Effects of slavery, on morals and industry. By Noah Webster, Jun. Esq. Counsellor at law and member of the Connecticut Society for ehe [sic] Promotion of Freedom. ; [Two lines from Shakespeare]

Effects of slavery, on morals and industry. By Noah Webster, Jun. Esq. Counsellor at law and member of the Connecticut Society for ehe [sic] Promotion of Freedom. ; [Two lines from Shakespeare]

Table of contents

Title page

§

ADVERTISEMENT.

EFFECTS of SLAVERY, &c.

APPENDIX

—No. I.

No. II.

REMARKS.

No. III.

No. IV. OF PRODUCTIVE LABORERS.

No. V. Comparative view of the productiveness of Ireland and Connecticut.

MANNER of LIVING in CONNECTICUT,

[Page]

EFFECTS of SLAVERY, &c.

THE injustice of enslaving any part of the human race has been the subject of so much public discussion, and is so generally admitted by the inhabitants of Connecticut, that any attempt to prove it, would be a very ill compliment to the understandings of my enlightened fellow citizens. Nor could any efforts of mine add novelty to the subject; so numerous, elaborate and diffuse have been the essays, and so powerful the eloquence employed in vindicating the violated rights of humanity, that language and rhetoric are exhausted.

BUT men, instructed by their avarice in a species of subtle casuistry, have learnt to make a material distinction between abstract rights and private interest or policy. In defending the African Slave trade, its advocates, compelled by the powers of reason to abandon the right, have taken refuge under the policy and necessity of the traffic. Here entrenched as in a strong hold, they maintain their station, and bid defiance to the attacks of reason and religion. To drive them from this citadel of defence, it becomes necessary to encounter them with their own weapons, and upon their own ground.

As the only steady, permanent and uniform spring of men's actions, is a regard to their supposed interest, if we would effectually restrain them from the pursuit of any object, we must first convince them that the object, if obtained, will not produce them the real benefit and happiness which they expect. It is not sufficient to persuade nations concerned in the slave trade, that the practice of enslaving their brethren of the human race, is barbarous and wicked, and that it is a violation of the laws of nature and society. Previous to their relinquishing the practice, they must be convinced that such relinquishment will not be materially prejudicial to their interest.

To endeavor to prove this important truth, that slavery, in all its forms and varieties, is repugnant to the private interest and public happiness of man, is the task I have assigned myself in this essay though neither my talents nor my opportunities of acquiring the; necessary information, will enable me to do justice to the subject. [Page] In taking this comprehensive view of the effects of slavery on men and nations, the society, to whom this treatise is addressed, will pardon me, if I do not restrict myself to the consideration of the African slave trade and the more immediate purposes of their institution; for the effects of despotism and a violent restraint of the natural liberty of man, are the same in all countries; subject however to inconsiderable modifications from climate, soil, religion, or other incidental circumstances.

SLAVERY may be divided into, political and civil. Political slavery, is a subjection to the uncontrolled exercise of public authority, whether that authority is in the hands of a king, a council, or a popular assembly. Civil slavery is a subjection to the absolute power of a particular proprietor, or master.

SLAVERY also exists in very different degrees in different countries. In some countries, the slave possesses by custom, or enjoys by indulgence, some rights and privileges; in others, he is stripped of all rights, and his services, his person and his life, are at the arbitrary disposal of his master. But as I am not about forming a systematic treatise on this subject, these distinctions will not be pursued; it being sufficient for my purpose to exhibit the general effects of slavery on men and nations.

OF the effects of slavery, the first in order are those which respect the character of the slave; indeed most of the pernicious consequences of slavery, whether public or private, may be traced to this one source, the effects of an unnatural and an unwarrantable restraint laid upon the will of the slave.

IT is evidently the will of heaven that men should be prompted to action by a regard to their own benefit and happiness. Whenever by the positive institutions of society, or by external force, men are stripped of the power of exerting themselves for their own benefit, the mind, having lost its spring or stimulus, either ceases to act, and men become mere machines, moving only when impelled by some extraneous power; or if the mind acts at all, it is at the impulse of violent passions, struggling to throw off an unnatural restraint, and to revenge the injury. Hence it is, that slaves, with few exceptions, may be divided into two classes, the indolent and the villanous.

IN America the laziness of slaves has become proverbial: indeed the blacks are so remarkable for their inaction, their want of foresight and their disinoli [...]ation to improvement, as to create very great doubts in the minds of some men of a philosophical cast, whether they are not a distinct and inferior race of beings.† But on examining this subject, and comparing the blacks of this country, with the slaves of other countries, who are confessedly of the same race with the most improved European nation, it will probably be found that, making the usual allowances for the effects of their native climate, all the peculiar features in the character of the African race in America, may justly be ascribed to their depressed condition.

[Page] The indolence of the slaves in the southern states, must indeed approach almost to stupidity. It is said by gentlemen, well informed on this subject, that three blacks will not perform more labor than one free white in the northern states.* And it is well known that on every plantation, a negro driver is required, with his whip and his ca [...]e, to compel the reluctant slave to perform his daily task. But are American slaves only distinguished for their aversion to labor? History teaches us a very different doctrine. Among the antient Germans, who, by their vigor and bravery, conquered half the world, slavery had the same debasing stupi [...]ying influence: and it is remarkable that the word, lazzi, which among our Saxon ancestors, was the denomination or the lowest order of bondmen or servants, is the origin of our English word lazy, a word expressive of that indolence and aversion to labor, which remarkably characterize the negroes in America.† If slavery had this effect upon our own ancestors, the warlike heroes of the north, surely modern philosophers need not resort to an original difference of race, for the cause of that dullness and want of mental vigor, remarkable in the enslaved natives of the torrid zone and their degenerate descendants.

But if we turn our eyes upon the present nations of Europe, we shall find multiplied proofs of this important truth, that slavery necessarily enervates the vigor of the human mind, in all climates and among all nations.

In Poland, the peasants, who are slaves, are so indolent that they do not furnish themselves even with a shelter from the inclemencies of the weather. The proprietor of the land to which the peasants are annexed, like the stock of a farm, is obliged to build cottages and barns for them, and to furnish them with seed, plows, horses, and every implement of husbandry.§ Nor do these miserable wretches provide themselves the ordinary comforts of life. Little more is to be seen within their hovels, than bare walls, a wooden stool, and a bed of straw. People who travel in that desolate country, and expect tolerable accommodations, must carry with them their own beds, their provisions, their knives, forks and spoons.‡

VERY little better is the condition of the peasantry throughout the immense Russian empire.‖ So abject is their situation and so complete the degradation of their minds, as to give rise to a general opinion in that country, that the peasants, if set at liberty, would not be capable of procuring a subsistence.¶

The modern inhabitants of Greece, are remarkable for their aversion to active employments. The miserable subjects of the Turkish [Page] government pass whole days, musing, with their legs crossed, their pipes in their mouths, and almost without changing their attitude.* Athens and Sparta, the fields of Marathon, Platea, and Thermopylae, those nurses of heroes, lawgivers and philosophers, or the theaters on which they exercised their talents and displayed atchievments, that still excite astonishment, are now inhabited by lazy Turks and a few Greeks, dispi [...]ited and debased, who inherit not one of the virtues of their illustrious ancestors. To what cause shall we attribute this degeneracy of the Greeks? To what physical energy? Surely no change of climate, no alteration in the productive powers of nature, can account for this moral phenomenon. To despotism alone, that [...]oul monster, before whose pestilential breath, the powers of the mind wither and decay, must we ascribe this woful debasement of the modern Greeks.

ANOTHER effect of slavery upon its miserable subjects is to make them cruel, deceitful, per [...]idious, and knavish; in short, to deprive them of all the noble and amiable affections of the human heart. This fatal and necessary consequence of oppression upon the moral character of man, though often noticed by the historian, the divine and philosopher, has either escaped the reflection of tyrants, or its admonitions have been hushed by the more commanding calls of a mistaken selfish policy. But proofs of this truth are scattered over almost every page of history. We can scarely open a volume without finding some fact to convince us that oppression is the mother of crimes. So striking was this truth in antient Greece, that a great philosopher† doubted, whether there was any one virtue belonging to slaves. How can it be otherwise? Is it expectable that men, who are precluded by violence from enjoying the benefits of society, should cultivate the virtues from which its blessings flow? Is it not more natural that the subjects of oppression, sensible they are robbed of their rights and resenting the injury, should perpetually struggle to indemnify themselves for the loss, and when it would be fruitless to use open force, that they should have recourse to the arts of treachery and fraud? The principles of human nature warrant this conclusion, and account for the detestable character of slaves in all ages and all countries.

The Moors in Algiers and Morocco, are generally given to robbery and piracy; and people cannot travel in safety at a distance from the towns in their country, without a marabout or reputed saint, for a guard. The Turks in the same countries have not the same character. Why this difference? Has nature impressed their different characters? A more satisfactory answer is, that the Moors, considering themselves the original proprietors of the countries, and by the conquest of the Turks, reduced to a state of poverty and [Page] disgrace, unable, at the same time to throw off the yoke of bondage, betake themselves to theft and robbery, and plunder all they meet by way of reprisal. *

THE Malayan slaves in the Dutch plantations at the Cape of Good Hope, are very intelligent, but attrocious villains. To assassinate their masters is a common crime; and the culprit, who has committed it, marches to the scaffold with an air of unconcern; or rejoices that he has taken a step which will put an end to his life and his servitude.‖

THE Mamlouks of Egypt, a band of military slaves, first formed out of the prisoners which Geng [...]is Khan took in his famous expedition into Persia and the countries on the borders of the Caspian Sea A D 1227, have ever been distinguished for their turbulent spirit, their perfidy, and ferocious cruelty. Like the Praetorian bands of the Roman Emperors, and the Janizaries of Turkey, they deposed their chiefs at pleasure, and in the 257 years, when Egypt was subject to their military despotism, forty seven of their leaders fell by the sword or by poison; by public murder or private assassination.†

THE Greeks under the Turkish government are theivish, deceitful, treacherous, and mean even to a proverb: abject in adversity and insolent in prosperity.¶ Even their features are visibly distorted with knavery and meanness, and the traveller reads, in their crouching looks, that they are slaves.‡

IN ancient Rome, when a master was murdered, all his slaves under the same roof or within the hearing of a man's voice, were by law condemned to death.§ Was not this inhuman law founded on the presumption that slaves were prone to commit crimes of this attrocious nature, and that they were all principals or accessories? that they were so abandoned and unprincipled in the opinion of a Roman Senate as not to be deserving of a legal process and conviction? The severity of laws is always preceded by a corruption of manners, and in a free state, it is the criterion by which we may ascertain the degree of national depravity. Permit me to remark further that by the opinion and the laws of the Romans, theft was considered almost exclusively the crime of slaves. **

BUT there is not a more demonstrative evidence of the direct tendency of slavery to deprave and vitiate the heart, than the change in the signification of the words villain and knave. Villain, in ancient times, signified a bondman or tenant who was annexed [Page] to the soil as a cultivator of the earth and bound to perform servile offices.* Knave, in the primitive Saxon, signified a male child [...]boy, and as boys were much used for domestic servants, it came afterward to denote any man servant. ‡ From this circumstance alone, the proneness of men in a degraded sphere of life to contract vicious habits, it has happened that these words, villain and knave, have lost their ancient signification, and become almost the appropriate names of persons addicted to fraud and deceit or guilty of enormous crimes. The words anciently conveyed no idea of dishonesty, more than bondman and servant do now; and the complete transfer of their signification from the destination of the persons, to their properties, is a decisive proof that the qualities which take the names, are predominant characteristic qualities of those denominations of men. In short, it is a singular and striking evidence that slaves have always been, as we now see them to be, prone to commit petty knavish tricks or gross villanies.

Why does Ireland abound with thieves and robbers? are its natives more depraved by nature than the natives of other countries? This will not be asserted; for the honour, integrity and liberality which distinguish Hibernians of property and education, overthrow all such theories. But oppression, with her iron scepter, rules that devoted country. The peasants, subject to the combined operation of civil and political slavery, are sensible they are stripped of their natural and social rights; without property or reputation to lose; without the hope of making their condition better or the fear of making it worse, the ragged victims of avarice and oppression [...]urk about the large towns, prepared for clandestine plunder, or with the ferocious spirit of desperadoes, stalk along the highways and boldly rob the defenceless passenger. But let the poor of Ireland be raised to the condition of freeholders, let them have property and enjoy the fruits of their industry, let their children be educated to honest employments, and Tyburn would no longer be thronged with the wretched natives of that insulted country, nor would the Islands of the Pacific Ocean be annually peopled with fresh supplies of Irish Convicts.

THE character of the Jews is another proof of the doctrine here advanced. Tho never subject to domestic and civil slavery, like the Africans in America, yet from the time of their dispersion, they have suffered innumerable hardships and injuries from the prejudices of christian princes and a biggoted clergy.† Considered as infidels and outcasts on earth, they have been deprived of the privilege [Page] of holding lands in some countries,* in others subjected to unreasonable taxes and rigorous restraints and not unfrequently exposed to persecution. Thus treated wherever they were dispersed, and being never secure of a peaceable residence of any considerable duration, they rarely or never betook themselves to agriculture or mechanical employments; but vested their property in moveables, which could be easily concealed or conveyed from place to place, and more especially in money. From this circumstance, it happened that Jews in the infancy of commerce became the brokers of all Europe, and compelled by necessity to turn their whole attention to money-transactions, they very early reduced them to a science. By this means they commanded almost all the money of the countries where they were settled in numbers, and partly thro their precarious situation, and partly thro the necessities of other people, they every where had recourse to the practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest. This increased the popular odium which was before entertained against this race of unbelievers, and in some countries, it ro [...]e so high as to occasion their banishment. But their occupations and the modes of business which they have been compelled to pursue by the jealousy which has hunted them in almost every part of Christendom, have given them the reputation of Sharpers; and it is not supposeable that the general opprobrium they suffer is totally without foundation. If in modern times, the Jews have ceased to deserve this odious epithet, as I presume, in many countries, they have, the change is to be attributed to a more liberal policy in government; and if the time has not yet arrived, it will soon arrive at least in America and France, when Jews, admitted to the equal rights of other citizens, will wipe away the reproach from their national character.

ANOTHER fact to prove how generally mankind admit the tendency of slavery to corrupt the human heart, and how little they have been hitherto influenced by the important truth, is the exclusion of a slave's testimony from trials at Law.

BY the laws of ancient Rome, slaves could not be admitted as witnesses, and Montesquieu approves of the exclusion.‖ Under the Emperor Augustus a law was made to enfranchise slaves for the purpose of rendering them admissible witnesses in cases of high Treason; but by an edict of the Emperor Tacitus, this law was abrogated.

BY the laws of Poland, the testimony of the peasants, tho not excluded from courts, is considered as of less weight than that of freemen. If a lord kills his slave, the murder must be proved by two Gentlemen or four peasants; the testimony of two freemen being deemed equivalent to that of four slaves.‡

IN this state, slaves are admitted as witnesses at the discretion [Page] of the Court; but in some of the southern States it is never tho [...] proper to resort to their testimony.†

THE natural enquiry is why a slave should be a less credible witness than a freeman. The answer is easy; slavery corrupts the heart. Exceptions to this rule may be found; but the laws or the practice of most nations warrants the assertion, that slaves have generally been considered as less influenced by a sense of honor and by moral obligations than freemen.* Of this fact there can be no doubt; and it is a curious inconsistency in legislation, that laws should be made, enjoining moral and religious duties and prohibiting almost every species of vice, yet indirectly or expressly countenancing the practice of enslaving men, which, in the first instance, is the most attrocious act of villany, and in its consequences, destructive of all sense of moral obligation and introductive of every species of crimes.

It is a striking illustration of these ideas, that countries where the oppressions of the feudal system and domestic slavery still exist, are much more infested with pilferers and robbers, than free republican states, where the citizens are freeholders and not generally proprietors of slaves. In Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy, most parts of Germany, and throughout the immense Turkish and Russian territories, the traveller must go armed and watch his baggage with continual assiduity for fear of highwaymen, and pickpockets. In the free Swiss Cantons,‡ and in Sweden,‡ such precautions are hardly necessary; and in the northern States of America where there are few slaves, and those resident mostly in the large towns, a man may travel month after month, alone and unarmed, and except on the great roads and in the vicinity of the populous towns, he may leave his baggage on his horse or in his carriage in the open highway, with great safety, or even in the bar-room of a public inn. Except in or near the great towns, scarcely a robbery has been committed, and most of the few offenders in this way, have been foreigners, who had become villains at home, and had fled or been transported for their crimes.

