The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet ItHelper, Hinton Rowan
History
The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It
Helper, Hinton Rowan
Slavery -- United States
This survey we have already made; we have also instituted an impartial
comparison between the cardinal sections of the country, north, south,
east, and west; and as a true hearted southerner, whose ancestors have
resided in North Carolina between one and two hundred years, and as one
who would rather have his native clime excel than be excelled, we feel
constrained to confess that we are deeply abashed and chagrined at the
disclosures of the comparison thus instituted. At the time of the adoption
of the Constitution, in 1789, we commenced an even race with the North.
All things considered, if either the North or the South had the advantage,
it was the latter. In proof of this, let us introduce a few statistics,
beginning with the states of
NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA.
In 1790, when the first census was taken, New York contained 340,120
inhabitants; at the same time the population of Virginia was 748,308,
being more than twice the number of New York. Just sixty years afterward,
as we learn from the census of 1850, New York had a population of
3,097,394; while that of Virginia was only 1,421,661, being less than half
the number of New York! In 1791, the exports of New York amounted to
$2,505,465; the exports of Virginia amounted to $3,130,865. In 1852, the
exports of New York amounted to $87,484,456; the exports of Virginia,
during the same year, amounted to only $2,724,657. In 1790, the imports of
New York and Virginia were about equal; in 1853, the imports of New York
amounted to the enormous sum of $178,270,999; while those of Virginia, for
the same period, amounted to the pitiful sum of only $399,004. In 1850,
the products of manufactures, mining and the mechanic arts in New York
amounted to $237,597,249; those of Virginia amounted to only $29,705,387.
At the taking of the last census, the value of real and personal property
in Virginia, including negroes, was $391,646,438; that of New York,
exclusive of any monetary valuation of human beings, was $1,080,309,216.
In August, 1856, the real and personal estate assessed in the City of
New-York amounted in valuation to $511,740,491, showing that New-York City
alone is worth far more than the whole State of Virginia.
What says one of Virginia's own sons? He still lives; hear him speak. Says
Gov. Wise:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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