Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY BENJAMIN LUNDY, WASHINGTON, D. c. AT $1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.- Declaration of Independence, U. S. No. 5. VOL. III. THIRD SERIES.]

ANOTHER COADJUTOR!

MARCH, 1833.

It is with the greatest satisfaction, that we hail the appearance of another periodical, of high promise, devoted to the Anti-Slavery Cause. CHAS. W. DENISON, a gentleman of talents and literary attainments, and (what is still more important,) of genuine anti-slavery principles, has commenced the publication of a weekly paper, in New York, entitled "THE EMANCIPATOR. "This work is neatly printed, on a super-royal sheet, in the newspaper form. The first number, which has just reached us, is well stored with valuable matter, and makes a handsome appearance. At the head of the first page is an engraving, representing Ethiopia, stretching out her hands unto God." To give the reader a correct idea of the plan of this work, we here insert the prospectus, in full. We most heartily recommend it to the patronage of the friends of emancipation; and will cheerful ly do what we can to encourage its circulation.

[ocr errors]

PROSPECTUS.

Attention is asked to the following principles: 1. The MORAL GOVERNOR OF THE UNIVERSE has made known his will respecting the crimes which are to be found among the family of man.

2. It becomes erring creatures to regulate their conceptions of things, and their every action, by the decisions of an unerring will.

3. The record of that will declares that the Creator "hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth :" hence,

4. All men, of every color, and of every clime, are our brethren, accountable to the same power which has created them and us.

5. All men, of every color, and of every clime, are to be treated as our equals, as it respects their participation in those inherent attributes which we can "neither give nor take away"-to wit: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

[ocr errors]

6. No one, under the broad heavens, has any right whatever to tamper with the undying workmanship of Almighty God, by chaining an unoffending fellow-creature to perpetual servitude of body, and degradation of soul: hence, that God has commanded-"break every yoke, undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go frec.

7. SLAVERY, all over the world, MUST BE OVERTHROWN, or the millenial period promised in the christian scriptures, will never take place.

8. SLAVERY, ALL OVER THE WORLD, MUST BE OVERTHROWN, EITHER BY THE MORAL STRENGTH OF THE FREE, or by the physical force of the enslaved.

9. It is our duty, since "the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof;" and, since the knowledge of His name is to cover the globe, as the waters cover the sea; to use, with faithfulness, all the moral strength, which we possess, in breaking down every barrier that prevents the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ "to EVERY creature.

10. It is unjust, cruel, oppressive and danger

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

[WHOLE NUMBER 281. VOL. XIII.

ous, to countenance, in any way, a system which has for its base a direct violation of the Divine Law-"Thou shalt not steal;" which inevitably tends to violate all the commands of Him who made us; which breeds mutual enmity between its author and its subject; which multiplies crime, like the drops of the morning, which weakens, to a fearful extent, the sacred ties of social life; which denies the right of God's creatures to read His word, and shuts out the light of education from immortal minds; which throws into continuand prosperity of individuals. al jeopardy the existence of nations, and the peace

11. No crime can be adequately conceived of, until it is brought to the light of truth, and all its bearings examined; nor can any evil be driven from the enclosures of human intercourse, unless it is arraigned, tried and condemned, by the best laws which can be brought to operate for the regulation of duty.

12. THE UNITED EFFORT OF ALL WHO THUS DESIRE under God, to banish SLAVERY, with its kindred TO REGULATE THEMSELVES, is all that is required, crimes, from this country, and from the world.

On these principles, THE EMANCIPATOR is put in operation. Speaking from them, and from their various relevancies, this paper will advocate THE

ENTIRE AND IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION OF ALL SLAVES.

Such a course will be advocated, because it is the only just, wise, safe, and advantageous course which can be pursued. FACTS will be adduced to support appeals. Appeals will be made in the spirit of kindness. Kindness will be sustained by the force of conviction. Conviction will be grounded on the power of truth. Truth will be persevered in, until labor shall cease.

"THE EMANCIPATOR " will be printed with fair, small type, on a super royal sheet, and published in New York, every Saturday. Besides original and selected articles on the subject of slavery, religious, literary, miscellaneous, and news items, of a valuable character will find places.

