The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  far as in you lies, endeavour to secure for them, in every walk of

  life, the ordinary privileges of American citizens. If they are

  excluded from the omnibus and railroad-car in the place where

  you reside, endeavour to persuade those who have the control of

  these matters to pursue a more just and reasonable course.

  Those Christians who are heads of mechanical establishments

  can do much for the cause by receiving coloured apprentices.

  Many masters excuse themselves for excluding the coloured

  apprentice by saying that, if they receive him, all their other

  hands will desert them. To this it is replied, that if they do

  the thing in a Christian temper and for a Christian purpose,

  the probability is that, if their hands desert at first, they will

  return to them at last--all of them, at least, whom they would

  care to retain.

  A respectable dressmaker in one of our towns has, as a matter

  of principle, taken coloured girls for apprentices; thus furnishing

  them with a respectable means of livelihood. Christian me-

  chanies, in all the walks of life, are earnestly requested to con-

  "> sider this subject, and see if, by offering their hand to raise this

  poor people to respectability, and knowledge, and competence,

  they may not be performing a service which the Lord will

  accept as done unto himself.

  Another thing which is earnestly commended to Christians is

  the raising and comforting of those poor Churches of coloured

  people, who have been discouraged, dismembered, and dis-

  heartened by the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law.

  In the city of Boston is a Church which, even now, is

  struggling with debt and embarrassment, caused by being obliged

  to buy its own deacons, to shield them from the terrors of that

  law.

  Lastly, Christians at the North, we need not say, should

  abstain from all trading in slaves, whether direct or indirect,

  whether by partnership with Southern houses or by receiving

  immortal beings as security for debt. It is not necessary to

  expand this point. It speaks for itself.

  By all these means the Christian Church at the North must

  secure for itself purity from all complicity with the sin of slavery,

  and from the unchristian customs and prejudices which have

  resulted from it.

  The second means to be used for the abolition of slavery is

  “Knowledge.”

  Every Christian ought thoroughly, carefully, and prayerfully

  to examine this system of slavery. He should regard it as

  one upon which he is bound to have right views and right

  opinions, and to exert a right influence in forming and con-

  centrating a powerful public sentiment, of all others the most

  efficacious remedy. Many people are deterred from examining

  the statistics on this subject, because they do not like the

  men who have collected them. They say they do not like

  abolitionists, and therefore they will not attend to those facts

  and figures which they have accumulated. This, certainly, is

  not wise or reasonable. In all other subjects which deeply

  affect our interests, we think it best to take information where

  we can get it, whether we like the persons who give it to us

  or not.

  Every Christian ought seriously to examine the extent to

  which our national government is pledged and used for the sup-

  port of slavery. He should thoroughly look into the statistics

  of slavery in the District of Columbia, and, above all, into the

  statistics of that awful system of legalisad piracy and oppression

  by which hundreds and thousands are yearly porn froi hoie

  and friands, and all that heart holds daar, and carried to be sold

  like beasts in the markets of the South. The smoke from this

  bottomless abyss of injustice puts out the light of our Sabbath

  suns in the eyes of all nations. Its awful groans and wailings

  drown the voice of our psalms and religious melodies. All

  nations know these things of us, and shall we not know them of

  ourselves? Shall we not have courage, shall we not have

  patience, to investigate thoroughly our own bad case, and gain a

  perfect knowledge of the length and breadth of the evil we seek

  to remedy?

  The third means for the abolition of slavery is by “Long-

  suffering.”

  Of this quality there has been some lack in the attempts that

  have hitherto been made. The friends of the cause have not

  had patience with each other, and have not been able to treat

  each other's opinions with forbearance. There have been many

  painful things in the past history of this subject; but is it not

  time when all the friends of the slave should adopt the motto,

  “forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto

  those which are before?” Let not the believers of immediate

  abolition call those who believe in gradual emancipation time-

  servers and traitors; and let not the upholders of gradual

  emancipation call the advocates of immediate abolition fanatics

  and incendiaries. Surely some more brotherly way of convincing

  good men can be found, than by standing afar off on some Ebal

  and Gerizim, and cursing each other. The truth spoken in love

  will always go further than the truth spoken in wrath; and, after

  all, the great object is to persuade our Southern brethren to

  admit the idea of any emancipation at all. When we have

  succeeded in persuading them that anything is necessary to

  be done, then will be the time for bringing up the question

  whether the object shall be accomplished by an immediate or

  a gradual process. Meanwhile, let our motto be, “Whereto

  we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let

  us mind the same things; and if any man be otherwise minded,

  God shall reveal even this unto him.” “Let us receive even him

  that is weak in the faith, but not to doubtful disputations.” Let

  us not reject the good there is in any, because of some remain-

  ing defects.

  We come now to the consideration of a power without which

  all others must fail--“the Holy Ghost.”

  The solemn creed of every Christian Church, whether Roman,

  Greek. Episcopal, or Protestant, says, “I believe in the Holy

  Ghost.” But how often do Christians, in all these denomina-

  tions, live and act, and even conduct their religious affairs

  as if they had “never so much as heard whether there be any

  Holy Ghost.” If we trust to our own reasonings, our own

  misguided passions, and our own blind self-will, to effect the

  reform of abuses, we shall utterly fail. There is a power, silent,

  convincing, irresistible, which moves over the dark and troubled

  heart of man, as of old it moved over the dark and troubled

  waters of Chaos, bringing light out of darkness, and order out

  of confusion.

  Is it not evident to everyone who takes enlarged views of

  human society that a gentle but irresistible influence is pervading

  the human race, prompting groanings, and longings, and dim

  aspirations for some coming era of goo
d? Worldly men read

  the signs of the times, and call this power the Spirit of the

  Age--but should not the Church acknowledge it as the Spirit

  of God?

  Let it not be forgotten, however, that the gift of his most

  powerful regenerating influence, at the opening of the Christian

  dispensation, was conditioned on prayer. The mighty movement

  that began on the day of Pentecost was preceded by united,

  fervent, persevering prayer. A similar spirit of prayer must

  precede the coming of the divine Spirit, to effect a revolution so

  great as that at which we aim. The most powerful instrumen-

  tality which God has delegated to man, and around which cluster

  all his glorious promises, is prayer. All past prejudices and

  animosities on this subject must be laid aside, and the whole

  Church unite as one man in earnest, fervent prayer. Have we

  forgotten the promise of the Holy Ghost? Have we forgotten

  that He was to abide with us for ever? Have we forgotten that

  it is He who is to convince the world of sin, of righteousness,

  and of judgment? O divine and Holy Comforter! thou

  promise of the Father! thou only powerful to enlighten, con-

  vince, and renew! return, we beseech thee, and visit this vine

  and this vineyard of thy planting! With thee nothing is im-

  possible; and what we, in our weakness, can scarcely conceive,

  thou canst accomplish!

  Another means for the abolition of slavery is “Love unfeigned.”

  In all moral conflicts, that party who can preserve, through

  every degree of opposition and persecution, a divine, unprovok-

  able spirit of love, must finally conquer. Such are the immutable

  laws of the moral world. Anger, wrath, selfishness, and jealousy

  have all a certain degree of vitality. They often produce more

  show, more noise, and temporary result than love. Still, all

  these passions have in themselves the seeds of weakness. Love,

  and love only, is immortal; and when all the grosser passions of

  the soul have spent themselves by their own force, love looks

  forth like the unchanging star, with a light that never dies.

  In undertaking this work, we must love both the slaveholder

  and the slave. We must never forget that both are our brethren.

  We must expect to be misrepresented, to be slandered, and to

  be hated. How can we attack so powerful an interest without

  it? We must be satisfied simply with the pleasure of being

  true friends, while we are treated as bitter enemies.

  This holy controversy must be one of principle, and not of

  sectional bitterness. We must not suffer it to degenerate, in our

  hands, into a violent prejudice against the South; and, to this

  end, we must keep continually before our minds the more amiable

  features and attractive qualities of those with whose principles

  we are obliged to conflict. If they say all manner of evil against

  us, we must reflect that we expose them to great temptation to

  do so when we assail institutions to which they are bound by a

  thousand ties of interest and early association, and to whose evils

  habit has made them in a great degree insensible. The apostle

  gives us this direction in cases where we are called upon to deal

  with offending brethren, “Consider thyself, lest thou also be

  tempted.” We may apply this to our own case, and consider

  that if we had been exposed to the temptations which surround

  our friends at the South, and received the same education,

  we might have felt, and thought, and acted as they do. But,

  while we cherish all these considerations, we must also remem-

  ber that it is no love to the South to countenance and defend

  a pernicious system; a system which is as injurious to the

  master as to the slave; a system which turns fruitful fields to

  deserts; a system ruinous to education, to morals, and to religion

  and social progress; a system of which many of the most intel-

  ligent and valuable men at the South are weary, and from which

  they desire to escape, and by emigration are yearly escaping.

