Richard Henry Lee, speaking in the Virginia House of Burgesses 1772,
in support of a bill prohibiting the slave trade, said:
"Nor, sir, are these the only reasons to be urged against the
importation. In my opinion not the cruelties practised in the
conquest of South America, not the savage barbarity of a Saracen,
can be more big with atrocity than our cruel trade to Africa. There
we encourage those poor ignorant people to wage eternal war against
each other; ... that by war, stealth or surprise, we Christians may
be furnished with our fellow-creatures, who are no longer to be
considered as created in the image of God as well as ourselves and
equally entitled to liberty and freedom by the great law of Nature,
but they are to be deprived forever of all the comforts of life and
to be made the most wretched of the human kind."[110]
Patrick Henry, writing on the 18th day of January, 1773, said:
"Is it not a little surprising that Christianity, whose chief
excellency consists in softening the human heart, cherishing and
improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally
repugnant to the first impressions of right and wrong? What adds to
the wonder is that this abominable practice has been introduced in
the most enlightened ages....
"Would any one believe I am the master of slaves of my own purchase!
I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without
them. I will not, I cannot justify it.... I believe the time will
come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable
evil. Everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our
day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our
slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence for
slavery."[111]
At another time he wrote: "Our country will be peopled. The question
is, shall it be with Europeans, or Africans?... Is there a man so
degenerate as to wish to see his country the gloomy retreat of
slavery?"[112]
George Washington, writing in 1786, to Robert Morris, of Philadelphia,
after alluding to an Anti-slavery Society of Quakers in that city and
suggesting that unless their practices were discontinued, "None of
those whose misfortune it is to have slaves as attendants will visit
the city if they can possibly avoid it," continues:
"I hope it will not be conceived from these observations that it is
my wish to hold the unhappy people, who are the subjects of this
letter, in slavery. I can only say that there is not a man living
who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the
abolition of it. But there is only one proper and effectual mode by
which it can be accomplished, and that is by legislative authority;
and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting."
Writing in the same year to John F. Mercer, he said:
"I never mean, unless some particular circumstance shall compel me
to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first
wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may
be abolished by law."[113]
George Mason, speaking in the Virginia Convention of 1788 having the
adoption of the Federal Constitution under consideration, said:
"Mr. Chairman, this is a fatal section (Article 1, Section 9) which
has created more dangers than any other. The first clause allows the
importation of slaves for twenty years. Under the royal government
this evil was looked upon as a great oppression, and many attempts
were made to prevent it; but the interest of the African merchants
prevented its prohibition. No sooner did the Revolution take place
than it was thought of. It was one of the great causes of our
separation from Great Britain. Its exclusion has been a principal
object of this state, and most of the states in the Union. The
augmentation of slaves weakens the state; and such a trade is
diabolical in itself and disgraceful to mankind; yet by this
constitution, it is continued for twenty years. I have ever looked
upon this as a most disgraceful thing to America. I cannot express
my detestation of it."[114]
John Tyler, Sr., speaking in the same Convention in condemnation of
the clause permitting the slave trade:
"Warmly enlarged on the impolicy, iniquity and disgracefulness of
this wicked traffic. He thought the reasons urged by gentlemen in
defense of it were inconclusive and ill-founded. It was one cause of
the complaints against British tyranny that this trade was
permitted. The Revolution had put a period to it; but now it was to
be revived. He thought nothing could justify it.... His earnest
desire was that it should be handed down to posterity that he had
opposed this wicked cause."[115]
Edmund Randolph, in 1789, wrote to Madison that he desired to go to
Philadelphia to practise law, saying, "For if I found that I could
live there I could emancipate my slaves, and thus end my days without
undergoing any anxiety about the injustice of holding them."[116]
St. George Tucker,[117] in his edition of Blackstone's Commentaries,
reviewing the origin of slavery in Virginia, and the status of the
institution at the time he writes, 1803, declares:
"Among the blessings which the Almighty hath showered 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.... 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
fellowmen 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."[118]
At the conclusion of his carefully prepared article showing the
efforts made by the people of Virginia during the period of British
rule to suppress the slave trade, their prompt prohibition of the
traffic immediately upon the assertion of their independence, and the
various statutes enacted to mitigate the hardships of the institution,
he uses these earnest yet almost pathetic words:
"Tedious and unentertaining as this detail may appear to all others,
a citizen of Virginia will feel some satisfaction in reading 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 for the liberty of her citizens, and of
mankind in general."[119]
The foregoing quotations express the sentiments of the leading
Virginians of the Revolutionary period with respect to slavery.