n one of the
slaves employed in domestic offices during Major ----'s residence on the
island, is one of the oldest and most respected slaves on the estate, and
was introduced to me by Mr. ---- with especial marks of attention and
regard; she absolutely embraced him, and seemed unable sufficiently to
express her ecstacy at seeing him again. Her dress, like that of her
daughter, and all the servants who have at any time been employed about
the family, bore witness to a far more improved taste than the half savage
adornment of the other poor blacks, and upon my observing to her how
agreeable her neat and cleanly appearance was to me, she replied, that her
old master (Major ----) was extremely particular in this respect, and that
in his time all the house servants were obliged to be very nice and
careful about their persons.

She named to me all her children, an immense tribe; and, by the by, E----,
it has occurred to me that whereas the increase of this ill-fated race is
frequently adduced as a proof of their good treatment and well being, it
really and truly is no such thing, and springs from quite other causes
than the peace and plenty which a rapidly increasing population are
supposed to indicate. If you will reflect for a moment upon the overgrown
families of the half-starved Irish peasantry and English manufacturers,
you will agree with me that these prolific shoots by no means necessarily
spring from a rich or healthy soil. Peace and plenty are certainly causes
of human increase, and so is recklessness; and this, I take it, is the
impulse in the instance of the English manufacturer, the Irish peasant,
and the negro slave. Indeed here it is more than recklessness, for there
are certain indirect premiums held out to obey the early commandment of
replenishing the earth, which do not fail to have their full effect. In
the first place, none of the cares, those noble cares, that holy
thoughtfulness which lifts the human above the brute parent, are ever
incurred here by either father or mother. The relation indeed resembles,
as far as circumstances can possibly make it do so, the short-lived
connection between the animal and its young. The father, having neither
authority, power, responsibility, or charge in his children, is of course,
as among brutes, the least attached to his offspring; the mother, by the
natural law which renders the infant dependent on her for its first year's
nourishment, is more so; but as neither of t