Be assured, your bullies are timid bullies; not that they are wanting in individual courage, but because they are aware that their authority rests, not on their physical strength, but on your habits of deference and obedience.
Tappan describes the cowardice of bullies who rely on the deference of others rather than their own strength.
Share
More from Lewis Tappan
The power of the slaveholders, as we have already showed you, depends on the acquiescence of the major part of the white inhabitants in their domination.
If we are permitted to apply this rule in testing the moral condition of the South, the result will not be favorable.
But what a commentary on slavery and slaveholders is afforded by the gross ignorance prevailing in the old States of South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina!
In both instances the increase has been chiefly owing to immigration; but the ratio shows the influence of slavery in retarding immigration.