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CONVERSATION ON
SLAVERY,
BETWEEN A LADY IN SCOTLAND, AND A RELATIVE OF HERS, WHO
HAD LATELY RETURNED FROM BALTIMORE
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ON the subject of slavery
being mentioned, the American lady became greatly
excited. She said she had one slave, and noting
should induce her to give him up. He was very well
off. "Did you ever see a slave beaten?" asked her
friend. "O! very frequently; I often do it
myself. I just take my shoe whenever I need it.
But the slaves are better off than the servants of this
country." "O, you are mistaken," rejoined the
lady; "if a mistress strike a servant, she may appeal to
a magistrate, and generally has the verdict in her
favour. Them mistress has no such power over her
servant." "Poor things! how I pity them, then, not
to be able to do as they please with their servants."
The name of Frederick Douglass being mentioned,
the American lady exclaimed against him in the most
violent language, saying, if she had him in Baltimore,
he should be tarred and feathered. And on a
remonstrance being made, she remarked to her relative.
"And you would be tarred and feathered too, if you were
in the slave states."
Thus the sensibilities are blunted, and the mind is
vitiated by the poisonous contamination of slavery.
Another instance of these effects was exhibited in the
conduct of the little daughter of this lady, a child of
the seven years old. She was on a visit to her
cousin, who had a favourite canary, which hopped in and
out of its cage with the greatest familiarity. One
day, this canary came to near the little visitor, who
seized it, and with savage pleasure, held it in a tub of
water with its head downwards, till the life of the
pretty little pet was extinct; and then, upon being
questioned, she laughingly, related the occurrence, as
if something clever had been done. - Such are the
hardening effects of slavery, upon even a young and
tender mind!
Leeds Anti-slavery
Series. No. 54.
Sold by W. and F. G. CASH, 5,
Bishopsgate Street, London; and by JANE JOWETT, Friends'
Meeting Yard, Leeds, at 1s. 2. per 100.
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