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Show 14 70R1'RAIT11RZ 07 SLAVERY. While at a public house, in Fredericktown, there ca'?'P into the bar-room (on Sunday) a dc;cently drcsse~ wh1tl! man of quite a light complex1on, m company w1th one who~vas totally black. After they went away, the landl?rd observed that the white man was a slave. I asked h1m, witJ1 some surprise, how that could be possible? To which he replied, that he was a descendant, by female an. cestry, of an African slave. He also stated, that not _far from Fredericktown, there was a slave. estate, on wh1ch there wore several white females of as fru~ and elegant appearance as white ladies in general, held m legal bondage as slaves. These facts demonstrate that the peculiar hue, with which it has pleased God to paint. the '!_urface of .~he body of an African, is not the only ctrcumstan~e wluch reconciles to the conscience of the European, (wh_1te ma1~) the act of depriving him of his liberty and the fru1ts of h1s tabor. Hence it appears to be a mel.ancholy n:uth, that man, in a morbid otate of intellect, (which I consider to be " The chiefs of the nation were called together, who answeretl them that they would take it into consideration, and in the mean time lhey might instruct their women, but ther should not ~pe~k to the men. They spent fourteen days in council, and_ then diSffiiSSed them very courteously, with an answer ~o 011. Tlus answer made eat acknowledgments for the favor we had done them. They re· J;:'iced exceedingly at our happiness in thus being favored by the Great Spirit and felt very grateful that we bad condescended to remember ~ur red brethren in the wilderness. But they could not help recollecting that we had a people among us, who, because they differed from us in colour, we had made !laves of, and made them autfer great hardships and lead m~serable lives.. Now, they could not see any reason, if a people bemg black, entitle.d u~ thus to deal with them why a red colour should not equally JUBhfy the same trealment' They therefore had determined to wait, to see W!lether aH the black people amongst us were made thus happy and JOYful, before they could put confidence in our promises i for they thought a people who had suffered so much and iO long by our means. &hould be entitled to our first attention ; that therefore, .t~ey had sent back the two missionaries, with many thanks, prom1smg that when they saw the black people among us restored to freedom. an.d happiness, they would gladly receive our mission~ries. T~1s IS what in any other case, would be called close reasonmg, and IS too mortifying a fact to make further observations upon," P'OJlTRAlTtlRE OF SLAVElV. 15 the case with every individual, whose rule of action is not founded upon wisdom and virtue,) voluntarily and almost invariably, confounds right with might, and when stimulated by avarice, frequently hesitates not to bind and sell his wife, his children, or his brother! I have received direct information from a gentleman who witnessed the fact, tl1at in one of the slave states, a white man, having married one of his female slaves, after she had borne him several children, sold the whole of them to&"ther as he would a drove of cattle ; and it is said such mstances are frequent. A gentleman brought with him from the southward to P/ii!tulelphia, (the city of brotherly love,) his half brother, the son of his father by a slave, and attempted to sell him! He was happily prevented from ex· ecuting his sacrilegious design by the interposition of a respectable citizen, who also procured the legal restora. tion of freedom to the darker fa cod brother. In the course of a journey through Virginia, from the city of Washington towards James' river, of about 150 miles, going and returning by different routes, I had frequent opportunities of conversing with the possessors and overseers of slaves, and others, and of observing the general effects of the present system of slavery, upon the morals and prospects of the white population. On combining the facts which presented themselves, I was involuntarily led to this deduction: that the present mode, with occasional exceptions, of managing slaves, and of educating the successors to those who now hold dominion over them, must, eventually and inevitably, result, by a p~ogressive ratio, unless reformed, in the poverty, bank· ruptcy and chagrin of a large portion of the posterity of the existing proprietors of even the most extensive slave estates in the country ! This state of things has, to a certain extent, already commenced. I was informed of' some ancient and immensely rich slave possessions, and shewn some of the subdivided portions of them, the pre. sent numerous heirs of which, are obliged to contract increasing debts annually, in order to maintain the magni~ licent style of living, and the habits of amusement and sport, which had been imposcil on them by their ances- |
