The Inconsistency of Slavery
Samuel Hopkins
1776
The slavery that now takes place is in a Christian land, and without the express sanction of civil government; and it is all of the same kind and from one original, which is most notoriously unjust. And if it be unrighteous in one instance, it is so in almost every instance; and the unrighteousness of it is most apparent, and most masters have no color of claim to hold their servants in bondage. And this is become a general and crying sin for which we are under the awful frowns of heaven. These things … make it duty to oppose and bear testimony, both in public and more privately, against this evil practice, which is so evidently injurious to individuals, and threatens our ruin as a people. …
It has always been the way of tyrants to take great pains to keep their vassals in ignorance, especially to hide from them the tyranny and oppression of which they are the subjects; and for this reason they are enemies to the liberty of the press, and are greatly provoked when their conduct is set in a true light before the public and the unrighteousness they practise properly exposed. The complaint we are now considering seems to be of the same kind with this, and well becomes all those petty tyrants who have slaves in their possession, which they are conscious they cannot vindicate, but the unrighteousness will be detected if free inquiry and freedom of speech cannot be suppressed. And this complaint is of the same kind with the conduct of the masters of slaves in the West Indies in opposing their being taught anything of Christianity, because they know every gleam of this light carries a discovery of the unrighteousness of the treatment they receive.
The present situation of our public affairs and our struggle for liberty, and the abundant conversation this occasions in all companies — while the poor Negroes look on and hear what an aversion we have to slavery and how much liberty is prized, they often hearing it declared publicly and in private, as the voice of all, that slavery is more to be dreaded than death, and we are resolved to live free or die, etc. — this, I say, necessarily leads them to attend to their own wretched situation more than otherwise they could. They see themselves deprived of all liberty and property, and their children after them, to the latest posterity, subject to the will of those who appear to have no feeling for their misery, and are guilty of many instances of hardheartedness and cruelty toward them, while they think themselves very kind; and, therefore, to make the least complaint, would be deemed the height of arrogance and abuse; and often if they have a comparatively good master now, with constant dread they see a young one growing up, who bids fair to rule over them, or their children, with rigor. …
No wonder there are many and great difficulties in reforming an evil practice of this kind, which has got such deep root by length of time and is become so common. But it does not yet appear that they cannot be removed by the united wisdom and strength of the American colonies, without any injury to the slaves or disadvantage to the public. Yea, the contrary is most certain, as the slaves cannot be put into a more wretched situation, ourselves being judges, and the community cannot take a more likely step to escape ruin and obtain the smiles and protection of Heaven. This matter ought, doubtless, to be attended to by the general assemblies, and continental and provincial congresses; and if they were as much united and engaged in devising ways and means to set at liberty these injured slaves as they are to defend themselves from tyranny, it would soon be effected. … Surely we have no reason to conclude it cannot be done till we see a suitable zeal and resolution among all orders of men, and answerable attempts are thoroughly made.
Let this iniquity be viewed in its true magnitude and in the shocking light in which it has been set in this conversation; let the wretched case of the poor blacks be considered with proper pity and benevolence, together with the probably dreadful consequence to this land of retaining them in bondage, and all objections against liberating them would vanish. …
If parents have a son pressed on board a king's ship, how greatly are they affected with it! They are filled with grief and distress, and will cheerfully be at almost any cost and pains to procure his liberty; and we wonder not at it, but think their exercises and engagedness for his deliverance very just, and stand ready to condemn him who has no feeling for them and their son, and is not ready to afford all the assistance in his power in order to recover him. At the same time, we behold vast numbers of blacks among us, torn from their native country and all their relations, not to serve on board a man-of-war for a few years but to be abject, despised slaves for life, and their children after them, and yet have not the least feelings for them or desire of their freedom. These very parents, perhaps, have a number of Negro slaves on whom they have not the least pity, and stand ready highly to resent it if anyone espouses their cause so much as to propose they should be set at liberty. What reason for this partiality? Ought this so to be? An impartial person, who is not under the prejudices of interest, education, and custom, is shocked with it beyond all expression. The poor Negroes have sense enough to see and feel it, but have no friend to speak a word for them, none to whom they may complain.…
The slaves who are become unprofitable to their masters by the present calamitous state of our country will be with the less reluctance set at liberty, it is hoped; and if no public provision be made for them that they may be transported to Africa, where they might probably live better than in any other country, or be removed into those places in this land where they may have profitable business and are wanted, now so many are called from their farms to defend our country; I say, if this be not done, the masters, by freeing them, would lose nothing by it, even though they continue to support them, till some way shall be open for them to help themselves. I must here again desire every owner of slaves to make their case his own, and consider, if he or his children were unjustly in a state of slavery, whether he should think such an objection against their being set at liberty of any weight.
