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Page 48
It is but an act of justice to slaveholders for me to state, that the
education of slaves in most of the slave States is barred by
prohibitory laws. This is one of the fruits of abolition interference
with slavery. I have remarked in Chapter 3, of this volume, that the
abolition excitement in the North, about thirty-five years ago, cut
off discussion in the South on the subject of slavery; and that the
legislatures of the slave States in self-defence, or otherwise, in
obedience to the imperious demands of self-preservation, enacted
stringent laws in reference to the slave population, &c.; and that
among them will be found enactments making the education of slaves a
penal offense. It was the circulation of abolition tracts and papers
among the slaves by Northern men, that first suggested this idea to
the Southern legislatures. Previous to that time, many Christian
slaveholders were educating their slaves. These laws are inoperative
in many places in the South; and it affords me pleasure here to record
the fact, that most of the slaves in Knoxville, Tennessee, the city in
which I last resided while a citizen of the South, are able to read,
and many of them can write. Well done, ye noble and generous sons and
daughters of Knoxville.
CHAPTER XII.
The subject of slavery for the last thirty-five years has been an
exciting one in the United States. There has been much discussion, and
what is worse, much angry contention on the subject. It has been a
hobby for demagogues, and a fire-brand in the hands of factious
disorganizers. Fanatics and false philanthropists have rolled it as a
sweet morsel under their tongues. It has furnished them with a pretext
to cry liberty! liberty! from the rising to the setting sun. Their
whole souls, bodies, and minds, appear to have been absorbed in the
contemplation of African slavery. They appeared to be wholly engrossed
with this one idea, to be engulphed! swallowed up! lost! confounded
and bewildered in visionary abstractions, and ever and anon, their
plaintive notes were heard throughout the hills and dales, liberty and
oppression, the burden of their songs. They seemed to consider all
crime, all oppression, all injustice, all wrong, as merged in African
slavery and its concomitant evils, and themselves the peculiar, the
special guardians of the rights of man. The North and the South have
been hissed on each other with demoniac fury, and have glutted their
vengeance in attempts to "bite and devour each other." Truth, justice,
and righteousness have been lost sight of, and a fair and impartial
statement of facts has seldom been placed before the public; but in
its stead, crimination and recrimination have been hurled from North
to South, and from South to North.
The North has arraigned the South, and the South has hurled defiance
at the North; or, if the former set up a defense, it was little better
than special pleading. Those who have read the foregoing pages are
apprised, that it was no part of my design in this work, to exonerate
either North or South, there is guilt enough everywhere to humble us
all. But I have long considered the attacks of abolitionists on
slaveholders, as devoid of truth and justice, and that their views on
slavery, were in direct opposition to the revealed will of God.
Abolitionism cannot be of God, because its views, plans, and
machinations, are in direct opposition to the revealed will of God.
Whosoever sows dissension or excites discontent among the slaves, and
influences them to dishonor, despise, or forsake the service of their
masters, in so doing, violates the positive injunctions of the Bible.
Servants are commanded in the New Testament to obey, love, and serve
their masters, and to resign themselves to the will of God, and be
content with their lot. Servants are not only taught to obey their
masters, but to account them worthy of all honor, and to endeavor to
please them in all things. "If any man teach otherwise, (says the
apostle), he is proud, knowing nothing." But abolitionists do teach
otherwise; hence, we find many of the leaders of that party
repudiating the Bible.
I do not suppose that Northern people, where slavery is not legalized,
are any better than the Southern people where it is legalized. Each
section of the Union has its virtues and vices. I do not suppose that
England, where slavery is not legalized, is any better than America
where it is legalized. There is more or less injustice and oppression
everywhere. It looks well in England to talk about oppression in the
United States. "Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own
eye." Look at down trodden Ireland, thou despotic tyrant. And ye dukes
and lords, ye pinks of mortality, professing to be Christians, have ye
forgotten the words of Divine inspiration? "He that hath of this
worlds goods, and seeth his brother have need, how dwelleth the love
of God in him?" Look at your tenantry, the millions of miserable
wretches on your own soil, whose condition is far worse than that of
the African slaves in the United States? And ye bishops! ye overseers
of the flock of Christ? with your princely salaries! surrounded by
wealth, splendor, and luxury! Have ye ever thought of the millions,
that are starving around you, not only for the bread of eternal life,
but also for that which is essential to the sustenance of animal life!
Woe to you, ye hypocrites. Ye wolves in sheep's clothing! Bow your
heads with shame, and repent in sack-cloth, or else as surely as there
is a God in heaven, you will have "your portion in the lake that
burneth with fire and brimstone."
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