THIS doctrine respecting the influence of slavery is verified by the general character of the negroes in the United States of America. The natives of Africa, who are introduced into the West Indies and these States, are of different tribes, and considerably different in respect to particular traits of character. But in general we may observe with Mon. Bu [...]on,‖ that the Negroes of Africa, are a remarkably innocent and inoffensive people. If properly fed and well treated, they are contented, joyous and obliging; if exposed to harsh brutal treatment, their spirits forsake them, and they droop with sorrow. Alike impressed with a sense of the injuries they suffer, and the favours they receive, to a cruel master, they are implacable [Page] foes; to an indulgent one, faithful and affectionate servants. I am not personally acquainted with any slaves in Connecticut, who were born in Africa, and who arrived to manhood in their own country, before they were reduced to bondage. I have therefore had no opportunity to observe what general difference exists between the moral character of an African, enslaved after he had grown to years of manhood, and that of a black who was born and bred in slavery. On general principles, it is to be presumed, that Africans, who are bred in freedom, and enslaved after they have acquired habits of frankness and ingenuousness of deportment, will either retain through life a large portion of their early virtues; and if they attempt to redress their own wrongs, that they will be bold and manly in their attacks upon their oppressors. Negroes, on the other hand, who are born and nursed under the pressure of bondage, will be destitute of that openness of character which marks the wild freedom of savages, and their minds will sink into a state of sullen apathy; or prompted to action by a sense of injury and restrained by fear from open violence, they will exercise their ingenuity in devising and committing petty frauds on their masters. However this may be, it is a known fact that the blacks in this country, are, with few exceptions, addicted to the practice of committing little clandestine frauds, and a large proportion of capital crimes, will on examination, be found to be perpetrated by the same race of men. Not a year passes, but we hear of the burglaries, the rapes, or the murders committed by the blacks in the United States,† Nor does the restoration of freedom in general correct the depravity of their hearts. Born and bred beneath the frowns of power, neglected and despised in youth, they abandon themselves to ill company and low vicious pleasures, till their habits are formed; when manumission, instead of destroying their habits and repressing their corrupt inclinations, serves to afford them more numerous opportunities of indulging both. Thus an act of strict justice to the slave very often renders him a worse member of society. This idea is not suggested as an argument against the liberation of slaves from the yoke of bondage; but it proves very fully, that a bare emancipation of them is not an act of adequate justice, much less is it all that good citizens may do towards correcting their ill habits and rendering them valuable members of the community.

THE general character of the slaves in the West-Indies corresponds with the description here given of the blacks in the United States. They are stubborn and untractable, and the perverseness of their dispositions is alledged by the planters as an excuse for the severe and harsh discipline exercised over these unhappy people. But when the negroes first arrive from the coast of Africa, they are simple and inoffensive men; and when, after being some time drilled [Page] to service by their drivers, they remain dull or turn arrant knaves, and are punished for their crimes and laziness, they justify themselves by the example of the whites.*

FROM the universal depravity of slaves, from a keen sense of the injuries they suffer and a strong desire of revenge, have sprung numerous insurrections, which have frequently deluged whole countries in blood. Hardened by severe labor, exasperated at insults, disciplined in cruelty, and armed with dispair, they become doubly ferocious; and their insurrections are marked with more than savage barbarity. The passions of men resemble the current of a majestic river, which while it meets with no resistance, glides smoothly on, silent and harmless; attacked with boisterous winds, it moves with sullen dignity, heaving its murmuring waves against the resounding shores; but when massy mounds impede its progress, it rises in all its force, and bursting its banks with indignant fury, it spreads wide havoc and devastation over the adjacent plains—Such have been the ravages committed by slaves, when, unable any [...]onger to bear the pressure of their bondage, despair has roused their spirit to burst their fetters asunder, and they have risen in myriads to avenge their wrongs.

A history of the calamities and dangers which nations have suffered by the revolt of their slaves, would teach us a most useful lesson; but the recital in detail would fill the mind with horror, A few instances only will be here added to the black catalogue of public and private evils flowing from the practice of enslaving men which this essay is intended to exhibit.

IN the year of Rome 293, during the Consulship of C. Claudius, and P. Valerius Publicola, about 4000 slaves and exiles, headed by Ap. Herdonius, a sabine of a bold ambitious character, entered the city by night, and seized the capitol, with the temple of Jupiter. From this fortress, they made excursions and with merciless fury, butchered all the citizens they found, who refused to join the conspiracy. An alarm was soon spread thro the city; the danger was magnified by the darkness of the night; and the Romans not knowing who were their enemies, nor what their force, were filled with consternation. Day light at length disclosed the author and nature of the commotion: and Rome, distracted with the violent contests between the Patricians and Plebeians, expected a general insurrection of slaves and desperadoes within its own walls.† The consuls, by a vigorous exertion of their power and by liberal promises to the plebeians, persuaded the people to take arms and rescue the capitol from their foes; but one of the consuls and a [Page] multitude of citizens perished in the assault, and Rome was not, without difficulty, saved from a general Massacre.

IN the year 334, during the administration of N. Fa [...]ius Vibulanus, and Quin [...]tius Capitolinus, the slaves formed a conspiracy to set fire to the City in various parts at once, and while the people should be engaged in extinguishing the flames, they intended to take possession of the tower and Capitol. Two of the conspirators revealed the plot and saved Rome from a civil war and the horrors of a conflagration.†

IN the year of Rome 494, in the consulship of L. Cornelius Scipio and C. Aquilius Florus, a body of 3000 discontented slaves, united with a number of Samnites, formed a design to plunder and burn the city; but one of their leaders betrayed the plot and the conspiracy was suppressed.‡

IN the year 556, under the consulate of T Quinctius Flaminin [...]s and Sextus AElius Poetus, the slaves who attended some Carthaginian hostages, who were persons of distinction, conspired together to seize the town of S [...]tia, during the celebration of the games and slaughter the inhabitants. A timely discovery, made by two slaves, prevented the execution of this nefarious design.

SCARCELY was the conspiracy suppressed in this quarter when a banditti of the [...]ame slaves made an attempt to seize P [...]aeneste; they were attacked by L. Cornelius the praetor and 500 of them put to the sword.§

SOON after Etruria, (the modern Tuscany,) was infested with a revolt of slaves, which ended in the slaughter, captivity or crucifixion of the rebels.*

NOT long after Apulia was disturbed with an insurrection of slaves, who infested the roads with their robberies. Upon an enquiry before the Praetor, L. Postumius, 7000 of them were condemned, of whom great numbers [...]led, and others suffered the punishment due to their crimes.‖

But these insurrections were petty mobs, compared with the servile war in Sicily and Capua, which, on account of their resemblance to the revolt of the negroes in the West Indies, deserve a more particular description.

SICILY was the finest wheat country in the Roman dominions. Rome was supplied from its granaries, and many of its cultivators became immensely rich. Their wealth and pride led them to the practice of employing slaves in the cultivation of their farms, and towards the close of the Roman Republic, the slaves were multiplied to such a degree as to endanger the public safety. The abusive treatment they received from their masters, who scarcely [Page] allowed them food and raiment, drove them to seek support by rapine and plunder. At length the cruelty they suffered excited an insurrection, and headed by one Eunus, an enthusiast of their own number, they attacked the city of Enna and massacred the inhabitants with indiscriminate fury. As they proceeded in ravaging the country, they were joined by other slaves, till they formed a body of forty thousand men.*

FROM the year of Rome 615 to 621, the slaves were masters of the Island; they defeated the Roman armies under Manlius, Lentulus and Piso, Praetors of Sicily, till at length the Consul Rupillius, by restoring discipline to their troops, obtained a victory over the insurgents, took their strong holds, slew 30,000 of their number and restored peace to the Island. This example of the slaves in Sicily was followed by those in Italy and Greece, who made efforts to throw off the yoke of bondage. These disturbances indeed were quelled without much difficulty or danger; but the historian Florus declares that Sicily was more cruelly wasted in the war with the slaves, than in the Carthaginian.†

IN the year of Rome 680, Capua became the seat of a revolt. Spartacus, a heroic slave, being reduced to the condition of a gladiator and disdaining the infamous employment of fighting for the amusement of others, put himself at the head of the gladiators, and was soon joined by the slaves of the neighboring country. With an army of more than 70,000 desperadoes, he vanquished the Roman forces repeatedly and threatened Rome itself.

To quell this formidable insurrection, required all the strength of Rome; and after numerous disasters, Crassus the Praetor routed Spartacus, destroyed 60,000 of his men, scattered the remainder and relieved Rome, then almost mistress of the world, from the terror of her slaves. Five thousand of the fugitives who were escaping to the Alps, were met by Pompey, then returning victorious from Spain, and all put to the sword. Six thousand fell alive into the hands of the Romans, and were crucified along the road from Capua to Rome.‡

IT is remarked by Baron Montesquieu that, free states are much more liable to be convulsed by insurrections of slaves than despotic governments. In free states, slaves see others enjoying rights and happiness of which they themselves are deprived. They see the lives and persons of others guarded by laws, while their own are without protection. Their wretchedness is aggravated by comparison. In such states multitudes of slaves always prove dangerous to society [Page] § In despotic governments, where every man is little better than a slave, they are less to be dreaded, yet in these, severity may render them dangerous.

IN the reign of John, King of France, about the middle of the 14th Century, and while that prince was a prisoner to Edward 3d of England, the peasants of France, oppressed by the nobility, harrassed by continual wars and exposed to the derision and contempt of their superiors, arose in myriads to avenge their wrongs and in [...] With savage fury, they spread desolation over the kingdom▪ the castles of the nobles and gentry were burnt or levelled to t [...] [...]round; their wives and daughters were violated or murdered; and the Lords who were taken prisoners by the barbarous herd, expired under the most exquisite torments. The nobles at length associated and collected their forces to put an end to these horrid outrages. Ten thousand of the insurgents fell victims to the Duke of Orleans, in the neighborhood of Paris: the king of Navarre slew 12,000 more, with their principal leader, William Caillet; and 9000 others, who were besieging Meaux, were attacked with success and scattered or slain.‖

IN the year 1525, the severe oppressions which the peasants of Franconia in Germany suffered from the nobility, roused them to open rebellion. The insurgents seized the princes and dukes, put collars about their necks, and loaded them with insults, crying out, "now we are masters and you are nothing."*

ABOUT 40 years ago, the Turkish slaves in the Island of Malta conspired to put an end to the whole order of knights. They had determined to poison all the fountains of water, and every slave had sworn to put his master to death. A most providential discovery prevented the execution of their design. The conspirators were seized; 125 were put to death, some being burnt alive, some broken on the wheel, and others torn to pieces by four galleys rowed different ways and each carrying off a limb. The 6th day of June, the anniversary of the discovery, is still celebrated by the order of Malta, as a day of Thanksgiving for their deliverance from this terrible conspiracy.†

THE history of the European settlements in the West Indies abounds with facts which evince the perpetual danger to which men are exposed, when surrounded with slaves. The numerous insurrections of the negroes which have, at different times, harrassed those settlements, have taught the planters to depend on the bayonet only for the safety of their persons and estates. Nor will this resource always supply the want of confidence in the fidelity of their domestics. Treachery often eludes the watchman's eye, and the lordly master himself, tho surrounded with guards, becomes the slave of suspicion and distrust.

WITHOUT entering into a detail of the calamities and horrors [Page] that have been occasioned in the West Indies by the attempts of slaves to recover their liberty and avenge their wrongs, it will be sufficient barely to mention the present deplorable state of the French colony in St. Domingo. The miseries of that Island are the theme of almost every gazette. To recapitulate them would be useless; for who among my readers does not recollect the accounts he has read the last two years? and whose blood is not chilled at recollecting the recitals of cruelty, outrage and murder which have marked the bloody scenes? Where is the civilized man, who has tasted the pleasures and known the value of peace and security, who can willingly renounce the enjoyment of both, for the sake of living in splendor, and yield himself a prey to the vexations of unceasing watchfulness and suspicion? Who can sacrifice the cheerfulness, contentment and confidence that reign among equals and fellow citizens, the felicities that bless a nation of freemen and freeholders, for the society of ignorant stupid slaves and treacherous dependants? Can the human mind be so debased as to rejoice in the wretchedness of man? Surely the master as well as the slave, must lose the sensibilities of his nature, and degenerate to a brute, before he can endure the sight of men doomed to linger out their existence in chains, bending beneath the pressure of heavy burthens, crippled with hard labor and bruises, emaciated with hunger, scourged by their merciless drivers, hopeless and forlorn, courting the relentless monster, death, to wrest them from the hands of that more unfeeling monster, man. *

THIS leads me to notice some effects of slavery on the character of the master. It is a general truth that the men who, from their infancy hold, and those who feel, the rod of tyranny, become equally hardened by the exercise of cruelty, and equally insensible to the sufferings of their fellow men. Such is the nature and tendency of despotism, that in its operation, it not only checks the progress of civilization, but actually converts the civilized man into a savage; at least so far as respects the humane affections of the heart.

In ancient Rome, parents had the most despotic power over their children, By the laws of Romulus, confirmed by the laws of the twelve tables, fathers might sell or even slay their children.† The same absolut [...] authority had masters over their slaves;‡ tho before the close of the Republic this power was abridged by the Cornelian Law, and was finally abolished by the Emperor Adrian.

THESE unlimited powers exercised by the old Romans, together with their martial life, and the constant view of the combats of the gladiators, which habituated them to scenes of blood and cruelty, [Page] inspired them with a barbarous fierceness, which prepared them for the practice of public plunder and private assassination.† But were the Romans more cruel by nature than modern nations? Were they more savage in their tempers than the lordly despots of the present age, who are accustomed to tyranize over slaves? "Do we not perceive," says that judicious traveller Dr. Moore,‡ "that the practice of domestic slavery has, at this day, a strong tendency to render men haughty, capricious and cruel? Such is the nature of man, that if he has power without controul, he will use it without justice; absolute power has a strong tendency to make good men bad, and never fails to make bad men worse."

IT may be remarked that with respect to a great number of vices, the extremes of society approach very near each other. The tyrant is above law, and his slave is below it. Men, in excess of happiness or misery," says Montesquieu.§ are equally inclinable to severity; witness conquerors and monks." He might have extended the remark to masters and slaves, who in general are equally lazy, cruel and ferocious. So with respect to excessive gaming, says Millar, in his historical view of the English Government,‖ which is a vice peculiarly predominant in the most rude and barbarous, as well as the most luxurious and opulent nations.* The same observation may be made with respect to excessive drinking. The progress of power and wealth in civilized states may, as it respects the prevalence of these and some other vices, be resembled to a circle; making the equal poverty and independence of the savage state the point at which the progress begins and pursuing it to the opposite point, we have that state of society in which mediocrity of fortune and power give lenity to government and mildness to manners; but in pursuing the progress further, we find great wealth and power with excessive poverty, and society, with a retrogradual motion, approaching the original point of barbarism. An extreme disparity of circumstances renders one class of men the masters of the other, and the tyrant, and his slave in their cruelty, their stubborness, their laziness, their inhumanity, and their excessive passion for revenge become allied to savages. †† Whatever exceptions there may be to this rule, it is generally true that the possession of power renders men proud, insolent, cruel vindictive; and the reason why this character is not applicable, in its full extent, to American planters who are owners of slaves, is not that Americans are born with better hearts than other men, or that the nature of domestic tyranny is changed, but it is because the immediate [Page] exercise of despotism is delegated to substitutes. The negro driver is generally the active tyrant, and acquires all the ferocious qualities connected with his profession.

It is remarkable likewise that a spirit of private revenge is more prevalent among the little tyrants who are educated with slaves, than among the citizens of a free state where there is little distinction of rank and power. I refer in particular to the custom of duelling, which is merely a savage spirit of revenge, set in motion by a squeamish delicacy about trifles and regulated by certain rules of refinement falsely called laws of honor. This custom, which had its origin in the dark ages of European savageness, when the right of private revenge and hostility was in full exercise,* is retained in all parts of Europe and America, where slavery exists, and is nearly or totally banished from states where there is full liberty and equality of rights among all the citizens. Every year brings us news of the fatal effects of this savage practice in the southern States of America; but in the eastern states the practice can be hardly said to exist. To the honor of the laws, the institutions, and the manners of this state, be it remembered, that no instance of this barbarous custom has yet stained the annals of our Republic.

