Critical Notices [pp. 326-340]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
bited in the information he has carefully derived from
those most capable of giving it. his work is executed
in the very happiest manner of an author in whom America has the greatest reason to rejoice, and will not fail
to enhance his reputation immeasurably as a writer of
pure and vigorous English, as a clear thinker, as a patriot, and as a man. The other publication, which we
take to be from a Southern pen, is more calculated to
excite our indignation against the calumnies which
have been put forth against us, and the wrongs meditated by those who come to us in the names of our
common Redeemer and common country-seeking our
destruction under the mask of Christian Charity and
Brotherly Love. This too is executed with much ability, and may be read with pleasure as well as profit.
While we take great pleasure in recommending these
works to our readers, we beg leave to add a few
words of our own. We are the more desirous to do
this, because there is a view of the subject most deeply
interesting to us, which we do not think has ever been
presented, by any writer, in as high relief as it deserves. We speak of the moral influences flowing
from the relation of master and slave, and the moral
feelings engendered and cultivated by it. A correspondent of Mr. Paulding's justly speaks of this relation as one partaking of the patriarchal character, and
much resembling that of clanship. This is certainly so.
But to say this, is to give a very inadequate idea of it,
unless we take into consideration the peculiar character (I may say the peculiar nature) of the negro.
Let us reason upon it as we may, there is certainly a
power, in causes inscrutable to us, which works essen.
tial changes in the different races of animals. In their
physical constitution this is obvious to the senses. The
color of the negro no man can deny, and therefore, it
was but the other day, that' they who will believe
nothing they cannot account for, made this manifest fact
an authority for denying the truth of holy writ. Then
comes the opposite extreme-they are, like ourselves,
the sons of Adam, and must therefore, have like passions and wants and feelings and tempers in all respects
This, we deny, and appeal to the knowledge of all
who know. But their authority will be disputed, and
their testimony falsified, unless we can devise something to show how a difference might and should have
been brought about. Our theory is a short one. It
was the will of God it should be so. But thie meanshow was this effected? We will give the answer to any
one who will develop the causes which might and should
have blackened the negro's skin and crisped his hair into wool. Until that is done, we shall take leave to speak,
as of things in esse, of a degree of loyal devotion on the
part of the slave to which the white man's heart is a
stranger, and of the master's reciprocal feeling of parental attachment to his humble dependant, equally incomprehensible to him who drives a bargain with the cook
who prepares.his food, the servant who waits at his
table, and the nurse who doses over his sick bed.
That these sentiments in the breast of the negro and
his master, are stronger than they would be under like
circumstances between individuals of the white race,
we believe. That they belong to the class of feelings" by which the heart is made better," we know.
How come they? They have their rise in the relation
betweten the infant and the nurse. They are cultivated
between him and his foster brother. They are cherished
by the parents of both. They are fostered by the habit
of affording protection and favors to the younger offspring of the same nurse. They grow by the habitual
use of the word "my," used as the language of affectionate appropriation, long before any idea of value
mixes with it. It is a term of endearment. That is an
easy transition by which he who is taught to call the
little negro "his," in this sense and becauese he loves him,
shall love him because he is his. The idea is not new,
that our habits and affections are reciprocally cause and
effect of each other.
But the great teacher in this school of feeling is
sickness. In this school we have witnessed scenes at
which even the hard heart of a thorough bred philanthropist would melt. But here, we shall be told, it is
not humanity, but interest that prompts. Be it so.
Our business is not with the cause but the effect. But
is it interest, which, with assiduous care, prolongs the
life of the aged and decrepid negro, who has been, for
years, a burthen? Is it interest which labors to rear the
crippled or deformed urchin, who can never be any thing
but a burthen-which carefully feeds the feeble lamp
of life that, without any appearance of neglect, might
be permitted to expire? Is not the feeling more akin to
that parental cropy,7, which, in defiance of reason, is
most careful of the life which is, all the time, felt to be a
curse to the possessor. Are such cases rare? They are
as rare as the occasions; but let the occasion occur, and
you will see the case. How else is the longevity of the
negro proverbial? A negro who does no work for thirty
years! (and we know such examples) is it interest
which has lengthened out his existence?
Let the philanthropist think as he may-by the negro himself, his master's care of him in sickness is not
imputed to interested feelings. We know an instance
of a negress who was invited by a benevolent lady in
Philadelphia to leave her mistress. Thelady promised to
secrete her for a while, and then to pay her good wages.
The poor creature felt the temptation and was about to
yield. "You are mighty good, madam," said she "and
I am a thousand times obliged to you. And if I am
sick, or any thing, I am sure you will take care of me,
and nurse me, like my good mistress used to do, and
bring me something warm and good to comfort me, and
tie up my head and fix my pillow." She spoke in tlhe
simplicity of her heart, and the tempter had not the
heart to deceive her. "No," said she "all that will come
out of your wages-for you will have money enough
to hire a nurse." The tears had already swelled into
the warm hearted creature's eyes, at her own recital of
her mistress's kindness. They now gushed forth in a
flood, and running to her lady who was a lodger in
the house, she threw herself on her knees, confessed her
fault, was pardoned, and was happy.
But it is not by the bedside of the sick negro that the
feeling we speak of is chiefly engendered. They who
would view it in its causes and effects must see him by
the sick bed of his master-must see her by the sick bed
of her mistress. WVe have seen these things. We have
seen the dying infant in the lap of its nurse, and have
stood with the same nurse by the bed side of her own
dying child. Did mighty nature assert her empire, and
wring from the mother's heart more and bitterer tears
than she had shed over her foster babe? None that
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