jefferson's notes on the state of virginia

8/7/2019 Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia

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ablemathema ' ians, how many t inventors, in arts orscie es, had EuroNorth ofthAlps thenproduc . And it was sixteen cent 'es after this be reaNewtri~ld b~formed,I. not mean to deny, that t .e are var~etiesi e raceof !Jl~Ill,distinguished by elrpowersbothofb0~ mind. I believe ere are; as}iee. to,b.e the case i t era~es of.o t~er animals: Lonly me~n to s gest a d~ubt,

/wh~ther ..~ebulk' d. faculties-of...a11lI?~I.~p:nd on the side . the ~tlant1c onwhich their.foo appens to grow, or w~. ?rrushes the elem ts ofwhich they arecompoundeWhether nature has lsted herself as a Ci rTrans-Atlanticsan?l am' duced to suspect, the has been more elo nce than sound reasorandisplay insupporrof this tory; that it is one of se cases where thehas en seduced bya glo ng pen: and whilst I nder every tribute ofes emto the celebrate oologist,whohasad d, and is still adding,

( iousthings tothe tr sures ofscience.Lrnu doubtwhether in thils)1l'1stan,:enot cherished .err also, bylending her amo.ment his vivid i11)aglnatJOnwitchinglangu e.

So f ar t Count de Buffon has arried this new t heory tendency of natureto . belittle erproductionson t s side the Atlantic, to. therace ofwhites, ansplantedfrom E y ope, remained far Raynal / ' 'On doit etreeton '(hesays) que!' fique n'aitpas enco.re unbon poete, unhabilema-t ernaticien, un hom e d e genie dans un au une seule science?'ica has not yet produ dane goad poet.'weshall.have existed as a .lang as .the Greek (lid before they prod -a Hamer, the RomansaFrench aRacine nd Volratre, the a Shakespeare and Milton,preach be stil rue, we will enquire what unfriendly causes itthat the oth countries.of'Europe quarters-of the earth shall inscribedany name 'therollo.fpoets,8 neither has America UL


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perpetual war against the Powhatans .We are told that the Po i oba t an s ; Mannaboac s ,and Monacans , spoke languages so radically different, that interpreters were necessarywhen they transac ted business. Hence we may conjecture , tha t this was not the casebetween all the tribes, and probably that each. spoke the language of the nation towhich it was attached; which we know to have been the case in many particular in"stances. Very possibly there may have beenantiently three different stocks, each ofwhich multiplying in a long course of t ime, had separated into so many lit tle societies.This practice resu lts from the circumstance of the ir having never submitted them-selves to any laws, any coercive power, anyshadow of government. Their only con-trouls are their manners, and that moral sense of r ight and wrong, which, l ike the senseof tast ing and feeling, in every man makes a par t ofhis nature. An offence against theseispunished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or, where the case is serious, astha t of murder, by the ind ividua ls whom it concerns. Imperfect as this species of co-ercion may seem, crimes are very rare among them: insomuch that were it made aquest ion, whether no law, as among the savage Americans, or too much law, asamongthe civil ized Europeans , submits man to the greatest evi l, one who has seen both con'd itions of existence would pronounce it to be the last: and tha t the sheep are happierof themselves, than under care of the wolves . I t will be said, that great societies can.not exist without government. The Savages therefore break them into small ones . .. .

