Library / Literature & Fiction
Clotel; Or, The President's Daughter
- Pages
- about 208
- Category
- Literature & Fiction
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3.8 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
MORE than two hundred years have elapsed since the first cargo of
slaves was landed on the banks of the James River, in the colony
of Virginia, from the West coast of Africa. From the introduction
of slaves in 1620, down to the period of the separation of the
Colonies from the British Crown, the number had increased to five
hundred thousand; now there are nearly four million. In fifteen
of the thirty-one States, Slavery is made lawful by the
Constitution, which binds the several States into one
confederacy.
On every foot of soil, over which Stars and Stripes wave, the
Negro is considered common property, on which any white man may
lay his hand with perfect impunity. The entire white population
of the United States, North and South, are bound by their oath to
the 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 gain
their freedom by physical force. Twenty-five millions of whites
have banded themselves in solemn conclave to keep four millions of
blacks in their chains. In all grades of society are to be found
men who either hold, buy, or sell slaves, from the statesmen and
doctors of divinity, who can own their hundreds, down to the
person who can purchase but one.
Were it not for persons in high places owning slaves, and thereby
giving the system a reputation, and especially professed
Christians, Slavery would long since have been abolished. The
influence of the great "honours the corruption, and chastisement
doth therefore hide his head." The great aim of the true friends
of the slave should be to lay bare the institution, so that the
gaze 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 to
its own fate.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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