The less fervent5 disciples6 consider domestic slavery as an eminently7 practical matter, and regard those of[Pg viii] an opposite opinion as abstruse8 theorizers; and history is called in and ransacked9 for the purpose of justifying10 the present by the past.
Well: history contains all the evidences—multifarious and decisive.
It is asserted that domestic slavery has always been a constructive11 social element: history shows that it has always been destructive. History authoritatively12 establishes the fact that slavery is the most corroding13 social disease, and one, too, which acts most fatally on the slaveholding element in a community.
Not disease, but health, is the normal condition of man's physical organism: not oppression but freedom is the normal condition of human society. The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of nature or the laws of hygiene14. As an individual cannot with impunity15 violate hygienic law—as nature always avenges16 every departure from her eternal order: so nations and communities cannot safely deviate17 from the laws of history, still less violate them with impunity. History positively18 demonstrates that slavery is not one of the natural laws of the human race, any more than disorders19 and monstrosities are normal conditions of the human body.
History demonstrates that slavery is not coeval20[Pg ix] with, nor inherent in, human society, but is the offspring of social derangement21 and decay. The healthiest physical organism may, under certain conditions, develop from within, or receive by infection from without, diseases which are coeval, so to speak, with the creation, and which hover22 perpetually over animal life. The disease, too, may be acute or chronic23, according to the conditions or predispositions of the organism. History teaches that domestic slavery may, at times, affect the healthiest social organism, and be developed, like other social disorders and crimes, so to speak, in the very womb of the nation. As the tendency of vigorous health is to prevent physical derangements and diseases, so the tendency of society in its most elevated conception is to prevent, to limit, to neutralize24, if not wholly to extirpate25, all social disorders. Not depravity and disease, but purity and virtue26, are the normal condition of the individual: not oppression but freedom is the normal condition of society.
Some investigators27 and philosophers discover an identity between the progressive development of the human body and the various stages of human society—beginning with the embryonic28 condition of both. More than one striking analogy certainly ex[Pg x]ists between physiological29 and pathological laws, and the moral and social principles which ought to be observed by man both as an individual, and in the aggregate30 called society. Thus some of the pathologic axioms established by Rokitansky[1] (the greatest of living pathologists) are equally sustained by the history of nations.
"No formation is incapable31 of becoming diseased in one or more ways. Several anomalies coexisting in an organ commonly stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect. Thus, deviation32 in texture33 determines deviation in size, in form."
The following pages will demonstrate that nations and communities may become diseased in many ways; and that in proportion as their social textures34 deviate from the normal, do they become more and more deformed35 and demoralized.
"All anomalies of organization involving any anatomical change manifest themselves as deviations36 in the quantity or quality of organic creation, or else as a mechanical separation of continuity. They are reducible to irregular number, size, form, continuity, and contents."
Oppressions, tyrannies, domestic slavery, chattelhood, are so many mechanical separations of continuity, which in the social organic creation is liberty.
[Pg xi]
"General disease engenders37 the most various organs and textures according to their innate38, general or individual tendencies, either spontaneously or by dint39 of some overpowering outward impulse, a local affection which reflects the general disease in the peculiarity40 of its products. The general disease becomes localized, and, so to speak, represented in the topical affection."
Violence and oppression generated various and peculiar41 forms of servitude, until nearly all of them ended in chattelhood, which many are wont42 to consider as a topical affection of certain races and nations. Declining Greece and Rome in the past, Russia under our own eyes, serve as illustrations.
"A general disease not unfrequently finds in its localization a perpetual focus of derivation, with seeming integrity of the organism in other respects."
So nations infected with slavery, nevertheless had brilliant epochs of existence; and this "seeming integrity of the organism" misleads many otherwise averse43 to chattelhood, and makes them indifferent to its existence.
"Where several diseases coexist in an individual, they are in part primary, in part secondary and subordinate, although homologous to the former."
So many evils are the lot of human society, but almost all of them are secondary and subordinate to oppression, violence, and slavery.
[Pg xii]
"The issue of a local disease in health consists either in the perfect re-establishment of the normal condition, or else in partial recovery; more or fewer important residua and sequell? of the disease not incomparable with a tolerably fair state of health, remaining entailed44."
The history of the slow recovery of post-Roman Europe from domestic bondage45 justifies46 the application of this pathologic axiom to the social condition of nations.
"Issue in death: 1. Through exhaustion47 of power and of organic matter."
The history of republican, but above all, of imperial Rome, demonstrates that its decline and death were caused through the extinction48 of freedom, free labor49, and the free yeomanry, which in every state constitutes the power, the organic matter of a nation.
"2. Through the suspended function of organs essential to life, through palsy, etc."
When the laboring50 classes are enslaved, the life of a nation is speedily palsied.
"3. Through vitiation of the blood."
What blood is to the animal organism, sound social and political principles are to society. When such principles become vitiated, the nation is on the path of decline and death.
[Pg xiii]
"The worst malformation is never so anomalous51 as not to hear the general character of animal life, etc. Even an individual organ never departs from its normal character so completely that amid even the greatest disfigurement, this character should not be cognizable."
So often the enslaver and the slaveholding community may preserve some features of the normal human character, notwithstanding the "disfigurement" produced.
"The excessive development of one part determines the imperfect and retarded52 development of another, and the converse53."
