have dreamt, but a plain tale of facts which I have seen and known.

I do not, however, advance my statements as being without exceptions; I know that there are others among the slaves besides the contented and the happy; I know that there are the miserable, the cheerless, and desponding, the misanthropical, the gloomy, and morose, but these are only exceptions, and exceptions which will be found in the happiest nation under heaven; these, however, shall be noticed, and I hope fairly and impartially, but I am now speaking generally, and detailing the condition of slaves on estates, separating them even from the domestic and town negroes, which, like the excepted and the unhappy, must be spoken of alone.

I believe that the great mass of population in England seek the freedom of the slave because they commiserate his condition, and believe him to be ill treated; and, moreover, because they judge from their own feelings, and think no man can be happy who is not free. That is a noble principle, but I have already said that it is not the principle of the slave, he displays not half the earnestness and anxiety which Englishmen express for his fate. Honorable members make long speeches on the matter, and, session after session, the question of emancipation is discussed in the House, while the slave, the object of so much dispute, the injured being whose wrongs are numbered, and whose sufferings are described with such a pathetic appeal to the feelings and the hearts of Englishmen, is singing in the houses of

rum, sugar, and molasses; or smoking his pipe under the shade of a plantain bush-happier than a prince and more contented than a peasant; too ignorant to care for freedom, and therefore not in a fit state to enjoy it.

Like the rest of my countrymen, however, I vote for his emancipation, but for different reasons; not because I pity his condition, for I know that he can seldom be better, and that he will often be worse in a state of liberty, but because no man has a right to make a slave of another; still, I repeat that it must be gradual, and that since "we have done that which we ought not to have done," by injuring and depriving him of his rights, and as "we have left undone that which we ought to have done," by leaving him too long without education and religious instruction, we must leave these to perform their work before we can repay him for those injuries and restore him to those rights.

Let us suppose that a monarch, offended with his subject, had confined him in the dark and gloomy cells of a dungeon, which the light of day had never penetrated; that years had rolled away, as they do roll, in quick and terrible succession; that the king repented of his severity, and was willing to repay his prisoner for the injuries he had sustained, and to restore him to the enjoyment of his liberty. Think ye that he would do the generous deed by tearing off the roof of the infernal dungeon, and suddenly admitting the fearful and terrific glare, the dazzling

and majestic splendor, of a glorious and brilliant sun; would it not blind the prisoner instead of being welcome to his sight; but if, on the contrary, he were gradually conducted along a passage where the light, from being at first faint and gloomy, by degrees grew clearer and more distinct, until at length it burst into brilliancy and became illumined by rays from heaven, would he not make every step with increasing satisfaction, and finally be happy in the possession of that which he had so long foregone.

Exactly so it is with the slaves in our Colonies. Long have they been confined in the dark and cheerless dungeons of slavery, superstition, and ignorance, and never has the light of freedom dawned in upon them; were we to admit it suddenly they would become blind, from the mightiness of its splendor and the brilliancy of its rays; therefore, it is our duty gradually to prepare them for it with kindness, by education and religion, and when these shall have illumined their souls they will be enabled to grasp the glorious torch of liberty, and to hold it firm in happiness, in safety, and in joy.

For the purpose of more fully convincing my readers of the necessity of gradual emancipation, I shall continue to detail the state of slavery in all its branches, comparing the present with the past, and afterwards I will endeavor to explain the slaves themselves; I mean to develope their characters, with which Englishmen are so little acquainted; to describe their manners, their morals, and their minds;

and to tell how far they are actuated by those feelings and passions which are predominant in the breasts of white men; always, as I proceed, directing the attention of my readers to all circumstances that may undeceive those who have been deceived, and convince those who have not.

CHAPTER XLIV.

PAST CRUELTIES AND PRESENT AMELIORATION.

"For cruel or improper punishments slaves had formerly no adequate redress

"Now they are manumised and provided with an annuity for life; magistrates are appointed a council of protection to attend to their complaints."

Barclay's present State of Slavery.

purpose

of

I have already mentioned that when I spoke of slavery as it did exist, it would be for the proving the amelioration of the present by exposing the barbarities of the past. As those barbarities were frequently rendered horrible by a refinement of cruelty, and as they were besides committed in "numbers numberless," I should only be imposing a task at once painful and disgusting to my readers, by enumerating them in their long and almost endless list. I shall therefore content myself with giving only a few specimens, yet those few will serve to show what a dark and dreadful thing slavery was, and how much the condition of the negro deserved the pity it excited.

Before I begin, however, I must state, in justice to the planters, that I firmly believe those cruelties are