CHAPTER XV.Abolition of Slavery.IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION.

“Gone, gone, sold and gone.”

They are also responsible for the extension of slavery into territory now free. If they go not to the utmost verge of their power to save the Lord’s free earth from the overspreading and blighting curse of slavery, they cannot but be execrated by an enlightened posterity.

But more than all this. A christian is a citizen of the world, and hence is required to employ the whole force of his moral and political power for the extirpation of slavery from every State in the Union, and from every country on the globe. The influence of anintelligent, active christian citizen is worldwide. He cannot be the dupe or tool of any party; he is never shackled by party organizations; he does not commit the keeping of his conscience to political leaders. He sincerely loves God, believes the Bible, and loves his fellow-men, because they are men. Prejudice, caste, and all other relics of barbarism, he has thrown away. He talks, votes and prays for universal liberty and righteousness. In the pulpit, in the shop, on the farm, anywhere, everywhere the whole weight of his influence is thrown against slavery in the territories, in the District of Columbia, in the States, and against it wherever it exists in the world. As he seeks for the physical, intellectual and moral improvement and happiness of all men, he must desire intensely the speedy extirpation of slavery from the earth.

Christian voter, when you approach the ballot box, think of the three millions of bondmen who are holding up their hands “all manacled and bleeding,” pleading to you for deliverance!

“Long has thy night of sorrow been,Without a star to cheer the scene.Nay; there was One that watched and wept,When thou didst think all mercy slept;That eye which beams with love divineWhere all celestial glories shine.Justice shall soon the sceptre take;The scourge shall fall, the tyrant quake.Hark! ’tis the voice of One from heaven;The word, the high command is given,‘Break every yoke, loose every chain,To usher in the Savior’s reign.’”

“Long has thy night of sorrow been,

Without a star to cheer the scene.

Nay; there was One that watched and wept,

When thou didst think all mercy slept;

That eye which beams with love divine

Where all celestial glories shine.

Justice shall soon the sceptre take;

The scourge shall fall, the tyrant quake.

Hark! ’tis the voice of One from heaven;

The word, the high command is given,

‘Break every yoke, loose every chain,

To usher in the Savior’s reign.’”

Many persons, who appear to be sensible of the evils of slavery, seem utterly at a loss for some feasible method of abolishing it. “It is here in our midst,” say they, “and how are we to get rid of it?”

To this question we have a plain scriptural answer.“Loose the bands of wickedness,”—“undo the heavy burdens,”—“Let the oppressed go free,”—“break every yoke,”—“proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

Immediate, unconditional, universal emancipation is the only just, the only reasonable and the only possible method of adjusting theslavery question. To this measure the people of the United Statesmustcome. A general Jubilee is inevitable. Slavery is an unmitigated wrong. Every element of it is at variance with the happiness of man and the law of God. It is without a single redeeming principle, and hence its destruction—its total annihilation is necessary.

Since the gigantic wrongs of slavery have been so generally made known as somewhat to arouse the public conscience from its long sleep, some writers, anxious to preserve the system, have proposed toreformit. They say, “Slavery, of itself, is a very innocent relation, but its evils are horrible. Let us correct the evils and preserve the system.”

But slavery cannot be reformed, so as to make it a tolerable institution because its essential feature—viz,property in a human being, is, wherever imposed, an outrageous, an insufferable wrong. Who would think of reforming robbery—of making laws to regulate robbers in their trade—and to prevent brutal men from engaging in it? What if it should be enacted by grave senators that none but gentlemen should rob, and that they must do it genteelly—using nounnecessarycruelty or coercion? All the world would laugh such senators to scorn. But slavery is from beginningto end a system of robbery, which it is as impossible to reform, so as to take away its “evils,” as it is to so reform piracy as to destroy its evils, and make it a humane, just and christian trade.

But the American slaves, it is maintained, arenot prepared for freedom. This objection is without foundation. Godcreatesmen free, and sends them forth into the world with such endowments as are needed in a state of freedom, and as are suited tono otherstate. To say that a race, which God hascreatedfree, is unprepared for freedom is to reproach the Maker. Freedom is the native element of man. And

“The heavens, the earth, man’s heart and sea,Forever cry,let all be free!”

