for the climate. We asked a woman in Georgia, whether she was the slave of a family of our acquaintance. She replied, merrily, “Yes, I belong to them, and they belong to me." She was, in fact, born and brought up on the estate. As there were no inns in that part of South Carolina through which we passed in this short tour, and as we were every where received hospitably by the planters, I had many opportunities of seeing their mode of life, and the condition of the domestic and farm slaves. In some rich houses maize, or Indian corn, and rice were entirely substituted for wheaten bread. The usual style of living is that of English country gentlemen. They have well-appointed carriages and horses, and welltrained black servants. The conversation of the gentlemen turned chiefly on agricultural subjects, shooting, and horse-racing. Several of the mansions were surrounded with deer-parks. Arriving often at a late hour at our quarters in the evening, we heard the negroes singing loudly and joyously in chorus after their day's work was over. On one estate, about forty black children were brought up daily before the windows of the planter's house, and fed in sight of the family, otherwise, we were told, the old women who have charge of them might, in the absence of the parents, appropriate part of their allowance to themselves. All the slaves have some animal food daily. When they are ill, they sometimes refuse to take medicine, except from the hands of the master or mistress; and it is of all tasks the most delicate for the owners to decide when they are really sick, and when only shamming from indolence. After the accounts I had read of the sufferings of slaves, I was agreeably surprised to find them, in general, so remarkably cheerful and light-hearted. It is true that I saw no gangs working under overseers on sugar-plantations, but out of two millions and a half of slaves in the United States, the larger proportion are engaged in such farming occupations and domestic services as I witnessed in Georgia and South Carolina. I was often for days together with negroes who served me as guides, and found them as talkative and chatty as children, usually boasting of their master's wealth, and their own peculiar merits. . . . During our stay at Charleston, we were present at a negro wedding, where the bride and bridegroom, and nearly all the company, were of unmixed African race. They were very merry. The bride and bridemaids all dressed in white. The marriage service performed by an episcopal clergyman. Not long afterwards, when staying at a farm house in North Carolina, I happened to ask a planter if one of his negroes with whom we had been conversing was married. He told me, Yes, he had a wife on that estate, as well as another, her sister, on a different property which belonged to him; but that there was no legal validity in the marriage ceremony. I remarked, that he must be mistaken, as an episcopal minister at Charleston would not have lent himself to the performance of a sacred rite, if it were nugatory in practice, and in the eye of the law. He replied, that he himself was a lawyer by profession, and that no legal validity ever had been, or ought to be, given to the marriage tie, so long as the right of sale could separate parent and child, husband and wife. Such separations, he said, could not always be prevented, when slaves multiplied fast, though they were avoided by the masters as far as possible. He defended the custom of bringing up the children of the same estate in common, as it was far more humane not to cherish domestic ties among slaves. Charles Lyell, Travels in North America (London, 1845), I, 157–184 passim. CHAPTER XXVII- ANTI-SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 174. Statement of Principles (1831) BY WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON Garrison, as the organizer of the American Anti-Slavery Society and editor of the Liberator, was the head and front of the abolition cause in New England. He was egotistic, unpractical, uncompromising, courageous, zealous almost to fanaticism, and was roundly hated by the South. Being a non-resistant, he advocated a moral agitation only: he would not vote, repudiated the Constitution, and, diverging from the political reformers, became the leader of an influential class which would extirpate slavery through the force of moral suasion, and which at the same time sanctioned other moral reforms, such as temperance and woman's rights. —For Garrison, see F. J. and W. P. Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison. - Bibliography: Channing and Hart, Guide, § 187. IN TO THE PUBLIC. N the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing 'THE LIBERATOR' in Washington city; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference. Since that time, the removal of the Genius of Universal Emancipation to the Seat of Government has rendered less imperious the establishment of a similar periodical in that quarter. During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free states — and particularly in New-England-than at the south. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave owners themselves. Of course, there were individual exceptions to the contrary. This state of things afflicted, but did not dishearten me. I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty. That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spolia tions of time or the missiles of a desperate foe-yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let southern oppressors tremble — let their secret abettors tremble — let their northern apologists tremble— let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble. I deem the publication of my original Prospectus unnecessary, as it has obtained a wide circulation. The principles therein inculcated will be steadily pursued in this paper, excepting that I shall not array myself as the political partisan of any man. In defending the great cause of human rights, I wish to derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties. Assenting to the 'self-evident truth' maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights — among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. In Parkstreet Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity. A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in September, 1829. My conscience is now satisfied. I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest - I will not equivocate I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead. It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective, and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this question my influence, - humble as it is, — is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years — not perniciously, but beneficially—not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right. I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard the fear of man which bringeth a snare,' and to speak his truth in its simplicity and power. And here I close with this fresh dedication: 'Oppression! I have seen thee, face to face, Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base : — I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins, Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land, - Such is the vow I take- BOSTON, January 1, 1831. Liberator, (Boston), January 1, 1831. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 175. The Pro-Slavery Argument (1832) BY PROFESSOR THOMAS RODERIC DEW Dew was professor of history, metaphysics, and political economy at William and Mary College in Virginia, and was afterwards president of that institution. His essay on slavery, written after the debates in the Virginia constitutional convention (see No. 169 above) and the events of the Nat Turner insurrection had aroused much sentiment in Virginia in favor of emancipation, aided greatly in quieting the discussion. - Bibliography: Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 186–187. Ist. IT T is said slavery is wrong, in the abstract at least, and contrary to the spirit of Christianity. To this we answer . . . that any question must be determined by its circumstances, and if, as really is the case, we cannot get rid of slavery without producing a greater injury to both the masters and slaves, there is no rule of conscience or revealed law of God which can condemn us. . . . if slavery had commenced even contrary to the laws of God and man, and the sin of its introduction rested upon our hands, and it was even carrying forward the nation by slow degrees to final ruin-yet if it were |