A Review of Uncle Toms Cabin | Page 9

in a form far
worse than negro slavery in the United States! And I am able to
corroborate the truth of the remark, by a volume of the most reliable
testimony; and much of that might be drawn from the admissions of
English Journals, and English statesmen. I will quote a few more
English authorities, and dismiss the subject. The British Asiatic Journal
says, "the whole of Hindostan, with the adjacent possessions, is one
magnificent plantation, peopled by more than one hundred millions of
slaves, belonging to a company of gentlemen in England, whose power
is far more unlimited than any Southern planter over his slaves in the

United States." And the same authority tells us, "that in Malabar, the
islands of Ceylon, St. Helena and other places, the English government
is a notorious slave-factor--a regular jobber in the purchase and sale of
slaves; and that this system is carried on and perpetuated by the purses
and bayonet of the English government." Dr. Bowering affirms of the
British subjects in India, "that the entire population of that empire are
subjected to the most degrading servitude--a deeper degradation than
any produced by American slavery." The same writer declares "that a
regular system of kidnapping is carried on by the English." The Duke
of Wellington remarked in the House of Lords, that "slavery does exist
in India--domestic slavery in particular." Sir Robert Peel made the
charge and offered the evidence, "that British merchants are even now
deeply and extensively engaged in the slave trade;" and that the English
government was, at the time he spoke, "engaged in a new system of
English negro slavery, by the forcible capture of negroes in Africa,
&c." We are told by the London Times of Feb. 20, 1853, "that British
slavery is ten thousand times worse than negro slavery of the United
States," and that the condition of those, whom he denominated British
slaves, "is a scandal and a reproach, not only to the government, but to
the owners of every description of property in England." This is strong
language, and the reader will please recollect, that it is the testimony of
a leading English Journal, so late as February, 1853.
Here is an array of English testimony that cannot fail to convince every
one that slavery exists to the present moment in the English dominions,
in a form far more aggravated than African slavery in the United States.
How is it then, that she has been, and is to the present time, making
ceaseless and untiring efforts to exaggerate the sufferings and the
disabilities of the African race in our midst, while there is so much
suffering and oppression among her own subjects? Is it not an,
extraordinary circumstance, that a nation who has expended so much
blood and treasure in invading the rights of others--a nation that to the
present hour tolerates and legalizes slavery in its worst possible
forms--or rather, in every possible form; should affect so much
solicitude about its extinction in a foreign government? In view of all
these facts, is it not a humiliating circumstance; or rather, is it not an
outrageous insult to the American people, that Madam Stowe, after
having basely caricatured, slandered and misrepresented her own

country, to flatter and please the English people, and their Northern
allies in the United States; should with her ill-gotten gains fly across
the ocean, to join the slanderers, denunciators and libelers of our
beloved country? The world can't produce another instance of such
insulting, arrogant, bare-faced knavery and hypocrisy! A thousand
reflections force themselves on my mind, and had I a voice as
seven-fold thunder, and could I congregate around me in one solid
phalanx, every man, woman and child, on the North American portion
of this continent; I would warn them of their danger. I would direct
their attention to the history of nations wrecked, torn to pieces, and
almost obliterated from the face of the earth by internal feuds and
dissentions--by envy, jealousy and hatred; and that not unfrequently
instigated by foreign powers. I would point to the catalogue of
crimes--the commotions, the dissentions, the tumults, the strife--the
envy, the jealousy, the hatred--the wars, the butcheries and bloodsheds,
that have been incited by visionary, bigoted, fanatical religionists. I
would inculcate the fear and love of God; the love of our country, and
the love of our neighbor as paramount virtues; and meekness,
gentleness and patience, as Christian graces of the first importance; and
resignation to the will of God, and obedience and submission to civil
authorities, as the duty of all good citizens. And to the ladies I would
say, return home ladies, and love your husbands, nurse your babies,
attend to your household affairs; and recollect, that nothing adorns your
sex so much, as the ornament of a meek,