Holland, Edwin C. 
 
 A Befutation of the calumnies circu- 
 lated against the Southern and Wes^tern 
 State* reepecting alarery. 1822, 
 
 2*?fiK^ 
 
Class. 
 Book. 
 
 f 
 
r 
 
'I 
 
\ 
 
 A REFUTATION 
 
 OF 
 
 ^^r CailiiinitiriQi 
 
 CIRCULATED AGAINST 
 
 The SOITTUERK &: WESTERN* Stales. 
 
 BESPECTING THE INSTITUTION ANO EXISTENCE 
 
 ^m ATS m^ 
 
 AMONG THEM. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A MINUTE AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OP THE ACTUAl, STATE 
 AND CONDITION OF THEIR 
 
 Kcfftro }|o|3ttlatioiT» 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTICES OF ALL THE INSURRECTIONS 
 
 THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE SINCE THE SETTLEMENT OP 
 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 Facts oj-e stuhhorn t/iiiiiis. — Shakspeare. 
 
 BY A SOUTH-CAROLINIAN, 
 
 ^- .t 
 
 CHARLESTON: 
 
 PRINTED 15V A. E. MILLER^ 
 
 jNo. 4, Broail street. 
 
 1822. 
 L 
 
14159 
 
 District of South-Carolina, to unt : 
 
 40COd *> BE IT RKMEMBEnED, That on the twenty-ninth day of October, Anno Do. 
 p () n>ini, one thousand ^■ii:ht huinlred and twenty-two, cinil in the foity-sixth year ot" 
 
 f) SEAL. I) the Indi|iendence of (he United Slates of Americfl, Ed\^ in 0. Holland, Esq. de- 
 C () posited in this oflice llietilh- of a book, the right whereof he claims as author 
 
 %'>;?000 S> and proprietor, in tlie w ords followin(j, to wit : 
 
 " A Refutation of the Calumnies rirrulated against the Southeni and Western States, respecting 
 the institution and existence of Slavery ainonjj them. To which is added, a minute and 
 pui tirular account of the actual slate and condition of llu-ir Nefjro Poi)ulation. TopfCther 
 with Historical Notices of all the Insurrecticms that have taken place since the Settlement of 
 lh>- 'Jo jntry. Facts are stubborn tilings.— SAa<:5;)cn»e. By a South-Carolinian." 
 
 tn conformity with the act of Conpress of the I'nitrd States, entitled " An act for the 
 Enronrj^r- nieni of /.earning, by srcurintj the Copies of maps, charls, and books, to the authors 
 and priiprii'loiT. of such roiiicn, dtnini; llie limes therein mentioned," and also to the net entitled 
 " An ml supplemenlnry l<i an aci, entitled, ' An act for the encourafrement of learninfj, by 
 OH-urini; Ih.' copies of inai>^, charls and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, 
 JurinK the times therein nieiitiinuiP, mid ext.iuline the benefits thereof to the arts of desiguiiig:, 
 eopvvlnK aoU ctcUuig bisloricul and other prints. 
 
 rifrk nf the District of f<ovih-Carolma. 
 
TO 
 THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE 
 
 AND 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF 
 SOUTH-CAROLINA, 
 
 AND THE HONORABLE 
 
 ^^t ^txttHtKU Of m <Kit2 eouncil of etjarleston, 
 
 THB FOLLOWING PAGES ARE VERY RESPECTFULLY 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 BY THEIR PELLOW-CITIZEN, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 / 
 
 
iPSisii'A^a) 
 
 A HE Author of the following discussion presents it to the Public 
 with feelings of deep and solemn interest. However imperfectly 
 his design may have been executed, the subject of his observations 
 is of such momentous import as to arrest the attention of the most 
 careless and indifferent. It tembraces, in its various aspects, ques- 
 tions of the most profound and vital importance, affecting every one 
 in all the different relations of life, and involving arguments and 
 considerations that come home to the bosoms of all. He does not 
 pretend to any thing very novel in his manner of treating the subject 
 before him, as it has been, in a great measure, exhausted : But he 
 hopes that many new and important facts, in relation to it, have 
 been produced, which were not within the reach of ordinary industry, 
 and for many of which he has been indebted to the kindness of some 
 of the most intelligent members of the community. Several interest- 
 ing public Documents, also, are, for the first time, published, which 
 shed much light upon the Colonial History of the country, and pre- 
 sent a faithful picture of the state of the Province at the different 
 periods to which they respectively refer. He returns his sincere and 
 unaffected thanks to those who have, incidentally, aided and assisted 
 him in the collection of the materials necessary to have enabled him 
 to proceed, and sobiaits t® the consideration of an enltghtene^l 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 Public, the result of a laborious and painful investigation. Tlie 
 best of motives have actuated him, and his only object has been to 
 combat errors wherever he has found them — to strangle the slanders 
 that were wounding our reputation with a serpent tooth, and to 
 place our character upon the elevated ground to which its honor 
 and patriotism proudly entitle it. 
 
 ^ i: 
 
 ■ 
 
A 
 
 &.C. 
 
 A HE Northern and Eastern Sections of our 
 Empire, to whose early and active participation in 
 the Slave Trade is to be attributed, in a great mea- 
 sure, the extension, if not the introduction of our 
 Negro Slavery, are continually reproaching the 
 people of the South and West with the existence of 
 an evil, the barbarity of which they, at the same time, 
 magnify with all the malignity of the most pertinaci- 
 ous hostility. The peculiar moral and political con- 
 dition of that class of our population, who are pictured 
 by them as groaning under the oppression of the most 
 odious and afflicting tyranny, appears to be as little 
 understood as it has been frequently misrepresented. 
 It would be a matter of some difficulty, perhaps, con- 
 sidering our relative situation as members of the same 
 great Republican family, were we not fully acquaint- 
 ed with the motives of those who have so industrious- 
 ly propagated the calumnies to which we have refer- 
 red, to assign any competent reason for the devotional 
 fidelity with which they have carried on their work of 
 
 
djefamatioii and slander. But the curtain is with- 
 drawn, and the history of past events teaches us the 
 philosophy of their conduct. The late discussions in 
 Congress upon what has been popularly denominated 
 the Missouri Question, have thrown so clear and 
 distinct a light upon this subject, that no individual, 
 who lays claim to a capacity of the most ordinary 
 rectitude of observation, can mistake the true 
 sources from which this current of feeling has pro- 
 ceeded. In the history of the agitation of that mo- 
 mentous question, involving, as it did, subjects of the 
 most profound and afflictive concern, and which, 
 but for the calm and temperate interposition of one of 
 the most influential members on the floor of Congress, 
 would have ended in shaking the Union to its centre, 
 we have abundant testimony of the hostile and un- 
 friendly spirit with which the most vital interests of 
 the people of the South and West were canvassed and 
 discussed. Bound together as we are by one golden 
 chain of affinity, and exhibiting to the eye of the 
 civilized world the subliuie and beautiful spectacle of 
 an immense emj)ire, composed of different sovereign- 
 ties, revolving hitherto, in perfect harmony under tlie 
 controling power of a confederated Republican form 
 of Government, it is deeply to be lauiented that so 
 much bitterness of feeling shoeld have been engen- 
 dered by the intemperate zeal of a few, or the profli- 
 gate ambition of any. 
 
 It must be conceded that the people of the South 
 and West have certain established constitutional rights 
 and privilege's contradistinguished, by their peculiar 
 situation, from those of the North and East, the sur- 
 render of which would be worse than the wildest 
 ijisanity, and for the salV: enjoyment of which they 
 
 jf^^*^-0^ 
 
must and will contend to the last. If they are to be 
 sacrificed by a system of legislation that strikes at the 
 root of all their interests, the safety of their lives and 
 the prosperity of their fortunes, they will not be 
 sacrificed without a struggle. There is a point, be- 
 yond which, on the part of the non-slave-holding states, 
 it will be the worst of insults to proceed, and at which, 
 it will become the solemn and imperious duty of the 
 slave-holding states, to resist. The Union to the latter, 
 is not worth preserving, if they are to fall victims to 
 such a policy, the outlines of which have already been 
 developed by so bold a pencil. The stupendous and 
 colossal power of the North and East, is gradually 
 shadow ing that of the South and West, and it is time 
 for us to take such a stand, as will preserve a proper 
 equilibrium in our political relations to them, and 
 secure to us, beyond the possibility of all future cavil- 
 ling, the full and uncontrolled enjoyment of our 
 rights. We deprecate, fiom the bottom of our hearts, 
 any steps but those which are sanctioned and strength- 
 ened by a sound, patriotic and enlightened policy, but, 
 at the same time, we cordially recommend such a co- 
 alition in the Representation of the South and West, 
 in their places on the floor of Congress, as must effec- 
 tually, in conjunction with other interests, defeat the 
 flagitious and unholy ambition of those who would 
 rise to power though the separation of the Union were 
 to be their stepping stone. We are not conscious of 
 having indulged a tone of feeling inconsistent with 
 that which should, upon this subject, be felt deeply 
 and strongly too; nor have we used any latitude of 
 expression in our language, to which the conduct of 
 those to whom it refers, is not, in every respect, obnox- 
 ious. The speeches of many ©f the mest influenti^ 
 
 # 
 
10 
 
 members, both in the Senate, and in the House of 
 Representatives in Congress, delivered, not in the 
 heat of sudden excitement, but upon cool and delibe- 
 rate reflection, breathe such a spirit of towering and 
 unprincipled ambition, coupled with the most heart- 
 less apathy upon the subject of our mut7ial interests, 
 that they fully justify the most severe reprobation. 
 Our children will read them with amazement, our 
 friends with the deepest regret, and our enemies will 
 dwell upon this dark page in the history of our coun- 
 try with the liveliest satisfaction. 
 
 It is, by no means difficult, we think, to trace the 
 sources of the rise, or to point out the final object of 
 the progress of such feelings. The Hartford Con- 
 vention, that scorpion nest of sedition and intrigue; in 
 which so many of the disturbed spirits of the Opposition 
 exhibited such gigantic political effrontery, was, in all 
 probabity, the origin of those profound and flagitious 
 schemes, the true character and color of which have 
 been since so thoroughly developed. It was within the 
 circle of that association of powerful, though misguid- 
 ed intellect, that the seeds of those feelings, of which 
 we so justly complain, were first sown, and which 
 have since gradually ripened into a bitterness of hos- 
 tility as deep as it is lamentable. 
 
 The people of the North and East, aie, or they 
 affect to be, totally ignorant of our situation, and yet 
 they insist upon legislating for us upon subjects, with a 
 knowledge of which they appear to be wholly unac- 
 quainted. This is neither fair, nor honorable, nor 
 wise, nor prudent. It must be recollected, that every 
 State is sovereign and independent within the circle of 
 her own territory, and that her citizens have an indis- 
 ]Hitablc right to frame w hatcver laws their intelligence 
 
 ^. 
 
ii 
 
 may deem necessary to its prosperity and happiness, 
 provided they do not conflict with any of the great 
 fundamental principles of the Federal Constitution. 
 This proposition, so apparently self evident and just, 
 is, nevertheless, in a manner, controverted, and thai 
 too in an age when the principles of State Sovereignty 
 have been as fully admitted as they have been freely 
 discussed. The people of the North and East, w ill, 
 nevertheless, take the liberty of interfering in the de- 
 signing of some of our most important local regula- 
 tions and of directing the steps of our constituted 
 authorities. We are not only dictated to, but we are 
 slandered in their public prints, denounced in their 
 pulpits, and calumniated in pamphlets and orations. 
 We are exposed to still greater perils, by the swarm 
 of Missionaries, white and black, tlmt are perpetual- 
 ly visiting us, who, with the Sacred Volume of God in 
 one hand, breathing peace to the whole family of man, 
 scatter, at the same time, with the other, the fire-brands 
 ol discord and destruction, 3.nd secretly disperse among 
 our Negro Pojiulation, the seeds of discontent and 
 sedition. It is an acknowledged fact, that some of 
 these religious itinerants, these apostolic vagabonds, 
 after receiving die charities which the philanthropy 
 and open-hearted generosity of our people have be- 
 stowed, have, by the means of Tracts and other 
 modes of instruction, all professedly religious in their 
 character, excited among our iNegroes such a spirit ot 
 dissatisfaction and revolt, as has, in the end, brought 
 down upon them the vengeance of offended humani- 
 ty, and given to the gallows and to exile, the deluded 
 instigators of a most diabolical and unholy Insurrec- 
 tion. Those who are intimately acquainted with the 
 efficient causes of the late intended Insurrection in 
 
12 
 
 Charleston and the districts adjoining, which, from 
 the testimony as well of many of those who have been 
 executed, as from that of the hundreds who either 
 knew of or were engaged in the plot, was to have 
 been conducted with a ferocious barbarity, at which 
 humanity shudders and turns pale; those, we repeat, 
 who are acquainted with the rise and progress of that 
 nefarious plot, know how blasphemously the word of 
 God was tortured, in order to sanction the unholy 
 butchery that was contemplated, and what a powerful 
 agency was put into operation by the dispersion 
 among our Negroes, of reU8;ious magazines, news pa- 
 per paragraphs and insulated texts of scripture; all 
 throwing such a delusive light upon their condition as 
 was calculated to bewilder and deceive, and finally, 
 to precipitate them into ruin. Religion was stripped 
 of her pure and spotless robe, and, panoplied like a 
 fury, was made to fight under the banners of the most 
 frightful Conspiracy that imagination can conceive, 
 and her voice was heard instigating the midnight ruf- 
 fian and coward, to creep silently to the pillow of his 
 unsuspecting master, and at one " fell swoop" to mur- 
 der him in the unconscious hour of sleep, prostitute 
 the partner of his bosom, violate the child of his affec- 
 tions, and dash out the brains of his innocent and 
 unoffending infant. The measure of desolation was 
 not even yet full ; after robbing our banks, and seizing 
 on our shipping, killing all but the captains, \\ ho were 
 to be reserved as pilots, their atrocious footsteps were 
 to have been lighted from our shores by a general con- 
 Jlagration, and our city, that proudly swells with life 
 and with wealth, was to have been left an awful 
 monument of the most ferocious guilt. Such are a 
 few of the barbarities to which we would have been 
 
 m 
 
<*^xposed had the late intended Insurrection b^en 
 crowned with success. But the activity and intelli- 
 gence of a wise and efficient police, strengthened and 
 enlightened as they were by the protecting interposi- 
 tion of a benificent Providence, have frustrated the 
 wicked designs of our barbarous and inhuman ene- 
 mies, and consigned to a bloody and ignominious fate 
 the master spirits of the Revolt. Notwithstanding all 
 these projected atrocities, however, and with a full 
 knowledge of the facts upon the subject, we have, 
 nevertheless, been vilified and abused for having visit- 
 ed upon the heads of their stupid and flagitious insti- 
 gators, the penalty which the Laws of our Country 
 award, and which the vengeance of violated humanity 
 required. We are sneeringly upbraided with a want 
 of common justice in the framing, or a lamentable 
 want of mercy in the execution of our laws. In 
 many of the Northern and Eastern prints, there has 
 been a great deal of that w hining, canting, sickly kind 
 of humanity, which is as disgraceful to the character 
 of those journals, as it is contemptible in the eyes of 
 all intelligent and reflecting men. Instead of meeting 
 as we expected, and had a right to expect, the cordial 
 and unaifected sympathy of those who wear the livery 
 of our own color, who are connected to us by all the 
 endearing affections of political brotherliood, whose 
 hearts ougiit to beat with our own and v\ hose hands 
 ought to be the first to assist us in the hour of peril 
 and of danger, we have too frequently encountered a 
 heartless indifference or selfish apathy with respect to 
 the horrors we have escaped, and what is still worse, 
 the gibes and jeers of the idle and unfeeling, or the 
 foul rebuke of the ^'•humane''' and the ^'religious.''' 
 This then is the plain unvarnished statement of facti. 
 
. 14 
 
 that, at a period of the deepest and most awful anxiety, 
 when our whole community was thrown into the most 
 -anxious and painful suspense: when the mother, petri- 
 fied with fear, "strained her infant closer to her breast," 
 and the listening father held his breath to catch the 
 first notes of that tocsin that was to summon him to 
 the defence of all that was dear to him in life, against 
 a merciless and vindictiv e foe ; we have had our mo- 
 lives misrepresented, our character defamed, and our 
 laws ridiculed and reviled. If this be religion or hu- 
 manity\ we must confess that we have learned the 
 meaning of these two important terms from a nomen- 
 clature widely different from those who have assigned 
 to them a signification so directly the reverse of our 
 own. 
 
 We repeat, the people of the North and East are, or 
 affect to be, totally ignorant of the actual state and 
 character of our Negro Population; they represent 
 the condition of their bondage as a perpetual revolu- 
 tion of labor and severity, rendered still more deplo- 
 raWe by an utter destitution of all the comforts of 
 life. Our Negroes, according to these candid and accu- 
 rate observers, are in every respect illy provided, 
 badly fed and badly clothed ; worked beyond their |)hy- 
 sical capacity while in health ; neglected while in 
 i^ickness ; going always to their labor with the most 
 dogged reluctance, confined to it by the severity of the 
 cart-whip, and denied, in fine, all the ordinary enjoy- 
 ments of existence. Now, the very reverse of this is 
 the truth; and it is within the province of those who 
 are continually defaming us, to ascertain it; yet, not- 
 withstanding that the most abundant testimony is at 
 hand to satisfy the most curious inquin r upon the 
 subject, and evcj-y candid and enlightened observer 
 
 ^ 
 
15 
 
 finds himself at every step furnished with the niost 
 ample refutation of these charges, the calumny has 
 nevertheless been industriously propagated and upheld 
 with a malignity of design, and an utter contempt of 
 truth, at war with every thing like fair argument, ur 
 the most ordinary regard for our feelings. 
 
 We are told by these enlightened and exclusive pa- 
 triots and philanthropists that the odious state of bon- 
 dage among us is a libel on the character of our 
 country, the very Constitution of which, declares all 
 men to be born equal ; that it lessens the reputation of 
 the Repubhc in the eyes of the civilized world, renders 
 us as a people less acceptable in those of Heaven, and 
 that its abolition is necessary to the greater security 
 and more perfect happiness of the Union ; as if we 
 were the original introducers of this system, or even, 
 now, had it in our power, to sweep away, at one effort, 
 the accumulated evils that have been the growth of 
 centuries, and which will take more than centuries to 
 remove. 
 
 These prefaratory remarks will not, we trust, be 
 considered as injudiciously introduced, when it is 
 recollected that the principle object of the following 
 pages is to present a candid and dispassionate refuta- 
 tion of these calumnies, and to develope, for the in- 
 struction of our Northern and Eastern brethren, the 
 actual state and condition of that class of our popula- 
 tion, respecting whom so much "sentimental rant and 
 sonorous philanthrophy" has been expended. In ad- 
 dition to this, we shall offer some general remarks 
 upon the policy of altering and amending some of our 
 laws touching the subject before us, and making such 
 other statutory provisions, in relation to our greater 
 
 f 
 
16 
 
 security, as will effectually save us from the dangeri? 
 of a conspiracy at all times to ]ye apprehended. 
 
 As it has become a matter of some curious inquiry, 
 it may not be uninteresting, at this stage of our labor, 
 to point out, in a brief and summary manner, the 
 origin and progress of that odious and detestable 
 commerce, by the introduction of which the civilized 
 world has entailed upon itself so heavy and irrevoca- 
 ble a curse: — From the earliest historical lights by 
 which we are enabled to guide ourselves, it appears, 
 that the Genoese were the first who commenced the 
 traffic in human flesh. They derived their charter from 
 Charles V, under which they enjoyed an exclu- 
 sive patent of furnishing Negroes from the Portugese 
 Settlements on the Coast of Africa, for " America and 
 the West Indies." The eagle eyes of commercial 
 avarice in England, ever on the watch, were no sooner 
 directed to this new and fruitful source of national 
 wealth, than the government followed with the most 
 active steps, the example of their enterprising prede- 
 cessors. Such was the unbounded spirit of conuner- 
 cial speculation in this iniquitous traffic, that in a few 
 years ^fter its first exploration, millions were invested 
 in its prosecution, and the shores of Africa were 
 crowded with the sails of the English shipping to the 
 comparative exclusion of the flags of all other nations, 
 England, at this period, began her monopoly in a 
 Trade, that, while it enriched her cofferff, covered the 
 glory of her history w ith disgrace. 
 
