XV.4 Another origin of the right of slavery

, par Stewart

I would as soon say that religion gives to those who profess it a right to enslave those who do not so as to favor its propagation more effectively.

It was this manner of thinking that encouraged the destroyers of America in their crimes. [1] It was on this notion that they based the right to enslave so many peoples : for those brigands who absolutely wanted to be both brigands and Christians were very devout.

Louis XIII strongly resisted the law that made the Negroes in his colonies slaves, but once it was put into his head that it was the surest way to convert them, he agreed to it. [2]

Notes

[1See the history of the conquest of Mexico by Solis, and of the conquest of Peru by Garcilaso de la Vega.

[2Father Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux îles de l’Amérique, vol. IV, p. 114, 1722, in-12.