"Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covertto them from the face of the spoiler."—ISAIAH xvi. 4.
Second Edition.
LONDON:
CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT.
1849
[Transcriber's Note: This project was transcribed from a contemporaryprinting of the work, not from the 1849 edition. Certain spellings mayhave been modernized and typographic and printer's errors changed from theoriginal.]
MR. CHARLES GILPIN,
MY DEAR SIR,
The information just communicated to me by you, that another edition of my little book, "The Fugitive Blacksmith," is called for, has agreeably surprised me. The British public has laid me under renewed obligations by this mark of liberality, which I hasten to acknowledge. I would avail myself of this moment also, to acknowledge the kindness of the gentlemen of the newspaper press for the many favourable reviews which my little book has received. It is to them I am indebted, in no small degree, for the success with which I have been favoured in getting the book before the notice of the public.
Yours truly,
J.W.C. PENNINGTON.
Hoxton, Oct. 15th, 1849.
The brief narrative I here introduce to the public, consists of outlinenotes originally thrown together to guide my memory when lecturing on thispart of the subject of slavery. This will account for its style, and willalso show that the work is not full.
The question may be asked, Why I have published anything so long after myescape from slavery? I answer I have been induced to do so on account ofthe increasing disposition to overlook the fact, that THE SIN of slaverylies in the chattel principle, or relation. Especially have I felt anxiousto save professing Christians, and my brethren in the ministry, fromfalling into a great mistake. My feelings are always outraged when I hearthem speak of "kind masters,"—"Christian masters,"—"the mildest form ofslavery,"—"well fed and clothed slaves," as extenuations of slavery; I amsatisfied they either mean to pervert the truth, or they do not know whatthey say. The being of slavery, its soul and body, lives and moves in thechattel principle, the property principle, the bill of sale principle; thecart-whip, starvation, and nakedness, are its inevitable consequences toa greater or less extent, warring with the dispositions of men.
There lies a skein of silk upon a lady's work-table. How smooth andhandsome are the threads. But while that lady goes out to make a call, aparty of children enter the apartment, and in amusing themselves, tanglethe skein of silk, and now who can untangle it? The relation betweenmaster and slave is even as delicate as a skein of silk: it is liable tobe entangled at any moment.
The mildest form of slavery, if there be such a form, looking at thechattel principle as the definition of slavery, is comparatively the worstform. For it not only keeps the slave in the most unpleasant apprehension,like a prisoner in chains awaiting his trial; but it actually, in a greatmajority of cases, where kind masters do exist, trains him under the mostfavourable circumstances the system admits of, and then plunges him intothe worst of which it is capable.
It is unde