed, that its cries would attract the mother, but she prudently waited until morning, and recovered it again in safety.
77. I consider myself more fully warranted in particularising this fact, from the circumstances of having been at New-Castle at the time that the woman was brought with her child, before the grand jury, for examination; and of having seen several of the persons against whom bills of indictment were found, on the charge of being engaged in the perpetration of the outrage; and also that one or two of them were the same who were accused of assisting in seizing and carrying off the woman and child whom I discovered at Washington. The ingenuity and stratagems employed by kidnappers, in effecting their designs, are such as to prove, that the most consummate cunning is no evidence of wisdom or moral purity, nor incompatible with the most consummate villainy. A monster, in human shape, was detected in the city of Philadelphia, pursuing the occupation of courting and marrying mulatto women, and selling them as slaves. In his last attempt of this kind, the fact having come to the knowledge of the African population of this city, a mob was immediately collected, and he was only saved from being torn in atoms, by being deposited in the city prison. They have lately invented a method of attaining their objects, through the instrumentality of the laws:—Having selected a suitable free coloured person, to make a pitch upon, the conjuring kidnapper employs a confederate, to ascertain the distinguishing marks of his body and then claims and obtains him as a slave, before a magistrate, by describing those marks, and proving the truth of his assertions, by his well-instructed accomplice.