Here is a review of me and of my little stories, by a distinguished New
England divine, and author. He has written much on slavery. Having
prepared notices of some of his writings on this subject, I am familiar
with his turns of thought and modes of expression. I have great regard
for him, and always read him with pleasure and profit, not excepting
when he writes as follows, in doing which he has the approbation of
large numbers among the Northern clergy of all denominations, except the
Episcopalians,--who, more than other Northern ministers, are remarkably
free from ultraisms.
"Concerning the truckle-cart, 'we would say this,' that unquestionably
'the moral power' of the incident was all which the writer assumes, but
its 'logical sequences' 'we utterly deny.' Slavery is evil, and only
evil, and that continually; now, to infer that agreeable relations can
subsist between the children of masters and the children of slaves under
the 'immense, malignant, and all-pervading influence of slavery,'
abhorred of Heaven and all good men, does violence to all sound
principles of reasoning, and is at war with 'the manifest rules of
Providence.'
"And as to the three girls 'we are prepared to say' that the author 'did
not look deep enough' into the philosophy of human motives under the
controlling power of slavery. For slavery makes men improvident, and
their children also; (see 'Judge Jay,' 'Weld on Slavery,' etc.) These
white girls, therefore, probably had no money in their pockets; it was
the time of recess; they were hungry; the black child we presume had
money in her pocket, for by the authoress's own showing (in the story of
a slave changing a gold piece for the landlord), slaves may have money
of their own. Had our authoress followed her trio down to the
confectioner's, there she might have seen these white children cajoling
the poor black, and making her treat them; in preparation for which they
affected to put their arms around her; but, in the true diabolical
spirit of slavery, it was only to devour.
"We have no space to enter philosophically into the instruction afforded
us by the old negro and the schoolboys; but there is deep meaning in it,
which the true friends of the slave, who may read it, will do well to
ponder. The old negro is the prophetic representation of his
down-trodden race, crying with bewildered accents, he heeds not where,
'Go to school! boys; go to school!' Let a united North echo back his
words, suiting their political action to them, and saying to the colored
children, with an authority which shall shake the very pillars of the
Union, 'Go to school, boys! go to school!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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