The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
The question which next presents itself is: "How could anyone justify
such a system by which one man is enslaved to the other, sacrificing
his right to life, liberty, and happiness that another might prosper?"
In the first place, the planter argued that the Negroes were naturally
inferior to the white race and could not enjoy the intellectual
pursuits; for they had always been savages, having lived in savagery
in Africa before taken into captivity and, even in the nineteenth
century when freed in Hayti, returning to that state of civilization.
From this fact it was argued that, inasmuch as the Negroes belonged to
an inferior race, it was only natural that men should enslave them and
that they should be controlled by their superiors. Chancellor Harper
said: "It is the order of nature and of Heaven that the being of
superior faculties and knowledge, and therefore of superior power,
should control and dispose of those who are inferior."
The planter argued, secondly, that the Negro was happy and contented
in slavery; for he was secure, working for the master, and in return
receiving good care all of his life. He was relieved of all worry of
sickness or old age, for he knew his master would have to care for
him. In time of business depression it was not he who suffered, but
the master. On the other hand, the free worker of the North labored
for his employer during the best part of his life and then, when no
longer able to work, or during business depression, was turned away
and obliged to suffer from lack of care. It was maintained that the
assertion that the Negro was not happy when he might be whipped was
"pathos misapplied." If a man hired a white laborer who robbed him, he
dismissed the worker, who was then sentenced to prison, thus
disgracing his family, which then suffered from lack of support. On
the other hand, a master could not discharge his slave, but whipped
and corrected him. After the whipping the Negro felt no bad
consequence and his family did not suffer from his wrong doings. It
was asserted that the slave was happy and loved his master as a
father, "looking up to him as his supporter, director, and defender."
Dew inquired: "Why, then, since the slave is happy and happiness is
the great object of all animated creation, should we endeavor to
disturb his contentment by infusing into his mind a vain and
indefinite desire for liberty, a something which he can not comprehend
and which must inevitably dry up every source of his happiness?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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