4. Act on this subject. Some of you _own_ slaves yourselves. If you believe slavery is _sinful_, set them at liberty, "undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free." If they wish to remain with you, pay them wages, if not, let them leave you. Should they remain, teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an English education; they have minds, and those minds _ought to be improved_. So precious a talent as intellect, never was given to be wrapt in a napkin and buried in the earth. It is the _duty_ of all, as far as they can, to improve their own mental faculties, because we are commanded to love G.o.d with _all our minds_, as well as with all our hearts, and we commit a great sin, if we _forbid or prevent_ that cultivation of the mind in others, which would enable them to perform this duty. Teach your servants, then, to read, &c., and encourage them to believe it is their _duty_ to learn, if it were only that they might read the Bible.
But some of you will say, we can neither free our slaves nor teach them to read, for the laws of our state forbid it. Be not surprised when I say such wicked laws _ought to be no barrier_ in the way of your duty, and I appeal to the Bible to prove this position. What was the conduct of Shiprah and Puah, when the king of Egypt issued his cruel mandate, with regard to the Hebrew children? "_They_ feared _G.o.d_, and did _not_ as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive."
And be it remembered, that it was through _their_ faithfulness that Moses was preserved. This great and immediate emanc.i.p.ator was indebted to a _woman_ for his spared life, and he became a blessing to the whole Jewish nation. Did these _women_ do right in disobeying that monarch?
"_Therefore_ (says the sacred text,) _G.o.d dealt well_ with them, and made them houses" Ex. i. What was the conduct of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image in the plain of Dura, and commanded all people, nations, and languages, to fall down and worship it? "Be it known, unto thee, (said these faithful _Jews_) O king, that _we will not_ serve thy G.o.ds, nor worship the image which thou hast set up." Did these men _do right in disobeying the law_ of their sovereign? Let their miraculous deliverance from the burning fiery furnace, answer; Dan. iii. What was the conduct of Daniel, when Darius made a firm decree that no one should ask a pet.i.tion of any man or G.o.d for thirty days? Did the prophet cease to pray? No! "When Daniel _knew that the writing was signed_, he went into his house, and his windows being _open_ towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his G.o.d, as he did aforetime."
Did Daniel do right thus to _break_ the law of his king? Let his wonderful deliverance out of the mouths of the lions answer; Dan. vii.
Look, too, at the Apostles Peter and John. When the rulers of the Jews, "_commanded them not_ to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus,"
what did they say? "Whether it be right in the sight of G.o.d, to hearken unto you more than unto G.o.d, judge ye." And what did they do? "They spake the word of G.o.d with boldness, and with great power gave the Apostles witness of the _resurrection_ of the Lord Jesus;" although _this_ was the very doctrine, for the preaching of which, they had just been cast into prison, and further threatened. Did these men do right? I leave _you_ to answer, who now enjoy the benefits of their labors and sufferings, in that Gospel they dared to preach when positively commanded _not to teach any more_ in the name of Jesus; Acts iv.
But some of you may say, if we do free our slaves, they will be taken up and sold, therefore there will be no use in doing it. Peter and John might just as well have said, we will not preach the gospel, for if we do, we shall be taken up and put in prison, therefore there will be no use in our preaching. _Consequences_, my friends, belong no more to _you_, than they did to these apostles. Duty is ours and events are G.o.d"s. If you think slavery is sinful, all _you_ have to do is to set your slaves at liberty, do all you can to protect them, and in humble faith and fervent prayer, commend them to your common Father. He can take care of them; but if for wise purposes he sees fit to allow them to be sold, this will afford you an opportunity of testifying openly, wherever you go, against the crime of _manstealing_. Such an act will be _clear robbery_, and if exposed, might, under the Divine direction, do the cause of Emanc.i.p.ation more good, than any thing that could happen, for, "He makes even the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain."
I know that this doctrine of obeying _G.o.d_, rather than man, will be considered as dangerous, and heretical by many, but I am not afraid openly to avow it, because it is the doctrine of the Bible; but I would not be understood to advocate resistance to any law however oppressive, if, in obeying it, I was not obliged to commit _sin_. If for instance, there was a law, which imposed imprisonment or a fine upon me if I manumitted a slave, I would on no account resist that law, I would set the slave free, and then go to prison or suffer the penalty. If a law commands me to _sin I will break it_; if it calls me to _suffer_, I will let it take its course _unresistingly_. The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to _any human_ power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians.
But you will perhaps say, such a course of conduct would inevitably expose us to great suffering. Yes! my christian friends, I believe it would, but this will _not_ excuse you or any one else for the neglect of _duty_. If Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers had not been willing to suffer for the truth"s sake, where would the world have been now? If they had said, we cannot speak the truth, we cannot do what we believe is right, because the _laws of our country or public opinion are against us_, where would our holy religion have been now? The Prophets were stoned, imprisoned, and killed by the Jews. And why? Because they exposed and openly rebuked public sins; they opposed public opinion; had they held their peace, they all might have lived in ease and died in favor with a wicked generation. Why were the Apostles persecuted from city to city, stoned, incarcerated, beaten, and crucified? Because they dared to _speak the truth_; to tell the Jews, boldly and fearlessly, that _they_ were the _murderers_ of the Lord of Glory, and that, however great a stumbling-block the Cross might be to them, there was no other name given under heaven by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus. Because they declared, even at Athens, the seat of learning and refinement, the self-evident truth, that "they be no G.o.ds that are made with men"s hands", and exposed to the Grecians the foolishness of worldly wisdom, and the impossibility of salvation but through Christ, whom they despised on account of the ignominious death he died. Because at Rome, the proud mistress of the world, they thundered out the terrors of the law upon that idolatrous, war-making, and slave-holding community. Why were the martyrs stretched upon the rack, gibbetted and burnt, the scorn and diversion of a Nero, whilst their tarred and burning bodies sent up a light which illuminated the Roman capital? Why were the Waldenses hunted like wild beasts upon the mountains of Piedmont, and slain with the sword of the Duke of Savoy and the proud monarch of France? Why were the Presbyterians chased like the partridge over the highlands of Scotland--the Methodists pumped, and stoned, and pelted with rotten eggs--the Quakers incarcerated in filthy prisons, beaten, whipped at the cart"s tail, banished and hung? Because they dared to _speak_ the _truth_, to _break_ the unrighteous _laws_ of their country, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of G.o.d, "not accepting deliverance," even under the gallows. Why were Luther and Calvin persecuted and excommunicated, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer burnt? Because they fearlessly proclaimed the truth, though that truth was contrary to public opinion, and the authority of Ecclesiastical councils and conventions. Now all this vast amount of human suffering might have been saved. All these Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers, might have lived and died in peace with all men, but following the example of their great pattern, "they despised the shame, endured the cross, and are now set down on the right hand of the throne of G.o.d," having received the glorious welcome of "well _done_ good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord."
