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treatment, it is what you could hardly expect; if you meet with pain,
sorrow, and even death, these are the common lot of the slaves.
Fellow-men! patient sufferers! behold your dearest rights crushed to
the earth! See your sons murdered, and your wives, mothers, and
sisters, doomed to prostitution! In the name of the merciful God! and
by all that life is worth, let it no longer be a debateable question,
whether it is better to choose LIBERTY or DEATH!
In 1822, Denmark Veazie, of South Carolina, formed a plan for the
liberation of his fellow men. In the whole history of human efforts to
overthrow slavery, a more complicated and tremendous plan was never
formed. He was betrayed by the treachery of his own people, and died a
martyr to freedom. Many a brave hero fell, but History, faithful to
her high trust, will transcribe his name on the same monument with
Moses, Hampden, Tell, Bruce, and Wallace, Touissaint L'Overteur,
Lafayette and Washington. That tremendous movement shook the whole
empire of slavery. The guilty soul thieves were overwhelmed with fear.
It is a matter of fact, that at that time, and in consequence of the
threatened revolution, the slave states talked strongly of
emancipation. But they blew but one blast of the trumpet of freedom,
and then laid it aside. As these men became quiet, the slaveholders
ceased to talk about emancipation: and now, behold your condition
to-day! Angels sigh over it, and humanity has long since exhausted her
tears in weeping on your account!
The patriotic Nathaniel Turner followed Denmark Veazie. He was goaded
to desperation by wrong and injustice. By Despotism, his name has
been recorded on the list of infamy, but future generations will
number him among the noble and brave.
Next arose the immortal Joseph Cinque, the hero of the Amistad. He was
a native African, and by the help of God he emancipated a whole
ship-load of his fellow men on the high seas. And he now sings of
liberty on the sunny hills of Africa, and beneath his native palm
trees, where he hears the lion roar, and feels himself as free as that
king of the forest. Next arose Madison Washington, that bright star of
freedom, and took his station in the constellation of freedom. He was
a slave on board the brig Creole, of Richmond, bound to New Orleans,
that great slave mart, with a hundred and four others. Nineteen struck
for liberty or death. But one life was taken, and the whole were
emancipated, and the v
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