To these inherent difficulties should be superadded the lack of free discussion and the growth of bitterness and reactionary sentiments occasioned largely by partisan and ofttimes criminal instigations coming from beyond the state.
LEGAL RIGHTS OF SLAVEHOLDERS
It will not be questioned that of all men, except the slaves themselves, the slaveholders were most deeply interested in the subject of emancipation. They possessed a direct pecuniary interest in the slaves and were usually the owners of large tracts of land dependent, it was believed, for cultivation, upon their labor. Thus it was thought that emancipation without compensation involved not only the loss of their slaves, but a great depreciation in the value of their lands. In addition to these direct losses would come the burden of caring for the poor, the afflicted, and the criminal classes of the ex-slaves, not to mention the cost of educating the rising generation—the major part of all of which would fall upon the communities where the ex-slaves lived, and thus upon the remnant of property left to their former owners.
To the foregoing embarrassments must be added the rights of creditors. A great majority of the slaves in Virginia descended to their owners by the laws of inheritance, just as the plantations of which they were virtually part. With the slaves and the lands, came the debts of the ancestors, or, in the progress of time, new debts were incurred. In all such instances the debts of creditors must be provided for before any change could be made in the status of slaves bound for their payment. All these considerations convinced fair-minded men that some substantial measure of compensation must be made the slaveholders before they could be expected to absolve their slaves from service. But from what source was this great fund to be gathered? Despite the widespread sentiment favorable to emancipation, neither state nor nation gave sign of willingness to assume the burden.
But beyond the financial difficulties mentioned was the attitude of that class of slaveholders who cherished no desire for emancipation and resented every such suggestion as a wanton invasion of their safety and their rights. They were satisfied with the status quo; they neither desired change nor discussion of its supposed advantages. They met every proposal with a resolute insistence upon their legal rights under the constitutions, State and Federal, and manifested an intolerance of thought and speech with respect to the institution which filled the friends of moderation and progress with mournful appreciation of the hindrances which beset their path.
THE WELL-BEING OF THE SLAVES
How far a conscientious regard for the moral and physical well-being of the slaves entered into the considerations of the time as a deterrent cause against their emancipation, cannot be determined. Undoubtedly such sentiments existed among many earnest men favorable thereto.
From the mass of facts and medley of voices certain conclusions can be drawn.
Thus it may be affirmed that the slaves in Virginia were better off as a result of their training and experience in servitude than they would have been had their ancestors never set foot upon her soil. It is equally true that theirs was but a partial development and that freedom was necessary to the complete man. As the time comes in the life of a child when the privileges and dangers of self-expression and self-control must supplant the restraints of the home and the school-room, so in the life of these children of larger growth, freedom with its awesome dangers and soul-inspiring possibilities was essential to any well-rounded and continuous advance.
Again, freedom was a help in the development of those who had made a certain measure of progress in their moral, intellectual and physical being; yet for those who were not thus prepared, its untimely coming might prove the dawn of a darker day, unless accompanied by wise nurture and sympathetic guidance of the feet, trained only for the paths of dependence.