Consideration of foreign cultivation of Cotton
further considered--Facts and opinions slated by
the London Economist--Consumption of Cotton
tending to exceed the production--India affords
the only field of competition with the United
States--Its vast inferiority--Imports from India
dependent upon price--Free Labor and Slave Labor
cannot be united on the same field--Supply of the
United States therefore limited by natural
increase of slaves--Limited supply of labor tends
to renewal of slave trade--Cotton production in
India the only obstacle which Great Britain can
interpose against American Planters--Africa, too,
to be made subservient to this
object--Parliamentary proceedings on this
subject--Successful Cotton culture in
Africa--Slavery to be permanently established by
this policy--Opinions of the _American
Missionary_--Remarks showing the position of the
Cotton question in its relations to slavery--Great
Britain building up slavery in Africa to break it
down in America.
THE remark which closes the preceding chapter was made in 1856. An
opportunity is now offered for recording the results of the movements of
Great Britain to promote cotton culture in her own possessions between
that and 1859. The results will be startling. Few anti-slavery men in
the United States expected that Great Britain would so soon be engaged
zealously in establishing slave labor in Africa, or that Lord Palmerston
should publicly commend the measure. The question is one of so much
importance as to demand a full examination. The extracts are taken,
mainly, from the _London Economist_, a periodical having the highest
reputation for candor and fair dealing. On Feb. 12, 1859, the
_Economist_ said:
"We are not surprised that the future supply of cotton should have
engaged the attention of Parliament on an early night of the Session. It
is a question the importance of which can not well be overrated, if we
refer only to the commercial interests which it involves, or to the
social comfort or happiness of the millions who are now dependent upon
it for their support. But it has an aspect far loftier and even more
important. At its root lies the ultimate success of a policy for which
England has made great struggles and great sacrifices--the maintaining
of existing treaties, and perhaps the peace of the world. Every year as
it passes, proves more and more that the question of slavery, and even
of the slave trade, is destined to be materially affected, if not
ultimately governed, by considerations arising out of the cultivation of
this plant. It is impossible to observe the tendency of public opinion
throughout America, not even excepting the Free States, with relation to
the slave trade, without feeling conscious that it is drifting into
indifference, and even laxity. In every light, then, in which this great
subject can be viewed, it is one which well deserves the careful
attention equally of the philanthropist and the statesman.
"It has been said, that in the case of cotton we have found an exception
to the great commercial principle of supply and demand. Is this so? We
doubt it. We doubt if, on the contrary, we shall not find, upon
investigation, that it presents one of the strongest examples of the
struggle of that principle to maintain its conclusions. No doubt the
conditions of its production have made that struggle a severe one; but,
nevertheless, it has not been altogether unsuccessful. Eighteen years
ago, (in 1840) the total supply of cotton imported into this country was
592,488,000 lbs.: with temporary fluctuations, it had steadily grown
until it had reached, in the last three years, upwards of 900,000,000
lbs., showing an increase of more than fifty per cent. Nevertheless, the
demand had been constantly pressing upon the supply, the consumption has
always shown a tendency to exceed the production, and the consequent
result of a high price has, during a majority of those years, acted as a
powerful stimulant to cultivation. But, practically speaking, we possess
but two sources of supply, and both present such powerful obstacles to
extended cultivation, that we are not surprised at the habitual
uneasiness of those whose interests demand a continually increasing
quantity. Those two sources are the United States and British India. It
is true that Brazil, Egypt, the West Indies, and some other countries,
furnish small quantities of cotton; but when we state that of the
931,847,000 lbs., imported into the United Kingdom in 1858, the
proportion furnished by America and India was 870,656,000 lbs., leaving
for all other places put together, a supply of only 61,191,000 lbs.,
notwithstanding the many laudable efforts, both on the part of
Government, and of the mercantile community, to encourage its growth in
new countries, it will be admitted that, as an _immediate_ and practical
question, it is confined to those two sources. They are not only the
sources from whence the largest supplies are received, but they are
also those where the chief increase has taken place.
"In 1840 the supply received from the United States was 487,856,000 lbs.
Since that time, with some considerable fluctuations, it has steadily
increased, until in 1858 it rose to 732,403,000 lbs.--the maximum
quantity having reached in 1856, 780,040,000 lbs. Yet, great as this
increase has been, it appears that it has not been equal to the
increased demand, if we may judge from the price, at the two
periods.[36] The large supplies of the last three years have commanded
prices at least _sixteen per cent._ higher than the smaller supplies
from 1840 to 1842. Every encouragement, therefore, which high and
remunerative prices could give to increased cultivation has been
liberally afforded to the cotton-growing States of America.