The conditions of publication are $2 00 per annum, [three copies for $5 00,] PAYABLE IN ADVANCE on the receipt of the first number.

CHARLES W. DENISON.

Below, we also give an extract from the editor's introductory address. We shall notice the publi

cation further, at another time.

"I need no introduction. The cause speaks for itself.-My humble efforts on its behalf must speak for me.

It appears my solemn duty, as avowed in the Prospectus of this paper, to advocate the entire and immediate emancipation of all slaves. I take this course, in common with many pious and phílanthropic men, because it is honestly deemed the most just, wise, safe and advantageous one which can be pursued.

I. It is just, because a just God has commanded it. I have already cited several scriptures, in this impression, proving the existence and binding force of this divine command. These are some among many: "BREAK EVERY YOKE. "UNDO THE HEAVY BURDENS. "LET THE OPPRESSED GO FREE. ""I have made the earth, and created man upon it: **** and I will direct all his ways:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

*

Fiat Justitia Ruat Colum.

he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward saith the Lord of Hosts." "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

It is just, because, in the very constitution of He things, MAN CANNOT BE THE PROPERTY OF MAN. is alone the property of God. He has no moral right to sell, or to regard himself as property therefore none to buy, sell, or thus to regard his brother.

II. It is wise, because the highest evidence of wisdom is obedience to God.

III. It is safe, because flowing from considerations immutably just and wise.

the unjust reproaches which have been often heaped upon them. It strenuously supported immediate abolition, by showing the true nature of the measure, and its safety and necessity.

Samuel E. Sewall, Esq. proposed the following resolution:

Resolved, That slavery and the traffic in slaves in the District of Columbia, ought to be abolished by the government of the United States; and that every citizen of every state in which slavery is not tolerated, is bound to use the same exertions to put an end to it in that District, which he would be if it existed in his own State.

Mr. Sewall spoke for a few minutes in support Not only the word of God, but the history of of his resolution. He adverted to the history of the past assures us, that the path of duty is the the District of Columbia, the cession of its two path of safety. It is duty to emancipate all slaves, parts to the United States by Maryland and Viror to use all proper means to secure their emanci-ginia, for a seat of government, by means of which pation: therefore it will be safe to emancipate it became subject to the exclusive legislation of them, because they are the immortal creatures of Congress. He alluded to the wretched system of God. He who provides for the sparrows, will slave laws which prevailed in the District, showprovide for them. It is safe, because slaves, being ed how negligent Congress had been of the rights men, love that liberty to which they are by na- of slaves and other persons of color there; and ture entitled, and which they will obtain, either stated that this District had become one of the by moral or physical force. greatest slave markets in the country-that slaves were brought into it from the neighboring States, chained in droves, then confined in the public or private jails, and finally shipped to the Southern ports. He pointed out some of the cruel injuries to which free people of color were subjected, by It is advantageous, because men will do more being kidnapped and sold for slaves, in conseand better when free, than they will when enslav-quence of the toleration of the slave trade in the ed. Let the whole subject of emancipation be grounded here, and the history of the world proves it worthy."

It is safe, because if emancipation is effected, the emancipated will be grateful rather than vengeful.

IV. It is advantageous, because true exaltation will ever flow from doing righteously.

[blocks in formation]

District; and concluded by exhorting the audience to exert themselves to put an end to the atrocious system, tolerated by the American nation at the seat of its government.

The Rev. E. M. P. Wells seconded the motion, and supported it by appropriate remarks. The resolution passed unanimously.

January 16. The Society met, pursuant to the adjournment. The spacious hall was crowded with a highly respectable assemblage, among which were a large number of members of the Legislature, from various parts of the Commonwealth.

David L. Child, Esq. then proposed the following resolution :

Resolved, That the free people of color and slaves in this land of liberty and law, have less liberty, and are less protected by law, than in any other part of the world.

The resolution passed without opposition. The Rev. Mr. Russell, of Watertown, offered the following resolution:

Our friend, Denison, is mistaken respecting the particular location of the "Patriot," in North Carolina. That spirited and useful work is pubResolved, That the plan of colonizing the blacks lished in Greensborough, N. C. instead of New-in Africa, as explained by its friends, is preposter

bern.

