Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-02-28
From the Richmond (vse) Examiner Of Jan. Esd.
TIP FREE NEGROES OF The SOUTH TO
RE EXILED OR ENSLAvED


It Is no longer q subject of doubt whether free
negroes ought to remain in q slaveholdipg commu.
nifty. With o few merit,rius exceptions, they are
idle, kvagabond, incorporates, dishonest, indolent.
They belong exclusively to the class Of CONSUME
ers, and hang ms q dead weight upon the body po-
lite. They are not only q heavy charge upon the
public economy in this manner, but, FREQ in the
presence of the slave, idle by the side eff the in.
voluntary laborer, having liberty of egress and
ingress among a population itself denied free To-
connection, they at once excite discomfort by their
exam pie, infame the spirit Of INSTRUMENTATION by
their conversation, and present themselves as the
ready Instruments of correspondence between
plantations and of general organization when
ever the spirit of discomfort and insubordination
are ripe for open rebellion among the slaves.
Non.freeholders, they are unfit for employment
in agriculture and if engaging in the mechanical
trades and the higher departments of manual la
Dor, they justly offend the self respect of the i'm
portant class of whites laboring in those pursuits.
The law does not prohibit them from acquiring
land, and yet, by a sort Of natural destiny, they
seem incapable of becoming owners OF the soil; bar
ring a very lew exceptions which prove the gener-
al rule. There is no instance, in our knowledge
OF the free negro population, Of a successful free
negro tiller of The soil. Ii accident places him in
possession of land, it gradually dwindles under
ms tenure into the wood grown patch, which has
been the curtllage of the negro in two continents,
and for as many centuries. 1t has been no more
ordained for the African without a master to till
the soil, than Tor the wild Arab or the Aboriginal
Indian. And hence, nothing can be more anomal-
Gus, economically, than the free African in an Az.
ricultural community.
lie is as unfit for the mechanic arts MS for aeri.
culture, wanting the power Of combination. Of
accuracy IN measurement and calculation, Of men.
tai concentration and physical application, which
are the essentials in mechunicism. Our whole ex-
perienoe Of him in the trade has never produced
n single instance of q master workman his high.
est success in this department of industry, show
ing him nothing more than n tolerahle jobber, or
a respectable botch. Besides, as we have said, to
encourage him in the trades, is to wound the self
respect Of one Of the most sterling and respecta
BILE classes Of our white population, and to drive
all of these, but such MS are without manly pride
OF character and occupation, from ouy commune
~. Hence, nothing could be a greater anomaly in
the economy of q community made up in part Of
citizen mechanics, than a population of free ne
groes employed in the mechanical trades.
The free negro therefore, must needs live a vag-
abond life in the rural districts, performing occas-
ionally the mental Offices for tho whites for which
the slaves are abundantly adequate; or collect
about the towns and villages to Ierform those Of
fees of mental urban service to which the slaves
are not adapted--and of prostitutions which pay
the highest temporary emoIument and entail the
deepest and most enduring degradation. Thus,
too, it is that in performing these mental and in
famous Offices, the free negro presents an ugly
economical anomalJ-a putrid, noisome sore upon
the face of our society.
The truth is established in the conviction Of ev-
cry intelligent being, that the African race, ex-
cept as slaves acting by compulsion of a higher
will, cannot sustain itself as q constituent element
of civilization, and when individually released
from bondage and set free upon civilization, hangs
as . dead weight and lastens us q gangrene sore
upon the general system.
The condition of the free negro population it's
self calls for u change in its social state, no less
urgently than the general good of the white and
slave population demands some radical measure
booking to the extinction of the class in our midst.
And thus, the only problem for solution is how
shall our social system be rid Of this pop uiation.-
Plainly, there are but two modes of effecting the
riAasacs-those of sending all Of them of who
shall elect to yo-and selling those who remain,
70 resssrs tie free negro to 20 North. is only to
require that Of him which the North encourages
mis- brother and neighbor among the slaves to do.
The North are not.injured by his emigration thith-
er, az they themselves testify, by enti,ing our
slaves into the same step. The free negro goes
from a community in which he is felt and feels
himself to be a nuisance, and which labors inces-
sanity to spew forth, to a community which wei
comes his race with open arms. AMI seems to wor-
ship the color Of his skin and the curl of his hair.
If he refuses to ~emigrate to the more hospita-
Die North, then there is no other alternative left
under the reasoning in the premises but to sell the
free negro into slavery. The Commonwealth has
already asserted her right to sell him into bondage
by authorizing his sale for Jail fees and other
debts to herself. The principle has thus been long
ago asserted and acted upon, so that it is only the
expediency of the measure which is left to. be deter
mined. There are So, 900 free negroes in the State
the sale of whom would produce in the public
treasury $50, 900, 90, subject to deduction in pro-
portion to the number who should voluntarily en-
igrate to the North. There are 23S, 1877 free ne
groes in the Slave States which is almost one
tenth as many as their whole slave population
Their sale and employment ii in the culture of cotton
would enhance the wealth Of the South immeas-
urabIy and do much towards extending the cul-
ture of that staple into new regions or domain
where now it is not prosecuted for want of slave
labor.