What Can Be Done for the Slave?

What Can Be Done for the Slave?

Never perhaps before did the question come spontaneously to so many hearts, "What can we do?" Never was there such a disposition abroad to in the world to unite in some great effort for the abolition of slavery from under the light of the sun. The present is a remarkable juncture for such an effort. What shall it be? This is a question of vast importance. It should be a catholic measure, in which the abolitionists of all countries might freely unite. It should be one divested of all connection with national politics; one which would be carried into execution without asking the aid or consent of any Parliament, Congress, National Assembly, Cortes, or Diet. It must be based upon the convictions of the individual conscience, and worked by the spontaneous energy and determination of individual effort--an undertaking in which abolitionists of Great Britain, France, Germany, and other continental nations may join, without encountering any governmental obstacle, or raising any political antagonism. It must be a measure which shall involve something more than talk, however loud; more than the most eloquent expression of inactive sympathies for the slave, either from the pulpit, platform, or from the most powerful columns of the newspaper press. Then what shall it be? Let a slaveholder himself describe the measure which, he declared, "would abolish the system as surely as day follows night:--Touch not, taste not, handle not the produce of slave labor." This was the glove of defiance thrown down at the feet, not only of all the abolitionists in America, but in Europe, by a slaveholding member of the United States' Congress. This, he affirmed, would not only effect this object, but would do it in a way against which the slaveholders could not utter any just complaint. To be sure, he felt that the inhuman system was safe enough from any danger in this direction. He fully believed that the abolitionists would not venture to pick up the glove and accept this challenge of their sincerity. It would put them to some inconvenience to do it--perhaps to a little additional expenditure in matters of household economy--and he was sure they would not do it; and he taunted them with the discrepancy between their practice and professions. And, although many conscientious friends of the slave, on both sides of the Atlantic, now deem it a duty to abstain from the products of his labor, the great majority of abolitionists have looked upon this course as one that could not be effective, because it could not be generally adopted. Even if nearly all the produce of slave labor could be excluded from use in Great Britain, it would find a larger market on the Continent, they argued, so that there would be as great a demand for it as before. If the free men and women of the world supplied the markets of Great Britain, all the slaves would toil for the markets of continental Europe, they said, and thus the amount of produce stained with the sin of slavery would not be diminished, though it might be separated from that of sinews never bought and sold. Now, if this argument had ever any truth or force, it no longer possesses either in reference to this measure.

Surely something mighty and noble may be done, if the almost universal flood of sympathy be taken at its tide, and brought to bear upon one great effort for the abolition of slavery. And upon what one measure could it be more fully and powerfully concentrated, than upon the exclusion of slave-grown produce from the markets of the world, by voluntary abstinence from its consumption?

Here is a measure which involves no legislation, no petitions to Parliaments, National Assemblies, Congress or Cortes. It trenches upon no principle of political economy, of any treaty or compact, or commercial arrangement. The freest free-trader could not object to this measure.

Here, then, is the first great advantage of this measure--the people of all countries may unite in carrying it out, without encountering any political obstacle or objection--without asking any legislative aid. This is a great consideration. It would also work nobly for the brotherhood of nations, if they culd unite in one common sympathy and in one great enterprise of humanity.

It would be an effective measure, dealing a mortal blow to slavery throughout the world. If it did not the first year drive the produce of slave-labor from the markets of Europe, it would diminish the demand for it by a ratio of reduction which would be fatal to slavery.

It would draw immediately a moral line of demarcation between the products of the slave's toil and those of free sinews and free soil. It would stimulate the productions of the latter in all parts of the world by an earnest and constantly increasing demand. If that line were drawn to-day, probably more than one half of the sugar, coffee, and rice in the markets of Europe would fall on the free labor side; and that proportion would be augmented by the product of each suceeding year. There is scarcely a difficulty in reference to these important articles. They can be found in almost every town and village. The great article of cotton would present the greatest obstacle, but this would soon be overcome before the pressure of public opinion which the measure would create. Already, powerful commerical bodies are endeavouring to increase its production by free labour, in every region of the world in which it can be grown. There is, at the present moment, an effort to form a great organization for the navigation of the shallow rivers of India by flat-bottomed boats propelled by steam, in order to collect and convey to the sea, the cotton produced in the countries they intersect. The manufacturers of Lancashire are looking, with an eager eye of business, toward Africa, Australia, the East and West Indies, for a supply of this important staple of the manufactures of Great Britain. An irresistible energy would be given to the efforts to stimulate its production in these countries, if such a movement were set on foot as we have described. Thus, in a very few years, the institution of slavery would bleed to death at every vein.

Then it should be remembered that this movement would not be a substitute for any other anti-slavery effort; it would not displace or weaken any other agency directed against slavery. It would be in addition to them all; giving them a new power and energy. It is a measure in which every man, woman, and child, in any country in Europe, may take part, and do something at every meal; thus associating every repast with a remembrance of the slave in his bonds--a remembrance that shall fall upon his fetters like a dew, eating them asunder by its quality of corrosion.

Friends' Review; a Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal 6:20, p. 315

1.29.1853