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| Thoughts upon Slavery:
Electronic Edition. Wesley, John, 1703-1791
Funding from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition
supported the electronic publication of this title.
Text scanned (OCR), Images scanned, and Text encoded by Jill Kuhn
First edition, 1999
ca. 125K
Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
1999.
© This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.
Source Description:
Thoughts Upon Slavery
John Wesley, A. M.
83 p.
LONDON, PRINTED: Re-printed in PHILADELPHIA, with notes, and sold by JOSEPH CRUKSHANK.
1778
This pamphlet was bound as a part of the following collection:
A Collection of Religious Tracts
48, 36, 12, 83, [1], 8 p.
Philadelphia
Printed by JOSEPH CRUKSHANK, in Third-street, opposite the Work-house.
1773 [i.e., 1778?]
Call number BR55 .C6 no. 4 (Rare Book Collection, UNC-CH)
The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.
All footnotes are inserted at the point of reference within paragraphs.
Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line.
The long s, which was used routinely in eighteenth-century English printing, but which looks like an f to today's reader, has been printed as an s in the text of this electronic edition.
All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references.
All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as " and " respectively.
All em dashes are encoded as --
Indentation in lines has not been preserved.
Running titles have not been preserved.
Catchwords on every page of the original have not been preserved.
Spell-check and verification made against printed text using Author/Editor (SoftQuad) and Microsoft Word spell check programs. Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998 LC Subject Headings: - Slavery.
- Slavery -- Moral and ethical aspects.
- Slave trade.
- Slaves -- Social conditions.
- Slavery -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
- Tracts.
- 1999-11-18 ,
Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther
revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition.
- 1999-10-19,
Jill Kuhn, project manager,
finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.
- 1999-10-19,
Jill Kuhn
finished TEI/SGML encoding
- 1999-10-18,
Jill Kuhn
finished scanning (OCR) and proofing.
THOUGHTS
UPON
SLAVERY.By JOHN WESLEY, A. M.GENESIS, Chap. iv,
And the Lord said--What hast thou done? The voice of
thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.LONDON, PRINTED:
Re-printed in PHILADELPHIA, with notes,
and sold by JOSEPH CRUKSHANK.
MD,CC,LXXIV.
Page 3 THOUGHTS
UPON
SLAVERY.I. BY slavery I mean domestic slavery, or that of a servant to a master. A late ingenious writer well observes, "The variety of forms in which slavery appears, makes it almost impossible to convey a just notion of it, by way of definition. There are however certain properties which have accompanied slavery in most places, whereby it is easily distinguished from that mild domestic service which obtains in our own country*."
* See Mr. Hargrave's plea for Somerset the negro.
2. Slavery imports an obligation of perpetual service, an obligation which only
Page 4 the consent of the master can dissolve. Neither in some countries can the master himself dissolve it without the consent of judges appointed by law. It generally gives the master an arbitrary power of any correction not affecting life or limb.--Sometimes even these are exposed to his will: or protected only by a fine, or some slight punishment, too insiconderable to restrain a master of an harsh temper. It creates an incapacity of acquiring anything, except for the master's benefit. It allows the master to alienate the slave, in the same manner as his cows and horses. Lastly, it descends in its full extent from parent to child, even to the latest generation. The beginning of this may be dated from the remotest period, of which we have an account in history. It commenced in the barbarous state of society, and in process of time spread into all nations. It prevailed particularly among the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and the antient Germans: And was transmitted by them, to the various kingdoms and states, which arose out of the ruins of the Roman empire. But after christianity prevailed, it gradually fell into decline in almost all parts of Europe. This great change began in Spain, about the end of the eighth century:
Page 5 And was become general in most other kingdoms of Europe, before the middle of the fourteenth. 4. From this time slavery was nearly extinct, till the commencement of the fifteenth century, when the discovery of America, and of the western and eastern coasts of Africa, gave occasion to the revival of it. It took its rise from the Portuguese, who to supply the Spaniards with men, to cultivate their new possessions in America, procured negroes from Africa, whom they sold for slaves to the American Spaniards. This began in the year 1508, when they imported the first negroes into Hispaniola. In 1540 Charles the fifth, then king of Spain, determined to put an end to negro-slavery: Giving positive orders, That all the negro slaves in the Spanish dominions should be set free. And this was accordingly done by Lagasea, whom he sent and impowered to free them all, on condition of continuing to labour for their masters. But soon after Lagasea returned to Spain, slavery returned and flourished as before. Afterwards other nations, as they acquired possessions in America, followed the examples of the Spaniards; and slavery has now taken deep root in most of our American colonies.
