Discussion on American Slavery Part 9

3. That we have no connexion with any press, by whomsoever conducted, in the interest of the abolition cause.

As to his own Connection, the Presbyterian, he would go as fully as his materials permitted, into the proof of their past principles, and present posture. And in the first place he was most happy to be able to present them with an abstract of the decisions of the General a.s.sembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

He found it printed in the New York Observer, of May 23, 1835, embodied in the proceedings of the Presbytery of Montrose, and transcribed by it no doubt from the a.s.sembly's digest.

As early as A. D. 1787, the Synod of N. York and Philadelphia issued an opinion adverse to slavery, and recommended measures for its final extinction; and in the year 1796 the General a.s.sembly a.s.sured "all the churches under their care, that they viewed with the deepest concern any vestiges of slavery which then existed in our country;" and in the year 1815 the same judicatory decided, "that the buying and selling of slaves by way of traffic, (meaning, doubtless, the domestic traffic,) is inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel." But in the year 1818, a more full and explicit avowal of the sentiments of the church was unanimously agreed on in the General a.s.sembly. "We consider, (say the a.s.sembly,) the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another, as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature; as utterly inconsistent with the law of G.o.d, which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves; and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ, which enjoin, that "whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." They add, "It is manifestly the duty of all Christians who enjoy the light of the present day, when the inconsistency of slavery, both with the dictates of humanity and religion, has been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to use their honest, earnest and unwearied endeavors to correct the errors of former times, and as speedily as possible, to efface this blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom and if possible, throughout the world."

If, said Mr. B., he had expressed sentiments different from these, or if he had inculcated as the principles of his brethren any thing different from these just and n.o.ble sentiments, let the blame be heaped upon his bare head. These sentiments they had held from a period to which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Here tonight, 3000 miles off, G.o.d enabled him to produce a record proving an antiquity of half a century, in full maturity! How grand, how far sighted, how ill.u.s.trious is truth--compared with the wretched and new born, and blear eyed fanaticism that carps at her! These are the principles of the Presbyterian church of the United States. She has risen with them, she will stand, or, if it be G.o.d's will, she will fall with them. But she will not change them less or more. The General a.s.sembly is but now adjourned. They have had this question before them--perhaps have been deeply agitated by its discussion. But so tranquilly does my heart rest on the truth of these principles, and on the fixed adherence to them, by my brethren, that nothing but a feeling that it would be impertinent, in one like me, to vouch for a body like that, could deter me from any lawful gage, that all its decisions will stand with its ancient and unaltered principles. In accordance with these principles the great body of the members of that church had been all along acting.--There were about 24 synods under the care of the General a.s.sembly, of which about one third were in the slave country. The number was constantly increasing, on which account, and in the absence of all records, he could not be more exact. The synods in the free states stood, he believed, without exception, just where the a.s.sembly stood, on this subject. In the slave states, much had been done--much was still doing--and in proof of this as regarded this particular denomination--in addition to what he had all along declared, with reference to the great emanc.i.p.ation party, in all of those states, he asked attention to the several doc.u.ments he was about to lay before them. The first was a series of resolutions appended to a lucid and extended report, drawn up by a large committee of Ministers and Elders of the synod of Kentucky--in obedience to its orders after the subject had been several years before that body. That Synod embraces the whole state of _Kentucky_, which is one of the largest slave states in the Union. The resolutions are quoted from the New York Observer, of April 23, 1836.

1. We would recommend that all slaves now under 20 years of age, and all those yet to be born in our possession be emanc.i.p.ated, as they severally reach their 25th year.

2. We recommend that deeds of emanc.i.p.ation be now drawn up, and recorded in our respective County Courts, specifying the slaves we are about to emanc.i.p.ate, and the age at which each is to become free.

This measure is highly necessary, as it will furnish to our own minds, to the world, and to our slaves, satisfactory proof of our sincerity in this work; and it will also secure the liberty of the slaves against contingencies.

3. We recommend that our slaves be instructed in the common elementary branches of education.

4. We recommend that strenuous and persevering efforts be made, to induce them to attend regularly upon the ordinary services of religion, both domestic and public.

