with Notes of Reference (1803)St. George Tucker On the State of Slavery in Virginia
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1. The American standard, at the commencement of those hostilities which terminated in the revolution, had these words upon it .... AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN!
2. The Editor here takes the liberty of making his acknowledgments to the reverend Jeremiah Belknap, D. D. of Boston, and to Zephaniah Swift, Esq. representative in Congress from Connecticut, for their obliging communications; he hath occasionally made use of them in several parts of this Lecture, where he may have omitted referring to them.
3. Lib. 1. Tit. 2.
4. Stith 182.
5. Dr. Belknap's Answers to St. G. T.'s queries
6. Letter from Zephaniah Swift to St. G. T.
7. Dr. Belknap, Zephan. Swift
8. Ibid.
9. Hargrave's case of negroe Somerset.
10. Lib. 1, Tit. 3. Sec. 3.
11. Lib. 2. c. 5, Sec. 27.
12. Lib. 1. c. 20. p. 474.
13. Lib. 15, c. 1.
14. Lib. 12. c. 1.
15. Blacks. Com. 125. I should rather incline to think this definition of civil liberty more applicable to social liberty, for reasons mentioned in a note, page 145, Vol. I. of Blackstone's Commentaries.
16. The constitution of Virginia, Art. 7, declares, that the right of suffrage shall remain as then exercised: the act of 1723, c. 4, (Edi. 1733,) Sec. 23, declared, that no negroe, mulattoe, or Indian, shall have any vote at the election of burgesses, or any other election whatsoever. This act, it is presumed, was in force at the adoption of the constitution. The act of 1785, c. 55, (Edi. of 1794, c. 17,) also expressly excludes them from the right of suffrage.
17. This was the case under the laws of the state; but the act of 2 Cong. c. 33, for establishing an uniform militia throughout the United States, seems to have excluded all but free white men from bearing arms in the militia.
18. 1723, c. 2.
19. Oct. 1783, c. 3.
20. 1748, c. 31. Edi. 1794.
21. Ibid. c. 103.
22. 1794, c. 141.
23. 1794, c. 103.
24. 1794, c. 163.
25. 1794, c. 164.
26. Inst. lib. 1. tit. 1.
27. 1 b. c. 423.
28. These arguments are, in fact, borrowed from the Spirit of Laws. Lib. xv. c. 2.
29. "About the same time (the reign of queen Elizabeth) a traffic in the human species, called negroes, was introduced into England, which is one of the most odious and unnatural branches of trade the sordid and avaricious mind of mortals ever invented .... It had been carried on before this period by Genoese traders, who bought a patent from Charles the fifth, containing an exclusive right of carrying negroes from the Portuguese settlements in Africa, to America and the West-Indies; but the English nation had not yet engaged in the iniquitous traffic .... One William Hawkins, an expert English seaman, having made several voyages to the coast of Guinea, and from thence to Brazil and the West-Indies, had acquired considerable knowledge of these countries. At his death he left his journals with his son, John Hawkins, in which he described the lands of America and the West-Indies as exceedingly rich and fertile, but utterly neglected for want of hands to improve them. He represented the natives of Europe as unequal to the task in such a scorching climate; but those of Africa as well adapted to undergo the labours requisite. Upon which John Hawkins immediately formed a design of transporting Africans into the western world; and having drawn a plan for the execution of it, he laid it before some of his opulent neighbours for encouragement and approbation. To them it appeared promising and advantageous. A subscription was opened and speedily filled up, by Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, Sir William Winter, and others, who plainly perceived the vast profits that would result from such a trade. Accordingly three ships were fitted out, and manned by an hundred select sailors, whom Hawkins encouraged to go with him by promises of good treatment and great pay. In the year 1562 he set sail for Africa, and in a few weeks arrived at the country called Sierra Leona, where he began his commerce with the negroes. While he trafficked with them, he found the means of giving them a charming description of the country to which he was bound; the unsuspicious Africans listened to him with apparent joy and satisfaction, and seemed remarkably fond of his European trinkets, food, and clothes. He pointed out to them the barrenness of the country, and their naked and wretched condition, and promised if any of them were weary of their miserable circumstances, and would go along with him, he would carry them to a plentiful land, where they should live happy, and receive an abundant recompence for their labours. He told them the country was inhabited by such men as himself and his jovial companions, and assured them of kind usage and great friendship, In short, the negroes were overcome by his nattering promises, and three hundred stout fellows accepted his offer, and consented to embark along with him. Every thing being settled on the most amicable terms between them, Hawkins made preparations for his voyage. But in the night before his departure his negroes were attacked by a large body from a different quarter; Hawkins, being alarmed with the shrieks and cries of dying persons, ordered his men to the assistance of his slaves, and having surrounded the assailants, carried a number of them on board as prisoners of war. The next day he set sail for Hispaniola with his cargo of human creatures; but during the passage, he treated the prisoners of war in a different manner from his volunteers. Upon his arrival, he disposed of his cargo to great advantage; and endeavoured to inculcate on the Spaniards who bought the negroes the same distinction to be observed: but they having purchased, all at the same rate, considered them as slaves of the same condition, and consequently treated all alike."
Hawkins having returned to England, soon after made preparations for a second voyage. "In his passage he fell in with the Minion man of war, which accompanied him to the coast of Africa. After his arrival he began as formerly to traffic with the negroes, endeavouring by persuasions and prospects of reward, to induce them to go along with him .... but now they were more reserved and jealous of his designs, and as none of their neighbours had returned, they were apprehensive he had killed and eat them. The crew of the man of war observing the Africans backward and suspicious, began to laugh at his gentle and dilatory methods of proceeding, and proposed having immediate recourse to force and compulsion .... but Hawkins considered it as cruel and unjust, and tried by persuasions, promises and threats, to prevail on them to desist from a purpose so unwarrantable and barbarous. In vain did he urge his authority and instructions from the queen: the bold and headstrong sailors would hear of no restraints. Drunkenness and avarice are deaf to the voice of humanity. They pursue their violent design, and, after several unsuccessful attacks, in which many of them lost their lives, the cargo was at length completed by barbarity and force.
"Hence arose that horrid and inhuman practice of dragging Africans into slavery, which has since been so pursued, in defiance of every principle of justice and religion. Had negroes been brought from the flames, to which in some countries they were devoted on their falling prisoners of war, and in others, sacrificed at the funeral obsequies of the great and powerful among themselves; in short, had they by this traffic been delivered from torture or death, European merchants might have some excuse to plead in it's vindication. But according to the common mode in which it has been conducted, we must confess it a difficult matter to conceive a single argument in it's defence. And though policy has given countenance and sanction to the trade, yet every candid and impartial man must confess, that it is atrocious and unjustifiable in every light in which it can be viewed, and turns merchants into a band of robbers, and trade into atrocious acts of fraud and violence." Historical Account of South-Carolina and Georgia. Anonymous. London printed in 1779 .... page 20, etc.
"The number of negroe slaves bartered for in one year, (viz. 1768), on the coast of Africa from Cape Blanco, to Rio Congo, amounted to 104,000 souls, whereof more than half (viz. 53,000) were shipped on account of British merchants, and 6,300 on the account of British Americans." The Law of Retribution, by Granville Sharpe, Esq. page 147. note.
30. Bill of Rights, Article 1.
31. See the various tracts on this subject, by Granville Sharpe, Esq. of London.
32. The condition of a villein had most of the incidents I have before described in giving the idea of slavery, in general. His services were uncertain and indeterminate such as his lord thought fit to require; or as some of our antient writers express it, he knew not in the evening what he was to do in the morning, he was bound to do whatever he was commanded. He was liable to beating, imprisonment, and every other chastisement his lord could devise, except killing and maiming. He was incapable of acquiring property for his own benefit; he was himself the subject of property; as such saleable and transmissible. If he was a villein regardant he passed with the land to which he was annexed, but might be severed at the will of his lord; if he was a villein in gross, he was an hereditament, or a chattel real, according to his lord's interest; being descendible to the heir, where the lord was absolute owner, and transmissible to the executor where the lord had only a term of years in him. Lastly, the slavery extended to the issue, if the father was a villein, our law deriving the condition of the child from that of the father, contrary to the Roman law, in which the rule was partus sequitur ventrem .... Harg. Case of negro Somerset, p. 26 and 27.
