3d. Do they at present well understand the entire danger in which slavery places them, and do they conscientiously do their best to eradicate the evil?
4th. What are the most efficacious means to attain as speedily as possible, the enfranchisement of the blacks?
If these four questions were impartially examined, it is probable that those violent declamations which offend without instructing would be relinquished, as they offer no mode of redressing the evil of which they accuse others. I shall not attempt a profound investigation of these questions, which demand a vaster field than I can give them; I shall but skim over them, but always in the course of my journey, if opportunities present, I shall exactly state the facts I witness, and this I hope will make known the state of slavery, and the daily progress of public opinion on the subject, better than all discussion.
This crime, by which man abusing his power and intelligence, subjects to his caprices or to the supply of his wants another man less enlightened than himself, was first committed in Virginia in the year 1620. It originated in the misery of the colonists whose small numbers and exhausted strength could no longer till the soil, and the avarice of the Hollanders, who sold them like beasts of burthen, the unfortunate negroes they had stolen from the shores of Africa. The English, not less avid of money than the Hollanders, soon perceived in this abuse of power, encouraging idleness, a source of wealth, which they hastened to turn to their advantage, and from that time their ships annually cast forth upon the American continent thousands of slaves. However, the sentiments of humanity which famine had for some time smothered in the bosoms of the colonists, were re-animated by the return of prosperity and abundance. The general assembly of Virginia about 1680, demanded of the metropolis that an end should be made of this infamous and now unnecessary commerce in human flesh, since the population was sufficiently numerous and active to cultivate a country which richly recompensed the slightest labour; other colonies repeated this call of justice and philanthropy, but the metropolis was insensible thereto, and only replied by this atrocious declaration of parliament;—the importation of slaves into America, is too lucrative, for the colonies to ask that England should ever give it up;—and this declaration was followed by threats, to which they were obliged to yield, since they were unable to resist.[[19]] The general assembly nevertheless frequently renewed its demand, which had no other result than to obtain in 1699 an act by which the importation of slaves into Virginia, was heavily taxed. It was not a remedy for the evil, though it was somewhat palliative.
This condition continued as long as the colonies remained under the English yoke; when that was broken, and their independence was assured, the different state governments turned their attention towards slavery, and sought means to cause its disappearance. But this frightful evil had taken such deep root, that, so to speak, it was fixed in the manners of the citizens. The remedy was therefore difficult of attainment, and could not produce immediate effects; however, those who had undertaken the cause, did not lose courage; their writings and conversation animated all minds, and the state of Virginia had still the honour to give a great example, in being the first to proscribe the importation of slaves into her territory. This example was soon followed by nearly all the other states, and some went still farther; several, like Pennsylvania, declared all coloured children born, after the promulgation of the law, free; others, as the state of New York, declared that after a given time no one could hold a slave. Congress, following the general movement of opinion, did what no European power had dared to attempt; it proscribed the slave-trade, which it assimilated to piracy, by making it a capital offence; finally, of the thirteen primitive states, eight proclaimed the freedom of the blacks by special legislative acts; none but the most southern states refrained from the same movements, as their black population had so rapidly increased, that at some points it was quadruple that of the whites, to whom they caused some fear.
At present the Union is composed of twenty-four states; thirteen of them have abolished slavery by law; the eleven others are still soiled by it; among these last, five are of the ancient or original states, the others are formed of portions of the old states, or parts of the territory of Louisiana after it was bought from France. In this part of the United States, the prejudices against the blacks, it must be confessed, keep a great number of slave-owners blindfold; accustomed as they are from infancy to see in the African nothing but an inferior race, incapable of ever acquiring the qualities belonging to a free citizen, they do not attempt to give their slaves that instruction, without which, it is very true that liberty would be hurtful to themselves and to society; they think they have done enough for humanity in softening the rigours of slavery by kind treatment; but in their blindness they forget that in the social state, the rights of citizen cannot be refused to one class of men, without placing them in a state of war in relation to those who do enjoy them; and if the oppressed be sufficiently numerous to demand the reason of this refusal, it is to be presumed that they will not always tranquilly suffer such an injustice, at least unless they be crushed beneath the weight of tyranny. This terrible truth, for a long time repeated at all points of the union by the voice of philanthropy and religion, which although less powerful in the south than in the north, still exerts a considerable influence, begins to affect the minds of persons in the slave states, and every day finds the number of individuals increased, who desire to seek the means of freeing their country from this horrible scourge.
