Autographs for Freedom, by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Thirty-five Other Eminent Writers
History
Autographs for Freedom, by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Thirty-five Other Eminent Writers
Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
In one of the leading Congregational papers, a writer, W. C. J., has
commenced a series of communications under the above heading. It is well
to discuss the subject. The writer says, “There are, it is true, many
among our three millions of slaves who are acquainted with the rudiments
of religious truth, and are leading lives of sincere piety.” Dr. Nelson,
a native of a slave State, stated, as the result of experience for many
years, that he had never known more than three or four slaves who he had
reason to believe were truly and intelligently pious. The Synod of South
Carolina and Georgia published to the world, some years since, that the
great mass of slaves were heathen, as much so as the heathen of any
portion of the globe. What authority W. C. J. has for saying there are,
among the three millions of American slaves, “many” who are “leading
lives of sincere piety,” I do not know. It is probably the mere
conjecture of an ardent mind. He qualifies the expression by asking,
“What is the type of the religion that too generally appears among the
slaves?” And then replies to his own question, “It is sickly and weak,
like a plant growing in a cellar, or a cave; a compound of sincere piety
with much of superstition and fanaticism.” What sort of piety is that?
A sagacious observer has remarked, that there never can be, in our day,
intelligent piety where men are not possessed of property, especially
where they are mere serfs or slaves. How many American slaves have the
piety of “Uncle Tom,” we are unable to say. Probably very few. And it
must fill the heart of every one who loves the souls of men, with
anguish to contemplate the spiritual destitution of the slaves in this
country; kept in bondage by the religious and political apathy or acts
of professing Christians, of different denominations, in their
individual or associated capacity. But to the question: _Is the Gospel a
remedy for slavery?_ We answer, unhesitatingly, not such a Gospel as is
preached to them; for while it does very little to enlighten either
slave or master, it enjoins upon the former passive obedience, and
inculcates upon the latter the right and duty of holding their
fellow-men in bondage. Nor have we much hesitation in avowing it as our
belief, that the Gospel, as generally preached in the free States, is
quite inadequate to put an end to slavery. It does not reach the
conscience of the tens of thousands who are, in various ways, connected
with slave-holding by relationship, business correspondence, or
political or ecclesiastical ties. As proof of this, we need only
contemplate the action of the Northern divisions of the political and
religious national parties. Slavery is countenanced, strengthened,
increased, and extended by their connivance or direct agency. The truth
is, Christianity, as promulgated by the great mass of the preachers and
professors at this day even in the free States, is not a remedy for
slavery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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