1830.] United Slates of America, and British West Indies. 535 



If these observations are applicable to the American slave owner, they 

 are still more so to the British planter. But no fair and liberal consider- 

 ations of this kind are permitted to come into the calculations of their 

 inveterate enemies, the pseudo " Saints" of England ! 



Before we reproach the planter f pr being a holder of slaves, we should 

 consider the share we ourselves take in supporting the system. He can- 

 not make the smallest use of his crop, unless, upon an invitation to 

 divide the advantages with him, we agree to become partners in his spe- 

 culation, by paying him for his sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, and other 

 articles, which we scruple not to make use of, and without which we 

 should be very ill off. 



On the 20th March, 1 828, Capt. Hall proceeded across the southern 

 section of the United States, traversing Georgia, Alabama, &c., through 

 forests, swamps, uplands, and new clearings, to New Orleans, from 

 whence he ascended the Mississippi, and again returned to the north- 

 ern states. 



"In talking of emancipation," says Capt. Hall, (p. 159) c< people are 

 apt to forget various little difficulties which stand in the way. In the 

 first place, the slaves are, to all intents and purposes, the property of the 

 whites. They have been legally acquired, they are held legally, and the 

 produce of their labour forms the rightful fortune of their masters. 



" To enter the warehouses of the planters, and rob them of their rice 

 or cotton, would not be one whit more unjust than taking away the 

 slaves whose labour brings it out of the ground. Suppose, however, 

 that difficulty removed, and that a compensation could be provided for 

 the slave holder, what is to become of the liberated negroes ? What is 

 to be done with two millions of ignorant persons, brought up, as their 

 fathers and ancestors were, in bodily and mental bondage, who have 

 acquired habits of thinking and feeling suitable to that state, but totally 

 unfit for any other ? It is said to be less difficult to make a slave of a 

 freeman, than to raise a slave to a just knowledge of freedom ; and 

 certainly experience in America gives no reason to hope that this maxim 

 is there reversed. 



" The mere act of breaking the chains will not do. The rivets that 

 so long have held down the understanding cannot be driven out, till 

 some contrivance be found which shall at the same time eradicate all 

 memory of the past, and all associations with the present state of the 

 world, from the minds not of the blacks alone, but also of the whites." 



" In concluding this important subject I feel bound to say, that, as far 

 as I could investigate the matter, the slave system of America seems to 

 be in as good a condition, that is to say, in as fair a train for ameliora- 

 tion, as the nature of so dreadful a state of things admits of. With re- 

 spect to external interference, the planters will probably not be the worse 

 of an occasional hint, even though it be rude and unpalatable. On the 

 other hand, the abolitionists must make up their minds to suffer great 

 and almost constant disappointments. Between the two, impartial and 

 cool-headed men, who, without any particular views, sincerely wish well 

 to their fellow-creatures, black as well as white, planters as well as slaves, 

 will confine their hopes and their exertions to what they know is practica- 

 ble, consistently with justice to all parties, and the laws of common sense." * 



If, as Captain Hall observes, the slave system of America is in as fair 



* Hall's Travels, vol. iii; pp. 240, 247. 



