7962. SLAVES, Labor and.—
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 Santo Domingo,
those of Sierra Leone and Cape Mesurado,
are but beginning. Your proposition has
its aspects of promise also; and should it not
answer fully 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)
