time for
repose."

It is needless to multiply quotations; for the concurrent testimony of
all travellers proves that industry is a common virtue in the interior
of Africa.

Again, it is said that the negroes are treacherous, cunning, dishonest,
and profligate. Let me ask you, candid reader, what you would be, if you
labored under the same unnatural circumstances? The daily earnings of
the slave, nay, his very wife and children, are constantly wrested
from him, under the sanction of the laws; is this the way to teach a
scrupulous regard to the property of others? How can purity be expected
from him, who sees almost universal licentiousness prevail among those
whom he is taught to regard as his superiors? Besides, we must remember
how entirely unprotected the negro is in his domestic relations, and
how very frequently husband and wife are separated by the caprice, or
avarice, of the white man. I have no doubt that slaves are artful; for
they _must_ be so. Cunning is always the resort of the weak against the
strong; children, who have violent and unreasonable parents, become
deceitful in self-defence. The only way to make young people sincere and
frank, is to treat them with mildness and perfect justice.

The negro often pretends to be ill in order to avoid labor; and if you
were situated as he is, you would do the same. But it is said that the
blacks are malignant and revengeful. Granting it to be true,--is it
their fault, or is it owing to the cruel circumstances in which they are
placed? Surely there are proofs enough that they are naturally a kind
and gentle people. True, they do sometimes murder their masters and
overseers; but where there is utter hopelessness, can we wonder at
occasional desperation? I do not believe that any class of people
subject to the same influences, would commit fewer crimes. Dickson, in
his letters on slavery, informs us that "among one hundred and twenty
thousand negroes and creoles of Barbadoes, only three murders have been
known to be committed by them in the course of thirty years; although
often provoked by the cruelty of the planters."

In estimating the vices of slaves, there are several items to be taken
into the account. In the first place, we hear a great deal of the
negroes' crimes, while we hear very little of their provocations. If
they murder their masters, newspapers and almanacs blazon it all over
the country; but if their masters murder _them_, a trifling fine is
paid,