From what has been said in the last chapter, it is presumed that it will appear that the Christian1 church of America by no means occupies that position, with regard to slavery, that the apostles did, or that the church of the earlier ages did.
However they may choose to interpret the language of the apostles, the fact still remains2 undeniable, that the church organization which grew up immediately after these instructions did intend and did effect the abolition3 of slavery.
But we wish to give still further consideration to one idea which is often put forward by those who defend American slavery. It is this. That the institution is not of itself a sinful one, and that the only sin consists in the neglect of its relative duties. All that is necessary, they say, is to regulate the institution by the precepts4 of the gospel. They admit that no slavery is defensible which is not so regulated.
If, therefore, it shall appear that American slave-law cannot be regulated by the precepts of the gospel, without such alterations5 as will entirely6 do away the whole system, then it will appear that it is an unchristian institution, against which every Christian is bound to remonstrate7, and from which he should entirely withdraw.
The Roman slave-code was a code made by heathen,—by a race, too, proverbially stern and unfeeling. It was made in the darkest ages of the world, before the light of the gospel had dawned. Christianity gradually but certainly abolished it. Some centuries later, a company of men, from Christian nations, go to the continent of Africa; there they kindle8 wars, sow strifes, set tribes against tribes with demoniac violence, burn villages, and in the midst of these diabolical9 scenes kidnap and carry off, from time to time, hundreds and thousands of miserable10 captives. Such of those as do not die of terror, grief, suffocation11, ship-fever, and other horrors, are, from time to time, landed on the shores of America. Here they are. And now a set of Christian legislators meet together to construct a system and laws of servitude, with regard to these unfortunates, which is hereafter to be considered as a Christian institution.
Of course, in order to have any valid12 title to such a name, the institution must be regulated 242by the principles which Christ and his apostles have laid down for the government of those who assume the relation of masters. The New Testament13 sums up these principles in a single sentence: “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal.”
But, forasmuch as there is always some confusion of mind in regard to what is just and equal in our neighbor’s affairs, our Lord has given this direction, by which we may arrive at infallible certainty. “All things whatsoever14 ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
It is, therefore, evident that if Christian legislators are about to form a Christian system of servitude, they must base it on these two laws, one of which is a particular specification15 under the other.
Let us now examine some of the particulars of the code which they have formed, and see if it bear this character.
First, they commence by declaring that their brother shall no longer be considered as a person, but deemed, sold, taken, and reputed, as a chattel16 personal.—This is “just and equal!”
This being the fundamental principle of the system, the following are specified17 as its consequences:
1. That he shall have no right to hold property of any kind, under any circumstances.—Just and equal!
2. That he shall have no power to contract a legal marriage, or claim any woman in particular for his wife.—Just and equal!
3. That he shall have no right to his children, either to protect, restrain, guide or educate.—Just and equal!
4. That the power of his master over him shall be ABSOLUTE, without any possibility of appeal or redress18 in consequence of any injury whatever.
To secure this, they enact19 that he shall not be able to enter suit in any court for any cause.—Just and equal!
That he shall not be allowed to bear testimony20 in any court where any white person is concerned.—Just and equal!
That the owner of a servant, for “malicious, cruel, and excessive beating of his slave, cannot be indicted21.”—Just and equal!
It is further decided22, that by no indirect mode of suit, through a guardian23, shall a slave obtain redress for ill-treatment. (Dorothea v. Coquillon et al, 9 Martin La. Rep. 350.)—Just and equal!
5. It is decided that the slave shall not only have no legal redress for injuries inflicted24 by his master, but shall have no redress for those inflicted by any other person, unless the injury impair25 his property value.—Just and equal!
Under this head it is distinctly asserted as follows:
“There can be no offence against the peace of the state, by the mere26 beating of a slave, unaccompanied by any circumstances of cruelty, or an intent to kill and murder. The peace of the state is not thereby27 broken.” (State v. Maner, 2 Hill’s Rep. S. C.)—Just and equal!
If a slave strike a white, he is to be condemned28 to death; but if a master kill his slave by torture, no white witnesses being present, he may clear himself by his own oath. (Louisiana.)—Just and equal!
The law decrees fine and imprisonment29 to the person who shall release the servant of another from the torture of the iron collar. (Louisiana.)—Just and equal!
