human
Well, said my companion at length,
gpt
That part of the subject, I have long made up my mind upon, I replied,
human
Oh, you are quite mistaken as to our state of feeling, said Mr. Wheatley, with one of his short laughs.
gpt
Virginia is well-nigh an abolition state. There is hardly a man here who would not emancipate all his slaves, if he could do so without utter ruin to himself and great danger to the State. Perhaps you are not aware that in the last session of our legislature, a bill for general emancipation was introduced, and lost, I think, only by one vote. Next session 'twill be carried, to a certainty, if my Northern friends will let it.
human
I should think, I replied,
gpt
There is the danger, answered Mr. Wheatley, more gravely than was customary with him.
human
Not that an insurrection of the slaves could ever be successful in this country. You will never see a St. Domingo tragedy enacted here with any success. The whites are too strong and too much upon their guard. But what I apprehend is, that my fanatical friends of the North, not content with letting public opinion, which all tends towards emancipation, work its way quietly, will go a step too far, and either instigate the negroes to some sudden outbreak, which will be put down with some bloodshed, or else create a re-action in public sentiment, by their irritating diatribes. Men may be led who will not be driven; and, let me tell you, you can't drive a Virginian. You have seen to-night how much these people will bear quietly, when it takes the form of argument; but there can be no doubt, that such men as this McGrubber are even now circulating incendiary pamphlets amongst the slaves, which are read to little knots of them by any one who can read. In other instances, the same principles are spread by pictures and horrid bad prints--a sort of hieroglyphic abolitionism; and if this is carried too far, the tendency to emancipation will be extinguished at once, and every man will arm himself to resist to the death.
gpt
It is a pity, I remarked,
human
Stop a minute, he answered;
gpt
Although I judged it rash and most dangerous, I answered,
human
A cunning piece of rhetoric, answered my acute friend,