man, when travelling in England, was much astonished to meet " in Oxford-Street a well-dressed white girl, who was of a ruddy complexion and even handsome, walking arm-in-arm and conversing very sociably with a Negro-man, who was as well dressed as she, and so black that his skin had a kind of ebony lustre."* On one occasion, Mr. Duncan, in travelling from Philadephia to Baltimore, met with a man in the stage-coach who openly avowed that he was master of a slave-ship, and had just conveyed a cargo from the coast of Africa to Havannah, "He talked with the most hardened apathy of his miserable victims, and said that they were much obliged to him for the change: nor did he make any secret of his plans, laughing at the facility with which he cleared out at the custom-house for a cargo of gold-dust and ivory, and in place of them brought black apes."+ "That this brute in human shape," adds Mr. Duncan," ventured among strangers in a public carriage to avow his diabolical trade, proves of itself a lamentable state of public feeling." — Numerous anecdotes to the same effect are scattered through the pages of travellers in America; and we have ourselves conversed with a very intelligent American gentleman, who freely acknowleged that he found it impossible to overcome the feelings of contempt with which he had been accustomed to regard the Negro. When such is the effect produced on a cultivated mind, we may readily judge of its extent among the rude and uninformed classes of society. The influence, which such a feeling must exercise over the national character of the Americans, is necessarily most pernicious. Can the principles of freedom be rationally appreciated by men who openly hold their fellow-men in bondage? Can this monstrous anomaly of a vast slave-population in a free state exist with impunity? It is only by individual examples that the effects of an evil system on the community in general can be known; and with this view we confidently refer our readers to the facts which are narrated by the various travellers who have visited the United States. They will there trace the cruelty, the disregard of human life, the insolent contempt of human sufferings, and all the infamous passions, which the system of slavery is calculated to engender. It cannot be denied that those passions are in a great degree subject to the influence of public opinion, and that the spirit of intelligence, which is spread abroad in America, no doubt operates to suppress them. Yet, notwithstanding this check, how many instances might be collected of the depravity of *Silliman's Travels in England, vol. i. p. 271. character character to which slavery gives rise? We shall not attempt to make a selection of these odious anecdotes: but we may remark that there is one practice in America, resulting from the existence of slavery, which shews how dangerous that system is to the free institutions of the country. We allude to the frequent offence of kidnapping free Negroes; a fact which appears to be proved on good evidence. When the rights of freedom are thus disregarded in the person of the Negro, the liberties of the White man would seem to rest on but an insecure basis; and the general effect of the system of slavery on the character of the Americans is well remarked by Mr. Duncan. "Liberal opinions," he observes, "can never exist, much less flourish, in the breast of slave-holders. They may be violent republicans to those who aspire to a superiority over them, but they will ever be relentless tyrants to every one who in any way falls under their power. They may themselves throw off the yoke of a master, but the result will be improved to confirm to themselves more absolute sway They cannot appreciate the value of equal laws, and therefore cannot be supposed capable either of making or administering them.”+ Independently of the moral evils which are thus generated, serious dangers may be apprehended from the rapid increase of the slave-population in the United States. According to a late traveller, it is augmenting in a quicker ratio than the white; and what may not be apprehended at some future time from a powerful body of men, exasperated with the wrongs and contumelies which they have so long endured, and conscious at last of their own power and importance? Yet the Americans are hastening to open another of their States to an evil of so portentous a magnitude! Even waiving all the arguments drawn from the principles of moral obligation, or political expediency, it may be shewn that the system of slavery in America is opposed to individual interests. The fact of the deterioration of the soil under slave-cultivation is fully established; and the State of Virginia may be taken as an example. In that State, the culture of tobacco by slave-labor has been pursued until a great part * Those who are desirous of inquiring into these facts should peruse a small volume intitled "American Slave-trade; or, an Account of the Manner in which the Slave-dealers take free People from some of the United States of America, and carry them away and sell them as Slaves in other of the States, and of the horrible Cruelties practised in the carrying on of this most infamous Traffic, &c. By Jesse Torrey, jun., Physician." London. 1822. Travels in America, vol. ii. p. 333. of of the lands are absolutely worn out, or in technical language "killed." On this question, we shall adduce the authority of a person in every way competent to form a correct opinion. In one of a series of Essays on the Agriculture of Virginia by Colonel John Taylor, now a senator from that State, which were published a few years since, are contained the following observations, which we cite from the little pamphlet stated at the head of the present article. "The fertility of Virginia has long been declining. The decay in the culture of tobacco is testimony to this unwelcome fact. 