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FIRST 



ANNUAL REPORT 



AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY; 

WITH THE 

SPEECHES DELIVERED AT THE ANNIVERSARY 
MEETING, 

HELD IN CHATHAM-STREET CHAPEL, 

IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 

ON THE SIXTH OF MAY, 1834, 
AND BY ADJOURNMENT ON THE EIGHTH, IN THE REV. DR. LANSING'S CHURCH; 



MINUTES OF THE MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR 
BUSINESS. 



> NEW-YORK: 

PRINTED BY DORR & BUTTERFIELD, 

^fO. 70 FULTON-STREET. 



1834. 



. v,j o ^- \ 



FIRST ANNIVERSARY 



AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 

The first public anniversary of this Society was held 
in Chatham-street chapel, on Tuesday the 6th of May, 
1834. The house was filled by a very select audience, 
a large proportion being clergymen, and other visitors 
from abroad. 

At 10 o'clock, A. M., Mr. Arthur Tappan, the Pre- 
sident, took the chair. 

Prayer was offered by the Rev. Cyrus P. Grosve- 
nor, of Salem, Mass. 

Rev. S. H. Cox, of New- York, read the 58th chap- 
ter of Isaiah. An appropriate hymn was then sung 
by a choir composed partly of colored singers. 

Extracts from the Annual Report were then read 
by Elizur Wright, Jr., Secretary for Domestic Cor- 
respondence. 

Rev. S. L. PoMEROY, of Bangor, Me. moved that the 
report be accepted, and published under the direction 
of the committee. 

He said he had great pleasure in doing it, because he believed the principles 
laid down in the report are the principles of eternal truth and justice. They 
stand on the chapter we have just heard. If any one asks us for the principles 
of the Anti-Slavery Society, we point to that chapter and say. There are our prin- 
ciples. Would they know the means on which we rely, under God, for the 
accomplishment of our intentions, we reply. We follow the example of Him, who 
when he would reduce chaotic elements into order and beauty, said, "Let there 
be light." So say we, let there be light on the subject of slavery; investigate 
and publish abroad the truth. These are our means. 



Rev. Stephen Peet, of Euclid, Ohio, said he felt 
great satisfaction in seconding the motion. 

Rev. Amos A. Phelps, of Boston, moved the follow- 
ing resolution ; 

Resolved, That inasmuch as foreign slave-trading has been justly decreed by- 
civilized nations to be piracy, slave-holding is a sin of no less atrocity ; and 
that, existing as it does in our country, it brings the Declaration of American 
Independence and our republican institutions into contempt, and gives just oc- 
casion to apprehend the judgments of a righteous God, if it be not speedily abo- 
lished. 

This resolution, said Mr. P., it will be perceived, takes very high ground. But 
it takes it not for the purpose of calumniating those who are more immediately 
concerned in slavery. I know that there are many who are very noble men in 
other respects, whom we consider very guilty in this. Nor is it because we, non- 
slave-holders, are innocent in regard to our colored brethren. But we take this 
ground, because it is the only true ground to take, and because it presents us the 
only efficient principle of reform. We are told we should press considerations of 
interest, we must make it plain to the slave-holder that it is for his interest to 
emancipate his slaves. But mere interest can never carry on a moral reform. 
You may go to the profligate man, and tell him it is for his interest to re- 
form, and he will be a profligate still. So with the slave-holder. You must 
reach his conscience ; and in order to this, you must tell him the plain truth in 
regard to the moral character of his conduct. 

The resolution puts slave-holding and slave trading on the same footing of guilt. 
We make no difference, for these reasons : 

1. All slave-trading is the legitimate result of slave-holding. It is one of the 
most obvious of principles, that where there is no market there will be no trade; 
if no demand, then no supply. The history of the African slave trade shows 
that it is the child of slavery. The natives of the West India islands were sub- 
jected to a servitude so severe as to destroy the race-, and the Africans were 
enslaved in order to save the natives from entire extinction. 

2. All the reasons which decide the African slave-trade to be piracy, are 
equally valid to prove that slave-holding is a crime of the same character. What 
is piracy ? The dictionaries define it to be, " the act of taking property on the 
high seas without authority." It is on the sea what robbery is on the land. 
What then is it that constitutes the African slave trade piracy? It is not fitting 
out ships to Africa. That is lawful. Nor is it transporting 100 or 1000 persons 
across the ocean. That is lawful. Nor that they are subjected to hardship and 
suffering in the middle passage. That might be by the dispensation of Heaven. 
Or if you say cruelty is the test, then I can prove that slave-holding is equally 
piracy. 

Mr. P. then alluded to the recent occurrence at New-Orleans. He also men- 
tioned the case of a man named Smith, a constable of Alexandria, D. C, who, 
having arrested a colored man for debt, incautiously took him over the Virginia 
line, and when the man said he was now out of his jurisdiction, the enraged con- 
stable drew a knife and literally cut out his heart. There was indeed a great 
excitement at the moment, the man was tried, and it was found necessary to call 



out the militia to protect him from the mob. But the court decided that the deed 
was done out of their jurisdiction, in Virginia, and there the matter ended. The 
man still lives unmolested. We have the full declaration of the students in 
Lane Seminary, that cruelty is the rule, kindness the exception. 

If it is separating families, or the use of violence in obtaining victims, that 
makes up piracy, then is slave-holding piracy. The slave-holder puts his hand 
on the little infant that is born on his plantation, and says, " That is mine." Why 
does he not use violence ? Simply because there is no need. Suppose it was 
born an adult; would he not resort to violence ? Legalized violence, perhaps, as 
we see done in New-York, but still overpowering force, as truly as in Africa. 

What then is it that constitutes slave-holding the crime of piracy ? It is the one 
simple act of reducing a freeman to the condition of a slave — wresting from a 
human being the ownership of himself. It is this, divested of all its circumstan. 
ces. And is not slave-holding just as much a usurpation — the setting up of an 
assumed claim to the ownership of a human being ? 

It needs no argument to prove that slavery dishonors Christianity and our free 
institutions. Look at its influence. See how it trammels the press, locks up the 
pulpit, controls elections, exerts an overwhelming influence in our national coun- 
cils. All our national collisions owe their origin to slavery. Who can measure 
the influence of slavery in counteracting and destroying the influence of our 
example on other lands in favor of free institutions? The standing plea of the 
advocates of despotism, when they would warn their votaries against the desire of 
liberty, is to point out the inconsistency of our example, and our national dissen- 
tions and commotions that grow out of slavery. Sir, it puts back the march of 
freedom, nay, of religion, over the whole earth. Let the story be told to the 
heathen, according to strict truth, by any Christian missionary of the cross, and 
what native would listen to the gospel from his lips ? If the infidel wants to coun- 
teract effectually our labors to spread the gospel, let him go and tell the heathen 
that in this Christian land one sixth of the people are held in bondage, and your 
missionary may almost as well go home. 

Does the slave-holder refer to the Bible for justification ? The slave-trader has 
done the same. When that was a subject of discussion the defenders of the 
slave-trade were always telling about the curse of servitude denounced upon Ca- 
naan and his posterity, how Abraham had servants bought with money, and the 
Jews were allowed by God himself to enslave the nations around them. The 
slave-trader used to plead law, and constitution too ; for it should be remembered 
that the slave-trade was once as constitutional as slave-holding, although we and 
the civilized world now treat it as piracy. 

There are two particulars in which slave-holding stands pre-eminent. 1. When 
and where did the slave-trade ever develope such a system of licentiousness ? 
2. The slave-trade never produced a system of laws to shut out the light of the 
Bible from its victims, and lock up the mind to darkness and paganism ? It 
never laid its iron grasp upon the intellect of man, nor attempted to crush and 
obliterate the immortal principle. If there is any difference in criminality then, 
slave-holding is the worse of the two. 

Mr. P. then spoke of a recent visit he had made to the jail in Washington city. 
The United States government have just paid five thousand dollars for repairmg 
it. The debtors and criminals are located in rooms above, and below are 16 
solitary cells, used and constantly occupied for the confinement of slaves and per- 



6 

sons taken up on suspicion of being slaves. On inquiring of one and another, 
My lad, what are you here for? it was affecting to hear the reply, "For my 
freedom, sir." Just down the hill in the other direction, and like the jail, within 
sight of the capitol, is the slave tavern of William Robie, a depot for the Ameri- 
can slave-trade. And seven miles distant, in Alexandria, and under the exclusive 
jurisdiction of Congress, is the larger establishment of Franklin and Armfield. 
One of the partners told me he had probably sold a thousand slaves already this 
year. And he told a gentleman, who told me, that he had made not less than 
thirty thousand dollars by his operations. According to the city laws of Wash- 
ington, every slave-trader pays four hundred dollars for a license, and this goes 
to support the city government. 

Mr. P. enumerated other acts of oppression, and violation of right. And these, 
said he, occur at Washington, the head quarters of colonization, and we hear 
nothing of any complaint. 

Need I ask whether such things bring us and our declaration of independence 
into contempt? Sir, look at Europe. The Christians — the infidels — the support- 
ers of tyranny — the friends of liberty — point the finger of scorn at our inconsis- 
tency. We boast that our coimtry is the home of the oppressed, and yet there is 
not a nation on earth that holds so many slaves. We cheer on the Greeks to 
break the Turkish yoke, and we make contributions in aid of the Poles; and yet 
hold greater numbers in more cruel and crushing bondage. We boast of our 
freedom of speech and of the press; and yet, in the District of Columbia, a free 
citizen, if he has a colored skin, is liable to a fine of twenty dollars for taking the 
Emancipator. And we have seen the legislature of a sovereign state at the south, 
offering a reward of five thousand dollars for the head of a citizen at the north, 
who undertook to awaken public attention to the enormities of this system. 

Does not all this give us reason to apprehend the judgments of Heaven? Sir, 
judgments have already come, giving indications of severer judgments in store, 
unless we repent. The light has come now ; let us hear, and we shall be " the 
repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in." 

Mr. James A. Thome, of Kentucky, a delegate from 
the Anti-Slavery Society of Lane Seminary, was in- 
troduced to the meeting, and moved the following re- 
solution : 

Resolved, That the principles of the American Anti-Slavery Society com- 
mend themselves to the consciences and interest of slave-holders ; and that re- 
cent developments indicate the speedy triumph of this cause. 

Of the truth of the first proposition contained in this resolution, that our prin- 
ciples commend themselves to the consciences and interest of slave-holders, I 
have the honor to stand before you a living witness. I am from Kentucky. There 
I was born and wholly educated. The associations of youth, and the attach, 
ments of growing years — prejudices, opinions and hat)its forming and fixing 
during my whole life, conspire to make me a Kentuckian indeed. More than 
this — I breathed my first breath in the atmosphere of slavery ; I was suckled at 
its breast and dandled on its knee. Black, black, black was before me at every 
step — the sure badge of infamy. The sympathies of nature, even in their spring 



tide, were dried up ; compassion was deadened, and the heart was steeled by 
repeated scenes of cruelty and oft taught lessons of the colored man's inferiority. 

What I shall say is the result either of experience or of personal observation. 

Abolition principles do take strong hold of the conscience and of interest too. 
Permit me to say, sir, I was for several years a member of the Colonization 
Society. I contributed to its funds, and eulogised its measures ; and now, thofigh 
I would not leave my path to attack this institution, yet duty bids me state, 
solemnly and deliberately, that its direct influence upon my mind was to lessen my 
conviction of the evils of slavery, and to deepen and sanctify my prejudice against 
the colored race. 

But, sir, far otherwise with abolition. Within a few months' residence at 
Lane Semiary, and by means of a discussion imparallelled in the brotherly feel- 
ing and fairness which characterized it, and the results which it brought out, the 
great principles of duty stood forth, sin revived and I died. And, sir, though I 
am at this moment the heir to a slave inheritance, and though I, forsooth, am 
one of those unfortunate beings upon whom slavery is by force entailed, yet I 
am bold to denounce the whole system as an outrage — a complication of crimes 
and wrongs and cruelties that make angels weep. This is the spirit which your 
principles inspire. Indeed, I know of no subject which takes such strong hold 
of the man as does abolition. It seizes the conscience with an authoritative 
grasp — it runs across every path of the guilty, haimts him, goads him, and rings 
in his ear the cry of blood. It builds a wall up to heaven before him and around 
him; it goes with the eye of God, and searches his heart with a scrutiny too 
strict to be eluded. It writes a " thou art the man" upon the forehead of every 
oppressor. 

It also commands the avenues to the human heart, and rushes up through them 
all to take the citadel of feeling. All the sympathies are its advocates, and every 
susceptibility to compassionate outraged humanity stands pledged to do its work. 

Will you permit me to state some of the vantage grounds upon which we 
stand in the public discussion of this question? 

1. The duty of the slave-holder. The duty of the slave-holder — what a wea- 
pon I a host in itself! sure as the throne of God, and strong as the arm of God. 
It is untrue that this consideration loses its force in slave states. It is the power 
of God there and on this subject, as it is elsewhere and on every other. Facts 
are daily occurring which show that when every other motive fails, this is 
efficient. It is a libel upon the western character, to say that duty there must 
bow before expediency ; and this miserable policy will soon be visited with a just 
rebuke from the people it has slandered. 

2. Again — The sufferings of the slaves. It is well known that in Kentucky 
slavery wears its mildest features. Kentucky slave-holders are generally ignorant 
of the cruelties which are practised further south, and on this score are little 
aware of the bearings of the system. Those good matter-of-fact patriots, who 
call such recitals "the poetry of philanthropy," and who in the south have the 
control of the press, have studiously refrained from instructing the public on this 
point. A noble expedient this, to close the ear of the oppressor against the wail 
of the oppressed. But it will not avail. The voice of their lamentations is wax- 
ing louder, and it will he heard. Sir, is it not imquestionable that slavery is the 
parent of more suffering than has flowed from any one source since the date of 
its existence ? Such sufferings too ! Sufferings inconceivable and innumerable — 



anguish from mind degraded — hopelessness from violated chastity — bitterness 
from character, reputation, and honor annihilated — unmingled wretchedness from 
the ties of nature rudely broken and destroyed, the acutest bodily torture in every 
muscle and joint — groans, tears and blood — lying forever " in perils among rob- 
bers, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils among false 
brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, 
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." 

What! are these our brethren? And have we fattened, like jackalls, upon 
their living flesh? Sir, when once the great proposition, that negroes are hu- 
man beings — a proposition now scouted by many with contempt — is clearly de. 
monstrated and drawn out on the southern sky, and when underneath it is written 
the bloody corollary — the sufferings of the negro race — the seared conscience 
will again sting, and the stony heart will melt. 

But, brethren of the north, be not deceived. These sufferings still exist, and 
despite the efforts of their cruel authors to hush them down, and confine them 
within the precincts of their own plantations, they will, ever and anon, struggle 
up and reach the ear of humanity. 

A general fact — though I would by no means intimate that Kentucky slave- 
holders are themselves free from cruelty — far from it ! — yet I have foimd, in 
narrating particular cases to them, as evident expressions of horror and indigna- 
tion as men ordinarily feel in other sections of our country. Such facts have their 
effect upon them. 

3. Licentiousness. I shall not speak of the far south, whose sons are fast 
melting away under the unblushing profligacy which prevails. I allude to the 
slave-holding west. It is well known that the slave lodgings — I refer now to 
village slaves — are exposed to the entrance of strangers every hour of the night, 
and that the sleeping apartments of both sexes are common. 

It is also a fact, that there is no allowed intercourse between the families and 
servants after the work of the day is over. The family, assembled for the even- 
ing, enjoy a conversation elevating and instructive. But the poor slaves are 
thrust out. No ties of sacred home thrown around them — ^no moral instruction 
to compensate for the toils of the day — ^no intercourse as of man with man; and 
should one of the younger members of the family, led by curiosity, steal out into 
the filthy kitchen, the child is speedily called back, thinking itself happy if it 
escape an angry rebuke. Why this ? The dread of moral contamination. Most 
excellent reason; but it reveals a horrid picture. The slaves, thus cut off" from 
all commimity of feeling with their master, roam over the village streets, shock- 
ing the ear with their vulgar jestings and voluptuous songs, or opening their 
kitchens to the reception of the neighboring blacks, they pass the evening in gam- 
bling, dancing, drinking, and the most obscene conversation, kept up until the 
night is far spent, then crowoi the scene with indiscriminate debauchery. Where 
do these things occur ? In the kitchens of church members and elders ! 

But another general fact. After all the care of parents to hide these things 
from their children, the young inquisitors pry them out, and they are apt scholars 
truly. It's a short-sighted parent who does not perceive that his domestics 
influence very materially the early education of his children. Between the female 
slaves and the misses there is an unrestrained communication. As they come in 
conta.ct through the day, the courtesan feats of the past night are whispered into 
the ear of the unsuspecting girl, to poison her youthful mind. 



Bring together these three facts — 1st, that slave lodgings arc exposed, and botli 
sexes fare promiscuously — 2d, that the slaves are excluded from the social, 
moral and intellectual advantages of the family, and left to seek such enjoyments 
as a debased appetite suggests — and 3d, that the slaves have free interchange of 
thought with the younger members of the family; and ask yourselves what must 
be the results of their combined operation. 

Yet these are only some of the ingredients in this great system of licentious- 
ness. Pollution, pollution ! Young men of talents and respectability, fathers, pro- 
fessors of rehgion, ministers — all classes! Overwhelming pollution I I have 
facts ; but I forbear to state them — facts which have fallen under my own 
observation, startling enough to arouse the moral indignation of the com- 
munity. 

I would not have you fail to understand that this is a general evil. Sir, what I 
now say, I say from a deliberate conviction of its truth ; let it be felt in the north 
and rolled back upon the south, that the slave States are Sodoms, and almost every 
village family is a brothel. (In this, I refer to the inmates of the kitchens, and 
not to the whites.) And it is well ! God be blessed for the evils which this 
cursed sin entails. They only show that whatever is to be feared from the aboli- 
tion of slavery, horrors a hundred fold greater cluster about its existence. Heap 
them up, all hideous as they are, and crowd them home ; they will prove an 
effectual medicine. Let me be understood here. This pollution is the offspring 
of slavery: it springs not from the character of the negro, but from the condition 
of the slave. 

I have time merely to allude to several other considerations. 

4. The fears of slave-holders. These afford strong evidence that conscience 
is at work. In the most peaceful villages of Kentucky, masters at this time sleep 
with muskets in their bed-rooms, or a brace of pistols at their head. 

5. Their acknowledgments. The very admissions which they make for the 
purpose of silencing their growing convictions of duty, may be successfully turned 
upon them. They almost unanimously say that slavery is a great evil — that it is 
abstractly wrong; yet there is no help for it — or their slaves are better off than 
tliey are — or, or, or. 

