The Report of the Committee on the State of Slavery in the United States, being again considered, was amended and adopted as follows.
To the American Convention for the Abolition of Slavery, Ec.
The committee appointed (at the last session of the Convention) on the state of slavery in the United States, beg leave to report as follows:
Your committee were rather at a loss to perceive the precise design of the Convention, in the appointment of a committee on the state of slavery in the United States. But have thought proper to review the subject; first with reference to its progress; secondly in reference to the situation or treatment of slaves; and thirdly in reference to the prospect of its diminution or final removal.
First. In reference to the progress of slavery in the United States, your committee find that at the time of the first census under the Constitution in 1790, there were 694,280 slaves in the Union. These were with the exception of about 40,000, confined to a surface of about 212,000 square miles. In 1800, the number was 889,118 on a surface of 289,000 square miles or nearly so! In 1810, the number was increased to 1,191,364 and covered an extent of territory of about 431,000 square miles! At the time of the last census in 1820, the slaves in the United States and territories amounted to 1,538,178, and your committee have good reason to believe that the number at the present time or at the census of 1830, will be found to be about two millions, occupying a territory including Arkansas, of nearly 600,000 square miles!!
Your committee have been surprised at the result of their own enquiries, for they had fondly hoped that the dreadful evil was if not diminishing, at least advancing with less rapidity. From various estimates, on which your committee place much reliance, they are confirmed in the opinion, that the increase (independent of clandestine importations) must amount at the present time to at least near 50,000 per annum.
As this increase like that of population generally, is in its nature, a geometrical progression, it must continue to augment, as long as subsistence can be obtained. This view of the subject is truly alarming; but when we consider the extent of territory which is overspread by this foul blot on the map of our beloved country, the heart sickens at the prospect.
To behold 600,000 square miles of the best land in North America, teeming with slaves,—a surface greater, than that of many European kingdoms, held too by men who are constantly boasting of their love of liberty; sending up daily to Heaven, the sighs and groans of millions of broken hearts, while the sweat and tears and even the blood of thousands moisten its soil, must excite deep emotion in every breast, not dead to those feelings which become the patriot, or animate the Christian. But furthermore your committee are of opinion that if the scheme, of adding a large portion of Mexican territory, to our south-western border, should be consummated, the price of slaves will be so enhanced and the facilities of smuggling so much increased, that the African slave trade will be greatly augmented, as well as the practice of kidnapping in the more eastern parts of our own country. So that upon the whole, your committee are of opinion, that slavery is fearfully on the increase, and that every effort is making, by many of those interested in its continuance, to multiply its victims and extend its influence. This state of things calls loudly on every friend of his country, on every friend of man, to use every effort in his power, to arrest the torrent of misery and crime.
Secondly. On the treatment of slaves,—your committee have long indulged an opinion which they believe is common with their fellow-citizens, that slaves in this country are somewhat better treated than formerly. This opinion seems to prevail to an extent which your committee fear, is not sustained by facts. A writer in Niles's Register for 1818, says, speaking on this subject, "The favourable change which has occurred in the treatment of negro slaves in this state (Maryland) since the revolution, must be to every benevolent mind a source of very agreeable reflections, our oldest citizens well remember when it was very customary to inflict on the manacled and naked person of the slave, the most intolerable punishments for very trivial offences. Within the last twenty years it has been the practice to muster all the slaves on a farm once a week, and distribute to each his peck of corn, leaving him to walk several miles, to some neighbours hand mill, to grind it himself, under cover of night, when exhausted nature called for rest from the labours of the day; in many cases they received not an atom of animal food, and their usual bedding was a plank, or by particular kindness a single blanket."
The above writer does not specify any particulars in which the improvement spoken of is apparent, but we think all will admit that a very considerable improvement might be accomplished, and yet the treatment might be such as could not be called good. He adds however that "much remains to be done, which the obligation of humanity require."