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Page 29
Swearing, gambling and drunkenness, are the most common vices among
Southern men; and slander, detraction, and a species of low detestable
swindling in business transactions, are the vices most obvious in the
North. The better part of Southern society are regulated and
controlled, to a great extent, by certain laws of honor and rules of
social etiquette. A Southerner is more likely to inquire, is it
honorable or dishonorable, than is it morally right or wrong? They
rigidly observe those rules and regulations which govern society, in
their social intercourse. I will close this chapter with some remarks
on slave labor; its effects on the agricultural interests of the
South, &c.
It is a trite remark that slave labor is unproductive, when compared
with labor performed by free white citizens; and that the agricultural
interests of the country have suffered by the introduction of slave
labor, &c.
The fact is admitted by all, but the reason is not very clear to every
one. Many cannot comprehend, why it is, that the farmer who pays his
laborers nothing, should be less prosperous than his neighbor, who
pays his laborers from ten to fifteen dollars per month. The idea that
those who work slaves, pay nothing for their labor; or in other words,
that slave labor costs a man nothing, is incorrect. If a farmer breeds
and raises slaves, it is at a cost of at least a thousand dollars per
slave. If he purchases a slave with his money, the slave frequently
costs him one thousand dollars. If we suppose his money worth ten per
cent interest, per annum, the amount of the interest on the purchase
money, is one hundred dollars per annum. Here is eight dollars and
thirty-three and one-third cents per month, that the farmer is paying
for labor. To this add fifty dollars per annum for clothing, viz.,
four dollars and sixteen and two-third cents per month; making an
aggregate of twelve dollars and fifty cents per month, that the farmer
expends for slave labor. During a residence of forty four years in the
South, I never knew the time when white laborers could not be procured
for that amount, and frequently for less. To this we may fairly add at
least twenty-five per cent for loss of time by sickness, loss of slave
property by death, physician's bills, &c., so that we may put down
slave labor at fifteen dollars per month. Fifty per cent more, than
white labor ordinarily costs in the slave states. This is a fair
statement of the case. But the disadvantages of slave labor do not
stop here. As a general rule, land cultivated by white laborers, will
produce from twenty-five to fifty per cent more than land cultivated
by slave labor. This is owing to the careless, slovenly manner in
which slave labor is performed. To this we may add the destruction of
farming utensils and implements of husbandry, over and above what
occurs in the hands of white laborers; and also the injury inflicted
on horses, mules and oxen; the loss of stock for the want of proper
attention, regular feeding, &c.
None can comprehend the force of my remarks so well, as the practical
farmer. Well does he understand the vast expense incurred, and the
loss that is sustained, by the careless and reckless wear and tear,
and destruction of farming utensils and machinery--the improper
treatment of horses--inattention to hogs, cattle, &c. Slaves are
remarkable for their listlessness and indolence, and the little
interest they manifest in anything. Many of them perform their round
of labor with as little apparent concern or interest, as the horses or
mules which they drive before them. There are, I admit, exceptions,
but as a general rule, my remarks hold good. I never owned a negro,
but I frequently employed them as cooks, washerwoman, &c., and many
years observation satisfied me, that as a general rule, that when left
to themselves, they consumed, or rather wasted, one-third more
precisions than would have sufficed for my family under the management
and supervision of an economical white woman.
It is a notorious fact, well known to every one who has had
opportunities of making observations, that in those parts of the
United States where the operations of farming have been confided
mostly to slaves, the lands are exhausted of their fertility and have
become barren and unproductive. Some lands are now in this condition,
which were originally the finest in the United States. Eastern
Virginia is a good sample of the effects of slave labor on the
fertility of lands. This all results from the ignorance, carelessness
and inattention of those to whom the operations of farming are
confided. All soils are capable of improvement by judicious culture,
and the interests of farmers, individually and collectively, as well
as the interest of every American citizen, requires at their hands to
so cultivate their lands as to augment their fertility; and not solely
with a view to their present productiveness. It is a duty incumbent on
them as good citizens; a duty they owe to themselves; to their
posterity; to the nation; to the world.
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