Cannibals all! or, Slaves without mastersFitzhugh, George
General
Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters
Fitzhugh, George
Slave labor; Slavery -- Justification; Slavery -- United States; Working class
If this _diluvies_ of society is by nature vicious, nomadic and
incapable of any self-control, it is obvious they should be enslaved. If
emancipation of their ancestors and the throwing them upon the world
without property or other means of support, made them and their
posterity, from necessity, beggars, Pariahs and Ishmaelites, they should
be restored to slavery, unless some better disposition of them can be
discovered.
North British Review, "Literature and Labor Question," February No.
1851. The passage we quote is from a work of Mr. Mayhew:
"That we, like the Hottentots, Kaffirs, and Fins, are surrounded
by wandering hordes, the 'sonquas' and 'fingons' of this country,
paupers, beggars and outcasts, possessing nothing but what they
acquire by depredation from the industrious, provident and
civilized portion of the community; that the heads of these nomads
are remarkable for a greater development of the jaws and cheek
bones, than of the skull, and that they have a secret language of
their own--an English 'cuzecat,' or 'slang,' as it is called, for
the concealment of their designs; these are points of coincidence
so striking, that, when placed before the mind, they make us
marvel why the analogy has been so long unobserved. The
resemblance once discovered, however, becomes of great service in
enabling us to use the moral characteristics of the nomadic races
of other countries, as a means of comprehending more readily those
of the vagabonds and outcasts of our own. * * * The nomad there is
distinguished from the civilized man by his repugnance to regular
and continuous labor--by his want of providence in laying up a
store for the future; by his inability to perceive consequences
ever so slightly removed from immediate apprehension; by his
passion for stultifying herbs and roots, and when possible, for
intoxicating fermented liquors; for his extraordinary powers of
enduring privation; by his comparative insensibility to pain; by
an immoderate love of gaming; frequently risking his own personal
liberty on a single cast; by his love of libidinous dances; by
the pleasure which he experiences in witnessing the sufferings of
sentient creatures; by his delight in warfare and all perilous
sports; by his desire for vengeance; by the looseness of his
notions as to property; by the absence of chastity among his
women, and his disregard of female honor; and lastly by his vague
sense of religion, his rude idea of a Creator, and utter absence
of all appreciation of the mercy of the Divine Spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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