" There was also another
West Indian law, by which every Negro was armed against his fellow
Negro, for he was authorized to kill every runaway slave; and he had
even a reward held out to him for so doing. Let the House now contrast
the two cases. Let them ask themselves which of the two exhibited the
greater barbarity; and whether they could possibly vote for the
continuance of the Slave Trade, upon the principle that the Africans had
shown themselves to be a race of incorrigible barbarians?
Something like an opposite argument, but with a like view, had been
maintained by others on this subject. It had been said, in justification
of the trade, that the Africans had derived some little civilization
from their intercourse with us. Yes; we had given them just enough of
the forms of justice to enable them to add the pretext of legal trials
to their other modes of perpetrating the most atrocious crimes. We had
given them just enough of European improvements, to enable them the more
effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged wilderness. Alas! alas! we had
carried on a trade with them from this civilized and enlightened
country, which, instead of diffusing knowledge, had been a check to
every laudable pursuit.
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