the slow and famishing march, or crowded like starved pigs in the overloaded canoes, it is the same unvarying scene of hunger and horror, on which the cruel slave trader looks without remorse or pity."

It should not be a matter of surprise to anyone that Noah, with keen prophetic vision, seeing far down in the future these scenes of degradation and suffering, among the descendants of Ham, should speak of negro slavery as their being "servants of servants," which expression implies, as before stated, the most abject slavery; the most degraded condition of mankind is expressed in those words. Even the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt was not nearly so abject and degraded as that of the negro has been in every country; for they were allowed to own property and to have certain family privileges never allowed to the negro.

Thus we have shown that the negro descended to the lowest depths of moral depravity in the outset and that he has only improved by being brought into contact with other races; and this result has been brought about by slavery.

We have seen from the authentic history that almost from the very first he has been guilty of a licentious

ness unequalled by that of other races, or even the lowest beasts; that he is the very fountain head of idolatry; that he is filled with the wildest superstition, including witchcraft; that his ideas of the supernatural are almost wholly confined to evil; that cannabalism seems to be a natural characteristic of the race in its savage state; that extreme cruelty and a total lack of the finer sympathies belonging to the white race especially, is also a prominent feature; that his mental degeneracy was not secondary to his moral, but strictly in accord.

The question naturally arises, Why did God thus curse the negro, bringing upon him as a result, all this mental, moral, and even physical degradation? In reply we would say that one of the most remarkable things connected with God's dealings with man is the fact that he brings a blessing out of each curse, proportioned, indeed, far in excess of the greatest afflictions contained in the curse; and in a way to accomplish, in every instance, his divine purpose, which we may not see in prospect, but it is easily seen in retrospect.

For example, God's greatest curse to man was the adamic curse; and yet what a blessing has eman

Iated from this curse! Had man remained in Eden with too little intelligence even to clothe himself, plucking the fruits of the paradisical orchard, where would have been the great civilizations of to-day? Where would have been the church of Christ, our blessed Redeemer, by whose death man, though created "a little lower than the angels," is raised to such a condition that in the great hereafter angels shall be his ministering servants?

Likewise when Ham had treated his father Noah, with great disrespect, the decree in Deut. 27: 16, "Cursed is he that setteth light by his father and mother," found penalty in the most degraded conditions of life and the most abject slavery; but this curse like all others that God has placed upon man, has for its sequel a corresponding blessing. Not only was the punishment duly inflicted for the lack of filial respect of Ham to Noah, but God's purposes in the development of the resources of the earth by physical labor were accomplished also; and in future chapters we will show God's blessing to the black race which was brought about by their slavery.

Thus we may see of the children of Ham,
Their morals were black as their skin:
The curse of Jehovah, I am that I am,

Was followed by all kinds of sin.

But from God's worst curse his blessings have been; And not on the white man alone,

But e'en the black negro in still blacker sin,

May for his transgressions atone.

CHAPTER XI.

Negro slavery in America-An injury to the South-Good effects-Negro character as slaves-Condition of the slaves -Acts of cruel masters-The principle of AbolitionismInfluence of song-Growth of Abolitionism-War-Emancipation.

We have, for the most part, dealt with the negro in the early ages, and in his savage or semi-savage We now turn from the mists of early days, and the darkness of savage life, to modern negro slavery.

As before stated, the negro has been a slave in almost every nation under heaven. A gradual emancipation has terminated this career in most cases, but in the United States of America such was not the case. They did not pass through a condition of serfdom, or indeed any other gradual transition from slavery to freedom, but were hurled out of this condition into a full fledged citizenship without any preparation whatever; but we will notice this in its proper place.

Negro slavery in America was the result of a demand for this kind of labor in Hayti and the West