In 1790. In 1840.
North Carolina, 2.80 to 1 1.97 to 1
South Carolina, 1.31 ” 1 79 ” 1
Georgia, 1.76 ” 1 1.44 ” 1
Tennessee, 13.35 ” 1 3.49 ” 1
Kentucky, 5.16 ” 1 3.23 ” 1
“From this it is apparent that, in spite of all the oppressions and
cruelties of slavery, of all the sales that are effected, of all the
removals to Liberia, and of all the removals by the escape of the
slaves, there is a regular gain of the slave population over the free in
the slave-holding States. No oppression prevents it here more than it
did in Egypt, and there can be no doubt whatever that, unless slavery
shall be arrested in some way, the increase is so certain that the
period is not far distant when, in all the Slave States, the free whites
will be far in the minority. At the first census, taken in 1790, in
every Slave State there was a very large majority of whites. At the last
census, in 1840, the slaves out-numbered the whites in South Carolina,
Mississippi, and Louisiana. The tendency of this, from causes which it
would be easy to state, can be arrested by nothing but emancipation.”
But Mr. Barnes does not state what those causes are; and will he
acknowledge that they really are what we have before stated? So far as
these facts teach any thing, it is that God smiles on the institution of
slavery. Let it be true, as Mr. Barnes says it is, that Ohio exhibits a
state of prosperity, and Kentucky a state of “_desolation_,”—the
legitimate deduction is, that those, having the direction and government
of affairs in Ohio are wiser and more intelligent than those of the same
class in Kentucky. We shall leave all further view of the matter to Mr.
Barnes and the people of Kentucky.
The four hundred years of slavery in Egypt were not a sentence on the
Hebrews for the especial benefit of the Egyptians, but for that of the
Hebrews themselves. The court did not sentence the free negro, who had
become a nuisance, to five years of slavery, for the especial benefit of
the purchaser, but for the prospect of amelioration in the negro
himself. The races of Ham were not made subject to slavery for the
especial benefit of Shem and Japheth; but because, in such slavery,
their condition would be more elevated, and better, than in a state of
freedom. The slave-owner may be very wicked, and God may destroy him for
his wickedness, and yet his merciful designs, by the institution of
slavery, not be affected thereby. An eastern monarch, determined to
destroy his minister, sent him a present of a thousand slaves and a
hundred elephants. The minister dared not refuse the present; but not
being able profitably to employ them, was ruined. But the condition of
the slave and the elephant was not injured. The poor-house was not made
for the especial benefit of its keeper, but for its subjects.
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