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SLAVERY
AND
THE CONSTITUTION.
BY WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH.
BOSTON:
ROBERT F. WALLCUT, 21, CORNHILL.
1849.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON,
No. 21, School-street.
CONTENTS.
_Chapter_ _Page_
I. "SLAVERY AGREEABLE TO GOD'S PROVIDENCE" 1
II. DIRECT MENTAL INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES 5
III. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE SLAVES 14
IV. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE SLAVES 19
V. DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES 27
VI. INDIRECT INSTRUCTION.--NO LEGAL MARRIAGE OF SLAVES 56
VII. "SOUL-DRIVING" 68
VIII. "DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE" 77
IX. RUNAWAY SLAVES 94
X. SLAVEHOLDING ALWAYS WRONG 107
XI. THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS INTERPRETATION 117
XII. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE COMMON MEANING OF ITS TERMS 120
XIII. THE CONSTITUTION AS ITS FRAMERS INTENDED TO MAKE IT 127
XIV. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE GOVERNMENT 136
XV. THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO THE EXPOSITION OF ITS FINAL
INTERPRETER 143
XVI. NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS 150
NOTE.
Page 45 was struck off before I became aware that "Master Auld" _now_
shelters Douglass's grandmother under his own roof. We are glad of the
fact, and respect Master Auld for his change. But the case of Douglass's
grandmother is by no means a solitary instance of cruel treatment. I
might easily adduce others equally cruel, though not told with nearly so
much feeling. W. I. B.
SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION.
CHAPTER I.
"SLAVERY AGREEABLE TO GOD'S PROVIDENCE"!
"Thus did Jehovah stereotype his _approbation_ of domestic
slavery"!--_Rev. President Shannon, of Bacon College, Ky._
"Here we see _God dealing in slaves_; giving them to his own
favorite child [Abraham], a man of superlative worth, and as a
reward for his eminent goodness."--_Rev. Theodore Clapp, of New
Orleans._
Nearly three millions of men, women, and children are held in slavery in
the Southern States, not by the ignorant and brutal alone, but by
enlightened Christian bishops, ministers, and church members of all
denominations; whilst men and women of cultivated minds, refined
manners, and delicate tastes, indignantly deny that slaveholding is
wrong.
The Right Rev. George W. Freeman, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Arkansas and Texas, whilst a minister at Raleigh, N.C. Nov.
27, 1836, preached two discourses on the character of slavery and the
duties of masters. In these ("A Reproof of the American Church, by the
Bishop of Oxford; with an Introduction, by an American Churchman;" New
York, 1846, p. 6) he declared "that no man, nor set of men in our day,
unless they can produce a new revelation from Heaven, are entitled to
pronounce slavery wrong;" and that "_slavery, as it exists at the
present day, is agreeable to the order of Divine Providence_." The
Right Rev. Levi S. Ives, Bishop of the diocese, was present; and, though
a northern man, has in writing published that he listened to them "with
most unfeigned pleasure"! (Ib. p. 7.) They were afterwards published
with the bishop's note of approbation, under the title, "The Rights and
Duties of Slaveholders." They were also printed in South Carolina, and
distributed gratuitously as a tract by the Society for the Advancement
of Christianity,--a society composed of clergymen and laymen, with
Bishop Bowen at their head. (Ib. pp. 7, 8.) Rev. Theodore Clapp,[A] the
Unitarian minister of New Orleans, says ("Slavery, a Sermon delivered in
the First Congregational Church in New Orleans, April 15, 1838," p. 11),
"The same _God_ who gave Abraham sunshine, air, rain, earth, flocks,
herds, silver, and gold, _blessed him with a donative of slaves_." Ib.