Now be they sincere or insincere, out of their own mouth we can condemn 
them. I met, the other day, in travelling a short distance on the Ohio river, with 
a good illustration of the manner in which these admissions are made. It is 
also a pretty faithful exhibition of the uneasy, conscience-struck spirit which is 
begiiming to pe'rvade Kentucky. The individual was a citizen of that State, and a 
slave-holder in it. He was free in conversation on the subject of slavery. He 
declared in the outset that slavery was wrong — a most iniquitous system, and 
ought to be abolished. Quite a point gained, thought I, and I proceeded very 
confidently to the application. But I soon found that my friend had deserted his 
position. " The old dispensation, sir — what d'ye think of that ? Didn't Abra- 
ham hold slaves? and besides, what does Paul say ?" 

You perceive he was a Christian, sir, quite orthodox withal. 

Soon again he returned to his post, and asserted as roundly as before the 
wickedness of slavery. " Wrong — totally wrong ! I would free all my slaves 
if — but — tell me, sir, were not the Jews permitted to hold slaves because they 
were a favored people ; and are not we a favored people ? Abraham, Paul, the 
old dispensation" — and thus he rung the changes, stung on the one hand by a 



10 

guilty conscience, and met on the other by opposing selfislmess. It may be said 
this man was not intelligent. He was unusually so on every other subject. 

6. Safety of emancipation. On this point, the slave-holder is more than igno- 
rant — he is deplorably misinformed. Who have been his counsellors, judge ye. 
It is remarkable what a unanimity of sentiment prevails on this subject. 

You would suppose that they had long been plied with stories of butchered 
parents, murdered children, and plundered houses. This might be discouraging 
if the short history of emancipation did not furnish us with so many conclusive 
facts. With these facts you are quite familiar ; and yet there is no objection more 
common than the dangers, the dangers of emancipation. Travel in slave-holding 
States, and talk with masters, and you will find, in a great majority of cases, they 
will point to St. Domingo, and exultingly say, " Behold the consequences of your 
measures." 

7. Slave-holders are not so inaccessible as they are thought to be in the north. 
There is a strong degree of excitability in the character of our southern brethren, 
it is true ; but this is not all. There is reason too, and common sense, and 
conscience. 

I, for one, beg leave to enter my decided protest, against those friendly repre- 
sentations of the southern character, which have been made to scare away 
abolitionists, and prolong a guilty repose. Unless I read amiss, assertions are 
repeatedly made to this effect — that argument, in the south, has no weight ; that 
truth, facts, experience, are all inefficacious ; that slave-holders have no con- 
science, no heart, no soul, no principle — nothing but selfishness ; that they are 
boisterous and passionate when you speak of the rights of man, and you must 
beware — soft ! — delicate matter ! Sir, I repudiate these sentiments. They are 
as groundless as they are insulting. Let them strike with all their force against 
certain wordy orators of the south, whose arguments are powder and balls, but 
they illy fit those worthy citizens whose voice constitutes public sentiment. 

The slave-holder, if rightly approached, exhibits all the courtesy for which the 
south is noted. I have conversed with many, and scarcely know an instance to 
the contrary. No indignation — no rage — no fierce indications of hostility. I lately 
had opportunity to converse with several intelligent families in a small village of 
Kentucky. The state of feeling was truly gratifying. Many inquiries were made 
concerning the principles of abolitionists. Some were anxious to know the plans 
of operation, others expressed themselves in very unexpected terms. Said one, 
" I am decidedly opposed to the spirit of the Colonization Society." Said another, 
" I am determined to emancipate my slaves just so soon as circumstances, now 
without my control, will permit." 

8. Kentucky. I have already made frequent allusions to Kentucky. The spirit 
which is beginning to prevail there, though not a fair representative of the state 
of the public mind in other slave States, is to be hailed, on other grounds, as con- 
stituting no small item in our account. Colonization — which, like the Hindoo 
goddess, with smiling face and winning air, grasps in her wide embrace, the zeal 
of the church, and the benevolence of the world, and, pressing them to her bosom, 
thrusts them through with the hidden steel, Colonization has indeed done its 
mournful work in Kentucky. 

[Sir, perhaps I owe an apology to this house for such frequent allusions to the 
Colonization Society. This is my apology ; I know its evils, and can lay my 
finger on them, one by one. I know the individual slaves who are now in bondage 



11 

by its influence alone. I Icnow the masters whose only plea for continuing in the 
sin is drawTi from Us doctrines, I know, and therefore have I spoken. Many of 
its friends I reverence ; they are worthy men. But the tendencies of the system 
I hnoio to be pernicious in the extreme.] 

But the State is rising above this influence. Conscientious citizens are forming 
themselves into other associations. Many hold this language : " Slavery stands 
in opposition to the spirit of the age, to the progress of human improvement — it 
cannot abide the light of the nineteenth century." The Legislature has taken up 
the subject. The spirit of inquiry is abroad. — " Kentucky is rapidly awakening." 
She should now fill up the eye of abolitionists ; for if she were induced to take a 
stand with you, her example would be of incalculable worth. 

These are some of the results of a life thus far spent in the midst of slavery ; 
less than this I could not prevail upon myself to say. The design of these state- 
ments has been to encourage you in your holy enterprise, inasmuch as they show 
that your principles do take strong hold of the consciences and interest of slave- 
holders. 

Now, sir, the great object of my presence here, is to urge upon you an appeal 
for renewed effort on the behalf of the slave. The question has been asked here 
and repeated in the south, " What has the north to do with slavery ?" At present 
she has every thing to do with it — every thing. Will you please bear in mind 
three considerations ; 1st, We have no abolition paper in the west or south ! 2d, 
Your principles have been grossly misrepresented, and misunderstood. 3d, You 
have eiTected incredible things already. 

With regard to the first fact I only say, with shame, there is no editor in the 
Valley who is willing to hazard his living by establishing an abolition press. 

2d. I can give you but a faint idea of the notions which are entertained of 
abolition principles and men. Recklessness, false estimate of right, fanaticism. 
Quixotism, sublimated austere bigots, incessantly harping upon abstract principles, 
incendiaries, officious intermeddlers, arrant knaves who would break up all well- 
ordered society, set every slave at his master's throat, and enjoy the massacre 
with infinite delight ; outlawed renegades who, having themselves no interest at 
stake, would bankrupt the honest planter, and most horrifying of all, introduce a 
general system of amalgamation. Notions so monstrously perverted, have not 
been caught up at hap-hazard, but most faithfully instilled by the timorous caution- 
ists of our day. But from what source soever they may have come, they clamor 
for correction, immediate correction. It is of immense importance that the public 
mind should be disabused by a faithful presentation of facts. 

Under all these disadvantages you are doing much. The very little leaven 
which you have been enabled to introduce is now working with tremendous 
power. One instance has lately occurred within my acquaintance, of an heir to 
slave property — a young man of growing influence, who was first awakened by 
reading a single number of the Anti-Slavery Reporter, sent to him by some 
unknown hand. He is now a whole-hearted abolitionist. I have facts to show 
that cases of this kind are by no'means rare. A family of slaves in Arkansas 
Territory, another in Tennessee, and a third, consisting of 88, in Virginia, were 
successively emancipated through the influence of one abolition periodical. 

Then do not hesitate as to duty. Do not pause to consider the propriety of 
interference. It is as unquestionably the province of the north to labor in this 
cause, as it is the duty of the church to convert the world. The call is urgent — 



12 

it is imperative. We vvaTit light. The ungodly are saying, "the church will not 
enlighten us." The church is saying, " the ministry will not enlighten us." The 
ministry is crying " Peace — take care." We are altogether covered in gross 
darkness. We appeal to you for light. Send us fects — send us kind remonstrance 
and manly reasoning. We are perishing for lack of truth. We have been lulled 
to sleep by the guilty apologist. O tell us, if it be true that our bed is a volcano. 
O roll off the Colonization incubus which is crushing us down and binding us 
hand and foot. Show us that "prejudice is vincible," that slavery is unqualifiedly 
wrong, and strip us of every excuse. Come and tell us what shocking scenes are 
transpiring in our own families under the cover of night. Go with us into our 
kitchens and lift up the horrid veil — show us the contamination, as it issues thence 
and wraps its loathsome folds about our sons and daughters. 

Nay, tell us if indeed these miserable beings are themselves our sisters and 
brothers, whom we have buried alive, with our own hands, in corruption. Point 
us, with painful exactness, to the forehead, from which God's image is well nigh 
effaced, to the soul-less eye, to the beast-like features, the leaden countenance 
and the cowering air, and tell us, " that is the immortal ynind in ruins.'''' Repeat 
the sufferings of the slave, the stripes, the cruel separation, the forlornness of the 
friendless slave, and flash upon us the truth, " thy brother, thy brother !" 

Sir, we have sympathies yet alive within us, we have feeling. The great deep 
of our hearts, though it has long been calm, may be moved, and it will be broken 
up by such stirring facts. 

You hear the appeal of the south — can you resist it ? You will not. The 
work is yours — your heart is in it. Move onward, and soon the triumph will be 
yours. 

None but God can stay your course, and God is with you. 

Rev. Beriah Green, President of the Oneida Insti- 
tute, presented the following resolution : 

Resolved, That the claims of the colored people of the United States upon our 
fraternal sympathy, and efiiective aid, are not only manifestly just, but peculiarly 
impressive, imperative and powerful. 

Mr. Green said he felt himself throvra into an awkward predicament, in 
attempting to arrest and retain the attention of the audience, after the agonizing 
interest which had been excited. In his view the prominent point in the resolu- 
tion was in the word peculiar, as expressing the claims of the colored people on 
our commiseration. We are enjoined to keep still, for this matter does not belong 
to us ; or in plain words, they mean, it is none of our business. Suppose we 
listen to this exhortation, or rather, this temptation, and stubbornly refuse to give 
attention to these claims and appeals of our suffering brethren, — would our own 
interests be safe in a single department ? What effect would our silence have 
upon our poor oppressed brethren ? Let no person imagine they are unacquainted 
with what takes place. Sir, there is not a pulse of sympathy for them in the 
north, which is not felt by the slave at the south. God will see to it that they 
are not left strangers to it. But suppose the slave were to look around, and that 
thought should come home with the soul-freezing report that in all our borders 
there was not a friend who would S}anpathize with his bonds or plead his rights, — 
would he not be driven to desperation and violence, because his situation could 
not be made worse ? And we should be called upon and legally compelled to 



13 

imbrue our hands in his blood, to shield the oppressor from the horror o. 
servile war. 

Our brother has told us that not an editor in the Western Valley dares advocate 
the rights of the slave. What, sir, has this tyranny already laid its hand on the 
palladium of liberty, the free press ? All the world seems to be alarmed if but a 
word be said to illustrate the great elementary principles of society, in their 
bearmg upon human rights. I look into our Reviews and our Quarterlies, and 
see confusion worse confoimded in their ideas. We have seen two brethren 
thrown into prison unlawfully, and a single State bid defiance to the Union, and 
there was not to be found a power that could bring them out — all because of 
slavery. A noble hearted brother of our own rose up and attempted to defend 
the oppressed, and lo, a price is set on his head. And do our editors, the guardians 
of liberty, magnanimously rebuke such arrogant pretensions ? No, sir, they are 
ready to give him up as a victim on the altar of slavery. Sir, if this spirit is 
allowed to proceed, unchecked by public sentiment, it will soon reduce us all to 
servitude. 

Again — What is this prejudice, that lays its iron grasp on our brothe r ? Is it 
a harmless sentiment, that may touch the fibres of the heart without polluting it. 
The moral agent who yields to this loathsome prejudice, welcomes a corrupt 
principle to his soul, and how shall he escape its influence ? I shall not attempt 
to be metaphysical, but the very child knows that every wrong desire and every 
sinftil afiection grows stronger by indulgence. If we could take up our colored 
brethren, because we despise their color, and throw them into paradise — into 
the very bosom of God, it would be our destruction; for the sinful prejudice, 
indulged — not repented of, would fasten on some new object. Prejudice is not 
killed, when its victim is removed. There is no way for us to escape from guilt and 
corruption of heart, but by cordially and joyfully yielding to our colored brethren 
the sympathies of our common humanity. 

We are called together to hear about our being a benevolent people, awake to 
the strong ties of brotherhood with nations the most distant and the most degraded. 
And we shall be made to feel for China and Hindostan, and all that. And very 
likely we shall be told, too, that our colored brethren cannot, in this land, be 
made the Lord's freemen. Have you ever thought of the influence of this doctrine 
on Christian benevolence ? — You say Christianity itself cannot elevate the blacks 
in this land. This must be said, or what becomes of those PENS into which we 
thrust those of them who choose to visit our houses of worship. If the gospel 
cannot destroy the cords of caste in this country, why go to attempt it in Hindos- 
tan ? — Perhaps some shrewd Brahmin may find out, that Christianity is not able 
to make an American believer receive his brother as his own mother's son. And 
he will say to your missionary, " Go home and break the cords of caste in your 
own CHURCHES, before you come here to make the Brahmin and the Soodra 
mingle together in the charities of life." 

I have heard many people say they want to do something for the heathen — they 
can give but little money — they are not fitted to go on a foreign mission. Why, 
sir, to meet the case and test the sincerity of such, God has taken up a nation of 
our poor heathen brethren, and brought them to our own coasts, and scattered 
them among us. Here they are, scattered and degraded, at our doors. And 
what is the result ? — Why, we have formed a great national society, and employed 
eloquent agents to traverse the country, and make appeals to the public heart 



u 

throughout the length and breadth of the land, to provide the means to take up 
these perishing heathen, and throw them back upon a barbarous coast, and into 
the deep shades of a savage forest. If infidelity ever curls its lip in scorn at the 
claims of Christianity, it must be when we vaunt the power of the gospel to break 
the proudest heart, and subdue every thing contrary to the law of God, and then, 
in the same breath, confess that our colored brethren cannot be raised in this 
country. 

But the resolution says, that the " peculiar" condition of our colored brethren, 
calls for our sympathy and efforts. Is not their claim peculiar ? Let any indi- 
vidual put himself in their condition for an hour. This is what the Bible 
requires. Let him have his family broken up, and his sons and his daughters 
wrested from his arms and carried into bondage, where he can never hope to set 
his eyes on them again, while the stricken parent must not give utterance to a 
single expression of his feelings ; must not shed a tear nor utter a groan, with- 
out the penalty of the lash. Is there not something peculiar, when we think of 
our brethren in such a situation. So our Saviour seemed to think, when he 
uttered the beautiful discourse in the 15th of Luke. The kind shepherd leaves 
his ninety and nine, while the one sheep that is lost absorbs his feelings and 
occupies his cares and labors until it is restored. The tender mother bends over 
the couch of one child that is sick and dying. She has other children, and she 
loves them, but she hardly thinks of them ; the peculiarity of the sick one 
absorbs her whole soul for the time. Sir, this is nature. It is nature on earth 
and nature in heaven — in the bosom of man and in the great heart of God. The 
condition of our colored brethren calls for the most decisive and vigorous exer- 
tions for their relief. Ask your own hearts, what they felt when our beloved 
brother from Kentucky described the condition of the slave. Did not your souls 
echo back his feelings, and cry " Hurry, hurry, to relieve such fearful misery. 
It cannot be endured." Sir, this is nature's voice, coming from the deep recesses 
of the soul, nature, as God made man's nature. And shall our very nature cry 
and we stifle the soimd, or refiise to listen ? 

God said to the cold-hearted Gain, " Where is Abel thy brother ?" He pre- 
sents us the past generations of slaves, multitudes of whom have gone to the 
grave literally weltering in their blood, and says to us, Where are those colored 
brethren ? The fratricide was impudent enough to reply, " Am I my brother's 
keeper ?" Shame on the murderer ! But what do we say ? One man replies, 
•' Consider my situation, I am president of a college, a professor in a theological 
seminary, surrounded with great responsibilities, I pray thee, have me excused." 
Another says, " I occupy the pulpit of a large congregation, and depend on pub- 
lic sentiment for my comfortable support, and there is a strong prejudice among 
my people. I don't keep public sentiment, I must wait till some bold innovator 
shall strike out a path and wear the cornet, and then you will hear my voice, in 
behalf of our suffering brethren." Another says, " I am an editor of a news- 
paper, and my subscriptiori list — you know — !" I say, sir, take care, lest the 
curse of the fratricide come upon you. 

For one, I caimot escape from the conviction that our Saviour has presented to 
us this very case of our colored brethren, in the 25th of Matthew, and pointed 
them out to us as his appropriate representatives. It seems to have been his 
design to refer to those who were most distressed and degraded and despised, as 
the test by which our destiny shall be determined. And when we are called to 



15 

give an account for not relieving these poor brethren, the plea of ignorance will 
be of little avail. " Inasmuch as ye did it not imto one of the least of these, ye 
did it not unto ME." He vs^ill not hear our plea, " I did not know that poor, dis- 
tressed and abject slave was my Judge in disguise." 

Mr. Robert Purvis moved that a subscription and 
collection be now taken up in aid of the Anti-Slavery 
Society. He expressed a deep feeling of gratitude to 
God for the interest which was manifested in behalf 
of those with whom he was classed. 

Rev. Henry G. Ludlow seconded the resolution. 
He did it with the more satisfaction, because he be- 
lieved this meeting to be the funeral of colonization. 
He had formerly thought he was doing God service 
when aiding to expatriate the colored people, and send 
them to the darkness of Africa to get light. But he 
now saw his error, and hoped to live to counteract it. 

The subscription and collection amounted to $2,253. 

Rev. Dr. Cox offered a resolution, that those minis- 
ters of the gospel and editors of newspapers, who have 
exposed the sin of slavery, deserve the thanks of this 
Society. 

He said if he did not hold in his heart, he should go beyond the proper limit 
in what he wished to say ; but the lateness of the hour constrained him to con- 
fine himself. As to those who thought it strange that he should alter his views 
respecting the people of color, by going to Europe, he would only say, he wished 
they could themselves go to Europe, and see how the wise and good look with 
amazement upon our preposterous and wicked feelings towards the people of 
color. When convinced that he had been wrong, he considered it a privilege to 
get right. On this subject he had erred, he was convinced of it, he was sorry, 
and he was willing to say it before the world. He saw there was an analogy 
between this and the temperance cause. Both are practical, and in principle 
opposed to visionary theories and dreamy extravagances. The evil attacked in 
both cases is defended by the cry of " Let us alone." He was prepared to main- 
tain the ground that it was a duty instantly to recognize the colored man as the 
Lord Jesus Christ recognized him. The Rev. Dr. Ritchie, of Edinburgh, in 
giving him farewell in an ecclesiastical assembly, said, " I bless God for Ame- 
rica, for her temperance and her revivals ; we need them here ; but there is one 



16 

thing she needs from us, the principle of Universal Emancipation." And, said 
Dr. C, I have come to the conviction by cahn inquiry and some prayer, that this 
cause will go, and that it is the only cause which will go. 

Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston, offered a 
resolution : 

That the doctrine of immediate emancipation is sound in principle, and safe in 
its application ; and that it is the only effectual remedy for a system of oppression 
which is as abominable in theory as foul in practice. 

