Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-04-29
A Letter to Right Rev. L. SiIIiman Ives,
Bishop Of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
the State Of North Carolina,
OCCASIONED BY HIS LATE ADDRESS
TO THE CONVENTION OF HIS Do
CESE.
BY A PROTESTANT EPIsCOPALIAN.
(COncluded.)
" WHITEHALL, June %, 1886"

WHITEHALL, June %, 1886"
1t was, sir, exceedingly imprudent to provoke
a comparison between the expressions of the
slave and the factory systems. The expressions
Of system are of course such as the system au-
thOrizeS, Let us, then, compare the powers
vested in yOu, by the laws Of North Carolina,
over your slave, with the powers over his opera
tive vested by act Of Parliament in the English
cotton manufacturer.
l. You may with legal impunity offer your I'M
offending slave, whether male or female, any in
suit or outrage, however gross, not extending to
life or limb
The manufacturer is as responsible in law for
an outrage committed on his operative, as Oh any
other person.
2 You are restricted by law, under penalty
of two hundred dollars, from teaching your slave
to read.-Statutcs Of North Carolina, 1890.
The manufacturer is allow by law to give his
operatives any instruction they may please to re-
ceiye but he can employ no child under thirteen
years OF age who has not at least two hours
schooling day for six days in the week
3. You may fog your slave at pleasure, with
or without cause and if, instead Of standing still
under your lash, when ordered to do so, he re-
treats from you, you are authorized bya solemn
Judicial decision, made in your diocese to take
your gun and shoot him
The manufacturer for shooting his operative
under similar circumstances, would be convicted
of murder, and undoubtedly hung.
a. YOu are permitted by law (laywood's
Manual, $3.50 to keep your slave Oh one quart Of
corn per day.
The manufacturer feeds his operative by con-
tract, or the latter provides his own food
5. You are authorized to prevent your slave
from receiving any religious instruction, and YOU
may also compel him to receive Just such as YOU
please
The manufacturer can exercise no legal au-
thority over the conscience of his operative
q. You may forbid your slave from seeing his
wife and children, and may send him to market
where and when you think proper.
The manufacturer has no similar privileges
7. You may at your own will and pleasure,
torment your slave by scourging, by Imprisonment
by clipping his ears, by branding him with hot
IRON, by fastening an iron collar about his neck,
and by the various modes which malignity may
devise
The manufacturer is responsible to his opera
tive, as we'll as to public justice, for any person.
al INJURY he may lntct on him.
s. You are at liberty, if your slave runs away,
to pursue him with bloodhounds and should he
be torn by the brutes, you would be guiltless-
under the slave code.
The manufacturer, by similar conduct would
subject himself to severe punishment
9, Yo0 are authorized by law, if your slave
absconds, and you do not know where to find
him to crafty your vengeance against him by
offering, in the public papers reward for his
murder
The manufacturer, for such an offer in regard
to his operative, would be regarded and punish
ed as a villain
10. lOu may compel your slave to toll for you
from youth till old age, without other compensa
ton than such food and raiment and shelter as
may be requisite to enable him to labor.
The manufacturer can obtain the services O
no operative except by contract ; and the wages
whether more or less, are such as the latter CON
sents to accept
IL. You are the legal proprietor Of every shred
of property acquired by your slave, by his owl
industry, by gift by devise, or by accident l
he picks up sixpence in the street, it is yours
The manufacturer has no claim On his opera
tive, except for the labor he has agreed to rende
for certain compensation.
- The children of yOm female slaves ar
your property, and you may work, flog, or Sc
them, at will.
The manufacturer has no authority over tn
children of his operative, except by contraC
with the parent, and in accordance with the re
quirements Of an act of Parliament.
Verify, sir the North Carolina Bishops lttl
finger is thicker than the Englishmans IONS.
But you only vlndicate slavery in the abstrac
not its abuses, not its expressions. Please to re
collect, sir, that you have given your eplscopt
sanction to slavery as it exists at the preseI
day" This, in its most limited sense, NEAR
slavery as at present established By Lar. An
now, sir will you please to tell us what you mea
by the abuses and expressions of legal systel
which takes away an innocent mans llbert,
renders him piece of animated merchadlse, d.
prives him of all voliton, places him entirely
n your will, denies him all the fruits Of his labo
divests him of the character of son, husband
and father, and utterly debars him from tt
t pursuit of his own happiness If in all this thel
is none other than imaginary suffering" do Il
It us know what you consider the " cruel oppre
Z sions of the factory system"
Most dangerous, odlouS, anu coIluPtlh!
would be your power over your slave, even wei
it ntrusted to you in consequence of your sacre
h Office and in confidence of your personal virtue
but, alas the power you possess is, in your dl
|, cese, a yendible commodity and any vile, brut
in6del, may, for little money, or by virtue of
> gift or devise, acquire the same tremendous leg
prerogatves over his slave, as are enjoyed by tt
right reverend the Bishop himself
If slavery be indeed an institution so evlden
E ly enjoying the Divine sanction, that it is pr
sumption to pronounce it oorong, tmust be
J. good institution, and Christian benevolence mn
: require us to labor for its extension. This du
II is indeed zealously discharged at present by OF
u Southern brethren, but under the exoterlc PIE
= of" extending the area of human freedom :
!. But why mask with lie work OF love ana me
o cy, which God approves
There are two considerations connected vii
the efforts of the Southern clergy to sustain sIa
erv. which they would do well to ponder
the condition Of the slave be, as most Of the
confess il is generally unfavorabe to religion