The exercise of uncontrolled power, always gives a peculiar complexion to the manners, passions and conversation both of the oppressor and the oppressed.

The tyrant is rough, boisterous, irritable—he takes fire at a word or a wink, and blood must satiate his vengeance. In moderate governments, men are taught to moderate their passions and pretensions; by the diffusion of power, its force is divided and weakened; every man's right is controuled by the equal right of his neighbour, as well as by the laws; equality of rights begets mutual respect, and respect begets affability, condescension and mildness of manners.†

The character of the inhabitants in almost all free republican states, where domestic slavery does not exist, verifies these remarks. The natives of the free Swiss Cantons, possess frankness and hospitality, [Page] with great civility of manners. They bow to passengers, not with an air of mean servility, but like well bred men, conscious of their independence.* In Sweden, where the peasantry enjoy some property and many privileges, travellers have remarked nearly the same traits of character in the lower orders of people.

Astonishingly different is the character of the Polish peasants. The latter, who are subject to the most unlimited tyranny, are cringing and servile in their language and manners; when strangers pass by them, they bow down to the ground; at the first glimpse of a gentleman's carriage, they stop their carts and taking off their hats or caps, hold them in their hands, till the gentleman is out of fight.† Such manners mark in a striking degree, the abject servitude, by which these pitiable peasants are humbled and depressed.

The tendency of tyranny, both civil and domestic, to annihilate the social affections, of abridge their operation, is very remarkable in its effect upon hospitality. In a savage state, hospitality is extended to all men, without distinction. Among the antient Germans, it was deemed a crime to refuse entertainment to any of the human race. Every man who travelled among them, whether stranger or friend, was received with equal and liberal hospitality, and at his departure, he was gratified with whatever he requested.‖ Such is the universal practice among the aborigines of America; there is no instance in which hospitality has been refused to Europeans, unless the Indian natives have been first abused or provoked to hostilty by the treachery of civilized strangers.

Hospitality is the most inartificial of all the virtues. It may be considered as natural, for its exercise flows immediately from instinct. That men are all brethren, the children of one common father, is an impression of nature; and the heart of man in a state of primaeval simplicity, untainted with prejudice, uncorrupted by interest, every where recognizes the alliance of nature, and clings to its kindred man.

NOT so the artificial being, whom fortune or accident has elevated above his brethren. The nabob and the tyrant, educated in the practice of commanding, perhaps of abusing their unfortunate slaves, very early lose the sympathies of their nature, and acquire a habit of despising all who are placed in meaner circumstances. Contempt destroys hospitality, and thus it happens that the rich and powerful usually confine their hospitable attentions to those of their own rank. The more elevated the man on the pyramid of power, the farther is he removed from the rest of the human race; the smaller is the circle of his equals, and the less extensive is the sphere of his personal attachments. Thus the inequalities of society, which are always the greatest where slavery is permitted, tend directly to circumscribe the exercise of that diffusive benevolence, which nature dictates and christanity enjoins The untutored savage takes a stranger by the hand, and s [...]ats him at his hospitable board, with a hearty welcome, merely because he is a man; the haughty [Page] nabob admits, for gue [...]s, the choice few who have rank and titles, and with a contemptuous pride, shuts his doors against the rest of mankind.*

But in no particular are the deplorable effects of slavery more visible, than in checking, or destroying national industry. Whereever we turn our eyes to view the comparative effects of freedom and slavery on agriculture, arts, commerce and science, the mind is deeply affected at the astonishing contrast.

About the 12th century, the feudal system was established with nearly an equal degree of rigor, in all the kingdoms of Europe. As to the state of the peasantry and of agriculture at that period, England and Poland were nearly in the same situation. The serfs of Poland and the churles of England were slaves, incapable of acquiring property and annexed to manors like the stock of a farm, much in the same manner as the negroes are at this day in the West Indies and Southern American States. From that period to this time, the peasantry of Poland have continued in the same state with little amelioration of their condition. But the churles in England have been more fortunate. To trace the particular steps by which the churles and villains of England were raised from their abject servitude, to the present state of the farmers in that country, does not fall within my design;† it is sufficient to remark that by gradual means, they have become free tenants, who have a legal property in the estates which they cultivate. Instead of being tenants at will and liable to be turned out of their possessions at any moment by their capricious lords, they have a permanent interest in their estates, which the laws of the country protect, and transmit to their heirs. This is the principal circumstance which has rendered the agriculture of England flourishing, and the farmers more intelligent, wealthy and respectable than the miserable serfs in Poland.

To labor solely for the benefit of other men, is repugnant to every principle of the human heart. Men will not be industrious, nor is it the will of heaven that they should be, without a well founded expectation of enjoying the fruits of their labor. The agriculture of a country therefore will always be flourishing and productive, in proportion to the quantity and duration of interest which the farmers have in the lands they cultivate,‡ combined with the security of enjoying the produce, without arbitrary taxation or grievous assessments. That country produces most where the farmers are freeholders, possessing the see simple of their lands, paying little or no rent, and light taxes. That country produces least, [Page] where the cultivators are slaves, who have no interest in their own labors, and who work only by compulsion. Between these extremes, the productiveness of a country is in proportion to the length of the leases of the farms, the smallness of the rent and the lightness of the taxes and imposts. A tenant who has a lease for several hundred years, at a small fixed rent, not liable to be encreased at the pleasure of the landlord, has an interest in his farm almost equivalent to a [...]ee simple. A tenant for life, who has little expectation that his heirs will enjoy his farm, is under strong temptations to make the most of the land for himself, at the expense of the soil, the buildings and fences. Instead of making improvement, he will probably impoverish the land and leave the buildings and fences out of repair. The tenant at will has still less interest in the land he occupies, and if, as in Turkey, he is subject to the arbitrary exactions of Pachas, Governors, landlords or collectors of revenue, who take his earnings from him at pleasure, he has no more encouragement to labor than the slave, and of course he will look no farther than to make provision for the moment.

The past and present state of the world, verifies these remarks. By the antient laws or customs of Ireland, before the introduction of the English laws after the conquest of Henry II▪ the lands were held by the singular tenures of tanistry and gavelkind. By the custom of tanistry, when a nobleman died, his castles, manors and lands descended to the oldest and most worthy of his blood and surname. It was often uncertain who, of the blood and surname of the last possessor, was the most worthy; and from this uncertainty arose competitions for the inheritance, which not unfrequently ended in civil war.

By the custom of gavelkind, the ca [...]sinny or chief of a lineage, which was called a sept, made all the partitions of land, belonging to the tan [...] at his discretion. When a ter-tenant died, the chief assembled all the sept, and throwing all the farms into common stock, made a new distribution; allotting to each the best or greatest portion, according to his seniority. These assignments were made by the chief ex arbitrio, on the death of every ter-tenant, and of consequence, the translations of each tenant from one possession to another were so frequent, that the cultivators of the earth had no security for the enjoyment of their lands, even for a month.† The effect was what we should expect; no comfortable habitations were erected; no enclosure or improvement was made of the lands where these customs prevailed, especially in the province of Ulster, which was little better than one vast wilderness. This was a principal cause of the poverty and barbarism which formerly prevailed in Ireland [Page] * These customs were abolished in the reign of James the first, and the lands in Ireland, were, by solemn adjudications of the court of Kings bench in that country, declared to be descendible according to the common law of England. But still the lords of manors oppress and grind the cultivators of the soil, and in no part of Europe, are the peasantry more poor and wretched, and in few countries, is the earth under worse cultivation than in Ireland.

If we turn our eyes to the continent of Europe, we shall see the progress of agriculture, of arts and every species of improvement, very nearly proportioned to the freedom of the people. In the Bavarian and some other circles of Germany, we behold a peasantry lazy and vicious, agriculture languishing, some of the largest cities declining, and the roads and inns wearing marks of the political oppressions suffered by the inhabitants.‡ In the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria, we see evident marks of the attention of government to the welfare of the people▪ Agriculture, commerce and the arts in Austria proper, are in a better condition than in many parts of Germany; at the same time, we abhor the partiality of the princes of that illustrious house, who form regulations for the purpose of drawing wealth from their conquered provinces to enrich their family possessions. Pursuing our views farther eastward, into the conquered countries, we behold in Hungary and Bohemia, a soil naturally fertile, lying waste, and uncultivated, under the civil oppressions of the nobility and the political restrictions of the house of Austria. Here vast tracts of country are desolate, and the eye is offended with the unnatural contrast of splendid riches, surrounded with extreme poverty; here and there palaces of marble; towering to the sky, and all the rest of the country a dreary waste, or covered with [...]ilthy hovels of a forlorn peasantry. To the northward, the electorate of Saxony, whose soil, tho barren, is possessed by men enjoying a portion of freedom, relieves the eye with an appearance of an active, industrious contented peasantry, a growing commerce and neat well built, flourishing cities; the vallies thickly dotted with populous villages, and the mountains covered with sheep.

Extending our view to Prussia, we see a country just arisen from obscurity to a splendid rank among the powers of the earth, by the efforts of a single man. We behold that singular phenomenon, an absolute monarch, exercising a most unlimited sway over his dominions, with the view of rendering his subjects wealthy and happy, and his country flourishing and respectable.† The great Frederick, not only defended and enlarged his dominions, but he [Page] formed and established a system of internal police and political economy, much more beneficial to his subjects than his victories and acquisitions of territory. From his own extensive demain, he separated innumerable farms which he granted to his subjects in hereditary succession, at a small annual rent; thus converting a number of idle soldiers and poor men into industrious freeholders. He procured the seed of the most valuable grasses, and distributed gratuitously among his subjects; and by these and other encouragements, the barren sands of his dominions were soon changed into fruitful fields. To remove the causes of disease, he drained marshes, opened forests and restrained the inundations of rivers. He annually bestowed large sums for the encouragement of manufactures, as well as agriculture; he joined rivers by navigable canals; favored the importation of necessaries and restrained that of luxuries; he established schools for the education of the peasants; courted and rewarded men of literary merit; and such was his success, that during his reign, the population, and the wealth of his dominions were doubled.* What a glorions example is this! and what a reproach to the great and little tyrants who surround the Prus [...]ian territories, and who know no use of their power, but to squeeze and plunder their subjects.

Ranging still farther eastward, the eye rests upon the kingdom of Poland, where a complicated political and civil despotism clouds and darkens the prospect. Until the reign of Cassimir the great, in the 14th century, a lord could put his peasant to death with impunity; and when the latter died without children, the lord considered himself as his heir, and siezed all his effects. Cassimir, in 1347, prescribed a fine for the murder of a peasant, and enacted that if one died without issue, his next heir should inherit. But these salutary laws, calculated to alleviate the miseries of the peasantry, were eluded by the powerful and licentious nobles. It was not till 1768 that the statutes of Poland made it a capital crime to murder a peasant; and even now, it requires such an accumulation of evidence to convict the offender, that the law is rendered almost nugatory.†

What then must be the situation of agriculture, arts and commerce in Poland? What must necessarily be the appearance of the country, where men are thus treated like cattle? Let us hear the affecting description of it given by that sensible and judicious traveller Mr. Coxe. "I never, says he,‡ saw a road so barren of interesting scenes, as that from Cracow to Warsaw. The country was chiefly overspread with vast tracts of thick gloomy forest. Without having actually traversed it, I could hardly have conceived so comfortless a region. A forlorn stillness and solitude prevailed almost thro the whole extent, with few symptoms of an inhabited, [Page] and still less of a civilized country. Tho we travelled in the high road▪ which unites Cracow and Warsaw, in the course of about 258 English miles, we met in our progress, only two carriages, and about a dozen carts. The country was equally thin of human habitations; a few straggling villages, all built of wood, succeeded one another at long intervals, whose miserable appearance corresponded to the wretchedness of the country around them. In these assemblages of huts, the only [...]places of reception for travellers were hovels, belonging to Jews, totally destitute of furniture and every species of accommodation. We could seldom procure any other room than that in which the family lived; in the article of provision, eggs and milk were our greatest luxuries and could not always be obtained; our only bed was straw thrown upon the ground, and we thought ourselves happy when we could procure it clean. The natives were poorer, humbler and more miserable than any people we had yet observed in our travels. Whenever we stopped, they flocked around us in crouds, and with the most abject gestures, begged for charity."

Casting our eyes, from this disgusting spectable, towards the immense empire of Russia in the north, nearly the same dismal appearances are presented to our view. The despotism of a half-barbarous nobility concurs with the arbitrary nature of the government, to pillage and debase the serfs, and render them humble, obstinate, theivish, improvident and insensible. Here industry is checked and discouraged by the arbitrary exactions of the great proprietors of land, whose power over their vassals is without controul. A direct tax is laid upon the virtues of industry and frugality by a rapacious nobility, who assess their peasants in proportion to their supposed profits, tho the poor wretches are incapable of acquiring and holding property. Thus a mason or smith, who is a good workman, is often rated as high as 6, 12 and even 20l. sterling a year. It is however some alleviation to a benevolent mind, to see the sovereigns of that almost boundless empire, exerting their power for the benefit of their subjects. The present empress, perceiving the true cause of the languishing state of commerce, arts and agriculture in her dominions,† has attempted to remedy the evil by multiplying the numbers and enlarging the privileges of the merchants, burghers and other freemen, who formerly were in a condition very little better than the slaves—by waving several rights of the crown, and facilitating the means of obtaining freedom—and by establishing in 1765 the Free Economical Society, or society for the promotion of agriculture with extensive privileges.

From the frigid regions of Russia, let us cast our eyes southward over the vast territories where the Turkish Sultan, with the Koran and the Saber, imposes law upon his numerous millions. Here the political prospect thickens into deep melancholy memphian [Page] gloom. Egypt and Phenicia, Greece and Syria, the parents and the nurses of science, arts and commerce, are now doomed to be the prey of superstition and tyranny. Here the mu [...]i, with his infallible Koran; the Cadi with his arbitrary decisions; the Publican with his extortion, and the Pacha with his janazaries, exercise a heterogeneous despotism, which is neither limited by laws, nor controlled by precedents.

Here slavery assumes a different form. The conquered natives of the Ottoman dominions are not subject to a feudal servitude; they are not the adscriptitii glebe of ancient Rome, or modern Poland and Russia. But they are subject to the worst species of bondage, the arbitrary and capricious exactions of numberless petty tyrants, the collectors of taxes and governors of provinces, whose rapaciousness is restrained by no superior power, and the [...]precarious tenure of whose offices tempts them to harrass the people with immoderate demands, that they may fill their own purses while the power is in their hands.

When Sultan Selim first made a conquest of Syria, in order to favor the husbandman, whose worth he knew, he established the miri, a territorial tribute, which was fixed at a certain rate that was not to be augmented or diminished. This tribute was moderate, and had it not been for the abuses of the T [...]rkish government, it never could have oppressed the people. But the Pachas who have most of the lands at their disposal, take care, when they make grants, to clog them with burthensome conditions; they exact the half or even two thirds of the crop; they monopolize the [...]eed and the cattle, so that the cultivators are compelled to purchase from them at their own price. When the harvest is over, they cavil about losses and pretended robberies, and as they have the power in their hands, they carry off what they think proper. If the season fails, they exact the same sum, and to raise this they expose to sale every thing the poor peasant possesses. Happily his person remains free, for the Turks are ignorant of the refinement of imprisoning for debt, when the man has no longer any property.

These oppressions are constant, and to these is added a multitude of occasional extortions. Sometimes a whole village is laid under contribution for some offence, real or imaginary. A present is demanded on the accession of each new governor; a contribution of grass is required for his horses, and of straw and barley for his cavaliers, and all the soldiers who pass must be provided for by the poor peasants. The Villages tremble when a soldier appears, as they would at the approach of a robber. He enters as a conqueror and commands as a master; "dogs, rabble," he cries, "bread, coffee, tobacco; I must have barley, I must have meat." If he casts his eyes on poultry, he kills them, and at his departure, he adds insult to tyranny. In vain do the peasants exclaim against this injustice; the saber imposes silence; justice is remote and difficult of access; [...]ay complaints are even dangerous.

