The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-04-01

Nulubu, III yVui pioNel
should feel very much so, myself. You are
free
He Immediately made him out free papers
deposited sum of money In the hands OF the
Quaker. TO be iudcously used in assisting him
to start in life, and left very sensible and
kind letter of advice to the young man. That
letter was for some time in the writer's hands
The author hopes she has done justice to
that nobility, generosity, and humanity, which
in many cases characterize individuals at the
South. Such instances save us from utter
despair of our kind But she asks any person,
who knows the world, are such characters
common anywhere?
For many years of her life the author avoid
cd all reading upon or allusion to the subject
of slavery considering it as too painful to be
inquired into and one which advancing light
and civilization would certainly live down. But
since the legislative act of 1851, when she
heard, with perfect surprise and CONSERVATION,
Christian and humane people actually recon-
mending the remanding escaped fugitives into
slavery, as a duty binding on good citizens
when she heard, on all hands, from kind, com.
passionate, and estimableefsssple, in the free
| States of the North deliberations and discus
sions as to what Christian duty could be on this
head-she could only think, These men and
Christians cannot know what slavery is if they
did, such question could never be open foi
discussion. And from this arose a desire to
exhibit it in Huing dramatic reality She
has endeavored to show it fairly, in its boSt
and its worst phases. In its best aspect. she
has perhaps, been successful but, oh : who
shall say what yet remains untold in that
valley and shadow of death that lies the other
side
To you, generous noble-minded men and
women Of the South--you, whose virtue. and
magnanmity and purity of character, are the
greater for the severer trial it has encounter
ed-to you is her appeal Have you not in
] your own secret souls, in your own private con.
versings, felt that there are woes and evils in
this accused system, far beyond what are here
Swallowed. or can be Swallowed! Can it be
| otherwise! Is man ever creature to be trust
ed with wholly irresponsible power! And
does not the slave system by denying the slave
all legal right to give testimony make every in
dividual an irresponsible despot Can anybody
| fail to make the inference what the practical
result will be? If there is, as we admit n public
sentiment among your men of honor, justice
and humanity. is there not also another kind
OF public sentiment among the rufhan, the
brutal and debasedl And cannot the rufian
the brutal. the debased, by slave-law, own
just as many slaves as the best and purest
Are the honorable the just, the high.minded
and compassionate, the majority anywhere in
this world!
The slave trade is now, by American law
considered as piracy. But slave trade, as
systematic as ever was carried on ON the coast Of
Africa, is an inevitable attendant and result Of
American slavery And its heart-break and
its horrors, can they be told
The writer has given only faint shadow, q
dim picture of the anguish and despair that
are at this very moment, irving thousands Of
hearts. SCATTERING thousands of families and
driving a helpless and sensitive race to FRENZY
and despair. There are those living who know
the mothers whom this accursed traffic ha,
driven to the murder of their children, anC
themselves seeking in death shelter from woe
more dreaded than death. Nothing of tradge
dy can be written, can be spoken, can be con
ceived, thatequals the frightful reality of scene
daily and hourly acting an our shores, beneath
the shadow of American law, and the shadoy
Of the cross of Christ
And now, men and women of America.
this a thing to be trifed with, apologized 70
and passed over in silence? Farmers of Ma
sachusetts, of New Hampshire. of Vermont.
Connecticut, who read this book by the bla2
of your winter-eyening fire-strong- hearte,
generous sailors and ship-owners of Maine
this a thing for you to countenance and CT
courage? Brave and generous men of Ne,
York, farmers of rich and joyous Ohio, and y
of the wide prairie States-answer, is this
thing for you to protect and countenance? An
you, mothers of America-you, who have learr
ed, by the cradles Of your own children. to Low
and feel for all mankind-by the sacred Low
you bear your child by your joy in his beaut
full spotless infancy by the motherly pity an
tenderness with which You guide his CROWN
years by the anxieties of his education; by tn
prayers you breathe for his souls eterna
good beseech you, pity the mother who ha
all your affections, and not one legal right t.
protect guide, or educate, the child of he
bosom! BY the sick hour of your child b,
those dying eyes, which you can never forget
by those last cries, that wrung your heart whe,
you could neither help nor save by the desola
ton of that empty cradle that silent nursery
| beseech you, pity those mothers that are con
stantly made chiIdess by the American slav,
trade And say, mothers of America is this 4
thing to be defended sympathizcd with, passed
over in silencei
Do you say that the people of the free State,
have nothing to do with it, and can no nothing
Would to God this were true But it is moi
true. The people Of the free States have de.
Tended, encouraged, and participated: and are
more gnilty for it. before God, than the South
in that they have not the apology of education
or custom.
If the mothers Of the free States had all fell
as they should, in times past, the Sons of the
free States would not have been the holders
and, proverbially the hardest masters of slaves
the sons of the free States would not. as thew
do, trade the souls and bodies of men as an
equivalent 10 money, in their mercantile deal.
ings There are mutitudes of slaves tempo.
rarily owned, and sold again, by merchants in
Northern cities and shall the whole guilt or
obloquy Of slavery fall only on the South!
Northern men, Northern mothers Northern
Christians, have something more to do than de-
noupce their brethren at the South; they have
to look to the evil among themselves
But, what can any individual do? OF that
every individual can Judge There is one thing
that every individual can d0-they can see to
it that they feel right. An atmosphere of SYM
pathetic influence encirces every human be-
ing: and the man or woman who feels strong
ly, healtbily and justly, on the great interests
Of humanity, is a constant benefactor TO the
human race See, then, TO your sympathes in
this matter! Are they in harmony with the
sympathes of Christ or are they swayed and
perverted by the sopbistries of worldly policy
Christian men and women Of the North still
fnrther--you have another power; you can
prnyt Do you believe in prayer or has it be-
come an indstinct apostolic tradition! You
pray for the heather abroad; pray also for the
heather at home And pray for those distress
ed Christians whose whole chance Of religious
improvement is an accident Of trade and sale
from whom any adherence to the morals Of
Christianity il, in many cases, an impossibility,
unless they have given them from above the
courage and grace Of martyrdom.