From the "New Orleans Bee," Feb. 9, 1838.
"VALUABLE ACCLIMATED NEGROES"
"Will be sold on Saturday, 10th inst. at 12 o'clock, at the city
exchange, St. Louis street."
Then follows a description of the slaves, closing with the same
assertion, which forms the caption of the advertisement "ALL
ACCLIMATED."
General Felix Houston, of Natchez, advertises in the "Natchez
Courier," April 6, 1838, "Thirty five very fine _acclimated_ Negroes."
Without inserting more advertisements, suffice it to say, that when
slaves are advertised for sale or hire, in the lower southern country,
if they are _natives_, or have lived in that region long enough to
become acclimated, it is _invariably_ stated.
But we are not left to _conjecture_ the amount of suffering
experienced by slaves from the north in undergoing the severe process
of 'seasoning' to the climate, or '_acclimation_' A writer in the New
Orleans Argus, September, 1830, in an article on the culture of the
sugar cane, says; 'The loss by _death_ in bringing slaves from a
northern climate, which our planters are under the necessity of doing,
is not less than TWENTY-FIVE PER CENT.'
Nothwithstanding the immense amount of suffering endured in the
process of acclimation, and the fearful waste of life, and the
_notoriety_ of this fact, still the 'public opinion' of Virginia,
Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, &c. annually DRIVES to the far
south, thousands of their slaves to undergo these sufferings, and the
'public opinion,' of the far south buys them, and forces the helpless
victims to endure them.