On the record
This awful and horrible punishment has been banished, by the progress of civilization, from the whole of Christendom, with the single exception of the American Slave States.
Said by
Lewis Tappan
Source
gutenberg.orgLewis Tappan: “This awful and horrible punishment has been banished, by the progress of civilization, from the whole of Christendom…”
Editor's note · Context
Tappan points out the barbarity of burning as a punishment that has been largely eradicated in civilized societies, except in the American South.
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More from Lewis Tappan
The slaveholders form a powerful landed aristocracy, banded together for the preservation of their own privileges, and ever endeavoring, for obvious reasons, to identify their private interests with the public welfare.
In a community so unenlightened as yours, it is a matter of course, that the arts and sciences must languish, and the industry and enterprise of the country be oppressed by a general torpor.
In 1837, Governor Clarke, in his message to the Kentucky Legislature, remarked, "By the computation of those most familiar with the subject, ONE THIRD OF THE ADULT POPULATION OF THE STATE ARE UNABLE TO WRITE THEIR NAMES.
Has it ever happened that the mass of any people were rich enough to keep, for their own convenience, such expensive laborers--as southern slaves?