Charles was very fond of talking
to Peter, because Peter told about the slaves that worked on his
father's plantations, for his father was a sugar planter, and had a
large estate in Jamaica, so he was obliged to keep a great many negro
slaves, for all the plantations in the West-Indies, are cultivated by
negroes.

"I wish I had a slave," said Charles to his papa one evening, after he
had been playing with Peter. "Do you know, papa, when Peter was at home
in the West-Indies, he had a slave of his own, a black boy, to wait upon
him, and do every thing he wanted; and Peter was his master, and he was
not older, then, than I am. What a nice thing it must be to have a slave
of one's own; I should get him to carry my kite, and my hoop and stick,
when I don't want to bowl it, and mend my toys when I break them, and do
a great many things for me. He could move my rocking horse, and that
great wooden box where I keep my bats and balls, for it is too heavy for
me to lift myself, and I often want it moved: really a slave would be
very useful to me, papa."

Mr. Barker could not help laughing at Charles's idea of the usefulness
of a slave, and asked him if he knew exactly what slaves were.

"Yes," replied Charles; "they are black people."

"A great many slaves are black, certainly," said his papa, "but is not
being black, that makes a man a slave, and there have been many
unfortunate white people sold for slaves, as well as the poor blacks."

"Sold!" said Charles, "what, do they sell people, I never heard of that
before."

"Then I will tell you now, my dear, and I think you will never again
wish to have a slave. When America was first discovered, which is about
three hundred and fifty years ago, there were many gold mines found in
the West-Indies, all the mountains contained a vast quantity of gold,
but it was very hard work to dig for it, and the natives of the country,
who were savages, were not strong, and had never been used to work; so
that the Spaniards who had discovered the country, could not get as much
gold as they wished, although they were cruel enough to force the poor
savages to work in the mines, and chained them together; that they might
not run away; poor creatures! they were much to be pitied, and numbers
of them died every day, for they had not strength to bear such hard
labour. So when the Spaniards found that the Indians could not do as
much work as they wanted done, they employed sailors to go to Africa a