An Appeal to the Christian Women of the SouthGrimké, Angelina Emily
Religion
An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
Grimké, Angelina Emily
Slavery -- United States
I can prove the _safety_ of immediate Emancipation by history. In St.
Domingo in 1793 six hundred thousand slaves were set free in a
white population of forty-two thousand. That Island "marched as by
enchantment" towards its ancient splendor, cultivation prospered, every
day produced perceptible proofs of its progress, and the negroes all
continued quietly to work on the different plantations, until in 1802,
France determined to reduce these liberated slaves again to bondage.
It was at _this time_ that all those dreadful scenes of cruelty
occured, which we so often _unjustly_ hear spoken of, as the effects
of Abolition. They were occasioned _not_ by Emancipation, but by the
base attempt to fasten the chains of slavery on the limbs of liberated
slaves.
In Gaudaloape eighty-five thousand slaves were freed in a white
population of thirteen thousand. The same prosperous effects followed
manumission here, that had attended it in Hayti, every thing was quiet
until Buonaparte sent out a fleet to reduce these negroes again to
slavery, and in 1802 this institution was re-established in that
Island. In 1834, when Great Britain determined to liberate the slaves
in her West India colonies, and proposed the apprenticeship system;
the planters of Bermuda and Antigua, after having joined the other
planters in their representations of the bloody consequences of
Emancipation, in order if possible to hold back the hand which was
offering the boon of freedom to the poor negro; as soon as they found
such falsehoods were utterly disregarded, and Abolition must take
place, came forward voluntarily, and asked for the compensation which
was due to them, saying, _they preferred immediate emancipation_, and
were not afraid of any insurrection. And how is it with these islands
now? They are decidedly more prosperous than any of those in which
the apprenticeship system was adopted, and England is now trying
to abolish that system, so fully convinced is she that immediate
Emancipation is the safest and the best plan.
And why not try it in the Southern States, if it never has occasioned
rebellion; if _not_ a _drop of blood_ has ever been shed in
consequence of it, though it has been so often tried, why should we
suppose it would produce such disastrous consequences now? "Be not
deceived then, God is not mocked," by such false excuses for not doing
justly and loving mercy. There is nothing to fear from immediate
Emancipation, but _every thing_ from the continuance of slavery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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