“A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his
industry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing,
nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master.”[36]
In similar spirit the law of Maryland thus indirectly defines a slave
as an _article_:--
“In case the personal property of a ward shall consist of
specific _articles, such as slaves_, working beasts, animals of
any kind, … the court, if it shall deem it advantageous for the
ward, may at any time pass an order for the sale thereof.”[37]
Not to occupy time unnecessarily, I present a summary of the pretended
law defining Slavery in all the Slave States, as made by a careful
writer, Judge Stroud, in a work of juridical as well as philanthropic
merit:--
“The cardinal principle of Slavery--that the slave is not to
be ranked among _sentient_ beings, but among _things_, is an
article of property, a chattel personal--obtains as undoubted
law in all of these [Slave] States.”[38]
Out of this definition, as from a solitary germ, which in its pettiness
might be crushed by the hand, towers our Upas Tree and all its gigantic
poison. Study it, and you will comprehend the whole monstrous growth.
Sir, look at its plain import, and see the relation which it
establishes. The slave is held simply _for the use of his master_,
to whose behests his life, liberty, and happiness are devoted, and
by whom he may be bartered, leased, mortgaged, bequeathed, invoiced,
shipped as cargo, stored as goods, sold on execution, knocked off at
public auction, and even staked at the gaming-table on the hazard of
a card or a die,--all according to law. Nor is there anything, within
the limit of life, inflicted on a beast, which may not be inflicted on
the slave. He may be marked like a hog, branded like a mule, yoked like
an ox, hobbled like a horse, driven like an ass, sheared like a sheep,
maimed like a cur, and constantly beaten like a brute,--all according
to law. And should life itself be taken, what is the remedy? The Law of
Slavery, imitating that rule of evidence which in barbarous days and
barbarous countries prevented the Christian from testifying against
the Mahometan, openly pronounces the incompetency of the whole African
race, whether bond or free, to testify against a white man in any case,
and thus, after surrendering the slave to all possible outrage, crowns
its tyranny by excluding the very testimony through which the bloody
cruelty of the Slave-Master might be exposed.
Thus in its Law does Slavery paint itself; but it is only when we look
at details, and detect its essential elements, _five in number_, all
inspired by _a single motive_, that its character becomes completely
manifest.
_Foremost_, of course, in these elements, is the impossible pretension,
where Barbarism is lost in impiety, by which man claims _property
in man_. Against such blasphemy the argument is brief. According to
the Law of Nature, written by the same hand that placed the planets
in their orbits, and, like them, constituting part of the eternal
system of the Universe, every human being has complete title
to himself direct from the Almighty. Naked he is born; but this
birthright is inseparable from the human form. A man may be poor in
this world’s goods; but he owns himself. No war or robbery, ancient
or recent,--no capture--no middle passage,--no change of clime,--no
purchase-money,--no transmission from hand to hand, no matter how many
times, and no matter at what price, can defeat this indefeasible,
God-given franchise. And a divine mandate, strong as that which guards
Life, guards Liberty also. Even at the very morning of Creation, when
God said, “Let there be Light,”--earlier than the malediction against
murder,--he set the everlasting difference between man and chattel,
giving to man “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
“That right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He made not lord: such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.”[39]
Slavery tyrannically assumes power which Heaven denied,--while, under
its barbarous necromancy, borrowed from the Source of Evil, a man is
changed into a chattel, a person is withered into a thing, a soul is
shrunk into merchandise. Say, Sir, in lofty madness, that you own the
sun, the stars, the moon; but do not say that you own a man, endowed
with soul to live immortal, when sun and moon and stars have passed
away.
_Secondly._ Slavery paints itself again in its complete _abrogation of
marriage_, recognized as a sacrament by the Church, and as a contract
by the civil power, wherever civilization prevails. Under the Law
of Slavery no such sacrament is respected, and no such contract can
exist. The ties formed between slaves are all subject to the selfish
interests or more selfish lust of the master, whose license knows no
check. Natural affections which have come together are rudely torn
asunder: nor is this all. Stripped of every defence, the chastity of
a whole race is exposed to violence, while the result is recorded in
tell-tale faces of children, glowing with a master’s blood, but doomed
for their mother’s skin to Slavery through descending generations.
The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. BROWN], galled by the comparison
between Slavery and Polygamy, winces. I hail this sensibility as the
sign of virtue. Let him reflect, and he will confess that there are
many disgusting elements in Slavery, not present in Polygamy, while
the single disgusting element of Polygamy is more than present in
Slavery. By license of Polygamy, one man may have many wives, all bound
to him by marriage-tie, and in other respects protected by law. By
license of Slavery, a whole race is delivered over to prostitution and
concubinage, without the protection of any law. Surely, Sir, is not
Slavery barbarous?
_Thirdly._ Slavery paints itself again in its complete _abrogation
of the parental relation_, provided by God in his benevolence for
the nurture and education of the human family, and constituting
an essential part of Civilization itself. And yet by the Law of
Slavery--happily beginning to be modified in some places--this relation
is set at nought, and in its place is substituted the arbitrary control
of the master, at whose mere command little children, such as the
Saviour called unto him, though clasped by a mother’s arms, are swept
under the hammer of the auctioneer. I do not dwell on this exhibition.
Sir, is not Slavery barbarous?
_Fourthly._ Slavery paints itself again _in closing the gates of
knowledge_, which are also the shining gates of Civilization. Under
its plain, unequivocal law, the bondman, at the unrestrained will
of his master, is shut out from all instruction; while in many
places--incredible to relate--the law itself, by cumulative provisions,
positively forbids that he shall be taught to read! Of course the slave
cannot be allowed to read: for his soul would then expand in larger
air, while he saw the glory of the North Star, and also the helping
truth, that God, who made iron, never made a slave; for he would then
become familiar with the Scriptures, with the Decalogue still speaking
in the thunders of Sinai,--with that ancient text, “He that stealeth
a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely
be put to death”[40]--with that other text, “Masters, give unto your
servants that which is just and equal,”[41]--with that great story of
Redemption, when the Lord raised the slave-born Moses to deliver his
chosen people from the house of bondage,--and with that sublimer story,
where the Saviour died a cruel death, that all men, without distinction
of race, might be saved, leaving to mankind a commandment which, even
without his example, makes Slavery impossible. Thus, in order to fasten
your manacles upon the slave, you fasten other manacles upon his soul.
The ancients maintained Slavery by chains and death: you maintain it by
that infinite despotism and monopoly through which human nature itself
is degraded. Sir, is not Slavery barbarous?
_Fifthly._ Slavery paints itself again _in the appropriation of all
the toil_ of its victims, excluding them from that property in their
own earnings which the Law of Nature allows and Civilization secures.
The painful injustice of this pretension is lost in its meanness. It is
robbery and petty larceny under garb of law. And even the meanness is
lost in the absurdity of its associate pretension, that the African,
thus despoiled of all earnings, is saved from poverty, and that for his
own good he must work for his master, and not for himself. Alas, by
such fallacy is a whole race pauperized! And yet this transaction is
not without illustrative example. A sombre poet, whose verse has found
wide favor, pictures a creature who
“with one hand put
A penny in the urn of poverty,
And with the other took a shilling out.”[42]
And a celebrated traveller through Russia, more than a generation
ago, describes a kindred spirit, who, while devoutly crossing himself
at church with his right hand, with the left deliberately picked
the pocket of a fellow-sinner by his side.[43] Not admiring these
instances, I cannot cease to deplore a system which has much of both,
while, under affectation of charity, it sordidly takes from the slave
all the fruits of his bitter sweat, and thus takes from him the main
spring to exertion. Tell me, Sir, is not Slavery barbarous?
Such is Slavery in its five special elements of Barbarism, as
recognized by law: first, assuming that man can hold property in man;
secondly, abrogating the relation of husband and wife; thirdly,
abrogating the parental tie; fourthly, closing the gates of knowledge;
and, fifthly, appropriating the unpaid labor of another. Take away
these elements, sometimes called “abuses,” and Slavery will cease to
exist; for it is these very “abuses” which constitute Slavery. Take
away any one of them, and the abolition of Slavery begins. And when I
present Slavery for judgment, I mean no slight evil, with regard to
which there may be reasonable difference of opinion, but I mean this
fivefold embodiment of “abuse,” this ghastly quincunx of Barbarism,
each particular of which, if considered separately, must be denounced
at once with all the ardor of an honest soul, while the whole fivefold
combination must awake a fivefold denunciation. The historic pirates,
once the plague of the Gulf whose waters they plundered, have been
praised for the equity with which they adjusted the ratable shares of
spoil, and also for generous benefactions to the poor, and even to
churches, so that Sir Walter Scott could say,--
“Do thou revere
The statutes of the Buccaneer.”[44]
In our Law of Slavery what is there to revere? what is there at which
the soul does not rise in abhorrence?
But this fivefold combination becomes yet more hateful when its
_single motive_ is considered; and here Slavery paints itself finally.
The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS] says that it is
“but a form of civil government for those who by their nature are
not fit to govern themselves.” The Senator is mistaken. It is an
outrage, where five different pretensions all concur in one single
object, looking only to the profit of the master, and constituting
its ever-present motive power, which is simply _to compel the labor
of fellow-men without wages_. If I pronounce this object not only
barbarous, but brutal, I follow the judgment of Luther’s Bible, in the
book “Jesus Sirach,” known in our translation as Ecclesiasticus, where
it is said: “He that giveth not his wages to the laborer, _he is a
bloodhound_.”[45]
Slavery is often exposed as degrading Humanity. On this fruitful theme
nobody has expressed himself with the force and beautiful eloquence
of our own Channing. His generous soul glowed with indignation at the
thought of man, supremest creature of earth, and first of God’s works,
despoiled of manhood and changed to a thing. But earlier than Channing
was Jean Jacques Rousseau, who, with similar eloquence and the same
glowing indignation, vindicated Humanity. How grandly he insists that
nobody can consent to be a slave, or can be born a slave! Believing
Liberty the most noble of human attributes, this wonderful writer will
not stop to consider if descent to the condition of beasts be not to
degrade human nature, if renunciation of the most precious of all God’s
gifts be not to offend the Author of our being; but he demands only by
what right those who degrade themselves to this depth can subject their
posterity to this same ignominy, renouncing for them goods which do not
depend upon any ancestors, and without which life itself is to all
worthy of it a burden; and he justly concludes, that, as, to establish
Slavery, it is necessary to violate Nature, so, to perpetuate this
claim, it is necessary to change Nature. His final judgment, being the
practical conclusion of this outburst, holds up jurisconsults, gravely
pronouncing that the child of a slave is born a slave, as deciding,
in other terms, that a man is not born a man,[46]--thus exposing the
peculiar absurdity of that pretension by which Slavery is transmitted
from the mother to her offspring, as expressed in the Latin scrap on
which the Senator from Virginia [Mr. MASON] relies: _Partus sequitur
ventrem_.
