XVI. RESCUE . . . . . 154
XVII. TRUE LIBERTY . . . . 165
XVIII. CROWNING MERCIES . . . 174
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OLD DINAH JOHNSON . . . . .
STEP BY STEP.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

MY DEAR CHILDREN,--All of you who read this little book have doubtless
heard more or less of slavery. You know it is the system by which a
portion of our people hold their fellow-creatures as property, and doom
them to perpetual servitude. It is a hateful and accursed institution,
which God can not look upon but with abhorrence, and which no one
of his children should for a moment tolerate. It is opposed to every
thing Christian and humane, and full of all meanness and cruelty.
It treats a fellow-being, only because his skin is not so fair
as our own, as though he were a dumb animal or a piece of furniture.
It allows him no expression of choice about any thing, and no liberty
of action. It recognizes and employs all the instincts of the lower,
but ignores and tramples down all the faculties of his higher, nature.
Can there be a greater wrong?

It is said by some, in extenuation of this wrong, that the slaves are
well fed and clothed, and are kindly, even affectionately, looked after.
This is true, in some cases,--with the house-servants, particularly,--but,
as a general thing, their food and clothing are coarse and insufficient.
But supposing it was otherwise; supposing they were provided for