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)
The severest criticism on the book, however, comes from one who charges
the author with a "disposition to mislead, or an ignorance which is
inexcusable," in the use of the statistics of crime, having reference to
the free colored people, from 1820 to 1827. The object of the author, in
using the statistics referred to, was only to show the reasons why the
scheme of colonization was then accepted, by the American public, as a
means of relief to the colored population, and not to drag out these
sorrowful facts to the disparagement of those now living. But the
reviewer, suspicious of every one who does not adopt his abolition
notions, suspects the author of improper motives, and asks: "Why go so
far back, if our author wished to treat the subject fairly?" Well, the
statistics on this dismal topic have been brought up to the latest date
practicable, and the author now leaves it to the colored people
themselves to say, whether they have gained any thing by the reviewer's
zeal in their behalf. He will learn one lesson at least, we hope, from
the result: that a writer can use his pen with greater safety to his
reputation, when he knows something about the subject he discusses.
But this reviewer, warming in his zeal, undertakes to philosophise, and
says, that the evils existing among the free colored people, will be
found in exact proportion to the slowness of emancipation; and complains
that New Jersey was taken as the standard, in this respect, instead of
Massachusetts, where, he asserts, "all the negroes in the commonwealth,
were, by the new constitution, liberated in a day, and none of the ill
consequences objected followed, either to the commonwealth or to
individuals." The reviewer is referred to the facts, in the present
edition, where he will find, that the amount of crime, at the date to
which he refers, was _six times_ greater among the colored people of
Massachusetts, in proportion to their numbers, than among those of New
Jersey. The next time he undertakes to review KING COTTON, it will be
best for him not to rely upon his imagination, but to look at the facts.
He should be able at least, when quoting a writer, to discriminate
between evils resulting from insurrections, and evils growing out of
common immoralities. Experience has taught, that it is unsafe, when
calculating the results of the means of elevation employed, to reason
from a civilized to a half civilized race of men.
The last point that needs attention, is the charge that the author is a
slaveholder, and governed by mercenary motives. To break the force of
any such objection to the work, and relieve it from prejudices thus
created, the veil is lifted, and the author's name is placed upon the
title page.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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