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SENTIMENTS EXPRESSED BY THE SOUTHERNERS
THEMSELVES ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY.
1
QM
“Now Naaman was a great man, and honorable; he was alsс a mighty man in
valor; but he was a leper."-2 Kings, chap. v.
hall.
te
Aty and
Sentiments of Patrick Henry.
“ Is it not amazing, that at a time when the rites of
humanity are defined with precision, in a country abore
all others fond of liberty, that in such an age, and in such
a country, we find men, professing a religion the most
hurnane and gentle, adopting a principle as repugnant to
humanity, as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and de-
structive to liberty ? Believe me, I shall honor the Quakers
for their noble efforts to abolish slavery. Every thinking,
honest man, rejects it in speculation ; yet how few in
practice, from conscientious motives. Would any man
believe that I am master of slaves of my own purchase ?
I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living
without them. I will not, I cannot justify il. However
culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue,
as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts,
and to lament my own want of conformity to them.”-
Letter of Patrick Henry, of Virginia, to Robert Pleas-
unts, of the Society of Friends.
87-1
Sentiments of Jefferson.
" The whole commerce between master and slave is a
perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the
most unremitting despotism on one part, and degrading
748445
10%


4
submission on the other. Our children see this and learn
to imitate it. The parent storms, the child looks on,
catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in
the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to the worst of
passions, and thus nursed, educated, and exercised in
tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious pecu-
liarities. With what execration should the statesman be
loaded, who, permitting one half of the citizens to trample
on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots,
and those into enemies ; destroys the morals of one part,
and the amor patriæ of the other.
“ And can the liberties of the nation be thought secure,
when we have refused the only firm basis, a conviction in
the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of
God ? That they are not to be violated but with his
wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country, when I recol-
lect that God is just ; that his justice cannot sleep forever;
that, considering numbers, nature and natural means only,
a revolution in the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situa-
tion is among possible events; that it may become proba-
ble by a supernatural interference. The Almighty has
no attribute which can take side with us in such a con-
test.”—Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, published 1782.
In a letter, dated Monticello, 1814, Mr. Jefferson
writes thus in his old age.
“Dear Sir-Your favor of July 31, was duly received,
and read with pleasure. The sentiments breathed through
the whole, do honor both to the head and heart of the
writer. Mine on the subject of the slavery of the negroes
have long since been in the possession of the public; and
time has only served to give them stronger root. Yet the
hour of emancipation is advancing in the march of time.
It will come ; and whether brought on by the generous
energy of our own minds, or by the bloody process of St.
Domingo, excited and conducted by the power of our
present enemy,* if once stationed permanently within our
It will be recollected that we were then engaged in war.


6
Sentiments of Mr. Read.
Slavery is an unnatural state, a dark cloud, which
obscures half the lustre of our free institutions. I would
hail that day as the most glorious in its dawning, which
would behold, with safety to themselves and our citizens,
the black population of the United States placed upon
the high eminence of equal rights."- Mr. Read, of Geor-
gia, in the debate on the Missouri question.
Sentiments of Governor Giles.
Free blacks, when convicted of certain crimes, are sold
as slaves.
Governor Giles, in his Address to the Legis-
lature of Virginia, in 1827, alluding to this custom, says:
Slavery must be admitted to be a punishment of the
highest order; and according to every just rule for the
apportionment of punishment to crimes, it would seem
that it ought to be applied only to crimes of the highest
order. It seems but an act of justice to this unfortunate,
degraded class of persons, to state that the number of
convicis among free colored persons, compared with the
white population, is extremely small; and would serve to
show, that even this description of our population is less
demoralized than is generally supposed.”
Sentiments of Amos Weaver.
" What! are thousands of our fellow-creatures within
our State, destitute of every real protection afforded them
by law, either in their persons or property-without any
law to guard their marriage rights, or without the law's
having any knowledge of marriage among them-(for
such is the fact with regard to the whole slave population
among us)—many of them under the control of cruel and
relentless masters, from whom they receive much inhu-
man abuse-and yet are we told that all this needs no
legislative interference? Monstrous, indeed, is the doc-
trine! But on this subject, we appeal to the virtue and


7
good sense of our countrymen.". -Oration by Amos
Weaver, of Guilford County, North Carolina, delivered
in 1829.
Sentiments of B. Swain.
“ Is it nothing to us, that serenteen hundred thousand
of the people of our country, are doomed illegally to the
most abject and vile slavery that was ever tolerated on the
face of the earth ? Are Carolinians deaf to the piercing
cries of bumanity? Are they insensible to the demands
of justice? Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a mo-
ment cast his thoughts over the land of slavery-think of
the nakedness of some, the hungry yearnings of others,
the flowing tears and heaving sighs of parting relations,
the wailings of lamentation and wo, the bloody cut of the
keen lash, and the frightful scream that rends the very
skies, -and all this to gratify ambition, lust, pride, avarice,
vanity, and other depraved feelings of the human heart.
Too long has our country been unfortunately lulled to
sleep, feeding on the golden dreams of superficial politi-
cians, fanciful poets, and anniversary orations. The
worst is not generally known. Were all the miseries, the
horrors of slavery, to burst at once into view, a peal of
sevenfold thunder could scarce strike greater alarm.
We cannot yet believe the condition of our country so
desperate, as to forbid the judicious application of proper
remedies." --Address of B. Swain, of North Carolina,
in 1830.
Sentiments of Henry Clay.
“In our attempt to adopt gradual emancipation in
Kentucky, we were overpowered by numbers, and sub-
mitted to the decision of the majority, with the grace
which the minority in a republic should ever yield to such
a decision. But I have never ceased, and never shall
cease, to regret a decision, the effects of which have been


9
Sentiments of Mr. Wirt.
Mr. Wirt, of Virginia, said that "slavery was contrary
to the laws of nature and of nations; and that the law of
South Carolina concerning seizing colored seamen was
unconstitutional.” In his life of Patrick Henry, speaking
of the different classes in Virginia, he says : " last and
lowest, a feculum of beings called overseers--the most
abject, degraded, unprincipled race--always whip in hand
to the dons who employ them, and furnishing materials
for their pride, insolence, and love of dominion."
Sentiments of Mr. Brodnax.
“That slavery in Virginia is an evil, and a transcendent
evil, it would be more than idle for any human being to
doubt or deny. It is a mildew, which has blighted every
region it has touched, from the creation of the world.
Illustrations from the history of other countries and other
times inight be instructive ; but we have evidence nearer
at hand, in the short histories of the different States of
this great confederacy, which are impressive in their ad-
monitions, and conclusive in their character.' --Speech
of Mr. Brodnax, in the Virginia Legislature, 1832.
Sentiments of Mr. Summers.
“Sir, the evils of this system cannot be enumerated.
It were unnecessary to attempt it. They glare upon us
at every step.
When the owner looks to his wasted estate,
he knows and feels them. When the statesinan examines
the condition of his country, and finds her moral influence
gone, her physical strength diminished, her political
power waning, he sees and must confess them. Will
gentlemen inform us when this subject will become less
delicate--when it will be attended with fewer difficulties
than at present--and at what period we shall be better
enabled to meet them ? Shall we be more adequate to
the end proposed, after the resources of the State have


10
been yet longer paralyzed by the withering, desolating in-
fluence of our present system ? Sir, every year's delay
but augments the difficulties of this great business, and
weakens our ability to compass it. Like silly children,
we endeavor to postpone the work, which we know must
be performed."--Speech of Mr. Summers, in the Legisla-
turc of Virginia, 1832.
Sentiments of Thomas Clay.
“ The present economy of the slave system is to get all
you can from the slave, and give in return as little as will
barely support him in a working condition. Even where
there is not a direct intention to abridge his comforts,
they are but little consulted ; and seeing his master
wholly engrossed by his own advantage, the slave nat-
urally pursues the same selfish course, and when not re-
strained by higher principle, becomes deceitful and thiev-
ish. The master takes no pains to conceal that he
takes it for granted the negro will steal and lie; and
when the slave is tempted to either, he feels that he has
no character to lose."--Thomas Clay's Address before
the Presbytery of Georgia.
1
Sentiments of Z. Kingsley.
This writer informs his readers that he settled on a
plantation in Florida, with about fifty negroes, many of
whom he brought from the coast of Africa himself. He
is one who wants to regulate the evil--not abolish it.
“ As far as regards the free colored people of the south,
the laws are dictated in a spirit of intolerant prejudice,
and irresponsible autocracy, holding out to people they
nickname free, no reward or premium whatever for being
virtuous; nothing to stimulate to industry, or the acqui-
sition of a good name, learning, or refinement; no kind
of protection either for person or property. Even their
punishments must be corporeal--not excepting the most del-


