and a radiant spring.—­Besides, our lands would not be then cut down for the support of a numerous train of useless inhabitants—­useless, I mean, to themselves, and effectually to us, by encouraging sloth and voluptuousness among our young farmers and planters, who might otherwise know how to take care of their money, as well as how to dissipate it.—­In all other respects, I conceive them to be as valuable as we are—­as capable of worthy purposes, and to possess the same dignity that we do, in the estimation of providence; although the value of their work apart, for which we are dependent on them, we generally consider them as good for nothing, and accordingly, treat them with greatest neglect.

But be it remembered, that this cause is the cause of heaven; and that the father of them as well as of us, will not fail, at a future settlement, to adjust the account between us, with a dreadful attention to justice.

Othello
Baltimore, May 10, 1788.

—­American Museum, IV, 412-415.

ESSAY ON NEGRO SLAVERY

No.  II

Upon no better principle do we plunder the coasts of Africa, and bring away its wretched inhabitants as slaves than that, by which the greater fish swallows up the lesser.  Superior power seems only to produce superior brutality; and that weakness and imbecility, which ought to engage our protection, and interest the feelings of social benevolence in behalf of the defenceless, seems only to provoke us to acts of illiberal outrage and unmanly violence.

The practice which has been followed by the English nation, since the establishment of the slave trade—­I mean that of stirring up the natives of Africa, against each other, with a view of purchasing the prisoners mutually taken in battle, must strike the humane mind with sentiments of the deepest abhorrence, and confer on that people a reproach, as lasting as time itself.  It is surprising that the eastern world did not unite, to discourage a custom so diabolical in its tendency, and to exterminate a species of oppression which humbles the dignity of all mankind.  But this torpid inattention can only be accounted for, by adverting to the savage disposition of the times, which countenanced cruelties unheard of at this enlightened period.  What rudeness of demeanor and brutality of manner, which had been introduced into Europe, by those swarms of barbarians, that overwhelmed it from the north, had hardly begun to dissipate before the enlivening sun of civilization, when this infernal practice first sprang up into existence.  Before this distinguished era of refined barbarity, the sons of Africa were in possession of all the mild enjoyments of peace—­all the pleasing delights of uninterrupted harmony—­and all the diffusive blessings of profound tranquility.  Boundless must be the punishment, which irritated providence will inflict on those whose wanton cruelty has prompted