If Frederick O. Douglass were alive today and posting on Facebook, his closest friends would be telling him to lighten up, and the rest would un-friend him. Too many unhappy words. And the slaves would never be freed. Douglass: You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. They inhabit all our Southern states. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. You will see one of these human flesh jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and bowie knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market in New Orleans. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are food for the cotton field and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad procession, is it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage yells and his blood curling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! There, see the old man with locks thinned and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bear to the scorching Sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the baby in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the centre your soul! The crack you heard was the sound of the slave whip; the scream you heard was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and chains! That gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to be shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States. Lord God, give us more people with the skill to pull at our hearts and our tears for those who are oppressed. May we then move as those who heard Douglass voice did in the days leading up to the Civil War.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:13:23 +0000
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