ABSTRACT
The situation of a good negro under a kind owner or a benevolent overseer is not to be pitied, indeed it is very superior in many respects, to those of the generality of labouring poor in England—the first indeed are slaves to their masters—the last to their wants. To wretches of this description, whose cruelty rises in proportion to the weakness of the object, no excuse should be made, no protection given; they should be deprived of the powers of punishment, hooted through the world as dishonourers of nature; should find no companion but shame, no rest but in death; and this completion of human punishment should be as painful as ignominious. An European burns at the very idea of human nature toiling in the fervid regions of the torrid zone, without considering that every climate has its inhabitant, and that inhabitant its local customs and labours to endure.
