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
"Many comparisons might be drawn between the free and the slave
States, either of which should be sufficient to satisfy any man that
slavery is not only ruinous to free labor and enterprise, but
injurious to morals, and blighting to the soil where it exists. The
comparison between the States of Michigan and Arkansas, which were
admitted into the Union at the same time, will fairly illustrate the
difference and value of free and slave labor, as well as the
difference of moral and intellectual progress in a free and in a
slave State.
"In 1836 these young Stars were admitted into the constellation of
the Union. Michigan, with one-half the extent of territory of
Arkansas, challenged her sister State for a twenty years' race, and
named as her rider, 'Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude,
unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this
State.' Arkansas accepted the challenge, and named as her rider, 'The
General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the
emancipation of slaves without the consent of the owners.' Thus
mounted, these two States, the one free and the other slave, started
together twenty years ago, and now, having arrived at the end of the
proposed race, let us review and mark the progress of each. Michigan
comes out in 1856 with three times the population of slave Arkansas,
with five times the assessed value of farms, farming implements and
machinery and with eight times the number of public schools."
In the foregoing part of our work, we have drawn comparisons between the
old free States and the old slave States, and between the new free States
and the new slave States; had we sufficient time and space, we might with
the most significant results, change this method of comparison, by
contrasting the new free States with the old slave States. Can the
slavocrats compare Ohio with Virginia, Illinois with Georgia, or Indiana
with South Carolina, without experiencing the agony of inexpressible
shame? If they can, then indeed has slavery debased them to a lower deep
than we care to contemplate. Herewith we present a brief contrast, as
drawn by a Maryland abolitionist, between the most important old slave
State and the most important new free State:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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