What is the consequence of these depredations? The poorer [Page] class of inhabitants, ruined and unable to pay the tribute, forsake the villages and fly to the cities. But the tribute of the village cannot be diminished; the sum to be levied must be found; the burthen therefore falls with accumulated weight on the remaining inhabitants, and becomes insupportable. A two years drouth ruins the village, the inhabitants abandon it, and the tax it should have paid is levied on the neighboring lands.

It is remarked that these exactions have made a rapid progress, during the last 40 years, from which period the people date the decline of agriculture, the depopulation of the country, and the diminution of the Sultans revenue.*

The situation of the peasants is wretched beyond description. They are every where reduced to a little cake of barley, onions, lentils and water. In the mountains of Lebanon, they use acorns for food, after boiling or roasting them on the ashes.

In consequence of the misery of the husbandman, and the precarious state of his property, cultivation is neglected. The farmer's plow is frequently no more than the branch of a tree, cut below a bifurcation. The country is tilled by asses and cows; rarely by oxen. On the borders of Arabia, the countryman, for fear of the wild Arabs, must sow with his musket in his hand; and when his corn turns yellow, and before it is ripe he must reap it and hide it in subterranean caverns. In a word, the industry of the country is limited to a supply of immediate wants; to procure a little bread and a few onions, a [...]wretched blue shirt and a bit of woollen cloth. The peasant indeed lives in fear and distress, but it is a consolation that he does not enrich his tyrants, and that the avarice of despotism inflicts its own punishment.

The arts, sciences and commerce throughout the Turkish empire have shared the same fate as agriculture. The manufactures of the people are confined to a few articles of cloathing and arms, their reading extends only to the Koran, a few monkish books and legendary tales, and their little commerce is in the hands of Franks, Greeks and Arminians. Most of the harbors on the coast of Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and the Greek Islands, are choaked up with sand; the Levant is infested with pirates; and the depopulation of some of the most fertile provinces of the Ottoman empire, exhibits the fatal effects of the wide-wasting pestilential power of a ferocious government.

Yet even in the dark and desolate regions of tyranny, a few scattering rays of liberty arise and cheer the melancholy prospect. On the barren mountains of Syria, between Lebanon and the valley of B [...]kaa, are the Maronites and Druzes, who have been able to preserve themselves from the iron rod of Ottoman power, on the easy condition of paying a small annual tribute to the neighboring Pachas. Here defended by their inaccessible rocks and their valour, they live unmolested by tyrants; the inhabitants are mostly freeholders, who enjoy the fruits of their labor and they have converted [Page] their barren hills into productive vineyards.† To these may be added the inhabitants of a little Island called Casos on the coast of Natolia, not more than three leagues in circumference, whose poverty and inaccessibility with the privateers of Malta have secured to them their freedom and independence. In these little spots of earth, which have escaped the devouring and debasing influence of despotism, the traveller finds among the inhabitants most of the noble qualities of primitive man. Brave, honest, active, humane, affable, faithful, hospitable and industrious: Such are the inhabitants of the small districts which have retained their freedom and property, amidst the cruelties, the wars, the [...]umults and the devastations of the Mahometan empire.‡

From a view of the deplorable state of men under the Turkish government, let us cast our eyes on Italy, once the seat of the greatest empire on earth. Here indeed the peasantry are less wretched; but as all the lands belong to the nobility, the clergy and the convents, and the laboring poor receive little benefit from their industry, agriculture languishes, and the finest country on earth is covered with idlers and vagabonds. Here superstition erects her throne, and numberless fantastic ceremonies serve to amuse a biggotted populace. The loitering sons of want, ragged and poor, spend their time in counting their beads, bowing to processions, chanting te deum, or gaping at the liquefaction of St. Januarius's blood and other tricks of priestcraft; then strolling away to some convent, they beg a little portion of food, and become half insensible to the misery of their condition.§ Sicily, that luxuriant spot of earth which once poured forth corn enough to feed Rome when mistress of the world, now lies half-cultivated under the oppressive restrictions of a tyrannical policy. Despotism, blind and headstrong, often commits suicide. In Sicily, where, with ordinary cultivation, a single harvest will furnish wheat enough for a seven years subsistence of its inhabitants, the exportation of that a [...]icle is prohibited to all who cannot pay an exorbitant price for the privilege. The consequence is inevitable—the husbandman gathers with a heavy heart, his abundant harvest, with a prospect of losing a great part of his labor; and Sicily is impoverished in the midst of plenty.‖

From this delightful region, where nature has bestowed her richest charms only to be rifled by the rough hand of despotism, let us advance and climb the Alps, where deep vales and woods, stagnant lakes, barren rocks, and towering cliffs exalting their snow encircled tops above the clouds, checker the face of nature's works. Here the political prospect changes, and to the statesman, presents a scene [Page] as enchanting, as it is sublime anst magnificent. This is the region of freedom. Here the honest hardy Swiss plants and prunes his vines—feeds his flock or whistles along the furrow, peaceable and secure. Here no lordly master, no grinding steward or overseer, no Turkish soldier or Pacha, with his drawn saber, demands the hard earned fruits of the peasants labor. The farmer, lord of his own soil, plants his corn with cheerfulness and contentment, because the produce will be his own. Here cold morasses and barren hills are converted into productive fields by the plastic power of industry. The mountains covered with herds of cattle or clothed with luxuriant vines, the valleys checkered with fields of grain, and sprinkled with well built villages, all announce the ease, security and independence of the inhabitants, and proclaim to the world that the Swiss are free. †

Casting our eyes on Spain, we see a country governed by monks, fryars and tyrants; genius cramped, and the freedom of opinions restrained by an inquisitorial jealousy; commerce monopolized or shackled by the sovereign; a fertile kingdom depopulated by civil and religious oppression, and beggared by the very possession of half the gold and silver of the world.‡

Proceeding to France, we behold the most interesting spectacle ever exhibited on the theater of this earth; a great and enlightened people struggling, not only to break down the feudal and hierarchal systems of despotism, but to exterminate their very principles, remove the gothic rubbish from their extensive territory, and prepare the soil for the more generous plant of liberty. Before the late revolution, the rigor of the feudal tenures in France, was considerably relaxed; the peasantry had risen to the rank of Metayers, or Coloni Partia [...]ii; the proprietors of the land furnishing the seed, the utensils and the whole stock of the farm, and the produce being equally divided between the proprietor and the cultivator. Farmers of this kind have a much greater interest in their own labor than slaves, they are freemen and can acquire property▪ But their interest is not sufficient to encourage agricultural improvement. The payment of tithe or a [...]n [...]h of the produce is found in Europe to be a great hindrance to the progress of agriculture; a tax of one half the produce must therefore be an effectual bar to it. It is the interest of the farmer to make the land produce as much as possible, by means of the stock furnished by the proprietor; but never to encrease that stock by the savings out of his own share of the produce. It is still more his interest to use the landlords cattle in other business. It was observed in France before the revolution, that the matayers took every opportunity of employing the proprietors cattle in carriage, rather than in cultivation; because the profits of transportation were all their own, whereas the produce of the land was divided equally between themselves and the proprietor.§

[Page] France however, by means of her peculiar fertility of soil, salubrity of climate, and many excellent institutions and societies, together with the meliorated condition of her peasantry, was, before the revolution, advanced far beyond Spain, and many parts of Germany, in agricultural improvement, as well as in science. What effect the revolution will have upon the progress of improvement, we may predict with a good degree of certainty. By the sequestration of the royal demains, and the immense possessions belonging to the regular and secular clergy, together with the forfeited estates of the temporal nobility, who have deserted their country, and almost total change of property has taken place; and throughout that vast Republic, millions of independent freeholders will arise, who, possessing the whole estate or interest in the lands they cultivate, will have every possible motive for introducing the highest state of improvement, It is reported that already the revolution has given a new spring to national industry.* But more time and more stable government are necessary to produce any essential alteration in the face of that country. At all events, some great changes, agricultural and commercial as well as political, will follow the revolution; and France has now an opportunity of making a distinguished and glorious experiment in favor of national industry and public happiness. Let us then drop a tear over the calamities that attend the French revolution, calamities inseperable from such great changes and events; let candor find some apology for the riots and outrages of a licentious populace, in the treachery and perjuries of their perfidious domestic foes; let reason smile at the prospect of peace in that new born republic, when a freely-elected house of representatives shall collect the just wishes of 25,000,000 of freemen; when an elective senate, distinguished from the commons only by the venerable age and experience of its members, shall check the ardor and precipitance of a popular assembly and give stability to their legislative proceedings; and when an energetic executive shall be constituted by the unbiassed suffrages of enlightened citizens, armed with the whole power of the nation to enforce the resolutions of the legislature.

From a prospect so flattering, let us turn our eyes upon Great b [...]ain, where a brave people have purchased, with their blood, and defended with firmness, a larger portion of freedom and a more excellent constitution of government than have been enjoyed by any of the great nations of Europe. Here we see the glorious effects of liberty, of fixed laws and secure property. Here is a substantial body of freeholders, the strength and soul of a nation; here numerous manufactories employ super [...]ous hands, feed the poor and convert every species of raw materials into gold; here arts and science, patronized and nourished, exalt the human mind and add national [...]ame to national wealth; while fleets and [...] her sea-surrounded dominions, and waft her product [...] globe.

[Page] Yet the pleasure we receive from this prospect is not without alloy. Some great estates, which have continued unbroken from the times of feudal anarchy,* are not yet cultivated to the degree of which they are susceptible; many cities and boroughs hold chartered rights and exclusive privileges repugnant to the spirit of the constitution and destructive of national prosperity; while the laws of the kingdom, with an intolerant spirit, which is the scourge of freedom, proscribe, from the rights of society, certain denominations of subjects, for maintaining opinions which no human tribunal can control, and which are as harmless in government as the dreams of the night.

Wishing long peace and prosperity to our parent state, and a quiet repeal of her antichristian intolerant laws, let us return to our native country, and with tranquil delight, contemplate that happy portion of freedom and that rational government allotted to the United States of America. Here the mind of man, as free as the air he breathes, may exert all its energy, and by expanding its powers to distant and various objects, its faculties may be enlarged to a degree hitherto unknown. Here the equalizing genius of the laws distributes property to every citizen; here all religious opinions are equally harmless and render men equally good subjects, because there are no laws to oppose and control them; here no tithes, no rack rents, no lordly exactions of gratuities and fines for alienation, no arbitrary impositions of taxes, harrass the cultivator of the soil and repress his exertions. Here no beggarly monks and fryars, no princely ecclesiastics with their annual income of millions, no idle court-pensioners and titled mendicants, no spies to watch and betray the unsuspecting citizen, no tyrant with his train of hounds, bastards and mistresses, those vultures of government, prey upon the poor peasant and exhaust the public treasury of the nation. Here no commercial or corpora [...]ion monopolies give exclusive advantages to favored individuals, and extinguish the ardor of national enterprize; no sacramental test bars the conscientious sectary from places of trust and emolument, or tempts him to dissimulation and perjury; here no monasteries, convents and nunneries, the retreats of idleness and the nurseries of superstition and debauchery: no monkish principles of celibacy; no daily ceremonies of processions, and mo [...]kmiracles divert the minds of men from the occupations of industry, or check the population of the country. Here every man finds employment, and the r [...]ad is open for the poorest citizen to amass wealth by labor and economy, and by his talents and virtue to raise himself to the highest offices of State. Here the laws provide for the poor, whom age or infirmity has deprived of the power of obtaining subsistence, and beggary is banished from our doors.‡ Here [Page] the children of the poorest citizen have access to schools at the public expense; the establishment of numerous parish or other private libraries, with the universal circulation of newspapers, pamphlets and magazines has diffused a competent knowledge of religion, arts and government among the substantial inhabitants; while academies and universities, well endowed and furnished with able professors, nourish the sciences and prepare our youth for the pulpit, the bar and the cabinet.* Here population has exceeded all European calculations; already has the active genius of America begun manufacturing establishments; already do her ships traverse the globe, and collect wealth on the ocean and the islands, from the Straits of Magellan to the inhospitable regions of Kamchatska; and in the short period of 170 years, since our ancestors landed on these shores, a trackless wilderness, inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, is converted into fruitful fields and meadows, more highly cultivated than one half of Europe.

But while we indulge the pleasure of viewing this animating prospect, let us not forget that of 4,000,000 of Inhabitants in the United States, almost 700,000 are slaves; a circumstance which cannot fail to allay the joy, that the prosperous state of the country would otherwise inspire in every patriotic bosom. Detestable was the policy which first introduced the practice of cultivating plantations by slaves; and both in a political and moral [...]iw, deplorable are the consequences of that policy▪

But since the evil really exists, it becomes a question of infinite magnitude, what effectual remedy can be applied, consistent with that regard to private property and public safety and honor, which ought ever to direct our national councils.

That freedom is the sacred right of every man whatever be his color, who has not forfeited it by some violation of municipal law, is a truth established by God himself in the very creation of human beings. No time, no circumstances, no human power or policy can change the nature of this truth, nor repeal the fundamental laws of society by which every man's right to liberty is guaranteed. The first act therefore of enslaving men is always a violation of those great primary laws of society, by which alone the master himself holds every particle of his own freedom.

But are there not cases when it is necessary to make a distinction between abstract right and political expedience? Is it not true that political expedience, properly understood, is the foundation of all public right and justice? The African slave trade originated when political and social rights were not generally understood, and when the few philosophers who understood and attempted to defend them could make a very feeble resistance to the suggestions of private avarice and the tyranical policy of nations.† Under such circumstances, [Page] the business was begun and continued, till about 40 years ago when the society of Quakers, under the auspices of the benevolent Anthony Benezet, remonstrated against the shameful traffic. From that period powerful efforts have been made by numerous societies as well as individuals, to procure the emancipation of those already reduced to slavery, and to put a stop to further importations from Africa. These efforts have been attended with great success. In some of the northern states of America, all the slaves have been set free by constitutional declarations of rights; in almost all of them provision has been made by law to introduce a gradual abolition of the existing slavery, and the further importation is strictly prohibited. At the same time we may remark that by a late act of the British Parliament, the slave trade is to cease in the year 1796; and the revolution in France has already produced very important changes in that trade and in the condition of the slaves in some of the French Islands. What will be the final result of these measures and events in the West Indies, no man can predict with any degree of assurance.

With respect to the United States of America, no great difficulties or inconveniences occur in gradually abolishing slavery in all the States north of Delaware. In the 8 States north and east of Delaware, the number of slaves is comparatively small; being to the free inhabitants in the proportion of only one to forty four; but in the six southern States, where the slaves make nearly one third of the inhabitants, the liberation of them is a matter of very serious consequence.†

To give freedom at once to almost 700,000 slaves, would reduce perhaps 20,000 white families to beggary. It would impoverish the country south of Pensylvania; all cultivation would probably cease for a time; a famine would ensue; and there would be extreme danger of insurrections which might deluge the country in blood and perhaps depopulate it. Such calamities would be deprecated by every benevolent man and good citizen; and that zeal which some persons discover to effect a total sudden abolition of slavery in the United States, appears to be very intemperate. Indeed it is a zeal which counteracts its own purposes; for a sudden emancipation of such a number of slaves, instead of bettering their condition would render it worse, and inevitably expose them to perish with cold and famin. Whatever have been the means and however unjustifiable the policy by which slavery has been introduced and encouraged, the evil has taken such deep root, and is so widely [Page] spread in the southern States, that an attempt to eradicate it at a single blow would expose the whole political body to dissolution.* In these ideas I shall probably be seconded by a great proportion of thinking men throughout the United States.

It has been suggested that the country may gradually be delivered from its black inhabitants by transporting a certain number of them to Africa every year, furnished with the necessary means of subsistence. A settlement of this kind has been already begun by a colony from Great-Britain, under the superintendance of Mr. Clarkson. Indeed if colonial establishments of this kind could be effected, without great injury to the United States, humanity and philosophy would exult at the prospect of seeing the arts of civilized nations introduced into the heart of Africa. But the practicability of this plan of colonization seems to be yet problematical. It seems not yet decided by the experiments made, whether such colonies would not dwindle away by disease, and be perpetually exposed to the hostility of the surrounding natives. Indeed, it may be an important question, whether even well civilized blacks placed in the torrid zone, where little labor is requisite to procure their necessary food and clothing, would not neglect all arts and labor, beyond what are necessary to supply immediate wants, and gradually revert back to a savage state. How far a commercial intercourse with such colonies, by exciting a taste for luxuries and the love of wealth and splendor, would tend to preserve their habits of industry and prompt them to encourage arts and manufactures, we have perhaps no certain data from which we can draw even a probable conclusion.

But other objections oppose themselves to the project of African colonization. Who is to pay the expense? The master will think the loss of his slaves a sacrifice on his part sufficiently great, without furnishing them with food, utensils, and shipping for their transportation; and the slaves are not able to furnish themselves with these articles. The funds therfore must be raised by private subscriptions, or supplied by government; and these resources cannot be relied on in the present state of America. Besides it is not certain that the slaves themselves would be willing to risk such a change of situation; as most of them are born in this country and are total strangers to Africa and its inhabitants. In this case, to compel them to quit the country, and encounter the dangers of the sea, an insalubrious climate and the hostile tribes of Africa; together with the ri [...] of starving, would be a flagrant act of injustice, inferior only to the first act of enslaving their ancestors.

The objection that the unhealthiness of the climate renders it impossible for whites to cultivate rice and indigo plantations, and therefore it is necessary to perform this business by blacks, seems to be of little weight; or at least, it cannot be of permanent duration. It is commonly supposed that the insalubrity of the air in the southern states, arises in great measure, from the stagnant waters which cover the rice and indigo plantations. These waters indeed increase [Page] the evil; but the principal cause is a much more extensive one; the large marshes and vast tracts of uncleared land in the flat country. Marshes and stagnant waters, in which vegetable substances putrify and dissolve, produce pestilential exhalations; and when a country is mostly covered with forests, the air itself becomes stagnant and does not carry off the noxious effluvia generated in low grounds. It is with the air as with water; its purity depends on its motion. To render any flat country healthy, it must be cleared of its forests, and laid open on all sides to the action of the wind. It is not sufficient to open here and there a plantation, and leave four fifths of the earth covered with wood. Besides the advantage of giving motion to the air on an extended plain, the clearing and cultivation of the earth lays it open to the sun, whose heat warms and dries the surface, and by removing the moisture, prevents the generation of noxious exhalations. Thus whenever most of the land in the southern states shall be cleared, the principal cause of epidemic diseases will be destroyed; and the free circulation of air near the surface of the earth will render the putrid exhalations from the plantations and marsh ground which cannot be drained, much less fatal. The New-England States, sixty years ago, were infested with the same annual fevers, which now prove so troublesome to the southern states, but by the clearing and cultivation of the earth, those diseases no longer prevail. The rice fields in Italy and Spain, are all cultivated by white people, and tho they render the air about them less salubrious than it is in other parts of the country, yet it is not so fatal to the health of the people, as to discourage the culture of that useful grain.†

There is therefore no question that a general and high state of cultivation will, to a great degree, correct the insalubrity of the low flat country in the southern States, so as to render it cultivable with white laborers; except perhaps in the vicinity of such salt-marshes as cannot be drained. But the obstacles that present themselves to the project of colonization, and to that of a general sudden abolition of slavery, appear to be equally insurmountable. The blacks in the southern States must, it is presumed, continue there, for a great number of years, perhaps forever; government at least will not undertake the herculean task of exporting them to a foreign country, and repeopling five or six States with white inhabitants.*

[Page] What then can be done? What method can be devised for meliorating the condition of the blacks, without essentially injuring the slave, the master and the public. This is the great desideratum. There appears to me only one plan or expedient for effecting this desirable object, which, in its operation, will combine the three several interests which are to be consulted; this is, to raise the slaves, by gradual means, to the condition of free tenants.

Indeed if we judge from the [...]ate of villanag [...] in many parts of Europe, it is no illfounded prediction, that slavery in this country will be utterly extirpated in the course of two centuries, perhaps in a much shorter period, without any extraordinary efforts to abolish it. The negroes in the southern States are very nearly in the situation of the villains in England under the first princes of the Norman line. They enjoy certain privileges, such as that of cultivating a spot of earth for themselves, on a certain day of the week, or that of performing a certain task every day. To these privileges they adhere with pertinacious obstinacy. No power or persuasion can prevail on a negro to plant or dig, in one day, more than a quarter of an acre of land, nor to labor for his master on a day which he has been accustomed to con [...]ider as his own time. The slaves will therefore relinquish no privilege; but it is scarcely possible to prevent them from gradually acquiring new privileges, which they will immediately challenge as rights, and thus by degrees abridge their masters authority over them. The humanity of some masters, the weakness or the policy of others will continually be multiplying and enlarging the privileges of their slaves, till multitudes of them acquire some property, by which they will be able to purchase more ample exemptions from their masters authority, and finally to obtain their freedom. In this manner, and by various other means, the ancient villains of England obtained their freedom, and long before the abolition of military tenures under Charles 2, there were very few villains left in the nation.* By such means, the slaves in these States would unquestionably rise to the enjoyment of freedom, without any legislative provision for the purpose. But this progress would be too slow to satisfy the friends of humanity, in this enlightened period of the world; too slow for the spirit of our governments, and too slow for our public prosperity. It is therefore highly necessary that public measures and private societies should lend their aid to accelerate the progress of freedom, and with all convenient speed, banish the galling chains of bondage from the shores of our Republic.

To the plan of raising the slaves to the condition of free tenants, many objections may be raised; but perhaps none of them will deserve an answer, except this; that if the slaves are set at liberty, even with the offer of farms on a small rent, they will no [...] labor but will become vagabonds and starve, or betake themselves to pilfering, and be a scourge to the country. This objection has weight, and as it respects a total and sudden emancipation, it appears [Page] to me insuperable. But I cannot believe all the slaves in this country are so dull that motives of interest will make no impression on their minds, or that they are so unprincipled and ungrateful, that if set at liberty, they would turn their hands against their masters, and devote themselves to an idle life and to stealing. Some among them might be found, who, if their masters would give them farms on a moderate rent, and their liberty, on condition of their being good tenants, would be prompted to industry, and exercise the virtues of honesty, and frugality. Every planter might find, among his slaves, a few perhaps of the young men, whose habits are not firmly riveted, on whom the first experiments might be made. Once inspire them with a love of property, let them go to market for themselves, accustom themselves to make bargains, and begin to furnish themselves with clothes and food above their ordinary fare, and to build for themselves convenient houses, and their want continually multiplying will beget habits of industry and economy. To prompt a slave to exertion, his desires must be inflamed, like those of other men, with a prospect of enjoyments above those of a slave—he must be inspired with emulation; and to suppose the negroes in America to be naturally destitute of such desires, is contrary to historical facts, and all the known principles of the human constitution.

If a few slaves could be found on whom successful experiments might be made, the task would be half-accomplished; as example would have a powerful effect in exciting a spirit of emulation. But to give success to any efforts for this purpose, the slaves must be assisted with the superintending care and direction of their masters or overseers, as well as with the stock and utensils necessary for their farms. To put a man upon a farm, who has never had any will of his own, and whose faculties, subject to perpetual compulsion, have never had an opportunity to unfold and exert themselves, is like sending children into the world to seek their living; and to give him land to work on, without stock or instruments of husbandry, would afford a very unpromising prospect of success.

But the first essays would be few and on a small scale, so that the proprietor need not be terrified at the expense, and after the first difficulties should be overcome, the tenants would be able to furnish themselves with the necessary means of managing their farms, and the profits would amply repay the proprietor.

It is to be wished that some patriotic and humane gentlemen in the southern States would make effectual experiments upon their slaves, to determine how far a project of this kind will answer the double purpose of giving freedom to a miserable race of men, without injuring their owners and obstructing the cultivation of the country. No efforts of this kind have yet been made in America;* so that our planters have not to encounter the discouragements arising [Page] from a failure of their own experiments; and the success of similar attempts in Europe affords good ground of encouragement.

A glorious experiment of this kind has been made by Zamoiski, formerly great Chancellor of Poland, who in the year 1760, enfranchised the peasants of 6 villages, in the palatinate of Masovia. The success deserves to be particularly mentioned, as the precedent is important, and serves to confirm the principles here advanced, that slavery is pernicious to the morals, as well as to the industry and population of a country. On inspecting the parish registers of these villages, it appeared, that for ten years immediately preceding their enfranchisement, the births amounted to 43 each year on an average; but in the first ten years of their freedom, the births on an average, were 62 for each year, and in the seven following years they averaged 77. During the same period of 17 years, the income of this particular estate was tripled.

While the peasants were in a state of vassalage, Zamoiski was obliged to build cottages and barns for them, and furnish them with seed, stock and implements of husbandry. But since they have acquired their freedom, they are able to provide all these necessaries for themselves, and pay an annual rent to the proprietor, in lieu of the personal service which was formerly exacted.

In point of morals, the improvement of the peasants is equally remarkable. While they were slaves, they were frequently guilty of gross crimes, and sometimes in a fit of drunkenness, would murder travellers. For such disorders their master was obliged to pay a fine, called in the polish law, pro incontinentia subditorum. Since their emancipation, such disorders have almost entirely ceased.

Upon signing the deed of enfranchisement, the benevolent Zamoiski expressed to the peasants some apprehensions, that encourraged by their freedom, they would fall into every specious of licentiousness, and commit more disorders than when they were under the restraints of a master's authority. The good sense of their answer is worthy of particular notice; it was to this effect. "When we had no other property than the stick which we hold in our hands, we had no encouragement to a right conduct; and having nothing to lose, we acted on all occasions in an inconsiderate manner; but as soon as our houses, our lands, and our cattle become our own, the fear of forfeiting them will be a constant restraint upon our actions." The event has manifested the sincerity of these declarations, and the truth of the principles they contain. It has silenced the ill founded surmises of the Polish nobles, who represented their vassals as too ungovernable to make a good use of their freedom.

Zamoiski, pleased with the thriving state of his free tenants, has enfranchised the peasants on all his estates; and his example has been imitated by other noblemen with similar success. Prince Stanislaus, nephew to the King of Poland, whose mind has been improved by a residence in England, warmly patronizes the plan of giving liberty to the peasants. He has enfranchised four villages near Warsaw, and condescends to direct and assist the peasants. He is sensible [Page] that slavery benums the faculties of the mind, and renders men unfit to plan and direct the cultivation of a farm. He therefore visits their cottages, suggests improvements in husbandry, instructs them in the mode of rearing cattle and bees, and points out the errors into which they are betrayed by their ignorance and incapacity. The encreasing population and value, and the improved agriculture of the enfranchised villages, the superior neatness and convenience of the cottages, and the ease, contentment and more orderly lives of the peasants, mark most strikingly the different effects of slavery and freedom, and prove beyond cavil or controversy that the freedom of the laborer is as advantagous to the proprietor of the farm, as it is benificial to the peasant and his country.†

Why should not such illustrious examples of the happy effects of liberty upon domestic and rural economy find imitators in America? Will American planters still object to such a liberal policy, the dullness of the faculties and the inferiority of the nature, of their slaves? Will they forever be the dupes of visionary theories and a superficial philosophy? Is there no Zamoiski, no Stanislaus in the southern departments of our free Republic, who will hazard one effectual experiment? Or have false pride, deep-rooted prejudices, contempt of the African race and unconquerable indolence, such influence over the mind of our planters, that they will make no efforts to raise, from their degraded condition, the servile herd of animals, who, in the shape of men, toil like beasts of burthen, to pamper the vices of their masters, and who have as few motives to labor and as little concern for their proprietors interest or happiness, as the horse that draws his cart or bears his saddle? Let Americans remember that in Poland and Russia it is yet generally believed that their peasants are incapable of obtaining any solid advantages from freedom; and that so lately as the year 1766, the economical society of Petersburgh, at the request of some unknown person, who made them a present of money for the purpose, offered a large premium, to the author of the best Dissertation on this question; "Whether it is most advantageous to the State that the peasant should possess land or only personal effects, and to what point should that property be extended for the good of the public."* To a citizen of America, it seems strange and even astonishing that in the 18th century such a question could admit of a doubt in any part of Europe; much more that it should become the subject of grave discussion. Yet not only in Russia and in great part of Poland, but in Germany and Italy, where the light of science has long since dispelled the night of Gothic ignorance, the barons would be shocked at the idea of giving freedom to their peasants.‡ This repugnance must arise from the supposition that by giving liberty to their peasants, their estates would be materially [Page] injured; for their pride alone would not withstand a regard to their interest. Yet this is a most fat [...]l error, and Americans [...]ght not to be the last to be convinced of it; freemen not only produce more, but they squander less than slaves; they are not only more industrious, but more provident; and there is not an owner of slaves in Europe or America, the value of whose estate' might not be doubled in a few years, by giving liberty to his slaves and assisting them in the management of their farms. For it must be remembered that slavery discourages agriculture and manufactures, not only by taking from the laborer every motive that God and Society give him to prompt him to exertion, but by inspiring the great proprietors of lands with a contempt of all manual labor, and rendering disreputable the very occupations from which they derive subsistence and wealth. Who could imagine that the feudal and papal systems in Europe should have so corrupted and perverted the minds of men, as to render low and degrading the noble employments of husbandry and manufactures; employments which, in the age of Homer, were the business of kings and queens; and arts the inventors of which were deified. Astonishing truth! The most insignificant Baron of Europe, by a customary inversion of all ideas of dignity and propriety, affects to despise the occupations over which Ceres and Minerva once presided with the rank of Goddesses. By the establishment of feuds and of the papal hierarchy, all ideas of primeval simplicity and purity of taste and manners were lost or corrupted; kings, priests and monks engrossed all real property, and the military and sacerdotal professions alone became honorable. To so low a condition were husbandry, manufactures and commerce reduced, that in the opinion of the nobility and higher orders of the clergy throughout Europe, a nobleman could not pursue either of those occupations without degrading himself and forfeiting his rank. In a great part of Europe this opinion still prevails, and in some countries, it is supported by the laws. By a law of Poland, a nobleman is a man who possesses a freehold, or who can trace his descent from ancestors who formerly possessed a freehold estate; who has followed no trade or commerce and is at liberty to choose the place of his habitation: but if he follows any trade or commerce, he loses his title and is degraded.* By the laws and customs of Spain, a principal proof of a man's title to nobility is, that he has never exercised any of the servile professions, and to such and extreme is this ridiculous pride and contempt of business carried in some provinces, that even merchants are not permitted to attend the theater with the nobility.†

The same prejudices still prevail in Germany▪ ‡ the same existed in France before the late revolution, and a similar contempt of labor, [Page] in a greater or less degree, is observable in the West-Indies and in America, among the proprietors of slaves. By the prevalence of such false notions, a country is doubly injured—the proprietor and all his family are rendered unproductive hands, and mostly useless—the slave or cultivator, the mechanic and the trader are rendered less productive and useful hands, by being robbed of that honorable rank and estimation among men which is the most powerful stimulus to exertion, and which ought ever to be held up as a prize to reward honest industry. But the evil does not stop here: Such [...]otions render a great portion of the actual capital of a State unproductive; for when men of business, have acquired fortunes, they aspire to rank, relinquish their business, and purchase titles. Their property, instead of forming an active capital in trade or manufactures, is converted into real estate or funded stock, or what is worse, loaned to foreigners, and the interest consumed by this new fangled nobility, in idleness and dissipation. Such is the practice in many parts of Europe; and wherever this false pride prevails, the productive occupations of life are neglected by the wealthy and well-informed who ought to be their [...]tro [...]s, and who are the most able to render them flourishing. The consequence is, that the nobles themselves are often poor, and their country is still poorer; destitute of arts, of industry and resources.

This contempt of business, wherever it prevails, is a most serious calamity, as it strikes at the very root of national industry, and consequently of national wealth and power. A very little political arithmetic will show the magnitude of this evil, in a strong point of view. It must be observed that property, when employed in profitable undertakings, whether mercantile, agricultural or manufacturing, resembles money at compound interest. If one hundred pounds produce six pounds clear profit in a year, and the proprietor squanders away the six pounds at the end of the year, his capital stock will never be enlarged. But if the six pounds of profit, at the years end, are added to the original stock, the proprietor then has one hundred and six pounds as a capital for the second year. In this manner he proceeds, adding his profits to his stock, which is an operation precisely similar to that of adding interest to principal which produces compound interest. Let it then be supposed that in a state or kingdom, there are 10,000 families of nobility or planters, who cultivate their lands by means of slaves and who do not labor themselves. In 10,000 families, we may suppose about 70,000 souls; one fourth or 17,500 adult males; and nearly the same number or 17000 females. Suppose every able bodied laborer to be worth 60 dollars by the year, which is the general hire of a laboring man in America; and every adult female to be worth 17 dollars a year, which is less than the actual value of female labor in America. The whole annual value of the labor of 17,500 men is 1, 050,000 dollars; and that of 17,000 females, 289,000, dollars, in the whole, 1,339,000 dollars. But to be very moderate in my calculations, I will suppose the annual value of the labor of 10,000 families to be only 1,300,000 dollars; and this sum to be employed and [Page] augmented upon the principles of compound interest at 6 per cent. for one century. The result would be that a stock of 1,300,000 dollars would, in a century, produce upwards of four hundred and twenty millions of dollars. Ten thousand idle families therefore in a State, would, upon a very moderate calculation, and in one century, make that difference in the value of the products of that State.

This estimate supposes that stock will produce six per cent per ann, that no part of the stock or produce is diverted from constant employment, and that the 10,000 families will produce hands enough, if employed, to work the whole stock thro the whole period. Whatever deductions may and ought to be made in fact from the result of this calculation on account of circumstances not taken into consideration, still the process will demonstrate the immense difference in the effects of freedom and slavery, in regard to the wealth and power of a country.

But facts as well as calculations corroborate these principles. From the most accurate accounts of the exports of several nations of Europe, together with the revenues and imports, we are warranted in this conclusion, that the actual produce of a country is nearly in an exact proportion to the degree of freedom enjoyed by its inhabitants. The soil and climate of some countries are less favorable to industry than those of other countries, and the roads and convenience for navigation may make a considerable difference in the exports of different countries. But all these circumstances being equal, and the laboring people all enjoying equal freedom and encouragement, the exports of all countries would likewise be equal, as well as the internal consumption. If every man had land or materials of his own, his whole industry would be exerted in producing, and his appetites would be fully gratified in consuming his own productions; the surplus would be exported. These are true general principles as they respect nations. The exports of a country therefore are one of the principal criteria of the value of its productions. On this principle let us compare the industry of Spain and Poland with that of Great Britain and America. It will be admitted that the natural fertility of both Spain and Poland is equal, if not superior, to those of Great Britain and America, and in point of conveniences for foreign commerce, Spain is not inferior to either. The following table will exhibit the number of Inhabitants in each nation, the annual value of the exports from each in Spanish dollars, and what ought to be exported from Spain and Poland, if the inhabitants were as industrious, as those of Great Britain and America.

| Number of Inhabitants. | Annual Exports.
Great Britain and Ireland | 11,000,000 | 66,000,000
Spain | 11,000,000 | 18,000,000
Poland | 9,000,000 | 23,300,000
To be in proportion to Great-Britain.
Spain should export annually, |  | 66,000,000
Poland |  | 54,000,000
| Inhabitants. | Exports.
America | 3,930,000 | 18,000,000
To be in proportion to America.
Spain should export, |  | 50,000,000
Poland |  | 41,000,000

This calculation m [...]st be very imperfect, because the internal consumption is not known in any of these countries. But it may be fairly presumed from the miserable condition of the laboring people in Spain and Poland, that the internal consumption of those kingdoms is by no me [...] equal to that of Great-Britain and America, in proportion to the number of inhabitants. Free people who raise an abundance of provision, consume what they please—slaves, if they are not limited in the quantity of their food and cloathing, are still obliged to subsist on a few articles of coarse cheap food. It is probable therefore, if we could [...]certain the value of the home productions consumed in these several countries, we should find the amount of the value of the whole produce of each country to be much more in favor of Great Britain and America, than the result of the foregoing calculation.†

[Page] But it must be noted that the sum total of the whole expo [...] of the United States is taken into the foregoing calculation▪ wh [...]n in fact the southern States are cultivated by slaves. To show the advantages of the freedom of America in a fairer point of view, the calculation should be made upon those States where there are no [...]laves; but this is impossible, as from the geographical position of the northern States, the produce of one State is exported from ports in another, and the actual exports of each separate State cannot be ascertained. Thus from the returns made to the Secretary of the Treasury, according to his printed report in 1791, the exports of New-York appear to be 2,516,000 dollars, and those of Connecticut only 710,340:* Whereas a considerable part of the articles exported from New-York are the produce of Connecticut. A more exact rule for ascertaining the real produce of a State is to devide [Page] the whole value of the exports from [...] United States, by the number of Inhabitants in that State.— [...] more accurate rule is to separate the northern from the southern States, and divide the value of the exports from the northern states, by the inhabitants in any one northern State. Drawing a line between Pennsylvania and Delaware, which may be properly called the line between the freedom and the slavery of the cultivators in the United States, we may ascertain, upon the foregoing principles, the real value of the exports of each State.† The following statement will exhibit the difference between freedom and slavery in the United States.

Number of Inhabitants in the United States and Vermont in 1791, inclusive of Western Territory, supposed 35,000—(in round numbers) | 3,928,000
Number of Inhabitants south of Pennsylvania, exclusive of Western Territory, | 1,925,000
Number of ditto north of Delaware, - | 1,967,000
| Dollars.
Annual value of Exports, south of Pennsylvania, | 8,326,000
Value of Exports, north of Delaware, | 9,245,000
Difference in number of Inhabitants in favor of the northern district. | 42,000
Difference in value of Exports in favor of the northern district, | 918,000
Surplus of Exports in the northern district, beyond the proportion of Inhabitants, | 721,000

By this statement it appears that the southern states, which are cultivated mostly by slaves, tho some of their principal articles of produce rice, indigo and tobacco, are much more profitable than the produce of the northern States, do not furnish the same value for exportation, as the northern by the difference of 918,000 dollars annually, nor in proportion to their inhabitants, by the difference of 721,000 dollars.

The following statement will show more distinctly the difference in the productiveness of countries cultivated by freemen and slaves.

| Dol. | Cents.
Annual exports of Spain, to each soul | 1. | 62
To each family of 6½ souls, | 10. | 53
Annual exports of Poland, to each soul, | 2. | 56
To each family of 6½ souls,- | 16. | 64
Annual exports of the United States to each soul, | 4. | 58
To each family of 6½ souls, | 29. | 77
Annual exports of the States south of Pensylvania to each soul, | 4. | 33
To each family of 6½ souls, | 28. | 14
Annual exports of the States north of Delaware, to each soul, | 4. | 70
To each family of 6½ souls, | 30. | 55
Annual exports of Great Britain and Ireland, to each soul, | 6.
To each family of 6½ souls, | 39.*

Similar calculations may be made with respect to many other countries, and the result in every instance, will be demonstrative of the happy effects of freedom. The most luxuriant soil and the most salubrious climate are advantages, which, in no country, counterballance the tendency of slavery, feudal and domestic, to weaken and impoverish a country.

Slavery is equally hostile to population, as to national industry and enterprize. A country parcelled out into large estates is always thinly settled, unless it has some peculiar natural advantages, or abounds with manufacturers or merchants. Even under the rigors of the feudal tyranny, Germany and Italy, by engrossing the [Page] trade of Europe, were considerably populous. But France and Prussia did not shake off the fetters of that system till within the present century; and Spain, Portugal, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Russia, show, by their poverty and sparse population, that those countries are still held in chains. England vindicated her rights at an earlier period, and has become proportionably richer.

Facts of this kind can be neither evaded, nor contradicted; their evidence is conclusive and irresistable; they demonstrate the doctrine before advanced, that "slavery in all its forms and degrees, is repugnant to the private interest and public happiness of man." Let our efforts then be united to devise the most easy and effectual mode of gradually abolishing slavery in this country. The industry the commerce and the moral character of the United States will be immensely benefited by the change—Justice and humanity require it—Christianity commands it. Let every benevolent heart rejoice at the progress already made in restraining the nefarious business of enslaving men, and pray for the glorious period when the last slave who sighs for freedom shall be restored to the possession of that inestimable right.

[Page] P. S. I am lately informed by an intelligent gentleman from Virginia▪ that many planters on the eastern shore in Virginia have, within a few years, liberated their slaves and employed them as hired men; and that such freed men are more profitable as hired men, than they were as slaves. I rely on this information and communicate it with pleasure, as it confirms what has been here advanced; and this success will accelerate a general emancipation of slaves in the United States—an event devoutly to be wished.

Notes

†

See Hume's Essays vol. 1. p. 550. Note. M. Jeffersons notes on Virginia, p. 237.

↵

*

MSS. letter from the hon. Dr. Ramsay, of Charlestown South-Carolina.

↵

†

From the same root have sprung the words lazaretto and lazzaroni, in the Italian language, the latter of which is the general name given to the idlers and beggars that swarm in Italy; and the former, is the name of the hospitals erected for the sick and infirm among those miserable wretches. See Moor's Italy and Brydone's tour▪ passim.

↵

§

Coxe's travels into Poland, &c. vol. 1. p. 160.

↵

‡

Ibm. page 251.

↵

‖

Ibm. p. 2 [...].

↵

¶

Ibm. vol. 2. [...]45.

↵

*

Volney [...] travels, vol. 2. 461. It must be remarked that the blacks, who, in America, will scarcely move without a negro driver at their heels, [...]re, in their own country, a very [...]y lively people. Abr. of Buffon's works, p 64.

↵

†

Aristotle, polit. lib. 1.

↵

*

Encyclopedia vol. 1. p. 454.

↵

‖

Vailant's Travels Vol. 1. p. 56.

↵

†

Volneys Travels Vol. 1. p. 103. 104.

↵

¶

Volney's Travels 2 vol. 489. Sa [...]ar [...]'s Letter on Greece p. 141.

↵

‡

Ibm. p. 308. 309.

↵

§

Mo [...]q. B. 15. ch. 15. Tac. An. lib. 14. ca. 42.

↵

**

De Lo [...]me on the Con [...]t▪ of Engl. p. [...]3 N Y Edit. T [...]citus An. lib. [...]4 ca. 43 says expressly, "suspecta ma [...]oribus nostris [...]u [...]re ingen [...]a [...], e [...]am cum in agris a [...] domibus [...]sd [...]m" nascerent [...]r carita [...]en [...]que [...] statim ac [...]iperent.

↵

*

Fleta. lib. 4. chap. 2. Glanvill. lib. 5. cap. 1. Coke upon Lit. 117.

↵

‡

Cowel. in verbum.

↵

†

The Jews were rendered incapable of holding lands in England in the reign of Edward I. AD 1275. Multitudes were executed in 1278 on suspicion of clipping the coin; and banished the kingdom for their usury and their religion in 1290. Smolle [...]. Hist. Eng. vol. 2. 254. 258. 273.

In France, they were abandoned, on suspicion or frivolous pretences, to the plunder of the popu [...]ace, about the year 1321. Hist. of France vol. 1. 240. At this day Jews are not permitted to reside in Russia. Coxe.

↵

*

Poland is almost the only country in Europe where the Jews cultivate the earth. Here they enjoy extensive privileges and are very industrious useful citizens. Coxe vol. 1. 270. 163.

↵

‖

Book 12. Ch. 15.

↵

‡

Coxe's travels into Poland. &c. vol. 1, p. 158

↵

†

Jefferson Notes. p. 237.

↵

*

See the note in page 9 from Tacitus.

↵

‡

Coxe's Switz. vol 1. 223 and both volumes, passim. Coxe's Russia and Sweden vol. 1. 305. iii. 85. See Bo [...]'s Travels. 10. 42.

↵

‡

Coxe's Switz. vol 1. 223 and both volumes, passim. Coxe's Russia and Sweden vol. 1. 305. iii. 85. See Bo [...]'s Travels. 10. 42.

↵

‖

Abridgement of his works. p. 64.

↵

†

Two or three instances of murder committed by slaves on their masters, happened in Virginia the last year. The same crime is frequent in the West-Indies. In the northern states where there are few slaves and those treated with more lenity, they seldom murder the whites, but they are much [...]ddicted to stealing, a [...]d oft [...]n commit burglary.

↵

*

Guth. Geog. p. 832. Clarkson's Essay on the slavery and commerce of the human species. page 105.

↵

†

Hooke's Rom Hist. vol 1. 286. Liv. lib 3. ca 1 [...]. 16. Livy gives a concise, but lively description of the suspicion and terror excited by this insurrection of slaves; a description often applicable to the situation of the planters in the West Indies. "Multi et var [...] [...]imores; inter ceteros eminebat terror servilis, ne [...]uus cuique domi hostis e [...]t. Cui nec credere, ne [...] non cred [...]ndo, ne insestior fieret, sidem abrogare, satis erat tutum."

↵

†

Liv. lib. 4. ca. 45. Hooke's Rom Hist. [...] 389.

↵

‡

Hooke. vol. p. 28. It was the practice [...] Rome to reward the slaves, who informed the magistrates of plots, with their freedom and large [...] of money. See Livy in the passages quoted.

↵

§

Liv. lib. 32. ca. 26.

↵

*

Liv▪ lib. 33. ca. 36.

↵

‖

Liv. lib. 89. ca. 29.

↵

*

Florus. lib. 3. ca. 19. Hooke. vol. 2. p. 540 says their number was 200,000. I have followed Florus.

↵

†

Florus. lib. 3. ca. 19. The Romans con [...]ined great numbers of their slaves in cells or prisons, called ergast [...]la, where they were chained to labor. The younger Pompey recruited his army from the ergast [...]la in Sicily and Sardinia. Florus. lib. 4. ca. 8.

↵

‡

Florus. lib. 3. ca. [...]0. Liv. Epit. lib. 97. Hooke's Rom. Hist. vol. 3. 194 to 200.

↵

§

Montesq. vol. 1, 306. Blacks com. vol. 1 418.

↵

‖

Hist of France. vol. 1. page 275.

↵

*

Reisbeck's Travels vol, 2 294.

↵

†

Brydon [...]'s Tour. vol. 1. 227.

↵

*

The negroes in the West Indies consider death as a deliverance from [...]ervitude and a restoration to their native country. Hence their funerals are seasons of joy and festivity, and are attended with dancing.

↵

†

In liberos suprema patrum auctorita [...] esto; venumdare, [...]ider [...] liceto. Leg. Rom. This power of the father over his children was restrained by imperial constitutions before the times of Justinian. See Justin Inst. lib. 1. tit. 9.

↵

‡

Justin. Inst. lib. 1. tit. [...].

↵

†

Montesq. Reflections on the causes of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. p. 118.

↵

‡

vol. 1. p. 212. where the reader will find some excellent remarks on this subject. See also Hume's Essays vol. 1. p. 402.

↵

§

Spirit of Laws, book 6. chap. 9.

↵

‖

page 30. 31.

↵

*

Tacitus de Mor. Germ. ca. 24. 22.

↵

††

The editor of Watson's Phillip. 3d remarks that "ideas of superior dignity have a tendency to blunt the sense of injustice committed against inferiors" page 408. note.

↵

*

Millar's hist view of the Engl. gov. p. 62. The practice of private [...]tabbing, formerly so common in England, and still frequent in Spain, and some other countries, may be traced to this source; but universal liberty and science will banish it from the earth.

↵

†

Men are better and more amiable, in proportion as they are happier. Moderate independence banishes care and disposes the mind to joy and benificence. Bourg. travels vol. 1. 383. The character of the Swiss in the free Cantons, and of the New-England people, is a full proof of this doctrine: but the most illustrious example of the effects of equal rights among men, i [...] the peaceable disposition of the Quakers. It is curious to mark the different effects which steady laws and the arbitrary exercise of will have upon the manners of men. The government of the Quakers is very absolute and rigid; but it is the authority of laws and rules, and not of arbitrary will▪ therefore steady in its operation. Hence the firm, uniform, systematic deportment of the members of that society. A Quaker is seldom cap [...]cio [...]s, or irritable; but moderate in his passions, slow in deciding, and very persevering. How different is a man born in the same nation, who has been accustomed to brandish his whip over slaves.

↵

*

Coxe's Switz. vol. 1. 27. 46. vol. 2. 201.

↵

†

Coxe's travels, vol. 1. 279,

↵

‖

Tacitus.

↵

*

Luxuries and an abuse of civilization contract and debase the mind. Bourg. Travels. vol. 1. p. 383. And See vol. 2. p. 137. Essays on Spain by Mon. Peyron.

↵

†

See Millar's hist view of the Eng. Gov. p. 183. Blacks. Com. vol. 2. p. 90. and the histories of England.

