in the way of the onward
march of the century. The time will come when such a curse will be
rooted out of a country by the strong hand of all civilized nations. Had
England and France been truly enlightened to their own interests, this
war would never have taken place.

The history of the African slave trade and the efforts to destroy it,
the Emancipation of the French Convention and the reestablishment of
slavery by the Consulate, from 1794 to 1802, form the first chapter of
this work. Hence we have its history, its abolition in 1848, and, after
this, that most important part, a careful examination of the results of
Emancipation, showing--as Sewall and others have done--the grossness of
the current falsehood to the effect that it has led to evil results. For
those who can see only a part instead of the whole, who regard the
amount of good done to themselves as the test of everything, who make no
allowance for a social transition, or for a future (like our own
'treason-Democrats'), and who see in the black, whether slave or free,
simply a creature whose whole mission is to benefit the white, it is
true that Emancipation in certain isolated cases may not appear to have
fully succeeded. The _truth_ is, that freed labor has nowhere
diminished--it has simply assumed _new forms_, more advantageous, for
the time, to the laborer, while in most cases it has increased its
profits. If slaves were overworked, there was no real gain;--if schools
and marriage, cleanly independence and good clothing have increased
tenfold among those who were once naked, starved, and ignorant, there
has been a gain, although here and there less sugar is exported. And so
the reader may trace the arguments and facts to the end.

Yet, after all, we feel almost ashamed that such a book should be really
needed! What true _scholar_ and honest man requires arguments of this
kind? A thousand or two years ago, any king's daughter, any young lady,
anybody walking in a lonely spot, was in danger of being kidnapped and
sold to prostitution or slavery. Philosophers, poets, and artists were
owned by brutal wretches; pious priests purchased gentlemen of noble
birth for slaves. The pirate's galley swept every coast to steal any
human being. Time rolled on, and slavery was modified. White slaves
became serfs, serfs became free. The cause of emancipation is clear as
that of any progressive reform--and yet, right in the face of history
and God's truth, we see the Sout