Few people, perhaps, who know Dr. Caruthers as an historian realize that he wrote a book on slavery. He was, as most of those who know of him will understand, pastor of Presbyterian churches around Greensboro, N. C., for over forty years. He was a man of conviction and was known to be opposed to slavery; but he made no display of his views. Finally, one Sunday morning in July, 1861, at his church at Alamance, he prayed that the young men of his congregation who were in the army "might be blessed of the Lord and returned in safety though engaged in a bad cause." The next day the officials of the church informed him that they needed him no longer. It was probably after this that he wrote his work on "American Slavery and the Immediate Duty of Slaveholders." This book was not published, and until recently few knew of its existence. In February, 1898, it was discovered by Dr. Dred Peacock and placed in the Ethel Carr Peacock Library at Greensboro Female College.

Two prefaces were written; one when the manuscript was prepared, and one in 1865, when the author made some changes in it. In the second preface he says: "The following work would have been published years ago, but for the last fifteen years its publication or circulation would not have been tolerated in any one of the Southern States. It was written at the request of some valued friends who had expressed the wish to see my views in a more permanent form than the incidental or transient utterances of conversation, without any design of ever giving it to the public in its present form."

Although slavery had then been abolished, it was decided to publish, because the people were thought to be in a better mood to understand and to do justice to anti-slavery arguments, and because "we have the authority of the Bible for holding up the calamitous events to the wicked actors in them as warnings." In the first preface is this statement: "There are some hard things in it [the book], and if there were not it could do no good; for an evil of such an extent, enormity, and long standing cannot be demolished or removed by a little smooth talk. The whole truth must be told . . . . The language is not abusive, and was certainly not intended to be so; for neither my disposition [sic] nor my principles allow me to employ harsh and vituperative language." Dr. Caruthers was born in Rowan county, N. C., October 26, 1793. He graduated from Princeton in 1817. It was, perhaps, while there that he shaped his views on slavery. Here he met Mr. G. M. Stroitd, author of "The Laws Relating to Slavery." From this work he took many of his facts, and it is possible that Stroud had a certain formative influence on the views of his friend. A text was placed at the beginning of the book: "Let my people go that they may serve me" (Exodus, 10: 8). The author stated that he should treat African slavery as "viewed in connection with the covenant of redemption." Plainly, he contended that the negroes should be free so that they might become Christians, and that they could not become such in slavery. How he developed this thought is gathered from the following abridgment of the Table of Contents:
"I. The Claim—My People.
"i. On creation and preservation. Natural differences among men furnish no justification of slavery. The deep and long continued degradation of the Africans in their own land no reason why they should be enslaved. The alleged antiquity of slavery no justification of the practice. The orderings of Providence furnish no justification of slavery.
"2. The Lord's Claim on the Africans and all other races and portions of mankind is founded on Redemption. The opinions of learned and good men in favor of slavery is no proof that it is right. Slavery originated in avarice, falsehood, and cruelty.
"II. The Demand; 'Let my people go': The Demand enforced by Providence; Human beings cannot be held as property
"III. Reason of the demand, 'That they may serve me.' Their powers can never be developed while they are in a condition of slavery. According to the present laws and usages of the land slaves cannot make that entire consecration of themselves to the Lord which the Gospel requires and to which the renewed nature prompts them. Under existing laws and in the present state of society slaves cannot have that equality of rights and privileges which is in the New Testament accorded to all true believers."
The purpose of the book, as he said, was "to contrast the unjust, unchristian, inhuman laws of the South relating to slavery with the teachings of the Bible and the original instincts of Nature." He was impelled to write the book because he had never seen a treatment of the slavery question from this standpoint. Whatever other books may have been written on slavery, it is certain that none gave a more positive note of opposition than this. On the separation of families he was very hard. "Many a sad tragedy of broken hearts and ruined homes," said he, "has been the result [of separation]. I have known some instances in which they have been permitted to live on in great harmony and affection to an advanced age; but such instances, so far as my observations have gone, have been, 'like angels' visits, few and far between.' Generally, in a few years at most, they have been separated—sold off under the hammer like other stock and borne away to a returnless distance." It was, however, against the law forbidding slaves to be taught to read and write that he reserved his strongest anathemas. When this law was passed, he charged, the only argument made for it was that if slaves could read they would read the Declaration of Independence, the speeches in Congress', and the newspapers, and so become acquainted with their rights, discontented with slavery, and less profitable to their masters. "It seems strange," he continued, " that a Protestant, a Christian people,—nominally such, at least,—are not ashamed to use such an argument." In another place he burst forth: "How dare you by your impious enactments doom millions of your fellow-beings to such gross and perpetual ignorance? How dare you say that neither they nor their unborn generations shall ever be taught to read the glorious revelation that God has given and designed for them as much as for you?" Still later, he returns to the subject and says: "When do you think that you will have made so much money by their labor that you will be willing to let them go? ... If you believe, as you pretend, that the Lord's design in permitting them to be brought here was that they might be converted and prepared to carry the Gospel back to Africa, repeal your laws forbidding them to be taught; give them the time, means, and motives necessary to improve them and send them back full handed and well instructed to the land of their fathers." It is doubtful if a stronger or clearer anti-slavery argument was ever made on this continent. This is enough about a book that was never printed. Its author was not, strictly speaking, an anti-slavery leader. He did not stand out as a teacher of opposition to slavery. He was not a leader. But he wrote one of the strongest arraignments of slavery in the abstract that ever appeared. His book was a sermon expanded. Along with the manuscript I found a manuscript sermon on the same text (Exodus, 10: 8), showing whence came the book. This book was not given to remove slavery, but to cure the wound made by forcible emancipation. When the South writhed in bitterness under its hard fate, it would have been a good thing for its peace of mind if it could have been made to see that the extinction of slavery was for the best.

Had Dr. Caruthers lived his attempt in this direction would, no doubt, have been delivered to the public. It would, perhaps, have failed immediately. Ultimately, it would have reached those for whom it was intended. Today most people in the South acquiesce in the conclusion that slavery was an evil. But there are few who understand why it was an evil. No better foundation for the study of present social conditions in the South can be had than a complete survey of the conditions of Southern slavery. For such a survey, Dr. Caruthers' work is of great value.
(Source:Anti-slavery Leaders of North Carolina, By John Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., J.H.U, Publisher: The John Hopkins Press , Baltimore, June 1898 - Transcribed and Submitted by: Michelle Kennedy Byrd)