E448 .C552 .^^ V> 0° .l^^l-- ^o ,-^'' . ^p-^^ V **'% "■ 1^ * ^ ,0 ^-o .0. t-0' <<' o * » , 1 • ,0 .^ v^. a\ A ^S^'c/\'^. :VV ^^" V, A LECTURE ON THfi PRESENT RELATIONS OF FREE LABOR TO SLAVE LABOR, IN TROPICAL AND SEMI-TROPICAL COUNTRIES: PRESENTING AN OUTLINE OF THE COMMERCIAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCI- PATION, AND ITS EFFECTS UPON SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE, TOGETHER WITH ITS FINAL EFFECT UPON COLONIZATION TO AFRICA. ADDRESSED TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF OHIO, 1850. By DAVID CHRISTY, "^fj 'W AGENT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETV. CINCINNATI: PRINTED BY J. A. & U. P. JAMES. STEREOTYPED BY A. C. JAMES. r^ • 18 5 0. ■ Cssv TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF OHIO. Gentlemen : It had been in contemplation, during your Summer Session at Columbus, to ask the privilege of addressing you on the sub- ject of the Constitutional provision which should be made to secure Legislative aid for such of the colored people of Ohio as may wish to emigrate to Liberia. But your early adjournment prevented the execu- tion of that design. After consultation with some of your number, it has been determined, that the Lecture, prepared for that purpose, be printed and circulated among the members of the Convention, in advance of their meeting in December. An apology would be due, on account of the extent of the investiga- tions embraced in the Lecture, were it not that we live in a matter-of- fact age, when the reasons offered in support of every measure, proposed for public acceptance, must amount to demonstration. The present Lecture is designed as a sequel to the two heretofore delivered before the Legislature, on the subject of Colonization, and which were laid upon your desks at Columbus. It is believed that every unprejudiced mind must be convinced, after examining the subject of Colonization to Liberia, in all its bearings, that it offers to the colored people an inher- itance almost infinitely more valuable than any other scheme that has been proposed for ameliorating their condition. It is also believed that the time has arrived when the question of the. emigration of the colored people from this country, or their permanent residence among us, must he settled. If the first measure be not adopted, then the public peace and safety demand that ample provision for their elevation, to equal social and political equality, under the last, be speedily made. But if it be the public will, that the African population of our country be secured in the peaceable possession of a free government of their own, then immediate action should be taken to promote that object. To delay the adoption of measures for encouraging emigration to Liberia, affords time for their increase, and makes the work more difficult to accomplish. The success of our proposed Colony from this State to Ohio in Africa, will prompt other States to similar efforts, and the cause of Colonization be greatly advanced. But as the extent of our success, in planting our Ohio Col- ony, must depend upon the amount of pecuniary aid that xvill be given by the Stale itself, it is respectfully urged that you will give the proposition, brought forward in the close of the Lecture, all the consideration that its importance demands. Your obedient servant, DAVID CHRISTY, Agent American Colonization Society for Ohio. Oxford, Ohio, Oct. 1, 1850. A LECTURE ON THE . PRESENT RELATIONS O F FREE LABOR TO SLAVE LABOR. INTRODUCTION. In our two preceding lectures, we have presented the leading inci- dents connected with the enslavement of the African race, and pointed out thegreatadvantages secured to them in tlie United States, over those afforded in any other country. The facts presented therein also show, that the work of Africa's redemption from barbarism has been encouragingly commenced by our Colonization scheme. It is natural, therefore, that we shouUl cast about to see whether the im- pelhng forces, tending to promote and perfect this great work, possess sufficient power to insure its success. For it must be confessed, that, in view of the vustness of the work to be accompUshed — including the secular and religious education of perhaps more than one hundred and sixty milHons of savage men — if no more numerous agencies can be brought to tlie execution of the task, than the noble litde band of Liberians, hope would almost sicken and die, in contemplating the length of time that must elapse before civilization and the gospel can be made to reacli the whole population of Africa. In tracing the causes now in operation, which must rapidly propel the work of Africa's civilization, we find that the facts may be brought most forcibly to view, by contrasting the present relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor, in the cultivation of those tropical and senii- iropical products, upon which slave labor has been and is now chiefly employed. We may be told — indeed we have already been warned by a friend, to whom the statistics have been shown — that by arraying such facts, before the public, as we have collated, we shall greatly strengthen slavery. But we must beg leave to say, that we apprehend no such results. The facts are such as the friends of Jifrican freedom, every where, should know, to enable them to adopt some practical and efficient remedy for the evils of the slave trade and slavery. It is not necessary to publish the fact to the slaveholder of Cuba and Brazil, that free labor, in die English and French West Indies, has 4 IntroducUon. failed to supply to commerce an amount of tropical commodities equal to what had been furnished by slave labor before emancipation. They already know this fact. Slaveholders, whether engaged in the production of cotton, sugar, or coffee, have known it, and profited by it. The slave trader, abso, has known the result of West India emancipalion, and has quadrupled his business and his profits by possessing that knowledge. And shall the Philanthropist, alone, be debarred from knowing truths of such moment ? The facts which we shall present may be unwelcome to some, yet they cannot be controverted. They may detract somewhat from the honors claimed by many who boast of their success in checking the progress of slavery, and may prove that they were more benevolent than wise, but it cannot be avoided. The day has come for decisive action upon the subject of the suppression of the slave trade, and the civilization of Africa. All schemes hitherto adopted have signally failed. The wisest statesmen have been baffled and defeated in their attempts. It is time, therefore, that a review of the actions of the past should be taken, and the results spread out before the public. In the execution of this task, if faithfully performed, it is believed that there may be found some common ground upon which all the friends of Africa and of humanity may cordially cooperate. The evidence which we have been enabled to collect upon this subject, is all from undoubted authorities, and we believe will clearly establish the following propositions : I. That Free Labor, in tropical and semi-tropical countries, is tailing to furnish to the markets of the world, in any thing like adequate quantities, those commodities upon which slave labor is chiefly employed. II. That the governments of England, France, and the United States, at the present moment, are compelled, from necessity, to consume slave labor products, to a large extent, and thus still continue to be the principal agents which aid in extending and perpetuating slavery and the slave trade. III. That the legislative measures adopted for the destruction of the slave trade and slavery, especially by England, have tended to increase and extend the systems they were designed to destroy. IV. That the governments named, cannot hope to escape from the necessity of consuming the products of slave labor, except by call- ing into active service, on an extensive scale, the free labor of countries not at present producing ihe commodities upon which slave labor is employed. V. That Africa is the principal field where free labor can be made to compete, successfully, with slave labor, in the production of exportable tropical commodities. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 5 VI. That there are moral forces and commercial considerations now in operation, which will, necessarily, impel Christian governments to exert their influence for the civilization of Africa, and the pro- motion of the prosperity of the Republic of Liberia, as the prin- cipal agency in this great work. ; and that in these facts lies our encouragement to persevere in our Colonization eflxtrts. VII. That all these agencies and influences being brought to bear upon the civilization of Africa, from the nature of its soil, climate, products, and population, we are forced to believe that a mighty people will ultimately rise upon that continent, taking rank with the most powerful nations of the earth, and vindicate the character of the African race before the world. Not the least interesting result, growing out of the investigations upon which we are entering, when taken in connection with those of our two preceding lectures, is the conviction that has been produced in our own mind, and which we believe will be made upon all, that England and the United States, the two governments at present most capable of exerting the greatest moral influence over Africa, and of calling into activity her latent but giant energies, are at this moment involved in positions of so much embarrassment, in consequence of their having been connected with the slave trade and slavery, that they cannot extricate themselves, but by the civilization of Africa. France, also, in the case of her former colony of Hayti, has had poured out to her a portion of the cup of bitterness, which, it seems, must be pressed to the lips of all the nations who have participated in oppressing Africa. By her late act of emancipation, in her re- maining tropical colonies, France has still farther embarrassed herself, and, like England and the United States, must soon be compelled either to supply herself almost exclusively with slave-grown cotton, and other tropical products, or lend her aid in promoting free labor cultivation in tropical Africa. In this remarkable condition of things, we are reminded of the great truth, that God presides among the nations, and overrules their actions to promote his own purposes of judgment and of mercy to mankind, and that governments, like individuals, are hindered in their designs here and have free progress there, only so far as corres- ponds with his great scheme of displaying his hatred of sin, vindica- ting his justice, and of manifesting his love to a fallen world, and his determination to redeem it to himself. A brief review of some of the leading events, relatino- to the action of the nations of Europe, in their connection with the slave trade and slavery, will bring us to the statement of the facts upon which we base our propositions. The records of history put it beyond all question, that the rapid rise of Great Britain, during the 18th century, which secured to her the superiority over other nations in naval power, in commerce, and ultimately in manufactures, was due, principally, to her haviiiI :» - - • 28,063 • - 289,779 -8,824,111 ■35,178.625 40,879 7,158 • •2.04(1,428 59,413 314 219.333.628 219,756,753 --■ 334.C91J--- 293,(>02 ■ 31.095.761-20.109,560 ---■- 10,624 .--'-- 3,729 no' 1.446 ■ ---57,027: 1,194 J8S.074 8.53 280.832.525 22.308.5561 .18.027,940 266.366.298 268.804.585 1833- Ibs. ■ • • 3.909 ■ 943,381 • • 15.708 • - 17;298 • 433,898 . 553,364 ■ 32.755,164 ■ - - - 37.908 .-■145.526 . -2.084.862 . - - 389,791 237,596.758 - - • 305,033 -28,403.821 378 38 1834. lbs. • • - - 7,29C ■ - • - 5.524 - - 826,458 • 410,730 - 444,437 ■ 32,920,805 3 3.32 • -2.296.525 - - - 223,004 3,794 269.203.075 --1,004.840 -19,291.3i)6 - - - - 75.257 - - - 154-839 4.05:3 303.656,837.326.875.425 ■17.363 8821 24.461.963 1 ^86.292,955 302,413,462 The following table, added to the above, aflbrds all the information that is necessary to a full understanding of the question, whence the supplies of cotton are obtained: * McCullough, Vol. I, p. G51. f lb. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 17 Imports of cotton into Great Britain, from all foreign countries, presenting the an- nual average during periods offte years, from 1830 to 1849, inclusive.* Tears. Miscellaneous.* Br.z.l. 59,590,800 51,474.800 37,698,000 39,654,^00 F-?y?<. East Ir,di«. United Shtes. 1830 to 18.34 1835 to 1839 1840 to 1844 1845 to 1849 5,510,000 12,909,600 9,430.800 3,586,400 7.959,600 13.842,400 16,633,200 17,967,200 32,318,000 57,612.000 93,383,600 71,940,800 247.356,400 344,688.800 464,226,400 734.244.560 i When the cotton of the United States had been fairly tested in England, it was found to be very much superior to that from the East Indies. The seed of our cotton was, therefore, introduced into India, and its cultivation so far succeeded, as to warrant the belief that, with proper encouragement from government, it might be grown in any quantities. In 18.39, a vigorous effort was made, headed by George Thompson, Esq.,§ to enlist Parliament in the enterprise. It was urged that all the elements of successful cotton cultivation existed in the East Inches, and that the English nation miglit soon obtain its supplies of cotton from that country, and repudiate that of the United States. The introduction to the American edition of the Lectures delivered by Thompson on that occasion, which was written by Wm. Llovd Garrison, contains the following sentences. || They sufficiendy indi- cate what were the anticipations of the advocates of the measure : " If England can raise her own cotton in India, at the paltry rate of a penny a pound, what inducement can she have to obtain her supply from a rival nation, at a rate six or eight times higher ? It is stated that East India free labor costs three pence a day — African slave labor, two shillings ; that upward of 800,000 bales of cotton are exported from the United States, annually, to England; and that the cotton trade of the United States, with England amounts to the enormous sum of $40,000,000 annually. Let that market be closed to this slaveholding Republic, and its slave system must inevitably perish from starvation ! " Mr. Thompson, throughout the whole course of his lectures, seems not to doubt the success of East India cotton cultivation, and also tliat of sugar andcoflee,and that the result would be the destruction of tlie slave trade, and the downfall of slavery everywhere. He thus exclaims :1[ " The batde-ground of freedom for the world is on the plains of Hindostan. Yes, my friends, do justice to India ; wave there the scepter of justice, and the rod of oppression falls from the hands of the slaveholder in America; and the slave, swelling bevond the * Supplement to the London Economist, 1850, pp. 34, 35. — Bales estimated at 400 lbs. each. t Chiefly the British Colonies. * We have substituted the averacre imports of 1848 and 1849, from the United States, instead of from 1845 to 1649, bc'cause it gives a nearer approximation to the truth. 1847, in the U. S., made only three-fourths of a crop, and it was the year of famine in Great Britain. § The great Abolitionist. || Lecture by George Thompson, Esq., 1839, p. 9 ir Lecture, pago 121. 