nce in the cultivation of the soil,
if they will render to you an equivalent for your services. Point them
to the increase of happiness and prosperity in the British West
Indies, since the act of Emancipation. Tell them in language which
they cannot misunderstand, of the exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and
of a future judgment, and of the righteous retributions of an
indignant God. Inform them that all you desire, is FREEDOM, and that
nothing else will suffice. Do this, and for ever after cease to toil
for the heartless tyrants, who give you no other reward but stripes
and abuse. If they then commence the work of death, they, and not you,
will be responsible for the consequences. You had far better all
die--_die immediately_, than live slaves, and entail your wretchedness
upon your posterity. If you would be free in this generation, here is
your only hope. However much you and all of us may desire it, there is
not much hope of Redemption without the shedding of blood. If you must
bleed, let it all come at once--rather, _die freemen, than live to be
slaves_. It is impossible, like the children of Israel, to make a
grand Exodus from the land of bondage. THE PHARAOHS ARE ON BOTH SIDES
OF THE BLOOD-RED WATERS! You cannot remove en masse, to the dominions
of the British Queen--nor can you pass through Florida, and overrun
Texas, and at last find peace in Mexico. The propagators of American
slavery are spending their blood and treasure, that they may plant the
black flag in the heart of Mexico, and riot in the halls of the
Montezumas. In the language of the Rev. Robert Hall, when addressing
the volunteers of Bristol, who were rushing forth to repel the
invasion of Napoleon, who threatened to lay waste the fair homes of
England, "Religion is too much interested in your behalf, not to shed
over you her most gracious influences."

You will not be compelled to spend much time in order to become inured
to hardships. From the first moment that you breathed the air of
heaven, you have been accustomed to nothing else but hardships. The
heroes of the American Revolution were never put upon harder fare,
than a peck of corn, and a few herrings per week. You have not become
enervated by the luxuries of life. Your sternest energies have been
beaten out upon the anvil of severe trial. Slavery has done this, to
make you subservient to its own purposes; but it has done more than
this, it has prepared you for any emergency. If you receive go