Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/37

Rh him below his natural level. He is treated as a machine, to be worked by force; this represses his energies, and promotes indolence, stupidity, and craft. He does nothing but what he is compelled to do: his ingenuity is employed, not in improving himself, or benefiting his master, but in contriving to evade the imposition of labour, or the infliction of punishment. He does nothing from moral motives. Freedom, hope, and domestic love, are the great springs of virtuous action and enjoyment. But the slave is deprived of them all. He is not allowed to act as a free agent, and he ceases to consider himself responsible. The law of his master is often set against the laws of nature, and of God: thus, the sense of right and wrong is confounded in the mind of the slave. He has nothing to hope for as the reward of exertion; for, whatever he acquires, is the property of another. Domestic life loses its endearing ties, for he must not regard even his wife and children as his own: he may, in a moment, be separated from them by the will of a tyrant. In such a condition, the human mind, as it is more strongly or more feebly constituted, sinks into listless apathy, sullen indifference, retaliative cunning, or fierce revenge—

"Yes, to deep sadness sullenly resign'd, He feels his body's bondage in his mind, Puts off his generous nature; and to suit His manners with his fate, puts on the brute. Oh, most degrading of all ills that wait On man, a mourner in his best estate! All other sorrows virtue may endure, And find submission more than half a cure. But slavery! Virtue dreads it as her grave, Patience itself is meanness in a slave: