1620. The Pilgrims land on Plymouth Rock.”
FREEDOM AND SLAVERY AT THE FAIR.
WHAT FREEDOM DID.
At an Agricultural Fair held at Watertown, in the State of New-York, on the 2d day of October, 1856, two hundred and twenty premiums, ranging from three to fifty dollars each, were awarded to successful competitors—the aggregate amount of said premiums being $2,396, or an average of $10.89 each. From the proceedings of the Awarding Committee we make the following extracts:—
| Best Horse Colt, | George Parish, | $25.00 | ||
| Best Filly, | J. Staplin, | 20.00 | ||
| Best Brood Mare, | A. Blunt, | 25.00 | ||
| Best Bull, | Wm. Johnson, | 25.00 | ||
| Best Heifer, | A. M. Rogers, | 20.00 | ||
| Best Cow, | C. Baker, | 25.00 | ||
| Best Stall-fed Beef, | J. W. Taylor, | 10.00 | ||
| Best sample Wheat, | Wm. Ottley, | 5.00 | ||
| Best sample Flaxseed, | H. Weir, | 3.00 | ||
| Best sample Timothy Seed, | E. S. Hayward | 3.00 | ||
| (Highest) | Best Team of Oxen, | Hiram Converse, | 50.00 | |
| (Lowest) | Best sample Sweet Corn, | L. Marshall, | 3.00 | |
| Aggregate amount of twelve premiums, | $214.00 | |||
| An average of $17.83 each. | ||||
WHAT SLAVERY DID.
At the Rowan County Agricultural Fair, held at Mineral Springs, in North Carolina, on the 13th day of November, 1856, thirty premiums, ranging from twenty-five cents to two dollars each, were awarded to successful competitors—the aggregate amount of said premiums being $42, or an average of $1.40 each. From the proceedings of the Awarding Committee we make the following extracts:—
| Best Horse Colt, | T. A. Burke, | $2.00 | ||
| Best Filly, | James Cowan, | 2.00 | ||
| Best Brood Mare, | M. W. Goodman, | 2.00 | ||
| Best Bull, | J. F. McCorkle, | 2.00 | ||
| Best Heifer, | J. F. McCorkle, | 2.00 | ||
| Best Cow, | T. A. Burke, | 2.00 | ||
| Best Stall-fed Beef, | S. D. Rankin, | 1.00 | ||
| Best Sample Wheat, | M. W. Goodman, | 50 | ||
| Best lot Beefs, | J. J. Summerell, | 25 | ||
| Best lot Turnips, | Thomas Barber, | 25 | ||
| (Highest) | Best pair Match Horses, | R. W. Griffith, | 2.00 | |
| (Lowest) | Best lot Cabbage, | Thomas Hyde, | 25 | |
| Aggregate amount of twelve premiums, | $16.25 | |||
| An average of $1.36 each. | ||||
Besides the two hundred and twenty premiums, amounting in the aggregate to $2,396, freedom granted several diplomas and silver medals; besides the thirty premiums amounting in the aggregate to $42, slavery granted none—nothing. While examining these figures, it should be recollected that agriculture is the peculiar province of the slave States. If commerce or manufactures had been the subject of the fair, the result might have shown even a greater disproportion in favor of freedom, and yet there would have been some excuse for slavery, for it makes no pretensions to either the one or the other; but as agriculture was the subject, slavery can have no excuse whatever, but must bear all the shame of its niggardly and revolting impotence; this it must do for the reason that agriculture is its special and almost only pursuit.