But you may say we are _women_, how can _our_ hearts endure persecution?
And why not? Have not _women_ arisen in all the dignity and strength of moral courage to be the leaders of the people, and to bear a faithful testimony for the truth whenever the providence of G.o.d has called them to do so? Are there no _women_ in that n.o.ble army of martyrs who are now singing the song of Moses and the Lamb? Who led out the women of Israel from the house of bondage, striking the timbrel, and singing the song of deliverance on the banks of that sea whose waters stood up like walls of crystal to open a pa.s.sage for their escape? It was a _woman_; Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Moses and Aaron. Who went up with Barak to Kadesh to fight against Jabin, King of Canaan, into whose hand Israel had been sold because of their iniquities? It was a _woman_! Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, the judge, as well as the prophetess of that backsliding people; Judges iv, 9. Into whose hands was Sisera, the captain of Jabin"s host delivered? Into the hand of a _woman_. Jael the wife of Heber! Judges vi, 21. Who dared to _speak the truth_ concerning those judgments which were coming upon Judea, when Josiah, alarmed at finding that his people "had not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that was written in the book of the Law," sent to enquire of the Lord concerning these things? It was a _woman_. Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum; 2, Chron. x.x.xiv, 22. Who was chosen to deliver the whole Jewish nation from that murderous decree of Persia"s King, which wicked Haman had obtained by calumny and fraud? It was a _woman_; Esther the Queen; yes, weak and trembling _woman_ was the instrument appointed by G.o.d, to reverse the b.l.o.o.d.y mandate of the eastern monarch, and save the _whole visible church_ from destruction. What human voice first proclaimed to Mary that she should be the mother of our Lord? It was a _woman_! Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias; Luke i, 42, 43. Who united with the good old Simeon in giving thanks publicly in the temple, when the child, Jesus, was presented there by his parents, "and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem?" It was a _woman_!
Anna the prophetess. Who first proclaimed Christ as the true Messiah in the streets of Samaria, once the capital of the ten tribes? It was a _woman_! Who ministered to the Son of G.o.d whilst on earth, a despised and persecuted Reformer, in the humble garb of a carpenter? They were _women_! Who followed the rejected King of Israel, as his fainting footsteps trod the road to Calvary? "A great company of people and of _women_;" and it is remarkable that to _them alone_, he turned and addressed the pathetic language, "Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." Ah! who sent unto the Roman Governor when he was set down on the judgment seat, saying unto him, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him?" It was a _woman_! the wife of Pilate. Although "_he knew_ that for envy the Jews had delivered Christ," yet _he_ consented to surrender the Son of G.o.d into the hands of a brutal soldiery, after having himself scourged his naked body. Had the _wife_ of Pilate sat upon that judgment seat, what would have been the result of the trial of this "just person?"
And who last hung round the cross of Jesus on the mountain of Golgotha?
Who first visited the sepulchre early in the morning on the first day of the week, carrying sweet spices to embalm his precious body, not knowing that it was incorruptible and could not be holden by the bands of death?
These were _women_! To whom did he _first_ appear after his resurrection? It was to a _woman_! Mary Magdalene; Mark xvi, 9. Who gathered with the apostles to wait at Jerusalem, in prayer and supplication, for "the promise of the Father;" the spiritual blessing of the Great High Priest of his Church, who had entered, _not_ into the splendid temple of Solomon, there to offer the blood of bulls, and of goats, and the smoking censer upon the golden altar, but into Heaven itself, there to present his intercessions, after having "given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to G.o.d for a sweet smelling savor?"
_Women_ were among that holy company; Acts i, 14. And did _women_ wait in vain? Did those who had ministered to his necessities, followed in his train, and wept at his crucifixion, wait in vain? No! No! Did the cloven tongues of fire descend upon the heads of _women_ as well as men?
Yes, my friends, "it sat upon _each one of them_;" Acts ii, 3. _Women_ as well as men were to be living stones in the temple of grace, and therefore _their_ heads were consecrated by the descent of the Holy Ghost as well as those of men. Were _women_ recognized as fellow laborers in the gospel field? They were! Paul says in his epistle to the Philippians, "help those _women_ who labored with me, in the gospel;"
Phil. iv, 3.