If the offence of Slavery were less extended, if it were confined to
some narrow region, if it had less of grandeur in its proportions, if
its victims were counted by tens and hundreds instead of millions,
the five-headed enormity would find little indulgence; all would rise
against it, while Religion and Civilization would lavish choicest
efforts in the general warfare. But what is wrong when done to one
man cannot be right when done to many. If it is wrong thus to degrade
a single soul, if it is wrong thus to degrade you, Mr. President, it
cannot be right to degrade a whole race. And yet this is denied by the
barbarous logic of Slavery, which, taking advantage of its own wrong,
claims immunity because its usurpation has assumed a front of audacity
that cannot be safely attacked. Unhappily, there is Barbarism elsewhere
in the world; but American Slavery, as defined by existing law, stands
forth as the greatest organized Barbarism on which the sun now looks.
It is without a single peer. Its author, after making it, broke the
die.
If curiosity carries us to the origin of this law,--and here I
approach a topic often considered in this Chamber,--we shall again
confess its Barbarism. It is not derived from the Common Law, that
fountain of Liberty; for this law, while unhappily recognizing a
system of servitude known as villeinage, secured to the bondman
privileges unknown to the American slave,--guarded his person against
mayhem,--protected his wife against rape,--gave to his marriage equal
validity with the marriage of his master,--and surrounded his offspring
with generous presumptions of Freedom, unlike that rule of yours by
which the servitude of the mother is necessarily stamped upon the
child. It is not derived from the Roman Law, that fountain of Tyranny,
for two reasons: first, because this law, in its better days, when its
early rigors were spent, like the Common Law itself, secured to the
bondman privileges unknown to the American slave,--in certain cases of
cruelty rescued him from his master, prevented separation of parents
and children, also of brothers and sisters, and even protected him in
the marriage relation; and, secondly, because the Thirteen Colonies
were not derived from any of those countries which recognized the Roman
Law, while this law, even before the discovery of this continent, had
lost all living efficacy. It is not derived from the Mohammedan Law;
for, under the mild injunctions of the Koran, a benignant servitude,
unlike yours, has prevailed,--where the lash is not allowed to lacerate
the back of a female,--where no knife or branding-iron is employed upon
any human being, to mark him as the property of his fellow-man,--where
the master is expressly enjoined to favor the desires of his slave for
emancipation,--and where the blood of the master, mingling with that
of his bondwoman, takes from her the transferable character of chattel,
and confers complete freedom upon their offspring. It is not derived
from the Spanish Law; for this law contains humane elements unknown
to your system, borrowed, perhaps, from Mohammedan Moors who so long
occupied Spain; and, besides, our Thirteen Colonies had no umbilical
connection with Spain. Nor is it derived from English statutes or
American statutes; for we have the positive and repeated averment of
the Senator from Virginia [Mr. MASON], and also of other Senators, that
in not a single State of the Union can any such statutes establishing
Slavery be found. From none of these does it come.
No, Sir, not from any land of Civilization is this Barbarism derived.
It comes from Africa, ancient nurse of monsters,--from Guinea, Dahomey,
and Congo. There is its origin and fountain. This benighted region, we
are told by Chief-Justice Marshall in a memorable judgment,[47] still
asserts a right, discarded by Christendom, to enslave captives taken in
war; and this African Barbarism is the beginning of American Slavery.
The Supreme Court of Georgia, a Slave State, has not shrunk from this
conclusion. “Licensed to hold slave property,” says the Court, “the
Georgia planter held the slave as a chattel, either directly from
the slave-trader or from those who held under him, and he from the
slave-captor in Africa. The property of the planter in the slave became
thus the property of the original captor.”[48] It is natural that a
right thus derived in defiance of Christendom, and openly founded on
the most vulgar Paganism, should be exercised without mitigating
influence from Christianity,--that the master’s authority over the
person of his slave, over his conjugal relations, over his parental
relations, over the employment of his time, over all his acquisitions,
should be recognized, while no generous presumption inclines to
Freedom, and the womb of the bondwoman can deliver only a slave.
From its home in Africa, where it is sustained by immemorial usage,
this Barbarism, thus derived and thus developed, traversed the ocean to
American soil. It entered on board that fatal slave-ship,
“Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark,”
which in 1620 landed its cruel cargo at Jamestown, in Virginia; and it
has boldly taken its place in every succeeding slave-ship, from that
early day till now,--helping to pack the human freight, regardless of
human agony,--surviving the torments of the middle passage,--surviving
its countless victims plunged beneath the waves; and it has left the
slave-ship only to travel inseparable from the slave in his various
doom, sanctioning by its barbarous code every outrage, whether of
mayhem or robbery, lash or lust, and fastening itself upon his
offspring to the remotest generation. Thus are barbarous prerogatives
of barbarous half-naked African chiefs perpetuated in American
Slave-Masters, while the Senator from Virginia [Mr. MASON], perhaps
unconscious of their origin, perhaps desirous to secure for them the
appearance of a less barbarous pedigree, tricks them out with a phrase
of the Roman Law, discarded by the Common Law, which simply renders
into ancient Latin an existing rule of African Barbarism, recognized as
an existing rule of American Slavery.
Such is the plain juridical origin of the American slave code, now
vaunted as a badge of Civilization. But all law, whatever its juridical
origin, whether Christian or Mohammedan, Roman or African, may be
traced to other and ampler influences in Nature, sometimes of Right
and sometimes of Wrong. Surely the law which stamped the slave-trade
as piracy punishable with death had a different inspiration from that
other law which secured immunity for the slave-trade throughout an
immense territory, and invested its supporters with political power. As
there is a nobler law above, so there is a meaner law below, and each
is felt in human affairs.
