"
But this plan of regulation was not only inefficacious, but unsafe. He
entered his protest against the fatal consequences which might result
from it. The Negroes were creatures like ourselves; but they were
uninformed, and their moral character was debased. Hence they were unfit
for civil rights. To use these properly they must be gradually restored
to that level, from which they had been so unjustly degraded. To allow
them an appeal to the laws, would be to awaken in them a sense of the
dignity of their nature. The first return of life, after a swoon, was
commonly a convulsion, dangerous at once to the party himself and to all
around him. You should first prepare them for the situation, and not
bring the situation to them. To be under the protection of the law was
in fact to be a freeman; and to unite slavery and freedom in one
condition was impracticable. The abolition, on the other hand, was
exactly such an agent as the case required. All hopes of supplies from
the coast being cut off, breeding would henceforth become a serious
object of attention; and the care of this, as including better clothing,
and feeding, and milder discipline, would extend to innumerable
particulars, which an act of assembly could neither specify nor enforce.
Pages:
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733