Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-03-12
The Slave Exodus-ItsResults

IS CdtCuldttu W tACllc HOi only the re-
mark of the editor in quest uf an item,
but also Of the editor in quest of a solu.
ton to a great economical problem. For
in this migration Of the blacks from slave
territory to British dominions, i~s.contain-
ed a fact whose statistics will afford food
enough for the Speculation in figures as
well as for The philan,hropi.t and the
Statesman. -
The freezing we OF the Ohio river
has greatly facilitated the escape of
slaves. Almost daily it=is announced
that FIVE. ten, fifteen and twenty blacks
passed overatsuch a point, effecting their
exodus safely. Slave-owners, upon the
whole line bordering on tie Free States,
arc alarmed, and the utmost vigilance
is used to apprehend the runaways; but
to very little purpose; for the sagacious
negro, excited by tbefever. of the hegira,
and willing to risk all in the dear race
for liberty, is not to be easily entrapped;
hence it may be said that nine out of
every ten who make the attempt effect
their final exit from the soil which has
SO long held them in bondage. Should
the Ohio remain frozen for another
month, the loss to the Slave States will
foot up to alarming figures, and some
other relief will be required, than the
Fugitive Slave law to preserve to Slavery
its working force and repay the loss al
readyssufered. sr4l suae5I1 20 3
But the present rush for Canada may
be regarded as extraordinary, being in
duced by the tsmpting highroad furnish
ed by the frozen river; and its facts will
hardly serve as a basis for calculations
TO run through a series of months
If. as is asserted, from thirty to fifty
slaves per day now escape, The ratio for
a year would effect a serious diminu-
ton, amounting to a partial depletion Of
the border counties, and would entail
such a loss of capital.-each sound negro
being worth from $500 to 1OOO-as must.
eventually bankrupt the owners, This
is 1t is true, a contingency not likely to
occur in the brief period of n or two
years. But there is the incontestable
evidence ofan average arrivalin Canada
of twenty slaves per day througha whole
year, and upon this figure calculations
may be made which will show how the
Slave account Of the border States, Vir-
ginia, Kentucky, Delaware and Mary.
land, will stand upon the ledger. ltis.
now estimated that 10000 fugitives are
already in Canada, chiefly ofthe class of
able.bodied men and women. These at,
home, would average in value $1,000, or
at least $500, summing up $24, 600, 900
the absolute loss TO the capital chiefly
of the four States named. Put add to
this, there are still remaining in the Nor
them States, as servants, &C., about six
thousand negroes, who, not, fearing pur-
suit, have not crossed into Canada
These, at $1,000 each-a low figure for
first class slaves, as the runaways almost
uniformly are-would add Sc, OGO, 600
more-making the aggregate at this
lime, at the lowest calculation, $50, O0O,-
600 which slave owners have to lose, and
for which they have no resort.
Now, the rate of escape to Canada av-
erages twenty persons, taking the figures
of 1856 as a basis. This would give for
1856, 1900 persons-which, at $500
each, would add So, $40, 900 per year
in the four States named are to suffer in
direct loss. But, from present prospects,
the number of runaways will be vastly
during this, than any previous
year, and thus the threatened depletion
is of a character 10 startle not only slave
owners, but TO arrest the attention of anti
men, from the ultimate results
it promises to The cause of freedom
For, is if not clear, that. with such a drain
upon their industrial resources, the bor-
der States cannot long sustain the deple-
ton? Let there be a single failure of the
maize or tobacco crop, and the planters Of
those States feel the loss more, sensibly
northern farmers would feel the fail
ure fthe wheat crop, because they have
a large number of slaves to feed and
while their means of doing so are
cut off. Let this failure run through q
successive series of years and what a re-
suit would followl A scene of destitu-
ton aud insolvency, which no pen might
And yet nearly as great a loss,
in a monetary view, threatens in this
annual escape of dollars locked up in the
slave. Six millions per year, drawn
from the industrial resour-
ces of the four States named,-principally
from Virginia and Kentucky,-can but
bring about a state of affairs which will
materially alter the relations now exis-
ting between master and slave, between
free labor and bond, between South and
Let us look at this matter still farther.
The total slave population of Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, in
1850, the date of the berth of the Fugi-
tive Slave act, was TIC, 166. The in
crease for tie previous decade had been
SO, 515 slayes--little over 5000 per year.
Now, if as shown by the previous State
the loss suffered is 1000 per year,
it will be seen that the actual decrease
Of slaves is rendered certain. Blu con-
slider also the fact that many thousands
Of the ''ugly" and restless blacks are
South ''fer a market" to prevent
their escape, or their sowing trouble
among the rest of the negroes, and we
perceive that there is an ene,it-
able abolition in store which no Constitu-
lion or Fugitive Law can arrest. What
must be The, result? The soil must be
Tiled, and resources developed, and free
labor will be called iG:-the doom
Of Slavery in those States will then be
For, once leG in the entering
wedge of free labor and slavery is riven
1t is not only a question Of
ime, how long it shall larry, by the
avs of those states; but its opera
ion is fast becoming restricted and its
hated influence is diminishing even upon
is own soil, for the want OF victims to
leep it alive.
We might carry out this argument
md chou haU if tho North i trT,a 10 Il.