"While some discipline their people for every act of theft committed against their interests, they have no care whatever what amount of pilfering and stealing the people carry on among themselves. Hence, in some places, thieves thrive and honest men suffer, until it becomes a practice 'to keep if you can what is your own, and get all you can besides that is your neighbour's. Things come to such a pass, that the saying of the negroes is literally true, 'The people live upon one another.'"
Referring to the evil of intemperance, it is observed:
"Whatever toleration masters use towards ardent spirits in others, they
are generally inclined to use none in respect to their servants; and in
effecting this reformation, masters and mistresses should set the example;
for without example, precepts and persuasions are powerless. Nor
can force effect this reformation as surely and perfectly as persuasion—appealing
to the character and happiness of the servant himself, the
appeal recognizes him in such a manner as to produce self-respect, and it
tends to give elevation of conduct and character. I will not dwell upon
this point."
He will not dwell on this point; yet, is it not evident that
until this point can be dwelt upon, all effort for the genuine
Christianization of the negro race in the South must be
ineffectual?
The benefit to the African which is supposed to be incidental to American slavery, is confessedly proportionate to the degree in which he is forced into intercourse with a superior race and made subject to its example. Before I visited the South, I had believed that the advantages accruing from slavery, in this way, far outweighed the occasional cruelties, and other evils incidental to the system. I found, however, the mental and moral condition of the negroes, even in Virginia, and in those towns and districts containing the largest proportion of whites, much lower than I had anticipated; and as soon as I had an opportunity to examine one of the extensive plantations of the interior, although one
