
’ 
868  Stridtures on Mifs Williams? s Memoirs of Wa 
more, I urged on Mr. Wadftrom ; but he 
filenced me-with this fhort argument : 
The indenting of fimple untutored people 
may be compared to the.tutelage of children; 
and is therefore according to order, and 
proper and juft, and humane! ‘This is 
ene example, among many which I~cou 
give, of Mr. Wacfirom’s mode of ergo- 
uzing. At p. 149. parti. I crippled the 
infidious monfter with provifos; but at 
p- 93. was fain to compromife the cafe. 
I procured, however, rather better terms 
for the poor indented fervants, than the 
compiler of Mr. Wadftrom’s Plan: for a 
free community, &c. where we read, in a 
fpecific propofition, p. 50. that ** zfead 
of SLAVERY, @.GENTLE SERVITUDE is 
infiantly to be adopted?’ After all, the 
Africans have nothing to fear from Mr. 
Wadftrom’s indentures; for it appears 
that they could not be introduced,—at 
leaft not at Bulam, where, however, as 
well as at Sierra Leone, the natives, with 
mild and cautious treatment, are eafily_in- 
duced to labour for hire. (Eflay on Co- 
Jonization, part 11. p. 58, 304.) 
Another proof how little Mr, Wadftrom 
had confidered the Weft Indian Slavery 
is, that he made no diftin&tien between 
political“ and perfonal (er domeitic) fla- 
very. According to him, beth kinds of 
flavery were ** firictly perfonal;” and fo 
they are, in the fenfe in which he chofe to 
take the word. But that fenfe leaves no 
verbal diftin@ion, in cafes where the things 
meant are prodigioufly diferent ; and Mr. 
pe en ee 
figure of fpeech, inall Mr. Paine’s witty and 
fententious. writings? And what could be 
the reafon, that, in his ¢* Common Senfe,” 
he founded the alarm to the Americans, on 
account of the treatment they received from 
Britain ; while in his ‘* Rights of Man,” he 
fays nothing of the UNSPEAKABLY -wirfe 
treatment which the poor Negroes and in- 
Gented fervants receive from thew? And 
how could he hold up the government of 
America as a model for the imitation of the 
Britifh mation, when he knew that fome hun- 
dreds of-thoufands of the inhabitants of the 
United States are Slaves ; bought -and fold, 
and treated, in all refpeéts, like brute beafts ? 
For the anfwers to thefe queftions, Irefer to 
any candid writer, or honeft man, of any fect 
or party whatfoever! But [ muft not imitate 
Mr. Paine by concealing, that, bad as is the 
treatment of the Negroes in the Southern 
States of America, it is mild, compared to 
that which their unfortunate countrymen en- 
dure in the Britifh fugar iflands. Nor muft 
LT omit, that in 1772, the Affembly of Virgi- 
Nia petitioned the Crown, ineffeGually, for the 
abolition of the Slave-Trade; ftating, that it 
threatened the very exiftence of His Majefty’s 
dominions in America! 
Airom. [Dec 
Waditrom fhould have abftained from the 

liberties which, in this and other inftances, © | 
he took with a language which he did not 
aunderftand. Inthe prefent inftance, it fig 
nified nothing that Etold him, hewas giving 
a gcnerigg sind of the ufual fpecific 
fenfe, to the word perfonal; and thus was 
confounding -lords with their vaffals in 
fome countries; and the planters with 
their flaves, in the Spanifh, Portuguefe, 
and Danifh Weft Indies; conditions of 
men fo very different, that it were to be 
wifhed different terms (Quere, Subjection 
and Slavery?) were always applied to. 
them. For who does not fee the immenfe 
difference, between the condition of a pri- 
vate gentleman, under an arbitrary go- 
vernment, who, if he-** touch no fate 
matters,’ may: live in eafe and luxury, 
and that of a wretch, who drudges incel- 
fantly under the whip of a negro-driver ? 
I excluded Mr, Wadftrem’s peculiar ap- 
plication of the term ‘* perfonal,” till Z 
came to p. 271. part il. where its infertion 
could no longer be avoided ; and it was 
inferted accordingly, in terms as confiftent 
as poflible with what I had ebferved in p. 
177,namely, “ that many of the evils of 
perfonal flavery are moderated by the vi- 
gilant fuperintendance of an arbitrary go- 
vernment.”’ For fuch a government, with 
all its numerous evils, muft be allowed ta 
be an excellent check on the tyranny of 
flave-holders. It fuffers not fuch petty 
defpots to ply their whips, and rivet on 
their chains, juft as they pleafe ; but, as 
Mr. Long obferves, ‘* controuls them all 
from the higheft to the lowefi#.7 > 
After what has been ftated, there will 
perhaps remain little doubt that Mr. 
Wadfirom did zot compile thofe parts of 
the work in queftion, which relate to the 
Weit Indian flavery ; and that I compiled 
not only that, but every other part of the 
book, which confifts not of mere extraéts, 
will appear zxternally evident to any one, 
who may think it worth while to compare 
the general turn of thought and expreffion 
with thofe of my letters on flavery, not ta 
mention dere, feveral other pieces which I 
wrote on that fubjeét. The performances 
unluckily admit of comparifon in another 
refpeé&t, A great portion of the contents of 
both was irregularly coelle&ted during the 
printing, which may account for an ar- 
rangement, in many inftances, too faulty 
to be excufable, even in letters and eflays}. 

: 
* Hiftory of Jamaica, yol.-ii. p. 430.—5 
See alfo Chaftellux’s Travels in America. ~— 
J_See Letters on Slavery, p. 103, 1093 
and Effay on Colonization, Advertifement at 
the end of Part I5 and p. 197, Part II. 
As- 

te lee! oP 
