Firstly, landed tenure in Africa is free, the occupant selecting as much
as he can cultivate, holding it so long as he uses it, but cannot convey
it to another; secondly, the people all being free, can be hired at a
price less than the _interest_ of the capital invested in land and
people to work it--they finding their own food, which is the custom of
the country; thirdly, there are no contingencies of frost or irregular
weather to mar or blight the crop; and fourthly, we have two regular
crops a year, or rather one continuous crop, as while the trees are full
of pods of ripe cotton, they are at the same time blooming with fresh
flowers. And African cotton is planted only every seven years, whilst
the American is replanted every season. Lastly, the average product per
acre on the best Mississippi and Louisiana cotton plantations in
America, is three hundred and fifty pounds; the average per acre in
Africa, a hundred per cent more, or seven hundred pounds. As the African
soil produces two crops a year to one in America, then we in Africa
produce fourteen hundred pounds to three hundred and fifty in America;
the cost of labor a hand being one dollar or four shillings a day to
produce it; whilst in Africa at present it is nine hundred per cent
less, being only ten cents or five pence a day for adult labor. At this
price the native lives better on the abundance of produce in the
country, and has more money left at the end of a week than the European
or free American laborer at one dollar a day.
Cotton, as before stated, is the great commodity of the world, entering
intimately into, being incorporated with almost every kind of fabric of
wearing apparel. All kinds of woollen goods--cloths, flannels, alpacas,
merinoes, and even silks, linen, nankin, ginghams, calicoes, muslins,
cordages, ship-sails, carpeting, hats, hose, gloves, threads, waddings,
paddings, tickings, every description of book and newspaper, writing
paper, candle wicks, and what not, all depend upon the article cotton.
Importance of the African Race in the Social and Political Relations of
the World
By this it will be seen and admitted that the African occupies a much
more important place in the social and political element of the world
than that which has heretofore been assigned him--holding the balance of
commercial power, the source of the wealth of nations in his hands. This
is indisputably true--undeniable, that cotton cannot be produced without
negro labor and skill in raising it.
The African Race Sustains Great Britain
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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