The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-10-21
SLAVERY AND ITS ABUSES MRS STOWE AND
THE N. YORK COURIER AND ENQUIRER.

. reviewing DTlellV tDe CONTROVERSY Det"O'" 49,
Stowe and Dr. Parker, and severely censurin
both parties That Journal so thorough.
pro-slayery in its sympathies should feel con
strained to condemn DR. Parker and his asso
ciates. with whom it aihliates, as equally blame
worthy with Mrs Stowe and her brother 10
wards whom it occupies on almost all ques
tons of reform, an antagonistic position s
plain intimation to the reverend gentleman
that his cause is desperate
But. we refer TO the article not for the bene
fit of the opinion it advances in relation to thl'
controversy but for the purpose OF commenting
upon the Judgment it pronounces against Onei'
TOMS Cabin 1t charges Mrs Stowe with Sian
derng hundreds of thousands Of her own coun
trymen.
She has done it, lit says) by attaching tc
them as shareholders in the eyes of the world
the guilt of the abuses of an institution OF which
they are absolutely guiltless. Her story is SO
devised as to present slavery in three dark as
poets first. the cruel treatment of the slaves
second the separation Of families and, third,
their rant of religious instruction.
To show the first she causes n reward to
be offered for the recovery of runaway slave,
dead or alive, when no reward with such an
alternative was ever heard of or dreamed of
south of Mason and Dxon's line, and, it has
been decided over and over again, in Southern
courts. that IL slave who is merely flying away
cannot be killed She puts such language as
this into the mouth of one of her speakers
The master who goes furthest and does the
worst, only uses within limits the power that
| the law gives him when in fact the Civil
I Code of the very State where it is represented
the language was uttered Louisiana, declares
that
1.-The slave is entirely subject to the will of
his master. who may correct and chastise him.
though not rih unusual ugor, nor so as 10
mann or mutiiatc him. or to expose him TO the
danger of loss of life, or 10 cause his DEATH
"And provides for a compulsory sale
"'When the master shall be convicted of
cruel treatment of his slaves and the Judge
shall deem proper to pronounce, besides the
penaltv established for such cases, that the
slave he sold at public auction, in order TO
place him out Of The reach Of the po,cer whieh
tie master has dbuSed'
eff any person whatsoever shall wilfully
kill his slave, or the slave of another person,
the said person, being convicted thereof shall
be tried and condemned agreeably to the laws
In the General Court of Virginia last year,
in the case of SOuther rs. the Commonwealth,
it was held that the killing of slave by his
master and owner, by wilful and excessive
whipping, is murder in the first degree though
II mag not hare been the purpose of the master
and owner TO kill the Stare! And it is not six
months since Governor Johnston of Virginia
pardoned slave who killed his master, who
was beating him with brutal severity.
And yet, in the face of such laws and de-
cisions rs these, Mrs Stowe winds up long
series of cructies upon her other black person
ages, by causing her faultless hero, Tom, to be
literally whipped to death in Louisiana, by his
master Legree; and these acts, which the laws
make criminal, and punish as such, she sets
forth in the most repulsve colors, to illustrate
the institution of slavery
80, too in reference to the separation of
children from their parents. A considerable
part of the plot is made to hinge upon the sell
ing, in Louisiana. of the child Eliza, eight or
nine years DID, away from her mother when,
had It's inventor looked in the statute-book of
Louisiana, she would have found the following
language:
So Every person is expressly prohibited from
selling separately from their mothers The chill
dren rho shall not hare attained the full age of
ten gears
- BE ii further enacted, That if any person
or persons shall sell the mother of any slave
child or children under the age Of ten gears, sep
arGte from SAID child or children, or shall, the
mother lung, sell ana sIaUe child or children of
ten yedrS Of age or under, separate from SAID
mother sand person or persons shall be fined
not less than one thousand or more than two
thousand dollars, and be imprisoned in the
public jail for a period of not less than ss
months nor moro than one year
The privation of religious instruction a.
represented by Mrs. Stowe, is utterly unbound
ed in fact The largest churches in the Unior
consist entirely of slaves The first African
church in Louisville, which numbers 500. and
the first African church in Augusta, which
numbers |, 300 are specimens On multitude.
Of the large plantations in the different parts
of the South, the ordinances of the Gospel are
as regularly maintained by competent minis,
ters rs i'll any other communities, North or
South. A larger proportion of the slave pop
| ulatiOn are in communion with some Christian
church, than of the white population in any
| part of the country. A very considerable Dor
ton of every Southern congregation, either in
| city or country, is sure to consist of blacks
whereas of our Northern churches not q col
Ored person ~ to be seen in one out of fifty
"The peculiar talsity of this whole book con-
sists in making exceptional or impossible cases
the representatives of the system. BY the same
process which she has used it would not be
| difficult to frame n fatal argument against the
relation of husband and wife, or parent and
child, or of guardian and ward for thousands
of wives and children and wards have been
maltreatcd and even murdered Ii is wrong
unpardonably wrong, to impute to any rela-
ton Of life those enormities which spring only
out of the worst depravity of human nature. A
ridiculously extravaganza spirit Of generaliza
ton pervades this fiction from beginning to end
| The Uncle Tom of the authoress is perfect
angel, and her blacks generally are half an
gels; her SmonLegree is perfect demon, ant
her whites generally are halEdemons She ha
quite peculiar spite against the clergy; and
of the many she introduces at different times
into the scenes all save an insignificant excep
ton, are Pharisees or hypocrites One VIII,
could know nothing of the United States ant
its people, except by what he might gathe
from this book, would Judge that it was som,
region Just on the confines of the Internal world
| we 10 Hol say tiiat hlrs. StoWe was actuatei
by wrong motives in the preparation of thi
work, but We do say that she has done a wron,
which no ignorance can excuse and no penanc
can expiate."
The criticism on the ridiculously extrava
CANT spirit of generalization which it is as
sumed pervades the work, is groundless an,
unjust. Either the editor never read the book
or his judgment is warped by prejudice. Uncl
Tom is neither perfect nor an imperfect angel
but a singIlarly good man; and certainly thi
should not appear strange to one who dis
courses so cloquently ON the extraordinary re
ligious advantages of the slaves Even sup
posing that they are not so highly blessed a