“The heavens, the earth, man’s heart and sea,

Forever cry,let all be free!”

“Not prepared for freedom?” This has been the watchword of oppressors in all ages. The “people,” the uninformed “masses,” have, in the estimation of tyrants, always been prepared for slavery and injustice of every kind, but never for freedom. And it has ever been their policy to render them less fit for any station or any responsibility in life. They never put forth an effort to prepare their victims for any higher business than obsequious submission to usurped authority. True to this spirit, those who are most noisy about the unfitness of slaves for freedom, are most zealous for themaintenance of those odious laws and usages which shut them out from all chance of mental and moral culture.

And if the slaves are unprepared for freedom, what is to prepare them for it? Their present degradation is owing to slavery, and it is not likely that the continuance of thecauseof their degradation will elevate them. Remove the cause, and the effect will cease. Emancipate the colored man, open to him our schools and colleges, place before him motives for action such as animate freemen, and swell the hearts of Christians, give him anopportunityand he will prove himself every whit aMAN. How mean and hypocritical the objection, that slaves are not prepared for freedom, when we employ the whole weight of our laws and prejudices to crush out their manhood, and as far as possible unfit them for any condition except that of working animals.

But thousands of slaves have fled from their oppressors, and, in the midst of the greatest difficulties and embarrassments, have not only proved themselves prepared for freedom, but also to take a position amongst the most cultivated and honored freemen.

The half-free colored people of the United Statesprovethemselves worthy of all the rights of American citizens.

There are now in Canada about 35,000 fugitive slaves; and no people have ever entered upon the possession of freedom under more embarrassing circumstances. They were born in chains. The iron yoke had galled their necks. Their backs had felt the keen lash. In their flight they were pursued by hungry blood-hounds and more hungry marshals.—Naked, broken in spirit, impoverished and uneducated, they reached a cold, ungenial clime. But they were free! And those 35,000 escaped slaves are rapidly improving in wealth, intelligence, and in every social virtue. In the town of Buxton 130 families reside who own a body of 9,000 acres of land. The fugitive slaves of Canada West now own 25,000 acres of land. Were they not prepared for freedom?

Immediate emancipation worked admirably in the British West Indies. The masters were not murdered by the emancipated slaves, as was predicted, but good order reigned everywhere. The liberated people have been rapidly improving in intelligence and wealth.—The terrible wrongs and miseries of slavery are no more. Rev. Mr. Richardson, a missionary in Jamaica, speaking of the moral condition of those islands, says:

“Marriage is much more common than formerly, and the blessings of the family andsocial relations are much more extensively enjoyed. The Sabbath is also more generally observed. The means of education and religious instruction are better enjoyed, although but little appreciated and improved by the great mass of the people. It is also true, that the moral sense of the people is becoming somewhat enlightened. But while this is true, yet their moral condition is very far from being what it ought to be.

“Our brightest hopes and fondest anticipations must and will centre around theYOUTHof this island. I see the hand of Providence steadily urging onward, with resistless might, the car of Progress. Gaunt Prejudice and grim Superstition gradually give way; Darkness and Error recede before the sunlight of Truth; and even the demon of Lust and the giant Intemperance (twin brothers in Satan’s family) are bereft of their power, and chained for a season. I see intelligence, purity, and piety supplanting ignorance, licentiousness, and irreligion, and this moral waste becoming transformed until it blooms and flourishes as the garden of God.”

“Immediate emancipation?” exclaims a fearful friend, “that will never do! Murder, amalgamation, and many other evils will be inevitable consequences of such a measure.Let us colonize the slaves. Send them back to their own country.” To these objections it may be answered,

1. Colored men are not more inclined to murder than are white men. Africans have the same natural dispositions which distinguish other races.

2. Many masters have emancipated their slaves, and thereby secured their undying affection. Liberated slaves have never turned with bloody hands upon their liberators.

3. In the West India Islands 800,000 slaves were emancipated in one day, and although sixteen years have since elapsed, none of the terrible massacres which were predicted by the opponents of the measure have occurred.