I know of no such thing existing as anIndian monument: for I would not honourwith that name arrow points, stone hatchets, s tone pipes, and half-shapen images. Oflabour on the large scale , I think there is no remain as respec tab le aswould be a com-mon ditch for the dra ining of lands: unless indeed it be the Barrows, of which manyare tobe found all over th is country. These are of differen t sizes, some of them con-structed of earth , and some of loose stones. That they were repositories of the dead,has beenobvious to all : but on what particu lar occasion constructed, was matter ofdoubt . Somehave thought they covered the bones of those who have fal len in bat tlesfought on the spot of in terment. Some ascribed them to the custom, sa id to preva ilamong theIndians , of col lect ing, at cer tain per iods , the bones of all-their dead, where-soever deposi ted at the t ime of death. Others again supposed them the general sepul-chres for towns, conjectured to have been on or near these grounds; and this opinionwas supported by the quali ty of the lands in which they are found, ( those constructedof earth beinggenerally in the softest and most fertile meadow-grounds on river sides)and by a tradition, sa id to be handed down from the Aborig inal Ind ians, that, whenthey settled in a town, the first person who died was placed erect, and earth put abouthim, so as tocover and support him; that, when another died, a narrow passage wasdug to the firs t, the second reclined against him, and the cover of earth replaced, andso on. There being one of these in my neighbourhood, I wished to satisfy myselfwhether any,andwhich of these opinions were jus t. For this purpose I determined toopen and examinei t thoroughly. It was situa ted on the low grounds of the Rivanna,about two milesabove its princip le fork , and opposite to some hills, on which hadbeen an Indian town. It was of a spheroid ica l form, of about 40 feet d iameter at thebase , and had been of about twelve feet altitude, though now reduced by the p loughto seven and ahalf, having been under cu ltivat ion about a dozen years. Before this itwas covered withtrees of twelve inches diameter, and round the base was a.nexcavationoff ivefeet depth andwidth, f tom whence the ear th had been taken ofwhich the hil lockwas formed. I firstdug superfic ially in several part s of it, and came to co llec tions of

human bones, at different depths, from six inches to three feet below the surface. Thesewerelying in the utmost confusion, some vertical, some oblique, some horizontal; anddirected to every.pointof the compass, entangled, and held together inclusters by theear th. Bones of the most distant par ts were found togetheras, for ; instance, the smallbones of the foot in the hollow of a scull , many sculls would sometimes be in contact ,lying on the face, on the side, on the back; top at bottom, so as, on thewhole to givethe idea ofbones emptied promiscuously from a bag or basket, and covered over withear th, without any attention to their order . The hones ofwhichthe greatest numbersremained, were sculls, jaw-bones, teeth, the bones of the arms, thighs, legs, ' feet ,' andhands.A few ribs remained, some vertebra: of the neck and spine, without theirprocesses, and one instance only of the bone ' which serves as a base to the vertebra lcolumn. The sculls were so tender, that they generally fellto pieces on being.touched,The other hones were stronger. There were some teeth which were judged to besmalle r than those of an adult; a scu ll, which, on a slight v iew, appeared to be tha t ofan infant, but it fell to p ieces on being taken out, so as to preventsatisfactory exami-nat ion; a r ib, and afragment ofthe under-jaw of a person about half grown; anotherrib of an infant; and part of the jaw of a child.which had not ye t cut its tee th: This lastfurnishing the most decis ive proof of the bur ial of chi ldren here, Iwas par ticular inmyattention to it. Itwas part of the right -half of the under-jaw. The processes, bywhich it was articula ted to the tempora l hones, were entire; and the bone itse lf firmtowhere i thad been broken off ,which, asnear ly asI could judge, was about the placeof the eye-too th. Its upper edge , where in would have been the sockets ofthe teeth,was perfectly smooth. Measuring it with that of an adult, by placing their hinderprocesses together, i ts broken end extended to the penultimate grinder of the adult .This bone was white , a ll the others of a sand colour. The bones of in fants be ing soft,theyprobably decay sooner, which might be the cause so fewwere-found here, 1 pro-ceeded then to make a perpendicular cut through the body ofthe barrow, that Lmightexamine its internal structure. This passed about three feet from its center, wasopened to the former surface of the earth, and was wide enough for a man to walkthrough and examine i ts sides. At the bottom, that is, on the level of the circumiacentplain;I found bones; above these a few stones, brought from a cliff a quarter , of a mileoff, and from the river one-eighth of a mile off; then a large inte rval of earth, then astratum of bones, and so on. At one end of the section were four strata of bonesplainly distinguishable; at the other, three; the strata in one part not ranging with thoseinanother. The bones nearest the surface were least decayed. No holes werediscov-ered in any of them, as if made with bullets , arrows, or other weapons . I conjecturedthat in this barrow might have been a thousand skeletons . Every one will readily seizethe circumstances above related, which mil itate against the opinion, that i t coveredthe bones only of persons fal len inbatt le; and against the tradi tion also, which wouldmake it the common sepulchre of a town, in which the bodies were p laced upright,and touching each other . Appearances cer tainly indicate that i t has der ived both ori-ginand growth from the accustomary collect ion of bones , and deposit ion ofthem to-gether; that the first collection had been deposited on the common surface of theearth, a few stones put over it, and then a covering of earth , tha t the second had been

' T h e o s s a cr u m .


