Written in 1837 (Awo) by a black wampanoag narragansett N8V Afrikan
















  
"I have no language wherewith to give slavery, and its auxil- 
iaries, an adequate description, as an efficient cause of the mis- 
eries it is capable of producing. It seems to possess a kind of 
omnipresence. It follows its victims in every avenue of life. 

The principle assumes still another feature equally destruc- 
tive. It makes the colored people subserve almost every foul 
purpose imaginable. Negro or nigger, is an approbrious term, 
employed to impose contempt upon them as an inferior race, 
and also to express their deformity of person. Nigger lips, 
nigger shins, and nigger heels, are phrases universally common 
among the juvenile class of society, and full well understood by 
them ; they are early learned to think of these expressions, as 
they are intended to apply to colored people, and as being ex- 
pressive or descriptive of the odious qualities of their mind and 
body. These impressions received by the young, grow with 
their growth, and strengthen with their strength. The term in 
itself, would be perfectly harmless, were it used only to distin- 
guish one class of society from another ; but it is not used with 
that intent ; the practical definition is quite different in England 
to what it is here, for here, it flows from the fountain of purpose 
to injure. It is this baneful seed which is sown in the tender soil of 
youthful minds, and there cultivated by the hand of a corrupt immoral policy."
~Hosea Easton, A TREATISE ON THE INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER, AND CIVIL AND 
POLITICAL CONDITION of the COLORED PEOPLE OF THE U. STATES; AND THE 
PREJUDICE EXERCISED TOWARDS THEM, 1837
http://www.archive.org/stream/treatiseonintell00east/treatiseonintell00east_djvu.txt 

No comments: