by Hannah-Rose Murray
PhD student, University of Nottingham
PhD student, University of Nottingham
Born enslaved in North Carolina in 1832, Rev. J. Sella Martin escaped to become a social activist, reformer and lecturer in the transatlantic sphere.
Whilst he was a young boy in slavery, Sella Martin was sold to different slaveholding families in Georgia and Alabama, and it was the latter state in which he escaped in 1854. Eventually he reached Boston and befriended white and black abolitionists, as well as becoming ordained as a minister for the First Independent Baptist Church in Beacon Hill.
Martin travelled to Britain in the early 1860s to lecture against slavery and raise money for the abolitionist cause. Since his visit coincided with the bloody American Civil War, Martin also educated British audiences about the nature of the conflict and why Britain should support the Union. Britain still heavily relied on the American South for its slave-grown cotton, and there were many Confederate sympathisers in Britain publishing pro-Southern and pro-slavery literature. In response, Martin gave numerous lectures to persuade Britons not to hold fellowship with anyone who supported the Confederacy, and by extension, slavery. He framed the forces of the North and South as those of light and darkness. The North fought for freedom whilst the Confederacy wanted to uphold its brutal slavery:
“They had been told that the North was fighting for empire, and the South for independence. They had been told the truth. The South was fighting for independence – independence to prevent others from becoming independent. The North was fighting for empire, the institutions of which were founded upon liberty, equality, and fraternity. If the North was fighting for empire, it was an empire the corner stone of which was liberty; it was fighting for freedom and equality at the ballot box, and the extension of the word of Jesus Christ.” (The Preston Guardian, Saturday 5 September 1863).
Whilst he was a young boy in slavery, Sella Martin was sold to different slaveholding families in Georgia and Alabama, and it was the latter state in which he escaped in 1854. Eventually he reached Boston and befriended white and black abolitionists, as well as becoming ordained as a minister for the First Independent Baptist Church in Beacon Hill.
Martin travelled to Britain in the early 1860s to lecture against slavery and raise money for the abolitionist cause. Since his visit coincided with the bloody American Civil War, Martin also educated British audiences about the nature of the conflict and why Britain should support the Union. Britain still heavily relied on the American South for its slave-grown cotton, and there were many Confederate sympathisers in Britain publishing pro-Southern and pro-slavery literature. In response, Martin gave numerous lectures to persuade Britons not to hold fellowship with anyone who supported the Confederacy, and by extension, slavery. He framed the forces of the North and South as those of light and darkness. The North fought for freedom whilst the Confederacy wanted to uphold its brutal slavery:
“They had been told that the North was fighting for empire, and the South for independence. They had been told the truth. The South was fighting for independence – independence to prevent others from becoming independent. The North was fighting for empire, the institutions of which were founded upon liberty, equality, and fraternity. If the North was fighting for empire, it was an empire the corner stone of which was liberty; it was fighting for freedom and equality at the ballot box, and the extension of the word of Jesus Christ.” (The Preston Guardian, Saturday 5 September 1863).
During December 1863, Martin gave a series of lectures on this subject in the Music Hall in Hull, one of which was titled ‘The Condition of the Slave in the South, the Treatment of the Negro in the North and the Relation of Both to the Present War in America.” Although attendance was unimpressive, Martin encouraged his audience to:
“…dispossess their minds for a time of all prejudices, whether in favour of the North or of the South, and to listen dispassionately to the question they were going to discuss and to give it the consideration which its importance demanded… it had been said by Englishmen who had been in the Southern states, that the negro was contented and happy with his lot. And why? because they had always been treated hospitality and with respect by the slaveholders; but he could say that the slaves were not well treated and contented. They were subjected to the most cruel humiliating treatment and longed for liberty.” (The Hull Packet and East Riding Times, December 25 1863) Even if Martin’s audience was small in Hull, he used every opportunity to denounce slavery, the Confederacy and racism in both the South and the North. He frequently drew attention to the state of recently freed African Americans who were left with nothing, and raised donations to help them. In the late 1860s, Martin returned to the United States, where in 1872, he was elected to the state legislature of Louisiana and held a position within the US Post Office. Martin died in New Orleans from an overdose of laudanum in 1876, and historians remain undecided whether this was intentional or not. His legacy of activism, social reform and fiery oratory deserves to be remembered in both America and in Britain. |