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LETTERS ON SLAVERY: 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THE CUMBERLAND CONGREGATION, 
 
 VIRGIN! \ 
 
 BY J. D. v PAXTOIV, 
 
 THEIR FORMER PASTOR. 
 
 LEXINGTOX, KY..- 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ABRAHAM T. SKU.LMAN, 
 
 BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER. 
 
 1833. 
 
fflUteW*, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by 
 A. T. Skillman, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of 
 the State of Kentucky. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 C. SHERMAN 8C CO., PRINTERS, NO. 19 ST. JAMES STREET. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The writer of the following letters was, in 1S26, so 
 unfortunate as to give some offence, on the subject of 
 Slavery, to a part of the Cumberland Congregation, 
 (Va.) of which he was then Pastor. The whole facts 
 of the case appeared to him to justify, if not require, 
 that he should give a statement of them to the public. 
 With this view the following letters were written soon 
 after that event occurred. He yielded, however, to the 
 opinion of some friends, that on account of existing 
 excitement, some little time should be allowed to pass 
 before they were given to the public. 
 
 His object in these letters is, after a brief statement 
 of the facts above alluded to, to examine more fully 
 than he has seen done the teaching of Scripture re- 
 specting Slavery, notice its manifold evils, the dan- 
 gers with which it threatens the South, and what re- 
 ligion and self-preservation require us to do. 
 
 Danville, Ky. March, 1833. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER I.— Introductory — Narrative of Facts, &c. 1. 
 
 II. — Ministerial Prudence in Regard to Slaver}', 15. 
 
 III. — Reasons for discussing- the Subject, 26. 
 
 IV. — Origin and Nature of Slavery in the United States, 42. 
 
 V. — Inconsistent with our free Institutions, and the Na- 
 tural Rights of Man, 53. 
 
 VI. — Its Inconsistency with the Moral Teaching of 
 Scripture, 59. 
 
 VII. — The Servitude tolerated by the Jewish Law not 
 Slavery for Life, 72. 
 
 VIII. — Examination of Leviticus xxv. 44 — 46. — The Prac- 
 tice of the Patriarchs, &c. 85. 
 
 IX. — Examples of God's Judgments for Slaver}-, 98. 
 
 X. — The bearing of these things in the Old Testament 
 on the Teaching of the New respecting Sla- 
 very, 114. 
 
 XI. — Various Evils of Slavery, 124. 
 
 XII. — The same Subject continued, 134. 
 
 XIII. — Some Arguments or Excuses considered, 143. 
 
 XIV. — "What must we do with our Slaves — Several Plans. 
 155. 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER XV The same Subject continued, 170. 
 
 XVI. — Motives to immediate Effort from the Doctrine of 
 Divine Recompenses, 182. 
 
 APPENDIX A.— The Article at which Offence was taken, 195. 
 
 B. — Tables of the Five Official Censuses of the 
 United States, 205. 
 
 C— Some Facts from Berard « On the Effects of 
 Civilization on Longevity," 206. 
 
TO 
 
 THE CUMBERLAND CONGREGATION. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 The circumstances under which we separated have in- 
 duced me to address to you the following letters. The 
 subject on which they treat, had a connection with our 
 separation. That event led me to examine it more care- 
 fully than I had previously done, and there appears a pro- 
 priety in addressing to you the result of said examination. 
 A part of the matter in letters XI. and XII. and a small 
 portion of it, with but little alteration, belonged to an essay, 
 the third number of which, perhaps rather incautiously 
 written,* gave some offence — and was the immediate cause 
 of my leaving you. 
 
 It will to me be a matter of regret, should you consider 
 these letters as designed to fix a serious charge on you, or 
 raise an odium against you in the public mind. This is 
 not my object. It is due to candour to say, that I have 
 thought, and still think, that I was not kindly treated. Ad- 
 mitting that the piece in the Visitor was incautiously writ- 
 ten — that as» a friend since suggested, it had " too much 
 truth in it — that I gave at once what was enough for half 
 a dozen doses ;" still, as it was, by general admission, all 
 truth, it might, I think, in a world so false as this, and at 
 a time when truth is so hard to come at in the public prints, 
 have passed with much less complaint. 
 
 I am satisfied that much the greater part of the congre- 
 gation soon became sensible, that improper means were 
 used by a few, to get up the excitement, and that it greatly 
 exceeded the cause of offence. Of this I had evidence be- 
 
 * See Appendix, A. 
 
 1 
 
2 LETTERS OK SLAVERY. 
 
 fore I left the neighbourhood, and have since had it con- 
 firmed from quarters entitled to credit. This state of things 
 would of itself be a sufficient reason with me for cherish- 
 ing, even if it had been interrupted, all that kindness of 
 feeling and good will towards you, which I ever wish to 
 have towards all people, and especially towards those 
 among whom I have laboured in the Gospel. I experi- 
 enced, however, during the whole affair, much less inter- 
 ruption of those feelings than many of you may have sup- 
 posed. I was conscious that my purposes were good — 
 that I had at heart the real interest of the master as well 
 as the slave. Offence, however, was taken. I regretted 
 it, and especially the course which those offended chose 
 to pursue. I viewed it and endeavoured to bear it as one 
 of those trials we are all liable to while labouring to benefit 
 our fellow men. 
 
 No good would probably result from dwelling at much 
 length on those unpleasant affairs. It may however serve 
 to correct some misstatements that have gone abroad, as 
 well as explain some things not generally known, and at 
 the same time to answer the charge made against me, of 
 undue zeal and imprudence, to give a short statement of 
 my views and course respecting slavery. 
 
 I know not that I could, in the same compass, better 
 express my views of slavery, and the duty of professors of 
 religion respecting it, than is done in the following extract 
 from the minutes of the General Assembly of the Presby- 
 terian Church of 1818, containing its opinion respecting 
 slavery : — " The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church, having taken into consideration the subject of sla- 
 very, think proper to make known their sentiments upon 
 it, to the people under their care. We consider the vol- 
 untary enslaving of one part of the human race by another 
 as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights 
 of human nature — as utterly inconsistent with the law of 
 God, which requires us to love our neighbour as ourselves, 
 and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and precepts of 
 the Gospel of Christ, which enjoins ■ that all things that 
 ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
 them.' Slavery creates a paradox in the moral system. It 
 exhibits rational, accountable and immortal creatures in 
 
LETTER I. 3 
 
 such circumstances ns scarcely to leave them the power of 
 moral action. It exhibits them as dependent on the will 
 of others whether they shall receive religious instruction; 
 whether they shall know and worship the true God; 
 whether they Bhall enjoy the ordinances of the Gospel; 
 whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the en- 
 dearments of husbands and wives, parents and children, 
 neighbours and friend- : whether they shall preserve their 
 chastity and purity, or n gard the dictates of justice or 
 humanity. 
 
 11 It is manifestly the duty of all Christians, who enjoy 
 the light of the present day, when the inconsistency of sla- 
 rery, both with the dictates of humanity and religion, has 
 been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledg- 
 ed, to use their honest, earnest and unwearied endeavours 
 to correct the error- of former times, and - -. i lily as 
 » this foul blot on our holy religion, and to 
 obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout < 
 tendom, and if possible, throughout the world." 
 
 ' was a member of the assembly that passed the resolu- 
 tions of which the shore is an extract. They p 
 unanimously, and were sent down in the printed Minutes 
 for the information of the Churches. This took place 
 several years before you called me to be your pastor. I 
 I my views, nor that 1 ■ «ed to act 
 
 in accordance with them. 
 
 I propose in the present letter-, to prove what is asserted 
 in the above extract — the moral evil of Blavery, and the 
 duty of < Christians to lei no selfish interest prolong tl 
 and injustice, but in the fear of God to do all they can in 
 consistency with duty, to fit for and restore to in i 
 . 
 
 In accordance with the above views, I was led to pur- 
 sue a course in several respects, with which I found some 
 of you were not satisfied. It led me to favour the Colo- 
 nization Society — to take up collections lor that object, and 
 to ai;< nipt founding an Auxiliary Society among you. 
 
 1 thought the plan of colonizing in Africa, well calcu- 
 lated to benefit that country, by introducing Christianity 
 and civilization there; to benefit those coloured people 
 who might L r o out, by placing them in a situation where 
 
4 LETTERS ON* SLAVERY. 
 
 they would be free indeed; and especially, that it would 
 benefit our beloved country, by the effect its success would 
 have on the public mind and the whole system of slavery 
 among us. That it would result in removing the whole 
 coloured population from among us, I did not much expect, 
 nor do I yet; but that it would tell, more or less, on the 
 public feeling I did not doubt. I considered it as the 
 result of a progress of public feeling, and as calculated to 
 call forth, still more, that feeling, and give it a safe and 
 profitable direction. Had not the colonizing scheme been 
 projected, some other, perhaps less safe, would. The spi- 
 rit of the age made this certain. The public feeling long 
 gathering, but pent up, must have poured itself into some 
 channel, that promised to open a passage through which 
 the oppressed might go out free. 
 
 These views led me to refer a little to the subject, a few 
 times, in preaching. There were, however, usually, slaves 
 in our worshiping assemblies, and that, together with a 
 wish to avoid giving offence, induced me to touch very 
 seldom on that subject. 
 
 By marriage, one or two families of slaves came into my 
 possession. Mrs. P.'s views on the subject of slavery, 
 I found to agree substantially with my own. We both 
 felt it our duty to free said slaves, as soon as it could be 
 done to their apparent advantage. We watched the pro- 
 gress of the colony at Liberia for several years ; and in the 
 meantime used means to prepare our slaves for freedom. 
 As soon as we were satisfied that they had belter prospects 
 there of doing well for themselves, than they could have 
 with us, we encouraged them to go ; gave them such an 
 outfit as our means afforded, and sent them to the colony. 
 
 Our reasons for this course may be summed up in few 
 words. We believed slavery morally wrong, and felt in 
 duty bound not to continue it after a way was open to get 
 clear of it; and taking all things into view, we thought 
 their prospects for doing well, permanently, were better at 
 Liberia than in this country, either in the free or the slave- 
 holding States. 
 
 Their personal interest, however, although important, 
 was not the only thing I felt bound to regard. What 
 effect would my continuing to be a slaveholder, and rais- 
 
LETTER I. O 
 
 inn my family in those habits, have on the general question 
 of slavery ! Actions speak louder than words. My words 
 mning slavery would have passed unheeded ; my 
 conduct would have been pointed to - :tioning it. 
 1 rson of any observation knows thai words are 
 
 consi and when weighed against a 
 
 man's actions, are 1 i ltIi t as vanity. Where there is any 
 nd with most, there is a little ; the prac- 
 tice of pro! religion, and especially ofminisfc 
 the >_: is with many, a very common standard of 
 right and wrong. Persons who seldom look into the 
 Bible to si t the morality of any kind of 
 conduct, at i know how p of religion act 
 pecially what the preacher d >< -. Pro- 
 fessors of religion usually allow themselves s little more 
 Liberty than their preacher takes, and nonprofessors, allow 
 theme re than is taken by cither 
 ; .1 . - r I entered the 
 ministry, happening to be in ■ place where some curious 
 feat- of horsemanship were exhibited, walk hun- 
 dred van'-, and p tid p< rhaps a ninepence for the privilege 
 them. I thought few, if an) body there, knew 
 me. I:i s Few hours aAerw rds, I fell in company with 
 some | i, who let ra know thai they had 
 Iding that they feared they were 
 doing wrong in going to such a place, until they saw me 
 Dome in, but fell no scruples after* vtook it lor 
 granted, that it" it wen- wrong, I would not have attended. 
 The rerj facl that my attending removed their doubts, in- 
 creased mine, as to the propriety of L r <»in<: to such p 
 I never did and never will attend again; without Baying it 
 uredly u rong to attend, it is enough for me that su< h 
 amusements are not things to which I oughl to reconcile 
 the consciences of others, by my i 
 The continued practice of slavery 1 considered of more 
 
 than doubtful character. I considered it positively wrong; 
 
 and whatever others might do, and persevere in doing, I 
 felt that 1 owed it to Goof, to the purity of the gospel, to 
 the cause of truth and equity, and to my own consistency 
 
 and peace of mind, not by word or example to justify the 
 unnecessary continuance of such hard dealings of man to 
 
 r 
 
6 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 man. I had not the vanity to expect that any very great 
 effect would follow from liberating my slaves. I knew 
 that almost all the influence in your part of the country, 
 was, as far as I could judge, on the side of slavery. I knew, 
 however, that all great things have had small beginnings. 
 Elijah's cloud was at first only as " big as a man's hand," 
 but in due time it covered all the heavens, and blest the 
 earth with its rain. And should no good follow from what 
 I did, still what little influence I might have, would be for 
 right and duty, and not against it. I did hope, indeed, that 
 however few might at present follow my example, it would 
 lead some to think more seriously on the subject of 
 slavery ; and that ultimately the good cause would be pro- 
 moted by it. And however differently some things have 
 fallen out from what I then anticipated, I still hope that it 
 will finally appear that at least as much good will have re- 
 sulted as will balance the evil ; and more than will result 
 from the course of those, who, while they own the evil of 
 slavery, still give it the sanction of their example. 
 
 If liberating those slaves was not, as many have thought, 
 the main offence I gave, it led very directly to my writing 
 the piece in the Visitor, which was the immediate cause 
 of our separation. That persons would be led to think on 
 the subject of slavery as a religious matter, was my hope ; 
 but that as much pains would be taken to justify it from 
 Scripture, I did not expect — much less did I expect that 
 so much would be said to place my conduct in the wrong 
 — and represent what I did as unbecoming my character 
 as a preacher, and my relation to the congregation as a 
 pastor. 
 
 While hearing so much said in favour of slavery, and 
 the Scriptures so often appealed to as justifying it, it was 
 natural for me to wish to give my views on the subject. 
 When so much was said as went to charge me with weak- 
 ness in thinking slavery wrong, and with injustice to others 
 in setting my slaves free, I felt that I owed it to myself, 
 to give my reasons for my belief — that I owed it to the 
 cause of freedom to state her claims — and especially that I 
 owed it to the Scriptures to rescue them from those per- 
 versions of meaning and application, which made them 
 justify what their whole spirit went most strongly to con-, 
 demn. 
 
LETTER I. 7 
 
 In this state of things I wrote the Essay,* at the third 
 number of which offence was taken. As to the spirit of 
 that number, I am free to own, as I did from the time my 
 attention was particularly called to it, that I think it not 
 altogether happy; a milder spirit might have beenbetter. To 
 those who have been educated to think slavery not wrong, 
 it may, and probably did, seem harsh; yet to persons who 
 view slavery as I do, and as a large number in our coun- 
 try do, as a tiling altogether wrong, the piece appeared 
 probably not faulty on that score. At all events those who 
 have made so free in censuring me, and charge me with 
 weakness and injustice to others in liberating my slaves, 
 might have allowed me to say something in self-defence. 
 It ought to be recollected that it is slavery in the abstract 
 that is there assailed, although a practical aspect is given 
 to the argument by the illustration used to expose its 
 evil. Tew among the more intelligent in our community 
 justify slavery in the abstract; there are. however, a good 
 many of the less knowing who do. It was my fortune to 
 meet with some of this sort. In conversations on the sub- 
 ject a great deal was Baid that went to place the whole 
 wrong of slavery, in the treatment of slaves, to maintain 
 that slavery itself was not wrong, provided the slave was 
 not hardly dealt by while held in that condition. (Jive 
 them plenty to eat and drink and wear, and make them do 
 i reasonable portion of work, and there is no harm in it, 
 pras in substance often said. This was in my opinion not 
 Dnly an error, but one of vital importance, one that went 
 to the core of the subject: and against it, that number of 
 the Essay that gave offence, was chiefly aimed; and while 
 assailing what seemed to be the stronghold of the system, 
 [ thought it justifiable to give point and force to my attack; 
 demolish, if I could, its defences, and prove that it was 
 Untenable. The timing of the piece was perhaps not the 
 most fortunate ; although near six months intervened be- 
 tween freeing said slaves and its publication, during which 
 much had been said about slavery, and in justification of 
 it; it would, there is reason to believe, have been better 
 to have let a few more months pass, before I did any thing 
 
 * Appendix A. 
 
8 LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 
 
 else, which might serve as " an occasion to those who de- 
 sired an occasion" to find fault. 
 
 Considerable offence, however, was taken at the piece, 
 and a good deal done by a few to excite and spread the 
 dissatisfaction. I presently heard of what was going on, 
 and in a short time received information from the Session 
 that offence was taken at said piece, and at myself as the 
 supposed author, with a request to know whether I was 
 the author, and to have a conference with me respecting 
 it. I met them as requested, informed them that I was 
 the author, that those were my sentiments before invited 
 to be your pastor, that I had never concealed my opi- 
 nions ; but that in publishing them in said piece I had no 
 intention of giving offence, nor did I think that any offence 
 need have been taken. That so far as the spirit and man- 
 ner of the piece was faulty, I regretted it ; but that I could 
 not change my opinions nor give up my right of explain- 
 ing and advocating them, to please any body of men. But 
 while I maintained my right to support my own opinions, 
 I loved peace, and to put an end to the whole matter, I 
 would resign the charge of the congregation, and seek a 
 people who thought as I did ; and leave you to obtain a 
 pastor whose opinions might agree with your own. 
 
 It remains before closing this letter to make a few re- 
 marks on the charge made against me, of undue zeal and 
 imprudence, on the subject of slavery. 
 
 Those of you who best know me, and many of you 
 have known me for sixteen or eighteen years, do I am 
 satisfied give me credit for meaning well in what I did. 
 You possibly, however, may think that I was over-zeal- 
 ous and imprudent on the subject. Some pains have been 
 taken to send abroad this opinion. Several persons, and 
 some of my brethren in the ministry, have in letters to me, 
 and about me, more than intimated it. 
 
 It is possible there may be some truth in it. At least I 
 do not feel clear in saying that there is not. Although it 
 may be more uncommon, yet I know not that there is any 
 thing less reputable in having too much zeal in a good 
 cause than in having too little ; and I have seen enough 
 of the w T orld to know that very many judge of the pru- 
 dence or imprudence of persons, chiefly by their success. 
 
LETTER 
 
 9 
 
 The successful pass for prudent, while the unsuccessful 
 pass for imprudent. I never advanced a claim to infalli- 
 bility, and have no hesitation in admitting that I may have 
 erred. The man who has lived forty years — spent four 
 or five of them as a teacher in a college, with a superin- 
 tendence of the generous, talented, but mischievous and 
 unruly Virginian youth — fifteen years in the ministry, 
 eleven of them as pastor of congregations, and four as a 
 missionary, all in the slave-holding states, and at last 
 gives offence to a part of one congregation by freeing his 
 own slaves, and trying to lead others to aid in measures 
 for improving the condition of thai oppressed people; and 
 on that ground only is charged with undue zeal and im- 
 prudence, — ought, perhaps, to let it pass, and thank God 
 that he lias got along so well. He has, perhaps, come as 
 near to those of whom "all men speak will," as it is safe 
 to get: fur a wo hangs over them, however much our 
 love of human praise may make us wish to be of their 
 number. 
 
 It SOmi times, however, happens that we cannot blame 
 ourselves lor things for which we are blamed by others; 
 while on the other hand, we may feel that we deserve 
 blame where others approve. It' it were meant >imply to 
 
 charge me with not in all things pursuing the best course, 
 
 not using the best mean-, not timing my words and ac- 
 tion.- and manner in every instance for the best, it may 
 possibly he (me : y< a, I doubt not that it is true. There 
 is often a choice of means and times and manner; and 
 until a trial be made, it may he very doubtful which will 
 succeed the best. .Many persons are so fearful of not doing 
 things in the best manner, that they wholly omit doing 
 them; although they are things that plainly ought to be 
 done. So fearful are they that they may not so do them 
 as to obtain the approbation of their fellow men, that they 
 prefer offending God by not even trying to do his will as 
 well as they can. " 1 have not 50 learned Christ." In 
 things that plainly ought to be done and done zealously, I 
 would, while trying to do them as well as I can, prefer the 
 Charge of over-zeal and imprudence from those who are 
 doing nothing, than to share with them their character for 
 prudence in doing nothing at all. 
 
10 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 I am, however, tree to admit that with my present in- 
 formation, I should not in every particular pursue the same 
 course. I ~niL r along a way that had Dot 
 
 much travelled. I wsa feeling it out for myself ; and it is 
 not altogether fair, much ' . for those w ho - I 
 
 at a distance, looked coldly on, but gave no warnii 
 raise the cry of over-zeal and imprudence at - they 
 
 discover a difficulty has been met with: while, perhaps, 
 they themselves were instrumental in placing it before me. 
 1 hcL r lc: • who charge me with over-z< al, 
 
 &c, whether tl illy satisfied that they theme 
 
 are zealous enough! II - much zeal to 
 
 better the condition of - law of love, as the 
 
 command of God, requi they fully satisfied thai 
 
 their charge of undue zeal does not. in part, arise from a 
 wish to justify themselves in doing nothing .' from a oon« 
 viction thai they must either charge me with havii 
 much zeal, or admit that they themseli too little f 
 
 Are they sure that in charging me with imprudence in 
 giving some offence, they are not in part influenced by a 
 to justify th< in their prudence in avoiding 
 
 offence by doing nothinp ' [f I had continued to pi 
 slavery, if I had m for it, 
 
 or "talked about if. and about i/ f " bo that Dr. Syntax 
 himself could not tell whether I talked for it or against it; 
 I should probably not only have given no offence, but re- 
 tained my character for prudence, with those prudent 
 brethren. 
 
 There an' some facts which in all fairness ought to be 
 taken into the account by these who set in judgment On 
 my conduct, before they bring in the charge of over-zeal 
 and imprudence. 
 
 While I considered it a positive duty not to justify sla- 
 very ; while I thought it right to let it be known distinctly 
 that I considered it wrong, morally wrong : 1 always con- 
 sidered it a difficult subject, and one that required 
 care and prudence; and I tried thus to treat it. It will 
 probably be said, that I succeeded badly. vYd 
 
 are not always accountable for our success. We are to 
 " minister according to the ability that God giveth." 
 11 Paul may plant and Apollos water, but God giveth the 
 
11 
 
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 to in-: i prudence 
 
 When 1 Colonization S 
 
 nurn- 
 
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 j' .ml findi 
 
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 With I I 
 
 church for the < .11 il :'. 
 
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 bctu' • i it not 
 
 I think ll 
 sonir plan for imp , and brin 
 
 I . the mail I 
 
 . inilucnti.il laymen, 
 ii thing. I 1» t them 
 
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 I lid take t:. 
 
 *ia the matter. 
 
 n a number 
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 .» winch Ui' y pa) the 
 
12 LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 
 
 And with respect to liberating my slaves ; while as a 
 matter of duty, I should most likely at all events have done 
 it ; still the time and the manner and even the effect it 
 would have on the slave question, were not unthought of. 
 I did not, it is true, consult many, but I did consult some. 
 I consulted a gentleman of great worth, who holds a large 
 slave property, has deservedly a great influence among 
 you, and from his public character and extensive acquaint- 
 ance, had the best opportunity of knowing the public feel- 
 ing, as to the effect emancipating slaves and sending them 
 to the Colony, would have on the general cause. He gave 
 it as his opinion that it would have a good effect. I in- 
 quired whether, in his opinion, it would give offence ? He 
 said no, assuredly not, in his opinion, and stated that he 
 had been looking among his own slaves, to see if there 
 were not some of a suitable character to send out. I did 
 not, it is true, tell him my reasons for making the inquiry. 
 The inquiry, however, was made with especial reference 
 to my own case ; and his opinion had an influence in re- 
 moving an apprehension that I might offend some by liber- 
 ating my slaves and sending them to Liberia; and the poor 
 unfortunate piece in the Visitor, was, to little purpose, as it 
 may seem, the subject of prudential consideration. After 
 concluding that I ought, in way of answer to many things 
 that had been said, given my views of slavery, I was in 
 some doubt as to the best mode of doing it. It would have 
 been more agreeable to me, and suited my immediate ob- 
 ject better, to have done it from the pulpit. It was a re- 
 ligious, and not a political question, that I meant to discuss ; 
 and of course it belonged to the province of the pulpit. 
 There were, however, usually a few slaves in our worship- 
 ing assemblies, and I thought such discussions not prudent » 
 before them. I had no wish that they should know any- 
 thing about it. It was the duty of the master that I meant 
 to discuss, and not that of the slave. It occurred to me 
 that a few numbers in the Family Visitor, a religious pa- 
 per, taken chiefly in religious families, would be the least 
 exceptionable mode I could adopt. Few coloured persons 
 can read, none took that paper, and perhaps few ever read 
 it. It did not occur to me as possible that any great of- 
 fence could be given by arguing the case freely and even 
 
 
LETTER I. 13 
 
 strongly in its pages. The appeal was made to professors 
 of religion— to the masters and mistresses of slaves. I did 
 not, it is true, gravely tell them that said piece was not to 
 be read to their slaves. I took it for granted that they 
 would have common sense enough to know that. 
 
 The first and second numbers gave, I believe, no offence. 
 Within a few days after the publication of the third, I re- 
 ceived a note from the editor stating that he had been ad- 
 vised not to publish any more pieces on that subject, as 
 possibly they might give offence. I wrote to him to dis- 
 continue them, as I had no wish to do that. 
 
 A few individuals in various quarters may not have liked 
 the piece. I did not expect all to like it. Little notice, 
 however, was taken of it, except among you, and in a few 
 neighbouring places after hearing from you. 
 
 I am aware that some friends of the Colonization So- 
 ciety have represented me as injuring that cause by what 
 I did. 
 
 The piece about which the complaint was made, does 
 not contain one word about the Colonization Society, its 
 objects or plans. I did not write it as a friend of coloni- 
 zing, but as an enemy of slavery. The argument rests on 
 other grounds, and desires no aid from colonizing plans. 
 
 If that Society was injured by prejudices resulting from 
 their having given a passage to my slaves to the Colony, 
 Jt was an unlooked for evil. When I asked a passage for 
 them, I no more apprehended an evil to the Society" than 
 the Society did in granting it. I believe, however, that 
 the real interest of the Society has not been injured, but 
 promoted. 
 
 There was evidently in the public mind at that time, and 
 especially in the non-slaveholding states, a diversity of 
 opinion and feeling respecting the objects and bearing of 
 the Colonization Society. Some considered it as a scheme 
 of slaveholders to get clear of the free coloured people, 
 that they might hold with a more enduring grasp the slaves. 
 Others looked at the indirect bearing of the plan, and hoped 
 that slaveholders would free their slaves and send them to 
 the Colony. There was evidently a hesitancy in the 
 minds of many, who are now the fast friends of the insti- 
 tution, They were willing to benefit the free, but disliked 
 
 2 
 
14 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 to do so at the expense of the slaves. I, from the first, 
 did believe that its indirect bearing on slavery would be 
 good. I thought the state of hesitancy in the public mind, 
 especially in the non-slaveholding states, required that a 
 practical proof be given of the tendency of the Society — 
 a proof that all would understand. I thought it time that 
 some slaves were freed to go out under the patronage of 
 the Society. I offered mine, and they were acceptd . 
 
 If there were any who wished to remove the free col- 
 oured people for the purpose of retaining more firmly the 
 slaves, it is possible that they may have been alienated from 
 the Society on seeing its tendency. I believe, however, 
 that it gained more friends than it lost, and those gained 
 are fast friends ; those lost must soon have been lost, for 
 this tendency of the Society must soon have appeared. 
 
 The above facts will, I hope, be kept in view when the 
 question of imprudence is under discussion. I must de- 
 fer to another letter a few remarks on the rule by which 
 some measure prudence, as also a few cm the objection 
 made against Ministers of the Gospel saying anything 
 about slavery. Yours, &c. 
 
15 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 Passing by those that are without, some members of the 
 Church, together with several of my brethren in the min- 
 istry, appear to consider the circumstance that offence was 
 taken, as ij>so facto proof that there has been over-zeal and 
 imprudence. Their rule for judging of zeal and prudence 
 in this matter, it would seem, is, that no offence must be 
 given. If liberating slaves gives offence to any, it must 
 not be done— if speaking or writing against slavery gives 
 offence, that must be avoided — if an apparent justification, 
 of slavery be needful to catch people with guile, it must 
 be done. The preacher must not offend the people, or 
 they will not hear him, and he will have no opportunity of 
 doing them good. Very plausible certainly ! Allow me, 
 however, to request you to compare this rule with those 
 many passages of scripture, which represent ministers as 
 bound to declare the whole truth to their fellow men, 
 " whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear" — 
 as bound to explain truth and enforce duty — to reprove 
 vice and encourage virtue, and leave the event to God. 
 
 Or take the more easy and simple test, that of applying 
 this rule to the conduct of the Prophets, Apostles, and our 
 Lord himself. Do you not see that with one sweep it will 
 charge with imprudence and over-zeal every teacher from 
 the days of Moses to the last Apostolic man of God re- 
 corded in the New Testament? " Which of the Prophets," 
 said our Lord to the Jews, " did not your fathers perse- 
 cute ?" And he foretold that the same would continue to 
 be the fate of his ministers — " Ye shall be hated of all men 
 for my sake — Brother shall betray brother — Wo unto you 
 when all men speak well of you, for so did the fathers of 
 the false Prophets." Our Lord repeatedly urged truth 
 when he knew it would offend, and actually so offended 
 multitudes that they went away and attended his ministry 
 no more, and in one case, the displeasure and going away 
 was so general among his followers, that he was left al- 
 most alone, and put the question directly to his disciples, 
 who appear to have become restless. " Will ye also go 
 away ? 
 
16 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 Or take the case of the apostle Paul, whom I have heard 
 extolled as most consummate for his prudence and skilful 
 management of men and things, so as not to give offence. 
 Please to turn to the account we have of him in the Acts 
 of the Apostles and his own Epistles. You will see at 
 once that he was forever getting into difficulties, and might 
 positively be tracked almost over the world by the com- 
 motions that he raised. His very first preaching produced 
 such a ferment at Damascus, that he had to be " let down 
 over the wall in a basket" to escape not only the " Jews," 
 but the civil officers ; and no sooner had he arrived at Je- 
 rusalem, than he gave such offence to the Grecians that 
 they " went about to slay him." Now we have him " dis- 
 puting with the Jews at Antioch," and " shaking off the 
 dust of his feet against them" — again, exciting the multi- 
 tude into a rage at Philippi, by breaking up their gains 
 from sooth-saying ; directly we have him raising an up- 
 roar at Thessalonica, and charged with " turning the world 
 upside down," and interfering with the " decrees of Cesar," 
 what is now called politics and affairs of state — presently 
 we have him hauled by a mob before Gallio at Corinth — 
 then raising such a stir at Ephesus as " filled the city with 
 confusion," by so preaching against idolatry as to deprive 
 the "craftsmen" of their "gains," and render useless 
 their stock on hand. 
 
 He excited commotions repeatedly by urging points that 
 were considered as interfering with the right of property. 
 He was charged again and again with meddling with poli- 
 tics, and even moving sedition, by preaching doctrines 
 that tended to change the existing state of things. We 
 have indeed his own confession that all the churches plant- 
 ed by him in Asia, were " turned away from him," and 
 from an attachment that made them willing to " pluck out 
 their own eyes and give them to him," were become " his 
 enemies," so stoutly had he plied them with offensive 
 truth. This really, at first view, looks as if Paul had la- 
 boured in the Gospel to little purpose ; and yet he is not 
 more remarkable for the trouble and confusion and ever- 
 lasting contention of his ministry, than the conclusion he 
 draws respecting the good growing out of them. After he 
 had "five times received forty stripes save one" — "thrice 
 
LETTER II. 17 
 
 been beaten with rods" — " once been stoned," with a 
 thousand adventures in his efforts to escape more handling 
 of the same sort ; we find him writing to the Churches, 
 and congratulating himself, while informing them, that 
 what had " happened unto him had fallen out rather to the 
 furtherance of the Gospel." 
 
 That Paul was a faithful preacher none can doubt; but 
 that he was a prudent one, according to the above stand- 
 ard, is very questionable. The most earnest attempt re- 
 corded of him, to be prudent in the way of giving no of- 
 fence, was at the earnest request of the elders at Jerusalem. 
 They knew the fiery temperament of that people ; and 
 appear to have adopted to some extent the prudential rule, 
 of doing nothing that would give offence. They were de- 
 sirous that Paul during his visit among them, should act 
 on their principles. They kindly furnished him with a 
 plan for getting along smoothly. And Paul really appears 
 in good earnest to have resolved that for a few days he 
 would he upon his best behaviour and avoid L r iving offence. 
 lie had many inducements for so doing. He was at Je- 
 rusalem, on a visit to the mother church, in the company 
 of the apostles and elders ; reports to his disadvantage had 
 gone abroad, and now during the feast, when multitudes 
 were collected from all quarters, he had the best opportunity 
 of putting down those reports. In addition to all these 
 reasons, he had again and again been prophetically warned 
 that difficulties were before him, and must, if he ever did, 
 have felt the need of prudence and circumspection. Alas, 
 poor Paul ! and poor human wisdom, and prudence, and 
 management! Seven days had not passed, before he had 
 the whole city in an uproar ; and the Roman governor, 
 with ;m army had to interfere to save his life. All the 
 prudential maxims which his brethren had kindly pressed 
 on him were forgotten in a moment. The ardor of his 
 character returned, increased eleven fold by the restraint 
 of seven days. No sooner is he out of the hands of the 
 multitude, who were about to kill him, than he undertakes 
 to harangue them ; and driving at once into the very 
 topics of all under the sun most offensive to them, soon 
 raised a clamour almost sufficient to break the slumbers of 
 the dead. 
 
 a • 
 
18 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 It is well for Paul's character that he was an apostle, 
 and lived at the time he did; and especially well that the 
 account we have of him is in the New Testament, and has 
 the approbation of that sacred volume. Nothing else as 
 appears to me, saves him from the charge of being almost 
 uniformly imprudent, — if the proper test of prudence be 
 that of giving no offence. How much benefit he would 
 have received from a course of lectures on prudence by 
 some modern professor of the amiable virtue, I know not. 
 I fear, however, but little. It seems that the elders at Je- 
 rusalem had counselled him to little purpose. He had 
 more contention and strife, and raised up more enemies 
 than all the rest of the apostles together; and yet perhaps 
 in the midst of it, did twice as much good as the whole 
 of them. 
 
 You will err greatly, if yon infer from the above re- 
 marks, either that I hold in low estimation ministerial pru- 
 dence, according to the scriptural import of that term, 01 
 that I think much care is not needful to avoid giving unne- 
 cessary offence. They are designed to show that many 
 have notions of ministerial prudence, which are wholly 
 unscriptural, and that prudence according to their notion 
 of it is often downright disobedience to God. Ministe- 
 rial prudence, according to the scriptural standard, has 
 more regard for God than it has for man — it fears hire 
 more than it fears man — it is more desirous of pleasing 
 him and gaining his approbation than of pleasing and re- 
 ceiving the approbation of man. It does desire the benefl 
 of man ; it may choose out good and acceptable words; 
 it may watch for the most favourable times ; it ought tc 
 be wise to wise souls ; but it does not forget that all its 
 success is from God; nor that God has in his word laic 
 much more stress on a faithful declaration of divine truth 
 than on " excellency of speech," or " the enticing words 
 of man's wisdom." 
 
 The inspired teachers, a record of whose ministry w< 
 have in the scriptures, evidently felt most deeply solicitous 
 that their ministry might benefit their fellow men. The-j 
 evidently sought to save their hearers, and they showec 
 this by teaching and exhorting, and reproving them in al 
 faithfulness. In some respects, they accommodated theii 
 
LETTER II. 19 
 
 teaching to the characters and circumstances of their hear- 
 ers, — bearing the infirmities of the weak — leading them 
 on from step to step, as they were able to bear it — feeding 
 those with milk who were not able to receive strong meat. 
 All this I admit; yea, more, I insist that in this we have 
 them for examples. It is still undeniably true, that this 
 accommodation to the weakness, and especially to the 
 prejudices of their hearers, had its limits. It did not pre- 
 vent their declaring, at its proper time and place, the whole 
 counsel of God — it did not set a seal on their lips, respect- 
 ing important branches of moral duty — it did not prevent 
 them from plainly teaching, and faithfully admonishing, 
 and solemnly warning their hearers, on points so offen- 
 sive, as to expose them to bitter persecution. I appeal 
 to the record. 
 
 The minister who can declare the whole counsel of 
 God — pivc each portion of truth its due explanation, and 
 each duty its due enforcement — and all without giving 
 offence, has much cause of thankfulness. Some, no doubt, 
 have a more happy talent than others for doing this. If a 
 faultless manner, however, would always prevent offence, we 
 might have supposed that men ol" God speaking as moved 
 by the Holy Ghost — that apostles speaking when tilled with 
 the spirit, — and especially that Christ himself, in whom 
 dwelt all the fulness of wisdom and knowledge, would not 
 have given offence. Yet what preachers have ever given 
 more offence, or excited against them more bitter persecu- 
 tions. "It is enough For the disciple to be as his master, 
 and the servant as his Lord." The duty of faithfulness, 
 generally considered, all admit. But when we come to 
 its application to particular parts of religious duty — for in- 
 stance, slavery, then objections are made, and it is per- 
 haps decided to be an imprudent thing to declare the truth 
 of God on that subject. 
 
 It is so common to make objections to ministers of the 
 gospel saying or doing any thing on the subject of slave- 
 ry, that 1 feel disposed to make a remark or two on that 
 point. Passing by their natural and equal right as citi- 
 zens, which i'ew will deny, I shall notice the objection to 
 their bringing their religious character and influence as 
 expounders of God's word, to bear against it. 
 
20 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 I must first remark, that there is a very manifest incon- 
 sistency in objections of this kind, when made by the 
 American people. No one who has made himself at all 
 acquainted with the history of the American involution, 
 can be ignorant of the willingness with which preachers 
 were heard when they brought religion and the Scriptures 
 to justify our defending our own liberties ; nor with what 
 solicitude their influence and co-operation were sought. 
 There was then no objection to considering liberty as so 
 far connected with religion, as to bring all the force of re- 
 ligion to bear on the question of defending it. The minis- 
 ter who was known to be a good staunch Whig, was the 
 more willingly listened to. The Royalists and Tories, it 
 is true, complained of this, and called it preaching politics ; 
 but no good Whig had any scruples on the matter, or 
 any difficulty in defending the course of the Whig clergy. 
 
 Now I put it to your candour, is it fair to take opposite 
 ground as soon as the question is transferred from your 
 rights to the rights of others 1 How can you in consis- 
 tency and conscience justify the Whig clergy of the revo- 
 lution in their continual treating our rights and liberties as 
 moral questions ; and at the same time object to their sons, 
 or the hoary heads of the same men, when they only do 
 the same thing? Does not our Lord and Master say again 
 and again, that he is no "respecter of persons?" that he 
 has made of " one blood all nations of men," and that we 
 must apply his law impartially to all? On what principle 
 can you require one doctrine to be dealt out, when your 
 rights and liberties are in question, and another when the 
 same question comes up respecting doing justice to those 
 in slavery? 
 
 It is not more inconsistent in people to require such 
 "deceitful handlings" of the word of God, and the sacred 
 principles of religion, than it is in ministers to practice it. 
 If they believe that the Americans were justifiable in their 
 separation from the mother country ; if they believe that 
 their fathers in the gospel were right in considering that 
 case as having a moral character, and in bringing Scripture 
 and religion to bear on it, they are bound by consistency, 
 yea, by higher obligations, to aid all safe and lawful means 
 for bringing about the emancipation of those in bondage* 
 
LETTER II. 21 
 
 Considered as to the rights withholden, the oppressions 
 endured, the evils growing out of their situation, the case 
 of slaves is much more hard than ours was, and of course 
 much more contrary to that religion which was made to 
 interpose its sacred character and powerful influence on 
 our side. 
 
 There is this other important point of difference. Scrip- 
 ture is much more plain in condemning oppression, and 
 denouncing the judgments of God against the oppressor, 
 than it is in justifying resistance on the part of the op- 
 pressed. 
 
 If our fathers, as the Whig clergy taught, were justified 
 in resisting the oppression of England, then the crime of 
 England in thus oppressing, must have been still more 
 plain, and the clergy were justified by Scripture in warn- 
 ing her of her sin. 
 
 Now, in the case of personal slavery, which is much 
 worse than political, I claim for the clergy but the right of 
 addressing the oppressor, pointing out his sin, and urging 
 him to cease from it. To the slave, the person oppressed, 
 nothing need be said. When they are addressed, obe- 
 dience to their master ought be enjoined — patience and 
 contentment with their lot. The object should be to in- 
 duce their masters to restore to them their rights, and thus 
 prevent a contest for them. 
 
 When the divine right of kings was plead in England 
 and this country, to trammel conscience, and prevent our 
 fathers from asserting their rights, the great body of the 
 Whig clergy came forward, and by their preaching and 
 exposition of Scripture, showed that when fairly inter- 
 preted, Scripture was in favour of freedom and the natural 
 rights of man. The doctrine jure divino, which was then 
 exploded respecting government, is precisely the same 
 which some now plead respecting slavery ! Many passages 
 may be found in the Bible fully as strong in favour of mo- 
 narchy and despotism, as can be found in favour of slavery. 
 We would laugh at the man who would plead them in fa- 
 vour of the one, and yet grave men may be found who 
 plead the other. Religious teachers owe it to God, to 
 their office, and to the best interests of men, to disabuse 
 the public mind, and set forth the true teaching of Scrip- 
 ture on this matter. 
 
22 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 I readily admit that there are things in such a sense po- 
 litical, that with them religion has but little, if anything, to 
 do. Whether a people choose to live under a king, or in 
 a republic ; whether they prefer hereditary or elective 
 rulers ; whether elections be for a long or a short period ; 
 whether the legislative, executive and judiciary branches, 
 be in separate hands, or all entrusted to the same indivi- 
 dual : whether civil and criminal causes be tried by a judge 
 and jury, or be entrusted wholly to a judge : whether they 
 be tried and decided according to written laws, or accord- 
 ing to the natural equity of the case, in the opinion of the 
 court ; these, with a thousand such things, may be regu- 
 lated one way or another, according to the will of the peo- 
 ple, without the claims of religion being violated. But 
 whatever form of government they may adopt, the benefit 
 of the people ought to be kept in view. With whomso- 
 ever the law-making power may be lodged, equal and just 
 laws ought to be made : whoever is entrusted with the 
 executive department, ought to rule in the fear of God — 
 and those appointed as judges, ought to be a terror to evil- 
 doers and a praise to those that do well." Whatever the 
 form may be, and whatever the mode of procedure, the 
 substance to be secured and the end to be sought, is the 
 same : justice and honesty, and fair dealing, and well 
 doing, are to be promoted ; while dishonesty and injustice, 
 and all evil doing, and hard dealings of man to man, ought 
 to be prevented. Rulers have no moral right to set aside 
 the law of God: and that law embraces our conduct and 
 points out our duty, in all things, both to God and man. 
 
 A large portion of the community, are not only destitute 
 of religion, but often ignorant of its claims. Many of 
 those who fill the higher seats in our civil community, and 
 have a chief hand in framing its laws, have not the fear of 
 God before them ; and use little if any care to frame laws 
 according to natural equity and the claims of religion. The 
 laws of God, however, do not lose their claims upon 
 society, or individuals, by the fact, that their civil laws 
 may run counter to the laws of God. They remain the 
 same, and the obligation to obey them remains the same, 
 however hand may join in hand, and iniquity be framed by 
 law. 
 
LETTER II. 23 
 
 One of the chief means appointed by God for preserving 
 the knowledge and enforcing the claims of his law, is the 
 sacred ministry. Ministers are to act for God, to explain 
 his law, and urge his claims ; and wo be to them if they 
 alter, or betray, or are found unfaithful. 
 
 It may be worth while to notice a few of those Scrip- 
 tures, which state the general duty of ministers, and the 
 practical effect of their office on the world. 
 
 " For the Priest's lips should keep knowledge and they 
 should seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messen- 
 ger of the Lord of Hosts." "Go ye," says our Lord, 
 " and teach all nations — teaching them to observe all that I 
 have commanded you. Whosoever shall break one of these 
 least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called 
 the least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever shall 
 do and teach the same shall be called the greatest in the 
 kingdom of heaven." Male. ii. Matt. v. 28. 
 
 Their office is represented as of the utmost importance 
 as a means of turning people from sin and saving them 
 from ruin. 
 
 " If they had stood in my council and caused my peo- 
 ple to hear my words, then they should have turned them 
 from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Take 
 heed unto thyself and to thy doctrine, continue in them ; 
 for in so doing thou shalt both save thyself and those that 
 hear thee." Jer. xxiii. 1 71m. iv. 
 
 All classes of persons, and all the relations of man, are 
 embraced in their comprehensive rules of ministerial con- 
 duct : the high and the low, the ruler and the ruled, the 
 moral character of civil regulations, as well as any other 
 kind of moral conduct all are to be tried by the moral law ; 
 and according to their agreement or disagreement with that 
 unerring and unalterable standard, is the doer to be addressd 
 with admonition, or warning, or approbation. " Hear the 
 word of the Lord, O King of Judah, that sittest upon the 
 throne of David, thou and thy servants and thy people. 
 Thus saith the Lord : execute ye judgment and righteous- 
 ness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hands of the 
 oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the 
 stranger, the fatherless and the widow — wo unto him that 
 buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers 
 
24 LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 
 
 by wrong ; that useth his neighbour's service without 
 wages, and giveth him not for his work. Jer. xxii. ii. 
 
 It is a painful fact that many of those from whom they met 
 with most opposition, (Jer. xx. 1. xxvi. 8. xxix.21 — 32.) 
 made great pretensions to religion ; but had their favourite 
 sinful indigencies, which they either pretended were not 
 wrong, or were to be tolerated in the existing state of 
 things. There is hardly one faithful prophet of whom we 
 have any account, who did not meet with opposition — a 
 large portion of them were put to death. It is given as the 
 general character of Israel, that " they mocked the mes- 
 sengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his 
 Prophets." 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. 
 
 This exposure to opposition and suffering, for a faithful 
 discharge of ministerial duty, presented a strong tempta- 
 tion to be unfaithful — to avoid those topics which gave 
 offence, and so shape instructions as to keep in favour with 
 the multitude, and those in power. No one can read the 
 Old Testament, and especially those parts of it that relate 
 to the worst times in the history of Israel, without seeing 
 much proof of this mournful fact. Religious teachers are 
 directly charged with it in many places, and awful judg- 
 ments are denounced against them for so doing. 
 
 " From the Prophet even unto the priest, every one 
 dealeth falsely. They have healed the hurt of the daugh- 
 ter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace, when there 
 is no peace. I have seen folly in the Prophets of Sama- 
 ria. I have seen an horrible thing in the Prophets of Jeru- 
 salem ; they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, that none 
 doth return from his wickedness." Jer. vi. 13.xxiii. 13, 14. 
 
 Jeremiah who witnessed the state of things that preced- 
 ed the destruction of Judah, often complains that many 
 religious teachers, instead of aiding to stem the torrent of 
 iniquity, took part in it, and by precept and example en- 
 couraged others in their evil way. Some of them took 
 part against Jeremiah, represented, and treated him as a 
 troubler of Israel, for faithfully reproving them for their 
 sins. 
 
 After the ruin took place, which he had laboured so 
 faithfully to prevent, in his lamentations over it, he refers 
 to the course which those unfaithful teachers took, as the 
 
LETTER II. 25 
 
 crowning cause of the calamity. " Thy Prophets have seen 
 vain and foolish things for thee : and have not discovered 
 thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity : but have seen for 
 thee false burdens and causes of banishment." Lam. ii. 14. 
 And it deserves particular remark that personal slavery was 
 the special sin for which more than any other, the king- 
 dom of Judah was thus visited. Any one may see this by 
 comparing the twenty-second, twenty-third, and thirty- 
 fourth chapters of Jeremiah. The case will be more fully 
 noticed hereafter. 
 
