THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY. INTRODUCTION. "I thank the goodness and the grace I was not born, as thousands are, I was not born a little Slave, And wish I were but in the grave, These beautiful and simple lines have been employed throughout the present generation to give utterance to the earliest expressions of infant gratitude, and will be imparted to generations yet unborn. As the little one repeats the words, a mother, with gentle and assiduous care, endeavours to impress the sentiment on its understanding and heart. She asks or encourages the child to ask questions, and furnishes or elicits the answers. To what are you indebted for the mercies you enjoy ?" "To the goodness and grace of God." B "What particular mercies have attended the circumstances of your birth ?" "That I was born in christian days, and in happy England."—"What do you mean by christian days?" "A time wherein we are taught about Jesus Christ—what he has done and suffered to save sinners.""Are there any children who are not taught this ?" "Yes, thousands do not know any thing about the true God. They set up blocks of wood and stone, which they call gods, and teach their children to pray a useless prayer to them."- Why are their prayers useless?" Because blocks of wood and stone cannot hear or help them."—" Can God hear and help us?" "Yes: the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, unto all that call upon him in truth; he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he, also, will hear their cry, and will save them." "What are those people called who pray to blocks of wood and stone ?" "Hea thens." Why do not heathens pray to the true God, as we do?" "Because they have not got the Bible to teach them about him."—" Are heathen children not so happy as English children ?" "No: they are neglected, and left in ignorance and vice; sometimes they are very cruelly treated, and put to death, because their parents or their priests think it will please their idol gods."—" Should not happy English children try to help the poor heathen children? "Yes: we should send them the Bible, and missionaries to teach them, that they may know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." "Are there any other children not so well off as English children?" "Yes: the little slaves, who labour in the sun, and wish they were but in the • grave, and all their labour done." "What is it to be a slave?" * * * * * * Happy British children of the present race, who have seen the day when slaves were set free! Your hearts have melted when you have heard of the oppression, cruelty, and persecution, endured by the poor negro slaves; you have exulted in hearing that the British government had made a law, that it would no longer have slaves under its dominion; your voices have joined the sacred song that echoed through our British temples— "Joy to the slave, the slave is free! It is the year of Jubilee!" "Praise to the God of our fathers, 'tis he; Jehovah hath triumph'd, my country, by thee!"— and in days to come, when you teach your children the hymns of your childhood, and they ask, "What is it to be a slave?" your hearts will swell, and glow with patriotism and gratitude, while you reply, "My child, there were slaves formerly, but there are no slaves now." Still they will wish to know what slavery means; and you will wish to be able to inform them, and to present them with a record which shall be calculated to excite in them love to their country, gratitude to God, and benevolence to the whole human race. It is with a design to fix and rivet on your minds such sentiments and feelings, and to qualify you to transmit and perpetuate them to succeeding generations, that this little volume is drawn up and presented to you. May the perusal be interesting and profitable. SECT. I.—THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. What is slavery? Slavery, in its widest sense, is the absolute subjection of one human being to the will of another. The slave is considered as the absolute property of the master, who feels himself entitled to do what he will with his own. The slave is constrained to labour, whether he will or not; and that for the benefit of his master, not his own; the master alone having authority to appoint the nature of work on which the slave shall be employed, the time when he shall be constrained to labour or permitted to rest, and the amount of work that he shall be required to perform. The master, also, fixes the subsistence, or means of obtaining a subsistence, which shall be given in return. It is also in the power of the master to inflict on the slave any severity he may think necessary, in order to make him perform the task required, or any sort or degree of punishment for failing to perform it, or otherwise incurring the displeasure of his master. The master, also, claims as his property the children of his slaves, and is at liberty to send them where, and employ them how he pleases; and to give, sell, or bequeath them to other persons, the slave having no power of appeal, and government no power of interference. This is slavery. It may be better or worse according to the customs of different places, or according to the dispositions of masters, whether more or less humane and considerate, or |