is, It regards human beings, declared to be in the "image of God," as
"chattels,"--things or articles of merchandise. "Slaves," say the laws
of South Carolina and Georgia, "shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed,
and adjudged in law to be chattels personal in the hands of their owners
and possessors, and their executors, administrators and assigns, to all
intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever."[D] "A slave," says the
code of Louisiana, "is one who is in the power of his master, to whom he
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry,
and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any
thing, but what must belong to his master."[E]
Thus, rational, immortal beings, children of our common Father in
heaven, are taken from the exalted scale in which God placed them, and
degraded to that of the brute creation. They are, as you know,
advertised, mortgaged, attached, inherited, leased, bought, and sold
like horses and cattle. Like them they are brought to the auction block,
and like them subjected to a rigid examination as to their age, and
soundness of wind, chest, and limb. Said a gentleman to me: "When I was
at----, I visited the slave mart; and as I saw one and another and
another of my fellow-beings brought forward to the block, and rudely
exposed and minutely examined, in order to ascertain their marketable
value in dollars and cents, and then struck off to the highest bidder,
amid the gibes and jeers of the vulgar, my heart was nigh unto bursting,
and I was obliged to turn away my eyes and weep, exclaiming, O God! can
it be! thy children! my brothers and sisters of humanity,--perhaps my
fellow-heirs of heaven,--precious souls for whom the Saviour died, whose
names may be written in the Book of Life, and over whose repentance
angels may have rejoiced! Can it be?"
For myself, I never witnessed any such scenes, and heaven grant I never
may. It is enough, and too much for me to know, that they exist. I
allude to them in this connection, not to awaken and pain your
sensibilities, but simply to illustrate the fact, that American slavery
sanctions them, and by its operation brings down the noblest work of God
to a level of the beasts that perish. As far as it can do so, it
dehumanizes man, and treats him as a thing without a soul. It may be
remarked, however, in passing, "A man's a man, for a' that."
I might speak in this connection of the obstacles which are thrown in
the way of the slave's obtaining redress for his wrongs should he
unfortunately get into the hands of a cruel and unreasonable master,
being forbidden to defend himself, and not allowed the testimony of his
brethren to be given in his behalf; but there are other features of this
system which more urgently demand our attention.
Neither will I dwell upon the ignorance and mental degradation which are
an essential part of the system. You need not be informed, that, in ten
States, knowledge is kept from the slave by legal enactments,--that
teaching him to read is regarded a crime, to be severely "punished by
the judges." I was happy to find that you and a great many others
totally disregard that law, and, in spite of legislators and penal
statutes, you teach your slaves to read, and in some cases to write. For
this _crime_, I doubt not but heaven, at least, will forgive you. I
shall allude to this latter topic again in a future letter.
Most truly and affectionately, yours, etc.
LETTER V.
DOMESTIC LIFE.--THE MARRIAGE RELATION.--DOMESTIC HAPPINESS A RELIC
OF PARADISE.--ITS ENDEARMENTS.--ITS VALUE.--THE BARBARISM OF
INVADING THE DOMESTIC SANCTUARY.--AN ILLUSTRATION.
MY DEAR BROTHER,--I come now, in the third place, to speak of slavery as
it is related to the endearments and duties of domestic life. On this
subject my heart is full. I am almost afraid to speak, lest I say what I
ought not; and yet I cannot keep silence. I can, in a good measure,
sympathize with Elihu when he said,--
"For I am full of words,
The spirit within me doth constrain me,
Behold I am as wine which hath no vent,
I am ready to burst like new bottles,
I will speak that I may breathe more freely,
I will open my lips and reply."[F]
We now approach a topic more intimately connected with the present and
future happiness of the human race than almost any other. Man was not
completely blest, even in Eden, until God instituted the marriage
relation. His Creator gave him a companion to participate in his joys,
binding them together by ties which no human power might sunder.
Paradise was lost by sin, but as our first parents were exiled thence,
God in infinite kindness permitted them to take one of its purest,
sweetest sources of joy with them to this world of sorrows.
