Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  And yet, Christian republicans, who, with full power to repeal this law, are daily sustaining it, talk about there being no harm in slavery, if they regulate it according to the apostle’s directions, and give unto their servants that which is just and equal. Do they think that, if the Christianised masters of Rome and Corinth had made such a set of rules as this for the government of their slaves, Paul would have accepted it as a proper exposition of what he meant by just and equal?

  But the Presbyteries of South Carolina say, and all the other religious bodies at the South say, that the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ has no right to interfere with civil institutions. What is this Church of our Lord Jesus Christ that they speak of? Is it not a collection of republican men, who have constitutional power to alter these laws, and whose duty it is to alter them, and who are disobeying the apostle’s directions every day till they do alter them? Every minister at the South is a voter as much as he is a minister; every Church member is a voter as much as he is a Church member; and ministers and Church members are among the masters who are keeping up this system of atrocity, when they have full republican power to alter it; and yet they talk about giving their servants that which is just and equal! If they are going to give their servants that which is just and equal, let them give them back their manhood; they are law-makers and can do it. Let them give to the slave the right to hold property, the right to form legal marriage, the right to read the word of God, and to have such education as will fully develope his intellectual and moral nature; the right of free religious opinion and worship; let them give him the right to bring suit and to bear testimony; give him the right to have some vote in the government in which his interests are controlled. This will be something more like giving that which is “just and equal.”

  Mr. Smylie, of Mississippi, says that the planters of Louisiana and Mississippi, when they are giving from twenty to twenty-five dollars a barrel for pork, give their slaves three or four pounds a-week; and intimates that, if that will not convince people that they are doing what is just and equal, he does not know what will.

  Mr. C. C. Jones, after stating in various places that he has no intention ever to interfere with the civil condition of the slave, teaches the negroes, in his catechism, that the master gives to his servant that which is just and equal, when he provides for them good houses, good clothing, food, nursing, and religious instruction.

  This is just like a man who has stolen an estate which belongs to a family of orphans. Out of its munificent revenues, he gives the orphans comfortable food, clothing, &c., while he retains the rest for his own use, declaring that he is thus rendering to them that which is just and equal.

  If the laws which regulate slavery were made by a despotic sovereign, over whose movements the masters could have no control, this mode of proceeding might be called just and equal; but, as they are made and kept in operation by these Christian masters, these ministers and Church members, in common with those who are not so, they are every one of them refusing to the slave that which is just and equal, so long as they do not seek the repeal of these laws; and if they cannot get them repealed, it is their duty to take the slave out from under them, since they are constructed with such fatal ingenuity as utterly to nullify all that the master tries to do for their elevation and permanent benefit.

  No man would wish to leave his own family of children as slaves under the kindest master that ever breathed; and what he would not wish to have done to his own children, he ought not to do to other people’s children.

  But it will be said that it is not becoming for the Christian Church to enter into political matters. Again, we ask, what is the Christian Church? Is it not an association of republican citizens, each one of whom has his rights and duties as a legal voter?

  Now, suppose a law were passed which depreciated the value of cotton or sugar three cents in the pound; would these men consider the fact that they are Church members as any reason why they should not agitate for the repeal of such law? Certainly not. Such a law would be brittle as the spider’s web; it would be swept away before it was well made. Every law to which the majority of the community does not assent is, in this country, immediately torn down.

  Why, then, does this monstrous system stand from age to age? Because the community CONSENT TO IT. They re-enact these unjust laws every day, by their silent permission of them.

  The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is not of this world, say the South Carolina Presbyteries; therefore the Church has no right to interfere with any civil institution; but yet all the clergy of Charleston could attend in a body to give sanction to the proceedings of the great Vigilance Committee. They could not properly exert the least influence against slavery, because it is a civil institution; but they could give the whole weight of their influence in favour of it.

  Is it not making the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ quite as much of this world, to patronise the oppressor as to patronise the slave?

  CHAPTER IX.

  IS THE SYSTEM OF RELIGION WHICH IS TAUGHT THE SLAVE THE GOSPEL?

  THE ladies of England, in their letter to the ladies of America, spoke in particular of the denial of the gospel to the slave. This has been indignantly resented in this country, and it has been claimed that the slaves do have the gospel communicated to them very extensively.

  Whoever reads Mr. Charles C. Jones’s book on the religious instruction of the negroes will have no doubt of the following facts: —

  1. That from year to year, since the introduction of the negroes into this country, various pious and benevolent individuals have made efforts for their spiritual welfare.

  2. That these efforts have increased, from year to year.

  3. That the most extensive and important one came into being about the time that Mr. Jones’s book was written, in the year 1842, and extended to some degree through the United States. The fairest development of it was probably in the State of Georgia, the sphere of Mr. Jones’s immediate labour, where the most gratifying results were witnessed, and much very amiable and commendable Christian feeling elicited on the part of masters.