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laid on this; had covered more or less ofit in-proportion-to the number ofbones, andwas then also covered with earth; and soon. The following are the particular circum-stances which giveit this aspect. 1.The number ofbones. 2. Their confused position.3..Their being in differentstratarl.The strata in one part having no correspondencewith those in' another. 5.The different states of decay in these strata, which seem-toindicate a difference inthe.timeof inhumation. 6. The. existence of infant bonesamong them.

But on.whatever occasion they may have been-made, they are of considerablenotoriety among the Indians: fora party passing, about thirty years ago, through thepart ofthe country where this barrow-is, went through the woods directly to it.with-out any instructions or enquiry; and having staid about it some time; with expressionswhichwere.construed tobethose.ofsorrow; they returned to the high road; whichthey had left about half-a dozen.miles.to pay this visit, and pursued their journey.There. isanorher barrow, .much' resembling this in the low grounds of the Southbranch ofShenandoah, where it is crossed by the road leading from the Rock-fishgap to Staunton. Botbof these have, within these dozen years, been cleared of theirt rees and put under cultivation, are much reduced in their height , and spread inwidth, bythe plough, and will probably disappear in time. There is another on a hillin the Blue ridge of mountains, a few miles North of Wood's gap, which is made upof small-stones thrown. together. This has been opened and found to contain humanbones, as the others do. There are also many others in other parts of the country . .

Great question has arisen from whence came those aboriginal inhabitants ofAmerica? Discoveries, long ago made, were,sufficient to shew that a passage from Eu-ropetoAmericawasalway~practidlble,.even to theimperfect navigation .of ancienttimes. Ingoing from Norway to Iceland, from Iceland to Greenland, from Groenlandto Labrador, the.first traject isthe widest: and this having been practised from the ear-liest times of which we have any account of that part of the earth, it.is not -diff icu l t tosuppose that the subsequent-trajects may have beet! sometimes passed. Again, the latediscoveries of Captain Cook, coasting from Kamschatka to. California, have provedthat, if the t'wocontinents of Asiaand America be separated at all,it is only by.a nar-row streight. So that from-rbisside.also.Jnhabitants may -have .passed into America:and the resemblance between the Indians ofAmerica and the Eastern inhabitants ofAsia.would.induceus to conjecture, that the former are the descendants of- the . la t t e r ,or thelatter of the former: excepring. indeed-the -Eskimaux, who, from the same cir-cumstanceof reseinblarice,andfrom identity.of.language, must be derived from theGroenlanders, and these probably from some of the northern parts-of the old conti-nent. A knowledge of their several languages would be the most certain. evidence oftheir derivation which could be produced. Intact, itis the best proof of the affinity ofnations-which ever can be referred to. How manyages have elapsed since the English;the .Dutch-rhe Germans, the Swiss,the Norwegians, -Dar ies and Swedes have sepa-ratedfrom.their common stock? Yet how many more must.elapsebefore the proofs oftheir common origin.which exist in their several languages; will disappear? It is to.belamented then, verymuch tobe lamented; that wehave suffered somany of the Indiantribes already to extinguish, without our having previously, collected and deposited inthe records of literature, the general rudiments at least of the languages they spoke.Were vocabularies formed of all the languages spoken in North and South America,preserving their appellations of the most common objects in nature, of those which

must be present to every nation barbarous or civilised, with.the inflections of theirnouns and verbs, their principles of regimen and concord, and these deposited .in allthe public libraries, it would furnish opportunities to those skilled in the languages ofthe old world to compare them with these, now, or at any future time, and hence toconstruct the best evidence of the derivation ofthis part of the human race....

