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
Until the lands of America are appropriated by a few, population becomes
dense, competition among laborers active, employment uncertain, and
wages low, the personal liberty of all the whites will continue to be a
blessing. We have vast unsettled territories; population may cease to
increase, or increase slowly, as in most countries, and many centuries
may elapse before the question will be practically suggested, whether
slavery to capital be preferable to slavery to human masters. But the
negro has neither energy nor enterprise, and, even in our sparser
population, finds, with his improvident habits, that his liberty is a
curse to himself, and a greater curse to the society around him. These
considerations, and others equally obvious, have induced the South to
attempt to defend negro slavery as an exceptional institution,
admitting, nay asserting, that slavery, in the general or in the
abstract, is morally wrong, and against common right. With singular
inconsistency, after making this admission, which admits away the
authority of the Bible, of profane history, and of the almost universal
practice of mankind--they turn round and attempt to bolster up the cause
of negro slavery by these very exploded authorities. If we mean not to
repudiate all divine, and almost all human authority in favor of
slavery, we must vindicate that institution in the abstract.
To insist that a status of society, which has been almost universal, and
which is expressly and continually justified by Holy Writ, is its
natural, normal, and necessary status, under the ordinary circumstances,
is on its face a plausible and probable proposition. To insist on less,
is to yield our cause, and to give up our religion; for if white slavery
be morally wrong, be a violation of natural rights, the Bible cannot be
true. Human and divine authority do seem in the general to concur, in
establishing the expediency of having masters and slaves of different
races. The nominal servitude of the Jews to each other, in its temporary
character, and no doubt in its mild character, more nearly resembled our
wardship and apprenticeship, than ordinary domestic slavery. In very
many nations of antiquity, and in some of modern times, the law has
permitted the native citizens to become slaves to each other. But few
take advantage of such laws; and the infrequency of the practice,
establishes the general truth that master and slave should be of
different national descent. In some respects, the wider the difference
the better, as the slave will feel less mortified by his position. In
other respects, it may be that too wide a difference hardens the hearts
and brutalizes the feelings of both master and slave. The civilized man
hates the savage, and the savage returns the hatred with interest.
Hence, West India slavery, of newly caught negroes, is not a very
humane, affectionate or civilizing institution. Virginia negroes have
become moral and intelligent. They love their master and his family, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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