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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We Are Far From Denying That It Was An Evil Contrary To
All Moral Principles To Drag Slaves From One
Continent to another;
that it was a political error not to have listened to the
remonstrances of Ovando, the governor
Of Hispaniola, who complained of
the introduction and accumulation of so many slaves in proximity with
a small number of free men; but, these evils being now inveterate, we
ought to avoid rendering our position and that of our slaves worse, by
the employment of violent means. What we ask of your Majesty is
conformable to the wish proclaimed by one of the most ardent
protectors of the rights of humanity, by the most determined enemy of
slavery; we desire, like him, that the civil laws should deliver us at
the same time from abuses and dangers."
On the solution of this problem depends, in the West India Islands
only, and exclusive of the republic of Hayti, the security of 875,000
free men (whites and men of colour* (* Namely: 452,000 whites, of
which 342,000 are in the two Spanish Islands (Cuba and Porto Rico),
and 423,000 free men of colour, mulattoes, and blacks.)) and the
mitigation of the sufferings of 1,150,000 slaves. It is evident that
these objects can never be attained by peaceful means, without the
concurrence of the local authorities, either colonial assemblies, or
meetings of proprietors designated by less dreaded names, by the old
parent state. The direct influence of the authorities is
indispensable; and it is a fatal error to believe that we may leave it
to time to act.
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