Chapter 2

one's mind. I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of the present revolution. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust; his condition mollifying; the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed in the order of events, to be with the consent of their masters, rather than by their extirpation. Notes on Virginia, 298.]

[Footnote 22: What is here advanced is not to be understood as implying an opinion that the labour of slaves is more productive than that of freemen.--The author of the Treatise on the Wealth of Nations, informs us, "That it appears from the experience of all ages and nations, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that done by slaves. That it is found to do so, even in Boston, New-York and Philadelphia, where the wages of common labour are very high." Vol. 1. pa. 123. Lond. edit. oct. Admitting this conclusion, it would not remove the objection that emancipated slaves would not willingly labour.]

[Footnote 23: Doctor Franklin, it is said, drew the bill for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania.]

[Footnote 24: It is probable that similar laws have been passed in some other states; but I have not been able to procure a note of them.]

[Footnote 25: The object of the amendment proposed to be offered to the legislature, was to emancipate all slaves born after a certain period; and further directing that they should continue with their parents to a certain age, then be brought up, at the public expence, to tillage, arts, or sciences, according to their geniuses, till the females should be eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age, when they should be colonized to such a place as the circumstances of the time should render most proper; sending them out with arms, implements of household and of the handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domestic animals, &c. to declare them a free and independent people, and extend to them our alliance and protection, till they shall have acquired strength; and to send vessels at the same time to other parts of the world for an equal number of white inhabitants; to induce whom to migrate hither, proper encouragements should be proposed. Notes on Virginia, 251.]

[Footnote 26: It will probably be asked, why not retain the blacks among us and _incorporate them into the state_? Deep-rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the _real distinctions_ which _nature_ has made; and many other circumstances will divide us into parties and produce convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of one or the other race. To these objections which are political may be added others which are physical and moral. The first difference which strikes us is that of colour.--&c. The circumstance of superior beauty is thought worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and other domestic animals; Why not in that of man? &c. In general their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection. Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior; that in imagination they are dull, tasteless and anamolous. &c. The improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites, has been observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their condition of life. We know that among the Romans, about the Augustan age, especially, the condition of their slaves was much more deplorable, than that of the blacks on the continent of America. Yet among the Romans their slaves were often their rarest artists. They excelled too in science, insomuch as to be usually employed as tutors to their masters' children. Epictetus, Terence, and Phoedrus were slaves. But they were of the race of whites. It is not their condition then, but nature, which has produced the distinction. The opinion that they are inferior in the faculties of reason and imagination, must be hazarded with great diffidence. To justify a general conclusion requires many observations. &c.--I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites both in the endowments of body and mind. &c. This unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Among the Romans emancipation required but one effort. The slave, when made free, might mix with, without staining, the blood of his master. But with us a second is necessary, unknown to history.--See the passage at length, Notes on Virginia, page 252 to 265.

"In the present case, it is not only the slave who is beneath his master, it is the Negroe who is beneath the white man. No act of enfranchisement can efface this unfortunate distinction." Chatelleux's Travels in America.]

[Footnote 27: The celebrated David Hume, in his Essay on National Character, advances the same opinion; Doctor Beattie, in his Essay on Truth, controverts it with many powerful arguments. Early prejudices, had we more satisfactory information than we can possibly possess on the subject at present, would render an inhabitant of a country where Negroe slavery prevails, an improper umpire between them.]

The plan therefore which I would presume to propose for the consideration of my countrymen is such, as the number of slaves, the difference of their nature, and habits, and the state of agriculture, among us, might render it _expedient_, rather than _desirable_ to adopt: and would partake partly of that proposed by Mr. Jefferson, and adopted in other states; and partly of such cautionary restrictions, as a due regard to situation and circumstances, and even to _general_ prejudices, might recommend to those, who engage in so arduous, and perhaps unprecedented an undertaking.

1. Let every female born after the adoption of the plan be free, and transmit freedom to all her descendants, both male and female.

2. As a compensation to those persons, in whose families such females, or their descendants may be born, for the expence and trouble of their maintenance during infancy, let them serve such persons until the age of twenty-eight years: let them then receive twenty dollars in money, two suits of clothes, suited to the season, a hat, a pair of shoes, and two blankets. If these things be not voluntarily done, let the county courts enforce the performance, upon complaint.

3. Let all Negroe children be registered with the clerk of the county or corporation court, where born, within one month after their birth: let the person in whose family they are born take a copy of the register, and deliver it to the mother, or if she die to the child, before it is of the age of twenty-one years. Let any Negroe claiming to be free, and above the age of puberty, be considered as of the age of twenty-eight years, if he or she be not registered, as required.