But this is not all. Roman _women_ were burnt at the stake, _their_ delicate limbs were torn joint from joint by the ferocious beasts of the Ampitheatre, and tossed by the wild bull in his fury, for the diversion of that idolatrous, warlike, and slaveholding people. Yes, _women_ suffered under the ten persecutions of heathen Rome, with the most unshrinking constancy and fort.i.tude; not all the entreaties of friends, nor the claims of new born infancy, nor the cruel threats of enemies could make _them_ sprinkle one grain of incense upon the altars of Roman idols. Come now with me to the beautiful valleys of Piedmont. Whose blood stains the green sward, and decks the wild flowers with colors not their own, and smokes on the sword of persecuting France? It is _woman"s_, as well as man"s? Yes, _women_ were accounted as sheep for the slaughter, and were cut down as the tender saplings of the wood.
But time would fail me, to tell of all those hundreds and thousands of _women_, who perished in the Low countries of Holland, when Alva"s sword of vengeance was unsheathed against the Protestants, when the Catholic Inquisitions of Europe became the merciless executioners of vindictive wrath, upon those who dared to worship G.o.d, instead of bowing down in unholy adoration before "my Lord G.o.d the _Pope_," and when England, too, burnt her Ann Ascoes at the stake of martyrdom. Suffice it to say, that the Church, after having been driven from Judea to Rome, and from Rome to Piedmont, and from Piedmont to England, and from England to Holland, at last stretched her fainting wings over the dark bosom of the Atlantic, and found on the sh.o.r.es of a great wilderness, a refuge from tyranny and oppression--as she thought, but _even here_, (the warm blush of shame mantles my cheek as I write it,) _even here, woman_ was beaten and banished, imprisoned, and hung upon the gallows, a trophy to the Cross. And what, I would ask in conclusion, have _women_ done for the great and glorious cause of Emanc.i.p.ation? Who wrote that pamphlet which moved the heart of Wilberforce to pray over the wrongs, and his tongue to plead the cause of the oppressed African? It was a _woman_, Elizabeth Heyrick. Who labored a.s.siduously to keep the sufferings of the slave continually before the British public? They were _women_. And how did they do it? By their needles, paint brushes and pens, by speaking the truth, and pet.i.tioning Parliament for the abolition of slavery. And what was the effect of their labors? Read it in the Emanc.i.p.ation bill of Great Britain. Read it, in the present state of her West India Colonies.
Read it, in the impulse which has been given to the cause of freedom, in the United States of America. Have English women then done so much for the negro, and shall American women do nothing? Oh no! Already are there sixty female Anti-Slavery Societies in operation. These are doing just what the English women did, telling the story of the colored man"s wrongs, praying for his deliverance, and presenting his kneeling image constantly before the public eye on bags and needle-books, card-racks, pen-wipers, pin-cushions, &c. Even the children of the north are inscribing on their handy work, "May the points of our needles p.r.i.c.k the slaveholder"s conscience." Some of the reports of these Societies exhibit not only considerable talent, but a deep sense of religious duty, and a determination to persevere through evil as well as good report, until every scourge, and every shackle, is buried under the feet of the manumitted slave.
The Ladies" Anti-Slavery Society of Boston was called last fall, to a severe trial of their faith and constancy. They were mobbed by "the gentlemen of property and standing," in that city at their anniversary meeting, and their lives were jeoparded by an infuriated crowd; but their conduct on that occasion did credit to our s.e.x, and affords a full a.s.surance that they will _never_ abandon the cause of the slave. The pamphlet, Right and Wrong in Boston, issued by them in which a particular account is given of that "mob of broad cloth in broad day,"
does equal credit to the head and the heart of her who wrote it. I wish my Southern sisters could read it; they would then understand that the women of the North have engaged in this work from a sense of _religious duty_, and that nothing will ever induce them to take their hands from it until it is fully accomplished. They feel no hostility to you, no bitterness or wrath; they rather sympathize in your trials and difficulties; but they well know that the first thing to be done to help you, is to pour in the light of truth on your minds, to urge you to reflect on, and pray over the subject. This is all _they_ can do for you, _you_ must work out your own deliverance with fear and trembling, and with the direction and blessing of G.o.d, _you can do it_. Northern women may labor to produce a correct public opinion at the North, but if Southern women sit down in listless indifference and criminal idleness, public opinion cannot be rectified and purified at the South. It is manifest to every reflecting mind, that slavery must be abolished; the era in which we live, and the light which is overspreading the whole world on this subject, clearly show that the time cannot be distant when it will be done. Now there are only two ways in which it can be effected, by moral power or physical force, and it is for _you_ to choose which of these you prefer. Slavery always has, and always will produce insurrections wherever it exists, because it is a violation of the natural order of things, and no human power can much longer perpetuate it. The opposers of abolitionists fully believe this; one of them remarked to me not long since, there is no doubt there will be a most terrible overturning at the South in a few years, such cruelty and wrong, must be visited with Divine vengeance soon. Abolitionists believe, too, that this must inevitably be the case if you do not repent, and they are not willing to leave you to perish without entreating you, to save yourselves from destruction; well may they say with the apostle, "am I then your enemy because I tell you the truth,"
and warn you to flee from impending judgments.
But why, my dear friends, have I thus been endeavoring to lead you through the history of more than three thousand years, and to point you to that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, "from works to rewards?" Have I been seeking to magnify the sufferings, and exalt the character of woman, that she "might have praise of men?" No! no! my object has been to arouse _you_, as the wives and mothers, the daughters and sisters, of the South, to a sense of your duty as _women_, and as Christian women, on that great subject, which has already shaken our country, from the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the sh.o.r.es of the Atlantic; _and will continue mightily to shake it_, until the polluted temple of slavery fall and crumble into ruin. I would say unto each one of you, "what meanest thou, O sleeper! arise and call upon thy G.o.d, if so be that G.o.d will think upon us that we perish not." Perceive you not that dark cloud of vengeance which hangs over our boasting Republic? Saw you not the lightnings of Heaven"s wrath, in the flame which leaped from the Indian"s torch to the roof of yonder dwelling, and lighted with its horrid glare the darkness of midnight? Heard you not the thunders of Divine anger, as the distant roar of the cannon came rolling onward, from the Texian country, where Protestant American Rebels are fighting with Mexican Republicans--for what? For the re-establishment of _slavery_; yes! of American slavery in the bosom of a Catholic Republic, where that system of robbery, violence, and wrong, had been legally abolished for twelve years. Yes! citizens of the United States, after plundering Mexico of her land, are now engaged in deadly conflict, for the privilege of fastening chains, and collars, and manacles--upon whom?
upon the subjects of some foreign prince? No! upon native born American Republican citizens, although the fathers of these very men declared to the whole world, while struggling to free themselves from the three penny taxes of an English king, that they believed it to be a _self-evident_ truth that _all men_ were created equal, and had an _unalienable right to liberty_.