* * * * *
Thus far we have seen Slavery only in pretended law, and in the origin
of that law. Here I might stop, without proceeding in the argument; for
on the letter of the law alone must Slavery be condemned. But the tree
is known by its fruits, which I shall now exhibit: and this brings me
to the second stage of the argument.
* * * * *
(2.) In considering _the practical results of Slavery_, the materials
are so obvious and diversified that my chief care will be to abridge
and reject: and here I put the Slave States and Free States face to
face, showing at each point the blasting influence of Slavery.
Before proceeding with these details, I would for one moment expose
that degradation of free labor, which is one of the general results.
Where there are slaves, whose office is work, it is held disreputable
for a white man to soil his skin or harden his hands with honest toil.
The Slave-Master of course declines work, and his pernicious example
infects all others. With impious resolve, they would reverse the
Almighty decree appointing labor as the duty of man, and declaring that
in the sweat of his face shall he eat his bread. The Slave-Master says,
“No! this is true of the slave, of the black man, but not of the white
man: he shall not eat his bread in the sweat of his face.” Thus is the
brand of degradation stamped upon that daily toil which contributes
so much to a true Civilization. It is a constant boast in the Slave
States, that white men there will not perform work performed in the
Free States. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Waddy Thompson made this boast. Let
it be borne in mind, then, that, where Slavery prevails, there is not
only despair for the black man, but inequality and ignominy for the
white laborer. By necessary consequence, the latter, whether emigrating
from our Free States or fleeing from oppression and wretchedness in his
European home, avoids a region disabled by such a social law. Hence
a twofold injustice: practically he is excluded from the land, while
the land itself becomes a prey to that paralysis which is caused by a
violation of the laws of God. And now for the testimony.
The States where this Barbarism exists excel the Free States in all
natural advantages. Their territory is more extensive, stretching over
851,448 square miles, while the Free States, including California,
embrace only 612,597 square miles. Here is a difference of more than
238,000 square miles in favor of the Slave States, showing that Freedom
starts in this great rivalry with a field more than a quarter less
than that of Slavery. In happiness of climate, adapted to productions
of special value,--in exhaustless motive power distributed throughout
its space,--in natural highways, by more than fifty navigable rivers,
never closed by the rigors of winter,--and in a stretch of coast, along
Ocean and Gulf, indented by hospitable harbors,--the whole presenting
incomparable advantages for that true Civilization, where agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce, both domestic and foreign, blend,--in all
these respects the Slave States excel the Free States, whose climate
is often churlish, whose motive power is less various, whose navigable
rivers are fewer and often sealed by ice, and whose coast, while less
in extent and with fewer harbors, is often perilous from storm and cold.
But Slavery plays the part of a Harpy, and defiles the choicest
banquet. See what it does with this territory, thus spacious and fair.
An important indication of prosperity is in the growth of _population_.
In this respect the two regions started equal. In 1790, at the first
census under the Constitution, the population of the present Slave
States was 1,961,372, of the present Free States 1,968,455, showing a
difference of only 7,083 in favor of the Free States. This difference,
at first merely nominal, has been constantly increasing since, showing
itself more strongly in each decennial census, until, in 1850, the
population of the Slave States, swollen by the annexation of three
foreign Territories, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, was only 9,612,969,
while that of the Free States, without such large annexations, reached
13,434,922, showing a difference of 3,821,953 in favor of Freedom.
But this difference becomes still more remarkable, if we confine our
inquiries to the white population, which at this period was only
6,184,477 in the Slave States, while it was 13,238,670 in the Free
States, showing a difference of 7,054,193, in favor of Freedom, and
showing also that the white population of the Free States had not
only doubled, but, while occupying a smaller territory, commenced to
triple, that of the Slave States. The comparative sparseness of the two
populations furnishes another illustration. In the Slave States the
average number of inhabitants to a square mile was 11.29, while in the
Free States it was 21.93, or almost two to one in favor of Freedom.
These results are general; but if we take any particular Slave State,
and compare it with a Free State, we shall find the same marked
evidence for Freedom. Take Virginia, with a territory of 61,352 miles,
and New York, with a territory of 47,000, or over 14,000 square miles
less than her sister State. New York has one seaport, Virginia some
three or four; New York has one noble river, Virginia has several;
New York for 400 miles runs along the frozen line of Canada, Virginia
basks in a climate of constant felicity. But Freedom is better than
climate, river, or seaport. In 1790 the population of Virginia was
748,308, and in 1850 it was 1,421,661. In 1790 the population of New
York was 340,120, and in 1850 it was 3,097,394. That of Virginia had
not doubled in sixty years, while that of New York had multiplied more
than nine-fold. A similar comparison may be made between Kentucky, with
37,680 square miles, admitted into the Union as long ago as 1792, and
Ohio, with 39,964 square miles, admitted into the Union in 1802. In
1850, the Slave State had a population of only 982,405, while Ohio had
a population of 1,980,329, showing a difference of nearly a million in
favor of Freedom.
As in population, so also in _the value of property, real and
personal_, do the Free States excel the Slave States. According to
the census of 1850, the value of property in the Free States was
$4,102,162,098, while in the Slave States it was $2,936,090,737;
or, if we deduct the asserted property in human flesh, only
$1,655,945,137,--showing an enormous difference of billions in favor of
Freedom. In the Free States the valuation per acre was $10.46, in the
Slave States only $3.04. This disproportion was still greater in 1855,
when, according to the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, the
valuation of the Free States was $5,770,197,679, or $14.71 per acre;
and of the Slave States, $3,977,354,046, or, if we deduct the asserted
property in human flesh, $2,505,186,446, or $4.59 per acre. Thus in
five years from 1850 the valuation of property in the Free States
received an increase of more than the whole accumulated valuation of
the Slave States in 1850.
Looking at details, we find the same disproportions. Arkansas and
Michigan, nearly equal in territory, were organized as States by
simultaneous Acts of Congress; and yet in 1855 the whole valuation
of Arkansas, including its asserted property in human flesh, was
only $64,240,726, while that of Michigan, without a single slave,
was $116,593,580. The whole accumulated valuation of all the Slave
States, deducting the asserted property in human flesh, in 1850, was
only $1,655,945,137; but the valuation of New York alone, in 1855,
reached the nearly equal sum of $1,401,285,279. The valuation of
Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Texas, all together,
in 1850, deducting human flesh, was $559,224,920, or simply $1.96
per acre,--being less than that of Massachusetts alone, which was
$573,342,286, or $114.85 per acre.
The Slave States boast of _agriculture_; but here again,
notwithstanding superior natural advantages, they must yield to the
Free States at every point,--in the number of farms and plantations,
in the number of acres improved, in the cash value of farms, in the
average value per acre, and in the value of farming implements and
machinery. Here is a short table.
Free States. Slave States.
Number of farms, 873,608 569,201
Acres of improved land, 57,720,494 54,970,327
Cash value of farms, $2,147,218,478 $1,117,649,649
Average value per acre, $19.17 $6.18
Value of farming implements $85,840,141 $65,345,625
Such is the mighty contrast. But it does not stop here. Careful tables
place the agricultural products of the Free States, for the year ending
June, 1850, at $888,634,334, while those of the Slave States were
$631,277,417; the product per acre in the Free States at $7.94, and the
product per acre in the Slave States at $3.49; the average product of
each agriculturist in the Free States at $342, and in the Slave States
at $171. Thus the Free States, with a smaller population engaged in
agriculture than the Slave States, and with smaller territory, show an
annual sum total of agricultural products surpassing those of the Slave
States by two hundred and twenty-seven millions of dollars, while twice
as much is produced by each agriculturist, and more than twice as much
is produced on an acre. The monopoly of cotton, rice, and cane-sugar,
with a climate granting two and sometimes three crops in the year, is
thus impotent in competition with Freedom.
In _manufactures, mining, and the mechanic arts_ the failure of the
Slave States is greater still. It appears at all points,--in the
capital employed, in the value of the raw material, in the annual
wages, and in the annual product. A short table will show the contrast.
Free States. Slave States.
Capital, $430,240,051 $95,029,877
Value of raw material, 465,844,092 86,190,639
Annual wages, 195,436,453 33,247,560
Annual product, 842,586,058 165,423,027
This might be illustrated by details with regard to different
manufactures,--as shoes, cotton, woollens, pig iron, wrought iron, and
iron castings,--all showing the contrast. It might also be illustrated
by comparison between different States,--showing, for instance, that
the manufactures of Massachusetts, during the last year, exceeded those
of all the Slave States combined.
In _commerce_ the failure of the Slave States is on a yet larger
scale. Under this head the census does not supply proper statistics,
and we are left to approximations from other sources; but these are
enough for our purpose. It appears, that, of products which enter into
commerce, the Free States had an amount valued at $1,377,199,968, the
Slave States an amount valued only at $410,754,992; that, of persons
engaged in trade, the Free States had 136,856, and the Slave States
52,622; and that, of tonnage employed, the Free States had 2,791,096
tons, and the Slave States only 726,284. This was in 1850. But in 1855
the disproportion was still greater, the Free States having 4,320,768
tons, and the Slave States 855,510 tons, being a difference of five to
one,--and the tonnage of Massachusetts alone being 979,210 tons, an
amount larger than that of all the Slave States together. The tonnage
built during this year by the Free States was 528,844 tons, by the
Slave States 52,938 tons. Maine alone built 215,905 tons, or more than
four times the whole built in the Slave States.
The foreign commerce of the Free States, in 1855, as indicated
by exports and imports, was $404,365,503; of the Slave States,
$132,062,196. The exports of the Free States were $167,520,693; of the
Slave States, including the vaunted cotton crop, $107,475,668. The
imports of the Free States were $236,844,810; of the Slave States,
$24,586,528. The foreign commerce of New York alone was more than twice
as large as that of all the Slave States; her imports were larger,
and her exports were larger also. Add to this evidence of figures the
testimony of a Virginian, Mr. Loudon, in a letter written just before
the sitting of a Southern Commercial Convention. Thus he complains and
testifies:--
“There are not half a dozen vessels engaged in our own trade
that are owned in Virginia; and I have been unable to find a
vessel at Liverpool loading for Virginia within three years,
during the height of our busy season.”
_Railroads and canals_ are the avenues of commerce; and here again the
Free States excel. Of railroads in operation in 1854, there were 13,105
miles in the Free States, and 4,212 in the Slave States. Of canals
there were 3,682 miles in the Free States, and 1,116 in the Slave
States.
The _Post-Office_, which is the agent not only of commerce, but of
civilization, joins in the uniform testimony. According to the tables
for 1859, the postage collected in the Free States was $5,581,749,
and the expense of carrying the mails $6,945,545, leaving a deficit
of $1,363,796. In the Slave States the amount collected was only
$1,936,167, and the expense of carrying the mails $5,947,076, leaving
the enormous deficit of $4,010,909,--the difference between the two
deficits being $2,647,113. The Slave States did not pay one third of
the expense in transporting their own mails; and not a single Slave
State paid for transporting its own mails, not even the small State of
Delaware. Massachusetts, besides paying for hers, had a surplus larger
by one half than the whole amount collected in South Carolina.
