Uncle Tom's Cabin
benefactor to the human race. See, then, to your sympathies in this
matter! Are they in harmony with the sympathies of Christ? or are they
swayed and perverted by the sophistries of worldly policy?
Christian men and women of the North! still further,—you have another
power; you can _pray!_ Do you believe in prayer? or has it become an
indistinct apostolic tradition? You pray for the heathen abroad; pray
also for the heathen at home. And pray for those distressed Christians
whose whole chance of religious improvement is an accident of trade and
sale; from whom any adherence to the morals of Christianity is, in many
cases, an impossibility, unless they have given them, from above, the
courage and grace of martyrdom.
But, still more. On the shores of our free states are emerging the
poor, shattered, broken remnants of families,—men and women, escaped,
by miraculous providences from the surges of slavery,—feeble in
knowledge, and, in many cases, infirm in moral constitution, from a
system which confounds and confuses every principle of Christianity and
morality. They come to seek a refuge among you; they come to seek
education, knowledge, Christianity.
What do you owe to these poor unfortunates, oh Christians? Does not
every American Christian owe to the African race some effort at
reparation for the wrongs that the American nation has brought upon
them? Shall the doors of churches and school-houses be shut upon them?
Shall states arise and shake them out? Shall the church of Christ hear
in silence the taunt that is thrown at them, and shrink away from the
helpless hand that they stretch out; and, by her silence, encourage the
cruelty that would chase them from our borders? If it must be so, it
will be a mournful spectacle. If it must be so, the country will have
reason to tremble, when it remembers that the fate of nations is in the
hands of One who is very pitiful, and of tender compassion.
Do you say, “We don’t want them here; let them go to Africa”?
That the providence of God has provided a refuge in Africa, is, indeed,
a great and noticeable fact; but that is no reason why the church of
Christ should throw off that responsibility to this outcast race which
her profession demands of her.
To fill up Liberia with an ignorant, inexperienced, half-barbarized
race, just escaped from the chains of slavery, would be only to
prolong, for ages, the period of struggle and conflict which attends
the inception of new enterprises. Let the church of the north receive
these poor sufferers in the spirit of Christ; receive them to the
educating advantages of Christian republican society and schools, until
they have attained to somewhat of a moral and intellectual maturity,
and then assist them in their passage to those shores, where they may
put in practice the lessons they have learned in America.
There is a body of men at the north, comparatively small, who have been
doing this; and, as the result, this country has already seen examples
of men, formerly slaves, who have rapidly acquired property,
reputation, and education. Talent has been developed, which,
considering the circumstances, is certainly remarkable; and, for moral
traits of honesty, kindness, tenderness of feeling,—for heroic efforts
and self-denials, endured for the ransom of brethren and friends yet in
slavery,—they have been remarkable to a degree that, considering the
influence under which they were born, is surprising.
The writer has lived, for many years, on the frontier-line of slave
states, and has had great opportunities of observation among those who
formerly were slaves. They have been in her family as servants; and, in
default of any other school to receive them, she has, in many cases,
had them instructed in a family school, with her own children. She has
also the testimony of missionaries, among the fugitives in Canada, in
coincidence with her own experience; and her deductions, with regard to
the capabilities of the race, are encouraging in the highest degree.
The first desire of the emancipated slave, generally, is for
_education_. There is nothing that they are not willing to give or do
to have their children instructed, and, so far as the writer has
observed herself, or taken the testimony of teachers among them, they
are remarkably intelligent and quick to learn. The results of schools,
founded for them by benevolent individuals in Cincinnati, fully
establish this.
The author gives the following statement of facts, on the authority of
Professor C. E. Stowe, then of Lane Seminary, Ohio, with regard to
emancipated slaves, now resident in Cincinnati; given to show the
capability of the race, even without any very particular assistance or
encouragement.
The initial letters alone are given. They are all residents of
Cincinnati.
“B——. Furniture maker; twenty years in the city; worth ten thousand
dollars, all his own earnings; a Baptist.