11
icate female, whom industry and virtue alone would place
at the head of society in any other country. Liberty is
merely nominal, without any constitutional protection.
They may be sold to pay partial, exorbitant, and tyranni-
cal taxes, or fines, all which are unconstitutional. Op-
pression is carried to its greatest extreme, when a mother,
of most unexceptionable moral character, going out of her
native State on account of ill health, is inexorably pun.
ished by perpetual banishment from husband, children,
friends, country, and all that is dear to her.* As for
our laws to regulate slaves, they are all founded upon
terror."
Sentiments of President Monroe.
“ We have found that this evil has preyed upon the
very vitals of the Union ; and has been prejudicial to all
the States in which it has existed.”—James Monroe before
the Virginia Convention.
Sentiments of Washington.
General Washington, in a letter to Sir John Sinclair,
speaks of the prices of land in Virginia, and particularly
in the neighborhood of Mount Vernon. The land there
is described as exhausted and miserable--plantations not
worth more than four or five dollars an acre, including
buildings. He then alludes to the prices of land in Penn-
sylvania and the_free States, which averaged more than
twice as much ; I think he stated it at sixteen dollars per
He assigns as reasons for this mighty difference,
first, that foreign emigrants are more inclined to settle in
the free States. The second reason I transcribe in his
own words :
acre.
* Free colored people if they go out of the State, for any reason
whatsoever, are never allowed to return, lest they should bring back
opinions that would make the slaves uneasy.


5
country, and offering an asylam and alms to the oppressed,
is a leaf of our history not yet turned over.
“I am sensible of the partialities with which you have
looked towards me, as the person who should undertake
this salutary but arduous' work. But this, my dear sir,
is like bidding old Priam buckle on the armor of Hector,
. trementibus ævo humeri et inutile ferrum cingi.' No,
I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors
begat mutual confidence and influence. This enterprise
is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and
bear it through to its consummation. It shall have my
prayers, and these are the only weapons of an old man."
Sentiments of Governor Randolph.
“The deplorable error of our ancestors in copying a
civil institution from savage Africa, has affixed upon their
posterity a depressing burden, which nothing but the ex-
iraordinary benefits conferred by our happy climate, could
have enabled us to support.
We have been far outstrip-
ped by States, to whom nature has been far less bountiful.
It is painful to consider what might have been, under
other circumstances, the amount of general wealth in
Virginia, or the whole sum of comfortable subsistence and
happiness possessed by all her inhabitants.”—Governor
Randolph's Address to the Legislature of Virginia, in
1820.
Sentiments of John Randolph.
“ Virginia is so impoverished by the system of slavery,
that the tables will sooner or later be turned, and the
slaves will advertise for runaway masters.”—John Ran-
dolph, of Roanoke.
1 *


6
Sentiments of Mr. Read.
Slavery is an unnatural state, a dark cloud, which
obscures half the lustre of our free institutions. I would
hail that day as the most glorious in its dawning, which
would behold, with safety to themselves and our citizens,
the black population of the United States placed upon
the high eminence of equal rights.”—Mr. Read, of Geor-
gia, in the debate on the Missouri question.
Sentiments of Governor Giles.
Free blacks, when convicted of certain crimes, are sold
as slaves. Governor Giles, in his Address to the Legis-
lature of Virginia, in 1827, alluding to this custom, says :
“ Slavery must be admitted to be a punishment of the
highest order; and according to every just rule for the
apportionment of punishment to crimes, it would seem
that it ought to be applied only to crimes of the highest
order. It seems but an act of justice to this unfortunate,
degraded class of persons, to state that the number of
convicis among free colored persons, compared with the
white population, is extremely small; and would serve to
show, that even this description of our population is less
demoralized than is generally supposed.”
Sentiments of Amos Weaver.
" What! are thousands of our fellow-creatures within
our State, destitute of every real protection afforded them
by law, either in their persons or property—without any
law to guard their marriage rights, or without the law's
having any knowledge of marriage among them-(for
such is the fact with regard to the whole slave population
among us)—many of them under the control of cruel and
relentless masters, from whom they receive much inhu-
man abuse—and yet are we told that all this needs no
legislative interference ? Monstrous, indeed, is the doc-
trine! But on this subject, we appeal to the virtue and