"yromQuery XIV\ Laws

\\. .. Many of the laws which were in force during the monarchy being relative merelyto that form. of government, or inculcating principles inconsistent with republican-ism, the first assembly which met after the establishment of the commonwealthappointed a committee to.revise the whole code, toreduce it into proper form andvolume, and report it to the assembly! ... The following are the most remarkable al-terations proposed:To change the rules of descent, so as that the-lands of any person dying intestatesballbe dirisible equally among all his children, 01 other representatives, in equaldegree ..To make slaves distributable among the next ofkin, as other moveables.

,To have all public expences, whether of the general treasury,or of a parish orcounty, (as for the maintenance of the poor, building bridges, court-houses, &c.) sup-plied.by assessments on the citizens, in proportion to their property.

To hire undertakers for keeping the public roads in repair, and indemnify indi-viduals through whose lands new roads shall be opened.

To define with precision the rules whereby aliens should become citizens, andcitizens make themselves aliens.

To establish religious freedom on the broadest bottom.To emancipate all slaves born after passing the act; The billreported by the re-

visors does not itself contain this proposition; but an amendment containing it wasprepared, to be offered.to the legislature.whenever the bill should be taken,up, andfurther, directing, that they should continue with their parents to a certain age, thenbe brought up,atthe public.expence, to tillage, arts or sciences; according to theirgeniusses, till the females should be eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age,when they should be colonized to such place as the circumstances ofthe time shouldrender most proper, sending them out with arms, implements of housh old and.ofthehandicraft arts, feeds, pairs of the usefp.ldomestic-animals, &c. to declare them afreeand independant people, and extendto them our all iance and protection, t il l theyshall have acquired strength; and to send vessels at the same time to other parts ofthe world .for an equal number of whi te inhabitants; to induce whom to migratehither,proper encouragements were to be proposed. It will probably-be asked, Whynot-retain and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus savethe expence ofsup-plying, by importation .of white settlers, the vacancies they willleave? Deep rootedprejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the

l Je fferson was one of three members o f the ,Commitreeof Revisors{Ed.].


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injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature hasmade; and many-cthebeircumstances.will divide us into parties,' andproduce.con-vulsions which will .probably never end hut in thcexterminarionof.rheone' or theother. race;~Totheseobjections, which are political, may be added others, which arephysical and moral. The firsrdifferencewhichstrilces us is that of colour. Whetherthe black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin and scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds from the colour of the blood, thecolour of the bile, or from that of some other secretion, the"di'fference,'isfixed in na-ture, and is as real as if its seat and cause were better known to us.Aqd is this dif-ference ofno importance? Is it not the foundation of a greater or less share ofbeautyin thetworaceszAre not the fine,mixtures ofred and white; the expressions ofeverypassion ;by greater-or less suffusions of colour in the one, preferable ro that: eternalmonotony; ',which reigns in the countenances, that immoveable veil of black whichcovers all the emotions of.rhe other race? ,Add to these; flowing hair, a more elegantsymmetry ofform, their own judgment lnfavour ofthewhites, declared by their pref-erence of them, as uniformly as is the preference of the Oranootan.for the blackwomen .over those .of ,his'own 'species. The circumstance of superior, .beauty, isthought worthy; attention in the propagation of our.horses.idogs, and other d6meSct ic animals; why not in that of man? Besides those of colour, f igure, and hair , thereare other physical distinctions proving a difference of-race, They haveless'hair on theface and body. They secrete.less.by thekidnies, and more by th e glands ofthe'skin,which gives them a very,strong and disagreeable odour. This greater' degree of.tran-spiration renders.them more tolerant of heat.vand.less.so-ofcold.sthan the whites;Perhapstooa.difference.of SJFucture i n the pulmonary'apparatusrwhieha Iateinge-nious experimentalist has discovered to be the principal.regulator of animal ,heat,may have 'disabled them from.extricating.tin the act of.inspiration.rso.rnuch of thatfluid from the outer air, or obliged them in expiration,' to'part with.more.of it. Theyseem to require less sleep.Ablaok.after hard labour through .the day,\villheinducedby the'slightesrarnusements to-sit up.till-midnight, or-later, though.knowing he mustbe outwith.the first dawn.of.the morningx.Theyare.at least as brave; and.moread-venturesome .But'this may perhaps proceed from .awanrofforethought.whiclrpre-vents.their seeing a danger.tillir be present.i When present, they do not g o throughit,with-more.coolnessor steadiness than'rhe whites- They are-more.ardenrsftertbeirfernalerbur.love. seems,with them to be more aneagerdesire, than a tender-delicatemixture of.sentiment.and sensation; 'Their.griefs are transient.' Thosenum berless af-flictionsewhloh-render it doubtful whe t he r -heaven hasgiven.life tous it) rnercy.or inwrath,are less 'felt, and sooner forgotten-with.them.Tn .general, their existence ap-'pears to participate, more of sensation than reflection. To this-must be ascribed theirdisposition' to sleep when abstracted-from their'idiversions; and 'unemployed-inlabour; An animal whose body.is.atrestrandiwho does lnorreflect; must be.disposedto'sleep of-course:' Comparing thernbytheif faculties ofmemory, reason, and.imagJination.Jtappears tome, that inmemorytheyere.equaltothe whites; in reason'muclrinferior, asTthink one could scarcely.be found-capable of tracing.and comprehend;ing the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are .dull,uasteless.andanomalous. It would be unfair to follow them to Africa for this investigation. Wewillconsider them here, on the same stage with . the.whites, and where the facts are notapocryphal on which a judgment is to be formed. It will be right to make great al-

Iowances' for the difference of condition, of education, of conversation; ofthe spherein:which they move. Many millions of them.have been brought.to, and born in Amer-ica. Most ofthem indeed have been confined to tillage, to their own homes, and theirown society: ye t -many have been sosituated, that they might have availed themselvesof the conversation, of their masters; many have been .brought up to the handicraftarts.and.from that circumstance have always been associated with the.whites. Somehave beel1~iberally educated, and a ll have lived in countries where the arts and-sci-ences a:uecdItivated to a considerable degree, and have had before their eyessamplesof.the best:,J.orksfrom abroad. The Indians,with no advantages of this kind, willof-ten.carve figures on their pipes not destitute of design and merit. They will crayonbut. an:animal, a plant,ora country, so as to.prove . the existence of a germ in theirminds.which only'wants cultivation. They astonish you with strokes.of the most sub,lime, oratory; such: as.prove their reason and sentiment strong, their. imaginationglowing and elevated. But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a thoughtabove the level of plain narration; never see even an.elementary trait of painting orsculpture. In music they are more generally gifted than.the whites with accurate earsfor tune and time, .arid they.have been' found capable of imagining a small catch}Whether they will be.equal-to the composition of a more extensive run ofmelody,'orof complicated harmony, is yet.to be proved. Misery is often the parent of the mostaffecting touches in poetry-s-Among the blacks is misery.enough, God knows; butno poetry. Love is the peculiar cestrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but,it kin-dlesthe senses. only, not the imagination: Religion indeed, has produced a PhyllisWhately; ;but it could not produce: a poet.' The compositions published under hername are below:the dignity of criticism. The heroes ofthe Dunciad are to'her, asHer-cules tothe author, of that poem. Ignatius Sancho has approached nearer tomerit.incompositionxyethis letters do more honour to thehearrthari'the head. They breathethe purest effusions of friendship and general philanthropy, and shew how,great adegree of,the latter.may be compoundedwithsttongreHgiouszeal.Heis often happyin.rhe tum of his- compliments, and-his stile-is easy and familiar, except when heaffects a Shandean fabrication. of words. iBut.hisimagination is wild and extravagant,escapes incessantly from every restraint of reason. and taste, and, in -the course ofitsvagaries; leaves a tract of.thought as.incoherent and eccentric, as isthe course ofameteorthrough.the sky.His subjects should-often have led himto a process of soberreasoning: yet we' find him always substituting.sentiment fordemonstration. Uponthe whole, though we admit him to the first place among those ofhis own colour whohave presented themselves to the public judgment; yet when we compare h im withthe :w:ritersof the 'llaceamong whom -h e lived, and: particularly with the epistolaryclass.Inwhich he has taken his own stand, we are.compelled to enroll him at t he-bo t -tom of the-column. This-criticism supposes the. le t ters-publ ished under hisname.tobegenuinev and to have received amendment.from no other hand; points which

