O. B. W. to Frederick Douglass, February 16, 1857

A FATHER SOLD BY A MEMBER OF A SOUTHERN CHURCH.

ROUNDSTONE, Ky., Feb. 16, 1857.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS: Dear Sir:—Some of our Kentucky anti-slavery men are anxious to see a sample of your paper, and have requested the to write for two or three specimen numbers. I have had the pleasure of reading your "Bondage and Freedom" to several of them, and they are curious for a further acquaintance.

I do not know how familiar you may be with the fact, but it is doubtless a matter of interest to you that there is a Christian anti-slavery movement here, which plants itself broadly and fully upon the ground of the equal brotherhood of the black man, and, in the name of God, of the Bible, of Christianity, and of all that can legitimately be called law, sternly and unflinchingly demands his immediate and unconditional emancipation. It is a movement, too, which proposes to stop not short of the total annihilation of the mean and wicked prejudices against his color. It tolerates no negro galleries or pews in its churches, and where it gets the power, invites the black man's children, on equal terms, to the same school with their lighter skinned neighbors. We have, in this country, a house built for a school and meeting house, with the express condition that "no person shall be debarred from school of church privileges on account of color;" and in this house a school is in progress which both proposes to receive, and actually does receive colored persons. This movement is unquestionably working though, of course, gradually, a marked change in the minds of the non-slaveholding class in many sections of Kentucky. The slaveholders, as an almost universal rule, are, of course, too deeply interested pocket-wise to be influenced until "it will pay, or until the stern grasp of law shall be laid upon them.

A few days since, two slaves living in this vicinity were sold to the slave-trader, to be taken down the river." One of them had a wife and children on a neighboring plantation, and the other was torn from his parents, brothers and sisters. The first brought eleven hundred dollars. His master, who had been brought up with him from a boy, is a member "in good and regular standing" in a Southern Church. But the clink of that money was more to him than Christ, or conscience— more than the intellect affections, hopes and immortal destiny of "nothing but a nigger;" and so the "Southern brother" let him go. He sent the poor man to town for a sack of flour. When he reached the place, the "pirate" who had bought him, stepped up, and slapping him on the shoulder, said, "Boy, you belong to me." The poor soul reeled backwards, and lifting up his hands in an agony of consternation, groaned out, "Oh, Lord! what shall I do?" "What can you do?" taunted the heartless monster, with a horrid imprecation. Handcuffed, he drove him off. On the way, he passed the plantation where lived his wife and children, all that lay between his soul and the desolation of utter despair. For a few minutes he was allowed to stop, and bid them a final farewell. It is said that their shrieks and lamentations were perfectly heart-rending. Such is one of the scenes of this infernal den of horrors, where human hopes and hearts are crushed every hour as coolly as a man can pocket money.

Yours, truly,

O. B. W.