Friday, November 21, 2008

Friday Dead Racist Blogging: Heartless Doesn't Even Begin to Cover It

And we here beg leave to remark that we shall, in all instances, draw our proofs from the enemies of the institution. We quote from Berbick's Notes on America, page 20, and reported in vol. xvi. of the Christian Observer, published in London, May 10th, page 109:

"I saw two female slaves and their children sold by auction in the street; an incident of common occurrence here, though horrifying to myself and many other strangers. I could hardly bear to see them handled and examined like cattle; and when I heard their sobs and saw the big tears rolling down their cheeks at the thought of being separated, I could not refrain from weeping with them."

This may have been very cruel in the white man; but who has ever heard of a negro in Africa displaying such a strength of tenderness and sympathy as here manifested? And how are we to account for it in this instance, if not by the regenerating influence of a few generations in American and Christian slavery? However slow the action, the condition of the mental faculties was improved and the moral condition ameliorated.

--John Fletcher, Studies on Slavery, pp. 156-7

...I've read some pretty heartless, callous, and frankly evil things from dead racists, but I really think this takes the cake. Slavery, according to Fletcher, is a net plus because it gets blacks to cry when we tear apart their families.

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