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one be harsh and cruel; or necessity may compel
him to sell his slaves, and thus they may be thrown into most unhappy
situations. So they live with a heavy cloud of sorrow always before
them, which their eyes can not look through or beyond. There is no
hope-- no EARTHLY hope--for this poor, oppressed race.
Their minds, too, are starved. No education, not even the least, is
allowed. It is a criminal offense in some of the States to teach a slave to
read. Now, if they could be made to exist without any consciousness of
intellectual capacity, it would not be so bad. But this is impossible.
They think and reason and wonder about things which they see and
hear; and, in many cases, feel an eager desire to be instructed. This
desire can not be gratified, because it would unfit them for their servile
condition; therefore all teaching is rigidly denied them. The treasures of
knowledge are bolted and barred to their approach, and they are kept in
the utmost darkness and ignorance. Oh, to starve the mind!-- Is it not
far worse than to starve the body?
There is yet another process of famishing to which the slaves are
subjected. They are not, as a general thing, taught by their masters
about God, the salvation of Jesus Christ or the way to heaven. The
SOUL is starved. To be sure, they pick up, here and there, a few
crumbs of religious truth, and make the most of their scanty supply.
Many of them truly love the Lord; and his unseen presence and joyful

anticipations of heaven make them submissive to their hardships, and
cheerful and faithful in their duties. But they can not thank their
masters for what religious light and knowledge they get.
And who are these that hold their fellow-creatures in such cruel
bondage, starving body, mind, and soul with such indifference and
inhumanity? We blush to tell you. Many of them are of the number of
those who profess to love the Lord their God with all the heart, and
their neighbor as themselves. Can it be possible that God's own
children can participate in such a wickedness; can buy and sell, beat
and kill, their fellow-creatures? Can those who have humbly repented
of sin, and by faith accepted of the salvation of Jesus Christ, turn from
his holy cross to abuse others who are redeemed by the same precious
blood, and are heirs to the same glorious immortality? CAN such be
Christians?
And, children, you probably all understand that slavery is the sole
cause of the sad war which is now ravaging our beloved country; and
Christian people are praying, not only that the war may cease, but that
the sin which has caused it may cease also. We believe that God is
overruling all things to bring about this happy result, and before this
little story shall meet your eyes, there may be no more slaves within
our borders. Still we shall not have written it in vain, if it help you to
realize, more clearly than you have done, the sufferings and
degradation to which this unfortunate class have been subjected, and to
labor with zeal in the work which will then devolve upon us of
educating and elevating them.
My story is not one of UNUSUAL interest. Thousands and ten of
thousands equally affecting might be told, and many far more romantic
and thrilling. What a day will that be, when the recorded history of
every slave-life shall be read before an assembled universe! What a
long catalogue of martyrs and heroes will then be revealed! What
complicated tales of wrongs and woes! What crowns and palms of
victory will then be awarded! What treasures of wrath heaped up
against the day of wrath will then be poured in fiery indignation upon
deserving heads! Truly, then, will come to pass the saying of the Lord

Jesus, "The first shall be last and the last first."
Then, too, will appear most gloriously the loving kindness and tender
mercy of God, who loves to stoop to the poor and humble, and to care
for those who are friendless and alone. It seems as if our Heavenly
Father took special delight in revealing the truths of salvation to this
untutored people, in a mysterious way leading them into gospel light
and liberty; so that though men take pains to keep them in ignorance,
multitudes of them give evidence of piety, and find consolation for
their miseries in the sweet love of God.
It is the dealings of God in guiding one of these to a knowledge of
himself, that I wish to relate to you in the following chapters.

CHAPTER II.
THE BABY.
IN a snug corner of a meager slave-cabin, on a