Mr. Garrison said, that stained as his soul was with guilt, in the estimation of 
perhaps a majority of his countrymen, for daring to vindicate the cause of an 
oppressed and guiltless race, if he could, he would gladly deepen the stain by 
repeating the offence. But the time was too far gone, and he was laboring under 
a physical hindrance in an oppressive cold. He would only say that if he looked 
back four years to the time when he lay in Baltimore prison for the crime of 
exposing the American slave-trade, or if he looked back seven months to the 
time when a furious mob broke into these very doors seeking his heart's blood, 
and then contrasted the appearance of this crowded and solemn assembly, it 
appeared like a dream. He had never doubted the final success of the cause, 
for he read in the Bible that God remembers the cause of the poor and the 
oppressed. 

Mr. Charles Stuart, of England, said it was cause of gratitude in his mind, 
that God had permitted him to land on these beloved shores, just in season to 
second this resolution. He saw in this meeting a proof that the American Eagle 
and the Dove of Peace are even now rising clear and casting off the weight that 
our brother has so beautifully alluded to. He had been pained to hear, just before 
he left England, that his dear brother, who had just sat down, was denounced in 
America as a slanderer of his country. William Lloyd Garrison never slandered 
his country. No man had ever done so much to wipe off from his country the 
stain which in Britain attaches to your country on account of domestic slavery. 

He was also grieved to hear that a report had been circulated here, that Wil- 
berforce, the sainted Wilberforce, signed the celebrated document against colo- 
nization under the influence of sickness and the debility of approaching death. 
It was false. He knew it was done while he was in the full possession of his 
holy mind, and in the enjoyment of his usual health, before he was attacked with 
the brief sickness which removed him from the world. He knew, too, that so 
far from having retracted the protest, it formed one of the excellent recollections 
which cheered his spirit when going into the presence of God, that he had left 
that testimony in favor of righteousness and humanity, against false political 
principles and oppressive prejudices. Mr. S. then alluded to the circumstances 
which made him not a stranger and a foreigner. The ashes of his parents are 
here, and his sisters lived here, and he came here to be a friend and a brother. 



17 



THURSDAY EVENING.— ADJOURNED PUBLIC MEETING, 

IN REV. DR. LANSING'S CHURCH. 

The American Anti-Slavery Society, by adjourn- 
ment from the anniversary meeting of Tuesday, in 
Chatham-street Chapel, assembled again, on Thurs- 
day evening at half past 7, in the new church of the 
Rev. Dr. Lansing in Houston-street. Arthur Tappan, 
the President, in the chair. 

Prayer vs^as offered by Rev. O. Wetmore of Utica. 

Rev. S. S. JocELYN, of New Haven, offered a reso- 
lution. 

That the American Church is stained with the blood of " the souls of the 
poor innocents," and holds the keys of the great prison of oppression ; that 
while she enslaves, she is herself enslaved ; and that she can never go forth to 
millenial triumph until she shall wash her hands from blood — open the prison 
door — and let the oppressed go free. 

Mr. Jocelyn proceeded to sustain these positions, as follows. Infants were 
sacrificed to Moloch by the idolatrous and rebellious Jews. Among the more 
than two million slaves in this land, there are computed to be more than 500,000 
infants, helpless and dependent. These " poor innocents," at their birth, are 
ofTered to the Moloch of American oppression. Their entire existence is sacri- 
ficed on this bloody and obscene altar. Not less than 200 of these innocents are 
born daily. Yes ! this day 200 have been added to the number. And not less 
than 300,000 of the slaves of this land are held by evangelical Christians ! They 
are held essentially in the same debasing and degrading bondage — subject to the 
same system of cruelty and oppression with the rest of their race : — denied the 
means of education — forbidden to read the Bible — unprotected by the laws — 
uncultured in their minds — unreformed in their morals. 

Slavery is a system of pollution. It recognizes not the law of purity. It knows 
no marriage for the slave. It aimuls the seventh command of the decalogue. It 
is a common thing for a female slave, a member of a church, to change husbands, 
and yet remain in fellowship with the church ! This is done because females, as 
well as males, are sold from one plantation to another, as the interests or neces- 
sities of the masters require, and husbands and wives are separated, to see each 
other's faces no more. And there are not wanting Christians and ministers to 
justify this breach of the commands of God, on the part of the slaves, on account 
of the peculiar circumstances in which they are placed. Yet the laws and prac. 
tices which create these circumstances are permitted to go unreproved. 

Again, there are churches whose funds for the support of the ministry consist, 
not in glebe lands or money at interest, but in slaves ! the flesh and bones, and 



18 

bodies and souls of men ! It is computed that at least three hundred Christian 
ministers hold slaves, not merely a few household domestics, but gangs of field 
slaves, to cultivate large plantations. Many ministers, even from the north, 
become large slave-holders. This is frequently in consequence of their becoming 
connected in marriage with a wealthy heiress of a slave fortune. As the 
Canaanitish women were snares to God's ancient people, and led them into the 
most abominable practices, and the most grievous departures from God ; even so 
in our own nation at this time, a most fruitful source of corruption to the church 
is the unhallowed alliances of Christians with families whose houses were 
founded in blood. And is not the church thus stained with blood ? Is not the 
blood of the " poor innocents" found in her skirts ? 

2. The resolution charges the church with holding the keys of the great prison 
of oppression. Slavery, the world over, is that great prison. Its doors are not 
broken by violence. No. They are unlocked only by moral power. But the 
moral power of the whole world is held by the church. The keys of the prison 
are in her hands. But she refuses to unlock the doors. How was it in England ? 
The church there held the keys, and so long as she refused to unlock the doors, 
the slave remained in bondage. But when, by the instrumentality of her Clarkson 
and her Wilberforce, she unlocked the doors, (if indeed it be done) — then the 
mandate went forth, that the captives be made free. The American church now 
holds the same key, and refuses to unlock the doors of the prison. She does it 
at the south — by her general example. There may be individual exceptions, 
but in general terms it may be said her members are oppressors. She does 
it, by decrying discussion — and by the influence of her religious press. Has the 
southern church ever petitioned for the repeal of the slave laws ? Has she even 
asked that the horrible system of abomination should be done away ? Has she 
been ashamed, or could she blush ? The Methodist church in its Conferences, 
and the Presbyterian church in its General Assembly, has sanctioned slavery. 
The Methodist church by altering her salutary discipline : — the Presbyterian 
church by blotting out, in 1818, the noble testimony against the oppression, which, 
until then, had stood recorded in its standards. Among the Baptist, the Episco- 
palian, and other churches, no favorable movement on the subject has been made. 
The Friends, indeed, a long time since, took a correct stand, but they stood 
alone. And at the north, the church refuses to unlock the prison — by apologizing 
for the sins of the south — by making exceptions and provisos where the law of 
God has made none — by fostering unholy hatred and prejudice — by denying the 
power of the gospel to eradicate the hatred she cherishes — by her pulpits — by 
her presses — by her reviews — by upholding the prejudice that upholds slavery — 
by adducing Scripture in its support — by caressing slave-holders — by denouncing 
emancipation — by branding even her members as cut-throats, incendiaries, fire 
brands, and madmen, whenever they utter a note of remonstrance or of warning. 
Here is a moral power, but wielded as Satan would have it wielded. Her's are 
the keys : but the doors are closed, and the church refuses to open them. Yes ! 
In the church is lodged the moral power of the nation. But it is a moral power 
prostituted in prolonging the system of outrage, pollution and death. 

3. But, sir, while enslaving, the church is herself enslaved. At the south she 
is enslaved by her fears — by conscious guilt — by her vexations — by her slave- 
Stained luxuries — by sensuality — by her poverty in pecuniary means. With a 
defiled conscience — inconstant in love and fickle in action — the practical enemy 



19 

of man, soul and body — Oh, how is the southern church enslaved ! and notwith- 
standing her splendid papal delusion of an oral instruction that can supersede the 
necessity of the written word of God, how grovelling is her standard of Christian 
duty and enterprise. And the northern church, too, is enslaved — by her syco- 
phancy — by her silence — by her prejudice. Poisoned, shut up, with the fetters 
on her feet, and a death chill in her veins, the whole chuech is enslaved. The 
whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. 

And now, sir, how is this enslaved and languid church, defiled as she is with 
guilt, and steeped in the "blood of the poor innocents" — with all this moral apathy 
and mental imbecility — aye — and with all this practical infidelity, how is she to 
go forth to millenial triumph ? How shall she give knowledge, that withholds 
education ? How imitate papists, and destroy the beast ? How withhold the 
Bible, and convince the heathen ? How throw down the bloody altars of human 
sacrifice, and yet sacrifice souls to slavery ? 

Never, no, never can the church begin her millenial warfare, till cleansed of 
this pollution. Even her prayer shall become^-sitt. — ^•' When ye make many prayers 
I will not hear." " Wash you — make you clean. Put away the evil of your 
doings. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well." 

Yes. The church must repent. At the north and at the south must she repent, 
and do works meet for repentance. Deliver the captive. Plead for the oppressed. 
Raise high the moral standard. Unfold the depths of this iniquity, and let them 
be seen and read of all men. 

Oh, sir ! we may boast of our benevolent institutions and of our revivals in vain, 
in vain, till we are washed of this blood ! We are holding back the latter day 
glory. Oh let us arise, and banish prejudice and oppression. Brothers, sisters, 
fathers, listen. Time is short. The judgment will soon set. Alas ! if the "blood 
of the imiocents" shall then be laid on our own souls! Rather let us break off 
our iniquities by righteousness, and our transgressions by showing mercy to the 
poor. Then shall the light of our Zion go forth like brightness : Every knee 
shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father. 

Rev. Samuel J. May, of Brooklyn, Conn, offered a 
resolution. 

That Christians in the non-slave-holding States, of every denomination, are 
under the highest obligations to do all that can be done by Christian means, to 
procure the immediate abolition of slavery. 

Long enough, said Mr. May, have we denied to our brethren the bread of life. 
Long enough have we bid defiance to the vengeance of Heaven. See that ven- 
geance already begun. See it in the abominations that have been described to 
us. See it in the terrors by day and the fears by night. See it in the distraction 
of our public councils — in the mildew that is blighting our wealth — in the pollution 
that IS threatening our fire sides. See it, in our harmony disturbed, in our insti, 
tutions tottering. 

I call on you, therefore, to resolve that we, as Christians, and as citizens of the 
non-slave-holding States, will do all in our power for the immediate removal of 
the guilty cause of these judgments.— Will it be said that the people of the non- 
slave-holding States have " no right to interfere " in the matter ? Is this indeed 



20 

90 ? Have we no part in the work of oppression ? Have we no interests at 
stake ? No responsibilities to sustain ? And shall we have no lot in the bloody 
tragedy that must one day wind up this stupendous drama of oppression and 
retribution ? Do our southern brethren so understand the matter ? In pursuit of 
their fugitive victims, do they expect no aid from us ? No support from our laws ? 
No assistance from our police and our officers ? Have the troops maintained by 
us nothing to do towards suppressing slave insurrections ? And in case of a 
servile war, is no dependence placed on northern steel and northern nerve and 
discipline to put down and extinguish what — in our revolutionary fathers — we 
call the "noble spirit of liberty?" Are all these responsibilities heaped upon us 
and have we no rights to counterbalance or sustain them ? Have we nothing to 
do, and must we have nothing to say ? Shall we be told that we have no right 
to utter a word of advice, or remonstrance, or warning, or entreaty, in a case 
where our dearest interests and most important moral conduct is involved ? 

But the constitution, it will be said, the constitution sanctions slavery, and it is 
treason to impeach the constitution. I deny it. — Neither slavery nor slaves are 
mentioned in the constitution. The words are not there. The instrument is 
carefully guarded against their introduction ; a plain indication that its framers 
would have blushed to see them there, and anticipated the time when their readers 
would have no need nor occasion to be reminded of them. — But what if it were 
otherwise ? Suppose the constitution did sanction slavery ? What then ? While 
there is a God in Heaven, who regards mercy and equity, can we be bound, by 
any compacts of our own, or any enactments of our fellow worms to sin against 
Him? Are we indeed to obey man rather than God ? Who is it that would thus 
trifle with the holy and righteous sovereignty of his Creator ? Not the Christians of 
the non-slaveholding States, I would hope, sir ! No — Our safety as well as our 
duty, as a people and as individuals, consists simply in filial and implicit obedience 
to the God who made us and sustains us, and in whose hands are our destinies. 

Much as I prize the union of these States, sir, and sure I am no man nor Chris- 
tian ought to prize it higher than I do, I am every day grieved to hear so much 
said of the value of our Union, and so little of the value of the approbation of 
God, as though his favor would be purchased too dear if it involved the interrup- 
tion of a partnership in sin. Sir, this nation must be roused to a sense of our 
dependence on God, or we are lost. We have slumbered too long. Too long 
have we closed our ears to the cry of the helpless. 

When I speak of this horrible oppression, I speak, sir, not of individual cases 
of suffering, I speak of the entire system. I define it by its own bloody code. 
I open the pages of its statute book ; and no man who knows either men or history 
needs be told that the general practices of a people are not more equitable and 
merciful than their laws. Let the depths of this iniquity be fathomed by this 
measure, if we would learn its dimensions. By the laws which sustain slavery, 
millions of human beings are held as chattels. Yes, sir, they are driven along 
the streets of Washington, with less of liberty than cattle, in the sight of that 
proud capital, where the national flag is flying, and where so many fine things 
are said in favor of liberty. By those same laws, the slave is placed beyond the 
protection of law ! He is shut out from the social charities of life. The tender, 
est ties that twine around his heart are severed. A home and a family he may 
not claim. No : nor even a Bible to teach him the sources of consolation. 

Can there be greater sin than this ? And who has authorized a delay of 



21 

repentance for sin ? Who will accredit a repentance that brings not forth fruits 
meet for repentance ? Who, then, shall cavil against the doctrine of immediate 
emancipation ? 

It is still asked by the objector — Shall we set loose 2,000,000 of vagabonds to 
ravage the land and cut our throats ? No. By no means. This is not emanci- 
pation. We would have them placed under the protection and the restraints of 
law, instead of being removed from either. We would have them provided with 
employ and remunerated with equitable wages. We would have them educated, 
Christianized, and elevated to the rank of human beings. The knocking off of 
the fetters is but a small part, the mere begiiming of the work we propose ; and 
we well know that this must be done first, as the only foundation and corner 
stone of the edifice. Slavery, we well know, permits not education ; nor can the 
mind be educated until it is first set free. You might as well talk of learning an 
imprisoned child to run before you permit his feet to be taken from the stocks, 
as to talk of educating the slave while you still hold him in bondage. No, sir. 
The rights of man must first be recognized, before any thing else can be done, 
and this cannot be done too soon. We propose to do this by Christian means, 
and by these alone. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Palsied be 
the arm that would unsheathe the sword of violence. Our appeal is to the 
consciences of the slave-holders themselves ; and we plead with them as man to 
man, as brother to brother, and as friend to friend. 

Rev. S. L. PoMEROY, of Bangor, Maine, remarked, 
that though invited to speak, he had been furnished 
w^ith no resolution, and should speak without the for- 
mality of presenting any. 

Abolitionists were accused of setting a low value on the Union. It was false. 
Slavery is the cause of all our divisions, and we ask for its abolition as the only 
means of preserving the Union. 

We are also accused of cowardice, and of vain and useless effort, because we 
do not go to the south to preach abolition. Yet these same objectors are the 
most forward to remind us of the fact, that the southern laws forbid the agitation of 
the subject there, and would <Aey justify our infraction of the slave laws ? Certainly 
not. For even the Christian slave-holder himself is white-washed into spotless 
innocence, in their eyes, because he holds his slaves very reluctantly, it is said — 
in praiseworthy obedience to the laws, which forbid manumission. Doubtless 
then, the persons who accuse us of cowardice for delaying a southern anti-slavery 
agency, would be far from justifying us, should we fall the victims of disobedience 
to southern laws. Perhaps — but I will not allow myself to believe it — they would 
willingly see us try the experiment at the risk of our lives. 

Life has been jeoparded by anti-slavery effort, even at the north. And, besides, 
How does it appear that we are not effectually preaching abolition to the people 
of the south ? Why all this commotion, just at the present time, from the Poto- 
mac to the Gulf of Mexico ? Why all these curses and anathemas that come 
back to us through every mail, are borne on every breeze ; and on account of 
which our consistent opposers conjure us to beware, lest they should dissolve 
the Union ? Has all this happened while the south remains in profoimd ignorance 
of our efforts — of our doctrines — of our reproofs — of our warnings — of our 



22 

appeals — and of the principles and the facts we are sending forth over the nation ? 
No, sir. The supposition is ridiculous on the very face of it. Be assured, sir, 
we ARE " preaching anti-slavery at the south," with a pungency and a power that 
makes Satan himself tremble on his throne of oppression, and all his affrighted 
legions cry out, " Let us alone !" Remember, sir, I pray you, when and where 
it was that this fiend-like cry was first heard. It was in a circle where stood 
a man possessed of an unclean spirit. What was it that disturbed the horde of 
demons? Why, the "Light of the World" was in the room, sir, and they 
were in agony unutterable. And so it is now. It is light — light — LIGHT — 
the glorious light of the Gospel of the Son of God that has penetrated the dark 
caverns of blood and pollution, and listen ! from Louisiana to Maine, the land 
rings with the death-scream, " Let us alone !" 

Analyze for a moment the sentiment contained in it. Look through the earth, 
sir, and see who they are that would be •' let alone." The murderer, the pirate, 
the midnight assassin, the midnight libertine, the traitor, the slanderer, the law- 
less citizen, the disobedient child, the slave-trader, the slave-holder, the slave 
apologist ; these, with one united voice, on every radiation of heavenly truth and 
day-light, cry out, " Let us alone !" And what is their meaning, sir ? Leave 
us without law, without restraint, without any check to our lusts, without any 
rein to our passions. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 

Sir, this disturbance in the south conclusively proves that the lights we are 
kindling do shine there. Let us trim them incessantly, and keep them constantly 
burning. And let us not fear to increase their brightness. 

Mr. P. said he had resided at the south, and knew something of slaves and 
the slave system. And among other things he knew that the southern country 
was not ignorant of what was said and done in other sections of the country and 
in distant lands. When the subject of West India Emancipation was under dis- 
cussion in Parliament, a Georgia planter was heard to say : " Let these resolu- 
tions be carried into efi'ect in the West Indies, and in six months I shall see the 
effect on my slaves." 

Abolition, and that only is safe. Surely there is no safety in the present state 
of things, nor can. there be safety in the continuance of the slave system. Mr. 
Chairman ! thousands of our fellow-citizens of the south will go to bed to-night 
with their loaded pistols under their pillows, and their muskets over the mantel 
piece. And why is this ? They are unsafe ; and they know it. How idle, then, 
to inquire whether emancipation be safe ? What question can be more ridiculous ? 
In plain English, what is its import ? Here are persons forcibly held in a condi- 
tion so degraded that it is unsafe for those who hold them to live among them. 
This is a known and admitted fact. And now we inquire very gravely, whether 
it would be safe to release these persons from the condition too revolting to them ? 
What an absurdity ! 