| | |
| “teaching is an art not a science” was the first thing she told me. Rhetoric, which she believes is one of the Reason for wanting to be a teacher: Mr. Beregekian. World lit teacher in highschool He told her of the time when he really grasped “carpe diem” and in that moment in his life really grasped how the clock is ticking away instead of just telling them “blah blah blah crape diem” he really made them realize it. He dramatized it by making them look at a clock and watch it. He gave them an experience, he tried to make it matter, make it sink in and make it significant, and in that moment, as the highschool student Mrs. Wolff watched the seconds tick by never to come back again, she experienced what she was supposed to. That’s when she realized that what she wanted to do was teach; pass on inspiration and experience. She told me that she doesn’t want her students to spew back knowledge, not when she teaches them Aristotle for them to be able to tell her and define “ethos pathos and logos” but for them to experience throughout the class and really question within themselves whether those things work. To bring those ideas of arguing, does arguing really work for them to look at the things that are happening and have happened in our society and think about whether rhetoric can help, how much can words do? Some of her literary influences are James Joyce, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Conner.she said that the reason these people, especially O’Connner. She was reading the bible and it didn’t really get through to her, so she read a book by Flannery and O’Conner’s beautiful rhetoric, the pathos logos and ethos that she used got through to her and really made her believe the bible, that’s when she discovered the power of words. Their arguments were able to change her view of life itself, which is a big deal, they made her admire literacy and argument on a deep level. For one of our assignments, Tamara gave us a work by a woman and her acceptance to the Nobel peace prize. At first when I was looking at it and began to read it I thought it was a bunch of weird huge words that should never have been invented because they were superfluous. I read the assignment and then we discussed it in class and we discussed some of the ideas it contained, it’s biggest point was the importance of language and the love of language. Tamara had us write a response to one of the ideas that were in it. Now I know that that short response is not one of the best pieces I’ve ever written, but I still thinks it’s one of my best, becuz I got that point that was so important to the importance of language. Tamara feels that it’s really important that she doesn’t stand at the podium as the knower and guru of all things. She feels that our participation is much more important then her getting the limelight and the glory of being the queen or the grand potentate of the classroom. She confesses that it’s completely difficult when you’re up in front of the students writing on the chalk board big important concepts as the students humbley and faithfully take notes, yet she doesn’t want to do that, she wants to copy the humbleness of her role model Mr. G who inspired her in the first place. She says that Mr. G was so egoless, his main concern was that the students got it, understood not that he looked like an expert, but that they became an expert themselves. He would make fun of himself, and that’s what Tamara did throughout the class, she laughed at her mistakes and made us feel comfortable, not her feel good avout herself. Her goal: to have her students learn to think outside the box. One of the girls that I toke the class of her with was a really sheltered thinker, she had always had very definite ideas and since those ideas are correct, there are no reason for her to give other views a second glance, looking back, I was exactly like that. On the first day of class Tamara gushed about how we would learn to really think outside the box and look at things objectively. I know that she succeeded. She really wants her students to engage with new ideas and not look at them with ethnocentricity, but with real relativistic thinking. She is also determined that fun should be a part of the class, that if students can have a blast they will get involved. But Learning she is convinced is way higher on the totem pole then fun, sometimes learning is not fun she says, there are some issues that we don’t want to look into, some concepts that are needed that aren’t the most exciting that ever were. Her main concern is not that students have a good time, but really learn what they were meant to. Fun however, is one of the easiest ways to get it across. It is extremely important to her that She wants the students to engage, she feels that the student learns more not when she’s being perfect up in front of the class, lecturing and sharing everything just so, but the student learns whe they get in her face, when they really start putting themselves into the class by speaking and thinking and really engaging. She definitely knows that it’s not the ideal lecture that gets conceots into heads, but when the cogs start moving in those heads as they question why or why not those concepts are true, and really starting to test those concepts. Tamara cares more about our learning then our feelings. She doesn’t need us to feel comfortable all the time. She wanted us to really get engaged, get thinking in new ways whether it was in our comfort zone or not. One of the things that I look back on with most good memories is the time we debated in class It is very important to her to always try new things, new ways of approaching ideas, new ways of explaining and getting the students involved with concepts. She really thinks that it’s good to constantly be trying new things not becuz the old ones don’t work, but because there’s always room for discovery, improvement and new fresh ways of examinging things. Not to be all into perfection, but to be open to new ways of doing things. She also believe that as a teacher she can only do so much, the students need to participate in their own learning. She can be as animate4d and as interested as she wants, but if the students don’t get into it—then that’s their fault. I believe that I was part of the best eng 121 class that has ever existed. We all got so involved, honestly I know I did because she valued our participation. When we voiced our opinion she would get a look on her face, one that really made her look as happy as a clam but as curious as a dead cat. She would ask question that really made us think about why we thought that and what were our defenses of that opinion. She wanted more than just talking in class, she wanted thinking in class, it was easy to tell she loved it when we thought aloud in class. There was this one time that we had a debate on the whole argument of drafting military during the Vietnam war. She people be forced to fight for something they don’t believe in, should their opinions or their support for the nation come first, she split us up and let us go at it. The two sides of the room discussed among themselves the arguments for and against This class is the best I have taken so far. Tamara was not only the one who got me to believe in my academic and really all types of writing abilities, but she also got me thinking. In that class I participated, voiced my beliefs and