An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism: With reference to the duty of American femalesBeecher, Catharine Esther
Philosophy
An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism: With reference to the duty of American females
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Abolitionists -- United States; Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
The next measure of Abolitionism was an attempt to remove the prejudices
of the whites against the blacks, on account of natural peculiarities.
Now, prejudice is an _unreasonable_ and _groundless_ dislike of persons
or things. Of course, as it is unreasonable, it is the most difficult of
all things to conquer, and the worst and most irritating method that
could be attempted would be, to attack a man as guilty of sin, as
unreasonable, as ungenerous, or as proud, for allowing a certain
prejudice.
This is the sure way to produce anger, self-justification, and an
increase of the strength of prejudice, against that which has caused him
this rebuke and irritation.
The best way to make a person like a thing which is disagreeable, is to
try in some way to make it agreeable; and if a certain class of persons
is the subject of unreasonable prejudice, the peaceful and christian way
of removing it would be to endeavour to render the unfortunate persons
who compose this class, so useful, so humble and unassuming, so kind in
their feelings, and so full of love and good works, that prejudice would
be supplanted by complacency in their goodness, and pity and sympathy
for their disabilities. If the friends of the blacks had quietly set
themselves to work to increase their intelligence, their usefulness,
their respectability, their meekness, gentleness, and benevolence, and
then had appealed to the pity, generosity, and christian feelings of
their fellow citizens, a very different result would have appeared.
Instead of this, reproaches, rebukes, and sneers, were employed to
convince the whites that their prejudices were sinful, and without any
just cause. They were accused of pride, of selfish indifference, of
unchristian neglect. This tended to irritate the whites, and to increase
their prejudice against the blacks, who thus were made the causes of
rebuke and exasperation. Then, on the other hand, the blacks extensively
received the Liberator, and learned to imbibe the spirit of its
conductor.
They were taught to feel that they were injured and abused, the objects
of a guilty and unreasonable prejudice--that they occupied a lower place
in society than was right--that they ought to be treated as if they were
whites; and in repeated instances, attempts were made by their friends
to mingle them with whites, so as to break down the existing
distinctions of society. Now, the question is not, whether these things,
that were urged by Abolitionists, were true. The thing maintained is,
that the method taken by them to remove this prejudice was neither
peaceful nor christian in its tendency, but, on the contrary, was
calculated to increase the evil, and to generate anger, pride, and
recrimination, on one side, and envy, discontent, and revengeful
feelings, on the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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