UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

"
what,
extremes
negro should be placed in a situationwhere
he can form a legalmarrii
here to it after it is formed
But Mr. Jones and his coadjutors commenced
by declaring that it was not their
interfere,
the slightest degree,
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 245
intention to
power of reading;
with the legalposition of the slave.
We should have thoughtțhen,that it
would not have been possible, ifthese masters
intended to keeptheir slavesin the condition
liableto a constant dis-
slaveis made to repeatorally that one man
can be the husband of but one woman, and
if,during her lifetime,
God willpunishhim forever in hell.
in Mr. Jones' catechism, by
master is thrown into the market for the
divisionof the estate,like many cases we may
read of in the Georgiapapers every week.
to instruct parents to bringup theirchildren
in the nurture and admonition of the
beingtaugh to read. Searching the Scriptures,
slaves are told, means comingto people
who are willing to read to them. Yes,but
if there bo no one willing to do this,what
then? Any one whom this catechism has
thus instructedis sold off to a plantation
Red river,likethat where Northroplived;
no Bible goes with him ; his Christian instructor
in theircare not to interferewith
his civilcondition, have
deprived him
his oral instructionis but as a faded
dream. Let any
of us ask for what sum
we would be deprived of all power
readingthe Bible for ourselves, and
entirely dependent on
of ever
own, and be readyto sacrificehimself to
of the
and in this land of darkness
"
"
made
of chattelspersonal,
ruption
the reading of others,
of familytiesțhat theycould have especially if we were liable to fall into
the heart to teach them the strict morality such hands as slaves are, and then let us
of the gospelwith regard to the marriagedetermine whether a system of religious instructio
relation.
which beginsby declaring that it
But so it is,however. If we examine has no intention to interferewith this cruel
Mr. Jones' catechism, we shall find that the legaldeprivation, is the gospel !
The poor slave,darkened,blinded, perplexed
on
every hand,bythe influenceswhich
he marries another, the legalsystem has spread under his feet.
is,furthermore, strictly instructed in a perfect
Suppose conscientious a woman, instructed system of morality.He must not
the death of her even covet anything that is his master's; he
must not murmur or be discontented; he
must consider his master's interests as his
She is torn from her husband and children, them;and this he must do,as he istold, not
and sold at the other end of the Union, onlyto the good and gentle, but also to the
never to meet them again,and the new master
froward. He must forgive all injuries, and
commands her to take another husband ; do exactlyright under all perplexities ;
now, is this woman to do? If she thus is the obligation on his partexpounded
take the husband,according to her catechism to him,while his master's reciprocal obligations
she commits adultery, and exposes herself to
mean onlyto give him good houses,
everlasting fire ; if she does not take him, clothes, food,"c. "c, leaving every master
she disobeys her master, who, she has been to determine for himself what isgood in relation
t?.ught. is God's overseer;
and she isexposed to these matters.
to everlasting fire on that account, and certainly
No wonder,when such a system of utter
she is exposedto horrible tortures injustice is justified to the negro by allthe
here.
awful sanctions of religion, that now and
Notv, we ask,if the teachingthat has then a strong soul rises up against it. We
involved this poor soul in such a labyrinth have known under a black skinshrewd minds,
of horrors can be called the gospel ? unconquerable spirits, whose indignant sense
Is it the "
gospel, is itgladtidings in any
ofjustice no such representations could blind.
sense of the words ?
That Mr. Jones has met such isevident ;
In the same manner, this catechism goes for,speakingof the trialsof a missionary
on
them,he says (p.127):
among
the "
Again, in the Tenth Annual Report of
Lord,that they should
He discovers
guide,counsel, restrain
Deism,Scepticism, Universalism.
As alreadystatedțhe various
and govern them.
perversions of the
Again țhese teachers tellthem that gospel,
they
and all the strongobjectionsagains the
truth of God," objections which he may, perhaps,
should search the Scriptures most earnestly, have considered peculiaronly to the cultivated
diligently and continually, at the same time minds, the ripescholarship and profoundintelligence,
of criticsand
declaring that it is not their intention philosophers !
"
here
to
meet on the natural and common groundof a
interfere with the laws which forbid their darkened understanding
a hardened heart.
Associationfor the Religious Instruction
of the Negroes in LibertyCounty,
Georgia," he says: