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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dissertation on Slavery, by St. George Tucker
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dissertation on Slavery
+       With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it, in the
+       State of Virginia
+
+Author: St. George Tucker
+
+Release Date: May 3, 2010 [EBook #32239]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISSERTATION ON SLAVERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note: Original spelling has been maintained and not
+standardized. The numerous short bibliographical reference notes that
+were originally printed as sidenotes have been set in brackets here and
+included directly into the text; the longer text footnotes have been
+renumbered for consistency. To indicate text in italic font,
+_underscores_ have been used. Words without italics inside longer italic
+sentences are indicated by =equal signs=.
+
+
+
+
+A DISSERTATION ON _SLAVERY_: WITH A PROPOSAL FOR THE GRADUAL ABOLITION
+OF IT, IN THE _STATE OF VIRGINIA_.
+
+BY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, _PROFESSOR OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WILLIAM AND
+MARY, AND ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE GENERAL COURT, IN VIRGINIA_.
+
+_Slavery not only violates the Laws of Nature, and of civil Society, it
+also wounds the best Forms of Government: in a Democracy, where all Men
+are equal, Slavery is contrary to the Spirit of the Constitution.
+MONTESQUIEU._
+
+PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR MATHEW CAREY, No. 118, MARKET-STREET. 1796.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE
+
+_General Assembly of Virginia_,
+
+To whom it belongs to decide upon the expediency and practicability of a
+plan for the _gradual abolition_ of _Slavery_ in this commonwealth,
+
+The following pages are most respectfully submitted and inscribed,
+
+BY THE AUTHOR.
+
+_Williamsburg, in Virginia, May 20, 1796._
+
+
+
+
+TO THE READER.
+
+
+_The following pages form a part of a course of Lectures on Law and
+Police, delivered in the University of William and Mary, in this
+commonwealth. The Author considering the Abolition of Slavery in this
+State, as an object of the first importance, not only to our moral
+character and domestic peace, but even to our political salvation; and
+being persuaded that the accomplishment of so momentous and desirable an
+undertaking will in great measure depend upon the early adoption of some
+plan for that purpose, with diffidence submits to the consideration of
+his countrymen his ideas on a subject of such consequence. He flatters
+himself that the plan he ventures to suggest, is liable to fewer
+objections than most others that have been submitted to the
+consideration of the public, as it will be attended with a gradual
+change of condition in the blacks, and cannot possibly affect the
+interest either of =creditors=, or any other description of persons of
+the =present generation=: and posterity he makes no doubt will feel
+themselves relieved from a perilous and grievous burden by the timely
+adoption of a plan, whose operation may be felt by them, before they are
+borne down by a weight which threatens destruction to our happiness both
+public and private._
+
+
+
+
+====>The following ADDITIONAL NOTES have been received from the Author
+since the body of this work was printed off.
+
+_In page 20, after the word =arms=, in line 5, read this note:_
+
+This was the case under the laws of the state; but the Act of 2. Cong.
+c. 33. for establishing an uniform militia throughout the United States,
+seems to have excluded all but free white men from bearing arms in the
+militia.
+
+_To the word =slave=, page 47, line 14, add the following note:_
+
+It may not be improper here to note, that the first congress of the
+United States, at their third session, Dec. 1793, passed an act to
+prohibit the carrying on the slave trade from the United States to any
+foreign place or country; the provisions of which seem well calculated
+to restrain the citizens of united America from embarking in so infamous
+a traffick.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE STATE OF SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA.
+
+
+In the preceding Enquiry[1] into the absolute rights of the citizens of
+united America, we must not be understood as if those rights were
+equally and universally the privilege of all the inhabitants of the
+United States, or even of all those, who may challenge this land of
+freedom as their native country. Among the blessings which the Almighty
+hath showered down on these states, there is a large portion of the
+bitterest draught that ever flowed from the cup of affliction. Whilst
+America hath been the land of promise to Europeans, and their
+descendants, it hath been the vale of death to millions of the wretched
+sons of Africa. The genial light of liberty, which hath here shone with
+unrivalled lustre on the former, hath yielded no comfort to the latter,
+but to them hath proved a pillar of darkness, whilst it hath conducted
+the former to the most enviable state of human existence. Whilst we were
+offering up vows at the shrine of Liberty, and sacrificing hecatombs
+upon her altars; whilst we swore irreconcilable hostility to her
+enemies, and hurled defiance in their faces; whilst we adjured the God
+of Hosts to witness our resolution to live free, or die, and imprecated
+curses on their heads who refused to unite with us in establishing the
+empire of freedom; we were imposing upon our fellow men, who differ in
+complexion from us, a _slavery_, ten thousand times more cruel than the
+utmost extremity of those grievances and oppressions, of which we
+complained. Such are the inconsistencies of human nature; such the
+blindness of those who pluck not the beam out of their own eyes, whilst
+they can espy a moat, in the eyes of their brother; such that partial
+system of morality which confines rights and injuries, to particular
+complexions; such the effect of that self-love which justifies, or
+condemns, not according to principle, but to the agent. Had we turned
+our eyes inwardly when we supplicated the Father of Mercies to aid the
+injured and oppressed; when we invoked the Author of Righteousness to
+attest the purity of our motives, and the justice of our cause;[2] and
+implored the God of Battles to aid our exertions in its defence, should
+we not have stood more self convicted than the contrite publican! Should
+we not have left our gift upon the altar, that we might be first
+reconciled to our brethren whom we held in bondage? Should we not have
+loosed their chains, and broken their fetters? Or if the difficulties
+and dangers of such an experiment prohibited the attempt during the
+convulsions of a revolution, is it not our duty to embrace the first
+moment of constitutional health and vigour, to effectuate so desirable
+an object, and to remove from us a stigma, with which our enemies will
+never fail to upbraid us, nor our consciences to reproach us? To form a
+just estimate of this obligation, to demonstrate the incompatibility of
+a state of slavery with the principles of our government, and of that
+revolution upon which it is founded, and to elucidate the practicability
+of its total, though gradual, abolition, it will be proper to consider
+the nature of slavery, its properties, attendants, and consequences in
+general; its rise, progress, and present state not only in this
+commonwealth, but in such of our sister states as have either perfected,
+or commenced the great work of its extirpation; with the means they have
+adopted to effect it, and those which the circumstances and situation of
+our country may render it most expedient for us to pursue, for the
+attainment of the same noble and important end.[3]
+
+[Footnote 1: The subject of a preceding Lecture, with which the present
+was immediately connected, was, An Enquiry into the Rights of Persons,
+as Citizens of the United States of America.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The American standard, at the commencement of those
+hostilities which terminated in the revolution, had these words upon
+it----AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN!]
+
+[Footnote 3: The Author here takes the liberty of making his
+acknowledgments to the reverend Jeremiah Belknap, D. D. of Boston, and
+to Zephaniah Swift, Esq. representative in congress from Connecticut,
+for their obliging communications; he hath occasionally made use of them
+in several parts of this Lecture, where he may have omitted referring to
+them.]
+
+According to Justinian [Lib. 1. Tit. 2.], the first general division of
+persons, in respect to their rights, is into freemen and slaves. It is
+equally the glory and the happiness of that country from which the
+citizens of the United States derive their origin, that the traces of
+slavery, such as at present exists in several of the United States, are
+there utterly extinguished. It is not my design to enter into a minute
+enquiry whether it ever had existence there, nor to compare the
+situation of villeins, during the existence of pure villenage, with that
+of modern domestic slaves. The records of those times, at least, such as
+have reached this quarter of the globe, are too few to throw a
+satisfactory light on the subject. Suffice it that our ancestors
+migrating hither brought not with them any prototype of that slavery
+which hath been established among us. The first introduction of it into
+Virginia was by the arrival of a Dutch ship from the coast of Africa
+having _twenty_ Negroes on board, who were sold here in the year 1620
+[Stith 182.]. In the year 1638 we find them in Massachusetts.[4] They
+were introduced into Connecticut soon after the settlement of that
+colony; that is to say, about the same period.[5] Thus early had our
+forefathers sown the seeds of an evil, which, like a leprosy, hath
+descended upon their posterity with accumulated rancour, visiting the
+sins of the fathers upon succeeding generations.--The climate of the
+northern states less favourable to the constitution of the natives of
+Africa [Dr. Belknap. Zephan. Swift.], than the southern, proved alike
+unfavourable to their propagation, and to the increase of their numbers
+by importations. As the southern colonies advanced in population, not
+only importations increased there, but Nature herself, under a climate
+more congenial to the African constitution, assisted in multiplying the
+blacks in those parts, no less than in diminishing their numbers in the
+more rigorous climates of the north; this influence of climate moreover
+contributed extremely to increase or diminish the value of the slave to
+the purchasers, in the different colonies. White labourers, whose
+constitutions were better adapted to the severe winters of the New
+England colonies, were there found to be preferable to the Negroes [Dr.
+Belknap. Zephan. Swift.], who, accustomed to the influence of an ardent
+sun, became almost torpid in those countries, not less adapted to give
+vigour to their laborious exercises, than unfavourable to the
+multiplication of their species; in those colonies, where the winters
+were not only milder, and of shorter duration, but succeeded by an
+intense summer heat, as invigorating to the African, as debilitating to
+the European constitution, the Negroes were not barely more capable of
+performing labour than the Europeans, or their descendants, but the
+multiplication of the species was at least equal; and, where they met
+with humane treatment, perhaps greater than among the whites. The
+purchaser therefore calculated not upon the value of the labour of his
+slave only, but, if a female, he regarded her as "the fruitful mother of
+an hundred more:" and many of these unfortunate people have there been
+in this state, whose descendants even in the compass of two or three
+generations have gone near to realize the calculation.--The great
+increase of slavery in the southern, in proportion to the northern
+states in the union, is therefore not attributable, _solely_, to the
+effect of sentiment, but to natural causes; as well as those
+considerations of profit, which have, perhaps, an equal influence over
+the conduct of mankind in general, in whatever country, or under
+whatever climate their destiny hath placed them. What else but
+considerations of this nature could have influenced the merchants of the
+freest nation, at that time in the world, to embark in so nefarious a
+traffic, as that of the human race, attended, as the African slave trade
+has been, with the most atrocious aggravations of cruelty, perfidy, and
+intrigues, the objects of which have been the perpetual fomentation of
+predatory and intestine wars? What, but similar considerations, could
+prevail on the government of the same country, even in these days, to
+patronize a commerce so diametrically opposite to the generally received
+maxims of that government. It is to the operation of these
+considerations in the parent country, not less than to their influence
+in the colonies, that the rise, increase, and continuance of slavery in
+those British colonies which now constitute united America, are to be
+attributed, as I shall endeavour to shew in the course of the present
+enquiry. It is now time to enquire into the nature of slavery, in
+general, and take a view of its consequences, and attendants in this
+commonwealth, in particular.
+
+[Footnote 4: Dr. Belknap's answers to St. G. T.'s queries.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Letter from Zephaniah Swift to St. G. T.]
+
+Slavery, says a well informed writer [Hargrave's case of Negroe
+Somerset.] on the subject, has been attended with circumstances so
+various in different countries, as to render it difficult to give a
+general definition of it. Justinian calls it a constitution of the law
+of nations, by which one man is made subject to another, contrary to
+nature [Lib. 1. Tit. 3. Sect. 2.]. Grotius describes it to be an
+obligation to serve another for life, in consideration of diet, and
+other common necessaries [Lib. 2. c. 5. Sect. 27]. Dr. Rutherforth,
+rejecting this definition, informs us, that perfect slavery is an
+obligation to be directed by another in all one's actions [Lib. 1. c.
+20. pa. 474.]. Baron Montesquieu defines it to be the establishment of a
+right, which gives one man such a power over another, as renders him
+absolute master over his life and fortune [Lib. 15. c. 1.]. These
+definitions appear not to embrace the subject fully, since they respect
+the condition of the slave, in regard to his _master_, only, and not in
+regard to the _state_, as well as the _master_. The author last
+mentioned observes, that the constitution of a state may be free, and
+the subject not so. The subject free, and not the constitution of the
+state [Lib. 12. c. 1.]. Pursuing this idea, instead of attempting a
+general definition of slavery; I shall, by considering it under a
+threefold aspect, endeavour to give a just idea of its nature.
+
+I. When a nation is, from any external cause, deprived of the right of
+being governed by its own laws, only, such a nation may be considered as
+in a state of _political slavery_. Such is the state of conquered
+countries, and generally, of colonies, and other dependant governments.
+Such was the state of united America before the revolution. In this case
+the personal rights of the subject may be so far secured by wholesome
+laws, as that the individual may be esteemed free, whilst the state is
+subject to a higher power: this subjection of one nation, or people, to
+the will of another, constitutes the first species of slavery, which, in
+order to distinguish it from the other two, I have called political;
+inasmuch as it exists only in respect to the governments, and not to the
+individuals of the two countries. Of this it is not our business to
+speak, at present.
+
+II. Civil liberty being, no other than natural liberty so far restrained
+by human laws, and no farther, as is necessary and expedient for the
+general advantage of the public [Blackstone's Com. c. 125], whenever
+that liberty is, by the laws of the state, further restrained than is
+necessary and expedient for the general advantage, a state of _civil
+slavery_ commences immediately: this may affect the whole society, and
+every description of persons in it, and yet the constitution of the
+state be perfectly free. And this happens whenever the laws of a state
+respect the form, or energy of the government, more than the happiness
+of the citizen; as in Venice, where the most oppressive species of civil
+slavery exists, extending to every individual in the state, from the
+poorest gondolier to the members of the senate, and the doge himself.
+
+This species of slavery also exists whenever there is an inequality of
+rights, or privileges, between the subjects or citizens of the same
+state, except such as necessarily result from the exercise of a public
+office; for the pre-eminence of one class of men must be founded and
+erected upon the depression of another; and the measure of exaltation in
+the former, is that of the slavery of the latter. In all governments,
+however constituted, or by what description soever denominated, wherever
+the distinction of rank prevails, or is admitted by the constitution,
+this species of slavery exists. It existed in every nation, and in every
+government in Europe before the French revolution. It existed in the
+American colonies before they became independent states; and
+notwithstanding the maxims of equality which have been adopted in their
+several constitutions, it exists in most, if not all, of them, at this
+day, in the persons of our free Negroes and mulattoes; whose civil
+incapacities are almost as numerous as the civil rights of our free
+citizens. A brief enumeration of them, may not be improper before we
+proceed to the third head.
+
+Free Negroes and mulattoes are by our constitution excluded from the
+right of suffrage,[6] and by consequence, I apprehend, from office too:
+they were formerly incapable of serving in the militia, except as
+drummers or pioneers, but now I presume they are enrolled in the lists
+of those that bear arms, though formerly punishable for presuming to
+appear at a muster-field [1723. c. 2.]. During the revolution war many
+of them were enlisted as soldiers in the regular army. Even slaves were
+not rejected from military service at that period, and such as served
+faithfully during the period of their enlistment, were emancipated by an
+act passed after the conclusion of the war [Oct. 1783. c. 3.]. An act of
+justice to which they were entitled upon every principle. All but
+housekeepers, and persons residing upon the frontiers are prohibited
+from keeping, or carrying any gun, powder, shot, club, or other weapon
+offensive or defensive [1748. c. 31. Edit. 1794.]: Resistance to a white
+person, in any case, was, formerly, and now, in any case, except a
+wanton assault on the Negroe or mulattoe, is punishable by whipping [Ib.
+c. 103.]. No Negroe or mulattoe can be a witness in any prosecution, or
+civil suit in which a white person is a party [1794. c. 141.]. Free
+Negroes together with slaves were formerly denied the benefit of clergy
+in cases where it was allowed to white persons; but they are now upon an
+equal footing as to the allowance of clergy, though not as to the
+consequence of that allowance, inasmuch as the court may superadd other
+corporal punishments to the burning in the hand usually inflicted upon
+white persons, in the like cases [1794. c. 103.]. Emancipated Negroes
+may be sold to pay the debts of their former master contracted before
+their emancipation; and they may be hired out to satisfy their taxes
+where no sufficient distress can be had. Their children are to be bound
+out apprentices by the overseers of the poor. Free Negroes have all the
+advantages in capital cases, which white men are entitled to, except a
+trial by a jury of their own complexion: and a slave suing for his
+freedom shall have the same privilege. Free Negroes residing, or
+employed to labour in any town must be registered; the same thing is
+required of such as go at large in any county. The penalty in both cases
+is a fine upon the person employing, or harbouring them, and
+imprisonment of the Negroe [1794. c. 163.]. The migration of free
+Negroes or mulattoes to this state is also prohibited; and those who do
+migrate hither may be sent back to the place from whence they came
+[1794. c. 164.]. Any person, not being a Negroe, having one-fourth or
+more Negroe blood in him is deemed a mulattoe. The law makes no other
+distinction between Negroes and mulattoes, whether slaves or freemen.
+These incapacities and disabilities are evidently the fruit of the third
+species of slavery, of which it remains to speak; or, rather, they are
+scions from the same common stock: which is,
+
+III. That condition in which one man is subject to be directed by
+another in all his actions; and this constitutes a state of _domestic
+slavery_; to which state all the incapacities and disabilities of civil
+slavery are incident, with the weight of other numerous calamities
+superadded thereto. And here it may be proper to make a short enquiry
+into the origin and foundation of domestic slavery in other countries,
+previous to its fatal introduction into this.
+
+[Footnote 6: The Constitution of Virginia, art. 7. declares, that the
+right of suffrage shall remain as then exercised: the act of 1723, c. 4
+(edit. 1733,), sect. 23, declared, that no Negroe, mulattoe, or Indian,
+shall have any vote at the election of burgesses, or any other election
+whatsoever.--This act, it is presumed, was in force at the adoption of
+the constitution.--The act of 1785, c. 55 (edit. of 1794, c. 17,), also
+expressly excludes them from the right of suffrage.]
+
+Slaves, says Justinian, are either born such or become so [Inst. lib. 1.
+tit. 1.]. They are born slaves when they are children of bond women; and
+they become slaves, either by the law of nations, that is, by captivity;
+for it is the practice of our generals to sell their captives, being
+accustomed to preserve, and not to destroy them: or by the civil law,
+which happens when a free person, above the age of twenty, suffers
+himself to be sold for the sake of sharing the price given for him. The
+author of the Commentaries on the Laws of England thus combats the
+reasonableness of all these grounds [1. b. c. 423.]: "The conqueror,"
+says he, "according to the civilians, had a right to the life of his
+captives; and having spared that, has a right to deal with him as he
+pleases. But it is an untrue position, when taken generally, that by the
+law of nature or nations, a man may kill his enemy: he has a right to
+kill him only in particular cases; in cases of absolute necessity for
+self-defence; and it is plain that this absolute necessity did not
+subsist, since the victor did not actually kill him, but made him
+prisoner. War itself is justifiable only on principles of
+self-preservation; and therefore it gives no other right over prisoners
+but merely to disable them from doing harm to us, by confining their
+persons: much less can it give a right to kill, torture, abuse, plunder,
+or even to enslave, an enemy, when the war is over. Since therefore the
+right of _making_ slaves by captivity, depends on a supposed right of
+slaughter, that foundation failing, the consequence drawn from it must
+fail likewise. But, secondly, it is said slavery may begin _jure
+civili_; when one man sells himself to another. This, if only meant of
+contracts to serve, or work for, another, is very just: but when applied
+to strict slavery, in the sense of the laws of old Rome or modern
+Barbary, is also impossible. Every sale implies a price, a _quid pro
+quo_, an equivalent given to the seller, in lieu of what he transfers to
+the buyer; but what equivalent can be given for life and liberty, both
+of which, in absolute slavery, are held to be in the master's disposal?
+His property, also, the very price he seems to receive, devolves, _ipso
+facto_, to his master, the instant he becomes a slave. In this case,
+therefore, the buyer gives nothing, and the seller receives nothing: of
+what validity then can a sale be, which destroys the very principles
+upon which all sales are founded? Lastly we are told, that besides these
+two ways by which slaves are acquired, they may also be hereditary;
+"_servi nascuntur_"; the children of acquired slaves are, "jure
+naturę", by a negative kind of birthright, slaves also.--But _this,
+being built on the two former rights, =must= fall_ together with them.
+If neither captivity, nor the sale of one's self, can by the law of
+nature and reason reduce the parent to slavery, _much less_ can they
+reduce the offspring." Thus by the most clear, manly, and convincing
+reasoning does this excellent author refute every claim upon which the
+practice of slavery is founded, or by which it has been supposed to be
+justified, at least, in modern times.[7] But were we even to admit, that
+a captive taken in a _just war_, might by his conqueror be reduced to a
+state of slavery, this could not justify the claim of Europeans to
+reduce the natives of Africa to that state: it is a melancholy, though
+well-known fact, that in order to furnish supplies of these unhappy
+people for the purposes of the slave trade, the Europeans have
+constantly, by the most insidious (I had almost said infernal) arts,
+fomented a kind of perpetual warfare among the ignorant and miserable
+people of Africa; and instances have not been wanting, where, by the
+most shameful breach of faith, they have trepanned end made slaves of
+the _sellers_ as well as the _sold_.[8] That such horrid practices have
+been sanctioned by a civilized nation; that a nation ardent in the cause
+of liberty, and enjoying its blessings in the fullest extent, can
+continue to vindicate a right established upon such a foundation; that a
+people who have declared, "That _all men =are by nature= equally[Bill of
+Rights, art. 1.]-free =and= independent_", and have made this
+declaration the first article in the foundation of their government,
+should in defiance of so sacred a truth, recognized by themselves in so
+solemn a manner, and on so important an occasion, tolerate a practice
+incompatible therewith, is such an evidence of the weakness and
+inconsistency of human nature, as every man who hath a spark of
+patriotic fire in his bosom must wish to see removed from his own
+country. If ever there was a cause, if ever an occasion, in which all
+hearts should be united, every nerve strained, and every power exerted,
+surely the restoration of human nature to its inalienable right is such:
+Whatever obstacles, therefore, may hitherto have retarded the attempt,
+he that can appreciate the honour and happiness of his country, will
+think it time that we should attempt to surmount them.
+
+[Footnote 7: These arguments are, in fact, borrowed from the Spirit of
+Laws.]
+
+[Footnote 8: "About the same time (the reign of queen Elizabeth) a
+traffic in the human species, called Negroes, was introduced into
+England, which is one of the most odious and unnatural branches of trade
+the sordid and avaricious mind of mortals ever invented.--It had been
+carried on before this period by Genoese traders, who bought a patent
+from Charles the fifth, containing an exclusive right of carrying
+Negroes from the Portuguese settlements in Africa, to America and the
+West Indies; but the English nation had not yet engaged in the
+iniquitous traffic.--One William Hawkins, an expert English seaman,
+having made several voyages to the coast of Guinea, and from thence to
+Brazil and the West Indies, had acquired considerable knowledge of the
+countries. At his death he left his journals with his son, John Hawkins,
+in which he described the lands of America and the West Indies as
+exceedingly rich and fertile, but utterly neglected for want of hands to
+improve them. He represented the natives of Europe as unequal to the
+task in such a scorching climate; but those of Africa as well adapted to
+undergo the labours requisite. Upon which John Hawkins immediately
+formed a design of transporting Africans into the western world; and
+having drawn a plan for the execution of it, he laid it before some of
+his opulent neighbours for encouragement and approbation. To them it
+appeared promising and advantageous. A subscription was opened and
+speedily filled up, by Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, Sir William
+Winter, and others, who plainly perceived the vast profits that would
+result from such a trade. Accordingly three ships were fitted out, and
+manned by an hundred select sailors, whom Hawkins encouraged to go with
+him by promises of good treatment and great pay. In the year 1562 he set
+sail for Africa, and in a few weeks arrived at the country called Sierra
+Leona, where he began his commerce with the Negroes. While he trafficked
+with them, he found the means of giving them a charming description of
+the country to which he was bound; the unsuspicious Africans listened to
+him with apparent joy and satisfaction, and seemed remarkably fond of
+his European trinkets, food, and clothes. He pointed out to them the
+barrenness of the country, and their naked and wretched condition, and
+promised if any of them were weary of their miserable circumstances, and
+would go along with him, he would carry them to a plentiful land, where
+they should _live happy_, and _receive_ an abundant _recompence_ for
+their labours. He told them the country was inhabited by such men as
+himself and his jovial companions, and _assured_ them of _kind usage_
+and _great friendship_. In short, the Negroes were overcome by his
+flattering promises, and _three hundred_ stout fellows accepted his
+offer, and consented to embark along with him. Every thing being settled
+on the most amicable terms between them, Hawkins made preparations for
+his voyage. But in the night before his departure his Negroes were
+attacked by a large body from a different quarter; Hawkins, being
+alarmed with the shrieks and cries of dying persons, ordered his men to
+the assistance of his slaves, and having surrounded the assailants,
+carried a number of them on board as prisoners of war. The next day he
+set sail for Hispaniola with his cargo of human creatures; but during
+the passage, he treated the prisoners of war in a different manner from
+his volunteers. Upon his arrival he disposed of his cargo to great
+advantage; and endeavoured to inculcate on the Spaniards who bought the
+negroes the same distinction to be observed: but they having _purchased
+all at the same rate_, considered them as slaves of the same condition,
+and consequently treated all alike."
+
+Hawkins having returned to England, soon after made preparations for a
+second voyage. "In his passage he fell in with the Minion man of war,
+which accompanied him to the Coast of Africa. After his arrival he began
+as formerly to traffic with the Negroes, endeavouring by persuasions and
+_prospects_ of _reward_, to induce them to go along with him--but now
+they were more reserved and jealous of his designs, and as none of their
+neighbours had returned, they were apprehensive he had killed and eat
+them. The crew of the man of war observing the Africans backward and
+suspicious, began to laugh at his gentle and dilatory methods of
+proceeding, and proposed having immediate recourse to force and
+compulsion--but Hawkins considered it as cruel and unjust, and tried by
+persuasions, promises and threats, to prevail on them to desist from a
+purpose so unwarrantable and barbarous. In vain did he urge his
+authority and instructions from the Queen: the bold and headstrong
+sailors would hear of no restraints. Drunkenness and avarice are deaf to
+the voice of humanity. They pursue their violent design, and, after
+several unsuccessful attacks, in which _many_ of them lost their
+_lives_, the cargo was at length compleated by barbarity and force.
+
+"Hence arose that horrid and inhuman practice of dragging Africans into
+slavery, which has since been _so_ pursued, in defiance of every
+principle of justice and religion. Had Negroes been brought from the
+flames, to which in some countries they were devoted on their falling
+prisoners of war, and in others, sacrificed at the funeral obsequies of
+the great and powerful among themselves; in short had they by this
+traffic been delivered from _torture_ or _death_, European merchants
+_might have some excuse_ to plead in its vindication. _But according to
+the common mode in which it has been conducted_, we must confess it a
+difficult matter to conceive a _single_ argument in its defence. And
+though policy has given countenance and sanction to the trade, yet every
+candid and impartial man must confess, that it is atrocious and
+unjustifiable in every light in which it can be viewed, and turns
+merchants into a band of robbers, and trade into atrocious acts of fraud
+and violence." Historical Account of South-Carolina and Georgia.
+Anonymous. London printed in 1779--page 20, &c.
+
+"The number of Negroe slaves bartered for in one year (viz. 1768), on
+the Coast of Africa from Cape Blanco, to Rio Congo, amounted to 104,000
+souls, whereof more than half (viz. 53,000) were shipped on account of
+British merchants, and 6,300 on the account of British Americans." The
+Law of Retribution by Granville Sharpe, Esq. page 147. note.]
+
+But how loudly soever reason, justice, and (may I not add) religion,[9]
+condemn the practice of slavery, it is acknowledged to have been very
+ancient, and almost universal. The Greeks, the Romans, and the ancient
+Germans also practiced it, as well as the more ancient Jews and
+Egyptians. By the Germans it was transmitted to the various kingdoms
+which arose in Europe out of the ruins of the Roman empire. In England
+it subsisted for some ages under the name of _villeinage_.[10] In Asia
+it seems to have been general, and in Africa universal, and so remains
+to this day: In Europe it hath long since declined; its first declension
+there, is said to have been in Spain, as early as the eighth century;
+and it is alleged to have been general about the middle of the
+fourteenth, and was near expiring in the sixteenth, when the discovery
+of the American continent, and the eastern and western coasts of Africa
+gave rise to the introduction of a new species of slavery. It took its
+origin from the Portuguese, who, in order to supply the Spaniards with
+persons able to sustain the fatigue of cultivating their new possessions
+in America, particularly the islands, opened a trade between Africa and
+America for the sale of Negroes, about the year 1508. The expedient of
+having slaves for labour was not long peculiar to the Spaniards, being
+afterwards adopted by other European colonies [Hargrave, ib.]: and
+though some attempts have been made to stop its progress in most of the
+United States, and several of them have the fairest prospects of success
+in attempting the extirpation of it, yet is others, it hath taken such
+deep root, as to require the most strenuous exertions to eradicate it.
+
+[Footnote 9: See the various tracts on this subject, by Granville
+Sharpe, Esq. of London.]
+
+[Footnote 10: The condition of a _villein_ had most of the incidents I
+have before described in giving the idea of _slavery_, in general. His
+services were uncertain and indeterminate, such as his lord thought fit
+to require; or as some of our ancient writers express it, he knew not in
+the evening what he was to do in the morning, he was bound to do
+whatever he was commanded. He was liable to beating, imprisonment, and
+every other chastisement his lord could devise, except killing and
+maiming. He was incapable of acquiring property for his own benefit; he
+was himself the subject of property; as such saleable and transmissible.
+If he was a villein regardant he passed with the land to which he was
+annexed, but might be severed at the will of his lord; if he was a
+villein in gross, he was an hereditament, or a chattel real, according
+to his lord's interest; being descendible to the heir, where the lord
+was absolute _owner_, and transmissible to the executor where the lord
+had only a term of years in him. Lastly, the slavery extended to the
+issue, if the father was a villein, our law deriving the condition of
+the child from that of the father, contrary to the Roman law, in which
+the rule was, _partus sequitur ventum_. Hargrave's Case of Negroe
+Somerset, page 26 and 27.
+
+The same writer refers the origin of vassalage in England, principally
+to the wars between the British, Saxon, Danish, and Norman nations,
+contending for the sovereignty of that country, in opposition to the
+opinion of judge Fitzherbert, who supposes villeinage to have commenced
+at the conquest. Ib. 27, 28. And this he proves from Spelman and other
+antiquaries. Ib. The writ _de nativo habendo_, by which the lord was
+enabled to recover his villein that had absconded from him, creates a
+presumption that all the natives of England were at some period reduced
+to a state of villeinage, the word _nativus_, which signified a villein,
+most clearly designating the person meant thereby to be a _native_: this
+etymon is obvious, as well from the import of the word _nativus_, as
+from the history of the more remote ages of Britain. Sir Edward Coke's
+Etymology, "_quia plerumque nascuntur servi_," is one of those puerile
+conceits, which so frequently occur in his works, and are unworthy of so
+great a man.
+
+Barrington in his observations upon _magna carta_ c. 4. observes, that
+the villeins who held by servile tenures were considered as so many
+negroes on a sugar plantation; the words "_liber homo_," in magna carta,
+c. 14. with all deference to sir Edward Coke, who says they mean a
+_free-holder_, I understand as meaning _a free man_,[Liber homo, &c. the
+title of _freeman_ was formerly _confined_ to the _nobility_ and
+_gentry_ who were _descended_ of free ancestors.--Burgh's Political
+Disquisitions, vol. iii. p. 400, who cites Spelman's Glossary, voc.
+Liber homo.] as contradistinguished from a _villein_: for in the very
+next sentence the words "et _villanus_ alterius quam noster," occur.
+Villeins must certainly have been numerous at that day, to have obtained
+a place in the Great Charter. It is no less an evidence that their
+condition was in a state of melioration.
+
+In Poland, at this day, the peasants seem to be in an absolute state of
+slavery, or at least of villeinage, to the nobility, who are the
+land-holders.]
+
+The first introduction of Negroes into Virginia happened, as we have
+already mentioned, in the year 1620; from that period to the year 1662
+there is no compilation of our laws, in print, now to be met with. In
+the revision made in that year, we find an act declaring that no
+Englishman, trader, or other, who shall bring in any Indians as servants
+and assign them over to any other, shall sell them for _slaves_, nor for
+any other time than English of like age should serve by act of assembly
+[1662. c. 136.]. The succeeding session all children born in this
+country were declared to be bond, or free, according to the condition of
+the mother [1662. Sess. d. c. 12.]. In 1667 it was declared, "That the
+conferring of baptism doth not alter the condition of the person
+baptized, as to his bondage or freedom [1667. c. 2.]." This was done,
+"that divers masters freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavour
+the propagating of Christianity, by permitting their slaves to be
+baptized." It would have been happy for this unfortunate race of men if
+the same tender regard for their bodies, had always manifested itself in
+our laws, as is shewn for their souls in this act. But this was not the
+case; for two years after, we meet with an act, declaring, "That if any
+slave resist his master, or others, by his master's orders correcting
+him, and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, such
+death should not be accounted felony: but the master or other person
+appointed by his master to punish him, be acquit from molestation:
+_since it could not be presumed that prepensive malice_, which alone
+makes _murder felony_, should induce any man to destroy his own
+estate."[11] This cruel and tyrannical act was, at three different
+periods [1705. c. 49. 1723. c. 4. 1748. c. 31.] re-enacted, with very
+little alteration; and was not finally repealed till the year 1788
+[1788. c. 23.]--above a century after it had first disgraced our code.
+In 1668 we meet with the first traces of emancipation, in an act which
+subjects Negroe women set free to the tax on titheables [1668. c. 7.].
+Two years after [1670. c. 5.], an act passed prohibiting _Indians_ or
+Negroes, manumitted, or otherwise set free, though baptized, from
+purchasing Christian servants [1670. c. 12.]. From this act it is
+evident that _Indians_ had _before_ that time been made slaves, as well
+as Negroes, though we have no traces of the original act by which they
+were reduced to that condition. An act of the same session recites that
+disputes had arisen whether Indians taken in war by any other nation,
+and by that nation sold to the English, are servants for _life_, or for
+a term of years; and declaring that all _servants_, not being
+Christians, imported into this country by _shipping_, shall be _slaves_
+for their life-time; but that what shall come by land, shall serve, if
+boys and girls, until thirty years of age; if men and women twelve
+years, and no longer. On a rupture with the Indians in the year 1679 it
+was, for the _better encouragement of soldiers_, declared that what
+_Indian_ prisoners should be _taken in war_ should be free purchase to
+the soldier _taking_ them [1679. c. 1.]. Three years after it was
+declared that all _servants_ brought into this country by sea or land,
+not being Christians, whether Negroes, Moors, mulattoes or Indians,
+except Turks and Moors in amity with Great Britain, and all Indians
+which should thereafter be sold by neighbouring Indians, or any others
+trafficking with us, as slaves, should be slaves to all intents and
+purposes [1682. c. 1.]. This act was re-enacted in the year 1705, and
+afterwards in 1753 [1705 c. 49. 1753. c. 2.], nearly in the same terms.
+In 1705 an act was made, authorising a free and open trade for all
+persons, at all times, and at all places, with all Indians whatsoever
+[1705 c. 52.]. On the authority of this act, the general court in April
+term 1787 decided that no Indians brought into Virginia since the
+passing thereof, nor their descendants, can be slaves in this
+commonwealth.[12] In October 1778 the general assembly passed the first
+act which occurs in our code for prohibiting the importation of slaves
+[1778. c. 1.]; thereby declaring that no slave should thereafter be
+brought into this commonwealth by land, or by water; and that every
+slave imported contrary thereto, should upon such importation be free:
+with an exception as to such as might belong to persons migrating from
+the other states, or be claimed by descent, devise, or marriage, or be
+at that time the actual property of any citizen of this commonwealth,
+residing in any other of the United States, or belonging to travellers
+making a transient stay, and carrying their slaves away with them.--In
+1705 this act unfortunately underwent some alteration, by declaring that
+slaves thereafter brought into this commonwealth, and kept therein one
+whole _year together_, or so long at different times as shall _amount to
+a year_, shall be free. By this means the difficulty of proving the
+right to freedom will be not a little augmented: for the fact of the
+first importation, where the right to freedom immediately ensued, might
+have been always proved without difficulty; but where a slave is subject
+to removal from place to place, and his right to freedom is postponed
+for so long a time as a whole year, or perhaps several years, the
+provisions in favour of liberty may be too easily evaded. The same act
+declares that no persons shall thenceforth be slaves in this
+commonwealth, except such as were so on the first day of that session
+(Oct. 17th, 1785), and the descendants of the females of them. This act
+was re-enacted in the revisal made in 1792 [See acts of 1794, c. 103.].
+In 1793 an additional act passed, authorising and requiring any justice
+of the peace having notice of the importation of any slaves, directly or
+indirectly, from any part of Africa or the West Indies, to cause such
+slave to be immediately apprehended and transported out of the
+commonwealth [Edit. of 1794. c. 164.]. Such is the rise, progress, and
+present foundation of slavery in Virginia, so far as I have been able to
+trace it. The present number of slaves in Virginia, is immense, as
+appears by the census taken in 1791, amounting to no less than 292,427
+souls: nearly two-fifths of the whole population of the
+commonwealth.[13] We may console ourselves with the hope that this
+proportion will not increase, the further importation of slaves being
+prohibited, whilst the free migrations of white people hither is
+encouraged. But this hope affords no other relief from the evil of
+slavery, than a diminution of those apprehensions which are naturally
+excited by the detention of so large a number of oppressed individuals
+among us, and the possibility that they may one day be roused to an
+attempt to shake off their chains.
+
+[Footnote 11: Among the Israelites, according to the Mosaical law, "If a
+man smote his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he died under his
+hand, he should surely be punished--notwithstanding if he continue a day
+or two, he should not be punished [Exod. c. 21]:" for, saith the text,
+he is _his money_. Our legislators appear to have adopted the reason of
+the latter clause, without the humanity of the former part of the law.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Hannah and other Indians, against Davis.--Since this
+adjudication, I have met with a manuscript act of assembly made in 1691
+c. 9 entitled, "An Act for a free Trade with Indians," the enacting
+clause of which is in the very words of the act of 1705. c. 52. A
+similar title to an act of that session occurs in the edition of 1733.
+p. 94. and the chapter is numbered as in the manuscript. If this
+manuscript be authentic (which there is some reason to presume, it being
+copied in some blank leaves at the end of Purvis's edition, and
+apparently written about the time of the passage of the act), it would
+seem that no Indians brought into Virginia for more than a century, nor
+any of their descendents, can be retained in slavery in this
+commonwealth.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Although it be true that the number of slaves in the
+_whole_ state bears the proportion of 292,427, to 747,610, the whole
+number of souls in the state, that is, nearly as _two_ to _five_; yet
+this proportion is by no means _uniform_ throughout the state. In the
+forty-four counties lying upon the Bay, and the great rivers of the
+state, and comprehended by a line including Brunswick, Cumberland,
+Goochland, Hanover, Spottsylvania, Stafford, Prince William and Fairfax,
+and the counties eastward thereof, the number of slaves is 196,542, and
+the number of free persons, including free Negroes and mulattoes,
+198,371 only. So that the blacks in that populous and extensive district
+of country are _more numerous_ than the whites. In the second class,
+comprehending nineteen counties, and extending from the last mentioned
+line to the Blue Ridge, and including the populous counties of Frederick
+and Berkeley, beyond the Blue Ridge, there are 82,286 slaves, and
+136,251 free persons; the number of free persons in that class not being
+two to one, to the slaves. In the third class the proportion is
+considerably increased; the eleven counties of which it consists contain
+only 11,218 slaves, and 76,281 free persons. This class reaches to the
+Allegany ridge of mountains: the fourth and last class, comprehending
+fourteen counties westward of the third class, contains only 2,381
+slaves, and 42,288 free persons. It is obvious from this statement that
+almost all the dangers and inconveniences which may be apprehended from
+a state of slavery on the one hand, or an attempt to abolish it, on the
+other, will be confined to the people eastward of the blue ridge of
+mountains.]
+
+Whatever inclination the first inhabitants of Virginia might have to
+encourage slavery, a disposition to check its progress, and increase,
+manifested itself in the legislature even before the close of the last
+century. So long ago as the year 1669 we find the title of an act [Edit.
