American slavery, and the means of its abolition

BY REV. JONATHAN WARD.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
BOSTON: PRINTED BY PERKINS & MARVIN. 1840.
The substance of the following Essay was delivered, in the form of an Address, at Plymouth, N. H., May 5th, 1840; and is now published by the particular request of those who heard it.
AMERICAN SLAVERY, &c.
More than forty years ago the writer of the following pages read Wilberforce’s publications on the slave trade, in which were described the various methods of procuring the slaves in Africa, the horrors of the “middle passage,” and their cruel treatment in the West Indies. In perusing these statements of that great philanthropist and friend of the injured African race, his feelings became, in some measure, enlisted in favor of the colored people of our land, and in opposition to the slavery upheld by our nation.
He was never sensible of feeling the prejudice against color, so often manifested; but, in his intercourse with colored persons, treated them, as he would others. And having them for many years as neighbors, and, not unfrequently, as hired help, they were admitted to eat with the family at the same table.
In 1824 he was invited to attend a political celebration on the 4th of July. In declining the invitation, he noticed the inconsistency of our conduct in celebrating our liberty, founded upon the principle that all men are created free and equal, and proclaiming this “self-evident truth,” and yet holding hundreds of thousands of our fellow men in degrading bondage.
The next year, he was requested to preach on the 4th of July. The sermon was, by request, printed. The following extract will show the writer’s views respecting American slavery. “Our conduct in relation to the Africans has been most inconsistent, absurd, and criminal. While earnestly contending for the principle, that all men ought to be free and equal, and risking every thing in opposing the claims of Great Britain to tax us , we were, at the same time, holding in abject slavery hundreds of thousands of our fellow beings, who, upon our own principles, had an equal right with ourselves to enjoy the sweets of liberty. How great guilt then has been contracted by enslaving, and holding in bondage, and maltreating the poor negroes. And what efforts ought to be made for their intellectual, moral and religious improvement, and their emancipation, and their enjoyment of the rights of freemen.”