WHITE AND BLACK IN THE UNITED STATES.
TO TILE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
October 16.
Sin—I have no wish to protract an argument on a subject which will pro- bably soon be settled in a better way—by experience ; but a few errors of fact have crept into the commentary on my letter of last week, which, on account of the importance of the question, must not be allowed to pass unnoticed.
The free Blacks sent to Liberia were, almost without an exception, slaves freed on condition of transportation. A reference to the Reports of the Colo- siltation Society will confirm this. Multitudes of slaves refused freedom from the dread of removal. The President of the ColonizationlSociety, Mr. MA DI. sow, told me that he bad sold twelve of his slaves the week before, as the only means of getting rid of them, as he had never been able to persuade any of his slaves to remove, even for the sake of liberty. Dr. WHITRIDGE of Charleston !lad, with difficulty, induced two of his to go; but many more refused. Some individuals were carried by force—by physical as well as moral violence. But the few who did go voluntarily were, almost without an exception, not Blacks previously free, but slaves freed for the express purpose of transportation.
Compulsory labour was never made necessary in the Southern States, as far It Negroes are concerned, by the climate being bot and unhealthy ; for to Negroes it is not hot and unhealthy, but very genial. If Negroes had been prone to squatting, we should now see free Blacks squatting on the deserted estates in Virginia and the Carolinas ; whereas such free Blacks as reside there maintain themselves in other ways. The danger will be lessened, not increased, by emancipation, as the deteriorated lands will then doubtless rise in price, as in the other States upon the introduction of free labour. The laws against the education of slaves date from 1740 downwards, as the constitutions of Virginia and the other slave States show. Under these laws, the knowledge of the alphabet is of little or no use to slaves, since books are unattainable ; and the Negroes are besides denied the education by circuin- stances, which is a prerequisite to education by books. The privation of educa- tion by books, great as it is to the free peasant, is not less unjustifiable in the carte of the slave, but is still the lowest item in the catalogue of his tre- mentions injuries.
If nocturnal festivals werean unmixed good to the Negro, (which they are not, the lassitude which they cause being one great provocative of puuish-
ment,) they could not be so great a good as an improved general treatment; and that the general treatment of slaves has been eminently improved by the Abolition movement having fixed the eyes of the world upon the slaveholder and his human property, is not only just what might be expected, but what I found to be generally admitted on the spot.
" Have the Abolitionists been victorious?" They have. The first Abolition meeting, attended by five persons, took place in 1■s32. The number of Aboli- tion Societies in operation last May was 1,006 ; being, an increase of 4d3 since the preceding year. The Abolitionists now decide the elections in Rhode Island. The new Legislature of Massachusetts voted the Abolitionists the use of the State House at Boston last February, by a majority of 378 to 16. The Abolitionists have obtained the introduction of the question into Con. gress. They have established seats of learning where students of Colour arc admitted as freely as Whites. Their course thus far has been a eerie, of victories. No native Abolitionist is known to have been driven out of the country. Mr. T1103IP4oN is no longer wanted. His work of rousing the people on the question is thane; but lie would probably be very safe now. Persecution has ceased, partly because the cause is now too strong, and partly because a host of its former opponents have become its friends.
There are proofs on plantations in the South that cotton at least can be culti- vated by free labour. Experiments of some years' standing have demonstrated this. The well-known prosperous Quaker settlement in North Carolina is one; and there are others where very profitable cultivation is carried on by Negroes who are left without a toaster or overseer. Two such came within my own knowledge. The indication that the hour has arrived for the extension of the
trial is found in that great fact of the place and time—that, whereas pro- prieturs once found it necessary to have slaves to till their land, they are now struggling for new tracts of land to employ their slaves. The economical pre- text for slavery is worn out in that region. A little time will probably show whether slavery itself be nut worn out also.
HARRIET AIARTINEAU.
[The first paragraph of the above statement contains nothing inconsistent with our own. because the slaves as well as the free Blacks refused to go to Liberia, it does not follow that they would 'pref.:L. regular work iii Carolina for a master, to lazy independence, working just enough to obtain a subsistence for themselves. The slaves had a vet y natural repugnance to the deportation ; and it is impossible to condo& from the Idiom of the Liberian scheme, that emancipated Negroes would nut rejoice in being free to settle in Alabama, for instance, or Alissouri, with their families.
The cultivation of rice in Carolina is considered unhealthy even to the Negro; and surely Miss MARTINEAU, in the course of her travels, must have seen slaves sutfering from the " country fever," caught iu swamps which White men consider it death to pass through after sunset. Free Negroes do not squat in the deserted estates of Virginia and Cat olina, partly because, in many of those estates, the atmosphere is pestilential, (the cause of their being de- serted,) and partly because a free Negro inn the Southern States ion even less protection from the laws than a slave: he has no motive to better himself in the world ; and besides, it frequently happens that his wife and children are slaves, and he prefers living near them. Then, is not the manufactute of sugar in Louisiana au unhealthy employment ? The laws against educating NeAvoes are of an old date; but they have been relaxed occasionady, or not r]gidly executed. The question is, whether the late Abolition movement has not rendered the inaqers inure careful to prevent the slaves from acquiring even the rudiments of knowledge ? and if so, we must still think the more rigid prohibition an aggravation of a most serious evil. Nocturnal festivals were trot an utnnix,sl good to the Negro, hat they were his great, his only pleasure; and the lassitude and its consreuiences, sup- posed by our correspondent, could not be of CO:111110:1 IMO: of rate occurrotee. A great effort has been mole, and with succe-s, to establish Abolition So- cieties in the Northern and Eastern States : but what have they ell-,cted? That is the question. We fear that ti y hive done mischief. There is the recent auth.irity of Dr. Cos s Nis e for the fret that the discussion of the Abolition question is ;row genet all discouraged in the Not ti; and the Doctor, in his letter to Mr. Classy, expresses an apprehension that the Texian question will revive a slumbering tirn.e—a sot,ti, tel NJ native Abolitionist was driven out of the country, boc,tose no native Abolitionist dared to speak out. The Quaker settlement in North Carolina is maintained by a peculiar disci- pline. We were not aware of the other plantations mentioned by .Miss Mau- TIN EA r, and do nut clearly understaud from her statement whether they are cultivated by freemen or slaves. In the fact of the slavemwners struggling to obtain a new market fur slaves, we see tot indication that the end of slavery is approaching. If the " economical pretext- for slavery is worn out in the Atlantic States, we see that the slave-owners have another pretext ready— for they haveanother ntarha ready. Where is the evidence that the ettirts of the Abolitionists in America had produced any practical effect on the great body of slave-owners Su for front this being the case, it would appear that there is imminent danger of American slavery being extruded over an immense territory- which two years ago was free from the curse. Look at Texas!-
SI'ECTATOR.]
Previous page