really got concepts. She knew that she didn’t have to be the center of the world for us to get everything, she just pointed out what we were learning as we debated in class, sent us on a chase together to really pry open ideas. When she had us analyze ads she wasn’t wanting us to find what was in her head, but what was in our head, I know she made me at least look at the world around me in a different way, just like mr. G did for her however many years ago. She passes on not only knowledge but a desire for more knowledge and a command of the ways to get more. She also knows how important it is to fit the material to the class, to connect with us wherever we are. We had a sub come one time when she was sick and he was absolutely ridiculous. I know that what I remember most about him is how ridiculous his examples where, and how completely outrageous his ways of explaining things were. But what I think what made us students not like him is the way he had no respect for us what so ever. He didn’t care what we said or thought, he knew that we were supposed to participate in class, so he looked for certain things he wanted us to say and tried to guide us along so we would say it. He found some of our ideas pathetic and some of our words he wouldn’t listen to us at all. He had no respect for us whatsoever. It really made me respect the way that Tamara valued our input. It really made me realize that because she saw us participating and understanding as more important than her facilitating and knowing we could think aloud. She finds rhetoric and argumentation very important that seemed to be the biggest concept that she wanted to get across, that and the strength of words and language to facilitate these things. The biggest paper she had us write was an argument essay, she taught us how, got us motivated to start learning , and then set us at it. I ended up writing about something that was very important to me-the argument of whether cross cultural or cross racial adoption is a good idea. This hits home to me because my sister and brother are adopted African American because she encouraged me she made me be able to think objectively about these things and really be able to back up my belief that its not only successful but sensational. I really believe that from my experience in her class she really achieved her goals. I have been able to think on my own and further things like this on my own, I believe that she encouraged me a lot and really did help me to think outside the box. I think the biggest thing though is her encouragement, and the way she listened to us and really had respect for our world views and really wanted to hear what we believed. Let’s just say that if she was a cat, she would have been dead by now. I think that’s one of the biggest things she did was encouragement, she had a million thinkgs to say, that’s true, but she wanted to hear us. Amazing. That’s why I could go back and take that class at least a million times. She also understood that her responsibility only went so far, that the student had to engage, and that she doesn’t have to feel guilt if the student metaphorically stayed on their butt the whole semester, it was the student, not her, that failed to get out of their desk and comfort bubble and really think, challenge and LEARN she can only teach, model, facilitate and show so much, it’s the student that needs to learn, remember, and put into practice. | | |
| Luara dubbed it a complete failure, I would simply call it completely boring to analyze. They were together for an hour and a half, and about thirty of those minutes were silence, while the student wrote, thought, waited for the computer, ect. I shall call my tutee Lizzie, because I don't know her name. I came in and talked with laura who said she had an appt. at 3, Lizzie showed up early however, it turned out that just like Laura expected, she knew Lizzie from the bank that she worked at. Lizzie had a paper for an art class I'm assuming. she had to analyze, describe and reflect on two beuatiful peaceful pic, that she called just that. the session started well with them saying how they knew each other, they also talked in between about jobs. Though both were very calm and collected it was obvious from the amount of questions and times that they said "I don't know" that they both were overwhelmed. It was all about art, and L explained to both me and Lizzie, LIzzie was a middle aged woman who spoke accented english, she was from eastern euprope. when she said she needed help with her orginization she wasn't kidding. she presented 3 1/2 pages of the first draft of her assignment, her teacher had soaked it with blue ink. There were a million words and phrases that were circled and underlined, the sigtn from her teacher that they needed to be moved around. Her assignment sheet Lizzie had written all over, there was a million things that she had to cover, all in "greek" because they were expressions of art. Lots of art lingo that lizzie barely knew, and Laura had little idea about. Laura was definetly frusterated throughout the session just becuase she couldn't ask Lizzies repeatative questions about art and what the teacher wants and means by things. I don't if I was the most bored out of all of them, Laura was more stressed, but calmly so, it wasn't overly apparent from how she looked, but more from how she said "I don't know" Lizzie did most of the talking. she had alot to say about everything, and a million questions that Luara didn't know the answers to, for good reasons. (LIke it isn't common knowledge, and I ddn't learn in eng 121 what ) Laura encouraged her to talk to her teacher about understanding the assignment, but lizzie said she already did, it sounds like she is having trouble understanding what her teacher wants. Lizzie offered me gum. I sat behind them while they sat at the computer, which most often held the images of the paintings she was trying to describe. Lizzie wasn't exagerrating when she said she didn't understand hoiw to orginize--she seemed to have no ideas. all kinds of completely random sentences were thrown together, and more then not they had nothing to do with the sentences that surrounded them. I think Laura handed it pretty well, I was proud of myself for not jumping out of the seat and running in panic so I could hide in the branches of a nearby tree to escape the sickening bordom. ahhhh. altogehter Laura pointed out how to read the assignment, encouraged discussing with the teacher, helped by helping firgure out the description of the paintings, like what in the heck the girl in the towel was sitting on and so forth. she helped her step by step through how to write an intro, where you can put a thesis statement. mostly though about orginization, she must have reminded Lizzie about 20 times that all the descriptions of the colors should all go in one paragraph. she encouraged Lizzie to go through the assignment methodically. though both laura and I, I belive were bored out of our sculls, I believe that in retrospect Laura may have helped lizzie more than either of them think. She explained the importance of orginaztion and methodically making sure that we fufill the assignment also talked with her and discussed descriptions, also helped her with the difficulties of how to say specific difficult things in our impossible language known as english. Despite the fact I wish it would have been a whole lot shorter I belive that Laura definetly did what she could and though it would be nobodies favorite session (maybe unless the tutor knew everything about art and could get int ot he mind of Lizzie's teacher.) It was cloudy but bright outside. so laura, if you're reading this, though I was bored, I'm proud of you! yay us! We learned that papers really really need to be orginized. really. and how difficult art can be. cool. yay. Bye!! I'm done now. I wanna leave this school so bad. I don't think that laura should be so discouraged, there were alot of questions that it'd be impossible to answer. congrats. very casual positions on both their parts, lots of hand gestures from laura several from lizzie. ok, I'm leaving hahahahaahhahahahaahaaa yes. | | |