“C——. Full black; stolen from Africa; sold in New Orleans; been free
fifteen years; paid for himself six hundred dollars; a farmer; owns
several farms in Indiana; Presbyterian; probably worth fifteen or
twenty thousand dollars, all earned by himself.
“K——. Full black; dealer in real estate; worth thirty thousand dollars;
about forty years old; free six years; paid eighteen hundred dollars
for his family; member of the Baptist church; received a legacy from
his master, which he has taken good care of, and increased.
“G——. Full black; coal dealer; about thirty years old; worth eighteen
thousand dollars; paid for himself twice, being once defrauded to the
amount of sixteen hundred dollars; made all his money by his own
efforts—much of it while a slave, hiring his time of his master, and
doing business for himself; a fine, gentlemanly fellow.
“W——. Three-fourths black; barber and waiter; from Kentucky; nineteen
years free; paid for self and family over three thousand dollars;
deacon in the Baptist church.
“G. D——. Three-fourths black; white-washer; from Kentucky; nine years
free; paid fifteen hundred dollars for self and family; recently died,
aged sixty; worth six thousand dollars.”
Professor Stowe says, “With all these, except G——, I have been, for
some years, personally acquainted, and make my statements from my own
knowledge.”
The writer well remembers an aged colored woman, who was employed as a
washerwoman in her father’s family. The daughter of this woman married
a slave. She was a remarkably active and capable young woman, and, by
her industry and thrift, and the most persevering self-denial, raised
nine hundred dollars for her husband’s freedom, which she paid, as she
raised it, into the hands of his master. She yet wanted a hundred
dollars of the price, when he died. She never recovered any of the
money.
These are but few facts, among multitudes which might be adduced, to
show the self-denial, energy, patience, and honesty, which the slave
has exhibited in a state of freedom.
And let it be remembered that these individuals have thus bravely
succeeded in conquering for themselves comparative wealth and social
position, in the face of every disadvantage and discouragement. The
colored man, by the law of Ohio, cannot be a voter, and, till within a
few years, was even denied the right of testimony in legal suits with
the white. Nor are these instances confined to the State of Ohio. In
all states of the Union we see men, but yesterday burst from the
shackles of slavery, who, by a self-educating force, which cannot be
too much admired, have risen to highly respectable stations in society.
Pennington, among clergymen, Douglas and Ward, among editors, are well
known instances.
If this persecuted race, with every discouragement and disadvantage,
have done thus much, how much more they might do if the Christian
church would act towards them in the spirit of her Lord!
This is an age of the world when nations are trembling and convulsed. A
mighty influence is abroad, surging and heaving the world, as with an
earthquake. And is America safe? Every nation that carries in its bosom
great and unredressed injustice has in it the elements of this last
convulsion.
For what is this mighty influence thus rousing in all nations and
languages those groanings that cannot be uttered, for man’s freedom and
equality?
O, Church of Christ, read the signs of the times! Is not this power the
spirit of Him whose kingdom is yet to come, and whose will to be done
on earth as it is in heaven?
But who may abide the day of his appearing? “for that day shall burn as
an oven: and he shall appear as a swift witness against those that
oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and
that _turn aside the stranger in his right_: and he shall break in
pieces the oppressor.”
Are not these dread words for a nation bearing in her bosom so mighty
an injustice? Christians! every time that you pray that the kingdom of
Christ may come, can you forget that prophecy associates, in dread
fellowship, the _day of vengeance_ with the year of his redeemed?
A day of grace is yet held out to us. Both North and South have been
guilty before God; and the _Christian church_ has a heavy account to
answer. Not by combining together, to protect injustice and cruelty,
and making a common capital of sin, is this Union to be saved,—but by
repentance, justice and mercy; for, not surer is the eternal law by
which the millstone sinks in the ocean, than that stronger law, by
which injustice and cruelty shall bring on nations the wrath of
Almighty God!