Old Virginia and her neighbours

SOCIETY IN THE OLD DOMINION. 201and a black boy brought X32. A similar saleat Richmond in 1771 was mentioned in termsof severe condemnation by the " Stamford Mercuiy."^ However the English people may havesanctioned the establishment of slavery beyondsea, they were not disposed to tolerate it at homeand in the sixty years withal since the treaty ofUtrecht, the public conscience had grown tenderon the subject. The days of Clarkson and Wilberforcewere at hand. A cry was raisedby the press, a test case was brought fieid-sbefore the King's Bench, and in 1772Lord Mansfield pronounced the immortal decisionthat " as soon as a slave sets foot on the soil of theBritish islands he becomes free."It is not long after this that we find ThomasJefferson — himself the kindest of masters, andfamiliar wdth slavery in its mild Virginia form —thus writino^ about it ": The whole com- ,O«merce between master and slave is a per-Jefferson onslavery.petual exercise of the most boisterous passions, themost unremitting despotism on the one part, anddegrading submissions on the other. Our childrensee this, and learn to imitate it. . . . The manmust be a prodigy who can retain his manners andmorals undepraved by such circumstances. . . .With the morals of the people their industry alsois destroyed.labour forFor in a warm climate no man willhimself who can make another labourfor him. This is so true that of the proprietorsof slaves a very small proportion, indeed, are ever^ See Larued's excellent History for Ready Beference, iv. 2921,where the case is ably summed up.