--of Henry
Williams,[27]--and of the Rev. Mr. Bridges and Kitty Hylton,[28] in
Jamaica. These cases alone might suffice to demonstrate the inevitable
tendency of slavery as it exists in our colonies, to brutalize the master
to a truly frightful degree--a degree which would often cast into the
shade even the atrocities related in the narrative of Mary Prince; and
which are sufficient to prove, independently of all other evidence, that
there is nothing in the revolting character of the facts to affect their
credibility; but that on the contrary, similar deeds are at this very time
of frequent occurrence in almost every one of our slave colonies. The
system of coercive labour may vary in different places; it may be more
destructive to human life in the cane culture of Mauritius and Jamaica,
than in the predial and domestic bondage of Bermuda or the Bahamas,--but
the spirit and character of slavery are every where the same, and cannot
fail to produce similar effects. Wherever slavery prevails, there will
inevitably be found cruelty and oppression. Individuals who have preserved
humane, and amiable, and tolerant dispositions towards their black
dependents, may doubtless be found among slave-holders; but even where a
happy instance of this sort occurs, such as Mary's first mistress, the
kind-hearted Mrs. Williams, the favoured condition of the slave is still
as precarious as it is rare: it is every moment at the mercy of events;
and must always be held by a tenure so proverbially uncertain as that of
human prosperity, or human life. Such examples, like a feeble and
flickering streak of light in a gloomy picture, only serve by contrast to
exhibit the depth of the prevailing shades. Like other exceptions, they
only prove the general rule: the unquestionable tendency of the system is
to vitiate the best tempers, and to harden the most feeling hearts. "Never
be kind, nor speak kindly to a slave," said an accomplished English lady
in South Africa to my wife: "I have now," she added, "been for some time a
slave-owner, and have found, from vexatious experience in my own
household, that nothing but harshness and hauteur will do with slaves."

[Footnote 23: See Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. 5 and 16.]

[Footnote 24: Ibid, No. 44.]

[Footnote 25: Ibid, No. 47.]

[Footnote 26: Ibid, No. 64, p. 345; No. 71, p. 481.]

[Footnote 27: Ibid, No. 65, p. 356; No. 69, p. 431.]

[Footnote 28: Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. 66, 69, and 76.]

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