Why was it law for whites to vouch for blacks in order for their stories to be published? What kind of people do these vouchers tend to be? How do the vouchers affect the story of the blacks that they vouch for? If these vouchers had an audience, who would that audience be? Whites had to vouch for blacks in order for their stories to be published because it was illegal for them to read and write at that period in time. Both Wendell Philips and L. Maria Child were whites that vouched for blacks and used their stories to convey their beliefs on slavery to their white audience. One way they convey this is through diction. Both Philips and Child use their black associates’ stories, Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs, to reveal how they disagreed on slavery.
Childs believed that slavery was immoral and she used Harriet Jacobs’ story to convey this. One way she shows this is through diction. “ I am well aware that many will accuse me of indecorum…no fugitive from Slavery shall ever be sent back to suffer in that loathsome den of corruption and cruelty…her parents were to live together even though they had different masters….as she grew to adulthood, she was sexually threatened by the doctor and abused by his jealous wife.” (H. J. Packet and Child). This conveys how Childs was strictly against the treatment Jacobs had to endure by her master and his wife. That no one not even Negroes should have to endure that. It also conveys the woman that Childs was. She knew that people would say that her taking up for slavery was unacceptable and even still she vouched for a slave. That conveys true bravery and they would be especially harsh on Child because she is a woman, this still did not come to her mind. She thought of the people like slaves who had bigger problems, Childs was not at all selfish. This conveys the kind of people the vouchers were: both selfless and fearless. But Child is not the only voucher that showed their beliefs through a slave’s story.
Like Child, Phillips used the story of an ex-slave, Fredrick Douglas, to convey his beliefs against slavery. One way he establishes this is through diction, also. “I attended an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to become acquainted with Frederick Douglas…fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation…Reader! Are you with the man-stealers in sympathy and purpose, or on the side of their downtrodden victims...NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS!...slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters…to keep their slaves thus ignorant.”(Frederick Douglas Packet and Wendell Philips). This conveys how slaves were treated like animals and how the people that owned them had every intention to keep it that way. This also conveyed the kind of man that Frederick Douglas grew up to be. Even though he was treated like an animal he still had a strong enough mentality to achieve something more than a slave status by meeting a white who was thrilled to meet him. But the white not only was thrilled to meet him but also to vouch for him and to shout out there could be no union with slaveholders. This conveys the kind of person Frederick had influenced and also had to vouch for him. A man willing to profess that there could not be a real standing nation, that there would be no real United States of America, if there was still slave owners showed the bravery he had. Not only did that show his bravery but showed how he did not agree with slavery at all. He didn’t care that his statement did not only bring up a political question but also a moral and loyalist question, this just proved how deeply and strongly he felt. But with Philips were other vouchers and used the stories they vouched for to convey how they felt about slavery.
Both Philips and Child conveyed how they felt about slavery through the stories of the slaves Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs. They both used diction to convey this theory. They also conveyed the kind of people vouchers were, fearless and passionate. Selflessness was also a trait that the vouchers shared. All in all the vouchers vouched for the blacks and made a stance and a trend by doing so and they contributed much to the knowledge of slavery during those times and are idolized for doing so.
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