CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEGROES IN THE UNITED STATES.
THE remarks in last Spectator on " White and Black in the United States," have attracted the attention of Miss MARTINEAU ; who has favoured us with an interesting communication on the subject. It will be seen that Miss MARTINEAU disapproves of the manner, and controverts the statements of the paper of last week. On both of these points we have a few words to say hi our own defence: but we shall first give the contribution of our fair and estimable cor respondent.
TO THE POITOR GE THE SPECTATOR.
Fludyer Street, 8th October.
Sot—I have more than once observed with pain, that your paper, usually the intrepid advocate of whatever is just and ultimately true, in contempt of mere temporary expediency, exhibits a temper of flippant illiberality on the subject of Abolitionism in America, inconsistent with its prevailing tone of philosophi- cal Radicalism. Yours is perhaps the last paper in England in which should have been found such an article as that headed " White aud Black in the United States," in your number of yesterday. The writer of that article has apparently been misled by his conviction of a principle generally true, into condemning and ridiculing the actions of persons as fully convinced as himself of the same principle, and much better informed of the circumstances by which its titeration is muddied in the society amidst which they live. The Abolitiod-ts of the United States ate perfectly aware that slavery was once necessary. They know that when their fathers were thrown—a handful of men—into a vast wilderness, there was no alternative be- tween employing compulsory labour and starvation. As a body, the Aboli- tionists, ineludiug the women who mrt in Convention, are the best political economists in the country. Their perilous interest in the object they have em- braced, has driven them to area themselves with science, among other intellec- tual and moral weapons and &fences. It is their economical science, in con- junction with their human sympathies, which has taught them that, if there has been a time wheal slavery must begin, there must also come a time when it must cease; and that this latter time is at hand.
It is true that there are millions of unoccupied acres in the United States, some of which are to be had for a dollar and a quarter per acre ; and that, generally speaking, there is a tendency in free labourers to wander off into such unoccupied lands, in preference to remaining in the service of capitalists. But such general truths are remarkably modified by circumstances in the United States; particularly by features in the Negro character, with which the Aboli- tionists have the best reasons for being fully acquainted. The Negroes are remarkable for a sort of feline attachment to plice, which even the fiercest inflictions of slavery are too weak to overcome. Some run away; but many more, with equal opportunities, and borne down by equal suffering, do not. I have known instances of extreme reluctance to move, even from under the cruelty of a harsh master, to a very short distance. And this peculiarity belongs scarcely more to the slave than to the free Negro. Thousand. of Negroes. free and enslaved, have boen in vain offered laud and luxury and pet feet freedom to please themselve;, on the one condition of letting themselves be removed to Liberia. Their universal repugnance to move has been fatal to the schemes of the Colonization Society. The unoccupied land of the United States is out of sight of all its shires, and a thousand miles west- ward of the denser Black population which it is proposed first to emancipate; and every Negro in the district of Columbia would shrink from travelling to it, as he does front going to Liberia.
Nor is there any thing in the nature of the land, or mode of occupation, to tempt theni. If they could witness the operations of the White settler, they would recoil front a gift of land. It must be cleared and laboriously drained, before it will grow any thing, which will sot ye for food. The luxur■ -loving Negro would see nothing to desire in the situation of the lonely chopper. ob- taining his subsistence, not as in fertile Africa, by gathering, fruits or scratching the earth tel throwing in a handful of seeds, bia by drudgery which the free la- bourer on a plantation need never undergo. The Negroes of America have, as soon as freed, is passion for civilization, and a horror of the barbat ism of back-woods life. There is nothin; surprising Sr ridiculous in this. They arc, at the same time. an imit aloe and a despised people. Their imitativeness causes th to to ore mize ti in societies into the nearest possib'e resemblance to tl: • Whites ; and their vanity (which is exces- sive) is piqued to institute a tivalship with their sopa ON in the arts of life and the routine if civilization. Accordingly, it is foal that the flee Blacks resort to the cities, and are rarely or maw to h.. me; with in a country solitude. A traveller may wander over all the new settle:talus of the contineot sad ant see a Nero squatter.
