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美国法律明文指出黑奴买卖是违法的强暴行为，可在这块土地上却产生了规模宏大的奴隶交易市场，它与奴隶制度同步而生、同步发展起来。至于在交易市场中发生的一幕幕悲剧，我们根本说不尽。 The writer has given only a faint shadow, a dim picture, of the anguish and despair that are, at this very moment, riving thousands of hearts, shattering thousands of families, and driving a helpless and sensitive race to frenzy and despair. There are those living who know the mothers whom this accursed traffic has driven to the murder of their children; and themselves seeking in death a shelter from woes more dreaded than death. Nothing of tragedy can be written, can be spoken, can be conceived, that equals the frightful reality of scenes daily and hourly acting on our shores, beneath the shadow of American law, and the shadow of the cross of Christ. 我在书中只是概略地描述了这个民族的痛苦：家庭破碎使多少人心灵受到摧残和折磨！这种痛苦是如此无助和悲哀，甚至会使人濒临崩溃的边缘。许多在世的老人在回忆中仍然留有过去凄惨的印迹：迫于奴隶制的压榨和冷酷行径，有的母亲为了免遭生离之痛，被迫杀死自己的孩子，然后再自杀。美国政局的立场和基督教义都维护奴隶主阶层的利益，那么，我们怎能尽述沿海地区的无数悲剧呢？ And now, men and women of America, is this a thing to be trifled with, apologized for, and passed over in silence? Farmers of Massachusetts, of New Hampshire, of Vermont, of Connecticut, who read this book by the blaze of your winter-evening fire,--strong-hearted, generous sailors and ship-owners of Maine,--is this a thing for you to countenance and encourage? Brave and generous men of New York, farmers of rich and joyous Ohio, and ye of the wide prairie states,--answer, is this a thing for you to protect and countenance? And you, mothers of America,--you who have learned, by the cradles of your own children, to love and feel for all mankind,--by the sacred love you bear your child; by your joy in his beautiful, spotless infancy; by the motherly pity and tenderness with which you guide his growing years; by the anxieties of his education; by the prayers you breathe for his soul's eternal good;--I beseech you, pity the mother who has all your affections, and not one legal right to protect, guide, or educate, the child of her bosom! By the sick hour of your child; by those dying eyes, which you can never forget; by those last cries, that wrung your heart when you could neither help nor save; by the desolation of that empty cradle, that silent nursery,--I beseech you, pity those mothers that are constantly made childless by the American slave-trade! And say, mothers of America, is this a thing to be defended, sympathized with, passed over in silence? 我呼吁美国的公民关注此事，并且为这个苦难的民族尽力。试问在漫漫冬夜里、偎依在温暖的壁炉旁读着本书的马萨诸塞、新罕布什尔、佛蒙特、康涅狄格各州的农民朋友们，生活在缅因州强壮而大度的船员和船主们，你们赞同这样的制度、容忍这样的苦难吗？还有纽约州英勇、善良的人们、俄亥俄州惬意、富裕的农民们，草原上各州的人们，试问你们支持这样的事吗？美国的母亲们，因为你们爱着自己的骨肉，所以学会了爱其他人，学会了怜悯。你们对自己的孩子满怀深情，在他们的摇篮旁边你们曾度过了一段最圣洁、量美好的时光。想想你们在孩子们成长的路途中如何用母爱督促他们进取向上；想想你们为他们的成长而担忧振奋；想一想你们对上帝祷告，让他们永远善良、公正时的虔诚吧。想想你们自身的这一切情怀，我诚挚地请你们为那些可怜的母亲施予一些怜悯吧。她们也深爱着自己的孩子，可是却被法律制度剥夺了爱护、教导自己骨肉的权利。所有的母亲们，想想你们的孩子病痛时的痛苦吧，想想他们面对死亡时的眼睛，想想他们去世时绝望的哭声吧，这一切使你们心肠欲碎，却无力挽留他们的生命。当你们站在空荡荡的婴儿室中，看到他生前的用具和酣睡过的摇篮时，那种切骨的痛楚将终生浸透在你们的心魂中。我恳请你们--伟大的母亲，给那些可怜的母亲一些怜悯吧。万恶的奴隶制导演了一幕幕惨剧，难道你们能够容忍这样的罪恶，并且维护它的存在与蔓延吗？ Do you say that the people of the free state have nothing to do with it, and can do nothing? Would to God this were true! But it is not true. The people of the free states have defended, encouraged, and participated; and are more guilty for it, before God, than the South, in that they have not the apology of education or custom. 实际上，美国自由的人们在纵容奴隶制的合法化，他们始终对奴隶制抱有容许的态度，自己也蓄养黑奴。我多么希望事实不是这样的啊！难道自由州的人们不能对奴隶制施加有益的影响吗？事实上他们却犯下了罪恶。 If the mothers of the free states had all felt as they should, in times past, the sons of the free states would not have been the holders, and, proverbially, the hardest masters of slaves; the sons of the free states would not have connived at the extension of slavery, in our national body; the sons of the free states would not, as they do, trade the souls and bodies of men as an equivalent to money, in their mercantile dealings. There are multitudes of slaves temporarily owned, and sold again, by merchants in northern cities; and shall the whole guilt or obloquy of slavery fall only on the South? 假如自由州的人们公正明理，正确引导儿女，她们的孩子就不会成为臭名昭著的凶暴的奴隶主；不会容许奴隶主贵族们在美国的土地上肆虐横行；也不会在交易场所中买卖奴隶，把人的身心视为物品一样来赚取交易利润。许多黑奴在不断的买卖交易中辗转于北方的各个城市，难道除了南方贵族们被指责有纵容奴隶制的罪名之外，其他人就不应该担当这项罪名吗？ 
北方城市的母亲、男人和基督徒们，你们应该看清楚自身的过失，而不应该把所有的谴责都指向南方人。 But, what can any individual do? Of that, every individual can judge. There is one thing that every individual can do,--they can see to it that _they feel right_. An atmosphere of sympathetic influence encircles every human being; and the man or woman who _feels_ strongly, healthily and justly, on the great interests of humanity, is a constant benefactor to the human race. See, then, to your sympathies in this matter! Are they in harmony with the sympathies of Christ? or are they swayed and perverted by the sophistries of worldly policy? 每个人都具有合理的判断力来决定自己能够做出多大程度的努力，至少可以使自己的正义感和怜慈心在四周的同情气氛中传扬开去。无论男人还是女人，只要能够对全人类的整体利益持有正直、健康的态度，他就可以为人类造福。那么请你们反省自己的情感吧！你的情感是否与基督精神一样圣洁伟大？抑或是受制于冷漠狡诈的社会现实而变得有所偏移？ Christian men and women of the North! still further,--you have another power; you can _pray!_ Do you believe in prayer? or has it become an indistinct apostolic tradition? You pray for the heathen abroad; pray also for the heathen at home. And pray for those distressed Christians whose whole chance of religious improvement is an accident of trade and sale; from whom any adherence to the morals of Christianity is, in many cases, an impossibility, unless they have given them, from above, the courage and grace of martyrdom. 除此之外，北方的基督徒们，你们还拥有祈祷的力量。你们向上帝祷告，是由于笃信他的万能还是出于基督教的习俗呢？你们既然能够替国内外所有的非教会人士祈祷，那么也请你们为那些处境悲惨的基督徒祷告于上帝吧！他们能否提高自身的宗教素养，不能由自己主宰，而要看他的主人是否仁慈；只有上帝赋予他们足够的力量和品质，使他们勇于为道义而献身，那么他们才有可能维护自己的宗教道德。除此之外，他们别无他法。 But, still more. On the shores of our free states are emerging the poor, shattered, broken remnants of families,--men and women, escaped, by miraculous providences from the surges of slavery,--feeble in knowledge, and, in many cases, infirm in moral constitution, from a system which confounds and confuses every principle of Christianity and morality. They come to seek a refuge among you; they come to seek education, knowledge, Christianity. 