 The first Englishmen who embarked in the Slave 
 Trade, were Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, 
 and Sir William Winter, who, together with others, 
 formed themselves into a Company, for the purpose of 
 trading to the Coast of Africa. Subscriptions were 
 
17 
 
 iaimediately after opened for the prosecution of what 
 was representetJ an easy and certain source of vvf alth, 
 and were, unhappily for the wretched race who 
 were to be the subjects of the traihi, too promptly and 
 rapi^Uy filled. Preparations were accordinj^ly made 
 for an expedhion to the Coast; and in the year 1562, 
 a fleet, consisting; of three ships, under the direction and 
 command of John Hawklns, set sail for the Coast of 
 Africa. These Ships were manned by one hundred 
 ^' select Seameti,^^ who were induced to visit these dis- 
 tant and couiparatively unknown shores, by liberal 
 promises of ^\good treatment, and great pay.^'' After 
 a prosperous voyage of a iew weeks, they made the 
 Coast of Sierra Leone, and Hawkins immediately 
 commenced a conmierce with the natives. " While 
 he trafficked with them," says Hewitt, in his valuable 
 " History of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of 
 South-Carolina and Georgia," " he found some means 
 of giving them a charming description of the country 
 to which he was bound. The unsuspicious Africans 
 listened to him with apparent joy and satisfaction, and 
 seemed remarkably fond of his Euroj)ean trinkets, 
 food and clothes. He pointed out to them the barren- 
 ness of their own country, and their naked and 
 . wretched condition, and promised them, if any were 
 weary of their miserable circumstances, and would go 
 along with him, he would carry theui to a plentiful land, 
 where they should live happy, and receive an abun- 
 dant recompense for their labor. He told them, that 
 the country was inhabited by such men as himself and 
 his jovial companions, and assured them of kind 
 usage and great friendship. In short, the Negroes 
 were overcome by these flattering promises, and thre^ 
 hundred stout fellows accepted his offer, and «on- 
 S 
 
 :^, 
 
X8 
 
 seutcd to embark along with him. The night before 
 his departure, however, his Negroes were attacked by 
 a large body from a different quarter, and Hawkins, 
 being alarmed by the shrieks and cries of dying per- 
 sons, ordered liis men to the assistance of iiis slaves, 
 and having surrounded the assailants, carried a num- 
 ber of them on board, as j^mo/ie/.? of war. The next 
 day he set sail for Hispaiiiola, but, during the passage, 
 he treated his prisoners of war in a different manner 
 from his volunteers. Upon his arrival he disposed of 
 his cargo to great advantage, and endeavoured to 
 inculcate on the Spaniards, who bought the Negroes, 
 the same distinction he had observed; but they having 
 purchased all at the same rate, considered them as 
 slaves of the same condition, and consequently, treated 
 them all alike." — Hawkins soon after returned to 
 England, with a rich and valuable cargo, which he had 
 obtained in exchange for his slaves. Great curiosity 
 was excited by the novelty of his adventure, and 
 among the more rigid, some scruples of conscience 
 began to be entertained of the propriety and himianity 
 of the trade. Elizabeth, during wjiose reign this ex- 
 pedition had been fitted out, ordered Hawkins to 
 appear before her, and interrogated him as to his mode 
 of conducting it. He assured her that his motives were 
 those of the most disinterested humanity, and promised 
 his Royal Mistress, "that in no ex})cdition where hr 
 had the command, should any Africans be carried away 
 without their own free will and consent, except such 
 capiives as were taken in war, and doomed to death; 
 and that he had no scruples about the justice of bring- 
 ing human creatures from that barren wilderness, to 
 a condition where they might be both happy them- 
 selves, and beneficial to the world." Elizabetht 
 
19 
 
 expressed licrsclf perfectly satisfied witli the relation 
 she had heard, and promised Hawkins her protection 
 and assistance. Soon after this interview with the 
 Queen, he projected a second voyage to the Coast, and 
 she offered him the convoy of a man of war; but he 
 declined the offer, alleging as a reason, that the pro* 
 fits arising from the trade were amply sufficient to 
 remunerate him for the dangers and expense which 
 attended it. "Tn his passage, however," says the 
 historian, to whom we have already referred, " he fell 
 in with the Minion, man of war, which accompanied 
 him to the Coast of Africa. After his arrival he began, 
 as formerly, to traffic with the Negroes, endeavouring 
 by persuasion and promises, and the prospects of 
 reward, to induce them to go with him ; but now they 
 were more reserved, and jealous of his designs, and 
 as none of their neighbours had returned, they were 
 apprehensive he had killed and ate them. The crew of 
 the man of war, observing the Africans backward and 
 suspicious, began to laugh at his gentle and dilatory 
 method of proceeding, and proposed having recourse 
 to force and comjiulsion; the sailors belonging to his 
 own fleet joined those of the man of war, and applaud- 
 ed tiie proposal. But Hawkins, considered it as ciuel 
 and unjust, and tried by persuasion, promises and 
 threats, to prevail on them, to desist, from a purpose, 
 so unwan-antable and cruel, urging at the same time 
 his authority, and instructions from the Queen. But 
 the bold and headstrong sailors, would hear of no 
 restraints ; they pursued their violent design, and 
 after several unsuccessful attacks, in which many of 
 them lost their lives, the carft'o was completed by force 
 and barbarity." Thus ended an enterprise in which 
 avarice, cl^-^'- - ""' e a saint, violated all the privileges 
 
to 
 
 of liumanity, while a keen and cunning policy, oil the 
 part of government, foreseeing the prodigious advan- 
 tages that would necessarily arise from the prosecu- 
 tion of the trade, cautiously winked at, and secretly 
 encouraged it. Hawkins, notwithstanding the elabo- 
 rate effort of Hewitt to vindicate his motives, must 
 stand adjudged in the eyes of the civilized world, a 
 prolound and impious hypocrite, and Elizabeth, the 
 secret protector of a schetne of conunercial barbarity, 
 that must forever tarnish the glory of her reign. As 
 a proof of the sincerity of both parties, we find 
 Hawkins, upon his return to England from his second 
 voyage, knighted by Elizabeth, and made Treasurer of 
 the Navy; and in less than a twelve month after, he 
 was appointed to the command of a man of war, 
 which, with three other vessels of a lesser class, set 
 sail for the Coast, on the same " iraf/m«- expedition." 
 Whatever may have been the motives of the one, how- 
 ever, who undertook the prosecution of this newly 
 discovered commerce, or of the other, who, by a 
 refined and deep-sighted policy, protected and encour- 
 aged it ; both arc equally guilty of having paved the 
 way to the violence, barl)arity, and bloodshed, that 
 have stained the subsequent history of the Slave 
 Trade. 
 
 When once the spirit of commercial avarice had 
 been excited in England, there were no bounds to its 
 voracious appetite. Justice was deaf and conscience 
 itself was dumb. Private adventures nmltiplied and 
 Africa swarmed witli the thousands who were now 
 engaged in the trade. In little more than twenty years 
 from the date of Hawkins' first voyage to the Coast, 
 it became so profitable a source of vv<^alth, that the 
 government no longer preserved the cautious attitudti 
 
■,";^saB5«=4,lWM , '^■^'P'"^. ,'l':-.."'"/'V 
 
 21 
 
 it had hitherto assumed, but throwing off the mask, 
 openly, by Patents from the Crown, sanctioned and 
 encouraged it. In 1585 and 1588, two several Pa- 
 tents were granted to "certain rich merchants in 
 London," to trade to the Coast of Guinea, within 
 certain Latitudes. In 1 592, a third Patent was granted 
 to the same Company, greatly extending tlieir privi- 
 leges, and ealarging the territory of their trade. The 
 Company, however, either from want of funds, igno- 
 rance of the mode of conducting the trade, or an expira- 
 tion of titeir charter, became extinct, and the trade w as 
 in a great measure abandoned. It was revived and 
 prosecuted with renewed activity in the reign of 
 Janies I. In 1608, a Patent was granted to another 
 company of merchants, with an extensive right to the 
 trade, and "of more validity and extent than any of 
 the former grants." During the period of the Com- 
 m(>n\\ ealth also, inl 65 1 , si uiilar privileges were granted 
 to other merchants in London, but the unsettled state 
 of tiie country, rendered the Patent of little or no 
 advantage to them. The commerce fell into ruin, but 
 was still |>rosecuted by some few private individuals. 
 
 In 1662, under the reign of Charles II, another 
 Company was erected into a corporation, by a Patent 
 from the Crown, under the name of the "Royal Com- 
 pany of England trading to Africa." The war which 
 {Succeeded, with the Dutch, iuunediately after, utterly 
 ruined the trade, and the Company surrendered their 
 charter to the Crown, upon payment of a sum of money. 
 The King immediately (1672) erected another corpo- 
 ration under the name of the "Royal African Compa- 
 ny." This Company continued to exist from this period 
 with a continual enlargement of its privileges, until 
 the final abolition of the Slave Trade in En-rjand, in 
 
n 
 
 the year 1807. We think it unnecessary to jjroceed 
 any farther in our account of the progress of this de- 
 testable traffic. The Parliamentary History of the 
 English Empire, since the year 1672, is so easy of 
 access, that little or no difficulty can be encountered 
 by those who are anxious to continue the chronolog}' 
 of the Trade. Our object, so iar as it is connected 
 with our general design, is sufticiently obtained by 
 the abstract we have already given. 
 
 If then, we are unhappily afllicted with an evil, the 
 curse of which is felt and acknowledged by every 
 enlightened man in the Slave-holding States, it should 
 be a matter of sympathy, rather than of rebuke, 
 particularly when it is recollected that it was not of our 
 own creation. It must be conceded by every fair and 
 candid reasoner, who is at all acquainted with the 
 liistory of our country, that the introduction of this 
 njischievous and unhappy institution is not imputable 
 to the present generation, nor are we answerable either 
 to heaven, or to earth, for its existence. "Slavery" 
 said Mr. King (ami dcs noirs) "unha})pily exists in the 
 United States; enlightened men in the States, even 
 where it is permitted, and every where out of them, 
 regret its existence ■amon<( us, and seek for the means of 
 mitigating it. The first introduction of Slaves is not 
 imputable to tlie present generation, nor to their ances- 
 tors. Before the year 1G42, the trade and ports of the 
 Colonies were o])en to foreigners, equally as those of 
 the mother country, and as early as the year 1620, a 
 few years after |)lanting the Colony of V irginia, and 
 the same in which the first settlement was made in the 
 old Colony of riyniouth, a cargo of Negroes was 
 brought into and sold as slaves, in Virginia, by a 
 foreign s\i\p\ ivoin this beginning the importation was 
 
23 
 
 continued for nearly two centuries. To her honor , 
 Virginia, while a Colony, opposed the importation of 
 slaves, and was the first State to prohibit the same by 
 a law passed for this purpose in 1778, thirty yean^ 
 before the general prohibition, enacted by Congress 
 in 1808." Admitting, for a moment, however, that the 
 existence of slavery among us was an institution of 
 our own voluntary adoption, and not forced upon us, 
 let us inquire how far the people of the South and 
 West can be called to the bar of public opinion, by 
 those of the North and East, and what proportion- 
 ate or relative agency, each of these sections of our 
 empire had, in the introduction of the very evil, of 
 which both complain^ and to the dangers of which 
 the former are most sensibly alive. 
 
 The Northern and Eastern sections of our Union, 
 then, in common with ourselves. Colonies of the Bri- 
 tish Empire, were at a very early period, actively and 
 industriously engaged in the very traffic to which is to 
 be attributed the introduction and existence of the sin 
 of which they have since so loudly and clamorously 
 complained. The "atrocious crime" of slavery among 
 us as a people, of which, their own agency was, in a 
 great degree, the proximate cause, ought, in strict jus- 
 tice, therefore to be attributed to them, or, as will be 
 shown, is less imj)utable to us. Great Britain, and the 
 then Northern and Eastern Colonies of her American 
 possessions, were the first dealers in the odious and re- 
 proachful commerce that has entailed upon our coun- 
 try, the evil which we all lament, and if the latter made 
 any early or obviously direct efforts, to abolish the 
 trade, it was not so much from any " compunctious 
 visitings" of conscience, or from any more enlightened 
 feelings of philanthropy, as from the opcratioji of the 
 
24 
 
 acts of the British Parliament, which, from time to time 
 granted peculiar and exclusive privileges to British 
 merchants, that amounted to a virtual prohibition, and 
 debarred her Colonies from any participation in the 
 trade. When the latter found that they were to be 
 inundated by a class of people, from the introduction 
 of which, they no longer were to derive the commer- 
 cial advantages they had hitherto possessed, exertions 
 were then made to abolish the traffic, or to lay it under 
 heavy imposts. It was not until the period to which 
 we have referred, that any very serious disposition was 
 shown by them to interrupt the stream of wealth that 
 poured its riches into their laps, or to divert it from the 
 channels in which it had hitherto flowed. The history 
 of the times is emphatic upon this point. The first ex- 
 pression of the Legislation in the then North-American 
 Colonies which took place upon this subject, was that 
 of the " General Court of Massachusetts," in 1645, in 
 whicli they prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, 
 "except those who were condemned to servitude by 
 tho sentence of a court of justice, or those who were 
 taken in time of wary In 170,^, more than half a 
 century after the ({ualified provisions of the act which 
 we have just quoted, another ctTort was made to 
 restrict the importation of slaves, by subjecting it to 
 a heavy impost, ly/iic/t /ttiVed From the complexion 
 of these historical documents, it would appear that it 
 was from no very nice and scrupulous abhorrence of 
 the "odious crime" of slavery, on the part of the 
 Northern and Eastern Colonies, that they interdicted 
 the trade in hmnan flesh, but a necessary result of ihe 
 commercial avarice of the mother country, which 
 closed the door of the trade upon her Colonies, and 
 shut up the gates of its African commerce to all but 
 
25 
 
 native born British merchants, and consequently 
 destroyed all prospects of advantage on the part 
 of the Colonies in this respect. It was not, then, so 
 much the generous result of a more enlarged and en- 
 lightened philanthropy on the part of these Colonies, as 
 it was a calculating policy which dictated the steps 
 that they took, in relation to tiie iuiportation of slaves. 
 If it were not, why delay the expression of tlieir abhor- 
 rence of what they deemed a curse and a scourge upon 
 the country, from the year 1&45 to 1703, in the years 
 intermediate between the two periods of which, the 
 exclusive privile^jes to which we have referred were 
 granted bv the crown ; or whv the distinction between 
 the situation of the individual who may have been iairly 
 purchased on the Coast of Africa, and brought into the 
 country, and tliat of him who was taken prisoner iw 
 lawful war, fighting boldly against the enemies of his 
 race, and manfully exerting all the energies which God 
 and nature gave him, to repel the notorious and unin- 
 terrupted aggressions of the Colonists upon his liberty 
 and life. The red man of the woods, who was the ori- 
 ginal proprietor of the soil on which thoy had settled, if 
 taken captive while resisting the encroachments of his 
 more civilized and unwelcome neighbors, was declared 
 to be n slave, and could be bought and sold as such, at 
 the discretion or caprice of those into whose hands 
 the fortune of war may have thrown him ; while the 
 black man was no sooner landed on their shores, than 
 he became invested with the privileges of a higher and 
 more fortunate condition. And yet these Colonies 
 now arrogate to themselves, the proud and peculiar 
 distinction of having first interdicted the traffic in hu- 
 man flesh, and of having, from the purest and most dis- 
 interested humanity, first exhibited to the world tiie 
 4' 
 
' 26 
 
 b 
 
 features of a system of legislation dignifud by all that 
 can ennoble humanity. 
 
 We claim, on tiie part of the Colonists of the South, 
 no particular exemption from the charge of having 
 participaied in this commerce and in the reception in 
 common wiih the Northern and Eastern Provinces, of 
 the slaves that were imported in British ships; but 
 they are certainly enlitled to as nuich credit, on the 
 score of hum-mity, as any portion of the Colonies, for 
 the early and active exertions which were made to 
 suppress the growth of an evil, the frightful character 
 of which appeared so evideiit. Virginia began her 
 system of legislation at a period almost at the same 
 time with Massachusetts, and followed it up with the 
 most unrelaxing assiduity. Long before the expira- 
 tion of the seventeenth century, she had made great 
 progress in restraining the importation of slaves into 
 her territory, by laying such heavy imposts upon their 
 introduction, as virtually amounted to a prohibition. 
 No less than twenty-three Acts, imposing a duty of 
 from five to ten, and finally to tiventij per cent, may be 
 found in her statute book, from the year 1699 to 1772, 
 " the real design of all of which was not revenue, but 
 the repression of importation^ Brougham, in his 
 " Colonial Policy," has a passage upon this subject, 
 that places the character of Virginia in an elevated and 
 distinguished point of view. 
 
 " Every measure proposetl by the Colonial Legisla- 
 tures that did not meet the entire concurrence of the 
 British Cabinet, was sure to be rejected in the last 
 instance by the crown. If examples were required, 
 wc might refer to the history of the abolition of the 
 slave trade in Virginia. A duty on the importation of 
 negroes had been imposed amounting to a prohibition. 
 
27 
 
 One Assembly, inducecl by a temporary peculiarity of 
 cirrumstances, repealed this law by a bill which re- 
 ceived ihe immediate sanction of the crown. But 
 never afterwards could the Royal assent be obtained 
 to a renewal of (he duty, although as we are told by 
 Mr. JefKerson, all manner of expedients were tried for 
 this purpose by almost every subsequent Legislature 
 thf^t met under the Colonial Government. The very 
 find Assembly that met mider the new Constitution 
 finally prohibited the traflic." In 1772, very active 
 exertions were made by Virginia to repress the trade. 
 The "duties previously impos(.'d were re-enacted," and 
 the Assembly,, at the same time, in a petition to the 
 throne, " earnestly implore" the interposition of the 
 croAvij, in checking the importation of slaves from the 
 Coast of Africa, rejiresenting that " it had long been 
 considered as a trade of great inhumanity^'''' tlie future 
 progress and encouragement of which would, in the 
 end, endanger the security and happiness of the Colo- 
 ny. The language of the petition breathes a deep and 
 emphatic tone of feeling upon the subject, that evident- 
 ly demonstrates the sincerity with which it was pre- 
 sented. The petition, however, was unattended to, 
 and the Colony was still stocked by the mother coun- 
 try, with a class of population, against the introduc- 
 tion of which, it hud long previously declared its dis- 
 gust and abhorrence. " That the inclination (says 
 Mr. Walsh, in his " Appeal" from tiie Judgments of 
 Great Britain, respecting the United States) to im- 
 pose the yoke of perpetual bondage on any part of 
 their fellow creatures if it ever existed ^mo\\^t\\Q. majo- 
 rity of the Virginia planters soon subsided, is manifest 
 from an Act which is traced to 1662, declaring that 
 " no Englishmattj trader, or other, who should bring 
 
in any Indians as servants, and assign tlietn over to 
 any other, should sell them for slaves, nor for any other 
 time than English of like age, could serve by x\ct of 
 Assembly." Thus early was tfip state of slavery prohibi- 
 ted, where it was not exacted by the higher authority ; 
 and the first opportunity was taken after the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, to extinguish the detestable com- 
 merce so long forced upon the Province. In October 
 1778, during the tumult and anxiety of revolution, the 
 General Assembly passed a Law, prohibiting, under 
 heavy penalties, the further importation of slaves, and 
 declaring that every slave imported thereafter, should 
 be inmiediately free. The example of Virginia was 
 followed at different times before the date of the Fede- 
 ral Constitution by most of the other States." These 
 historical facts, added to others that we shall produce, 
 furnish the most abundant and unequivocal testimony 
 of the early and sincere desire on the part of the 
 Southern States to repress a traffic, to the dangers and 
 inhumanity of which they were most sensibly alive. 
 There is another valuable piece of Colonial history 
 that gives additional weight to the argument. In the 
 year 1711, Governor Gibbes, in his speech to the As- 
 sembly of the State of South-Carolina, after represent- 
 ing the flourishing condition of the Province, and its 
 general happiness and prosperity, recommends to the 
 serious and solemn consideration of the Assembly the 
 necessity of interdicting the importation of slaves, and 
 deprecates in the most emj)hatic manner, the further 
 introduction of them. The following is an extract 
 from his Speech, 15th May 1711. We give it with all 
 the raciness of its ancient phraseology. 
 
