gines, who sooner
than live in the vicinity of the whites, retire at their
approach.

Is it the uncertainty of a subsistence in this new mode of life,
that deters them from undertaking it? They have never any
solicitude for their future support. Is it the fear of being
pursued and overtaken that is an obstacle to the project?
Ignorant as they are, they cannot but know that, protected by
almost impenetrable woods, and formidable in numbers, they might
set at defiance a handful of whites. Does the apprehension of
being combated by the Indians damp their enterprize? Such a
chimera could never affright them, since the Indians roving in
detached parties, would be the first to flee; nay, they would
probably court their union, there having been instances of
negroes finding an asylum among them, but after a lapse of time,
unworthy to enjoy freedom, the fugitives have returned to their
plantation, like a dog, who, having escaped from his kennel,
returns to it by an instinct of submission. To multiply
comparisons, as the ox resigns himself to his yoke, so the negro
bends to his burden.

Their defect in instinct is apparent. Could the Indians be ever
brought to that state of slavery which the negroes bear without
repining; every method hitherto practiced to deprive them of
their liberty, has been ineffectual.

But it is not so with the negroes. In their own country, or
abroad, if they have ever discovered a desire to emerge from
slavery this flame as resembled a meteor which appears only for a
moment. And even, the scenes, which have been witnessed in the
French colonies, and, particularly, the island of Saint
Domingo,[229] serve to corroborate and support my theory. It is
undeniable that the negroes of that colony have never ceased to
be slaves. Before their insurrection they were the slaves of the
legitimate masters; in the early part of the revolution they were
slaves to the French commissioners and mulattoes; and afterwards
they became subject to the nod of negroes like themselves. We do
not alter the substance of a thing by changing the name.

Nature may be modified but cannot be essentially changed. It is
not possible to impart to the dog the habits of the wolf, nor to
the ape those of the sheep. This position cannot be refuted.