Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

693

Influence of Catholic on Slave Emancipation.

We are also encouraged to think the abolition of slavery assumes a more commanding attitude, and is nearer the desired consummation, from the prevalence of the principles of free trade, which, if fully applied to the sugar market, would alone be a death-blow to negro bondage, and ultimately loosen the fetters of every slave throughout the civilized world.

• The principle which is ultimately destructive of slavery," says an able and eloquent author; "is this, that free labour is more valuable than the labour of slaves." In the constitution of man, fear is a deterring, but not naturally an impelling motive; it is hope alone that animates and urges forward. Again, it is not the strength, but the intelligence of man which confers its chief value on his exertions; but the slave-holder is compelled to deteriorate his labourers by brutalizing them; for the intelligence which would make them valuable would also make them free. Thus, whenever a fair competition arises between free and slave labour, the slave-holder must in the end be driven out of the market; and it is only by monopoly that the slave system can be maintained. In those changes then which are spreading over the globe, and which, by bringing its extremes into commercial intercourse, are about to destroy all monopolies, we possess the true principles of enfranchisement, which will knock off every fetter, and will suffer the earth only to be productively tilled by willing hands. Time has more than accomplished the prediction of Seneca, in disclosing the recesses of the world; it is bringing them into contact; each part is affected by each, and every change circulates through the whole. Sugar and slavery were thought concomitants; and slavery certainly depends upon the monopoly of sugar; but the West India Islands will form but specks in the quantity of ground brought under sugar cultivation, which is about to spread itself over South America, and South Eastern Asia, and the tropical islands of the ocean.

"The first step in order to liberate the negroes of the West Indies is the bringing the sugars of other parts of the world into a fair market, and allowing them a free competition. This point, if perseveringly insisted on, must certainly be carried; the English will not always suffer themselves to be taxed to support a system, which the great body of the nation abhors; while on the other hand we may hope that the planters will not always continue blind to their best interests; whenever the exasperation of the moment subsides, or at least that some of them, in the christianizing and

|

694

enfranchising their slaves, will hold forth a happy and successful example that the way of duty is the way of profit, that there is no advantage attached to infringing the divine commands, and that cruelty and injustice incur the charge of folly as well as of guilt."-Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion, by Jas. Douglas, Esq. 1825.

The following passage in Mr. Cropper's speech at Liverpool some time since, also strikingly shows the importance of bringing free into a competition with slave labour.

"To revert again into our efforts to put an end to these evils by laws and by treaties, suppose for a moment we had succeeded in inducing France, Spain, and Portugal to declare the slave-trade piracy; but suppose, too, that we had allowed our bounties and protections to remain, it is probable the suplies of sugar to Europe would for a time at least have lessened, and the prices would have advanced; the temptation for smuggling into our own islands might then have been too strong for resistance. We might indeed have caught some of these pirates, whom our bounties had been in part the means of hiring to the commission of the crime, and have hung them when they had done it but what must have been our reflections on pursuing this course? Should we not have rejoiced to find there was a more certain, more effectual, and bloodless, course; a course accordant with the mild. and peaceable principles of Christianity; a course which would be the means of raising from bondage the whole of the 5,600,000 Africans in the western world, while British laws, however effectual, could only reach to the 700,000 or 800,000 in our own dominions?"

The importance, also, of slave emanci pation to the future civilization of Africa is forcibly pointed out by the able author before cited, and by a writer in the Quarterly Review.

"The increase of free blacks is greater than either that of the whites or slaves, in proportion to their numbers, as they not only increase at a similar rate with the other bodies, but receive fresh additions from the emancipations which increase each year proportionably to the increased number of slaves; and as juster views of the comparative value of free and slave labour gain ground, that emancipation will be farther accelerated. But since the prejudices against the negro race will survive, as prejudices ever do, the occasions which gave rise to them, the inducements for the blacks to remove to Africa will long continue to operate, and, in addition to the advantages which Africa

695

Influence of Catholic on Slave Emancipation.

itself holds forth, will inevitably impel them to remove to their parent seats. The slave vessels which were carrying the first wretched victims of European avarice across the Atlantic, were unconsciously laying the train of the future greatness of Africa; and the liberated blacks, like the Israelites delivered from Egypt, will return, carrying the ark of God with them, and the blessings of religion and social life."-Douglas's Advancement of Society.

