"every one acquainted with southern slaves knows that the slave rejoices in the elevation and prosperity of his master; and the heart of no one is more gladdened at the successful debut of young master or miss on the great theatre of the world than that of either the young slave who has grown up with them and shared in all their sports, and even partaken of all their delicacies—or the aged one who has looked on and watched them from birth to manhood, with the kindness and most affectionate solicitude, and has ever met from them all the kind treatment and generous sympathies of feeling, tender hearts. judge in an emergency he would rely upon his own slaves for his defense—he would put arms into their hands, and he had no doubt they would defend him faithfully. in the late southampton insurrection, we know that many actually convened their slaves and armed them for defense, although slaves were here the cause of the evil which was to be repelled."
thomas dew, president of the college of william and mary, 1832
william harper, james henry hammond, william gilmore simms, and thomas roderick dew, the pro-slavery argument (philadelphia: lippincott, grambo, 1853), 457-58.