  Neither must we concede the rights of the slave; for he is also

  our brother, and there is a reason why we should speak for him

  which does not exist in the case of his master. He is poor, un-

  educated, and ignorant, and cannot speak for himself. We must,

  therefore, with greater jealousy, guard his rights. Whatever else

  we compromise, we must not compromise the rights of the help-

  less, nor the eternal principles of rectitude and morality.

  We must never concede that it is an honourable thing to

  deprive working-men of their wages, though, like many other

  abuses, it is customary, reputable, and popular, and though ami-

  able men, under the influence of old prejudices, still continue to

  do it. Never, not even for a moment, should we admit the

  thought that an heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus Christ may

  lawfully be sold upon the auction-block, though it be a common

  custom. We must repudiate, with determined severity, the

  blasphemous doctrine of property in human beings.

  Some have supposed it an absurd refinement to talk about

  separating principles and persons, or to admit that he who

  upholds a bad system can be a good man. All experience proves

  the contrary. Systems most unjust and despotic have been

  defended by men personally just and humane. It is a melan-

  choly consideration, but no less true, that there is almost no

  absurdity and no injustice that has not, at some period of the

  world's history, had the advantage of some good man's virtues

  in its support.

  It is a part of our trial in this imperfect life--were evil

  systems only supported by the evil, our moral discipline would

  be much less severe than it is, and our course in attacking error

  far plainer.

  On the whole, we cannot but think that there was much Chris-

  tian wisdom in the remark, which we have before quoted, of a

  poor old slave-woman, whose whole life had been darkened by

  this system, that we must “hate the sin, but love the sinner.”

  The last means for the abolition of slavery is the armour of

  righteousness on the right hand and on the left.

  By this we mean an earnest application of all straightforward,

  honourable, and just measures, for the removal of the system of

  slavery. Every man, in his place, should remonstrate against it.

  All its sophistical arguments should be answered, its biblical

  defences unmasked, by correct reasoning and interpretation.

  Every mother should teach the evil of it to her children. Every

  clergyman should fully and continually warm his Church against

  any complicity with such a sin. It is said that this would be

  introducing politics into the pulpit. It is answered that, since

  people will have to give an account of their political actions in

  the day of judgment, it seems proper that the minister should

  instruct them somewhat as to their political responsibilities. In

  that day Christ will ask no man whether he was of this or that

  party; but he certainly will ask him whether he gave his vote

&n
bsp; in the fear of God, and for the advancement of the kingdom of

  righteousness.

  It is often objected that slavery is a distant sin, with which

  we have nothing to do. If any clergyman wishes to test this

  fact, let him once plainly and faithfully preach upon it. He

  will probably, then, find that the roots of the poison-tree have

  run under the very hearthstone of New England families, and

  that in his very congregation are those in complicity with this

  sin.

  It is no child's play to attack an institution which has ab-

  sorbed into itself so much of the political power and wealth of

  this nation; and they who try it will soon find that they wrestle

  “not with flesh and blood.” No armour will do for this war-

  fare but the “armour of righteousness.”

  To our brethren in the South, God has pointed out a more

  arduous conflict. The very heart shrinks to think what the

  faithful Christian must endure who assails this institution on its

  own ground; but it must be done. How was it at the North?

  There was a universal effort to put down the discussion of it

  here by mob law. Printing-presses were broken, houses torn

  down, property destroyed. Brave men, however, stood firm;

  martyr blood was shed for the right of free opinion in speech;

  and so the right of discussion was established. Nobody tries

  that sort of argument now--its day is past. In Kentucky, also,

  they tried to stop the discussion by similar means. Mob vio-

  lence destroyed a printing-press, and threatened the lives of indi-

  viduals. But there were brave men there, who feared not violence

  or threats of death; and emancipation is now open for discussion

  in Kentucky. The fact is, the South must discuss the matter of

  slavery. She cannot shut it out, unless she lays an embargo on

  the literature of the whole civilised world. If it be, indeed,

  divine and God-appointed, why does she so tremble to have it

  touched? If it be of God, all the free inquiry in the world

  cannot overthrow it. Discussion must and will come. It only

  requires courageous men to lead the way.

  Brethren in the South, there are many of you who are truly

  convinced that slavery is a sin, a tremendous wrong; but if you

  confess your sentiments, and endeavour to propagate your opi-

  nions, you think that persecution, affliction, and even death

  await you. How can we ask you, then, to come forward?