SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH;

What is mr Present Duty to the Slaves ?

B O S T O N :

PRENTISS & DELBND, BOOR AND JOB PRINTERS,

No. 40, CONGEESE STREET.

1862.

SLAVERY THE SOUTH.

A distinguished citizen of Boston, in a recent private letter to a friend in the South, affirmed very distinctly, that it was the clear duty of the authorities, not only to pursue a strictly constitutional line of policy in the con- duct of the war, but to exercise that policy in a conciliatory temper. The writer expressed at the same time, and in equally distinct terms, the opinion that slavery is "that bad institution, which is in fact, the ' causa causans7 of the whole mischief," - which called forth the following reply : -

" I fear that this latter sentiment -viz., that slavery is the ' causa causans ' of the whole mischief - is very gen- erally entertained by even the conservative men of the North : and it is not unnatural that it should be so. For although the editor of the Tribune considers it an unpar- donable reflection upon him and his friends to suppose that they do not thoroughly understand the whole subject of domestic slavery in the South, yet we who live here are enabled to verify, by a constantly repeated experiment, the fact that the people of the North, of all classes, are

not acquainted with the real nature and working of this institution. Of the many thousands of Northern men who come to reside at the South, all pass through an entire revolution of opinion and feeling in regard to slavery as it exists here. Mr. Greeley will very promptly dispose of the whole force of this testimony by the asser- tion that all these men are purchased renegades from truth and honesty. This wholesale accusation of his own kith and kin has this much, and no more, semblance of truth in it, - that the most violent abolitionists in the North, when they remove to the South, become the most venomous traducers and enemies of the section they have abandoned.

But what shall we say of that large majority of North- ern emigrants to the South who never become slavehold- ers ? And shall we hurl the same accusation against the whole of that much larger majority of the Southern people themselves, who never have been, and never expect to be, slaveholders ? Still less does this vile accu- sation touch the testimony of those hundreds of educated young men who come to the South as teachers, for only a year or two, and who, with rare exceptions, return home with their views of Southern slavery entirely changed.

Let me say to Mr. Greeley, that a rapid editorial journey through the South, even with the addition of a caning from some supercilious slaveholder in Washington, is not sufficient to counteract the constant teaching of the current literature of England and America for more than half a century, or to give a fair comprehension of this

large and practical subject. The thing is emphatically a domestic relation, and it can only be understood in all its

bearings by those who are brought into contact with it in

the bosoms of the families where it exists. I t will not, therefore, derogate from the intelligence of any gentleman outside of the slave States, to listen to testimony from one

who was nursed by a slave, whose earliest playmates and companions were slave children, and who has been a slave owner for more than half a century.

Both the remarks of my esteemed correspondent are

true in a certain sense. Slavery is a 'bad institution.'

But this evil is comparative. Slavery has existed every- where, as a stage in the progress of civilization. I t took

the place of something worse -the wholesale slaughter

of the defenceless - and gradually gave place to a better

order of society, as time and improvement permitted.

Slavery is a ' causa causans ' of our national troubles in

this sense only,-that it is the most prominent and in-

trusive dzyerence between the two sections of our common

country; and is, therefore, the most promising subject

upon which the mean and wicked spirit of sectional

jealousy and hate can exercise itself. To this end it has

been industriously used in North and South alike, until it

has become the pretext of the most causeless and nefari- ous rebellion recorded in history. But, in the absence

of this prominent difference, the same low spirit of sec-

tionalism could have employed other causes for mutual

animosity. And two periods of our national history testify

that other pretexts for national disintegration have not

been used ineffectually. New England in 1814, and South Carolina in 1832, found such other pretexts; but

the country was not then ripe enough in wickedness for

the villainous consummation. There is nothing in the

institution of slavery itself to alienate our countrymen from each other. I t is a burden and a responsibility upon

the South, from which the North is happily exempt; but this is no reason for jealousy and dislike on either side.

The purely factitious nature of the prevailing anti- slavery sentiment has just been illustrated in a very

striking way by the English people. For years and

years, the whole British nation has been passionately en-

gaged in inciting the Northern States, in the name of humanity, to a crusade against Southern slavery. For

just so long the masses of the Northern people have

resisted the wicked incitement, and have remained stead- fast in their allegiance to common sense and to their constitutional and social obligations. And now, when the abolition party, nurtured by England, has succeeded in furnishing a pretext for the dismemberment and destruc- tion of our country, and the nation has risen in the terrific throes of a life-struggle to prevent the consummation of

this crime, these same English people are rushing with frenzied earnestness to the support of that war upon American nationality, which bases its whole cause upon the alleged sanctity of the vcry slavery which England had so persistently urged the people of the United States to blot out of existence, as the foulest of offences and the most disgraceful of crimes.

The anomaly of American slavery is its injection into the

bosom of refined and cultivated society in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries. I t is an evil, great and sore. I t is by far the most expensive labor in the world. No intelli-

gent man, as a question of economy, would use slave-labor

where he could procure free hired labor. The experiment

has been tried in innumerable instances, with the same

result, - that the maintenance of the slave, with much

less service, is equivalent to the wages of the free white

laborer. And then there is the clear loss to the owner of

the capital represented by the price of the slave, and

of his support in sickness and in old age.

I t is an evil, because it condemns to permanent caste

inferiority a large proportion of the laboring population,

from which, in better social arrangements, much of the

intelligent power of a nation is continually emerging.

I t is a 'bad institution,' because it tends to nurture in

the children of slave-owners pride, superciliousness, and

contempt for labor, and the dissipation which is the con-

sequence of these vices. I t is a burden grievous to be borne, because it makes

every master and mistress the slaves of their servants,

imposing upon them a weight of care, anxiety, and watch-

ful superintendence, much more difficult to discharge

aright than the same responsibilities towards a large fam-

ily of children.

These are the evils of the institution ; and they are

great enough to have induced the whole Southern people,

before the rise of abolitionism, to long earnestly for the

liberation of the country from the incubus of slavery, whenever the Providence of God would open a way for that liberation. And nearly all men saw in the wonderful precipitation of the European masses upon this continent a preparation, in the slow and stately march of all the Providential government of the world, for the ultimate and safe solution of the problem of American slavery. The increasing numbers of free and energetic white laborers would of necessity, by the inexorable laws of trade, press the inferior and more expensive labor further and further south, until the increasing wealth and power of the whole country would be competent to the colonization of the remnant in the South-American States, or, as the pioneers of civilization, in their own Africa.

But it is not often that God permits an evil to exist long, and on a large scale, out of which he does not bring some corresponding good.

All the evils of American slavery are upon the country, and upon the white race. To the slaves themselves, the evil has been overruled, by Divine Providence, to the production of as unmixed good as seems to be possible in this naughty world.

A race of barbarians, gradually degraded by many thousand years of ignorance and brutishness to the lowest stage of humanity, has thus been placed in intimate contact, and under the constant and authoritative super- intendence and government, of the most enlightened and

civilized race upon the globe. Humanity, religion, and interest, concur to make the cultivated and master race

the friends, protectors, and instructors of the inferior race.

The result of this arrangement is, that, for three or more generations, the physical, intellectual and moral improvement of the negro population has been greater than was ever known before in the history of the world. This process of elevation is going on now continually, and with manifestly increasing rate of progress.

By spontaneous imitation, by constant instruction, and by necessary government, the subject race is coming up,

+- in all the attributes of civilization, nearer and nearer to the master race. Thus, preparation for freedom and self-government is being made, until the time come when these highest privileges of enlightened humanity will be their lot and portion. The most emphatic testimony of modern observation is, that the process of the elevation

I and civilization of a barbarous race absolutely demands the physiological influence of many generations of im- provement, - of upward progress, - reversing the down- ward and deteriorating process of previous ages. This

elevating process has been applied to the negro race in America, under circumstances more favorable for the improvement of a barbarous people than ever occurred before in the history of the world.

If these poor creatures had been turned loose upon the American continent as freemen, subject only to the civil law which regulates the conduct of the most civilized nation, and exposed to the vicee and overwhelming com- petition of that civilization, they would soon have perished,

the wretched victims of crime and misery. But placed

as slaves, under the constant, attentive, domestic guidance

and government of high Christian culture, they became

at once attached, docile, and useful dependents. Every

feature of the new relation tended to their improvement, and produced an improvement entirely unprecedented

in the history of civilization.

While this process of improvement was going on, and

as a part of it, the physical and moral wants of these

people were supplied to an extent unknown by the laboring class of the most favored nations of the old

world. The provision of houses, and home comforts, of

food, clothing, and Christian instruction, of watchful care and tender nursing in sickness, are all upon a scale

of abundance altogether beyond the condition of the

poorer classes, under the inexorable law of the relation

of Capital and Wages. To suppose that this domestic relation could exist

without very great and prominent abuses, would be to

argue against the known condition of human nature. Vice and immorality in the dominant and in the subject

race will manifest themselves in this relation as in every

other. But capricious cruelty on the part of the master is tempered, not only by his interests and by his own better

feelings, but by an exceedingly-sensitive public opinion on

this subject. The repute of being a hard master is a forfeiture of social position. On the large plantations

the discipline is, of necessity, more regulated and syste-

matic, assimilating it to the military service. But nowhere

are rigor and strictness carried to such an extent in the management of the negroes as in the government of the army and navy. On the smaller farms, and in households, the error is in too great laxity of rule. Few masters or mistresses in this position are willing to be at the pains and trouble of governing their servants with the same strictness with which they are impelled by duty and affection to govern their children.

