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
ignorance, are under the restraint of all manner of iniquitous laws,
patriotism has ceased to exist within her borders. And here we desire to
be distinctly understood, for we shall have occasion to refer to this
matter again. We repeat, therefore, the substance of our averment, that,
at this day, there is not a grain of patriotism in the South, except among
the non-slaveholders. Subsequent pages shall testify to the truth of this
assertion. Here and there, it is true, a slaveholder, disgusted with the
institution, becomes ashamed of himself, emancipates his negroes, and
enters upon the walks of honorable life; but these cases are exceedingly
rare, and do not, in any manner, disprove the general correctness of our
remark. All persons who do voluntarily manumit their slaves, as mentioned
above, are undeniably actuated by principles of pure patriotism, justice
and humanity; and so believing, we delight to do them honor.
Once more to the Old Dominion. At her door we lay the bulk of the evils of
slavery. The first African sold in America was sold on James River, in
that State, on the 20th of August, 1620; and although the institution was
fastened upon her and the other colonies by the mother country, she was
the first to perceive its blighting and degrading influences, her wise men
were the first to denounce it, and, after the British power was overthrown
at York Town, she should have been the first to abolish it. Fifty-seven
years ago she was the Empire State; now, with half a dozen other
slaveholding states thrown into the scale with her, she is far inferior to
New-York, which, at the time Cornwallis surrendered his sword to
Washington, was less than half her equal. Had she obeyed the counsels of
the good, the great and the wise men of our nation--especially of her own
incomparable sons, the extendible element of slavery would have been
promptly arrested, and the virgin soil of nine Southern States, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida,
and Texas, would have been saved from its horrid pollutions. Confined to
the original states in which it existed, the institution would soon have
been disposed of by legislative enactments, and long before the present
day, by a gradual process that could have shocked no interest and alarmed
no prejudice, we should have rid ourselves not only of African slavery,
which is an abomination and a curse, but also of the negroes themselves,
who, in our judgment, whether viewed in relation to their actual
characteristics and condition, or through the strong antipathies of the
whites, are, to say the least, an undesirable population.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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