↵

‡

The natural soil, markets &c. being equal. See some excellent remarks on this subject in Smith's Wealth of Nations. Book 3. ch. 2. Robertson's Ind. page 288. Bourg. Travels in Spain. vol. 2 90.

↵

†

A similar custom prevailed among the antient Germans. Their reasons as assigned by the historian, were to prevent the people from attaching themselves to agriculture, in preference to war, and from amassing great estates at the expense of the poor, from enervating themselves by living in good houses, &c. See C [...]sars comment. lib. [...]. [...]. 20.

↵

*

See Sir John Davies reports, p. 78. 134. Hume's Essays, vol. 1. p. 464. In A [...]da [...]sia in Spain, a few proprietors possess almost the whole country. Unable to cultivate such immense estates, they farm out land on short leases, and the whole province is little better than a desert. See Bourg. travels in Spain, vol. 2. p. 91. 92.

↵

‡

Riesbecks Travels vol. [...].

↵

†

The happiness of a people under a despotic government depends mostly on the character of the prince, Moore's Italy. p. 137.

↵

*

See Gillies view of the reign of Frederick II. ch. 7. Riesbeck's travels vol. 2. p. 88 to 202.

↵

†

Coxe's travels vol. 1. 156. 158.

↵

‡

Travels into Poland, &c. vol. 1. p. 20 [...].

↵

†

"L' agriculture ne pourra jamais prosper [...]r la o [...] l' agriculteur ne posfede rien [...]n propre." Instructions for a new code of laws, p. 83. See Coxe's travels-book 5. ch. 5 and 6.

↵

*

See Volney's Travels. Vol. 2. Ch. 37.

↵

†

Volneys travels. vol. 2. chap. 24.

↵

‡

Savary's Letters on [...]re [...]e. p. 119.

↵

§

[...] view of society and manners in Italy. Letter. 73 and 59. There are 30▪000 lazz [...]roni in Naples▪ who have no houses or property▪ They sl [...]p under port [...]s, piazzas, or any other shelter.

↵

‖

Brydon's Tour. vol. 2. p. 42. 187. The Duke of Lerma, minister of Philip 3 King of Spain, drew from Sicily, in wheat only, an annual value of 72,000 ducats. Watson's Philip [...]. 443.

↵

†

See Coxe's Switzerland▪ passim.

↵

‡

Bourgoanne's present State of Spain. vol. [...]. P. [...]5 [...]. 155. 276.

↵

§

Smith's wealth of nations book 3. ch. 2.

↵

*

Before the revolution, agriculture in France [...] England, in the proportion of 3 to 8.

↵

*

Smith's Wealth of Nations. Book 3. Ch. 2.

↵

‡

This is almost literally true in this State; and as it respects the natives of the United States, it is true in most of the other States. The la [...] of Connecticut oblige every town to support its own poor. If any man is ever distressed with want, he can call upon the town for aid, and demand support. But the poor are not numerous▪

↵

*

The universal diffusion of knowledge among the common people is found only in the eastern States.

↵

†

I have heard elderly people remark, that in the early part of their lives, [...] never once [...]ccurred to them that it was unjust and iniquitous to enslave Africans. It is within a few years only that the question has been generally discussed.

↵

†

Of 40. 384. Slaves in the States north of Delaware, 32,777 are in New-York and New-Jersey: the slaves in Pensylvania Vermont and the four New-England States amounting only to 7607. The proportion of slaves to free inhabitants is,

In the States south of Pensylvania as 1 to 2¼

In the States north of Delaware as 1 to 44½

In New-York and New-Jersey as 1 to 15

In the 4 New-England States, with Vermont and Pensylvania as 1 to 19 [...] nearly.

↵

*

Non minus est probanda Medici [...]a quae [...]anaret Vi [...]iosas partes Reipublicae, [...]uam quae exsecaret. Ci [...]ero Epist.

↵

†

See Bourgoanne's travels, vol. 2.

↵

*

The project of exporting all the blacks in the United States, would, if practicable, be attended with many desireable effects. The separation of the whites from all mixture of colour, would remove the causes of much jealousy and dissention, which will otherwise prevail among the whites and blacks. But should colonization ever be attempted, the exportation of the slaves from the southern States must be slow and gradual, to prevent the [...] of the country. The sudden expulsion of 700,000 mor [...]s [...]s from Spain in the riegn of Philip 3▪ gave a blow to the agriculture and manufactures of that kingdom, which the efforts of almost two centuries have scarcely repaired. Wa [...]. Phil. 3, 442 Many of the welthiest people in Spain were reduced to poverty and distress!—Perhaps a more eligible scheme would be to assign the blacks a portion of land in the United States, and remove them all thither by slow degrees, furnishing them with means of cultivation.

↵

*

Black. Com. Vol. 2, 96. Sullivan, Lecture 25.

↵

*

I am informed by two very intelligent and respectable gentlemen, th [...] Hon. David Ramsay Esq. of South-Carolina, and the Hon. James Maddison Esq. of Virginia, that there are no instances of Planters leasing lands to their manumitted blacks in the States where they live, or none that deserve the name of experiments.

↵

†

See Coxe's travels into Poland, &c. vol. 1. [...].

↵

*

One hundred and sixty-four Dissertations were sent to the Society on this occasion, and the prize was given to a Mr. Bearde, doctor in Canon and civil law at Aix-la-Chapelle. Coxe. Travels into Poland, &c. Vol. 2. p. 346.

↵

‡

Moor's Italy. p. 332.

↵

*

Coxe's Poland vol. 1. 136. 147. 149.

↵

†

Bo [...]goa [...]e's Present State of Spain. vol. 2. p. 39.

↵

‡

See R [...]ck's Travels. vol. 1. 37. 51. Preface to Born's Travels. page 1 [...].

↵

†

It may perhaps be enquired why, upon these principles, the exports of the United States of America, are not in proportion to those of Great-Britain; as the inhabitants of America are at least as free as those of Great-Britain. Perhaps the internal consumption in America, may partly account for this difference; but a more satisfactory answer is, that Americans almost all cultivate the earth, whereas a great proportion of the people in Great-Britain are manufactures; and it is a well known fact, that [...]ewer laborers are required to produce a given value in manufactures from raw materials, especially with the use of machines; than to produce the same value by the culture of the earth. The manufacturers of England alone, are supposed to be upwards of 4,000,000 persons or 4 [...]7ths of its inhabitants, The profits of [...]ade in England, are estimated to be from 8 to 10 per cent. on their capital stock; and the profits on manufactures something higher.* Suppose them 10 per cent. and the interest of money five, the net profit is 6 per cent. which difference is immensely in favor of that manufacturing kingdom; for lands in America do not produce 4 per cent. net profit; probably not three.

But there is a farther explanation of this apparent difference. The exports of Great-Britain consist principally of manufactures▪ But the raw materials of the principal English manufactures, are imported from other countries; and when the articles are entered for shipment and exportation, the price of the raw materials is included with the price or value of the goods at the custom house. Thus about ¼ of the wool manufactured in England, is imported from Spain—25,000 tons of iron, which is wrought into hardware, all the cotton and silk which are manufactured are imported. These articles furnish the principal value of the exported manufactures.

In America the case is different—almost all our exports consist of articles produced in the country; provisions, raw materials, &c. On these articles, there is only one advance; that upon the original labor and expense of producing them. But on the raw materials imported into Great-Britain, there are two advances—one to the nation producing them—and a second advance upon the labor and expense of manufacturing; to which may be added the freight and charges which are paid by the importer, and form a part of the first cost to the manufacturer, and on which like wise he has an advance. Suppose the sine wool imported into Great-Britain from Spain, to be worth in the fleece, 1 s 6 sterling a pound; at this price 40,000 c [...] ▪ which is about the quantity annually sent to Great-Britain, will amount to 300,000l. Suppose this wool at the place of shipment to be worth 20 per cent▪ more, the value of this article to Spain may be estimated at 300,000. Suppose the freight and charges to be 5 per cent; this wool will cost the importer 390,000l.—and if the importer [...] not the manufacturer, the former must also have his advance upon the wool; so that the manufacturer will probably pay 420,000l. for this quantity of wool. He then works the wool into cloth; but in the process, it goes through several hands, who all have a profit on their labour; and finally the articles manufactured are exported▪ with an advance or profit of 10 or 12 per cent. on the original value in the fleece, and on all the intermediate advances. To these circumstances, it is probably owing that the exports of Great-Britain, exceed in value those of America, in proportion to her inhabitants; and not to any superior industry of the nation. Perhaps also the minerals, tin and lead, may furnish a greater value with a given portion of labor, than land. On this I am not qualified to decide; but England exports in these articles about 2½ millions sterling annually. America exports no mineral productions worth notice. It is probable however, that the lands in England, produce more than in many parts of America, where the same labor is bestowed upon both. The high state of agricultural improvements in that country, warrants this conclusion. America was a wilderness 170 year ago; the whole country was covered with one immense forest. The land was to be cleared of enormous trees—fences were to be made— [...]oads opened—bridges built—houses and barns to be erected, before a surplus of labor could be applied to produce articles for exportation. New settlements struggle many years with these difficulties, before they can procure a comfortable subsistence and accommodations, and a considerable part of our inhabitants are yet in this situation. Lands in England, are lately rented at 20 [...]. sterling an acre▪ but I believe that little or none can be found in America, except for gardens, worth half the money. But whatever may be the productiveness of Great-Britain, the enormous duties and taxes paid by the people, counterballance the benefits proceeding from their industry. All the yearly taxes, and public contributions in Connecticut, including duties on imports and all other charges, are considerably less than 2 dollars for every soul. But the public contributions of all kinds in Great-Britain, amount to ten dollars a soul. That is in Great-Britain, one fourth of the annual subsistence of the people, is [...] in duties tithes and taxes—in America, the public receives of each person, only one eighteenth of his subsistence.

↵

*

Smith's Wealth of Nations. Vol. 1. 9. and 10.

↵

*

The value of the exports of Connecticut is 1,150,000 dollars a year, or something more.

↵

†

This will not shew the advantages of freedom in the strongest point of view; for in that part of America north of Delaware there are 40,000 slaves, most of which are in New-York and New-Jersey. But it is impossible at present to be more accurate. It must be remarked likewise that we cannot any where draw a line which will seperate the exports of one State from those of another; that which is here drawn may be as just as any. Pennsylvania exports a considerable portion of the produce of Delaware; but it is probable a greater portion of the produce of Pennsylvania is shipped at Baltimore in Maryland. Small numbers are thrown away, as of no account in this calculation.

↵

*

In the printed report of the Secretary of the Treasury in 1791, from which the value of exports here used is taken, there is mentioned a deficiency in the returns from South-Carolina and some small ports. This will make a small difference in favor of the southern states. At the same time it is presumed this circumstance is ballanced by the produce of Pennsylvania exported from Maryland and Virginia. Maryland contains only one sixth of the inhabitants, south of Pennsylvania, yet its exports amount to one fourth of the whole exports south of that state, which circumstance cannot be accounted for, by the greater fertility of its soil or industry of its inhabitants. Indeed it is well known, that most of the produce of the state of Pennsylvania, from the Susquehanna westward, is transported southward to Baltimore and the Potomak, and there shipped for foreign markets. But should it be found that the exports of the southern states equal those of the northern, it would not be surprising, considering the superior profitableness of the principal articles raised for exportation in the southern states. There are no considerable articles in the northern states, which afford a profit, at all times, equal to that of rice, indigo and tobacco, especially the two former. Besides, other circumstances are necessary to form the basis of a just calculation on this subject—such are the expense of subsistence or internal consumption of home produce, the value of the imports, the balance of trade, the expenses of each state in maintaining civil government, the clergy, schools, roads, &c. I have not materials for even a tolerable estimate of this comprehensive kind. But it is certain the expenses of some of the northern states are beyond comparison greater than those of the southern. I find the expense of maintaining the clergy in Virginia to be estimated by Mr. Jefferson in his notes, at 25,000 dollars a year. Suppose it 30,000. The expense of the clergy in Connecticut, who are supported mostly by taxes on their parishes, is about 65,000 dollars a year. Virginia contains 747,000 inhabitants—Connecticut 238,000, or less than a third of the number—the expense of the clergy therefore in Connecticut to that in Virginia, is very little less than seven to one. The expense of schools likewise in the eastern states, will be found to exceed that of the southern, nearly in the same proportion. Many other articles of public expense are higher in the northern states. But there is a most important difference still to be remarked, between the northern and southern states. The staple articles of export from the southern, are rice, indigo and tobacco. To these may be added the wheat of Maryland and Virginia, the tar and turpentine of N. Carolina, the cotton of S. Carolina and Georgia and the lumber of all. Of these articles the most valuable furnish a very small part of the immediate consumption of the inhabitants. Almost all the rice, indigo, tobacco, tar, turpentine, and a great portion of the cotton, which are produced in those states, are exported. So many hands are employed in cultivating these articles, that there are not mechanics and manufacturers sufficient to furnish the inhabitants with the necessary utensils and clothing. A large portion of the household furniture, the farming utensils, carriages, &c. of the southern states, are imported—whereas these articles are manufactured in the northern states and even exported. A great part of the clothing of the slaves is imported into the southern states—whereas the northern laboring people manufacture almost all their coarse clothing. The southern states also import several articles of provision, as cheese; some of them import beef and [...]ork, all which are exported from the northern to a considerable amount; not to mention wines and other liquors, of which the southern states require a larger supply than the northern. It is probable therefore, that a much greater proportion of the actual produce of the southern states is exported, than of the northern; because a smaller proportion is consumed by the inhabitants. This will very much reduce the value of the real products of the southern states. For example, suppose the northern states to export the value of 10 millions annually, and to consume of their own productions the value of 70 millions, which is about the actual consumption, they then import the value of 10 millions in money or goods, and the whole produce is 80 millions. Suppose the southern states to export also the value of 10 millions, and to consume of their own productions only 65 millions value, the whole produce then is only 75 millions. This statement is probably supported by facts; and there is no question that with all the advantages of [...]ils, [...]itted to produce the most profitable articles of commerce in the vegetable kingdom, except the sugar cane, the southern states produce much less in proportion to their population than the northern. Indeed when we take into consideration the great numbers of idle and unproductive hands in the southern states, we shall not be suprised at the fact. The family that cultivates by slaves is unproductive itself and all its domestics. The number of such families I do not know—but if there are in the five southern states, only 10,000, such families of souls each, and each family has six menial servants, there are 1 [...]0,000 unproductive persons who add no value to the property of the state, but all subsist by the labor of others. Of this number of souls ½ or ⅓ are adults, capable of labor; the annual labor of 60,000 persons, half male and half female, would, in the northern states, amount to 2,310,000 dollars, or nearly ¼ of all their present exports. Besides the effect of slavery upon the whites is not merely negative; it renders them not only unproductive, but positively prodigal Idle people are almost always profuse and dissipated.

This view of the subject leads to the reasons why the southern states are so deeply involved in debt, why they have less enterprize than their northern brethren, and are constantly dependant on other nations and states, for some of the necessary articles of common use, the materials for which are in their forests and at their doors.

These observations apply equally well to all the countries of Europe, where the feudal rights remain. A [...] body of nobles, with their hosts of dependants, with armies of priests, monks and other idlers, form a long catalogue of unproductive hands and prodigals, who feed upon or waste the produce of the peasant They will not labor themselves, and they deprive the peasants of all motives to labor—the consequence in natural and necessary, their countries are poor, beggarly and defenceless.

↵

§

§

[Page]

[Page]

EFFECTS OF SLAVERY, ON MORALS AND INDUSTRY.

BY NOAH WEBSTER, Jun. Esq.

Counsellor at Law and Member of the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom.

The Gods are just, and of our pleasant vices

Make instruments to scourge us.

SHAKESPEAR.

HARTFORD, (CONNECTICUT) PRINTED BY HUDSON AND GOODWIN.

M.DCC.XCIII.

§

§

[Page]

To
The Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom and the Relief of Persons unlawfully holden in Bondage, This small Treatise, designed to exhibit some pernicious effects of Slavery, on the moral character, the industry and prosperity of nations, is most respectfully inscribed, by their most obedient and humble servant,

The AUTHOR.

ADVERTISEMENT.

