Read Ebook: Abolitionism Exposed! Proving the the Principles of Abolitionism are Injurious to the Slaves Themselves Destructive to This Nation and Contrary to the Express Commands of God by Sleigh W W William Willcocks

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Besides all this, recollect that there are about FIFTY MILLIONS of Africans left exposed to the debasing influence of this hellish practice. And if the Colonization Society did nothing more than stop or check this torrent of infernal iniquity, it ought to render its friends and advocates immortal, and make those blush who vilify and slander them.

The editor builds nearly the whole of his arguments, which occupy 126 pages, on TWO ERRONEOUS PRINCIPLES--which principles, if I prove to be really erroneous, I need not wade through his numerous conclusions to show the fallacy of each and every one of them; "for every argument built upon a false position necessarily ends in an absurd conclusion."

One or two conclusions drawn from this first principle will, no doubt, be gratifying to the reader. In page 220, the editor proceeds thus:

THE CONDUCT AND CHARACTER OF THE SOUTHERN SLAVE-HOLDER, VINDICATED.

One of the peculiar features in the practice of Abolition champions, is to discredit every statement proceeding from all others, except from themselves: and in this respect they resemble very much, as I stated in the preceding part of this pamphlet, the champions of Infidelity! If there be, therefore, any truth in the common adage, that "none are so suspicious as those who are conscious that their own statements ought not to be credited," there can be no difficulty in accounting for the unbelief of those gentlemen.

Patrick Henry says,--

Zachariah Johnson says,--

Judge Tucker says,--

General Harper says,--

Darby says,--

M'Call says,--

General Mercer says,--

F. S. Key, Esq. says,--

Mr. Clay says,--

William H. Fitzhugh, Esq. says,--

"Slavery, in its mildest form, is an evil of the darkest character. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be urged in justification of its continuance, but the plea of necessity; not that necessity which arises from our habits, our prejudices, or our wants; but the necessity which requires us to submit to existing evils, rather than substitute, by their removal, others of a more serious and destructive character. There is no riveted attachment to slavery, prevailing extensively, in any portion of our country. Its injurious effects on our habits, our morals, our individual wealth, and more especially on our national strength and prosperity, are universally felt, and almost universally acknowledged."

Mr. Levasseur says,--

"Happily, there is no part of the civilized world, in which it is necessary to discuss the justice or injustice of the principle of negro slavery; at the present day, every sane man agrees that it is a monstrosity, and it would be altogether inaccurate, to suppose that there are in the United States, more than elsewhere, individuals sufficiently senseless to seek to defend it, either by their writings or conversation. For myself, who have traversed the twenty-four states of the Union, and in the course of a year have had more than one opportunity of hearing long and keen discussions upon this subject, I declare that I never have found but a single person, who seriously defended this principle. This was a young man, whose head, sufficiently imperfect in its organization, was filled with confused and ridiculous notions relative to Roman History; and appeared to be completely ignorant of the history of his own country. It would be waste of time, to repeat here, his crude and ignorant tirade."

These are the sentiments of MEN OF EMINENT TALENTS, CITIZENS OF THE SOUTH, AND SLAVE-HOLDERS!

Lastly, the Southern Reporter says,--

Another calumny circulated is respecting the state of ignorance and irreligion in which all the slave-holders keep their slaves. This is as great a falsehood as ever was uttered by man or Devils, if we are to give any credit to the testimony of every good and pious man who lives in, or has visited, the South.

"RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.

"The Southern Evangelical Society, is the title of a proposed association, among the Presbyterians of the South, for the propagation of the gospel among the people of colour. The constitution originated in the synod of North Carolina, and is to go into effect as soon as adopted by the synod of Virginia, or that of South Carolina and Georgia. The voting members of the society are to be elected by the synods. Honorary members are created by the payment of 30 dollars. All members of synods united with the society are corresponding members--other corresponding members may be chosen by the voting members. Article 4th of the constitution provides that 'there shall not exist between this society and any other society, any connexion whatever, except with a similar society in the slave-holding states.' Several resolutions follow the constitution--one of these provides that a presbytery in a slave-holding district of the country, not united with a synod in connexion with the society, may become a member by its own act. The 5th and 6th resolutions are as follows:--

"Resolved, 5. That it be very respectfully and earnestly recommended to all the heads of families in connexion with our congregations, to take up and vigorously prosecute the business of seeking the salvation of the slaves in the way of maintaining and promoting family religion.

