"What Can I Do To Help Abolish Slavery"

 
?Date 1860 A son asking permission from his mother to join the Anti-Slavery movement Dear Mother, I am well aware that you have warned me of the danger of joining association that could spell harm and trouble. To a certain extent, I agree with you because I too do not like trouble and had been accustomed to the peace and tranquility of the countryside. I assure you that even as I write this letter, I am not in any trouble or whatsoever and you will be proud of me of what I have become as a young man – responsible, conscientious and reasonable. As a young adult, I believe you would agree with me that I should start deciding for myself. After all, I will have to deal with the world sooner or later and it would be better for me to take the initiative. You have brought up me well mother because the values you instilled in me to care for another and to never cease learning about the world had never abandoned me. But learning can also inadvertently open our eyes to the ugly reality of the world. It opened my eyes that our lot as Negroes are not slaves as decreed by the Almighty. All the while I thought that there was a natural order that a certain race is subjugated to another and that the natural order of things is that one race is ought to be enslaved by another. I learned through my private inquiry in libraries and lively discourse that this country in fact started as free recognizing all to be equal only that by sinister twist of fate, we suddenly learned the ugly ways of slavery until it perpetuated to be a reality for many of us. I am not making this up Mother. “The right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the acquisition of property in the earth, sea, air and all their products, is an inalienable right of human nature. None with a human nature are without that right from nature’s God. But on the other hand, no law, or ordinance of man, or custom of antiquity, can confer the right of property in human nature itself. And it is one of the greatest enormities and crimes that can possibly be perpetrated, to use a man as money “ (Cheever 7). Mother the present order of things is not in any way permitted nor idea of God but rather is built on man’s prejudice. His prejudice seeks to perpetuate because it benefits him that any effort to stop is being thwarted. The good and esteemed Maria Weston Chapman of the Anti-Slavery Society articulated this as “Prejudice as an ordination of divine providence; to make slavery safer by eliminating that dangerous element, the free black; to make its term longer by stultifying national conscience (1). I know you would be quite shock to read my letter especially with the things that I just told you. But mother, I am no longer a boy. I am now a grown man and well aware of what is happening with the world and I took it upon my initiative as well as cause to contribute to the good of society by joining an association that would restore justice in our society which is the Church Anti-Slavery Society. I hope it will bring you peace of mind that it is the company of God’s Ministers who I am with now who also helped me opened my eyes to the ugly reality of our society. They also provided the water of knowledge that helped quench my tears for knowledge through their enormous collection of books in their libraries in addition to our lively discussion about God, society and justice. It is a good company mother, don’t you worry.