Life of Charles DarwinBettany, G. T. (George Thomas)
Science
Life of Charles Darwin
Bettany, G. T. (George Thomas)
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
In one of the numerous additions to the second issue of the Journal in
1845, Darwin speaks thus eloquently from his heart: "On the 19th of
August [1836], we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God I shall
never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant
scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings when, passing a
house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not
but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I
was as powerless as a child, even to remonstrate. I suspected that these
moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case
in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old
lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have
stayed in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was
reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest
animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice
with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for
having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father
tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye.... I will not even
allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically
heard of; nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details, had I
not met with several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of
the negro, as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil.... Those who look
tenderly at the slave-owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never
seem to put themselves into the position of the latter. What a cheerless
prospect, with not even a hope of change! Picture to yourself the
chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little
children--those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his
own--being torn from you, and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And
these deeds are done and palliated by men who profess to love their
neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that His will be
done on earth!"
Such burning expressions are not yet superfluous, and it is wholesome to
recall to a generation which scarcely realises the past miseries of
slavery, and is too apt to rest content with what has been accomplished
in diminishing the sufferings of slaves, white and black, the impression
produced on a scientific man by what he saw. It is well, too, that it
should be brought forcibly home to Englishmen that Darwin's heart was no
less sympathetic than his intelligence was far-seeing, and that the
testimony of friends of late years to his moral grandeur is corroborated
by the personal records of his years of travel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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