Read the Bible then, it contains the words of Jesus, and they are spirit and life. Judge for yourselves whether he sanctioned such a system of oppression and crime.
The appeal in the title is specific: abolish slavery. The circumstances of the appeal are unique: an appeal in published form by a southern woman urging other southern women to join this most unpopular of causes among southern women. The appeal is constructed to touch upon several logical conditions for why abolition should be considered, but first and foremost and above all else is what would seem to have been a rather solid and convincing argument at the time. What would Jesus do? Not own human beings as slaves, that’s what. This argument is not rocket science, obviously, and yet this was hardly the only published call to abolish slavery which called upon the inherent logic of the claim. But, like the others, it would hardly prove convincing to those who read the appeal in print.
Speak on this subject. It is through the tongue, the pen, and the press, that truth is principally propagated. Speak then to your relatives, your friends, your acquaintances on the subject of slavery; be not afraid if you are conscientiously convinced it is sinful, to say so openly, but calmly, and to let your sentiments be known.
The appeal does not just address the author’s justifications for supporting the abolition of slavery nor the rationale for why slavery is a sin. It is also a persuasive document that seeks to further the cause by reaching into the minds of the hidden half of the Confederacy. When one thinks of slaveowners, one naturally thinks of “masters” and the male plantation owners who bought and sold them as chattel. Whispering into the ear of every husband who owned slaves was a wife, into the ear of many fathers was a daughter, into the ear of a brother a possibly influential sister.
The women of the south are the target the author addresses not merely because she is herself a woman, but because she recognizes the power that quiet whispering into the right ear can wield. In this particular excerpt, it is also clear that she recognizes the way in which the power of persuasion most often goes unheard among men: when its voices hysterically by overemotional women. And so she offers the guidance to not just speak out against slavery, but to do so in a controlled way absent those things which will cause men to dismiss the argument before it has even been fully made.
And who last hung round the cross of Jesus on the mountain of Golgotha? Who first visited the sepulchre early in the morning on the first day of the week, carrying sweet spices to embalm his precious body, not knowing that it was incorruptible and could not be holden by the bands of death? These were women!
One of the most essential—and overlooked—aspects of writing a successful persuasive speech or document is knowing and writing to one’s target audience. In this case, the author is not just sending out a persuasive message hastily crafted to reach the largest possible audience. Instead, she is addressing a very precise part of the populace with which she is obviously well-acquainted. These are women of a certain independent nature steeped in Judeo-Christian teachings of the Bible and church. They would have to be independent in character, otherwise they would be unreachable as potential fellow travelers spreading the word of abolition.
That they are experienced in theological teachings is clear from the manner in which she introduces stories from scripture that are about independent women. The work actually opens with an excerpt from the Book of Esther and will go on to include allusions to other Biblical figures like Miriam and Jezebel. The quote above refers to the fact that while all the male apostles of Jesus ran scurrying into hiding during the Crucifixion, it was the women who showed courage by openly remaining faithful. These references to strong female figures in the Bible is a subtle persuasive technique designed specifically to appeal to the southern women that are her target audience to do likewise and rise up and be courageous against the scourge of slavery.
