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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9915-8.txt b/9915-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d6ca8e --- /dev/null +++ b/9915-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2265 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Appeal to the Christian Women of the +South, by Angelina Emily Grimké + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South + +Author: Angelina Emily Grimké + +Posting Date: November 3, 2011 [EBook #9915] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 31, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF SOUTH *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + + + +Angelina Emily Grimké + + + + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + +BY A.E. GRIMKÉ. + + +"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself +that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For +if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: +but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth +whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And +Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in +unto the king, which is not according to law, and _if I perish, I +perish_." Esther IV. 13-16. + + +Respected Friends, + +It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present and +eternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Some +of you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me in +Christian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship; and even when compelled by +a strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of union which +bound us together as members of the same community, and members of +the same religious denomination, you were generous enough to give me +credit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you believed I had been +most strangely deceived. I thanked you then for your kindness, and +I ask you _now_, for the sake of former confidence, and former +friendship, to read the following pages in the spirit of calm +investigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have known me, +that I write thus unto you. + +But there are other Christian women scattered over the Southern +States, a very large number of whom have never seen me, and never +heard my name, and who feel _no_ interest whatever in _me_. But I feel +an interest in _you_, as branches of the same vine from whose root I +daily draw the principle of spiritual vitality--Yes! Sisters in Christ +I feel an interest in _you_, and often has the secret prayer arisen +on your behalf, Lord "open thou their eyes that they may see wondrous +things out of thy Law"--It is then, because I _do feel_ and _do pray_ +for you, that I thus address you upon a subject about which of all +others, perhaps you would rather not hear any thing; but, "would to +God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with +me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." Be not afraid +then to read my appeal; it is _not_ written in the heat of passion +or prejudice, but in that solemn calmness which is the result of +conviction and duty. It is true, I am going to tell you unwelcome +truths, but I mean to speak those _truths in love_, and remember +Solomon says, "faithful are the _wounds_ of a friend." I do not +believe the time has yet come when _Christian women_ "will not endure +sound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken to +them in tenderness and love, therefore I now address _you_. + +To all of you then, known or unknown, relatives or strangers, (for you +are all _one_ in Christ,) I would speak. I have felt for you at this +time, when unwelcome light is pouring in upon the world on the subject +of slavery; light which even Christians would exclude, if they could, +from our country, or at any rate from the southern portion of it, +saying, as its rays strike the rock bound coasts of New England and +scatter their warmth and radiance over her hills and valleys, and from +thence travel onward over the Palisades of the Hudson, and down the +soft flowing waters of the Delaware and gild the waves of the Potomac, +"hitherto shalt thou come and no further;" I know that even professors +of His name who has been emphatically called the "Light of the world" +would, if they could, build a wall of adamant around the Southern +States whose top might reach unto heaven, in order to shut out the +light which is bounding from mountain to mountain and from the hills +to the plains and valleys beneath, through the vast extent of our +Northern States. But believe me, when I tell you, their attempts will +be as utterly fruitless as were the efforts of the builders of Babel; +and why? Because moral, like natural light, is so extremely subtle in +its nature as to overleap all human barriers, and laugh at the puny +efforts of man to control it. All the excuses and palliations of this +system must inevitably be swept away, just as other "refuges of lies" +have been, by the irresistible torrent of a rectified public opinion. +"The _supporters_ of the slave system," says Jonathan Dymond in his +admirable work on the Principles of Morality, "will _hereafter_ be +regarded with the _same_ public feeling, as he who was an advocate for +the slave trade _now is_." It will be, and that very soon, clearly +perceived and fully acknowledged by all the virtuous and the candid, +that in _principle_ it is as sinful to hold a human being in bondage +who has been born in Carolina, as one who has been born in Africa. +All that sophistry of argument which has been employed to prove, that +although it is sinful to send to Africa to procure men and women as +slaves, who have never been in slavery, that still, it is not sinful +to keep those in bondage who have come down by inheritance, will be +utterly overthrown. We must come back to the good old doctrine of our +forefathers who declared to the world, "this self evident truth that +_all_ men are created equal, and that they have certain _inalienable_ +rights among which are life, _liberty_, and the pursuit of happiness." +It is even a greater absurdity to suppose a man can be legally born +a slave under _our free Republican_ Government, than under the petty +despotisms of barbarian Africa. If then, we have no right to enslave +an African, surely we can have none to enslave an American; if it is a +self evident truth that _all_ men, every where and of every color are +born equal, and have an _inalienable right to liberty_, then it is +equally true that _no_ man can be born a slave, and no man can ever +_rightfully_ be reduced to _involuntary_ bondage and held as a slave, +however fair may be the claim of his master or mistress through wills +and title-deeds. + +But after all, it may be said, our fathers were certainly mistaken, +for the Bible sanctions Slavery, and that is the highest authority. +Now the Bible is my ultimate appeal in all matters of faith and +practice, and it is to _this test_ I am anxious to bring the subject +at issue between us. Let us then begin with Adam and examine the +charter of privileges which was given to him. "Have dominion over the +fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living +thing that moveth upon the earth." In the eighth Psalm we have a still +fuller description of this charter which through Adam was given to +all mankind. "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy +hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, +yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the +sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." And after +the flood when this charter of human rights was renewed, we find _no +additional_ power vested in man. "And the fear of you and the dread of +you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, +and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of +the sea, into your hand are they delivered." In this charter, although +the different kinds of _irrational_ beings are so particularly +enumerated, and supreme dominion over _all of them_ is granted, yet +_man_ is _never_ vested with this dominion _over his fellow man;_ +he was never told that any of the human species were put _under his +feet;_ it was only _all things_, and man, who was created in the image +of his Maker, _never_ can properly be termed a _thing_, though the +laws of Slave States do call him "a chattel personal;" _Man_ then, I +assert _never_ was put _under the feet of man_, by that first charter +of human rights which was given by God, to the Fathers of the +Antediluvian and Postdiluvian worlds, therefore this doctrine of +equality is based on the Bible. + +But it may be argued, that in the very chapter of Genesis from which I +have last quoted, will be found the curse pronounced upon Canaan, by +which his posterity was consigned to servitude under his brothers Shem +and Japheth. I know this prophecy was uttered, and was most fearfully +and wonderfully fulfilled, through the immediate descendants of +Canaan, i.e. the Canaanites, and I do not know but it has been through +all the children of Ham but I do know that prophecy does _not_ tell us +what _ought to be_, but what actually does take place, ages after it +has been delivered, and that if we justify America for enslaving +the children of Africa, we must also justify Egypt for reducing +the children of Israel to bondage, for the latter was foretold as +explicitly as the former. I am well aware that prophecy has often been +urged as an excuse for Slavery, but be not deceived, the fulfilment of +prophecy will _not cover one sin_ in the awful day of account. Hear +what our Saviour says on this subject; "it must needs be that offences +come, but _woe unto that man through whom they come"_--Witness some +fulfilment of this declaration in the tremendous destruction, of +Jerusalem, occasioned by that most nefarious of all crimes the +crucifixion of the Son of God. Did the fact of that event having been +foretold, exculpate the Jews from sin in perpetrating it; No--for +hear what the Apostle Peter says to them on this subject, "Him being +delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, _ye_ +have taken, and by _wicked_ hands have crucified and slain." Other +striking instances might be adduced, but these will suffice. + +But it has been urged that the patriarchs held slaves, and therefore, +slavery is right. Do you really believe that patriarchal servitude was +like American slavery? Can you believe it? If so, read the history +of these primitive fathers of the church and be undeceived. Look at +Abraham, though so great a man, going to the herd himself and fetching +a calf from thence and serving it up with his own hands, for the +entertainment of his guests. Look at Sarah, that princess as her name +signifies, baking cakes upon the hearth. If the servants they had were +like Southern slaves, would they have performed such comparatively +menial offices for themselves? Hear too the plaintive lamentation of +Abraham when he feared he should have no son to bear his name down +to posterity. "Behold thou hast given me no seed, &c, one born in my +house _is mine_ heir." From this it appears that one of his _servants_ +was to inherit his immense estate. Is this like Southern slavery? I +leave it to your own good sense and candor to decide. Besides, such +was the footing upon which Abraham was with _his_ servants, that he +trusted them with arms. Are slaveholders willing to put swords and +pistols into the hands of their slaves? He was as a father among his +servants; what are planters and masters generally among theirs? When +the institution of circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded +thus; "He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, +_every_ man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, +or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed." And +to render this command with regard to his _servants_ still more +impressive it is repeated in the very next verse; and herein we may +perceive the great care which was taken by God to guard the _rights +of servants_ even under this "dark dispensation." What too was the +testimony given to the faithfulness of this eminent patriarch. "For I +know him that he will command his children and his _household_ after +him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and +judgment." Now my dear friends many of you believe that circumcision +has been superseded by baptism in the Church; _Are you_ careful to +have _all_ that are born in your house or bought with money of any +stranger, baptized? Are _you_ as faithful as Abraham to command +_your household to keep the way of the Lord?_ I leave it to your own +consciences to decide. Was patriarchal servitude then like American +Slavery? + +But I shall be told, God sanctioned Slavery, yea commanded Slavery +under the Jewish Dispensation. Let us examine this subject calmly and +prayerfully. I admit that a species of _servitude_ was permitted to +the Jews, but in studying the subject I have been struck with wonder +and admiration at perceiving how carefully the servant was guarded +from violence, injustice and wrong. I will first inform you how these +servants became servants, for I think this a very important part of +our subject. From consulting Horne, Calmet and the Bible, I find there +were six different ways by which the Hebrews became servants legally. + +1. If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might sell himself, i.e. +his services, for six years, in which case _he_ received the purchase +money _himself_. Lev. xxv, 39. + +2. A father might sell his children as servants, i.e. his _daughters_, +in which circumstance it was understood the daughter was to be the +wife or daughter-in-law of the man who bought her, and the _father_ +received the price. In other words, Jewish women were sold as _white +women_ were in the first settlement of Virginia--as _wives_, _not_ as +slaves. Ex. xxi, 7. + +3. Insolvent debtors might be delivered to their creditors as +servants. 2 Kings iv, 1 + +4. Thieves not able to make restitution for their thefts, were sold +for the benefit of the injured person. Ex. xxii, 3. + +5. They might be born in servitude. Ex. xxi, 4. + +6. If a Hebrew had sold himself to a rich Gentile, he might be +redeemed by one of his brethren at any time the money was offered; and +he who redeemed him, was _not_ to take advantage of the favor thus +conferred, and rule over him with rigor. Lev. xxv, 47-55. + +Before going into an examination of the laws by which these servants +were protected, I would just ask whether American slaves have become +slaves in any of the ways in which the Hebrews became servants. Did +they sell themselves into slavery and receive the purchase money into +their own hands? No! Did they become insolvent, and by their own +imprudence subject themselves to be sold as slaves? No! Did they steal +the property of another, and were they sold to make restitution for +their crimes? No! Did their present masters, as an act of kindness, +redeem them from some heathen tyrant to whom _they had sold +themselves_ in the dark hour of adversity? No! Were they born in +slavery? No! No! not according to _Jewish Law_, for the servants who +were born in servitude among them, were born of parents who had _sold +themselves_ for six years: Ex. xxi, 4. Were the female slaves of +the South sold by their fathers? How shall I answer this question? +Thousands and tens of thousands never were, _their_ fathers _never_ +have received the poor compensation of silver or gold for the tears +and toils, the suffering, and anguish, and hopeless bondage of _their_ +daughters. They labor day by day, and year by year, side by side, in +the same field, if haply their daughters are permitted to remain on +the same plantation with them, instead of being as they often are, +separated from their parents and sold into distant states, never again +to meet on earth. But do the _fathers of the South ever sell their +daughters_? My heart beats, and my hand trembles, as I write the awful +affirmative, Yes! The fathers of this Christian land often sell +their daughters, _not_ as Jewish parents did, to be the wives and +daughters-in-law of the man who buys them, but to be the abject slaves +of petty tyrants and irresponsible masters. Is it not so, my friends? +I leave it to your own candor to corroborate my assertion. Southern +slaves then have _not_ become slaves in any of the six different ways +in which Hebrews became servants, and I hesitate not to say that +American masters _cannot_ according to _Jewish law_ substantiate their +claim to the men, women, or children they now hold in bondage. + +But there was one way in which a Jew might illegally be reduced to +servitude; it was this, he might be _stolen_ and afterwards sold as a +slave, as was Joseph. To guard most effectually against this dreadful +crime of manstealing, God enacted this severe law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be +put to death." [1] As I have tried American Slavery by _legal_ Hebrew +servitude, and found, (to your surprise, perhaps,) that Jewish law +cannot justify the slaveholder's claim, let us now try it by _illegal_ +Hebrew bondage. Have the Southern slaves then been, stolen? If they +did not sell themselves into bondage; if they were not sold as +insolvent debtors or as thieves; if they were not redeemed from a +heathen master to whom _they had sold themselves_; if they were not +born in servitude according to Hebrew law; and if the females were +not sold by their fathers as wives and daughters-in-law to those who +purchased them; then what shall we say of them? what can we say of +them but that according _to Hebrew Law they have been stolen_. + +But I shall be told that the Jews had other servants who were absolute +slaves. Let us look a little into this also. They had other servants +who were procured in two different ways. + +1. Captives taken in war were reduced to bondage instead of being +killed; but we are not told that their children were enslaved Deut. +xx, 14. + +2. Bondmen and bondmaids might be bought from the heathen round about +them; these were left by fathers to their children after them, but +it does not appear that the _children_ of these servants ever were +reduced to servitude. Lev. xxv, 44. + +I will now try the right of the southern planter by the claims of +Hebrew masters over their _heathen_ slaves. Were the southern slaves +taken captive in war? No! Were they bought from the heathen? No! for +surely, no one will _now_ vindicate the slave-trade so far as to +assert that slaves were bought from the heathen who were obtained by +that system of piracy. The _only_ excuse for holding southern slaves +is that they were born in slavery, but we have seen that they were +_not_ born in servitude as Jewish servants were, and that the children +of heathen slaves were not legally subjected to bondage even under the +Mosaic Law. How then have the slaves of the South been obtained? + +I will next proceed to an examination of those laws which were enacted +in order to protect the Hebrew and the Heathen servant; for I wish you +to understand that _both_ are protected by Him, of whom it is said +"his mercies are over _all_ his works." I will first speak of those +which secured the rights of Hebrew servants. This code was headed +thus: + +1. Thou shalt _not_ rule over him with _rigor_, but shalt fear thy +God; + +2. If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in +the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. Ex. xxi, 2. [2] + +3. If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were +married, then his wife shall go out with him. + +4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him sons and +daughters, the wife and her children shall be his master's, and he +shall go out by himself. + +5. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my +children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto +the Judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, +and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall +serve him _forever_. Ex. xxi, 5-6. + +6. If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that +it perish, he shall let him go _free_ for his eye's sake. And if he +smite out his man servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth, he +shall let him go _free_ for his tooth's sake. Ex. xxi, 26, 27. + +7. On the Sabbath rest was secured to servants by the fourth +commandment. Ex. xx, 10. + +8. Servants were permitted to unite with their masters three times in +every year in celebrating the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and +the feast of Tabernacles; every male throughout the land was to appear +before the Lord at Jerusalem with a gift; here the bond and the free +stood on common ground. Deut. xvi. + +9. If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under +his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue +a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. Ex. xxi, +20, 21. + +From these laws we learn that Hebrew men servants were bound to serve +their masters _only six_ years, unless their attachment to their +employers their wives and children, should induce them to wish +to remain in servitude, in which case, in order to prevent the +possibility of deception on the part of the master, the servant was +first taken before the magistrate, where he openly declared his +intention of continuing in his master's service, (probably a public +register was kept of such) he was then conducted to the door of the +house, (in warm climates doors are thrown open,) and _there_ his ear +was _publicly_ bored, and by submitting to this operation he testified +his willingness to serve him _forever_, i.e. during his life, for +Jewish Rabbins who must have understood Jewish _slavery_, (as it is +called,) "affirm that servants were set free at the death of their +masters and did _not_ descend to their heirs:" or that he was to +serve him until the year of Jubilee, when _all_ servants were set at +liberty. To protect servants from violence, it was ordained that if a +master struck out the tooth or destroyed the eye of a servant, that +servant immediately became _free_, for such an act of violence +evidently showed he was unfit to possess the power of a master, and +therefore that power was taken from him. All servants enjoyed the rest +of the Sabbath and partook of the privileges and festivities of the +three great Jewish Feasts; and if a servant died under the infliction +of chastisement, his master was surely to be punished. As a tooth +for a tooth and life for life was the Jewish law, of course he was +punished with death. I know that great stress has been laid upon the +following verse: "Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he +shall not be punished, for he is his money." + +Slaveholders, and the apologists of slavery, have eagerly seized upon +this little passage of scripture, and held it up as the masters' Magna +Charta, by which they were licensed by God himself to commit the +greatest outrages upon the defenceless victims of their oppression. +But, my friends, was it designed to be so? If our Heavenly Father +would protect by law the eye and the tooth of a Hebrew servant, can we +for a moment believe that he would abandon that same servant to the +brutal rage of a master who would destroy even life itself. Do we not +rather see in this, the _only_ law which protected masters, and was +it not right that in case of the death of a servant, one or two days +after chastisement was inflicted, to which other circumstances might +have contributed, that the master should be protected when, in all +probability, he never intended to produce so fatal a result? But the +phrase "he is his money" has been adduced to show that Hebrew servants +were regarded as mere _things_, "chattels personal;" if so, why were +so many laws made to _secure their rights as men_, and to ensure their +rising into equality and freedom? If they were mere _things_, why were +they regarded as responsible beings, and one law made for them as well +as for their masters? But I pass on now to the consideration of how +the _female_ Jewish servants were protected by _law_. + +1. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, +then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto another nation he +shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. + +2. If he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after +the manner of daughters. + +3. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of +marriage, shall he not diminish. + +4. If he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out _free_ +without money. + +On these laws I will give you Calmet's remarks; "A father could not +sell his daughter as a slave, according to the Rabbins, until she +was at the age of puberty, and unless he were reduced to the utmost +indigence. Besides when a master bought an Israelitish girl, it was +_always_ with the presumption that he would take her to wife. Hence +Moses adds, 'if she please not her master, and he does not think +fit to marry her, he shall set her at liberty,' or according to the +Hebrew, 'he shall let her be redeemed.' 'To sell her to another nation +he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her;' as +to the engagement implied, at least of taking her to wife. 'If he have +betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of +daughters, i.e. he shall take care that his son uses her as his wife, +that he does not despise or maltreat her. If he make his son +marry another wife, he shall give her her dowry, her clothes and +compensation for her virginity; if he does none of these three, she +shall _go out free_ without money." Thus were the _rights of female +servants carefully secured by law_ under the Jewish Dispensation; and +now I would ask, are the rights of female slaves at the South thus +secured? Are _they_ sold only as wives and daughters-in-law, and when +not treated as such, are they allowed to _go out free?_ No! They have +_all_ not only been illegally obtained as servants according to Hebrew +law, but they are also illegally _held_ in bondage. Masters at the +South and West have all forfeited their claims, (_if they ever had +any_,) to their female slaves. + +We come now to examine the case of those servants who were "of the +heathen round about;" Were _they_ left entirely unprotected by law? +Horne in speaking of the law, "Thou shalt not rule over him with +rigor, but shall fear thy God," remarks, "this law Lev. xxv, 43, it +is true speaks expressly of slaves who were of Hebrew descent; but +as _alien born_ slaves were ingrafted into the Hebrew Church by +circumcision, _there is no doubt_ but that it applied to _all_ +slaves;" if so, then we may reasonably suppose that the other +protective laws extended to them also; and that the only difference +between Hebrew and Heathen servants lay in this, that the former +served but six years unless they chose to remain longer, and were +always freed at the death of their masters; whereas the latter served +until the year of Jubilee, though that might include a period of +forty-nine years,--and were left from father to son. + +There are however two other laws which I have not yet noticed. The +one effectually prevented _all involuntary_ servitude, and the other +completely abolished Jewish servitude every fifty years. They were +equally operative upon the Heathen and the Hebrew. + +1. "Thou shall _not_ deliver unto his master the servant that is +escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even +among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates +where it liketh him best: thou shall _not_ oppress him." Deut. xxiii, +15, 16. + +2. "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim _Liberty_ +throughout _all_ the land, unto _all_ the inhabitants thereof: it +shall be a jubilee unto you." Lev. xxv, 10. + +Here, then, we see that by this first law, the _door of Freedom was +opened wide to every servant who_ had any cause whatever for +complaint; if he was unhappy with his master, all he had to do was to +leave him, and _no man_ had a right to deliver him back to him again, +and not only so, but the absconded servant was to _choose_ where he +should live, and no Jew was permitted to oppress him. He left his +master just as our Northern servants leave us; we have no power to +compel them to remain with us, and no man has any right to oppress +them; they go and dwell in that place where it chooseth them, and live +just where they like. Is it so at the South? Is the poor runaway slave +protected _by law_ from the violence of that master whose oppression +and cruelty has driven him from his plantation or his house? No! no! +Even the free states of the North are compelled to deliver unto his +master the servant that is escaped from his master into them. By +_human_ law, under the _Christian Dispensation_, in the _nineteenth +century we_ are commanded to do, what _God_ more than _three thousand_ +years ago, under the _Mosaic Dispensation, positively commanded_ the +Jews _not_ to do. In the wide domain even of our free states, there is +not _one_ city of refuge for the poor runaway fugitive; not one spot +upon which he can stand and say, I am a free man--I am protected in my +rights as a _man_, by the strong arm of the law; no! _not one_. How +long the North will thus shake hands with the South in sin, I know +not. How long she will stand by like the persecutor Saul, _consenting_ +unto the death of Stephen, and keeping the raiment of them that slew +him. I know not; but one thing I do know, the _guilt of the North_ is +increasing in a tremendous ratio as light is pouring in upon her on +the subject and the sin of slavery. As the sun of righteousness climbs +higher and higher in the moral heavens, she will stand still more and +more abashed as the query is thundered down into her ear, "_Who_ hath +required _this_ at thy hand?" It will be found _no_ excuse then that +the Constitution of our country required that _persons bound to +service_ escaping from their masters should be delivered up; no more +excuse than was the reason which Adam assigned for eating the forbidden +fruit. _He_ was _condemned and punished because_ he hearkened to the +voice of _his wife_, rather than to the command of his Maker; and _we_ +will assuredly be condemned and punished for obeying _Man_ rather than +_God_, if we do not speedily repent and bring forth fruits meet for +repentance. Yea, are we not receiving chastisement even _now_? + +But by the second of these laws a still more astonishing fact is +disclosed. If the first effectually prevented _all involuntary +servitude_, the last absolutely forbade even _voluntary servitude +being perpetual_. On the great day of atonement every fiftieth year +the Jubilee trumpet was sounded throughout the land of Judea, and +_Liberty_ was proclaimed to _all_ the inhabitants thereof. I will not +say that the servants' _chains_ fell off and their _manacles_ were +burst, for there is no evidence that Jewish servants _ever_ felt the +weight of iron chains, and collars, and handcuffs; but I do say that +even the man who had voluntarily sold himself and the _heathen_ who +had been sold to a Hebrew master, were set free, the one as well as +the other. This law was evidently designed to prevent the oppression +of the poor, and the possibility of such a thing as _perpetual +servitude_ existing among them. + +Where, then, I would ask, is the warrant, the justification, or the +palliation of American Slavery from Hebrew servitude? How many of +the southern slaves would now be in bondage according to the laws of +Moses; Not one. You may observe that I have carefully avoided using +the term _slavery_ when speaking of Jewish servitude; and simply for +this reason, that _no such thing_ existed among that people; the word +translated servant does _not_ mean _slave_, it is the same that is +applied to Abraham, to Moses, to Elisha and the prophets generally. +Slavery then never existed under the Jewish Dispensation at all, and +I cannot but regard it as an aspersion on the character of Him who is +"glorious in Holiness" for any one to assert that "_God sanctioned, +yea commanded slavery_ under the old dispensation." I would fain +lift my feeble voice to vindicate Jehovah's character from so foul a +slander. If slaveholders are determined to hold slaves as long as +they can, let them not dare to say that the God of mercy and of truth +_ever_ sanctioned such a system of cruelty and wrong. It is blasphemy +against Him. + +We have seen that the code of laws framed by Moses with regard to +servants was designed to protect them as men and women, to secure to +them their rights as human beings, to guard them from oppression and +defend them from violence of every kind. Let us now turn to the Slave +laws of the South and West and examine them too. I will give you the +substance only, because I fear I shall tresspass too much on your +time, were I to quote them at length. + +1. _Slavery_ is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the +slave's earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest +posterity. + +2. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated; while the +kind of labor, the amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, are +dictated solely by the master. No bargain is made, no wages given. +A pure despotism governs the human brute; and even his covering and +provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend entirely on the +master's discretion. [3] + +3. The slave being considered a personal chattel may be sold or +pledged, or leased at the will of his master. He may be exchanged for +marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts or +taxes either of a living or dead master. Sold at auction, either +individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser, he may remain with his +family, or be separated from them for ever. + +4. Slaves can make no contracts and have no _legal_ right to any +property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings and the legacies +of friends belong in point of law to their masters. + +5. Neither a slave nor a free colored person can be a witness against +any _white_, or free person, in a court of justice, however atrocious +may have been the crimes they have seen him commit, if such testimony +would be for the benefit of a _slave_; but they may give testimony +_against a fellow slave_, or free colored man, even in cases affecting +life, if the _master_ is to reap the advantage of it. + +6. The slave may be punished at his master's discretion--without +trial--without any means of legal redress; whether his offence be real +or imaginary; and the master can transfer the same despotic power to +any person or persons, he may choose to appoint. + +7. The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under _any_ +circumstances, _his_ only safety consists in the fact that his _owner_ +may bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is +taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor. + +8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, +though cruel treatment may have' rendered such a change necessary for +their personal safety. + +9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. + +10. The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where +the master is willing to enfranchise them. + +11. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious +instruction and consolation. + +12. The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state +of the lowest ignorance. + +13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right. +What is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly +criminal--in the slave; the same offences which cost a white man a few +dollars only, are punished in the negro with death. + +14. The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color. [4] +Shall I ask you now my friends, to draw the parallel between Jewish +_servitude_ and American _slavery_? No! For there is _no likeness_ in +the two systems; I ask you rather to mark the contrast. The laws of +Moses _protected servants_ in their _rights as men and women_, guarded +them from oppression and defended them from wrong. The Code Noir of +the South _robs the slave of all his rights_ as a _man_, reduces him +to a chattel personal, and defends the master in the exercise of the +most unnatural and unwarrantable power over his slave. They each bear +the impress of the hand which formed them. The attributes of justice +and mercy are shadowed out in the Hebrew code; those of injustice +and cruelty, in the Code Noir of America. Truly it was wise in the +slaveholders of the South to declare their slaves to be "chattels +personal;" for before they could be robbed of wages, wives, children, +and friends, it was absolutely necessary to deny they were human +beings. It is wise in them, to keep them in abject ignorance, for the +strong man armed must be bound before we can spoil his house--the +powerful intellect of man must be bound down with the iron chains of +nescience before we can rob him of his rights as a man; we must reduce +him to a _thing_ before we can claim the right to set our feet upon +his neck, because it was only _all things_ which were originally _put +under the feet of man_ by the Almighty and Beneficent Father of all, +who has declared himself to be _no respecter_ of persons, whether red, +white or black. + +But some have even said that Jesus Christ did not condemn slavery. To +this I reply that our Holy Redeemer lived and preached among the Jews +only. The laws which Moses had enacted fifteen hundred years previous +to his appearance among them, had never been annulled, and these laws +protected every servant in Palestine. If then He did not condemn +Jewish servitude this does not prove that he would not have condemned +such a monstrous system as that of American _slavery_, if that had +existed among them. But did not Jesus condemn slavery? Let us examine +some of his precepts. "_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should do to +you, do _ye even so to them_," Let every slaveholder apply these +queries to his own heart; Am _I_ willing to be a slave--Am _I_ willing +to see _my_ wife the slave of another--Am _I_ willing to see my mother +a slave, or my father, my sister or my brother? If _not_, then in +holding others as slaves, I am doing what I would _not_ wish to be +done to me or any relative I have; and thus have I broken this golden +rule which was given _me_ to walk by. + +But some slaveholders have said, "we were never in bondage to any +man," and therefore the yoke of bondage would be insufferable to us, +but slaves are accustomed to it, their backs are fitted to the burden. +Well, I am willing to admit that you who have lived in freedom would +find slavery even more oppressive than the poor slave does, but then +you may try this question in another form--Am I willing to reduce _my +little child_ to slavery? You know that _if it is brought up a slave_ +it will never know any contrast, between freedom and bondage, its back +will become fitted to the burden just as the negro child's does--_not +by nature_--but by daily, violent pressure, in the same way that the +head of the Indian child becomes flattened by the boards in which it +is bound. It has been justly remarked that "_God never made a slave_," +he made man upright; his back was _not_ made to carry burdens, nor his +neck to wear a yoke, and the _man_ must be crushed within him, before +_his_ back can be _fitted_ to the burden of perpetual slavery; and +that his back is _not_ fitted to it, is manifest by the insurrections +that so often disturb the peace and security of slaveholding +countries. Who ever heard of a rebellion of the beasts of the field; +and why not? simply because _they_ were all placed _under the feet of +man_, into whose hand they were delivered; it was originally designed +that they should serve him, therefore their necks have been formed +for the yoke, and their backs for the burden; but _not so with man_, +intellectual, immortal man! I appeal to you, my friends, as mothers; +Are you willing to enslave _your_ children? You start back with horror +and indignation at such a question. But why, if slavery is _no wrong_ +to those upon whom it is imposed? why, if as has often been said, +slaves are happier than their masters, free from the cares and +perplexities of providing for themselves and their families? why not +place _your children_ in the way of being supported without your +having the trouble to provide for them, or they for themselves? Do you +not perceive that as soon as this golden rule of action is applied to +_yourselves_ that you involuntarily shrink from the test; as soon as +_your_ actions are weighed in _this_ balance of the sanctuary that +_you are found wanting_? Try yourselves by another of the Divine +precepts, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can we love a man +_as_ we love _ourselves_ if we do, and continue to do unto him, what +we would not wish any one to do to us? Look too, at Christ's example, +what does he say of himself, "I came _not_ to be ministered unto, but +to minister." Can you for a moment imagine the meek, and lowly, and +compassionate Saviour, a _slaveholder_? do you not shudder at this +thought as much as at that of his being _a warrior_? But why, if +slavery is not sinful? + +Again, it has been said, the Apostle Paul did not condemn Slavery, for +he sent Onesimus back to Philemon. I do not think it can be said he +sent him back, for no coercion was made use of. Onesimus was not +thrown into prison and then sent back in chains to his master, as your +runaway slaves often are--this could not possibly have been the case, +because you know Paul as a Jew, was _bound to protect_ the runaway, +_he had no right_ to send any fugitive back to his master. The state +of the case then seems to have been this. Onesimus had been an +unprofitable servant to Philemon and left him--he afterwards became +converted under the Apostle's preaching, and seeing that he had been +to blame in his conduct, and desiring by future fidelity to atone for +past error, he wished to return, and the Apostle gave him the letter +we now have as a recommendation to Philemon, informing him of the +conversion of Onesimus, and entreating him as "Paul the aged" "to +receive him, _not_ now as a servant, but _above_ a servant, a brother +beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the +flesh and in the Lord. If thou count _me_ therefore as a partner, +_receive him as myself_." This then surely cannot be forced into a +justification of the practice of returning runaway slaves back to +their masters, to be punished with cruel beatings and scourgings as +they often are. Besides the word [Greek: doulos] here translated +servant, is the same that is made use of in Matt. xviii, 27. Now it +appears that this servant owed his lord ten thousand talents; he +possessed property to a vast amount. Onesimus could not then have been +a _slave_, for slaves do not own their wives, or children; no, not +even their own bodies, much less property. But again, the servitude +which the apostle was accustomed to, must have been very different +from American slavery, for he says, "the heir (or son), as long as he +is a child, differeth _nothing from a servant_, though he be lord of +all. But is under _tutors_ and governors until the time appointed of +the father." From this it appears, that the means of _instruction_ +were provided for _servants_ as well as children; and indeed we know +it must have been so among the Jews, because their servants were +not permitted to remain in perpetual bondage, and therefore it was +absolutely necessary they should be prepared to occupy higher stations +in society than those of servants. Is it so at the South, my friends? +Is the daily bread of instruction provided for _your slaves?_ are +their minds enlightened, and they gradually prepared to rise from +the grade of menials into that of _free_, independent members of the +state? Let your own statute book, and your own daily experience, +answer these questions. + +If this apostle sanctioned _slavery_, why did he exhort masters-thus +in his epistle to the Ephesians, "and ye, masters, do the same things +unto them (i.e. perform your duties to your servants as unto Christ, +not unto me) _forbearing threatening_; knowing that your master also +is in heaven, neither is _there respect of persons with him_." And in +Colossians, "Masters give unto your servants that which is _just +and equal_, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven." Let +slaveholders only obey these injunctions of Paul, and I am satisfied +slavery would soon be abolished. If he thought it sinful even to +_threaten_ servants, surely he must have thought it sinful to flog and +to beat them with sticks and paddles; indeed, when delineating the +character of a bishop, he expressly names this as one feature of it, +"_no striker_." Let masters give unto their servants that which is +_just_ and _equal_, and all that vast system of unrequited labor would +crumble into ruin. Yes, and if they once felt they had no right to the +_labor_ of their servants without pay, surely they could not think +they had a right to their wives, their children, and their own bodies. +Again, how can it be said Paul sanctioned slavery, when, as though +to put this matter beyond all doubt, in that black catalogue of +sins enumerated in his first epistle to Timothy, he mentions +"_menstealers_," which word may be translated "_slavedealers_." But +you may say, we all despise slavedealers as much as any one can; they +are never admitted into genteel or respectable society. And why not? +Is it not because even you shrink back from the idea of associating +with those who make their fortunes by trading in the bodies and souls +of men, women, and children? whose daily work it is to break human +hearts, by tearing wives from their husbands, and children from their +parents? But why hold slavedealers as despicable, if their trade is +lawful and virtuous? and why despise them more than the _gentlemen of +fortune and standing_ who employ them as _their_ agents? Why more than +the _professors of religion_ who barter their fellow-professors to +them for gold and silver? We do not despise the land agent, or the +physician, or the merchant, and why? Simply because their professions +are virtuous and honorable; and if the trade of men-jobbers was +honorable, you would not despise them either. There is no difference +in _principle_, in _Christian ethics_, between the despised +slavedealer and the _Christian_ who buys slaves from, or sells slaves, +to him; indeed, if slaves were not wanted by the respectable, the +wealthy, and the religious in a community, there would be no slaves +in that community, and of course no _slavedealers_. It is then the +_Christians_ and the _honorable men_ and _women_ of the South, who are +the _main pillars_ of this grand temple built to Mammon and to Moloch. +It is the _most enlightened_ in every country who are _most_ to blame +when any public sin is supported by public opinion, hence Isaiah says, +"_When_ the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount _Zion_ and +on _Jerusalem_, (then) I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of +the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks." And was it not +so? Open the historical records of that age, was not Israel carried +into captivity B.C. 606, Judah B.C. 588, and the stout heart of the +heathen monarchy not punished until B.C. 536, fifty-two years _after_ +Judah's, and seventy years _after_ Israel's captivity, when it was +overthrown by Cyrus, king of Persia? Hence, too, the apostle Peter +says, "judgment must _begin at the house of God_." Surely this would +not be the case, if the _professors of religion_ were not _most +worthy_ of blame. + +But it may be asked, why are _they_ most culpable? I will tell you, my +friends. It is because sin is imputed to us just in proportion to the +spiritual light we receive. Thus the prophet Amos says, in the name of +Jehovah, "You _only_ have I known of all the families of the earth: +_therefore_ I will punish _you_ for all your iniquities." Hear too +the doctrine of our Lord on this important subject; "The servant +who _knew_ his Lord's will and _prepared not_ himself, neither did +according to his will, shall be beaten with _many_ stripes:" and +why? "For unto whomsoever _much_ is given, _of him_ shall _much_ be +required; and to whom men have committed _much_, of _him_ they will +ask the _more_." Oh! then that the _Christians_ of the south +would ponder these things in their hearts, and awake to the vast +responsibilities which rest _upon them_ at this important crisis. + +I have thus, I think, clearly proved to you seven propositions, +viz.: First, that slavery is contrary to the declaration of our +independence. Second, that it is contrary to the first charter of +human rights given to Adam, and renewed to Noah. Third, that the fact +of slavery having been the subject of prophecy, furnishes _no_ excuse +whatever to slavedealers. Fourth, that no such system existed under +the patriarchal dispensation. Fifth, that _slavery never_ existed +under the Jewish dispensation; but so far otherwise, that every +servant was placed under the _protection of law_, and care taken +not only to prevent all _involuntary_ servitude, but all _voluntary +perpetual_ bondage. Sixth, that slavery in America reduces a _man_ to +a _thing_, a "chattel personal," _robs him_ of _all_ his rights as +a _human being_, fetters both his mind and body, and protects the +_master_ in the most unnatural and unreasonable power, whilst it +_throws him out_ of the protection of law. Seventh, that slavery +is contrary to the example and precepts of our holy and merciful +Redeemer, and of his apostles. + +But perhaps you will be ready to query, why appeal to _women_ on this +subject? _We_ do not make the laws which perpetuate slavery. _No_ +legislative power is vested in _us; we_ can do nothing to overthrow +the system, even if we wished to do so. To this I reply, I know you +do not make the laws, but I also know that _you are the wives and +mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do;_ and if you really +suppose _you_ can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly +mistaken. You can do much in every way: four things I will name. 1st. +You can read on this subject. 2d. You can pray over this subject. 3d. +You can speak on this subject. 4th. You can _act_ on this subject. +I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more +important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand +what we are praying for; it is only then we can "pray with the +understanding and the spirit also." + +1. Read then on the subject of slavery. Search the Scriptures daily, +whether the things I have told you are true. Other books and papers +might be a great help to you in this investigation, but they are not +necessary, and it is hardly probable that your Committees of Vigilance +will allow you to have any other. The _Bible_ then is the book I want +you to read in the spirit of inquiry, and the spirit of prayer. Even +the enemies of Abolitionists, acknowledge that their doctrines are +drawn from it. In the great mob in Boston, last autumn, when the books +and papers of the Anti-Slavery Society, were thrown out of the windows +of their office, one individual laid hold of the Bible and was about +tossing it out to the ground, when another reminded him that it was +the Bible he had in his hand. "_O! 'tis all one_," he replied, and +out went the sacred volume, along with the rest. We thank him for the +acknowledgment. Yes, "_it is all one_," for our books and papers +are mostly commentaries on the Bible, and the Declaration. Read the +_Bible_ then, it contains the words of Jesus, and they are spirit and +life. Judge for yourselves whether _he sanctioned_ such a system of +oppression and crime. + +2. Pray over this subject. When you have entered into your closets, +and shut to the doors, then pray to your father, who seeth in secret, +that he would open your eyes to see whether slavery is _sinful_, +and if it is, that he would enable you to bear a faithful, open and +unshrinking testimony against it, and to do whatsoever your hands find +to do, leaving the consequences entirely to him, who still says to us +whenever we try to reason away duty from the fear of consequences, +"_What is that to thee, follow thou me_." Pray also for that poor +slave, that he may be kept patient and submissive under his hard +lot, until God is pleased to open the door of freedom to him without +violence or bloodshed. Pray too for the master that his heart may be +softened, and he made willing to acknowledge, as Joseph's brethren +did, "Verily we are guilty concerning our brother," before he will be +compelled to add in consequence of Divine judgment, "therefore is all +this evil come upon us." Pray also for all your brethren and sisters +who are laboring in the righteous cause of Emancipation in the +Northern States, England and the world. There is great encouragement +for prayer in these words of our Lord. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the +Father _in my name_, he _will give_ it to you"--Pray then without +ceasing, in the closet and the social circle. + +3. Speak on this subject. It is through the tongue, the pen, and +the press, that truth is principally propagated. Speak then to your +relatives, your friends, your acquaintances on the subject of slavery; +be not afraid if you are conscientiously convinced it is _sinful_, to +say so openly, but calmly, and to let your sentiments be known. If you +are served by the slaves of others, try to ameliorate their condition +as much as possible; never aggravate their faults, and thus add fuel +to the fire of anger already kindled, in a master and mistress's +bosom; remember their extreme ignorance, and consider them as your +Heavenly Father does the _less_ culpable on this account, even +when they do wrong things. Discountenance all cruelty to them, all +starvation, all corporal chastisement; these may brutalize and +_break_ their spirits, but will never bend them to willing, cheerful +obedience. If possible, see that they are comfortably and _seasonably_ +fed, whether in the house or the field; it is unreasonable and cruel +to expect slaves to wait for their breakfast until eleven o'clock, +when they rise at five or six. Do all you can, to induce their owners +to clothe them well, and to allow them many little indulgences which +would contribute to their comfort. Above all, try to persuade your +husband, father, brothers and sons, that _slavery is a crime against +God and man_, and that it is a great sin to keep _human beings_ in +such abject ignorance; to deny them the privilege of learning to read +and write. The Catholics are universally condemned, for denying the +Bible to the common people, but, _slaveholders must not_ blame them, +for _they_ are doing the _very same thing_, and for the very same +reason, neither of these systems can bear the light which bursts +from the pages of that Holy Book. And lastly, endeavour to inculcate +submission on the part of the slaves, but whilst doing this be +faithful in pleading the cause of the oppressed. + + "Will _you_ behold unheeding, + Life's holiest feelings crushed, + Where _woman's_ heart is bleeding, + Shall _woman's_ voice be hushed?" + +4. Act on this subject. Some of you own slaves yourselves. If you +believe slavery is _sinful_, set them at liberty, "undo the heavy +burdens and let the oppressed go free." If they wish to remain with +you, pay them wages, if not let them leave you. Should they remain +teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an English +education; they have minds and those minds, _ought to be improved_. +So precious a talent as intellect, never was given to be wrapt in a +napkin and buried in the earth. It is the _duty_ of all, as far as +they can, to improve their own mental faculties, because we are +commanded to love God with _all our minds_, as well as with all our +hearts, and we commit a great sin, if we _forbid_ or _prevent_ that +cultivation of the mind in others, which would enable them to perform +this duty. Teach your servants then to read &c, and encourage them to +believe it is their _duty_ to learn, if it were only that they might +read the Bible. + +But some of you will say, we can neither free our slaves nor teach +them to read, for the laws of our state forbid it. Be not surprised +when I say such wicked laws _ought to be no barrier_ in the way of +your duty, and I appeal to the Bible to prove this position. What was +the conduct of Shiphrah and Puah, when the king of Egypt issued his +cruel mandate, with regard to the Hebrew children? "_They_ feared +_God_, and did _not_ as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved +the men children alive." Did these _women_ do right in disobeying that +monarch? "_Therefore_ (says the sacred text,) _God dealt well_ with +them, and made them houses" Ex. i. What was the conduct of Shadrach, +Meshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image in +the plain of Dura, and commanded all people, nations, and languages, +to fall down and worship it? "Be it known, unto thee, (said these +faithful _Jews_) O king, that we _will not_ serve thy gods, nor +worship the image which thou hast set up." Did these men _do right +in disobeying the law_ of their sovereign? Let their miraculous +deliverance of Daniel, when Darius made a firm decree that no one +should ask a petition of any mad or God for thirty days? Did the +prophet cease to pray? No! "When Daniel _knew that the writing was +signed_, he went into his house, and his windows being _open_ towards +Jerusalem, he kneeled upon this knees three times a day, and prayed +and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." Did Daniel +do right this to _break_ the law of his king? Let his wonderful +deliverance out of the mouthes of lions answer; Dan. vii. Look, too, +at the Apostles Peter and John. When the ruler of the Jews "_commanded +them not_ to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus," what did +they say? "Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto +you more than unto God, judge ye." And what did they do? "They spake +the word of God with boldness, and with great power gave the Apostles +witness of the _resurrection_ of the Lord Jesus;" although _this_ was +the very doctrine, for the preaching of which they had just been cast +into prison, and further threatened. Did these men do right? I leave +_you_ to answer, who now enjoy the benefits if their labours and +sufferings, in that Gospel they dared to preach when positively +commanded _not to teach any more_ in the name of Jesus; Acts iv. + +But some of you may say, if we do free our slaves, they will be taken +up and sold, therefore there will be no use in doing it. Peter and +John might just as well have said, we will not preach the gospel, for +if we do, we shall be taken up and put in prison, therefore there will +be no use in our preaching. _Consequences_, my friends, belong no more +to _you_, than they did to these apostles. Duty is ours and events are +God's. If you think slavery is sinful, all you have to do is to set +your slaves at liberty, do all you can to protect them, and in humble +faith and fervent prayer, commend them to your common Father. He can +take care of them; but if for wise purposes he sees fit to allow them +to be sold, this will afford you an opportunity of testifying openly, +wherever you go, against the crime of _manstealing_. Such an act will +be _clear robbery_, and if exposed, might, under the Divine direction, +do the cause of Emancipation more good, than any thing that could +happen, for, "He makes even the wrath of man to praise him, and the +remainder of wrath he will restrain." + +I know that this doctrine of obeying _God_, rather than man, will be +considered as dangerous, and heretical by many, but I am not afraid +openly to avow it, because it is the doctrine of the Bible; but I +would not be understood to advocate resistance to any law however +oppressive, if, in obeying it, I was not obliged to commit _sin_. If +for instance, there was a law, which imposed imprisonment or a fine +upon me if I manumitted a slave, I would on no account resist that +law, I would set the slave free, and then go to prison or pay the +fine. If a law commands me to _sin I will break it_; if it calls me to +_suffer_, I will let it take its course unresistingly. The doctrine +of blind obedience and unqualified submission to _any human_ power, +whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and +ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians. + +But you will perhaps say, such a course of conduct would inevitably +expose us to great suffering. Yes! my Christian friends, I believe it +would, but this will _not_ excuse you or any one else for the neglect +of _duty_. If Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers had not +been willing to suffer for the truth's sake, where would the world +have been now? If they had said, we cannot speak the truth, we cannot +do what we believe is right, because the _laws of our country or +public opinion are against us_, where would our holy religion have +been now? The Prophets were stoned, imprisoned, and killed by the +Jews. And why? Because they exposed and openly rebuked public sins; +they opposed public opinion; had they held their peace, they all might +have lived in ease and died in favor with a wicked generation. Why +were the Apostles persecuted from city to city, stoned, incarcerated, +beaten, and crucified? Because they dared to _speak the truth_; to +tell the Jews, boldly and fearlessly, that _they_ were the _murderers_ +of the Lord of Glory, and that, however great a stumbling-block the +Cross might be to them, there was no other name given under heaven +by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus. Because they +declared, even at Athens, the seat of learning and refinement, the +self-evident truth, that "they be no gods that are made with men's +hands," and exposed to the Grecians the foolishness of worldly wisdom, +and the impossibility of salvation but through Christ, whom they +despised on account of the ignominious death he died. Because at Rome, +the proud mistress of the world, they thundered out the terrors of the +law upon that idolatrous, war-making, and slaveholding community. Why +were the martyrs stretched upon the rack, gibbetted and burnt, the +scorn and diversion of a Nero, whilst their tarred and burning bodies +sent up a light which illuminated the Roman capital? Why were the +Waldenses hunted like wild beasts upon the mountains of Piedmont, and +slain with the sword of the Duke of Savoy and the proud monarch of +France? Why were the Presbyterians chased like the partridge over the +highlands of Scotland--the Methodists pumped, and stoned, and pelted +with rotten eggs--the Quakers incarcerated in filthy prisons, beaten, +whipped at the cart's tail, banished and hung? Because they dared +to _speak_ the _truth_, to _break_ the unrighteous _laws_ of their +country, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, +"not accepting deliverance," even under the gallows. Why were Luther +and Calvin persecuted and excommunicated, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer +burnt? Because they fearlessly proclaimed the truth, though that truth +was contrary to public opinion, and the authority of Ecclesiastical +councils and conventions. Now all this vast amount of human suffering +might have been saved. All these Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, +and Reformers, might have lived and died in peace with all men, but +following the example of their great pattern, "they despised the +shame, endured the cross, and are now set down on the right hand of +the throne of God," having received the glorious welcome of "well done +good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." + +But you may say we are women, how can our hearts endure persecution? +And why not? Have not women stood up in all the dignity and strength +of moral courage to be the leaders of the people, and to bear a +faithful testimony for the truth whenever the providence of God has +called them to do so? Are there no women in that noble army of martyrs +who are now singing the song of Moses and the Lamb? Who led out the +women of Israel from the house of bondage, striking the timbrel, and +singing the song of deliverance on the banks of that sea whose waters +stood up like walls of crystal to open a passage for their escape? It +was a _woman_; Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Moses and Aaron. +Who went up with Barak to Kadesh to fight against Jabin, King of +Canaan, into whose hand Israel had been sold because of their +iniquities? It was a woman! Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, the judge, +as well as the prophetess of that backsliding people; Judges iv, 9. +Into whose hands was Sisera, the captain of Jabin's host delivered? +Into the hand of a _woman_. Jael the wife of Heber! Judges vi, 21. +Who dared to _speak the truth_ concerning those judgments which were +coming upon Judea, when Josiah, alarmed at finding that his people +"had not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that was written +in the book of the Law," sent to enquire of the Lord concerning these +things? It was a woman. Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum; 2, +Chron. xxxiv, 22. Who was chosen to deliver the whole Jewish nation +from that murderous decree of Persia's King, which wicked Hannan had +obtained by calumny and fraud? It was a _woman_; Esther the Queen; +yes, weak and trembling _woman_ was the instrument appointed by God, +to reverse the bloody mandate of the eastern monarch, and save the +_whole visible church_ from destruction. What Human voice first +proclaimed to Mary that she should be the mother of our Lord? It was +a woman! Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias; Luke 1, 42, 43. Who united +with the good old Simeon in giving thanks publicly in the temple, when +the child, Jesus, was presented there by his parents, "and spake of +him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem?" It was a +_woman_! Anna the prophetess. Who first proclaimed Christ as the true +Messiah in the streets of Samaria, once the capital of the ten tribes? +It was a woman! Who ministered to the Son of God whilst on earth, a +despised and persecuted Reformer, in the humble garb of a carpenter? +They were women! Who followed the rejected King of Israel, as his +fainting footsteps trod the road to Calvary? "A great company of +people and of _women_;" and it is remarkable that to _them alone_, he +turned and addressed the pathetic language, "Daughters of Jerusalem, +weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." Ah! who +sent unto the Roman Governor when he was set down on the judgment +seat, saying unto him, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man, +for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him?" +It was a _woman!_ the wife of Pilate. Although "_he knew_ that for +envy the Jews had delivered Christ," yet _he_ consented to surrender +the Son of God into the hands of a brutal soldiery, after having +himself scourged his naked body. Had the _wife_ of Pilate sat upon +that judgment seat, what would have been the result of the trial of +this "just person?" + +And who last hung round the cross of Jesus on the mountain of +Golgotha? Who first visited the sepulchre early in the morning on the +first day of the week, carrying sweet spices to embalm his precious +body, not knowing that it was incorruptible and could not be holden by +the bands of death? These were _women!_ To whom did he _first_ appear +after his resurrection? It was to a _woman!_ Mary Magdalene; Mark xvi, +9. Who gathered with the apostles to wait at Jerusalem, in prayer and +supplication, for "the promise of the Father;" the spiritual blessing +of the Great High Priest of his Church, who had entered, _not_ into +the splendid temple of Solomon, there to offer the blood of bulls, +and of goats, and the smoking censer upon the golden altar, but into +Heaven itself, there to present his intercessions, after having +"given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet +smelling savor?" _Women_ were among that holy company; Acts i, 14. +And did _women_ wait in vain? Did those who had ministered to his +necessities, followed in his train, and wept at his crucifixion, wait +in vain? No! No! Did the cloven tongues of fire descend upon the heads +of _women_ as well as men? Yes, my friends, "it sat upon _each one of +them;_" Acts ii, 3. _Women_ as well as men were to be living stones in +the temple of grace, and therefore _their_ heads were consecrated by +the descent of the Holy Ghost as well as those of men. Were _women_ +recognized as fellow laborers in the gospel field? They were! Paul +says in his epistle to the Philippians, "help those _women_ who +labored with me, in the gospel;" Phil. iv, 3. + +But this is not all. Roman _women_ were burnt at the stake, _their_ +delicate limbs were torn joint from joint by the ferocious beasts of +the Amphitheatre, and tossed by the wild bull in his fury, for the +diversion of that idolatrous, warlike, and slaveholding people. Yes, +_women_ suffered under the ten persecutions of heathen Rome, with the +most unshrinking constancy and fortitude; not all the entreaties of +friends, nor the claims of new born infancy, nor the cruel threats +of enemies could make _them_ sprinkle one grain of incense upon the +altars of Roman idols. Come now with me to the beautiful valleys of +Piedmont. Whose blood stains the green sward, and decks the wild +flowers with colors not their own, and smokes on the sword of +persecuting France? It is _woman's_, as well as man's? Yes, _women_ +were accounted as sheep for the slaughter, and were cut down as the +tender saplings of the wood But time would fail me, to tell of all +those hundreds and thousands of _women_, who perished in the Low +countries of Holland, when Alva's sword of vengeance was unsheathed +against the Protestants, when the Catholic Inquisitions of Europe +became the merciless executioners of vindictive wrath, upon those +who dared to worship God, instead of bowing down in unholy adoration +before "my Lord God the _Pope_," and when England, too, burnt her Ann +Ascoes at the stake of martyrdom. Suffice it to say, that the Church, +after having been driven from Judea to Rome, and from Rome to +Piedmont, and from Piedmont to England, and from England to Holland, +at last stretched her fainting wings over the dark bosom of the +Atlantic, and found on the shores of a great wilderness, a refuge from +tyranny and oppression--as she thought, but _even here_, (the warm +blush of shame mantles my cheek as I write it,) _even here, woman_ was +beaten and banished, imprisoned, and hung upon the gallows, a trophy +to the Cross. + +And what, I would ask in conclusion, have _women_ done for the great +and glorious cause of Emancipation? Who wrote that pamphlet which +moved the heart of Wilberforce to pray over the wrongs, and his +tongue to plead the cause of the oppressed African? It was a _woman_, +Elizabeth Heyrick. Who labored assiduously to keep the sufferings of +the slave continually before the British public? They were women. +And how did they do it? By their needles, paint brushes and pens, by +speaking the truth, and petitioning Parliament for the abolition of +slavery. And what was the effect of their labors? Read it in the +Emancipation bill of Great Britain. Read it, in the present state of +her West India Colonies. Read it, in the impulse which has been given +to the cause of freedom, in the United States of America. Have English +women then done so much for the negro, and shall American women do +nothing? Oh no! Already are there sixty female Anti-Slavery Societies +in operation. These are doing just what the English women did, telling +the story of the colored man's wrongs, praying for his deliverance, +and presenting his kneeling image constantly before the public eye on +bags and needle-books, card-racks, pen-wipers, pin-cushions, &c. Even +the children of the north are inscribing on their handy work, "May the +points of our needles prick the slaveholder's conscience." Some of the +reports of these Societies exhibit not only considerable talent, but a +deep sense of religious duty, and a determination to persevere through +evil as well as good report, until every scourge, and every shackle, +is buried under the feet of the manumitted slave. + +The Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society of Boston was called last fall, to a +severe trial of their faith and constancy. They were mobbed by "the +gentlemen of property and standing," in that city at their anniversary +meeting, and their lives were jeoparded by an infuriated crowd; but +their conduct on that occasion did credit to our sex, and affords a +full assurance that they will never abandon the cause of the slave. +The pamphlet, Right and Wrong in Boston, issued by them in which a +particular account is given of that "mob of broad cloth in broad day," +does equal credit to the head and the heart of her who wrote it wish +my Southern sisters could read it; they would then understand that +the women of the North have engaged in this work from a sense of +_religious duty_, and that nothing will ever induce them to take their +hands from it until it is fully accomplished. They feel no hostility +to you, no bitterness or wrath; they rather sympathize in your trials +and difficulties; but they well know that the first thing to be done +to help you, is to pour in the light of truth on your minds, to urge +you to reflect on, and pray over the subject. This is all _they_ can +do for you, _you_ must work out your own deliverance with fear and +trembling, and with the direction and blessing of God, _you can do +it_. Northern women may labor to produce a correct public opinion at +the North, but if Southern women sit down in listless indifference and +criminal idleness, public opinion cannot be rectified and purified at +the South. It is manifest to every reflecting mind, that slavery +must be abolished; the era in which we live, and the light which is +overspreading the whole world on this subject, clearly show that the +time cannot be distant when it will be done. Now there are only two +ways in which it can be effected, by moral power or physical force, +and it is for you to choose which of these you prefer. Slavery always +has, and always will produce insurrections wherever it exists, because +it is a violation of the natural order of things, and no human power +can much longer perpetuate it. The opposers of abolitionists fully +believe this; one of them remarked to me not long since, there is no +doubt there will be a most terrible overturning at the South in a few +years, such cruelty and wrong, must be visited with Divine vengeance +soon. Abolitionists believe, too, that this must inevitably be the +case if you do not repent, and they are not willing to leave you to +perish without entreating you, to save yourselves from destruction; +Well may they say with the apostle, "am I then your enemy because I +tell you the truth," and warn you to flee from impending judgments. + +But why, my dear friends, have I thus been endeavoring to lead you +through the history of more than three thousand years, and to point +you to that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, "from works +to rewards?" Have I been seeking to magnify the sufferings, and exalt +the character of woman, that she "might have praise of men?" No! no! +my object has been to arouse _you_, as the wives and mothers, the +daughters and sisters, of the South, to a sense of your duty as +_women_, and as Christian women, on that great subject, which has +already shaken our country, from the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to +the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the shores of the +Atlantic; _and will continue mightily to shake it_, until the polluted +temple of slavery fall and crumble into ruin. I would say unto each +one of you, "what meanest thou, O sleeper! arise and call upon thy +God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not." +Perceive you not that dark cloud of vengeance which hangs over our +boasting Republic? Saw you not the lightnings of Heaven's wrath, in +the flame which leaped from the Indian's torch to the roof of yonder +dwelling, and lighted with its horrid glare the darkness of midnight? +Heard you not the thunders of Divine anger, as the distant roar of the +cannon came rolling onward, from the Texian country, where Protestant +American Rebels are fighting with Mexican Republicans--for what? For +the re-establishment of _slavery_; yes! of American slavery in the +bosom of a Catholic Republic, where that system of robbery, violence, +and wrong, had been legally abolished for twelve years. Yes! citizens +of the United States, after plundering Mexico of her land, are now +engaged in deadly conflict, for the privilege of fastening chains, and +collars, and manacles--upon whom? upon the subjects of some foreign +prince? No! upon native born American Republican citizens, although +the fathers of these very men declared to the whole world, while +struggling to free themselves the three penny taxes of an English +king, that they believed it to be a _self-evident_ truth that _all +men_ were created equal, and had an _unalienable right to liberty_. + +Well may the poet exclaim in bitter sarcasm, + + "The fustian flag that proudly waves + In solemn mockery o'er _a land of slaves_." + +Can you not, my friends, understand the signs of the times; do you not +see the sword of retributive justice hanging over the South, or are +you still slumbering at your posts?--Are there no Shiphrahs, no Puahs +among you, who will dare in Christian firmness and Christian meekness, +to refuse to obey the _wicked laws_ which require _woman to enslave, +to degrade and to brutalize woman_? Are there no Miriams, who would +rejoice to lead out the captive daughters of the Southern States to +liberty and light? Are there no Huldahs there who will dare to _speak +the truth_ concerning the sins of the people and those judgments, +which it requires no prophet's eye to see, must follow if repentance +is not speedily sought? Is there no Esther among you who will plead +for the poor devoted slave? Read the history of this Persian queen, it +is full of instruction; she at first refused to plead for the Jews; +but, hear the words of Mordecai, "Think not within thyself, that +_thou_ shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews, for +_if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time_, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but +_thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed_." Listen, too, to her +magnanimous reply to this powerful appeal; "_I will_ go in, unto the +king, which is _not_ according to law, and if I perish, I perish." +Yes! if there were but _one_ Esther at the South, she _might_ save her +country from ruin; but let the Christian women there arise, at the +Christian women of Great Britain did, in the majesty of moral +power, and that salvation is certain. Let them embody themselves in +societies, and send petitions up to their different legislatures, +entreating their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, to abolish the +institution! of slavery; no longer to subject _woman_ to the scourge +and the chain, to mental darkness and moral degradation; no longer to +tear husbands from their wives, and children from their parents; no +longer to make men, women, and children, work _without wages_; no +longer to make their lives bitter in hard bondage; no longer to reduce +_American citizens_ to the abject condition of _slaves,_ of "chattels +personal;" no longer to barter the _image of God_ in human shambles +for corruptible things such as silver and gold. + +The _women of the South can overthrow_ this horrible system of +oppression and cruelty, licentiousness and wrong. Such appeals to your +legislatures would be irresistible, for there is something in the +heart of man which _will bend under moral suasion_. There is a swift +witness for truth in his bosom, _which will respond to truth_ when +it is uttered with calmness and dignity. If you could obtain but six +signatures to such a petition in only one state, I would say, send up +that petition, and be not in the least discouraged by the scoffs and +jeers of the heartless, or the resolution of the house to lay it on +the table. It will be a great thing if the subject can be introduced +into your legislatures in any way, even by _women_, and _they_ will be +the most likely to introduce it there in the best possible manner, as +a matter of _morals_ and _religion_, not of expediency or politics. +You may petition, too, the different ecclesiastical bodies of the +slave states. Slavery must be attacked with the whole power of truth +and the sword of the spirit. You must take it up on _Christian_ +ground, and fight against it with Christian weapons, whilst your feet +are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And _you are +now_ loudly called upon by the cries of the widow and the orphan, to +arise and gird yourselves for this great moral conflict, with the +whole armour of righteousness upon the right hand and on the left. + +There is every encouragement for you to labor and pray, my friends, +because the abolition of slavery as well as its existence, has been +the theme of prophecy. "Ethiopia (says the Psalmist) shall stretch +forth her hands unto God." And is she not now doing so? Are not the +Christian negroes of the south lifting their hands in prayer for +deliverance, just as the Israelites did when their redemption was +drawing nigh? Are they not sighing and crying by reason of the hard +bondage? And think you, that He, of whom it was said, "and God heard +their groaning, and their cry came up unto him by reason of the hard +bondage," think you that his ear is heavy that he cannot _now_ hear +the cries of his suffering children? Or that He who raised up a Moses, +an Aaron, and a Miriam, to bring them up out of the land of Egypt from +the house of bondage, cannot now, with a high hand and a stretched out +arm, rid the poor negroes out of the hands of their masters? Surely +you believe that his aim is _not_ shortened that he cannot save. And +would not such a work of mercy redound to his glory? But another +string of the harp of prophecy vibrates to the song of deliverance: +"But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, +and _none shall make them afraid;_ for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts +hath spoken it." The _slave_ never can do this as long as he is a +_slave_; whilst he is a "chattel personal" he can own _no_ property; +but the time _is to come_ when _every_ man is to sit under _his +own_ vine and _his own_ fig-tree, and no domineering driver, or +irresponsible master, or irascible mistress, shall make him afraid of +the chain or the whip. Hear, too, the sweet tones of another string: +"Many shall run to and fro, and _knowledge_ shall be _increased_." +Slavery is an insurmountable barrier to the increase of knowledge in +every community where it exists; _slavery, then, must be abolished +before this prediction can be fulfiled_. The last chord I shall +touch, will be this, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy +mountain." + +_Slavery, then, must be overthrown before_ the prophecies can be +accomplished, but how are they to be fulfiled? Will the wheels of the +millennial car be rolled onward by miraculous power? No! God designs +to confer this holy privilege upon _man_; it is through _his_ +instrumentality that the great and glorious work of reforming the +world is to be done. And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral +power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, +anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and +missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic +associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which +spans the arch of our moral heaven? Who does not believe, that if +these societies were broken up, their constitutions burnt, and the +vast machinery with which they are laboring to regenerate mankind was +stopped, that the black clouds of vengeance would soon burst over our +world, and every city would witness the fate of the devoted cities of +the plain? Each one of these societies is walking abroad through the +earth scattering the seeds of truth over the wide field of our world, +not with the hundred hands of a Briareus, but with a hundred thousand. + +Another encouragement for you to labor, my friends, is, that you +will have the prayers and co-operation of English and Northern +philanthropists. You will never bend your knees in supplication at the +throne of grace for the overthrow of slavery, without meeting there +the spirits of other Christians, who will mingle their voices with +yours, as the morning or evening sacrifice ascends to God. Yes, the +spirit of prayer and of supplication has been poured out upon many, +many hearts; there are wrestling Jacobs who will not let go of the +prophetic promises of deliverance for the captive, and the opening of +prison doors to them that are bound. There are Pauls who are saying, +in reference to this subject, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" +There are Marys sitting in the house now, who are ready to arise and +go forth in this work as soon as the message is brought, "the master +is come and calleth for thee." And there are Marthas, too, who have +already gone out to meet Jesus, as he bends his footsteps to their +brother's grave, and weeps, _not_ over the lifeless body of Lazarus +bound hand and foot in grave-clothes, but over the politically and +intellectually lifeless slave, bound hand and foot in the iron chains +of oppression and ignorance. Some may be ready to say, as Martha did, +who seemed to expect nothing but sympathy from Jesus, "Lord, by this +time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." She thought it +useless to remove the stone and expose the loathsome body of her +brother; she could not believe that so great a miracle could be +wrought, as to raise _that putrefied body_ into life; but "Jesus said, +take _ye_ away too stone;" and when _they_ had taken away the stone +where the dead was laid, and uncovered the body of Lazarus, then it +was that "Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that +thou hast heard me," &c. "And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a +loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Yes, some may be ready to say of +the colored race, how can _they_ ever be raised politically and +intellectually, they have been dead four hundred years? But _we_ have +_nothing_ to do with _how_ this is to be done; _our business_ is to +take away the stone which has covered up the dead body of our brother, +to expose the putrid carcass, to show _how_ that body has been bound +with the grave-clothes of heathen ignorance, and his face with the +napkin of prejudice, and having done all it was our duty to do, to +stand by the negro's grave, in humble faith and holy hope, waiting to +hear the life-giving command of "Lazarus, come forth." This is just +what Anti-Slavery Societies are doing; they are taking away the stone +from the mouth of the tomb of slavery, where lies the putrid carcass +of our brother. They want the pure light of heaven to shine into that +dark and gloomy cave; they want all men to see _how_ that dead body +has been bound, _how_ that face has been wrapped in the _napkin of +prejudice_; and shall they wait beside that grave in vain? Is not +Jesus still the resurrection and the life? Did he come to proclaim +liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that +are bound, in vain? Did He promise to give beauty for ashes, the oil +of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness unto them that mourn in Zion, and will He refuse to beautify +the mind, anoint the head, and throw around the captive negro the +mantle of praise for that spirit of heaviness which has so long bound +him down to the ground? Or shall we not rather say with the prophet, +"the zeal of the Lord of Hosts _will_ perform this?" Yes, his promises +are sure, and amen in Christ Jesus, that he will assemble her that +halteth, and gather her that is driven out, and her that is afflicted. + +But I will now say a few words on the subject of Abolitionism. +Doubtless you have all heard Anti-Slavery Societies denounced as +insurrectionary and mischievous, fanatical and dangerous. It has been +said they publish the most abominable untruths, and that they are +endeavoring to excite rebellions at the South. Have you believed these +reports, my friends? have _you_ also been deceived by these false +assertions? Listen to me, then, whilst I endeavor to wipe from the +fair character of Abolitionism such unfounded accusations. You know +that _I_ am a Southerner; you know that my dearest relatives are +now in a slave Slate. Can you for a moment believe I would prove so +recreant to the feelings of a daughter and a sister, as to join a +society which was seeking to overthrow slavery by falsehood, bloodshed +and murder? I appeal to you who have known and loved me in days that +are passed, can _you_ believe it? No! my friends. As a Carolinian I +was peculiarly jealous of any movements on this subject; and before I +would join an Anti-Slavery Society, I took the precaution of becoming +acquainted with some of the leading Abolitionists, of reading their +publications and attending their meetings, at which I heard addresses +both from colored and white men; and it was not until I was fully +convicted that their principles were _entirely pacific_, and their +efforts _only moral_, that I gave my name as a member to the Female +Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia. Since that time, I have +regularly taken the Liberator, and read many Anti-Slavery pamphlets +and papers and books, and can assure you I never have seen a single +insurrectionary paragraph, and never read any account of cruelty which +I could not believe. Southerners may deny the truth of these +accounts, but why do they not _prove_ them to be false? Their violent +expressions of horror at such accounts being believed _may_ deceive +some, but they cannot deceive _me_, for I lived too long in the midst +of slavery, not to know what slavery is. When I speak of this system, +"I speak that I do know," and I am not at all afraid to assert, that +Anti-Slavery publications have _not_ overdrawn the monstrous features +of slavery at all. And many a Southerner _knows_ this as well as I do. +A lady in North Carolina remarked to a friend of mine, about eighteen +months since, "Northerners know nothing at all about slavery; they +think it is perpetual bondage only; but of the _depth of degradation_ +that word involves, they have no conception; if they had, _they +would never cease_ their efforts until so _horrible_ a system was +overthrown." She did not know how faithfully some Northern men and +Northern women had studied this subject; how diligently they had +searched out the cause of "him who had none to help him," and how +fearlessly they had told the story of the negro's wrongs. Yes, +Northerners know _every_ thing about slavery now. This monster of +iniquity has been unveiled to the world, her frightful features +unmasked, and soon, very soon will she be regarded with no more +complacency by the American republic than is the idol of Juggernaut, +rolling its bloody wheels over the crushed bodies of its prostrate +victims. + +But you will probably ask, if Anti-Slavery societies are not +insurrectionary, why do Northerners tell us they are? Why, I would ask +you in return, did Northern senators and Northern representatives give +their votes, at the last sitting of congress, to the admission of +Arkansas Territory as a state? Take those men, one by one, and ask +them in their parlours, do you _approve of slavery?_ ask them on +_Northern_ ground, where they will speak the truth, and I doubt not +_every man_ of them will tell you, _no!_ Why then, I ask, did they +give their votes to enlarge the mouth of that grave which has already +destroyed its tens of thousands? All our enemies tell us they are +as much anti-slavery as we are. Yes, my friends, thousands who are +helping you to bind the fetters of slavery on the negro, despise you +in their hearts for doing it; they rejoice that such an institution +has not been entailed upon, them. Why then, I would ask, do they lend +you their help? I will tell you, "they love _the praise of men more_ +than the praise of God." The Abolition cause has not yet become +so popular as to induce them to believe, that by advocating it in +congress, they shall sit still more securely in their seats there, +and like the _chief rulers_ in the days of our Saviour, though _many_ +believed on him, yet they did _not_ confess him, lest they should _be +put out of the synagogue_; John xii, 42, 43. Or perhaps like Pilate, +thinking they could prevail nothing, and fearing a tumult, they +determined to release Barabbas and surrender the just man, the poor +innocent slave to be stripped of his rights and scourged. In vain will +such men try to wash their hands, and say, with the Roman governor, +"I am innocent of the blood of this just person." Northern American +statesmen are no more innocent of the crime of slavery, than Pilate +was of the murder of Jesus, or Saul of that of Stephen. These are high +charges, but I appeal to _their hearts_; I appeal to public opinion +ten years from now. Slavery then is a national sin. + +But you will say, a great many other Northerners tell us so, who can +have no political motives. The interests of the North, you must know, +my friends, are very closely combined with those of the South. The +Northern merchants and manufacturers are making _their_ fortunes out +of the _produce of slave labor_; the grocer is selling your rice and +sugar; how then can these men bear a testimony against slavery without +condemning themselves? But there is another reason, the North is most +dreadfully afraid of Amalgamation. She is alarmed at the very idea of +a thing so monstrous, as she thinks. And lest this consequence _might_ +flow from emancipation, she is determined to resist all efforts at +emancipation without expatriation. It is not because _she approves of +slavery_, or believes it to be "the corner stone of our republic," +for she is as much _anti-slavery_ as we are; but amalgamation is +too horrible to think of. Now I would ask _you_, is it right, is it +generous, to refuse the colored people in this country the advantages +of education and the privilege, or rather the _right_, to follow +honest trades and callings merely because they are colored? The same +prejudice exists here against our colored brethren that existed +against the Gentiles in Judea. Great numbers cannot bear the idea of +equality, and fearing lest, if they had the same advantages we enjoy, +they would become as intelligent, as moral, as religious, and as +respectable and wealthy, they are determined to keep them as low as +they possibly can. Is this doing as they would be done by? Is this +loving their neighbor _as themselves?_ Oh! that _such_ opposers of +Abolitionism would put their souls in the stead of the free colored +man's and obey the apostolic injunction, to "remember them that are +in bonds _as bound with them_." I will leave you to judge whether +the fear of amalgamation ought to induce men to oppose anti-slavery +efforts, when _they_ believe _slavery_ to be _sinful_. Prejudice +against color, is the most powerful enemy we have to fight with at the +North. + +You need not be surprised, then, at all, at what is said _against_ +Abolitionists by the North, for they are wielding a two-edged sword, +which even here, cuts through the _cords of caste_, on the one side, +and the _bonds of interest_ on the other. They are only sharing the +fate of other reformers, abused and reviled whilst they are in the +minority; but they are neither angry nor discouraged by the invective +which has been heaped upon them by slaveholders at the South and their +apologists at the North. They know that when George Fox and William +Edmundson were laboring in behalf of the negroes in the West Indies in +1671 that the very _same_ slanders were propogated against them, which +are _now_ circulated against Abolitionists. Although it was well known +that Fox was the founder of a religious sect which repudiated _all_ +war, and _all_ violence, yet _even he_ was accused of "endeavoring to +excite the slaves to insurrection and of teaching the negroes to cut +their master's throats." And these two men who had their feet shod +with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, were actually compelled +to draw up a formal declaration that _they were not_ trying to raise +a rebellion in Barbadoes. It is also worthy of remark that these +Reformers did not at this time see the necessity of emancipation under +seven years, and their principal efforts were exerted to persuade +the planters of the necessity of instructing their slaves; but the +slaveholder saw then, just what the slaveholder sees now, that an +_enlightened_ population never can be a _slave_ population, and +therefore they passed a law that negroes should not even attend the +meetings of Friends. Abolitionists know that the life of Clarkson was +sought by slavetraders, and that even Wilberforce was denounced on the +floor of Parliament as a fanatic and a hypocrite by the present King +of England, the very man who, in 1834 set his seal to that instrument +which burst the fetters of eight hundred thousand slaves in his West +India colonies. They know that the first Quaker who bore a _faithful_ +testimony against the sin of slavery was cut off from religious +fellowship with that society. That Quaker was a _woman_. On her +deathbed she sent for the committe who dealt with her--she told them, +the near approach of death had not altered her sentiments on the +subject of slavery and waving her hand towards a very fertile and +beautiful portion of country which lay stretched before her window, +she said with great solemnity, "Friends, the time will come when there +will not be friends enough in all this district to hold one meeting +for worship, and this garden will be turned into a wilderness." + +The aged friend, who with tears in his eyes, related this interesting +circumstance to me, remarked, that at that time there were seven +meetings of friends in that part of Virginia, but that when he was +there ten years ago, not a single meeting was held, and the country +was literally a desolation. Soon after her decease, John Woolman began +his labors in our society, and instead of disowning a member for +testifying _against_ slavery, they have for fifty-two years positively +forbidden their members to hold slaves. + +Abolitionists understand the slaveholding spirit too well to be +surprised at any thing that has yet happened at the South or the +North; they know that the greater the sin is, which is exposed, the +more violent will be the efforts to blacken the character and impugn +the motives of those who are engaged in bringing to light the hidden +things of darkness. They understand the work of Reform too well to be +driven back by the furious waves of opposition, which are only foaming +out their own shame. They have stood "the world's dread laugh," when +only twelve men formed the first Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in +1831. They have faced and refuted the calumnies at their enemies, and +proved themselves to be emphatically _peace men_ by _never resisting_ +the violence of mobs, even when driven by them from the temple of God, +and dragged by an infuriated crowd through the Streets of the emporium +of New-England, or subjected by _slaveholders_ to the pain of corporal +punishment. "None of these things move them;" and, by the grace of +God, they are determined to persevere in this work of faith and labor +of love: they mean to pray, and preach, and write, and print, until +slavery is completely overthrown, until Babylon is taken up and cast +into the sea, to "be found no more at all." They mean to petition +Congress year after year, until the seat of our government is cleansed +from the sinful traffic of "slaves and the souls of men." Although +that august assembly may be like the unjust judge who "feared not God +neither regarded man," yet it _must_ yield just as he did, from the +power of importunity. Like the unjust judge, Congress _must_ redress +the wrongs of the widow, lest by the continual coming up of petitions, +it be wearied. This will be striking the dagger into the very heart of +the monster, and once 'tis done, he must soon expire. + +Abolitionists have been accused of abusing their Southern brethren. +Did the prophet Isaiah _abuse_ the Jews when he addressed to them the +cutting reproofs contained in the first chapter of his prophecies and +ended by telling them, they would be _ashamed_ of the oaks they had +desired, and _confounded_ for the garden they had chosen? Did John +the Baptist _abuse_ the Jews when he called them "_a generation of +vipers_" and warned them "to bring forth fruits meet for repentance?" +Did Peter abuse the Jews when he told them they were the murderers of +the Lord of Glory? Did Paul abuse the Roman Governor when he reasoned +before him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment, so as to send +conviction home to his guilty heart, and cause him to tremble in view +of the crimes he was living in? Surely not. No man will _now_ accuse +the prophets and apostles of _abuse_, but what have Abolitionists done +more than they? No doubt the Jews thought the prophets and apostles in +their day, just as harsh and uncharitable as slaveholders now, think +Abolitionists; if they did not, why did they beat, and stone, and kill +them? + +Great fault has been found with the prints which have been employed to +expose slavery at the North, but my friends, how could this be done +so effectually in any other way? Until the pictures of the slave's +sufferings were drawn and held up to public gaze, no Northerner had +any idea of the cruelty of the system, it never entered their minds +that such abominations could exist in Christian, Republican America; +they never suspected that many of the _gentlemen_ and _ladies_ who +came from the South to spend the summer months in travelling among +them, were petty tyrants at home. And those who had lived at the +South, and came to reside at the North, were too _ashamed of slavery_ +even to speak of it; the language of their hearts was, "tell it _not_ +in Gath, publish it _not_ in the streets of Askelon;" they saw no use +in uncovering the loathsome body to popular sight, and in hopeless +despair, wept in secret places over the sins of oppression. To such +hidden mourners the formation of Anti-Slavery Societies was as life +from the dead, the first beams of hope which gleamed through the dark +clouds of despondency and grief. Prints were made use of to effect the +abolition of the Inquisition in Spain, and Clarkson employed them when +he was laboring to break up the Slave trade, and English Abolitionists +used them just as we are now doing. They are powerful appeals and +have invariably done the work they were designed to do, and we cannot +consent to abandon the use of these until the _realities_ no longer +exist. + +With regard to those white men, who, it was said, did try to raise +an insurrection in Mississippi a year ago, and who were stated to be +Abolitionists, none of them were proved to be members of Anti-Slavery +Societies, and it must remain a matter of great doubt whether, even +they were guilty of the crimes alledged against them, because when any +community is thrown into such a panic as to inflict Lynch law upon +accused persons, they cannot be supposed to be capable of judging with +calmness and impartiality. _We know_ that the papers of which the +Charleston mail was robbed, were _not_ insurrectionary, and that they +were _not_ sent to the colored people as was reported, _We know_ that +Amos Dresser was _no insurrectionist_ though he was accused of being +so, and on this false accusation was publicly whipped in Nashville in +the midst of a crowd of infuriated _slaveholders_. Was that young man +disgraced by this infliction of corporal punishment? No more than +was the great apostle of the Gentiles who five times received forty +stripes, save one. Like him, he might have said, "henceforth I bear +in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," for it was for the _truth's +sake, he suffered_, as much as did the Apostle Paul. Are Nelson, and +Garrett, and Williams, and other Abolitionists who have recently been +banished from Missouri, insurrectionists? _We know_ they are _not_, +whatever slaveholders may choose to call them. The spirit which now +asperses the character of the Abolitionists, is the _very same_ which +dressed up the Christians of Spain in the skins of wild beasts and +pictures of devils when they were led to execution as heretics. Before +we condemn individuals, it is necessary, even in a wicked community, +to accuse them of some crime; hence, when Jezebel wished to compass +the death of Naboth, men of Belial were suborned to bear _false_ +witness against him, and so it was with Stephen, and so it ever has +been, and ever will be, as long as there is any virtue to suffer +on the rack, or the gallows. _False_ witnesses must appear against +Abolitionists before they can be condemned. + +I will now say a few words on George Thompson's mission to this +country. This Philanthropist was accused of being a foreign emissary. +Were La Fayette, and Steuben, and De Kalb, foreign emissaries when +they came over to America to fight against the tories, who preferred +submitting to what was termed, "the yoke of servitude," rather than +bursting the fetters which bound them to the mother country? _They_ +came with _carnal weapons_ to engage in _bloody_ conflict against +American citizens, and yet, where do their names stand on the page of +History. Among the honorable, or the low? Thompson came here to war +against the giant sin of slavery, not with the sword and the pistol, +but with the smooth stones of oratory taken from the pure waters of +the river of Truth. His splendid talents and commanding eloquence +rendered him a powerful coadjutor in the Anti-Slavery cause, and in +order to neutralize the effects of these upon his auditors, and rob +the poor slave of the benefits of his labors, his character was +defamed, his life was sought, and he at last driven from our Republic, +as a fugitive. But was _Thompson_ disgraced by all this mean and +contemptible and wicked chicanery and malice? No more than was Paul, +when in consequence of a vision he had seen at Troas, he went over to +Macedonia to help the Christians there, and was beaten and imprisoned, +because he cast out a spirit of divination from a young damsel which +had brought much gain to her masters. Paul was as much a foreign +emissary in the Roman colony of Philippi, as George Thompson was in +America, and it was because he was a _Jew_ and taught customs it was +not lawful for them to receive or observe, being Romans, that the +Apostle was thus treated. + +It was said, Thompson was a felon, who had fled to this country to +escape transportation to New Holland. Look at him now pouring the +thundering strains of his eloquence, upon crowded audiences in Great +Britain, and see in this a triumphant vindication of his character. +And have the slaveholder, and his obsequious apologist, gained any +thing by all their violence and falsehood? No! for the stone which +struck Goliath of Gath, had already been thrown from the sling. The +giant of slavery who had so proudly defied the armies of the living +God, had received his death-blow before he left our shores. But what +is George Thompson doing there? Is he not now laboring there, as +effectually to abolish American slavery as though he trod our own +soil, and lectured to New York or Boston assemblies? What is he +doing there, but constructing a stupendous dam, which will turn the +overwhelming tide of public opinion over the wheels of that machinery +which Abolitionists are working here. He is now lecturing to _Britons_ +on _American Slavery_, to the _subjects_ of a _King_, on the abject +condition of the _slaves of a Republic_. He is telling them of that +mighty confederacy of petty tyrants which extends over thirteen States +of our Union. He is telling them of the munificent rewards offered by +slaveholders, for the heads of the most distinguished advocates for +freedom in this country. He is moving the British Churches to send +out to the churches of America the most solemn appeals, reproving, +rebuking, and exhorting them with all long suffering and patience to +abandon the sin of slavery immediately. Where then I ask, will the +name of George Thompson stand on the page of History? Among the +honorable, or the base? + +What can I say more, my friends, to induce _you_ to set your hands, +and heads, and hearts, to this great work of justice and mercy. +Perhaps you have feared the consequences of immediate Emancipation, +and been frightened by all those dreadful prophecies of rebellion, +bloodshed and murder, which have been uttered. "Let no man deceive +you;" they are the predictions of that same "lying spirit" which spoke +through the four hundred prophets of old, to Ahab king of Israel, +urging him on to destruction. _Slavery_ may produce these horrible +scenes if it is continued five years longer, but Emancipation _never +will_. + +I can prove the _safety_ of immediate Emancipation by history. In St. +Domingo in 1793 six hundred thousand slaves were set free in a +white population of forty-two thousand. That Island "marched as by +enchantment" towards its ancient splendor, cultivation prospered, every +day produced perceptible proofs of its progress, and the negroes all +continued quietly to work on the different plantations, until in 1802, +France determined to reduce these liberated slaves again to bondage. +It was at _this time_ that all those dreadful scenes of cruelty +occured, which we so often _unjustly_ hear spoken of, as the effects +of Abolition. They were occasioned _not_ by Emancipation, but by the +base attempt to fasten the chains of slavery on the limbs of liberated +slaves. + +In Gaudaloape eighty-five thousand slaves were freed in a white +population of thirteen thousand. The same prosperous effects followed +manumission here, that had attended it in Hayti, every thing was quiet +until Buonaparte sent out a fleet to reduce these negroes again to +slavery, and in 1802 this institution was re-established in that +Island. In 1834, when Great Britain determined to liberate the slaves +in her West India colonies, and proposed the apprenticeship system; +the planters of Bermuda and Antigua, after having joined the other +planters in their representations of the bloody consequences of +Emancipation, in order if possible to hold back the hand which was +offering the boon of freedom to the poor negro; as soon as they found +such falsehoods were utterly disregarded, and Abolition must take +place, came forward voluntarily, and asked for the compensation which +was due to them, saying, _they preferred immediate emancipation_, and +were not afraid of any insurrection. And how is it with these islands +now? They are decidedly more prosperous than any of those in which +the apprenticeship system was adopted, and England is now trying +to abolish that system, so fully convinced is she that immediate +Emancipation is the safest and the best plan. + +And why not try it in the Southern States, if it never has occasioned +rebellion; if _not_ a _drop of blood_ has ever been shed in +consequence of it, though it has been so often tried, why should we +suppose it would produce such disastrous consequences now? "Be not +deceived then, God is not mocked," by such false excuses for not doing +justly and loving mercy. There is nothing to fear from immediate +Emancipation, but _every thing_ from the continuance of slavery. + +Sisters in Christ, I have done. As a Southerner, I have felt it was +my duty to address you. I have endeavoured to set before you the +exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and to point you to the example of +those noble women who have been raised up in the church to effect +great revolutions, and to suffer for the truth's sake. I have appealed +to your sympathies as women, to your sense of duty as _Christian +women_. I have attempted to vindicate the Abolitionists, to prove the +entire safety of immediate Emancipation, and to plead the cause of the +poor and oppressed. I have done--I have sowed the seeds of truth, but +I well know, that even if an Apollos were to follow in my steps to +water them, "_God only_ can give the increase." To Him then who is +able to prosper the work of his servant's hand, I commend this Appeal +in fervent prayer, that as he "hath _chosen the weak things of the +world_, to confound the things which are mighty," so He may cause His +blessing, to descend and carry conviction to the hearts of many Lydias +through these speaking pages. Farewell--Count me not your "enemy +because I have told you the truth," but believe me in unfeigned +affection, + +Your sympathizing Friend, + +Angelina E. Grimkč. + + + +THIRD EDITION. + + + +[1] And again, "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the +children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; +then _that thief shall die_; and thou shall put away evil from among +you." Deut. xxiv, 7. + +[2] And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let +him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him _liberally_ out of thy flock +and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the +Lord thy God hath blessed thee, shalt thou give unto him. Deut xv, 13, +14. + +[3] There are laws in some of the slave states, limiting the labor +which the master may require of the slave to fourteen hours daily. In +some of the states there are laws requiring the masters to furnish a +certain amount of food and clothing, as for instance, _one quart_ of +corn per day, or _one peck_ per week, or _one bushel_ per month, and +"_one_ linen shirt and pantaloons for the summer, and a linen shirt +and woolen great coat and pantaloons for the winter," &c. But "still," +to use the language of Judge Stroud "the slave is entirely under the +control of his master,--is unprovided with a protector,--and, +especially as he cannot be a witness or make complaint in any known +mode against his master, the _apparent_ object of these laws may +_always_ be defeated." ED. + +[4] See Mrs. Child's Appeal, Chap. II. + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been relocated to the end.] + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Appeal to the Christian Women of +the South, by Angelina Emily Grimké + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF SOUTH *** + +***** This file should be named 9915-8.txt or 9915-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/1/9915/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/9915-8.zip b/9915-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc2e760 --- /dev/null +++ b/9915-8.zip diff --git a/9915.txt b/9915.