| OCR Text |
Show 158 DESPOTISM 1. Ferocity of T emper. The first access of suffering softens the heart, the long continuance of sntfer~ ing tends to harden it. Sutrcring when long continued, begins to be looked upon as a thing of course. lie who constantly fears to feel the whip upon his own shoulders, ceases to weep because it falls upon another. '1-.,hose who are accustomed to sec authority exercised almost solely in the infliction of pain, form presently a close association between the two things. '"rhey seem to be inseparable, and a liberal use of violent means comes to be looked upon as the only method of showing one's power. Now the love of power, or to speak more correctly, that love of superiority, which the exercise of power is a means of gratifying, is one of the native, and one of the strongest impulses of the human heart. The slave feels it like other men. He indulges H, when, where, and as, he can, upon his wife, his children and the horse he drives, or upon such of his companions as superior strength, or the appointment of his master has snbmitted to his control. He exercises his authority in the same way in which authority has been exercised over him. In this as in many other respects, he closely copies the example of his master. Let it be recollected also that feror.ity of temper is a peculiar trait of a savage or barbarous state of society. In civilized countries, it is principally to he seen among the most ignorant and least refined. Civiliza. lion is perhaps more remarkable for its effect in softening the tempers of men than for any other single thing. Slaves are purposely kept in a state of barbarism and ignorance. That they should have little control over their tempers, and should g ive way to violent and sudden gusts of passion, is a matter of course. 2. Improvidence. Among freemen, the pleasures of accumulation arc perhaps not inferior to the pleasures of consumption. The pleasure that a house keeper enjoys from knowing that he has laid by a stock of provisions sufficient to support his family through the winter, is sufficient to counterbalance a great deal of .. IN Al\H~lliCA. 159 sa~ing and self-deniaL . But the pleasures of accumulatwn are pleasure~ wh_1ch a slave_ cannot enjoy. His s~le pl_easure consists 111 consnmmg. It is therefore hJS object to consume all he possibly can. 'I'o gratify a present appetttc IS almost all he ever thinks of. He knows that his master will not suffer him to perish for want of absolute necessaries. Any thing he should lay by, he would be 111 constant danger of losing, because property ts a tl11ng which the laws do not allow ~im to possess. When he has consumed a thing he is sure of it, and only then- Be fnir or foul, or rain or shine The joys I have possessed in spite of fate arc mine, Nor heaven it:self upon the past has power, But whnthas been, has been, and 1 have had my hour. The slaves never read either Horace or Dryden but they feel and they reason in the same way. ' The spmt of tmprovtdcnce has for its associate on the part of the slaves as well as on the part of the masters, a remarkable disposition for hospitality. ll11t the hospitality of the slaves may justly be regarded as. a VIrtue of a much higher order, than the hospitahty of the masters, inasmuch as the slaves bestow out ~f their necessities, whereas the masters in general, gt_ve from their abundance. Sunday for the most part IS allowance day, and on those plantations where meat forms a ]>art of the allowance, it often happens, where the v1g1lance of masters or overseers does not p~event it, that within six hours, the portion of meat g1_ven out for the w~ole week, is consumed in treating fnends and acquamtances from some neighboring ~lantatwns, where meat is a luxury that forms no parlion of the regular allowance. The slaves are as fond of nocturnal entertainments as the masters are of din~ ner parties, and the profuse liberality with which, fr?m the scanty means within their power, they con~ tnbute.to get them up, shows them in point of good fello1vshtp, to be not less free hearted than their masters . |
