slaveholders from the publication of abolitionists: not one in a
thousand among them having ever seen a southern slave or his master.
"Truth is stranger than fiction;" and it is also becoming more rare.
No wonder people are misled, when the country is flooded with
abolition papers and Uncle Tom's Cabin. No one can read such
publications without being misled by them, unless he is, or has been,
a resident of a slave State. It is thus that materials are furnished
for abolition papers and such publications as Uncle Tom's Cabin; and
it is thus that the public mind is poisoned, public morals vitiated,
and honest but ignorant men led to say and do many things, which must,
sooner or later, result in deplorable consequences, unless something
can be brought to bear on the public mind that will counteract the
evil. The writer hopes, through the blessing of God, that the
following pages will prove an efficient antidote.

Southern people have their faults; they err in many things: and far be
it from me, under such circumstances, to become their apologist. It is
not as a defender of the South I appear before the public, but in
defense of my country, North and South. We are all brethren; we are
all citizens of the same heaven-favored country; and how residents of
one part of it can spend their lives in vilifying, traducing, and
misrepresenting those of another portion of it, is, to me,
unaccountable. It is strange, indeed! I entreat my countrymen to
reflect soberly on these things; and in the name of all that is sacred
I entreat you, my abolition friends, to pause a while, in your mad
career, and review the whole ground. It may be that some of you may
yet see the error of your course. I cannot give you all up. I trust in
God that you are not all given over to "hardness of heart and
reprobacy of mind." A word to the reader. Pass on--hear me
through--never mind my harsh expressions and uncouth language. Truth