This letter has
convinced me of my sin. It is like the Gospel in its effect upon me."
"But, my dear," said I, "recollect that good people may be in great
error, and we read, 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not
suffer sin upon him.' Now, to hold a fellow-being in bondage,--how can
it be otherwise than 'stupendous injustice'?"
"I wonder," said she, "if Kate feels that she is in 'bondage' to this
lady. I wonder if she would not think it cruel, if her mistress should
set her free."
"But it is wrong," said I, "to hold property in a human being, whether
the bondman be in favor of it or not."
"'Property!'" said she. "I should like to be such 'property,' if I were
a black woman. If it were wrong in the abstract," said she, "it might
not be in practice."
"Oh," said I, "what a pro-slavery idea that is! where did you learn it?"
"I learned it," said she, "at our corn-husking, when the Squire read
extracts from John Quincy Adams's speech about China, in which he said
that if China would not open her trade to the world, it would be right
to make war upon her. Now war is wrong, but circumstances sometimes make
it right. So with holding certain men in slavery, under certain
circumstances.
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