It decrees a much smaller fine, without imprisonment, to the man who shall torture him with red-hot irons, cut out his tongue, put out his eyes, and scald or maim30 him. (Ibid.)—Just and equal!
It decrees the same punishment to him who teaches him to write as to him who puts out his eyes.—Just and equal!
As it might be expected that only very ignorant and brutal31 people could be kept in a condition like this, especially in a country where every book and every newspaper are full of dissertations32 on the rights of man, they therefore enact laws that neither he nor his children, to all generations, shall learn to read and write.—Just and equal!
And as, if allowed to meet for religious worship, they might concert some plan of escape or redress, they enact that “no congregation of negroes, under pretence33 of divine worship, shall assemble themselves; and that every slave found at such meetings shall be immediately corrected, without trial, by receiving on the bare back twenty-five stripes with a whip, switch or cowskin.” (Law of Georgia. Prince’s Digest, p. 447.)—Just and equal!
Though the servant is thus kept in ignorance, nevertheless in his ignorance he is punished more severely34 for the same crimes than freemen.—Just and equal!
By way of protecting him from over-work, they enact that he shall not labor35 more than five hours longer than convicts at hard labor in a penitentiary36!
They also enact that the master or overseer, not the slave, shall decide when he is too sick to work.—Just and equal!
243If any master, compassionating37 this condition of the slave, desires to better it, the law takes it out of his power, by the following decisions:
1. That all his earnings38 shall belong to his master, notwithstanding his master’s promise to the contrary; thus making them liable for his master’s debts.—Just and equal!
2. That if his master allow him to keep cattle for his own use, it shall be lawful39 for any man to take them away, and enjoy half the profits of the seizure40.—Just and equal!
3. If his master sets him free, he shall be taken up and sold again.—Just and equal!
4. If any man or woman runs away from this state of things, and, after proclamation made, does not return, any two justices of the peace may declare them outlawed41, and give permission to any person in the community to kill them by any ways or means they think fit.—Just and equal!
Such are the laws of that system of slavery which has been made up by Christian masters late in the Christian era, and is now defended by Christian ministers as an eminently42 benign43 institution.
In this manner Christian legislators have expressed their understanding of the text, “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal,” and of the text, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
It certainly presents the most extraordinary view of justice and equity44, and is the most remarkable45 exposition of the principle of doing to others as we would others should do to us that it has ever been the good fortune of the civilized46 world to observe. This being the institution, let any one conjecture47 what its abuses must be; for we are gravely told, by learned clergymen, that they do not feel called upon to interfere49 with the system, but only with its abuses. We should like to know what abuse could be specified that is not provided for and expressly protected by slave-law.
And yet, Christian republicans, who, with full power to repeal50 this law, are daily sustaining it, talk about there being no harm in slavery, if they regulate it according to the apostle’s directions, and give unto their servants that which is just and equal. Do they think that, if the Christianized masters of Rome and Corinth had made such a set of rules as this for the government of their slaves, Paul would have accepted it as a proper exposition of what he meant by just and equal?
But the Presbyteries of South Carolina say, and all the other religious bodies at the South say, that the church of our Lord Jesus Christ has no right to interfere with civil institutions. What is this church of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they speak of? Is it not a collection of republican men, who have constitutional power to alter these laws, and whose duty it is to alter them, and who are disobeying the apostle’s directions every day till they do alter them? Every minister at the South is a voter as much as he is a minister; every church-member is a voter as much as he is a church-member; and ministers and church-members are among the masters who are keeping up this system of atrocity51, when they have full republican power to alter it; and yet they talk about giving their servants that which is just and equal! If they are going to give their servants that which is just and equal, let them give them back their manhood; they are law-makers, and can do it. Let them give to the slave the right to hold property, the right to form legal marriage, the right to read the word of God, and to have such education as will fully52 develop his intellectual and moral nature; the right of free religious opinion and worship; let them give him the right to bring suit and to bear testimony; give him the right to have some vote in the government by which his interests are controlled. This will be something more like giving him that which is “just and equal.”
