15 10 250 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource PRODUCE OF FREE LABOR. CIRCULAR.: To the Farmers, Planters, Merchants, and others, in the United States and elsewhere. Description An account of the resource The system of slavery, as it exists at present, particularly on the American continent and islands, has produced much uneasiness and deep concern among the philanthropists of our time. It is very evident that the evil resulting from it is increasing steadily, and in an alarming degree. It is also susceptible of the clearest demonstration that, unless something be done speedily to arrest the progress of this evil, those sections of country wherein it prevails are destined to witness the most direful calamities; for all experience teaches us that, if the course at present pursued be long preserved in, that must, in the nature of things, be the inevitable consequence. Much has been said by persons who have the welfare of mankind at heart, to awaken the public attention, and exercise the public mind upon this subject. Many plans have been proposed with the view of totally abolishing the slave system, as the only means of preventing a state of things that must destroy the peace and prosperity of the nations, in which it is tolerated. But the advocates of this measure have difficulties of the most imposing kind to encounter at every step. The habits and prejudices contracted in several centuries, and all the calculations of avarice and self-interest (however blind, mistaken, and erroneous they may be,) are arrayed before them, and present obstacles altogether insurmountable. Many are convinced that free labor is, invariably, more profitable than that of slaves: and when this shall be fairly proven, an important point will be gained. For this reason and from motives of a conscientious nature, many have resolved to abstain from using the productions of slave-labor, and encourage those who may produce the staple commodities of slaveholding countries by free hands. Although much good has been done by the friends of humanity for a portion of our fellow-men, who have had unjustly to drink of the bitter cup of slavery, still much more remains to be done. There are, at this time, several millions of human beings, in our own and other countries, who are held in bondage, and must continue to groan under the tyrant's yoke, while the hopeless sign for liberty is heaved in vain, unless the philanthropic and the truly conscientious shall put forth their peaceful, but effective energies, in their behalf. While the love of money prevails over that of justice and humanity, but little can be hoped for through the medium of argument. While we continue to purchas and consume the labor of slaves, the cupidity of their owners will be nourished, and their chains more firmly rivetted. In order, therefore, to lessen the inducements for the continuance of this unhallowed practice; first, by aiding the philanthropic in effecting their wishes, as aforesaid, whereby the attention of many more may be drawn towards the subject; and secondly, by assisting to facilitate the making of experiments that may have a tendency to throw light upon it; we, the undersigned, have opened a mercantile house in the city of Baltimore, for the purchase and sale, on commission, of the products of free labor in general, (particularly article in the grocery line,) with the excption of spiritous liquors. The business of the firm will be transacted in the name of M. LAMB & LUNDY: and from the arrangements which we have made, and are making, together with a studied and careful attention to the orders of our friends and the promotion of their interests, we hope to be able to give general satisfaction. We shall strictly confine our dealings to commodities which are the production of free labor, as aforesaid, and shall endeavor to keep constantly on hand a general assortment of articles of that description, to dispose of by wholesale or retail. Farmers, Planters, and Merchants, in the United States and elsewhere, who may be disposed to make consignments to our care, may depend on having their business promptly and faithfully transacted.--And all, willing to patronize such an establishment, are hereby assured that the utmost care will be taken to guard against deception in the articles offered by us for sale. Having taken a commodious ware-house in a central part of the city, and being determined to use every exertion to accommodate such as may favor us with their custom, we shall confidently look forward with the hope of success in our undertaking. Persons at a distance, who may desire to correspond with us on business of a commercial nature, will please direct their communications to M. LAMB & LUNDY, No. 61. South Calvert Street, Baltimore. MICHAEL LAMB BENJAMIN LUNDY Baltimore, 8th mo. 5th, 1826. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michael Lamb and Benjamin Lundy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Genius of Universal Emancipation 1:49, p. 388 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 8.5.1826 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A COMPARISON: BETWEEN FREE LABOR AND SLAVE LABOR Description An account of the resource The slave is bought, sometimes at a very high price; in free labor there is no such investment of capital. The slave does not care how slowly or carelessly he works; it is the freeman's interest to do his business well and quickly. The slave is indifferent how many tools he spoils; the freeman has a motive to be careful. The freeman will be honest for reputation's sake; but a slave has no care for reputation, while his poverty and sense of wrong both urge him to steal from his master. A salary must be paid to an overseer to compel the slave to work; the freeman is impelled by the desire of increasing the comforts of himself and family. Mrs. Child. Whenever the option exists to employ, at an equal hire, free or slave labor, the former will be decidedly preferred. It is more capable, more diligent, more faithful, and in every respect more worthy of confidence. It is believed that no where in the farming portion of the U.S. would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietors were not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the southern market, which keeps it up in his own.--Henry Clay The labor of a West India slave costs about thrice as much as it would if executed by a free man. Dr. Anderson. A West India planter found by experiment that six slaves, stimulated by the offer of a premium, did more work in the same time, than eighteen who were driven by the lash.--Hodgson. The mind of a slave, while a slave, is like a watch without its main-spring. You may take hold of its hands by direct physical force and move them round, but you cannot make them go alone. Th self-moving power is gone. But make that slave a freeman, restore his long-lost, but inalienable right, and by that single act, you have put the main-spring back again. --Phelps Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mrs. Child (Lydia Maria Child), Henry Clay, Dr. Anderson, Hodgson, Phelps Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Religious Intelligencer...Containing the Principal Transactions of the Various Bible and Missionary Societies, with Particular Accounts of Revivals of Religion 20:36, p. 566 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2.6.1836 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Free Labor.: Certificates Description An account of the resource A paragraph, from the "Fredericksburg Arena," which has been copied into a number of other papers, in speaking of the Philadelphia "Free Cotton Association," expresses some doubt as to "where," in our free country, cotton could be obtained untouched by the hands of slavery. For the satisfaction of those who may be apprehensive of deception, we subjoin the following copies of certificates, testifying to the purity of the material employed in the late manufactures of the society. That made use of previously, was received from the same source. Certificates. We do hereby certify, that the 30 bales of cotton, sent by us to Morris Longstreth, of Philadelphia, marked F, and numbered 1 to 30, is, exclusively, cotton raised by free white persons, or at least by free laborers, and that no cotton, raised by slaves, has been mixed therewith. NATHAN HUNT JR. for Hunt & Stockton. Third Mo. 23d, 1830 I do certify that the 30 bales of cotton, sent by Hunt & Stockton to Morris Longstreth, is according to the above certificate, exclusively the product of Free Labor; as I personally attended to the picking of it. NATHAN HUNT. 3rd Mo. 23d, 1830. It is also questioned whether the plan of proceeding, adopted by the Association, is of a nature to operate beneficially on the condition of the slaves. We should suppose no unprejudiced mind would hesitate for an instant to answer in the affirmative. We are convincd the system of Free Labor, as it is one of the most quiet, is also one of the most efficient, auxiliaries of Emancipation. And most thoroughly are we persuaded that to give freedom to the slaves would advantage their masters, in a degree inferior only to the benefit derived from the negroes themselves. The superiority of Free Labor does not rest upon unsupported theory--it has been tested by fair experiment, and found by far the most profitable. The society of which we speak, wishes not to injure the interests of any individual--nor can it interfere with the true interests of any one, to hold out inducments for them to return from a path of injustice to one of rectitude. It is but reasonable to suppose that the persons who are now slaves, would labor as cheerfully and industriously, when disencumbered, if not of the weight of actual fetters yet of the heavy sense of degradation and thrall, which presses upon their hearts and weighs down the energies of their nature with a dull lethargy. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Genius of Universal Emancipation 1:5, p. 73 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 8.1830 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Free Labor Produce Description An account of the resource Can you tell us, Mr. Editor, where and on what terms we can purchase sugar, molasses and coffee; the proceeds of free labor. I use from two to three barrels of sugar, a barrel of molasses and a bag of coffee in my family per year, and feel unwilling to contribute that little to the support of slavery. It is said that the new tariff levies a tax of two cents per pound on foreign sugar for the benefit of the slave-holder. By southern doctrine, we of the free states pay on every pound of sugar we use two cents per pound to help the slave-holder and put off for a little longer the universal bankruptcy of the south. Let us hear what you can tell us on this subject. FARMER There is no Free Produce store in Cincinnati but there ought to be one. We have been repeatedly interrogated on this subject. Were such a store established here, we doubt not, it would receive a large patronage, and yield a fine profit to its keeper. We do hope some one will adventure. If any one is so disposed, and has the capital, we can put him on a train, by which he can ascertain what he may calculate upon. ED. PHILANTHROPIST. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Philanthropist 7:33, p. 1 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 4.12.1843 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Meetings and Events Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Philadelphia; 10.15.1839 (Meeting) Description An account of the resource American Free Produce Association. The first annual meeting of the American Free Produce Association will be held in Philadelphia on 15th of 10th mo. at Clarkson Hall. Societies auxilary to this are requested to send large delegations, and the friends of the cause generally are invited to attend. On behalf of the executive committee. ABM. L. PENNOCK, Chairman. DANL. L. MILLER, Jr. Secretary. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Friend; a Religious and Literary Journal 13:2, p. 12 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 10.12.1839 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource THE TARIFF OF CONSCIENCE: Free Trade in Slave Produce Considered Subject The topic of the resource A three-part sketch serialized in the Friends' Review Description An account of the resource A DIALOGUE Consumer of Slave Produce.--I see neither sense nor beauty in this agitation against slave produce, which you style the "Free Labour Movement." I look upon your principle as a benevolent crotchet, incapable of being reduced to practice, involving manifest inconsistencies, and not more impracticable than inexpedient. Abstainer from Slave Produce.--I believe the difficulties which appear at first sight will generally vanish on closer examination. If you will put your objections into a tangible form, I shall do my best to answer them, and perhaps a little friendly discussion may bring us nearer to one mind. Consumer.--You will admit that sugar and coffee, for example, are the good creatures of God, intended for the use and benefit of man. The Spaniards and Brazilians choose to cultivate them by slave-labour, but that is their business and not mine, neither does it alter the intrinsic value of these productions. I cannot see that it would be right to reject them on this account, or that we should be held guiltless in allowing God's blessings to go to waste. Abstainer.--My objections to these articles are entirely relative, and not based on any thing inherent in their nature. 1st. I cannot consume slave-produce without encouraging slavery, and slavery is a cruel and unrighteous system. If no one would consume slave-produce, there would be no slaves; consequently I am bound to reject slave-produce. 2nd. Slave-produce is of the character of stolen goods. Labour forms a principal item in the value of every commodity. Reason and Scripture alike declare that the labourer has a right to the wages of his own toil. But as the slave is robbed of his wages, slave-produce is clearly the result of stolen labour, and as far as it is so, must be stolen goods. Consequently if it be wrong to buy stolen goods, it must also be wrong to buy slave-produce. Here, then, is our principle, and our mode of working is equally intelligible. As the legislature has abolished the prohibitory duties on slave-produce, we appeal to the individual consciences of the people to replace them by a wide-spread voluntary abstinence. With regard to the rejection of God's blessings, I would ask, is not a man of more value than a bale of coffee or a bag of sugar? And if consuming the produce cause the enslavement or destruction of the producer, am I not justified in rejecting it? It is estimated that during the last 40 years, tem millions of our fellow-creatures have been either kidnapped or destroyed by the operation of the African Slave Trade. If Christendom had universally refused slave-produce, all this sin and suffering might have been spared. When David's three captains brought him water from the well of Bethlehem, he said, "Shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy?" and though parched with thirst, he poured it out before the Lord. The same self-denying spirit animated the apostle Paul when he used the memorable language, "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world standeth." Thus you will see we have high examples for rejecting that which makes our brethren to offend, or which is watered with the blood and tears of our fellow creatures. C.--I freely admit that the movement may be useful in relieving individual consciences, but I do not see how you can expect to make it tell upon the slave system. The deepest wound you thus inflict upon the monster is like "th sting of a bee in the hide of an elephant." If I were to refuse to buy a slave-grown sugar, my neighbour would buy it; and if all England were to reject it, France and Germany would buy it, and thus the demand would be kept up, and the slaveholder encouraged. Sugar, both free and slave-grown, would still be produced. The only difference would be that the former would come to us, and the latter would be sent to those who had no conscience in the matter. A.--If all the world do wrong, it is no excuse for my not doing right. If free-grown sugar be as cheap as slave-grown, I have not even a pretext for buying the slave-grown; and if the slave-grown be actually cheaper, it is clear that any saving I may effect by purchasing it must be [?] from the slave. As Great Britain has emancipated all her own slaves, rejection of slave-produce is, speaking generally, the only direct means we have of opposing slavery. Doubtless it is well to use other means. Let us have no religious fellowship with the slaveholder. Let us plainly tell him that until he turn from his enormous sin, he is to us but as a heathen man and a publican. Let the pulpit on every fitting occasion denounce the system. Let the press holds up a faithful mirror to the slaveholder; let it also reflect upon him the righteous indignation of a civilized European community. The free-labour movement will still be required to give effect to the whole. Depend upon it our most emphatic protests will be little heeded so long as our own hands are not clean, which they can never be whilst we continue to participate in the gain of oppression.  The united kingdom, which probably contains less than a fiftieth part of the world's inhabitants, consumes, according to recent statistics, from one-third to one-fourth of the world's crop of sugar. This year, we are expected to take about a third, as the total production is below an average. It must surely be some discouragement to the slave-holder to be shut out, even partially, from such a market. But should there be no evident mercantile result from our rejection of the blood-stained produce of slavery, still the moral influence of such a testimony would be incalculable. The wrongs of the slave can never be forgotten at the table of an abstainer from slave-produce. The coffee-pot, the sugar-basin, and the pudding dish, all become eloquent in his cause, and continually stimulate to fresh efforts for his emancipation. Our little children thus drink in anti-slavery principles with their daily sustenanc, and should the present race of abolitionists be defeated in teh struggle, the next generation may be more successful. But this agitation may tell more rapidly on the slaveholder than you think. We will suppose a family party at the breakfast table. A dear little girl, addressing her mother, says, "Mamma do speak to the grocer, and tell him to send us none but free-labour sugar and coffee. I cannot enjoy my breakfast for the thought that the poor slave may have toiled and bled to provide it." Possibly mamma's conscience is not quite so tender, but she has no desire that her daughter should be made uneasy, and therefore at her next visit to the shop, she gives her orders accordingly. Perhaps the grocer has no scruples of his own; but he has a hundred customers, and ten of them refuse to take slave-grown sugar, while not one among them objects to the free. Being in general equally cheap, next time he makes his purchase, to save further trouble he takes care to select the free descrption. Again, the wholesale traveller as he goes his rounds, finds several of his samples objected to by the shopkeepers, and he ventures to suggest to his employers that they should only supply him with such as all will buy. The objection next penetrates the recesses of Mincing Lane. It reaches the Broker's sale room and the Merchant's counting house. At length the importer begins to find that while the dock-ware-houses are cleared of British colonial sugar, the produce of Cuba and Brazil is suffered to accumulate. We may be sure the lesson will not be lost upon him, for the students of the ledger are pretty long-sighted. And now for the upshot of the whole. The child's simple protest, half whispered at the breakfast table, will be rung in the ears of the foreign slaveholder, in tones that he cannot misunderstand, and which may at last be reverberated from so many quarters as to shak the slave system itself to its foundations. C.