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THE
SLAVE TRADE,
Domestic and Foreign:
WHY IT EXISTS, AND HOW IT MAY BE EXTINGUISHED.
BY H. C. CAREY,
AUTHOR OF "PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY," "THE PAST, THE PRESENT,
AND THE FUTURE," ETC. ETC.
PREFACE.
The subject discussed in the following pages is one of great
importance, and especially so to the people of this country. The views
presented for consideration differ widely from those generally
entertained, both as regards the cause of evil and the mode of cure;
but it does not follow necessarily that they are not correct,--as the
reader may readily satisfy himself by reflecting upon the fact, that
there is scarcely an opinion he now holds, that has not, and at no
very distant period, been deemed quite as heretical as any here
advanced. In reflecting upon them, and upon the facts by which they
are supported, he is requested to bear in mind that the latter are,
with very few exceptions, drawn from writers holding views directly
opposed to those of the author of this volume; and not therefore to be
suspected of any exaggeration of the injurious effects of the system
here treated as leading to slavery, or the beneficial ones resulting
from that here described as tending to establish perfect and universal
freedom of thought, speech, action, and trade.
Philadelphia, March, 1853.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. THE WIDE EXTENT OF SLAVERY
CHAPTER II. OF SLAVERY IN THE BRITISH COLONIES
CHAPTER III. OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER IV. OF EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH COLONIES
CHAPTER V. HOW MAN PASSES FROM POVERTY AND SLAVERY TOWARD WEALTH AND
FREEDOM
CHAPTER VI. HOW WEALTH TENDS TO INCREASE
CHAPTER VII. HOW LABOUR ACQUIRES VALUE AND MAN BECOMES FREE
CHAPTER VIII. HOW MAN PASSES FROM WEALTH AND FREEDOM TOWARD POVERTY
AND SLAVERY
CHAPTER IX. HOW SLAVERY GREW, AND HOW IT IS NOW MAINTAINED, IN THE
WEST INDIES
CHAPTER X. HOW SLAVERY GREW AND IS MAINTAINED IN THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER XI. HOW SLAVERY GROWS IN PORTUGAL AND TURKEY
CHAPTER XII. HOW SLAVERY GROWS IN INDIA
CHAPTER XIII. HOW SLAVERY GROWS IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XIV. HOW SLAVERY GROWS IN ENGLAND
CHAPTER XV. HOW CAN SLAVERY BE EXTINGUISHED?
CHAPTER XVI. HOW FREEDOM GROWS IN NORTHERN GERMANY
CHAPTER XVII. HOW FREEDOM GROWS IN RUSSIA
CHAPTER XVIII. HOW FREEDOM GROWS IN DENMARK
CHAPTER XIX. HOW FREEDOM GROWS IN SPAIN AND BELGIUM
CHAPTER XX. OF THE DUTY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER XXI. OF THE DUTY OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND
THE SLAVE TRADE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN.
CHAPTER I.
THE WIDE EXTENT OF SLAVERY.
Slavery still exists throughout a large portion of what we are
accustomed to regard as the civilized world. In some countries, men
are forced to take the chance of a lottery for the determination of
the question whether they shall or shall not be transported to distant
and unhealthy countries, there most probably to perish, leaving behind
them impoverished mothers and sisters to lament their fate. In others,
they are seized on the highway and sent to sea for long terms of
years, while parents, wives, and sisters, who had been dependent on
their exertions, are left to perish of starvation, or driven to vice
or crime to procure the means of support. In a third class, men, their
wives, and children, are driven from their homes to perish in the
road, or to endure the slavery of dependence on public charity until
pestilence shall Send them to their graves, and thus clear the way for
a fresh supply of others like themselves. In a fourth, we see men
driven to selling themselves for long periods at hard labour in
distant countries, deprived of the society of parents, relatives, or
friends. In a fifth, men, women, and children are exposed to sale, and
wives are separated from husbands, while children are separated from
parents. In some, white men, and, in others, black men, are subjected
to the lash, and to other of the severest and most degrading
punishments. In some places men are deemed valuable, and they are well
fed and clothed. In others, man is regarded as "a drug" and population
as "a nuisance;" and Christian men are warned that their duty to God
and to society requires that they should permit their fellow-creatures
to suffer every privation and distress, short of "absolute death,"
with a view to prevent the increase of numbers.
