The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-05-09
ARP AT HISTORY.
FROM THE AETANCE SHEETS OF"A
GEORGIA SCHOOL HISTORY"
An Interesting Chapter of Georgia History
Treated by Major Charles Ii.
Smith from His History.

Georgia and has been so closely interviewer
with her civilization that brief account
of its origin and growth and sudden aboli
ton should be recorded. Not for crimina-
ton OF exculpation, but that the truth of
history may be indicated. Facts-cold
facts-are history, and they never blush to
be narrated.
Until 1913, only fifty years ago, African
bondage prevailed not only i'll many OF the
less civilized countries of Europe and South
America, but in England, the foremost and
most enlightened government i'll the world.
Early in this century the slave trade be-
came odious to all philanthropists, but
Slavery itself was not. The brutality with
which the trade was conducted and the
'horrors of the middle passage, as it was
called. had awakened the pity of mankind,
and by common consent the tralflc III Afri-
cans and their transportation to other
countries was prompted under me s9yeiesi
penalties, both i'll Europe and the United
But still the institution of slavery con-
tjnued where it had been planted. 1t not
only continued, but was encouraged as
moral agency of civilization until Wilber-
force began the agitation of its adjustment
in England and her colonies IN. 1879. but
the plant of this great reform was OF SLOW
growth, and emancipation was not accom-,
plished until long after Wllberiorce had
died: In 1913, the slaves OF EIslahd ana
owners We're paid S:}OO,OOO.OOO Tor them
out of the national treasury.
The sentiment of the people OF the
United States against slavery was more
pronounced than it was Ill England' anu
the states began early to provide Tor mn
mediate or gradual emancipation. Georgia
was the first state to prohibit the slave
trade with Africa, and she kept that pro
hibition invioatc while some OF the north
ern states carried it on long after their
own slaves were emancipated: There was
to them no profit in slavery,
but there vas fabulous al, gums guns
gradually disposed of their own by sending
them south. and in some instances the young
of their slaves were given away: (Appie-
tons Cvclopedia is authority for thiS.)
But the feeling III the states was gener-
ally aversc to slavery and that feeling was
for Il time stronger at the south than at the
north. The ordinance Of 1877 that excluded
the institution from the northWesterE ter
ritorics WAS supported by southern men.
PENNSYLVANIA provided for gradual eman-
cipation, ard as late as 1910 her slaves
were not all free. and in some eases We're
sold for debt. (See Appleton.) Rhode Is
land and Connecticut had Il few left in 1910;
New Jersey had 236 i'll 1880; New York
emancipated in 1921
That the southern states did not emanci-
pate was owing to a variety OF clrculn-
stances.
The climate was suited to the negro ana
he seemed 10 be cOntcnted and happy.
The masters had invested more of their
money in them than had been done further
north.
The invention of the cotton gin had sud
denly stimulated the cultivation OF cotton.
for which the negro was peculiarly fitted.
and the growth of rice, tobacco and sugar
cane was equally inviting to his labor
But more than all these reasons was the
fear that the slaves were i'll such fast IN
creaSng numbers as to put the common
wealth in peril if they We're freed. They
We're still affected with the same race traits
they had inherited from barbarian ancestors,
and could not be controlled as freedmen or
as citizens.
Still there was an intelligent and influen-
tial number of our people Wno favored grad
ual emancipation. This sentiment was
slowly but surely spreading. Joseph Henry
Lumplin, the chief justice of our supreme
court was UutSpOken as Il CO-WOrkcr with
the gradual emancipation policy iuauGurated
and advocated by Henry Clay; OF Kentucky.
This policy would certainly have been
adopted by Georgia, but for the intolerance
and bitterness with which the New England
aboitionss wagcd their unceaslng
war upon the south. Our
people resented their threatened domination
and said, IF you let us alone we may do
it, but you cannot drive us. We are penned
up with these negroes and know where our
safety lies.
William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston, found
ed the anti-slavcry party i'll ISL Arthur
Talpan became its fourth preside t in 1913.
They expended much money III magnifying
and cXaggerating the abuses of slavery.
They declared that all laws of the govern
mout that recognized slavery We're utterly
Eull and void. AS their party grew stronger
they became more aggressive. and i'll 18Th
the free sou party openly ayoWcd that their
obi ia affect GicSnlntinn pf th, II
ion and to form Il northern republic They
said that Il union with slavery in it was
n league with hell and acoyenant With
death. They were the first seccssionists
and remained so until the late civil war.
The troops they furnished and the money
they so freely contributed were not for the
maintenance of the union, bue to conquer
the south and lberate the slaves. When
Nathaniel Hawthorne was asked in 1861 if
he was not in favor of the wan he replied
Yes, | suppose so, but really l don't see
what we have to fight about" 1t seemed
to him that the south had done Just what
New England desired her to do-that is to
secGde
This desperate haste and intensified hos
tiity on the part of New England towards
the south is difficult to explain. 1t was only
a few years since they had emancipatcd the
slaves they had not sold 1t was less than
twenty years since England had enamel
pated hers, and neither Georgia nor her
sister states were ready for the change.
Was it an earnest sympathy for the
slaves or political hatred of their masters.
or was it both? for as Judge Tourgae says
in his "Fools Errand," "T7he south had
controlled the government for fifty years"
and New England was Misunderstanding to
evaporation, and slavery was but the shb
boleth that intensified their luminosity.
They made no war upon the slave trade.
but rather winked at it and enjoyed its rich
returns. This is not an assertion but a fac,
if their own historians are to be believed.
In 1920 Justice Story, the great jurst.
charged the grand juries OF his New Eng
land circuit in the following words:
I'VE have but too many undeniable proofs
from unquestonable sources that the A fri
can slave trade is still carried on among
us with all the implacabe ferocty and in
satiable rapacity of former times. Avar-
ice has grown more subtle in its evasions Of
the law. 1t watches and sezes its prey
with an appetite qulckened rather than sup
pressed. American citizens are steeped
up to their very mouths in this iniquity.'
w. w. Story, the gifted son, in writing
the biography of the father, says: 1.-THE for
tunes Of many men of prominence were Sc
cretely invested in this infamous traffic.
Slavery itself had hardly disappeared III
New England when the traffic took on new
life and was winked at. A man might still
have position i'll society and claim consider
alton as Il gentleman, nay, us i Christian.
while his ships were freightcd with human
cargocS and his commerce was in the blood
fnIl