Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Philanthropy Does
Not Consist In Giving A Little More Salt-Fish, And Some Fewer Lashes:
The Real Amelioration Of The Captive Caste Ought To Extend Over The
Whole Moral And Physical Position Of Man.
The impulse may be given by those European governments which have a
right comprehension of human dignity, and who
Know that whatever is
unjust bears with it a germ of destruction; but this impulse, it is
melancholy to add, will be powerless if the union of the planters, if
the colonial assemblies or legislatures, fail to adopt the same views
and to act by a well-concerted plan, having for its ultimate aim the
cessation of slavery in the West Indies. Till then it will be in vain
to register the strokes of the whip, to diminish the number that may
be given at one time, to require the presence of witnesses and to
appoint protectors of slaves; all these regulations, dictated by the
most benevolent intentions, are easily eluded: the isolated position
of the plantations renders their execution impossible. They
pre-suppose a system of domestic inquisition incompatible with what is
understood in the colonies by the phrase established rights. The state
of slavery cannot be altogether peaceably ameliorated except by the
simultaneous action of the free men (white men and coloured) residing
in the West Indies; by colonial assemblies and legislatures; by the
influence of those who, enjoying great moral consideration among their
countrymen and acquainted with the localities, know how to vary the
means of improvement conformably with the manners, habits, and the
position of every island.
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