WAJVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GENERAL LIBRARY
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
TO
WILLIAM ROSCOE, ESQ. PRESIDENT,
AND TO
THE OTHER MEMBERS
OF
THE LIVERPOOL SOCIETY
FOR THE MITIGATION AND GRADUAL ABOLITION OF SLAVERY,
THE FOLLOWING LETTER,
PRESENTED TO THEM,
AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY
#
INSCRIBED.
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SIR,
"
LETTER, &c.
IT is with much concern that I observe,
in your excellent and popular work on Political Economy,
the sentiments you express on the subject of the comparative
expense of free and slave labour. Accustomed to respect
you highly, as an enlightened advocate of liberal principles,
and to admire the philanthropic spirit which pervades your
writings, I cannot but regret deeply, that opinions so much
calculated to perpetuate slavery should have the sanction of
your authority; and that, while you denounce the slave-
system as unjustifiable, you admit that in a pecuniary point
of view it may be the most profitable.
As this subject is of peculiar importance at the present
moment, when efforts are making, both in this country and
in France, to effect the gradual abolition of slavery in the
Colonies, I will not apologize for addressing you. The
same regard to truth and candour, which secured your
reluctant assent to an opinion little in unison, I am sure, with
your feelings, will lead you to examine with impartiality
any facts or arguments which I may adduce in my attempt
to controvert it. Many of them, I am aware, must be
familiar to you, but possibly even these may appear in a
new light, and derive some additional force from their con-
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nection with others which have not fallen under your
observation.
The expense of slave-labour resolves itself into the annual
sum which, in the average term of the productive years of
a slave's life, will liquidate the cost of purchase or rearing,
and support in old age, if he attain it, with interest, and the
sum annually expended in his maintenance.
If we omit the case of purchased slaves, and suppose
them to be bred on the estate, (and as breeding is now
admitted to be, under ordinary circumstances, the cheapest
mode of supply, your argument will gain by the supposition,)
the expense of free labour will resolve itself into precisely
the same elements, since the wages paid to free labourers of
every kind, must be such as to enable them, one with
another, to bring up a family, and continue their race.
Now it is observed by Adam Smith, "The wear and
"tear of a free servant is equally at the expense of his
66 master, and it generally costs him much less than that of
66
a slave. The fund destined for replacing and repairing,
"if I may say so, the wear and tear of a slave, is commonly
"managed by a negligent master, or careless overseer
"That destined for performing the same office with regard
"to the free man, is managed by the free man himself. The
"disorders which generally prevail in the economy of the
"rich, naturally introduce themselves into the management
"of the former; the strict frugality and parsimonious
"attention of the poor, as naturally establish themselves in
"that of the latter." The Russian political economist,
Storch, who had carefully examined the system of slavery
in that extensive Empire, makes the same remark, almost
in the same words. Hume expresses a similar opinion in
decided terms; and I have now before me a statement from
one of the slave districts in the United States, in which it is
estimated that, taking the purchase-money or the expense
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of rearing a slave, with the cost of his maintenance, at their
actual rates, and allowing fifteen years of health and
strength, during which to liquidate the first cost, his labour
will be at least 25 per cent dearer than that of the free
labourer in the neighbouring districts.
It is observed by a planter, in a letter published by the
Hon. Joshua Steele, a member of the council in Barbadoes,
under the signature of Philo Xylon, "The truth is, that
although we plant much more ground than should be
“sufficient to produce provisions to feed our labouring
"slaves, yet the negroes, feeling that they have no direct
property in these crops, and that we must buy more to
"supply them if those crops fall short, the cultivation is
negligently performed by them, and the produce is
"afterwards stolen by the negro watchmen or their con-
"federates, so that we seldom reap a third part of what
"should be the natural and probable produce. But if we
"could depend on their diligence and economy, in cul-
tivating rented tenements and carefully storing their
crops, they might undoubtedly be maintained better than
“they are, and at a much smaller expense than it costs us
"at present; not only by our wasting three times as much
"land as might be necessary for that purpose, but also by
our cultivating it with a reluctant gang to our loss."
From inquiries made with reference to this subject, it
appears that the average weekly expense in the Liverpool
Workhouse, for provisions, including ale, wine, spirits, tea,
sugar, butter, &c. given to the sick, is 2s 64d per head,
exclusive of rent; while the average weekly expenditure of
seven families, taken from among the labourers of a
respectable commercial house, is only 1s 5½d per head,
exclusive of rent.
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From the preceding particulars, it appears highly
probable, that the cost of rearing and maintaining a slave,
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would render his labour, under ordinary circumstances, at
least as expensive as that of the free labourer. Let us
next examine which is the most productive.
And here I shall again avail myself of the observations
of Storch, the Russian economist: The slave, work-
"ing always for another, and never for himself, being
"limited to a bare subsistence, and seeing no prospect
"of improving his condition, loses all stimulus to exer-
❝tion, he becomes a machine, often very obstinate and
very difficult to manage. A man who is not rewarded
"in proportion to the labour he performs, works as little
"as he can; this is an acknowledged truth, which the
experience of every day confirms. Let a free labourer
"work by the day, he will be indolent; pay him by the
66 piece, he will often work to excess, and ruin his health.
"If this observation is just in the case of the free labourer,
"it must be still more so in that of the slave."
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“Whilst the ancient Romans cultivated their lands them-
"selves, Italy was renowned for fertility and abundance, but
"agriculture declined when abandoned to slaves. Then, the
“ land, instead of being brought under the plough, was trans-
“formed into meadows, and the inhabitants of this fine
"country became dependent for their subsistence on pro-
❝vinces situated beyond the sea. The small proprietors and
"farmers disappeared, and the same country which had
"formerly presented the smiling aspect of a crowd of
"villages, peopled with free men in easy circumstances,
"became a vast solitude, in which were scattered here and
"there, some magnificent palaces, which formed the most
"6 striking contrast with those miserable cabins and subter-
"ranean dens in which the slaves were shut up. These
"facts, related by the Roman historians, are attested and
What was
asks Pliny,
"explained by Pliny, Columella, and Varro.
"the cause of these abundant harvests?'
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It is,
speaking of the early periods of the republic.
"that at that time, men of consular dignity devoted them-
"selves to the cultivation of their fields, which are now
"abandoned to wretches loaded with irons, and bearing on
"their forehead the brand of their degraded condition.'
"The superiority of free over slave labourers, is even
acknowledged by the masters, when they have sufficient
intelligence to judge of the difference, and sufficient
"honesty to avow their sentiments. Recollect on this
"subject the passage of Columella, which I have already
66 quoted, and in which he depicts the negligence and
perverseness of slave labourers; in the same chapter,
"he advances as a fundamental principle, that whatever
"be the nature of the cultivation, the labour of the free
"cultivator is always to be perferred to that of the slave.
"Pliny is of the same opinion."
“Observe, that this testimony in favour of free labour, is
given by Romans, who were at once proprietors of slaves
“ and the most eminent writers on agriculture of their time.”
“In manufactures, the superiority of the free labourer over
"the slave is still more obvious than in agriculture. The
"more manufactures extend in Russia, the more people
begin to feel the truth of this remark. In 1805, M.
"Panteleyef, a manufacturer in the district of Moscow,
gave liberty to all his workmen who were slaves, the
"number of whom amounted to 84.
"M. Milioutin did the same.”
The same year,
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Brougham, in his Colonial Policy, fully concurs in these
sentiments: "It requires very little argument to prove,
"that the quantity of work which may be obtained from a
“labourer or drudge, is liable to be affected as much by
"the injurious treatment he receives, as by the idleness.
"in which he may be permitted to indulge. When this
"drudge is a slave, no motive but fear can operate on his
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diligence and attention. A constant inspection is, therefore,
absolutely necessary, and a perpetual terror of the lash
"the only prevention of indolence; but there are certain
"bounds perscribed, even to the power of the lash; it may
"force the unhappy victim to move, because the line of
"distinction between motion and rest, action and repose, is
"definite; but no punishment can compel the labourer to
"strenuous exertions, because there is no measure or
"standard of activity. A state of despair, and not of
industry, is the never-failing consequence of severe chas-
"tisement; and the constant repetition of the torture only
"serves to blunt the sensibility of the nerves, and disarm
56 punishment of its terrors. The body is injured, and the
"mind becomes as little willing as the limbs are able to
"exert.”
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Hume remarks, "I shall add, from the experience of our
planters, that slavery is as little advantageous to the
"master as to the man. The fear of punishment will
"never draw so much labour from a slave, as the dread of
"being turned off, and not getting another service, will
“give a free man.
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Burke observes, in his treatise on European Settlements,
"I am the more convinced of the necessity of these indul-
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gences, as slaves certainly cannot go through so much
"work as free men. The mind goes a great way in every
"thing, and when a man knows that his labour is for him-
<< self, and that the more he labours, the more he is
"to acquire; this consciousness carries him through, and
"supports him beneath fatigues, under which he would
"otherwise have sunk."
"That the proprietors of West India estates," observes
Dr. Beattie, “would be in any respect materially injured
66
by employing free servants (if these could be had) in their
“several manufactures, is highly improbable, and has,
7
“indeed, been absolutely denied by those who were well
"informed on this subject. A clergyman of Virginia
"assured me, that a white man does double the work of a
"slave; which will not seem wonderful, if we consider that
"the former works for himself, and the latter for another;
"that by the law, one is protected, the other oppressed;
"and that in the articles of food and clothing, relaxation
"and rest, the free man has innumerable advantages. It
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may, therefore, be presumed, that if all who serve in the
"Colonies were free, the same work would be performed
"by half the number, which is now performed by the
"whole. The very soil becomes more fertile under the
❝hands of free men, so says an intelligent French author,
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(Le Poivre,) who, after observing that the products of
"Cochin China are the same in kind with those of the West
"Indies, but of better quality, and in greater abundance,
gives for a reason, that the former are cultivated by
"free men, and the latter by slaves;' and therefore argues,
"that the negroes beyond the Atlantic ought to be made
"free. The earth,' says he, which multiplies her pro-
"ductions with profusion under the hands of a free-born
"labourer, seems to shrink into barrenness under the sweat
“of the slave.””
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"It is an ill-grounded opinion," says Franklin, in his
"Essay on the Peopling of Countries, "that by the labour
"of slaves America may possibly vie in cheapness of manu-
"tures with Great Britain. The labour of slaves can never
"be so cheap here, as the labour of working men is in
"Great Britain. Any one may compute it. Reckon,
"then, the interest of the first purchase of a slave, the in-
(C surance or risk on his life, his clothing and diet, expenses
“in his sickness and loss of time, loss by his neglect of
"business, (neglect which is natural to the man who is not
"to be benefited by his own care or diligence,) expense of
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"a driver to keep him at work, and his pilfering from time
"to time, (almost every slave being, from the nature of
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slavery, a thief,) and compare the whole amount with the
wages of a manufacturer of iron or wool, in England ;
you will see that labour is much cheaper there, than it
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ever can be by negroes here.”
Koster, in his Travels in the Brazils, observes, "The
“slave-trade is impolitic, on the broad principle that a man,
"in a state of bondage, will not be so serviceable to
"the community as one who acts for himself, and whose
"whole exertions are directed to the advancement of his
"own fortune; the creation of which, by regular means,
"adds to the general prosperity of the society to which he
"belongs. This undoubted and indisputable fact must be
"still more strongly impressed on the mind of every one
"who has been in the habit of seeing the manner in which
"slaves perform their daily labour. This indifference, and
"the extreme slowness of every movement, plainly point
❝out the trifling interest which they have in the advance-
"ment of the work. I have watched two parties labouring
“in the same field, one of free persons, the other of slaves,
"which occasionally, though very seldom, occurs. The
"former are singing, joking, and laughing, and are always
"actively turning hand and foot; whilst the latter are
"silent, and if they are viewed from a little distance, their
"movements are scarcely to be perceived.'
