An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called AfricansChild, Lydia Maria
History
An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans
Child, Lydia Maria
Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
"In Brazil, a slave who can pay the value of his servitude, (the fair
price of which may be settled by the magistrate,) has a right to demand
his freedom. And the case frequently happens; for the slaves have one
day in the week, and in some places two days, exclusively of Sundays and
other festivals, which the industrious employ in providing a fund for
their redemption."
"In the Spanish colonies, the law is still more liberal. The civil
magistrates are empowered to decide upon the just price of a slave,
and when the negro is able to offer this sum, his master is compelled
to grant his freedom. He may even redeem himself progressively. For
instance, by paying a sixth part of his appreciation, he may redeem for
his own use one day in the week; by employing this industriously, he
will soon be enabled to buy another day; by pursuing the same laudable
course, the remainder of his time may be redeemed with continually
accelerated progress, till he becomes entitled to entire manumission."
PROP. 11.--_Operation of the laws interferes with religious privileges._
No places of public worship are prepared for the negro; and churches
are so scarce in the slaveholding States, compared with the number of
_white_ inhabitants, that it is not to be supposed great numbers of them
follow their masters to such places; and if they did, what could their
rude, and merely sensual minds comprehend of a discourse addressed to
educated men? In Georgia, there is a law which forbids any congregation
or company of negroes to assemble themselves contrary to the act
regulating patrols. Every justice of the peace may go in person, or send
a constable, to disperse any assembly or meeting of slaves, which _may_
disturb the peace, endanger the safety, &c., and every slave taken at
such meetings may, by order of the justice, _without trial_, receive on
the bare back twenty-five stripes with whip, switch, or cowskin. In
South Carolina, an act forbids the police officers to break into any
place of religious meeting before nine o'clock, provided a _majority_ of
the assembly are _white persons_; but if the quorum of white people
should happen to be wanting, every slave would be liable to twenty-five
lashes of the cowskin.
These, and various similar regulations, are obviously made to prevent
insurrections; but it is plain that they must materially interfere with
the slave's opportunities for religious instruction. The fact is, there
are _inconveniences_ attending a general diffusion of Christianity in a
slaveholding State--light must follow its path, and that light would
reveal the surrounding darkness,--slaves might begin to think whether
slavery could be reconciled with religious precepts,--and then the
system is quite too republican--it teaches that all men are children
of the same heavenly Father, who careth alike for all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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