5. We recommend that great pains be token to teach them the Holy Scriptures; and that to effect this, the instrumentality of Sabbath Schools, wherever they can be enjoyed, be united with that of domestic instruction.

The plan revealed in these resolution, was the one of all others, which most commended itself to his (Mr. B.'s) judgment. And he most particularly asked their attention to it, on an account somewhat personal. He had several times been publicly referred to in this country, as having shown the sincerity of his principles in the manumission of his own slaves. He was most anxious that no error should exist on this subject, which he had not at any time, had any part in bringing before the public, and which, as often only as he was forced to do so, had he explained. The introductory remarks of the Chairman, had laid him under the necessity of such an explanation, which had not so naturally occurred, as in this connexion. He took leave, therefore, to say, that this Kentucky plan, was in substance the one he had been acting on for some years before its existence; and which he should probably be among the earliest, if his life was spared, fully to complete. He considered it substantially the same as their system for West India Emanc.i.p.ation; only more rapid as to adults, more tardy, cautious, and beneficent as to minors; and more generous, as being wholly without compensation. In plans that affect whole nations, and successive generations, questions of _time_ are of all others, least important; of all others the most proper to make bend to the necessities of the case. He went only to say further, that his brother, the Rev. Dr. Breckinridge, of whom Mr. Thompson speaks with such affectation of scorn, had entered this good field before him, and taken one course with his manumitted slaves. That a younger brother, whose name, along with nine other beloved and revered names, is attached to this Kentucky report, had also entered it before him; and taken a second course, a different course still, in liberating his. When he came, last of all, he had taken still a third, different from each; while other friends had pursued others still. What wisdom their combined, and yet varied experience could have afforded, was of course useless; now that all the deepest questions of abstract truth, and the most difficult of personal practice, were solved by instinct, and carried by storm.

The next extract related to the great slave holding State of North Carolina, and revealed a plan for the religious instruction and care of the souls of the slaves, intended to cover the States of Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina, all slave States of the first cla.s.s, as well as the one in which it originated. Its origin is due to the Presbyterian Synod, covering the whole of that State. The extract is from the New York Observer of June 20, 1835.

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.

"The Southern Evangelical Society," is the t.i.tle of a proposed a.s.sociation among the Presbyterians at the South, for the propagation of the gospel among the people of color.

The const.i.tution originated in the Synod of North Carolina, and is to go into effect as soon as adopted by the Synod of Virginia, or that of South Carolina and Georgia. The voting members of the Society are to be elected by the Synods.

Honorary members are created by the payment of thirty dollars. All members of Synods united with the Society, are corresponding members; other corresponding members maybe chosen by the voting members. Article 4th of the Const.i.tution, provides that "there shall not exist between this Society and any other Society, any connexion whatever, except with a similar Society in the slave holding States."

Several resolutions follow the Const.i.tution; one of these provides that a presbytery in a slave holding district of the country, not united with a Synod in connexion with the Society, may become a member by its own act. The fifth and sixth resolutions are as follows:

_Resolved_, 5, That it be very respectfully and earnestly recommended to all the heads of families in connexion with our congregations, to take up and vigorously prosecute the business of seeking the salvation of the slaves in the way of maintaining and promoting family religion.

_Resolved_, 6, That it be enjoined upon all the presbyteries composing this Synod, to take order at their earliest meeting, to obtain full and correct statistical information as to the number of people of color, in the bounds of our several congregations, the number in actual attendance at our several places of worship, and the number of colored members in our several churches, and make a full report to the Synod at its next meeting, and for this purpose, that the Clerk of this Synod furnish a copy of this resolution to the stated Clerk of each Presbytery.

The next doc.u.ment carried them one State farther South, and related to South Carolina, in which that horrible Governor M'Duffie, who seems to haunt Mr. Thompson's imagination with his threats of "death without benefit of clergy," lives, and perhaps still rules. It is taken from the same paper as the next preceding extract;

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.

We cheerfully insert the following letter from an intelligent New Englander at the South.

_To the Editor of the New York Observer._

I am apprehensive that many of your readers, who feel a lively interest in the welfare of the slaves, are not correctly and fully informed as to their amount of religious instruction. From the speeches of Mr. Thompson and others, they might be led to believe that slaves in our Southern States never read a Bible, hear a gospel sermon, or partake of a gospel ordinance. It is to be hoped, however, that little credit will be given to such misrepresentations, notwithstanding the zeal and industry with which they are disseminated.

