Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/112

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98
A CHAPTER ON SLAVERY.

felt by the whites at the idea of intermixture with the African race, is not without a foundation in something real, — in a feeling implanted, doubtless, for the very purpose of keeping the races distinct. Nor is this feeling by any means confined, in its direction, to the African race alone. Would there not be felt the same or a greater abhorrence at the idea of intermarriage with an American-Indian, — with a Malay, — with a Chinese? Thus, we perceive, on a little reflection, that it is not a sentiment confined, in its direction, to the Africans Nor is the existence of such a feeling by any means exclusively to be found with American whites, as has sometimes been unjustly charged. It exists with whites of all nations, who have been brought to any considerable extent into contact with the African race. It is found with people of all the different nations that possess the several West India islands — the English, French, Spanish, Swedes, Danes. All these have a similar repugnance to an a nation with the negro. There may be a slight difference in the degree of this feeling — the French and Spanish, perhaps, manifesting less of it than the others: but, of all the whites, the Anglo-Saxon race, whether the English in the West Indies, or the Americans in the United States, are most deeply imbued with it. In England itself, indeed, the feeling can scarcely be said to exist; and simply for the reason that there few or no negroes in that country, there has been no Opportunity for its exercise — nothing to call it forth or to produce it.[1]

  1. Says the late Mr. Kinmont (a Scotchman long resident in America, and a very able and original writer), "An example of the evil resulting