+of 1733. c. 12.], laying an imposition upon _servants_, and _slaves_,
+imported into this country; which was either continued, revised, or
+increased, by a variety of temporary acts, passed between that period
+and the revolution in 1776.[14]--One of these acts passed in 1723, by a
+marginal note appears to have been repealed by proclamation, Oct. 24,
+1724. In 1732 a duty of five per cent. was laid on slaves imported, to
+be paid by the buyers; a measure calculated to render it as little
+obnoxious as possible to the _English_ merchants trading to Africa, and
+not improbably suggested by them, to the privy council in England. The
+preamble to this act is in these remarkable words, "We your majesty's
+most dutiful and loyal subjects, &c. taking into our serious
+consideration the exigencies of your government here, and that the duty
+laid upon liquors will not be sufficient to defray the necessary
+expences thereof, do humbly represent to your majesty, that _no other_
+duty can be laid upon our import or export, without oppressing your
+subjects, than a duty upon _slaves imported_, to be paid by the buyers,
+_agreeable to your majesty's instructions_ to your lieutenant governor."
+This act was only for the short period of four years, but seems to have
+been continued from time to time till the year 1751, when the duty
+expired, but was revived the next year. In the year 1740 an additional
+duty of five per cent. was imposed for four years, for the purpose of an
+expedition against the Spaniards, &c. to be likewise paid by the buyers:
+and in 1742 the whole duty was continued till July 1, 1747.--The act of
+1752, by which these duties were revived and continued (as well as
+several former acts), takes notice that the duty had been found _no ways
+burdensome to the traders_ in slaves. In 1754 an additional duty of five
+per cent. was imposed for the term of three years, by an act for
+encouraging and protecting the settlers on the Missisippi: this duty,
+like all the former, was to be paid by the buyers. In 1759 a duty of 20
+per cent. was imposed upon all slaves imported into Virginia from
+Maryland, North Carolina, or other places in America, to continue for
+seven years. In 1769 the same duty was further continued. In the same
+session the duty of five per cent. was continued for three years, and an
+additional duty of ten per cent. to be likewise paid by the buyers, was
+imposed for seven years; and a further duty of five per cent. was, by a
+separate act of the same session, imposed for the better support of the
+contingent charges of government, to be paid by the buyers. In 1772 all
+these duties were further continued for the term of five years from the
+expiration of the acts then in force: the assembly at the same time
+petitioned the throne,[15] _to remove all those restraints which
+inhibited_ his majesty's governors assenting to such _laws_ as _might
+check so very pernicious a commerce_, as that of slavery.
+
+[Footnote 14: The following is a list of the acts, or titles of acts,
+imposing duties on slaves imported, which occur in the various
+compilations of our laws, or in the Sessions Acts, or Journals.
+
+1699, c. 12. title only retained. Edit. of 1733, p. 113
+1701, c. 5. the same, 116
+1704, c. 4. the same, 122
+1705, c. 1. the same, 126
+1710, c. 1. the same, 239
+1712, c. 3. the same, 282
+1723, c. 1. repealed by proclamation, 333
+1727, c. 1. enacted with a suspending clause, and the royal assent
+refused, 376
+
+1732, c. 3. printed at large, 469
+1734, c. 3. printed at large in Sessions Acts.
+1736, c. 1. the same.
+1738, c. 6. the same.
+1740, c. 2. the same.
+1742, c. 2. the same.
+
+From this period I have not been able to refer to the Sessions Acts.
+
+1752, c. 1. printed at large in the edit. of 1769, 281
+1754, c. 1. the same, 319
+1755, c. 2. Sessions Acts. Ten per cent. in addition to all former
+duties.
+
+1759, c. 1. printed at large, edition of 1769, 369
+1763, c. 1. Journals of that session.
+1766, c. 3, 4. printed at large, edit. of 1769, 461, 462 c. 15.
+additional duty, the title only is printed, being repealed by the crown,
+Ib. 473
+
+1769, c. 7, 8, and 12. title only printed, edition of 1785, 6, 7
+1772, c. 15. title only printed, Ibidem, 24]
+
+[Footnote 15:====>The following extract from a petition to the throne,
+presented from the house of burgesses of Virginia, April 1, 1772, will
+shew the sense of the people of Virginia on the subject of slavery at
+that period.
+
+"The many instances of your majesty's benevolent intentions and more
+gracious disposition to promote the prosperity and happiness of your
+subjects in the colonies, encourages us to look up to the throne, and
+implore your majesty's paternal assistance in averting a calamity of a
+most alarming nature."
+
+"The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa
+hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and under its
+_present encouragement_, we have too much reason to fear _will endanger
+the very existence_ of your majesty's American dominions."
+
+"We are sensible that some of your majesty's subjects of _Great Britain_
+may reap emoluments from this sort of traffic, but when we consider that
+it greatly retards the settlement of the colonies, with _more useful_
+inhabitants, and may, in time, have the most destructive influence, we
+presume to hope that the _interest of a few_ be disregarded when placed
+in competition with the security and happiness of such numbers of your
+majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects."
+
+"Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your
+majesty to _remove all those restraints_ on your majesty's governors of
+this colony, _which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check
+so very pernicious a commerce_." Journals of the House of Burgesses,
+page 131.
+
+This petition produced no effect, as appears from the first clause of
+our CONSTITUTION, where among other acts of misrule, "the inhuman use of
+the royal negative" in refusing us permission to exclude slaves from
+among us by law, is enumerated, among the reasons for _separating from
+Great Britain_.]
+
+In the course of this enquiry it is easy to trace the desire of the
+legislature to put a stop to the further importation of slaves; and had
+not this desire been uniformly opposed on the part of the crown, it is
+highly probable that event would have taken effect at a much earlier
+period than it did. A duty of five per cent. to be paid by the buyers,
+at first, with difficulty obtained the royal assent. Requisitions from
+the crown for aids, on particular occasions, afforded a pretext from
+time to time for increasing the duty from five, to ten, and finally to
+twenty per cent. with which the _buyer_ was uniformly made chargeable.
+The wishes of the people of this colony, were not sufficient to
+counterbalance the interest of the English merchants, trading to Africa,
+and it is probable, that however disposed to put a stop to so infamous a
+traffic by law, we should never have been able to effect it, so long as
+we might have continued dependant on the British government: an object
+sufficient of itself to justify a revolution. That the legislature of
+Virginia were _sincerely_ disposed to put a stop to it, cannot be
+doubted; for even during the tumult and confusion of the revolution, we
+have seen that they availed themselves of the earliest opportunity, to
+crush for ever so pernicious and infamous a commerce, by an act passed
+in October 1778, the penalties of which, though apparently lessened by
+the act of 1792, are still equal to the value of the slave; being two
+hundred dollars upon the importer, and one hundred dollars upon every
+person buying or selling an imported slave.
+
+A system uniformly persisted in for nearly a whole century, and finally
+carried into effect, so soon as the legislature was unrestrained by "the
+inhuman exercise of the royal negative," evinces the sincerity of that
+disposition which the legislature had shewn during so long a period, to
+put a check to the growing evil. From the time that the duty was raised
+above five per cent. it is probable that the importation of slaves into
+this colony decreased. The demand for them in the more southern colonies
+probably contributed also to lessen the numbers imported into this: for
+some years immediately preceding the revolution, the importation of
+slaves into Virginia might almost be considered as at an end; and
+probably would have been entirely so, if the ingenuity of the merchant
+had not found out the means of evading the heavy duty, by pretended
+sales, at which the slaves were bought in by some friend, at a quarter
+of their real value.
+
+Tedious and unentertaining as this detail may appear to all others, a
+citizen of Virginia will feel some satisfaction at reading so clear a
+vindication of his country, from the opprobrium, but too lavishly
+bestowed upon her of fostering slavery in her bosom, whilst she boasts a
+sacred regard to the liberty of her citizens, and of mankind in general.
+The acrimony of such censures must abate, at least in the breasts of the
+candid, upon an impartial review of the subject here brought before
+them; and if in addition to what we have already advanced, they consider
+the difficulties attendant on any plan for the abolition of slavery, in
+a country where so large a proportion of the inhabitants are slaves; and
+where a still larger proportion of the cultivators of the earth are of
+that description of men, they will probably feel emotions of sympathy
+and compassion, both for the slave and for his master, succeed to those
+hasty prejudices, which even the best dispositions are not exempt from
+contracting, upon subjects where there is a deficiency of information.
+
+We are next to consider the condition of slaves in Virginia, or the
+legal consequences attendant on a state of slavery in this commonwealth;
+and here it is not my intention to notice those laws, which consider
+slaves, merely as _property_, and have from time to time been enacted to
+regulate the disposition of them, _as such_; for these will be more
+properly considered elsewhere: my intention at present is therefore to
+take a view of such laws, only, as regard slaves, as a distinct class of
+_persons_, whose rights, if indeed they possess any, are reduced to a
+much narrower compass, than those, of which we have been speaking
+before.
+
+Civil rights, we may remember, are reducible to three primary heads; the
+right of personal security; the right of personal liberty; and the right
+of private property. In a state of slavery the two last are wholly
+abolished, the person of the slave being at the absolute disposal of his
+master; and property, what he is incapable, in that state, either of
+acquiring, or holding, to his own use. Hence it will appear how
+perfectly irreconcilable a state of slavery is to the principles of a
+democracy, which form the _basis_ and _foundation_ of our government.
+For our bill of rights declares, "that all men are by nature _equally
+free_ and independent, and have certain rights of which they cannot
+deprive or divest their posterity--namely, the enjoyment of life and
+_liberty_, with the means of _acquiring_ and _possessing property_."
+This is indeed no more than a recognition of the first principles of the
+law of nature, which teaches us this equality, and enjoins every man,
+whatever advantages he may possess over another, as to the various
+qualities or endowments of body or mind, to practice the precepts of the
+law of nature to those who are in these respects his _inferiors_, no
+less than it enjoins his _inferiors_ to practise them towards _him_.
+Since he has no more right to insult _them_, than they have to injure
+him. Nor does the _bare unkindness of nature_ or of fortune condemn a
+man to a _worse_ condition than others, as to the enjoyment of common
+privileges [Spavan's Puff. vol. 1. c. 17.]. It would be hard to
+reconcile reducing the Negroes to a state of slavery to these
+principles, unless we first degrade them below the rank of human beings,
+not only politically, but also physically and morally.--The Roman
+lawyers look upon those only properly as _persons_, who are _free_,
+putting _slaves_ into the rank of _goods_ and _chattels_; and the policy
+of our legislature, as well as the practice of slave-holders in America
+in general, seems conformable to that idea: but surely it is time we
+should admit the evidence of moral truth, and learn to regard them as
+our fellow men, and equals, except in those particulars where accident,
+or perhaps nature, may have give us some advantage; a recompence for
+which they perhaps enjoy in other respects.
+
+Slavery, says Hargrave, always imports an obligation of perpetual
+service, which only the consent of the master can dissolve: it also
+generally gives to the master an arbitrary power of administring every
+sort of correction, however inhuman, not immediately affecting life or
+limb, and even these in some countries, as formerly in Rome, and at this
+day among the Asiatics and Africans, are left exposed to the arbitrary
+will of a master, or protected only by fines or other slight
+punishments. The property of the slave also is absolutely the property
+of his master, the slave himself being the subject of property, and as
+such saleable, or transmissible at the will of his master.--A slavery,
+so malignant as that described, does not leave to its wretched victims
+the least vestige of any civil right, and even divests them of all their
+natural rights. It does not, however, appear, that the rigours of
+slavery in this country were ever as great, as those above described:
+yet it must be confessed, that, at times, they have fallen very little
+short of them.
+
+The first severe law respecting slaves, now to be met with in our code,
+is that of 1669, already mentioned, which declared that the death of a
+slave _resisting_ his master, or other person correcting him by his
+order, _happening by extremity of the correction_, should not be
+accounted felony. The alterations which this law underwent in three
+successive acts [1705. c. 49. 1723, c. 4. 1748. c. 31.], were by no
+means calculated effectually to mitigate its severity; it seems rather
+to have been augmented by the act of 1723, which declared that a person
+indicted for the murder of a slave, and found guilty of _manslaughter_,
+should not incur any punishment for the same.[16]
+
+[Footnote 16: In December term 1788, one John Huston was tried in the
+general court for the murder of a slave; the jury found him guilty of
+manslaughter, and the court, upon a motion in arrest of judgment,
+discharged him without any punishment. The general assembly being then
+sitting, some of the members of the court mentioned the case to some
+leading characters in the legislature, and the act was at the same
+session repealed.]
+
+All these acts were at length repealed in 1788 [1788. 2. 23.]. So that
+homicide of a slave stands now upon the same footing, as in the case of
+any other person. In 1672 it was declared lawful for any person pursuing
+any runaway Negroe, mulattoe, Indian slave, or _servant for life_, by
+virtue of an _hue and cry_, to kill them in case of resistance, without
+being questioned for the same [1672. c. 8.]. A few years afterwards this
+act was extended to persons _employed to apprehend_ runaways [1680. c.
+10.]. In 1705, these acts underwent some small alteration; two justices
+being authorised by proclamation to _outlaw_ runaways, who might
+thereafter be _killed_ and destroyed by any person whatsoever, by _such
+ways and means_ as he may think fit, without accusation or impeachment
+of any crime for so doing [1705. c. 49.]: And if any such slave were
+apprehended, he might be punished at the discretion of the county court,
+either by _dismembering_, or in any other manner not _touching life_.
+The inhuman rigour of this act was afterwards [1723. c. 4. 1748. c. 31.]
+extended to the venial offence of going abroad by night, if the slave
+was _notoriously_ guilty of it.--Such are the cruelties to which a state
+of slavery gives birth; such the horrors to which the human mind is
+capable of being reconciled, by its adoption. The dawn of humanity at
+length appeared in the year 1769, when the power of dismembering, even
+under the authority of a county court, was restricted to the single
+offence of _attempting_ to ravish a white woman [1769. c. 19.], in which
+case perhaps the punishment is perhaps not more than commensurate to the
+crime. In 1772 some restraints were laid upon the practice of outlawing
+slaves, requiring that it should appear to the _satisfaction_ of the
+justices that the slaves were outlying, and _doing mischief_ [1772. c.
+9.]. These loose expressions of the act, left too much in the discretion
+of men, not much addicted to weighing their import.--In 1792, every
+thing relative to the outlawry of slaves was _expunged_ from our code
+[Edit. 1794. c. 103.], and I trust will never again find a place in it.
+By the act of 1680, a Negroe, mulattoe, or Indian, bond or _free_,
+presuming to lift his hand in opposition to any Christian, should
+receive thirty lashes on his bare back for every offence [1680. c. 10.
+1705. c.]. The same act prohibited slaves from carrying any club, staff,
+gun, sword, or other weapon, offensive or defensive. This was afterwards
+extended to all Negroes, mulattoes and Indians whatsoever, with a few
+exceptions in favour of housekeepers, residents on a frontier
+plantation, and such as were enlisted in the militia [1723. c. 4.].
+Slaves, by these and other acts [1705. c. 49. 1723. c. 4. 1748. c. 31.
+1753. c. 2. 1785. c. 77.], are prohibited from going abroad without
+leave in writing from their masters, and if they do, may be whipped: any
+person suffering a slave to remain on his plantation for four hours
+together, or dealing with him without leave in writing from his master,
+is subject to a fine. A runaway slave may be apprehended and committed
+to jail, and if not claimed within three months (being first advertised)
+he shall be hired out, having an iron collar first put about his neck:
+and if not claimed within a year shall be sold [1753. c. 2.]. These
+provisions were in general re-enacted in 1792 [Edit. of 1794. c. 103.
+131.], but the punishment to be inflicted on a Negroe or mulattoe, for
+lifting his hand against a white person, is restricted to those cases,
+where the former is not wantonly assaulted. In this act the word Indian
+appears to have been designedly omitted: the small number of these
+people, or their descendants remaining among us, concurring with a more
+liberal way of thinking, probably gave occasion to this circumstance.
+The act of 1748, c. 31, made it felony without benefit of clergy for a
+slave to prepare, exhibit, or administer any medicine whatever, without
+the order or consent of the master; but _allowed clergy_ if it appeared
+that the medicine was not administered with an _ill intent_; the act of
+1792, with more justice, directs that in such case he shall be acquitted
+[Edit. 1794. c. 103.]. To consult, advise, or conspire, to rebel, or to
+plot, or conspire the death of any person whatsoever, is still felony
+without benefit of clergy in a slave [1748. c. 31. 1794. c.
+103.].--Riots, routs, unlawful assemblies, trespasses and seditious
+speeches by slaves, are punishable with stripes, at the discretion of a
+justice of the peace [1785. c. 77. 1794. c. 103.].--The master of a
+slave permitting him to go at large and trade as a freeman, is subject
+to a fine [1769. c. 19. May 1782. c. 32. 1794. Ib.]; and if she suffers
+the slave to hire himself out, the latter may be sold, and twenty-five
+per cent. of the price be applied to the use of the county.--Negroes and
+mulattoes, whether slaves or not, are incapable of being witnesses, but
+against, or between Negroes and mulattoes; they are not permitted to
+intermarry with any white person; yet no punishment is annexed to the
+offence in the slave; nor is the marriage void; but the white person
+contracting the marriage, and the clergyman by whom it is celebrated are
+liable to fine and imprisonment; and this is probably the only instance
+in which our laws will be found more favourable to a Negroe than a white
+person. These provisions though introduced into our code at different
+periods, were all re-enacted in 1792 [Edit. of 1794. c. 103.].
+
+From this melancholy review it will appear that not only the right of
+property, and the right of personal liberty, but even the right of
+personal security, has been, at times, either wholly annihilated, or
+reduced to a shadow: and even in these days, the protection of the
+latter seems to be confined to very few cases. Many actions, indifferent
+in themselves, being permitted by the law of nature to all mankind, and
+by the laws of society to all free persons, are either rendered highly
+criminal in a slave, or subject him to some kind of punishment or
+restraint. Nor is it in this respect only, that his condition is
+rendered thus deplorable by law. The measure of punishment for the same
+offence, is often, and the manner of trial and conviction is always,
+different in the case of a slave, and a free-man. If the latter be
+accused of any crime, he is entitled to an examination before the court
+of the county where the offence is alleged to have been committed; whose
+decision, if in his favour, is held to be a legal and final acquittal,
+but it is not final if against him; for after this, both a grand jury,
+and a petit jury of the county, must successively pronounce him guilty;
+the former by the concurrent voices of twelve at least, of their body,
+and the latter, by their unanimous verdict upon oath. He may take
+exception to the proceedings against him, by a motion in arrest of
+judgment; and in this case, or if there be a special verdict, the same
+unanimity between his judges, as between his jurors, is necessary to his
+condemnation. Lastly, through the punishment which the law pronounces
+for his offence amount to death itself, he shall in many cases have the
+benefit of clergy, unless he has before received it. But in the case of
+a slave, the mode was formerly, and still remains essentially different.
+How early this distinction was adopted I have not been able to discover.
+The title of an act occurs, which passed in the year 1705 [1705. c. 11.]
+for the _speedy_ and _easy_ prosecution of slaves committing capital
+crimes. In 1723 [1723. c. 4.] the governor was authorized, whenever any
+slave was committed for any capital offence, to issue a special
+commission of oyer and terminer, to _such persons as he should think
+fit_, the number being left to his discretion, who should thereupon
+proceed to the trial of such slave, taking for evidence the confession
+of the defendant, the oath of one or more credible witnesses, or such
+testimony of Negroes, mulattoes, or Indians, bond or free, with pregnant
+circumstances, as to them should seem convincing, without the solemnity
+of a jury. No exception, formerly, could be taken to the proceedings, on
+the trial of a slave [1748. c. 31.], but that proviso is omitted in the
+act of 1792, and the justices moreover seem bound to allow him counsel
+for his defence, whose fee shall be paid by his master [Edit. 1794. c.
+103.] In case of conviction, execution of the sentence was probably very
+speedily performed, since the act of 1748, provides that, thereafter, it
+should not be performed in less than ten days, except in case of
+insurrection or rebellion; and further, that if the court be divided in
+opinion the accused should be acquitted. In 1764, an act passed,
+authorizing general, instead of special, commissioners of oyer and
+terminer [1764. c. 9.], constituting all the justices of any county,
+judges for the trial of slaves, committing capital offences, within
+their respective counties; any four of whom, one being of the quorum,
+should constitute a court for that purpose. In 1772 one step further was
+made in favour of humanity, by an act declaring that no slave should
+thereafter be condemned to die unless four of the court should concur in
+opinion of his guilt [1772. c. 9.]. The act of 1786, c. 58, confirmed by
+that of 1792, constitutes the justices of every county and corporation
+justices of oyer and terminer for the trial of slaves [Edit. 1794. c.
+103.]; requires _five_ justices, at least, to constitute a court, and
+_unanimity_ in the court for his condemnation; allows him counsel for
+his defence, to be paid by his owner, and, I apprehend, admits him to
+object to the proceedings against him; and finally enlarges the time of
+execution to _thirty_ days, instead of ten (except in cases of
+conspiracy, insurrection, or rebellion), and extends the benefit of
+clergy to him in all cases, where any other person should have the
+benefit thereof, except in the cases before mentioned.
+
+To an attentive observer these gradual, and almost imperceptible
+amendments in our jurisprudence respecting slaves, will be found, upon
+the whole, of infinite importance to that unhappy race. The mode of
+trial in criminal cases, especially, is rendered infinitely more
+beneficial to them, than formerly, though perhaps still liable to
+exception for want of the aid of a jury: the solemnity of an oath
+administered the moment the trial commences, may be considered as
+operating more forcibly on the mind, than a general oath of office,
+taken, perhaps, twenty years before. Unanimity may also be more readily
+expected to take place among _five_ men, than among _twelve_. These
+objections to the want of a jury are not without weight: on the other
+hand it may be observed, that if the number of triers be not equal to a
+full jury, they may yet be considered as more select; a circumstance of
+infinitely greater importance to the slave. The unanimity requisite in
+the court in order to conviction, is a more happy acquisition to the
+accused, than may at first appear; the opinions of the court must be
+delivered openly, immediately, and seriatim, beginning with the youngest
+judge. A single voice in favour of the accused, is an acquittal; for
+unanimity is not necessary, as with a jury, to acquit, as well as to
+condemn: there is less danger in this mode of trial, where the suffrages
+are to be openly delivered, that a few will be brought over to the
+opinion of the majority, as may too often happen among jurors, whose
+deliberations are in _private_, and whose impatience of confinement may
+go further than real conviction, to produce the requisite unanimity.
+That this happens not unfrequently in civil cases, there is too much
+reason to believe; that it may also happen in criminal cases, especially
+where the party accused is not one of their equals, might, not
+unreasonably, be apprehended. In New-York, before the revolution, a
+slave accused of a capital crime, should have been tried by a jury if
+his master required it. This is, perhaps, still the law of that state.
+Such a provision might not be amiss in this; but considering the
+ordinary run of juries in the county-courts, I should presume the
+privilege would be rarely insisted upon.
+
+Slaves, we have seen, are now entitled to the benefit of clergy in all
+cases where it is allowed to any other offenders, except in cases of
+consulting, advising, or conspiring to rebel, or make insurrection; or
+plotting or conspiring to murder any person; or preparing, exhibiting,
+or administring medicine with an _ill_ intent. The same lenity was not
+extended to them formerly. The act of 1748, c. 31, denied it to a slave
+in case of manslaughter; or the felonious breaking and entering _any_
+house, in the night time: or breaking and entering _any_ house in the
+day time, and taking therefrom goods to the value of twenty shillings.
+The act of 1764, c. 9, extended the benefit of clergy, to a slave
+convicted of the manslaughter of a slave; and the act of 1772, c. 9,
+extended it further, to a slave convicted of housebreaking in the night
+time, unless such breaking be burglary; in the latter case, other
+offenders would be equally deprived of it. But wherever the benefit of
+clergy is allowed to a slave, the court, besides burning him in the hand
+(the usual punishment inflicted on free persons) may inflict such
+further corporal punishment as they may think fit [1794. c. 103.]; this
+also seems to be the law in the case of free Negroes and mulattoes. By
+the act of 1723, c. 4, it was enacted, that when _any Negroe_ or
+_mulattoe_ shall be found, upon due proof made, or _pregnant
+circumstances_, to have given false testimony, every such offender
+shall, _without further trial_, have his ears successively nailed to the
+pillory for the space of an hour, and then cut off, and moreover receive
+thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, or such other punishment as the
+court shall think proper, not extending to life or limb. This act, with
+the exception of the words _pregnant circumstances_, was re-enacted in
+1792. The punishment of perjury, in a _white_ person, is only a fine and
+imprisonment. A slave convicted of hog-stealing, shall, for the first
+offence, receive thirty-nine lashes: any other person twenty-five: but
+the latter is also subject to a fine of thirty dollars, besides paying
+eight dollars to the owner of the hog. The punishment for the second and
+third offence, of this kind, is the same in the case of a free person,
+as of a slave; namely, by the pillory and loss of ears, for the second
+offence; the third is declared felony, to which clergy is, however,
+allowed. The preceding are the only positive distinctions which now
+remain between the punishment of a slave, and a white person, in those
+cases, where the latter is liable to a determinate corporal punishment.
+But we must not forget, that many actions, which are either not
+punishable at all, when perpetrated by a white person, or at most, by
+fine and imprisonment, only, are liable to severe corporal punishment,
+when done by a slave; nay, even to death itself, in some cases. To go
+abroad without a written permission; to keep or carry a gun, or other
+weapon; to utter any seditious speech; to be present at any unlawful
+assembly of slaves; to lift the hand in opposition to a white person,
+unless wantonly assaulted, are all offences punishable by whipping
+[1794. c. 103.]. To attempt the chastity of a white woman, forcibly, is
+punishable by dismemberment: such an attempt would be a high misdemeanor
+in a white free man, but the punishment would be far short of that of a
+slave [Ibidem.]. To administer medicine without the order or consent of
+the master, unless it _appear not to have been done with an ill intent_;
+to _consult_, advise, or conspire, to rebel or make insurrection; or to
+_conspire_, or _plot_ to _murder_ any person, we have seen, are all
+capital offences, from which the benefit of clergy is utterly excluded.
+But a _bare intention_ to commit a felony, is not punishable in the case
+of a free white man; and even the attempt, if not attended with an
+actual breach of the peace, or prevented by such circumstance; only, as
+do not tend to lessen the guilt of the offender, is at most a
+misdemeanor by the common law: and in statutable offences in general, to
+consult, advise, and even to procure any person to commit a felony, does
+not constitute the crime of felony in the adviser or procurer, unless
+the felony be actually perpetrated.
+
+From this view of our jurisprudence respecting slaves, we are
+unavoidably led to remark, how frequently the laws of nature have been
+set aside in favour of institutions, the pure result of prejudice,
+usurpation, and tyranny. We have found actions, innocent, or
+indifferent, punishable with a rigour scarcely due to any, but the most
+atrocious, offences against civil society; justice distributed by an
+unequal measure to the master and the slave; and even the hand of mercy
+arrested, where mercy might have been extended to the wretched culprit,
+had his complexion been the same with that of his judges: for, the short
+period of ten days, between his condemnation and execution, was often
+insufficient to obtain a pardon for a slave, convicted in a remote part
+of the country, whilst a free man, condemned at the seat of government,
+and tried before the governor himself, in whom the power of pardoning
+was vested, had a respite of thirty days to implore the clemency of the
+executive authority.--It may be urged, and I believe with truth, that
+these rigours do not proceed from a sanguinary temper in the people of
+Virginia, but from those political considerations indispensibly
+necessary, where slavery prevails to any great extent: I am moreover
+happy to observe that our police respecting this unhappy class of
+people, is not only less rigorous than formerly, but perhaps milder than
+in any other country[17] where there are so many slaves, or so large a
+proportion of them, in respect to the free inhabitants: it is also, I
+trust, unjust to censure the present generation for the existence of
+slavery in Virginia: for I think it unquestionably true, that a very
+large proportion of our fellow-citizens lament that as a misfortune,
+which is imputed to them as a reproach; it being evident from what has
+been already shewn upon the subject, that, _antecedent to the
+revolution_, no exertion to abolish, or even to check the progress of,
+slavery, in Virginia, could have received the smallest countenance from
+the crown, without whose assent the united wishes and exertions of every
+individual here, would have been wholly fruitless and ineffectual: it
+is, perhaps, also demonstrable, that at no period since the revolution,
+could the abolition of slavery in this state have been safely undertaken
+until the foundations of our newly established governments had been
+found capable of supporting the fabric itself, under any shock, which so
+arduous an attempt might have produced. But these obstacles being now
+happily removed, considerations of policy, as well as justice and
+humanity, must evince the necessity of eradicating the evil, before it
+becomes impossible to do it, without tearing up the roots of civil
+society with it.