r . , ; 1:.'" : . i ', .C , _ ', , '_ : ': : . - , ; , ,.:!i ';';,1 . T ~ ~ .:~tw~~w~~r~pcrr.to ,~he~ ,is th~.! 3 a n j ~ r , ) . '~fferson .is . .sp~a~g. of .P,hiW~.Wh(!ad~ywhich they br~ught . hither from. Africa.i.and 075.3__784), a distinguished po,et whose \vflt~.which is t l ieo'd~iha] ofthe 'guitar, i ts 'chords ingsappear el sewhere in thisantho]ogy' [Ed.]..beingprecisely the: four lower chords c i f theguitar.


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would not be of easy investigation. The improvement of the blacks in body andmind, inthe first instance of their mixture with the whites, -has been observed byeveryone, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their conditiono~~ife.WeIa;ow that among the Romans, about the Augustan age especially, the con-.ditionof their slaves was much more deplorable than thatofthe blacks onthe con-tinent of America. The two sexes were confined in separate, apartments, because toraise a child cost the master more than to buy one. Cato, for avery restricted indul-gence.to his slaves in this particular, took from them a certain price. But in this coun-try the slaves multiply as fast as the free inhabitants; Their situation and 'mannersplace the commerce between the, two sexes.almost without restrairit.s-- The sameCato,ona: principle of ceconorny, always sold his sick and superannuated slaves. Hegives-it as a standing precept-to a master visiting hisfarm, to sell his old oxen; oldwaggons, old tools, old and diseased servants, and every thing else become useless.'Vendat boves vetulos, piaustrum vetus; ferramenta vetera, servum senern, servummorbosum,& si quid.aliud supersit vendat. ' Cato de re rustica, c.2. The Americanslaves cannot enumerate this among the injuries and insults they receive. It was thecommon practice to expose in the island ofIEsculapius, in the Tyber,diseased slaves,whose~ure was like to become tedious. TheEmperorClaudius, by an 'edict , gavefre~dom t? such ofthem .as should recover, and first declared, that ifanypersonchose to kill rather than to expose them, itshould be deemed homicide. The expos-ing.rhem is . a. crime of which no instance has existed with us; and were it to -b efollowed by death, it would be punished capitally. We are told ofa.certainVediusPollio, who, inthe presence of Augustus, would have given a slave asfood to his fish,for havingbroken.aglass. With the Romaris .the regular method of taking the evi-dence of their slaveswas uiider torture. .Here.it has been thought better never to re-sort to their evidence. When a master was murdered, all his slaves, in the same houseor within hearing, were condemned 'to death. Here punishmenrfalls.on the guilt;only; and as precise proof isrequired against him asagainst a freeman. Yet.notwith-standing these and other discouraging circumstances among the Romans, their slaveswere, often their rarest artists. They excelled too inscience, insomuch as.to be usu-ally employed as tutors totheir master's children. Epictetus, Terence, and Phsedrus,were slaves. But-they were of the race ofwhites. It knot their condition then. butna-ture, which has.produced rhe.distincrlon.c-Whether'funher observation will or willnot verify the conjecture, that nature hasbeen less bountiful to them in the endow-rnentsof-rhe.head, I believe that in those of the heart she will.be found to have donethemjustice. That disposit ion to theft with which they have been branded, must beascribed to their situation, and riot-to any depravity ofthe moral sense; The man; inwhose'favo~rno laws of property exist, probablyfeels himself less bound torespectthose made infavourof others. When arguing for ourselves, we lay.itdown.as a fun-damental, that laws, to he just, must.give a reciprocation of right: 'that, without this,they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience:an~ itis a pr~ble~ which I giveto the master to solve,whether the religious preceptsagamst theviolation of property were not framed for him aswell as his slave? And,,\hetheF the slave.may not asjustifiablytake!i Ihtle frol11~)!1e,who has ta,kenaU fi'9mhlln" ashe mayslay one who would slayhim? That a change jnthe relations ill whicha ma~ isplaced should change his ideas ofmoral.rightand wrong;' is~either new, norpeculiar to the colour of the blacks. Homer tells us itwas so 2600 years ago.

