Ools; they are obliged to contend with obstacles, which white men never
encounter. It might seem wonderful that the descendants of wise
Ethiopia, and learned Egypt, are now in such a state of degradation, if
history did not furnish a remarkable parallel in the condition of the
modern Greeks. The land of Homer, Pericles, and Plato, is now inhabited
by ignorant, brutal pirates. Freedom made the Grecians great and
glorious--tyranny has made them stupid and miserable. Yet their yoke has
been light, compared with African bondage. In both cases the wrongs of
the oppressed have been converted into an argument against them. We
first debase the nature of man by making him a slave, and then very
coolly tell him that he must always remain a slave because he does not
know how to use freedom. We first crush people to the earth, and then
claim the right of trampling on them for ever, because they are
prostrate. Truly, human selfishness never invented a rule, which worked
so charmingly both ways! No one thinks of doubting the intellect of
Indians; yet civilization has certainly advanced much farther in the
interior of Africa, than it did among the North American tribes. The
Indians have strong untutored eloquence,--so have the Africans. And
where will you find an Indian chieftain, whose pride, intellect, and
valor, are more than a match for Zhinga's? Both of these classes have
been most shamefully wronged; but public prejudice, which bows the negro
to the earth, has borne with a far less crushing power upon the energies
of the red man; yet they have not produced a Shakspeare or a Newton. But
I shall be asked how it is that the nations of Africa, having proceeded
so far in the arts of civilization, have made a full stop, and remained
century after century without any obvious improv
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