Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 406 of 635 - First - Home
My Object Has Been To Throw Light On Facts And Give Precision To
Ideas By The Aid Of Comparisons And Statistical Tables.
That minute
investigation of facts is desirable at a moment when, on the one hand
enthusiasm exciting to benevolent credulity, and on the other
animosities menacing the security of the new republics, have given
rise to the most vague and erroneous statements.
I have as far as
possible abstained from all reasoning on future chances, and on the
probability of the changes which external politics may produce in the
situation of the West Indies. I have merely examined what regards the
organization of human society; the unequal partition of rights and of
the enjoyments of life; the threatening dangers which the wisdom of
the legislator and the moderation of free men may ward off, whatever
be the form of the government. It is for the traveller who has been an
eyewitness of the suffering and the degradation of human nature to
make the complaints of the unfortunate reach the ear of those by whom
they can be relieved. I observed the condition of the blacks in
countries where the laws, the religion and the national habits tend to
mitigate their fate; yet I retained, on quitting America, the same
horror of slavery which I had felt in Europe. In vain have writers of
ability, seeking to veil barbarous institutions by ingenious turns of
language, invented the expressions negro peasants of the West Indies,
black vassalage, and patriarchal protection:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 406 of 635
Words from 110899 to 111148
of 174507
