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Show PORTRAITURE O:F SLAVERY. common period of man's life to their service, and who, being morally and physically disqualilled for securing an honrst maintenance, have finished their days in misery and woe. A ''cry benevolent possc~sor of ~laves, in the district of Columbia, infOrmed the writer, thJ.t he was print·ipled against retaining them any longer than while the value of their service amounts to the cost of purchase; and that he had dismissed several, who immedtatdy commenced a career of wretchedness and final destruction. The sentiments, on this subject, of " The American Con~ vention, for promoting the Abolition oj'slavery, and improving the condltimz qf the African race," are highly deserving of consideration. In their circular, addressed to the generJl Abolition Societies in the United Stutes, they make this declaration: " We are pet.,.uaded that the only means of accomplishing the final and complete emancipation of this unlortunate people throughout our country, is, the extension to them of the benefits of mor.U and intellectual cultivation. That their redemption from the thraldom in which they now are, should be preceded or accompanied by such aids, as will qualily them to discharge their relative, social, and religious duties.'' It would, perhaps, be a problem worthy of the considemtion of the legislators of those states in which slavery is tolerated, whether their laws fOr regulating manu missions, might not, with propriety, be so modified, as to authorise judges, justices, or other magistrates, to grant permits for the emancipation of such slaves, as shall be satisfactorily proved to be morally and physically qualified for liberty. Snch a regulation would he peculiarly important to those humane masters, 'vho are merciful and just to their slaves, until their own guardianship is annulled by death; and are unwilling to risk them in the hands of their legitimate heirs, or to strJngers who may purchase them at public auction. I have said, in the beginning of this essay, that separate colonization, &c. is impracticable, except partially. I then gave one reason for this opinion, and will now offer another. Were the whole of our numerous slave popula- PORTRAITURE Of SLAVERY. 29 tio11, already manumitted, an~ tra~sferred total!~ to a ~lis. tinct colonial esh1blishment, 111 tlus country or 111 Afnca: our numerous wllite population, in several ur the more southerly states, would need to be provided with another colonial establishment, in some latitude more favuurublc to their physical pD\Vl'rs, or else perish amidst tbe desolate cotton and rice fields. My conviction, that the existence of Europeans, (or white men) under the blaze of a torrid sun, is dependent on African industry, (or on the labour of such inhabitants of the earth. as are adapted by nature to• the equatorial regions,) must not be mistaken for an assent to the perpetual duration of involuntary servitude and unconditional vassalage. This is a circum~tancc, resulting fi·om the wisdom of Providence, which ought to fill the hearts of the proprietors of rice and cotton plantations, with gratitude and kindness towards their black bcm:Jactors. Let the magnificent work of progressive and ultimate emancipation, concomitant with mental improvement, be kept steadily in view;-but let not the total depopulation of an immense tract of valuable improved country, be held forth as essential to its accomplishmmt. But as there is, probably at this moment, in many parts of the United States, and will continue to be, an increasing excess of free black and mulatto population, and also of slaves, wh~ might be rdea~ed if they could be disposed ?f ; . hu!"amtr as well as pohcy, strongly recommends the . mst1tut1on. of some_ asylum, to 'vhich this descripti011 of stra11gers m a .(Orezgn la~trl, may resort if they please, and CllJOY the blesst?gs of knowledge, social hafJpinc.<S, and the products ofthetr own industry; and perhaps be protected, at the same tzme, from the sacrilegious talons of the num~ rous hordes of men-stealers, with which our reputed free sotl has long been infested and polluted. And as the con. ~css of. the ~nited States have hitherto declined patronJsmg tlus obJect, (to which their attention has been Ire. quently invited,) its accomplishment will devolve, probably, on beneficent societies, and individuals, The most eligible and practicable plan, perhaps, that could be de- |