No people on earth are of a more mild, forgiving, and patient character, than 
the colored race. This is the testimony of travellers in Africa, and the long 
continued oppressions and yet continued peace and quiet of our own country, bears 
equally decisive testimony to the same fact. 

" But the slaves are very well treated," we are told. Are they ? I will tell 
you how they are treated. They are allowed a peck of corn a week, to live 
upon. The support of an adult slave, including food, clothing, and every thing 
else, costs about thirty dollars a year. The field laborers go almost naked ; 



23 

(the children entirely so, in many cases.) They are driven to the field with the 
whip. They have no privileges except what their masters please to give them. 
Whatever is done to them, they have no redress. They are " treated" as property. 
They may be killed, and if no white person sees it, the murderer cannot be 
punished. The testimony of ever so many colored persons, whether slaves or 
freemen, would go for nothing. Rather, I should say, no such testimony can be 
received. The master can do what he pleases with his slaves, and they cannot 
help themselves. If he wants to take a little child from his father and mother, 
and sell him to be carried a thousand miles off, he can do it, and no person, 
either white or colored, can hinder him. If he wants to take a man's wife away 
from him, either to sell her or for any other purpose, he can do it, and nobody 
can hinder him. And these things are done every day. They are so common 
that scarcely any body, at the south, considers it any strange thing, or thinks any 
thing about it. I remember seeing an old man crying bitterly, and begging a lady, 
who lived near him, to buy his little boys, because his master was about to sell 
them to be carried to Louisiana, where he could never see them more. But the 
lady did not want them, and they were sold and carried away. 

This is the way the slaves are treated. If any body thinks " they are very 
well treated," let them make the case their own, and ask themselves whether 
they would think themselves "well treated;" and their wives and children " very 
well treated ;" if they were treated in this manner. Whatsoever ye would that 
others should do to you, do ye even so unto them, for this is the law and the 
prophets. Suppose you were yourself a slave ; and suppose your wife and 
children were slaves with you. What would you wish should be done unto you ? 
And how soon would you wish to have it done ? What would you wish your 
masters to do, and what would you wish every body who knew your condition to 
do for you. Answer these questions, and you will have answered the great 
question of your own duty. 

Mr. H. B. Stanton, of Lane Seminary, Ohio, offered 
a resolution to the following effect : 

That the American Anti-Slavery Society, by its doctrine that prejudice is 
vincible, commends itself to the patriot and the Christian. 

The doctrine that prejudice against the colored people was vincible, Mr. S. 
maintained to be a distinctive and fundamental principle of the abolitionists, and 
adopted by the American Anti-Slavery Society. The Colonization Society was 
founded on not merely different but opposite ground. That the colored people 
were subjected to the operation of an invincible prejudice which could never be 
removed, and in consequence of which they could never rise in this country, was 
the corner stone of their whole edifice. Take away this and the whole fabric 
vanishes. Remove this prejudice, and the society is dissolved instantaneously. 
[Mr. Stanton read extracts from the African Repository sustaining his posi- 
tions.] 

The American Anti-Slavery Society grants the fact of the existence of this 
prejudice. It also grants, that during the predominance of this prejudice the 
colored people can never rise in this country. Thus far they agreed with the 
Colonization Society. But they contended that this prejudice was visible ; that 
being a sin it could be repented of, being a folly it could be cured. They do not 



24 

slander human nature and blaspheme Christianity, by saying that neither reason 
nor religion can overcome or eradicate it. 

The Colonizationists acknowledge, indeed, the criminality of this prejudice ; 
they profess to deplore it, but still insist that it cannot be overcome. 

But while acknowledging the criminality of this prejudice, and professedly 
adapting their measures to the relief of the innocent sufferers who experience 
the persecutions growing out of it, the Colonization Society throws all the blame 
of that prejudice on public sentiment. 

Let us analyze this plea. What is public sentiment ? It is the sentiment of 
the majority of individuals of whom the public is composed. 

On the subject in question there are but two ingredients in the public sentiment 
of this country. We all know what they are. They are the sentiments of the 
abolitionists and the sentiments sustaining the Colonization Society. By the 
Colonization Society I mean those who cherish expatriating sentiments in respect 
to the colored people. 

In order to know, then, who compose the public sentiment of the country, we 
have only to compare the relative strength of the Colonization and Anti-Slavery 
Societies ; and this is no difficult task. The Colonization Society looks down 
upon the Anti-Slavery Society as upon a feeble band of visionary fanatics, while 
it claims for itself all the efficient and predominating influences of the country : 
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, the General Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, almost all other ecclesiastical bodies, together 
with the prominent statesmen of all political parties, and the legislatures of 
eighteen different States, not to mention the almost unanimous voice of the public 
presses of the country ; these, we know, are daily claimed with exultation by the 
Colonization Society, as proof of their overwhelming control over public senti- 
ment, and of the folly and madness of abolitionists in attempting to oppose them. 
The resources of the country are undoubtedly in their hands. The great body 
of all the learned professions are with them. 

Who are they then, that exercise, direct, and wield the public sentiment, in 
respect to the colored people ? Are they those who care nothing about the sub- 
ject ? Certainly not-, — Are they abolitionists ? We all know better. It follows 
then, with the certainty of mathematical demonstration, that they are the Coloni- 
zationists. Yes; the criminal ^«6ZJc sentiment, that grinds down with an unre- 
lenting prejudice the colored people, is the same public sentiment that supports 
the Colonization Society, and is wielded by it. 

Suppose a man, without any other fault than the color or shape of his hat, 
should become odious to his neighbors to an extent amounting to a public senti- 
ment. By this public sentiment he is ground down to the dust, oppressed, for- 
bidden a seat in the sanctuary, a privilege in the seminary, and a vote at the polls. 
A few only in the neighborhood remonstrate against this prejudice, and plead for 
its abandonment ; while, on the other side, a Colonization Society is got up — a 
very benevolent and Christian-like institution, Mr. Chairman, to colonize this un. 
fashionable hat and its wearer out of the neighborhood. What would candid and 
unprejudiced people think of it ? And how would it appear if this Colonization 
Society, while urging its expatriating scheme, and giving as a reason for its sup- 
port the consideration that the man with the unsightly hat " can never rise to a 
respectable standing in this" neighborhood, should, at the same time, cast all the 
blame of the wicked prejudice against the persecuted man, upon the public senti. 



25 

7nent of the village ? Who could fail to see and to remark that the public senti- 
ment under condemnation, was their own sentiment, and that they alone were 
responsible for its existence ? 

I concede, sir, that it is the public sentiment that is at fault in this matter. See, 
sir, its despotic dominion, its hypocritical pretensions ! See where it tramples 
an unoffending brother in the dust, with a drawn dagger in its right hand. Hear 
its heaven-daring language — mark its fiend-like action. " It is a cruel prejudice," 
says the tyrant, " that this poor man lies under. What can be done for him ?" — 
And as he says this, he stamps under his feet his victim, struggling to rise. " He 
can never rise in this country — he must be colonized" — tramples again, as he 
says this, and then adds — " It is a cruel prejudice, I know, but how can I help 
it ?" With this, he stabs his down-trodden brother with the dagger, and then 
adds — " It is lamentable — it is wrong" — and with that he stabs him again ; and 
as his right hand gives the plunging blow, his left hand adroitly catches the vic- 
tim from under his own feet, and " with his own consent," [it is said !] tosses him 
across the water to Africa ! 

Mr. Chairman, is not the power of this city decidedly in favor of colonization? 
And is there not likewise in this same city a cruel public sentiment against the 
colored people ? Can you separate the one from the other ? And is it not self- 
evident that the only reason why the public sentiment of New York is in favor 
of expatriation is, because there exists in the same public sentiment a cruel pre- 
judice against the people intended to be colonized ? Look at Maryland — look 
through the land, and tell me whether the " cruel prejudice" against the colored 
man is not identical with the desire for his expatriation. 

And the Colonization Society, wielding, as it does, the public sentiment, arid 
borne along by it — the Colonization Society, with the clergy and the statesmen, 
with the literati and the colleges, with the press and the learned professions, 
with the ecclesiastical authorities and the eighteen legislatures at its bidding, has 
the same power in respect to slavery that it has in respect to the free colored 
people. It is the public sentiment of the nation, and may do what it pleases. 

On the Colonization Society, therefore, rests the responsibility — I know the 
respectability of the gentlemen composing the Society in this city and elsewhere. 
Far be it from me to speak of them with disrespect. I would render honor to 
whom honor is due. But I must remind them of the responsibility which honor 
confers. Theirs is the power of the nation, and I roll upon them — the Milnors, 
the Springs, the Frelinghuysens, the Marshalls, the Madisons of this city and of 
this nation, the tremendous responsibility of the elevation or the expatriation, the 
freedom or continued slavery of two and a half millions of their countrymen — of 
their brethren, for whom Christ died. 

How does the Colonization Society discharge these responsibilities ? [In an- 
swer to this inquiry Mr. Stanton read extracts from the African Repository, and 
from the Memorial of the N. Y. City Colonization Society, showing that so far from 
casting an influence in favor of the colored people, either bond or free, the Co- 
lonization influence had been decidedly against them. " We do not ask," said 
they, " for any modifications of the constitution or the laws," &:.c. What laws ? 
Mr. S. then read abstracts from the slave laws prohibiting education — rendering 
the power of the master despotic, debarring the slave from redress, &c. &c.] 

Such, sir, continued Mr. S., is the Colonization Society. The Anti-Slavery 
Society takes opposite ground. It contends that prejudice is vincible — 'that error 

4 



26 

can be renounced — that folly can be cured — that sin can be repented of— that the 
white man can become a Christian, and the colored man his brother. Prejudice 
is proved to be vincible, because it has nothing to stand upon, because it has been 
overcome in other countries, because it is beginning to be renounced in ours, and 
because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation from this, as from every 
other sin. 

Shall we hold our public anniversaries and talk of converting the world ? — 
Shall we preach millenial sermons and celebrate the triumphs of the cross over 
Hindoo caste ? Shall we storm the wall of China, and expect to dethrone the 
Man of Sin, and yet bow down before the selfish hatred of the American white 
man towards his colored brother, and declare it to be invincible ? No, sir,' — 
never ; not while we hold the Bible in our hands. Not while we can retain the 
memory of its precepts or the consolation of its promises. 

Mr. David Ruggles asked permission to say a few words. — As a colored man 
he wished to give vent to his feelings on the present occasion. A star of hope 
for his down-trodden race had at length arisen, and he rejoiced to hail its bright 
beams. He wished also to give utterance to the unanimous protest of the intel- 
ligent free colored people against an oppression no less cruel in its character 
and little less injurious in its operation than that under which their southern bre- 
thren still groaned. It was an oppression, not indeed of the body, but of the 
mind. Its fetters were forged, not for the limbs, but for the soul. An oppres- 
sion which by denying even the possibility of our mental and moral elevation in 
this country, discountenanced our efforts, misled our friends, and emboldened our 
enemies. An oppression which produces enactments against our schools, and 
sustains legislative provisions for thrusting us out of our native land. It was the 
oppression of colonization. 

They tell us that this monster of corruption came from heaven ; but, sir, his- 
tory informs us that it came from Virginia. The egg was laid in the Virginia 
legislature, and there the spider was hatched, that has ever since been crawling 
northward, from State to State, weaving its web to catch us, colored men, as if 
we were flies. 

Rev. S. L. PoMEROY, (w^hile a collection was taking 
up,) added a few remarks illustrative of the safety of 
immediate emancipation. The South American Re- 
publics had found no evils to arise from it. More than 
30,000 Hottentots had also been emancipated without 
serious inconvenience. He corrected the popular error 
respecting St. Domingo, and showed that the horrors 
of the insurrection in that island resulted not from the 
emanciptation of the slaves, (which was peacefully 
effected, and produced much prosperity for years,) but 
from the despotic attempts of the French to reduce 
them again to bondage. 



27 

Mr. Thome, of Kentucky, said he did not expect to speak this evening, but, 
in the absence of Dr. Cox, who had been expected at this hour, he was called on. 
And he considered himself called on, in justice to himself, to the cause he had 
espoused, and to the State of which he would say he was still proud to be a citi- 
zen, to remark on some of the severe strictures which some respected brethren 
from Kentucky had made concerning his former statements. He was prepared 
to substantiate by evidence every fact he had stated, but at this late hour he 
could not take the time. He had contemplated a full reply on another occasion, 
but this would be the last time the subject would be noticed here. I do not 
desire to recriminate. I shall not speak personalities. Personalities ! My heart 
did bleed, sir, at the exhibitions which I witnessed yesterday. Not that I was 
exposed to obloquy. What am I, sir, — what is Mr. Breckinridge — what are we 
all, in this matter ? Here are three millions of our brethren groaning under 
oppression and cruelty. And this is not all. Here are great principles concerned, 
the principles of the word of God — the principles on which the eternal throne of 
God itself is established. And shall we thrust forward our little selves before 
such a question, in the face of the world ? No, sir, let me, let you, Mr. Presi- 
dent, let all of us fall, if need be, but let this great subject be handled without 
descending to personalities. 

Two statements have been denied, which I deemed it my duty to make. One 
is, that I said there is no editor in the west, who is willing to risk his living by 
vindicating the rights of the people of color. I was surprised, I confess, to hear 
that denied. And what was the refutation ? Why, that in 1824 — I — edited an 
abolition paper. Very well, suppose it were so, I spoke not of times past, but of 
what is now the fact. And I repeat it, now there is none. 

The other statement respected the licentiousness of the slave kitchens. I am 
glad it was denied, because it will afford an opportunity to draw out the evidence 
to corroborate it. What I stated was not from observation that was narrow, but 
that was extensive, both personal, and by inquiry and information of others. I 
stated, that the lodges of the slaves were exposed at all hours of the night. And 
that was not denied, I say then, that in the absence of further evidence, that 
circumstance alone is sufficient to prove that the results would be as I have stated. 
What other could be the effect of such a condition ? I have been called upon to 
retract. Sir, I cannot retract a word. Would to God I could do it. If truth, 
which I knew, would allow it, I would heartily yield to him as my elder. But I 
again repeat what I said. The slave States are Sodoms, and well nigh every vil- 
lage kitchen is a brothel. I can account for the denial of these brethren. Such 
gentlemen may very honestly deny these statements, because the true state of 
things is not generally perceived. It is too true that masters are, to a great 
extent, vmconcerned about the moral condition of their slaves. This is true even 
of ministers and elders, and church members. Generally all that masters are 
concerned for, in regard to their habits, is that the slave is at home in the morn- 
ing, ready to work in season all day, and then go home. 

I know an instance in the village where I live, that things were transacted which 
I cannot name before this assembly, in the kitchen of a respectable family, and 
not an individual of the family knew of it. It is a general fact, that respectable 
young men, throughout our villages, live in constant habits of intercourse with 
colored females. Yet such individuals as these may know nothing of it, and be 
shocked if you tell them it is so. And is their denial to be taken against the obser. 



28 

vation and knowledge of others ? The business of such men as Mr. Breckin. 
ridge is a reason why they should not know these things. But there are others 
who do know. There are females in this city, who will aver that I have not over, 
stated. A minister of the gospel, whose name I do not know, met me as I came 
out of the chapel the other night, and said he had lived in the southern States, 
and he told me I had said what he knew to be true of slave villages. He did not 
believe there was an exception. Very little is said about it. The world is kept 
dark, ministers are kept dark, the north is in the dark. I have stated the fact, 
that the north may awake to it, and awake us too. If my fellow.citizens of Ken- 
tucky knew how it was, would they remain indifferent ? Would they not rise and 
throw off the reproach ? Would they cherish, and would they tolerate for a day, 
the horrid system of slavery, which yields such fruits ? — Oh, no ! 

Rev. E. M. P. Wells, of Boston, said he had just 
conversed with a clergyman who left the south in con- 
sequence of slavery, and who told him that what the 
gentleman from Kentucky said was true, and he had 
not told half of what was true. And he thought these 
statements came with peculiar propriety and power 
from a young man. The evil was terrible among young 
men. He believed there was scarcely a young man in 
the south but what was more or less contaminated 
with this sin. 

Rev. Dr. Cox arose and said he had been detained 
till this late hour by an engagement in another part of 
the city, in behalf of the seamen of this port. He had 
come to this meeting, grieved and awed, for fear it 
was out of his power to do good by speaking. 

Said he, I am no man's enemy, I shall denounce no one, I am not a partisan, and 
will not be. But I have a set of principles, on practical subjects, which I do 
regard as true and important, and which I mean to sustain at all events. It is a 
point that, to my mind, is easily demonstrable, that the colored population will 
exist here, with us and our posterity, to the end of time. I as much believe it as 
I believe that this nation will exist. If this be so, then the question comes up — 
What ought I to do, as a pilgrim to immortality, and an expectant of judgment, to 
help to elevate, and improve, and bless them ? Another point which follows is, 
that if the people of color cannot be elevated in this country, they can be elevated 
no where. But why can they not be elevated here ? Sir, there is an antecedent 
difficulty, with which we are first concerned. We want to cure the blacks, but 



29 

our first concern lies in another quarter. Is it not the first thing requisite to 
emancipate the WHITES from prejudice ? 

And here, I suppose, I shall be met with the standing objection about amalga- 
mation. Will you encourage inter-marriages between blacks and whites ? The 
minds of many persons seem to run constantly upon this topic ; but, for my part, I 
cannot see that it has any thing to do with the question. Let me illustrate. The 
Jews, we all know, are a separate people, distinct from all others, scattered by the 
providence of God, for wonderful purposes, among all nations, and yet mixing 
with none. Now suppose (what I am happy to say is not the case in this country) 
the Jews were here persecuted, deprived of the equal rights of citizenship, with 
a powerful prejudice against them, and that we were, some of us, convinced that 
they ought to be enfranchised. That is my word, sir, — ENFRANCHISED : I 
like that better than emancipated. Emancipation is too limited, too narrow, too 
small. What I ask for our colored brethren is that they should be immediately 
admitted to share with us in the blessings of equal citizenship. Now suppose we 
were to make a plea for the Jews, that they should be immediately enfranchised. 
Would it be pertinent for an objector to interpose an inquiry whether we intended 
to intermarry with the Jews ? Would not a single grain of common sense teach 
him that with the question of franchisement, the question of intermarriage has 
nothing at all to do. 

Let us do our duty, sir, and enfranchise our colored people, according to their 
equal rights. And then if they rise in virtue and goodness, so as to command and 
deserve our respect, let them have it. I asked a southern brother to-day, whether 
the oath of a colored man would be taken in a court of justice, in regard to any 
oppression which may come upon them, and he confessed it would not. Their 
oath is nothing worth. We do not let them swear ; we do not allow them to pe- 
ril their souls ; they have no souls, no responsibility beyond the grave. Sir, is this 
right? They have no one to defend their rights, no orator to plead for them, no 
press to enlighten or to defend them, no pulpit to tell the truth — I mean, to tell the 
truth in its full force and bearing concerning this subject. I believe every pulpit 
is under fear, and multitudes are afraid to touch the subject of slavery at all. Is 
it not dreadful? Should not their rights be immediately xecognlseAl What is 
gradualism ? Sir, when people ask that they should be gradually redressed, it 
means an indefinite postponement of the matter : just as Felix said, " Go thy way 
for this time." His meaning was, that he hoped he should not be troubled any 
more with the matter : he never wanted to hear any more about it. If we allow 
the principle of gradualism, we emasculate the law of God upon the subject. 

