"A Congregational minister at Hampton, Conn. (Rev. Mr. Mosely),
separated by sale a husband and wife who were both of them members
of his own church, and who had been, by his own officiating act as
a minister, united in marriage" (Ibid., p. 114).
Let me cite one of the laws of the Bible relative to the treatment
of slaves--a law which demons would blush to indorse, but which a
merciful (?) God enacted for the guidance of his children:
"If a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die
under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he
continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money"
(Ex. xxi, 20, 21).
Here a master may brutally beat his slave, and if that slave linger
in the agonies of death a day or two before dying, he shall not be
punished, because the slave "is his money."
Goodell's "American Slave Code," a work written by a Christian
clergyman, and which I have already quoted, contains four hundred
pages of outrages, like the following, committed by men who accepted
the Bible as their moral guide:
"A minister in South Carolina, a native of the North, had a stated
Sabbath appointment to preach, about eight miles from his residence. He
was in the habit of riding thither in his gig. Behind him ran his negro
slave on foot, who was required to be at the place of appointment
as soon as his master, to take care of his horse. Sometimes he fell
behind, and kept his master waiting for him a few minutes, for which
he always received a reprimand, and was sometimes punished. On one
occasion of this kind, after sermon, the master told the slave that
he would take care to have him keep up with him, going home. So he
tied him by the wrists, with a halter, to his gig behind, and drove
rapidly home. The result was that, about two or three miles from home,
the poor fellow's feet and legs failed him, and he was dragged on
the ground all the rest of the way by the wrists! On alighting and
looking round, the master exclaimed, 'Well; I thought you would keep
up with me this time!' So saying, he coolly walked into the house. The
servants came out and took up the poor sufferer for dead. After a
time he revived a little, lingered for a day or two, and died!"
Was this brutal minister punished? He was not. "If he continue a day or
two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money." Was he silenced
from preaching? was he even reprimanded by the church? No. Without
punishment, without censure, he continued to preach Bible morals and
abuse his slaves.
Frederick Douglass, the greatest of his race and a slave, says:
"My master found religious sanctity for his cruelty.... I have seen
him tie up a lame young woman and whip her with a heavy cowskin
upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and,
in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of
Scripture: 'He that knoweth his master's will and doeth it not shall
be beaten with many stripes.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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