Appendix Autobiography Volume 1
APPENDIX.
I FIND, on reading over the foregoing Narrative that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may
possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an
opponent of all religion. To remove the liability to such misapprehension, I
deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said
respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding
religion of this land, and with no reference whatever to Christianity proper;
for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I
recognize the widest possible difference so wide, that to receive the one
as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt,
and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of
the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I
therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no
reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land
Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all
frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of
"stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in."†Robert Pollok, The Course of Time, A Poem (Boston, 1843), Book 8, lines 616-18: "He was a man / Who stole the livery of the court of heaven, / To serve the Devil in." I am filled
with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show,
together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me.
We†Textual note here indicates which edition or impression a text variation occurs. The variant "co-exist in the Slave States. They," which appears in D1, appears to be a clear instance of adaptation to British sensibilities. Writing in Massachusetts, Douglass asserts in B that religious hypocrisy pervades his surroundings; but revising in Ireland, he probably was pressured by Webb to exclude the North (where many churches had close ties to British counterparts) from the charge (D1: First impression of the second edition, published in Dublin in 1845; B: Copy text, first published in Boston in 1845). have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and
cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the bloodclotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be
a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my
earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday
morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells
my sister, for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of
purity. He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the
right of learning to read the name of the God who made me. He who is the
religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its sacred influence,
and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution. The warm defender
of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole
families, sundering husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and
brothers, leaving the hut vacant, and the hearth desolate. We see the thief
preaching against theft, and the adulterer against adultery. We have men
sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to
purchase Bibles for the poor heathen! all for the glory of God and the good
of souls! The slave auctioneer's bell and the church-going bell chime in
with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned
in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals
in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church
stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the
prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard
at the same time. The dealers in the bodies and souls of men erect their stand
in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer
gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return,
covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have
religion and robbery the allies of each other; slavery and piety linked and
interlinked; preachers of the gospel united with slaveholders! A horrible
sight, to see†Textual note here indicates which edition or impression a text variation occurs. "Here we have" in B is altered in D1 to "There we behold." D2 retains "There we behold" and embellishes the passage with two additional phrases deploring the union of slavery and religion. We reject D1's "There we behold" as an adaptation to British concerns and incorporate D2's embellishment, which is undoubtedly from the pen of Douglass and has no taint of adaptation to a secondary audience (B: Copy text, first published in Boston in 1845; D1: First impression of the second edition, published in Dublin in 1845; D2: Second impression of the Dublin edition, published in 1846). devils dressed in angels' robes, and hell presenting the semblance
of paradise.
"Just God? and these are they,
Who minister at thine altar, God of right!
Men who their hands, with prayer and blessing, lay
On Israel's ark of light.
"What! preach, and kidnap men?
Give thanks, and rob thy own afflicted poor?
Talk of thy glorious liberty, and then
Bolt hard the captive's door?
"What! servants of thy own
Merciful Son, who came to seek and save
The homeless and the outcast, fettering down
The tasked and plundered slave!
"Pilate and Herod friends!
Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine!
Just God and holy! is that church which lends
Strength to the spoiler thine?"†With minor punctuation changes, Douglass quotes the first four stanzas of John Greenleaf Whittier's 1835 poem, "Clerical Oppressors." Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, 3 : 38-39. Whittier.
The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries it may
be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, "They bind
heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. All their
works they do for to be seen of men. They love the uppermost rooms at
feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, . . . . . . and to be called of men,
Rabbi, Rabbi. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for
ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Ye devour widows'
houses, and for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the
greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and
when he is made, ye make him twofold†Textual note here indicates which edition or impression a text variation occurs. D2's "tenfold" is a puzzling substitution because in B Douglass accurately quotes most of Matt. 23:15 (King James Version), including the reference to the Pharisees making their converts twofold more a child of hell than themselves (D2: Second impression of the Dublin edition, published in 1846; B: Copy text, first published in Boston in 1845). more the child of hell than your
selves. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe
of mint, and anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the
law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to
leave the other undone. Ye blind guides! which strain at a gnat, and swallow
a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within, they are full of
extortion and excess. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear†Textual note here indicates which edition or impression a text variation occurs. D1's transposition of these words, which is retained in D2, El, and E2, is puzzling for the reason given in the previous note. Douglass quotes Matt. 23:28 (King James Version) accurately in B, so the transposition is inferior and without apparent reason (D1: First impression of the second edition, published in Dublin in 1845; E1: First impression of the third edition, published in Wortley near Leeds, England, in 1846; D2: Second impression of the Dublin edition, published in 1846; E2: Second impression of the third edition, published in London in 1847; B: Copy text, first published in Boston in 1845). righteous unto men, but within ye are full
of hypocrisy and iniquity."†An adaptation of Jesus' denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees in Matt. 23 : 4-28.
Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of the
overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain at a
gnat, and swallow a camel. Could any thing be more true of our
churches? They would be shocked at the proposition of fellowshipping a
sheep-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a manstealer, and brand me with being an infidel, if I find fault with them for it.