Would he not rather think it reasonable that the masters who had held them in bondage against all right and reason would consider their being, by an extraordinary Providence, rendered unprofitable to them, as an admonition to break off their sins by righteousness and their iniq uity by showing mercy to these poor; and that it ought to be a greater satisfaction to them thus to do justice without delay and relieve these oppressed poor than to possess all the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world? And if these masters should disregard such an admonition and neglect this opportunity to set them at liberty, putting it off to a more convenient season, would it not be very grievous to him and overwhelm him in despair of their ever doing it? Is it not very certain that they who make this objection against freeing their slaves without delay would not free them if the times should change and they again become profitable? If they must maintain them, can they not do it as well when they are free as while they are slaves, and ought they not to do it with much more satisfaction? …
But if we obstinately refuse to reform what we have implicitly declared to be wrong, and engaged to put away the holding the Africans in slavery, which is so particularly pointed out by the evil with which we are threatened and is such a glaring contradiction to our professed aversion to slavery and struggle for civil liberty, and improve the favor God is showing us as an argument in favor of this iniquity and encouragement to persist in it … have we not the greatest reason to fear, yea, may we not with great certainty conclude, God will yet withdraw His kind protection from us and punish us yet seven times more? This has been God's usual way of dealing with His professing people; and who can say it is not most reasonable and wise?
He, then, acts the most friendly part to these colonies and to the masters of slaves, as well as to the slaves themselves, who does his utmost to effect a general emancipation of the Africans among us. And, in this view, I could wish the conversation we have now had on this subject, if nothing better is like to be done, were published and spread through all the colonies, and had the attentive perusal of every American.
It has always been the way of tyrants to take great pains to keep their vassals in ignorance, especially to hide from them the tyranny and oppression of which they are the subjects; and for this reason they are enemies to the liberty of the press, and are greatly provoked when their conduct is set in a true light before the public and the unrighteousness they practise properly exposed. The complaint we are now considering seems to be of the same kind with this, and well becomes all those petty tyrants who have slaves in their possession, which they are conscious they cannot vindicate, but the unrighteousness will be detected if free inquiry and freedom of speech cannot be suppressed. And this complaint is of the same kind with the conduct of the masters of slaves in the West Indies in opposing their being taught anything of Christianity, because they know every gleam of this light carries a discovery of the unrighteousness of the treatment they receive.
The present situation of our public affairs and our struggle for liberty, and the abundant conversation this occasions in all companies — while the poor Negroes look on and hear what an aversion we have to slavery and how much liberty is prized, they often hearing it declared publicly and in private, as the voice of all, that slavery is more to be dreaded than death, and we are resolved to live free or die, etc. — this, I say, necessarily leads them to attend to their own wretched situation more than otherwise they could. They see themselves deprived of all liberty and property, and their children after them, to the latest posterity, subject to the will of those who appear to have no feeling for their misery, and are guilty of many instances of hardheartedness and cruelty toward them, while they think themselves very kind; and, therefore, to make the least complaint, would be deemed the height of arrogance and abuse; and often if they have a comparatively good master now, with constant dread they see a young one growing up, who bids fair to rule over them, or their children, with rigor. …
No wonder there are many and great difficulties in reforming an evil practice of this kind, which has got such deep root by length of time and is become so common. But it does not yet appear that they cannot be removed by the united wisdom and strength of the American colonies, without any injury to the slaves or disadvantage to the public. Yea, the contrary is most certain, as the slaves cannot be put into a more wretched situation, ourselves being judges, and the community cannot take a more likely step to escape ruin and obtain the smiles and protection of Heaven. This matter ought, doubtless, to be attended to by the general assemblies, and continental and provincial congresses; and if they were as much united and engaged in devising ways and means to set at liberty these injured slaves as they are to defend themselves from tyranny, it would soon be effected. … Surely we have no reason to conclude it cannot be done till we see a suitable zeal and resolution among all orders of men, and answerable attempts are thoroughly made.
