self-impoverishment

Updated: May 25, 2025

How far they are right in anticipating ruin from the manumission of their slaves I think questionable, but that they do so is certain, and self-impoverishment for the sake of abstract principle is not a thing to be reasonably expected from any large mass of men.

Fanny Kemble - Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation: 1838-1839