Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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How Can A Slave, Whipped, Exhausted By Hunger,
And Excess Of Labour, Find Means To Appear Before The Magistrate?
And
if he did reach him, how would he be defended against a powerful
master who calls the hired accomplices of his cruelties as witnesses."
In conclusion I may quote a very remarkable extract from the
Representacion del Ayuntamiento, Consulado, y Sociedad patriotica,
dated July 20th, 1811. "In all that relates to the changes to be
introduced in the captive class, there is much less question of our
fears on the diminution of agricultural wealth, than of the security
of the whites, so easy to be compromised by imprudent measures.
Besides, those who accuse the consulate and the municipality of the
Havannah of obstinate resistance forget that, in the year 1799, the
same authorities proposed fruitlessly that the government would divert
attention to the state of the blacks in the island of Cuba (del
arreglo de este delicado asunto.) Further, we are far from adopting
the maxims which the nations of Europe, who boast of their
civilization, have regarded as incontrovertible; that, for instance,
without slaves there could be no colonies. We declare, on the
contrary, that without slaves, and even without blacks, colonies might
have existed, and that the whole difference would have been comprised
in more or less profit, by the more or less rapid increase of the
products. But such being our firm persuasion, we ought also to remind
your Majesty that a social organization into which slavery has been
introduced as an element cannot be changed with inconsiderate
precipitation.
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