Mr. Smylie, of Mississippi, says that the planters of Louisiana and Mississippi, when they are giving from twenty to twenty-five dollars a barrel for pork, give their slaves three or four pounds a week; and intimates that, if that will not convince people that they are doing what is just and equal, he does not know what will.
Mr. C. C. Jones, after stating in various places that he has no intention ever to interfere with the civil condition of the slave, teaches the negroes, in his catechism, that the master gives to his servant that which is just and equal, when he provides for them good houses, good clothing, food, nursing, and religious instruction.
This is just like a man who has stolen an estate which belongs to a family of orphans53. Out of its munificent54 revenues, he gives the orphans comfortable food, clothing, &c., while he retains the rest for his own use, declaring that he is thus rendering55 to them that which is just and equal.
If the laws which regulate slavery were made by a despotic sovereign, over whose movements the masters could have no control, this mode of proceeding56 might be called just and equal; but, as they are made and kept in operation by these Christian masters, these ministers and church-members, in common with those who are not so, they are every one of them refusing to the slave that which is just and equal, so long as they do not seek the repeal of these laws; and, if they cannot get them repealed57, it is their duty to take the slave out from under them, since they are constructed with such fatal ingenuity58 as utterly59 to nullify all that the master tries to do for their elevation60 and permanent benefit.
No man would wish to leave his own family of children as slaves under the care of the kindest master that ever breathed; and what he would not wish to have done to his own children, he ought not to do to other people’s children.
But, it will be said that it is not becoming for the Christian church to enter into political matters. Again, we ask, what is the Christian church? Is it not an association of republican citizens, each one of whom has his rights and duties as a legal voter?
Now, suppose a law were passed which depreciated61 the value of cotton or sugar three cents in the pound, would these men consider the fact that they are church-members as any reason why they should not agitate62 for the repeal of such law? Certainly not. Such a law would be brittle63 as the spider’s web; it would be swept away before it was well made. Every law to which the majority of the community does not assent64 is, in this country, immediately torn down.
Why, then, does this monstrous65 system stand from age to age? Because the community CONSENT TO IT. They re?nact these unjust laws every day, by their silent permission of them.
The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is not of this world, say the South Carolina Presbyteries; therefore, the church has no right to interfere with any civil institution; but yet all the clergy48 of Charleston could attend in a body to give sanction to the proceedings66 of the great Vigilance Committee. They could not properly exert the least influence against slavery, because it is a civil institution, but they could give the whole weight of their influence in favor of it.
Is it not making the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ quite as much of this world, to patronize the oppressor, as to patronize the slave?
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1
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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3
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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4
precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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5
alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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6
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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7
remonstrate
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| v.抗议，规劝 | |
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8
kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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9
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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10
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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11
suffocation
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| n.窒息 | |
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12
valid
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| adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的 | |
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13
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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14
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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15
specification
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| n.详述；[常pl.]规格，说明书，规范 | |
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16
chattel
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| n.动产；奴隶 | |
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17
specified
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| adj.特定的 | |
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18
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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19
enact
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| vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演 | |
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20
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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21
indicted
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| 控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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23
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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24
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
impair
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| v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少 | |
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26
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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27
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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28
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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29
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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30
maim
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| v.使残废，使不能工作，使伤残 | |
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31
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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32
dissertations
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| 专题论文，学位论文( dissertation的名词复数 ) | |
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33
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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34
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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35
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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36
penitentiary
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| n.感化院；监狱 | |
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37
compassionating
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| v.同情（compassionate的现在分词形式） | |
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38
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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39
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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40
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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41
outlawed
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| 宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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42
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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43
benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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44
equity
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| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
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45
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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46
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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47
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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48
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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49
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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50
repeal
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| n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消 | |
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51
atrocity
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| n.残暴，暴行 | |
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52
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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53
orphans
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| 孤儿( orphan的名词复数 ) | |
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54
munificent
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| adj.慷慨的，大方的 | |
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55
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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56
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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57
repealed
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| 撤销，废除( repeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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59
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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60
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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61
depreciated
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| v.贬值，跌价，减价( depreciate的过去式和过去分词 )；贬低，蔑视，轻视 | |
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62
agitate
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| vi.(for,against)煽动，鼓动；vt.搅动 | |
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63
brittle
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| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
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64
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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65
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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66
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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