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| St. Jean de Crevecoeur |
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| Sarah Kemble Knight |
Writing almost 50 years before the accredited start of the abolitionist movement, St. Jean de Crevecoeur is perhaps one of the earliest writers to argue in defense of the slaves. His passionate argument for emancipation and belief in racial equality greatly contrasts him with the obvious disgust and inferiority with which Sarah Kemble Knight viewed the slaves.
In Knight's
journal, she talked about her journey through Connecticut, and she outlined a few
examples of "too great familiarity" between the white slave owners and
their slaves. One of her stories, about a
farmer that was ordered to pay some money to his slave in recompense for a broken
promise, subtly illustrates her disapproval of it. More overtly, she expresses her disapproval of
their "Indulgent" habits of "permitting [the slaves] to sit at Table
and eat with them" (195). Her belief
in the inferiority of the slaves is perhaps best shown by her expression of horror
that "into the dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand" (195).
In complete
contrast to that, Crevecoeur is not afraid to express his abhorrence of slavery,
and goes so far as to state that "I hope the time draws near when [the slaves]
will be all emancipated" (231). He argues against the unfounded belief that slavery
is right simply because it has always been around, and cites the slaves similar
emotions as reasons for proving them equal to their white counterparts, saying that
"those hearts in which such noble dispositions can grow, are then like ours,
they are susceptible of every generous sentiment, of every useful motive of action"
(232).
Most importantly,
Crevecoeur views the slaves as human, as a people equal to his own instead of as
a subservient race. In the end, the main
difference between him and Knight is not whether slavery is actually right, but
whether the slaves are capable of being more than that, of whether they are naturally
inferior or equal.
Works Cited
Perkins, George, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th ed. Vol. 1. Boston. McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
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