The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 888 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4.

The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 888 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4.
to benefit the apprentice than the master.  It promotes the interests of the former, while in doing it, it guards from injury those of the latter.  To the master it secures a mere legal compensation—­to the apprentice, both a legal compensation and a virtual gratuity in addition, he being of the two the greatest gainer.  The law not only recognizes the right of the apprentice to a reward for his labor, but appoints the wages, and enforces the payment.  The master’s claim covers only the services of the apprentice.  The apprentice’s claim covers equally the services of the master.  Neither can hold the other as property; but each holds property in the services of the other, and BOTH EQUALLY.  Is this slavery?

9. Filial subordination and parental claims. Both are nature’s dictates and intrinsic elements of the social state; the natural affections which blend parent and child in one, excite each to discharge those offices incidental to the relation, and constitute a shield for mutual protection.  The parent’s legal claim to the child’s services, while a minor, is a slight return for the care and toil of his rearing, to say nothing of outlays for support and education.  This provision is, with the mass of mankind, indispensable to the preservation of the family state.  The child, in helping his parents, helps himself—­increases a common stock, in which he has a share; while his most faithful services do but acknowledge a debt that money cannot cancel.

10. Bondage for crime. Must innocence be punished because guilt suffers penalties?  True, the criminal works for the government without pay; and well he may.  He owes the government.  A century’s work would not pay its drafts on him.  He is a public defaulter, and will die so.  Because laws make men pay their debts, shall those be forced to pay who owe nothing?  The law makes no criminal, PROPERTY.  It restrains his liberty, and makes him pay something, a mere penny in the pound, of his debt to the government; but it does not make him a chattel.  Test it.  To own property, is to own its product.  Are children born of convicts, government property?  Besides, can property be guilty?  Are chattels punished?

11. Restraints upon freedom. Children are restrained by parents—­pupils, by teachers—­patients, by physicians—­corporations, by charters—­and legislatures, by constitutions.  Embargoes, tariffs, quarantine, and all other laws, keep men from doing as they please.  Restraints are the web of society, warp and woof.  Are they slavery? then civilized society is a giant slave—­a government of LAW, the climax of slavery, and its executive, a king among slaveholders.

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Project Gutenberg
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.