Anti-Slavery Reporter, 1843-03-01, vol. 2 iss. 9

              AMERICAN AND FOREIGN
ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER-
PUBLISHED  BY  THE AMERICAN  AND  FOREIGN  ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
VOL. II.
NEW YORK, MARCH 1, 1843.
NO. 9.
ADDRESS
TO  ;*".-Jf
THE NON-SLAVE HOLBERS OF THE SOUTH.
FELLOW CITIZENS:
Hostility to you is not one of the many and grievous
crimes which it has been thought expedient to1 charge
upon abolitionists. If we are plotters of insurrection and
massacre, it is not your destruction we are seeking. If
we are thieves and robbers, it is not,your property we are
coveting. If we are reckless of every human and divine
obligation, it is not that we are actuated by malice toward
you. No personal jpterest prompts you to drown the voice
of reason, of religion, of humanity, in ferocious clamors.
Of you we now ask a patient audience. We are about to
spread before you a series of facts respecting the truth of
which there can be and will be no question; and you will
decide for yourselves how far t&eyjustify the inferences
we shall draw from them.
We have contended that slavery is cruel and unjust,
and consequentlysWcil. It is but in accordance with the
corrupt passing, of the human heart, that the expression
of such sentiments,should excite the malignity of those
who rejoice in holding their fellow men as beasts of burthen. Nor is it surprising that the teachers ^"religion
among you, whose influence and maintenance depend on
their reputed sanctity, should be greatly scandalized by
our audacity in reproaching them for upholding and participating in, a system which annihilates the conjugal and
parental relations, denies all the rights of conscience, and
practically withholds the scriptures and religious instruction from one third of the whole population of the slave
states.
We need not tell you that the falsity of an opinion is not
to be inferred from the wrath and violence with which it
.is resisted; nor need we labor to convince you of the iniquity of a system whose abominations daily a$d hourly
meet your gaze. The object of this address is to call your
attention to the injuries inflicted by this system upon yourselves and your children, and thus to induce you to use
your best endeavors for its utter extermination.
With you rests the power of perpetuating or destroying
slavery. It lives by your sufferance, it dies at your mandate. We are well aware that these assertions will be received by you and others with surprise and incredulity.
But we ask your attention to the following considerations
and statistics.        PPte«|
We all know that the sugar and cotton cultivation of
the south is conducted,. not like the. agriculture of the
north, on small farms and with few hands, but on vast
plantations and with la-rge gangs "of negroes, technically
called■" the force."; In the Breeding states, men, women
and children form the greatstaple for exportation; and
like othfflffltock, require capital on the part of tho3e who
follow the;busrness of rearing, them. It is also a matter
of notoriety, \tlKit the price of slaves has been and still is
such as to confine their possession almost exclusively to
the rich. We might as-well talk of poor men owning
herds of cattle and studs of horses, as gangs of negroes.
When an infant will bring one jfcndred, and a man from
fdur hundred to a thousand dollars in the market, slaves
are not commodities to be found in the cabins of the poor.
You are moreover aware that the great capitalists of the
south have their, wealth chiefly Srested in plantations and
slaves, and not as with us in commerce and manufactures.
It has been repeatedly stated that Mr. Carrol, of Baltimore, the former president of the Colonization Society,
was the owner of 1,000 slaves. The newspapers, in announcing the death of Mr. Pollock, of North Carolina, remarked that he had left 1,500 slaves. In the account of
Mr. Madison's funeralgit was ment|bned that he was followed to the grave by 100 of his slaves, and it is probable
that the women and children were not included. The fol-
ing article from the Gospel Messenger for August, 1842,
gives us some idea of the feudal vassalage prevailing on
the estates of some of your lordly planters, a A noble
deed.—Dr. Mercer, of Adams county, Mississippi, has
lately erected, at his own expense and for the advantage
of his vast plantatisfe, and the people on his lands, a neat
church and parsonage house at the cost of over $30,000.
He pays the salary ofthe minister, $1,200 a year, besides
his meat and bread. On. Bishop Otey's late visit to that
congregation, he and Mr. Deacon, the incumbent, baptised
in one day one hundred wad eight cliildren and ten adults,
all belonging to the plantation."
