Memories of the War [pp. 225-233]

DE BOW'S REVIEW.
ESTABLISHED JANUARY, 1846.
MARCH, 1867.
ART. 1.-MEMORIES OF THE WAR.
NEGRO SLAVERY-IEMANCIPATION-CONDUCT OF THE NEGROES.
THERE never was a period in the history of the human race
when-nen were not held in slavery or bondage by their fellowmen. Among the patriarchs of the Old Testament; in the
rudest as in the most polished times of the Greeks and Romans;
among the nations of the Middle Ages, and down through the
most enlightened and civilized of modern times, this slavery, in
different forms, and sometimes under different names, is everywhere discovered. Our Saviour found it in full vigor, and
neither himself nor the apostles afterwards by any command
discountenanced the institution, but on the contrary, they recognized and regulated it.
The earliest American colonists began their career upon this
continent by enslaving the Indians, but it was soon after discovered that the coasts and interior of Africa furnished a
hardier, better and more enduring material. The slave-trade
with that quarter then vigorously opened, and was prosecuted
without interruption until nearly twenty years after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Into this commerce the people of New England entered with the greatest avidity, supplying their own wants and those of the Southern market, and
amassing the largest fortunes. In the years 1806-'8, the last of
the foreign slave-trade, the great majority of the ships, masters
and crews which landed at the port of Charleston, were of New
England. As late as 1781, the newspapers of Massachusetts
occupied their columns with advertisements of slaves for purchase and sale, and when the Constitution of the United States
was adopted, slavery, with one exception, existed in all of the
States!
The peculiar soils, climates and productions of the South
were found to be so well adapted to this class of labor, that the
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