They expect food and clothes, and instruction as to every
simple act of life, as do children.
The negro domestic servant is
handy at his own work; no servant more so; but he cannot go beyond
that. He does not comprehend the object and purport of continued
industry. If he have money, he will play with it - he will amuse
himself with it. If he have none, he will amuse himself without it.
His work is like a school-boy's task; he knows it must be done, but
never comprehends that the doing of it is the very end and essence
of his life. He is a child in all things, and the extent of
prudential wisdom to which he ever attains is to disdain
emancipation and cling to the security of his bondage. It is true
enough that slavery has been a curse. Whatever may have been its
effect on the negroes, it has been a deadly curse upon the white
masters.
The preaching of abolition during the war is to me either the
deadliest of sins or the vainest of follies. Its only immediate
result possible would be servile insurrection. That is so
manifestly atrocious, a wish for it would be so hellish, that I do
not presume the preachers of abolition to entertain it. But if that
be not meant, it must be intended that an act of emancipation should
be carried throughout the slave States - either in their separation
from the North, or after their subjection and consequent reunion
with the North.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 97 of 531
Words from 25720 to 25981
of 142339
