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    blacks and whites alike , the slaves must be freed ! Even though the ultimate result were to be the massacre of the whites * the slaves must be freed , for the amount of evil , if evil must be the consequence , cannot compare with the demoralization which is the consequence of the present system ; which , at the same time that it utterly debases the master , gives no hope to the slave . It is an indisputable fact , that the forced labour got out of the slaves .

    is got out of them by the whip alone , or by the fear of it , and that if the whip were abolished , they would cease to work , for no meaqfe of compulsion could be found , short of bodily torture , to induce them to work . It has been clearly shown in the speech of Lord Ho wick , that if slavery is to continue at all , the most humane exercise of it would be to deprive the slave of all rights whatever , and to give to his master as unlimited authority over his

    person , as over the bodies of his quadrupeds ; for in that case he would at least be treated as well as the horses and mules , and not wantonly injured , but merely worked to death as a source of commercial profit , whereas , by interposing between him and his master , the slave presumes upon certain legal rights which he

    cannot support , disputes his master ' s authority , is tempted to neglect his work , and suffers a continual martyrdom from the lash , which he would avoid , and suffer himself to be quietly worked to death , were he morally sure that he had no appeal . Here and there , no doubt , may be found examples of wanton barbarians , to whom the shrieks and groans of their fellows are as sport and

    music , but generally speaking , this is not the case . Wholesale cruelty is only brought about by selfish interest . Now , no human being , with the smallest pretension to justice or humanity , could for a moment defend the propriety of delivering over a fellowcreature , bound hand and foot , like a wild beast , to the

    uncontrolled power of his fellow-man , merely because the one were black and the other white . The resulting evils of such a system are so numerous , not merely to the blacks , but to the whites also , that I do not scruple to affirm my deliberate conviction , that it would be a less crime against humanity to send forth fleets and armies to destroy the whole population of the West India Islands , both blacks and whites , than to suffer it to continue . The first

    would be one huge scene of cruelty , which would excite universal abhorrence , and thus prevent any chance of its repetition ; the last would sap and demoralize every feeling of virtue and humanity in all concerned , both slaves and masters , for an indefinite time . Interested people may be found in abundance , who

    will talk of the necessity of slavery for the support of our sugar trade and shipping , but this makes nothing to the question . If their argument be even sound , it is only a proof that one class of human beings have lived in the active oppression of another class , and it would be better for the community that beings thus demoralized should cease to exist ; it would be better that the shipping

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    Abolition of Negro Slavery . 459

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 459, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/19/