--I would have more respect for your practical protest, if it only were consistent; but total abstinence from slave-produce, in a country like this, is an impossibility, unless you betake yourself to the woods, and live on roots and berries. The gold in your purse is, in all probability, slave-produce. You cannot handle a penny without being in danger of using slave copper. Banish every grain of the polluted thing from your table, and it meets you in the form of fibre on every shelf of your wardrobe. Even if you succeed in proscribing American slave-cotton, and substituting East Indian or South African in its stead, your work is only half accomplished. You perhaps feel thankful that you have cleared your conscience, and are not as other men. You then thoughtlessly sit down upon a chair of Cuban mahogany, before a desk of Brazilian rosewood, and dipping your pen into an inkstand of slave-grown ebony, proceed to write upon paper made partly of slave-cotton, a philanthropic tirade against the use of slave-produce. A.--The value of a principle is not to be judged of by the obstacles in the way of its application. Our present difficulty of applying the free-labour principle arises entirely from our long neglect of it. We are like a man who has trespassed on his neighbour's fields, and is suddenly seized with compunction on discovering that he is damaging the crop. He cannot even go back without treading down corn, but if he go forward he will tread down more, and surely a good man will never hesitate which course to take. The principle against trespass is a good one, although he cannot act upon it at once. Having once diverged into a wrong path, it takes him some time to get back into the right one. Though I should rejoice to see the day for a total universal rejection of every grain, filament, and particle of slave-produce, I am conscious that to cleanse our hands from it, as a nation, must be a work of time. But the nation is made up of individuals, and I would say to each, "let us begin at home." In the department of cotton goods, let every friend of the negro be careful to select the free description and where it is not to be had, inquire for a substitute. There is already some variety of free cotton in the market, and if we had never struck hands with the American slaveholder, we should probably by this time have had a large supply from the East and West Indies; and if any deficiency of clothing materials had still existed, we should have stimulated the industrial resources of Ireland for the cultivation of flax. The gains of the American slaveholder would have been less, but the poverty of India and the destitution of Ireland might not have been so manifest. Consistency is doubtless a good thing, but our inability to do all the good we wish is but a poor excuse for not doing all we can. We shall not be held responsible for that over which we have had no power. Should I ever hav a vote on the exclusion of slave-gold from the mint, I shall know how to exercise it; in the meantime I shall have no great qualms of conscience about the few grains that may be rubbed off in my pocket. The same with ornamental woods. Our houses are perhaps already furnished, and a piece of furniture will last a life-time. It would do no good to go round and inquire into the pedigree of every chair and table, discarding all of suspicious origin. Yet if we ever buy furniture again, consistency requires that we prefer the mahogany of Honduras to that of the Spanish colonies or other slave states. But the most strenuous efforts ought certainly to be directed to the two great staples of slavery. If the broad brand of European condemnation could be stamped on every package of slave-grown sugar and cotton, there is good reason to believe that slavery in the west would quickly come to an end; for slave-labour would be rendered so unprofitable that the system would fall to pieces by its own weight. C.--I should like to know how you mean the public to discriminate between the precious and the vile. There is so much trickery in trade that as soon as ever a preference for free goods is manifested, there will be many counterfeits. Shopkeepers will be tempted to tell untruths--marks and labels will be forged--and people will be gulled into the belief that they are dealing a blow at slavery, whilst unconsciously consuming the productions of slave countries. A.--What good thing is there that has not its spurious imitations? Christianity itself has many counterfeits, yet who dares to object to our Holy Religion on this account? The obvious remedy for imposition on the free-labour purchaser, is to deal only with honourable tradesmen. A disregard of this rule would lay you open to many frauds besides that under consideration. Let the housekeeper who doubts her grocer's testimony, confine her purchases to a few descriptions of goods, and learn to distinguish them. In buying sugar, let her inquire for fine Bengal, Dhobah, Cossipore, or Chrystallized Demerara, none of which I have ever seen imitated in slave-grown. In lump sugar, let her ask to see the manufacturer's certificate. Coffee is difficult to discriminate, but it is of less consequence, as there is very little slave-grown consumed in this country. The free plantation Ceylon is a very useful sort, and to be found in most shops; it may generally be known by its short thick berries. An ordinary observer may distinguish Patna and Italian rice from the slave-grown Carolina. No grocer, who buys his foreign produce in original packages, need have much difficulty in identifying the slave-grown. The custom-house papers, furnished to the person who pays the duty, contain the name of the port of shipment. A reference to the map, and a glance at the list of free and slave-produce, which has been widely circulated, will generally solve the question. With respect to cotton, the evidence is less direct, but the merchants, brokers and agents, now identified with the movement, are exercising great vigilance against deception. Even from America, excellent free cotton may be obtained under the guarantee of the "Philadelphia Free Produce Association," whose devoted agent traverses the slave States, ascertains which plantations are worked by free-labour, and sends off shipments of untainted produce from the very heart of the slave dominion. The question is thus agitated on many southern plantations, but in so open and business-like a manner, that the slaveholders themselves have failed to make a handle of it. All that can be expected of the consumer is to select an honest tradesman, and see that the fabric, whether piece-goods or hosiery, bears the stamp of "free-labour," and the name of a respectable manufacturer. It is true that with the greatest caution we may still be liable to impositions, but such would probably, in most instances, be quickly exposed, and if not, they would still serve to give prominence to the slave question, which is one great end of the free-labour movement. (To be continued.) THE TARIFF OF CONSCIENCE Free Trade in Slave Produce Considered. A DIALOGUE. (Continued from page 795.) Consumer.--If your scheme were ever so practicable, I do not think it would be expedient. By refusing to buy slave-produce, you impoverish the slaveholder, and deprive him of the means of making his slaves comfortable. Such a principle, extensively carried out, might even deprive the slaves of their means of subsistence. Abstainer.--I have no fear of any catastrophe. The fertility of most slave countries is proverbial, and forms indeed their great attraction to the slaveholder. It is a complaint frequently brought against free negroes that they prefer the cultivation of their own provision grounds to that of their masters' fields, doubtless because the former presents an easier or more remunerative means of livelihood. So attached are the negroes in the West Indies to their little plots, that some of them have been heard to say that they would rather have gardens and no wages, than high wages without gardens! If the slaveholder had not full employment for all his slaves, he would at any rate have no inducement to purchase more; and if he did not actually emancipate the surplus, he would have a strong inducement to divide a portion of his unproductive estate into provision grounds, and allow his people to raise yams and plaintains for themselves, when their services were not required for other purposes. In either case the negroes would be gainers by the change, for it is but seldom they obtain more from their masters than the most meagre subsistence that will maintain them in working condition. C.--It seems to me that your object is good, but you do not go about it in the right way. Instead of keeping ourselves at a distance from the Spaniards and Brazilians, and refusing to trade with them, it would be better to cultivate their acquaintance, and treat them with kindness and generosity. After we had in this manner won their confidence, they would be far more likely to listen to our counsel, and relax their hold on the victims of their avarice. A.