 Had we a fair and full account of the reasons plead by 
 the people in justification of their course, notwithstanding 
 the solemn remonstrances of Jeremiah, and had all the rea- 
 sons of the teachers who took sides with the people against 
 him ; we would in all probability have, to a considerable 
 extent, the same reasons and excuses that are urged now 
 in justification of slavery. Jeremiah was charged with 
 " not seeking the peace" and interest of the Jews, in thus 
 remonstrating with them for their sins. It was said that 
 he " iceakened the hands of the men of war" and thus 
 would ruin the nation. It was probably supposed that 
 their temporal interests and safety required the Prophet 
 to be silent on those points, about which he warned them; 
 that either those things were not wrong, or they were 
 ! beneficial notwithstanding, or the present state of things, 
 * made it inexpedient to efTect at present the reformation 
 which the Prophet pointed out. How far this is the course 
 many now take respecting slavery, is known to all. Unless a 
 change takes place, the time will come, and sooner than 
 many are aware of, that the "folly will be manifest unto 
 all men, as theirs also ivas." 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
26 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 The great objection to all discussion of the subject of 
 slavery, is that it is fraught with danger. It may be proper 
 to offer some remarks on this point, before I proceed to 
 said discussion. 
 
 The objection that it is a dangerous subject, and there- 
 fore ought not be discussed, is, I believe, made by two 
 classes of persons, and for different reasons. One class 
 make this objection, not that they apprehend danger ; that 
 at least is not their reason for making it. They love 
 slavery, have no heart to give it up. They wish to per- 
 petuate it and have their gains from it. They see the pro- 
 gress of opinions favourable to emancipation, and [expe- 
 rience it more and more difficult to find reasons that carry 
 any tolerable justification of it. To be drawn into discus- 
 sions of the subject in this state of things, is not a little 
 vexatious to them, and the most plausible way for wholly 
 preventing it, is to raise the cry of danger. Behind this, 
 they can take shelter, and in part conceal the fact, that 
 they have " exhausted their arguments" in favour of 
 slavery. Now I put it to your candour, whether these per- 
 sons are entitled to the benefit of such a protection. You 
 will find this whole class of persons doing nothing to put 
 away the evil, and remove the danger. This holding out 
 false colours and using false papers to prevent capture is, 
 to say the least, a stratagem in war, to which great and 
 honourable minds seldom if ever stoop. 
 
 There are, however, persons who really fear danger 
 from the discussion of this subject; and are perfectly 
 honest in making this objection. They apprehend that in 
 some way or other, it may lead to evils of a most serious 
 kind ; and, therefore, can hardly help feeling as if their 
 safety and peace were trifled with, by persons that talk, 
 and especially write and publish against slavery. They feel 
 more or less, the evil and iniquity of the system, and 
 would cheerfully concur in any safe and practicable mode 
 of removing it ; but until such mode be adopted, they 
 think that safety requires silence. 
 
LETTER III. 27 
 
 Great respect is due to this class of persons. To lightly 
 disregard their wishes, to trifle with their feelings, would be 
 cruel, would be unpardonable. I hope I am incapable of 
 doing it. A multitude of things must ever bind my affec- 
 tions to the South. Before my time of life, a man's views, 
 and feelings, and habits, are usually so settled and fixed, 
 as seldom to undergo much change. I was born in Vir- 
 ginia, where my parents have spent a life of near fourscore 
 years. All my life, a few months excepted, has been 
 spent there. Almost all my relations are there, or in slave- 
 holding states ; and most of them are slaveholders. All 
 my early associations, all those untold bonds that bind us 
 to the scenes of infancy and youth, most of those moral 
 ties which unite us to those we have laboured to instruct, 
 for whom we have often prayed, and witli whom we have 
 " taken sweet council, and gone to the house of God in 
 company" are \ Irginians. 
 
 " With all thy faults I love thee still, my country — and 
 still must love thee." 
 
 My treating of the difficult, and to many offensive sub- 
 ject of slavery, does not arise from any want of attachment 
 to the South, or any disregard to its interests — much less 
 does it arise from a disposition to trifle with the wishes or 
 fears of those who may have fears on this matter. If I 
 believed that discussion would have the effect which some 
 apprehend from it, it would be with me a weighty consid- 
 eration against ever publishing one line on the subject. 
 But after looking at the matter on all sides, and giving it a 
 good deal of consideration, I am strongly inclined to the 
 opinion that the danger attending slavery in the South de- 
 pends very little, if at all, on a temperate discussion of 
 the subject. 
 
 I agree with those of you who think that slavery is a 
 matter fraught with danger — a danger much greater and 
 more near than many seem to suppose. But I wholly dif- 
 fer from you as to the supposed effect of discussion. The 
 causes of danger I apprehend are independent of discus- 
 sion, and will be very little aflected by it; yea I am in- 
 clined to the opinion that, taking things as tiny are, no- 
 thing will have a more direct tendency to avert the danger 
 and lead to its final removal, than temperate, but free and 
 
28 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 full discussion of the whole matter. This opinion, the re- 
 sult of a good deal of reflection, will, I hope, in part at 
 least, serve as an apology for pursuing a subject known to 
 be unpleasant to you. It is due to you to give reasons for 
 this opinion. For the purpose of doing this, allow me to 
 call your attention to the state of things among us, and in 
 the South generally, as regards slavery and its dangers, in- 
 dependent of discussion — and then to the superadded ef- 
 fect of discussion. 
 
 Unless I am greatly mistaken, nine-tenths, perhaps nine- 
 teen-twentieths of the circumstances that make and increase 
 the danger from slavery, are wholly independent of any 
 discussion of the subject. If the subject were never men- 
 tioned, nor even thought of by slaveholders, still the fol- 
 lowing facts would exist. 
 
 There v is in the United States above two millions of 
 slaves, and above three hundred thousand free coloured 
 people, and mostly in the slaveholding states. Together 
 they amount to above one-sixth of our whole population. 
 The southern states, which contain all but a fraction of 
 this people, do not contain one-half of our white popula- 
 tion ; so that the proportion of blacks to whites, in the 
 whole of the South, is more than one to two, or about four 
 to seven.* 
 
 It ought to be recollected also that the interior and upland 
 parts, the mountainous and grain-growing districts, have a 
 larger proportion of whites — leaving a much larger pro- 
 portion of blacks in the low country, the sea-board, the 
 cotton, tobacco and rice-producing and sugar-making dis- 
 
 Whites. Blacks. Free Col. 
 
 * Virginia, E. of B. Ridge, 375,655 416,320 47,005 
 
 N.Carolina, 472,433 246,462 19,575 
 
 S. Carolina, 257,878 315,665 7,915 
 
 Georgia, 296,614 217,740 2,483 
 
 Louisiana, 89,191 109,631 16,753 
 
 Alabama, 190,171 117,494 1,541 
 
 Mississippi, 70,618 65,659 529 
 
 1,752,560 1,488,971 89,801 
 
 89,801 
 
 Total, 1,752,560 1,578,772 
 
\ 
 
 LETTER III. 29 
 
 tricts. Where the whites are most numerous, the blacks 
 are fewest, and where there are most blacks there are few- 
 est whites ; giving in many and large districts a much lar- 
 ger number of blacks than whites.* 
 
 To this we may add that the southern country generally 
 is more congenial to the blacks than to the whites. Their 
 natural increase, owing to climate, labour, early marriages 
 &c. is greater than that of the whites, and many things 
 tend to accumulate them in the South. 
 
 While the policy lately adopted by most of the southern 
 states for limiting the introduction of blacks for the mere 
 purpose of traffic, will no doubt in some degree lessen 
 their increase from emigration ; still, under the present or 
 any plan likely to be soon adopted in the South, more 
 blacks than whites may be expected to go there. The 
 traffic will no doubt, to some extent, continue. Means 
 will be found to evade the laws. 
 
 Views and feelings opposed to slavery are travelling 
 southward. They are now operating powerfully in Ma- 
 ryland, the north and western parts of Virginia, and in 
 some parts of Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. With 
 some, these views and feelings are accompanied with the 
 generous resolution of not selling but freeing their slaves. 
 But with a much larger number, self-interest still predomi- 
 nates. Public sentiment, they see. begins more and more 
 to be against slavery. They begin themselves to be asham- 
 ed and tired of it; but have no hearl to give up property. 
 They apprehend that the time is not remote when it will 
 be disgraceful to sell a fellow creature : public sentiment 
 will yet bear it. They make some excuse for selling ; 
 and a negro-trader who has marked how much more they 
 sell for in the south, than they can be bought for in the 
 middle states, buys them — and for a profit of one or two 
 hundred dollars, can in some w ay get them sold in the 
 south, legislative precautions to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 The character of the coloured population carried to the 
 
 !. ist of the Blue Ridge, in Virginia, are 375,936 whites and 
 457,013 blacks; giving 1 the blacks 81.077 of a majority in thai 
 region. 
 
 3 • 
 
30 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 south, is of a cast well calculated to have a great effect on 
 those already there. The same views and feelings which, 
 along the northern border of the slaveholding states, are 
 so operating on the whites as to loosen the bands of sla- 
 very, must, from the nature of the case, be received more 
 or less by the slaves themselves. They have higher no- 
 tions of liberty, and more impatience under bondage, and 
 make a nearer approach to freemen in their habits and 
 general character. 
 
 On an examination, I doubt not, it would be found that 
 along the slave border, and in those districts where the 
 slave is least valued for his labour, and from which many 
 are carried to the south ; they live better, are less pressed 
 with labour, and have more information than in other parts 
 of the country. Of those sold to the south there is a 
 pretty large proportion of the most intelligent — those pos- 
 sessed of the highest notions of liberty, and of the injustice 
 of withholding it from them. These are taken to the 
 south — often sorely against their wills, mingled with the 
 black population already there, and pressed down to the 
 same level. Their mode of living, their treatment, and 
 privileges, undergo a great change ; and that change is 
 against their comfort, and at the expense of what they 
 have long considered as due to them. I can hardly con- 
 ceive a state of things better calculated to impart informa- 
 tion and discontent to all. It is a leaven that must soon 
 leaven the whole lump. 
 
 It ought to be added, for it cannot be denied, that among 
 those carried to the south, there are some who of right are 
 free ;* and many who fully expected that they themselves, 
 
 * In 1826 it was ascertained that abont thirty free coloured per- 
 sons were kidnapped from the city of Philadelphia, and sold for 
 slaves in the south. There may have been others. 
 
 Within less than one year from September, 1827, the Benevo- 
 lent Society of Alexandria reported twelve coloured persons whom 
 they had rescued from the slave traders, who were taking- them to 
 the south ; all of whom were free, as was fully believed. They 
 were all from Maryland. Other free coloured persons, it was be- 
 lieved were carried through during' the same period, whom they 
 were not able to rescue. 
 
 A gentleman of the Bar in Baltimore informed me, that at one 
 term he brought before a Judge, by a writ of Habeas Corpus, 
 
LETTER III. 31 
 
 or at least their children, would be free. The prospect of 
 perpetual slavery for themselves and children, must be to 
 such not a little gloomy ; and when they look about them, 
 and see how much more numerous they are than the 
 whites — how much better able to bear the climate, and 
 how many of the whites have to leave the country in the 
 sickly season, it must have a fearful tendency to beget 
 thoughts of shaking off the yoke and making themselves 
 free. There are many other things connected with this 
 subject that look the same way. 
 
 Our whole system of political institutions is in constant 
 operation before the eyes of that people. If comparatively 
 few of them understand all the details, the fundamental 
 principles are known to most. It i< impossible to hide 
 from the great body of them the fact, that they are held in 
 slavery in direct opposition to the fundamental principles 
 of our free institutions. 
 
 The general facts of the American revolution are known 
 to the coloured population. Many of their fathers wit- 
 nessed it, and yet live to repeat its details to their children, 
 and tell them how the whites became a free and indepen- 
 dent people. Take coloured persons of plain common 
 sense, and I suppose that nineteen out of twenty, perhaps 
 ninety-nine out of a hundred, of those above twenty-live, 
 know that the whites are free, because they made them- 
 selves free ; and that the blacks are .-laves, because thus 
 far the whites have been able to hold them in slavery. 
 They know that power and not right sustains the claim of 
 the whites over them. 
 
 To tell them that religion allows holding them in 
 slavery, that the Bible justifies it, will be much more 
 likely to make them disregard the Bible, and prejudice 
 them against its teachings ; or, what is more likely, and 
 much more common, make them discredit the fairness and 
 religious sincerity of the whites, than reconcile them to 
 their condition; and for the plain reason known to the 
 
 twelve or fifteen coloured persons, who were to be sold on the 
 next day as runaways for their jail fees ; all of whom but one 
 were found to be free persons, and set at liberty. Had lie not in- 
 terfered, all of them, it was believed, would have been sold into 
 slavery. 
 
32 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 whole of them, that the whites do not think so in their 
 own case. 
 
 The custom of using slaves as household servants, 
 must, from the nature of the case, impart much informa- 
 tion to them, and in some degree supply the place of a 
 regular education. Perhaps I would not go beyond the 
 truth were I to say, that, one half, or two-thirds of the co- 
 loured people in the United States, have performed, or do 
 to a greater or less extent, perform the duties of household 
 servants. In that way they are so near their masters as to 
 hear a great deal of conversation on almost all subjects. 
 To a great extent the most intelligent and active young 
 slaves, from the age of six or eight to that of sixteen or 
 eighteen, are employed to wait in the house. When able 
 to do common labour in the field, they are sent out, and 
 their place at the house supplied with others, and the same 
 course is gone over again. This is the period of life, be 
 it remembered, in which most is done to form the charac- 
 ter and give it a fixed direction. At no time are the imi- 
 tative principles more active — at no time does the charac- 
 ter receive more influence from those about us. In the 
 presence of these young slaves we talk on all sorts of sub- 
 jects ; go over the events of the revolution ; extol our fa- 
 thers for asserting and maintaining their liberties ; speak of 
 national and state rights, and discuss the endless questions 
 that grow out of them; praise our free institutions as founded 
 on more just and equitable principles than those of any 
 other people, and take to ourselves great credit for secur- 
 ing and defending them. 
 
 Some attention may perhaps be paid to sending out of 
 the room the grown slaves, while the subject of slavery is 
 discussed ; while no attention is paid to the young slave, 
 on whom the conversation may possibly have a much 
 more decided effect. 
 
 In conversing with a highly respectable gentleman on 
 this matter, he related an anecdote in point. He had dining 
 at his table, a foreigner of some distinction ; he had wait- 
 ing on them a coloured boy, so small as not to be regarded 
 in their conversation. The subject of slavery came up, 
 perhaps suggested by seeing the boy ; and the foreigner, 
 half jest and half earnest, rallied him on the inconsistency 
 
LETTER III. 33 
 
 of slaveholding with his republicanism. He admitted the 
 inconsistency, averred that slavery was wrong - , but turned 
 it off in the common way, — that it was the custom of the 
 country, and he could not well help falling into the com- 
 mon practice. After rising from table they left the room, 
 leaving in it a white youth, who was also a foreigner, and 
 said negro boy. No sooner were they out of hearing than 
 the little slave addressed the youth, " Did you not hear 
 that ?" said he, " I have as much right to be free as any of 
 you." His manner showed that he was not likely to for- 
 get it. 
 
 The very fact of sending out the grown slave, in the 
 time and manner in which it is mostly done, not only in- 
 duces them to use various artifices to hear what is said, as 
 in truth they are often known to do, but serves as a watch- 
 word to excite the attention of the young. Its curiosity 
 [Cited, and it perhaps knows full well that it will be 
 questioned by the grown slaves as to what the white folks 
 talked about after sending them out. In truth the com- 
 monness of having slaves about us, our habit of speaking 
 freely and constantly before them, puts most persons off 
 their guard ; and tilings are constantly said before them, 
 which must have an effect on their opinions and feelings 
 and general character. I do not think it possible for a sys- 
 tem of slavery, such as obtains among us, to co-exist with 
 our free institutions, and our general habits of talking freely 
 on all subjects, without a constant and powerful effect being 
 produced on the slave population. "\\ e are a talking peo- 
 ple, and a people who love dearly to be waited on; and 
 we cannot refrain from the former, even while the slave is 
 doing the latter. 
 
 There is, 1 think, to a considerable extent, a preference 
 given to the mulattoes for house-servants. They are the 
 neatest, the best looking, and for the most part the most 
 intelligent and active. Other equally natural reasons might 
 be imagined as having an influence. But what I have in 
 view chiefly is the fact that while their complexion proves 
 their relationship to the whites, and while most can but 
 conjecture the particular individual to whom they are re- 
 lated, there is no reason to doubt but that the mulattoes 
 themselves mostly know from the mother, and especially 
 
34 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 when the individual is considered wealthy or respectable. 
 To find themselves neglected and despised, perhaps sold 
 or left in bondage by those so nearly related to them, must 
 be bitter and galling, and may be expected to beget deep 
 hatred of the whites by whom it is so commonly prac- 
 tised. 
 
 There is no doubt such a thing as family traits of cha- 
 racter, as to talents, mind, disposition, &c. Its character 
 may not be as strongly marked as some have supposed ; 
 but it is in the face of all observation, wholly to deny it. 
 That the high notions of liberty, the ardent feeling and 
 proud unbending spirit of the south, should be imparted 
 with their blood to the mixed race so numerous among 
 them, is wbat must be expected. Many mulattoes know 
 that the blood of the first families in the south runs in 
 their veins, they feel its proud, impatient, and spirit stirring 
 pulsations ; and see themselves cast off and oppressed by 
 those who gave them being. Such a state of things must 
 produce characters "fit for treason, stratagem and spoil." 
 
 The state of things abroad, the revolution in the south, 
 the condition of the West Indies, the progress of liberty in 
 Europe, all have a bearing on this subject. These topics 
 are often the subject of conversation, and that before our 
 slaves. Our fourth of July celebrations, and balls of the 
 22d are attended, and the events they commemorate talked 
 about. 
 
 The servants who attend their masters on these occa- 
 sions, wait at the tables, and hear their toasts, &c, must 
 be destitute of common sense not to learn something. 
 
 The visit of General De Lafayette, with the excitement 
 it produced from Dan to Beersheba, with the dinners and 
 toasts, and speeches and balls, and processions, and talk 
 about our struggle for liberty, and our gratitude to him for 
 espousing our cause, &c, gave a lesson to our slaves about 
 the worth of liberty and the way to get it, which they will 
 not forget during the present generation. 
 
 The continually increasing intercourse between the 
 Southern States and the West Indies, Mexico and South 
 America, together with the large coloured population there, 
 and the free condition in which many of them now are, 
 and most of them will before long be, in the whole of those 
 
LETTER III. 35 
 
 countries, must greatly increase the clanger in the south. 
 Every year will make it more difficult to exclude free co- 
 loured persons from participating in commercial intercourse 
 with the south. To admit them will be dangerous, yet 
 the enforcement of measures to exclude them, will almost 
 certainly involve us in difficulties with foreign powers, 
 and were the effort to exclude them successful, it could 
 not fail to have a most injurious effect on the south, by 
 the increasing difficulty it would present to a free and open 
 intercourse, not only with those nations that have a co- 
 loured population, but from the complex and ramified na- 
 ture of trade, more or less, with all people. 
 
 Nor ought it be forgotten that this is an age of improve- 
 ment, and activity, and enterprise; a new impulse is given 
 to the public mind ; new means have been invented to 
 spread information and operate on the great mass of the 
 community. It is an age of newspapers, magazines, jour- 
 nals and reviews. There is vastly more travelling and 
 going to and fro than formerly ; the monuments of liberty 
 are multiplying, and in all these and many other ways, in- 
 formation is disseminated through society, and brought 
 within the reach of the slave. Few slaves, it is true, can 
 read. From this source of information they are cut off; 
 but there are those other thousands of channels at which 
 I have glanced that are open to them, and full to overflow- 
 ing. The very fact that slaves can neither read nor write, 
 makes them cultivate with more care their memories, : and 
 like all other illiterate people, be more particular to impart 
 to each other, and instil into the minds of their children, 
 what they wish to be recollected. 
 
 Now unless you put down the newspaper system, abo- 
 lish magazines, journals and reviews, burn the history of 
 the revolution, banish all books of travels, and close the 
 whole concern of printing, you will have laboured to little 
 purpose. To prevent a few essays on slavery will be of 
 little use, while such a mass of floating literature is delug- 
 
 • I have known coloured blacksmiths, who would work all day, 
 do perhaps twenty, thirty, or forty pieces of work for different 
 individuals, and report them at night, with their prices, and the 
 persons for whom they were done, without making- the smallest 
 mistake. Many negroes have very good memories. 
 
36 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 ing the country, a large portion of which bears more or 
 less directly on the same point. You must tear from your 
 law books, geographies, gazetteers, and other volumes, the 
 declaration of independence, the bill of rights, the state 
 constitution and other matters, that relate to personal rights, 
 and not leave them in your libraries or on your tables, to 
 be looked into by your house-servants, the very ones that 
 can read. Nor ought you to omit to destroy those beautiful 
 prints of the declaration of independence, which hang in 
 your parlours, with the words free, liberty, independence, 
 in such large letters, as seem to invite the particular 
 attention of the slave,* not forgetting to put out of sight 
 the prints of Washington, Jefferson, De Lafayette, and 
 other worthies, and even forbid any to repeat their names, 
 which are so connected with freedom, that almost every 
 slave in the land, when he hears the one will think of the 
 other. In short, a volume would not tell all that you must 
 do if you would arrest the march of freedom, and remove 
 all those things that beget thoughts of it in the mind of the 
 slave. 
 
 These causes, to which many more might be added, 
 are in constant operation; whether the subject of slavery 
 be discussed or not. They depend very little on discus- 
 sion, and to me, they appear of a most alarming character. 
 So far have things progressed, that we know not what an 
 hour may bring forth. It is possible that the present state 
 of things, with its progress, may last a number of years 
 before any serious event takes place ; but unless things 
 are arrested or given a new direction, take place they will, 
 as certainly as effect follows its cause. And in an age 
 like the present, when greater changes take place in a few 
 years than formerly took place in a century, we know 
 not but it may be at the very door. Their present number, 
 
 * The declaration of independence not only declares that free- 
 dom is an unalienable right, but that it is the right and the duty 
 of a people to resist a government that does not protect it. And it 
 gives a statement of the things which justified our fathers in re- 
 sisting the government of England. A glance at them may satisfy 
 any one, — will certainly satisfy the slave that his case is a hundred 
 fold harder. 
 
LETTER III. 37 
 
 increase, and situation in the South, makes it almost mo- 
 rally certain, that the event is not very remote. 
 
 While slavery continues, their increase is likely to con- 
 tinue. The common checks on population in this country, 
 do not much affect them. The care of providing for them- 
 selves and families, does not lie on them, but on their 
 owners. 
 
 Let any one compare the whites with the blacks, as to 
 the age at which they marry, and the number who do not 
 marry at all, and he will see one reason of the greater in- 
 crease of blacks in the slaveholding States. Most slaves 
 marry, and that early. But many whites do not marry 
 until late in life, and a good many not at all. White 
 maidens of thirty, forty, and even sixty may be found in 
 every neighbourhood ; but blank ones of those ages, are 
 almost as scarce as white black-birds. Many lovely and 
 deserving women, live and die in single blessedness, who 
 but for slavery, would have been blessed much more to 
 their liking. Slavery has made it so expensive to main- 
 tain a family, that the men who would have mated with 
 them, feared to marry, or have gone abroad in search of a 
 living, or have ruined their morals, and made a slave the 
 mother of their children. 
 
 Nor ought we to forget that this is emphatically an age 
 of freedom. Some twenty or thirty years had to pass before 
 the world had confidence in the ability of man to govern 
 himself, and in the stability of our free institutions. Con- 
 fidence is at last gained, and admiration has followed in 
 the multitude, and the effect has already shown itself in 
 South America and Europe, and in the louder and louder 
 murmur of displeasure against slavery, and the deeper sym- 
 pathy felt for every people who attempt to be free. 
 
 The state of things in England, with respect to slavery 
 in the West Indies, and indeed throughout her colonies, 
 justifies the belief that the West Indies will soon be in the 
 hands of the blacks. The footing on which the coloured 
 population is placed in Mexico and South America gene- 
 rally, with the feeling of those States towards liberty ; the 
 fact that many of their leading men are of the mixed race, 
 all serve to show that those nations must be counted as on 
 the side of freedom. 
 
 4 
 
38 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 In our intercourse with them, causes of dispute are 
 often taking place, and in the wars that may arise, what 
 may we not fear from the use they may make of our slaves 
 to break our power ? 
 
 In twenty years hence we will have near four millions 
 of slaves in the South. Were fifteen or twenty thousand 
 men with a large portion of officers, together with one or 
 two hundred thousand stand of arms, to land at some two 
 or three places, and proclaim freedom to the slaves, and 
 give them arms and engage to lead them, what is there that 
 without a miracle, could save the South ? 
 
 Or were the slaves by some successful stratagem, or 
 taking advantage of some emergency, or betrayed into 
 resistance, without any premeditated design, by some act 
 of individual oppression, or some one of those thousand 
 things which, in a moment of passion, leads to acts for 
 which no pardon can be hoped, and thus forces to self- 
 defence, lead them to make and maintain for a time a con- 
 test for freedom, who can doubt but that they would 
 receive aid from abroad ? I know that there is a preju- 
 dice against the blacks, but I am much deceived if it be as 
 great anywhere else as among ourselves. It is not much 
 felt among most nations of Europe. And the injury 
 which thatf prejudice has done them, is now seen and felt, 
 and is awakening a deep sympathy for them. With a large 
 portion of the civilized world, no people would have more 
 sympathy and better wishes for success, in an effort to be 
 free. After what we have done to shake the throne and 
 displace the mitre, our continuing to practise slavery, and 
 that of the very worst form, is viewed by most civilized na- 
 tions as peculiarly inconsistent and well meriting severe 
 retribution. 
 
 Now the additional effect which a free but temperate 
 discussion of this whole matter would have on the progress 
 of things, could not be much ; and I am strongly inclined 
 to the opinion, that it would really operate the other way ; 
 that it would operate as a protecting and countervailing 
 cause. Many of the chief causes of danger it could not 
 add to. It certainly could not increase the coloured popu- 
 lation — it could not retard the natural increase of the whites 
 — it could not affect the physical force of either, and its 
 
LETTER III. 39 
 
 moral effect on the blacks would hardly be felt, among 
 those many causes now in constant operation. 
 
 But as a countervailing and protecting cause, it would 
 be of most important utility. It would enable us to get the 
 dimensions of the evil and danger, to view it on all sides, 
 and form correct opinions respecting it. A correct know- 
 ledge thus obtained would not only be an indispensable 
 preparation for adopting the proper course to escape the 
 danger, but furnish the proper motive to reconcile us to 
 that course. 
 
 It must be evident to all who have paid any attention to 
 the subject, that there is not barely a diversity but a con- 
 trariety of opinion in the community respecting the extent 
 and nearness of the danger. Some think the danger is 
 little, and that little may safely be left to our children and 
 grandchildren to guard against. Others think there is 
 really no danger that deserves the name. But there are 
 others, and among them many persons who have thought 
 much on the subject, who believe that the danger is great, 
 and if not immediate, yet from its peculiar nature and rapid 
 increase, and the difficulty of averting it, demands that not 
 an hour be lost in using all the means in our power to put 
 things in such a train as may most effectually secure us 
 against it. 
 
 If the first or second opinion be correct, it would calm 
 many fears to be satisfied of the fact. But if the last be 
 correct, it is surely better to know it, and that as soon as 
 possible. There is no question that more deeply affects 
 this country. It would be of unspeakable importance to 
 have it rightly understood. Discussion is the best way to 
 bring it before the great mass of the community, and they 
 alone can manage the evil. 
 
 It is possible by means of discussions in the public 
 prints to disseminate so much information through the 
 community, as to give rise to a general sentiment, that the 
 interests and safety of all parties require that some plan 
 be speedily adopted to put an end to slavery. It would at 
 least throw light on the question, whether the benefits of 
 slavery were worth the danger growing out of it, or 
 whether the system could not be so changed as to get clear 
 
40 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 of the danger, and yet retain most of the benefits resulting- 
 from the employment of that people as the labouring class ? 
 
 As the danger is real, it appears to me not wise to refuse 
 to look fairly at it ; and I know of no way so likely and 
 effectually to turn the public attention to it, as discussion. 
 It could, no doubt, have been done with more ease twenty 
 years ago, without letting the slaves know it, than now ; 
 but it can be much more easily done now, than twenty 
 years to come ; for I much suspect that twenty slaves will 
 then read the newspapers to one that does now, and we 
 will then have near twice the number. 
 
 That some slaves would, through the conversations they 
 might hear, find out that the whites were discussing the 
 subject, is very probable. But that evil would be more 
 than balanced by the benefit of keeping the attention of 
 the whites to the subject ; and the information they would 
 receive of the nature and extent of the danger — and the 
 very fact that the slaves knew that the attention of the 
 whites was directed particularly to the subject, would keep 
 them to their best behaviour. Men do not engage in mis- 
 chief, when they know they are watched. And farther, the 
 hope which discussions of that subject might beget in them, 
 that some plan would be adopted by the whites tending to 
 their freedom, would have a natural tendency to prevent 
 them from resorting to rash measures. They must know 
 that it will be no easy matter for them to get free without 
 the consent of the whites, and they, no doubt, would pre- 
 fer the prospect of freedom, with the good-will of the 
 whites, even at a distant period, yea, were it only as a 
 heritage for their children, than run the danger attending 
 an unsuccessful attempt to go out free. 
 
 As to discussion suggesting to them thoughts of freedom, 
 I doubt not they will have them whether the subject be 
 discussed or not. To suppose that the great body of them 
 are ignorant of the real state of things between them and 
 the whites, is to suppose them destitute of common sense. 
 To suppose that all they see of the operations of our free 
 institutions — all they hear about national, state, and per- 
 sonal rights — all they hear about the South American and 
 European contest for freedom, never leads them to think 
 of their own case, is, I apprehend, only to deceive our- 
 
LETTER III. 41 
 
 selves. We may wish them not to apply these and a 
 thousand such things to their own case ; but it is human 
 nature to do it. If a brute animal sees another in good 
 pasture, it will try to get in too — if a sheep sees another 
 jump out of a pen, it will try to follow. Those slaves 
 that have not sense enough to apply to their own case a 
 thousand things which they hear and see daily, would be 
 very little more affected by discussions, simply because 
 they had the word slave occasionally in them. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 The origin of negro slavery in this country — the mon- 
 strous injustice and wickedness that attended the slave- 
 trade — the state of servitude in Europe, and especially in 
 England, compared with that to which negroes were sub- 
 jected, and the leading features of slavery, as now existing 
 among us, may very properly be noticed, before we apply 
 the Scriptures to it, to ascertain its moral character. 
 
 It is generally known that negro slavery was introduced 
 into this country about two hundred years ago, soon after 
 the first settlements were made. The number at first was 
 small, but continued gradually to increase, until slaves be- 
 came a constant article of traffic. 
 
 The manner in which they were obtained in Africa, en- 
 abled those engaged in it to realize such a profit as tended 
 greatly to keep it up ; and at the same time held out great 
 temptation to conceal the monstrous iniquity with which 
 it was attended. Plausible pretences were used to excuse, 
 and even give the colour of piety to a trade which was 
 carried on in violation of all the commands of God, and 
 every principle of humanity and justice. It is distinctly 
 stated in the histories of those times, that both queen Eliza- 
 beth and Louis XIII., in whose days it began, had scruples 
 about the lawfulness of it ; and did not give their consent 
 until they were assured that the negroes were brought over 
 with their own free consent, and that it was the most ready 
 way to convert them to Christianity. 
 
 It was easy then, to what it is now, to conceal things 
 from the great mass of the community. There was not 
 one-thousandth part the means of gaining information of 
 what was going on. There ^was not in existence until 
 1588, such a thing as a newspaper. The one then estab- 
 lished did not indeed deserve that name, but was rather, if 
 my recollection of its history be correct, a circular issued 
 a few times and then discontinued and forgotten. It was 
 long afterwards before regular newspapers were printed ; 
 and all know that it was not until lately that they, together 
 with Magazines, Reviews, Journals, &c. became so im- 
 portant a vehicle of information. 
 
LETTER IV. 43 
 
 The mode in which the great body of slaves brought 
 from Africa were obtained, was known to few, except those 
 who were deeply interested in the trade, until thirty or 
 forty years ago, when the question of putting a stop to it 
 was before the English parliament. The trade had been 
 going on for one hundred and fifty or two hundred years. 
 Great opposition was made to having it stopped. Long 
 and repeated efforts were made to conceal the manner in 
 which slaves were obtained. So deep was the offence 
 which Clarkson committed in Liverpool, by his efforts 
 to induce persons who personally knew the facts, to 
 come forward and state them, that he had to seek his per- 
 sonal safety by flying from that place. So much informa- 
 tion, however, was brought out by long examination of 
 witnesses, that thousands and tens of thousands were 
 shocked and confounded at the monstrous guilt that attend- 
 ed it ; and parliament passed a law prohibiting the trade. 
 
 Clarkson estimated that at least one-half of those brought 
 over were kidnapped, more or less privately, and carried 
 and sold into perpetual slavery in this country, without 
 even the charge of an offence. He thus classed the whole, 
 after a long and careful examination of the subject: — 1. 
 Kidnapped. 2. Inhabitants of villages broke up. 3. Con- 
 victs for some real or alleged crime. 4. Prisoners taken 
 in wars mostly waged for the purpose of procuring them 
 for the slave-traders. 5. Those born slaves. 6. Those 
 who had lost their liberty by gambling. 7. Sold for debt. 
 
 None of these could be a just cause for perpetual slavery. 
 But of most of them it will not be pretended that they 
 were. More than one half literally kidnapped ! Add to 
 these the prisoners, those sold for debt, <fcc. and you will 
 have perhaps six-sevenths of those sold for slaves in this 
 country, and whose children are now in slavery, who were 
 as free in their own country as you are — had their proper- 
 ty and family comforts about them, and have, without any 
 crime been torn from all, and doomed with their children 
 to perpetual slavery ! And some even take oifence at all ef- 
 forts to induce those who hold them to let them go out free ! 
 
 Very soon after the trade commenced, it was found 
 more cheap to kidnap, seize by force, or take by fraud f 
 than to buy from those who may have had a few to sell. 
 
44 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 Although a kind of slavery prevailed more or less among 
 the Africans, it was of a very mild character. Much of a 
 supply could not be obtained by fair purchase, and that at 
 an expense which the traders wished to avoid. Other 
 ways than that of fair purchase were resorted to. Some- 
 times means were taken to get a large number of persons 
 on ship-board, and then all were seized and made slaves. 
 Companies landed and took forcibly all they could get 
 hold of; villages were surrounded in the night — set on 
 fire; — those who resisted were killed or disabled, and all 
 they could take sold into slavery. By going to different 
 parts of the coast, many were obtained in these ways. At 
 length, however, so much alarm was produced that many 
 tribes either left the coast, or, taught by experience the 
 wiles of the trader, were so much on their guard, that new 
 measures were found necessary. Trading-houses were 
 then established on the coast, and engagements made with 
 the kings and head-men to furnish slaves. They were 
 induced by presents of spirits and goods to make war on 
 other tribes for the sake of getting prisoners — to kidnap 
 all they could — to procure by any means slaves for the 
 traders. Thence arose a systematic course of war and 
 plunder among the tribes. Head-men made war for the 
 sake of getting prisoners. Private individuals kidnapped 
 whom they could, (often of their own tribe,) hurried them 
 to the trader, who gave them some trifle, and sold the 
 sufferer into perpetual bondage. Selling to the trader be- 
 came the common punishment for crime< — for suspected 
 crime — for pretended crime ; and often a whole family 
 was sold for the pretended crime of one of its members. 
 The spirit of retaliation between tribes, and jealousy and 
 revenge among families of the same tribe, were thus kept 
 alive, and furnished perpetual objects for the trader. 
 
 The lives lost by the wars and plundering to obtain 
 slaves, far exceeded, it is supposed, the number sold into 
 slavery. The avidity of the trader for slaves — the fact 
 that few, if any, of the slaves ever returned to relate what 
 was done with them,— gave an awful horror to being sold 
 to the traders. So overwhelming was this fear, that it 
 was common for slaves, if not prevented, to throw them- 
 selves overboard and drown themselves. 
 
LETTER IV. 45 
 
 The hazard of the climate, and the love of gain, in- 
 duced most traders to crowd into their vessels more slaves 
 than they could carry with comfort, and to feed them on 
 the coarsest fare ; and if scarcity of food or water took 
 place, they often threw slaves overboard. None but those 
 who have read detailed accounts, can well conceive the 
 sufferings of the poor slaves. On an average it has been 
 computed that from one-fourth to one-third died during 
 the passage. I have noticed accounts of many vessels 
 that lost a larger proportion. And when arrived at the 
 place of their future bondage, they were sold, and with 
 little if any regard to their connections as husband and 
 wife, parent and child, or brother and sister. The in- 
 justice, the guilt, the blood ; the groans and sorrows 
 which none pitied ; the tears which no kind hand wiped 
 away ; the broken hearts which no one bound up; — who 
 can tell ! They are all known to Him who is no respecter 
 of persons, and who hath declared himself a God of re- 
 compenses. 
 
 One of the most plausible excuses for bringing them 
 over was, that they might be converted to Christianity. 
 Many of them no doubt have been converted. That, how- 
 ever, could not justify the means used to procure them ; 
 it could not justify selling them into perpetual slavery ; 
 it could only be a pretence, as the whole case showed. 
 
 Many, I doubt not, who became slave-holders in this 
 country, have used a commendable degree of zeal, to in- 
 struct their slaves in the principles of Christianity. There 
 are, however, some painful facts on this matter. Several 
 things clearly show, that had the negroes professed Chris- 
 tianity in their own country, enslaving them would not 
 have been tolerated by the governments of Europe, under 
 whose protection the colonics were planted. An opinion 
 appears then to have prevailed, that the heathen had no 
 rights ; that their lands and property might be taken, and 
 themselves enslaved, simply on the ground that they were 
 heathen. The Pope gave away whole countries, being 
 heathen. The kings of Europe took possession, as of 
 right, of all lands being heathen discovered by their sub- 
 jects; and made grants or settled colonies in them at 
 pleasure. 
 
46 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 The influence of Christianity had either put an end to 
 slavery in Europe, or at least so modified it, that it hardly 
 deserved that name : and had produced a very general im- 
 pression that a Christian could not lawfully be held in 
 slavery. Some negro slaves, taken to England soon after 
 the trade commenced, learning this fact, obtained baptism 
 at the hands of some minister, and their owners did not 
 venture to retain them forcibly in bondage. Although the 
 conversion of the negroes to Christianity was the imposing 
 excuse for bringing them over, yet the impression that as 
 soon as they professed religion, and were baptized, they 
 would be free, soon began to operate ; and there is incon- 
 trovertible proof that it operated, and that extensively, so 
 as to prevent their being instructed and received into the 
 church. There is on record legislative enactments prohi- 
 biting the baptism of slaves, without the consent of their 
 owners, and on the alleged ground that it might interfere 
 with the rights of property.* So much did this opinion 
 and feeling operate against the religious instruction of 
 slaves, that the bishop of London, to whose diocese the 
 English colonies belonged, addressed a circular to the colo- 
 nists,! and attempted to reconcile them to the instruction 
 and baptism of their slaves, by laying it down as a prin- 
 ciple, that religion had nothing to do with civil rights — 
 that whatever rights they had in their slaves before bap- 
 tism, they would continue to have afterwards. This 
 opinion gradually supplanted the other. A remnant, how- 
 ever, of the first opinion still remained, and uniting with a 
 general impression that much information, except how to 
 work, was dangerous in slaves, has led almost universally 
 to discourage, and often directly to prevent, giving instruc- 
 tion to that people. 
 
 Slavery may be said to have terminated in England, and 
 been near its end in most of Europe, at the time negro 
 slavery began to be regulated by law in this country. The 
 civil institutions, the rights and privileges of England, 
 were transplanted to America for the benefit of the colo- 
 
 * See Stroud and Stephens. 
 
 f See the letter in an account of missions in the British colonies, 
 by D. Humphry s, D. D. Page 257—275. 
 
LETTER IV. 47 
 
 nists ; even English convicts sent over and sold for their 
 crimes, did not go into slavery ; but after a temporary ser- 
 vice, during which most of their rights as Englishmen 
 were retained, and others only suspended, they regained 
 the whole, and were free. Their bondage never reached 
 their children. In all reason, the negroes, six-sevenths of 
 whom were really charged with no crime, ought not to have 
 been placed on a worse footing. Monstrous as were the 
 crimes of the trader, who kidnapped them, or obtained 
 them by means not more fair ; they were hardly more un- 
 just than the conduct of those who degraded the helpless 
 and deeply injured slave, and fixed his condition for life, 
 and that of his children after him, almost on the same 
 level with the brute. 
 
 You are so well acquainted with the condition of the 
 slave, as a subject of law and a member of civil society, 
 that it might seem useless for me to make any remark re- 
 specting it. Some objections, however, made to my brief 
 reference to that point in the piece above referred to, as 
 well as several other things, have led me to think that as a 
 matter of fact, many have very imperfect information on 
 this point, perhaps having never made it a subject of ex- 
 amination. I will, however, do little more than give you 
 an extract or two from Stroud's Sketch of the Laws on 
 Slavery in the United States, followed with a few remarks. 
 From a careful examination of the laws of all the slave- 
 holding states, the following propositions, with some va- 
 riation of circumstances, are shown by quotations from 
 their laws, to be common to the whole of the states. The 
 first set of propositions result from the laws, which refer to, 
 and ascertain, the relation of the slave to his master. The 
 second, the relation of the slave to civil society generally. 
 
 1. " The master may determine the kind and degree of 
 labour to which the slave shall be subjected. 
 
 2. " The master may supply the slave with such food 
 and clothing only, both as to quantity and quality, as he 
 may see proper, or find convenient. 
 
 3. " The master may, at his discretion, inflict any pun- 
 ishment upon the person of his slave. 
 
 4. " All the power of the master over his slave may be 
 
48 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 exercised not by himself only in person, but by any one 
 whom he may depute as his agent. 
 
 5. " Slaves have no legal right of property in things 
 real or personal, but whatsoever they may acquire belongs 
 in point of law to their master. 
 
 6. " The slave being a personal chattel, is at all times 
 liable to be sold absolutely, or mortgaged, or leased, at the 
 will of his master. 
 
 7. "He may also be sold by process of law, for the 
 satisfaction of the debts of the living, or the debts and be- 
 quests of a deceased master, at the suit of debtors or 
 legatees. 
 
 8. " A slave cannot be a party before a judicial tribunal 
 in any special action, against his master, however atrocious 
 may have been the injury received from him. 
 
 9. " Slaves cannot redeem themselves, nor obtain a 
 change of masters, though cruel treatment may have ren- 
 dered such change necessary for their personal safety. 
 
 10. "Slaves being objects of property, if injured by 
 third persons, their owners may bring suit and recover 
 damages for said injury. 
 
 11. " Slaves can make no contracts. 
 
 12. " Slavery is hereditary and perpetual." 
 
 In some points the laws of the several states differ in 
 regard to the above relations of the slave to his master, 
 but in substance they agree. 
 
 The following propositions relate to the legal relation 
 which the slave sustains to civil society generally. 
 
 1. "A slave cannot be a witness against a white person 
 either in a civil or a criminal cause. 
 
 2. " He cannot be a party to a civil suit. 
 
 3. " The benefits of education are withholden from the 
 slave. 
 
 4. " The means for moral and religious instruction are 
 not granted to the slave ; on the contrary, the efforts of 
 the humane and charitable to supply these wants, are dis- 
 countenanced by law. 
 
 5. "Submission is required of the slave, not to the will 
 of his master only, but to that of all other white persons. 
 
 6. " The criminal codes of the slave-holding states, bear 
 much more severely upon slaves than upon white persons. 
 
LETTER IV. 49 
 
 7. " Slaves are prosecuted and tried upon criminal ac- 
 cusations, in a manner inconsistent with the rights of hu- 
 manity." 
 
 On these points, as in the former, there is some varia- 
 tion among the states, but in substance they agree. 
 
 It is readily admitted that the laws respecting slaves 
 do not give a full view of their actual condition. Very 
 much will depend on the character of the slave-holders ; 
 and the liberal, generous, open-hearted disposition of the 
 better part of slave-holders does, to a considerable degree, 
 make amends for the state of the laws. Still it remains a 
 truth, that the laws of a people are one of the means of 
 knowing the character of a people, and their laws on 
 slavery one means of knowing the condition of their slaves. 
 It is in fact always considered so. And when the law 
 makers are chosen annually by the people, and accounta- 
 ble to the people, the laws may fairly be considered to be 
 what the people wish them to be. Now, as the great de- 
 sign of the laws is to give protection to person, rights, and 
 property, we need but look at the protection which the 
 slave-holders secure to themselves, and compare it with 
 what they secure to the slave, and we will find a greater 
 difference than can, I think, be found under any other sys- 
 tem of slavery of which we have any account. Slaves are 
 not, it is true, butchered as they were in Sparta; but 
 butcheries were then common things in the world. Mas- 
 ters have not the power of life and death, as for a time the 
 Roman masters had ; but Roman masters had the same 
 power over their own wives and children. The whole 
 state of society has advanced. What we say is, that the 
 condition of the slave, as ascertained by law, compared 
 with that of the master, shows a greater difference under 
 the system of negro slavery, than I think can be found 
 under any other system of slavery in the past or present 
 world. 
 
 Take, for instance, the penal laws of the several states, 
 and compare the number of crimes for which the white 
 man suffers death, with those for which the slave, and for 
 the most part the free coloured person, suffers it ; for it is 
 a singular fact, that the laws which ascertain and fix the 
 
 5 
 
50 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 relation of the slave to civil society, is made in most cases 
 to include the free blacks with the slave. 
 
 Slaves are, if I mistake not, liable to death in Virginia 
 for near seventy crimes, for which a white man is not thus 
 punished. 
 
 In Mississippi the slave may suffer death for about fifty 
 crimes ; the white man for about twelve. 
 
 In Georgia the slave for about nine ; the white man 
 about four. 
 
 In South Carolina the slave for about thirty-six; the 
 white twenty-seven. 
 
 In Kentucky the slave for about eleven ; the white four. 
 
 The Tennessee and Missouri laws are mild. In the 
 former the slave is punished with death in about four cases, 
 and the latter six. 
 
 Now, when it is recollected that slaves are seldom 
 taught to read, and in many cases the law forbids teaching 
 them, and that no provision is made to have the laws read 
 to them, the case is peculiarly hard. Add to this the fact, 
 that they are not tried by their peers, and very seldom by 
 a jury, have not a selection of their counsel, and have no 
 property with which to fee him, with various things of 
 this sort, and how poor a protection has the slave com- 
 pared with what is secured to the whites. It can hardly 
 be doubted, but that slaves may, in many cases, be con- 
 victed and executed for offences which it was, humanly 
 speaking, impossible they should know were capital of- 
 fences, or indeed legal offences at all; for many of those 
 actions made capital in slaves, are not offences against the 
 law of nature, nor offences against the moral law, even if 
 the slave had been taught that law, but offences created by 
 the legislature, that is, by their masters, and no means 
 taken to inform the slave of their existence or their penalty. 
 
 The total exclusion of the testimony of a slave in all 
 cases where a white man is concerned, is a great evil, and 
 practically sets aside almost all the provisions made for the 
 benefit of the slave. If, indeed, slaves be incompetent to 
 give testimony, it ought not to be taken against each other. 
 This is, however, always done, and from the absolute 
 power of the whites over them, may be made the means 
 of great injustice. The time was when the testimony of 
 
LETTER IV. 51 
 
 Papists and Jews were not admitted. This resulted from 
 a prejudice not more unreasonable than that which now 
 excludes the testimony of the slave. At all events, in the 
 absence of other competent testimony, that of slaves ought 
 to be heard, even if it were left with the judge and jury to 
 decide what weight should be given to it. 
 
 It is difficult to account for the conduct of our fathers in 
 establishing such a system of slavery. English villanage, 
 then at an end, may in its general nature have been known 
 to the colonists. They may have learned it from their 
 histories and law books ; and we might naturally have 
 supposed that in establishing a system of servitude, they, 
 with their knowledge of personal rights, would at most 
 have only revived in its mildest forms that system which 
 their fathers had let go down. Had they so done, the 
 very worst features of the present system would not have 
 existed. To mention a few points: — 
 
 Their villains or servants were with few exceptions at- 
 tached to the soil; and if transferred at all, were trans- 
 ferred with the soil on which they lived. Their habitations 
 were fixed, and their children enjoyed the comforts pro- 
 vided by the care and industry of their parents. 
 