"It is," says the writer in the Quarterly Review, "from negroes and mulattoes trained in European civilization, that the civilization of Western Africa must come; and proper colonists, fitted by such training, as well as by constitution, will be raised up in the course of one generation, from the time in which the humane, and temperate, and just, and wise measures of our present colonial policy shall be fairly carried into effect in the Columbian Islands."-Quarterly Review, No. 82.

696

hence it is the imperative duty of every preacher of righteousness, every friend of missions; instead of damping the zeal and philanthropy of the public by absurdities, which are only excusable from the lips of slave-holders and their minions, to arouse all within his influence to a proper sense of the enormities of slavery, and the most vigorous efforts for its abolition, as the source of the greatest personal and social misery, and a fatal obstacle to the general diffusion and prevalence of the gospel, both amongst the oppressors and oppressed; if such men would use only half the zeal with which some of them laboured to stir up the populace twelve months ago to a crusade against Catholic emancipation, in this cause of justice, humanity, and religion, the doom of slavery in the British Colonies, we doubt not, would be greatly accelerated.

As the advocates of Catholic exclusion, and those who were unacquainted with the history of Ireland, could not understand the reason why Ireland is popish, not protestant; so the palliators and defenders of slavery cannot understand why the great body of the negroes are heathen, not christian, and are willing to impute it to any but the true cause.

policy, that they must become protestants, in order to being admitted to the privileges of Englishmen, "Make them Englishmen, and they must become protestants;" so we say, in reference to the slaves, "Make them men, and they will most probably become Christians."* Agreeably to an unvarying principle of the divine economy, justice is found to be the cheapest as well as the best policy for nations and individuals; and as even, in the course of the short period since the passing of the relief bill, Government has considerably reduced the number of troops in Ireland, the Catholics being able to keep the peace for themselves; so, the abolition of colonial slavery would save to

It is lamentable to observe the indifference, not to say hostility, with which the question of slave emancipation is viewed by too many of the ministers of religion, as if it were not as much, nay, far more, a question of humanity and religion, than of political expediency. To hear some of As in the case of the Irish, it was justly them tell their hearers, (when forced to no-said, in reply to the language of our then tice the subject,) with all the cold-blooded apathy of the colonial slave-holder-that slavery was never, and never will be, abolished by legislative interference, but must await the general diffusion of knowledge and Christianity-is most revolting to philanthropy and common sense. It would become such inconsistent divines to reflect, that slavery is an insuperable bar, not only to social comfort, but also to the general spread of religious truth among its hapless victims. To what purpose shall a missionary inculcate upon his negro flock (when he is permitted access to one) the obligations of Christianity, as of the Sabbath, and the conjugal union, when nearly all his efforts must be neutralized by the slaves being compelled to attend the Sunday market, and to labour in cultivating their provision grounds on that day, or starve; and by their connubial rights being subject to constant violation at the will of their unfeeling and lawless oppressors? This confirms what we advanced in the outset of this paper, that civil and religious liberty, and, by consequence, the full and general efficiency of religious teaching, depend instrumentally upon personal freedom.

Slavery is an insurmountable barrier to the fulfilment of Christian obligation, both on the part of missionaries and slaves; and

* It is a remarkable, but melancholy and humiliating fact, that Mahomedan nations treat their slaves with far more justice and humanity than soi disant Christian slave-holders. The Persians, for instance, concluding that a slave cannot be expected to have any thing like the knowledge of a free person, most justly enact that he shall be liable to only half the punishment of another citizen, for any crime he may commit. How opposite this to West Indian justice, which punishes the most trivial faults in a slave with barbarian severity, and permits the white to practise the foulest crimes with comparative impunity. In reference to the

slaves in the British Colonies, "Law, of which it may be said that her voice is the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and on earth do her bomage-the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power"-is a stepmother, partial and unfeeling.

697

66

Slavery among the ancient Israelites.

this country a vast proportion of the £3,877,054, now incurred in bounties and protecting duties, and for the expenses of that part of the army and navy stationed at the Slave Islands, and which is chiefly required to maintain this scene of iniquity and oppression against the spirit of freedom, which would otherwise speedily be triumphant. We rejoice then in the settlement of the Catholic question, not merely as a just and politic measure in itself—as the means of giving to Ireland a lasting and peaceful summer, and to the empire, confiding and lasting tranquillity"-but because of the facilities it opens for the agitation, with greater effect and increased prospect of success, of several questions of the highest interest to humanity, amongst which, that of the extermination of slavery in the colonies stands foremost. We augur well for the triumph of this cause, not only from its intrinsic merit and justice, and the more favourable circumstances in which it seems to be placed, but from the very menaces and infatuation of the colonists and their advocates, which are sure omens of the ultimate overthrow of their tyranny. "Quos vult perdere Deus, prius dementat." May 28th, 1830.