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Hall, adverting to the pernicious effects of slavery on the
southern states of North America, observes, "Experience
"shows, that the quantity of labour performed by slaves, is
"much below that of an equal number of free cultivators.”
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An intelligent American gentleman, to whom queries
on this subject were sent out, remarks, "I have in one of
"my answers, exposed the effect of slave-cultivation on the
"soil of our country, and on the value of real estate. I
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"will here further observe, that independently of this, there
❝is no fact more certainly believed by every sound mind in
"this country, than that slave labour is abstractedly in
"itself, as it regards us, a great deal dearer than labour
performed by free men; this is susceptible of clear proofs.
It is observed by Mr. Ramsay, who had twenty years'
experience in the West Indies, "I am firmly of opinion,
"that a sugar plantation might be cultivated to more
advantage, and at much less expense, by labourers who
"were free men than by slaves." Dr. Dickson, who resided
in Barbadoes as secretary to the late Hon. Edward Hay,
the Governor of that island, observes, in a letter published
in his valuable work, on the Mitigation of Slavery, "You
"need not be informed, that it has been known for many
"ages, by men of reflection, that the labour of slaves,
“whether bought or bred, though apparently cheaper, is
"really far dearer in general than that of free men."
"The arguments which support this conclusion, as ap-
plicable to modern Colonial slavery, were long ago assented
"to and excmplified by men intimately acquainted with and
“ interested in the subject." In another letter in the same
work, he gives "a calculation made under the guidance of
"M. Coulomb, an able mathematician and experienced
"engineer, who for many years conducted extensive military
"works both in France and the West Indies, and has
published the result of his observations.” From this he
infers, "that field slaves do only between a third and a
"half of the work despatched by reluctant French
“soldiers, and probably not more than a third of what
"those very slaves would do if urged by their own interest,
"instead of brute force, as Mr. Steele experienced." In
speaking of Mr. Steele's experience in another place, he
remarks, "He has ascertained as a fact, what was before
"known to the learned as a theory, and to practical men as
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a paradox, That the paying of slaves for their labour;
"does actually produce a very great profit to their owners."
Again, this able and experienced writer observes, "The
planters do not take the right way to make human beings
put forth their strength. They apply main force where
they should apply moral motives, and punishments alone
"where rewards should be judiciously intermixed.
And
'yet, strange to tell, those very men affirm, and affirm
"truly, that a slave will do more work for himself in an
"afternoon, than he can be made to do for his owner in a
"whole day or more. Now what is the plain inference?
"Mr. Steelė, though a stranger in the West Indies, saw it
"at once, and resolved to turn it to account. He saw that
"the negroes, like all other human beings, were to be
"stimulated to permanent exertion only by a sense of their
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own interests, in providing for their own wants and those
"of their offspring. He therefore tried rewards, which
"immediately roused the most indolent to exertion. His
experiments ended in regular wages, which the industry
"he had excited among his whole gang, enabled him to
"pay.
Here was a natural, efficient, and profitable reci-
"procity of interests. His people became contented; his
"mind was freed from that perpetual vexation, and that
"load of anxiety, which are inseparable from the vulgar
system, and in little better than four years, the annual
"nett clearance of his property was more than tripled."
“I must additionally refer," remarks the same intelligent
writer in another place, " to an excellent pamphlet, entitled
"Observations on Slavery, (published in 1788, and now out
"of print,) by my late worthy friend Dr. James Anderson,
"who shows that the labour of a West India slave costs
"about thrice as much as it would cost if executed by a
"free man. Taking another case, he demonstrates that the
"labour of certain colliers in Scotland, who, till our own
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times, were subjected to a mild kind of vassalage, regulated
by law, was twice as dear as that of the free men who
wrought other coal-mines in the the same country, and
"thrice as dear as common day labour."
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It is observed by Mr. Botham, "It may be desirable to
"know that sugar, better and cheaper than in our Island,
" is produced in the East Indies by free labourers. China,
"Bengal, and Malabar produce quantities of sugar and
"spirits, but the most considerable estates are near Batavia.
"The proprietor is generally a rich Dutchman, who builds
on it substantial works. He rents the estate off (of 300
or more acres) to a Chinese, who superintends it, and
"re-lets it to free men in parcels of 50 or 60 acres, which
"they plant at so much per pecul (1331b) of the sugar
"produced. The superintendant collects people to take
"off the crop. One set, with their carts and buffaloes, cut
"the canes, carry them to the mill, and grind them; a
"second set boils the sugar, and a third set clays and
"baskets it for the market; all at so much per pecul.
"Thus the renter knows what every pecul will cost
"him. He has no unnecessary expense; for when the
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crop is over, the last men go home; and for seven months
"in the year, the cane-planters only remain, preparing the
"next crop. By dividing the labour, it is cheaper and
better done. After spending two years in the West
"Indies, I returned to the East in 1776, and conducted
"sugar-works in Bencoolen on similar principles with the
"Dutch. Having experienced the difference of labourers
"for profit and labourers from force, I can assert that the
savings by the former are very considerable. By follow-
❝ing as nearly as possible the East India mode, and con-
"solidating the distilleries, I do suppose our sugar Islands
"might be better worked than they now are, by two-thirds,
"or indeed one-half, of the present force. Let it be con-
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"sidered how much labour is lost by overseeing the forced
“labourer, which is saved when he works for his own profit.
"I have stated, with the strictest veracity, the plain matter
of fact, that sugar-estates can be worked cheaper by free
66 persons than slaves.”
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Marsden, in his history of Sumatra," says Dr.
Dickson, "highly commends Mr. Botham's management of
"the sugar-works at Bencoolen by free labourers, and says
"that the expenses, particularly of the slaves, frustrated
many former attempts of the English to cultivate the
sugar-cane profitably at that place."
I think we might safely infer, from the preceding par-
ticulars, that, under ordinary circumstances, the labour of
free men is cheaper than that of slaves; but there are many
other considerations which strongly confirm this conclusion.
In a
If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we should
naturally expect that, in a state where slavery was allowed,
land, ceteris paribus, would be most valuable in the dis-
tricts where that system prevailed; and that in two adjoin-
ing states, in the one of which slavery was allowed, and
in the other prohibited, land would be least valuable in
the latter; but the contrary is notoriously the fact.
late communication from America on this subject, from an
intelligent observer, it is remarked: "The system of slave
"cultivation, as practised in the United States of America,
"has likewise a most destructive effect on the soil of our
"country. The state of Maryland, though a slave state,
"has comparatively but few slaves in the upper or western
part of it; the land, in this upper district, is generally
"more broken by hills and stones, and is not so fertile as
"that on the southern and eastern parts. The latter has also
"the advantage of being situated upon the navigable rivers
"that flow into the Chesapeake Bay, and its produce can
"be conveyed to market at one-third of the average expense
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"of that from the upper parts of the state; yet, with all
"these advantages of soil, situation, and climate, the land
"within the slave district will not, upon a general average,
"sell for half as much per acre as that in the upper dis
❝tricts, which is cultivated principally by free men. This
“fact may be also further and more strikingly illustrated
"by the comparative value of land within the states of
66 Virginia and Pennsylvania, the one lying on the south,
" and the other on the north side of Maryland; the one a
"slave, the other a free state. In Virginia, land of the
same natural soil and local advantages, will not sell for
"one-third as high a price as the same description of land
"will command in Pennsylvania. This single, plain,
"incontrovertible fact speaks volumes upon the relative
"value of slave and free labour, and it is presumed renders
any further illustration unnecessary."
"(
If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we might
fairly infer that, in a state in which slavery was allowed,
free labour would be reduced by competition to a level with
the labour of slaves, and not slave labour to a level with
the labour of freemen; and that in two adjoining states, in
the one of which slavery was allowed, and in the other
prohibited, labour would be highest, ceteris paribus, in
that in which slavery was proscribed. But experience
proves the reverse.-Storch observes, that those who hire
slaves in Russia, are obliged to pay more than they who
hire free men, "Unless they live in a place where the com-
"petition of free labourers reduces to a level the hire of
"slaves and the wages of free labourers. The interior of
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Russia, and the capitals of that empire, furnish proofs of
"the truth of this observation. In the capital, the compe-
"tition of free labourers is the greatest, and although the
"wages of free labour are very high there, the hire of slaves
“is, notwithstanding, less than in the interior." Thus it
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appears, that in those parts of Russia, where free and slave
labour are brought into competition, slave labour is only
reduced to a level with free labour by sinking below the
average rate which it maintains in the rest of the empire.
When in Norfolk, Virginia, in the winter of 1820, I was
told, that many slaves gave their masters two dollars, or
nine shillings per week, for permission to work for them-
selves, and retain the surplus. I also found, that the com-
mon wages of slaves who are hired, were 20s 3d per week
and their food, at the very time when flour was 4 dollars,
or 18s, per barrel of 196lbs, and beef and mutton 3d to 4d
per lb. Five days afterwards, in travelling through the
rich agricultural districts of the free state of Pennsylvania,
I found able-bodied white men willing to work for their
food only. This, indeed, was in the winter months, and
during a period of extraordinary pressure. I was told,
however, that the average agricultural wages, in this free
state, were 5 or 6 dollars per month, and food; while, in
Norfolk, at the time I allude to, they were 18 dollars per
month, and food. If it should be replied, that in the
town of Norfolk, the price of slave labour was likely to be
much higher than in the country, I would ask, why it is
not so in the principal towns of Russia?
If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we should
naturally expect to find it employed in the cultivation of
those articles in which extended competition had reduced
profits to the lowest point. On the contrary, however, we
find that slave labour is gradually exterminated when
brought into competition with free labour, except where
legislative protection, or peculiarity of soil and climate,
establish such a monopoly as to admit of an expensive system
of management. The cultivation of indigo by slaves in
Carolina, has been abandoned, and the price of cotton
reduced one-half, since these articles have had to compete
"
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in the European markets with the productions of free
labour; and notwithstanding a transportation of three times
the distance, the West India planters declare that they
shall be ruined, if sugar from the East Indies shall be
admitted at the same duty as from the West.
If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we might
reasonably infer, that in proportion as the circumstances
of the cultivators rendered economy indispensable, either
from the difficulty of obtaining slaves, or other causes, the
peculiar features of slavery would be more firmly estab-
lished, and that every approach to freedom would be more
sedulously shunned in the system of culture. But it is
found, by the experience of both ancient and modern times,
that nothing has tended more to assimilate the condition of
the slave to that of the free labourer, or actually to effect
his emancipation, than the necessity imposed by circum-
stances of adopting the most economical mode of cultivation.
"In ancient times," says Brougham, "a great part of
"the population of the most polished states, was the
personal property of the rest.
of the rest. These slaves were chiefly
"captives taken directly in war, or purchased from other
"warlike nations who had obtained them in this way. The
"constant hostilities which at that time divided the people
"of all countries, rendered this a very fruitful source
"of supply. During the rise of Athens and Rome,
accordingly, when many foreign nations were by rapid
"steps conquered, and when others, still unsubdued, could
"sell the persons of their weaker neighbours, there was
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never any scarcity of men in the great slave-markets.
"The cruelty of the treatment which those unhappy men
experienced, was proportioned to the ease with which they
"were procured; and we have already remarked how in-
"tolerable their lot was, among the very people who called
every foreigner a barbarian. As war became less common,
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"and the arts of peace were more cultivated, this supply
"of slaves, of course, decreased; and when the Roman
"empire, tottering under its own weight, could think of
"nothing less than new conquests, there was an end of
importing slaves. Accordingly, with the progress of real
"civilization, but still more with the diminution of wars
" and conquests, was introduced a milder system of domes-
"tic government, a greater humanity towards the slaves,
"and a more careful attention to breeding, when the stock
"could neither be kept up nor increased by other means.
"The laws added their sanction to this salutary change,
"which no laws could of themselves have wrought. The
rights of slaves came to be recognized, the conduct of
"the master to be watched, and the practice of emanci-
pation to be encouraged. By degrees, the slaves were
"incorporated with their masters, and formed part of the
great free population, which was rather mixed with, than
"subdued by, the Goths."