--Undoubtedly the slaveholder, like all other delinquents, should be dealt with in the spirit of Christian charity, but while approaching him with kindness, we must carefully avoid being partakers in his sin. It will be readily perceived that so long as we consume slave-produce, the slave is toiling and suffering for us! It has been calculated that every seven families employ at least one slave. The sincerity of our protest against any wickedness may well be questioned while we share the spoils! The Cotton Trade is a case in point. We have long been accustomed to denounce American slavery, yet have gone on increasing our purchases of slave cotton. The Americans, looking more to our deeds than to our words, have increased the number of their slaves in a corresponding ratio. How then can we look for the very opposite result from our trade with the Spanish and Brazilian slave-holders? C.--I am still of opinion that a comprehensive view of the subject would lead to another mode of grappling with slavery. It strikes me that the free-labour movement argues a want of faith in the moral government of the world. If honesty be the best policy, free-labour must be preferable to slave-labour, and will prove itself so in the long run. But by establishing a system of exclusive dealing, and thus extending to free-labour the protection of an artificial preference, you damage the great experiment which is to prove its superiority. You withdraw the free-labour planter from that healthful stimulus of competition, which, by inducing him to economise his resources, would enable him eventually to drive the slaveholder out of the market. For instance, in the article of cotton, let British colonists and other free cultivators be encouraged to produce it, but give them no expectation that their crop will command a preference until they can raise it cheaper or better than the slaveholder. Instead of keeping the free article distinct, let it be sold in the open market, and used indiscriminately with other cotton, the cultivator depending for his reward on the increased quantity or improved quality which the superiority of free-labour would enable him to produce. A.--This objection sounds plausible enough, but when closely examined, I believe it will not stand. If virtue were so attractive as to draw all men after her, our gaols and penitentiaries might be safely levelled with the ground. And yet honesty is truly the best policy, though it may not always bring us the most gold. The labour market, like all others, is governed by the laws of supply and demand. Other things being equal, where free-labour is more plentiful than slave-labour, it is cheaper; where scarcer, it is doubtless dearer. But it must be borne in mind that the slave-planter has the most complete commnd over the people he employs. It may be presumed that a free labourer, under the stimulus of wages, will work a better day's work of eight hours than the slave. But you cannot expect the former to work 18 hours a day, on a sugar estate, as a slave is compelled to do in crop time, for months together. You cannot expect a freeman to work himself to death for wages, as the slave too often does for fear of the lash! Some cold-blooded planters have proved, it is said, to their own satisfaction, that the cheapest way of working an estate is to "use up" the negroes by hard driving, and buy more! A writer of no mean authority* has come to the conclusion, on grounds purely scientific, that Cuba and the northern provinces of Brazil enjoy advantages of temperature for sugar cultivation not possessed by the British West Indies. Whatever be the cause, it is clear that the average cost of raising sugar is dearer in Jamaica than in Cuba, at the present time; and if even it were otherwise, I hold it to be quite legitimate that the moral sense of Great Britain should extend to free-labour merchandise of every kind the protection of a preference. You say the free-labour planter ought to be encouraged to cultivate cotton, but how can this encouragement be given except by a special call for his produce, and how can a special call be expressed, if, by mixing the blood-stained and the free, the shopkeeper and the public and precluded from discriminating? The cotton planters of America have always been open to the competition of the British colonies, several of which are well adapted for this article, yet so far from the slaveholder being driven out of the market, he has almost a monopoly of it. Why then wait for unaided competition to do that hereafter, which it has hitherto failed to accomplish? The "exclusive dealing" recommended is only that which is practised with approval in other instances. What would be thought of the man who declaimed against robbery, yet shared the plunder, or who denounced smuggling and dealt in contraband? The slaveholders themselves perceive our inconsistency. In a pamphlet on "Slavery and the Slave Trade," by Stephen Cave, Esq., barrister-at-law, occurs the following passage:-- "When the writer was at Santa Cruz, in 1847, before the emancipation of the slaves there, an English proprietor, of whom there were many in the island, said to him, 'Several of us who have bought slaves since Lord Brougham's Act [6 and 7 Victoria, c. 98, which makes it felonious in British subjects to purchase slave property even in foreign countries] have not dared to put our noses outside the island, but I suppose that after the bill of last year [the Sugar Act of 1846,] we may safely go to England, for the receiver surely cannot indict the thief." C.--If the free-labour principle were so *Edinburgh Review, April 1849, page 399. good, it clashes with another of still wider application, and which I hold to be indispensable to the happiness of mankind. I allude to the cardinal principle of Free Trade, which gives every man a right to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest. A.--It is not my intention either to assail or defend the great maxim of free trade, but until you can show that there ought to be free trade in stolen goods, I am prepared to maintain that it has nothing to do with the question. Let us suppose a case in point. I am in want of a house, and advertise for tenders. Several are sent in, and one is much lower than the rest. But I happen to know that the builder, who makes the offer, steals the timber out of Lord B.'s forest. Should I be justified in accepting it? Or would the case be mended if the builder paid for the timber, and kept back the wages, that is, stole the labour of his men? Such is the fact with slave-grown sugar. The planter may pay the rent of the land that grows it; the mill that grinds it may have been honestly obtained; but the manual labour, which gives value to the whole, is stolen from the negro. What the planter has obtained by robbery, he can have no right to sell, and what he has no right to sell, I can have no right to buy. But this is putting the case in the mildest form. The slaveholder is no common burglar or highwayman. It is not merely property he steals--it is not merely labour--he steals men. The negro has committed no crime, but because his skin is dark he is enslaved. He marries a wife, and she brings him children. His master wants money, or perhaps dies. The family are placed upon the auction-block, handled like cattle, knocked off to the highest bidders, and separated, perhaps dies. The family are placed upon the auction-block, handled like cattle, knocked off to the highest bidders, and separated, perhaps hundreds of miles, for life. Nor is the worst yet told. "Slavery," as John Wesley rightly expresses it, "is the sum of all villainies." The slaveholder not only pursues his victim in this life, but would place him under ban in the world to come! He makes it penal to teach a slave to read, and throws a man into prison for giving him a Bible! Shall the Christians of Great Britain freight their vessels with his wares, because they cannot find a cheaper market? Shall we make ourselves the accomplices of the slaveholder by furnishing him with the grand motive to his crimes--money? The political economy which would enact free trade in slave produce is passing strange. Labour is the poor man's merchandize. Abstractedly, every man may have a right to buy in the cheapest, and sell in the dearest market; but if the Englishman, by buying his merchandise in the cheapest market, prevents the negro from selling his in the dearest, or, indeed, from selling it at all, the least that can be said of the transaction is that a good principle has been misapplied. If political ecnomists are prepared to ride free trade, roughshod, over the dearest interests of our race, we appeal to the political economy of the gospel, and deny their right. If human law allow of such procedure, we carry our objection to that high court of equity, which is presided over by an enlightened conscience--we appeal to the chancery of Heaven, whose injunctions are embodied in that book which says, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." (To be continued.) THE TARIFF OF CONSCIENCE. Free Trade in Slave Produce Considered. A DIALOGUE. [Concluded from page 813.] C.--I acknowledge there is some weight in your arguments, and shall feel myself bound to reconsider the whole question. One or two difficulties, however, are yet untouched. If I am to refuse slave produce on account of the oppression that is connected with it, I may also refuse the productions of many of our English operatives, who are doomed to a life of the severest labour, and too often receive only a scanty pttance, barely sufficient to keep soul and body together. A.--With you, I deeply deplore the condition of many of our English labourers, industriously disposed, yet finding no one to give them work, or, when in work, to give them adequate wages. I lately heard a slaveholder from one of the Spanish islands assert that the "black slaves" abroad are better off than the "white slaves" in England! I admit that the negro in a state of slavery, may, in some instances, have more animal enjoyment and less physical suffering than some of our working men, yet his very contentment is a proof of his degradation. If the English labourer be dissatisfied with his employer, he can seek another; if ill-treated by his master, he can summon him to teh bar of justice, where the poor man's evidence will not be refused. his wife and child cannot be torn from his embraces, and sold like beasts in the market place. And so far from being kept in systematic ignorance, he is importuned to send his children to school. On all these points it is far otherwise with the slave! And with respect to the question before us, there is this essential difference. Purchase free produc, and you do the producers good; increased demand brings either increased wages, or employment for a larger number. Purchase slave produce, and you do the producers harm; increased demand means only harder work, or a larger number reduced to bondage. C.--Could you convince me that your scheme is both practicable and praiseworthy, I do not know that I should give my co-operation. It seems to be too much of a piece with that telescopic phlanthropy, so much in favour at the present day. There is far too much disposition to neglect home questions. Why overlook the misery and oppression at our own doors to carry on a distant crusade, "the further off the fiercer?" A.--Free labour is essentially a "home question." It is true that the objects of our sympathy are in another hemisphere, but, if our eyes are opened, we shall see that one end of the negro's chain is in our own lands. We cannot make our week's purchases over a grocer's or a draper's counter without giving a positive money contribution either to slavery or to freedom. We cannot sip our coffee, or sweeten our dinner, without either promoting or discouraging slavery and the slave trade. We can rarely complete our dress for the day without bestowing our countenance and patronage either on the honest cultivator or the ruthless slaveholder! We cannot escape our responsibilities if we would: then surely this must be a "home question." Besides, so small is the amount of individual effort demanded of the public by this movement, that there need be no fear of its displacing other duties. We do not ask you to buy a pound of sugar or a yard of calico, more or less than you require, but merely to confine your purchases to articles of free origin, whenever such can be obtained. As there seems to be such a charm in proximity, perhaps the question may be brought more closely home by a little exercise of the imagination. Let us suppose that in some great convulsion of nature, this island of Great Britain breaks loose from its moorings, and becoming bouyant like the Derwentwater islet, is drifted into the tropics till it meets with the gulf stream, which carries it across to the West Indies. At length Great Britain brings up alongside of Porto Rico, and becomes welded to its strand, the two form one large island. Let us further imagine that this Spanish colony, with its cane-fields and sugar mills, is merely separated from us by a thorn hedge. Allow me next to read from the Anti-Slavery Reporter for February, 1849, a brief sketch of the state of society in Porto Rico, written by a gentleman who had lately resided some months in the island:-- "I have seen, in Ponce, a slave tied to a ladder by his master, and flogged at intervals from morning to night. In the hot, burning sun, throughout the day, did that poor slave lie bound, scorched and bleeding. The next day he died, and the wretch hoisted the Spanish ensign and boasted that he had sent a subject to the Devil. I have seen a negro flogged to death, and his carcas buried in a dung heap. I have seen a man compelled to flog his own wife, after which her master committed brutalities on her person too horrid to be mentioned. I have seen a runaway brought home in a state of starvation, tied to four stakes driven in the ground, and receive from two drivers, one on each side, 150 lashes with cartwhips. Very little blood came from his wounds. The blood had flown to the heart to support life. Two days after, the slave died, his back having become one mass of mortification. I was on an estate where, a little earlier, a negro was thrown into the boiling trick. It was said that he had jumped in himself, but such was not the case. I also saw a man severely flogged, and afterwards locked up in a close dungeon, under a scorching sun. When taken out he was raving mad, and died shortly after. In the district of Humicas lives a man named Jose Marie Rios, who suffers his slaves to die from want, should they happen to be so sick that their cures would be attended with expense. When dead, he has them tied to a mule's tail and dragged to a pit, where they are thrown in like beasts. In fact, it would take volumes to describe the horrible atrocities which are committed on the unfortunate negroes." Now we will suppose that some of the scenes thus described by an eye-witness, come under our own notice from the windows of our peaceful domicile. We see the children of Africa toiling among the sugar canes the livelong day, under the burning sun of the tropics. We see also their cruel and imperious taskmasters. We hear at intervals the crack of the whip, the yelp of the blood-hound, and the groan of the lacerated wretch, writhing under the hands of his tormentors. We see the canes carried in bundles to the mill, and listen to the clack and roll of the machine as it crushes out the rich pulpy syrup. The shades of evening begin to gather, and we perceive the proprietor of the domain, heading a long file of half-clad negroes, and approaching our dwelling through a gap in the hedge. Every slave carries a basket of sugar, the produce of the estate, and we are invited to purchase. But do we purchase it? No! We have pried into the secrets of its production, and we spurn it from our presence. Lives there a man or woman in our island, in whose bosom beats a genuine British heart, who would not turn from the blood-stained condiment with disgust, and administer a sharp rebuke to the wretch that offered it? But Porto Rico Sugar, as well as that of Cuba and Brazil, is frequently offered in England, and is bought and consumed by Britons! In the name of humanity, why and how is this? Is cruelty less real because we do not see it, or the groan less bitter because beyond our hearing? Let those who consume such produce bear in mind that they put into the gory palm of the slaveholder, though it be by proxy, the golden coin which fees him for his barbarity--the prize which tempts him to pursue his hateful calling--the premium for which he makes hearts sick and homes desolate! C.-- I like your earnest mode of handling the subject, and assure you that this conversation will induce me to examine it more closely. A.--Before we part allow me to impress upon you, two considerations:-- 1. Although by the noble act of West India Emancipation, we struck the fetters off 800,000 blacks, there is reason to believe that at the present time above a million of slaves are toiling for us, the people of the United Kingdom. 2. Any inconsistencies which may attach to the present effort for dissolving this unhappy system, arise, not from any defect in the free-labour principle, but entirely from the false position in which we find ourselves placed by our long-continued disregard of it. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Friends' Review: a Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal 2:50, p. 793; 2:51, p. 811; 2:52, p. 827  Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 9.1.1849; 9.8.1849; 9.15.1849 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Meetings and Events Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COLOURED FEMALE FREE PRODUCE SOCIETY Description An account of the resource We begin to grow proud of our countrywomen. For a long time we could not think only with deep mortification of their unworthy negligence of the piteous call of their suffering fellow creatures. In England societies were forming in almost every corner and section of the country. Here only one existed, to cheer with its usefulness and activity the broad waste of inertness that surrounded it. But the prospect is now growing brighter. There are luminous spots rising over the gloomy horison. The thought of our country's Dixon and Greenfield rises like a beacon of hope amidst its darkness, and the many manifestations of an increasing interest in the fate of those who have been so long suffered hopelessly to perish beneath the curse of slavery, seem to offer a consolatory promise that a happier day is yet in store for them. It is especially pleasing to us that so many of our coloured sisters have united in entering the field of Emancipation. If we have hitherto said but little respecting their Association, it was not because we have beheld its formation and progress with indifference; for the remembrance of it seldom crosses our thought without bringing with it a feeling of exultation. Their promptness and numbers are a reproach to the inactive carelessness of so many of their white sisters: and we sincerely hope they will persevere undiscouraged in the noble course they have commenced. To hear of their activity and usefulness will always be a high pleasure to us, and we wish that their excellent examples may not be lost either upon their sisters of a fairer hue, of those of their own colour in other places. We rejoice also on their own accounts at the step they have taken; it is one that is calculated to raise them both in their own respect, and that of others, and in itself to contribute to the elevation of their characters. We learn that some of our friends of the Free Cotton Association have at different times met with them, and that a number of their members have attended the meetings of that society. These manifestations of reciprocal good feeling afford us much pleasure, and both societies have our warmest wishes for their prosperity and advancement in usefulness. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Genius of Universal Emancipation 2:4, p. 57 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 1831 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ladies' Repository. Philanthropic and Literary. PRINCIPALLY CONDUCTED BY A LADY. Description An account of the resource ON THE USE OF FREE PRODUCE. This is a subject to which we have already frequently adverted, yet convinced as we are of the utility of that method of opposition to slavery, we believe we cannot err in again placing it before the attention of our readers. The use of Free Produce, though it has become much more general than formerly, is still far too limited. In very many sections of our country, none except the slave cultivated articles can be procured, though many persons in such places would undoubtedly give the preference to those of a contrary character, if they could be readily obtained. This is certainly to be regretted; yet where there is sincerity and steadiness of purpose we believe that difficulties of this kind may be generally, at least in some measure, overcome. If in every neighborhood those families who are friendly to the use of free produce would unite in requesting their storekeeper to procure for them the desired articles, we should suppose self-interest, if no better motive, would induce him to oblige them. Where this arrangement cannot be made, and no other method can be fallen upon, we would earnestly advise the friends of our cause, to provide themselves with no supplies in advance, and to carefully avoid the use of superfluous articles. But, again we repeat, a little exertion is often all that is necessary to obtain the wished for object. To such of our sex as voluntarily give the preference to the products of slave labor, we would offer a word of serious expostulation on the inconsistency of their conduct. They would doubtlessly deny any wish to perpetuate the present condition of the slaves; nay, they will probably assert that their warmest wishes are engaged in behalf of abolition, and that the most active friends of that cause do not exceed themselves, in detestation of slavery. How illy do such protestations accord with their conduct. They abhor the system of oppression, and yet contribute their money to pay the slaveholder for maintaining it! They commisserate the slave, but instead of endeavoring to afford him relief, their whole assistance is given to those who retain him in bondage! They would probably advance many arguments in their justification, but unfortunately the slaveholder makes use of equally strong, and not unfrequently the very same, reasonings in favor of his conduct. And though we would not judge harshly, and are willing to make all due allowances for the effects of education and custom, we believe that both of them are actuated by the same principle of self-interest, though perhaps under different modifications. We entreat them to review more carefully the ground on which they are standing; to reflect on the strange impropriety of the course they are pursuing. How can they reconcile it to themselves that they, christian mothers and wives and daughters, with all the kind and gentle sympathies of woman's nature playing about their hearts, should be accessaries in supporting one of the most heinous systems of oppression ever known in the world? If an entire abstinence from the products of slave-labor is considered impracticable, certainly they ought to make use of them only when it is entirely out of their power to procure those of the other class. And surely this cannot be too much to ask of any one, in support of such a cause as the overthrow of inhumanity and relief of wretchedness. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unattributed Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Genius of Universal Emancipation 2:8, p. 131 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource January 1832 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "WHAT DOES YOUR SUGAR COST?" Description An account of the resource We believe, this is a question, which but few have asked themselves--a subject, on which but few have reflected much; but because it has escaped our observation, it does not argue, that it is one of trifling importance. To every conscientious man, who, while passing through this scene of varied ills, is desirous of dealing justly by all men, it is a highly important question. To us, it is doubly interesting, from the known fact, that thousands of our brethren, are the victims who are doomed to wear out a miserable life, in the manufacture of the article, to pamper the visited taste of civilized man. We abominate slavery, and all its advocates. We consider it as the most iniquitous system of injustice ever set in operation; which must, sooner or later meet its due reward. God is just: and though divine justice may slumber awhile, it will certainly overtake the oppressor. We think it highly becomes each of us, more especially, to manifest to mankind, our decided disapprobation of slavery and all its concomitant evils: and how can we show, that we are really in earnest on this subject, than by the adoption of such measures as well at once convince the public, of the sincereity of our professions. The idea, that others would use the produce of slave-labour, if we did not, should weigh but little with us: that is a subject, between them and their own consciences. We ought aver to bear in mind this important fact that every twenty-five individuals who use slave sugar, require the labour of one poor slave; and according to this ratio, which we believed to be correct, the consumption of slave sugar by the coloured population alone of this city, would require at least the labors of fifty of our enslaved brethren, and the whole free population of the United States, the labours of two thousand! This is the mere article of sugar. If we take into view others, such as coffee, rice, &c. how much [?] This is a subject worth the candid consideration of every man of colour. Shall we, when our friends and patrons in Europe and America, have set us the example, purchase, and use the produce of slave-labour, when articles, the produce of free labour, equally as good, and equally as cheap, can be purchased in the different cities? Would it not be preferable to prescribe the use of such, than by our system, be the means of strengthening the hand of the slave-dealer, by the purchase of slave sugar and coffee? Shall the free coloured population of the United States be the means of finding employment--of adding to the labours and groans and stripes of two thousand of their enslaved brethren? All the divine precepts--all the ties of nature and humanity--all the rules of equity and justice, forbid it. Our present use of the produce of slave-labour is certainly a great evil, which ought to be remedied immediately, and which, we trust, our brethren will take into deep consideration. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unattributed Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Freedom's Journal Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 10.19.1827 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Articles, Letters to the Editors, etc. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Cotton Question: Free Versus Slave Labor, A Paper Read at the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science Description An account of the resource Social Science Congress. (Extracted from The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, October 11th, 1865.) THE REV. SELLA MARTIN, New York, a coloured gentleman, read a paper under the title of "Free Labour--the Cotton Question." He gave a very interesting description of the cotton culture in America, and mentioned some of the improvements which had already been introduced since free labour had been substituted for slave labour in the United States. He then entered into a clever and ingenious argument against the objections which had been made to the emancipation of the Negro, on the ground of the alleged inferiority of the race. The paper was a remarkably pointed and well-written one, and was received with loud applause. At the close, Mr. BOLT moved a vote of thanks to Mr. MARTIN. (Applause.) Mr. JOHN NOBLE, Liverpool, seconded the motion, and mentioned that Mr. MARTIN had done. (Hear, hear, and applause.) It was worthy of the greatest possible praise. He (Mr. Jeffrey) was sure, and he mentioned it in no offensive spirit, the gentleman had negro blood in his vein, and in his own person he stood before them giving the lie direct to the impossibility of the Negro being liefted to the social position of the white man. (Applause.) He trusted Mr. MARTIN would live many years, and would long go on putting on paper such sentiments as he had given utterance to that day, and that they might have the widest possible circulation. (Loud applause.) THe motion was also supported by Mr. POLLARD URQUHART, M.P., and carried unanimously. Mr. MARTIN, in acknowledging the vote of thanks, mentioned that he was in this country at present as a deputation from the Freedmen's Aid Society, and that for some time he had opportunities, almost every day, of speaking ont he subject which he had now treated. THE COTTON QUESTION. MY LORD, NOTWITHSTANDING the unrealized desire of those who, in their dream of success, saw cotton enthroned and crowned king; such a king as would make even England bend the supple hinges of the knee to procure his favour; notwithstanding the unrealized dream that England would make haste to do him honour by aiding in securing his success, or become his ally in misfortune, there is much truth in the assertion of his adherents, that Cotton is King. The cotton that grows in the pod, the labourer who picks it, the gin that cleans it, the press that packs it into bales, the ship that transports it, the commission merchant, the manufacturer, the labourer at the loom, the printer of its patterns, the dry-good merchant, the people who wear