Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/209

Rh firſt place among thoſe of his own color who have preſented themſelves to the public judgement, yet when we compare him with the writers of the race among whom he lived and particularly with the epiſtolarly claſs, in which he has taken his own ſtand, we are compelled to enroll him at the bottom of the column. This criticiſm ſuppoſes the letters publiſhed under his name to be genuine, and to have received amendment from no other hand: points which would not be of eaſy inveſtigation. The improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the firſt inſtance of their mixture with the whites, has been obſerved by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their condition of life. We know that among the Romans, about the Auguſtan age eſpecially, the condition of their slaves was much more deplorable than that of the blacks on the continent of America. The two ſexes were confined in ſeparate apartments, becauſe to raiſe a child coſt the maſter more than to buy one. Cato, for a very reſtricted indulgence to his ſlaves in this particular, took from them a certain price. But in this country the ſlave multiply as faſt as the free inhabitants. Their ſituation and manners place the commerce between the two ſexes almoſt without reſtraint.—The ſame Cato, on a principle of œconomy, always ſold his ſick and ſupernumerated ſlaves. He gives it as a ſtanding precept to a maſter viſiting his farm to ſell his old oxen, old waggons, old tools, old and diſeaſed ſervants, and every thing elſe become uſeleſs. ‘Vendat boves