Let this iniquity be viewed in its true magnitude and in the shocking light in which it has been set in this conversation; let the wretched case of the poor blacks be considered with proper pity and benevolence, together with the probably dreadful consequence to this land of retaining them in bondage, and all objections against liberating them would vanish. …
If parents have a son pressed on board a king's ship, how greatly are they affected with it! They are filled with grief and distress, and will cheerfully be at almost any cost and pains to procure his liberty; and we wonder not at it, but think their exercises and engagedness for his deliverance very just, and stand ready to condemn him who has no feeling for them and their son, and is not ready to afford all the assistance in his power in order to recover him. At the same time, we behold vast numbers of blacks among us, torn from their native country and all their relations, not to serve on board a man-of-war for a few years but to be abject, despised slaves for life, and their children after them, and yet have not the least feelings for them or desire of their freedom. These very parents, perhaps, have a number of Negro slaves on whom they have not the least pity, and stand ready highly to resent it if anyone espouses their cause so much as to propose they should be set at liberty. What reason for this partiality? Ought this so to be? An impartial person, who is not under the prejudices of interest, education, and custom, is shocked with it beyond all expression. The poor Negroes have sense enough to see and feel it, but have no friend to speak a word for them, none to whom they may complain.…
The slaves who are become unprofitable to their masters by the present calamitous state of our country will be with the less reluctance set at liberty, it is hoped; and if no public provision be made for them that they may be transported to Africa, where they might probably live better than in any other country, or be removed into those places in this land where they may have profitable business and are wanted, now so many are called from their farms to defend our country; I say, if this be not done, the masters, by freeing them, would lose nothing by it, even though they continue to support them, till some way shall be open for them to help themselves. I must here again desire every owner of slaves to make their case his own, and consider, if he or his children were unjustly in a state of slavery, whether he should think such an objection against their being set at liberty of any weight.
Would he not rather think it reasonable that the masters who had held them in bondage against all right and reason would consider their being, by an extraordinary Providence, rendered unprofitable to them, as an admonition to break off their sins by righteousness and their iniq uity by showing mercy to these poor; and that it ought to be a greater satisfaction to them thus to do justice without delay and relieve these oppressed poor than to possess all the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world? And if these masters should disregard such an admonition and neglect this opportunity to set them at liberty, putting it off to a more convenient season, would it not be very grievous to him and overwhelm him in despair of their ever doing it? Is it not very certain that they who make this objection against freeing their slaves without delay would not free them if the times should change and they again become profitable? If they must maintain them, can they not do it as well when they are free as while they are slaves, and ought they not to do it with much more satisfaction? …
But if we obstinately refuse to reform what we have implicitly declared to be wrong, and engaged to put away the holding the Africans in slavery, which is so particularly pointed out by the evil with which we are threatened and is such a glaring contradiction to our professed aversion to slavery and struggle for civil liberty, and improve the favor God is showing us as an argument in favor of this iniquity and encouragement to persist in it … have we not the greatest reason to fear, yea, may we not with great certainty conclude, God will yet withdraw His kind protection from us and punish us yet seven times more? This has been God's usual way of dealing with His professing people; and who can say it is not most reasonable and wise?
He, then, acts the most friendly part to these colonies and to the masters of slaves, as well as to the slaves themselves, who does his utmost to effect a general emancipation of the Africans among us. And, in this view, I could wish the conversation we have now had on this subject, if nothing better is like to be done, were published and spread through all the colonies, and had the attentive perusal of every American.
Questions for Reflection
1) What types of terms does Hopkins use throughout the speech to describe Slavery to give it moral weight? Hint: What words does he use to show that Slavery is wrong?
2) What is the contradiction that Hopkins points out between the claims and complaints of Revolutionary America and the state of bondage that the Colonists held their slaves in? Hint: What problem is there with a slave owner stating: “Give me liberty or give me death”?
3) The freedom of slaves cannot be achieved until all the Colonists have what attitude? Hopkins later expands on this and states that the slave owners must “make their (the slaves) case his own.” What does this mean? And how would it affect their view of Slavery?
4) In what way does Hopkins attempt to stir the emotions of his readers to cause a response? He attempts here to help the Colonists put themselves in the slaves’ shoes by likening slavery to an evil that was occurring at the time. How would this change their feelings about Slavery?
5) What is Hopkins’ final and most weighty reason for abolishing slavery? What will be the result if America fails to act?
2) What is the contradiction that Hopkins points out between the claims and complaints of Revolutionary America and the state of bondage that the Colonists held their slaves in? Hint: What problem is there with a slave owner stating: “Give me liberty or give me death”?
3) The freedom of slaves cannot be achieved until all the Colonists have what attitude? Hopkins later expands on this and states that the slave owners must “make their (the slaves) case his own.” What does this mean? And how would it affect their view of Slavery?
4) In what way does Hopkins attempt to stir the emotions of his readers to cause a response? He attempts here to help the Colonists put themselves in the slaves’ shoes by likening slavery to an evil that was occurring at the time. How would this change their feelings about Slavery?
5) What is Hopkins’ final and most weighty reason for abolishing slavery? What will be the result if America fails to act?