DEATH IS EASY by Russell Madden   Softcover, $14.95 Hardcover, $24.95     (Preview. Also available in a digital edition, $4.81.)	FREEDOM, As If It Mattered by Russell Madden   Softcover, $24.95 Hardcover, $34.95   (Preview. Also available in a digital edition, $5.63.)

 

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IN DEFENSE OF SLAVERY

by

Russell Madden

 

 

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I have heard troubling rumbles of ill-conceived discontent echoing in the dark corners of our great land. Such traitorous dissent threatens the integrity of the social fabric that has enabled us to create a wondrous civilization from what was once a savage wilderness. It falls to those of us who guide the glorious destiny of this great nation to address such scurrilous and dangerous falsehoods. It is my duty -- no, my privilege -- to speak out and crush those who would bring ruin and damnation upon us all.

I address, of course, those benighted souls who claim -- against all logic and evidence -- that the natural order must be overturned, that the carefully constructed relationship between master and slave that has sustained the economic and moral superiority of our people must be condemned and abandoned. These so-called "abolitionists" squawk in their shrill tones for an unwarranted "equality" and "freedom,"  for an eradication of the proper hierarchy that keeps the machinery of our world operating smoothly and efficiently. Were I not so incensed by the presumptuousness of these low-life rabble-rousers, I would laugh at such palpable nonsense. 

It is enough to ponder some of the outrageous contentions of these self-righteous abolitionists to recognize the folly of their phantasmal visions.

Our foul opponents offer the fanciful notion that slaves are sovereign individuals like us, fully capable of directing their own lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. A moment's solemn reflection makes clear that our slaves lack the inherent ability to understand their situation in all its complexity. If faced with the myriad of difficult choices and decisions confronting my fellow property owners, a slave would tremble in fear and self-doubt. Slaves possess neither the mental acuity nor the moral cohesiveness required for sifting through the vast maze of existence. They tell us that they are much more comfortable deferring to our greater knowledge and wisdom. Indeed, I have personally heard slaves declare that they want us to make the tough decisions for them. They seek solace in their daily chores and simple responsibilities, leaving to their betters the task of navigating paths fraught with peril and loss.

The abolitionists counter this obvious observation by a subtle subterfuge: decent schooling is all a slave needs, they say with earnest innocence. But education will not win a slave a virtue denied him by his ancestry. Over many decades, we have shepherded these guileless wards in what and how they learn. Any suggestion that we toss aside our role as caring mentors and let these people select willy-nilly their own road is met with horrified denial by those very slaves. They trust neither themselves nor their fellows. Heavy though our burden sometimes is, we have not shirked from telling our surrogate offspring when they shall begin their education; what subjects they shall be taught; the manner in which the facts they need to know will be presented; and what their proper place in society is and shall ever be.

Pay no heed, either, to cries of "indoctrination!" shouted by the abolitionists. We socialize our slaves so they can perform their tasks without troubling thoughts disturbing their equanimity. Why should they as well as we be forced to contend with disquieting facts that would only make them unhappy? Better that they continue in long-standing familial routines that anchor their uncomplicated lives and that they rejoice in carefree entertainments that leave them peaceful and contented with their lot.

Perhaps, though, I take too much to heart the bleating protests of the abolitionists. After all, the social order we have erected over the passing years serves everyone well. Do we not permit our slaves to expand their skills in those areas in which they demonstrate personal proclivities? We determine for them how much they shall be paid for their efforts; what percentage of that income they shall be allowed to keep for themselves; and how much we shall take in recompense for our own considerable labors in keeping them housed and fed and cared for. When they are sick, to whom do they look for succor? When they are hungry, to whom do they turn for bread? When their homes are destroyed by natural disaster or by their own careless neglect, who do they expect to answer their wails of anguish?

To ask such questions is to answer them.

We pay for the birthing of their babies. We pay for the basic education of those children. We pay for the care of those toddlers while the mothers work at their duties. We pay for food that we determine is healthy for them. One way or another, we pay for the sick and the lame and the malformed.

We pay for the roofs over their heads and ensure that they build those dwellings in accordance with the procedures our experience has convinced us is best. The color of paint on their walls, the kinds of plants they put into the ground, how closely their homes may be placed together, who shall or shall not be allowed to live in which buildings, when those homes must be forsaken as too decrepit or razed to make way for plans of our own: those are our decisions, ones our slaves willingly accede to us.

We decide how many hours they may work. We decide at what age they may work. We decide which jobs are suitable for which of them. We decide how they shall resolve their common and petty disagreements, what they may be permitted to say to one another and what words are acceptable and which are not. We protect them from physical harm and deny them weapons that they would rashly use against themselves or their neighbors. Or us.

We provide for their old age. Just as we do for the children, we come full circle and pay for the homes of the old, for their food, for the doctors and nostrums fulfilling their medical needs, the pleasures that help them while away their diminishing years. Even though they no longer earn us money, still we have taken on the thankless undertaking of keeping them alive and reasonably satisfied.

And regardless of what the abolitionists might say, the truth is that our slaves want us to do all this for them. The minuscule minority of our wards who think they want to decide for themselves, provide for themselves, abide by themselves are deluded by their naivete. When we provide the papers that identify our slaves' origins and permit them to travel unaccompanied from city to city, we do so knowing that the slaves themselves find security and solace in such cautious procedures. To seek anonymity from us is to admit criminal intent, a charge they tremble at contemplating. Obedience garners rewards. Defiance of our edicts invites punishment so dire and severe that both the guilty and the guileless must shrink from the very possibility of incurring our wrath.

I grow angry even hypothesizing about a society in which slaves are treated as equal to their masters and deserving of a misguided freedom that could only bring them consequences too grave to allow. The abolitionists do not really care for those they seek to "liberate." They are cold and heartless beasts who would cast the unwilling and the unable upon the storm-tossed waters of reality. Where will these abolitionists be when those they "free" are sick and dying, when the bad choices of these former slaves leave them destitute and homeless, hungering for a scrap of food, when their ignorance and imprudence lead them into the black depths of despair?

The only thing these arrogant abolitionists will accomplish should their evil plans reach fruition is a vast increase in the suffering and misery of the very ones they purport to help; a disintegration of the social order into chaos and destruction; a dissolution of the bonds between master and slave that have helped us establish a new Eden upon earth.

As we move into the second decade of the Twenty-first Century, I urge all those who read these words to disavow the cranks and the outlaws, the misfits and the malcontents, the vicious animals who want to abolish all we have accomplished in favor of a cruelly primitive life in which those least able to care for and direct their own lives are cast aside, are left alone and deserted by those who would otherwise be there ready and willing to protect and defend them from themselves.

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