[Page]

I have for several years past had it in contemplation to write and publish some remarks on the pernicious consequences of slavery. Being appointed, by the society for the promotion of freedom, to deliver the annual Oration at Hartford, in May 1793, I took this opportunity of throwing together a few thoughts on the subject contemplated, and finding that the compass of an Oration would not be sufficient to admit even the general ideas and facts which, it was apprehended, might be necessary to illustrate the subject, I have chosen to publish the following remarks in the form of an essay or small treatise, and address it to the society, as a tribute of gratitude for the respect paid me, and as the best service I could render to the institution.

The views of slavery here exhibited, if not novel, are certainly important; and more time and materials than I can now command, are necessary to give them their due consideration.

HARTFORD, May 9. 1793.

APPENDIX

[Page]

—No. I.

An Estimate of the value of property in Connecticut—in dollars at 4s6 sterling.

Land, 2,950,000 acres, varying in value from 100 dollars to 3 dollars an acre—a moderate estimate is 8 dollars an acre for the whole,
Dollars. 23,600,000

There are in Connecticut 238,000 inhabitants, which number divided by 6 [...], the average number of souls in a family, the quotient is, in round numbers, 36,000, which is the number of families in the State. Suppose every 12th house to contain two families, and the number of houses will be about 33,000, which may be worth on an average 170 dollars each.
5,610,000

The number of Barns must be less, as in a few towns on the eastern and southern part of the State, barns are not much used. Suppose 25,000 at 40 dollars,
1,000,000

Household furniture, and utensils for farmers and mechanics, 150 dollars in value to each family,
5,400,000

Stock of cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, mules and poultry 100 dollars in value to each family,
3,600,000

Churches 200 at 1200 dollars,
0,240,000

School Houses 1000 at 20 dollars,
0,020,000

Shops, Stores and Warehouses for merchants and mechanics—1000 at 100 dollars,
0,100,000

Mills of all kinds, forges and furnaces, 500 at 300 dollars each,
0,150,000

Court-Houses, Jails and Workhouses,
0,050,000

Money in funds, Specie, &c.
1,000,000

Shipping, 27,000 tons a 15 dollars,
0,405,000

Goods on hand,
1,500,000

Total,
42,675,000

Deduct 675.000 dollars for debts due abroad and for the sake of round numbers, and the whole property, real and personal, of the State of Connecticut, may be valued at 42 millions of dollars. This sum divided by 36,000, the number of families in the State, gives 1166 dollars, or £350 lawful money of Connecticut for the value of property belonging to each family.

No. II.

To display the effects of industry among a free people, who with few exceptions labor solely for themselves and not for landlords nor masters, the following estimate of the annual expenditures of Connecticut is exhibited.

| Dollars.
Civil Government, about | 25,000
1000 Public Winter Schools, mostly kept by men who labor in summer. These schools are usually [Page] kept four months in winter—Hire of masters at 40 dollars, | 40,000
Wood 12 Cords each school at one Dollar, | 12,000
Summer Schools, 1000, kept by young women for small children, at 12 dollars, | 12,000
Books, Stationary, &c. for 45,000 children, at 25 cents annually, | 11,250
Clergy, 200 at 300 dollars each, including salary, wood and parochial expences, | 60,000
50 Vacant churches, hire of occasional preaching, estimated, at 100 dollars each, | 5,000
Repair of high ways, estimated at 2d. on the pound on the Grand List—about, | 40,000
Poor, about 100 dollars to each town, | 10,000
Expense of 10,000 Newspapers circulated weekly, numerous parish libraries and other articles not specified—say, | 10,000
Total of Public Contributions, | 225,250
Subsistence, including repairs of utensils and buildings, physicians bills, &c. estimated a 35 dollars a head, | 8,330,000
Total, | 8,555,250

REMARKS.

From these estimates, which are founded on the best documents and most judicious opinions that I have been able to obtain, it appears that the total of public contributions in Connecticut arising under the laws of the State (including the expense of books and stationary for schools, which can hardly be considered as public expenditure) is only 94 cents to each soul, or six dollars and eleven cents to each family of 6½ souls.

It appears also that all public contributions under the laws of the State are very little more than one fortieth part of the annual produce. To these must be added the duties of impost and excise paid to the national government, which amount to about one dollar a head throughout the United States. Each family then pays annually to the State and General governments 12 dollars 61 cents, which, on an estate of 1166 dollars, the average value of estates in Connecticut, is a little more than one per cent; or one twentieth of the annual produce.

If to the foregoing amount of expenditures in Connecticut, we add half a million of dollars for the annual net profit of the labor of the State, we shall have something more than nine millions of dollars for the annual value of the productive labor of the inhabitants. This is more than a fifth part of the value of the property, real and personal, of the whole State. The result is, that the whole value of the real and personal property is reproduced in less than five years.

The real estate of Connecticut is stated above at 30,770,000 [Page] dollars; to which add the stock of the farms, 3,600,000, and for the value of utensils of all kinds, 630,000 and the total amount is 35,000,000 dollars. The exports of the State, being principally the produce of the earth, amount to about 1,150,000 or probably something more. The annual exports then amount to a fraction more than 3 per cent of the value of the real estates, stock of the farms and utensils; and nearly to 2¾ per cent of the whole property of the State.

If the value of the whole annual produce of the State is nine millions, and the exports 1,150,000, the exports are a little more than ⅛ of the whole produce; the other seven parts of the eight remain for home consumption.

No. III.

It has been shown that the Inhabitants of Connecticut contribute less than two dollars a head for all public purposes. Let this fact be compared with the state of taxes in Great Britain.

The annual revenue of Great Britain is £16,000,000 sterling or nearly 71,000,000 dollars.

Taxes for the support of the poor £2,000,000 sterling or nearly 8,888,000 dollars.

The tithes nearly £3,000,000 sterling or 13,332,000 dollars.

Total 93,220,000 dollars.

Other public contributions are not known and omitted.

This sum divided among the inhabitants of Great Britain (Ireland is not included) who are estimated at 8,500,000, gives 10 dollars 95 cents to each person, and 65 dollars, 70 cents to a family of six souls.—

This is within a small fraction, six times as much as is paid in Connecticut, where public charges are probably as high as in any State in the Union. If many other public charges in Great Britain are added the calculation will be nearer the truth, and much more in favor of our own country.

The expense of subsistence in Great Britain is there estimated at six pence sterling a day for each person, including all descriptions of people—This amounts to 40 dollars in a year. More than a fourth part of this sum is paid to Government, to the clergy and the poor; whereas in Connecticut the public contributions amount only to 1-18th of the subsistence of each person, estimated at 35 dollars.

No. IV. OF PRODUCTIVE LABORERS.

That state of society and that form of government that render the greatest proportion of the inhabitants productive laborers, are best calculated to make a nation prosperous, wealthy and powerful; and e converso, the greater number of unproductive hands among the people, the poorer and more feeble will they be as a nation, tho individuals may possess immense property.

Those men whose labor adds to the value of property already existing, or produces new and further supplies of commodities, are productive laborers, as husbandmen and mechanics. Those men whose labor or services add nothing to the quantity or value of [Page] property, are unproductive, as clergymen, lawyers, physicians, schoolmasters, officers, students of college, domestic servants, &c. Merchants, by exporting superfluous commodities, for those which are more useful, may be ranked among productive laborers.

From a survey of the inhabitants of Connecti [...]ut, it is presumed there are not 4000 unproductive adults among the whole number of 238,000; which is about 1 to 60.

I know not the whole number of familes in the five southern states in America that possess slaves; but suppose 10,000 such families, which is probably a moderate supposition. In each of these families may be 6 whites and 6 black menial servants, all of whom are unproductive. Of these 12 souls in a family, 4 may be children incapable of much labor; there will then remain 8 adults to a family, or 80,000 unproductive adults in the 10,000 families. If we then suppose all the other unproductive adults in those states to be 20,000, the whole number will be 100,000, which is nearly 1 to 18 of all the inhabitants of those five states. This circumstance alone would make an immense difference between the productive labor of those states, and that of the northern. And this is one principal cause of the poverty of the feudal and Roman Catholic countries in Europe. Princes and nobility, with all their retainers and dependants, together with the regular clergy and an undue proportion of the secular, are all unproductive. One certain pernicious effect of slavery, then is to fill a country with an undue proportion of unproductive people; for the master and all his family become idlers. Not only so, but in America at least, it is a further discouragement to industry, by preventing the introduction of free laborers; few freemen being willing to labor with slaves.

The hire or net profit of a free laboring man in New-England, is 60 dollars a year. The hire of a slave in Virginia, is only 40 dollars, even on a tobacco plantation; yet tobacco is a more profitable article, than the produce of New-England. This circumstance shows the striking difference in the value of the labor of freemen in New-England and slaves in Virginia. The same difference exists in Virginia, for a free white cannot be hired for a year at less than 60 or 70 dollars.*

The average expense of feeding and clothing male laboring slaves in Virginia, is 18 dollars a year, which added to his hire, makes the annual value of his labor 58 dollars. But a laboring man in New-England, at the lowest value of the provision and clothing, consumed by people of that description, cannot be maintained for less than 50 or 60 dollars a year. The whole value of the labor of a free white in New England, is therefore at least▪ 10 dollars a year.† This is upon an allowance of half a dollar a week or very [Page] little more for the boarding of a man, which is too low. It is presumed the diet of every family in New-England, including men, women and children, rises nearly to half a dollar a head. Estimating the board and lodging of a male laborer at 5-6ths of a dollar by the week, which may be safely done, and his hire at 60 dollars a year, and his labor is worth 103 dollars and a third, which is nearer the truth.

When we take into consideration, the first purchase of a stock of slaves, the risk of their life and health, the expenses of subsistence and overseers, with the loss of property by their negligence and thievishness, we shall find this much the most expensive mode of cultivation, A few articles only, as rice, indigo, cotton and the sugar cane, will bear the expenses. But when we add the extravagance and profligacy occasioned among the proprietors by this mode of cultivation, all calculation must cease.

I have said in the foregoing essay, that it is probable the internal consumption of produce in the southern states, is much less than in the eastern and northern.

The estimated annual charge of supporting a male laboring slave in Virginia, is 18 dollars. The expense of supporting children must be much less—but I will include children, and suppose 18 dollars a head to be the annual charge of subsistence and clothing. Virginia conta [...]s 292,000 slaves, who, at 18 dollars each, consume the value of 5,256000 dollars. But the charge of maintenance [...] Connecticut (in other northern states it is nearly the same) is esti [...] ed at 35 dollars a soul. Then 292,000 free persons in the northern states annually consume property to the amount of 10,220,000 dollars. This difference of expence or internal consumption being 4,964,000 dollars, on less than 300,000 souls, shows the difference between the products of the northern and southern states; for it is not supposeable that the amount of the difference is consumed upon the luxuries of a few planters. The expence of maintenance in S. Carolina is much higher, because of the higher prices of provision and clothing; at the same time, the culture of the rice and indigo is much more profitable. The annual exports of the southern states are less than those of the northern, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, by the difference of 720,000 dollars. But taking into consideration, the immense difference in the expense of maintaining slaves, which makes the difference of internal consumption, and there is little doubt that the actual yearly produce of the southern states, in proportion to the number of souls, is less than that of the northern by the difference of 5, 6 or 7 millions of dollars.

No. V. Comparative view of the productiveness of Ireland and Connecticut.

Ireland contains about 3,000,000 people. Its exports amount annually to 3,500,000 sterling or 15,540,000 dollars. Its exports then equal, or rather exceed those of America, in proportion to its inhabitants. But this will not prove the superior productiveness of Ireland, for the home consumption is a material consideration.

[Page] There are in Ireland, according to Arthur Young Esq. who has examined this subject with minute attention, about 2 million of Cottars (cottagers) or peasants, who mostly live on potatoes and butter-milk. They consume annually 60 barrels of potatoes in a family of 6 or 7 persons—a barrel weighing 280lb. and containing about 4 English bushels—A barrel, at an average price throughout the country, is worth 2s7½ sterling; or 3s6 lawful money of New-England. Then 60 barrels at 3s6—10l. 10s. or 35 dollars, which is the principal expense of food for a family.

The cloathing of the Irish Cottars is trifling, the children are almost naked great part of the year—and adults are often without shoes and stockings—suppose the clothing and additional food of a family to be 45 dollars a year, then 80 dollars is the amount of the subsistence of a family of 6½ souls—which is nearly 12 1-3 dollars a head—Suppose it 14 dollars a head then the annual subsistence of 2 millions amounts to 28,000,000.

That this estimate is near the truth is evident from the price of labor in Ireland; which, for a male laborer, amounts, on an average thro the year, to six pence halfpenny sterling a day—Deducting Sundays and three holidays only, there remain 310 days for labor. Suppose every man to labor 310 days in the year; the amount of wages of a day-labourer at 6½ sterling is l. 8. 6s. 11d. or 38 dollars nearly. In two families of 6½ souls each or 13 persons, there will be found 3 male adults—3 female do. 4 young persons under adult years and 3 children.

3 Male adults at 38 dollars a year | 114 dollars.
3 Females do. at 15 do. | 45
4 Young persons, whose labor may be worth on an average 8 dollars each | 32
3 Children incapable of labor |
13 Persons, total value of their labor, | 191 dollars.

Then 13∶191∷2,000,000∶ 29,384,615 dollars, the value of the labor of 2 millions of the peasantry in Ireland.—Suppose them to consume the whole, and call the whole, for the sake of round numbers 30 millions—Then add 20 millions more for the value of the labor of the manufacturing part of the kingdom, &c. (which is much more than the real value) and we have 50 millions of dollars for the annual value of the labor of Ireland, and the Consumption of its 3 millions of inhabitants, which will be the full amount of its products. But the produce and consumption of 3 millions of people in the United States according to the rate of consumption in Connecticut, would be 105 millions. This calculation, it is presumed, is very favorable to Ireland, and corroborates, in a striking degree, the doctrine I have advanced of the superior productiveness of the labor of freemen who work for their own benefit.

[Page]

MANNER of LIVING in CONNECTICUT,

The laboring people eat and drink whatever they please. Their ordinary and constant food consists of pork, beaf, veal, mutton, poultry (they usually eat meat at every meal—but always twice a day) milk, bread, sometimes of pure wheat, but more commonly of wheat and rye, or rye and indian corn mixed together; butter and cheese, potatoes and other vegetables. The common laboring people, worth from 500 to 1000 dollars are as fully supplied with these articles, as the richest nobleman in Europe. They also consume large quantities of tea, sugar, coffee, molasses, and other foreign articles. Their drink is principally cider; but much rum is also consumed. Their cloathing consists of coarse woollen and linens of their own manufacture mostly; with a siner suit for holidays.

Let this situation of the laboring people in Connecticut, (and all the people of the northern states are in nearly the same circumstances) be contrasted with the condition of the slaves in the southern states, and of the poor in great part of Europe; and let humanity and benevolence decide, whether liberty or slavery is the most eligible, and whether a general revolution in the governments of the old world is not a desirable event. If that nation is the happiest, which with industry enjoys a full supply of the comforts and conveniencies of life, then that government and those institutions which distribute and secure to the greatest number of people the greatest portion of these enjoyments, will forever be the best.

Notes

*

Letter from the Hon. Mr. Maddison.

↵

†

To ascertain the exact value of the labor of a hired man, his clothing must be deducted from the foregoing sum—a hired man is furnished by his employer with food and lodging, but he furnishes his own clothing out of his wages. Deduct 20 or rather 25 dollars for clothing, and the actual profit of a [...]aboring man in New-England, is 85 or 90 dollars a year. The same deduction must be made for the clothing of a slave, hired in the same manner.

↵

Information about this book

Title statement

Effects of slavery, on morals and industry. By Noah Webster, Jun. Esq. Counsellor at law and member of the Connecticut Society for ehe [sic] Promotion of Freedom. ; [Two lines from Shakespeare]

Webster, Noah, 1758-1843.

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Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

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Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2008-09.

ID [DLPS]

N20179

ID [TCP]

N20179

ID [STC]

Evans 26448

ID [NOTIS]

APY4662

ID [IMAGE-SET]

26448

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99031814

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Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 26448.

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— Effects of slavery, on morals and industry. By Noah Webster, Jun. Esq. Counsellor at law and member of the Connecticut Society for ehe [sic] Promotion of Freedom. ; [Two lines from Shakespeare], Webster, Noah, 1758-1843..

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56 p. ; 22 cm. (8vo)

Printed by Hudson and Goodwin.,. Hartford, (Connecticut) :: M.DCC.XCIII. [1793]. (Printers' monogram device on title page.)

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