The Light and Truth of Slavery E-Book

Aaron

• Herausgeber: Andura Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

A true and powerful story of the resilience of the human spirit. An American classic.

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Leseprobe

The Light and Truth of Slavery -

Aaron's History

By Aaron

        Reader, here is the picture of the poor, way-faring, degraded Aaron.

        There is clear evidence in the life and history of Aaron, that he has been a slave. Aaron cannot read a word. There are very few full blooded blacks at the South that can read a word, Aaron says.

        Now reader, Aaron wants you to buy this book. I don't want you to buy it merely to read it through, I want you to buy it and I want you to read it, not for to lay it up in your head, but to lay it up in your heart, and then you will remember the poor way-faring Bondman. The two-thirds of this little book was made up by the poor way-faring degraded Aaron. The Bible says, faith without works is a dead article.

        Aaron has a great knowledge of the Bible, but cannot read a word.

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                         One mouth and one back to two hands is the law

                         That the hand of his Maker has stamped upon man,

                         But slavery lays on God's image her paw,

                         And fixes him out on a different plan:

                         Two mouths and two backs to two hands she creates,

                         And the consequence is, as she might have expected,

                         Let the hands do the best upon all her estates,

                         The mouths go half fed and the backs half protected.

        "Whose eyes stand out with fatness having more than heart could wish," who will turn a deaf ear to their own flesh when it passes along, and do walk like Priests and Levites clear, and no relief provide. God in his anger down on you looks. A dreadful damning sin. The men that go to Congress, are men of good talents and principles, yet all the horrors and butcheries of slavery they sanction. Aaron thinks they are as destitute of moral principles as a horse.

        Now God Almighty has spared us to see almost another new year through a great deal of sorrow and tribulation; but yet he has spared our unworthy bodies so far, and has not sunk us as Mr. Miller has prophesied, but we ought not to make our boast about it, for it may not be too late yet, because we do not know when the Lord will break out in judgment against us, when we are living in so much sin and iniquity, when dangers stand thick through all the land to push us to the tomb, and we would go to the tomb if it was not for a merciful God. He is slow to anger and abundant in mercy. he commands us to touch not and handle not unclean things, but come out from among the wicked and dwell among the righteous. Do we do this? but Aaron thinks not. In our free and independent country, where God's holy word is scattered throughout the United States, there is almost three million slaves and about one million of them the white brethren's sons and daughters. Well now you all unite together and uphold the mother of abomination. Now, men, who call yourselves christians, be wise and consistent, and do not go to the polls and vote for a man that will turn you right out of doors. Now when you white friends was running Mr. Harrison for President, they made such a fuss that Aaron thought Mr. Harrison was going to make milk and honey flow through the face of the earth, which when he took his seat he did not live but a short time. God Almighty thundered from the eternal heavens and sent for him, and Aaron trusts he has gone right home to heaven, and Aaron prays God that he may keep him low in the valley of humility, that at the end of the warfare I may have grace to leap right home to heaven, and I trust to hail Mr. Harrison there.

        When Tyler came upon the throne, what did he do but turn

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men right out of office, who had half a dozen little children crying for bread. Now what more can you expect from a slave-holding man, for you can expect nothing more, and if you men would be consistent with your prayers, and pray from the centre of your heart, then God would hear and answer and bless your prayers, and let the oppressed go free, but you see you don't pray in faith, believing, that is the reason that you cannot see to vote for good honorable men. Their heads is full of the knowledge of the Almighty and their hearts is shut up with sin and iniquity. Aaron's views on slavery connected with politics.

        When Aaron struck in New Jersey, it began to grow dark about two miles before I come to Elizabethtown, it was very cold, I traveled through a swamp about one quarter of a mile.

