On the record
There can be no other reason than the one given by George Mason eighty years ago: slavery produces a most pernicious effect upon manners.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Tompkins references George Mason's historical perspective on the negative effects of slavery on societal manners.
Share
More from Cydnor Tompkins
I know it is claimed, by men in the slave States, that slavery is necessary to the highest development of human society; but I think the experience of members of Congress is, that slavery does not always produce this beneficial result.
Have we not reason to suspect that too many of our countrymen have ceased to be virtuous?
Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the people of this country!
Labor of every species is disreputable, because performed mostly by slaves; the general aspect of the country marks the curse of a wasteful, idle, reckless population, who have no interest in the soil, and care not how much it is…
Other voices in this conversation