 The families lived together ; and the civil condition of 
 the child followed that of the father, and not that of the 
 mother, as in slavery among us. The master must be 
 able to give legal evidence, which was the lawful marriage 
 of the parties, that the child was the child of his man- 
 servant. If he could not do this, the child was free. This 
 encouraged lawful marriage, and secured the most im- 
 portant rights growing out of it. It prevented separations. 
 For children born out of lawful wedlock were free. And 
 if the master violated the bed of his servant, said servant 
 went out free. 
 
 The testimony of the servant was good except against 
 his own master ; and in various cases he had a plea or 
 defence against him. 
 
 The burden of proof that he was of right a servant, lay 
 on the master. If the master could not prove his right in 
 the servant, that he was the son of his man-servant born 
 in lawful wedlock, (for that was the proper proof,) or pro- 
 cured from those who could prove a right thus good, the 
 
52 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 servant went out free. The presumption was always on 
 the side of the servant, on the side of natural right and 
 equity, on the side of freedom ; and nothing but positive 
 proof set that aside. 
 
 These points, to which many others might be added, 
 show the evil and hardship of our slave system, compared 
 with English villanage. The advantage of villanage in 
 protecting marriage, family relations, purity of morals, and 
 domestic happiness, was incalculable. Our slaves have no 
 legal marriage, no protection of family relations ; and yet 
 all who are born of mothers who are slaves, are claimed 
 as property and held as slaves by her owner : and that 
 although the father may be a freeman, yea, a white man ; 
 and what is still worse, the master himself, or his father, 
 or brother, or son, and notwithstanding violence may have 
 been used to accomplish his foul purpose. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
53 
 
 IiETTEH V. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 Slavery is involuntary servitude, or it may be denned, 
 a claiming persons as property, holding them forcibly in 
 bondage, and compelling them to serve without wages 
 and that without any personal crime. 
 
 That it is contrary to many of the fundamental princi- 
 ples of our civil institutions, all must admit. It is, for in- 
 stance, directly at variance with the principles laid down 
 as self-evideiltly true in our declaration of independence. 
 In it we declare that "we hold these truths to be self- 
 evident, that all men are by nature equal, and that they 
 were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
 rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. To secure these, civil government was insti- 
 tuted among men, deriving its just power from the con- 
 sent of the governed. That whenever any form of govern- 
 ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of 
 the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new 
 government. When a long train of abuses and usurpations 
 pursuing the same object, evinces a design to reduce under 
 absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to 
 throw off such government, and provide new guards for 
 their security." These principles respecting personal 
 freedom, we are peculiarly bound to regard. No docu- 
 ment has received more fully our assent, as respects our 
 own rights. We ought equally to regard the same prin- 
 ciples, when they relate to the rights of others. Few 
 documents have been or are more read among us. It was 
 sanctioned by our national and state legislatures ;* acted 
 
 * "That all men are by nature equally free and independent, 
 and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a 
 state of society, they cannot by any compact deprive or divest 
 their posterity: namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with 
 the means of acquiring and possessing- property, and pursuing 
 and obtaining- happiness and safety."— Article 1, Bill of Rights of 
 Virginia. 
 
 Most of the states, either in their constitutions or bills of rights, 
 lav down the same principles. 
 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 LETTERS ON SLAVERY, 
 
 upon in our contest with England ; and has been read and 
 gloried in for half a century. 
 
 Slavery is directly opposed to these self-evident truths ; 
 is a forcible withholding from others those rights which 
 we declared unalienable, which we contended for in our 
 own case ; is doing systematically one of those things, to 
 prevent which civil government was especially instituted. 
 
 It is considered as a fundamental principle, that men 
 should not be judges in their own case, when the rights of 
 others are concerned. In slavery, however, the master is 
 the sole judge, except in the case of life and death, in 
 everything respecting the slave. The food and clothing- 
 the nature, time, and degree of labour; the relations and 
 connections, and all that concerns the comfort and happi- 
 ness of the slave, are in the power of the master. 
 
 It is a first principle that children are not to be punished 
 tor the crimes, much less for the misfortunes of the pa- 
 rent. But in slavery, the children of those who, so far 
 from injuring their masters, have been labouring for them 
 all their life long, are held in the same hard condition.— 
 bee the last letter, as to the relation of the slave to his 
 master, and to civil society generally. 
 
 It will perhaps be said, that those principles, although 
 politically true, are not of moral obligation; and that 
 slavery, although contrary to them, is not contrary to na- 
 tural or revealed religion, and therefore not morally wrong. 
 
 It is my purpose to examine to some extent the teach- 
 ing of scripture respecting slavery. On the argument from 
 natural religion, or the law of nature, or the law of na- 
 tions, as it is variously called, I shall say but little, and for 
 the sufficient reason, that the shortest, and plainest, and 
 only sure way of knowing what natural religion does 
 teach, is to go to the Bible. However plainly moral and 
 religious truth may be written on the works of nature, the 
 history of the world proves that man is too blind to read 
 it, until the light of revelation shines upon him. To leave 
 the scriptures, and hunt after truth and duty from natural 
 light, is, if not putting the light wholly out, and hunting 
 ior objects in the dark, to turn from the light of the sun° 
 and use a taper so dim as to make it exceedingly difficult in 
 many cases to distinguish truth from error, or genuine 
 from counterfeit. A few remarks, however, I will make 
 
LETTER V. 55 
 
 The law of nature, or the principles of moral conduct 
 discovered by the light of nature, and approved by reason, 
 it is alleged, does not condemn slavery. Now it appears 
 to me most manifest that it does. I can fix on few things 
 which appear to me more opposed to natural equity, and 
 justice, and reason, than forcibly holding our fellow-men 
 in bondage, and compelling them to minister to our happi- 
 ness at the expense of their own. To me it does appear, 
 that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are, as de- 
 clared by the fathers of our independence, endowments of 
 nature, that are self-evidently unalienable. I would like 
 to see a summary of truths admitted to be manifest by the 
 light of nature, that are more plain than is the right which 
 eve ry man has to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, 
 until forfeited by crime. We know that life itself may be 
 so forfeited by crime, that natural law or reason will ap- 
 prove of its being taken away. The same may happen 
 to any other right. I suspect that those who appeal to 
 the law of nature as justifying slavery, have never gone 
 carefully over its principles, and compared them with the 
 unreasonableness and injustice of one rational creature 
 beitiL r held as property by another, and compelled to minis- 
 ter during lilf to his pleasure at the expense of his own. 
 
 .Man'.- right of property is founded on his right to him- 
 self, to the use of his faculties and limbs, and the pro- 
 ducts of their labour. That men have a natural right to 
 the fruit of their labour is so plain a proposition, that per- 
 haps few will deny it. But slavery sets aside this right. 
 To attempt to justify this by saying, the slave himself has 
 been acquired as property, ami then taking the fruit of his 
 labour is no longer unjust, is little better than a sophism, 
 is changing the ground, but not answering the charge of in- 
 justice. For how has the slave been acquired as property ? 
 Did lie sell himself? In all just sales there must be a quid 
 pro quo — a reasonable equivalent. But in the nature of 
 the case, the slave could receive none. He can hold no 
 propertv — he cannot seek his own happiness, and plainly 
 no man of sound sense would sell himself into absolute 
 slavery. If sold by another, the question returns, what 
 right could that other have m him, what equivalent has he 
 given, or could he give to the slave, for an absolute right 
 
56 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 to sell him, and keep the price for which he was sold? 
 To say he owned the parents of said slave, will again al- 
 low the question, what equivalent was rendered said pa- 
 rents for a right of property in them ? and whatever right 
 may have been acquired in the parent, what right in rea- 
 son can that give to the claim of property in the child ?* 
 
 But slavery is at variance with natural relations, and the 
 duties growing out of them. The relation of husband and 
 wife, of parent and child, are natural relations, and the 
 first and most important relations among men. None are 
 more intimate, none more binding, and none give rise to 
 duties of higher obligation. But slavery controls and sets 
 aside the whole of these at pleasure. It does not even 
 recognize the marriage relation in the slave, although the 
 first gift of the Creator to man. Although the man and 
 wife are one, it separates them on the alleged claim of 
 property. Their children, the fruit of their bodies, it 
 claims on the same plea, and in disregard of the ties and 
 rights of nature. It deprives the husband of the right to 
 protect and cherish his wife, a part of himself; and the 
 wife of the power of being obedient and faithful to her 
 husband. It prevents the parents from performing their 
 natural duties to their children, educating and providing 
 for them : and it makes it impossible for the children to 
 support and minister to their parents. This is wholly at 
 variance with natural religion, and some of the first duties 
 it enjoins on man towards his fellow man. 
 
 But more : Slavery is at variance with the natural rela- 
 tions we sustain to God, and the duties we owe him ; that 
 we ought to love, and serve, and worship God, is a dictate 
 of the light of nature. But the extent to which the master 
 claims a right of property in the slave, and control over 
 him, may be made to prevent his performing these natural 
 duties. The slave may be kept ignorant of God, and his 
 duty to him ; he may be allowed no time for religious 
 duty ; he may forcibly be prevented; he may find it im- 
 possible to avoid doing what is known to be wrong. 
 Female slaves may be compelled to unclean living, by cir- 
 cumstances from which they have no escape. Their tes- 
 
 * See page 53, and note. 
 
LETTER V. 57 
 
 limony is not received, and the power of punishment at 
 pleasure is in the hands of the master. If this be not 
 against natural religion, what is against it ? 
 
 Most of the special references, which I have seen, to the 
 law of nature on this subject, have been to that application 
 of it, called the Law of Nations. And to me there has ap- 
 peared in most cases a confounding of what the light of 
 nature and the dictates of sound reason made it the duty 
 of nations to do which is always right, with what in fact 
 nations have done which is often wrong. Natural or na- 
 tional law no doubt justifies self-defence; and so far as a 
 just and necessary self-defence may require the injuring of 
 another in person, rights, or property, it may justly be 
 done; but it cannot justify us in going one hair's-breadth 
 farther. It cannot justify an injury without a just cause, 
 nor beyond its just claims. It may justify killing in self- 
 defence, but only in that case. Slavery cannot be justified 
 on the ground of self-defence. Nations or individuals may 
 possibly, in prosecuting just claims, oblige others to ren- 
 der various services ; but it must not be carried beyond 
 the requirements of equity. To infer the moral right of 
 nations or individuals to do things from the fact that others 
 have done them, is not only to invert the rule of morals, 
 but to destroy it. A thing on this supposition becomes 
 right, not because agreeable to reason and equity, but sim- 
 ply because others have done it. The worst crimes might, 
 in this way, be justified. 
 
 Nations, I admit, to a great extent have practised slave- 
 ry ; but they have, to as great an extent, practised many 
 other things which few will justify. They have prac- 
 tised injustice ; they have oppressed each other. What 
 civil wars have nations waged against nations? What 
 sacking and burning of cities, and wasting of countries, and 
 massacreing of prisoners? What butchering of inhabit- 
 ants, and abuse of females ? None would for a moment 
 infer that these things were agreeable to natural law, be- 
 cause so common ! Many of those who acted thus, possi- 
 bly justilied their doing so on the ground that these things 
 were so often done. Others, disregarding or overlooking 
 the natural injustice of the case, concluded that policy, pa- 
 
58 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 triotism, or glory required it; or revenge demanded it at 
 their hands. 
 
 Now, as a matter of fact, the ancients justified slavery 
 on the same ground that they justified the above practices. 
 It was to a great extent common to consider all as ene- 
 mies with whom they had no special alliance, and equally 
 common to consider it justifiable to spoil or kill, or take cap- 
 tive and reduce to slavery, their enemies. Whether they 
 had received any injury, had any just cause of complaint, 
 was not the question ; but whether they were enemies, 
 or persons with whom they had no special engagements 
 to be friends? and where there was just cause of com- 
 plaint, the limits of a just satisfaction were seldom re- 
 garded. The more common practice was, to do injury to 
 the utmost possible extent. These principles are wholly 
 at variance with the law of nature and the principles of 
 reason. 
 
 From these monstrous perversions of the right of self- 
 defence, they justified slavery. From the right of destroy- 
 ing an enemy, they inferred the right of doing what they 
 pleased with him ; if his life were spared, the right of en- 
 slaving him — of selling him. But the right of enslaving an 
 enemy, does not follow from the right of killing in self- 
 defence. The very fact that he was not killed, but taken 
 captive, proves that it was not necessary to kill him. And 
 having spared him, the claims on him, if any just claims 
 there be, ought to be exacted in a way consistent with na- 
 tural justice and equity. 
 
 Slavery is a state of things that is at variance with the 
 above, and many other important principles of natural re- 
 ligion. I infer, therefore, that natural religion is opposed 
 to it, and gives no authority for reducing persons to that 
 state, or continuing them in it. 
 
 Yours, &e. 
 
59 
 
 IiSTTEH VI. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 I now proceed to examine the teaching of Scripture, re- 
 specting slavery. That Scripture often refers to slavery I 
 readily admit ; but that it approves of it as morally right, 
 I am satisfied is not the fact ; and I hope before I close my 
 examination to adduce proof that will satisfy the candid 
 and unprejudiced that the reverse is the case. That it 
 will satisfy all, that it will satisfy those whose whole effort 
 is to believe slavery not wrong, whose habits and preju- 
 dices, and temporal interests, to the amount of thousands, 
 are all on the side of slavery, is too much to expect. 
 There is not a truth of politics, or morality, or religion, 
 that has' not been disputed on similar grounds. 
 
 It is, however, far from my purpose to charge any per- 
 son with any more or any other bias on this matter, than 
 naturally may have arisen from education, or resulted from 
 having an interest on one side. We all know the power 
 which early habits, and education, and example, exert on 
 persons to reconcile them to some things and make them 
 opposed to others. Every man who has listened to both 
 sides of a case in controversy between his neighbours, 
 every boy who has heard the disputes of his school-fel- 
 lows, knows that people are greatly blinded and biassed by 
 selfish feelings. A candid man will own that he is thus 
 liable to see things in a light favourable to his own wishes 
 and interests. So notorious is this fact, that in civil society 
 almost universally, it is admitted that men ought not to be 
 judges, nor even witnesses in their own case. Those who 
 judge in a case in which they are interested, ought, if they 
 would decide it, as the disinterested are sure to do, incline 
 the scale a good deal more against themselves, than their 
 interested views and feelings seem to require. 
 
 This holds good as to slavery. Scripture passages 
 which, to those interested or prejudiced, may seem to jus- 
 tify slavery, may to the impartial appear most manifestly, 
 either not to relate to the case, or come far short of justi- 
 fying it ; while other passages, going to condemn it, whicli 
 some may either overlook or explain away, may appear, as 
 
60 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 indeed they are, to the unbiassed, " confirmation strong as 
 holy writ," that slavery is morally wrong. 
 
 The extent to which their previous opinions influence 
 persons as to the meaning of Scripture, is much greater, 
 I apprehend, than most are aware of. ' The history of the 
 past, and the state of things at present, furnishes ample 
 proof of this. 
 
 The change of the elements of bread and wine in the 
 Lord's Supper, into the real body and blood of Christ by 
 consecration — baptismal regeneration — the doctrine of Pur- 
 gatory — masses for the dead — the supremacy of the Pope, 
 with many such matters, received now only by the most 
 thorough-going Papists, were immediately preceding the 
 reformation, not only almost universally believed, but con- 
 sidered as plainly taught in various passages of Scripture. 
 We now are astonished that persons could be so blinded 
 or biassed as to find in those Scriptures any support for 
 said notions. 
 
 While the reformers broke the spell which bound the 
 public mind to these errors, and rescued the Scriptures 
 from that strange perversion which gave them support ; 
 we have ample proof in their history that other errors al- 
 most as great, and other perversions of Scripture almost 
 as manifest, escaped detection — yea, were advocated by 
 those same men. All the reformers, almost without ex- 
 ception, believed that heretical opinions ought to be forci- 
 bly repressed, and that uniformity in matters of faith ought 
 to be enforced, by the civil magistrate ; and considered 
 this as fairly taught in various passages of Scripture. It 
 would not be easy now to find the man who believes that 
 persecution is really at all justified, much less enjoined by 
 those passages. 
 
 It requires but little observation to be satisfied that the 
 great confidence which many sectarians have that they are 
 right and all others wrong, depends much more on the 
 bias of mind with which they read the Scriptures, than on 
 the plainness of Scripture testimony in their favour. We 
 refer to that portion of each party that is most sectarian, 
 most confident that they are right, and all others wrong. 
 
 The Episcopalian sees, it may be, in the office of the 
 Apostles — in the use of the term Bishop — in the direc- 
 
LETTER VI. 61 
 
 tion to Timothy and Titus, as well as in other passages, 
 what fully satisfies him that Episcopacy was appointed to 
 be the order of God's house, and at times his charity can- 
 not find any excuses for the Presbyterian and Baptist, that 
 will not partake more of wilful blindness than is at all 
 seemly in pious people. On the other hand, the Presby- 
 terian and Baptist see in the declaration of Christ that his 
 disciples must not lord it over each other, in the promis- 
 cuous and interchangable use of the terms Bishop and 
 Presbyter, as also in the fact that there were a plurality of 
 Bishops in the Apostolic churches, satisfactory evidence 
 that Christ intended to leave but one standing order of 
 ministers ; and some of them have just about as much dif- 
 ficulty in stretching their charity to cover, if not the sins, 
 yet the errors of their Episcopal brethren, as is found on 
 the other side. 
 
 The Baptist sees in the "much water" at Enon, where 
 John baptized, and in the " going down into the water," 
 and " coming up out of it," and in believing being placed 
 before baptism in several passages, that baptism ought to 
 be administered by immersion, and to none but adult per- 
 sons ; and he is at times sorely tempted to believe that the 
 Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Methodist are kept wrong, 
 not so much from ignorance as other reasons even more 
 criminal. 
 
 The Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Methodist, on the 
 other hand, find no difticulty in answering the arguments 
 drawn from those passages ; and are, in their turn, not a 
 little surprised that, in the symbolical nature of the ordi- 
 nance, the application of the terms sprinkling and pouring 
 to the things represented by baptism — in the circumstances 
 in which the Apostles often administered that rite, together 
 with the fact that children were expressly made church 
 members under the Jewish dispensation, and not excluded 
 under the Christian, and that household baptism was often 
 practised by the Apostles — their Baptist brethren should not 
 see that they themselves are in the wrong, both as to the 
 subject and the mode of baptism. 
 
 The Methodist thinks it strange that the Presbyterian 
 and Baptist should believe in the doctrines of election and 
 predestination, and that they do not see that falling from 
 
 6 
 
62 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 grace is taught in the Scriptures. He is almost affrighted 
 at the consequences which he supposes follow those doc- 
 trines. 
 
 The Presbyterian and Baptist, however, come forward 
 stoutly in defence of their tenets; answer his reasoning, 
 explain away his examples, and ply him with arguments 
 and Scripture, until the field of debate is to him a field of 
 tribulation. 
 
 More illustration is useless. It will not be denied by 
 the impartial, that in these and similar cases, the previous 
 opinions with which the Scriptures are read, have a great 
 influence in producing that confidence which many have, 
 that Scripture is wholly on their side. The most tho- 
 rough-going partisans are often persons who look almost 
 wholly at those parts of Scripture that appear to favour 
 their own opinions, and give little attention to those that 
 are in favour of the other side. 
 
 Now that there is very generally a predisposition to 
 think slavery not wrong, and to rest for its justification on 
 those passages of Scripture which make mention of it, is 
 what we, from the state of things in which we are placed, 
 might expect. Slavery is of long standing among us. It 
 has prevailed more or less in all parts of our country; 
 most of our fathers, including many of the best men in 
 the community, have practised it. 
 
 Mention is made in the Bible of servants : Abraham had 
 servants, the Israelites had servants, and the New Testa- 
 ment speaks of servants, and commands them to be obe- 
 dient to their masters; and without looking farther, or 
 examining what is said on the other side, many, and I be- 
 lieve the generality of slave-holders, take it for granted 
 that it is not wrong. Here is education, parental example, 
 general custom, personal interest, love of ease and abso- 
 lute authority — all on one side ; and under their influence 
 we might expect that those Scriptures would be found 
 which appeared to justify slavery, and that these alone 
 would be quoted. This in fact is found to be the case ; 
 and those portions on which its morality really depends, 
 are almost entirely overlooked.* 
 
 * I have known professors of religion express great surprise, on 
 having such passages as Ex. xxi. 26, Deut. xxiii. 15, Jer. xxxiv. 
 
LETTER VI. 63 
 
 Perhaps nine-tenths of those who have at all referred to 
 Scripture on this matter, have felt satisfied that there was 
 nothing wrong in slavery, on finding that Abraham had 
 servants, that the Israelites had servants, and that servants 
 are mentioned in the New Testament. Now for these 
 cases to prove that slavery as practised among us, is not 
 wrong, the following things ought to be certain: — 1. That 
 those servants were slaves. 2. That those who held them 
 have the approbation of Scripture for so doing. 3. That 
 their example really justifies us in the slavery we practise. 
 I am greatly mistaken, however, if all of these can be 
 made to appear. 
 
 That servants are mentioned in Scripture, we readily 
 admit. But we all know that there are various kinds of 
 servants. There are Jhired servants, and bound servants, 
 and bought servants, who are to serve for a few years ; as 
 well as slaves who are made to serve for life. The Eng- 
 lish convicts and the redemptioners, formerly brought to 
 this country, were sold for a time. Persons may now be 
 sold for servants under the vagrant law. 
 
 The words mostly used to designate servants,* in the 
 Scripture, express all kinds of servants. They include 
 slaves, when there are any, as one condition of servants ; 
 but also include the hireling, bound, and bought for a 
 limited time. The question is not about the morality of 
 servitude generally ; the morality of having hired, or 
 bound, or even Bervants bought for a limited period ; none 
 question this. The question is about the morality of 
 slavery ; the holding them forcibly in perpetual bondage, 
 with their children. Now to say Abraham and the Israelites 
 had servants, and the New Testament speaks of servants, 
 without showing that they were slaves, does not prove the 
 moral right of slavery. We will have occasion to show 
 hereafter that in most if not all the cases noticed in Scrip- 
 ture, even where there was a kind of slavery, it was very 
 different from that practised among us. 
 
 8 — 22, quoted to them. They had never noticed them. And I may 
 add that I have known preachers, after conversing 1 and referring to 
 Scripture, confess that they thought there were many more and 
 plainer passages of Scripture in favour of slavery, than they could, 
 on trial, find. 
 
 * See Letter XIII. 
 
64 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 But the second point is not more clear than the first — 
 whether in case the patriarchs did practise slavery, they 
 were right in so doing. It is one thing for Scripture to 
 state what they did, and another thing to approve of it. 
 The Scripture mentions the drunkenness of Noah — the in- 
 cest of Lot — the concubinage of Abraham — the polygamy 
 of Jacob — the murder and adultery of David, with many 
 such things ; but we do not therefore infer that these things 
 were morally right. The Scripture relates facts both bad 
 and good, on the same general principle that all faithful 
 history does ; but it furnishes us, in the law and moral pre- 
 cepts, with ample means of judging of their moral charac- 
 ter. Now to take it for granted that slavery is not wrong, 
 because we find that the patriarchs and others may possi- 
 bly have practised it, is wholly inadmissible. To ascertain 
 whether it was right or wrong, we ought to try it by the 
 moral law, and the precepts that point out the duties of 
 man towards man. 
 
 But the third thing may well be objected to. It does 
 not follow that we may without sin do everything that may, 
 perhaps, without much sin, have been done by persons in 
 ancient times. We have much more light than they had. 
 We have the Bible containing the written law — many lived 
 before that book was written. The relation we sustain to 
 each other, and the duties thence arising, are made, per- 
 haps, a hundred fold more plain to us than they were to 
 them. They may, through ignorance, have done things, 
 without much sin, which if we do, with this book in our 
 hands, will exclude us from the kingdom of God. 
 
 The Apostles declared in their day, that the " past times 
 of ignorance God winked at, but then commanded all men 
 everywhere to repent." The increase of doctrinal light 
 respecting salvation through Christ, we know was very 
 gradual. The same appears to have been the case as to 
 moral light and duty. 
 
 There were many things practised in ancient times, and 
 by pious men, which if practised by professors of religion 
 now, we would think wholly inconsistent with real reli- 
 gion. Polygamy, concubinage and divorce were very com- 
 mon in the church. The sacking of cities, and the butchery 
 of prisoners are mentioned as things of common occur- 
 
LETTER VI. 65 
 
 rence. It was common, in war, to kill all the males, and 
 frequently even the females were destroyed. It does not 
 follow that these things are right, and may be done now, 
 although performed by Moses, and Joshua, and David, and 
 many other great and good men. 
 
 The morality of slavery must be judged of by comparing 
 it with the moral law, that eternal and immutable rule of 
 right and wrong ; and this law appears to me most clearly 
 to condemn it. We have our duty to our fellow men sum- 
 med up in love to them — »« Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself." Our Lord himself gives us a practical view 
 of this in the following words : " In all things whatsoever 
 ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to 
 them ; for this is the Law and the Prophets." 
 
 Now to me few things are more plain than that slavery 
 is inconsistent with this rule — is at war with its spirit, and 
 irreconcilable with it. Let a person but form a correct 
 idea of what slavery is. It is an involuntary and forced 
 condition. It is claiming persons as property, holding 
 them forcibly in bondage, and compelling them to serve 
 without wages, retaining them and their children in that 
 condition, and all for no crime. If this be consistent with 
 loving them as ourselves — if it be in the spirit of doing as 
 we would be done by, then I am altogether mistaken. 
 
 To attempt to evade the force of this plain rule, by sup- 
 posing an extreme case — such as a criminal desiring us to 
 favour his escape from merited punishment, is wholly un- 
 fair ; and the man who reveres God's law ought never to 
 do it. It is on all hands admitted that by crime, we may 
 forfeit all our rights, and free others frum the obligation of 
 regarding them. A man may forfeit his liberty, and even 
 his lite, by personal crimes ; and make it no breach of the 
 law of love in those who deprive him of either. The case 
 of slavery is wholly different. No personal crimes have 
 changed the relations of the slave to his fellow men, and 
 forfeited that love and kindness from them which our na- 
 tures oblige us to desire for ourselves, and the law of God 
 commands us to have to each other. 
 
 The rule is one of the plainest that can be named. 
 Every man carries it in his own bosom. Self-love is com- 
 mon to all men — is a part of our nature — is in constant 
 
66 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 operation — and no man can for a moment doubt whether 
 slavery does not appear to him a great evil, and liberty, 
 and the right of pursuing his own happiness, a great and 
 most desirable good. 
 
 No rule that could be given man is of so easy and gen- 
 eral an application. There are few if any cases in life, in 
 which the rule cannot in a moment be applied ; and that 
 with an immediate decision as to what we ought to do. 
 We need but make the case our own, and in the fear of 
 that God who knows our hearts, and has made our self- 
 love the measure of our duty to our fellow men, ask what 
 we would have others do to us ; and were we to admit that 
 there are cases in which we might be at a loss to decide 
 w T hat self-love would choose or refuse, yet, most clearly, 
 slavery is not one of that kind. Next to life itself and 
 the necessary means of its subsistence, there is, perhaps, 
 nothing in existence that men more universally desire than 
 freedom. In a case where self-love in all mankind is so 
 distinct in its likings and dislikings, and so importunate in 
 its demands, it is disingenuous to attempt to evade it, and 
 perplex the question by supposing cases of doubtful char- 
 acter. 
 
 I am aware that some explain the above law as relating 
 to the conduct of man to man, in the relations they may 
 sustain to each other ; but suppose it must not be applied 
 to the relations themselves. Where the relations are re- 
 ally natural and lawful, I admit that the remark holds good, 
 but not otherwise. Suppose that a relation is really wrong 
 — that it involves manifest injustice and injury to one party 
 for the benefit of the other, would not the law of love for- 
 bid it ? Most assuredly it would. What other law is there 
 than the moral law to forbid immoral and unjust relations? 
 The law of love is the substance of the whole moral law, 
 and forbids all that is contrary to it. 
 
 That the relation of master and servant, generally con- 
 sidered, has nothing wrong in it — -and when filled with the 
 consent and for the mutual benefit of both parties, has the 
 approbation of the law, I fully admit. This, however, is 
 manifestly not the case with slavery. Slavery is the un- 
 natural and unlawful condition of servitude ; and like the 
 unlawful condition of any other lawful thing, marriage or 
 
LETTER VI. 67 
 
 government, for instance, is a violation of the lav/ of love, 
 and therefore sinful. 
 
 We have in Scripture various views of the law of love 
 and its actings towards ourselves and others. The impor- 
 tance of the point we are discussing, will justify us in spe- 
 cifying several of these, and noticing their disagreement 
 with slavery. 
 
 " Love seeketh not her own." Self-love seeks our own. 
 But we are to love others as we love ourselves. Self-love 
 is to be the measure of our love to others. The love, then, 
 which the law requires ns to have to others must lead us 
 to promote their welfare, as self-love leads us to seek our 
 own. 
 
 Now slavery is irreconcilable with this requirement of 
 the law. To hold another forcibly in bondage, and compel 
 him, without reward, to minister to our ease or comfort, is 
 a self-seeking, at the expense of others. The slave-holder 
 may more or less regard the comfort of those whom he 
 holds in bondage ; but if he regarded their interests and 
 happiness as he does his own, and that is what the law 
 requires, would he forcibly prevent them from seeking 
 their own happiness, in the way that might to them appear 
 best? It is undeniable that the supposed ease or comfort 
 or profit of the slave-holder, and that more or less at the 
 expense of the slave, is the usual object of the slave-holder. 
 The extent to which these may be sought at the expense 
 of the slave may be greater or less, and of course greater 
 or less injustice may attend it; that, however, is inciden- 
 tal to it, and not the point directly before us. The prin- 
 ciple of slavery, the compelling others to minister to our 
 ease or profit at the expense of their own, is a self-seeking, 
 which, in its spirit, is contrary to that love that " seeketh 
 not her own." 
 
 It is said that " love worketh no ill to his neighbour, 
 therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." 
 
 With this view of the law of love, slavery, as appears 
 to me, is clearly inconsistent. To be claimed as property, 
 to be held forcibly in bondage, and compelled to serve 
 without wages, is felt by all to be one of the greatest ills 
 men can suffer. All men so view it in their own case. So 
 universally has slavery been considered as an ill, as hard 
 
68 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 dealing of man to man, that reasons have ever been thought 
 needful to justify it. Persons have been reduced to slavery 
 for real or supposed crimes — enemies and prisoners have 
 been reduced to slavery, on the supposition that such per- 
 sons might lawfully be treated in that way. 
 
 Now it is no less an ill to be born in slavery, held be- 
 cause the parent was a slave, than to be reduced to it : 
 and considered as treatment at the hand of their fellow 
 men, it may be worse. The man reduced to slavery 
 may in part have deserved it, but this cannot be said of 
 his children. Bondage for life is so great an ill, that few 
 crimes are thought to deserve it. It is in some respects 
 worse than death. Now to inflict this ill on the unoffend- 
 ing children of those who have during life been minister- 
 ing to the profit and comfort of their owners, is surely- 
 hard dealing. The spirit of the law forbids rendering evil 
 for evil ; but here is worse, here is rendering evil for 
 good. 
 
 The law requiring us to do to others as we would have 
 them do to us, does fairly forbid us doing to them what 
 we would not have them do to us. 
 
 Now, of all things, we would oppose being reduced to 
 slaverv, We would consider it the greatest evil men 
 could do to us. We are then bound by the plain spirit of 
 the precept, not to do to others what we would think so 
 hard if done to ourselves. We are to make our own views 
 and feelings respecting rights, the measure of our doings 
 towards others. If we knew not the worth of personal 
 rights, if we cared nothing about them, the rule would 
 have less application. But we know them, and highly 
 prize them, and of course are under peculiar obligation to 
 respect them in others. 
 
 The rule of doing as we would be done by, is so plain 
 that all understand it; and so agrees with the natural judg- 
 ments of the mind and dictates of conscience, that all 
 men feel its propriety. And although they may violate it 
 themselves, yet they are almost sure to see and condemn 
 its violation in others. On this ground it is that the con- 
 tinuance of slavery among us, notwithstanding the prin- 
 ciples we avowed, and the part we acted when our own 
 rights were endangered, is so generally condemned among 
 
LETTER VI. 69 
 
 the nations of Europe. And while the natural judgments 
 of the mind remain the same, we will be censured for our 
 inconsistency. 
 
 Before leaving this branch of the subject, allow me to 
 quote a few more passages which give similar views of the 
 law of love, as the rule of moral conduct. — " The fruit of 
 the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. 
 Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
 another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. 
 Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and gave him- 
 self for us." 
 
 Many passages relate more directly to the conduct en- 
 joined on us towards our fellow men. 
 
 "To do good and communicate, forget not, for with 
 such sacrifices God is well pleased. Let us, as we have 
 opportunity, do good to all men. Let every one of us 
 please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even 
 Christ pleased not himself. Let no man seek his own, 
 but every man another's wealth. Bear ye one another's 
 burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Look not every 
 man at his own things, but every man also at the things 
 of others. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of 
 daily food, and one of you say, Depart in peace, be ye 
 warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not 
 those things that are needful for the body, what doth it 
 profit \ But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his 
 brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compas- 
 sion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 
 Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed 
 and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the 
 truth, and shall assure our hearts before him." 
 
 These passages, to which thousands might be added, are 
 but various unfoldings of the law of love, as the rule of 
 duty towards our fellow men. Their whole tendency ap- 
 pears to me to be opposed to involuntary servitude. All 
 men consider freedom as a good, and slavery as an evil. 
 The whole tenor of those precepts is to enjoin doing 
 good, and not evil, to our fellow men. We are to do 
 good to all. The good which the slave especially wants, 
 is to be restored to freedom, to his natural rights. We 
 are to look on the things of others, and to bear their 
 
70 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 burdens. It implies looking on the hard condition of the 
 slave, and removing his burdens. 
 
 It ought to be remarked that the rule of moral duty given 
 in God's word, requires us to carry our love and kindness 
 so far as to render good for evil, love for hatred, and bless- 
 ing for cursing. 
 
 " I say unto you that hear, love your enemies, do good 
 to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and 
 pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. 
 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer 
 also the other : and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid 
 not to take thy coat also. Bless them that persecute you ; 
 bless and curse not. Be not overcome with evil, but over- 
 come evil with good." 
 
 We are taught in these and similar passages, that it is 
 our duty to bear patiently the evils which we may meet 
 with at the hands of our fellow men, and in return to do 
 to them only good. We are to do good to all, as well the 
 bad as the good ; we are to love all our enemies as well as 
 friends, and thus follow the example of God, "who is 
 kind to the unthankful and evil," and of Christ, who, when 
 he suffered, "committed himself to him that judgeth righ- 
 teously." 
 
 I see not how the spirit and tenor of these precepts can 
 agree with slavery, that hard dealing of man towards man. 
 
 I may here briefly remark that this last class of texts 
 furnish a consistent and satisfactory explanation of those 
 passages which enjoin it on servants to obey their mas- 
 ters. Some have strongly inferred from these passages 
 that slavery was not wrong. It shows how ready people 
 are to grasp at anything that in appearance may justify 
 what they wish to practise. Those passages relate to the 
 duty of servants, and not to that of the master, and of 
 course are not the passages from which the duty of the 
 master is to be learned. The class of Scriptures last 
 quoted, proves that duties are enjoined which yet none of 
 our fellow men have a right to exact of us. It is our duty 
 to render good for evil. Our fellow men, however, have 
 no right to exact it of us. We are commanded to pray for 
 those who despitefully use us and persecute us ; but said 
 persecutors have no just claim on us so to do. If we are 
 
LETTER VI. 71 
 
 smitten on the one cheek, we are to turn the other ; and 
 we are not to withhold our coat from him that has taken 
 our cloak; but God's command to us, neither justifies the 
 smiter or the robber, or in the least lessens his guilt in 
 what he does. As a branch of the general duty of meek- 
 ness and patience, and rendering good for evil, servants 
 are commanded to bear patiently the hardships of their lot, 
 and to obey their masters, even the froward and injurious; 
 but it does not follow that the master's claim is just, or 
 that his whole conduct to the servant may not be a violation 
 of the law of love. I before observed that the word rendered 
 servant in those places, is to be taken in its general sense, 
 so as to include all conditions of servants. Of course it is 
 the general condition that is properly referred to; and it 
 has nothing to do with justifying slavery, the unlawful 
 condition of servitude. To this I must add the fact which 
 will appear hereafter, that that condition of servitude called 
 slavery, is repeatedly called oppression, heavy burdens, 
 yoke, cruel and hard bondage. These terms imply that 
 it is wrong. An oppressor evidently is an evil-doer. God 
 has expressed his hatred of oppression, and declared he 
 will break the rod of the oppressor, and be the refuge of 
 the oppressed. 
 
 Yours, <fec. 
 
72 
 
 LETTEH. VXT. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 In my last letter I proved that the law of love, and the 
 rule of doing as we would be done by, do condemn slavery. 
 Various attempts, however, have been made so to explain, 
 or limit, or qualify these rules, as to make them permit 
 slavery. A full account of these explanations would form 
 a curious article. This I will not attempt, but select se- 
 veral of the most imposing. 
 
 Some allege that Scripture does, both by precept and 
 example, permit slavery ; and that therefore the law of love 
 and rule of doing as we would be done by, must be so ex- 
 plained as to agree with said permission, and not set it 
 aside. They argue, that had it been morally wrong, 
 Scripture would not have permitted it; and the moral law 
 being immutably the same, what it did not condemn as 
 morally wrong formerly, cannot be wrong now. Others, 
 considering the argument from the patriarchal and Jewish 
 dispensations as not applicable to the state of things in 
 which we are placed, lay but little stress on it ; but think 
 they find in the notices of servitude in the New Testament, 
 and in the relations which the church now sustains to civil 
 government, such a limitation of the law of love, and the 
 rule of doing as we would be done by, as lets slavery- 
 alone. These two plans embrace most that can be said in 
 justification of slavery as a moral question. 
 
 That the Scriptures are consistent with themselves, I 
 not only admit, but maintain; and my main reasons for 
 believing slavery morally wrong, is found in its opposition 
 to the very spirit of the moral law ; that the law of love 
 and rule of doing as we would be done by, do, in their 
 plain, straight-forward, and common sense meaning, con- 
 demn slavery, is to me one of the plainest cases that can 
 be named. Now, if there be another class of Scripture 
 passages that justify it, certainly a difficulty is presented of 
 a very serious nature. It ought not to be taken for granted, 
 nor even admitted, until those passages are carefully exa- 
 mined, together with all the other passages that may throw 
 light on the case, and the fact be ascertained. We ought 
 
LETTER VII. 73 
 
 to treat the case just as we treat other cases, when Scrip- 
 ture appears, or is alleged, to contradict Scripture, and I 
 doubt not it will appear that those passages admit of ex- 
 planations consistent with the moral law. 
 
 It ought to be recollected, that while the moral law is 
 the same as a rule of duty, the extent to which its princi- 
 ples have been unfolded and carried out, is much greater 
 under the New Testament than under the Old Testament. 
 This holds good of many parts of religious truth. The 
 ancient saints were saved through Christ; yet they had 
 much less light as to his character and salvation than we 
 enjoy. In doctrine, we explain the dark passages of the 
 Old, by the more luminous passages of the New Testa- 
 ment. We ought to do so in morals, and it would not be 
 more absurd to leave the doctrinal light of the New Testa- 
 ment, and regulate our faith by the Old Testament, than to 
 do so in morals. Had the patriarchs enjoyed the moral 
 light we do, they would not have practised polygamy and 
 divorce, nor do I suppose they would have practised 
 slavery. It may, indeed, on good grounds, be doubted, 
 as will appear hereafter, whether the patriarchs and pious 
 Jews did practise slavery, properly so called. The Jew- 
 ish law most certainly contained various limitations and 
 offsets against absolute slavery. 
 
 That the Old Te&tament, when fairly construed, does 
 really condemn slavery, and did design to prevent it, will 
 appear manifest, I think, from the following considerations. 
 Moral duty was enjoined on the Jews, as of much higher 
 obligation than ceremonial. 
 
 " The Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords. 
 A great God, a mighty and a terrible ; which regardeth not 
 persons nor taketh reward, lie doth execute the judg- 
 ment of the fatherless and widows, and loveth the stranger 
 in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the 
 stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 
 Thou shalt not oppress the stranger, for ye know the 
 heart of a stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of 
 Egypt. If a stranger sojourn with you in your land, ye 
 shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with 
 you, shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou 
 shalt love him as thyself: for ye were strangers in the 
 7 
 
74 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 land of Egypt. Bring no more vain oblations. Incense 
 is an abomination unto me ; your new moons and your 
 appointed feasts my soul hateth ; they are a trouble unto 
 me ; I am weary to bear them. Wash you, make you 
 clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before mine 
 eyes. Cease to do evil; learn to do well: seek judgment, 
 relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the 
 widow. Go and learn what that meaneth," said our Lord, 
 " I will have mercy and not sacrifice." And in the fol- 
 lowing passage the Jews are charged with inverting the 
 proper order of things, and neglecting the most important. 
 " Ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass 
 over the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, 
 and faith ; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave 
 the other undone. "* 
 
 Here we have the law of love not only brought forward 
 in many forms, but laid down in the same words used in 
 the New Testament. It was to be their rule of duty towards 
 the stranger, as well as towards their own people. Its 
 observance was enforced on them again and again, by re- 
 ferring to their former slavery in Egypt ; their affliction 
 and sorrow of heart while forcibly held in that condition. 
 44 Ye know the heart of a stranger, for ye were strangers 
 in the land of Egypt. Ye were Pharaoh's bond-men, and 
 the Lord delivered you, therefore I command you this 
 thing." Bent. xv. 15. 
 
 If this be not substantially an application of the law of 
 love, and the rule of doing as they would be done by, to 
 the case of slavery, then I know not what it is. 
 
 The sins most frequently condemned in Scripture, the 
 crimes for which Israel was most frequently punished, 
 the conduct against which God declares himself most op- 
 posed, and about which most is said, are violations of the 
 moral law, and a large portion of them is conduct of man 
 towards man. He must have read the Scripture to little 
 purpose, who has not observed this. Thousands of pas- 
 sages could be adduced in proof of it. The following is a 
 sample : — 
 
 44 The children of Israel sighed by reason of the bon- 
 
 * Deut. x. Ex. xxii. 23. Isaiah i. Mat. xxiii. 23. 
 
LETTER VII. 75 
 
 dage ; and they cried, and their cry came up to God by 
 reason of their bondage. I have seen the oppression 
 wherewith the Egyptians oppress them, and have come 
 down to deliver them. So I returned and considered ail 
 the oppressions that are done under the sun: and I beheld 
 the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter: 
 and on the side of the oppressor there was power, but 
 they had no comforter. — If thou seest the oppression of 
 the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in 
 a province, marvel not at the matter ; for He that is higher 
 than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they. 
 — If a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right; 
 hath not oppressed any ; hath spoiled none by violence ; 
 hath executed true judgment between man and man ; he 
 shall surely live. If he beget a son that is a robber ; that 
 hath oppressed the poor and needy ; hath spoiled by vio- 
 lence : he shall surely die. So if he beget a son that 
 seeth his father's sins, and doeth not such like ; neither 
 hath oppressed any ; neither hath spoiled by violence ; 
 hath taken off his hand from the poor: he shall live. — 
 Is not this the fast that I have chosen : to loose the bands 
 of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens, to let the oppressed 
 go free, and that ye break every yoke."* 
 
 These passages, to which hundreds could be added, con- 
 demn all oppression. In a number of them slavery is di- 
 rectly referred to. The slavery of Israel is expressly called 
 oppression, aflliction, burdens, yoke, bondage, &c. and in 
 Isaiah (lviii. 6) God expressly states the duty of letting 
 slaves go out free, in opposition to holding them in bon- 
 dage, which is called oppression, heavy burdens, yoke, &c. 
 
 Now I feel authorized to say that it will require very 
 plain and explicit passages to prove that slavery was not 
 considered as morally wrong, when the whole force of the 
 above and similar passages prove that it was. 
 
 It will not be enough to find passages that mention sla- 
 very : passages can be found that mention many sinful 
 practices. It must be shown that the practice was ap- 
 proved. It is not sufficient to adduce passages that speak 
 
 * Ex. ii. 23, iii. 9. Eccles. iv. 1, v. 8. Ezekiel xviii. 5—17. 
 Isaiah lviii. 6. 
 
76 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 of good men as having servants. It must be shown that 
 they held them in slavery, and are approved for so doing. 
 It is past dispute, that immoral things are mentioned in 
 Scripture of many good men. The drunkenness of Noah, 
 the incest of Lot, the concubinage and polygamy of Abra- 
 ham and Jacob, &c. are examples. These things were 
 not the less sinful because done by good men. They are 
 related as facts ; we are left to judge of their right or wrong 
 by the moral law, and those many portions of Scripture 
 that relate to moral conduct. 
 
 Let us now notice the various kinds of servitude spoken 
 of in Scripture, and the limitations and checks which pre- 
 vented slavery, properly so called. 
 
 For some kinds of crime, persons were reduced to ser- 
 vitude. 
 
 " If a man steal a sheep or an ox, and kill it or sell it, 
 he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a 
 sheep. If he have nothing to pay, he shall be sold for 
 his theft." 
 
 Servitude might originate from poverty. 
 
 " If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, 
 and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve 
 as a bond-man, but as a hired servant. If a man sell his 
 daughter to be a handmaid." 
 
 Or from prisoners taken in war. 
 
 " When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, 
 then proclaim peace unto it. If it make thee answer of 
 peace, all the people therein shall be tributaries unto thee ; 
 if it will make no peace, thou shalt smite every male, but 
 the women and little ones shalt thou take unto thyself." 
 
 Or by purchase from the heathen. 
 
 " Thy bond-men and thy bond-maids which thou shalt 
 have, shall be of the heathen that are round about thee. 
 Of them shalt thou buy bond-men and bond-maids ; ye 
 shall take them, as an inheritance, for your children after 
 you, to inherit them for a possession, and they shall be 
 your bond-men for ever."* 
 
 Some would add, those born in the house of maid-ser- 
 vants, and quote Ex. xxi. 4 — 11. I doubt whether that 
 
 * Ex. xxi. 7. Deut. xxii. 1. Deut. xx. 14. Lev. xxv. 44. 
 
LETTER VII. 77 
 
 passage, or any other, proves that point. It bears, I think, 
 a consistent interpretation which gives no support to that 
 opinion. It will, however, be noticed in its place. 
 
 The above passages speak of a kind of servitude. The 
 following laws were designed to limit it, or open a door of 
 freedom to those in bondage. 
 
 " He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be 
 found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Ex. 
 xxi. 16. 
 
 This passage made it death to steal a person and sell 
 him, or be found in possession of one thus deprived of 
 freedom. Stealing has ever been a fruitful source of sla- 
 very. It is on good authority believed, that one-half of the 
 negroes brought from Africa were stolen. 
 
 " If a man smite the eve of his servant or the eye of his 
 maid, that it perish, he shall let him go out free for his 
 eye's sake. If he smite out his man-servant's tooth or 
 his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go out free for 
 his tooth's sake." Ex. xxii. 26. 
 
 This law gave protection against severe and cruel usage. 
 If it did not always prevent it, it made amends for it by 
 restoring to freedom. 
 
 " Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is 
 escaped from his master to thee. He shall dwell with thee, 
 even among thee, in the place that he shall choose in one 
 of thy gates, where it pleaseth him best; thou shalt not 
 oppress him." Deut. xxiii. 15. 
 
 This forbids them to force back to bondage those that 
 fled from it. It recognized the principle that every man 
 has a better right to liberty, unless forfeited by crime, than 
 another can have to withhold it from him, and it forbid 
 their giving aid to deprive a fellow creature of that right. 
 It evidently appealed to their own case. 
 
 They had been in slavery — felt its evils, and fled from it. 
 An attempt was made to force them back to bondage. God 
 by a miracle delivered them, and smote the oppressor, and 
 commands them to give no aid in preventing the escape of 
 others from a situation which had been so galling to them- 
 selves. 
 
