Archibald H. Grimke, William Lloyd Garrison the Abolitionist

[47] the religious revivalist would say, no “realizing sense” of the enormity of slave-holding. Occasionally an utterance had dropped from his pen which indicated that his heart was right on the subject, but which evinced no more than the ordinary opposition to its existence, nor any profound convictions as to his own or the nation's duty in regard to its extinction. His first reference to the question appeared in connection with a notice made by him in the Free Press of a spirited poem, entitled “Africa,” in which the authoress sings of:

The wild and mingling groans of writhing millions,

Calling for vengeance on my guilty land.

He commended the verses “to all those who wish to cherish female genius, and whose best feelings are enlisted in the cause of the poor oppressed sons of Africa.” He was evidently impressed, but the impression belonged to the ordinary, transitory sort. His next recorded utterance on the subject was also in the Free Press. It was made in relation with some just and admirable strictures on the regulation Fourth of July oration, with its “ceaseless apostrophes to liberty, and fierce denunciations of tyranny.” Such a tone was false and mischievous — the occasion was for other and graver matter. “There is one theme,” he declares, “which should be dwelt upon, till our whole country is free from the curse — it is slavery.”

The emphasis and energy of the rebuke and exhortation lifts this second allusion to slavery, quite outside of merely ordinary occurrences. It was not an ordinary personal occurrence for it served to reveal in its lightning-like flash the glow and glare of a conscience taking fire. The fire slumbered until a few weeks