The same writer refers the origin of vassalage in England, principally to the wars between the British, Saxon, Danish, and Norman nations, contending for the sovereignty of that country, in opposition to the opinion of judge Fitzherbert, who supposes villeinage to have commenced at the conquest. Ib. 27, 28. And this he proves from Spelman and other antiquaries. Ib. The writ de nativo habendo, by which the lord was enabled to recover his villein that had absconded from him, creates a presumption that all the natives of England were at some period reduced to a state of villeinage, the word nativus, which signified a villein, most clearly designated the person meant thereby to be a native: this etymon is obvious, as well from the import of the word nativus, as from the history of the more remote ages of Britain. Sir Edward Coke's Etymology, "quia plerumque nascuntur servi," is one of those puerile conceits, which so frequently occur in his works, and are unworthy of so great a man.
Barrington in his observations upon magna carta, c. 4, observes, that the villeins who held by servile tenures were considered as so many negroes on a sugar plantation; the words "liber homo", in magna carta, c. 14, with all deference to Sir Edward Coke, who says they mean a free-holder, I understand as meaning a free man (1) as contradistinguished from a villein; for in the very next sentence the words "et villanus alterius quam noster," occur. Villeins must certainly have been numerous at that day, to have obtained a place in the Great Charter (2). It is no less an evidence that their condition was in a state of melioration.
In Poland, at this day, the peasants seem to be in an absolute state of slavery, or at least of villeinage, to the nobility, who are the land-holders.
(1) Liber homo, &c. the title of freeman was formerly confined to the nobility and gentry who were descended of free ancestors. Burgh's Political Disquisitions, vol. iii. p. 400, who cites Spelman's. Glossary, voc. Liber homo.
(2) In the time of the Saxons, the slaves, or villeins were by much the most numerous class of the community in England. Russel's Modern Europe, vol. i. 54. Philadelphia edition.
33. Hargrave, ibid.
34. 1662, c. 136.
35. 1662. Sess. d. c. 12.
36. 1667, c. 2.
37. Among the Israelites, according to the Mosaical law, "If a man smote his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he died under his hand, he should surely be punished .... notwithstanding if he continue a day or two, he should not be punished (1): for, saith the text, he is his money. Our legislators appear to have adopted the reason of the latter clause, without the humanity of the former part of the law. (1) Exod. c. 21.
38. 1705, c. 49. 1723, c. 4. 1748. c. 31.
39. 1788, c. 23.
40. 1668, c. 7.
41. 1670, c. 5.
42. 1670, c. 12.
43. 1679, c. 3.
44. 1662, c. 1.
45. 1705, c. 49. 1753, c. 2.
46. 1705, c. 52.
47. Hannah and other Indians, against Davis. Since this adjudication, I have met with a manuscript act of assembly made in 1691, c. 9, entituled, "An Act for a free trade with Indians," the enacting clause of which is in the very words of the act of 1705, c. 52. A similar title to an act of that session occurs in the edition of 1733, p. 94, and the chapter is numbered as in the manuscript. If this manuscript be authentic (which there is some reason to presume, it being copied in some blank leaves at the and of Purvis's edition, and apparently written about the time of the passage of the act), it would seem that no Indians brought into Virginia for more than a century, nor any of their descendents, can be retained in slavery in this commonwealth.
48. 1778, c. 1.
49. See ads of 1794, c. 103.
50. Edi. of 1794, c. 164.
51. Although it be true that the number of slaves in the whole state bears the proportion of 292,427, to 747,610, the whole number of souls in the state, that is, nearly as two to five; yet this proportion is by no means uniform throughout the state. In the forty-four counties lying upon the Bay, and the great rivers of the state, and comprehended by a line including Brunswick, Cumberland, Goochland, Hanover, Spottsylvania, Stafford, Prince William and Fairfax, and the counties eastward thereof, the number of slaves is 196,542, and the number of free persons, including free negroes and mulattoes, 198,371 only. So that the blacks in that populous and extensive district of country are more numerous than the whites. In the second class, comprehending nineteen counties, and extending from the last mentioned line to the Blue Ridge, and including the populous counties of Frederick and Berkeley, beyond the Blue Ridge, there are 82,286 slaves, and 136,351 free persons; the number of free persons in that class not being two to one, to the slaves. In the third class the proportion is considerably increased; the eleven counties of which it consists contain only 11,218 slaves, and 76,281 free persons. This class reaches to the Allegany ridge of mountains: the fourth and last class, comprehending fourteen counties westward of the third class, contains only 2,381 slaves, and 42,288 free persons .... It is obvious from this statement that almost all the dangers and inconveniencies which may be apprehended from a state of slavery on the one hand, or an attempt to abolish it, on the other, will be confined to the people eastward of the blue ridge of mountains.