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd28f3b --- /dev/null +++ b/9915.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2265 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Appeal to the Christian Women of the +South, by Angelina Emily Grimke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South + +Author: Angelina Emily Grimke + +Posting Date: November 3, 2011 [EBook #9915] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 31, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF SOUTH *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + + + +Angelina Emily Grimke + + + + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + +BY A.E. GRIMKE. + + +"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself +that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For +if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: +but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth +whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And +Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in +unto the king, which is not according to law, and _if I perish, I +perish_." Esther IV. 13-16. + + +Respected Friends, + +It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present and +eternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Some +of you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me in +Christian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship; and even when compelled by +a strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of union which +bound us together as members of the same community, and members of +the same religious denomination, you were generous enough to give me +credit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you believed I had been +most strangely deceived. I thanked you then for your kindness, and +I ask you _now_, for the sake of former confidence, and former +friendship, to read the following pages in the spirit of calm +investigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have known me, +that I write thus unto you. + +But there are other Christian women scattered over the Southern +States, a very large number of whom have never seen me, and never +heard my name, and who feel _no_ interest whatever in _me_. But I feel +an interest in _you_, as branches of the same vine from whose root I +daily draw the principle of spiritual vitality--Yes! Sisters in Christ +I feel an interest in _you_, and often has the secret prayer arisen +on your behalf, Lord "open thou their eyes that they may see wondrous +things out of thy Law"--It is then, because I _do feel_ and _do pray_ +for you, that I thus address you upon a subject about which of all +others, perhaps you would rather not hear any thing; but, "would to +God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with +me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." Be not afraid +then to read my appeal; it is _not_ written in the heat of passion +or prejudice, but in that solemn calmness which is the result of +conviction and duty. It is true, I am going to tell you unwelcome +truths, but I mean to speak those _truths in love_, and remember +Solomon says, "faithful are the _wounds_ of a friend." I do not +believe the time has yet come when _Christian women_ "will not endure +sound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken to +them in tenderness and love, therefore I now address _you_. + +To all of you then, known or unknown, relatives or strangers, (for you +are all _one_ in Christ,) I would speak. I have felt for you at this +time, when unwelcome light is pouring in upon the world on the subject +of slavery; light which even Christians would exclude, if they could, +from our country, or at any rate from the southern portion of it, +saying, as its rays strike the rock bound coasts of New England and +scatter their warmth and radiance over her hills and valleys, and from +thence travel onward over the Palisades of the Hudson, and down the +soft flowing waters of the Delaware and gild the waves of the Potomac, +"hitherto shalt thou come and no further;" I know that even professors +of His name who has been emphatically called the "Light of the world" +would, if they could, build a wall of adamant around the Southern +States whose top might reach unto heaven, in order to shut out the +light which is bounding from mountain to mountain and from the hills +to the plains and valleys beneath, through the vast extent of our +Northern States. But believe me, when I tell you, their attempts will +be as utterly fruitless as were the efforts of the builders of Babel; +and why? Because moral, like natural light, is so extremely subtle in +its nature as to overleap all human barriers, and laugh at the puny +efforts of man to control it. All the excuses and palliations of this +system must inevitably be swept away, just as other "refuges of lies" +have been, by the irresistible torrent of a rectified public opinion. +"The _supporters_ of the slave system," says Jonathan Dymond in his +admirable work on the Principles of Morality, "will _hereafter_ be +regarded with the _same_ public feeling, as he who was an advocate for +the slave trade _now is_." It will be, and that very soon, clearly +perceived and fully acknowledged by all the virtuous and the candid, +that in _principle_ it is as sinful to hold a human being in bondage +who has been born in Carolina, as one who has been born in Africa. +All that sophistry of argument which has been employed to prove, that +although it is sinful to send to Africa to procure men and women as +slaves, who have never been in slavery, that still, it is not sinful +to keep those in bondage who have come down by inheritance, will be +utterly overthrown. We must come back to the good old doctrine of our +forefathers who declared to the world, "this self evident truth that +_all_ men are created equal, and that they have certain _inalienable_ +rights among which are life, _liberty_, and the pursuit of happiness." +It is even a greater absurdity to suppose a man can be legally born +a slave under _our free Republican_ Government, than under the petty +despotisms of barbarian Africa. If then, we have no right to enslave +an African, surely we can have none to enslave an American; if it is a +self evident truth that _all_ men, every where and of every color are +born equal, and have an _inalienable right to liberty_, then it is +equally true that _no_ man can be born a slave, and no man can ever +_rightfully_ be reduced to _involuntary_ bondage and held as a slave, +however fair may be the claim of his master or mistress through wills +and title-deeds. + +But after all, it may be said, our fathers were certainly mistaken, +for the Bible sanctions Slavery, and that is the highest authority. +Now the Bible is my ultimate appeal in all matters of faith and +practice, and it is to _this test_ I am anxious to bring the subject +at issue between us. Let us then begin with Adam and examine the +charter of privileges which was given to him. "Have dominion over the +fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living +thing that moveth upon the earth." In the eighth Psalm we have a still +fuller description of this charter which through Adam was given to +all mankind. "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy +hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, +yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the +sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." And after +the flood when this charter of human rights was renewed, we find _no +additional_ power vested in man. "And the fear of you and the dread of +you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, +and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of +the sea, into your hand are they delivered." In this charter, although +the different kinds of _irrational_ beings are so particularly +enumerated, and supreme dominion over _all of them_ is granted, yet +_man_ is _never_ vested with this dominion _over his fellow man;_ +he was never told that any of the human species were put _under his +feet;_ it was only _all things_, and man, who was created in the image +of his Maker, _never_ can properly be termed a _thing_, though the +laws of Slave States do call him "a chattel personal;" _Man_ then, I +assert _never_ was put _under the feet of man_, by that first charter +of human rights which was given by God, to the Fathers of the +Antediluvian and Postdiluvian worlds, therefore this doctrine of +equality is based on the Bible. + +But it may be argued, that in the very chapter of Genesis from which I +have last quoted, will be found the curse pronounced upon Canaan, by +which his posterity was consigned to servitude under his brothers Shem +and Japheth. I know this prophecy was uttered, and was most fearfully +and wonderfully fulfilled, through the immediate descendants of +Canaan, i.e. the Canaanites, and I do not know but it has been through +all the children of Ham but I do know that prophecy does _not_ tell us +what _ought to be_, but what actually does take place, ages after it +has been delivered, and that if we justify America for enslaving +the children of Africa, we must also justify Egypt for reducing +the children of Israel to bondage, for the latter was foretold as +explicitly as the former. I am well aware that prophecy has often been +urged as an excuse for Slavery, but be not deceived, the fulfilment of +prophecy will _not cover one sin_ in the awful day of account. Hear +what our Saviour says on this subject; "it must needs be that offences +come, but _woe unto that man through whom they come"_--Witness some +fulfilment of this declaration in the tremendous destruction, of +Jerusalem, occasioned by that most nefarious of all crimes the +crucifixion of the Son of God. Did the fact of that event having been +foretold, exculpate the Jews from sin in perpetrating it; No--for +hear what the Apostle Peter says to them on this subject, "Him being +delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, _ye_ +have taken, and by _wicked_ hands have crucified and slain." Other +striking instances might be adduced, but these will suffice. + +But it has been urged that the patriarchs held slaves, and therefore, +slavery is right. Do you really believe that patriarchal servitude was +like American slavery? Can you believe it? If so, read the history +of these primitive fathers of the church and be undeceived. Look at +Abraham, though so great a man, going to the herd himself and fetching +a calf from thence and serving it up with his own hands, for the +entertainment of his guests. Look at Sarah, that princess as her name +signifies, baking cakes upon the hearth. If the servants they had were +like Southern slaves, would they have performed such comparatively +menial offices for themselves? Hear too the plaintive lamentation of +Abraham when he feared he should have no son to bear his name down +to posterity. "Behold thou hast given me no seed, &c, one born in my +house _is mine_ heir." From this it appears that one of his _servants_ +was to inherit his immense estate. Is this like Southern slavery? I +leave it to your own good sense and candor to decide. Besides, such +was the footing upon which Abraham was with _his_ servants, that he +trusted them with arms. Are slaveholders willing to put swords and +pistols into the hands of their slaves? He was as a father among his +servants; what are planters and masters generally among theirs? When +the institution of circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded +thus; "He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, +_every_ man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, +or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed." And +to render this command with regard to his _servants_ still more +impressive it is repeated in the very next verse; and herein we may +perceive the great care which was taken by God to guard the _rights +of servants_ even under this "dark dispensation." What too was the +testimony given to the faithfulness of this eminent patriarch. "For I +know him that he will command his children and his _household_ after +him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and +judgment." Now my dear friends many of you believe that circumcision +has been superseded by baptism in the Church; _Are you_ careful to +have _all_ that are born in your house or bought with money of any +stranger, baptized? Are _you_ as faithful as Abraham to command +_your household to keep the way of the Lord?_ I leave it to your own +consciences to decide. Was patriarchal servitude then like American +Slavery? + +But I shall be told, God sanctioned Slavery, yea commanded Slavery +under the Jewish Dispensation. Let us examine this subject calmly and +prayerfully. I admit that a species of _servitude_ was permitted to +the Jews, but in studying the subject I have been struck with wonder +and admiration at perceiving how carefully the servant was guarded +from violence, injustice and wrong. I will first inform you how these +servants became servants, for I think this a very important part of +our subject. From consulting Horne, Calmet and the Bible, I find there +were six different ways by which the Hebrews became servants legally. + +1. If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might sell himself, i.e. +his services, for six years, in which case _he_ received the purchase +money _himself_. Lev. xxv, 39. + +2. A father might sell his children as servants, i.e. his _daughters_, +in which circumstance it was understood the daughter was to be the +wife or daughter-in-law of the man who bought her, and the _father_ +received the price. In other words, Jewish women were sold as _white +women_ were in the first settlement of Virginia--as _wives_, _not_ as +slaves. Ex. xxi, 7. + +3. Insolvent debtors might be delivered to their creditors as +servants. 2 Kings iv, 1 + +4. Thieves not able to make restitution for their thefts, were sold +for the benefit of the injured person. Ex. xxii, 3. + +5. They might be born in servitude. Ex. xxi, 4. + +6. If a Hebrew had sold himself to a rich Gentile, he might be +redeemed by one of his brethren at any time the money was offered; and +he who redeemed him, was _not_ to take advantage of the favor thus +conferred, and rule over him with rigor. Lev. xxv, 47-55. + +Before going into an examination of the laws by which these servants +were protected, I would just ask whether American slaves have become +slaves in any of the ways in which the Hebrews became servants. Did +they sell themselves into slavery and receive the purchase money into +their own hands? No! Did they become insolvent, and by their own +imprudence subject themselves to be sold as slaves? No! Did they steal +the property of another, and were they sold to make restitution for +their crimes? No! Did their present masters, as an act of kindness, +redeem them from some heathen tyrant to whom _they had sold +themselves_ in the dark hour of adversity? No! Were they born in +slavery? No! No! not according to _Jewish Law_, for the servants who +were born in servitude among them, were born of parents who had _sold +themselves_ for six years: Ex. xxi, 4. Were the female slaves of +the South sold by their fathers? How shall I answer this question? +Thousands and tens of thousands never were, _their_ fathers _never_ +have received the poor compensation of silver or gold for the tears +and toils, the suffering, and anguish, and hopeless bondage of _their_ +daughters. They labor day by day, and year by year, side by side, in +the same field, if haply their daughters are permitted to remain on +the same plantation with them, instead of being as they often are, +separated from their parents and sold into distant states, never again +to meet on earth. But do the _fathers of the South ever sell their +daughters_? My heart beats, and my hand trembles, as I write the awful +affirmative, Yes! The fathers of this Christian land often sell +their daughters, _not_ as Jewish parents did, to be the wives and +daughters-in-law of the man who buys them, but to be the abject slaves +of petty tyrants and irresponsible masters. Is it not so, my friends? +I leave it to your own candor to corroborate my assertion. Southern +slaves then have _not_ become slaves in any of the six different ways +in which Hebrews became servants, and I hesitate not to say that +American masters _cannot_ according to _Jewish law_ substantiate their +claim to the men, women, or children they now hold in bondage. + +But there was one way in which a Jew might illegally be reduced to +servitude; it was this, he might be _stolen_ and afterwards sold as a +slave, as was Joseph. To guard most effectually against this dreadful +crime of manstealing, God enacted this severe law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be +put to death." [1] As I have tried American Slavery by _legal_ Hebrew +servitude, and found, (to your surprise, perhaps,) that Jewish law +cannot justify the slaveholder's claim, let us now try it by _illegal_ +Hebrew bondage. Have the Southern slaves then been, stolen? If they +did not sell themselves into bondage; if they were not sold as +insolvent debtors or as thieves; if they were not redeemed from a +heathen master to whom _they had sold themselves_; if they were not +born in servitude according to Hebrew law; and if the females were +not sold by their fathers as wives and daughters-in-law to those who +purchased them; then what shall we say of them? what can we say of +them but that according _to Hebrew Law they have been stolen_. + +But I shall be told that the Jews had other servants who were absolute +slaves. Let us look a little into this also. They had other servants +who were procured in two different ways. + +1. Captives taken in war were reduced to bondage instead of being +killed; but we are not told that their children were enslaved Deut. +xx, 14. + +2. Bondmen and bondmaids might be bought from the heathen round about +them; these were left by fathers to their children after them, but +it does not appear that the _children_ of these servants ever were +reduced to servitude. Lev. xxv, 44. + +I will now try the right of the southern planter by the claims of +Hebrew masters over their _heathen_ slaves. Were the southern slaves +taken captive in war? No! Were they bought from the heathen? No! for +surely, no one will _now_ vindicate the slave-trade so far as to +assert that slaves were bought from the heathen who were obtained by +that system of piracy. The _only_ excuse for holding southern slaves +is that they were born in slavery, but we have seen that they were +_not_ born in servitude as Jewish servants were, and that the children +of heathen slaves were not legally subjected to bondage even under the +Mosaic Law. How then have the slaves of the South been obtained? + +I will next proceed to an examination of those laws which were enacted +in order to protect the Hebrew and the Heathen servant; for I wish you +to understand that _both_ are protected by Him, of whom it is said +"his mercies are over _all_ his works." I will first speak of those +which secured the rights of Hebrew servants. This code was headed +thus: + +1. Thou shalt _not_ rule over him with _rigor_, but shalt fear thy +God; + +2. If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in +the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. Ex. xxi, 2. [2] + +3. If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were +married, then his wife shall go out with him. + +4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him sons and +daughters, the wife and her children shall be his master's, and he +shall go out by himself. + +5. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my +children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto +the Judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, +and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall +serve him _forever_. Ex. xxi, 5-6. + +6. If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that +it perish, he shall let him go _free_ for his eye's sake. And if he +smite out his man servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth, he +shall let him go _free_ for his tooth's sake. Ex. xxi, 26, 27. + +7. On the Sabbath rest was secured to servants by the fourth +commandment. Ex. xx, 10. + +8. Servants were permitted to unite with their masters three times in +every year in celebrating the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and +the feast of Tabernacles; every male throughout the land was to appear +before the Lord at Jerusalem with a gift; here the bond and the free +stood on common ground. Deut. xvi. + +9. If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under +his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue +a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. Ex. xxi, +20, 21. + +From these laws we learn that Hebrew men servants were bound to serve +their masters _only six_ years, unless their attachment to their +employers their wives and children, should induce them to wish +to remain in servitude, in which case, in order to prevent the +possibility of deception on the part of the master, the servant was +first taken before the magistrate, where he openly declared his +intention of continuing in his master's service, (probably a public +register was kept of such) he was then conducted to the door of the +house, (in warm climates doors are thrown open,) and _there_ his ear +was _publicly_ bored, and by submitting to this operation he testified +his willingness to serve him _forever_, i.e. during his life, for +Jewish Rabbins who must have understood Jewish _slavery_, (as it is +called,) "affirm that servants were set free at the death of their +masters and did _not_ descend to their heirs:" or that he was to +serve him until the year of Jubilee, when _all_ servants were set at +liberty. To protect servants from violence, it was ordained that if a +master struck out the tooth or destroyed the eye of a servant, that +servant immediately became _free_, for such an act of violence +evidently showed he was unfit to possess the power of a master, and +therefore that power was taken from him. All servants enjoyed the rest +of the Sabbath and partook of the privileges and festivities of the +three great Jewish Feasts; and if a servant died under the infliction +of chastisement, his master was surely to be punished. As a tooth +for a tooth and life for life was the Jewish law, of course he was +punished with death. I know that great stress has been laid upon the +following verse: "Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he +shall not be punished, for he is his money." + +Slaveholders, and the apologists of slavery, have eagerly seized upon +this little passage of scripture, and held it up as the masters' Magna +Charta, by which they were licensed by God himself to commit the +greatest outrages upon the defenceless victims of their oppression. +But, my friends, was it designed to be so? If our Heavenly Father +would protect by law the eye and the tooth of a Hebrew servant, can we +for a moment believe that he would abandon that same servant to the +brutal rage of a master who would destroy even life itself. Do we not +rather see in this, the _only_ law which protected masters, and was +it not right that in case of the death of a servant, one or two days +after chastisement was inflicted, to which other circumstances might +have contributed, that the master should be protected when, in all +probability, he never intended to produce so fatal a result? But the +phrase "he is his money" has been adduced to show that Hebrew servants +were regarded as mere _things_, "chattels personal;" if so, why were +so many laws made to _secure their rights as men_, and to ensure their +rising into equality and freedom? If they were mere _things_, why were +they regarded as responsible beings, and one law made for them as well +as for their masters? But I pass on now to the consideration of how +the _female_ Jewish servants were protected by _law_. + +1. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, +then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto another nation he +shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. + +2. If he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after +the manner of daughters. + +3. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of +marriage, shall he not diminish. + +4. If he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out _free_ +without money. + +On these laws I will give you Calmet's remarks; "A father could not +sell his daughter as a slave, according to the Rabbins, until she +was at the age of puberty, and unless he were reduced to the utmost +indigence. Besides when a master bought an Israelitish girl, it was +_always_ with the presumption that he would take her to wife. Hence +Moses adds, 'if she please not her master, and he does not think +fit to marry her, he shall set her at liberty,' or according to the +Hebrew, 'he shall let her be redeemed.' 'To sell her to another nation +he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her;' as +to the engagement implied, at least of taking her to wife. 'If he have +betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of +daughters, i.e. he shall take care that his son uses her as his wife, +that he does not despise or maltreat her. If he make his son +marry another wife, he shall give her her dowry, her clothes and +compensation for her virginity; if he does none of these three, she +shall _go out free_ without money." Thus were the _rights of female +servants carefully secured by law_ under the Jewish Dispensation; and +now I would ask, are the rights of female slaves at the South thus +secured? Are _they_ sold only as wives and daughters-in-law, and when +not treated as such, are they allowed to _go out free?_ No! They have +_all_ not only been illegally obtained as servants according to Hebrew +law, but they are also illegally _held_ in bondage. Masters at the +South and West have all forfeited their claims, (_if they ever had +any_,) to their female slaves. + +We come now to examine the case of those servants who were "of the +heathen round about;" Were _they_ left entirely unprotected by law? +Horne in speaking of the law, "Thou shalt not rule over him with +rigor, but shall fear thy God," remarks, "this law Lev. xxv, 43, it +is true speaks expressly of slaves who were of Hebrew descent; but +as _alien born_ slaves were ingrafted into the Hebrew Church by +circumcision, _there is no doubt_ but that it applied to _all_ +slaves;" if so, then we may reasonably suppose that the other +protective laws extended to them also; and that the only difference +between Hebrew and Heathen servants lay in this, that the former +served but six years unless they chose to remain longer, and were +always freed at the death of their masters; whereas the latter served +until the year of Jubilee, though that might include a period of +forty-nine years,--and were left from father to son. + +There are however two other laws which I have not yet noticed. The +one effectually prevented _all involuntary_ servitude, and the other +completely abolished Jewish servitude every fifty years. They were +equally operative upon the Heathen and the Hebrew. + +1. "Thou shall _not_ deliver unto his master the servant that is +escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even +among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates +where it liketh him best: thou shall _not_ oppress him." Deut. xxiii, +15, 16. + +2. "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim _Liberty_ +throughout _all_ the land, unto _all_ the inhabitants thereof: it +shall be a jubilee unto you." Lev. xxv, 10. + +Here, then, we see that by this first law, the _door of Freedom was +opened wide to every servant who_ had any cause whatever for +complaint; if he was unhappy with his master, all he had to do was to +leave him, and _no man_ had a right to deliver him back to him again, +and not only so, but the absconded servant was to _choose_ where he +should live, and no Jew was permitted to oppress him. He left his +master just as our Northern servants leave us; we have no power to +compel them to remain with us, and no man has any right to oppress +them; they go and dwell in that place where it chooseth them, and live +just where they like. Is it so at the South? Is the poor runaway slave +protected _by law_ from the violence of that master whose oppression +and cruelty has driven him from his plantation or his house? No! no! +Even the free states of the North are compelled to deliver unto his +master the servant that is escaped from his master into them. By +_human_ law, under the _Christian Dispensation_, in the _nineteenth +century we_ are commanded to do, what _God_ more than _three thousand_ +years ago, under the _Mosaic Dispensation, positively commanded_ the +Jews _not_ to do. In the wide domain even of our free states, there is +not _one_ city of refuge for the poor runaway fugitive; not one spot +upon which he can stand and say, I am a free man--I am protected in my +rights as a _man_, by the strong arm of the law; no! _not one_. How +long the North will thus shake hands with the South in sin, I know +not. How long she will stand by like the persecutor Saul, _consenting_ +unto the death of Stephen, and keeping the raiment of them that slew +him. I know not; but one thing I do know, the _guilt of the North_ is +increasing in a tremendous ratio as light is pouring in upon her on +the subject and the sin of slavery. As the sun of righteousness climbs +higher and higher in the moral heavens, she will stand still more and +more abashed as the query is thundered down into her ear, "_Who_ hath +required _this_ at thy hand?" It will be found _no_ excuse then that +the Constitution of our country required that _persons bound to +service_ escaping from their masters should be delivered up; no more +excuse than was the reason which Adam assigned for eating the forbidden +fruit. _He_ was _condemned and punished because_ he hearkened to the +voice of _his wife_, rather than to the command of his Maker; and _we_ +will assuredly be condemned and punished for obeying _Man_ rather than +_God_, if we do not speedily repent and bring forth fruits meet for +repentance. Yea, are we not receiving chastisement even _now_? + +But by the second of these laws a still more astonishing fact is +disclosed. If the first effectually prevented _all involuntary +servitude_, the last absolutely forbade even _voluntary servitude +being perpetual_. On the great day of atonement every fiftieth year +the Jubilee trumpet was sounded throughout the land of Judea, and +_Liberty_ was proclaimed to _all_ the inhabitants thereof. I will not +say that the servants' _chains_ fell off and their _manacles_ were +burst, for there is no evidence that Jewish servants _ever_ felt the +weight of iron chains, and collars, and handcuffs; but I do say that +even the man who had voluntarily sold himself and the _heathen_ who +had been sold to a Hebrew master, were set free, the one as well as +the other. This law was evidently designed to prevent the oppression +of the poor, and the possibility of such a thing as _perpetual +servitude_ existing among them. + +Where, then, I would ask, is the warrant, the justification, or the +palliation of American Slavery from Hebrew servitude? How many of +the southern slaves would now be in bondage according to the laws of +Moses; Not one. You may observe that I have carefully avoided using +the term _slavery_ when speaking of Jewish servitude; and simply for +this reason, that _no such thing_ existed among that people; the word +translated servant does _not_ mean _slave_, it is the same that is +applied to Abraham, to Moses, to Elisha and the prophets generally. +Slavery then never existed under the Jewish Dispensation at all, and +I cannot but regard it as an aspersion on the character of Him who is +"glorious in Holiness" for any one to assert that "_God sanctioned, +yea commanded slavery_ under the old dispensation." I would fain +lift my feeble voice to vindicate Jehovah's character from so foul a +slander. If slaveholders are determined to hold slaves as long as +they can, let them not dare to say that the God of mercy and of truth +_ever_ sanctioned such a system of cruelty and wrong. It is blasphemy +against Him. + +We have seen that the code of laws framed by Moses with regard to +servants was designed to protect them as men and women, to secure to +them their rights as human beings, to guard them from oppression and +defend them from violence of every kind. Let us now turn to the Slave +laws of the South and West and examine them too. I will give you the +substance only, because I fear I shall tresspass too much on your +time, were I to quote them at length. + +1. _Slavery_ is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the +slave's earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest +posterity. + +2. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated; while the +kind of labor, the amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, are +dictated solely by the master. No bargain is made, no wages given. +A pure despotism governs the human brute; and even his covering and +provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend entirely on the +master's discretion. [3] + +3. The slave being considered a personal chattel may be sold or +pledged, or leased at the will of his master. He may be exchanged for +marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts or +taxes either of a living or dead master. Sold at auction, either +individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser, he may remain with his +family, or be separated from them for ever. + +4. Slaves can make no contracts and have no _legal_ right to any +property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings and the legacies +of friends belong in point of law to their masters. + +5. Neither a slave nor a free colored person can be a witness against +any _white_, or free person, in a court of justice, however atrocious +may have been the crimes they have seen him commit, if such testimony +would be for the benefit of a _slave_; but they may give testimony +_against a fellow slave_, or free colored man, even in cases affecting +life, if the _master_ is to reap the advantage of it. + +6. The slave may be punished at his master's discretion--without +trial--without any means of legal redress; whether his offence be real +or imaginary; and the master can transfer the same despotic power to +any person or persons, he may choose to appoint. + +7. The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under _any_ +circumstances, _his_ only safety consists in the fact that his _owner_ +may bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is +taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor. + +8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, +though cruel treatment may have' rendered such a change necessary for +their personal safety. + +9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. + +10. The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where +the master is willing to enfranchise them. + +11. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious +instruction and consolation. + +12. The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state +of the lowest ignorance. + +13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right. +What is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly +criminal--in the slave; the same offences which cost a white man a few +dollars only, are punished in the negro with death. + +14. The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color. [4] +Shall I ask you now my friends, to draw the parallel between Jewish +_servitude_ and American _slavery_? No! For there is _no likeness_ in +the two systems; I ask you rather to mark the contrast. The laws of +Moses _protected servants_ in their _rights as men and women_, guarded +them from oppression and defended them from wrong. The Code Noir of +the South _robs the slave of all his rights_ as a _man_, reduces him +to a chattel personal, and defends the master in the exercise of the +most unnatural and unwarrantable power over his slave. They each bear +the impress of the hand which formed them. The attributes of justice +and mercy are shadowed out in the Hebrew code; those of injustice +and cruelty, in the Code Noir of America. Truly it was wise in the +slaveholders of the South to declare their slaves to be "chattels +personal;" for before they could be robbed of wages, wives, children, +and friends, it was absolutely necessary to deny they were human +beings. It is wise in them, to keep them in abject ignorance, for the +strong man armed must be bound before we can spoil his house--the +powerful intellect of man must be bound down with the iron chains of +nescience before we can rob him of his rights as a man; we must reduce +him to a _thing_ before we can claim the right to set our feet upon +his neck, because it was only _all things_ which were originally _put +under the feet of man_ by the Almighty and Beneficent Father of all, +who has declared himself to be _no respecter_ of persons, whether red, +white or black. + +But some have even said that Jesus Christ did not condemn slavery. To +this I reply that our Holy Redeemer lived and preached among the Jews +only. The laws which Moses had enacted fifteen hundred years previous +to his appearance among them, had never been annulled, and these laws +protected every servant in Palestine. If then He did not condemn +Jewish servitude this does not prove that he would not have condemned +such a monstrous system as that of American _slavery_, if that had +existed among them. But did not Jesus condemn slavery? Let us examine +some of his precepts. "_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should do to +you, do _ye even so to them_," Let every slaveholder apply these +queries to his own heart; Am _I_ willing to be a slave--Am _I_ willing +to see _my_ wife the slave of another--Am _I_ willing to see my mother +a slave, or my father, my sister or my brother? If _not_, then in +holding others as slaves, I am doing what I would _not_ wish to be +done to me or any relative I have; and thus have I broken this golden +rule which was given _me_ to walk by. + +But some slaveholders have said, "we were never in bondage to any +man," and therefore the yoke of bondage would be insufferable to us, +but slaves are accustomed to it, their backs are fitted to the burden. +Well, I am willing to admit that you who have lived in freedom would +find slavery even more oppressive than the poor slave does, but then +you may try this question in another form--Am I willing to reduce _my +little child_ to slavery? You know that _if it is brought up a slave_ +it will never know any contrast, between freedom and bondage, its back +will become fitted to the burden just as the negro child's does--_not +by nature_--but by daily, violent pressure, in the same way that the +head of the Indian child becomes flattened by the boards in which it +is bound. It has been justly remarked that "_God never made a slave_," +he made man upright; his back was _not_ made to carry burdens, nor his +neck to wear a yoke, and the _man_ must be crushed within him, before +_his_ back can be _fitted_ to the burden of perpetual slavery; and +that his back is _not_ fitted to it, is manifest by the insurrections +that so often disturb the peace and security of slaveholding +countries. Who ever heard of a rebellion of the beasts of the field; +and why not? simply because _they_ were all placed _under the feet of +man_, into whose hand they were delivered; it was originally designed +that they should serve him, therefore their necks have been formed +for the yoke, and their backs for the burden; but _not so with man_, +intellectual, immortal man! I appeal to you, my friends, as mothers; +Are you willing to enslave _your_ children? You start back with horror +and indignation at such a question. But why, if slavery is _no wrong_ +to those upon whom it is imposed? why, if as has often been said, +slaves are happier than their masters, free from the cares and +perplexities of providing for themselves and their families? why not +place _your children_ in the way of being supported without your +having the trouble to provide for them, or they for themselves? Do you +not perceive that as soon as this golden rule of action is applied to +_yourselves_ that you involuntarily shrink from the test; as soon as +_your_ actions are weighed in _this_ balance of the sanctuary that +_you are found wanting_? Try yourselves by another of the Divine +precepts, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can we love a man +_as_ we love _ourselves_ if we do, and continue to do unto him, what +we would not wish any one to do to us? Look too, at Christ's example, +what does he say of himself, "I came _not_ to be ministered unto, but +to minister." Can you for a moment imagine the meek, and lowly, and +compassionate Saviour, a _slaveholder_? do you not shudder at this +thought as much as at that of his being _a warrior_? But why, if +slavery is not sinful? + +Again, it has been said, the Apostle Paul did not condemn Slavery, for +he sent Onesimus back to Philemon. I do not think it can be said he +sent him back, for no coercion was made use of. Onesimus was not +thrown into prison and then sent back in chains to his master, as your +runaway slaves often are--this could not possibly have been the case, +because you know Paul as a Jew, was _bound to protect_ the runaway, +_he had no right_ to send any fugitive back to his master. The state +of the case then seems to have been this. Onesimus had been an +unprofitable servant to Philemon and left him--he afterwards became +converted under the Apostle's preaching, and seeing that he had been +to blame in his conduct, and desiring by future fidelity to atone for +past error, he wished to return, and the Apostle gave him the letter +we now have as a recommendation to Philemon, informing him of the +conversion of Onesimus, and entreating him as "Paul the aged" "to +receive him, _not_ now as a servant, but _above_ a servant, a brother +beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the +flesh and in the Lord. If thou count _me_ therefore as a partner, +_receive him as myself_." This then surely cannot be forced into a +justification of the practice of returning runaway slaves back to +their masters, to be punished with cruel beatings and scourgings as +they often are. Besides the word [Greek: doulos] here translated +servant, is the same that is made use of in Matt. xviii, 27. Now it +appears that this servant owed his lord ten thousand talents; he +possessed property to a vast amount. Onesimus could not then have been +a _slave_, for slaves do not own their wives, or children; no, not +even their own bodies, much less property. But again, the servitude +which the apostle was accustomed to, must have been very different +from American slavery, for he says, "the heir (or son), as long as he +is a child, differeth _nothing from a servant_, though he be lord of +all. But is under _tutors_ and governors until the time appointed of +the father." From this it appears, that the means of _instruction_ +were provided for _servants_ as well as children; and indeed we know +it must have been so among the Jews, because their servants were +not permitted to remain in perpetual bondage, and therefore it was +absolutely necessary they should be prepared to occupy higher stations +in society than those of servants. Is it so at the South, my friends? +Is the daily bread of instruction provided for _your slaves?_ are +their minds enlightened, and they gradually prepared to rise from +the grade of menials into that of _free_, independent members of the +state? Let your own statute book, and your own daily experience, +answer these questions. + +If this apostle sanctioned _slavery_, why did he exhort masters-thus +in his epistle to the Ephesians, "and ye, masters, do the same things +unto them (i.e. perform your duties to your servants as unto Christ, +not unto me) _forbearing threatening_; knowing that your master also +is in heaven, neither is _there respect of persons with him_." And in +Colossians, "Masters give unto your servants that which is _just +and equal_, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven." Let +slaveholders only obey these injunctions of Paul, and I am satisfied +slavery would soon be abolished. If he thought it sinful even to +_threaten_ servants, surely he must have thought it sinful to flog and +to beat them with sticks and paddles; indeed, when delineating the +character of a bishop, he expressly names this as one feature of it, +"_no striker_." Let masters give unto their servants that which is +_just_ and _equal_, and all that vast system of unrequited labor would +crumble into ruin. Yes, and if they once felt they had no right to the +_labor_ of their servants without pay, surely they could not think +they had a right to their wives, their children, and their own bodies. +Again, how can it be said Paul sanctioned slavery, when, as though +to put this matter beyond all doubt, in that black catalogue of +sins enumerated in his first epistle to Timothy, he mentions +"_menstealers_," which word may be translated "_slavedealers_." But +you may say, we all despise slavedealers as much as any one can; they +are never admitted into genteel or respectable society. And why not? +Is it not because even you shrink back from the idea of associating +with those who make their fortunes by trading in the bodies and souls +of men, women, and children? whose daily work it is to break human +hearts, by tearing wives from their husbands, and children from their +parents? But why hold slavedealers as despicable, if their trade is +lawful and virtuous? and why despise them more than the _gentlemen of +fortune and standing_ who employ them as _their_ agents? Why more than +the _professors of religion_ who barter their fellow-professors to +them for gold and silver? We do not despise the land agent, or the +physician, or the merchant, and why? Simply because their professions +are virtuous and honorable; and if the trade of men-jobbers was +honorable, you would not despise them either. There is no difference +in _principle_, in _Christian ethics_, between the despised +slavedealer and the _Christian_ who buys slaves from, or sells slaves, +to him; indeed, if slaves were not wanted by the respectable, the +wealthy, and the religious in a community, there would be no slaves +in that community, and of course no _slavedealers_. It is then the +_Christians_ and the _honorable men_ and _women_ of the South, who are +the _main pillars_ of this grand temple built to Mammon and to Moloch. +It is the _most enlightened_ in every country who are _most_ to blame +when any public sin is supported by public opinion, hence Isaiah says, +"_When_ the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount _Zion_ and +on _Jerusalem_, (then) I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of +the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks." And was it not +so? Open the historical records of that age, was not Israel carried +into captivity B.C. 606, Judah B.C. 588, and the stout heart of the +heathen monarchy not punished until B.C. 536, fifty-two years _after_ +Judah's, and seventy years _after_ Israel's captivity, when it was +overthrown by Cyrus, king of Persia? Hence, too, the apostle Peter +says, "judgment must _begin at the house of God_." Surely this would +not be the case, if the _professors of religion_ were not _most +worthy_ of blame. + +But it may be asked, why are _they_ most culpable? I will tell you, my +friends. It is because sin is imputed to us just in proportion to the +spiritual light we receive. Thus the prophet Amos says, in the name of +Jehovah, "You _only_ have I known of all the families of the earth: +_therefore_ I will punish _you_ for all your iniquities." Hear too +the doctrine of our Lord on this important subject; "The servant +who _knew_ his Lord's will and _prepared not_ himself, neither did +according to his will, shall be beaten with _many_ stripes:" and +why? "For unto whomsoever _much_ is given, _of him_ shall _much_ be +required; and to whom men have committed _much_, of _him_ they will +ask the _more_." Oh! then that the _Christians_ of the south +would ponder these things in their hearts, and awake to the vast +responsibilities which rest _upon them_ at this important crisis. + +I have thus, I think, clearly proved to you seven propositions, +viz.: First, that slavery is contrary to the declaration of our +independence. Second, that it is contrary to the first charter of +human rights given to Adam, and renewed to Noah. Third, that the fact +of slavery having been the subject of prophecy, furnishes _no_ excuse +whatever to slavedealers. Fourth, that no such system existed under +the patriarchal dispensation. Fifth, that _slavery never_ existed +under the Jewish dispensation; but so far otherwise, that every +servant was placed under the _protection of law_, and care taken +not only to prevent all _involuntary_ servitude, but all _voluntary +perpetual_ bondage. Sixth, that slavery in America reduces a _man_ to +a _thing_, a "chattel personal," _robs him_ of _all_ his rights as +a _human being_, fetters both his mind and body, and protects the +_master_ in the most unnatural and unreasonable power, whilst it +_throws him out_ of the protection of law. Seventh, that slavery +is contrary to the example and precepts of our holy and merciful +Redeemer, and of his apostles. + +But perhaps you will be ready to query, why appeal to _women_ on this +subject? _We_ do not make the laws which perpetuate slavery. _No_ +legislative power is vested in _us; we_ can do nothing to overthrow +the system, even if we wished to do so. To this I reply, I know you +do not make the laws, but I also know that _you are the wives and +mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do;_ and if you really +suppose _you_ can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly +mistaken. You can do much in every way: four things I will name. 1st. +You can read on this subject. 2d. You can pray over this subject. 3d. +You can speak on this subject. 4th. You can _act_ on this subject. +I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more +important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand +what we are praying for; it is only then we can "pray with the +understanding and the spirit also." + +1. Read then on the subject of slavery. Search the Scriptures daily, +whether the things I have told you are true. Other books and papers +might be a great help to you in this investigation, but they are not +necessary, and it is hardly probable that your Committees of Vigilance +will allow you to have any other. The _Bible_ then is the book I want +you to read in the spirit of inquiry, and the spirit of prayer. Even +the enemies of Abolitionists, acknowledge that their doctrines are +drawn from it. In the great mob in Boston, last autumn, when the books +and papers of the Anti-Slavery Society, were thrown out of the windows +of their office, one individual laid hold of the Bible and was about +tossing it out to the ground, when another reminded him that it was +the Bible he had in his hand. "_O! 'tis all one_," he replied, and +out went the sacred volume, along with the rest. We thank him for the +acknowledgment. Yes, "_it is all one_," for our books and papers +are mostly commentaries on the Bible, and the Declaration. Read the +_Bible_ then, it contains the words of Jesus, and they are spirit and +life. Judge for yourselves whether _he sanctioned_ such a system of +oppression and crime. + +2. Pray over this subject. When you have entered into your closets, +and shut to the doors, then pray to your father, who seeth in secret, +that he would open your eyes to see whether slavery is _sinful_, +and if it is, that he would enable you to bear a faithful, open and +unshrinking testimony against it, and to do whatsoever your hands find +to do, leaving the consequences entirely to him, who still says to us +whenever we try to reason away duty from the fear of consequences, +"_What is that to thee, follow thou me_." Pray also for that poor +slave, that he may be kept patient and submissive under his hard +lot, until God is pleased to open the door of freedom to him without +violence or bloodshed. Pray too for the master that his heart may be +softened, and he made willing to acknowledge, as Joseph's brethren +did, "Verily we are guilty concerning our brother," before he will be +compelled to add in consequence of Divine judgment, "therefore is all +this evil come upon us." Pray also for all your brethren and sisters +who are laboring in the righteous cause of Emancipation in the +Northern States, England and the world. There is great encouragement +for prayer in these words of our Lord. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the +Father _in my name_, he _will give_ it to you"--Pray then without +ceasing, in the closet and the social circle. + +3. Speak on this subject. It is through the tongue, the pen, and +the press, that truth is principally propagated. Speak then to your +relatives, your friends, your acquaintances on the subject of slavery; +be not afraid if you are conscientiously convinced it is _sinful_, to +say so openly, but calmly, and to let your sentiments be known. If you +are served by the slaves of others, try to ameliorate their condition +as much as possible; never aggravate their faults, and thus add fuel +to the fire of anger already kindled, in a master and mistress's +bosom; remember their extreme ignorance, and consider them as your +Heavenly Father does the _less_ culpable on this account, even +when they do wrong things. Discountenance all cruelty to them, all +starvation, all corporal chastisement; these may brutalize and +_break_ their spirits, but will never bend them to willing, cheerful +obedience. If possible, see that they are comfortably and _seasonably_ +fed, whether in the house or the field; it is unreasonable and cruel +to expect slaves to wait for their breakfast until eleven o'clock, +when they rise at five or six. Do all you can, to induce their owners +to clothe them well, and to allow them many little indulgences which +would contribute to their comfort. Above all, try to persuade your +husband, father, brothers and sons, that _slavery is a crime against +God and man_, and that it is a great sin to keep _human beings_ in +such abject ignorance; to deny them the privilege of learning to read +and write. The Catholics are universally condemned, for denying the +Bible to the common people, but, _slaveholders must not_ blame them, +for _they_ are doing the _very same thing_, and for the very same +reason, neither of these systems can bear the light which bursts +from the pages of that Holy Book. And lastly, endeavour to inculcate +submission on the part of the slaves, but whilst doing this be +faithful in pleading the cause of the oppressed. + + "Will _you_ behold unheeding, + Life's holiest feelings crushed, + Where _woman's_ heart is bleeding, + Shall _woman's_ voice be hushed?" + +4. Act on this subject. Some of you own slaves yourselves. If you +believe slavery is _sinful_, set them at liberty, "undo the heavy +burdens and let the oppressed go free." If they wish to remain with +you, pay them wages, if not let them leave you. Should they remain +teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an English +education; they have minds and those minds, _ought to be improved_. +So precious a talent as intellect, never was given to be wrapt in a +napkin and buried in the earth. It is the _duty_ of all, as far as +they can, to improve their own mental faculties, because we are +commanded to love God with _all our minds_, as well as with all our +hearts, and we commit a great sin, if we _forbid_ or _prevent_ that +cultivation of the mind in others, which would enable them to perform +this duty. Teach your servants then to read &c, and encourage them to +believe it is their _duty_ to learn, if it were only that they might +read the Bible. + +But some of you will say, we can neither free our slaves nor teach +them to read, for the laws of our state forbid it. Be not surprised +when I say such wicked laws _ought to be no barrier_ in the way of +your duty, and I appeal to the Bible to prove this position. What was +the conduct of Shiphrah and Puah, when the king of Egypt issued his +cruel mandate, with regard to the Hebrew children? "_They_ feared +_God_, and did _not_ as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved +the men children alive." Did these _women_ do right in disobeying that +monarch? "_Therefore_ (says the sacred text,) _God dealt well_ with +them, and made them houses" Ex. i. What was the conduct of Shadrach, +Meshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image in +the plain of Dura, and commanded all people, nations, and languages, +to fall down and worship it? "Be it known, unto thee, (said these +faithful _Jews_) O king, that we _will not_ serve thy gods, nor +worship the image which thou hast set up." Did these men _do right +in disobeying the law_ of their sovereign? Let their miraculous +deliverance of Daniel, when Darius made a firm decree that no one +should ask a petition of any mad or God for thirty days? Did the +prophet cease to pray? No! "When Daniel _knew that the writing was +signed_, he went into his house, and his windows being _open_ towards +Jerusalem, he kneeled upon this knees three times a day, and prayed +and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." Did Daniel +do right this to _break_ the law of his king? Let his wonderful +deliverance out of the mouthes of lions answer; Dan. vii. Look, too, +at the Apostles Peter and John. When the ruler of the Jews "_commanded +them not_ to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus," what did +they say? "Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto +you more than unto God, judge ye." And what did they do? "They spake +the word of God with boldness, and with great power gave the Apostles +witness of the _resurrection_ of the Lord Jesus;" although _this_ was +the very doctrine, for the preaching of which they had just been cast +into prison, and further threatened. Did these men do right? I leave +_you_ to answer, who now enjoy the benefits if their labours and +sufferings, in that Gospel they dared to preach when positively +commanded _not to teach any more_ in the name of Jesus; Acts iv. + +But some of you may say, if we do free our slaves, they will be taken +up and sold, therefore there will be no use in doing it. Peter and +John might just as well have said, we will not preach the gospel, for +if we do, we shall be taken up and put in prison, therefore there will +be no use in our preaching. _Consequences_, my friends, belong no more +to _you_, than they did to these apostles. Duty is ours and events are +God's. If you think slavery is sinful, all you have to do is to set +your slaves at liberty, do all you can to protect them, and in humble +faith and fervent prayer, commend them to your common Father. He can +take care of them; but if for wise purposes he sees fit to allow them +to be sold, this will afford you an opportunity of testifying openly, +wherever you go, against the crime of _manstealing_. Such an act will +be _clear robbery_, and if exposed, might, under the Divine direction, +do the cause of Emancipation more good, than any thing that could +happen, for, "He makes even the wrath of man to praise him, and the +remainder of wrath he will restrain." + +I know that this doctrine of obeying _God_, rather than man, will be +considered as dangerous, and heretical by many, but I am not afraid +openly to avow it, because it is the doctrine of the Bible; but I +would not be understood to advocate resistance to any law however +oppressive, if, in obeying it, I was not obliged to commit _sin_. If +for instance, there was a law, which imposed imprisonment or a fine +upon me if I manumitted a slave, I would on no account resist that +law, I would set the slave free, and then go to prison or pay the +fine. If a law commands me to _sin I will break it_; if it calls me to +_suffer_, I will let it take its course unresistingly. The doctrine +of blind obedience and unqualified submission to _any human_ power, +whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and +ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians. + +But you will perhaps say, such a course of conduct would inevitably +expose us to great suffering. Yes! my Christian friends, I believe it +would, but this will _not_ excuse you or any one else for the neglect +of _duty_. If Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers had not +been willing to suffer for the truth's sake, where would the world +have been now? If they had said, we cannot speak the truth, we cannot +do what we believe is right, because the _laws of our country or +public opinion are against us_, where would our holy religion have +been now? The Prophets were stoned, imprisoned, and killed by the +Jews. And why? Because they exposed and openly rebuked public sins; +they opposed public opinion; had they held their peace, they all might +have lived in ease and died in favor with a wicked generation. Why +were the Apostles persecuted from city to city, stoned, incarcerated, +beaten, and crucified? Because they dared to _speak the truth_; to +tell the Jews, boldly and fearlessly, that _they_ were the _murderers_ +of the Lord of Glory, and that, however great a stumbling-block the +Cross might be to them, there was no other name given under heaven +by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus. Because they +declared, even at Athens, the seat of learning and refinement, the +self-evident truth, that "they be no gods that are made with men's +hands," and exposed to the Grecians the foolishness of worldly wisdom, +and the impossibility of salvation but through Christ, whom they +despised on account of the ignominious death he died. Because at Rome, +the proud mistress of the world, they thundered out the terrors of the +law upon that idolatrous, war-making, and slaveholding community. Why +were the martyrs stretched upon the rack, gibbetted and burnt, the +scorn and diversion of a Nero, whilst their tarred and burning bodies +sent up a light which illuminated the Roman capital? Why were the +Waldenses hunted like wild beasts upon the mountains of Piedmont, and +slain with the sword of the Duke of Savoy and the proud monarch of +France? Why were the Presbyterians chased like the partridge over the +highlands of Scotland--the Methodists pumped, and stoned, and pelted +with rotten eggs--the Quakers incarcerated in filthy prisons, beaten, +whipped at the cart's tail, banished and hung? Because they dared +to _speak_ the _truth_, to _break_ the unrighteous _laws_ of their +country, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, +"not accepting deliverance," even under the gallows. Why were Luther +and Calvin persecuted and excommunicated, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer +burnt? Because they fearlessly proclaimed the truth, though that truth +was contrary to public opinion, and the authority of Ecclesiastical +councils and conventions. Now all this vast amount of human suffering +might have been saved. All these Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, +and Reformers, might have lived and died in peace with all men, but +following the example of their great pattern, "they despised the +shame, endured the cross, and are now set down on the right hand of +the throne of God," having received the glorious welcome of "well done +good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." + +But you may say we are women, how can our hearts endure persecution? +And why not? Have not women stood up in all the dignity and strength +of moral courage to be the leaders of the people, and to bear a +faithful testimony for the truth whenever the providence of God has +called them to do so? Are there no women in that noble army of martyrs +who are now singing the song of Moses and the Lamb? Who led out the +women of Israel from the house of bondage, striking the timbrel, and +singing the song of deliverance on the banks of that sea whose waters +stood up like walls of crystal to open a passage for their escape? It +was a _woman_; Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Moses and Aaron. +Who went up with Barak to Kadesh to fight against Jabin, King of +Canaan, into whose hand Israel had been sold because of their +iniquities? It was a woman! Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, the judge, +as well as the prophetess of that backsliding people; Judges iv, 9. +Into whose hands was Sisera, the captain of Jabin's host delivered? +Into the hand of a _woman_. Jael the wife of Heber! Judges vi, 21. +Who dared to _speak the truth_ concerning those judgments which were +coming upon Judea, when Josiah, alarmed at finding that his people +"had not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that was written +in the book of the Law," sent to enquire of the Lord concerning these +things? It was a woman. Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum; 2, +Chron. xxxiv, 22. Who was chosen to deliver the whole Jewish nation +from that murderous decree of Persia's King, which wicked Hannan had +obtained by calumny and fraud? It was a _woman_; Esther the Queen; +yes, weak and trembling _woman_ was the instrument appointed by God, +to reverse the bloody mandate of the eastern monarch, and save the +_whole visible church_ from destruction. What Human voice first +proclaimed to Mary that she should be the mother of our Lord? It was +a woman! Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias; Luke 1, 42, 43. Who united +with the good old Simeon in giving thanks publicly in the temple, when +the child, Jesus, was presented there by his parents, "and spake of +him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem?" It was a +_woman_! Anna the prophetess. Who first proclaimed Christ as the true +Messiah in the streets of Samaria, once the capital of the ten tribes? +It was a woman! Who ministered to the Son of God whilst on earth, a +despised and persecuted Reformer, in the humble garb of a carpenter? +They were women! Who followed the rejected King of Israel, as his +fainting footsteps trod the road to Calvary? "A great company of +people and of _women_;" and it is remarkable that to _them alone_, he +turned and addressed the pathetic language, "Daughters of Jerusalem, +weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." Ah! who +sent unto the Roman Governor when he was set down on the judgment +seat, saying unto him, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man, +for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him?" +It was a _woman!_ the wife of Pilate. Although "_he knew_ that for +envy the Jews had delivered Christ," yet _he_ consented to surrender +the Son of God into the hands of a brutal soldiery, after having +himself scourged his naked body. Had the _wife_ of Pilate sat upon +that judgment seat, what would have been the result of the trial of +this "just person?" + +And who last hung round the cross of Jesus on the mountain of +Golgotha? Who first visited the sepulchre early in the morning on the +first day of the week, carrying sweet spices to embalm his precious +body, not knowing that it was incorruptible and could not be holden by +the bands of death? These were _women!_ To whom did he _first_ appear +after his resurrection? It was to a _woman!_ Mary Magdalene; Mark xvi, +9. Who gathered with the apostles to wait at Jerusalem, in prayer and +supplication, for "the promise of the Father;" the spiritual blessing +of the Great High Priest of his Church, who had entered, _not_ into +the splendid temple of Solomon, there to offer the blood of bulls, +and of goats, and the smoking censer upon the golden altar, but into +Heaven itself, there to present his intercessions, after having +"given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet +smelling savor?" _Women_ were among that holy company; Acts i, 14. +And did _women_ wait in vain? Did those who had ministered to his +necessities, followed in his train, and wept at his crucifixion, wait +in vain? No! No! Did the cloven tongues of fire descend upon the heads +of _women_ as well as men? Yes, my friends, "it sat upon _each one of +them;_" Acts ii, 3. _Women_ as well as men were to be living stones in +the temple of grace, and therefore _their_ heads were consecrated by +the descent of the Holy Ghost as well as those of men. Were _women_ +recognized as fellow laborers in the gospel field? They were! Paul +says in his epistle to the Philippians, "help those _women_ who +labored with me, in the gospel;" Phil. iv, 3. + +But this is not all. Roman _women_ were burnt at the stake, _their_ +delicate limbs were torn joint from joint by the ferocious beasts of +the Amphitheatre, and tossed by the wild bull in his fury, for the +diversion of that idolatrous, warlike, and slaveholding people. Yes, +_women_ suffered under the ten persecutions of heathen Rome, with the +most unshrinking constancy and fortitude; not all the entreaties of +friends, nor the claims of new born infancy, nor the cruel threats +of enemies could make _them_ sprinkle one grain of incense upon the +altars of Roman idols. Come now with me to the beautiful valleys of +Piedmont. Whose blood stains the green sward, and decks the wild +flowers with colors not their own, and smokes on the sword of +persecuting France? It is _woman's_, as well as man's? Yes, _women_ +were accounted as sheep for the slaughter, and were cut down as the +tender saplings of the wood But time would fail me, to tell of all +those hundreds and thousands of _women_, who perished in the Low +countries of Holland, when Alva's sword of vengeance was unsheathed +against the Protestants, when the Catholic Inquisitions of Europe +became the merciless executioners of vindictive wrath, upon those +who dared to worship God, instead of bowing down in unholy adoration +before "my Lord God the _Pope_," and when England, too, burnt her Ann +Ascoes at the stake of martyrdom. Suffice it to say, that the Church, +after having been driven from Judea to Rome, and from Rome to +Piedmont, and from Piedmont to England, and from England to Holland, +at last stretched her fainting wings over the dark bosom of the +Atlantic, and found on the shores of a great wilderness, a refuge from +tyranny and oppression--as she thought, but _even here_, (the warm +blush of shame mantles my cheek as I write it,) _even here, woman_ was +beaten and banished, imprisoned, and hung upon the gallows, a trophy +to the Cross. + +And what, I would ask in conclusion, have _women_ done for the great +and glorious cause of Emancipation? Who wrote that pamphlet which +moved the heart of Wilberforce to pray over the wrongs, and his +tongue to plead the cause of the oppressed African? It was a _woman_, +Elizabeth Heyrick. Who labored assiduously to keep the sufferings of +the slave continually before the British public? They were women. +And how did they do it? By their needles, paint brushes and pens, by +speaking the truth, and petitioning Parliament for the abolition of +slavery. And what was the effect of their labors? Read it in the +Emancipation bill of Great Britain. Read it, in the present state of +her West India Colonies. Read it, in the impulse which has been given +to the cause of freedom, in the United States of America. Have English +women then done so much for the negro, and shall American women do +nothing? Oh no! Already are there sixty female Anti-Slavery Societies +in operation. These are doing just what the English women did, telling +the story of the colored man's wrongs, praying for his deliverance, +and presenting his kneeling image constantly before the public eye on +bags and needle-books, card-racks, pen-wipers, pin-cushions, &c. Even +the children of the north are inscribing on their handy work, "May the +points of our needles prick the slaveholder's conscience." Some of the +reports of these Societies exhibit not only considerable talent, but a +deep sense of religious duty, and a determination to persevere through +evil as well as good report, until every scourge, and every shackle, +is buried under the feet of the manumitted slave. + +The Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society of Boston was called last fall, to a +severe trial of their faith and constancy. They were mobbed by "the +gentlemen of property and standing," in that city at their anniversary +meeting, and their lives were jeoparded by an infuriated crowd; but +their conduct on that occasion did credit to our sex, and affords a +full assurance that they will never abandon the cause of the slave. +The pamphlet, Right and Wrong in Boston, issued by them in which a +particular account is given of that "mob of broad cloth in broad day," +does equal credit to the head and the heart of her who wrote it wish +my Southern sisters could read it; they would then understand that +the women of the North have engaged in this work from a sense of +_religious duty_, and that nothing will ever induce them to take their +hands from it until it is fully accomplished. They feel no hostility +to you, no bitterness or wrath; they rather sympathize in your trials +and difficulties; but they well know that the first thing to be done +to help you, is to pour in the light of truth on your minds, to urge +you to reflect on, and pray over the subject. This is all _they_ can +do for you, _you_ must work out your own deliverance with fear and +trembling, and with the direction and blessing of God, _you can do +it_. Northern women may labor to produce a correct public opinion at +the North, but if Southern women sit down in listless indifference and +criminal idleness, public opinion cannot be rectified and purified at +the South. It is manifest to every reflecting mind, that slavery +must be abolished; the era in which we live, and the light which is +overspreading the whole world on this subject, clearly show that the +time cannot be distant when it will be done. Now there are only two +ways in which it can be effected, by moral power or physical force, +and it is for you to choose which of these you prefer. Slavery always +has, and always will produce insurrections wherever it exists, because +it is a violation of the natural order of things, and no human power +can much longer perpetuate it. The opposers of abolitionists fully +believe this; one of them remarked to me not long since, there is no +doubt there will be a most terrible overturning at the South in a few +years, such cruelty and wrong, must be visited with Divine vengeance +soon. Abolitionists believe, too, that this must inevitably be the +case if you do not repent, and they are not willing to leave you to +perish without entreating you, to save yourselves from destruction; +Well may they say with the apostle, "am I then your enemy because I +tell you the truth," and warn you to flee from impending judgments. + +But why, my dear friends, have I thus been endeavoring to lead you +through the history of more than three thousand years, and to point +you to that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, "from works +to rewards?" Have I been seeking to magnify the sufferings, and exalt +the character of woman, that she "might have praise of men?" No! no! +my object has been to arouse _you_, as the wives and mothers, the +daughters and sisters, of the South, to a sense of your duty as +_women_, and as Christian women, on that great subject, which has +already shaken our country, from the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to +the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the shores of the +Atlantic; _and will continue mightily to shake it_, until the polluted +temple of slavery fall and crumble into ruin. I would say unto each +one of you, "what meanest thou, O sleeper! arise and call upon thy +God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not." +Perceive you not that dark cloud of vengeance which hangs over our +boasting Republic? Saw you not the lightnings of Heaven's wrath, in +the flame which leaped from the Indian's torch to the roof of yonder +dwelling, and lighted with its horrid glare the darkness of midnight? +Heard you not the thunders of Divine anger, as the distant roar of the +cannon came rolling onward, from the Texian country, where Protestant +American Rebels are fighting with Mexican Republicans--for what? For +the re-establishment of _slavery_; yes! of American slavery in the +bosom of a Catholic Republic, where that system of robbery, violence, +and wrong, had been legally abolished for twelve years. Yes! citizens +of the United States, after plundering Mexico of her land, are now +engaged in deadly conflict, for the privilege of fastening chains, and +collars, and manacles--upon whom? upon the subjects of some foreign +prince? No! upon native born American Republican citizens, although +the fathers of these very men declared to the whole world, while +struggling to free themselves the three penny taxes of an English +king, that they believed it to be a _self-evident_ truth that _all +men_ were created equal, and had an _unalienable right to liberty_. + +Well may the poet exclaim in bitter sarcasm, + + "The fustian flag that proudly waves + In solemn mockery o'er _a land of slaves_." + +Can you not, my friends, understand the signs of the times; do you not +see the sword of retributive justice hanging over the South, or are +you still slumbering at your posts?--Are there no Shiphrahs, no Puahs +among you, who will dare in Christian firmness and Christian meekness, +to refuse to obey the _wicked laws_ which require _woman to enslave, +to degrade and to brutalize woman_? Are there no Miriams, who would +rejoice to lead out the captive daughters of the Southern States to +liberty and light? Are there no Huldahs there who will dare to _speak +the truth_ concerning the sins of the people and those judgments, +which it requires no prophet's eye to see, must follow if repentance +is not speedily sought? Is there no Esther among you who will plead +for the poor devoted slave? Read the history of this Persian queen, it +is full of instruction; she at first refused to plead for the Jews; +but, hear the words of Mordecai, "Think not within thyself, that +_thou_ shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews, for +_if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time_, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but +_thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed_." Listen, too, to her +magnanimous reply to this powerful appeal; "_I will_ go in, unto the +king, which is _not_ according to law, and if I perish, I perish." +Yes! if there were but _one_ Esther at the South, she _might_ save her +country from ruin; but let the Christian women there arise, at the +Christian women of Great Britain did, in the majesty of moral +power, and that salvation is certain. Let them embody themselves in +societies, and send petitions up to their different legislatures, +entreating their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, to abolish the +institution! of slavery; no longer to subject _woman_ to the scourge +and the chain, to mental darkness and moral degradation; no longer to +tear husbands from their wives, and children from their parents; no +longer to make men, women, and children, work _without wages_; no +longer to make their lives bitter in hard bondage; no longer to reduce +_American citizens_ to the abject condition of _slaves,_ of "chattels +personal;" no longer to barter the _image of God_ in human shambles +for corruptible things such as silver and gold. + +The _women of the South can overthrow_ this horrible system of +oppression and cruelty, licentiousness and wrong. Such appeals to your +legislatures would be irresistible, for there is something in the +heart of man which _will bend under moral suasion_. There is a swift +witness for truth in his bosom, _which will respond to truth_ when +it is uttered with calmness and dignity. If you could obtain but six +signatures to such a petition in only one state, I would say, send up +that petition, and be not in the least discouraged by the scoffs and +jeers of the heartless, or the resolution of the house to lay it on +the table. It will be a great thing if the subject can be introduced +into your legislatures in any way, even by _women_, and _they_ will be +the most likely to introduce it there in the best possible manner, as +a matter of _morals_ and _religion_, not of expediency or politics. +You may petition, too, the different ecclesiastical bodies of the +slave states. Slavery must be attacked with the whole power of truth +and the sword of the spirit. You must take it up on _Christian_ +ground, and fight against it with Christian weapons, whilst your feet +are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And _you are +now_ loudly called upon by the cries of the widow and the orphan, to +arise and gird yourselves for this great moral conflict, with the +whole armour of righteousness upon the right hand and on the left. + +There is every encouragement for you to labor and pray, my friends, +because the abolition of slavery as well as its existence, has been +the theme of prophecy. "Ethiopia (says the Psalmist) shall stretch +forth her hands unto God." And is she not now doing so? Are not the +Christian negroes of the south lifting their hands in prayer for +deliverance, just as the Israelites did when their redemption was +drawing nigh? Are they not sighing and crying by reason of the hard +bondage? And think you, that He, of whom it was said, "and God heard +their groaning, and their cry came up unto him by reason of the hard +bondage," think you that his ear is heavy that he cannot _now_ hear +the cries of his suffering children? Or that He who raised up a Moses, +an Aaron, and a Miriam, to bring them up out of the land of Egypt from +the house of bondage, cannot now, with a high hand and a stretched out +arm, rid the poor negroes out of the hands of their masters? Surely +you believe that his aim is _not_ shortened that he cannot save. And +would not such a work of mercy redound to his glory? But another +string of the harp of prophecy vibrates to the song of deliverance: +"But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, +and _none shall make them afraid;_ for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts +hath spoken it." The _slave_ never can do this as long as he is a +_slave_; whilst he is a "chattel personal" he can own _no_ property; +but the time _is to come_ when _every_ man is to sit under _his +own_ vine and _his own_ fig-tree, and no domineering driver, or +irresponsible master, or irascible mistress, shall make him afraid of +the chain or the whip. Hear, too, the sweet tones of another string: +"Many shall run to and fro, and _knowledge_ shall be _increased_." +Slavery is an insurmountable barrier to the increase of knowledge in +every community where it exists; _slavery, then, must be abolished +before this prediction can be fulfiled_. The last chord I shall +touch, will be this, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy +mountain." + +_Slavery, then, must be overthrown before_ the prophecies can be +accomplished, but how are they to be fulfiled? Will the wheels of the +millennial car be rolled onward by miraculous power? No! God designs +to confer this holy privilege upon _man_; it is through _his_ +instrumentality that the great and glorious work of reforming the +world is to be done. And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral +power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, +anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and +missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic +associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which +spans the arch of our moral heaven? Who does not believe, that if +these societies were broken up, their constitutions burnt, and the +vast machinery with which they are laboring to regenerate mankind was +stopped, that the black clouds of vengeance would soon burst over our +world, and every city would witness the fate of the devoted cities of +the plain? Each one of these societies is walking abroad through the +earth scattering the seeds of truth over the wide field of our world, +not with the hundred hands of a Briareus, but with a hundred thousand. + +Another encouragement for you to labor, my friends, is, that you +will have the prayers and co-operation of English and Northern +philanthropists. You will never bend your knees in supplication at the +throne of grace for the overthrow of slavery, without meeting there +the spirits of other Christians, who will mingle their voices with +yours, as the morning or evening sacrifice ascends to God. Yes, the +spirit of prayer and of supplication has been poured out upon many, +many hearts; there are wrestling Jacobs who will not let go of the +prophetic promises of deliverance for the captive, and the opening of +prison doors to them that are bound. There are Pauls who are saying, +in reference to this subject, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" +There are Marys sitting in the house now, who are ready to arise and +go forth in this work as soon as the message is brought, "the master +is come and calleth for thee." And there are Marthas, too, who have +already gone out to meet Jesus, as he bends his footsteps to their +brother's grave, and weeps, _not_ over the lifeless body of Lazarus +bound hand and foot in grave-clothes, but over the politically and +intellectually lifeless slave, bound hand and foot in the iron chains +of oppression and ignorance. Some may be ready to say, as Martha did, +who seemed to expect nothing but sympathy from Jesus, "Lord, by this +time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." She thought it +useless to remove the stone and expose the loathsome body of her +brother; she could not believe that so great a miracle could be +wrought, as to raise _that putrefied body_ into life; but "Jesus said, +take _ye_ away too stone;" and when _they_ had taken away the stone +where the dead was laid, and uncovered the body of Lazarus, then it +was that "Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that +thou hast heard me," &c. "And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a +loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Yes, some may be ready to say of +the colored race, how can _they_ ever be raised politically and +intellectually, they have been dead four hundred years? But _we_ have +_nothing_ to do with _how_ this is to be done; _our business_ is to +take away the stone which has covered up the dead body of our brother, +to expose the putrid carcass, to show _how_ that body has been bound +with the grave-clothes of heathen ignorance, and his face with the +napkin of prejudice, and having done all it was our duty to do, to +stand by the negro's grave, in humble faith and holy hope, waiting to +hear the life-giving command of "Lazarus, come forth." This is just +what Anti-Slavery Societies are doing; they are taking away the stone +from the mouth of the tomb of slavery, where lies the putrid carcass +of our brother. They want the pure light of heaven to shine into that +dark and gloomy cave; they want all men to see _how_ that dead body +has been bound, _how_ that face has been wrapped in the _napkin of +prejudice_; and shall they wait beside that grave in vain? Is not +Jesus still the resurrection and the life? Did he come to proclaim +liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that +are bound, in vain? Did He promise to give beauty for ashes, the oil +of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness unto them that mourn in Zion, and will He refuse to beautify +the mind, anoint the head, and throw around the captive negro the +mantle of praise for that spirit of heaviness which has so long bound +him down to the ground? Or shall we not rather say with the prophet, +"the zeal of the Lord of Hosts _will_ perform this?" Yes, his promises +are sure, and amen in Christ Jesus, that he will assemble her that +halteth, and gather her that is driven out, and her that is afflicted. + +But I will now say a few words on the subject of Abolitionism. +Doubtless you have all heard Anti-Slavery Societies denounced as +insurrectionary and mischievous, fanatical and dangerous. It has been +said they publish the most abominable untruths, and that they are +endeavoring to excite rebellions at the South. Have you believed these +reports, my friends? have _you_ also been deceived by these false +assertions? Listen to me, then, whilst I endeavor to wipe from the +fair character of Abolitionism such unfounded accusations. You know +that _I_ am a Southerner; you know that my dearest relatives are +now in a slave Slate. Can you for a moment believe I would prove so +recreant to the feelings of a daughter and a sister, as to join a +society which was seeking to overthrow slavery by falsehood, bloodshed +and murder? I appeal to you who have known and loved me in days that +are passed, can _you_ believe it? No! my friends. As a Carolinian I +was peculiarly jealous of any movements on this subject; and before I +would join an Anti-Slavery Society, I took the precaution of becoming +acquainted with some of the leading Abolitionists, of reading their +publications and attending their meetings, at which I heard addresses +both from colored and white men; and it was not until I was fully +convicted that their principles were _entirely pacific_, and their +efforts _only moral_, that I gave my name as a member to the Female +Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia. Since that time, I have +regularly taken the Liberator, and read many Anti-Slavery pamphlets +and papers and books, and can assure you I never have seen a single +insurrectionary paragraph, and never read any account of cruelty which +I could not believe. Southerners may deny the truth of these +accounts, but why do they not _prove_ them to be false? Their violent +expressions of horror at such accounts being believed _may_ deceive +some, but they cannot deceive _me_, for I lived too long in the midst +of slavery, not to know what slavery is. When I speak of this system, +"I speak that I do know," and I am not at all afraid to assert, that +Anti-Slavery publications have _not_ overdrawn the monstrous features +of slavery at all. And many a Southerner _knows_ this as well as I do. +A lady in North Carolina remarked to a friend of mine, about eighteen +months since, "Northerners know nothing at all about slavery; they +think it is perpetual bondage only; but of the _depth of degradation_ +that word involves, they have no conception; if they had, _they +would never cease_ their efforts until so _horrible_ a system was +overthrown." She did not know how faithfully some Northern men and +Northern women had studied this subject; how diligently they had +searched out the cause of "him who had none to help him," and how +fearlessly they had told the story of the negro's wrongs. Yes, +Northerners know _every_ thing about slavery now. This monster of +iniquity has been unveiled to the world, her frightful features +unmasked, and soon, very soon will she be regarded with no more +complacency by the American republic than is the idol of Juggernaut, +rolling its bloody wheels over the crushed bodies of its prostrate +victims. + +But you will probably ask, if Anti-Slavery societies are not +insurrectionary, why do Northerners tell us they are? Why, I would ask +you in return, did Northern senators and Northern representatives give +their votes, at the last sitting of congress, to the admission of +Arkansas Territory as a state? Take those men, one by one, and ask +them in their parlours, do you _approve of slavery?_ ask them on +_Northern_ ground, where they will speak the truth, and I doubt not +_every man_ of them will tell you, _no!_ Why then, I ask, did they +give their votes to enlarge the mouth of that grave which has already +destroyed its tens of thousands? All our enemies tell us they are +as much anti-slavery as we are. Yes, my friends, thousands who are +helping you to bind the fetters of slavery on the negro, despise you +in their hearts for doing it; they rejoice that such an institution +has not been entailed upon, them. Why then, I would ask, do they lend +you their help? I will tell you, "they love _the praise of men more_ +than the praise of God." The Abolition cause has not yet become +so popular as to induce them to believe, that by advocating it in +congress, they shall sit still more securely in their seats there, +and like the _chief rulers_ in the days of our Saviour, though _many_ +believed on him, yet they did _not_ confess him, lest they should _be +put out of the synagogue_; John xii, 42, 43. Or perhaps like Pilate, +thinking they could prevail nothing, and fearing a tumult, they +determined to release Barabbas and surrender the just man, the poor +innocent slave to be stripped of his rights and scourged. In vain will +such men try to wash their hands, and say, with the Roman governor, +"I am innocent of the blood of this just person." Northern American +statesmen are no more innocent of the crime of slavery, than Pilate +was of the murder of Jesus, or Saul of that of Stephen. These are high +charges, but I appeal to _their hearts_; I appeal to public opinion +ten years from now. Slavery then is a national sin. + +But you will say, a great many other Northerners tell us so, who can +have no political motives. The interests of the North, you must know, +my friends, are very closely combined with those of the South. The +Northern merchants and manufacturers are making _their_ fortunes out +of the _produce of slave labor_; the grocer is selling your rice and +sugar; how then can these men bear a testimony against slavery without +condemning themselves? But there is another reason, the North is most +dreadfully afraid of Amalgamation. She is alarmed at the very idea of +a thing so monstrous, as she thinks. And lest this consequence _might_ +flow from emancipation, she is determined to resist all efforts at +emancipation without expatriation. It is not because _she approves of +slavery_, or believes it to be "the corner stone of our republic," +for she is as much _anti-slavery_ as we are; but amalgamation is +too horrible to think of. Now I would ask _you_, is it right, is it +generous, to refuse the colored people in this country the advantages +of education and the privilege, or rather the _right_, to follow +honest trades and callings merely because they are colored? The same +prejudice exists here against our colored brethren that existed +against the Gentiles in Judea. Great numbers cannot bear the idea of +equality, and fearing lest, if they had the same advantages we enjoy, +they would become as intelligent, as moral, as religious, and as +respectable and wealthy, they are determined to keep them as low as +they possibly can. Is this doing as they would be done by? Is this +loving their neighbor _as themselves?_ Oh! that _such_ opposers of +Abolitionism would put their souls in the stead of the free colored +man's and obey the apostolic injunction, to "remember them that are +in bonds _as bound with them_." I will leave you to judge whether +the fear of amalgamation ought to induce men to oppose anti-slavery +efforts, when _they_ believe _slavery_ to be _sinful_. Prejudice +against color, is the most powerful enemy we have to fight with at the +North. + +You need not be surprised, then, at all, at what is said _against_ +Abolitionists by the North, for they are wielding a two-edged sword, +which even here, cuts through the _cords of caste_, on the one side, +and the _bonds of interest_ on the other. They are only sharing the +fate of other reformers, abused and reviled whilst they are in the +minority; but they are neither angry nor discouraged by the invective +which has been heaped upon them by slaveholders at the South and their +apologists at the North. They know that when George Fox and William +Edmundson were laboring in behalf of the negroes in the West Indies in +1671 that the very _same_ slanders were propogated against them, which +are _now_ circulated against Abolitionists. Although it was well known +that Fox was the founder of a religious sect which repudiated _all_ +war, and _all_ violence, yet _even he_ was accused of "endeavoring to +excite the slaves to insurrection and of teaching the negroes to cut +their master's throats." And these two men who had their feet shod +with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, were actually compelled +to draw up a formal declaration that _they were not_ trying to raise +a rebellion in Barbadoes. It is also worthy of remark that these +Reformers did not at this time see the necessity of emancipation under +seven years, and their principal efforts were exerted to persuade +the planters of the necessity of instructing their slaves; but the +slaveholder saw then, just what the slaveholder sees now, that an +_enlightened_ population never can be a _slave_ population, and +therefore they passed a law that negroes should not even attend the +meetings of Friends. Abolitionists know that the life of Clarkson was +sought by slavetraders, and that even Wilberforce was denounced on the +floor of Parliament as a fanatic and a hypocrite by the present King +of England, the very man who, in 1834 set his seal to that instrument +which burst the fetters of eight hundred thousand slaves in his West +India colonies. They know that the first Quaker who bore a _faithful_ +testimony against the sin of slavery was cut off from religious +fellowship with that society. That Quaker was a _woman_. On her +deathbed she sent for the committe who dealt with her--she told them, +the near approach of death had not altered her sentiments on the +subject of slavery and waving her hand towards a very fertile and +beautiful portion of country which lay stretched before her window, +she said with great solemnity, "Friends, the time will come when there +will not be friends enough in all this district to hold one meeting +for worship, and this garden will be turned into a wilderness." + +The aged friend, who with tears in his eyes, related this interesting +circumstance to me, remarked, that at that time there were seven +meetings of friends in that part of Virginia, but that when he was +there ten years ago, not a single meeting was held, and the country +was literally a desolation. Soon after her decease, John Woolman began +his labors in our society, and instead of disowning a member for +testifying _against_ slavery, they have for fifty-two years positively +forbidden their members to hold slaves. + +Abolitionists understand the slaveholding spirit too well to be +surprised at any thing that has yet happened at the South or the +North; they know that the greater the sin is, which is exposed, the +more violent will be the efforts to blacken the character and impugn +the motives of those who are engaged in bringing to light the hidden +things of darkness. They understand the work of Reform too well to be +driven back by the furious waves of opposition, which are only foaming +out their own shame. They have stood "the world's dread laugh," when +only twelve men formed the first Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in +1831. They have faced and refuted the calumnies at their enemies, and +proved themselves to be emphatically _peace men_ by _never resisting_ +the violence of mobs, even when driven by them from the temple of God, +and dragged by an infuriated crowd through the Streets of the emporium +of New-England, or subjected by _slaveholders_ to the pain of corporal +punishment. "None of these things move them;" and, by the grace of +God, they are determined to persevere in this work of faith and labor +of love: they mean to pray, and preach, and write, and print, until +slavery is completely overthrown, until Babylon is taken up and cast +into the sea, to "be found no more at all." They mean to petition +Congress year after year, until the seat of our government is cleansed +from the sinful traffic of "slaves and the souls of men." Although +that august assembly may be like the unjust judge who "feared not God +neither regarded man," yet it _must_ yield just as he did, from the +power of importunity. Like the unjust judge, Congress _must_ redress +the wrongs of the widow, lest by the continual coming up of petitions, +it be wearied. This will be striking the dagger into the very heart of +the monster, and once 'tis done, he must soon expire. + +Abolitionists have been accused of abusing their Southern brethren. +Did the prophet Isaiah _abuse_ the Jews when he addressed to them the +cutting reproofs contained in the first chapter of his prophecies and +ended by telling them, they would be _ashamed_ of the oaks they had +desired, and _confounded_ for the garden they had chosen? Did John +the Baptist _abuse_ the Jews when he called them "_a generation of +vipers_" and warned them "to bring forth fruits meet for repentance?" +Did Peter abuse the Jews when he told them they were the murderers of +the Lord of Glory? Did Paul abuse the Roman Governor when he reasoned +before him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment, so as to send +conviction home to his guilty heart, and cause him to tremble in view +of the crimes he was living in? Surely not. No man will _now_ accuse +the prophets and apostles of _abuse_, but what have Abolitionists done +more than they? No doubt the Jews thought the prophets and apostles in +their day, just as harsh and uncharitable as slaveholders now, think +Abolitionists; if they did not, why did they beat, and stone, and kill +them? + +Great fault has been found with the prints which have been employed to +expose slavery at the North, but my friends, how could this be done +so effectually in any other way? Until the pictures of the slave's +sufferings were drawn and held up to public gaze, no Northerner had +any idea of the cruelty of the system, it never entered their minds +that such abominations could exist in Christian, Republican America; +they never suspected that many of the _gentlemen_ and _ladies_ who +came from the South to spend the summer months in travelling among +them, were petty tyrants at home. And those who had lived at the +South, and came to reside at the North, were too _ashamed of slavery_ +even to speak of it; the language of their hearts was, "tell it _not_ +in Gath, publish it _not_ in the streets of Askelon;" they saw no use +in uncovering the loathsome body to popular sight, and in hopeless +despair, wept in secret places over the sins of oppression. To such +hidden mourners the formation of Anti-Slavery Societies was as life +from the dead, the first beams of hope which gleamed through the dark +clouds of despondency and grief. Prints were made use of to effect the +abolition of the Inquisition in Spain, and Clarkson employed them when +he was laboring to break up the Slave trade, and English Abolitionists +used them just as we are now doing. They are powerful appeals and +have invariably done the work they were designed to do, and we cannot +consent to abandon the use of these until the _realities_ no longer +exist. + +With regard to those white men, who, it was said, did try to raise +an insurrection in Mississippi a year ago, and who were stated to be +Abolitionists, none of them were proved to be members of Anti-Slavery +Societies, and it must remain a matter of great doubt whether, even +they were guilty of the crimes alledged against them, because when any +community is thrown into such a panic as to inflict Lynch law upon +accused persons, they cannot be supposed to be capable of judging with +calmness and impartiality. _We know_ that the papers of which the +Charleston mail was robbed, were _not_ insurrectionary, and that they +were _not_ sent to the colored people as was reported, _We know_ that +Amos Dresser was _no insurrectionist_ though he was accused of being +so, and on this false accusation was publicly whipped in Nashville in +the midst of a crowd of infuriated _slaveholders_. Was that young man +disgraced by this infliction of corporal punishment? No more than +was the great apostle of the Gentiles who five times received forty +stripes, save one. Like him, he might have said, "henceforth I bear +in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," for it was for the _truth's +sake, he suffered_, as much as did the Apostle Paul. Are Nelson, and +Garrett, and Williams, and other Abolitionists who have recently been +banished from Missouri, insurrectionists? _We know_ they are _not_, +whatever slaveholders may choose to call them. The spirit which now +asperses the character of the Abolitionists, is the _very same_ which +dressed up the Christians of Spain in the skins of wild beasts and +pictures of devils when they were led to execution as heretics. Before +we condemn individuals, it is necessary, even in a wicked community, +to accuse them of some crime; hence, when Jezebel wished to compass +the death of Naboth, men of Belial were suborned to bear _false_ +witness against him, and so it was with Stephen, and so it ever has +been, and ever will be, as long as there is any virtue to suffer +on the rack, or the gallows. _False_ witnesses must appear against +Abolitionists before they can be condemned. + +I will now say a few words on George Thompson's mission to this +country. This Philanthropist was accused of being a foreign emissary. +Were La Fayette, and Steuben, and De Kalb, foreign emissaries when +they came over to America to fight against the tories, who preferred +submitting to what was termed, "the yoke of servitude," rather than +bursting the fetters which bound them to the mother country? _They_ +came with _carnal weapons_ to engage in _bloody_ conflict against +American citizens, and yet, where do their names stand on the page of +History. Among the honorable, or the low? Thompson came here to war +against the giant sin of slavery, not with the sword and the pistol, +but with the smooth stones of oratory taken from the pure waters of +the river of Truth. His splendid talents and commanding eloquence +rendered him a powerful coadjutor in the Anti-Slavery cause, and in +order to neutralize the effects of these upon his auditors, and rob +the poor slave of the benefits of his labors, his character was +defamed, his life was sought, and he at last driven from our Republic, +as a fugitive. But was _Thompson_ disgraced by all this mean and +contemptible and wicked chicanery and malice? No more than was Paul, +when in consequence of a vision he had seen at Troas, he went over to +Macedonia to help the Christians there, and was beaten and imprisoned, +because he cast out a spirit of divination from a young damsel which +had brought much gain to her masters. Paul was as much a foreign +emissary in the Roman colony of Philippi, as George Thompson was in +America, and it was because he was a _Jew_ and taught customs it was +not lawful for them to receive or observe, being Romans, that the +Apostle was thus treated. + +It was said, Thompson was a felon, who had fled to this country to +escape transportation to New Holland. Look at him now pouring the +thundering strains of his eloquence, upon crowded audiences in Great +Britain, and see in this a triumphant vindication of his character. +And have the slaveholder, and his obsequious apologist, gained any +thing by all their violence and falsehood? No! for the stone which +struck Goliath of Gath, had already been thrown from the sling. The +giant of slavery who had so proudly defied the armies of the living +God, had received his death-blow before he left our shores. But what +is George Thompson doing there? Is he not now laboring there, as +effectually to abolish American slavery as though he trod our own +soil, and lectured to New York or Boston assemblies? What is he +doing there, but constructing a stupendous dam, which will turn the +overwhelming tide of public opinion over the wheels of that machinery +which Abolitionists are working here. He is now lecturing to _Britons_ +on _American Slavery_, to the _subjects_ of a _King_, on the abject +condition of the _slaves of a Republic_. He is telling them of that +mighty confederacy of petty tyrants which extends over thirteen States +of our Union. He is telling them of the munificent rewards offered by +slaveholders, for the heads of the most distinguished advocates for +freedom in this country. He is moving the British Churches to send +out to the churches of America the most solemn appeals, reproving, +rebuking, and exhorting them with all long suffering and patience to +abandon the sin of slavery immediately. Where then I ask, will the +name of George Thompson stand on the page of History? Among the +honorable, or the base? + +What can I say more, my friends, to induce _you_ to set your hands, +and heads, and hearts, to this great work of justice and mercy. +Perhaps you have feared the consequences of immediate Emancipation, +and been frightened by all those dreadful prophecies of rebellion, +bloodshed and murder, which have been uttered. "Let no man deceive +you;" they are the predictions of that same "lying spirit" which spoke +through the four hundred prophets of old, to Ahab king of Israel, +urging him on to destruction. _Slavery_ may produce these horrible +scenes if it is continued five years longer, but Emancipation _never +will_. + +I can prove the _safety_ of immediate Emancipation by history. In St. +Domingo in 1793 six hundred thousand slaves were set free in a +white population of forty-two thousand. That Island "marched as by +enchantment" towards its ancient splendor, cultivation prospered, every +day produced perceptible proofs of its progress, and the negroes all +continued quietly to work on the different plantations, until in 1802, +France determined to reduce these liberated slaves again to bondage. +It was at _this time_ that all those dreadful scenes of cruelty +occured, which we so often _unjustly_ hear spoken of, as the effects +of Abolition. They were occasioned _not_ by Emancipation, but by the +base attempt to fasten the chains of slavery on the limbs of liberated +slaves. + +In Gaudaloape eighty-five thousand slaves were freed in a white +population of thirteen thousand. The same prosperous effects followed +manumission here, that had attended it in Hayti, every thing was quiet +until Buonaparte sent out a fleet to reduce these negroes again to +slavery, and in 1802 this institution was re-established in that +Island. In 1834, when Great Britain determined to liberate the slaves +in her West India colonies, and proposed the apprenticeship system; +the planters of Bermuda and Antigua, after having joined the other +planters in their representations of the bloody consequences of +Emancipation, in order if possible to hold back the hand which was +offering the boon of freedom to the poor negro; as soon as they found +such falsehoods were utterly disregarded, and Abolition must take +place, came forward voluntarily, and asked for the compensation which +was due to them, saying, _they preferred immediate emancipation_, and +were not afraid of any insurrection. And how is it with these islands +now? They are decidedly more prosperous than any of those in which +the apprenticeship system was adopted, and England is now trying +to abolish that system, so fully convinced is she that immediate +Emancipation is the safest and the best plan. + +And why not try it in the Southern States, if it never has occasioned +rebellion; if _not_ a _drop of blood_ has ever been shed in +consequence of it, though it has been so often tried, why should we +suppose it would produce such disastrous consequences now? "Be not +deceived then, God is not mocked," by such false excuses for not doing +justly and loving mercy. There is nothing to fear from immediate +Emancipation, but _every thing_ from the continuance of slavery. + +Sisters in Christ, I have done. As a Southerner, I have felt it was +my duty to address you. I have endeavoured to set before you the +exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and to point you to the example of +those noble women who have been raised up in the church to effect +great revolutions, and to suffer for the truth's sake. I have appealed +to your sympathies as women, to your sense of duty as _Christian +women_. I have attempted to vindicate the Abolitionists, to prove the +entire safety of immediate Emancipation, and to plead the cause of the +poor and oppressed. I have done--I have sowed the seeds of truth, but +I well know, that even if an Apollos were to follow in my steps to +water them, "_God only_ can give the increase." To Him then who is +able to prosper the work of his servant's hand, I commend this Appeal +in fervent prayer, that as he "hath _chosen the weak things of the +world_, to confound the things which are mighty," so He may cause His +blessing, to descend and carry conviction to the hearts of many Lydias +through these speaking pages. Farewell--Count me not your "enemy +because I have told you the truth," but believe me in unfeigned +affection, + +Your sympathizing Friend, + +Angelina E. Grimke. + + + +THIRD EDITION. + + + +[1] And again, "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the +children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; +then _that thief shall die_; and thou shall put away evil from among +you." Deut. xxiv, 7. + +[2] And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let +him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him _liberally_ out of thy flock +and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the +Lord thy God hath blessed thee, shalt thou give unto him. Deut xv, 13, +14. + +[3] There are laws in some of the slave states, limiting the labor +which the master may require of the slave to fourteen hours daily. In +some of the states there are laws requiring the masters to furnish a +certain amount of food and clothing, as for instance, _one quart_ of +corn per day, or _one peck_ per week, or _one bushel_ per month, and +"_one_ linen shirt and pantaloons for the summer, and a linen shirt +and woolen great coat and pantaloons for the winter," &c. But "still," +to use the language of Judge Stroud "the slave is entirely under the +control of his master,--is unprovided with a protector,--and, +especially as he cannot be a witness or make complaint in any known +mode against his master, the _apparent_ object of these laws may +_always_ be defeated." ED. + +[4] See Mrs. Child's Appeal, Chap. II. + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been relocated to the end.] + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Appeal to the Christian Women of +the South, by Angelina Emily Grimke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF SOUTH *** + +***** This file should be named 9915.txt or 9915.