What has been done on a single plantation.

I will now inform your readers what has been done, and is now doing, for the moral and religious improvement of the slaves on a single plantation, with which I am well acquainted, and these few facts may serve as a commentary on the unsupported a.s.sertions of Mr. Thompson and others. And here I could wish that all who are so ready to denounce every man that is so unfortunate as to be born to a heritage of slaves, could go to that plantation, and see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, the things which I despair of adequately describing. Truly, I think they would be more inclined, and better qualified to use those weapons of light and love which have been so ably and justly commended to their hands.

On this plantation there are from 150 to 200 slaves, the finest looking body that I have seen on any estate. Their master and mistress have felt for years how solemn are the responsibilities connected with such a charge; and they have not shrunk from meeting them. The means used for their spiritual good, are abundant. They enjoy the constant preaching of the gospel. A young minister of the Presbyterian church, who has received a regular collegiate and theological education, is laboring among them, and derives his entire support from the master, with the exception of a trifling sum which he receives for preaching one Sabbath in each month for a neighboring church. On the Sabbath, and during the week, you may see them filling the place of worship, from the man of grey hairs to the small child, all neatly and comfortably clothed, listening with respectful, and in many cases, eager attention to the truth as it is in Jesus, delivered in terms adapted to their capacities, and in a manner suited to their peculiar habits, feelings and circ.u.mstances; engaging with solemnity and propriety in the solemn exercise of prayer, and mingling their melodious voices in the hymn of praise.

Sitting among them are the white members of the family encouraging them by their attendance, manifesting their interest in the exercises, and their anxiety for the eternal well-being of their people. Of the whole number, forty-five or fifty have made a profession of religion, and others are evidently deeply concerned.

Let me now conduct you to a Bible cla.s.s of ten or twelve adults who can read, met with their Bibles to study and have explained to them the word of G.o.d. They give unequivocal demonstrations of much interest in their employment, and of an earnest desire to understand and remember what they read.

From hence we will go to another room, where are a.s.sembled eighteen to twenty lads, attending upon catechetical instruction, conducted by their young master. Here you will notice many intelligent countenances, and will be struck with the prompt.i.tude and correctness of their answers.

But the most interesting spectacle is yet before you. It is to be witnessed in the Infant School Room, nicely fitted up and supplied with the customary cards and other appurtenances. Here every day in the week, you may find twenty-five or thirty children, neatly clad and wearing bright and happy faces. And as you notice their correct deportment, hear their unhesitating replies to the questions proposed, and above all when they unite their sweet voices in their touching songs, if your heart is not affected and your eyes do not fill, you are the hardest-hearted and driest-eyed visitor that has ever been there. But who is their teacher?

Their mistress, a lady whose amiable Christian character and most gifted and accomplished mind and manners are surpa.s.sed by none. From day to day, month to month, and year to year, she has cheerfully left her splendid halls and circle of friends, to visit her school room, where, standing up before those young immortals, she trains them in the way in which they should go, and leads them to Him who said, "suffer little children to come unto me."

From the Infant School room, we will walk through a beautiful lawn half a mile, to a pleasant grove commanding a view of miles in extent. Here is a brick chapel, rising for the accommodation of this interesting family; sufficiently large to receive two or three hundred hearers. When completed, in beauty and convenience it will be surpa.s.sed by few churches in the Southern country.

On the plantation you might also see other things of great interest. Here a negro is the overseer. Marriages are regularly contracted. No negro is sold, except as a punishment for bad behavior, and a dreaded one it is. None is bought, save for the purpose of uniting families. Here you will near no clanking of chains, no cracking of whips; (I have never seen a blow struck on the estate,) and here last, but not least, you will find a flourishing Temperance Society, embracing almost every individual on the premises.

And yet the "Christianity of the South is a chain-forging, a whip-plaiting, marriage discouraging, Bible-withholding Christianity!"

I have confined myself to a single plantation. But I might add many most interesting facts in regard to others, and the state of feeling in general, but I forbear.

