Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in the British Colonies - With a View to Their Ultimate Emancipation; and on the Practicability, the Safety, and the Advantages of the Latter Measure. by Thomas Clarkson
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page 11 of 92 (11%)
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religion, to undertake the cause of the Negroes, they must even now be
influenced by the same motives to continue it. If any of those disorders still exist, which it was their intention to cure, they cannot (if these are curable) retire from the course and say--there is now no further need of our interference. The first step then to be taken by the Abolitionists is to attempt to introduce an _entire new code of laws_ into our colonies. The treatment of the Negroes there must no longer be made to depend upon _the presumed effects_ of the abolition of the slave trade. Indeed there were persons well acquainted with Colonial concerns, who called the abolition _but a half measure_ at the time when it was first publicly talked of. They were sure, that it would never _of itself_ answer the end proposed. Mr. Steele also confessed in his letter to Dr. Dickson[1] (of both of whom more by and by), that "the abolition of the stave trade would _be useless_, unless at the same time the infamous laws, which he had pointed out, _were repealed_." Neither must the treatment of the Negroes be made to depend upon what may be called _contingent humanity_. We now leave in this country neither the horse, nor the ass, nor oxen, nor sheep, to the contingent humanity even of _British bosoms_;--and shall we leave those, whom we have proved to be _men_, to the contingent humanity of a _slave colony_, where the eye is familiarized with cruel sights, and where we have seen a constant exposure to oppression without the possibility of redress? No. The treatment of the Negroes must be made to depend _upon law_; and unless this be done, we shall look in vain for any real amelioration of their condition. In the first place, all those old laws, which are repugnant to humanity and justice, must be done away. There must also be new laws, positive, certain, easy of execution, binding upon all, by means of which the Negroes in our islands shall have speedy and substantial redress in real cases of |
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