Cotton is king, and pro-slavery arguments : $b comprising the writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartwright, on this important subject
History
Cotton is king, and pro-slavery arguments : $b comprising the writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartwright, on this important subject
Scott, Dred, 1809-1858; Slavery -- Justification; Slavery -- United States; United States -- Fugitive slave law (1850)
IN concluding our labors, there is little need of extended observation.
The work of emancipation, in our country, was checked, and the extension
of slavery promoted:--first, by the neglect of the free colored people
to improve the advantages afforded them; second, by the increasing value
imparted to slave labor; third, by the mistaken policy into which the
English and American abolitionists have fallen. Whatever reasons might
now be offered for emancipation, from an improvement of our free colored
people, is far more than counterbalanced by its failure in the West
Indies, and the constantly increasing value of the labor of the slave.
If, when the planters had only a moiety of the markets for cotton, the
value of slavery was such as to arrest emancipation, how must the
obstacles be increased, now, when they have the monopoly of the markets
of the world? And, besides all this, a more deadly blow, than has been
given by all other causes combined, is now levelled at negro freedom
from a quarter the least suspected. The failure of the Canadian
immigrants to improve the privileges afforded them under British law,
proves, conclusively, that the true laws of progress for the African
race, do not consist in a mere escape from slavery.
We propose not to speak of remedies for slavery. That we leave to
others. Thus far this very perplexing question, has baffled all human
wisdom. Either some radical defect must have existed, in the measures
devised for its removal, or the time has not yet come for successfully
assailing the institution. Our work is completed, in the delineation we
have given of its varied relations to our agricultural, commercial, and
social interests. As the monopoly of the culture of cotton, imparts to
slavery its economical value, the system will continue as long as this
monopoly is maintained. Slave labor products have now become necessities
of human life, to the extent of more than half the commercial articles
supplied to the Christian world. Even free labor, itself, is made
largely subservient to slavery, and vitally interested in its
perpetuation and extension.
Can this condition of things be changed? It may be reasonably doubted,
whether any thing efficient can be speedily accomplished: not because
there is lack of territory where freemen may be employed in tropical
cultivation, as all Western and Central Africa, nearly, is adapted to
this purpose; not because intelligent free labor, under proper
incentives, is less productive than slave labor; but because freemen,
whose constitutions are adapted to tropical climates, will not avail
themselves of the opportunity offered for commencing such an enterprise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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