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Manners Of The Slavocracy--Economy

Manners Of The Slavocracy--Economy image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
September
Year
1842
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Dr. Franklin snys the road to wenlth is as plain as the road to markot. It is described in two words - Industry and Frugality - that is, gel all you can honeslly, and save what you get, necessary expenses excopted. Let us examine the tracks of thü .lavdholders, nnd ascertein whether they are travelling this road. The foundation of all slaveholding is robbery. Each slaveholder, on an average, robs ten persons of all they carn. The question arises, wliether a state of society, where ninetenths of the people are robbed by the other tenth, is more favorable to the production of wealth, thanthat condition of things in which each producer ís the keeper of the proceeds of bis own toil. It is evident, at first view, that by the former system, nine persons out of ten are made poor - "poor indeed" - fora slave can own nothing. The entire proceeds of tlieir labor go into the hands of the tenth man, who is their common treastirer. We need not argue the case to show that a freeman produces more thanaslave. It is universally conceded. - Then remember that the slaveholder produces nothing, or next to nothing. He doos not work at any thing useful. It is disgraceful at the south for a white man to work! We see, then, that the values produced by nine slaves, and one slaveholder must be less m amount than they would I e were the ten persons all freemen. It follows, Ihat a slnveholdiug eommunity must inevitobly be poorer than a ftee on?, because less wealth is produced - unless, indeed, it can be shown that the economy practised in it is greater than in a free commu nity. Let us examine this position.That slaveholding in a course of ycars, will surely lead to poverty, any reflecting person can satisfy himself without travelling round the world to hunt up documemts. Suppose the experiment to be triel in your own neighborhood. Select from among your best business men, that individual in whose skill. capacity, and energy you have the fullest conridence. Give him any quanüty of eood land to begin with. Lot him purchase 500 prime slaves at 700 dollars each, witli which to stock his plantation, and all the necessary teams and implemonts for üoing business. - Let him hire the necessary nunber of overseers at $800 or a thousand dollars a year each. Let his cellar be furnished with all kinds of wines and liquors, and his table be spread With all the luxuries that can be ba? in comniunity. Let himself and fumüy be clothed continually in the most fasbionable and expensive apparel. Let it be an eslablished ru!e with each of thetn :iever todo any work of any kind, bnt let thetn speild all their time in amusement, in visit'mg, huniing; fishing. card-plnying, boxing, gambling,cock-fighting, horse-racing, and all 6Ímilar employments. - Let the sons be educaled at the best colleges, and the daughlers at the most expensive boarding schools. Let the slaveholder and .his family be nbsent from home six rnonths in the year, visiting the Springs, or the Falls.or the seat of gevernment, rolling throug the land in their carriages, attended by servante in costly liveries,everywherespend'ng their nionoy like princes, and exercising at home the most un bounded hospitaliiy. Lot the slavpholder, at the same timp,aUend faithfuHy tö his business; let hiña wnte to his overseers every day, if you please,and bestow al) his leisure time upon the perconal examinaüon of his aifairs; lethim be the very best business man in your commu nity; and yet could you believe he wae gaining in his property f rom yenr to year? Look at sorne items of expense we have not narned. The interest on the cost of each elave at 10 per cent, would be $70 per year; which is hhlf enough to hire an able bodied freeman, who would porform much more work than a slave. Some of his slaves would run away. How common that is at the South ! on eacli one would be $700 lost at once.