312 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



avowedly established governments in opposition to tyranny, 

 and on the principle that all men are equal, continue to exer 

 cise the most inhuman oppression towards their coloured fel 

 low-creatures, who are treated like the brute creation. This 

 anomaly illustrates how T much man is the creature of circum 

 stances ; and that with all his boasted powers of intellect, he 

 is unable to conquer the habits and prejudices of his youth, 

 even when his conduct is at variance with reason, and the 

 principles of the religion he professes to follow. Whether the 

 slave-owner, who has been instructed amidst slavery, and 

 whose moral perception has been blunted by education, be 

 answerable for all the enormities which result from the system, 

 may be left for casuists to determine ; but those who have 

 been more fortunately situated may well commiserate his fate, 

 and judge charitably of his errors. 



However instrumental, under Providence, the people of Bri 

 tain may have been in obtaining freedom for the West Indian 

 slave, they would do well to reflect on the slow progress the 

 question made amongst themselves, and that many of their 

 own countrymen connected with the colonies were opposed to 

 the measure of relief. If, having lived apart from slavery, 

 and its demoralizing effects, they claim merit for their exer 

 tions in behalf of the slave, let them not withhold what is due 

 to the inhabitants of the States, who, while living amidst 

 slaves, set an example of emancipation which has not yet 

 been carried to the same extent in any British possession. 



Some recent British travellers in America, in pandering 

 to the depraved taste of a portion of their countrymen, will 

 not allow merit to the states who have emancipated their 

 slaves, on the ground that they did so only when slave labour 

 ceased to be profitable, and that the step involved no sacrifice, 

 as the able-bodied slaves were sold to the inhabitants of other 

 states the aged and infirm being alone set free. This is a most 

 uncharitable judgment. I have not the means of ascertaining 

 the number of slaves that were emancipated, but contend that 

 other motives than selfishness must pervade some of the in 

 habitants of New York state, where the coloured population 

 are invested with suffrages, and taught at Sabbath schools 

 with white children. It is true, however, the negro race is 



