Not until the star of Christianity rose above the horizon of the pagan and
superstitious world, softening the hearts of men and revealing to them a
new life, did Slavery vanish from among refined and generous societies,
under the charter, _Pro amore Dei, pro mercede animae_. And never has it
reappeared, except among those nations who have become debased from
avarice, or depraved by ambition. When cupidity allows fanaticism to blind
the mind with the belief that savages or negroes can be more easily
converted to Christianity whilst in slavery than in freedom, then there is
an end to social progress. Yet such were the ideas of Louis XIII. when he
consigned the negroes of his colonies to Slavery. And such has been the
creed of the slaveholders and breeders of America. The monstrous doctrine
imposed itself upon the understandings of the slave faction, as the
superstitions of the false prophets have fettered and crushed the minds of
the pagan nations. It has debased their natural sentiments, as well as it
has depressed and perverted their natural talents and virtues. "In the
same manner," said Longinus, "as some children always remain pygmies,
whose infant limbs, fettered by the prejudices and habits of servitude,
are unable to expand themselves, or to attain that well-proportioned
greatness which we admire in the ancients, who, living under a popular
government, wrote with the same freedom as they acted."