Substantial and honest prosperity is gradually taking the place of that wealth, which, as in all other slave countries, was concentrated in the hands of a few, and was extorted from the labor of a wretched, degraded and dangerous…
Lewis Tappan
The Public Record
Lewis Tappan was an American abolitionist who in 1841 helped to secure freedom for the enslaved Africans aboard the Amistad. He was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, into a Calvinist household.
gutenberg.org
Their wives and children, no longer toiling under the lash, are now engaged in the occupations of the family and of the school; while many of the fathers and husbands have become landholders, and raise their own food, and also articles for…
The complaints (grossly exaggerated, if they reach you through the medium of a pro-slavery press) of the want of labor and the diminution of production, arise not from the idleness, but the industry of the enfranchised slaves.
The very horror manifested by the slaveholders of the means we recommend, is evidence of their efficacy.
Having once obtained a footing in your legislative halls, you will have secured in a quiet, peaceable, constitutional mode, the downfall of slavery, the recovery of your rights, and the prosperity and happiness of your country.
Having gained the liberty of speech and of the press, you will go on, conquering and to conquer.
Such a press will advocate your rights, will encourage education and industry, will point out the true cause of the depravation of morals, the prevalence of violence, and the depression of the public welfare.
Once establish a FREE PRESS, and the fate of slavery is sealed.
By conversing freely among yourselves, and proclaiming your hostility to slavery in public meetings, you will create an influence that will soon reach the PRESS.
You all know and daily witness the blighting influence of the curse which overspreads your land; and believe us, that just in proportion as your courage rises, will the arrogance of your oppressors sink.
Discussion once commenced, the enemies of slavery will multiply faster with you than they do elsewhere for the obvious reason, that with you there is no dispute about facts.
Speak then boldly, and without disguise; and be assured that no sooner will your tongues be loosed on the forbidden subject, than you will be surprised to find what a coincidence of thought exists in relation to it.