Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession

by Beverley B. Munford

SPEECH OF MR. MERCER

An examination of the speech made by Mr. Mercer on the occasion referred to, will show that he was answering the slaveholders' charge that they paid upon their slaves more than their just proportion of taxes, when compared with the amount paid by the land-owners of the state; he pointed out that for the four years following 1820 the land tax averaged $181,000.00 per annum and the slave tax $159,000.00, but for the current year (1829) the land tax amounted to $175,000.00 and the slave tax $97,000.00. "These facts," said Mr. Mercer, "bear me out in the position that in the current year the capital in slaves is taxed less than that in land." The census showed an increase in the number of slaves still in the hands of their Virginia masters, while the "tables of the natural growth of this population" also demonstrated that large numbers must have been exported beyond the state. The portion of increase in the slave population, thus exported, Mr. Mercer estimated at a value of one and a half million dollars per annum. It will be observed that he makes no attempt to distribute this exportation between the various classes heretofore referred to. Indeed, the averment that "the tables of the natural growth of the slave population" demonstrated that an annual revenue of any specific sum had been derived from their exportation is, of course, inaccurate. The tables referred to simply indicate the normal rate of increase and the consequent number of slaves which must have been exported. Whether the excess had been emancipated, or carried, or sent, or sold by their masters did not, of course, appear. Mr. Mercer was not discussing the slave trade—he was pointing out the increase in the number of slaves which should normally accrue to their masters and the consequent reasonableness of the tax imposed upon them as compared with that assessed against the lands.

It is believed that this explanation of the subject of Mr. Mercer's speech will qualify the conclusion which Mr. Smith has drawn from the statement cited in his text.

ESTIMATE OF VIRGINIA TIMES

The author next refers to an "estimate of the money arising from the sale of slaves during the year 1836—making the aggregate $24,000,000.00." This estimate is cited as that of the Virginia Times and an explanation of how the figures are arrived at is set out by the author in the first of the three notes above quoted.

By reference to Volume LI of Niles' Register, page 83, in which the extract from the Virginia Times appears, it will be seen that the latter paper does not attempt any discussion of the subject, any marshalling of statistics or any conclusions of its own drawn therefrom. It simply recites in an item of ten lines—that—"We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves exported from Virginia within the last twelve months at 120,000." The item further recites that of this number "not more than one-third have been sold, the others having been carried by their owners, who have removed, which would leave in the state the sum of $24,000,000.00 arising from the sale of slaves."

THE SALE OF SLAVES EXAGGERATED

"We have heard intelligent men estimate" is a somewhat different statement from that of the author's text in which the Virginia Times is made to fix the exportation for the year 1836 at 120,000, 40,000 of whom were sold to dealers. How little value, however, can be attached to "the estimate" will be appreciated when we recall that an exportation of 120,000 slaves per annum would in four years have depopulated the state of every single slave. The census showed that there were 469,758 slaves in Virginia in 1830 and 490,865 in 1860. By no possible process of computation can the Virginians of the period from 1830 to 1840 be charged with "the enormous profitableness of slave-breeding," arising from annual sales of 40,000 slaves, and a quarter of a century later their descendants be convicted of the crime of fighting to perpetuate the traffic. There would have been no slaves from which the commerce could have derived a supply.

In his second note, Mr. Smith makes a quotation from the speech of Mr. Randolph in the Virginia Legislature of 1832 wherein the latter is made to declare "that Virginia had been converted into one grand menagerie where men are reared for the market like oxen for the shambles."

By reference to the whole sentence and its exact quotation it will appear that Mr. Randolph's statement was not intended to warrant the conclusion here sought to be conveyed. Mr. Randolph said: