CHAPTER XXVI.

- Acknow

Visit to Virginia.-City of Alexandria.-Natural advantages of the State of Virginia.—Its comparative position in the Union now, and at the period of the Revolution.-Supposed effect of slavery on its population, its annual produce, and its school instruction. ledged evils of slavery in Virginia.-Slave-breeding.—Annual value of this produce to the State.-Profit of human stock to the rearer.— It yields more to the State annually than all its tobacco and cotton together.-Free-coloured people a source of anxiety.-Idea of sending them out of the country.-Establishment of the Colonisation Society. -Republic of Liberia.-Coloured people shipped to it from the States. Colonisation Society a failure.-Grants of State Legislature.

"" Maryland in Africa."-Action of the State of Virginia.-Mr Webster's offer.-Mr Clay's plan for emancipation in Kentucky.— Laws against the free-coloured in Kentucky and Illinois.-Influence of Liberia in repressing the slave trade.-Recent action in Virginia. -Moral influence of the North over the condition of slavery in the South.-Prospects of the slave power in North America.-Increase of sugar culture in Louisiana.-Extension of manufactures in the southern States.-Employment of slave labour in the factories.-Its influence on the future condition of slavery in the States; and of our operatives at home.-Free-soil Germans in Western Virginia.— Influence of this class on the future state of slavery in the southern States.-Coast survey of the United States.-Smithsonian Institution at Washington. Its founder and its objects.-Promotion of science by the general and State Governments.-Reserves of land for the purpose of State geological and mineralogical surveys.-Free evening lectures at the Smithsonian.-Female freedom in Washington.-Bales of domestics.-Huccum.-Speaking and doing for political capital.-Great noise about trifles.

JAN. 31.—I spent this forenoon in steaming a few miles down the Potomac, and in paying a visit to the town of

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ADVANTAGES OF VIRGINIA.

Alexandria in “Old Virginia.” The day was fine, the river broad and beautiful, and the town of Alexandria well built and clean. But though in the “old dominion," it presented in its streets, houses, or public buildings, no marks of such antiquity as could carry one quietly back to other days, before the bustle and noise had come in, and the incessant novelties of these feverish times.

And yet Virginia is rich in subjects of reflection, and the contrast of its past and present condition is full of instruction,

When the Constitution of the United States was adopted, Virginia was the most powerful State in the Union. Its population was double that of the State of New York, its wealth greater, its political influence predominant. It has alone given to the Union five of the thirteen chief magistrates who have hitherto filled its, presidential chair.

Virginia is also, with the exception of two or three of the newest States of the Union, the most extensive in

It contains 70,000, while New York contains only 47,000 square miles. It enjoys a delightful climate, possesses a fertile soil, is rich in minerals and timber, has magnificent rivers descending from the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies eastward to the Atlantic, and westward to the Ohio, and rivals in its harbours the safest and most capacious in the world.

Since the Union it has increased in wealth and population and power, but it is no longer the first in any of these respects. In all, it is now surpassed by each of the three States—New York, Philadelphia, and Ohio. For the last twenty years its population has been comparatively stationary; and while new towns have been springing up everywhere throughout the latter States, only on a few spots along its borders is this mark of progress visible in Virginia.

It is not to be overlooked, that something of the more

area.

EVIL EFFECTS OF SLAVERY.

353

rapid progress of the three States I have mentioned, is to be ascribed to their position in the direct line between Europe and the north-western States, and to the tide of emigration and commerce which flows through them, enriching and increasing all interests as it rushes along. But the main and most really influential cause of the difference in the present relative position of Virginia, is ascribed to the existence of slavery, the gradual exhaustion of its virgin soils, and the consequent unprofitableness of slave-labour.

In proof of the evils ascribed to slavery by the committee of the New York State Legislature—“that it degrades labour, paralyses industry, represses enterprise, exhausts the soil, perpetuates ignorance, and impoverishes the people,” it is stated by them

First—That in 1790 the population of Virginia (748,000) was double that of New York State, (340,000;) while, in 1840, the population of New York State (2,500,000) was double that of Virginia.

