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
"We have but to compare the States, possessing equal natural advantages,
in which the two kinds of labor are employed, in order to decide with
entire confidence as to which kind is the more profitable. At the origin
of the government, Virginia, with a much larger extent of territory than
New-York, contained a population of seven hundred and fifty thousand, and
sent ten representatives to Congress; while New-York contained a
population of three hundred and forty thousand, and sent six
representatives to Congress. Behold how the figures are reversed. The
population of New-York is three and a half millions, represented by
thirty-three members in Congress; while the population of Virginia is but
little more than one and a half millions, represented by thirteen members
in Congress. It is the vital sap of free labor that makes the one tree so
thrifty and vigorous, so capable of bearing with all ease the fruit of
such a population. And it is slave labor which strikes a decadence through
the other, drying up many of its branches with a fearful sterility, and
rendering the rest but scantily fruitful; really incapable of sustaining
more. Look at Ohio, teeming with inhabitants, its soil loaded with every
kind of agricultural wealth, its people engaged in every kind of freedom's
diversified employments, abounding with numberless happy homes, and with
all the trophies of civilization, and it exhibits the magic effect of free
labor, waking a wilderness into life and beauty; while Kentucky, with
equal or superior natural advantages, nature's very garden in this Western
world, which commenced its career at a much earlier date, and was in a
measure populous when Ohio was but a slumbering forest, but which in all
the elements of progress, is now left far, very far, behind its young
rival, shows how slave labor hinders the development of wealth among a
people, and brings a blight on their prosperity. The one is a grand and
beautiful poem in honor of free labor. The other is an humble confession
to the world of the inferiority of slave labor."
Equally significant is the testimony of Daniel R. Goodloe, of North
Carolina, who says:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account