"Yes," said I, "what made him the model Christian? You do not reply, and
I will tell you. SLAVERY MADE UNCLE TOM. Had it not been for slavery, he
would have been a savage in Africa, a brutish slave to his fetishes,
living in a jungle, perhaps; and had you stumbled upon him he would very
likely have roasted you and picked your bones. A system which makes
Uncle Toms out of African savages is not an unmixed evil."
"But," said he, "it makes Legrees also."
"I beg your pardon, Sir," said I, "it does not make Legrees. There are
as many Legrees at the North as at the South, especially if we include
all the very particular 'friends of the slave.' Legree would be Legree
in Wall Street, or Fifth Avenue; Uncle Tom would not be Uncle Tom in the
wilds of Africa."
"And so," said he, "it is right to fit out ships, burn villages in
Africa, steal the flying people, bestow them in slave-ships, and sell
them into hopeless bondage!"
"So you all love to reason," said I, "or seek to force that conclusion
upon us. No such thing. If God overrules the evil doings of men, this is
no reason for repeating the wrong. I am insisting that slavery as it
exists in the South has been a blessing to the African.
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