"Domestic happiness! thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has survived the fall!"
You, my dear brother, are a husband and father, and can appreciate my
meaning, when I speak of the richness, the tenderness, the depth, of
connubial and paternal love; how it lights up this dark world with
smiles,--how it stimulates us to manly exertion,--how it lightens the
burdens of human life, and enables us cheerfully to sustain its ills,
while it almost restores to us Eden itself. To understand what is meant
by the term domestic happiness, it is necessary for you and me only to
look at the circles around our own firesides, and listen to the musical
accents of the loved ones who dwell there, as they pronounce the words
husband, father, mother, brother, sister, and exchange with them kind
looks and the affectionate embrace. What earthly joys can be compared
with those of home? What would tempt us to part with them? All the gold
in California and Australia would be spurned in contempt, if offered in
exchange. What should we say, and what should we do, were any power on
earth to interfere with our fireside delights, and attempt to wrest them
from us?
Suppose Providence had cast our lot under a despotic government, which
we will suppose to be for the most part kind and paternal, but having
this peculiarity,--every now and then, finding its finances embarrassed,
it should be in the habit of selling some of its subjects to a foreign
power to strengthen its exchequer, and should arbitrarily select its
victims from this family and that;--how should you feel were the doomed
family your own? What would have been your emotions this morning, had
some one come to your room and told you that that bright-eyed boy,
"Willie," who last night sat upon your knee and amused you with his
innocent prattle, showed you his toys, examined your pockets, played
with your hair and features, and finally clasped his little arms around
your neck and impressed the "good-night" kiss upon your lips, had been
seized by an officer, and sold from your sight forever to you know not
whom, and to be carried you know not whither? Nay, more;--suppose that
while he was yet speaking, there came also another with the tidings that
the same fate had befallen your first-born,--your daughter, just budding
into womanhood,--the affectionate, joyous, light-hearted "Kate," whose
voice to your ear is sweeter than the music of flowing waters, whose
feet are swifter than those of the light gazelle, as with open arms she
bounds to meet you on your return from a temporary absence, to welcome
you home with a tear of joy in her eye and a kiss upon her lips,--that
she too had been by the officials of the government clandestinely
abducted from your dwelling, and sold, literally sold, for a valuation
put upon her person in dollars and cents, to a hopeless captivity, to
spend her days in unrequited toil, or, not unlikely, in ministering to
the caprices and brutal passions of a stranger?
And while he was yet speaking, and as your _wife_, half frantic with
grief and terror, was entwining her arms around you, and you were
striving to ease your bursting heart, to crown the whole, suppose
another official and his posse had entered your apartment, and by force
of arms had torn her from your embrace, and with thongs upon her hands,
and a bandage over her mouth, hurried her away to greet your sight no
more? What a scene! There go in one direction the children of your body,
"bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh," to an unknown but fearful
destiny! In another is ruthlessly borne the object dearer to you than
all the world beside,--one whom you had solemnly sworn to love, cherish,
and protect until death,--the light of your dwelling,--the mother of
your children,--the mutual sharer of all your joys and sorrows,--the
richest and most precious treasure heaven ever gave you!--there she goes
in an agony of wo, to toil under a burning sun, compelled to call
another man her husband, or, it may be, to grace her master's seraglio!
Merciful God! what meaneth this? What horde of barbarians from the dark
corners of the earth have found their way hither to lay waste all that
is beautiful and lovely! What fiend from the pit has been let loose to
enter this little Paradise to destroy and bear away all the good that
was left of the primitive Eden!
No ruthless band of barbarians from benighted lands have found their way
to this Christian domestic sanctuary,--no malignant spirit from below
has been here to snatch the only type of Heaven that escaped his grasp
six thousand years ago. "Think it not strange," brother, "concerning
this fiery trial as though some strange thing had happened to you." This
is only the legitimate working of the patriarchal system of government
under which we live. Be calm,--this is all done according to law, and
with as much kindness as the circumstances will permit. No stripes are
inflicted, and no more force is exerted than is absolutely necessary to
secure the object, and prevent a useless outcry; no ill-will is
entertained toward the victims of these outrages,--it is only because
the finances of the government are low, and must be replenished, and
this is the most convenient, and perhaps at present the only practical,
way of raising the money!
