THE GOSPEL OF SLAVERY

A Primer of Freedom.

By Iron Gray

NEW YORK

1864

Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.

Original

Original

Original

A Stands for Adam. Creation began

By giving dominion of Nature to man.

Men differ in color, and stature, and weight,

Nor equal are all in their talent or state,

But equal in rights are the great and the small

In sight of the God and Creator of all.

Then how comes dominion of brother by brother?

Or how can the one be the lord of the other?

Consider it well-for an answer I crave,

That reaches the question of Master and Slave.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."—Decl. of Ind. It is nothing to affirm that the Negro, or Indian, or Arab, is not equal to the white man—namely, in talent and the like. No two white men are equal in all respects—but if you deny an equality of rights, specify the grounds of such denial.

Original

B Stands for Bloodhound On merciless fangs

The Slaveholder feels that his "property" hangs,

And the dog and the master are hot on the track,

To torture or bring the black fugitive back.

The weak has but fled from the hand of the strong,

Asserting the right and resisting the wrong,

While he who exults in a skin that is white,

A Bloodhound employs in asserting his might.

—O chivalry-layman and dogmatist-priest,

Say, which is the monster—the man, or the beast?

How long is it since Southern papers advertised the offers of rival hunters of fugitive Negroes, who claimed that they had the best bloodhounds, &c.? Truly an honorable and manly vocation. Runaway Slaves were advertised as having been torn by the dogs, thus and so, on former occasions of flight, and large rewards were offered for the capture of such ingrates, dead or alive! Shall not specimens of these advertisements be some day included in the literary curiosities of civilization?