NEW ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

ous in the extreme, and every attempt to put its principles into operation, is an unrighteous persecution, levelled against the free people of color, to secure and perpetuate slavery in our country; The following extracts from the proceedings of and, therefore, calls upon us to counteract its opethe "Annual meeting of the New England Anti-rations by an open, free, and fearless exposition of Slavery Society," will be found interesting and instructive. They are taken from the second number of the " Abolitionist."

The annual meeting of this Society was held at Boylston Hall, in Boston, on Wednesday evening, January 9th. A numerous audience was assembled.

Mr. Garrison, the Corresponding Secretary, then read the annual report of the Managers. This paper explained at some length the objects of the Society, and vindicated its principles from

its policy and effects.

The resolution was adopted.

PRESIDENT.

JOHN KENDRICK, Newton.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Arnold Buffum, Boston.

Rev. E. M. P. Wells, Boston.

Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn, New-Haven, Ct.
Rev. Samuel J. May, Brooklyn, Ct.
Ebenezer Dole, Hallowell, Me.

Rev. Moses Thatcher, North Wrentham.

Fiat Justitia Ruat Cœlum.

[blocks in formation]

"Three Lectures on British Colonial Slavery, delivered in the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool, on the 28th and 30th of August, and 6th September last, by George Thompson."

wider range, they should be as diffusive, ay, more diffusive than the rays of the bright orb of day, that they should embrace and warm both hemispheres at once; that we should make the world our neighborhood, and see in every man a brother and a friend, no matter whether he inhabits the kraal of the Hottentot, the hut of the negro, the palace of the prince, or the cellar of the beggar. Wherever we find a being endowed with faculties like our own, created for an immortal destiny, and capable, like us, of knowing, serving, worshipping, and loving God; who may with us be nurtured for the skies; antedate with us the bliss beyond the grave, and rise at last to glory, and honor, and eternal life; wherever we find a being like this, we find one whom we should recognise as our brother, ay, our brother; however degraded beneath the hand of oppression; however untutored in the arts of civilized life; however unprotected by the unequal laws of man,-our brother still; whom we shall be compelled to own, and own perhaps to our shame and confusion, in that dread day when God shall bring his "sons from afar, and his daughters from the ends of the earth." I know that the common attributes and destinies of

[ocr errors]

We are indebted to a highly esteemed friend, in Philadelphia, for these interesting lectures; but we have not room, at this time, to present the reader with a general view of them. We can only now give a few extracts from the first of the humanity have been denied to the negro. I know three; and shall return to the subject and take a that in this, my native town, hundreds could once be found who calmly argued that the negro was more extended view of the whole hereafter. The not an immortal being; that he was not born to forcible and masterly appeal made by the speaker discharge the same duties, to entertain the same to the understandings and christian sympathies of hopes, or to share the same salvation with thema British auditory, must have carried conviction || treatment of him as an irrational beast. selves, and by such means they justified their to every hearer capable of comprehending sound "Not only has the negro been denied the enargument, and appreciating the obligations of mo-joyment of civil rights-not only has he been doomed to 'hew wood and draw water' for the rality and religion. white man; but the benefits of religion have been denied his teachers have been persecuted and banished-the house in which he worshipped his God, and in which he is taught to lift his eyes in house has been razed to its foundation; thus parhope and confidence to one common Father-that ticularly, even in the present day, has his right to hope for immortality been denied, and he has been consigned to ignorance and vice, to the labor and treatment of a brute on earth, and the destiny of a brute hereafter. Yet his pale oppres"I am not here to canvass a question connected sor has proudly claimed immortality for himself, with literature, science, or the arts, upon which aand has contemplated that immortality without variety of opinions may be entertained and ex- dread of the judgment awaiting him for his ruth'pressed, and publicly promulged, without moral less conduct towards his sable victim." consequences-and without responsibility; but to assert, and to maintain, and to vindicate before the world, the long-stifled, long-resisted, long-evaded, still evaded claims, of nearly a million of my fellow-men and fellow-subjects, whose rights are as sacred, and should be as inviolable, as those of the wisest, the fairest, the best in this assembly; and whose wrongs and woes, whose suffering and degradation should, ere this, have made an irre sistible appeal to the honor and humanity, the wisdom, the piety, the justice, and the patriotism of the British nation."

