Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1856-12-10
From the Nsso York Day Book.
AVERY A BLESSING TO THE NEGRO.

but who nevertheless, oppose it, on the ground
that it is curse to the negroes. No portion of
mankind, they urge, have right to seek their own
advantage By ipjuring another portion; that negro
slavery benefits the whites by ipjuring and degra-
ding the negroes and that negro slavery is, there
fore, wrong With many minds this argument I'M
doubtedy has great force but il is based on false
assumption of fsct--that slavery Injuries and de-
grades the negro shall not place myself in the
position of proving negative on this point, but
shall boldly plant myself on an affirmative propo
sitioa that slavery has proven positive blessing
to tie negroes enslaved. hold this truth to be
self evident, that whatever improves the moral
| mental and physical condition OF a people, is
, blessing to them. That slavery has improved the
moral, mental and physical condition of the ne
groes enslaved, must be evident to every one who
compares the cond ion of the southern slaves with
| that of the negroes 10 Africa.
| The negroes of Africa are among the most de-
graded OF the colored rsee. They live almost 10
slate Of nudity, subsisting principally on the spon-
taneous productions of the forest. They have lit
tie or no knowledge OF agriculture, architecture,
the mechanic arts any OF those arts and sciences
which tend to elevate and expand the intellect and
secure the rational enjoyment of life The light
of Divine Revelation has never pierced their be-
| nighted minds the feeble operations of their re-
| son has scarcely revealed to them glimmering of
| the existence of Supreme Being and Worship
ping stones, insects, and reptiles, their moral char
acter is in entire harmony with the objects of their
alteration. Fierce and cruel, cowsrdy and treach-
erous, ignorant and lascivious, engaged in contn-
nous wars, burning their enemies at the stake and
| feeding on their flesh, bowng-whole villages and
| tribes in abect slavery-to single man, horrid,
black, brutalzed monster who holds their life and
death in his single hand and scruples not to
| else his suthorty-it is little wonder that intelli-
| gent travellers have been led to class them su-
| perior species of the monkey tribe.
Turn from this loathsome picture OF brutslized
humanity to the sunny plains of the south, and
| what do we see! Hundreds of thousands of in
dusrious civilized laborers, clothed in the garb of
| civilization, eating the bread earned by their own
| labor under the supervision of Caucasian intelli-
| gence, and increasing in numbers with rspdity,
which clearly indicates that their physical condi-
ton is superior to that of any other servile labor
| ers in the world.
They have changed mastersl No black, igno-
rant brute holds their lives in his hands, but in bis
place is the intellectual Caucasian holding no pow
er of life and death, but whose sole Office Is to d.
| rect their lsbors in the proper channels of indus
try, to instruct them in the elements of agricul-
| ture and the mechanic arts to see that they are
comfortably provided for in childhood, maturity,
and old age to restrain their Wild rugged natur es
by wholesome discipline, to improve their moral
condition and to receive the surplus of their labors
Under the sslutsry discipline of slavery the fierce
sensual, brutslized negro has become as mild and
docile as child He has acquired pretty good
practical knowledge of agriculture and the sim
| per branches of the mechanic arts. Revelation
has risen in sun-burst of glory on his benighted
mind, chasing from it the shadowy gloom of su-
perstition and brutality, and revealing to him his
duty to his God and bis fellow man. Scarcely q
Sabbath rulls round but the black millions of the
South have an opportunity of listening to the glad
tidings of the gospel, and many thousands Of
them have attached themselves to the Church
of Christ Do the antislavery clergy of the North
see nothing for which to thank God in this? Mil
lions of dollars have been spent, and hundreds of
valuable lives sacrificed in the attempt to evan
gelize the negroes of Africa and yet slsvery-the
sbhorred, cursed and reviled institution of slavery
has brought four times more negroes into the
fold Of the church than all the missionary opera
tons of the world combined. Slavery has tanned,
civilized, chrstianzed the brutal negroes brought
to our shores; it has elevated them physically,
mentally, moroslly; and therefore, it has proven
blessing to them
But 1 go further. While l hold, and think
| have proven, that the condition Of southern ne
groes has been vastly improved by slavery; l also
assert, without lear of successful contradiction,
that Slavery only, could have worked that i'm
provement and that the preservation Of the rea
ton of master and slave is essential to the con-
tinued improvement AID future welfare of the ne
gro race of the South. Numerous attempts have
been made to civihze the negroes 10 their native
Africa, but these have proven abortIve. Not half
O century ago the institution OF slavery existed in
all the West India Islands. Then these fertile
islands were highly productive and carried on
| lucrative commercs with Europe and AMERICA
The negroes t0eTe Industrious, prosperous and fast
! Advancing in civilization. But the ostensibly PHI
lapthrophic but really l0icked and interested poicy
| of Great Britain has brought about the emancps-
ton of the negroes What has been the result
Have the negroes, freed from their shacEles made
those rapid strides in civilization and greatness
| that the visionary theories of misguided phian-
throoists would lead Us to exPect2 Far from it.
The once fertile fields are grown csc: with BRAN
ble.: the commerce of the islands is almost des-
troyed; and the once thriving, industrious negroes,
| have la sad into iCdJIeIc, aud barbsrism, retsn-
ing scarcely vestige OF their former civilization
save the vices that were incident to 1t. Every man
not utterly blinded to the spirit OF fanaticsm must
| own that the condition Of the southern slaves
| morally, mentally, ard physicslly-is immeasurs-
| bly superior to that Of tie free negroes of the
| West Indies.
| In Mexico and South America the negroes are
brt little superior to those of the West Indies In
the northern States of the Union, where white
intelligence has taken some little pains to secure
| the negros welfare the retrogression, mentally
and morally, has not been so marked But even
in this respect it must be admitted that they have
| refrigerated rather than progressed from the posi-
ton they held fifty years ago, while their physical
| condition il such that they do not increase, and
| would become extinct in hundred years If there
| were no accessions from the South. In every in
| stance where the negroes have been placed in
state of so.caled freedom, the great mass Of them
have either reapsed into incidence and bsrbsrism,
4 or voluntarily assumed menial position, tacitly
acknowledging that the supervision of the white
race is necessary to their welfare. Free negro
| communities have never yet given the world an
| Individual distinguished tor mental greatness
| Those most distinguished, as Fred. Douglass and
| Soulouque, were reared in slavery.
Slavery, only, can elevate the negro race from
their state of pristine barbarism the continuation
civilized negroes of the G6 5Hmi fe g5sSs9 the
their old savage state in which the shareholders at
first found them.
In view of all these facts, in view of what slave
ry has done for the negro race is there one among
those who so fippsntly denounce negro slavery
curse, is there one ask who would, if he could,
| undo all that negro slavery has done--the evil
| with the good-who would place the negroes back
in the state in which the slave traders found them
| with all the ennoblpg Influences of civilization
and christianity erased from their natures, with
the knowledge of God end Revelation blotted
| from their minds, leaving them In blindness and
brutshness TO spend their lives in internecine strife
to feed on human flesh, and to bow 10 worship TO
stocks and stones, and beasts and reptiles? Or is
there one who you'd change the mild civllizing
slavery of the southern negroes, to thu brutal