Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-05-13
PREFERRING SLAVERY TO FREEDOM

The Richmond (Ya.) papers specify three OF
four instances in that State in which certain manu-
mitted slaves petioned the Legislature for permis
sion to take masters; and then adds that the anti
slavery men Of the North are astounded anC
perpexed at these facts.
For one, we see nothing in them 10 astonisl
anybody. The slave manumitted in Virginia
must leave forever its boundaries, within twelve
months after his manumissiOn. Suppose him pe
culiarly Ignorant and iniirm, Punishment to ,
strange land, whose people and customs and mode,
OF labor he knows nothing about, must fill him will
vague terrors, deepened by the consciousness tha
he is without friends, without means, withou
strength. Is it wonderful that he should at time
prefer the ills he knows, to the unknown ills imag
inaton magnifes? Or suppose he has n wife anC
children IN slavery, banishment separates him
from them forever but banshed he must be- unless
the Legislature permit him to take master, and
remain ON the soil, within sight and hearing OF
those in whom his life is bound up. Is il marvel
Gus that under such circums stances this dread al
Tentative at times should be prelerred2 Fear and
weakness in one case, the holiest affections of the
heart in the other might be pleaded in extenuatior
of the choice: but how barbarous must be the pol
icy which makes the protection of weakness, or the
discharge Of parental and cOnjugal duties, depend
ent absolutely upon the debasement of ones man
hood, by the resumption of the shackes Of abjec
slaveryl
If an instance can be shown in which manu-
has voluntarily sought to return to bondage, that
fact in itself shows what fearful havoc the system
has made of nature created in the image of God
where is the free working man Of the North, 50
degraded, vile, poor, miserable, let him be without
friends, relations, employment, home, without Goo
and without hope in the world, who would no
spurn the idea of becoming Tie STARE of the rcl
man, although with certain prospect Of having al
his animal wants supplied, and such protection
youchsaied to him Us we extend to horses anC
cattle?
Is it not strange that intelligent men should refe
! to the two or three instances in which manumiteC
persons, for reasons not stated, have preferred
slavery to perpetual banishment, as evidences o
the genial nature Of the system, when it is notori
GUS that in the many cases of manunission, the
subjects of it have been glad to acquire freedom
upon any terms?
In the year 1850 fifteen hundred slaves wer
emancipated in the South, nearly all Of whom
were obliged to leave their native soil the numbe
within the last twelve months is probably abou
the same, and yet the Richmond Enquirer can fine
only three cases in which slavery was preferred t
freedom! What tremendous data for an argumen
in favor Of the system And while few miser
able slaves, afraid to encounter the competition
white labor at the North, or unwilling to leay
their families to suffer alone the horrors of bondage
have begged for permission to remain in captiyit!
with them fact exultingly referred TO by slave
} holders as proof conclusive of the blessedness o
being slave, hundreds Of human beings amids
unimagined perils and privations, with a darinl
and Inconsistency unsurpassed, have been seeking
refuge from this blessed condition, in the ic,
countries and inhospitable cimes of the far North
Il The Census records the escape in 1880 OF NOR
than ten hundred slaves. What is the testimon,
which their flight bears to this system Of slavery
Do the newspapers ever record the flight of thu
laborers and mechanics of the cold, rough North
from the oppression of the wages system of labor
to the genial rice swamps and cotton fields of tn
South.-NdtioHdI Era.