At the north a farmer hires as many men as his work
requires; at the south the laborers cannot be separated
from the women and children. These are property and
must be owned by somebody. Now when we take this
last circumstance into consideration, and at the same time
recollect that the very value of the slaves debars the poor
from owning them; and connect these two facts with the
character of the cultivation in which slave labor is employed, we must be ready to admit that those who do employ this species of labor, cannot on an average hold less
than ten slaves, including able bodied men, their wives
and children. It appears by the census, that of the slave
population, the two sexes are almost exactly equal in number ; and that there are two children under 10 years of
age, for every male slave over that age. Hence if a planter" employs only three men, we may take it for granted
that his slave family consists of at least 12 souls, viz. : 3
men, 3 women and 6 children. We of course estimate
the number of children too low, since there will be some
over two years of age. It thus appears that-Tne^overage
number of slaves we. assign to each slaveholder is probably far below the truth, but we purposely avoid even the.
approach to exaggeration. Now the number ot' slaves in
the United States (Am. Almanac for 1842,) is 2,487,113,;
of course according to our estimate often slaves to one
master, there can be only 248,711 slave-holders.
The number of white males over%0 years of age in'the slave
states and territories is .       ^wS^1"*.: '**» ■ tS$':     •   1,016,307
Deduct slaveholders, viz.      ."3Br:        • -■c£&l&>.ffi8&&       248,711
And we have the number we are now addressing
567,596
We are not forgetful that our enumeration must embrace some who are the sons of slaveholders, and who are
therefore interested in upholding the system,—but we are
fully convinced that our estimate'of the number of slaveholders is far beyond the truth, and that we may therefore
safely throw out of account the very moderate number of
slaveholders' sons above 20 years of age, and not themselves possessing slaves.
Here then, fellow citizens, you see your strength. You
have a majority of 518,885 over the slaveholders; and
now we repeat that with a numerical majority of more
than half a million, slavery lives or dies at your behest.
We know that this result is so startling and Unexpected, that you will scarcely credit the testimony of figures
themselves. It is so commonly taken for granted, that
every white man at the south is a slaveholder, that many
will doubtingly inquire, where are these non-slaveholding
citizens to be found ? We answer, evejpy where. Is poverty of rare occurrence in any country ? Has it ever
happened that the mass of any people were rich enough to
keep for their own convenience such expensive animals as
southern slaves ? Slavery moreover is monopolizing in
its tendency and leads^to the accumulation of property in
few hands. It is also to be observed, that the high price
of slaves and the character of the cultivation in which"
they are employed, both conspire to concentrate this class
of laborers on particular spots, and in the hands of large
proprietors. Now the census shows that in some districts
the slaves are collected in vast numbers; while in others
they are necessarily few. Thus for instance in Georgetown district, S. Carolina, there are about 7.5 slaves to
every white man, woman and child in the district. Now
if from the white population in this district we exclude
all but the slaveholders themselves, the average number
of slaves held by them would probably exceed one hundred. On the other hand we find all ttowtgh the slave
states, many districts where the slajcea^bear a very small
proportion to the whites, and where, of course, the non-
slaveholders must for^a^ast and overwhelming majority.   A few instance>*nlEH?suflice.
The whites aiew the slaves in Brook County, Virginia, as 85 to 1
« ^" .        " Yancy, N. Car-^.,-88 to 1
pLiji^ •"< " •? Union, Georgia,        35tol
mSfcC: " "'. De Kalb, Alabama,     16 to 1
''ifrgtir.y " \ Fentress, TenSessee^*43 to 1
SmsS'?'. " " Morgan, Kentucky,* 74 to 1
» " " Taney, Missouri,      80 to 1
'< " " Searcy, : • Arkansas,   311 to 1
There is nol a state or-territory in the Union in which
you, fellow citizens, have not an overwhelming majority
over the slaveholders, and the majority is probably the
greatest in those in which the slaves are the most nume-.
*Mr. Nicholas, in a speech in the Kentucky Legislature in 1837, objected to calling a convention to alter the constitution, because in such
a convention he believed the abolition of slavery would be agitated ;
and he reminded the house, that in the stat&WPhe slaveholders do not
stand in the ratio of more than one to six or seven." Of course slavery
is maintained m Kentucky through tbe consent ofthe non slaveholders.