Summary

Waddell owned and edited the Spectator, the Whig Unionist newspaper in Augusta County. His views on slavery briefly mentioned in his private diary never made it into the newspaper's editorials.

EXCERPT:

"Dr McGill proposed to buy Selena to-day, and offered me $1000 -- I would not have sold her for $20,000, unless she desired to go, or had grossly misbehaved. This thing of speculating on human flesh is utterly horrible to me -- the money would eat into my flesh like hot iron. Slavery itself is extremely repulsive to my feelings, and I earnestly desire its extinction everywhere, when it can be done judiciously, and so as to promote the welfare of both races. Yet I am no abolitionist. The day for emancipation with us has not come, and we must wait God's time. For the present all that the most philanthropic can do is to endeavor to ameliorate the institution; but it is hard to do this in the midst of the mischievous interference of outside fanatics."

Full-text web version of diary

Location of original diary

Accession #38-258, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

"Slavery was ubiquitous and systemic in Augusta County's economy and society. No town or place in Augusta was without slavery, no person distant from it. Slavery extended into every corner of the county, concentrating in no one area."