We tell sinners to repent immediately. That it is their duty and their happi- 
ness, we all admit. But do we gain that object in all who hear us ? Certainly 
not. What then ? If all men do not repent immediately, is the law of God 
altered ! Sir, the lofty cause of universal enfranchisement is identified with the 
position of God as Lord of the New Testament. What we wish and what we 
mean to do is, to tell men who hold slaves what is their duty and their privilege 
to do immediately. We want to tell them of an evil that is among them, and 
that grows when they wake and when they sleep. The worst thing, and the best 
thing too, in this doctrine of enfranchisement, is that it makes people feel, it 
reaches their consciences. We tell every individual that it is right immediately 
to leave off" doing wrong. We tell legislatures that it is their duty to revise their 
codes immediately, and legislate right instead of wrong. Let their laws be no 



30 

longer, like those of Draco, written in blood ; but let them be equal to all subjects, 
without regard to the mere accident of color. 

I cannot leave the subject without a word in regard to the rival plan. I knew 
Dr. Finley. He was my neighbor in New Jersey. I would not speak of him with 
out respect. Why cannot we speak of a plan, without being charged with an im- 
peachment of the person. If the Secretary of the Colonization Society, whom 
1 am happy to see in the assembly, alleges the purity of the motives of the 
founders, my reply is, that this is nothing to the argument. We may easily sup- 
pose that men with good motives should fall upon a plan that is mistaken or 
impracticable. May we not say so, and prove it too, without an impeachment of 
motives. And yet, I cannot read his own printed documents, without seeing that 
a motive operated on his mind, which I do not believe is sanctioned by the word 
of God. I have read his writings. He enumerates three advantages which we 
may expect from the success of this scheme. The first is, that we shall get clear 
of them. I ask the God who made them my brethren with a dark complexion, Is 
this a right motive ? What right have we to seek to " get clear of them," when they 
say they do not wish to go ? Why have they not as much right here as ourselves ? 
I am not opposed to colonization if individuals wish to go, they are an exception 
to the rule. The body of them wish to stay. But if these exceptions think they 
can do good or better their condition, let them go. And if any benevolent friends 
wish to aid them, let them do so. But if you call it an American Colonization 
Society, and hold it up as a great national institution, it takes new ground, and 
assumes the aspect of a remedy for a great national evil. I ask what mean all 
the arguments we read and hear in favor of colonization, if it is not held up as 
such a remedy ? I speak on this subject as constrained in conscience, when I say 
that I do not see how the two can stand together. I know no man who heartily 
loves the one, that does not dislike the other. And I do not see how colonization 
can stand on the consent of the people of color, when if you ask them they 
almost tmanimously say, No. It is true there are some at the south who are 
willing to go ; but it is where they have less freedom and less intelligence, and 
where with many the alternative is intolerable oppression if not perpetual bon- 
dage. I ask if this ought to nullify the united voice of the enlightened free ? 
Then I look at the waste of life, compared to which the cholera, as it prevailed 
in this city, is salubrious. The ratio of decimation in the Roman armies used 
to be thought a horrible punishment ; but it was merciful compared to the slaugh- 
ter to which colonization subjects our people of color. The society sends out, 
not the intelligent, the enterprising, the men to lay foundations and provide for 
future generations. It sends out many poor people, and throws them there with- 
out help and without friends ; and without employment and without hope, — it is no 
wonder they die. 

It is proposed by those who have not looked into the matter, to let the two 
enterprises stand together. I groped a long time on that middle ground. But I was 
crowded with the question. Is the consent of the people of color of no account? 
If such brethren would go to Europe, they would find that there was meaning 
in the inquiry which I heard from such a man as Dr. Chalmers, "Are the colored 
men willing to go ?" That word "men" impressed my mind. Considering them 
as men, how can they consent ? Their refusal grows out of their nature as men. 
Put yourselves in their soul's stead and see if you could consent — if you could 
consent to be banished from your own country to the wilds of Africa, under such 
circumstances, and for such a reason. 



31 

* 

Sir, it is not my object to " get clear of them." And for two reasons. First, 
it is impracticable. And second, it is wicked to wish it. I ask, if Jesus Christ, 
who understands expediency at least as well as any politician of modern times ; 
if he were on earth, would he try to get these people out of the country of light, 
into the darkness of Africa. 

What then ought we to do ? In the first place, we must not forget to pray. 
If we prayed more, we should not get heated, and we should respect each other. 
And prayer will give us relief. God sees the difficulty in which we are, and he 
can give deliverance. There is no straightness to which his arm is incompe- 
tent. He has none of our prejudice to contend with, for in Christ Jesus, there 
is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free. And he can lead us in the 
right way. Let us go kindly to work, to enlighten the public mind. Let us use 
hard arguments, strong facts, and kind language. Do not denounce, do not judge 
of principles by prejudice, nor make the rash expressions of an advocate the 
ground of condemnation for his object. Let us look at it in the light of eter- 
nity, and always bear in mind that we shall soon stand before Christ. And God 
will bring us all out right. The fundamental principle of our cause, " Whatso- 
ever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, " is the eternal 
law of humanity, and is written on the consciences of mankind, and with this in 
our hands, and a God of mercy and justice on our side, we shall succeed. 

The meeting was detained in strict attention to a 
very late hour by the interest of the occasion, and the 
kind and Christian spirit which Messrs. Thome and 
Cox exhibited in reference to the personal obloquy and 
ridicule that had been thrown on them at the Colo- 
nization meeting on Wednesday. 



MINUTES OF THE MEETING FOR BUSINESS. 

The Annual Meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was held at the 
Chatham-st. Chapel, in the City of New York, on Tuesday morning, 6th of May, 
1834. 

Arthur Tappan, President, in the Chair ; and William Goodell, Secretary 
protem. Prayer by the Rev. Thomas Williams. 

Present, the following delegates : Rev. S. L. Pomeroy, of the Anti-Slavery 
Society of Bangor and vicinity, (Maine) ; Thomas Williams, William Chace and 
John Prentice, of Providence Anti-Slavery Society ; Stephsn Peet, of the West- 
em Reserve A. S. Society ; William Smith, of Oneida Institute ; Rev. C. P. 
Grosvenor, of Salem and Vicinity A. S. Society ; H. Kingsbury, N. R. Haskell, 
of Cleveland, Ohio ; Rev. John Frost, Whitestovim A. S. Society ; Edwin A. 
Stillman and E. P. Wetmore, of Middletowm A. S. Society ; Rev. Joshua Leavitt, 
A. Tappan, L. Tappan, John Rankin, William Green, Jr., E. Wright Jr., William 



32 

Goodell and Abraham L. Cox, of New York ; J. B. Loring, York TowTi, New 
York ; Rev. O. Wetmore, of Utica ; Rev. Beriah Green, of Whitestown ; 
Rev. George Bourne, of New- York ; Rev. A. A. Phelps, Boston ; James A. 
Thome and Henry B. Stanton, of Lane Seminary ; James Scott, of Providence, 
R. I. ; Rev. E. M. P. Wells, of Boston ; Milton M. Fisher, Franklin A. S. So- 
ciety, Mass. ; Eph. Lyman and Robert B. Hall, of New Haven, Conn. ; Edwin 
P. Atlee, Thomas Shipley, Isaac Parish, Isaac Barton, Arnold Buffum, Joshua 
Coffin, James S. Gibbons, and Richard P. G. Wright, of Philadelphia ; Daniel 
S. Southmayd, of New-York ; Wm. Lloyd Garrison, of Boston. 

The Rev. George Bourne presented the following resolution, which was 
adopted : — 

Resolved, That the Committee appointed to ascertain how many Preachers in 
the United States are Slave-holders be continued, and that Messrs. Phelps and 
Hall be added to the Committee. 

The Committee consists of George Bourne, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles 
W. Denison, Amos W. Phelps and Richard B. Hall. 

Rev. George Bourne reported from the Committee on Wesley's Writings, which 
was accepted, and it was resolved that the essay prepared by this Committee be 
printed under direction of the Executive Committee in the same form as the Anti- 
Slavery Reporter. 

Mr. Denison, from the Committee of the A. S. convention to prepare facts, re- 
lative to Liberia from the testimony of Rev. Mr. Given, reported ; the Committee 
is continued and directed to report to the Executive Committee, who may use 
their discretion in respect to its publication. 

Rev. T. Williams ofi'ered the following Resolution, which was adopted : 
Resolved, That the publication of an Anti-Slavery Almanack be recommended 
to the Executive Committee. 

Resolved, (on motion of Mr. Shipley,) That this Society have learned with 
deep regret the decease of Evan Lewis, of Philadelphia, one of its Vice Presi- 
dents ; and that it laments in his death the loss of a most efficient coadjutor in 
the cause of human freedom, an amiable citizen and a worthy man ; and that we 
sincerely sympathise with his family and friends in their privation. 

Adjourned to 9, A. M. to-morrow. 

(Signed,) W. GOODELL, Sec'y pro tem. 

At a meeting of the Managers of the A. A. S. Society, held pursuant to 
adjournment at the Chatham-st. Chapel, New York, May 7, 1834, Rev. Samuel J. 
May, of Brooklyn, Conn., was appointed Chairman, and Charles W. Denison, 
of New- York, Secretary pro tem. Prayer by Rev. S. L. Pomeroy, of Maine. 

The roll of members was then called, and additional delegates reported, viz. 
Robert Purvis, of Philadelphia ; S. S. Jocelyn, of N. England A. S. Society ; 
James Barnaby, of Lowell, Mass. ; John Blain, Ray Potter, Johnson Gardiner, 
Edward Mason, W. P. Henry, and Wm. Adams, of Pawtucket (R. I.) A. S. Soci- 
ety; Robert Davis Sharp, of Plainfield (Conn.) and Vicinity A. S. Society; Sam'l 
J. May, of Windham Co. A. S. Society ; Alpheus Kingsley, Norwich City, Conn. 

Resolved, That the Recording Secretary procure a book on which shall be 
recorded the Declaration of sentiments adopted by the National Anti-Slavery 
Convention, and the Constitution of this Society, for the signatures of its mem- 
bers. 



33 

[Charles Stuart, of England, being present when this resolution passed, 
politely offered an Anti-Slavery Album, which was accepted gratefully.] 

Resolved, That John Rankin, John Frost, and Edwin P. Atlee, be a Committee 
to prepare and present a resolution with reference to meetings and collections on 
the 4th of July, of every year, among the friends of the cause throughout the 
country. 

Resolved, That C. P. Grosvenor, Arnold Bufium, Lewis Tappan, Theodore S. 
Wright, Simeon S. Jocelyn, Samuel J. May, E. M. P. Wells, and Beriah Green, 
be a Committee to consider the propriety of proposing to the American Bible 
Society, to raise the sum of $20,000, for the purpose of supplying every colored 
family in the United States with a bible, on condition that this Society will pledge 
the sum of $5000 towards that object, provided the American Bible Society will 
undertake to carry the measure into effect in two years. 

On motion of John Blain, of Rhode Island, it was 

Resolved, That we recommend to all the friends of our country, male and fe- 
male, to take early measures to petition Congress, at its next Session, to abolish 
slavery immediately in the District of Columbia and the slave-holding territories. 

The Committee on Meetings and Collections for the 4th of July reported the 
two resolutions following, which were adopted, viz. 

Resolved, That this Society recommend that all its auxiliaries, as far as conve- 
nient, hold public meetings on each 4th of July ; that meetings of the friends of 
the cause be held throughout our country on that day, and that we earnestly 
request that collections be taken up in aid of the funds of the American Anti- 
Slavery Society. 

Resolved, That the Secretary for Domestic Correspondence be directed to pre- 
pare a circular and forward the same, with a copy of the above resolution, to 
all the auxiliary societies and such friends of the cause as may be deemed 
expedient. 

The Committee on Application to the Bible Society, reported in favor of that 
measure, and were instructed to make the application to the managers of the 
American Bible Society, according to the terms of the resolution by which they 
were appointed. 

Resolved, That this Society recognizes the Declaration of the National Anti- 
Slavery Convention of December the 4th, 1833, as containing the principles upon 
which its constitution is based ; and cannot, therefore, acknowledge as auxiliary 
any society which does not in its constitution explicitly recognize the duty of 
immediate emancipation. '■" 

Resolved, That this Society hails with fervent satisfaction the formation of 
Young Men's Anti-Slavery Societies in various parts of our country, and that we 
recommend to the young men of all denominations and classes, to rally speedily 
and universally in the promotion of this most righteous and momentous cause. 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee be requested to issue circulars, call, 
ing on the friends of aboHtion to petition the State Legislatures to pass resolu- 
tions instructing their representatives and senators in Congress to use their influ- 
ence in favor of the immediate abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia 
and the Territories of the United States, and the entire suppression of the 
Domestic Slave Trade. 

Resolved, That the American Anti-Slavery Society most cordially and affec- 
tionately welcome their friend and coadjutor Charles Stctart, who, after having 
devoted so long a term of faithful, untiring, and successful service for the over- 
throw of slavery in the British Colonies, has now arrived to aid our exertions to 
abolish slavery in the United States. 



34 

On motion of William Lloyd Garrison, of Massachusetts, it was 

Resolved, That we tender to our abolition brethren in Great Britain, the 
strongest expressions of our gratitude, for the lively sympathy they evince in the 
efforts now making to abolish slavery in the United States and the world, and for 
their benevolent and efficient co-operation with us to accomplish this gracious 
work. 

A circular from the " Agency Society for the Universal Abolition of Negro 
Slavery and the Slave Trade throughout the World," an institution of British 
philanthropy, having been presented to the Society for its consideration, it was 

Resolved, That we gratefully and joyfully recognize the existence of the British 
" Agency Society for the Universal Abolition of Negro Slavery and the Slave 
Trade throughout the World," and that this Society appoint a Committee to co- 
operate with the Committee of said Agency Society, in carrying into effect this 
great and noble design, to be nominated by the following Committee. 

The following gentlemen were appointed to name proper individuals for officers 
of this Society the ensuing year and report : William Lloyd Garrison, Robert 
Purvis, Cyrus P. Grosvenor, Arnold Buffum, John Frost, H. B. Stanton, and 
E. P. Atlee. 

On motion of E. Wright, Jun. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to our friend Charles 
Stuart, for his interesting and valuable donation of an Anti-Slavery Album. 

Mr. L. Tappan, Mr. Phelps, of Massachusetts, Mr. Stanton, of Ohio, and Mr. 
Coffin, of Pennsylvania, were appointed a Committee to prepare certain interro- 
gatories to be presented in public to Thomas C. Brovra, an emigrant to Liberia, 
recently returned to this country. 

Adjourned to half past eight o'clock to-morrow morning. 

The Society met, pursuant to adjournment, Thursday morning, 8th May, 1834, 
Rev. S. J. May in the Chair. The additional members present were Rev. Dr. 
Weeks, of Newark, New Jersey ; J. B. Crowell, of Camptown, New Jersey ; 
Rev. Theodore S. Wright, N. Blount, A. Freeman, M. Cross, R. Jackson, Rev. 
S. H. Cox, J. Kennedy, P. A. Bell, J. F. Robinson, Rev. H. G. Ludlow, Moses 
Ingall, R. G. P. Wright, and Baron Stow. 

The meeting was opened by an address to the Throne of Grace. 
The minutes of the previous meetings were read and approved. 

A Committee of three, consisting of Messrs. Cox, Wright, and Phelps, were 
appointed to nominate an Executive Committee for next year, who reported the 
same members, except Isaac M. Dimond, in whose place the Rev. Theodore S. 
Wright was substituted. Report accepted, and nomination adopted. 

The Committee on application to the American Bible Society reported verbally 
that they had performed the service allotted to them, and met with an apparently 
favorable reception, the resolution they presented having been consigned to the 
Committee on Distribution. 

This Committee were continued, and instructed to report to the Executive 
Committee in case the meetings of the Society should have previously been con- 
eluded. 

The Committee appointed to nominate officers reported the following, who 
were chosen for the ensuing year. 



35 

President. — Arthur Tappan, of New York. 

Vice-Presidents. — John Blain, John Bowling, Anson Potter, of Rhode Island ; 
Samuel Fessenden, Samuel F. Hussey, Ebenezer Dole, Joseph Southwick, Swan 
L. Pomeroy, Maine ; Calvin Cutler, Nathaniel P. Russell, New Hampshire ; 
Matthew W. Birchard, James Ballard, Vermont ; Asa Rand, E. M. P. Wells, 
Effingham L. Capron, James Barnaby, Amos A. Phelps, Gardiner B. Perry, 
Cyrus P. Grosvenor, Baron Stow, Henry Greene, Charles Follen, Massachusetts ; 
Gustavus F. Davis, Samuel J. May, Simeon S. Jocelyn, George Benson, Eleazer 
T. Fitch, Eli Ives, Connecticut ; Beriah Green, D. C. Lansing, John Rankin, 
Alvan C. Stewart, J. R. Wilson, Spencer Kellogg, James W. Smith, Leonard 
Bleecker, John Frost, Samuel Stocking, New York ; William R. Weeks, New Jer- 
sey ; James Forten, Robert Bruce, William Jackson, Edwin A. Atlee, Arnold 
Buffiim, George Duffield, James Mott, David Paul Brown, Pennsylvania ; William 
Gibbons, Delaware ; Asa Mahan, Elizur Wright, John Morgan, Samuel Crothers, 

Ohio ; William R. Jones, William Watkins, John Needles, Maryland ; 

Janney, Benjamin Lundy, District of Columbia ; Erotas P. Hastings, Michigan 
Territory. 

Secretary of Domestic Correspondence — Elizur Wright, Jun. 

Secretary of Foreign Correspondence — Samuel Hanson Cox. 

Recording Secretary — Abraham L. Cox, 

Treasurer — William Green, Jun. 

Managers. 
State of Maine. — David Thurston, Winthrop ; Calvin Newton, Waterville ; 
George Shepherd, Hallowell ; Richard H. Vose, -Augusta ; Patrick Henry 
Greenleaf, and Nathan Winslow, Portland. 

New Hampshire. — George W. Ward, Plymouth ; James Wilson, Keene ; and 
Amos Cambell, Acworth. 

Vermont. — Augustine Clarke, Danville ; Elisha Bascom, Shoreham ; William 
Arthur, Hinesburg ; Orson S. Rlurray, Orwell. 