7
good sense of our countrymen."-Oration by Amos
Weaver, of Guilford County, North Carolina, delivered
in 1829.
Sentiments of B. Swain.
“ Is it nothing to us, that seventeen hundred thousand
of the people of our country, are doomed illegally to the
most abject and vile slavery that was ever tolerated on the
face of the earth? Are Carolinians deaf to the piercing
cries of bumanity? Are they insensible to the demands
of justice? Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a mo-
ment cast his thoughts over the land of slavery-think of
the nakedness of some, the hungry yearnings of others,
the flowing tears and heaving sighs of parting relations,
the wailings of lamentation and wo, the bloody cut of the
keen lash, and the frightful scream that rends the very
skies,-and all this to gratify ambition, lust, pride, avarice,
vanity, and other depraved feelings of the human heart.
Too long has our country been unfortunately lulled to
sleep, feeding on the golden dreams of superficial politi-
cians, fanciful poets, and anniversary orations. The
worst is not generally known. Were all the miseries, the
horrors of slavery, to burst at once into view, a peal of
sevenfold thunder could scarce strike greater alarm.
We cannot yet believe the condition of our country so
desperate, as to forbid the judicious application of proper
remedies."'-Address of B. Swain, of North Carolina,
in 1830.
Sentiments of Henry Clay.
“In our attempt to adopt gradual emancipation in
Kentucky, we were overpowered by numbers, and sub-
mitted to the decision of the majority, with the grace
which the minority in a republic should ever yield to such
a decision. But I have never ceased, and never shall
cease, to regret a decision, the effects of which have been


10
been yet longer paralyzed by the withering, desolating in-
fluence of our present system ? Sir, every year's delay
but augments the difficulties of this great business, and
weakens our ability to compass it. Like silly children,
we endeavor to postpone the work, which we know must
be performed." --Speech of Mr. Summers, in the Legisla-
ture of Virginia, 1832.
1
Sentiments of Thomas Clay.
“ The present economy of the slave system is to get all
you can from the slave, and give in return as little as will
barely support him in a working condition. Even where
there is not a direct intention to abridge his comforts,
they are but little consulted ; and seeing his master
wholly engrossed by his own advantage, the slave nat-
urally pursues the same selfish course, and when not re-
strained by higher principle, becomes deceitful and thiev-
ish. The master takes no pains to conceal that he
takes it for granted the negro will steal and lie; and
when the slave is tempted to either, he feels that he has
no character to lose."--Thomas Clay's Address before
the Presbytery of Georgia.
Sentiments of Z. Kingstey.
This writer informs his readers that he settled on a
plantation in Florida, with about fifty negroes, many of
whom he brought from the coast of Africa himself. He
is one who wants to regulate the evil--not abolish it.
“ As far as regards the free colored people of the south,
the laws are dictated in a spirit of intolerant prejudice,
and irresponsible autocracy, holding out to people they
nickname free, no reward or premium whatever for being
virtuous ; nothing to stimulate to industry, or the acqui-
sition of a good name, learning, or refinement; no kind
of protection either for person or property. Even their
punishments must be corporeal--not excepting the most del-


