362 Chapter 16 Tbe Soutb and the Slavery Controversy, 1793—1860 363

'tbern View of Slavery

When war closed, our master told all the people, they would stay and get
the if. t there are great evils in a society where slavery exists, and that the institu-
in the crop, he would give them part of it. Most of them left; they said they knew tion• 'able to great abuse, I have already said. But the whole of human life is a sys-
him too well Father made us all stay, so we all worked on the remainder of the tem 9 evils and compensations. The free laborer has few real guarantees from
year, just as if Lee hadn't surrendered. I never worked harder in my life, for I thought soci while security is one of the compensations of the slave's humble position. *
the more we made, the more we would get. We worked from April till one month to Ther ve been fewer murders of slaves than of parents, children, and apprentices
Christmas, We raised a large crop of corn and wheat and tobacco, shucked all the in s c ty where slavery does not exist. The slave offers no temptation to the mur-
corn and put it in the barn, stripped all the tobacco, and finished one month before dere , ' or does he really suffer injury from his master. Who but a driveling fanatic
Christmas. Then we went to our master for our part he had promised us, but he said has ught of the necessity of protecting domestic animals from the cruelty of their
he wasn't going to give us any thing, and he stopped giving us any thing to eat, and own ?
said we couldn't live any longer on his land. Father went to an officer of the Freed- It is is driven to labor by stripes [lashes); and if the object
true that the slave
men's Bureau, but the officer was like Isaac said to Esau: "The voice is like Jacob's of p shment be produce obedience or reforrnation with the least permanent in-
to
voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." So that was the way with the officer— jury, i is the best method of punishment. Men claim that this is intolerable. It is not
he had on Uncle Sam's clothes, but he had Uncle Jeff's (Jefferson Davis's) heart. He de ing to a slave, nor is it felt to be
degrading to a child? so. Is it

said our master said we wasn't worth any thing, and he couldn't get any thing for •urn has been cast upon our on account of
its forbidding the ele-
legislation
us, so father said no more about it. me lof education to be communicated to slaves. But in truth what injury has been

We made out to live that winter—I don't know how. In April, 1866, father don hem by this? He who works during the day with his hands does not read in
moved town where he could work at his
to trade. He hired all of us boys that were inte Is of leisure for his amusement or the improvement of his mind—or the ex-
large enough to work in a brick-yard for from three to six dollars a month. That was cepi is so rare as scarcely to were any
need the being provided for. If there
the first time I had tasted the sweet cup of freedom, of elevating their rank, the denial of the rudiments of education might be a
cha
mat e of hardship. But this they know cannot be and that further attainments would
be less to them..
I has been said that marriage does not exist among our slaves. But we know
that arriages among slaves are solemnized; but the law does not make them indis-
B.
The White Southern View of Slavery nor could it do so.... Some suppose one that a slaveholding country is
sol
wi ew and there are particular in-
(brothel] for the indulgence of unbridled lust,
sta c s of brutal and shameless debauches in every country. It is even true that in
l. William Harper's Apology (1837)
th' r spect the morals of this class (slave women! are very loose and that the pas-
,

William Harper was a distinguished South Carolina jurist, an anti-tariffzealot, and sio s f men of the superior caste tempt and find gratification in the easy chastity of
\

a nullification advocate wbo perhaps best remem-

early predicted civil war. He is thef ales..
bered as the author of the memorable ordinance of nullification voted by South Car- countries where free labor prevails) the unmarried woman who becomes a
olina in 1832 and also of the Memoir on Slavery. This remarkable apology, part of mo an outcast from society—and though sentimentalists lament the hardship
r is

which is presented here, ranks as one of the most vigorous defenses of the 'Peculiar of case, it is justly and necessarily so. But with us this female slave has a differ-
institution. " In what respects did Harper's defense turn out to be an indictment? ent s, tus. She is not a less useful member of society than before. She has not im-
What was the weakness in the argument that cotton could not be grown without her means of support nor materially impaired her character or lowered her
slaves? pai
sta iin society; she has done no great injury to herself or any other human being.
He ffspring is not a burden but an acquisition to her owner.
•