4. Let all such Negroe servants be put on the same footing as white servants and apprentices now are, in respect to food, raiment, correction, and the assignment of their service from one to another.

5. Let the children of Negroes and mulattoes, born in the families of their parents, be bound to service by the overseers of the poor, until they shall attain the age of twenty-one years.--Let all above that age, who are not housekeepers, nor have voluntarily bound themselves to service for a year before the first day of February annually, be then bound for the remainder of the year by the overseers of the poor. Let the overseers of the poor receive fifteen per cent. of their wages, from the person hiring them, as a compensation for their trouble, and ten per cent. per annum out of the wages of such as they may bind apprentices.

6. If at the age of twenty-seven years, the master of a Negroe or mulattoe servant be unwilling to pay his freedom dues, above mentioned, at the expiration of the succeeding year, let him bring him into the county court, clad and furnished with necessaries as before directed, and pay into court five dollars, for the use of the servant, and thereupon let the court direct him to be hired by the overseers of the poor for the succeeding year, in the manner before directed.

7. Let no Negroe or mulattoe be capable of taking, holding, or exercising, any public office, freehold, franchise or privilege, or any estate in lands or tenements, other than a lease not exceeding twenty-one years.--Nor of keeping, or bearing arms,[28] unless authorised so to do by some act of the general assembly, whose duration shall be limitted to three years. Nor of contracting matrimony with any other than a Negroe or mulattoe; nor be an attorney; nor be a juror; nor a witness in any court of judicature, except against; or between Negroes and mulattoes. Nor be an executor or administrator; nor capable of making any will or testament; nor maintain any real action; nor be a trustee of lands or tenements himself, nor any other person to be a trustee to him or to his use.

8. Let all persons born after the passing of the act, be considered as entitled to the same mode of trial in criminal cases, as free Negroes and mulattoes are now entitled to.

[Footnote 28: See Spirit of Laws, 12-15.----1. Black Com. 417.]

The restrictions in this place may appear to favour strongly of prejudice: whoever proposes any plan for the abolition of slavery, will find that he must either encounter, or accommodate himself to prejudice.--I have preferred the latter; not that I pretend to be wholly exempt from it, but that I might avoid as many obstacles as possible to the completion of so desirable a work, as the abolition of slavery. Though I am opposed to the banishment of the Negroes, I wish not to encourage their future residence among us. By denying them the most valuable privileges which civil government affords, I wished to render it their inclination and their interest to seek those privileges in some other climate. There is an immense unsettled territory on this continent[29] more congenial to their natural constitutions than ours, where they may perhaps be received upon more favourable terms than we can permit them to remain with us. Emigrating in small numbers, they will be able to effect settlements more easily than in large numbers; and without the expence or danger of numerous colonies. By releasing them from the yoke of bondage, and enabling them to seek happiness wherever they can hope to find it, we surely confer a benefit, which no one can sufficiently appreciate, who has not tasted of the bitter curse of compulsory servitude. By excluding them from offices, the seeds of ambition would be buried too deep, ever to germinate: by disarming them, we may calm our apprehensions of their resentments arising from past sufferings; by incapacitating them from holding lands, we should add one inducement more to emigration, and effectually remove the foundation of ambition, and party-struggles. Their personal rights, and their property, though limited, would whilst they remain among us be under the protection of the laws; and their condition not at all inferior to that of the _labouring_ poor in most other countries. Under such an arrangement we might reasonably hope, that time would either remove from us a race of men, whom we wish not to incorporate with us, or obliterate those prejudices, which now form an obstacle to such incorporation.

[Footnote 29: The immense territory of Louisiana, which extends as far south as the lat. 25° and the two Floridas, would probably afford a ready asylum for such as might choose to become Spanish subjects. How far their political rights might be enlarged in these countries, is, however questionable: but the climate is undoubtedly more favourable to the African constitution than ours, and from this cause, it is not improbable that emigrations from these states would in time be very considerable.]