18 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. measure of his chains, stands disenthralled, a free man, and an acknowledged brother ! " We need not trace the history of this effort to promote the cultiva- tion of cotton in India. It is of such recent occurrence, that all intelligent men are familiar with the results. Paragraphs like the following frequently meet the eye of the general reader. It is taken from a reliable periodical. "Late accounts from India [through the English press,] represent that the attempts of the British capitalists, during the last two or three years, to cultivate cotton in the district of Dharvvar, from which much was expected, have signally failed. In 1847-8, about 20,000 acres were cultivated. It is now ascertained that the crop has rapidly de- creased, only 4,000 acres having been under cultivation the past year." It is unnecessary to discuss the causes operating in the East Indies, to make it impossible to stimulate its free laborers much beyond their wonted rules of industry. Our views upon this ques- tion will be found in our two former lectures, where we present the causes of the failure of West India free labor. We need but state, here, that the East Indies have only a Pagan civilization, which has long since attained its full maturity. Any efforts, therefore, aside from the introduction of Christianity, and a Christian civilization, or the reduction of the population to slavery, must fail in securing a much greater degree of industry than exists at present. If left to their own free will, all attempts to introduce improvements in agri- culture and manufactures, will probably result like the following eflbrt made to improve tlieir mode of plowing. Under the head of " Cot- ton in India," the London Times of the present year, says : " The one great element of American success — of American en- terprise — can never, at least for many generations, be imparted to India. It is impossible to expect of Hindoos all that is achieved by citizens of the States. During the experiments to which we have alluded, an English plow was introduced into one of the provinces, and the natives were taught its use and superiority over their own clumsy machinery. They were at first astonished and delighted at its effects, but as soon as the agent's back was turned, they took it, painted it red, set it up on end, and ivorshipped it." Another anecdote, confirmatory of the impossibility of effecting a change of habits in the people of India, was told by the Rev. J. H. Morrison, missionary in India, during his late visit to this country. An English gentleman, resident in India, had commenced an improve- ment, requiring the removal of a large quantity of earth. Employing native laborers, they commenced the task in their usual way, by car- rying the earth to the place of deposit, in baskets, upon their heads. Pitying them, and wisliing to facilitate the work, he had a number of wheelbarrows constructed, and taken upon the ground. Showing the laborers how to use them, they appeared pleased with the nov- elty, and worked briskly. Gratified that he had relieved them from a toilsome system of labor, the gentleman left them to pursue their work. But on returning some days afterwards, he was astonished Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 19 and morlified, to see them filling their wheelbarrows, and then, lifting the whole burden upon their heads, deliberately carrying it ofl' as they had done their baskets. Such is Pagan stupidity and Pagan attach- ment to custom. The successful cultivation of cotton in the United Stales, and the better adaptation of the lands in Cuba and Brazil, to the production of sugar and coffee, has led the planters of these two countries to devote their labor chiefly to the production of the last named com- modities. The preceding tables of imports into England, (page 16,) proves the truth of this statement, and shows a great diminution in the production of cotton, except in the United States. In reviewing the results in the several cotton-growing countries, the London Econ- omist remarks : "^^^ " From Brazil, therefore, our annual supply has diminished nearly 20,000,000 lbs. ; or if we compare the two extreme years of the series, 1830 and 1848, the falling off is from 76,906,800 lbs. to 40,097,600 lbs. or 36,800,000 lbs. " The supply from Egypt, however, seems to have reached its maximum in 1845, in which year we received 32,537,600 lbs. This year it does not reach half that amount. Moreover, this country, from the peculiar circumstances of its government, is little to be relied upon, — the supply having varied from 16,1 16,000 lbs. in 1832, to 1,027,600 lbs. in 1833 ; and again, from 7,298,000 lbs. in 1842, to 26,400,000 lbs. in 1844. " For many years it was the custom of the Pacha of Egypt, to require a certain amount of cotton from his tenants, or, in fact, to compel them to pay the whole, or a fixed portion of their rent, in cotton. Under this forcing system, the cultivation was extensively introduced. Of late years, however, the Fellahs have been allowed to grow the article, or not, at their option ; and such is their natural indolence and want of enterprise, that even where they still continue the growth, they do so in a very careless manner, t " Our supply from the East Indies varies enormously, from 36,- 000,000 lbs. to 108,000,000 lbs. per annum, inasmuch as ive only receive that proportion of the crop ichich our prices may divert frojn China, or from internal consnmption. " The summary of our supply, from all these quarters combined, is : 1830 to 1834, 105,410,400 lbs. 1835 to 1839, 136,088,000 lbs. 1840 to 1844, 157,145,600 lbs. 1845 to 1849, 133,120,800 lbs. "The result of this inquiry, then, is, that our average annual sup- ply from all quarters, except the United Slates, was, in the five years ending 1849, less liy 2,943,200 lbs. than in the five years ending 1839,' and less by 24,000,000 lbs. than in the five years ending 1844. Of this diminished supply, moreover, we have been exporting an increasing quantity, averaging, annually, in the last five years, 31,- 680,000 lbs. against 27,360,000, annually, in the previous five years." » Supplement to Jiiii. 5, 1850, p. 34. f I^' P- 38. 20 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. The imports of cotton into the United States, mostly from the Dutch West Indies, is very inconsiderable in amount, being, for 1848, only 317,742 lbs., or less than 800 bags, of which 51,000 lbs. were re-exported. Tiie exports of cotton from the United States, affords the key to the chief source of supply of that article to European countries. Exports of Cotton from the United States, to Foreic^n Countries, for the years 1846, 1847, 1848, and 1849, the years ending June 30.* Whither Exported. Russia, Prussia, Sweden and Norway,. . . Denmark, Hanse towns, Holland, Belgium, England, Scotland, Ireland, Gibralter, British Amer. Colonies,. France on the Atlantic, " Mediterranean, Spain, Cuba, Portugal, Italy, Sardinia, Trieste and Austrian ports Mexico, Cent. Repub. of America, China and South Seas, Total, lbs Value, Lbs.— 1846. 4,292,680 2,555,788 32,2b7 7,543,017 3,849,859 7,408,422 326,365,971 13,312,850 6,379,746 1,054,310 47,380 124,185,369 7,867,480 117,885 10,102,969 19,533 11,212,093 2,387,264 13,382,043 4,392 828 85,760 547,558,055 $42,767,341 5,618,365 2,887,693 660,732 10,889,543 1,978,324 10,184,348 338,150,564 12,683,738 424,497 90,199 226,493 98,421,966 4,695,492 12,313,658 3,139,156 8,720,718 4,494,594 11,780,673 848,998 527,219"^ $53,415,884 -1848. 1 Lbs.— 1849 < 10,266,911 116,523 4,978,024 69,020 17,420,498 4,851,509 15,279,676 546,911,132 25,091,965 " ' '133,262 22,352 129,263,272 7,034,583 19,323,425 4,557,474 774 6,077,621 2,514,364 20,643,690 12,953 814,274,431 $61,998,294 10,650,631 7,030,305 4,779 13,844,494 11,877,386 28,113,309 696,669,474 38,706,884 3,968,547 5,725,812 97,104 144,481,949 6,858,283 23,285,804 1,584,784 240,895 10,604,462 6,053,707 13,279,384 2,208,704 524,721 760,861 1026,602,269 $66,396,976 W.e must bring this discussion of the cotton question to a close. If we take the table of imports into England,! as the guide, it will be seen that she was importing, annually, during the last period named, ending with 1849, the following proportions of slave labor and oi free labor cotton : The product of Slave labor. From Brazil, 39,654,800 lbs. From United States, .... 734,244,560 " 773,899,360 lbs. The product of Free labor. From Egypt, 17,967,200 lbs. From East Indies, 71,940,800 " From Miscellaneous, .... 3,586,400 " 93,494,400 " Enorland's excess of imports of slave labor cotton, 680,404,960 * Reports of Sec. of Treas. of U. S. on Commerce and Navigation. + Present Lecture, p. 17. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 21 The actual consumption of cotton, by England, in 1849, as before stated, was 624,000,000 lbs. Of the imports of 133,149,200 lbs. * cotton not the growth of the United States, there were re-exported 31,680,000 lbs.,t leaving thereof, for consumption in England, 101,- 469,200 lbs. Deducting this amount from the quantity consumed in 1849, leaves 522,530,800 lbs. as the amount of England's consump- tion of cotton derived from the United States. But of the 101,469,200 lbs. above named, at least 30,000,000 lbs. must have been from Brazil, and consequently of slave labor origin, leaving for the English manufacturer, only 71,469,200 lbs. of free labor cotton. The result of this investigation may now be stated thus : Slave Labor Cotton consumed in 1849. By England, from Brazil, . . 30,000,000 lbs. By England, from United States, 522,530,800 " By France.! from United States, 147,000,000 " By France,' from Brazil, say, 3,000,000 « By other continental countries, from United States, . . . 128,800,000 « By United States, growth of United States, 270,000,000 « Total slave labor consumption, 1,101,330,800 lbs. Free Labor Cotton consumed in 1849. By England, from all sources, 71,469,200 lbs. By France, say, 6,000,000 » By other continental countries, || 1,120,000 " Total free labor consumption, . ~ '. '. '. . 7 8,589,200 lbs. Grand total cotton consumption 1,179,920,000 " That this exhibit of the cotton question is not an exaggerated statement, got up for effect, but is within the limits of the truth, will appear evident when the extent of the production of cotton is taken into consideration. By the Custom House books of commercial nations, all imports and exports of merchandise are easily ascertained. The following statement, embracing only the quantity of cotton consumed in the United States and exported from it, and the amount imported into England from other countries than the United States, in 1849, will be sufficient for our purpose. Exports of cotton from the United States, . . 1,026,602,269 lbs. Amount consumed in the United States, . . . 270,000,000 " Amount imported into England from East Indies, Egypt, BrazU, &c., 133,120,800 " Total, . ' 1,429,723,069 " Amount included in our estimates, . . . 1,179,92 0,000 " Surplus over our estimates, 249,803^069 " « See table, page 17, present Lecture. + Present Lecture, p. 10. t Present Lecture, p. 15. I! London Economist, lb50, p. 103. 22 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. After this exhibition of facts, we have no fears that the fairness of our statements will be called in question. Indeed, a close scrutiny will show that we have not pressed into the tables of slave grown cotton, all tliat we might have done. All the foreign imports of cot- ton, not tlie growth of the United States, that were not re-exported by Eno-land, are counted as consumed, thus reducing the proportion of the^slave labor cotton of the United States by the amount of the former remaining unconsumed. We wish it also to be noticed, that we have included in the list of slave labor cotton consumed in Eng- land, in 1849, only 522,530,800 lbs. from the United States, while in that year, she imported of our cotton, 755,469,008 lbs., being an excess over the amount included in the quantity consumed, nearly equal to the surplus above slated, and proving that that surplus must be mostly the product of slave labor. We may now safely place, in contrast, the figures representing the proportions of Free Labor and of Slave Labor Cotton consumed by the United States and Europe, in 1849, and claim, that, so far as this commodity is concerned, our second proposition is triumphantly sustained. Look at the figures : Total slave labor cotton consumption, . . . 1,101,330,000 lbs. Total free labor cotton consumption, . . . 78,589,200 " Excess of consumption of slave labor over free labor cotton, 1,022,741,600 " Your attention is now called to the article of Coffee. As England occupies the most prominent position upon the subject of African freedom, and is making the most determined struggles to stimulate free labor, and make it compete with slave labor, her connection with this question, as with all the others, becomes one of great interest. Up to 1825, a discriminating duty of 56 shillings per cwt. was levied upon coffee from British India, for the benefit of the English West India colonies. At that time, this duty was but litde felt, because, owing to the excessive duty levied upon all descriptions of coffee, the consumption of the kingdom was below the supply from the West Indies, and the surplus had to seek a market elsewhere. In 1825, the discriminating duty was reduced to 28 shillings the cwt. The duty after this time stood thus : West India coffee paid Qd. per lb., or 56s. per cwt. East India " " 9(1. " or 84s. and all other kinds were, and still are, charged Is. 3rf. per. lb., or 140s. per cwt., amounting to a prohibition. The consumption of cofiee in Great Britain, after th^ese changes in the tariff, increased from 8,000,000 lbs., in 1824, to 22,000,000, in 1830. The demand created by this increased consumption, could * Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Commerce and Navigation. t Present Lc-cturc, p. 1 6. i See table, p. 16, present Lecture 11 Present Lecture, p. 19. § Present Lecture, p. 15. IT London Economist, 1850, p. 103. ** Present Lecture, p. 15. Present Relations of Free Labor and Slave Labor. 23 not be supplied by the West India planters, and the price rose 39 per cent., so as to bring tlie East India cotTee into use. At the time of the reduction of the duties. West India coffee sold at 90s. the cwt., but it advanced to 1256-. without effecting an in- creased production. The quantity annually imported from the West Indies, in the five years that preceded the reduction of the duty in 1825, averaged 30,280,300 lbs., and from 1832 to 1836, only 19,812,160 lbs., being a reduction of 34 per cent, in the supply, notwithstanding an advance of 39 per cent, in the price. This result led to another moditication of the coffee duties in 1835, when East India coffee was admitted on equal terms with that of the West Indies. While the duly on East India coffee was 9r/. per lb., the amount increased, because of the increase of price of West India coffee, from about 300,000 lbs. a year, to 1,500,000 lbs. In 1835, the consump- tion of East India coffee amounted to 5,596,791 lbs., and in 1837 reached 9,114,793 lbs.* The following table, embracing the whole field of the extent of the production and consumption of coffee, is so full and satisfactory, that nothinor more can be needed to a clear understanding of the sub- ject. It was prepared in December, 1849, by Campbell, Arnott & Co., the great Liverpool coffee merchants, and may be relied upon as possessing much accuracy. Comparative Vietc of Production and Consumption of Coffee. COUNTRIES PRODUCING. Brazil, Java and Sumatra. Cuba, Porto Rico, Laguayra, and Costa Rica,- St. Domingo, British West Indies, and Ceylon, Dutch West Indies, French East and West Indies, Mocha, India, &o., Total Production,' Deduct consumption of United States.- Balance for Europe, COUNTRIES CONSUMING Great Britain, France and transit, and Switzerland. Holland, Belgium, and Germany, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. ■■ Italy, Austria, Levant, Greece, and Turkey, Spain and Portugal, Total Consumption, Surplus on the .30th of December, 183^. 1S38. 000,112, OOil 9 UOO 4;», 1100 2-2, 000 1 .3«, OOOj 21 000 ! ,3, 000 000 1 u 184:3. 000 IPS, (inn l.ifi 0001 40 liOO -'4. 301,7-'8 000 361,312.000 ■10.280.000 89,000.000 •252.448 000 271.712.000 lbs. ,100.000 ^00.000 2-0,000 040.000 ,320.000 ,040,000 3()0.000 ,900,000 720 OUO 184:8. ibs. 280,000.000 134.400,000 22,400,000 33,600.000 33.000,000 38.080.000 2.240.000 6.720.000 4,480,000 555.520,000 123,200,000 156800,000 374,080.000 398,720,000 18.32 1838 23.520.000' 25,312.000 31.300.000 33.600.000 36 0I14.(HIO 40,320(100 152320.000 190.40011(10 219. .520 00(1 1.-543 11,200 000 15.6Mi.000 34,720 000 40.320.000 G.720.000' 8.960.000 202.0-^1 000 3IG.73(;,000 117.000.000 94.7.W.000 22.400 000 51.520 000 11,200.000 1848 38,080.000 44.K(IO.OO(J 23-J9G0.l)00 26&S0.O00 58.240,000 13.440.000 414,400.000 l.W.OSG.OOO * Porter's Progress of the Nation, Vol. II., p. 118, 119. 24 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. In 1821, the United States consumed 11,866,063 lbs. of coffee. The duty was then five cents per lb. and remained at this rate until 1831, when it was reduced to two cents, and in 1832 to one cent. In 1833 coffee was admitted free of duty, and has so remained ever since that date. The consumption of that year was 75,057,906 lbs., to which it had gradually risen from the 11,886,000 lbs. of 1821. From this date, the consumption of coffee in the United States, had a rapid increase until 1847, when it had reached 150,332,992 lbs.* In 1848 the consumption was 150,000,000 Ibs.t As all our investigations have reference to the question of the ex- tent to which Christian governments are consuming slave labor products, it becomes necessary to refer to the sources whence the coffee imported by each is obtained. It stands thus : England, by her discriminating duties, almost entirely excludes slave labor coffee, and derives nearly the whole amount of her con- sumption of that article from her own colonies. Of the 34,431,074 lbs. of coffee imported for England for home consumption, 29,769,730 lbs. were from her own colonies, and only 4,661,344 from elsewhere.il According to the table of Campbell, Arnott, and Co., the quantity of coffee produced in slave labor countries, including Brazil, the Dutch West Indies, Cuba, Porto Rico, &c., in 1848, was 338,240,000 lbs., while in the remaining coffee growing countries, which were all free labor, (France, in that year, having emancipated the slaves in her colonies,) the production was only 217,800,000 lbs., being less than that of the product of slave labor, by nearly one-third, or 120,440,000 lbs. As Holland, Belgium, and Germany, consume 98,560,000 lbs. of coffee more than is produced in Java and Sumatra, this excess is probably all slave grown produce. Looking at the small product of the colonies of France, and her large consumption, the conclusion is, that the greater portion of what she uses must be the product of slave labor. The following table points to the sources whence the United States derives its coffee, and the extent to which she is dependent upon slave labor for that article. Imports of Coffee into the United States, for the year 1848. X Countries whence imported. Coffee, lbs. Countries whence imported. Coffee, Its. Swedish West Indies. . . . Danish do. do Dutch do. do 510 56,702 2,001 3,037,373 141,077 710,331 2,381,773 25,484 2,258,710 384,393 Hayti New Granada Venezuela 16,990,976 .328,971 12,720,613 111,657,395 507,810 37,136 57,567 167,400 1,923 Brazil Dutch East Indies British do. do Cisplatine Republic Chili Holland Manilla and Phillipine Is. Cuba Other Spanish W. I Africa generally Asia generally France on Atlantic Total, lbs. 151,412,125 *Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., Dec. 1, 1847. + Campbell, Arnott, and Co. t Rep. Sec. Treas. on Com. & Nav., 1848 &. 9, the year ending June 30, 1848 II London Qr. Rev. April, 1850. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 25 Of the coffee imported, as above, that from Brazil, Cuba, and other Spanish and Dutch West Indies, amounting to 114,291,214 lbs., was all slave labor produce. Taking all the remaining imports as the product of free labor, and they only afford us 37,117,911 lbs., or a half million less than one-fourth of the amount imported. Thus stands the cotlee question in the United States. From the preceding statistics it appears that the United States and the nations of Europe are now consuming, annually, or have as stock on hand, about 555,520,000 lbs. of coffee, divided as follows: The product of slave labor .... 338,240,000 lbs. The product of free labor 217,280,000 lbs. Difference in favor of slave labor 120,960,000 lbs. Next, and last, the article of Sugar clamis attention. " It was unknown to the ancients, as an article of consumption. In Europe it was introduced as late as the fifteenth century." The first sample of West India sugar was manufactured in Jamaica, in 1673. The rapidity with which its production, and consumption, has increased, will be indicated by the following table, showing the exports of sugar from Jamaica. This table is made up from one in Martin's British Colonies, a work of great research ; the facts of which are derived from official sources. The statistics have been condensed so as to give the average annual exports from 1772 to 1836, and there is added, from Blackwood's Magazine, tliose from 1839 to 1843, and from 1846 to 1848.* A few years omitted in tbe earlier periods, are blanks in Martin's tables. From 1804, onward, where differ- ent results from the general average are found, we give the years separately. This arrangement is important, to enable us to judge of the influence which the prohibition of the slave trade exerted upon the prosperity of that and the other West India Islands ; and to determine the period when the decline in the amount of Jamaica exports had its origin. Average annual exports of Sugar from Jamaica, for the periods stated.^ Years. lbs. Sugar. Years. lbs. Sugar. 1772 to 1775 123,979,700 1809 to 1810 180,963,825 1788 to 1791 143,794,837 1811 alone. 218,874,600 1793 to 1798 145,598,850 1812 to 1821 183,706,280 1799 to 1803 193,781,140 1822 to 1832 153,760,431 1804 alone. 177,436,750 1833 to 1835 131,129,100 1805 alone. 237,751,150 1836 alone 75,990,950 1806 alone. 231,656,6.50 1839 to 184311 67,924,800 1807 to 1808 197,963,825 i 1846 to 1848§ 67,539,200 II Present Lecture, p. 10. As heretofore stated,^ the effects in 1808, and of the emancipation § Ibid, of the abolition of the slave trade, of the slaves in 1834, upon the * See present Lecture, p. 10. J Page 7, present Lecture. f The tables of Martin give the exports in lihds. tierces, and hbls. We have reduced the whole, to llis., estimating the hhd. at 1600 lbs., the tierce at 900 lbs. and the barrel at 250 lbs., as per best authorities. 26 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. commercial interests of Jamaica, will serve as a true index to the results in all the English West India colonies. The course of legislation in England, for several years past, has tended to increase the consumption of sugar by augmenting the supply. Up to 1844 all foreign sugars were excluded, and her own colonies enjoyed a strict monopoly of her markets. But the failures of her West India possessions, after emancipation, to furnish their usual supplies, led, in 1844, to the admission of foreign free labor sugar for consumption, and, in 1846, to that of slave labor sugar also. In 1848, the London Quarterly Review* says, that the amount taken for consumption, of foreign slave grown sugar, was 229,748,- 096 lbs. We have been unable to ascertain the total annual con- sumption of slave grown sugar, in England, since 1846, but find, by the London Economist,! tliat, for the first eleven months of each year, it has been as follows : 1846 lbs. 57,902,544 I 1848 lbs. 118,366,976 1847 " 104,838,048 | 1849 " 63,517,888 The total imports of sugar into England, and the amount re-ex- ported, were as follows : English imports.X English re-exporls.\\ 1846 lbs. lbs. 29,624,432 1847 i* " 96,613,992 1848 " 852,792,976 " 48,735,008 1849 « 928,002,208 " 84,768,096 The difference between the imports and re-exports is the amount taken for consumption, and the difference between this and the actual consumption indicates the stock left on hand at the close of the year. The whole amount of sugar consumed in England, in 1831,§ was over 450,000,000 lbs. From 1844 to 1849, the consumption of this article, including molasses at ils equivalent in sugar, was as follows : ^ 1844 lbs. 486,648,960 1847 1 bs. 675,329,120 1845 (( 570,127,040 1848 692,256,320 1846 u 609,781,760 1849 " 728,931,600 By taking the average consumption of 1848 and 1849, a true idea of tlie pres°ent annual demand for sugar, in the English market, will be afforded : It was, p«r annum, lbs. 710,593,960 Of which slave-grovvn sugar** constituted, say, 146,000,000 Leaving England's consumption of free labor sugar, 564,593,960 * See present Lecture, p. U. + 1B50, p. 86. X London Economist, 1850, p. 169. || lb., p. 170. § Present Lecture, p. 11. If Lend. Economist, 1850, p. 170. ** See page 27. — Allowing all the exports from the English Colonies to be imported and consumed by her, the whole amount is less than her consumptiou, by about 146,000,000 lbs. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 27 The sources of England's supply of sugar can be seen at once, in the annexed table. The amounts stated, however, are only for the Jirst eleven months of each year, and do not give the whole quantity imported and entered for consumption. Suc/ar entered in the Jirst eleven vwnths of each year, for consumption.* Year. West Indies. I Mauritius. East India. Total colonial. i Total foreign. 1846 1847 1848 1849 244,737,136 I 93,879,520 261,306,080 I 112,783,216 283.772,036 «6 086,896 319,0:32,896 106,993,152 150,773,616 124,.300,144 140,658,572 138,867,792 489,390,272 498,399,440 510,517,404 564,893,616 57,902,544 104,838,048 134,046,976 47,837,888 We add another table, which embraces the whole of the exports from all the Britisli colonies, from 1840 to 1849, and exhibits their extent for the twelve months of each year. Exports of Sugar from all the British Colonial Possessions.^ Years. lbs. Sugar. Remarks, Years. lbs. Sugar. Remarks. 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 365,060,192 473,177,488 463,220.064 459,557,728 459,495,696 Strict monopoly (( (( (( (( 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 551, .336,992 501,061,904 700,906,57(i 566,077,792 583,024,400 Fr. lab. sug. adm. Foreign, of all kinds, adm. This table includes the entire sources of supply possessed by Eng- land within her own colonies, and shows that their exports of sugar, were Short of her consumption, in 1849, by 145,907,200 pounds. Short of her total imports, do. 344,977,808 » But it must here be remarked, that the whole exports froin the British colonies are not always imported into England, because a portion of their products are taken by other countries. In 1848, the United States imported from the British West India Islands, 1,258,222 lbs. of sugar, and in 1849, 1,245,492 lbs. It .must be re- collected, then, that the exports from her colonies are not always the measure of England's imports from thein, and that, therefore, the amount of her supplies of cotton, sugar, collee, &c., from her colonies, are not always equal to their exports. The production of cane sugar in the United States, until recently, was confined to Louisiana. The rapidity with whicii it has pro- gressed, in this country, furnishes a useful lesson for the little Re- public of Liberia. She possesses the best quality of sugar lands, and has around her an unlimited amount of labor that may be made available. The following table presents the amount of the crops of sugar produced in Louisiana, at nearly equal intervals, during thirty years : * London Economist, 1850, p. 86. t London Economist, from Pari. Rep. 351, 1850. 28 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. and shows the extent of our domestic supply of cane sugar.* The Droduction of maple sugar, in 1840,t was about 30,000,000 lbs. Table of crops of Louisiana Sugar. Years. lbs. Sugar. Years. lbs. Sugar. 1818 1824-5 1829-30 1834-5 1839-40 18,000,000 30,000,000 73,000,000 110,000,000 119,457,000 1844-5 1848-9 1849-50* " Texas.t Lou. gals, niolas. 204,916,000 220,000,000 269,769,000 10,000,000 12,000,000 * New Orleans Commercial Bulletin. f Ibid. The imports of foreign cane sugar into the United States, for the last two years, were as follows : J 1848 . . . 257,138,230 1849 .... 259,324,126 Of these amounts the following were the proportions of free and of slave labor : Imports of Free and of Slave Labor Sugar into the United States.\\ Slave labor. lbs. 1848 lbs. 1849 Free Labor. lbs. 1848 lbs. 1849 From Cuba, other Sp.W.L Brazil. Dutch W. I. Guiana. Total slv. gr. " free lab. Excess si. lb. 181,058,107 47,778,973 6,687,657 513,977 .32,455 183,011,744 51,483,166 11,131,457 737,855 209,755 Sw. & Dan W.L Dh.E.L,Hol.etc, Hayti. Manilla, &,c. Cliina. Br W T &c 236,071,169 246,573,977 other " 21,067,061 215,025,548 12,695,355 ' countries. 2,7.34,970 2,432,305 357,091 12,546,098 352,032 2.096,683 547,882 233,878,622 Total free labor. 21.067,061 2,695,899 665,050 4,617 6,649,1.32 1,060, .372 1,292,761 327,524 12,695,355 The exports of domestic sugar from the United States is very limited, being for 1848 only 3,522,779 lbs., and for 1849 but 2,356,104 lbs. Of the foreign imports, there were re-exported for 1848, 13,686,- 510, and for 1849, only 6,473,800 lbs. § To arrive at the amount of the consumption of sugar in the United States, the quantity exported must be deducted fruin the amount of the imports and of the domestic production, la doing this, we have allowed the re-exports of foreign sugar all to have been of the slave labor production, and thus aflbrd an advantage to the figures representing the free labor sugar consumed in the United States. Making these deductions, the following results are produced : *Ed. D. Mansfield, Esq., of Cincinnati Chronicle. i- See Census, 1840. i Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Com. and Nav. II Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Com. and Nav. § The molasses imported into the United States, amounted, in 1849, to 23,- 796,806 gallons, of which only 756,339 gallons were of free labor. Of these imports 793,535 gals, were re-exported. Present 'Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 29 Consumption of Cane Sugar in the United States. lbs. 1*18 l!i5. 1849 Growth of the U. S., less the exports, 216,477,221 277,402,896 Slave labor imports, '< " 222,384,759 240,099,177 Slave labor Sucrar consumed, U. S., 438,861,980 517,502,073 Free labor Sugar, " " 21,067,061 12,695,355 Total Sugar consumption, 459,929,041 530,197,428 Excess of slave grown, do. 417,794,919 504,806,718 The consumption of sugar in France, in 1848, was about 290,- 000,000 lbs. or this quantity, 140,000,000 lbs. were of beet root sugar, produced in France. The production of cane sugar in the French colonies, in 1840, was 161,500,000 lbs.