According to the census of 1850, the value of _churches_ in the Free
States was $66,177,586; in the Slave States, $20,683,265.
The _voluntary charity_ contributed in 1855, for certain leading
purposes of Christian benevolence, was, in the Free States, $955,511;
for the same purposes in the Slave States, $193,885. For the Bible
cause the Free States contributed $321,365; the Slave States, $67,226.
For the Missionary cause the former contributed $502,174; and the
latter, $101,934. For the Tract Society the former contributed
$131,972; and the latter, $24,725. The amount contributed for Missions
by Massachusetts was greater than that contributed by all the Slave
States, and more than eight times that contributed by South Carolina.
Nor have the Free States been backward in charity for the benefit of
the Slave States. The records of Massachusetts show that as long ago
as 1781, at the beginning of the Government, there was a contribution
throughout the Commonwealth, under the particular direction of that
eminent patriot, Samuel Adams, for the relief of inhabitants of South
Carolina and Georgia.[49] In 1855 we were saddened by the prevalence
of yellow fever in Portsmouth, Virginia; and now, from a report of the
Relief Committee of that place, we learn that the amount of charity
contributed by the Slave States, exclusive of Virginia, the afflicted
State, was $12,182; and including Virginia, it was $33,398; while
$42,547 was contributed by the Free States.
In all this array we see the fatal influence of Slavery. But its
Barbarism is yet more conspicuous, when we consider its _Educational
Establishments_, and the unhappy results naturally ensuing from their
imperfect character.
Of _colleges_, in 1856, the Free States had 61, and the Slave States
59; but the comparative efficacy of the institutions assuming this
name may be measured by certain facts. The number of graduates in the
Free States was 47,752, in the Slave States 19,648; the number of
ministers educated in Slave colleges was 747, in Free colleges 10,702;
and the number of volumes in the libraries of Slave colleges 308,011,
in the libraries of Free colleges 668,497. If materials were at hand
for comparison between these colleges, in buildings, cabinets, and
scientific apparatus, or in standard of scholarship, the difference
would be still more apparent.
Of _professional schools_, teaching law, medicine, and theology,
the Free States had 65, with 269 professors, 4,417 students, and
175,951 volumes in their libraries; while the Slave States had only
32 professional schools, with 122 professors, 1,816 students, and
30,796 volumes in their libraries. The whole number educated at these
institutions in the Free States was 23,513, in the Slave States 3,812.
Of these, the largest number in the Slave States study medicine, next
theology, and lastly law. According to the census, there are only 808
students in the Slave theological schools, and 747 studying for the
ministry in Slave colleges; and this is the education of the Slave
clergy. In the law schools of the Slave States the number of students
is only 240, this being the sum-total of public students in the land of
Slavery devoted to that profession which is the favorite stepping-stone
to political life, where Slave-Masters claim such a disproportion of
office and honor.
Of _academies and private schools_, in 1850, the Free States,
notwithstanding multitudinous public schools, had 3,197, with 7,175
teachers, 154,893 pupils, and an annual income of $2,457,372; the Slave
States had 2,797 academies and private schools, with 4,913 teachers,
104,976 pupils, and an annual income of $2,079,724. In the absence of
public schools, to a large extent, where Slavery exists, the dependence
must be upon private schools; and yet even here the Slave States fall
below the Free States, whether we consider the number of schools, the
number of pupils, the number of teachers, or the amount paid for their
support.
In _public schools_, open to all, poor and rich alike, the preëminence
of the Free States is complete. Here the figures show a difference as
wide as that between Freedom and Slavery. Their number in the Free
States is 62,433, with 72,621 teachers, and with 2,769,901 pupils,
supported at an annual expense of $6,780,337. Their number in the
Slave States is 18,507, with 19,307 teachers, and with 581,861 pupils,
supported at an annual expense of $2,719,534. This difference may
be illustrated by details. Virginia, an old State, and more than a
third larger than Ohio, has 67,353 pupils in her public schools,
while the latter State has 484,153. Arkansas, equal in age and size
with Michigan, has only 8,493 pupils at her public schools, while the
latter State has 110,455. South Carolina, nearly four times as large as
Massachusetts, has 17,838 pupils at public schools, while the latter
State has 176,475. South Carolina spends for this purpose, annually,
$200,600; Massachusetts, $1,006,795. Baltimore, with a population of
169,054, on the northern verge of Slavery, has school buildings valued
at $105,729; Boston, with a population of 136,881, has school buildings
valued at $729,502. Baltimore has only 37 public schools, with 138
teachers, and 8,011 pupils, supported at an annual expense of $32,423;
Boston has 203 public schools, with 353 teachers, and 20,369 pupils,
supported at an annual expense of $237,100. Even these figures do not
disclose the whole difference; for there exist in the Free States
teachers’ institutes, normal schools, lyceums, and public courses
of lectures, unknown in the region of Slavery. These advantages are
enjoyed by the children of colored persons; and here is a comparison
which shows the degradation of the Slave States. It is their habit
particularly to deride free colored persons. See, now, with what
cause. The number of colored persons in the Free States is 196,016, of
whom 22,043, or more than one ninth, attend school, which is a larger
proportion than is supplied by the whites of the Slave States. In
Massachusetts there are 9,064 colored persons, of whom 1,439, or nearly
one sixth, attend school, which is a much larger proportion than is
supplied by the whites of South Carolina.
