Slavery in Maryland briefly consideredCarey, John L.
History
Slavery in Maryland briefly considered
Carey, John L.
Slavery -- Maryland
With respect to the establishment of a newspaper in Baltimore, devoted
to emancipation, I should think it, my dear sir, not advisable. The
business in hand is of a kind to require calmness of consideration
and of action. Now a newspaper, I fear, would be the instrument of
agitation; it would find its pabulum in excitement. It would be
regarded as the herald of abolition, and the whole body of ultra
fanatics at the north would seek to connect themselves with the
movement. Their contact would be deleterious in the highest degree; we
wish not for their interference in any way; we prefer to manage our own
domestic affairs; there can be no communion, in this matter, between
our knowledge and their ignorance.
I leave the subject, my dear sir, for the present, and, with it,
many things unsaid, which a full and complete discussion of such a
topic would properly embrace. I might have referred to the effects of
Slavery in connection with popular education and popular ignorance;
but the statistics on that point are not just now at hand. It may be
remarked, however, that no efficient free school system exists in any
slaveholding State. Nor can it be otherwise; because where the land
is held by slave owners, and mostly in large plantations, the white
population is too sparse to allow of compact school districts. Besides,
the planters having the means of educating their own children, either
at home or abroad, they are not likely to be much concerned about the
education of the children of their poorer neighbors. In every point of
view it will be found that the permanent continuance of negro Slavery
is incompatible with the elevation of the humble classes of white
citizens.
Again, the institution of Slavery might be regarded in its effects upon
social manners and usages. And here we should find many prepossessions
which are strong in the minds of all of us, and which grow out of the
best and most amiable features of the institution we are considering.
To say nothing of those relations of confidence and regard which have
always marked the intercourse of the servants of our halls and fields
with the gentlemen of Maryland, the exemption from labor which Slavery
gave to the whole class of landholders, with wealth in the hands of
many, and a fair competency to all, afforded the leisure and the means
for social enjoyments to any extent which a gay and social disposition
might prompt. Hence that frank and cordial intercourse among friends;
that courteous urbanity to strangers; that generous hospitality of
heart and home to all--which have become the characteristics of
the south. Long may she retain them. She need lose no good quality
attendant upon her connection with Slavery, when, the more primitive
and simple days of that institution having passed away, the institution
itself has become decrepit, inconsistent with the progress of the age,
and prolific of evils.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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