Chapter 8

I shall now proceed to show, that the holding of slaves is not necessarily sinful under all circumstances; or in other words, that the relation of master and slave is not, under all circumstances, inconsistent with, or in opposition to the revealed will of God. In the discussion of this question it will be necessary, first to glance at the origin and history of African slavery. I am apprised of the difficulties which I shall encounter in the investigation of this subject; and I am by no means blind, or insensible to my own incompetency; but I set out with the determination to look the subject of slavery full in the face, and fearlessly to express my opinions, regardless of consequences; at least so far as my own personal ease, interest, or reputation is involved; I shall, therefore, take the responsibility of openly expressing such opinions and views, as I conceive to be in accordance with the Holy Bible, and leave consequences to a just, wise and righteous God. To Him, and to Him alone, am I responsible for what I write.

God in his infinite benevolence and wisdom, and for the manifestation of his own glory, created man in his own image, and placed him in the garden of Eden, holy and happy. And he commanded him, "of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam disobeyed the high mandate of heaven; he ate of the forbidden fruit, and thus he fell by transgression from his high and holy estate. He was our federal head; and he fell not alone, for on all his posterity fell the withering curse of Almighty God. "Curst is the ground for thy sake." "Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee." "In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground:--for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." The posterity of Adam soon forgot God. Gross wickedness soon covered the earth. Vile and depraved, the descendants of Adam went forth, perpetrating every act of wickedness, every abomination that the heart of man could devise. The world was soon filled with brutality, lust, and violence. "And God looked down upon the earth and behold it was corrupt." "And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me." "And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh." Righteous Noah and his wife, and his son's and his son's wives were preserved in the ark; "and the winds blew, and the rains descended and the floods came;" "and all flesh died that moved upon earth;" and God said unto Noah, "go forth of the ark, thou and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy son's wives with thee." And God said unto Noah, "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth."

The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan. And Noah drank wine and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent; and Ham saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren, Shem and Japheth; and they took a garment and covered their father, without beholding his nakedness; "And Noah awoke from his wine," and after being correctly informed as to the conduct of his sons while he was intoxicated, "He said, cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."

We learn from the Sacred Record, that the curse of slavery fell on the posterity of Ham in consequence of his dishonoring his aged father. Every Bible reader must have noted the severe punishment of children, under the Mosaic dispensation, for disobedience and disrespect to parents. It appears to have been classed amongst the worst of crimes, and death was the penalty. "Cursed be he," (said Moses on Mount Ebal,) "that setteth light by his father or his mother." "Every one that curseth father or mother, shall die the death." The children of Israel were commanded to "stone a stubborn or rebellious son to death." "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days maybe long in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee," is one of the commands which was delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. Here is a command with a promise of long life annexed to it on condition of obedience, and it is but a fair inference, that those who disobey the command, will be cut off in the prime of life. It appears that the punishment for disobedience to parents, is the same under the gospel dispensation; for St. Paul says; "Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth." The language of Moses and St. Paul suggests some solemn reflections, and I entreat my juvenile readers to observe well the language; it is the voice of God that speaks. Beware, lest you are brought to an untimely end, and the curse of a sin-avenging God falls upon you. I cannot dwell on this subject, but I entreat you, my young friends, to pause for a moment, and reflect on the awful, the calamitous consequences of disobeying, or otherwise dishonoring your parents. I must pass on.

We have no reason to believe that Noah was moved by resentment to denounce the curse of slavery on the posterity of Canaan, in consequence of the disrespect shown toward him by Ham. We have no reason to suppose that there was any abatement of parental solicitude, for the future welfare of this ungodly son and his posterity. He was moved by the Holy Ghost, and uttered but a prophecy, which entailed slavery on the posterity of Ham, as a consequence of wilful disobedience of God's just and righteous laws. He uttered but a fact _in futuro_, which had been revealed to him by an omniscient God. How fully the above prediction has been verified, is familiar to every historian. The continent of Africa was principally peopled by the descendants of Ham; and for ages, the better part of that country was under the dominion of the Romans; then of the Saracens; and more recently of the Turks; and the fact, that the slave trade has been carried on for hundreds of years with all its horrors, iniquities, cruelties and abominations, is familiar to every one. A large portion of the children of Ham have existed in a state of slavery for more than three thousand years. It is said that more than nine-tenths of the whole sixty millions of Africa are slaves. Negro slavery existed in the colonies of Greece for ages before the Christian era. All other races of mankind have enslaved the African. The phraseology of Noah's prediction is a little remarkable. The children of Ham were not only to be servants, but "a servant of servants." It is true that unconnected with all other races, one portion of the negro race have been enslaved to another, ever since the earliest dawn of history, and that in a greater proportion too, than to any other race. It is recorded by historians, that there are perhaps twenty negro masters in Africa to every white one in the United States, and that they hold in bondage at least ten times as many slaves. It is moreover stated, that those portions of Africa where the slave trade with the white man is unknown, are the most inveterate slave regions. In the negro islands of the Indian Archipelago, the negro is enslaved to the negro.

