of Guinea. When they first arrive, it is observed, they are simple and
very innocent creatures; but soon turn to be roguish enough. And when
they come to be whipt, urge the example of the whites for an excuse of
their faults."

These accounts of the deep depravity of mind attendant on the practice
of slavery, verify the truth of Montesquieu's remark of its pernicious
effects. And altho' the same degree of opposition to instructing the
Negroes may not now appear in the islands as formerly, especially since
the Society appointed for propagating the Gospel have possessed a number
of Negroes in one of them; nevertheless the situation of these oppressed
people is yet dreadful, as well to themselves as in its consequence to
their hard task-masters, and their offspring, as must be evident to
every impartial person who is acquainted with the treatment they
generally receive, or with the laws which from time to time have been
made in the colonies, with respect to the Negroes; some of them being
absolutely inconsistent with reason, and shocking to humanity. By the
329th act of the assembly of Barbadoes, page 125, it is enacted,

"That if any Negroe or other slave under punishment by his master, or
his order, for running away, or any other crime or misdemeanors towards
his said master, unfortunately shall suffer in life or member, (which
seldom happens) no person whatsoever shall be liable to any fine
therefore. But if any man shall, _of wantonness, or only of
bloody-mindedness or cruel intention, wilfully kill a Negroe, or other
slave of his own, he shall pay into the public treasury, fifteen pounds
sterling_." Now that the life of a man should be so lightly valued, as
that fifteen pounds should be judged a sufficient indemnification of the
murder of one, even when it is avowedly done _wilfully, wantonly,
cruelly, or of bloody-mindedness_, is a tyranny hardly to be paralleled: