Black History
"A Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States of the United States of America" by George M. Stroud
1856-Dated Pre Civil War, Black History & Slavery Related Imprint titled, "A Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States of the United States of America." by George M. Stroud, Philadelphia, Choice Fine.
George McDowell Stroud (1795-1875) played a small role in America's recognition of the horrors of slavery. He wrote a seminal compendium of the laws--state by state--related to the institution which was the primary cause of America's most tragic period, the War Between the States. This historic Booklet on State Laws regarding Slavery measures about 4.5" x 7.25", with 125 pages, printed in Philadelphia, no covers with first page self wraps, saddle-stitched, clean and complete. Its title page reads: "A Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States of the United States of America. With Some Alterations and Considerable Additions." Important Seminal Compendium of the laws -- State by State -- that are related to Slavery. This being a later updated edition with further additions. External front pages evenly toned with some slight marginal extreme edge chipping, pages 5-6 with horizontal tear.
George McDowell Stroud (1795-1875) played a small role in America's recognition of the horrors of slavery. He wrote a seminal compendium of the laws--state by state--related to the institution which was the primary cause of America's most tragic period, the War Between the States.
A Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States of the United States of America was published in his hometown of Philadelphia in 1827. Although the study is quite objective, the author certainly found the moral justification of the institution of slavery to be not only lacking, but utterly absent. In truth, the author's personal feelings are manifested in the preface, which he closes with a lengthy quotation from President Jefferson's Nots on Virginia:
"The whole commerce between master and slave," says he, "is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions--the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is nan imitative animal. If a parent had no other motive, either in his own philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. But generally, it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it, with obious peculiarities."
Although the title suggests a an argumentative stance, with the presumption that slavery and Christianity were mutually exclusive, the tone of the actual publication is extremely objective. Obviously, Stroud felt no need to argue for the opposition between Christianity and holding others in slavery; he rightly recognized that the facts should speak for themselves.
Although the settling of this matter involved immeasurable pain and bloodshed, it is a fact that no country today which traces its roots to the Judeo-Christian tradition allows slavery today. (Such cannot be said of all so-called "world religions.")