The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
But it is probable that for a considerable period the sales would
exceed the calls. Masters would not be willing to strip their
plantations and farms of their labourers so rapidly. The slaves
themselves connected, as they generally are, by tender ties with
others under other masters, would be kept from the list of
emigrants by the want of the multiplied consents to be obtained.
It is probable, indeed, that for a long time a certain portion of
the proceeds might safely continue applicable to the discharge of
the debts or to other purposes of the nation, or it might be most
convenient, in the outset, to appropriate a certain proportion
only of the income from sales to the object in view, leaving the
residue otherwise applicable.
Should any plan similar to that I have sketched be deemed
eligible in itself, no particular difficulty is foreseen from
that portion of the nation, which, with a common interest in the
vacant territory, has no interest in slave property. They are too
just to wish that a partial sacrifice should be made for the
general good, and too well aware that whatever may be the
intrinsic character of that description of property, it is one
known to the Constitution, and, as such could not be
constitutionally taken away without just compensation. That part
of the nation has, indeed, shewn a meritorious alacrity in
promoting, by pecuniary contributions, the limited scheme for
colonizing the blacks, and freeing the nation from the
unfortunate stain on it, which justifies the belief that any
enlargement of the scheme, if founded on just principles, would
find among them its earliest and warmest patrons. It ought to
have great weight that the vacant lands in question have, for the
most part, been derived from grants of the States holding the
slaves to be redeemed and removed by the sale of them.
It is evident, however, that in effectuating a general
emancipation of slaves in the mode which has been hinted,
difficulties of other sorts would be encountered. The provision
for ascertaining the joint consent of the masters and slaves; for
guarding against unreasonable valuations of the latter; and for
the discrimination of those not proper to be conveyed to a
foreign residence, or who ought to remain a charge on masters in
whose service they had been disabled or worn out, and for the
annual transportation of such numbers, would require the mature
deliberations of the national councils. The measure implies
also, the practicability of procuring in Africa an enlargement of
the district or districts for receiving the exiles sufficient for
so great an augmentation of their numbers.
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