212 



SLAVERY. 



few days ; and in gleaning knowledge and 

 information, I was introduced to a Slave Hol- 

 der from South Carolina, who in a conversation 

 on the subject of slavery, literally expressed his 

 surprise that I should think Negroes " had 

 souls like white men ; " and meeting afterwards, 

 at the boarding house, with an intelligent 

 gentleman from one of the slave-holding States, 

 and expressing my surprise that slavery should 

 exist at all in America, the first principle of 

 whose government declares, that " all men are 

 by nature free, equal, and independent ; " he 

 observed, that it could not be supposed that 

 Negroes were considered or thought of as 

 included in the expression, " all men." How- 

 ever persons may sophisticate as apologists for 

 slavery, its existence is grossly inconsistent 

 with the great charter of the nation. It is true, 

 that England first carried slavery to the shores 

 of America, but having thrown off their alle- 

 giance, and made the above noble declaration 

 in the spirit of their constitution, every princi- 

 ple of reason, consistency, and justice, demands 

 the freedom of more than a million of human 

 beings, who are held in oppressive bondage 

 within the territories of the United States. The 

 general government have condemned its unna- 

 tural and forced cruelty, and slavery is abo- 