"To the slavery of the ancients, succeeded the bondage
"and villenage of their Gothic conquerors. But the differ-
66 ence between the two was marked and important. The
"Greek and Roman slaves were imported; the Gothic
"slaves were the peasantry of the country, and born on
"the spot, unless during the wars which accompanied the
"first inroads of the northern tribes. Accordingly, we
"find no parallel between the rigour of the ancient and of
"the modern slave system; and a foundation was laid in
"this essential difference, for a much more rapid improve-
"ment of the whole society, than took place in Greece or
"Rome, notwithstanding the superior refinement of the
“classic times. The slave first became attached to his
“master, not as his personal property, but as a part of his
stock, and astricted to the soil, to use the language of the
"feudal ages. By degrees, the mutual interests of the lord
<<
(6
<<
66
(6
:
1
1
▸▸
17
"and his villeins, in the progress of national improvement,
"operated that important change in the state of manners,
"out of which the modern division of ranks, and the
privileges of the lower orders, have arisen in the civilized
quarters of the European community. First, the villein
"obtained the use of the land to which he had been
“annexed, and of the stock in which he had been com-
"prehended, on condition that a certain proportion (gene-
rally one-half) of the produce should belong to the lord
"of the land, and proprietor of the stock. This great
"change, one of the most signal of those events which have
"laid the foundation of human improvement, by degrees
"too slow for the observation of historians, was owing
entirely to the master discovering how much his interest
was connected with the comfort of his slaves, how neces-
sary it was to treat well that race whose toils supported
"the community in ease, and whose loss could not be
"repaired; how much more profitable it was to divide with
"the vassal the fruits of his free and strenuous exertions,
"than to monopolize the scanty produce of his compulsory
❝ toil.
As soon as the right of property, and the secure
enjoyment of the fruits of labour were extended to the
"vassals, the progress of improvement became constant and
"visible. The proportion of the fruits paid to the lord
was diminished according to an indefinite standard; the
66
66
(6
<<
66
66
66
peasant having been permitted to acquire property, pro-
"vided his own stock, and obtained the power of changing
"his residence, and commuting the nature of his service.
66
By degrees, the rent came to be paid in money, according
"to the number of competitors for a farm; and they who
"could not farm land themselves, sold their labour to
"others for a certain price or maintenance. Lastly, the
legislature secured the lease of the farmer with the same
"certainty that it secured the property of the landlord,
C
66
66
18
" and recognized the one as well as the other for useful and
"independent subjects."
"A similar progress will most probably be the result of
“that abolition, the supposition of which we are indulging,
(the abolition of the slave-trade.) That this idea is not
"chimerical, the consideration of a few facts, very little
"known in the history of America, may convince us."
"The peculiar circumstances in the situation of the
Spanish and Portuguese colonies of South America,
"have already partially operated some of those happy
"effects which we may expect from the abolition of the
"slave-trade. The high price of the negroes in the Spanish
settlements, partly from absurd regulations of trade,
"partly from the deficiency of the Spaniards in the prac-
"tice of commerce and naval affairs, causes that want of
"hands which would prevail in its full extent, were the
"African trade stopt." "From, these circumstances, and
partly, no doubt, from the peculiarly indolent character
"of the colonists in those parts, there has arisen a much
"better system of treatment than any other European
"colonies can boast of." "Other views of interest have
"conspired to confirm and extend this system of mildness
"and equity towards the slaves; and the legislature has
"not failed, by every prudent interference, to assist the
"inferior race in the acquisition of rights and privileges."
“Thus we meet with many very singular analogies be-
"tween the history of the negroes in South America, and
"that of the villeins or bondsmen of Europe, in the earlier
"feudal times. All the gold and jewels in Brazil have,
"for many years, been collected according to the same
"plan that the feudal lords adopted for the purpose of
quickening the industry of their vassals. The master
"supplies the slaves daily with a certain quantity of pro-
"visions and tools, and the slave is obliged to return a
<l
CC
66
+
:
19
"certain quantity of gold or jewels, according to the nature
"of the ground. Every thing that remains over this ration,
"the negro keeps himself, were the balance to be millions.
"The gold-mines of Popayan and Choco, in Spanish
"America, are wrought in the very same way. The finest
"pearl fisheries in South America, those of Panama for
"example, are in the hands of negro tenants, as it were.
“These are bound to give a certain number of pearls every
❝ week.
The negroes in the towns are allowed to hire
"themselves out to services of different kinds, on condition
"of returning to their masters a certain portion of their
wages; the rest they may spend or hoard up for their
❝ own use."
CC
"After a slave has, in any of these various ways,
acquired property, he endeavours to purchase his free-
"dom. If the master is exorbitant in his demands, he
may apply to a magistrate, who appoints sworn appraisers
"to fix the price at which the slave shall be allowed to buy
"his freedom. Even during his slavery, the behaviour of
"the master towards him is strictly watched; he may
complain to the magistrate, and obtain redress, which
generally consists in a decree, obliging the master to sell
"him at a certain rate. The consequences of all these
"laws and customs are extremely beneficial to the Spanish
"and Portuguese power in America. While the slaves
<<
66
66
<<
are faithful and laborious, the free negroes are numerous,
"and in general much more quiet, useful, and industrious,
"than in the other colonies. Most of the artificers are of
"this class; and some of the best troops in the New
"World are composed entirely of negroes who, by their
66 Own labour and frugality, have acquired their liberty."
66
"It is hardly necessary to remark the striking analogy
"between the state of the Spanish and Portuguese negroes,
" and that of the European bondsmen, at a certain period
"C
"of their progress towards liberty.
We find the same
"gentleness of treatment, the same protection from the
"laws, the same acknowledgments of rights, the same
power of acquiring property, granted to the American
"slave, which prepared the complete emancipation of the
European vassal. In some particulars, we observe another
step of the same progress; for in many parts, the negroes
are precisely in the situation of the coloni partiarii, or
"metayers of the feudal times. In one respect, the negro
“is even in a more favourable situation: his reddendo (if
"I may use the expression) is fixed and definite; all the
"overplus of his industry belongs to himself. The metayer
*C
66
66
was bound to divide every gain with his lord. The
“former, then, has a much stronger incentive to industry
"than the latter had. As this difference, however, arises,
"not from the progress of society, but from the nature of
"the returns themselves, easily concealed, and with diffi-
"culty procured: so, in some other respects, the negro is
"not in such favourable circumstances. But the great
steps of the process of improvement are materially the
66 same in both cases. Both have in common the great
66
66
66
points of a bargain between the master and the slave;
privileges possessed by the slave independent of, nay, in
opposition to his master; the rights of property enjoyed
by
the slave, and the power of purchasing his freedom
"at a just price. This resemblance, in circumstances so
66
66
important, may fairly be expected to render the progress
"of the two orders also similar. In the negro, as in the
"feudal system, we may look for the consequences of those
66
20
66
66
great improvements in voluntary industry, more pro-
❝ductive labour, and the mitigation and final abolition of
"slavery, when the slave shall have been gradually pre-
"pared to become a free subject.
21
1
"Some of the good effects that have flowed from the
"national character, and peculiar circumstances of the
Spanish and Portuguese, have been produced also in
"Dutch America, by that great competition of capitals,
“and those complicated difficulties, which lay the Dutch
❝colonists under the necessity of attending to the smallest
savings. If, from this source, combined with the facility
"of importation, has arisen a cruelty, unknown in other
"colonies, it may be doubted whether a compensation for
"the evil is not afforded by another effect of the same cir-
“cumstances :—the general introduction of task work,
"which the keen-sighted spirit of a necessary avarice has
"taught the planter of Dutch Guiana to view as the most
profitable manner of working his slaves. Nothing, indeed,
can conduce more immediately to the excitement of in-
"dustry, than the introduction of task-work. It seems
“the natural and easy transition from labour to industry;
"it forms in the mind of the slave those habits which are
66 necessary for the character of the free man: it thus pre-
pares him for enjoying, by a gradual change, those
rights and privileges which belong to freedom.”
66
Of that modification of slavery under which the slave
pays a tax or tribute to his master for permission to work
on his own account, and to which such important effects are
ascribed in the preceding extracts, Storch observes, “This
"milder form of slavery has been adopted by different
"nations, but I doubt if it has existed any where to the
66 same extent as in Russia. It is one of the most efficacious
"means of mitigating the fatal effects of slavery, and if
"there is ever any serious intention of abolishing it, this
"institution offers the most simple and least inconvenient
" means.” Now it would be difficult to find a stronger proof
of the paralyzing influence of slavery on human exertion,
66
66
66
66
66
22
66
66
£
than the beneficial results which have followed the substi-
tution in its place of a system so oppressive as even this
mitigated form of bondage is represented to be by intelligent
travellers. Mr. Heber remarks: "The peasants, belonging
to the nobles in Russia, have their abrock raised by their
means of getting money. It then becomes, not a rent of
"land, but a downright tax upon their industry. Each
"male peasant is obliged by law to labour three days in
"each week for his proprietor. If the proprietor chooses
"to employ him the other days, he may; as for instance,
"in a manufactory, but he then finds him in food and
"clothing. If a slave exercises any trade which brings
"him in more money than agricultural labour, he pays
"a higher abrock. The peasants, employed as drivers at
"the post-houses, pay an abrock out of the drink-money
"they receive for being permitted to drive; as otherwise,
"the master might employ them in other less profitable
❝labour, on his own account. Sometimes they pay an
❝abrock for permission to beg." "In despite," says Dr.
Clarke, “of all the pretended regulations made in favour
"of the peasant, the tax he is called upon to pay, or the
"labour he is compelled to bestow, depends wholly on the
caprice of his tyrant."
(6
Į
Task-work, another important, although earlier step in
the progress from slavery to freedom, than a participation
of earnings with a master, and another instance of the
substitution of a cheaper for a more expensive system of
cultivation, I found to be almost universal in the Atlantic
States of America, where tobacco, cotton, and rice, are
the staple articles of production; but I never heard of an
instance of it in the sugar plantations of Louisiana, where
great profits render attention to economy less necessary.
If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we might
confidently presume that estates would be rendered less
66
66
productive by the emancipation of the slaves which culti-
vated them; but the presumption is contradicted by ex-
perience. "A few Polish nobles, (observes Coxe, in his
"travels in Poland,) of benevolent hearts, and enlightened
"understandings, have acted upon different principles, and
"have ventured upon the expedient of giving liberty to
"their vassals. The event has shown this to be no less
"judicious than humane, no less friendly to their own
"interests than to the happiness of the peasants; for it
that in the districts in which the new arrange-
ment has been introduced, the population of their villages
"has been considerably increased, and the revenues of their
"estates augmented in a triple proportion. The first
"noble who granted freedom to his peasants, was Zamoiski,
"formerly great chancellor, who, in 1761, enfranchised six
villages, in the palatinate of Masovia.”
"These villages
"were, in 1777, visited by the author of the patriotic letters,
"from whom I received the following information :-On in-
appears
66
I
66
23
specting the parish registers of births, from 1750 to 1760,
"that is, during the ten years of slavery immediately pre-
"ceding their enfranchisement, he found the births 434;
"in the first ten years of their freedom, from 1760 to 1770,
"628; and from 1770 to the beginning of 1777, 585. By
"these extracts, it appeared that, during the
"First period, there were only 43 births
"Second ditto
"Third ditto
…………………
62 ditto each year,
77 ditto
"The revenues of the six villages, since their entranchise-
❝ment, have been augmented in a much greater proportion
"than their population. In the state of vassalage, Zamoiski
"was obliged, according to the custom of Poland, to build
"cottages and barns for his peasants, and to furnish them
"with food, horses, and ploughs, and every implement of
"agriculture: since their enfranchisement, they are become
"so easy in their circumstances, as to provide themselves
"with all these necessaries at their own expense, and they
"likewise cheerfully pay an annual rent in lieu of the
"manual labour formerly exacted by their master. By
"these means, the receipts of this particular estate have
“been nearly tripled.
