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
These are some of the general measures which have been exhibited in the
Abolition movement. The same peculiarities may be as distinctly seen in
specific cases, where the peaceful and quiet way of accomplishing the
good was neglected, and the one most calculated to excite wrath and
strife was chosen. Take, for example, the effort to establish a college
for coloured persons. The quiet, peaceful, and christian way of doing
such a thing, would have been, for those who were interested in the
plan, to furnish the money necessary, and then to have selected a
retired place, where there would be the least prejudice and opposition
to be met, and there, in an unostentatious way, commenced the education
of the youth to be thus sustained. Instead of this, at a time when the
public mind was excited on the subject, it was noised abroad that a
college for blacks was to be founded. Then a city was selected for its
location, where was another college, so large as to demand constant
effort and vigilance to preserve quiet subordination; where contests
with "sailors and town boys" were barely kept at bay; a college
embracing a large proportion of southern students, who were highly
excited on the subject of slavery and emancipation; a college where half
the shoe-blacks and waiters were coloured men. Beside the very walls of
this college, it was proposed to found a college for coloured young men.
Could it be otherwise than that opposition, and that for the best of
reasons, would arise against such an attempt, both from the faculty of
the college and the citizens of the place? Could it be reasonably
expected that they would not oppose a measure so calculated to increase
their own difficulties and liabilities, and at the same time so certain
to place the proposed institution in the most unfavourable of all
circumstances? But when the measure was opposed, instead of yielding
meekly and peaceably to such reasonable objections, and soothing the
feelings and apprehensions that had been excited, by putting the best
construction on the matter, and seeking another place, it was claimed as
an evidence of opposition to the interests of the blacks, and as a mark
of the force of sinful prejudice. The worst, rather than the best,
motives were ascribed to some of the most respectable, and venerated,
and pious men, who opposed the measure; and a great deal was said and
done that was calculated to throw the community into an angry ferment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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