Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-06-20
SLAVERY IN THE PHILADELPHIA AN
NUAL CONFERENCE OF THE METH
ODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

profess to know as much about slavery in the
Philadelphia Conference as any member nf the
Conference of my age. have travelled some of
the most laborious circuits lying in tho slave
portions Of its territory.
In pursuing my pastoral duties, / have visited
the abiect slaves in their hus or cabins, the free
negroes in their little houses, and baptized their
children.
have seen slavery in the quarter,in the kitchen,
and in the paror at the church, at the funeral, at
the marriage under the eye of the overseer in the
fields, and on holiday occasions. | have seen it
in its most disgusting form, and amid circumstan-
ces so mild as to veil from the stranger its real
character.
have witnessed its effects on the owners and
employers in the relations of master, mistress, and
overseer. / have studied it with painful and
prayerful interest. From the year 1885, in which
/ confessed Christ, to this hour, have never
wavered in my conviction that to hold human
being in bondage, rs q chattel, would be a sin.
For one human being has no right to force another
to work for him, or take his labor without paying
for it. Ono man has no right to own another
therefore, chattel slavery s gross violation OF
right. 1t is a sin and crime. always felt, too,
that if treated slave well, my death, or failure
in business might nevertheless consign him to
chains and to the lash of the merciless slave
trader.
OF the few hundred dollars received from my
fathers estate one-fOurth of the whole was in the
person of a valuable and honest slave. imme-
diately fled deed of manumission; and had
owned five hundred slaves, and had every cent
was worth been invested in them | should ha re
set them free. Believing slavery to be sin, why
should have hesitated "For what shall it profit
man if he gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul2" Nevertheless, l have patiently list
ened to every vulgar and obscene argument ad-
vanced in its favor, and read all the arguments in
its defence from Dr. Fuller to Taylor Bledsoe. DR..
Fuller is the ablest advocate that has yet taken
the field in support of chattel slavery and should
he ever attempt to prove from the Bible that we
ought not to eat with our teeth, or see with our
eyes, he will be just successful as in his defence
of slavery. From all these antecedents, ! think
am prepared to give a toerably good idea of the
state of things in the slavehodng portions of oul
Conference. AS regards the supposed number o
actual Shareholders Immediately under tho jurs
diction of our Conference, have O word to say
By actual Shareholders. 1 mean those who holt
them for gain, just the utterly irreligious holt
them; without any reference to brethren whit
have manumitted their saves, to be free at twenty
five, thirty, or thirty-fve years of age.
According to the Minutes of the Conference fo
1885, there were upward of Is, 600 white members
and pro5ationers in the slave portion of the Con
ference OF this number there are at least LOO
mercenary shareholders these thousand slave
holders own at least 5000 slaves. Numbers owl
from five to ten. | know one individual who owns
20: Intelligent laymen, in that section of the
country, will not think this a large estimate, bu
quite within the bounds of truth.
I cannot speak for the Baltimore Conference
though it is certain it has vastly larger slavehod
ing territory than the Philadelphia Conference. Il
that Conference has jurisdiction over one thousant
mercenary Shareholders, and these own 5000
slaves, then we have c, 900 slaves owned by 2,OOC
members of the M. L. Church, all sheltered by the
Discipline OF our church.
1t is my opinion that 5000 of our Philadelphia
Conference members, who are not actual slave
holders, are yet advocates of slavery and would
rejoice to inherit slaves. otherwise obtain them.
If these 5000 or 5000 slaves, doomed in theil
persons and posterty to toll that others may reap
could have appeared before the General Conference
of 1856, that noble and generous body of Chris
tisn ministers would have been moved to tears
Indeed the poor slave cannot go to conventions
and Conference to plead his own cause lie can
not know his benetactors. His mind is doomed t.
eternal barronness. He who advocates his cause
in the public estimation partakes in some degree
of his degradation. | will advance another opin
ion. do it with caution. know it will be
called in question, if not positively denied but
court investigation; and il the statement can 5'
proved false. ] will rejoice.
make bold to declare that there are NOR,
slaves owned non by members of the NJ. L. Churcl
than in lS45. There has beer vast increase o