Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
J. M. Whitfield.
LETTER FROM WILSON ARMISTEAD TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY.
LEEDS, 7TH MO. 22, 1852.
MY DEAR FRIEND:--
In responding to thy welcome communication, I may say that I rejoice
in the cause of the interruption of our correspondence, so far as
it concerns thyself; thy time and talents being so increasingly
occupied, in union with other of humanity’s advocates, in assisting
to overturn the monster iniquity of our age, that crowning crime of
Christendom,--_negro slavery!_
Go on in this good work! and may God’s blessing abundantly attend, till
the eternal overthrow be effected of a system so fraught with every
evil; so abhorrent to the rights of nature, and so contrary to the
spirit of the Gospel;--till the galling chain be broken off the necks
of America’s three million slaves; till its victims be raised from the
profoundest depths of ignorance and woe, to which they are now degraded.
’Tis a marvel to me, that a system like that of negro slavery, which
admits of such atrocities, can be tolerated for a single hour!
Ought not every one who has a spark of humanity, to say nothing of
Christianity, in his bosom,--ought not all the sound part of every
community in which slavery exists to rise up _en masse_, and declare
that, this abomination shall exist no longer?
Who gave to any man the right to enslave his fellow man? Can any
enactment of human legislators so far sanction robbery, as lawfully to
make one man the property of another? Has God poured the tide of life
through the African’s breast, and animated it with a portion of his
own Divine spirit, and at the same time deprived him of all natural
affections, that _he_ alone is to be struck off the list of rational
beings, and placed on a level with the brute? Is his flesh marble, and
his sinews iron, or his immortal spirit of a class condemned, without
hope, to penal suffering, that he is called upon to endure incessant
toil, and to be subjected to degradation, bodily and mental, such
as no other portion of the family of Adam have ever been destined
to endure, without the vengeance of Heaven being signally displayed
upon the oppressors? Does the African mother feel less love to her
offspring than the white woman? or the African husband regard with
less tenderness the wife of his bosom? Is his heart dead to the ties
of kindred,--his nature so brutalized, that the sacred associations of
home and country awaken no emotions in his breast?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account