288 
HISTORY OF THE [book it, 
desire heightened by sentiment, and refined by de¬ 
licacy, I doubt if it ever found a place in an Afri¬ 
can bosom.—The negroes in the West Indies, both 
men and women, would consider it as the greatest 
exertion of tyranny, and the most cruel of all hard¬ 
ships, to be compelled to confine themselves to a 
single connection with the other sex; and I am per¬ 
suaded, that any attempt to restrain their present li¬ 
centious and dissolute manners, by introducing the 
marriage ceremony among them, as is strenuously 
recommended by many persons in Great Britain, 
would be utterly impracticable to any good pur¬ 
pose. Perhaps it may be thought that the negroes 
are not altogether reduced to so deplorable a state 
of slavery, as is commonly represented, when it is 
known, that they boldly claim and exercise a right 
of disposing of themselves in this respect, accord¬ 
ing to their own will and pleasure, without any 
control from their masters. 
That passion, therefore, to which (dignified by the 
name of love) is ascribed the power of softening 
all the miseries of slavery, is mere animal desire, 
implanted by the great author of all things for the 
preservation of the species. This the negroes, 
without doubt, possess in common with the rest 
of the animal creation, and they indulge it as in¬ 
clination prompts, in an almost promiscuous in¬ 
tercourse with the other sex; or at least in tempo¬ 
rary connections, which they form without cere¬ 
mony, and dissolve without reluctance. When age 
indeed begins to mitigate the ardour, and lessen 
