XXI 
SLA VER Y 
53 i 
slaves about their condition ; they forget that the slave must 
indeed be dull who does not calculate on the chance of his 
answer 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 ! 
