They are decently and respectably dressed. They attend divine
worship regularly. They exhibit an orderly and moral conduct. In their
town little shops are now beginning to make their appearance; and their
lands show the marks of extraordinary cultivation. Many of them, after
having supplied their own wants for the year, have a surplus produce in
hand for the purchase of superfluities or comforts.
Here then are four cases of slaves, either Africans or descendants of
Africans, _emancipated_ in _considerable bodies_ at a time. I have kept
them by themselves, became they are of a different complexion from
those, which I intend should follow. I shall now reason upon them. Let
me premise, however, that I shall consider the three first of the cases
as one, so that the same reasoning will do for all. They are alike
indeed in their _main_ features; and we must consider this as
sufficient; for to attend minutely to every shade of difference[5],
which may occur in every case, would be to bewilder the reader, and to
swell the size of my work unnecessarily, or without conferring an
adequate benefit to the controversy on either side.
It will be said then (for my reasoning will consist principally in
answering objections on the present occasion) that the three first cases
_are not strictly analogous_ to that of our West Indian slaves, whose
emancipation we are seeking. It will be contended, that the slaves in
our West Indian colonies have been constantly in an abject and degraded
state.
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