Yours, &c A NEW ENGLAND MAN.

He would now connect the peculiar and local facts of the preceding statement, with the whole community of slave holders, in the same State, and show by competent and disinterested testimony, the real and common state of things. The following extracts were from a letter printed in the New York Observer, of July 25, 1835:

I have resided eight years in South Carolina, and have an extensive acquaintance with the planters of the middle and low country. I have seen much of slavery, and feel competent to speak in regard to many facts connected with it.

What your correspondent has stated of the condition of one plantation, is in its essential points a common case throughout the whole circle of my acquaintance.

The negroes generally, in this State, are well fed, well clothed, and have the means of religious instruction.

According to my best judgment, the work which a slave here is required to do, amounts to about one third the ordinary labor commonly performed by a New England farmer. A similar comparison would hold true in regard to the labor of domestics. In the family where I reside, consisting of nine white persons, seven slaves are employed to do the work. This is a common case.

In the village where I live, there are about four hundred slaves, and they generally attend church. More than one hundred of them are members of the church. Perhaps two hundred are a.s.sembled every Sabbath in the Sunday Schools. In my own Sunday School are about sixty, and most of them professors of religion. They are perfectly accessible and teachable. In the town of my former residence, in New England, there were three hundred free blacks. No more than eight or ten of these were professors of religion, and not more than twice that number could generally be induced to attend church. They could not be induced to send their children to the district schools, which were always open to them, nor could they generally be hired to work. They are thievish, wretched and troublesome. I have no hesitation in saying, and I say it deliberately, it would be a great blessing to them to exchange conditions with the slaves of the village in which I now live. Their intellectual and moral characters, and real means of improvement, would be promoted by the exchange.

There are doubtless some masters who treat their slaves cruelly in this State, but they are exceptions to the general fact. Public opinion is in a wholesome state and the man who does not treat his slaves kindly, is disgraced.

Great and increasing efforts are made to instruct the slaves in religion, and elevate their characters. Missionaries are employed solely for their benefit. It is very common for ministers to preach in the forenoon to the whites, and in the afternoon of every Sabbath to the blacks. The slaves of my acquaintance are generally contented and happy. The master is reprobated who will divide families. Many thousands of slaves of this State give evidence of piety. In many churches they form the majority. Thousands of them give daily thanks to G.o.d that they or their fathers were brought to this land of slavery.

And now, perhaps, I ought to add, that I am not a slave-holder, and do not intend to continue in a slave country; but wherever I may be, I intend to speak the TRUTH.

The next doc.u.ment related particularly to _Virginia_,--the largest and most powerful of the Slave States; but had also a general reference to the whole south, and the whole question at issue. The sentiments it contained were ent.i.tled to extraordinary consideration, on account of the source of them. Mr. Van Renselear, was the son of one of the most wealthy and distinguished citizens of the great free state of New York. He had gone to Virginia, to preach to the slaves. He had every where succeeded; was every where beloved by the slaves, and honored by their masters. He had access to perhaps forty plantations,--on which he from time to time preached,--and which might have been doubled, had his strength been equal to the work. In the midst of his usefulness--the storm of abolition arose. Mr. Thompson, like some baleful star landed on our sh.o.r.es; organized a reckless agitation, made many at the north frantic with folly--and as many at the south furious with pa.s.sion. Mr. Van Renselear, like many others, saw a storm raging which they had no power to control; and like them withdrew from his benevolent labors. The following brief statements made by him at a great meeting of the colonization society of New York, exhibit his own view of the conduct and duty of the parties.

The Rev. Cortlandt Van Renselear, formerly of Albany, but who has lately resided in Virginia, addressed the meeting, and after alluding to the difference of opinion which prevailed among the friends of Colonization, touching the present condition and treatment of the colored population in this country, proceeded to offer reasons why the people of the North should approach their brethren in the South, who held the control of the colored population, with defference, and in a spirit of kindness and conciliation.

These reasons were briefly as follows: 1. Because the people of the South had not consented to the original introduction of slaves into the country, but had solemnly, earnestly, and repeatedly remonstrated against it. 2. Because having been born in the presence of slavery, and accustomed to it from their infancy, they could not be expected to view it in the same light as we view it at the North. 3. Slavery being there established by law, it was not in the power of individuals to act in regard to it as their personal feelings might dictate.

