Susan B. Anthony SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE  "What is American  Slavery?" 1861

1861
What is American Slavery?
The question of all questions,
that is now agitating our entire
country? The one vexed ques-
tion that intrudes itself upon our
every thought, - that is spoken of in 
all our news papers and magazines, -
that gives fertile theme to the 
moralist and novelist, _ that
startles, nay,  appals, the political
Economist, _ that is discussed at
the family fireside, _ at the public
dinner, _ on the Rail Road Car, _ at the 
corners of the streets, and wherever
men, and women, most do congregate.
— What is American Slavery? the
one disturbing question , that thrusts
itself into every gathering of the people,

that is the "apple of discord" in all 
our Literary, Political, & Religious organizations
 -that causes angry divisions
and subdivisions, in our  Churches, 
General Assemblies, General Conferences, 
and Associations, - that has
turned our American Congress into
one great National debating club,-
and all our state legislatures into
schools, where declamations, both pro. &
con, are always in order!-
What is this question of American
Slavery, that has thus the power to
shake this mighty nation from centre
to circumference, and from circumference 
back to centre again?- The one blot on
our nation's escutcheon, that shames the
face of every true American, and astonishes
the whole civilized world,-

the one "pet institution," that makes
our professedly Christian, Democratic,
Republican America, a lie, - a 
hissing and a by-word in the mouth of 
all Europe, - and an offence in the 
sight of High Heaven? -
What is American Slavery? -
It is the legalized Sy[s]tematized robbery
of the bodies and souls of nearly four
millions of men, women & children. -
It is the legalized traffic in Gods
Image, - It is the buying & selling Jesus
Christ himself on the auction block, as Merchandise, as chattel
property, in the person of the outraged Slave,
For the Divine Jesus said, "Inasmuch as
ye do it unto one of the least of these, my
brethren, ye do it unto me. -
What is American Slavery? It is the
depriving four Millions of native born

citizens of these United States, of their 
inalienable right to Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of happiness.  It is 
the robbing of every sixth man, woman and
child, of this "glorious republic," of their God
given right to the ownership and 
control of their own persons, to the 
earnings of their own hands & brains, 
to the exercise of their own consciences
and wills, to the possession and 
enjoyment of their own homes;
it is the sundering of what God has 
joined together , the divorcing husbands
& wives, Parents & children, 
brothers & sisters; It is the robberry
of every comfort, and every possession, sacred
to a child of earth, and an heir of 
Heaven; American Slavery!
It is a wholesale system of wrong and

outrage perpetrated on the bodies
and souls of these millions of Gods
children,- It is the legalized prostitution
of nearly two millions of the
daughters of this proud republic,-
it is the blotting out from the soul
of womanhood, the divine spark
of purity, the god of her inheritance
- It is the abomination of desolation
spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, ingrafted
into the very heart of the 
American goverment, - it is
all & every villainy in crimes long
black category, consolidated into one;-
It is theft, robbery, piracy, murder,-
it is avarice, covetousness, lust, licentiousness,
concubinage, polygamy;-
it is atheism, blasphemy, sin against
the Holy Ghost.-

Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.