Well may the poet exclaim in bitter sarcasm,
"The fustian flag that proudly waves In solemn mockery o"er _a land of slaves_."
Can you not, my friends, understand the signs of the times; do you not see the sword of retributive justice hanging over the South, or are you still slumbering at your posts?--Are there no Shiphrahs, no Puahs among you, who will dare in Christian firmness and Christian meekness, to refuse to obey the _wicked laws_ which require _woman to enslave, to degrade and to brutalize woman_? Are there no Miriams, who would rejoice to lead out the captive daughters of the Southern States to liberty and light? Are there no Huldahs there who will dare to _speak the truth_ concerning the sins of the people and those judgments, which it requires no prophet"s eye to see, must follow if repentance is not speedily sought? Is there no Esther among you who will plead for the poor devoted slave? Read the history of this Persian queen, it is full of instruction; she at first refused to plead for the Jews; but, hear the words of Mordecai, "Think not within thyself, that _thou_ shalt escape in the king"s house more than all the Jews, for _if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time_, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but _thou and thy father"s house shall be destroyed_." Listen, too, to her magnanimous reply to this powerful appeal; "_I will_ go in unto the king, which is _not_ according to law, and if I perish, I perish." Yes! if there were but _one_ Esther at the South, she _might_ save her country from ruin; but let the Christian women there arise, as the Christian women of Great Britain did, in the majesty of moral power, and that salvation is certain. Let them embody themselves in societies, and send pet.i.tions up to their different legislatures, entreating their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, to abolish the inst.i.tution of slavery; no longer to subject _woman_ to the scourge and the chain, to mental darkness and moral degradation; no longer to tear husbands from their wives, and children from their parents; no longer to make men, women, and children, work _without wages_; no longer to make their lives bitter in hard bondage; no longer to reduce _American citizens_ to the abject condition of _slaves_, of "chattels personal;" no longer to barter the _image of G.o.d_ in human shambles for corruptible things such as silver and gold.
The _women of the South can overthrow_ this horrible system of oppression and cruelty, licentiousness and wrong. Such appeals to your legislatures would be irresistible, for there is something in the heart of man which _will bend under moral suasion_. There is a swift witness for truth in his bosom, which _will respond to truth_ when it is uttered with calmness and dignity. If you could obtain but six signatures to such a pet.i.tion in only one state, I would say, send up that pet.i.tion, and be not in the least discouraged by the scoffs and jeers of the heartless, or the resolution of the house to lay it on the table. It will be a great thing if the subject can be introduced into your legislatures in any way, even by _women_, and _they_ will be the most likely to introduce it there in the best possible manner, as a matter of _morals_ and _religion_, not of expediency or politics. You may pet.i.tion, too, the different ecclesiastical bodies of the slave states.
Slavery must be attacked with the whole power of truth and the sword of the spirit. You must take it up on _Christian_ ground, and fight against it with Christian weapons, whilst your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And _you are now_ loudly called upon by the cries of the widow and the orphan, to arise and gird yourselves for this great moral conflict "with the whole armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left."
There is every encouragement for you to labor and pray, my friends, because the abolition of slavery as well as its existence, has been the theme of prophecy. "Ethiopia (says the Psalmist) shall stretch forth her hands unto G.o.d." And is she not now doing so? Are not the Christian negroes of the south lifting their hands in prayer for deliverance, just as the Israelites did when their redemption was drawing nigh? Are they not sighing and crying by reason of the hard bondage? And think you, that He, of whom it was said, "and G.o.d heard their groaning, and their cry came up unto him by reason of the hard bondage," think you that his ear is heavy that he cannot _now_ hear the cries of his suffering children? Or that He who raised up a Moses, an Aaron, and a Miriam, to bring them up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, cannot now, with a high hand and a stretched out arm, rid the poor negroes out of the hands of their masters? Surely you believe that his arm is _not_ shortened that he cannot save. And would not such a work of mercy redound to his glory? But another string of the harp of prophecy vibrates to the song of deliverance: "But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and _none shall make them afraid_; for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it." The _slave_ never can do this as long as he is a _slave_; whilst he is a "chattel personal" he can own _no_ property; but the time _is to come_ when _every_ man is to sit under _his own_ vine and _his own_ fig-tree, and no domineering driver, or irresponsible master, or irascible mistress, shall make him afraid of the chain or the whip. Hear, too, the sweet tones of another string: "Many shall run to and fro, and _knowledge_ shall be increased."
Slavery is an insurmountable barrier to the increase of knowledge in every community where it exists; _slavery, then, must be abolished before_ this prediction can be fulfilled. The last chord I shall touch, will be this, "They shall _not_ hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain."