HISTORICAL EVIDENCE CONCERNING THE EF-
FECTS OF IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION.
“Elisha said upto Naaman, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh
shall corno again to thee, and'thou shalt be clean.
“ But Naaman was wroth, and he turned and went away in a rage.
" And his servants said, My father, if the prophet had bid then do some great
thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to
thee, wash and be clean.
"Then he went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to
the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a
little child, and he was clean.”—2 Kings, chap. v.
When the question of immediate abolition was first
started in England, the friends of slavery vociferated
nothing more loudly, than the danger of universal insur-
rection and bloodshed ; and nothing took stronger hold
of the sympathies and conscientious fears of the people,
than these repeated assertions. This is precisely the
state of things in our own country, at the present time.
We all know that it is not according to human nature for
men to turn upon their benefactors, and do violence, at
the very moment they receive what they have long desired;
but we are so repeatedly told the slaves will murder their
masters, if they give them freedom, that we can hardly
help believing that, in this peculiar case, the laws of
human nature must be reversed. Let us try to divest our-
selves of the fierce excitement now abroad in the commu-
nity, and calmly inquire what is the testimony of history
on this important subject.
In June, 1793, a civil war occurred between the aris-
tocrats and republicans of St. Domingo; and the planters
called in the aid of Great Britain. The opposing party
proclaimed freedom to all slaves, and armed them against
the British. It is generally supposed that the abolition of
2


14
slavery in St. Domingo was in consequence of insurrections
among the slaves; but this is not true. It was entirely
a measure of political expediency. And what were the
consequences of this sudden and universal emancipation ?
Whoever will take the pains to search the histories of that
island, will find the whole colored population remained
faithful to the republican party which had given them
freedom. The British were defeated, and obliged to
evacuate the island. The sea being at that time full of
British cruisers, the French had no time to attend to St.
Domingo, and the colonists were left to govern themselves.
And what was the conduct of the emancipated slaves,
under these circumstances ? About 600,000 slaves had
instantaneously ceased to be property, and were invested
with the rights of men; yet there was a decrease of crime,
and every thing went on quietly and prosperously. Col.
Malenfant, who resided on the island, says, in his his-
torical memoir: “After this public act of emancipation,
the negroes remained quiet both in the south and west,
and they continued to work upon all the plantations.
Even
upon those estates which had been abandoned by
owners and managers, the negroes continued their labor
where there were any agents to guide; and where no
white men
were leſt to direct them, they betook them-
selves to planting provisions. The colony was flourishing.
The whites lived happy and in peace upon their estates,
and the negroes continued to work for them."
General Lacroix, in his memoirs, speaking of the same
period, says: “The colony marched as by enchantment
towards its ancient splendor; cultivation prospered; every
day produced perceptible proofs of its progress."
This prosperous state of things lasted about eight years ;
and would probably have continued to this day, had not
Buonaparte, at the instigation of the old aristocratic French
planters, sent an army to deprive the blacks of the free.
dom which they had used so well. It was the attempts
to restore slavery, that produced all the bloody horrors of
St. Domingo. Emancipation produced the most blessed
effects.
In June, 1794, Victor Hugo, a French republican gen-
eral, retook the island of Guadaloupe from the British,
and immediately proclaimed freedom to all the slaves.


15
They were 85,000 in number, and the whites only 13,000.
No disasters whatever occurred in consequence of this step.
Seven years after, the supreme council of Guadaloupe,
in an official document, alluding to the tranquillity that
reigned throughout the island, observed : "We shall have
the satisfaction of giving an example which will prove that
all classes of people may live in perfect harmony with
each other, under an administration which secures justice
to all classes." In 1802, Buonaparte again reduced this
island to slavery, at the cost of about 20,000 negro lives.
On the 10th of October, 1811, the congress of Chili
decreed that every child born after that day should be
free.
In 1821, the congress of Colombia emancipated all
slaves who had borne arms in favor of the republic; and
provided for the emancipation in eighteen years of the
whole slave population, amounting to 900,000.
In September, 1829, the government of Mexico granted
immediate and unqualified freedom to every slave.
In all
these cases, not one instance of insurrection or bloodshed
has ever been heard of, as the result of emancipation.
In July, 1823, 30,000 Hottentots in Cape Colony, were
emancipated from their long and cruel bondage, and ad-
mitted by law to all the rights and privileges of the white
colonists. Outrages were predicted, as the inevitable
consequence of freeing human creatures so completely
brutalized as the poor Hottentots; but all went on peace-
ably; and as a gentleman facetiously remarked, " Hot-
tentots as they were, they worked better for Mr. Cash,
than they had ever done for Mr. Lash.”
In the South African Commercial Advertiser of Feb-
ruary, 1831, it is stated : “ Three thousand prize negroes
have received their freedom; four hundred in one day;
but not the least difficulty or disaster occurred. Servants
found masters--masters hired servants--all gained homes,
and at night scarcely an idler was to be seen.--To state
that sudden emancipation would create disorder and dis-
tress to those you mean to serve, is not reason, but the plea
of all men adverse to abolition.”
On the 1st of August, 1834, the government of Great
Britain emancipated the slaves in all her colonies, of which
she had twenty ; seventeen in the West Indies, and three