66
"The example of Zamoiski has been followed by
Chreptowitz, vice-chancellor of Lithuania, and the Abbe
Bryzolowski, with similar success. Prince Stanislaus,
"the king of Poland, has warmly patronized the plan of
giving liberty to the peasants. He has enfranchised four
villages not far from Warsaw, in which he has not only
emancipated the peasants from their slavery, but even
"condescends to direct their affairs. He explained to me,
" in the most satisfactory manner, that the grant of freedom
"was no less advantageous to the lord than to the peasant,
provided the former is willing to superintend their con-
"duct for a few years, and to put them in the way of
acting for themselves. He intends giving the public a
particular account of his arrangements, and will show
"how much he has increased the value of his estate, as
"well as the happiness of his peasants."
It is stated in the supplement to the Report of the Privy
Council, in reply to the 17th of the Queries from his
Excellency Governor Parry, answered by the Hon. Joshua
Steel, a planter of 1068 acres, in the parishes of St. John,
St. Philip, and St. George, in the island of Barbadoes:
"On a plantation of 288 slaves, in June 1780, viz. 90
"men, 82 women, 56 boys, and 60 girls, by the exertions
"of an able and honest manager, there were only 15 births,
"and no less than 57 deaths, in three years and three
"months. An alteration was made in the mode of govern-
*ing the slaves, the whips were taken from all the white
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'
24
((
66
•
25
"servants, all arbitrary punishments were abolished, and
"all offences were tried, and sentence passed by a negro
"court.
In four years and three months, under this
"change of government, there were 44 births, and only 41
<< deaths, of which 10 deaths were of superannuated men
❝ and women, and past labour, some above 80 years old.
"But in the same interval, the annual nett clearance of
"the estate was above three times more than it had been
"for ten years before."
If, then, it has appeared that we should be naturally led
to infer, from the very constitution of human nature, that
slave labour is more expensive than the labour of free men ;
if it has appeared that such has been the opinion of the
most eminent philosophers and enlightened travellers in
different ages and countries; if it has appeared that in a
state where slavery is allowed, land is most valuable in
those districts where the slave system prevails the least,
notwithstanding great disadvantages of locality; and that
in adjoining states, with precisely the same soil and climate,
in the one of which slavery is allowed, and in the other
prohibited, land is most valuable in that state in which it
is proscribed; if it has appeared that slave labour has
never been able to maintain its ground in competition with
free labour, except where monopoly has secured high
profits, or protecting duties afforded artificial support; if it
has appeared that, in every quarter of the globe, in pro-
portion as the circumstances of the planter rendered atten-
tion to economy more indispensable, the harsher features of
the slave system have disappeared, and the condition of the
slave has been gradually assimilated to that of the free
labourer; and if it has appeared that the mitigation of
slavery has been found, by experience, to substitute the
alacrity of voluntary labour, for the reluctance of com-
pulsory toil; and that emancipation has rendered the estates
26
en which it has taken place, greatly and rapidly more pro-
ductive-I need not, I think, adduce additional proofs of
the truth of the general position, that slave labour is more
expensive than the labour of freemen.
And here, perhaps, I might safely leave the question; yet,
since your arguments, although of a general nature, and
not restricted in their application to any peculiarity of
circumstances or situation, seem to be derived from a some-
<what partial view of the state of things in the West Indies,
I shall proceed to examine, whether they afford any pre-
sumption that those islands present an exception to the
general rule.
The comparison which you have made between the price
of slave and free labour in the Antilles, appears to me by
no means to warrant the conclusion you have drawn from it.
Where the proportion of free labourers is extremely small,
and labour is rendered degrading, or at least disreputable,
by being confined principally to slaves, it is natural that the
wages of free labour should be high; and the question is
not, whether at a given time and place, free or slave labour
is the highest, but whether both are not higher than labour
would be if all the community were free, and the principle
of population were allowed to produce its natural effect on
the price of labour, by maintaining the supply and com-
petition of free labourers.
The other argument which you adduce, appears to me
equally inconclusive. You observe, "The very obstinacy
"of the planters in defending slavery, proves that it is an
"advantageous system for them.
And does man indeed, then, always act with an enlight-
ened view to self-interest? Is he uniformly vigilant to
observe, and prompt to pursue his real good, however re-
27
mote, and requiring whatever sacrifices of present ease and
gratification? Does prejudice or passion never blind or
mislead him? nor habit render him slow to follow the dic-
tates of his better judgment? The conversion of the slaves
in the Colonies into free labourers, must be a very gradual
work, demanding much patience and assiduity,-involving,
possibly, some present risk, and requiring, it may be, for
its complete success, the consentaneous efforts of the
planters. And is such a task likely to be undertaken spon-
taneously, by the body of West India proprietors, whose
concerns are managed by hired overseers? who consider
their capital as invested, if not in a lottery, at least rather
in a mercantile speculation, from which it is speedily to be
disengaged, than in landed property, which is to descend
with all its improvements, to their children's children? Is
not the whole history of Colonial cultivation; is not the
long and violent opposition of the planters to the abolition
of the slave-trade; is not the reluctance they evinced to
breed, instead of purchase, their slaves, when the latter
plan was so notoriously the most expensive; is not their
unwillingness to adopt the enlightened and profitable sug-
gestions of their able counsellor and experienced associate,
"The Professional Planter;" are not all these irrefra-
gable proofs, that the practice of a planter,, like that of
other men, may be at variance with his interest—especially
if in unison with his prejudices and his inclinations? If
you should require additional evidence, I refer you to
Brougham's Colonial Policy, where the fact is illustrated
and explained, in language somewhat less courteous, in-
deed, than I am willing to adopt, but with the usual force
and ability of that powerful writer.
Ganilh expresses his suprise, that an author so intelligent
as yourself, and so well acquainted with the progress of
society in Europe, should maintain the general position,
that slave labour is cheaper than the labour of free men;
"1
1
28
but he insinuates some doubt, whether the position may not
be true when applied to the Colonies. He gives no reasons,
however, for this idea, (for he scarcely offers it as an
opinion,) which do not apply with the same force and pro-
priety to the European system; and after a careful exami-
nation of his argument, I can really discern as little con-
nexion between the principles he lays down, and the infer-
ence he seems disposed to deduce from them, as between
the solemn and repeated declarations of France, that she
has, bona fide, abolished the slave-trade, and her extension
of this traffic, in the eyes of Europe, to the very utmost
limits of which her capital will admit.
He observes: "When education has fitted man for one
"mode of existence, it is the height of imprudence suddenly
"to impart to the free man the ideas, the sentiments, and
"the tastes of the slave, and to the slave the ideas, the
"sentiments, and the tastes of the free man. Although,
"therefore, it appears to me to have been demonstrated,
"that the labour of the free man is more advantageous than
“that of the slave, perhaps it is equally true in the Colonial
"system as it exists, that the labour of the slave is more
"advantageous than that of the freeman." Now this argument
against the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, applies
equally to the abolition of slavery every-where; or rather, it
is applicable only to sudden emancipation any-where. "By
"educating a man as a slave, you unfit him for freedom."
Educate him then, as a freeman, and you unfit him for
slavery. If the present generation of West India slaves are
so tainted with the poison of slavery, that their moral con-
stitutions cannot be regenerated, guard the next generation
from the malignant influence of this vicious system, and you
supply the islands with more productive labourers, agreeably
to Ganilh's own admission.
66
If he had founded his exception of the Colonies from the
operation of the general principle that the labour of freemen
29
is cheaper than that of slaves, on some radical distinction
Jetween the European and the African race, or between
European and Colonial bondage, his argument would have
been intelligible at least, if not conclusive. But tie asserts, and
I think most justly, "that the nature of man-white, yellow,
"or black, is every-where the same; that the passions
"exercise the same empire over each colour, and that all
equally obey the influence of moral and physical causes;
and with respect to any difference between European and
Colonial bondage, he has not even alluded to the subject.
(
99
I admit, however, that some striking distinctions exist
between them; distinctions so little creditable either to your
country or my own, that I rejoice that my subject does not
compel me to insist upon them. But while I gladly decline
entering into those particulars, which place Negro Slavery in
such humiliating contrast with European Bondage, I would
guard sedulously against a delusion which has sometimes
been industriously circulated, that in all their essential
characteristics they differ little.
66
.
He must know little of the progress of society in Europe
who can imagine, that its most degraded nation, in the
darkest age, can supply a parallel to Negro Slavery as
it exists in the British dominions in the 19th century.
Where, in the records of European history, shall we find
so loathsome and revolting a picture of human degradation
as has been recently exhibited to the public, in a little
pamphlet, entitled "Negro Slavery." Trusting, therefore,
that I shall be in no danger of giving currency to a
pernicious error, I rejoice that the argument, which I am
pursuing, leads me to dwell less on those points in which the
two systems differ, than on those in which they agree; and
I trust it will appear, from their coincidence in the few
particulars in which I shall institute a comparison between
them, that so many of the principles from which slavery
derives its malignant influence on human character are
✔
30
common to both, as to justify the conclusion, that the happy
results which have followed its abolition in the one cas
may reasonably be anticipatedu from it in the other.
ઃઃ
If, in the West indies and America, the wealth of a
planter is estimated, not by the number of acres which he
possesses, but by the number of his slaves, so it is in Europe.
"Peasants belonging to individuals in Russia," says Coxe,
"are the private property of the landholder, as much as
implements of agriculture, or herds of cattle, and the value
"of an estate is estimated by the number of boors, and not
"by the number of acres. "The peasants of Poland,"
observes the same writer, "as in all feudal governments,
(( are serfs or slaves; and the value of an estate is not
"estimated so much from its extent, as from the number of
"its peasants, who are transferred from one master to
"another, like so many herds of cattle.
""
If, in the West Indies and America, the slave can possess
no property, except at the will of the master, who may
choose to appropriate it, neither can he in many parts of
Europe. "A man," says Storch, "who belongs to another
"man, can possess nothing of his own. What he produces,
"what he acquires, is produced and acquired for the master."
"With regard to any capital," Coxe observes, "which the
"Russian peasants may have acquired by their industry, it
may be seized, and there can be no redress, as, according to
"the old feudal law, which still exists, a slave cannot insti-
"tute a process against his master. Hence it occasionally
“happens, that several peasants who have gained a large
capital, cannot purchase their liberty for any sum, because
they are subject, as long as they continue slaves, to be
"pillaged by their masters." "If the slave," says Dr.
Clarke, “have sufficient ingenuity to gain money without his
"knowledge, it becomes a dangerous possession, and when
"discovered, it falls instantly into the hands of his lord.”
"The Russian boors," Tooke remarks, "have no civil
66
66
66
31
"liberty; their children belong not to them, but to their
"manorial lord, on whose will they depend; they also,
"with their children, may be alienated, sold, and exchanged.
They possess no immoveable property; but they them-
"selves are treated sometimes as the moveable, sometimes
as the immoveable property of another."
<<
If, in the West Indies and America, the power of the
master has too frequently, in practice at least, extended to
the life of the slave, such has often been the case in Europe.
In the state of Mississippi, in 1820, a young planter was
pointed out to me who had shot a runaway slave the
preceding year, without the smallest notice being taken of
it; and a similar circumstance had occurred on a neigh-
bouring plantation about the same time. "In Western
"Europe," says Storch, "under the feudal system, the lot of
"the slaves was much harder than it is at present in Russia,
"since the right of the master extended to the life of the
"slave." Coxe, in his travels in Poland, observes, "The
"slavery of the Polish peasants is very ancient, and was
"always extremely rigorous; until the time of Casimir the
great, the lord could put his peasant to death with
"impunity, and when the latter had no children, considered
"himself as heir, and seized all his effects. In 1347,
"Casimir prescribed a fine for the murder of a peasant,
"and enacted, that in case of his decease without issue, his
"next heir should inherit." Again,
Again, "Peasants belonging
"to individuals, are at the absolute disposal of the master,
"and have scarcely any positive security either for their pro-
"perties or their lives.-Until 1768, the statutes of Poland
66 only exacted a fine from a lord who had killed his slave;
"but in that year a decree was passed, by which the
"murder of a peasant was made a capital crime; yet, as
"the law in question requires such an accumulation of
"evidence as is seldom to be obtained, it has more the
"appearance of protection than the reality." The same
ર
66
1
32
traveller observes, in his travels in Russia, "The lord,
"according to the ancient laws, had no power over the
"lives of the peasants, for if a slave was beat by order of
"his master, and died within the space of three days, the
"latter was guilty of murder, unless other reasons could
"be assigned for his demise. But was not this almost a
mockery of justice? For surely a man might be terribly
"chastised without suffering death in three days, and if
"his vassal died within that space, and his master was a
"man of consequence, who was to bring him to justice ?"