Slavery was forced upon us by the extremest exigency of circumstances in a pposing finally.that the abolitionists should effect their purpose. What would
struggle for very existence. Without it, it is doubtful whether a white man would be be result? The first and most obvious effectwould be to put an end to the culti-
now existing on this continent—certain that, if there were, they would be in a state vat of our great Southern staple [cotton].... The cultivation of the great staple
of the utmost destitution, weakness, and misery. I neither deprecate nor resent the cr p cannot be carried on in any portion of our own country where there are not
giftof slavery,
sla Even if it were possible to procure laborers at all, what planter would
The
Africans brought to us had been slaves in their own country and only un- ve t re to carry on Imagine an extensive rice or cotton plantation
his operations?
derwent a change of masters. cu i ted by free laborers who
might perhaps strike for an increase of wages at a
se n when the neglect of a few days would insure the destruction of the whole

Quoted in A. C. McLaughlin et al., eds., Source Problems iti United States History (New York and London:
Harper & Brothers, 1918), pp. 419—424.
•Fo e evils of "wage slavety," see p. 306.
364 Chapter 16 The South and tbe Slavery Controversy, 1793—1860
B. Tbe White Southern View of Slavery
365
crop. I need hardky say that these staples cannot be produced to any extent where
the proprietor of the soil cultivates it with his own hands. by all observant masters and overseers: that neither mule nor Negro can be made to

And what would be the effect of putting an end to the cultivation of these sta-
do more than certain amount of work; and that amount so small in comparison to
the amount done by white laborers at the North that it is a universal observation at
ples and thus annihilating, at a blow, two-thirds or three-fourths of our foreign com-
merce? Can any sane mind contemplate such a result without terror? Our slavery has the South. Northern men are always the hardest masters, in the vain attempt they
make to force the Negro to do even half as much as a hireling in New England is
not only given existenceto millions of slaves within our own territories; it has given
compelled to do, or lose his place and wages.
the means of subsistence, and t:herefore of existence, to millions of freemen in our
It is true that some men abuse and harshly treat their slaves. So do some men
Confederate [United) States, enabling them to send forth their swarms to overspread
abuse their wives and children and apprentices and horses and cattle..
the plainsand forests of the West and appear as the harbingers of civilization. Not
only on our continent but on the other it has given existence (in textile mills] to hun-
The fact is notorious that slaves are better treated now than formerly, and that

dreds of thousands and3the rneans of comfortable subsistence to millions. A dis-

the improvement in their condition is progressing; partly from their masters becom-
tinguished citizen of our state has lately stated that our great staple, cotton, has
ing more temperate and men, but mainly from the greatest of all moving
better
causes in human actions—self-interest. For masters have discovered in the best of
contributed more Chan •aåything else of later times to the progress of civilization. By
all schools—experience—chat their true interest is inseparably bound up with the
enabling the poor to obtåip cheap and becoming clothing, it has inspired a taste for
comfort, the first stimulU$ to civilization. humane treatment, comfort, and happiness of their slaves.
And many masters have discovered, too, that their slaves are more temperate,
more industrious, more kind to one another, more cheerful, more faithful, and more
obedient under the ameliorating influences of religion than under all the driving
2. The "Blessings" of the Slave (1849) and whipping of all the tyrannical taskmasters that have existed since the day when
the children of Israel were driven to the task of making Egyptian brick without
Connecticut-born and Puritan-descended Solon Robinson became a Yankee peddler straw.
at eighteen. After be moved to Indiana, be attained prominence as a trader and And I do most fearlessly assert, and defy contradiction, that in no part of this
agriculturist. During the course of his extensive travels through practically every Union, even in Puritan New England, is the Sabbath better kept by master and slave,
state, be wrote a series of discerning sketches for the foremost agricultural maga- by employer and by all classes, high and low, rich and poor, than in the
hireling, or
zines. The following contribution to a leading southern trade journal is hardly what state of Mississippi, where I have often been told that that thing so accursed of God
one would expect from a Connecticut Yankee. in what respects did Robinson appear [slavery) existed in all its most disgusting deformity, wretchedness, and sinful horror.
to be too soft on slavery, and in what respects did he disagree W3tb tbe abolitionists? From the small plantations, the slaves go more regularly, and better dressed and be-
haved, to church, often a distance of five or six miles, than any other class of labor-
A greater punishment: could not be devised or inflicted upon che Southern slave ers that I have ever been acquainted with. Upon many of the large plantations,
at this day than to give him that liberty which God in his wisdom and mercy de- divine service is performed more regularly, and to larger and more orderly audi-
prived him of..
ences, than in some county towns.
Free them from c.ont(oij and how soon does poverty and wretchedness over- In all my I did not see or hear of but two cases of
tour during the past winter,
take them! ... I boldly and truly assert that you may travel Europe over—yea, you flogging: one of which was and the other for running away from as
for stealing,
may visit the boasted fre RFn of America—aye, you may search the world over— good a master, as ever a servant need to have, which is proved by the appearance
before you find a labori who are more happy, more contented, as a
peasantry and general good conduct of his Negroes. And that they are well fed I know from
class of people, or who ate better clothed and fed and better provided for in sick- many days' personal observation; and I have seen some of them with better broad-
ness, infirmity, and old age, Or who enjoy more of the essential comforts of life, than cloth suits on than I often wear myself; and more spare money than their master, as
these so-called miserable, oppressed, abused, starved slaves.. he will freely acknowledge..
I doubt whether one single instance can be found among the slaves of the But I do I did not see or hear of one place where the Negroes
seriously say that
South where one has injured himself at long and excessive labor. Instead of a cruel were not well and I did not see a ragged gang of Negroes in the South. And I
fed;
and avaricious master being able to extort more than a very reasonable amount of could only hear of one plantation where the Negroes were overworked or unjustly
labor from him, his eff'01ts Will certainly produce the contralY effect. This is a well- flogged, and on that plantation the master was a drunken, abusive wretch, as
known much so indeecl that an overseer of this character cannot get em-
fact, so heartily despised by his neighbors as he was hated by his Negroes. And were it not
ployment among masters, Who know that over-driving a Negro, as well as a mule, is for the consequences to themselves if they should rise upon and pull him lirnb from
the poorest way to get work out of either of them. These facts are well understood limb, his brother planters would rejoi& that he had met the fate that cruelty to
slaves, they are free to say, justly merits.

2De Bow'sReview, vol. 7 (n.s., vol. 1849), pp. 217-221, 383-384. The two things that are most despised and hated in the South are masters that
abuse and starve and ill-treat their slaves, and abolitionists, who seize upon every
366 . : 30
Chapter 16 The Sou@and the Slavey Controversy, 1793—1860 B. bite Southern View q/ Slavecy 367
isolated case of the kind, and trumpet it through the land as evidence of the manner
and then call upon the people of the free states to aid the
that all slaves are treated,
Negroes to free themselves from such inhuman bondage, peaceably if they can,
.

forcibly if they must, no matter whose or how much blood shall flow.

3. Slaves Don't Strike (1846)

The South invested its capital in human muscle, not machinery; in tbe lasb System,
not the cash system. The slaveowners bad •one ace-in-the-bole argument against
emancipation: it would wipe out that reliable supply of labor without wbicb soutb-
ern agriculture (and northern textile factories) would pen-sh. 7besefears were not
groundless, as the economic chaos that followed the Civil War amply demonstrated.
Sir Charles Lyell, the distinguished British geologist and world traveler, was exposed
to thesouthern viewpoint. How does he explain the fact that the South clung to slav-
ery while white day labor was admittedly cbeaper?

An intelligent Louisianian said to me, "Were we to emancipate our Negroes as

suddenly as your government did the West Indians, they would be a doomed race.
But there can be no doubt that white labor is more profitable even in this climate."
"Then, why do you not encourage iü" I asked.
"It must be the work of time," he replied. "The prejudices of owners have to be

overcome, and the sugar and cotton crop is easily lost if not taken in at •once when
ripe; the canes being damaged by a slight frost, and the cotton requiring to be
picked dry as soon as mature, and being ruined by rain. Very lately a planter, five
miles below New' Orleans, having resolved to dispense with slave labor, hired one
hundred and German emigrants'at very high wages. In the middle of the har-
Irish
vest they all No others were to be had, and it was impossible
struck for double pay.
to purchase slaves in a few days, In that short time he lost produce to the value of

4. Comparing Slave Labor and Wage Labor (1850)

In response to abolitionist attacks in the 1840s, supporters of slavery became more

aggressive. Instead of simply defending the "peculiar Institution, " they began to
argue that slavery benefited slaveowners and slaves alike. Proslavety propagandists
frequently compared northern and southern institutions in the light of this argu-
ment. 77)is cartoon published in Boston is an example ofsucb a comparison.
would an attack on conditions in England be an effective way to respond to criti-
cism of slavery in A merica? Were there advantages of slave labor, and ifso, to. whom
did they accrue? In what sense was wage labor really "free"?

3Charles Lyell, A Second Visit to 'be Unitéd States of North America (New York: Harper & Brothers; Lon-
.don: J. Murray, 1849), vol. 2, pp. 126—127,
4Library of Congress, *USZ62-1285.
368
Chapter 16 The South and Cbe Slavery Controversy, 1793—1860
C. The Abolitionist Crusade
C. The Abolitionist Crusade 369
this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation, No! No! Tell
William Lloyd Garrison Launches
l.
a man whose house,is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately res-
The Liberator (1831) cue his wife. from the hands of. the ravisher; tell the mother. to gradually extricate her
babe from the fire •irito. Which ithas fallen—but urge me not to use moderation in a

Mild-appearing William Lloyd Garrison, tbe most impassioned of the abolitionists,

cause •like •the preserit. I. am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I- will not excuse—I

began publication ofbi$ incendiary weekly newspaper, The Liberator, the fol-
will not •retreat a 'Single inch—AND 1 WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is
lowing trumpet blast. Despite a subscription list of not more than three tbousand enough to make •every: statue leap. from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection
of che dead.
and embarrassing annual deficits, be continued the journal for thirty-five years—
until slavery was legally ended. Tbe rude woodcut at the top oftbefrontpage show- It iS pretended 'that"l •am retarding the Cause of emancipation by the coarseness
ing a slave auction near the Capitol infuriated the South; the state of Georgia offered of my invective and the precipitancy of my measures. Tbe•charge• is not true. On this

$5, 000 forGamison 's arrest and conviction. Jailed in Baltimore for libel, mobbed in question as it is—is felt at this moment. to a considerable ex-
Boston, and jeered at while on 'be lecture platform, he not only outraged the South tent, and shall be felt in coming years—not perniéiöusly, but beneficially—not as a
but also angered nottbe*n conservatives and even moderate abolitionists. Wbat spe- curse, but as a blegsing. And posterity will bear testimony thatl was right.
cific measures did be advocate? Did be address bis appeal exclusively to the South?
Has posterity vindicated bim, as be claimed it would?