"But whatever the price, there is a condition which places an absolute
limit upon the growth. Land in every way suited for the purpose, is
abundant and cheap. Means of transport is of the cheapest and best kind,
and is without limit. The limit lies in the necessary ingredient of
labor. If cotton had been the produce of free labor, no doubt the
principle of supply and demand would have solved the difficulty. The
surplus of the Old World would have steadily maintained the balance
between the two in the New World. Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, the
Southern parts of France, and Portugal, would have sent their surplus
labor to the best market. As it is, the two kinds of labor--that of the
freeman and that of the slave--can not be united in the same
cultivation. The slave States of America are, therefore, dependent for
any increase of labor only upon themselves. The consuming States can
draw supplies only from the breeding States. It is, therefore, exactly
in proportion as the slave population increases that the cotton crop
becomes larger. Taking the average of three or four years at any period
of the history of the United States for the last forty years, it will be
found that the growth of cotton is equal to one bale for each person of
the slave population. The calculation is well known. When the slave
population was two millions, the average produce of cotton was two
millions of bales:--as the one rose the other increased. The slave
population is now about three millions and a half; the cotton crop of
the present year is computed at from 3,500,000 to 3,700,000 bales. The
high price of cotton, and the great profit attached to its cultivation,
have no doubt furnished the greatest stimulant to an increase of that
part of the population. In the competition for more labor, the price of
slaves was enormously increased. Some years ago the price of a slave was
about £100; now they are worth from £200 to £400. But what must be the
tendency of this fearful competition for a limited supply of human
labor--limited as long as the slave trade is prohibited--unlimited as
soon as the slave trade is legalized? What is the actual condition of
the Southern States at this moment? There is on the ground and being
secured, according to computation, the largest cotton crop ever known.
The last estimates vary from 3,550,000 bales to 3,700,000 bales. A very
few years ago it was calculated that cotton at any thing above _four
cents_ the pound for "middling quality" on the spot was a profitable
crop. Now, the price for the same quality on the spot is fully _ten
cents_ the pound;--and it has been about the same or higher for a long
time. What is the consequence? A correspondent writing by the last mail
says: 'The people of this section of the country feel _made of gold_,
and every thing here is, of course, going at full cry--_every planter
wants to open more land and buy more negroes_.' What do these facts
suggest? Do they furnish no explanation of the strong desire in the
Southern States to possess Cuba? Do they furnish no explanation of the
exaggerated irritation got up last year in respect to the West India
squadron, and the demand of the American Government, we fear too
successfully made, that the right of search in the mitigated form in
which it existed should be altogether abandoned? A people familiarized
not only with slavery, but also with the slave trade as between one
class of States and another, can hardly be expected to entertain a very
strong repugnance to a slave trade from beyond the seas. That cargoes of
imported slaves have recently been landed in the United States is not
denied:--that vessels fitted out as slavers have recently been seized in
American ports, we know upon official authority. The same correspondent
whom we have already quoted, says there are two great questions which
occupy the Southern States at this moment. The one is the acquisition of
Cuba. 'The other,' he says, 'is one which has been presented to me
forcibly during my sojourn in the South, and that is the increase of
slave population. You must have noticed an illicit importation of
negroes from Africa landed in Georgia. This has undoubtedly been done,
and I doubt not also that other negroes have been landed. It is of
course the desire of every honest man that the whole force of the
government should be used to put down such a trade, and punish the
offenders; but I fear the profits of the trade are so enormous that it
will be carried on in the face of all opposition. Negroes are now worth
here from 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a-piece. The subject of their being
introduced is being openly discussed, and the propriety of the trade
being again legalized. It is plain this discussion will by and by take
shape. Will not the government be obliged to listen to it, and what will
be the result? When labor is so profitable it will be obtained. How? I
confess to looking upon this subject with great anxiety. The feeling
with regard to slavery both in the North and South has undergone a
material change in the last four years. It is now looked upon with far
less abhorrence.' Is it possible to separate the danger which is here
presented so forcibly from the question of the high price of cotton? We
know by experience the influence which the Southern States can exercise
upon the election of a President. . . . . . . If the free States are
indifferent, we know that, at whatever risk, the slave States will have
their own way; and with them it is plain that much must depend upon the
price of cotton and the motives which it furnishes to '_open more land
and buy more negroes_.'
"But with what an enormous interest does this view of the case invest
the cultivation of cotton in India. It is the only real obstacle that we
can interpose to the growing feeling in favor of slavery, to the
diminishing abhorrence of the slave trade in the United States. It is
the only field, competition with which can, for many years to come,
redress the undue stimulant which high prices are giving to slave labor
in America. Nor do the facts as regard the past discourage the hope that
it may be successfully used for that purpose. In 1840 the supply of
cotton from India was 77,011,000 lbs.;--in 1858 it had risen to
138,253,000 lbs.: having been in the immediately preceding year no less
than 250,338,000 lbs. The average importation for four years from 1840
to 1843 amounted to 83,300,000 lbs.:--the average importation for the
last four years has been 178,000,000 lbs. or somewhat more than double
that of the former period. In some important respects the conditions of
supply from India differ very much from those which attach to and
determine the supply from America. In India there is no limit to the
quantity of labor. There may be said to be little or none to the
quantity of land. The obstacle is of another kind; it lies almost
exclusively in the want of cheap transit. Our supplies of India cotton
are not even determined by the quantity produced, but by that which,
when produced, can profitably be forwarded to England. It is, therefore,
a question of price whether we obtain more or less. A rise in the price
of _one penny_ the pound in 1857, suddenly increased the supply from
180,000,000 lbs. in 1856 to 250,000,000 lbs. in 1857. A fall in the
price in 1858 again suddenly reduced it to 138,000,000 lbs. It was not
that the production of cotton varied in these proportions in those
years, but that at given prices it was possible to incur more cost in
the transit than at others. The same high price, therefore, which at
present renders a large supply possible from India, creates an unusual
demand for slaves in the United States. But would not the same
corrective consequence be produced if we could diminish the cost of
transit in India? Every farthing a pound saved in carriage is equivalent
to so much added to the price of cotton. Four-pence the pound in the
Liverpool market for good India cotton, with a cost of two-pence from
the spot of production, would command just as great a supply as a price
of five-pence the pound if the intermediate cost were three-pence. The
whole question resolves itself into one of good roads and cheap
conveyance. Labor in India is infinitely more abundant than in the
United States, and much cheaper; land is at least as cheap; the climate
is as good;--but the bullock trains on the miserable roads of Hindostan
cannot compete with the steamers and other craft on the Mississippi. No
doubt we have new hopes in the district of Scinde, and in the aid of the
Indus. We have new hopes in the railways which are being
constructed,--not only in cheapening transit, but even more in improving
the condition in which native produce will be brought to market.
Whatever, therefore, be the financial sacrifice which in the first place
must be made for the purpose of opening the interior of India, it should
be cheerfully made, as the only means by which we can hope permanently
to improve the revenues of India, to increase and cheapen the supply of
the most important raw material of our own industry, and to bring in
the abundant labor of the millions of our fellow-subjects in India, to
redress the deficiency in the slave States of America, and thus to give
the best practical check to the growing attractions of slavery and the
slave trade."
On March 5, 1859, the editor resumes the subject, and discusses the
bearing which the movements making in Africa are likely to have upon
these interests.
"We pointed out in a recent number the very close connection between the
traditional policy of England in resisting the slave trade, and the
efforts which are now making to find other sources of cotton supply
besides the United States. We showed that a cry is now arising in the
United States, for the renewal of the slave trade--a cry stimulated
principally by the high price of cotton. We showed that for every slave
in the Southern States there is on the average a bale of cotton produced
annually, and that as the demand for cotton, and consequently the price
of cotton rises, the demand for slaves and the price of slaves rises
with it. In the words of a correspondent whom we then quoted, 'every
planter wants to open more land and buy more negroes.' Hence the demand
in the South for the recently successful attempt to smuggle
slave-cargoes into Georgia. If, then, either in India or any other
quarter of the world, it be possible either to cheapen the carriage or
facilitate the growth of cotton, so as to bring it into the English
markets at a price that can compete successfully with the American
cotton, we are conferring a double benefit on mankind--we are increasing
the supply of one of the most necessary, and, relatively to the demand,
one of the least abundant, articles of commerce, on the steady supply of
which the livelihood of millions, and the comfort of almost every
civilized nation on the face of the earth, depends, and by means of the
increased competition we are diminishing the force of the motive which
is now threatening the United States with a renewal of the slave trade.
We cannot, therefore, well conceive of stronger considerations than
those which are now urging Englishmen to do what may be in their power
for the promotion of an increased supply from cotton-growing countries
other than the States of America.
"Besides these reasons which apply to the promotion of the cotton-supply
in India, or in our own West Indian islands, there is one peculiar to
the case of Africa which makes it important that no opportunities of
encouraging the cotton-growth of that continent should be neglected. The
African supply, if ever it become large, will not only check the rise in
the price of cotton, and therefore of slaves in America,--but it will
diminish the profits of slave exportation on the coast of Africa.
Experience has now sufficiently proved to us, that no one agency has
been so effective in paralyzing the slave trade as the growth of any
branch of profitable industry which convinces the native African chiefs
that they can get a surer and, in the long run, larger profit by
employing their subjects in peaceful labor, than they can even get from
the large but uncertain gains of the slave trade. . . . . Once let the
African chiefs find out, as in many instances they have already found
out, that the sale of the laborer can be only a source of profit _once_,
while his labor may be a source of constant and increasing profit, and
we shall hear no more of their killing the hen which may lay so many
golden eggs, for the sake only of a solitary and final prize."
The _American Missionary_, of April, 1859, gives a condensed statement
of a discussion in the British Parliament, last summer, in which the
condition of cotton culture in Africa was brought out, and its
encouragement strongly urged as a means of suppressing the slave trade,
and of increasing the supplies of that commodity to the manufacturers of
England. S. Fitzgerald, Under Secretary of State, said:
"He did not scruple to say that, looking at the papers which he had
perused, it was to the West Coast of Africa that we must look for that
large increase in our supply of cotton which was now becoming absolutely
necessary, and without which he and others who had studied this subject
foresaw grave consequences to the most important branch of the
manufactures of this country. Our consul at Lagos reported:
"The whole of the Yoruba and other countries south of the Niger, with
the Houssa and the Nuffe countries on the north side of that river, have
been, from all time, cotton-growing countries; and notwithstanding the
civil wars, ravages, disorders and disruptions caused by the slave
trade, more than sufficient cotton to clothe their populations has
always been cultivated, and their fabrics have found markets and a ready
sale in those countries where the cotton plant is not cultivated, and
into which the fabrics of Manchester and Glasgow have not yet
penetrated. The cultivation of cotton, therefore, in the above-named
countries is not new to the inhabitants; all that is required is to
offer them a market for the sale of as much as they can cultivate, and
by preventing the export of slaves from the seaboard render some
security to life, freedom, property, and labor." Another of our consuls,
speaking of the trade in the Bight of Benin in 1856, said:
"'The readiness with which the inhabitants of the large town of
Abbeokuta have extended their cultivation of the cotton plant merits the
favorable notice of the manufacturer and of the philanthropist, as a
means of supplanting the slave trade.'"
"It was worthy of notice that while the quantity of cotton obtained from
America between 1784 and 1791, the first seven years of the importation
into this country was only 74 bales; during the years 1855 and 1856 the
town of Abbeokuta alone exported nearly twenty times that quantity. He
thought he might fairly say that if we succeed in repressing the
slave-trade, as he believed we should, we should in a few years receive
a very large supply of this most important article from the West Coast
of Africa."
