1.  The apprenticeship removed that strong arm of slavery and substituted no adequate force.  The arbitrary power of the master, which awed the slave into submission, was annihilated.  The whip which was held over the slave, and compelled a kind of subordination—­brutal, indeed, but effectual—­was abolished.  Here in the outset the reins were given to the long-oppressed, but now aspiring mass.  No adequate force was substituted, because it was the intent of the new system to govern by milder means.  This was well, but what were the milder means which were to take the place of brute force?

2.  Was the stimulus of wages substituted?  No!  That was expressly denied.  Was the liberty of locomotion granted?  No.  Was the privilege of gaining a personal interest in the soil extended to them?  No.  Were the immunities and rights of citizenship secured to them?  No.  Was the poor favor allowed them of selecting their own business, or of choosing their employer?  Not even this?  Thus far, then, we see nothing of the milder measures of the apprenticeship.  It has indeed opened the prison doors and knocked off the prisoners’ chains—­but it still keeps them grinding there, as before, and refuses to let them come forth, except occasionally, and then only to be thrust back again.  Is it not thus directly calculated to encourage indolence and insubordination?

3.  In the next place, this system introduces a third party, to whom the apprentice is encouraged to look for justice, redress, and counsel.  Thus he is led to regard his master as his enemy, and all confidence in him is for ever destroyed.  But this is not the end of the difficulty.  The apprentice carries up complaints against his master.  If they gain a favorable hearing he triumphs over him—­if they are disregarded, he concludes that the magistrate also is his enemy, and he goes away with a rankling grudge against his master.  Thus he is gradually led to assert his own cause, and he learns to contend with his master, to reply insolently, to dispute, quarrel, and—­it is well that we cannot add, to fight.  At least one thing is the result—­a permanent state of alienation, contempt of authority, and hatred. All these are the fruits of the apprenticeship system.  They are caused by transferring the power of the master, while the relation continues the same.  Nor is this contempt for the master, this alienation and hatred, all the mischief.  The unjust decisions of the magistrate, of which the apprentices have such abundant reasons to complain, excite their abhorrence of him, and thus their confidence in the protection of law is weakened or destroyed.  Here, then, is contempt for the master, abhorrence of the magistrate, and mistrust of the law—­the apprentice regarding all three as leagued together to rob him of his rights.  What a combination of circumstances to drive the apprentices to desperation and madness!  What a marvel that the outraged negroes have been restrained from bloody rebellions!