This trade, which seems so shocking to the feelings of mankind, dates its origin as far back as the year 1442. Antony Gonzales, a Portuguese mariner, while exploring the coast of Africa, was the first to steal some Moors, and was subsequently forced by Prince Henry of Portugal to carry them back to Africa. In the year 1502, the Spaniards began to steal negroes, and employ them in the mines of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica. In 1517, the Emperor Charles V. granted a patent to certain privileged persons, to steal exclusively a supply of 4,000 negroes annually, for these islands!
African slaves were first imported into America in 1620, a century after their introduction into the West Indies. The first cargo, of twenty Africans, by a Dutch vessel, was brought up the James River, into Virginia, and sold out as slaves. England then being the most commercial of European nations, engrossed the trade; and from 1680 to 1780, there were imported into the British Possessions alone, two millions of slaves—making an average annual importation of more than 20,000! And the annual importation into America has transcended 50,000! The States of this Union, north of Mason and Dixon's Line, commonly called the New England States, were never, to any great extent, slaveholding; their virtuous and pious minds were chiefly exercised in slave-stealing and slave-selling! To Old England our New England States owe their knowledge of the art of slave-stealing; and to New England these Southern States are wholly indebted for their slaves. They stole the African from his native land, and sold him into bondage for the sake of gain. They kept but few of their captives among themselves, because it was not profitable to use negro labor in the cold and sterile regions of New England. And when they enacted laws in the New England States abolishing slavery, they brought their negroes into the South and sold them before their laws could go into operation! This is the true history of slavery in New England. They stole and sold property which it was not profitable to keep, and for which they now refuse all warranty. And what few American ships are in the trade now, at the peril of piracy, are New England ships.
The pious and religious portion of New England Abolitionists, we take it, are the better portion, and in these we have no sort of confidence. Take, for example, the case of that great man, and powerful pulpit orator, Stephen Olin, who came into Georgia, and was introduced into the ministry by Bishop Andrew and his friends, and by this means married a lady owning a number of slaves. He sold them all for the money, pocketed the money, and returned to his congenial North; and when Bishop Andrew was arraigned before the General Conference of 1844, because he had married a widow lady owning a few slaves, this man Olin appeared on the floor, and spoke and voted against the Bishop! Dr. Olin had washed his hands of the sin of slavery—had his money out at interest—and he was ready to plead for the rights of the poor African! May we not exclaim, "Lord, what is man?"
We are acquainted with many of the leading Abolitionists of the North connected with the Methodist Church; and although we suppose they are about as good as the Abolitionists of other denominations we have no confidence in them. The most of them would enter their fine churches on the Sabbath, preach for hours against the sin of slavery, shed their tears over the oppressions of the "servile progeny of Ham," in these Southern States; and on the next day, in a purely business transaction, behind a counter, or in the settlement of an account, cheat a Southern slave out of the pewter that ornaments the head of his cane!
There is much in the political papers of the country calculated, if not intended, to fan a flame of intense warfare upon the subject of slavery, which can result in no possible good to any one. Those politicians who are exciting the whole country, and fanning society into a livid consuming flame, particularly at the North, have no sympathies for the black man, and care nothing for his comfort. They only seek their own glory. This political disquiet and commotion is giving birth to new and loftier schemes of agitation and disunion, among the vile Abolitionists of the country, and to bold and hazardous enterprises in the States and Territories. And many of our Southern altars smoke with the vile incense of Abolitionism. We have scores of Abolitionists in the South, in disguise—designing men—some filling our pulpits—some occupying high positions in our colleges—some editing political and religious papers—some selling goods—and some following one calling and some another, who, though among us, are not of us, Southern men may rest assured!
We endorse, without reserve, that much-abused sentiment of a distinguished South Carolina statesmen, now no more, that "slavery is the corner-stone of our republican edifice;" while we repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much-lauded, but nowhere-accredited dogma of Mr. Jefferson, that "all men are born equal." God never intended to make the butcher a judge, nor the baker a president, but to protect them according to their claims as butcher and baker. Pope has beautifully expressed this sentiment, where he has said:
"Order is heaven's first law, and this confessed,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest."
We have gone among the free negroes at the North—we have visited their miserable dwellings in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and other points; and, in every instance, we have found them more miserable and destitute, as a whole, than the slave population of the South. In our Southern States, where negroes have been set at liberty, in nine cases out of ten their conditions have been made worse; while the most wretched, indolent, immoral, and dishonest class of persons to be found in the Southern States, are free persons of color.
The freedom of negroes in even the Northern States, is, in all respects, only an empty name. The citizen negro does not vote, and takes good care not to do so. The law does not interdict him this privilege, but if he attempt to avail himself of the privilege, he is apprehensive of "apostolic blows and kicks," which the pious Abolitionists will administer to him. All the social advantages, all the respectable employments, all the honors, and even the pleasures of life, are denied the free negroes of the North, by citizens full of sympathy for the down-trodden African! The negro cannot get into an omnibus, cannot enter a bar-room frequented by whites, nor a church, nor a theatre; nor can he enter the cabin of a steamboat, in one of the Northern rivers or lakes, or enter a first class passenger car on one of their railroads. They are not suffered to enter a stage-coach with whites, but are forced upon the deck, whether it shall rain or shine—whether it be hot or cold. Industry is closed to them, and they are forced to live as servants in hotels, or adopt the professions of barber, or boot-black, or open oysters in saloons, or sell villainous liquors to the lower classes of German and Irish emigrants, who throng our large cities and towns. The negroes even have their own streets, and their own low-down kennels; they have their hospitals, their churches, their cars, upon which are written in large letters, "FOR COLORED PEOPLE!" Finally, they are forced to have their own grave-yards—the yellow remains of Northern Abolitionists, and pious white men, refusing to mingle with the bleeching bones of the dead negro! While, in the South, they crowd the galleries and back seats in our churches, travel in our passenger cars, and even loan their money to our white men at interest! Such is an outline of the contrast between free negroes at the North, and slaves at the South.
Let us turn again to the Holy Scriptures, and see whether or not they sustain or condemn the institution of slavery. The opposers of slavery profess to be governed alone by the teachings of the Bible, in their war upon this institution. It is vain to look to Christ or any of his apostles to justify the blasphemous perversions of the word of God, continually paraded before the world by these graceless agitators. Although slavery in its most revolting forms was everywhere visible around them, no visionary notions of piety or schemes of philanthropy ever tempted either Christ or one of his apostles to gainsay the law, even to mitigate the cruel severity of the slavery system then existing. On the contrary, finding slavery established by law, as well as an inevitable and necessary consequence, growing out of the condition of human society, their efforts were to sustain the institution. Hence, St. Paul actually apprehended a "fugitive slave," and sent him back to his lawful owner and earthly master!