_Slavery, then, must be overthrown before_ the prophecies can be accomplished, but how are they to be fulfilled? Will the wheels of the millennial car be rolled onward by miraculous power? No! G.o.d designs to confer this holy privilege upon _woman_; it is through _their_ instrumentality that the great and glorious work of reforming the world is to be done. And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic a.s.sociations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which spans the arch of our moral heaven? Who does not believe, that if these societies were broken up, their const.i.tutions burnt, and the vast machinery with which they are laboring to regenerate mankind was stopped, that the black clouds of vengeance would soon, burst over our world, and every city would witness the fate of the devoted cities of the plain? Each one of these societies is walking abroad through the earth scattering the seeds of truth over the wide field of our world, not with the hundred hands of a Briareus, but with a hundred thousand.
Another encouragement for you to labor, my friends, is, that you will have the prayers and co-operation of English and Northern philanthropists. You will never bend your knees in supplication at the throne of grace for the overthrow of slavery, without meeting there the spirits of other Christians, who will mingle their voices with yours, as the morning or evening sacrifice ascends to G.o.d. Yes, the spirit of prayer and of supplication has been poured out upon many, many hearts; there are wrestling Jacobs who will not let go of the prophetic promises of deliverance for the captive, and the opening, of prison doors to them that are bound. There are Pauls who are saying, in reference to this subject, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" There are Marys sitting in the house now, who are ready to arise and go forth in this work as soon as the message is brought, "the master is come and calleth for thee." And there are Marthas, too, who have already gone out to meet Jesus, as he bends his footsteps to their brother"s grave, and weeps, _not_ over the lifeless body of Lazarus bound hand and foot in grave-clothes, but over the politically and intellectually lifeless slave, bound hand and foot in the iron chains of oppression and ignorance. Some may be ready to say, as Martha did, who seemed to expect nothing but sympathy from Jesus, "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." She thought it useless to remove the stone and expose the loathsome body of her brother; she could not believe that so great a miracle could be wrought, as to raise _that putrified body_ into life; but "Jesus said, take _ye_ away the stone;" and when _they_ had taken away the stone where the dead was laid, and uncovered the body of Lazarus, then it was that "Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me," &c. "And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Yes, some may be ready to say of the colored race, how can _they_ ever be raised politically and intellectually, they have been dead four hundred years? But _we_ have _nothing_ to do with _how_ this is to be done; _our business_ is to take away the stone which has covered up the dead body of our brother, to expose the putrid carca.s.s, to show _how_ that body has been bound with the grave-clothes of heathen ignorance, and his face with the napkin of prejudice, and having done all it was our duty to do, to stand by the negro"s grave, in humble faith and holy hope, waiting to hear the life-giving command of "Lazarus, come forth." This is just what Anti-Slavery Societies are doing; they are taking away the stone from the mouth of the tomb of slavery, where lies the putrid carca.s.s of our brother. They want the pure light of heaven to shine into that dark and gloomy cave; they want all men to see _how_ that dead body has been bound, _how_ that face has been wrapped in the _napkin of prejudice_; and shall they wait beside that grave in vain? Is not Jesus still the resurrection and the life? Did He come to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that are bound, in vain? Did He promise to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness unto them that mourn in Zion, and will He refuse to beautify the mind, anoint the head, and throw around the captive negro the mantle of praise for that spirit of heaviness which has so long bowed him down to the ground?
Or shall we not rather say with the prophet, "the zeal of the Lord of Hosts _will_ perform this?" Yes, his promises are sure, and amen in Christ Jesus, that he will a.s.semble her that halteth, and gather her that is driven out, and her that is afflicted.
But I will now say a few words on the subject of Abolitionism. Doubtless you have all heard Anti-Slavery Societies denounced as insurrectionary and mischievous, fanatical and dangerous. It has been said they publish the most abominable untruths, and that they are endeavoring to excite rebellions at the South. Have you believed these reports, my friends?
have _you_ also been deceived by these false a.s.sertions? Listen to me, then, whilst I endeavor to wipe from the fair character of Abolitionism such unfounded accusations. You know that _I_ am a Southerner: your know that my dearest relatives are now in a slave State. Can you for a moment believe I would prove so recreant to the feelings of a daughter and a sister, as to join a society which seeking to overthrow slavery by falsehood, bloodshed and murder? I appeal to you who have known and loved me in days that are pa.s.sed, can _you_ believe it? No! my friends.
As a Carolinian, I was peculiarly jealous of any movements on this subject; and before I would join an Anti-Slavery Society, I took the precaution of becoming acquainted with some of the leading Abolitionists, of reading their publications and attending their meetings, at which I heard addresses both from colored and white men; and it was not until I was fully convinced that their principles were _entirely pacific,_ and their efforts _only moral,_ that I gave my name as a member to the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia. Since that time, I have regularly taken the Liberator, and read many Anti-Slavery pamphlets and papers and books, and can a.s.sure you I _never_ have seen a single insurrectionary paragraph, and never read any account of cruelty which I could not believe. Southerners may deny the truth of these accounts, but why do they not _prove_ them to be false.
Their violent expressions of horror at such accounts being believed, _may_ deceive some, but they cannot deceive _me,_ for I lived too long in the midst of slavery, not to know what slavery is. Such declarations remind me of an a.s.sertion made by a Catholic priest, who said that his Church had never persecuted Protestants for their religion, when it is well known that the pages of history are black with the crimes of the Inquisition. Oh! if the slaves of the South could only write a book, it would vie, I have no doubt, with the horrible details of Catholic cruelty. When _I_ speak of this system, "I speak that I do know," and I am not afraid to a.s.sert, that Anti-Slavery publications have _not_ overdrawn the monstrous features of slavery at all. And many a Southerner _knows_ this as well as I do. A lady in North Carolina remarked to a friend of mine, about eighteen months since, "Northerners know nothing at all about slavery; they think it is perpetual bondage only; but of the _depth of degradation_ that word involves, they have no conception; if they had, _they would never cease_ their efforts until so _horrible_ a system was overthrown." She did not, know how faithfully some Northern men and Northern women had studied this subject; how diligently they had searched out the cause of "him who had none to help him," and how fearlessly they had told the story of the negro"s wrongs.
