2. Slavery, as it exists in the
United States, is the
Providentially-arranged means whereby Africa
is to be lifted from her
deep degradation, to a
state of civil and religious liberty.
It must not be supposed, that in
the performance of this task we desire to present an apology for
slavery, or to conciliate favor for it; we have no such intention
or object in view. An institution of Divine appointment does not need
the aid of human writers, further than an explanation of its meaning.
Why should anyone be astonished at
slavery? This is not the only time that it has
been employed as a means of Working out great purposes.
God's chosen and peculiar people; they who
first composed the Church; they to whom the oracles of salvation
were delivered; they of whom the prophets were; they from whom
the Redeemer of the world sprang, were enslaved in
as hard, perhaps in much harder bondage, than has ever been
experienced by Africans in the United States—a bondage
from which they were delivered only after a series of the most
astonishing displays of the Divine displeasure, inflicted upon
their oppressors for their obstinacy in refusing "to let
the people go."
Nor was Egyptian bondage the only bondage they
experienced, for their history shows that there were repeated instances
of captivity, during which they were subject to
the most degrading and humiliating slavery. And their history further
shows, that these instances of captivity were inflicted as
punishments upon them for their unfaithfulness to
God, in disobeying His commands.
Nor was this mode of punishment confined to the
Hebrews; for, the sacred record shows, that it was frequently threatened
and inflicted upon other nations. Indeed, we may say,
slavery has ever
been a
common mode of
divine punishment inflicted upon
nations.”
Continue—Abolitionists