2. Manifesto of the Anti-Slavery Society (1833)

During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a
series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that
idence of the fact that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to
I visited gave flesh ev-
be effected in
5 About. fifty abolitionist idealists,

Anti-Slavery Society with the following declaration. Garrison,

meeting in Philadelphia, •launched the American
who would be its Pres-
the free states—and particularly in Netv England—than at the South. I found con- ident twentrtwo times, was chief architect of this manifesto, Later becoming more
tempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless; prejudice insistent and impatient,. be denounced the churches as "cages of unclean birds " (be-
more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slaveowners themselves. Of
cause 'bey denied ibefull inspiration oftbe Bible (because it sanc-
course, there were indiyidual exceptions to the contrary.
.tioned slaw"; publicly burneda copy of the Constitution (because it upheld
This state of thing9afflicted but did not dishearten me. I determined, at every as early a:S. 1841 edvocated 'be diStuption.öf.tbe it le-
hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight
galiqed.S4avery): Qifollotviizk is an edic/by the American Atitt«Sldvery Society. Why
ofBünker Hill and bi 'be bi?thplace of liberty. That standard is •now unfurled; and does ft demand; fnh&di4te.ätid upcom>ehsated emahéipättot'* What concessions
long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of or the missiles of desperate
doe'it make\at to tbe South? Wbicb of I(ts ProÄosäLs•tvere most (and
foe—yea, till every chairi be broken, and every bondman set, free! Let Southern op- leasi)
pressors tremble—let their secret abettors tremble—let their Northern apologists
tremble—let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble..
We further maintainithat np man has Q right to enslave or imbrute his brother—
Assenting to the "sev:evident truth" maintained in the Americah Declaration of
.to hold or •acknOWlédge him, for.one mOment,• •as a piece Of merchandise—to keep
Independence 'that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with
back his hire by fraud—or to brutalize his mind by dénying him the means of intel-
certain inalienable rights—among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- lectual, social, and moral improvement.
ness," I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave
The right.to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it iS to usurp the prerogative
. In Park Street Church [in Boston], on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an of Jehovah. Every .mah has a right to his own body—to the products of his own
address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine
labor—to the protection of law—and to the common advantages •of society. It is
of gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recan-
piracy to buy or steal a native African and subject him to servitude. Surely, the sin is
tation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, ahd of my as great to enslave an American as an African.
brethren •the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice,
Therefore we believe and affirm that there is no difference, in principle, be-
tween the African slave trade and American slavery;
I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not That every American-citizen who retains a human being in involuntary bondage
cause for severity? will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On as his property is, according to Scripture (Exodus 21:16), a manstealer;

17be Liberator (Boston), January I, 1831.

2W. P, Garrison and F. J. Garrison. William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879 (New York: The Century Co.,
•1885), vol. I, pp.
370 Chapter 16 The SQ*tb and the Slavery Controversy, 1793—1860
c. Abolitionist Crusade 371
That the slaves ought instantly to be set free and brought under the protection
of law; iz na inspiratiohal genius, be founded numerous local abolitionist societies and
congressmen and other public figures.
untless converts to abolition, including
That those laws which are now in force admitting the Tight of slavery are
all
therefore, before God, utterly null and void. His d cumented compilation of borror tales, published in 1839 in American Slavery'
As t not only became tbe bible oftbe cause but greatly influenced tbe uniting of
,