The Blacks have also a passion for society. Both slaves and free huddle together in the snialh st spire iii it van he mad,: to it them : so deaf ly do they hove looking continually in each other's faces. Tile desit•e of go it teals the White Americans to disperse themselves over the land to a site undesirable degree. But Lir a long series of years after the ahelitioo of slavery, the desire of gain. the dislike of Ithotir. and the social dispositions of the Blacks will he all best giatilied by their remaining on the planters' estates. I say their &alike of labour, because -emancipation Will cert tinly be faoweil by the allop.. fion of machinery and brute labour to is great exona : while the increased awl increasing productiveness of land will keep w ige: high. A few other points require notice. It is a as alie to suppose that the Aboli- tion movement has exasperated the condition of the Illachs. 1 can speak con- fidently of this, not only from what I saw in all the Southern States at the time of the slaveholders' greatest fury, but from the admission of the planters themselves. I learned on the spot, from the lips of ti:e fiercest defeuders of the existiug system, that the condition of the slaves is materially improved by the compassionate eyes of the world being fixed upon them. It is true that their night suppers and dances have been placed under supervision or prohi- bited ; that a more vigilant watchis kept ; and that they are not taught to read and v.rite. But reading and writing are of small benefit to beings almost with. out ideas ; and if they have fewer pleasures they have more comforts and fewer iojuries than before. They are better fed, less worked, and less fh!gged ; for the obvious reason, that it is their masters' interest to present the fairest aspect of slavery to the awakened observ.tion of the world. If the con lition of the slaves had been made worse, this should have animated rather than relaxed the efforts of the Abolitionists to put an end to the liabilltv altogether—to save all future generations, if they could not help the present. But it is Lot so. The Negroes are less outrageously oppressed than they were. In confirmwion of this, these has not been a single insurrection since the Abolition movement became im- portant; while, before that time, there was a rising, on an average, once a month.
The mobbing by the mercenary interest of the Nol th Las already ceased. It was a necessary evil, a lion in the path of the Abolitionists. It has Lad its roar out, and has turned tail. The Abolitionists are carrying all before them, by that moral force beneath which the physical has quailed. The members of the first general Convention of 'Women had previoudy braved the physical force : they now confront what is perhaps more difficult to bear, the insults of the power- ful,' the mercenary, and the mean at home, and, it appears, tie scoffs of persons three thousand miles off, who complacently assume to know their work and understand th: affairs of their country better than they do th .m-elves. The "attempt to excite horror of slavery" is not " superfluous," while it is scarcely possible to pass a day in the United States without being informed that "the slaves are very happy," or questioned as to whether they are not so.
With regaid to the exceedingly disagreeable and flippant paragraph of the article under notice, on the subject of associating with people of colour, it is enough to say, that while vicious Whites enter into all but virtuous relations with them, it must be possible for the pure to sustain all that are virtuous. The people of colour are not all, nor nearly all, servants. Blany are educated, and fit for companionship with the enlightened ; and more are likely to become so in consequence of the efforts of the members of the New York Convention. Many members of that Convention some movers and seconders of resolutions and niembers of committees are ladies of colour, part of whose business of the week was drawing up addresses to one class or another of American society, on eairs which they thoroughly understand.
I need not say that I go further than "honouring the feelings" of your con- temporary of the True Sun, whose remarks were the occasion of the article in your paper. I am confident that he has solid ground for his rejoicing. He truly sees, from the substance and framing of the resolutions of the Convention of Women, that the authors are not a set of pratels, of fanatics, or sentimen- talists, but women of business, transacting their philanthropic affairs in ra- tional while fervent reliance on the dictum—true before AltISTOTLE breathed, and b ue for evermore—" that which is the best principle always constitutes the best polity." I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
HARRIET MARTINEAV.
