Mr. Rankin is brother to Rev. John Rankin, author of “Letters on
Slavery,” and is, if we mistake not, by birth a southern man.
“But we are told, ‘You at the north know nothing of slavery――why
meddle with what you do not understand?’ Sir, we do know what slavery
is. It is usurped authority――a system of legalized oppression. If we
could show what is this moment transpiring in the land of slavery,
every bosom in this house would thrill with horror. I will state a
case: A minister of the gospel owned a female slave, whose husband was
owned by another man in the same neighborhood. The husband did
something supposed to be an offence sufficient to justify his master
in selling him for the southern market. As he started, his wife
obtained leave to visit him. She took her final leave of him, and
started to return to her master’s house. She went a few steps, and
returned and embraced him again, and then started the second time to
go to her master’s house; but the feelings of her heart overcame her,
and she turned about and embraced him the third time. Again she
endeavoured to bear up under the heavy trial, and return; but it was
too much for her――she had a woman’s heart. She returned the fourth
time, embraced her husband, and turned about――A MANIAC. To judge what
slavery is, we must place ourselves in the condition of the slave. Who
that has a wife, who that has a husband, could endure for a moment the
thought of _such a separation_! Take another case: A company of slave
dealers were passing through Louisville with a drove of slaves, of all
classes and descriptions. Among them were many mothers with infants in
their arms. These often become troublesome to the drivers: and in this
case, in order to get rid of the trouble, the inhuman monsters severed
the cords of maternal affection, and took these infants, from three to
five months old, and sold them in the streets of Louisville, for what
they could get. Do we know nothing of slavery? Can we shut our eyes to
such facts as these, which are constantly staring us in the face?”