然而还有另一种奇迹。许多离家弃子的奴隶们有幸得到上天的佑助，从奴隶制的黑暗地狱中逃脱，来到自由州的沿海地区。他们脱身于一个基督教义和人伦道德贫乏混乱的制度，所以这些人本身根本不曾接受完善的教育；他们意志脆弱，需要向你们求助，向你们求教文化知识和基督精神。 What do you owe to these poor unfortunates, oh Christians? Does not every American Christian owe to the African race some effort at reparation for the wrongs that the American nation has brought upon them? Shall the doors of churches and school-houses be shut upon them? Shall states arise and shake them out? Shall the church of Christ hear in silence the taunt that is thrown at them, and shrink away from the helpless hand that they stretch out; and, by her silence, encourage the cruelty that would chase them from our borders? If it must be so, it will be a mournful spectacle. If it must be so, the country will have reason to tremble, when it remembers that the fate of nations is in the hands of One who is very pitiful, and of tender compassion. 唉，你们这些基督的信徒啊！难道你们不应该为水深火热中的非洲民族尽一份力量以弥补给他们造成的伤害吗？难道美国的教会机构和学校应该拒绝黑人吗？难道黑人不应该向基督申诉他们所受的折辱和欺凌吗？难道教会可以蔑视黑人民族无助的呼声和求救的双手吗？难道基督可以容忍种种迫使他们逃离国土的暴虐行径吗？如果这种局面不加以扭转，等待着美国的将是隐患滋生的恶劣后果。只有慈悲悯怀、公正无私的上帝才主宰着万事万物的命运，想起这些，美国人怎能不恐惧呢？ 
你们是否仍然会宣称："让黑奴们滚回非洲去！美国不需要他们！" That the providence of God has provided a refuge in Africa, is, indeed, a great and noticeable fact; but that is no reason why the church of Christ should throw off that responsibility to this outcast race which her profession demands of her. 上帝高瞻远瞩，在非洲给他们安置了一个避难所。然而教会并不能因为这一令人欣慰的伟大举措而抛却拯救黑人民族的重任，顾念这个陷入苦难的民族是基督教会的责任和使命。 To fill up Liberia with an ignorant, inexperienced, half-barbarized race, just escaped from the chains of slavery, would be only to prolong, for ages, the period of struggle and conflict which attends the inception of new enterprises. Let the church of the north receive these poor sufferers in the spirit of Christ; receive them to the educating advantages of Christian republican society and schools, until they have attained to somewhat of a moral and intellectual maturity, and then assist them in their passage to those shores, where they may put in practice the lessons they have learned in America. 刚刚脱身于奴隶制的黑人没有社会阅历，甚至没有为人处世的经验，仍然处于半野蛮状态。许多黑奴逃离南方，投身于北方的自由士地上寻求生存。北方的基督教会应该收留这些可怜的逃亡者，让他们沐浴在基督的爱心之中，为他们提供接受学校教育和共和主义教育的机会；当他们的文化素养和道德水平已臻成熟时再让他们返回家园，用自己的学识来建设非洲海岸。 There is a body of men at the north, comparatively small, who have been doing this; and, as the result, this country has already seen examples of men, formerly slaves, who have rapidly acquired property, reputation, and education. Talent has been developed, which, considering the circumstances, is certainly remarkable; and, for moral traits of honesty, kindness, tenderness of feeling,--for heroic efforts and self-denials, endured for the ransom of brethren and friends yet in slavery,--they have been remarkable to a degree that, considering the influence under which they were born, is surprising. 少数北方人始终坚持着帮助黑奴接受教育，并且收取了成效，在美国涌现出一批杰出人物：他们出身于奴隶阶层，后来渐渐赢得了财富、名誉和教育，他们自身的禀赋和能力都得到了充分发展。他们虽然身处困境，却终于成功地塑造了自己的优秀品质。他们具有超凡的容忍精神，诚实、慈善，为了搭救被凌辱和被践踏的同胞们甚至不惜抛头颅、洒热血。在悲惨的生活环境中成长的黑人能够具有这样卓越的禀赋，实在令人惊叹。
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