The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1843-08-17

"the Lord God formed man OF the dust O
the ground, and breathed into his notril
the breath of life and man became ;
living soul" But slavery, all regardless
of that boundary of mans dominion ovel
nature which the Creator of all has .es.
tablished, all needless of the blessing
which God hath pronounced upon man
all unabashed at the glory wherewi;h the
Lord God hath crowned him, advances
with impious daring into the very. vesti-
bule of heaven, and, with greedy fingers,
clutches this glorious being by the throat,
hurls him from his exhaltation down to
the dust, and, with iron heel upon his
breast. strips him Of every habiliment OF
humanity, and with burning finger writes
upon his brow, GA thing! a chattel, per.
sonaI to all intents and purposes whatso-
everl
"a %slave,' says the Louisiana Code,
sis one who is in the power of a master
to whom he belongs; the master may sell
him, dispose of his person, his industry
and his labor he can do nothing, possess
nothing, nor acquire anything, but what
must belong to his master" The bones,
flesh, muscles, skin, the hands, the feet,
The blood in the veins, the heart and
the brain, which by figure of speech we
call the slaves, are not his, but anothe.'s,
for he is no person. The slave can have
no wife-marriage is a relation unknown
TO slavery. We can not speak OF the
slave as a flthcr, or a child, as descriptive
of any present relation between the pa
rent and his offspring. He can not have
society or home; and all those sweet as
sociations of life in which the civilized
mar finds his chief happiness are strang.
ers to the slave. He is and must be an
ignorant being, purposely made and kept
sol for what people, knowing "the might
that slumbers in a peasants ARM" and
knowing how to directthat strength Alright
in conflict, with that thirst of the soul
after freedom which is mans nature, were
ever or could BE- kept in chains? Letters
being denied to the Save, {save p~erchance
the masters mark-cruel jcsting-burned
into his hesL,) the Bible is to him a seal
ed book. In vain for him did God de-
clare his law upon Sinai. In vain heav-
EMS precep.s, its warnings, its threaten
ings, its flood of wrath, and rainbow of
promise. In vain for him have prophets
appeared to publish the will Of Him who
sent them; in vain the vision and its fu!.
fllment. In vain have martyrs sealed
the truth with their blood. In vain did
Christ die. OF these things he knows
nothing, or if by possibility heaven have
been able to pierce his darkness with
some ray of its own light, why it is well,
since the grace of God within his soul
adds 10 his value as a marketable COM
modify. A living, breathing-machine, to
be worked out for another's use, not his
own fed and clothed perhaps as, and for
the sane rea son that a workman oils the
cranks and pinions of his machine - TO
prevent The too speedy decay of an engine
which he finds useful 10 him. Such is
an imperfect skeleton Of slavery-a mon
ster in mould, and Of most monstrous
habiliments-mother of ignorance, lasciv-
iousness, heathenism, thieving, robbery,
murder, ard all conceivable denominations.
Such was slavery in the British West
Indies, (save as somewhat modified by
The apprenticeship system,) on the last
moment of the last day Of July, 1885,
But soon as Fastening Time bid the clock
tell the last stroke of the blessed hour Of
twelve, upleaped from their broken chains
100000 ofthese victims of oppression in.
to the light of freedom and the glory of
perfect manhood:-900, 900 bodies of the
dust of the earth breathed into and be-
come, in the twinkling of an eye, living
souls. How great the change-how glo-
riousl The chain broken - the drivers
whip 5uried-the thumbserew's Office at
an end. No longer shall stripes enforce
unrequitcd toll; the sweat oftke laborer's
face is now his own. No more shall his
babes be stolen, his wife cudgeled, nor
his daughter be violated before his eyes,
while neither he or she dare lisp resist