A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, An Essay on SlaveryWoodward, A.
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A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, An Essay on Slavery
Woodward, A.
Slavery -- United States; Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896. Uncle Tom's cabin; Uncle Tom (Fictitious character)
your slaves. Commence it in good earnest, and may success attend your
efforts. You are under moral obligations to enlighten the minds and
elevate the characters of your slaves, as far as practicable. You
should spare no pains, and no consideration whatever, of expediency,
convenience or self-interest, should deter you from the faithful
discharge of your duty.
It appears clear to my mind that, in a qualified sense, a master
sustains the same relation to a young slave, that he sustains to an
orphan as a guardian; and that his relation and obligation to an
orphan as guardian, does not differ materially from his obligations to
a son or daughter. Suppose that he purchases a young slave with his
money; he is legally his property during his natural life. Suppose
that he becomes guardian to an orphan child; he acquires a legal right
to control the child until he is twenty-one years of ago. Let him ask
himself, what are his obligations to the orphan? Whatever they are, he
is under the same obligations to the slave. But if he is at a loss as
to what are his obligations to the orphan, let him ask himself what
are his obligations to a son or a daughter? In a qualified sense, he
is under the same obligations to the orphan that he is to a child, and
ho is under the same obligations to the slave that he is to the
orphan. They may differ in degree, but they cannot differ in kind.
They are of the same kind, of the same quality, for the reason that
the temporal wants and the eternal interests of the slave, the orphan,
and the child are the same; and he, as master, guardian and father, is
bound to make provision for them. He is morally bound to act with
reference to the present happiness and eternal interests of the child,
the orphan and the slave. As a general rule, whatever conduces to the
happiness of the child, conduces to the happiness of the orphan, and
whatever conduces to the happiness of the orphan, conduces to the
happiness of the slave. They are each persons of like feelings,
passions and propensities; requiring at his hands the same kind of
training; the same moral and mental culture. I admit that the
profession or occupation which they are destined to follow through
life, may render it necessary that there should be some difference in
their scholastic training and attainments; but it does not follow
because a son is destined for the medical profession, and therefore
requires a smattering of Latin and Greek, that an orphan who is
expected to follow the occupation of farming, should not be a
tolerable English scholar; nor, that a slave, though he remain a slave
during his life, should not receive at his hands that amount of mental
culture which is requisite to expand his mind, and elevate his
character above that ignorance, superstition, degradation and vice, in
which the African race are involved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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