But if it be true that the abolition of the slave
trade has not produced all the effects, which the abolitionists
anticipated or intended, it would appear to be their duty, unless
insurmountable obstacles present themselves, _to resume their labours:_
for though there may be upon the whole, as I have admitted, a somewhat
better _individual_ treatment of the slaves by their masters, arising
out of an increased prudence in same, which has been occasioned by
stopping the importations, yet it is true, that not only many of the
former continue to be ill-treated by the latter, but that _all may be so
ill-treated_, if the _latter be so disposed_. They may be ill-fed,
hard-worked, ill-used, and wantonly and barbarously punished. They may
be tortured, nay even deliberately and intentionally killed without the
means of redress, or the punishment of the aggressor, so long as the
evidence of a Negro is not valid against a white man. If a white master
only take care, that no other white man sees him commit an atrocity of
the kind mentioned, he is safe from the cognizance of the law. He may
commit such atrocity in the sight of a thousand black spectators, and no
harm will happen to him from it. In fact, the slaves in our Islands have
_no more real protection or redress from law_, than when _the
Abolitionists first took up the question of the slave trade_. It is
evident therefore, that the latter have still one-half of their work to
perform, and that it is their duty to perform it.
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