Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-09-04
Extract from Mr.. RusselPs Letters
The Negro POpusatiOn.

Supposing that there are no apprehensions OF
disturbance from the negro population, the war
can be carried on by the South with less derange-
ment of their social system than will be the case
in the North. The Southerners are fond of call
ing themselves an agricultural people. Their
slaves raise agricultural produce, but, except in
parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, there is, sus-
pect, very little agriculture for which white hands
are directly employed. The lowest orders OF
whites are mechanical: the upper sort superintend
their laborers occasionally, but are generally en-
gagged in the pursuits of rude aristocracy, or in
the more elegant dissipation of continental cities
or Northern watering places and hotels. If the
overseers can do their work usual, all the white
lords and their white dependents can go to the
wars, and corn rice, sugar and cotton will be cul-
Iivated and raised as usual. Unless the North
can spare larger surplus than one would suppose
from he population engaged in its busy industry,
the arrangement of its trade and internal COM
merce will be greater than that which the war will
cause in the South If the negroes occasion any
trouble there is saying how far the difficulties
of the slave States may not go; but at present
they are possessed with a confidence, which may
be blind or far seeing, that their slaves will re-
main quiet If not faithful, and the absence of any
white element from the population of whole dis
tricts is very remarkable.
The spectacle of an uprising of A 1000, 900 of ne
groes in the plantations, burning, rlundering and
destroying the whites, is one which confess ! am
not humanitarian or abolitonist enough TO be pre-
pared to desire or to enjoy. 1t would be an evil
as tremendous in its consequences to the North Us
to the South and it would lead TO an rrepressible
conflict between the Federal troops and their new
allies. There are some few people who talk about
re settling the South by negro proprietors, now
slaves; these are blatant lunatcs or very wicked
idiots. Others there who desire, very kindly
to make an arrangement with England by which
our colonies could be supplied with labor, and
who wish to make bargain with us for the receipt
of a population of 4,0000 900 of black people
When they are in a condition to do so, perhaps il
may be time to characterize the transaction as il
would deserve. No one that ever heard of pro-
poses to receive the negroes into the Northern
States though, perhaps, they might be allowed
to 60 further and fare worse in Canada. Victori
Gus, the North will have to encounter, on the
very threshold of the Temple of Peace, foe
more terrible than war. Is there in all the wise
heads in the world one who can solve the knot
without the use Ct the sword2 And when the
sword has done its work, what next? There j:
the eternal negro tripping up the foot of Alex
aIider, as he returns his blade TO the sheath
Can any one devise scheme for the deportation
of 100000 souls2 Why. such emigration
was never heard Of The hordes of Huns anc
Goths and Vandals-the swarming floods of Scy
presented no such masses and no such scenes a.
would be witnessed in the execution of any scheme
of the kind; and, except by the spontaneous ac
ton of the States, there is little hope any grad
ual extinction absorption of the race, and if il
be not done gradually il can scarcely be done a
all. IL is hard to ascertain what are the feelings
of these people-their Inference is imperfect, no
merely morally but physically. They are treated
to few words from the English tongue, which
mostly refer to labor or to their wants, and then
speech is as nearly inarticulate may be, al
though the fine ear of the people and the ascent
of educated individuals prove they could speak i
as well as their masters, if they had chance o.
learning how to do so. There are various no
tons in reference to their treatment. As gen
eral statement, think il may be asserted the,
are not il-used in the districts where they arr
dear, and where their produce is valuable
When the masters are rich, the estates large
the incomes certain, and all struggles with tn,
forest and with adversity over liberty to then
seems idleness. So am told. But hear, too
that they are fond Of idleness. The conclusion
is not difficult Compared with the BONES O
Cuba, where the average of life in labor is reduc
ed by incessant and cruel task-work to IL or L
years. the negroes on plantations in America ar
pampered aristocrats; but / cannot admit an,
comparison between them and the denizens of al
English coal mine, which are often drawn by tn
planters down here.
On the cotton estates in the South the negroe
dread the "picking season. notwithstanding tn
assurance of the Captain Of the Southern repub
lie that the task was but the "culling of roses
On sugar plantations, although the mill Is run