Aunt Philliss Cabin

Aunt Phillis's Cabin

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Title: Aunt Phillis's Cabin Or, Southern Life As It Is
Author: Mary H. Eastman
Release Date: September 24, 2005 [EBook #16741]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AUNT PHILLIS'S CABIN;
OR,
SOUTHERN LIFE AS IT IS.

BY
MRS. MARY H. EASTMAN.
PHILADELPHIA: LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO. 1852.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
Transcriber's note: Minor typos in text corrected. Footnotes moved to
end of text.

PREFACE.
A writer on Slavery has no difficulty in tracing back its origin. There is
also the advantage of finding it, with its continued history, and the laws
given by God to govern his own institution, in the Holy Bible. Neither
profane history, tradition, nor philosophical research are required to
prove its origin or existence; though they, as all things must, come
forward to substantiate the truth of the Scriptures. God, who created the
human race, willed they should be holy like himself. Sin was
committed, and the curse of sin, death, was induced: other punishments
were denounced for the perpetration of particular crimes--the shedding
of man's blood for murder, and the curse of slavery. The mysterious
reasons that here influenced the mind of the Creator it is not ours to
declare. Yet may we learn enough from his revealed word on this and
every other subject to confirm his power, truth, and justice. There is no
Christian duty more insisted upon in Scripture than reverence and
obedience to parents. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days
may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." The
relation of child to parent resembles closely that of man to his Creator.
He who loves and honors his God will assuredly love and honor his
parents. Though it is evidently the duty of every parent so to live as to

secure the respect and affection of his child, yet there is nothing in the
Scriptures to authorize a child treating with disrespect a parent, though
he be unworthy in the greatest degree.
The human mind, naturally rebellious, requires every command and
incentive to submission. The first of the ten commandments, insisting
on the duty owing to the Creator, and the fifth, on that belonging to our
parents, are the sources of all order and good arrangement in the minor
relations of life; and on obedience to them depends the comfort of
society.
Reverence to age, and especially where it is found in the person of
those who by the will of God were the authors of their being, is insisted
upon in the Jewish covenant--not indeed less required now; but as the
Jews were called from among the heathen nations of the earth to be the
peculiar people of God, they were to show such evidences of this law in
their hearts, by their conduct, that other nations might look on and say,
"Ye are the children of the Lord your God."
It was after an act of a child dishonoring an aged father, that the
prophecy entailing slavery as a curse on a portion of the human race
was uttered. Nor could it have been from any feeling of resentment or
revenge that the curse was made known by the lips of a servant of God;
for this servant of God was a parent, and with what sorrow would any
parent, yea, the worst of parents, utter a malediction which insured such
punishment and misery on a portion of his posterity! Even the blessing
which was promised to his other children could not have consoled him
for the sad necessity. He might not resist the Spirit of God: though with
perfect submission he obeyed its dictates, yet with what regret! The
heart of any Christian parent will answer this appeal!
We may well imagine some of the reasons for the will of God in thus
punishing Ham and his descendants. Prior to the unfilial act which is
recorded, it is not to be supposed he had been a righteous man. Had he
been one after God's own heart, he would not have been guilty of such
a sin. What must that child be, who would