Of all the plans yet presented, none has produced any very marked result; it is true that all are very difficult of execution; for whatever certain European philanthropists may say, who would perhaps be very much embarrassed if placed in the situation of a Carolina or Georgia planter, the general and instantaneous enfranchisement of the slaves cannot be thought of without exposing to the greatest evils, not only the whites, but the blacks also, who on account of their extreme ignorance, see nothing better in liberty than the privilege of doing nothing, or of committing every excess. I may venture to affirm that to four fifths of the slaves in the United States, immediate liberation would be nothing but a condemnation to die of famine after having destroyed every thing around them. Consequently I believe that under such circumstances to withhold from these men, the immediate exercise of their rights, is neither to violate these rights nor to protect the violaters of them, but is merely employing in the mode of removing the evil, the prudence necessary to make the justice we wish to render them more surely a mean of happiness. Here prudence requires that the enfranchisement should be gradual. It remains, therefore, to inquire if the slave-owners really take means to produce surely and rapidly this gradual liberation.
Among those who wish to deliver their country from the opprobrium and degradation of slavery, all are not agreed upon the measures to be taken in relation to the fate of the slaves. Some persons have proposed that in order to indemnify owners for the loss of their slaves, they should be sold in the English or French West India Islands: but this inhuman plan was repelled with horror by most of the planters, who declared they could never determine to send, to perish under the lash of the drivers of Guadaloupe or Martinique, men, whom they had accustomed to be treated with mildness. Some others thought of devoting a portion of the vast territories extending towards the foot of the Rocky mountains, to the establishment of a colony, to which all the young blacks of twenty, and all the females of eighteen years old, should be sent, after having first given them at the public expense, an education, and furnished them with all the objects necessary to their establishment. This colony might eventually govern itself, and become a powerful ally of the United States; but when this proposition was made, the prosperity of the United States was not sufficiently great to afford the funds necessary for such an enterprize, nor was public opinion sufficiently formed at that time to feel all its importance.
Some years afterwards this idea was resumed, modified, and finally carried into execution by a society formed in 1818, under the presidency of Judge Bushrod Washington. This society, which now counts among its members the most distinguished men of the different states of the union, and of which General Lafayette is a vice-president for life, has founded, under protection of the American government, a colony upon the coast of Africa, which probably will soon attain the double end of affording an asylum to the blacks of the United States, in proportion as they receive their liberty, and at the same time as a centre of light and industry, whence hereafter civilization may be introduced into that part of the world.
However, whatever may be the efforts and success of this philanthropic colonization society, it cannot reasonably be hoped that it will alone prove sufficient to produce the abolition of slavery. If slave-owners do not endeavour to instruct the children of the blacks, to prepare them for liberty; if the legislatures of the southern states do not fix upon some period, near or remote, when slavery shall cease, that part of the union will be for a still longer time exposed to the merited reproach of outraging the sacred principle contained in the first article of the declaration of rights; that all men are born free and equal. But every thing leads to the belief, that the moment has arrived, when the gradual abolition of slavery will rapidly advance. The sentiment of well understood personal interest, now better comprehended by the southern proprietors, begins to make them feel, that in a few years their products will scarcely be able to maintain the competition with those of Mexico and South America, if they do not relinquish a ruinous system of culture; and already many of them do not fear openly to attack the unfortunate prejudices of their fellow citizens, by declaring that they would be happier, and much richer, if the black population was sufficiently diminished for them to hire free black labourers, and thus by the emulation of free labour, replace the ruinous mass of children and old men, they are now obliged to support in idleness.