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1797. Immorality of Slavery
Samuel Miller , April 12, 1797, Presbyterian Minister, in D. Gellman and D. Quigley, ed. (2003).
Jim Cow New York, A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship 1777-1877. NY: New York
University Press, 44-46
Slavery will always be found, in proportion to the extent and severity with which it prevails, to
INJURE THE MORALS of a people. That it tends to produce, on the one hand, haughtiness, a
spirit of domination, cruelty, and lewdness, among the whites, appears probable, upon the
slightest consideration of the subject, and is abundantly proved by experience. And, on the other
hand, that it has an equal tendency, to produce and cherish almost every species of vice, among
the slaves themselves, none, I presume, will hesitate to admit. Should any have a remaining doubt
whether this be the case, let them compare the state of morals in those parts of our country, in
which slavery is either unknown, or exists in the most lenient form, with that which is exhibited
in those states in which slaves are more numerous and more degraded. . . .
In this State, as well as in most others in the union, the testimony of a slave cannot be admitted in
judicial process, excepting in a few cases. What is the ground of this law? The answer is
obvious,—"SLAVERY DEBASES THE MIND, AND CORRUPTS THE MORAL
CHARACTER." The unhappy victims of oppression, feeling themselves precluded by violence,
from enjoying the benefits of society, neglect the social virtues. Finding their own rights
habitually invaded, they soon learn to disregard the rights of others. Living perpetually under the
frowns of power, they are insensibly taught the arts of deception, treachery, and fraud, until every
moral feeling is blunted or destroyed. Hence slaves, in all ages and countries, have generally
exhibited the most odious moral depravity. . . .
Nor has slavery a more mischievous effect on the morals of society, than it has on NATIONAL
INDUSTRY, POPULATION, AND GENERAL IMPROVEMENT. Men not only become lazy
and idle when they can make others the servile instruments of their will; but labour will soon be
esteemed disreputable and degrading, when it is chiefly performed by slaves. And whatever
diminishes industry, discourages population, and sows the seeds of social weakness and disorder.
. . .
In this part of the United States, indeed, the pernicious effects of slavery are displayed in a
comparatively moderate degree. But even in our State they are distinctly perceptible. Even here
we should be a happier and a wealthier people, were every labourer a freeman, and, of
consequence, the product of every man's labour his own property. . . .
Many have been the proposals of benevolent men to remedy this grand evil, and to ameliorate the
condition of the injured negroes. . . . Immediately to emancipate seven hundred thousand slaves,
and send them forth into society, with all the ignorance, habits, and vices of their degraded
education about them, would probably produce effects more unhappy than any one is able to
calculate or conceive. Nor does the plan appear much more plausible, which some have proposed,
to collect, and send them back to the country from whence they or their fathers have been
violently dragged; or, to form them into a colony, in some retired part of our own territory. . . .
Perhaps no method can be devised, to deliver our country from the evil in question, more
safe, more promising, and more easy of execution, than one which has been partially adopted in
some of the states, and hitherto with all the success that could have been expected. This plan is, to
frame laws, which will bring about emancipation in a GRADUAL MANNER; which will, at the
same time, PROVIDE FOR THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CULTIVATION of slaves,
that they may be prepared to exercise the rights, and discharge the duties of citizens, when liberty
shall be given them; and which, having thus fitted them for the station, will confer upon them, in
due time, the privileges and dignity of other freemen. By the operation of such a plan, it is easy to
see that slavery, at no great distance of time, would be banished from the United States; the
mischiefs attending an universal and immediate emancipation would be, in a great measure, if not
entirely, prevented; and beings, who are now gnawing the vitals, and wasting the strength of the
body politic, might be converted into wholesome and useful members of it. Say not that they are
unfit for the rank of citizens, and can never be made honest and industrious members of the
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community. Say not that their ignorance and brutality must operate as everlasting bars against
their being elevated to this station. All just reasoning abjures the flimsy pretext. Make them
freemen; and they will soon be found to have the manners, the character, and the virtues of
freemen. . . .
The time, I trust, is not far distant, when there shall be no slavery to lament—no oppression to
oppose in the United States: when the EMANCIPATING SPIRIT of our Constitution shall go
forth . . . when she shall proclaim, even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment he sets his
foot upon American earth, that the ground on which he treads is sacred to LIBERTY; and that the
air which he breathes, nourishes FREEMEN ONLY—when every being, who bears the name
MAN, whatever complexion an equatorial Sun may have burnt on him, and with whatever solemn
injustice his rights may have been infringed, shall enjoy the privileges, and be raised to the
dignity which belong to the human character.