THE EARLY MOVEMENTS ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY; THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER
WHICH THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY TOOK ITS RISE; THE RELATIONS IT SUSTAINED
TO SLAVERY AND TO THE SCHEMES PROJECTED FOR ITS ABOLITION; THE ORIGIN OF
THE ELEMENTS WHICH HAVE GIVEN TO AMERICAN SLAVERY ITS COMMERCIAL VALUE
AND CONSEQUENT POWERS OF EXPANSION; AND THE FUTILITY OF THE MEANS USED
TO PREVENT THE EXTENSION OF THE INSTITUTION.
Emancipation in the United States begun--First
Abolition Society organized--Progress of
Emancipation--First Cotton Mill--Exclusion of
Slavery from N. W. Territory--Elements of Slavery
expansion--Cotton Gin invented--Suppression of the
Slave Trade--Cotton Manufactures commenced in
Boston--Franklin's Appeal--Condition of the Free
Colored People--Boston Prison-Discipline
Society--Darkening Prospects of the Colored
People.
FOUR years after the Declaration of American Independence, Pennsylvania
and Massachusetts had emancipated their slaves; and, eight years
thereafter, Connecticut and Rhode Island followed their example.
Three years after the last named event, an _abolition society_ was
organized by the citizens of the State of New York, with John Jay at its
head. Two years subsequently, the Pennsylvanians did the same thing,
electing Benjamin Franklin to the presidency of their association. The
same year, too, slavery was forever excluded, by act of Congress, from
the Northwest Territory. This year is also memorable as having witnessed
the erection of the first cotton mill in the United States, at Beverley,
Massachusetts.
During the year that the New York Abolition Society was formed, Watts,
of England, had so far perfected the _steam engine_ as to use it in
propelling machinery for spinning cotton; and the year the Pennsylvania
Society was organized witnessed the invention of the _power loom_. The
_carding machine_ and the _spinning jenny_ having been invented twenty
years before, the power loom completed the machinery necessary to the
indefinite extension of the manufacture of cotton.
The work of emancipation, begun by the four States named, continued to
progress, so that in seventeen years from the adoption of the
constitution, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and New Jersey, had also
enacted laws to free themselves from the burden of slavery.
As the work of manumission proceeded, the elements of slavery expansion
were multiplied. When the four States first named liberated their
slaves, no regular exports of cotton to Europe had yet commenced; and
the year New Hampshire set hers free, only 138,328 lbs. of that article
were shipped from the country. Simultaneously with the action of
Vermont, in the year following, the _cotton gin_ was invented, and an
unparalleled impulse given to the cultivation of cotton. At the same
time, Louisiana, with her immense territory, was added to the Union, and
room for the extension of slavery vastly increased. New York lagged
behind Vermont for six years, before taking her first step to free her
slaves, when she found the exports of cotton to England had reached
9,500,000 lbs.; and New Jersey, still more tardy, fell five years behind
New York; at which time the exports of that staple--so rapidly had its
cultivation progressed--were augmented to 38,900,000 lbs.
Four years after the emancipations by States had ceased, the slave trade
was prohibited; but, as if each movement for freedom must have its
counter-movement to stimulate slavery, that same year the manufacture of
cotton goods was commenced in Boston. Two years after that event, the
exports of cotton amounted to 93,900,000 lbs. War with Great Britain,
soon afterward, checked both our exports and her manufacture of the
article; but the year 1817, memorable in this connection, from its being
the date of the organization of the Colonization Society, found our
exports augmented to 95,660,000 lbs., and her consumption enlarged to
126,240,000 lbs. Carding and spinning machinery had now reached a good
degree of perfection, and the power loom was brought into general use in
England, and was also introduced into the United States. Steamboats,
too, were coming into use, in both countries; and great activity
prevailed in commerce, manufactures, and the cultivation of cotton.
But how fared it with the free colored people during all this time? To
obtain a true answer to this question we must revert to the days of the
Pennsylvania Abolition Society.
