Volume III Part 63 (1/2)
”From all the information we can obtain, we have no hesitation in saying that upwards of six thousand [slaves] are yearly exported [from Virginia] to other states.' Again, p. 61: 'The 6000 slaves which Virginia annually sends off to the south, are a source of wealth to Virginia'--Again, p. 120: 'A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this emigration becomes an advantage to the state, and does not check the black population as much as, at first view, we might imagine--because it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to ENCOURAGE BREEDING, and to cause the _greatest number possible to be raised._ &c.”
_”Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising state for other states.”_
Extract from the speech of MR. FAULKNER, in the Va. House of Delegates, 1832. [See Richmond Whig.]
”But he [Mr. Gholson,] has labored to show that the Abolition of Slavery, were it practicable, would be _impolitic_, because as the drift of this portion of his argument runs, your slaves const.i.tute the entire wealth of the state, all the _productive capacity_ Virginia possesses. And, sir, as things are, _I believe he is correct_. He says, and in this he is sustained by the gentleman from Halifax, Mr.
Bruce, that the slaves const.i.tute the entire available wealth at present, of Eastern Virginia. Is it true that for 200 years the only increase in the wealth and resources of Virginia, has been a remnant of the natural _increase_ of this miserable race?--Can it be, that on this _increase_, she places her solo dependence? I had always understood that indolence and extravagance were the necessary concomitants of slavery; but, until I heard these declarations, I had not fully conceived the horrible extent of this evil. These gentlemen state the fact, which the history and _present aspect of the Commowealth but too well sustain_. The gentlemen's facts and argument in support of his plea of impolicy, to me, seem rather unhappy. To me, such a state of things would itself be conclusive at least, that something, even as a measure of policy, should be done. What, sir, have you lived for two hundred years, without personal effort or productive industry, in extravagance and indolence, sustained alone _by the return from sales of the increase of slaves_, and retaining merely such a number as your now impoverished lands can sustain, AS STOCK, _depending, too, upon a most uncertain market_? When that market is closed, as in the nature of things it must be, what then will become of this gentleman's hundred millions worth of slaves, AND THE ANNUAL PRODUCT?”
In the debates in the Virginia Convention, in 1829, Judge Upsher said--”The value of slaves as an article of property [and it is in that view only that they are legitimate subjects of taxation] _depends much on the state of the market abroad_. In this view, it is the value of land _abroad_, and not of land here, which furnishes the ratio. It is well known to us all, that nothing is more fluctuating than the value of slaves. A late law of Louisiana reduced their value 25 per cent, in two hours after its pa.s.sage was known. IF IT SHOULD BE OUR LOT, AS I TRUST IT WILL BE, TO ACQUIRE THE COUNTRY OF TEXAS, THEIR PRICE WILL RISE AGAIN.”--p. 77.
Mr. Goode, Of Virginia, in his speech before the Virginia Legislature, in Jan. 1832, [See Richmond Whig, of that date,] said:--
”The superior usefulness of the slaves in the south, will const.i.tute an _effectual demand_, which will remove them from our limits. We shall send them from our state, because _it will be our interest to do so_. Our planters are already becoming farmers. Many who grew tobacco as their only staple, have already introduced, and commingled the wheat crop. They are already semi-farmers; and in the natural course of events, they must become more and more so.--As the greater quant.i.ty of rich western lands are appropriated to the production of the staple of our planters, that staple will become less profitable.--We shall gradually divert our lands from its production, until we shall become actual farmers.--Then will the necessity for slave labor diminish; then will the effectual demand diminish, and then will the quant.i.ty of slaves diminish, until they shall be adapted to the effectual demand.
”But gentlemen are alarmed _lest the markets of other states be closed against the introduction of our slaves_. Sir, the demand for slave labor MUST INCREASE through the South and West. It has been heretofore limited by the want of capital; but when emigrants shall be relieved from their embarra.s.sments, contracted by the purchase of their lands, the annual profits of their estates, will const.i.tute an acc.u.mulating capital, which they will _seek to invest in labor_. That the demand for labor must increase in proportion to the increase of capital, is one of the demonstrations of political economists; and I confess, that for the removal of slavery from Virginia, I look to the efficacy of that principle; together with the circ.u.mstance that our southern brethren are constrained to continue planters, by their position, soil and climate.”
The following is from Niles' Weekly Register, published at Baltimore, Md. vol. 35, p. 4.
_”Dealing in slaves has become a large business_; establishments are made in several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle; these places of deposit are strongly built, and well supplied with thumb-screws and gags, and ornamented with cow-skins and other whips oftentimes b.l.o.o.d.y.”
R.S. FINLEY, Esq., late General Agent of the American Colonization Society, at a meeting in New York, 27th Feb. 1833, said:
”In Virginia and other grain-growing slave states, the blacks do not support themselves, and the only profit their masters derive from them is, repulsive as the idea may justly seem, in breeding them, like other live stock for the more southern states.”
Rev. Dr. GRAHAM, of Fayetteville, N.C. at a Colonization Meeting, held in that place in the fall of 1837 said:
”He had resided for 15 years in one of the largest slaveholding counties in the state, had long and anxiously considered the subject, and still it was dark. There were nearly 7000 slaves offered in New Orleans market last winter. From Virginia alone 6000 were annually sent to the south; and from Virginia and N.C. there had gone, in the same direction, in the last twenty years, 300,000 slaves. While not 4000 had gone to Africa. What it portended, he could not predict, but he felt deeply, that _we must awake in these states and consider the subject_.”
Hon. PHILIP DODDRIDGE, of Virginia, in his speech in the Virginia Convention, in 1829, [Debates p. 89.] said:--
”The acquisition of Texas will greatly _enhance the value of the property_, in question, [Virginia slaves.]”
Hon C.F. MERCER, in a speech before the same Convention, in 1829, says:
”The tables of the natural growth of the slave population demonstrate, when compared with the increase of its numbers in the commonwealth for twenty years past, that an annual revenue of not less than a million and a half of dollars is derived from the exportation of a part of this population.” (Debates, p. 199.)
Hon. HENRY CLAY, of Ky., in his speech before the Colonization Society, in 1829, says:
”It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States, would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietor were not tempted to RAISE SLAVES BY THE HIGH PRICE OF THE SOUTHERN MARKET WHICH KEEPS IT UP IN HIS OWN.”
The New Orleans Courier, Feb. 15, 1839, speaking of the prohibition of the African Slave-trade, while the internal slave-trade is plied, says:
”The United States law may, and probably does, put MILLIONS _into the pockets of the people living between the Roanoke, and Mason and Dixon's line_; still we think it would require some casuistry to show that _the present slave-trade from that quarter_ is a whit better than the one from Africa. One thing is certain--that its results are more menacing to the tranquillity of the people in this quarter, as there can be no comparison between the ability and inclination to do mischief, possessed by the Virginia negro, and that of the rude and ignorant African.”
That the New Orleans Editor does not exaggerate in saying that the internal slave-trade puts 'millions' into the pockets of the slaveholders in Maryland and Virginia, is very clear from the following statement, made by the editor of the Virginia Times, an influential political paper, published at Wheeling, Virginia. Of the exact date of the paper we are not quite certain, it was, however, sometime in 1836, probably near the middle of the year--the file will show. The editor says:--
”We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves exported from Virginia within the last twelve months, at 120,000--each slave averaging at least $600, making an aggregate at $72,000,000. Of the number of slaves exported, 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 ARISING FROM THE SALE OF SLAVES.”
According to this estimate about FORTY THOUSAND SLAVES WERE SOLD OUT OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA IN A SINGLE YEAR, and the 'slave-breeders'