| The american Crisis by Thomas paine THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover. * The present winter is worth an age, if rightly employed; but, if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the evil; and there is no punishment that man does not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he. 'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [fifteenth] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware. As I was with the troops at Fort Lee, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those who live at a distance know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was exceedingly cramped, the place being a narrow neck of land between the North River and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one-fourth so great as Howe could bring against us. We had no army at hand to have relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on our defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the best part of our stores, had been removed, on the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys, in which case Fort Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object which such forts are raised to defend. Such was our situation and condition at Fort Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with information that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven miles above; Major General [Nathaniel] Green, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry = six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three-quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river. We brought off as much baggage as the wagons could contain, the rest was lost. The simple object was to bring off the garrison, and march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey or Pennsylvania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand. We staid four days at Newark, collected our out-posts with some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet the enemy, on being informed that they were advancing, though our numbers were greatly inferior to theirs. Howe, in my little opinion, committed a great error in generalship in not throwing a body of forces off from Staten Island through Amboy, by which means he might have seized all our stores at Brunswick, and intercepted our march into Pennsylvania; but if we believe the power of hell to be limited, we must likewise believe that their agents are under some providential control. I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice it for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and martial spirit. All their wishes centred in one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back. Voltaire has remarked that King William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which we do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care. I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave. But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants. I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire. America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the temporary defence of a well-meaning militia. A summer's experience has now taught us better; yet with those troops, while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the progress of the enemy, and, thank God! they are again assembling. I always considered militia as the best troops in the world for a sudden exertion, but they will not do for a long campaign. Howe, it is probable, will make an attempt on this city [Philadelphia]; should he fail on this side the Delaware, he is ruined. If he succeeds, our cause is not ruined. He stakes all on his side against a part on ours; admitting he succeeds, the consequence will be, that armies from both ends of the continent will march to assist their suffering friends in the middle states; for he cannot go everywhere, it is impossible. I consider Howe as the greatest enemy the Tories have; he is bringing a war into their country, which, had it not been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear of. Should he now be expelled, I wish with all the devotion of a Christian, that the names of Whig and Tory may never more be mentioned; but should the Tories give him encouragement to come, or assistance if he come, I as sincerely wish that our next year's arms may expel them from the continent, and the Congress appropriate their possessions to the relief of those who have suffered in well-doing. A single successful battle next year will settle the whole. America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice. Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America. There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the tories call making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps is what some Tories would not be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties who would then have it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it. I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes. I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White Plains, and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us, that, with a handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our field pieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to pass. None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we were near three weeks in performing it, that the country might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cowardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through the country, the Jerseys had never been ravaged. Once more we are again collected and collecting; our new army at both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, well armed and clothed. This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils- a ravaged country- a depopulated city- habitations without safety, and slavery without hope- our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented. December 23, 1776. | | |
| “Imagination rules the world” that’s what I’ve been told napoleon said, and I hope he’s right, because if so I’m headed towards the top. I’ve always had the most random things bubbling around in my head. When I was little, my mom felt she had to start writing down the outlandish and creative ideas that I would randomly bounce off of her, and now, as I’ve gotten older I’ve just started writing them down myself. I admit I no longer think of starting a zoo in my corn crib and an orphanage in my barn. To be honest I still would like to start another holiday when young people dress up and go from door to getting candy, kind of like Halloween, just different day and more chocolate.