The lecturer was the agent of the Anti-Slavery Society; and he was followed by a gentleman of the name of Borthwick, who had been engaged by the West India party to reply to him. At the time appointed the house was crowded, and many hundreds who were desirous of obtaining seats were excluded for want of room. The following is a part of his introductory remarks:

After declaring and proving that the cause he had espoused was the cause of man—of all men— of every human being, he proceeds:

He does not stand among them to calumniate any class of individuals-not to make an attack upon persons or character-but to claim for the negro, upon christian principles, an equality of rights with himself, and every free born subject of the British realm.

"I am not here, as it has been insinuated in some quarters, to answer a party purpose. I seek to be identified with no section of the religious world, with no division of the political one; not to advance any particular doctrine or creed, but to discuss upon the broad and immutable principles of justice and mercy, truth and love, the great question whether there is courage enough in the "I hold it to be the law of Heaven that we bosoms of Britons, and confidence enough in the should 'love one another;' that our sympathies arm of the Almighty, to open the prison doors and charities should not be bounded by the neigh-and let the oppressed go free; and thus to vindiborhood in which we dwell, or by the country in which we reside, or by the empire of which we are subjects, or be limited to those of the same clime and color as ourselves; but that taking a

cate their love of liberty, and free themselves from the guilt of fostering the foulest system that ever desolated and defiled the earth, or insulted the majesty of Heaven.

1

Fiat Justitia Ruat Colum.

[ocr errors]

"I am here to demand immediate and total emancipation for the negro; not the destruction of property, not the endangering of life, not the dissolution of the frame-work of society; but the liberation of 800,000 fellow-subjects from the operations of a system which degrades the body, brutalizes the mind, produces ignorance and vice in the slave; pride, arrogance, and demoralization in the master; which, in a word, debases and dehu-shores of Africa during the progress of that vile manizes both. Emancipation from law? No. Heaven forbid! Emancipation from restraint? No. Are we free from law, or from restraint? || Yet we have no whip behind us to keep us at our work; to be our daily, our only stimulus to exertion. Ours is the restraint of will, and equitable laws our incentives to labor, the influence of motives which have ever been found sufficient from the foundation of the world. I ask that the slave should henceforth be controlled by such laws, should be influenced by such motives. Emancipation from labor? No. We are told this; but it is not so. The destruction of property? No. Its preservation and security. I plead for a legis. lative enactment annihilating an odious and impious right of property in the bodies and souls of British subjects, and immortal men, and the immediate substitution of public, judicial, and responsible | authority, for private, arbitrary, and irresponsible control. I ask that the negro should be made free from fetters, from chains, from whips, and from uncompensated toil, whilst, at the same time, there should be all needful arrangements to ensure the safety of the master, promote the cultivation of the soil, and advance the real and true interests of all parties concerned. This, my friends, is all I ask: if I am wrong, this is the very head and front of my offending, no more.'

[ocr errors]

of Heaven upon the land, and fearful will be the
consequences of your crime.' So much for the
commencement of the traffic. Here we have
fraud, violence, and hypocrisy at the threshold:
much good may it do those who seek a justifica-
tion of the continuance of slavery in the early his-
tory of the slave trade! The time would fail were
I to tell of all the crimes perpetrated along the
traffic; the smoking towns, the ravaged villages,
the desolated plains, the pathways through the
deserts lined with troops of human beings, faint-
ing, and bleeding, and groaning, and dying by
the way. Neither have I time to describe the
structure of that floating hell, the slave ship, from
whence continually proceeded weeping, and
I have no time
wailing, and gnashing of teeth.'
to describe the soul-sickening scenes of the colo-
nial slave market, the passing of money from
hand to hand, and then the transfer of human,
rational, and immortal beings, branded like beasts,
and fettered like felons, from master to master.
I have not time to speak of all the ravages of dis-
ease and death during the period of seasoning, as
it was called; nor to recount, if human language
could recount them, and if human patience and
human compassion could listen to the detail, all
the accumulation of insults, and of wrongs, of
toils and woes, that have been heaped upon the
successive generations of the slave population
I say, for all
from that time even until now.
these purposes the time would utterly fail us; and
I proceed, therefore, to that portion of the subject
with which we have more immediately to do,
namely, to enumerate the evils which flow from
the system as we find it now existing in the Bri-
tish colonies. A word, however, may be spared
in reference to the abolition of the slave trade.

