Historical voices

Absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man over the body and soul of another man, without brutal chastisement and enormous cruelty.

Remove the dreadful scourge—the plaited thong—the galling fetter—the accursed chain—and let the slaveholder rely solely upon moral and religious power, by which to secure obedience to his orders, and how long do you suppose a slave would…

Grant that slavery is right; grant that the relations of master and slave may innocently exist; and there is not a single outrage which was ever committed against the slave but what finds an apology in the very necessity of the case.

The answer to that view is, that slavery is itself an abuse; that it lives by abuse; and dies by the absence of abuse.

He prefers to encounter a life of trial, however bitter, or death, however terrible, to dragging out his existence under the dominion of these kind masters.

He quits the homes of men for the haunts of wolves.

He rushes from the praying slaveholder into the paws of the bear.

He leaves the man of the bible, and takes refuge with the man of the tomahawk.

The slave finds more of the milk of human kindness in the bosom of the savage Indian, than in the heart of his Christian master.

I tell you, my friends, humanity is never driven to such an unnatural course of life, without great wrong.

If kindness were the rule, we should not see advertisements filling the columns of almost every southern newspaper, offering large rewards for fugitive slaves, and describing them as being branded with irons, loaded with chains, and…

The majority of slaveholders find it necessary, to insure obedience, at times, to avail themselves of the utmost extent of the law, and many go beyond it.

I admit that there are individual slaveholders less cruel and barbarous than is allowed by law; but these form the exception.

And yet I am bound to say that they fall short of indicating the horrible cruelties constantly practiced in the slave states.

A more atrocious and blood-thirsty string of laws could not well be conceived of.

If this be parental affection, what is bitter malignity?

Now, if the foregoing be an indication of kindness, what is cruelty?

There can be no peace to the wicked while slavery continues in the land.

While this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions of innocent men and women, it is as idle to think of having a sound and lasting peace, as it is to think there is no God to take cognizance of the affairs of men.

Instead of quiet, they have produced alarm; instead of peace, they have brought us war; and so it must ever be.

If there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the slave is dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave system as a grand aggregation of human horrors.

But ask the slave what is his condition—what his state of mind—what he thinks of enslavement? and you had as well address your inquiries to the silent dead.

They have been long oppressed; and the same heart that prompts me to plead the cause of the American bondman, makes it impossible for me not to sympathize with the oppressed of all lands.

No thanks to the slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the vivacious captive may sometimes dance in his chains; his very mirth in such circumstances stands before God as an accusing angel against his enslaver.