The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-30
MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE
SOUTH.

was a maxim Of Mr.. Jefferson, that " the world
is governed too much "a good maxim, IF
properly understood, and he understood it,
but unluckily, the South, while upholding a
tyranny upon every plantation, construed 1t TO
mean that Governments should do nothing to
| promote the welfare Of society, except to pre-
| serve order. The maxim as thus construed ae-
corded well with the plantation system. Every
large plantation is a petty State, or community
in which all the various occupations Of rude
state of society are carried on. The proprietor
| is his own merchant; he sends his crop TO mar
ket, perhaps a hundred miles distant, in his own
wagons, accompanied by his agent, or himself
in person, and, after disposing Of his crop, he
purchases a supply Of sugar and coffee, salt and
iron, negro cloth, hats shoes, blankets, &c, be-
sides articles of luxury for his family. The
iron is wrought into plows, hoes, axes, and
other utensils, by his pwn slaves. The nails are
driven by his own carpenters, and the negro
cloth is Manufactured into clothing by his own
| seamstresses. Every plantation has a cobber,
! who mends. and somttines makes the shoes Of
his felow-slaves. The tan-trough is also a
Southern institution Of immemorial existence,i
in which leather Is rudely tanned for the pur-
pose of patching cd shoes, brides, plow-
gear, &c.
This plantation system begets in the proprie-
tors the pride and logged independence for
which the class Is remarkable, and, coupled
with the jealousy Of interference which natural
IL belongs to those who exercise absolute power,
tbey resist the most obyiously-uselul reforms'
and improvements. Instinct seems to teach
them that even benef4ent changes will gradu-
div undermine and Eventually overthrow the
,ystem of Slavery, and they set their faces
againts all innovations.
We have rather described what the planta-
ton system and the planters were, than what
they are for, in spite Of ignorance, prejudice,
and the pride Of caste, the commercial spirit has
insinuated itself into the South, and aroused
the people To sense Of the utilities of the age.
They have al length become sensible that pro-
gress is essential TO selfpreseryation that with
their utmost exertions they will be far outstrip
ped by free communities; but that something
must be done in order to recuperate the ex-
hausted energies Of the country.
This reaction Of the intelligence Of the South
against its listless pride and ignorance took
place about twenty years ago. Railroads, mac
adamized roads, and plankroads, were con-
s,ructed, the river navigation was improved,
canals were made, and factories were erected.
The effect of these internal Improvements and
manufacturing enterprises is now visible in the
growth of towns and cities. but more especially
in the improved state of agriculture, and the eli
hahced value Of labor and Of laborers. The
value of land has Increased three-iold, and Of
slaves fifty per cent.
The champions Of Slavery have become the
champions Of railroads and Of steam packets;
and the high prices paid for slaves and the pro
ducts of slave labor has deluded them into the
belief that Slavery has received Il new lease Of
evist4nce: that thev have found the philo.o-
pliers stone, whi,h is to make. i perpetual.
They say that in Virginia and the border slave
STATE. the price Of labor and Of slaves i, kept
~ b, the faciliti, which their railroads and
steamboats, give them for intercourse with the
Northern cities and they boast that they have
thus made the North The principal supporter Of
Slavery.
There can b. no doubt that the South owes
It's present prosperity to the causes stated and
We could wish that their prosperity was greater
than il Is, even if the effect should be to en-
hance the value Of negroes still higher. We
have no fears that tie present high prices paid
for negroes will tend to the perpetuAtion Of the
system.
The prosperity Of Virginia may proven, the
emigration or deportation Of slaves for few
wears. but It will not induce the planters in the
Gulf States to leave their more profitable cot
ton. sugar. and rice. culture. to emigratc with
their slaves to Virginia. And on the other hand,
the same prosperity in Virginia will prevent
the emigration Of her white population. and al
tract Northern and European Immigration.
While everything. tended downward in the
South, while the prices Of Southern products
was low. while the prices Of land and negroes
were low, and a ,t,.am Of emigration was con
stantly flowing from Maryland, Virginia, and
the Carolinas. to The Southwest there was no
inducement held out To Northern Immigration.
But the constructioai Of railroads and other i'm
provemeuts created demand for labor: and
while the effect was 70 arrest the tide Of slave
deportation. it at the same time checks the emf
grafton of the poor whites, and draws upon the
Northern hive. Within the last fifteen wears
large district of Virginia, near Washington, has
been reclaimed from waste by clngrants from
the western part of New York. During the
same period thousands of emigrants have pour
ed into other parts Of the State, and the same
thing has taken place, in a still greater degree,
in Maryland. Missouri, and Kentucky. Slavery
has almost ceased TO exist in the northern coun-
ties of Maryland, including the city of Bald-
more. That city now contains about two hun
bred and fifty thousand inhabitants, of whom
less than three thousand are slaves. St. Louis,
Louisville and Wheeling, are in a similar con
dition. Their population is for the most part
foreign or Northern, and they have ceased to
be Southern cities except in name.
Virginia boasts of her prosperity, Of the high
prices of land and slaves, and of her internal
! improvements She boasts that thes. improve
ments have been made by slave labor for the
most part, in proof that Slavery can adapt it.
| self To the new order of things. We are not
disposed to question that the slaves are coupe
tent to such work. or that it tends to improve and
civilize them, by diversiiying their labors but
! it is equally true that the employment of slaves
serves to repress the interests of free labor. and
thereby prevent the growth of towns and cities
! The agriculture of Virginia has been much inn