Page:W. E. B. Du Bois - The Gift of Black Folk.pdf/190

178 'What! Arm the slaves? We shudder at the very idea, so repugnant to humanity, so barbarous and shocking to human nature,' etc. One very simple answer is, in my mind, to be given: Whether it is better to make this vast continent become an acquisition of power, strength and con- sequence to Great Britain again, or tamely give it up to France who will reap the fruits of American independence to the utter ruin of Britain? . . . experience will, I doubt not, justify the assertion that by embodying the most hardy, intrepid and determined blacks, they would not only keep the rest in good order but by being disciplined and under command be prevented from raising cabals, tumults, and even rebellion, what I think might be expected soon after a peace; but so far from making even our lukewarm friends and secret foes greater enemies by this measure, I will, by taking their slaves, engage make them better friends.

On the other hand, the Colonial General Greene wrote to the Governor of South Carolina the same year:

“The natural strength of the country in point of numbers appears to me to consist much more in the blacks than in the whites. Could they be incorporated and employed for its defence, it would