"It is now about 150 years ago since a clergyman of the Church of England, of the name of Godwin, first roused the attention of the people of this country to the subject of negro slavery, by

He shows that the slave trade and slavery had their origin in fraud, violence and hypocrisy. The bold and fearless manner in which he speaks before a mixed assembly of Englishmen, would be pronounced, by the fastidious and dough faced gen-writing a treatise upon the topic, which he dedi

try of this free republic as declamatory and abusive.

[ocr errors]

cated to the Archbishop of Canterbury. After Mr. Godwin, many eminent men publicly and fearlessly reprobated negro slavery. We may name Richard Baxter, the eminent nonconformist, Our ears are too delicate and refined to bear Dr. Hayter, Bishop of Norwich, Bishop Warburthe plain, undisguised truth on this very delicate ton, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. Nor ought we to subject. No. We must be very careful not to forget, in our retrospect of this question, however offend slave holders. If they scold us we must brief, the unceasing labors, for a long series of ask pardon-if they threaten us, we must sub-years, of the members of the Society of Friends. mit, and offend no more. But we will not detain Among the first of these were John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, the former of whom travelthe reader from the lecture. led through the United States on foot, with the benevolent view of persuading the planters to liberate their slaves, while the latter kept a free school for the blacks at Philadelphia. Much, very much, is due to the persevering exertions of that estimable portion of the religious world; would to Heaven that all denominations of christians had imitated their holy and praiseworthy example! It would not then have been my lot, in the year 1832, to make an appeal to British christians to dissolve the fetters of 800,000 captives, groaning in worse than Egyptian bondage beneath the sceptre of an English monarch; nor would it have been necessary for others to hire an advocate to gloss over the horrors of the system, and follow me from place to place like my evil genius,' to thwart my endeavors in the cause of freedom, and show that my christianity is not the christianity of the Bible. But, Sirs, you are my judges: have I libelled christianity? Do I

"It was in the reign of Elizabeth that Sir John Hawkins, an Englishman, first dishonored our country by engaging in the African slave trade. It had before been commenced and carried on by the Spaniards and Portuguese. And what did Sir John Hawkins do? Having commenced these bloody proceedings, he, with the most consummate deception, represented to the Queen that they were voluntary slaves; that it was pure mercy which had induced him to carry them from their homes, their friends, and their country, to the Isles of the West; that their souls (mark the wily hypocrite,) their souls were precious in his sight; their conversion to christianity was the object at which he aimed. Notwithstanding this representation, the Queen had her misgivings, and said, 'If you force them to leave their country,-if you drag them from their homes without their consent, you will draw down the vengeance

Fiat Justitia Ruat Colum.

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their
spheres,

And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.'

REUBEN MADDISON.

Shakspeare.

About five years ago one of the religious newspapers of New York called the attention of its readers to a distressed family of pious colored people. Captain Stuart, by following the direction given in the paper, easily discovered this family, and found it to consist of a Negro of a most frank and pleasant deportment, his wife confined to her bed by severe rheumatic fever, but exceedingly happy through the comforts which religion afforded her, and a female companion, suffering from rheuma. tic pains, but able to go about the work of the house.