The evil had not been eradicated from the state of New York all at once: It had been a gradual process, commencing with the law 1799 and not consumated until 1827. Ought we to denounce our Southern neighbors if they refuse to do the work at a blow? 4. The const.i.tution of the United States tolerated slavery, in its articles apportioning representation with reference to the slave population, and requiring the surrender of runaway slaves. 5. Slavery had been much mitigated of late years, and the condition of the slave population much ameliorated. Its former rigor was almost unknown, at least in Virginia, and it was lessening continually. It was not consistent with truth to represent the slaves as groaning day and night under the lash of tyranical task-masters. And as to being kept in perfect ignorance, Mr. V. had seldom seen a plantation where some of the slaves could not read, and where they were not encouraged to learn. In South Carolina, where it was said the gospel was systematically denied to the slaves, there were twenty thousand of them church members in the Methodist denomination alone. He knew a small church where out of 70 communicants, 50 were in slavery. 6. There were very great difficulties connected with the work of Abolition. The relations of slavery had ramified themselves through all the relations of society. The slaves were comparatively very ignorant; their character degraded; and they were unqualified for immediate freedom. A blunder in such a concern as universal abolition, would be no light matter. Mr. V. here referred to the result of experience and personal observation on the mind of the well-known Mr. Parker, late a minister of this city, but now of New-Orleans. He had left this city for the South with the feeling of an immediate abolitionist; but he had returned with his views wholly changed. After seeing slavery and slave-holders, and that at the far South, he now declared the idea of immediate and universal abolition to be a gross absurdity. To liberate the two and a half millions of slaves in the midst of us, would be just as wise and as humane, as it would be for the father of a numerous family of young children to take them to the front door, and there bidding them good bye, tell them they were free, and send them out into the world to provide for and govern themselves. 7.

Foreign interference was, of necessity, a delicate thing, and ought ever to be attempted with the utmost caution. 8. There was a large amount of unfeigned Christian anxiety at the South to obey G.o.d and do good to man. There were many tears and prayers continually poured out over the condition of their colored people, and the most earnest desire to mitigate their sorrows. Were such persons to be approached with vituperation and anathemas? 9. There was no reason why all our sympathies should be confined to the colored race and utterly withheld from our white southern brethren. The apostle Paul exhibited no such spirit. 10. A regard to the interest of the slaves themselves dictated a cautious and prudent and forbearing course. It called for conciliation: for the fate of the slaves depended on the will of their masters, nor could the north prevent it. The late laws against teaching the slaves to read had not been pa.s.sed until the Southern people found inflamatory publications circulating among the colored people. 11. The spirit of the gospel forbade all violence, abuse and threatening. The apostles had wished to call fire from heaven on those they considered as Christ's enemies; but the Saviour, instead of approving this fiery zeal, had rebuked it. 12. These Southern people, who were represented as so grossly violating all Christian duty, had been the subjects of gracious blessings from G.o.d in the outpourings of his Spirit. 13. When G.o.d convinced men of error, he did it in the spirit of mercy; we ought to endeavor to do the same thing in the same spirit.

The only remaining testimony relates to the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, in the south west. The letter from which it is taken is written by a son of that Mr. Finley, who perhaps more than any one else, set on foot the original scheme of African colonization; and whose name, as a man of pure and enlarged benevolence and wisdom, the enemies of his plans quote with respect. The son well deserves to have had such a father.

_New-Orleans, March 12, 1835._

In my former letter I gave you some account of the leading characters amongst the free people of color who recently sailed from this port in the Brig "Rover." for Liberia. I then promised you in my next to give you some account of the emanc.i.p.ated slaves who sailed in the same expedition. This promise I will now endeavor to fulfil, and I will begin with the case of an individual emanc.i.p.ation, and then state the case of an emanc.i.p.ated family, and conclude with an account of the emanc.i.p.ation of several families by the same individual.

The first case alluded to is that of a young woman emanc.i.p.ated by the last will and testament of the late Judge James Workman, of this city, the same who left a legacy of ten thousand dollars to the American Colonization Society.