66
(C
If, in the West Indies and America, marriage may be
rendered impracticable, or its sacred ties torn asunder at
the caprice of a master, so they may in Europe. "If the
slave marries," says Storch, "it is because the master
"wishes or permits it; if he becomes a father, his children
are born slaves as well as himself, his rights over his
"wife and children are subordinate to those which the
"master has over them. The slave is first a slave and
"then a man." "A peasant in the village of Celo Molody,
"near Moscow," observes Dr. Clarke, "who had been
“fortunate enough to scrape together a little wealth, wish-
❝ed to marry his daughter to a tradesman of the city, and
"offered 15 thousand roubles for her freedom-a most
"unusual price, and a much greater sum than persons of
"his class, situated as he was, will be found to possess.
"The tyrant took the ransom, and then told the father
"that both the girl and the money belonged to him; and
"therefore she must continue among the number of his
"slaves."
If the negroes (often active and energetic in their own
country) are accused of indolence and apathy in the colo-
nies, so are the lively Russians themselves when benumbed
by slavery. "Other nations," says Dr. Clarke, "speak
"of Russian indolence, which is remarkable, as no people
"are naturally more lively, or more disposed to employ-
"ment.
We may, perhaps, assign a cause for their inac-
tivity. It is necessary. Can there exist excitement to
"labour, when it is certain that a tyrant will bereave
industry of all its reward. The only property a Russian
"nobleman allows his slave to possess, is the food he can-
"not or will not eat himself. The bark of trees, chaff and
"other refuse, grass, and fish oil." "With regard," says
Mr. Heber, "to the idleness of the lower classes in
"Russia, of which we have heard great complaints, it
appears that when they have an interest in exertion, they
"by no means want industry. Great proprietors, who
"never raise their abrock, such as Count Sheremotoff,
"have very rich and prosperous peasants." Again, "We
"observed a striking difference between the peasants of the
66 crown, and those of individuals. The former are all in
"comparatively easy circumstances. Their abrock or rent
“is fixed, and as they are sure it will never be raised, they
are more industrious."
66
If the miseries of slavery in the Colonies, occasionally
exasperate the slaves to desperation, and impel them to
atrocities, which diffuse general apprehension and alarm,
the same thing occurs in Russia. "In such instances,"
observes Dr. Clarke," the peasants take the law into
"their own hands, and assassinate their lords. To prevent
"this, the latter live in cities, remote from their own
"people, and altogether unmindful of all that concerns
"their slaves, except the tribute they are to pay." Mr.
Birkbeck relates the following anecdote of a planter, whom
he met in a tavern in Virginia, and Dr. Clarke informs us
that Russia can supply many parallel cases: "One gentle-
66
man," says Mr. Birkbeck, "in a poor state of health, dared
"not encounter the rain, but was wretched at the thoughts
"of his family being for one night without his protection
"from his own slaves. He was suffering under the effects
"of a poisonous potion, administered by a negro who was
D
(6
66
66
33
99
34
"his personal servant." Dr. Clarke observes, "Many of
"the Russian nobles dare not venture near their own
CC
villages, through fear of the vengeance they have merited
by their crimes." It has occurred to myself, while in
the state of Mississippi, to hear a well authenticated
instance of a planter, who was compelling his slaves to
work during a great part of the night, having been sur-
prised asleep on the trunk of a tree, on which he had sat
down to inspect them, shot with his own rifle, and then
burnt in the ashes of their midnight fires; and Mr. Heber
remarks, when in Russia, "The brother of a lady of our
acquaintance, who had a great distillery, disappeared
"suddenly, and was pretty easily guessed to have been
"thrown into a boiling copper by his slaves." He adds,
"domestic servants (slaves) sometimes revenge themselves
"in a terrible manner."
66
66
If travellers in America find the prisons in the slave-
states filled with slaves, (as I did almost universally,) Mr.
Heber remarks, "the prisons of Moscow and Kastroma
"were chiefly filled with runaway slaves, who were for the
"most part in irons."
If, in passing from a free into a slave-state in America,
the change is instantly visible, even to the most careless
eye, and-nature herself seems to droop and sicken under
the withering influence of slavery; the case is precisely the
same in Europe. "The houses," says Hall, in his travels
in America," universally shaded with large verandahs,
"seem to give notice of a southern climate: the huts round
"them, open to the elements, tell a less pleasing tale: they
“ inform the traveller he has entered on a land of free men
"and slaves, and he beholds the scene marred with wretched
"dwellings, and wretched faces! And if the miserable
"condition of the negro leave him mind for reflection, he
might laugh in his chains, to see how slavery has stricken
"the land with ugliness. The smiling villages and happy
..
*.
35
66
66
66
population of the eastern and central states, give place to
"the splendid equipages of a few planters, and a wretched
negro population, crawling among filthy hovels. For
❝ villages, after crossing the Susquehanna, there are scarcely
any: there are only plantations-the very name speaks
"volumes!" My own personal observation enables me to
subscribe to the fidelity of this picture, and from a recent
communication which now lies before me from America, in
reply to some inquiries transmitted to that country on the
subject, I extract the following remarks: "It is believed
"that no country can furnish a more full and clear oppor-
"tunity, than the United States of America do at this
"time, of attesting the effect of domestic slavery upon the
"industry and prosperity of a nation, and the relative
"value or profit of free and slave labour. The states of
“Maine, Massachusets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ver-
mont, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, are
now cultivated almost entirely by free men. These states
"lie under a more rigorous climate, and possess a less
"fertile soil than the southern states, yet the prosperous
"situation of the country, the general comfort of the inha-
"bitants, and the improved condition of agriculture in
"those free states, compared with the slave states, are so
❝ obvious as to strike the traveller immediately, as he passes
"from the one district to the other. In the one, we find
"the whole country divided into small farms of from 100
"to 500 acres of land; on each of these tracts is generally
"erected a comfortable dwelling-house, with the necessary
"out-buildings, which are surrounded by well cultivated
"fields, in good order. In this district, the farmers, with
"but few exceptions, annually realize a small profit, by
"which they are enabled, as their children attain to man-
“hood, to make respectable provision for their establish-
"ment in business. In the other, we meet here and there,
thinly scattered over a wretchedly cultivated district of
((
66
CC
CC
36
<6
country, a mansion-house, commonly in bad repair, sur-
"rounded by a number of dirty beggarly huts, crowded
"with ragged negroes and mulattoes, and the whole bear-
ing the strongest marks of oppression and suffering, in
"which the half-starved neglected cattle, and other domes-
"tic animals, evidently participate. In other words, in
"those districts where the system of slavery is in full
(6
operation, the population is composed of the two extreme
"conditions of society, viz. the rich and the poor: and we
"meet with scarcely any of that middling class, which in
"all countries constitutes its most valuable members, and
"its most efficient strength." It is observed of a slave
district in Russia, in the "Memoirs of the Court of St.
"Petersburg," "A few cities enjoy the pleasures of life,
" and exhibit palaces, because whole provinces lie desolate,
"or contain only wretched hovels, in which you would
expect to find bears rather than men." Coxe observes,
in his journey from Stockholm to Carlscrona,
"After
"having witnessed the slavery of the peasants in Russia and
“Poland, it was a pleasing satisfaction to find myself again
" among free men, in a kingdom where there is a more equal
"division of property, where there is no vassalage; where
"the lowest order enjoy a security of person and property,
"and where the advantages resulting from this right, are
"visible to the commonest observer. Norway is blessed
"with a particular code, called the Norway Law.' By this
“law—the palladium of Norway, the peasants are free; a few
C
only excepted on certain noble estates near Frederickstadt.
“The benefits of the Norway code are so visible, as to the
"general effect on the happiness, and on the appearance
"of the peasants, that a traveller must be blind who does
"not instantly perceive the difference between the free
(6
66
66
(6
peasants of Norway, and the enslaved vassals of Denmark,
though both living under the same government."
37
If, in the West Indies and America, you are often sur-
prised and grieved by the strange assertion, that the condi-
tion of the slaves is as good as that of the labourers in Eng-
land, as if mere animal sustenance were all that is necessary
for the happiness of a rational and immortal being, the same
proof is often afforded in Russia, of the degree in which
familiarity with slavery may degrade man in the estimate
of his fellow man, and render a feudal lord insensible to all
that constitutes the essence of freedom. "There is," said
one of the Russian princes to Dr. Clarke, addressing him-
self to him with an air of triumph, "more of the reality of
"slavery in England than in Russia."
And if, in the West Indies, there is a general prejudice
against emancipation, and the idea of imparting to slaves
the privileges of freedom is regarded as theoretical and
visionary; similar errors and prejudices have prevailed, and
perhaps still prevail in many parts of Europe.
"The
"generality of the Polish nobles," observes Coxe, "are not
" inclined either to establish or give efficacy to any regula-
❝tions in favour of the peasants, whom they consider as
"not entitled to the common rights of humanity!"
66 I
"was much surprised to find," says the same author, "upon
inquiry, that no noble in Russia had franchised his vassals;
"but I may venture to predict that the time is not far dis-
66 tant, although an almost general prejudice seems to prevail,
"with respect to the incapacity of the peasants for receiving
"their liberty. And this, perhaps, may be true in the
"literal sense, as many of them, unless properly instructed,
"would scarcely be able to derive a solid advantage from
"their freedom, which might be considered by some as an
“exception from labour, and a permission for licentiousness.
“A century ago, perhaps, no one in Russia would have
"ventured to debate the question, whether the peasants
ought to be free."
And yet emancipation has proceeded rapidly in Europe,
with what brilliant success, let Ganilh himself inform us:
<<
66
38
"The enfranchisement of the European population, has
"been followed by tillage and cultivation, by the con-
"version of cabins into cottages, hamlets into villages,
"villages into towns, and towns into cities, by the establish-
“ment of industry and commerce, of public order, and of
"social power. The people who have first distinguished
"themselves on the political theatre, are precisely those
"who have first substituted the labour of the free man for
"that of the slave; and other nations have only been able
"to rise to the same prosperity by imitating their example.
“In fine, the era of the economical and political regenera-
❝tion of modern Europe, is coincident with the abolition
“of real and personal slavery.”
And why may not the same glorious consequences follow
the abolition of slavery in the West. Is it in Europe only
that the mind can awaken from the torpor of slavery to
life and intelligence? What shall we say, then, to the
abolition of slavery, under British auspices, in Ceylon, in.
Java, in Sumatra, and in St. Helena? Or is it the African
alone who imbibes a poison from the bitter cup which no
antidote can cure, but which flows in the veins, and attaints
the blood of his latest posterity? To you, Sir, it would
be most unjust to impute such an opinion; but if it should
be entertained by any of your countrymen, I would refer
them to the experiment lately made in Columbia, where a
great body of slaves have been emancipated, who are said
"to have conducted themselves with a degree of indus-
"try, sobriety, and order, highly creditable to them." I
would refer them to the instance of the American slaves who
joined the British standard in the last war, and who are
now settled.in Trinidad; where, under the protection of
Sir Ralph Woodford, the Governor, "they are earning
"their subsistence," Mr. Wilberforce informs us, "with
tr
so much industry and good conduct, as to have put
"to silence all the calumnies which were first urged
39
66 against the measure." I would refer them to the testimony
of a traveller, whose authority they will not dispute, the
enterprising and philosophical Humboldt: "In all these
"excursions,” he observes, "we were agreeably surprised,
66
not only at the progress of agriculture, but the increase
"of a free, laborious population, accustomed to toil, and
"too poor to rely on the assistance of slaves. White and
"black farmers had every-where separate establishments."