misstate its principles, its genius, its tendency, its doctrines, its precepts, its examples, when I say that they all conspire to teach me that I should love my neighbor as myself,--that I should feel the kindlings of charity toward all mankind,-and that I should do unto others as I would that others should do unto me? I ask myself, should I like to be a slave? I look upon the thousands around me, and I ask, is there one here who would wish to be a SLAVE? And the answer which comes to me from every heart and every tongue is, No. Well, then, if liberty be good for me,--if it be good for you, if it be good for our brothers, our friends, our wives, our children, our neighbors, and our countrymen;—if it be the wholesome atmosphere we breathe,-if without it we should become diseased, and wretched, and despised, then it is good for every man; and I claim it for the negro. If you say he knows not his own value, nor the value of liberty, I answer, he can never learn their worth in slavery. Freedom alone can restore him to the full dignity of his nature. Charge not his present degradation upon his Creator; say not he is the descendant of Ham, and therefore debased. Give him liberty, give him kindness,-give him education; treat him with love, and own him as a brother, and he springs at once from the earth, and grows into the full stature of a rational, accountable, and immor-prompted such willing and obliging behaviour, tal being."

(Subject to be continued.)

REUBEN MADDISON:

A True Story, with a few Anecdotes and Reflections.
Forget her not! Forget her not!

Her wrongs are your country's foulest blot!
When ye list your children's shouts of play,
When ye soothe their transient griefs away,
When ye bend above the couch of pain,
Or watch where the dying head is lain,
But most of all, when you kneel in
prayer,
To seek your Father's daily care,
Never should Africa be forgot,
Till your land is cleansed from its foulest blot.
Verses from America.

This is an interesting pamphlet, of forty-eight pages, for which we are indebted to the worthy Secretary of the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, at Birmingham, England. We extract as largely from it as our limits will permit. It is gratifying to perceive that the labors of our friends, here, attract the attention of our coadjutors in England; and may we not hope that the efforts of all may be thus happily combined, to effect the great purposes to which they are directed.

The story of "Reuben Maddison" is merely a detail of facts; and the scenes of his trials and sufferings having been located at our own doors, make it the more interesting to us. And the extract from the “Christian Record," particularly, is heart-rending! How many, alas! in our own country, are treated with equal cruelty to those victims of tyranny in Jamaica? We know something about this, that would make the ears of our readers tingle!

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul-freeze thy young blood

At different times Captain Stuart learnt from this Negro man, whose name was Reuben Maddi. son, the following particulars of his history. Reuben was born a slave in Kentucky; his master being a cruel and artful man, but his mistress kind and good. He was allowed the privilege of seeking his employment where he would, being only required to bring his master yearly the sum of 120 dollars, reserved from what he might be able to earn. The kindness of Reuben's heart

*

*

that every one in whose way he came was pleas-
ed to be served by him, and he found plenty of
work, especially at
*, a neighbor-
ing watering place, and lived very happily with
his wife, and their family of young children.

work at a distance, when he met a fellow slave,
One evening Reuben was returning from some
whose unusually sad look occasioned him alarm,
and who asked him where he was going. Reu-
ben answered, he was going home to his wife and
children. To this the other replied, Going
home to your wife and children! Don't you know
that you have no more a wife or children? They
are all gone; sent off by massa to be sold."

66

Poor Reuben hastened to the cottage that had been his happy home, and finding that it was indeed as his companion had said, he flew, half distracted, to Frankfort, the capital of the State, whence he knew they would be embarked on the Ohio, to go down it, and the Mississippi, to New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana, and the principle United States' mart for slaves. He hoped to be in time to see his treasures once more; but they were already gone, and he returned in hopeless despair.

After a dark and dreadful period, however, the

thought came suddenly into his mind, “Reuben do you love your wife and children? And if you do, is this the way to act? Instead of wandering about mourning, and doing nothing, why don't you set to work, and work harder than ever, that you may get enough to buy your freedom, and go and seek after your wife and children, and perhaps buy their freedom too?"

*

his spirits; he set to work with redoubled vigor;
The hopes inspired by these thoughts revived
and soon after, as he was passing along the streets
of *
*, a Quaker, who knew his histo-
ry, stopped him, and said that he could tell him
something much for his advantage, The Friend
then informed him, that a gentleman in the neigh-
borhood was about to establish some paper-mills,
and that as the trade of rag-gathering was new in
the country, if he, who had so many kind friends
and acquaintances about, were to furnish a hawk-

« AnteriorContinuar »