Three Prize Essays on American Slavery — John Shaqi
Three Prize Essays on American SlaveryThurston, R. B. (Richard Bowers)
Religion
Three Prize Essays on American Slavery
Thurston, R. B. (Richard Bowers)
Slavery -- United States; Slavery and the church -- United States
A DIFFICULT AND DELICATE SUBJECT PROPOSED.--AGITATION OF IT
UNAVOIDABLE.--CHRISTIANS NORTH AND SOUTH SHOULD GIVE THE DISCUSSION
OF IT A RIGHT DIRECTION.--WE ARE ALL INTERESTED IN THE
ISSUE.--NORTHERN DISCLAIMERS.
MY DEAR CHRISTIAN BROTHER,--In my last I intimated that I hoped you and
I, by our correspondence, would be able to furnish the world a practical
illustration of good-nature and kind feeling in the discussion of a
subject that has been a fruitful source of trouble and unchristian
invective. You have already anticipated my theme--it is DOMESTIC
SLAVERY. It must be confessed that this is the most difficult and
delicate of all topics to be agitated by a Northerner and a Southerner,
and yet I have the fullest confidence that neither of us will give or
take offence. I need offer you no apology for calling your attention to
this subject at the present time. Not only is it a theme of vast
importance in itself, involving, either directly or indirectly,
interests most dear to you and to me, and to every one who has at heart
the welfare of his country and his race, but it is a subject that must
be discussed,--there is no avoiding it, however much you or I or other
individuals may desire it. It has come before the public mind in such a
manner as peremptorily to demand the attention of every Christian and
every patriot. Whether we approve or deprecate the peculiar causes that
have made this topic so prominent in our country, both North and South,
we have to take things as they are, and turn them to the best possible
account. Politicians and demagogues are all discussing American slavery,
and will continue to do so for the purpose of forwarding their own
favorite schemes; and any attempt to silence them would be as futile as
an effort to arrest the gulf-stream in its course. It remains only for
brethren, both at the South and North, to take up the subject as we find
it brought to our hands in the inscrutable providence of God, and, under
the guidance of his Spirit, given in answer to our prayers, take a truly
Christian view of some of its leading features, and then inquire, What
is duty? I think you will not claim, with some of your southern friends,
that slavery is a subject with which we at the North "have nothing to
do." As patriots, we have something to do with every thing that affects
the interests of our common country; and as Christians, we sustain
responsibilities which we cannot shake off toward all our brethren of
the human family, whether it be at the North or South--whether they be
bound or free. "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created
us?" "We are many members, but one body, and whether one member suffer
all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the
members rejoice with it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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