The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-06-01

which he infused of his own immortal breath
Now, it must be admitted that slavery can never,
in point of fact blot this feature of the divine I'M
age from the soul of man, by making him any
thing but an immortal being yet it overlooks his
Immortality, and treats this undyng spirit rs tho
it were mere matter, having no higher origin than
the earth and looking forward 10 no higher ,desi-
ny than The brutes that perish This immortal
being. this living SOUL which God kindled in man
with the quenchless fires of his own Immortality,
which is to return to its author to dwell with God
forever, to sing with angels, and swell the loud
triumphs of heaven and the glories of the throne ;
or sink in endless perdition, fallen spirit UNI
worthy higher sphere this being is made a
personal chattel to be bought and sold, is made
instrument of qualification to the hell-born passions
of ambition and lust is yoked with the brute, and
driven through life by the sting of the task mas
ter's lash like the OK that perishes, as though
there were no heaven for the negro beyond the
deusive dream that nrudes itself upon his short
hours of slumbering repose, so soon disturbed by
the well known sound of the horn that summons
him to a renewal of his tolls, and as though there
were no hell for him to shun beyond the limits of
the coton-feld, the sugar plant; ton OR the rice
swamp.
2. While God created the brute animals with
tons but the impulse of an instructive nature, he
endowed man with the more noble faculty Of
reason, and thus formed him after the model of
his own nature, who is the only being in the uni
verse possessing reason in absolute Perfection
Now it is too plain to need proof that slavery la
bors to keep the ensaved in ignorance, and even
tries to extingush the lamp of reason with which
God lit up the soul of man. Shareholders admit,
yea, contend that human beings cannot be held in
slavery without being also held in ignorance, and
hence no provision is made for the instruction of
slaves yea, more, laws are enacted to prevent
their instruction under heavy penalties, and every
effort possible is made to shut out light and to
close every avenue to the SOUL lest one enkindling
ray should Tighten and ignite the dark spirits of
the enslaved. Thus you see that slavery does all
it can to blot the image of God from the soul of
man, by degrading him, in point of intelligence,
as nearly as may be, to level with the brutes,-
While the lettered master boasts Of his knowledge,
pressing onward in the course of science and phi
losophy, until he makes the heavens the play
ground of his thoughts, and regales himself with
flowers plucked from the pathway of revolving
worlds, he imposes the blacklist ignorance upon
the spirits he holds in bonds, suffering not one
beam of light to fall upon their rayless orbs .
spirits by God himself made capable of constant
and endless improvement, destined to blaze and
shed their light upon the spheres of coudless
world, are by the very system of slavery consigned
to night of ignorance as black as the brow of
despair, and as perpetual the roll of successive
generations.
iii. The resolution charges slavery with the
crime of degrading man from the digniied rank
which his Maker gave him in the scale of crea-
ton. God placed man over the work of his hands,
saying, let him have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and the
cattle, and over all the earth This glory and
honor, with which God crowned his new-made
creature man, slavery plucks from his brow it dis
gave him, and with its profane and heaven-pro-
voking hand, hurs him down from the sphere as
signed him by God himself and gives him a
place among the brutes that perish Il should be
that the authority with which God
crowned the first man, to subdue, rule, and possess
the world, belongs equally to all men, for it was
conferred equally upon all men in the person of a
common father. God hath made of one blood
all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth and it was when the blood of all men, the
blood of the white and black man, flowed undis-
tingushed in the veins of a common father, and
rushed through its arterial way at the pulsations
of the same undivided heart, that God bestowed
on him the right to possess and rule the world, and
hence, TINS right OF possession ana control belongs
equally to all men without distinction of color or
nation. This right is evidently wrested from man,
for the law of slavery declares that he can pos
sess nothing which is so far from suffering him to
rule any part of the world, that it will not suffer
him to rule himself, no, not his own limbs, but
compels him to submit them to act as they are act
ed upon by the dictates of another's will. God
says, as much to the black man as TO the white
man, Have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle
and over all the EARTH, but slavery says, Not so,
Lord, he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor can
he acquire any thing but what must belong to his
MASTER and which tells the truth, God or slavery,
] will leave you to judge.
w. Slavery is charged in this resolution with
the crime of subverting all the social relations
which God and nature have rendered essential to
mans earthly allotment,
Man is social being,-hs Maker formed him
for society and gave him nature which claims re-
ciprocal enjoyments from kindred spirits; hence,
wherever man is found, he is known to exist in
some kind of society, and taste--hough too often
with Il savage appetite, the sweets of friendly in
tercourse. God having created man to exist in
4 HI II,