Now, my brother, what should you and I think of living under a
government where such things were permitted by the laws? It would not
reconcile us to the administration to be told, that such proceedings as
I have supposed are of rare occurrence, and that the general character
of the government is kind, that it dislikes exceedingly to sell its
subjects, and especially that it has a great repugnance to separating
husbands and wives, and breaking up of families, and does it only when
severely pressed by pecuniary necessity. To your and my mind this would
be altogether unsatisfactory; it would not change our opinion of the
system. No matter if the heart-rending scene I have supposed were
witnessed only once a year, or once in ten years,--I think we should
loudly protest against a system which allowed the occurrence of it at
all.
You will please, my dear sir, apply the foregoing illustration to the
liabilities and actual workings of the slave system at the South, just
so far as it is applicable, and no further. If there are any points in
which the analogy fails, I will thank you to point them out to me in
your next.
With much love and esteem,
I remain yours, most truly.
LETTER VI.
SACREDNESS OF THE MARRIAGE RELATION.--GOD ALONE CAN DISSOLVE
IT.--THE "HIGHER LAW."--SLAVERY SANCTIONS POLYGAMY AND
ADULTERY.--RELATION OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN.--FEARFUL
RESPONSIBILITY ASSUMED.
MY DEAR CHRISTIAN BROTHER,--My objections to any system of government
that interferes at will with the family relation, and forcibly separates
husbands and wives, parents and children, do not arise chiefly from the
personal wrongs and bitter woes inflicted upon its victims. A
contemplation of these is calculated to affect our sensibilities, and
excite the tender sympathies of our nature; but there is a more enlarged
Christian view which forces itself upon us. If we could by some magic
process allay the anguish of the stricken heart, and heal its wounds
when the strongest ties of nature are rent asunder,--could we even
obliterate the susceptibilities of the soul, destroy natural affection,
and render man more callous than the brutes, so that he could be torn
from his home and kindred with less pain than they,--in a _moral_ point
of view the case would be altered but little. As I have remarked in a
previous letter, the _marriage relation_ was instituted by God, and he
made it indissoluble. "What God hath joined together let not man put
asunder," is the language of "holy writ;" and whoever, for any cause
which God himself has not specified, breaks up this relation, encroaches
upon God's prerogative, and goes directly in face of his positive
commands. Much has been said of late, seriously, sarcastically, and
contemptuously, about a "higher law;" but notwithstanding the improper
use often made of that term, there is an important sense in which you,
and I, and every Christian recognize what that term implies. If, on any
subject whatever, human enactments do obviously conflict with the
enactments of God, then God's law is the "_higher_," and must be obeyed.
To deny this is worse than infidelity.
Now, brother, does not the system of slavery in the United States
tolerate, and even authorize, the forcible rending asunder of the
marriage tie? Are not husbands, not seldom, but often, sold from their
wives, and wives from their husbands, and new matrimonial alliances
formed by them, with consent and encouragement of their masters? Thus
is flagrant adultery sanctioned in nearly one half of the States of this
Christian Republic, and in some cases the crime is almost, if not quite,
forced upon the wretched perpetrators of it. When God's law is
disregarded, and an ordinance on which depends all we hold dear in
social and Christian life is trampled in the dust by an institution
existing in the midst of us, what shall we say? If slavery were a
question merely of expediency, political economy, or even personal wrong
and suffering, it would be easier to keep silence; but when God is
dishonored, and gross sin sanctioned by law, is it not the duty of his
children, North and South, to enter their solemn, earnest, decided
protestations? You will agree with me, that no Christian can or ought to
acquiesce in what, either directly or indirectly, violates a positive
divine precept; and against what shall he remonstrate, if not against a
system that encourages polygamy and legalizes adultery?[G]
There is another view in which the operation of the system of slavery;
in breaking up families, has affected my mind powerfully and painfully.