Yes, Northerners know _every_ thing about slavery now. This monster of iniquity has been unveiled to the world, his frightful features unmasked, and soon, very soon, will he be regarded with no more complacency by the American republic than is the idol of Juggernaut, rolling its b.l.o.o.d.y wheels over the crushed bodies of its prostrate victims.
But you will probably ask, if Anti-Slavery societies are not insurrectionary, why do Northerners tell us they are! Why, I would ask you in return, did Northern senators and Northern representatives give their votes, at the last sitting of congress, to the admission of Arkansas Territory as a slave state? Take those men, one by one, and ask them in their parlours, do you _approve of slavery?_ ask them on _Northern_ ground, where they will speak the truth, and I doubt not _every man_ of them will tell you, _no_! Why then, I ask, did _they_ give their votes to enlarge the mouth of that grave which has already destroyed its tens of thousands! All our enemies tell _us_ they are as much anti slavery as we are. Yes, my friends, thousands who are helping you to bind the fetters of slavery on the negro, despise you in their hearts for doing it; they rejoice that such an inst.i.tution has not been entailed upon them. Why then, I would ask, do _they_ lend you their help? I will tell you, "they love _the praise of men more_ than the praise of G.o.d." The Abolition cause has not yet become so popular as to induce them to believe, that by advocating it in congress, they shall sit still more securely in their seats there, and like the _chief rulers_ in the days of our Saviour, though _many_ believed on him, yet they did _not_ confess him, lest they should _be put out of the synagogue_; John xii, 42, 43. Or perhaps like Pilate, thinking they could prevail nothing, and fearing a tumult, they determined to release Barabbas and surrender the just man, the poor innocent slave to be stripped of his rights and scourged. In vain will such men try to wash their hands, and say, with the Roman governor, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person." Northern American statesmen are no more innocent of the crime of slavery, than Pilate was of the murder of Jesus, or Saul of that of Stephen. These are high charges, but I appeal to _their hearts_; I appeal to public opinion ten years from now.
Slavery then is a national sin.
But you will say, a great many other Northerners tell us so, who can have no political motives. The interests of the North, you must know, my friends, are very closely combined with those of the South. The Northern merchants and manufacturers are making _their_ fortunes out of the _produce of slave labor_; the grocer is selling your rice and sugar; how then can these men bear a testimony against slavery without condemning themselves? But there is another reason, the North is most dreadfully afraid of Amalgamation. She is alarmed at the very idea of a thing so monstrous, as she thinks. And lest this consequence _might_ flow from emanc.i.p.ation, she is determined to resist all efforts at emanc.i.p.ation without expatriation. It is not because she _approves of slavery_, or believes it to be "the corner stone of our republic," for she is as much _anti-slavery_ as we are; but amalgamation is too horrible to think of.
Now I would ask _you_, is it right, is it generous, to refuse the colored people in this country the advantages of education and the privilege, or rather the _right_, to follow honest trades and callings merely because they are colored? The same prejudice exists here against our colored brethren that existed against the Gentiles in Judea. Great numbers cannot bear the idea of equality, and fearing lest, if they had the same advantages we enjoy, they would become as intelligent, as moral, as religious, and as respectable and wealthy, they are determined to keep them as low as they possibly can. Is this doing as they would be done by? Is this loving their neighbor as _themselves_? Oh! that _such_ opposers of Abolitionism would put their souls in the stead of the free colored man"s and obey the apostolic injunction, to "remember them that are in bonds _as bound with them_." I will leave you to judge whether the fear of amalgamation ought to induce men to oppose anti-slavery efforts, when _they_ believe _slavery_ to be _sinful_. Prejudice against color, is the most powerful enemy we have to fight with at the North.
You need not be surprised, then, at all, at what is said _against_ Abolitionists by the North, for they are wielding a two-edged sword, which even here, cuts through the _cords of caste_, on the one side, and the _bonds of interest_ on the other. They are only sharing the fate of other reformers, abused and reviled whilst they are in the minority; but they are neither angry nor discouraged by the invective which has been heaped upon them by slaveholders at the South and their apologists at the North. They know that when George Fox and William Edmundson were laboring in behalf of the negroes in the West Indies in 1671 that the very _same_ slanders were propogated against them, which are _now_ circulated against Abolitionists. Although it was well known that Fox was the founder of a religious sect which repudiated _all_ war, and _all_ violence, yet _even he_ was accused of "endeavoring to excite the slaves to insurrection and of teaching the negroes to cut their master"s throats." And these two men who had their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, were actually compelled to draw up a formal declaration that _they were not_ trying to raise a rebellion in Barbadoes. It is also worthy of remark that these Reformers did not at this time see the necessity of emanc.i.p.ation under seven years, and their princ.i.p.al efforts were exerted to persuade the planters of the necessity of instructing their slaves; but the slaveholder saw then, just what the slaveholder sees now, that an _enlightened_ population _never_ can be a _slave_ population, and therefore they pa.s.sed a law that negroes should not even attend the meetings of Friends. Abolitionists know that the life of Clarkson was sought by slavetraders, and that even Wilberforce was denounced on the floor of Parliament as a fanatic and a hypocrite by the present King of England, the very man who, in 1834 set his seal to that instrument which burst the fetters of eight hundred thousand slaves in his West India colonies. They know that the first Quaker who bore a _faithful_ testimony against the sin of slavery was cut off from religious fellowship with that society. That Quaker was a _woman_. On her deathbed she sent for the committee who dealt with her--she told them, the near approach of death had not altered her sentiments on the subject of slavery and waving her hand towards a very fertile and beautiful portion of country which lay stretched before her window, she said with great solemnity, "Friends, the time will come when there will not be friends enough in all this district to hold one meeting for worship, and this garden will be turned into a wilderness."