4. This fear of the vengeance of emancipated slaves arises, doubtless, from a guilty conscience—or a feeling that it is richly deserved. A highwayman robs a man, and then says, if I let him go he may have me arrested and punished, therefore I will kill him. Americans say, on the same principle, we have most terribly abused our slaves, and hence, if we let them go they will retaliate, therefore, we must continue the wrong for self preservation!

5. As to amalgamation we have only to say that slavery is an extensive system of forced amalgamation. In the free States this muchdreaded evil is of rare occurrence. Immediate emancipation would speedily arrest the very thing here deprecated.

a.The colonization scheme is impracticable. Between three and four millions of people can never be shipped off to Africa. It is impracticable to send even the annual increase of the free colored population. There are in America now about twelve millions of colored people, and there is no power, civil or ecclesiastical, which can carry them away to Africa.[24]A few will go and ought to go as missionaries, but the great and rapidly increasing masses are firmly planted on this continent and here they must remain.

b.Forcible colonization is wrong. Colored people have the same right to live in America that white people have. The Creator made the earth for the habitation of man, and He has never surrendered his ownership of it toany government. The colored man has a right to live in any country on the globe—a right derived from the Creator. Has God said that every race under heaven may have a home in America but the African? Never. It is impertinent as well as wicked for one people to say to another, “you shall not live in this State, nor on this continent.” Such people arrogate to themselves a prerogative which Jehovah only possesses.

c.The present popular scheme of colonization leaves unquestioned the title of the slaveholder, encourages the doctrine that the Bible sanctions the institution, appeals to the basest prejudices of the American people to induce them to countenance the scheme, and encourages the enactment of such laws as now disgrace the statutes of several of the free States, in order, it would seem, to harrass the free colored man until he shall be compelled to flee from the land of his birth to a distant shore for refuge. One who speaks what he knows, says,

“I speak the words of soberness and truth when I say that the most inveterate, the most formidable, the deadliest enemy of the peace, prosperity, and happiness of the colored population of the United States, is that system of African colonization which originated in andis perpetuated by a worldly, Pharaoh-like policy beneath the dignity of a magnanimous and Christian people;—a system which receives much of its vitality fromad captandumappeals to popular prejudices, and to the unholy, groveling passions of the canaille;—a system that interposes every possible obstacle in the way of the improvement and elevation of the colored man in the land of his birth;—that instigates the enactment of laws whose design and tendency are obviously to annoy him, to make him feel, while at home, that he is a stranger and a pilgrim—nay more,—to make him ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;’—to make him ‘a hissing and a by-word,’ ‘a fugitive and a vagabond’ throughout the American Union;—a system that is so irreconcilably opposed to the purpose of God in making ‘ofoneblood all nations for to dwell onallthe face of the earth,’ that when the dying slaveholder, under the lashes of a guilty conscience, would give to his slaves unqualified freedom, it wickedly interposes, and persuades him that ‘to do justly and love mercy’ would be to inflict an irreparable injury upon the community, and that to do his duty to God and his fellow-creatures, under the circumstances, he should bequeath to his surviving slaves the cruel alternative ofeitherexpatriation to a far-off, pestilential clime, with the prospect of a premature death, or perpetual slavery, with its untold horrors, in his native land.”—Watkins.

Many objections are offered against immediate emancipation, but they are evidently mereexcuses. This may be laid down as a safe rule:Offer no objection to the manumission of slaves which would not satisfy you were you yourselves the slaves to be manumitted.Tried by this reasonable and scriptural rule all apologies, objections and excuses offered for the perpetuation of human bondage, vanish away. There can be no good reason advanced for the continuance of this curse a single year longer. Too long already has it dishonored our churches and our country. Too many souls have been already involved by it in hopeless ruin. Too many generations of slaves have already gone in sorrow and despair down to their graves. Too long has the public conscience been debauched. Justice, humanity and religion with united voice call for immediate emancipation.

If our free institutions are to be preserved they must be released from the folds and the deadly charm of this monster serpent. Freedom cannot flourish in its coils nor survive in its slimy embrace.

Individual and national repentance and reformation only can avert the terrible judgments of an offended God. The cries of the oppressed have gone up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and he will be avenged speedily.

“We have offended. O! my countrymen!We have offended very grievously;And been most tyrannous. From east to westA groan of accusation pierces heaven!”

