II.

LETTER OF CRITICISM.


"Slavery ain't o' nary color,
'Tain't the hide that makes it wus,
All it keers fer in a feller
'S jest to make him fill its pus."

--JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL: Biglow Papers.


BOSTON, June 29, 1891.

REV. Louis ALBERT BANKS, _St. John's M. E. Church, South Boston, Mass._

Dear Sir:--In the sermon which you preached yesterday, the title, as
given in the newspapers, is "_The White Slaves of Boston Sweaters_."
Under the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States
there can be no such thing as "_slave_" in this country. Under the
decision of Judge Parsons there has not been a slave in Massachusetts
since the adoption of the Constitution. I therefore venture to ask you
some questions.

1. How do you justify the term "_white slave_" when applied to the