it, the rag-picker who gathers it when it is worn out, the paper-maker who uses the rags in manufacture, the stationer who sells the paper, the writer who transfers his thoughts to it, the printer who prints the thoughts, the ink-maker who depends up on its use, the bookseller who disposes of the works, and those who read the printing upon the paper,--all these, in their commercial relations and aspects, countenance the claim of his majesty, if not to a kingdom, at least to a very large principality. Shall he be a despot or a constitutional monarch? that is the question,--a question, the immediate issues of which affect the political bearings and prosperity of America; at the same time affecting, and that not very remotely, the mercantile success of the three foremost nations of Christendom. In seeking a solution of this problem, let us inquire briefly what is cotton, and how it is cultivated. What is Cotton? It is a plant with a strong and vigorous root, a quickly-growing, rank and prolific stalk, with an abundant, capricious, but valuable product. The soil on which it grows must be prolific, but not too rank. The ground on which it is for the first time produced, must be chastened by maze and pumpkins, which are gross in their nature. So exhausting is cotton, that the land on which it grows must be left to rest every third year at least. And even then, the stalk--which, on account of its gross cellular formation, its rank juices, and its weakness of fibre, decays as quickly as it grows--the stalk, or its chemical equivalents, must form the manure which makes possible a second crop. The nature of this plant requires three things in its production. It requires promptitude in planting, constancy of attendance while growing, and great application in the gathering. Its culture is attended by these evils, namely, malaria in its locality, and rheumatic tendencies in its gatherers, on account of the dew that hangs about its pods and its abundant leaves, which keeps the hands and garments of its gatherers wet for many hours in the early morning. It is also generally exhausting to the whole system of the labourer, since to preserve the weight and quality of the cotton, he must work not only all day, but late at night, to press into bales the picking of the preceding day, as it will either become mouldy from the dampness, or dry and brittle in fibre from the quick evaporation of the dew when exposed to the sun. There are three kinds of cotton: known as Midland, Upland, and Sea Island. The lowest of this class is that produced on lands which, though not the best for cotton, will pay best with a cotton crop. The next is that produced on what is called the prairie lands of the States of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi--lands of such a rich though clayey character, that the feet of the beasts and labourer have to be cleaned of it every half hour, to enable them to continue their toil, so heavy is the weight. Then there is the finest species, the most expensive but the most injurious to human life in its cultivation, called the Sea Island cotton, produced only on the Sea Islands adjacent to the State of South Carolina. This cotton requires peculiar conditions. It requires the sea-weed for manure, and the influence of the Gulf stream to bring it to its state of superiority over all other cottons. It always brings nearly double, and sometimes quadruple, the price of any other. But, as I intimated, these conditions are secured at terrible expense to its producers. Where it grows, terrible fevers prevail--fevers contagious and deadly to the [?], and deteriorating even to the native. So [?], that during slavery the average negro-life on the Sea Isalnds was not more than severn years, nor in any other Cotton region more than nine years. Th rapid decay of the sea-weed, and the humid air produced by the Gulf stream especially, breed and perpetuate the deadly malaria. It is doubted very much by many whether any constitution but that of the Negro could be employed in the production of this cotton, as his constitution carries with it, by descent from a tropical race, a natural adaptedness to such conditions as I have mentioned, and possesses a vitality that throws off the diseases peculiar to this atmosphere. Be that as it may, it is certain that no other labourer is now so acclimatised as the Negro to conditions which seem to be indispensable to the production of all cottons in a more or less degree. For, though contagious diseases, rheumatism, and general debility, do not prevail in other cotton localities to the same extent as in the Sea Islands, they are still known to prevail to some extent in all cotton-growing districts. It may be, and I think it is possible, that free labour will find some means of defeating the evils heretofore attendant upon the cultivation of cotton in respect to climatic conditions and diseases. Skill, we all know, or must see, was impossible with slave labour.The more complicated the machinery put into the hands of the slave, the greater his excuse for not understanding the use of it, and the greater his temptation to break it, that he might rest while it was being mended; and in the proportion of pressure put upon the Negro to get the most work out of him in a given time, in that same proportion was the soil exhausted, so as to need a stimulant which was unhealthy for the land and the labourer. But with, the return of peace, companies are being formed to gather the sea-weed necessary to perpetuate the prolificacy of the Sea Islands, rather than to wait for the sea-weed to come to them as was the case during Slavery; and Chemistry is at work, through the aid of free capital, and liberty-loving Science, in the effort to rob the sea-weed of all but its powers to enrich the soil. And when steam and other improved agencies are put to work upon those rich prairies of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, it will be found that there is not only a great saving of Negro life, but that white men as well as coloured men, can aid in furnishing to the world a class of cotton only to be got from America. In view of what science has already achieved, there is no doubt that cotton may be made to grow so high under the inventive genius of free labour in stimulating the soil, and that too without any detriment in fibre, that the back-breaking and deforming position of constant stooping in picking it may be rendered unnecessary? Who can doubt that waterproof garments will be adopted under the care, forethought, economy, and humanity of free labour, so as to prevent rheumatism and other diseases heretofore unavoidable to the cotton producer? And when these improvements come, there will come with them a better class of cotton. It will be cleaner of sand, which the slave put in in former times to make the weight that his taskmaster required of him. It will be longer and more tenacious of fibre, through more scientific manuring and more artistic ginning, and the world will get more of it on account of the new impulse under which the Negro will work, and the addition of skilled labourers which freedom will bring. These are not speculations, but assertions capable of proof by statistics, for which I only go to one spot of experiment. On the Sea Islands, since the beginning of the war, and in one single year, the cotton was so improved in every respect, and so increased in quantity by the freedmen employed by the United States' Government, that it realized £120,000 by Free Negro labour; and the Negroes themselves there, purchased one-third of the estates that were sold by the government, on account of the unpaid taxes. I am sorry to say that this is true only of these Sea Islands and a few other localities; but this is no fault of the Negroes of the Federal Government. On acount of the South being so devastated by war, and the war ending too late to plant crops this season, little cotton has been planted, indeed, little of all things has ben planted; so that while I have the honour to speak to you to-day, many poor whites, and still more of the Negro race, are dying of starvation, exposure, and lack of medical attention. But though liberty has come to the Negro at this fearful cost, and, though English as well as American charity is taxed for his present relief--to which, thank God, both nations are nobly responding--though, I repeat, his liberty may be leaner than his slavery for the present, the members of this Association have this reason for rejoicing, that henceforth the stoppage of cotton will not chill the energy of the manufacturer, nor starve the household of the operative in Lancashire, through slavery trying to prove its shameless and tyrannical boast that Cotton is King, even at the expense of involving the nations in war. In turning to the aspect of this paper that concerns the Negro as a free labourer, no one can understand the pleasure with which I make the statement which I am now about to make, unless he has been a slave.--My LORD,--the American Slave is free: the Negro, as to his social existence, has risen from the degradation of chattelhood to the privileges and responsibilities of manhood. And the question which it will require the next few years to solve, is: Does this change involve a blessing or a curse to his race? Is he inherently and irretrievably inferior as a man? And if so, is he, therefore, unfit to grapple with the difficulties of freedom, or to disprove his natural adaptedness to slavery, or to overcome ites terrible traces upon him? There is no reason to account him naturally inferior, except on the Darwinian theroy, that all races, at some period of development, are inferior. But even though that theory were allowed to be true, it would prove too much, since it would take away the only claim for the Negro's enslavement, that, namely, of inherent inferiority. For, if the Negro is in a transition state from the brute to the man, he is simply where all races have been at some point of their history; and if any other race has finally risen to superiority, so may the Negro race eventually rise. But refusing to accept this theory for the white race, I reject it in the case of the Negro; and until some one catches and exhibits a specimen of speaking ourangs-outangs, or of a speechless race of men, or till I am shown a gorilla with a thumb that is not as long as its fingers, I shall continue to reject it. Nay, while we have black men like Soloque of Hayti, who can be as despotic as white men; and like Benson of Liberia, who are as able in statesmanship; and men amongst us as brilliant as Frederick Douglass and as dull as Dogberry, I must be excused for adopting the opposite theory.  