No. 98. Molly, 40 years. An old looking couple, but a kind, a
true-hearted one.
‘Gentlemen,’ says the auctioneer----. But before I proceed, the reader
will give me permission to mention that the four ladies, present at the
commencement of this auction sale, did not bid, nor did they remain
for more than half an hour. For the honor of their sex, I am bound to
mention that they (though most probably themselves owners of slaves,)
seemed to feel very uneasy while present. I believe that there is a
certain natural feeling with the great majority of the gentler sex,
which is more just, and more open to the truths of the gospel, than we
of the masculine race are able to comprehend.
‘Gentlemen,’ says the auctioneer, ‘Jerry and Molly are the last couple
to be sold to-day; for it is late, and we have to close. To-morrow at
12 M., the rest of the slaves, belonging to this gang, fifty-one very
valuable, sound and likely negroes, will be sold to the highest bidder
for cash and approved paper.’
I intend,--_Deo volente_,--to delineate at some future time the
proceedings of ‘the sale of to-morrow.’ Let us close, for the present,
with poor Jerry and unfortunate Molly, who were sold to a not very kind
looking man for $1125.
The chattels are sold. There were ninety-eight large and small
articles--Christian goods--bringing to their former owner the snug
little sum of $80,890. Will that sum be sufficient to buy ninety-eight
souls of men, baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit? Friends! eighty millions will never buy them from
their Father in heaven, for they have been ‘bought with a price’--with
the precious blood of the Son of God!
Surely, if we are convinced that the institution of slavery is a great
wrong against humanity, and a heavy curse to Christianity, we shall
seek to abolish it without delay.
But how can we do it? By what means can we induce the slaveholders
in the South to give up their ‘property,’ their ‘wealth,’ their
‘merchandise,’ their ‘valuable goods?’ Shall we invade the Slave States
with a large army, and liberate the slaves by means of revolvers,
knives, swords, and Sharp’s or Minnie rifles? I know the Southerners
too well, not to be convinced that every one of them would fight to
the death--that they would lose every drop of their blood, rather than
consent to give up their slaves. The Southerner is no coward; he is
brave in battle, and faces death without fear. But, suppose that the
whole body of the oppressed slaves should rise as one man, and strike
for their liberty--would not their victory be certain? Yes, but what
a victory! Streams of blood would stain the ever-blooming soil of the
South, and legions of corpses would become a prey to the vultures. And
whose blood would flow? That only of mean and cruel slave-drivers?
Oh, no! Many thousand corpses of innocent babes would point up to
heaven for vengeance! Thousands of blooming young maidens would be
slaughtered, causing the blood-stained soil to remain a curse for many
centuries!
No, my friends! No revolver, no rifle, no knife, no bloodshed nor
slaughter shall be necessary to metamorphose slaves into freemen. No
war is able to abolish the institution of slavery. There is a standard
which is bound to be victorious in the hottest of battles--a standard,
before the glory of which, the most stubborn of slave-drivers shall
be forced to fall upon his knees, crying, ‘Lord! what shall I do to
be saved?’ That standard is the Cross of the Redeemer of mankind!
If the slaveholders will truly believe in the powerful supremacy of
that standard, it will be impossible for them to keep any longer
their colored brethren in so shameful a bondage as Slavery. If the
slaveholder of the South would call himself a Christian, without being
a hypocrite, he will be obliged to do away with Slave laws, Slave
markets, and Slave auctions--in fact, TO ABOLISH SLAVERY.