Massachusetts. — William Lloyd Garrison, Ellis Gray Loring, David Lee Child, 
Samuel E. Sewall, James G. Barbadoes, and Isaac Knapp, Boston ; Moses 
Thacher, North Wrentharn ; John G. Whittier, Haverhill; Jacob Ide, Medway; 
John M. S. Perry, Mendon ; Philemon R. Russell, West Boylston ; Le Roy Sun- 
derland, Andover ; David T. Kimball, Ipswich ; Charles Sewall, Danvers ; 
Thomas Spencer and William B. Dodge, Salem ; Wm. Oakes, Ipswich ; Benja- 
min Porter, Marblehead; Ingalls Kittredge, Beverly; Moses Pettengill, New- 
buryport. 

Rhode Island. — Josiah Cady, Henry Cushing, John Prentice, George W. Ben- 
son and James Scott, Providence ; Ray Potter, Pawtucket. 

Connecticut. — Alpheus Kingsley, Norwich ; S. P. Dole, Middletown. 

New- York. — H. G. Ludlow, Joshua Leavitt, Wm. Goodell, Lewis Tappan, 
Geo. Bourne, Charles W. Denison, Samuel E. Cornish, Jonathan Middleton, 
Theodore S. Wright, Christopher Rush and Peter Williams, Ne w- York, City ; — 
Samuel N. Sweet, Adams ; Stephen P. Hines, Sandy Hill ; William Allen, Buf- 
falo ; W. W. Reid, Rochester ; Richard P. G. Wright, Schenectady ; Phineas 
Crandall, Peekskill ; Thomas Dowling, Catskill ; Charles Marriott, Athens. 



36 

New-Jersey. — James White and James Parkhurst, Essex County. 

Pennsylvania.— Edwin P. Atlee, Thomas Shipley, Robert Purvis, Joseph Cas- 
sey, Isaac Parrish, James S. Gibbons, Joshua Coffin and James McCrummill, Phi- 
ladelphia ; Samuel Williams, John B. Vashon, Pittsburgh ; Bartholomew Fussell, 
Rennet, Enoch Mack, Wilkesbarre ; Thomas Whitson, and Abraham D. Shad, 
Chester County ; Lindley Coates, Lancaster County ; Job F. Halsey, Allegany 
Town. 

Ohio. — O. K. Hawley, and Henry Cowles, Austinburgh ; Theodore D. Weld, 
and H. B. Stanton, Lane Seminary, Cincinnati ; John M. Sterling, Cleveland; 
Woolsey Wells, Akron ; H. C. Howells, Zanesville ; John M. Monteith, Elyria. 

Kentucky. — James A. Thome, Augusta. 

Alabama. — William T. Allan, Huntsville. 

Missouri. — Andrew Benton, St. Louis. 

Louisiana. — Huntington Lyman, New Orleans. 

On motion of Robert B. Hall, of" Connecticut, it was 

Resolved, That as the act of holding human beings as property is manifestly 
a violation of the Divine Law, and consequently is totally inconsistent with a 
credible profession of Christianity, and as this Society conscientiously believe 
that those churches which receive slave-holders into their fellowship, do thereby 
support and justify the system of slavery, therefore the principles and practices 
of those churches which do not admit any slave-holders into their communion, 
and which exclude all slave-holding preachers from their pulpits, are cordially 
approved by the American Anti-Slavery Society. 

On motion of E. Wright, Jun. it was 

Resolved, That the great objects of this Society require funds during the cur- 
rent year, to the amount of at least ^20,000. 

On motion of Thomas Shipley, of Pennsylvania, — 

Whereas the improvement of the people of color is an object of the highest 
importance, and will be a most effectual means of promoting the abolition of 
slavery. 

Resolved, That it be recommended to each Auxiliary Society to investigate 
the state of education of the colored population, and to forward to the next meet- 
ifig of the Society the whole number of colored children within their precincts, 
Bt^ng explicitly what number are receiving education. 

Resolved, That it is recommended to the Auxiliary.Societies to keep accurate 
records of the arrest of all persons within their several districts, as slaves, and 
a statement of the manner of their trial, and the names of all parties concerned, 
and that they transmit an account thereof to the next meeting of this Society. 

Resolved, That the cause of abolition eminently deserves the countenance and 
support of American women, inasmuch as one million of colored females are 
pining in abject servitude, as their example and influence operate measurably as 
laws to society, and as the exertions of the females of England have been instru- 
mental in liberating 800,000 slaves in the colonies. 

Resolved, That we hail the establishment of Ladies' Anti-Slavery Societies as 
the harbinger of a brighter day, and that we feel great confidence in the efficacy 
of their exertions, and that those ladies who have promptly come forth in this 
great work are deserving the thanks of those who are ready to perish. 

Resolved, That all ladies of the land are respectfully and earnestly invited by 
this Society to form Anti-Slavery Societies in every State, County, and Town in 
the Union ; and that it be recommended to them to publish tracts and addresses 
calculated to waken a slumbering nation. 



37 

On motion of William Lloyd Gareison, 

Resolved, That tliis Society deeply laments the demise of WILLIAM WIL- 
BERFORCE, of England, and that we acluiowledge the deep and lasting indebt- 
edness of our cause to his faithful, persevering, and distinguished labours. 

On motion of William Adams, of Rhode Island, — 

Resolved, That we recommend to the friends of abolition to meet with pa- 
tience and firmness the opposition and slanders of their opponents, and to rely 
solely on those means of advancing our great cause which harmonize with the 
Gospel of Peace. 

Adjourned until to-morrow morning half past 8. 

CHARLES W. DENISON, SecY pro tern. 

Friday morning. May 9th, 1834. The society asssembled at the hour ad- 
journed to. The Rev. John Blain, of R. I., in the Chair. Present R. B. Hall, J. 
Coffin, L. Tappan, J. Scott, J. Prentice, George Bourne, H. Kmgsbury, I. Parrish, 
W. Chase, Ray Potter, W. Goodell, Theodore S. Wright, J. Leavitt, E. Wright, 
Jr., W. Adams, E. A Stillman, W. L. Garrison, John Frost, Robert Jackson, 
Charles W. Denison and A. L. Cox. The meeting was opened with prayer by 
Ray Potter. 

On motion of Lewis Tappan, from the Executive Committee, it was 

Resolved, That the 6th Article of the Constitution be so amended as to per- 
mit the Executive Committee to enlarge their number to 12. 

The Committee on Nomination of Officers made a further report of names for 
the Committee of Correspondence with the British Agency Committee, which 
was accepted, and is as follows : — 

Agency Co7nniittee. 

Massachusetts. — Charles FoUen, and William Lloyd Garrison. 

Connecticut. — Samuel J. May. 

New- York. — Professor Bush, N. Y. City University, Lewis Tappan, Joshua 
Leavitt, Charles Stuart, Henry Ibbertson, Samuel H. Cox, William Goodell, John 
Rankin. 

Pennstlvania. — Arnold BufTum, and Jolm Sharpe. 

On motion of E. Wright, Jim. it was 

Resolved, That the Society recommend to the Committee on Agencies of the 
Executive Committee, to appoint Charles Stuart an Agent of this Society, 

Resolved, That the Committee of Correspondence with the British Agency 
Committee have power to fill all vacancies in their own body, and that a vacancy 
shall be created by the neglect of any of its members to become a member of 
the Society, after being duly notified of his appointment for a reasonable time. 

Adjourned to the next Amiiversary Meeting. 

ABRAHAM L. COX, Secretary. 



TREASURER'S REPORT. 



THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY IN ACCOUNT WITH WM. 

GREEN, Jr., TREASURER. 

Dh. 

To Cash paid for Printing $559 51 

" Salary of Editor 228 99 

" Agents and Travelling Expenses - - - 144 28 

" African Repository, 1 set ----- - 13 00 

" Stroud's Sketch of Slave Laws - - - 20 00 

" Office Expenses 79 99 

" Postage 1 85 

Balance 43 

$1048 05 



Cr. 
By Cash of individuals as follows : — 

B. C. Bacon $5, W. L. Garrison 2, J. Knapp 2, David 
Thurston 1, Jas. Loughhead 1, E. Mack 1, E. L. Capron 
5, J. M. McKine 1, C. Gillingham 1, Amos A. Phelps 1, 
D. E. Jewett 50, Jas. F. Otis 1, S. J. May 3, Chs. W. 
Deriison 2, A. L. Cox 1, Nathan Winslow 5, Thos. Ship- 
ley 3, Isaac Winslow 5, R. Purvis 10, Jas. McCrummill 1, 
H. P. Wakefield 1, J. C. Barbadoes 1, Joseph Cassey 
10, Jas. Southwick 3, E. Lewis 50, Jno. Parkhurst 1, Jas. 
White 1, J. R. Cambell 2, D. T. Kimball, Jun. 5, John 
Sharp, Jun. 5, A. Kingsley 10, J. G. Whittier 3, John 
Prentiss 1, Levi Sutliff 1, B. Fussil 1, S. S. Jocelyn 1, 
Dr. E. P. Atlee 5, Jas. Mott 5, D. L. Child 2, David 
Cambell 1, Joshua Coffin 1, B. Green 1, E. Drury 1, W. 
Goodell 2, Milton Sutliff 1, E. Wright, Jun. 1. 

$118 00 
Excess of Subscription at the Convention, over defraying 

Expenses -- 2 25 

John Rankin 100 00 

J. Winslow, Phil. 500 00 

W. R. College Anti-Slavery Society - - - - 28 00 

Wm. Jay 50 00 

Ami- Slavery Society of Oneida Institute- - - - 34 40 
Sales of Anti-Slavery Reporter, &c. - - - - 55 40 

Wm. Green, Jun. 100 00 

Lewis Tappan - - -50 00 

John Hutchinson -------- 10 00 



New-Yobk, May 2, 1834. 



$1048 05 
Wm. GREEN, Jr., Treasurer. 



Audited, 

JOHN RANKIN 
ELIZUR WRIGHT, 



, Jr. J 



Committee. 



REPORT 



The American Anti-Slavery Society was organized 
on the fourth of December, 1833. Its principles and 
plans were set forth in a solemn Declaration by the 
Convention which formed it. In presenting their first 
Annual Report, the executive committee would there- 
fore merely glance at the origin of the society, the most 
interesting facts which have occurred during the first 
five months of its existence, and take a view of the 
field before it. 

Already we are admonished that we have no time 
to lose in carrying into effect the measures pledged in 
the Anti-Slavery Declaration. One of the signers of 
that instrument has been called away from these 
earthly scenes. We doubt not he looks back upon 
that act as one of the happiest of his life. While the 
name of the oppressor shall rot, millions shall rise up 
and bless the memory of Evan Lewis. 

In tracing the history of the present Anti-Slavery 
movements, we have not far to go in the records of the 
past. For though there have not been wanting since 
the days of Benezett, individuals who have occasion- 
ally borne a noble testimony against slavery ; yet their 
voices have been overborne and drowned ; there has 
been no devotion of life to the cause of reform, no con- 
centration of effort, no kindling up of general sympathy, 
no mustering of hosts against the monster. Till the 
organization of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society 



40 

in 1832, there was scarcely a rill of pity for the slave 
which was not diverted to the expatriation of the 
FREE. The formation of that Society, so much despised 
and derided, was the era of a mighty reformation. It 
led on to the Convention of the 4th of December, in 
Philadelphia. Then the standard was raised distinctly 
before the whole American people. The effect is as if 
an oppressive spell had been removed from the hmiian- 
ity of the nation. Men are every where awaking to the 
claim of two millions of their brethren in bondage, — they 
are astonished at their former prejudice, and blindness, 
and fqllj ; they are girding on the armor of our vic- 
torioil^ principles. 

Though the committee have not yet been able to put 
in operation an extended system of agencies, Anti- 
Slavery associations have rapidly multiplied. More 
than sixty have already been reported. Several gen- 
tlemen have received commissions to act as agents in 
their own vicinity, who have been quite successful. 
We would especially notice Messrs. Samuel J. May, 
Ray Potter, Thomas Williams, and J. G. Whittier. Mr. 
Charles W. Denison, the former editor of the Emanci- 
pator, has been commissioned as a travelling agent. He 
commenced his labors in Connecticut, where he suc- 
ceeded in forming an efficient auxiliary in Middletown. 
He has since labored with success on the banks of the 
Hudson. The committee state with great pleasure 
that they have secured the services of Mr. Phelps, the 
former pastor of Pine-street church, in Boston, as a 
permanent agent. He has just entered upon his la- 
bors. From the able lectures which he has presented 
to the public, the committee recommend him with 
great confidence to the community, as a masterly ex- 
pounder and advocate of the doctrines of abolition. 
The committee have also commissioned Calvin Pep- 



41 

per, jr. Esq., as an agent in the western part of the 
state of New- York, where he is favorably known as 
an efficient advocate of Temperance. It deserves to 
be mentioned, as an earnest of his success, that by a 
protracted discussion in which he bore a part, in Perry, 
Genesee county, a large audience were brought almost 
unanimously to adopt the principles of immediate 
emancipation. He will enter upon his agency without 
delay. The committee also have it in contemplation 
to appoint other gentlemen as agents, who are ready 
to devote themselves without reserve to this cause. 
Very important services have been rendered to the 
cause by Mr. J. Leavitt, editor of the New- York 
Evangelist. He attended the anniversary of the Co- 
lonization Society at Washington, and by his spiri- 
ted and accurate report of all the proceedings, did 
much to draw that arch deceiver forth from its hiding 
place. He also visited the establishments of the do- 
mestic slave-merchants, and spread out a mass of 
novel and instructive facts in regard to the traffic. 
Many other individuals might be mentioned, who have 
been actively and gratuitously engaged in this holy 
cause. 

The committee, regarding the press as one of the 
most powerful engines of reform, have devoted to it as 
much effort as the state of the treasury would allow. 
They have issued five numbers of the American Anti- 
Slavery Reporter as a monthly sheet. Five thousand 
copies of each number have been printed, of which 
from two to three thousand copies have been gratui- 
tously distributed. The remainder are still on hand. 
As they are designed to answer the purpose of tracts, 
and are sold nearly at cost, the committee would re- 
commend them to the various auxiliaries that wish to 
engage in the dissemination o^ facts and arguments. 
6 



42 

The society's depository has also been copiously supplied 
with all the standard works in favor of Immediate 
Emancipation. 

The committee have also secured the services of Mr. 
William Goodell, as editor of the Emancipator. Of 
their value we need not speak. We know of no man 
to whom the cause of Temperance is more indebted, 
for soundness and consistency of principles, and for 
efficiency of operation. 

Protracted discussions have been held in a great 
number of places. Though the victory has often been 
vociferously claimed by the enemies of Immediate 
Emancipation, yet the uniform result has been a large 
gain to the Anti-Slavery cause. The effect of the dis- 
cussion in Utica between President Green and Rev. J. 
N. Danfoth, is especially gratifying. It commenced 
before an audience fully committed against our cause. 
It closed with a vote in which, while the Colonization 
side saved a doubtful majority in numbers, they lost a 
decided one, of moral character and influence. 

But we have still more occasion for gratitude to the 
God of the oppressed, for the hold which our princi- 
ples have taken in a number of colleges. It is an 
omen of immense good. It opens a sure path to the 
overthrow of slavery, not in name merely, but in all its 
fearful and varied realities. Let some of our higher 
institutions trample on the cord of caste, open their 
doors to all, without distinction of complexion, educate 
a number of talented men of color, and show the world 
what sort of minds slavery crushes in the dust ; and the 
spell is broken, prejudice gives w ay, and two jniUions 
of chains fall asunder. 

The first Anti-Slavery revolution in a college took 
place under the lamented President Storrs at Hudson, 
Ohio. It was his doctrine, in regard to the training of 



43 

the mind, that men are to be made only by putting 
youth under the responsibilities of mc7i. He therefore 
encouraged the free discussion of every important sub- 
ject. This noble policy on his part may fairly be pre- 
sumed to have given birth to that spirit of inquiry 
which is now leading many of our literary institutions 
to the most glorious results. In regard to the W. R. 
College, its effect was a change of opinion radical and 
complete. After a long struggle, the mind of the col- 
lege was carried, not by authority, but by the force of 
irresistible arguments. The young men of that insti- 
tution still, not only maintain their ground trium- 
phantly, but are exerting a powerful influence on pub- 
lic opinion around them. Two of their number are 
colored. 

A similar change followed a thorough discussion in 
the Oneida Institute. We trust the friends of the op- 
pressed will not be slow to support an institution which 
promises so much to the cause of humanity in its strug- 
gle with prejudice and the foul spirit of caste. 

But the most remarkable victory of truth remains 
yet to be told. The seminaries referred to contained 
few, if any, students from the slave-holding states. 
Their interests did not stand in the way of a judgment 
in favor of the slave; neither were the interests of the 
respective institutions at all identified with their popu- 
larity at the south : consequently, their influence upon 
the public opinion of the south, though efficient, must 
be indirect. On the other hand, had these changes 
taken place in colleges deriving their patronage from 
the south, and located on the borders of the land of 
slaves, had the converts to abolition been many of them 
the sons of slave-holders, and the heirs to slave es- 
tates, we should have regarded it as a most glorious 
earnest of the success of our cause at the south. But 



44 

just such a triumph we have the privilege to claim in 
Lane Seminary, near Cincinnati. That institution 
was originated by a merchant of New-Orleans, and 
has been built up in a great degree with a view to its 
moral bearing upon the south. It is located about one 
mile from the boundary of a slave state. Many of its 
students are the sons of slave-holders, and one of them 
was till recently a slave-holder himself. But truth has 
triumphed. The principles of the Anti-Slavery decla- 
ration have been adopted, in their full force, unabated 
and uncompromised. The names of all but five or six 
(and those are northern men,) out of about one hun- 
dred students, have been enrolled beneath the constitu- 
tion of our Anti-slavery society. Nor has this been a 
mere " abstract" triumph. The slave-holding student 
has emancipated his two slaves. Instead of depending 
upon their labor for his own education, he is now la- 
boring to educate them. Two have left their studies 
for a year, and devote their whole time to the instruc- 
tion of schools for colored youths in Cincinnati. The 
whole seminary seems to have resolved itself into a 
society for elevating the people of color in that neigh- 
borhood. By rotation of effort. Sabbath Schools, Bi- 
ble Classes, and Scientific Lectures are afforded to the 
colored population, who are not slow to avail them- 
selves of such privileges. Measures have been taken 
to establish a first rate seminary for colored females, 
and a lady has been enlisted for an instructress, who 
lacks not talents to place the school among the first in 
the country, nor zeal enough to meet persecution, even 
if it should come in a shape as terriffic as that which 
has fallen upon the noble pioneer in this cause in 
Connecticut. 

During the discussion, which lasted eighteen evenings. 



45 

many facts* were brought out by the students from 
the south, which, coming from eye-witnesses, and men 
who have been reared with all the prejudices of mas- 
ters, must carry with them irresistible force, and prove 
to all whose hearts are not made of the nether mill- 
stone, and whose eyes are not blinder than a statue's, 
that slavery, as it exists in our country, is a system of 
wickedness under which virtue can hardly live but 
by miracle. Much do we misinterpret the language of 
Providence, if there do not go forth from this seminary, 
before many years have rolled away, apostles of hu- 
man rights, before whom the knees of oppressors shall 
smite together, as they reason of " righteousness, tem- 
perance, and a judgment to come," and at whose elo- 
quence chains shall melt, and the mightier and more 
cruel " cord of caste" shall fall asunder like " tow at 
the touch of fire." On this most cheering event we 
will offer two remarks. 

