The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-04-25
THE REAL SLAVE DEALERS.
BOW THE NORTH TRIES TO SHlRk
TIE BURDEN OF ITS SINS.

BOW The NORTH TRIES TO SHIRE
THE BURDEN OF ITS SINS.
A Plain Statement OF the Facts, as DeriVe<
from Public Records and Judicial De
cisions.
To the Editor Of the News and Courier
Twas glad to see your editorial on Marci
9 last on the Emancipation Proclama
ton. It is surprising how much igno
rance exists upon the subject OF emancl
pst;on in some of the usually best II
formed circles. I desire to call your atten
ton to two instances of this IN tina
usually accurate Journal, the Nation. II
recent number there appeared the re
view of letter written from Washington
to paper IN Frankfort:
ssThe condition OF our negro popula'
ton is the subject Of Washington let
ter in the Frankfort Zeitung OF DeceE'
Der a, 1887. The writer's view OF theI,
social status is correct enough, but he Is
rather at sea in his historical retrospect,
as when he says that the South was st
one time more opposed to slavery than
was the North, and that the civil wal
Was a struggle between the sons Of the
slaYe-owners and the planters to whom
their fathers had sold their dark COM
modities.' There is corollary to the
misleading statement that In 1880 the
NEGROES were distributed throughout this
country, and were almost exclusively
slaves. but that, during the first quar-
ter of century, the inhabitants OF the
Northern States gradually sold their
slaves to the South, where climate and
the nature of the agricultural products
increase the value OF negro labor, all Of
which sounds as if the countrymsn OF
Won Hoist had drawn his inspiration
from the pro-slavery pamphlets OF Bu-
chansn's Administration"
We have not seen this letter. nor do
we know who is the writer, but if you
Will allow me space I think I can con-
vince even the Nation, and its readers
who shall happen to see the communica-
ton, that the statements quoted are not
SO wide Of the mark as the Nation seems
to think.
If such as the Nation suggests was in
deed the source of the writer's informa-
ton, can the following facts and figures,
which are taken mostly from work OF
that time, be disputed? The author from
whom I take the figures, as I cannot at
this moment put my hand upon the cen
sus Of l790, was, it is true, Rebel
brissdier, the heroic defender of Marye's
Heights at Fredericksburg, where he was
killed; but all the same can the state
ments be denied? Cobb on Slavery,
Philadelphia, T. & I. W. johnson i Co.,
1851
By the census of 1870 there were
40,37O slaves in the States north Of Vir-
ainis. Now how were those 10000
Slaves emancipated? Can any one point
to single act by any Northern Stste by
which any negro was actuslly and I'M.
mediately emancipated? We ask tins
because it is clear that sl the gradual
emancipation schemes had just the effect
which which the Frankfort writer states,
to wit: it caused the inhabitants OF the
Northern States generally to sell their
slaves to the South. Laws prohibiting
slavery after some future date we're but
warnings to the owners Of slaves to send
them out Of the State before the Act
should go into effect. The inevitable
working of such Acts was to send the
slaves South for sale.
Vermont, We know, claims the honor
of having been the first to exclude
slavery. She claims that this was done
by her bill of rights in 1777. But the
census of 1870 shows seventeen slaves.
It required, it is true, no great philan-
thropy to sacrifice the value Of seven
teen slaves; but her bill of rights could
not have done very perfect work since
it allowed seventeen slaves to remain IN
bonds thirteen years after its adoption.
Slavery, which had been introduced into
Massachusetts, soon after its first settle
ment, was tolerated, }" IS Chief Justice
Parsons gently expresses it, certainly
until the sdoption of the Constitution OF
l7SO. Nor, indeed, did the Constitution
of 1880, by any express provision or
declaration, prohibit slavery. But
very few days ago letter of Mr.. Thomas
Silioway, Of Boston, appeared IN the
Charleston Sun, giving instances of bills
of sale and disposition by Will of Indian
and negro slaves in Massachusetts as
late IS III. DR.. Oliver Wendell Holmes
makes Old Sophy, the nurse of ELSIE
Venner, the daughter of slave mother.
So gradual was the decadence Of slavery
in Massachusetts, that as late as 1888 her
Supreme Court could not say by what
specific Act the Institution had bee1
abolished. Winchendon vs.. Hsssess.u,
Mass, 123; Commonwealth VS.. Aves, Is
Pick, 200.
In Beiknsp's New Hampshire, Vol,
Ill, $50, published 1892, the matter is
thus explained:
ssSlavery is not prohibited by any ez.
press law. Negroes were never very
numerous in New Hampshire. Some o:
them purchased their freedom during
the late war by serving three years il
the army. Others have been made fres
by the Justice and humanity OF thei,
masters. In Massachusetts, they are al
accounted free by the frst article in the
declaration Of rights, AL men are borr
free and equal In the bill of rights O.
New Hampshire the first article is ex
pressed in these words: sAn men ar,
born equally free and independent,
which, IN the opinion OF most persons
will bear the same construction. Bu
others have deduced from it this infer
ence, that all who are born since tn
Constitution was made arefree; and tha
o1oror,, LaSoro :,