52. Edi. of 1733. c. 12.
53. The following is a list of the acts, or titles of acts, imposing duties on slaves imported, which occur in the various compilations of our laws, or in the Sessions Acts, or Journals.
1699, c. 12. title only retained. Edit. of 1733, p. -------- 113 1701, c. 5. the same, -------- 116
1704, c. 4. the same, -------- 122
1705, c. 1. the same, -------- 126
1710, c. 1. the same, -------- 239
1712, c. 3. the same, -------- 282
1723, c. 1. repealed by proclamation, -------- 333
1727, c. 1. enacted with a suspending clause, and the royal assent refused, -------- 376
1732, c. 3. printed at large, -------- 469
1734, c. 3. printed at large in Sessions Acts. 1736, c. 1. the same. 1738, c. 6. the same. 1740, c. 2, the same. 1742, c. 2, the same.
From this period I have not been able to refer to the Sessions Acts.
1752, c. 1. printed at large in the Edit. of 1769, -------- 281
1754, c. 1. the same, -------- 319
1755, c. 2. Sessions Acts. Ten per cent. in addition to all former duties.
1759, c. 1. printed at large, edition of 1769, -------- 369 1763, c. 1. Journals of that session,
1766, c. 3, 4. printed at large, Edit. of 1769, -------- 461, 462 ...... c. 15. additional duty, the title only is printed, being repealed by the crown, Ib. -------- 473 1769, c. 7, 8, and 12, title only printed, edition of 1785, -------- 6, 7 1772, c. 15, title only printed, -------- Ibidem, 24
54. The following extract from a petition to the throne, presented from the house of burgesses of Virginia, April 1, 1772, will shew the sense of the people of Virginia, on the subject of slavery at that period.
| "The many instances of your majesty's benevolent intentions, and most gracious disposition to promote the prosperity and happiness of your subjects in the colonies, encourages us to look up to the throne, and implore your majesty's paternal assistance in averting a calamity of a most alarming nature."
"The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa, hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and under it's present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear will endanger the very existence of your majesty's American dominions." "We are sensible that some of your majesty's subjects of Great Britain may reap emoluments from this sort of traffic, but when we consider that it greatly retards the settlement of the colonies, with more useful inhabitants, and may, in time, have the most destructive influence, we presume to hope, that the interest of a few will be disregarded when placed in competition with the security and happiness of such numbers of your majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects." "Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your majesty to remove all those restraints on your majesty's governors of this colony, which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check so very pernicious a commerce." Journals of the house of burgesses, page 131. |
This petition produced no effect, as appears from the first clause of our CONSTITUTION, where among other acts of misrule, "the inhuman use of the royal negative," in refusing us permission to exclude slaves from us by law, is enumerated, among the reasons for separating from Great Britain,
I have lately been favoured with the perusal of a manuscript copy of a letter from Granville Sharpe, esquire, of London, to a friend of the prime minister, dated March 25, 1794, in which he speaks of this petition thus: "I myself was desired, by a letter from America, to inquire for an answer to this extraordinary Virginia petition. I waited on the secretary of state, and was informed by himself that the petition was received, but that (he apprehended) no answer would be given.
55. It may not be improper here to note, that the first congress of the U. States, at their 3d session, Dec. 1793, passed an act to prohibit the carrying on the slave trade from the United States to any foreign place or country; the provisions of which seem well calculated to restrain the citizens of united America from embarking in so infamous a traffic.
56. Spavan's Puff. Vol. I, c. 17.
57. 1705, c. 49. 1723, c. 4. 1748, c. 31.
58. In December term 1788, one John Huston was tried in the general court for the murder of a slave; the jury found him guilty of manslaughter, and the court, upon a motion in arrest of judgment, discharged him without any punishment. The general assembly being then sitting, some of the members of the court mentioned the case to some leading characters in the legislature, and the act was, at the same session repealed.
59. 1788, c. 23.
60. 1672, c. 8.
61. 1680, c. 10.
62. 1705, c. 49.
63. 1723, c. 4. 1748, c. 31.
64. 1769, c. 19.
65. 1772, c. 9?.
66. 1680, c. 10. 1705.
67. 1705, c. 49. 1723, c. 4.
68. 1753, c. 2.
69. Edi. 1794, c. 103.
70. 1723, c. 4. 1748. c. 31. 1753, c. 2. 1785, c. 77.
71. Edi. of 1794, c. 103, 181.
72. Edi. 1794, c. 103
73. 1748, c. 31. 1794, c. 103.
74. 1785, c. 77. 1794, c. 103.
75. 1769, c. 19. May 1783, c. 32. 1794, Ibid.
76. Edi. of 1794, c. 103.
77. 1705, c. 11.
78. 1748, c. 31. 1764, c. 9.
79. 1723, c. 4.
80. Edi. 1794, c. 103.
81. 1772, c. 9.
82. Edit. 1794, c. 103.
83. 1794, c. 103.
84. But herein the law is now altered by the act of 1796, c. 2, which does not extend to slaves. See note, ante p. 22.
85. 1794, c. 103.
86. Ibidem.
87. See Jefferson's Notes, 259. The marquis de Chattelleux's travels, I have not noted the page; the Law of Retribution, by Granville Sharpe, p. 151, 238, notes. The Just Limitation of Slavery, by the same author, pa. 15, note, Ibidem, pa. 33, 50. Ib. Append. No. 2, Encyclopedie. Tit. Esclave. Laws of Barbadoes, etc.
88. Exod c. 21 Deut. c 15.
89. Ibid.
90. Harris's Just. in notes.
91. Just. Inst lib. 1 tit. 5 Ib. lib. 1. tit. 6.
92. Ib Harris's Just. in notes.
93. Ibid.
94. Ante, p. 36.
95. May 1782, c. 21.
96. 1723, c. 4.
97. There are more free negroes and mulattoes in Virginia alone, than are to be found in the four New-England states, and Vermont in addition to them. The progress of emancipation in this state is therefore much greater than our Eastern brethren may at first suppose. There are only 1087 free negroes and mulattoes in the states of New-York, New-Jersey, and Pennsylvania, more, than in Virginia. Those who take a subject in the gross, have little idea of the result of an exact scrutiny. Out of 20,348 inhabitants on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, 1185, were free negroes and mulattoes when the census was taken. The number is since much augmented.
98. 1794, c. 103.
99. The act of 1795, c. 11, enacts, that any person held in slavery may make complaint to a magistrate, or to the court of the district county or corporation wherein he resides and not elsewhere. The magistrate, if the complaint be made to him, shall issue his warrant to summon the owner before him, and compel him to give bond and security to suffer the complainant to appear at the next court to be admitted to sue in forma pauperis. If the owner refuse, the magistrate shall order the complainant into the custody of the officer serving the warrant, at the expence of the master, who shall keep him until the sitting of the court, and then produce him before it. Upon the petition to the court, if the court be satisfied as to the material facts, they shall assign the complainant council, who shall state the facts with his opinion thereon to the court; and unless from the circumstances so stated, and the opinion thereon given, the court shall sue manifest reason to deny their interference, they shall order the clerk to issue process against the owner, and the complainant shall remain in the custody of the sheriff until the owner shall give bond and security to have him forthcoming to answer the judgment of the court. And by the general law in case of pauper's suits, the complainants shall have writs of subpœna gratis, and by the practice of the courts, he is permitted to attend the taking the depositions of witnesses, and go and come freely to and from court, for the prosecution of his suit.
