Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-06-17
FREE sr.Acxs I'M SLAVE STATES.

rel IN cincinnati yesterday.
FREE BxACRs IN SLAVE STATES.
The free blacks in the Slave States constitute
an element in their domestic economy which
gives them no little trouble. In most of the
States the statute books are loaded with enact
ments for the regulation - Of this numerous
class, and while in all -of~thcm some of the
provisions Of these laws are stringent. harsh and
cruel, perhaps necessarily So in a few recent
legislation has been in the highest degree dis
graceful and barbarous as for instance, in Ar
kansas, where all free blacks are banished from
the State within the period of one year OR in
case of failure or refusal to leave are sold into
perpetual slavery. The same measure has
al other Southern States, but to their honor be
it said we believe none other than the one re-
ferred to has adopted it.
Maryland has a larger proportionate free
black population than any other State in the
Union-their number exceeding 10000. A
convention of Shareholders, representing every
county in the State except two, met at Balti-
more on the 10th inst, for the purpose of devil
sing measures for controlling this portion of
the population of the State, the existence of
which is very justly regarded as inimical to the
interests of slavery. Among the delegates
were some of the most distinguished men Of
the State, and the discussions were regarded
with great interest by all classes, especially by
the free blacks themselves, of whom more than
half the entire number in the State are 10
Gated within the city where the convention
met. A number of the ultra fire-eaters from
the Eastern Shore, and the extreme southern
counties, where slavery exists in all its pristine
vigor, were boisterous in demanding that the
free blacks should be expelled from the State or
sold into slavery, and denounced them as utterly
thriftless, dissolute and dishonest, and a curse
to the entire community. They were met, how
ever, by the moderate men of their own sec
ton, and the. delegates from that portion of
the State where slavery has little more than a
nominal existence. and in the end, as the reso-
buttons adopted show, moderate and humane
counsels preva lied. During the discussions
Mr.. Earl denounced the proposition to Danish
or enslave the free blacks as = monstrous " and
=" not to be entertained by a considerate body
Mr.. Dorsey said . the proposition TO make
slaves of the free was monstrous and worse
than the African slave trade Hon. 4. r.
Sellers said " the adoption of such a PROPOSE
ton would shock the moral and christian
sense, and damn forever those who adopted it"
Hon. j. A. Pearce said THE PROPOSE
ton to make them remove or go into slavery
was like the election of the highwayman who
demands of the traveller his money or his life
and the decisive majority by which the ul-
ira resolutions were voted down and the State
thereby saved from the ineffable disgrace their
adoption would have cntailed, shows that
these declarations reflected the sentiment of
the great body of the convention, shareholders
though they were. The committee which re-
ported the majority resolutions, headed by
Senator Pearce, also took the following sensi-
BILE and humane view of the matter
"The existence of so large a number of free
blacks in the midst of a slaveholding State is
believed to be of itself an evil, and this evil is
readily perceived to be greater when it is con-
sidered that a portion of them are idle, vicious
and ~unproductive. This, however, is not the
case with the majority of them, and their re-
moval would, as the committee believe, be a loss
far greater. than all evils the people of Maryland
ever suffered from them. In the city of Balti-
more, it is estimated that there are more than
rs 1000 of them, employed chiefly as domestic
servants or as laborers III. various departments
of industry. In many of the rural districts of
the State, where labor is by no means abund-
ant, they furnish a large supply of agricultural
labor, and it is unquestionable that quite a
large portion of our soil could not be titled with
out their aid. In some districts they supply al
most all the labor demanded by the farmers.
Their removal from the State would deduct
nearly so per cent. from the household and ag-
ricultural labor furnished by people of this col
or, and Indispensable to the people of the State:
would produce great discomfort and inconven-
fence 10 tHe STtdt poiS VI hoUStnoldcrS would
break up the business and destroy the property
of large number of landowners and lnnd-rent-
ers-a class whose interests are entitled to as
much consideration as those of any other por-
ton of our citizens would be harsh and op-
pressivc to those people Themselves would VIC
late public sentiment, which is generally not
only just, but kindly, and would probably lead
to other evils which the committee forbear to
mention. We are satisfied that such q meas
ure could not receive The legislative sanction,
and would not betolerated by the great body
of the people of Maryland, even with that sane
tion- The committee therefore cannot recon-
mend their expulsion from the State. Still
more unwilling should they be to favor any
measure which looked to their being deprived
of the right to freedom which they have &C