 This law may mainly have had in view the servants that 
 fled to them from neighbouring states. It prevented them 
 

 78 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 from restoring such, and from entering into any mutual en- 
 gagement for that purpose, and of course it must be ex- 
 pected that neighbouring states would adopt a similar prac- 
 tice towards them ; and when we consider how small the 
 land of Canaan was, and how surrounded with other tribes, 
 it must be seen that this law tended to prevent slavery. A 
 place could hardly be found in Canaan, from which a slave 
 could not, in a night and a day, reach some heathen tribe; 
 and, when there, he would, from the natural operation of 
 this law, be safe. 
 
 I see not, however, that we have any authority to con- 
 fine its operation to slaves of heathen masters. The law 
 itself makes no such distinction ; and as to the matter of 
 fact, a Moabite, or an Amorite, or a Philistine might have 
 as good a right to his slave as an Israelite could have to 
 his. He may have taken him in war, or bought, or raised 
 him. It is, however, undeniable that, in their case, the 
 law forbid restoring the servant, and fairly implied the duty 
 of protecting him. There was therefore nothing morally 
 wrong in the case, nor would there be in applying the rule 
 to the slaves of their brethren. Let any one compare this 
 law with the following article in the Constitution of the 
 United States, relating to fugitive slaves. 
 
 " No person held to service or labour in one state, under 
 the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse- 
 quence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
 from such service or labour ; but shall be delivered up on 
 claim of the partv to whom such service or labour may be 
 due." 
 
 " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant that 
 is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with 
 thee, even among you, in the place which he shall choose 
 in one of thy gates where it liketh him best ; thou shalt 
 not oppress him." 
 
 These two laws are the opposite of each other. The 
 one is in favour of liberty, and the other of slavery. The 
 law of Moses was binding on all the tribes and people of 
 Israel. 
 
 The Jewish government, as organized under Moses, 
 was a confederacy. Each tribe had its distinct organiza- 
 tion and its reserved powers. In their associated capacity, 
 they formed a general government, for general and specific 
 
LETTER VII. 79 
 
 purposes. There is a striking resemblance between them 
 and our own confederacy, leaving out the theocratic part. 
 
 Now had the above law of Moses been inserted in the 
 Constitution of the United States, instead of the one placed 
 there, it would have done much to do away slavery. It 
 would have liberated thousands. It would have put an 
 end to the system. It was designed and did operate thus 
 in Israel. 
 
 " Thou shalt hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liber- 
 ty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof." 
 Levit. xxv. 10. 
 
 Here we have a law that expressly gave liberty to all 
 every fifty years. 
 
 " If thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, 
 be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the 
 seventh year thou shalt let him go out free from thee : and 
 thou shalt not let him go away empty. Thou shalt furnish 
 him liberally out of thy floek and out of thy floor and out 
 of thy wine-press — and thou shalt remember that thou wast 
 a bond-man in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed 
 thee, therefore I command thee this thing to-day." Deut. 
 xv. 12. 
 
 This law, giving freedom to the Hebrew servant at the 
 end of mx years, did in fact apply to all that the law al- 
 lowed them to retain among them, as the following things 
 go to prove : — 
 
 It was a part of the covenant of circumcision which the 
 Jews considered as peculiarly binding, that all their ser- 
 vants were to be circumcised. '• lie that is born in the house 
 and he that is bought with money of any stranger, must 
 needs be circumcised — the uncircumcised shall be cut off." 
 (it, i. xvii. 12 — 14. 
 
 This expressly embraced all those born at home, and 
 those obtained from abroad. 
 
 The consequence of an adult servant refusing to be cir- 
 cumcised, and become a member of the congregation of the 
 Lord, is stated; and shows that he acted freely in the case 
 — '■'the I'ncircumcised shall be cut oJ/" >, ' : — separated, be- 
 come an alien to said community. 
 
 "GJ (Neker) the word rendered cut off, is the same that is just 
 above rendered stranger; and it plainly means that those bought 
 
80 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 By the covenant of which circumcision was the token, 
 Israel formed a religious community, and stood engaged to 
 keep all God's commandments. It was to them in this 
 character, that the land of Canaan was given, many spe- 
 cial promises made, and laws and precepts enjoined. 
 Those who refused the token of God's covenant, and de- 
 clined engaging to keep all God's commands, were to be 
 separated from that people. The law of circumcision 
 operated as a limitation law. Israel were neither to inter- 
 marry with the uncircumcised, nor were they to have them 
 as servants, to endanger their morals and religion. 
 
 This construction of the law respecting circumcision, to 
 which a fair examination of all the laws bearing on the 
 case leads, is confirmed by the declaration of Maimonides, 
 one of the most distinguished of the Jewish Rabbis. 
 
 " Whether a servant be born in the house of an Israelite, 
 or whether he be purchased from a heathen, the master 
 must bring them both into the covenant. But he that is 
 born in the house, is to be entered on the eighth day, and 
 he that is bought with money, on the day he receiveth him, 
 unless he be unwilling. For if the master receive a grown 
 slave, and he be unwilling, his master is to bear with him, 
 to seek to win him by instruction, and by love and kind- 
 ness for one year. After which, should he refuse, it is 
 forbidden to keep him longer than twelve months : and his 
 master must send him back to the stranger from whom he 
 came : for the God of Jacob will not accept any other than 
 the worship of a willing heart." Quoted from Stroud. 
 
 Moses, in giving the laws of the Passover, refers to this 
 law as in existence, and to be observed. " Every man 
 servant that is bought with money when thou hast circum- 
 cised him, then he shall eat thereof: a foreigner or a hired 
 servant shall not eat thereof. For no uncircumcised person 
 shall eat thereof." Ex. xii. 44. 
 
 The obligation here to circumcise the bought servant, 
 and cause him to eat the Passover, which is not named 
 respecting the foreigner and hired servant, agrees with the 
 above explanation of the law. They were not forbidden 
 
 of other people, should be united to Israel by being circumcised ; 
 and that any neglecting or refusing to be circumcised, should be 
 strangers to this community — separated from it. 
 
LETTER VII. 81 
 
 to employ a foreigner or a hireling, or entertain him as a 
 sojourner: such cases would usually be but for a short 
 time ; but if they bought and introduced into their fami- 
 lies, strangers, they must limit themselves to those, who 
 would renounce idolatry and embrace the true religion. 
 The case agrees perfectly with the laws, regulations and 
 chances, having in view to prevent them from mingling 
 and forming alliances with idolaters. Had they been al- 
 lowed to have among them a body of servants who profess- 
 ed not the true religion, it could not have failed to endan- 
 ger their morals and religion. Absolute slavery never fails 
 to corrupt the morals of a people. 
 
 Now, the consequence of their servant's professing the 
 true religion, and being circumcised, was that they became 
 as those born in the land — as the Israelites themselves. 
 This is plainly and repeatedly stated. " One law and one 
 custom and one manner shall be to the home-born and to 
 the stranger: as ye are so shall the stranger be before the 
 Lord."* 
 
 This law, by its plain straight-forward operation, placed 
 the heathen servant, when circumcised, on equal footing 
 with the Hebrew servant: and of course he would go out 
 free, by the limitation law, and could not be held to serve 
 more than six years. 
 
 This would be the most natural meaning of these laws, 
 were nothing else said that bore on the case. They are 
 precisely on the principle of the laws of naturalization 
 generally. Certain rights and privileges are secured to 
 the native members of society : and on prescribed condi- 
 tions, strangers are admitted to participate witli them in 
 said privileges. And when we recollect that the con- 
 nection between church and state among the Jews, was 
 distinguished by this peculiarity, that their civil privileges 
 were made to depend on their religious — that the land of 
 Canaan itself, and all their temporal blessings were given 
 to them as God's visible church, and their continuance 
 made to depend on their keeping his commandments ; we 
 need not be surprised that the rite of circumcision, while 
 its first object was to be a token of God's covenant, should 
 
 * Ex. xii. 48. Num. ix. 14 — xv. 15. 
 
82 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 carry with it the right of civil liberty. " To me," says 
 God, " the children of Israel are servants ; they are my 
 servants whom I have brought forth out of Egypt, they 
 shall not be sold for bond-men." 
 
 Whether the word Hebrew used in the law, be used in 
 the national or ecclesiastical sense, does not alter the case. 
 The consequence of being circumcised and joined to the 
 Lord, placed the stranger on the same footing with their 
 own people. There was to be one law, and one custom, 
 and one manner to the home-born and the circumcised 
 stranger. 
 
 Paul, who was of the Jewish race, was still a Roman 
 citizen, and claimed all their privileges. Foreigners who 
 become naturalized in this country, are called Americans, 
 and recognized in law as American citizens. 
 
 The term Hebrew was that by which Israel was usually 
 designated, at the time they came out of Egypt, when 
 the law limiting service to six years was given. It was 
 there often, if not usually, used in the ecclesiastical sense, 
 to designate that people as the covenant people of God. 
 The covenant was made with the nation ; the nation was 
 the church ; and in its relation to God as his visible peo- 
 ple, was the covenant of Sinai made, of which the limiting 
 law is a part. That covenant must have been made with 
 all who were circumcised ; of course it embraced the 
 bought servant, and while the law of circumcision placed 
 him on equal footing with native-born members, the limit- 
 ing law gave him as well as them liberty in six years. 
 
 The case then stands thus : — Israel had been reduced 
 to slavery, and for many years held forcibly in that condi- 
 tion, and compelled to serve without wages. God heard 
 their groans, and delivered them. In giving his law to 
 the same people soon afterwards, God reminded them 
 again and again of their bondage, and charged them not to 
 deal thus with others. For certain crimes, however, and 
 in some cases for debt, persons might be sold and held to 
 service; but none were to be made to serve more than six 
 years. 
 
 Severe or cruel usage gave liberty at any time. The 
 stealing of a person or holding such in bondage, was pun- 
 ished with death. Those taken in war might be held in 
 
LETTER VII. 83 
 
 bondage; this, in the then usages of war, would prevent 
 much bloodshed, and they were allowed to buy of the 
 nations about them ; but in both of these cases, they must 
 confine themselves to those that would renounce idolatry, 
 embrace the true religion, and receive circumcision — the 
 token of the covenant ; and when they did this, they were 
 to be recognized as brethren, and the law gave them free- 
 dom in six years.* 
 
 • Of much additional matter which goes to prove that the limita- 
 tion law applied to all servants, the following is selected. 
 
 1. It may be argued from the meaning of the word Hebrew. It 
 is not the name of a patriarch, and used to designate his descend- 
 ants, but a word expressing a character or condition of persons. 
 It means pilgrim, passage, &c, and was first applied to Abram, 
 after he was living as a pilgrim and stranger in Canaan. Gen. xiv. 
 It came to designate the holy family who lived as pilgrims in Ca- 
 naan. Gen. xxxix. They lived thus by faith, confessed they were 
 pilgrims, and for this cause God was " not ashamed to be called 
 their God." Heb. xi. Those associated with them by circum- 
 cision, were equally strangers and pilgrims. 
 
 2. God often calls himself the God of the Hebrews, in his 
 messages to Pharaoh. Not, however, in the sense of creation ; he 
 is in that sense equally the God of all people. Nor as to their 
 personal holiness and salvation. Israel at that time gave little 
 proof of piety. But they were God's visible covenant people. 
 The circumcised stranger was, however, as much in covenant 
 with God, as any of them. Now the law limiting the service of 
 the Hebrew servants to six years, was a part of the covenant, and 
 embraced all whom that covenant embraced: of course it em- 
 braced the circumcised stranger. 
 
 3. It is a fact that strangers were incorporated with Israel. 
 Jephennah the father of Caleb, was a Kennezite, yet Caleb was a 
 prince of Judah. Gen. xv. 19. Joshua xiv. 6 — 14. The Kenite, 
 the relation of Moses, joined the tribe of Judah and is counted in 
 their genealogies. Judges i. 16. 1 Chron. ii. 55. Itahab joined the 
 tribe of Judah, with her father's house, and was married to the 
 prince of that tribe. Joshua vi. 25. Mat i. 5. 
 
 Ruth the Moabitess held the property of her husband and hus- 
 band's brother, and was married by Boaz according to the re- 
 quirements of the Levitic law. Ruth i. xvi. iv. 10 — 13. 
 
 Obededom the Gittite was joined to the tribe of Levi, and be- 
 came porter. 1 Chron. xiii. 13, 14. xxvi. 4 — 5. These are but a 
 few of the many cases on record. 
 
 4. I know not that we can account for the great increase of 
 Israel during their stay of 215 years in Egypt, but by admitting 
 that others were joined with them. At the birth of Moses, and 
 
84 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 Servitude, thus limited, was stripped of all that deserves 
 the name of slavery. With respect to their own people, 
 it was chiefly as a punishment for crime ; and with re- 
 spect to the heathen, it opened a door for their coming to 
 the knowledge of the true religion, and being joined to the 
 people of God, and then their chains fell from off their 
 hands, and they went out free. It did not reach their 
 children. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 possibly for some time after, the male children were destroyed. 
 There were, however, 600,000 men able for war. If these men 
 were one-sixth, their whole number was above three millions and 
 a half. This would have required them to double in fourteen 
 years. But they took down servants with them into Egypt. They 
 had just before destroyed Shechem, and took the women and 
 children captives. Gen. 3-i. If they kept them, as it is intimated 
 they did, they must have embraced the true religion and been 
 united to them. 
 
 5. The reason of the law forbidding" God's people to be held in 
 bondage is, that they are God's servants : " For to me the chil- 
 dren of Israel are servants ; they are my servants, therefore 
 they shall not be sold for bond-men." This reason, however, was 
 as applicable to the circumcised stranger as to their own people. 
 
 6. The names Hebrew, Israel, Jew, circumcised, &.c. are both 
 in the Old and New Testament applied to all God's visible people. 
 " Many people of the land became Jews. He is not a Jew that is 
 one outwardly." Esther viii. 17. Romans ii. 28. 
 
 7. The prophet Ezekiel in foretelling the restoration of Israel, 
 declares (xlvii. 22) that "the stranger shall receive an inheritance 
 in the tribe to which he is joined, and be as those born in the 
 land." 
 
 This we may infer from Exodus xh. 48. was from the first in- 
 tended. Caleb the Kennezite was an example. It is, however, 
 here specially directed by the prophet. 
 
85 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 The principal difficulty that lies against the above inter- 
 pretation of the Mosaic law respecting slavery arises from 
 what is said in Leviticus xxv. 44. " Thy bond-men and 
 thy bond-maids shall be of the heathen ; of them thou shalt 
 buy, and shall leave them as an inheritance to your chil- 
 dren, and they shall be your bond-men for ever." 
 
 This passage, I readily admit, does at first view look 
 like a permission to practise slavery, and that for life. 
 And were it the only passage in the Mosaic law that 
 related to slavery, we would very naturally be led to take 
 it in that sense. There are, however, many other pas- 
 sages that relate to it, and when we compare it with those, 
 formerly quoted, which I must request you to do, it will 
 at once appear, that if taken to justify unqualified slavery, 
 it will he at variance both with their letter and spirit. 
 
 It is undeniable, that many of those quoted above speak 
 of the slavery of Israel themselves ; that they call it 
 oppression, affliction, burdens, cruel and hard bondage, 
 and in direct reference to it, Israel is charged, again 
 and again, not to deal so with others — no, not with the 
 stranger : "ye shall not oppress a stranger, for ye know 
 the heart of a stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of 
 Egypt. If thou afflict them, and they cry at all unto me, 
 I will hear their cry, and my wrath shall wax hot, and I 
 will kill you with the sword." 
 
 Thia simple statement of the case makes it our duty, if 
 we believe Scripture to be consistent with itself, to examine 
 whether an explanation may not be given to Leviticus 
 xxv. 44, which will be consistent with God's judgments 
 on the Egyptians for enslaving Israel, with the many 
 warnings given Israel against dealing with others as the 
 Egyptians dealt with them, and with the guards against 
 slavery in the limitation laws above quoted. 
 
 However plainly it may at first view appear to permit 
 slavery, a little examination of the nature of the case, and 
 comparison of it with other passages, may satisfy us that 
 there are various explanations of it, and on principles on 
 
 8 
 
86 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 which generally admitted explanations of other difficult 
 passages are made, that will perfectly reconcile it with 
 those many passages that condemn slavery. Several of 
 these explanations I will notice. 
 
 1. This passage immediately follows the command to 
 treat their brother, who might be sold unto them, not as a 
 bond-servant but as a hired one ; that is, as I understand it, 
 not only to treat him as an equal and brother, but retain 
 him no longer than his debt was paid ; reckoning with 
 him as a hireling and allowing him wages as such. 
 
 A rule somewhat less lenient was permitted in the case 
 of those bought of the heathen. This is plain. But what 
 was the nature of the servitude in which those bought of 
 the heathen should be held, and especially its duration, is 
 not certain from this passage. It does not follow from the use 
 of the word D^j; (olem), rendered for ever, that it might 
 be perpetual ; yea it does not follow that it might be to the 
 next jubilee. For it will be admitted that this word stands 
 for various durations ; some longer or shorter according to 
 the nature of the subject to which it refers. In the case 
 of the servant whose ear was bored, which law we have in 
 two places, it is said both times that he should serve oby 
 (olem) forever. Ex. xxi. 6. Deut.xv. 16. It is, how- 
 ever, generally admitted, that said servant might go out at 
 the jubilee : and usually believed, that he could not be 
 transferred, nor held to serve by any but the master who 
 bored his ear. 
 
 This word, although it immediately follows bond-servant, 
 does not necessarily relate to the length of service of any 
 individual, but may refer to the whole rule. Part of the 
 rule relates to their brother, when sold unto them ; part to 
 their buying a stranger; and part to the redemption of 
 their brother, when sold to a stranger. It may relate to the 
 whole law as their standing rule respecting slavery. 
 
 We have several passages, in which it, or words ex- 
 pressing duration, are used in this sense. 
 
 God said to Abraham, " Thy seed shall be a stranger in 
 a land not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall 
 afflict them four hundred years." Stephen referring to the 
 same case says, " They should bring them into bondage, 
 and entreat them evil four hundred years." Gen. xv. 
 Acts vii. The four hundred years, in both these passages, 
 
LETTER VIII. 87 
 
 immediately follows the bondage and appears to fix its 
 duration. And were it not that other passages are at vari- 
 ance with it, and prove that Israel was in Egypt only about 
 two hundred and fifteen years, it would be so taken. It is, 
 however, generally admitted that the four hundred years 
 relate not only to the term of bondage, as at first they 
 seem to do, but to the whole time from the annunciation 
 of the event, to the coming out of Egypt. 
 
 The law forbidding a Moabite or Ammonite to enter the 
 congregation of the Lord " until the fourth generation for 
 ever," is another case in which a rule is qualified by the 
 word signifying duration. Deut. xxiii. 
 
 If the above be not satisfactory, it may be explained on 
 another principle. It will not be denied, that Israel was 
 permitted to do some things which it would be wrong in 
 us to do. 
 
 They were permitted, yea, directed, to borrow or de- 
 mand so much gold and silver and raiment, as to spoil the 
 Egyptians. It was not returned, mid the intention evident- 
 ly was, not to return it. This would not justify us in bor- 
 rowing and retaining our neighbour's goods. 
 
 Israel was commanded to dispossess and utterly destroy 
 the Canaanites, and seize on their country and all that they 
 possessed. This would not justify us in treating others 
 in the same way. 
 
 These were special commands or permissions, and do 
 not justify similar conduct in any other individuals. 
 
 If we then suppose the passage in question a special 
 permission to Israel to hold slaves, it would not justify the 
 general principle of slavery. The Pope used to give away 
 Pagan countries to Christian princes; and possibly he in- 
 ferred his right to do so from Israel's dispossessing the 
 Canaanites. His absurdity was not much greater than is 
 the absurdity of justifying slavery from this precept of the 
 Jewish law. 
 
 There is, however, a third explanation, possibly more 
 satisfactory than any yet offered. 
 
 It is past dispute, that there are some precepts in the 
 Mosaic code, which suppose that things morally wrong did 
 or would exist; and instead of directly prohibiting them, 
 
88 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 (which in fact the moral law had done) regulates them, so 
 as to lessen the evil. I will adduce several cases. 
 
 It is supposed, that at some future time, the Israelites 
 might be so influenced by the nations about them, as to 
 wish to have a king over them.* In reference to this sup- 
 posed state of things, various rules are given respect- 
 ing whom they should choose, and how the king should 
 conduct himself. The case here supposed, took place 
 above four hundred years after Moses ; and any one may 
 see, by reading the declaration of God respecting it, and 
 the messages of Samuel to them, that they sinned " a great 
 sin in asking a king."t 
 
 The precept allowing a man to put away his wife, by 
 giving her a bill of divorce, is of the same kind. This 
 case was directly referred to our Lord, and he was asked 
 why Moses permitted it if it were wrong?! He answered, 
 that "for the hardness of their hearts" that precept was 
 given, but that it was a violation of the original institution 
 of marriage. Hardness of heart is itself always in Scrip- 
 ture represented as a sin, and one that leads to many 
 others. § 
 
 The precept respecting humbling a female captive is of 
 the same general nature. A case is supposed that was 
 likely to take place in their wars — that of females exposed 
 to violence. It was directed, that in those cases the fe- 
 male should be taken home by the man who had done it, 
 and considered and treated as his wife. If they did not 
 live happily together, he was allowed to divorce her as 
 other wives were divorced. She was not, however, to be 
 sold; but must be let go free. This case could seldom, 
 if ever, take place without violating the seventh command- 
 ment. It was plainly, like the other case, permitted for 
 the hardness of their hearts. These precepts are civil 
 regulations for the directions of the judges, and had nothing 
 to do with the relation of the action to the moral law. By 
 the moral law, they were sinful, and must be accounted for 
 to God. How far their ignorance, and the darkness of the 
 
 * Deut. xvii. f 1 Sam. viii. xii. 
 
 t Deut. xxiv. 1. Matt. xix. 3—10. § Deut. xxi. 10 — 14. 
 
LETTER VIII. 89 
 
 times, may have gone to lessen their guilt, we know not. 
 The Judge of all the earth will do right. 
 
 These cases sufficiently establish the fact, that some 
 things were tolerated as civil or political things, while they 
 were morally wrong. The passage in question (Lev. xxv. 
 44.) may be explained on this principle. It does not now 
 justify slavery morally considered — it did not among the 
 Jews. It placed it on the same ground with divorce, poly- 
 gamy, &c. 
 
 This explanation I think perfectly satisfactory. I am 
 confident, indeed, that all three explanations are fully as 
 good as are given to many other difficulties met with in the 
 sacred volume. 
 
 For instance : God's law is often declared to be good, 
 yet it is said, " God gave Israel statutes that were not 
 good, and by which they could not live." ' 
 
 Paul declares that a man is justified by faith and not by 
 works; James declares that a man is justified by works, 
 and not by faith only.t Our Lord declares that the Father 
 is greater than him ; yet, that he and the Father are one. 
 It is said, No man hath seen God at any time; and yet 
 the Old Testament relates many appearances of the Lord. 
 It is declared, God created all things; yet it is said that 
 all things were created by Christ. 
 
 It was promised that the kingdom of David should last 
 for ever ; yet it has long since come to an end. 
 
 Some things are said not to have come into God's mind ; 
 yet he is declared to know all things. 
 
 God declares that he will visit the iniquities of the 
 fathers upon the children ; but Ezek. xviii. appears plainly 
 to deny it. 
 
 These, with hundreds of such passages, at first view ap- 
 pear to contradict each other ; and many errors arise from 
 explaining them on wrong principles. The intelligent 
 men of all sects, who hold the truth of the Gospel, find 
 consistent explanations of them, and on principles which 
 must be admitted in explaining human language, spoken 
 as well as written. When taken in the sense meant, they 
 do not contradict each other but fully agree. 
 
 * Ezek. xx. 25. t Gal - u\ 21. James ii. 24. 
 
 8" 
 
90 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 The following passage will perhaps be quoted as prov- 
 ing that servitude was perpetual, and that children of 
 female servants were held as slaves. 
 
 " If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years shall he 
 serve thee : and in the seventh he shall go out free for 
 nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by 
 himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out 
 with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she 
 hath borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her chil- 
 dren shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself." 
 Ex. xxi. 3—4. 
 
 "If a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she 
 shall not go out as the men-servants do. If she please not 
 her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall 
 he let her be redeemed : to sell her to a strange nation he 
 shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with 
 her : and if he hath betrothed her to his son, he shall deal 
 with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him 
 another wife, her food and raiment and duty of marriage 
 shall he not diminish, and if he do not these three things 
 unto her, then shall she go out free for nothing." 
 
 At first view, we might think that these passages allow- 
 ed holding female servants in bondage for life. We need, 
 however, but turn to Deut. xv. 12. to find a law placing 
 the female on the same footing with the male. "If an 
 Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman be sold unto thee, and 
 serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt 
 let him go free from thee." 
 
 Some have supposed that the easiest way of removing 
 the apparent contradiction in these two laws is, to consi- 
 der the one in Deuteronomy, which was given about forty 
 years after the other, as really repealing the first, and giv- 
 ing freedom to the female, which was not done before. In 
 this case it would stand on the same footing with divorce, 
 and the remarriage of the parties to others, that, although 
 morally wrong, was for the hardness of their hearts, tole- 
 rated by the civil law under the Jewish dispensation, but 
 not allowed in the New Testament. Matt. v. 31, 32. 
 xix. 2—10. 1 Cor. vii. 11. 
 
 It appears to me, however, that the two laws are really 
 not at variance ; that they are reconcilable with each 
 
LETTER VIII. 91 
 
 other. They both relate to Hebrew servants, and their 
 law did not indeed allow them to intermarry with any who 
 did not embrace the true religion ; and on doing so, all 
 were to be considered as their own people. Now, in the 
 case of the married man who was sold, his wife and chil- 
 dren went out with him. Of the wife who was given to a 
 servant while in bondage, it is said she was not to go out 
 with him. It is not said, she was not to go out at all. The 
 law in Deuteronomy, fifteenth chapter, shows that she was, 
 after six years. Not, however, at the time her husband 
 did, unless their time commenced together. The case may 
 be thus stated. Suppose a man to buy a servant, who was 
 to serve six years ; alter four of those years were past, he 
 brings a female, who is also to serve six years, and allows 
 them to marry. When the husband's time would be out, 
 the wife would have four years to serve. The law did not 
 give her liberty until her time was finished, as unmarried 
 servants, not brothers and sisters, would seldom be bought 
 together, the law required that their marriage should not 
 alter their period of service ; and as a question might arise, 
 respecting the children, it decided that they should remain 
 with the mother, as the most suitable person to have the 
 care of children of that ;>>_ . 
 
 The case of a daughter sold for a maid-servant, appears 
 manifestly to relate not to females generally, the rule in 
 Deut. xv. 12. shows that they were to go out free after six 
 years; but to those who were at the same time, betrothed 
 to be married to the master, or some of his family. It is 
 not at variance with the general rule. We know from the 
 case of Jacob, Ollmiel, David anil others, that the Jews 
 were in the habit of buying their wives ; and it appears 
 from this passage that they sometimes took them home 
 and employed them as domestics before the consummation 
 of the marriage. The period after they were betrothed until 
 marriitire, was possibly often thus spent. They were fre- 
 quently betrothed several years before marriage. The 
 Jews practise so now. They often betroth in childhood. 
 The law provides that in case the marriage is not consum- 
 mated, she must not be sold to another, but returned to her 
 friends. 
 
92 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 I will now notice briefly, the principal Scripture cases 
 quoted at times as instances of slavery, and as justifying it. 
 
 The prophecy of Noah, " Cursed be Canaan, a servant 
 of servants shall he be to his brethren." Not only is this 
 passage quoted as referring to slavery, but what is more 
 surprising, as justifying our holding the Africans in that 
 condition. Ex. iii. Deut. vii. Lev. xviii. Jos. xii. 
 
 We need but compare the account of the settlement of 
 the sons of Canaan in the land, from them called Canaan, 
 in the tenth chapter of Genesis, with the promise of God 
 often repeated to Abram, Isaac, Jacob and Israel, that he 
 would give them that land ; and the account of their subdu- 
 ing and taking possession of it under Joshua, to be satis- 
 fied that the prophecy refers to that case. Its application 
 to the Canaanites is manifest, but to the Africans is exceed- 
 ingly doubtful. 
 
 The passage, we are to recollect, is but a prophecy, and 
 has nothing to do with the right or the wrong of the thing, 
 in those who accomplished it. Many of the worst crimes 
 ever committed by man have been foretold ; but that did 
 not make them right. The bondage of Israel under the 
 Egyptians was foretold to Abraham : " Thy seed shall be 
 in bondage, and they shall afflict them four hundred years." 
 The apostasies of Israel, the death of Christ, the persecu- 
 tion of his followers, have all been foretold. They were 
 not, however, the less sinful. 
 
 It must not be overlooked that the evils inflicted on the 
 Canaanites, were inflicted at the express command of God. 
 It was in way of punishment. Israel did not receive a 
 general permission to deal thus with all people. The guilty 
 nation was pointed out, and the nature of the punishment 
 prescribed. It no more justifies similar conduct in others, 
 or in other cases, than the execution of the criminal, law- 
 
 * I have repeatedly heard this passage appealed to by preachers, 
 and explained as fulfilled in the case of negro slavery ; and in a 
 way that made the impression that as slavery was foretold, it was 
 not wrong-. It reminds me of the way an old preacher some time 
 back was reported to have addressed the black people at the close 
 of his sermon. " And you black negroes, you are dirty, lazy crea- 
 tures. You won't do your master's work without the rod. You 
 are the cursed race of Ham. The Lord hates you, and so do I." 
 
LETTER VIII. 93 
 
 fully convicted and condemned, would justify putting per- 
 sons to death for no crime, and without a trial. 
 
 It is farther to be remarked, that while the tribute im- 
 posed on the Canaanites may have been part of the bon- 
 dage foretold, it is plain that Israel had no authority for 
 taking that course. The command of God was express, 
 to destroy them utterly. Instead of this, Israel spared 
 many of them, and raised a tribute from them. They are 
 expressly charged with disobeying God in this, [Judges 
 ii. 1 — 3.) and assured that those tributaries or servants, 
 (for the word means both,) "should be thorns in their 
 sides, and pricks in their eyes ; and be a snare unto them." 
 They proved to be so. They were a constant temptation 
 to idolatry, as well as other crimes ; and by their insurrec- 
 tions and wars, were an everlasting source of trouble and 
 distress to Israel. See the Book of Judges. 
 
 The practice of the Patriarchs is often quoted in justi- 
 fication of slavery ; but, as appears to me, very erroneously. 
 
 They may not have possessed one-tenth part of the light 
 we do respecting moral duty. They had no written law, 
 nor is it certain that the law of love and rule of doing as 
 we would be done by, was known to them as the rule of 
 morals. AVe know that they practised polygamy, and 
 suppose it was owing to the fact that the spirit and prin- 
 ciples of the seventh commandment were not unfolded to 
 them, as it is to us; had God commanded them to love 
 their neighbour as themselves, and laid down the proper- 
 ties of that love that seeketh not its own, that work- 
 eth no ill to its neighbour, that causes persons to do in 
 all things to others as they would have men do to them; 
 had the whole been reduced to writing, and put in their 
 hands, as they are in ours, to be studied and applied to all 
 their doings with their fellow men, then there would be 
 more reason for taking their practice as a pattern. He 
 that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. 
 To do wrong ignorantlv, differs widely from doing it know- 
 ingly, or with the means of knowing better. 
 
 But it has too readily been taken for granted, that the 
 Patriarchs did practise slavery, properly so called. The 
 account we have of them does not make it certain. They 
 lived in the infancy of nations. Their contemporaries and 
 
94 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 sons were the fathers of many of the nations of whom we 
 read in sacred and profane history. Abraham's sons by 
 Hagar and Keturah were the germs of many nations. Lot's 
 sons formed the nations of Moab and Ammon ; Esau and 
 Jacob were the heads of nations, and Jacob's sons grew 
 into twelve tribes. The whole history of the Patriarchal 
 times show that enterprising individuals separated and set 
 up for themselves, and with their families and followers 
 became independent tribes. The tribe or nation often took 
 its name from the individual at its head. The first-born of 
 the ruling family, was usually the chief, and the rest were 
 called his people or servants. Thus Esau, after he had 
 sold his birth-right, was called the servant of Jacob. Isaac 
 says that Jacob was " made lord over his brethren, and 
 they were given him for servants.* There were more 
 spoken of than Esau. It refers to all the people under 
 Isaac — those who were under Abraham, with their de- 
 scendants — those four hundred with whom Esau met Ja- 
 cob, as he returned from Padan Aram. These people Esau 
 led off, and with them subdued Mount Seir, afterward call- 
 ed Edom, and founded the nation called Edom. We have 
 a long list of the sons of Esau, who ruled over them. 
 Gen. 36. 
 
 Now the words used to express those who are called 
 the servants of the Patriarchs are the same that are used 
 to express the people of any other tribe, under their rulers 
 or kings, as the Philistines under Abimelech, the Egyptians 
 under Pharaoh ; the Israelites under Saul, David and Sol- 
 omon ; the Assyrians, Babylonians, &c. under their kings 
 or rulers. Those under the Patriarchs may really have 
 been no more slaves than the Philistines, and Egyptians, 
 and Canaanites, were in the time of Abraham. Abraham 
 is expressly called a great Prince ;t Isaac was said to be 
 more mighty than Abimelech ; % and Jacob had war with 
 the Amorites. They all formed alliances, and ruled their 
 people as independent princes. Those under them are 
 called their servants ; but it does not follow that they were 
 slaves. 
 
 It does not follow from what is said to Abraham about 
 
 * Gen. 27. f Gen. xxiii. 6. * Gen. xxvi. 16. 
 
LETTER VIII. 95 
 
 bought servants, that he had slaves. It is not said that he 
 had any of that kind, but that such, if there were any, 
 must be circumcised ; and it is stated of the three hundred 
 and eighteen whom he led out to war, that they were born 
 in his housed or in the community of which he was the 
 head and prince. It would seem from this fact, that he had 
 few bought persons at that time. 
 
 We are also to recollect that Abraham was at the head 
 of an independent tribe, that he had war with four or five 
 kings, that those under him were trained to arms, that he 
 at this time had no child, that the fact of having so many 
 born in his tribe proved their families and children were 
 there too. How could Abraham alone have held above 
 three hundred men, with their families, in absolute slavery, 
 against their wills, while they had arms in their hands ? 
 They must have chosen to remain with him. It was not 
 therefore such a slavery as exists among us. 
 
 Hagar was a servant, but it is not certain that she was a 
 slave. The word used to express her does not prove it, 
 nor does her rough treatment. Other servants, and es- 
 pecially helpless and unfriended females, often are thus 
 treated. When sent off by Abraham, she was not sold as 
 slaves are, but simply sent away. Jacob bought his wives, 
 but there is not an instance of buying or selling a slave by 
 any of the Patriarchs, unless the sale of Joseph by his 
 brother be of that kind. 
 
 I do not say that the patriarchs had no slaves, but I say 
 that it is not certain that they had, and in the uncertainty 
 of the case, we ought not to assume as true what is less 
 to their credit as pious men. It is more consistent to fol- 
 low the example of Christ and his Apostles, who had at- 
 tendants, but not slaves. They taught the law of love, and 
 their practice agreed with their teaching. 
 
 The direction in the fourth commandment and many 
 other passages respecting servants, relates to all kinds of 
 servants that might be among them, and has nothing to do 
 with the fact whether slavery existed, or the right or 
 wrong of the practice. 
 
 The Midianitish prisoners! came, of course, under the 
 law that allowed them to retain among them no servants 
 
 * Gen. xiv. 14. f Num. xxxi. 
 
96 LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 
 
 that were not circumcised and united to the church ; and 
 when this took place, they were to be treated as Hebrews, 
 and to go out free after six years. 
 
 The case of the Gibeonites is different.* They found 
 a considerable body of people, embracing four powerful 
 cities. They belonged to the Canaanitcs that were to be de- 
 stroyed ; but moved by the report of the wonders God 
 had wrought in Egypt and the wilderness, and the destruc- 
 tion of the nations on the oilier side of Jordan ; they feared 
 for their lives, practised a deceit on Israel, and obtained an 
 alliance with them. After this was discovered, they were 
 condemned to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for 
 the tabernacle of God. I have several remarks to make on 
 this case. 
 
 They had been condemned to be destroyed for their 
 sins. They, to evade this, practised a deceit on Israel, 
 who was to destroy them, and obtained the protection of a 
 covenant and oath. The original punishment could not, 
 therefore, without violating this covenant and oath, be in- 
 flicted; and in place of it, and for the deceit, they were 
 condemned to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. 
 It is not said that this punishment was entailed on their 
 children ; and I see not that without proof we are to take 
 it for granted that it was. We find the Gibeonites free in 
 the times of Saul and David. t Had they been servants to 
 Israel at that time, Saul would hardly have destroyed them 
 in his zeal for Israel. David treated them as free and in- 
 dependent, in the satisfaction which he made them for the 
 injury received from Saul. J The case has nothing to do 
 with justifying slavery. 
 
 There is a class of persons mentioned in the latter times 
 of the history of Judah, called Nethenims, whom some 
 seem to think were slaves ; but I apprehend without suffi- 
 cient authority. The name signifies persons given or de- 
 voted. The same word is applied to the Levites,§ as set 
 apart to aid the priests. It is to Samuel as given to the 
 Lord by his mother to minister at the tabernacle. [| David 
 and the princes are said to have set apart persons called 
 from this " Nethenims. "^[ They divided theLevites into 
 
 * Joshua ix. f Ibid. * 2 Samuel xxi. § Num. viii. 16. 
 
 || 1 Samuel i. 11. 1 Ezra viii. 20. 
 
LETTER VIII. 97 
 
 the classes of porters, singers, judges, &c, and these classes 
 into twenty-four courses ; and finding not as many Levites 
 as were sufficient for all the departments they were to fill, 
 and the duties they were to perform, they added to them 
 other persons in such numbers as were needed. There is 
 no more proof that they were slaves, than that the Levites 
 were slaves. They were associated with the Levites in 
 the same offices and duties, and were, for aught that 
 appears, as free as they. They had their possessions as 
 well as the Levites. 1 Chron. ix. 2; Neh. iii. 26. They 
 came freely, separated themselves to God, joined in the 
 covenant, and aided in re-establishing the worship of C4od. 
 Ezra viii. 15—20; Neh, x. 28. 
 
 Having in another place noticed the arguments drawn 
 from the directions to servants in the New Testament, I 
 need not dwell on them here. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
98 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 Allow me now to call your attention to a good many 
 cases which, unless I am much mistaken, go most clearly 
 to prove that slavery is morally wrong, and exposes to 
 God's wrath. Its distinguishing features are, that it is not 
 with the consent and for the mutual benefit of the master 
 and slave, but forced, and for the alone benefit and plea- 
 sure of the master, and for no crime in the person thus 
 forced to serve. It is founded in violence and force, and 
 continued by the same means. 
 
 I first remark that violence is mentioned as the promi- 
 nent sin for which God destroyed the old world by the 
 waters of a flood. "The earth was corrupt before God, 
 and the earth was full of violence ; God said, the end of all 
 flesh is come, for the earth is filled with violence ; I will 
 destroy them with the earth." Gen. vi. 11 — 13. 
 
 It is not said what kind of violence this was, whether of 
 man on man, or nation on nation. We know not indeed 
 whether civil government existed before the flood ; nor 
 whether the violence related to property or personal rights. 
 This, however, does not alter the case. It proves God's 
 hatred of violence as practised by man on man ; and other 
 passages call slavery violence and oppression. 
 
 I next adduce a case connected with the first war re- • 
 corded in Scripture. 
 
 Chederlaomer, king of Elam, had subdued and held in 
 bondage, for twelve years, the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, 
 Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar. Those kings then threw off 
 the yoke, and attempted to defend their freedom. In the 
 war which followed, they were beaten, and many of them, 
 including Lot, were taken captive. 
 
 Abraham considered it a case in which justice called on 
 him to break the rod of the oppressor, and set the oppress- 
 ed free. He armed his people, and pursued them, and 
 that it might be manifest that justice and not gain influ- 
 enced him, " he lifted up his hands unto the Lord the most 
 high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, (solemnly 
 vowed,) that he would not take from a thread to a shoe- 
 
LETTER IX. 99 
 
 latchet." God gave him success. He smote the oppres- 
 sors, rescued the captives, recovered their goods, and let 
 all return to their own cities. Here we have Abraham 
 risking his own life and the lives of his people to rescue 
 others from bondage; and when, according to a custom 
 that early prevailed, he might have held them in servitude, 
 he let them go free, without one shoe-latchet in return. 
 And yet, some would have it, that he held in absolute 
 slavery the very men with whom he performed this gene- 
 rous and noble exploit! How unreasonable the supposi- 
 tion ! 
 
 The bondage of Israel in Egypt is fully described, often 
 referred to, and was severely punished. 
 
 "They set over them task-masters to afflict them with 
 burdens, and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to 
 serve with rigour. And they made their lives bitter with 
 hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of 
 service in the field : all the service wherein they made 
 them to serve, was with rigour. And the officers of the 
 children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's task-masters had set 
 over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye 
 not fulfilled your tasks in making bricks, both yesterday 
 and to-day? And the children of Israel sighed by reason 
 of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to 
 God by reason of their bondage. And the Lord said, I have 
 surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, 
 and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters ; 
 for I know their sorrows ; and I am come down to deliver 
 them. I know that Pharaoh will not let you go, no, not 
 by a mighty hand; and I will stretch out my hand and 
 smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the 
 midst thereof. And it was told the king of Egypt that the 
 people had lied ; and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants 
 were turned against the people, and they said, Why have 
 we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us ? 
 And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with 
 him, and six hundred chosen chariots, and pursued after 
 them, and overtook them encompassed by the sea. And 
 the children of Israel were sore afraid, and cried unto the 
 Lord ; and the Lord caused the sea to go back, and the 
 waters were divided, and the children of Israel went into 
 
100 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 the midst of the sea on dry ground ; and the Egyptians 
 pursued after them into the midst of the sea, and the Lord 
 overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea, and saved 
 Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians. — Thou shalt 
 speak and say before the Lord, the Egyptians evil-entreat- 
 ed us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage ; 
 and the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction 
 and labour and our oppression ; and the Lord brought us 
 out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and an outstretched 
 arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs and won- 
 ders." — Deut. xxvi. 6. See the first fourteen chapters of 
 Exodus, also the 105th Psalm. 
 
 Here is a case of slavery detailed at length, with the 
 means used to induce the oppressors to leave it off, let the 
 oppressed go free, enjoy the fruit of their labour, and 
 choose the place of their habitation. This servitude is 
 called affliction, oppression, burdens, a yoke, and hard bon- 
 dage. God visited Egypt with many and sore judgments 
 on account of it ; and Israel was specially directed to bor- 
 row (ask or demand) gold and silver and raiment, and 
 carry off with them in such quantities as to spoil the 
 Egyptians. This appears evidently to have been done as 
 a means of getting compensation for the labour exacted 
 from them. Israel was forced to labour without wages, 
 and God by his judgments so terrified the Egyptians, that 
 they gave Israel what they demanded. Both king and 
 people concurred in the hard dealings towards Israel, and 
 both partook of the punishment. 
 
 Almost all the excuses now made in justification or pal- 
 liation of slavery could have been made by that genera- 
 tion of Egyptians that was punished for enslaving Israel. 
 
 They could have plead that they did not begin it ; that 
 Israel were in slavery when they were born ; that they 
 formed the labouring class, and could not be set free with- 
 out changing the whole state of society ; that, considered 
 as property, the Israelites were of immense value. That 
 there were such prejudices between them and the Egyp- 
 tians that they could not mingle and become one people : 
 they were an abomination to each other. That they were 
 treated well, allowed to live with their families, and to 
 hold and accumulate property; that if correction was 
 
LETTER IX. 101 
 
 used, and overseers placed over them, it was because they 
 would not work without it. That their rapid increase 
 proved that they were well treated. 
 
 All these and similar excuses availed not. The prac- 
 tice of slavery was morally wrong. Their continuing it 
 increased their guilt, and made sure their punishment. 
 
 Moses declared to Israel, that if they sinned, God would, 
 as a punishment, give them up to spoiling and oppression 
 and slavery; and that if they, while thus afflicted, would 
 turn to God, he would deliver them out of the hands of 
 those that spoiled and enslaved them, and avenge on their 
 enemies the evils done them. Of the many cases of this 
 kind which took place, I will notice a few. 
 
 " They (Israel) forsook the Lord and served Baal and 
 Asteroth, and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, 
 and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoil- 
 ed them, and sold them into the hands of their enemies, 
 and they were greatly distressed : nevertheless the Lord 
 raised up judges which delivered them out of the hands of 
 those that spoiled them." Judges ii. 13. 
 
 " The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, 
 and he sold them into the hands of the king of Mesopota- 
 mia, and they served him eight years; and when the chil- 
 dren of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a 
 deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, Oth- 
 nicl — and the land had rest forty years." Judges iii. 7 — 8. 
 
 " The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of 
 the Lord, and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jaban, 
 king of Canaan; and the children of Israel cried unto the 
 Lord, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and twenty 
 years he mightily oppressed Israel : and Deborah, the 
 prophetess, called Barak and said, hath not the Lord God 
 commanded— take with thee ten thousand men, and I will 
 deliver him into thine hands : and the Lord discomfited 
 Sisera with all his hosts." Judges iv. 4. 
 
 "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the 
 Lord, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, 
 and into the hands of the children of Amnion, and they 
 vexed and oppressed Israel eighteen years ; and the chil- 
 dren of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned : 
 and the Lord said, Did I not deliver you from the Egyp- 
 
 9* 
 
102 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 tians, and from the Ammorites, and from the children of 
 Ammon, and from the Philistines, the Zidonians also, . 
 and from the Amalekites, and Maonites — yet ye have for- 
 saken me and served other gods : the children of Israel 
 said, We have sinned : deliver us only this day, we pray. 
 The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and the Lord 
 delivered them into his hands : thus the children of Ammon 
 were subdued before the children of Israel." Judges x. 11. 
 It is to be remarked, that in all these cases, Israel was 
 held in bondage — was made to serve. In most of them, 
 they are said to be sold for their sins. The oppressions 
 and bondage are ever represented as punishments ; and 
 when repented of, God delivered them. But farther, it 
 must not be overlooked, that those who oppressed Israel 
 and made them to serve, are always punished in their 
 turn for their hard dealings towards Israel. These cases 
 go to condemn slavery. 
 
 Slavery, as practised by Israel, is clearly represented as 
 sinful, and deserving of punishment. 
 
 " For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will 
 not turn away the punishment thereof: because they sold 
 the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. 
 Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and be- 
 hold the great tumult and the oppression in the midst there- 
 of : For they know not to do right, who store up violence 
 and robbery in the midst thereof. Hear this, O ye that 
 swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land 
 to fail ; saving — that we may buy the poor for silver, and 
 the needy "for a pair of shoes. The Lord hath sworn by 
 the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of 
 their works." Amos ii. 6. iii. 9. viii. 4 — 7. 
 
 Here, buying and selling persons is set down as a sin 
 which should be punished-- the Lord swears by himself 
 that he will not forget it. 
 
 We have the sinfulness of slavery presented in a strong 
 point of light by the prophet Oded, when the captives of 
 Judah were brought to Samaria to be held as slaves. 
 
 " And the children of Israel carried away, of their 
 brethren, two hundred thousand women, sons and daugh- 
 ters, and took also much spoil, and brought the spoil to 
 Samaria. But a prophet of the Lord, Oded, said unto 
 
LETTER IX. 103 
 
 them, Behold, because the Lord was wroth with Judah, 
 he hath delivered them into your hands, and ye purpose 
 to keep under the children of Judah for bond-men and 
 bond-women ; but are there not with you, even with 
 you, sins against the Lord your God. Now, therefore, 
 hear me, and deliver the captives again, for the fierce 
 wrath of the Lord is upon you. Then certain of the heads 
 of Ephraim said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the cap- 
 tives hither : for whereas we have offended against the 
 Lord already, ye intend to add more to our sin and our 
 trespass. So the armed men left the captives and the spoil 
 before the princes and all the congregation. And the men 
 (the heads of Ephraim) rose up and took the captives, and 
 with the spoil clothed all that were naked, arrayed, shod 
 them, gave them to eat and drink, and anointed them, and 
 carried all that were feeble on asses, and brought them to 
 their brethren. 2 Chron. xxviii. 8 — 15. 
 
 This is an interesting case. The kingdoms of Israel 
 and Judah had long been at war. For the sins of Judah, 
 God delivered them into the hands of Israel, who destroy- 
 ed very many, and took captive two hundred thousand, 
 with the purpose of holding them in slavery. 
 