100. Jus. Inst. lib. 1, tit. 5.
101. Harris's Inst. lib. 3, tit. 8.
102. Inst. lib. 1, tit. 5, s. 3.
103. The number of slaves in the United States at the time of the late census, was about 900,000.
104. Mr. Jefferson most forcibly paints the unhappy influence on the manners of the people, produced by the existence of slavery among us. "The whole commerce between master and slave, says he, is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning what he sees others do. If a parent had no other motive either in his own philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities ..... The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with what execrations would the statesman be loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms them into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriæ of the other. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labour for another: in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his individual endeavours to the evanishment of the human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless generations proceeding from him. With the morals of the people, their industry also, is destroyed. For in a warm climate, no man will labour for himself that can make another labour for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labour .... And can the liberties of a nation be ever thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest .... but it is impossible to be temperate and to pursue this subject through the various considerations of policy, of morals, of history, natural and civil. We must be contented to hope they will force their way into every one's mind. I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of the present revolution. the spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust; his condition molifying; the way, I hope, preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed in the order of events, to be with the consent of their masters, rather than by their extirpation." Notes on Virginia, 298.
105. Letter from Jas. Sullivan, Esq. to Dr. Belknap.
106. Dr. Belknap.
107. What is here advanced is not to be understood as implying an opinion that the labour of slaves is more productive than that of freemen .... The author of the Treatise on the Wealth of Nations, informs us, "That it appears from the experience of all ages and nations, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that done by slaves. That it is found to do so, even in Boston, New-York, and Philadelphia, where the wages of common labour are very high." Vol. 1. p. 123. Lond. edit. oct. Admitting this conclusion, it would not remove the objection that emancipated slaves would, not willingly labour.
108. Doctor Franklin, it is said, drew the bill for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania.
109. It is probable that similar laws have been passed in some other states; but I have not been able to procure a note of them.
110. The object of the amendment proposed to be offered to the legislature, was to emancipate all slaves born after a certain period; and further directing that they should continue with their parents to a certain age, then be brought up, at the public expence, to tillage, arts, or sciences, according to their geniuses, till the females should be eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age, when they should be colonized to such a place as the circumstances of the time should render most proper; sending them out with arms, implements of household and of the handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domestic animals, etc. to declare them a free and independent people, and extend to them our alliance and protection, till they shall have acquired strength; and to send vessels at the same time to other parts of the world for an equal number of white inhabitants; to induce whom to migrate hither, proper encouragements should be proposed. Notes on Virginia, 251.
111. Or, perhaps, by incorporating with them, become a formidable accession of strength to those hostile savages?
112. "It will probably be asked, why not retain the blacks among us, and incorporate them into the state? Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances will divide us into parties and produce convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of one or the other race. To these objections, which are political, may be added others which are physical and moral. The first difference which strikes us is that of colour... etc. The circumstance of superior beauty is thought worthy of attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and other domestic animals; why not in that of man? etc. In general their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection. Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior; that in imagination they are dull, tasteless and anomalous, etc. the improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites, has been observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their condition of life. We know that among the Romans about the Augustan age, especially, the condition of their slaves was much more deplorable, than that of the blacks on the continent of America. Yet among the Romans their slaves were often their rarest artists. They excelled too in science, insomuch as to be usually employed as tutors to their master's children. Epictetus, Terence, and Phœdrus were slaves. But they were of the race of whites. It is not their condition then, but nature which has produced the distinction. The opinion that they are inferior in the faculties of reason and imagination, must be hazarded with great diffidence. To justify a general conclusion requires many observations, etc .... I advance it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites both in the endowments of body and mind, etc. This unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Among the Romans emancipation required but one effort. The slave, when made free, might mix with, without staining the blood of his master. But with us a second is necessary, unknown to history" .... See the passage at length, Notes on Virginia, page, 252 to 265.
"In the present case, it is not only the slave who is beneath his master, it is the negroe who is beneath the white man. No act of enfranchisement can efface this unfortunate distinction." Chattelleux's Travels in America.
113. The celebrated David Hume, in his Essay on National Character, advances the same opinion; Doctor Beattie, in his Essay on Truth, controverts it with many powerful arguments. Early prejudices, had we more satisfactory information than we can possibly possess on the subject at present, would render an inhabitant of a country where negroe slavery prevails, an improper umpire between them.
114. It was once proposed among the Romans to discriminate slaves, by a peculiar habit; but it was justly apprehended that there might be some danger in acquainting them with their own numbers .... Gibbon's Hist. of the Rom. Emp. Vol. I. p. 59. What policy forbade the martial Romans to do, nature and the federal census have already done in Virginia, and the other southern states.
115. The Romans, before the time of Justinian, adopted a similar policy, in respect to their freed-men. Gibbon, vol. 1, 58.
116. See Spirit of Laws, 12, 15, 1. Blackst. Com. 417.
117. If, upon experiment, it should appear advisable to hasten the operation of this plan, or to enlarge the privileges of free negroes, it will be both easier. and safer so to do, than to retrench any privilege once granted, or to retard the operation of the original plan, after it has been adopted, and in part carried into execution.
118. The immense territory of Louisiana, which extends as far south as the lat. 25° and the two Floridas, would probably afford a ready asylum for such as might choose to become Spanish subjects. How far their political rights might be enlarged in these countries, is, however, questionable: but the climate is undoubtedly more favourable to the African constitution, than ours, and from this cause it is not improbable that emigrations from these states would in time be very considerable.
But it is not from the want of liberality to the emancipated race of blacks that I apprehend the most serious objections to the plan I have ventured to suggest .... Those slave holders (whose numbers I trust are few) who have been in the habit of considering their fellow creatures as no more than cattle, and the rest of the brute creation, will exclaim that they are to be deprived of their property, without compensation. Men who will shut their ears against this moral truth, that all men are by nature free, and equal, will not even be convinced that they do not possess a property in an unborn child: they will not distinguish between allowing to unborn generations the absolute and unalienable rights of human nature, and taking away that which they now possess; they will shut their ears against truth, should you tell them, the loss of the mother's labour for nine months, and the maintenance of a child for a dozen or fourteen years, is amply compensated by the service of that child for as many years more, as he has been an expence to them. But if the voice of reason, justice, and humanity, be not stifled by sordid avarice, or unfeeling tyranny, it would be easy to convince, even those who have entertained such erroneous notions, that the right of one man over another is neither founded in nature, nor in sound policy. That it cannot extend to those not in being; that no man can in reality be deprived of what he doth not possess: that fourteen years labour by a young person in the prime of life, is an ample compensation for a few months of labour lost by the mother, and for the maintenance of a child, in that coarse homely manner that negroes are brought up: and lastly, that a state of slavery is not only perfectly incompatible with the principles of government, but with the safety and security of their masters. History evinces this. At this moment we have the most awful demonstrations of it. Shall we then neglect a duty, which every consideration, moral, religious, political, or selfish, recommends? Those who wish to postpone the measure, do not reflect that every day renders the task more arduous to be performed. We have now 300,000 slaves among us. Thirty years hence we shall have double the number. In sixty years we shall have 1,200,000: and in less than another century from this day, even that enormous number will be doubled. Milo acquired strength enough to carry an ox, by beginning with the ox while he was yet a calf. If we com plain that the calf is too heavy for our shoulders, what will the ox-be?
