matter to be attended either with difficulty or danger: for
unquestionably their moral character must have been improved. If they
had ceased for seven years to feel themselves degraded by arbitrary
punishment, they must have acquired some little independence of mind. If
they had been paid for their labour, they must have acquired something
like a spirit of industry. If they had been made to pay rent for their
cottage and land, and to maintain themselves, they must have been made
to _look beforehand_, to _think for themselves and families from day to
day_, and to _provide against the future_, all which operations of the
mind are the characteristics only of free men. The case, therefore, of
Mr. Steele is most important and precious: for it shows us, first, that
the emancipation, which we seek, is a thing which _may be effected_. The
plan of Mr. Steele was put in force in _a British_ Island, and that,
which was done in one British Island, may under similar circumstances
_be done again in the same, as well as in another_. It shows us, again,
_how_ this emancipation may be brought about. The process is so clearly
detailed, that any one may follow it. It is also a case for
encouragement, inasmuch as it was attended with success.

I have now considered no less than six cases of slaves emancipated in
bodies, and a seventh of slaves, who were led up to the very threshold
of freedom, comprehending altogether not less than between five and six
hundred thousand persons; and I have considered also all the objections
that could be reasonably advanced against them. The result is a belief
on my part, that emancipation is not only _practicable_, but that it is
_practicable without danger_. The slaves, whose cases I have been
considering, were resident in different parts of the world. There must
have been, amongst such a vast number, persons of _all characters_. Some
were liberated, who had been _accustomed to the use of arms_. Others at
a time when the land in which they sojourned was afflicted _with civil
and foreign wars_; others again _suddenly_, and with _all the vicious
habits of slavery upon them_. And yet, under all these disadvantageous
circumstances, I find them all, without exception, _yielding themselves
to the will of their superiors_, so as to be brought by them _with as
much ease and certainty into the form intended for them_, as clay in the
hands of the potter is fashioned to his own model. But, if this be so, I
think I s