Superiors frequently neglect inferiors--The policy of the South
vindicated by necessity--The results that would follow an
attempt to establish a system for instructing the blacks in
letters, and those which would follow the establishment of such
a system--The _domestic_ element of the system of slavery in
the Southern States affords the means for their improvement
adapted to their condition and the circumstances of the
country: it affords the _natural_, the _safe_, and the
_effectual_ means of the intellectual and moral elevation of
the race--The prospects of the Africans in this country, and
their final removal to Africa--The country never will be
entirely rid of them--The Southern policy wise and humane.
One point remains to be considered to complete a full and candid view
of the _institution_ of domestic slavery.
It is erroneously said that “we _keep_ the African in a state of
barbarism, and then plead that barbarism in vindication of our
policy.”
Every thing is liable to abuse. I know that there are instances in the
South of great neglect of the slaves, both of their moral and
physical condition. The same may be said of individuals at the North.
Superiors often neglect their inferiors, and that, in many instances,
to a very culpable degree. I know no efficient remedy for this, but
that which the diffusion of a pure Christianity is calculated to
afford. If any complain of these neglects in a captious spirit, we
have nothing to hope from them. But from those who claim to be
sincere, we have a right to expect an active and hearty cooperation in
diffusing Christianity, as the only thing calculated to afford a
remedy.
But it is said that a feature of the system, as established by law,
_necessarily_ produces this result: that is, the law which excludes
the African from the benefits of school instruction.
The term _necessarily_ is in this instance certainly misapplied. The
barbarism in question is not the result of this law, _necessarily_, or
otherwise. It existed originally. It still exists, and to a great
extent, though greatly modified; and in the present circumstances of
the race, an authorized system of school instruction would cause it to
continue to exist, and perhaps in a much greater degree than it now
does, and for a longer time than it promises to do under the present
system. If this be so, it is the semi-barbarism that creates the
necessity for the _law_, and not the _law_ that makes the barbarism
the _necessary_ result.
An unwieldy mass of semi-barbarism dwelling in the midst of a
civilized community, with whom they cannot amalgamate by
intermarriage, will, at all times, require a peculiar system of
appliances for their improvement, so as to make it consistent with the
common welfare. The principle of slavery must, of course, be kept in
vigorous operation, and the means of improvement be wisely adapted to
the state of the pupil. Otherwise, there may not only be a very
improvident expenditure of means, but the most disastrous results. The
horn-book might be a valuable agent in the hands of a child, but the
instruments and agents in a chemical laboratory might prove its ruin.
Should the time ever arrive (which in the opinion of some will be the
case, at some distant day) when the progress of African civilization
will justify it; and when an asylum in Africa is provided for
them--together with the means of their removal in large numbers--I
have no doubt that a system of popular education would not only be
indicated as proper, but afford one of the most brilliant fields for
the display of public and of individual benevolence, that has ever yet
presented itself in behalf of that degraded race. But what I have
to say of this hypothesis is, that if it ever should, the
generations--both North and South--that may then live, I have no
doubt, will have both sagacity enough to perceive it, and benevolence
enough to improve it to the mutual advantage of themselves and the
African race. But it is very evident that neither of these conditions
has been fulfilled as yet. In this state of things, it cannot be
supposed that the Southern people are prepared for any enterprise of
the kind. I cannot imagine that any public movement, having for its
object the instruction of the blacks in reading and writing, could be
made without involving the most disastrous results.
Let us suppose that a majority in our legislative councils were in
favor of such a measure, and were actually to tax the people to
support a system of primary education for the blacks: any man would
certainly be excessively stupid who would not allow that a minority
would, at all times, (in the present state of public experience,)
exist, who deemed the law sufficiently oppressive to justify
repudiation and physical resistance. If this object were sought to be
accomplished by individual enterprise, the results could scarcely be
less embarrassing. This will readily appear; for it would have to be
effected either in the common schools of the country, or by the
establishment of separate schools for the Africans. But I am not
aware that the former is allowed to any material extent even in the
free States, where certainly, if the scheme were practicable, the free
blacks might be educated in the same schools with the whites. The
usage of civilization, which denies them a social footing in so many
other respects, must, of course, so far deny them this privilege as to
render the scheme mainly ineffectual in the accomplishment of good, or
the usage is singularly inconsistent with itself.
And can it be supposed that such a scheme would operate better in the
South, where the reasons against it are a thousand-fold stronger,
growing out of the large number of the African population? Certainly
nothing could be more utopian than an enterprise of this kind. Public
opinion would scarcely be sufficiently divided to justify even the
wildest schemer in making a serious attempt to effect it. The latter
plan might perhaps be attempted, but, on account of the evils it would
involve, it would still be subject to impassable objections.
