But there may be some persons into whose hands this tract may fall, so imperfectly acquainted with the real character of Negro Slavery, as to be shocked into partial, if not absolute incredulity, by the acts of inhuman oppression and brutality related of Capt.  I——­ and his wife, and of Mr. D——­, the salt manufacturer of Turk’s Island.  Here, at least, such persons may be disposed to think, there surely must be some exaggeration; the facts are too shocking to be credible.  The facts are indeed shocking, but unhappily not the less credible on that account.  Slavery is a curse to the oppressor scarcely less than to the oppressed:  its natural tendency is to brutalize both.  After a residence myself of six years in a slave colony, I am inclined to doubt whether, as regards its demoralizing influence, the master is not even a greater object of compassion than his bondman.  Let those who are disposed to doubt the atrocities related in this narrative, on the testimony of a sufferer, examine the details of many cases of similar barbarity that have lately come before the public, on unquestionable evidence.  Passing over the reports of the Fiscal of Berbice,[23] and the Mauritius horrors recently unveiled,[24] let them consider the case of Mr. and Mrs. Moss, of the Bahamas, and their slave Kate, so justly denounced by the Secretary for the Colonies;[25]—­the cases of Eleanor Mead,[26]—­of Henry Williams,[27]—­and of the Rev. Mr. Bridges and Kitty Hylton,[28] in Jamaica.  These cases alone might suffice to demonstrate the inevitable tendency of slavery as it exists in our colonies, to brutalize the master to a truly frightful degree—­a degree which would often cast into the shade even the atrocities related in the narrative of Mary Prince; and which are sufficient to prove, independently of all other evidence, that there is nothing in the revolting character of the facts to affect their credibility; but that on the contrary, similar deeds are at this very time of frequent occurrence in almost every one of our slave colonies.  The system of coercive labour may vary in different places; it may be more destructive to human life in the cane culture of Mauritius and Jamaica, than in the predial and domestic bondage of Bermuda or the Bahamas,—­but the spirit and character of slavery are every where the same, and cannot fail to produce similar effects.  Wherever slavery prevails, there will inevitably be found cruelty and oppression.  Individuals who have preserved humane, and amiable, and tolerant dispositions towards their black dependents, may doubtless be found among slave-holders; but even where a happy instance of this sort occurs, such as Mary’s first mistress, the kind-hearted Mrs. Williams, the favoured condition of the slave is still as precarious as it is rare:  it is every moment at the mercy of events; and must always be held by a tenure so proverbially uncertain as that of human prosperity, or human life.  Such examples, like a feeble and flickering streak of light