They attend with Pharisaical strictness to the outward forms of religion,
and at the same time neglect the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
mercy, and faith.†Textual note here indicates which edition or impression a text variation occurs. This is yet a third example (see the two notes immediately preceding) of Douglass quoting or paraphrasing the King James Version of the Bible accurately in B only to undermine the accuracy in D1 or D2. In this example, he accurately paraphrases Matt. 23:23, in which Jesus is quoted as specifying the weightier matters of the law to be judgment, mercy, and faith. Inexplicably, D1 substitutes "truth" for "faith" (D1: First impression of the second edition, published in Dublin in 1845; E1: First impression of the third edition, published in Wortley near Leeds, England, in 1846; D2: Second impression of the Dublin edition, published in 1846). They are always ready to sacrifice, but seldom to show
mercy. These are they who are represented as professing to love God
whom they have not seen, whilst they hate their brother whom they have
seen. They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray
for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries
to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their
own doors.
Such is, very briefly, my view of the religion of this land; and to avoid
any misunderstanding, growing out of the use of general terms, I mean, by
the religion of this land, that which is revealed in the words, deeds, and
actions, of those bodies, north and south, calling themselves Christian
churches, and yet in union with slaveholders. It is against religion, as
represented by these bodies, that I feel†Textual note here indicates which edition or impression a text variation occurs. B's "have felt" was changed to "felt" in D1 and then to the adopted present tense in D2, which is later than D1 and more explicitly authoritative (B: Copy text, first published in Boston in 1845; D1: First impression of the second edition, published in Dublin in 1845; E1: First impression of the third edition, published in Wortley near Leeds, England, in 1846; D2: Second impression of the Dublin edition, published in 1846). it my duty to testify.
I conclude these remarks†Textual note here indicates which edition or impression a text variation occurs. The British editions delete these final pages of B, probably out of the desire of both Webb and Douglass to avoid offending British church people. The Textual Introduction elaborates further on the probable reason for the deletion of this material (B: Copy text, first published in Boston in 1845). by copying the following portrait of the
religion of the south, (which is, by communion and fellowship, the religion
of the north,) which I soberly affirm is "true to the life," and without
caricature or the slightest exaggeration. It is said to have been drawn,
several years before the present anti-slavery agitation began, by a northern
Methodist preacher, who, while residing at the south, had an opportunity to
see slaveholding morals, manners, and piety, with his own eyes. "Shall I not
visit for these things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a
nation as this?"†Jer. 5 : 9, 29.
"A PARODY.
"Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell
How pious priests whip Jack and Nell,
And women buy and children sell,
And preach all sinners down to hell,
And sing of heavenly union.
"They'll bleat and baa, dona like goats,
Gorge down black sheep, and strain at motes,
Array their backs in fine black coats,
Then seize their negroes by their throats,
And choke, for heavenly union.
"They'll church you if you sip a dram,
And damn you if you steal a lamb;
Yet rob old Tony, Doll, and Sam,
Of human rights, and bread and ham;
Kidnapper's heavenly union.
"They'll loudly talk of Christ's reward,
And bind his image with a cord,
And scold, and swing the lash abhorred,
And sell their brother in the Lord
To handcuffed heavenly union.
"They'll read and sing a sacred song,
And make a prayer both loud and long,
And teach the right and do the wrong,
Hailing the brother, sister throng,
With words of heavenly union.
"We wonder how such saints can sing,
Or praise the Lord upon the wing,
Who roar, and scold, and whip, and sting,
And to their slaves and mammon cling,
In guilty conscience union.
"They'll raise tobacco, corn, and rye,
And drive, and thieve, and cheat, and lie,
And lay up treasures in the sky,
By making switch and cowskin fly,
In hope of heavenly union.
"They'll crack old Tony on the skull,
And preach and roar like Bashan bull,†A paraphrase of Ps. 22 : 12.
Or braying ass, of mischief full,
Then seize old Jacob by the wool,
And pull for heavenly union.
"A roaring, ranting, sleek man-thief,
Who lived on mutton, veal, and beef,
Yet never would afford relief
To needy, sable sons of grief,
Was big with heavenly union.
"'Love not the world,' the preacher said,
And winked his eye, and shook his head;
He seized on Tom, and Dick, and Ned,
Cut short their meat, and clothes, and bread,
Yet still loved heavenly union.
"Another preacher whining spoke
Of One whose heart for sinners broke:
He tied old Nanny to an oak,
And drew the blood at every stroke,
And prayed for heavenly union.
"Two others oped their iron jaws,
And waved their children-stealing paws;
There sat their children in gewgaws;
By stinting negroes' backs and maws,
They kept up heavenly union.
"All good from Jack another takes,
And entertains their flirts and rakes,
Who dress as sleek as glossy snakes,
And cram their mouths with sweetened cakes;
And this goes down for union."
Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something
toward throwing light on the American slave system, and hastening the glad
day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds faithfully
relying upon the power of truth, love, and justice, for success in my humble
efforts—and solemnly pledging my self anew to the sacred cause,—I
subscribe myself,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
LYNN, Mass., April 28, 1845.
THE END.