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Show 308 TEACHING THE SLAVE 1'0 READ. through several chapters in the New rrcstament, and this had aroused the ambition of George. "What do yotl think?" exclaimed one of the family to me, one morning i ":Mrs. -- has been whipping George I" " Why ! for what could that have been? I thought he was a favorite servant!" "For taking lessons of Letty in the spelling-hook!" It was even so. 'l'hc poor fellow wanted to Jearn to stammer in his Testament, and Letty, like any true· hearted wife, had given him the little assistance she could render. The whipping failed of its intended effect, however. Going one evening, at n. late hour, into Letty's cabin, I found George seated by her on the floor, in the corner of their mud fire-place, poring intently over the forbidden spelling-book I Tie started up confused, but seeing who it was, he was reassured, and went on with his lesson I Whether George, Letty, or any of those who have gained the rudiments of science, will be more happy in their servitude, is to me exceedingly doubtful. Thus far the severer classes of masters have the right; a slave, to be perfectly contented as a slave, must be in total ignorance. But better, far better, greater suifering, if it bring enlarge· TEACHING THE SLAVE TO READ. 309 ment of man's birr he b -. uld o r emg, than that system t]Jat wo smother the sou] . . b lll lis odil y ease. Let the slave have the key to the . . . . gate of Life Eternal even if h1s pathway throu~h th· ''" ' . o ts rue must be more thick] sown wtlh thorns. Let the . . . Y . opposmg prmcrples warrc until the right of one is assert d A 0 ' e · nd, oh! above all pray for the clay when these fetters sb 11 b . a e stncken from the souls God bas created h . , w crew1tb to people we firmly trust, no mean "tabernacle" of His Ne; J era&'\lem l c/67'~ TumonA.ox, Nov. 25, 1 8~3. |