Things might be true or false, right or wrong,
in connection with the enslavement of a race who had never been slaves,
which cannot be applied to the colored people of the South. Hence, the
arguments and the appeals founded on the wrongfulness of reducing you or
me to slavery are obviously misapplied when used to urge the
emancipation of these slaves. Moreover, my thoughts about slavery were
governed by my associations with the word _slave_, in its worst sense.
This is wholly wrong, and it is the source of most of our mistakes on
this subject.
Dreadful things happen here to some of the slaves in the hands of
passionate men. One slave who had run away was caught, and was beaten
for a long time, and melted turpentine was then poured upon his wounds.
He lingered for several hours. But the horror and execration which this
deed met with were no greater at the North than at the South. It cannot
be denied that slavery, as well as marriage, affords peculiar
provocations and facilities for cruel deeds,--according to the doctrine
of your friend and fellow-Sophomore. But in which section there is the
more of unpunished wickedness, I am slow to pronounce, for I do not wish
to condemn my own people, nor to justify others in their sins.
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