Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/131

 to secure its usurped authority, is ready to sacrifice both the temporal and eternal happiness Of its victims, it is no doubt well adapted to accomplish the end at which it aims; namely, its own perpetuation. But it is necessary to go one step further. The slave-holders ought to recollect, that all knowledge is dangerous; and that it is impossible to give the slaves any instruction in christianity, without imparting to them some dangerous ideas. It matters not that the law prohibits the teaching them to read. Oral instruction is as dangerous as written; and the catechism is nothing but a Bible in disguise. Let them go on then, and bring their work to a glorious completion. Let them prohibit at once, all religious instruction. They must come to this at last. Let me tell them, that the time is past, in which Mr Carleton's doctrine of passive obedience is all that a religious teacher has to utter. There is another spirit abroad; and that spirit will penetrate, wherever religious instruction opens the way for it. Now-a-day it is impossible to hail the slave as a christian brother, without first acknowledging his rights as a fellow man.





not been long in Mr Carleton's service, before I discovered, that a pretty sure way of getting into his good graces, was to be a great admirer of his religious performances, and a devout attendant upon such of them as his servants might attend. There never was a person less inclined by nature to hypocrisy than myself. But craft and cunning are the sole resource of a slave; and I had long ago learned to practise a thousand arts, which, at the same time that I despised them, I often found extremely useful.

For these arts, I now had occasion; and I plied my flattery to such purpose, that I soon gained the good will of my master, and before long, was duly established in the situation of confidential servant. This was a station of very