The influence of slavery is in every sense injurious to the slave. As they derive no benefit from being industrious, they try to evade labor, under all manner of false pretexts; and the more time they can waste, the more they think they have gained. They do not, like free laborers, fear to be dishonest, lest they should lose their character and place; but the compensation which is not given they conceive themselves at liberty to take. It is a common thing for them to say, “Me no steal him; me take him from massa.” Persons who are most kind and indulgent to their slaves are often liable to be served in the most negligent manner. Some have unjustly ascribed this to the bad disposition of the Africans; but the fault is in the pernicious system, which removes all salutary moral restraints, and healthy incentives to exertion. No human being will work from a disinterested love of toil; and slaves soon learn that they gain nothing by industry, and lose nothing by laziness; in either case they get something to eat, and something to cover them--and their greatest exertions will do no more. Under a severe master or mistress, they will work, from fear of the whip, which a driver is paid to hold over their backs; but when this is removed, no other inducement to industry remains. In all slave countries, there are many honorable exceptions to the character implied in the preceding remarks--men and women who conscientiously endeavor to mitigate the condition of their slaves, as far as possible. Instances of strong mutual attachment sometimes occur, between masters and their dependents, as there did in the proud old feudal times. The negro nurse is called “mammy,” by those whom she tended in their infancy, and is sometimes treated with so much tenderness, that her young master and mistress will resent it if an unkind word be spoken to her. The negroes are of an affectionate disposition, and are often devoted to their foster-children with all the strength of maternal affection. During a tremendous earthquake in St. Domingo, when others were saving themselves with all haste, a young female slave remembered a white infant, forgotten by its own mother. She hastened to her nursling, and placing herself in an arch over its body, was killed by the tumbling walls of the house; but the little object of her solicitude was safely restored to its agonized parents. But although there are here and there spots of sunshine and verdure in the dark picture of slavery, the natural tendency of the system is to turn any form of society into a moral desert. Christian nations are beginning to be aware of this; and the hand of Divine Providence is now visibly seen removing this “costly iniquity” from the face of the earth. [Illustration: The mother of Washington receiving Lafayette in her garden.] AMERICA.