AMERICAN SLAVERY,
AND THE
MEANS OF ITS ABOLITION.
BY REV. JONATHAN WARD.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY PERKINS & MARVIN.
1840.
The substance of the following Essay was delivered, in the formof an Address, at Plymouth, N. H., May 5th, 1840; and is nowpublished by the particular request of those who heard it.
AMERICAN SLAVERY, &c.
INTRODUCTION.
More than forty years ago the writer of the followingpages read Wilberforce’s publications on the slave trade,in which were described the various methods of procuringthe slaves in Africa, the horrors of the “middle passage,”and their cruel treatment in the West Indies. In perusingthese statements of that great philanthropist and friend ofthe injured African race, his feelings became, in somemeasure, enlisted in favor of the colored people of ourland, and in opposition to the slavery upheld by ournation.
He was never sensible of feeling the prejudice againstcolor, so often manifested; but, in his intercourse withcolored persons, treated them, as he would others. Andhaving them for many years as neighbors, and, not unfrequently,as hired help, they were admitted to eat withthe family at the same table.
In 1824 he was invited to attend a political celebrationon the 4th of July. In declining the invitation, he noticedthe inconsistency of our conduct in celebrating our liberty,founded upon the principle that all men are created freeand equal, and proclaiming this “self-evident truth,” andyet holding hundreds of thousands of our fellow men indegrading bondage.
The next year, he was requested to preach on the 4thof July. The sermon was, by request, printed. Thefollowing extract will show the writer’s views respectingAmerican slavery. “Our conduct in relation to theAfricans has been most inconsistent, absurd, and criminal.While earnestly contending for the principle, that all menought to be free and equal, and risking every thing in[4]opposing the claims of Great Britain to tax us, we were,at the same time, holding in abject slavery hundreds ofthousands of our fellow beings, who, upon our own principles,had an equal right with ourselves to enjoy thesweets of liberty. How great guilt then has been contractedby enslaving, and holding in bondage, and maltreatingthe poor negroes. And what efforts ought to bemade for their intellectual, moral and religious improvement,and their emancipation, and their enjoyment of therights of freemen.”
Such being the feelings of the writer, he rejoiced tosee attention turned to the subject of slavery, and combinedefforts making for its removal. And, though hedeeply regretted the harshness and severity with whichopposers of abolition movements, and even those who didnot engage in them, were treated, yet he was willing tocountenance the cause of abolition, hoping that this,