“We have offended. O! my countrymen!

We have offended very grievously;

And been most tyrannous. From east to west

A groan of accusation pierces heaven!”

There are not more than one hundred and twenty thousand slaveholders in the United States, and it would be easy for them to settle this whole question in one year or even in a day. Let them simply be honest, be just, obey the Bible, overcome their pride, avarice, prejudices and lusts, and the work will be done. The example ofFreeborn Garretsonis commended to the special attention of all slaveholders, and especially of those who profess religion. This good man says:

“As I stood with a book in my hand, in the act of giving out a hymn, this thought powerfully struck my mind: ‘It is not right for you to keep your fellow-creatures in bondage; you must let the oppressed go free.’ I knew it to be that same blessed voice which had spoken to me before. Till then I had not suspected that the practice of slave-keeping was wrong; Ihad not read a book on the subject, nor been told so by any. I paused a minute, and then replied, ‘Lord, the oppressed shall go free.’ And I was as clear of them in my mind, as if I had never owned one. I told them they did not belong to me, and that I did not desire their services without making them a compensation. I was now at liberty to proceed in worship. After singing, I kneeled to pray. Had I the tongue of an angel, I could not fully describe what I felt: all my dejection, and that melancholy gloom which preyed upon me, vanished in a moment, and a divine sweetness ran through my whole frame.

“It was God, not man, that taught me the impropriety of holding slaves: and I shall never be able to praise him enough for it. My very heart has bled, since that, for slaveholders, especially those who made a profession of religion; for I believe it to be a crying sin.”

Are there any prospects that the long and dreary night of American despotism will speedily end in a joyous morning?

If we turn our eye towards the political horizon we shall find it overspread with heavy clouds portentous of evil to the oppressed. The government of the United States is intensely pro-slavery. The great political parties, with which the masses of the people act, vie with each other in their supple and obsequious devotion to the slaveocracy. The wise policy of the fathers of the Republic to confine slavery within very narrow limits, so that it would speedily die out and be supplanted by freedom, has been abandoned; the whole spirit of our policy has been reversed—and our national government seems chiefly concerned for the honor, perpetuation and extension of slavery.

The powerful religious denominations have been following in the wake of the state. Their ancient and bold testimony against slaveryhas been expurgated from their confessions and disciplines, or completely neutralized.—Slaveryas it isreceives their unqualified sanction. The giant Christian publication societies of the day so completely ignore the question of slavery that a reader of all their books would not suspect that millions of slaves are groaning under an iron yoke in this country. Dark as a starless, moonless midnight, is the aspect presented by the heavens of the popular religious denominations.

American prejudice is yet very powerful. The polite, educated, and talented free colored traveler is exposed, in most parts of the Union, to the coarsest insults from this gaunt demon. He feels everywhere its hellish power. One who was more than twenty years a slave presents in the following eloquent language a true picture of the present anomalous condition of the children of Ham in the midst of the general joy of freedom:

“The Hungarian, the Italian, the Irishman, the Jew and the Gentile, all find in this goodly land a home; and when any of them, or all of them, desire to speak, they find willing ears, warm hearts, and open hands. For these people, the Americans have principles of justice, maxims of mercy, sentiments of religion, and feelings of brotherhood in abundance. Butformypoor people, (alas, how poor!)—enslaved, scourged, blasted, overwhelmed, and ruined, it would appear that America had neither justice, mercy, nor religion. She has no scales in which to weigh our wrongs, and no standard by which to measure our rights.... Here, upon the soil of our birth, in a country which has known us for two centuries, among a people who did not wait for us to seek them, but who sought us, found us, and brought us to their own chosen land,—a people for whom we have performed the humblest services, and whose greatest comforts and luxuries have been won from the soil by our sable and sinewy arms,—I say, sir, among such a people, and with such obvious recommendations to favor, we are far less esteemed than the veriest stranger and sojourner.... We are literally scourged beyond the beneficent range of both authorities—human and divine. We plead for our rights, in the name of the immortal declaration of independence, and of the written constitution of government, and we are answered with imprecations and curses. In the sacred name of Jesus we beg for mercy, and the slave-whip, red with blood, cracks over us in mockery.... We cry for help to humanity—a common humanity, and here too we are repulsed. Americanhumanity hates us, scorns us, disowns and denies, in a thousand ways, our very personality. The outspread wing of American christianity, apparently broad enough to give shelter to a perishing world, refuses to cover us. To us, its bones are brass, and its feathers iron. In running thither for shelter and succor, we have only fled from the hungry bloodhound to the devouring wolf,—from a corrupt and selfish world to a hollow and hypocritical church.”—Fred. Douglass.