So the oligarchic54 development retards55 the growth and advancement56 of the laboring classes, whether the hue57 be white or black: it prevents or retards the culture and civilization of individuals and communities.
"Various and manifold as are the forms of monstrosity, some of them recur58 with such uniformity of type as to constitute a regular series."
History shows that various as are the other social monstrosities, domestic slavery always recurred59 with a filial uniformity of type.
"The genesis of malformation in the human body is still veiled in much obscurity despite some progress made in science."
Social teratology, or the science of monstrosities, easily traces the origin and genesis of domestic slavery.
A conscientious60 study of the records of bygone nations, as well as of the events daily witnessed during a decennium, produced the following pages. They complete what I said about slavery a few years ago.[2] As then, so now, I am almost wholly unacquainted with anti-slavery literature in any of its manifestations61. I diligently62 sought for information in the literary and political productions of pro-slavery writers. Beside legislative63 enactments64, political discussions, and resolutions by Congress and the legislatures of the various Slave States, and the messages of their respective governors, I read every thing that came within my reach, even sermons, heaps of "De Bow's Review" and "Fletcher's Studies on Slavery."[3] Ah!...
For years the rich resources of the Astor Library have facilitated my general studies, and the information there sought and found was enhanced by the kindest liberality experienced from Dr. Coggswell and all his assistants.
And now let History unfold her records.
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1 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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2 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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3 orators | |
n.演说者,演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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4 missionaries | |
n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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5 fervent | |
adj.热的,热烈的,热情的 | |
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6 disciples | |
n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 );门徒;耶稣的信徒;(尤指)耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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7 eminently | |
adv.突出地;显著地;不寻常地 | |
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8 abstruse | |
adj.深奥的,难解的 | |
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9 ransacked | |
v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 );抢劫,掠夺 | |
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10 justifying | |
证明…有理( justify的现在分词 ); 为…辩护; 对…作出解释; 为…辩解(或辩护) | |
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11 constructive | |
adj.建设的,建设性的 | |
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12 authoritatively | |
命令式地,有权威地,可信地 | |
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13 corroding | |
使腐蚀,侵蚀( corrode的现在分词 ) | |
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14 hygiene | |
n.健康法,卫生学 (a.hygienic) | |
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15 impunity | |
n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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16 avenges | |
v.为…复仇,报…之仇( avenge的第三人称单数 );为…报复 | |
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17 deviate | |
v.(from)背离,偏离 | |
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18 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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19 disorders | |
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调 | |
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20 coeval | |
adj.同时代的;n.同时代的人或事物 | |
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21 derangement | |
n.精神错乱 | |
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22 hover | |
vi.翱翔,盘旋;徘徊;彷徨,犹豫 | |
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23 chronic | |
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的 | |
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24 neutralize | |
v.使失效、抵消,使中和 | |
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25 extirpate | |
v.除尽,灭绝 | |
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26 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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27 investigators | |
n.调查者,审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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28 embryonic | |
adj.胚胎的 | |
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29 physiological | |
adj.生理学的,生理学上的 | |
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30 aggregate | |
adj.总计的,集合的;n.总数;v.合计;集合 | |
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31 incapable | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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32 deviation | |
n.背离,偏离;偏差,偏向;离题 | |
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33 texture | |
n.(织物)质地;(材料)构造;结构;肌理 | |
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34 textures | |
n.手感( texture的名词复数 );质感;口感;(音乐或文学的)谐和统一感 | |
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35 deformed | |
adj.畸形的;变形的;丑的,破相了的 | |
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36 deviations | |
背离,偏离( deviation的名词复数 ); 离经叛道的行为 | |
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37 engenders | |
v.产生(某形势或状况),造成,引起( engender的第三人称单数 ) | |
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38 innate | |
adj.天生的,固有的,天赋的 | |
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39 dint | |
n.由于,靠;凹坑 | |
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40 peculiarity | |
n.独特性,特色;特殊的东西;怪癖 | |
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41 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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42 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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43 averse | |
adj.厌恶的;反对的,不乐意的 | |
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44 entailed | |
使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 ); 需要; 限定继承; 使必需 | |
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45 bondage | |
n.奴役,束缚 | |
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46 justifies | |
证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 ); 为…辩护; 对…作出解释; 为…辩解(或辩护) | |
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47 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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48 extinction | |
n.熄灭,消亡,消灭,灭绝,绝种 | |
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49 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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50 laboring | |
n.劳动,操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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51 anomalous | |
adj.反常的;不规则的 | |
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52 retarded | |
a.智力迟钝的,智力发育迟缓的 | |
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53 converse | |
vi.谈话,谈天,闲聊;adv.相反的,相反 | |
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54 oligarchic | |
adj.寡头政治的,主张寡头政治的 | |
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55 retards | |
使减速( retard的第三人称单数 ); 妨碍; 阻止; 推迟 | |
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56 advancement | |
n.前进,促进,提升 | |
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57 hue | |
n.色度;色调;样子 | |
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58 recur | |
vi.复发,重现,再发生 | |
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59 recurred | |
再发生,复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 ); 治愈 | |
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60 conscientious | |
adj.审慎正直的,认真的,本着良心的 | |
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61 manifestations | |
n.表示,显示(manifestation的复数形式) | |
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62 diligently | |
ad.industriously;carefully | |
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63 legislative | |
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的 | |
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64 enactments | |
n.演出( enactment的名词复数 );展现;规定;通过 | |
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