With freedom to the slave, came anxieties among the whites as to the
results. Nine years after Pennsylvania and Massachusetts had taken the
lead in the trial of emancipation, Franklin issued an appeal for aid to
enable his society to form a plan for the promotion of industry,
intelligence, and morality among the free blacks; and he zealously urged
the measure on public attention, as essential to their well-being, and
indispensable to the safety of society. He expressed his belief, that
such is the debasing influence of slavery on human nature, that its very
extirpation, if not performed with care, may sometimes open a source of
serious evils; and that so far as emancipation should be promoted by the
society, it was a duty incumbent on its members to instruct, to advise,
to qualify those restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of
civil liberty.
How far Franklin's influence failed to promote the humane object he had
in view, may be inferred from the fact, that forty-seven years after
Pennsylvania passed her act of emancipation, and thirty-eight after he
issued his appeal, _one-third_ of the convicts in her penitentiary were
colored men; though the preceding census showed that her slave
population had almost wholly disappeared--there being but _two hundred
and eleven_ of them remaining, while her free colored people had
increased in number to more than _thirty thousand_. Few of the other
free States were more fortunate, and some of them were even in a worse
condition--_one-half_ of the convicts in the penitentiary of New Jersey
being colored men.
But this is not the whole of the sad tale that must be recorded. Gloomy
as was the picture of crime among the colored people of New Jersey, that
of Massachusetts was vastly worse. For though the number of her colored
convicts, as compared with the whites, was as _one_ to _six_, yet the
proportion of her colored population in the penitentiary was _one_ out
of _one hundred and forty_, while the proportion in New Jersey was but
_one_ out of _eight hundred and thirty-three_. Thus, in Massachusetts,
where emancipation had, in 1780, been _immediate_ and unconditional,
there was, in 1826, among her colored people, about six times as much
crime as existed among those of New Jersey, where _gradual_ emancipation
had not been provided for until 1804.
The moral condition of the colored people in the free States, generally,
at the period we are considering, may be understood more clearly from
the opinions expressed, at the time, by the _Boston Prison Discipline
Society_. This benevolent association included among its members, Rev.
Francis Wayland, Rev. Justin Edwards, Rev. Leonard Woods, Rev. William
Jenks, Rev. B. B. Wisner, Rev. Edward Beecher, Lewis Tappan, Esq., John
Tappan, Esq., Hon. George Bliss, and Hon. Samuel M. Hopkins.
In the First Annual Report of the Society, dated June 2, 1826, they
enter into an investigation "of the progress of crime, with the causes
of it," from which we make the following extracts:
"DEGRADED CHARACTER OF THE COLORED POPULATION.--The first cause,
existing in society, of the frequency and increase of crime is the
degraded character of the colored population. The facts, which are
gathered from the penitentiaries, to show how great a proportion of the
convicts are colored, even in those States where the colored population
is small, show, most strikingly, the connection between ignorance and
vice."
The report proceeds to sustain its assertions by statistics, which
prove, that, in Massachusetts, where the free colored people constituted
_one seventy-fourth_ part of the population, they supplied _one-sixth_
part of the convicts in her penitentiary; that in New York, where the
free colored people constituted _one thirty-fifth_ part of the
population, they supplied more than _one-fourth_ part of the convicts;
that, in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where the colored people
constituted _one thirty-fourth_ part of the population, they supplied
more than _one-third_ part of the convicts; and that, in New Jersey,
where the colored people constituted _one-thirteenth_ part of the
population, they supplied more than _one-third_ part of the convicts.
"It is not necessary," continues the report, "to pursue these
illustrations. It is sufficiently apparent, that one great cause of the
frequency and increase of crime, is neglecting to raise the character of
the colored population.
"We derive an argument in favor of education from these facts. It
appears from the above statement, that about _one-fourth_ part of all
the expense incurred by the States above mentioned, for the support of
their criminal institutions, is for the colored convicts. * * Could
these States have anticipated these surprising results, and appropriated
the money to raise the character of the colored population, how much
better would have been their prospects, and how much less the expense of
the States through which they are dispersed for the support of their
colored convicts! * * If, however, their character can not be raised,
where they are, a powerful argument may be derived from these facts, in
favor of colonization, and civilized States ought surely to be as
willing to expend money on any given part of its population, to prevent
crime, as to punish it.
"We can not but indulge the hope that the facts disclosed above, if they
do not lead to an effort to raise the character of the colored
population, will strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of all
the friends of colonizing the free people of color in the United
States."
The Second Annual Report of the Society, dated June 1, 1827, gives the
results of its continued investigations into the condition of the free
colored people, in the following language and figures:
"CHARACTER OF THE COLORED POPULATION.--In the last
report, this subject was exhibited at considerable
length. From a deep conviction of its importance,
and an earnest desire to keep it ever before the
public mind, till the remedy is applied, we
present the following table, showing, in regard to
several States, the whole population, the colored
population, the whole number of convicts, the
number of colored convicts, proportion of convicts
to the whole population, proportion of colored
convicts:
_Whole _Number _Proportion _Proportion
number of of of
_Whole _Colored of Colored Colored Colored
Population._ Population._ Convicts._ Convicts._ People._ Convicts._
Mass. 523,000 7,000 314 50 1 to 74 1 to 6
Conn. 275,000 8,000 117 39 1 to 34 1 to 3
N. York 1,372,000 39,000 637 154 1 to 35 1 to 4
N. Jersey 277,000 20,000 74 24 1 to 13 1 to 3
Penn. 1,049,000 30,000 474 165 1 to 34 1 to 3
"Or,
_Proportion of the _Proportion of the
Population sent to Colored Popu'n
Prison._ sent to Prison._
In Massachusetts, 1 out of 1665 1 out of 140
In Connecticut, 1 out of 2350 1 out of 205
In New York, 1 out of 2153 1 out of 253
In New Jersey, 1 out of 3743 1 out of 833
In Pennsylvania, 1 out of 2191 1 out of 181
EXPENSE FOR THE SUPPORT OF COLORED CONVICTS.
In Masachusetts, in 10 years, $17,734
In Connecticut, in 15 years, 37,166
In New York, in 27 years, 109,166
--------
Total $164 066
"Such is the abstract of the information presented last year, concerning
the degraded character of the colored population. The returns from
several prisons show, that the white convicts are remaining nearly the
same, or are diminishing, while the colored convicts are increasing. At
the same time, the white population is increasing, in the Northern
States, much faster than the colored population."
_Whole No. _Colored
of Convicts._ Convicts._ _Proportion._
In Massachusetts, 313 50 1 to 6
In New York, 381 101 1 to 4
In New Jersey, 67 33 1 to 2
Such is the testimony of men of unimpeachable veracity and undoubted
philanthrophy, as to the early results of emancipation in the United
States. Had the freedmen, in the Northern States, improved their
privileges; had they established a reputation for industry, integrity,
and virtue, far other consequences would have followed their
emancipation. Their advancement in moral character would have put to
shame the advocate for the perpetuation of slavery. Indeed, there could
have been no plausible argument found for its continuance. No regular
exports of cotton, no cultivation of cane sugar, to give a profitable
character to slave labor, had any existence when Jay and Franklin
commenced their labors, and when Congress took its first step for the
suppression of the slave trade.
Unfortunately, the free colored people persevered in their evil habits.
This not only served to fix their own social and political condition on
the level of the slave, but it reacted with fearful effect upon their
brethren remaining in bondage. Their refusing to listen to the counsel
of the philanthropists, who urged them to forsake their indolence and
vice, and their frequent violations of the laws, more than all things
else, put a check to the tendencies, in public sentiment, toward general
emancipation. The failure of Franklin to obtain the means of
establishing institutions for the education of the blacks, confirmed the
popular belief that such an undertaking was impracticable, and the whole
African race, freedmen as well as slaves, were viewed as an intolerable
burden, such as the imports of foreign paupers are now considered. Thus
the free colored people themselves, ruthlessly threw the car of
emancipation from the track, and tore up the rails upon which, alone, it
could move.