The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign: Why It Exists, and How It May Be ExtinguishedCarey, Henry Charles
History
The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign: Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished
Carey, Henry Charles
Labor; Slave trade; Slavery; Slavery -- United States; Tariff -- United States; Working class
In all this there may be much philanthropy, but there is certainly
much error,--and with a view to determine where it lies, as well as to
show what is the true road to emancipation, it is proposed to inquire
what has been, in the various countries of the world, the course by
which men have passed from poverty to wealth, from ignorance and
barbarism to civilization, and from slavery to freedom. That done, we
may next inquire for the causes now operating to prevent the
emancipation of the negro of America and the occupant of "the
sweater's den" in London; and if they can once be ascertained, it will
be then easy to determine what are the measures needful to be adopted
with a view to the establishment of freedom throughout the world.
CHAPTER V.
HOW MAN PASSES FROM POVERTY AND SLAVERY TOWARD WEALTH AND FREEDOM.
The first poor cultivator is surrounded by land unoccupied. _The more
of it at his command the poorer he is._ Compelled to work alone, he is
a slave to his necessities, and he can neither roll nor raise a log
with which to build himself a house. He makes himself a hole in the
ground, which serves in place of one. He cultivates the poor soil of
the hills to obtain a little corn, with which to eke out the supply of
food derived from snaring the game in his neighbourhood. His winter's
supply is deposited in another hole, liable to injury from the water
which filters through the light soil into which alone he can
penetrate. He is in hourly danger of starvation. At length, however,
his sons grow up. They combine their exertions with his, and now
obtain something like an axe and a spade. They can sink deeper into
the soil; and can cut logs, and build something like a house. They
obtain more corn and more game, and they can preserve it better. The
danger of starvation is diminished. Being no longer forced to depend
for fuel upon the decayed wood which was all their father could
command, they are in less danger of perishing from cold in the
elevated ground which, from necessity, they occupy. With the growth of
the family new soils are cultivated, each in succession yielding a
larger return to labour, and they obtain a constantly increasing
supply of the necessaries of life from a surface diminishing in its
ratio to the number to be fed; and thus with every increase in the
return to labour the power of combining their exertions is increased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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