Jean-Charles Houzeau

“ Social classes, just like individuals, have their excesses which amaze us. Swept to madness, angry up to cruelty, they abandon themselves to the passion of the moment, without restraint or limit. They seem to satisfy a burning rage. The remote viewers doubt these facts. Let them cast their eyes around them, and judge accordingly. We too, in old Europe, have, by fits, some impulses of greed that threaten to bring everything down. We no longer say divide, but corrupt, in order to conquer. ”

“ A ship out of your ports fails on their shores, on a stormy night. Your shipwrecked sailors will be seized by the merchants of human flesh. Are they not proletarians without resources? If the law itself, if the force of treaties, condemned this barbaric conduct, renewed by the Manchurians and the Japanese, do you not know how difficult it is for an isolated captive to give any sign of life from deep in those immense countrysides? Have no doubt that the unfortunate castaway become a slave at least for a time, by the all-powerful reason that one could "make money" of his person. ”

“ We have seen people combat with courage, fanaticism, for causes otherwise perfectly fair, at least justifiable. I would have understood the planter fighting to ensure compensation in case of abolition, or fighting for a gradual emancipation, spread over twenty or fifty years. But I cannot explain stubbornness pushed to rage in order to establish, to impose, that which is unjust, impossible, inhuman, absurd, disapproved, judged, condemned by all religions, all philosophies, all systems, all countries, I mean the "universal and perpetual slavery." ”

“ By chance I found myself, on the Colorado, in a large cotton plantation owned by a German immigrant named Von Lenz. Apart of forty slaves, some darker-skinned than others, assigned to physical work, there were two young people in the house, so mixed-blooded that everyone saw them as white people. Amanda and William, just at the bloom of youth, were raised among the family of the planter. To their natural gifts of character, they added acquired talent that made them valuable on the farm: one day they would have made ​​good stewards. ”

“ A slavery society, once consolidated on a despotic basis, the worker without capital, the proletarian, whatever his origin, will just have to get under the yoke.
And what are the attractions powerful enough to attach to this system, despite public disapproval, the feudal class of the United States? There are two. One is the immense benefit that is derived from manual labor, applied to agriculture, when you use a staff whose needs you systematically limit. In winter-free countries, the slave is dressed cheaply, he is fed of the products of the field, he is housed in wooden cabins. ”

“ We are told that intelligence, selflessness, humanity, are no longer being honored now, that manufacturers and their workers need affordable cotton, at long-term credit, and that they would also unite to stone, in full public square, those who would dare proclaim today in their manufacturing cities the principles that "All men are children of the same father who is God; men and women, nobles and slaves are also the angels of God; men and women are all brothers and sisters, therefore love your neighbor as yourself, and the divine law above all." ”

“ I heard a moment Anderson's pony galloping noisily in the mud, then the sound faded and was lost. The outlaw whom I had left had launched in an almost limitless space, a field of several hundred leagues, with no other guide than his compass, and no other companion than his horse; forced to flee the Indians in this fast gallop which we call "the gallop for his life"; forced to fear the white people. ”

“ Only one corner of the picture, uncovered by an eyewitness, whose name has authority and unquestionable repute, will give an idea, and the cry of outrage from the writer will reach in the minds of the readers, will travel Europe, and avenge humanity. ”

“ One can hear discuss openly the project of putting into servitude all whites who own no land. The social system is based, indeed, on the principle that "capital owns its work." He who has but his arms, the proletarian, as we say in Europe, can therefore have no existence by himself: he must be owned by others. Regardless of the monstrosity of this doctrine, which denies the spiritual equality of men, and which brings to nought the idea of ​​humanity, no system is more contrary to the development of personal qualities and to that of the country's industry. ”

“ But there is no money to feed the convicts themselves, and they will have to enlist them in the army, if it is not already the case... Imagine: me as a convict for refusing to be a soldier for this cause!
"If Texas remains immersed in this condition, there is only one thing for me to do, which is to go back home. I will have to sacrifice everything, but I will not live in a country without communications with the outside world. You will find me aged somewhat, I hope, developed by physical activity, life in the open air, by the knowledge of the danger and of human passions. ”

“ It was a sort of rage to make money from one's fellow men, women, and children. A society whose ruling class is exclusively dominated by this passion has no solid elements for lasting. This ephemeral triumph of lust for gold is no less than a stain in history and a disgrace for humanity.
No doubt that there are, among the the planters, exceptions. The old established families, and in which the slaves were passed from father to son, have kept almost all the old patriarchal system. They saw with dread the attempt to bring down the blacks and enslave poor whites ”

“ Before acquiring the right to hold helots, the cotton grower should match the courage and selflessness of the Spartan. Even supposing that he constitute an elite race, wouldn′t his duty be to take the weak by the hand and to support him, to call for the ignorant and educate him?
But it is precisely against the Christian idea that the slave master protests. He does not justify slavery as a temporary way of working, as a local requirement of the climate. ”

