Identity, Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture 1755–1800 - AP U.S. History

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Passage adapted from Richard Allen's "To Those Who Keep Slaves, and Approve the Practice" (1794)

"The judicious part of mankind will think it unreasonable that a superior good conduct is looked for from our race, by those who stigmatize us as men, whose baseness is incurable, and may therefore be held in a state of servitude, that a merciful man would not doom a beast to; yet you try what you can to prevent our rising from a state of barbarism you represent us to be in, but we can tell you from a degree of experience that a black man, although reduced to the most abject state human nature is capable of, short of real madness, can think, reflect, and feel injuries, although it may not be with the same degree of keen resentment and revenge that you who have been and are our great oppressors would manifest if reduced to the pitiable condition of a slave.

We believe if you would try the experiment of taking a few black children, and cultivate their minds with the same care, and let them have the same prospect in view as to living in the world, as you would wish for your own children, you would find upon the trial, they were not inferior in mental endowments."

To what group is Allen addressing his speech?

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Answer

Richard Allen's speech is directed "To Those Who Keep Slaves," which indicates his concern is primarily with those who own slaves. While slavery was not strictly regionally confined before 1800, the large Southern plantations had already been established as the main places where slaves were held. In particular, the plantation system featured chattel slavery, which is reflected in Allen's language about slaves being kept in a state that "a merciful man would not doom a beast to."

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