Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-01-08
From the Kentucky Free South.
WOMAN AND SLAVERY.

Among savage and barbarous tribes, where
mere physical Might is the rule of Right, woman
is degraded to q beast of burden, and made the
drudge of the stronger SEX In proportion as she
becomes free, and her rights are respected human.
,y rises in the scale of civilization, refinement aud
progress. Wherever woman is degraded, man 10
degraded also the nearer woman at,ains her true
rank, the more society is elevated, improved and
humanized
The most revolving feature in chattel Slavery
is the degradation of wotnan. II allies tho COZ
munity where it is allowed. to savageism and bar
barism, and even makes it in some respects, more
degraded. 1t not only makes woman a chattel, o
beast of burden but it sinks her to lower depth.
She may become a mother, but not wife. -
There is in slavery no real marriage-only tbs
shadow, the mockery Of wedlock. What passes
under the name Of marriage, is but q short con-
cubinage, which exists not at the will Of the par.
ties, bu. at the will tho within, the caprice, or in
terest of another.
The children Of the slave woman are not here.
or their fathers, but the property, like calves and
colts, of the owner of the mother. If her children
ere daughter, they and their children chattels
aud tho offspring of all their female descendants.
not to the third and fourth generations hut to the
end of time.
The Slave Power establishes its nAeIible law
the mother slave, the children are slaves. Il
unsexes women, and treats her not as human bs.
ing, but as thing. 1t speaks of the fright OF ths
owner to his slave and its increase" likening the
Children of female slave to the increase of fruit
tree or domestic animal
But there is another aspect in which the condition
of woman in slavery is far worse shan it is amo~
the most savage and barbarious people. With
these her right to the custody of her own person
is respected But when woman is made slave,
she is regarded as the property Of tho owner to be
used for his benefit or pleasure, and may be made
the instrument of the lowest and most sensual graf
ifcation 1t ia useless for her to resist, for the
man holds in his hands the power life and death.
The law gives her no redress, for her oath cannst
DC taken against the white man. r..---.
All female slaves are no. thus abused but MAJ
ny are, and such is the tendency Of the system. A
slave auction exhibits this tendency in bold relief
lie. woman or a maiden be placed on the block,
and the coarse and indecent examination to which
her person is subjected tho questions that are put
to her. and the remarks the jibes and jeers Of the
By. y.standers, clearly manifest tbs lowt sensual
thoughts associated with the sale 0! meek unrs-
sis,ing, defenseless woman into slavery. -
} 1t may be said that many slave women do mol
feel any degradation. True but what can be con-
ceived more horribly degrading than system
which eG.ces from a woman's soul her native mod.
ss,y-her inborn sense Of honor and purity! This
the greatest tho fouest wrong that it is possible
: for tyrant man to inaict on what lie calls tbs
weaker SEX" whom he should protect, respect,
love and CHERISH whatsoever their pedigree color
or condition, because his mother was also wo.
man, and he himself may have been norsed anl
tended in infancy by one Of those fhii9s he call,
slaves, p s1a
; How many ~em.n ms held in slavery that The,