the dignity of subordination which has been used to buttress every
oppression since the world began. Never yet was there a pious slaveholder
who did not quote to his slaves, on Sunday, precisely the same texts with
which President ---- favors his meek young pupils. Never yet was there a
slaveholder who would not shoot through the head anybody who should attempt
to place him in that beautiful position of subjection whose spiritual
merits he had just been proclaiming. When it came to that, he was like
Thoreau, who believed resignation to be a virtue, but preferred "not to
practice it unless it was quite necessary."

Thus, when the Rev. Charles C. Jones of Savannah used to address the slaves
on their condition, he proclaimed the beauty of obedience in a way to bring
tears to their eyes. And this, he frankly assures the masters, is the way
to check insurrection and advance their own "pecuniary interests." He says
of the slave, that under proper religious instruction "his conscience is
enlightened and his soul is awed;... to God he commits the ordering of his
lot, and in his station renders to all their dues, obedience to whom
obedience, and honor to whom honor. _He dares not wrest from God his own
care and protection._ While he sees a preference in the various conditions
of men, he remembers the words of the apostle: 'Art thou called being a
servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. For he
that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman:
likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.'"[1]

I must say that the Rev. Mr. Jones's preaching seems to me precisely as
good as Dr.------'s, and that a sensible woman ought to be as much
influenced by the one as was Frederick Douglass by the other--that is, not
at all. Let the preacher try "subordination" himself, and see how he likes
it. The beauty of service, such as Jesus praised, lay in the willingness of
the service: a service that is serfdom loses all beauty, whether rendered