+
+[Footnote 17: See Jefferson's Notes, 259.--The Marquis de Chatelleux's
+Travels, I have not noted the page; the Law of Retribution, by Granville
+Sharpe, pa. 151, 238, notes. The Just Limitation of Slavery, by the same
+author; pa. 15, note. Ibidem, pa. 33, 50, Ib. Append. No. 2.
+Encyclopédie. Tit. Esclave. Laws of Barbadoes, &c.]
+
+Having in the preceding part of this enquiry shewn the origin and
+foundation of slavery, or the manner in which men have become slaves, as
+also who are liable to be retained in slavery, in Virginia, at present,
+with the legal consequences attendant upon their condition; it only
+remains to consider the mode by which slaves have been or may be
+emancipated; and the legal consequences thereof, in this
+state.--Manumission, among the Israelites, if the bondman were an
+Hebrew, was enjoined after six years' service, by the Mosaical law,
+unless the servant chose to continue with his master, in which case the
+master carried him before the judges, and took an awl, and thrust it
+through his ear into the door [Exod. c. 21. Deut. c. 15.], and from
+thenceforth he became a servant for ever: but if he sent him away free,
+he was bound to furnish him liberally out of his flock, and out of his
+floor, and out of his wine-press [Ibid.]. Among the Romans, in the time
+of the commonwealth, liberty could be conferred only three ways. By
+testament, by the _census_, and by the _vindicta_, or lictor's rod. A
+man was said to be free by the census, "_liber censu_," when his name
+was inserted in the censor's roll, with the approbation of his master.
+When he was freed by the vindicta, the master placing his hand upon the
+head of the slave, said in the presence of the prętor, it is my desire
+that this man may be free, "_hunc hominem liberem esse volo_;" to which
+the prętor replied, I pronounce him free after the manner of the
+Romans, "_dico cum liberum esse more quiritum_."--then the lictor,
+receiving the _vindicta_, struck the new freed man several blows with
+it, upon the head, face, and back, after which his name was registered
+in the roll of freed-men, and his head being close shaved, a cap was
+given him as a token of liberty [Harris's Just. in notes.]. Under the
+imperial constitutions liberty might have been conferred by several
+other methods, as in the face of the church, in the presence of friends,
+or by letter, or by testament [Just. Inst. lib. 1. tit. 5. Ib. lib. 1.
+tit. 6.].--But it was not in the power of every master to manumit at
+will; for if it were done with an intent to defraud creditors, the act
+was void; that is, if the master were insolvent at the time of
+manumission, or became insolvent by manumission, and intentionally
+manumitted his slave for the purpose of defrauding his creditors. A
+minor, under the age of twenty years, could not manumit his slave but
+for a just cause assigned, which must have been approved by a council,
+consisting of the prętor, five senators, and five knights [Ib. Harris's
+Just. in notes.].--In England, the mode of enfranchising villeins is
+said to have been thus prescribed by a law of William the Conqueror. "If
+any person is willing to enfranchise his _slave_, let him, with his
+right hand, deliver the slave to the sheriff in a full county, proclaim
+him exempt from the bond of servitude by manumission, shew him open
+gates and ways, and deliver him _free arms_, to wit, a lance and a
+sword; thereupon he is a free man [Harris's Inst. in notes.]."--But
+after that period freedom was more generally conferred by deed, of which
+Mr. Harris, in his notes upon Justinian, has furnished a precedent.
+
+In what manner manumission was performed in this country during the
+first century after the introduction of slavery does not appear: the act
+of 1668, before mentioned [Ante, p. 36.], shews it to have been
+practised before that period. In 1723 an act was passed, prohibiting the
+manumission of slaves, upon any pretence whatsoever, except for
+meritorious services, to be adjudged, and allowed by the governor and
+council [1723. c. 4.]. This clause was re-enacted in 1748, and continued
+to be the law, until after the revolution was accomplished. The number
+of manumissions under such restrictions must necessarily have been very
+few. In May 1782 an act passed authorizing, generally, the manumission
+of slaves, but requiring such as might be set free, not being of sound
+mind or body, or being above the age of forty-five years, or males under
+twenty-one, or females under eighteen, to be supported by the person
+liberating them, or out of his estate [May 1782. c. 21.]. The act of
+manumission may be performed either by will, or by deed, under the hand
+and seal of the party, acknowledged by him, or proved by two witnesses
+in the court of the county where he resides. There is reason to believe
+that great numbers have been emancipated since the passing of this act.
+By the census of 1791 it appears that the number of free Negroes,
+mulattoes and Indians in Virginia, was then 12,866. It would be a large
+allowance, to suppose that there were 1800 free Negroes and mulattoes in
+Virginia when the act took effect; so that upwards of ten thousand must
+have been indebted to it for their freedom.[18] The number of Indians
+and their descendants in Virginia at present, is too small to require
+particular notice. The progress of emancipation in Virginia, is at this
+time continual, but not rapid; a second census will enable us to form a
+better judgment of it than at present. The act passed in 1792 accords in
+some degree with the Justinian code [1794. c. 103.], by providing that
+slaves emancipated may be taken in execution to satisfy any debt
+contracted by the person emancipating them, before such emancipation is
+made.[19]
+
+[Footnote 18: There are _more_ free Negroes and mulattoes in Virginia
+alone, than are to be found in the four New-England states, and Vermont
+in addition to them. The progress of emancipation in this state is
+therefore much greater than our _Eastern_ brethren may at first suppose.
+There are only 1087 free Negroes and mulattoes in the States of
+New-York, New-Jersey and Pennsylvania, _more_, than in Virginia. Those
+who take a subject in the gross, have little idea of the result of an
+exact scrutiny. Out of 20,348 inhabitants on the Eastern Shore of
+Virginia 1185 were free Negroes and mulattoes when the census was taken.
+The number is since much augmented.]
+
+[Footnote 19: The act of 1795. c. 11. enacts, that any person held in
+slavery may make complaint to a magistrate, or to the court of the
+district county or corporation wherein he resides, and not elsewhere.
+The magistrate, if the complaint be made to him, shall issue his warrant
+to summon the owner before him, and compel him to give bond and security
+to suffer the complainant to appear at the next court to petition the
+court to be admitted to sue _in formā pauperis_. If the owner refuse,
+the magistrate shall order the complainant into the custody of the
+officer serving the warrant, at the expence of the master, who shall
+keep him until the sitting of the court, and then produce him before it.
+Upon petition to the court, if the court be satisfied as to the material
+facts, they shall assign the complainant council, who shall state the
+facts with his opinion thereon to the court; and unless from the
+circumstances so stated, and the opinion thereon given, the court shall
+_see manifest reason to deny their interference_, they shall order the
+clerk to issue process against the owner, and the complainant shall
+remain in the custody of the sheriff until the owner shall give bond and
+security to have him forthcoming to answer the judgment of the court.
+And by the general law in case of pauper's suits; the complainants shall
+have writs of subpoena gratis; and by the practice of the courts, he is
+permitted to attend the taking the depositions of witnesses, and go and
+come freely to and from court, for the prosecution of his suit.]
+
+Among the Romans, the _libertini_, or freedmen, were formerly
+distinguished by a threefold division [Just. Inst. lib. 1. tit. 5.].
+They sometimes obtained what was called the greater liberty, thereby
+becoming _Roman citizens_. To this privilege, those who were
+enfranchised by testament, by the census, or by the vindicta, appear to
+have been alone admitted: sometimes they obtained the lesser liberty
+only, and became _Latins_; whose condition is thus described by
+Justinian. "They never enjoyed the right of succession [to
+estates].--For although they led the lives of free men, yet with their
+last breath they lost both their lives and liberties; for their
+possessions, like the goods of slaves, were detained by the manumittor
+[Harris's Inst. lib. 3. tit. 8.]." Sometimes they obtained only the
+inferior liberty, being called _dedititii_: such were slaves who had
+been condemned as criminals, and afterwards obtained manumission through
+the indulgence of their masters: their conditions was equalled with that
+of conquered revolters, whom the Romans called, in reproach, _dedititii,
+quia se suaque omnia dediderunt_: but all these distinctions were
+abolished by Justinian [Inst. lib. 1. tit. 5. s. 3.], by whom all freed
+men in general were made citizens of Rome, without regard to the form of
+manumission.--In England, the presenting the villein with _free arms_,
+seems to have been the symbol of his restoration to all the rights which
+a feudatory was entitled to. With us, we have seen that emancipation
+does not confer the rights of citizenship on the person emancipated; on
+the contrary, both he and his posterity, of the same complexion with
+himself, must always labour under many civil incapacities. If he is
+absolved from personal restraint, or corporal punishment, by a master,
+yet the laws restrain his actions in many instances, where there is none
+upon a free white man. If he can maintain a suit, he cannot be a
+witness, a juror, or a judge in any controversy between one of his own
+complexion and a white person. If he can acquire property in lands, he
+cannot exercise the right of suffrage, which such a property would
+confer on his former master; much less can he assist in making those
+laws by which he is bound. Yet, even under these disabilities, his
+present condition bears an enviable pre-eminence over his former state.
+Possessing the liberty of loco-motion, which was formerly denied him, it
+is in his choice to submit to that civil inferiority, inseparably
+attached to his condition in this country, or seek some more favourable
+climate, where all distinctions between men are either totally
+abolished, or less regarded than in this.
+
+The extirpation of slavery from the United States, is a task equally
+arduous and momentous. To restore the blessings of liberty to near a
+million[20] of oppressed individuals, who have groaned under the yoke of
+bondage, and to their descendants, is an object, which those who trust
+in Providence, will be convinced would not be unaided by the divine
+Author of our being, should we invoke his blessing upon our endeavours.
+Yet human prudence forbids that we should precipitately engage in a work
+of such hazard as a general and simultaneous emancipation. The mind of
+man must in some measure be formed for his future condition. The early
+impressions of obedience and submission, which slaves have received
+among us, and the no less habitual arrogance and assumption of
+superiority, among the whites, contribute, equally, to unfit the former
+for _freedom_, and the latter for _equality_.[21] To expel them all at
+once, from the United States, would in fact be to devote them only to a
+lingering death by famine, by disease, and other accumulated miseries:
+"We have in history but one picture of a similar enterprize, and there
+we see it was necessary not only to open the sea by a miracle, for them
+to pass, but more necessary to close it again to prevent their return
+[Letter from Jas. Sullivan, Esq. to Dr. Belknap.]." To retain them among
+us, would be nothing more than to throw so many of the human race upon
+the earth without the means of subsistence: they would soon become idle,
+profligate, and miserable. Unfit for their new condition, and unwilling
+to return to their former laborious course, they would become the
+caterpillars of the earth, and the tigers of the human race. The recent
+history of the French West Indies exhibits a melancholy picture of the
+probable consequences of a general, and momentary emancipation in any of
+the states, where slavery has made considerable progress. In
+Massachusetts the abolition of it was effected by a single stroke; a
+clause in their constitution [Dr. Belknap.]: but the whites at that
+time, were as sixty-five to one, in proportion to the blacks. The whole
+number of free persons in the United States, south of Delaware state,
+are 1,233,829, end there are 648,439 slaves; the proportion being less
+than two to one. Of the cultivators of the earth in the same district,
+it is probable that there are four slaves for one free white man.--To
+discharge the former from their present condition, would be attended
+with an immediate general famine, in those parts of the United States,
+from which not all the productions of the other states, could deliver
+them; similar evils might reasonably be apprehended from the adoption of
+the measure by any one of the southern states; for in all of them the
+proportion of slaves is too great, not to be attended with calamitous
+effects, if they were immediately set free.[22] These are serious, I had
+almost said unsurmountable obstacles, to general, simultaneous
+emancipation.--There are other considerations not to be disregarded. A
+great part of the _property_ of individuals consists in _slaves_. The
+laws have sanctioned this species of property. Can the laws take away
+the property of an individual without his own consent, or without a
+_just compensation_? Will those who do not hold slaves agree to be taxed
+to make this compensation? Creditors also, who have trusted their
+debtors upon the faith of this visible property will be defrauded. If
+justice demands the emancipation of the slave, she also, _under these
+circumstances_, seems to plead for the owner, and for his creditor. The
+claims of nature, it will be said are stronger than those which arise
+from social institutions, only. I admit it, but nature also dictates to
+us to provide for our _own_ safety, and authorizes all _necessary_
+measures for that purpose. And we have shewn that our own security, nay,
+our very existence, might be endangered by the hasty adoption of any
+measure for the _immediate_ relief of the _whole_ of this unhappy race.