 " And, Gentlemen, I desire you will consider the 
 ' great quantities of negroes that are dayly brought into^ 
 
* this government, and the small number of whites that 
 
 * comes amongst us, and how many are lately dead and 
 ' gon o(T. How insolent and mischeivous the negroes 
 
 * are become, and to consider the Negro Act already 
 ' made, doth not reach up to some of the crimes they 
 < have lately been guilty off; therefore it might be con- 
 ' venient by sotne additional clause of said Negro Act 
 ' to appoint either by gibbets, or some such like way^ 
 ' that, after executed, they may remain more exem- 
 ' plary, than any punishment hitherto hath been in- 
 
 * Aided on them ; and also that masters of negroes, 
 ' may be obliged to provide and allow their negroes 
 ' sufficient dyet and cloathing, and that their worke 
 ' and correction may be with moderation, that they 
 ' may be comfortable, which may the better encour- 
 ' age them to live peaceably and honestly with their 
 
 * masters." We shall make further use of this docu- 
 ment in a subsequent stage of our proceedings. In 
 the mean time, however, we would remark, that 
 from the testimony we have already produced, it is 
 abundantly clear that the Colonies of the South were 
 as eager as those of the North to suppress an evil of 
 the enormity of which both were equally convinced, 
 and to the dangers of which the former were more 
 intimately exposed. While we appeal to the records 
 of the several States, we would point also to the 
 journals of Congress, to show, that the earliest oppor- 
 tunities were warmly embraced by the people of the 
 South, to express their abhorrence of this odious 
 trafKic. "In truth," says Mr. Walsh in the work 
 which we have already quoted, " the Representatives 
 from our Southern States, have been foremost in tes- 
 tifying their abhorrence of the traffic ; an abhorrence, 
 springing from a deep sense, not merely, of it^ inlqui- 
 
30 
 
 ty, but of the magnitude of the evil it has entailed 
 upon their country. It was only at the last session of 
 Congress, (1819) that a rue mber from Virginia pro- 
 posed the following regulation, to which the House of 
 Representatives agreed, Avithout a division." 
 
 "Every person, who shall imj)ort into the United 
 Slates, or, knowingly, aid or abet the importation, 
 into the United States, of any African Negro, or other 
 person, with intent to sell or use such ISegro, or other 
 person, as a slave, or shall purchase any such slave, 
 knowing him or her to be thus imported, shall, on 
 conviction thereof, hi any Circuit Court of the United 
 States, be jmnished with deata.^'' 
 
 Abundant testimony, then, we think, can be col- 
 lected from the statements we have produced, that the 
 Colonies at the South were at as early a period as 
 those of the North, efficieiuly and actively engaged in 
 legislating upon the introduction of Negro Slaves, 
 and that since the Declaration of Independence, they 
 have manifested the same disposition. They are, 
 therefore, entitled to the same credit on the score of 
 humanity. 
 
 We have now arrived at the period of the De- 
 claration of Inde})endence. Let us look into the 
 history of the times, and observe the comparative 
 agency of the different sections of the Union in the 
 importation of slaves since the year 1 776. In the year 
 1803, the State of South-Carolina opened her ports 
 to the reception of slaves from the Coast of Africa, 
 agreeably to the provisio-is of the Constitution of tiic 
 United States. In 1!){>.3, one of her members on tlie 
 floor of Congress, submitted a resohuion, censuring 
 her conduct in thus throwing open her ports and 
 inviting the in){)orlation of African Slaves into her 
 
31 
 
 Temtory; and, but for the interposition ol' Congresi? 
 that repealed the Act of 1804, which prohibited the 
 introduction of slaves into the Territory of Louisiana, 
 by an Act at the succeeding session of 1805, the 
 ports of the Southern States would have been closed 
 against the trade. This repeal was effected by the 
 influence of the Northern and Eastern States, who, 
 while (hey affected to denounce the "inhumanity" of 
 the trade, entered fidly into it, and shared, from their 
 immense amount of tonnage afloat, almost exclusively 
 the profits of it. Possessing, as they did, so decided 
 an advantage in the shipping interest, they became, 
 in conjunction with foreigners, the carrit^-s for the 
 world, and stocked the Southern sections of the Union 
 with a class of population, of the existence of which 
 they now so unjustly complain. After they had n ap- 
 ed the profits of the trade from the year 1805 to the 
 year 1807, when it was interdicted, it was then, and 
 not until then, that the "odiousness" of it became 
 so obnoxious to the "humanity" of the North and 
 East, and that they began the cry against it. Unable 
 any longer from the prohibitory statutes of the Gene- 
 ral Government to import, and having effected a sale 
 of those they had already imported, they then became 
 very fastidious, and their ^'•consciences,'''^ very conveni- 
 ently, took the alarm. All the opprobrium, therefore, 
 "that they have heaped upon us, niijst be returned dou- 
 ble fold on the heads of our calumniators. They were 
 unquestionably the most active in the traffic. Mr. 
 Smith, a senator from this State, in the Congress 
 of the United States, demonstrates in the most lumi- 
 nous manner the inferences drawn from diis view of 
 our subject. His speech upon the " Missouri Question," 
 in the year 1820, is too valuable to pass unnoticed-— it 
 
presents the best coup d^ailoi' the nature of the " Ques- 
 tion*' that we remember to have seen. 
 
 " About the 20th December 1803, the Legislature of 
 the State of Soutli-Carolina, passed a law to open the 
 African Slave Trade under the authority of the provi- 
 sions of the Constitution of the United States. About 
 three months after Congress passed the law of 1804, 
 and immediately adjourned. This was a time that every 
 thing was to bend to the Tonnage of the United States, 
 and at the next session the Congress repealed this law 
 (of 1804,) and the ordinance (of 1787,) and opeiied 
 the ports of Louisiana, and our Eastern friiMids emj>loy- 
 ed, immediately, a large portion of their shipj)ingin the 
 trade. Carolina had no ships of consequence, but an 
 am{)le supply came from the North and East. Rhode- 
 Island furnished her full share; they sent there (to 
 Carolina,) ships from Philadelphia, and they were 
 oblii^ino- enough to send some froui Boston. 1 his 
 was the ground upon which Congress thought proper 
 to repeal the law of 1804, and that part of the ordinance 
 of 1787, at so early a period. This repeal too, must 
 have been effected by the Eastern members. He knew 
 that the members from South-Cauolina ivere cdl op- 
 posed to the Slave Trade. One honorable mrmber 
 from that State, the same session, (1805) offered a re- 
 solution, in the Congress, concerning the Legislature 
 of Soutli-Carolina for opening her ports, which was 
 not acted upon, i^ut for this repeal of the Law of 1 804, 
 by Congress, the ports of South-Carolina would have 
 been shut the next session of her Legislature. These 
 ships cleared out from Charleston. That was neces- 
 sary, because the ports in the other States were not 
 o))en ior this trade. The Northern slave traders, and 
 the British, carried the business on with a high hand. 
 
S3 
 
 The profits of one man in Charleston, an agent for 
 British merchants engaged in the traffic, were esti- 
 mated at $300,000, as commissions, besides others 
 engaged in the same line. All these vessels were 
 obliged to enter a South-Carolina port, but many of 
 them immediately re-shipped tiie slaves to Louisiana. 
 As soon as tJiis trade was cut off, by the Act of Congress 
 of 1807, the sinfulness of it presented itself in glaring 
 colors, both to our Eastern brethren, and the Bri- 
 tish. They can ship no more publicly, and the North- 
 ern and Eastern States had done selling those already 
 in tlieir possession, and then the scheme for emancipa- 
 tion commenced. Tiie cry agaiust this sinful practice 
 comes with an ill grace from that quarter." 
 
 Again. — Let us see who, of the two parties at issue 
 upon this question, has exhibited the most prompt and 
 active disposition to put a final stop to the Slave Trade. 
 In the year 1818, a Committee, consisting of i/iree 
 ^members frosn the slave-holding, and two from the 
 non-slave-holding States, were appointed by a resolu- 
 tion of Congress to suggest the most feasible and effi- 
 cient mode of preventing the smuggling of slaves into 
 the United States, which, in defiance of the existing 
 laws, was carried on to the confusion both of the cha- 
 racter and revenue of the country. The members 
 of the Committee from the slave-holding States repre- 
 sented the necessity of laying the axe to the root of the 
 evil and by one etfcctive blow to cut it up altogether. 
 They proposed to make the penalty a capital one, 
 death. Those from the non-slave-holding States, how- 
 ever, " were willing to cornpromise the sin for fine 
 and imprisonment," and the Eastern members, more 
 particularly those of the Senate, were o|)posed to any- 
 thing even like " corporal punishment" Here " says 
 
 A 
 
34 
 
 Mr. Smith " it ended, and their ships are yet (1820) 
 engaged in carrying slaves under every flag and for' 
 every nation that indulges the trade." Similar efforts 
 were again made in the last Session of the Congress 
 of the year 1820, by a member from Louisiana, one of 
 the slave-holding States, to repress the traffic, by com- 
 pelling the captors of all ships trading to the Coast of 
 Africa, and having slaves on board, to carry the ship 
 and cargo to the port to which they belonged. But 
 the Northern and Eastern portions of the Union saw 
 at once the effect of such a bill, if passed into a law, 
 and their " interests^'' overcame their " consciences.'^'^ 
 The bill, together with the amendments that had been 
 proposed, more effectually to secure the Government 
 from the peculation of those who were secretly violat- 
 ing its laws of revenue, as well as of humanity, was 
 opposed by a member from the State of New-York, a 
 non-slave-holding State. The measures proposed by 
 this bill, would have instantly disclosed who were and 
 who were not clandestinely engaged in the trade that 
 had been inhibited by Government, but which was 
 manifestly still carried on to a great extent by citizens 
 of the United States, under the cover of other flags. 
 The opponents of the Bill knew what would be the 
 result of the disclosure contemplated by it, and inge- 
 niously avoided it. A spirit of humanity so convenient 
 as this, is at least somewhat doubtful in its character. 
 The following valuable tables taken from the Speech of 
 Mr. Smith of South- Carolina, upon the occasion refer- 
 red to, exhibit at one glance a clear and comprehensive 
 view of the relative agency exercised by the difl'erent 
 States of the Union, in the importation of slaves from 
 (he Coast of Africa. 
 
35 
 
 '»' Recapitulation of the African Trade, and hy what Nations 5?<p* 
 ported, from 1st January, 1804, to 1st December, 1807. 
 
 13 
 88 
 9] 
 10 
 
 Total, 202 
 
 The following paper contains the whole number of slaves imported, 
 and the particular nun)ber imported by each foreign nation, and each 
 of the United States. — It is in words and figures, thus : 
 
 Slaves imported at Charleston, from 1st January, 1S04, to S\ si 
 December, 1 807, and by tchat nation : 
 
 V^essels belong 
 
 ing 
 
 to— 
 
 
 
 Charleston, 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 61 
 
 Consignees, natives of 
 
 Rhode-Island, 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 59 
 
 Charleston, 
 
 Biiltiniore, 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 4 
 
 Consignees, natives of 
 
 Boston, - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 1 
 
 Rhode-Island, 
 
 Norfolk, - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 2 
 
 Consignees, natives of 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 - 
 
 ^ 
 
 . 
 
 1 
 
 Britain, 
 
 Sweden, - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 Consignees, natives of 
 
 British, - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 70 
 
 France, 
 
 French, - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 >■ 
 
 3 
 
 
 British, .... 19,949 
 French, ... - i,078 
 
 -21,027 
 
 In American Vessels. 
 
 Charleston, (S. C.) 7,723 
 
 Of this number there were ) r ~,^ «; ri"!" 
 
 belonging to foreigners, C ^' ' ' 
 
 26,744 
 
 Leaving, imported by merchants ^ 
 
 and planters of Charleston > 2,006 
 
 and its vicinity, ^ 
 
 Bristol, 3,914 "^ p. . 
 
 Newport, 3,488 Sf,,^' 7,95§ 
 
 D -A Kcr V Island, ' 
 rrovidenee, 55o ) ' 
 
 Baltimore, - - - - 750 
 
 Savannah, - . _ _ 300 
 
 Norfolk, - . - . 287 
 
 Warren, - - - - 280 
 
 Hartford, - . . . 250 
 
 Boston, - . - _ 200 
 
 Philadelphia, - - - 200 
 
 New-Orleans, - - - 100 
 
 -12,331 
 
 39,07r> 
 
 ••^«^^ 
 
36 
 
 Here ends the black catalojrue. — It would show to the Senate that 
 those peujile who most deprecate the evils of slavery and traffic in 
 hiiinan llesh, when n projitahle market can be found, can sell human 
 flesh with as easy a conscience as they sell other articles. The 
 whole number imported by the merchants and planters of Charleston 
 and its vicinity was only two thousand and six. Nor were the slaves 
 imported by the foreiijners and other American vessels and owners, 
 sold to the Carolinians, only in a small part. They were sold to the 
 p(;ople of the Western States, Georgia, New-Orleans, and a considera- 
 ble quantity were sent to the West Indies — especially when the 
 market became dull in Carolina." 
 
 Thus it would appear to every candid and reverting 
 mind, that the Southern and Western States, having 
 but little shipping, were manifestly unable to compete 
 with their Noi'thern and Eastern brethren in the pro- 
 secution of the Slave Trade, and the latter indulged 
 in it with an extravagance that has no parallel in the 
 history of our country. Let them do us common 
 justice, therefore, and we are willing to sliare the 
 odium, if any there be, equally even with themselves^ 
 they should be the last to upbraid us when we can 
 point to cases of clandestine commerce with Afiica, 
 on their part, long after the abolition of the Trade. The 
 Science, the Endymion and the Plattsburgh, all of 
 them fitted out at New- York, were taken possession 
 of by the proper authorities of the United States in 
 the year 1820, for a violation of their laws in this res- 
 pect. 
 
 We have other causes of complaint. The Northern 
 and Eastern sections of our Union have waged a 
 perpetual and incessant war against the interests of 
 the Southern and Western States; and, since our Con- 
 federacy, have by means direct and indirect, public 
 and private, carried on a system of Legislation wholly 
 destructive of our safety and prosperity. Under the 
 mask of religion and humanity, of liberty and philan- 
 thropy, they have, within a few years past, assumeij 
 
an attitude in relation to us, that, if persisted in, must 
 eventually drive us into measures that will necessarily 
 result in a separation of the Union. Such ruinous 
 encroachments have already been made, that we 
 tremble for the security of our Confederacy. " Great- 
 Britain," says Mr. Pinckney, of South-Carolina, in his 
 place on the floor of Congress, '"in the heat of the Re- 
 volutionary War, and when all her passions were rous- 
 ed by hatred and revenge to the highest pitch, never 
 ventured to inflict uj^on them such measures as they'* 
 (the North and East) " are preparing for them" (the 
 people of the South and West.) The Southern and 
 Western States are too deeply interested in this course 
 of })olicy to remain passive spectators of the scene. 
 They fe(>l that a bold and determined attack has been 
 made upon their dearest rijihts, which, " if sucess- 
 ful, nmst convince them that the Northern and Eas- 
 tern States are their greatest enemies^ Melancholy as 
 this inference may be, it is not the less true. 
 
 Notwidistanding their boasted and ostentatious dis- 
 play of iiunjaniiy, however, the true causes of all the 
 clamor upon the part of the Northern and Eastern 
 States upon the subject of slavery, can be referred to 
 no other definite feeling than a desire to wrest from 
 the Southern and Western States the ascendency that 
 their wealth and talents have given them in the coun- 
 cils of the nation ; and, by diminishing their representa- 
 tion, to secure to themselves the w hole management of 
 the affairs of Government. They complain that they 
 are not equally represented with ourselves in Congress, 
 and have insultingly arrogated to themselves, during 
 the debate on the " Missouri Question," the right of 
 cutting down, in future, any increase in the prospective 
 representation of the South and West, because they 
 
 '^'^^ 
 
38 
 
 consider the " great concession" which they made 
 at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, 
 in allowing the slave-holding States to be represented 
 in the proportion of three-fifths of the number of their 
 slaves, as one that has put us under an obligation of 
 gratitude that can never be cancelled on our own parts, 
 or too deeply regretted by themselves. They repre- 
 sent this " concession" as a sacrifice by them to the 
 affection which they had for the Union of the States, 
 and their patriotic desire to preserve it from dissolu- 
 tion. This is a gross and manifest error. The histo- 
 i-y of that period presents us with a picture directly 
 the reverse. Anterior to, and during the period of our 
 Revolutionary War, all the States, indiscriminately, 
 were in possession of slaves whose treatment and situ- 
 ation in every respect were precisely the same. In 
 the Southern and Middle States, it is true, they were 
 more numerous than in those of the Northern and 
 Eastern, but the latter, nevertheless, had nuuibers of 
 them. At the time of the adoption of the Federal 
 Constitution, the Northern and Eastern States, uho 
 then exhibited a sickly humanity on the introductiim 
 of the word SUive in the articles of Confederation, pro- 
 posed, at their own instance, that the apportionment 
 of taxation by the general Government should be 
 graduated by the value of /«/i(/.s and their improvements. 
 Ever alive, however, to their own interests, they soon 
 discovered that they had surrendered too much to 
 their " qualms of conscience" upon this subject, and 
 histantiy, at their own suggestion, substituted a reso- 
 lution apportioning the aniount of taxation by the 
 numlicr of inhabitants in each State, including ail the 
 ivhites and three-fifths of the black population. As a 
 proof that the non-slavc-holdin§^ States are not entitled 
 
 ^^^' .-o»*iMl**^^ 
 
39 
 
 tp the slightest degree of credit for what they have 
 falsely termed a " sacrifice" in this particular we have 
 only to refer to the annual reports of the Secretary of 
 the Treasury. These documents will demonstrate at 
 a single glance, that the Southern and Western States 
 have, by this very " concession" on the part of the 
 Northern and Eastern States, deprived themselves of 
 a quota of representation to which they are legiti- 
 mately, and by all the axioms of political economy^ 
 strictly entitled. The former pay a greater amount 
 of taxes to the support of the General Government, and 
 in fact, furnish nearly double of its annual revenue 
 in comparison with the Northern and Eastern States; 
 and this difference is created in a great measure by 
 the value of the labor of our slaves. We will take the 
 year 1820, when the " Missouri Question" was under- 
 going a full and fatal discussion. In that year, from 
 a report of the Secretary, the exports from the States 
 north of Pennsylvania, inclusive, were only about 
 eighteen millions, while those of the States south of 
 Pennsylvania exceeded thirty-two millions, enahVmg the 
 latter to import double the value of foreign commodi- 
 ties necessary to our convenience or our luxury, and 
 giving, of course, a double amount of revenue to the 
 country. Thus, while the labor of our slaves is so 
 materially efficient in the support of the Government, 
 and the value of it is nearly double the amount 
 of that of the inhabitants of the Northern and 
 Eastern States, we are denied the liberty of 
 being represented by but three fifths of that valuable 
 class of our population, "while the whole of the 
 comparatively unproductive inhabitants of the North- 
 ern and Eastern States are fully represented," 
 The jjiist and wholesome maxim, therefore, of the 
 
most profound and enlightened political economists^ 
 that the representation of a State should be graduated 
 and apportioned, not only by the number of its 
 inhabitants, but, by the value of its products, and its 
 direct agency in contributing to the revenue, is ren- 
 dered, with regard to us, wholly nugatory ; and the 
 Northern and Eastern States arc now in the full pos- 
 session of an advantage that gives them greater 
 strength on the floor of Congress than they are actu- 
 ally entitled to. Their complaints, therefore, are as 
 unfounded as they are unfair. The profligacy of 
 unprincipled ambition may do a great deal, but we 
 hope there is integrity and good sense enough in the 
 country to detect and expose its Tarquin strides. 
 