        When I got into Elizabethtown, I was covered with mud up to my knees and almost froze. I fell into several houses and asked them if they would be good enough to let me warm me, but none of them would be good enough. I almost sunk in despair and I thought I would freeze. I fell into a house where there was an old gentleman, and I asked him if he would be good enough to let me come and warm myself, he told me yes he would; my heart leaped for joy, because I was almost chilled through. Aaron says he had two daughters and they were very fine women, and one of them had lived in Missouri for four years, her husband died and she became a widow. It was a very cold windy night, and I asked him if he would be good enough to let me lay down in the kitchen all night by the fire. No you shant lay in the house, he said, but you may go and lay in the barn. And his daughter that had become a widow in Missouri, she kept house for her father, she gave Aaron a first rate of a supper, and a pair of dry trowsers to put on, and a good pair of dry socks to put on, and two good blankets and a quilt, and she slipped them to me out of the kitchen window, she told me in the morning when I got up to fetch them down out of the hay loft and put them in the carriage. I did so, I came to the kitchen and she refreshed me with a first rate of a breakfast, and I had long talk with her, she told me after her husband died she went about twelve miles out of the city of St. Louis, and kept school for a planter that owned one hundred and six slaves. She told me that he cut up with his female slaves more than he did with his wife, she said sometimes his poor wife was almost crazy, and he tried to cut up the same capers with me, but he missed of it, and he pretended to be a member of the church too. She told me that when the sinful capers was found out by every one of the free States, she thought then slavery would be abolished and not before. She told me she came home to her father's house as quick as she could get away. What a blessed thing it is for any one when they meet with sorrow and afflictions, to have a father's home to go to.

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Now the poor slave when he is tied to the whipping post and whipped almost to death, he has no father to protect him, and no mother to protect him, and no one to fly to but his Heavenly Father. They have to bear patiently with their hard task masters, and live humble and faithful to God, and then at the end of the warfare God will richly crown them in heaven.

        When I was travelling in Foxboro, I fell in among Universalists, and they entertained the way-faring and degraded Aaron very hospitably, and treated me like a brother, minister and all. They wrote considerable for Aaron towards printing in my book, and throwed in and helped me to some money towards getting it printed. I staid seven days with them. And I bid 'em good bye, and wished the blessing of God upon 'em. Aaron says he wonders there arn't a thousand Universalists to where there is one. He wonders there arn't a thousand infidels in the world to where there is one, because the white brethren believe in the true light and gospel, and sentiments of the Holy Ghost, and yet set a bad example for their white brethren to stumble over. That is what makes me say it is a wonder there is not a thousand infidels and Universalists to where there is one. Men, again, who live up to the moral law, wont enslave their brethren. Aaron says that no true hearted Christian will begin to hold his brother in bonds. The bible says, he that stealeth a man and selleth him, shall surely be put to death. If he is found in his hands, that thief shall die. If a man hateth his brother whom he has already seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen. God says, in the eyes of man, there is respect to persons, but in his eyes, there is no respect to persons. Whenever a man is cleansed from his sin and iniquity, he is a new formed creature in Christ Jesus. Christ is in that white friend the hope of glory, and he is in Christ, and so therefore there is no respect to persons. He will treat an African brother as well as a white brother. He will not oppress him. If he is a wolf clothed in sheep's clothing, he will stand up and say, it is right to enslave the African brother.--But if he is a sincere, godly man, he will not stand up and say it is right.

        When Aaron was in the middle of the town in Wrentham, I fell among several anti-slavery families, and they treated me very coldly, much as ever I could do to get a place to sleep, but the Lord opened the heart of a white brother who had not been living in the place more than six months, who gave me a first rate bed to sleep in, and first rate food to eat. The next morning was a very pleasant one, and I told him if I never saw him no more, that I might have grace to meet him in heaven, and bid him and his family good by.

        I fell in with a young minister. * * * * His wife was a short woman of dark hair, and she made out to write Aaron part of a chapter. His wife entertained Aaron very hospitably, she asked me if I would not have something to eat, and I thanked

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her and told her no, but I told her I would take a bite along with me, and, say she, very well; and so she gave me two or three crusts of bread and a couple of slices of mouldy meat which smelt. And the minister was a very holy man, and he chastised Aaron a couple of times about speaking the Lord's name in vain, but Aaron is afraid he is a wolf clothed in sheep's clothing. With all his holiness, the crust of bread and couple slices of mouldy meat was good enough for me. I trust that he may get to heaven; and I may be shut out, but he has got to shake off some of the sin connected with his holiness before he will see his father's face in heaven.

