'What! Arm the slaves? We shudder at
the very idea, so repugnant to humanity, so barbarous and shocking to human nature,' etc. One
very simple answer is, in my mind, to be given:
Whether it is better to make this vast continent
become an acquisition of power, strength and con-
sequence to Great Britain again, or tamely give it
up to France who will reap the fruits of American
independence to the utter ruin of Britain? . . .
experience will, I doubt not, justify the assertion
that by embodying the most hardy, intrepid and
determined blacks, they would not only keep the
rest in good order but by being disciplined and
under command be prevented from raising cabals,
tumults, and even rebellion, what I think might
be expected soon after a peace; but so far from
making even our lukewarm friends and secret foes
greater enemies by this measure, I will, by taking
their slaves, engage make them better
friends.[1]
On the other hand, the Colonial General Greene wrote to the Governor of South Carolina the same year:
“The natural strength of the country in point of numbers appears to me to consist much more in the blacks than in the whites. Could they be incorporated and employed for its defence, it would
- ↑ Livermore, pp. 183, 184.
