When Theodore D.Weld issued his "Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses," to the cruelty of slavery, he introduced it with a few words, pregnant with sound philosophy, which can be applied to the work now introduced, and may help the reader better to accept and appreciate its statements.

Mr.Weld said: "Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into the field, and make you work without pay as long as you lived.

Would that be justice?
Would it be kindness?
Or would it be monstrous injustice and cruelty?
Now, is the man who robs you every day too tender-hearted ever to cuff or kick you?
He can empty your pockets without remorse, but if your stomach is empty, it cuts him to the quick.

He can make you work a life-time without pay, but loves you too well to let you go hungry.
He fleeces you of your rights with a relish, but is shocked if you work bare-headed in summer, or without warm stockings in winter.

He can make you go without your liberty, but never without a shirt.