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Show ' 134 TilE MONTIILY OFFERING. No !-no one can know my feelings,-no one alas but he, who is, as I was, the father of a slave. Th~ fath~r of a slav~! And_ is it true, then, that this child of my hopes and wtshe~, thts pledge of mutual love, this dear, dear in· fant of whom I am the father, is it true he is not mine? Is it not my duty and my right, a right and duty dearer than life, to watch over his helpless infancy and to ·ear him with all a father's tenderl'ess and love, t; a manhood, that will perhaps repay my care, and in turn, sustain and cherish me, a tottering \\·eak old man? l\Iy duty it may be; bnt it is not my right. A slave can have no rights. His wife, his child, his toil, his blood, his life, and every thing that gives his life a value, they are not his; he holds them all but at his master's pleasure. He can possess nothing; and if there is any thing he seems to have,. it is only by a sufferance which exists but in his owner's will. This very child, this very tender babe, may be torn from my arms, and sold to-morrow into the hands of a stranger, and I shall ha1•e no right to interfere. Or if not so; if some compassion be yielded to his infancy, and if he be not snatched from his father's embraces and his mother's bosom while he is yet all unconscious of his misery, yet what a sad, wretched, desolate fate awaits him! Shut out from every chance or hope of any thing which it is worth one's while to live for :-bred up a slave! A slava !-That single word, what volumes it does speak! It speaks of chains, of whips and tortures, compulsive labor, hunger and fatigl.lCs, and all the mi5eries our wretched bodies suffer. It speaks of haughty power, and '.nsolent commands; of insatiate avarice; of pampered pnde and purse-proud luxury; and of the cold indifference and scorn· ful unconcern with which the oppressor looks down up_o~ his victims. It speaks of crouching fear, and base servth· ty; of low, mean cunning, and treacherous revenge. It speaks of humanity outraged; manhood degraded; _the so· cia! charities of life, the sacred ties of father, w1fe and child trampled under foot; of aspirations crushed; of hope THEY ARE HAPPY. 135 extino-uished; and the light of knowledge sacrilegiously put o~t. It speaks o_f man deprived of all tha~ makes him amiable or makes htm noble; stnpped of h1s ~guJ, and sunk into a beast. And thou, my child, to this fate thou art bom! May Heaven have mercy on thee, for man has none! The first burst of in3tinctive and thoughtless pleasure, with which I had looked upon my infant boy, was dissipat· ed forever, the moment I had recovered myself enough to recollect what he was born to. Various and ever chang· ing, but always wretched and distressing were the feelings with which I gazed at him, as he slept upon his mother's bosom, or waking, smiled at her caresses. He ,was indeed a pretty babe ;-a dear, dear chil<! ;-and for his mother's sake I loved him, how I loved him! Yet struggle as I might, I could not, for a moment, escape the bitter thought of what his fate must be. Full wei! I knew that did he live to he a man, he would repay my love, and justly, with curses, curses on the father who had bestowed upon him nothing but a life incumbered and made worse than worthless, by the inheritance of slavery. I found no longer the same •pleasure in Cassy's society, which it used to afford me; or rather the pleasure which I could not but take in it, was intermingled with much new misery. I did not lov_e her less.; but the birth of that hoy had mfused fresh bttterness mto the cup of servitude. Whenever I looked upon him, my mind was filled wi~h horrid images. The whole future seemed to come visibly before me. I saw him naked, churned, and bleedino- under the lash; I saw him a wretched, trembling creature" crino-ing to escape it; I sa\V him utterly debased, and th~ spirit of manh~od extinguished within him; already he appear· ed that worthless thmg,-a slave contented with his fate! I could not bear_ it. I started up in a phrensy of passion; I s~atched the chtld from the arms of his mother, and Whtle I loaded him with caresses, I looked about for the ~cans of extinguishing a life, which, as it was an emanatiOn fr?m my existence, seemed destined to be only a prolongatwn of my misery. |