n
against numberless and terrible cruelties. But we go further, and
maintain that in respect to large classes of slaves, it is for the
_interest_ of their masters to treat them with barbarous inhumanity.

1. _Old slaves._ It would be for the interest of the masters to
shorten their days.

2. _Worn out slaves._ Multitudes of slaves by being overworked, have
their constitutions broken in middle life. It would be _economical_
for masters to starve or flog such to death.

3. _The incurably diseased and maimed._ In all such cases it would be
_cheaper_ for masters to buy poison than medicine.

4. _The blind, lunatics, and idiots_. As all such would be a tax on
him, it would be for his interest to shorten their days.

5. _The deaf and dumb, and persons greatly deformed._ Such might or
might not be serviceable to him; many of them at least would be a
burden, and few men carry burdens when they can throw them off.

6. _Feeble infants._ As such would require much nursing, the time,
trouble and expense necessary to raise them, would generally be more
than they would be worth as _working animals_. How many such infants
would be likely to be 'raised,' from _disinterested_ benevolence? To
this it may be added that in the far south and south west, it is
notoriously for the interest of the master not to 'raise' slaves at
all. To buy slaves when nearly grown, from the northern slave states,
would be _cheaper_ than to raise them. This is shown in the fact, that
mothers with infants sell for less in those states than those without
them. And when slave-traders purchase such in the upper country, it is
notorious that they not unfrequently either sell their infants, or
give them away. Therefore it would be for the _interest_ of the
masters, throughout that region, to have all the new-born children
left to perish. It would also be for their interest to make such
arrangements as effectually to separate the sexes, or if that were not
done, so to overwork the females as to prevent childbearing.

7. _Incorrigible slaves_. On most of the large plantations, there are,
more or less, incorrigible slaves,--that is, slaves who _will not_ be
profitable to their masters--and from whom torture can extort little
but defiance.[25] These are frequently slaves of uncommon minds, who
feel so keenly the wrongs of slavery that their proud spirits spurn
their chains and defy their tormentors.

[Footnote 25: Advertisements like the following are not unfre