Slaves, though not owned by the poor, are held for the most part by
farmers and planters whose pecuniary circumstances are what is called
moderate. There are exceptions. Occasionally, they are held by men of
wealth; but in the older States particularly, (and of these I speak
from personal knowledge,) the great mass of those who own them cannot
be said, in any popular sense of the term, to be rich. Now, the habits
of half-labor, as any Northern man would regard them, in which the
slaves are usually indulged, would put it quite out of the power of
most of slave-owners to afford the necessary support for such schools,
however favorable they might be to the scheme. Withal, there is but
little if any room to doubt that a great many, both among the rich as
well as the poor, would oppose the measure, for what appeared to them
reasons of sound policy. This would leave the scheme to be supported
entirely by the few rich men, whose benevolence might lead them to
overlook the strong popular objections against it. It requires no
particular sagacity to foresee the practical mischiefs which would
attend the efforts of a few rich men who might attempt to override the
popular feeling on a subject of this kind. Public opinion would put it
down! This would be the end of it in one direction, but not in
another.
The whole movement would be attended, from first to last, with an
irritation of the public mind in the highest degree unfavorable, and,
indeed, dangerous to the peace and prosperity of the commonwealth. All
irritations of the public mind in regard to the blacks, it is well
known, result injuriously to them, generally abridging them of their
civil privileges and social comforts. In this instance, viewing the
subject as a practical question, I cannot see that it would be
attended with a single redeeming virtue, so far as the blacks are
concerned. But to place it in the most favorable light, let us suppose
that, by some means, one or the other of these plans had actually gone
into operation--which, by the way, can scarcely be conceived to be
possible in the present state of society--and had already made a
decided impression upon the public mind of the Africans. Even in this
case it would still be liable to strong and impassable objections. It
would be educating them in advance of their circumstances and
prospects. In their circumstances, it would be even more objectionable
than it could be to take the time and labor of a white youth, which
(we will also suppose) were required for the immediate support of
himself and of those depending upon his labor, and educate him for the
learned pursuits of a Newton or a Macaulay, whilst at the same time,
for causes beyond his control, he was doomed for the remainder of his
days to work in the mines of Cornwall or Chesterfield, by the light of
Sir Humphrey Davy’s lamp! No one of the important objects of so high
an education is accessible to him. The least part of the objection to
such a course as this is, that it would be a useless expenditure of
time and labor.
But the reason is much stronger in the case of the African. The civil
offices are _all_ closed against him. No _one_ of the learned
professions is open to him. The law of caste which forbids his
amalgamation bars him out from every thing of the kind. He is doomed
to occupy, so long as he remains in the midst of a white community,
the position of an inferior. God himself has so ordered it. The bold
line of distinction he has drawn between the races, is fully
declarative of his will. He only can reverse the decree, “The
Ethiopian cannot change his skin,” any more than “the leopard can
change his spots.” In this state of facts, would not the public
mind--whose decisions must be authoritative in the settlement of such
a question--very naturally inquire for _the good_ that it was thought
might result from so material a change in the circumstances of the
institution? And is it not obvious that no answer could be given that
would insure satisfaction? No power of eloquence with which it is
competent to enforce the claims of education, could possibly move the
public mind from the sober conviction that the advantages and
privileges of education, so necessary to a state of civil liberty, and
so appropriate in other respects to that state, could not, with any
degree of propriety, be demanded in behalf of a necessary condition of
slavery!
Thus far, the principles of political economy, alone considered,
would, in the public estimation, fully settle this question. But this
is not all. The question has much graver aspects than money can
possibly give it. The effect of generally enlisting the African mind
in literary pursuits and inquiries, is too obvious either to be
overlooked or slightly regarded. A state of popular disquietude must
inevitably result, and this, too, at a time when the door of
Providence remains effectually closed against his release from slavery
and his removal to Africa. This disquietude could not fail to lead to
many fanatical and fruitless attempts to effect a change in the
political condition of the race. Such a state of popular solicitude
among the blacks would of course be followed by much greater
solicitude and even irritation on the part of the whites. So potent a
cause would certainly precipitate its appropriate results. The
oppressive and, in some respects, the savage laws by which ancient
Sparta, Greece, and Rome governed their slaves--some of whom were
highly educated men--would of necessity be reenacted in this country.
Our present mild form of slavery would be substituted by a form of
oppression unknown to the history of this country, even in the most
barbarous condition of the African race. And thus would end the
chapter of abolition benevolence in behalf of the African race in the
United States.
In view of these considerations, the policy of the South on this
subject, allow me to affirm, is founded no less in benevolence to the
African and the peace of the commonwealth, than in the soundest
principles of political economy. It relies upon the _domestic_ element
of the system of slavery, as the _natural_, the only _safe_, and
ultimately the _effectual_ means of the intellectual and moral
elevation of the African--so far as any means can be effectual in the
accomplishment of that object.
1. It is the _natural_ way--that is, the way adapted to their
condition as an inferior and naturally distinct race, who, both on
account of the physical facts which constitute them a distinct race,
and the low state of civilization (if it may be called civilization at
all) which they have yet been able to attain, should not be admitted
to a social footing by intermarriage with the superior race.