BRITANNICUS.

SLAVERY AMONG THE ANCIENT
ISRAELITES.

(From Dr. Townley's More Nevochim.) "THE following remarks on slavery as permitted by the Jewish laws, are worthy the author and translator of those elegant apologues, the Hebrew Tales.'

"Slavery. The limited and qualified toleration of slaves as the less of two evils, by a law, which in its own scheme and spirit supplied a constant antidote, affords no justification of slavery under different circumstances; and, much less, of its abuses. "If I did despise the cause of my manservant or my maid-servant, when they contended with me; what then shall I do when God riseth up? and, when He ariseth, what shall I answer Him? Did not He that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?' (Job xxxi. 13-15.)

"That slavery is an evil, and an evil of great magnitude, no one possessed of common sense will for a moment deny. The Divine legislator has himself acknowledged it as such, by numbering it among the heavy maledictions which would befal the Israelites, should they ever forsake the religion of their ancestors; and by the various laws which he instituted for its amelioration. That he did not entirely inter

698

dict it, we must attribute to the then state of society, which would not admit of its total abolition, without introducing still greater evils.

"For, let it be recollected, that the period when the Divine law was first promulgated, this system of human misery had already existed for ages. The noxious weed had grown up and flourished in its full vigour, it overspread the fairest part of the globe, and was too deeply rooted to be at once eradicated.

"But although he did not entirely abolish slavery, he broke asunder some of its most tremendous shackles, and so limited, circumscribed, and ameliorated it, that it hardly merited that odious name.

"There were only two extreme cases in which a Hebrew could be reduced to a state of bondage. First when an individual guilty of theft could not make the restitution which the law adjudged, in which case the proper authorities might sell him in order to make the required compensation. Secondly, when an individual was reduced to such extreme indigence, as to prefer slavery to an actual state of starvation,† when the law allowed him to dispose of his person. In both cases, the period, as well as the nature of the service, was limited by law. The master was enjoined still to look upon the wretched man, as on a poor unfortunate brother, whose miserable condition ought to excite compassion. He dared not employ him in any very laborious or degrading work, was obliged to maintain his wife and children, though not entitled to the produce of their labour; in short, he was required to treat him with such mildness and forbearance, that the Hebrew writers have justly observed, that he who purchases a Hebrew slave purchases a

master instead of a servant.' The heathen slave purchased by a Hebrew, was, it is true, not so well off; as neither the period nor the nature of his service was limited;

They could only sell him for the term of six years, at the expiration of which, or at the commencement of the Jubilee, as either of them chanced to happen first, he regained his freedom.

In such a case, the individual might dispose of himself for any period; but still, when the Jubilee arrived, he regained his freedom, though the term agreed upon had not then expired. In either of the above cases, the slave might redeem himself at any time, by paying the master a proportionate part of the purchase-money, which the law compelled the purchaser to accept.

"Thou must not," says the traditional law, "eat fine bread, and give him (the slave) coarse bread, drink fine wine, and give him an inferior sort, sleep on a bed, and let him lie on straw, but thou must in every respect treat him as thou dost thyself."

699

State of Religion in America.

nor could he acquire property, for whatever the slave possessed belonged to his

master.

“But even over him the law spread its protecting shield; for though it suspended his civil, it protected his moral and personal rights. It provided him with many opportunities by which he could gain his freedom: it secured his life by making the killing of a slave, or even the causing his death by immoderate correction, a capital crime punishable with death; it protected him against cruelty, by obliging the master to give him his freedom in case he wantonly injured any of his limbs, or even knocked out any of his teeth; and it sheltered him against unprovoked insults, and insured him good treatment, by that benign mildness and benevolence which its Divine precepts were so well calculated to inspire. That savage cruelty and remorseless barbarity, which the heathen exercised towards their slaves, could never exist under the Hebrew laws; the followers of which were strictly enjoined to extend kindness even to brute animals, much more to human beings. Accordingly, we find that the Israelites treated even their heathen slaves with the greatest forbearance and mildness;t and, indeed, of many them carried their humanity so far, as never unnecessarily to rebuke them, nor

The heathen slave might, before he had performed an act of servitude to the purchaser, become a proselyte, and thus acquire his freedom at once. All that the purchaser could then require of him was the repayment of the purchase-money. The master might, at any time, give him his freedom, or it might be purchased for him by any of his friends.

