160 ChaPTER 6 | GrowinG painS | period three 1 75 4 –18 0 0Document 6.10 iSaaC WelD, Travels throughout the States
of North America
1797Isaac Weld (1774–1856) traveled from Great Britain to North America in 1795. His Travels,
published two years later, is an early account of North America in the first decade after
Independence.The number of the slaves increases most rapidly, so that there is scarcely any
estate but what is overstocked. This is a circumstance complained of by every
planter, as the maintenance of more than are requisite for the culture of the estate
is attended with great expence. Motives of humanity deter them from selling the
poor creatures, or turning them adrift from the spot where they have been born
and brought up, in the midst of friends and relations.
What I have here said, respecting the condition and treatment of slaves, apper-
tains, it must be remembered, to those only who are upon the large plantations in
Virginia; the lot of such as are unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the
lower class of white people, and of hard task-masters in the towns, is very differ-
ent. In the Carolinas and Georgia again, slavery presents itself in very different
colors from what it does even in its worst form in Virginia. I am told, that it is
no uncommon thing there, to see gangs of negroes staked at a horse race, and to
see these unfortunate beings bandied about from one set of drunken gamblers to
another for days together. How much to be deprecated [disapproved of ] are the
laws which suffer such abuses to exist! yet these are laws enacted by people who
boast of their love of liberty and independence, and who presume to say, that it
is in the breasts of Americans alone that the blessings of freedom are held in just
estimation.Isaac Weld, Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada, vol. 1 (London: John Stockdale, 1799), 150–151, transcribed into modern
English by Jason Stacy.PRaCTICINg historical Thinking
Identify: Describe Weld’s observations.
Analyze: Determine Weld’s attitude toward slavery.
Evaluate: Compare Weld’s observations to the regional divisions that Thomas
Jefferson mentions in his letter to Philip Mazzei (Doc. 6.9).ToPIC III | regional and national identities 16107_STA_2012_ch6_145-168.indd 160 19/03/15 5:19 PM