Page 9 - Debates on the Slave Trade

clung closer to the child. Then with a volley of great oaths
he struck her such a heartless blow, that she staggered
backward.
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The unfortunate mother and daughter were separated per-
manently. One of the fi rst abolitionists to point out this horrible
aspect of the slave trade—and of slavery in general—was John
Newton, the British seaman who started out as a slave ship cap-
tain but saw the error of his ways and joined the abolitionists. He
later wrote, “The blood of many thousands of our helpless, much
injured fellow creatures is crying against us. The pitiable state of
the survivors who are torn from their relatives, connections, and
their native land must be taken into account. Enough of this hor-
rid scene!”
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A Threat to National Unity
Still another reason that slavery should be abolished is that it
threatens national unity. Differences in thinking about slavery are
tearing the Northern and Southern states apart. This is especially
true in recent years. During the 1840s and 1850s, slavery has in-
creasingly become a wedge issue that is steadily driving the North
and South apart. It is true that there are a number of cultural and
economic differences between Northerners and Southerners that
have caused distrust between those two regions.
But by far the biggest difference is the existence of slavery
in the South. Even many Southern writers and leaders openly
acknowledge this fact. Recently (in 1858) an editorial in a major
Southern newspaper, the Charleston Mercury, stated that “on the
subject of slavery the North and South [are] not only two peoples,
but they are rival, hostile peoples.” Similarly, in the North that
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well- known Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln has made largely
the same point, only with different words. “Near eighty years ago,”
he said a while back, “we began by declaring that all men are cre-
ated equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to

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