Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-09-04

heartfelt welcome the cool breezes Of the
north that play over their swarthy brOws, or
looking up with gratitude to that eternal
watcher in the heavens, from whose distant
abode comes a spirit-voice bidding them be
free. The history and testimony of such are
not chronicled in the papers Of the South
they find no favor in the sight of slavehold-
ing chivalry.
We repeat it, let the shareholders make
the most of this case but what can they
make of it, Does it prove slavery to be a
blessed institution Not so, Does it prove
that even this woman loved slavery better
than freedom By no means. All that it
proves is this-that under the then existing
circumstances she chose to return to Virginia.
What these circumstances were, it is impos-
sible for us to say. Had she a kind master,
was her service comparatively easy? 1t
might be. But if SO, had she been told that
kind as that master generally was, he might
in a fit of passion sell her to the Georgia
sEave-trader Had she been told that he
might become involved and be obliged to sell
her; that his creditors might seize her and
dispose of her to the highest bidder? Was
she made to realize the fact that at his death
she might pass into other hands where the
almost cruelty might be her lot! Unless
she was made to understand all the liabilities
TO which the slave, and especially the female
e1ayo &c axnnoa1 Sha a. mot conah1a of
coming to a right decision. And not only
this, but she should also fully comprehend
the advantages she would enjoy in a state of
freedom. This she probably had not learn
members assert that the slaves of the south
are better off than the free negroes OF the
north, is not the best place to obtain such
knowledge.
But admitting, for the sake of the argu-
ment, that she fully understood the curses of
slavery, and rightly appreciated the bless
ings of freedom, we would then wish to know
what were her domestic relations. Was she
a wife or d motherl Had she left those be-
hind her dearer than life itself! Freedom
was undoubtedly dear TO her soul, and when
she saw the boon within her reach she grasp
ed it with joyful hand. Then came the
thought of those she left in captivity. Her
husband, whose terrible lot would become
yet more terrible, if his wife-the only be-
ing who loved him-should forsake him in
his bondage; the babe of her bosom who had
lain so near her heart, and who had been re-
tained in Virginia, a hostage for the mothers
return. Gould she forsake both babe and
husband? Much as she loved freedom, she
loved them more; and she returned to her
chains and degradation, animated perchance
by the hope that they might at no distant fu-
ture accompany her in her flight from the
house Of bondage.
But we will grant more for tho sake of the
argument, we will grant that no ties of love
recalled her TO the south, that she returned
because her physical condition there would
be better than here, that she had not a single
thought above the clothes that she wore and
the bread that she ate, that nothing but the
animal nature was visible in her being
What more powerful fact could be urged as
an argument against slavery than this How
could the terrible power of the accursed sys-
tenn be more fully developed 1t takes a
being whom God gifted with Immortality,
before whom he placed a great and glorious
destiny, in whose soul he implanted a desire
for freedom, and made it capable of noble and
e%levating deeds; Slavery, we say, takes such
a being, tettors the body, degrades the spirit,
treads out the fires of freedom, and then.
when it has done It's perfect work, presents
the poor stultifed victim, shorn of all the
Heavenly beauty its God bestowed upon it,
and as with maniac laugh it exults in its
chains and degradation, the Demon triumph
antly exelaims, "See how happy and con-
tented my subjects are !"