The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-07-21

=
emit.
Mr. Carey does not notice the statements
which may be found in YIELDS "Slavery as il
ISL (pp. 81, SO, 3s,) concerning the waste OF
life in the sugar culture of Louisiana. They
are to this effect The Agricultural Society OF
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in its report published
in 1929, Estimates that the annual net loss OF
slaves over and above the supply by propaga-
ton, amounts to ttoo and haB per cent The
Hon. Josiah s. Johnson, q member of Congress
from Louisiana, addressed letter to the Secre-
tary of the United States Treasury in 1880, in
which he also estimates the annual decrease OF
the slaves on a plantation at tao and half
per cent.
Mr.. Clay, in 1884, stated to Mr.. Birney that
he believed the births among the slaves of the
far Southwest were not equal to the deaths;
and that of course, the slave population, indie.
pendent of immigration from the slave-sell-
ing States ,pos not sustaining itself. And MIR.
Samuel Blackwell, formerly of Jersey City,
who had abundant opportunities for observing
the sugsr-making process in Louisiana few
years since, frequently stated to his acquaint-
ances "that the planters generally declared
to him that they were obliged so to oyerwork
their slaves during the sugar-making season,
from eight to ten weeks as to use them up In
seven or eight years For, said they, after the
process is commenced, it must be pushed, with
out cessation, night and day; and we cannot
afford to keep a sufficient number of slaves to
do the extra work at the time OF sugar-ma-
king, as we could not proftably employ them
the rest of the year"
Such facts as these statements contain, may
admit of some explanation which will abate
their force, perhaps, though we are not able to
mitigate their import, or avoid their apparent
effect We notice them, to put competent per-
sons upon inquiry, but they do not fatally affect
Mr. Carey's figures The fact of the great
growth in numbers of our slave population has
an intrinsic weight which our hostility to the
system cannot indispose US to allow. But we
interpose here the remark that we have not
now the time and space to discuss its value,
as an element in the judgment which it is
offered to affect
In the chapter devoted to Emancipation
in the British Colonies" our author presses
the evil report of its workings to the worst
concluding very confidently that the measure
has not tended to the advancement of the ne
gro in numbers, wealth, happiness, or civiliza-
ton. Waving, for the present, all exceptions
to this apprehension of the results of Enamel
nation in the West Indies, and accepting his
own views of the respective conditions of the
negroes in those colonies and in our Southern
States, it seems to us he has furnished very
strong reasons for treating the experiment OF
British philanthropy, if it really has turned
out failure as in no respect discouraging to
the like measure among us.
The contrast between the two systems, the
ifference resulting to the subjects of the two
systems-British and American-we have
never seen so forcibly presented before; the
the difference in the vital statistics of the two
regions is but fair measure of the differences
in the condition, capacity, and prospects Of the
subjects respectively, and just as far as suoh
difference obtains we are logically released
from all apprehension Of like evil consequences
admitting them as alleged in the islands
from the abolition Of Slavery in the United
States. We quote somewhat largely, for the
purpose of presenting this important point;
"It will now be seen that the course of thing
il the two COMMITTEES Has been sHsIr SId d bs
cherished as q source of profit; here it haG
been made the subject of repeated protests or
the part of several of the Provinces and had
been by all but two prohibited at the earliest
moment at which they possessed the power t.
do SO. Virginia passed six several acts pro
hibiting the foreign slave trade before the
Revolution, all of which were vetoed by the
British Government In the Islands it wa
held to be cheaper to buy slaves than to raise
them and the sexes were out Of all proportion
to each other. [Two-thirds of the slaves i'm
ported, says Macpherson, were men Here i'm
portation was small and almost the whole in.
crease, large as it has been, has resulted from
the excess Of births over deaths. In the Islands
the slave was generally barbarian, speaking
an unknown tongue, and working, with men
like himself in gangs, with scarcely chance
for improvement. Here, he was generally O
being born on the soil, speaking the same Ian
guage with his owner, and often working in
the field with him. with many advantages foi
the development of his faculties. In the Islands
the landowners chung to Slavery as the shee,
anchor of their hopes. Here on the contrary
Slavery had gradually been abolished in al
the States north of Mason and Dixon's line
and Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Ken
, lucky, were all, at the date OF Emancipation
in the Islands, preparing for the early adoption
Las lnrk 90 ,Ao ,ro hnl.t
I'VE let this pass also for SO much bearing a,
the truth it contains has upon the point in
D question. la the Islands, the connection with
Africa had been cherished as means of oh
tanning cheap labor, to be obtained by foment.
, ing discord among the natives Here on the
contrary, had originated a grand scheme for
Z carrying civilization into the heart of Africa
: by means of the gradual Transportation OF
: some Of the already civilized blacks In the
= Islands, it has been deemed desirable TO carry
out the European policy of preventing the Az
, ricans from arriving at perfection 10 the art
OF preparing their cotton, sugar, indigo or
3 or other articles, from fear Of interfering
: with established branches Of commerce else
where Here on the contrary, efforts had
had been made for disseminating among them
the knowledge required for perfecting them
selves in the modes of preparation and manu-.
facture. In the Islands everything looked
toward the permanency of Slavery. Here,
everything looked toward the gradual and
gentle civilization and emancipation Of the
negro throughout the world'-Pagss 10, 20.
The difference of Governmental policy in
the two systems, and its effects, will be felt in
the following presentment Of the British sys-
tenn, which the reader can contrast with our
own:
Manufactures were 30 entirely interdicted
in the West India Colonies from the date of
their coming under the crown of Great Brit
ain, that the colonists were not permitted even
| to refine their own snrar aud sfilI Iass 10 cor,