'H J .L L 01 J; 'Y a ~'l " c i.p E 'I '1 )S 'C t1 rO a LV v la L E U PU S 7T C i Z E V S''AV E P 0 S ' , \IT' (iv J .L W K C Y 'l 't Y S 6 A LO V 1 \p ;a ~ I : : ' A 'T)o"W.Od.17.323.Jove fix' d it certain, that whatever day\ Makes man a slave, takes half h is worth away.

Bud the slaves ofwhich H6mer speaks were whl~es. Notwithstanding these con-siderati9ns ~hich must weaken their re~Rectforrhe laws of property, wefmdamongthem numerous instances of the m()strigicj integrity, and asmany as,among their bet-ter instructed masters, of benevolence.gratitude, and.unshaken fidelity.- The opin-ion, that they are inferior in the faculties of reason arid imagination, must be haz-arded wi th great diffidence. To justify' a general con~lusion, requires m~nyobservations, even where.thesubjectmay be submitted to the Anatomicalknife, toOptical glasses,to analysis by fire, .0f1:>ysolvents. Howmuch more then where it isa faculty, not a substance, we areexamining; where jt eludes the research of all thesenses; fhere the condition~ of itsexistence are vario.usand variously co~bined;where tHe effects of those which are present or absent bid defiance to calculation; letme add too, asa circumstance of great tenderness, where our conclusion wotIld de-grade a whole race of men from the rank in the scale o f beings \Vhichtheir Creatormay perhaps have given them. To our reproach itmust be said, that though for a cen-tpry and a half we have had under our eyes the races'o f black and of red men, theyhave ~ever yet been viewed by usas si.)bje~tsof natur~l histl),rY.Tadvance it thereforeas a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether orIginally a distinct race, or made dis-tinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the'endowments bothof body and mind. It is 110tagainst experience to suppose, that different spc:ciesofthe slll11egenus, or varieties of the same species, may possess differ~nt qualifications.Will not a lover of naturalhistory then, one who views the gradations in all the racesof animals with the eyeof philosophy, excuseaneffort to keepthosein the depart-ment of man as distinct asnature has formed them? This unfortunate difference ofcolour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle t~ the ~mancipati6ri of thesepeople. Many of their advocates, while they wish to.vindicate the liberty of humannature, are anxious also to preserve its dignity and beauty. S()!11eof these, ernbar-rassedby the question 'Whatft,Jrther isto be done with them?'. join themselves in op-position\vith those who are~a,ctuated by sordid avarice ~nly. Aino~g the Romansemancipation requiredbuton~effort ..The sillve, '-vhen~adefree, might ~ixwith,without staining the blood of his master. But with us asecond is necessary, unknownto history: When freed,heisto be removed beyondthe ~~fl~~ofmixture.


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' 1. '\ 1\ .: 10 ' . : J: .l gI nCCl lUl ' \JCULUt y

from Query xvm-",'. Manners ... Effect of SlaveryIt is difficult to determine on the standard bywhich the manners ofa nation may betried, whether catholic, 1 or particular. I t ismore difficult for a native to bring to thatstandard the manners of his own nation, familiarized to him by habit. There mustdoubtless be an unhappy influence on.the.manners.ofour.people produced by theexistence. of slavery among us. The wholecommerc~beiween'master and sl~ve is aperpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotismon the one partianddegrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, andlearn to imitat~ it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all edu-cation in him.' From his cradletohis grave' ~e is learning to dO\\fharcne sees othersdoAf aparent 'could 'find no motive' either-in.his philahthropy orhis self-love, for re-straining :~he;nternperance'ofpassion towards his slave, it should alwaysbea suffi-dientbne thath'is child ispresent. But generally itis nor suf f icient , The p~rentstornls,

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l U ni ve rs aJ .. .