* Vot the first nine months of 1847, they suppUed to France 168,884,177 lbs., but for the same period of 1849, only 96,929,336 lbs , being a falling off, as heretofore stated, of 71,854,841 lbs. the first nine months after freedom.! The production of beet root sugar is increasing every year. A heavy duty upon foreign sugar nearly excludes it from the French market, and thus, since her emancipation act of 1848, France may be considered as consuming very Utile slave grown sugar. We have been unable to procure the statistics of the production and consumption of sugar as fully as those of cofiee and cotton. ± But they are sufilciently accurate for all practical purposes. For England and the United States they are ample, but for the continent somewhat imperfect. The August number of Hunt's Merchant's Magazine contains a statement, from the House of Eaton, Safford & Fox, of Cuba, of the production and consumption of sugar through- out the world. Although imperfect in a few cases, it enables us to reach a close approximation to the amount of slave and free labor sugars annually produced. Taking the whole of the authorities we have consulted, and they warrant us in stating the production of slave grown sugars as follows: Cuba and Porto Rico 672,000,000 lbs. Brazil 268,000,000 " United States 280,000,000 " Total slave grown sugar 1,220,000,000 lbs. This amount does not include the production of the Dutch colo- nies in the West Indies and Guiana, where slavery still exists. The statement is short by that amount, and we have been unable to find it given separately from that of the Dutch East India possessions. Of this slave grown sugar England and the United States consume 663,502,000 lbs. annually. This leaves, of slave grown sugars for the continental countries of Europe, 556,498,000 lbs. The whole con- sumpfion of these countries, excepting France, but including Russia, * We are indebted to M. Bureau, a French gentleman engaged in the collec- tion iif sugar statistics, for these facts. f See present Lecture, p. 12. t In obtaining our cotton statistics, we have been much indebted to Mr. Thomas Frankland, of the Society of Friends, recently from England, whose acquaintance we made at the Christian Anti-Slavery Convention, in Cincinnati. 30 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. Turkey, and Egypt, is estiinatecl by Eaton, Safforil & Fox, at 765,- 375,000. From this, deduct the above balance of slave grown sugar, and there is left to be supplied by free labor, a demand of 208,877,000. To determine the probable accuracy of the result last stated, we have taken the exports o( free labor sugar from the British posses- sions, as determined by our former investigations, and those of the other sugar-producing countries, as estimated in the article in Hunt's Mao-azine. The result is as follows : English possessions 583,024,000 Ibi). Holland possessions 120,000,000 " Danish and Swedish possessions 20,000,000 " German and Belgian, including heet sugar 30,000,000 " Excpss of production over consumption in the South American Republics, Egypt, and China 30,000,000 " Total free labor sugar for European and United States consumption 783,024,000 lbs. DeJuct free labor sugar consumed by United States and England 577,'289,000 " Balance left for continent, exclusiye of France 205,736,000 lbs. But this Statement of free labor sugar contains some of the beet root and all of the slave-grown sugar of the Dutch slave labor colo- nies. The estimates of Brazil, on the other hand, have no deduction for home consumption, so that the figures above given, no doubt rep- resent, very nearly, the consumption of free and slave labor sugars on the continent. We may now sum the whole results of our labors in one con- densed table, so as to exhibit the present relations of free labor to slave labor, and the indebtedness of the christian world to slavery for these arti(;les of prime necessity. Total consumption of Free Labor and of Slave Labor Cotton, Coffee, and Cane Sugar, by the countries nam^in the foregoing inveMigations. Countries consuming. Slave labor lbs. cotton. Free labor lbs. cotton. Slave labor lbs. coiTee.* Free labor lbs. coffee. Slave labor lbs. sugar. Free labor lbs. sugar. 504,593,960 Great Britain United States 5.'S2,5.30,S00 270,000,000 150,000,000 125,800,000 71,469,200 4,661,344 119,682,189 213,896,647 33,418,156 37,117,911 147,213,933 146,000,000 6,000,000 1,120,000 other continental countries 556,498,000 150,000,000 205,735,000 Total of each 1,101,330,800 78,589,200 338,240,000 217,800,000 1,220,000,000 933,024,315 Slave lbs. excess- ■ 1.022,741,600 280,975,685 -■ ' * Add the consumption of the United States to that of England, and deduct the amount from the total Slave I^aljor consumption, to find the amount of Slave I/abor coffee consumed by France and the continent. III. That the legislative measures adopted for the destruction of the slave trade and slavery, especially by England, have tended to increase and extend the evils they were designed to destroy. In the outset of the investigations demanded to sustain this propo- sition, it is necessary to refer to the condition of slavery and the slave trade before measures had been taken to arrest their progress. The statistical tables, in the present lecture, show that tlie commercial prosperity of the English and French West India colonies had reached its maximum about the period when the first acts having reference to the removal of the oppressions which had afflicted tlie African peo- ple, were adopted by these governments. England's act, prohibiting the slave trade, was passed in 1807, and took eflect in 1808. In Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 31 1805 and 1806, ihe exports of sugar from Jamaica were over 230,- 000,000 lbs.,* for each year, and from the whole English West Indies, it was about 036,000,000 lbs. The article of sugar is referred to, be- cause i is the principal one exported Irom these islands. From 1827 to 1831, the period preceding the emancipation of the Eiighsii West India slaves, the exports of sugar from these colonies were reduced to an annual average of 448,665,520lbs.,or ?zea/7 s o 3 — ' iiported i Portugue colonies "C o c O 3 Oh O S " S rt iH Av'rg pr'p'r- Am'nt. Eh tion. , her own consumption of sugar was 609,- 781,760 lbs.,§ and the total exports of all her West In(ha colonies only 277,'i5-2,400 lbs.,!| and with that of the East Indies and Mauritius added, but 501,061,904 Ibs.,^ an amount, even if England received it all, not sufllcient for her home consumption by 108,1 19,856 lbs. By this result the whole field of the foreign ma^rkeis, formerly supplied with Ensriish sugar, was left open for that of slave labor products. Tbe impulse given to the efforts of oilier nations, in the prosecu- tion of tlie slave trade, when it was abandoned by England and the United States, received no check, as is shown by the foregoing + Westminster Rev. 1850, p. 276. i WestniiiistiT Review, 1850, p. 275. § Present Lecture, p. 26. \\ Present Lecture, p. 10. IT Present Lecture, p. 27. 36 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. table,* until 1830, when a reduction of the price of sugar from 44*. 6i. the cwt. to 24s. 8rf., diminished the export of slaves from Africa 37 per cent. But this depression lasted only during the time that the price of sugar continued at that reduced rate. In 1836, sugar again rose to 29s. Zd. the cwt., and gave an impetus to the slave trade that increased the export of slaves from Africa 73 per cent., or to 135,800 per annum from that till the close of 1839.t But 1810 constitutes an epoch in the history of the slave trade, because, during that year, the first successful check was given to it, and the hope created that it could be annihilated. From that period until 1847, the varying results will be found in the foregoing Parlia- mentary tables. By the first table it will be seen, that the African slave trade had reached iti maximum from 1835 to 1839, when the averao-e annual exports were 135,800, and that in 1840 it was sud- denly reduced to 64,114. This reduction was eflfected through the unwearying efforts of England, stimulated, in a great measure, it is believed, by the com- mercial considerations referred to in our first Lecture. Be this as it may, by her influence, the authorities of Brazil, in 1840 and 1841, made the attempt to suppress the slave trade, and the effect was immediate.^ General Espartero being in power in Spain, also acted in ffood faith in the execution of the conditions of the treaty with England, and appointed General Valdez, Governor of Cuba. When Vafdez entered upon his duties, the imports of slaves into Cuba were about 14,000 annually. Tlie first year of his government reduced the imports 8,000; and in 1842, the last year, the number imported was only 3,100 men.§ PoHtical changes occurring, the plans of these governments were soon abandoned, and the increasing demand for slave grown products, which was soon after created, by their admis- sion into the English markets, gave renewed activity to that trafl^c, increasing it, in 1847, to within a trifle of what it was from 1798 to 1810, and in 1848 and 1849, it is believed, to an extent nearly equal to what it has been at any former period. || With these facts before us, a true conception can be formed of the past and present condition of the slave trade. It is evident that if England could have persisted in her exclusion of slave grown products from her markets, and could have rejected such free labor products as would have been replaced in other mar- kets by an equivalent of those of slave labor origin, that a death-blow would have been given to the slave trade, and, in its suppression, to the slavery of Cuba and Brazil. But, unfortunately, at the moment w\\t\\ negotiation abroad, combined vj\i\v protective duties at home, had enabled England to reduce the exports of slaves from Africa, in 1845, to 36,758, and the imports into Brazil to 22,700 ; the clamor in England, for a full supply of sugar, forced the government, first « See table, present lecture, p. 32. t London Times, 1849. X Speech of Sir R. Peel in British Parliament, 1844. § Ibid. II Westminster Review, 1850, p. 265, states that the imports of slaves into Bra- zil in 1848 were 72,000, a larger number than at any former period. Present Relations of Free Labor and Slave Labor. 37 to admit free labor sugar, and next, through the predominance of free-trade principles, slave labor sugar also. These acts at once opened up a market of such importance to countries employing slave labor, that an irresistible impetus was given to the slave trade, stimu- lating those engaged in it to break through every treaty stipulation, and bid defiance to all the physical force that can be arrayed against them. It was the advancing demand for slave grown products, created by the causes before stated, that made it impossil)le for the governments of Spain and Brazil to act in good faith in the suppression of the slave trade. Governments cannot go much in advance of the public senti- ment of tbeir people, nor can tliey long remain much behind it. The positions of England and the United States, on the slave trade, were the result of the correct moral sentiment existing among tlieir people. But the people of Spain and Brazil, governed only by commercial considerations, and not by motives of philanthropy or the principles of equity, looked only to the profits to be made by continuing the slave trade, and cared nothing for the amount of human woe induced, if they could but amass fortunes to themselves. These governments, therefore could not resist the tide of public sentiment; and their policy being changed, a rapidly-increasing -flood of misery has continued to roll on, wave after wave, until humanity shudders at beholding the dark and dismal deluge continually dashing in upon the shores of the southern portion of our continent. That the legislative measures adopted for the suppression of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery, have tended to increase and extend the evils they were designed to destroy, is not an opinion of recent origin, but one of very general belief in England. The pres- ent is, perhaps, the first effort to classify the facts and demonstrate the proposition. But that British legislation directly tended to this result, has been frequendy asserted, by many of the most intelli- gent Englishmen, with great positiveness ; and more than this, it was predicted, with equal positiveness, by men who understood human nature better than those controling the movement, that their mea- sures would certainly produce the results which have followed. In proof of this we need only quote a few paragraphs. The first is one embracing predictions of the consequences that would follow the adoption of the course of legislation proposed It will be found in the Westminster Review, 1849. " We cannot abolish slavery and the slave trade — we can only clear ourselves of them ; and we may clear ourselves of them, say- ing we are abolishing them, in a way to strengthen them. It is not abolishing them to sliift them from the West Indies to Cuba. By our way of ridding ourselves of slavery, we are making slaves more valuable and the slave trade more profitable, and increasing the inter- est of all other nations in buying, and selling, and keeping slaves. We shall pay $100,000,000, and millions on millions besides, in the price of sugar and loss of capital for confirming slavery and the slave trade. To expect other nations to follow our example by 38 Present Belations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. making it their interest not to do it, is not very wise. The way to abolish slavery is to make it contrary to the interest of the slave- dealer and slaveholder." The remaining paragraphs are confirmatory of our proposition, and are fiom sources entitled to great respect. " Fifteen years ago we thought we had done with the slave trade and slavery. But these odious subjects come back to us. The dark specters are not laid. One hundred and forty millions is the estimate of the sum of money spent to destroy them. Hundreds of associations, thousands of committees, public speeches, sermons, prayers, &c., &c., &c., have all been used as exorcisms to lay the specters of the bondage and the traffic which degrade men to the level of domestic animals. Our poorer people have been deprived of comforts which would have sweetened, literally and figuratively, their existence, because we would deal heroically with slavery and the slave trade. The chains of the negro have long been broken in mar- ble. The fame of many renowned names have been won by feats of eloquence and zeal in this sacred cause. We celebrated many victories over the iniquity. But lo ! slavery and the slave trade are stronger than ever, and more horrific than ever. On this subject, England has done two noble things, and committed two blunders. The nobleness has been ethical, and the blunders have been econom- ical. Narrowness has been the source of the evils. Christian ethics had highly cultivated the consciences of the abolitionists, but they were ignorant of economical science."* After referring to the modifications of the sugar duties, by Parlia- ment, and the scarcity of the supplies of sugar in the French mar- kets consequent upon emancipation in Hayti, Blackwood's Magazine says : t "To provide against the evidently approaching crisis in the supply of sugar in the British market, we have thrown open our harbors to slave-grown sugar from every quarter of the globe ; and from the rapid decline in the West India Islands, even before this last coup-de- o-race was given them by the application of free-trade principles to their produce, it is painfully evident that a result precisely similar (to what occured in Hayti.) is about to take place in the British colonies. And it is little consolation to find that this injustice has recoiled upon the heads of the nation which perpetrated it, and that the decline in the consumption of British manufactures by the West India islands is becoming proportioned to the ruin we have inflicted on them. "But most of all has this concatenation of fanaticism, infatuation, and injustice proved pernicious to the negro race, for whose benefit the changes were all undertaken. Happy would it have been for them if the British slave trade had never been abohshed; and they had ci'ossed the Atlantic chiefly in Liverpool or Glasgow slave-ships, and been brought to the British West India Islands ! For then the * Westminster Review, Oct. 1849. t January, 1843, p. G, 7. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 39 slave trade M-as subject to our direction, and regulations might have been adopted to place it npon the best possible looting for its unhappy- victims. But now we have thrown it entirely into the hands of the Spaniards and Portuguese, over whom we have no sort of control, and who exercise it in so frightful a manner that the heart absolutely sickens at the thought of the amount of human suffering at the cost of ivhich ive have reduced the price of sugar to sixpence a pound. Compared with it, the English slave-ships and English slavery were an earthly paradise. Mr. Buxton, the great anti-slavery advocate, admitted, some years ago, that the " number of blacks who now cross the Atlantic, is double what it was when Wilberforce and Clarkson first began their benevolent labors."* Now, under the fos- tering influence of free-trade in sugar, it may reasonably be expected that ill a few years, the ivhole, or nearly the whole sugar consumed by Europe, will be raised by the slave colonies, and wrung by the lash from the most wretched species of slaves — those of Cuba and Brazil ! Moreover, the slave trade, to supply them, will be triple what it was in 1789, when the movement in favor of the negro popu- lation began ! Thus, by the combined effects of fanaticism, igno- rance, presumption, and free trade, we shall have succeeded, by the middle of this century, in totally destroying our own sugar colonies ; adding, to no purpose, $100,000,000 to our national debt ; annihilating property to the amount of $650,000,000 in our own (colonial) do- mains ; doubling the produce of foreign slave possessions ; cutting off a market oi' $17,500,000 a year for our manufactures ; and tripling the slave trade in extent, and quadrupling it in horror, throughout the globe." Another writer specifies more fully the effects of these measures.! " Tlie impulse which the government act of 1846 has given to the slave trade iu every part of the world, is something perfectly enor- mous ; but its mischievous and inhuman effects will be best understood by a reference to ascertained facts. Prior to 1846, the traffic in slaves between the African coast and the Spanish colonies had been gradually declining, and had in fact almost disappeared. The exclu- sion of slave-grown sugars from our home market had nearly forced the Cuban proprietors into a different system, and arrangements were pending in that Colony for the emancipation of the slaves, just at the time Lord John Russell came forward in favor of the chain and the lash, and all was changed. "The value of field negroes in Cuba had risen (in the course of the two years, from 1846 to 1848) from 300 to 500 dollars each, a price that would speedily bring a supply from the coast." " We will not, forsooth, permit foreign nations to traffic in slaves, and yet we give them the monopoly of our market, know- ing all the while that upon that importation alone we are dependant for a cheap supply — clieap sugar means cheap slaves.''' " Why did we destroy that market in Jamaica which we so etigerly sieze in * Buxton on tlie Slave trade, p. 172. t Blackwood's Magazine, Feb. 1848, p. 2.35, 236. 40 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. Brazil ? " " Great Britain, after forcing the Emancipation Act on her colonies, and in the most solemn manner announcing, in a voice of thunder, her future determined opposition to the existence of the traffic in slaves, at once took a course which made her the customer of less scrupulous countries, and the largest encourager of that odious traffic in the world, thus ruining her own colonies." Quotations of similar expressions of opinion might be multiplied indefiuitely, but enough have been given. It may be added, however, that the North British Review, in a careful digest of the evidence contained in the six Reports on the Slave Trade and Slavery, made to Parliament, within the last two years, is led to this conclusion : That England's coersive measures have not merely failed to check the supply of slaves to Brazil, but that, on the other hand, they have had the effect of greatly aggravating the horrors of the middle passage, and the sufferings endured by the negroes in the barracoons on the coast of Africa, as well as very materially prejudicing the interests of British merchants trading to that country. This failure of the coercive policy for the suppression of the slave trade, the Reviewers contend, "results from its unsoundness in principle." IV. That the governments named, cannot hope to escape from the necessity of consuming the products of slave labor, except by call- ing into active service, on an extensive scale, the free labor of countries not at present producing the commodities upon which slave labor is employed. In the discussion of our first proposition, we proved that the tropical countries, where slavery has been abolished, have failed to furnish to commerce, since emancipation, an amount of products equal to what they had previously supplied. In discussing some of the other pro- positions, it appeared that the whole free labor exports from the Asiatic portion of the Eastern Hemisphere, added to those of the Western, had fallen far short of supplying the demands of Europe and America. It also appeared that to this cause was principally due the vast increase of the slave trade during the present century. To sustain our fourth proposition, it will be necessary to show, that the free labor to which we have referred, cannot be so stimulated as to make it sufficiently productive to compete with, and displace, the fruits of slave labor in the markets of the world. When the non-progressive character of the population of Pagan countries is considered, but litde aid will be expected from the Asi- atic portion of the Eastern Hemisphere,* in efforts to make free labor compete with slave labor, in tropical cultivation. The inquiries into this subject, may, therefore, be confined to the Western Hemisphere. To understand the relations which the free labor and the slave labor, of this hemisphere, bear to each other, and the capability of the first to compete with the last, it is necessary to state the proportion which the number of persons of the one class bear to those of the other. * Present Lecture, p. 18. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 41 The amount of tlie population of the English and French West India Colonies, emancipated from slavery, has been already stated,* and comprehends nearly the whole of the free labor employed in the cultivation of the commodities we have been considering. Estima- ting the increase of the population of Hayti, since emancipation, at 40 per cent., and that of the English colonies at 20 per cent., will give them a present population of 1,400,000. To this must be added the persons emancipated by France, in 18-18, making the total free labor forces, within the limits under consideration, about 1,657,000 persons. Agamst this free population there is arrayed the following number of slaves : t United States, 3,252,000 Brazil, 3,250,000 Spanish Colonies, 900,000 Dutch Colonies, 85,000 South American Republics, 140,000 African Settlements, 30,000 Total slave population, 7,657,000 Free labor do. above stated, 1,657,000 Excess of slave population, 6,000,000 Of the number of slaves in the United States, about 1,000,000 are in Slates which do not produce cotton and sugar. Deducting these, will leave 6,657,000 slaves arrayed against 1,657,000 free persons, or 5,000,000 more slaves than freemen. These figures testify, with unequivocal distinctness, that the free population, above named, cannot be made to compete with the slave population, in tropical cultivation. In addition to tlie immense dis- parity of numbers, a moment's consideration will make it evident, that, even were their numbers equal, the circumstances under which the people, called free, are placed, would still make it impossible to stimulate them to such a degree of industry, that their voluntary labor would be equally productive with the compuhory labor of the slaves. A very brief examination will show, that this is not an exaggerated view of the condition of the people under consideration. In refer- ring to Hayti, we need only direct attention to a preceding tablej as an index of its industry, and to our second lecture|i for a correct view of its social and moral condition. The other French colonies, in nine months of their first year of freedom, have diminished their exports of sugar, nearly 72,000,000 lbs.§ The British West Indies, it may safely be said, have a free popu- lation whose industry cannot be made to compete with even an equal amount of slave labor. In addition to the extensive array of facts * Present Lecture, p. 9. + Tenth Report of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. We add for Texas only 22,000, and estimate the other States up to 1850, at 3 per cent, per annum, siuco 1840. But Texas has at least 40,000. \ Page 11. II Pages 42, 43. § Present lecture, p. 12. 42 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. submitted in the present and former lectures, the public have recently- been supplied with much new and important intbrmalion from Ja- maica, by Mr. Bigelow, one of the editors of the New York Evening Post, a leading Anti-Slavery paper. This genUeman has recently visited Jamaica, and made a careful examination of its condition. He represents industry as at the lowest ebb ; and that the downward tendencies of the island cannot be more rapid than at present. A degrading estimate is put upon labor, and a white man is never seen at work upon the estates. The blacks, " with the average sequence of negro logic, infer that if gentlemen never work, they have only to abstain from work to be gentlemen." In the city of Kingston, he says, one looks and listens in vain for the noise of carts and the bustle of busy men ; no one seems to be in a hurry ; but few are doing anything ; while the mass of the popula- tion are lounging about in idleness and rags. Nor is there any present hope that these habits of indolence will be abandoned ; because there is absolutely nothing to stimulate the majority of the people to in- dustry and to efforts for intellectual and moral advancement. The greater portion of the lands under cnltivation is held by owners of immense estates, and but little encouragement is extended to the people to cultivate small tracts, because this policy would draw off the labor from the sugar estates. The property qualification of voters is fixed so high as to exclude the mass of the people from any participatibn in the government of the island, or in the enactment of the laws that are to control them. Out of a population in Jamaica, of 400,000, of whom 16,000 are white, the average vote of the island has never exceeded 3,000. The center of legislative control is in London, and the mem- bers of the colonial legislature are mere shadows, destitute of the vital functions of legislators. The veto power of the governor, who is ap- pointed by the Queen, enables him practically to control all legisla- tion. The enormous property qualification required to make a man eligible to a seat in the legislature, excludes all but the landholders from that body. By this arrangement all the energies of legislation are exerted to promote the growth and sale of sugar and rum. In ad- dition to other depressing influences, young men of moderate means, or who are poor, cannot reach the profession of the law, because none can practice at the bar except such as have pursued their studies in England, and been admitted there. So little do those who control public affairs, comprehend the principles of human action, that though wages are only 18| to 25 cents a day, (the laborer boarding himself,) the planters all imagine that a rediiction of wages is essential to the revival of agricultural prosperity. Such are the disadvantages under which these poor, oppressed Africans labor in the West Indies, and such the utter hopelessness of their being able to make much progress, that, next to their brethren yet in slavery, they demand, and should receive, the sympathies of the christian world. It would have been difficult to convince the world, that such uttei ruin, as has occurred in Jamaica, could have been produced by any Present Relations of Free Lobar to Slave Labor. 43 course of legislation. But Mr. Bigelow reveals facts upon this sub- ject that are truly astounding. He says : "Since 1832, out of the six hundred and fifty-three sugar estates then in cultivation more than one hundred and iifty have been aban- doned and broken up. This has thrown out of culiivation over 200,- 000 acres of rich land, which, in 1832, gave employment to about 30,000 kiborers, and yielded over 25,600,000 lbs. of sugar, and over 6,000 puncheons of rum. During the same period, over five hun- dred coffee plantations have also been abandoned and their works broken up. This threw out of cultivation over 200,000 acres more of land, which in 1832 required the labor of over 30,000 men." An estate formerly selling for $90,000, in 1845, sold for $5,000. Another, which once cost an equal sum, has been offered by its present owners for $7,500, and finding no purchaser, was abandoned. A multitude of such cases are embraced in Mr. Bigelow's letters, showing a general prostration of the commercial interests of the island. That an over-crowding of population can have no influence in checking the prosperity of Jamaica, is proved by the fact, that out of her 4,000,000 acres of land, all being of the most fertile kind, not over 500,000 acres have been brought under cultivation, or even appropriated. The low state of civilization, leaves the population of the British West Indies with k\v wants. It is asserted that the people of these islands are enabled to live in comfort, and acquire wealth, without, for the most part, laboring on the estates of the planters, lor more than three or four days in the week, and from five to seven hours in the day, so that they have no stimulant to perform an adequate amount of labor.* This condition of things puts it out of tlie power of the planters to produce sugar for less than .£20 per ton, on the average, while the cost in slave countries is only £l2t per ton. This discloses the fact that the planters of Cuba, employing slave labor, can manufacture sugar for £8 the ton less than those of Jamaica can produce it hy free labor. As one of the immediate results of this condition of things, it was asserted in 1848, that " the great influx of slave-grown produce into the English markets has, in the short space of six months, reduced the value of sugar from £26 to £14 per ton ; while, under ordinary circumstances of soil and season, the cost to us of placing it in the market is not less than £20 per ton."± It is well, here, to explain why it is that the duties on foreign sugar aflbrd no real protection to the English West India planter. " The slave sugars are all so much better manufactured, which the great command of labor enables them to do, that, to the refiner, they are intrinsically worth more than ours. In short, they prepare their sugars, whereas we cannot do so, and we pay duty at the same rate on an article which contains a quantity of molasses. So that, if the » Blackwood's Mag. 1848. p. 227. + lb. p. 2.30. i Blackwood's Mag. 1848, p. 230. Resolutions of a meeting at St. David's, Jamaica. 44 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. duties were equalized, there would virtually be a bonus on the importation of foreign sugar. The refiners estimate the value of Havanna, in comparison with West India free sugar, as from three to five shillings per cvvt. belter in point of color and strength. The reason is, that these sugars are partially refined or clayed J'''* The relation in which foreign sugars stand to colonial, in the mar- kets of England, taking into account the protective duties, will be clearly seen by the following statement of the cost of production of each, with the duties added, and an allowance made for the extra value of the Cuban sugar over that of the English colonies, taking the period from July. 1850 to July, 1851 : British Muscovado costs planters per ton, £20 00s. Duty on do. per ton, 1 1 GO Total cost in market, £31 OOs. Cuban Muscovado, do. per ton, £12 OOs. Duty, per ton, 15 10 27 10 Balance in favor Cuban planter, 3 10s. Add extra value of Cuban sugar, £4 per ton, 4 00 Slave labor advantage over free labor, £7 10s. By reference to the table of duties, on a preceding page, it will be seen that if the present relations of the cost of production shall be maintained, when the duties become equalized, slave labor will have an advantage in the English market, if no change occurs in the duties, of £12 the ton.t The duty on both kinds will be, in 1854, 10s. the cvvt. or £10 the ton, and the extra value of Cuban sugar being the same, the profits of the slave labor sugar will be £12 the ton as above stated, viz : Cost of production of free labor, per ton, £20 OOs. Duty on do. per ton, 10 00 Cost in market to planter £30 OOs. Cost of slave labor, do £12 OOs. Duty on do. 10 00 22 00 Surplus profit of slave labor, 8 OOs. Extra value of do., ^ 4 00 Total excess of profit to slaveholder, £12 OOs. Who cannot see that such advantages as the Cuban and Brazilian slaveholders now possess, may enable them to banish free labor sugars from the English markets ! But to gain a clear understanding of the reason why the slaveholding planters of Cuba, Brazil, &c., can pro- duce sugar at a cost so much lower than those of Jamaica, and other free labor tropical countries, it is necessary again to call attention to the difference in their ability to command labor. In the former countries, not including the United States, the planters can command * Blackwood's Mag. 1848, p. 230. ■)■ The estimates have been made for Muscovadoes only, and the expense of freights not included. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 45 the labor of a slave population of 4,100,000, while the latter have only 1,657,000.* It must be noticed, also, that this slave population is compelled, under tlie lash, to perform a full day's work every day in the week, and that in crop time the labor is often extended to eighteen hours per day ;t while the free men of Jamaica, &.c., igno- rant, depressed, and discouraged, iy uneqiad laws, Qonieni themselves with leisurely putting in from five to seven hours in the day, during only three or four days of the week.ij: We certainly need not add anything more in support of the propo- sition, that free luhor, under present circumstances, cannot compete ivith slave labor in tropical cultivation, and that, therefore, christian governments cannot escape from the necessity of consuming slave labor products, except by calling into active service, on an extensive scale, the free labor of countries not at present producing the com- modities upon which slave labor is employed. V. That Africa is the principal field where free labor can be made to compete, successfully, with slave labor, in the production of exportable tropical commodities. To demonstrate the truth of this proposition it is demanded ; First, that it be shown that the soil and climate of Africa are well adapted to the production of Sugar, ('oflee, and Cotton ; and Second, that the natives can be successfully employed in their cultivation. In relation to the first point, there is no longer any doubt among intelligent men. Coffee, equal, if not superior, to that of Java or Mocha, is raised in Liberia, and can be easily cultivated to any extent. The shrub bears fruit thirty or forty years, each producing ten pounds annually. Cotton, of a superior quality, yielding two crops a year, is indigenous, and thrives twelve or fourteen years without renewing the plant. Sugar Cane grows in unrivaled lux- uriance ; and, as there are no frosts to be dreaded, can be brought to much greater perfection than in our Southern States. § Other articles of great value are raised in Liberia, but it is unnecessary lo specify them, or to enlarge this branch of our investigations; as Dr. J. fV. Liigenbecl, lute United States Agent, in Liberia, and Superintendent of tlie Medical School of the Colony is publishing a series of essays upon the subject. The Doctor resided five or six years in Africa, and had an excellent opportunity for employing his eminent talents to examine the Geography, the Productions, the Climate, as well as the Diseases of the INew Republic. His essays embrace all these topics, and afford ample information, in relation to Liberia, for all who wish to learn the facts. On the second point much information has been collected, and it is no longer doubted in Liberia, that the labor of natives can be made available. The Colony numbers about 150,000 souls. || Many * Present Lecture, p. 41. t Second Lecture, p. 38. X Present Lecture, p. 4.3. § African Repository, July, 1850. II President Roberts' message to Liberia Legislature, Dec, 1849. 46 Present delations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. of these natives are becoming industrious, by the example of the colonists, and the desire to possess the comforts of civilized life. Some are partially educated, and one, a few years ago, occupied a seat in the Lcjiislature. Many of them have married persons born in the United States, and thereby become more identified with the citizens of the Republic. The colonists, of ability, can secure, from the natives, all the labor necessary, at very low wages. Tiiis is now so well understood as to discour.ige those emigrants, from the United States, who desire to go as day laborers. Mr. Ed. J. Roye, a merchant of Monrovia, fully confirms this statement, in a letter to Mr. W. II. Burnham, of Zanesville, Ohio. He mentions it as the chief discouragement to emigrants dependent upon labor for a subsistence, but adds, that many of the poor Ameri- cans in the colony " are already turning their attention to farming, which pays well." " To men of character, education, wealth, and enterprise, nothing can be considered beyond their reach, and no station, in the Republic, too higli to be attained." * At first view this seems disheartening to the poor colored man; but to discerning men, Liberia presents stronger claims on this account. Mr. Roye's statement proves two things important to Europe and America. 1. That naiive labor can be had cheap. 2. That those emigrants who engage in agriculture, can do well. What is most important to elevate and ennoble the poor emigrant, is, to forget the days of his bondage, stand erect as a freeman, and depend alone upon the strength of his own arm, and the blessing of God. Cringing to others unmans him. To place him in circum- stances which will force him to agricultural or mechanical pursuits, is best calculated to create in his breast a feeling of manly indepen- dence. And, God willing, this is what Colonizationists are determined to do for the free colored people of the United States. The desire to possess the commodities supplied by the commerce of civilized nations is evidently much stronger in the people of Africa, even where the influence of the Colonies is but little felt, than in those of any other bariiarous country. This desire has been generated by the slave trade, and is the principal obstacle to its sup- pression. Having no fruits of agricultural labor to ofl^er for the arti- cles they desire, slave hunts are made the means of procuring slaves to give in exchange. And such is the strength with which this desire for traffic with foreigners operates, and such their unwilling- ness to be deprived of it, that in the late purchase of Gallinas, when the chiefs sold their territory to President Roberts, they expressly stipulated for tlie establishment of commerce upon a permanent basis. They knew very well that tlie slave trade was to cease from that moment, and, as an equivalent, demanded, not only a large sum of money, but that commissioners should be immediately appointed " to settle the wars in the country, [because ivars will now no longer be * This seems to have been prophetic language, as, since it was written, Mr. Roye has held a seat in the Legislature of Liberia, and been chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 47 useful ivhen the captives taken cannot be sold,) and open the trades in Camwood, Ivory, and Palm oil, with the interior tribes; and also to settle among them, as soon as convenient, persons capable of instruct- ing them in the arts of Husbandry."* But can the native labor ol' xM'rica be made to compete with the slave labor of other tropicul countries, and supply the christian world with that immense amount of coflee, sugar, and cotton, it now con- sumes? Tiiis is the great question. If the native be left, without the aid of foreign intelligence, to develop his intellectual and moral powers, he must remain fitted only fur a life of slavery abroad, or of savage indolence at home. But if the Republic of Liberia be sup- plied with a suflicicnt number of industrious, intelligent, and moral emigrants, to enable it to extend its settlements and its laws around the coast, and into the interior, a few years only will elapse before the natives, coming under the influence of civilization, will experi- ence such an increase of wants as can be supplied only by industry. What has already occurred in the present settlements of Liberia will follow in all new ones, and a spirit of industry be awakened as far and as rapidly as the colonization of the country shall be accomplished. We have previously shownt that the stereotyped character of the Pagan nations of Eastern Asia, renders it ditlicult to stimulate the inhabitants to a much greater degree of industry than already exists, and that sucli free labor cannot compete with slave labor. Why, then, should we expect that the native labor of heathen Africa should be more available, and made to compete with slave labor ? The answer to this question is obvious. Without the introduction of Christian civilization, nrilher of them can progress. But the hum- ble African yields more readily to the instruction of the Christian missionary than the proud Asiatic. The hope of Africa's earlier civilization is, therefore, daily brightening, and the probability of exciting iis inhabitants to industry becoming more certain. We close this part of the inquiry by a quotation from the Annual Report of the American Missionary Association, fcr 1849, which not only affords an explanation of the causes that make Asia less acces- sible to the Gospel than Africa, but supplies additional testimony in regard to the adaptation of the soil of Africa to the production of sugar and cotton. This mission had its origin in the liberation, and return to Africa, of the Jlmistad slaves. It is located at Kavv-Mendi, on the Western coast of Africa, some distance from the sea, and lies between Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Rev. Mr. Thompson, once imprisoned in the Penitentiary of the State of Missouri, for aiding slaves to escape from their masters, is now at the head of this mis- sion. This testimony is valuable, coming, as it does, from Aboli- tionists, from whom colonization in Africa has received but little countenance. The Report says : " The sugar cane and cotton grow well in that country, and if American Christians could send out business men, who could teach * LL-ttcr of President Roberts, May 17, 1850. t Page 18. 48 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. natives tlie mamifacture of sugar, and the best method of raising cotton, it would contribute much to the overthrow of slavery, and facilitate the progress of tlie gospel. The mission makes earnest appeals for such assistance." The Report also says, that "Africa presents some peculiar advantages for missionary work, and some strong claims upon American christians for help." It sums them up as follows : " 1. That country is nearer to us than any other foreign mis- sionary field. " 2. The country is apparently open to us, and its governments will offer no serious opposition to our entering any part of it. " 3. The people see and appreciate the superiority of men in civil- ized life, and desire the cultivation which will raise them to the same grade. "4. There is there, no hoary and venerated system of supersti- tion, inwrought into the forms of society, and presenting at every point opposition to change. "A reason more powerful, perhaps, than any other, to induce us to engage in this work, is the deep degradation of Africa, superinduced by the slave trade, in which Americans have taken so prominent a part." Much additional testimony on this subject might be presented, but time will not permit. We shall, therefore, close our discussion of this proposition with a brief statement of the main facts by which its truth is sustained. Could England and the United States be induced to engage ener- getically, to promote the growth of coffee, sugar, and cotton, in Africa, they would gain an immense advantage over the planters of Cuba and Brazil, and be able lo strike an efficient blow at the slave trade and slavery. What are the facts ? For every 300 men made available, by the slave trade, to the Cuban and BraziUian planters, Africa loses 1,000;* or the proportion may be stated as three to ten. In the transfer of the three to Cuba and Brazil, their constitutions are impaired by the "middle passage," and in seven years they sink beneath the oppressive labor to which they are subjected. Their places must be supplied, at least every seven years, by //tree others from Africa, subjecting her lo the loss of another ten. At every point in Africa, occupied by a colony, the slave trade is at once excluded, and its agents are driven to other points to secure their victims. This will leave, at the places occu- pied, the whole ten men who had formerly been sacrificed to supply three to the Cuban planters. Now, though the industry of the native African should fall far below the standard of tlie ever-active and enterprising ^^nglo Saxon; yet a little consideration will enable us to perceive that, under the circumstances, the native popidation of Africa will be able, not only to compete with the slaves of Cuba and Brazil, but will constitute the only reliable force for the suppression of the slave trade. * Buxton, see Lecture First, p. 8. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 49 The maximum of labor required of the three slaves in Cuba, is eighteen hours a day.* By preventing the transfer of these three men, we siiuU liave ten to employ in Africa. If these ten men can be induced to labor only five hours and a half per day, the product will more than equal that of the three in Cuba. The case would stand thus : 3 slaves in Cuba, laboring 18 hours per day = 54 hours. 10 freemen in Africa " 5^ " " = 55 " The ten men in Africa, laboring but 5^ hours per day, would, there- fore, be able to compete with the three in Cuba or Brazil. The reason that Jamaica, or any of the oiher free labor colonies, cannot compete with Cuba, Brazil, &c., is, that the freemen of the former, eidier from indolent habits, or from attention to cultivating then- own small tracts of land, or from being engaged in other pur- suits, do not choose to labor tor the sugar planters more than from five to seven hours a day, and from three to four days in the week.