 The prophet declared it sinful, and remonstrated against 
 it; and being joined by some leading men, the plan was 
 given up, and the prisoners, with all the spoil, restored 
 without price or reward. 
 
 It is a striking instance of faithful and intrepid discharge 
 of duty in a minister of religion, when the multitude are 
 doing wrong; and of the multitude calmly listening to the 
 truth and obeying it, at the expense of immense wealth, 
 fairly gotten, according to the prevalent notions of that 
 time. Had all ministers acted as this prophet did, while 
 all might not have had his success, it need not be doubted 
 but that there would have been much less oppression and 
 slavery in the world. Had they so acted with respect to 
 African slavery, it never would have been that dreadful and 
 threatening evil it now is. 
 
 I next adduce the judgment on the kingdom of Judah 
 for practising slavery, as recorded by Jeremiah xxxiv. 
 The case will be more plain by noticing the state of things 
 that preceded it. 
 
104 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 When the king of Babylon made war on the kingdom 
 of Judah, king Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah the prophet to 
 inquire of the Lord on his behalf. Jeremiah was sent to 
 the king with a message from the Lord, of which the fol- 
 lowing was the prominent part. " Hear the word of the 
 Lord, O king of Judah, thou and thy servants : thus saith the 
 Lord, execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the 
 spoiled out of the hands of the oppressor; and do no wrong; 
 do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow ; 
 neither shed innocent blood in this place. If ye will not 
 hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that 
 this house shall be a desolation : wo unto him that build- 
 eth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by 
 wrong, that useth his neighbour's service without wages, 
 and giveth him not for his work. Jer. xxii. 2 — 5. 13. 
 
 Influenced by these warnings, Zedekiah, during the first 
 siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, exerted himself to 
 correct those evils pointed out. by the prophet. He par- 
 ticularly set himself to prevent oppression, and induced 
 the people to engage before God to let their servants go 
 out free. God, in approbation of this, caused the Chal- 
 deans to raise the siege and go up from them. But when 
 the danger was over, the people returned to the practice of 
 slavery, and even compelled those who had gone out free 
 to return to bondage. Jeremiah was sent to them with 
 another message from the Lord. 
 
 " This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord 
 after that Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the peo- 
 ple that were in Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; 
 that every man should let his man-servant and every man 
 his maid-servant, an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free ; 
 that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew 
 his brother. Now when all the princes and all the people 
 heard that every one should let his man-servant, and every 
 one his maid-servant go free, that none should serve them- 
 selves of them any more, they obeyed and let them go. 
 But afterward they turned and caused the servants and 
 hand-maids, whom they had let go free, to return, and 
 brought them into subjection for servants and for hand- 
 maids ; thus saith the Lord, ye were now turned and had 
 done right in my sight in proclaiming liberty every man 
 
LETTER IX. 105 
 
 to his neighbour; but ye turned, and caused every man his 
 servant and every man his hand-maid, whom he had set at 
 liberty at their pleasure, to return and brought them into 
 subjection for servants and for hand-maids. Therefore, 
 thus saith the Lord, ye have not hearkened unto me in 
 proclaiming liberty every man unto his brother and every 
 man to his neighbour; behold I proclaim liberty for you, 
 saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence and to the 
 famine, and I will make you to be removed to all the king- 
 doms of the earth. Because I will cause them (the Chal- 
 deans) to return to this city, and they shall fight against it 
 and take it, and burn it with fire ; and I will make the 
 cities of Judah a desolation." Jer. xxxiv. 
 
 Here, in obedience to a command to do justice and judg- 
 ment, to put an end to spoiling and oppression, not to use 
 the service of others without wages, a temporary reforma- 
 tion took place, and their giving liberty to those in bon- 
 dage is the thing sjj(<i<tlh/ noticed. God approves of 
 it, declares they did right, and caused their enemies to 
 leave them. Their returning to the practice of slavery is 
 mostpuintc//i/ condemned, and is the special sin for which 
 they and their city were condemned to be destroyed. 
 
 If any attempt to weaken the force of this case by say- 
 ing that it was for holding their own people in bondage, 
 and not for holding strangers, I reply, that it has before 
 been shown, that they were not allowed to retain slaves 
 who did not profess the true religion. And when they 
 professed it, they were as those born in the land, and were 
 brethren, and could not be held to serve more than six 
 years. They were called Jews : " Many people of the 
 land became Jews." Esther viii. 17. 
 
 The general truth, however, taught in this passage is 
 the same, if this were not the case. The distinction be- 
 tween Jew and Gentile, and the object for which it was 
 made, and for a time continued, is done away. All must 
 now be considered our neighbours and brethren. The law 
 of love makes it our duty to love all men as ourselves, to 
 own the brotherhood of all mankind. What the Jew might 
 not do to his brother Jew, we must not do to any brother 
 of the human family. 
 
 In Nehemiah, fifth chapter, we have another case. After 
 
106 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 the return of the Jews from that captivity with which God 
 visited them for enslaving others, some of them fell into 
 the same practice. The subject was brought before Nehe- 
 miah and pointedly condemned. 
 
 " And there was a great cry of the people, and of their 
 wives against their brethren, the Jews. For there were that 
 said, our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as 
 their children; and lo we bring into bondage our sons and our 
 daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are 
 brought into bondage already, neither is it in our power to 
 redeem them : and I was very angry, and rebuked the no- 
 bles and rulers, and said unto them : We, according to our 
 ability, have redeemed our brethren, the Jews, which were 
 sold unto the heathen ; and will you even sell your breth- 
 ren, or shall they be sold unto us ? It is not good that 
 ye do. Ought ye not to walk in the fear of your God? 
 Then they said, we will restore them, so will we do as 
 thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath 
 of them, that they should do according to this promise ; 
 also I shook my lap and said, So God shake out every 
 man from his house and from his labour, that performeth 
 not this promise. Neh. v. 
 
 A comparison of the passages which speak of those that 
 went up after the captivity, had possessions assigned them, 
 and entered into the covenant, shows that all of them were 
 not of Jewish descent. They are, however, called Jews 
 and brethren, because they had " separated themselves 
 from the people of the land unto the law of God." Neh, 
 x. 28, 29. xi. 3. 
 
 The prophecies which foretold the oppressions and bon- 
 dage which Israel should suffer, represent them as punish- 
 ment for sin. 
 
 " If thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy 
 God, thou shall be only oppressed and spoiled evermore : 
 thy sons and thy daughters shall be given to another peo- 
 ple, and thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for 
 them all the day long, and there shall be no might in thine 
 hand : thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt 
 not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity. Ye shall 
 be sold unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women," 
 Deut. xxviii. 
 
LETTER IX. 107 
 
 When those judgments fell on Israel, the prophets 
 speak of them as punishment for sin. " Israel forsook the 
 Lord, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, 
 and he delivered them into the hands of the spoilers that 
 spoiled them, and sold them into the hands of their enemies 
 round about. The chief of the priests and the people 
 transgressed very much, mocked the messengers of God, 
 despised his words, misused his prophets, therefore he 
 brought on them the Chaldeans, who slew their young 
 men with the sword, and had no compassion upon young 
 men or maidens, old men or him that stooped for age ; and 
 them that had escaped from the sword, carried he away to 
 Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons, 
 until the reign of the kingdom of Persia." 2 Chron. xxxvi. 
 Of the Chaldean, it was said, " lie opened not the house 
 of his prisoners, they held the captives fast, and refused to 
 let them go." 
 
 Prophet and people own the justice of God in these dis- 
 pensations. 
 
 " Since the days of our fathers, we have been in a great 
 trespass, and for our iniquities have we been delivered into 
 the hands of the kings of the lands, for we are bond-men; 
 howbeit, thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for 
 thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly, behold 
 we are servants this day : for the land that thou gavest to 
 our fathers, to eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof, 
 behold we are servants in it. And it yieldeth much in- 
 crease to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of 
 our sins ; also they have dominion over our bodies and 
 over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great dis- 
 tress." Ezra ix. Neh. ix. 
 
 When Israel, in their affliction and bondage, repented 
 and turned to God, lie always regarded their cry, and 
 caused them to find favour from those who held them in 
 bondage, or raised up a deliverer, under whom they went 
 out free. 
 
 All these cases represent slavery as a punishment, and 
 as sinful in the dealings of man towards man. 
 
 We cannot dismiss this subject without noticing another 
 class of examples. 
 
 Lest it should be inferred that Israel was punished for 
 practising slavery, not on account of its moral evil, but for 
 
108 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 violating a positive prohibition, we have in Scripture many 
 cases of heathens punished for the same thing. It must, 
 in these cases, be admitted that their sin was not the viola- 
 tion of a positive command. They had none. It must 
 have been a sin against natural right, and equity, and jus- 
 tice. That it was Israel they are in some cases punished 
 for holding in bondage, does not alter the case ; for in some 
 cases it was not. Nor would it alter the case if it was. 
 If it were not naturally wrong in Israel to hold others in 
 slavery, I see not how it would be naturally wrong in 
 others to do the same to them. If, as I think I have shown, 
 slavery is morally wrong, and Israel was not allowed to 
 practise it, it was criminal in the nations about Israel to 
 deal thus hardly with her. 
 
 About the time that the judgments of God were falling 
 on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah for their sins, most 
 of the nations about them joined in oppressing and en- 
 slaving them. The prophets that lived at that time de- 
 scribe the conduct of those nations, and denounce the 
 judgments of God on them for the same. It is stated as a 
 general trait of their dealings towards Israel, that " the 
 children of Israel and the children of Judah were op- 
 pressed together, and all that took them captives, held them 
 fast, and refused to let them go." Jerem. v. 33. 
 
 The kingdom of Israel was broken up by the Assyrians, 
 and the kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians. Most of 
 the surrounding nations, however, took part in the wars 
 against Israel, and helped much to oppress and enslave 
 them. A few of these cases I will notice. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Gaza, 
 and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof; 
 because they carried away the whole captivity, to deliver 
 them up to Edom. I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, 
 which shall devour the palaces thereof." Amos i. 6. 
 
 The practice of reducing captives to slavery and selling 
 them, was then common. It is here specified as that sin 
 for which Gaza should be punished. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Ty- 
 rus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment 
 thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to 
 Edom and remembered not the brotherly covenant." Tyre 
 
LETTER IX. 109 
 
 was a great slave-market. " They have traded in the per- 
 sons of men ; they have given a boy for a harlot, and sold 
 a girl for wine, that they might drink. Yea, and what have 
 ye to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coast of 
 Palestine; will ye render to me a recompense I The chil- 
 dren of Jndah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold 
 to the Grecians that ye might remove them far from the 
 border. Behold I will raise them up from the place whi- 
 ther ye have sold them, and will return your recompense 
 upon your own head. And I will sell your sons and your 
 daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they 
 shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the 
 Lord hath spoken it." dmos i. 9; Ez. xxvi. 13; Joel 
 ni. 4 — 8. 
 
 "The Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and car- 
 ried away captives," and Gaza anil Tyre had sold their 
 captives to Edom. Edom appears to have been a great 
 slave-trader and slave-holder, as such a severe doom is 
 pronounced against him. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Edom, 
 and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; 
 because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did 
 cast oil' pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he 
 kept his wrath for ever. Hut I will send a fire upon Te- 
 man which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. He will 
 visit thine iniquity, daughter of Edom, he will discover 
 thy sin ; the cup shall also pass through unto thee." 2 
 Chron. xxviii. 17. *imoa i. 11. Lament, iv. 22. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of the 
 children of Amnion, and for four, 1 will not turn away the 
 punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the wo- 
 men with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their 
 border; their king shall go into captivity, he and his 
 princes together. Thou saidst, 'Aha, against, the house of 
 Judah, when they went into captivity. Behold, I will de- 
 liver thee to the men of the east for a possession." Amos 
 i. 13. Ezelc. xxv. 3. 
 
 " The Syrians smote (Israel) and carried away a great 
 multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus." 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Da- 
 mascus, and for four, I will not turn awav the punish- 
 
 10 
 
110 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 ment thereof; because they have thrashed Gilead with 
 thrashing instruments of iron. But I will send fire into 
 the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of 
 Benhadad. The people of Syria shall go into captivity 
 unto Kir, saith the Lord of Hosts." 2 Chron. xxviii. 5. 
 Amos i. 3. 
 
 " Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of 
 Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased : he 
 who smote the people with a continual stroke — that made 
 the world a wilderness — that destroyed cities — that opened 
 not the house of his prisoners, (let not his prisoners loose 
 homewards.) Prepare slaughter for his children, for the 
 iniquity of their fathers their children shall be dashed in 
 pieces before their eyes, their houses spoiled, and their 
 wives ravished. Come down and sit in the dust, O 
 daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground ; take the mill- 
 stones and grind meal ; uncover thy locks, make bear thy 
 leg, pass over the river, (described as a slave and a cap- 
 tive.) I will take vengeance, and 1 will not meet thee as 
 a man. I was wroth with my people, and gave them into 
 thy hand, and thou didst show them no mercy — upon the 
 ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." Isaiah 
 xiii. 16, xiv. 4—21, xivii. 1—6. 
 
 In all these cases, to which many others might be add- 
 ed, judgments are denounced on nations for their spoiling, 
 and violence, and oppression. And in almost every one 
 of them, bondage or slavery is mentioned. In those times 
 captives were considered as a part of the booty, and were 
 often divided among the officers and soldiers, and either 
 retained or sold as slaves. God considers this dealing of 
 man to man as sinful, and severely punishes it. He gives 
 up to captivity and spoil and slavery, those who have dealt 
 thus with others. This is strikingly set forth in the case 
 of Babylon. — " Behold I will send and take all the fami- 
 lies of the north, and the king of Babylon my servant, and 
 will bring them against this land, and against the inha- 
 bitants thereof, and against all the nations round about ; 
 and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy 
 years. And it shall come to pass when seventy years are 
 accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and 
 that nation for their iniquity ; for many nations and groat 
 
LETTER IX. Ill 
 
 kings shall serve themselves of them also. And I will 
 recompense them according to their deeds, and according 
 to the work of their own hands." Jeremiah xxv. 9 — 14. 
 
 1 will close my references to Scripture examples with 
 that of Cyrus. There is a fine contrast between him and 
 the king of Babylon. Of the last it was said, " he opened 
 not the house of his prisoners ;" but of Cyrus it was fore- 
 told, " lie shall build my city, he shall let go my captives, 
 not for price or reward, saith the Lord of hosts." We 
 find he did this. 
 
 "Thus saith Cyrus: The Lord God of heaven hath 
 given me all the kingdoms of the earth. Who is among 
 you of all his people I His God be with him, and let him 
 go up to Jerusalem which is in Juclah, and build the house 
 of the Lord God ; and whosoever remaineth in any place 
 where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him 
 with gold and silver and beasts." Isaiah xlv. 13. Ezra 
 i. 3. 
 
 It is a singular coincidence that Cyrus, the only heathen 
 that is called the " Lord's anointed," should be set forth 
 in Scripture as letting "go captives without price or re- 
 ward" — as liberating those in bondage; and that Christ 
 our Saviour should be described as " anointed to proclaim 
 liberty to captives, and the opening of the prison-doors to 
 those that were bound, and to proclaim the acceptable year 
 of the Lord." 
 
 It ouiiht here to be observed, that the instrumental use 
 which God, in many of the above pa-sages, is represented 
 as making of man in inflicting judgments on man for his 
 sins, does not in the least lessen the sin of man in spoiling, 
 oppressing, and enslaving others. The law of God is the 
 rule of duty, and not that secret purpose of God, which 
 overrules even the crimes of men, and often uses them as 
 a rod to punish the wicked. 
 
 When God commands a person to do a particular thing, 
 his command justifies him in doing it. The command to 
 borrow of the Egyptians, and to destroy the Canaanites, 
 justified Israel in so doing. But so far from commanding 
 men to injure and oppress and enslave each other, these 
 tilings are against the very spirit and tendency of his law ; 
 which requires us to do good to all men, and love them as 
 
112 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 ourselves. Men, in inflicting on others those evils which 
 God has threatened for their sins, are not more clearly re- 
 presented as the instruments of Providence, than as doing 1 
 the evil, not from any purpose to please God, but for ends 
 of their own. This is often noticed in Scripture. 
 
 " O, Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in 
 their hand is my indignation. I will send him against the 
 people of my wrath, to take the spoil and the prey, and to 
 tread them down as the mire of the streets. Howbeit he 
 meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so ; but it is 
 in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few — 
 wherefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord hath per- 
 formed his whole work upon Jerusalem, I will punish the 
 fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria. Jer. 1. 23. 
 li. 20. ha. x. 5—12. 
 
 The Scripture notices the fact, that while men do evil to 
 their fellow men in disregard of God's word, they often 
 attempt to excuse their conduct by pleading that secret 
 purpose and providence of God, which causes their disobe- 
 dience to fulfil his will. " Why doth he yet find fault, for 
 who hath resisted his will." " All that found them have 
 devoured them ; and their adversaries said, We offend 
 not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habi- 
 tation of justice. And the captain of the guard (after 
 destroying Jerusalem and many of its inhabitants, and 
 carrying off the rest for slaves) took Jeremiah, and said unto 
 him, the Lord thy God hath pronounced this evil upon 
 this place. Now he hath brought it to pass, and done ac- 
 cording as he hath said ; because ye have sinned against 
 the Lord, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore is this 
 thing come upon you." Jer. 1. 7. xl. 2, 3. 
 
 The captain of the guard appears not to have known, or 
 to have forgotten, the awful judgments denounced against 
 his own country for what he was then doing. She was 
 to be recompensed in the same way — to be destroyed, to 
 be led captive, to be held in bondage — for doing these 
 things to others. For however much they may have sin- 
 ned against God, they had done nothing that justified her 
 in thus treating them. All those nations who oppressed 
 Israel, or oppressed each other, whom God is said to have 
 sent against them, to whom he is said to have sold them. 
 
LETTER IX. 113 
 
 who took them captive, and " held them fast and refused 
 to let them go," had, in their turn, the judgments of God 
 inflicted on them. 
 
 " All that devour him shall offend, evil shall come upon 
 them, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, I am very sore 
 displeased with the heathen ; fori was but a little displeased, 
 and they helped forward the affliction. Because the Lord 
 God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he delivered 
 them into your hands, and ye have slain them in a rage 
 that went up to heaven ; and now ye purpose to keep 
 under the kingdom of Judah for bond-men and bond-women : 
 but are there not with you, even with you, sins against 
 God? Now therefore deliver up the captives again, for the 
 fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you." Jer. ii. Zach. i. 
 2 Citron, xxviii. 
 
 I infer, that oppressing and selling and holding our fellow 
 men in slavery is morally wrong, and for tiie plain reason, 
 that these things are charged on those nations as sins, and 
 punished as such. Where there is no law, there is no trans- 
 gression : here was transgression; there must, therefore, 
 have been law. Hut it was not a revealed law of God, for 
 the heathen had none; nor was it their civil laws, for their 
 civil laws allowed them to do thus. It must then have been 
 a violation of natural justice and right and equity. Some 
 sense of this is common to man. The dictates of natural 
 conscience "show the work of the law written in their 
 hearts." Balaam, as quoted by the prophet Micah, de- 
 clared, that to "do justly and love mercy and walk hum- 
 bly with God," was what God required ; and the king of 
 Nineveh, in order to escape the threatened judgment, com- 
 manded his people "to turn every one from his evil way, 
 and from the violence of his hands."* Rom. ii. Jonah ill. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 * Balaam prophesied of Christ. I see no good reason for the 
 opinion that he did not utter the sentiment in Micah vi. 5 — 8. as 
 the connexion seems clearly to intimate. 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 Let us, in the present letter, sum up the argument from 
 the Old Testament against slavery, and notice its bearing 
 on the teaching of the New, and our duty as learned 
 from both. 
 
 The Scripture relates facts and events, both bad and 
 good, as they took place, and often without any statement 
 in their relation as to their morality. We cannot of course 
 infer that an action was right from the fact that it was done 
 by a person of a character on the whole good ; for many 
 such have done bad things. This remark is equally ap- 
 plicable to conditions in society, and relations which man 
 may sustain to man. They are mentioned in the terms in 
 common use, and mostly without any remark at the time 
 as to their right or wrong. Scripture lays down general 
 moral rules — the law of God, loving our neighbour as our- 
 selves, and doing as we would be done by, which are to be 
 applied to all the conduct of man to man, and all the rela- 
 tions they sustain to each other, that the right or wrong, 
 the good or evil, may be ascertained. These principles 
 are unfolded and carried out into the details of human con- 
 duct, by the many precepts, and warnings, and councils, 
 and admonitions, and directions of the sacred volume. 
 
 We may farther remark that there are various moral 
 terms often used in scripture, some expressing good and 
 some bad conduct. They are used as words that need not 
 be defined, being generally understood by the great mass 
 of society. Of this kind are justice, truth, equity, kind- 
 ness, goodness, <fcc. with many others, which when applied 
 to any kind of conduct, prove it to be morally good. On 
 the other hand injustice, oppression, violence, dealing hard- 
 ly, and similar terms, which express moral evil, and when 
 applied to the dealing of man to man, prove it wrong. 
 
 Now that a fair and straight-forward and common-sense 
 application of the law of " loving our neighbour as our- 
 selves," and of " doing as we would be done by," con- 
 demns holding our feilow men forcibly in bondage, and 
 compelling them to serve without wages, is so plain that I 
 
LETTER X. 115 
 
 marvel any can doubt it. That slavery is in Scripture 
 spoken of as violence and oppression, a hard dealing, and 
 affliction, is past dispute. It is therefore morally wrong, 
 and a violation of God's law. 
 
 The Mosaic institutions, and the cases of slavery men- 
 tioned in Scripture, instead of justifying it, as many have 
 supposed, do really agree with the above rule in condemn- 
 ing it. The Israelites were not only reminded of their 
 own bondage, and charged not to deal thus with others ; 
 but were not allowed to retain any servants who did not 
 profess the true religion ; and on their doing this, they 
 were to own them as brethren, and let them go out free 
 after six years. The law that made it death to steal or 
 have in possession a stolen man — that giving freedom for 
 hard usage — that forbidding them to give up a runaway 
 servant — the jubilee law, &c. were additional guards against 
 slavery, and showed a care to prevent it. 
 
 The passage in Leviticus xxv. which at first view seems 
 to allow it, admits of several explanations on received 
 principles of interpretation. 
 
 The Patriarchs had servants, but it is not certain that 
 they were slaves, and evidently they were not held in such 
 a condition as slaves are among us, and even if they were, 
 still that does not make it right, any more than their prac- 
 tising polygamy and concubinage makes those things right. 
 
 Israel was often brought into bondage, but always as a 
 punishment for their sins ; and when they practised slavery 
 they were severely punished for it. Heathen nations were 
 punished for enslaving Israel, and for enslaving each other. 
 
 The bearing which this state of things, under the Old 
 Testament, was designed to have upon our conduct to- 
 wards our fellow men, under the New Testament, seems 
 too plain to need much illustration. That it has been by 
 so many overlooked or misunderstood is strange, and es- 
 pecially that the want of a special condemnation of slavery 
 in the New Testament should be construed into a justifi- 
 cation of it, is passing strange. 
 
 It can be accounted for only on the principle that we 
 account for the old notions that Scripture justified persecu- 
 tion, church establishments, and the " divine right of kings 
 to govern wrong." People believed these things were so, 
 
116 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 and not distinguishing between the simple mention of them 
 in Scripture and its approbation of them, they found a jus- 
 tification of them in passages that really contained no ap- 
 probation at all. So persons now, taking it for granted 
 that slavery is not wrong, think they find proof of this in 
 every passage that speaks of servants. They overlook the 
 fact that there may be servants where there are no slaves, 
 and seem never to consider those passages and examples 
 which condemn as sinful in the sight of God that forced 
 condition of servitude called slavery. 
 
 Of the many points that might be adduced in illustration 
 of the bearing which the facts and commands of the Old 
 Testament, as above brought forward, have on the teaching 
 of the New, the following are selected : — 
 
 The rule of moral duty is substantially the same under 
 both dispensations. The moral law is that rule. Our 
 Lord declares that he " came not to destroy the law and 
 the prophets ; that heaven and earth should pass, before 
 one jot or tittle of the law should fail." The New Testa- 
 ment is full of references to the moral teachings of the Old. 
 It constantly refers to it as the word of God, and the rule 
 by which mankind are to be judged. Those special pre- 
 cepts of the Old Testament, therefore, which forbid bon- 
 dage and oppression, and enjoin the duties of justice and 
 equity and kindness, are really binding on us. 
 
 To this we must add, that the moral teaching of the 
 Scriptures is illustrated and enforced by the dealings of 
 God towards mankind, according as their conduct was 
 good or evil. A record is made of these dispensa- 
 tions, and we are assured " that they happened for en- 
 samples, and were written for our admonition." The 
 destruction of the old world by the waters of a flood 
 proves God's hatred of that violence and corruption of 
 morals with which the world was then filled; and the fires 
 which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah equally prove 
 God's hatred of the vices practised by those cities. All 
 will admit this. Now, on the very same principle, the 
 judgments of God on Egypt at the time of Moses, and 
 those on Judah under Zedekiah. and those on Assyria and 
 Babylon, and the other nations, as noticed in my last letter, 
 prove God's hatred of oppression and slavery, for which 
 
LETTER X. 117 
 
 they were sent. It may, I think, be safely said, that there 
 is no breach of the second table of the law, no sinful con- 
 duct of man towards man, which God by more examples 
 has shown to be evil in his sight, than slavery. If any 
 one doubt this, let him look over the examples adduced, 
 and others of a similar kind, and compare them with the 
 examples he may be able to find of God's hatred of any 
 other hard dealing of man towards his fellow man. 
 
 I next remark, that while the moral law is really the 
 same under both dispensations, and while all its teachings 
 and illustrations in the Old are equally binding under the 
 New Testament, the spirituality of the law, as well as its 
 universality, is more fully set forth in the New than in the 
 Old Testament. While an object remains precisely the 
 same, we may see it much more clearly under the blaze of 
 day, than in the gloom of twilight. The sixth command- 
 ment, "Thou shalt not kill," is really the same in the 
 Old as in the New Testament, yet we have no statement 
 of its spirituality in the Old that equals the following in 
 the New: " Whosoever is angry with his brother without 
 a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; whosoever 
 hateth his brother is a murderer." The same may be 
 said of the seventh : " Whosoever looketh on a woman to 
 lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in 
 his heart. Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for 
 the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; 
 and whoso marrieth her that is put away, committeth 
 adultery." Every part of the law, it is true, is not thus 
 unfolded in its spirituality ; nor was it needful that it 
 should. It is done in a sufficient number of cases to es- 
 tablish and illustrate the general principle. 
 
 The universality of the law, as embracing all mankind, 
 and binding us to love all men as ourselves, and perform 
 all the duties of kindness and well-doing to them, is made 
 equally plain. The moral law did in fact always require 
 this. And loving others as themselves — yea, thus loving 
 the stranger, was expressly enjoined on Israel. There 
 were, however, many things in the Mosaic rites, which 
 were designed to keep Israel, as God's visible people, 
 from such an intercourse with idolaters as might en- 
 danger their religion and morals. These rites taken in 
 
118 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 connection with the fact, that God made use of Israel as 
 an instrument to destroy the idolatrous Canaanites, were 
 construed by Israel into a permission to hate all people but 
 their own. The word neighbour not being defined in the 
 command, they took it to mean their own people ; and 
 considered the command to love them, as implying that 
 they might hate all others. This limitation of the com- 
 mand was wholly unauthorized ; and, not to mention 
 other facts, the command " to love the stranger as them- 
 selves," was sufficient to have shown this. 
 
 Our Lord corrected this perversion of the law : " Ye 
 have heard it said, Thou shaltlove thy neighbour, and hate 
 thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies ; 
 bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you." 
 
 It is not necessary to quote the many passages which 
 agree with the above, and go directly to show, that as God 
 hath " made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all 
 the face of the earth," so he hath made it the duty of all 
 to regard each other as of the same brotherhood, and love 
 them as themselves. All must recollect the peculiar force 
 and beauty, with which our Lord set this forth, in the 
 parable of the good Samaritan. The very point was 
 brought up to him by the question, " ivho is my neigh- 
 bour?" in an attempt to evade the obligation to love all 
 others as themselves. Our Lord in answer, spoke that 
 parable ; and having in it brought together the Jew and the 
 Samaritan, the two people that, under the sun, at that time, 
 had the most bitter prejudice against each other; and hav- 
 ing set forth the disinterested kindness of the Samaritan to 
 the Jew, when his own Levite and Priest had neglected 
 him, he put back the question, " Which now was neigh- 
 bour to him who fell among the thieves?" The correct an- 
 swer could not be mistaken: " He that showed mercy on 
 him." "Go" says our Lord, " and do thou likewise." 
 A more beautiful and forcible illustration of the law of love, 
 both as to its universality and obligation, never was given, 
 and cannot be conceived. 
 
 The Mosaic ritual, through their misapprehension of its 
 intent and use, appears to have been to the Jews the great 
 occasion of their error, in limiting the law of love to their 
 own people. This ritual was fulfilled by Christ, and is 
 
LETTER X. 119 
 
 done away under the New Testament ; and this occasion 
 of error is removed. But more than this. The error itself 
 was combated again and again, by our Lord and his apos- 
 tles. The middle wall of partition was declared to be 
 taken down, Jew and Gentile made one, and the whole 
 question placed in so many points of light, so often dis- 
 cussed and decided, that he must be sceptical indeed who 
 still can doubt. 
 
 The case of slavery as a moral question, and as a prac- 
 tice in the church, was as well settled,, and stood on the 
 same ground as the Sabbath, devoting children to God, 
 contributing to the support of religion, attending public 
 worship, praying to God in families, and many such things. 
 
 None of these have much said about them in the New 
 Testament. They are clearly appointed in the Old : the 
 New refers to them as things existing. It takes for granted 
 that the authority of the Old, which it constantly asserts, 
 has settled these points. The morality of slavery stands 
 on the same ground. Its evil is as fully set forth in the 
 Old, both by precept and example. When in this state of 
 the question, we read the New, I see not how any can 
 doubt, that much, very much of its teachings go directly 
 to condemn slavery. 
 
 We have not only the general spirit and tendency of the 
 law, and those many special applications of it, made to the 
 Jews and others respecting slavery, but we have the 
 greater light of the New Testament, by which to read 
 them. While all the commands given to Israel, when 
 taken together, and fairly interpreted, allowed but a very 
 limited servitude ; they were still more strict in prevent- 
 ing the bondage of their own people. Now, what the Jew 
 might not do to his brother Jew, we may not do to any 
 of the brotherhood of man. Those commands, and warn- 
 ings, and remonstrances against enslaving each other; and 
 those judgments of God upon them for doing it, are fully 
 as applicable to the case of our holding negroes in slavery, 
 as a thousand things in the history of Israel, which, by 
 common consent, are considered as applicable in their 
 general instruction to mankind now. 
 
 The very spirit of the gospel is one of kindness, and 
 love, and well doing. As a dispensation of God towards 
 
120 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 us, these attributes shine forth in every part of it. And its 
 language towards us is, " be ye followers of God." We are 
 to forgive others, as we hope to be forgiven. We are to 
 do good for evil, as God does to us. We are to be kind 
 and compassionate to our fellow men, while we seek for 
 compassion, and all good things, at the hand of God. 
 
 Now, holding our fellow men in the hardest of all con- 
 ditions, and compelling them to serve us without wages, 
 and at the sacrifice of their own happiness, and all for no 
 fault, is wholly of another spirit than that which the gos- 
 pel manifests towards us, or requires at our hands. 
 
 The spirit of the gospel is beautifully set forth in that 
 prophecy which declares the objects for which Christ was 
 anointed and set apart as our Saviour. " The Spirit of the 
 Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me 
 to preach good tidings to the meek : He hath sent me to 
 bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the 
 captives, and the opening of the prison-doors to them that 
 are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to 
 comfort all that mourn." That this has a primary refer- 
 ence to spiritual blessings, is readily admitted. Temporal 
 blessings, however, are not excluded. As temporal evils 
 and deliverances from them are here used to set forth spi- 
 ritual things, so Christ, during his ministry, while fulfilling 
 this prophecy, pitied and relieved those under them. He 
 literally made the lame to leap as an hart, caused the 
 tongue of the dumb to sing, the blind to see out of obscu- 
 rity, and the leper to be clean. The example of Christ, 
 and the spirit of his gospel do, in their whole tenor, 
 oppose and condemn slavery. 
 
 The New Testament classes slavery among those hard 
 dealings of man towards man, which are contrary to the 
 law of love, and sinful in the sight of God. "For ye suf- 
 fer it, if a man bring you into bondage, (or hold you in 
 bondage,) if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a 
 man smite you on the face."* Here being reduced to 
 slavery, or held in it, is classed with being plundered and 
 spoiled and buffeted. The primitive Christians were 
 often exposed to these evils, and bore them patiently for 
 
 2 Cor. xi. 20. 
 
LETTER X. 121 
 
 Christ's sake. Not only is slavery classed with them, but 
 placed first. To infer that because they patiently bore 
 spoiling and buffeting, that therefore those committed no 
 sin who thus treated them, would be considered by all as 
 a most unwarranted conclusion ; and yet not a few reason 
 thus respecting slavery. It deserves a remark, that the 
 original word in this place is not AouXoi, (douloi), which 
 means to make a servant; but KarouSouXoi, (katadouloi), to 
 make a slave — to reduce to that condition, which we insist 
 is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, the law of love, and 
 the moral bearings of the Scripture, both in the Old and 
 New Testament. 
 
 The apostle James (iii. 9.) mentions it not only as a sin, 
 but as a sin of peculiar aggravation, that men cursed their 
 fellow men, " who were made in the i-imi/iticde of God" 
 It showed an awful irreverence and ungodliness to curse 
 what bore God's inuig°. 
 
 If bearing God's image made it thus sinful to curse man, 
 does not the same reason make it peculiarly improper — 
 yea, irreverent towards God, to hold men in absolute slave- 
 ry? What! hold in slavery a being that was made in the 
 image of God? 
 
 Add to this that masters are commanded to " render or 
 give to servants what is just and equal; and to remember 
 that they have a Master in heaven, who is no respecter 
 of persons." Now what is just and equal between man 
 and man? By what rule is it to be measured? No doubt, 
 by the moral law — the law of love, the rule of doing as we 
 would be done by. Self-love would lead all masters to 
 think it very hard to be held in slavery for no crime, and 
 very unjust and unequal for any thus to treat them. Of 
 course, the rule of justice and equity requires that they 
 should not deprive others of that freedom, which, in their 
 own case, they so highly prize. 
 
 Take another case. The apostle, in exhorting Chris- 
 tians to contentment and submission to the providence of 
 God, gives it as a general rule, that they should remain in 
 the condition or calling in which the Gospel found them, 
 and not be given to change. He instances several cases, 
 and among others, that of servants. He tells them, not to 
 let the fact that they are in a state of servitude make them 
 
 11 
 
122 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 discontented; but at the same time, directs them to obtain 
 their freedom if they can, and gives as a reason for this 
 direction — " ye are bought with a price, be not therefore 
 the servants of man." This passage has so evidently a 
 reference to a passage in Leviticus, that it may well pass 
 for a quotation. " For to me the children of Israel are ser- 
 vants : they are my servants whom I brought out of 
 Egypt — they shall not be sold as bond-men." 
 
 It was a rule under the Old Testament, that from their 
 relation to God, it was unlawful for any to hold God's peo- 
 ple in slavery. The apostle here appeals to this rule, as 
 making it the duty of the servant to obtain his freedom if 
 he could. As many of them, however, might have masters 
 who had no regard for God's word, who were Pagans, and 
 who would not give them freedom — the apostle advises 
 them, in such cases, to submit to their hard lot — to glorify 
 God by patiently enduring evil, and do nothing that might 
 cause " the way of truth to be evil spoken of." The 
 whole case, taken together, shows clearly, that the apos- 
 tle considered the condition of the slave a hard one ; and 
 one which the law of love condemned. 
 
 Some may perhaps think, that if these principles had 
 been intended to have this bearing on this case, the apos- 
 tles would in so many words have wholly forbid the prac- 
 tice of slavery. 
 
 In reply to this it may be asked, why did they not, 
 when treating of marriage, wholly forbid polygamy and 
 concubinage ? They prevailed much at that time. Why 
 did they not forbid games, plays, gladiator shows, and 
 many such things? Why did they not directly enjoin the 
 observance of the Sabbath, attending public worship, the 
 baptism of children, with many such things ? The most of 
 these were plainly taught in the Old Testament, and its 
 authority is constantly recognized; and in the Old Testa- 
 ment the evil of slavery is fully set forth. Their hearers 
 are supposed to be acquainted with the teaching of the Old 
 Testament, to be obedient to it, and to infer their duty 
 from it. 1 Cor. x. 1 — 13. 
 
 There is reason to believe that the primitive Christians 
 did thus apply the principles of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment to the case of slavery. We have not much, it is I 
 
LETTER X. 123 
 
 true, that bears on this case. Nor have we much in their 
 writings that bears on the question of the Sabbath, their 
 devoting children to God in baptism, their taking no part 
 in plays, gladiator shows, the amusement of the theatre, 
 &c. There are, however, some passages in their writ- 
 ings which show their high regard for personal liberty, and 
 deep solicitude that others should enjoy it. 
 
 " We know how many among ourselves," says St. 
 Clement, in his epistle to the Corinthians, " have given up 
 themselves unto bonds, that thereby they might free others 
 from them. Others have sold themselves into bondage, 
 that they might free their brethren with the price of them- 
 selves." 
 
 The churches of Armida not only raised all the money 
 they could, but sold the plate and furniture of their 
 churches, and redeemed seven thousand Persians, who 
 were offered for sale by the Romans ; and set them free, 
 and sent them home to their people. 
 
 Sindonites, a zealous Christian, was set free twice on 
 being instrumental in converting his master. See Cave's 
 primitive Christianity. 
 
 The primitive Christians were accustomed, it is said, to 
 take up collections weekly, and apply them to redeem per- 
 sons Irom slavery, and especially their brethren. Their 
 kindness to the poor was so notorious, that Julian ascribed 
 their success in spreading the Gospel mainly to it. This 
 gave them great favour with the lower classes, many of 
 whom were in slavery. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
124 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 Christian Brethren,* 
 
 There are many other points of view in which the incon- 
 sistency of slavery with the spirit of the Gospel forces 
 itself on our attention. Several of them I beg leave to notice. 
 
 It must necessarily happen, that much oppression and 
 hard dealing will take place under a system which subjects 
 one class of persons to such an extent to the uncontrolled 
 power of another. The man who believes the Scripture 
 account of human nature, or who has to any practical pur- 
 pose looked back upon its past history or abroad upon 
 its present population, will not need to have the point 
 argued before him. He must see in all the guards of so- 
 ciety, in all the protections for person and property, in all 
 the securities of civil government, proof of the evils man is 
 liable to from man. 
 
 I am far from charging slave-holders generally with cruel 
 or harsh dispositions. Many of the finest examples of 
 kindly and benevolent feeling that I have ever known, 
 were slave-holders. Add to this their hospitable, generous, 
 and liberal dispositions, and more excellent specimens of 
 human nature can perhaps nowhere be found. That the 
 slave does, in the treatment he receives, experience, to a 
 great extent, the effects of these amiable traits of character, 
 is unquestionable. All the accounts which I have heard, and 
 all my observation, satisfies me, that a great melioration has 
 taken place in the general treatment of slaves ; and I have 
 no doubt, that this kindness of feeling with respect to slaves, 
 connected with the impression that their case is a hard 
 one — that they have not the proper inducements to indus- 
 try and faithfulness, that they are wholly in the. power of 
 the master, leads many slave-holders to indulge their 
 slaves and wink at their faults, to the injury of the tempo- 
 ral interests of the masters, and not to the benefit of the 
 slave. I have often heard slave-holders say, and I had no 
 reason to doubt their statement, that their slaves did not 
 
 * This and the following- letter are, with various alterations s 
 taken from an essay by the author. 
 
LETTER XI. 125 
 
 clear charges — that they were positively bringing them in 
 debt. But what can we do, said they ? We must have 
 servants. We dislike to part with those that have long 
 been in the family, and we try to get along with them 
 as well as we can. I have often heard them apologize for 
 the idleness and negligence of slaves. Poor creatures, 
 they would say, we ought not to expect as much of them 
 as if they were working for themselves. Idle as they are, 
 we at times wonder they do as well, considering their 
 situation. 
 
 I have repeatedly had occasion to remark, that Europe- 
 an and northern men, when they had to manage slaves, 
 have complained more, and, if I mistake not, exacted more 
 labour, and used more compulsory means in doing it, than 
 the better class of persons raised as slave-holders. This 
 is easily accounted for. They have been used to free 
 labourers ; who, the world over, do more work, ar.d do it 
 better, and with less trouble to the employer, than can be 
 had from slaves. Their ideas of a reasonable portion of 
 labour is taken from what they have seen done — perhaps 
 done themselves ; and knowing that it can be done, and is 
 done, when the labourer inclines to do it, they feel strong- 
 ly disposed to exact it, or complain much if it be not done: 
 while the person accustomed to slave-labour, gets habitu- 
 ated to expect little, and complains less, and uses fewer 
 compulsory means to exact that little, than the other does 
 to get double the amount. 
 
 The female department furnishes some of the best 
 illustrations of this matter. A female, accustomed to free 
 servants, will, with the aid of one woman and a small boy 
 or girl, or at most two women, manage the concerns of a 
 large family, and have everything done in its proper time 
 and place, and all as neat as a bandbox. But let her be 
 transplanted into a slave-holding community, and have to 
 carry on the same operations with slaves ; and she will 
 have double the difficulty and vexation in effecting it with 
 her cook, washer-woman and house-maid and nurse, and 
 perhaps two or three nondescripts into the bargain. 
 
 With all the above admissions, and many more that 
 need not be detailed, it is still true that there is, and while 
 human nature remains what it is, there will be, much op- 
 11* 
 
126 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 pression and hard dealing towards slaves. The very cir- 
 cumstance of degradation and entire dependence of the 
 slave, which on humane and generous minds excite pity 
 and kindness, often operates differently on minds of a con- 
 trary cast. The unkind, the unfeeling, the fault-finding, 
 the cruel, the selfish, the passionate, yea, that whole class 
 of persons, in whom the evil passions predominate over 
 the good, have, in their slaves, objects on which these dis- 
 positions may be daily employed. There are many ways 
 in which those bad passions may be excited. The whole 
 employment of the slave having a relation to the ease, in- 
 terest, or credit of the master, must constantly call into 
 action those dispositions with which he regards those va- 
 rious interests ; and if those feelings be not satisfied, the 
 slave is liable to feel the consequences. And even with 
 those that, on the whole, are kind to their slaves, things 
 often take place, that may go far to make the life of the 
 slave miserable. There are often, with good people, pe- 
 culiarities of disposition, which are a torment to those 
 about them — a fretfulness, a peevishness, a fault-finding, 
 which sleeps only when the possessor sleeps. No harm 
 is meant, but still it is a thorn in the flesh. Husbands at 
 times show it towards their wives, and wives towards their 
 husbands ; parents towards their children, and children to- 
 wards their parents. In these cases there are the checks 
 of natural affection, character, standing, &c. ; but the poor 
 slave is exposed to the same without these checks, he can- 
 not fly from them, he must not even complain. 
 
 It is a great evil of slavery, and shows in a strong point 
 of light how unnatural it is, that on the one hand it de- 
 prives the slave of the proper inducements to industry, and 
 on the other, frees the master from the needful checks to 
 his evil passions. It gives the slave no interest in the 
 fruit of his labour; he does not work for himself, his wife 
 and children, but for the benefit of others. It is not in hu- 
 man nature to believe and toil without a motive. Deprive 
 a man of those proper for him, his own interest and the 
 interest of those that are a part of himself, and he will be 
 like a watch without a main spring. Other motives, as 
 force or fear, may be substituted, but they will not operate 
 as the former would. And where they do set the slave to 
 
LETTER XI. 127 
 
 work, they cannot give him a heart for it. The same 
 amount of labour is more oppressive to the slave than to 
 the free. 
 
 On the other hand, the master exacts labour from the 
 slave for his own benefit ; and under such a system, he 
 will ever be liable to seek his own interest at the expense 
 of hard dealing to the slave. If any difficulty be met with, 
 if any of the bad passions be excited, if the slave do not so 
 act as to satisfy, there is danger of passion being indulged 
 with little regard to the feelings of the slave. 
 
 In the case of hired servants there is a safeguard. Hard 
 usage, undue demands, unreasonable requisitions, evil tem- 
 pers, &c, are restrained by the fact that the servant is not 
 more dependent on the master for employment, than the 
 master is on the servant to labour for him. The hired 
 servant has the proper motives for industry, his own bene- 
 fit ; and the master has the proper check on his disposi- 
 tion, his own interest. Slavery inverts the whole case, 
 and instead of placing things on the ground of a just reci- 
 procity — instead of the inducements and checks proper for 
 human nature, so arranges things that both master and 
 slave must suffer. 
 
 Some allege that public sentiment is a sufficient restraint 
 on the master, and gives a sufficient protection to the slave. 
 That it does much, is admitted, but not that it is sufficient. 
 It is not sufficient between the masters themselves, where 
 it has tenfold more force. Such is the general feeling to- 
 wards slaves, that conduct towards them will hardly be 
 noticed, which, if to a white man, would produce no little 
 scandal ; and yet, with this greater protection from pub- 
 lic sentiment, masters would think it a great grievance to 
 have no other for their persons, families and property. 
 Such ought in consistency to own that it is not a sufficient 
 protection for the slave. To claim one rule for ourselves, 
 and say another is sufficient for the slave, is to have ' in 
 the bag divers weights, which is an abomination to the 
 Lord." 
 
 All who are acquainted with negro slavery know, that 
 there are many cases in which the condition of the slave 
 is most hard, where the labour is severe and oppressive, 
 the food and clothing both in kind and quantity not what 
 
128 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 it ought to be ; where the labours and toils of life seldom 
 meet with any compensation, or even approbation, and 
 where, as to his spiritual concerns, it may emphatically be 
 said, "no man cares for his soul," and where all these 
 personal evils are embittered by the galling reflection, this 
 is the doom of my kindred, it awaits my children and my 
 children's children for generations to come. 
 
 Where oppressions, and injuries, and wrongs, are the 
 natural results of a system, it is not enough that we our- 
 selves do not oppress. We are bound by the laws of love, 
 and mercy, and justice, to do all we can to put an end to 
 it. "Be ye not partakers with them." If we refuse to 
 aid in removing it, we are accountable in the sight of high 
 heaven for neglect of duty, and will not stand clear of a 
 participation in the guilt of said oppressions and wrongs. 
 
 But oppressions and wrongs, although highly offensive 
 to God, are not the only evils resulting from slavery. 
 There are others equally, perhaps more, crying. It is a 
 hateful feature of the present system of slavery, that it 
 gives no protection to family connections— to the marriage 
 relation, or to female purity. The slave is held as pro- 
 perty, and may be sold, or given away, or disposed of by 
 will ; and, life and limb excepted, be treated as other 
 property. 
 
 Occasionally, the husband and wife belong to the same 
 person, and live together; much more frequently, how- 
 ever, they belong to different owners, and see each other 
 more or less frequently, according to their distance apart, 
 and the time allowed them for that purpose. Their mar- 
 riages are not recognized or protected by law. The rea- 
 son no doubt is, that this might interfere with the right of 
 property in the master. If the law protected the marriages, 
 it might at times prevent sales and transfers of slave- 
 property. 
 
 Some slaves have, indeed, a marriage ceremony per- 
 formed. It is, however, usually done by one of their fiwn 
 colour, and of course is not a legal transaction. And if 
 done by a person legally authorized to perform marriages, 
 still it would have no authority, because the law does not 
 recognize marriage among slaves, so as to clothe it with 
 the rights and immunities which it wears among citizens. 
 
LETTER XI. 129 
 
 The owner of either party might, the next day or hour, 
 break up the connection in any way he pleased. In fact, 
 their connections have no protection, and are so often 
 broken up by sales and transfers and removals, that they 
 are by the slaves often called "taking up together." 
 The sense of marriage fidelity must be greatly weakened, 
 if not wholly destroyed, by such a state of things. The 
 effect is most disastrous. 
 