1. We ask the man to step forth who dares to say 
that the result is not good. 

2. No part of this good effect was produced by that 
species of prudence which is wont to be exercised on 
such occasions. That kind of prudence strove to dis- 
courage the discussion. God be praised that it did not 
succeed. 

In recounting the victories of truth and humanity, 
we would not forget the efforts of our colored brethren 
to elevate themselves. If the honor of originating 
American Anti-Slavery, as a plan of operations opposed 
to expatriation, were now the matter in question, a 
strong claim might be urged in favor of some of our 
colored friends. Long they watched in vain for a sym- 
pathy among the whites which could rise above the 

* See Appendix. 



46 

barriers of prejudice. The first announcement of Anti- 
Slavery sentiment, on the part of a few white friends, 
was felt by them like an electric shock. It was the 
dawn of day to those whose efforts to grope their way 
had well nigh ended in discouragement. They have 
organized an annual convention for the promotion of 
education, temperance, industry, and good order. This 
convention has met thrice in Philadelphia, with increas- 
ing interest. Its published minutes furnish the best pos- 
sible refutation of the stereotyped calumnies against the 
colored race. 

In this city an institution has been founded by the 
enterprise of colored men, denominated the Phoenix 
Society. It numbers white friends among its officers, 
but the practical administration of its affairs falls 
chiefly upon the colored. Its object is to carry out the 
design of the Convention, specified above, in regard to 
this city. Its report will show the most encouraging 
success. The anniversary, which was recently held 
in this place, yielded, in interest, to none ever held 
here. We appeal to those who were present for the 
truth of this statement. The audience was composed 
of the most opposite complexions. The speakers were 
about equally divided. We appeal to the whites pre- 
sent, whether they left that assembly with any consci- 
ousness of superiority on the ground of color, or any 
lingering doubt as to the native ability of the colored 
race to furnish their proportion of representatives every 
way qualified to fill the highest stations in society. We 
believe this anniversary operated on many minds like an 
admission to the general assembly of the universe, — it 
expanded their souls to a magnitude for ever incom- 
pressible by the trammels of despicable prejudice. If 
any felt themselves degraded by the circumstances in 
which they were placed that evening, they would, for 



47 

aught we can see, liave felt themselve.s no less so, had 
they been admitted to the company of the redeemed, 
from every kindred, and tongue, and people. 

These interesting facts lead us to some important 
conclusions, which, in passing, we cannot forbear to 
remark. There is no way to destroy the prejudice 
which lies at the foundation of slavery, but to invite 
our colored brethren to a participation with us in all 
those happy and elevating institutions which are open 
to others. No efforts, however powerful or well-in- 
tended, which aim only to build up separate institutions 
for their special benefit, under the denomination, so 
odious to them, of " colored" or " African," can heal 
the w^ound. They will end only in conferring upon 
their objects a keener sensibility to insult, and in estab- 
lishing between the races an animosity, settled and 
remediless. Providence seems most kindly to have 
opened before us the path of safety and success, in 
creating so strong an Anti-Slavery sentiment in many 
of our most hopeful seminaries. Let those vigorous 
institutions be opened, as we doubt not they will be, to 
youth, irrespective of complexion, and in ten years our 
country will number among its most talented sons, 
men of the sable hue — giants in intellect, who will 
smile as they shake off the green withes in which an 
absurd prejudice would confine them — who will not 
be overborne by insult, any more than the lion by the 
dew of the morning, which he shakes from his mane. 
It will be impossible to make machines of such men, 
or any longer to treat as such the race ennobled by 
their elevation. 

Every measure for the thorough and proper educa- 
tion of colored females is a blow aimed directly at 
slavery. As such it is felt both by slave-holders at the 
south, and their friends and abettors at the north. This 



48 

subject has been placed in the strongest light by the 
experiment of Miss Prudence Crandall. It was not 
because she had dared to teach colored females gram- 
mar and geography, nor indeed because she had taught 
them music and drawing, that the majesty of the State 
interfered with her humble and self-denying labors ; 
but it was because she dared to teach them, as if they 
were ivhite — to treat them with the same delicacy and 
respect which an instructress is expected to extend to 
young ladies in good society. And many whose regard 
for moral principle would by no means allow them to 
sanction the outrageous proceedings of her persecutors, 
have nevertheless thought Miss Crandall's effort to be 
prodigiously out of place, and sadly adapted to spoil 
the objects of her mistaken benevolence. 

We rejoice to see that public favor is beginning to 
smile upon that amiable philanthropist. Her persecu- 
tors have had their day. There is now every reason 
to expect that they will live fully to reap the infamy 
which they so richly deserve, while the lady who has 
so nobly met their rude assaults, will experience the 
approbation which the popular voice never fails to 
bestow on the memories of the good. 

The present year will long be remembered, from 
another occurrence ; we mean the full and final expo- 
sure of the colonization delusion. That scheme may, 
on various pretences, be advocated a little longer, bui 
as a practical matter it is at an end. The life and soul 
of the system departed, as the light broke in upon it 
at the last annual meeting of the Colonization Society. 
The following propositions are now proven in the light 
of facts, and unalterably and unquestionably estab- 
lished : — 

1. The colonization of the free has no tendency to 
diminish the number of the slaves. 



49 

2. The free colored population are spontaneoasly 
and unanimously opposed to the scheme. 

3. Colonies are not adapted to Christianize Africa. 

4. Nothing but the prejudice of the whites renders 
the removal of the blacks at all desirable. 

5. This prejudice is conquerable by the moral power 
of the gospel. 

Just so fast as tlie full and overwhelming evidence 
of these propositions is brought fairly before the can- 
did and virtuous, they forsake the colonization cause, 
and enter the ranks of the abolitionists. 

It is a point worthy of remark, that most men have 
become colonizationists, they know not why, — surely 
not from any increase of sympathy for the victims of 
slavery or prejudice, whereas none become abolitionists 
but by a searching investigation of facts, nor without 
an entire change of thought and feeling — a revolution 
of the soul, involving a mighty increase of sympathy 
for the oppressed. This giA^es a zeal and energy to 
the collected band, which, when kindled up through 
our country, will sweep away the bulwarks of slavery. 

The Committee rejoice in the assurance, that the 
labors of the Society are already producing a bene- 
ficial effect at the south. While public sentiment at 
the north is so decidedly hostile to immediate emanci- 
pation, as to subject the advocates of the doctrine to 
obloquy and abuse, it is scarcely to be expected that 
southern men should publicly advocate it at the risk 
of their lives. But the facts in regard to Lane Semi- 
nary show the power of truth over southern minds. 
The Committee have also received assurances from 
various parts of the south, that their publications are 
not without effect, and that many are secretly em- 
bracing their doctrines. The efforts recently made in 
Kentucky and Tennessee to secure a gradual abolition 



50 

of slavery, also demonstrate the same truth. For al- 
though an act whicli gives their liberty to all that shall 
be born hereafter, at twenty-five years of age, is a 
wretched mockery of justice, yet w^e are assured that 
the prime movers of the scheme advocate it, not be- 
cause they consider it satisfactory, but because they 
think it will become speedily popular. They admit 
the truth of our principles, but they distrust their suc- 
cess, as applied to hearts grown callous by the con- 
tinued practice of oppression. Here we think they mis- 
take the philosophy of human nature. We think that 
they are themselves a practical illustration of the 
powder of abstract truths, w hen urged upon the con- 
science, to influence the conduct. We have no doubt 
that they themselves are impelled to effort by the 
powerful array of true principles which has already 
been made before the whole American people. Let 
them, therefore, if they would be successful, urge the 
naked truth. Let them insist upon reformation now. 
After the sternest immediatism of doctrine, the prac- 
tical reformation will be sufficiently gradual. 

We are still further assured of success by the results 
of the struggle in Britain. It w ould have been difficult 
ten years ago to assign any reason for the expectation 
that slavery w^ould be abolished in the British posses- 
sions sooner than in the United States. If it had been 
said that the full control of Parliament, the freedom 
from slavery in the mother country, and the philan- 
thropy which first abolished the slave-trade, w^ere in 
favor of British emancipation, it might have been re- 
plied, that the West India interest had pervaded the 
nation, the slaves were more remote, and thus farther 
removed from public sympathy, and the evil did not 
prey so immediately upon the vitals of the country, 
tlireatening speedy death. And might not the 



51 

genius of our republican institutions have much weight 
in favor of our precedence in giving liberty to the cap- 
tive 1 In both cases, before any political action could 
consummate the release of the enslaved, there must be 
an entire revolution of public opinion. Would any 
patriotic American have preferred Britain to his own 
belT)ved and boasted land, as the theatre of an experi- 
ment to effect such a change ? We think not. But 
in Britain the victory has been achieved. As soon as 
a handful of her philanthropists adopted the principle 
of immediate emancipation^ they gathered strength. — 
They were derided and reviled, but they went forw ard. 
The rage with which the planters met every move- 
ment which could be suspected to have the liberation 
of the slaves for its object, only accelerated the down- 
fal of their despotic power. They persecuted the mis- 
sionaries on groundless suspicions, tore down their 
chapels, and drove them from the islands. The con- 
sequence was, that the mother country was roused 
from her slumbers by these very missionaries. The 
West India interest, while their hold on the popular 
sentiment was strong, frowned upon every movement 
of reform with a proud contempt. As truth prevailed, 
oppressors and their interested allies and abettors be- 
gan to tremble. They endeavored to frighten the pub- 
lic with the imaginary horrors of " turning loose." They 
depicted in bold relief the misery of the slaves, at once 
deprived of the fatherly care and protection of the 
masters ; and, above all, the certain loss of the pro- 
ducts of the colonies for the want of labor. At last, 
when they saw^ that the nation had arisen in its strength, 
and that abolition was inevitable, they shoAved the 
hollowness of all their former pleas, by contenting 
themselves with a compensation for their act of justice. 
Though this compensating the masters, instead of the 



52 

slaves, is out of all keeping Avith justice, and was felt 
to be so by the British people, yet it may serve to show 
how ardent was the desire for the release of the slaves, 
when the people submitted to an increase of their 
enormous burdens to secure this object. The plunder- 
ers of 800,000 slaves may well boast of their general- 
ship in the matter ; had they put off the decision till 
the rising tide of popular feeling had reached its height, 
they would have fared differently. 

But w hen the act of emancipation was passed, what 
became of the dangers, the rebellions, the cutting of 
throats, the idleness, the vagrancy, and the necessity 
of a gradual preparation for freedom? — They van- 
ished. We find that already two of the colonial legis- 
latures have spontaneously and unanimously substi- 
tuted immediate emancipation for the gradual appren- 
ticeship system, which, in her tenderness to their for- 
mer fears, the mother country had offered them. On 
the 1st of August next, the .slaves in Bermuda, Antigua, 
Montserrat, Barbuda, St. Christopher, Nevis, Anguilla, 
the Virgin Islands, and Dominica, will be free ! Seven 
of these islands, according to the official returns of 1829, 
contained a slave population of 90,106. The proba- 
bility is, that the other colonies w ill follow this example. 
At any rate, the freedom of 800,000 slaves in the Bri- 
tish possessions is secured, and secured by no other 
means than the doctrine of immediate emancipation 
urged upon the conscience of the British people. 

It gives us unmingled pleasure to add, that two ad- 
vocates of the British slaves,* Charles Stuart and 
George Thompson, may be expected soon to arrive on 
our shores, to devote their noble energies to the same 

* This beloved coadjutor arrived just in time to attend the Anniversary. Mr. 
Thompson is expected in the course of two months. 



53 

cause now in its infancy with us. We hail their aid 
with delight. The narrow prejudice of clan, dignified 
by the name of national pride, may take umbrage, and, 
bristling its barbed points, like the " fretful porcupine," 
may warn them off. But it is too late for such a prin- 
ciple to triumph. Thousands will welcome them as 
the champions of human rights, — as men who belong 
not to an island or a kingdom, but to the world. 

From these encouraging facts let us take a view of 
the field that lies before us. One sixth 'part of the 
population of this republic, mingled, though not equally 
throughout the mass, is consigned to degradation, igno- 
miny, and contempt ; doomed by the pitiful pride of 
.skin, to be perpetual aliens, and frowned away from 
the privileges of our glorious institutions. The great 
mass of this proscribed and out-cast race, not less than 
2,200,000, are held, bought, and sold, as property — mere 
beasts of burden. All their social relations are at the 
mercy of irresponsible masters. Parents may be torn 
from their children, husbands from their wives, and 
brothers from their sisters, and for ever separated ; and 
in the ordinary coarse of the domestic slave-trade this 
often occurs. Yes, parents may sell their own chil- 
dren, and they often do it. Masters may punish their 
slaves without mercy, and there is no redress ; for a 
colored man cannot testify against a white one. And 
this is not a mere idle liability. The scourge is the 
motive to labor ; — the sight of the cruel instrument 
and its smart are as familiar to the slave as the com- 
plexion which he wears. And what is worse than 
all — the key of knowledge is taken away, — the im- 
mortal mind is starved, — the soul is shrouded in an 
Egyptian darkness, — and thus the bulk of this mighty 
population is shut out from the kingdom of God. — But 
there, is a God ; and nothing will save us from his 



54 

wrath, but an immediate and practical submission to 
his law, of doing unto others as we would they should 
do unto us. 

We are told that the masters themselves are tired 
of slavery, and only continue it for fear that the slaves, 
if liberated, by their ignorance and improvidence, will 
fall into a worse condition. But what language do the 
rewards offered for runaways speak 1 What do we 
learn from the immense and unwearied pains taken to 
recapture them 1 Facts are near at hand ; and, for 
tlie sake of placing this point in a strong light, the 
Committee beg leave to notice some that have fallen 
under their own observation. Last year a number of 
fugitives from Virginia rowed in an open boat from the 
Chesapeake to one of the wharves of New-York, where 
they left their boat and lied. What pains to escape 
from kind protection ! Did the kind protectors acqui- 
esce like men relieved from a burdensome respon- 
sibility 1 No. — Unwearied kindness ! It seemed as 
though they could never do enough for the poor depen- 
dents whom Providence had " entailed" upon them. — 
They obtained a requisition from the Governor of Vir- 
ginia to the Governor of New-York, to deliver up the 
said fugitives on the charge of stealing the boat! ! Four 
of them were, in consequence, taken in irons to Nor- 
thampton County, Virginia, where one was sentenced 
to be HANGED on the 10th of January last, and the 
other three, so far as can be learned, were sold to the 
'• speculators ! ! !" 

An aged man, by the name of Damon Jones, was 
arrested as a fugitive in New-Haven last fall. It ap- 
peared that he had been reared by the Hon. William 
Gaston, Chief Justice, of North Carolina, by whom he 
was sold about twelvfe years ago ; that he passed 
through the hands of a great number of masters, like 



55 

an ill-fated horse ; that he was at length repurchased 
by Judge Gaston, with the promise of his liberty if he 
would refund the price ; that he did refund, if not the 
whole, a considerable part of it ; that, in consequence, 
he received a passport to the free States, of which, on 
account of the Southampton massacre, he was not able 
immediately to avail himself; that while delayed for 
this cause, he was several times arrested on suspicion 
of coming from Virginia ; and that he was finally sold 
by Judge Gaston to an Alabama speculator, by the 
name of Huey, for $400 ! By him he was carried to 
Alabama, and sold like a beast. After having drunk 
of the bitter cup with the field gang, and having passed 
through many hands, he escaped. But he was promptly 
pursued. And at no time during the legal process for 
testing his right of property, would the claimant take 
less than $400 for his claim. By the kindness of some 
friends this man was ransomed.* 

About midnight, between the 11th and 12th of 
March, John Lockley, a resident of this city, his wife 
and child, were seized and thrown into prison, for no 
crime but because they were claimed as iwojperty by 
Dr. Rufus Haywood, of Raleigh, North Carolina. This 
gentleman is descended from one of the noblest fami- 
lies in that State. The next morning the prisoners 
were brought before the Recorder of the city, and, but 
for a mistake on the part of the claimant as to the 
time of their absconding, would have been delivered 
up. The claimant was allowed ample time to rectify 
his mistake. On the 31st of March he appeared with 
a large number of witnesses from Raleigh. They tes- 
tified to the identitv of the family, as the slaves of Dr. 



* A narrative of his eventful life is in preparation, and will probably be pub. 
lished soon. 



56 

Haywood's mother, executrix of the last will of Hon. 
Sherwood Haywood, deceased. They stated that the 
man w^as a blacksmith in Raleigh, had conducted a 
large business, making the sales and purchases him- 
self, and was frequently credited by the merchants of 
Raleigh to considerable amounts. It appears that he 
was not only able to take care of himself, but was, in 
fact, one of the best blacksmiths in Raleigh. It is said, 
moreoA'er, (and we see no reason to doubt it,) that this 
alleged fugitive is di first cousin to Dr. Rufus Hayw^ood, 
the pursuer. His real name is Branch, and his father 
was a brother of the Hon. Sherwood Haywood, de- 
scended from a slave mother, but was neither a slave 
himself, nor was his wife ; of course the son was free- 
born. He has availed himself of the statute of this 
State, which allows every alleged fugitive to bring his 
writ, in order to have a jury trial in regard to his free- 
dom. This family is still in prison, awaiting trial. 

But a few days after the afflicting arrest just men- 
tioned, a little boy, by the name of Henry Scott, was 
taken from one of the public schools of this city, where 
he had been placed by his father, who had brought 
him from Virginia. This case has already excited 
some sympathy. The child was thrown into prison, 
where, by exposure to cold and damp, he was made 
sick. By the contributions of his friends, principally 
colored, he has been released on bail, and is now re- 
stored to health. Shall we be called upon to repress 
our indignation against a system which can thus tear 
a child from a public school, and consign him to a bru- 
talizing servitude, into wiiose gloom no ray of know- 
ledge is permitted to penetrate 1 Shame on us if our 
sovils are not roused. What have the oppressors to 
offer us w hich can compensate for a vile and unmanly 
acquiescence in their barbarous claims ? 



57 

Still more recently, sLv men have been arrested, one 
after another, and immured in prison, — thrust into cells 
three feet and a half wide, by seven, feet long — for the 
crime of having been slaves. Some of them have been 
known here, for several years, as honest, industrious 
laborers. 

A man by the name of Robinson was taken from 
on board a revenue cutter, and carried back to Virgi- 
nia, without even the form of a trial. On his arrival 
in Richmond, it is reported that he was prevailed upon 
to inform against an aged free black, who had assisted 
his escape; in consequence of which, the old man was 
brought before the city authorities, and sentenced to 
receive 150, and afterwards 300 lashes. There seems 
to be no reason to doubt the correctness of the infor- 
mation. 

