The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-09-27
SLAVE VS.. FREE LABOR.

us corporate capacity, IS Shareholder, and
hnds it cheaper to construct railroads, dig ca
mails, drain swamps, throw up dykes, on the
banks of the Mississippi, by the compulsory
labor of slaves, owing allegiance to its Elk
chequer, than by the payment of wages to free
men. In other words, it is found cheaper to
impress labor than to pay for it; which may be
regarded as remarkable discovery in political
science, and deserving the attention of political
economists. We respectfully call the attention
Of DIR. WAYLAYn, and other writers of his class,
to the subject, and trust that he will add new
chapter to his valuable treatise, embracing this
new development of political knowledge.
But we doubt whether, as a system, it will work
WE'LL or that it will tend to keep the Exchequer
full The system of Louisiana puts a premium
upon the introduction of slaves into the State,
and discourages the voluntary immigration of
freemen; and since it is the presence of large
free population which renders canals, railroads,
and other improvements, valuable and profit
able, it is clear that policy which depresses
and discourages this class must be unwise,
however economical it may be. Without free
men, there can be no thriving cities and towns
no commerce and manufactures. Slaves are
only fit for the rudest forms Of labor, because
| they have nothing to stimulate them to the ac-
quirement of skill; and hence it is we observe
in those portions of the South where the proper
ton of slaves is the greatest, the fewest and
smallest towns, and the slenderest proportion
of labor devoted to the mechanic arts.
Nothing could better illustrate the complete
subsection of the poorer classes of white men
in Louisiana to the shareholders, than the APP
pearance of this public document, giving the
preference to slave over free labor. There
were, in 1850, 2j5, 49l white persons in Louisi-
ana, Of whom 20,6l0 own or hire slaves.
There were at the same period, 49,lOl free
families in Louisiana. Allowing that, of the
class of shareholders, $3.50 are either hirers, or
minors, or single persons boarding, there will
remain fifteen thousand families having slaves,
which, taken from the total number in the
State, leaves "a, l0l families of freemen, which
own no slaves, and the members Of which are
dependent upon their labor, in some form, for
n living. The policy of the State, in preferring
slave to free labor, is not only degradation,
but a serious injury to these, for the most
part, poor families; and nothing but the reign
of terror, which Slavery everywhere establishes,
could prevent them from combining to put
down the odious monopoly. 1t is mockery to
call that a Republican Government which toll
crates Slavery. 1t is essentially an aristocratic
despotism Of the few over the many, and the
name of Republican is but a mask of hypoc-
risy. The poorer classes of the South have
suffered themselves to be deuded and cheated
out of their rights by the shareholders, by the
bugbear story that Emancipation would de-
grade them to the level of free negroes, when,
in their present condition, they are beneath the
level of slaves. The slave, at any rate, is fur
nished with coarse food and clothing; but the
selfishness of the shareholders would deprive
the poor free men Of the necessaries of life.
All through the South-for the evil is by no
means confined to Louisiana-the labor of
slaves is preferred to that Of freemen, not only
on the plantations, but on the public works.
The wealth and influence of the shareholders are
everywhere an overmatch for the poor freemen,
who are never employed until the demand for
labor is beyond the power of the plantations to
supply. The planters never, if they can help
themselves, employ poor white men or free ne
groes to work by the side Of their slaves, until
driven to it by sort of pecuniary necessity.
Both of these classes are looked upon with sus-
picion, and avoided, as far as possible. They
are alike charged with corrupting the slaves
by trading" with them; that is to say, selling
them whisky and other articles, for grain and
meat, stolen or "taken" from their masters.
1t must be confessed that there is much truth
in these charges, in the more dense slave dis
trcts, and it may be regarded rs one of the
worst features of Slavery. The shareholders
appropriate Ito use mild phrase) the labor of
the slaves without recompense, and the latter
stealthily take back the accumulated fruits of
that labor without making proclamation of
their intentions. The course of the superior
class may be more honorable and "high-
minded but we by no means think it the
more just. The poor whites and the free ne
groes, being denied the employment which
capital owes to labor, become, in too many in.
stances, degraded and vcious-necessary re-
suits of ignorance, idleness, and poverty. That
their vices should "plague the inventors" is
but the retributive justice of Providence. 1t is
one of the marvellous arrangements of the
divine economy, that the victims, no less than
the authors of tyranny and misgovernment,
are involved in the moral degradation which it
generates; such is everywhere found to be the
case. 1t is not only in the South, but in the
free North and in Europe, that we witness vice
and villany in the poor as the fruits of tyranny
and selfishness on the part of the more favored
classes, whose duty it is to provide education,
religious training, and remunerative employ
ment, for all, at any sacrifice of ease and
wealth.
The reason of the law of Providence, which
involves all in a common veal or woe, is per-
haps traceable to that higher law of our nature,
which makes every man a morally accountable
and responsible being which holds every ra-
tional human being, no matter what his disad-
vantages, responsible for himself, and for his
| example upon his fellow men. 1t is thus that
the greatness of the individual man is never
more conspicuous than in the moral and intel
| lectual degradation of the mass. If he were
less than immortal, the goodness of Providence
would save him from a degradation which
seems not sef-imposed; and he would at least
| be permitted to commence his career, free from
an accumulated weight of hereditary vice and
folly. "The brutes that perish" come into the
world each with one "talent," instinct, which
is neither improved nor perverted from genera