"Resolved, 6. That it be enjoined on all the presbyteries composing this synod to take order at their earliest meeting to obtain full and correct statistical information as to the number of people of colour, in the bounds of our several congregations, the number in actual attendance at our several places of worship, and the number of coloured members in our several churches, and make a full report to the synod at its next meeting, and for this purpose, that the clerk of this synod furnish a copy of this resolution to the stated clerk of each presbytery."

"The next document carried them one state farther South, and related to South Carolina, in which that horrible Gov. M'Duffie, who seems to haunt Mr. Thompson's imagination with his threats of 'death without benefit of clergy,' lives, and perhaps still rules. It is taken from the same paper as the next preceding extract:--

"RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.

"From an intelligent New Englander at the South:--

"I am apprehensive that many of your readers, who feel a lively interest in the welfare of the slaves, are not correctly and fully informed as to their amount of religious instruction. From the speeches of Mr. Thompson and others, they might be led to believe that slaves in our Southern states never read a Bible, hear a gospel sermon, or partake of a gospel ordinance. It is to be hoped, however, that little credit will be given to such misrepresentations, notwithstanding the zeal and industry with which they are disseminated.

"I will now inform your readers what has been done, and is now doing, for the moral and religious improvement of the slaves on a single plantation, with which I am well acquainted, and these few facts may serve as a commentary on the unsupported assertions of Mr. Thompson and others. And here I could wish that all who are so ready to denounce every man that is so unfortunate as to be born to a heritage of slaves, could go to that plantation, and see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, the things which I despair of adequately describing. Truly, I think they would be more inclined, and better qualified to use those weapons of light and love which have been so ably and justly commended to their hands.

"On this plantation there are from 150 to 200 slaves, the finest looking body that I have seen on any estate. Their master and mistress have felt for years how solemn are the responsibilities connected with such a charge; and they have not shrunk from meeting them. The means used for their spiritual good, are abundant. They enjoy the constant preaching of the gospel. A young minister of the Presbyterian church, who has received a regular collegiate and theological education, is labouring among them, and derives his entire support from the master, with the exception of a trifling sum which he receives for preaching one Sabbath in each month, for a neighbouring church. On the Sabbath and during the week you may see them filling the place of worship, from the man of gray hairs to the small child, all neatly and comfortably clothed, listening with respectful, and in many cases, eager attention to the truth as it is in Jesus, delivered in terms adapted to their capacities, and in a manner suited to their peculiar habits, feelings and circumstances;--engaging with solemnity and propriety in the solemn exercise of prayer, and mingling their melodious voices in the hymn of praise. Sitting among them are the white members of the family encouraging them by their attendance, manifesting their interest in the exercises, and their anxiety for the eternal well being of their people. Of the whole number 45 or 50 have made a profession of religion, and others are evidently deeply concerned.

"Let me now conduct you to a Bible class of 10 or 12 adults who can read, met with their Bibles to study and have explained to them the word of God. They give unequivocal demonstrations of much interest in their employment, and of an earnest desire to understand and remember what they read. From hence we will go to another room where are assembled 18 or 20 lads attending upon catechetical instruction conducted by their young master. Here you will notice many intelligent countenances, and will be struck with the promptitude and correctness of their answers.

"But the most interesting spectacle is yet before you. It is to be witnessed in the Infant School Room, nicely fitted up and supplied with the customary cards and other appurtenances. Here, every day in the week, you may find 25 or 30 children neatly clad, and wearing bright and happy faces. And as you notice their correct deportment, hear their unhesitating replies to the questions proposed, and above all, when they unite their sweet voices in their touching songs, if your heart is not affected and your eyes do not fill, you are the hardest-hearted and driest-eyed visitor that has ever been there. But who is their teacher? Their mistress, a lady whose amiable christian character, and most gifted and accomplished manners are surpassed by none. From day to day--month to month, and year to year, she has cheerfully left her splendid halls and circle of friends to visit her school room, where, standing up before those young immortals, she trains them in the way in which they should go, and leads them to Him who said, 'suffer little children to come unto me.'

"From the Infant School Room, we will walk through a beautiful lawn half a mile, to a pleasant grove commanding a view of miles in extent. Here is a brick chapel rising for the accommodation of this interesting family--sufficiently large to receive 2 or 300 hearers. When completed, in beauty and convenience it will be surpassed by few churches in the Southern country.

"On the plantation you might see also many other things of great interest. Here a negro is the overseer. Marriages are regularly contracted. No negro is sold, except as a punishment for bad behaviour, and a dreaded one it is. None is bought save for the purpose of uniting families. Here you will hear no clanking of chains, no cracking of whips; and here last, but not least, you will find a flourishing Temperance Society embracing almost every individual on the premises. And yet the 'Christianity of the South is a chain-forging, a whip-platting--marriage discouraging, Bible-withholding Christianity!'

