"Sam": or The history of mystery./ By C. W. Webber.

58 "SAM:" OR, TUE HISTORY OF IMYSTERY.
great variety of languages and customs, a collection of unfortunate strangers to each other, or perhaps of hereditary
enemies, with no common bond except that of servitude.
Hence a want of union and sympathy among the slaves,
which, joined to their extreme ignorance and simplicity, prevented co-operation, and rendered it easy to suppress such
outbreaks as occasionally occurred. (1750.) Even in complexion
and physiognomy, the most obvious characteristic of the negroes, there were great differences. Some were of a jet
black, often with features approaching the European standard;
others of a mahogany or reddish black, with features less
shapely and regular; and others yet of a tawny yellow, with
flat noses and projecting jaws-an ugliness often, but erroneously, esteemed characteristic of all the African races, but
which seems to have been principally confined to the low and
swampy grounds about the Delta of the Niger. The negroes
marked by these shapeless features were noted also for indomitable capacity of endurance, and were esteemed, therefore,
the best slaves. Intermixture among themselves, and a large
infusion of European blood, have gradually obliterated these
differences, or made them less noticeable.
Contrary to what happened in the West Indies, in the
Anglo-North American provinces the natural increase of the
slave population was rapid. The women were seldom put to
the severer labors of the field. The long winter secured to
both sexes a season of comparative rest. Such was the abundance of provisions, that it was cheaper to breed than to buy
slaves. Those born in America, and reared up on the plantations, evidently surpassed the imported Africans both
physically and intellectually. Of the imported slaves a few
were Mohamrrmedans, amengr whom were occasionally found
persons of some education, who knew Arabic, and could read
the Koran. But the great mass were pagans, in a condition
of gross barbarism. They brought with them from Africa
many superstitions, but these, for the most part, as well as
the negro languages, very soon died out.
Zealous for religion as the colonists were, very little effort
was made to convert the negroes, owing partly, at least, to
a prevalent opinion that neither Christian brotherhood nor
the law of England would justify the holding Christians as
slaves. Nor could repeated colonial enactments to the contrary