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Untitled Article
century there should exist men , and men who hold themselves to be of God * s making , who possess some power of thinking and reasoning , and who stand forth before the people as their teachers and instructors , and who yet , in the teeth of all reasoning ,
perversely maintain that the end of human life is not human happiness , but human production ; who say , * protect our commerce and our shipping , even though it be at the cost of converting black men into oxen and mules , and white men into tigers to prey upon them . '
After the general affirmation , that the Antilles can only be profitably wrought by slave-labour , the great argument against setting the slaves free , is the assertion that they will soon follow up their manumission by scenes such as took place at Santo Domingo . As is usual , in all cases of controversy , the abolitionists are inclined to exalt the negroes into angels , the slaveowners to represent them as demons , only to be kept down by
severity . That the negroes may one day , when they get more knowledge , cut their masters' throats , is by no means impossible ; they have had provocation enough , to tempt even quieter men than they are , to do such a deed long ago ; but I do not see that they are much more likely to do it when free , than while they are slaves , for assuredly they will have less temptation , and they may forego something in consideration of the punishment their tyrants
will undergo , in being balked of their will . It is possible that the angry feelings of the white masters , and their little power of reasoning , may induce them to insult and abuse the manumitted slaves , just as they insulted Lord Mulgrave , and the new freeman may in consequence feel an itching for vengeance , which may spread at the sight of blood ; but this is not altogether certain . Henry Whiteley says ,
' The attorney of the estate replied significantly , It is an opinion amongst us , but one which we do not wish to acknowledge , or be known , that slavery and knowledge are incompatible , This is precisely the conclusion which the Whigs have arrived
at in another hemisphere , and therefore they uphold the ' taxes on knowledge / But both Whigs and slave-holders should recollect , that ignorance alone is untameable , and if the tyrant suffers during the Saturnalia of the slaves , who have newly broken their chain , it is himself alone who is to blame .
Evidence enough has been brought forward to show , that the whites exercise great occasional cruelty towards the negroes , but it is no less certain , that during the partial insurrection which took p lace some time back , the negroes exercised great cruelty towards the whites . Upon this and similar facts , the antiabolitionists argue the danger there would be in setting the negroes free . Against these are adduced other facts , tending to show that in various places , free negroes have become good citizens of the
Untitled Article
Abolition of Negro Slavery . 461
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 461, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/21/
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