The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-04-28
WASHINGTON,D.C.
MANUFACTURING IN THE SOUTH.
THURSDAY, APRIL %, 1859.


The Philadelphia Inquirer undertakes to
show the utility and feasibility of conducting
manufactures on an extended scale in the slave
holding States. 1t says:
1--WE know of no single measure which we
should more ike to see carried into effect than
the establishment of manufactures in the South
ern States And this, for reasons alike special
and general, for the benefit Of those States
themselves and for the country at large.
I" But can manufacturing industry be there
prosecuted. e., can the requisite means, ma
Ierials, aad facilities, be had there
"Why not, we ask? Why should not the
South produce cotton fabrics at all events, and
these not for home consumption solely, but for
foreign supply, if need were? Look at present
modes of proceeding, and tell us if they are
authorized by any principle of political econo-
my?"
In reply TO these inquiries, we would point
the Inquirer to the fact that the idea of intro
ducing a system of manufactures in the South
is no new one. 1t has been frequent and
habitual theme of newspaper discussion in the
Southern States for the last quarter of century,
and not few manufacturing enterprises have
been undertaken in the South, which have been
tories have been established, and we believe
that where they have been well managed, they
have become profitable investments. But still,
the South is not manufacturing country, and
cannot be while Slavery continues. The main
difficulty is the want Of capital; and there are
others which result from the inferiority Of slave
labor.
Slavery abstracts nearly all the capital in
the Southern States. There are now some four
millions OF slaves, which, at five hundred dol
lars each, are worth two thousand millions Of
dollars This is not far from half the wealth
Of the slaveholding States, and it is a great
deal more than half the value of those por-
tons of the South in which Slavery chiefly
abounds The North is far weather. than the
South but if an equal portion of Northern
capital were sunk in the purchase of four mil
lions of negro slaves, its capacity for manufac-
turing as well as for commercial enterprise
would be materially lessened.
To invest capital in human beings is to sink
H. SO far as its productive capacity is concerned.
The human being will work for day wages, and
hence it is not necessary to invest a thousand
dollars in him as slave If one hundred
thousand dollars will set one hundred freemen
at work in a factory or on a plantation, then
two hundred thousand will be required where
slaves are employed and owned by the manu-
facturer. Ii will not mend the matter to say
that the manufacturer need not own the slaves
he employs-that he may hire them for, if
the laborers lie owned as property, their value
must be deducted from the capital of the COM
munity which is available for investment. We
are not maintaining, now, that the owners Of
slaves are not as well reimbursed in profits
upon their investments as those who employ
free labor. Let it be conceded that Slavery is
profitable to the individual stakeholder, and
stil it is a dead loss TO the community. The
profits which arise to the STAKEHOLDER, as such,
are merely the wages which should be paid to
his slaves and it is clear, that to take the fruits
Of one mans labor, and confer them upon
another is not to add to the aggregate produc-
ton Of the community.
Property in slaves is therefore wholly unpro-
ductiYe. Slavery is merely a monopoly. 1t
simply robs the laborer of his wages, and turns
them over TO his master, but it produces moth
ing. Where slaves are employed in any indus
trial enterprise, it is not their value which is
invested in it. but their food and clothing for
the time being, merely. These constitute the
wages of the slave, and these are necessary in
vestments; but the investment of thousand
dollars in his ownership is not necessary, be-
cause the laborer viii work without being
owned. This investment, therefore, though it
may secure profitable monopoly, or privilege
of appropriating another mans earnings can
produce nothing-or, in other words, add moth
ing to the common stock.
We think that the correctness Of these prop
ositions cannot be disputed by any one who
will take the pains to reflect for few moments
and if they be correct it follows that the COM
munity which establishes or tolerates Slavery
gives encouragement to an investment of cap
ital, which, however profitable it may be to the
individual, is runous to the public prosperity
The property in slaves in this country has
not been acquired without the same outlay Of
labor and capital as other property. 1t is nc
easier to get possession of a hundred slaves
than of the same value in other forms yet, as
we have seen, this property, now amounting tt
two thousand millions of dollars, is utterly with
drawn from the productive resources of the
South-utterly sunk, in other words
We will further illustrate this position by
surprising that the whole slave population were
suddenly removed, and that their places were
supplied by equal number of free white la
boring people, such as inhabit the free State,
of the North. This supposition disencumber
the economical question of any connection witt
the questions regarding the condition of tn,
negro, his fitness for freedom, and his readi
ness to perform voluntary labor for wages, oil
his own account. In the case supposed TIL
South would have all the land, all the money
houses, fixtures, and personal property, othe
than slaves, which it now has; and there woul,
be as many hands to labor, as many mouths t
feed, and as many backs to clothe, as now; an,
we will not dwell upon the fact that these FIRE
Iaborers would be stimulated by the prospect G
bettering their conditions in life, which slave
cannot indulge. What, we ask, under such Gil
cumstances, could prevent the South, thus free
from Slavery, without compensation to tn
Shareholders, from producing as much as
now can with slaves? Two thousand million
of property would be destroyed by this trans
formation, and yet the South would remain
with all It's present resources The two thou
sand millions taken from the shareholders woui
be restored in the four millions of freemen VIII
own themselves, and who are worth that sum