Many of the foregoing conditions and relations are _appendages_ of slavery, and some of them inseparable from it. But no one, nor all of them together, constitute its _intrinsic unchanging element_.
ENSLAVING MEN IS REDUCING THEM TO ARTICLES OF PROPERTY, making free agents chattels, converting _persons_ into _things_, sinking intelligence, accountability, immortality, into _merchandise_. A _slave_ is one held in this condition. He is a mere tool for another's use and benefit. In law "he owns nothing, and can acquire nothing." _His right to himself is abrogated._ He is another's property. If he say _my_ hands, _my_ feet, _my_ body, _my_ mind, MY_self_; they are figures of speech. To _use himself_ for his own good is a CRIME. To keep what he _earns_ is stealing. To take his body into his own keeping is _insurrection_. In a word, the> _profit_ of his master is the END of his being, and he, a _mere means_ to that end, a _mere means_ to an end into which his interests do not enter, of which they constitute no portion[A]. MAN sunk to a _thing_! the intrinsic element, the _principle_ of slavery; MEN sold, bartered, leased, mortgaged, bequeathed, invoiced, shipped in cargoes, stored as goods, taken on executions, and knocked off at public outcry! Their _rights_ another's conveniences, their interests, wares on sale, their happiness, a household utensil; their personal inalienable ownership, a serviceable article, or plaything, as best suits the humor of the hour; their deathless nature, conscience, social affections, sympathies, hopes, marketable commodities! We repeat it, _the reduction of persons to things_; not robbing a man of privileges, but of _himself_; not loading with burdens, but making him a _beast of burden_; not _restraining_ liberty, but subverting it; not curtailing rights, but abolishing them; not inflicting personal cruelty, but annihilating _personality_; not exacting involuntary labor, but sinking him into an _implement_ of labor; not abridging his human comforts, but abrogating his _human nature_; not depriving an animal of immunities, but _despoiling a rational being of attributes_, uncreating a MAN to make room for a _thing_!
[Footnote A: Whatever system sinks man from an END to a _means_, or in other words, whatever transforms him from an object of instrumentality into a mere instrumentality _to_ an object, just so far makes him a _slave_. Hence West India apprenticeship retains in _one_ particular the cardinal principle of slavery. The apprentice, during three-fourths of his time, is still forced to labor, and robbed of his earnings; just so far forth he is a _mere means_, a _slave_. True, in all other respects slavery is abolished in the British West Indies. Its bloodiest features are blotted out--but the meanest and most despicable of all--forcing the poor to work for the rich without pay three-fourths of their time, with a legal officer to flog them if they demur at the outrage, is one of the provisions of the "Emancipation Act!" For the glories of that luminary, abolitionists thank God, while they mourn that it rose behind clouds, and shines through an eclipse.]