119. As it may not be unacceptable to some readers to observe the operation of this plan, I shall subjoin the following statement:
| PRELIMINARY REMARKS. |
| 1. The number of slaves in Virginia by the late census being found to be 292,427, they may now, in round numbers be estimated at 300,000. |
| 2. Let it be supposed that the males and females are nearly or altogether equal in number. |
| 3. According to Dr. Franklin, the people of America double their numbers in about twenty-eight years; and according to Mr. Jefferson, the negroes increase as fast as the whites, they will, therefore, double, at least every thirty years. |
| 4. Let it be supposed that in thirty years one half of the the present race of negroes will be extinct. |
| 5. Let it be supposed that in forty-five years there will not remain more than one-fifth of the present race alive. |
| 6. Let it be likewise supposed, that in sixty years the whole of the present race will be extinct. |
| 7. For conciseness sake, let the present race be called ante-nati, those born after the adoption of the plan, post-nati. |
| FROM HENCE IT WILL FOLLOW, |
| 1. That the present number of slaves being 300,000. |
| 2. In thirty years their numbers will amount to 600,000. |
| 3. But at that period as one half of them will be extinct, (rem. 4.) their numbers will stand thus: Ante-nati — 150,000; Post-nati — 450,000; Total — 600,000 |
| 4. The mean increase of the post-nati for the next thirty years will therefore be 450,000/30, annually, or 15,000. |
| 5. If one half of these be males, who are still to remain slaves, there will, in the first sixteen years, be born 120,000. |
| 6. After the first sixteen years, the post-natæ females will begin to breed; the proportion of males born to slavery in the next twelve years may be estimated at one-fourth of the whole number born after the commencement of that period .... Their number will be 52,500. |
| 7. The number of slaves living in Virginia at the end of thirty years from the adoption of the plan, will be, ante-nati (prop. 3.) — 150,000; Post-nati males born in the first 16 years — 120,000; Post-nati males born in the last 12 years — 52,500; Total — 322,500. |
| 8. The number of negroes at the same time will stand thus: Slaves — 322,500; Post-nati free born — 277,500; Total — 600,000. |
| 9. After twenty-eight years from the first adoption, this plan of gradual emancipation will first begin to manifest its effects, by the complete emancipation of one twenty-eighth part of the post-nati free born during that period each succeeding year, for twenty-eight years more; their numbers will be, 277500/28 or 9,910. These will be all females. |
| 10. It being admitted that the negroes double every thirty years, the supposition that in forty-five years, their numbers will be half as many more as in thirty, will not be very erroneous, if so, the whole race of them at that period will be 900,000. |
| 11. Their numbers will stand thus: Ante-nati — 60,000; Post-nati — 840,000; Total — 900,000. |
| 12. After twenty -eight years are past, the number of slaves born must continually diminish. Suppose their number born in the last seventeen years, to be one-fourth as many as those born in the preceding twelve years, they will be 52,500/4, or 13,125. |
| 13. The slaves in Virginia in forty-five years will then be, ante-nati — 60,000; Post-nati males born in the first sixteen years — 120,000; Ditto, born in the next twelve years — 52,500; Ditto, born in the last seventeen years — 13,125; Total — 245,625. |
| At this period the emancipation of males will begin. |
| 14. But after twenty-eight years it has been shewn that 9,910 negroes will annually arrive at the age of emancipation, their whole number in forty-five years will be 168,470. |
| 15. The state of the negroes at the end of 45 years, will then be, slaves — 245,625; Post-nati fully emancipated (females,) — 168,470; Post-nati not emancipated — 485,905; Total — 900,000. |
| 16. In sixty years the whole number of negroes will be 1,200,000. |
| 17. At that period the whole of the present race will be extinct, and we also may infer that one half of those born in the first thirty years will be also extinct; the number of slaves born in that period has been shewn, (prop. 7.) to be 172,500, the number of these then living will be 277,500/2 or, 86,750. |
| 18. One half of the post-nati free born, during that period, being now fully emancipated, may be likewise presumed to be extinct; their numbers (prop. 8.) will be 172,500/2 or 138,750. |
| 19. The state of negroes at the end of sixty years, will therefore be: Slaves born during the first thirty years — 86,250; Ditto born after that period — 13,125; Post-nati fully emancipated — 138,750; Post-nati under 28 years of age — 961,875; Total — 1,200,000. |
| 20. At the end of ninety years the number of negroes will be 2,400,000. |
| 21. Of this number, those only born after the first thirty years, being supposed to be living, the number of slaves (prop. 12,) will then be reduced to 13,125. |
| 22. And as the last mentioned number of slaves are supposed to be born within forty-five years, their whole number will be extinct in fifteen years more, that is, in one hundred and five years from the first adoption of the plan. |
| 23. By prop. 19, it appears, that out of 1,200,000 negroes, there will then be 961,875 under the age of twenty-eight years, the period of emancipation. |
| 24. We may, therefore, conclude, that from two-thirds to three-fourths of the whole number of blacks will always be liable to service. |
120. Not to mention the modern codes of the Sugar-Islands, which exhibit awful proofs of the supposed necessity of such a cruel policy, the martial Lacedemonians, and not less martial Romans, held it justifiable, as well as necessary, to adopt the most severe regulations, and the most cruel treatment towards their numerous slaves, upon the principle of self-preservation .... See Gibbon's Hist. of the Rom. Emp. Vol. I, p. 57.