16
in the East Indies. The measure was not carried in a
manner completely satisfactory to the English abolitionists.
Historical evidence, and their own knowledge of human
nature, led them to the conclusion that immediate and
unqualified emancipation was the safest for the master, as
well as the most just towards the slave. But the West India
planters talked so loudly of the dangers of such a step,
and of the necessity of time to fit the slaves for freedom,
that the government resolved to conciliate them by a sort
of compromise. The slaves were to continue to work six
years longer without wages, under the name of appren-
tices; but during this period, they could be punished only
by the express orders of magistrates.
The legislatures of the several colonies had a right to
dispense with the system of apprenticeship; but Antigua
and Bermuda were the only ones that adopted immediate
and unconditional emancipation.
Public proclamation of freedom was made on the first
of August, and was every where received in joy and peace.
Mr. Cobbett, a missionary stationed at Montego Bay, Ja-
maica, writes thus : “ The first of August was a memo-
rable day! Our preaching place was crowded at an early
hour. At the close of the services, I read the address of
his excellency the governor to the negro population, made
several remarks in reference to the change of their condi-
tion, and exhorted them to be obedient to their masters
and to the powers that be. There was in every counte-
nance an expression of satisfaction, and of gratitude to
God and their benefactors. The conduct of the negroes
during this eventful period has been such as will raise
them, I should think, in the eyes of all their friends.”
Mr. Wedlock, of the same place, writes thus on the
13th of August: “The first day of August, a day to
which the attention of the wise, the good, and the phi-
lanthropic, of other countries besides our own, was direct-
ed, has arrived and passed by in the most peaceful and har-
inonious manner. Such congregations, such attention,
such joys and grateful feelings as are depicted in every
countenance, I never beheld !-Up to this time, peace
and harmony prevail."
The marquis of Sligo, governor of Jamaica, in his
speech to the assembly, after five months' trial of eman.
99


17
1
cipation, declares: “Not the slightest idea of any inter-
ruption of tranquillity exists in any quarter; and those
preparations which I have felt it my duty to make, might,
without the slightest danger, have been dispensed with.”
In a recent address to the assembly, he states that the
crops this year, (1835,) will fall short only about one six-
nth; and that this slight difference may be accounted
for by the unfavorableness of the season.
The enemies of abolition predicted that the crops in
Jamaica, would perish for want of being gathered ; be-
cause the negroes could not possibly be induced to work
an hour longer than the law or the whip compelled them.
But as soon as the planters offered them wages for working
extra hours, more work was offered than the planters were
willing to pay for. Even the low price of a penny an
hour, operated like magic upon them, and inspired them
to diligence !
The numerical superiority of the negroes in the West
Indies is great. In Jamaica there were 331,000 slaves,
and only 37,000 whites. By the clumsy apprenticeship
system, the old stimulus of the whip was taken away,
while the new and better stimulus of wages was not ap-
plied. The negroes were aware that if they worked well
they should not be paid for it, and that if they worked ill
they could not be logged, as they had formerly been. Yet
even under these disadvantageous circumstances, no diffi-
culties occurred except in three of the islands; and even
there the difficulties were slight and temporary.
Let us
inquire candidly how these troubles originated. The act
of parliament provided, that the apprentice should work
for his master forty and a half hours per week, and have
the remainder of the time for his own benefit ; but it did
not provide that while they were apprentices (and of
course worked without wages) they should enjoy all the
privileges to which they had been accustomed while
slaves. The planters availed themselves of this circum-
stance to put obstructions in the way of abolition ; with
the hope likewise of coercing the apprentices to form indi-
vidual contracts to work fifty hours in the week, instead
of forty and a half. While the people had been slaves,
they had always been allowed cooks to prepare their meals;
nurses to take care of the little children; and a person to