Some are, no doubt, ready to ask, how is it that Africans became slaves to their own race? Many of them were taken captives in war and subjected to slavery. The different tribes in Africa have in all ages engaged in predatory warfare, and the captives taken in those wars became slaves. Necessity may have forced many of them to subject themselves to servitude. Negroes have not that aversion to slavery, that many suppose who are unacquainted with the peculiarities of negro character. They are ignorant, indolent and improvident, and in many instances are neither competent nor willing to provide for themselves; and, therefore, they probably frequently became slaves to the more highly gifted and fortunate of their own race from necessity, and it may be from choice.

How is it that one nation acquires dominion over another? that one nation falls a prey to another? that one nation makes slaves of another? By what means were the posterity of Shem and Japheth enabled to enslave the posterity of Ham? Some will say that God willed it thus, and so it is. I consider the phraseology of this answer faulty. It would, in my view, be more appropriate to say, God suffered it; or permitted it; and so it is. I do not believe that Ham's crimes were in accordance with the benevolent designs of Providence. The degradation and slavery entailed upon his posterity, was but a necessary consequence of his crimes, a just judgment, which a righteous God suffered to fall on his posterity. It was a violation of God's laws, which involved the African race in accursed slavery. God has attached certain punishments to the violation of certain laws, in other words, to the commission of certain crimes. The law is violated, otherwise, the crime is committed, and the penalty, or punishment falls on the head of the offender. Now all this is brought about in opposition to the will of God; for when God gave laws, he willed that man should obey those laws. If he says, "son honor thy father," and the son dishonors his father, he acts in opposition to God's will. And to secure obedience to his laws, and uphold moral order, he has attached to every crime its appropriate punishment.

But every effect has a cause, and if one nation acquires an ascendancy over another, there is a reason in the nature of things, _why it is so_. There are reasons why individuals differ, and why they are found under different circumstances and conditions in this world. Why one becomes poor and another rich; why one acquires wealth and influence, while another becomes poor, indigent and miserable--it may be a slave to his wealthy neighbor. There is an internal cause; a constitutional difference in individuals, physically, mentally, and morally. So it is with nations. Locality, climate and other external causes have also had much agency in shaping and moulding the characters, and determining the destinies of nations. Nothing is more true than the trite saying, "that knowledge is power." The Author of our existence, "the giver of every good and perfect gift," conferred on Shem and Japheth, or rather, on their posterity, superior mental endowments. The African and the Anglo-Saxon races differ widely in their physical organizations; their mental susceptibilities, and their moral natures; and the advantages are in favor of the Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxons are a superior race. They are the best specimens of humanity--the noblest work of God. They excel in all those qualities and endowments that raise man above his fellow man. The whole posterity of Shem and Japheth are intellectually superior to the posterity of Ham. Locality has had its influence. The human species degenerate mentally and morally in a tropical climate.

Vice saps the foundation, and gradually impairs and undermines the mental and moral constitutions of mankind. Ham being more vicious than his brothers, the mental and moral deterioration of his race, commenced in his own person, and was transmitted by him to his posterity. A man transmits his intellectual powers, his moral nature, or sentiments, as well as his physical organization to his progeny; and this he does with positive certainty, unless the mother possesses opposite qualities and properties. The children of the vicious are by nature more vicious than the children of the virtuous. Hence, we see that men by ordinary generation, transmit their own peculiar vices to their offspring. Every innate principle, passion and propensity of soul, body and mind, is transmitted from parent to child. This view of the subject need strike us with no surprise, if we would reflect, that men beget the souls, as well as the bodies of their children. I read in Genesis, that God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, "and that he became a living soul;" but I am not aware, that the Divine Being has breathed a soul into any other living being since the day he created Adam. No! When he breathed a soul into Adam he invested him with the power to procreate the souls as well as the bodies of his progeny. Hence, every man begets a soul and a body like his own, except so far as his own qualities and properties come in contact with opposite ones in the female; then, of course, some modification of the foetus may be expected. If an acid and an alkali are brought in contact, the result will be a neutral salt. We will generally find, however, that in what are called neutral mixtures, there is either a predominance of the acid, or the alkali. So it is with the children of parents possessing opposite propensities and qualities, either those of the father or the mother, are likely to predominate in the offspring.

Slavery was entailed on Ham's posterity, in consequence of the indignity with which he treated his aged and pious father. Ham was a free agent; it was an act of his own. The Divine Being suffered him to transgress his laws; and foreseeing that it would involve his posterity in the curse of slavery, he foretold the result of the transgression, by the mouth of Noah, Ham's father.

I have remarked in the preceding pages, that Ham was more wicked than his brothers; and that he transmitted his own corrupt nature to his offspring; and that in consequence of sin, his descendants sank into ignorance, barbarism and brutality which subjected them to the dominion of their more enlightened and virtuous brethren. Thus, we see, that it was the wickedness of Ham, which involved his race in ignorance, degradation and slavery. I repeat, that Ham entailed slavery on his own race; it was an effect of the violation of Jehovah's righteous laws; a just and righteous judgment. It is clear, from the foregoing remarks, that Ham transmitted the germs of slavery to his posterity, by ordinary generation.

