NEUOFFENBARUNG[MEr.01_005,001] Now that we have been sailing about at sea, let us board one of these slave ships and, with a very favourable wind, sail to North America.
[MEr.01_005,002] Look, that green strip beginning to come into view is a familiar stretch of the east coast of North America.
[MEr.01_005,003] See how it grows clearer and clearer. You can already make out a large city with a great harbour.
[MEr.01_005,004] Now we have reached it. See how the ships, the harbour and its walls teem with people intent on profit.
[MEr.01_005,005] See, the freed slaves are just being put ashore. Everyone rushes over. Here comes an exceedingly well-fed owner of a sugar plantation, and he hires the enslaved people into his service.
[MEr.01_005,006] The captain who has performed such a humane deed for these people is offered no purchase money for bringing them over. He merely receives a handsome reward for his humanitarian sentiments.
[MEr.01_005,007] In this way, you see, such vile dealing acquires an outward air of humanity and a show of love for humankind and one's neighbour. At heart it is the same slave trade, conducted under a policy that passes for moral.
[MEr.01_005,008] Since that is how matters stand, let us take a brief look at one of these sugar plantations. To spare us a long search over our screen, look straight here.
[MEr.01_005,009] Not far outside the city, right in the middle of the screen, you can see the extensive plantation of the man we saw earlier, who so generously rewarded humanity.
[MEr.01_005,010] Look at just one small part of his estate. A hundred of these poor people, almost entirely naked, are made to work without respite.
[MEr.01_005,011] Behind every ten stands an equally prosperous-looking overseer, armed with a gun and a sword and holding a sharp whip besides. If one of these poor people straightens up from the ground for just a minute to ease the pain of the work, nearly every limb having stiffened from bending constantly, look here and see for yourselves how cruelly the honest, solicitous overseer puts his whip to work at once. So practised is he in using it that each blow draws blood freely from the poor person he strikes.
[MEr.01_005,012] You may think that these enslaved people are at least fed humanely, so that they have strength enough for work under which Satan himself would collapse.
[MEr.01_005,013] I shall let you see for yourselves. Look at this little spot. What you see is one of their meals.
[MEr.01_005,014] You naturally look for a bowl. But the owner would have had to buy a bowl, and indeed many bowls for so many people. A man like that asks what would cost less, and after little thought the great speculator decides that a hollowed tree trunk set up in the yard like a long, large trough will serve the purpose better.
[MEr.01_005,015] Now look into this long bowl at the fare, which consists of nothing but pulses poorly cooked in water, either lentils or beans, or, on holidays, a kind of coarse grain porridge.
[MEr.01_005,016] The trough is filled with such fare and the workers are invited to eat by what is called the slave rattle or by the crack of a whip.
[MEr.01_005,017] Naturally only those working nearby are called to this meal. Those working farther away are given a kind of bread that would truly choke you. If the work farther away is less pressing, they are allowed to cook their usual midday meal there in a hut built for the purpose.
[MEr.01_005,018] But note well that except on a holiday the meal must never last longer than a quarter of an hour. Anyone late when the signal to resume work is given is at once exposed to the harshest abuse.
[MEr.01_005,019] They eat with wooden spoons only on holidays. Now you may ask what other reward these enslaved people receive. The most diligent, who work themselves to death, so to speak, day and night, get a little rum and some fruit from time to time, and even an old jacket to wear on holidays.
[MEr.01_005,020] That is about the most these poor people receive by way of humane consideration. For the rest, six hours' sleep and the meal you have seen are all they get in return for their work.
[MEr.01_005,021] Now you will ask whether such a humane and generous plantation owner has anyone above him to answer to for the way he treats the people he enslaves. See, I cannot show you the answer in a picture, but can tell you plainly: no. In this respect he has unrestricted power over the life and death of his workers and the right to put a disobedient enslaved person to death in any manner he chooses.
[MEr.01_005,022] So that you can see just how splendidly cruel their laws are, I shall show you one example of a kind that occurs there by the hundred, indeed by the thousand.
[MEr.01_005,023] Recently two enslaved people ran away from one such devil because his treatment of them was too satanic. A neighbouring household took them in, for that household still had at least a little human feeling in it.
[MEr.01_005,024] The aggrieved devil immediately went to the authorities and demanded the fugitives back. The neighbouring household, well aware of the laws, also went to the authorities at once and, having heard the bitter complaints of the enslaved people, spoke in their favour.
[MEr.01_005,025] A lawsuit between these two neighbours promptly followed. How do you think the wise judges decided the case? I shall give you the bare judgement, so that you may see for yourselves how things stand in North America, so renowned for its civilisation.
[MEr.01_005,026] Here is the judgement, which ran as follows: ‘On pain of a fine of a thousand pounds, the neighbour shall deliver both fugitives to their owner, dead or alive. If they go willingly, they may be taken there alive. If they refuse, the said neighbour shall immediately shoot them and deliver either their heads or their whole bodies to the owner, who may then deal with them as he sees fit.
[MEr.01_005,027] Should the said two fugitives have made their escape before the order is carried out, anyone shall have the right to shoot them at once, on path or road, wherever they are found.’
[MEr.01_005,028] I need only mention one more thing so that you may know the full disgrace of it. The judgement spoke of the owner's discretion. What does it actually amount to? Look at My screen again. A short scene will answer the question sufficiently.
[MEr.01_005,029] See that pond. It is a fishpond belonging to one of these owners. In the corner of the pond lie two young men and a young woman, enslaved and bound. None has yet reached the age of twenty.
[MEr.01_005,030] Beside them lie an enslaved woman and man, both already dead. The two dead people are the parents of these young ones.
[MEr.01_005,031] Look, the guard gets up, for the owner is approaching, as you can see, with two so-called gladiators, his two managers and several overseers.
[MEr.01_005,032] See, they are here now, with terrible looks on their faces. His order, or rather his decision about what to do with these poor people, is first to hack the two dead bodies to pieces and throw the pieces into the pond to feed the fish. The girl is to be bound and raped by any of the overseers who wish to do so, then prepared as food for the fish. The two boys are each to be tied to a stake, flogged to death and then likewise prepared as fish food.
[MEr.01_005,033] See, this is what the much-praised constitution looks like in highly civilised North America. Now judge for yourselves what name such creatures deserve.
[MEr.01_005,034] Truly, My worst enemy, the prince of darkness, is a sorry bungler beside them. You may believe Me or not. You have heard of possessed people, who have been and still are possessed by devils and Satans. But I tell you that no Satan could be prevailed upon to take inward possession of such a North American humanitarian. In such circumstances any one of them would prefer the lowest degree of hell to dwelling in one of these sugar producers.
[MEr.01_005,035] From this brief comparison you can form some idea of how such conduct appears in My sight.
[MEr.01_005,036] Oh, I tell you, every crumb of sugar is laid under a thousandfold curse by Me. For truly, if these inhuman people sold by weight the blood shed in making it, it would outweigh the sugar produced a hundredfold.
[MEr.01_005,037] You may therefore take it as certain that to every Loth of sugar there cling a hundred Loth of shed human blood.
[MEr.01_005,038] See, out of consideration for your feelings I decided to let you see only the best part of this continent. Let that suffice for you. Truly, if I showed you what goes on in the southern half of this land, the pen would falter in your hand and you would be unable to write down three sentences. In the twelfth and last hour, when you are more accustomed to looking with Me at horrors of every kind, I shall tell you something of those extremes.
[MEr.01_005,039] Here I shall say nothing about their reward to come. I shall tell you something new: such creatures shall be utterly destroyed for ever. Amen.