From these writers, almost all of whom were foreigners, one would naturally
expect such a portraiture of slavery as persons unaccustomed to the
institution would give. Most Americans, of course, considered the
institution as belonging to the natural order of things and, therefore,
hardly ever referred to it except when they mentioned it unconsciously.
Foreigners, however, as soon as they came into this new world began to
compare the slaves with the lowest order of society in Europe. Finding the
lot of the bondmen so much inferior to that of those of low estate in
European countries, these travelers frequently made some interesting
comparisons. We are indebted to them for valuable information which we can
never hope to obtain from the literature of an essentially slaveholding
people. Here we see how the American Revolution caused a change for the
better in the condition of the Negroes in certain States, and how the
rigorousness of slavery continued in the others. We learn too what
enlightened Negroes thought about their state and what the white man
believed should be done to prevent their reaching the point of
self-assertion. That a large number of anti-slavery Americans were
advocating and effecting the emancipation of slaves appears throughout
these documents.