But dark as is this picture, there is still hope. The exorbitant demands of the slave power, the extreme measures it adopts, the deep humiliation to which it subjects political aspirants, will produce a reaction. Inflated with past success it is throwing off its mask and revealing its hideous proportions. It is now proving itself the enemy ofallfreedom.

The extreme servility of the popular churches is opening the eyes of many earnest people to the importance of taking a bolder position. They are finding out that it is a duty to come out from churches which sanction the vilest iniquity that ever existed, or exhaust their zeal for the oppressed in tame resolves, never to be executed.

The truth is gaining ground that slaveholding is a great sin, that slaveholders are greatsinners, and that he who apologises for the system is a participator in the guilt and shame.

Free mission societies, reform publication societies, and free churches are rising up all over the country, in the free and in the slave States. They take their stand upon a solid Bible platform, and their power will be rapidly augmented until the strongholds of oppression will tremble at their approach.

Literature is coming to the rescue of the slave, and even now is pleading his cause with astonishing power in all the languages of christendom.

Christianity is on the side of the slave, and its true spirit is beginning to be practically applied.

Thousands of devout persons are found day and night pleading with God for the speedy deliverance of the captive.

But a voice from heaven is heard saying, “Hope thou in God.” God is on the side of the oppressed. He will never abandon them. He approves their cause, hears their cries, and is interested in all their movements. Those millions of colored Americans are now in the fiery furnace, but He will bring them out. From their house of bondage they will come forth, and accomplish a glorious mission onthe earth. God has reserved for them some of the grandest achievements in music, poetry, science, arts, morals, freedom and religion. Never has he permitted a people to be more deeply humbled, and none will in the end be more highly exalted. God’s ways are not as our ways. He can make the wrath of man to praise him.

The day of deliverance is not distant. God is stirring up the nations. The slavery question is agitating the whole enlightened world. It cannot be put to rest. Politicians pronounce it dead and solemnly bury it, but it rises before the third day and confronts them in every assembly. Church councils resolve to let it alone, but it will not let them alone. They hate agitation, and cry for peace, but are answered, “first pure, then peaceable.”

God of liberty! hasten the hour when the reddening East shall authorize the joyful announcement to American bondsmen—“the morning cometh.” Till then let us “TOIL AND TRUST.”

