The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-11-20
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

ed under free institutions they might be sud
denly removed, and the transient void soon
filed would scarcely be observed. But to
change the organic life of ten millions of peo-
pie to change institutions and ideas rooted in
the past and wrought into all the customs of
common life must at the best, be a very slow
and gradual process. To expunge slavery from
the statute book would be the least and easiest
thing required-far easier certainly than TO
legislate into the minds of whites or blacks the
ideas which belong to free institutions Were
legal slavery abolished at the South, it would
probably be centuries before it could be abol-
ished from the Southern mind. Even at the
North the black, though equal with the white
before the law, is as far as ever from having
indicated for himself any position of social
equality In England in spite of afinities of
raea color. and general equality af culture
eight centuries have hardly ettaced the ulstinc-
-. ~ TX. s.2. ;;.. ::3 SIP less
ts,as between Slxos, us,usSeit. And tnSx TAR
all experiments in emancipation, which have
left the negro in the same country with his
former MASTER show how nearly impossible it
is for either party to overcome the barriers of
race, and caste, and color and historical asso-
citation, and for them to meet each other on
equal terms
"Such considerations show plainly enough
what formidable obstacles are in the way of all
attempts to remove slavery And what is of
still more consequence, they force upon us the
conviction that any change, which deserves the
name of improvement in the social condition
of n people among whom slavery exists, must
from the necessity of the case, be very grad
ual. and must be the result not of revolution
but of growth
Although this is a sad and discouraging con-
clnsion, the writer urges one point of view,
from which the picture seems to be relieved of
some portion of its depth of shadow. IF the
wrong in our own country has been on the
side of the whites, upon them also has fallen
the heaviest part of the penalty "The
very soil of the South is blasted by slavery, and
there is not one moral or social interest which
does not feel its disastrous influence We do
not mean by this that their condition might
not have been more favorable than it has been !:
and, least of ALL do we say it by way of apollo
gy for slavery But it shows that there is an
overriding Providence which educes good from
evil, which makes evil correct or consume it.
self and forhids it to he etarnal and, in doing
this, makes us more patient with those social
imperfections whose remedy is beyond our con-
| troll"
Through the relation of slavery, the blacks
have been brought in close contact with a su-
perior race, under circumstances of restraint
which have compelled them to abstain from
some of the most debasing vices, to form hab-
its Of industry, and to catch the social, moral
and religious ideas of which they were before
ignorant The writer proceeds:
kuasBpt while this is true, and while it quail
r regret that slavery should have existed,
lie we would not be blind to the ex-
lfhculty of removing it from country
is once established, we have no idea
Fing ourselves to be regarded as its apol
For defenders. IL there are circumstan-
% under which slavery has many cOmpensa-
ting advantages it is equally true, that, men
gain sclfcontrol and rise above the level of
savage life, slavery hindcrs the progress which
at an earlier stage it may have helped And
here is its true evil The great wrong does
not arise out of the fact that every man pos
sesses an absolute and perfect right to freedom
What are termed abstract rights are nearly
=
qualifications Rights imply duties social
rights imply corresponding duties to society
and he who has no ability to perform the du-
ties has no just claim to the rights. So long
rs one is incompetent to perform the duties of
IA freeman, he has properly speaking no right
to be free. But on the contrary, there can be
no greater wrong than that of which they are
guilty, who. for selfish ends, make use of supe-
rior power to prevent him from becoming COM
petent to the duties and rights of freedom If
man possesses any right, it IL to become what
God intended him to be-a man. Here il the
curse of slavery Its continued existence de-
ponds ON prepeniing in the slave the develop
ment of the higher qualities of manhood. 1t
exists only by shutting of the slave from edu-
cation, from forming habits of self-support
and, as far as possible, from all hope of bet
ter state Ii allows the slave to rise as near to
manhood as it dares, because, the more intell-
gent labor is, the more profitable but beyond
this, it systematically represses all mental or
moral culture which would tend to awaken the
instinct for freedom. 1t is not that the slave
is not well fed and clothed, and cared for as
an animal but that the institution of slavery
maintains itself by preventing his rising above
| a condition halfway between the animal and
the man. II is not that men in other condi-
tons do not live in ignorance and endure life
long depriyations; but that slavery is an insti-
ton with sustains itself only by systematical-
iy Keeping at degraded level those under its
control, and must cease to exist, were any gen.
eral and serious effort made to raise the slave
10 higher mental or moral level. And they
VINO, Tor the sake of their personal comfort
ease, or gain, support. without attempting to
changc an Institution like this, must expect to
encounter the sober reprobation of the Chris
tan world
There ~ one view Of this question which is
scarcely sufficiently dwelt upon. and that Is the
EVIL which results TO the community. which de-
bases and degrades humanity. Some men
deny to the negro the attributes of humanity
and have written books to prove the correct.
ness Of their views-others and among thor,
may be numbered learned dvines, have labor.
ed N prove that the race descended from,
Ham However this may be- none, that we are
aware Of deny their origin from our common
progenitor, Adam. This being true no one
man can boast prc-eminence over another
And the Lord God formed man Of the dust
OF the ground and breathed into his nortr;ls
the breath Of life; and man became n living
soul Each man, therefore, possesses a spark
of the divinty--hc thinks feels reasons acts
He has hopes, affections aspirations. The OBJ
legation Of every man is to do good to abstain
from evil, to love God supremely. That man,
therefore, who degrades his fellow into chat
tel, a thing personal dsgrades his own nature
and exhibits his disregard Of the divine injunc.
ton -.
The curse Of slavery does not affect the ne.