"I love to dwell on these details of Colonial industry,
"because they prove to the inhabitants of Europe, what
"to the enlightened inhabitants of the Colonies has long
"ceased to be doubtful, that the Continent of Spanish
"America can produce Sugar and Indigo by free hands,
"and that the unhappy slaves are capable of becoming
66 peasants, farmers, and landholders." I would refer
them to the interesting and flourishing colony of Sierra
Leone, that morning star of Africa, which beams so brightly
on her sable brow. Or, lastly, I would refer them to a
dark page in your Colonial history, where the refutation of
their opinion is written in characters of fire.
Why, then, I would ask again, may not the same
glorious consequences, which followed the abolition of
slavery in Europe, follow its abolition in the West?
"The abolition of the slave-trade," says Brougham,
"assisted by subordinate arrangements, similar to
"those adopted in the ancient states, in the feudal
"kingdoms, and in the American Colonies, will most
"undoubtedly alter the whole face of things in the new
"world.
The negroes, placed in almost the same cir-
"cumstances with the bondmen of ancient Europe and
"the slaves of the classic times, will begin the same
career of improvement. The society of the West Indies
"will no longer be that anomalous, defective, and disgust-
"ing monster of political existence, which we have so
"often been forced to contemplate in the course of this
66
40
inquiry. The foundation of rapid improvement will be
"securely laid, both for the whites, the negroes, and the
"mixed race. A strong and compact political structure
"will arise, under the influence of a mild, civilized, and
"enlightened system. The vast Continent of Africa will
keep pace with the quick improvement of the world
"which she has peopled; and in those regions where, as yet,
only the war-whoop, the lash, and the cries of misery,
"have divided with the beasts the silence of the desart,
"our children, and the children of our slaves, may enjoy
"the delightful prospect of that benign and splendid reign,
"which is exercised by the arts, the sciences, and the
"virtues of modern Europe."
56
((
66
Such, Sir, is the animating picture of the future fortunes
of the Negro race. It is drawn, not by a Philanthropist
in the shades of retirement, but by a Politician, who had
meditated deeply on Colonial Policy, who brought to the
consideration of this difficult topic, a mind second to few
in capacity and vigour, and enriched with the most valuable
information, commercial, political, and moral, on all topics
connected with the interests of the Colonies. It is a sketch
from the hand of a master, but of a master more eminent
for the distinctness of his conceptions, and the bold linea-
ments of his prominent figures, than for the embellishments
of a luxuriant fancy, or the warm colouring of romantic or
impassioned feeling.
Nor was the expectation that the abolition of slavery,
with all its beneficial results, would follow the abolition of
the slave-trade, confined to Mr. Brougham. "Not I only,"
says Mr. Wilberforce, "but all the chief advocates of the
"Abolition of the Slave-trade-Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, Lord
"Grenville, Lord Grey, and every other-scrupled not to
"declare, from the very first, that their object was, by
"ameliorating regulations, and more especially by stopping
"that influx of uninstructed savages, which furnished an
A
41
"excuse for continuing a harsh system of management, and
"prevented masters from looking to their actual stock of
"slaves for keeping up their number, to be surely, though
slowly, advancing towards the period when these unhappy
beings might exchange their degraded state of slavery for
"that of a free and industrious peasantry."
66
Mr. William Smith observes, "That he scrupled not to
avow and to maintain, nor had he ever, at any period of
"the Slave-trade controversy, scrupled to avow and to
"maintain, that the ultimate object of every friend of jus-
"tice and humanity in this country, must and ought to be,
eventually to extend freedom to every individual within
"the dominions of Great Britain; that this freedom
"belonged to them of right; and that to withhold it be-
"yond the necessity of the case, and especially to with-
"hold it systematically, and in intention, for ever, was
"the very grossest injustice. He admitted, indeed, that
“immediate emancipation might be an injury, and not a
“benefit, to the slaves themselves: a period of preparation
"seemed to be necessary. The ground of this delay,
"however, was not the intermediate advantage to be de-
"rived from their labour, but a conviction of its expediency
"as it respected themselves. We had to compensate to
"these wretched beings for ages of injustice; we were
"bound by the strongest obligations to train up these sub-
jects of our past injustice and tyranny, for an equal par-
ticipation with ourselves in the blessings of liberty, and
"the protection of law; and by these considerations ought
"our measures to be strictly and conscientiously regulated.
"It was only while proceeding in such a course of action,
66
(6
adopted on principle and steadily pursued, that we could
"be justified in the retention of the negroes in slavery for
"a single hour; and he trusted that the eyes of all men,
"both here and in the Colonies, would be opened to this
"view of the subject, as their clear and indispensable duty.”
66
66
66
66
42
And why have so many years elapsed without any syste-
matic approach to that happy change in the structure of
Colonial society, which was so generally expected to follow
the abolition of the Slave-trade? Is it not because the
circumstances of the planters have never yet been such as
to compel them to introduce those "subordinate arrange-
ments,” those" ameliorating regulations," adopted by the
ancient states and feudal kingdoms of Europe? But the
time is probably at hand, when necessity will force them to
adopt the most economical mode of culture, however averse
to change and innovation. The nation will not long con-
sent to support a wasteful system of cultivation, at the
expense of great national interests, and of an opening
commerce with 60 to 100 millions of our fellow-subjects;
and the slave labour of the West must fall, when brought
into competition with the free labour of the East.
Deeply impressed with this conviction, I dwell with
peculiar pleasure on every view of this important subject,
which illustrates the connexion between the interest of the
master and the slave. And having had a near view of
slavery in the United States of America, having seen the
dark aspect which it assumes, and the apprehensions which
it diffuses, under a government pre-eminently free, in the
bosom of an enlightened people, and in the sunshine of
benign and liberal institutions, I am persuaded that such a
system cannot exist long, in daily contrast with the enlight-
ened policy of the new republics of the West, and under
the brighter light which the diffusion of the gospel is shed-
ding over the globe. I rejoice, therefore, in the conclu-
sion, that the same measures-the mitigation and gradual
abolition of slavery,-which are best calculated to avert a
crisis which it is impossible to contemplate without dismay;
are precisely those which, it would appear from the pre-
ceding pages, are most adapted to promote the immediate
interests of the planters, by diminishing the expenses, and
increasing the produce of their estates.
43
That the removal of the monopoly which they at present
enjoy, will enhance the distress of the West India planters,
it is impossible to doubt; and the distress of so numerous a
body, comprising some of the most enlightened and estima-
ble members of the community, deserves a serious and
dispassionate consideration. That sympathy is unnatural,
which is excited only for sufferers at a distance, and that
sensibility defective which can feel only for the slave. But it
is the part of an enlightened Legislator, when endeavouring
to relieve one class of the community, to guard against the
injustice of transferring the burden to another; and to re-
quire from those who solicit his interference, not only that
they make out a strong case of distress, but that they prove
that they are vigorously pursuing every means within their
own power, to extricate themselves from the difficulties of
their situation.
It is on these grounds, and not on any vague idea that
Parliament is pledged to support them, that the West
Indians should rest their claims. Even with respect to the
absolute prohibition of a trade which Parliament had en-
couraged, Mr. Pitt repelled the idea of the Legislature
being restrained by a reference to the past, from exercising
its free discretion with regard to the future. With how
much greater warmth would he have rejected such an
assumption, in the case of a protecting duty, which encou-
rages a system of cultivation unnecessarily expensive, which
acts like an oppressive tax on the export of our manufac-
tures, and which operates with a most malignant and widely
extended influence on the industry, energy, and resources
of our Indian Empire. He observes, "It is chiefly on the
presumed ground of our being bound by a parliamentary
"sanction, heretofore given to the African slave-trade, that
"this argument against the abolition is rested. Is there
66
*<<
any one regulation of any part of our commerce, which,
"if this argument be valid, may not equally be objected to,
$
44
66
"on the ground of its affecting some man's patrimony,
"some man's property, or some man's expectations. Let
"it never be forgotten, that the argument I am canvassing
"would be just as strong if the possession affected were
“small, and the possessors humble; for on every principle
"of justice, the property of every single individual, or
"number of individuals, is as sacred as that of the great
body of West Indians. It is scarcely possible to lay a
"duty on any one article which may not, when first im-
posed, be said in some way to affect the property of
“individuals, and even of some entire classes of the com-
"munity. If the laws respecting the slave-trade imply
a contract for its perpetual continuance, I will venture
"to say there does not pass a year without some act
"equally pledging the faith of Parliament, and the perpe-
66 tuating some other branch of commerce.
66
1
66
99
It is not then on the plea of a parliamentary pledge, but
simply on the grounds of the extent of their distress, and
their inability to relieve themselves, that the West India
planters should found their claims for support,
But this inability, however real, will perpetually be called
in question, until they have introduced every practicable
improvement into their system of cultivation. When they
have relieved that system from its superfluous machinery,
and have made arrangements for the gradual elevation of
their slaves to the condition of free labourers, they will
have prepared themselves to come before Parliament with
a better case; and will have laid the foundation for such
a change in the structure of Colonial society, as will ulti-
mately contribute greatly to their prosperity, and will
exhibit in our West India Islands, another happy illus-
tration of the truth of the position, that the labour of
free men is cheaper than the labour of slaves.
APPENDIX.
**
41
THE Honourable Joshua Steele, whose communications have
been referred to in the preceding letter, and form so valuable a
part of Dr. Dickson's work, was a very intelligent gentleman, of
large West India property, who, previous to visiting his estates
in Barbadoes, lived many years in London, in habits of intimacy
with persons of rank and character. He was Vice-president of
the London Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, and
was supposed to be one of the founders of the Dublin Society.
He went to Barbadoes late in life, where he was a member of
the Council, and officiated some time as Chief Justice. He was
also the Founder of the Barbadoes Society of Arts, Manufactures,
and Commerce, and President, till it had acquired some strength,
when the Governor became President, and Mr. Steele Vice-
president. He arrived in Barbadoes in 1780. The Society was
founded in 1781, and in 1787 and 1788," he contrived to give
" in the Barbadoes Gazette, (by his account of several conversa-
“tions,) faithful copies of the material part of the manuscript
"minutes of the proceedings of the Society in their Committees,"
under the signature of Philo Xylon.
In 1790, about 10 years after his arrival in Barbadoes, he
writes to Dr. Dickson, who had also been a resident in that
island as private secretary to Governor Hay: "Upon observing
"all this," (the abuses which still continued on his plantation,
after his attempts to correct them in the ordinary way,) “I re-
46
“ solved to make a further experiment, in order to try whether
"I could not obtain the labour of my negroes by voluntary
"means, instead of the old method-by violence, and that in
"such a way as should be proof against the insidious insinuations
"of my superintendant; when, for a small pecuniary reward,
"over and above their usual allowances, the poorest, feeblest,
"and by character the most indolent negroes in the whole gang,
"cheerfully performed the holing of my land for canes, (generally
"said to be the most laborious work,) for less than a fourth part
"of the stated price paid to the undertakers for holing. Of this
"there is a pretty exact account given in Philo Xylon's eighth
"letter. I repeated the like experiment the following year with
equal success, and on the 18th Nov. 1789, I gave also my
"slaves tenements of land, and pecuniary wages, by the hour,
"the day, or the week, for their labour and services, nearly
"according to the plan described in Philo Xylon's ninth letter,
❝ and soon after dismissed my superintendant." The account to
which he alludes in Philo Xylon's eighth letter, is the follow-
ing:-"A planter offered a premium of two-pence halfpenny a
"day, or a pistreen per week, with the usual allowance to
"holers, of a dram with molasses, to any twenty-five of his
66 negroes, men and women, who would undertake to hole for
canes, an acre per day, at about ninety-six and half holes for
"each negro to the acre. The whole gang were ready to
"undertake it, but only fifty of the volunteers were accepted,
"and many among them were those, who, on much lighter
“occasions, had usually pleaded infirmity and inability. But
“the ground having been moist, they holed twelve acres within
"six days, with great ease: having had an hour, more or less,
(C
every evening, to spare; and the like experiment was repeated
"with the same success. More experiments, with such pre-
"miums, on weeding and deep hoeing, were made by task-work
per acre, and all succeeded in like manner, their premiums
"being all perpetually paid them in proportion to their perform-
<<
ance. But afterwards, some of the same people being put
(without premium) to weed on a loose uncultivated soil in the
<<
66
66
APPENDIX.
