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1 Influence of Slavery upon the White Population 1 (1855)

handle is hein.slavery/inflslavwh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AIVTT-SLAVERY TRACTS. NO. 9. INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY UPON THE WHITE POPULATION. ' By A FORMER RESIDENT OF SLAVE STATES. MucH has been said and written about the victims of oppres- sion ; and wherever the term is used in connection with American institutions, our thoughts at once turn to the millions of our colored brethren in bondage. A true understanding of the nature and influences of American slavery forces the conviction that this system renders the master no less a victim than the slave. The attractive eleganoes of social life may deceive the superficial observer; but a deeper insight will discover, under this light drapery, not only a world of secret misery, but of hideous corruption. Nothing can convey a true idea of the influence of slavery upon the white population but an intimate acquaintance with southern society -not as a guest, to be entertained and flattered, but as a resident year by year, when all reserve is laid aside in the free and natural relations of social and. domestic life. In order to understand the immense power of slavery to shape the, character and destiny of the master, we must. remember that it has the sole training of his early youth. The men and women of the south are what the slaves have made them. With a knowledge of the influences exerted upon. the first eighteen or twenty years of life, almost any biography may be predicted. This is peculiarly true of the characters formed by slavery. In the pulpit, on the plantation, in Congress, we find the promise of the child fulfilled in manhood., The conscience which is never awakened to the force of th; com- mand, to do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you, will not in after life be vigilant in self-government. The heart that has never been made to realize that all created beings are the children of one Father. and equally dear to him , cannot agknowledge the obligations resting on that fact, especially when they conflict with the. whole social and civil arrangements of life. . The first aspect in which slavery presents itself to a northerner ,is in'the relations of the household. This is the first and the best; anhd:if objections to slavery are based upon stories of personal abuse ?nd suffering, and no pains are taken to 4ook beneath the fair exte;, (1)

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