 With regard to the general question, as it respects 
 the right that one body of men may have of holding 
 another in a state of bondage and of exacting from 
 them any given amount of involuntary service, we 
 have only one or two remarks to make. Very emi- 
 nent and enlightened men of all countries have differ- 
 ed widely in their views of tiie subject. Certain 
 it is, that we can trace the institution of slavery as far 
 back as the existence of the world itself; not only 
 jntliose dark and dismal ages of its infancy, when the 
 lights of civilization giiunnered feebly through the 
 gloom of barbarism and ignorance, but in those bright 
 and sunny periods of its history when literature and 
 science poured out their full radiance to enlighteu and 
 liberalize the human nsind. During the Augustan 
 age of Imperial Rome, this institution was always 
 recognised and protected; and the Jews even, the 
 chosen people of God, during their Theocracy^ wluni, 
 according to the Holy Scriptures, tlie great Jehovah 
 Vimself,reverentially be it spoken, directed and inform- 
 
41 
 
 ed all their Councils, and inspired all their law givers 
 and law makers, were expressly permitted the use of 
 slavery, although they were restricted in its applica- 
 tion to the services of any but the Heathen. The au- 
 thorities upon the subject are numerous and were read 
 by Mr. Smith in the Senate of the United States, in his 
 Speech upon the "Bill for recovering fugitive slaves 
 from labor." " We all know," said Mr. Smith, " that 
 Ham sinned against his God and against his father, for 
 which, Noah, the inspired jjatriarch, cursed Canan, 
 the son of Ham, and said " a servant of servants shall he 
 be unto his brethren.^^ Newton, who was perhaps as 
 great a Divine as any in New-England, and as pro- 
 found a scholar, in a book of great celebrity, called his 
 Prophecies, in which he endeavors to prove the divini- 
 ty of the bible, by the many prophecies that arc now 
 fulfilling, says that this very African race are the des- 
 cendants of Canan, and have been the slaves of various 
 nations, and are still expiating, in bondage, the curse 
 upon themselves and their progenitors. But it may 
 be said that this is only an opinion of Mr. Newton, and 
 that we can see no reason in it. If the gentleman was 
 unwilling to believe Mr. Newton, he would surely 
 believe Moses and the Prophets ; and if the Seriate 
 would indulge him, he would show from the bible itself 
 that slavery was permitted by divine authority, and for 
 that purpose he would open the XXV chap, of Leviti- 
 cus, and read as follows. " And the Lord spake unto 
 Moses in Mount Sinai, and said, speak unto the chil- 
 dren of Israel and say unto them &c. ('39.) If thy bro- 
 ther that dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and sold 
 unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a 
 bond servant, (40) but as a hired servant and as a so- 
 
 iourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve tbce 
 6 
 
*'-* 
 
 42 
 
 until the year of Jubilee: (44) both thy bond-men and 
 bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the hea- 
 then that are round about you, of them shall ye buy 
 bond-men and bond-maids. (46) Moreover, of the chil- 
 dren of the strangers that do sojourn amongyou,of them 
 shall ye buy and of their families that are with you, 
 which they begat in your land and they shall be your 
 possession, (46) and ye shall take them as an inheritance 
 for your children, after you to inherit them for a posses- 
 sion ; they shall be your bond-men j^br et^er." This, 
 Mr. President, is the word of God, as given to us in 
 the holy bible, delivered by the Lord himself to his 
 chosen servant, Moses. It might be hoped this would 
 satisfy the scruples of all who believe in the divinity of 
 the bible, as the Honorable gentleman from New- 
 Hampshire (Mr. Morrill) certainly does, as he has re- 
 ferred to that sacred volume for his creed. It might 
 satisfy the scruples of Mr. Kenric,* and the Divines 
 who appear to be so shocked at seeing a father dispose 
 of his slaves to his children by his last will and testa- 
 ment; as they will perceive the scriptures direct them 
 to go as an inheritance. The Honorable gentlenian 
 says he speaks not only his own, but the universal senti- 
 ments of all those he rejjresents. If he and his friends 
 of New-Hampshire have not turned aside after 
 strange gods, it is hoped the authority I havfe quoted 
 might satisfy them." 
 
 As to the particular question in relation to the 
 convenience of the slave-holding States, it is much 
 more easily decided than our opponents have been 
 willing to admit. It is no longer a subject of 
 problematical inquiry, whether the tvhite population of 
 
 * The aullior of an inflammatory pamplilet cntitled'the " Horrors of Slavery?" 
 anJ laid u|ion {he desk of each Senator dining the discu'^sion of tlio Bill. 
 
\ 
 
 43 
 
 the Southern States, more especially South-Carolina 
 and Georgia, are capable, from their local situation 
 and climate, and perhaps we might add to this, some 
 peculiarity in their constitutional economy, of cultivat- 
 ing the soil upon which they live. The climate, in the 
 first place, is inconceivably hostile to the white con- 
 stitution, and the experience of more than a century 
 has shown that this opinion is a correct one. Those 
 who know any thing of the geographical situation of 
 these States, and of their general surface, know that 
 the very portions, from the cultivation of which the 
 Planter derives most of his wealth, present a succes- 
 sion of deep flats and low bottoms, covered for the 
 greater part of the year with extensive basins or 
 reservoirs of stagnant water, which, under the influ- 
 ence of a tropical sun, throw out nothing but pesti- 
 lence and disease. In breathing this pestilential at- 
 mosphere, the negro, whose constitution seems better 
 adapted to it, subjects himself to the introduction of 
 none of those fatal distempers, to which the white man 
 falls a sure and certain victim. " He is more tolerant 
 oj heat,^^ says Mr. Jefferson, "than the white man, 
 because of his greater transpiration, and less so of 
 cold. Perhaps too a difference of structure in the 
 pulmonary apparatus, which a late ingenious experi- 
 mentalist (Crawford) has discovered to be the principal 
 regulator of animal heat, mav have disabled him from 
 extricating in the act of inspiration, so much of that 
 fluid from the outer air, or obliged him in expiration 
 to part with more of it." Whatever physical or 
 anatomical difiicult}^ however, there may be in ac- 
 covmting for the aptitude of the one, or the inaptitude 
 of the constitution of the other, to the climate, one fact 
 is certain, that there is this difference between the two. 
 
 *v 
 
44 
 
 that the same season of \\\v year which carries on its 
 wings the blessings of lirahh to the negro, gives an 
 early warning to the Planter to quit his estates and 
 flee from the destruction that awaits him. We need 
 not advert but to one solitary instance of the tnith of 
 this observation. It is well known to all who have 
 ever been beyond the smoke of our city, that the 
 poorer classes of our people, in those belts of land 
 which are denominated the middle and low country, 
 who are compelled to remain on their \ht\e farms, 
 together with the Overseers, who, from duty to their 
 employers' interests, must necessarily be upon their 
 plantations during what are called the sicklymonths, are 
 annually afflicted with the most distressing fevers, u hile 
 the 7ies;roes, genei-ally speaking, enjoy an uninterr(ij)t- ' 
 ed exemption from them. Let those who, upon the 
 return of frost, visit their country residences, testify 
 what hundreds of j)ale and emaciated creatures, worn 
 down by fevers and agues, and other diseases of 
 which the country is so productive, meet them on their 
 way and pass hke shadows before tJu?m. 
 
 These remarks apply with double force and energy, 
 when we take into considoriition the tremendous cx- 
 pos»n-es to which the cultivation of our great staple 
 commodities, Cotton and Rice, necessarily subjects 
 the laborer, particularly in the latter. The rich low 
 lands and swam|)s which are so providentially calcu- 
 lated to furnish us with sources of food and riches, 
 would have forever remained unredecnjcd, and where 
 golden harvests now meet the eye of the grateful 
 proprietor of the soil, nothing but dark and dismal 
 swamps would have been seen. "^Vith the introduc- 
 tion of Rice Pldnting,^^ says Hewitt, who by the way, 
 was abhorrent in the last degree, of slavery, "into 
 
45 
 
 this country, (Carolina) and the fixing upon it as a 
 staple commodity, the necessity of employing Africans 
 tor the purpose of cultivation, wns doubled. The low 
 lands of Carolina, which are unquestionably the 
 richest in the country, nmst have long remained a 
 wilderness, had not Africans, whose naturcd constitutions 
 were suited to the clime and work, been employed in 
 cultivating this useful article of food and commerce.'' 
 
 Here then is a candid acknowledgment from one of 
 the most scrupulous writers upon the subject of 
 slavery, and who never touches upon it but with feel- 
 ings of bitter and determined hostility, even while he 
 admits its necessity, under some circumstances. The 
 same reasons urged by him at the period when he 
 wrote as to the necessity, therefore, of the use ol 
 Africans in the cultivation of this valuable staple, may 
 now be urged with redoubled force. The country- 
 owes almost all its wealth and prosperity, and the 
 revenue of the Union an immense increase in its fund, 
 to the labor of this strong and hardy race. 
 
 There is another revolting part of our subject to 
 which we cannot turn but with mingled feelings of 
 indignation and surj)rise. We r(^fer to the charges 
 made against us of the general inhmnanity of slave- 
 holders in their intercourse with them, and the total 
 disregard which is commonly paid to their physical 
 comforts and general happiness. We shall make it our 
 especial duty to rebut this foul slander, indignant that 
 it should have been preferred, yet proud that the refu- 
 tation will be as full as it will be conclusive. The 
 people of the slave-holding States are as high-minded, 
 intelligent, humane and generous as those of anf^- 
 section of the Union, and they would disdain a system 
 of discipline in relation to tluir domestics that would 
 
46 
 
 offer the slightest violence to these proud and honora- 
 ble feelings. We are insultingly told that the Master's 
 authority over his slaves is a tyranny of the most 
 odious character; that it is vvUhout bounds and extends 
 to a point little short of the power of life and death ; 
 that the slave is subject, at all times, from his defenceless 
 situation, to the most grinding oppression ; liable to be 
 ill treated and wantonly abused, and in short, that 
 such is their deplorable condition that they drag out a 
 miserable existence, the unhappy victims of a cruel and 
 unfeeling tyrant. The authority of the venerable 
 Jefferson has been quoted also to strengthen these 
 bold and revolting calumnies. The passage is to be 
 found in his " Notes on Virginia." " The whole com- 
 merce between master and slave is a perpetual exer- 
 cise of the most boisterous passions. Our children 
 see this and learn to imitate it. I tremble for my 
 country when I reflect that God is just. The Almighty 
 has no attribute that can take side vvith us in such a 
 contest." 
 
 Mr. Smith, to whose valuable and important Speech 
 we have so often referred, and in which, are con- 
 tinually exhibited such clear evidences of a profound 
 and luminous understanding, answers the argument in 
 such a manner as must dissipate the objections of the 
 most prejudiced. 
 
 " Mr. Siniili Siiid, lit' had tiie li(;;liest regard for thnt venerable pat- 
 riot; he was a j^reat philosopher, and a statesman of the first order; 
 he knew no words more ap})ropriate in prononnoiuii his eiilocy, than 
 those used by him in dernieatine the rharactcr of tiie immortal Wash- 
 ington. < Ills memory will be adored while liberty shall have vota- 
 ries, his name will triumph overtime, and will, in future ages, assume 
 its just station among the most cilebrated worthies of the world.' 
 With all this tribute, and witli all the veneration which he felt for 
 ihal great man, he did not hesitate to contradict him in the most 
 unequivocal terms. The Master has no motives for this Ijoisterous 
 liostility. It is at war with his interest, and it is at war with his rom- 
 •ori. Tlie wlu>le «(>mmerce between master and slave is patriarchal. 
 
4t 
 
 The master has every motive to impel him to it. Js to the effect on 
 children, it is quite the reverse; the black children are the constant 
 associates of the white children ; they eat together, tiiey play together, 
 and their affections are oftentimes so strongly formed in early life as 
 never to be forgotten ; so much so, that in thousands of instances there 
 is nothing but the shadow of slavery left. These observations of Mr. 
 Jefferson could not have been founded on facts ; they were written to 
 gratiiy a foreigner, at his own request, when every American was 
 filled with enthusiasm. They are the effusions of the speculative 
 philosophy of his young and ardent mind, and which his riper years 
 have corrected. He wrote these notes near forty years ago, since 
 which, his life has been devoted to that sort of practical philosophy, 
 which enlarges the sphere of human happiness and contributes to the 
 promotion of civil liberty ; and during the lohole time his principal 
 fortune has been in slaves, and he still continues to hold them. It is 
 impossible, -when his mind became enlarged by reflection and informed 
 by observation, that he could entertain such sentiments and hold 
 slaves at the same time.'' 
 
 It is indeed humiliating to the last degree to listen 
 
 even to such charges as those we have noticed ; but 
 
 it is due to the fair fame of these sections of the Union 
 
 to demonstrate, that the condition of the slave, so far 
 
 from partaking of the misery which has been attributed 
 
 to it, is in every respect preferable to that of the poor 
 
 laboring class of people of any Xjovernment on 
 
 earth, and that if it were not for foreign, subsidiary 
 
 causes, he would remain perfectly satisfied with his 
 
 lot. It is true, indeed, that all slave-holders have laid 
 
 down non-resistance and the most perfect and uniform 
 
 obedience to their orders, as fundamental principles in 
 
 the government of their slaves. This necessarily 
 
 results from the relation in which they stand, and we 
 
 might as well denounce that government a despotism, 
 
 that punishes any infringement of its laws, as to call 
 
 that a tyranny which is nothing more or less than an 
 
 authority unavoidably arising from the very character 
 
 of the connexion between master and slave. This 
 
 authority unquestionably may be abused, but we deny 
 
 that these abuses have ever been S9 frequent a« 
 
48 
 
 to justify the illiberal and unfeeling calumnies ojT 
 which we couiplain. It is not true that the authority 
 of the master over his slave is without limitation or re- 
 striction ; but, on the contrary, we affirm that il is watch- 
 ed and guarded by some very jealous statutory pro- 
 visions. He is protected, by the humanity of our laws, 
 both in his life and his limbs, and from any brutal 
 attack on either. If his life be sacraficed to the wild 
 and furious passions of his master, or of any other 
 individual, the law punishes the delinquent with death. 
 If he be maimed, either by the cutting; off of a limb, 
 such as an arm or leg, he. the law follows the offender 
 with death also. While the poorer classes of laborers, 
 in England, for instance, resort to theft or high- 
 way robbery, in orderto supply the wants of themselves 
 and of their famishing wives and children, and still their 
 cries for bread, because the miserable pittance which 
 they had received as the price of their labor was insu- 
 fficient, the slave with his family, however numerous, 
 looks confidently to his master, who, hjj law, is bound 
 to supj)ly them with good and suflicient food and 
 clothing, (if his inhumanity chose to with-hold it) 
 and who by that law becomes obnoxious to a prosecu- 
 tion if he does not comply with its requisition. The 
 master is also limited by law as to the duration and 
 extent of their labor at the different periods of the 
 year, and he cannot exact more; and it is a fact, such 
 is the maximum of the labor of tlie slave, that an 
 industrious, active negro will perform his task by 
 twelve o'clock ; many by two or three, and all, except 
 the idle and inattentive, by four o'clock in the niter- 
 noon. When his task is done the rest of the tiujc is 
 lus own, and he either spends it in cultivating his little 
 gpot of ground, in the enjoyment of sleep, or in a 
 
49 
 
 friendly intercourse with his relations and fellow labor- 
 ers on the plantation. As we are plain matter-of-fact 
 men, and as this picture may perhaps, by some, be 
 thought to partake a little of the romantic, we produce 
 the following facts in confirmation of what we have 
 stated ; and wc caiuiot here refrain to renew our cordial 
 thanks to tiie gentlemen who have furnished them at 
 our solicitation. They are known to be men of large 
 and extensive planting interests, both in Rice and Cot- 
 ton, as well as gentlemen of high standing in the com- 
 munity. Their authority is therefore conclusive. The 
 subsequent facts were communicated by George 
 Edwards Esq. 
 
 *' A day's work allotted to each of my negroes on n>y Plantations is 
 done with so much ease, that I have often known them to have finished 
 it by eleven to two o'clock in the day ; the remainder of the day is at 
 their own disposal, and they are never called upon either by myself 
 or my managers after having finished their task, unless in cases oi 
 great emergency. 
 
 " I make it an invariable rule, and orders to that effect are strictly 
 given to my managers, after my lands are prepared and the crop 
 planted, to ascertain the number of my woiHving negroes, and allow to 
 each of them a quarter or a half acre of land, or more, if they wish it, 
 to plant their own little crops. The drivers then take them off to the. 
 lands allotted to them, and, under the direction of my managers, put 
 them to work, prepare the ground and plant it with corn froin my own 
 corn-houses, precisely in the same manner as they had prepared and 
 planted my own fields. When it requires hoeing, after having gone 
 over my fields once or twice, their own crops are as regularly hoed 
 and attended to as my own. During the Summer, when the harvest- 
 ing season commences, their crops are gathered in for them by my 
 orders, at the same time with my own, and i often alh^v them the use 
 of my boats to carry their produce to market. Independent of their 
 crop, I permit them to raise hogs and poultry of every description, 
 and many of them supply themselves with bacqn during the winter, 
 and have hogs also to dispose of. They appear perfectly happy ai?d 
 contented with their situation and Ut- pri\ili'gps allowed them. 
 7 
 
50 
 
 At eacii of my Plantalions there are Hospitals lor the reception aad 
 .'tccomodation of the sick, with every necessary article lor their com- 
 fort and convenience. Tliere are Nurses in each Hospital who attend 
 npon them regularly and administer to their wants, and all the medical 
 aid required called in at as early a period as possible. The children 
 on the dilierent Plantations have elderly wenches, whose business it 
 is to do nothing else but to attend u}K»n them and to supply their little 
 wants. They are all well fed and well clothed, and in every respect 
 -seem cheerful, happy and contented." 
 
 The next cormiiunication that we present to the 
 observation of our readers, is from Benjamin D. 
 Roper, Esq. 
 
