'
"God decreed, therefore, that the marriage of a slave in bondage, in
those days, was dissoluble, as no other marriage was. Divorces among the
Hebrews, allowed for the hardness of their hearts, were not parallel to
the forcible separation of a slave from his wife under the hard
necessity of choice between perpetual bondage with a wife, or freedom
without her. The merciful God who kindly enacted, 'No man shall take the
nether nor the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to
pledge,' and that a garment pawned should be restored before sundown,
that wages should not be withheld over night, yes, the God who
legislated about bird's-nests ordained the dissolution of the marriage
tie between slaves in certain cases, unless the slave husband was
willing for his wife's sake, to be a slave forever!
"What do you say to this, Mr. North?" I asked again.
Said Mrs. North, "I begin to see the origin and cause of infidelity
among the abolitionists."
"Tell me," said Mr. North, "how you view it."
"On stating this, once," said I, "in a public meeting, I raised a
clamor. Three or four men sprung to their feet, and one of them, who
first caught the chairman's eye, cried out, his face turning red, his
eyes starting from their sockets, his fist clenched, 'I demand of the
gentleman whether he means to approve of all the abominations of
American slavery! Is he in favor of separating husbands and wives,
parents and children? Let us know it, Sir, if it be so.
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