The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-10-23
slavery North and South.

remarks we made respecting recent meeting
at Lowell, Massachusetts, against the Fugitive
Slave law thus: )
. 1T will thus be seen that the Press" at
tempts to sneer down and ridicule the sympathy
of the people of Lowell, by asserting that they
tolerate and uphold system OF slavery In the
factories of that city worse than Southern slave
ry! 1t is strange that q man OF ordinary lnteili-
gence and common sense should make any such
attempt to parry the effects OF a great evil
There is nothing in common in the comparison.
Slavery as It exists in the South is n thousand
times more hideous than the worst forms Of fac
tory life. The 'igh to separate husband from
wife, parent from child; to sell either of them
to the slave driver to be taken to the rice fields
of Carolina, or the sugar plantations OF Louisl.
ana and Texas, never again to see or hear OF
those left behind all this is revolving to hui
manity, repugnant to the feelings OF all classes,
and should not be tolerated if it can be avoided.
81 But how is it at Lowell! Is there any thing
of this kind there? Is any one OF the seven
thousand" girls of Lowell dragged from her
home against her will! Is she deprived of per
sonal liberty? Is she prevented from visiting
her friends, or communicating with them! Can
not she leave her employment at any moment
Is there any analogy between all this and slave
ry?
If the separation of husband from wife, and
parent from child is relied on, to show that the
evils of Southern slavery are greater than OF
Northern, the argument will fail.
In the State of Massachusetts there are
about fifty thousand women employed in facto-
ries-some seven thousand in Lowell alone
AS the class thus employed consists chiefly of
young unmarried women, between the ages of
fifteen and twenty five, it comprehends more
than three ourths Of The ma'riageable 'oonaen OF
the State. These are separated from their pa
rents and are collected into factories from every
part of the State. Now if there be any period
of life after infancy, when parental affection is
dear, when ilial affection is deep and warm, it
is at the time when daughter is blooming
into womanhood, and when she begins to repay
by ministcring to parental infirmity, her obliga-
tons for parental tenderness and care. And If
there is any time in life, when parental COUNSEL
guidance and sympathy are important to daugh-
ter, it is when she enters on that delicate, anX'
ious, tempting, yet joyous and hopeful season.
And yet, at this very period, the institutions
of Massachusetts, separate the daughter from
mother and father, brothers and sisters and con-
sign her to distant factory-to work in pol
luted atmosphere promiscuously, with such as
can be hired everywhere-to work thirteen hours
day-without liberty to see friend or
relative without the consent of the employer
to be boarded in house owned by the en-
ployer Or controlled by him, prohibited after the
long days work is over from seeing any one
without the consent of the employers house
keepcr-and this for one, three, five, ten, fifteen
years. When we were at Lowell and asking
the girls about the nature of their employment,
the only one of whom we happened to ask on
that point, told us she had been working there
thirteen years!
Such is the separation of parent from child.
AS for the separation of husband and wife, the
system of Massachusetts is worse than that
1t prevents or postpones the relation itself.
How can the seven thousand young women
of Lowell marry? The men are not there to
marry them. The consequence is, that marriage
in Massachusetts in an unusually large number
of cases. nerer occurs, and in all that do is post
poned on an average to period several gears
later than in the South, among either black or
white And thus the period of life most favor
able to matrimonial connections is lost, is spent
in labor, in seclusion, in privaton.
Is this separation of parent and chi.d-of
maiden and lover, voluntary? Then the rela-
4. =. 10 ,,aka II
evil of much moment when compulsory. But
it is not voluntary 1t results from the want Of
food and clothing, want which is more i'm
perious and relentless master than is to be found
at the South.
1t is a refinement of torture to put prisoner
in reservoir, and require him to pump to keep
himself from drowning. 1t is true he may VOL
UNFAIRLY quit pumping and drown. So in Mas
sachusetts they may voluntarily renounce this
separation of kindred and sexes-and starve.
AS for the extent of the evils respectively, we
don't believe that there is as much separation of
husband and wife, parent and child, in all the
South from slavery, as in the single State of
Massachusetts.
Besides oil this, 1t must be considered mat
the relation of husband and wife is not generally
respected by the negro race anywhere. We
published evidence not long ago, that in Hayti
there were almost no children born in wedlock.
As for the cruelty of Southern masters to parent
and child, such is the cruelty of the negro parent
to its child, that the master interferes much Of
tener to prevent that than to outrage feelings of
parental affection; for, as is obvious, the mother
is seldom separated from young children. There
is seldom a motive for it.
Short speech from MIR. Webster.
At Boston, a few days ago, Mr.. WEBSTER was
invited to attend the launch of ship which
bore his name, and his counterfeit presentment
as its figure head. They made it necessary for