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/1/9915/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South + +Author: Angelina Emily Grimke + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9915] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 31, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + + + +Angelina Emily Grimke + + + + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + +BY A.E. GRIMKE. + + +"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself +that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For +if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: +but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth +whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And +Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in +unto the king, which is not according to law, and _if I perish, I +perish_." Esther IV. 13-16. + + +Respected Friends, + +It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present and +eternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Some +of you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me in +Christian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship; and even when compelled by +a strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of union which +bound us together as members of the same community, and members of +the same religious denomination, you were generous enough to give me +credit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you believed I had been +most strangely deceived. I thanked you then for your kindness, and +I ask you _now_, for the sake of former confidence, and former +friendship, to read the following pages in the spirit of calm +investigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have known me, +that I write thus unto you. + +But there are other Christian women scattered over the Southern +States, a very large number of whom have never seen me, and never +heard my name, and who feel _no_ interest whatever in _me_. But I feel +an interest in _you_, as branches of the same vine from whose root I +daily draw the principle of spiritual vitality--Yes! Sisters in Christ +I feel an interest in _you_, and often has the secret prayer arisen +on your behalf, Lord "open thou their eyes that they may see wondrous +things out of thy Law"--It is then, because I _do feel_ and _do pray_ +for you, that I thus address you upon a subject about which of all +others, perhaps you would rather not hear any thing; but, "would to +God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with +me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." Be not afraid +then to read my appeal; it is _not_ written in the heat of passion +or prejudice, but in that solemn calmness which is the result of +conviction and duty. It is true, I am going to tell you unwelcome +truths, but I mean to speak those _truths in love_, and remember +Solomon says, "faithful are the _wounds_ of a friend." I do not +believe the time has yet come when _Christian women_ "will not endure +sound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken to +them in tenderness and love, therefore I now address _you_. + +To all of you then, known or unknown, relatives or strangers, (for you +are all _one_ in Christ,) I would speak. I have felt for you at this +time, when unwelcome light is pouring in upon the world on the subject +of slavery; light which even Christians would exclude, if they could, +from our country, or at any rate from the southern portion of it, +saying, as its rays strike the rock bound coasts of New England and +scatter their warmth and radiance over her hills and valleys, and from +thence travel onward over the Palisades of the Hudson, and down the +soft flowing waters of the Delaware and gild the waves of the Potomac, +"hitherto shalt thou come and no further;" I know that even professors +of His name who has been emphatically called the "Light of the world" +would, if they could, build a wall of adamant around the Southern +States whose top might reach unto heaven, in order to shut out the +light which is bounding from mountain to mountain and from the hills +to the plains and valleys beneath, through the vast extent of our +Northern States. But believe me, when I tell you, their attempts will +be as utterly fruitless as were the efforts of the builders of Babel; +and why? Because moral, like natural light, is so extremely subtle in +its nature as to overleap all human barriers, and laugh at the puny +efforts of man to control it. All the excuses and palliations of this +system must inevitably be swept away, just as other "refuges of lies" +have been, by the irresistible torrent of a rectified public opinion. +"The _supporters_ of the slave system," says Jonathan Dymond in his +admirable work on the Principles of Morality, "will _hereafter_ be +regarded with the _same_ public feeling, as he who was an advocate for +the slave trade _now is_." It will be, and that very soon, clearly +perceived and fully acknowledged by all the virtuous and the candid, +that in _principle_ it is as sinful to hold a human being in bondage +who has been born in Carolina, as one who has been born in Africa. +All that sophistry of argument which has been employed to prove, that +although it is sinful to send to Africa to procure men and women as +slaves, who have never been in slavery, that still, it is not sinful +to keep those in bondage who have come down by inheritance, will be +utterly overthrown. We must come back to the good old doctrine of our +forefathers who declared to the world, "this self evident truth that +_all_ men are created equal, and that they have certain _inalienable_ +rights among which are life, _liberty_, and the pursuit of happiness." +It is even a greater absurdity to suppose a man can be legally born +a slave under _our free Republican_ Government, than under the petty +despotisms of barbarian Africa. If then, we have no right to enslave +an African, surely we can have none to enslave an American; if it is a +self evident truth that _all_ men, every where and of every color are +born equal, and have an _inalienable right to liberty_, then it is +equally true that _no_ man can be born a slave, and no man can ever +_rightfully_ be reduced to _involuntary_ bondage and held as a slave, +however fair may be the claim of his master or mistress through wills +and title-deeds. + +But after all, it may be said, our fathers were certainly mistaken, +for the Bible sanctions Slavery, and that is the highest authority. +Now the Bible is my ultimate appeal in all matters of faith and +practice, and it is to _this test_ I am anxious to bring the subject +at issue between us. Let us then begin with Adam and examine the +charter of privileges which was given to him. "Have dominion over the +fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living +thing that moveth upon the earth." In the eighth Psalm we have a still +fuller description of this charter which through Adam was given to +all mankind. "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy +hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, +yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the +sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." And after +the flood when this charter of human rights was renewed, we find _no +additional_ power vested in man. "And the fear of you and the dread of +you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, +and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of +the sea, into your hand are they delivered." In this charter, although +the different kinds of _irrational_ beings are so particularly +enumerated, and supreme dominion over _all of them_ is granted, yet +_man_ is _never_ vested with this dominion _over his fellow man;_ +he was never told that any of the human species were put _under his +feet;_ it was only _all things_, and man, who was created in the image +of his Maker, _never_ can properly be termed a _thing_, though the +laws of Slave States do call him "a chattel personal;" _Man_ then, I +assert _never_ was put _under the feet of man_, by that first charter +of human rights which was given by God, to the Fathers of the +Antediluvian and Postdiluvian worlds, therefore this doctrine of +equality is based on the Bible. + +But it may be argued, that in the very chapter of Genesis from which I +have last quoted, will be found the curse pronounced upon Canaan, by +which his posterity was consigned to servitude under his brothers Shem +and Japheth. I know this prophecy was uttered, and was most fearfully +and wonderfully fulfilled, through the immediate descendants of +Canaan, i.e. the Canaanites, and I do not know but it has been through +all the children of Ham but I do know that prophecy does _not_ tell us +what _ought to be_, but what actually does take place, ages after it +has been delivered, and that if we justify America for enslaving +the children of Africa, we must also justify Egypt for reducing +the children of Israel to bondage, for the latter was foretold as +explicitly as the former. I am well aware that prophecy has often been +urged as an excuse for Slavery, but be not deceived, the fulfilment of +prophecy will _not cover one sin_ in the awful day of account. Hear +what our Saviour says on this subject; "it must needs be that offences +come, but _woe unto that man through whom they come"_--Witness some +fulfilment of this declaration in the tremendous destruction, of +Jerusalem, occasioned by that most nefarious of all crimes the +crucifixion of the Son of God. Did the fact of that event having been +foretold, exculpate the Jews from sin in perpetrating it; No--for +hear what the Apostle Peter says to them on this subject, "Him being +delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, _ye_ +have taken, and by _wicked_ hands have crucified and slain." Other +striking instances might be adduced, but these will suffice. + +But it has been urged that the patriarchs held slaves, and therefore, +slavery is right. Do you really believe that patriarchal servitude was +like American slavery? Can you believe it? If so, read the history +of these primitive fathers of the church and be undeceived. Look at +Abraham, though so great a man, going to the herd himself and fetching +a calf from thence and serving it up with his own hands, for the +entertainment of his guests. Look at Sarah, that princess as her name +signifies, baking cakes upon the hearth. If the servants they had were +like Southern slaves, would they have performed such comparatively +menial offices for themselves? Hear too the plaintive lamentation of +Abraham when he feared he should have no son to bear his name down +to posterity. "Behold thou hast given me no seed, &c, one born in my +house _is mine_ heir." From this it appears that one of his _servants_ +was to inherit his immense estate. Is this like Southern slavery? I +leave it to your own good sense and candor to decide. Besides, such +was the footing upon which Abraham was with _his_ servants, that he +trusted them with arms. Are slaveholders willing to put swords and +pistols into the hands of their slaves? He was as a father among his +servants; what are planters and masters generally among theirs? When +the institution of circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded +thus; "He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, +_every_ man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, +or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed." And +to render this command with regard to his _servants_ still more +impressive it is repeated in the very next verse; and herein we may +perceive the great care which was taken by God to guard the _rights +of servants_ even under this "dark dispensation." What too was the +testimony given to the faithfulness of this eminent patriarch. "For I +know him that he will command his children and his _household_ after +him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and +judgment." Now my dear friends many of you believe that circumcision +has been superseded by baptism in the Church; _Are you_ careful to +have _all_ that are born in your house or bought with money of any +stranger, baptized? Are _you_ as faithful as Abraham to command +_your household to keep the way of the Lord?_ I leave it to your own +consciences to decide. Was patriarchal servitude then like American +Slavery? + +But I shall be told, God sanctioned Slavery, yea commanded Slavery +under the Jewish Dispensation. Let us examine this subject calmly and +prayerfully. I admit that a species of _servitude_ was permitted to +the Jews, but in studying the subject I have been struck with wonder +and admiration at perceiving how carefully the servant was guarded +from violence, injustice and wrong. I will first inform you how these +servants became servants, for I think this a very important part of +our subject. From consulting Horne, Calmet and the Bible, I find there +were six different ways by which the Hebrews became servants legally. + +1. If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might sell himself, i.e. +his services, for six years, in which case _he_ received the purchase +money _himself_. Lev. xxv, 39. + +2. A father might sell his children as servants, i.e. his _daughters_, +in which circumstance it was understood the daughter was to be the +wife or daughter-in-law of the man who bought her, and the _father_ +received the price. In other words, Jewish women were sold as _white +women_ were in the first settlement of Virginia--as _wives_, _not_ as +slaves. Ex. xxi, 7. + +3. Insolvent debtors might be delivered to their creditors as +servants. 2 Kings iv, 1 + +4. Thieves not able to make restitution for their thefts, were sold +for the benefit of the injured person. Ex. xxii, 3. + +5. They might be born in servitude. Ex. xxi, 4. + +6. If a Hebrew had sold himself to a rich Gentile, he might be +redeemed by one of his brethren at any time the money was offered; and +he who redeemed him, was _not_ to take advantage of the favor thus +conferred, and rule over him with rigor. Lev. xxv, 47-55. + +Before going into an examination of the laws by which these servants +were protected, I would just ask whether American slaves have become +slaves in any of the ways in which the Hebrews became servants. Did +they sell themselves into slavery and receive the purchase money into +their own hands? No! Did they become insolvent, and by their own +imprudence subject themselves to be sold as slaves? No! Did they steal +the property of another, and were they sold to make restitution for +their crimes? No! Did their present masters, as an act of kindness, +redeem them from some heathen tyrant to whom _they had sold +themselves_ in the dark hour of adversity? No! Were they born in +slavery? No! No! not according to _Jewish Law_, for the servants who +were born in servitude among them, were born of parents who had _sold +themselves_ for six years: Ex. xxi, 4. Were the female slaves of +the South sold by their fathers? How shall I answer this question? +Thousands and tens of thousands never were, _their_ fathers _never_ +have received the poor compensation of silver or gold for the tears +and toils, the suffering, and anguish, and hopeless bondage of _their_ +daughters. They labor day by day, and year by year, side by side, in +the same field, if haply their daughters are permitted to remain on +the same plantation with them, instead of being as they often are, +separated from their parents and sold into distant states, never again +to meet on earth. But do the _fathers of the South ever sell their +daughters_? My heart beats, and my hand trembles, as I write the awful +affirmative, Yes! The fathers of this Christian land often sell +their daughters, _not_ as Jewish parents did, to be the wives and +daughters-in-law of the man who buys them, but to be the abject slaves +of petty tyrants and irresponsible masters. Is it not so, my friends? +I leave it to your own candor to corroborate my assertion. Southern +slaves then have _not_ become slaves in any of the six different ways +in which Hebrews became servants, and I hesitate not to say that +American masters _cannot_ according to _Jewish law_ substantiate their +claim to the men, women, or children they now hold in bondage. + +But there was one way in which a Jew might illegally be reduced to +servitude; it was this, he might be _stolen_ and afterwards sold as a +slave, as was Joseph. To guard most effectually against this dreadful +crime of manstealing, God enacted this severe law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be +put to death." [1] As I have tried American Slavery by _legal_ Hebrew +servitude, and found, (to your surprise, perhaps,) that Jewish law +cannot justify the slaveholder's claim, let us now try it by _illegal_ +Hebrew bondage. Have the Southern slaves then been, stolen? If they +did not sell themselves into bondage; if they were not sold as +insolvent debtors or as thieves; if they were not redeemed from a +heathen master to whom _they had sold themselves_; if they were not +born in servitude according to Hebrew law; and if the females were +not sold by their fathers as wives and daughters-in-law to those who +purchased them; then what shall we say of them? what can we say of +them but that according _to Hebrew Law they have been stolen_. + +But I shall be told that the Jews had other servants who were absolute +slaves. Let us look a little into this also. They had other servants +who were procured in two different ways. + +1. Captives taken in war were reduced to bondage instead of being +killed; but we are not told that their children were enslaved Deut. +xx, 14. + +2. Bondmen and bondmaids might be bought from the heathen round about +them; these were left by fathers to their children after them, but +it does not appear that the _children_ of these servants ever were +reduced to servitude. Lev. xxv, 44. + +I will now try the right of the southern planter by the claims of +Hebrew masters over their _heathen_ slaves. Were the southern slaves +taken captive in war? No! Were they bought from the heathen? No! for +surely, no one will _now_ vindicate the slave-trade so far as to +assert that slaves were bought from the heathen who were obtained by +that system of piracy. The _only_ excuse for holding southern slaves +is that they were born in slavery, but we have seen that they were +_not_ born in servitude as Jewish servants were, and that the children +of heathen slaves were not legally subjected to bondage even under the +Mosaic Law. How then have the slaves of the South been obtained? + +I will next proceed to an examination of those laws which were enacted +in order to protect the Hebrew and the Heathen servant; for I wish you +to understand that _both_ are protected by Him, of whom it is said +"his mercies are over _all_ his works." I will first speak of those +which secured the rights of Hebrew servants. This code was headed +thus: + +1. Thou shalt _not_ rule over him with _rigor_, but shalt fear thy +God; + +2. If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in +the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. Ex. xxi, 2. [2] + +3. If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were +married, then his wife shall go out with him. + +4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him sons and +daughters, the wife and her children shall be his master's, and he +shall go out by himself. + +5. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my +children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto +the Judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, +and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall +serve him _forever_. Ex. xxi, 5-6. + +6. If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that +it perish, he shall let him go _free_ for his eye's sake. And if he +smite out his man servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth, he +shall let him go _free_ for his tooth's sake. Ex. xxi, 26, 27. + +7. On the Sabbath rest was secured to servants by the fourth +commandment. Ex. xx, 10. + +8. Servants were permitted to unite with their masters three times in +every year in celebrating the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and +the feast of Tabernacles; every male throughout the land was to appear +before the Lord at Jerusalem with a gift; here the bond and the free +stood on common ground. Deut. xvi. + +9. If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under +his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue +a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. Ex. xxi, +20, 21. + +From these laws we learn that Hebrew men servants were bound to serve +their masters _only six_ years, unless their attachment to their +employers their wives and children, should induce them to wish +to remain in servitude, in which case, in order to prevent the +possibility of deception on the part of the master, the servant was +first taken before the magistrate, where he openly declared his +intention of continuing in his master's service, (probably a public +register was kept of such) he was then conducted to the door of the +house, (in warm climates doors are thrown open,) and _there_ his ear +was _publicly_ bored, and by submitting to this operation he testified +his willingness to serve him _forever_, i.e. during his life, for +Jewish Rabbins who must have understood Jewish _slavery_, (as it is +called,) "affirm that servants were set free at the death of their +masters and did _not_ descend to their heirs:" or that he was to +serve him until the year of Jubilee, when _all_ servants were set at +liberty. To protect servants from violence, it was ordained that if a +master struck out the tooth or destroyed the eye of a servant, that +servant immediately became _free_, for such an act of violence +evidently showed he was unfit to possess the power of a master, and +therefore that power was taken from him. All servants enjoyed the rest +of the Sabbath and partook of the privileges and festivities of the +three great Jewish Feasts; and if a servant died under the infliction +of chastisement, his master was surely to be punished. As a tooth +for a tooth and life for life was the Jewish law, of course he was +punished with death. I know that great stress has been laid upon the +following verse: "Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he +shall not be punished, for he is his money." + +Slaveholders, and the apologists of slavery, have eagerly seized upon +this little passage of scripture, and held it up as the masters' Magna +Charta, by which they were licensed by God himself to commit the +greatest outrages upon the defenceless victims of their oppression. +But, my friends, was it designed to be so? If our Heavenly Father +would protect by law the eye and the tooth of a Hebrew servant, can we +for a moment believe that he would abandon that same servant to the +brutal rage of a master who would destroy even life itself. Do we not +rather see in this, the _only_ law which protected masters, and was +it not right that in case of the death of a servant, one or two days +after chastisement was inflicted, to which other circumstances might +have contributed, that the master should be protected when, in all +probability, he never intended to produce so fatal a result? But the +phrase "he is his money" has been adduced to show that Hebrew servants +were regarded as mere _things_, "chattels personal;" if so, why were +so many laws made to _secure their rights as men_, and to ensure their +rising into equality and freedom? If they were mere _things_, why were +they regarded as responsible beings, and one law made for them as well +as for their masters? But I pass on now to the consideration of how +the _female_ Jewish servants were protected by _law_. + +1. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, +then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto another nation he +shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. + +2. If he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after +the manner of daughters. + +3. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of +marriage, shall he not diminish. + +4. If he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out _free_ +without money. + +On these laws I will give you Calmet's remarks; "A father could not +sell his daughter as a slave, according to the Rabbins, until she +was at the age of puberty, and unless he were reduced to the utmost +indigence. Besides when a master bought an Israelitish girl, it was +_always_ with the presumption that he would take her to wife. Hence +Moses adds, 'if she please not her master, and he does not think +fit to marry her, he shall set her at liberty,' or according to the +Hebrew, 'he shall let her be redeemed.' 'To sell her to another nation +he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her;' as +to the engagement implied, at least of taking her to wife. 'If he have +betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of +daughters, i.e. he shall take care that his son uses her as his wife, +that he does not despise or maltreat her. If he make his son +marry another wife, he shall give her her dowry, her clothes and +compensation for her virginity; if he does none of these three, she +shall _go out free_ without money." Thus were the _rights of female +servants carefully secured by law_ under the Jewish Dispensation; and +now I would ask, are the rights of female slaves at the South thus +secured? Are _they_ sold only as wives and daughters-in-law, and when +not treated as such, are they allowed to _go out free?_ No! They have +_all_ not only been illegally obtained as servants according to Hebrew +law, but they are also illegally _held_ in bondage. Masters at the +South and West have all forfeited their claims, (_if they ever had +any_,) to their female slaves. + +We come now to examine the case of those servants who were "of the +heathen round about;" Were _they_ left entirely unprotected by law? +Horne in speaking of the law, "Thou shalt not rule over him with +rigor, but shall fear thy God," remarks, "this law Lev. xxv, 43, it +is true speaks expressly of slaves who were of Hebrew descent; but +as _alien born_ slaves were ingrafted into the Hebrew Church by +circumcision, _there is no doubt_ but that it applied to _all_ +slaves;" if so, then we may reasonably suppose that the other +protective laws extended to them also; and that the only difference +between Hebrew and Heathen servants lay in this, that the former +served but six years unless they chose to remain longer, and were +always freed at the death of their masters; whereas the latter served +until the year of Jubilee, though that might include a period of +forty-nine years,--and were left from father to son. + +There are however two other laws which I have not yet noticed. The +one effectually prevented _all involuntary_ servitude, and the other +completely abolished Jewish servitude every fifty years. They were +equally operative upon the Heathen and the Hebrew. + +1. "Thou shall _not_ deliver unto his master the servant that is +escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even +among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates +where it liketh him best: thou shall _not_ oppress him." Deut. xxiii, +15, 16. + +2. "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim _Liberty_ +throughout _all_ the land, unto _all_ the inhabitants thereof: it +shall be a jubilee unto you." Lev. xxv, 10. + +Here, then, we see that by this first law, the _door of Freedom was +opened wide to every servant who_ had any cause whatever for +complaint; if he was unhappy with his master, all he had to do was to +leave him, and _no man_ had a right to deliver him back to him again, +and not only so, but the absconded servant was to _choose_ where he +should live, and no Jew was permitted to oppress him. He left his +master just as our Northern servants leave us; we have no power to +compel them to remain with us, and no man has any right to oppress +them; they go and dwell in that place where it chooseth them, and live +just where they like. Is it so at the South? Is the poor runaway slave +protected _by law_ from the violence of that master whose oppression +and cruelty has driven him from his plantation or his house? No! no! +Even the free states of the North are compelled to deliver unto his +master the servant that is escaped from his master into them. By +_human_ law, under the _Christian Dispensation_, in the _nineteenth +century we_ are commanded to do, what _God_ more than _three thousand_ +years ago, under the _Mosaic Dispensation, positively commanded_ the +Jews _not_ to do. In the wide domain even of our free states, there is +not _one_ city of refuge for the poor runaway fugitive; not one spot +upon which he can stand and say, I am a free man--I am protected in my +rights as a _man_, by the strong arm of the law; no! _not one_. How +long the North will thus shake hands with the South in sin, I know +not. How long she will stand by like the persecutor Saul, _consenting_ +unto the death of Stephen, and keeping the raiment of them that slew +him. I know not; but one thing I do know, the _guilt of the North_ is +increasing in a tremendous ratio as light is pouring in upon her on +the subject and the sin of slavery. As the sun of righteousness climbs +higher and higher in the moral heavens, she will stand still more and +more abashed as the query is thundered down into her ear, "_Who_ hath +required _this_ at thy hand?" It will be found _no_ excuse then that +the Constitution of our country required that _persons bound to +service_ escaping from their masters should be delivered up; no more +excuse than was the reason which Adam assigned for eating the forbidden +fruit. _He_ was _condemned and punished because_ he hearkened to the +voice of _his wife_, rather than to the command of his Maker; and _we_ +will assuredly be condemned and punished for obeying _Man_ rather than +_God_, if we do not speedily repent and bring forth fruits meet for +repentance. Yea, are we not receiving chastisement even _now_? + +But by the second of these laws a still more astonishing fact is +disclosed. If the first effectually prevented _all involuntary +servitude_, the last absolutely forbade even _voluntary servitude +being perpetual_. On the great day of atonement every fiftieth year +the Jubilee trumpet was sounded throughout the land of Judea, and +_Liberty_ was proclaimed to _all_ the inhabitants thereof. I will not +say that the servants' _chains_ fell off and their _manacles_ were +burst, for there is no evidence that Jewish servants _ever_ felt the +weight of iron chains, and collars, and handcuffs; but I do say that +even the man who had voluntarily sold himself and the _heathen_ who +had been sold to a Hebrew master, were set free, the one as well as +the other. This law was evidently designed to prevent the oppression +of the poor, and the possibility of such a thing as _perpetual +servitude_ existing among them. + +Where, then, I would ask, is the warrant, the justification, or the +palliation of American Slavery from Hebrew servitude? How many of +the southern slaves would now be in bondage according to the laws of +Moses; Not one. You may observe that I have carefully avoided using +the term _slavery_ when speaking of Jewish servitude; and simply for +this reason, that _no such thing_ existed among that people; the word +translated servant does _not_ mean _slave_, it is the same that is +applied to Abraham, to Moses, to Elisha and the prophets generally. +Slavery then never existed under the Jewish Dispensation at all, and +I cannot but regard it as an aspersion on the character of Him who is +"glorious in Holiness" for any one to assert that "_God sanctioned, +yea commanded slavery_ under the old dispensation." I would fain +lift my feeble voice to vindicate Jehovah's character from so foul a +slander. If slaveholders are determined to hold slaves as long as +they can, let them not dare to say that the God of mercy and of truth +_ever_ sanctioned such a system of cruelty and wrong. It is blasphemy +against Him. + +We have seen that the code of laws framed by Moses with regard to +servants was designed to protect them as men and women, to secure to +them their rights as human beings, to guard them from oppression and +defend them from violence of every kind. Let us now turn to the Slave +laws of the South and West and examine them too. I will give you the +substance only, because I fear I shall tresspass too much on your +time, were I to quote them at length. + +1. _Slavery_ is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the +slave's earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest +posterity. + +2. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated; while the +kind of labor, the amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, are +dictated solely by the master. No bargain is made, no wages given. +A pure despotism governs the human brute; and even his covering and +provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend entirely on the +master's discretion. [3] + +3. The slave being considered a personal chattel may be sold or +pledged, or leased at the will of his master. He may be exchanged for +marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts or +taxes either of a living or dead master. Sold at auction, either +individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser, he may remain with his +family, or be separated from them for ever. + +4. Slaves can make no contracts and have no _legal_ right to any +property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings and the legacies +of friends belong in point of law to their masters. + +5. Neither a slave nor a free colored person can be a witness against +any _white_, or free person, in a court of justice, however atrocious +may have been the crimes they have seen him commit, if such testimony +would be for the benefit of a _slave_; but they may give testimony +_against a fellow slave_, or free colored man, even in cases affecting +life, if the _master_ is to reap the advantage of it. + +6. The slave may be punished at his master's discretion--without +trial--without any means of legal redress; whether his offence be real +or imaginary; and the master can transfer the same despotic power to +any person or persons, he may choose to appoint. + +7. The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under _any_ +circumstances, _his_ only safety consists in the fact that his _owner_ +may bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is +taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor. + +8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, +though cruel treatment may have' rendered such a change necessary for +their personal safety. + +9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. + +10. The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where +the master is willing to enfranchise them. + +11. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious +instruction and consolation. + +12. The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state +of the lowest ignorance. + +13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right. +What is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly +criminal--in the slave; the same offences which cost a white man a few +dollars only, are punished in the negro with death. + +14. The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color. [4] +Shall I ask you now my friends, to draw the parallel between Jewish +_servitude_ and American _slavery_? No! For there is _no likeness_ in +the two systems; I ask you rather to mark the contrast. The laws of +Moses _protected servants_ in their _rights as men and women_, guarded +them from oppression and defended them from wrong. The Code Noir of +the South _robs the slave of all his rights_ as a _man_, reduces him +to a chattel personal, and defends the master in the exercise of the +most unnatural and unwarrantable power over his slave. They each bear +the impress of the hand which formed them. The attributes of justice +and mercy are shadowed out in the Hebrew code; those of injustice +and cruelty, in the Code Noir of America. Truly it was wise in the +slaveholders of the South to declare their slaves to be "chattels +personal;" for before they could be robbed of wages, wives, children, +and friends, it was absolutely necessary to deny they were human +beings. It is wise in them, to keep them in abject ignorance, for the +strong man armed must be bound before we can spoil his house--the +powerful intellect of man must be bound down with the iron chains of +nescience before we can rob him of his rights as a man; we must reduce +him to a _thing_ before we can claim the right to set our feet upon +his neck, because it was only _all things_ which were originally _put +under the feet of man_ by the Almighty and Beneficent Father of all, +who has declared himself to be _no respecter_ of persons, whether red, +white or black. + +But some have even said that Jesus Christ did not condemn slavery. To +this I reply that our Holy Redeemer lived and preached among the Jews +only. The laws which Moses had enacted fifteen hundred years previous +to his appearance among them, had never been annulled, and these laws +protected every servant in Palestine. If then He did not condemn +Jewish servitude this does not prove that he would not have condemned +such a monstrous system as that of American _slavery_, if that had +existed among them. But did not Jesus condemn slavery? Let us examine +some of his precepts. "_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should do to +you, do _ye even so to them_," Let every slaveholder apply these +queries to his own heart; Am _I_ willing to be a slave--Am _I_ willing +to see _my_ wife the slave of another--Am _I_ willing to see my mother +a slave, or my father, my sister or my brother? If _not_, then in +holding others as slaves, I am doing what I would _not_ wish to be +done to me or any relative I have; and thus have I broken this golden +rule which was given _me_ to walk by. + +But some slaveholders have said, "we were never in bondage to any +man," and therefore the yoke of bondage would be insufferable to us, +but slaves are accustomed to it, their backs are fitted to the burden. +Well, I am willing to admit that you who have lived in freedom would +find slavery even more oppressive than the poor slave does, but then +you may try this question in another form--Am I willing to reduce _my +little child_ to slavery? You know that _if it is brought up a slave_ +it will never know any contrast, between freedom and bondage, its back +will become fitted to the burden just as the negro child's does--_not +by nature_--but by daily, violent pressure, in the same way that the +head of the Indian child becomes flattened by the boards in which it +is bound. It has been justly remarked that "_God never made a slave_," +he made man upright; his back was _not_ made to carry burdens, nor his +neck to wear a yoke, and the _man_ must be crushed within him, before +_his_ back can be _fitted_ to the burden of perpetual slavery; and +that his back is _not_ fitted to it, is manifest by the insurrections +that so often disturb the peace and security of slaveholding +countries. Who ever heard of a rebellion of the beasts of the field; +and why not? simply because _they_ were all placed _under the feet of +man_, into whose hand they were delivered; it was originally designed +that they should serve him, therefore their necks have been formed +for the yoke, and their backs for the burden; but _not so with man_, +intellectual, immortal man! I appeal to you, my friends, as mothers; +Are you willing to enslave _your_ children? You start back with horror +and indignation at such a question. But why, if slavery is _no wrong_ +to those upon whom it is imposed? why, if as has often been said, +slaves are happier than their masters, free from the cares and +perplexities of providing for themselves and their families? why not +place _your children_ in the way of being supported without your +having the trouble to provide for them, or they for themselves? Do you +not perceive that as soon as this golden rule of action is applied to +_yourselves_ that you involuntarily shrink from the test; as soon as +_your_ actions are weighed in _this_ balance of the sanctuary that +_you are found wanting_? Try yourselves by another of the Divine +precepts, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can we love a man +_as_ we love _ourselves_ if we do, and continue to do unto him, what +we would not wish any one to do to us? Look too, at Christ's example, +what does he say of himself, "I came _not_ to be ministered unto, but +to minister." Can you for a moment imagine the meek, and lowly, and +compassionate Saviour, a _slaveholder_? do you not shudder at this +thought as much as at that of his being _a warrior_? But why, if +slavery is not sinful? + +Again, it has been said, the Apostle Paul did not condemn Slavery, for +he sent Onesimus back to Philemon. I do not think it can be said he +sent him back, for no coercion was made use of. Onesimus was not +thrown into prison and then sent back in chains to his master, as your +runaway slaves often are--this could not possibly have been the case, +because you know Paul as a Jew, was _bound to protect_ the runaway, +_he had no right_ to send any fugitive back to his master. The state +of the case then seems to have been this. Onesimus had been an +unprofitable servant to Philemon and left him--he afterwards became +converted under the Apostle's preaching, and seeing that he had been +to blame in his conduct, and desiring by future fidelity to atone for +past error, he wished to return, and the Apostle gave him the letter +we now have as a recommendation to Philemon, informing him of the +conversion of Onesimus, and entreating him as "Paul the aged" "to +receive him, _not_ now as a servant, but _above_ a servant, a brother +beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the +flesh and in the Lord. If thou count _me_ therefore as a partner, +_receive him as myself_." This then surely cannot be forced into a +justification of the practice of returning runaway slaves back to +their masters, to be punished with cruel beatings and scourgings as +they often are. Besides the word [Greek: doulos] here translated +servant, is the same that is made use of in Matt. xviii, 27. Now it +appears that this servant owed his lord ten thousand talents; he +possessed property to a vast amount. Onesimus could not then have been +a _slave_, for slaves do not own their wives, or children; no, not +even their own bodies, much less property. But again, the servitude +which the apostle was accustomed to, must have been very different +from American slavery, for he says, "the heir (or son), as long as he +is a child, differeth _nothing from a servant_, though he be lord of +all. But is under _tutors_ and governors until the time appointed of +the father." From this it appears, that the means of _instruction_ +were provided for _servants_ as well as children; and indeed we know +it must have been so among the Jews, because their servants were +not permitted to remain in perpetual bondage, and therefore it was +absolutely necessary they should be prepared to occupy higher stations +in society than those of servants. Is it so at the South, my friends? +Is the daily bread of instruction provided for _your slaves?_ are +their minds enlightened, and they gradually prepared to rise from +the grade of menials into that of _free_, independent members of the +state? Let your own statute book, and your own daily experience, +answer these questions. + +If this apostle sanctioned _slavery_, why did he exhort masters-thus +in his epistle to the Ephesians, "and ye, masters, do the same things +unto them (i.e. perform your duties to your servants as unto Christ, +not unto me) _forbearing threatening_; knowing that your master also +is in heaven, neither is _there respect of persons with him_." And in +Colossians, "Masters give unto your servants that which is _just +and equal_, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven." Let +slaveholders only obey these injunctions of Paul, and I am satisfied +slavery would soon be abolished. If he thought it sinful even to +_threaten_ servants, surely he must have thought it sinful to flog and +to beat them with sticks and paddles; indeed, when delineating the +character of a bishop, he expressly names this as one feature of it, +"_no striker_." Let masters give unto their servants that which is +_just_ and _equal_, and all that vast system of unrequited labor would +crumble into ruin. Yes, and if they once felt they had no right to the +_labor_ of their servants without pay, surely they could not think +they had a right to their wives, their children, and their own bodies. +Again, how can it be said Paul sanctioned slavery, when, as though +to put this matter beyond all doubt, in that black catalogue of +sins enumerated in his first epistle to Timothy, he mentions +"_menstealers_," which word may be translated "_slavedealers_." But +you may say, we all despise slavedealers as much as any one can; they +are never admitted into genteel or respectable society. And why not? +Is it not because even you shrink back from the idea of associating +with those who make their fortunes by trading in the bodies and souls +of men, women, and children? whose daily work it is to break human +hearts, by tearing wives from their husbands, and children from their +parents? But why hold slavedealers as despicable, if their trade is +lawful and virtuous? and why despise them more than the _gentlemen of +fortune and standing_ who employ them as _their_ agents? Why more than +the _professors of religion_ who barter their fellow-professors to +them for gold and silver? We do not despise the land agent, or the +physician, or the merchant, and why? Simply because their professions +are virtuous and honorable; and if the trade of men-jobbers was +honorable, you would not despise them either. There is no difference +in _principle_, in _Christian ethics_, between the despised +slavedealer and the _Christian_ who buys slaves from, or sells slaves, +to him; indeed, if slaves were not wanted by the respectable, the +wealthy, and the religious in a community, there would be no slaves +in that community, and of course no _slavedealers_. It is then the +_Christians_ and the _honorable men_ and _women_ of the South, who are +the _main pillars_ of this grand temple built to Mammon and to Moloch. +It is the _most enlightened_ in every country who are _most_ to blame +when any public sin is supported by public opinion, hence Isaiah says, +"_When_ the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount _Zion_ and +on _Jerusalem_, (then) I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of +the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks." And was it not +so? Open the historical records of that age, was not Israel carried +into captivity B.C. 606, Judah B.C. 588, and the stout heart of the +heathen monarchy not punished until B.C. 536, fifty-two years _after_ +Judah's, and seventy years _after_ Israel's captivity, when it was +overthrown by Cyrus, king of Persia? Hence, too, the apostle Peter +says, "judgment must _begin at the house of God_." Surely this would +not be the case, if the _professors of religion_ were not _most +worthy_ of blame. + +But it may be asked, why are _they_ most culpable? I will tell you, my +friends. It is because sin is imputed to us just in proportion to the +spiritual light we receive. Thus the prophet Amos says, in the name of +Jehovah, "You _only_ have I known of all the families of the earth: +_therefore_ I will punish _you_ for all your iniquities." Hear too +the doctrine of our Lord on this important subject; "The servant +who _knew_ his Lord's will and _prepared not_ himself, neither did +according to his will, shall be beaten with _many_ stripes:" and +why? "For unto whomsoever _much_ is given, _of him_ shall _much_ be +required; and to whom men have committed _much_, of _him_ they will +ask the _more_." Oh! then that the _Christians_ of the south +would ponder these things in their hearts, and awake to the vast +responsibilities which rest _upon them_ at this important crisis. + +I have thus, I think, clearly proved to you seven propositions, +viz.: First, that slavery is contrary to the declaration of our +independence. Second, that it is contrary to the first charter of +human rights given to Adam, and renewed to Noah. Third, that the fact +of slavery having been the subject of prophecy, furnishes _no_ excuse +whatever to slavedealers. Fourth, that no such system existed under +the patriarchal dispensation. Fifth, that _slavery never_ existed +under the Jewish dispensation; but so far otherwise, that every +servant was placed under the _protection of law_, and care taken +not only to prevent all _involuntary_ servitude, but all _voluntary +perpetual_ bondage. Sixth, that slavery in America reduces a _man_ to +a _thing_, a "chattel personal," _robs him_ of _all_ his rights as +a _human being_, fetters both his mind and body, and protects the +_master_ in the most unnatural and unreasonable power, whilst it +_throws him out_ of the protection of law. Seventh, that slavery +is contrary to the example and precepts of our holy and merciful +Redeemer, and of his apostles. + +But perhaps you will be ready to query, why appeal to _women_ on this +subject? _We_ do not make the laws which perpetuate slavery. _No_ +legislative power is vested in _us; we_ can do nothing to overthrow +the system, even if we wished to do so. To this I reply, I know you +do not make the laws, but I also know that _you are the wives and +mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do;_ and if you really +suppose _you_ can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly +mistaken. You can do much in every way: four things I will name. 1st. +You can read on this subject. 2d. You can pray over this subject. 3d. +You can speak on this subject. 4th. You can _act_ on this subject. +I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more +important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand +what we are praying for; it is only then we can "pray with the +understanding and the spirit also." + +1. Read then on the subject of slavery. Search the Scriptures daily, +whether the things I have told you are true. Other books and papers +might be a great help to you in this investigation, but they are not +necessary, and it is hardly probable that your Committees of Vigilance +will allow you to have any other. The _Bible_ then is the book I want +you to read in the spirit of inquiry, and the spirit of prayer. Even +the enemies of Abolitionists, acknowledge that their doctrines are +drawn from it. In the great mob in Boston, last autumn, when the books +and papers of the Anti-Slavery Society, were thrown out of the windows +of their office, one individual laid hold of the Bible and was about +tossing it out to the ground, when another reminded him that it was +the Bible he had in his hand. "_O! 'tis all one_," he replied, and +out went the sacred volume, along with the rest. We thank him for the +acknowledgment. Yes, "_it is all one_," for our books and papers +are mostly commentaries on the Bible, and the Declaration. Read the +_Bible_ then, it contains the words of Jesus, and they are spirit and +life. Judge for yourselves whether _he sanctioned_ such a system of +oppression and crime. + +2. Pray over this subject. When you have entered into your closets, +and shut to the doors, then pray to your father, who seeth in secret, +that he would open your eyes to see whether slavery is _sinful_, +and if it is, that he would enable you to bear a faithful, open and +unshrinking testimony against it, and to do whatsoever your hands find +to do, leaving the consequences entirely to him, who still says to us +whenever we try to reason away duty from the fear of consequences, +"_What is that to thee, follow thou me_." Pray also for that poor +slave, that he may be kept patient and submissive under his hard +lot, until God is pleased to open the door of freedom to him without +violence or bloodshed. Pray too for the master that his heart may be +softened, and he made willing to acknowledge, as Joseph's brethren +did, "Verily we are guilty concerning our brother," before he will be +compelled to add in consequence of Divine judgment, "therefore is all +this evil come upon us." Pray also for all your brethren and sisters +who are laboring in the righteous cause of Emancipation in the +Northern States, England and the world. There is great encouragement +for prayer in these words of our Lord. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the +Father _in my name_, he _will give_ it to you"--Pray then without +ceasing, in the closet and the social circle. + +3. Speak on this subject. It is through the tongue, the pen, and +the press, that truth is principally propagated. Speak then to your +relatives, your friends, your acquaintances on the subject of slavery; +be not afraid if you are conscientiously convinced it is _sinful_, to +say so openly, but calmly, and to let your sentiments be known. If you +are served by the slaves of others, try to ameliorate their condition +as much as possible; never aggravate their faults, and thus add fuel +to the fire of anger already kindled, in a master and mistress's +bosom; remember their extreme ignorance, and consider them as your +Heavenly Father does the _less_ culpable on this account, even +when they do wrong things. Discountenance all cruelty to them, all +starvation, all corporal chastisement; these may brutalize and +_break_ their spirits, but will never bend them to willing, cheerful +obedience. If possible, see that they are comfortably and _seasonably_ +fed, whether in the house or the field; it is unreasonable and cruel +to expect slaves to wait for their breakfast until eleven o'clock, +when they rise at five or six. Do all you can, to induce their owners +to clothe them well, and to allow them many little indulgences which +would contribute to their comfort. Above all, try to persuade your +husband, father, brothers and sons, that _slavery is a crime against +God and man_, and that it is a great sin to keep _human beings_ in +such abject ignorance; to deny them the privilege of learning to read +and write. The Catholics are universally condemned, for denying the +Bible to the common people, but, _slaveholders must not_ blame them, +for _they_ are doing the _very same thing_, and for the very same +reason, neither of these systems can bear the light which bursts +from the pages of that Holy Book. And lastly, endeavour to inculcate +submission on the part of the slaves, but whilst doing this be +faithful in pleading the cause of the oppressed. + + "Will _you_ behold unheeding, + Life's holiest feelings crushed, + Where _woman's_ heart is bleeding, + Shall _woman's_ voice be hushed?" + +4. Act on this subject. Some of you own slaves yourselves. If you +believe slavery is _sinful_, set them at liberty, "undo the heavy +burdens and let the oppressed go free." If they wish to remain with +you, pay them wages, if not let them leave you. Should they remain +teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an English +education; they have minds and those minds, _ought to be improved_. +So precious a talent as intellect, never was given to be wrapt in a +napkin and buried in the earth. It is the _duty_ of all, as far as +they can, to improve their own mental faculties, because we are +commanded to love God with _all our minds_, as well as with all our +hearts, and we commit a great sin, if we _forbid_ or _prevent_ that +cultivation of the mind in others, which would enable them to perform +this duty. Teach your servants then to read &c, and encourage them to +believe it is their _duty_ to learn, if it were only that they might +read the Bible. + +But some of you will say, we can neither free our slaves nor teach +them to read, for the laws of our state forbid it. Be not surprised +when I say such wicked laws _ought to be no barrier_ in the way of +your duty, and I appeal to the Bible to prove this position. What was +the conduct of Shiphrah and Puah, when the king of Egypt issued his +cruel mandate, with regard to the Hebrew children? "_They_ feared +_God_, and did _not_ as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved +the men children alive." Did these _women_ do right in disobeying that +monarch? "_Therefore_ (says the sacred text,) _God dealt well_ with +them, and made them houses" Ex. i. What was the conduct of Shadrach, +Meshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image in +the plain of Dura, and commanded all people, nations, and languages, +to fall down and worship it? "Be it known, unto thee, (said these +faithful _Jews_) O king, that we _will not_ serve thy gods, nor +worship the image which thou hast set up." Did these men _do right +in disobeying the law_ of their sovereign? Let their miraculous +deliverance of Daniel, when Darius made a firm decree that no one +should ask a petition of any mad or God for thirty days? Did the +prophet cease to pray? No! "When Daniel _knew that the writing was +signed_, he went into his house, and his windows being _open_ towards +Jerusalem, he kneeled upon this knees three times a day, and prayed +and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." Did Daniel +do right this to _break_ the law of his king? Let his wonderful +deliverance out of the mouthes of lions answer; Dan. vii. Look, too, +at the Apostles Peter and John. When the ruler of the Jews "_commanded +them not_ to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus," what did +they say? "Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto +you more than unto God, judge ye." And what did they do? "They spake +the word of God with boldness, and with great power gave the Apostles +witness of the _resurrection_ of the Lord Jesus;" although _this_ was +the very doctrine, for the preaching of which they had just been cast +into prison, and further threatened. Did these men do right? I leave +_you_ to answer, who now enjoy the benefits if their labours and +sufferings, in that Gospel they dared to preach when positively +commanded _not to teach any more_ in the name of Jesus; Acts iv. + +But some of you may say, if we do free our slaves, they will be taken +up and sold, therefore there will be no use in doing it. Peter and +John might just as well have said, we will not preach the gospel, for +if we do, we shall be taken up and put in prison, therefore there will +be no use in our preaching. _Consequences_, my friends, belong no more +to _you_, than they did to these apostles. Duty is ours and events are +God's. If you think slavery is sinful, all you have to do is to set +your slaves at liberty, do all you can to protect them, and in humble +faith and fervent prayer, commend them to your common Father. He can +take care of them; but if for wise purposes he sees fit to allow them +to be sold, this will afford you an opportunity of testifying openly, +wherever you go, against the crime of _manstealing_. Such an act will +be _clear robbery_, and if exposed, might, under the Divine direction, +do the cause of Emancipation more good, than any thing that could +happen, for, "He makes even the wrath of man to praise him, and the +remainder of wrath he will restrain." + +I know that this doctrine of obeying _God_, rather than man, will be +considered as dangerous, and heretical by many, but I am not afraid +openly to avow it, because it is the doctrine of the Bible; but I +would not be understood to advocate resistance to any law however +oppressive, if, in obeying it, I was not obliged to commit _sin_. If +for instance, there was a law, which imposed imprisonment or a fine +upon me if I manumitted a slave, I would on no account resist that +law, I would set the slave free, and then go to prison or pay the +fine. If a law commands me to _sin I will break it_; if it calls me to +_suffer_, I will let it take its course unresistingly. The doctrine +of blind obedience and unqualified submission to _any human_ power, +whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and +ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians. + +But you will perhaps say, such a course of conduct would inevitably +expose us to great suffering. Yes! my Christian friends, I believe it +would, but this will _not_ excuse you or any one else for the neglect +of _duty_. If Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers had not +been willing to suffer for the truth's sake, where would the world +have been now? If they had said, we cannot speak the truth, we cannot +do what we believe is right, because the _laws of our country or +public opinion are against us_, where would our holy religion have +been now? The Prophets were stoned, imprisoned, and killed by the +Jews. And why? Because they exposed and openly rebuked public sins; +they opposed public opinion; had they held their peace, they all might +have lived in ease and died in favor with a wicked generation. Why +were the Apostles persecuted from city to city, stoned, incarcerated, +beaten, and crucified? Because they dared to _speak the truth_; to +tell the Jews, boldly and fearlessly, that _they_ were the _murderers_ +of the Lord of Glory, and that, however great a stumbling-block the +Cross might be to them, there was no other name given under heaven +by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus. Because they +declared, even at Athens, the seat of learning and refinement, the +self-evident truth, that "they be no gods that are made with men's +hands," and exposed to the Grecians the foolishness of worldly wisdom, +and the impossibility of salvation but through Christ, whom they +despised on account of the ignominious death he died. Because at Rome, +the proud mistress of the world, they thundered out the terrors of the +law upon that idolatrous, war-making, and slaveholding community. Why +were the martyrs stretched upon the rack, gibbetted and burnt, the +scorn and diversion of a Nero, whilst their tarred and burning bodies +sent up a light which illuminated the Roman capital? Why were the +Waldenses hunted like wild beasts upon the mountains of Piedmont, and +slain with the sword of the Duke of Savoy and the proud monarch of +France? Why were the Presbyterians chased like the partridge over the +highlands of Scotland--the Methodists pumped, and stoned, and pelted +with rotten eggs--the Quakers incarcerated in filthy prisons, beaten, +whipped at the cart's tail, banished and hung? Because they dared +to _speak_ the _truth_, to _break_ the unrighteous _laws_ of their +country, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, +"not accepting deliverance," even under the gallows. Why were Luther +and Calvin persecuted and excommunicated, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer +burnt? Because they fearlessly proclaimed the truth, though that truth +was contrary to public opinion, and the authority of Ecclesiastical +councils and conventions. Now all this vast amount of human suffering +might have been saved. All these Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, +and Reformers, might have lived and died in peace with all men, but +following the example of their great pattern, "they despised the +shame, endured the cross, and are now set down on the right hand of +the throne of God," having received the glorious welcome of "well done +good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." + +But you may say we are women, how can our hearts endure persecution? +And why not? Have not women stood up in all the dignity and strength +of moral courage to be the leaders of the people, and to bear a +faithful testimony for the truth whenever the providence of God has +called them to do so? Are there no women in that noble army of martyrs +who are now singing the song of Moses and the Lamb? Who led out the +women of Israel from the house of bondage, striking the timbrel, and +singing the song of deliverance on the banks of that sea whose waters +stood up like walls of crystal to open a passage for their escape? It +was a _woman_; Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Moses and Aaron. +Who went up with Barak to Kadesh to fight against Jabin, King of +Canaan, into whose hand Israel had been sold because of their +iniquities? It was a woman! Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, the judge, +as well as the prophetess of that backsliding people; Judges iv, 9. +Into whose hands was Sisera, the captain of Jabin's host delivered? +Into the hand of a _woman_. Jael the wife of Heber! Judges vi, 21. +Who dared to _speak the truth_ concerning those judgments which were +coming upon Judea, when Josiah, alarmed at finding that his people +"had not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that was written +in the book of the Law," sent to enquire of the Lord concerning these +things? It was a woman. Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum; 2, +Chron. xxxiv, 22. Who was chosen to deliver the whole Jewish nation +from that murderous decree of Persia's King, which wicked Hannan had +obtained by calumny and fraud? It was a _woman_; Esther the Queen; +yes, weak and trembling _woman_ was the instrument appointed by God, +to reverse the bloody mandate of the eastern monarch, and save the +_whole visible church_ from destruction. What Human voice first +proclaimed to Mary that she should be the mother of our Lord? It was +a woman! Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias; Luke 1, 42, 43. Who united +with the good old Simeon in giving thanks publicly in the temple, when +the child, Jesus, was presented there by his parents, "and spake of +him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem?" It was a +_woman_! Anna the prophetess. Who first proclaimed Christ as the true +Messiah in the streets of Samaria, once the capital of the ten tribes? +It was a woman! Who ministered to the Son of God whilst on earth, a +despised and persecuted Reformer, in the humble garb of a carpenter? +They were women! Who followed the rejected King of Israel, as his +fainting footsteps trod the road to Calvary? "A great company of +people and of _women_;" and it is remarkable that to _them alone_, he +turned and addressed the pathetic language, "Daughters of Jerusalem, +weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." Ah! who +sent unto the Roman Governor when he was set down on the judgment +seat, saying unto him, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man, +for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him?" +It was a _woman!_ the wife of Pilate. Although "_he knew_ that for +envy the Jews had delivered Christ," yet _he_ consented to surrender +the Son of God into the hands of a brutal soldiery, after having +himself scourged his naked body. Had the _wife_ of Pilate sat upon +that judgment seat, what would have been the result of the trial of +this "just person?" + +And who last hung round the cross of Jesus on the mountain of +Golgotha? Who first visited the sepulchre early in the morning on the +first day of the week, carrying sweet spices to embalm his precious +body, not knowing that it was incorruptible and could not be holden by +the bands of death? These were _women!_ To whom did he _first_ appear +after his resurrection? It was to a _woman!_ Mary Magdalene; Mark xvi, +9. Who gathered with the apostles to wait at Jerusalem, in prayer and +supplication, for "the promise of the Father;" the spiritual blessing +of the Great High Priest of his Church, who had entered, _not_ into +the splendid temple of Solomon, there to offer the blood of bulls, +and of goats, and the smoking censer upon the golden altar, but into +Heaven itself, there to present his intercessions, after having +"given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet +smelling savor?" _Women_ were among that holy company; Acts i, 14. +And did _women_ wait in vain? Did those who had ministered to his +necessities, followed in his train, and wept at his crucifixion, wait +in vain? No! No! Did the cloven tongues of fire descend upon the heads +of _women_ as well as men? Yes, my friends, "it sat upon _each one of +them;_" Acts ii, 3. _Women_ as well as men were to be living stones in +the temple of grace, and therefore _their_ heads were consecrated by +the descent of the Holy Ghost as well as those of men. Were _women_ +recognized as fellow laborers in the gospel field? They were! Paul +says in his epistle to the Philippians, "help those _women_ who +labored with me, in the gospel;" Phil. iv, 3. + +But this is not all. Roman _women_ were burnt at the stake, _their_ +delicate limbs were torn joint from joint by the ferocious beasts of +the Amphitheatre, and tossed by the wild bull in his fury, for the +diversion of that idolatrous, warlike, and slaveholding people. Yes, +_women_ suffered under the ten persecutions of heathen Rome, with the +most unshrinking constancy and fortitude; not all the entreaties of +friends, nor the claims of new born infancy, nor the cruel threats +of enemies could make _them_ sprinkle one grain of incense upon the +altars of Roman idols. Come now with me to the beautiful valleys of +Piedmont. Whose blood stains the green sward, and decks the wild +flowers with colors not their own, and smokes on the sword of +persecuting France? It is _woman's_, as well as man's? Yes, _women_ +were accounted as sheep for the slaughter, and were cut down as the +tender saplings of the wood But time would fail me, to tell of all +those hundreds and thousands of _women_, who perished in the Low +countries of Holland, when Alva's sword of vengeance was unsheathed +against the Protestants, when the Catholic Inquisitions of Europe +became the merciless executioners of vindictive wrath, upon those +who dared to worship God, instead of bowing down in unholy adoration +before "my Lord God the _Pope_," and when England, too, burnt her Ann +Ascoes at the stake of martyrdom. Suffice it to say, that the Church, +after having been driven from Judea to Rome, and from Rome to +Piedmont, and from Piedmont to England, and from England to Holland, +at last stretched her fainting wings over the dark bosom of the +Atlantic, and found on the shores of a great wilderness, a refuge from +tyranny and oppression--as she thought, but _even here_, (the warm +blush of shame mantles my cheek as I write it,) _even here, woman_ was +beaten and banished, imprisoned, and hung upon the gallows, a trophy +to the Cross. + +And what, I would ask in conclusion, have _women_ done for the great +and glorious cause of Emancipation? Who wrote that pamphlet which +moved the heart of Wilberforce to pray over the wrongs, and his +tongue to plead the cause of the oppressed African? It was a _woman_, +Elizabeth Heyrick. Who labored assiduously to keep the sufferings of +the slave continually before the British public? They were women. +And how did they do it? By their needles, paint brushes and pens, by +speaking the truth, and petitioning Parliament for the abolition of +slavery. And what was the effect of their labors? Read it in the +Emancipation bill of Great Britain. Read it, in the present state of +her West India Colonies. Read it, in the impulse which has been given +to the cause of freedom, in the United States of America. Have English +women then done so much for the negro, and shall American women do +nothing? Oh no! Already are there sixty female Anti-Slavery Societies +in operation. These are doing just what the English women did, telling +the story of the colored man's wrongs, praying for his deliverance, +and presenting his kneeling image constantly before the public eye on +bags and needle-books, card-racks, pen-wipers, pin-cushions, &c. Even +the children of the north are inscribing on their handy work, "May the +points of our needles prick the slaveholder's conscience." Some of the +reports of these Societies exhibit not only considerable talent, but a +deep sense of religious duty, and a determination to persevere through +evil as well as good report, until every scourge, and every shackle, +is buried under the feet of the manumitted slave. + +The Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society of Boston was called last fall, to a +severe trial of their faith and constancy. They were mobbed by "the +gentlemen of property and standing," in that city at their anniversary +meeting, and their lives were jeoparded by an infuriated crowd; but +their conduct on that occasion did credit to our sex, and affords a +full assurance that they will never abandon the cause of the slave. +The pamphlet, Right and Wrong in Boston, issued by them in which a +particular account is given of that "mob of broad cloth in broad day," +does equal credit to the head and the heart of her who wrote it wish +my Southern sisters could read it; they would then understand that +the women of the North have engaged in this work from a sense of +_religious duty_, and that nothing will ever induce them to take their +hands from it until it is fully accomplished. They feel no hostility +to you, no bitterness or wrath; they rather sympathize in your trials +and difficulties; but they well know that the first thing to be done +to help you, is to pour in the light of truth on your minds, to urge +you to reflect on, and pray over the subject. This is all _they_ can +do for you, _you_ must work out your own deliverance with fear and +trembling, and with the direction and blessing of God, _you can do +it_. Northern women may labor to produce a correct public opinion at +the North, but if Southern women sit down in listless indifference and +criminal idleness, public opinion cannot be rectified and purified at +the South. It is manifest to every reflecting mind, that slavery +must be abolished; the era in which we live, and the light which is +overspreading the whole world on this subject, clearly show that the +time cannot be distant when it will be done. Now there are only two +ways in which it can be effected, by moral power or physical force, +and it is for you to choose which of these you prefer. Slavery always +has, and always will produce insurrections wherever it exists, because +it is a violation of the natural order of things, and no human power +can much longer perpetuate it. The opposers of abolitionists fully +believe this; one of them remarked to me not long since, there is no +doubt there will be a most terrible overturning at the South in a few +years, such cruelty and wrong, must be visited with Divine vengeance +soon. Abolitionists believe, too, that this must inevitably be the +case if you do not repent, and they are not willing to leave you to +perish without entreating you, to save yourselves from destruction; +Well may they say with the apostle, "am I then your enemy because I +tell you the truth," and warn you to flee from impending judgments. + +But why, my dear friends, have I thus been endeavoring to lead you +through the history of more than three thousand years, and to point +you to that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, "from works +to rewards?" Have I been seeking to magnify the sufferings, and exalt +the character of woman, that she "might have praise of men?" No! no! +my object has been to arouse _you_, as the wives and mothers, the +daughters and sisters, of the South, to a sense of your duty as +_women_, and as Christian women, on that great subject, which has +already shaken our country, from the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to +the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the shores of the +Atlantic; _and will continue mightily to shake it_, until the polluted +temple of slavery fall and crumble into ruin. I would say unto each +one of you, "what meanest thou, O sleeper! arise and call upon thy +God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not." +Perceive you not that dark cloud of vengeance which hangs over our +boasting Republic? Saw you not the lightnings of Heaven's wrath, in +the flame which leaped from the Indian's torch to the roof of yonder +dwelling, and lighted with its horrid glare the darkness of midnight? +Heard you not the thunders of Divine anger, as the distant roar of the +cannon came rolling onward, from the Texian country, where Protestant +American Rebels are fighting with Mexican Republicans--for what? For +the re-establishment of _slavery_; yes! of American slavery in the +bosom of a Catholic Republic, where that system of robbery, violence, +and wrong, had been legally abolished for twelve years. Yes! citizens +of the United States, after plundering Mexico of her land, are now +engaged in deadly conflict, for the privilege of fastening chains, and +collars, and manacles--upon whom? upon the subjects of some foreign +prince? No! upon native born American Republican citizens, although +the fathers of these very men declared to the whole world, while +struggling to free themselves the three penny taxes of an English +king, that they believed it to be a _self-evident_ truth that _all +men_ were created equal, and had an _unalienable right to liberty_. + +Well may the poet exclaim in bitter sarcasm, + + "The fustian flag that proudly waves + In solemn mockery o'er _a land of slaves_." + +Can you not, my friends, understand the signs of the times; do you not +see the sword of retributive justice hanging over the South, or are +you still slumbering at your posts?--Are there no Shiphrahs, no Puahs +among you, who will dare in Christian firmness and Christian meekness, +to refuse to obey the _wicked laws_ which require _woman to enslave, +to degrade and to brutalize woman_? Are there no Miriams, who would +rejoice to lead out the captive daughters of the Southern States to +liberty and light? Are there no Huldahs there who will dare to _speak +the truth_ concerning the sins of the people and those judgments, +which it requires no prophet's eye to see, must follow if repentance +is not speedily sought? Is there no Esther among you who will plead +for the poor devoted slave? Read the history of this Persian queen, it +is full of instruction; she at first refused to plead for the Jews; +but, hear the words of Mordecai, "Think not within thyself, that +_thou_ shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews, for +_if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time_, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but +_thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed_." Listen, too, to her +magnanimous reply to this powerful appeal; "_I will_ go in, unto the +king, which is _not_ according to law, and if I perish, I perish." +Yes! if there were but _one_ Esther at the South, she _might_ save her +country from ruin; but let the Christian women there arise, at the +Christian women of Great Britain did, in the majesty of moral +power, and that salvation is certain. Let them embody themselves in +societies, and send petitions up to their different legislatures, +entreating their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, to abolish the +institution! of slavery; no longer to subject _woman_ to the scourge +and the chain, to mental darkness and moral degradation; no longer to +tear husbands from their wives, and children from their parents; no +longer to make men, women, and children, work _without wages_; no +longer to make their lives bitter in hard bondage; no longer to reduce +_American citizens_ to the abject condition of _slaves,_ of "chattels +personal;" no longer to barter the _image of God_ in human shambles +for corruptible things such as silver and gold. + +The _women of the South can overthrow_ this horrible system of +oppression and cruelty, licentiousness and wrong. Such appeals to your +legislatures would be irresistible, for there is something in the +heart of man which _will bend under moral suasion_. There is a swift +witness for truth in his bosom, _which will respond to truth_ when +it is uttered with calmness and dignity. If you could obtain but six +signatures to such a petition in only one state, I would say, send up +that petition, and be not in the least discouraged by the scoffs and +jeers of the heartless, or the resolution of the house to lay it on +the table. It will be a great thing if the subject can be introduced +into your legislatures in any way, even by _women_, and _they_ will be +the most likely to introduce it there in the best possible manner, as +a matter of _morals_ and _religion_, not of expediency or politics. +You may petition, too, the different ecclesiastical bodies of the +slave states. Slavery must be attacked with the whole power of truth +and the sword of the spirit. You must take it up on _Christian_ +ground, and fight against it with Christian weapons, whilst your feet +are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And _you are +now_ loudly called upon by the cries of the widow and the orphan, to +arise and gird yourselves for this great moral conflict, with the +whole armour of righteousness upon the right hand and on the left. + +There is every encouragement for you to labor and pray, my friends, +because the abolition of slavery as well as its existence, has been +the theme of prophecy. "Ethiopia (says the Psalmist) shall stretch +forth her hands unto God." And is she not now doing so? Are not the +Christian negroes of the south lifting their hands in prayer for +deliverance, just as the Israelites did when their redemption was +drawing nigh? Are they not sighing and crying by reason of the hard +bondage? And think you, that He, of whom it was said, "and God heard +their groaning, and their cry came up unto him by reason of the hard +bondage," think you that his ear is heavy that he cannot _now_ hear +the cries of his suffering children? Or that He who raised up a Moses, +an Aaron, and a Miriam, to bring them up out of the land of Egypt from +the house of bondage, cannot now, with a high hand and a stretched out +arm, rid the poor negroes out of the hands of their masters? Surely +you believe that his aim is _not_ shortened that he cannot save. And +would not such a work of mercy redound to his glory? But another +string of the harp of prophecy vibrates to the song of deliverance: +"But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, +and _none shall make them afraid;_ for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts +hath spoken it." The _slave_ never can do this as long as he is a +_slave_; whilst he is a "chattel personal" he can own _no_ property; +but the time _is to come_ when _every_ man is to sit under _his +own_ vine and _his own_ fig-tree, and no domineering driver, or +irresponsible master, or irascible mistress, shall make him afraid of +the chain or the whip. Hear, too, the sweet tones of another string: +"Many shall run to and fro, and _knowledge_ shall be _increased_." +Slavery is an insurmountable barrier to the increase of knowledge in +every community where it exists; _slavery, then, must be abolished +before this prediction can be fulfiled_. The last chord I shall +touch, will be this, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy +mountain." + +_Slavery, then, must be overthrown before_ the prophecies can be +accomplished, but how are they to be fulfiled? Will the wheels of the +millennial car be rolled onward by miraculous power? No! God designs +to confer this holy privilege upon _man_; it is through _his_ +instrumentality that the great and glorious work of reforming the +world is to be done. And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral +power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, +anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and +missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic +associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which +spans the arch of our moral heaven? Who does not believe, that if +these societies were broken up, their constitutions burnt, and the +vast machinery with which they are laboring to regenerate mankind was +stopped, that the black clouds of vengeance would soon burst over our +world, and every city would witness the fate of the devoted cities of +the plain? Each one of these societies is walking abroad through the +earth scattering the seeds of truth over the wide field of our world, +not with the hundred hands of a Briareus, but with a hundred thousand. + +Another encouragement for you to labor, my friends, is, that you +will have the prayers and co-operation of English and Northern +philanthropists. You will never bend your knees in supplication at the +throne of grace for the overthrow of slavery, without meeting there +the spirits of other Christians, who will mingle their voices with +yours, as the morning or evening sacrifice ascends to God. Yes, the +spirit of prayer and of supplication has been poured out upon many, +many hearts; there are wrestling Jacobs who will not let go of the +prophetic promises of deliverance for the captive, and the opening of +prison doors to them that are bound. There are Pauls who are saying, +in reference to this subject, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" +There are Marys sitting in the house now, who are ready to arise and +go forth in this work as soon as the message is brought, "the master +is come and calleth for thee." And there are Marthas, too, who have +already gone out to meet Jesus, as he bends his footsteps to their +brother's grave, and weeps, _not_ over the lifeless body of Lazarus +bound hand and foot in grave-clothes, but over the politically and +intellectually lifeless slave, bound hand and foot in the iron chains +of oppression and ignorance. Some may be ready to say, as Martha did, +who seemed to expect nothing but sympathy from Jesus, "Lord, by this +time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." She thought it +useless to remove the stone and expose the loathsome body of her +brother; she could not believe that so great a miracle could be +wrought, as to raise _that putrefied body_ into life; but "Jesus said, +take _ye_ away too stone;" and when _they_ had taken away the stone +where the dead was laid, and uncovered the body of Lazarus, then it +was that "Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that +thou hast heard me," &c. "And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a +loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Yes, some may be ready to say of +the colored race, how can _they_ ever be raised politically and +intellectually, they have been dead four hundred years? But _we_ have +_nothing_ to do with _how_ this is to be done; _our business_ is to +take away the stone which has covered up the dead body of our brother, +to expose the putrid carcass, to show _how_ that body has been bound +with the grave-clothes of heathen ignorance, and his face with the +napkin of prejudice, and having done all it was our duty to do, to +stand by the negro's grave, in humble faith and holy hope, waiting to +hear the life-giving command of "Lazarus, come forth." This is just +what Anti-Slavery Societies are doing; they are taking away the stone +from the mouth of the tomb of slavery, where lies the putrid carcass +of our brother. They want the pure light of heaven to shine into that +dark and gloomy cave; they want all men to see _how_ that dead body +has been bound, _how_ that face has been wrapped in the _napkin of +prejudice_; and shall they wait beside that grave in vain? Is not +Jesus still the resurrection and the life? Did he come to proclaim +liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that +are bound, in vain? Did He promise to give beauty for ashes, the oil +of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness unto them that mourn in Zion, and will He refuse to beautify +the mind, anoint the head, and throw around the captive negro the +mantle of praise for that spirit of heaviness which has so long bound +him down to the ground? Or shall we not rather say with the prophet, +"the zeal of the Lord of Hosts _will_ perform this?" Yes, his promises +are sure, and amen in Christ Jesus, that he will assemble her that +halteth, and gather her that is driven out, and her that is afflicted. + +But I will now say a few words on the subject of Abolitionism. +Doubtless you have all heard Anti-Slavery Societies denounced as +insurrectionary and mischievous, fanatical and dangerous. It has been +said they publish the most abominable untruths, and that they are +endeavoring to excite rebellions at the South. Have you believed these +reports, my friends? have _you_ also been deceived by these false +assertions? Listen to me, then, whilst I endeavor to wipe from the +fair character of Abolitionism such unfounded accusations. You know +that _I_ am a Southerner; you know that my dearest relatives are +now in a slave Slate. Can you for a moment believe I would prove so +recreant to the feelings of a daughter and a sister, as to join a +society which was seeking to overthrow slavery by falsehood, bloodshed +and murder? I appeal to you who have known and loved me in days that +are passed, can _you_ believe it? No! my friends. As a Carolinian I +was peculiarly jealous of any movements on this subject; and before I +would join an Anti-Slavery Society, I took the precaution of becoming +acquainted with some of the leading Abolitionists, of reading their +publications and attending their meetings, at which I heard addresses +both from colored and white men; and it was not until I was fully +convicted that their principles were _entirely pacific_, and their +efforts _only moral_, that I gave my name as a member to the Female +Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia. Since that time, I have +regularly taken the Liberator, and read many Anti-Slavery pamphlets +and papers and books, and can assure you I never have seen a single +insurrectionary paragraph, and never read any account of cruelty which +I could not believe. Southerners may deny the truth of these +accounts, but why do they not _prove_ them to be false? Their violent +expressions of horror at such accounts being believed _may_ deceive +some, but they cannot deceive _me_, for I lived too long in the midst +of slavery, not to know what slavery is. When I speak of this system, +"I speak that I do know," and I am not at all afraid to assert, that +Anti-Slavery publications have _not_ overdrawn the monstrous features +of slavery at all. And many a Southerner _knows_ this as well as I do. +A lady in North Carolina remarked to a friend of mine, about eighteen +months since, "Northerners know nothing at all about slavery; they +think it is perpetual bondage only; but of the _depth of degradation_ +that word involves, they have no conception; if they had, _they +would never cease_ their efforts until so _horrible_ a system was +overthrown." She did not know how faithfully some Northern men and +Northern women had studied this subject; how diligently they had +searched out the cause of "him who had none to help him," and how +fearlessly they had told the story of the negro's wrongs. Yes, +Northerners know _every_ thing about slavery now. This monster of +iniquity has been unveiled to the world, her frightful features +unmasked, and soon, very soon will she be regarded with no more +complacency by the American republic than is the idol of Juggernaut, +rolling its bloody wheels over the crushed bodies of its prostrate +victims. + +But you will probably ask, if Anti-Slavery societies are not +insurrectionary, why do Northerners tell us they are? Why, I would ask +you in return, did Northern senators and Northern representatives give +their votes, at the last sitting of congress, to the admission of +Arkansas Territory as a state? Take those men, one by one, and ask +them in their parlours, do you _approve of slavery?_ ask them on +_Northern_ ground, where they will speak the truth, and I doubt not +_every man_ of them will tell you, _no!_ Why then, I ask, did they +give their votes to enlarge the mouth of that grave which has already +destroyed its tens of thousands? All our enemies tell us they are +as much anti-slavery as we are. Yes, my friends, thousands who are +helping you to bind the fetters of slavery on the negro, despise you +in their hearts for doing it; they rejoice that such an institution +has not been entailed upon, them. Why then, I would ask, do they lend +you their help? I will tell you, "they love _the praise of men more_ +than the praise of God." The Abolition cause has not yet become +so popular as to induce them to believe, that by advocating it in +congress, they shall sit still more securely in their seats there, +and like the _chief rulers_ in the days of our Saviour, though _many_ +believed on him, yet they did _not_ confess him, lest they should _be +put out of the synagogue_; John xii, 42, 43. Or perhaps like Pilate, +thinking they could prevail nothing, and fearing a tumult, they +determined to release Barabbas and surrender the just man, the poor +innocent slave to be stripped of his rights and scourged. In vain will +such men try to wash their hands, and say, with the Roman governor, +"I am innocent of the blood of this just person." Northern American +statesmen are no more innocent of the crime of slavery, than Pilate +was of the murder of Jesus, or Saul of that of Stephen. These are high +charges, but I appeal to _their hearts_; I appeal to public opinion +ten years from now. Slavery then is a national sin. + +But you will say, a great many other Northerners tell us so, who can +have no political motives. The interests of the North, you must know, +my friends, are very closely combined with those of the South. The +Northern merchants and manufacturers are making _their_ fortunes out +of the _produce of slave labor_; the grocer is selling your rice and +sugar; how then can these men bear a testimony against slavery without +condemning themselves? But there is another reason, the North is most +dreadfully afraid of Amalgamation. She is alarmed at the very idea of +a thing so monstrous, as she thinks. And lest this consequence _might_ +flow from emancipation, she is determined to resist all efforts at +emancipation without expatriation. It is not because _she approves of +slavery_, or believes it to be "the corner stone of our republic," +for she is as much _anti-slavery_ as we are; but amalgamation is +too horrible to think of. Now I would ask _you_, is it right, is it +generous, to refuse the colored people in this country the advantages +of education and the privilege, or rather the _right_, to follow +honest trades and callings merely because they are colored? The same +prejudice exists here against our colored brethren that existed +against the Gentiles in Judea. Great numbers cannot bear the idea of +equality, and fearing lest, if they had the same advantages we enjoy, +they would become as intelligent, as moral, as religious, and as +respectable and wealthy, they are determined to keep them as low as +they possibly can. Is this doing as they would be done by? Is this +loving their neighbor _as themselves?_ Oh! that _such_ opposers of +Abolitionism would put their souls in the stead of the free colored +man's and obey the apostolic injunction, to "remember them that are +in bonds _as bound with them_." I will leave you to judge whether +the fear of amalgamation ought to induce men to oppose anti-slavery +efforts, when _they_ believe _slavery_ to be _sinful_. Prejudice +against color, is the most powerful enemy we have to fight with at the +North. + +You need not be surprised, then, at all, at what is said _against_ +Abolitionists by the North, for they are wielding a two-edged sword, +which even here, cuts through the _cords of caste_, on the one side, +and the _bonds of interest_ on the other. They are only sharing the +fate of other reformers, abused and reviled whilst they are in the +minority; but they are neither angry nor discouraged by the invective +which has been heaped upon them by slaveholders at the South and their +apologists at the North. They know that when George Fox and William +Edmundson were laboring in behalf of the negroes in the West Indies in +1671 that the very _same_ slanders were propogated against them, which +are _now_ circulated against Abolitionists. Although it was well known +that Fox was the founder of a religious sect which repudiated _all_ +war, and _all_ violence, yet _even he_ was accused of "endeavoring to +excite the slaves to insurrection and of teaching the negroes to cut +their master's throats." And these two men who had their feet shod +with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, were actually compelled +to draw up a formal declaration that _they were not_ trying to raise +a rebellion in Barbadoes. It is also worthy of remark that these +Reformers did not at this time see the necessity of emancipation under +seven years, and their principal efforts were exerted to persuade +the planters of the necessity of instructing their slaves; but the +slaveholder saw then, just what the slaveholder sees now, that an +_enlightened_ population never can be a _slave_ population, and +therefore they passed a law that negroes should not even attend the +meetings of Friends. Abolitionists know that the life of Clarkson was +sought by slavetraders, and that even Wilberforce was denounced on the +floor of Parliament as a fanatic and a hypocrite by the present King +of England, the very man who, in 1834 set his seal to that instrument +which burst the fetters of eight hundred thousand slaves in his West +India colonies. They know that the first Quaker who bore a _faithful_ +testimony against the sin of slavery was cut off from religious +fellowship with that society. That Quaker was a _woman_. On her +deathbed she sent for the committe who dealt with her--she told them, +the near approach of death had not altered her sentiments on the +subject of slavery and waving her hand towards a very fertile and +beautiful portion of country which lay stretched before her window, +she said with great solemnity, "Friends, the time will come when there +will not be friends enough in all this district to hold one meeting +for worship, and this garden will be turned into a wilderness." + +The aged friend, who with tears in his eyes, related this interesting +circumstance to me, remarked, that at that time there were seven +meetings of friends in that part of Virginia, but that when he was +there ten years ago, not a single meeting was held, and the country +was literally a desolation. Soon after her decease, John Woolman began +his labors in our society, and instead of disowning a member for +testifying _against_ slavery, they have for fifty-two years positively +forbidden their members to hold slaves. + +Abolitionists understand the slaveholding spirit too well to be +surprised at any thing that has yet happened at the South or the +North; they know that the greater the sin is, which is exposed, the +more violent will be the efforts to blacken the character and impugn +the motives of those who are engaged in bringing to light the hidden +things of darkness. They understand the work of Reform too well to be +driven back by the furious waves of opposition, which are only foaming +out their own shame. They have stood "the world's dread laugh," when +only twelve men formed the first Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in +1831. They have faced and refuted the calumnies at their enemies, and +proved themselves to be emphatically _peace men_ by _never resisting_ +the violence of mobs, even when driven by them from the temple of God, +and dragged by an infuriated crowd through the Streets of the emporium +of New-England, or subjected by _slaveholders_ to the pain of corporal +punishment. "None of these things move them;" and, by the grace of +God, they are determined to persevere in this work of faith and labor +of love: they mean to pray, and preach, and write, and print, until +slavery is completely overthrown, until Babylon is taken up and cast +into the sea, to "be found no more at all." They mean to petition +Congress year after year, until the seat of our government is cleansed +from the sinful traffic of "slaves and the souls of men." Although +that august assembly may be like the unjust judge who "feared not God +neither regarded man," yet it _must_ yield just as he did, from the +power of importunity. Like the unjust judge, Congress _must_ redress +the wrongs of the widow, lest by the continual coming up of petitions, +it be wearied. This will be striking the dagger into the very heart of +the monster, and once 'tis done, he must soon expire. + +Abolitionists have been accused of abusing their Southern brethren. +Did the prophet Isaiah _abuse_ the Jews when he addressed to them the +cutting reproofs contained in the first chapter of his prophecies and +ended by telling them, they would be _ashamed_ of the oaks they had +desired, and _confounded_ for the garden they had chosen? Did John +the Baptist _abuse_ the Jews when he called them "_a generation of +vipers_" and warned them "to bring forth fruits meet for repentance?" +Did Peter abuse the Jews when he told them they were the murderers of +the Lord of Glory? Did Paul abuse the Roman Governor when he reasoned +before him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment, so as to send +conviction home to his guilty heart, and cause him to tremble in view +of the crimes he was living in? Surely not. No man will _now_ accuse +the prophets and apostles of _abuse_, but what have Abolitionists done +more than they? No doubt the Jews thought the prophets and apostles in +their day, just as harsh and uncharitable as slaveholders now, think +Abolitionists; if they did not, why did they beat, and stone, and kill +them? + +Great fault has been found with the prints which have been employed to +expose slavery at the North, but my friends, how could this be done +so effectually in any other way? Until the pictures of the slave's +sufferings were drawn and held up to public gaze, no Northerner had +any idea of the cruelty of the system, it never entered their minds +that such abominations could exist in Christian, Republican America; +they never suspected that many of the _gentlemen_ and _ladies_ who +came from the South to spend the summer months in travelling among +them, were petty tyrants at home. And those who had lived at the +South, and came to reside at the North, were too _ashamed of slavery_ +even to speak of it; the language of their hearts was, "tell it _not_ +in Gath, publish it _not_ in the streets of Askelon;" they saw no use +in uncovering the loathsome body to popular sight, and in hopeless +despair, wept in secret places over the sins of oppression. To such +hidden mourners the formation of Anti-Slavery Societies was as life +from the dead, the first beams of hope which gleamed through the dark +clouds of despondency and grief. Prints were made use of to effect the +abolition of the Inquisition in Spain, and Clarkson employed them when +he was laboring to break up the Slave trade, and English Abolitionists +used them just as we are now doing. They are powerful appeals and +have invariably done the work they were designed to do, and we cannot +consent to abandon the use of these until the _realities_ no longer +exist. + +With regard to those white men, who, it was said, did try to raise +an insurrection in Mississippi a year ago, and who were stated to be +Abolitionists, none of them were proved to be members of Anti-Slavery +Societies, and it must remain a matter of great doubt whether, even +they were guilty of the crimes alledged against them, because when any +community is thrown into such a panic as to inflict Lynch law upon +accused persons, they cannot be supposed to be capable of judging with +calmness and impartiality. _We know_ that the papers of which the +Charleston mail was robbed, were _not_ insurrectionary, and that they +were _not_ sent to the colored people as was reported, _We know_ that +Amos Dresser was _no insurrectionist_ though he was accused of being +so, and on this false accusation was publicly whipped in Nashville in +the midst of a crowd of infuriated _slaveholders_. Was that young man +disgraced by this infliction of corporal punishment? No more than +was the great apostle of the Gentiles who five times received forty +stripes, save one. Like him, he might have said, "henceforth I bear +in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," for it was for the _truth's +sake, he suffered_, as much as did the Apostle Paul. Are Nelson, and +Garrett, and Williams, and other Abolitionists who have recently been +banished from Missouri, insurrectionists? _We know_ they are _not_, +whatever slaveholders may choose to call them. The spirit which now +asperses the character of the Abolitionists, is the _very same_ which +dressed up the Christians of Spain in the skins of wild beasts and +pictures of devils when they were led to execution as heretics. Before +we condemn individuals, it is necessary, even in a wicked community, +to accuse them of some crime; hence, when Jezebel wished to compass +the death of Naboth, men of Belial were suborned to bear _false_ +witness against him, and so it was with Stephen, and so it ever has +been, and ever will be, as long as there is any virtue to suffer +on the rack, or the gallows. _False_ witnesses must appear against +Abolitionists before they can be condemned. + +I will now say a few words on George Thompson's mission to this +country. This Philanthropist was accused of being a foreign emissary. +Were La Fayette, and Steuben, and De Kalb, foreign emissaries when +they came over to America to fight against the tories, who preferred +submitting to what was termed, "the yoke of servitude," rather than +bursting the fetters which bound them to the mother country? _They_ +came with _carnal weapons_ to engage in _bloody_ conflict against +American citizens, and yet, where do their names stand on the page of +History. Among the honorable, or the low? Thompson came here to war +against the giant sin of slavery, not with the sword and the pistol, +but with the smooth stones of oratory taken from the pure waters of +the river of Truth. His splendid talents and commanding eloquence +rendered him a powerful coadjutor in the Anti-Slavery cause, and in +order to neutralize the effects of these upon his auditors, and rob +the poor slave of the benefits of his labors, his character was +defamed, his life was sought, and he at last driven from our Republic, +as a fugitive. But was _Thompson_ disgraced by all this mean and +contemptible and wicked chicanery and malice? No more than was Paul, +when in consequence of a vision he had seen at Troas, he went over to +Macedonia to help the Christians there, and was beaten and imprisoned, +because he cast out a spirit of divination from a young damsel which +had brought much gain to her masters. Paul was as much a foreign +emissary in the Roman colony of Philippi, as George Thompson was in +America, and it was because he was a _Jew_ and taught customs it was +not lawful for them to receive or observe, being Romans, that the +Apostle was thus treated. + +It was said, Thompson was a felon, who had fled to this country to +escape transportation to New Holland. Look at him now pouring the +thundering strains of his eloquence, upon crowded audiences in Great +Britain, and see in this a triumphant vindication of his character. +And have the slaveholder, and his obsequious apologist, gained any +thing by all their violence and falsehood? No! for the stone which +struck Goliath of Gath, had already been thrown from the sling. The +giant of slavery who had so proudly defied the armies of the living +God, had received his death-blow before he left our shores. But what +is George Thompson doing there? Is he not now laboring there, as +effectually to abolish American slavery as though he trod our own +soil, and lectured to New York or Boston assemblies? What is he +doing there, but constructing a stupendous dam, which will turn the +overwhelming tide of public opinion over the wheels of that machinery +which Abolitionists are working here. He is now lecturing to _Britons_ +on _American Slavery_, to the _subjects_ of a _King_, on the abject +condition of the _slaves of a Republic_. He is telling them of that +mighty confederacy of petty tyrants which extends over thirteen States +of our Union. He is telling them of the munificent rewards offered by +slaveholders, for the heads of the most distinguished advocates for +freedom in this country. He is moving the British Churches to send +out to the churches of America the most solemn appeals, reproving, +rebuking, and exhorting them with all long suffering and patience to +abandon the sin of slavery immediately. Where then I ask, will the +name of George Thompson stand on the page of History? Among the +honorable, or the base? + +What can I say more, my friends, to induce _you_ to set your hands, +and heads, and hearts, to this great work of justice and mercy. +Perhaps you have feared the consequences of immediate Emancipation, +and been frightened by all those dreadful prophecies of rebellion, +bloodshed and murder, which have been uttered. "Let no man deceive +you;" they are the predictions of that same "lying spirit" which spoke +through the four hundred prophets of old, to Ahab king of Israel, +urging him on to destruction. _Slavery_ may produce these horrible +scenes if it is continued five years longer, but Emancipation _never +will_. + +I can prove the _safety_ of immediate Emancipation by history. In St. +Domingo in 1793 six hundred thousand slaves were set free in a +white population of forty-two thousand. That Island "marched as by +enchantment" towards its ancient splendor, cultivation prospered, every +day produced perceptible proofs of its progress, and the negroes all +continued quietly to work on the different plantations, until in 1802, +France determined to reduce these liberated slaves again to bondage. +It was at _this time_ that all those dreadful scenes of cruelty +occured, which we so often _unjustly_ hear spoken of, as the effects +of Abolition. They were occasioned _not_ by Emancipation, but by the +base attempt to fasten the chains of slavery on the limbs of liberated +slaves. + +In Gaudaloape eighty-five thousand slaves were freed in a white +population of thirteen thousand. The same prosperous effects followed +manumission here, that had attended it in Hayti, every thing was quiet +until Buonaparte sent out a fleet to reduce these negroes again to +slavery, and in 1802 this institution was re-established in that +Island. In 1834, when Great Britain determined to liberate the slaves +in her West India colonies, and proposed the apprenticeship system; +the planters of Bermuda and Antigua, after having joined the other +planters in their representations of the bloody consequences of +Emancipation, in order if possible to hold back the hand which was +offering the boon of freedom to the poor negro; as soon as they found +such falsehoods were utterly disregarded, and Abolition must take +place, came forward voluntarily, and asked for the compensation which +was due to them, saying, _they preferred immediate emancipation_, and +were not afraid of any insurrection. And how is it with these islands +now? They are decidedly more prosperous than any of those in which +the apprenticeship system was adopted, and England is now trying +to abolish that system, so fully convinced is she that immediate +Emancipation is the safest and the best plan. + +And why not try it in the Southern States, if it never has occasioned +rebellion; if _not_ a _drop of blood_ has ever been shed in +consequence of it, though it has been so often tried, why should we +suppose it would produce such disastrous consequences now? "Be not +deceived then, God is not mocked," by such false excuses for not doing +justly and loving mercy. There is nothing to fear from immediate +Emancipation, but _every thing_ from the continuance of slavery. + +Sisters in Christ, I have done. As a Southerner, I have felt it was +my duty to address you. I have endeavoured to set before you the +exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and to point you to the example of +those noble women who have been raised up in the church to effect +great revolutions, and to suffer for the truth's sake. I have appealed +to your sympathies as women, to your sense of duty as _Christian +women_. I have attempted to vindicate the Abolitionists, to prove the +entire safety of immediate Emancipation, and to plead the cause of the +poor and oppressed. I have done--I have sowed the seeds of truth, but +I well know, that even if an Apollos were to follow in my steps to +water them, "_God only_ can give the increase." To Him then who is +able to prosper the work of his servant's hand, I commend this Appeal +in fervent prayer, that as he "hath _chosen the weak things of the +world_, to confound the things which are mighty," so He may cause His +blessing, to descend and carry conviction to the hearts of many Lydias +through these speaking pages. Farewell--Count me not your "enemy +because I have told you the truth," but believe me in unfeigned +affection, + +Your sympathizing Friend, + +Angelina E. Grimke. + + + +THIRD EDITION. + + + +[1] And again, "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the +children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; +then _that thief shall die_; and thou shall put away evil from among +you." Deut. xxiv, 7. + +[2] And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let +him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him _liberally_ out of thy flock +and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the +Lord thy God hath blessed thee, shalt thou give unto him. Deut xv, 13, +14. + +[3] There are laws in some of the slave states, limiting the labor +which the master may require of the slave to fourteen hours daily. In +some of the states there are laws requiring the masters to furnish a +certain amount of food and clothing, as for instance, _one quart_ of +corn per day, or _one peck_ per week, or _one bushel_ per month, and +"_one_ linen shirt and pantaloons for the summer, and a linen shirt +and woolen great coat and pantaloons for the winter," &c. But "still," +to use the language of Judge Stroud "the slave is entirely under the +control of his master,--is unprovided with a protector,--and, +especially as he cannot be a witness or make complaint in any known +mode against his master, the _apparent_ object of these laws may +_always_ be defeated." ED. + +[4] See Mrs. Child's Appeal, Chap. II. + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been relocated to the end.