No; a darker
feature is yet to be presented than the mere existence of these facts.
I have to inform you that the religion of the southern states, at
this time, is the great supporter, the great sanctioner of the bloody
atrocities to which I have referred. While America is printing tracts
and bibles; sending missionaries abroad to convert the heathen;
expending her money in various ways for the promotion of the gospel in
foreign lands--the slave not only lies forgotten, uncared for, but is
trampled under foot by the very churches of the land. What have we in
America? Why, we have slavery made part of the religion of the land.
Yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender of this cursed
_institution_, as it is called. Ministers of religion come forward and
torture the hallowed pages of inspired wisdom to sanction the bloody
deed. They stand forth as the foremost, the strongest defenders of this
"institution." As a proof of this, I need not do more than state the
general fact, that slavery has existed under the droppings of the
sanctuary of the south for the last two hundred years, and there has
not been any war between the _religion_ and the _slavery_ of the south.
Whips, chains, gags, and thumb-screws have all lain under the droppings
of the sanctuary, and instead of rusting from off the limbs of the
bondman, those droppings have served to preserve them in all their
strength. Instead of preaching the gospel against this tyranny, rebuke,
and wrong, ministers of religion have sought, by all and every means, to
throw in the back-ground whatever in the bible could be construed
into opposition to slavery, and to bring forward that which they could
torture into its support. This I conceive to be the darkest feature of
slavery, and the most difficult to attack, because it is identified with
religion, and exposes those who denounce it to the charge of infidelity.
Yes, those with whom I have been laboring, namely, the old{325}
organization anti-slavery society of America, have been again and again
stigmatized as infidels, and for what reason? Why, solely in consequence
of the faithfulness of their attacks upon the slaveholding religion of
the southern states, and the northern religion that sympathizes with it.
I have found it difficult to speak on this matter without persons coming
forward and saying, "Douglass, are you not afraid of injuring the
cause of Christ? You do not desire to do so, we know; but are you not
underm