A Review of Uncle Toms Cabin | Page 7

them nothing, but Northern sympathy might empty their purses. Show me the abolitionist who is willing to meet the free negro on terms of equality. No man can point to one--no, not one. The African is neglected, scorned, and trodden under foot every where; by abolitionists and every one else. This prejudice is invincible, irremediable. The poor African is hopelessly and irretrievably doomed to scorn, contempt and degradation while in the midst of the white race. Is the African allowed the ordinary privileges of the white man any where in all the liberty loving North? Show me the spot! Where is it? Show me the state--show me the neighborhood--the man--the woman among all the white race in all the North, who is willing to allow the despised African, the ordinary privileges of white men. Ah! you cannot do it. Shame! shame! Hold! cease,--for God's sake cease your hypocritical cant about Southern slavery. No! no! there is not a state in all this union where they enjoy the privileges of white men. There is not--there never has been--and there never will be! They are no where equal parties in an action at law. They are no where credible witnesses against white men. They are no where allowed the right of suffrage; or if the law allows it, they are not suffered to avail themselves of it. They are no where admitted as judge, juror, or counsellor. They are no where eligible to any office of profit, trust, or honor. Their children are no where admitted into the same school-room with the whites. They are no where protected, encouraged, and rewarded in all the North. They are victims of injustice, scorned and despised in every free state in this confederacy. And abolitionists are as far from making equals of them, or associating with them, as any one else.
The city of Baltimore presents the largest and most intelligent mass of free negroes found in the United States. These in an appeal to the citizens of Baltimore, and through them to the people of the United States, say, "we reside among you, and yet are strangers,--natives, yet not citizens--surrounded by the freest people and the most republican institutions in the world, and yet we enjoy none of the immunities of freedom. As long as we remain among you, we shall be a distinct race--an extraneous mass of men irrecoverably excluded from your institutions. Though we are not slaves--we are not free."
Judge Blackford, speaking of free negroes, says, "They are of no service here, (in the free states,) to the community or themselves. They live in a country, the favorite abode of liberty, without the enjoyment of her rights."
Dr. Miller says, "if liberated and left among the whites, they would be a constant source of corruption, annoyance and danger. They could never be trusted as faithful citizens."
There is at last no sympathy between the two races, except in the slave states. There, for the most part, we find kind feelings and strong attachments between the slaves and the families in which they reside. I must, however, refer the reader to other parts of this volume for additional remarks on the subjects discussed in the preceding pages,--more particularly to chapters, 4, 5, 6, 7. But I would ask, in the name of all that is sacred, what advantage, what benefit under these circumstances is conferred on the Southern slaves by emancipation? I know from personal observation, that Southern slaves are better fed, better clothed, and better housed than are free negroes, either North or South; in short, they are better paid for their labor. The South is the only part of the United States, where ministers of the gospel are successful in Christianizing the African race--the only part of the United States where there is anything like good order, good morals, or Christianity among them. The only place at last, on this continent, where the African is cared for and provided for, and where there is any thing like sympathy, kindness or fellow-feeling between the two races.
It would be well for the people of the United States to inquire into the origin of this slavery agitation. It is of foreign origin! It was our old enemy England, that first sowed broadcast the seeds of dissension in our midst. Abolitionism in this country first originated in, and has been sustained by, foreign interference, and religious fanaticism. It is the last hope of European monarchies to destroy our republic. The fact is notorious, and is susceptible of proof, that the abolition excitement was first set on foot in this country by British influence. There has been a constant effort in England, to array the North against the South. "We have the best of reasons for believing, that her original object was the severance of this Union." One English