Sunday, October 5, 2014

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw to Annie K. Haggerty Shaw, June 26, 1863

The only persons responsible for the depravity of the negroes are their scoundrelly owners, who are, nevertheless, not ashamed to talk of the Christianizing influence of slavery. Whatever the condition of the slaves may be, it does not degrade them as a bad life does most people, for their faces are generally good. I suppose this is owing to their utter ignorance and innocence of evil.

We landed on this island last night, and to-day are bringing everything to our camp, a mile from the landing, by hand. Having a great many stores, it is a long job. I am sitting on a box in the middle of a field of sand, under a tent-fly, and writing on my knee.

SOURCE: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Editor, Harvard Memorial Biographies, Volume 2, p. 205

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