{"id":635,"date":"2026-03-26T18:54:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=635"},"modified":"2026-03-26T19:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:21:19","slug":"letter-to-harriet-beecher-stowe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=635","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following letter from James W.C. Pennington to Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in Stowe’s <\/em>A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a full volume answering the criticism, primarily from southerners, that her novel unfairly represented slavery as an evil institution. <\/em>A Key presents, as its subtitle states, “facts and documents upon which the story is founded, together with corroborative statements verifying the truth of the work.” John Hooker, mentioned in his letter, was a founder of Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood and husband of Isabella Beecher Hooker, featured in this anthology. <\/em><\/p>\n

Reader Advisory: Pennington emphasizes the lasting pain and degradation of slavery by employing the “n” word and vivid descriptions of his own experiences. <\/em><\/p>\n

Letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe<\/h2>\n

from James W.C. Pennington<\/p>\n

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{\u00a050 Laurens-street,<\/em><\/div>\n
{\u00a0New York, Nov. 30, 1852.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mrs H. B. Stowe.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Esteemed Madam<\/span>: I have duly received your kind letter in answer to mine of the 15th instant, in which you state that you \u201chave an intense curiosity to know how far you have rightly divined the heart of the slave.\u201d You give me your idea in these words: \u201cThere lies buried down in the heart of the most seemingly careless and stupid slave a\u00a0bleeding spot<\/em>, that bleeds and aches, though he could scarcely tell why; and that this sore spot is the\u00a0degradation<\/em>\u00a0of his position.\u201d<\/p>\n

After escaping from the plantation of Dr. Tilghman, in Washington County, Md., where I was held as a slave, and worked as a blacksmith, I came to the State of Pennsylvania, and, after experiencing there some of the vicissitudes referred to in my little published narrative, I came into New York State, bringing in my mind a certain indescribable feeling of wretchedness. They used to say of me at Dr. Tilghman\u2019s, \u201cThat blacksmith Jemmy is a \u2018cute fellow; still water runs deep.\u201d But I confess that \u201cblacksmith Jemmy\u201d was not \u2018cute enough to understand the cause of his own wretchedness. The current of the still water may have run deep, but it did not reach down to that awful bed of lava.<\/p>\n

At times I thought it occasioned by the lurking fear of betrayal. There was no Vigilance Committee at the time,\u2014there were but anti-slavery men. I came North with my counsels in my own cautious breast. I married a wife, and did not tell her I was a fugitive. None of my friends knew it. I knew not the means of safety, and hence I was constantly in fear of meeting with some one who would betray me.<\/p>\n

It was fully two years before I could hold up my head; but still that feeling was in my mind. In 1846, after opening my bosom as a fugitive to John Hooker, Esq., I felt this much relief,\u2014\u201cThank God there is one brother-man in hard old Connecticut that knows my troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after this, when I sailed to the island of Jamaica, and on landing there saw colored men in all the stations of civil, social, commercial life, where I had seen white men in this country, that feeling of wretchedness experienced a sensible relief, as if some feverish sore had been just reached by just the right kind of balm. There was before my eye evidence that a colored man is more than \u201ca nigger.\u201d I went into the House of Assembly at Spanishtown, where fifteen out of forty-five members were colored men. I went into the courts, where I saw in the jury-box colored and white men together, colored and white lawyers at the bar. I went into the Common Council of Kingston; there I found men of different colors. So in all the counting-rooms, &c. &c.<\/p>\n

But still there was this drawback. Somebody says, \u201cThis is nothing but a nigger island.\u201d Now, then, my old trouble came back again; \u201ca nigger among niggers is but a nigger still.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1849, when I undertook my second visit to Great Britain, I resolved to prolong and extend my travel and intercourse with the best class of men, with a view to see if I could banish that troublesome old ghost entirely out of my mind. In England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium and Prussia, my whole power has been concentrated on this object. \u201cI\u2019ll be a man, and I\u2019ll kill off this enemy which has haunted me these twenty years and more.\u201d I believe I have succeeded in some good degree; at least, I have now no more trouble on the score of equal manhood with the whites. My European tour was certainly useful, because there the trial was fair and honorable. I had nothing to complain of. I got what was due to man, and I was expected to do what was due from man to man. I sought not to be treated as a pet. I put myself into the harness, and wrought manfully in the first pulpits, and the platforms in peace congresses, conventions, anniversaries, commencements, &c.; and in these exercises that rusty old iron came out of my soul, and went \u201cclean away.\u201d<\/p>\n

You say again you have never seen a slave how ever careless and merry-hearted, who had not this sore place, and that did not shrink or get angry if a finger was laid on it. I see that you have been a close observer of negro nature.<\/p>\n

So far as I understand your idea, I think you are perfectly correct in the impression you have received, as explained in your note.<\/p>\n

O, Mrs. Stowe, slavery is an awful system! It takes man as God made him; it demolishes him, and then mis-creates him, or perhaps I should say mal-creates him!<\/p>\n

Wishing you good health and good success in your arduous work,<\/p>\n

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I am yours, respectfully,<\/div>\n
J. W. C. Pennington<\/span>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Public domain. Source: A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin<\/em>, Project Gutenberg<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following letter from James W.C. Pennington to Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in Stowe’s A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a full volume answering the criticism, primarily from southerners, that her novel unfairly represented slavery as an evil institution. A Key presents, as its subtitle states, “facts and documents upon which the story is … Continue reading Letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[87,61,60],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james-w-c-pennington","tag-black-lives","tag-emancipation","tag-slavery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}