47
common manner, eighteen negroes did not do as much, in a
given time, as six had performed of the like sort of work, a few
days before, with the premium of the two-pence halfpenny.
"But these heterodox experiments did not pass without
censure. However, the plain answer is, that by the last
"experiment, where eighteen negroes, under the whip, did
"not do as much as six with the premium, the planter was
"clearly convinced that saving time, by doing in one day as
"much as would otherwise require three days, was worth more
"than double the premium, the timely effects on vegetation
being critical. And moreover, it was remarkable, that during
"the operations under the premium, there were no pretended
"disorders, no crowding to the sick-house. But according to
"the vulgar mode of governing negro-slaves, they feel only the
desponding fear of punishment for doing less than they ought,
"without being sensible that the settled allowance of food and
clothing is given, and should be accepted as a reward for doing
"work: while, in task-work, the expectation of winning the
"reward, and the fear of losing it, have a double operation on
"their minds to exert their endeavours.”
<<
<<
ce
66
"C
(C
66
APPENDIX.
In Philo Xylon's ninth letter, to which he alludes, Mr. Steele
shows, that by giving his slaves tenements of land, and pecuniary
wages, the expense of employing the labour of three hundred
copyhold bond slaves, including the value of the land given to
them, is only
£1283 15s Od
While that of three hundred slaves under the
ordinary management, is at £5 14s each.. 1710 0
0
Making a saving of currency
Or sterling
426 5 0
334 9 3
Dr. Dickson, who had carefully examined the subject of slave
labour, and who has published some excellent Tables of Labour
Annuities, the result of practical experience and scientific
investigation, considers the preceding estimates of saving and
profit to be stated with great moderation. He notices them in
48
APPENDIX.
many parts of his work, and among others in the following
passage:
CC
"Thus, then, all things conspire to prove, that the returns
"of slave labour on sugar plantations have been, and are still
very rapidly declining. The ground on which the planter
"stands has never been firm, and it is now fast sinking under
"his feet. To save himself from the opening gulph, he must
"reduce the enormous expense of producing his article, by some
“such means as those recommended by the success of Mr.
"Steele, and other wise economists in sugar cultivation. He
"must call forth the latent vigour of his slaves by rewards,
"and abate, in every possible way, the waste, theft, idleness,
"desertion, pretended sickness, and secret reluctance and oppo-
sition, which must always, more or less, diminish the labour of
slaves. For a slave,' as Adam Smith observes, can have no
"other interest than to eat and waste as much, and work as
"little as possible."
C
C
ઃઃ
.
"We might be thought to refine too much, were we to attempt
"to calculate the diminution of labour caused by these moral
“evils of slavery. And beside, we could offer no estimate
"half so satisfactory as that given above, of the actual saving
"by the system recommended; which saving is nothing else
" than the amount of what is lost, by attempting the impossibility
(c
of curing the moral incapacity of slaves by force instead of
"reward."
SIERRA LEONE.
This Colony may be said to owe its origin to the liberality
and benevolent exertions of the celebrated GRANVille Sharp.
At the time when the decision of Lord Mansfield, in the
memorable case of the Negro, Somerset, had established the
axiom, that “as soon as any slave sets his foot on English
"ground, he becomes free," there were many negroes in Lon-
don who had been brought over by their masters. As a large
proportion of these had no longer owners to support them,
nor any parish from which they could claim relief, they fell
CC
into great distress, and resorted in crowds to their patron,
Granville Sharp, for support.
But his means were quite inadequate to maintain them all,
even if such a plan had been desirable for the objects of his
compassion, and " he formed a scheme for their future
permanent support. He determined upon sending them
"to some spot in Africa, the general land of their ances-
tors, where, when they were once landed under a proper
"leader, and with provisions for a time, and proper
implements of husbandry, they might, with but moderate
"industry, provide for themselves." "Just at this time, Mr.
"Smeathman, who had lived for some years at the foot of the
"Sierra Leone mountains, and who knew the climate and
"nature of the soil and productions there, and who had
"formed a plan for colonizing those parts, was in London,
"inviting adventurers, but particularly the black poor, to
accompany him on his return to his ancient abode." Measures
for this purpose were concerted by him and Granville Sharp;
but Mr. Smeathman, who was to have conducted the black
colonists, died before they sailed; and the care, and for some
time the expense, of this bold enterprize, devolved entirely on
Mr. Sharp. Nothing could be more discouraging than the
calamities which befel the undertaking from its very outset.
Of 400 black people who left the Thames on the 22nd Feb
1787, under convoy of his majesty's sloop of war Nautilus,
not more than 130 (who were afterwards reduced to 40) re-
mained alive and in one body at the end of the rainy season,
into which they had been thrown by the death of Mr. Smeath-
man, notwithstanding Mr. Sharp's strenuous efforts to avoid it.
Disaster followed disaster, Famine, disease, discontent, de-
sertion, succeeded each other with frightful rapidity, till the
year 1789, when the colony, again in a state of improvement,
was almost annihilated by a hostile attack from a neighbouring
chief. About that time, a company was established in England
for the purpose of carrying forward the benevolent views of
the founder, which afterwards obtained a royal charter of incor-
(C
APPENDIX.
<<
49
E
50
APPENDIX.
poration. In 1792, about 1100 negroes arrived from Nova
Scotia, under the command of Lieutenant Clarkson. These
were negroes who had been induced to enlist in the British
army during the American war, by an offer of freedom, and
“who were afterwards carried to Nova Scotia, under a promise
"of regular allotments of land, which promise had unfortu-
"nately not been fulfilled;" the climate being unfavourable.
to them, they solicited and obtained permission to join the
colony at Sierra Leone. In the year 1800, their numbers were
increased by the arrival of 550 Maroons, who, having risen
against the colonists of Jamaica, and been induced, by the
terror of blood-hounds, to surrender, were carried to Nova
Scotia, and subsequently to Sierra Leone. Of such elements
(to which have since been added the negroes liberated from the
holds of captured slave-ships) was the colony of Sierra Leone
composed; and nothing less than the extraordinary energy,
fortitude, and perseverance of our illustrious countryman, could
haye saved it from the destruction with which it was so often
menaced. "Certainly, without him, the Sierra Leone Company
"would not have been formed, and had he not supported the
colony, when it so often hung, as it were, by a thread, till the
"formation of this Company, all had been lost." This is not
the place to follow it through all the vicissitudes of its subse-
quent history; but as its actual condition is little known, I will
give a few extracts from various authorities, which will enable
the judicious reader to form his own opinion, how far it is likely
to realize the expectation of its illustrious founder, and to be
(6
one day the means of spreading the benefits of civilization
"and Christianity through a considerable part of the vast con-
"tinent of Africa."
(C
On the 31st Oct. 1787, Granville Sharp writes, "I have had
"but melancholy accounts of my poor little ill-thriven swarthy
"daughter, the unfortunate colony of Sierra Leone.
The following was the population in 1820 and 1822, as given
in the Missionary Register of Dec. 1822.
July 8, 1820.
120 .
594 .
730.
(C
"Europeans
"Maroons
<<
APPENDIX.
"Nova Scotians
"West Indians and Americans
"Natives.
"Liberated Africans.
"Disbanded Soldiers
" Kroomen .
-
•
>
•
1046.
8076.
1216.
727
"Totals 12,509
15,081
"The chief increase is apparently in the class of natives,
"while that of liberated Africans seems to be somewhat dimi-
“nished; but this is, in part, occasioned by a difference of
arrangement in the two returns. The large number of natives,
"in the native villages of the Peninsula, amounting in the last
"return to 1925, would have been divided, according to the
"arrangement in the return of 1820-into natives, properly so
"called; that is, as we conceive, the Aborigines of the Penin-
"sula; and liberated Africans, living in villages, but not under
"a superintendant. In the return of 1820, this distinction
66 was made; and then the whole number, amounting to 1468,
"divided into 400 of the first class, and 1068 of the second
"Both classes being called 'natives' in the last return, the
"number of liberated Africans appears to have diminished;
"while it has, in fact, greatly increased, independently of the
" addition of 1590 since the date of the last return. We collect
“from these data, that the number of liberated Africans, of all
descriptions, in the colony, on the 1st of August, was upward
“of ELEVEN THOUSAND.
51
Jan. 1, 1822.
128
601
722
85
3526
7969
1103
947
C
"Still there is an increase of the class ranked as natives'
"in the last return, to the amount of nearly 1000; of these,
"about one-half are in Freetown, and the other half are chiefly
52
« résident in the settlements of the liberated Africans. This
"augmentation is derived, we conceive, from the influx of the
"people bordering on the colony; and is a gratifying indication
"of the growth of mutual confidence between the colony and
" its neighbours."
IMPORTS.
Invoice Amount.
94,799 14 5
"From Dec. 10, 1816, to Nov. 22, 1817 . .£75,716 6 01
Nov. 23, 1817, to Dec. 10, 1818..
Dec. 11, 1818, to Dec. 31, 1819
Jan. 1, 1820, to Dec. 31, 1820
Jan. 1, 1821, to Dec. 31, 1821
80,863 6 11
..
66,725 9 4
105,060 15 10
.
APPENDIX.
"
EXPORTS.
"From Jan. 1, to Dec. 31, 1817..17.. 2990..
No. of Vessels
employed in
exporting. Tonnage.
"From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31,
Jan. 1, to Dec. 31, 1818. . 22 .. 3659.. 1517.. 278
Jan. 1, to Dec. 31, 1819. . 27 .. 5875 .. 2556 .. 1228
Jan. 1, to Dec. 31, 1821. . 26 . . 6805 .. 4736.. 42
Comparative Statement of Duties collected in the colony of
Sierra Leone for the undermentioned periods.
£3086 3 7
5124 1 3
4656 2 0
6153 5.6
6318 4 7
r
Logs of Afri- Tons of
can Timber Rice
exported. exported.
1817
1818
Jan. 1 to Dec. 31,
Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1819
Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1820.
Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1821.
J. REFFELL,
Acting Collector and Naval Officer."
At the moment I am writing, there are at least 3 vessels on
the birth in this Port, for Sierra Leone.
Extracts from Commodore Sir GEORGE COLLIER'S Second
Annual Report upon the Settlements on the Coast of Africa,
relative to the Colony of Sierra Leone.
Indeed, the colony of Sierra Leone has been so differently
"represented, so much has been urged against its rising pros-
<<
perity, and proposals said to have been made for its abandon-
"ment, that I consider myself (as an impartial person) the one
"from whom opinions and remarks may be expected. The
"climate of Sierra Leone is, like all other tropical climates,
“divided into a sickly season, and one not positively so, for it
may be too much to speak of Sierra Leone as ever absolutely
"healthful." He then proceeds to speak of various topics,
particularly connected with the nature of his survey. Alluding
to the schools and churches, he says, "The manner in which
"the public schools are here conducted, reflects the greatest
"credit upon those concerned in, their prosperity, and the
improvement made by the scholars, proves the aptitude of
"the African, if moderate pains be taken to instruct him. I
"have attended places of public worship in every quarter of
“the globe, and I do most conscientiously declare, never did I
"witness the ceremonies of religion more piously performed or
"more devoutly attended to, than in Sierra Leone.”
