150 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



looking forward to a time when the civil powers 

 should give ear to their repeated philanthropical repre- 

 sentations, and by general ordinances entirely do away 

 with the thraldom of the Africans, individual members 

 of their society have held it a matter of conscience to 

 encourage others by example to so praiseworthy an 

 end. But their benevolent and noble purposes have 

 commonly been thwarted by the corrupt state of mind 

 prevalent among the negroes themselves, a result due 

 to nothing but their rude bringing-up and the absolute 

 neglect of their instruction. A rich old Quaker, who 

 lives near Richmond in Virginia, gave all his slaves 

 their freedom, but under the condition that they 

 should remain with him and work for very fair day's 

 wages. All of them solemnly promised, but as soon 

 as they had got their free papers, most of them left 

 him. Another rich Virginia Quaker set his negroes 

 free likewise, and gave each family a bit of land on 

 which they could support themselves, paying annual 

 rent like other tenants ; this indeed they began to do, 

 but no longer feeling under strict oversight, and moral 

 and religious principles (of which they knew nothing) 

 not keeping them in order, to which they had pre- 

 viously been accustomed by force alone, the good 

 Quaker's designs were not carried out, and he soon 

 saw his lands and himself deserted of his free negroes. 

 One hears of many such instances, + cited to prove that 

 the negroes generally are incapable of making any 

 good use of freedom, and to support the quite un- 

 grounded opinion that they are destined by nature for 

 servitude. But as many examples might be given of 

 free negroes who live decently, orderly, and indus- 

 triously; and that so much may not be said of all of 