'It is deserted because the lands are exhausted. To conceal from ourselves a disagreeable truth, we resort to the delusion that tobacco requires new or fresh land. Whole counties, comprising whole districts of country which once grew tobacco in great quantities, are now too sterile to grow any of moment; and the wheat-crops substituted for tobacco have already sunk to an average below profit. ‹‹‹ Ì have known many farms for above forty years, and though I think that all of them have been greatly impoverished, yet I rely more upon the general fact which I have stated for agreeing with Strickland in opinion that Virginia is in a rapid decline. "Negro-slavery is a misfortune to agriculture incapable of removal, and only within the reach of palliation. "Let us boldly face the facts; our country is nearly ruined. We have certainly drawn out of the earth three-fourths of the vegetable matter it contained within reach of the plough. "The fact is, that negro-slavery is an evil which the United States must look in the face. To whine over it is cowardly; to aggravate it, criminal; and to forbear to alleviate it, because it cannot be wholly cured, foolish." (P. 11.) To the same effect is the testimony of Judge Tucker of Virginia, and of General Robert Harper of Maryland, which we take from the same pamphlet. "The introduction of slavery into this country," says Judge Tucker," is at this day considered among its greatest misfortunes." (P. 13.) — "No person," says General Harper, "who has seen the slaveholding States, and those where slavery does not exist, and has compared ever so slightly their condition and situation, can have failed to be struck with the difference in favour of the latter. This difference extends to every thing, except only the character and manners of the most opulent and best educated people. These are much the same every where. But in population; in the general diffusion of wealth and comfort; in public and private improvements; in the education, manners, and mode of life of the middle and labouring classes; in the face of the country; in roads, bridges, and inns; in schools and churches; in the general advancement of improve improvement; there is no comparison. The change is seen the instant you cross the line which separates the country where there are slaves, from that where there are none. Even in the same State, the parts where slaves mostly abound are uniformly the worst cultivated, the poorest, and the least populous; while wealth and improvement uniformly increase as the number of slaves diminishes." (P. 15.)' ́ The result of this system in Virginia has therefore been that, as an agricultural country, it is ruined; and many of the farmers have actually abandoned the cultivation of the ground and become slave-growers: the demand for slaves in the interior being such as to render this a very profitable business. How wretched must be the state of things, when the staple-commodity of a country consists in slaves! It is true that the new and rich soils of Illinois may for a while prove productive under slave-labor: but the period will arrive, if the same system be pursued, when that State must share the fate of Virginia. On a former occasion, we introduced the question of the superiority of free to slave labor in point of cheapness, and we shall not now repeat those observations, though they nearly affect the present subject: but we cannot forbear to cite an anecdote which was transmitted to Mr. Cropper of Liverpool by an intelligent correspondent in the United States, and which proves that the labor of the slave is proportioned to the treatment which he receives from his master. "A friend of unquestionable veracity near the city of Washington stated last year that a mill-dam, belonging to a wealthy planter in the neighbourhood, had been carried away by the ice, and he was applied to to rebuild it. The owner queried with him how long it would require to complete it, and was answered, that if my friend was allowed to provide for the Negroes he would engage to finish the job in (I think) twenty days; to which the owner rejoined, You cannot do it in sixty. I am certain my Negroes will not be able to do it in less. My friend told him that if they were fed and clothed as in common, he himself did not believe that they would do it in twice sixty; but that if he was allowed to provide for them, he thought twenty days would be well enough. It was agreed to, and he commenced the work. He purchased some barrels of good pork, and beef, and other necessaries of life, and suitable clothing for the season and labour. He fed the Negroes freely, clad them well, worked with them himself, and treated them kindly, and to the astonishment of the planter, and many of his neighbours, he completed the work within the specified time; did it in a masterly manner, and secured the good-will of the Negroes, who worked cheerfully and merrily, and throve so well under the treatment, that at the expiration of the the service they were fatter and finer looking men than any on the plantation.”* The enemies of Negro-emancipation have often attempted to raise an argument from the supposed inferiority of the Blacks in point of intellect: but so much has been written and said in answer to this unjust charge, that it is quite unnecessary to enter into any reasonings on the subject. We may, however, be allowed to remark that, even if the fact could be proved, it would afford not the slightest pretext of justification to the slave-owner. Although Quashee-ma-boo may not possess so capacious and powerful a mind as the Professor of Metaphysics in Yale College, yet we cannot think that such a distinction confers any right on the latter to compel the for mer to work for him against his will, and without reward. We believe, too, that numerous instances are to be found in America, in which Negroes, both free and enslaved, have maintained the most excellent characters, and have evinced very considerable mental powers. It may be admitted that many of the free Blacks are often disreputable and idle people but this is the natural result of the situation in which they are placed, and of the prejudices and errors of their white neighbours, not of their own inherent depravity. The following characters of several free Negroes shew that they are by no means the despicable people whom the Americans would have us believe. + "J-s F―n is by profession a sail-maker: he is a man of very polite manners, of affable temper, and of good education. He is married to a very light Mulatto woman, and has a number of children, the colour of whose skin is little darker than that of many Whites. His business is very good; he is very indus trious, attentive, and obliging, and has acquired a good estate. His children are genteely dressed, and are receiving an accomplished education, and will, I think, vie in point of capacity and acquirement with any white children of their age. He has a handsome country-residence, to which he retreats in the heat of summer, and I have often been pleased in meeting him and his wife retiring, in the evening, from the business of the day, riding in a handsome chaise which belongs to him. "Q-y C-n is a man of great respectability and seriousness of character: he has been a schoolmaster in this city as long as *Relief of West Indian Distress, &c. By James Cropper. London. 1823. pp. 24. + See an extract of a letter from one of the Society of Friends at Philadelphia, dated 16th June, 1823, and published in a small tract intitled" Negro Slavery. No. II. Slavery in the United States." REV. FEB. 1824. N I can |