But admitting the Negro to be inferior, how does that justify enslaving him, especially if we mean to hold our theory about the superiority of the white race, and to reap the results of it, since the inferiority of the Negro necessitates an inferior form of labour, an inferior social fabric, and inferior political appliances, from all of which the white man must suffer even more than the Negro? Brutality may be restrained when driving a mere brute; but when the labourer has not only the feelings of a brute to be excited, but the determination of a man to resist, the driver must himself become a brute through the constant necessity of coercion. Further, the form of labour applied to such a being must in itself be inferior. If the labourer does not progress in the arts, the employer cannot progress in the science of labour. The form of labour must therefore remain stationary, which, in our time, is the same as being retrogade in character. It may be right to deny marriage to a semi-brute, but it cannot be right to adopt a form of social existence that tempts the superior race to disregard marraige themselves, and to show that disregard in connection with semi-brutes in having progeny by them. For, if the negro woman is not a brute, it is a strange thing to say that she is one, seeing the members of the superior race are often the fathers of her children; and if she is a brute, for them to be the fathers of her children is a thing stranger still. Then, too, if the superior race may become thus inferior without perceiving it, a shrewd suspicion may be allowed that the race accounted inferior by them may be equal without their recognizing it.  Still further: to plead the inferiority of the victim of Slavery is to stand in the way of all political advancement. For if the Negro can be made and kept happy only at the expense of hampering the progressive tendencies of free government for white men--if a white man who is opposed to the negro's enslavement must be driven away from his enterprise and his residence when he would improve the law for white men--if, in short, the life of a white man is not worth as much as the life of a negro's, where slavery exists, provided the white man refuses to be degraded by yielding to the terms of slavery, then, I say, the inferiority of the Negro is recognised and practised upon at fearful expense. For the white man is thus made as inferior as the Negro: if not so inherently, he is practically, and with a curse greater than even the Negro fears or feels. I submit that the Negro has no right to be happy and contented as a bondsman, at such fearful expense to the superior race. I am prepared now for the rejoinder that this alternative is not necessary, since the Negro may leave the vicinity of the white people. But this yields the whole argument. If the Negro may go away from the white people, he may be free; and if he may be free, white superiority does not require negro inferiority to set it off. My argument does not interfere with the question of where he may go, but only with that of where he shall stay.  Our position, then, is this: That freedom is a good thing for all, the Negro included; that his inferiority is no sound argument for his enslavement, since it makes his enslaver inferior; that he is not inferior, except from circumstances. But were these positions false, what then? The negroes are free, and it would cost as much blood and treasure to re-enslave them as it has already cost to free them. Shall we allow prejudices which have been rebuked by Providence to stand in the way of the white man's advancement, by throwing them as obstructions in the way of the Negro's elevation? We are told by some that Emancipation may be right, but that the method of accomplishing it in America was wrong. We are told it cost too much blood, suffering, and treasure. Well, that may be. But that was the choice of the superior race, and if their wisdom was not equal to the task without this sacrifice, that only proves that they are not so superior to the Negro after all: for had the method been left to him, he would have laid down his chains without shedding, or causing to be shed, one drop of blood. We are told that Emancipation ought to have been gradual and not immediate. Well, all that we can say, seeing such objectors have done nothing else but say,--it was not gradual; neither is this any fault of the Negro's. But if this be an evil, there is a partial remedy left for it: especially if those who speak of it desire to cure, rather than to be captious about it. The remedy is this: that go I and able men of the superior race should carry or send to these negroes the aids and elements of knowledge, and so try to make up by the number of volunteers, and by the amount of aid, for the lack of preparation which attended the Negro's entrance into freedom. Nor is it the fault of the Negro or his friends that Emancipation was not gradual but immediate: for those who approved of his enslavement continued to reject all offers to that end. It is remarkable that whenever even slave-holders have had to deal with this question by practice rather than by theory, they have discarded gradual emancipation as impracticable. In the West India Islands the gradual had to be abandoned for the immediate system. When the District of Columbia had to deal with the question, Emancipation was immediate; and this also was the case in Missouri and Maryland: and in this the people of these States only followed the example set them by the great Creator and Emancipator, in the model act of Hebrew emancipation. It is further objected that the negroes are lazy, because of the tropical influences that still linger in them, and on account of the habits engendered by slavery. Well, the claim which I set up for his equal humanity, compels me to admit, apart from his tropical tendencies or his slavish habits, that he may be lazy. I have seen so many lazy men among white people, and I have seen them indulge their laziness at such fearful expense to truth, virtue, and uprightness, that I am quite prepared to believe that the Negro may be lazy also. But I have known so many negroes escaping to the cold and rigorous climate of Canada and the Northern States, where they knew they would have to work even harder than in slavery,--I have seen so many of them, by night-work and secret acquisition, purchase their freedom, and continue to work till they had purchased that of their whole family,--I have seen so many wealthy coloured people in the North, working against prejudice and proscription, up to positions of ease and affluence,--that I never would have believed that a negro was lazy, had I not seen so many lazy white men. But why should this fact stand in the way of practical men? If the negro is not entirely a brute, he may, upon the Darwinian theory, eventually become a man; and supposing that impossible, we have seen that it is too great a hinderance to the material progress, and at too great a cost to social purity and political economy, for the white race to bring itself down to the only terms on which the Negro can be kept a slave. The alternative then being, that the Negro must go free; and the fact being, that he is at least a progressive brute, what nobler work can scientific minds be engaged in, than helping to prove the soundness of their own theory about ethnological development, and the wise arrangement of Providence, that even the lowest races may be uplifted by the help of the superior. But if this theory is unsound, and that held by others is true, that "God has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth;" then, inasmuch as you would like help out of degradation, if in the Negro's present condition, and would wish to be aided in effacing the traces of bondage, and would long for assistance in forming habits of self-reliance and feelings of self-respect. "Do unto others even as ye would that they should do unto you." But apart from theory, this whole matter affects the objects for which this Association exists, in a most practical way. The world needs cotton. It is better for mankind that it should be got by free than by slave labour. Cotton may be got by free labour--from a race that understands its cultivation--that is acclimatised to its locality. Britain needs cotton more than all the world beside: because, having got wealthy by it, her various industries must be carried on by its sufficient supply. By taking the right view of the social problem which I have so imperfectly touched upon, both America and Africa, through the aid of Africo-Americans, will lay their treasures of this staple at the feet of Britain, and the race ot which her best minds and hearts have been devoted in its suffering, will rise up to call her blessed. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rev. Sella Martin of New York Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Extracted from The Sheffield Daily Teleb Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Freedmen's Aid Society (Glasgow: Thomas Street, Printer and Stationer, 52 Argyle Street) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865, October