Slavery in the United States <br> Chapter 3

But let it be supposed, however horrible the idea, that the wishes of the friends of the " entire human race" were fulfilled : let us imagine a community of free blacks rising among the ruins of states, lords of the soil, smoking with the habitations and blood of their exterminated masters and families. Would the sum of human happiness be increased by such a result] Would the pangs of murdered white men, women, and infants ; the agonies of the exiled and impoverished survivors, and the destruction of all the landmarks of social improvement, be replaced by the refreshing spectacle of an enlightened, industrious, and happy nation of blacks, living in the enjoyment of rational freedom, sharing the comforts of salutary labour, and the high gratifications of moral and intellectual improvement? Look at the following picture of the island of Jamaica, as it presents itself at this moment.

"Every day the negroes are becoming more licentious and corrupt. Singing psalms at the chapels is made an excuse and a cloak by the apprentices for laziness. They do not many of them work over two hours a day. The streets of Kingston, once famed for their orderly quiet, are now nightly the scenes of drunken debauchery, negro drumming, and dancing, much of it under the mask of preaching and singing at the evening conventicles. Jamaica promises soon to become as pestiferous a sink of vice and corruption as the most libertine enthusiast can desire."

Look, too, at St. Domingo, where the early fruits of an emancipation, purchased by the poverty, exile and blood of tens of thousands of civilized white men, are exemplified in the decay and approaching ruin of that island, one of the most fruitful in the world; in the infliction of a code of laws, prescribing a certain number of stripes in order to overcome the innate lazy apathy which forms a part of the very constitution of the African race; and in a general system of despotism far more severe than they suffered under their ancient masters. Look, too, at the nations of Africa, in their own native land, destitute of everything that gives real value to liberty, and three-fourths of them subjected to hereditary bondage.

The experience of the people of the South, also, furnishes ample evidence of the evil consequences of the emancipation of their slaves, insomuch that necessity has obliged their legislative bodies to make it a condition of their freedom that they shall depart from the state. Otherwise, they for the most part become the keepers of what are called flash-houses, where the slaves are furnished with liquor, in defiance of the laws; encouraged to thefts and depredations on the property of the master, by finding purchasers close at hand; initiated into all sorts of debaucheries; and finally tempted to run away, either by the fear of discovery and punishment, or the hope of securing a permanency in these pernicious indulgences.

If these examples are insufficient to repress the towering anticipations of the friends of the "entire human race," let us look at home, and draw conclusions from our own daily observation. Let us consult our own eyes and ears, and while sickening with disappointment at the result of all the efforts even of sober rational philanthropy, in seeing the laziness, the dirt, the debauchery, and the crimes of the free blacks of our city, ask of ourselves, if the massacre, and exile, and ruin of such a noble race as that of the South, and the substitution of one composed of such ingredients, will increase or diminish the sum of human happiness?

Such a community could not last long. Even at this moment a large portion of the free blacks would be perishing amid the frosts of winter, like grasshoppers which have wasted their summer in idleness, were it not for the industrious white men, who, like ants, have provided their wintry store, and whose charities keep them alive. Without doubt the most speedy mode of ridding our country of these firebrands of contention, would be the success of the advocates of immediate emancipation, in achieving their freedom. But it would be a cruel and inhuman expedient; for, judging by what has been already seen, few years would elapse before their indolence, their want of prudence, their utter carelessness of the future, together with the corruptions engendered by the possession of a freedom they know not how to enjoy, would consume them like wasting cankers, and strew the country with sad monuments of a wild, willful, unrelenting, remorseless philanthropy, which, shutting its eyes, like the drunken soldier, rushes headlong up to the muzzle of the loaded cannon. Again, it may be asked, would such an act, followed by such consequences, be conformable to the laws of God and nature, which have for their basis the general happiness of mankind?

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Slavery in the United States <br> Chapter 3

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Slavery in the United States <br> Chapter 3

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