CHAPTER III.

Theory of Rousseau and Lord Kaimes-A false one-Injurious to the best interests of humanity, and contrary to Scripture-Injuries done to the Negro on the grounds of inferiority-Shocking effects resulting from this idea-Civilized nations before the Christian eraa-Romans, and their ancestors-Our own-Anecdote related by Dr. Philip-Cicero's remarks respecting them-Christian guilt towards Aborigines-Lamentable facts -Dr. Johnson on European conquest-Slavery justified by representing the Negro a distinct species-And even a brute-This supported by some writers—Arguments of Long-Strange book published at Charleston -Chamber's reply-Negroes said to admit their own inferiority-Remarks of Dr. Channing on this subject-Inferiority ascribed to other races-The Esquimaux-The whole refuted by Dr. Lawrence.

Those who are acquainted with the writings of Rousseau, Lord Kaimes, and others belonging to the same school, are not ignorant of the attempt which has been made, in opposition to the Bible, to establish the theory, already alluded to, which represents the human race as derived from different stocks. Apart from the authority on which the Mosaic account of the creation of Man is built, the consideration of God's having "made of one blood all the nations of the earth," is much more simple and beautiful, and has a greater tendency to promote love and concord, than that which traces the different members of the human family to different origins, giving rise to invidious distinctions, flattering the pride of one class of men, and affording a pretext to justify the oppression of another. Had this opinion, which we are now combating, been perfectly innocuous in its operation, or had it been confined to philosophers, we might have left it to its fate; but its prevalence, and the use which has been made of it, show that it is as hostile to the best interests of humanity as it is contrary to the truth of Scripture.*

It is a singular fact, that the injuries done to the Negroes

* Dr. Philip.

on the East and West coasts of Africa, the murders formerly committed by the colonists on the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa, and the privations and sufferings endured by the Slaves in America and the Colonies, are justified on this principle, as involving in them a consequent inferiority. "Expostulate with many farmers in South Africa," says Dr. Philip, "for excluding their Slaves and Hottentots from their places of worship, and denying them the means of religious instruction, and they will tell you at once that they are an inferior race of beings. Asking a farmer in the district of Caledon, whether a Black Man standing by him could read, he looked perfectly astonished at the question, and supposed he had quite satisfied my query by saying, 'Sir, he is a Slave.' In the same manner, the cruelties exercised by the Spaniards upon the Americans were justified by their wretched theologians, by denying that the poor Americans were men, because they wanted beards, the sign of virility among other nations."

The effects of this pretended idea of inferiority have been carried to an extent, towards the African, truly awful to contemplate. In their own country, they have become the most wretched of the human race; duped out of their possessions, their land, and their liberty, they have entailed on their offspring a state of existence, to which, even that of Slavery might bear the comparison of happiness, and to which death itself would be decidedly preferable. Such may not be the case universally, but it is the treatment by which the aborigines of Africa have been generally reduced to a state of degradation and wretchedness, surpassed in debasement only by the heartless barbarities of many Europeans, who, pretending to believe that the natives. are destitute of the qualities, and excluded from the rights of human beings, find no difficulty in classing them with the beasts of the forest, and destroying them without compunction, that they may obtain undisturbed possession of their country. The only consideration from which their

lives have often been either spared or preserved, seems to have been, that in a state scarcely above that of oxen or of dogs, they might perform every species of labour or drudgery in the dwellings or farms of those who now occupy the lands on which the herds of their ancestors formerly grazed in freedom.

"A farmer," says Barrow, in 1797, "thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious action than the murder of one of these people. A farmer from Graaff-Reinet, being asked in the Secretary's office a few days before we left town, if the savages were numerous or troublesome on the road, replied, he had only shot four,' with as much composure and indifference, as if he had been speaking of four partridges. I myself have heard one of the humane colonists boast of having destroyed with his own hands nearly three hundred of these unfortunate wretches."

A witness quoted by Pringle, says, "If the master took serious dislike to any of these unhappy creatures, it was no uncommon practice to send out the Hottentot on some pretended message, and then to follow and shoot him on the road."

But the sad effects of this notion of inferiority are no where so conspicuously manifested as in the brutal treatment to which the poor African has been doomed in the New World, and in the degrading epithets by which he is designated by his lordly task-masters. The oppressors of the Negro have committed a serious moral mistake, in perverting what should constitute a claim to kindness and indulgence into a justification or palliation of their conduct in enslaving their fellow men, and of that revolting and anti-christian practice, the traffic in human flesh; a practice branded with the double curse of degradation to the oppressor and the oppressed. The very argument, which has been used for defending the wrongs committed against the African, appears to me to be a tenfold aggravation of the enormity. Superior endowments, higher intellect,

greater capacity for knowledge, arts, and science, should be employed in extending the blessings of civilization, and in multiplying the enjoyments of social life; not as a means of oppressing the weak and ignorant, or of plunging those who are already represented as naturally low in the intellectual scale, still more deeply into the abyss of barbarism.

When we see a strong and well armed person, attack one equally powerful and well prepared, we are indifferent as to the issue; or we may look on with that interest which the qualities called forth by the contest are calculated to inspire: but if the strong attack the weak, if the well armed assail the defenceless, if the ingenuity, knowledge, and skill, the superior arts and arms of civilized life are combined, to rob the poor savage of his only valuable property-personal liberty-we turn from the scene with indignation and abhorrence.

They who possess higher gifts should remember the condition under which they are enjoyed :- From him to whom much is given, much will be required!' What a commentary on this head is furnished by Negro Slavery, as carried on, and permitted, by religious nations, by Christian Kings, Catholic Majesties, Defenders of the Faith, &c.!" *

For the sake of argument, let us admit that there may exist an intellectual imbecility in the mind of the Negro; -instead of its justifying our inflicting upon him the miseries of Slavery, does it not rather give him an additional claim to our sympathy and Christian compassion? If the retreating forehead and depressed vertex do indicate an inferiority in the mental capacity of the Negro, does it prove that he is not a human being,-that he has not an immortal soul,—or that he is not an accountable creature? Does it prove that he is not capable of every rational act, and that he is unendowed with every social feeling which is

* Lawrence.

essential to a man? Does it prove that the Negro race are less the children of "our Father who is in heaven," or authorize us to refuse a practical recognition of their being a part of the human family? Monstrous absurdity! If the darkcoloured race is admitted to be inferior in intellectual endowments, or physical proportions to the White, what, before the Christian era, were many of those nations which now stand amongst the most refined and intelligent?

If we desire to ascertain how much the character of a people depends upon the influence of the circumstances under which they live, let us look at the contrast exhibited between many nations which at one period attained to the highest celebrity, and their present condition. If further evidence of this fact be wanting, we may vary our illustration, and show how nations which were once viewed as deficient in mental capacity, have reached the highest place in the scale of empire, while the very nations, which at one period contemned them, have sunk into a state of degeneracy.

Take a number of children from the nursery, place them apart, and allow them to grow up without instruction and discipline; the first state of society into which they would naturally form themselves would be that of the hunter. While food could be obtained by the chase, they would never think of cultivating the ground: inured to hardships, they would despise many things, which, in a civilized state of society, are deemed indispensable. In seasons of common danger, they would unite their efforts in their own defence; their union, being nothing more than a voluntary association, would be liable to frequent interruptions; the affairs of their little community would be, to them, the whole world; and the range of their thoughts would be limited to the exercise which their fears and hopes might have, in relation to their own individual danger or safety.

The Romans might have found an image of their own ancestors in the representation they have given of ours.