268 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



fill the decree of servitude, by which he is made more 

 useful, more happy, more contented, and more in accord- 

 ance with the benevolence of God. Let him learn, that it 

 is contrary to the first principles of his nature, for Ca- 

 naan to league with his masters' enemies. 



If you doubt it look at the history of both wars with 

 England; observe the faithful conduct and the firm ad- 

 herance of the slaves of Virginia, during the revolution- 

 ary war, to their masters, when neither the persuasion or 

 force of British armies could sever their allegiance, or 

 induce them to become free. 



A British writer, in speaking upon this subject, says, 

 "when the slave owners were in the rebel army, and their 

 families remained in a district of country under our 

 authority, the slaves continued to serve their masters' 

 families as if their masters had been at home and the 

 country at peace. Slaves were often pressed into the 

 service of the British, and those that would not promise 

 to renounce slavery for liberty, were made to work on 

 the fortifications. They obeyed through necessity, until 

 an opportunity offered for them to return to their mas- 

 ters; and but few of them left the country with their 

 benevolent British liberators — and even some who did, 

 afterward found their way back from Nova Scotia, and 

 joyfully returned to the comforts of slavery." 



During the revolutionary and late wars, whole dis- 

 tricts of country abounding with slaves, were repeatedly 

 left with scarcely an able bodied white man among them, 

 with nothing but an overruling power to guard the lives 

 of women and children; with nothing but the nature of 

 the Canaanite race to hold them in bondage; and yet so 

 far from proving treacherous, or deserting their masters, 

 they continued their labors upon the plantation, and no 

 faithful watchdog was ever more true in giving the alarm 

 of the approach of an enemy, or, if needed, to assist their 

 masters families to escape to a place of safety. And 

 their sagacity in times of danger, was sometimes shown 

 in a most remarkable degree. I happen to know an anec- 



