SLAVERY 



531 



slaves about their condition ; they forget that the slave must 

 indeed be dull who does not calculate on the chance of his 

 answ^er reaching his master's ears. 



It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty ; 

 as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which are far 

 less likely than degraded slaves to stir up the rage of their 

 savage masters. It is an argument long since protested 

 against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified, by the 

 ever-illustrious Humboldt, It is often attempted to palliate 

 slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 



countrymen ; if the misery of our poor be caused not by the 

 laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin ; but 

 how this bears on slavery, I cannot see ; as well might the 

 use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing 

 that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. 

 Those who look tenderly at the slave-owner, and with a cold 

 heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the 

 position of the latter ; — what a cheerless prospect, with not 

 -even a hope of change ! picture to yourself the chance, ever 

 hanging over you, of your wife and your little children — those 

 objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own — 

 being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder ! 



