The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,526 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus.

The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,526 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus.
To this end we also republish such advertisements as you refer to—­advertisements in which immortal beings, made in the image of God, and redeemed by a Savior’s blood, and breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, are offered to be sold, at public auction, or sheriff’s sale, in connection with cows, and horses, and ploughs:  and, sometimes we call special attention to the common fact, that the husband and wife, the parent and infant child, are advertised to be sold together or separately, as shall best suit purchasers.  It is to this end also, that we often republish specimens of the other class of advertisements to which you refer.  Some of the advertisements of this class identify the fugitive slave by the scars, which the whip, or the manacles and fetters, or the rifle had made on his person.  Some of them offer a reward for his head!—­and it is to this same end, that we often refer to the ten thousands, who have fled from southern slavery, and the fifty fold that number, who have unsuccessfully attempted to fly from it.  How unutterable must be the horrors of the southern prison house, and how strong and undying the inherent love of liberty to induce these wretched fellow beings to brave the perils which cluster so thickly and frightfully around their attempted escape?  That love is indeed undying.  The three hundred and fifty-three South Carolina gentlemen, to whom I have referred, admit, that even “the old negro man, whose head is white with age, raises his thoughts to look through the vista which will terminate his bondage.”

I put it to your candor—­can you object to the reasonableness and fairness of these modes, which abolitionists have adopted for establishing the truth on the points at issue between themselves and slaveholders?  But, you may say that our republication of your own representations of slavery proceeds from unkind motives, and serves to stir up the “hatred,” and “rage of the people of the free states against the people of the slave states.”  If such be an effect of the republication, although not at all responsible for it, we deeply regret it; and, as to our motives, we can only meet the affirmation of their unkindness with a simple denial.  Were we, however, to admit the unkindness of our motives, and that we do not always adhere to the apostolic motto, of “speaking the truth in love”—­would the admission change the features of slavery, or make it any the less a system of pollution and blood?  Is the accused any the less a murderer, because of the improper motives with which his accuser brings forward the conclusive proof of his blood-guiltiness?

We often see, in the speeches and writings of the South, that slaveholders claim as absolute and as rightful a property in their slaves, as in their cattle.  Whence then their sensitiveness under our republication of the advertisements, is which they offer to sell their human stock?  If the south will republish the advertisements of our property, we will only not be displeased, but will thank her; and any rebukes she may see fit to pour upon us, for offering particular kinds of property, will be very patiently borne, in view of the benefit we shall reap from her copies of our advertisements.

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The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.