Novwith regard tJ the " flippant illiberality" imputed, we can honestly disclaim any intention to be flippant : on the contrary, we consider the subject as one of very grave importance; and we shall regret if, by our manner of treating it, we give even ground- less offinice to the enthusiastic Abolitionists, however erroneous and hurtful to the cause they advocate we may believe their course of proceeding to be. The paragraph especially alluded to by Miss MARTINEAU was an attempt (unsuccessful, we fear) to avoid grossness in stating a physical peculiarity which must prove an obstacle to the intimate association of the Whites with the Blacks. With respect to the other " relations" hinted at, it would be easy to show that there is no comparison between the power of the impulse in the one case and of the motive in the other : but this cannot well be discussed in a newspaper. Miss MARTINEAU seems to think that the author of the article she disapproves of so strongly, is a mete theorist, without prac- tical or personal knowledge of the subject he writes upon. This is a mistake. His experience is not of so recent a date by about five or six years as that of Miss MARTINEAU; but, in the Northern, in the Middle, and in the Slave-bolding States, he passed a much longer period than Miss MARTINEAU resided in America altogether. He had peculiar opportunities of observa- tion, and lived among the Americans as one of themselves ; having frequently, if not generally, during the latter years of his residence, been taken for a native of the country. Perhaps be was less likely to be imposed upon by exaggerated statements, than a lady of high literary reputation, who, it was well-known, would publish her observations on what she saw and beard. Be- sides, he went where no lady could have gone, slept where no lady could have slept, and saw things which Miss MARTINEAU pro-bald), never saw,—in the course of a very extensive journey, on horseback, in the less frequented part of the Slave-holding States, undertaken especially to ascertain the condition of the Negroes and their masters. Miss MARTINEAU will now see that, if mistaken, the writer whom she condemns lacked not ex- perience. The "principle" that compulsion is necessary to obtain combi- nation of labour in a countiy. where land is plentiful and cheap— especially where the climate is hot and unhealthy, and the em- ployment disagreeable—seems to be admitted by Miss MARTI- NEAU ; but its operation, it is argued, is modified in the Slave- holding States of America, by the peculiar habits of the Negroes- " their feline attachment to p-lace,"and other causes. Miss MARTI- NEAU describes the laborious occupation of the White backwoods- man, and says that the "luxury-loving Negro" would "recoil from a gift of land" which must be cleared and drained. If slavery were abolished, me sus-,.i et that land cleared and drained would be cheap enough in Georgia and the Carolinas : but the choice of the Negro is not restricted to the wooded and untamed districts. Miss MARTINEAU ought to know that there is in the warm Southern States a vast quantity of land, requiring little labour to render it productive, and to be had at an exceedingly low price ; that a little Indian corn and a few pigs would supply the wants of a Negro family, and that these could be raised and reared at the expense of less than a day's work in the week. How long would the " luxury-loving " Negroes submit to regular, hoist work, for a master, when with twenty or thirty dollars he might secure lazy independence ? In support of our opinion that the Negroes would not work regularly for hire in cultivating rice or sugar, or at any other laborious undertaking, when land sufficient to maintain a fa- mily may be had for a tritle, (why they should be expected to do what White men will not, it would be difficult to say,) we may refer to the evidence given by Mr. BURNLEY, in 1836, before 11Ir. \Values Colonial Lands Committee. The experience of that gentlemen is far greater than Miss MaarisreAn's ; it also is recent. Now Mr. BURNLEY, having taken uncommon pains to inform himself, declares, that " there is not a man living in Porto Rico, Cuba, or the United States, who does not believe that a ruinous crisis must arise in 1840 in our West India Cola flies : " and why ?—because it will be then impossible to procure the combined labour now obtained from the slaves, owing to the facility of procuring land at a low price. The recent accounts from the West Indies, of the dreadful severity found necessary to compel the apprentices to work steadily—severity so great, that there is a growing conviction in this country that the condition of the Negroes has not been bettered by the costly Emancipation Act —strongly confirms the opinion of Mr. BURNLEY and our own.