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Appeal to the Christian Women of +the South, by Angelina Emily Grimke + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN *** + +This file should be named 7acws10.txt or 7acws10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7acws11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7acws10a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South + +Author: Angelina Emily Grimke + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9915] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 31, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + + + +Angelina Emily Grimké + + + + + + +APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH + +BY A.E. GRIMKÉ. + + +"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself +that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For +if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: +but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth +whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And +Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in +unto the king, which is not according to law, and _if I perish, I +perish_." Esther IV. 13-16. + + +Respected Friends, + +It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present and +eternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Some +of you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me in +Christian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship; and even when compelled by +a strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of union which +bound us together as members of the same community, and members of +the same religious denomination, you were generous enough to give me +credit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you believed I had been +most strangely deceived. I thanked you then for your kindness, and +I ask you _now_, for the sake of former confidence, and former +friendship, to read the following pages in the spirit of calm +investigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have known me, +that I write thus unto you. + +But there are other Christian women scattered over the Southern +States, a very large number of whom have never seen me, and never +heard my name, and who feel _no_ interest whatever in _me_. But I feel +an interest in _you_, as branches of the same vine from whose root I +daily draw the principle of spiritual vitality--Yes! Sisters in Christ +I feel an interest in _you_, and often has the secret prayer arisen +on your behalf, Lord "open thou their eyes that they may see wondrous +things out of thy Law"--It is then, because I _do feel_ and _do pray_ +for you, that I thus address you upon a subject about which of all +others, perhaps you would rather not hear any thing; but, "would to +God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with +me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." Be not afraid +then to read my appeal; it is _not_ written in the heat of passion +or prejudice, but in that solemn calmness which is the result of +conviction and duty. It is true, I am going to tell you unwelcome +truths, but I mean to speak those _truths in love_, and remember +Solomon says, "faithful are the _wounds_ of a friend." I do not +believe the time has yet come when _Christian women_ "will not endure +sound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken to +them in tenderness and love, therefore I now address _you_. + +To all of you then, known or unknown, relatives or strangers, (for you +are all _one_ in Christ,) I would speak. I have felt for you at this +time, when unwelcome light is pouring in upon the world on the subject +of slavery; light which even Christians would exclude, if they could, +from our country, or at any rate from the southern portion of it, +saying, as its rays strike the rock bound coasts of New England and +scatter their warmth and radiance over her hills and valleys, and from +thence travel onward over the Palisades of the Hudson, and down the +soft flowing waters of the Delaware and gild the waves of the Potomac, +"hitherto shalt thou come and no further;" I know that even professors +of His name who has been emphatically called the "Light of the world" +would, if they could, build a wall of adamant around the Southern +States whose top might reach unto heaven, in order to shut out the +light which is bounding from mountain to mountain and from the hills +to the plains and valleys beneath, through the vast extent of our +Northern States. But believe me, when I tell you, their attempts will +be as utterly fruitless as were the efforts of the builders of Babel; +and why? Because moral, like natural light, is so extremely subtle in +its nature as to overleap all human barriers, and laugh at the puny +efforts of man to control it. All the excuses and palliations of this +system must inevitably be swept away, just as other "refuges of lies" +have been, by the irresistible torrent of a rectified public opinion. +"The _supporters_ of the slave system," says Jonathan Dymond in his +admirable work on the Principles of Morality, "will _hereafter_ be +regarded with the _same_ public feeling, as he who was an advocate for +the slave trade _now is_." It will be, and that very soon, clearly +perceived and fully acknowledged by all the virtuous and the candid, +that in _principle_ it is as sinful to hold a human being in bondage +who has been born in Carolina, as one who has been born in Africa. +All that sophistry of argument which has been employed to prove, that +although it is sinful to send to Africa to procure men and women as +slaves, who have never been in slavery, that still, it is not sinful +to keep those in bondage who have come down by inheritance, will be +utterly overthrown. We must come back to the good old doctrine of our +forefathers who declared to the world, "this self evident truth that +_all_ men are created equal, and that they have certain _inalienable_ +rights among which are life, _liberty_, and the pursuit of happiness." +It is even a greater absurdity to suppose a man can be legally born +a slave under _our free Republican_ Government, than under the petty +despotisms of barbarian Africa. If then, we have no right to enslave +an African, surely we can have none to enslave an American; if it is a +self evident truth that _all_ men, every where and of every color are +born equal, and have an _inalienable right to liberty_, then it is +equally true that _no_ man can be born a slave, and no man can ever +_rightfully_ be reduced to _involuntary_ bondage and held as a slave, +however fair may be the claim of his master or mistress through wills +and title-deeds. + +But after all, it may be said, our fathers were certainly mistaken, +for the Bible sanctions Slavery, and that is the highest authority. +Now the Bible is my ultimate appeal in all matters of faith and +practice, and it is to _this test_ I am anxious to bring the subject +at issue between us. Let us then begin with Adam and examine the +charter of privileges which was given to him. "Have dominion over the +fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living +thing that moveth upon the earth." In the eighth Psalm we have a still +fuller description of this charter which through Adam was given to +all mankind. "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy +hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, +yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the +sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." And after +the flood when this charter of human rights was renewed, we find _no +additional_ power vested in man. "And the fear of you and the dread of +you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, +and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of +the sea, into your hand are they delivered." In this charter, although +the different kinds of _irrational_ beings are so particularly +enumerated, and supreme dominion over _all of them_ is granted, yet +_man_ is _never_ vested with this dominion _over his fellow man;_ +he was never told that any of the human species were put _under his +feet;_ it was only _all things_, and man, who was created in the image +of his Maker, _never_ can properly be termed a _thing_, though the +laws of Slave States do call him "a chattel personal;" _Man_ then, I +assert _never_ was put _under the feet of man_, by that first charter +of human rights which was given by God, to the Fathers of the +Antediluvian and Postdiluvian worlds, therefore this doctrine of +equality is based on the Bible. + +But it may be argued, that in the very chapter of Genesis from which I +have last quoted, will be found the curse pronounced upon Canaan, by +which his posterity was consigned to servitude under his brothers Shem +and Japheth. I know this prophecy was uttered, and was most fearfully +and wonderfully fulfilled, through the immediate descendants of +Canaan, i.e. the Canaanites, and I do not know but it has been through +all the children of Ham but I do know that prophecy does _not_ tell us +what _ought to be_, but what actually does take place, ages after it +has been delivered, and that if we justify America for enslaving +the children of Africa, we must also justify Egypt for reducing +the children of Israel to bondage, for the latter was foretold as +explicitly as the former. I am well aware that prophecy has often been +urged as an excuse for Slavery, but be not deceived, the fulfilment of +prophecy will _not cover one sin_ in the awful day of account. Hear +what our Saviour says on this subject; "it must needs be that offences +come, but _woe unto that man through whom they come"_--Witness some +fulfilment of this declaration in the tremendous destruction, of +Jerusalem, occasioned by that most nefarious of all crimes the +crucifixion of the Son of God. Did the fact of that event having been +foretold, exculpate the Jews from sin in perpetrating it; No--for +hear what the Apostle Peter says to them on this subject, "Him being +delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, _ye_ +have taken, and by _wicked_ hands have crucified and slain." Other +striking instances might be adduced, but these will suffice. + +But it has been urged that the patriarchs held slaves, and therefore, +slavery is right. Do you really believe that patriarchal servitude was +like American slavery? Can you believe it? If so, read the history +of these primitive fathers of the church and be undeceived. Look at +Abraham, though so great a man, going to the herd himself and fetching +a calf from thence and serving it up with his own hands, for the +entertainment of his guests. Look at Sarah, that princess as her name +signifies, baking cakes upon the hearth. If the servants they had were +like Southern slaves, would they have performed such comparatively +menial offices for themselves? Hear too the plaintive lamentation of +Abraham when he feared he should have no son to bear his name down +to posterity. "Behold thou hast given me no seed, &c, one born in my +house _is mine_ heir." From this it appears that one of his _servants_ +was to inherit his immense estate. Is this like Southern slavery? I +leave it to your own good sense and candor to decide. Besides, such +was the footing upon which Abraham was with _his_ servants, that he +trusted them with arms. Are slaveholders willing to put swords and +pistols into the hands of their slaves? He was as a father among his +servants; what are planters and masters generally among theirs? When +the institution of circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded +thus; "He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, +_every_ man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, +or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed." And +to render this command with regard to his _servants_ still more +impressive it is repeated in the very next verse; and herein we may +perceive the great care which was taken by God to guard the _rights +of servants_ even under this "dark dispensation." What too was the +testimony given to the faithfulness of this eminent patriarch. "For I +know him that he will command his children and his _household_ after +him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and +judgment." Now my dear friends many of you believe that circumcision +has been superseded by baptism in the Church; _Are you_ careful to +have _all_ that are born in your house or bought with money of any +stranger, baptized? Are _you_ as faithful as Abraham to command +_your household to keep the way of the Lord?_ I leave it to your own +consciences to decide. Was patriarchal servitude then like American +Slavery? + +But I shall be told, God sanctioned Slavery, yea commanded Slavery +under the Jewish Dispensation. Let us examine this subject calmly and +prayerfully. I admit that a species of _servitude_ was permitted to +the Jews, but in studying the subject I have been struck with wonder +and admiration at perceiving how carefully the servant was guarded +from violence, injustice and wrong. I will first inform you how these +servants became servants, for I think this a very important part of +our subject. From consulting Horne, Calmet and the Bible, I find there +were six different ways by which the Hebrews became servants legally. + +1. If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might sell himself, i.e. +his services, for six years, in which case _he_ received the purchase +money _himself_. Lev. xxv, 39. + +2. A father might sell his children as servants, i.e. his _daughters_, +in which circumstance it was understood the daughter was to be the +wife or daughter-in-law of the man who bought her, and the _father_ +received the price. In other words, Jewish women were sold as _white +women_ were in the first settlement of Virginia--as _wives_, _not_ as +slaves. Ex. xxi, 7. + +3. Insolvent debtors might be delivered to their creditors as +servants. 2 Kings iv, 1 + +4. Thieves not able to make restitution for their thefts, were sold +for the benefit of the injured person. Ex. xxii, 3. + +5. They might be born in servitude. Ex. xxi, 4. + +6. If a Hebrew had sold himself to a rich Gentile, he might be +redeemed by one of his brethren at any time the money was offered; and +he who redeemed him, was _not_ to take advantage of the favor thus +conferred, and rule over him with rigor. Lev. xxv, 47-55. + +Before going into an examination of the laws by which these servants +were protected, I would just ask whether American slaves have become +slaves in any of the ways in which the Hebrews became servants. Did +they sell themselves into slavery and receive the purchase money into +their own hands? No! Did they become insolvent, and by their own +imprudence subject themselves to be sold as slaves? No! Did they steal +the property of another, and were they sold to make restitution for +their crimes? No! Did their present masters, as an act of kindness, +redeem them from some heathen tyrant to whom _they had sold +themselves_ in the dark hour of adversity? No! Were they born in +slavery? No! No! not according to _Jewish Law_, for the servants who +were born in servitude among them, were born of parents who had _sold +themselves_ for six years: Ex. xxi, 4. Were the female slaves of +the South sold by their fathers? How shall I answer this question? +Thousands and tens of thousands never were, _their_ fathers _never_ +have received the poor compensation of silver or gold for the tears +and toils, the suffering, and anguish, and hopeless bondage of _their_ +daughters. They labor day by day, and year by year, side by side, in +the same field, if haply their daughters are permitted to remain on +the same plantation with them, instead of being as they often are, +separated from their parents and sold into distant states, never again +to meet on earth. But do the _fathers of the South ever sell their +daughters_? My heart beats, and my hand trembles, as I write the awful +affirmative, Yes! The fathers of this Christian land often sell +their daughters, _not_ as Jewish parents did, to be the wives and +daughters-in-law of the man who buys them, but to be the abject slaves +of petty tyrants and irresponsible masters. Is it not so, my friends? +I leave it to your own candor to corroborate my assertion. Southern +slaves then have _not_ become slaves in any of the six different ways +in which Hebrews became servants, and I hesitate not to say that +American masters _cannot_ according to _Jewish law_ substantiate their +claim to the men, women, or children they now hold in bondage. + +But there was one way in which a Jew might illegally be reduced to +servitude; it was this, he might be _stolen_ and afterwards sold as a +slave, as was Joseph. To guard most effectually against this dreadful +crime of manstealing, God enacted this severe law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be +put to death." [1] As I have tried American Slavery by _legal_ Hebrew +servitude, and found, (to your surprise, perhaps,) that Jewish law +cannot justify the slaveholder's claim, let us now try it by _illegal_ +Hebrew bondage. Have the Southern slaves then been, stolen? If they +did not sell themselves into bondage; if they were not sold as +insolvent debtors or as thieves; if they were not redeemed from a +heathen master to whom _they had sold themselves_; if they were not +born in servitude according to Hebrew law; and if the females were +not sold by their fathers as wives and daughters-in-law to those who +purchased them; then what shall we say of them? what can we say of +them but that according _to Hebrew Law they have been stolen_. + +But I shall be told that the Jews had other servants who were absolute +slaves. Let us look a little into this also. They had other servants +who were procured in two different ways. + +1. Captives taken in war were reduced to bondage instead of being +killed; but we are not told that their children were enslaved Deut. +xx, 14. + +2. Bondmen and bondmaids might be bought from the heathen round about +them; these were left by fathers to their children after them, but +it does not appear that the _children_ of these servants ever were +reduced to servitude. Lev. xxv, 44. + +I will now try the right of the southern planter by the claims of +Hebrew masters over their _heathen_ slaves. Were the southern slaves +taken captive in war? No! Were they bought from the heathen? No! for +surely, no one will _now_ vindicate the slave-trade so far as to +assert that slaves were bought from the heathen who were obtained by +that system of piracy. The _only_ excuse for holding southern slaves +is that they were born in slavery, but we have seen that they were +_not_ born in servitude as Jewish servants were, and that the children +of heathen slaves were not legally subjected to bondage even under the +Mosaic Law. How then have the slaves of the South been obtained? + +I will next proceed to an examination of those laws which were enacted +in order to protect the Hebrew and the Heathen servant; for I wish you +to understand that _both_ are protected by Him, of whom it is said +"his mercies are over _all_ his works." I will first speak of those +which secured the rights of Hebrew servants. This code was headed +thus: + +1. Thou shalt _not_ rule over him with _rigor_, but shalt fear thy +God; + +2. If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in +the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. Ex. xxi, 2. [2] + +3. If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were +married, then his wife shall go out with him. + +4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him sons and +daughters, the wife and her children shall be his master's, and he +shall go out by himself. + +5. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my +children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto +the Judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, +and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall +serve him _forever_. Ex. xxi, 5-6. + +6. If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that +it perish, he shall let him go _free_ for his eye's sake. And if he +smite out his man servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth, he +shall let him go _free_ for his tooth's sake. Ex. xxi, 26, 27. + +7. On the Sabbath rest was secured to servants by the fourth +commandment. Ex. xx, 10. + +8. Servants were permitted to unite with their masters three times in +every year in celebrating the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and +the feast of Tabernacles; every male throughout the land was to appear +before the Lord at Jerusalem with a gift; here the bond and the free +stood on common ground. Deut. xvi. + +9. If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under +his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue +a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. Ex. xxi, +20, 21. + +From these laws we learn that Hebrew men servants were bound to serve +their masters _only six_ years, unless their attachment to their +employers their wives and children, should induce them to wish +to remain in servitude, in which case, in order to prevent the +possibility of deception on the part of the master, the servant was +first taken before the magistrate, where he openly declared his +intention of continuing in his master's service, (probably a public +register was kept of such) he was then conducted to the door of the +house, (in warm climates doors are thrown open,) and _there_ his ear +was _publicly_ bored, and by submitting to this operation he testified +his willingness to serve him _forever_, i.e. during his life, for +Jewish Rabbins who must have understood Jewish _slavery_, (as it is +called,) "affirm that servants were set free at the death of their +masters and did _not_ descend to their heirs:" or that he was to +serve him until the year of Jubilee, when _all_ servants were set at +liberty. To protect servants from violence, it was ordained that if a +master struck out the tooth or destroyed the eye of a servant, that +servant immediately became _free_, for such an act of violence +evidently showed he was unfit to possess the power of a master, and +therefore that power was taken from him. All servants enjoyed the rest +of the Sabbath and partook of the privileges and festivities of the +three great Jewish Feasts; and if a servant died under the infliction +of chastisement, his master was surely to be punished. As a tooth +for a tooth and life for life was the Jewish law, of course he was +punished with death. I know that great stress has been laid upon the +following verse: "Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he +shall not be punished, for he is his money." + +Slaveholders, and the apologists of slavery, have eagerly seized upon +this little passage of scripture, and held it up as the masters' Magna +Charta, by which they were licensed by God himself to commit the +greatest outrages upon the defenceless victims of their oppression. +But, my friends, was it designed to be so? If our Heavenly Father +would protect by law the eye and the tooth of a Hebrew servant, can we +for a moment believe that he would abandon that same servant to the +brutal rage of a master who would destroy even life itself. Do we not +rather see in this, the _only_ law which protected masters, and was +it not right that in case of the death of a servant, one or two days +after chastisement was inflicted, to which other circumstances might +have contributed, that the master should be protected when, in all +probability, he never intended to produce so fatal a result? But the +phrase "he is his money" has been adduced to show that Hebrew servants +were regarded as mere _things_, "chattels personal;" if so, why were +so many laws made to _secure their rights as men_, and to ensure their +rising into equality and freedom? If they were mere _things_, why were +they regarded as responsible beings, and one law made for them as well +as for their masters? But I pass on now to the consideration of how +the _female_ Jewish servants were protected by _law_. + +1. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, +then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto another nation he +shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. + +2. If he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after +the manner of daughters. + +3. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of +marriage, shall he not diminish. + +4. If he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out _free_ +without money. + +On these laws I will give you Calmet's remarks; "A father could not +sell his daughter as a slave, according to the Rabbins, until she +was at the age of puberty, and unless he were reduced to the utmost +indigence. Besides when a master bought an Israelitish girl, it was +_always_ with the presumption that he would take her to wife. Hence +Moses adds, 'if she please not her master, and he does not think +fit to marry her, he shall set her at liberty,' or according to the +Hebrew, 'he shall let her be redeemed.' 'To sell her to another nation +he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her;' as +to the engagement implied, at least of taking her to wife. 'If he have +betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of +daughters, i.e. he shall take care that his son uses her as his wife, +that he does not despise or maltreat her. If he make his son +marry another wife, he shall give her her dowry, her clothes and +compensation for her virginity; if he does none of these three, she +shall _go out free_ without money." Thus were the _rights of female +servants carefully secured by law_ under the Jewish Dispensation; and +now I would ask, are the rights of female slaves at the South thus +secured? Are _they_ sold only as wives and daughters-in-law, and when +not treated as such, are they allowed to _go out free?_ No! They have +_all_ not only been illegally obtained as servants according to Hebrew +law, but they are also illegally _held_ in bondage. Masters at the +South and West have all forfeited their claims, (_if they ever had +any_,) to their female slaves. + +We come now to examine the case of those servants who were "of the +heathen round about;" Were _they_ left entirely unprotected by law? +Horne in speaking of the law, "Thou shalt not rule over him with +rigor, but shall fear thy God," remarks, "this law Lev. xxv, 43, it +is true speaks expressly of slaves who were of Hebrew descent; but +as _alien born_ slaves were ingrafted into the Hebrew Church by +circumcision, _there is no doubt_ but that it applied to _all_ +slaves;" if so, then we may reasonably suppose that the other +protective laws extended to them also; and that the only difference +between Hebrew and Heathen servants lay in this, that the former +served but six years unless they chose to remain longer, and were +always freed at the death of their masters; whereas the latter served +until the year of Jubilee, though that might include a period of +forty-nine years,--and were left from father to son. + +There are however two other laws which I have not yet noticed. The +one effectually prevented _all involuntary_ servitude, and the other +completely abolished Jewish servitude every fifty years. They were +equally operative upon the Heathen and the Hebrew. + +1. "Thou shall _not_ deliver unto his master the servant that is +escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even +among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates +where it liketh him best: thou shall _not_ oppress him." Deut. xxiii, +15, 16. + +2. "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim _Liberty_ +throughout _all_ the land, unto _all_ the inhabitants thereof: it +shall be a jubilee unto you." Lev. xxv, 10. + +Here, then, we see that by this first law, the _door of Freedom was +opened wide to every servant who_ had any cause whatever for +complaint; if he was unhappy with his master, all he had to do was to +leave him, and _no man_ had a right to deliver him back to him again, +and not only so, but the absconded servant was to _choose_ where he +should live, and no Jew was permitted to oppress him. He left his +master just as our Northern servants leave us; we have no power to +compel them to remain with us, and no man has any right to oppress +them; they go and dwell in that place where it chooseth them, and live +just where they like. Is it so at the South? Is the poor runaway slave +protected _by law_ from the violence of that master whose oppression +and cruelty has driven him from his plantation or his house? No! no! +Even the free states of the North are compelled to deliver unto his +master the servant that is escaped from his master into them. By +_human_ law, under the _Christian Dispensation_, in the _nineteenth +century we_ are commanded to do, what _God_ more than _three thousand_ +years ago, under the _Mosaic Dispensation, positively commanded_ the +Jews _not_ to do. In the wide domain even of our free states, there is +not _one_ city of refuge for the poor runaway fugitive; not one spot +upon which he can stand and say, I am a free man--I am protected in my +rights as a _man_, by the strong arm of the law; no! _not one_. How +long the North will thus shake hands with the South in sin, I know +not. How long she will stand by like the persecutor Saul, _consenting_ +unto the death of Stephen, and keeping the raiment of them that slew +him. I know not; but one thing I do know, the _guilt of the North_ is +increasing in a tremendous ratio as light is pouring in upon her on +the subject and the sin of slavery. As the sun of righteousness climbs +higher and higher in the moral heavens, she will stand still more and +more abashed as the query is thundered down into her ear, "_Who_ hath +required _this_ at thy hand?" It will be found _no_ excuse then that +the Constitution of our country required that _persons bound to +service_ escaping from their masters should be delivered up; no more +excuse than was the reason which Adam assigned for eating the forbidden +fruit. _He_ was _condemned and punished because_ he hearkened to the +voice of _his wife_, rather than to the command of his Maker; and _we_ +will assuredly be condemned and punished for obeying _Man_ rather than +_God_, if we do not speedily repent and bring forth fruits meet for +repentance. Yea, are we not receiving chastisement even _now_? + +But by the second of these laws a still more astonishing fact is +disclosed. If the first effectually prevented _all involuntary +servitude_, the last absolutely forbade even _voluntary servitude +being perpetual_. On the great day of atonement every fiftieth year +the Jubilee trumpet was sounded throughout the land of Judea, and +_Liberty_ was proclaimed to _all_ the inhabitants thereof. I will not +say that the servants' _chains_ fell off and their _manacles_ were +burst, for there is no evidence that Jewish servants _ever_ felt the +weight of iron chains, and collars, and handcuffs; but I do say that +even the man who had voluntarily sold himself and the _heathen_ who +had been sold to a Hebrew master, were set free, the one as well as +the other. This law was evidently designed to prevent the oppression +of the poor, and the possibility of such a thing as _perpetual +servitude_ existing among them. + +Where, then, I would ask, is the warrant, the justification, or the +palliation of American Slavery from Hebrew servitude? How many of +the southern slaves would now be in bondage according to the laws of +Moses; Not one. You may observe that I have carefully avoided using +the term _slavery_ when speaking of Jewish servitude; and simply for +this reason, that _no such thing_ existed among that people; the word +translated servant does _not_ mean _slave_, it is the same that is +applied to Abraham, to Moses, to Elisha and the prophets generally. +Slavery then never existed under the Jewish Dispensation at all, and +I cannot but regard it as an aspersion on the character of Him who is +"glorious in Holiness" for any one to assert that "_God sanctioned, +yea commanded slavery_ under the old dispensation." I would fain +lift my feeble voice to vindicate Jehovah's character from so foul a +slander. If slaveholders are determined to hold slaves as long as +they can, let them not dare to say that the God of mercy and of truth +_ever_ sanctioned such a system of cruelty and wrong. It is blasphemy +against Him. + +We have seen that the code of laws framed by Moses with regard to +servants was designed to protect them as men and women, to secure to +them their rights as human beings, to guard them from oppression and +defend them from violence of every kind. Let us now turn to the Slave +laws of the South and West and examine them too. I will give you the +substance only, because I fear I shall tresspass too much on your +time, were I to quote them at length. + +1. _Slavery_ is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the +slave's earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest +posterity. + +2. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated; while the +kind of labor, the amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, are +dictated solely by the master. No bargain is made, no wages given. +A pure despotism governs the human brute; and even his covering and +provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend entirely on the +master's discretion. [3] + +3. The slave being considered a personal chattel may be sold or +pledged, or leased at the will of his master. He may be exchanged for +marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts or +taxes either of a living or dead master. Sold at auction, either +individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser, he may remain with his +family, or be separated from them for ever. + +4. Slaves can make no contracts and have no _legal_ right to any +property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings and the legacies +of friends belong in point of law to their masters. + +5. Neither a slave nor a free colored person can be a witness against +any _white_, or free person, in a court of justice, however atrocious +may have been the crimes they have seen him commit, if such testimony +would be for the benefit of a _slave_; but they may give testimony +_against a fellow slave_, or free colored man, even in cases affecting +life, if the _master_ is to reap the advantage of it. + +6. The slave may be punished at his master's discretion--without +trial--without any means of legal redress; whether his offence be real +or imaginary; and the master can transfer the same despotic power to +any person or persons, he may choose to appoint. + +7. The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under _any_ +circumstances, _his_ only safety consists in the fact that his _owner_ +may bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is +taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor. + +8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, +though cruel treatment may have' rendered such a change necessary for +their personal safety. + +9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. + +10. The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where +the master is willing to enfranchise them. + +11. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious +instruction and consolation. + +12. The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state +of the lowest ignorance. + +13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right. +What is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly +criminal--in the slave; the same offences which cost a white man a few +dollars only, are punished in the negro with death. + +14. The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color. [4] +Shall I ask you now my friends, to draw the parallel between Jewish +_servitude_ and American _slavery_? No! For there is _no likeness_ in +the two systems; I ask you rather to mark the contrast. The laws of +Moses _protected servants_ in their _rights as men and women_, guarded +them from oppression and defended them from wrong. The Code Noir of +the South _robs the slave of all his rights_ as a _man_, reduces him +to a chattel personal, and defends the master in the exercise of the +most unnatural and unwarrantable power over his slave. They each bear +the impress of the hand which formed them. The attributes of justice +and mercy are shadowed out in the Hebrew code; those of injustice +and cruelty, in the Code Noir of America. Truly it was wise in the +slaveholders of the South to declare their slaves to be "chattels +personal;" for before they could be robbed of wages, wives, children, +and friends, it was absolutely necessary to deny they were human +beings. It is wise in them, to keep them in abject ignorance, for the +strong man armed must be bound before we can spoil his house--the +powerful intellect of man must be bound down with the iron chains of +nescience before we can rob him of his rights as a man; we must reduce +him to a _thing_ before we can claim the right to set our feet upon +his neck, because it was only _all things_ which were originally _put +under the feet of man_ by the Almighty and Beneficent Father of all, +who has declared himself to be _no respecter_ of persons, whether red, +white or black. + +But some have even said that Jesus Christ did not condemn slavery. To +this I reply that our Holy Redeemer lived and preached among the Jews +only. The laws which Moses had enacted fifteen hundred years previous +to his appearance among them, had never been annulled, and these laws +protected every servant in Palestine. If then He did not condemn +Jewish servitude this does not prove that he would not have condemned +such a monstrous system as that of American _slavery_, if that had +existed among them. But did not Jesus condemn slavery? Let us examine +some of his precepts. "_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should do to +you, do _ye even so to them_," Let every slaveholder apply these +queries to his own heart; Am _I_ willing to be a slave--Am _I_ willing +to see _my_ wife the slave of another--Am _I_ willing to see my mother +a slave, or my father, my sister or my brother? If _not_, then in +holding others as slaves, I am doing what I would _not_ wish to be +done to me or any relative I have; and thus have I broken this golden +rule which was given _me_ to walk by. + +But some slaveholders have said, "we were never in bondage to any +man," and therefore the yoke of bondage would be insufferable to us, +but slaves are accustomed to it, their backs are fitted to the burden. +Well, I am willing to admit that you who have lived in freedom would +find slavery even more oppressive than the poor slave does, but then +you may try this question in another form--Am I willing to reduce _my +little child_ to slavery? You know that _if it is brought up a slave_ +it will never know any contrast, between freedom and bondage, its back +will become fitted to the burden just as the negro child's does--_not +by nature_--but by daily, violent pressure, in the same way that the +head of the Indian child becomes flattened by the boards in which it +is bound. It has been justly remarked that "_God never made a slave_," +he made man upright; his back was _not_ made to carry burdens, nor his +neck to wear a yoke, and the _man_ must be crushed within him, before +_his_ back can be _fitted_ to the burden of perpetual slavery; and +that his back is _not_ fitted to it, is manifest by the insurrections +that so often disturb the peace and security of slaveholding +countries. Who ever heard of a rebellion of the beasts of the field; +and why not? simply because _they_ were all placed _under the feet of +man_, into whose hand they were delivered; it was originally designed +that they should serve him, therefore their necks have been formed +for the yoke, and their backs for the burden; but _not so with man_, +intellectual, immortal man! I appeal to you, my friends, as mothers; +Are you willing to enslave _your_ children? You start back with horror +and indignation at such a question. But why, if slavery is _no wrong_ +to those upon whom it is imposed? why, if as has often been said, +slaves are happier than their masters, free from the cares and +perplexities of providing for themselves and their families? why not +place _your children_ in the way of being supported without your +having the trouble to provide for them, or they for themselves? Do you +not perceive that as soon as this golden rule of action is applied to +_yourselves_ that you involuntarily shrink from the test; as soon as +_your_ actions are weighed in _this_ balance of the sanctuary that +_you are found wanting_? Try yourselves by another of the Divine +precepts, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can we love a man +_as_ we love _ourselves_ if we do, and continue to do unto him, what +we would not wish any one to do to us? Look too, at Christ's example, +what does he say of himself, "I came _not_ to be ministered unto, but +to minister." Can you for a moment imagine the meek, and lowly, and +compassionate Saviour, a _slaveholder_? do you not shudder at this +thought as much as at that of his being _a warrior_? But why, if +slavery is not sinful? + +Again, it has been said, the Apostle Paul did not condemn Slavery, for +he sent Onesimus back to Philemon. I do not think it can be said he +sent him back, for no coercion was made use of. Onesimus was not +thrown into prison and then sent back in chains to his master, as your +runaway slaves often are--this could not possibly have been the case, +because you know Paul as a Jew, was _bound to protect_ the runaway, +_he had no right_ to send any fugitive back to his master. The state +of the case then seems to have been this. Onesimus had been an +unprofitable servant to Philemon and left him--he afterwards became +converted under the Apostle's preaching, and seeing that he had been +to blame in his conduct, and desiring by future fidelity to atone for +past error, he wished to return, and the Apostle gave him the letter +we now have as a recommendation to Philemon, informing him of the +conversion of Onesimus, and entreating him as "Paul the aged" "to +receive him, _not_ now as a servant, but _above_ a servant, a brother +beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the +flesh and in the Lord. If thou count _me_ therefore as a partner, +_receive him as myself_." This then surely cannot be forced into a +justification of the practice of returning runaway slaves back to +their masters, to be punished with cruel beatings and scourgings as +they often are. Besides the word [Greek: doulos] here translated +servant, is the same that is made use of in Matt. xviii, 27. Now it +appears that this servant owed his lord ten thousand talents; he +possessed property to a vast amount. Onesimus could not then have been +a _slave_, for slaves do not own their wives, or children; no, not +even their own bodies, much less property. But again, the servitude +which the apostle was accustomed to, must have been very different +from American slavery, for he says, "the heir (or son), as long as he +is a child, differeth _nothing from a servant_, though he be lord of +all. But is under _tutors_ and governors until the time appointed of +the father." From this it appears, that the means of _instruction_ +were provided for _servants_ as well as children; and indeed we know +it must have been so among the Jews, because their servants were +not permitted to remain in perpetual bondage, and therefore it was +absolutely necessary they should be prepared to occupy higher stations +in society than those of servants. Is it so at the South, my friends? +Is the daily bread of instruction provided for _your slaves?_ are +their minds enlightened, and they gradually prepared to rise from +the grade of menials into that of _free_, independent members of the +state? Let your own statute book, and your own daily experience, +answer these questions. + +If this apostle sanctioned _slavery_, why did he exhort masters-thus +in his epistle to the Ephesians, "and ye, masters, do the same things +unto them (i.e. perform your duties to your servants as unto Christ, +not unto me) _forbearing threatening_; knowing that your master also +is in heaven, neither is _there respect of persons with him_." And in +Colossians, "Masters give unto your servants that which is _just +and equal_, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven." Let +slaveholders only obey these injunctions of Paul, and I am satisfied +slavery would soon be abolished. If he thought it sinful even to +_threaten_ servants, surely he must have thought it sinful to flog and +to beat them with sticks and paddles; indeed, when delineating the +character of a bishop, he expressly names this as one feature of it, +"_no striker_." Let masters give unto their servants that which is +_just_ and _equal_, and all that vast system of unrequited labor would +crumble into ruin. Yes, and if they once felt they had no right to the +_labor_ of their servants without pay, surely they could not think +they had a right to their wives, their children, and their own bodies. +Again, how can it be said Paul sanctioned slavery, when, as though +to put this matter beyond all doubt, in that black catalogue of +sins enumerated in his first epistle to Timothy, he mentions +"_menstealers_," which word may be translated "_slavedealers_." But +you may say, we all despise slavedealers as much as any one can; they +are never admitted into genteel or respectable society. And why not? +Is it not because even you shrink back from the idea of associating +with those who make their fortunes by trading in the bodies and souls +of men, women, and children? whose daily work it is to break human +hearts, by tearing wives from their husbands, and children from their +parents? But why hold slavedealers as despicable, if their trade is +lawful and virtuous? and why despise them more than the _gentlemen of +fortune and standing_ who employ them as _their_ agents? Why more than +the _professors of religion_ who barter their fellow-professors to +them for gold and silver? We do not despise the land agent, or the +physician, or the merchant, and why? Simply because their professions +are virtuous and honorable; and if the trade of men-jobbers was +honorable, you would not despise them either. There is no difference +in _principle_, in _Christian ethics_, between the despised +slavedealer and the _Christian_ who buys slaves from, or sells slaves, +to him; indeed, if slaves were not wanted by the respectable, the +wealthy, and the religious in a community, there would be no slaves +in that community, and of course no _slavedealers_. It is then the +_Christians_ and the _honorable men_ and _women_ of the South, who are +the _main pillars_ of this grand temple built to Mammon and to Moloch. +It is the _most enlightened_ in every country who are _most_ to blame +when any public sin is supported by public opinion, hence Isaiah says, +"_When_ the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount _Zion_ and +on _Jerusalem_, (then) I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of +the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks." And was it not +so? Open the historical records of that age, was not Israel carried +into captivity B.C. 606, Judah B.C. 588, and the stout heart of the +heathen monarchy not punished until B.C. 536, fifty-two years _after_ +Judah's, and seventy years _after_ Israel's captivity, when it was +overthrown by Cyrus, king of Persia? Hence, too, the apostle Peter +says, "judgment must _begin at the house of God_." Surely this would +not be the case, if the _professors of religion_ were not _most +worthy_ of blame. + +But it may be asked, why are _they_ most culpable? I will tell you, my +friends. It is because sin is imputed to us just in proportion to the +spiritual light we receive. Thus the prophet Amos says, in the name of +Jehovah, "You _only_ have I known of all the families of the earth: +_therefore_ I will punish _you_ for all your iniquities." Hear too +the doctrine of our Lord on this important subject; "The servant +who _knew_ his Lord's will and _prepared not_ himself, neither did +according to his will, shall be beaten with _many_ stripes:" and +why? "For unto whomsoever _much_ is given, _of him_ shall _much_ be +required; and to whom men have committed _much_, of _him_ they will +ask the _more_." Oh! then that the _Christians_ of the south +would ponder these things in their hearts, and awake to the vast +responsibilities which rest _upon them_ at this important crisis. + +I have thus, I think, clearly proved to you seven propositions, +viz.: First, that slavery is contrary to the declaration of our +independence. Second, that it is contrary to the first charter of +human rights given to Adam, and renewed to Noah. Third, that the fact +of slavery having been the subject of prophecy, furnishes _no_ excuse +whatever to slavedealers. Fourth, that no such system existed under +the patriarchal dispensation. Fifth, that _slavery never_ existed +under the Jewish dispensation; but so far otherwise, that every +servant was placed under the _protection of law_, and care taken +not only to prevent all _involuntary_ servitude, but all _voluntary +perpetual_ bondage. Sixth, that slavery in America reduces a _man_ to +a _thing_, a "chattel personal," _robs him_ of _all_ his rights as +a _human being_, fetters both his mind and body, and protects the +_master_ in the most unnatural and unreasonable power, whilst it +_throws him out_ of the protection of law. Seventh, that slavery +is contrary to the example and precepts of our holy and merciful +Redeemer, and of his apostles. + +But perhaps you will be ready to query, why appeal to _women_ on this +subject? _We_ do not make the laws which perpetuate slavery. _No_ +legislative power is vested in _us; we_ can do nothing to overthrow +the system, even if we wished to do so. To this I reply, I know you +do not make the laws, but I also know that _you are the wives and +mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do;_ and if you really +suppose _you_ can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly +mistaken. You can do much in every way: four things I will name. 1st. +You can read on this subject. 2d. You can pray over this subject. 3d. +You can speak on this subject. 4th. You can _act_ on this subject. +I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more +important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand +what we are praying for; it is only then we can "pray with the +understanding and the spirit also." + +1. Read then on the subject of slavery. Search the Scriptures daily, +whether the things I have told you are true. Other books and papers +might be a great help to you in this investigation, but they are not +necessary, and it is hardly probable that your Committees of Vigilance +will allow you to have any other. The _Bible_ then is the book I want +you to read in the spirit of inquiry, and the spirit of prayer. Even +the enemies of Abolitionists, acknowledge that their doctrines are +drawn from it. In the great mob in Boston, last autumn, when the books +and papers of the Anti-Slavery Society, were thrown out of the windows +of their office, one individual laid hold of the Bible and was about +tossing it out to the ground, when another reminded him that it was +the Bible he had in his hand. "_O! 'tis all one_," he replied, and +out went the sacred volume, along with the rest. We thank him for the +acknowledgment. Yes, "_it is all one_," for our books and papers +are mostly commentaries on the Bible, and the Declaration. Read the +_Bible_ then, it contains the words of Jesus, and they are spirit and +life. Judge for yourselves whether _he sanctioned_ such a system of +oppression and crime. + +2. Pray over this subject. When you have entered into your closets, +and shut to the doors, then pray to your father, who seeth in secret, +that he would open your eyes to see whether slavery is _sinful_, +and if it is, that he would enable you to bear a faithful, open and +unshrinking testimony against it, and to do whatsoever your hands find +to do, leaving the consequences entirely to him, who still says to us +whenever we try to reason away duty from the fear of consequences, +"_What is that to thee, follow thou me_." Pray also for that poor +slave, that he may be kept patient and submissive under his hard +lot, until God is pleased to open the door of freedom to him without +violence or bloodshed. Pray too for the master that his heart may be +softened, and he made willing to acknowledge, as Joseph's brethren +did, "Verily we are guilty concerning our brother," before he will be +compelled to add in consequence of Divine judgment, "therefore is all +this evil come upon us." Pray also for all your brethren and sisters +who are laboring in the righteous cause of Emancipation in the +Northern States, England and the world. There is great encouragement +for prayer in these words of our Lord. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the +Father _in my name_, he _will give_ it to you"--Pray then without +ceasing, in the closet and the social circle. + +3. Speak on this subject. It is through the tongue, the pen, and +the press, that truth is principally propagated. Speak then to your +relatives, your friends, your acquaintances on the subject of slavery; +be not afraid if you are conscientiously convinced it is _sinful_, to +say so openly, but calmly, and to let your sentiments be known. If you +are served by the slaves of others, try to ameliorate their condition +as much as possible; never aggravate their faults, and thus add fuel +to the fire of anger already kindled, in a master and mistress's +bosom; remember their extreme ignorance, and consider them as your +Heavenly Father does the _less_ culpable on this account, even +when they do wrong things. Discountenance all cruelty to them, all +starvation, all corporal chastisement; these may brutalize and +_break_ their spirits, but will never bend them to willing, cheerful +obedience. If possible, see that they are comfortably and _seasonably_ +fed, whether in the house or the field; it is unreasonable and cruel +to expect slaves to wait for their breakfast until eleven o'clock, +when they rise at five or six. Do all you can, to induce their owners +to clothe them well, and to allow them many little indulgences which +would contribute to their comfort. Above all, try to persuade your +husband, father, brothers and sons, that _slavery is a crime against +God and man_, and that it is a great sin to keep _human beings_ in +such abject ignorance; to deny them the privilege of learning to read +and write. The Catholics are universally condemned, for denying the +Bible to the common people, but, _slaveholders must not_ blame them, +for _they_ are doing the _very same thing_, and for the very same +reason, neither of these systems can bear the light which bursts +from the pages of that Holy Book. And lastly, endeavour to inculcate +submission on the part of the slaves, but whilst doing this be +faithful in pleading the cause of the oppressed. + + "Will _you_ behold unheeding, + Life's holiest feelings crushed, + Where _woman's_ heart is bleeding, + Shall _woman's_ voice be hushed?" + +4. Act on this subject. Some of you own slaves yourselves. If you +believe slavery is _sinful_, set them at liberty, "undo the heavy +burdens and let the oppressed go free." If they wish to remain with +you, pay them wages, if not let them leave you. Should they remain +teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an English +education; they have minds and those minds, _ought to be improved_. +So precious a talent as intellect, never was given to be wrapt in a +napkin and buried in the earth. It is the _duty_ of all, as far as +they can, to improve their own mental faculties, because we are +commanded to love God with _all our minds_, as well as with all our +hearts, and we commit a great sin, if we _forbid_ or _prevent_ that +cultivation of the mind in others, which would enable them to perform +this duty. Teach your servants then to read &c, and encourage them to +believe it is their _duty_ to learn, if it were only that they might +read the Bible. + +But some of you will say, we can neither free our slaves nor teach +them to read, for the laws of our state forbid it. Be not surprised +when I say such wicked laws _ought to be no barrier_ in the way of +your duty, and I appeal to the Bible to prove this position. What was +the conduct of Shiphrah and Puah, when the king of Egypt issued his +cruel mandate, with regard to the Hebrew children? "_They_ feared +_God_, and did _not_ as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved +the men children alive." Did these _women_ do right in disobeying that +monarch? "_Therefore_ (says the sacred text,) _God dealt well_ with +them, and made them houses" Ex. i. What was the conduct of Shadrach, +Meshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image in +the plain of Dura, and commanded all people, nations, and languages, +to fall down and worship it? "Be it known, unto thee, (said these +faithful _Jews_) O king, that we _will not_ serve thy gods, nor +worship the image which thou hast set up." Did these men _do right +in disobeying the law_ of their sovereign? Let their miraculous +deliverance of Daniel, when Darius made a firm decree that no one +should ask a petition of any mad or God for thirty days? Did the +prophet cease to pray? No! "When Daniel _knew that the writing was +signed_, he went into his house, and his windows being _open_ towards +Jerusalem, he kneeled upon this knees three times a day, and prayed +and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." Did Daniel +do right this to _break_ the law of his king? Let his wonderful +deliverance out of the mouthes of lions answer; Dan. vii. Look, too, +at the Apostles Peter and John. When the ruler of the Jews "_commanded +them not_ to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus," what did +they say? "Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto +you more than unto God, judge ye." And what did they do? "They spake +the word of God with boldness, and with great power gave the Apostles +witness of the _resurrection_ of the Lord Jesus;" although _this_ was +the very doctrine, for the preaching of which they had just been cast +into prison, and further threatened. Did these men do right? I leave +_you_ to answer, who now enjoy the benefits if their labours and +sufferings, in that Gospel they dared to preach when positively +commanded _not to teach any more_ in the name of Jesus; Acts iv. + +But some of you may say, if we do free our slaves, they will be taken +up and sold, therefore there will be no use in doing it. Peter and +John might just as well have said, we will not preach the gospel, for +if we do, we shall be taken up and put in prison, therefore there will +be no use in our preaching. _Consequences_, my friends, belong no more +to _you_, than they did to these apostles. Duty is ours and events are +God's. If you think slavery is sinful, all you have to do is to set +your slaves at liberty, do all you can to protect them, and in humble +faith and fervent prayer, commend them to your common Father. He can +take care of them; but if for wise purposes he sees fit to allow them +to be sold, this will afford you an opportunity of testifying openly, +wherever you go, against the crime of _manstealing_. Such an act will +be _clear robbery_, and if exposed, might, under the Divine direction, +do the cause of Emancipation more good, than any thing that could +happen, for, "He makes even the wrath of man to praise him, and the +remainder of wrath he will restrain." + +I know that this doctrine of obeying _God_, rather than man, will be +considered as dangerous, and heretical by many, but I am not afraid +openly to avow it, because it is the doctrine of the Bible; but I +would not be understood to advocate resistance to any law however +oppressive, if, in obeying it, I was not obliged to commit _sin_. If +for instance, there was a law, which imposed imprisonment or a fine +upon me if I manumitted a slave, I would on no account resist that +law, I would set the slave free, and then go to prison or pay the +fine. If a law commands me to _sin I will break it_; if it calls me to +_suffer_, I will let it take its course unresistingly. The doctrine +of blind obedience and unqualified submission to _any human_ power, +whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and +ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians. + +But you will perhaps say, such a course of conduct would inevitably +expose us to great suffering. Yes! my Christian friends, I believe it +would, but this will _not_ excuse you or any one else for the neglect +of _duty_. If Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers had not +been willing to suffer for the truth's sake, where would the world +have been now? If they had said, we cannot speak the truth, we cannot +do what we believe is right, because the _laws of our country or +public opinion are against us_, where would our holy religion have +been now? The Prophets were stoned, imprisoned, and killed by the +Jews. And why? Because they exposed and openly rebuked public sins; +they opposed public opinion; had they held their peace, they all might +have lived in ease and died in favor with a wicked generation. Why +were the Apostles persecuted from city to city, stoned, incarcerated, +beaten, and crucified? Because they dared to _speak the truth_; to +tell the Jews, boldly and fearlessly, that _they_ were the _murderers_ +of the Lord of Glory, and that, however great a stumbling-block the +Cross might be to them, there was no other name given under heaven +by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus. Because they +declared, even at Athens, the seat of learning and refinement, the +self-evident truth, that "they be no gods that are made with men's +hands," and exposed to the Grecians the foolishness of worldly wisdom, +and the impossibility of salvation but through Christ, whom they +despised on account of the ignominious death he died. Because at Rome, +the proud mistress of the world, they thundered out the terrors of the +law upon that idolatrous, war-making, and slaveholding community. Why +were the martyrs stretched upon the rack, gibbetted and burnt, the +scorn and diversion of a Nero, whilst their tarred and burning bodies +sent up a light which illuminated the Roman capital? Why were the +Waldenses hunted like wild beasts upon the mountains of Piedmont, and +slain with the sword of the Duke of Savoy and the proud monarch of +France? Why were the Presbyterians chased like the partridge over the +highlands of Scotland--the Methodists pumped, and stoned, and pelted +with rotten eggs--the Quakers incarcerated in filthy prisons, beaten, +whipped at the cart's tail, banished and hung? Because they dared +to _speak_ the _truth_, to _break_ the unrighteous _laws_ of their +country, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, +"not accepting deliverance," even under the gallows. Why were Luther +and Calvin persecuted and excommunicated, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer +burnt? Because they fearlessly proclaimed the truth, though that truth +was contrary to public opinion, and the authority of Ecclesiastical +councils and conventions. Now all this vast amount of human suffering +might have been saved. All these Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, +and Reformers, might have lived and died in peace with all men, but +following the example of their great pattern, "they despised the +shame, endured the cross, and are now set down on the right hand of +the throne of God," having received the glorious welcome of "well done +good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." + +But you may say we are women, how can our hearts endure persecution? +And why not? Have not women stood up in all the dignity and strength +of moral courage to be the leaders of the people, and to bear a +faithful testimony for the truth whenever the providence of God has +called them to do so? Are there no women in that noble army of martyrs +who are now singing the song of Moses and the Lamb? Who led out the +women of Israel from the house of bondage, striking the timbrel, and +singing the song of deliverance on the banks of that sea whose waters +stood up like walls of crystal to open a passage for their escape? It +was a _woman_; Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Moses and Aaron. +Who went up with Barak to Kadesh to fight against Jabin, King of +Canaan, into whose hand Israel had been sold because of their +iniquities? It was a woman! Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, the judge, +as well as the prophetess of that backsliding people; Judges iv, 9. +Into whose hands was Sisera, the captain of Jabin's host delivered? +Into the hand of a _woman_. Jael the wife of Heber! Judges vi, 21. +Who dared to _speak the truth_ concerning those judgments which were +coming upon Judea, when Josiah, alarmed at finding that his people +"had not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that was written +in the book of the Law," sent to enquire of the Lord concerning these +things? It was a woman. Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum; 2, +Chron. xxxiv, 22. Who was chosen to deliver the whole Jewish nation +from that murderous decree of Persia's King, which wicked Hannan had +obtained by calumny and fraud? It was a _woman_; Esther the Queen; +yes, weak and trembling _woman_ was the instrument appointed by God, +to reverse the bloody mandate of the eastern monarch, and save the +_whole visible church_ from destruction. What Human voice first +proclaimed to Mary that she should be the mother of our Lord? It was +a woman! Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias; Luke 1, 42, 43. Who united +with the good old Simeon in giving thanks publicly in the temple, when +the child, Jesus, was presented there by his parents, "and spake of +him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem?" It was a +_woman_! Anna the prophetess. Who first proclaimed Christ as the true +Messiah in the streets of Samaria, once the capital of the ten tribes? +It was a woman! Who ministered to the Son of God whilst on earth, a +despised and persecuted Reformer, in the humble garb of a carpenter? +They were women! Who followed the rejected King of Israel, as his +fainting footsteps trod the road to Calvary? "A great company of +people and of _women_;" and it is remarkable that to _them alone_, he +turned and addressed the pathetic language, "Daughters of Jerusalem, +weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." Ah! who +sent unto the Roman Governor when he was set down on the judgment +seat, saying unto him, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man, +for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him?" +It was a _woman!_ the wife of Pilate. Although "_he knew_ that for +envy the Jews had delivered Christ," yet _he_ consented to surrender +the Son of God into the hands of a brutal soldiery, after having +himself scourged his naked body. Had the _wife_ of Pilate sat upon +that judgment seat, what would have been the result of the trial of +this "just person?" + +And who last hung round the cross of Jesus on the mountain of +Golgotha? Who first visited the sepulchre early in the morning on the +first day of the week, carrying sweet spices to embalm his precious +body, not knowing that it was incorruptible and could not be holden by +the bands of death? These were _women!_ To whom did he _first_ appear +after his resurrection? It was to a _woman!_ Mary Magdalene; Mark xvi, +9. Who gathered with the apostles to wait at Jerusalem, in prayer and +supplication, for "the promise of the Father;" the spiritual blessing +of the Great High Priest of his Church, who had entered, _not_ into +the splendid temple of Solomon, there to offer the blood of bulls, +and of goats, and the smoking censer upon the golden altar, but into +Heaven itself, there to present his intercessions, after having +"given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet +smelling savor?" _Women_ were among that holy company; Acts i, 14. +And did _women_ wait in vain? Did those who had ministered to his +necessities, followed in his train, and wept at his crucifixion, wait +in vain? No! No! Did the cloven tongues of fire descend upon the heads +of _women_ as well as men? Yes, my friends, "it sat upon _each one of +them;_" Acts ii, 3. _Women_ as well as men were to be living stones in +the temple of grace, and therefore _their_ heads were consecrated by +the descent of the Holy Ghost as well as those of men. Were _women_ +recognized as fellow laborers in the gospel field? They were! Paul +says in his epistle to the Philippians, "help those _women_ who +labored with me, in the gospel;" Phil. iv, 3. + +But this is not all. Roman _women_ were burnt at the stake, _their_ +delicate limbs were torn joint from joint by the ferocious beasts of +the Amphitheatre, and tossed by the wild bull in his fury, for the +diversion of that idolatrous, warlike, and slaveholding people. Yes, +_women_ suffered under the ten persecutions of heathen Rome, with the +most unshrinking constancy and fortitude; not all the entreaties of +friends, nor the claims of new born infancy, nor the cruel threats +of enemies could make _them_ sprinkle one grain of incense upon the +altars of Roman idols. Come now with me to the beautiful valleys of +Piedmont. Whose blood stains the green sward, and decks the wild +flowers with colors not their own, and smokes on the sword of +persecuting France? It is _woman's_, as well as man's? Yes, _women_ +were accounted as sheep for the slaughter, and were cut down as the +tender saplings of the wood But time would fail me, to tell of all +those hundreds and thousands of _women_, who perished in the Low +countries of Holland, when Alva's sword of vengeance was unsheathed +against the Protestants, when the Catholic Inquisitions of Europe +became the merciless executioners of vindictive wrath, upon those +who dared to worship God, instead of bowing down in unholy adoration +before "my Lord God the _Pope_," and when England, too, burnt her Ann +Ascoes at the stake of martyrdom. Suffice it to say, that the Church, +after having been driven from Judea to Rome, and from Rome to +Piedmont, and from Piedmont to England, and from England to Holland, +at last stretched her fainting wings over the dark bosom of the +Atlantic, and found on the shores of a great wilderness, a refuge from +tyranny and oppression--as she thought, but _even here_, (the warm +blush of shame mantles my cheek as I write it,) _even here, woman_ was +beaten and banished, imprisoned, and hung upon the gallows, a trophy +to the Cross. + +And what, I would ask in conclusion, have _women_ done for the great +and glorious cause of Emancipation? Who wrote that pamphlet which +moved the heart of Wilberforce to pray over the wrongs, and his +tongue to plead the cause of the oppressed African? It was a _woman_, +Elizabeth Heyrick. Who labored assiduously to keep the sufferings of +the slave continually before the British public? They were women. +And how did they do it? By their needles, paint brushes and pens, by +speaking the truth, and petitioning Parliament for the abolition of +slavery. And what was the effect of their labors? Read it in the +Emancipation bill of Great Britain. Read it, in the present state of +her West India Colonies. Read it, in the impulse which has been given +to the cause of freedom, in the United States of America. Have English +women then done so much for the negro, and shall American women do +nothing? Oh no! Already are there sixty female Anti-Slavery Societies +in operation. These are doing just what the English women did, telling +the story of the colored man's wrongs, praying for his deliverance, +and presenting his kneeling image constantly before the public eye on +bags and needle-books, card-racks, pen-wipers, pin-cushions, &c. Even +the children of the north are inscribing on their handy work, "May the +points of our needles prick the slaveholder's conscience." Some of the +reports of these Societies exhibit not only considerable talent, but a +deep sense of religious duty, and a determination to persevere through +evil as well as good report, until every scourge, and every shackle, +is buried under the feet of the manumitted slave. + +The Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society of Boston was called last fall, to a +severe trial of their faith and constancy. They were mobbed by "the +gentlemen of property and standing," in that city at their anniversary +meeting, and their lives were jeoparded by an infuriated crowd; but +their conduct on that occasion did credit to our sex, and affords a +full assurance that they will never abandon the cause of the slave. +The pamphlet, Right and Wrong in Boston, issued by them in which a +particular account is given of that "mob of broad cloth in broad day," +does equal credit to the head and the heart of her who wrote it wish +my Southern sisters could read it; they would then understand that +the women of the North have engaged in this work from a sense of +_religious duty_, and that nothing will ever induce them to take their +hands from it until it is fully accomplished. They feel no hostility +to you, no bitterness or wrath; they rather sympathize in your trials +and difficulties; but they well know that the first thing to be done +to help you, is to pour in the light of truth on your minds, to urge +you to reflect on, and pray over the subject. This is all _they_ can +do for you, _you_ must work out your own deliverance with fear and +trembling, and with the direction and blessing of God, _you can do +it_. Northern women may labor to produce a correct public opinion at +the North, but if Southern women sit down in listless indifference and +criminal idleness, public opinion cannot be rectified and purified at +the South. It is manifest to every reflecting mind, that slavery +must be abolished; the era in which we live, and the light which is +overspreading the whole world on this subject, clearly show that the +time cannot be distant when it will be done. Now there are only two +ways in which it can be effected, by moral power or physical force, +and it is for you to choose which of these you prefer. Slavery always +has, and always will produce insurrections wherever it exists, because +it is a violation of the natural order of things, and no human power +can much longer perpetuate it. The opposers of abolitionists fully +believe this; one of them remarked to me not long since, there is no +doubt there will be a most terrible overturning at the South in a few +years, such cruelty and wrong, must be visited with Divine vengeance +soon. Abolitionists believe, too, that this must inevitably be the +case if you do not repent, and they are not willing to leave you to +perish without entreating you, to save yourselves from destruction; +Well may they say with the apostle, "am I then your enemy because I +tell you the truth," and warn you to flee from impending judgments. + +But why, my dear friends, have I thus been endeavoring to lead you +through the history of more than three thousand years, and to point +you to that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, "from works +to rewards?" Have I been seeking to magnify the sufferings, and exalt +the character of woman, that she "might have praise of men?" No! no! +my object has been to arouse _you_, as the wives and mothers, the +daughters and sisters, of the South, to a sense of your duty as +_women_, and as Christian women, on that great subject, which has +already shaken our country, from the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to +the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the shores of the +Atlantic; _and will continue mightily to shake it_, until the polluted +temple of slavery fall and crumble into ruin. I would say unto each +one of you, "what meanest thou, O sleeper! arise and call upon thy +God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not." +Perceive you not that dark cloud of vengeance which hangs over our +boasting Republic? Saw you not the lightnings of Heaven's wrath, in +the flame which leaped from the Indian's torch to the roof of yonder +dwelling, and lighted with its horrid glare the darkness of midnight? +Heard you not the thunders of Divine anger, as the distant roar of the +cannon came rolling onward, from the Texian country, where Protestant +American Rebels are fighting with Mexican Republicans--for what? For +the re-establishment of _slavery_; yes! of American slavery in the +bosom of a Catholic Republic, where that system of robbery, violence, +and wrong, had been legally abolished for twelve years. Yes! citizens +of the United States, after plundering Mexico of her land, are now +engaged in deadly conflict, for the privilege of fastening chains, and +collars, and manacles--upon whom? upon the subjects of some foreign +prince? No! upon native born American Republican citizens, although +the fathers of these very men declared to the whole world, while +struggling to free themselves the three penny taxes of an English +king, that they believed it to be a _self-evident_ truth that _all +men_ were created equal, and had an _unalienable right to liberty_. + +Well may the poet exclaim in bitter sarcasm, + + "The fustian flag that proudly waves + In solemn mockery o'er _a land of slaves_." + +Can you not, my friends, understand the signs of the times; do you not +see the sword of retributive justice hanging over the South, or are +you still slumbering at your posts?--Are there no Shiphrahs, no Puahs +among you, who will dare in Christian firmness and Christian meekness, +to refuse to obey the _wicked laws_ which require _woman to enslave, +to degrade and to brutalize woman_? Are there no Miriams, who would +rejoice to lead out the captive daughters of the Southern States to +liberty and light? Are there no Huldahs there who will dare to _speak +the truth_ concerning the sins of the people and those judgments, +which it requires no prophet's eye to see, must follow if repentance +is not speedily sought? Is there no Esther among you who will plead +for the poor devoted slave? Read the history of this Persian queen, it +is full of instruction; she at first refused to plead for the Jews; +but, hear the words of Mordecai, "Think not within thyself, that +_thou_ shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews, for +_if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time_, then shall there +enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but +_thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed_." Listen, too, to her +magnanimous reply to this powerful appeal; "_I will_ go in, unto the +king, which is _not_ according to law, and if I perish, I perish." +Yes! if there were but _one_ Esther at the South, she _might_ save her +country from ruin; but let the Christian women there arise, at the +Christian women of Great Britain did, in the majesty of moral +power, and that salvation is certain. Let them embody themselves in +societies, and send petitions up to their different legislatures, +entreating their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, to abolish the +institution! of slavery; no longer to subject _woman_ to the scourge +and the chain, to mental darkness and moral degradation; no longer to +tear husbands from their wives, and children from their parents; no +longer to make men, women, and children, work _without wages_; no +longer to make their lives bitter in hard bondage; no longer to reduce +_American citizens_ to the abject condition of _slaves,_ of "chattels +personal;" no longer to barter the _image of God_ in human shambles +for corruptible things such as silver and gold. + +The _women of the South can overthrow_ this horrible system of +oppression and cruelty, licentiousness and wrong. Such appeals to your +legislatures would be irresistible, for there is something in the +heart of man which _will bend under moral suasion_. There is a swift +witness for truth in his bosom, _which will respond to truth_ when +it is uttered with calmness and dignity. If you could obtain but six +signatures to such a petition in only one state, I would say, send up +that petition, and be not in the least discouraged by the scoffs and +jeers of the heartless, or the resolution of the house to lay it on +the table. It will be a great thing if the subject can be introduced +into your legislatures in any way, even by _women_, and _they_ will be +the most likely to introduce it there in the best possible manner, as +a matter of _morals_ and _religion_, not of expediency or politics. +You may petition, too, the different ecclesiastical bodies of the +slave states. Slavery must be attacked with the whole power of truth +and the sword of the spirit. You must take it up on _Christian_ +ground, and fight against it with Christian weapons, whilst your feet +are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And _you are +now_ loudly called upon by the cries of the widow and the orphan, to +arise and gird yourselves for this great moral conflict, with the +whole armour of righteousness upon the right hand and on the left. + +There is every encouragement for you to labor and pray, my friends, +because the abolition of slavery as well as its existence, has been +the theme of prophecy. "Ethiopia (says the Psalmist) shall stretch +forth her hands unto God." And is she not now doing so? Are not the +Christian negroes of the south lifting their hands in prayer for +deliverance, just as the Israelites did when their redemption was +drawing nigh? Are they not sighing and crying by reason of the hard +bondage? And think you, that He, of whom it was said, "and God heard +their groaning, and their cry came up unto him by reason of the hard +bondage," think you that his ear is heavy that he cannot _now_ hear +the cries of his suffering children? Or that He who raised up a Moses, +an Aaron, and a Miriam, to bring them up out of the land of Egypt from +the house of bondage, cannot now, with a high hand and a stretched out +arm, rid the poor negroes out of the hands of their masters? Surely +you believe that his aim is _not_ shortened that he cannot save. And +would not such a work of mercy redound to his glory? But another +string of the harp of prophecy vibrates to the song of deliverance: +"But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, +and _none shall make them afraid;_ for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts +hath spoken it." The _slave_ never can do this as long as he is a +_slave_; whilst he is a "chattel personal" he can own _no_ property; +but the time _is to come_ when _every_ man is to sit under _his +own_ vine and _his own_ fig-tree, and no domineering driver, or +irresponsible master, or irascible mistress, shall make him afraid of +the chain or the whip. Hear, too, the sweet tones of another string: +"Many shall run to and fro, and _knowledge_ shall be _increased_." +Slavery is an insurmountable barrier to the increase of knowledge in +every community where it exists; _slavery, then, must be abolished +before this prediction can be fulfiled_. The last chord I shall +touch, will be this, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy +mountain." + +_Slavery, then, must be overthrown before_ the prophecies can be +accomplished, but how are they to be fulfiled? Will the wheels of the +millennial car be rolled onward by miraculous power? No! God designs +to confer this holy privilege upon _man_; it is through _his_ +instrumentality that the great and glorious work of reforming the +world is to be done. And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral +power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, +anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and +missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic +associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which +spans the arch of our moral heaven? Who does not believe, that if +these societies were broken up, their constitutions burnt, and the +vast machinery with which they are laboring to regenerate mankind was +stopped, that the black clouds of vengeance would soon burst over our +world, and every city would witness the fate of the devoted cities of +the plain? Each one of these societies is walking abroad through the +earth scattering the seeds of truth over the wide field of our world, +not with the hundred hands of a Briareus, but with a hundred thousand. + +Another encouragement for you to labor, my friends, is, that you +will have the prayers and co-operation of English and Northern +philanthropists. You will never bend your knees in supplication at the +throne of grace for the overthrow of slavery, without meeting there +the spirits of other Christians, who will mingle their voices with +yours, as the morning or evening sacrifice ascends to God. Yes, the +spirit of prayer and of supplication has been poured out upon many, +many hearts; there are wrestling Jacobs who will not let go of the +prophetic promises of deliverance for the captive, and the opening of +prison doors to them that are bound. There are Pauls who are saying, +in reference to this subject, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" +There are Marys sitting in the house now, who are ready to arise and +go forth in this work as soon as the message is brought, "the master +is come and calleth for thee." And there are Marthas, too, who have +already gone out to meet Jesus, as he bends his footsteps to their +brother's grave, and weeps, _not_ over the lifeless body of Lazarus +bound hand and foot in grave-clothes, but over the politically and +intellectually lifeless slave, bound hand and foot in the iron chains +of oppression and ignorance. Some may be ready to say, as Martha did, +who seemed to expect nothing but sympathy from Jesus, "Lord, by this +time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." She thought it +useless to remove the stone and expose the loathsome body of her +brother; she could not believe that so great a miracle could be +wrought, as to raise _that putrefied body_ into life; but "Jesus said, +take _ye_ away too stone;" and when _they_ had taken away the stone +where the dead was laid, and uncovered the body of Lazarus, then it +was that "Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that +thou hast heard me," &c. "And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a +loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Yes, some may be ready to say of +the colored race, how can _they_ ever be raised politically and +intellectually, they have been dead four hundred years? But _we_ have +_nothing_ to do with _how_ this is to be done; _our business_ is to +take away the stone which has covered up the dead body of our brother, +to expose the putrid carcass, to show _how_ that body has been bound +with the grave-clothes of heathen ignorance, and his face with the +napkin of prejudice, and having done all it was our duty to do, to +stand by the negro's grave, in humble faith and holy hope, waiting to +hear the life-giving command of "Lazarus, come forth." This is just +what Anti-Slavery Societies are doing; they are taking away the stone +from the mouth of the tomb of slavery, where lies the putrid carcass +of our brother. They want the pure light of heaven to shine into that +dark and gloomy cave; they want all men to see _how_ that dead body +has been bound, _how_ that face has been wrapped in the _napkin of +prejudice_; and shall they wait beside that grave in vain? Is not +Jesus still the resurrection and the life? Did he come to proclaim +liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that +are bound, in vain? Did He promise to give beauty for ashes, the oil +of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness unto them that mourn in Zion, and will He refuse to beautify +the mind, anoint the head, and throw around the captive negro the +mantle of praise for that spirit of heaviness which has so long bound +him down to the ground? Or shall we not rather say with the prophet, +"the zeal of the Lord of Hosts _will_ perform this?" Yes, his promises +are sure, and amen in Christ Jesus, that he will assemble her that +halteth, and gather her that is driven out, and her that is afflicted. + +But I will now say a few words on the subject of Abolitionism. +Doubtless you have all heard Anti-Slavery Societies denounced as +insurrectionary and mischievous, fanatical and dangerous. It has been +said they publish the most abominable untruths, and that they are +endeavoring to excite rebellions at the South. Have you believed these +reports, my friends? have _you_ also been deceived by these false +assertions? Listen to me, then, whilst I endeavor to wipe from the +fair character of Abolitionism such unfounded accusations. You know +that _I_ am a Southerner; you know that my dearest relatives are +now in a slave Slate. Can you for a moment believe I would prove so +recreant to the feelings of a daughter and a sister, as to join a +society which was seeking to overthrow slavery by falsehood, bloodshed +and murder? I appeal to you who have known and loved me in days that +are passed, can _you_ believe it? No! my friends. As a Carolinian I +was peculiarly jealous of any movements on this subject; and before I +would join an Anti-Slavery Society, I took the precaution of becoming +acquainted with some of the leading Abolitionists, of reading their +publications and attending their meetings, at which I heard addresses +both from colored and white men; and it was not until I was fully +convicted that their principles were _entirely pacific_, and their +efforts _only moral_, that I gave my name as a member to the Female +Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia. Since that time, I have +regularly taken the Liberator, and read many Anti-Slavery pamphlets +and papers and books, and can assure you I never have seen a single +insurrectionary paragraph, and never read any account of cruelty which +I could not believe. Southerners may deny the truth of these +accounts, but why do they not _prove_ them to be false? Their violent +expressions of horror at such accounts being believed _may_ deceive +some, but they cannot deceive _me_, for I lived too long in the midst +of slavery, not to know what slavery is. When I speak of this system, +"I speak that I do know," and I am not at all afraid to assert, that +Anti-Slavery publications have _not_ overdrawn the monstrous features +of slavery at all. And many a Southerner _knows_ this as well as I do. +A lady in North Carolina remarked to a friend of mine, about eighteen +months since, "Northerners know nothing at all about slavery; they +think it is perpetual bondage only; but of the _depth of degradation_ +that word involves, they have no conception; if they had, _they +would never cease_ their efforts until so _horrible_ a system was +overthrown." She did not know how faithfully some Northern men and +Northern women had studied this subject; how diligently they had +searched out the cause of "him who had none to help him," and how +fearlessly they had told the story of the negro's wrongs. Yes, +Northerners know _every_ thing about slavery now. This monster of +iniquity has been unveiled to the world, her frightful features +unmasked, and soon, very soon will she be regarded with no more +complacency by the American republic than is the idol of Juggernaut, +rolling its bloody wheels over the crushed bodies of its prostrate +victims. + +But you will probably ask, if Anti-Slavery societies are not +insurrectionary, why do Northerners tell us they are? Why, I would ask +you in return, did Northern senators and Northern representatives give +their votes, at the last sitting of congress, to the admission of +Arkansas Territory as a state? Take those men, one by one, and ask +them in their parlours, do you _approve of slavery?_ ask them on +_Northern_ ground, where they will speak the truth, and I doubt not +_every man_ of them will tell you, _no!_ Why then, I ask, did they +give their votes to enlarge the mouth of that grave which has already +destroyed its tens of thousands? All our enemies tell us they are +as much anti-slavery as we are. Yes, my friends, thousands who are +helping you to bind the fetters of slavery on the negro, despise you +in their hearts for doing it; they rejoice that such an institution +has not been entailed upon, them. Why then, I would ask, do they lend +you their help? I will tell you, "they love _the praise of men more_ +than the praise of God." The Abolition cause has not yet become +so popular as to induce them to believe, that by advocating it in +congress, they shall sit still more securely in their seats there, +and like the _chief rulers_ in the days of our Saviour, though _many_ +believed on him, yet they did _not_ confess him, lest they should _be +put out of the synagogue_; John xii, 42, 43. Or perhaps like Pilate, +thinking they could prevail nothing, and fearing a tumult, they +determined to release Barabbas and surrender the just man, the poor +innocent slave to be stripped of his rights and scourged. In vain will +such men try to wash their hands, and say, with the Roman governor, +"I am innocent of the blood of this just person." Northern American +statesmen are no more innocent of the crime of slavery, than Pilate +was of the murder of Jesus, or Saul of that of Stephen. These are high +charges, but I appeal to _their hearts_; I appeal to public opinion +ten years from now. Slavery then is a national sin. + +But you will say, a great many other Northerners tell us so, who can +have no political motives. The interests of the North, you must know, +my friends, are very closely combined with those of the South. The +Northern merchants and manufacturers are making _their_ fortunes out +of the _produce of slave labor_; the grocer is selling your rice and +sugar; how then can these men bear a testimony against slavery without +condemning themselves? But there is another reason, the North is most +dreadfully afraid of Amalgamation. She is alarmed at the very idea of +a thing so monstrous, as she thinks. And lest this consequence _might_ +flow from emancipation, she is determined to resist all efforts at +emancipation without expatriation. It is not because _she approves of +slavery_, or believes it to be "the corner stone of our republic," +for she is as much _anti-slavery_ as we are; but amalgamation is +too horrible to think of. Now I would ask _you_, is it right, is it +generous, to refuse the colored people in this country the advantages +of education and the privilege, or rather the _right_, to follow +honest trades and callings merely because they are colored? The same +prejudice exists here against our colored brethren that existed +against the Gentiles in Judea. Great numbers cannot bear the idea of +equality, and fearing lest, if they had the same advantages we enjoy, +they would become as intelligent, as moral, as religious, and as +respectable and wealthy, they are determined to keep them as low as +they possibly can. Is this doing as they would be done by? Is this +loving their neighbor _as themselves?_ Oh! that _such_ opposers of +Abolitionism would put their souls in the stead of the free colored +man's and obey the apostolic injunction, to "remember them that are +in bonds _as bound with them_." I will leave you to judge whether +the fear of amalgamation ought to induce men to oppose anti-slavery +efforts, when _they_ believe _slavery_ to be _sinful_. Prejudice +against color, is the most powerful enemy we have to fight with at the +North. + +You need not be surprised, then, at all, at what is said _against_ +Abolitionists by the North, for they are wielding a two-edged sword, +which even here, cuts through the _cords of caste_, on the one side, +and the _bonds of interest_ on the other. They are only sharing the +fate of other reformers, abused and reviled whilst they are in the +minority; but they are neither angry nor discouraged by the invective +which has been heaped upon them by slaveholders at the South and their +apologists at the North. They know that when George Fox and William +Edmundson were laboring in behalf of the negroes in the West Indies in +1671 that the very _same_ slanders were propogated against them, which +are _now_ circulated against Abolitionists. Although it was well known +that Fox was the founder of a religious sect which repudiated _all_ +war, and _all_ violence, yet _even he_ was accused of "endeavoring to +excite the slaves to insurrection and of teaching the negroes to cut +their master's throats." And these two men who had their feet shod +with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, were actually compelled +to draw up a formal declaration that _they were not_ trying to raise +a rebellion in Barbadoes. It is also worthy of remark that these +Reformers did not at this time see the necessity of emancipation under +seven years, and their principal efforts were exerted to persuade +the planters of the necessity of instructing their slaves; but the +slaveholder saw then, just what the slaveholder sees now, that an +_enlightened_ population never can be a _slave_ population, and +therefore they passed a law that negroes should not even attend the +meetings of Friends. Abolitionists know that the life of Clarkson was +sought by slavetraders, and that even Wilberforce was denounced on the +floor of Parliament as a fanatic and a hypocrite by the present King +of England, the very man who, in 1834 set his seal to that instrument +which burst the fetters of eight hundred thousand slaves in his West +India colonies. They know that the first Quaker who bore a _faithful_ +testimony against the sin of slavery was cut off from religious +fellowship with that society. That Quaker was a _woman_. On her +deathbed she sent for the committe who dealt with her--she told them, +the near approach of death had not altered her sentiments on the +subject of slavery and waving her hand towards a very fertile and +beautiful portion of country which lay stretched before her window, +she said with great solemnity, "Friends, the time will come when there +will not be friends enough in all this district to hold one meeting +for worship, and this garden will be turned into a wilderness." + +The aged friend, who with tears in his eyes, related this interesting +circumstance to me, remarked, that at that time there were seven +meetings of friends in that part of Virginia, but that when he was +there ten years ago, not a single meeting was held, and the country +was literally a desolation. Soon after her decease, John Woolman began +his labors in our society, and instead of disowning a member for +testifying _against_ slavery, they have for fifty-two years positively +forbidden their members to hold slaves. + +Abolitionists understand the slaveholding spirit too well to be +surprised at any thing that has yet happened at the South or the +North; they know that the greater the sin is, which is exposed, the +more violent will be the efforts to blacken the character and impugn +the motives of those who are engaged in bringing to light the hidden +things of darkness. They understand the work of Reform too well to be +driven back by the furious waves of opposition, which are only foaming +out their own shame. They have stood "the world's dread laugh," when +only twelve men formed the first Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in +1831. They have faced and refuted the calumnies at their enemies, and +proved themselves to be emphatically _peace men_ by _never resisting_ +the violence of mobs, even when driven by them from the temple of God, +and dragged by an infuriated crowd through the Streets of the emporium +of New-England, or subjected by _slaveholders_ to the pain of corporal +punishment. "None of these things move them;" and, by the grace of +God, they are determined to persevere in this work of faith and labor +of love: they mean to pray, and preach, and write, and print, until +slavery is completely overthrown, until Babylon is taken up and cast +into the sea, to "be found no more at all." They mean to petition +Congress year after year, until the seat of our government is cleansed +from the sinful traffic of "slaves and the souls of men." Although +that august assembly may be like the unjust judge who "feared not God +neither regarded man," yet it _must_ yield just as he did, from the +power of importunity. Like the unjust judge, Congress _must_ redress +the wrongs of the widow, lest by the continual coming up of petitions, +it be wearied. This will be striking the dagger into the very heart of +the monster, and once 'tis done, he must soon expire. + +Abolitionists have been accused of abusing their Southern brethren. +Did the prophet Isaiah _abuse_ the Jews when he addressed to them the +cutting reproofs contained in the first chapter of his prophecies and +ended by telling them, they would be _ashamed_ of the oaks they had +desired, and _confounded_ for the garden they had chosen? Did John +the Baptist _abuse_ the Jews when he called them "_a generation of +vipers_" and warned them "to bring forth fruits meet for repentance?" +Did Peter abuse the Jews when he told them they were the murderers of +the Lord of Glory? Did Paul abuse the Roman Governor when he reasoned +before him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment, so as to send +conviction home to his guilty heart, and cause him to tremble in view +of the crimes he was living in? Surely not. No man will _now_ accuse +the prophets and apostles of _abuse_, but what have Abolitionists done +more than they? No doubt the Jews thought the prophets and apostles in +their day, just as harsh and uncharitable as slaveholders now, think +Abolitionists; if they did not, why did they beat, and stone, and kill +them? + +Great fault has been found with the prints which have been employed to +expose slavery at the North, but my friends, how could this be done +so effectually in any other way? Until the pictures of the slave's +sufferings were drawn and held up to public gaze, no Northerner had +any idea of the cruelty of the system, it never entered their minds +that such abominations could exist in Christian, Republican America; +they never suspected that many of the _gentlemen_ and _ladies_ who +came from the South to spend the summer months in travelling among +them, were petty tyrants at home. And those who had lived at the +South, and came to reside at the North, were too _ashamed of slavery_ +even to speak of it; the language of their hearts was, "tell it _not_ +in Gath, publish it _not_ in the streets of Askelon;" they saw no use +in uncovering the loathsome body to popular sight, and in hopeless +despair, wept in secret places over the sins of oppression. To such +hidden mourners the formation of Anti-Slavery Societies was as life +from the dead, the first beams of hope which gleamed through the dark +clouds of despondency and grief. Prints were made use of to effect the +abolition of the Inquisition in Spain, and Clarkson employed them when +he was laboring to break up the Slave trade, and English Abolitionists +used them just as we are now doing. They are powerful appeals and +have invariably done the work they were designed to do, and we cannot +consent to abandon the use of these until the _realities_ no longer +exist. + +With regard to those white men, who, it was said, did try to raise +an insurrection in Mississippi a year ago, and who were stated to be +Abolitionists, none of them were proved to be members of Anti-Slavery +Societies, and it must remain a matter of great doubt whether, even +they were guilty of the crimes alledged against them, because when any +community is thrown into such a panic as to inflict Lynch law upon +accused persons, they cannot be supposed to be capable of judging with +calmness and impartiality. _We know_ that the papers of which the +Charleston mail was robbed, were _not_ insurrectionary, and that they +were _not_ sent to the colored people as was reported, _We know_ that +Amos Dresser was _no insurrectionist_ though he was accused of being +so, and on this false accusation was publicly whipped in Nashville in +the midst of a crowd of infuriated _slaveholders_. Was that young man +disgraced by this infliction of corporal punishment? No more than +was the great apostle of the Gentiles who five times received forty +stripes, save one. Like him, he might have said, "henceforth I bear +in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," for it was for the _truth's +sake, he suffered_, as much as did the Apostle Paul. Are Nelson, and +Garrett, and Williams, and other Abolitionists who have recently been +banished from Missouri, insurrectionists? _We know_ they are _not_, +whatever slaveholders may choose to call them. The spirit which now +asperses the character of the Abolitionists, is the _very same_ which +dressed up the Christians of Spain in the skins of wild beasts and +pictures of devils when they were led to execution as heretics. Before +we condemn individuals, it is necessary, even in a wicked community, +to accuse them of some crime; hence, when Jezebel wished to compass +the death of Naboth, men of Belial were suborned to bear _false_ +witness against him, and so it was with Stephen, and so it ever has +been, and ever will be, as long as there is any virtue to suffer +on the rack, or the gallows. _False_ witnesses must appear against +Abolitionists before they can be condemned. + +I will now say a few words on George Thompson's mission to this +country. This Philanthropist was accused of being a foreign emissary. +Were La Fayette, and Steuben, and De Kalb, foreign emissaries when +they came over to America to fight against the tories, who preferred +submitting to what was termed, "the yoke of servitude," rather than +bursting the fetters which bound them to the mother country? _They_ +came with _carnal weapons_ to engage in _bloody_ conflict against +American citizens, and yet, where do their names stand on the page of +History. Among the honorable, or the low? Thompson came here to war +against the giant sin of slavery, not with the sword and the pistol, +but with the smooth stones of oratory taken from the pure waters of +the river of Truth. His splendid talents and commanding eloquence +rendered him a powerful coadjutor in the Anti-Slavery cause, and in +order to neutralize the effects of these upon his auditors, and rob +the poor slave of the benefits of his labors, his character was +defamed, his life was sought, and he at last driven from our Republic, +as a fugitive. But was _Thompson_ disgraced by all this mean and +contemptible and wicked chicanery and malice? No more than was Paul, +when in consequence of a vision he had seen at Troas, he went over to +Macedonia to help the Christians there, and was beaten and imprisoned, +because he cast out a spirit of divination from a young damsel which +had brought much gain to her masters. Paul was as much a foreign +emissary in the Roman colony of Philippi, as George Thompson was in +America, and it was because he was a _Jew_ and taught customs it was +not lawful for them to receive or observe, being Romans, that the +Apostle was thus treated. + +It was said, Thompson was a felon, who had fled to this country to +escape transportation to New Holland. Look at him now pouring the +thundering strains of his eloquence, upon crowded audiences in Great +Britain, and see in this a triumphant vindication of his character. +And have the slaveholder, and his obsequious apologist, gained any +thing by all their violence and falsehood? No! for the stone which +struck Goliath of Gath, had already been thrown from the sling. The +giant of slavery who had so proudly defied the armies of the living +God, had received his death-blow before he left our shores. But what +is George Thompson doing there? Is he not now laboring there, as +effectually to abolish American slavery as though he trod our own +soil, and lectured to New York or Boston assemblies? What is he +doing there, but constructing a stupendous dam, which will turn the +overwhelming tide of public opinion over the wheels of that machinery +which Abolitionists are working here. He is now lecturing to _Britons_ +on _American Slavery_, to the _subjects_ of a _King_, on the abject +condition of the _slaves of a Republic_. He is telling them of that +mighty confederacy of petty tyrants which extends over thirteen States +of our Union. He is telling them of the munificent rewards offered by +slaveholders, for the heads of the most distinguished advocates for +freedom in this country. He is moving the British Churches to send +out to the churches of America the most solemn appeals, reproving, +rebuking, and exhorting them with all long suffering and patience to +abandon the sin of slavery immediately. Where then I ask, will the +name of George Thompson stand on the page of History? Among the +honorable, or the base? + +What can I say more, my friends, to induce _you_ to set your hands, +and heads, and hearts, to this great work of justice and mercy. +Perhaps you have feared the consequences of immediate Emancipation, +and been frightened by all those dreadful prophecies of rebellion, +bloodshed and murder, which have been uttered. "Let no man deceive +you;" they are the predictions of that same "lying spirit" which spoke +through the four hundred prophets of old, to Ahab king of Israel, +urging him on to destruction. _Slavery_ may produce these horrible +scenes if it is continued five years longer, but Emancipation _never +will_. + +I can prove the _safety_ of immediate Emancipation by history. In St. +Domingo in 1793 six hundred thousand slaves were set free in a +white population of forty-two thousand. That Island "marched as by +enchantment" towards its ancient splendor, cultivation prospered, every +day produced perceptible proofs of its progress, and the negroes all +continued quietly to work on the different plantations, until in 1802, +France determined to reduce these liberated slaves again to bondage. +It was at _this time_ that all those dreadful scenes of cruelty +occured, which we so often _unjustly_ hear spoken of, as the effects +of Abolition. They were occasioned _not_ by Emancipation, but by the +base attempt to fasten the chains of slavery on the limbs of liberated +slaves. + +In Gaudaloape eighty-five thousand slaves were freed in a white +population of thirteen thousand. The same prosperous effects followed +manumission here, that had attended it in Hayti, every thing was quiet +until Buonaparte sent out a fleet to reduce these negroes again to +slavery, and in 1802 this institution was re-established in that +Island. In 1834, when Great Britain determined to liberate the slaves +in her West India colonies, and proposed the apprenticeship system; +the planters of Bermuda and Antigua, after having joined the other +planters in their representations of the bloody consequences of +Emancipation, in order if possible to hold back the hand which was +offering the boon of freedom to the poor negro; as soon as they found +such falsehoods were utterly disregarded, and Abolition must take +place, came forward voluntarily, and asked for the compensation which +was due to them, saying, _they preferred immediate emancipation_, and +were not afraid of any insurrection. And how is it with these islands +now? They are decidedly more prosperous than any of those in which +the apprenticeship system was adopted, and England is now trying +to abolish that system, so fully convinced is she that immediate +Emancipation is the safest and the best plan. + +And why not try it in the Southern States, if it never has occasioned +rebellion; if _not_ a _drop of blood_ has ever been shed in +consequence of it, though it has been so often tried, why should we +suppose it would produce such disastrous consequences now? "Be not +deceived then, God is not mocked," by such false excuses for not doing +justly and loving mercy. There is nothing to fear from immediate +Emancipation, but _every thing_ from the continuance of slavery. + +Sisters in Christ, I have done. As a Southerner, I have felt it was +my duty to address you. I have endeavoured to set before you the +exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and to point you to the example of +those noble women who have been raised up in the church to effect +great revolutions, and to suffer for the truth's sake. I have appealed +to your sympathies as women, to your sense of duty as _Christian +women_. I have attempted to vindicate the Abolitionists, to prove the +entire safety of immediate Emancipation, and to plead the cause of the +poor and oppressed. I have done--I have sowed the seeds of truth, but +I well know, that even if an Apollos were to follow in my steps to +water them, "_God only_ can give the increase." To Him then who is +able to prosper the work of his servant's hand, I commend this Appeal +in fervent prayer, that as he "hath _chosen the weak things of the +world_, to confound the things which are mighty," so He may cause His +blessing, to descend and carry conviction to the hearts of many Lydias +through these speaking pages. Farewell--Count me not your "enemy +because I have told you the truth," but believe me in unfeigned +affection, + +Your sympathizing Friend, + +Angelina E. Grimkč. + + + +THIRD EDITION. + + + +[1] And again, "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the +children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; +then _that thief shall die_; and thou shall put away evil from among +you." Deut. xxiv, 7. + +[2] And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let +him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him _liberally_ out of thy flock +and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the +Lord thy God hath blessed thee, shalt thou give unto him. Deut xv, 13, +14. + +[3] There are laws in some of the slave states, limiting the labor +which the master may require of the slave to fourteen hours daily. In +some of the states there are laws requiring the masters to furnish a +certain amount of food and clothing, as for instance, _one quart_ of +corn per day, or _one peck_ per week, or _one bushel_ per month, and +"_one_ linen shirt and pantaloons for the summer, and a linen shirt +and woolen great coat and pantaloons for the winter," &c. But "still," +to use the language of Judge Stroud "the slave is entirely under the +control of his master,--is unprovided with a protector,--and, +especially as he cannot be a witness or make complaint in any known +mode against his master, the _apparent_ object of these laws may +_always_ be defeated." ED. + +[4] See Mrs. Child's Appeal, Chap. II. + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been relocated to the end.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Appeal to the Christian Women of +the South, by Angelina Emily Grimke + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN *** + +This file should be named 8acws10.txt or 8acws10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8acws11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8acws10a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Lazar Liveanu, Tom Allen +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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