+Must we then quit the subject, in despair of the success of any project
+for the amendment of their, as well as our own, condition? I think
+not.--Strenuously as I feel my mind opposed to a simultaneous
+emancipation, for the reasons already mentioned, the abolition of
+slavery in the United States, and especially in that state, to which I
+am attached by every tie that nature and society form, is _now_ my
+_first_, and will probably be my last, expiring wish. But here let me
+avoid the imputation of inconsistency, by observing, that the abolition
+of slavery may be effected without the _emancipation_ of a single slave;
+without depriving any man of the _property_ which he _possesses_, and
+without defrauding a creditor who has trusted him on the faith of that
+property. The experiment in that mode has already been begun in some of
+our sister states. Pennsylvania, under the auspices of the immortal
+Franklin,[23] begun the work of gradual abolition of slavery in the year
+1780, by enlisting nature herself, on the side of humanity. Connecticut
+followed the example four years after.[24] New-York very lately made an
+essay which miscarried by a very inconsiderable majority. Mr. Jefferson
+informs us, that the committee of revisors, of which he was a member,
+had prepared a bill for the emancipation of all slaves born after
+passing that act. This is conformable to the Pennsylvania and
+Connecticut laws.--Why the measure was not brought forward in the
+general assembly I have never heard. Possibly because objections were
+foreseen to that part of the bill which relates to the disposal of the
+blacks, after they had attained a certain age.[25] It certainly seems
+liable to many, both as to the policy and the practicability of it. To
+establish such a colony in the territory of the United States, would
+probably lay the foundation of intestine wars, which would terminate
+only in their extirpation, or final expulsion. To attempt it in any
+other quarter of the globe would be attended with the utmost cruelty to
+the colonists, themselves, and the destruction of their whole race. If
+the plan were at this moment in operation, it would require the annual
+exportation of 12,000 persons. This requisite number must, for a series
+of years be considerably increased, in order to keep pace with the
+increasing population of those people. In twenty years it would amount
+to upwards of twenty thousand persons; which is half the number which
+are now supposed to be annually exported from Africa.--Where would a
+fund to support this expence be found? Five times the present revenue of
+the state would barely defray the charge of their passage. Where
+provisions for their support after their arrival? Where those
+necessaries which must preserve them from perishing?--Where a territory
+sufficient to support them?--Or where could they be received as friends,
+and not as invaders? To colonize them in the United States might seem
+less difficult. If the territory to be assigned them were beyond the
+settlements of the whites, would they not be put upon a forlorn hope
+against the Indians? Would not the expence of transporting them thither,
+and supporting them, at least for the first and second year, be also far
+beyond the revenues and abilities of the state? The expence attending a
+small army in that country hath been found enormous. To transport as
+many colonists, annually, as we have shewn were necessary to eradicate
+the evil, would probably require five times as much money as the support
+of such an army. But the expence would not stop there: they must be
+assisted and supported at least for another year after their arrival in
+their new settlements. Suppose them arrived. Illiterate and ignorant as
+they are, is it probable that they would be capable of instituting such
+a government, in their new colony, as would be necessary for their own
+internal happiness, or to secure them from destruction from without?
+European emigrants, from whatever country they arrive, have been
+accustomed to the restraint of laws, and to respect for government.
+These people, accustomed to be ruled with a rod of iron, will not easily
+submit to milder restraints. They would become hordes of vagabonds,
+robbers and murderers. Without the aids of an enlightened policy,
+morality, or religion, what else could be expected from their still
+savage state, and debased condition?--"But why not retain and
+_incorporate_ the _blacks into the state_?" This question has been well
+answered by Mr. Jefferson,[26] and who is there so free from prejudices
+among us, as candidly to declare that he has none against such a
+measure? The recent scenes transacted in the French colonies in the West
+Indies are enough to make one shudder with the apprehension of realizing
+similar calamities in this country. Such probably would be the event of
+an attempt to smother those prejudices which have been cherished for a
+period of almost two centuries. Those who secretly favour, whilst they
+affect to regret, domestic slavery, contend that in abolishing it, we
+must also abolish that scion from it which I have denominated _civil_
+slavery. That there must be no distinction of rights; that the
+descendants of Africans, as men, have an equal claim to all civil
+rights, as the descendants of Europeans; and upon being delivered from
+the yoke of bondage have a right to be admitted to all the privileges of
+a citizen.--But have not men when they enter into a state of society, a
+right to admit, or exclude any description of persons, as they think
+proper? If it be true, as Mr. Jefferson seems to suppose, that the
+Africans are really an inferior race of mankind,[27] will not sound
+policy advise their exclusion from a society in which they have not yet
+been admitted to participate in civil rights; and even to guard against
+such admission, at any future period, since it may eventually depreciate
+the whole national character? And if prejudices have taken such deep
+root in our minds, as to render it impossible to eradicate this opinion,
+ought not so general an error, if it be one, to be respected? Shall we
+not relieve the necessities of the naked diseased beggar, unless we will
+invite him to a seat at our table; nor afford him shelter from the
+inclemencies of the night air, unless we admit him also to share our
+bed? To deny that we ought to abolish slavery, without incorporating the
+Negroes into the state, and admitting them to a full participation of
+all our civil and social rights, appears to me to rest upon a similar
+foundation. The experiment so far as it has been already made among us,
+proves that the emancipated blacks are not ambitious of civil rights. To
+prevent the generation of such an ambition, appears to comport with
+sound policy; for if it should ever rear its head, its partizans, as
+well as its opponents, will be enlisted by nature herself, and always
+ranged in formidable array against each other. We must therefore
+endeavour to find some middle course, between the tyrannical and
+iniquitous policy which holds so many human creatures in a state of
+grievous bondage, and that which would turn loose a numerous, starving,
+and enraged banditti, upon the innocent descendants of their former
+oppressors. _Nature_, _time_, and _sound policy_ must co-operate with
+each other to produce such a change: if either be neglected, the work
+will be incomplete, dangerous, and not improbably destructive.
+
+[Footnote 20: The number of slaves in the United States at the time of
+the late census, was something under 700,000.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Mr. Jefferson most forcibly paints the unhappy influence
+on the manners of the people produced by the existence of slavery among
+us. The whole commerce between master and slave, says he, is a perpetual
+exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism
+on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children
+see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This
+quality is the germ of education in him. From his cradle to his grave he
+is learning what he sees others do. If a parent had no other motive
+either in his own philanthropy or his self love, for restraining the
+intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a
+sufficient one that his child is present. But generally it is not
+sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the
+lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller
+slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions; and thus nursed,
+educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it
+with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his
+manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with what
+execrations would the statesman be loaded, who permitting one half the
+citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms them
+into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one
+part, and the amor patrię of the other. For if a slave can have a
+country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in
+which he is born to live and labour for another; in which he must lock
+up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his
+individual endeavours to the evanishment of the human race, or entail
+his own miserable condition on the endless generations proceeding from
+him. With the morals of the people, their industry also, is destroyed.
+For in a warm climate, no man will labour for himself who can make
+another labour for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of
+slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labour. And can
+the liberties of a nation be ever thought secure when we have removed
+their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that
+these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated
+but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that
+God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering
+numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of
+fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it may
+become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no
+attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.--But it is
+impossible to be temperate and to pursue this subject through the
+various considerations of policy, of morals, of history, natural and
+civil. We must be contented to hope they will force their way into every
+one's mind. I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of
+the present revolution. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the
+slave rising from the dust; his condition mollifying; the way I hope
+preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for a total emancipation, and
+that this is disposed in the order of events, to be with the consent of
+their masters, rather than by their extirpation. Notes on Virginia,
+298.]
+
+[Footnote 22: What is here advanced is not to be understood as implying
+an opinion that the labour of slaves is more productive than that of
+freemen.--The author of the Treatise on the Wealth of Nations, informs
+us, "That it appears from the experience of all ages and nations, that
+the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that done by
+slaves. That it is found to do so, even in Boston, New-York and
+Philadelphia, where the wages of common labour are very high." Vol. 1.
+pa. 123. Lond. edit. oct. Admitting this conclusion, it would not remove
+the objection that emancipated slaves would not willingly labour.]
+
+[Footnote 23: Doctor Franklin, it is said, drew the bill for the gradual
+abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania.]
+
+[Footnote 24: It is probable that similar laws have been passed in some
+other states; but I have not been able to procure a note of them.]
+
+[Footnote 25: The object of the amendment proposed to be offered to the
+legislature, was to emancipate all slaves born after a certain period;
+and further directing that they should continue with their parents to a
+certain age, then be brought up, at the public expence, to tillage,
+arts, or sciences, according to their geniuses, till the females should
+be eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age, when they should be
+colonized to such a place as the circumstances of the time should render
+most proper; sending them out with arms, implements of household and of
+the handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domestic animals, &c. to
+declare them a free and independent people, and extend to them our
+alliance and protection, till they shall have acquired strength; and to
+send vessels at the same time to other parts of the world for an equal
+number of white inhabitants; to induce whom to migrate hither, proper
+encouragements should be proposed. Notes on Virginia, 251.]
+
+[Footnote 26: It will probably be asked, why not retain the blacks among
+us and _incorporate them into the state_? Deep-rooted prejudices
+entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections by the blacks, of
+the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the _real
+distinctions_ which _nature_ has made; and many other circumstances will
+divide us into parties and produce convulsions, which will probably
+never end but in the extermination of one or the other race. To these
+objections which are political may be added others which are physical
+and moral. The first difference which strikes us is that of colour.--&c.
+The circumstance of superior beauty is thought worthy attention in the
+propagation of our horses, dogs, and other domestic animals; Why not in
+that of man? &c. In general their existence appears to participate more
+of sensation than reflection. Comparing them by their faculties of
+memory, reason and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are
+equal to the whites; in reason much inferior; that in imagination they
+are dull, tasteless and anamolous. &c. The improvement of the blacks in
+body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites,
+has been observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not
+the effect merely of their condition of life. We know that among the
+Romans, about the Augustan age, especially, the condition of their
+slaves was much more deplorable, than that of the blacks on the
+continent of America. Yet among the Romans their slaves were often their
+rarest artists. They excelled too in science, insomuch as to be usually
+employed as tutors to their masters' children. Epictetus, Terence, and
+Phoedrus were slaves. But they were of the race of whites. It is not
+their condition then, but nature, which has produced the distinction.
+The opinion that they are inferior in the faculties of reason and
+imagination, must be hazarded with great diffidence. To justify a
+general conclusion requires many observations. &c.--I advance it
+therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a
+distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior
+to the whites both in the endowments of body and mind. &c. This
+unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful
+obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Among the Romans
+emancipation required but one effort. The slave, when made free, might
+mix with, without staining, the blood of his master. But with us a
+second is necessary, unknown to history.--See the passage at length,
+Notes on Virginia, page 252 to 265.
+
+"In the present case, it is not only the slave who is beneath his
+master, it is the Negroe who is beneath the white man. No act of
+enfranchisement can efface this unfortunate distinction." Chatelleux's
+Travels in America.]
+
+[Footnote 27: The celebrated David Hume, in his Essay on National
+Character, advances the same opinion; Doctor Beattie, in his Essay on
+Truth, controverts it with many powerful arguments. Early prejudices,
+had we more satisfactory information than we can possibly possess on the
+subject at present, would render an inhabitant of a country where Negroe
+slavery prevails, an improper umpire between them.]
+
+The plan therefore which I would presume to propose for the
+consideration of my countrymen is such, as the number of slaves, the
+difference of their nature, and habits, and the state of agriculture,
+among us, might render it _expedient_, rather than _desirable_ to adopt:
+and would partake partly of that proposed by Mr. Jefferson, and adopted
+in other states; and partly of such cautionary restrictions, as a due
+regard to situation and circumstances, and even to _general_ prejudices,
+might recommend to those, who engage in so arduous, and perhaps
+unprecedented an undertaking.
+
+1. Let every female born after the adoption of the plan be free, and
+transmit freedom to all her descendants, both male and female.
+
+2. As a compensation to those persons, in whose families such females,
+or their descendants may be born, for the expence and trouble of their
+maintenance during infancy, let them serve such persons until the age of
+twenty-eight years: let them then receive twenty dollars in money, two
+suits of clothes, suited to the season, a hat, a pair of shoes, and two
+blankets. If these things be not voluntarily done, let the county courts
+enforce the performance, upon complaint.
+
+3. Let all Negroe children be registered with the clerk of the county or
+corporation court, where born, within one month after their birth: let
+the person in whose family they are born take a copy of the register,
+and deliver it to the mother, or if she die to the child, before it is
+of the age of twenty-one years. Let any Negroe claiming to be free, and
+above the age of puberty, be considered as of the age of twenty-eight
+years, if he or she be not registered, as required.
+
+4. Let all such Negroe servants be put on the same footing as white
+servants and apprentices now are, in respect to food, raiment,
+correction, and the assignment of their service from one to another.
+
+5. Let the children of Negroes and mulattoes, born in the families of
+their parents, be bound to service by the overseers of the poor, until
+they shall attain the age of twenty-one years.--Let all above that age,
+who are not housekeepers, nor have voluntarily bound themselves to
+service for a year before the first day of February annually, be then
+bound for the remainder of the year by the overseers of the poor. Let
+the overseers of the poor receive fifteen per cent. of their wages, from
+the person hiring them, as a compensation for their trouble, and ten per
+cent. per annum out of the wages of such as they may bind apprentices.
+
+6. If at the age of twenty-seven years, the master of a Negroe or
+mulattoe servant be unwilling to pay his freedom dues, above mentioned,
+at the expiration of the succeeding year, let him bring him into the
+county court, clad and furnished with necessaries as before directed,
+and pay into court five dollars, for the use of the servant, and
+thereupon let the court direct him to be hired by the overseers of the
+poor for the succeeding year, in the manner before directed.