 " In conformity w ith your request, I send you a hasty and uncon- 
 nected statement of the general management and treatment of negroes 
 employed on Plantations, as lar as my knowledge extends. In pre- 
 paring a field for a crop, the usual labour required of each Negro is 
 commonly to bed one task in a day, and a task comprises one hundred 
 and five feet square; this task is generally accomplished by sun-set; 
 many negroes perform it two or three hours before sun-set. As this 
 subject might attract the attention of persons totally unacquainted 
 with jilantation work in South-Carolina, it might not be amiss to ob- 
 serve that the above mentioned task is required of prime or full hands: 
 weak hands, commonly called quarter and half hands, have their 
 task proportioned at the same ratio. A prime hand, in counnon, cul- 
 tivates five acres of land including his own provisions; more can easily 
 be planted and attended, but on a cotton plantation, with favourable 
 seasons, it is asnuich as can be conveniently gathered and prejiared for 
 market. Alter the crop is planted, the subsequent attendance of it is. 
 comparatively, much lighter work. It is not unconnnon for an industri- 
 ous negro to liave finished his task by three or four o'clock. In com- 
 mon, eacli hand is allowed to cultivate a task on their own account, 
 and time alio wf'l them to prepare and plant their corn, peas, pom- 
 pions, mel'.ons, &c. &c. In addition to this, sufficient grountl contigu- 
 ous to their dwellings is allowctl them lor gardens, from which many 
 of them raise fruit and vegetables amply suflicient for their families.. 
 IMan}' of the negroes raise hogs, ducks and fowls, and have then- 
 bee-hives, whence they uidulge themselves in some of the luxuries as 
 wflj'as conveniences of lilt;. It gnly requires, on their part, industry 1«>- 
 
oi 
 
 insure tliese advantages, as frequent opportunities are allowed them- 
 of conveying to market tiie iVuit of their labour. 
 '■ They are fed in common, one hah" the year, on corn, the other haU 
 the year on potatoes. At stated periods, meat and fish are given to them, 
 and the advantages of the rivers, creeks and ponds, are by no means 
 inconsiderable, whence oysters, crabs and fish are most amply afibrded 
 them. Their dwellings in co)nmon, aie more commodious and com- 
 fortable than a large proportion of the white inhabitants of many 
 parts of the interior parishes in this state. In sickness there is little 
 distinction between them and their masters ; the same medical atten- 
 dance and every comfort necessary or desirable are invariably admin- 
 istered. Tiiey are clad, in winter with best woolen plains, and iu 
 summer with oznaburgs. In the parish where f resiue, there is 
 one Episcopal and one Presbyterian Church, regularly o'pened every 
 Sal)bath to every Negro, as well as white persons ; and every Negro, 
 tliat has produced satisfactory evidence of good character, and there 
 are many such, has been invariably admitted to unite with the white 
 comnnmicants in celebrating the Lord's Supper. In concluding this 
 subject, it may not be hazarding too much to say, that with humane 
 masters, the negroes are generally as happy a people as any laboring 
 class, perhaps, under heaven ; and if I may be allowed the expression, 
 an inhumane master, is a very rare character ; such would be held iv 
 contempt and abhorrence.'^ 
 
 We are indebted to the politeness of Robert J. 
 TuRNBULL Esq. lor the following communication. It 
 is as full and as conclusive as the most bigoted sceptic 
 could desire. 
 
 " The condition of our slavTS, within the last thirty years, has been 
 considerably ameliorated. Their labor has not only been dimi- 
 nislied, but they have been treated with more 'intlulgence and have 
 had more attention paid to their comfort ar,d accoiumodiition than 
 formerly. The introduction of mills and maciiinery for pounding 
 and preparing tlie rice for market, which was previou.-ly accomplished 
 by manual labor, forms a new era in the history of their state of labor. 
 By this improvement, the reduction of hard work may he estimated 
 at nearly one half, whilst the wafer culture in the management of d'.<; 
 rice crop, practis'^d !)y many jtlnnter';. and the substitution of cotton 
 
52 
 
 for indigo on the high lands, have also greatly contributed to lessen 
 their toil. 
 
 " No culture for our country can be easier than that of the cotton 
 plant. With the excption of the second and third hoeings, which 
 generally take place in the month of May, there is, comparatively, 
 little or no labor in attending to the crop, unless there be some 
 defect in management; this sometimes occurs with careless Planters, 
 or with those who over-plant. With cotton there is no cutting, or 
 carrying, or heavy harvesting. The pods, ripening in succession, and 
 continuing for four and five months, make the harvest slow and tedi- 
 ous, but the work is light and easy, so much so, that all the pregnant 
 women even, on tlie plantation, and weak and sickly negroes incapa- 
 ble of other labor, and all the boys and girls above nine and ten years 
 of a<^e, are then m requisition to assist in gathering the wool wliich 
 h.an<TS from the pods. Children are in fact the most useful hands at 
 this season. From the smallness of iheir fingers and their low stature, 
 they daily pick in more than many adults. Nor is the cleaning and 
 preparing the crop for market, attended wilh labor. The ginning* of 
 the cotton by machines constructed for the purpose, impelled by 
 treadles, would to some appear a laborious employment 5 but it is not 
 so, for most able bodied negroes would prefer to work at these than 
 to sit down and pick the moats from the wool. In short, from the 
 time that the seed is put into the ground, which is in March, until 
 Christmas when the crop is harvested, there is not, with the excep- 
 tion of the second and third hoeing, already stated, any hard laboi^ 
 jjerformed by our slaves. 
 
 ''The mechanics and artizans of Europe, and of some sections of our 
 own country, labor in their employments, not only all day, but dur-r 
 ing part of the night. Our negroes on the contrary have their tasks 
 allotted to them, and these are so api)ortioncd, that there are few who 
 cannot perfornt them by mid-day, or within an hour or two qfter- 
 loards. No matter what the work is, which a slave is ordered to \wv- 
 form. If its nature be such as to admit of his being tasked, he works 
 mider this task arrangement and no other ; whether it be listingl of the 
 STonnd, banking, hoeing, thinning of the plants, gathering in of corn or 
 blades, or ditching or draining, splitting t)f rails, nuiking of fences or 
 cutting wood ; his work lt)r the day is known to him before hand, long 
 
 *Tliat is separating the wool from tlic seed. 
 
 i Taking off the swurd wilh a hoe and drawing it (ogethrriis i\ foui'dition for 
 g bed lor tiie pliint. 
 
53 
 
 custom having Sxed it. It may be easily imagined that undtr such an 
 arrangement^ the slave goes to his work with clieerfulness, because when 
 he accomplishes it, the rest of the day is at his own disposal, which 
 he industriously applies to the cultivation of his own little garden or 
 piece of ground allotted to him. It is in the scfison of cotton picking 
 alone, that the slave labors {if it can be called labor) from sun-rise 
 to sun-set. This is a species of employment, in wiiich no task can be 
 assigned for the quantity which a person can gather in a day ; de- 
 pends upon the state of tlie field, the weather, the wamth or coolness 
 oftheday, and many other circumstances. At all other seasons of 
 the year, upon all well regulated plantations, the average time of 
 laboring does not exceed seven or eight hours in the twentj'-four. 
 The working of our slaves by task, as it is called, distinguishes them 
 from the laborers of other countries in an especial manner, when it is 
 known, that the daily work allotted, is so considerabli/ within that 
 which it is in their power to perform. This daily task does not vary ac- 
 cording to the arbitrary will and caprice of their owners, and although 
 is not fixed by law, it is so well settled by long usage, that upon every 
 plantation it is the same. Should any owner increase the work be- 
 yond what is customary, he subjects himself to the reproach of his 
 neigjibors, and to such discontent amongst his slaves as to mahef 
 them of but little use to him. 
 
 The daily Tasks are these : 
 
 Cutting firewood, - - - one cord. 
 Splitting rails, - - - one hundred. 
 
 C a quarter of an acre, or 10?> 
 Listing ground, - - - .) feet square, into 21 beds fivo 
 
 ^ feet a-part. 
 
 Breaking or Bedding, - - - do. do. 
 
 Hoeing of cotton or corn, - - half an acre. 
 
 Ginning of cotton, _ - - twenty-five lbs. clean. 
 
 Moating of do. ... fifty lbs. clean. 
 
 Ditcliing, in light land, - - 420 cubic feet, 
 
 do. in clay do. - - 2 10 do. do. 
 
 Gathering blades, - - - half an acre. 
 
 Breaking in coin, ready for carting, do. do. 
 
 Digging in potatoes, - - - do. do. 
 
 '• The subsistence of the slaves consists from JMarch.until August of 
 eorn, ground into grists or meal, which made into what is called hu- 
 mirii/, or baked into corn bread, furnishes a most substantial ai;<l 
 
54 
 
 wholesome food. The other six months they are fed upon the sweet 
 j>otHtoe, which is boiled, baked or roasted, as their taste or fancy may 
 direct. These articles are distributed in weekly allowances, and in 
 sufficient quai>tity, together with a proper allowance of salt. The 
 skim milk or clabber of the dairy is divided daily. It would be very 
 desirable if regular rations of bacon or some other animal food could 
 be furnished them; but as this cannot always be practicable, it is dif- 
 ficult to make it a matter of permanent regulation. Meat, therefore, 
 when given, is only by way of indulgence or favor. In those seasons 
 of the year, when they are exposed to the most labor, they receive 
 bacon, soU-Jish, and occasionally fresh meat. Those who live on 
 creeks and rivers are at no loss for an abudance offish and oysters, to 
 say nothing of the little comforts which all negroes have by the raising 
 and sale of their pigs, poultr}', &x. which ihey are permitted to do. 
 But take their subsistence as it is, without any allowance of meat, is it 
 not infinately preferable to the oat-meal of Scotland, and the potatoes 
 of Ireland; a species of food very mi'erior to the sweet jjotafoe of a. 
 Southern soil? Our negroes could not work if fed upon the Irish 
 jootatoe. 
 
 " Their clothing consists of a winter and a summer suit; the former 
 of a jacket, waistcoat and overalls of Welsh plains, and the latter of oz- 
 naburg or homespun, or other substitutes. They have shoes, hats and 
 hi^ndkerchiefs, and other little articles, such as tobacco, pipes, rum &:q. 
 Their dwellings consist of good clay cabins, with clay chimneys, but 
 so much attention has of late years been paid to their comfort in this 
 particular, that it is now very common, particularly on the Sea Islands, 
 to give them substantial framed houses on brick foundations and wiih 
 bt'ick chimneys. Many are of opinion that they enjoy more health 
 in open temporary cabins with groimd or dirt Hoors. Fait this does 
 jiot correspond with the experience of those who willingly incur the 
 expense of better buildings. In feickness they are taken care of, and 
 on most plantations, there are sick houses, or hospitals, for the recep- 
 tion of those who da not go out to Mork; a ])ractice which it would 
 be well if it were more general. AVlicn the patient is reallt/ sick 
 everv comfort and attention may be dispensed by such an institution, 
 whilst to such as enter it only to skulk tiom labor, (which is pecu- 
 liar to some negroes,) it liecomes ix prn'ttcntiarif. 
 
 '• To each head of a family is allotted a piec«' of ground around his 
 h'liise. as n gafden sj)ot. in adclition (n «j)icli. carh hdioier has fifty- 
 
55 
 
 two and a half feet by one hundred and five, set apart for him 'in tlic 
 iield. To some, more is allowed. 
 
 " That the slaves in South-Carolina are Iiumaftely treated, and thai 
 they are better provided with food and clothing than are the poor in 
 most countries, will appear to any impartial observer. No better 
 Evidence need be adduced than their cheerfulness antl mirth at al^ 
 times, both in toicn and cmtntry. 
 
 « With all their mirth and merriment, however, they do not seem 
 more contented than they were thirty or forty years ago, when the 
 discipline was more rigid, their labor more constant and their com- 
 forts fewer. This is undoubtedly owing to a relaxation in disipUnc 
 which experience abundantly proves has been almost carried too far. 
 The regulations that would be applicable to whites entirely fail when 
 applied to the government of slaves. The only principle upon which 
 any authority over them can be maintained \sfear ; and he who de- 
 nies this, has but little knowledge of them. AVhere there is this princi- 
 ple in the bosom of a slave, coupled with a strong sense of his inferi- 
 ority to his master, he is happy and contented, and this is almost 
 universally the case with the country Negroes. In his dreams, no 
 visions visit him to remind him of his servitude. Born a slave, he 
 need only be assured that he will be well fed and clothed for life, and 
 worked in moderation, and he will regard himself as the happiest of 
 mortals. 
 
 « A proof of the humanity with which these people are treated, is 
 their increase by natural population. There is no certainty as to 
 what this increase is, because of the importation of slaves from Africa, 
 until 1808, and the emigration into this, from other states. But it is 
 believed to be infinitely greater, than the increase amongst the poor 
 in any part of Europe. In some parts of the State where the country is 
 healthy there is a duplication every fifteen years. In many, every 
 twenty years, whilst In some portions there is but a tri'fting increase in 
 the same period. But this is owing not lo any fault in their treatment, 
 but to the extreme insalubrity of the air in some portions of the State. 
 A reference also to the diseases which afilict our negroes, would show, 
 that their food is both more wholesome and more abundant than that 
 of the laboring classes in other countries. Dropsies, rickets, 
 scrofula, typhus fever, and tlie long train of diseases which attend 
 upon want and poverty, are far less frequent amongst our slaves, than 
 in England. Scotland and Ireland. The diseases most fatal axe 
 eetarrhas, pleurisL^s. pevipenu.uony. and other discase.s of the ches't 
 
 \ 
 
56 
 
 and limgs. These carry ulf numbers of prime negroes, annually, 
 which may be owing to their carelessnes and imprudence, and to 
 their propensity to be out at nights, visiting the neighboring plan- 
 tations. 
 
 " The foregoing remarks are principally applicable to the lower 
 parts of South-Carolina and particularly to the Sea Islands . Th# 
 treatment of those in the inferior ami upper country differs no further, 
 than that the animal food which they receive may be more liberal ; 
 the country affording more facilities in this respect. Upon the lohole, 
 I think it may be affirmed with the greatest truth that so intimately 
 blended are the consider at ions of humanittj and interest at the pre- 
 sent day, that few laborers in any part of the world, work easier 
 nndhatJC more comfort, and are, upon the whole, more contented than 
 our black population.^^ 
 
 We are obligated to the attention of Elias Horry, 
 Esq. for the communication which follows: — 
 
 "With regard to the accommodation and general comfort of the 
 slaves in this country, there is no question but that they enjoy a 
 greater share of the blessings of life than falls to the lot of the 
 laboring poor of most countries. Their dwellings, on my planta- 
 tion, are built in such a manner as to afford them every protection 
 and comfort, and are generally about forty feet in length and twenty 
 feet wide, with a double brick chimney in the centre that forms two 
 tenements; each tenement has two rooms and a hall. 
 
 Their food consists of hominy, potatoes, peas, and small-rice, and 
 is regularly given out to them overy week. The waters of the 
 Santee, upon which I live, abound with the finest fish, and all the 
 grown Negroes, and many of the children, are supplied with fish- 
 hooks and lines by which they are enabled to get a regular supply 
 offish from the river. In tlie summer season salted fish is occa- 
 sionally given to them. Each grown Negro is allowed a small 
 Field, say from a quarter to a half acre of land, or more if he 
 desires it, which he plants, and the profits of which lie appro- 
 priates exclusively to his own use. They are permitted tO 
 raise poultry of every description which they either sell to tlieir 
 master or send to market. In cases of sickness they have every 
 medical attention necessary. Each plantation is supjjlied with 
 medicines of every descrijitiun : e\'ery attention is thoreibre paid to 
 ♦he sick, and as the diseases of our Negroes are of a simple oaturi" \X 
 
57 
 
 is raiely neces'^ary, except in cas?s where surgical aid is required, to 
 send for a physician. There are nurses on every plantation, whose 
 business it is to do nothing but attend to the sick and administer to 
 tlieir wants. In addition to which, in cases of severe illness, one or 
 more of the family to which the invalids may belong are permitted 
 tb wait upon them. The nurses ai'e also supplied with sugar, tea, 
 rum, molasses and vinegar for the use of the sick. 
 
 Their clothing consists of white plains, and they are also furnish- 
 ed With London dufUl blankets of the best cjuality, a pair of shoes^, 
 and a Coromantal Scotch cap. The blankets are given out once 
 every three years ; and it often occurs from the natm-e of his work, 
 tiiat a laborer may require another pair of shoes, which is given to 
 him. Every woman has an additional blanket at the birth of every 
 child, as well as clothes for her infant. 
 
 Their labor is, comparatively, UgM and easy, so that an industrious 
 negro can very easily accomplish his task early in the afternoon, 
 and the rest of the time is at his own disposal. A quarter of an 
 acre is generally called a task, but the actual task given depends 
 very much upon the nature of the work. — In digging land a quarter 
 of an acre is always the task. In threshing rice the men thresh 600 
 slieaves, and the women 500, and never more. Those of my 
 n^'groes who are mechanics labor in proportion, and if they are 
 called upon to do any extra work, in their oivn time, they are regu- 
 larly paid for it. In one instance I paid in one year to a carpenter 
 belonging to me, .^150, for the extra services of himself and two 
 sons, in rearing the frames of five negro houses, I finding the stuff. 
 Each driver, blacksmith and bricklayer, has, every other year, a 
 greatcoat, in addition to his clothing; and the nurses have also a 
 cloak every third year, independent of their clothes. The head of 
 every family has a small garden allowed him, contiguous to his 
 dwelling-, independent of the little field I have mentioned, from 
 which he gathers as many vegetables as supply his wants. They 
 appear happy and contented, and the discipline used to keep them 
 in proper order is by no means severe, but is always consistent 
 with feelings the of justice and of humanity." 
 
 We might easily multiply the evidence upon this 
 subject, but enough has been already produced to 
 show the utter destitution of truth in the statements 
 of those who have audaciously traduced us, and repre- 
 
58 
 
 sented our system of discipline with regard to our 
 slaves in so false a light. The corresponding testi- 
 mony of the gentlemen of whose communications we 
 have availed ourselves, is as full and conclusive, as if 
 we were to produce a volume. They are all of them 
 Planters of liberal and enlightened minds — possessing 
 large and independent fortunes — owning an immense 
 number of slaves — and from their perfect knowledge of 
 the general state and condition of that class of our 
 population, eminently qualified to give us the best 
 possible information. 
 
 If the negroes on our plantations live in the 
 manner we have shewn, those immediately around 
 our persons have still greater facilities of rendering 
 themselves more happy and contented. Most of the 
 latter are fed from the same table at which their 
 masters dine, or are daily supplied with the greatest 
 abundance of both animal and vegetable food— cloth- 
 ed in a superior manner — occupying rooms in the out 
 buildings, as good nearly as those in the family man- 
 sion itself — and in every respect treated more like 
 children than servants. They have no wants that are 
 not immediately supphed. Independent of all this, 
 they are allowed the privileges of moral and religious 
 instruction, and every Church has a portion of its 
 galleries set apart for their accommodation. Here 
 they may resort and listen to the word of God, 
 and partake, with their masters and mistresses, and 
 under the same benedictions, of (he Holy Sacra- 
 ment. 
 
 The negroes in the interior of the State live 
 equally well, and in some respects they are more upon 
 a level with their masters. They work by the side of 
 their owners while in the field, and we ourselves have 
 
89 
 
 seen some of them in the upper districts sitting at 
 the same table with them, using, at the same time, 
 however, such circumspection as denoted tlieir inferi- 
 ority—just as the clansmen of the feudal ages sat at 
 the social board of their high and bannered lord, yet 
 preserved that distance of behaviour which the most 
 boisterous hospitality could never make them forget. 
 In the interior of the State the negroes are not 
 allowanced in food, but have as nmch corn, potatoes 
 and bacon, as they can possibly consume. The barns 
 are open to all, and each takes what he requires. 
 If it be asked why those in the lower country are 
 allowanced, while those in the interior are not, the 
 answer is, that, such are the facilities of transpor- 
 tation to market, and the disposition to thievery, 
 so innate to the blacks, that a Planter's barn would 
 in a very short time become bankrupt of its wealth, 
 and the whole of his substance vanish hke unsub- 
 stantial moonshine. 
 
 We have no reason to blush, therefore, ehher for 
 the existence or toleration of Negro Slavery among 
 us, nor need we dread any fair and candid compa- 
 rison that may be made between their physical and 
 moral comforts, and those of the laboring poor in 
 England, or any other part of the World. Contrast 
 their condition with that of the poor in England, the 
 mother of our religion — the boasted land of freedom 
 and of glory — and the pride of ancient and of modern 
 Europe. 
 
