But some slaveholders have said, "we were never in bondage to any man," and therefore the yoke of bondage would be insufferable to us, but slaves are accustomed to it, their backs are fitted to the burden. Well, I am willing to admit that you who have lived in freedom would find slavery even more oppressive than the poor slave does, but then you may try this question in another form--Am I willing to reduce _my little child_ to slavery? You know that _if it is brought up a slave_ it will never know any contrast, between freedom and bondage, its back will become fitted to the burden just as the negro child's does--_not by nature_--but by daily, violent pressure, in the same way that the head of the Indian child becomes flattened by the boards in which it is bound. It has been justly remarked that "_God never made a slave_," he made man upright; his back was _not_ made to carry burdens, nor his neck to wear a yoke, and the _man_ must be crushed within him, before _his_ back can be _fitted_ to the burden of perpetual slavery; and that his back is _not_ fitted to it, is manifest by the insurrections that so often disturb the peace and security of slaveholding countries. Who ever heard of a rebellion of the beasts of the field; and why not? simply because _they_ were all placed _under the feet of man_, into whose hand they were delivered; it was originally designed that they should serve him, therefore their necks have been formed for the yoke, and their backs for the burden; but _not so with man_, intellectual, immortal man! I appeal to you, my friends, as mothers; Are you willing to enslave _your_ children? You start back with horror and indignation at such a question. But why, if slavery is _no wrong_ to those upon whom it is imposed? why, if as has often been said, slaves are happier than their masters, free from the cares and perplexities of providing for themselves and their _wanting_? Try yourselves by another of the Divine precepts, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can we love a man _as_ we love _ourselves if we do, and continue to do_ unto him, what we would not wish any one to do to us? Look, too, at Christ's example, what does he say of himself, "I came _not_ to be ministered unto, but to minister." Can you for a moment imagine the meek and lowly, and compassionate Saviour, _a slaveholder_? Do you not shudder at this thought as much as at that of his being _a warrior_? But why, if slavery is not sinful?