+
+7. Let no Negroe or mulattoe be capable of taking, holding, or
+exercising, any public office, freehold, franchise or privilege, or any
+estate in lands or tenements, other than a lease not exceeding
+twenty-one years.--Nor of keeping, or bearing arms,[28] unless
+authorised so to do by some act of the general assembly, whose duration
+shall be limitted to three years. Nor of contracting matrimony with any
+other than a Negroe or mulattoe; nor be an attorney; nor be a juror; nor
+a witness in any court of judicature, except against; or between Negroes
+and mulattoes. Nor be an executor or administrator; nor capable of
+making any will or testament; nor maintain any real action; nor be a
+trustee of lands or tenements himself, nor any other person to be a
+trustee to him or to his use.
+
+8. Let all persons born after the passing of the act, be considered as
+entitled to the same mode of trial in criminal cases, as free Negroes
+and mulattoes are now entitled to.
+
+[Footnote 28: See Spirit of Laws, 12-15.----1. Black Com. 417.]
+
+The restrictions in this place may appear to favour strongly of
+prejudice: whoever proposes any plan for the abolition of slavery, will
+find that he must either encounter, or accommodate himself to
+prejudice.--I have preferred the latter; not that I pretend to be wholly
+exempt from it, but that I might avoid as many obstacles as possible to
+the completion of so desirable a work, as the abolition of slavery.
+Though I am opposed to the banishment of the Negroes, I wish not to
+encourage their future residence among us. By denying them the most
+valuable privileges which civil government affords, I wished to render
+it their inclination and their interest to seek those privileges in some
+other climate. There is an immense unsettled territory on this
+continent[29] more congenial to their natural constitutions than ours,
+where they may perhaps be received upon more favourable terms than we
+can permit them to remain with us. Emigrating in small numbers, they
+will be able to effect settlements more easily than in large numbers;
+and without the expence or danger of numerous colonies. By releasing
+them from the yoke of bondage, and enabling them to seek happiness
+wherever they can hope to find it, we surely confer a benefit, which no
+one can sufficiently appreciate, who has not tasted of the bitter curse
+of compulsory servitude. By excluding them from offices, the seeds of
+ambition would be buried too deep, ever to germinate: by disarming them,
+we may calm our apprehensions of their resentments arising from past
+sufferings; by incapacitating them from holding lands, we should add one
+inducement more to emigration, and effectually remove the foundation of
+ambition, and party-struggles. Their personal rights, and their
+property, though limited, would whilst they remain among us be under the
+protection of the laws; and their condition not at all inferior to that
+of the _labouring_ poor in most other countries. Under such an
+arrangement we might reasonably hope, that time would either remove from
+us a race of men, whom we wish not to incorporate with us, or obliterate
+those prejudices, which now form an obstacle to such incorporation.
+
+[Footnote 29: The immense territory of Louisiana, which extends as far
+south as the lat. 25° and the two Floridas, would probably afford a
+ready asylum for such as might choose to become Spanish subjects. How
+far their political rights might be enlarged in these countries, is,
+however questionable: but the climate is undoubtedly more favourable to
+the African constitution than ours, and from this cause, it is not
+improbable that emigrations from these states would in time be very
+considerable.]
+
+But it is not from the want of liberality to the emancipated race of
+blacks that I apprehend the most serious objections to the plan I have
+ventured to suggest.--Those slave holders (whose numbers I trust are
+few) who have been in the habit of considering their fellow creatures as
+no more than cattle, and the rest of the brute creation, will exclaim
+that they are to be deprived of their _property_, without compensation.
+Men who will shut their ears against this moral truth, that all men are
+by nature _free_, and _equal_, will not even be convinced that they do
+not possess a _property_ in an _unborn_ child: they will not distinguish
+between allowing to _unborn_ generations the absolute and unalienable
+rights of human nature, and taking away that which they _now possess_;
+they will shut their ears against truth, should you tell them, the loss
+of the mother's labour for nine months, and the maintenance of a child
+for a dozen or fourteen years, is amply compensated by the services of
+that child for as many years more, as he has been an expence to them.
+But if the voice of reason, justice and humanity be not stifled by
+sordid avarice, or unfeeling tyranny, it would be easy to convince even
+those who have entertained such erroneous notions, that the right of one
+man over another is neither founded in nature, nor in sound policy. That
+it cannot extend to those _not in being_; that no man can in reality be
+_deprived_ of what he doth not possess: that fourteen years labour by a
+young person in the prime of life, is an ample compensation for a few
+months of labour lost by the mother, and for the maintenance of a child,
+in that coarse homely manner that Negroes are brought up: And lastly,
+that a state of slavery is not only perfectly incompatible with the
+principles of government, but with the safety and security of their
+masters. History evinces this. At this moment we have the most awful
+demonstrations of it. Shall we then neglect a duty, which every
+consideration, moral, religious, political, or _selfish_, recommends.
+Those who wish to postpone the measure, do not reflect that every day
+renders the task more arduous to be performed. We have now 300,000
+slaves among us. Thirty years hence we shall have double the number. In
+sixty years we shall have 1,200,000. And in less than another century
+from this day, even that enormous number will be doubled. Milo acquired
+strength enough to carry an ox, by beginning with the ox while he was
+yet a calf. If we complain that the calf is too heavy for our shoulders,
+what will not the ox be?
+
+To such as apprehend danger to our agricultural interest, and the
+depriving the families of those whose principal reliance is upon their
+slaves, of support, it will be proper to submit a view of the gradual
+operation, and effects of this plan. They will no doubt be surprized to
+hear, that whenever it is adopted, the number of slaves will not be
+diminished for forty years after it takes place; that it will even
+encrease for thirty years; that at the distance of sixty years, there
+will be one-third of the number at its first commencement: that it will
+require _above a century_ to complete it; and that the number of blacks
+_under twenty-eight_, and consequently bound to service, in the families
+they are born in, will always be at least as great, as the present
+number of slaves. These circumstances I trust will remove many
+objections, and that they are truly stated will appear upon enquiry.[30]
+It will further appear, that females only will arrive at the age of
+emancipation within the first forty-five years; all the males during
+that period, continuing either in slavery, or bound to service till the
+age of twenty-eight years. The earth cannot want cultivators, whilst our
+population increases as at present, and three-fourths of those employed
+therein are held to service, and the remainder compellable to labour.
+For we must not lose sight of this important consideration, that these
+people must be _bound_ to labour, if they do not _voluntarily_ engage
+therein. Their faculties are at present only calculated for that object;
+if they be not employed therein they will become drones of the worst
+description. In absolving them from the yoke of slavery, we must not
+forget the interests of the society. Those interests require the
+exertions of every individual in some mode or other; and those who have
+not wherewith to support themselves honestly without corporal labour,
+whatever be their complexion, ought to be compelled to labour. This is
+the case in England, where domestic slavery has long been unknown. It
+must also be the case in every well ordered society; and where the
+numbers of persons without property increase, there the coertion of the
+laws becomes more immediately requisite. The proposed plan would
+necessarily have this effect, and therefore ought to be accompanied with
+such a regulation. Though the rigours of our police in respect to this
+unhappy race ought to be softened, yet, its regularity, and punctual
+administration should be increased, rather than relaxed. If we doubt the
+propriety of such measures, what must we think of the situation of our
+country, when instead of 300,000, we shall have more than _two millions_
+of SLAVES among us? This _must happen within a_ CENTURY, if we do not
+set about the abolition of slavery. Will not our posterity curse the
+days of their nativity with all the anguish of Job? Will they not
+execrate the memory of those ancestors, who, having it in their power to
+avert evil, have, like their first parents, entailed a curse upon all
+future generations? We know that the rigour of the laws respecting
+slaves unavoidably must increase with their numbers: What a
+blood-stained code must that be which is calculated for the restraint of
+_millions_ held in bondage! Such must our unhappy country exhibit within
+a century, unless we are both wise and just enough to avert from
+posterity the calamity and reproach, which are otherwise unavoidable.
+
+[Footnote 30: As it may not be unacceptable to some readers to observe
+the operation of this plan, I shall subjoin the following statement:
+
+
+PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
+
+1. The number of slaves in Virginia by the late census being found to be
+292,427, they may now, in round numbers be estimated at 300,000.
+
+2. Let it be supposed that the males and females are nearly or
+altogether equal in number.
+
+3. According to Dr. Franklin, the people of America double their numbers
+in about twenty-eight years; and according to Mr. Jefferson, the negroes
+increase as fast as the whites, they will therefore double, at least
+every thirty years.
+
+4. Let it be supposed that in thirty years one half of the present race
+of negroes will be extinct.
+
+5. Let it be supposed that in forty-five years there will not remain
+more than one-fifth of the present race alive.
+
+6. Let it be likewise supposed, that in sixty years the whole of the
+present race will be extinct.
+
+7. For conciseness sake, let the present race be called _ante-nati_,
+those born after the adoption of the plan, _post-nati_.
+
+
+FROM HENCE IT WILL FOLLOW,
+
+1. That the present number of slaves being 300,000.
+
+2. In thirty years their numbers will amount to 600,000.
+
+3. But at that period as one half of them will be extinct, (rem. 4.)
+their numbers will stand thus:
+
+Ante-nati, 150,000
+
+Post-nati, 450,000
+                                             ---- 600,000.
+
+4. The mean increase of the post-nati for
+the next thirty years will therefore be 450000/30, annually,
+or 15,000.
+
+5. If one half of these be males, who are still
+to remain slaves, there will in the first sixteen years,
+be born 120,000.
+
+6. After the first sixteen years, the post-nati females will
+begin to breed; the proportion of males born to slavery in the next
+twelve years may be estimated at one-fourth of the whole number
+born after the commencement of that period. Their number
+will be 52,000.
+
+7. The number of _slaves_ living in Virginia at the end of _thirty_
+years from the adoption of the plan, will be, ante-nati
+(prop. 3.) 150,000
+
+Post-nati males born in the first
+16 years, 120,000
+
+Post-nati males born in the last
+12 years, 52,500
+
+                                             ---- 322,500.
+
+8. The number of _negroes_ at the same time will stand thus:
+
+Slaves, 322,500
+
+Post-nati
+free born, 277,500
+
+                                             ---- 600,000.
+
+9. After twenty-eight years from the first adoption, this plan of
+gradual emancipation will first begin to manifest its effects, by the
+complete emancipation of one twenty-eighth part of the post-nati free
+born during that period each succeeding year, for twenty-eight years
+more; their numbers will be, 277500/28, or 9,910.
+
+These will be all females.
+
+10. It being admitted that the negroes double every thirty years, the
+supposition that in forty-five years, their numbers will be half as many
+more as in thirty, will not be very erroneous, if so, the whole race of
+them at that period will be 900,000.
+
+11. Their numbers will stand thus:
+
+Ante-nati, 60,000
+
+Post-nati, 840,000
+
+                                             ---- 900,000.
+
+12. After twenty-eight years are past, the number of slaves born must
+continually diminish. Suppose their number born in the last 17 years, to
+be one-fourth as many as those born in the preceding twelve years, they
+will be 52500/4, or 13,125.
+
+13. The slaves in Virginia in forty-five years will then be,
+ante-nati, 60,000
+
+Post-nati males born in the first
+sixteen years, 120,000
+
+Ditto, born in the next
+twelve years 52,500
+
+Ditto, born in the last
+seventeen years, 13,125
+
+                                             ---- 245,625.
+
+At this period the emancipation of males will begin.
+
+14. But after twenty eight years it has been shewn that 9,910 negroes
+will annually arrive at the age of emancipation, their whole number in
+forty-five years will be 168,470.
+
+15. The state of the negroes at the end of 45 years, will then be,
+slaves, 245,625
+
+Post-nati fully emancipated
+(females), 168,470
+
+Post-nati not
+emancipated, 485,905
+
+                                             ---- 900,000.
+
+16. In sixty years the whole number of negroes will be
+
+                                                1,200,000.
+
+17. At that period the whole of the present race will be extinct; and we
+may also infer that one half of those born in the first thirty years
+will be also extinct; the number of slaves born in that period has been
+shewn, (prop. 7.) to be 172,500, the number of these then living will be
+172,500/2, or 86,250.
+
+18. One half of the post-nati free born, during that period, being now
+fully emancipated, may be likewise presumed to be extinct; their numbers
+(prop. 8.) will be, 277,500/2, or 138,750.
+
+19. The state of the negroes at the end of sixty years, will therefore
+be:
+
+Slaves born during the first
+thirty years, 86,250
+
+Ditto born after
+that period, 13,125
+
+Post-nati fully
+emancipated, 138,750
+
+Post-nati
+under 28 years
+of age, 961,875
+
+                                           ---- 1,200,000.
+
+20. At the end of ninety years the number of negroes will be
+
+                                                2,400,000
+
+21. Of this number, those only born after the first thirty years, being
+supposed to be living, the number of slaves (prop. 12) will then be
+reduced to 13,125.
+
+22. And as the last mentioned number of slaves are supposed to be born
+within forty-five years, their whole number will be extinct in fifteen
+years more, that is, in _one hundred =and= five_ years from the first
+adoption of the plan.
+
+23. By prop. 19. it appears, that out of 1,200,000 negroes, there will
+then be 961,875 under the age of twenty-eight years, the period of
+emancipation.
+
+24. We may therefore conclude, that from _two-thirds_ to _three-fourths_
+of the whole number of blacks will _always_ be liable to service.]
+
+I am not vain enough to presume the plan I have suggested entirely free
+from objection; nor that in offering my own ideas on the subject, I have
+been more fortunate than others: but from the communication of sentiment
+between those who lament the evil, it is possible that an effectual
+remedy may at length be discovered. Whenever that happens the golden age
+of our country will begin. Till then,
+
+----_Non hospes ab hospite tutus,
+
+Non Herus ą Famulie: fratrum quoque gratia rara._
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Dissertation on Slavery, by St. George Tucker
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