Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-10-18
A Republican on Negro Labor and
the Emancipation OF Slavery and
what II to Gene Out or IL.

To the Editor of the Dispatch
Before the emancipation of slavery
the southern people were almost ex-
clusiyely agriculturists. The relation
Of master and slave was humane and
peaceful, and the farmer and his slaves
were perhaps the best-to-do and most
contented of the worlds inhabitants.
From this cause and the absolute peace
and security of farm life, the universal
desire Of every one who accumulated
the means was to own farm and
slaves. The southern people had no de-
sire to engage in any occupation save
with this in view, with very few excep-
tons. The master and his slaves were
rapidly getting possession Of all the
best lands and forcing the whites on to
the barren lands or ridges, or to emf
crate West and South. Hence the great
body of the white people were very
poor. They could not compete with
the trained negro labor on the farm,
and there were no manufacturing or
mining operations to give them employ
ment. Things have taken different
turn since emancipation from the expec-
tations generally entertained. The
negro has turned out to be
MUCH MORE PROFITABLE
to the landowner as a hireling than he
was as q slave. Hence capital is accu-
mulating, and. with foreign capital, is
rapidly investing both in manufacturing
and mining, and thus giving employ
ment to the poor whites. Labor is in
this and other ways becoming diyersi-
fed, and the South is producing not
only vast surplus of cotton and to-
bacco, but food and clothing for her
own population, and it has been we'll
demonstrated that both manufacturing
and mining can be done cheaper in the
South than in the North or West.
This results from two great leading
causes. In consequence Of cheaper
food, clothing, housing, &C., due to
milder climate, and hence cheaper labor,
and the remarkably low wages which
satisfies the negro's every want. The
farm laboTer of the North and West
who gets els month and found can
not understand how the negro can labor
for &c menth and found. The negro
labor is thus cheap from these causes
his very moderate wants, docile dispo-
sition, the very small expense Of cloth
ing and housing. &c. And then he finds
farm-work every month in the year. He
is satisfied with cabin that will cost
ego or less, and finds in it every COM
fort that his nature Graves, and cheap,
coarse clothing is all he wants. Hence
he can produce corn and much other
food at less cost than at the West, and
when the great rivers flowing 10 the
trans Mississippi in the South shall
have been improved, . vast corn and
wheat country will Be opened up, and
grain to supply the country will be pro-
duced by negro labor cheaper than any
whore in the West. Hence the day is
at hand when this grain will drive the
western grain from tho southern mar
ket and successfully rival the western
grain in the worlds markets, both from
being produced BY negro labor and
from water transportation. Our cotton
and iron
MANUFACTURES,
into which cheap negro labor largely
enters, will supply the southern wants,
and, ! think, supplsnt those products
from the East in tho western markets.
J The capitalists zee this, hence the rapid