1849.] 



SLAVERY, 



83 



would to a large family of children. He gives them amuse- 

 ment, relaxation, and punishment in the same way, and takes 

 the same precautions to keep them out of mischief. The 

 consequence is, they are perhaps as happy as children : they 

 have no care and no wants, they are provided for in sickness 

 and old age, their children are never separated from them, nor 

 are husbands separated from their wives, except under such 

 circumstances as would render them liable to the same separa- 

 tion, were they free, by the laws of the country. Here, then, 

 slavery is perhaps seen under its most favourable aspect, and, in 

 a mere physical point of view, the slave may be said to be better 

 off than many a freeman. This, however, is merely one parti- 

 cular case, — it is by no means a necessary consequence of 

 slavery, and from what we know of human nature, can be but 

 a rare occurrence. 



But looking at it in this, its most favourable light, can we 

 say that slavery is good or justifiable ? Can it be right to 

 keep a number of our fellow-creatures in a state of adult 

 infancy, — of unthinking childhood? It is the responsibility 

 and self-dependence of manhood that calls forth the highest 

 powers and energies of our race. It is the struggle for existence, 

 the "battle of life," which exercises the moral faculties and 

 calls forth the latent sparks of genius. The hope of gain, the 

 love of power, the desire of fame and approbation, excite to 

 noble deeds, and call into action all those faculties which are 

 the distinctive attributes of man. 



Childhood is the animal part of man's existence, manhood 

 the intellectual; and when the weakness and imbecility of 

 childhood remain, without its simplicity and pureness, its grace 

 and beauty, how degrading is the spectacle ! And this is the 

 state of the slave when slavery is the best that it can be. He 

 has no care of providing food for his family, no provision to 

 make for old age. He has nothing to incite him to labour but 

 the fear of punishment, no hope of bettering his condition, no 

 future to look forward to of a brighter aspect. Everything 

 he receives is a favour ; he has no rights, — what can he know 

 therefore of duties? Every desire beyond the narrow circle 

 of his daily labours is shut out from his acquisition. He has 

 no intellectual pleasures, and, could he have education and, 

 taste them, they would assuredly embitter his life; for what 

 hope of increased knowledge, what chance of any further 



