The influence of slavery is in every sense injurious to the slave. As they derive no benefit from being industrious, they try to evade labor, under all manner of false pretexts; and the more time they can waste, the more they think they have gained. They do not, like free laborers, fear to be dishonest, lest they should lose their character and place; but the compensation which is not given they conceive themselves at liberty to take. It is a common thing for them to say, “Me no steal him; me take him from massa.” Persons who are most kind and indulgent to their slaves are often liable to be served in the most negligent manner. Some have unjustly ascribed this to the bad disposition of the Africans; but the fault is in the pernicious system, which removes all salutary moral restraints, and healthy incentives to exertion. No human being will work from a disinterested love of toil; and slaves soon learn that they gain nothing by industry, and lose nothing by laziness; in either case they get something to eat, and something to cover them—and their greatest exertions will do no more. Under a severe master or mistress, they will work, from fear of the whip, which a driver is paid to hold over their backs; but when this is removed, no other inducement to industry remains.
In all slave countries, there are many honorable exceptions to the character implied in the preceding remarks—men and women who conscientiously endeavor to mitigate the condition of their slaves, as far as possible. Instances of strong mutual attachment sometimes occur, between masters and their dependents, as there did in the proud old feudal times. The negro nurse is called “mammy,” by those whom she tended in their infancy, and is sometimes treated with so much tenderness, that her young master and mistress will resent it if an unkind word be spoken to her. The negroes are of an affectionate disposition, and are often devoted to their foster-children with all the strength of maternal affection. During a tremendous earthquake in St. Domingo, when others were saving themselves with all haste, a young female slave remembered a white infant, forgotten by its own mother. She hastened to her nursling, and placing herself in an arch over its body, was killed by the tumbling walls of the house; but the little object of her solicitude was safely restored to its agonized parents.
But although there are here and there spots of sunshine and verdure in the dark picture of slavery, the natural tendency of the system is to turn any form of society into a moral desert. Christian nations are beginning to be aware of this; and the hand of Divine Providence is now visibly seen removing this “costly iniquity” from the face of the earth.
The mother of Washington receiving Lafayette in her garden.
AMERICA.
Before America was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by Indian tribes, which greatly resembled each other in the treatment of their women. Every thing except war and hunting was considered beneath the dignity of man. During long and wearisome marches, women were obliged to carry children, provisions, and hammocks on their shoulders; they had the sole care of the horses and dogs, cut wood, pitched the tents, raised the corn, and made the clothing. When the husband killed game, he left it by a tree in the forest, returned home, and sent his wife several miles in search of it. In most of the tribes, women were not allowed to eat and drink with men, but stood and served them, and then ate what they left.
When the Spaniards arrived in South America, the Indian women, delighted with attentions to which they had been entirely unaccustomed, often betrayed the conspiracies formed against them, supplied them with food, and acted as guides.
Father Joseph reproved a female savage on the banks of the Orinoco, because she destroyed her infant daughter. She replied, “I wish my mother had thus prevented the manifold sufferings I have endured. Consider, Father, our deplorable situation. Our husbands go out to hunt; we are dragged along with one infant at our breast, and another in a basket. Though tired with long walking, we are not allowed to sleep when we return, but must labor the whole night in grinding maize to make chica for them. They get drunk, and beat us, draw us by the hair of the head, and tread us under foot. And after a slavery of perhaps twenty years, what have we to comfort us? A young wife is then brought home, and permitted to abuse us and our children. What kindness can we show our daughters equal to putting them to death? Would to God my mother had put me under ground the moment I was born.”
The Mexicans and Peruvians, particularly the latter, were more enlightened and refined than the other native tribes. The rich ornaments of gold and pearl worn by the Peruvians, surprised their European visiters, even more than the gentleness, modesty, and benevolence of their characters. They had a temple of the sun, to whose service young virgins were dedicated, and instructed in many accomplishments.