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Untitled Article
man is not to be trusted with irresponsible power , above all when the sordid view he takes of his self-interest is on the side of oppression . There are some welL-ascertained facts about the
question of slavery which might suggest materials for fiction of fur more appalling interest than Mrs . Xrollope ' s imagination is capable of grasping . We might instance such facts as the imr mense difference in the length of negro life , in those places and at those times in which it is the interest of masters to rear their
slaves , as compared with those in which it is their interest to import them : the rapid increase of their numbers in the former instance , and their equally rapid decrease in the latter . Such facts as these prove the existence of horrible barbarity , which , in its results at least , is nothing less than systematic murder , and they are results which have attended slavery in America as well as in other countries .
Mrs Trollope has chiefly confined herself to the description of licentiousness and sickening acts of individual cruelty . The most interesting part of her book is the exposition of the dread evinced by the planters at any attempts to educate their negroes , and her description of the self-devotion of a young American who becomes a martyr in the cause . The p lot is badly managed , and the whole story is tediously lengthened out ; but some or the
scenes and incidents possess both humour and power . The whole process of her hero ' s development is very cleverly worked out . The training of the boy most naturally leads to the character and fate of the man . His father was what is technically called in America " a squatter in the bush / ' ; md his plan of education may be guessed from the first words lie spoke on being shown Iiis new-born son : —
" * That ' jam , gal ! ' said he , addressing his wife , Boys be the right sort for the bush , mind that ! Not but what Cli is up to a thing or two , too . But boys is most profitable , that ' s a fact . I calculate now that this younker will be fit to turn a dollar one 'way or another by the time ten years is gone down ; and if we can keep him from starting * for five more , '—
" But here our hero gave so prodigious a squall , that Clio started off with him to his mother , and the remainder of the prediction was left unspoken . "—Vol . i . p . 25 . The infant , who was so early a subject of " calculation , " grew up a clever cunning boy , and an active selfish youth ; chose in
manhood the employment of an overseer of slaves , to whom lie was a licentious tyrant ; managed so as to have the immense fortune of the master left ; to him ; and was finally murdered by four of his negro victims . His extreme depravity , however , is almost unnatural even in a slave-State . " Aun * Cli " is exceedingly well-imagined , and her disinterested , simple , affectionate character stands out refreshingly amidst the paltry selfishness
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636 The Life and Adventures
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1836, page 636, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2662/page/48/
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