Such assertions as these might excite a smile, if the subject were less serious; but after the review we have taken of the degraded state of this unfortunate class of our fellow creatures, in all its humiliating particulars, we cannot but hear, with the greatest pain, assertions, which, coming from characters so respectable, have but too manifest a tendency to prolong the duration of those enormous evils. The assertions can in themselves be only accounted for by the supposition, that they who made them were utterly ignorant of the particulars of the treatment and estimation of the Negro race. They may have seen, perhaps, the domestic Negroes collected at some season of festivity, and thence have too hastily drawn an inference as to the general situation of the bulk of the Black population; of that far larger class, which daily works under the whip, and is subject to all the other particulars which have been mentioned, of degradation and suffering.
When from the West Indies themselves I have heard the same assertion, that the negro Slaves are happier than our labouring poor, let me be forgiven for declaring, that such an opinion, formed not by transient visitors, but by those to whom a Negro sale, working under the whip, public and severe floggings of decent females, private punishments, and all the other sad particulars of negro humiliation are thoroughly known, has, I own, created in my mind a reflection of a different character. I have by no means questioned the veracity of those from whom the remark has fallen, or imputed to them, I say it with sincerity, the smallest intention to deceive; but I have conceived myself to see in it an instance of that righteous ordination of the Almighty, by which it ever happens, that the system of slavery, and the same may be affirmed of every other gross infringement on the rights and happiness of our fellow creatures, is far from being so much clear gain, even to those for whose exclusive advantage it may appear to be instituted. It is not by the wretched Negro that the whole price is to be paid. Surely it is much, that the Master’s understanding of the nature and amount of the value of liberty is so far impaired. Much also is paid in that effect which, ever since the world began, has ever been produced by slavery on both the morals and manners of the free part of the community in which it has prevailed.
It would be really an insult to the understandings and feelings of members of this free and happy country, to enter into any detailed comparison between the situation of a British peasant and a West Indian Slave. It is almost in every particular a perfect contrast; and, for my own part, when, after asserting, with what correctness we will not just now question, that the Slaves are better fed, and clothed, and lodged, than our own peasantry; and when the conclusion has been so confidently drawn, that therefore they must be happier; the assertion has appeared to me to supply only another proof, in addition to the many already furnished, that our opponents in their judgments as well as in their feelings are apt to reason concerning the Negroes, as well as to act towards them, as if they were of an inferior species. Were we engaged in any inquiry concerning the brute creation, to ascertain these particulars might be to decide the question of their happiness or misery. But are feeding and clothing, and lodging, the only claims of a rational and immortal Being? Are the feelings of the heart nothing? Are the consciousness of independence, and the power of pursuing the occupation and habits of life which we prefer, nothing? Is the prospect of happier days, and of an improved situation for ourselves or our children, nothing? Where also are family endearments, and social intercourse, and willing services, and grateful returns? Where, above all, are moral improvement, and the light of religious truth, and the hope full of immortality?
It is indeed a merciful ordination of the Supreme Being, that men are often able to accommodate themselves in some degree to their situation, and to suffer less from it than we might suppose. We may therefore sometimes be apt to imagine our fellow creatures more miserable than they really are, because we should be extremely miserable in their situation; but this does not alter the essential nature of things, and annihilate the distinctions between happiness and misery.
But besides that in the negro Slave’s condition there are but too many glaring unambiguous causes of positive suffering, many of those sources of enjoyment which are commonly open to the poor and the ignorant, are here excluded. It has justly been observed, as an instance of the goodness of the great Creator of all things, that though he has provided the world with but a scanty portion of those more curious substances, or more refined luxuries, which are never necessary to happiness, and which often serve only to gratify vanity; the articles which are really necessary for the comfort and well-being of man, are either supplied every where with inexhaustible profusion, or are at least of no difficult attainment. By a like gracious ordination, he has likewise rendered the enjoyments which are most substantially and permanently gratifying, universally accessible; the domestic affections, the social pleasures, the tender emotions, the sweets of hope, and recollection, religious hopes and consolations. All these are gratifications which virtuous poverty often enjoys in large measure, which wealth cannot purchase, nor greatness secure.
But in the Negro’s cup few indeed of these cordial drops are to be found; while there are too many other ingredients which even to a negro palate must be unconquerably bitter. We are not, however, here left to infer their actual feelings, from considering what our own would be in their situation. We learn, from the professional Planter, how their spirits sink within them on their first acquaintance with the cart-whip system, and with what caution a provident manager will inure them to the discipline and treatment to which they are hereafter to be subjected. We have heard from others, of negro mothers lamenting the wretched prospect of their offspring.
Decisive proof that Slaves state unhappy.
But there is one decisive proof, that even custom does not render the Slaves insensible to the evils of their condition. It sometimes happens, rarely if ever I am assured to common field Slaves, but sometimes to domestics and artificers, that by the sale of the little productions and stock which they are allowed to raise, they may annually lay by a little peculium, which, it is due to the masters to declare, is never invaded. When the savings of many years have, at length, accumulated to a considerable amount, how do they dispose of it? With this sum, for which they have been struggling during the whole course of their lives, they go to their masters, and buy their freedom. By the sacrifice of their last shilling, they purchase their release from that situation which the West Indians would persuade us is a condition of superior comfort. Or, if they think that the little which is left of their own lives is not worth redeeming, they will purchase the freedom of a son, or a brother, or a sister; thus affording at once a proof of the value they set on freedom, and of their disinterestedness and social affection.
It ought likewise to be observed, that they who thus buy their freedom, are likely, from the habits of industry which the very circumstance of their acquiring so much property implies them to have had, to have smarted less than the general mass of Slaves under the whip of the driver. And what is it that they thus purchase at so high a rate? Is it really freedom? The consideration, the security, equal rights, equal laws, and all the other blessings which the word liberty conveys to our minds? No: but degradation and insecurity; the admission into a class of beings whose inadequate protection, by the law and the public force of the community, is not in some measure compensated by the interest which their owner feels in the preservation of his property. They are still of the inferior cast, and must for ever continue of it—a set of beings, as Mr. Edwards himself informs us, “wretched in themselves and useless to the Public. These unhappy people are a burthen and a reproach to society. It very frequently happens that the lowest white person, considering himself as greatly superior to the richest and best educated free man of colour, will disdain to associate with a person of the latter description.”[[38]] “No wonder that, as it is added, their spirits seem to sink under the consciousness of their condition. They are continually liable to be injured and insulted with impunity, from the inadmissibility of their evidence; so that in this respect they seem to be placed on a worse footing than the enslaved Negroes, who have masters that are interested in their protection, and who, if their Slaves are maltreated, have a right to recover damages by an action on the case.”[[39]]
Yet this wretched and degraded state, the lowest, one would have conceived, and least desirable, of all human conditions, is eagerly coveted, is bought with the earnings of a whole life, by the Negro Slave. And shall we then be told that the situation of the latter is a situation of comfort, a situation superior to that of our British peasantry! Nor is it merely that the Slaves themselves desire their freedom, over-rating perhaps the evils of their actual state, and ignorant of what may be really conducive to their happiness. I would not so calumniate the West Indians, as to impute to them that they mock these poor people with a real evil, under the name of an imaginary good; yet we find masters remunerating long and faithful services by the gift of freedom, as their best reward; nay, more, we have seen the laws of the islands hold out the same boon as the most valuable recompence of the most distinguished public merits.