ACCESSIBLE ARCHIVES
Collection: African American Newspapers
Publication: FREEDOM'S JOURNAL
Date: August 10, 1827
Title: We present our readers with the following Extract of a Letter,
Location: New York, New York
We present our readers with the following Extract of a Letter, lately received from a distinguished Abolitionist in England. All our true friends must agree with the views of the writer.
"LIVERPOOL, 6th Month, 15th, 1827.
"Though both our Houses of Parliament have unanimously resolved on taking measures for the amelioration of the state of slavery, and for its ultimate extinction, yet they have aimed at doing it through the colonists themselves, and little or nothing has yet been done; and if we had nothing else, we should have room for discouragement. But, happily, the principles of free trade are making great progress, and on the late debate on the subject of our trade with India, the Members connected with the Government, acknowledged its vast importance, and gave us reason to expect they would go on gradually removing the obstacles to a free trade.
"The West Indians have great interest in Parliament, and this must considerably obstruct the progress of Government, in the measures which it is clear they would wish to adopt; but I feel confident all will in the end be carried, and then slavery in the British colonies will have received its death blow; for it is the bounties and protections in favour of the produce of the slave labourer, which is the chief support of slavery there.
"I cannot but rejoice to see so many efforts making, in one way or other, on your side, for the amelioration or ultimate extinction of slavery . This shews good feeling and it is next of great importance, that this feeling should have a right direction. It is, I am convinced, of great importance for promoting the civilization of Africa, to have settlements on its coast similar to those of Sierra Leone and Liberia; and so far I accord with your Emigration Society. But as any means of removing the slave population from your states, I consider it altogether visionary. The respectable individuals who have joined and patronized this society, seem to have yielded to the prejudices and the erroneous views of the slave holders. They have gone into the question, as too many others have done, as one of great difficulty; and so it is truly: but they have viewed it as one of so much delicacy, that it was not to be approached with open eyes, even some of its most important features were never to be looked into. In this way, I am persuaded, an evil which all admit, will never be removed; - all its bearings must be openly and fearlessly examined. We must not expect to remove so great an evil by yielding to prejudice and error, but by bringing it fairly to the light of truth.
"Virginia is now the greatest seat of the internal slave trade; the people of that state pride themselves in being the first to propose the abolition of the slave trade. But I must own, I feel at a loss to know what humanity has gained by the abolition of one slave trade, and the substitution of another, perhaps, quite as extensive, and, in some of its features, even more horrible. In 1810, Virginia had 392,518 slaves; in 1820, 425,153. At the rate of general increase in the United states, Virginia ought to have had in 1820, fully 500,000. It may then be presumed that 75,000 have been sent out of that state in ten years! Was the African slave trade to Virginia ever carried to a greater extent?
If the land owners of Virginia could be induced to look this subject fairly in the face, they would soon see the great impolicy, even putting humanity out of the question, of suffering this trade to continue. In proportion to the number of people, if they are profitably employed, is the value of land. As slaves increase upon the land, their value will necessarily diminish; but this is no loss to their owner, who is also the owner of the land, which is more than increased in proportion to the diminished value of the slaves. If land is plentiful, and labourers scarce, land will have little value. The price of labour, and the price of slaves, where that state exists, will be high. IF labourers become plentiful, the price of labour, or slaves will diminish, until they are not worth holding in a state of slavery at all: but if the market price of the produce remains the same, it will be merely a transfer of value from the slaves to the land. This would be the case even if no greater inducements were held out to quicken the exertions of the labourer: but when he is converted into a freeman, he will be induced to be so much more industrious, as not only to increase ;his own comforts, but also the profits of his former master, now become his landlord. In this country, no rank in society stands so high as the owners of the land, who are receiving a revenue from an independent tenantry. Such a class of men exist in your country, but to a very small extent. And how, I would ask, are they to exist in Virginia, if they continue to sell their population away? Nay, if the land owners of that state would open their eyes to their real interests, they would afford an asylum for the free blacks, which it is proposed to send to Africa.
"To return again to that Emigration scheme. It has one positive and direct evil. Is it proposed to send the free blacks out of the country, because wages are so low that they cannot find employments? No such thing. They can find employment enough; but if their numbers increase, their labours will come into competition with the labour of the slaves, and in the end would destroy slavery itself. Is it not the feeling, that this scheme insures the existence of slavery , which causes it to be patronized by the slave holders? I do not mean by this, that abstractedly considered, they are so fond of slavery s to wish it to continue; but they consider it so delicate a subject, that they are glad to support any scheme which is likely to leave it untouched.
"I have desired my friends, J.P. Cope & Son, of Philadelphia, to order for me, five complete sets of all the numbers of your Paper which have been published, and five copies of the succeeding numbers as they come out.
"Sincerely desiring the success of your undertaking, I remain yours. &c." J**** C******."