THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE1 A CHRISTIAN! going, gone! Who bids for God's own image? for his grace, Which that poor victim of the market-place Hath in her suffering won? 1 In a publication of L. F. Tasistro, Random Shots and Southern Breezes, is a description of a slave auction at New Orleans, at which the auctioneer recommended the woman on the stand as 'A GOOD CHRISTIAN!' It was not uncommon to see advertisements of slaves for sale, in which they were described as pious or as members of the church. In one advertisement a slave was noted as a Baptist preacher.' (WHITTIER.) On thee, their pampered guest, the planters smile, Thy church shall praise. Grave, reverend men shall tell From Northern pulpits how thy work was blest, 1 There was at the time when this poem was written an Association in Liberty County, Georgia, for the religious instruction of negroes. One of their annual reports contains an address by the Rev. Josiah Spry Law, in which the following passage occurs: 'There is a growing interest in this community in the religious instruction of negroes. There is a conviction that religious instruction promotes the quiet and order of the people, and the pecuniary interest of the owners.' (WHITTIER.) THE SHOEMAKERS1 Ho! workers of the old time styled The Gentle Craft of Leather! 1 In his Songs of Labor, though Whittier wrote with most sympathy of the two trades at which he had himself worked, shoemaking (cf. Carpenter's Whittier, pp. 39-41) and farming (see 'The Huskers,' p. 278), there are lines in others of the Songs which cannot be spared from any selection of his poetry. Such are these from 'The Lumbermen: ' Keep who will the city's alleys, Young brothers of the ancient guild, Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone Now shape the sole ! now deftly curl And bless the while the bright-eyed girl For you, along the Spanish main For you, deep glens with hemlock dark For you, upon the oak's gray bark, The woodman's axe is smiting. For you, from Carolina's pine For you, the dark-eyed Florentine For you, the dizzy goatherd roams For you, round all her shepherd homes, The foremost still, by day or night, Let foplings sneer, let fools deride, Ye heed no idle scorner; ΤΟ 20 30 40 Free hands and hearts are still your pride, In our North-land, wild and woody, or the beginning of 'The Drovers : ' Through heat and cold, and shower and sun, There's life alone in duty done, And rest alone in striving. See also the beautiful 'Dedication' of the Songs of Labor, p. 282. THE PINE TREE1 Beats her Pilgrim pulse no longer? Sits she dumb in her despair? LIFT again the stately emblem on the Bay Has she none to break the silence? Has State's rusted shield, Where's the man for Massachusetts ? Where's the voice to speak her free? Where's the hand to light up bonfires from her mountains to the sea? 1 Written on hearing that the Anti-Slavery Resolves of Stephen C. Phillips had been rejected by the Whig Convention in Faneuil Hall, in 1846. (WHITTIER.) Whittier sent the poem to Sumner in a letter in which he said: 'I have just read the proceedings of your Whig convention, and the lines enclosed are a feeble expression of my feelings. I look upon the rejection of Stephen C. Phillips's resolutions as an evidence that the end and aim of the managers of the convention was to go just far enough to scare the party and no farther. All thanks for the free voices of thyself, Phillips, Allen, and Adams. Notwithstanding the result you have not spoken in vain.' (Quoted in Pickard's Life, vol. i, p. 316.) she none to do and dare? O my God! for one right worthy to lift up her rusted shield, And to plant again the Pine-Tree in her banner's tattered field! 2 Among the earliest converts to the doctrines of Friends in Scotland was Barclay of Ury, an old and distinguished soldier, who had fought under Gustavus Adolphus, in Germany. As a Quaker, he became the object of persecution and abuse at the hands of the magistrates and the populace. None bore the indignities of the mob with greater patience and nobleness of soul than this once proud gentleman and soldier. One of his friends, on an occasion of uncommon rudeness, lamented that he should be treated so harshly in his old age who had been so honored before. I find more satisfaction,' said Barclay, as well as honor, in being thus insulted for my religious principles, than when, a few years ago, it was usual for the magistrates, as I passed the city of Aberdeen, to meet me on the road and conduct me to public entertainment in their hall, and then escort me out again, to gain my favor.' (WHITTIER.) |