CHAPTER X.

THE REAL AND COMPARATIVE CONDITION OF AME

RICAN SLAVERY.

It is not a bad rule to make the best of a bad state of things, and to get all the consolation we can out of an evil we cannot help. The Millennium has not yet come, and the world is likely to be governed for a time yet indefinite, and in its more prominent operations, by political considerations, notwithstanding the declamatory exercises of enthusiasts, and the crusades of fanatics. There is no way of getting rid of American slavery just at present, except by resort to a violence which, we think, the world is hardly prepared to sustain.

For the comfort of all who are pleased to concern themselves with this matter, therefore, it may be said: First, that American slavery is not so bad in its physical effects on the slaves as is commonly supposed, and often represented. It was revealed, while Abolition was under discussion in Great Britain, that the decrease of the slave population of the West Indies, in consequence of the cruelty of the system, was frightful; but in America, the slaves

increase on the whites, as did the Hebrews in Egypt on their masters. Here, then, is a score of subtraction from the account of evils, not inconsiderable, and a proof that the American system of slavery is comparatively lenient. It has its cruelties, doubtless, especially on the sugar, cotton, an d rice plantations of the more remote South and Southwest, where the severities of toil, in connexion with the means employed to exact it, and the brutal degradation of the prædal slave, are, to a considerable extent, inhuman and barbarous. But the interest of the master in the life and health of his slave always comes in to graduate this evil, so that in its most aggravated conditions, the injuries done to the human constitution, and the physical sufferings resulting, are not at all to be compared with the same class of evils to be found in the manufactories of Great Britain.

But in most of the Slave States, the relations of master and slave have many features of resemblance to the feudal system of Europe; many others to the patriarchal system of ancient days; and many peculiar to itself. The master sustains the threefold character of lord, a patriarch, and the citizen of a Commonwealth; the latter of which binds him to a proper discharge of the duties and responsibilities of the two first. It is true that the members of the Commonwealth have the same or a like interest in slavery, and are not, therefore, likely to be so conscientious in securing the recognised rights of the

slave, as those of the masters. Nevertheless, the considerations of humanity prevail; the law is humane; every member of this Commonwealth watches every other, and the authorities supervise the whole, according to the demands of public opinion; and this opinion is formed, not alone by the higher virtues of the slave-holding community, but by an unavoidable respect to the prevailing feeling of mankind. They have a reputation at stake among themselves as individuals, and before the world as a community. It is true, indeed, that the effect of the law is not so good as the law, nor is it so in any state of society. There are cruel parents and cruel masters everywhere; and the former sometimes enact the monster as well as the latter, yet the law has a salutary influence.*

Moreover, the slave-holders of America are planted in the midst of their people with their wives and children. These families are tenderly educated;

* An instance of the force of law in the Southern States, for the protection of the slave, has just occurred, in the failure of a petition to his Excellency, P. M. Butler, Governor of South Carolina, for the pardon of Nazareth Allen, a white person, convicted of the murder of a slave, and sentenced to be hung. The following is part of the answer of the Governor to the petitioners :

66 The laws of South Carolina make no distinction in cases of deliberate murder, whether committed on a black man, or a white man; neither can I. I am not a law-maker, but the executive officer of the laws already made; and I must not act on a distinction which the legislature might have made, but has not thought fit to make.

"That the crime of which the prisoner stands convicted, was committed against one of an inferior grade in society, is reason for being especially cautious in intercepting the just severity of the law. This class of our population are subjected to us as well for their protection,

they have all the humanities that adorn and mollify the social state; and, in many instances, the Christian virtues are prominent and influential. The moral influence of such families, as those of a great portion of the slave-holders of America are generally found to be, and residing as they do in the midst of their people, is likely to be felt for a lenient treatment of the slave, and for the amelioration of his condition; and such is generally the report of Northern men, who have gone to the South with the strongest prejudices against slavery, but returned with a different opinion-not advocates of slavery, but feeling that the case had been misrepresented. Such visitants are almost unanimous in declaring against the hasty and violent measures of the Abolitionists; and their testimony is doubtless worthy of some respect. The improvements of general society, and the advancements of Christian civilisation and morals are as sure to spread their mantle over a slave-holding community, connected like that of the Southern States with the Northern and with Europe, and as certain to operate for the relief of the evils of slavery, and towards ultimate emancipation-all improper interferences out of the way

-as that the influences of the sun and of the

as our advantage. Our rights, in regard to them, are not more imperative than their duties; and the institutions, which, for wise and necessary ends, have rendered them peculiarly dependent, at least pledge the law to be to them peculiarly a friend and protector. "The prayer of the petition is not granted.

"PIERCE M. BUTLER"

showers of heaven will make the earth prolific of good fruits.

The American slave-holder is not like the West Indian, a non-resident, rioting in Europe on the cruel exactions of his task-masters in a remote Colony; or if resident for a season, making inhuman haste for the acquisition of a wealth that shall enable him to retire and revel in an affluence then gotten; or if a permanent resident, yet far removed from the eye of the world, and addicted to the habits and vices of the worst state of society, where he can practise cruelty without remorse, and without quailing before the reprobation of mankind. On the contrary, the American slave-holder's home is for ever in the midst of his people; and he knows that it is to be the home of his children from generation to generation. Ordinarily, he has a family, whose morals and amenities of life are of a mould too tender and delicate to be witnesses of inhuman and barbarous cruelties around them, and which are inconsistent with such a state of things. He is also connected, politically and socially, with a different state of society, and is accustomed habitually and statedly to mingle with it, besides other modes and channels of a common sympathy that are ever acting upon him. The voice of the whole civilised world is continually ringing in his ears, and uttering its notes of remonstrance, not only against the cruelties incident to a state of slavery, but against slavery itself. And although his interest and habits may tempt for the