 But there is another circumstance which deserves our 
 notice. What effect is likely to be produced on the mo- 
 rals of the whites, from having about them, and under 
 their absolute authority, female slaves who are deprived of 
 the strongest motives to purity, and exposed to peculiar 
 temptations to opposite conduct ! The condition of female 
 slaves is such, that promises and threatenings and manage- 
 ment can hardly fail to conquer them. They are entirely 
 dependent on their master. They have no way to make 
 a shilling, to procure any article they need. Like all poor 
 people they are fond of finery, and wish to imitate those 
 who are above them. What, now, are not presents and 
 kind treatment, or the reverse, if they are not complying, 
 likely to effect on such persons ? And the fact that their 
 children, should they have any through such intercourse, 
 may expect better treatment from so near relations, may 
 have its influence. That the vice prevails to a most shame- 
 ful extent is proved from the rapid increase of mulattoes. 
 Oh, how many have fallen before this temptation: so 
 many, that it has almost ceased to be a shame to fall ! Oh, 
 how many parents may trace the impiety and licentious- 
 ness and shame of their prodigal sons, to the temptations 
 found in the female slaves of their own or neighbours' 
 households. Irregular habits are thus formed, which often 
 last through life. And many a lovely and excellent wo- 
 man, confiding in vows of affection and fidelity, trusting 
 to her power over her devoted lover, has, after uniting her 
 fate with his, and giving him all that a woman has to give, 
 found when too late how incorrigible are those habits of 
 roving desire, formed in youth, and kept alive by the 
 temptations and facilities of the slave system. 
 
 Now when we read the repeated declarations that "for- 
 nicators and adulterers shall not inherit the kingdom of 
 
130 LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 
 
 God ;" and call to mind the teaching of our Lord, that 
 all intercourse between the sexes, except what takes place 
 between one man and one woman in marriage faith, 
 amounts to those crimes ; how can we, as believers in 
 Christianity, uphold a system which presents this tempta- 
 tion both to the bond and free, and yet escape a participa- 
 tion in the guilt ? 
 
 I notice as another evil of slavery, that it is hostile to 
 that instruction of slaves, which, if not absolutely neces- 
 sary, is exceedingly important to their salvation. The 
 policy of most slave-owners is to keep their slaves in ig- 
 norance. This often extends to religious matters. Very 
 little attention is paid to instructing them in religion. 
 Neither is this peculiar to the irreligious part of the com- 
 munity. You must all admit that many professors of re- 
 ligion pay almost no attention to this matter ; and not one 
 in five hundred pays as much attention as he feels bound 
 to pay in the case of his own children. But few teach 
 their slaves to read God's word, and how few are careful 
 to have it read to them. How many heads of families, 
 who would think themselves greatly neglectful of the sal- 
 vation of their children, if they did not pray with and for 
 them, and take them to the house of God, almost wholly 
 neglect these matters as regards their slaves ? They may, 
 perhaps, occasionally tell some of their slaves that they 
 ought to attend preaching ; but what facilities do they give 
 them for attending? Their slaves have laboured all the 
 week, and are, it may be, from four to ten miles from the 
 place of preaching — must be at home that evening or early 
 next morning — have, perhaps, no clothes fit to be seen in — 
 may wish to see a wife, or husband, or child, who lives in 
 an opposite direction — have no time for this but on the 
 Sabbath. The slave is blamed for not attending preaching. 
 He may deserve blame ; but taking the whole case into 
 view, the fault does not altogether lie on the slave. The 
 master who holds him in slavery, who requires his con- 
 stant labours, is often justly chargeable in the sight of God 
 with the irreligion of his slaves ; and that many a profes- 
 sor of religion will at last have a fearful reckoning on this 
 matter, I have no more doubt than I have that we have a 
 Master in Heaven, " who is no respecter of persons." 
 
LETTER XI. 131 
 
 It is often said, and not without reason, that there is a 
 growing indisposition among slaves to worship with their 
 masters, and attend on the preaching of the whites. It is 
 by some ascribed to stubbornness and perverseness in the 
 slaves. Far be it from me to say that slaves are not 
 to be blamed for this. To worship and serve God is a duty 
 so important, that nothing unpleasant in the circumstances 
 of the duty, or the person officiating, or the company of 
 worshippers, can justify its neglect. While this is admit- 
 ted, truth at the same time requires me to say, that if the 
 prejudices of the slave against worshipping with the whites 
 or attending their preaching, grow out of a system, which, 
 in a change of circumstances, would produce similar pre- 
 judices in the minds of any other body of men ; then much 
 of the blame lies on the system, and its supporters cannot, 
 in the sight of impartial Heaven, stand clear of a partici- 
 pation in the guilt. 
 
 Now that this prejudice in slaves, against worshipping 
 with the whites, may be traced mainly to the system of 
 slavery is to me most certain. The relation between the 
 master and the slave is not one of mutual agreement, in 
 which there is a quid pro quo, a stipulated service for a 
 stipulated reward ; but one of force on the part of the mas- 
 ter, and hard necessity on the part of the slave. It is ab- 
 solute authority on the one part, and necessary submission 
 on the other ; and as life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
 piness, are sell-evidently unalienable rights, so the love of 
 them is inlaid in our natures, and lives and dies with us. 
 
 That slaves should think their case hard, is as natural 
 as that they should think at all; and that this should lead 
 to hard thoughts of those who forcibly hold them in bon- 
 dage, is equally natural. That harsh usage, unkind treat- 
 ment, and frequent fault-finding, on the part of masters 
 (and what the master thinks reasonable may to the slave 
 have this appearance,) should greatly increase these hard 
 thoughts, is one of the most natural things in the world. 
 It could not, humanly speaking, be otherwise. That most 
 slaves are disposed to complain of their situation — that 
 they do complain when comparing notes with each other, 
 will hardly be questioned by those who have paid much 
 attention to the subject. Now with this general feeling of 
 
132 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 discontent at the whites, is it at all wonderful that slaves 
 should have little relish for joining them in religious wor- 
 ship ? 
 
 Suppose the master a professor of religion and prays in 
 his family. After labouring during the day, the slave 
 comes home and throws himself down to rest. He was 
 called out, it may be, pretty early — has laboured under the 
 eye of a watchful master or overseer — has been found fault 
 with as to his manner of doing his work, or his not doing 
 it faster — has been scolded and threatened, and perhaps 
 whipped — has made his meal, it may be, in the field, and 
 on provisions much inferior to what he knows his master 
 and family enjoy. His labours for the day are, however, 
 closed. Presently he hears the horn blow or the bell ring 
 for prayers. What now are the thoughts which would 
 most likely pass through the mind of a slave of no decided 
 religious feelings. Ah, the white folks are going to be re- 
 ligious now ; master is going to pray. He takes his ease 
 all day, and makes us poor negroes do his work. He is 
 always finding fault, and scolding and whipping us. I 
 don't think his prayers will do much good — I won't go to 
 prayers. 
 
 Their aversion to attend family prayers is so common 
 as to be the subject of frequent remark. I think nine 
 times out of ten, few attend even in professors' houses, 
 except the house-servants, and not unfrequently they slip 
 out of the house when the family assembles for prayer. 
 Similar feelings operate against their worshipping publicly 
 among the whites. This is the greater evil as few of them 
 are prepared to instruct their fellows ; and even their as- 
 semblies for that purpose, are discouraged as dangerous. 
 
 Any race of people placed in the same situation would 
 be affected in the same way. Taking human nature as it 
 now is, it could not well be otherwise. It is the natural 
 result of slavery on such creatures as we are. A sense of 
 injury will produce feelings of dislike and opposition. It 
 will "beget distrust in the religion of the master. It will 
 produce prejudice against the religion which he professes. 
 
 When the attempt was made to force the rites and forms of 
 Episcopacy on the Scots, and oblige the Puritans to read their 
 prayers, wear the gown and bands, kneel at the sacrament, 
 
LETTER XI. 133 
 
 and attend the Episcopal service, they would have suffered 
 their ears to be cut oft, and their heads into the bargain, 
 rather than comply. The very attempt excited most de- 
 cided opposition against the whole establishment. 
 
 Most of you have probably heard of the dying man, 
 who, when inquired of as to his hopes of getting to Hea- 
 ven, asked if such a man, his enemy, was in heaven? and 
 on being answered, it was hoped he was, replied that in 
 that case he had no wish to go there — that it was no place 
 for him. Whether the anecdote be true or not, it has 
 much of human nature in it, especially of human nature 
 in its unrenewed state. 
 
 Now I put it to you, in the sight and fear of God, how 
 you ran uphold a system, which, in addition to all its other 
 evils, operates so directly against the salvation of souls ? 
 " Wo to the world because of offences" — " wo to that 
 man by whom they come." 
 
 To perpetuate such a system for the sake of gain, for 
 the sake of making fortunes for your children, how awful 
 the thought ! On what does the life, and comfort, and sal- 
 vation of your child depend ? Is it not on the grace and 
 mercy of God ? And what reason have you to expect that 
 mercy, while you deal thus hardly with the slave ? Re- 
 member the word, " with what measure ye mete, it shall 
 be measured to you again." 
 
 Yours, &e. 
 
 12 
 
134 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 There is another evil growing out of the present sys- 
 tem of slavery, which, taken alone, ought to induce all to 
 give it up, or use all their influence to have it wholly 
 changed — I mean the internal traffic carried on in slaves. 
 
 Most persons, I suppose, agree in condemning the slave- 
 trade, as carried on from the coast of Africa, The injus- 
 tice, the cruelty, the abominations, that attend it, are con- 
 demned by all. And yet it may be asked, wherein is it 
 worse than the slave-trade carried on among us ? Who that 
 lives on a public road, who that attends a court-house, who 
 that visits any place of trade, in the slave-holding States, 
 that has not seen negroes bought and sold like any other 
 kinds of property, and drove in gangs along the public 
 roads, and often in chains ? Who does not know that hun- 
 dreds of thousands of dollars are employed in this trade ? 
 That vessels run constantly from the Middle to the South- 
 western States, loaded with slaves 1 And that many men 
 of high standing in society, are interested in the traffic ? 
 Who does not know that in this trade, little or no regard 
 is paid to the nearest and dearest relations in life? That 
 the husband and wife, the parent and child, are separated 
 without hesitation, when a better bargain can in that way 
 be obtained ? Who does not know that one of the common 
 modes both of selling and hiring, is to set them up to the 
 highest bidder ? 
 
 Many say they abhor the business of the negro-trader, 
 and cannot respect the man who follows it. Too hard a 
 name can hardly be given to the nefarious traffic; and 1 
 could wish that a hundred-fold more abhorrence were felt t 
 for the man that follows it. I doubt, however, whether it 
 will be stopped, while the present system of slavery con- 
 tinues. While slaves are held as absolute property, there 
 will be a trade in that property ; and while a trade is attend- 
 ed with such a profit as attends the slave-trade to the 
 South, we may expect it to go on, and with much of that 
 unfeelingness and disregard to family ties, which now 
 attend it. No passion is more unfeeling than avarice — 
 " the love of money is the root of all evil." 
 
LETTER XII. 135 
 
 Those who have hearts to feel for a fellow creature's woes 
 and a fellow creature's wrongs, ought to give all their influ- 
 ence, either wholly to put an end to slavery, or so to change 
 its leading features as to prevent those enormous evils which 
 now spring from it ; and they ought never to forget that one 
 of our most efficient ways of doing good, is to give to the 
 cause of truth and duty the influence of a good example. 
 There are, no doubt, thousands of cases in which real injury 
 would result both to the slave and to the owner, from at 
 once breaking up the relation, and letting the slave go out 
 free. Experience has proved, that in a large number of 
 cases, evil has resulted from premature liberation. The 
 laws, also, in many of the States present peculiar difficul- 
 ties to emancipation. The emancipated slave, without 
 regard to his family relations, is obliged immediately to 
 leave the State, or to forfeit his freedom. The poverty of 
 the liberated slave, his ignorance, his want of a habit of 
 managing for himself, &c, may and often do, lead to more 
 Buffering and more vice, than compensates for the boon of 
 freedom, in the circumstances in which it is given. All 
 this being admitted, and we are in duty bound to give it 
 its due weight, when considering the question of duty in 
 this matter, still it is true, and must be true, that we are 
 on the other hand, bound to give to the cause of freedom, 
 the aid of a wise, prudent, and good example. Slave- 
 holders, as individuals, ought to take such a course with 
 their slaves as will, as soon as possible, fit them for the 
 enjoyment of freedom, and then set them free. Many 
 things ought, of course, to be taken into the account, in 
 deciding at what time each slave ought to be freed ; their 
 habits, relations, turn for managing for themselves, their 
 prospects for doing well, either at home or abroad. 
 
 This is plainly one of those cases in which we ought 
 to count on making some sacrifices. The practice of 
 slavery is wrong, the customs of society are wrong, the 
 practice of the church is wrong, the laws of the land are 
 wrong. Now, to correct the wrong in all these respects 
 will require us to give up, more or less, not what the law 
 of God, but what the laws of the land and the customs of 
 society, allow us to retain. 
 
136 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 When we compare the practice of the church respecting 
 slavery, with its practice respecting the fashionable amuse- 
 ments of dancing, balls, horse-racing, gambling, attending 
 the theatres, &c, I know not how we can avoid seeing 
 the inconsistency. Most professors condemn these amuse- 
 ments, and think it much out of character for members of 
 the church to engage in them. "Whether engaging in them 
 would, in all our churches, be considered a proper matter 
 for church-discipline, I know not : but I feel assured that 
 it would be considered as not very consistent with a pro- 
 fession of religion. 
 
 Some of you may possibly recollect an incident that 
 took place while I was among you. 
 
 A dancing-master came into the neighbourhood to en- 
 gage a school, wishing to secure a good reception among 
 a people reputed pious, he brought letters introducing him 
 as a "pious dancing-master." Had he been introduced 
 as a little-big man, a long-short man, or white-black man, 
 I question whether it would have sounded more strange to 
 many of you. Some were not a little amused at it: and 
 again and again did I hear " pious dancing-master" re- 
 peated with roars of laughter. 
 
 And yet it may be asked, is there really an absolute in- 
 compatibility between dancing and religion? Might not 
 a person with as good a conscience follow dancing for a 
 livelihood, as to hold his fellow-creatures in bondage, and 
 live on the proceeds of their labour? I can certainly con- 
 ceive of a person reasoning on the case, and coming to the 
 conclusion, that dancing was in various respects more con- 
 sistent with piety, than the common practice of slave- 
 holding. 
 
 Were the advocates for fashionable amusements to ask 
 you why it was wrong to join in a dance, to attend a ball, 
 go to a horse-race, or take their families to the theatre ; 
 were they to ask for the passages of Scripture that con- 
 demned each of these things, — you would possibly find 
 some difficulty in getting passages that would fully sa- 
 tisfy them. You would probably answer them, that it was 
 true these follies were not in so many words named and 
 condemned, but that those passages of Scripture which 
 command us not to " be conformed to the world," to 
 
LETTER XII. 137 
 
 "come out and be separate," to "go not in the way of 
 temptation," to "shun the appearance of evil," &c, were 
 against these things. You would most likely dwell on the 
 fact, that they tend to draw off the mind from religion, and 
 produce and strengthen feelings that are at war with the 
 interests of the soul; that they beget vanity, love of the 
 world, a fondness for show and display, that they lead to 
 lasciviousness and sensuality, and tend to hardness of 
 heart and disregard for the rights of others. 
 
 I readily admit all this. Those amusements do so 
 naturally oppose the spirit of the gospel, that persons who 
 have a care for souls and the interests of religion, ought, 
 however unpopular the duty, and however much reproach 
 it may draw on them, use their influence to discountenance 
 them. 
 
 Now compare these amusements and their effects, with 
 slavery and its effects. Compare them as to the Scrip- 
 tures which condemn them directly, or condemn their prin- 
 ciple, or condemn them on account of their tendency to 
 evil. You must admit that not many if any of those 
 amusements are, in so many words, named and condemned 
 in Scripture. They must, if condemned at all, be con- 
 demned by applying to them some of the general rules 
 given us in Scripture for regulating our conduct. Several 
 of them have been noticed above. Now are there not 
 general rules given us to regulate our conduct towards our 
 fellow men? Do not the rules, "thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyself," and "do to men in all things as 
 we would have them do to us," as plainly relate to our 
 conduct towards others, as the rule, " come out from the 
 world," condemns its follies ? Does not the rule of doing 
 as we would be done by, as certainly condemn our depriv- 
 ing our fellow men of their dearest rights, and holding 
 them in bondage, as any rule that can be adduced from 
 Scripture condemns the above amusements ? Is any one 
 willing to be deprived of his rights and held as a slave ? 
 Is any willing to be as much at the mercy of another as 
 the slave is at the mercy of his owners ? Is any willing 
 to live under the disabilities that belong to the state of 
 slavery ; and to be liable to all the evils to which the slave 
 is liable ? Most assuredlv not. And does not the rule of 
 12* 
 
138 LETTERS ON SLAVERY". 
 
 doing as we would be done by apply to this case ? The 
 man who ean in the words " be not conformed to this 
 world," see a plain condemnation of balls, dancing, horse- 
 racing, attending the theatre, &c, and yet can see nothing 
 in the law of "loving our neighbour as ourself," and 
 " doing as we would be done by," that goes to condemn 
 holding his fellow men in slavery, must have the art of 
 seeing things, not as they really are, but as he wishes 
 them to be. The application of the latter rules to slavery 
 is so direct and straight-forward, compared with the for- 
 mer, that it requires an effort to believe that a person who 
 is so clear-sighted in the one case, should, with his atten- 
 tion drawn to the other, be unable to see its application. 
 
 As to the tendency of these amusements to worldly 
 affections, to vanity, sensuality, &c, I feel satisfied that 
 it is not equal to the tendency of slavery to hardness of 
 heart, injustice, oppression, licentiousness, and a whole 
 train of kindred evils. Let any one examine into the 
 effect of attending balls, the theatre, &c, on those persons 
 devoted to those amusements, and estimate the proportion 
 whose irreligion has been confirmed, whose worldly spirit 
 has been strengthened, and whose purity has been lost 
 through their influence; and compare it then with the mul- 
 titudes who through the influence of slavery have been 
 formed to a harsh, unfeeling, overbearing, and licentious 
 character. Is it not a fact, that the general manner of 
 treating slaves, owing chiefly to the absolute authority of 
 the master and the necessary subjection of the slave, is 
 positively rough and unfeeling, compared with the manner 
 of treating other people ? The same treatment to a hired 
 servant would soon leave the master to do his own work 
 and wait on himself ; hired servants would not bear it* 
 This circumstance tends to beget respect for the feelings 
 of those in the lower places of society. It leads to mild- 
 ness of manner, and regard for the rights and feelings of 
 others. The effect is beneficial to the master, and salu- 
 tary to society. 
 
 But in the case of slavery the matter is otherwise. The 
 slave must submit to all things and bear all things. How- 
 ever unreasonable the requirements, however rough the 
 treatment, however abusive the language — they must sul> 
 

 LETTER XII. 139 
 
 mit, and for the most part without complaint. Can any 
 one who takes a fair view of the condition of slaves, con- 
 sidered as absolutely under the power of their masters, as 
 not protected in their family relations, as subject to sepa- 
 ration at pleasure, as deprived of the best protection to 
 their purity and conjugal fidelity — can any one who takes 
 a full view of this subject in all its bearings, doubt whether 
 greater evils do not flow from it than from balls, dances, 
 gambling, and the whole round of fashionable amusements? 
 1 feel confident that all these amusements put together 
 do not produce one-tenth part of the vice that slavery 
 does, nor do one-tenth part as much to vitiate the morals 
 of society. 
 
 Now there appears a manifest inconsistency in pro- 
 fessors of religion and ministers of the gospel making such 
 an outcry against these amusements, while they not only 
 tolerate, but join in the practice of slave-holding. The 
 fault does not lie in opposing these amusements, but in 
 allowing themselves to countenance a practice which is 
 tenfold more injurious. 
 
 The advocates for amusements can say in palliation of 
 their practice, "if injury be done, it is done to ourselves; 
 we force no one to join us, all is voluntary." Can the 
 slave-holder say as much respecting slavery ? Is the slave 
 allowed to choose in the matter ? 
 
 If any say they are not sure slavery is wrong, cannot 
 and do not many say the same of their favourite amuse- 
 ments ? But does that satisfy? Will you allow your fel- 
 low professor to take the lead in all these amusements, 
 and yet admit him to all the privileges of the church? 
 Suppose a preacher of the gospel were to join in those 
 amusements, and excuse himself by saying " he was not 
 sure they were wrong," that he could without injury to 
 himself participate in them, that the law of the land per- 
 mitted them, and he claimed his right to join in them ; 
 that those who thought them wrong, were free to abstain 
 from them, but not thinking so, he should engage in them 
 whenever he chose, — what would be thought of the reli- 
 gion of such a preacher by most classes of professing 
 Christians? And yet wherein does it differ from what 
 takes place respecting slavery? I have shown, I think, to 
 
140 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 the satisfaction of the candid and unprejudiced, that slavery 
 is as much opposed to the law of love — the rule of doing 1 
 as we would be done by, as the amusements referred to 
 are to the command to be separate from the world, to con- 
 form not to it, &c. That the tendency of slavery is more 
 injurious to society than amusements, appears to me suffi- 
 ciently manifest from the view of it given above. Now 
 to see preachers of the gospel and church-officers opposing 
 the one, even to the shutting out of the church those who 
 engage in them, while they practise the other all their 
 lives long, and bring up their children to do so too, is to 
 me a most glaring inconsistency. 
 
 Or take those amusements in which the love of pleasure 
 is connected with the love of ill-gotten gains, as cock- 
 fighting, horse-racing, card-playing, &c, over and above 
 the tendency of these practices to produce vanity, love of 
 the world, and all those passions which balls, dancing, 
 &c, are charged with producing ; they are charged with 
 leading to covetousness, injustice, fraud, cruelty, and a 
 whole train of evils. Their tendency to produce these 
 evils is abundantly dwelt on, to prove that they are op- 
 posed to the spirit of the gospel, and are sinful in the sight 
 of God. Now, I ask, are not the same evils chargeable 
 on slavery, and in a much greater degree? Horse-racing 
 and cock-fighting are cruel to those animals. Admit it. 
 The cruelty, however, is confined almost wholly to the 
 hour of the race and of the right. At other times, those 
 kept animals are usually well provided for : many a race- 
 horse and game-cock is much better taken care of than 
 slaves usually are. 
 
 But is there no cruelty in depriving fellow creatures of 
 rights dear as life, and that for no crime? Is there no 
 cruelty in keeping them from generation to generation in a 
 state of absolute subjection, in making them drudge all 
 their lives long, and their children after them, and that 
 without any compensation but a bare subsistence ? 
 
 Is there no cruelty in treating them as property, and 
 sacrificing the most intimate relations, the strongest en- 
 dearments of life, as pleasure, interest, passion, or caprice, 
 may dictate? Is there no cruelty in so shutting them up 
 in slavery as to leave no door of escape, no chance to rise 
 
LETTER XII. 141 
 
 in society, no opportunity of bettering the condition of 
 those who are bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh? 
 Is there no cruelty in all this? and the half is not told. 
 What then is cruelty ? Are all our sensibilities to be stirred 
 up at the sufferings of a game-cock during his hour in the 
 pit, or the race-horse on the turf; and no notice to be taken 
 of the wrongs and oppressions of our kind, although pro- 
 longed from generation to generation ? and this from the 
 professed followers of the compassionate Saviour, of him 
 who would not break the bruised reed, who came to pro- 
 claim deliverance to captives, the opening of prisons to those 
 who are bound. "Tell it not in Gath, and publish it not 
 in the streets of Askelon," lest the enemies of our religion 
 have indeed cause of triumph. 
 
 But horse-racing, card-playing, &c. lead, it is said, to 
 covetousness, injustice, fraud, and a whole train of similar 
 evils. I readily admit it, and join in condemning them as 
 injurious to morals and religion; and I would ask, is not 
 slavery productive of the same evil passions and practices, 
 and that in a much greater degree ? The gambler, instead 
 of following some honest business for a livelihood, covets 
 and seeks the property of his neighbour, and in a way that 
 gives no equivalent for value received. Very well. The 
 evil is great. But how is it with the slave-holder ; does 
 he render a just return to the slave for what he takes from 
 him ? lie takes more than property, more than the pro- 
 duct of his labour, he takes liberty — the right of seeking 
 his own happiness, enjoying the fruit of his labour, and 
 providing for himself and children. And is there no co- 
 veting and taking what of right belongs to another in all 
 this ? 
 
 But it will perhaps be said, the gambler uses unfair 
 means to get the property of his neighbour. Admit it. 
 He cheats his neighbour out of it. 
 
 Now I wish to know how much worse it is to cheat a 
 man out of the fruit of his labour, than to take it from him 
 by force ? Is the slave voluntary in giving up the fruit of 
 his labour? None will pretend that he is. It is a case of 
 galling necessity. Resistance would only add to his suf- 
 ferings. 
 
 The gambler may be able to say in palliation of his 
 
142 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 practice, that he meets his neighbour on fair ground. 
 Each agrees to put so much at stake. His neighbour has 
 as good a chance to win as he has. If he does cheat his 
 neighbour, his neighbour would, if he could, cheat him. 
 There is no force or violence in the matter ; he obliges 
 none to play and lose. 
 
 Can the slave-holder say as much in palliation of hold- 
 ing slaves, and taking from them the fruit of their labour? 
 Has the slave any choice in the matter ? — any chance to 
 win the game ? None at all. He is retained in slavery, as 
 his forefathers were reduced to it, by force. He is obliged 
 to work and toil all his life long for another, and the fruit 
 of his labour is exacted by the strong arm of power. Is 
 there nothing of injustice in all this? Is there nothing of 
 coveting and taking what of right belongs to another? And 
 yet many will apply the threatenings of God's word against 
 the workers of iniquity, to the cock-fighter, horse-racer, 
 card-player, and the frequenter of other amusements ; while 
 they hold their fellow creatures forcibly in bondage, take 
 from them the fruit of their labour, and expose them to all 
 the vice and evils incident to a state of slavery ? Who can 
 help thinking of those whom our Saviour rebuked for 
 " straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel ;" for 
 " tything mint and rhue, and all manner of herbs, while 
 they passed over the weightier matters of the law, justice, 
 mercy, and faith." Whether professors of religion who 
 justify slavery, will see the inconsistency or not, it is seen 
 and noted by others, and that to the no small discredit of 
 religion. The evil already done, the evil now doing by 
 such departures from the spirit and purity of the gospel, 
 by such evading of the plain, practical rules of Scripture, 
 is incalculable. 
 
 It has done much to lower the standard of morals ; it 
 has done much to obscure the glory, and impede the be- 
 nign influence of the gospel ; and the evil is not likely to 
 be removed by a zeal against fashionable amusements, by 
 tything mint and rhue and anise, while justice and mercy 
 are so manifestly neglected. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
143 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 In the present letter I shall notice briefly some argu- 
 ments used to justify or excuse the practice of slavery. 
 
 Some attempt to justify it, or at least to prove that religion 
 must have nothing to do with it, from the meaning of AovXog 
 (doulos) the word mostly used in the New Testament to 
 express those in domestic relations. They assert that it 
 means slave, and infer, that as that condition is mentioned, 
 and directions given respecting its duties, and no fault found 
 with it, that therefore religion does not condemn it. The 
 argument contains false facts and bad reasoning. 
 
 Archbishop Potter, in his Greek Antiquities, gives the 
 following statement as to the meaning of AouXo^, (doulos): 
 "The inhabitants of Attica were of three sorts, 1. IloXerai, 
 (poletai) or free men ; 2. Msroixoi (metoikoi) or strangers ; 
 3. AouXoi, or servants. Of servants there were two sorts. 
 The first were of those that through poverty were forced to 
 serve for wages, being otherwise free-born citizens. Slaves, 
 as long as they were under the government of a master, 
 w r ere called Oixsrai, (oiketai), but after their freedom was 
 granted them, they were AouXoi, (douloi), not being like 
 the former, part of the master's estate, but obliged to some 
 grateful acknowledgments and small services, such as were 
 required of the Msroixoi, (metoikoi)." Page 39 — 50. 
 
 Pool, in his Synopsis on 1 Peter i. 18, gives substan- 
 tially the same statement. 
 
 According to this authority, and it is of the highest kind, 
 AouXos, which is the word mostly used, is a general term, 
 embracing all sorts of persons in domestic relation, slaves 
 where there are any, but also hirelings, bound servants, 
 &c. But when used as a particular term, it means not 
 slave, but freedinan, who, both among the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, sustained to his former master the relation of client. 
 
 Ao-jXor, then, includes slave only as one condition of 
 a general relation, and does not justify that condition. 
 The case is the same as that of other words expressing 
 a general relation. The words king, prince, &c. express 
 the general relation of ruler ; and under that embrace the 
 
144 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 unlawful condition of tyrant, despot, usurper, &c. ; but it 
 does not follow that tyranny, despotism, usurpation, are 
 therefore lawful. 
 
 So the word signifying marriage, embraces the condi- 
 tions of that relation found in polygamy and concubinage ; 
 but it does not follow that because Scripture calls all these 
 marriage, and enjoins the proper duties of the relation, that 
 therefore these are lawful. 
 
 Ojxst>]£, (oiketes), we are told is the particular word for 
 slave. The apostles, however, seldom use it, but almost 
 uniformly use the word doulos, which embraces all in do- 
 mestic relations. 
 
 The case is nearly the same with 3i;\ (obed), the cor- 
 responding word in Hebrew. It is a general term, and 
 expresses all kinds of persons under authority. It includes 
 slave as one condition of servitude, but it does not justify 
 that condition. Both these words are often used to ex- 
 press subjects under their rulers, tributaries and others un- 
 der authority ; and especially are they used to express 
 God's people. Servants of God, servants of Christ, ser- 
 vants of righteousness, &c. It would sound oddly to say, 
 slave of God, slave of Christ, slave of righteousness, <fec. 
 
 It is said again that slavery is a relation of society, that 
 the Gospel is not designed to interfere with man's relations 
 to man, but to induce him to perform the duties that result 
 from his relations. This argument, as mostly used, in- 
 cludes some truth, some error, and more bad reasoning. 
 
 With respect to man's natural and lawful relations, it is 
 readily admitted that religion finds no fault with them, and 
 simply goes to enforce the duties thence arising. But the 
 case is otherwise with relations that are unlawful and im- 
 moral. The adulterer and adulteress sustain a relation to 
 each other which religion forbids under pain of exclusion 
 from the kingdom of heaven. Some civil governments, 
 however, allow it. The polygamist sustains an immoral 
 relation to some of his wives— the tyrant sustains a rela- 
 tion to those under him that is sinful in him. 
 
 The relation of master and servant, when formed with 
 the consent and for mutual benefit, is natural and lawful ; 
 but this is not the case with slavery. Slavery is a thing 
 of force and violence. It is not with the consent of the 
 slave, nor for the benefit of the slave. 
 
LETTER XIII. 145 
 
 Now to say that a relation founded in force and con- 
 tinued by force, where all is exacted from the one party, 
 and for the benefit of the other, must not be found fault 
 with, because it is a relation of society, is so manifest 
 an absurdity, that I marvel any should for a moment 
 credit it. 
 
 I know that some dislike to hear slavery spoken of as a 
 thing of force and violence. But what is the fact ? Is the 
 slave voluntary in his slavery ? The question is not, does 
 he prefer being the slave of one more than of another ? but 
 whether he would not much rather be free than the slave 
 of any man ? Not whether he is well fed and clothed, and 
 not oppressed with labour ; but whether he would not 
 much rather feed and clothe himself, and enjoy the fruit of 
 his labour ? And as to slavery being a forced thing, if a 
 slave will not work, are not means used to make him ? If 
 he rebels, is not more force used, even to calling in the 
 civil authority and taking his life, if he will not submit ? 
 And if a slave runs away, is he not hunted up, and chas- 
 tised, and compelled to return to his labour ? Why are 
 slaves considered as the natural enemies of their masters, 
 and kept disarmed and under the watch of a vigilant patrol? 
 Everything proves that the relation is one of force. 
 
 Nearly related to the above, is the statement that slavery 
 is a political thing, an affair of state, an arrangement of 
 civil society, and the inference from this, that therefore re- 
 ligion must have nothing to do with it. 
 
 And does it never happen that an arrangement of civil 
 society is sinful ? Polygamy, and divorce, and infanticide, 
 at pleasure, are allowed under some governments ; are they 
 therefore not wrong? The abstract principle will, I appre- 
 hend, be decided correctly by most persons. If civil so- 
 ciety should permit its members to do what is admitted to 
 be wrong, as to blaspheme God, commit murder, violate 
 the seventh commandment, would that permission justify 
 us in the sight of God in acting thus ? All, I think, will 
 agree that it would not. Now we are assured that the law 
 of God extends to our whole conduct to our fellow men, 
 and is summed up in the command to " love them as our- 
 selves, and do to them in all things as we would have them 
 do to us." That this is inconsistent with holding them 
 
 13 
 
146 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 forcibly in bondage, and compelling them to serve without 
 wages, has been proved. The law of the land, however, 
 permits men to do this. Now here is a disagreement, in 
 fact, between what the law of God and the law of the land 
 permits. To call it a political thing, an affair of state, &c. 
 does not alter the nature of the thing. The case is just 
 this. The laws of society permit men to do what the law 
 of God forbids. Now if God is to be obeyed rather than 
 man, the case is decided, and the talk about its being a 
 political thing is nothing but a sophism. 
 
 It ought to be recollected, that many governments as 
 absolutely forbid slavery as they do stealing or murder. 
 Others, however, permit slavery. But none require their 
 people to be slave-holders. Some, wishing to prevent an 
 increase of free coloured persons in the state, require those 
 that are liberated to leave the state ; but none forbid per- 
 sons freeing their slaves, if they send them out of the state. 
 Now to say that slavery is a political thing, because thus 
 permitted, and that religion must not touch it, is placing 
 the matter on a singular footing. Why not also make 
 horse-racing, balls, dancing, lotteries, the theatre, &c. po- 
 litical things ? While many states not only forbid slavery, 
 but make it highly criminal to practise it ; no state, that I 
 know of, makes it criminal to have balls, dances, or to at- 
 tend the theatre, &c. Now if religion must have nothing to 
 do with slavery, in those states that permit it, much less ought 
 it to have anything to do with balls, dances, the theatre, 
 &c. which are permitted in all the states ; and yet among 
 those who use this argument in defence of slavery are 
 found many who not only insist that dancing, balls, and the 
 theatre, &c. are wrong, but would, in fact, turn persons 
 out of the church for frequenting them. O consistency, 
 where art thou ? 
 
 We are to obey God rather than man. Now slavery is 
 a violation of God's law, and therefore not to be done. It 
 is doing an injury to our fellow men, and therefore not to 
 be done. It is but a permitted thing, and therefore we of- 
 fend not against the laws of the land in refusing to practise 
 it ourselves, and using our influence with others against it. 
 
 Some have deceived themselves, and puzzled others, by 
 saying that the direct object of religion was to fit men for 
 
LETTER XIII. 147 
 
 heaven, that it operated in a sphere entirely different from 
 that of civil society ; and, for these reasons, had nothing 
 directly to do with worldly matters, nor with slavery as a 
 thing of that sort. 
 
 And what was the use then, one may ask, of giving the 
 second table of the law, containing six out of the ten com- 
 mandments ? It relates to this world's matters, to the rela- 
 tions and duties of man to man. And what is the use of 
 that, much the larger, part of Scripture, that unfolds the 
 principles of the second table of the law ? They might on 
 this plan have been dispensed with ; for they relate to 
 things that belong to the sphere of civil society. The 
 duties of the second table are, however, as directly enjoined 
 as the duties of the first. 
 
 Admit that religion has in view to fit men for heaven, 
 still it is true that it requires a regard to the duties of the 
 second table, as well as the first, in order to our getting 
 there. See 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; Gal. v. 19—21. And to 
 love our neighbours as ourselves, is given by our Lord as 
 the sum of its requirements. 
 
 As the terms civil society, government, &c. appear to 
 bewilder some persons, and beget in them an opinion that 
 with their permission things may be done without sin, 
 which otherwise would be very wrong; it possibly may 
 serve to dispel those intellectual mists, were such persons 
 to substitute for civil society, government, &c. the expres- 
 sion, the will of the majority. That will, regularly ex- 
 pressed, is the law of our land ; and will any one for a 
 moment say that the morality of a matter is to be fixed by 
 a majority of votes ? that our obligation to obey God's law 
 depends on the will of the majority? 
 
 As it has been settled in our civil constitutions, that men 
 may be of what religion they please, or if they prefer it, 
 be of no religion at all, it would follow, if moral duty de- 
 pends on the permission of the civil law or the will of the 
 majority, that we are now under no obligation to obey 
 God ; for that is a matter about which the law of the land 
 permits us to do as we please. It is left, as slavery is 
 left, to the will of individuals. 
 
 If a man professes religion, he is protected in its exer- 
 cise ; and if a man holds slaves, he is protected in so 
 
148 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 doing. But if the professor of religion gives up his profes- 
 sion, and neglects all the duties of religion, he may do it 
 without any offence to the State : And if a slave-holder 
 abandons slavery, and restores to their natural rights those 
 he has heretofore held in bondage, he is free to do it. The 
 laws of Virginia do, indeed, require that such slaves 
 should leave the State. This may be hard on them, but 
 most of them would rather do that, than to remain with 
 their posterity in bondage. 
 
 The fact that slavery was introduced among us, not by 
 ourselves, but by our forefathers, is almost constantly 
 brought forward as an excuse for our practice. Admitting 
 that this may be some palliation, a moment's reflection 
 might satisfy any one, that we are not justified in living in 
 a practice in itself wrong, by the fact that our fathers acted 
 so before us. The laws of civil society, the conduct of 
 man with man, the history of God's dealings towards na- 
 tions and individuals, as well as the express declarations 
 of his word, are all opposed to this plea of justification. 
 How can you read your Bibles and not see that, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, the sins of our fathers instead of justifying us 
 in living in the same, will assuredly, unless we repent, be 
 visited on us ? It is laid down as a principle of God's 
 providential government, that he will visit the sins of the 
 fathers on the children unto the third and fourth genera- 
 tion. This is explained in Scripture, (Ezek. xviii.) as 
 especially applicable to those cases, in which children con- 
 tinue in the same sins in which their fathers lived. The 
 way and the only way to escape visitations for the sins of 
 our fathers, is to forsake those sins, and as far as may be 
 correct the evils they have done. Not only is this princi- 
 ple plainly taught in Scripture, but it is illustrated by ex- 
 amples, and some on the very point in question. 
 
 The generation of the Egyptians that were visited with 
 such heavy judgments for enslaving Israel did not begin 
 the work of enslaving that people ; it was commenced 
 long before. They found it in existence, received it from 
 their fathers, and were probably the third or fourth genera- 
 tion that had practised it. They followed the footsteps of 
 their fathers ; and while, probably, making this identical 
 excuse, the cloud of vengeance was gathering over them, 
 which swept them as with the besom of destruction. 
 
LETTER XIII. 149 
 
 So it was with the Babylonians, and the nations that 
 acted with them, in oppressing Israel, that " held them 
 fast, and refused to let them go." God visited on them 
 their own sins, and the sins of their fathers ; gave them up 
 to spoil and slavery, and caused it to "be recompensed 
 unto them according to their doings." 
 
 The practice of slavery, may have been going on about 
 as long among us as it did in Egypt ; and while some are 
 pleading in excuse that we did not begin it, they seem to 
 forget that, according to God's word, we are the generation 
 at which the divine threatening begins to look hard. The 
 very fact that it has gone on so long, is in proof that the 
 cup of iniquity must be filling up, and the bitter waters 
 almost ready to overflow. 
 
 It is again urged, that slaves are property left us by our 
 fathers, or purchased with our money ; and that it is hard 
 to be required to give them up. This, I suppose, touches 
 the merits of the question. Temporal interest is opposed, 
 or thought to be opposed, to moral duty, and many of the 
 worst crimes committed by man ilow from the same source. 
 The gambler, the extortioner, the robber, the murderer, are 
 mostly influenced by supposed temporal interests. If our 
 religious principles, if our regard for God's law, if our 
 sense of justice between man and man, all yield to a sup- 
 posed worldly interest, that fact justifies a fear, whether 
 we fear or not, that we are lovers of the world more than 
 lovers of God. It proves that we possess not the faith 
 that overcomes the world. Much as property may be 
 desirable, he has yet to learn the first elements of Chris- 
 tianity, who does not know that even poverty itself is 
 much more honourable, in the sight of God, than ill-gotten 
 wealth. 
 
 The Egyptians could have made a similar plea respect- 
 ing Israel, and probably did. They had received them as 
 property, as labourers from their fathers. The Israelites 
 were more numerous than the slaves are in the United 
 States, and of course were of immense value. Moses did 
 not ofier to buy them, but in the name of God demanded 
 their freedom, and God by his judgments not only obliged 
 them to give their consent, but to let them have gold and 
 silver, and raiment in compensation for their labour while 
 is* 
 
150 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 in bondage. The many cases of slavery formerly adduced ; 
 that practised by Israel, Tyre, Edom, Moab, Assyria, Ba- 
 bylon, &c, for which sore judgments were sent on those 
 nations, were all of the same general character. Persons 
 were claimed as property, either received from their 
 fathers or bought with their money, were retained forcibly 
 in bondage, and compelled to serve without wages. In all 
 these cases, the slave-holder may have thought it hard to be 
 blamed for retaining what he claimed as property. The 
 law of God, however, did not admit his claim, and the judg- 
 ments of God avenged the guilt of making and enforcing it. 
 
 The difficulty arising from the want of habits of labour, 
 on the part of slave-holders, is, at times, made an excuse 
 for continuing slavery. This could have been made, and 
 probably was made by the Egyptians, Chaldeans and 
 others, who held their slaves fast and refused to let them 
 go. If it were a sufficient excuse, it might have availed 
 them. After its failure in so many cases, it is not wise to 
 rest on it. 
 
 A wrong course of conduct mostly produces habits 
 which present difficulty in the way of reformation. The 
 drunkard, the gambler, the debauchee, are examples. This, 
 however, is not considered as justifying them in going on 
 in their evil ways. It is one of those things in the eco- 
 nomy of our nature, which ought to make us careful not to 
 enter on a wrong course ; and if, perchance, we find that 
 we are going wrong, we ought to lose no time in getting 
 right. It is better to meet and overcome the difficulty of 
 revolutionizing our habits, so far as leaving off slavery may 
 require it, than to be under the moral guilt, and be accessary 
 to all the evils that flow from it. 
 
 Were slaves treated as hired servants, allowed a reasona- 
 ble compensation, their services might for a time be: 
 retained, and that to the mutual advantage of the master 
 and the servant. 
 
 Many excuses for continuing slavery are drawn from i 
 the ignorance and vice of slaves ; and from their idle and 
 improvident habits. This, it is admitted, presents a diffi- 
 culty to a sudden and general emancipation, and may in 
 many cases justify some delay. It cannot, however, jus- . 
 tify perpetual slavery. 
 
 Ignorance, although an evil, is not a crime, and ought 
 
LETTER XIII. 151 
 
 not to be punished with the loss of liberty. And when it 
 is recollected that the fault of being ignorant does not lie 
 on the slave, but on those who held him in bondage, com- 
 manded his time, and gave him not the means of improve- 
 ment, it is marvellous that any should bring forward such 
 a plea. Thousands of white men are as ignorant as most 
 slaves ; this is not, however, considered a sufficient reason 
 for reducing them to slavery. A man may be very igno- 
 rant, and yet a peaceful and useful citizen. 
 
 While it is readily admitted, that slaves are much ad- 
 dicted to the lower kind of vices, as idleness, dishonesty, 
 &c. ; as to the higher vices, I doubt whether they are 
 much worse than the whites. 
 
 Dishonesty almost always accompanies slavery. Where 
 persons are forced to labour for the benefit of others, it is 
 almost impossible to make them feel that there is much 
 guilt in taking and using the property of those for whom 
 they labour — property which they themselves have made. 
 One of the best cures for the dishonesty of slaves, is to 
 allow them what is lawful and right; and as to the impu- 
 rity and licentiousness of slaves, they are greatly owing 
 to the system, and cannot easily be corrected until that is 
 changed. While their marriages are not protected — while 
 separations are so often made, by sales and transfers and 
 removals — while so little protection is given to female 
 purity; we may expect them to continue. Instead of the 
 commonness of these vices being an excuse for slavery, 
 they form one of the strongest reasons for wholly aban- 
 doning it. Slavery tends naturally to produce them. 
 
 And as to their idle and improvident habits, while they 
 do present a serious difficulty, still we are not to forget 
 that these habits are in great part to be ascribed to slavery. 
 Deprive a person of the proper incentives to industry, 
 take from him all interest in the fruit of his labour, and 
 you will have the character that we find among slaves. 
 
 The first colonists, both at Jamestown and Plymouth, 
 for a time laboured and shared in common ; and while that 
 system was followed, idleness and improvidence prevailed. 
 As soon us they altered their plan, and each laboured for 
 himself, a manifest improvement took place.* Slaves have 
 
 * It was computed that the settlers at James Town did not per- 
 form as much labour in a week as they might have done in a day, 
 
152 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 not even a common interest, and may be expected to show 
 the effect of its absence. Give them the proper induce- 
 ments, let them as freemen labour for themselves, and no 
 doubt it will have its influence to excite to industry. 
 
 Excuses for continuing them in slavery are often drawn 
 from the prejudices of the whites against them, arising 
 from their race and complexion. Had the Africans brought 
 over as slaves been of the same complexion with the 
 whites, they never would have been held with the same 
 iron grasp, nor would they have been so deeply degraded. 
 We have proof of this in the case of the convicts and 
 redemptioners, formerly brought over in considerable num- 
 bers. They rapidly blended with the mass of our commu- 
 nity, and have become lost in it. 
 
 Now from whatever cause in nature it arises, that we 
 are white and they are black, none will pretend that there 
 is anything moral in it. It is not more wrong in them to 
 be black than in us to be white. " God hath made of one 
 blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the 
 earth." He is no respecter of persons. His law, the im- 
 mutable standard of right and wrong, gives no preference 
 to a white over a black skin. As a matter of taste, we 
 may, without sin, prefer one to the other, as we do high 
 foreheads, straight legs, and broad shoulders ; but if we 
 permit our prejudices " to respect persons, we commit sin, 
 and are convinced of the law as transgressors." 
 
 Not a few excuse themselves, in continuing the practice 
 of slavery, on the ground that others practise it. If this 
 were a good reason, we might find in it a justification of 
 many other things. What vice is there that no one prac- 
 tises? Many swear and get drunk, and violate the Sab- 
 bath : that will not justify us in so doing. The word of 
 God gives no authority to suppose that we are justified in 
 doing wrong, on the ground that the multitude are with 
 us. On the other hand, it forbids us to go with the mul- 
 titude to do evil, tells us to " come out from the world 
 and be separate." 
 
 while they cultivated the Company's land and lived out of the com- 
 mon stock. This lasted twelve or fifteen years. A manifest change 
 took place as soon as each laboured for himself. The case was 
 similar at Plymouth. See Ramsey's History of United States. 
 
LETTER XIII. 153 
 
 Some make their willingness to put an end to slavery 
 depend on an impossible case, the removal of all at once, 
 everybody's agreeing to give up theirs. Little credit 
 is due for such cold good-will to a good cause. If persons 
 really feel the evil of slavery and wish its removal, let 
 them give the influence of their example. God works by 
 means. Example is a powerful means. They know not 
 how much good their example may do. 
 
 It has been said so often, that it now, with many, passes 
 for a fact, that slaves are better off than free coloured peo- 
 ple. We might have supposed, that if this w r ere really so, 
 the slaves themselves, who have most intercourse with 
 them, would have found it out, and ceased wishing to be 
 free. They, however, man, woman and child, are long- 
 ing for freedom. And what is more strange, those that 
 are free, and from a personal knowledge of both conditions, 
 ought to know which is best, not only prefer freedom for 
 themselves, but earnestly desire it for their kindred. 
 
