AN ACCOUNT

OF

SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL

SLAVE INSURRECTIONS,

And others, which have occurred, or been attempted,

in the United States and elsewhere, during

the last two centuries.

With Various Remarks.

* *

Collected from various sources by

Joshua Coffin.

* *

NEW YORK:

Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society.

1860.

Republished by

Negro History Press — P. O. Box 5129 — Detroit, Michigan 48236

TO THE READER.

The subsequent collection of facts is presented to your notice, withthe hope that they will have that effect which facts always have onevery candid and ingenuous mind. They exhibit clearly the dangers towhich slaveholders are always liable, as well as the safety ofimmediate emancipation. They furnish, in both cases, a rule whichadmits of no exception, as it is always dangerous to do wrong, andsafe to do right. Please to examine carefully the whole account ofthe revolution in St. Domingo, beginning in March, 1790, and endingin 1802. That exhibits a different picture from that presented in aspeech made at the Union-saving meeting lately held in Boston. A partof the truth may be so told as to have all the effect of a deliberatelie.

SLAVE INSURRECTIONS.

* *

And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning ourbrother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us,and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.—Gen.42:21.

Thus said the Lord my God, Feed the flock of the slaughter, whosepastors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sellthem say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own shepherdspity them not.—Zech. 11:4, 5.

He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found inhis hand, he shall surely be put to death.—Ex. 21:16.

The late invasion of Virginia by Capt. John Brown and his companyhas, with all its concomitant circumstances, excited more attentionand aroused a more thorough spirit of inquiry on the subject ofslavery, than was ever before known. As this is pre-eminently a moralquestion, and as there is no neutral ground in morals, allintelligent men must ultimately take sides. Every such man musteither cherish and defend slavery, or oppose and condemn it, and hisvote, if he is an honest man, must accord with his belief. On aquestion of so momentous importance, "Silence is crime." It demandsand will have a thorough investigation, and all attempts to stiflediscussion will only accelerate the triumph of the cause they weredesigned to crush. Thus the denunciation in Congress of Mr. Helper'sbook, which is in substance only an abstract of facts taken from thelast census of the United States, has operated as an extensiveadvertisement, and will be the means of circulating thousands ofcopies, where,

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