 Mr. SouTHEY, an Englishman, as much bigoted 
 as any man who ever bent his knee to royalty, in 
 speaking of the English poor, sums up the misery 
 of their condition with the following climax of 
 human wretchedness : 
 
60 
 
 '• To talk of tlngiish happiness is like talking of Spartan frcedorta : 
 the Helots are overlooked. In no country can such riches be acquired 
 by commerce, but it is the one who grows rich by the labor of the 
 hundred. The hundred human beings like himself, as wonderfully 
 fashioned by Nature, gifted with the like capacities and equally made 
 for mimortality, are sacrljiced, body and soul. Horrible as it must 
 needs appear, the assertion is true to the very letter. The// are de- 
 prived inehildhood of all instruction, and all enjoyment of the sports 
 in which childhood instinctively indulges, of fresh air hy day and of 
 natural sleep by night. Their health, physical and moral, is alil<e 
 destroyed. They die of diseases induced by unremitting task work, 
 by confinement in the impure atmosphere of crouded rooms, by the 
 particles of metallic or vegetable dust lokich they are continually 
 inhaling, or they live to grow up tcithout decency, without comfortj 
 and tvithout hope; without morals, zoithoid religion, and without 
 shame; and bring forth slaves like themselves to tread in the same 
 path of misery." 
 
 Such was the condition of the English poor, par- 
 ticularly of the manufactoring class, in the year 1807. 
 Those who know any thing of their present state, are 
 aware that their hopelessness and despair have ren- 
 dered it ten thousand times worse. Of the miseries of 
 the Irish it would be a mockery of humanity to speak. 
 
 In summing up the arguments which we have ad- 
 duced in the foregoing pages, we cannot but form, 
 among others, the following conclusions. Melancholy 
 and painful as some of them are in their character, 
 they are, nevertheless, we think, clearly deducible 
 from the propositions we have discussed — 
 
 1 — 'The United States are one for national pur- 
 poses, but they are separate for their internal regula- 
 tion and government — acknowledging and clinging 
 to the Union as the common centre of attraction, they 
 have still their appropriate and peculiar orbits, like 
 the stars.'* 
 
 ' Crafts" Oration on the Lunatic Asylum, p. 21. 
 
Gl 
 
 % — That the people of the North and East havf^ 
 always exhibited a most unfriendly feeling on subjects 
 deeply atfecting the most vital interests of the South 
 and West — and that they have been, in their mode of 
 legislation, uniformly hostile to the happiness and se- 
 curity of these sections of the Union. 
 
 3 — Tiiat the existence of slavery among us vv as not 
 an institution of our own voluntary adoption — and 
 ought not, in justice, therefore, to be attributed to us. 
 
 4 — That the Southern sections of the Union, before 
 and after the Declaration of Independence, uniformly 
 exhibited a disposition to restrict the extension of the 
 evil — and have always manifested as cordial a disposi- 
 tion to ameliorate it as those of the Northern and 
 Eastern divisions of our Empire. 
 
 6 — That the actual state and condition of our slave 
 population are such as reflect no disgrace whatever 
 upon the character of the country — that our slaves 
 are in every respect infinitely better provided with 
 food and clothing, and all the other comforts of life, 
 than the laboring poor of any country in the world — 
 and share, in general, a greater proportion of happi- 
 ness than falls to the lot of millions of our own color. 
 
 There are one or two remaining branches of our 
 design which carry with them a weight of interest too 
 important to be slightly discussed or imperfectly 
 explored. 
 
 We regard our negroes as the " Jacohins^^ of the 
 country, against whom we should always be upon 
 our guard, and who, although we fear no perma- 
 nent effects from any insurrectionary movements on 
 their part, should be watched with an eye of steady 
 and unremitted observation. 
 
62 
 
 The disposition to insurrection and plunder, the 
 united result of ignorance and sloth, exhibited itself 
 among the negroes of the colony of Carolina at a 
 very early period, and was persisted in, from year to 
 year, until it ripened into open rebellion. This was 
 promptly and immediately put down — for with our an- 
 cestors there existed no temporising feeling upon this 
 subject, nor did they sacrifice to a protracted course of 
 proceeding the lives and security of the people of the 
 counfry. They used their strength as that of their 
 bloody opponents would have been used against them ; 
 anj'i they were indubitably justified by every princi- 
 ple of the first and great law of nature — self-preser- 
 vation. 
 
 The earliest insurrectionary movements among the 
 negroes of Carolina, of which we have been able to 
 trace any very authentic record, may be referred to 
 the year 1711, when Governor Gibbes presided over 
 the Colonial Assembly. This was about forty years 
 only after the first settlement of the country. Governor 
 Gibbes appears to have fulfilled the duties of his re- 
 sponsible situation with great fidelity and zeal, and 
 neglected no opportunity to guard the Colony against 
 the growing evils to which it was likely to be subjected 
 from these convulsions. In 171 1, as will be recollected, 
 he proposed to the Assembly a restriction on the im- 
 portation of negroes that were daily brought into the 
 Colony, and recommended an enlargement of the 
 penalties of the Negro Act, in as much as "7Y did not 
 reach up to some crimes'''' that they had already com- 
 mitted, and represented, at the same time, '''hoio inso- 
 lent and mischevious^^ they had grown. He was so 
 deeply impressed with the necessity of high handed 
 measures in relation to them, that in the June session 
 
es 
 
 of the same year, he expresses himself in still stronger 
 terms — " We further recommend unto you the repairs 
 ' of the fortifications about Charles Town, and the 
 
 * amending of the Negro Ad, who are, of late, grown 
 ' to that h'lght of impudence that there is scarce a day 
 ^passes ivithout some robbery or insolence committed 
 
 * by them in one part or other of this Province.''^ 
 
 It appears from the following Extracts, which we 
 have made from the Journals of that period, that the 
 House of Assembly actively co-operated with the Pa- 
 triarchal feelings of their Governor, and entered into 
 Resolutions strongly expressive of the dangers to which 
 they were exposed and of the necessity of the most 
 active measures to remove them. 
 
 " June 20th, 1711 — The House being informed that 
 ' there are severalNegroes run away from their masters, 
 
 * and keep out, armed, arid robbing and plundering 
 
 * houses and plantations, and putting the inhabitants of 
 ' this Province in great fear and terror. Resolved, by 
 
 * this House that the Governor be addressed to take 
 ' effectual care to apprehend, take and suppress the 
 
 * said ran-aways, and to assure his Honor that this 
 ' House will, at all times, be ready to concur with the 
 
 * Governor and Council in defraying the expenses of 
 
 * soe good and necessary a designe." In the October 
 session of the same year, though the Colony was 
 threatened with invasion by a large Fleet that had 
 been fitted out by the French, to scour and devastate 
 the shores of the Southern States, and notwithstand- 
 ing all the apprehensions necessarily attendant upon 
 the receipt of such information, still, the dangers to 
 which they were exposed from the existence of an 
 internal enemy, more to be dreaded, because he fought 
 like an assassin and a coward, seem to have occupied 
 
. 64 
 
 the largest space in the Public Councils. Governor 
 GiBBES appears to have looked to the latter with 
 uncommon mid increasing vigilance. 
 
 "On the constant complaint, since your last meet- 
 
 * ing, of divers persons of this Province, of the barbari- 
 ^ ties, felonies and ff62<.s^e5, committed by some run-away 
 ' Negroes on our inhabitants, we desired such of the 
 ' members of your House as was then in Town to 
 ' meet us, and we agreed to give unto any person who 
 ' should take or bring dead or aWve Sebastian,the Span- 
 ' ish, or Hidling's Negroe, as an encouragement. Fifty 
 ' Pounds — or to such as should* take uj) any other 
 ' Negroe, runaway for forty days. Five Pounds, for the 
 ' conlirmation whereof, we want the concurrence of 
 ' your House — and since we are on this subject do 
 
 * think it a matter worthy of your highest consideration, 
 
 * immediately to draw up a bill for their better ordering, 
 ' that effectually may prevent the feais and jealousies 
 
 * wee now lye under from the insolence of the Negroes, 
 ' wee have already in this Province and the numbers 
 ^ that are daily brought unto us." 
 
 This Sebastian was a notorious villain and outlaw ; 
 and the reason of his having had this price set upon 
 his head was for the wanton and cold blooded atroci- 
 ties he had committed, in the burning and destruction 
 of all the substance of several jicrsons, inhabitants of 
 the Province. Among others, we fmd the Assembly 
 of the same year, granting " Thirty Pounds out of 
 ' the public Treasury, ibr the leliefe of Elizabeth 
 ' Dutcji and her poor family, the said Elizabeth having 
 ' her house and all her substance burned by Sebastian, 
 ' the SpanishNegroe" — and "to SarahPerry, widdow, 
 ' the sum of Ten Poimds, in consideration of the 
 ' !z;reat loss she sustained by the death of her Indian 
 
^ 65 
 
 • who was killed by Sebastian the Spanish Indian.'' 
 The reward offered for Sebastian soon stimulated thq 
 avarice of the Indians who literally hiintod him down 
 like a wild beast, took him in triumjDh to CharlesTown, 
 where he met the fate to \>hich his villainies so richly 
 entitled him. 
 
 There is one more remaining paragraph, from a 
 subsequent Speech of the Governor to the Assembly in 
 the same year, in which he again reiterates the absolute 
 and paramount necessity, to have the '-^ Negro Act cor- 
 rected.^^ All these, united, present us with the first and 
 early operations of a spirit of dissatisfaction and revolt, 
 which, although it has in subsequent periods been more 
 widely disclosed, has nevertheless, always, like all other 
 domestic Insurrections, been promptly and effectually 
 quelled. 
 
 With regard to any very serious or permanent ef- 
 fects resulting from the insurrectionary movements of 
 our negroes, we must confess that we {eel little or no 
 apprehension. The superior advantages with which 
 nature has gifted, and art strengthened and fortified 
 our condition, render any practicability of success on 
 their part utterly out of the question. The struggle, 
 it is true, might be a bloody and an awful one; but 
 it would be limited to a very short period. A few 
 hours would decide the conflict, and the utter exter- 
 mination of the black race would be the inevitable 
 consequence. In such an event, it would be difficult 
 to discriminate. The innocent, as well as the guilty, 
 would alike fall a sacrifice to the vengeance of violr;- 
 ted humanity. We feel the more confirmed in this 
 opinion, not only from an intimate knowledge of the 
 genius and disposition of that class of our population, 
 
 but from a varietv of other sources of informatiojj. all 
 9 
 
66 J 
 
 af which justify its accuracy. In the first place — ^the 
 history of every nation that has ever been afflicted 
 with domestic rebellions of this description, furnishes 
 the most satisfactory evidence with what little success 
 they have been attended, and how happily the spirit 
 of murder and of rapine has been defeated in its un- 
 holy office. " We recollect" says the Edinburgh Re- 
 view of 1802, in an article on the " Crisis of the Sugar 
 Colotiies,^^ 'Hhe history of the Peruvian Revolt and of 
 the Servile wars in Campania and Scicily, and con- 
 sider that insurrections of colonies and provinces, as 
 well as domestic rebellions^ may be quelled. But above 
 all, when we cast our eyes over the very scene where 
 the great drama that we are now contemplating; is dis- 
 played, we find various facts, which, more strongly 
 than a thousand fine spun reasonings, clearly evince 
 the possibility of reducing to their cane pieces, coflee 
 grounds and spice walks, the most fierce and licentious 
 of the African race. 
 
 " The constant state of warfare in which the Maroons 
 (aspeciesofiVe^roes) of Dutch Guyana have remain- 
 ed with the whites for above a century, has caused the 
 colony to be surrounded with a regular cordon of 
 troops, and a chain of military posts. Various insur- 
 rections have disturbed the peace of the settlements. 
 Sometimes the Negroes have been completely success- 
 ful, as in the year 1763, when the colony of Berbice 
 was wholly in their possession ; it was quickhj restored^ 
 however^ and the revolters actuallij submitted, before 
 the arrival of the force destined to reduce them. 
 
 "The foruiidable rebellion of the Jamaica slaves, in 
 1762, is well known; and in almost e^ery island in 
 the Archipelago have repeated insurrections broken 
 out ; sometimes the result of plans laid whh the utmost 
 secrecy, and very widely extended, alw ays accom- 
 
67 
 
 panied by the horrors of African warfare, but tmi- 
 formlij quelled after a short struggle, in which, the disci- 
 pline and policy of the Europeans overcame the vast 
 numbers and ferocious strength of a savage people, and 
 reduced them to their accustomed habits of fear and 
 labor. It is in vain, that t)ur author paints to us the 
 instinctive dread of the slaves, as a peculiar principle, 
 a mysterious charm, which, if once broken, cannot 
 be restored. We believe it to be the same kind of 
 speJl which keeps men in obedience to absolute go- 
 vernments; which is latent in the magic rod of a 
 Prussian or Austrian officer; and which may, indeed, be 
 suspended by accidental occurrences ; but, if arising 
 from the relative situation and peculiar circumstances 
 of the rulers and the governed, will speedily be replaced, 
 and regain its powerful influence. 
 
 " In short, qf whatever nature that principle may be 
 which keeps the African laborers in subordination to 
 the white inhabitants, whether, as our author describes 
 it, it is of a peculiar nature, sui-genus, or, as we are 
 rather disposed to believe, arising from the influence 
 o{ superior policy, and closer union among the masters : 
 we have adduced examples of its being suspended, 
 and to all appearance destroyed. Its restoration in 
 nil those cases, is no less certain.'''^ 
 
 Again — the Edinburgh Review, vol. 2, (1805,) on 
 '^ Dallas'^ History of the Maroons,''^ in speaking of the 
 little prospect of success on their part, when conflict- 
 ing with ihe decided superiority of the whites whom 
 they were to oppose, furnishes a conclusion as clear as 
 it is reconcilable to the testimony of all other historical 
 facts. 
 
 " The Maroons," says the article in question, " had 
 various advantages in their knowledge of the country, 
 
68 
 
 their acutes eiises, and their perseverance under hard- 
 ships and privation. These are tlie only advantages 
 of savages, and to counterbalance them, we apprehend 
 the advantages peculiar to civilized warriors are ahitn- 
 dantly sufficient. We conceive that discipline, artillery 
 and regular supplies of provisions ivill generally render 
 acuteness of sense superfluous, patience and persever- 
 ance unnecessary, and acquaintance with the fastnesses 
 of the country of little avaiV 
 
 There is still more abundant testimony at conmiand 
 in the history of ozf/' own State, to shew the utter fallacy 
 of any attempt to revolutionize the present condition 
 of our negro population, and which puts at rest all 
 hopes of success in this particular. V^aluable lives, it 
 is true, may be lost, and blood may run in torrents for 
 an hour, but defeat in such an insane project must be 
 the inevitable result. 
 
 The following historical facts are of too valuable 
 a nature to be omitted. They throw a light upon this 
 subject, by which any one who runs may read ; and, 
 while they give confidence to those who are naturally 
 timid, they strengthen the courage of those who arc 
 born to be their protectors. Our wives and daughters 
 need not indulge any serious apprehensions so long 
 as we possess the powerful and efficient means which 
 we do of giving them the safety they require, and for 
 which no sacrifice can be too great. 
 
 The first open rebellion which took place in Caro- 
 lina where the Negroes were actually armed and 
 embodied, is traceable as far back as the year 1730. 
 In the month of August of that year, a conspiracy 
 was detected, the plan of which had been long 
 secretly agitated. Tv\ o methods had been proposed 
 in order to carry it into execution ; one, that the ne- 
 
69" 
 
 groes in each family, in the dead of the night, were 
 to murder all their masters and the white men of 
 every family, in the neighborhood in which there 
 were no Negroes. There was so much distrust and 
 want of confidence, however, among them, that they 
 resolved to adoj>t the other proposition, which was, 
 that they shoidd assemble in the neighborhood of the 
 lown, under the pretence of a " Dancing-bout," 
 and, when proper preparations were made, to rush 
 into the heart of the city, take possession of all the 
 arms and ammunition they could find, and murder 
 all the white men, and then turn their forces to the 
 different plantations. Such was the secrecy with 
 which this conspiracy was conducted, that it was 
 discovered only a short time previous to its projected 
 explosion, and many of the negroes had actually as- 
 sembled. As soon as the discovery was made, the 
 citizens, by '"^private orders and ivithout noise,'''' rendez- 
 voused at their respective points of alarm, and imme- 
 diately marched to the place where the Negroes 
 were collected, and without the slightest opposition took 
 the whole of them prisoners. The ringleaders of the i 
 rebellion were immediately executed, and the remain- ! 
 der returned to their daily labor and obedience. 
 
 In the year 1739, there were no less than three 
 formidable insurrections among our slaves, in which 
 many valuable lives were lost, and, during the fury 
 and devastation of which, the most detestable outra- 
 ges were committed. They were all, however, in- 
 stantly quelled, and the measure of retribution was full 
 to overflowing. These insurrections were all foment- 
 ed by the Spaniards in St. Augustine, w ho clandestine- 
 ly gave protection to all the fugitive slaves from this 
 colony, and by sen(,ling their Priests as cmmissaries 
 
70 
 
 'among our Negrot's, created among them such wild, 
 and visionary id/?as of liberty and freedom, as finally 
 plunged them into oj3en rebellion. 
 
 Hewitt gives us the following interesting account 
 of this Insurrection. 
 
 "At this time, (about the year 1740,) there were above 40,000 
 Negroes in the Province. Long had liber*)) and protection been 
 promised and proclaimed to theui by the Spaniards at Augustine, 
 nor were all the negroes in the province strangers to the proclama- 
 tion. At different times S|)anish emissaries had been found secretly 
 tampering with them, and persuading them to fly from slaver^^ 
 Five negroes, who were cattle hunters, at Indian Land, some of 
 whom belonged to Captain McPherson, after wounding his son and 
 killing another man, made their escape. Several more attempting to 
 getaway wi^ve taken, tried, and hanged at Charles Town. 
 
 " While Carolina was kept in a state of constant fear and agitation 
 from this quarter, an insurrection openW broke out in the heart of the 
 settlement which alarmed the whole province. A number of ne- 
 groes having assembled together at Stono, flrst surprised and killed 
 two young men in a ware-house, and then plundered it of guns and 
 ammunition. Being thus provided with arms, they elected one of 
 their number captain, and agreed to follow him, marching towards 
 the souUi-west, with colours flying and diums beating, like a discip- 
 lined comp my. I'hi y forcibly enterc<l the house of Mr. Godfrey, 
 and havini^ ;ii./rdered him, his wife, and children, they took all the 
 arms he hud in it, srt fire to the house, and then proceeded totrards 
 Jacksonborongh. In tlieir way they plundered and burnt (very 
 house, killing every while person they found in them, and eouipelling 
 the Negroes to Join them. Governor Bull retuining to Charleston 
 from the southwaicl, met ihem, and, observing them armed, spread 
 the alarm, which soon reached the Presbyterian Church at W^iltown, 
 where Archibald Stobo was preaching to a numerous congregation of 
 Planters in that quarter. By a law of the province, all Planters 
 weie obliged to carry their arms to Chinch, which at this critical 
 juncture proved a very useful and necessar}- regulation. The women 
 were left in Church trembling with fear, while the militia, under the 
 command of Captain Bee, marched in quest of the Psegroes, who 
 by this time had become formidable, from the number that joined 
 them. They had marched about twelve miles, and spread desola- 
 tion through all the plantations in their way. They halted in an 
 open lleld, and began to sin<x and ilance, by way of trium])]i. Du- 
 ring these rejoicings, the militia discovered them, and st itioned them- 
 selves ill diflerent places around then), to prevent them from making 
 their escape. One party advanced into the open field and attacked 
 them, and, having killed some iNegroes, the remainder took to the 
 woods and were disj)ersc(l. Miiny run back to their j)laiitations, in 
 
 
71 
 
 hopes of escaping suspicion from the absence of their masters; but 
 the greater part ivere taken and tried. Such as had been compelled 
 to join them, contrary to their inclination, were pardoned, but all the 
 chosen leaders and first insurgents suffered death. 
 
