An Account of Some of the Principal Slave Insurrections, and Others, Which Have Occurred, or Been A | Page 2

To keep the blacks and non-slaveholding whites in
ignorance is, doubtless, the reason why such pains are taken in
Congress to prevent the circulation of Helper's book at the South,
which was compiled by a non-slaveholder for the special benefit of the
men of his class. The population of the Free States is now about

eighteen millions; of the Slave States, eight millions. The slaves
number about four millions, who are held as property by only 347,545
persons, men, women and children. This number, small as it is,
constituting about one sixth part of the United States, have thus far
controlled the legislation of the country. How this power has been
acquired is easily understood when we examine the false ideas
respecting slavery which are everywhere prevalent; such as the
weakness of the public conscience, in the absence of a practical and
experimental knowledge of the truth of God's word--in the atheistic
notion, prevailing even in the Church and in the ministry, that the
unrighteous enactments of wicked me are paramount in authority to the
commandments of the Great Jehovah. Hundreds of clergymen, in all
parts of the Union, profess to believe that the Bible sanctions American
slavery,--a system which, of necessity, cannot exist without a continual
violation of every commandment of the Decalogue.
If the Bible sanctions slavery, (as many profess to believe,) why does
not the God of the Bible sanction it? In other words, if slavery is
sanctioned by the revealed will of God, why are not the dispensations
of his providence in accordance with that will? Could it be fairly
proved that slavery is in accordance with the will of God, it must
necessarily follow that obedience to his will is not only highly
advantageous, but perfectly safe; for, surely, no Christian can, for a
moment, believe that the providence of God ever militates against the
precepts of his word. As, however, the consequences of slavery have
been, in all cases, when not averted by timely repentance, disastrous in
the extreme, it is therefore undeniably evident that slavery is in direct
opposition to the revealed will of God, and, consequently, that those
who so violently oppose the abolition of slavery, for fear of supposed
dangerous consequences, may truly be said "to know not what they do."
The truth on this subject is so plain, and the facts so abundant, that he
who runs may read, and know to a certainty the entire safety of
immediate emancipation; and that danger arises from liberty withheld,
and not from liberty granted. The general opinion seems to be, that the
moment you proclaim "liberty to the captive," and make the slave a
freeman, be the conditions and restrictions what they may, that moment
you make him a vagabond, a thief, and a murderer, whom nothing will

satisfy but the blood of those who had been so "fanatical and insane" as
to treat him like a human being. Whence this opinion is derived, no one
can tell; for it is in direct opposition to reason, common sense, the
nature of the human mind, and is entirely unsustained by facts. Indeed,
so far as the evidence of facts is concerned, the advocates of immediate
abolition have a complete monopoly. All experience proves two things,
viz., the entire safety of immediate emancipation, and that all danger
has arisen from its indefinite postponement; for this is really the true
definition of gradual emancipation.
We all know the results of slavery in Greece and Rome. Troy perished
by her slaves in a single night; and as like causes always produce like
effects, our obligations to our slaveholding brethren imperiously
demand that we should urge on them, in the most earnest manner, the
duty of immediately abolishing slavery as their only hope of
safety,--the only means by which they can escape the just judgments of
God. The safety of immediate emancipation has been proved by
Buenos Ayres in 1816, Colombia in 1821, Guatemala in 1824, Peru and
Chili in 1828, Mexico in 1829, and especially on the 1st of August,
1834, when 800,000 slaves were set free in a single day in the British
West India Islands; and thus far, not a single life has been lost, not a
drop of blood shed, in consequence of that beneficent and righteous act.
The consequences of holding slaves in bondage, and refusing to
emancipate them, have always been disastrous. In our present
exemption from slavery in the Free States, we have no cause of
boasting, but rather of deep humiliation. We are all involved in the guilt,
and must share in the punishment, unless timely and thorough
repentance avert the impending blow. To do this effectually,
information must be spread, the spirit of inquiry aroused, the temple of
God be purified, and "the book of law be read in the