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SLAVERY. 



571 



nature may be brought. The additional rigour 

 which thus the slave seems to consider confine- 

 ment to be, would be a recommendation to some 

 persons, and perhaps the feeling is in the main 

 right ; for if the crime is great, the punishment 

 should be adequate, and by this means of con- 

 finement no degradation of the human being is 

 occasioned. Hopes may be entertained that the 

 time which is given for reflection, and the depres- 

 sion of spirits which is produced by the loneli- 

 ness of the situation, may bring about a correc- 

 tion of error ; but by the whip, angry and vin- 

 dictive feelings are excited, or despair is the con- 

 sequence, and in either case the owner will be in- 

 jured; in the former, by a determination to con- 

 tinue in fault, and in the latter by the death or 

 inaction of the sufferer. The objection which is 

 principally to be urged against the mode of chas- 

 tisement, which I have accounted the least pre- 

 judicial to the slave, considered as a rational 

 being, is to be met with in the loss of time which 

 is incurred by confinement a due length ; but I 

 think, that this would be much more than com- 

 pensated by the loss of health and of character 

 which the negro suffers in undergoing punish- 

 ment by the whip, and even of time during the 

 period that the slave is recovering from the 

 stripes. Iron collars, chains, and other punish- 

 ments of the same description, are likewise made 

 use of, and are liable to the objection of render- 



