148 



the column. This criticism supposes the letters ])ub- 

 lished under his name to be genuine, and to have re- 

 ceived amendment from no other hand ; points which 

 would not he of easy investiiralion. The improveujent 

 of the blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of 

 their mixture with the whites, has been observed by 

 every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the 

 effect merely of their condition of life. We know that 

 among the Romans, about ^he Augustan age especially, 

 the condition of their slaves was much more deplorable 

 than that of the blacks on he continent of America. 

 The two sexes were confine 1 in separate apartments, 

 because to raise a child cost the master more than to 

 buy one. Cato, for a very restricted indulgence to his 

 slaves in this particular,^ took from them a certain price. 

 But in this .country the slaves nmltiijly as fast as the 

 free inhabitants. Their situation and manners ydace 

 the commerce between the two sexes almost without 

 restraint. The same Cato, on a principle of oeconomy, 

 always sold his sick and superannuated slaves. He 

 gives it as a standing precept to a master visiting his 

 farm, to sell his old oxen, old wagons, old tools, old and 

 diseased servants, and every thing else hecome useless. 

 ' Vendat botes vetulos,plaustrum vetus, fermenta Vete- 

 ra, servum senem, servum morbosum, & si quid aliud 

 supersit vendat.' Cato de re rustica c. 2. The Ame- 

 rican slaves cannot enumerate this among the injuries 

 and insults they receive. It was tlie conmion practice 

 to expose in the island ^sculapius, in the Tyher, dis- 

 eased slaves, whose cure was like to hecome' tedious.f 

 The emperor Claudius, by an edict, gave freedom to 

 such cf ihem as should recover, and first declared that 

 if any person cbose to kill rather than expose them, it 

 should he deemed homicide. The exposing them is a 

 crime of w hich no instance has existed w iih us ; and 

 were it to be followed by death, it would be punished 



* Tons douloiis etaxen brismenou noinesmatos homilein tais 

 therapainsin. Plutarch. Cato. 

 t Suet. Claud. 25. 