Parents sustain most important relations to their children, as well as
to each other. Who can be so much interested in the temporal and eternal
well-being of the child as those by whose instrumentality he had his
existence? Who has so much influence over him, or who could direct his
feet in the way he should go, so well? God has imposed upon all parents
most important duties, which they may not neglect. These duties are as
truly incumbent on the slave-parent as on the master who sustains the
same relation. It may be, indeed, extensively true that he does not
understand them, and is in a great measure incompetent to discharge
them; and that often the child suffers nothing morally or intellectually
by being removed from his influence. But this results in a great measure
from the hopeless ignorance in which the parent is involved. There are,
however, as you can bear witness, multitudes of exceptions. In how many
cases are slave-parents truly pious and intelligent, and feel as much
solicitude for the eternal interests of their children, as you do for
yours, and pray with them as frequently and as fervently. With how much
pleasure did you and I listen to your "Jamie," one time when we were
taking an evening stroll past his cabin, and overheard his family
prayer. With what simplicity and earnestness did he pour out his soul to
God for the salvation of his "dear children." And do you not remember,
too, how with equal importunity he prayed God to "bless dear kind Massa
and Missus, and dere precious children, and also Massa's friend, and dat
all may meet to praise Jesus togedder in heaven," and how we found it
difficult to speak for a minute or two, and how the big tear-drops stood
in our eyes, and we couldn't help it?
You told me there were a great many "Jamies" at the South, and I have no
doubt of it; they love their little ones as well, and who so competent
to train them up for Christ? Who will presume to step in between these
parents and their children and say, this family altar shall be broken
down, and those who have bowed around it shall be separated, to meet no
more till they meet at the judgment? Who will peril his own soul by
taking those children away from such an influence, and for a pecuniary
consideration cast them upon the wide world with none to instruct them,
and none to care or pray for them, except their heart-broken parents
whom they have left behind? I would not do it, neither would you, for
the wealth of the world; and yet, is it not often done? In speaking of
this subject, one of the most eminent southern divines[H] uses the
following language: "Slavery, as it exists among us, sets up between
parents and their children an authority higher than the impulse of
nature and the laws of God; breaks up the authority of the father over
his own offspring, and at pleasure separates the mother at a returnless
distance from her child, thus outraging all decency and justice." I
shall refer to the sentiments of this brother again.
I remain as ever,
Affectionately yours, etc.
LETTER VII.
THE CROWNING EVIL OF SLAVERY.--PRECIOUSNESS OF THE BIBLE.--OUR
CHART AND COMPASS ON LIFE'S VOYAGE INDISPENSABLE.--ORAL
INSTRUCTIONS INSUFFICIENT.--DANGERS.--SHIPWRECK ALMOST
INEVITABLE.--WITHHELD FROM THE SLAVE.--SHUTS MULTITUDES OUT OF
HEAVEN.--AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY.--TESTIMONY OF GENERAL
ASSEMBLY.--OF SYNOD OF KENTUCKY.--OF DR. BRECKENRIDGE.
MY DEAR BROTHER,--There is one feature of slavery, fourthly, which gives
me more pain by far than any other, and I may say more than all others
put together, and that is, it imperils the immortal souls of millions of
our fellow-beings by keeping from them the Word of God.
