Right and wrong in Massachusetts

Right and wrong in Massachusetts

Before bringing forward upon the stage the characters who figure in the drama, I have endeavored to make the reader acquainted with the ground on which the different scenes were to be acted. The position of New England in 1829, was a most cheerless one for Freedom. All the great interests of the country were nearly or remotely involved in slaveholding, through all their various arrangements, civil, ecclesiastical, mercantile and matrimonial; yet all disclaimed its alliance. Every body was, in some way or other, actively or passively, sustaining slavery; yet every body disclaimed all responsibility for its existence, opposed all efforts for its extinction, and was as much anti-slavery as any body else. Even the natural and kindly tide of human sympathy for [Pg 4]suffering, was turned away from the service of Freedom by the Colonization Society. The moving principles of Northern and Southern life, had become inseparably mingled below the surface of events, like the roots of giant trees beneath the soil. In the midst of this utter ignorance, iron indifference and base hypocrisy respecting that groundwork of the human soul,its Freedomrose up one to vindicate the grandeur and paramount importance of its universal claim. He was youngunknownpoor:lord of his presence, and no wealth beside. But he had that best of all educations, self-education, and that best of all qualifications for his work, an entire devotedness to the principles of liberty which he had espoused. Every step he took, was characteristic. He was enabled by his ability as a writer, his skill as a practical mechanic, and his laborious self-denial, to issue the first number of a periodical, without having obtained a single subscriber. To him and to the principles he advocated, the important thing was to find readers; which the power evinced in his little sheet enabled him to do. Its name was characteristic. It was neither a journal, nor an observer, nor a register, nor a recorder, nor an examiner. He called it THE[Pg 5] LIBERATOR. Any other name would have but feebly expressed the depth and affirmative nature of its principles. Those sacred and fundamental principles found a response in the land, though the hearts from which it came, were few and far between. The New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed; and as man after man planted himself by the side of Garrison and Knapp, a sense of duty seemed to pervade the soul of eachthe duty of promulgating the truth of whose beauty and necessity his soul was then made sensible. The Liberator was not their organ, in an official sense,but how could they conscientiously do otherwise than sustain the instrumentality which their own experience had proved so effectual? ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 68457
Author: Chapman, Maria Weston
Release Date: Jul 4, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: Dow & Jackson's Anti-slavery Press
Publication Date: 1839
Publisher Country: United States