p. 33: "To succeed, then, in putting down every thing like servitude,
you must annihilate the word of God." Bishop Hedding, of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, says ("The Church as it is," p. 50), "The right to
hold a slave is founded on this rule, 'Therefore, all things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them.'" The funds
of churches and theological institutions are not unfrequently invested
in slaves. Sometimes these slaves are hired out at auction, and from
their earnings the salaries of the clergymen and professors are paid! At
other times, they are sold in order to change the investment! Thus, in
the "Charleston Courier," Feb. 12, 1835, there is advertised for sale,
by Thomas N. Gadsden, "a prime gang of ten negroes, accustomed to the
culture of cotton and provisions belonging to the Independent Church in
Christ Church parish"! ("The Church as it is," p. 72.) No _incredible_
story, therefore, was told by the fugitive slave, who gave as his reason
for not receiving the Lord's Supper, "I could not bear to go forward,
and receive the communion from vessels which were the purchase of my
brother's blood." In the memorial of the Presbytery of Georgia to the
Presbyteries of the Southern States in 1844, on the religious
instruction of the negroes, it is stated that slaves are "connected with
our churches; nay, more, they are owned by our church members and by our
ministers."--"What is it," asks the Rev. Dr. Albert Barnes (Sermon in
Philadelphia in 1846, "The Church as it is," p. 81), "that lends the
most efficient sanction to slavery in the United States? What is it that
does most to keep the public conscience at ease on the subject? What is
it that renders abortive all measures to remove the evil?... It is the
fact that the system is countenanced by good men; that bishops and
priests and deacons, that ministers and elders, that Sunday-school
teachers and exhorters, that pious matrons and heiresses, are the
holders of slaves; and that the ecclesiastical bodies of the land
address no language of rebuke or entreaty to their consciences." More
evidence to the same point might be adduced, if thought necessary.
This open vindication of the rightfulness of slaveholding is by no means
confined to persons residing at the South. In the year 1847, the Rev.
Geo. W. Blagden, of Boston, who delivered the last Dudleian Lecture in
Harvard University, defended slavery from the Bible, in the pulpit of
Old South Church, that second cradle of Liberty! Only last winter
(1848), a gentleman of this State, of high legal attainments, at present
connected with the Law School in Harvard University, in conversation
hesitated not to declare to us his opinion, "that it was not _desirable_
that slavery should cease"! And Dr. Taylor, of Yale College, at the head
of the theological department, instructs his pupils, candidates for the
ministry, that, "if Jesus Christ were now on earth, he would, under
certain circumstances, become a slaveholder"! ("The Church as it is," p.
95.)
Open defenders of slavery are therefore found among the foremost of the
leaders in Church and State. And how few of the opponents of the system
have a deep, ineradicable conviction, that slaveholding is wrong under
_all_ circumstances! Our object is to create and deepen this conviction.
To prove our position, we shall not rely upon the physical condition of
the slaves. Notwithstanding the fact is otherwise, we are willing to
suppose that every slave is comfortably housed, and has sufficient food
and clothing. These may give
"Ease to the body some, none to the mind
From restless thoughts."
Even if in a comfortable house, the slave is homeless! No joys cluster
around _his_ hearthstone! _He_ has no wife to share his sorrows, or to
partake his joys; for neither law nor public opinion sanctions the
marriage of slaves! The very children whom the slave presses to his
heart are not regarded, either by law or public sentiment, as his dear
children, but only as part of the stock of the plantation! Mother and
children may be, and are, sold at auction, and separated from him and
from each other for ever! And yet the heart of the slave-mother yearns
for her children as much as the heart of the white mother.
By giving me a spiritual nature capable of improvement, God has made it
my duty to strive to improve myself,--has declared that I have a natural
right to improve myself, and that any wanton or unnecessary infringement
of this right is a wrong. No man has the right to prevent me, or the
meanest slave, from earnestly seeking after wisdom; to prevent me, or
the meanest slave, from becoming pure in heart; or to deaden my
affections, or those of the humblest slave that walks. In keeping a
slave ignorant or impure, or in blunting his affections, even though he
is well fed, clothed, and housed, violence is offered to his nature; his
God-given _rights_ are infringed; a _wrong_ is done!
Slaveholding is wrong under _all_ circumstances, because it either
darkens the minds, brutalizes the souls, and deadens the affections of
the slaves, or, without any necessity, renders such spiritual death not
merely possible, but almost inevitable. If it is wrong to murder the
body, how much more wrong is it to murder the soul! Slaveholding is
murder of the soul!