- Some would die of sickness, or become disabled by diseased or accident, and the ir place must be made good by purchasing others. - Add to this, that slaves are said tö be most exceedingly wasteful,improvident,careless and lazy. Recoüect we are speaking of slaves not of what the same persons would be when free. Now hero is an experiment on the most favourable footing imaginable,with the land' furnished to begin with and the whole enterprise controlled by a man of sagacity and energy. Compare jour manner,ofliving with that of your opulent slave holding neighber. You find, perhaps, that you cannot sup port yourself respectably, without constant attention to business, economising in every possible way, and causing every member of your family to earn something. Do you think Ihis neighbor of yours can prosper in business by taking a course the veri reverse of yours - by earning nothing - consuming much - wasting much, and spending much? Tt is utterly impossible. The lavs of nature do not change to accommodate the notions of slaveholders. At the end of twenty fiveor thirty ycars, you would find his lands worn out, his crops poor, his buildings decaycd, his laborers reduced in value, and his whole property worlh less than what ït cost. He and his children miglit indeed live upon the place for sucecssive generations, but the process of years would find the proprietors impoverished rather than enriched. We apprehend this is slaveholding in miniature. There will be undoubtedly many exceptions and variaüons, according to purticular circumstancos; and yctthe general rule will hold good, that the tendency of slaveholding Í3 perpetually towards poverty and bankruptcy. In evidence of this, if spacc would permit, we migliL cite the thousantls and thousands of ocres of the best lands in Virginia and S. Carolina, once cultivated, now thrown out to comn.ons, and covered with ahaubterj - the tweniy millions lost by bad debts at the South - the tepudiatïon of Mississippi- the bonkruptcy of Alabama - the immense debts of the Louisiana planters- the general insolveney of Southern banks - their unwilJingness to resume specie payments - and the 'bursting up' of not a few of them, A correspondent of the N. Y. Evangelist, residmg at the Soulh, wrote last year, that in hisopii)ion,if all the property of every kind Ma Mississippi and Alabama should be sold at auction at a fair price, the proceeds would not pay the debts of the citizens, the Banks, and the bonds of the States. It scems to cost much more to get a given amountof work donefor thegovenmentin a slavehplding community than in a free one.Just think of the sums swallowed up in the Branch mints - in removing obstructions in iho Mississippi with "port wine and oyslers'' - in the Florida war - and, in fine, in every thing un dertakrn by government. Public officers ave puid more for their services in the slave States than in the free. For instance, the salary of the Mayor of New Orleans is $6,000, while that of the Mayor of Hartford is $40. The Philanthropi&t remarks on this subject:"It will be seen that the public men of the slave States know how to próvido f'or thetn selvcs. We may remarkj that the interests for the protection of which the slave States must legislóte, are not ncar so complex, and multifarious, as those in the North, so that le?s time is consumed both by thelaw-making and exocutive deparitnents. One might infer from this, that the cost of government in the t-lave States vvoiild be less, but it is just the reverse. The Tuscaloosa Monitor bas compiled a very interesling1 table, showing the annual cost of the people of each Scate, of their several departnients of government, execmive, legislative and judicial. By calculation, we find that the totnl annual cost of the three departmentsinall thefiee States, is $628, 962; in all the slave States, $962,946; or one third greater, for a population of freemen only one li alf as numerous. Thns it is, that every comparison of the free and slave States, which can be made, tunis to the disadvar.tage of the latter, showing the blighting influence of slavery in every way. The Western "Citizen has the followmg: Taxfor Slavery.- The appropriations of the present Con'gress for the expenses of the territorial governments of Wisconsin and Iovva, are 29,450, for each territory. The appropriations for the objects for Florida, are O40.075, making 11,024 more for the slave than for the free territories. The salary of the Governor of Florida, is $2,500, that of the Governorsof theo'her territories is Si, 000.- Slavery is the cause of this extra cost. Have the territories of the North-west noihing to do with slavery, while they lose one third of the government patronage for their freedom? We conciude this article by inserting the following extract from the Nevvburyport Her. "The expenses of maintaining the families of the soutiiern planters in good times, is enormons. We hnve been told of one - a fair specimen of the class - who, when cotton commar.ded a high price, for a succession of years realized from his nlantation a net annual profit from 10 to 15,000 dollars a year, and yet was continually in debt. In a recent letter from a plunier at the south to a fricnd, giving reasons why he uad not aided in some benevolent scheme for which his relative liad asked his assi.stance we find an enumeration of family expenses would startle a northern $50,000 ma.

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Subjects
Old News
Signal of Liberty