The Horrors of Slavery

http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1081.htm

The Horrors of Slavery


# The slave is a portion of his master's goods and chattels. If he is fed, he is fed as his property; if he is clothed, he is clothed as his master's property. Whatever tends to detract from his value as property is carefully withheld from him. In proof of this take the fact—the damning fact— that in several of the states of America it is made punishable with death to teach a slave to spell the name of the God who made him—(cries of "shame"). The slave-owner exercises unlimited right over the body and soul of his slaves. The slave has intellect, but he dares not use it. He has a soul—he may not call it his own. He has a conscience—he may not be guided by it. His master thinks for him, decides for him; his master supplants his intellect—his master supplants his soul—he supplants Almighty God—(sensation). This is the relation between master and slave as it exists in the United States. Not only is the slave absolute property, but he must be barbarously and inhumanly treated in order to keep him a slave.

# Education and slavery are incompatible—to be able to read the Sacred Scriptures would be to see the inconsistency of slavery. In order to make a man contented as a slave they prevent all chance of his detecting any inconsistency in his position. He must not see that the master sustains towards him the guilty position of a robber. He must see that he is a slave, but not know why—(hear, hear).

# Now, I have no learning to recommend me to your consideration. I have never had a day's schooling in my life. All the education I possess, I may say, I have stolen while a slave. I did manage to steal a little knowledge of literature, but I am now in the eyes of American law considered a thief and a robber, since I have not only stolen a little knowledge of literature, but have stolen my own body also—(laughter and applause).

# If a slave uses his own earnings, he steals. To say his hands are his own is to place himself in rebellion against his master. This is the relation between master and slave, and in order to maintain it we have all the terrors of slavery—the whip, the gag, the chains, the thumb-screw, blood-hounds, dungeons, cat-of-nine tails, stocks and fetters—(cries of "shame"). This goes to make up the bloody paraphernalia with which the slave is kept in bondage—(hear, hear). Added to this, the intellectual eye of the slave is bored out, and he is sent from time to eternity in the dark—(hear, hear). He has no means of acquiring knowledge. If he is caught in the attempt to gain it, he is exposed to punishment.



**** Slavery has corrupted the very life blood of the American church. Christianity lies bound hand and foot in the southern states. The gospel is not preached there. It cannot be preached. You may preach under the very eaves of St. Peter's, in Rome unmolested; but you may not lift up your voice in behalf of the Saviour in the slave states of America. Human beings are there kept in the most abject state of ignorance and degradation. Without speaking of the cruelties enacted there, think of this—Three millions of human beings live without marriage, live in a state of universal concubinage, universal pollution—(hear, hear). Women are subject to the absolute control of their beastly owners, and if in defence of their own dignity as human beings they raise their hands against their carnal masters, they are liable to be put to death—(expressions of horror). This is slavery in the United States. It is almost too bad to be believed, yet it is true, and the darker features of slavery yet remain to be brought forward. ************