Old Virginia and her neighbours

THE CAROLINA FRONTIER. 327work him to death thaxi to take care of him. Assuming,then, that human nature in South Carolinawas neither better nor worse than in other parts ofthe civilized world, we need not be surprised whentold that the relations between master and slavewere noticeably different from what they were inVirginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Thenegroes of the southern colony were reputed to bemore brutal and unmanageable than those to thenorthward, and for this there is a twofold explanation.In the first place, slaves newly broughtfrom Africa, half-savage heathen, were less tractablethan African slaves who had lived many yearsunder kindly treatment among white people, andfar less tractable than slaves of the next generationborn in America. Such newcomers somecharacashad been tribal chiefs or elders in their loutu Ca/onativecountry were noted as especiallyinsolent and insubordinate.^^^^ slavery.In many respects thenegro has proved quickly amenable to the softeninginfluences of civilized life, and to the teachingsof Christianity, however imperfectly apprehended.In the second place, the type of Virginia slaverywas old-fashioned and patriarchal, while SouthCarolina slavery was of the modern and commercialtype. The slaves on a Virginia plantationwere like members of a great family, while in aSouth Carolina rice swamp their position wasmuch more analogous to that of a gang of navvies.This circumstance was closely connected with a peculiarityof South Carolina life, in which it affordeda striking contrast to the slave states north of it.1 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, ii. 108.