ral thing, desire to live a peaceful, quiet life;
yet they are not willing to have their rights wrested from them."

"One great disadvantage in a slaveholding community is, that you are apt to
be surrounded by uneducated people," said Abel.

"We do not educate our slaves," said Arthur; "but you do not presume to say
that we do not cultivate our minds as assiduously as you do yours. Our
statesmen are not inferior to yours in natural ability, nor in the
improvement of it. We have far more time to improve ourselves than you, as
a general thing. When you have an opportunity of judging, you will not
hesitate to say, that our women can bear to be compared with yours in every
respect, in their intellect, and refinement of manners and conversation.
Our slaves are not left ignorant, like brutes, as has been charged upon us.
Where a master feels a religious responsibility, he must and does cause to
be given, all necessary knowledge to those who are dependent upon him. I
must say, that though we have fewer sects at the South, we have more
genuine religion. You will think I am prejudiced. Joining the church here
is, in a great measure, a form. I have formed this opinion from my own
observation. With us there must be a proper disregard of the customs of the
world; a profession of religion implying a good deal more than a mere
profession. Look at the thousand new and absurd opinions that have agitated
New England, while they never have been advanced with us. There is
Unitarianism, that faith that would undermine the perfect structure of the
Christian religion; that says Christ is a man, when the Scriptures style
him 'Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.' Why, it is hardly tolerated at the South. Have you any
right to claim for yourself superior holiness? None whatever.

"There never was any thing so perfectly false (I cannot help referring to
it again,) as that religion is discouraged among our slaves. It is
precisely the contrary. Most of them have the same opportunities of
attending worship as their owners. They generally prefer the Methodist and
Baptist denominations; they worship with the whites, or they have exclusive
occasions for themselves, which they prefer. They meet on the plantations
for prayer, for singing, or for any religious purpose, when they choose;
the ladies on the plantations instruct them in the Bible, and how to read
it. Many of them are taught to write.

"Religi