Second—That in 1800 the population of Virginia was in the proportion of 11.9, and in New York of 11.7 persons per square mile, while in 1840 there were in the latter 49}, and in the former only 18.6 persons to the

square mile.

Third—That the annual products of New York amounted in 1840 to the value of 79 dollars for each individual, while in Virginia they were estimated only at 62 dollars, and

Fourth—That, in the primary schools of New York, there were 500,000 pupils, and in those of Virginia only 35,000; while of persons who could neither read nor write, there were less than 70,000 in New York, but upwards of 500,000 in Virginia.

These facts prove that in the one of these States, compared with the other, population has been restrained,

VOL. II.

z

354

SLAVE-BREEDING IN VIRGINIA.

progress retarded, production lessened, and ignorance increased; and the differences are ascribed by the Legislative Committee of the State of New York to the natural tendencies, respectively, of slave labour and free.

I believe there are no people more sensible than the people of Virginia themselves, of the evils which the system of slavery imposes upon them. I travelled for some distance with a slave-holding farmer on the James's River, in Virginia, who owned a thousand acres, which he cultivated with the aid of fifty slaves : wheat was the principal article of produce which he sent to market, and he could barely make the ends of the year meet. This state of things is very much the same as that which prevailed on the banks of the Hudson River, in New York State, twenty-five years ago, before slavery was abolished, and labour ceased to be considered a disgrace to the white population.*

One of the most melancholy results of the system of slavery in Virginia, especially since slave-labour ceased to be profitable within the State itself, is the attention which proprietors have been induced to pay to the breeding and rearing of slaves, and to the regular sale of the human produce to the southern States, as a means of adding to their ordinary farming profits—as a branch, in fact, of common rural industry! One of the representatives to Congress from Virginia, in a pamphlet on the slavery question recently published, says, “ Virginia has a slave population of near half a million, whose value is chiefly dependent on southern demand.” And the gentleman who states this fact is a defender of the system !

“ In plain English,” said Mr Stevens, one of the members for Pennsylvania, when commenting on this statement before the House — "In plain English, what does it mean? that Virginia is now fit to be the breeder,

PROFITS OF SLAVE-BREEDING,

355

sary to do

not the employer of slaves—that her proud chivalry are compelled to turn slave-traders for a livelihood. Instead of attempting to renovate the soil, and by their own honest labour compelling the earth to yield her abundance - instead of seeking for the best breeds of cattle and horses to feed on her hills and valleys, and fertilise the land, the sons of the great State must devote their time to selecting and grooming the most lusty sires and the most fruitful wenches to supply the slave barracoons of the South! And the learned gentleman pathetically laments that the profits of this greatest traffic will be vastly lessened by the circumscription of slavery. This is his picture, not mine." It seems a very cool thing to calculate the actual

profits of such a branch of husbandry, and yet it is neces

so, that the reader may see the nature of the hold it is likely to take on the planter's mind.

The highest price obtained for Indian corn by the grower in Virginia may be stated at half a dollar a bushel ; and the highest allowance of food to a grown slave at 16 bushels of this corn a-year. Suppose a slave to be reared and kept for twenty years with this large annual allowance, when full-grown, he would have consumed less than 300 bushels of corn, and would have cost for keep less than 150 dollars. His labour, meanwhile, would far more than pay for the little clothing he obtains, and other small expenses, and his master would sell him for 200 dollars or more. Thus he would obtain the highest price for his corn, work his land with the young slaves, and receive, besides, a premium of at least 50 dollars a-head, as interest upon his capital invested. Hence, if there be a ready market for slaves, this business will be a most profitable one to the individual breeder.

Again—the number of slaves in Virginia is diminishing. In 1830 it was 470,000, while in 1840 it was