Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/81

 full benefit of an impartial legiſlation, let them be univerſally baptized, that they may become our equals at leaſt in chriſtianity. Let them be inſtructed, ſo far as they ſhall be capable of inſtruction, in the moral and obedient duties of life; let them not be too much humbled by a ſenſe of their condition, but be taught to love their maſters as protectors, and not to fear them as their tyrants. The overſeers ſhould be taught to keep up their authority, not by puniſhment, but by example; the negroes might then be better governed by ſhame, than the laſh. The inferior ſervants upon a plantation, and the drivers ſhould not be allowed the power of caſtigation. I am aware that theſe maxims will be thought romantic, adverting to the long accuſtomed mode of general management, to the habits under which the white people in the Weſt Indies have been educated, and to the feelings and diſpoſitions of the negroes as they now are, theſe maxims, if ſeriouſly adopted, would be not only romantic, but abſurd. Who would think of ſowing land, before it was properly prepared for the reception of feed? To force nature, to