FOOTNOTES:[1]See Elliott on Slavery, p. 40.[2]R. Walsh, Encyclopedia Americana, Art. Slavery.[3]Here are a few advertisements taken from respectable southern papers, verbatim.Slaves Wanted.—We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying the highest cash prices. Persons wishing to sell will please call at 242 Pratt St. (Slatter’s old stand.) Communications attended to.B. M. & W. L. Campbell.A Negro for Sale.—I wish to sell a black girl about 24 years old, a good cook and washer, handy with a needle, can spin and weave. I wish to sell her in the neighborhood of Camden Point; if not sold there in a short time, I will hunt the best market; or I will trade her for two small ones, a boy and girl.November 15, 1852M. Doyal.100 Negroes for Sale, at my depot on Commerce street, immediately between the Exchange Hotel and F. M. Gilmer, Jr.’s Warehouse, where I will be receiving constantly, large lots of Negroes during the season, and will sell on as accommodating terms as any house in this city. I would respectfully request my old customers, and friends to call and examine my stock.Montgomery, November 2, 1852.Jno. W. Lindsey.Great sale of Negroes by J. & L. T. Levin.—On Thursday, December 30, at 11 o’clock, will be sold at the Court House in Columbia, one hundred valuable negroes.It is seldom such an opportunity occurs as now offers. Among them are only four beyond 45 years old, and none above 50. There are twenty five prime young men, between sixteen and thirty; forty of the most likely young women, and as fine a set of children as can be shown!Terms, &c.December 18, 1852.[4]Prof. B. B. Edwards says—“From the time of Augustus to Justinian we may allow three slaves to one free man; we shall thus have a free population in Italy of 6,944,000; and of slaves 20,832,000.”On the treatment of Roman slavesGuizotremarks that “it would be easy to give the most frightful and heartrending accounts of the manner in which the ancient Romans treated their slaves. Entire volumes are occupied with the details.” (Hist. Civilization.)[5]These facts are well authenticated. The “Union Point” tragedy did not occur in 1854, as reported recently, and denied by the “Free Trader,”but it did occurin 1842, and we have quoted the “Trader’s” own account.[6]Accepting this celebrated curse as an inspired prophecy, and we are inclined to receive it as such, it finds an easy fulfillment in the conquests of Joshua over the Canaanites; in the oppression of the Phœnicians, (who were descendants of Canaan,) by the Chaldeans, Persians and Greeks; and finally in the subjugation and destruction of the Carthaginians, by the Romans. This is the opinion of President Edwards, and it is entitled to respect.[7]I avail myself in what follows upon this point, of the investigations of Rev. E. Smith, who has thrown much light upon this subject. See “Bible Servitude” pp. 91, for a full discussion of this point.[8]For these criticisms on the Hebrew word the author is indebted to Albert Barnes’ ‘Inquiry into the scriptural views of slavery.’[9]The passage in Ex. 21: 20, 21, applies, as all admit, mainly, if not exclusively, tonative Hebrew servants, and as no one finds in the limited voluntary servitude of the native Hebrews a warrant for hereditary slavery, I have not thought it necessary to dwell upon it. It may be observed, however, that the word “punished,” is rendered in the marginal reading, “avenged;” and the meaning of the law is that the interest the master had in the life of the servant should be taken aspresumptiveevidence that he did not intend to kill him, unless the case was very clear, and hence that he should not beavenged summarily, by a relative of the servant, but be regularly tried and punished by the appointed authorities.[10]See Barnes’ Inquiry.[11]See Smith.[12]Tract of the American Reform Book and Tract Society.[13]Bible Servitude.[14]These facts are drawn by Jay from Blair’s Inquiry into the state of slavery among the Romans.[15]Note. One little circumstance, which occurred in the General Assembly of 1853, indicates a remarkably conservative spirit in that body. Dr. Judd, in writing the history of the division of the Old and New-Schools, put inonechapter on slavery. This chapter made the bookoffensiveto the south. To reconcile all parties, it was agreed that two editions of the work be printed, one for northern, the other for southern circulation—the latter to beminus the chapter on slavery![16]The “American Missionary Association,” which has no fellowship with slaveholding, and the American Reform Book and Tract Society, which is doing much for the dissemination of Christian anti-slavery doctrines, are sustained mainly by Congregationalists. The main body of the Congregationalists, however, adhere to the old Boards.[17]Can any one conceive of anyvirtuousreason which prompted the passage of such a rule? Is there not a deep and dark iniquity among slaveholders which makes it not only necessary that slaves should be excluded from civil, but also from ecclesiastical tribunals?[18]Amongst these, and at the head of them standsMr. Hosmer, Editor of the Northern C. Advocate, author of “Slaveryand theChurch,” and a number of other excellent books.[19]See Methodist Discipline.[20]Annual Report of American and Foreign Anti-slavery Society.[21]Distinguished from the Moravians, or old United Brethren by the additional phrase—“in Christ.”[22]Methodist Quarterly.[23]Hon. Charles Sumner’s speech on the Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill, delivered in the Senate, August 1852, is one of the finest specimens of eloquence in the English language. Its arguments too, are unanswerable.[24]The following estimate of their numbers and localities is taken from one of the able reports of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, carefully drawn up by its former Secretary, John Scoble, Esq.:United States,3,650,000Brazil,4,050,000Spanish Colonies,1,470,000S. Amer. Republics,1,130,000British Colonies,750,000Hayti,850,000French Colonies,270,000Dutch Colonies,50,000Danish Colonies,45,000Mexico,70,000Canada,35,000Total,12,370,000Rep. Am. and For. Anti. Slav. Society.

[1]See Elliott on Slavery, p. 40.

[2]R. Walsh, Encyclopedia Americana, Art. Slavery.

[3]Here are a few advertisements taken from respectable southern papers, verbatim.Slaves Wanted.—We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying the highest cash prices. Persons wishing to sell will please call at 242 Pratt St. (Slatter’s old stand.) Communications attended to.B. M. & W. L. Campbell.A Negro for Sale.—I wish to sell a black girl about 24 years old, a good cook and washer, handy with a needle, can spin and weave. I wish to sell her in the neighborhood of Camden Point; if not sold there in a short time, I will hunt the best market; or I will trade her for two small ones, a boy and girl.November 15, 1852M. Doyal.100 Negroes for Sale, at my depot on Commerce street, immediately between the Exchange Hotel and F. M. Gilmer, Jr.’s Warehouse, where I will be receiving constantly, large lots of Negroes during the season, and will sell on as accommodating terms as any house in this city. I would respectfully request my old customers, and friends to call and examine my stock.Montgomery, November 2, 1852.Jno. W. Lindsey.Great sale of Negroes by J. & L. T. Levin.—On Thursday, December 30, at 11 o’clock, will be sold at the Court House in Columbia, one hundred valuable negroes.It is seldom such an opportunity occurs as now offers. Among them are only four beyond 45 years old, and none above 50. There are twenty five prime young men, between sixteen and thirty; forty of the most likely young women, and as fine a set of children as can be shown!Terms, &c.December 18, 1852.

[3]Here are a few advertisements taken from respectable southern papers, verbatim.

Slaves Wanted.—We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying the highest cash prices. Persons wishing to sell will please call at 242 Pratt St. (Slatter’s old stand.) Communications attended to.B. M. & W. L. Campbell.

Slaves Wanted.—We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying the highest cash prices. Persons wishing to sell will please call at 242 Pratt St. (Slatter’s old stand.) Communications attended to.

B. M. & W. L. Campbell.

A Negro for Sale.—I wish to sell a black girl about 24 years old, a good cook and washer, handy with a needle, can spin and weave. I wish to sell her in the neighborhood of Camden Point; if not sold there in a short time, I will hunt the best market; or I will trade her for two small ones, a boy and girl.November 15, 1852M. Doyal.

November 15, 1852

M. Doyal.

100 Negroes for Sale, at my depot on Commerce street, immediately between the Exchange Hotel and F. M. Gilmer, Jr.’s Warehouse, where I will be receiving constantly, large lots of Negroes during the season, and will sell on as accommodating terms as any house in this city. I would respectfully request my old customers, and friends to call and examine my stock.Montgomery, November 2, 1852.Jno. W. Lindsey.

Montgomery, November 2, 1852.

Jno. W. Lindsey.

Great sale of Negroes by J. & L. T. Levin.—On Thursday, December 30, at 11 o’clock, will be sold at the Court House in Columbia, one hundred valuable negroes.It is seldom such an opportunity occurs as now offers. Among them are only four beyond 45 years old, and none above 50. There are twenty five prime young men, between sixteen and thirty; forty of the most likely young women, and as fine a set of children as can be shown!Terms, &c.December 18, 1852.

Great sale of Negroes by J. & L. T. Levin.—On Thursday, December 30, at 11 o’clock, will be sold at the Court House in Columbia, one hundred valuable negroes.

It is seldom such an opportunity occurs as now offers. Among them are only four beyond 45 years old, and none above 50. There are twenty five prime young men, between sixteen and thirty; forty of the most likely young women, and as fine a set of children as can be shown!

Terms, &c.

December 18, 1852.

[4]Prof. B. B. Edwards says—“From the time of Augustus to Justinian we may allow three slaves to one free man; we shall thus have a free population in Italy of 6,944,000; and of slaves 20,832,000.”On the treatment of Roman slavesGuizotremarks that “it would be easy to give the most frightful and heartrending accounts of the manner in which the ancient Romans treated their slaves. Entire volumes are occupied with the details.” (Hist. Civilization.)

On the treatment of Roman slavesGuizotremarks that “it would be easy to give the most frightful and heartrending accounts of the manner in which the ancient Romans treated their slaves. Entire volumes are occupied with the details.” (Hist. Civilization.)

[5]These facts are well authenticated. The “Union Point” tragedy did not occur in 1854, as reported recently, and denied by the “Free Trader,”but it did occurin 1842, and we have quoted the “Trader’s” own account.

[6]Accepting this celebrated curse as an inspired prophecy, and we are inclined to receive it as such, it finds an easy fulfillment in the conquests of Joshua over the Canaanites; in the oppression of the Phœnicians, (who were descendants of Canaan,) by the Chaldeans, Persians and Greeks; and finally in the subjugation and destruction of the Carthaginians, by the Romans. This is the opinion of President Edwards, and it is entitled to respect.

[7]I avail myself in what follows upon this point, of the investigations of Rev. E. Smith, who has thrown much light upon this subject. See “Bible Servitude” pp. 91, for a full discussion of this point.

[8]For these criticisms on the Hebrew word the author is indebted to Albert Barnes’ ‘Inquiry into the scriptural views of slavery.’

[9]The passage in Ex. 21: 20, 21, applies, as all admit, mainly, if not exclusively, tonative Hebrew servants, and as no one finds in the limited voluntary servitude of the native Hebrews a warrant for hereditary slavery, I have not thought it necessary to dwell upon it. It may be observed, however, that the word “punished,” is rendered in the marginal reading, “avenged;” and the meaning of the law is that the interest the master had in the life of the servant should be taken aspresumptiveevidence that he did not intend to kill him, unless the case was very clear, and hence that he should not beavenged summarily, by a relative of the servant, but be regularly tried and punished by the appointed authorities.

[10]See Barnes’ Inquiry.

[11]See Smith.

[12]Tract of the American Reform Book and Tract Society.

[13]Bible Servitude.

[14]These facts are drawn by Jay from Blair’s Inquiry into the state of slavery among the Romans.

[15]Note. One little circumstance, which occurred in the General Assembly of 1853, indicates a remarkably conservative spirit in that body. Dr. Judd, in writing the history of the division of the Old and New-Schools, put inonechapter on slavery. This chapter made the bookoffensiveto the south. To reconcile all parties, it was agreed that two editions of the work be printed, one for northern, the other for southern circulation—the latter to beminus the chapter on slavery!

[16]The “American Missionary Association,” which has no fellowship with slaveholding, and the American Reform Book and Tract Society, which is doing much for the dissemination of Christian anti-slavery doctrines, are sustained mainly by Congregationalists. The main body of the Congregationalists, however, adhere to the old Boards.

[17]Can any one conceive of anyvirtuousreason which prompted the passage of such a rule? Is there not a deep and dark iniquity among slaveholders which makes it not only necessary that slaves should be excluded from civil, but also from ecclesiastical tribunals?

[18]Amongst these, and at the head of them standsMr. Hosmer, Editor of the Northern C. Advocate, author of “Slaveryand theChurch,” and a number of other excellent books.

[19]See Methodist Discipline.

[20]Annual Report of American and Foreign Anti-slavery Society.

[21]Distinguished from the Moravians, or old United Brethren by the additional phrase—“in Christ.”

[22]Methodist Quarterly.

[23]Hon. Charles Sumner’s speech on the Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill, delivered in the Senate, August 1852, is one of the finest specimens of eloquence in the English language. Its arguments too, are unanswerable.

[24]The following estimate of their numbers and localities is taken from one of the able reports of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, carefully drawn up by its former Secretary, John Scoble, Esq.:United States,3,650,000Brazil,4,050,000Spanish Colonies,1,470,000S. Amer. Republics,1,130,000British Colonies,750,000Hayti,850,000French Colonies,270,000Dutch Colonies,50,000Danish Colonies,45,000Mexico,70,000Canada,35,000Total,12,370,000Rep. Am. and For. Anti. Slav. Society.

Rep. Am. and For. Anti. Slav. Society.

Transcriber's Note:Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible. Some minor corrections of spelling and puctuation have been made.

Transcriber's Note:

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible. Some minor corrections of spelling and puctuation have been made.

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