The North Star (Rochester)/1848/01/14/Bibles for the Slaves
From the Liberty Bell of 1848.
BIBLES FOR THE SLAVES.
by Frederick Douglass.
The above is a watchword of a recent but quite numerous class of persons, whose ostensible object seems to be, to give Bibles to the American Slaves. They propose to induce the public to give of their abundance, a large sum of money, to be placed in the hands of the American Bible Society, to be employed in purchasing Bibles and distributing them among the slaves. In this apparently benevolent and Chistian movement, they desire to unite all persons friendly to the long imbruted and long neglected slave. The religious press have already spoken out in its favor. So full of promise and popularity is this movement, that many of the leaders in church and State are pressing into it; churches which have all along slumbered unmoved over the cruel wrongs and bitter woes of the slave, which have been as deaf as death to every appeal of the fettered bondman for liberty, are at last startled from their heartless stupor by this new cry of Bibles for the Slaves. Ministers of religion and learned Doctors of Divinity, who would not lift a finger to give the stave to himself, are now engaged in the professed work of giving to the Slave the Bible. Into this enterprise have been drawn some who have been known as advocates for emancipation.
One Anti-Slavery Editor, has abandoned his position at the head of a widely circulating Journal, and has gone forth to lecture and solicit donations in its behalf. Even the American Bible Society, which a few years ago peremptorily refused to entertain the offensive subject, and refused the offer of ten thousand dollars, has at last relented if not repented, and now condescends to receive money for this object. To be sure we have had no public assurance of this from that society. It is, however, generally inferred by the friends of the movement, that they will consent to receive money for this purpose. Now what does all this mean? Are the men engaged in this movement sane? and if so, can they be honest? Do they seriously believe that the American slave can receive the Bible? Do they believe that the American Bible Society cares one straw about giving Bibles to the slave? Do they suppose that slaveholders in open violation of their wicked laws, will allow their slaves to have the Bible? How do they mean to get the Bible among the slaves? It cannot go itself—it must be carried. And who among them all, has either the faith or the folly to undertake the distribution of Bibles among the slaves?
Then again, of what value is the Bible to one who may not read its contents? Do they intend to send teachers into the slave States, with the Bibles, to teach the slaves to read them? Do they believe that on giving the Bible, the unlettered slave, will all at once, by some miraculous transformation, become a man of letters and be able to read the sacred Scriptures 7 Will they first obtain the slaveholders consent, or will they proceed without it? And if the former, by what means will they seek it? And if the latter, what success do they expect? Upon these points, and many others, the public ought to be enlightened, before they are called upon to give money and influence to such an enterprize.
As a mere indication of the growing influence of anti-slavery sentiment, this movement may be regarded by the Abolitionists with some complacency; but as a means of abolishing the slave system of America, it seems to me a sham, a delusion, and a snare, and cannot be too soon exposed before all the people. It is but another illustration of the folly of putting new cloth into an old garment, and new wine into old bottles.
The Bible is peculiarly the companion of liberty; it belongs to a new order of things: slavery is of the old; and will only be made worse by any attempt to mend it with the Bible. The Bible is only useful to those who can read and practise its contents. It was given to freemen, and any attempt to give it to the slave must result only in hollow mockery.
Give Bibles to the poor slaves! It sounds well; it looks well; it wears a religious aspect; it is a Protestant rebuke to the Pope, and seems in harmony with the purely evangelical character of the great American people. It may fortell some movement in England to give Bibles to our slaves—and this is very desirable. Now admitting (however difficult it may be to do so) the entire honesty of all engaged in this movement—the immediate and only effect of their effort must be to turn off attention from the main and momentous question connected with the slave, and absorb energies and money in giving to him the Bible, that ought to be used in giving him to himself.
The slave is property. He cannot hold property. He cannot own a Bible. To give him a Bible, is but to give his master a Bible. The slave is a thing—and it is the all-commanding duty of the American people to make him a man.
To demand this in the name of humanity, and of God, is the solemn duty of every living soul. To demand less than this, or anything else than this, is to deceive the fettered bondman, and to soothe the conscience of the slaveholder on the very point where he should be most stung with remorse and shame. A way with all tampering with such a question! Away with all trifling with the man in fetters! Give a hungry man a stone, and tell him what beautiful houses are made of it; give ice to a freezing man, and tell him of its good properties in hot weather; throw a drowning man a dollar, as a mark of your good will; but do not mock the bondman in his misery, by giving him a Bible, when he cannot read it!
Rochester, New York.