But it is not from the want of liberality to the emancipated race of blacks that I apprehend the most serious objections to the plan I have ventured to suggest.--Those slave holders (whose numbers I trust are few) who have been in the habit of considering their fellow creatures as no more than cattle, and the rest of the brute creation, will exclaim that they are to be deprived of their _property_, without compensation. Men who will shut their ears against this moral truth, that all men are by nature _free_, and _equal_, will not even be convinced that they do not possess a _property_ in an _unborn_ child: they will not distinguish between allowing to _unborn_ generations the absolute and unalienable rights of human nature, and taking away that which they _now possess_; they will shut their ears against truth, should you tell them, the loss of the mother's labour for nine months, and the maintenance of a child for a dozen or fourteen years, is amply compensated by the services of that child for as many years more, as he has been an expence to them. But if the voice of reason, justice and humanity be not stifled by sordid avarice, or unfeeling tyranny, it would be easy to convince even those who have entertained such erroneous notions, that the right of one man over another is neither founded in nature, nor in sound policy. That it cannot extend to those _not in being_; that no man can in reality be _deprived_ of what he doth not possess: that fourteen years labour by a young person in the prime of life, is an ample compensation for a few months of labour lost by the mother, and for the maintenance of a child, in that coarse homely manner that Negroes are brought up: And lastly, that a state of slavery is not only perfectly incompatible with the principles of government, but with the safety and security of their masters. History evinces this. At this moment we have the most awful demonstrations of it. Shall we then neglect a duty, which every consideration, moral, religious, political, or _selfish_, recommends. Those who wish to postpone the measure, do not reflect that every day renders the task more arduous to be performed. We have now 300,000 slaves among us. Thirty years hence we shall have double the number. In sixty years we shall have 1,200,000. And in less than another century from this day, even that enormous number will be doubled. Milo acquired strength enough to carry an ox, by beginning with the ox while he was yet a calf. If we complain that the calf is too heavy for our shoulders, what will not the ox be?

To such as apprehend danger to our agricultural interest, and the depriving the families of those whose principal reliance is upon their slaves, of support, it will be proper to submit a view of the gradual operation, and effects of this plan. They will no doubt be surprized to hear, that whenever it is adopted, the number of slaves will not be diminished for forty years after it takes place; that it will even encrease for thirty years; that at the distance of sixty years, there will be one-third of the number at its first commencement: that it will require _above a century_ to complete it; and that the number of blacks _under twenty-eight_, and consequently bound to service, in the families they are born in, will always be at least as great, as the present number of slaves. These circumstances I trust will remove many objections, and that they are truly stated will appear upon enquiry.[30] It will further appear, that females only will arrive at the age of emancipation within the first forty-five years; all the males during that period, continuing either in slavery, or bound to service till the age of twenty-eight years. The earth cannot want cultivators, whilst our population increases as at present, and three-fourths of those employed therein are held to service, and the remainder compellable to labour. For we must not lose sight of this important consideration, that these people must be _bound_ to labour, if they do not _voluntarily_ engage therein. Their faculties are at present only calculated for that object; if they be not employed therein they will become drones of the worst description. In absolving them from the yoke of slavery, we must not forget the interests of the society. Those interests require the exertions of every individual in some mode or other; and those who have not wherewith to support themselves honestly without corporal labour, whatever be their complexion, ought to be compelled to labour. This is the case in England, where domestic slavery has long been unknown. It must also be the case in every well ordered society; and where the numbers of persons without property increase, there the coertion of the laws becomes more immediately requisite. The proposed plan would necessarily have this effect, and therefore ought to be accompanied with such a regulation. Though the rigours of our police in respect to this unhappy race ought to be softened, yet, its regularity, and punctual administration should be increased, rather than relaxed. If we doubt the propriety of such measures, what must we think of the situation of our country, when instead of 300,000, we shall have more than _two millions_ of SLAVES among us? This _must happen within a_ CENTURY, if we do not set about the abolition of slavery. Will not our posterity curse the days of their nativity with all the anguish of Job? Will they not execrate the memory of those ancestors, who, having it in their power to avert evil, have, like their first parents, entailed a curse upon all future generations? We know that the rigour of the laws respecting slaves unavoidably must increase with their numbers: What a blood-stained code must that be which is calculated for the restraint of _millions_ held in bondage! Such must our unhappy country exhibit within a century, unless we are both wise and just enough to avert from posterity the calamity and reproach, which are otherwise unavoidable.

[Footnote 30: As it may not be unacceptable to some readers to observe the operation of this plan, I shall subjoin the following statement:

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

1. The number of slaves in Virginia by the late census being found to be 292,427, they may now, in round numbers be estimated at 300,000.

2. Let it be supposed that the males and females are nearly or altogether equal in number.

3. According to Dr. Franklin, the people of America double their numbers in about twenty-eight years; and according to Mr. Jefferson, the negroes increase as fast as the whites, they will therefore double, at least every thirty years.

