Such a change would be hardly more to the
advantage of the slaves than it would be to their owners....
"I do you no more than justice in bearing witness, that in no part of
the world were slaves better treated than, in general, they are in the
colonies.... In one essential point, I fear, we are all deficient;
they are nowhere sufficiently instructed. I am far from recommending
it to you, at once to set them free; because to do so would be an
heavy loss to you, and probably no gain to them; but I do entreat
you to make them some amends for the drudgery of their bodies by
cultivating their minds. By such means only can we hope to fulfil the
ends, which we may be permitted to believe, Providence had in view in
suffering them to be brought among us. You may unfetter them from the
chains of ignorance; you may emancipate them from the bondage of sin,
the worst slavery to which they can be subjected; and by thus setting
at liberty those that are bruised, though they still continue to be
your slaves, they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the Children of God."--Jonathan Boucher's
_A View of the Causes and Consequences_, etc.
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