1830.] .Letters on the West India Question. *683 



that " in all the injunctions of our Saviour, and in all the writings of 

 his apostles, from the beginning to the end of the New Testament, 

 there is not a single precept directly condemning the state of servitude 

 to which the laws and customs of the world had, in their days, reduced 

 so large a proportion of the lower orders ; and that, on the contrary, 

 there are many directions given to Christian masters as to the treatment 

 of their slaves, (for such is the meaning of the word douloi, translated in 

 our version, servants,} and to Christian slaves as to the duty which they 

 owe their masters, which all tacitly, but unequivocally infer, that the 

 condition was not positively prohibited." 



On the subject of the unfitness of the slaves for present freedom, he 

 remarks that - 



" It is now twenty-two years since the slave trade was put down by law, 

 arid although it is but justice to remark, that for many years no new slaves 

 have been brought from Africa into our dependencies, not less than a fourth 

 part of the whole black population, even in our oldest colonies, still consists of 

 imported Africans, while in those which have fallen into our possession at a 

 later date, the proportion is much greater. These Africans, being chiefly 

 savage warriors taken in battle, brought along with them all the ignorance, all 

 the prejudice, and all the superstitious and immoral practices of their 

 countrymen." 



It was therefore difficult to govern, enlighten, or reform them, and 

 the necessity of enforcing order, and of superinducing quiet habits of 

 industry, must have been as painful as it was urgent. The Doctor 

 adduces the examples of Haiti and Sierra Leone, in illustration of 

 the danger of rash proceedings. " It is well known, that throughout 

 ' our West Indian possessions, the greater part of the free labourers and 

 manumitted slaves have acquired indolent and dissolute habits. They 

 are indeed said to be almost entirely without property ; for the most 

 part either supported by their former masters, or living in an idle and 

 worthless manner." And there seems every reason to believe that the 

 slaves, if prematurely emancipated, would fall back into the same 

 destructive habits. 



The influence of religion is, in the Doctor's opinion, much to be 

 depended upon, in bringing about a gradual change. 



te Christianity is, in its spirit and tendency, decidedly hostile to every kind 

 of arbitrary power, yet it does not, by express statute, interfere with existing 

 .institutions ; but, with a wisdom truly divine, leaves religion to work its resist- 

 less, though often silent and gentle way, and, by convincing the judgment and 

 affecting the heart, gradually sheds over the face of society its substantial and 

 enduring blessings, of a temporal, as well as of a spiritual nature. It follows 

 from this, as a legitimate conclusion, that, when Christians find themselves in 

 actual possession of slaves, they are not required instantly, and without in- 

 quiry into consequences, to break up the connection which has thus been 

 formed between them and their fellow-men, as if that connection were, under 

 all circumstances, sinful ; but, on the contrary, that they are constrained by 

 duty to consider themselves placed in a situation of the highest responsibility, 

 and charged by Providence with the care, not merely of their worldly comfort 

 and advantage, but of their intellectual improvement, and of their moral and 

 religious education. If immediate manumission be inconsistent with such 

 ' objects, it is plainly inconsistent with the Christian obligation of masters ; and 

 therefore, so far from being required, may safely be regarded as forbidden, by 

 the spirit of our holy religion. * * * The negro population is, at present, 

 altogether unfit for liberty, and would, by being turned loose on society, be 

 materially injured, both as regards their temporal and spiritual interests." 



4 *R 2 