We further believe and affirm that all persons of color who possess the qualifi-
Un I Tom's Cabin. The following statements in bis Introduction have been criti-
cations which are demanded of others ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoy-
ciz d! grossly overdrawn, How exaggerated or accurate are they?
ment of the same privileges, and the exercise of the same prerogatives, as others;
and that the paths of preferment, of wealth, and of intelligence should be opened as
e will prove that the slaves in the United States are treated with barbarous in-
widely to them as to persons of a white complexion.
hu ity; overworked, underfed, wretchedly clad and lodged, and
that they are
We maintain that no compensation should be .given to the planters emancipat-
ha nsufficient sleep; that they are often made to wear round their necks iron col-
ing their slaves:
lars a med with prongs, to drag heavy chains and weightsat their feet while work-
Because it would be a surrender of the great fundamental principle that man
cannot hold property in man; ing ig the field, wear yokes, and bells, and iron horns; that they are often kept
and to
co ed in the stocks day and night for weeks tdgether, made to wear gags in their
Because slavery is a crime, and therefore [the slave] is not an article to be sold;
mo t s for hours or days, have some of their front teeth torn out or broken off, that
Because the holders of slaves are not the just proprietors of what they claim; the when they run away; that they are frequently flogged
ay be easily detected
freeing the slave is not depriving thern of property, but restoring it, to •its right-
wit have red pepper rubbed into their lacerated flesh, ån•d hot
rrible severity,
ful owner; it is not wronging the master, but righting the slave—restoring him to
bri e} spirits of turpentine, etc., poured over the gashes to increase the torture; that
himself;
the e often stripped naked, their backs and limbs cut with knives, bruised and
Because immediate and general emancipation would only destroy nominal, not' ma g ed by scores and hundreds of blows with the paddle, and terribly torn by the
real, property; it would not amputate a limb or break a bone of the slaves, but, by
cla of cats, drawn• over them by their tormentors; that they are often hunted with
infusing motives into their breasts, would make them doubly valuable to the masters
as free laborers; and blo ounds and shot down like beasts, or torn in pieces by dogs; that they are
oft n uspended by the arms and whipped and beaten till they faint, and when re-
Because, if compensation is be given at all, it should be given to the outraged
to
viv d by restoratives beaten again till they faint, and sometimes till they die; that
and guiltless slaves, and not to those who have plundered and abused them.
the rs are often cut off, their eyes knocked out, their bones broken, their flesh
We regard as delusive, cruel, and dangerous any scheme of expatriation [to
bra d with red-hot irons; that they are maimed, mutilated, and burned to death
Liberia] which pretends to aid, either.directly or indirectly, in the emancipation Of ov low fires.
the slaves, or to be a substitute for•the immediate and total abolition of slavery.
l, these things, and more, and worse, we shall prove.... We shall show, not
Weand unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each state to legislate
fully
me e such deeds are committed, but that they are frequent; not done in cor-
that
exclusively on the subject of the slavery which is tolerated within its limits; we con-
ner , ut before the sun; not in one of the slave states, but in all of them; not perpe-
cede that Congress, under the present national compact, has no right to interfere
with any of the slave states in relation-to exis momentoUs •subject; trat by brutal overseers and drivers merely, but by magistrates, by legislators, by
p e sors of religion, by preachers of the Gospel, by governors of states, by "gen-
But we right, and is solemnly bound, to suppress
maintain that Congress has a tle of property and standing," and by delicate females moving in the "highest
the domestic trade between the several states, and to aboliSh slavery in those por- ci e of society."
tions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under its exclusive jurisdic-
tion [District of Columbia]. e know, full Well, the outcry that will be made by multitudes at these declara-
tio he multiform cavils, the flat denials, the charges of "exaggeration" and "false-
so •often bandied; the sneers of affected contempt at the credulity that can
bel such things; and the rage and imprecations against those who give them
cu e
3. Theodore Dwight Weld Pillories Slavery (1839) e know, too, the threadbare sophistries by which slaveholders and their apoli
ogi seek to evade such testimony. If they admit that such deeds are committed,
7beodore Dwight Weld assumed leadership of the New York abolitionist group, which the II us that they are exceedingly rare, and therefore furnish no grounds for
objected to the anticonstitutional tactics of Garrison's New England following. He jud i g of the general treatment of slaves; that occasionally a brutal wretch in the
was one of tbe .most influential of tbe abolitionists, and certainly one of the great fre ates barbarously butchers his wife, but that no one thinks of inferring from
men of bis era. Preacher, lecturer (until he mined bis voice), pamphleteer, organ- tha t e general treatment of wives at the North and West.
ey tell us, also, that the slaveholders of the South are proverbially hospitable,
Ian nd generous, and it is incredible that they can perpetrate such enormities
YT, D. Weld, American Slat-ery As It Is (New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839), p. 9.
up uman beings; further, that it is absurd to support that they would thus injure
372 Chapter 16 The South gnd the Slavery Controversy, 1793—1860 D. Judgments ori the Abolitionists 373
their own property, that self-interest would prompt' them to treat their slaves with
D. Judgments on the Abolitionists
kindness, as none byt fools and madmen wantonly destroy their own property; fur-
ther, that Northern viSitors at the South come back testifying to the kind treatment of
l. Daniel Webster Is Critical (1850)
the slaves, and that the slaves themselves corroborate such representations.... We
are not to be turned from our purpose by such vapid babblings, Tbe tbunderously eloquent Daniel Webster was no abolitionist, tbougb the abolition-
ists liked to think of bim as in their camp. He sadly disillusioned them in his famous

