Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/26

slave boy or girl? Can the parents of the child? Oh, no: they are slaves themselves; and, if the master pleases, he can compel them to beat their own child, and cruelly ill treat them if they should refuse. Who chose the master, or the employment? Did the little slave? No: he was born in slavery. Did his parents? No: the master got possession of them; and, however much they may dislike him, or however much they may desire to serve, or that their child should serve, another master, they cannot get away. On the other hand, if the master choses to sell them, they cannot resist. Perhaps the father, and mother, and child, may be sold to three different masters, sent to distant places, and never again meet each other. A slave-master can do all this just as freely as an English farmer can dispose of his horses, cows, sheep, and pigs. Perhaps rather more so; for in England, a man who starves or ill uses his cattle, is disliked and despised by his neighbours, and may be punished by the law of the land; but, where slavery is common, the ill treatment of slaves is little regarded. Then, in England, the apprentice learns a trade, by which he hopes, in future, to obtain a living and support a family; and the servant is encouraged in his labour by the hope of gaining and saving property for his future use and comfort. It is truly gratifying to a benevolent master to know, that his thrifty servant or apprentice has a little fund in the Savings' Bank; but not so with the poor slave. However industrious and ingenious he may be, all his earnings are not for himself, but for his master. Some masters, it has already been observed, may be much more humane