 That slave-holders should so generally agree that slaves 
 are better off, and more happy and comfortable, than free 
 coloured persons ; while slaves and free coloured people, 
 who ought to know when they arc happy and comfortable, 
 arc almost universally of a different opinion, forms one of 
 those contrarieties of sentiment, which we at times meet 
 with among those whose interests lead different ways. If 
 it were a lad admitted by all — yea, by the slave himself, 
 that he was better off than the free ; yet if he were not 
 made willing by that fact to remain in slavery, we have no 
 moral right to use force to keep him in it. It is not our 
 duty to use violence and force to make people happy. 
 
 AVe do not however admit the fact, current as it may pass, 
 that slaves are generally better off and more happy than 
 free coloured people. Taking their whole case into view, 
 their labour and exposure, their food and clothing, and 
 their opportunities for seeking their own happiness, &c. ; 
 and the reverse is probably the fact. The free can consult 
 their taste and comfort and inclination in a thousand 
 things. Not so the slave. The master chooses for him 
 as to food, clothing, labour, rest, &c. ; and it may be, that 
 nine times out of ten, his taste and inclination is crossed. 
 The extent to which the comfort and happiness of the 
 slave is thus sacrificed, may be great indeed. For no one 
 
154 LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 
 
 need be told that our happiness and comfort are not made 
 up of one or two items — a thousand things enter into their 
 composition ; and inclination and taste have so much to do 
 with the whole matter, that a man may be very miserable 
 while possessing what to others may seem amply sufficient 
 to make him happy. 
 
 It ought however to be recollected, that were it even ad- 
 mitted that slaves are better off than they would be in a 
 state of freedom, still, with that natural and inextinguisha- 
 ble love of /reedom which is common to man, our danger 
 from them may be the same. They desire to be free, and 
 when they have a prospect of attaining it, we may expect 
 them to grasp after it, and that at the expense of blood. 
 Their views and feelings on the matter will govern them, 
 and not those which may satisfy us. 
 
 In proof that our free coloured population are generally 
 in a more suffering state than our slaves, it is asserted that 
 they increase less, and are, in a greater proportion than 
 our slaves, carried off by disease. 
 
 That hardship and exposure, and especially poverty and 
 want, wear out the constitution and shorten human life, is 
 generally admitted. (See Appendix, C.) 
 
 Now were our free coloured population more oppressed 
 with poverty and disease, worse fed, and worse clothed, 
 than our slaves, the census would show that fewer of 
 them lived to old age. The difference, however, is greatly 
 on the side of the free coloured people. 
 
 To the plea for continuing slavery, that they form the 
 great body of labourers in the south, and could not be 
 spared, it may be answered, were they free and employed 
 as hired servants, they would still be there; and, there is 
 reason to believe, in a more efficient state. 
 
 It is said, I know, that a part of the South could not be 
 cultivated, and many of its most valuable products could 
 not be raised, without coloured labourers. If this be true, 
 it rather proves that those parts ought to be given up to 
 the blacks, and not that the blacks should be held in slavery 
 to cultivate it for others. The fact itself, however, may 
 well be doubted ; and, at all events, if the labour of the 
 blacks be used, they ought to cultivate it as freemen, and 
 receive fair wages. Yours, &c. 
 
155 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 The question what shall we do with the coloured peo- 
 ple, if we retain them not as slaves, is so often asked when 
 the evils of slavery are under consideration, that it might 
 seem unfair to pass it without notice. It is, indeed, nearly 
 connected with the other. At the same time, until people 
 are willing to get clear of the evils of slavery, there ap- 
 pears little use in spending time in discussing what we 
 shall do with those that are freed. 
 
 There arc, however, slave-holders who have difficulties 
 on this matter, and who would not long remain such, were 
 it not for those difficulties. 
 
 I readily admit that taking things as they now are, and 
 especially the existing prejudice against having a free co- 
 loured population among us, the question is one of consi- 
 derable difficulty. In a government like ours, where the 
 people rule, slavery can effectually be removed only by the 
 people. Were the great body of the people willing to re- 
 move it, they have the power. The fact that it has not 
 heretofore been done, proves that the people were not will- 
 ing to have it done. The very general confession of the 
 evil of slavery, and the oft-repeated wish that we were 
 clear of it, is often to be understood as we understand the 
 drunkard, when he condemns drunkenness and wishes he 
 were delivered from the habit, while he would quarrel with 
 the man who would hide his bottle. Almost every wrong 
 practice is attended with evils, which at times so harass 
 the evil-doer, as to make him feel and talk like the drunk- 
 ard ; while, like him, he prefers going on to the self-de- 
 nial of reformation. 
 
 Such is the state of things in the South with regard to 
 slavery, that whatever our wishes may be, I can see before 
 us but three alternatives. Either we must free our slaves, 
 and separate and colonize them abroad, — or free, and per- 
 mit them to remain among us, — or, before long, have con- 
 flict with them, and finally have them in possession of a 
 large portion of the South. 
 
 f well know that each of these alternatives will seem 
 
156 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 bitter as the wormwood and the gall to many; and in pro- 
 portion to their aversion to them will be their unwilling- 
 ness to admit that such is our condition. This, however, 
 does not alter the case, nor the facts that go directly to 
 prove it. I must rsfer you to the facts adduced in my 
 third letter, and the inferences drawn from them. We 
 have above two millions of coloured people now. They 
 increase in the South more rapidly than the whites. We 
 have often been alarmed with those now possessed, and 
 serious perils have been narrowly escaped. What will it 
 be with four or eight millions, which some of us may see, 
 and sixteen which many of our children may see? To 
 suppose that such a state of things would not lead to con- 
 flict, is to suppose a thing so improbable that it would be 
 unwise to calculate on it. The products about which 
 slave-labour is employed, would not support such a mass 
 of people. A change must of necessity take place in their 
 relations to their owners. But the love of freedom has 
 ever led slaves to seek it by force. All history proves this. 
 That such a spirit is now felt among our slaves is past 
 dispute. That it will increase with their increase and im- 
 provement, no one need doubt. Freedom or conflict, is as 
 certain as the march of time, and no common conflict will 
 it be ; all history proves that such conflicts assume the 
 worst forms ; of all conflicts, such ought with most care 
 and foresight to be avoided. There is much reason to fear, 
 that unless the great body of them are freed, or some great 
 change made in their condition, within the next thirty or 
 forty years, they will contend, and that successfully, for 
 their freedom. Should their first efforts fail, still confi- 
 dence and peace would be destroyed. Who could live in 
 peace among them with the knowledge that he was on a 
 volcano that might, at any successive hour, burst and work 
 his ruin! 
 
 In such a state of things it is the part of wisdom to yield 
 to necessity ; to let them have, without contest, what they 
 assuredly will contend for, and sooner or later succeed in 
 getting ; and it would be well to let them have it, in a way 
 that would make some amends for the past, and secure 
 their good-will for the time to come. 
 
 It still remains not perfectly clear, whether we had bet- 
 
LETTER XIV. 157 
 
 ter connect with freeing them the plan of separating them 
 from among us, and colonizing them to themselves, or 
 suffer them to remain among us. There are advantages 
 and disadvantages attending both plans, and the main 
 point of inquiry is, which side is to be preferred ? 
 
 The question is not, which is best abstractly considered; 
 but which is preferable as a thing to be carried into effect. 
 However much we may prefer the plan of colonizing them 
 abroad, yet if on examining it, we find that the probabili- 
 ties are strong against its success, it would be wise not 
 wholly to depend on it, however we might make a subsi- 
 diary use of it, to draw off a part of their number. 
 
 The present feeling, as far as I can judge, is not only in 
 favour of colonizing them, but of doing it beyond the limits 
 of our country. The success that has attended our colony 
 at Liberia, is well calculated to encourage the friends of 
 that measure. The practicability of colonizing them, their 
 ability to govern themselves, especially with some little 
 aid from the whites, is supposed to be proved by this ex- 
 periment. 
 
 This case certainly proves that something, yea that 
 much may be done in removing and colonizing them 
 abroad ; and the more that are removed abroad as much to 
 their advantage, as those at Liberia, the better for them as 
 well as for us. It may, however, be doubted whether the 
 amount done be not greatly overrated by many as to its 
 bearings on the whole subject. In the space of twelve or 
 fifteen years, some two or three thousand have been re- 
 moved to Africa, and a colony formed which may be able 
 to receive from five hundred to a thousand annually. The 
 emigrants heretofore have contained a larger portion of 
 good and efficient character, than belongs to the great mass 
 of our slave population. Most of them had long been free, 
 and had been accustomed to provide for themselves, and 
 had accumulated some property. If it be practicable to re- 
 move and colonize our whole coloured population, and as 
 yet perhaps it is, still its practicability will not continue 
 long. It may be possible now, but if deferred some twenty 
 or thirty years, it must be impracticable. We have above 
 two millions now, and at the rate of increase for the last 
 ten years, we will in 1840, (only seven years hence) have 
 
 14 
 
158 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 near three millions ; in 1850, (only seventeen years hence,) 
 about four millions. It will be no easy matter to export 
 and colonize four millions with their increase ! I doubt 
 whether our colony at Liberia up to 1840, will have re- 
 moved twenty thousand ; and we will then have three mil- 
 lions, and an annual increase of near one hundred thou- 
 sand. Should it in the next ten years remove at the average 
 rate of ten thousand annually, that would not be more than 
 about one-tenth of their annual increase. 
 
 Were the States most interested to take up the subject 
 without delay, and receive aid from the general Govern- 
 ment, much might be done ; but a few more years of hesi- 
 tancy and opposition will make the matter unmanageable 
 in that way. 
 
 The history of the colony at Liberia does not prove 
 that we could, without their ruin, throw from twenty to 
 fifty thousand slaves on the coast of Africa in the year, 
 even if the means of subsistence could be afforded them. 
 I fear the reverse is proved. In addition to the advantages 
 of the first colonists already noticed, they were favoured 
 with the aid of Mr. Ashman, who exhibited first-rate talents 
 for laying the foundation of a colony. That climate, how- 
 ever, is so fatal to whites, that it might be difficult to pro- 
 cure the requisite aid for so great a mass of emigrants. 
 
 It deserves the serious consideration of the friends of 
 African colonization, whether they could not procure terri- 
 tory on the northern coast of Africa. There are, it is 
 known, many and large districts, within what is usually 
 called the Barbary States, that are almost wholly unoccu- 
 pied. Portions of these might most probably be obtained. 
 The climate is fine, the country fruitful and well adapted 
 to the various purposes of life. 
 
 Such a situation would be peculiarly suited to our 
 coloured population from the more northern and upland 
 districts of our country, who suffer most from the climate 
 at Liberia. 
 
 Emigration to the West Indies might be added to it, 
 especially from the more southern States. The voyage 
 would be shorter, the hazard from climate less, and the 
 necessary assistance from white persons might be had at 
 less cost. 
 
LETTER XIV. 159 
 
 Territory might possibly be procured in various quar- 
 ters. I have, however, my fears, that enough will not be 
 done by colonizing abroad, to prevent or even retard much, 
 the progress of the evil at home. The more that is done 
 the better ; provided, the amount done be fairly estimated 
 as to the extent to which it will lessen our danger at 
 home. And here I fear an incidental evil may result from 
 our colonizing abroad. It will not, I hope, balance the 
 good ; but, I fear, deduct from it, and make it a mixed in- 
 stead of a pure good, in its influence on our country. 
 
 The little that is done in removing abroad our coloured 
 population, and it is likely to be comparatively little for 
 years to come, will, I fear, lead many to think that no 
 other means need be used. 
 
 The consequences will probably, be, that while the 
 colonies abroad rise and flourish, and Africa may become 
 regenerated and made to share the blessings of the gospel 
 and civilization, we, at home, will pass through times of 
 revolution, as assuredly, and almost as soon as if not one 
 coloured person had left our shores. It will take a large 
 channel to keep down and effectually draw off the swelling 
 flood of slavery. 
 
 Many who are in favour of colonizing them abroad, will, 
 I know, object to colonizing them on any portion of our 
 own country. And yet I apprehend, that if we adhere to 
 the plan of separating and colonizing them, this is not only 
 the most easy, but the only plan that has a reasonable 
 prospect of success. 
 
 The mouth of the Columbia has been named as a suita- 
 ble location for a colony. They might pass in steamboats 
 to a point high on the Missouri, and there pass across on 
 foot : And it may be said in favour of forming a colony of 
 blacks there, that a civilized people will no doubt soon 
 occupy it ; and its relative situation and distance, makes it 
 almost certain, that it must soon be independent of us. 
 We might as well have a colony of blacks there, as a na- 
 tion of any other people. They would form a weaker nation 
 than we are ; and il we consult our own interest, we might 
 as well have them as a stronger nation there, with whom 
 we will sooner or later have to settle our interfering claims. 
 Still, the distance to the mouth of the Columbia is so 
 
160 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 great, and so heavy would be the expense, that there is 
 much reason to fear, they could not be removed there with 
 that rapidity that the state of the case requires. 
 
 If the plan of separating- them from among us, and colo- 
 nizing them by themselves be adhered to, we must, I ap- 
 prehend, if we would not fail in our object, select a place 
 nearer those States in which the great body of our 
 coloured population is found. 
 
 Were a south-western territory designated as a country 
 for coloured people, where they should enjoy all the rights 
 of freemen ; and were the slave-holding States to encourage 
 manumission, on condition of sending them to said ter- 
 ritory ; were such laws passed as are common in the 
 Spanish and Portuguese colonies, enabling slaves to buy 
 themselves, and laws giving freedom to those born after a 
 certain time ; were means used to give them a common 
 education, &c, the great body of our coloured population 
 could, in the next twenty or thirty years, be removed from 
 among us, located to themselves, and be in the way of be- 
 coming a respectable and flourishing people. 
 
 The place which they now occupy would be gradually 
 filled up by a class of whites, who would add to our 
 strength, industry, and improvement, and a cause of alarm 
 would be removed from among us. The slave-holding 
 States would really be the gainers by the exchange. 
 
 The facilities for removing our coloured population to a 
 south-western region are much in favour of it. From 
 Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the states farther 
 south, they could be removed to the Arkansas or the 
 Texas with ease and expedition. The multitudes removed 
 annually from Maryland and Virginia to the Mississippi 
 and Louisiana, proves how easily our whole coloured 
 population could be located in the south-west. The rela- 
 tion of a south-western territory to the grain-growing states 
 of the west, would enable the emigrants to procure with 
 ease, and at no great expense, supplies while they were 
 needed. The situation and health of the country would 
 enable slave-holders, on freeing their slaves, to send some 
 one to see them located, and at times to remain with them 
 and direct them until they were a little accustomed to 
 manage for themselves. They could receive from the 
 
LETTER XIV. 161 
 
 whites aid in the various respects in which it was needful, 
 at much less expense of means or life than within the 
 tropics and on a foreign shore ; and they could be remov- 
 ed with a hundred-fold the rapidity that they can to 
 Liberia. 
 
 They might be so located to the south-west as to place 
 them between us and Mexico, and be as much separated 
 from us as they could be in any part of the United States. 
 They would more easily mix with the Indian and Mexican 
 races than with us. Many of them would probably emi- 
 grate into the Mexican states, and thus diminish their 
 relative proportion among us. There is no part of our 
 country that in so many respects is favourable for locating 
 them in. The climate suits them better than it suits the 
 whites, and their emigration is naturally that way. 
 
 I know that a host of objections will be started against 
 giving them a south-western territory. From some I do 
 not expect to gain even a patient hearing on the subject. 
 Permit me here to say. that however common it may be 
 for nations and individuals to deal hardly with others 
 when they have the power — to take all the advantage they 
 can of peculiar states of things, and to seek their own at 
 the expense of others, — that it is wholly wrong. We 
 should deal with others as we would have them deal with 
 us. This is what is right ; and in the long run it will be 
 for the best to all who act thus. 
 
 The forefathers of our slaves were brought to this 
 country sorely against their wills : they were brought by 
 force. They and their children have thus far been de- 
 tained by force, and in a state of slavery. The evils of 
 slavery are now beginning to be seen and felt. The ques- 
 tion of freeing them is, however, connected with the 
 question, What shall we do with them when freed? The 
 practicability of removing the great body of them to their 
 own country is doubtful. Let us assign them a portion of 
 the large land that we possess. There is amply enough 
 for all. They are as much natives of it as we are, and 
 have been as long in it. This will make them some 
 amends for past injuries. That we ought to do. It will 
 be setting an example of national justice and generosity, 
 which is more honourable to a nation than all the glory 
 
162 
 
 LETTERS ON SLAVERY 
 
 ever gathered on the field of battle. It will be doing good, 
 and that is the only sure way of receiving good in return. 
 
 But leaving this view of the case as one for which we 
 fear we shall find few advocates, let us notice an objection 
 or two to assigning them a south-western district. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind, that the question of disposing 
 of our coloured population, when freed, presents but a 
 choice of difficulties. There is no place that is free from 
 them. Were we to admit, which I readily do, that, ab- 
 stractly considered, it would not be best to have a settle- 
 ment of blacks in the south-west ; yet, if I can show that 
 the probabilities are so great as almost to amount to a cer- 
 tainty — that if the plan of colonizing them be adhered to, 
 and some district in that region be not thus appropriated, 
 greater evils will befall us than we need fear from locating 
 them there, — then we ought in reason there to place them. 
 
 No doubt some will object, that the placing a colony of 
 blacks in the south-west is incompatible with the con- 
 tinuance of slavery in the south. Admitting that this may 
 be true, still it is not, I think, more true than that slavery 
 will there come to an end (and perhaps nearly as soon, 
 and in a much worse way) if no colony be there located. 
 Let nothing be done, or only that little that is like to be 
 effected through colonizing abroad,— and the day is not 
 distant when the slaves of the south will go out free! 
 
 It would be practicable to begin a colony in the south- 
 west, on such a plan, and connect with it such a policy in 
 the slave-holding states, as would from its commencement 
 lessen instead of adding to the danger from insurrection. 
 Let laws be passed in the several states, giving to slaves 
 the right of buying themselves and families at a reasonable 
 price ; laws giving liberty to slaves born after a fixed 
 time, and to those under a certain age, after serving such 
 a number of years. Let manumission be allowed and en- 
 couraged, and a provision made for removing to the colony 
 those thus freed ; and a door for getting free would be 
 opened through which so many of the active and enter- 
 prising would go out, as to make it morally certain that 
 no serious insurrection would take place. And should a 
 few elope to the colony, that would be a small evil com- 
 pared with the general benefit of the plan. And a mode 
 
LETTER XIV. 163 
 
 might be adopted in the colony, that would secure to the 
 owner at least a portion of the value of such fugitives. 
 Fugitives are usually the most worthless part of the slave- 
 population : the state and often the owners would be bet- 
 ter off without them. We have seen England paying for 
 fugitive slaves. It would be better for the state to pay a 
 minimum price lor such slaves as it was made appear had 
 fled to the colony, than let their apprehended loss be in 
 the way of such a plan. It might be as easy getting fugi- 
 tives back from the colony as from a foreign state ; and 
 we will have foreign states on that quarter. What now 
 becomes of the slaves that escape to Canada, or Texas, or 
 Mexico? Mostly, if not always, lost as to their owners. 
 
 As to the danger of war with them, it would not be 
 greater than our danger of war with the Mexicans or any 
 other border states ; and if we must have contest, better 
 have it with them west of the Mississippi, and removed 
 from its mouth, than on both sides of it, and all along our 
 sea-board. I ask those who talk of danger from placing 
 them in the south-west, to look at the situation of the sea- 
 board, from the Potomac to the river Sabine, estimate the 
 proportion of the blacks and whites, their comparative in- 
 crease, their healthiness in that climate, the facilities which 
 their situation on the coast gives them for receiving aid 
 from abroad ; think also of the state of the world, and the 
 feeling abroad in favour of liberty, and judge whether there 
 be not more danger as they now are, than would result 
 from a colony separated from us, and from the coast. I 
 do not pretend there would be no danger, but I do contend 
 that it would be less than what naturally arises from their 
 location among us, and their accumulation on the sea-board. 
 Were it a question about allowing a colony of blacks from 
 abroad to settle in the south-west, the case would be wholly 
 different. The question is simply as to the best disposition 
 we can make of the blacks already in our country. Had 
 we better allow them to remain along our sea-board, in our 
 most valuable districts, at the mouths of all our navigable 
 rivers, until they gain such an ascendency as to insure their 
 freedom and the possession of said district, with the pros- 
 pect of their cutting off the whites in the whole south 
 and western states, from their natural outlet for trade, ex- 
 
164 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 cept at the pleasure of the blacks and perhaps a tribute for 
 the privilege ; or while the power is with us, and before 
 the sceptre passes from our hand, make a merit of neces- 
 sity, do with as good a grace as we can, ivhat we must 
 do, or before long do ivorse, place the young Hercules 
 where we will have better vantage ground in any contest 
 which may hereafter arise with him. 
 
 A south-western district may be disposed of by the na- 
 tional government, and on the same principle that one is 
 assigned to the Indians, one may be assigned to the blacks. 
 
 All the states south of the Potomac and west of the Al- 
 leghanies are deeply interested in this matter. They are 
 in danger of being cut off from the sea-board, and losing 
 their natural outlet to trade.* 
 
 When Louisiana was in other hands, Kentucky and 
 other western states felt the evil so much as to be strongly 
 tempted, it was said, to break off from the Union, rather 
 than not enjoy the benefit of trading down the Mississippi. 
 There is a power growing up along that river, and over 
 the whole country about its mouth, and the mouth of all 
 the other rivers in the south, which, if not removed, will, 
 to a moral certainty, before long, pull down our flag, and 
 put another in its place. 
 
 It would add to our safety to have some small states in- 
 terposed between us and Mexico. It is a sound principle 
 of national policy for a large state to surround itself by 
 small ones, or at least prevent any of its border states from 
 accumulating too much power. 
 
 France has little to fear from Germany, or Austria, or 
 Italy. They will seldom act together against her. But 
 were they all united, there might be danger. 
 
 We will, unless some independent state be erected, have 
 a long line of contact with Mexico, whose territory, when 
 filled, will give her great power ; and she touches us at 
 the very points where we are weakest, from our slave 
 population. It would clearly be a wise policy for us to 
 
 * Virginia, east of the mountains, lias about 457,000 blacks and 
 only about 375,000 whites. South Carolina has 259,000 whites 
 and 315,000 blacks. Louisiana, 105,000 whites and 109,000 
 blacks, giving 1 the blacks a majority of 144,000 in those three 
 states. They are most numerous near the coast. 
 
LETTER XIV. 165 
 
 interpose a middle power between us and them, and the 
 same reasons which should induce us to do it, should in- 
 duce them to wish it done. 
 
 The other alternative is freeing and allowing them to 
 remain among us. 
 
 In favour of this, it may be said that they are now 
 among us, that they form the great body of labourers and 
 household servants in the south, that the habits of the 
 whites require their aid, while the habits of the coloured 
 people are formed to the situation in which they are, that 
 many parts of the south are unhealthy for white labourers, 
 and that great difficulties would attend supplying the place 
 of the blacks with a white labouring class. Strong pre- 
 judices, however, exist against freeing and allowing them 
 to remain among us. 
 
 It ought always to be borne in mind, in all discussions 
 of this matter, that we have but a choice of difficulties. 
 There is no way that is free from difficulties. We must 
 compare the evils of having them among us as slaves, with 
 the difficulty of removing them, and colonizing them 
 abroad ; or with the evils of freeing and allowing them to 
 remain among us. This last, for a few moments, claims 
 our notice. 
 
 That some races of men are of a more active and enter- 
 prising turn than others, is readily admitted; and I doubt 
 not but that the English, and perhaps most of the European 
 races, are more so than the negro race. It has, however, 
 been too readily admitted, that our coloured population 
 would, if free, and allowed to remain, be idle and vicious 
 to a ruinous degree. It cannot fairly be inferred from 
 their idle habits as slaves, nor is it sufficiently proved 
 from the habits of those that are free. The history of 
 slavery among all nations and at all times, proves that 
 slavery is unfavourable to industrious and provident habits. 
 A state of insecurity for property is unfriendly to industry, 
 as is proved by the state of things in Turkish countries. 
 We have seen, that to labour in common, and live from 
 the common stock, results in idleness. There may be 
 cases of small communities, where the religious principle 
 does, in a degree, supply the place of personal interest; 
 but the union of both these principles would operate more 
 effectually than either alone. Slaves have not even a com- 
 
166 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 mon interest ; and it is unfair to infer what they would do, 
 when free, from what they do as slaves. To justify 
 their remaining- among - us, it is not indispensable that they 
 be as industrious as the whites ; but so much so as to 
 provide for themselves, and not prove a burden to others. 
 
 Nor do I think that a just estimate can be formed from 
 the free coloured people now among us. It will, I think, 
 be admitted, by those who examine the matter, that our 
 free coloured population have laboured under peculiar dis- 
 couragements. In almost all respects, the slave law ap- 
 plies to them. 
 
 While they are nominally free, they enjoy few of the 
 privileges of freemen. They have almost universally been 
 looked on with jealousy by slave-holders. They have 
 seldom been employed where slave-labour could be pro- 
 cured, and almost no attempts have been made to raise and 
 improve their characters. 
 
 But this is not all. The prejudices against them have 
 led persons very generally to cherish suspicion, and give a 
 ready ear to every report or surmise against them. They 
 have been made the scape-goats for a thousand things 
 which were really done by others. That they should be 
 somewhat given to those vices common to poor people, and 
 people of whom others will think evil, we might expect; 
 but that they are, to the extent many appear to think, is 
 not authorized by facts. Out of a free population in Vir- 
 ginia of above 40,000, the convictions during the four 
 years preceding 1827, were not annually above eleven or 
 twelve. See the Governor's message, Dec. 1827. 
 
 The fact that from one-fourth to one-half more free co- 
 loured people than slaves live over forty-five years, carries 
 with it evidence, that they do not suffer as much from 
 poverty and vice as has been supposed. It proves that a 
 state of freedom among us, with all its disadvantages, is 
 not so unfavourable to long life as a state of slavery. Those 
 who plead the poverty and vice of the free coloured peo- 
 ple, as a reason why they should be removed from among 
 us, a fortiore, ought to plead for the freedom and removal 
 of the slave.* 
 
 * There were, in the states and territories south of Pennsylvania 
 in 1820, 85,813 free coloured persons under twenty-six years of 
 
LETTER XIV. 167 
 
 We are able to adduce a number of cases, in which Afri- 
 cans have passed from a state of slavery to one of freedom* 
 and been placed in circumstances in some degree favourable 
 to industry and improvement. 
 
 At the close of the revolutionary war, the English had 
 in their possession above 2,000 coloured people, who had 
 escaped to them from their masters. They were liberated 
 and settled on lands in Nova Scotia. They led a harm- 
 less life, and gained the character of a peaceable and 
 industrious people. They erected places of worship, and 
 had ministers of their own. The climate however being too 
 cold for them, near 1,400 of them removed to Sierra Leone, 
 where they and their descendants are now, most of them 
 independent, and some of them wealthy. 
 
 At the close of the last war, there were several hundred 
 slaves who had joined the British. They were taken to 
 Trinidad, emancipated and settled. It was objected by the 
 planters at Trinidad, that they were sure those slaves 
 would not work, but be a pest. The trial, however, was 
 made, and they have proved, by their good conduct, that 
 those fears were groundless.* In both these cases, the 
 slaves went from among us — many of them from lower Vir- 
 ginia. They had the same habits and general character 
 with our present slaves. 
 
 The thousands which the British have rescued from 
 slave-ships, and settled at Sierra Leone and its vicinity, 
 may be adduced. They are peaceful and industrious. 
 
 I adduce, also, Nottingham's negroes, in the island of 
 Tortola. They have been free for above forty years, and 
 are of quiet and industrious habits. 
 
 age? 22,385 were above forty-five years of age. Of slaves, there 
 were under twenty-six 1,076,802, and only 141,145 above forty- 
 five; whereas a fourth proportional would be 280,892 — show- 
 ing a deficit 139,047. 
 
 The census of 1830 gives slaves 2,010,436— of these 1,386 are 
 above 100 years of age. Of free coloured persons 319,467, and 
 of these tbere are 627 above 100 years old. This is greatly in 
 favour of the free. They are longer lived. 
 
 * See in the New York Observer, Jan. 23, 1830, a recent account 
 of them, which states their condition after fourteen years resi- 
 dence there, and says, that not one of them had been a burden to 
 the whites. 
 
168 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 The liberated negroes of Colombia, and other South Ame- 
 rican republics, may be mentioned. They are not that 
 pest that many apprehend, but of a similar character with 
 their white fellow citizens. 
 
 It is in place here to mention, that there are large num- 
 bers of free people of colour in most of the West India 
 islands. Most of these were manumitted. Many of them 
 have become wealthy. Almost all the coffee plantations 
 in Jamaica are said to belong to them. 
 
 The Honourable Joshua Steel, of Barbadoes, abolished 
 arbitrary punishment, substituted rewards in its place, 
 treated his negroes (300 in number) as hirelings, and after 
 a number of years trial, found that his clear gains were 
 above three-fold what they had previously been. He could 
 procure three-fold more work from them, and their health 
 and comfort and increase was improved in the same pro- 
 portion.* Our own colony at Liberia may also be referred 
 to. They are doing well, as we have most ample proof. 
 
 The policy of the Spaniards and Portuguese is to en- 
 courage manumission, and give to their free coloured peo- 
 ple most of the rights and privileges which they them- 
 selves enjoy; they have not experienced those evils which 
 it is asserted will follow from allowing them to remain 
 among us. 
 
 The plan of liberating and allowing them to remain 
 among us, ought, if adopted, to be accompanied with some 
 efficient measures for improving and elevating their cha- 
 racter. 
 
 Were all obstructions to emancipation removed ; were 
 all under ten years, to be free at twenty-five, and all born 
 after this to be free at twenty-one ; were it required that all 
 receive a common education, and this be enforced by giv- 
 ing freedom at nineteen to those that then could not read ; 
 were their marriages and family relations protected, and the 
 shameful traffic in them wholly prohibited ; were they 
 
 * I know it is asserted by some, that this case proved a failure 
 — that the estate became insolvent. The fact of the case I believe 
 was, that Steel's plan was abandoned soon after his death. But 
 while Steel pursued the plan above stated, we have his own writ- 
 ten declaration, that it was much more profitable than it had pre- 
 viously been. 
 
LETTER XIV. 169 
 
 allowed to buy themselves and relatives at a minimum 
 price, and secured the right of a change of masters, when 
 it appeared that they were badly used, and a similar change 
 for the purpose of bringing husband and wife, parent and 
 child together; were they allowed one working-day weekly, 
 and encouraged to use it for purchasing themselves, and 
 procuring something to begin with ; and were means used 
 to give instruction to a sufficient number to serve as reli- 
 gious teachers and school-masters for the rest, a very great 
 change might, in the course of the next twenty years, be 
 effected in the character and condition of that people. 
 
 The danger from insurrections would be almost, if not 
 wholly, removed. The door to freedom would be open 
 before them ; the road to it so plain and short, that a 
 shorter full of danger would not be thought of. The pros- 
 pect of freedom and of bettering their condition would ex- 
 cite to industry and good conduct; a spirit of improvement 
 would be awakened among them. The whites would not 
 only be safer, but have the services of better domestics, and 
 more efficient labourers. Good conduct might be enforced 
 by the penalty of exportation to the idle and to vagrants 
 that could not show how they obtained their living. They 
 might also be taxed for the support of their own poor. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 15 
 
170 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 It may admit of a doubt, which of the above measures is 
 the best. It is, however, particularly to be noticed, that they 
 are so far from being incompatible with each other, that all 
 may be used as so many channels to draw off the swelling 
 flood of slavery, which threatens to overflow the fairest 
 part of our fair Republic. As the Bible, Tract, Sabbath- 
 school, Missionary and Education Societies, are the lovely 
 sisters of the same blessed family ; all engaged in the same 
 good work, although in different departments ; so coloniz- 
 ing at home and abroad, together with a plan for changing 
 their condition from that of slaves to that of free labourers, 
 would give mutual aid in getting clear of the evils of our 
 slave system. To carry into full effect any of the above 
 measures, the aid of Government is needful. Our Govern- 
 ment, however, is a government of the people. Each citi- 
 zen possesses some share of power in making laws and 
 directing national and state measures. He not only has 
 the right of choice as to his civil rulers, but has secured to 
 himself the free use of speech and the press. 
 
 The whole system of slavery is but a permitted thing. 
 Neither the natural nor moral right of it, nor its expe- 
 diency, has been decided by Government. It is not made 
 the duty of a citizen to be a slave-holder. A prejudice 
 against having free coloured persons among them, has led 
 most slave-holding States to throw obstructions in the way 
 of manumission. This, however, is a measure of doubtful 
 expediency. It has operated to retain many in slavery, and 
 thus increased the evil and augmented the danger. There 
 are several things which slave-holders can do, that will tell 
 on the general cause. 
 
 They can take the proper course with their own slaves, 
 and they can reach the whole system, through their civil 
 rulers, whom they from time to time elect. 
 
 They can take a proper course with their own slaves. 
 They can free those who give evidence that they are capa- 
 ble of managing and providing for themselves, and those 
 dependent on them. It is not needful that they should 
 
LETTER XV. 171 
 
 make out as well as the whites generally do, to justify free- 
 ing them ; but that we have reason to believe they will not 
 prove a burden to others. Many white men provide badly 
 for themselves. The evil falls mainly on themselves. We 
 are justified in withholding their natural and unalienable 
 rights from others only for justifiable reasons. Their not 
 making as good a use of their freedom as they might, and 
 as others do, is not such a reason. 
 
 Those who evidently are not prepared for freedom, who 
 would almost certainly not provide for themselves the 
 necessaries of life, might, and perhaps ought to be, detained 
 until some change takes place in their habits. This would 
 be the case with the young, the very old, and perhaps a 
 good many in middle life. 
 
 AVith respect to the old, those who enjoyed their labour 
 while their labour was valuable ought of right to support 
 them in old age. There would, however, be many cases 
 in which the children would willingly undertake the care 
 and maintenance of their aged parents. 
 
 And with respect to those between infancy and old age, 
 instruction, and putting them on a course of managing for 
 themselves would, in most cases, in a few years, prepare 
 them for providing for themselves the necessaries of life. 
 Managing for ourselves is plainly one of those things that 
 depends much on practice. The theory is useful to prac- 
 tice, but cannot supply its place. One of the chief causes 
 of the debasing effects of slavery is, that the slave is 
 almost made a machine of, is directed in everything, pro- 
 vided for, and controlled in everything, and thus habits of 
 economizing and providing for himself are not formed. 
 
 With respect to young slaves, in most cases their pa- 
 rents, when freed, could take them with them. They are 
 the natural guardians of their offspring, and where it can 
 be avoided, parents ought not to be separated from their 
 children. 
 
 In other cases, however, and in all cases, so long as they 
 remain with their present masters, care ought to be taken 
 to give them that instruction, and form them to those mo- 
 ral, and religious, and industrious habits, which would fit 
 them for acting well for themselves. Proper training in 
 youth so uniformly fits persons for providing and manag- 
 
172 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 ing for themselves, that the law usually terminates their 
 minority at eighteen and twenty-one years. There is no 
 reason to doubt, but that proper training would fit slaves 
 for freedom at the same age. They probably would not 
 as uniformly as the whites succeed well; but they would 
 succeed so well as to prevent them from being a burden 
 to others ; and of course so well as to entitle them to their 
 natural right of freedom. This instruction both to young 
 and old is what the word of God makes it our duty to im- 
 part to all under our authority. 
 
 The relation of master and slave I have shown to be, 
 the unlawful condition of the general relation of master 
 and servant. The fault, however, in this condition, is 
 wholly in the master. In place of procuring voluntary 
 servants, and giving them a fair compensation for their la- 
 bour, he procures slaves and exacts their labour without 
 wages. His retaining them by force in that condition, 
 does not, however, free him from the obligation God has 
 laid on him, to instruct those under his authority, and thus 
 fit them for the duties of accountable beings. They are 
 under his control, and to God he must account for the use 
 he makes of said control. In fact, the authority which the 
 master claims over the slave, which enables him to pre- 
 vent others from instructing them, lays on the master a 
 double weight of obligation to secure to them that training 
 which may fit them for their duties both to God, them- 
 selves, and their fellow men. Fearful is the account which 
 many slave-holders, and among them not a few professors 
 of religion, will have to render on this matter. There is 
 a soul murder as well as a murder of the body. The man 
 who would starve his slave to death would be considered 
 a monster. Many, however, use no means to give their 
 slaves the bread of life ; do not teach them to read the 
 word of God ; take no pains to have it read to them ; and 
 teach them nothing about God, and Christ, and salvation. 
 They are not backward to use their authority to procure 
 their labour; but as to the whole matter of teaching and 
 enforcing moral and religious duty, restraining them from 
 vice, and leading them to virtue and religion, except so far 
 as it may effect the temporal interests of the master, little 
 or nothing is done. Life and limb excepted, no govern- 
 
LETTER XV. 173 
 
 ment on earth claims a more absolute power over its sub- 
 jects, than slave-holders do over their slaves. If the claims 
 of religion, the interests of the soul, and the moral duties 
 of life, are all neglected; while this authority regards only 
 the interests of the master, there must be sin, and that of 
 no common kind. 
 
 God declared of Abraham that he knew him, that he 
 would command his children and household after him, to 
 keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ; and 
 assigns this as a reason why the blessing promised would 
 surely come upon him. So faithfully had Abraham acted 
 towards his household, as regards religious training, that 
 the whole of them received circumcision, and became 
 members of the church. 
 
 The Mosaic Law allowed the Jews to keep no servant 
 who did not profess the true religion, and become a mem- 
 ber of the church. All were to observe the Passover, sanc- 
 tify the Sabbath, and appear before God at the Tabernacle 
 three times in the year. In short, their servants were 
 placed on the same looting with themselves, with respect 
 to the duties and privileges of religion. 
 
 The instruction of slaves claims the special attention 
 of all who wish to remove the evils of slavery. A chief 
 difficulty in the way of colonizing at home or abroad arises 
 from the ignorant and improvident habits of slaves. In- 
 struction and training is the way to remove this hinderance. 
 A chief objection to having them as freedmen among us 
 arises from the same source ; and even the evils likely to 
 arise from a contest with them, should that fearful event 
 take place, would be lessened by elevating and softening 
 their character. If we must have conflict, and that at 
 home, better have it with persons civilized and softened 
 by religion and morals, than with ignorant, rude, and bar- 
 barous people. 
 
 The question of sending slaves away as soon as freed, 
 or retaining them as hirelings for a time, could be arranged 
 as the parties thought best. In many cases it might be for 
 the advantage of master and slave, to treat the slave as an 
 hireling, until he had earned something, improved his ha- 
 bits of managing for himself, and gained information re- 
 specting his prospects abroad, and until the master had 
 15* 
 
174 LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 
 
 new-modelled his domestic affairs and changed his family- 
 habits. This plan has been successfully followed in va- 
 rious cases. 
 
 Care, however, ought to be taken to prevent slaves from 
 passing into other hands, who might withhold from them 
 their freedom. The case is one in which, as soon as pos- 
 sible, it ought to be put out of hazard. No man can tell 
 what may take place in future, and many have been greatly 
 disappointed in the character and conduct of their own chil- 
 dren. Liberty is the natural right of the slave, and the 
 laws of God fully and fairly recognize that right. No 
 man then in whom that right may, by the civil regulations 
 of society, be invested, ought to withhold it, after it may 
 safely be restored to the slave. No personal or family 
 consideration will justify so doing. We are not to do evil 
 that good may come. 
 
 A similar regard ought to be paid to the family relations 
 of the slave. The natural relations of husband and wife, 
 parent and child, &c, are fully recognized in the word of 
 God, and their corresponding duties enjoined. No claim 
 of property will justify us in the sight of God in forcing 
 the slave to disregard those relations, or neglect the duties 
 thence arising. This is often most grievously overlooked, 
 and that by professors of religion, in the sales and trans- 
 fers and devises of slaves, in which they are parties. 
 This ought most conscientiously to be avoided: no gain 
 ought to induce us to do it. 
 
 I know not whether, in the present state of things, a 
 better course could be taken to promote the cause of free- 
 dom, than for slave-holders to change their plan of treating 
 their slaves ; substitute reasonable wages for force, as the 
 inducements to labour. A plan of this kind would coun- 
 teract some of the worst effects of slavery, and tend to 
 change the whole system from that of slave to free labour, 
 and at the same time, give the means and the preparation 
 for emigration, if that was finally thought best. 
 
 That some difficulty would be met with at first, we 
 must expect. The evil habits resulting from slavery 
 would no doubt show themselves. But patience and per- 
 severance would gradually control them. And this we 
 are bound to do, not only from the general duty of doing 
 
LETTER XV. 175 
 
 good to all men, but from the duty to make reparation to 
 those whom we or our forefathers may have injured. The 
 benefit of slavery has been ours ; the evils and sufferings 
 have been the slave's. His evil habits are a grievous part 
 of his evils. We of right owe him all the reparation we 
 can give, all the help we can afford to correct his evil 
 habits. 
 
 But persons may act with efficiency in the capacity of 
 citizens. The people are the sovereign. They choose 
 their law-makers and rulers, and have reserved to them- 
 selves the freedom of speech and of the press. 
 
 It is the undoubted right of those who believe slavery 
 wrong, and the laws and policy of the state inexpedient 
 and unwise, to use their influence to procure the requisite 
 change. Let them exert their iniluence to enlighten and 
 give a proper direction to the public mind. They owe it 
 to themselves, to the public, to human nature, as well as 
 to the best interests of the slave. AVe know that opinions 
 govern the world. There are many errors of a practical 
 kind which long govern the multitude, after they have 
 been exploded by the crcat mass of intelligent men. One 
 reason of this is, those intelligent men allow themselves to 
 practise with the multitude, their correct opinions to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. Their correct opinions, there- 
 fore, go for nothing, because contradicted by their practice. 
 This is most lamentably the case with respect to slavery. 
 Few intelligent men among us justify it; and yet the great 
 body of them practise it. How are the unthinking multi- 
 tude to find out that it is wrong, while not only the intel- 
 ligent, but the moral and religious continue the practice ? 
 
 We insist, therefore, that we all owe to the cause of 
 freedom, not only a correct opinion, but a consistent prac- 
 tice. 
 
 Were professors of religion and friends of freedom — all 
 who wish to remove the evil of slavery, to come out and 
 act consistently and steadily, the good effects of it would 
 soon be seen and felt. Had the church, at the commence- 
 ment of African slavery in this country, taken the proper 
 course, it would in all probability have put a stop to it. 
 Had the friends of religion and morals united with the 
 friends of emancipation, at the close of the revolutionary 
 
176 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 war, and abandoned slavery, the system would before now 
 have gone down. And were the friends of religion and 
 morals and personal freedom now to abandon slavery, and 
 keep up before the public eye its moral and political evils, 
 the system could not stand long before them. A practical 
 standard of morals and religion would be held up, which 
 would condemn slavery. Slavery would soon come to be 
 viewed as we now view polygamy, concubinage, the 
 slave-trade, and massacre of prisoners. Most persons 
 have some sense of religion, and wish to get to heaven. 
 Slavery would soon come to be viewed as incompatible 
 with getting there ; and one modification after another 
 would take place, until it passed away. 
 
 This ought to be accompanied with a steady and perse- 
 vering effort to so change the laws of the state as to put an 
 end to the whole system. Until a considerable change is 
 made in the laws, great difficulties will lie in the way of 
 accomplishing many things that at once ought to be done. 
 The shameful traffic in them ought at once to be stopped ; 
 their marriages and family relations ought to be protected ; 
 and all obstructions to educating them ought to be remov- 
 ed. Many lament these evils, and blame the state for 
 permitting them, who appear to forget that a part of the 
 law-making power is in their hands. They have never 
 used their influence with their representatives so to change 
 the laws as to remove the evils. They of course stand 
 chargeable with a part of the guilt. Our public men will 
 do what they know the people wish to have done. If 
 they refuse, the people can fill their place with others who 
 will carry into effect their will. 
 
 The Scriptures are full of proof that wicked rulers — 
 those who tolerate injustice and oppression, or sanction it 
 by law, bring the judgments of God upon the people. But 
 in our government where the people make the laws, and 
 execute them by men chosen for this purpose, the guilt of 
 unjust laws and oppressions under them lies mainly on 
 the people. If they abuse the power of self-government, 
 they may expect to be punished for it ; and may possibly 
 have that power taken from them. The friends of religion 
 and pure morals and personal freedom owe it to God, to 
 their country, to the rights of men, and to themselves, to 
 
LETTER XV. 177 
 
 use their whole influence to correct the evils of the slave- 
 system. If they allow their influence to be on the wrong 
 side, or permit it to lie idle, and thus enable men who 
 have no regard for right, who perhaps have their gains 
 from slavery, to have the rule, and perpetuate these evils, 
 — they will not, they cannot escape a participation in the 
 guilt. Our power in our government is a talent put into 
 our hands to be used for good ; if we bury it, we will in 
 vain expect to escape the doom of the unprofitable servant. 
 Among all the causes which are promoted by a union of 
 their friends, I know of few that have stronger claims on 
 us, as citizens, than the removing of slavery from the south. 
 The Colonization Society has embodied many. Their 
 efforts, however, are directed abroad, and will, I fear, fail 
 to save the south, unless other measures, not embraced in 
 their plan, be set in operation and steadily carried for- 
 ward. 
 
 The fact that all the great interests of the south will re- 
 ally be promoted by the measure, ought to have a con- 
 trolling weight with us. Some, I know, have doubts on 
 this matter ; and this ties up their hands from those efforts 
 they might otherwise make. It is, however, a position 
 which so many things go to prove, that few, if any, whose 
 minds are not biassed, refuse their assent. We have al- 
 ready made several allusions to this matter, and can adduce 
 but a few points at present. 
 
 That free labour is really more profitable to a commu- 
 nity, lew will doubt who have made themselves acquainted 
 with the state of things in slave-holding and non-slave- 
 holding communities. The whole state of the country, 
 from the roads along which they travel to the houses in 
 which they live, give proof of it. The one exhibits a 
 neatness, care and comfort, an industry, economy and good 
 management; while the other presents the marks of a care- 
 less, improvident and unskilful hand — a country worn out 
 and roads almost impassable ; and it requires but little at- 
 tention to the nature of the case to be satisfied as to the 
 cause of this difference. 
 
 AVhere slavery exists, it will make the kind of labour 
 performed by slaves discreditable with their masters — the 
 disgrace of the slave will, less or more, be attached to his 
 
178 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 work ; and few will be found willing to do it. Idle habits 
 are more natural to us than habits of industry. The con- 
 sequence always is, that in a slave-holding state a much 
 smaller proportion of the whole population labour than do 
 in a free state. But all must eat and wear. 
 
 Take a household of twenty persons in a non-slave- 
 holding community, and most of them, perhaps all, are 
 efficient labourers in their several departments. But take 
 one of the same size in a slave-holding community, and 
 perhaps one half of them are white persons, who are above 
 doing negroes' work, who in fact add but little to the pro- 
 ductive labour done. The result must be very different 
 in the clear gains of those families. 
 
 But there is a great difference in another respect. Free 
 men work for themselves, and are under the full influence 
 of personal interest in all their labours, cares and savings. 
 It reaches all that is done. Not so the slave, on whom 
 the labour, in the other case, devolves. He does not labour 
 and manage for himself. Whether he does little or much, 
 is careful or careless, does not affect him any farther than 
 it may expose him to chastisement or the reverse. Nothing 
 but a constant miracle could prevent such a state of things 
 producing results widely different. It is generally admit- 
 ted that slaves do less work than freemen. As to the 
 comparative amount, there is much diversity of opinion ? 
 and no doubt much will depend on the circumstances of 
 the case. While some suppose that on an average, three 
 slaves do as much as two freemen ; others suppose that 
 they do not more than from one-half to one-third as much, 
 taking into account the way it is done. 
 
 To this we must add, that almost universally, the slave 
 must be directed, and watched, or he will do nothing. The 
 pay of the overseer, who is usually a man who follows it 
 for a living and must be supported, is another heavy tax, 
 to be deducted from the profits of the slave's labour. 
 
 We may add, as another item, the wear and tear of tools, 
 stock, &c. over and above what would take place in the 
 hands of those interested ; for the same feelings which 
 make the slave idle make him careless of what is put into 
 his hands to work with or manage. 
 