"Mr. J. H. Gurney said he had received from Mr. Thomas Clegg, of
Manchester, a few figures, from which it appeared that while in 1852
only 1800 lbs. of cotton had been brought into Great Britain from
Africa, in the first five months of the present year it was 94,400 lbs.
"Mr. Buxton said: 'There was no question now, that any required amount
of cotton, equal to that of New Orleans in quality, might be obtained. A
very short time ago Mr. Clegg, of Manchester, aided by the Rev. H. Venn,
and a few other gentlemen, trained and sent out two or three young
negroes as agents to Abbeokuta. These young men taught the natives to
collect and clean their cotton, and sent it home to England. The result
was, that the natives had actually purchased 250 cotton-gins for
cleaning their cotton. Mr. Clegg stated that he was in correspondence
with seventy-six natives and other African traders, twenty-two of them
being chiefs. With one of them Mr. Clegg had a transaction, by which he
(the African) received £3500. And the amount of cotton received at
Manchester had risen, hand over hand, till it came last year to nearly
100,000 lbs.' Well might Mr. Clegg say, that this was 'a rare instance
of the rapid development of a particular trade, and the more so because
every ounce of cotton had been collected, all labor performed, and the
responsibility borne by native Africans alone.' The fact was, that the
West African natives were not mere savages. In trade no men could show
more energy and quickness. And a considerable degree of social
organization existed. He could give a thousand proofs of this, but he
would only quote a word or two from Lieutenant May's despatch to Lord
Clarendon, dated the 24th of November, 1857. Lieutenant May crossed
overland from the Niger to Lagos, and he says:
"A very pleasing and hopeful part of my report lies in the fact, that
certainly three-quarters of the country was under cultivation. Nor was
this the only evidence of the industry and peace of the country; in
every hut is cotton spinning; in every town is weaving, dyeing; often
iron smelting, pottery works, and other useful employments are to be
witnessed; while from town to town, for many miles, the entire road
presents a continuous file of men, women, and children carrying these
articles of their production for sale. I entertain feelings of much
increased respect for the industry and intellect of these people, and
admiration for their laws and manners."
"Lord Palmerston said: 'I venture to say that you will find on the West
Coast of Africa a most valuable supply of cotton, so essential to the
manufactures of this country. The cotton districts of Africa are more
extensive than those of India. The access to them is more easy than to
the Indian cotton district; and I venture to say that your commerce with
the Western Coast of Africa, in the article of cotton, will, in a few
years, prove to be far more valuable than that of any other portion of
the world, the United States alone excepted.'"
The _London Anti-Slavery Reporter_, as quoted by the _American
Missionary_ of March, 1859, says:
"A few days ago, Mr. Consul Campbell addressed us, saying: 'African
cotton is no myth. A vessel has just arrived from Lagos with 607 bales
on board, _on native account_. Several hundred bales more have been
previously shipped this year.'
"In order to afford our readers some idea of the extraordinary
development of this branch of native African industry and commerce, we
append a statement which will exhibit it at a single glance. We have
only to observe that we are indebted to Mr. Thomas Clegg, of Manchester,
for these interesting particulars, and that the quantities ordered have
been obtained from Abbeokuta alone. He is about to extend the field of
his operations. Four Europeans have gone out, expressly to trade in
native cotton; and several London houses, encouraged by the success
which has attended Mr. Clegg's experiment, are about to invest largely
in the same traffic. The quantity of raw cotton which has already been
imported into England, from Abbeokuta, since 1851, is 276,235 lbs., and
the trade has developed itself as follows:
1851-52 9 Bags or Bales lbs. 1810
1853 37 ditto 4617
1854 7 ditto 1588
1855 14 ditto 1651
1856 103 ditto 11,492
1857 283 ditto 35,419
1858 1819 ditto 220,099
"The last importation includes advices from Lagos up to the 1st of last
November. Since that time, the presses and other machinery sent out,
have been got into full work, and the quantity of the raw staple in
stock has rapidly accumulated, the bulk shipped being on 'native
account.' Each bag or bale weighs about 120 lbs. Let it be borne in mind
that the whole of this quantity has been collected, all the labor
performed and the responsibility borne by native Africans; while the
cost of production, Mr. Clegg informs us, does not exceed one half-penny
a pound in the end. It can be laid down in England at about 4 1/4_d._ a
pound, and sells at from 7_d._ to 9_d._"
The great point of interest in this movement consists in the fact, that
in promoting the production of cotton in Africa, Englishmen are giving
direct encouragement to the employment of slave labor. It is an
undeniable fact, that from eight-tenths to nine-tenths of the population
of Africa are held as slaves by the petty kings and chiefs; and that,
more especially, the women, under the prevailing system of polygamy, are
doomed to out-doors' labor for the support of their indolent and sensual
husbands. Hitherto the labor of the women has, in general, been
comparatively light, as the preparation of food and clothing limited the
extent of effort required of them; but now, the cotton mills of England
must be supplied by them, and the hum of the spindles will sound the
knell of their days of ease. That we are not alone in this view of the
question, will appear from the opinions expressed by the _American
Missionary_, when referring to this subject. It says:
"An encouraging feature in this movement is, that the men engaged in it
all feel that the suppression of the slave trade is absolutely essential
to its success. The necessity of this is the great burden of all their
arguments in its behalf. It thus acts with a double force. There can be
no question that the development of the resources of Africa will be an
effectual means, in itself, of discouraging the exportation of slaves,
while at the same time those who would encourage this development are
seeking the overthrow of that infamous traffic as the necessary removal
of an obstacle to their success.
"There is, however, one danger connected with all this that can not be
obviated by any effort likely to be put forth under the stimulus of
commerce, or the spirit of trade. This danger can be averted only by
sending the missionaries of a pure gospel, a gospel of equal and
impartial love, into Africa, in numbers commensurate with the increase
of its agricultural resources and its spirit of general enterprise.
"The danger to which we allude is not merely that of worldliness, such
as in a community always accompanies an increase of wealth, but that the
slavery now existing there may be strengthened and increased by the
rapid rise in the value of labor, and thus become so firmly rooted that
the toil of ages may be necessary for it removal. All this might have
been prevented if the spirit of Christian enterprise had gone ahead of
that of commerce, and thus prepared the way for putting commerce, under
the influence of Christianity. For years Africa has been open to the
missionary of the cross, to go everywhere preaching love to God and man,
with nothing to hinder except the sickliness of the climate. This evil,
and the dangers arising from it, business men are willing to risk, and
within the next ten years there will be thousands, and tens of
thousands, looking to Africa for the means of increasing their riches."
From all this it appears, that the question of slavery is becoming more
intimately blended with cotton culture than at any former period; and
that the urgent demand for its increased production must establish the
system permanently, under the control of Great Britain, in Africa
itself. Look at the facts, and especially at the position of Great
Britain. The supply of cotton is inadequate to the demands of the
manufacturing nations. Great Britain stands far in advance of all others
in the quantity consumed. The ratio of increased production in the
United States cannot be advanced except by a renewal of the slave trade,
or a resort to the scheme of immigration on the plan of England and
France. It is thought by English writers, that the renewal of the slave
trade by the United States is inevitable, as a consequence of the
present high prices of cotton and slaves, unless the slave traders can
be shut out from the slave markets of Africa. They assume it as a
settled principle, that the immigration system is impracticable wherever
slavery exists; and that the American planter can only succeed in
securing additional labor by means of the slave trade. Then, according
to this theory, to prevent an increased production of cotton in the
United States, it is only necessary to make it impracticable for us to
renew that traffic.
The supply of cotton from India is not on the increase, nor can be,
except when prices rule high in England, or until rail roads shall be
constructed into the interior, a work requiring much time and money. The
renewal of the slave trade by the United States, on a large scale,
would, of course, cheapen cotton in the proportion of the amount of
labor supplied. In this view the writers referred to are correct. They
are right also in supposing that a reduction below present prices, of a
cent or two per pound, would be ruinous to India in the present
condition of her inland transportation. They desire, very naturally,
therefore, that prices should be kept up for the advantage of India, so
that its cotton can bear export. But while high prices benefit India,
they also enrich the American planter, and afford him inducements to
renew the slave trade.
Here Great Britain is thrown into a dilemma. The slave trade to America
must be prevented, in her opinion, or it will ruin the East Indies. To
prevent the renewal of this traffic--to keep up the price of cotton as
long as may be necessary, for the benefit of India, and prevent a supply
of African slaves from reaching the American planter--is a problem that
requires more than an ordinary amount of skill to solve. That skill, if
it exists any where, is possessed by British statesmen, and they are now
employed in the execution of this difficult task. They are convinced
that free labor cannot be found, at this moment, any where in the world,
to meet the growing demands for cotton. To supply this increasing
demand, a new element must be brought into requisition; or rather old
elements must be employed anew. Her cotton spindles must not cease to
whir, or millions of the people of Great Britain will starve at home, or
be forced into emigration, to the weakening of her strength. The old
sources of supply being inadequate, a new field of operations must be
opened up--new forces must be brought into requisition in the
cultivation of cotton. Slave labor and free labor, both combined, are
not now able to furnish the quantity needed. Free labor cannot be
increased, at present, in this department of production. Slave labor,
therefore, is the only means left by which the work can be
accomplished--not slave labor to the extent now employed, but to the
extent to which it may be increased from the ranks of the scores of
millions of the population of Africa.
This is the true state of the case; and the important question now
agitated is: Who shall have the advantages of this labor? Two fields,
only, present themselves in which this additional labor can be
employed--Africa and America. Great Britain is deeply interested in
limiting it to Africa, which she can only do by preventing a renewal of
the slave trade to America: for she takes it for granted that we will
renew the slave trade if we can make money by the operation. South
Africa is unavailable for this purpose, as it is under British rule, and
slavery abolished within its limits by law. Nothing can be done there,
as it is filling up with English emigrants who will not toil, under a
burning sun, in the cotton fields; and they can not be permitted to
reduce the natives again to slavery. West Africa alone, affords the
climate, soil, and population, necessary to success in cotton culture.
To this point the attention of Englishmen is now mainly directed. One
feature in the civil condition of West Africa must be specially noticed,
as adapting it to the purposes to which it is to be devoted. The
territory has not been seized by the British crown, as in South Africa,
and British law does not bear rule within its limits. The tribes are
treated as independent sovereignties, and are governed by their own
customs and laws. This is fortunate for the new policy now inaugurating,
as the native chiefs and kings hold the population at large as slaves.
Heretofore they have sold their slaves at will, as well as their
captives taken in war, to the slave traders. Now they are to be taught a
different policy by Englishmen; and the African slaveholders are to be
convinced that they will make more money by employing their slaves in
growing cotton, than in selling them to be carried off to the American
planters. This done, and the transportation of laborers to the United
States will be prevented. This will put it out of the power of our
planters, to increase their production of cotton so as to reduce prices;
and this will enable India to complete her rail roads, so as to be able
to compete with American cotton at any price whatever.
But this new policy, if successful, will do more than stop the slave
trade, to the supposed injury of the American planter. England will
thereby have the benefit of the labor of Africa secured to herself. With
its scores of millions of population under her direction, she hopes to
compete with American slavery in the production of cotton; and not only
to compete with it, but to surpass it altogether, and, in time, to
render it so profitless as to force emancipation upon us. She will there
have access to a population ten fold greater than that of the slave
population of the United States; and the only doubt of success exists in
the question, as to whether the negro master in Africa can make the
slave work as well there as the white master in America has done here.
But how shall England, in this measure, preserve her "traditional
policy," in which she pledged herself no longer to cherish slave labor.
This will be very easily done. She need not authorize slavery in Western
Africa; but as it already exists among all the tribes "by local law,"
she has only to recognize their independence, and bargain with the
chiefs for all the cotton they can force their slaves to produce. This
has already been done, by Englishmen, at several points in Africa, and
will doubtless be resorted to in many other portions of that country.
The moral responsibility of establishing slavery permanently in Africa,
will thus be thrown upon the chiefs and kings, as it has heretofore been
upon the American planter; and Great Britain can reap all the advantages
of the increased production of slave labor cotton, while her moralists
can easily satisfy the conscience of the people at home, by declaiming
against the system which secures to them their bread.
Here now the policy of British statesmen can be comprehended. They must
have cotton. The products of free labor would be preferred, but as it
can not be had, in sufficient quantities, they must take that of slave
labor. To allow the American planter to supply this want, by renewing
the slave trade, would ruin India and benefit America. To save India,
and, at the same time, to secure the cotton demanded by the
manufacturers, slavery is to be encouraged in Africa; and this is to be
done as a means not only of preventing the slave trade, and checking the
extension of slavery in America, but of multiplying the fields of cotton
cultivation--a policy very essential to the wants of the British nation.
Thus, slavery is to be promoted in Africa as an effectual means of
checking it in America; it is to be converted into a blessing there, and
made instrumental in wiping out its curse here!
And this, now, is the result of England's philanthropic efforts for
African freedom. Her economical errors, in West Indian emancipation, are
to be repaired by the permanent establishment of slavery in Africa! But
what must be the practical moral effect of her policy? What must be the
opinion entertained of the negro race, when Great Britain abandons her
policy in reference to them? This is not hard to divine. It will wipe
out the odium she has managed to cast upon the system; and, so far as
her example is concerned, will justify the American planter in refusing
to emancipate his slaves. Her conduct is a practical acknowledgment of
the Southern theory of the African race--that slavery is their normal
condition, otherwise she must have adopted the same policy in West
Africa that she has in South Africa.
But before closing this part of our investigations, it may be well to
examine the claims of Great Britain in relation to her humanity towards
the African, or any of the inferior races doomed to lives of toil--such
as the coolies of India and the laborers of China.
The contest for the advantages of supplying the increasing demands for
cotton, is between Great Britain operating in India and Africa, and the
American planter operating by an increased amount of labor furnished by
means of the slave trade. The contest between the parties may be
imagined as assuming this form: A portion of the American planters
insist, that they should be allowed to manage this matter; but Great
Britain says, nay: my subjects can do it better than you can. You
Americans are governed by mercenary motives: we Britons by philanthropic
intentions. You Americans have made no sacrifices for the cause of
humanity: we Britons have emancipated our West India slaves.
Aye, aye, replies the American planter; we understand all about the
humanity of which you boast. Your special type of philanthropy is fully
displayed in the history of your West Indies. Look at it. The total
importation of slaves from Africa into your West Indian Islands, was
1,700,000 persons; of whom and their descendants, in 1833, only 660,000
remained for emancipation; we had less than 400,000 imported Africans,
of whom and their descendants there existed among us, in 1850, more than
3,600,000 persons of African descent; that is to say, the number of
Africans and their descendants in the United States, is nearly eight or
ten to one of those that were imported, whilst in the British West
Indies there are not two persons remaining for every five imported.[37]
And besides, we have 500,000 free colored persons among us, a number
nearly equal to that which your emancipation act set at liberty, and
more than the whole number imported. Your slavery seems to have been a
system of wholesale slaughter: ours the reverse.
All true, says Britain: but then we have ceased to do evil, and are
learning to do well. We found "that slavery was bearing our colonies
down to ruin with awful speed; that had it lasted but another half
century, they must have sunk beyond recovery."[38]
What! says the planter; sunk beyond recovery! why, we find our slaves
rapidly increasing, and ourselves almost "made of gold." Be pleased to
explain, why slavery in the hands of Englishmen should be so
destructive, while with the American it is not only profitable to the
slaveholder himself, but the comfort of the slaves has been so well
secured, from the first, that their natural increase has been about
equal to that of any other people in the full enjoyment of the
necessaries of life.
