THE CRIME OF SLAVERY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—As one who is prepared to bear the burden of responsi- bility which you say falls to the lot of him who defends slavery in the abstract, may I be allowed to say something in support of Mr. John Minor's views on the subject in your issue of May 3rd? From the European, or inhuman stand- point, of course it ought to be agreed that no crime can be worse than slavery ; for the very fact that the mere word " slave " cannot be pronounced without a certain shudder shows with what horrors Dutchmen, Spaniards, and English- men have succeeded in associating anything in the nature of proprietary rights by one man in the other. The history of the English white slave trade in Virginia and Maryland and of our negro slave trade in the West Indies is full of examples of such a brutal abuse of power and possession that as long as Englishmen remain what they are—that is to say, unable to be humane to their fellows without stern statutory measures forcing them to humanity—I can think of nothing worse than slavery. Once, however, that a type of man is reared who, like the ancient Greek or many a modern Oriental (such a man as you will find, for instance, along the southern shore of the Persian Gulf), is able not only to treat a slave humanely, but also to make his menial or other minion feel that it is no disgrace to belong to such a master as himself, there are no horrors in slavery, there is no crime in slavery, there is no ugliness but only beauty and happiness in it. And at all events it would be infinitely better than the present system of free labour. The personal note ought to be the last thing that the Spectator should overlook. The proper person can, and always will, justify proprietary rights in another.
Because we have lost the type which is great enough to possess a man without humiliating him; because we have evidence only of brutality and savage indignities in connexion with our fellow-countrymen's treatment of a possessed human being, surely that is no reason to condemn the insti- tution itself. It would be fairer to qualify the sweeping sentence upon slavery and say, "In the Englishman, in the Spaniard, in the Portuguese, in the Dutch, slavery is the greatest of crimes."—I am, Sir, &c., [Look at the glimpse of slavery we get even in pages so humane as those of Plato. It is a thing to shudder at. The fuller views of worse things in Roman literature give a complete denial to our correspondent's contention. When- ever, wherever, by whoever practised, slavery is Ti'!.—ED. Spectator.]
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