There are no slaveholders here to rend my heart by snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother's dearest hopes by tearing them from her bosom.

These dear children are ours--not to work up into rice, sugar, and tobacco, but to watch over, regard, and protect, and to rear them up in the nurture and admonition of the gospel--to train them up in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and, as far as we can, to make them useful to the world and to themselves.
Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children.

It is then that my feelings rise above my control.

I meant to have said more with respect to my own prosperity and happiness, but thoughts and feel{335} ings which this recital has quickened, unfit me to proceed further in that direction.

The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly terror before me; the wails of millions pierce my heart and chill my blood.