In a former lecture, it was demonstrated that an uncivilized race,
dwelling in the midst of a civilized community, had _no right_ to
social equality, and, for a still stronger reason, _no right_ to
political sovereignty in such a community. It was also shown that
their natural rights entitled them to _protection_, and reasonable
provision for their _improvement_, and, as in the case of minors, to
such “_authoritative control_” as is best calculated to preserve their
power of self-action--their power of volition--from that enslavement
to the baser passions of depraved nature, which is destructive of all
true liberty, and the most degraded and ruinous form of
slavery--subjection to the devil; in comparison with which, a physical
subjection to a fellow-man, in civilized life, with a power, defined
by law, only to control his time and labor to a reasonable extent, is
a paradise. These--we of the South say--are their _natural
rights_--the good to which they are entitled in virtue of their
humanity. Now as these rights are in their nature relative, they imply
the _duty_ on the part of the civilized race amongst whom, in the
providence of God, they dwell, to afford them both the _protection_
and _control_ in question. Their DUTY, in these respects, is clearly
reciprocal with the _rights_ of the Africans. They can no more omit
these duties to the blacks with impunity, than they can do so to the
minors and imbeciles of their own race. Now what form of control will
more naturally or appropriately fulfil the conditions of this problem?
They are to exercise the _sovereign_ control: all political freedom is
denied the blacks by their condition. They have no right to it. It is
not, to them, the essential good. Their _rights_ lie, as in the case
of imbeciles of any other race, in being governed, not in governing
themselves, in those matters which constitute the objects of civil
government. To exercise this sovereign control of the blacks, and at
the same time afford them the _protection_ and _improvement_ which are
appropriate to a necessary condition of slavery, or state of
subjection to such sovereign control, is the solemn _duty_ of the
superior race. The position here advocated is, that the _domestic_
element of the present system in operation amongst us, affords a more
perfect guaranty that all the conditions of this problem will be
fulfilled, than could be effected by any other system, or by the
proposed modification of the present system. The element in question
constitutes for them an invaluable school of instruction--a school in
which both the mental and moral nature is developed. A school for the
formal instruction of the blacks in letters, we have seen would
operate only to defeat the end proposed by its establishment. To
govern and protect them, and at the same time make them useful to
themselves and to society, by a system of military police, could find
but few if any advocates, even among the visionary. But what more
natural than to accomplish all these objects, by a system which
distributes them in small numbers through the different families of
civilized life? Here they are brought into immediate connection with
much that is calculated to develop the mind, cultivate the moral
sense, and train the will to the habit of obedience to its high
behests. The law confers upon the head of the family the same right to
direct and appropriate the time and labor of the blacks, that he
enjoys in the case of his children--and no more. The period of time to
which this authority extends, differs in the one case from that of the
other; but this is the only difference known to the law. Great abuses
of this authority sometimes occur in the case of the blacks; but the
same is occasionally true of parental authority in all parts of the
civilized world. The former may furnish a fit theme for the perverted
genius of Mrs. Harriet Stowe. The fruit of such a genius may have a
poetry--of its kind; but it can lay claim to neither philosophy nor
common sense. The same force of logic which is hurled against the
authority of the master, rakes the authority of the parent in the line
of its fire, with an effect no less destructive. Both are equally
necessary; both are equally protected by law; and both are open to
great abuses. The poetry which invests these abuses with the show of
argument against the authority of the master may cater to the corrupt
taste of both the “great vulgar” and the “little vulgar;” but it is
the same cormorant appetite which is fed, that leads the _mere_
“readers and cipherers” of the land to turn aside from those valuable
productions so appropriate to their real wants, and delight themselves
in tragic stories of murder, arson, and rape, from the perusal of
which they rise with passions inflamed to crusade against the morals
of society. Christianity sternly rebukes the abuses complained of; and
equally condemns that perversion of genius which employs those abuses
to corrupt the public taste and the public morals. As far as
Christianity prevails, the civil law which requires humanity in the
exercise of domestic authority, no less in the case of the slave than
in the case of the child or the apprentice, is sanctioned, and, in
cases demanding it, is duly enforced by public opinion and sentiment.
In all communities in which Christianity is the presiding influence,
African slavery must, therefore, be a mild form of domestic servitude.
It even contributes in a measure to a knowledge of letters. Many
servants are raised by their associations with civilized life to a
desire to read the word of God. The domestic relation often supplies
them with the means of gratifying this desire. Many pious slaves read
the word of God as a part of their family worship; and instances are
not wanting of those of whom it may be said, they “are mighty in the
Scriptures.” Such are the tendencies and capabilities of domestic
slavery as a system recognized by law; and apart from those abuses
which all good men deplore--no less in the case of the slave than in
the case of the child and the apprentice, who are no further protected
from inhumanity by the provisions of law than is the slave. Hence this
system is the natural way of protecting, improving, and governing the
African for the mutual benefit of society. It is evidently indicated
by Providence. No other can be appropriate to a mass of population who
can never be politically free in our midst, for the reason that, in
the order of Divine Providence, they never can amalgamate with us. But
it is,