"I have confined myself to a single plantation. But I might add many interesting facts in regard to others, and the state of feeling in general, but I forbear.

Yours, &c. A NEW-ENGLAND MAN.

"He would now connect the peculiar and local facts of the preceding statement, with the whole community of slave-holders in the same state; and show by competent and disinterested testimony the real and common state of things. The following extracts were from a letter printed in the New York Observer of July 25, 1835.

"I have resided eight years in South Carolina, and have an extensive acquaintance with the planters of the middle and low country. I have seen much of slavery, and feel competent to speak in regard to many facts connected with it.

"What your correspondent has stated of the condition of one plantation, is, in its essential points, a common case throughout the whole circle of my acquaintance.

"In the village where I live there are about 400 slaves, and they generally attend church. More than one hundred of them are members of the church. Perhaps 200 are assembled every Sabbath in the Sunday Schools. In my own Sunday School are about 60, and most of them professors of religion. They are perfectly accessible and teachable. In the town of my former residence in New-England, there were 300 free blacks. No more than 8 or 10 of those were professors of religion, and not more than twice that number could generally be induced to attend church. They could not be induced to send their children to the district schools, which were always open to them, nor could they generally be hired to work. They were thievish, wretched and troublesome. I have no hesitation in saying, and I say it deliberately, it would be a great blessing to them to exchange conditions with the slaves of the village in which I now live. Their intellectual and moral characters, and real means of improvement, would be promoted by the exchange.

"There are doubtless some masters who treat their slaves cruelly in this State, but they are exceptions to the general fact. Public opinion is in a wholesome state, and the man who does not treat his slaves kindly, is disgraced.

"Great and increasing efforts are made to instruct the slaves in religion, and elevate their characters. Missionaries are employed solely for their benefit. It is very common for ministers to preach in the forenoon to the whites, and in the afternoon of each Sabbath to the blacks. The slaves of my acquaintance are generally contented and happy. The master is reprobated who will divide families. Many thousands of slaves of this State give evidence of piety. In many churches they form the majority. Thousands of them give daily thanks to God, that they or their fathers were brought to this land of Slavery.

"And now, perhaps, I ought to add, that I am not a slave-holder, and do not intend to continue in a slave country; but wherever I may be, I intend to speak the

TRUTH.

The last testimony that I shall adduce on this subject is from "The Plea for Africa" in which the writer says,

"There is certainly a pleasing and commendable spirit exhibited, after all the precautionary provisions of legislative acts, by the christian community at the South, in respect to the religious instruction of their slaves. I have before me a letter from an eminent clergyman of Virginia, a part of which I will read, since you may from such sources be better able to apprehend the true feeling of Christians at the South, and the actual condition of the slaves:

"'To give you an idea of the feeling of the Christian community toward that unfortunate class of people which we have among us, I would refer you to the articles which appeared in the Religious Telegraph during the last year, signed, 'Zinzindorf,' and which terminated in passing a resolution in the synod of Virginia, recommending every church in the State, to set apart one of its best qualified members, whose duty it shall be to give religious instruction to the coloured people. And I am happy to state, that many enter upon this self-denying, though pleasing duty.

"'We hope that the public mind is fast preparing for a general emancipation, and that the Christian community will not be remiss in instructing and preparing the coloured people for the colony. The redeeming spirit is amongst us, I hope, and will not rest till every slave shall be restored to the land of their fathers, and this State placed upon a footing with the other happy States of our Union, who know not the curses of slavery.'

"I have also before me a letter from Georgia, written by a distinguished gentleman to his friend, on the same subject, which reads as follows:

"'With regard to your inquiries about the religious instruction of the Negroes of the South, I would state, that we have much reason to be grateful for what is doing, and for what in prospect may be done. My knowledge on this subject is confined to Georgia and South Carolina; I visited Bryan county, Georgia, a few weeks since, for the exclusive purpose of seeing what was doing there for the Negroes. On one plantation I found the slaves far more improved, both as regards their temporal comforts, and their religious instruction, than I had expected to see. The number of Negroes on this plantation is, I believe, about two hundred. They live in framed houses, raised above the ground--spacious, and in every way comfortable, and calculated to promote health. The Negroes were uniformly clad in a very decent and comfortable way. There is a chapel on the place where the master meets the adults every night at the ringing of the bell. Reading a portion of Scripture, and explaining it, singing, and prayer, constitute the regular exercises of every night in the week. On the Sabbath they have different and more protracted exercises.

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