Lastly, the master was compelled to give it him, in case he deliberately maimed his limbs, or knocked out any of his teeth.

"Though the law," says Maimonides, "did not expressly enjoin us not to treat the heathen slaves with rigour, yet piety and justice require us to be merciful and kind to them.-We ought, therefore, not to oppress them, nor lay heavy burdens upon them: nay, we ought to let them partake of the same food with which we indulge ourselves. Our pious ancestors made it a rule to give their slaves a portion of every dish prepared for their own use; nor would they sit down to their meals before they had seen that their servants were properly provided for; considering themselves their natural protectors; remembering what King David said, 'Behold, as the eyes of slaves are directed towards their masters, and as the eyes of the handmaid towards her mistress,' &c.

[ocr errors]

Equally improper is it to insult them either by words or blows. The law has delivered them over to subjection, but not to insult. Nor must we bawl at them, or be in a great passion with them, but speak to them mildly and attend to their reasonable complaints. Such conduct Job considered as very meritorious, as he said, 'If I ever did despise the cause of my slave or handmaid when they contended with me, what then shall I do when the Almighty riseth up?' &c.

"

Cruelty and violence characterize heathen idolaters; but the sons of Abraham, the Israelites, whom the Holy (blessed be his name!) has so emi

700

to speak harshly to them, nay, they would even let them partake of the same food on which they themselves subsisted, well knowing that a slave has feelings as well as the master, and ever bearing in mind the words of Job, 'that the same Maker that formed the master, formed the slave, and that they were both fashioned in the same mould.'”

STATE OF RELIGION IN AMERICA.

MR. EDITOR,

SIR,-As much has of late been said, both in private and in public, of the state of religion in United America, I have taken the liberty to send you the following account, furnished me by a friend lately arrived from New York.

You, doubtless, remember that old prophecy of Herbert,

"Religion seems on tiptoe in our land,

Ready to pass to the American strand:" whence many have esteemed the old bard both a prophet and a poet, and recent events would seem to justify the prediction. We have had writings upon American revivals, upon the outpourings of the Spirit, on that vast continent, on her temperance societies, her extending Sunday-schools and Sunday-school Unions, her Bible and Mission Societies; in a word, every thing appears conducted on a scale equal to the grandeur and vastness of the country.

Now, Mr Editor, I see nothing in all this to excite our envy. Is not all enlarging the Redeemer's kingdom? Of what moment is it, whether on this or the other side the Atlantic? Religion is of no meridian; truth is not confined within parallels of latitude. The field of Christ is the world; and the sooner any part is evangelized, so much the better. On these principles, you will rejoice in the following statements; they are taken from the last Number of the Quarterly Register, and Journal of the American Education Society; and appear to have been compiled from the most authentic sources that are accessible.

1. Orthodox Congregationalists, principally within the North-east, or New England States, in each of which there is a general Conference, Association, or Convention.-Associations or conferences, 66; ministers, 800; vacant churches, 250;

nently distinguished by wise and just laws, ought to be kind and compassionate, and as merciful as He of whom it is said, He is good to all, and his mercy extends over all his works."-Maimonides Yad Hachzakah, b. iv.

701

State of Religion in America.

communicants, 120,000: documents not complete.

2. Presbyterians, in the middle, southern, and western States.-Synods, 19; presbyteries, 92; ordained ministers, 1392; licentiates, 205; churches, 2070; communiants, 162,816.

3. Reformed Dutch Church, principally in the States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.-Synods, 2; classes, 16; pastors, 150; licentiates, 7; churches, 185; vacant, 44; communicants, 11,713.

4. Protestant Episcopal Church, principally in the Atlantic States, but scattered through most of the others.-Dioceses, 15; bishops, 10; ministers, 528.

5. German Reformed Church, principally in the middle States, Ohio.-Synods, 2; classes, 8; ordained ministers, 120; candidates, 10; congregations, 500: documents deficient.