Finally, when my age hit two digits I discovered how cool it was to transfer my thoughts into paper. I think one turning point was when I shared a short story I had scrawled with a friends mother who had been an English teacher. It was just a story of six or seven pages in which I incorporated myself as a main character into the prequel of Star Wars. However childish it was my English teacher friend deemed it “well written” and though that was some five years ago I can remember that as the beginning. One of the signs that I loved writing showed up when my mom, who homeschooled me, assigned me to write a 1 ½ or so page essay, it turned into ten.
I can lovingly accredit many of my influences to my mother and grandmother who both enjoy writing and both read many of my pieces, marking up the pages w/ comments and corrections. Their encouragement and compliments lead to me wanting to get better and express more and more of myself through my writing.
Then the right of passage came. After all my life handing my writing into family and friends it was time to see if I really had any idea what I was doing. When I showed up queit and intimidated (which if you know me is very unlike myself) to the English 121 classroom at CLC I felt like a guppy in the Amazon, out of my league, and about to be devoured. I was sixteen, at least two years younger than everyone in my class, and my first impression of Ms. Tamara Wolff, my teacher, is that she was a little out there. That class has so far been my favorite class of my life. Instead of finding out that my writing fell short of the college standard my teacher encouraged me that it broke out of the box. I had not learned in highschool how to conjure or conject, or whatever you do to sentences, I had had learned how to pour myself into my writing, and though my compositions held a daunting amount of errors, they contained Tamsen Nelontine Gylleck.
I already knew how fun it was to write exactly what I wanted, when I wanted, but with the assignments of this class I learned that rhetoric and being able to express yourself freely on paper is a great tool and powerful weapon. It wasn’t my first choice to write an argument essay, you can ask my sister, I’m horrible at arguing. When trying to explain how I should get to wear the AE shirt instead of her the best reason I had was “because” and the best comeback was a emphatic, yet not so effective “urgh.” It was time for me to learn how to open peoples eyes to more than places and characters, but ideas, issues and possible solutions. Though at first I was clueless as to what to attempt to argue about, I realized that the perfect argument lied in my argumentative sister: the argument of adoption and culture. I was able to explore whether cross-racial and cross-cultural adopting really was a good idea. The way that I could use my own life as an example, mentioning my African American little brother and sister and my interaction with them as an argument made me realize that even if you’re not supposed to, you can always manage to put a little piece into your writing. I realized I could use writing to create more than narratives that are “artsy fartsy” (as my art-major mother calls them) but actually set forth compelling truths that I have encountered and experienced.
But by far I know that my favorite part of writing is being able to connect on a whole new level with my friends who are writers. I have spent hour after delightful hour pouring over the compositions of my friends; discussing descriptions, characterization and just plain old plot. Often I find that I enjoy pouring myself into their stories and writings just as much as I enjoy pouring into my own.
If I did not have such a joy for writing then I probably wouldn’t have several of the friendships that I have today. I have been able to see the heart of my friend Katrina and talk with her about the way she misses her dad after I saw how she discussed his death in one of her poems. Taylor, for instance is one of my closest friends, and we’ve done a list of random, crazy and amazing things together but one of the major links that brought us closer was me knowing so much of the story that she is writing. And Gwen, my hero, role model and friend taught me that Disneys’ corny slogan “your dreams can come true” can be realized, when she published her first book at just seventeen.
All these experiences and many others have brought me to the place where I am today, and whether my writing is inspirational or just plain old pathetic, I can say that I have grown. And I look forward to all experiences and discoveries that lay ahead. | | |
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