The progress of slavery in the United States /cby George M. Weston.

Front matter

THE

PROGRESS OF SLAVERY

IN THE

Preface

been thereby made to the stock of human knowledge. In the present work, nothing is attempted beyond the application of familiar and well-established principles to the questions connected with the expansion of the negro race; questions not obscure in themselves, but which have been made so, only because the vast interests depending upon slavery have been able to command the aid of ingenious sophistry and of cunningly-devised misrepresentation.

It is one of the objects of the present work to show that the past multiplication of slaves in the United States, instead of having been an unavoidable calamity, was the foreseen and intended result of that territorial expansion of slavery, which has been dictated by the interests of those who breed slaves ; that the further multiplication of the evil may be checked, and finally prevented, by fixing its external limits; and that to fix such limits will be beneficial, rather than injurious, to the Southern States.

Another object of the present work is, to submit some considerations, which may be weighed in deciding the direction of so much of the emigration from the free States, as may be controlled for the purpose of extending free institutions. The contest in Kansas has shown how great the power of a free emigration is ; it will, of course, augment as population advances ; and it is of vital moment that it should be brought to bear upon the right points.

Unless the acquisition of Cuba shall precipitate a struggle for the possession of that island, it is the opinion of the author, of the soundness of which the reader must judge, that free emigration to warmer climates should be directed to the Southwest, immediately to Missouri and Kansas, but soon to Arkansas, with a view to the Indian territory behind Arkansas, to New Mexico, and to Northern Texas ; and that, when slavery is surrounded upon its southwestern frontier, it will be time enough, and until then utterly useless, for any purpose of extinguishing it, to invade it in Virginia and Kentucky.

That peculiar combination of warmth and moisture required in the production of cotton, is found in large portions of Arkansas, which are now entirely unoccupied, and in the Indian Territory beyond it. The overwhelming preponderance of the white race in Northern Texas, in Arkansas, except immediately on the Mississippi and Red River bottoms, in Southwestern Missouri, and in Kansas, renders it easy to exclude the negro slave from this admirable and extensive cotton region. Free labor is therofore invited to enter upon tlic cultivation of a great staple of commerce, the profits of which have been so long monopolized by slavery. The production of cotton, now at length made possible for the free agriculturists of the United States, will prove a mine of wealth in their efficient and thrifty hands.

THE AUTHOR.

WAsniNOToy, D. C, Auguitf 1857.

CHAPTER I. Page

Comparative statements of the advance of the free and slave States in population. Gain of the free States steady, bat not rapid. Comparative statements of the advance of the free and slave States in area. Causes of the superior success and aptitude of the slave States in acquiring territory. Slavery as yet firmly maintained in the northern tier of slave States. The political power of the slave States still formidable 1

Chapter II

Considerations rendering it probable that slavery will cease to exist in Missouri. Connection between slavery and the prices of land. Missouri at present more inviting to the free emigrant than Virginia. Commanding position of Missouri 10

CHAPTER in.

Considerations rendering it probable that the emigration from the free States, hitherto moving westward, may hereafter tend ■ southward, to Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. Accumulated power of the population of the free States. No apology for slavery in the northern slave States. The right of emigration between the States 25

Chapter IV

Slave society stationary. Impossibility of improvement of the non-slaveholding whites. Tendency of slavery to expel the white race. Example of South Carolina. Slavery predominant in some portions of Virginia, and freedom in others. Non-slaveholding whites in slave countries have no capacity to become r.rtisans and build up towns. Slaveholders will never give up slavery , 39 vi

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V. Fast

Comparative growth of Northera and Southern Maryland. Tenacity of slavery in the southern counties. Advantageous position of Maryland. Descriptions of Eastern and Western Shores. Slaveholders take the best soils. Baltimore not likely to move actively for the abolition of slavery. The growth of the city of Washington favorable to the removal of slavery from the southern counties of Maryland 54

CILU'TER VI.

Increase of slaves in the several decades since 1810. Number of slaves in Texas in 1840. Increase of slaves less rapid in tho extreme South. Number of slaves enlarges with the area over which they are spread. Why the number of slaves has gained by natural increase in the United States, and not elsewhere in America 12

Chapter VII

The Ordinance of 1787 firmly maiutaiued by subsequent Congresses. Slavery in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, never within tho control of Congress. Slavery obtained a footing in Missouri and Arkansas contrary to the intention of Congress. The Missouri Compromise was in fact no compromise, but a clear victory of tho slaveholders 91

Chapter VIII

Emigration docs not diminish population. • Opinions of Dr. Mal- • thus. Dr. Franklin, and tho Earl of Selkirk. Illustrations. Nearly a million slaves of Virginia stock existing out of Virginia in 1850, who would not have existed any^vhere but for the dor estic slave trade. Free negroes increase slowly, if at all. The Northern States cannot be invaded by negroes 106

Chapter IX

The argument for slavery, as being necessary for the multiplication of negroes. Carrying slaves into new regions not favoroble'to their personal comfort, but the contrary. Cruelties of the domestic slave trade 128

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X. Page

The introduction of slaves into the States of the extreme South, to some extent legislated against by them, and always opposed by many of their citizens. Slave trading disreputable at the South. The suppression of the domestic slave trade would find supporters in all the Southern States. Inter-colonial slave trade prohibited by Great Britain in 1824 ...141

Chapter XI

America settled during the first three centuries chiefly by negroes. European immigration inconsiderable until recently. The probability of the further territorial expansion of slavery in the United States considered. The high price of slaves an impedimcn. to this expansion. Within its present limits, slavery will not be crowded for a long time 153

Chapter XII

Slavery will be maintained, so long as it is profitable. The statement that abolition commenced in 1835, and has retarded emancipation, shown jto be untrue. Change in Southern views attributable to increased profits of slavery. Opinions of Governor Hammond. The discussion of slavery necessary, until the fate of the Territories is decided 175

CHAPTER Xni.

Review of Debates in Virginia in 1832. Abolition not seriously proposed. The alarm which then existed, in reference to cutlets for slaves, since removed. Eastern Virginia opposed to any action. Views of Hon. C. J. Faulkner and others as to slavery. Emancipation in Virginia will be long postponed, unless the domestic slave trade is prohibited 192

Chapter XIV

The extension of slavery profitable to the slave-breeding States, but injurious to the other Southern States. The acquisition of Cuba injurious to all the Southern States. Political power the sole object of extending slavery. The agitation of slavery with a view to party ascendency. The South has not gained by agitation 7. 20G

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV. Page

Different views of the manner in -which slavery may be extinguished. Slave labor immediately cheap, under certain circumstances, but ruinous as a system. The Southern States have grown poorer by it. Mr. Tarver's description of the results of cotton-growing. Free labor will encroach upon slavery, because really more efficient and profitable 220

Chapter XVI

The decline of slavery will not be the decline of the South, but will benefit the South. The evils apprehended at the South, from the shutting up of slavery, are imaginary. Slaves will not multiply beyond the demand for them, and the fall in their price will be insensible. The slave-breeding States alone interested in the extension of slavery. The question of race connected with the question of slave>v 235

Chapter XVII

The Union of the States is only endangered by thai discontent of the slave States, which results from the -impoverishing effects of slavery. Slavery itself, and not the agitation of it, originates the feeling of disunion. Nullification first aimed against tariffs. The mischief will be abated, as the area of, slavery is diminished. Political quietude the ordinary result of slavery .*. 247

CHAPTER XVHI.

The population of Cuba. Actual number of slaves ; misrepresentations corrected. Tendency of slavery in Cuba to disappear by increase of whites, the mortality of slaves, and emancipation under Spanish laws. Classification of agricultural pursuits. Character and increase of the Monteros, or yeomanry. Example of Porto Rico. Climate of Cuba. Salubrity. Adaptation to white labor. Possible changes in the methods of sugar culture. Resources and desirability of the island. If annexed to the Union, the frcj laborers of the United States will assert their right to it 258

Appendix

PROGRESS OF SLAVERY.