Certainly, says Britain: having done our duty, we are free to confess,
that "what gave the death blow to slavery, in the minds of English
statesmen, was the population returns, which showed the fact, 'the
appalling fact,' that although only eleven out of the eighteen islands
had sent them in, yet in those eleven islands the slaves had decreased
in twelve years, by no less than 60,219, namely: from 558,194 to
497,975![39] Had similar returns been procured from the other seven
colonies (including Mauritius, Antigua, Barbadoes, and Granada,) the
decrease must have been little, if at all, less than 100,000! Now it was
plain to every one that if this were really so, the system could not
last. The driest economist would allow that it would not pay, to let the
working classes be slaughtered. To work the laboring men of our West
Indies to death, might bring in a good return for a while, but could not
be a profitable enterprise in the long run. Accordingly, this was the
main, we had almost said the only, topic of the debates on slavery in
1831 and 1832. Is slavery causing a general massacre of the working
classes in our sugar islands, or is it not, was a question worth
debating, in the pounds, shillings, and pence view, as well as in the
moral one. And debated it was, long and fiercely. The result was the
full establishment of the dreadful fact. The slaves, as Mr. Marryatt
said, were 'dying like rotten sheep.' Whatever then may be said for West
Indian slavery, this damning thing must be said of it, that _the slaves
were dying of it_. Then came emancipation."[40] And in performing this
act--in demonstrating to the world the destructive character of
slavery--Englishmen expected America to follow their example, and to
emancipate her slaves also.
And thereby deceived yourselves, says the planter, into the ruin of your
islands, without effecting any good for the Africans at large, and but
little for those upon whom your bounties were bestowed. And, then, we
cannot see the vastness of your philanthropy, in allowing such
destructive cruelties to prevail so long, and in only emancipating your
slaves when it was apparent they must soon become extinct under the
lash, as applied by the hands of Britons. We know that you claimed that
slavery was the same everywhere, and that humane men in our country were
deceived into the belief that American slavery was as ruinous to life as
British West Indian slavery. We know that the elder Mr. Buxton, in 1831,
used this language, "where the blacks are free they increase. But let
there be a change in only one circumstance, let the population be the
same in every respect, only let them be slaves instead of freemen, and
the current is immediately stopped;" and, in support of this, his
biographer adds: "This appalling fact was never denied, that at the time
of the abolition of the slave trade, the number of slaves in the West
Indies was 800,000; in 1830 it was 700,000; that is to say, in
twenty-three years it had diminished by 100,000."[41] This assertion,
that slavery is always destructive of life, was made by Mr. Buxton, in
the face of the fact, that ten distinct sets of our _Census tables_ were
then accessible to him, in each one of which he had the evidence that
American slavery, instead of reducing the number of our slave
population, tended to its rapid increase. From this and kindred acts of
that gentleman, we came to the conclusion, that, though he might be very
benevolent, he was not very truthful; and was, therefore, a very unsafe
guide to follow, as you must now acknowledge; unsafe, because your
emancipation on a small scale, before securing a general emancipation by
other countries, has thrown you under the necessity of now attempting to
establish slavery elsewhere on a large scale; unsafe, because your negro
population have not made half the moral progress under freedom, that
ours have done under slavery; and because, that, where cultivation has
depended upon the emancipated negro alone, with a single exception, the
islands have almost gone to ruin.[42]
You misinterpret facts, says Britain: our islands are not ruined; no, by
no means. Under slavery they would have been totally ruined; but
emancipation has placed them in a position favorable to a full
development of all their resources. "It is to be borne in mind that the
influx of free labor is exactly one of those advantages of which a land
is debarred by slavery. It is a part of the curse of slavery that it
repels the freeman. When we are told that to judge of the effect of
emancipation we must exclude those colonies that imported coolies, we
reply at once that this useful importation has been one of the many
blessings that freedom has brought in her train."[43]
I understand your views now, says the planter: but for emancipation,
your colonies would have sunk to irretrievable destruction. That measure
has prepared the way for the coolie system; and under its operations the
prosperity of your islands is on the increase. But what is the character
of this coolie system, that is working such wonders? In what does it
differ from the slave trade, of which you desire to deprive us? And what
must be its effects upon the colored population, which have received
their freedom at your hands, and whose moral elevation your Christian
missionaries are laboring to promote? On this point I would not multiply
testimony. The character of the coolie traffic is but too well
understood, and is now believed by all intelligent men to be the slave
trade in disguise. A writer, representing the anti-slavery society of
Great Britain, makes these statements.[44]
"I am prepared to show, that fraud, misrepresentation, and actual
violence are the constituent elements of the immigration system, even as
it is now conducted, and that no vigilance on the part of the government
which superintends its prosecution can prevent the abuses incidental to
it. . . . . In China, especially, this is notoriously the case, and I
refer you to Sir John Bowring's despatches on Immigration from China,
for the fullest revelations. I need only add, that he designates the
Chinese coolie traffic as being in every essential particular 'as bad as
the African slave trade,' and that he recommends its entire prohibition.
. . . . The mortality during the sea-voyage is so great, that the
Emigration Commissioners declare 'these results to be shocking to
humanity, and disgraceful to the manner in which the traffic is carried
on.' I beg to call your special attention to the term 'traffic,' and to
refer you for particulars of the mortality, to the Emigration
Commissioners' Report for 1858. They may be briefly summarised. During
the season 1856-57 the deaths at sea amounted to 17.26/100 per cent. on
4,094 coolies shipped from Calcutta--a rate which, if computed for the
whole year, instead of 90 days, the term of the voyage, would average
upwards of 70 per cent. The rate of mortality on shipments of Chinese
bound to British Guiana, varied from 14 per cent. to 50. . . . . On
shipments of Chinese bound to Havanna, on board British vessels, the
death-rate fluctuated between 20 per cent. and 60. Yet, sir, immigration
is said, by its advocates, to be now conducted on an improved system. .
. . . We come now to the treatment of the coolie, as soon as he is
discharged from the ship. There is no official evidence, that I am yet
aware of, to show what abuses of authority he is subjected to, but the
Jamaica Immigration Bill, now awaiting the sanction of Her Majesty's
Government, proves that the imported laborer is, during his term of
service, subject to conditions quite incompatible with a system of free
labor, and the same remark applies to other colonies. That the
immigrants are liable to ill usage and neglect, may be gathered from the
reports of travelers who have seen them in every stage of destitution
and misery; and that they are peculiarly affected by the kind of service
they contract to render, and by climate, is sufficiently proved by the
awful mortality during industrial residence, which we are assured the
Immigration Agent General's returns for Jamaica show to be equal to 50
per cent. Sir E. B. Lytton admits it to be 33 per cent. But if we accept
his correction--which I confess I am not prepared to do without knowing
upon what evidence he makes it--I maintain that even this death-rate
establishes the startling fact, that coolie labor in Jamaica is
proportionately more destructive to human life than slave labor in
Cuba."
On the question of the influence that the coolie immigration exerts upon
the emancipated blacks in the West Indies, the Editor of the _London
Economist_ very justly remarks:
"Bringing with them depraved heathen habits, and the detestable
traditions of the worst forms of idolatry, and always looking forward to
their return as the epoch when they will renew their heathen worship and
find themselves again among heathen standards of action,--they are
almost proof against the best influences which can be brought to bear
upon them, and, what is worse, they are not only proof against the good,
but missionaries for evil. They are closely associated in their labor
with a race that is just emerging out of barbarism with the fostering
care of Christianity, and we need not say that their social influence on
such a race is deteriorating in the extreme. The difficulty would be
indefinitely diminished, were the new immigrants a permanent addition to
the population. By careful regulations for that purpose, they might, in
that case, be subdued by the higher influences of their English
teachers; but the prospect of speedy restoration to the country and
habits of their birth, entirely foils such attempts as these. How far
this great difficulty can be overcome; and if it cannot, how far it may
more than balance the moral and physical advantages of a fuller labor
market,--it requires the most careful inquiry to determine." Here now
are four distinct points upon which the testimony shows, conclusively,
that the coolie system is worse than ever the slave trade has been
represented to be; and that as the slave trade is opposed on the ground
of the destruction of human life which attends it, so the coolie system
should be abandoned upon the same grounds. The points are these: 1st,
the frauds and cruelties incident to the procuring of immigrants; 2d,
the mortality during the middle passage; 3d, the mortality in the
islands where they are employed; 4th, the influence of the heathen
coolies in demoralizing the emancipated blacks among whom they are
intermingled. These points demand serious consideration by Britons, as
well as Americans--by those who would reopen the slave trade, as well as
those who would substitute for that traffic the immigration system.
And now, in conclusion, says the planter, I must beg to demur to
Britain's claiming a monopoly of all the philanthropy in the world
toward the African race; and upon that claim founding another which, if
granted, will secure to her the monopoly of all the labor of Africa
itself; and I would beg, further, that myself and my fellow planters may
be excused, if we cannot see any thing more in all her movements than a
determination to have a full supply of cotton, even at the risk of
dooming Africa to become one vast slave plantation.
While a faithful view of the plans and expectations of the British, in
relation to the production of cotton in Africa, has been presented, it
would be doing injustice to the reader not to give a few facts, in
closing, which indicate that their success, after all, may not equal
their anticipations. The Rev. T. J. Bowen,[45] says of African cotton
generally, that "the staple is good, but the yield can not be more than
one-fourth of what it was on similar lands in the Southern States;" and
of Yoruba, in particular, he says, that "both upland and sea island
cotton are planted; but neither produces very well, owing to the extreme
and constant heat of the climate." Of this, Mr. Bowen, who is a native
of Georgia, must be regarded as a good judge. He spent six years as a
missionary of the Baptist Church in exploring the Abbeokuta and Yoruba
country. This cause of short crops in Yoruba is evidently incurable. It
does not exist in equal force in Liberia and its vicinity. Mr. Bowen
says: "The average in the dry season is about 80 degrees at Ijaye, and
82 at Ogbomoshaw, and a few degrees lower during the rains. I have never
known the mercury to rise higher than 93 degrees in the shade, at Ijaye.
The highest reading at Ogbomoshaw was 97.5." These places are from 100
to 150 miles inland.[46]
Another remark. The confidence with which it is asserted, that
immigration is impracticable as a means of obtaining labor, wherever
slavery prevails, will remind the reader of another theory to which
Englishmen long tried to make us converts: that slave labor is
necessarily unprofitable and should be abandoned on economical grounds.
Now they are forced to admit that our planters seem to "be made of
gold." Perhaps these same planters can use immigrant labor as
successfully as slave labor. If necessary, doubtless, they will make the
attempt, notwithstanding the opinions entertained beyond the sea.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] See Table VIII, in Appendix.
[37] Compendium of United States Census, 1850.
[38] Mr. C. Buxton, in _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1859.
[39] Parliamentary Papers, Population Returns for the West Indies, (of
course the decrease by manumission is not included.)
[40] Mr. C. Buxton, in _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1859, from which these
extracts are made.
[41] _North British Review_, August, 1848.
[42] This point will be examined more fully in a subsequent chapter.
[43] Mr. C. Buxton, in _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1859.
[44] _London Economist_, Feb. 12, 1859.
[45] See _African Repository_, October, 1859.
[46] See _African Repository_, October, 1859.