15
1
ENEMIES
OF ABOLITION
bring water to the gang, during the bot hours; but when
they became apprentices, these privileges were taken
away. Each slave was obliged to quit his or her work to
go to his own cabin (sometimes a great distance) to cook
their meals, instead of having them served in the field ;
water was not allowed them; the aged and infirm, instead
of being employed as formerly, to superintend the children
in the shade, were driven to labor in the hot sun, and
mothers were obliged to toil at the hoe with their infants
strapped at their backs. In addition to this, the planters
obtained from the governor a new proclamation, re-
quiring the apprentices to labor extra hours for their
masters, when they should deem it necessary in the culti-
vation, gathering, or manufacture of the crop, provided
they repaid them an equal time "at a convenient season
of the year.” This was like taking from a New-England
farmer the month of July to be repaid in January. Under
these petty vexations, and unjust exactions, some of the
apprentices stopt work in three of the colonies, out of
seventeen. But even in these three, their resistance was
merely passive. The worst
HAVE NOT YET BEEN ABLE TO SHOW THAT A SINGLE DROP
OF BLOOD HAS BEEN SHED, OR
А SINGLE PLANTATION
FIRED, IN CONSEQUENCE OF EMANCIPATION, IN ALL THE
BRITISH WEST INDIES !
In Jamaica they refused to work upon the terms which
their masters endeavored to impose. A very small mili-
tary force was sent into one parish, and but on one occa-
sion. Not a drop of blood was shed on either side.
In Demarara they refused to work on the prescribed
terms, and marched about with a flagstaff
, as
" the ten
hour men have done in many of our cities. But the
worst thing they did was to strike a constable with their
fists.
In St. Christopher's the resistance was likewise entirely
passive. In two weeks the whole trouble was at an end;
and it was ascertained that, out of twenty thousand ap-
prentices, only thirty were absent from work; and some
of these were supposed to be dead in the woods.
One apprentice, executed in Demarara for insubordina-
tion, is the only life that has yet been lost in this great
experiment! and a few fisty cuffs with a constable, on
2
1
1


19
!
one single occasion, has been the only violence offered to
persons or property, by eight hundred thousand emanci-
pated slaves.
Antigua and Bermuda did not try the apprenticeship
system ; but at once gave the slaves the stimulus of wages.
In those islands not the slightest difficulties have occurred.
The journals of Antigua say: “ The great doubt is solr-
ed; and the highest hopes of the negroes' friends are
fulfilled. Thirty thousand men have passed from slavery
into freedom, not only without the slightest irregularity,
but with the solemn and decorous tranquillity of a Sab-
bath!”
In Antigua there are 2,000 whites, 30,000 slaves and
4,500 free blacks.
Antigua and St. Christopher are within gunshot of each
other ; both are sugar growing colonies ; and the propor
tion of blacks is less in St. Christopher than it is in Anti-
gua : yet the former island has had some difficulty with the
gradual system, while the quiet of the latter has not been
disturbed for one hour by immediate emancipation. Do
not these facts speak volumnes ?
There are, in the West Indies, many men, (planters,
overseers, drivers, and book-keepers,) who, from pride,
licentiousness, and other motives, do not like a change
which takes away from them uncontrolled power over
men and women. These individuals try to create diffi-
culties, and exaggerate the report of them. It is much to
be regretted that the American press has hitherto prefer-
red their distorted stories, unsubstantiated by a particle of
proof, to the well-authenticated evidence of magistrates
and missionaries resident on the islands.
Why are the friends of slavery so desirous to make it
appear that the British experiment does not work well ?
It is because they are conscious that if it does work well,
America has no excuse left to screen her from the strong
disapprobation of the civilized world.





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DATE ISSUED
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DATE ISSUED
DATE DUE
XXXXXXXYY 1981
SEP 27 1928
DUE MAY 24, 1998


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