Among educational establishments are _public libraries_; and here,
again, the Free States have their customary eminence, whether we
consider libraries strictly called public, or libraries of the common
school, Sunday school, college, and church. The disclosures are
startling. The number of libraries in the Free States is 14,893, and
the sum-total of volumes is 3,883,617; the number of libraries in the
Slave States is 713, and the sum-total of volumes is 654,194: showing
an excess for Freedom of more than fourteen thousand libraries,
and more than three millions of volumes. In the Free States the
common-school libraries are 11,881, and contain 1,589,683 volumes;
in the Slave States they are 186, and contain 57,721 volumes. In the
Free States the Sunday-school libraries are 1,713, and contain 474,241
volumes; in the Slave States they are 275, and contain 68,080 volumes.
In the Free States the college libraries are 132, and contain 660,573
volumes; in the Slave States they are 79, and contain 249,248 volumes.
In the Free States the church libraries are 109, and contain 52,723
volumes; in the Slave States they are 21, and contain 5,627 volumes. In
the Free States the libraries strictly called public, and not included
under heads already enumerated, are 1,058, and contain 1,106,397
volumes; those of the Slave States are 152, and contain 273,518 volumes.
Turn these figures over, look at them in any light, and the conclusion
is irresistible for Freedom. The college libraries alone of the Free
States are greater than all the libraries of Slavery; so, also, are
the libraries of Massachusetts alone greater than all the libraries of
Slavery; and the common-school libraries alone of New York are more
than twice as large as all the libraries of Slavery. Michigan has
107,943 volumes in her libraries; Arkansas has 420; and yet the Acts
for the admission of these two States into the Union were passed on
the same day.
Among educational establishments, one of the most efficient is the
_press_; and here again all things testify for Freedom. The Free States
excel in the number of newspapers and periodicals published, whether
daily, semi-weekly, weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly,--and
whatever their character, whether literary, neutral, political,
religious, or scientific. The whole aggregate circulation in the Free
States is 334,146,281, in the Slave States 81,038,693; in Free Michigan
3,247,736, in Slave Arkansas 377,000; in Free Ohio 30,473,407, in
Slave Kentucky 6,582,838; in Slave South Carolina 7,145,930, in Free
Massachusetts 64,820,564,--a larger number than in the twelve Slave
States, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and
Texas, combined. This enormous disproportion in the aggregate is also
preserved in the details. In the Slave States political newspapers find
more favor than all others together; but even of these they publish
only 47,243,209 copies, while the Free States publish 163,583,668.
Numerous as are political newspapers in the Free States, they form
considerably less than one half the aggregate circulation of the Press,
while in the Slave States they constitute nearly three fifths. Of
neutral newspapers the Slave States publish 8,812,620, the Free States
79,156,733. Of religious newspapers the Slave States publish 4,364,832,
the Free States 29,280,652. Of literary journals the Slave States
publish 20,245,360, the Free States 57,478,768. And of scientific
journals the Slave States publish 372,672, the Free States 4,521,260.
Of these last the number of copies published in Massachusetts alone
is 2,033,260,--more than five times the number in the whole land of
Slavery. Thus, in contributions to science, literature, religion,
and even politics, as attested by the activity of the periodical
press, do the Slave States miserably fail,--while darkness gathers
over them, increasing with time. According to the census of 1810, the
disproportion in this respect between the two regions was only as two
to one; it is now more than four to one, and is still darkening.
The same disproportion appears with regard to persons connected with
the Press. In the Free States the number of _printers_ was 11,812, of
whom 1,229 were in Massachusetts; in the Slave States there were 2,625,
of whom South Carolina had only 141. In the Free States the number of
_publishers_ was 331; in the Slave States, 24. Of these, Massachusetts
had 51, or more than twice as many as all the Slave States; while
South Carolina had but one. In the Free States the _authors_ were 73;
in the Slave States, 6,--Massachusetts having 17, and South Carolina
none. These suggestive illustrations are all derived from the last
official census. If we go to other sources, the contrast is still the
same. Of the authors mentioned in Duyckinck’s “Cyclopædia of American
Literature,” 434 are of the Free States, and only 90 of the Slave
States. Of the poets mentioned in Griswold’s “Poets and Poetry of
America,” 122 are of the Free States, and only 16 of the Slave States.
Of the poets whose place of birth appears in Read’s “Female Poets of
America,” 71 are of the Free States, and only 11 of the Slave States.
If we try authors by weight or quality, it is the same as when we
try them by numbers. Out of the Free States come all whose works
have a place in the permanent literature of the country,--Irving,
Prescott, Sparks, Bancroft, Emerson, Motley, Hildreth, Hawthorne; also,
Bryant, Longfellow, Dana, Halleck, Whittier, Lowell,--and I might add
indefinitely to the list. But what name from the Slave States can find
entrance there?
A similar disproportion appears in the number of _Patents_, during
the last three years, 1857, 1858, and 1859, attesting the inventive
industry of the contrasted regions. In the Free States there were
9,557; in the Slave States, 1,306: making a difference of 8,251 in
favor of Freedom. The number in Free Massachusetts was 1,351; in Slave
South Carolina, 39. The number in Free Connecticut, small in territory
and population, was 628; in Slave Virginia, large in territory and
population, 184.
From these things we might infer the _ignorance_ prevalent in the Slave
States; but this shows itself in specific results of a deplorable
character, authenticated by the official census. In the Slave States
there were 493,026 native white adults, persons over twenty years of
age, unable to read and write; while in the Free States, with double
the native white population, there were but 248,725 persons of this
class in this unhappy predicament: in the Slave States the proportion
being 1 in 5 of the adult native whites; in the Free States 1 in 22.
