MORE than two hundred years have elapsed since the first cargo ofslaves was landed on the banks of the James River, in the colonyof Virginia, from the West coast of Africa. From the introductionof slaves in 1620, down to the period of the separation of theColonies from the British Crown, the number had increased to fivehundred thousand; now there are nearly four million. In fifteenof the thirty-one States, Slavery is made lawful by theConstitution, which binds the several States into oneconfederacy.
On every foot of soil, over which Stars and Stripes wave, theNegro is considered common property, on which any white man maylay his hand with perfect impunity. The entire white populationof the United States, North and South, are bound by their oath tothe constitution, and their adhesion to the Fugitive Slaver Law,to hunt down the runaway slave and return him to his claimant,and to suppress any effort that may be made by the slaves to gaintheir freedom by physical force. Twenty-five millions of whiteshave banded themselves in solemn conclave to keep four millions ofblacks in their chains. In all grades of society are to be foundmen who either hold, buy, or sell slaves, from the statesmen anddoctors of divinity, who can own their hundreds, down to theperson who can purchase but one.
Were it not for persons in high places owning slaves, and therebygiving the system a reputation, and especially professedChristians, Slavery would long since have been abolished. Theinfluence of the great "honours the corruption, and chastisementdoth therefore hide his head." The great aim of the true friendsof the slave should be to lay bare the institution, so that thegaze of the world may be upon it, and cause the wise, the prudent,and the pious to withdraw their support from it, and leave it toits own fate. It does the cause of emancipation but little goodto cry out in tones of execration against the traders, thekidnappers, the hireling overseers, and brutal drivers, so longas nothing is said to fasten the guilt on those who move in ahigher circle.
The fact that slavery was introduced into the American colonies,while they were under the control of the British Crown, is asufficient reason why Englishmen should feel a lively interest inits abolition; and now that the genius of mechanical invention hasbrought the two countries so near together, and both having onelanguage and one literature, the influence of British publicopinion is very great on the people of the New World.
If the incidents set forth in the following pages should addanything new to the information already given to the Publicthrough similar publications, and should thereby aid in bringingBritish influence to bear upon American slavery, the main objectfor which this work was written will have been accomplished.
22, Cecil Street, Strand, London.