  4. From time to time, there have been prepared, for the use of the slave, catechisms, hymns, short sermons, &c. &c., designed to be read to them by their masters, or taught them orally.

  5. It will appear to anyone who reads Mr. Jones’s book that, though written by a man who believed the system of slavery sanctioned by God, it manifests a spirit of sincere and earnest benevolence, and of devotedness to the cause he has undertaken, which cannot be too highly appreciated.

  It is a very painful and unpleasant task to express any qualification or dissent with regard to efforts which have been undertaken in a good spirit, and which have produced, in many respects, good results; but, in the reading of Mr. Jones’s book, in the study of his catechism, and of various other catechisms and sermons which give an idea of the religious instruction of the slaves, the writer has often been painfully impressed with the idea that however imbued and mingled with good, it is not the true and pure Gospel system which is given to the slave. As far as the writer has been able to trace out what is communicated to him, it amounts in substance to this; that his master’s authority over him, and property in him, to the full extent of the enactment of slave-law, is recognised and sustained by the tremendous authority of God himself. He is told that his master is God’s overseer; that he owes him a blind, unconditional, unlimited submission; that he must not allow himself to grumble, or fret, or murmur, at anything in his conduct; and, in case he does so, that his murmuring is not against his master, but against God. He is taught that it is God’s will that he should have nothing but labour and poverty in this world; and that, if he frets and grumbles at this, he will get nothing by it in this life, and be sent to hell for ever in the next. Most vivid descriptions of hell, with its torments, its worms ever feeding and never dying, are held up before him; and he is told that this eternity of torture will be the result of insubordination here. It is no wonder that a slaveholder o
nce said to Dr. Brisbane, of Cincinnati, that religion had been worth more to him, on his plantation, than a waggon-load of cowskins.

  Furthermore, the slave is taught that to endeavour to evade his master by running away, or to shelter or harbour a slave who has run away, are sins which will expose him to the wrath of that omniscient Being whose eyes are in every place.

  As the slave is a moveable and merchantable being, liable, as Mr. Jones calmly remarks, to “all the vicissitudes of property,” this system of instruction, one would think, would be in something of a dilemma, when it comes to inculcate the Christian duties of the family state.

  When Mr. Jones takes a survey of the field, previous to commencing his system of operations, he tells us, what we suppose every rational person must have foreseen, that he finds among the negroes an utter demoralisation upon this subject; that polygamy is commonly practised, and that the marriage-covenant has become a mere temporary union of interest, profit, or pleasure, formed without reflection, and dissolved without the slightest idea of guilt.

  That this state of things is the necessary and legitimate result of the system of laws which these Christian men have made and are still keeping up over their slaves, any sensible person will perceive; and anyone would think it an indispensable step to any system of religious instruction here, that the negro should be placed in a situation where he can form a legal marriage, and can adhere to it after it is formed.

  But Mr. Jones and his coadjutors commenced by declaring that it was not their intention to interfere, in the slightest degree, with the legal position of the slave.

  We should have thought, then, that it would not have been possible, if these masters intended to keep their slaves in the condition of chattels personal, liable to a constant disruption of family ties — that they could have the heart to teach them the strict morality of the gospel, with regard to the marriage relation.

  But so it is, however. If we examine Mr. Jones’s catechism, we shall find that the slave is made to repeat orally that one man can be the husband of but one woman; and if during her lifetime he marries another, God will punish him for ever in hell.

  Suppose a conscientious woman, instructed in Mr. Jones’s catechism, by the death of her master is thrown into the market for the division of the estate, like many cases we may read of in the Georgia papers every week. She is torn from her husband and children, and sold at the other end of the Union, never to meet them again, and the new master commands her to take another husband; what, now, is this woman to do? If she takes the husband, according to her catechism she commits adultery, and exposes herself to everlasting fire; if she does not take him, she disobeys her master, who, she has been taught, is God’s overseer; and she is exposed to everlasting fire on that account, and certainly she is exposed to horrible tortures here.

  Now, we ask if the teaching that has involved this poor soul in such a labyrinth of horrors can be called the gospel.

  Is it the gospel — is it glad tidings in any sense of the words?

  In the same manner, this catechism goes on to instruct parents to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they should guide, counsel, restrain and govern them.

  Again these teachers tell them that they should search the Scriptures most earnestly, diligently, and continually, at the same time declaring that it is not their intention to interfere with the laws which forbid their being taught to read. Searching the Scriptures, slaves are told, means coming to people who are willing to read to them. Yes; but if there be no one willing to do this, what then? Anyone whom this catechism has thus instructed is sold off to a plantation on Red River, like that where Northrop lived; no Bible goes with him; his Christian instructors, in their care not to interfere with his civil condition, have deprived him of the power of reading; and in this land of darkness his oral instruction is but as a faded dream. Let any of us ask for what sum we would be deprived of all power of ever reading the Bible for ourselves, and made entirely dependent on the reading of others — especially if we were liable to fall into such hands as slaves are — and then let us determine whether a system of religious instruction, which begins by declaring that it has no intention to interfere with this cruel legal deprivation, is the gospel!

