The Hawaiian gazette., 1899-06-23

TOT the support OF the save trade. hef
Kings chartered companies ami ex-
tended privileges: Jamaica was seized
and slaves poured into II at the rate
Of forty and Atty thousand year. un-
Ill the trade filled and overfllled the
markets in the West Indies and South
America. and overfowed into North
America. To this overflow the estab-
lishment of slavery In the United
States was due. In 1894 there were In
South Carolina 10000 black slaves.
outnumbering the whites five to one.
and coming in at she rate OF three
thousand year"
In their native forests the Africans
were not without social institutions;
they had definite forms of govern
ment and religion, as well as firmly
implanted ideas of marriage, work.
and amusement. They were divided
into families, several of which, bound
together by blood relationship, form
ed clan. which was ruled by chief
tain. Although polygamy was univer-
sal, family ties were sacred and pros
titution was unknown. The slave
trade of the sixteenth century, by It's
system of promlscuous herding, de-
stroyed every vestige of this tribal
and clan life, deprived the women Of
all protection, caused parental au-
thority to disappear, and all forms Of
lawlessness to abound. On the other
hand the effect on the masters was
equally disastrous, and "the system
Of human slavery in the West Indies
put check on civilization there from
which those islands have never recov-
cred"
AS the centuries passed, however,
slavery became very different prob
lem. The Negroes were ceasing to be
heather foreigners and among their
owners was developed greater freedom
of thought and more liberal ideas.
The heather and commercial stages
Of the slaves evolution gave place to
the feudal idea of the personal serf
as retainer and cultivator of the
soil. For a time there was but little
difference between the condition Of
the Negroes and that of the white
bond-servants. Owing, however to ten
existence of persistently stimulated
slave trade, and TO the growth Of ideas
of freedom and humanity in Europe
which decreased the number of white
servants, "the nineteenth century
found in America system of legally
fortified slavery, based on color and
race, rather than on condition" But
in the Southern States the feudal idea
continued in a form adapted to more
democratic conditions, the tendency
being to make the slave a member of
the family group. Slavery was at this
time, especially in Virginia, "a school
in civilization and manners, train
ing in politics and social intercourse.
and a strong protection from without
to the weak. It's two fatal weaknesses
were the lax marriage morals, and its
failure to provide any mode of escape
from the lowest position for the tai
ented and deserving"
While this picture of slavery is one
to which the whites look back with
pride and longing and the blacks with
sense of loss. there yet began to be
found In some parts Of the United
States a distinct opposition to slavery
on humanitarian grounds, and an Act
OF Congress was passed in 1903 which
provided for the national suppression
OF the slave trade. The continued ex-
istence Of state of slavery was, new
ertheless, too great a temptation for
the traders to Withstand, especially
when 1t was strengthened by the great
Industrial revolution which swept
over the country, making cotton king,
and demanding cheap labor. First
| came the resort to interstate traffic,
with It's attendant horrors of the auc-
ton block and the whipping post, and
finally the reopening OF the African
slave trade which resulted in an in
crease in the expectation Of American
cotton from 1900 bales in 1880 to
8, 1880, 900 at the time OF the secession
This last step was, however. an af-
front to the conscience Of the world
"No dream OF empire can succeed in
the face of the moral sense of the civ
ilized world; no system OF human la
Dor can be long maintained in the face
of modern ideas of ordinary right,
justice. and decency." Economic de-
cline followed; 1t grew clearer and
clearer that slave labor did not pay
even under the most favorable circum-
stances; the soil became exhausted by
extravagant methods OF farming; law
lessness and disorder increased; and
war followed, bringing in its train TIE
emancipation OF the slave.