James Stout

Yeah.

That seems wrong.

Yeah, he's an empathetic and intelligent man.

He was aware of slavery from a very young age.

You had to be in the part of Africa he lived because there are slavers running rampant.

He later wrote about stout mahogany-colored men from the southwest who traveled through town to trade firearms, gunpowder, and other goods.

Quote,

They always carry slaves through our land, but the strictest account is exacted of their manner of procuring them before they are suffered to pass.

Sometimes indeed we sold slaves to them, but they were only prisoners of war, or such among us as had been convicted of kidnapping, or adultery, or some other crimes which we esteemed heinous.

Now, these are his recollections of how he justified things as a small child, right?

This is not how he feels about the matter as an adult.

And, in fact, he makes it clear in his autobiography that his belief that, like, well, these guys, you know, they're not allowed to just take slaves willy-nilly, right?

You know, we make sure that they're not – that's not accurate, right?

That's a thing he learns, unfortunately, not long later in his childhood, right?

And he does note at the time that like, well, you know, my dad told me that, yeah, it's OK.

We always make sure that, you know, they're not just grabbing people off the street at random, you know, when they come through.

But he knows like they always carry these big empty sacks with them.

I wonder what those are for.

Geez.

For Christmas stuff, I assume.