Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-03-02

that cheap labor was an advantage to the North,
because it enhanced the interest of the owner
of the soil, and then false comparison of cases.
which are not analogous led him to assume that
cheap labor in the South would be q benefit to
the South. And as dense population, an in
creased number of laborers in the North makes
labor cheap-so the African Slave Trade would
increase our slave population, and of course
make slave labor cheap. That was tie process
Of his reasoning.
Well, that the African Slave Tradewill cheap
en- the labor of the slaves in the South l shall
not only admit, but shall attempt to assist in
proving. But that such result would be Il
benefit to us, 7 shall utterly deny. That it
would be benefit to the North and to Europe,
nay, to all the world except the South, / am
ready to concede-but the benefit to them
would be at our expense. 1t would be like low
wages to the free laborer, q benefit to the en-
poyer and to the consumers Of the product,
but death to him.
Now, would it be supposed that this Report,
after saying so much about the population and
cheap labor at the North, and after attributing
the prosperity of the North to these causes, and
the less fortunate condition Of the South to the
absence of these favorable elemcnts-nav, after
presenting these as the advantages to be rcaped
from the Slave Trade, would turn round, and in
the next breath deny that the Slave Trade
would reduce the price Of our negroes? Tic
idea of reduction of negro labor, however, the
author very naturally supposed wunld strike the
minds Of shareholders uuIavoraLly, and heal
ing argument is offered to prove that the impor-
tation of chtaper jorm of slave labor from AZ
rica would not affect tue price Of our native
slaves. The argument has become quite current
among the advocates of the Slave Trade policy,
and as it is intended to meet very formidable
objection, and can find it in no more authori-
tative shape than in this Report, will quote
the words, and examine into tue reasoning:
"It may, perhaps be objected" says this
document, " to the sufficiency Of this argument,
that if the Slave Trade shall furnish labor cheap
er, it will lower the price of slaves, and thus,
therefore, that it will inurc one class Of inter-
ests as much Us it will benefit another But
this is not the operation. 1t will give cheaper
form Of slave labor. There can be little doubt
that it will furnish slaves that arc competent to
many of the under-ofiices of life at 4 figure
much below the present range Of prices, but
thcse will not come in competition with the
slaves at present in the country. Those whu
own slaves now will be the first, perhaps, TO
buy them. Though not competent to do the
business Of educated slaves, they will yet be
able, under the direction o. educated slaves, to
do the business which would else require bet
ter class of labor, and lciltout there should be
reduction in the price Of Southern staples, the
trained slaves cannot be less valuable than they
are, and with this want of them to guide and
regulate the African it is possible that they may
cone to even higher rn!uo."-TErs L lno-1rfruS,
ment on that point, and it is followed by Ia
bored attempt TO SHOW that cotton would not
be materially reduced, &C., to which shall ad.
vert in its proper place.
Now, this argument, if sound one, has over
matched the objection it was intended to meet,
and it actually results in the conclusion, that
tue negroes now in the country may he rendered
more valuable by becoming tho regulators or
ovcrscerS Of tue imported Slaves. And that
argument will strike at another very respecta-
BILE class Of our Southern peoples interest, the
orerseers; and it will be necessary for the au-
thors Of this Report to show that it will not
drive them out OF their employment, to make
orerscers CT the negroes now i'll tue country.
They find themselves just here, in very seri
GUS difficulty. leave them to settle it the
best way they can with that useful and rcspec-
table class of our people. But let us suppose,
that the supposition here made wonld be true
that the imported negroes would be bought
principally by the owners Of the native Slaves,
and that the wild negroes would require to be
guided and regulated by the educated negroes
in the first place, it would hardly be possible
for the slave-holding planters of the South to
buy enough Of the Africans to employ their
present force altogether as orcrseers. Some
now work fifty hands, some one hundred, and
some five hundred; it would require a pretty
heavy purchase to employ all these or any con-
siderable portion Of them as orerseers, unless it
should turn out, as it did with the monkeys
| who were employed in picking out cotton, and
placed under negro regulators-tcn monkeys to
| the negro-whsn it was soon asccrtaned that
it would take at least ten negroes, and they the
best "cducated" of the race, to regulate one
monkey! And, again, unless these wild slaves
should be very hard to train and educate, this
could not remain long, unless it is intended to
keep wild ones enough, freshly imported annu-
ally, to keep the native negroes engaged in their
Offices Of training and guiding. And, it is to be
supposed, that after q while these Africans
would become trained, and rise to the higher
"otfices of life"-thcn would the accession to
the number of educated slaves from this source
have no tendency to reduce the price Of the ma
tive negroes?
This whole argument proceeds upon most
absurd assumption. 1t assumes that the intro
duction of an inferior and cheaper form CT
slave labor, will have no tendency to diminish
the demand for the better class Of nesroes."
Why, if this cheaper class of negroes will an-
swer the purpo.es Of tue Southern man, he will
Of course buy them In preference lf they are
useless, It Is M argument Aglilist their Wpnrta'
tua Mt all, md II they afe Capable Of be'ng
rendered available labur"rn III the cotton, rice
and susar planta,l ull, Of the s,uth, which tho
adHotatps for their intFnducti;tr1 must heliefe,
5r else they Would not tsSiFs tlett i;lipotteI- -
then; OF corirst, they will stppy the great de-
iiand foF s!Gfc lal,of, which, With these srntlr-
men, is Regarded as 50 crying a Complaint in tue
South. If they will not supply that demand,
then the remedy they have prescribed will not
answer the purpose for which it is proposed. 1t
is most singular contradiction to say, that there
is great demand for an increase Of slave labor,
and to propose the re-opening of this traffic Tor
the supply of that demand, and then to say that
it will not diminish the demand, so as to affect
the price of the negroes already in the country.
This logic refutes itself. 1t requires no reply
further than 10 state their several positions to-
gelher, and let them destroy themselves
should say, il the imported negroes arc valua-
bic at all and can be bonght so cheaply, the
result would be that every planters interest
would impcll him to buy them in preference to
the higher priced natives, particularly when it
is remembered that that class who would be
the buyers, according to the admission of the
Report, already, possess educated negroes to
"gude" them. Besides, all the money invested
in Africans would he that much withdrawn from
the market for domestic slaves.
e. Sectariansm is miserable little short
sighted prejudice. 1t makes you hate your