4. Let it be supposed that in thirty years one half of the present race of negroes will be extinct.

5. Let it be supposed that in forty-five years there will not remain more than one-fifth of the present race alive.

6. Let it be likewise supposed, that in sixty years the whole of the present race will be extinct.

7. For conciseness sake, let the present race be called _ante-nati_, those born after the adoption of the plan, _post-nati_.

FROM HENCE IT WILL FOLLOW,

1. That the present number of slaves being 300,000.

2. In thirty years their numbers will amount to 600,000.

3. But at that period as one half of them will be extinct, (rem. 4.) their numbers will stand thus:

Ante-nati, 150,000

Post-nati, 450,000 ---- 600,000.

4. The mean increase of the post-nati for the next thirty years will therefore be 450000/30, annually, or 15,000.

5. If one half of these be males, who are still to remain slaves, there will in the first sixteen years, be born 120,000.

6. After the first sixteen years, the post-nati females will begin to breed; the proportion of males born to slavery in the next twelve years may be estimated at one-fourth of the whole number born after the commencement of that period. Their number will be 52,000.

7. The number of _slaves_ living in Virginia at the end of _thirty_ years from the adoption of the plan, will be, ante-nati (prop. 3.) 150,000

Post-nati males born in the first 16 years, 120,000

Post-nati males born in the last 12 years, 52,500

---- 322,500.

8. The number of _negroes_ at the same time will stand thus:

Slaves, 322,500

Post-nati free born, 277,500

---- 600,000.

9. After twenty-eight years from the first adoption, this plan of gradual emancipation will first begin to manifest its effects, by the complete emancipation of one twenty-eighth part of the post-nati free born during that period each succeeding year, for twenty-eight years more; their numbers will be, 277500/28, or 9,910.

These will be all females.

10. It being admitted that the negroes double every thirty years, the supposition that in forty-five years, their numbers will be half as many more as in thirty, will not be very erroneous, if so, the whole race of them at that period will be 900,000.

11. Their numbers will stand thus:

Ante-nati, 60,000

Post-nati, 840,000

---- 900,000.

12. After twenty-eight years are past, the number of slaves born must continually diminish. Suppose their number born in the last 17 years, to be one-fourth as many as those born in the preceding twelve years, they will be 52500/4, or 13,125.

13. The slaves in Virginia in forty-five years will then be, ante-nati, 60,000

Post-nati males born in the first sixteen years, 120,000

Ditto, born in the next twelve years 52,500

Ditto, born in the last seventeen years, 13,125

---- 245,625.

At this period the emancipation of males will begin.

14. But after twenty eight years it has been shewn that 9,910 negroes will annually arrive at the age of emancipation, their whole number in forty-five years will be 168,470.

15. The state of the negroes at the end of 45 years, will then be, slaves, 245,625

Post-nati fully emancipated (females), 168,470

Post-nati not emancipated, 485,905

---- 900,000.

16. In sixty years the whole number of negroes will be

1,200,000.

17. At that period the whole of the present race will be extinct; and we may also infer that one half of those born in the first thirty years will be also extinct; the number of slaves born in that period has been shewn, (prop. 7.) to be 172,500, the number of these then living will be 172,500/2, or 86,250.

18. One half of the post-nati free born, during that period, being now fully emancipated, may be likewise presumed to be extinct; their numbers (prop. 8.) will be, 277,500/2, or 138,750.

19. The state of the negroes at the end of sixty years, will therefore be:

Slaves born during the first thirty years, 86,250

Ditto born after that period, 13,125

Post-nati fully emancipated, 138,750

Post-nati under 28 years of age, 961,875

---- 1,200,000.

20. At the end of ninety years the number of negroes will be

2,400,000

21. Of this number, those only born after the first thirty years, being supposed to be living, the number of slaves (prop. 12) will then be reduced to 13,125.

22. And as the last mentioned number of slaves are supposed to be born within forty-five years, their whole number will be extinct in fifteen years more, that is, in _one hundred =and= five_ years from the first adoption of the plan.

23. By prop. 19. it appears, that out of 1,200,000 negroes, there will then be 961,875 under the age of twenty-eight years, the period of emancipation.

24. We may therefore conclude, that from _two-thirds_ to _three-fourths_ of the whole number of blacks will _always_ be liable to service.]

I am not vain enough to presume the plan I have suggested entirely free from objection; nor that in offering my own ideas on the subject, I have been more fortunate than others: but from the communication of sentiment between those who lament the evil, it is possible that an effectual remedy may at length be discovered. Whenever that happens the golden age of our country will begin. Till then,

----_Non hospes ab hospite tutus,

Non Herus à Famulie: fratrum quoque gratia rara._

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's Dissertation on Slavery, by St. George Tucker