Wesley Corpus

I pray, to what end is this usage necessary? “Why, to prevent their running away: and to keep them constantly to their labour, that they may not idle away their time. So miserably stupid is this race of men, yea, so stubborn and so wicked.” Allowing them to be as stupid as you say, to whom is that stupidity owing? Without question it lies altogether at the door of their inhuman masters: who give them no means, no opportunity of improving their understanding: and indeed leave them no motive, either from hope or fear, to attempt any such thing. They were no way remarkable for stupidity, while they remained in their own country: the inhabitants of _Africa_ where they have equal motives and equal means of improvement, are not inferior to the inhabitants of _Europe_: to some of them they are greatly superior. Impartially survey in their own country, the natives of _Benin_, and the natives of _Lapland_. Compare, (setting prejudice aside) the _Samoeids_ and the _Angolans_. And on which side does the advantage lie, in point of understanding? Certainly the _African_ is in no respect inferior to the _European_. Their stupidity therefore in our plantations is not natural; otherwise than it is the natural effect of their condition. Consequently it is not their fault, but _your’s_: you must answer for it, before God and man.