An Account of Some of the Principal Slave Insurrections

by Joshua Coffin

Overview

Joshua Coffin (1792 - 1864) was an American antiquary and abolitionist. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1817, and taught school for many years. Coffin helped found the New-England anti-slavery society in 1832. An Account of Some of the Principal Slave Insurrections, and Others, Which Have Occurred, or Been Attempted, in the United States and Elsewhere, During the Last Two Centuries was published in 1860. Coffin gives the moral and legal reasons why slavery is wrong. He says the slave owner should repent his sins and the slave be emancipated which is his given right. Coffin ends by saying, "Therefore, gentle reader in the "irrepressible conflict" that is now agitating the country, and will continue to agitate it till slavery is abolished, which side have you chosen, or do you intend to choose? Will you take the "higher law," which is in harmony with God's providence and his word, or act in favor of the "lower law," which opposes both? If slavery is right, sustain, defend and justify it; but if it is a crime, do all in your power, by moral means, to overthrow the execrable system."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438532967
Publisher:	Book Jungle
Publication date:	12/31/2009
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.10(d)

Read an Excerpt

And they said one to another. YTe are verily guilty concerning our brother, inthat we saw the anguish of his soul when he bc-souo-hc us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. Gln. 42: 21. Thus saith the Lord my God, Feed the flock of the slaughter, whose pastors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich ; and their own shepherds pity them, not. Zech. 11:"4, o. He that stealeth a man, and scllith him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. Ex. 21: lt. The late invasion of Virginia by Capt. John Brown and his company has, with all its concomitant circumstances, excited more attention and aroused a more thorough spirit ot inquiry on the subject of slavery, than was ever before known. As this is pre-eminently a moral question, and as there is no neutral ground in morals, all intelligent men must ultimately take sides. Kvery such man must either cherish and defend slavery, or oppose and condemn it, and his vote, if he is an honest man, must accord with his belief. On a question ot Bo momentous importance, " Silence is crime." It demands and will have a thorough investigation, and all attempts to stifle discussion will only accelerate the triumph of the cause they were designed to crush. Thus the denunciation in Congress of Mr. Helper's book, which is in substance only an abstract of facts taken from the last census of the United States, has operated as an extensive advertisement, and will be the means of circulating thousands of copies, where, without such denunciation, it would never have been known. There is in the North, as well as the South, a class ofmenwho act, apparently, on the supposition that those who foresee and foretell any calamity are as guil...