1863 CIVIL WAR. Satirical "New Book of the Bible" Mercilessly Mocks Southern Slaveholders
1863 CIVIL WAR. Satirical "New Book of the Bible" Mercilessly Mocks Southern Slaveholders
Fascinating work, reputed to be by Richard Grant White, though he denied it, in which satire regarding Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, Slavery, etc., are delivered under the form of a newly discovered “Gospel.” Complete with chapters and verses. See below for an example in which slave owners are accused of siring children with their slaves and then enslaving or selling their own children.
[Abraham Lincoln] White, Richard Grant. The New Gospel of Peace According to St. Benjamin. Parts I & II. New York. Sinclair Tousey. 1863. 42 + 48pp.
Extracts:
In the days of Abraham, when there was war in the land of Unculpsalm . . .
Now there were in the land of Unculpsalm Ethiopians, which the men of Unculpsalm called Niggahs. And their skins were black, and for hair they had wool, and their shins bent out forward and their heals thrust out backward; and their ill savor went up.
Wherefore the forefathers of the men of Unculpsalm had made slaves of the Niggahs, and bought them and sold them like cattle.
But so it was that when the people of the land of Unculpsalm made themselves into one nation, the men of the North said, We will not longer buy and sell Niggahs, but will set them free; neither shall more be brought from Ethiopia for slaves unto this land.
And the men of the South answered and said, We will buy and sell our Niggahs; and moreover we will beat them with stripes, and they will be our hewers of wood and drawers of water forever; and when our Niggahs flee into your provinces ye shall give them to us, every man his Niggah; and after a time there shall be no more brought from Ethiopia, as ye say. And this shall be a part of the great covenant.
And it was a covenant between the men of the North and the men of the South.
And it came to pass that thereafter the men of the South and the Dimmichrats of the North, and the Pahdees gave themselves night and day to the preservation of this covenant about the Niggahs.
And the Niggahs increased and multiplied till they darkened all the land of the South. And the man of Unculpsalm who dwelt int the South took their women for concubines and went in unto them, and begat of them sons and daughters. And they bought and sold their sons and daughters, even the fruit of their loins; and beat them with stripes, and made them hewers of wood and drawers of water.
For they said, Are not these Niggahs our Niggahs? Yea, even more than the other Niggahs? For the other Niggahs we bought, or our fathers, with money; but these, are they not flesh of our flesh, and blood of our blood, and bone of our bone; and shall we not do what we will with our own?
Good – with both volumes having the original wraps chipped, but text generally solid and clean. Fascinating piece of Civil War satire.