Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Part 2

THE controversy on SLAVERY, in the United States, has been one of an exciting and complicated character. The power to emanc.i.p.ate existing, in fact, in the States separately and not in the general government, the efforts to abolish it, by appeals to public opinion, have been fruitless except when confined to single States. In Great Britain the question was simple. The power to abolish slavery in her West Indian colonies was vested in Parliament. To agitate the people of England, and call out a full expression of sentiment, was to control Parliament and secure its abolition. The success of the English abolitionists, in the employment of moral force, had a powerful influence in modifying the policy of American anti-slavery men. Failing to discern the difference in the condition of the two countries, they attempted to create a public sentiment throughout the United States adverse to slavery, in the confident expectation of speedily overthrowing the inst.i.tution. The issue taken, that slavery is _malum in se_--a sin in itself--was prosecuted with all the zeal and eloquence they could command. Churches adopting the _sin per se_ doctrine, inquired of their converts, not whether they supported slavery by the use of its products, but whether they believed the inst.i.tution itself sinful. Could public sentiment be brought to a.s.sume the proper ground; could the slaveholder be convinced that the world denounced him as equally criminal with the robber and murderer; then, it was believed, he would abandon the system. Political parties, subsequently organized, taught, that to vote for a slaveholder, or a pro-slavery man, was sinful, and could not be done without violence to conscience; while, at the same time, they made no scruples of using the products of slave labor--the exorbitant demand for which was the great bulwark of the inst.i.tution. This was a radical error. It laid all who adopted it open to the charge of practical inconsistency, and left them without any moral power over the consciences of others. As long as all used their products, so long the slaveholders found the _per se_ doctrine working them no harm; as long as no provision was made for supplying the demand for tropical products by free labor, so long there was no risk in extending the field of operations. Thus, the very things necessary to the overthrow of American slavery, were left undone, while those essential to its prosperity, were continued in the most active operation; so that, now, after more than a thirty years' war, we may say, emphatically, COTTON IS KING, and his enemies are vanquished.

Under these circ.u.mstances, it is due to the age--to the friends of humanity--to the cause of liberty--to the safety of the Union--that we should review the movements made in behalf of the African race, in our country; so that errors of principle may be abandoned; mistakes in policy corrected; the free colored people taught their true relations to the industrial interests of the world; the rights of the slave as well as the master secured; and the principles of the const.i.tution established and revered. It is proposed, therefore, to examine this subject in the light of the social, civil, and commercial history of the country; and, in doing this, to embrace the facts and arguments under the following heads:

1. The early movements on the subject of slavery; the circ.u.mstances 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 inst.i.tution.

2. The relations of American slavery to the industrial interests of our own country; to the demands of commerce; and to the present political crisis.

3. The industrial, social, and moral condition of the free colored people in the British colonies and in the United States; and the influence they have exerted on public sentiment in relation to the perpetuation of slavery.

4. The moral relations of persons holding the _per se_ doctrine, on the subject of slavery, to the purchase and consumption of slave labor products.

CHAPTER II.

THE EARLY MOVEMENTS ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY; THE CIRc.u.mSTANCES 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 INSt.i.tUTION.

Emanc.i.p.ation in the United States begun--First Abolition Society organized--Progress of Emanc.i.p.ation--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 Ma.s.sachusetts had emanc.i.p.ated 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 a.s.sociation. 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, Ma.s.sachusetts.

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 emanc.i.p.ation, begun by the four States named, continued to progress, so that in seventeen years from the adoption of the const.i.tution, New Hamps.h.i.+re, 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 Hamps.h.i.+re set hers free, only 138,328 lbs. of that article were s.h.i.+pped 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 emanc.i.p.ations 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 Ma.s.sachusetts had taken the lead in the trial of emanc.i.p.ation, 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 emanc.i.p.ation should be promoted by the society, it was a duty inc.u.mbent 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 pa.s.sed her act of emanc.i.p.ation, 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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, where emanc.i.p.ation 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_ emanc.i.p.ation 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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sertions by statistics, which prove, that, in Ma.s.sachusetts, where the free colored people const.i.tuted _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 const.i.tuted _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 const.i.tuted _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 const.i.tuted _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 ill.u.s.trations. 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 inst.i.tutions, is for the colored convicts. * * Could these States have antic.i.p.ated 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.

Ma.s.s. 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 diminis.h.i.+ng, 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 emanc.i.p.ation 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 emanc.i.p.ation. 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 emanc.i.p.ation. The failure of Franklin to obtain the means of establis.h.i.+ng inst.i.tutions 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 emanc.i.p.ation from the track, and tore up the rails upon which, alone, it could move.

CHAPTER III.

State of public opinion in relation to colored population--Southern views of Emanc.i.p.ation--Influence of Mr. Jefferson's opinions--He opposed Emanc.i.p.ation except connected with Colonization--Negro equality not contemplated by the Father's of the Revolution--This proved by the resolutions of their conventions--The true objects of the opposition to the slave trade--Motives of British Statesmen in forcing Slavery on the colonies--Absurdity of supposing negro equality was contemplated.

THE opinion that the African race would become a growing burden had its origin before the revolution, and led the colonists to oppose the introduction of slaves; but failing in this, through the opposition of England, as soon as they threw off the foreign yoke many of the States at once crushed the system--among the first acts of sovereignty by Virginia, being the prohibition of the slave trade. In the determination to suppress this traffic all the States united--but in emanc.i.p.ation their policy differed. It was found easier to manage the slaves than the free blacks--at least it was claimed to be so--and, for this reason, the slave States, not long after the others had completed their work of manumission, proceeded to enact laws prohibiting emanc.i.p.ations, except on condition that the persons liberated should be removed. The newly organized free States, too, taking alarm at this, and dreading the influx of the free colored people, adopted measures to prevent the ingress of this proscribed and helpless race.

These movements, so distressing to the reflecting colored man, be it remembered, were not the effect of the action of colonizationists, but took place, mostly, long before the organization of the American Colonization Society; and, at its first annual meeting, the importance and humanity of colonization was strongly urged, on the very ground that the slave States, as soon as they should find that the persons liberated could be sent to Africa, would relax their laws against emanc.i.p.ation.

The slow progress made by the great body of the free blacks in the North, or the absence, rather, of any evidences of improvement in industry, intelligence, and morality, gave rise to the notion, that before they could be elevated to an equality with the whites, slavery must be wholly abolished throughout the Union. The constant ingress of liberated slaves from the South, to commingle with the free colored people of the North, it was claimed, tended to perpetuate the low moral standard originally existing among the blacks; and universal emanc.i.p.ation was believed to be indispensable to the elevation of the race. Those who adopted this view, seem to have overlooked the fact, that the Africans, of savage origin, could not be elevated at once to an equality with the American people, by the mere force of legal enactments. More than this was needed, for their elevation, as all are now, reluctantly, compelled to acknowledge. Emanc.i.p.ation, unaccompanied by the means of intellectual and moral culture, is of but little value.