Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments / Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on this Important Subject

by Unknown

We will now give the general average of the non-slaveholding States, (California excepted, which in 1850 had not had time to exhibit any fixed character,) and then the general average of the slaveholding States of the whole Union.

The population of all the free States is thirteen million two hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred and eighty; the free population of all the slave States is six million three hundred and twelve thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine. These thirteen million two hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred and eighty of freemen have accumulated an aggregate of property estimated at three billion one hundred and eighty-six million six hundred and eighty-three thousand eight hundred and twenty four dollars; while these six million three hundred and twelve thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine of slaveholders have accumulated an aggregate of two billion seven hundred and seventy-five million one hundred and twenty-one thousand, six hundred and forty-four dollars' worth of property.

Here we see that a population of Northern freemen, one hundred and nine per cent. greater than the number of Southern freemen in the slave States, have accumulated but sixteen per cent. more of property.

In a division of the property accumulated by all the non-slaveholding States, it will give to each citizen two hundred and thirty-three dollars; while all accumulated by the various slave States, will give to each citizen four hundred and thirty-nine dollars—nearly double. Were we to give the slaves an equal share with the whites, in an average division of aggregate wealth, the slaveholding States, with their slaves included, would then be able to give each person two hundred and ninety-one dollars instead of two hundred and thirty-three dollars, which is all the free States have to divide with their people.

Is it possible, with these facts before us, to believe that slavery tends to poverty. Such is the testimony of the census on the relative wealth of these two sections of our country. It proves that slavery, as an agricultural investment, is more profitable than an investment in commerce and manufactures. The facts which have been reviewed prove with equal clearness, that where slavery exists, the white race, and the black, have prospered more in their religious, social and moral condition, than either race has prospered, where slavery has been excluded. We see that an increased amount of poverty and wretchedness has to be borne in New England by both races. Ecclesiastical statistics will show an increased amount of prosperity in religion that is overwhelming.

Such is the prostration of moral restraint at the North, that, in their cities, standing armies are necessary to guard the persons and property of unoffending citizens, and to execute the laws upon reckless offenders. This state of things is unknown in the slave States.

The census shows that slavery has been a blessing to the white race in these slave States. They have prospered more in religion, they have more homes, are wealthier, multiply faster, and live longer than in New England, and they are exempt from the curse of organized infidelity and lawless violence.

A comparison of the slave's condition at the South, with that of his own race in freedom at the South, shows with equal clearness, that slavery, in these States, has been, and now is, a blessing to this race of people in all the essentials of human happiness and comfort. Our slaves all have homes, are bountifully provided for in health, cared for and kindly nursed in childhood, sickness, and old age; multiply faster, live longer, are free from all the corroding ills of poverty and anxious care, labor moderately, enjoy the blessings of the gospel, and let alone by wicked men, are contented and happy.

Ex-Governor Smith, a few years past, in his message to the Legislature of this State, showed, if I remember correctly, that seven-tenths more of crime was chargeable to free negroes than to the whites and slaves. By the census of 1850, the ratio of whites in the Penitentiary of Virginia, for ten years, was one to twenty-three thousand and three, while the ratio for the free negroes was one to three thousand and one. For the same length of time, in the Penitentiary of Massachusetts, the average of whites was one to seven thousand five hundred and eighty-seven, instead of one to twenty-three thousand and three, as in Virginia; and in Massachusetts the average of free negroes in the Penitentiary, for this length of time, was one to two hundred and fifty, instead of one to three thousand and one, as in Virginia. Here we see that for an average of ten years, two hundred and fifty free negroes at the North, commit annually as much crime as twenty-three thousand and three white persons at the South; and that two hundred and fifty free negroes, in a non-slaveholding State, commit annually as much crime as three thousand and one free negroes in a slaveholding State. We see, also, that seven thousand five hundred and eighty-seven white persons at the North, commit annually as much crime as twenty-three thousand and three white persons commit at the South. In the cities, criminal degradation at the North is from three to five times greater with the whites than at the South, and from ten to ninety-three times greater with the free negroes at the North, than with the whites at the South, and about twelve times greater than with the free negroes at the South.

The Federal census, and the State records, show not very far from this proportion of criminal degradation, chargeable to this race of people when invested with the freedom of New England. Can we, with these facts before us, think that freedom to this race, in our country, is a blessing to them?