The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-02-28
d. c..
THE POOR WHITES Of THE SOUTH.
BY GEORGE VI. WESTON.


Be the IN the dangers the evils OF slavery oil our
own We compel ask. 10 share them with
Lsf.r 81 Har1soad ~ 5 C. 70 Thomas Garrison.
The number OF shareholders in the slave
STATES of this Union. as ascertained by the CEN
sus returns Of 1850, was three hundred and
iorty-srven thousand five hundred and twenty
five. An average Of FIVE persons and seven
irnths 10 a family, as assumed by the Superin-
tcndent OF the Census, would give $3.50, 1874 as
the number Of persons interested as shareholders
in their own right, or by family relation The
whole number of whites in the slaveholding
Siaies being 6,222, AIS, the slaveholdns pro-
portion IS fraction short of 81 per cent.
The Superintendent OF the Census, Professor
DE Bow, says OF the number, 347 ,525, returned
as shareholders
Tho number includes slavehircrs but is excIu-
sye of those who interested conformity with 9th
ers in slave property. Tho two will about balance
each other for the whole South and leave the slave
owners stated.
Where tao party owns slaves in different Coun.
tics in different States, he will be entered moro
than once This will disturb tho calculation very
tics"
The addition OF those who are " slave-hirersn
merely, 10 the category Of slave owners, must
think. swell their number much more than 1t
Is diminished by the exclusion Of " those who
are interested conformity with others in slave
property" Such instances of conjoint interest
will occur most frequently in the family rela-
lions, already taken into the account, when we
multiplied the number of shareholders returned
by five and seven tenths. A comparison of the
returns from Maryland, the District Of Column
bra, and Virginia. where slave hiring is much
practced, with Alabama. Mississippi. and Lou
sians, where it is less practced, shows the fol-
lowing results:
Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Co
luinba, with J66,5S3 slaves, return z, 5S4
slave-owners. Alabama, Mississippi, and Lou
isiana with S97 ,J3l slaves, return rs .0Sl slave
owners. The relative excess of save-owners
returned ia Virginia, MARYLAND, and the Distric,
oil Columbia, must be attributed, IN part. to the
inclusion of a relatively larger number of
"slave-hirers." Upon the whole, it may safely
be concluded that AT least seven tenths of the
whites IN the slave States are not slave owners,
either III their own right or by family relation
The number of white males in the slave States.
aged twenty one years and upward, in 1850,
was 400, 1872.
Considering that the number of 3i7. 525. re-
turned rs slave-Owners, is subject TO some de-
ductons, and considering that OF the slave
owners many are females and minors, il is
probable that not exceeding one fifth of the
white male adults of the slave States own
slaves.
The nom laveholding whites of the South.
being not less than seven tenthS of the whole
number OF whites, would seem 10 be entitled 10
some inquiry into their actual condition; and
especially, as they have no real political weight
or consideration in the country and little OPP
portunity 10 speak for themselves | have been
for twenty years reader Of Southern news
papers, and reader and nearer OF Congression-
al debates; but, in all that time. do not recol-
al
holding whites referred TO by Southern gentle
men, as constituting any part OF what they call
' the South" When the rights Of the South,
or ITS wrongs, or IFS policy. or Its interests, or
ATS institutions, are spoken Of, reference is always
Intended 10 the rights. wrongs, policy, interests,
and institutions, OF the three hundred and forty
seven thousand Shareholders. Nobody gets into
Congress from the South but by their direction:
nobody speaks at Washington for any Southern
interest except theirs. Yet there is at the
South, quite another interest than theirs en-
bracng from two 10 three times rs many white
people; and, we shall presently see. entitled
10 the deepest sympathy and commiseraton
IN view of the material. intellectual, and moral
priva,ions 10 which il has been subjected the
degradation 10 which it has already been
reduced, and the still more fearful degradation
with which IT rs threatened by the inevitable
operation OF existing causes and Influences.
From paper on g Domestic Manufactures
in the South and West" published by NJ
Tarver, Of Missouri, in lS47, make the fol
lowing extracts:
"Thc free population Of the South may be ivided
into two classcs-the Shareholder and the onslave
holder am not aware that the relative numbers
of these two classes have boon ascertained in
any OF the States, but am satisfied that the nom
Shareholders far Outnumhcr tho acknowledgements |
haps by three to In tie southern portion
oftasregon, the non shareholders possess generally
but very all means, and the land which they pos
is almost universally poor and so sterile that
scanty subsistence is all that be derived from it's
cultivation; and the more fertile SOIL being in the
possession of the STAKEHOLDER, must remain out
of the power of those who have none
This state of things is great drawback and bears
heavily upon and depresses the moral energies of the
poorer classes. The acquisition of a re-
spectacle position in the scale of wealth appears so
difficult that they decline the hopeless pursuit AID
many of them settle down into habits of idlencss and
become the almost passive subjects of all it's conse
quences And lament to say thst 1 have observed
Of late years that an evident deterioration is taking
place in this 2ar3f the population, tho younger por-
tion Of IL being less educated less Industrious and in
every pon of view less respectable than their
tors 1t is, in eminent degree the in
forest of the stakeholder that a way to wealth and
Responsibility should be opened to this part of the
population and that encouragement mt should be given
to enterprise and industry: and what would be more
likely to afford this encouragement than the intro
duction of manufactures, = = To the slave
holding class of the population of the Southwest the
OF manufactures Is not less Interesting
than to the slavehoding class. Tho former pos
sess amost all the wealth of the country The pres
orvation of this wealth is subject of the highest
consideration to those who possess it,
This picture is distressing and dscOuragiE;
distressing, IN that II exhibits three fourths of
the whites OF the South substantially destitute
al property, driven upon soils so sterile that
only scanty subsistence is ob,anable from
them, depressed IN moral energies, finding the
pathway TO responsibility so difficult that they
decline the hopeless pursuit, ceasng to strug-
gle, and becoming the almost passive subjects
of the consequences of idleness; discouraginp.
in that il exhibits tins great bulk of the white
population growing worse instead of better,
evidently de,eriorating, and its younger portion
less educated, less industrious, and in every
point of view less respectable, than their an
cestors.
In the January number. of 1850, of De Bo,r's
Reric,r, an article on ".nanuf features IN South
Carolina" by J. III. Taylor, of Charleston,
Is. Co. from which make the following ex-
tracts:
There is, 10 some quarters, natural jealousy of
the slightest innovation upon established habits and
because an effort has been riade collect the poor
and unemployed white population into our new fac
tories, fears have arisen that some evil would grow
ont of tho introduction of such establishments among
Let u.s. however loos at this matter with candor
and camness and examine all its bearings, before
determine that the introduction of profitable indus
try will endaDger institutions. The
poor man has a vote well RS the rich man. and in
our State the number of the former will largely
balance the latter So long these poor but indus
degrading operation of work with the negro upon the
rIsuxafi0u. thew content endure life in its