^ It is not asserted, tliat while engaged, the free laborer does not per- form as much work as a slave. The difficulty in Jamaica is, that the planters, out of the free population, cannot Jind men enough, to put in as many hours labtjr, as those of Cuba, by a free use of the whip, are able to obtain from tlieir slaves. Laboring so irregularly, even were their numbers equal, it would be impossible for the 1,657,000 colored freemen of the Western Hemisphere to compete with the 7,657,000 slaves which it includes. J 'i'lie difficulty in making the free lalior of the Britii^h and French West Indies compete with the slave labor of Cuba and Brazil, arises, therefore, from the want of an equal number of hands willing to perform an equal amount of labor at an equal cost. The American Colonization Society has discovered that this discrepancy can be remedied by a direct attention to Africa, which shall call into activity, as free laborers, its 160,000,000 of people, as rivals, in tropical cultivation, to the before mentioned 7,657,- 000 slaves. But to obtain a clear conception of the economical advanlages of employing the people of Africa 7/pon their own soil, over that of transporting them to Cuba and Brazil, it must be recol- lected, that as soon as the ten men in Africa could be persuaded to labor ten hours a day, they would double the products of the three in Cuba. It nuist also be remembered, that the ten, remaining in their native climate, and belonging to a race of the greatest long- evity known, could be relied upon as regular laborers, for a much longer period than the three enfeebled and overworked slaves of Cuba. This remark applies equally to the whole African population. Under these circumstances, it is certain that ihe free labor of Africa, under proper regulations and stimulants, can be made to compete with the slave labor of Brazil and the Spanish Colonies. But there is another fact, of much importance, to be considered. *See Lecture Second, p. .38. f Present Lecture, p. 43. T Present Lecture, p. 40 to 44. 4 50 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. The slave population of Brazil and the Spanish Colonies, numbering 4,100,000, or more than one half of the whole number in the West- ern Hemisphere, is maintained alone by the slave trade. Des'troy this trade, and their plantations would dwindle into insignificance, or become extinct. From the rapid mortality of the imported slaves, these plantations require restocking from Africa every seven years. Cut oft' this supply, and Cuba and Brazil would at once be rendered incapable of flooding the markets with cheap slave labor products, to the exclusion of free labor commodities. We have seen that the exports from the British West Indies began to decline from the prohibition of the slave trade, in 1808, and reached their minimum since the emancipation in 1838.* The diminution of the exports of coffee and sugar from tlie British and French West Indies, from the periods above stated, tended to increase slavery and encourage the slave trade.f The constantly increasing demand for these products must be supplied. Cuba and Brazil endeavored, by increasing their number of slaves, to supply the deficiency. This extended the slave trade, and it has continued to increase, with two or three slight variations, until the present raoment.± Interrupt the kidnapping of slaves from Africa, and no new field can be found to supply the market. Hence, to destroy the slave trade, would directly diminish the exports of sugar and coffee from Cuba and Brazil. But if these prolific fountains are dried up, how is the continually increasing demand for these products to be supplied? How are the United States, England, and the Continent of Europe to be furnished with these indispensable articles ? Africa seems to furnish the only hope. Let England, France, and the United States, make a united effort to extend the benefits of Christian civilization, not only around the coast, but into the heart of this hitherto benighted portion of the earth, and the most cheering results might be anticipated. Let ac- cumulated wealth pour her exhaustless treasures in the lap of the Colonization Society, enabling it to send out to Africa multitudes of civilized and enlightened men, to diffuse intelligence and freedom along the shores of its rivers, and over its mountains and plains ! Let England, with her commerce, her weahh, her public spirit, and her Christianity, exert her powerful influences in extending her com- merce, her enterprii-e, and her civilization, among the natives of this extensive continent! Let France unite her energies in these im-i porlant efibrts, and soon Africa, free and prosperous, might almost supply the world with the products to which we have referred. From the facts before stated, it is evident that the free labor of the West Indies is poiverless for the suppression of the slave trade. It furnishes but a limited supply of coffee and sugar, and cannot lessen the immense demand for these products, which gives to that trade its profitable character. These products are of prime necessity and ioi' portance to the Christian world; and, while such a large proportion * Present Lecture, p. 25. + See page 30 to 40, present Lecture. i Present Lecture, p. 32 Present Relalions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 51 of them are produced by Cuba and Brazil, we are compelled to up- hold slavery and the slave trade by their consumption. But establish their cultivation and supply, by free labor, upon a permanent basis, and we shall ere long be released from this dire necessity. Africa presents the principal, if not the only field, where all the means of thus extensively cultivating sugar, coffee, and cotton, by free labor, can be commanded, and from which the great markets of the world can be successfully supplied. The reasons for this opinion may be thus slated : If die products of free labor can be increased, they will displace an equal amount of the products of slave labor, 'i'his will diminish the demand for slaves, and, consequenUy, lessen the extent of the slave trade. But the hands now employed in free labor cannot, to any great degree, increase their products, even at the present cost, and things must remain as they now are until additional free labor is else- where employed. These additional laborers. Hilling to work for low wages, can only be found in suthcient numbers among the teeming population of Africa.* Africa, then, is the field, and its 160,000,000 of men must supply the laborers necessary to accomplish this great work. The increasing demand for sugar and coflee has placed the wants and interests of Christendom in opposition to the destruction of the slave trade. Cuba and Brazil furnish these great staples for the market, by slaves, as we have seen, brought from Africa. Hence, the Christian world, by consuming these products, have indirecdy sustained both slavery and this abominable Iraftic. But let ample plantations be opened and cultivated in Africa, sufficient to supply the market, and you have removed the grand obstacle to the entire destruction of this trade in blood. To accomplish an object so desirable, more extensive plans must be devised; the Colonization Society must enlarge the sphere of its operations, the number ancj character of emigrants must be increased, and a universal effort put forth, commensurate with the great object to be accomplislied. But the direct suppression of the slave trade, as a preliminary step in the progress of Alrican redemption, is impossible. The combined efforts of Christendom, in a forty years' struggle, have failed even in checking this enormous outrage upon humanity. It may be circum- scribed, diminished, and partially suppressed, but it must depend, for its final destruction, upon the political regeneration, together with the intellectual elevation and moral redemption of the entire continent. The alternative seems already forced upon Christendom, either to encourage slavery and the slave trade, by continuing to consume the produce of Brazil and Cuba, or to set about speedily accomplishing the civilization of Africa. * The cultivation of cotton has been commenced at the British Colony of Port Natal, in S. E. Africa, says the London Economist, and the labor of the Zooloos can be had at ten shillings the month. The wages of native laborers is about the same at Liberia. 52 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. The great theater, then, upon which the battle between free labor and slave labor is to be fought, is in Africa; and colonization is the all-potent agent which is to marshal the free labor forces, and lead them on to victory. But this warfare, unlike all preceding contests, is one literally demanding that every sword shall be beaten into a ploivshare, and every spear into a pruninghook. In this campaign, tilling the soil, and not slaying men, is the duty required ; and the advantacres are so decidedly with free labor, tliat ultimate success is certain. Each industrious emigrant to an African colony, will more than equal a dozen slaves laboring elsewhere. His example and his influence, acting upon the native population, will excite to industry a dozen, or twenty, or a hundred more ; and these, again, will exert an influence upon others, and so on indefinitely. Who can doubt, under such circumstances, that Africa, with its multitudinous population, is the field where free labor may be made successfully to compete with slave labor, in the productions to which we have so often referred, and that the Colonization Society is the medium through which, in the Providence of God, the slave trade is to be finally destroyed ? VI. That there are moral forces and commercial considerations now in operation, which will, necessarily, impel christian govern- ments to exert their influence for the civilization of Africa, and the promotion of the prosperity of the Republic of liiberia, as the principal agency in this great work, and that in these facts lies our encouragement to persevere in our colonization eflorts. This proposition opens up a wide field of discussion, but in its consideration we must be brief. There have been moral forces acting upon England and the Uni- ted States, for many years past, to such an extent that these govern- ments have been driven to the adoption of energetic measures for ameliorating the condition of the people of Africa. Much has been done in these efl!brts, and much more remains to be done. In the United States, 460,000 colored people have obtained tjieir freedom, and in the English Colonies nearly 800,000 rejoice in being released from bondage. The slave trade has been prohibited, declared piracy, and costly efforts for its suppression long prosecuted. But though the measures devised, for the relief of the African nice, by these governments, have failed in the accomplishment of all the good anti- cipated, and in some respects, most sadly failed ; yet these moral forces hi.ve lost none of their power, but are still propelhng the two nations onward to the final accomplishment of the great work of Africa's redemption from barbarism. During the eonrse of these eff'orts much light has been thrown on this subject, and it is believed that, through the agency of the Colonization Society, the proper principles have been developed by which the suppression of the slave trade and the civilization of Africa may be eff'ected. In makinif this declaration, we do not intend to claim more of Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 53 wisdom and philanthropy for the United States than for England. The difierence in the character of the measures aiiopted, and the difference in the results attained, have been caused by the difference in the circumstances of the people of the two countries. Fifty years ago the English people looked to the Crown and Parliament, to execute almost every enterprise of a religious or benevolent character. That government, like all others, in all its movements, has to consider well the promotion of its own interests. To adopt any other rule of action, is deliberately to aim at self-destruction. The danger, then, with nations, as with individuals, when suffering humanity makes its appeal, is that the measures adopted for relief, may include more of the selji>ih than of the benevolent principle, and failure, or only partial success, attend the efforts made. When the moral forces directed against the slave trade and slavery, by the people of England, reached the government in sufficient power to compel it to action, that great leading interest of the British nation, the comniercial element, became too closely blended with the benev- olent, and die policy adopted proved to be too narrow to remove the evils sought to be destroyed.. In the United States, the moral forces commenced their opera- tions at a very early period, and our independence had scarcely been attained, when the government enacted its laws for prohibiting the slave trade, and declared it piracy.* Since that period, they have acted with less force upon the government, and nearly all subsequent efforts have either been by a few of the States, separately, or by the people. This course of action seems more in accordance with, and necessarily to grow out of, the spirit of our free institutions. While the government suppresses great public evils, and oversees the civil and military affairs of the nation, it only protects citizens in all their benevolent enterprises and religious interests, but never undertakes to conduct or control these movements for the people. The people, therefore, do not depend upon the government to conduct such affairs, but execute, freely, their own purposes, in accordance with their own peculiar views. The efforts of our people, in behalf of the African race, have been conducted by associations of individuals, and, consequently, the schemes adopted have borne the impress of the minds tiiat conceived and conducted them. This has been em- phatically true of the American Colonization Society. Individual or governmental interests being in no way involved in liiis enterprise, and it being, in its origin, chiefly under the control of christian men, it took the broadest possible ground that christian philanthropy dic- tated, and thus a scheme was devised broad enough to accomplisli the destruction of the slave trade, and the work of Africa's redemption. The religions element predominated in its organization, and the C07nmercial was excluded. Had this work been undertaken by our government, it would, no doubt, have adopted the policy of England, and made the colony in * See Lectures first and second. 54 Present Relaiions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. Africa subservient to the interests of the parent country. Such, it must be expected, would have been the action of all governments in like cases. But the Colonization Society, originating solely in chris- tian benevolence, has only sought the welfare of the African people, and aimed at creating for them an independent government, to be conducted wlioUy by themselves. In this it has succeeded ; and not in this only, but it has developed a practical plan for the suppression of the slave trade, in the success of which all the nations are equally interested, and all may equally cooperate. 'I'his view of the tendency of colonization in Africa, is now generally entertained. Besides many other authorities of the highest order, it is very fully admitted by a committee of the British Parlia- ment, in a recent Report on the Slave Trade. The committee first show that England's long-cherished plan of an armed repression of the slave trade — costing her one hundred and forty millions of dol- lars, and hundreds of the lives of her subjects — had failed in its object, and that no modification in the system can be expected to succeed, and then close with the following testimony to the system of colonization, as llie most effective mode of destroying that traffic: "Your committee entertain the hope, that the internal improve- ment and civilization of Africa will be one of the most effective means of checking the .slave trade, and for this purpose, that the instruction of the natives by missionary labors, by education, and by all other practical efforts, and the extension of legitimate commerce, ought to be encouraged wherever the influence of England can be directed, and especially where it has already been beneficially exerted."