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    ' to declare unto them , ' according to the expression of an old divine , far too Methodistical to be considered as an authority in the West Indies , 'thewhole counsel of God ! '" —P . 7-Nor is there more hope that we can agree with the master on the most important questions of morality than that we can teach the slave . " The people of the West Indies seem to labour under an utter ignorance of the light in which their system is altogether , viewed in England . When

    West Indian magistrates apply the term * wretch' to a Negro who is put to death for having failed in an attempt at resistance , the people of England do not consider him as a * wretch , ' but as a good and gallant man , dying in the best of causes , —the resistance to oppression , by which themselves hold all the good that they enjoy . They consider him as a soldier fallen in the advance-guard of that combat , which is only kept from themselves , because somebody else is exposed to it further off . If the murdered Negro is a 4 wretch / then an Englishman is a ' wTetch' for not bowing his head to slavery

    whenever it invites him . The same reason that makes the white Englishman ^ resistance virtuous and honourable , makes the black one's too ; it is only a regiment with different facings , lighting in the same cause . Will these men never know the ground on which they stand ? Can nothing make them find out , that the universal British people would stand by and cheer on their dusky brethren to the assault , if it was not for the solitary hope that the end may be obtained more effectually by other means ? It is not true that the people of England believe that any set of men , here or any where , can , by any act of

    theirs , alter the nature of slavery , or make that not robbery which was robbery before . They can make it robbery according to law—the more is the pity that the power of law-making should be in such hands ; but this is the only inference . All moral respect for such laws—all submission of the mind , as to a rule which it is desirable to obey and honourable to support—is as much out of the question , as if a freebooter were to lay down a scale of punishment for those who should be found guilty of having lifted a hand against his power . "—P . 35 .

    Our only method of teaching morality to master and slave is by removing the obstacles in the way of those truths which must be learned by all , some time or other , in this world or the next . We must shew the masters that they are culprits , and the slaves that they are men . We must lighten the burden which weighs down the soul yet more than the body : we must loosen the chains which confine the limbs , before we can induce the captive \ o cast off the fetters , as substantial , though intangible , which bind down the intellect and the affections . The spirit cannot escape from its thraldom till the death-warrant of slavery be not only signed , but executed .

    And how far does it rest with us to effect this ? What power have we to assist in this righteous work ? We have the power conferred by a swelling heart and a willing spirit to quicken other minds , and to bring them into sympathy with our own . We have power to relate facts to those who know them not ; to keep alive the interest of those who do ; to spread our own convictions while we strengthen them ; and , from the centre of influence ,

    in which all , even the least influential , are placed , to send out to the remotest points where ^ , we can act , tidings from the land of freedom , and threatenings of the downfal of oppression . We have inquired of the oracles of truth , and we know that this abode of the idolatrous worship of Mammon shall be yielded up . It may not be ours to go forth to the fight , or to mount the breach ; but having patiently compassed its extent for the appointed time , we may raise our voices in the general shout before which its bulwarks shall fall , and its strength be for ever overthrown .

    Untitled Article

    Negro Slavery . 9

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/9/