Wesley Corpus

9. “But their stupidity is not the only reason of our treating them with severity. For it is hard to say, which is the greatest, this or their stubbornness and wickedness.”----It may be so: But do not these as well as the other, lie at _your_ door; are not stubbornness, cunning, pilfering, and divers other vices, the natural, necessary fruits of slavery? Is not this an observation which has been made, in every age and nation?----And what means have you used to remove this stubbornness? Have you tried what mildness and gentleness would do? I knew one that did: that had prudence and patience to make the experiment: Mr. _Hugh Bryan_, who then lived on the borders of _South-Carolina_. And what was the effect? Why, that all his negroes (and he had no small number of them) loved and reverenced him as a father, and chearfully obeyed him out of love. Yea, they were more afraid of a frown from _him_, than of many blows from an overseer. And what pains have _you_ taken, what method have _you_ used, to reclaim them from their wickedness? Have you carefully taught them, “That there is a God, a wise, powerful, merciful being, the Creator and Governor of heaven and earth? That he has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world, will take an account of all our thoughts, words and actions? That in that day he will reward every child of man according to his works: that “then the righteous shall inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world: and the wicked shall be cast into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” If you have not done this, if you have taken no pains or thought about the matter, can you wonder at their wickedness? What wonder, if they should cut your throat? And if they did, whom could you thank for it but yourself? You first acted the villain in making them slaves, (whether you stole them or bought them.) You kept them stupid and wicked, by cutting them off from all opportunities of improving either in knowledge or virtue: and now you assign their want of wisdom and goodness as the reason for using them worse than brute beasts!