We are surprised that Miss MARTINEAU alludes to the failure of the Liberia Colonization scheme as a proof that the Negroes would not leave their present masters to secure indolent inde- pendence. The free Blacks (for they, not the slaves, were the objects of it) naturally enough rejected a scheme which they be- lieved to be a mere trick to get rid of them by the shortest way. They also knew too well the hatred and suspicion with which they were regarded by the slave-owners, to go to sea in their ships. They imputed a degree of wickedness to the planters of which they would never have been guilty ; but the suspicion, in a free Negro, was not surprising. Miss MARTINEAU denies that the Abolition movement has exas- perated the condition of the Blacks; but then immediately ad- mits, that " their night suppers or dances have been placed under supervision, or prohibited; that a more vigilant watch is kept; and that they are not taught to read or write." Without going into asy other particulars, we submit that it is a very great hardship to the poor Negro—as heavy a punishment, one that increases the misery of his condition as much, as any regulation of the kind could—to prohibit his night suppers and dances ; and it appears to us that Miss MARTINEAU'S knowledge of the Negro character and habits must be very imperfect and superficial, or she would never have spoken of this prohibition or supervision as a light calamity to the Negro. Why, those nightly merry-makings were his chief delight and consolation—his all of enjoyment in life. Then, a more vigilant watch is kept, and they are not taught to read and write ; and (mirabile dicta !) this Miss Mann:se:Au consi- ders a slight evil, because " reading and writing are of small benefit to beings almost without ideas!" How are they to get ideas, if the sources of instruction are more closely sealed up than ever? The planters know that the way to perpetuate slavery is to pmpetuate ignorance. Of all persons, we should have thought that Miss MARTINEAU would have been the very last to make light of the infernal policy which condemns millions of our fellow creatures to intense ignorance—and for such a reason too! Enough, we think, has been admitted by our fair censor—without referring to other facts—to prove that the Abolition movement has grievously exasperated the condition of the Blacks. It is assumed that the Abolitionists have gained ground, and that their opponents have turned tail. We doubt the fact. It is not very long since there was a grand Abolition movement in the United States. Public meetings were called, addresses delivered, tracts circulated throughout the country, and a vast effort made against the slave-owners. What was the result ? The country, North, South, East, and West, ruse against the Abolitionists, tar- red and feathered them, and drove them out of the country. Since that time, there has been comparatively little said or heard of Abolition. But have the Abolitionists been victorious? Where is their great apostle, Mr. Tnceaesoal? 'Would lie ven- ture himself again on a similar mission in America ? With deference to Miss MARTINEAU, we tuust believe that the subse- quent calm has been owing to the subdued tone and cautious proceedings of the Abolitionists. All the accounts (and they are copious and regular) which we have seen from the United States, confirm this opinion.
We never insinuated a doubt of the purity of motive by which the New York ladies are actuated ; but it would have given us far more pleasure to have heard that they had invited the Black ladies to their tables and their dances, and in a quiet, unobtrusive, feminine manner, used their influence in society to wear down the prejudice against the Negroes, than it does to read their resolu- tions in Convention assembled. We do not underrate the influ- ence of woman in improving the social condition ; but experience seems to prove that this influence is most effectual when used without ostentation.
Our own opinion is, that if the cultivation of cotton, sugar, and rice in the United States, can only be carried on by slave labour, however;great the sacrifice, it ought to be abandoned. Assuredly, not because it would be a sin against a " principle" to abolish slavery ought slavery to be continued ; but we must look at the subject practically. The owners of slaves have the staff in their own hands. That they are not disposed to let it drop, or aid in the abolition of slavery, we have a pretty clear proof in the determi- nation they evince to open a new market for their human property by the annexation of Texas to the Union. These men must be convinced that their estates can be cultivated by free labour, before they will give up their slave labour, and the profitable trade in Negroes. There is a way in which this might be done ; but the plan is likely to be retarded by such proceedings as Miss MAR- TINEAU recommends, and that is our reason for condemning them. In the mean while, fortified by Miss MARTISIEAU's own statement, we are warranted in repeating that the last Abolition movement has exasperated the condition of the slaves.
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