Legislation: Declaration of Rights Amendments, 1789 (Passed)

[DKrol]

Mr. Speaker,

I propose an amendment, a 21st article.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Slavery is truly abhorrent and irreprehensible for so great a nation to practice. Ending the practice of importing slaves is the first step in irradicating this great evil from our society.

I yield.

[DKrol]

Mr. Speaker,

The Deputies in this Chamber who support the abhorrent practice of slavery speak very highly of allowing the states to decide their course forward. They speak of allowing the people of the several states to decide if they will continue to allow, or to introduce, the practice of slavery to their lands. Why do they never speak of the rights of the African man? Stolen from his homeland in the middle of the night by white men with guns and whips and chains. When was the African man ever allowed to make the choice to become a slave? When was the African man ever asked if he wanted to become a slave? Never.

And it is for this reason that I oppose the practice. For what man in the Chamber would want to be awoken from his bed in the middle of the night, prodded with guns and bayonets into cages, put onto a ship across the Atlantic, and forced to work long days in hot fields, without basic clothing, food, shelter, and - most importantly of all - the basic rights of man. If any man in this Chamber stands and, with his hand to the Lord, God, pledges that he would willingly enter into a slave-slaveholder arrangement and that he would, being a slave, wish for the practice to continue, I would call to the Sargeant-at-Arms to have that man escorted away to a hospital or other institution for his own safety, for surely he is unwell of the mind.

I yield.