Next to the Saviour, and the Holy Spirit, the most precious gift God has
bestowed on man is the Bible. This volume contains our only perfect rule
of life, and is our only guide to heaven. It teaches us our character
and our destiny; it alone raises the curtain between time and eternity,
and dissipates the darkness that otherwise would forever enshroud the
grave; it reveals to us another state of being, in which we shall be
happy or miserable, ages without end. On this Book alone do we depend
for our knowledge of the way of salvation by Christ. It is here we read
the story of the manger and the cross, and the wonderful plan of
redemption through atoning blood. What could we do without the Bible? It
is of infinitely greater value than houses and lands, silver and gold,
and every earthly good beside. To take from us the Bible, would be like
blotting out the sun in the heavens, and enveloping the universe in the
gloom and darkness of eternal night. Take from me riches, honors,
pleasures, comforts, and even liberty itself; and give me instead
thereof poverty, disgrace, pains, affliction, hunger, cold, nakedness,
and a dungeon; tear me from my friends, bind me with chains, scourge me
with the lash, brand my flesh with hot irons, deprive me of every source
of earthly good, and inflict upon me every kind of bodily and mental
anguish which the utmost refinement of cruelty can invent;--but give me
my Bible--leave me this precious treasure, which is the gift of my
heavenly Father, to teach me his will and guide me to himself. Torture
and destroy my body, if you will, but O! give me facilities for saving
my soul. Turn me not adrift on life's troubled ocean to seek alone a
far distant shore, exposed continually to storms, breakers, hidden
reefs, whirlpools, and shoals, with nothing but a few verbal
instructions to direct my way. If I am to make this fearful voyage, (and
make it I must,) take not from me my chart and compass. Your verbal
directions I shall be likely to forget when I most need them. The
polestar, which you tell me may be my guide, is often for a long time
concealed by impenetrable clouds. There are fearful maelstroms, near the
verge of whose deceptive and destructive circles my course lies, and ere
I am aware of it I shall have passed the fatal line, from which no
voyager returns. Between me and my desired haven there is a "hell-gate,"
where are sunken rocks and conflicting currents, and amid all these
complicated dangers my frail bark will make shipwreck, without my chart
and compass. Deprived of these, I cannot keep my reckoning, I cannot
shape my course, I cannot find my haven.
I need not tell you, my dear brother, that it is a part of the
slaveholding policy to take from thousands and millions of immortal
beings in our nominally Christian land, this precious chart and
compass,--the Bible, the only safe guide to heaven. I have often heard
you speak of it, and deplore it. Those severe laws which forbid
teaching the slave to read, do virtually take from him the Bible,--his
directory to the New Jerusalem. You may, indeed, give him oral
instruction, and in many instances, no doubt, they are blessed to his
conversion; but how utterly inadequate are they to his spiritual wants,
how imperfect are they at best, and in how many thousands of cases are
even these entirely wanting. Every enlightened and intelligent Christian
knows, from his own experience, how hard it is to enter the "strait
gate," and to keep in the "narrow way," and how needful to him are all
the helps within his reach, and then he is but "scarcely saved." What
hope is there, then, for the poor slave, who is deprived, not only of
most of the ordinary and extraordinary means of grace which we enjoy,
but is forbidden the printed Word of God? Is not a fearful
responsibility incurred by those who, for any reason, stand between God
and his children, and intercept those messages of grace and mercy which
are contained in the Holy Scriptures?
That noble institution, the American Bible Society, is multiplying
copies of the sacred Word by thousands and hundreds of thousands, and
scattering them over the land and the world; it hesitates not to thrust
them into the hands of the followers of the false prophet,--the deluded
followers of the man of sin,--the disciples of Confucius and
Zoroaster,--the worshippers of Juggernaut and Vishnoo, and the degraded
inhabitants of the South Seas and Caffraria;--it benevolently resolves
to put a copy of the Bible into the dwelling of every white family in
these United States; but it is obliged by law to pass by the cabin of
the slave, and leave more than three millions of immortal beings to find
the road to heaven the best way they can.
My brother, I cannot think of these things without the deepest grief,
and I know that you fully sympathize with me; but it is some consolation
to believe that the great mass of evangelical Christians take the same
views of the wrongs inflicted upon the slave that we do, for it is to
the Christian sentiment of this country that we must look for the
removal of them.
Our brethren of the Presbyterian church have borne their testimony most
fully and pointedly against the evils of slavery which we have been
considering. You doubtless recollect the action of the General Assembly
on this subject in 1818. A committee was appointed, to whom was referred
certain resolutions on the subject of selling a slave,--a member of the
church,--and which was directed to prepare a report to be adopted by
the Assembly, expressing their opinion in general on the subject of
slavery. The report of this committee was unanimously adopted, and
ordered to be published. It is, in part, as follows:--
"The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, having taken into
consideration the subject of slavery, think proper to make known their
sentiments upon it to the churches.