The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-07-24
SLAVE VS.. FREE LABOR.


seems that the owners Of negroes are to con-
adorable extent in the habit Of bringing them up
ss carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, &c, and that
the white mechanics feel themselves degraded by
this competition, at the same time that 1t threat
ems more and more to depress their wages
CoIoREp MECHANICS Mechanics State
Convention was held at ATLANTA, Georgia, on the
Atb instant. at which about 500 delegates were in
attendance The report then adopted asserts
that the employment of negroes IN the mechanic
arts is policy Of very questionable Propriety III
the South
There ia nothing surer than the general intro
duction of manufactures into the older OF the
slave States, and nothing is better proved than
the capacity Of the slave laborer for the handi-
craft required in the production of the staple ar
ticles Of trade Henry Clay said, in 1874 that
q the cotton. growing region was destined, at an
early day, to become the greatest cotton-manufac-
turing region in the world" Mr. Stewart, about
the same time. in letter to Mr.. Peasants, says,
after clearly presenting the facts Of the case,
"Let then, the Southern people avail themselves
of their great and decided advantages in the pos
session Of the staple article and cheaper labor,
enabling them not only to compete successfully
with their brethren of the North, but even to
triumph in a foreign market over the serfs of
Russia and the paupers of Great Britain"
The census of 1880 when published, will verify
Mr. Clay's prediction so far as to insure its early
ful6lment; and the current news Of the day sup
port and prove the opinions of Mr. Stewart 1t
can be demonstrated that slave labor can be had
at sixteen cents per day, original outlay and that
this expense is returned to the owner in the value
of the slaves chsttel children-in other words
that manufacturing by slave labor is in the strict
est sense, labor rthOf rrages.
North Carolina save-lsbor cottons are sold in
Philadelphia, and Alabama Osnabergs have
brought half cent YsSa more in the New York
marcel than Lowefr GOODS OF the same kind
Three years ago the Montgomery Flag and Id
ueytissr announced that the difference In the cost
of hand labor enabled Pratt's factory, which
worked slaves, to produce cotton goods at s1f
cents per yard, which reached the price of 10
cents in the Eastern factories.
From the general fact that the slave system is
destructive, in the long run, to the community
that maintains it, the hasty inference has been
drawn that its labor ia Improbable and unavaila-
BILE in the business of manufacturing. The error
is a very obvious though very general one.
Slave labor is not Immediately Improbable in any
of the departments to which it is mainly appro-
priated 1t is indeed utterly ruinous to the gen.
era prosperity of the State, but this is consistent
enough with its profitable employmen in tobacco,
cotton, and rice growing, as all tho world knows,
and equally consistent with the idea of a like
advantageous employment in any branch Of man
ufactures to which it can be directed Until the
planters lands begin to suffer exhaustion under
his method of culture the STAKEHOLDER makes great
increase upon his invested capital. The prosper
ity of the State, indeed, declines, but the planter
aourishes until the surrounding ruin reacts upon
himself Slave labor in manufactures, may even
have a longer run of exemption ; for the condi-
ditions are somewhat different, because the ele-
ments of production here suffer no exhaustion
parallel to that which blghts the soil in the sta
pie growing business. Machinery is constantly
reproduced out Of the profits Of its own earnings
but land wears out in such way that it cannot be
renewed uy the piuntsr. rrts slaves would eat
him up, while it laid fallow to recover; and he
cannot save it by changing crops. 1t must be in
cessant illage, and cotton or tobacco every year.
Virginia and Maryland show that exhaustion is
inevitable under such system, while Pennsylva-
MIA is making her land yield more and more every
year Which is growing richer at that rate
The mistake of the common opinion in the
North lies in fastening the inference drawn from
a oentury's experience Of slave culture Of the
| 90 ril laho rad in fact nria
where it has no likeness Of conditions in the
points concerned, and therefore no similarity of
issue In all cotton, woollen and iron factories,
slaves can be worked, because they are there as
fairly and fully under the overseers eye as in the
cotton field; and their work is even easier Of in
spection at the end of the day. Ii is easier seen
in the web than in the furrow and the corrective
of ideness can be applied with less expense Of
watching
The conclusion is quite irresistible Slave
labor, in the staple products of trade is perfectly
practicable. Ii is only a question Of time. The
South is to-day not whit more dependent upon
the North than the Union was upon Europe fifty
years ago Her system is entirely within her
control The causes which work against her are
those only which must bring on the millennium !;
and she has power enough to ruin the rest of the
Union before she necessarily explodes with her
own mischiefs
The system has wakened up new antagonism
in its own midst, by that progress Of its policy
which now invades the province of such free labor
as heretofore has been allowed of necessity. The
free mechanics feeling the pressure, and giving
expression to their aroused hostility. We cannot
see the end Of this yet there are so many con-
tingencies open in the prospect. The movement
of voluntary association for the benefit Of their
craft, which is shaping itself into an efficient
force, in the North, is taking place also among
the mechanics of the South as the extracts at the
head of this article indicate The free artisan
must come sooner or later to know that ehdftef
SLAVERY must be followed by wases slavery-that q
bar of iron and web of cotton cloth are OF no
caste, and neither suffer or gain by the prejudice
of color; they lie equal upon the auction block !;
and this equality strikes back upon the labor
which produced them. The nominally free opera
tive, engaged upon the same kind Of labor with
the black slave, must take substantially the same
condition-for wages will run down to the iomen
level, and the humanity Of the worker must run
down with them
Three millions Of people working without wages
will hold ten millions of free men down to the
starving point Chartered rights are DEVILS
mockery Of the laborer whose fortunes and fate
are bound up in the same bundle with the slaves
The Virginia and Alabama mechanics who are
demonstrating now, will have the hard choice,
after a little, of fighting it out or, emigrating.
! The Wilmot Proviso is redemption and deliver