The North Star (Rochester)/1847/12/03/The dying slave

For the North Star.
THE DYING SLAVE.

---

See the Slave in a dying hour. What hope—what consolation? If he be a valuable slave, he may receive medical aid and attention, from the same motive that prompts men to take care of a sick (valuable) horse. You may hear the master say, "I should hate to lose him, he is worth $700 cash, and I lost a fine fellow last week." But who cares for the immortal soul? Who sits by his pallet of straw, and points him to Jesus of Nazareth, "who taketh away the sins of the world—who changeth the leopard's spots, and maketh the Ethiop white?" Does the master leave his bed of down, and enter the miserable hut of the slave, and tell him that Jesus is no respecter of persons of condition, but made of one flesh all the nations of the earth? Does the mistress accompany her husband, and with all the tenderness which the female heart can exhibit, urge the dying chattel to be reconciled to his God? Do you think, young woman, you who cannot endure the presence of a colored man, even on a rail-road car, do you think that the daughter of the slaveholder, (who boasts of her fortune in human flesh,) leaves the social circle—gay companions—the fascinating dance—the midnight revel—to pray and weep with the dying slave?—Like a brute we compel him to live—like a brute he dies! and his blood is upon us, and will be upon our children, unless we do our duty as men and as christians.—J. V.