I Have Seen At Rio De Janeiro A Powerful
Negro Afraid To Ward Off A Blow Directed, As He Thought, At His
Face.
I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the
point of separating forever the men, women, and little
children of a large number of families who had long lived
together.
I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening
atrocities which I authentically heard of; - nor would I have
mentioned the above revolting details, had I not met with
several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the
negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people
have generally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where
the domestic slaves are usually well treated, and they have
not, like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such
inquirers will ask slaves about their condition; they forget
that the slave must indeed be dull, who does not calculate
on the chance of his answer reaching his master's ears.
It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty;
as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which
are far less likely than degraded slaves, to stir up the rage
of their savage masters. It is an argument long since protested
against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified,
by the ever-illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to
palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our
poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused
not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is
our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well
might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one
land, by showing that men in another land suffered from
some dreadful disease.
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