 " All Carolina was struck with terror and consternation by this 
 Insurrection, in which a6ot»e twenty persons were murdered betbre. 
 it was quelled."' 
 
 We cannot omit to give place to the very valuable 
 Document which follows. It presents a faithful and 
 afflicting picture of the Province at this period, and 
 details with heart-rending accuracy the sufferings 
 through which it had passed. What greater or more 
 honorable proof can we have of the bold and perse- 
 vering spirit of our ancestos. Notwithstanding the 
 difficulties and dangers which surrounded them on 
 all sides and the afflictions with which they were vis- 
 ited, they manfully breasted the storm and triumphed 
 over every obstacle. 
 
 We have preserved both the style and punctuation 
 of the original, a copy of which we have taken from 
 the Secretary of State's Office in Charleston : 
 
 PETITION and REPRESENTATION to His Majesty of the present state o/ 
 
 the Province. 
 
 TO THE king's MOST EXCELLENT AIAJE.STY. 
 
 The Humble Petition and Representation of the Council and Assembly of 
 your Majesty's Province of South-Carolina upon the present state of the 
 said Province : 
 MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, 
 
 We your Majesty's most dutiful and Loyal Su1)jects the Members of your 
 Majesty's Council; and the Members of the Commons Hou^e of Assembly of 
 this your Maje-ly's Province of South-Carolina, now met together in General 
 Assembly, to take under consideration the dangerous sitiialion in uliicit tin Pro 
 rince now is, Most humbly beg leave lo nprpsetit to yonr Majesty, that it is with 
 the utmost grief and concern we find tlii^ Province grehtly reducsd and weak- 
 ened, by a series of Calamities and Misfortunes which have attended it for some 
 time past. The Small Po.r, in the year 1738, succeeded by a Pesliteulinl Fevtr, 
 in the year 1739, whereby numbers who had escaped the first were carried off 
 by the'last That again succeeded by an Insurrection of our slates in which, 
 many of the Inhabitants iccre murdered in a barbarous and cruel manner; and 
 that no sooner q}ielled ilmn another projected m Charles Town, and a third lately 
 in the very heart of the Sctllements, hid happily discorered lime enough tu be pre- 
 vented. Wrestling svith dilficultys at home, we see ourselves at the s«me time 
 exposed to dangers from abroad, to Eneroys very near, and by far too nuuj^ 
 
 i 
 
 • 
 
72 
 
 roiis ami ))0\veiful (or us ; and tiiat the many succours wliich your Majesty has 
 been graciously [ileased ("rom time (o time to give us, and what we, weak as 
 we are, have been able to do for ourselves, conies lar short of your Majesty's 
 Koyal Intention and Expectations from thence. 
 
 It is with great re:i=on, we apprehend, tJiat That part of our Calamifys, pro- 
 ceeding from the frecjiient attempts of our Slaves, arises from the designs and 
 intrignesof our Enemys, the Spaniards in St. Angn.-tiue and Florida, who have 
 had the rnin and desli'iiction of these your Majesty's Colmiys of South-Caro- 
 lina and Georgia long in vie\v. Witness the great preparations made at the 
 Havanna, and ;5f. Atign^tine, about three years ago, for a powerful descent on 
 these Provinces : and since tliat, in tirrn.' of profound peace also, a i)roclamation 
 published at St. .4ngU;tirie, in his Catholic Majesty's name, promising; freedom 
 (I lid ot/ier f:iirourr(s:fineiit to alt xiarcs that fhould desert from your Majcslj^'s snb- 
 jeetsofthis Province and join them. Inconsequence of which Proclamation, 
 many have already deserted, and t>therseticouraged daily to do the same ; and 
 even those vhohnve rommilled the most inliii.mnn mnrdcrs arc there harboured, 
 e III rrlaine.d and caressed. Such, may it please your Majesty, was the situation 
 of this Piovince when Getu'i-al Oglethorpe fipjdied to us to assist your MajeS' 
 ty's Forces in attacking St. Augustine. Induced by the assurances we had from 
 that G<?neral, and the Commodore of your Majesty's Shijis of War, mi-t toge- 
 ther in tiie Harbour of Charleston, of the grent |)robabili(y there was of success, 
 and by the advantage, we were sensil)!e would tiieieby accrue to your Ma- 
 ji'sty's subjects of this Province and Georgia, and for the Glory of your Majesty's 
 arms, in reducing a Fortress which stands an Eye-sore to the Britisli Dominions 
 in North America; and as such has been before attempted by this Province, 
 but without success, we exerted ourselves and clieartully voted sucli a supply 
 of Forces as tliat General thought sutficient to succeed in that expedition ; 
 together with a great ijuantity of Provision.^, Artillery, Warlike Stores, Vessels 
 for transportation, .Arms and Presents for 500 Indians, and many other neces- 
 sarys: But considering the uncertainty of Warlike F.vents, and that the Ene- 
 my might be stronger tlian the (jeneral iiad re])resenled tiiem to be, w-e added 
 200 men more : Tiie whole expence amounting to a greater sum than our present 
 Circumstance could well bear. With this additional reinforcenif nt, we had 
 tiie greatest reason to hope for success ; and mdre especially, as to all this, was 
 afterwards added, your .Majesty's great supply sent to the General, of Warlike 
 Stores proper for such an undertaking. But so it has fallen out. that with heai"ts 
 full of sorrow and anxietv, are we now obliged to repi-p-ient to your Majesty, 
 that this attempt |)rove(l altogether unsucc"ssful, and the Troops sent from this 
 Province, by express orders (iated the -tth instint, trom General OglHthro|ie to 
 their Commanding Olhcer, ordered to withdraw from before St Augustine, and 
 to carry ofi" or destroy the Cannon made use of by them against (he Eue:iiy. 
 Whether the bad succes'^ of this expeililion proceeds fi-om .MisC'Uiduct, or trom 
 any other cause, we shall not presume tojinlge. But, may it ph-ase your .Ma- 
 jesty, sui;h being the issue and event of this unhappy Exjindilion, in wiiich all 
 oin- hopes were ])laced, w<' are now exposed to a pou erlul I'^iiemy, roused with 
 resentment, and encouraged by our disappoininieiit, are become more (onui- 
 dable tirui ever, and if not speedily pievent(>d by a superior force, may somi 
 lin-n their Arms against us. And \vhat a Tiagical scene an nttack from a 
 Foreign Enemy must produce, when at the same time our whole force uill be 
 srarcc sufficient to gurtw/agw///.?/ Iliat wUhiii .v.s-, is but ion apparent. 
 
 Expo.sed as «■(! are to present danger from the Sp.Miiards, Conse(iuenccs 
 more fatal to us, as well as to the whole of yfuu" Maie^ty'.s Dominions in 
 America, are to be a|i|in'huided in case of a rupture with France, from Jie 
 wonderful Progress made in lhe.se few years by that .Nation in (heir grand and 
 iiMig projected sciien.e, of ojiening a communii alion betni-en th'i;- Canada 
 and (Quebec ScKlcnn.nl < and those on the great liiver Messi-Mppi to the Bay of 
 ■Me>;ic<). A Scheme, gre;i( to them, but daugerdiis lo llu; lintiNli Dominions, 
 a> lia-. becii iierelolore .-,e( torth by two .severed Pvepresentations nnnle to your 
 .Vlajesly from (his rro\iiira; since ihe year 1731. This communication being 
 now opened, by that means, they havfi an Army of between 3, iV, ^,0(iO men on 
 our backs; and have of late built new F(h(s and Reinforced (hose formerly 
 built ; by which there is great reason (o apprtdiend. that they are able not only 
 (o pievent the progress and e\(eM(iou of the Krilish Seltltjnents in Aorth 
 Arnericn. but ''> in\ ade .some ol w !i!i| is aii'ead) •;e(ilvd. 
 
 t 
 
73 
 
 As we have heretofore humbly represented to your Majesty, this Province and 
 that of Georgia have the most to fear, not only on account of their being the 
 weakest andniost exposed to their Knemys, but on account of their situation, 
 and the great advantage which the French must consequently have by becom- 
 ine Masters of them. The Country between these Colonys and the French 
 Settlements and Garrisons on the Rivers Messisip|)i and Moville. being plain, 
 flat and opei', not intersected by ihe large Ap[iala(cliian Mountains; we have 
 therefore no other Barrier but a few Nations of Indians, far inferior in number 
 to theirs. Next to them are the ("hickesaws ; a Bold and Brave People. Strict 
 friends to your Majesty's subjects of this Province; but not now in number 
 abovp400men; with tliem the French have lately made an insidious peace ; 
 And in their security thereu|)on, many of them ha%'e been cut otf by the 
 Choctaw Iiulians. 'J'hese Choctaws are very numerous, and under the im- 
 mediate influence and direction of the French. This together with the many 
 former attacks upon that brave Nation of the Chickesaws, leave no room to 
 doul)t of their intention to exterpate Ili»t People, as they have already done 
 the Notchces, with a view manifestly to make their next atlempt on the Creek.s 
 the only remaining Barrier, in that case, between us and the French. In that 
 Nation the French have long had a Fort,' called the Alabama Fort; which they 
 have latelv reinforced ; and by repeated intelligence from our Traders, are 
 now using" th^ir utmost endeavour.-;, by oftVrs of great Presents as well as 
 threats, to witlnlraw our People from our Interest, and (o engage them to 
 destroy our Traders now amongst them. In which, were they to succeed, 
 terrible must be the fate of these vour Majesty's Provinces of South-Carolina 
 and G.^or^ia ; who unless supported must fall a Prey to them and their numerous 
 Indians, whose devastations and crueltys this Province has heretofore tataily 
 experienced: and they in that case become Masters of what they have had 
 long in view, to wit a settlement and Ports on I his Eastern part of the American 
 Continent, so absolutely necessary for tlie support and advantage of their back 
 Settlements, and of gnat usi; to tlicir Sugar Islands in Am.irica, which at 
 present d?i)end almost wholly upon the Englisii Colonys for Lumber and 
 Provisions: But as they are now situated have no other opening but trom the 
 Rivers Moville and Messrssippi, at the extremity of the Bay Appaiatciiee, in 
 the Entrance of the Gulf of Alexiro, which renders tlieir traffic from these 
 Colony- not only tedious but dangerous; and then once having secured a 
 setllemeot on this shore, and a communication opened to their settlements on 
 th.se Rivers; we have reason to apprehend they may become Masters ot all 
 Florida and its Coa.sts quite down to these great Rivers, including St Augustine 
 itself, if i( remains unconquered by your Majesty, and that large tract ot 
 fertile and rich soil called the Appalatchees, formerly conquered by the Inhabi- 
 tants of this Province fn.m the Spaniards. Such, May it please your Majesty, 
 seems to be the great sclieines of the French, part of which are already executed 
 and performed ; and what are to come, we can easily foresee, but are of too 
 hii'h an-' extensive a nature for us to ])revent. ... 
 
 ExnprtatioiiPand hopes arising at (iist from the settlement of Georgia being 
 now vani-hed and gone by, the drooping and languid condition ot the few 
 Inhabitants which still remain there, our own Inhabitants and fortunes greatly 
 reduced and impoverished by a long Series of Calamitys and Misfortunes 
 heretofore unknown, we have nothing lelt but to fly to your Majesty for pro- 
 tection. And full of gratitude for the many favours heretofore conlerred m 
 this Province, and confiding in that glorious disposition and spirit so lately 
 evidenced and made appear to us by your Majesty in the early care taken ot 
 these your remotest subjects in America, by the assistance of so many ot your 
 Majesty's Ships of War, the good effects of which we have already, in many 
 insia\ices, experienced. » d i i 
 
 We most humbly and earnestly implore your Majesty's most Royal and 
 paternal protection and assistance against our Enemys by Land, and particu- 
 larly those in St. Augustine; who, no doubt, by our disa[ii)ointinent now bid 
 defiance to the power and force of this Province: and from whence we have 
 sustained so manv losses and injur vs, bi/ the reccflion from time lo time of our 
 ihserttd Slaves, and even of those who have committed Ihe must bnrl)anms and 
 cruel Murders of their Masfcrs. And we most humbly pray your Majesty that 
 ill case this Fortress should remain unconquered, then in any future Peace to 
 
 10 
 
 • 
 
74 
 
 be concluded, befwern your M ijesty and tlic King of Spain, provision tnay 
 be made for the reslor^tion of our Slaves already deserted, and for our security 
 against such Evils for the future, as also for the great expence which has 
 attended this Province in consequence thereof. 
 
 All which we most hun.bly and earnestly submit to your Majesty's Roya! 
 Consideration." 
 
 In the Upper Hoise of Assembly the 26 day of July 1740 
 JOHN FENVVICKE. 
 
 In the Commons House of Assembly the 26 day of July 1740 
 By Order of the House 
 
 WILLM. BULL, Junr. Speaker. 
 
 In consequence of these repeated effervescences 
 among our slaves, it was found expedient to the' safety 
 of the Colony, to circumscribe their privile'ges, and to 
 adopt such measures as would prevent' any possibility 
 of concert among them. The Negro Act of the year 
 1740, (still in the Statute Book, though not actually 
 in force) passed with a view of avoiding the dangers 
 inseparably connected with the institution of slavery 
 among us, was actively and efficiently enforced, and 
 all its penalties and provisions carried into full effect. 
 The rigid policy of the Act, when faithfully pursued, 
 corrected the evil for many years, and, by visiting 
 with prompt and exemplary punishment every act 
 of insubordination, preserved the tranquility of the 
 public mind and quieted all its apprehensions. As 
 soon as this security and cowfidence were restored, 
 however, a general relaxation in the execution of the 
 salutary provisions of the Act took place, and the 
 Negroes, progressively, step by step, regained that 
 confidence and concert among themselves that always 
 follow the absence of j)roper discipline. They reco- 
 vered the ground they had lost — re-assumed the 
 privileges of which they had been hitherto deprived — 
 corresponded more intimately with each other, both 
 in their public and private associations — and finalJy 
 
 «r 
 
75 
 
 projected the plan of another Insurrection, in Cam- 
 den and its vicinity. This was, periiaps, plotted with 
 more secrecy and ingenuity of design than even 
 that of the late intended Insurrection in Charleston ; 
 and w^as to have been attended with a correspond- 
 ing result. Part of the Town was to have been 
 set on fire — all the male white inhabitants indiscrimi- 
 nately massacred, and the iemales reserved for a 
 destiny still more horrible and revolting. 
 
 We have been unable to procure a copy of the 
 minutes of the Town Council of Camden, in rela- 
 tion to this event; but we have been obligingly favor- 
 ed with the following Narrative, by Francis G. De- 
 LiESSELiNE, £sQ. wlio was in Camden at the time. 
 Some {aw particulars may have faded in his recol- 
 lection, but the important features of the transaction 
 are presented with ])erfect accuracy. The memory 
 clings with too great a tenacity to these to allow any 
 possibility of a want of fidelity. 
 
 " In compliance with your request I send you a Narrative of the pro- 
 jected conspiracy of the blacks in Camden, and its neighborhood, 
 in the year I8I6 — the professed design of which, was to murder all 
 the whites, and free themselves. A long lapse of -tiaie has erased 
 from my memory many of the particulars, but I am enabled to give 
 you the following outline : 
 
 " About the middle of June, I8I6, Col. Chesnut, a citizen of 
 Camden, and an aid-de-camp to Gov. Williams, was informed by 
 a favorite and confidential slave, that pro])ositions of a dangerous 
 character had been made to him, in relation to a projected insurrection 
 among the blacks — and that the time and place of rendezvous had 
 been already appointed His master, placing the most unreserved 
 confidence in his fidelity, directed him to attend the meetings of the 
 conspirators, previous to the developement of the plot, and, at the 
 same time, to conduct himself with the most guarded discretion. — 
 A communication was immediately had with Governor Williams^ 
 and Colonel Chesnut received the necessary instructions with re* 
 
 i 
 
76 
 
 ^ard to the defeat of the conspiracy. These were communicated f 
 none otlier than the Town Council ; anci such was the secrecy icith 
 which the ichole affair ims conducted, that on the morning of the 
 1st or 2nd of July, the young men chosen to arrest the ringleaders 
 of the conspiracy were assembled under the pretence of a fox chase, 
 and despatched under the command of leaders, who were enjoined to 
 the utmost secrecy. They were perfectly ignorant of the natuie of 
 the service they were on, until the moment they were ordered to ar- 
 rest the conspirators, most of whom were at work in the fields, many 
 miles apart. Their movements were so secret and simultaneous, 
 that the arrests were made aluiost at the same instant of time, and 
 without any intimation on the part of those respectively arrested, of 
 the fate of their confederates. The same caution was subsequently 
 used, at their trial, to conceal the name of the informer, who was 
 likewise in custody. The most satisfactory testimony, independent 
 of that of the informer, and regulated by the most rigid rules of 
 evidence, sufficiently established their guilt ; and the first gang who 
 were executed died ignorant of the informer. They all confessed 
 their crimes, and the most intelligent of them acknowledged that 
 they had no causes of complaint against their individual masters, and 
 advised their surviving brethren of the futility of any further 
 attempt. They expressed themselves surprised with the mild and 
 humane manner of the proceedings instituted against them, and free- 
 ly acknowledged that they had anticipated immediate death in case 
 of a discovery. Two brothers engaged in this rebellion could read 
 and write, and were hitherto of unexcejitional characters. They 
 were religious, and had always been regarded in the light of 
 faithful servants. A few appeared to have been actuated 
 solely by the instinct of the most brutal licentiousness, and 
 by the lust of plunder — but most of them by wild and frantic ideas 
 of the rights of man, and the misconceived injunctions and examples 
 of Holy lorit. 
 
 " The scheme had for its object the conflagration of a part of the 
 town — the massacre of all tlie white male inhabitants, and the more 
 brutal sacrifice of the female. Their plan was entrusted to a ievr 
 only, and they left its developement and consummation to chance ; 
 relying on the presumed disposition to rebellion on the part of the 
 blacks of every description. 
 
 " The night of the 4th of July was appointed for the explosion. — 
 Great anxiety had been exhibited among the younger and more ar- 
 
77 
 
 dent associates in the revolt, in the different meetings that were held, t<y 
 precipitate the period of attack, and begin the work of desolation and 
 slaughter sometime before. But the cautious and calculating judgment 
 of the more cunning and elder urged as reasons for deferring it, that there 
 was a scarcity of provisions — that the crops not yet made would be 
 lost in the confusion that would ensue, and that famine would ac- 
 complish what force might not be able to effect. They confidently 
 relied, also, upon the usual mdulgences among us on a day celebrated 
 as a great national jubilee ; and it was finally determined, that the 
 night of the 4th of July should be appointed as the time for the re- 
 enaction of the horrors of the Scicilian Vespers. The different 
 commands had been regularly assigned 'to particular leaders, and all 
 had been allotted, except that of Commander-in-Chief. This was 
 reserved for him who should first force the gates of the Arsenal. To 
 strengthen the possibility of success, the Negroes from the circum- 
 jacent country were invited, under various pretences, to Camden that 
 night. The fidelity of a favorite domestic, as I have already stated, 
 defeated tlieir flagitious scheme, and consined the ring-leaders of the 
 revolt to a premature and ignominious grave. The Legislature of 
 the State purchased the freedom of the informer, and settled a 
 PENSION upon him for life. 
 
 " Ahhough many were known to have been concerned in the In- 
 surrection, none but the chiefs of the revolt were executed. As well 
 as I can recollect, the whole number hung was six." 
 
