Is it not true that in the Northern States at least the mulatto is unfertile, leaving but few children, and those mainly lymphatic and scrofulous?
In those sections where the blacks and mulattoes together make from seventy to eighty and even ninety per cent of the whole population will there be, after the abolition of slavery, a sufficiently large influx of whites to counteract the present numerical preponderance of blacks?
It looks now as if the whites would EXPLOITER the labors of the blacks, and that social servitude will continue long in spite of political equality.
You will see the importance of considering carefully the natural laws of increase and their modification by existing causes before deciding upon any line of policy.
If there be irresistible natural tendencies to the growth of a persistent black race in the Gulf and river States, we must not make bad worse by futile attempts to resist it. If, on the other hand, the natural tendencies are to the diffusion and final disappearance of the black (and colored) race, then our policy should be modified accordingly.
I should be very glad, my dear sir, if you could give me your views upon this and cognate matters. If, however, your occupations will not permit you to give time to this matter, perhaps you will assist me by pointing to works calculated to throw light upon the subject of my inquiry, or by putting me in correspondence with persons who have the ability and the leisure to write about it.
I remain, dear sir, faithfully,
SAMUEL G. HOWE.
TO DR. S.G. HOWE.
NAHANT, August 9, 1863.