The aged friend, who with tears in his eyes, related this interesting circ.u.mstance to me, remarked, that at that time there were seven meetings of friends in that part of Virginia, but that when he was there ten years ago, not a single meeting was held, and the country was literally a desolation. Soon after her decease, John Woolman began his labors in our society, and instead of disowning a member for testifying _against_ slavery, they have for sixty-two years positively forbidden their members to hold slaves.
Abolitionists understand the slaveholding spirit too well to be surprised at any thing that has yet happened at the South or the North; they know that the greater the sin is, which is exposed, the more violent will be the efforts to blacken the character and impugn the motives of those who are engaged in bringing to light the hidden things of darkness. They understand the work of Reform too well to be driven back by the furious waves of opposition, which are only foaming out their own shame. They have stood "the world"s dread laugh," when only twelve men formed the first Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in 1831. They have faced and refuted the calumnies of their enemies, and proved themselves to be emphatically _peace men_ by _never resisting_ the violence of mobs, even when driven by them from the temple of G.o.d, and dragged by an infuriated crowd through the streets of the emporium of New-England, or subjected by _slaveholders_ to the pain of corporal punishment. "None of these things move them;" and, by the grace of G.o.d, they are determined to persevere in this work of faith and labor of love: they mean to pray, and preach, and write, and print, until slavery is completely overthrown, until Babylon is taken up and cast into the sea, to "be found no more at all." They mean to pet.i.tion Congress year after year, until the seat of our government is cleansed from the sinful traffic of "slaves and the souls of men." Although that august a.s.sembly may be like the unjust judge who "feared not G.o.d neither regarded man,"
yet it _must_ yield just as he did, from the power of importunity. Like the unjust judge, Congress _must_ redress the wrongs of the widow, lest by the continual coming up of pet.i.tions, it be wearied. This will be striking the dagger into the very heart of the monster, and once this done, he must soon expire.
Abolitionists have been accused of abusing their Southern brethren. Did the prophet Isaiah _abuse_ the Jews when he addressed to them the cutting reproof contained in the first chapter of his prophecies, and ended by telling them, they would be _ashamed_ of the oaks they had desired, and _confounded_ for the garden they had chosen? Did John the Baptist _abuse_ the Jews when he called them "_a generation of vipers_,"
and warned them "to bring forth fruits meet for repentance!" Did Peter abuse the Jews when he told them they were the murderers of the Lord of Glory? Did Paul abuse the Roman Governor when he reasoned before him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment, so as to send conviction home to his guilty heart, and cause him to tremble in view of the crimes he was living in? Surely not. No man will _now_ accuse the prophets and apostles of _abuse_, but what have Abolitionists done more than they? No doubt the Jews thought the prophets and apostles in their day, just as harsh and uncharitable as slaveholders now, think Abolitionists; if they did not, why did they beat, and stone, and kill them?
Great fault has been found with the prints which have been employed to expose slavery at the North, but my friends, how could this be done so effectively in any other way? Until the pictures of the slave"s sufferings were drawn and held up to public gaze, no Northerner had any idea of the cruelty of the system, it never entered their minds that such abominations could exist in Christian, Republican America; they never suspected that many of the _gentlemen_ and _ladies_ who came from the South to spend the summer months in traveling among them, were petty tyrants at home. And those who had lived at the South, and came to reside at the North, were too _ashamed of slavery_ even to speak of it; the language of their hearts was, "tell it _not_ in Gath, publish it _not_ in the streets of Askelon;" they saw no use in uncovering the loathsome body to popular sight, and in hopeless despair, wept in secret places over the sins of oppression. To such hidden mourners the formation of Anti-Slavery Societies was as life from the dead, the first beams of hope which gleamed through the dark clouds of despondency and grief. Prints were made use of to effect the abolition of the Inquisition in Spain, and Clarkson employed them when he was laboring to break up the Slave trade, and English Abolitionists used them just as we are now doing. They are powerful appeals and have invariably done the work they were designed to do, and we cannot consent to abandon the use of these until the _realities_ no longer exist.
With regard to those white men, who, it was said, did try to raise an insurrection in Mississippi a year ago, and who were stated to be Abolitionists, none of them were proved to be members of Anti-Slavery Societies, and it must remain a matter of great doubt whether, even they were guilty of the crimes alledged against them, because when any community is thrown into such a panic as to inflict Lynch law upon accused persons, they cannot be supposed to be capable of judging with calmness and impartiality. _We know_ that the papers of which the Charleston mail was robbed, were _not_ insurrectionary, and that they were _not_ sent to the colored people as was reported. _We know_ that Amos Dresser was _no insurrectionist_ though he was accused of being so, and on this false accusation was publicly whipped in Nashville in the midst of a crowd of infuriated _slaveholders_. Was that young man disgraced by this infliction of corporal punishment? No more than was the great apostle of the Gentile; who five times received forty stripes, save one. Like him, he might have said, "henceforth I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," for it was for the _truth"s sake, he suffered_, as much as did the Apostle Paul. Are Nelson, and Garrett, and Williams, and other Abolitionists who have recently been banished from Missouri, insurrectionists? _We know_ they are _not_, whatever slaveholders may choose to call them. The spirit which now asperses the character of the Abolitionists, is the _very same_ which dressed up the Christians of Spain in the skins of wild beasts and pictures of devils when they were led to execution as heretics. Before we condemn individuals, it is necessary, even in a wicked community, to accuse them of some crime; hence, when Jezebel wished to compa.s.s the death of Naboth, men of Belial were suborned to bear false witness against him, and so it was with Stephen, and so it ever has been, and ever will be, as long as there is any virtue to suffer on the rack, or the gallows.