(C
<<
tr
In his report, dated 27th Dec. he observes, "The public
buildings have not advanced so rapidly as I believe had been
"expected; but it is, nevertheless, gratifying to observe, that
"the roads in the neighbourhood of Freetown, and those in
"the mountains, have been much improved, and that the
bridges have been constructed of more durable materials than
"heretofore. Upon the whole, Sierra Leone may be said to be
improving, and if the encouragement hitherto shown, shall
"be continued to the British merchant, no reason appears to
cc
С،
APPENDIX.
53
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me why this colony shall not, in the course of time, amply
"repay the anxiety, and care, and expense so liberally bestowed
(6
by the mother country. Every year, some new prospect
opens to the merchant. An intercourse with the interior of
Africa now fairly promises ultimate success, and which must
"be productive of benefit to Great Britain, and it may even be
expected, that some years hence, caravans shall resort to the
"neighbourhood of Porto Logo, (on a branch of the Sierra
"Leone,) to convey articles of British manufacture into the very
"interior of the continent of Africa."
ce
1
54
Extract of a Letter from Captain H. TURNER, dated the 7th
March, 1822.
“I visited the colony of Sierra Leone in the year 1817. My
66 stay among the recaptured negroes in the mountains then was
very short, but sufficient to ascertain they were involved in
❝ heathen darkness and barbarity.
"Having again visited them in December 1821, I am able,
“in some measure, to estimate the great change since the former
"period, both in a moral and religious point of view, through
"the exertions of your missionaries, and the blessings of
Almighty God upon their labours, without which all would
(C
"have been ineffectual.
CC
Regent's Town, under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Johnson,
was then but thinly inhabited.
“Regent's Town now wears the aspect of a well-peopled
village in our happy land; its inhabitants civilized, industrious,
honest, and neatly clothed. The ground allotted to each
"family is cultivated, each lot being distinctly marked out. I
"have frequently ascended an eminence near the town to behold
"the pleasing scene on the Sabbath-day-hundreds pressing on
"to the house of God, at the sound of the bell, hungering after
"the bread of life. Nothing but sickness prevents their attend-
،،
CC
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APPENDIX.
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(f
ance now. What a lesson does this teach many in Britain,
"who count the Sabbath a burden, and either spend it in
“indolence and sloth, or in visiting and riot!"
Extract of a Letter from EDWARD FITZGERALD, Esq. Chief
Justice of the Colony of Sierra Leone, dated the 3rd May,
1821.
After giving an interesting and detailed account of the
various places of public worship within the colony, the Chief
Justice thus proceeds: "In a general view, the observances
" which have been noticed, will probably be thought sufficient
"to create a favourable impression on the state of religious
"feeling and demeanour in the settlement of Freetown. The
"Lord's day is more decorously kept than it is in most other
"(
<<
CC
"places. The shops are all shut; there is no such thing as
"buying and selling. The Christian part of the people attend
worship at the places which they have respectively chosen;
"and all the congregations are alike remarkable for uniform
"and respectful attention. Throughout the streets, correspond-
ing propriety is noticed; intoxication, in the gross and dis-
gusting form in which it is so commonly seen on the Lord's
day in England, is of very rare
of very rare occurrence here, with the
painful exception of European seamen, whose conduct and
language in their frequent inebriations, on that day especially,
are of most depraving example. It is not to be understood
"that the day passes in perfect sobriety; among the inhabitants
"in general, it is the decency and not the abstinence that makes
"the distinction. Excesses are committed, and are generally
((
brought under the animadversion of the magistrates on the
"Monday, in consequence of the quarrels occasioned by them;
"but these quarrels are almost universally of a trifling nature.
"There is not any thing in the circumstances collectively to
"detract from the credit that has been taken.”
<<
CC
66
66
APPENDIX.
55
Extract of a Letter from the Rev. H. DURING, Superintendant
of Gloucester Town, Sierra Leone, dated 28th Dec. 1821.
"The reception which his Excellency Sir C. M'Carthy met
"with among the people under our care, has indeed been feebly
"stated in the Gazette, as the editor also honestly owns.
"C
"The Captain, in whose vessel the Governor had come, was
"struck with astonishment. He (the Captain) had seen much
"of the negroes, having been in Jamaica, and asked what time
"the settlement had been formed? When told in the beginning
❝ of 1817, he smiled, and said to the Governor, Sir Charles
"McCarthy, if I knew not your Excellency to be a man of
"honour, I should think myself greatly imposed on; and I
“must candidly confess I can hardly believe it now!' His
Excellency then pointed out to him the way he first came to
"this place, and the old trees lying about the town, cut down
"three or four years ago, as evidences of the truth; but,' said.
56
"the Captain,
what sort of people were they with which it
<c
was commenced?' I pointed out to him some who were sent
"here in the beginning of November, that, looking at their
" emaciated state of body, he might form some idea of those
"with whom I began, and who only then were sixty-two in
"number, twenty of whom died, ere scarcely a month had
elapsed! He then inquired what method we had pursued to
bring them to such a state in so short a time? • No other,'
"said his Excellency, than the truths of Christianity, which
"these gentlemen were sent by the Church Missionary Society
"to propagate: by this alone they have ruled them, and have
"raised them to a common level with other civilized nations;
“ and believe me,' added his Excellency, 'if you admit Christian
"teachers into your island, you soon will find them become
“ affectionate and faithful servants to you! '
Things, as they now appear, humanly speaking, never
66 wore so bright and pleasing an aspect; for there were indi-
"viduals, and are now at this moment, who always were
(C
endeavouring to undermine the credit of the Society, as well
as that of the Colonial Government, as it respects the captured
negroes; but sure it is, there never was such an opportunity
"for observation-never were the prejudices more effectually
" removed from the minds of many European colonists, and
"never had the Society gained more credit in the colony, even
"in the minds of those individuals alluded to, than through the
present events; as you, I trust, will see in the Report of the
"Sierra Leone Association, in aid of the Church Missionary
Society, the collections and contributions to which amount to
"nearly £200."
Dr. MORSE, a well-known, respectable, and intelligent
American author, thus describes the settlement, in his
Universal Gazetteer : "Sierra Leone, in 1809, contained
"1500 persons, since which it has been flourishing, and is
"now the most important English colony in Africa, except
"the Cape of Good Hope, the number of inhabitants, in
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<<
(c
tr
[C
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"
APPENDIX.
<
57
1818, amounting to 10,014, of whom only about 100 were
Europeans. The population consists almost entirely of Africans
"from the holds of slave-ships, and who, when they were
"introduced into the colony, were at the lowest point of mental
" and moral depression. They now exhibit a very gratifying
proof of the susceptibility of the African character for im-
provement and civilization. From savages and gross idolaters,
"many of them have been converted into enterprizing traders,
"skilful mechanics, and industrious farmers; supporting them-
"selves and their families in comfort, and performing respect-
"C
ably, the social, and even religious duties. They discharge
"the duties of jurors, constables, and other officers, with much
propriety, and are a fine example of a community of black
men living as free men, enjoying the benefit of the British
constitution, regularly attending public worship, and gradually
improving, by means of schools and other institutions, in
"knowledge and civilization. This happy change has been
"effected by the blessing of God on the labours of English
"Missionaries. In 1819, the number of children in the schools
"at the various settlements, was 2014!"
(c
(6
(c
66
(C
(c
"C
Extracts from the Third Annual Report of the American Society
for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States.
"What the Society propose to do with regard to colonizing,
"is to procure a suitable territory on the Coast of Africa, for
"such of the free people of colour as may choose to avail
"themselves of this asylum, and for such slaves as their
"proprietors may please to emancipate.
"So far is this scheme from being impracticable, that one,
"resembling it in all respects, was accomplished by a private
66
<<
"6
APPENDIX.
"C
society in England more than 30 years ago.
"In despite of every representation to the contrary, the
colony of Sierra Leone boasts, at this moment, a greater de-
gree of prosperity than distinguished any one of the British
Colonies, now the United States of America, at the same
י
58
"period after its first plantation. The population of Sierra
"Leone; its commerce and navigation; its churches, schools,
“ and charitable institutions; its towns and hamlets; its edifices,
public and private, surpass those of any one of these states, at
any time within twenty-five years from its first settlement."
cc
It is for the reader to estimate the value of the preceding
authorities, and to draw from them his own conclusions with
regard to the present state and future prospects of Sierra Leone.
It is for him also to decide how far the prosperity of a commu-
nity, formed of such unpromising materials, may be regarded
as an exemplification of what the Negro race may exhibit when
rescued from slavery; how far such a Colony of Africans, of
many nations and languages, educated on their own shores,
with civil rights, political privileges, and religious advantages,
and in frequent communication with their countrymen from
the interior, is calculated to civilize Africa; how far it may
be expected to send forth, through a thousand channels, those
fertilizing streams which will clothe the moral deserts of that
injured Continent with verdure and beauty.
CC
APPENDIX.
}
FINIS.
M
LETTER
FROM J. B. SAY TO THE AUTHOR.
Monsieur,
J'ai reçu par M. le Baron de Stael, la lettre
que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de m'ecrire en m'adressant
votre lettre imprimée. Je vous remercie de ce que l'une
et l'autre contiennent, d'obligeant pour moi, et partage
votre avis sur le fonds de la question. Vous avez rassemblé
dans un petit espace, des faits et des argumens aux quels
il ne me semble pas qu'on puisse resister,
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Vous n'avez probablement lu qu' une des premieres
éditions de mon Traité d'Economie Politique; car dans
les dernieres j'ai beaucoup amendé ce que je disais du travail
des esclaves; au point d'en venir à peu près à la même
conclusion que vous; mais n'etant pas borné à une seule
question et ne voulant pas grossir le livre je n'ai pu
qu'éffleurer le sujet. Je me rapproche encore plus de votre
opinion dans les ouvrages que je prépare.
L'esclavage est incompatible avec une industrie un peu
ávanceé; il touche à son terme chez tous les peuples
d'origine Européenne, et comme l'inquietude et l'intelligence
de l'Europe finiront par envahir le monde, on peut affirmêr
qu'un jour l'esclavage aura cessé par tout.
J'ai communiqué votre estimable brochuce á l'un de nos
journaux litteraires, (le Magazin Encyclopedique,) où l'on
m'a promis qu'on en rendrait compte. Ce sera probable-
ment dans le cahier qui doit paraître le 1er du mois de Mai.
Peut être trouve t'on cet ouvrage periodique dans vos
cabinets litteraires.
Agréez, Monsieur, l'expression de ma haute estime! en
vous l'offrant je me trouverai heureux d'obtenir la votre.
Agréez aussi l'assurance de mon très, sincère devouement,
J. B. SAY.
(TRANSLATION.)
Sir,
I have received, from the Baron de Stael, the
letter with which you did me the honour to accompany the
printed letter you have addressed to me.
I thank you for the obliging expressions in both of
them, and accord with your sentiments on all the main
points of the question at issue. You have collected, in a
small space, an accumulation of facts and arguments which
it appears to me impossible to resist,
*
*
*
*
You have probably read only one of the first editions of
my Treatise on Political Economy, as in the later ones I
have materially corrected what I said with respect to the
labour of slaves, so as to arrive nearly at the same con-
clusion as you; but not having confined myself to that
particular subject, and being unwilling to swell my book, I
was only able to advert to it slightly. I approach still
nearer to your sentiments in the works which I am preparing.
Slavery is incompatible with productive industry, in a
state of society moderately advanced. It is already verg-
ing towards its termination among all people of European
origin; and as the restlessness and intelligence of Europe
will ultimately pervade the globe, we may affirm that slavery
will one day be extinguished every-where.
Paris, 25th March, 1823.
*
*
I have communicated your valuable pamphlet to one of
our literary journals, (the Encyclopedical Magazine,) in
which I have been promised that some account of it shall
appear; it will probably be in the Number which will be
published on the 1st of May. Perhaps this journal is to
be met with in some of your literary institutions.
Accept the expression, &c. &c.
James Smith, Printer, Liverpool.
J. B. SAY