Letters to Catherine E. Beecher, in reply to an essay on slavery and abolitionism, addressed to A. E. GrimkéGrimké, Angelina Emily
History
Letters to Catherine E. Beecher, in reply to an essay on slavery and abolitionism, addressed to A. E. Grimké
Grimké, Angelina Emily
Beecher, Catharine Esther, 1800-1878. Essay on slavery and abolitionism; Slavery -- United States
The foregoing are but a few of the facts and testimonies in the possession
of Abolitionists, showing that their discussions, periodicals, petitions,
arguments, appeals and societies, have extensively moved, and are still
mightily moving the slaveholding States--_for good_. Did time and space
permit, I might, by a little painstaking, procure many more. Before
passing from this part of the subject, I must record my amazement at the
clamors of many of the opponents of Abolitionists, from whom better things
might indeed be hoped. What slaveholders have you convinced? they demand.
Whom have you made Abolitionists? Give us their names and places of abode.
Now, those who incessantly stun us with such unreasonable clamor, know
full well, that to give the public the names and residences of such
persons, would be in most instances to surrender them to butchery. But be
it known to the North and to the South, we have names of scores of
citizens of the slaveholding states, many of them slaveholders, who are in
constant correspondence with us, persons who feel so deeply on the subject
as to implore us to persevere in our efforts, and not to be dismayed by
Southern threats nor disheartened by Northern cavils and heartlessness.
Yea more, these persons have committed to us the custody even of their
lives, thus encountering imminent peril that they might cheer us onward in
our work. Shall we betray their trust, or put them in jeopardy? Judge
thou.
Now let me ask, when in former years Anti-Slavery tracts, with our
doctrines, could be circulated at the South? The fact is, there were
_none_ to be circulated there; our principle of repentance is quite new.
But I can tell thee of two facts, which it is probable thou ‘hast not been
informed of.’ In the year 1809, the steward of a vessel, a colored man,
carried some Abolition pamphlets to Charleston. Immediately on his
arrival, he was informed against, and would have been tried for his life,
had he not promised to leave the State, never to return. Was South
Carolina willing to receive abolition pamphlets _then_? Again, in 1820, my
sister carried some pamphlets there--‘Thoughts on Slavery,’ issued by the
Society of Friends, and therefore _not_ very incendiary, thou mayest be
assured; and yet she was informed some time afterwards, that had it not
been for the influence of our family, she would have been imprisoned; for
she, too, was accused of giving one of them to a slave; just as
Abolitionists have been falsely charged with sending their papers to the
enslaved. What she did give away, she was _obliged_ to give _privately_.
Was Charleston ready to receive Abolition pamphlets _then_? Or when?
please to tell me. I say that _more_, far more Anti-Slavery tracts, &c.
are _now_ read in the South, than ever were at any former period. As to
Colonization tracts, I know they have circulated at the South; but what of
that, when Southerners believed that Colonization had _no_ connection with
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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