"In conducting the education of negro, mulatto and quadroon children, the writer has often observed this fact:--that, for a certain time, and up to a certain age, they keep equal pace with, and were often superior to, white children with whom they were associated; but there came a time when they became indifferent to learning, and made no further progress. This was invariably at the age when they were old enough to reflect upon life, and that society had no place to offer them for which anything more would be requisite than the rudest most elementary knowledge....
"Does not every one know that, without the stimulus which good teachers and parents thus continually present, multitudes of children would never gain a tolerable education? And is it not the absence of all such stimulus which has prevented the negro child from an equal advance ?...
"Hence we see the reason of the passionate attachment which often exists in a faithful slave to a good master. It is, in fact, a transfer of his identity to his master. A stern law and an unchristian public sentiment has taken away his birthright of humanity, erased his name from the catalog of men, and made him an anomalous creature--neither man nor brute. When a kind master recognizes his humanity, and treats him as a humble companion and a friend, there is no end to the devotion and gratitude which he thus excites. He is to the slave a deliverer and a savior from the curse which lies on his hapless race . Deprived of all legal rights and privileges, all opportunity or hope of personal advancement or honor, he transfers, as it were, his whole existence into his master's , and appropriates his rights , his position, his honor, as his own; and thus enjoys a kind of reflected sense of what it might be to be a man himself. Hence it is that the appeal to the more generous part of the negro character is seldom made in vain....
"Society has yet a need of a great deal of enlightening as to the means of restoring the vicious and degraded to virtue...
"Recent efforts which have been made among unfortunate females in some of the worst districts of New York show the same thing. What is it that rankles deepest in the breast of fallen woman, that makes her so hopeless and irreclaimable? It is that burning consciousness of degradation which stings worse than cold or hunger, and makes her shrink from the face of the missionary and the philanthropist. They who have visited these haunts of despair and wretchedness have learned that they must touch gently the shattered harp of the human soul, if they would string it again to divine music; that they must encourage self-respect and hope, and sense of character , or the bonds of death can never be broken....
"When Christ speaks to the soul, does he crush one of its nobler faculties? Does he taunt us with our degradation , our selfishness, our narrowness of view, and feebleness of intellect , compared with his own? Is it not true that he not only saves us from our former sins, but saves us in a way most considerate , most tender, most regardful of our feelings and sufferings? Does not the Bible tell us that, in order to fulfill his office of Redeemer more perfectly, he took upon him the condition of humanity, and endured the pains, and wants, and temptations of a mortal existence , that he might be to us a sympathizing friend , 'touched with the feeling of our infirmity,' and cheering us gently on in the hard path of returning virtue?"
P.50-53, "Topsy," KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853)
"In conducting the education of negro, mulatto and quadroon children, the writer has often observed this fact:--that, for a certain time, and up to a certain age, they keep equal pace with, and were often superior to, white children with whom they were associated; but there came a time when they became indifferent to learning, and made no further progress. This was invariably at the age when they were old enough to reflect upon life, and that society had no place to offer them for which anything more would be requisite than the rudest most elementary knowledge....
"Does not every one know that, without the stimulus which good teachers and parents thus continually present, multitudes of children would never gain a tolerable education? And is it not the absence of all such stimulus which has prevented the negro child from an equal advance ?...
"Hence we see the reason of the passionate attachment which often exists in a faithful slave to a good master. It is, in fact, a transfer of his identity to his master. A stern law and an unchristian public sentiment has taken away his birthright of humanity, erased his name from the catalog of men, and made him an anomalous creature--neither man nor brute. When a kind master recognizes his humanity, and treats him as a humble companion and a friend, there is no end to the devotion and gratitude which he thus excites. He is to the slave a deliverer and a savior from the curse which lies on his hapless race . Deprived of all legal rights and privileges, all opportunity or hope of personal advancement or honor, he transfers, as it were, his whole existence into his master's , and appropriates his rights , his position, his honor, as his own; and thus enjoys a kind of reflected sense of what it might be to be a man himself. Hence it is that the appeal to the more generous part of the negro character is seldom made in vain....
"Society has yet a need of a great deal of enlightening as to the means of restoring the vicious and degraded to virtue...
"Recent efforts which have been made among unfortunate females in some of the worst districts of New York show the same thing. What is it that rankles deepest in the breast of fallen woman, that makes her so hopeless and irreclaimable? It is that burning consciousness of degradation which stings worse than cold or hunger, and makes her shrink from the face of the missionary and the philanthropist. They who have visited these haunts of despair and wretchedness have learned that they must touch gently the shattered harp of the human soul, if they would string it again to divine music; that they must encourage self-respect and hope, and sense of character , or the bonds of death can never be broken....
"When Christ speaks to the soul, does he crush one of its nobler faculties? Does he taunt us with our degradation , our selfishness, our narrowness of view, and feebleness of intellect , compared with his own? Is it not true that he not only saves us from our former sins, but saves us in a way most considerate , most tender, most regardful of our feelings and sufferings? Does not the Bible tell us that, in order to fulfill his office of Redeemer more perfectly, he took upon him the condition of humanity, and endured the pains, and wants, and temptations of a mortal existence , that he might be to us a sympathizing friend , 'touched with the feeling of our infirmity,' and cheering us gently on in the hard path of returning virtue?"
P.50-53, "Topsy," KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853)
