278 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



they actually seem to possess a kind of nervous insensi- 

 bility that shields them from suffering. 



This silent though effectual law of his nature, is a far 

 better protection for him than any printed code. Until 

 his condition is assimilated to a comparative state of ease 

 and comfort, the master is a greater sufferer than the 

 slave, for they will break, waste, destroy, idle away time, 

 feign sickness, run away, and do all manner of things to 

 vex and torment him. If he fail to give them enough of 

 wholesome food, he will lose four fold the value, by the 

 petty larceny that they will practice upon him. 



Finally, in self defense, the avaricious master is com- 

 pelled to make the condition of his slaves as comfortable, 

 or nearly so, as others in his own neighborhood, or he 

 must make up his mind to look ruin in the face, or run 

 mad with vexation. 



The fact is notorious, that slaves are better treated 

 now than formerly, and that the improvement in their 

 condition is progressing; partly from their masters be- 

 coming more temperate and better men, but mainly from 

 the greatest of all moving causes in human actions — self 

 interest. For masters have discovered in the best of all 

 schools — experience — that their true interest is insepa- 

 rably bound up with the humane treatment, comfort and 

 happiness of their slaves. And many masters have dis- 

 covered, too, that their slaves are more temperate, more 

 industrious, more kind to one another, more cheerful, 

 more faithful and more obedient, under the ameliorating 

 influences of religion, than under all the driving and 

 whipping of all the tyrannical task-masters that have 

 existed since the day when the children of Israel were 

 driven to the task of making Egyptian brick without 

 straw. 



And I do most fearlessly assert and defy contradiction, 

 that in no part of this Union, even in Puritan New Eng- 

 land, is the Sabbath better kept by master and slave, by 

 employer and hireling, or by all classes, high and low, 

 rich and poor, than in the State of Mississippi, where I 



