Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-02-23
For the Advertiser.
REVIVAL OF THE SLAVE TRADE-N0. vi.


For the Advertiser.
REVIVAL OF THE SLAVE TRADE-No. vi.
"Tae par must be carried into africa"
There is an illimitable demand at the South
for all sorts of manufactures which we decline
to make for ourselves because We have not tie
Yankee beds-walk upon Yankee carpets-sweep
our floors with Yankee brooms and ride rpon
Yankee saddles. We sit in Yankee chairs to
dine on Yankee tables, out of Yankee Plates,
with Yankee knives and forks. We even
drink water with Yankee dippers, out Of
Yankee buckets, drawn by Yankee pumps. But
lures which we ought to produce at home and
could if We but had the labor-the African Ia
Dor. The success of our negro mechanics in
many branches of hsndicraft is acknowledged
by al, and their fitness to follow variety Of
secondary trades is placed beyond controversy.
Especially may it be predicated of the negro
that ne is susceptible Of becoming an expert in
cotton manufacturing. On the subject of manu-.
featuring cotton, it may be taken tina, no higher
authority can be quoted in the United States
than Mr.. William Gregg, of Graniteville, s. C..
His almost unequalled success in several pur.
y ~
should entltle his opinion to great weight.
Many years ago he wrote a series Of articles
upon cotton manufacturing for the Charleston
Courier, which led to the establishment Of Gran
itevlle. In one of those papers after saying
that the cost of living and Of water power are
cheaper here than at the North-that the raw
cotton can be had here for from one to one and
q half cents per pound less than it can be got
Al. L., .bos hat .h of 81
two is cheaper, free or slave labor, is question
not vet decided by manufacturers at the South.
-4N concur that there is no difference as to capa
6aiy. The only question is whether hired
white labor is not cheaper than slave labor"
"Why not spin as well as plant cotton? The
same hand that attends the gin may work o
carding machine. The girl who is capable OF
making thread OIL country spinning wheel, may
frame. The woman who can work the thread
and weave it on common loom may soon be
taught to do the same on the po,rer loom; and
so with all the departments from The, rasisa..en
TO the cfpth, experience has pr Ned ,s my
t.uoLt N iss Mecks to be expert in any post
of e cotton factory moreover all orersserS ''ho
6au: experience imthe matter giec a decided pre-
-y~~-----1--
Mr. Montgomery, the very worthy and intelli
gent superintendent of the Graniteville Factory.
also says in his treatise on the cotton Manufac
factures of the United States compared with
those of Great Britain,
"If the experiment of slave labor succeed in
factories, as is confidently expected, the cost of
manufacturing the cotton into cloth will be much
less there (W. S. than any where else, so that
it will not be surprising if in the course OF few
years Mr.. Montgomery wrote near 70 years ago.
those Southern factories should manufacture
coarse cotton goods and sell them In public mar
kets at one half tie price III uhich they arc man.
vtactured IN England"
Considering our other advantages if our black
slave trade had been left open, like the white
slave trade of the North has been, since lSOS,
it is almost demonstrable. that cotton goods
could have now been manufactured at the South
and sold in the public markets at one half the
price, st which they are manufactured in lold)
England" or in New England. Labor ID all
that is lacking, to do it yet. 1t may have been
in part, the fear of this competition in cotton
manufacturing by means of slave labor, that SO
suddenly abolitionlsed England, and hat has
made her such an inveterate foe to the slave
trade May not our cousins Of the North have
been Influenced somewhat by the same M )tive?
Is there nothing significant in the fact that Alo'
ltion rose pui passu with the rise of British
cotton manuf;,ctures-that it did the same in
our Northern States, being purely political
question there now. After laborious and anxious
reading to discover the controllin. ca'tscs of
Abolition, have deliberately arrived at the con-
c'usion that its nlainsoring in m)liig Tie
masses--lhe popular fuel which has ever fed its
fires until recently, was the fear that the South
would n.anmta;ture rs well as make her cotton
with slave labor. Now that the slaves of the
South cannot supply the demand for even the
raw material much less compete with England
in manufacturing it, thorough change, if not
an entire revolution in public sentiment is ta-
king place in England, not only in regard to the
institution Of slavery, but in respect to the slave
trade itself.
Manchester now instead Of apprchending the
rivalry of Southern slaves in manufacturing cot.
toni actually alarmed, lest the abolition cru
sade instigated by HERSELF but which our stupid
countrymen of the North are ut This time preach.
ing against US, shall succeed in its fell purpose
Of destroying slavery as we'll as the supply of
cotton from the South. To be prepared for the
destruction of cotton culture at the South-for
the ruin of cotton manufactures at the North,
and for the overthrow Of Republican Institutions
in this country, whose example is sapping the
very foundations of Royalty and Nobility, not
only in England but throughout Europe, are the
probable motives which actuate England in
coionizing Africa and making apprentices of
Africans, Including those which she captures in
the slavers of other Nations. When did England
release a captured African and restore him to
home or liberty? Will any man living ssy she
has done so within ten years? If yea, chal-
leuge him to the proof If the evidence be
called for it can be established that she has made
apprentices with which to grow cotton, or tropt.
cal product, wanted by the United States and
Europe of all the negroes she has taken from
Brazilian and Cuban traders. The "London
Cotton Plant" an American Newspaper publish
ed in the British Capital, on late occasion de-
fed the Authorities to deny it. They plead
guilty, but justified their course upon the ground
that it was the only way to ciyilize the negro.
She inflicts but nominal punishment on her
own citizens for engaging in the slave trade.
Why is this if she has ever honestly intended to
suppress the traffic among her oicn people, as
we'll as among the citizens of other States? Nor
are the merely nominal penalties Of her statutes
against it ever enforced. When did England
punish any of her subjects for participating in
the trade which she formerly berated with such
vehement deaunciation? Tell u.s. Mr.. Greedy