The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-02

cause of his personal partialities ~
ward the offenders, closes court. IN
prisons judges, threatens governors
inearcerares citizens, suppresses news.
papers, pampers to his pets bv NAT
ronage, clears jails at his whims, alters
tax laws, interferes with the verv nrod.
ucts of the plantations.
The issue offered to Alabama In tho
election of 1874 was fairly met and
fairly won. The disappointed purpose
| of the government at Washington 10
employ the forms of free government
to set up vulgar tyranny was the re-
| suit.
An intimate knowledge of the exner-
| ience of government must be taken
into the estimate of the value of what
We term education" of the people and
which all states embrace as the con-
| dition precedent of their security and
the happiness of the inhabitants.
| 1t Is the fad of ''history' to insist
upon the evil effects. of African slay-
| cry in the southern states. Disastrous
as was the institution. We are assured
in all particulars of its bearing upon
civilization, the tendency to degrade the
masters was most pronounced. 1t is
an inadmissab1e answer, an answer en-
tirely unmarketable by the booksell- :
lers, to challenge the ayerrment by ap-
peal TO the record. The record pre-
SeHls an array Oh southern porn and
reared names that stand -emnent
| in every feature of American devel-
opment and that for want of space
here. we leave the honest student to
his explorations and his verification.
Enslavement of the African in the
SOUTH we are asked to believe. was
inhumanity. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe
so discovered and sold million copies
of the allegation
cn han lnof ttIai m
portance has been attached to legisla-
tion by Congress to encourage the im-
mi grafton of Europeans and anxious
effort made by laws to exclude Asiatics,
no statute as yet adorns our books
calculated to bring hither or to keep
off Africans fresh from Africa and
elsewhere. 1t is unbelievable that Con-
gress would favor an increase of the
negro population of the United States
by immigration laws. Nevertheless, no
appreciation of the effect OF southern
slavery upon that race was the Con-
gress of the reconstruction time. that
without shadow of authority in the
constitution it enfranchised in endow-
ing it with perfect civil, social and
political equality.
The status of slavery is coineident
with the organized life of mankind
Initial simplicity of the habits of life
suggested the institution. The fore
most men naturally desired leisure and
enjoyment of their wealth. The humble
men, those who were naturally weak
timid and subservient, consented TO ell
slavement. Prisoners of war increased
the number of slaves. As industry wid-
ened, machinery became labor saving,
the intellectual and moral faculties
grew. Religious prejudices and fanat-
icism arose to bear upon the rights OF
man.
Except among Pennsylvanian Qua
kers, none of the colonists of Amer
lea objected to slavery of whites or
blacks. The New England settlers no.
toriously fell first upon their knees
and then upon the Indians" capturing
and selling to West Indian sugar plan
ters large numbers of the red abor-
igines and bringing back as return
cargo. molasses suitable for the man
ufacture of rum.
The Duke of York later James II
of England, was the official head of
a corporation that possessed exclusive
right of the African slave trade. In
many, perhaps all, of the British
American colonies n practical slavery of
white men and women, indians and
negroes, prevailed at one and the same
time. The white slaves We're known
as .'indentured servants The right of
the master over them in no sense diff
Iefed from his IlSul oNcT HIS Itu Ol
black slaves, except in the time limit.
The whites worked out their limit of
service and then became land holders,
business men and valuable citizens.
Some debtors rather than go to prison,
sold themselves to other men. In the
eighteenth century some rebel Scots
were sold by the British government
to the colony of South Carolina. The
colonial government paid the King of
England 80 pounds sterling for 80 OF
the Scotch rebels. life servants. About
that time 400 Indian slaves were held
in South Carolina.
The charter of Georgia. granted to
Oglethorpe, forbade the importation of
African slaves. The colonists utterly
failed to subdue the forest or make a
living. They procured bondmen from
Germany but the Germans would not
or could not clear the timber. Many
abandoned Georgia to cross the river
into South Carolina. where they could
buy negroes and prospered. In South
Carolina merchants Of Charleston would
buy negroes from the slavers that came
into port and sell them in small lots
to white settlers on credit, very much
as banks and private capitalists now
deal with the farmers.
African slavery was Self-extin-
gushing institution in the south, as 1t
had proven to be in the north, and as
white and Indian slavery had served
purpose to expire with the courts of
events, SO would the African type of
the institution.
When we consider the events known
as the sectional conflict between the
north and the south. whether anterior
to Appomattox or subsequently in SO
far as that conflict involved the south
ern negro, the negro was no more
than a catspaw.
The successful step was taken by
the people of Alabama by means of the
election of 1874 to recover the state
government. We may with propriety
glance at contemporary conditions in
some of the sister states overwhelmed