not to be punished with the loss of liberty. And when it is recollected that the fault of being ignorant does not lie on the slave, but on those who held him in bondage, commanded his time, and gave him not the means of improvement, it is marvellous that any should bring forward such a plea. Thousands of white men are as ignorant as most slaves; this is not, however, considered a sufficient reason for reducing them to slavery. A man may be very ignorant, and yet a peaceful and useful citizen.

While it is readily admitted, that slaves are much addicted to the lower kind of vices, as idleness, dishonesty, &c.; as to the higher vices, I doubt whether they are much worse than the whites.

Dishonesty almost always accompanies slavery. Where persons are forced to labour for the benefit of others, it is almost impossible to make them feel that there is much guilt in taking and using the property of those for whom they labour-property which they themselves have made. One of the best cures for the dishonesty of slaves, is to allow them what is lawful and right; and as to the impurity and licentiousness of slaves, they are greatly owing to the system, and cannot easily be corrected until that is changed. While their marriages are not protected-while separations are so often made, by sales and transfers and removals--while so little protection is given to female purity; we may expect them to continue. Instead of the commonness of these vices being an excuse for slavery, they form one of the strongest reasons for wholly abandoning it. Slavery tends naturally to produce them.

And as to their idle and improvident habits, while they do present a serious difficulty, still we are not to forget that these habits are in great part to be ascribed to slavery. Deprive a person of the proper incentives to industry, take from him all interest in the fruit of his labour, and you will have the character that we find among slaves.

The first colonists, both at Jamestown and Plymouth, for a time laboured and shared in common; and while that system was followed, idleness and improvidence prevailed. As soon us they altered their plan, and each laboured for himself, a manifest improvement took place.* Slaves have

* It was computed that the settlers at James Town did not perform as much labour in a week as they might have done in a day,

not even a common interest, and may be expected to show the effect of its absence. Give them the proper inducements, let them as freemen labour for themselves, and no doubt it will have its influence to excite to industry.

Excuses for continuing them in slavery are often drawn from the prejudices of the whites against them, arising from their race and complexion. Had the Africans brought over as slaves been of the same complexion with the whites, they never would have been held with the same iron grasp, nor would they have been so deeply degraded. We have proof of this in the case of the convicts and redemptioners, formerly brought over in considerable numbers. They rapidly blended with the mass of our community, and have become lost in it.

Now from whatever cause in nature it arises, that we are white and they are black, none will pretend that there is anything moral in it. It is not more wrong in them to be black than in us to be white. "God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." He is no respecter of persons. His law, the immutable standard of right and wrong, gives no preference to a white over a black skin. As a matter of taste, we may, without sin, prefer one to the other, as we do high foreheads, straight legs, and broad shoulders; but if we permit our prejudices "to respect persons, we commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.'

:

Not a few excuse themselves, in continuing the practice of slavery, on the ground that others practise it. If this were a good reason, we might find in it a justification of many other things. What vice is there that no one practises? Many swear and get drunk, and violate the Sabbath that will not justify us in so doing. The word of God gives no authority to suppose that we are justified in doing wrong, on the ground that the multitude are with us. On the other hand, it forbids us to go with the multitude to do evil, tells us to "come out from the world and be separate."

while they cultivated the Company's land and lived out of the common stock. This lasted twelve or fifteen years. A manifest change took place as soon as each laboured for himself. The case was similar at Plymouth. See Ramsey's History of United States.

Some make their willingness to put an end to slavery depend on an impossible case, the removal of all at once, everybody's agreeing to give up theirs. Little credit is due for such cold good-will to a good cause. If persons really feel the evil of slavery and wish its removal, let them give the influence of their example. God works by means. Example is a powerful means. They know not how much good their example may do.

It has been said so often, that it now, with many, passes for a fact, that slaves are better off than free coloured people. We might have supposed, that if this were really so, the slaves themselves, who have most intercourse with them, would have found it out, and ceased wishing to be free. They, however, man, woman and child, are longing for freedom. And what is more strange, those that are free, and from a personal knowledge of both conditions, ought to know which is best, not only prefer freedom for themselves, but earnestly desire it for their kindred.

