[AI] In 1833, out of 108 millions the ports of the north imported 96
million dollars. Deducting the imports of New Orleans, those of all
the Southern States were only of the value of 2,700,000 dollars. The
exports of the South are much greater than its imports.
[AJ] I asked a fellow countryman, established at Richmond, whose
patriotism had not been cooled by a long absence from France, why he
preferred Richmond to the northern cities, which, in some respects, are
more favourable to business; "Because," he replied, "the Virginians are
the French of America."
[AK] It has always been endeavoured to balance the number of
non-slave-holding States, as much as possible, by an equal number
of slave States; by this means, the Senate would be exactly divided
between the two interests. In 1789, six of the thirteen States admitted
slavery; in 1792, there were 16 States, equally divided between the
two systems; in 1802, out of 17 States, nine did not admit slavery,
but in 1812, the admission of Louisiana restored the balance. From
1816 to 1819, four States were admitted, Alabama and Mississippi,
slave-holding, Indiana and Illinois, non-slave-holding. In 1820,
Maine, without slaves, and in 1821 Missouri with slaves, followed. In
1836 Michigan at the north, and Arkansas at the south, were received
into the Union, and next will come the turn of the slave-holding
Florida, and the non-slave-holding Wisconsin. It should be observed
that Delaware, in which slavery is allowed by law, may be considered a
non-slave-holding State, and is often reckoned so. The President has
generally been from the South.
[AL] They consisted in declaring all persons born after a certain
period free, the children of a slave to remain in the service of her
owner during a certain number of years.
[AM] At the time of its admission into the Union, Missouri contained
only ten or eleven thousand slaves, which might have been easily sold
in the neighbouring slave-holding States.
[AN] Deducting those in the Northern States.
[AO] The indemnity allowed to the owners amounts to about 125 dollars
a head, which for 2,500,000, the present number in the United States,
would amount to about 312 millions.
[AP] Some are surprised, that the slave and the free black are more
severely dealt with by the laws of the Southern States, than by those
of a colony belonging to an absolute monarchy, Cuba for instance, and
that, for example, it should be prohibited, under pain of fine and
imprisonment, to teach them to read or write. The contrary would be
much more surprising. In a country where there is perfect liberty for
the free class, it would be impossible to sustain slavery unless by the
severest legislation. If the slave should read in your constitutions
and bills of right, "that all men are born free and equal," how can
it be that he would not be in a standing conspiracy against you? It
is just to observe that, in the United States, the slaves, though
intellectually and morally degraded, are humanely treated in a physical
point of view. They are less severely tasked, better fed, and better
taken care of, than most of the peasants of Europe. Their rapid
increase attests their easy condition.