But To All Who Would See The Realm Which Nature Has Spread Out,
In Her Largest Features, For The Development
Of the Anglo-Saxon race,
under institutions once deemed Utopian, and even yet wondered at as
experimental - to all who
Would see how a people can GROW - North America
is the country of irresistible attraction."
* * * * *
As to slavery, I wrote: -
"Maryland is a slave State, and Baltimore exhibits traces of the
existence of the 'Institution.' At the railway stations - the one
belonging to the line which connects Baltimore with Philadelphia, for
instance - are notices, stating 'that coloured persons desiring to go by
the cars, must be at the depot two hours before the starting of the
train, to have their names registered and their papers examined, or
they will not be allowed to travel.'
"The following announcements in the 'Baltimore Clipper,' were amongst
similar advertisements: -
"'SLAVES WANTED. - We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying the
highest cash prices. Persons wishing to sell, will please call
at 242, Pratt-street. (Slatter's Old Stand.) Communications attended
to.'
"'NEGROES WANTED. - I will pay the highest prices, in cash, for any
number of Negroes with good titles, slaves for life, or for a
term of years, in large or small families, or single Negroes. I will
also purchase Negroes restricted to remain in the State, that sustain
good characters. Families never separated. Persons having Slaves for
sale, will please call and see me, as I am always in the market with
the cash. Communications promptly attended to, and liberal commissions
paid, by John D. Denning, No. 18, South Frederick-street, between
Market and Second-streets, with trees in front of the house.'
"Maryland has 89,000 slaves, and the number is decreasing. Virginia,
its neighbour State, has 448,000 - the total number in the Union being
2,487,000.
"I have found throughout my tour, what all English travellers must
find - that slavery is a question which it is better not to go out of
one's way to discuss. For, although I have had many friendly
conversations with its most ardent supporters and most violent
opponents, I soon discovered, on the one hand, that the question is
practically compromised by the great political parties in the Free
States, from time to time, in order to conciliate Southern votes; and,
on the other, that the slave-owners consider the word 'abolition' as
synonymous with confiscation and civil war. The latter meet you at the
outset of the argument by stating that their whole property consists of
land and slaves. That their lands of course derive their value from
cultivation; and that, apart from the mere question of cost, that
cultivation is impossible in the hands of the white man. They tell you,
that while the negro endures the labour of the rice field mid-leg deep
in water, and with a scorching sun above his head, without danger, and
can withstand the miasma-hanging in the night air on the plantations -
the white man is attacked with hopeless fever if he exposes himself to
these influences.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 168 of 259
Words from 88158 to 88674
of 136421