Among these various classes of slaves, none have recently attracted so
much attention as those of the negro race; and it is in reference to
that race in this country that the following paper has recently been
circulated throughout England:--
_"The affectionate and Christian Address of many thousands of the
Women of England to their Sisters, the Women of the United States of
America:_
"A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common
cause, urge us at the present moment to address you on the subject of
that system of negro slavery which still prevails so extensively,
and, even under kindly-disposed masters, with such frightful results,
in many of the vast regions of the Western World.
"We will not dwell on the ordinary topics--on the progress of
civilization; on the advance of freedom everywhere; on the rights and
requirements of the nineteenth century;--but we appeal to you very
seriously to reflect, and to ask counsel of God, how far such a state
of things is in accordance with His holy word, the inalienable rights
of immortal souls, and the pure and merciful spirit of the Christian
religion.
"We do not shut our eyes to the difficulties, nay, the dangers, that
might beset the immediate abolition of that long-established system:
we see and admit the necessity of preparation for so great an event.
But, in speaking of indispensable preliminaries, we cannot be silent
on those laws of your country which (in direct contravention of God's
own law, instituted in the time of man's innocency) deny, in effect,
to the slave, the sanctity of marriage, with all its joys, rights,
and obligations; which separates, at the will of the master, the wife
from the husband and the children from the parents. Nor can we be
silent on that awful system which, either by statute or by custom,
interdicts to any race of man, or any portion of the human family,
education in the truths of the gospel and the ordinances of
Christianity.
"A remedy applied to these two evils alone would commence the
amelioration of their sad condition. We appeal, then, to you as
sisters, as wives, and as mothers, to raise your voices to your
fellow-citizens and your prayers to God, for the removal of this
affliction from the Christian world. We do not say these things in a
spirit of self-complacency, as though our nation were free from the
guilt it perceives in others. We acknowledge with grief and shame our
heavy share in this great sin. We acknowledge that our forefathers
introduced, nay, compelled the adoption of slavery in those mighty
colonies. We humbly confess it before Almighty God. And it is because
we so deeply feel, and so unfeignedly avow our own complicity, that
we now venture to implore your aid to wipe away our common crime and
our common dishonour."
We have here a movement that cannot fail to be productive of much
good. It was time that the various nations of the world should have
their attention called to the existence of slavery within their
borders, and to the manifold evils of which it was the parent; and it
was in the highest degree proper that woman should take the lead in
doing it, as it is her sex that always suffers most in that condition
of things wherein might triumphs over right, and which we are
accustomed to define as a state of slavery.
How shall slavery be abolished? This is the great question of our day.
But a few years since it was answered in England by an order for the
immediate emancipation of the black people held to slavery in her
colonies; and it is often urged that we should follow her example.
Before doing this, however, it would appear to be proper to examine
into the past history and present situation of the negro race in the
two countries, with a view to determine how far experience would
warrant the belief that the course thus urged upon us would be likely
to produce improvement in the condition of the objects of our
sympathy. Should the result of such an examination be to prove that
the cause of freedom has been advanced by the measures there pursued,
our duty to our fellow-men would require that we should follow in the
same direction, at whatever loss or inconvenience to ourselves. Should
it, however, prove that the condition of the poor negro has been
impaired and not improved, it will then become proper to enquire what
have been in past times the circumstances under which men have become
more free, with a view to ascertain wherein lies the deficiency, and
why it is that freedom now so obviously declines in various and
important portions of the earth. These things ascertained, it may be
that there will be little difficulty in determining what are the
measures now needed for enabling all men, black, white, and brown, to
obtain for themselves, and profitably to all, the exercise of the
rights of freemen. To adopt this course will be to follow in that of
the skilful physician, who always determines within himself the cause
of fever before he prescribes the remedy.