IMPRESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH TRAVELER

“As I observed before, at least two thirds of the inhabitants are negroes....

“It is fortunate for humanity that these poor creatures possess such a fund of contentment and resignation in their minds; for they indeed seem to be the happiest inhabitants in America, notwithstanding the hardness of their fare, the severity of their labour, and the unkindness, ignominy, and often barbarity of their treatment.”—­J.F.D., “A Tour in the United States of America, containing an account of the present situation of that country”; London, 1784, p. 39.

ABBE ROBIN ON CONDITIONS IN VIRGINIA

“The population of Virginia is computed at one hundred fifty thousand whites and five hundred thousand negroes.  There is a still greater disproportion between the whites and blacks in Maryland, where there are not more than twenty thousand whites and at least two hundred thousand negroes.  The English imported into these two provinces between seven and eight thousand yearly.  Perhaps the lot of these slaves is not quite so hard as that of the negroes in the islands; their liberty, it is true, is irreparably lost in both places, but here they are treated with more mildness, and are supported upon the same kind of food with their masters; and if the earth which they cultivate, is moistened with their sweat, it has never been known to blush with their blood.  The American, not at all industrious by nature, is considerate enough not to expect too much from his slave, who in such circumstances, has fewer motives to be laborious for himself.”—­Abbe Robin, “New Travels through North America in a series of letters,” Boston, 1784, p. 48.

OBSERVATIONS OF ST. JOHN DE CREVECOEUR

“There, arranged like horses at a fair, they are branded like cattle, and then driven to toil, to starve and to languish for a few years on the different plantations of those citizens.

“If negroes are permitted to become fathers, this fatal indulgence only tends to increase their misery....  How many have I seen cursing the irresistible propensity, and regretting that by having tasted of those joys, they had become the authors of double misery to their wives....  Their paternal fondness is embittered by considering that if their children live, they must live to be slaves like themselves:  no time is allowed them to exercise their pious offices, the mothers must fasten them on their backs, and, with the double load follow their husbands in the fields, where they too often hear no other sound than that of the voice or whip of the taskmaster, and the cries of their infants, broiling in the sun....  It is said, I know, that they are much happier here than in the West Indies; because land being cheaper upon this continent than in those Islands, the field allowed them to raise their subsistence from, are in general more extensive.