The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-05-17
BILL ARP.
A Chapter From tie Advance Sheets Of
"a Georgia School Histcry."
Atlanta Constitution.

dttuVtU CU7totHuttoes
The institution of African slavery Is 81
Intimately connected with the history o
Georgia and has bsen so closely inter
women with her civilization that a bria
account of its origin and growth and sud
den abolition should be recorded. Mo-
for elimination or exculpation, but tha
the truth of history may be viddicated
Facts-cold facts-are history, and they
never blush to be narrated.
Until 1S43, only fifty years ago, Afri-
can bondage prevailed not only in many
of the less civilized countries Of Europe
and South America, but in England, tine
foremost and most enlightened govern
ment in the world. Early in this CEN
tury the slave trade, became odicus to all
philanthropists, but slavery itelf 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 traffic in Africans
and their transportation to othe. eouu-
tries was prohibited under the severest
penalties, both in Europe and the United
States.
But, still the institution of slavery con-
tinued where it had been planted, It not
only continued, but was encouraged as a
moral agency of civilization untia Will
betforce began the agitation of its abol-
ishment in England and her colonies in
1925. But the plant of this great reform
was of slow growth, and emancipation
was not accomplished until long after
Wilberforce had died. In 1843, the
slaves of England and all her colonies
were emaneipated, and their owners were
paid $500, 10000 for them out of the ma:
tional treasury.
The sentiment of the people of the
United States against slavery was more
pronounced than it was in England, and
the States began early to provide for i'm.
mediate or gradual emancipation. Geor-
gia was the first State to prohibit the
slave trade with Africa, and she kept
that prohibition inviolate while some of
the Northern States carried it OIL long
after their own slaves were emsncipated.
There was to them no profit in slavery,
but there was fabulous gains in the
traffic. Hence, they gradually disposed
of their OWE by sending them South, and
in some instances the young of their
slaves were given away. (Applston's
Cyclopedis is authority for this.)
But the feeling in the States wau gen.
orally averse to slavery and that feel
ing was for a time stronger st the
South than at the North. The ordinance
of 1881 that excluded the institution
from the northwestern territorieu was
supported by Southern men.
Pennsylvania provided for gradual
emancipation, aud as late as 1840 her
slaves we're not all free, and in some
cases were sold for debt. (see Appleton.)
Rhode Island and Connecticut had few
left 10 184O'; New Jersey had 236 in
1850; New York emancipated in 1s27.
That the Southern States did not
emancipate was owing to variety of
circumstances.
The climate was suited to the negro
and he seemed to be contented 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
suddenly stimulated the cultivation ot
cotton, for which the negro was peculiar.
ly fitted, and the growth of rice, tobacco
and sugar-cane was equally inviting to
his labor.
But more than all these reasona was
the fear that the slaves were in such fast
increasing numbers as. to put the com.
monwealth in peril if they we're freed
They we're still affected with the same
race traits they had inherited from bar.
barian ancestors, and could not be con.
trolled as freedmen or as citizens.
Still there was an intelligent and infu.
ential number of our people who favored
gradual emancipation. This sentiment
was slowly but surely spreading. Joseph
Henry Lumpkin, the chief justice of oul
supreme court, was outspoken as Co
worker with the gradual emancipation
policy inaugursted and advocated by
Henry Clay, of Kentucky.
This policy would certainly have been
adopted by Georgia, but for the intoler
auce and bitterness with which the New
England abolitionists wsged their an
ceasing war upon the South. Our people
resented their threatened domination
and said, III you let US alone We may dc
it, but yon cannot drive us. We sre
penued up with these negroes and kuoH
wbsre our safety lies"
William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston
founded the anti-slavery party in 1881
Arthur Tappau became its fourth presi'
dent in 1888 They expended much
money in maguifying and exaggerating
the abuses of slavery. They declared
that sll laws OF the government that re.
cognized slavery were utterly null aad
void. As their party grew stronger they
became more aggressive, and in 1884 the
free soil party openly avowed that their
object was to effect dissolution of the
Union and to form a Northern republic
They said that Union with slavery in
it WAS league with bell and covenant
with death. They were the 6rst seces
s;ouists and remained 80 until the late
civil war The troops they furnished ard
the money they 40 freely contributed