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

replied, Nathan, in your place, | think
should feel very much So myself You are
free"
He Immediately made him out free papers !;
deposited a sum Of money in the hands of the
Quaker. to be judiciously used in assisting him
to start in life, and left a 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
ed all reading upon or allusOn 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 fugtives into
slavery, as duty binding on good citizens
when she heard, on all hands from kind, COM
passionate, and estiinables people, 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 a question could never be open for
discussion. And from this arose desire to
exhibit it in "A hung drdnlg1Sl reality She
has endeavored to show ia&1fly, in its bost
and its worst phases. In its best aspect she
has, perhaps, been successful; but, oh who
shall say what vet remains untold in that
valley and shadow of death that lies the other
side
To you generous. undetermined 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 accursed system, far beyond what are here
Swallowed. or can be shadowed! 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! lfthere is as we admit, public
sentiment among your men of honor, justice
and humanity. is there not also another kind
brutal and debased? And cannot the ruffian.
the brutal the debased, by slare-law, own
lust as many slaves as the best and purest
Are the honorable, the just, the highminded
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
I American slavery. And its heart-break and
its horrors can they be told
The writer has given only a faint shadow, Il
dim picture, of the anguish and despair that
are ut this very moment, irving thousands OF
hearts shattering thousands of families, and
driving helpless and sensitive race to frenzy
and despair. There are those living who know
| tho mothers whom this accursed traffic has
driven to the murder of their children, and
themselves seeking in death shelter from woes
more dreaded than death Nothing of tradge.
dy can be written, can be spoken. can be con-
ceived, thatequals the frightfu reality of scenes
daily and hourly acting an our shores, beneath
the shadow Of American law, and the shadow
| Of the cross of Christ
And now, men and women of America i
this a thing to be trifled with, apologized fol
and passed over in silence? Farmers of Mas
sachusetts. of New Hampshire of Vermont G
Connecticut, who read this book by the blaz
Of your winter-eyenng fre-strong- hearted
generous sailors and ship-owners of Maine
this a thing for you to countenance and en-
courage? Brave and generous men of New
York, farmers Of rich and joyous Ohio, and v
of the wide prairie States-answer. is this
thing for you to protect and countenance! An,
you, mothers of America-you, who have learn
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 beauti
ful, spotless infancy; by the motherly pity an,
tenderness with which You guide his CROWN.
years by the anxietics of his education bv th,
prayers you breathe for his souls eterna
good beseech you, pity the mother who hal
all your affections, and not one legal right I,
protect guide, or educate the child of he,
bosom BY the sick hour of your child; by
those dying eyes, which you can never forget
by those last cries, that wrung your heart when
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 childess by the American slave
trade And say, mothers of America, is this n
thing to be defended sympathzed with, passed
over in silence!
Do you say that the people of the free States
have nothing to do with it, and can no nothing !
Would to God this were true But it is not
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
II the mothers Of the free States had all felt
as they should, in times past, the sons of the
free States would not have been the holders.
and, proverbally, the hardest masters of slaves /:
the Sons of the free States would not, as they
do trade the souls and bodies of men as an
equivalent to money, in their mercantile deal
ings. There are multitudes 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-
nouncc 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 do--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, healthily, and justly, on the great interests
Of humanity, is a constant benefactor TO the
human race. See, then, to your sympathcs in
this matter! Are they in harmony with the
sympathies of Christ or are they swayed and
perverted by the sophstries of worldly policy
Christian men and women Of the North still
furthcr-you have another power; you can
pray! DO you believe in prayer or has il be-
come an indistinct 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 trade and sale I;
from whom any adherence to the morals Of
Christianity is, in many cases, an impossibiity,
unless they have given them from above the
courage and grace of martyrdom.