The First I Saw Was An
African Female, The Slave Of A Lady From Florida, With A Complexion Black
As The Law Which Held Her In Captivity.
The subject of slavery is one
which has lately been brought so prominently before the British people by
Mrs. Beecher Stowe, that I shall be pardoned for making a few remarks upon
it.
Powerfully written as the book is, and much as I admire the benevolent
intentions of the writer, I am told that the effect of the volume has been
prejudical, and this assertion is borne out by persons well acquainted
with the subject in the free states. A gentleman very eminent in his
country, as having devoted himself from his youth to the cause of
abolition, as a steadfast pursuer of one grand principle, together with
other persons, say that "'Uncle Tom's Cabin' had thrown the cause back for
many years!" [Footnote: It must be observed that I do not offer any
opinion of my own upon 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' or upon the estimation in
which it is held in the United States; but in order to answer questions
which have frequently been put to me upon the subject, I have just given
the substance of the remarks which have been made upon it by abolitionists
in the Northern States.] The excitement on the subject still continues in
England, though it found a safety-valve in the Stafford House manifesto,
and the received impression, which no force of fact can alter, is, that
slave-owners are divided into but two classes - brutalised depraved
"Legrees," or enthusiastic, visionary "St. Clairs" - the former, of
course, predominating.
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