That slave-holders should so generally agree that slaves are better off, and more happy and comfortable, than free coloured persons; while slaves and free coloured people, who ought to know when they are happy and comfortable, are almost universally of a different opinion, forms one of those contrarieties of sentiment, which we at times meet with among those whose interests lead different ways. If it were a fact admitted by all-yea, by the slave himself, that he was better off than the free; yet if he were not made willing by that fact to remain in slavery, we have no moral right to use force to keep him in it. It is not our duty to use violence and force to make people happy.

We do not however admit the fact, current as it may pass, that slaves are generally better off and more happy than free coloured people. Taking their whole case into view, their labour and exposure, their food and clothing, and their opportunities for seeking their own happiness, &c.; and the reverse is probably the fact. The free can consult their taste and comfort and inclination in a thousand things. Not so the slave. The master chooses for him as to food, clothing, labour, rest, &c.; and it may be, that nine times out of ten, his taste and inclination is crossed. The extent to which the comfort and happiness of the slave is thus sacrificed, may be great indeed. For no one

need be told that our happiness and comfort are not made up of one or two items-a thousand things enter into their composition; and inclination and taste have so much to do with the whole matter, that a man may be very miserable while possessing what to others may seem amply sufficient to make him happy.

It ought however to be recollected, that were it even admitted that slaves are better off than they would be in a state of freedom, still, with that natural and inextinguishable love of freedom which is common to man, our danger from them may be the same. They desire to be free, and when they have a prospect of attaining it, we may expect them to grasp after it, and that at the expense of blood. Their views and feelings on the matter will govern them, and not those which may satisfy us.

In proof that our free coloured population are generally in a more suffering state than our slaves, it is asserted that they increase less, and are, in a greater proportion than our slaves, carried off by disease.

That hardship and exposure, and especially poverty and want, wear out the constitution and shorten human life, is generally admitted. (See Appendix, C.)

Now were our free coloured population more oppressed with poverty and disease, worse fed, and worse clothed, than our slaves, the census would show that fewer of them lived to old age. The difference, however, is greatly on the side of the free coloured people.

To the plea for continuing slavery, that they form the great body of labourers in the south, and could not be spared, it may be answered, were they free and employed as hired servants, they would still be there; and, there is reason to believe, in a more efficient state.

It is said, I know, that a part of the South could not be cultivated, and many of its most valuable products could not be raised, without coloured labourers. If this be true, it rather proves that those parts ought to be given up to the blacks, and not that the blacks should be held in slavery to cultivate it for others. The fact itself, however, may well be doubted; and, at all events, if the labour of the blacks be used, they ought to cultivate it as freemen, and receive fair wages. Yours, &c.

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LETTER XIV.

CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,

THE question what shall we do with the coloured people, if we retain them not as slaves, is so often asked when the evils of slavery are under consideration, that it might seem unfair to pass it without notice. It is, indeed, nearly connected with the other. At the same time, until people are willing to get clear of the evils of slavery, there appears little use in spending time in discussing what we shall do with those that are freed.

There are, however, slave-holders who have difficulties on this matter, and who would not long remain such, were it not for those difficulties.

I readily admit that taking things as they now are, and especially the existing prejudice against having a free coloured population among us, the question is one of considerable difficulty. In a government like ours, where the people rule, slavery can effectually be removed only by the people. Were the great body of the people willing to remove it, they have the power. The fact that it has not heretofore been done, proves that the people were not willing to have it done. The very general confession of the evil of slavery, and the oft-repeated wish that we were clear of it, is often to be understood as we understand the drunkard, when he condemns drunkenness and wishes he were delivered from the habit, while he would quarrel with the man who would hide his bottle. Almost every wrong practice is attended with evils, which at times so harass the evil-doer, as to make him feel and talk like the drunkard; while, like him, he prefers going on to the self-denial of reformation.

Such is the state of things in the South with regard to slavery, that whatever our wishes may be, I can see before us but three alternatives. Either we must free our slaves, and separate and colonize them abroad,—or free, and permit them to remain among us,-or, before long, have conflict with them, and finally have them in possession of a large portion of the South.

I well know that each of these alternatives will seem