CHAPTER VIII.
PREJUDICES AGAINST PEOPLE OF COLOR, AND OUR DUTIES IN RELATION TO THIS SUBJECT.
"A negro has a soul, an' please your honor," said the Corporal, (doubtingly.)
"I am not much versed, Corporal," quoth my Uncle Toby, "in things of that kind; but I suppose
God would not leave him without one, any more than thee or me."
"It would be putting one sadly over the head of the other," quoth the Corporal.
"It would so," said my Uncle Toby.
"Why then, an' please your honor, is a black man to be used worse than a white one?"
"I can give no reason," said my Uncle Toby.
"Only," cried the Corporal, shaking his head, "because he has no one to stand up for him."
"It is that very thing, Trim," quoth my Uncle Toby, "which recommends him to protection."
While we bestow our earnest disapprobation on the system of slavery, let us not flatter ourselves that we are in reality any better than our brethren of the South. Thanks to our soil and climate, and the early exertions of the Quakers, the form of slavery does not exist among us; but the very spirit of the hateful and mischievous thing is here in all its strength. The manner in which we use what power we have, gives us ample reason to be grateful that the nature of our institutions does not intrust us with more. Our prejudices against colored people is even more inveterate than it is at the South. The planter is often attached to his negroes, and lavishes caresses and kind words upon them, as he would on a favorite hound: but our cold-hearted, ignoble prejudice admits of no exception—no intermission.
The Southerners have long continued habit, apparent interest and dreaded danger, to palliate the wrong they do; but we stand without excuse. They tell us that Northern ships and Northern capital have been engaged in this
