Freedom

Floyd Hemphill

Professor Motes

10/26/10

In both The Blight of Slavery and James Madison and the American Colonization Society, the idea of freeing slaves is discussed. Raymond’s views on slavery may seem normal to most but for his time period they would have been seen as radical. He discusses how slavery affects both the country as a whole and each individual state.

Raymond attempts to inform the people of how slavery if not abolished will do harm to the country. He begins by talking about how the trade of slaves to the west will lead to slave breeding. He says that in turn this will lead to an uncontrollable growth in the slave population. Leading to what he calls a “Second Africa” in America. The problem with this is the more slaves there are the more food you have to produce in order to fee yourself and the. This put a tremendous strain on not only the slaves but the master also because now they have to worry about producing enough food to feed their family and all their slaves. It appears that although Raymond is opposed to have to having slaves in America is not opposed to having blacks in the country.

Raymond use the metaphor “poisonous plant... overshadowing, choking, and finally destroying everything within the sphere of its influence” to describe the slavery situation with in the south. Raymond is saying that not only is slavery wrong and evil it also a disgrace to the entire species. This is most evident when he talks about how by a man believing that the population of whites should be increased over that of the black it brings disgrace to the human species.

Although Raymond’s views on slavery may seems normal to the people of today for his time period his ideas were radical. He believed that by trading slave to the west it would bring about a very large boom in the slave population that although may seem good in the short term would soon lead to a “Second Africa” with in America. Raymond also discusses why the enslavement of people is a...