The Delaware abolitionist. (Wilmington, Del.) 1847-18??, 1848-12-31
LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF THE
UNITED STATES.
STATISTICS AND HISTORY OF SLAYER
BY THEODORE PARKER.

STATISTICS AND HISTORY OF SLAVERY.
n l will first call your attention to The Statis-
T., tics and History of Slavery. In 1890 there
| lwere but 697 497 Slaves in the Union in
1910. 2,487,35 At the present day their
number probably is not far from 1000, 000-
In 1890, Mr.. Gerry estimated their value at
$4,000, 900; in 1910 Mr.. Clay fixed it at ST.
\ 100000 They are owned by a popua-
n ton OF perhaps about 100000 persons, and
represented by about 100000 voters.
At the time of the Declaration Of Indepen-
dence Slavery existed in all the States; it
\gradually receded from the North. In the re-
Iigious Colonies of New England it was al
. ways unpopular and odous. II was there
seen and iet 10 be utterly inconsistent with
the ideas and spirit of their institutions, their
Churches and their State itself. After the
Revolution therefore it speedily disappeared
here perlshing by default, there abolished by
statute. Thus il successfully disappeared IRON
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire
New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey
BY the celebrated Ordinance of 1887, involun-
lary servilnde. except as punishment after
legal conviction Of crime, was forever prohibr
tied in Tie NORTH West Territory. Thus the
new States, formed in The Western parallels,
were, by the action OF the federal government,
at once cut off from that institution. Besides,
Eastern States, who had neither habits nor
principles which favored Slavery Thus Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and
Iowa. have been without any legal slaves from
the beginning.
In the South the character Of the people was
different; their manners, their social and po-
litical ideas we're unlike those of the North.
The Southern States were mainly colonies of
adventurers rather than establishments of men
who for conscience sake fed to the wilder.
ness. Less pairs were taken with The ednca-
tion-ntelectual, moral, and religious the
people. Religion never held so prominent a
place in the consciousness of the mass as in
the steraer and more austere colonies of the
North In the Southern Slates-New Jersey,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas,
and Georgia,-Slavery easily found ooling
at an early day. II was not at all repulsive To
the IDEAS the institutions and habits OF Geor-
gia and South Carolina. The other Southern
States protested against it;-they never
Consequences follow causes it is not easy
to avoid the results of first principle. The
Northern States, in all their constitutions and
social structure, consistently and continually
tend to Democracy-the government OF all,
for all, and by all ito equality before the
State and it's Laws; TO moral and political
ideas of universal application. In the mean,
and social structure, as consistently tend ID
Oligarchy-the government over all, by few
and for the sake of that few Ito privilege,
iayoriusm, and class-legisation; TO conven-
tonal limitations TO the rule of force, and
inequality before the law. In such state oil
things when Slavery comes, it is welcome.-
In 1887, South Carolina and Georgia refused tc
accept the federal Constitution unless the right
OF importing Slaves was guaranteed to them
for twenty years. The new States formed ID
the Southern parallels-Kentucky, Tennessee
Alabama, Mssssppi-retaining the ideas and
habits of their parents, kept also the nstitu'
tlon of Slavery.
At the time Of forming the Federal Const.
tuition some of the southern statesmen were
hostile to Slavery, and would gladly have goi
rid Of it. Economical considerations prevailed
in part, but political and moral objections to il
extended yet more widely. The Ordinance OIL
1887, the work mainly Of the same man who
drafted the Declaration of Independence, pass
ed with little opposition. The proviso for sur
rendering fugitive slaves came from northern
hand, Subsequently opposition to Slavery, ii
the north and the south, became less. The
culture of cotton, the wars in Europe creating
a demand for the productions of American
agriculture, had rendered slave labor NOR