  The poor slave, darkened, blinded, perplexed on every hand by the influences which the legal system has spread under his feet, is furthermore strictly instructed in a perfect system of morality. He must not even covet anything that is his master’s; he must not murmur or be discontented; he must consider his master’s interests as his own, and be ready to sacrifice himself to them; and this he must do, as he is told, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. He must forgive all injuries, and do exactly right under all perplexities; thus is the obligation on his part expounded to him, while his master’s reciprocal obligations mean only to give him good houses, clothes, food, &c. &c., leaving every master to determine for himself what is good in relation to these matters.

  No wonder, when such a system of utter injustice is justified to the negro by all the awful sanctions of religion, that now and then a strong soul rises up against it. We have known under a black skin shrewd minds, unconquerable spirits, whose indignant sense of justice no such representations could blind.

  That Mr. Jones has met such is evident; for speaking of the trials of a missionary among them, he says ():

  He discovers Deism, Scepticism, Universalism. As already stated, the various perversions of the gospel, and all the strong objections against the truth of God — objections which he may perhaps have considered peculiar only to the cultivated minds, the ripe scholarship, and profound intelligence of critics and philosophers! — extremes here meet on the natural and common ground of a darkened understanding and a hardened heart.

  Again, in the Tenth Annual Report of the “Association for the Religious Instruction of the Negroes in Liberty County, Georgia,” he says:

  Allow me to relate a fact which occurred in the spring of this year, illustrative of the character and knowledge of the negroes at this time. I was preaching to a large congregation on the Epistle to Philemon; and when I insisted upon fidelity and obedience as Christian virtues in servants, and upon the authority of Paul condemned the practice of running away, one half of my audience deliberately walked off with themselves, and those that remained looked anything but satisfied either with the preacher or his doctrine. After dismission, there was no small stir among them; some solemnly declared that there was no such epistle in the Bible; others, “that it was not the Gospel;” others, “that I preached to please masters;” others, “that they did not care if they never heard me preach again.” — P, 25.

  Lundy Lane, an intelligent fugitive, who has published his Memoirs, says that on one occasion they (the slaves) were greatly delighted with a certain preacher, until he told them that God had ordained and created them expressly to make slaves of. He says that after that they all left him, and went away, because they thought with the Jews, “This is a hard saying; who can bear it?”

  In these remarks on the perversion of the gospel as presented to the slave, we do not mean to imply that much that is excellent and valuable is not taught him. We mean simply to assert that, in so far as the system taught justifies the slave-system, so far necessarily it vitiates the fundamental ideas of justice and morality; and so far as the obligations of the gospel are inculcated on the slave in their purity, they bring him necessarily in conflict with the authority of the system. As we have said before, it is an attempt to harmonise light with darkness, and Christ with Belial. Nor is such an attempt to be justified and tolerated because undertaken in the most amiable spirit by amiable men. Our admiration of some of the labourers who have conducted the system is very great; so also is our admiration of many of the Jesuit missionaries who have spread the Roman Catholic religion among our aboriginal tribes. Devotion and disinterestedness could be carried no further than some of both these classes of men have carried them.

  But while our
respect for these good men must not seduce us as Protestants into an admiration of the system which they taught, so our esteem for our Southern brethren must not lead us to admit that a system which fully justifies the worst kind of spiritual and temporal despotism can properly represent the gospel of him who came to preach deliverance to the captives.

  To prove that we have not misrepresented the style of instruction, we will give some extracts from various sermons and discourses.

  In the first place, to show how explicitly religious teachers disclaim any intention of interfering in the legal relation (see Mr. Jones’s work, ): —

  By law or custom they are excluded from the advantages of education, and by consequence from the reading of the word of God; and this immense mass of immortal beings is thrown for religious instruction upon oral communications entirely. And upon whom? Upon their owners. And their owners, especially of late years, claim to be the exclusive guardians of their religious instruction, and the almoners of divine mercy towards them, thus assuming the entire responsibility of their entire Christianisation!

  All approaches to them from abroad are rigidly guarded against, and no ministers are allowed to break to them the bread of life, except such as have commended themselves to the affection and confidence of their owners. I do not condemn this course of self-preservation on the part of our citizens, I merely mention it to show their entire dependence upon ourselves.

  In answering objections of masters to allowing the religious instruction of the negroes, he supposes the following objection, and gives the following answer: —