5815. NEGROES, Industry.—
An opinion
is hazarded by some, but proved by none, that moral urgencies are not sufficient to induce
the negro to labor; that nothing can do this but
physical coercion. But this is a problem which
the present age alone is prepared to solve by
experiment. It would be a solecism to suppose
a race of animals created, without sufficient
foresight and energy to preserve their own existence.
It is disproved, too, by the fact that
they exist, and have existed through all the
ages of history. We are not sufficiently acquainted
with all the nations of Africa, to say
that there may not be some in which habits of
industry are established, and the arts practiced
which are necessary to render life comfortable.
The experiment now in progress in St. Domingo,
those of Sierra Leone and Cape Mesurado, are
but beginning. Your proposition has its aspects
of promise also; and should it not fully answer
to calculations in figures, it may yet, in its developments,
lead to happy results.—
To Miss Fanny Wright. Washington ed. vii, 408.
Ford ed., x, 344.
(M.
1825)