The pursuers are making a great eflfort to overthrow 
the law of this State, which grants to every fugitive 
the right of a jury trial. The question has been de- 
cided in their favor by one of the courts, but yet awaits 
the decision of a higher tribunal. 

We have cited these recent facts, merely as illustra- 
tions of the ferocious and implacable spirit of slavery. 
It is never satisfied. It exacts the last " iwimd of 
JleshJ^ Are we to be told, nevertheless, that the slave- 
holders, themseh^es, are as much opposed to slavery 
as we 1 That they deplore the evils, and wish to rid 
themselves of it as soon as it can be done with benefit 
to the slaves and safety to the public ? This is the 
very language we have heard from legalized kidnap- 
pers, while pouncing upon their victims ; and we are 
not so much astonished at it, as at the superlative stu- 
pidity of those who mistake its monstrous absurdity 
for truth. Almost every newspaper south of the Poto- 
mac is crowded with offers of reward for the appre- 



58 

heiision of runaways, and yet the amiable advertisers 
are opposed to slavery. Slaves are constantly esca- 
ping at the peril of their lives, and yet they say, The 
slaves are contented, and would not take their liberty 
if they could have it ! The fugitives who have escaped 
work night and day in the free States, for the redemp- 
tion of their relatives in bondage ; yet they say, If the 
slaves were freed they would die of starvation from 
mere idleness ! 

Again, these persecuted people, when apprehended 
as fugitives, quietly submit to the iniquitous law, and 
seldom is any violent effort made by their friends for 
their rescue ; but, say the masters, if they were eman- 
cipated, they woukl rise and cut the throats of their 
benefactors ! It is time the friends of freedom had 
awaked from their disgraceful slumbers. The truth is, 
and it must be suppressed no longer, we have been 
k'wcd to abet oppression — to be the tools of tyrants — 
to look on coolly while 2,000,000 of our brethren have 
been stripped of every right, and worse than murdered. 
Solemnly we say, and we stake all on the pledge, that 
there is not wealth enough in tlie universe any longer 
to buy our acquiescence in this base and abominable 
subserviency. Conmion sense teaches us, that it is no 
less a crime to oppress an already injured man, than to 
seize a fresh victim ; that what is crime in Africa, is 
no less so in the United States ; that if the foreign 
slave-trade has been justly declared piracy, it was 
always piracy ; consequently the man who seizes ano- 
ther in New- York, and drags him away into bondage, 
whatever laws he may have in his favor, is to be re- 
garded as a robber and pirate ! We do not understand 
the Constitution of the United States to justify such a 
criminal at all. If we did, we would never cease to 
labor to wipe off so foul and deadly a stain from that 



59 

noble instrument ; for we remember an older and no- 
bler Constitution, which says — " Thou shalt not deli- 
ver unto his master the servant which is escaped from 
his master unto thee : he shall dwell with thee, even 
among you, in that place which he shall choose, hi 
one of thy gates where it liketh him best ; thou shalt 
not oppress him." — Dent, xxiii. 15, 16. 

Let us rebuke the cruel prejudice against color 
wiiich sides with the oppressor. Let us welcome the 
oppressed to all the privileges of our glorious institu- 
tions. Let us open to him the paths of learning and 
honorable industry. Let it be the glory of our sons 
and daughters to have been educated in seminaries 
which were open to worthy applicants, without regard 
to complexion, that the next generation may be dis- 
enthralled from those narrow and despicable preju- 
dices wiiich have trammelled the present. Let us 
lift up the voice of warning, entreaty, and rebuke, 
and thunder in the ears of a guilty nation the salutary 
truth that every slave ought to be made free now. Let 
us persevere, in the face of all opposition, till the seat 
of our nation's power and honor is no longer a slave-mart 
— till the coffle of the domestic traffic no longer stains 
with blood its weary track from the Potomac to the 
Mississippi — till the whip falls from the grasp of the 
overseer, and the light of knowledge and religion is 
permitted to shine full on the shrouded intellect of these 
oppressed millions — till the States, one after another, 
pass the joyful act of abolition — till the shout of jubi- 
lee rings from the equator to the poles. 

Truth is with us ; wisdom, honor, and manhood 
are with us ; the wise, the noble, and the good of 
ages past and of ages to come are with us ; and, more 
than all, God is with us. What, then, shall separate 
us from our glorious object ? 



60 

Let the friends of human rights rally around the 
sacred banner o{ Immediate Emancipation. Let them 
consecrate themselves to this mighty effort. Let them 
cast in their contributions to the treasury of the Ame- 
rican Anti-Slavery Society, as God has prospered them. 
Let them love not in name only, but in deed and in trutli. 

If Anti-Slavery faith is to go without works, this 
Society might as well be disbanded. It must support 
living agents to proclaim truth with their whole ener- 
gy. It must bring the press to bear upon the whole 
community. This is not to be accomplished without 
funds. Why should not every abolitionist, male or 
female, count it a sacred privilege to contribute to this 
glorious cause ? Why should not the means be put in 
the Society's hands at once, to send agents to every 
corner of our country, and to visit every fire-side with 
the facts of the atrocious system, and with pleas for 
the slave ? Fellow Christians ! let it not be said of 
this Society that its agents have spent that breath and 
eloquence in soliciting funds, which they ought to have 
spent in pleading for the oppressed. Why should not 
every friend of this Society give now according to his 
ability? Why should not every philanthropist, the 
coming 4th of July, make an effort to raise funds for 
the Society ? Let it be understood, that a single cent 
will put in existence a tract which may gain a power- 
ful friend to our cause. If those ten persons who are 
now imprisoned in this city as slaves, were the only 
>slaves in the land, rather than they should stay another 
day in bondage, your philanthropy would release them 
by paying the ransom ; but there are millions, and we 
turn from the ransom of an individual in cold despair. 
Shall we not, then, give as much to lay the axe at the 
root of the accursed tree which bears this bitter fruit, 
as we would to release these ten individuals ? 



61 

In conclusion, the Committee would congratulate 
the friends of humanity on the prospect before them. 
He who li^^es to see the next anniversary will see things 
of which the prediction would now be deemed incredi- 
ble. Mightier elements are in agitation than have en- 
tered into any revolution in our country, moral or phy- 
sical. Their action has been repressed by all the go- 
verning powers of society, till nature will no longer 
bear the restraint, and sympathy for the enslaved is 
gushing from a thousand rents in the opposing struc- 
ture. The tricks of tyrants will be unavailing. They 
might as well undertake to turn backward our glorious 
rivers, to check the swelling of the ocean, or hush its 
noisy tempests, as to stop the progress of this cause. 
Strong in the holy principles of Him who came to 
preach deliverance to the captives, it will move for- 
ward to certain victory. 

By order of the Committee, 

E. Wright, Jun., Sec. Do7n. Cor. 

New-York, May 6th, 1834. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Of the American Anti- Slavery Society. 
ARTHUR TAPPAN, Chairman^ 

JOHN RANKIN, 
SAMUEL H. COX, 
SAMUEL E. CORNISH, 
JOSHUA LEAVITT, 
WILLIAM GREEN, JUN. 
PETER WILLIAMS, 
THEODORE S. WRIGHT, 
LEWIS TAPPAN, 
WILLIAM GOODELL, 
ABRAHAM L. COX, 
ELIZUR WRIGHT, JUN. 



APPENDIX 



Facts communicated to the editor of the " N. Y. Evangelist," hy H. 
B. Stanton of Lane Seminary, on the authority of students in that 
seminary, who have been born and educated at the south : 

The slaves which pass down to the southern market on the Mississippi river 
and through the interior, are mostly purchased in Kentucky and Virginia. Some 
are bought in Tennessee. In the emigration they suffer great hardships. Those 
who are driven down by land, travel from two hundred to a thousand miles on 
foot, through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. They sometimes carry 
heavy chains the whole distance. These chains are very massive. 1 hey extend 
from the hands to the feet, being fastened to the wrists and ankles by an iron 
ring around each. When chained, every slave carries two chains— i. e. one from 
each hand to each foot. A wagon, in which rides "the driver," carrying coarse 
provisions, and a tew tent coverings, generally accompanies the drove. Men, 
women and children, some of the latter very young, walk near the wagon; and 
if, through fatigue or sickness, they falter, the application of the whip reminds 
them that they are slaves. Our informant, speaking of some droves which he 
met, says, "their weariness was extreme, and their dejected, despairing, woe- 
begone countenances I shall never forget." They encamp out nights. Their 
bed consists of a small blanket. Even this is frequently denied them. A rude 
tent covers them, scarcely sufficient to keep off the dew or frost, much less the 
rain. They frequently remain in this situation several weeks, in the neighbor- 
hood of some slave-trading village. The slaves are subject, while on their 
journeys, to severe sickness. On such occasions the drivers manifest much 
anxiety lest they should loose — their property ! But even sickness does not 
prevent them from hurrying their victims on to market — sick, faint or weary, the 
slave knows no rest. In the Choctaw nation, my informant met a large company 
of these miserable beings, following a wagon at some distance. From their 
appearance, being mostly females and children, and hence not so marketable, he 
supposed they must belong to some planter who was emigrating southward. He 
inquired if this was so, and if their master was taking them home ? A woman, 
in tones of mellowed despair, answered him : " Oh, no sir, we are not going 
HOME ! We don't know where we are going. The speculators have got us !" 

A trader was recently taking dovm nine slaves in a flat boat. When near Nat- 
chez, his boat sprung a leak. He was compelled to abandon her. He put his 
slaves into a small canoe. Being manacled and fettered, they were unable to 
manage the canoe. It upset — they were plunged into the river, and sunk — being 
carried down by the weight of their chains ! The water was deep, and the cur- 
rent rapid. They were seen no more. 

My informant conversed with a man who accompanied a cargo of slaves from 
some port in Virginia, round by sea to New Orleans. He said the owners and 
sailors treated them most unmercifully — beating them, and in some instances 
literally knocking them down upon the deck. They were locked up in the hold 
every night. Once on the passage, in consequence of alarm, they kept them in 
the hold the whole period of four days and nights, and none were brought on 
deck during that time but a few females ; and they, for purposes which I will 
not name. Mr. Editor, Do the horrors of the middle passage belong exclusively 
to a by.gone age ? 

There is one feature in this nefarious traffic which no motives of delicacy can 
induce me to omit mentioning. Shall we conceal the truth, because its revelation 
will shock the finer sensibilities of the soul, when by such concealment we shut 
out all hope of remedying an evil, which dooms to a dishonered life, and to a 
hopeless death, thousands of the females of our country ? Is this wise ? Is it 
prudent ? Is it right ? I allude to the fact, that large numbers of female mulat- 
toes are annually bought up, and carried down to our southern cities, and sold at 
enormous prices, for purposes of private prostitution. This is a fact of universal 



63 

notoriety in tho south-western states. It is known to every souUdriver in the 
nation ? And is it so bad that Christians may not know it, and knowing it, apply 
the remedy ? In the consummation of this nameless abomination, threats and the 
lash come in, where kind promises and money fail. And will not the mothers of 
America feel in view of these facts ? 

All the above statements, general and particular, are avouched for by Mr. 
Robinson. Many of them, or rather those of a similar character, have come to 
my own knowledge from other sources. 

I will now relate briefly a few facts of a different character, showing the un. 
speakable cruelty of this traffic in its operations upon slaves left behind. The 
following was related during our debate by Andrew Benton, a member of the 
theological department, who was an agent of the Sunday School Union for two 
or three years in Missouri. A master in St. Louis sold a slave at auction to a 
driver who was collecting men for the southern market. The negro was very 
intelligent, and, on account of his ingenuity in working iron, was sold for an 
uncommonly high price — about seven or eight hundred dollars. He had a wife-, 
whom he tenderly loved ; and from whom he was determined not to part. During 
the progress of the sale, he saw that a certain man was determined to purchase 
him. He went up to him and said, " If you buy me, you must buy my wife too, 
for I can't go without her. If you will only buy my wife, I will go with you 
willingly, but if you don't I shall never be of any use to you." He continued to 
repeat the same expressions for some time. The man turned upon him, and with a 
sneer and a blow, said, " Begone, villain ! don't you know you are a slave ?" 
The negro felt it keenly — he retired. The sale went on. He was finally struck 
off" to this man. The slave again accosted his new master, and besought him 
with great earnestness and feeling to buy his wife, saying, that if he only would 
do that, he would work for him hard and faithfully — would be a good slave — and 
added with much emphasis, " If you don't, I never shall be worth any thing to 
you." He was now repelled more harshly than before. The negro retired a little 
distance from his master, took out his knife, cut his throat from ear to ear, and 
fell weltering in his blood ! — Can slaves feel ? 

The following happened in Campbell county, Ky. This county lies directly 
across the Ohio river, opposite Cincinnati. A slave had been purchased by a 
trader from the lower country. The flat-boat in which he was to go down was 
lying at the village of Covington, just opposite Cincinnati. The morning came 
on which he was to go. He was brought on board in chains. His colored 
acquaintances gathered around him, to bid him " good bye." Among those who 
came, was his wife. She had followed him on foot from their home, a few miles 
in the interior. For some time she stood on the boat in the silence of despair — 
weeping, but speaking not. But as the moment of separation drew near, she 
gave vent to her grief in wild and incoherent shrieks, tearing her hair and tossing 
her arms wildly into the air. She was carried home a raving maniac. In this 
condition, she continued for weeks, raving and calling out for her husband. The 
family who owned her, whipped her repeatedly because she neglected her work 
to talk and cry about her husband so much. He has never returned. All the cir- 
cumstances of this aflair are known personally to many individuals in Cincinnati. 

A member of this institution recently visiting among the colored people of 
Cincinnati, entered a house where were a mother and her little son. The wretched 
appearance of the house, and the extreme poverty of its inmates, induced the 
visitor to suppose that the husband of the woman must be a drunkard. He inquired 
of the boy, who was two or three years old, where his father was. He replied, 
" Papa stole." The visitor seemed not to understand, and turning to the mother 
said, " What does he mean ?" She then related the following circumstances: 
About two years ago, one evening her husband was sitting in the house, when 
two men came in, and professing great friendship, persuaded him under some 
pretence to go on board a steam-boat then lying at the dock, and bound down the 
river. After some hesitation, he consented to go. She heard nothing from him 

for more than a year, but supposed he had been kidnapped. Last spring, Dr. , 

a physician of Cincinnati, being at Natchez, Miss., saw this negro in a drove of 
slaves, and recognized him. He ascertained from conversation with him, that he 
had been driven about from place to place since he was decoyed from home by 
the slave-drivers ; had changed masters two or three times, and had once been 



64 

lodged ill jail for safe keeping, where he remained some time. When Dr. 

returned to Cincinnati, he saw the wife of the negro, and engaged to take the neces- 
sary steps for his hberation ; but soon afterwards, this gentleman fell a victim to the 
cholera, which was then prevailing in Cincinnati. No efforts have since been made 
to recover this negro. No tidings have been heard from him since the return of Dr. 

. He is probably now laboring upon some sugar or cotton plantation in 

Louisiana, without the hope of escaping from slavery, althoughjfie is a free-born citizen 
of Philadelphia. 

But other methods, more dastardly, if not more cruel, are resorted to, to decoy 
negroes into the southern market. Mr. Robinson, the gentleman above mentionedf, 
related a case in point. While he was going down the Mississippi, on board of the 
same boat was a man who had with him a female slave. He repeatedly told her that 
he was taking her down to live for a short time with his brother. Under this impres- 
sion s!!e wtuii chiciiui!). He told some of the passengers, however, that this was 
merely a decoy to induc( her to go willingly, but that his real object was to sell her. 
Some time before thej' reached New-Orkans, Mr. R. left the boat for the interior, and 
<iid not arrive in New-Orleans till some days after the boat reached there. The next 
'^ay af'er his arrival, he -^ isited the New Exchange, and there saw this woman exposed 
to sale. He descril i '! h r appearance as dejected in the extreme. 

Facts rom?niJ-ii'::U'd by Mr. Augustus Wattles^ of Lane Seminary, to 
Ihc Editor of the Western Recorder : — 

The debate was opened by Mr. , of Alabama. He commenced by asking this 

question — "What is slavery 7" "Before we cnn prescribe a remedy," said he, "we 
must understand ilie disease. We must know what we are attempting to cure, before 
we give the medicine." I was rejoiced to hear such a beginning from the son of a 
slave-holder; for I had longed to learn the true condition of the slave. And I had no 
doubt but that the feeling of the abolitionists on the subject of slavery, "was the 
poetry of philanthropy,"* and that "nine-tenths of the horrors of slavery were ima- 
ginary."t 

Mr. proceeded to give us facts illustrating slavery, and its effects on the social 

and political relations ; facts illustrating the kind disposition of the slaves, and their 
gratitude for favors. He ridiculed the idea of its being dangerous to emancipate them 
immediately; then referred us to facts in point, and closed by giving us his hearty 
assent to the doctrines of immediate emancipation, as defined by the Emancipator, viz : 

" By immediate emancipation we do not mean that the slaves shall be turned loose 
upon the nation, to roam as vagabonds or aliens ; nor, that they shall be instantly 
invested with all political rights and privileges ; but we mean, that instead of being 
under the unlimited control of a few irresponsible masters, they shall really receive 
the protection of law : that the power which is now vested in every slave-holder to 
rob them of their just dues, to drive them into the fields like beasts, to lacerate their 
bodies, to sell the husband from the wife, the wife from the husband, and children 
from their parents, shall instantly cease : that the slaves shall be employed as free 
laborers, fairly compensated, and protected in their earnings : that they shall be placed 
under a benevolent and disinterested supervision, which shall secure to them the right 
to obtain secular and religious knowledge, to worship God accordiiig to the dictates 
of their consciences, to accumulate wealth, and to seek an intellectual and moral 
elevation." 

When speaking of the cruelties practised upon the slave, he said— "At our house it 
is so common to hear their screams from a neighbouring plantation, that we think 
nothing of it. The overseer of this plantation told me one day, he laid a young wo- 
man over a log, and beat her so severely that she was soon after delivered of a dead 
child. A bricklayer, a neighbor of ours, owned a very smart young negro man, who 
ran away, but was caught. When his master got him home, he stripped him naked, 
tied him up by his hands, in plain sight and hearing of the academy and the public 
green, so high that his feet could not touch the ground ; then tied them together, and 
put a long board between his legs, to keep him steady. After preparing him in this 
way, he took a paddle, bored it full of holes, and commenced beatin^ him with it. 
He continued it leisurely all day. At night his flesh was literally pounded to a jelly. 
It was two weeks before he was able to walk. No one took any notice of it : no one 
thought any wrong was done." 

He stated many more facts of a similar kind. It will be recollected that he was 
attempting to give a fair expose of slavery. " And (said he) lest any one should think 
that in general the slaves are well treated, and these are the exceptions, let me be 
distinctly understood ■. — Cruelty is the rule, and kindness the exception.^' 

This was assented to, and corroborated by all from the slave-holding states. 

* Rev. Dr. Hawks. f Hon. T. Prelinghuyscn, a( the New- York Colonization meeting. 



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