The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery: How it came into the world and how it shall be made to go outO'Brien, James Bronterre
History
The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery: How it came into the world and how it shall be made to go out
O'Brien, James Bronterre
Labor; Labor movement; Slavery; Social problems; Working class
About the time this estimate was made of the value of live Englishmen
in this country, Burke and Hare, the murderers, were selling dead
men’s bodies, in Scotland, at the rate of £10 per head to the College
of Surgeons in Edinburgh. Consequently, a dead slave was at that time
worth some £40 more than a whole family of live ones, unless the latter
could be made available for anatomical purposes. Since that period
the value both of live slaves and dead ones has greatly fallen in
the market. Subjects for the dissecting-table can now be got almost
for a song. And as to live slaves, our “surplus population” has so
vastly augmented since the time referred to, that, notwithstanding
the myriads already disposed of by famine and the cholera, we feel
assured our lords and masters have still some 5,000,000 or 6,000,000
more they would gladly get rid of upon any terms. There are full that
number at present in the United Kingdom for whom no regular kind of
remunerative employment can be had--who are, in consequence, regarded
as not only valueless, but as a positive incumbrance upon the soil--as
a dead loss to the country--and whose lives are thereby made a burden
to themselves as well as to others. To compare the condition of these
thoroughly oppressed and neglected beings with that of the well-fed,
well-clothed, well-housed, well-cared-for negro slaves described by Mr.
Edward Smith would be to outrage common sense. As already observed, we
may _contrast_; we cannot, in decency, _compare_. Why, according to
that gentleman’s testimony, any industrious negro, with a kind master,
could save more money in twelve months (besides leading a life wholly
exempt from care) than some of our hand-loom weavers could earn in two
years, or than an Irish white slave could earn in four years at 6d. a
day--which is more than their average earnings throughout the year.
The writer of this happening to visit Leicester some twelve months
ago, he made diligent inquiry there touching the rate of wages and the
condition of the people generally, engaged in the staple trade of the
town. From the very best sources of information, he learned that their
average wages did not exceed 6s. a week throughout the year, although
at that period the hosiery trade was unusually brisk, and all hands
full of work. Only twelve months before, nearly one-half the artisans
were out of employ, and the streets literally swarmed, at all hours
of the day, with men, women, and children roaming about in a state of
utter destitution. To beg or steal was their only resource; for they
were absolutely starving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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