* This, then, is the position, in reference to the African question, into whicli we have been conducted by the operation of the moral forces upon England and the United States. Our scheme of Coloni- zation, being ivholly indepejident of national interests, except what are common to all; and including within itself all the elements necessary to secure the civilization of Africa and the destruction of the slave trade ; now receives the approbation of the philanthropists of both countries, and secures to the Republic of Liberia, from the government ol England, that countenance and aid which is the surest guarantee of iis rising importance in the benevolent work of African regeneration. If, therefore. Colonization can receive siiflicient aid to develop, fully, the elements of its organization, a speedy consum- mation of tlie great work it has in view may be anticipated. From whence, then, are the additional aids to come, which, added to the moral forces in operation, shall propel, with suflScient rapidity, this great work of African civilization, and free the world from the reproach and the curse of the slave trade ? They exist, principally, it is believed, in the commercial consideralions which l)egin to demand, most imperiously, that the rich lands of tropical Africa shall be brought uniler cultivation, and made to yield to commerce those * North British Review, August, 1849, p. 255. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 55 articles, which free labor and slave labor, both combined, are now incapable of furnishing, in adequate quantities, from the fields at present cultivated. The moral forces, though acting with much energy, and have in other respects, doing mnch good, been unable to destroy the slave trade, because ot the counteracting influence of tfie commercial con- siderations enlisted in its behalf. But the wants of commerce arc beginning to demand the execution of the plans which the n-.oral forces alone could not perform. Then, as the two great elements of success now coincide^ it seems that their influence must be irresisti- ble, and the eflect certain. 'J'he 7noral forces must continue to exert their full eflect, because they cannot become quiescent, ivhilc the Christian icorld is dependent upon slave labor anmtally,* For cotton, to the amount of . . . . 1, 101, S.'^O, 800 pounds. For coff'ee, to the amount of ... . 338,240,000 For sugar, at least 1,220,000,000 and largely for many odier articles of prime necessity. That com- mercial considerations are beginning to act, in the direction of African amelioration, with much urgency, is easily shown. The increased prodtic/ion of coffee and cotton, throughout the world, is by no means keeping pace with their increased consumption. In former years, there was often a large stock of coflee remaining on hand at the close of each year. But latterly the increased consump- tion has been so rapid that it has gained on the production, and left a o-reatly diminished stock at the year's end. The deficit of coffee in the markets for 1849 advanced the price very largely, and the supply for the present year, as estimated by the most competent authorities,! will be 70,000,000 pounds beloiv the present known consumption of Europe and the United States. The extensive range of statistics which have been presented, in relation to the production of cotton, have been mostly taken from the London Economist, for January 1850; and we must allow its able editor to sum up the resuUs of his elaborate investigations.^ He says : § " Now. bearing in mind that the figures in the above tables arc, with scarcely an exception, ascertained facts, and not estimates, let us sum the conclusions to which they have conducted us ; conclu- sions sufhcient, if not to alarm us, yet certainly to create much uneasiness, and to suggest great caution on the part of all concerned, directly or indirectly, in the great manufacture of England. " 1 That our supply of ( otton from all quarters, [excluding the United States,) has for many years been decidedly, though irregularly, decreasing. " 2. That our supply of cotton from all quarters, (including the United States,) available for home consumption, has of late years *See Present Lecture, p. 30. t Unnt's Merchant's Magazine, Aug. 1850. i Page 35. § The italics are his own. 56 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. been falling off at the rate of 400,000 pounds a week, while our con- sumption has heeii increasing during the same period at the rate of 144,000 pounds a week. " 3. That the United States is the only country where the growth of cotton is on the increase; and that there even the increase does not on an average exceed 3 per cent, or 32,000,000 pounds annually, which is barely sufficient to supply the increasing demand for its own consumption, and for the continent of Europe. " 4. That no stimulus of price can materially augment this annual increase, as the planters always grow as much cotton as the negro population can pick. " 5. That, consequently, if the cotton manufacture of Great Bri- tain is to increase at all — on its present footing — it can only be enabled to do so by applying a great stimulus to the growth of cot- ton in other countries adapted for the culture."* The writer also presents the following historical sketch of the cotton trade of Englaud, and closes wiih a statement of the reason why other countries have diminished their production of cotton. It will be seen that it is due to the fact, that they are unable to com- pete with the United States in its production. We can supply the markets so much cheaper than they are able to do, that our cotton is driving theirs from the English market. The writer says : " Within the memory of many now living, a great change has taken place in ihe countries from which our main bulk of cotton is procured. In the infancy of our manufacture our chief supply came from tlie Mediterranean, especially from Smyrna and Malta. Neither of these places now sends us more than a few chance bags occasion- ally. In the last century the West Indies were our principal source. In the year 1786, out of 20,01)0,000 pounds imported, 5,000,000 came from Smyrna, and the rest from the West Indies. In 1848 the West Indies sent us only 1,300 bales, (520,000 pounds.) In 1781, Brazil began to send us cotton, and the supply thence continued to increase, though irregularly, till 1830, since which time it has fallen off to one half. About 1822, Egyptian cotton began to come in C(msiderable quantities; its cultivation having been introduced into that country two years before. The import exceeded 80,000 bales, (32,000,000 pounds,) in 1845. The average of the last three years has not been a l!iird of that quantity. Cotton has always been grown largely in Hindostan, but it did not send much to England till about thirty years ago. In the five years, ending in 1824, the yearly average import was 33,000 bales; in 1841 it reached 274,000; and may now be roughly estimated at 200,000 bales a year, (80,000,000 pounds.) " Now what is the reason why these countries, after having at one time produced so largely and so well, should have ceased or curtailed *We have not copied all the tables of figures from which these opinions have been formed, but only such as were needed in our argument. Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 57 their growtli within recent years ? It is clearly a question of price. Let us consider a few of the cases: At the close of the years, 1836-1839 inclusive 1840-1843 1844-1848 Lowest price of I'ernambuco, 9luffl;uul and France, when freeing tlie slaves in their Colonies, found no such tide of intelligent foreigners as we are receiving, flowing into dieni, to lake the place of their slaves, and prevent a decrease of agricidtural products. We can do what no other nation wouhl be capable of doing. It is in our power not only to free ourselves from the evil of slavery, and the whole world from the necessity of consuming slave-grown products: but, in the execution of this great work, to hasten the redemption of Africa from barliarism ; and, in doing tiiis, to crush the slave trade and slavery everywhere, and establisli our own glorious republic upon a foundation as enduring as the everlasting hills. No one, we think, can calmly examine the present rehuions of free labor to slave labor, in tropical and semi-tropical coinitries, as embodied in the mass of {\icts we have collated, and not be convinced that Emancipation in the United States, and the ('olonization of the colored people in Liberia, to develop its resources and civilize its inhabitants, would give a death-blow to the slavery of Cuba and IJrazil, and to African oppression ihronghoul the world. And who would not be delighted to aid in such a glorious work I Who woulil not be overjoyed to witness such a sublime achievement of Republican principle? Who would not devoutly adore that Divine Wisdom which had wrought out such deliverance for Africa. And now, gentlemen, we commit this subject into your hands. The lirst step^ in the agency which Ohio should have in this great work, must be taken by you. Our lands for die Colony of Ohio in Africa, are included in the Gallinas, hitherto the greatest mart of the slave trade on that coast. To secure its purchase. Great Britain, with profuse liberality, for more than a year, blockaded all its principal trading points and thus kept oiT the slave traders until the chiefs and kings were induced to sell. That blockade is now raised — the pur- chase having been made. The country is once more exposed to the approaches of the slave traders, who may again succeed in renewing the trallic. This can only be prevented by the settlement of the points liable to be visited by them. This territory being in the ofler of the colored people of Ohio, will for a time, not be offered to others. It is important, therefore, that decisive steps be taken to secure the execution of the enteri)rise of establishing an Ohio Colony in Africa. The failure of an application to the Legislature, last winter, for aid to begin this work, was, in some degree, owing to an opinion held by a few of the members, that they bad not constitutional power to appropriate money for this object. Our appeal, then, must first be to you. The failure to confer upon the Legislature the power for which we ask, will leave us in doubt and perplexity, and cast a blight upon our prospects, lint tht; insertion of a clause in the Constitution, svich as is desired, will ensure Leiiislative action, and may lead the Sl-ate to adopt and cherish tiiis oiiVpring oi' benevolence — Ohio in Africa — and thus create a new and efhcient agent for the overthrow of oppression and the promotion of human liberty. We commend it to yovjr care, and to the blessing of the Ruler of Nations. -e^ A LECTURE ON THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF FREE LABOR TO SLAVE LABOR, IN TROPICAL AND SEMI-TROPICAL COUNTRIES: PRESENTING OUTLINE OF THE COMMERCIAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCI- PATION, AND ITS EFFECTS UPON SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE, TOGETHER WITH ITS FINAL EFFECT UPON COLONIZATION TO AFRICA. ADDRESSED TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF OHIO, 1850. I By DAVID CHRISTY, AGENT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETT. CINCINNATI: PRINTED BY J. A. & U. P. JAMES, 3TKRE0TYPED DY A. C. JAMES. 1850 S-' -«e^i \ OHIO IN AFRICA. \ J TO THE FRIENDS OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IN OHIO. i i In April, 1848 it was suggested, tlirough the Cincinnati papers, that an efFec- / } tual blow miglit be struck at the slave trade, and- liberal provision made for the { J settlement of a colony of colored people from Ohio, by purchasing an additional ' J portion of territory on the coast of Africa. i * This suggestion was responded to by Charles McMicken, Esq., of Ciu- t < cinnati, by an offer of sufficient funds to pay for the necessary amount of land J I for a Colony of the kind proposed. The Secretary of the Society, the Rev. Wm. J J McLain, in his answer to our inquiries, on the 24tii of June following, recom- i J mended that the purchase be made northwest of Liberia, so as to include the , { Clallinas, and thus "break up the slave trade in several of its darkest dens." } i President Roberts, of Liberia, reached the United States shortly after the plan ' * of Mr. McMicken, had been announced, and gave to it his decided appro- / / val. On visiting England, the President explained to Lord Palmerston, and > f others, the effect of purchasing territory and settling intelligent colonists in ' J Africa ; and succeeded in convincing them that it was the most certain mode of t J destroying the slave trade. Samuel Gurney, Esq., who was present, proposed J i to extend Mr. McMicken's plan, so as to include all the territory between Sierra $ , Leone and Liberia, and pledged $5,000 for that object, being one-half the sum i i supposed to be necessary to complete the purchase. / i Lord Palmerston, in behalf of the Queen, presented to the President a beau- < * tiful armed vessel, of the revenue cutter class, in which to sail home to Liberia, { / and to be retained for the protection of its commerce. An order was also < J issued, directing that a part of the British squadron, on the coast of Africa, { ^ should proceed to blockade all the ports from which slaves have been exported, { *f within the district proposed to be purchased, until the chiefs and kings should \ J consent to sell their lands to be annexed to Liberia. This blockade has been ' i rigidly enforced since that time, and has greatly contributed to the important / i result now attained. t f Li a communication dated 17th of May last, and recently received at Wash- ' J ingtou City, President Roberts announces, that he has completed the purchase ' J of the Gallinas and several other tracts, including, witli a trifling exception, the J J whole space desired, and that " by this act the coast of Liberia has been extended < { to 700 miles in length, along the whole course of which the slave trade was i i formerly carried on to a great extent." J ] The Rev. Mr. McLain, our Secretary, notified me on the 17th inst., of the i J purchase having been made, and that Mr. McMicken has remitted to the Soci- l t ety the $5000 which he had pledged to pay for the lands for the Ohio Colony. 5 * The portion of this territory purchased with the funds of Mr. McMicken, is ( designed for the colored people of Ohio, Lidiana, and Illinois ; because their J proximity to the Ohio river will enable them to act in concert in any movement ' toward emigration ; but it is to take the name of Ohio, j With the consummation of this act, a new era in African Colonization com- J mences in Ohio. To give greater efficiency to the enterprise in which we are J about to engage, the parent Society has appointed a Committee of Correspondence J for Ohio, who will be called together as soon as circumstances will permit, to $ organize and adopt measures for the promotion of the Colonization cause in > the State. The committee appointed by the Society, includes the names of the J following gentlemen, viz. : j Hon. Jacob Burnet, Cincinnati, Charles McMicken, Esq., " Rt. Rev. C. P. McIlvaine, D. D., " Rev. John T. Brooke, D. D., " Rev. N. L. Rice, Rev. Samuel R. Wilson, " Rev. Samuel W. Fisher, " Rev. James P. Kilbreth, " Dr. Alexander Guy, " RuFUs King, Esq., " The interests of the Colonization cause, in Ohio, will hereafter be under the * direction of these gentlemen. DAVID CHRISTY, } ] Agent American Colonization Society, in Ohio. t Rev. Prof. Robinson, Cincinnati, J Rev. J. Hall, D. D., Dayton, | Thomas Parrott, Esq., " 5 Hon. S. Mason, Springfield, I Rev. James Hoge, D. D., Columbus, * Gov. S. Ford, " i Hon. H. H. Leavitt, Steubenville, i Rev. H. G. CoMiNGO, " J H. Safford, Esq., Zanesville. J ■0 ■ -^'^ '^ 0^ '' c -. ■ c: o^\.^ •* f .^ -..yrTy-^ - -^ ;-■ * ■ . - ■■'^ " '■-^ _ v%M ^'^ O -^ ^ ^»' ^^ ^" «o' ****/■ o C ■'?>, /■ o^ •i A \^-k r^* ^^ *C^- 4 9^ ? .V .v^^ ,>■ ,^ •^j. O^CO^AGBtSS- 7 #