_False_ witnesses must appear against Abolitionists before they can be condemned.
I will now say a few words on George Thompson"s mission to this country.
This Philanthropist was accused of being a foreign emissary. Were Lafayette, and Steuben, and De Kalb, and Pulawski, foreign emissaries when they came over to America to fight against the tories, who preferred submitting to what was termed, "the yoke of servitude," rather than bursting the fetters which bound them to the mother country? _They_ came with _carnal weapons_ to engage in _b.l.o.o.d.y_ conflict against American citizens, and yet, where do their names stand on the page of History. Among the honorable, or the base? Thompson came here to war against the giant sin of slavery, _not_ with the sword and the pistol, but with the smooth stones of oratory taken from the pure waters of the river of Truth. His splendid talents and commanding eloquence rendered him a powerful coadjutor in the Anti-Slavery cause, and in order to neutralize the effects of these upon his auditors, and rob the poor slave of the benefits of his labors, his character was defamed, his life was sought, and he at last driven from our Republic, as a fugitive. But was _Thompson_ disgraced by all this mean and contemptible and wicked chicanery and malice? No more than was Paul, when in consequence of a vision he had seen at Treas, he went over the Macedonia to help the Christians there, and was beaten and imprisoned, because he cast out a spirit of divination from a young damsel which had brought much gain to her masters. Paul was as much a _foreign emissary_ in the Roman colony of Philippi, as George Thompson was in America, and it was because he was a _Jew_, and taught customs it was not lawful for them to receive or observe being Romans, that the Apostle was thus treated.
It was said, Thompson was a felon, who had fled to this country to escape transportation to New Holland. Look at him now pouring the thundering strains of his eloquence, upon crowded audiences in Great Britain, and see in this a triumphant vindication of his character. And have the slaveholder, and his obsequious apologist, gained anything by all their violence and falsehood? No! for the stone which struck Goliath of Gath, had already been thrown from the sling. The giant of slavery who had so proudly defied the armies of the living G.o.d, had received his death-blow before he left our sh.o.r.es. But what is George Thompson doing there? Is he not now laboring there, as effectually to abolish American slavery as though he trod our own soil, and lectured to New York or Boston a.s.semblies? What is he doing there, but constructing a stupendous dam, which will turn the overwhelming tide of public opinion over the wheels of that machinery which Abolitionists are working here. He is now lecturing to _Britons_ on _American Slavery_, to the _subjects_ of a _King_, on the abject condition of the _slaves of a Republic_. He is telling them of that mighty Confederacy of petty tyrants which extends over thirteen States of our Union. He is telling them of the munificent rewards offered by slaveholders, for the heads of the most distinguished advocates for freedom in this country. He is moving the British Churches to send out to the churches of America the most solemn appeals, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, them with all long suffering and patience to abandon the sin of slavery immediately. Where then I ask, will the name of George Thompson stand on the page of History? Among the honorable, or the base?
What can I say more, my friends, to induce you to set your hands, and heads, and hearts, to the great work of justice and mercy. Perhaps you have feared the consequences of immediate emanc.i.p.ation, and been frightened by all those dreadful prophecies of rebellion, bloodshed and murder, which have been uttered. "Let no man deceive you;" they are the predictions of that same "lying spirit" which spoke through the four hundred prophets of old, to Ahab king of Israel, urging him on to destruction. _Slavery_ may produce these horrible scenes if it is continued five years longer, but Emanc.i.p.ation _never will_.
I can prove the _safety_ of immediate Emanc.i.p.ation by history. In St.
Domingo in 1793 six hundred thousand slaves were set free in a white population of forty-two thousand. That Island "marched as by enchantment towards its ancient splendor", cultivation prospered, every day produced perceptible proofs of its progress, and the negroes all continued quietly to work on the different plantations, until in 1802, France determined to reduce these liberated slaves again to bondage. It was at _this time_ that all those dreadful scenes of cruelty occurred, which we so often _unjustly_ hear spoken of, as the effects of Abolition. They were occasioned _not_ by Emanc.i.p.ation, but by the base attempt to fasten the chains of slavery on the limbs of liberated slaves.
In Guadaloupe eighty-five thousand slaves were freed in a white population of thirteen thousand. The same prosperous effects followed manumission here, that had attended it in Hayti, every thing was quiet until Buonaparte sent out a fleet to reduce these negroes again to slavery, and in 1802 this inst.i.tution was re-established in that Island.
In 1834, when Great Britain determined to liberate the slaves in her West India colonies, and proposed the apprenticeship system; the planters of Bermuda and Antigua, after having joined the other planters in their representations of the b.l.o.o.d.y consequences of Emanc.i.p.ation, in order if possible to hold back the hand which was offering the boon of freedom to the poor negro; as soon as they found such falsehoods were utterly disregarded, and Abolition must take place, came forward voluntarily, and asked for the compensation which was due to them, saying, _they preferred immediate emanc.i.p.ation_, and were not afraid of any insurrection. And how is it with these islands now? They are decidedly more prosperous than any of those on which the apprenticeship system was adopted, and England is now trying to abolish that system, so fully convinced is she that immediate Emanc.i.p.ation is the _safest_ and the best plan.
And why not try it in the Southern States, if it _never_ has occasioned rebellion; if _not a drop of blood_ has ever been shed in consequence of it, though it has been so often tried, why should we suppose it would produce such disastrous consequences now? "Be not deceived then, G.o.d is not mocked," by such false excuses for not doing justly and loving mercy. There is nothing to fear from immediate Emanc.i.p.ation, but _every thing_ from the continuance of slavery.