“ The best kind of people are, in general, those who know least of the cruelties of the system; they never witness them. ”
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands (1854). copy citation
| Author | Harriet Beecher Stowe |
|---|---|
| Source | Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands |
| Topic | cruelty good |
| Date | 1854 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13945/13945-h/13945-h.htm |
Context
“I remarked that many good people who do not take very extended views, fixing their attention chiefly on the efforts which they are making for the religious instruction of slaves, are blind to the sin and injustice of allowing their legal position to remain what it is.
"But how do they shut their eyes to the various cruelties of the system,—the separation of families—the domestic slave trade?"
I replied, "In part, by not inquiring into them. The best kind of people are, in general, those who know least of the cruelties of the system; they never witness them. As in the city of London or Liverpool there may be an amount of crime and suffering which many residents may live years without seeing or knowing, so it is in the slave states."
Every person present appeared to be in that softened and charitable frame of mind which disposed them to make every allowance for the situation of Christians so peculiarly tempted, while, at the same time, there was the most earnest concern, in view of the dishonor brought upon Christianity by the defence of such a system.”
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