The separation of families permitted by the law, and so much talked about, is reduced to the minimum of domestic unhappiness from this source, by the combined influence upon the masters of kind feelings, conscientious- ness, and public opinion. There are quite as many painful separations in the families of the masters as in those of the slaves. The evil comes from the same source in both cases,- the natural flow of emigration from an older to a newer country. And it is felt quite as strongly and as painfully in Ireland, Scotland and Germany, as in the Southein States.

I t will thus be seen that this 'bad institution' for the country and for the white race, is almost an unmixed blessing to the slaves themselves. Yet this does not

furnish any justification of their original deportation here, against which the Southern States protested. And still

less can it be an excuse for the continuance of that flagitious traffic, by which the barbarism of Afiica would be perpetuated, and the curse of slavery heaped upon America beyond the capacity of the social system to endure it. The rule is universal and imperative, that man

mast not do eviI th3t good may come. I t is the glorious

beneficence of the Almighty Ruler that brings some good out of evcry evil.

This evil was here, upon us, in the very heart of society. The only question left to our determination was and is, what to do with it,-..how to manage it, as the instruments of that bcncficent care of the Supreme Ruler,

so as to bring out of this evil as much good as possible. This question has occupied the minds and hearts of the thinking men of the South for many generations. About thirty years ago, esyecially, it fcccived the most searching investigation.

The Southampton insurrectibn in Virginia was the first fruit of abolitionism. The abolitionists had not then succeeded in making any portion of the Southern people as great fools as themselves. The universal tra- ditional feeling of the heavy burden of slavery upon the land and people then existcd in all its force, and the opportunity of that ferocious outbreak was seized to sce if there was no possible way of relieving the country at once and forever of so sore an evil. The whole subject was fully and unreservedly opened, and thoroughly dis- cussed, with consummate ability.

The problem was to dispose of an uncultured people, constituting the actual laboring population of a country as large as Western Europe. These difficulties wcre patent : -

1. Suddenly to deprive the country of all this productive

labor would be to condemn the whole land to desolation,

and its remaining people to extremest poverty.

2. To remove these people from the country was beyond the competence of the disposable wealth of the

whole of the United States, and would have required the uninterrupted employment of the whole commercial ma-

rine of the country for several years. 3. To remove them in masses to any part of the globe,

would be simply to consign them to misery, starvation

and death.

4. To remove them gradually in any reasonable period

for the accomplishrncnt of the intended purpose, would only be to aggravate these absurdities, by stretching them

over a larger period. 5 . To manumit them, suffering them to remain in the

country, would have nearly the same effect upon the industry of the country as their removal. I t would give

back the land to the dominion of the wild beasts. 6. Such a manumission would be a reassignment of the

whole race to their original savage state, aggravated by

their newly-acquired vices and capacities for evil. The more ferocious would resort to robbery, arson and gen-

eral brigandage; but the greater number would perish from idleness, poverty, filth, whiskey and disease ; in the

meantime constituting a social ulcer, which would render

the whole country uninhabitable by civilized communities.

To accept these evils, or to acquiesce in the domestic

servitude which Providence had permitted to be estab-

lished here, and to submit to all its burdens, losses and responsibilities, were the alternatives presented to that generation; and the same alternatives are presented to this generation.

We cannot tell what work or destiny God has in store for the race thus mysteriously thrown in upon the civil- ization and social order of America. But we may all see plainly enough what is our present duty to these people. I t is to accept the care and guardianship of them, in that only relation in which that care and guar- dianship can be effectively bestowed ; - guiding and controlling their labor, for the common benefit of both races, and imparting to them, as their improving faculties enable them to receive it, the blessing of religious, moral and intellectual culture.

In this subjection of the South to the economical burden of the least remunerative of all labor, and to a

special and weighty charge and responsibility, I can see no cause for antagonism between the North and the South, no excuse for the stupid crime of abolitionism on the one hand, or for the more flagrant stupidity and flagitiousness of this rebellion on the other. I t is a wantonly-urged pretext, and that only, on either side, for inbred wickedness and depravity.

In the Providential movement of the world it is not difficult to see the future extinction of American Slavery. The gradual elevation of the African race, giving them increasing capacity for self-support and self-control, and the rapid increase of free white labor, of superior quality

*

and cheapness, pressing into all the avenues of industry,

must ultimately make this result a necessity. But this

grand Providential solution of a Providential problem is

too slow for the impatient rage of self-sufficient zealots and sciolists. Doubtless these men are ready to rebuke

thc tardiness of the Almighty, in allowing uncounted

ages to pass while the earth was preparing for the habi- tation of man ; and in permitting man himself to live

upon the earth so many thousand years before the advent of his Redeemer.

I

Surely, surely, the Northern people have sense and spirit enough to save their country, its bright hepes, and its glorious Constitution, from wreck and ruin by this '

the most stupid of aH base and senseless sentimentalitics."