God permitted the transgression, and he also permitted the penalty to fall on the transgressors; and it then devolved on him, as Supreme Ruler of the universe, to regulate, govern, and control the transgressors, and the calamitous consequences of their transgression according to his own righteous will. "Justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne, and righteousness goeth before him." "The wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain." That the almighty and all-wise God governs both men and devils, and the consequences of their acts, in accordance with the strictest principles of righteousness, judgment and justice, we have no right to doubt. He, in his amazing condescension, illimitable goodness, and boundless mercy, has given us a revelation of his will, to regulate, govern, and control our actions; and all that comports with our best interests, or that is essential for us to know concerning himself and his government of our world, is revealed in this Holy Volume; and if there are some things in the moral government of God, which we cannot comprehend, we have no right to cavil. "The Judge of all the earth will do right."

If either masters or servants wish to know the will of God concerning slavery--if they would learn their respective relations and duties, as masters, and servants, I must refer them to the Bible. There they will find a revelation of the will of God in relation to slavery, clearly set forth. If we have any other authority, or guide, I am not aware of it. I know of none. It is true, that I have heard something about a _higher law_ but from whence it came, "to whom related, or by whom begot," I know not. It is enough for us to know, that it did not come from God. Christians must take the Bible as their guide, and God as their master; and if others think that they can do better, let them try. Poor old Ham, I suppose, thought that he could do better; and he deserted the source of all mercy, goodness, truth, light and knowledge; and what was the consequence? Ignorance, barbarism, degradation and woe; ending in the accursed slavery of his race. Accursed of God! A curse entailed on sin--an individual curse--national curse! Too often, a curse to him that serves, and him that rules! God be merciful to the slave and his master. The master, as well as the slave, is entitled to our sympathies, and not to our maledictions.

Whether the mental powers of Shem and Japheth, were originally superior to those of Ham, we know not. We know that the posterity of Shem and Japheth, are mentally superior to the posterity of Ham, at the present day. To me, it seems probable, that Ham came from the hands of his Creator, in every respect equal to Shem and Japheth; and that his mental and moral powers were debased by sin, and they thus acquired a superiority over him. But, supposing that Ham was originally inferior to his more fortunate brothers, he had no right to complain. Suppose that the Divine Being gave Ham one talent, Japheth two, and Shem four; he, in so doing, inflicted no wrong on Ham. To whom much is given, of the same much is required. In order to secure the blessing of God, it was only necessary for Ham to improve what he had received. God required no more at his hands. But it is evident, from the manner in which he conducted himself toward his heaven favored and pious father, that he was an egregious sinner, and the curse of God fell upon him, and his progeny. "The curse causeless shall not come."

When the Almighty in his providence suffers a punishment to fall on a man, or a race of men, he has a good and sufficient reason for it. If He hides his face, or withhold his blessings, we may search for the cause in our own hearts. "It is your iniquities," (said the prophet), "that have separated you and your God." But to return to the sovereignty of God. He has the power.--He has the right. He, alone, is competent to decide what is best for us. "Hath not the potter power over the same lump of clay, to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor." He is under no obligation to any one; the best of us having forfeited all right, title, or claim to his mercy. Whatever mercies or blessings we may receive at the hands of Divine Benificence, are unmerited; undeserved on our part. The Divine Being is debtor to no one. There is no merit on our part, there can be none. God nevertheless has respect to character. Shem and Japheth, acted in accordance with Divine will, and He chose to confer on them certain favors and benefits. Ham incurred his displeasure, by violating his laws; and He left his posterity to those temporal misfortunes, which must necessarily grow out of moral infirmities, and mental disabilities.

I think I have clearly shown that African slavery originated in the inferiority of the African race; and that the inferiority of the African race, originated in the violation of God's laws. Slavery is perpetuated by the cause that brought it into existence. I have alluded in the preceding pages to the mental disabilities and the moral defects and infirmities of the posterity of Ham; as subjecting them to degradation and slavery. Physical conformation and color, viz., the curly hair, the black skin, the flat nose, the broad flat foot, &c., have had no small share in subjecting the negro race to degradation and slavery. All other races of men shun and despise them on account of their physical peculiarities. This is the key to that universal prejudice against the African race, the world over. The negro race are then, slaves from necessity, viz., they are slaves because they are incapable of attaining to the rights and privilege of free men. And those rights and privileges they never can enjoy in the midst of the Anglo-Saxon race.

We have seen in the preceding pages, that slavery and all the evils and calamities appertaining thereto, were entailed on Ham's posterity, as a penalty for the wilful violation of God's laws; and, I shall attempt to show before I bring this essay to a close, that in consequence of disobedience on the part of masters, as well as servants, that the evils and calamities of slavery fall not alone on him who serves, but also on him who rules. Therefore, the evils of slavery can only be mitigated, or removed by obedience to the requisitions of Divine revelations, on the part of masters and servants. This is the only remedy. There is no other. Here is a great principle of God's moral government of the world, which we should never lose sight of. It is a principle of universal application. All those evils that befal mankind in consequence of transgression, may be mitigated, or removed, or otherwise the penalty may be averted, by repentance and obedience to the requisitions of the Holy Bible.