Seventh ofMarch speecb about 'be Compromise of 1850 (see later, p. 405). Pleading

4. Slavery and the; Family (1840) passionately for Nonb-Soutb harmony, he turned upon 'be antislavet)dtes. Tbeir
pained outcry rent the heavens. At a public meeting in Faneuil Hall in Boston, the
Tbis illustration depictswhal was probably tbe abolitionists' most telling argument Reverend Tbeodore Parker declared, "I know of no deed in American bistoty done
against slavery: tbe Wolence it wrought upon the integrity of family life. Harnet by a son of New Engrand to wbicb I can compare this but tbe act of Benedict
Beecber Stowe would later make that argument the central motif of ber epochal an- Arnold. " In tbts portion of Webster's speech, is be convincing about the barm done
tislavery novel, Uncle Torn's Cabin. Why was this argument so powerful?' Did it ap- by the abolitionists?
peal differently to men and women? How did tbe illustrator bere make special
appeal to women 's sentiments?
Then, sir, there are those abolition societies. of which I am unwilling to speak,
but in regard to which I have very clear notions and opinions. I do not think them
useful. I think their operations for the last twenty years have produced nothing
good or valuable.
At the same time, I know thousands of them are honest and good men; per-
-Ant Slavery "flåiiß@'g; fectlywell-meaning men. They have excited feelings; they think they must do some-
thing for the cause of liberty. And in their sphere of action, they do not see what
else they can do than to contribute to an abolition press, or an abolition society, or
to pay an abolition lecturer.
I do not mean to impute gross motives even to the leaders of these societies,

but I am not blind to the consequences. I cannot but see what mischiefs their inter-
ference with the South has produced.
And is it not plain to every man? Let any gentleman who doubts of that recur to
the debates in the Virginia House of Delegates in. 1832, and he will see with What
freedom a proposition made by Mr. Rahdolph for the gradual abolition of slavery
was discussed in that body. Everyone spoke of slavery as he thought; very ignomin-
ious and disparaging names and epithets were applied to it.
'Itie debates in the House of Delegates on that occasion, I believe, were all pub-

lished. They were read by every colored man who could read, and if there were any
who could not read, those debates were read to them by others. At that time Virginia
was not .unwilling nor afraid to discuss this question, and to let that part of her pop-
ulation know as much of it as they could learn.
That was in 1832.... These abolition societies commenced their course of ac-
SELLING A MO ER tion in 1835. It is said—I do not kriow how true it may be—that they sent incendi-
youi often buy the wifé ary publications into the slave states. At any event, they attempted to arouse, and did
arouse, a very strong feelirig. In other words, they created great agitation in the
and frequéii'tly, too, they sell me
North against Southern slavery.
I havo often known them tako away the infant from itie; tndthers•
what was the result? The bonds of the slaves were bound more firmly than
Well,
and keep it, while they sold her? •"——Proß Andreuos, latc qf (he Üniv.et•sity were more strongly fastened. Public opinion, which in Virginia
before; their rivets
had begun to be exhibited against slavery, and was opening out For the discussion
of the question, drew back and shut itself up in its castle.

(Anti-Slaæry Almanac, 1840,

iCongressIonaI Glöh 31st Congress, 1st session, Appendix, vol. 22, part I, p. 275.
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