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the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the cir-de of smaller slaves, gives aloose to his worstofpassions, and thus nursed-educated,and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped byitwlthodious peculiarities.The man must be a prodigy who can retain his.manners and morals undepravedbysuch circumstances. And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, whopermitting one half the citizensthus to trample on the-rights of the other, transformsthose into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, andtheamor patrire oftheother. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it.mustbe anyother in preference to that inwhich he isborn to liveand labour for a?(' jther:in which he .must.lockup thefaculties.of his nature, contribute asfar asdepends onhis individual endeavours to the evanishment ofthehuman race, or entail his ownmiserable condition .on the endless generations proceeding from him. With themorals of the people, their industry also isd"stroyed.~r ina warm climate, no manwill labour for himself-who can make anotherlabour for him. This is sotrue, that ofthe.proprietors of slaves a very smaIl proportion indeed are ever.seen to,labour. Andcan the libertiesofa nation he thought secure when we have removed their only firmbasis" a,conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are of the gift ofGod? That they. are notto be.violated.but.with.his wrath? Indeed Ltremble for mycountry when I reflect that God isjust: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that con,sidering.nurnbers, nature and.natural means only; a revolution of the wheel 'of.for-tune, an exchange of-situation, isamong possible events: that it maybecome proba-ble bysupernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take sidewith us .in such a conrest.-c-But it -i s impossible to be temperate ana to pursue thissubject through the various considerations of policy, ofmorals, ofhistory natural andcivil.Wemust be contended .to hope they will force their way into every one's mind.I think a change already perceptible, -sincethe origin of the presentrevolution.Thespirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust, his conditionmollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of heaven, for a total ernan-cipation, and that this is disposed, in the order of events, to be with the consent ofthe masters, rather than by their extirpation.

Oct. ? 8 ;1 7 8 5 'DEAR SIR,-:Seven,o~clock, and retired tomy fireside, I have determined to enterinto.conversation with you;,This is.a village.of about 15,000 inhabitants when thecourt is not-here, and 20,000 when they are, occupying a valley.through which runsabrook.and on each side of it a ridge of small mountains, most.of.whichare naked.rock. The King comes here, in the falla lways, to hunt. His court attend him, asdoalso the foreign diplomatic corps; but as this isnot indispensably required and myfinances do not admit the expense of a continued residence here, I propose to

1785

come occasionally to attend the Kinmiles. This being the first trip, I setplace; For this purpose I shaped mysight, to the top of which was about

As soon as I had got:dear of th(the same rate with myself and goingtion of the laboring poor I entered iquiries for the path which would leato enquiries into her vocation, condday laborer at 8 sous or 4d. sterlingand to pay a rent of 30 livres for herdays), that often she could get no enwe had walked together near a mileher, on parting, 24 sous. She burst ifwas unfeigned because she was unalfore received so great an a i d : This litwalk, led meinto a train of reflecticioccasions the numberless instances (country and isto be observed all OV(

The property of this country isIing revenues of from half a million 0f lower ofthe country as servants.isornot laboring. They employ also a greand lastlythe class oflaboring husbsmerousof all classes, that is, tbe poocould bethe reason so many shouldin a country where there isa very CO )These lands are undisturbed only fOJmust be because ofthe enormousweabove attention to the increase ofthtbored. I am conscious that an equalconsequences of this enormous ineq:mankind, legislators cannot invent rctaking care tolet their subdivisions gthe human mind; The descent ofpredren, or to a ll the brothers and sistermeasure and a practicable one. Anotof property isto exempt all.from taxhigher portions or property in geormthere are in any country uricultivatecthe laws of property have been sofarisgiven asa common stock for mantof industry we allow it to be approprment be provided to those excluded

ISoftening of the heart.

jefferson's notes on the state of virginia

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