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Sur
Slavery Documents Libretto In the mid-1980's Mr. Sur spent two years researching and writing the libretto
for the piece, which contains excerpts from Cotton Mather's The Negro
Christianized, a catechism for slaves; want ads compiled in the anti-slavery
publication American Slavery As It Is, by abolitionists Theodore Weld
and Angelina Grimke; pro-slavery advocate William Grayson's poem "The
Hireling and the Slave"' the original Confessions of Nat Turner;
letters of the Huguenot missionary Francis Le Jau describing treatment
of slaves and attitudes of slave owners in South Carolina; South Carolina's
Slave Statute; and the Bible. In the course of his research, Mr. Sur traveled
to South Carolina to study the slave song tradition of Johns Island. He
also studied the trial record of Nat Turner; the newspaper account of
escaped slave Margaret Garner's killing of her children in the face of
their capture and re-enslavement; and the diary of Mary Chesnut, wife
of South Carolina's senator before the war. Is it possible that any of my slaves could go to Heaven, and must I see
them there? (source: Memoir of the Huguenot missionary Le Jeu) Since charity and the Christian religion obliges us to wish well to the
souls of all men, and that no persons may neglect to baptize their negroes
or slaves. Be it therefore enacted, That it shall be lawful for any negro
or Indian slave to receive and profess the Christian faith, and be thereunto
baptized. But that notwithstanding such slave shall receive and profess
the Christian religion, and be baptized, he shall not thereby be set free.
(source: South Carolina's Slave Statute) But the reason of my return was, that the Spirit appeared to me and said
I had my wishes directed to the things of this world, and not to the kingdom
of Heaven, and that I should return to the service of my earthly master--"For
he who knoweth his Master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with
many stripes, and thus have I chastened you." (source: Confessions
of Nat Turner)
For visiting a plantation without a written pass, ten lashes; for keeping
or carrying a club, thirty-nine lashes; for having any article for sale,
without a ticket from his master, ten lashes; for traveling in any other
than the most usual and accustomed road, when going alone to any place,
forty lashes; for traveling in the night, without a pass, forty lashes;
for being found in another person's negro-quarters, forty lashes; for
hunting with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes; for being on horseback
without the written permission of his master, twenty lashes. (source:
Grimke, Angelina and Weld, Theodore. American Slavery As It Is.) Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh
with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.
(source: Bible - Eph. 6:5-8)
What was our condition, when God made the first man, at the Beginning
of the World? God made one man, and one woman, Adam and Eve, in His own Image, holy
and righteous. (source: Mather, Cotton. The Negro Christianized.) Ranaway, a negro man named Squire--had on a chain locked with a house-lock,
around his neck. The long, loud laugh, that freemen seldom share, |
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Last Update: 01/29/02 - ©2002 Cantata Singers