        Beggars ought not to be choosers, but Aaron did not go in there begging for victuals to eat. I went there begging them to write a little for me, being as I could not write a word myself, and it is there they did write a little for me. Being as his wife asked me to eat some, I thought she might give me food good to eat, not give me food no better than for a hog to eat, and as poor and in poverty as I am, I never would ask them to eat unless I gave them as good food as I eat. We all ought to learn to be consistent with our holy grace, for Aaron firmly believes that God is a Being that will not be mocked; he is long suffering and abundant in mercy, and he that endures unto the end, he richly will crown in heaven, but the hypocrite he will turn a deaf ear to, and shut them out of his holy presence. Aaron thinks if he ever gets to heaven, he will hail a great many Universalists there--them that believe in the true light and gospel of God's holy word. I am afraid a great many of them will have to take a leap in the dark.

        Twelve miles before Aaron struck into Uxbridge, I fell in with a Universalist. Aaron did not learn his name, he treated me as a brother, but I never shall forget his form, he did'nt and sorrowful did he promise to pity and shift Aaron for money from friend to friend. He helped him to lodging and to victuals and in money. He told of a quaker man who was a great abolitionist, he lived in Uxbridge. Aaron went to him and he took my letter and read it, and then told me to go about my business. Aaron says it did not astonish me, the Quaker brethren is like one half of the Methodist brethren, they are complete wolves clothed in sheep's clothing.

        When Aaron was in Mendon, the friendly people throwed in and helped me considerable towards getting my book printed. When Aaron was in Blackstone, there was a white gentleman asked me if I had saw -- -- brother-in-law, who lately removed from Connecticut State, and I told him that I had saw his wife, but I had not seen her husband, yet he told me that he pretended to be a great anti-slavery man, he told me that when I saw him, that he guessed he would give me twenty-five cents. I went to his house Sunday morning about eleven o'clock, and I told him I had got victuals enough to board myself, I asked him if he would'nt be clever enough to keep Aaron there all night till Monday morning,

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he told me no, and he would'nt do it, and found as much fault with Aaron as if I had been boarding with him six months. Aaron thinks instead of being an anti-slavery man that he is a great rebel as ever trod the soil of New England country. Aaron thinks if he had him in the South and he thought he could make one dollar on me that he would sell me as quick as lightning.

        Aaron was a man born in the South. Aaron's parents have been dead this something like twenty-three years. Aaron says that it was nothing but hard work and hard usage that killed them. That gentleman in Millville, told me there was plenty of work to be done there. There were several told me there were two or three gentlemen in business there that were now broken up, and there were as many as eight or nine men there told me business was very hard. When a man's heart is shut up with sin and iniquity he generally always speaks what comes uppermost, let it be a lie or the truth, but the lie generally always comes first.

SLAVERY A SIN.

        We believe slavery to be a sin--always, every where, and only sin. Sin in itself, apart from the occasional rigors incidental to its administration, and from all those perils, liabilities, and positive inflictions to which its victims are continually exposed. Sin is the nature of the act which created it, and in the elements which constitute it. Sin, because it converts persons into things; men into property; God's image into merchandize. Because it forbids men from using themselves for the advancement of their own well being, and turns them into mere instruments to be used by others solely for the benefit of the users. Because it constitutes one man the owner of the body, soul, and spirit of other men; gives him power and permission to make his own pecuniary profit, the great end of their being, thus striking them out of existence as beings, possessing rights and susceptibilities of happiness, and forcing them to exist merely as appendages to his own existence, in other words, because slavery holds and uses men as mere means for which to accomplish ends, of which end, their own interests are not a part. Thus annihilating the sacred and eternal distinction between a person and a thing; a distinction proclaimed an axiom of all human consciousness; a distinction created by God--crowned with glory and honor in the attributes, intelligence, morality, accountability and immortality, existence, and commended to the homage of universal mind, by the concurrent testimony of nature, providence, conscience and revelation, by the blood of the atonement, and the sanction of eternity, authenticated by the seal of Deity, and in its own nature, effaceless and immutable. This distinction slavery contemns, disannuls, and tramples under foot. This is its fundamental element--its vital constituent principle, that which makes it a sin in itself under whatever modification existing, all the incidental

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effects of the system flow spontaneously from its fountain head. The constant exposure of the slaves to outrage and the actual inflictions which they experience in innumerable forms, all result legitimately from this principle, assumed in the theory and embodied in the practice of slave-holding.

                         Ah me, what wish can prosper, or what prayer,