The number in Free Massachusetts, in an adult native white population
of 470,375, was 1,055, or 1 in 446; the number in Slave South Carolina,
in a like population of only 120,136, was 15,580, or 1 in 8. The number
in Free Connecticut was 1 in 256, in Slave Virginia 1 in 5; in Free New
Hampshire 1 in 192, and in Slave North Carolina 1 in 3.
Before leaving this picture, where the dismal colors all come from
official sources, there are two other aspects in which Slavery may be
regarded.
1. The first is its influence on _emigration_. The official compendium
of the census (page 115) tells us that inhabitants of Slave States
who are natives of Free States are more numerous than inhabitants of
Free States who are natives of Slave States. This is an egregious
error. Just the contrary is true. The census of 1850 found 606,139 in
the Free States who were born in the Slave States, while only 206,624
born in the Free States were in the Slave States. And since the white
population of the Free States is double that of the Slave States, it
appears that the proportion of whites moving from Slavery is six times
greater than that of whites moving into Slavery. This simple fact
discloses something of the aversion to Slavery which is aroused even in
the Slave States.
2. The second is furnished by the character of the region on the
border-line between Freedom and Slavery. In general, the value of
lands in Slave States adjoining Freedom is advanced, while the value
of corresponding lands in Free States is diminished. The effects of
Freedom and Slavery are reciprocal. Slavery is a bad neighbor; Freedom
is a good neighbor. In Virginia, lands naturally poor are, by nearness
to Freedom, worth $12.98 an acre, while richer lands in other parts of
the State are worth only $8.42. In Illinois, lands bordering on Slavery
are worth only $4.54 an acre, while other lands in Illinois are worth
$8.05. As in the value of lands, so in all other influences is Slavery
felt for evil, and Freedom felt for good; and thus is it clearly shown
to be for the interest of the Slave States to be surrounded by a circle
of Free States.
At every point is the character of Slavery more and more manifest,
rising and dilating into an overshadowing Barbarism, darkening the
whole land. Through its influence, population, values of all kinds,
manufactures, commerce, railroads, canals, charities, the post-office,
colleges, professional schools, academies, public schools, newspapers,
periodicals, books, authorship, inventions, are all stunted, and, under
a Government which professes to be founded on the intelligence of the
people, one in five of native white adults in the region of Slavery
is officially reported as unable to read and write. Never was the
saying of Montesquieu more triumphantly verified, that countries are
not cultivated by reason of their fertility, but by reason of their
liberty. To this truth the Slave States testify perpetually by every
possible voice. Liberty is the powerful agent which drives the plough,
the spindle, and the keel,--opens avenues of all kinds,--inspires
charity,--awakens love of knowledge, and supplies the means of
gratifying it. Liberty is the first of schoolmasters: nay, more; it is
the Baconian philosophy of Civilization, through which the powers and
activities of man are enlarged beyond measure or imagination.
Unerring and passionless figures thus far are our witnesses. But their
testimony will be enhanced by a final glance at the _geographical
character_ of the Slave States; and here there is a singular and
instructive parallel.
Jefferson described Virginia as “fast sinking” to be “the Barbary of
the Union,”[50]--meaning, of course, the Barbary of his day, which
had not yet turned against Slavery. And Franklin also wrote, that he
did “not wish to see a new Barbary rising in America, and our long
extended coast occupied by piratical States.”[51] In this each spoke
with prophetic voice. Though on different sides of the Atlantic and on
different continents, our Slave States and the original Barbary States
occupy nearly the same parallels of latitude, occupy nearly the same
extent of longitude, embrace nearly the same number of square miles,
enjoy kindred advantages of climate, being equally removed from the
cold of the North and the burning heat of the tropics, and also have
similar boundaries of land and water, affording kindred advantages of
ocean and sea, with this difference, that the boundaries of the two
regions are precisely reversed, so that where is land in one is water
in the other, while in both there is the same extent of ocean and the
same extent of sea. Nor is this all. Algiers, for a long time the
most obnoxious place in the Barbary States of Africa, once branded by
an indignant chronicler as “the wall of the Barbarian world,”[52] is
situated near the parallel of 36° 30´ north latitude, being the line of
the Missouri Compromise, which once marked the wall of Slavery in our
country west of the Mississippi, while Morocco, the chief present seat
of Slavery in the African Barbary, is near the parallel of Charleston.
There are no two spaces on the surface of the globe, equal in extent,
(and careful examination will verify what I am about to state,) which
present so many distinctive features of resemblance, whether we
consider the common regions of latitude in which they lie, the common
nature of their boundaries, their common productions, their common
climate, or the common Barbarism which sought shelter in both. I do
not stop to inquire why Slavery--banished at last from Europe, banished
also from that part of this hemisphere which corresponds in latitude to
Europe--should have intrenched itself, in both hemispheres, in similar
regions of latitude, so that Virginia, Carolina, Mississippi, and
Missouri are the American complement to Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, and
Tunis. But there is one important point in the parallel which remains
to be fulfilled. The barbarous Emperor of Morocco, in the words of a
treaty, so long ago as the last century, declared his desire that “the
odious name of Slavery might be effaced from the memory of men”;[53]
while Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, whose tenacity for the Barbarism
was equalled only by that of South Carolina, have renounced it one
after another, and delivered it over to the indignation of mankind.
Following this example, the parallel will be complete, and our Barbary
will become the complement in Freedom to the African Barbary, as it
has already been its complement in Slavery, and is unquestionably its
complement in geographical character.