6. Evangelical Lutheran Church, principally in the middle States, in 1828.200 ministers; 800 congregations.

7. Methodist Episcopal Church, in all the States.-Bishops, 4; conferences, 17; preachers, 1697; superannuated, 120; members, 447,743.

8. Calvinistic Baptists, in all the States. -Associations, 224; churches, 4,285; ministers, 2857; communicants, 292,862: documents not all of 1829.

9. Seventh-day Baptists, principally in Rhode Island.-Ministers, 30; communicants, 3000.

10. Principle Baptists, principally in Rhode Island, and New York. - 25 churches, and 1700 members.

11. Mennonites.-Ministers, 250; members, 30,000.

12. Tunckers, chiefly in the western States. Churches, 40; communicants,

3000.

13. Free-will Baptists, principally in New England.-Ministers, 300; churches, 370; communicants, 16,000.

14. Christian Society, in most of the States.-Ministers, 300; members, 30,000.

15. Emancipators, in Kentucky.-Ministers, 10; communicants, 400.

16. Free Communion Baptists, in the State of New York.-Ministers, 30; communicants, 3500.

17. United Brethren, principally in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.—Ministers, 23; congregations, 23; communicants, 2000; members, 6000.

18. Quakers, or Friends, principally in the Atlantic States.-Members, 150,000, of whom 56,000 are Hicksites, (Socinians,) and the rest orthodox.

702

19. Cumberland Presbyterians, in the States bordering on the Mississippi river.— Synod, 1; several presbyteries, but the document is not complete: increase last year, 3500.

20. Unitarians, chiefly in Massachusetts. -Churches, 160.

21. Swedenborgians, principally in the eastern and middle States.-Ministers, 29; regular societies in 28 towns.

22. Shakers, chiefly in New England and New York.-Societies, 16; preachers, 45; members, 5,400.

23. Universalists, in the eastern and middle States.-Preachers, 150; societies, 300.

24. Roman Catholics.-Archbishop, 1; bishops, 12; members estimated, 500,000.

RELIGION IN AMERICA;

Or, Lines suggested by the foregoing Statement.

ALONG thy boundless forests, wide and far, Though Hesper reigns, yet shines the Morning

star;

Truth gilds the margin of thy inland seas,
Whose white waves ripple with the forest breeze;
And spreads her red-cross banner wide unfurl'd
O'er every section of thy sylvan world.
Where wide Ontario rolls a world of waves;
Where fair Ohio, half an empire laves;
Where high the Alleganny mountains frown,
Or deep Missouri rolls his waters brown;
Fair truth is borne along with every gale,
The woodlands echo with Redemption's tale.
Where once the war-whoop fell, in sounds of fear,
Like passing death-bell to a culprit's ear;
Where fate impell'd the deadly tomahawk,
And rival chiefs by belts of wampum talk;
The woods are clear'd, the demon discord fled,
Towns spot the forest, churches lift their head.
"Where wild Oswego pours her swamps around,
Where Niagara stuns with thundering sound,"
Or further west, where rolls the tide of man
Along the pine-crown'd shores of Michigan;
Truth follows culture o'er the vast extent,
And builds an altar where he spreads a tent;
And while he fells the wood, and clears the soil,
Renews the heart, and cheers him with her smile.
For this, like vernal dew or summer showers,
O'er all the Continent the Spirit pours;
And wide and far, each pastor spreads his line,
To make new channels for the stream divine.
So wide the field, so vast the moral need,
Admits no idler to dispense the seed,

All at it, always at it, enterprise

Is here the ruling mark of fool and wise.
Hence where the axe has cut the forest down,

And shap'd the wilderness into a town;

Within those avenues so lately trod,

Crowds bend the knee, and haste to worship God.
See spreading zeal a wider compass fetch,
And still the line of active labour stretch
To regions far beyond, that ask a name,
And newly peopled towns unknown to fame.
In these shall nurseries of truth abound,
To spread the written word, or joyful sound.
Here may new Wesleys and new Whitfields
spring,

New Baxters write, and tuneful Cowpers sing.
Along these woods, at no far distant day,
The light of life may shed his holiest ray:
And here, when truth has left our easter skies,
(Which God forbid) the Morning-star may rise.
Some say (O may they prophesy in vain,)
That piety will cross the western main,
And far Columbia steal the holy gem,
That shines so bright in Britain's diadem.

« ForrigeFortsæt »