An Englishman's Travels In America: His Observations Of Life And Manners In The Free And Slave States - 1857 - By J. Benwell.
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If We Take The United States Of
America, Where The Outcry Against Slavery Is Greater Than In Any Other
Country
Under heaven, and where we hear more of religion and revivalism,
more of bustle and machinery of piety, a country
Setting itself up as a
beacon of freedom; then does slavery amongst such a people appear
transcendently wicked; a sin, which, in addition to its usual cruelty
and selfishness, is in them loaded with hypocrisy and ingratitude. With
hypocrisy, as it relates to their pretensions to liberty, and with
ingratitude, as it relates to that God who gave them to be free. This,
indeed, makes all the institutions of America, civil and religious,
little better than a solemn mockery, a tragical jest for the passers-by
of other nations, who, seeing two millions and a half of slaves held in
fetters by vaunting freemen and ostentatious patriots, wag the head at
the disgusting sight, and cry out deridingly to degraded America, 'The
worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.'"
My original intention of settling in America having been frustrated by
ill health and other causes, I embarked on board a fine barque bound for
Liverpool, where, after a favourable run of three weeks, we arrived in
safety. Nothing worth noting occurred on the passage, except a fracas
between the captain and the first mate, whom the former had discovered
to be ignorant of the art of navigation, and who had, it appeared, been
engaged in a hurry on the eve of the vessel's departure from Charleston.
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