About: Thoughts On The Necessity Of Improving The Condition Of The Slaves by Thomas Clarkson
SLAVERY IN COLONIES
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THOUGHTS ON THE NECESSITY OF IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES INTHE BRITISH COLONIES, WITH A VIEW TO THEIR ULTIMATE EMANCIPATION;AND ONTHE PRACTICABILITY, THE SAFETY, AND THE ADVANTAGES OF THE LATTERMEASURE.
BY T. CLARKSON, ESQ.
1823.
PREFACE.
The following sheets first appeared in a periodical work called TheInquirer. They are now republished without undergoing any substantialalteration. The author however thinks it due to himself to state, that_he would have materially qualified those parts of his essay which speakof the improved Condition of the Slaves in the West Indies since theabolition_, had he then been acquainted with the recent evidenceobtained upon that subject. His present conviction certainly is, that hehas overrated that improvement, and that in point of fact Negro Slaveryis, in its main and leading feature, the same system which it was whenthe Abolition controversy first commenced.
It is possible there may be some, who, having glanced over the TitlePage of this little work, may be startled at the word _Emancipation_. Iwish to inform such, that Mr. Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville, an acuteMan, and a Friend to the Planters, _proposed this very measure toParliament_ in the year 1792. We see, then, that the word Emancipationcannot be charged with _Novelty_. It contains now _no new ideas_. Itcontains now nothing but what has been _thought practicable_, and _evendesirable to be accomplished_. The Emancipation which I desire is suchan Emancipation only, as I firmly believe to be compatible not only withthe due subordination and happiness of the labourer, but with thepermanent interests of his employer.
I wish also to say, in case any thing like an undue warmth of feeling onmy part should be discovered in the course of the work, that I had nointention of being warm against the West Indians as a body. I know thatthere are many estimable men among them living in England, who deserveevery desirable praise for having sent over instructions to their Agentsin the West Indies from time to time in behalf of their wretched Slaves.And yet, alas! even these, _the Masters themselves, have not hadinfluence enough to secure the fulfilment of their own instructions upontheir own estates_; nor will they, _so long as the present systemcontinues_.
They will never be able to carry their meritorious designsinto effect against _Prejudice, Law, and Custom_. If this be not so, howhappens it that you cannot see the Slaves, belonging to such estimablemen, _without marks of the whip upon their backs_? The truth is, that_so long as overseers, drivers, and others, are entrusted with the useof arbitrary power_, and _so long as Negro evidence is invalid againstthe white oppressor_, and _so long as human nature continues to be whatit is_, _no order_ from the Master for the better personal treatment ofthe Slave _will or can be obeyed_.
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