Again the same author, contrasting the profitable character of slavery
in the Cotton States, with its unprofitableness in Maryland and
Virginia, says: "In the Northern-most of the Southern States slavery
maintained itself, not as an element of prosperity, but as a baneful
inheritance."[184]
In no way were the injurious effects of slavery more potent or more
manifest than in retarding the growth of the white population of the
state. The presence of the institution not only turned the tide of
immigration from Virginia, but, during the three decades preceding the
Civil War, it promoted a steady exodus of the whites from the
slaveholding sections. Admiral Chadwick records that, "Nearly 400,000
Virginians were, in 1860, living in other states—nearly all of them
Western, 75,874 in Ohio alone."[185]
Not only are the foregoing recitals true but it is equally true that
their direful import was profoundly appreciated. Not all the people of
Virginia lived in a Fool's Paradise. They balanced the known burdens
of slavery against the anticipated burdens of emancipation—they
compared the dangers and losses of present conditions with the
problems of a future in which the slaves would be free, yet still in
their midst; but by no calculation could the continuance of slavery be
upheld because of the pecuniary benefits derived from its existence.
The published sentiments of Virginians during the three decades
immediately preceding the Civil War will serve to confirm this
position.