 The food and clothing of the slave are usually of an in- 
 
LETTER XV. 179 
 
 ferior kind ; bat I doubt whether there be as much saving 
 here as many suppose. The freeman will take care of all 
 that is left — the slave will waste what he gets. What is 
 lost through waste will often balance what is saved in 
 quality. Nor ought we to forget that slaves almost univer- 
 sally will pilfer from their masters ; and, to avoid detec- 
 tion, they often destroy what they cannot at once use. 
 The expense from this cause, with that incurred to pre- 
 vent it, in locks and fastenings, &c. amount to a pretty 
 heavy item. 
 
 The fact that slaves receive no wages may, by some, be 
 thought to balance the account, if not turn the scale in 
 favour of slavery. The evidence, however, I apprehend, 
 is against it. Suppose a slave performs two-thirds of the 
 work that a free labourer would do. To have the same 
 amount of work done, three slaves must be maintained to 
 do what two freemen would do. There is the original 
 cost of said slaves — they must be kept and fed and clothed 
 constantly, their taxes paid, their doctor's bills, &c. Free 
 labourers are employed only when needed, then dismissed. 
 There are usually a part of the slaves, in children, females, 
 and aged ones, &c, often from one-half to two-thirds, that 
 add little, if any, to the productive labour that is performed. 
 They must all, however, be supported. When the whole 
 is cast up, the balance must turn in favour of free labour. 
 
 But slavery is almost sure to lead, not only to idle habits 
 in the owners, but to expensive modes of living. Not be- 
 ing employed in labour, the owners will go much abroad — 
 mix more in company — engage more in amusements — not 
 to say vices. This will lead to expense in clothing, equip- 
 age and attendants. Those who visit much, must receive 
 visits. Table expenses must be increased. Amusements 
 and pleasures are always expensive, and when entered on, 
 it is hard to find a stopping place. It is an old saying, 
 that " the devil linds employment for idle people." From 
 innocent amusements, they pass to those less innocent. 
 " Evil communications corrupt good manners." They often 
 end in vice of a ruinous character, from which habits of 
 industry would have saved them. 
 
 I noticed, in a former letter, some of the moral evils pro- 
 duced by slavery. I will not here repeat them, but simply 
 
180 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 remark, that the shameful licentiousness that prevails in 
 the south is mainly to be ascribed to the slave system. 
 And it will be no easy matter to correct it, while that system 
 continues. Were there no other reason, every one that 
 believes the Bible — every one that values purity — ought to 
 exert themselves to put it down. 
 
 Slavery operates against improvements in the arts, and 
 that in many ways. Slave-labour never can compete with 
 free labour, as to neatness and skill. The more fine and 
 valuable and costly manufactories cannot exist, and be car- 
 ried on with slaves. Of course, they must be imported 
 and paid for in raw materials, or manufactures of a coarser 
 kind. The balance of profit must be against slave-holders. 
 
 It is equally unfavourable to intellectual and moral im- 
 provement among the people at large. Those institutions, 
 on which the moral and intellectual improvement of a peo- 
 ple mainly depend, require for their support, a certain 
 denseness of population. It is thus with schools and 
 churches. To keep up a good system of instruction in a 
 neighbourhood, there ought to be within reach such a num- 
 ber of children, as would form a school constantly. This 
 would lighten the expense, and enable each parent to send 
 his child at such times as he could most easily be spared. 
 When, however, a large part of the population are slaves, 
 who are not sent to school, the residue often are not suffi- 
 cient to form a school. The extent to which the middle 
 and lower classes are suffering from this cause, in many 
 parts of the slave-holding states, is distressing. Nor is it 
 easy to find a remedy. 
 
 The same evil lies in the way of maintaining the Gos- 
 pel. An intelligent ministry is a most important means, 
 not only of moral and religious, but intellectual improve- 
 ment. No other perhaps is more efficient. A man may, 
 during the common service of the Sabbath, impart to a 
 thousand people, a mass of well digested information, 
 which will not only effect their hearts, but keep their 
 thoughts and consciences at work for the ensuing week. 
 But the man that would thus operate on the moral and in- 
 tellectual character of a people, must give himself to the 
 work, must make it his profession, and must live by it. 
 But where a large part of the population are slaves, a part 
 
LETTER XV. 181 
 
 of whose owners care but little about religion, it is often 
 impracticable to support such a ministry. Either none is 
 enjoyed, or so seldom, and of such a kind, as affords but 
 little moral and less intellectual improvement. Look at 
 Virginia, look at the slave-holding states generally, and see 
 the proof of this fact. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 16 
 
182 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 
 Many of those considerations, which go to show the 
 necessity of acting with promptness on this matter, have 
 already been noticed. It may, however, be of use to refer 
 again to this point; and especially to some topics which 
 deserve the serious and prayerful attention of all who re- 
 ceive God's word, and believe in a righteous and retribu- 
 tive providence. 
 
 It is declared of God, " with the merciful, thou wilt 
 show thyself merciful; with the upright man, thou wilt 
 show thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt show thy- 
 self pure; and with the froward, thou wilt show thyself 
 froward : for thou wilt save the afflicted people, but wilt 
 bring down high looks." 
 
 "If thou forbear to deliver those that are drawn unto 
 death, and those that are ready to be slain. If thou sayest, 
 Behold, I knew it not : doth not he that pondereth the 
 heart consider it; and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not 
 he know it? and shall he not render to every man accord- 
 ing to his work?" 
 
 " These nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy 
 years — -and when seventy years are accomplished, I will 
 punish that nation for their iniquity. Many nations and 
 great kings shall serve themselves of them, and I will re- 
 compense them according to their deeds, and according to 
 the work of their hands." 
 
 "Reward her as she hath rewarded you, and double to her 
 double, according to all her works. In the cup which she 
 hath filled, fill to her double." Psal. xviii. Prov. xxiv. 
 Jer. xxv. Rev. xviii. 
 
 These, with a multitude of other passages, teach the 
 doctrine of recompenses. 
 
 They assure us, that God, in his dealings with indivi- 
 duals and nations, will recompense them according to their 
 works. Not only is this doctrine plainly taught, but the 
 Scriptures are full of examples. 
 
 The Egyptians oppressed Israel, held them fast and re- , 
 
LETTER XVI. 183 
 
 fused to let them go. But the judgments of God fell more 
 and more heavily on them, until they were constrained to 
 send them out free, after Egypt was almost ruined by the 
 delay. 
 
 They had attempted to prevent the increase of Israel, by 
 destroying their children ; and God destroyed all the first- 
 born of Egypt, both man and beast. 
 
 They compelled Israel to labour without wages, under 
 task-masters; and God, by his judgments, compelled them 
 to give to Israel gold, silver and raiment, until Egypt was 
 spoiled and Israel rewarded. 
 
 These things happened for examples, and were written 
 for our instruction. And we are to notice that the gene- 
 ration of the Egyptians that drank this bitter cup, was not 
 the one that began the system of oppression. They how- 
 ever continued it, and received this visitation for their own 
 sins, and the sins of their fathers. They might have 
 escaped by letting Israel go out free, but this they refused 
 to do and were dealt with accord ingty. 
 
 The kingdom of Judah was destroyed, the city and tem- 
 ple burnt, many of the people slain, and the rest taken 
 captive and reduced to slavery, expressly for the crime of 
 enslaving others, (Jer. 34.) Other sins no doubt were 
 punished by these judgments, but this was the sin that was 
 especially pointed out as the leading one. 
 
 Buying and selling persons is specified as a sin that was 
 visited on the kingdom of Israel, when it was destroyed. 
 God swear he would not forget it. They were delivered 
 to their enemies and sold for bond-men. 
 
 The kingdoms of Tyre and Edoin, Ammon and Moab, 
 Gaza, Assyria and Babylon, are all charged with this sin, 
 and judgments were sent on them for it, and they were re- 
 compensed by being, in their turn, dealt with in the same 
 way. 
 
 Adonijah, when his thumbs and great toes were cut off, 
 confessed that he had served seventy kings in the same 
 way ; and, although a heathen, owned the retributive jus- 
 tice of God in it : " As I have done, so God requited me." 
 " So they hanged Raman on the gallows that he had pre- 
 pared for Mordecai," — he was recompensed according to 
 his device against the Jews. 
 
184 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 Profane history is full of examples illustrative of the 
 same principle, and not a few respecting slavery. 
 
 Tyre was a great slave-trader and slave-holder — she 
 traded in the persons of men ; and Tyre perished in a 
 night, by her slaves. But one master is said to have es- 
 caped, and he owed his liie to the affection of a slave, to 
 ■whom he had been more than usually kind. 
 
 The states of Greece were sorely injured by their slaves ; 
 and Lacedemon, who had distinguished herself by her cru- 
 elty, received a punishment deep and shameful in propor- 
 tion. They saw the slaves in power, and indulging their 
 lusts on the wives and daughters of their former masters. 
 
 The Romans were repeatedly brought to the verge of 
 ruin by their slaves ; and one series of insurrections in 
 Sicily was not closed until near a million of lives were 
 lost. That was but one of the many bloody scenes through 
 which slavery led her. 
 
 The Sarin atians were expelled their country by their 
 slaves. The fate of the whites of St. Domingo is gene- 
 rally known. 
 
 History is full of insurrections and rebellions against 
 despotic rulers ; and there is no kind of government more 
 absolute and despotic than that over slaves. The most 
 despotic political power leaves more liberty to the subject 
 than is possessed by the slave. Where is the government 
 that allows the subject to hold no property, that does not 
 recognize the marriage and parental relation, that carries 
 on a trade in its people, as well as compels them to per- 
 petual service without wages ? T5ad as political slavery is, 
 it is not so bad as personal — much as people may desire 
 political, much more do they, and with good reason, desire 
 personal freedom. And as rebellion against political power, 
 and civil wars growing out of them, are a hundred-fold 
 worse than foreign wars ; so insurrections for personal 
 liberty always have, and always will, assume still more 
 frightful forms. This all history proves. 
 
 With such declarations of God's hatred of oppression, 
 and his purpose to punish it ; and with so many examples 
 of it in the history of the world, what have we to expect 
 at the hand of a God of recompense ? 
 
LETTER XVI. 185 
 
 God, in his gracious providence, gave our fathers, who 
 settled in this western world, both to know their rights and 
 to enjoy them. Most of the settlements in America, were 
 made between 1620 and 1680, the very period in which 
 the great contest about freedom and personal rights took 
 place in England, and before the face of Europe. The 
 question was pretty well understood ; and our fathers ap- 
 preciated their rights. Yet very soon they introduced the 
 system of negro slavery, the most hopeless and oppres- 
 sive that was ever laid on human nature. 
 
 And during the contest for our independence, we declared 
 that liberty ivas an unalienable right — we invoked the 
 God of truth, and equity, and justice, to aid us in defend- 
 ing it. Preachers justified contending for it, and suppli- 
 cated aid from on high. The professor of religion took 
 part in the contest, and mingled in the field of battle ; and 
 when God gave success, and made us free, what did we 
 do for the slave ? He did not take sides against us ; but 
 aided us in cultivating our fields and supporting our fami- 
 lies. Did we give him that freedom which we declared 
 before heaven and earth was the unalienable right of all 
 men? No; we riveted his chains more fast; we shut him 
 out more and more from instruction; we added more to 
 bis disabilities, and threw more obstructions in the way of 
 his attaining to freedom. 
 
 There has but seldom, in the history of the world, been 
 a wider departure, by a nation, from their own avowed 
 principles, or a more glaring deviation from the rule of 
 doing as they would be done by. What will be our doom, 
 if we have measured to us as we have measured to our 
 slaves, if we are recompensed according to our works ? 
 This, without repentance and amendment, is what both 
 Scripture and history lead us to expect. 
 
 Thus far, it is true, we have not seen the day of righteous 
 retribution. We have, however, in the injured morals of 
 our people, and in the declining prosperity of the slave- 
 holding states, no dubious tokens of God's displeasure; 
 and a man must be ignorant, or inattentive, or infatuated, 
 not to see the natural means of retribution so gathering in 
 the south, that, instead of a miracle being needful to pun^ 
 16* 
 
186 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 ish us, nothing but a miracle can prevent it, unless we 
 change our course. 
 
 The whole country, from the Potomac to the Sabine, 
 and from the mountains to the sea-board, has a population 
 of blacks more numerous than the whites. In large dis- 
 tricts near the coast, on the best lands, at the mouth of all 
 our rivers, and about our harbours, they are already much 
 the most numerous. The state of the south is now full of 
 danger ; and every year increases the physical and moral 
 power of the blacks much faster than that of the whites. 
 A military establishment will soon be needful to protect 
 the south, and that must be increased from time to time, 
 with the increasing danger. It can hardly be supposed, 
 that the non-slave-holding states will agree to bear the ex- 
 pense of a standing army to protect slave-holders against 
 their slaves and to hold said slaves in bondage, and if the 
 whole expense lies on the south it must, added to the great 
 disadvantages of slave-labour, exceedingly oppress the 
 south. But were that evil got over, there are others. In 
 a government like this, standing armies are dangerous, and 
 with the existing jealousies between the north and south, 
 which may be expected to last while slavery does, it is 
 not to be supposed that the north would be satisfied to see 
 a growing military force in the south, and devoted to the 
 south. 
 
 Such a state of things, would in all probability, lead to 
 convulsions. The North and the South would separate. 
 Military despotism would arise in the South, and the rapid 
 increase of the coloured population, would soon make it 
 needful to conciliate them. Amidst the revolutions that 
 would follow, the slaves would most likely be called in by 
 some party, or taking advantage of those troubled scenes, 
 they would triumph over the whites. The whole state 
 of things, looks so much that way, that I know not how 
 any can help forseeing that such times are to pass over the 
 South, unless a new course be taken with that people. 
 
 And should the slaves fail in their first efforts, as proba- 
 bly they would, who can think, without horror, of the 
 scenes that would attend the attempt. The situation in 
 which they now are, makes it a forfeiture of life, to try 
 
 
LETTER XVI. 187 
 
 forcibly to get free ; and all other ways are closed against 
 them. All men, however, love freedom, and every age 
 and nation have furnished men who would risk even life 
 itself, for freedom, when there was a prospect of obtaining 
 it. And much more is this the case, in this age of free- 
 dom. The situation in which slaves are placed, leaves 
 them only the bitter alternative of remaining with their 
 children after thein in slavery, or of forcibly seeking freedom 
 by the destruction of their masters. It is your neck or 
 mine. If they fail, they die ; and this naturally leads to 
 the darkest and most deadly measures. The history of 
 insurrections prove this. 
 
 Were they to succeed in destroying or driving off their 
 owners, and taking possession of some considerable dis- 
 trict in the South, who can think without pain of the 
 scenes that would most probably follow. The attempts to 
 subdue them ; the retaliation, &c. It would be no com- 
 mon contest, and He alone who knows all things, can tell 
 where it would end. 
 
 In our revolutionary contest with England, there were 
 many of our fathers who would have done or suffered 
 almost any tiling to prevent it. Some of them were born 
 in England, many of them had friends and relations there. 
 They loved England, and had the control of the matter 
 been in their hands, they would have borne all that Eng- 
 land might have imposed rather than contend. But when 
 the contest came, much as they regretted it, they took 
 sides with their own country, and fought against England 
 and all their dear friends that were there. 
 
 "When the contest takes place between the masters and 
 the slaves in the South, it will, I doubt not, be found that 
 thousands of slaves who love their masters as individuals, 
 and would do almost anything for them, will still join their 
 own people and fight for freedom. There is no other door 
 open before them, through which the hope of freedom can 
 come. Oh, it is cruel, it is dreadfully cruel to shut up a 
 fellow creature to so dire an alternative. 
 
 It is farther to be recollected, that the state of things in 
 the West Indies, Mexico and South America, generally, 
 wears a threatening aspect towards slavery. Haiti is a 
 
188 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 growing power, within a few days sail of our southern 
 coast. It has now a standing army of some size. Al- 
 though free above thirty years, we have not recognized 
 their independence, while we have that of all the South 
 American States, although much younger. This deport- 
 ment towards them may be expected to beget resentment. 
 They see millions of their own race filling up our Southern 
 country, and retained in slavery, while we boast of our free 
 institutions. The slaves in most of the South American 
 States have been freed, or are approaching that condition. 
 We may calculate, that any serious attempt at freedom in the 
 South, will be planned with an eye to help from abroad. 
 Were three or four divisions of Haitians, of twenty or 
 thirty thousand each, with several hundred thousand stand 
 of arms, to land in the South, and proclaim liberty to the 
 slaves and give them arms and leaders, what would be the 
 condition of the South ? 
 
 It ought also to be recollected, that while the chief Go- 
 vernments of Europe have a prejudice against us for our 
 republican institutions which are undermining the throne, 
 and displacing the sceptre ; and while they are jealous of 
 our rising greatness, they themselves are becoming more 
 and more the advocates of personal liberty. Slavery is 
 expelled from most of their dominions, and efforts mak- 
 ing to put an end to it in their colonies. Were we to 
 get into a contest with our slaves, we have reason to fear 
 they would not long stand neutral, and even in our own 
 country, should such a rising of the blacks take place, that 
 the South could not put it down, I much doubt whether 
 the North would aid in doing it. The North is strongly op- 
 posed to slavery, and has proposed various plans for hav- 
 ing it removed. These have not been kindly met by the 
 South. That some would be for aiding the South, I doubt 
 not; but that the great mass of the people would, I much 
 doubt. If they did interpose, it more probably would be 
 as mediators. At all events, it is not wise to let a state of 
 things go on, that will before long make assistance neces- 
 sary, when there is no certainty .that it will be received. 
 The state of things between the North and South, has 
 more than once been such, as to make the friends of our 
 
LETTER XVI. 189 
 
 country feel anxious about the permanency of our Union. 
 Should a separation take place, and a contest follow, what 
 would be the condition of the South 1 With the feeling of 
 the North respecting slavery, and the mass of slaves in the 
 South, we might look for the system to go down in blood. 
 These causes of apprehensions, are increased by the 
 character of our slave population. It is always worse to 
 fall into the hands of a half-civilized and immoral, than of 
 a refined people. In our contest with England, cruel usage 
 and abuse of females, were little feared and seldom expe- 
 rienced. The case at Hampden, was condemned by the 
 English themselves. The nation and army both felt mor- 
 tified at it. But what might we not expect from the slave 
 population in the South ? We have purposely kept them 
 ignorant, and thrown obstructions in the way of their 
 improvement. Nothing has been done to give them a sense 
 of character ; nothing to purify and elevate their feelings ; 
 nothing to give them a well grounded moral and religious 
 sentiment. They have been subjected to harsh and debas- 
 ing treatment, placed under the rule of the lowest, most 
 unfeeling, and basest part of the whites. The marriage and 
 family relations have been wholly unprotected — have been 
 disregarded at pleasure. They have seen their females 
 almost universally subjected to pollution, and believe that 
 in a multitude of instances, violence or other unfair means 
 have been used by the whites to accomplish it. What are 
 we to expect from a people thus treated, should they gain 
 the ascendency? What would be the condition of white 
 females that might come under their power ? Look at the 
 judgments of God, denounced on people for the abuse of 
 females. A punishment in kind, is repeatedly threatened. 
 With a character for purity themselves, equal to that of 
 auy other people, the white females of the slave-holding 
 States, have not exerted their influence as they ought and 
 as they might, to protect the purity of the blacks. Such is 
 the influence of the female part of our community, that had 
 it been fully and fairly directed to protect the marriages 
 and general purity of the blacks, we need not doubt but 
 that to a great degree it would have done it. It is painful 
 to think of the retribution that awaits them, growing in 
 
190 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 part out of their own omission of duty, should the slaves 
 gain an ascendency in the South. 
 
 Some entertain the hope, that Virginia may be able to 
 get clear of her slaves, or at least by sending them to the 
 South and West, so keep their number down as to be in 
 little danger from them. This opinion may operate to 
 prevent those efficient measures that ought to be taken to 
 remove the evil. Suppose that by becoming more and 
 more a negro-trader, she may remove them to the South 
 and West, the consequence will be, that she will thus pre- 
 pare a more speedy and inevitable ruin for the South ; and 
 many of her own children will be involved in the ruin. 
 Thousands of them are in the South, and every year adds 
 to their number. She may sutler as deep a shame and 
 punishment in the persons of her sons and daughters in 
 the South, as she could at home. And when the South 
 shall have passed into the hands of the blacks, how will it 
 be with her at home ? There has for forty years past been 
 in proportion as great an emigration of blacks to the South 
 and West, as we need expect for the future; while their 
 increase at home has been greater than that of the whites. 
 Not only have they become more numerous, but more in- 
 telligent, and better qualified to take advantage of any 
 emergency that may arise ; and from the day that a suc- 
 cessful insurrection takes place in any part of the South, 
 our whole sea-board, from the Potomac to the Sabine, will 
 be in perpetual jeopardy. 
 
 If the South has not wisdom enough to prevent more 
 blacks from coming there, Virginia ought to have com- 
 passion enough not to send any more, unless she is willing 
 to see them in possession of it. The safety of the South 
 lies, in so managing matters, as to prevent any part of it 
 from passing by violence into the hands of the blacks. 
 When that takes place, it will be like the breaking forth 
 of waters, none can tell how far they may flow. 
 
 The great reliance which many place on prudence and 
 caution, as the way to escape the evil, while nothing is 
 done to arrest its approach, is a painful matter. Admitting 
 all the efficacy these can have, they are wholly inadequate 
 to give security. No prudence or caution will prevent the 
 
LETTER XVI. 191 
 
 increase of their physical or moral power. Within less 
 than a common lifetime from this, they will, from their 
 number, if nothing be done, be in possession of the South. 
 
 But there is no wisdom nor council against the Most High. 
 It is his declaration, that he will visit for sin. The whole 
 history of his dealings towards man, proves, that when 
 his time for retribution is come, he will find means to ex- 
 ecute it; and not unfrequently he uses means prepared by 
 those whom he would chastise. Pharaoh spared and ediu 
 cated Moses in his palace, trained him in all the learning 
 of Egypt, and thus qualified him to be the avenger of his 
 people, to spoil Egypt, and make Israel free. 
 
 Cesar spared Brutus, and gave him that access to his 
 person, and those other advantages, that enabled him to be 
 the avenger of his country, by the death of the tyrant. 
 
 Charles the First obliged Cromwell to land and remain 
 in England, when on the point to sail for and settle in 
 America. He was detained in England to avenge an in- 
 jured people, chastise a corrupt and fawning nobility, and 
 take the head from an oppressive and tyrannical king. 
 
 If those times do pass over the South, that we have so 
 much reason to fear, the event will probably show, that in 
 the families of some of those who have been the great 
 supporters of the slave system, and most devoted to its 
 gains, and opposed to all attempts to do it away, will have 
 been raised and prepared the avengers of their people. 
 Such masters have often favourite slaves, sometimes mu- 
 lattoes, who enjoy great advantages for gaining informa- 
 tion, and who possess enlarged views of the state of their 
 own people and of the world. God often takes the wise 
 in their own craftiness, and makes their folly, as well as 
 their wrath, to praise him. 
 
 The importance of beginning in time is admitted on most 
 subjects. Many, however, I fear, are not aware of the 
 pressing nature of this matter. Every unprejudiced mind, 
 I should think, must, on looking at the whole subject, ad- 
 mit, that it has been put off too long. It is one of those 
 things that must be placed in a different position, or the 
 most fatal consequences will ensue. 
 
 While the number of slaves was small, their doubling 
 
192 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 
 
 did not make so striking a difference. But we have now 
 above two millions, and a few more doublings will give us 
 a number wholly unmanageable. 
 
 Those who possess absolute authority over others, can 
 seldom be induced, in the greatest emergency to resign it. 
 Not unfrequently, every disinterested person can see, that 
 give up or ruin is the only alternative ; while those in 
 power are so blinded or infatuated, as confidently to think 
 they can weather the storm. How many rulers have been 
 hurled from their seats to ruin, who, if they could have 
 been induced to consult moderation, might long have pos- 
 sessed all the power it was good for them to possess. 
 How many by grasping too much have lost all ; and how 
 many have looked back with long and bitter regrets, at 
 their folly, in not being more reasonable in their claims, 
 and more regardful of the rights of others. 
 
 The British government was admonished again and 
 again not to hold her colonies with too hard a grasp, not 
 to force them to be her enemies, and advised to make it 
 their interest to be her friends. She laughed at the idea 
 of our resisting, and, glorying in her strength, was confi- 
 dent that she could put us down at once. How many 
 bitter regrets has it cost her! and what a rival has she 
 raised up in her path. In 1840, we will have a coloured 
 population equal to our whole population when we en- 
 tered into that contest with the mother country. We had 
 then half a million of slaves among us, who might be con- 
 sidered as deducting an equal number from our strength, 
 leaving us an effective white population at that time not 
 equal to our present number of blacks. And I venture to 
 say, that the great body of disinterested persons thought 
 our prospect of success not better, than similar persons 
 would think a well arranged insurrection of blacks in the 
 South. And surely none among us can be more confident 
 of our ability to put down an insurrection, than England 
 was of her ability to crush our attempt to go out free and 
 independent states. England, however, was sorely disap- 
 pointed. A train of events, ordered by an overruling 
 Providence, took place, which she could not control ; and 
 as the result, we went out free. It would be wise in us 
 
LETTER XVI. 193 
 
 to take warning. How bitterly are those statesmen con- 
 demned who led England into those unwise measures, and 
 how will the names of our leading men stand with pos- 
 terity, if they provide not against the evil before us ? 
 
 We justly, and almost universally, blame our fathers for 
 introducing negro-slavery among us ; and what will our 
 children say of us, if we let the evil go on until the blacks 
 take possession of the South ; seize on all our sea-board ; 
 occupy the mouths of all our southern rivers ; cut off our 
 trade from abroad ; force our children into the mountains ; 
 and oblige them either to give up all foreign trade, or pay 
 them a tribute for being allowed to pass out to the ocean? 
 I know the indignation which the bare mention of such a 
 thing will produce. It will not, I admit, take place with 
 the consent of the whites. But what can a man do when 
 another has become too strong for him ? Many a man, and 
 many a people, have submitted to things sorely against 
 their will. England was as reluctant to let us go out free, 
 and thus lose the fairest jewel in her crown, as we would 
 be to let the blacks have the South. But what could she 
 do ? Contend eternally ? We had become too strong for 
 her. She only hurt herself. It is one of those cases in 
 which, if we let things go on, in their present course, the 
 time is not distant when the consequences cannot be con- 
 trolled ; and if the temper which has thus far prevailed in 
 the South be allowed to rule a few years longer, the mat- 
 ter will be incurable, except by violent remedies ; and the 
 names of those who have been in power, and have used 
 that power to prevent better measures, will be classed with 
 those who brought the Africans to our land. The one for 
 gain brought them in violation of all right, and the other 
 for gain and want of wisdom have, although warned again 
 and again, refused to adopt the only measures that pro- 
 mised to arrest and avert the impending evil. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 17 
 
195 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 There are many things in negro slavery, as it exists 
 among us, to which we all would think it exceedingly hard 
 and unjust, to be ourselves and families subjected. Now 
 the law of " doing as we would be done by," — the law of 
 " loving our neighbour as ourselves," appears to me most 
 manifestly to forbid that we should subject others to these 
 things. 
 
 The negro slave may, with a solitary exception, be said 
 to be stript of all his rights. The law recognizes his right 
 to life, and makes some provisions to secure it from being 
 violently taken away ; but even those provisions are far 
 short of what are deemed necessary to secure the life of 
 the white man. How this difference is viewed in the eyes 
 of him who " made of one blood all nations of men," and 
 declares " himself no respecter of persons," deserves the 
 serious consideration of all ; and especially of those who 
 call God their Father, and profess to take his word for the 
 rule of their conduct. 
 
 With the above exception, I hardly know the right, 
 natural, civil, or religious, which the slave can be said to 
 possess. All are claimed by the master ; and the law of 
 the land sustains his claim. The slave is reduced to a 
 mere chattel — is held by his master as property, with ab- 
 solute and uncontrolled authority to use him and treat him 
 as his interest, or passion, or caprice may dictate. The 
 slave may be bought and sold at pleasure ; and that with- 
 out any regard to his inclinations ; without any regard to 
 long and faithful services — and without any regard to family 
 ties. His times of labour and of rest — the kind and de- 
 gree of labour, depend on the will of his master. Should 
 
196 APPENDIX. 
 
 a master refuse the degree of rest needful to support na- 
 ture — should he work his slave beyond his natural strength, 
 the slave has no redress. No one is authorized to inter- 
 fere. The master claims the whole proceeds of the labour 
 of the slave ; and that without acknowledging any obliga- 
 tion to give any compensation, more than a bare subsist- 
 ence. And as to the means of subsistence, the kind and 
 quantity of food and clothing, the master has it absolutely 
 in his power. Should he give what is unhealthy in kind, 
 and insufficient in quantity, there is no redress. The mas- 
 ter may punish his slave in what manner and degree he 
 pleases, (not immediately taking life) for his faults, real or 
 suspected ; or for no fault at all. Should a master from 
 prejudice, or caprice, or sheer cruelty, abuse and punish 
 and torture his slave every day, as much as his nature 
 would bear ; I know of no law of the land which would 
 make it the duty, or enable any one to interfere and stop 
 the crying injustice. The master may cut off his slave, 
 to what extent he please, from intercourse with the world. 
 He may prevent his forming family connections ; or he 
 may break them up when formed. Where the relation of 
 husband and wife exists in good faith between the parties, 
 and is strengthened by all the endearments of a family of 
 children, the pledges of their mutual love, the law still 
 gives no protection. The master may sell the husband 
 without the wife, or the wife without the husband ; the 
 parents without the children, or the children without the 
 parents. He may sell them all — he may sell them all 
 separately ; one to one man, to be removed in one direc- 
 tion, and another to another man, to be taken in a different 
 direction, as his interest, passion, or caprice may influence. 
 The owner may keep his slaves as ignorant as he please, 
 or as ignorant as he can. He may refuse to teach them to 
 read, and may forbid any other person to do it. He may 
 oppose their religious instruction. He may prevent their 
 attending the preaching of the gospel. He may place 
 them in situations so remote from the public means of 
 grace, and so lay his commands on them as to staying at 
 home, that, humanly speaking, the slave has no chance of 
 hearing and understanding the gospel to his salvation. Yea 
 
APPENDIX. 197 
 
 so absolute is the power of the master, and so cut off from 
 all help and all defence is the slave, that the slave may be 
 obliged to enter on and pursue sinful courses. Female 
 slaves may be compelled to unclean living. The direct 
 power of the owner or manager to enforce his wishes, by 
 hard usage, and punishment in various forms, and the want 
 of means of defence on the part of the slave, even as to 
 giving testimony against a white man, places the purity of 
 the female, and the comfort and happiness of both male 
 and female, as connected with female purity and mutual 
 confidence, in the power of those over them. "Whether 
 slaves be allowed to perform parental duties — educate their 
 children, or children perform filial duties, depends on the 
 will of the owner. 
 
 It would be easy to add to the above statement other 
 things in which the situation of the slave is most expos- 
 ed—is most hard — is such as their masters would be 
 utterly unwilling to be held in themselves with their fami- 
 lies — is such that masters would think it righteous in the 
 sight of God and man, to run every hazard and contend 
 even unto blood, rather than continue in it, and leave it a 
 heritage of sufferings and wrongs to their children. 
 
 Now the single question I would press for an answer, 
 given in the fear of God, is this: 
 
 Is the believer in the Bible, is the professor of the reli- 
 gion of Christ, justified — can he be justified in the sight of 
 him who is no respecter of persons ?■ — Can he be justified 
 by that word of God, which commands him to "love his 
 neighbour as himself" — by that command of Christ, "In 
 all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto 
 you, do ye even so to them," can he, I say, be justified in 
 holding a fellow creature deprived of rights which, in his 
 own case, he declares unalienable; and for which he would 
 think himself justified in the sight of heaven and earth, in 
 contending even unto blood? — Can he be justified in giv- 
 ing his countenance to a system, which is based on a total 
 disregard for rights, which he puts in the same scale with 
 his own existence, — a system, which opens the door for 
 evils and oppressions, against which he would think it 
 right to defend himself and family at every hazard? Can 
 17* 
 
198 APPENDIX. 
 
 he be acquitted before that " God, who is of purer eyes 
 than to behold iniquity," in giving in to a practice, preg- 
 nant with so many evils : which presents such strong 
 temptations to iniquity, and which operates in so many 
 ways against the salvation of both master and slave? 
 
 I think it useless here to enumerate all the ways, in 
 which professors of religion explain the "rule of doing as 
 we would be done by," in its application to slavery. Per- 
 haps the more common way is to apply the rule to the 
 case in a very partial manner; in a manner so partial, as 
 not at all to touch its most essential parts. Thus the 
 whole matter of depriving a fellow creature of his rights; 
 or (which in its morality is the same) withholding them 
 from him, is passed over. 
 
 The rule of doing as we would be done by is not ap- 
 plied to the act of withholding his rights; but to the treat- 
 ment he receives, considered as thus stripped of them ! 
 "We daily meet with persons, who appear to make the 
 whole morality of holding slaves, consist in the manner of 
 treating them. To the treatment of slaves simply consi- 
 dered, they, in some sort, apply the rule; but to the act of 
 holding a fellow creature in slavery, considered separately 
 from his treatment in that state, they appear not to apply 
 the rule at all. They take it for granted that the " rule of 
 doing as we would be done by," allows the holding of 
 slaves, provided we treat them well. 
 
 Now this to me appears, most manifestly, a partial ap- 
 plication of the rule to the case. The most important part 
 of the case is not tried by the rule at all. No question is 
 made about stripping a fellow creature of rights, or with- 
 holding them from him. And why not? Is it not one of 
 those cases in which we can suppose ourselves in a change 
 of place, and so apply the rule as easily, as we can to any 
 special act of treatment towards those in slavery? On what 
 authority is it withdrawn from the catalogue, embraced by 
 our Saviour in the first part of his rule : " In all things, 
 dec., do ye, &c." 
 
 It appears to me capable, if not of absolute demonstra- 
 tion, yet of a high degree of proof, that the single act of 
 withholding from a fellow creature his rights, or in other 
 
APPENDIX. 199 
 
 words, the holding him in slavery is the "very head and 
 
 front of the offending." This is the great original sin in 
 
 every case where slavery, such as exists among us, is 
 
 found. The treatment of slaves may be good or bad, kind 
 
 or cruel, in all their various degrees ; and may of course 
 
 be more or less conformable to the "rule of doing as we 
 
 would be done by." But the act of depriving a fellow 
 
 creature of his rights to the extent the negro slave is de- 
 cs e 
 
 prived of his, or the act of withholding or refusing to re- 
 store them ; or, in other words, the act of holding him in 
 slavery, — is at all times and in all situations a violation of 
 the rule. For plainly, no man who has common sense 
 and understands the case would be willing to be stripped 
 of his rights, and held in slavery such as the negro is 
 doomed to. So far from being willing to be treated thus, 
 he would think it most hard, he would, if he understood 
 his natural rights as most masters do, think it most un- 
 righteous ; and would think it right to make every effort 
 to burst his bands, and go out free. Now on what prin- 
 ciple is it that the rule " of doing as we would be done 
 by" is not applied to this case? May the professor of re- 
 ligion in the face of the rule and in the hearing of the de- 
 claration of his Master, " with what measure ye mete, it 
 shall be measured to you again," — mete out the hard mea- 
 sure of slavery to a fellow creature, while he would at 
 every hazard refuse it in his own case ? 
 
 I pass by for the present all the questions respecting 
 the treatment of slaves, and the bearing it may have on 
 their opinions on this subject. For the sake of getting 
 that part of the question separated from the other, let us 
 suppose that they are treated as well as they ought to be — 
 that the law of doing as we would be done by, applied 
 fairly to the case of their treatment, finds no fault ; still he 
 is in slavery, and what is implied in that? Why he is 
 stripped of all his rights; is entirely under the power of 
 another; is held as property with a long train of disabili- 
 ties, and deprivations, and liabilities to evils and oppres- 
 sions, in all their varieties. Now the question returns, do 
 the laws which Christ has given his people to regulate 
 their conduct towards their fellow men, allow of this strip- 
 
200 APPENDIX. 
 
 ping another of his rights, or withholding them from him? 
 It appears to me most manifest that they do not, and yet 
 many appear to see the matter differently. It seems there- 
 fore necessary to attempt a farther illustration of it. 
 
 No injuries are more pernicious to us, no injustice is 
 more cruel than that done to our rights. This surely 
 needs no proof in the day in which we live, and among 
 the free and enlightened people of America. Injuries of 
 no other kind are to be compared with them. The reason 
 is plain. While we are invested with our rights, they are 
 our armour of defence against all kinds of evils to which 
 we are exposed from our fellow men, and where an injury 
 is received, our rights in their legitimate operation will 
 procure us amends. They are an armour defensive and 
 offensive. They afford security. But where in any case 
 they fail to do that, they enable us to procure amends for 
 the evil suffered. 
 
 But suppose we are injured in our just unalienable 
 rights; suppose we are stripped of them, suppose they 
 are forcibly withheld from us, our armour of defence is 
 gone. We may be injured every day — we may be assail- 
 ed on every part. We have no help. We have not the 
 means of defending ourselves against the injury; we have 
 not the means of getting amends for it. 
 
 To illustrate this case, suppose a man or a body of men 
 deprived of the single right of self-defence, and that not 
 for any crime, but to enable those who deprived them of 
 the right to accomplish certain purposes with them, their 
 families, property, &c, the fact that some of these persons 
 might, owing to peculiar circumstances, feel but little in- 
 convenience from the cruel measure, would not alter the 
 character of the measure, nor lessen the guilt of those who 
 passed it. The very nature and tendency of the measure 
 was to expose them to oppression and injury and wrong, 
 and that without redress. No one act of wrong that they 
 might meet with under it, nor any number of acts would 
 equal, in their amount of wrong, the injustice and cruelty 
 of the single act which stripped them of the right of self- 
 defence, and for the plain, simple reason that the act which 
 stripped them of the right of self-defence, exposed them to 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 201 
 
 all kinds of assaults and injuries from all sorts of persons 
 at all times and places. 
 
 Or suppose any man or body of men put out of the pro- 
 tection of the law, not for any crime, but simply that those 
 who did it might treat them as they please and serve them- 
 selves of them. To what does not their outlawry expose 
 them ? They may be watched and waylaid, and ensnared 
 —they may be hunted with men, and guns, and dogs, and 
 all kinds of offensive weapons— they may be deceived and 
 betrayed by acquaintances, relations and friends. No per- 
 son, no place, nor time, is so sacred as to afford protec- 
 tion. Now it would take nothing from the monstrous in- 
 justice of the outlawry, were we to suppose that some of 
 the outlawed, owing to peculiar circumstances, felt few, if 
 any, of these evils, and for the obvious reason, that the 
 act of outlawry exposed to all sorts of evils. It was its 
 nature to do this, and if they all did not fall on the victim, 
 no thanks to the act, nor to those who passed it. The act 
 of outlawry is the great injury — the original sin in the 
 case. More or less evil may flow from it, as times and 
 other things may permit ; but it produces no good of itself, 
 but evil, only evil, and that continually. 
 
 That injuries in our rights are the greatest evils we are 
 exposed to— are great mother-evils, which are prolific of 
 others to an unknown extent, is well understood by the 
 American people. This is evidenced by the fact, that both 
 the wars which were carried on against England were for 
 rights. 
 
 The special act of injury committed at the commence- 
 ment of the revolutionary war, considered separately from 
 the rights involved, would, we may safely say, not have 
 produced war. The money drawn from us by the three- 
 penny tax on tea, and the stamp act, was not worth fight- 
 ing about, except as it involved principle. 
 
 But had we yielded the principle that England might 
 tax us at pleasure, who can tell what taxes she might have 
 laid ? what burdens imposed ? She might have ground us 
 to the dust; and made us hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water, to her wants, or pride, or extravagance. 
 
 In the last war for Sailors' Rights, the case was much 
 
202 APPENDIX. 
 
 the same. The number of sailors impressed was not so 
 great, nor their condition on board the British fleet so de- 
 plorable, (they fared as the British sailors did) as to make 
 a resort to war indispensable, leaving out of view the rights 
 involved. But had we given up the right of search and 
 impressment, who can tell to what extent it might have 
 gone? Who can tell how many thousands might have 
 been torn from house and home and all that was dear, and 
 made to spend their lives in fighting the battles of Eng- 
 land? 
 
 We might refer to the political questions now agitated 
 with so much earnestness, between the national and state 
 governments, and their adherents. Rights are the bone of 
 contention. And they are contended for with a zeal which 
 proves that their worth is understood. It is seen, and felt, 
 and avowed, that with our rights is connected everything 
 that is dear — that if they be lost, all is lost — if they be 
 saved, all is safe. 
 
 That our rights are more important than anything else 
 of which we can be deprived — that we may receive a 
 deeper injury in our rights, than in any other way, (and of 
 course may do a greater injury to another in his rights) is 
 on the whole, well understood by the mass of the people. 
 They have been pretty well schooled on this matter. 
 
 Now to see a professor of religion who is thus alive to 
 the worth of rights; thus alive to the deep and irreparable 
 injury which he may receive from that quarter ; and who 
 professes obedience to the command of his Lord, to " Love 
 his neighbour as himself" — " To do in all things as he 
 would be done by," — to see him, in applying this rule to 
 the case of slavery, pass over the whole matter of rights, 
 the very part where he is most alive in his own case — the 
 very part where the deepest wound may be given — the 
 greatest injustice committed, — and busy himself about the 
 quantity of bread, and meat, and clothing, which will sa- 
 tisfy the rule — what shall we say of it! "What man 
 seeing this, and having human feelings, does not blush, 
 and hang his head to think himself a man." 
 
 What were the rights we were like to lose at the com- 
 mencement of the revolutionary war? and to prevent 
 
APPENDIX. 203 
 
 which we entered into that fearful strife ? The right of not 
 being taxed but with our own consent. And what were 
 the rights contended for in the last war? The rights of 
 not being subject to search and impressment. These rights 
 were, in the view of the people at large, worth contending 
 for unto blood. The great bulk of professing Christians 
 thought so too, and gave ample proof that they approved 
 of the war, as right and necessary, by contributing their 
 part to support it; and many of them by treading the 
 tented field and mingling in the strife of battle. 
 
 Now, what are these rights compared with the rights of 
 which the slave is deprived ? They are a mere nothing ! 
 and how can the Christian slave-holder say, he obeys 
 Christ, " he does as he would be done by ?" 
 
 But it will, perhaps, be said, the slaves don't know their 
 rights ; they have never possessed them and can't estimate 
 their loss ! Now passing the generosity and justice of 
 withholding from a fellow creature his rights, because he 
 is ignorant of them, or unable to assert them, I would like 
 to know how it is reconciled with the morality of the 
 gospel ? what part of the teaching of Christ or his apos- 
 tles, gives the shadow of authority for a course of conduct 
 of this kind? How can it be reconciled with the rule of 
 "doing as we would be done by ?" 
 
 Apply the principle to the case of property. An orphan 
 has a right to property; but owing to some untoward cir- 
 cumstance in which he has been placed in infancy, and 
 kept ever afterwards, he knows but little, if anything 
 about his rights. The whole matter is so situated, that 
 while his right is good, his neighbour can keep him from 
 the possession of it, and, to a great degree, ignorant of his 
 right to it, and destitute of the information needful to make 
 the best use of it, were he in any way to get it in posses- 
 sion. 
 
 What now would we say of the honesty of that neigh- 
 bour, who would take advantage in such a case ? What 
 would we say of his excuse, "he does not know the pro- 
 perty is his ;" " he does not know his rights ;" " he can 
 make no estimate of his loss." And how much would he 
 mend the matter in the eyes of every honest man were he 
 
204 APPENDIX. 
 
 to say, the person whose property I hold, not only does 
 not know that it is his, or at least I can hold it in spite of 
 him ; but he is too ignorant to make a good use of it, if he 
 had it ; when it was notorious that he had kept him in 
 ignorance, as a means of keeping him from his rights ? 
 And were this defrauder and oppressor to plead the exam- 
 ple of others who acted in the same way ; were he to plead 
 that every man with a white face in his neighbourhood, 
 treated every one with a yellow or a black face, as he did 
 the orphan boy, how much would he help his cause ? 
 Were he to profess the religion of the Lord Jesus, and 
 take his seat at the sacramental table, while he still held on 
 to the wages of unrighteousness, what would we say of his 
 profession ? what would we say of his religion ? Suppose 
 he were heard to say, and with great self-complacency, 
 " I am good to the orphan boy ; I have, it is true, stripped 
 him of his all, but I am not cruel to him. I give him bread 
 and meat when he passes, and at times make him presents 
 of my old clothes." 
 
 How would public indignation brand such conduct. 
 How would the report of it spread from Dan to Beer- 
 sheba ; and how would his name, blotted with disgrace, 
 be handed down to posterity. 
 
 Now, what is the loss of property compared with the 
 loss of liberty ? what is poverty compared with slavery ? 
 and on what page of Scripture is the rule of justice, of do- 
 ing as we would be done by, suspended, when we meet 
 with a man with a black face ? 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 205 
 
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 APPENDIX. 
 
 COLOURED PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 According to five Official Enumerations. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 Free Coloured. 
 
 | Total. 
 
 1790, 
 
 697,697 
 
 59,511 
 
 757,208 
 
 1800, 
 
 896,849 
 
 110,072 
 
 1,006,721 
 
 1810, 
 
 1,191,364 
 
 186,446 
 
 1,377,810 
 
 1820, 
 
 1,538,061 
 
 226,775 
 
 1,764,836 
 
 1830, 
 
 2,010,629 
 
 319,467 
 
 2,330,096 
 
 (C.) 
 
 Mortality lessens in the world as civilization and im- 
 provement advances. In England, 
 
 In 1700, the deaths were as 1 in 25 
 
 1780, 
 
 do do 1 in 40 
 
 1790, 
 
 do do 1 in 45 
 
 1800, 
 
 do do 1 in 47 
 
 1810, 
 
 do do 1 in 50 
 
 In London from 
 
 1700 to 1750, deaths wer 
 
 from 1750 to 1800, as 5 to 4 ; since 1800, as 12 to 15. 
 
 In Sweden, from 1755 to 1775, deaths were 1 in 35 ; 
 from 1775 to 1795, as 1 in 37. 
 
 Of 100 new born infants in 1780, there died in two 
 years 50 ; at present, 38. 
 
 In 1780, died before ten years old, 55 
 
 At present, - - - - 47 
 
 Lived in 1780, to 50 years, - 21 
 
 Live now to 50, - - - 32 
 
 Lived in 1780, to 60, - - 15 
 
 Live now to 60, 24 
 
 A careful examination of the several wards of Paris, 
 proved that the greater the proportion of poor in any ward, 
 the greater the proportion of deaths. 
 
 This will appear from the following tables. Table I. 
 gives the proportion of houses not taxed, on account of the 
 poverty of the people. Table II. gives the proportion of 
 deaths in each ward. 
 

 
 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 
 
 
 1st ward, 
 
 11 houses 
 
 not taxed in 
 
 the 100 
 
 2d 
 
 
 < 
 
 7 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 3d 
 
 
 i 
 
 11 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 4th 
 
 
 i 
 
 15 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 5th 
 
 
 i 
 
 22 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 6th 
 
 
 i 
 
 21 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 7th 
 
 
 i 
 
 22 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 8th 
 
 
 a 
 
 32 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 9th 
 
 
 it 
 
 31 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 10th 
 
 
 i 
 
 23 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 11th 
 
 
 a 
 
 19 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 12th 
 
 si 
 
 38 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1st ward, 
 
 1 
 
 death ir 
 
 i 58 
 
 persons 
 
 
 2d 
 
 (< 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 3d 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 4th 
 
 (< 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 58 
 
 
 
 
 5 th 
 
 (< 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 53 
 
 
 
 
 Gtli 
 
 it 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 
 7th 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 
 8th 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 
 9th 
 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 44 
 
 
 
 
 10th 
 
 (C 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 11th 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 th 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 
 do 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 207 
 
 Ward No. 2., has but 7 untaxed houses, which is the 
 smallest number, and the deaths in that ward are 1 in 62, 
 which is the smallest number of deaths. 
 
 Ward No. 12 has 38 untaxed houses, which is the 
 largest number ; and the deaths in that ward are 1 in 43, 
 which is the greatest number of deaths. A similar result 
 will be found generally, on an inspection of the tables. 
 
 SeeBerard on the influence of civilization on health and 
 longivity. 
 
X3 g 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V i