Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-08-18
Prom tho Ohio Press.


Competition with Slaves.
The free white laborers who compose
almost the entire population of this State,
have no desire to injure in any way the
black slaves Of the South But the princi@
pie Of sell. representation has taught US to ex~
clude from our fres State, those beings who
have become hopeIessly degraded by slave
ry, and whose presence amoBg as can
only bring harm 10 all parties: At least
this is the theory of our laws. The Free
white mechanic does not so much fear the
competition of these blacks, as thnt he q
unwilling to associate with the base and
vicious. For it is only those who can OBJ
tain no guarantees for their good condscts
that are excluded by our laws. This is the
theory of the law; for in practice all have
been admitted, until here in Columbus and
in other parts Of the State, we begin 70 see
how great an eyilt is for two distinct raees
to live together.
These reflections have been suggested
by noticing that the white workmen in
some extensive iron works in Virginia,
have refused to labor if slaves are 70 be
employed any longer in the same estab-
lishment. They will not submit 70 such
entertained by oil freemen. The follow
ing from the Commercial Advertiser, pa
per printed at Apalachicola, in Flerida,
speaks the sentiments of that class of per-
sons at the south, who are not the Propri-
etors Of slaves. They must remsWRer also
that the disposition is increasing amoz< IS
''to prevent the migration Of freed slaves to
work as laborers." Let those who lhaye
clung to this curse still keep it, and not
drive it upon us, as the Governor of Vir.
ginia proposed to do last winter. Here il
what the Advertiser says:
"We have advocated, ana we shall con.
tinue to urge, the passage of law to pre-.
vent the migration to this place from
Georgia and Alabama Of slaves TO work as
laborers, taking the bread out ofthe mouths
Of the whites. We desire to encourage
the honest, Industrious whites from the in.
terror of the State to come and settle in our
city, and perform the labor now done by
foreign negroes, many of whom are a curse
to the community. 1t is an evidence of q
want of that feeling of sympathy which we
should possess for our own color, that while
many honest industrious white men and
women in our city are unable to buy de-
cent raiment, and can scarcely make two
ends meet in the matter Of bread and meat,
there are in the city negro men and wo-
men revelling in plenty, who flaunt by US
on Sunday, shining in their gay attire,
turning up their noses at those they call
poor white folks We have had applica-
ton made to US, and through us to others
for work, by white men and women, to be
enabled 10 get food for their children, which
they had sought in vain, whilst we could
look out from our windows upon the habi-
tations Of negroes who were surrounded by
every comfort, and whose dress surpasses
that of almost any white laborer or white
laborer's wife in the city"
The same print says Of the practice Of
employing slaves rs mechanics or work.
men in factories: >-
''To adopt the course proposed would be
more suicidal to our native State, Virginia,
than to any other Of the slave holding por.
+, ton of the confederacy- would check
the emigration that is now peopling her
worn out lands with IN educated and intel.
ligent body of farmers from the free States,
and from Europe, and would defer indefi-
nitely that great measure, in which every
farseeing Virginian feels deeply interested,
the gradual emancipation of the slaves; a
measure fraught with happiness and great
ness to the odd Dominion and which will
inevitably result in her elevation in the
scale of the confederacy to that eminence
which she is entitled to occupy by her geo.
graphical position, extent of territory, fer
tilty of soil, and the meteorological charac-
ter Of the State. But for the Southampton
insurrection, and the cursed fanaticism of
the northern Abolitionists, emancipation
would have been recognised by law ere
this in Virginia, and we have no doubt but
that such policy will yet be established,
and that ere long, unless the project Of en-
ploying slaves as mechanics in preference
to whites, tends to defer it,