“ To his Christian charity, to the gentle virtues of Minister of the Gospel, this missionary combines a fiery soul. He belongs to the brave army of Methodist preachers, who constantly travel the country. Tireless in their efforts, roaming up hill and down dale; camping for months in the virgin prairie, braving the scorching sun of summer and the north winds of winter, living on little, paid only voluntary subscriptions, often belated — these elite priests go everywhere to help up the weak, relieve suffering, and to rescue the oppressed. ”

“ He proclaims his right a divine right; he states its social form as final, perfect, which he undertakes to expand to the whole United States, and to Mexico, who rejected it.
Challenging the ideas of his century, trampling the teachings of the religion, he braves all with audacity, because he is wealthy. He claims to satisfy more at ease still, his greed and his passions. The demon that drags him has been the loss of stronger powers and more talented too. ”

“ Should it be otherwise, may my friends remember me sometimes. Amidst a world of profit, whose passions of greed know neither restraint nor modesty, I did not allow myself soiled. I kept my pure traditions of integrity and discretion. I still have the weakness to believe that man has duties, not only purely personal duties, but duties of humanity. I have the weakness of having faith in progress, in the success of just causes, in the moral idea. ”

“ I continue to keep myself as much as possible, in my position as a disinterested spectator But the relentlessness is terrible. There are times when possession itself seems to have deserted the human soul...
"I spoke my full opinion, consciously formed as I have argued a year ago that slavery, just like material bondage, is milder than most servitudes in Europe (military service, workshop labour, etc) But now I am forced to condemn the plantation owners..." ”

“ In view of these alerts rangers, vigorous, passionate, — endowed with all the resources of war and industry: education, money, choice horses, accurate weapons — who would not have deplored the use which they were making of their strength and of their superiority? Social classes yield, just like individuals, to the influence of a monomania. Fair, enlightened, reasonable on everything else, they throw themselves in a strange bias when you tackle the dangerous subject. ”

“ After informing the government of Washington of the forces of the Unionist Party in the western Texas, after exposing the failure of the planters′ efforts to effect the mass uprising, an uprising which by the way will always be lacking in weapons, food and ammunition, the memo moves on to the consideration of the future of slaves. An immediate and absolute liberation, as well as a mass transport abroad, are also impractical measures, while fatal to the interests of the country and to the Negroes. We must first stop slavery at its source, by stating that any future child is born free. ”

“ This independent view did not fail to raise some outrage: one was surprised to see a friend of mankind, a man of principles, accept objections to the abolishing of slavery, bother to search for the solution in factual matter, bring up the practical aspect in the humanitarian debate, and, far from taking part in the rantings, from applauding the attempts, show himself stern, that is, just, regarding the scuffle — the "speculation", of which the abolitionist John Brown was in turn the agent and later victim. ”

“ The ground seemed ready to give under the steps of the planters.
In Texas, a powerful opposition, a nearly invicible force of inertia, came to stop or at least delay the government's military projects. We swore that we would stay in our homes, owners of our weapons, and if we were some day to use a musket, it would not be for the right of the planter of having men as work slaves and of abusing their wives, but to claim our own right to live free and in brotherhood. ”

“ It was a long, slow convoy of ox-carts, cluttered with furniture, cooking pots, farm implements, and — as an introduction — women and children. Here and there appeared a light carriage, laden with any more delicate chests, containing, to all appearance, valuables, and guarded with the same zeal than the tabernacle of the Hebrews.
The men are armed to the teeth. Women cry at the top of their carts. Everyone goes headlong, and all are probably never to return. ”

“ There were more than a hundred wounded in the hospital, and I could see all the horrors that war leaves in its trail... There were negroes and mulattos who had fought for the freedom of their race and who spoke to me about slavery with tears in their eyes. The wounded of both parties were together, no distinction was made ​​between them.
Unlike our European practice, anyone can come at any time to the hospital, relatives and friends come to sit at the patients' bedside and comfort them. The nurses are women, as in London. ”

“ They preferred to burn their blacks than to see them free. Those who are guilty of this atrocity, which has no parallel in history, especially as it does not involve enemies; those who are guilty of this misdeed gathered the harmless blacks, ordered them to enclose themselves in the workshops, locked the doors, and then the fire did its work, while the masters were watching the exits, to fall by bullet the child, the elderly, the woman who would jump off a roof, risking their life, to escape the anguish of the pyre. ”

“ The day of my visit to Von Lenz, a butcher in the area, B... of Smithville, arrived early in the morning in a light carriage, drawn by two spirited horses; without even taking the time to unhitch, he had requested on the spot an interview. He was one of those ordinary men, to whom nerve holds as merit, and whose thinking stops where benefit comes to an end. He offered to rent one of the young slaves. The women had just returned from the cottonfield; Amanda was presiding over their lunch. The butcher scanned, with an expert eye, all those in the hall; his gaze halted on the young white one. ”