 We have no account in the history of the country 
 of any other Insurrection from the year 1816 until 
 the present year (1822.) The particulars of this are 
 too fresh in the memory of all to need any repetition. 
 It was a subject of deep and breathless anxiety, and 
 its features are preserved with the most scrupulous 
 accuracy in the memory of those who were to have 
 been the victims of its diabolical brutality. Thirty- 
 five of the detestable miscreants, who were the ring- 
 leaders of the meditated rebellion, have expiated 
 their crime on the gallows — and have been hung up 
 as an awful warning to those who remain. The 
 
 ^^r 
 
78 
 
 humanity of our laws has spared others who were 
 implicated in the plot — but driven (hem into perpet- 
 ual exile, to suffer death in the event of their return- 
 ing to our shores. 
 
 Thus has perished, and thus will forever perish, the 
 hopes of all misguided and deluded incendiaries. 
 It is utterly impossible for them to affect any revolu- 
 tion in the state and condition of society in which 
 they stand, nor can all their stratagems avail them in 
 such a design. Their treachery, though it walks 
 only in the gloom and shadow of midnight, and shows 
 its " dark and dangerous brow," at that dead hour, 
 so suited to its evil machinations, icill always be detect- 
 ed ; nor can the most elaborate ingenuity " hide it 
 from prevention." There is no secrecy profound 
 enough to conceal such a Heaven-offending sin. 
 
 The utter impracticability of succeeding in any 
 roedifated Insurrection on the part of our black 
 population is sufficiently demonstrable, we think, 
 from the evidence we have collected and pro- 
 duced. Their general inferiority in the gifts of 
 nature — the imbecility of spirit, necessarily superin- 
 duced by their condition — the fidelity and attachnient 
 of some — want of confidence among themselves — 
 a principle of duty on the part of many, and reason 
 among the more reflecting — coupled with other aux- 
 illiary causes — will forever bafllc all prospects of 
 successful rebellion. The facts and observations 
 which follow, strengthen the proposition we have 
 discussed, and present a luminous arrangement of 
 arguments fully conclusive upon the subject. The 
 article at the same lime comprehends, in a condensed 
 form, most of the views of which the subject is capa- 
 ble of being illustrated. It is iiom the pen of Beaja- 
 
 • 
 
79 
 
 MiN Elliott, Esq. a gentlemen, well known and 
 estimated for his general information, as well as for 
 his intimate and accurate knowledge of the partic- 
 ular history of our country. We have been greatly 
 indebted to him in the prosecution of our design, and 
 have frequently drawn our information, upon some 
 interesting topics, from the fountain of his own 
 memory and reflection. 
 
 TO OUR NORTHERN BRETHREN. 
 
 Fellow Citizens — 
 
 Were we to misjudge you from the vile paragraphs of some of your 
 editors, we should almost believe that you would delight to see 
 Charleston another Wyoming, and could behold without emotion, 
 Virginia and Kentucky smoking like the first Isle of the Antilles. 
 We, however, hold no such unworthy opinion of you. It is the lot of 
 all countries to produce beings, who, like the depredators in the diseas- 
 ed district of the City of New-York, would prosper on the affliction 
 of their fellow creatures. But, while we must expect to find charac- 
 ters who would foment connnotion to advance themselves, vve should 
 be satisfied that the American people are too sound to inculcate 
 treachery and justify assassination. It is, therefore, I would suppose, 
 that you werenot aware of the deep atrocity of the late machinations 
 in our city, or you would declare that we have felt as you would have 
 feh, and "in our proceedings have but obeyed the dictates of nature 
 and of wisdom. We would, therefore, invite you temperately to 
 survey the various circumstances of this event. 
 
 This description of our population had been allowed to assemble 
 for religious instruction. — The designing leaders in the scheme of vil- 
 lainy, availed themselves of these occasions to instill sentiments of 
 krocity,hyfalsifi/ing the Bible. All the severe penal laws of the 
 Israelites were quoted to mislead them, and the denunciations in the 
 prophecies, whir h were intended to deter men from evil, were declar- 
 ed to be divine cominands which they were to execute. To conOrm 
 this doctrine, they were told that Heshbon, that Bashan with its sixty 
 cities had been destroyed, man, woman and child ; that in the deso- 
 lation of Midian, only the males were destroyed, at which Moses was 
 displeased, and deliberately ordered the death of the boys and their 
 mothers. That Joshua levelled the walls of Jericho, and regarded 
 neither age nor sex; and that David vanquished empires and left not 
 man, woman or infant alive. Not content with this execrable per- 
 vertion— with exhibhing the God of Mercy as another Jaggernaut, 
 they were informed of what their color had perpetrated abroad. 
 Such was their re/Z^/ort — such the examples to be imitated. 
 
 After having rendered them fiends in principle, they were prepared 
 to be fiends in action. A regular plan was formed to annihilate us 
 
80 
 
 and our abodes ; the arsenals and strong holds were to have been 
 seized, and the leaders were nominated for each attack. Besides the 
 instruments which many of them possessed as mechanics, villains 
 were engaged in nianufacturing arms; several pike-handles were dis- 
 covered; Pharoah and Peter had swords; Ned Bennett had a sword 
 to kill ivolves, but which he designed first to try upon his master, of 
 whom he had received every indulgence. The places of rendezvous, 
 the night, the hour were determined — and the imps of rebellion were 
 to have made Chasleston one scene of flames and carnage, had they 
 been able. It is no diminution of their crime to say they were not 
 able; — guilt is in the intention and not in the act. 
 
 '' Under such circumstances of just exaspiration, what did the citi- 
 zens of Charleston ? Did they yield to their passions and commit an 
 indiscriminate massacre, as would have been done, in many places, 
 under less excitement? Nothing like it. A court was organized of 
 distinguished integrity, respectability and intelligence ; the members 
 of which felt their own high reputation involved with the untarnished 
 reputation of their State and Country. So far from being precipitate, 
 they were occupied several days in investigating the nature of the con- 
 spiracy, before they put the individuals accused upon their trials. — 
 The cases of the criminals were conducted with that liberality, 
 justice and impartiality, which characterise American jurisprudence, 
 which is no where more conspicuous than in South-Carolina, and was 
 never more pure than on this painful occasion. Their guilt was de- 
 monstrated, and what ought to have been done ? Disregard the law — 
 unleash them upon society, and encourage a repitition of their projects? 
 No one, 1 hope, in our extensive empire, would intimate such a wish. 
 What was done? — That which duty enjoined and precedent justified. 
 These culprits meditated against us, fire, pillage, treason, treachery 
 to their masters, with outrages not to be named. Thus they blended 
 four capital ojfcncts in one crime. Ought not capital punishment 
 then to lia\-(; been awarded? It is certainly not unexampled. — In 
 the Spanish conspiracy against V^enice, which partakes of the character 
 of this, tliree hiinrlred and ffty were put to death. George II. execu- 
 Jiftif-fonr oi the first men in Britain for the rebellion of 1745. Nor 
 are we without domestic precedent. An insurrection occurred in the 
 city of New-York in l7l'-' As soon as the alarm-gun was fired, and 
 a detachment of the guards appeared, the insurgents fled to the woods , 
 where they were surrounded ; several through desparation shot them- 
 selves, the rest wen; raptured, and nineteen executed. 
 
 "Another was meditated in 1741, ivlien there were two thousand 
 Negroes and twelve thousand whites in the city of New-York. It 
 was then found neressary to iu.trn thirteen mid to hang eighteen ne- 
 -Troes with four whites, to tran.sj)ort eighty negroes and five whites. 
 
 Jn New-York. In Charleston. 
 
 Executed, ."5 - - - - i?.') 
 TruHHportcd, sr> - - - - '37 
 
 l-'O - - - - 72 
 
 
81 
 
 *' Now— a short period before the negro plot was discovered in 
 Newt York, an insurrection broke out in Carolina. Many of the 
 ring-leaders were shot or hanged, but none punished in amj other 
 mode. There can then be no ground to imagine that we ever, under 
 the same circumstances, would be more severe than our Northern 
 brethren. Every measure essential to our self-protection, will be, 
 and, I think , you will not dispute, ought to be adopted. It would, 
 therefore, be philanthrophy to impress upon the more intelligent 
 portion of this population the wisdom of good conduct. Schemes 
 of insurrection, such as the present, cannot succeed. The white 
 population of each State alone, is adequate to suppress iJiem. From 
 the first settlement of Carolina, we have been accustomed to these 
 abortive efforts. Under our Proprietary government, there was a 
 notorious out-law by the name of Sebastian ; Governor Gibbs issued 
 his proclamation, and the Indians soon entitled themselves to the 
 reward. 
 
 " In 1730, a plan was conceived against Charleston. They were 
 allowed to assemble, were then taken, and proper examples made. 
 Some years afterwards, what we dominate the Gullah war, occurred. 
 This was more general — In St. Paul's Parish they appeared in arras ; 
 the greater part were killed, and not more than two or three escaped. 
 In St. John's Parish they were discovered by Major Cordes' faithful 
 driver, Peter, and in Charleston, they were also discovered, suppres- 
 sed and punished. The negro law of 1740, was enacted in conse- 
 quence of the last, and has proved our security from that period, 
 notwithstanding the occasional t?fferve5cences of insubordination. 
 The history of South-Carolina, in this particular, has been the history 
 of every State in the Union. 
 
 " Another impediment to the progress of conspiracy will ever be 
 found in the fidelity of some of our negroes. The servant who is 
 false to his master, would be false to his God. One act of perfidy is 
 but the first step in the road of corruption and of baseness ; and those 
 who on this occasion, have proved ungrateful to their owners, have 
 also been hyprocrites in religion. But it is a reputable truth, that 
 on every such occasion, servants have been found who were worthy 
 the kindness and confidence oi their Masters. 
 
 " Besides, when the moment of trial comes, among large bodies of 
 men, some will tremble, some will be shocked at what they are about 
 to perpetrate, and others will remember that by disclosure, may be 
 obtained more than they seek through perils. Jaffier saved Venice, 
 and most conspiracies own men inferior to Jaffier. We must also 
 remember that the majority of mankind would avoid dangerous en- 
 terprizes. — Therefore f'..e great body of these people would prefer 
 safety and quiet with their present comforts, to a hazardous commo- 
 tion with an issue so fearful as it always has been, and ever will be. 
 
 " Superadded to these intrinsic securities, we have the proportion 
 of two to one in the aggregate population of States situated like our- 
 selves. Our sister and neighbor, Tennessee, has four to one, and the 
 lieroes of Orleans have but to know that we aie in danger to be with 
 Hs ht the first tap of the drum. 
 11 
 
 ^f 
 
82 
 
 "The National Government, also can preserve the peace of the 
 country. It was established expressly to ensure domestic tranc^iillity 
 and suppress insurrection. It has laeen tried, and found efficient. 
 The Piesident may summrui upwards o^Jive to one. Tlie old French 
 government with three thousand regulars, protected their largest 
 colony, and a small military force is found adequate in the British 
 West Indies. Surely the American government could, and would do 
 as much, were it necessary. A change cannot then be effected by 
 force, nor would it be beneficial to jhe United States. Our roads 
 would swarm with paupers, and every wood be infested with banditti. 
 But, under the existing regulations, they contribute to general wealih, 
 and are preserved from want, misery and crime. The States in 
 which they are located have been fully as instrumental in originating 
 and defending our political independence as those without them; ani 
 at every crisis have equally illustrated the valor and power of our 
 common country. During the Revolution, we frustrated arid repelled 
 the enemy for four years, from 1776 to 'SO; during which period our 
 Northern brethren were over-run and under their feet. W'hat nation 
 — wXvAi portion of this great nation has surpassed in spleiulor and in 
 conduct, the victories of Moultrie and of Jackson ? In civil ta- 
 lents — in devotion to the Republic — in the most ennobling sentiments 
 of the heart — in charity — in hospitality — when has the South or the 
 West been deficient ? Never — you will voluntarily acknowledge. 
 
 "From these observations, then, I trust you will feel that our 
 Court have done their duty, and merit the gratitude not only of their 
 immediate fellow citizens, but of then- fellow citizens throughout the 
 Union. You will also, I think, perceive that the happiness oi this 
 population will be'^measured and decided by their own goodcnnJuct, 
 and, that to support subordhmtion, is a duty enjoined by philanthro- 
 phy, patriotism, aiid the best interests of x-Vmerica. 
 
 " I submit the above facts and observations to my fellow citizens 
 generally; and trust that the voice of animadversion will be forever 
 hushed, in the universal good feeling of our sister States." 
 
 Although the utter impracticability of effecting any 
 permanent change in their coiulition, by an insurrec- 
 tion among our Slaves, has been, we think, fully de- 
 monstrated, it is nevertheless indispensible to our 
 safety to watch all their motions with a careful and 
 scrutinising eye — and to pursue such a system of po- 
 licy, in relation to them, as will effectually prevent all 
 secret combinations among them, hostile to our peace. 
 Every possible precaution should be adopted, that is cal- 
 cul ted, in the remotest degree, to save us from a catas- 
 trophe which at all limes threatens us, and of the horrors 
 
83 
 
 of which, the imaghiation can form no definite idea. 
 The Crisis through which we have so recently and pro- 
 videntially passed, had long been anticipated by those 
 who were^ minute observers of the passing events of 
 the times. A general spirit of insubordination among 
 our slaves and free negroes — springing from the relax- 
 ation of discipline on the part of the whites — had been 
 long discernable — norpje the other auxiliary causes so 
 occuh that they cannot be easily pointed out. 
 
 We look upon the existence of our Free Blacks 
 among us, as the greatest and most deplorable evil 
 w ith which we are unhappily afflicted. They arc, ge- 
 nerally speaking, an idle, lazy, insolent set of vagabonds, 
 who live by theft or gambling, or other means equal- 
 ly vicious and demoralising. And who, from 
 their general carriage and insolent behaviour in the 
 community, are a perpetual source of irritation to our- 
 selves, and a fruitful cause of dissatisfaction to our 
 slaves. Our slaves, when they look around them and 
 see persons of their oivn color enjoying a comparative 
 degree oi' freedom, and assuming privileges beyond 
 their own condition, naturally become dissatisfied with 
 their lot, until the feverish restlessness of this disposi- 
 tion foments itself into insurrection, and the " black 
 flood of long-retained spleen" breaks down every prin- 
 ciple of duty p.nd obedience. We would respectfully 
 recommend to the Legislature, therefore, the expedi- 
 ency of removing this evil, and of rooting it out of the 
 land. A law, banishing them, male and female, from 
 the State, under the penalty of death, or of perpetual 
 servitude, upon their return — or placing such a tax 
 upon them, as, from its severity, would render it im- 
 practicable for them to remain among us — is desirable. 
 Either of tiiese modes presents a feasible and <^asy 
 
84 
 
 method of clearing the country of this detestable caste. 
 The example of a sister State* in this latter particular, 
 gives us a wholesome lesson of instruction. Our phi- 
 lanthrophic brethren at the North and East, will, no 
 doubt, afford them an asylum, and ite have every dis- 
 position to get rid of them — Under such a dispensation, 
 therefore, all parlies might be satisfied. Should the 
 necessity of such an expedient appear obvious to the 
 Legislature, we ought, in common humanity, to see 
 that their departure from our shores should be attend- 
 ed with every necessary comfort and convenience. — 
 An appropriation of funds, therefore, to meet the exi- 
 gencies of such an event, and to provide for those who 
 might be incapable of providing for themselves, would 
 be necessary. If we are compelled, from our situ ation, 
 to pass over some of the more rigid and fundamental 
 principles of abstract justice, let the enoroachment be 
 made with as little individual distress as possible. 
 
 There are many enlightened and intelligent men 
 who are of opinion, that the same measures should be 
 adopted in relation to our Free MulAttoes — and that 
 they are as serious an affliction, both to the morals and 
 security of the State, as the Free Blacks themselves. 
 We are, however, of an opinion, directly the reverse, 
 and arc decidedly opposed to any system of legislation 
 that would end in banishing theyn. They are, in our 
 estimation, (but perhaps we have viewed the subject 
 in ui improper light) a harrier between our own color 
 and that of the black — and, in cases of insurrection, are 
 more likely to enlist themselves under the banners of 
 the whites. Most of them are industrious, sober, hard- 
 working mechanics, who have large families and con- 
 siderable property : and as far as we are acquainted 
 with their temper, and disposition of their feelings, 
 
 * Georgia. 
 
85 
 
 abhor the idea of an association with the blacks in any 
 enterprise that may have for its object the revolution of 
 their condition. It must be recollected also, that the 
 greater part of them own slaves themselves, and are, 
 therefore, so far interested in this species of property, 
 as to keep them on the watch, and induce them to dis- 
 close any plans that may be injurious to our peace. — 
 Experience justifies this conclusion. The important 
 discoveries, in most instances of insurrection, particu- 
 larly in the last, have been made through the imme- 
 diate instrumentahty and advice of this class. Would 
 it be generous then to drive them from the comforts of 
 their present situation, and exile them from our shores, 
 when we at the same time acknowledge the value of 
 the services they have performed ? We think not. — 
 But it is for wiser and better heads to determine — We 
 feel satisfied that whatever will be done in this respect, 
 will be dictated by a sound and wholesome judgment. 
 It'^is politic and proper at the same time, however, to 
 preserve such a system of discipline in relation to 
 them as w ill effectually mark their distinctive condi- 
 tion in society, and regulate their degree, when placed 
 in opposition to that of our own. If this principle of 
 prudent Legislation be once lost sight of, the barriers 
 between us must necessarily become nothing more 
 than a mere rope of sand. 
 
 " Take but dkgeee — away uuUnie that siring, 
 
 And, hark, what discord follows, eacli thing meets 
 
 In mere oppugnancy. Siiakspeark. 
 
 We had projected a further discussion of several 
 other topics intimately connected with our present 
 design, but the length to which our remarks 
 have already been extended, renders it impracticable 
 at present. We may, perhaps, at some future period, 
 
 / 
 
86 
 
 not far distant, renew our speculations, and gather 
 from other authorities than those we have already 
 used, additional evidences of the propriety of the 
 views we have taken. The subject is so vitally im- 
 portant that it cannot be too often agitated or discus- 
 sed. Every one who has a home amongst us — and 
 more particularly those whose happiness is ren- 
 dered still more felicitious by the endearing con- 
 nexions that spring from the relations of domestic 
 life— ^who have wives that look up to them for protec- 
 tion — and children who cling to them for safety and 
 security — feel that it is one tliat visits their hearts with 
 the utmost intensity of interest — There are no pulses 
 in such bosoms that palpitate with more active viva- 
 city — We ought not to circumscribe our prospects 
 to the present, or limit it to the contracted period 
 when the hour-glasses of our own existence run out. 
 Our thoughts should be more expanded — We ought to 
 legislate for our children — we ought to legislate for 
 POSTERITY. Let it never be forgotten, that " our Ne- 
 '"[ (jRoi!^ are ti'uely the Jacobins of the country; that 
 they are the anarchisis and the domestic enemy ; the 
 common enemy of civilized society, and the barbarians 
 
 .,Vvh0 would, IF THEY COULD, bcCOme the DESTROYERS 
 
 of our race.^^ 
 
 FIMS. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 \* The rapidity with which the foregoing pages have been put to press, 
 obliges us to reijuest the reader to correct a few Errata that have beea 
 unavoidably overlooked. 
 
 Page 10 line IS for "probabity'" read "probability." 
 "principle" •• '^principal." 
 " extensive" • • " exclusive." 
 "tho" . "the." 
 
 "concerning" •• "censuring." 
 " althougk is not fixed by law" read " although 
 
 it is not fixed by law." 
 " the of justice" read " of the justice." 
 '^siu genus" •• '^ sui generis." 
 
 '■'■ acutes ensens" •• " acute senses." 
 " affect" . . « effect." 
 
 "ofichick" •• "intvhich" 
 
 
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