Slaveholding

And now will you look on, and seal your lips in silence, and say that you have no right to interfere for the deliverance of the slave? Do you not hear the God of heaven saying, 'Deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire and burn that none can quench it;' and dare you disobey? Do you ask what shall be done for his deliverance? I answer, let every pulpit thunder forth this mandate of the most high God – let every minister at the altar cry aloud and spare not and lift up his voice like a trumpet – and show this people their transgressions; this guilty people their sins. Let every press groan to be delivered of its obligation, to make known the Almighty's will – and let such as can pray, pray now, that God will break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Especially, let woman – woman, the last to linger around the cross, and the first to find the sepulchre of God's crucified Son; linger long at the altar of prayer, and be found early upon her knees, wrestling at the throne of grace; and let all who fear God or love man, resolve before high Heaven, that they will not rest, till every chain is broken, every yoke buried, every scourge and fetter burned.

But I seem to hear some one ask – must we think only of the slave – must we not regard the master's rights? Rights! What rights? Right to hold his fellow man in bondage for one hour? He might as well claim a right to sit on the throne of God. He has no such right. But must he relinquish all the property he now holds in slaves? He has no such property. He has no more right to call them his property, than he has to call the angels in heaven his property. God gave man dominion over the beasts of the field – but over God's own image he never gave him dominion. The wicked, heaven-daring laws of men, confer the power of enslaving man – but the right they never gave, for it was never theirs to give. There is no such thing as property in man – there never can be. We do not ask the slaveholder to relinquish any right. We call upon him, on the authority of God, to break every yoke and let the oppressed go free. We do not ask them to give up their property. We tell them that God declares them to be 'like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain; and that the prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying thus saith the Lord, when the Lord hath not spoken. That the people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger wrongfully – and that God now threatens to pour out his indignation upon them, and to consume them with the fire of his wrath, and to recompense their way upon their own heads.' No – we do not ask the slaveholder to give up his property – we ask them 'to cease beating God's people to pieces – to cease grinding the face of the poor;' and when the slaveholder has done that, the lost slave will have his freedom.

But you say it would make great changes in society, to free every slave at once, and many a man, who now lives in affluence, would instantly become poor. We doubt it not. We doubt not that many a wretch, who has rolled in profusion, by robbing his fellow men of their earnings, would be obliged to go to work with his own hands to earn his bread; and this is just what he ought to have done long ago. He is made of no better clay than the lowliest of all God's creatures whom he enslaves; and there is no more reason why he should be exempted from eating his bread in the sweat of his brow. Let us arise then with one heart, and with united voice, and with ready hands, do our utmost, to deliver the oppressed from their wrongs.

But it may still be asked, what do you expect to accomplish? We expect to make the slaveholder feel, that when he crushes an immortal soul down to the depths of hell, to gratify his own abominable selfishness, God will hold him accountable for that soul at the judgment day. We expect to make him see, that the short-lived gratification, which he can have derived from enslaving his fellow man, will but poorly compensate him, for the eternal damnation which he must hereafter endure, if he does not repent of his abominable sin. We expect to open to him the broad claims of the infinite God, and to make him see that in his present course of conduct, he is holding himself in open exposure to the Almighty's wrath; and having thus bared his conscience to the arrows of truth, we expect to call down the Holy Spirit by our prayers, to fix these arrows deep in his heart; to reprove him of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and thus to bring him to unfeigned repentance before God. We expect not to accomplish what we aim at with our unaided strength – but we believe that the Lord of hosts is with us, and trusting in his strength we cannot fail. Christians of every name, shall we not have your aid? Lovers of your fellow men, look at the wrongs of the slave, and weep and toil for him, that he may go free. Open your hearts and your hands to him, and remember that 'He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord, and that which he hath given he will pay him again.'

Let no one think to rid himself of obligation, on this momentous subject. Every man has a tongue, and he can use it; he has influence, and he can exert it; he has moral power, and he can put it forth; and this is all the power we need. Our efforts are aimed, not at the life of the slaveholder, but at his conscience – his moral feelings, and with the help of God, we do expect them to prevail. But, perhaps you will say, that slaveholders have no conscience on this subject. Doubtless their conscience may be dead and buried; it may have been sleeping these fifty years in its grave; but come on, one and all, let us raise the trump of truth, and blow a resurrection blast above it, that shall call it forth from its dust, to take up its whip of scorpions, and scourge the guilty men into obedience to the commands of God. Slavery cannot long live among them. 'Behold, the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down their fields, which is of them kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' The Lord of armies, is the fearful signification of that term; and if they cease not from their oppression, they may well expect, that the Lord of armies will not long withhold his hand. Up, my friends, and do your duty, to deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest the fire of God's fury kindle ere long upon you.

1

Read Bourne's Picture of Slavery.

2

This occurrence was not very far South, otherwise, there would have been no shame.

3

The author disapproves of interference at the expense of human life, but believes that all possible means short of the shedding of blood, are justifiable.