The second was, that all chastisement of the slaves was cruelty. But this
was not true. Their owners generally withdrew them from public justice; so
that they, who would have been publicly executed elsewhere, were often kept
alive by their masters, and were found punished again and again for
repeating their faults. Distributive justice occasioned many punishments;
as one slave was to be protected against every other slave: and, when one
pilfered from another, then the master interfered. These punishments were
to be distinguished from such as arose from enforcing labour, or from the
cruelty of their owners. Indeed he had gone over the islands, and he had
seen but little ill usage. He had seen none on the estate where he resided.
The whip, the stocks, and confinement, were all the modes of punishment he
had observed in other places. Some slaves belonging to his father were
peculiarly well off. They saved money, and spent it in their own way.
But, notwithstanding all he had said, he allowed that there was room for
improvement; and particularly for instilling into the slaves the principles
of religion. Where this should be realized, there would be less punishment,
more work, more marriages, more issue, and more attachment to masters.
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