The state journal. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1883-1885, 1884-01-05

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A glance over this table will show the
reader the progress that had been made
up to this time, and how the slave popu-
latiOn was distributed among the Colonies.
1t will be observed that, as rule, in the
Northern Colonies, where the mountain
GUS and rugged character of the land
narrowed the profits of agriculture, the
proportion of slaves to the whole popu
lation was much less than in the
South, where the more favorable soil
made agriculture the chief pursuit, nota
bly, in Virginia and Maryland, where the
cultivation OF tobacco was very profitable.
Unlike the more Northern colonies, ideas
of aristocratic exclusiveness prevailed
among the cavalier settlers, notably of
the Carolinas, and prevailed to such an
extent that the social restraints the poor
whitesettlci labOred under were such that
their influx as discouraged the growth
Of the white population was slow, while
as labor was always regarded as mental,
the number OF slaves increased beyond
proportion. Virginia was to some extent
affected by the same causes, but their eff
feet was somewhat modified; first, by the
higher culture OF the leading families
which had already attained the distinc-
ton Of old families, and the influence of
the colonies to the North, where as in
Pennsylvania and New England, Demo
cratic ideas had prevailed from the earlier
settlements, and deeper religious tone
formed their habits Of thought
Already there were minds here and
there taking up and examining the NOR
ally of slaveholding in the light of vital
Christianity, and some few pulpits had
already put the seal Of condemnation
upon it.
Slavery nowhere, at this time, so far as
we know, was the absolute and cruel
mastery that it became century later
It was almost universally held to be in
deiensible morally, and was rather
permitted as temporary condi-
ton, to which the mass were
carelesSly Indifferent, and all were
free to condemn. Rarely were strenuous
Efforts made to recover fugitives, and
nothing would put family out Of the
pale of respectable society more effectu
ally than q reputation for cruel treat
mcnt TO servants, and in such contempt
were those held who gave themselves to
hunting negroes for pay, that the dis
credit extended even to those who en-
plOyed them.
The half century that followed saw
enormous growth and development in the
colonies, and the differences with the
mother country in which all at one time
or another had Their share, had brought
them into more intimate relations with
each other The frequent arbitrary de-
mands Of the Crown, supported by Par
lament which the colonies resisted
always with determination, sometimes
with threats Of rebellion, established a
bond Of sympathy among them, as suf-
ferers in q common cause; and the discus
sion Of their grievances the arguments by
which they defended their rights, led
them TO the adoption as just principles of
government, of doctrines of the right of
man to equality before the law, which had
heretofore been uttered only as abstract
by religious and ethical phil
osophers and poets 1t will be readily I'M
derstood how such teaching wouldaffec in
public judgment the right Of man to hold
property in man, and undermine the rela-
ton Of master and slave.