“Slaves Contented.”

But the slaves do not wish for freedom, we are told. Happy in bondage, they desire no change. Prove this, and slavery needs no heavier condemnation. If it has so utterly imbruted men that they are content to be brutes,—if it has crushed out of them the very consciousness of manhood, all hope of a higher state, and even the wish to rise; it has wrought too fearful havoc on God’s noblest work to be borne with any longer. Let it not blight another generation, nor sink the present still farther out of sight of manliness, and quite beyond the reach of resurrection. If for no other reason, it ought, for this alone, to be at once abolished. Moreover, if the slaves desire no change, they can be freed without the slightest inconvenience to their masters, for they will serve them still, of their own accord, and all the more cheerfully and faithfully, that their free choice to do so is now made certain. The master’s wife, or daughter, will not have to “black his shoes;” as a distinguished statesman has foretold. Why bind men to the place they choose to stay in? Why make them chattels,—beasts,—to get the service which they wish to render? There is no shadow of excuse for enslaving men who are willing to serve. Nor would a generous nature,—or even a simply just one,—requite a life-long, willing service with but the bare support of animal life; at most, the means of animal enjoyment; while mind and soul are starved, and manhood is, as far as may be, blotted out; or abuse an ignorant brother’s unsuspecting trust, to cheat him of the common Father’s richest gifts, and keep him blind to his incalculable loss. The more willingly he serves, the baser is the ingratitude of such a requital. This plea, then, would be worthless even if true.