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 Produce Society Description An account of the resource Perhaps the most comprehensive mode that can be adopted to destroy the growth of slavery, is by rendering slave labor valueless. How is this practicable? By purchasing the products of free labor--and those only. No conscientious man can traffic with a thief, or buy stolen goods, even though he suffer pecuniary loss by a refusal: can he then participate in a double robbery--a robbery of freedom and of the fruits of other men's labors? Better to go half clad, than wear stolen garments; better to arrest every spindle in the country, than to have our manufactories supplied with the staples of tyranny; better to subsist upon the roots of the earth, gathered by our own hands, than to feast sumptuously every day, at the unwilling expense of others. The multiplication of Free Produce Societies, in different sections of the country, is highly desirable. We need the same spirit, on this subject, that is animating the bosoms of philanthropists in regard to the overthrow of intemperance. Let similar combinations follow, and the work of emancipation is done. A few fact, respecting the operations of the Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, during the last few months, in connexion with the Ladies' Society, have been communicated to us, which warrant a belief in the speedy triumph of the project. Twenty-five hundred and fifteen lbs. of free Upland Cotton have been spun, and a portion of it manufactured into ginghams, checks, bed-tickings, stripes, knitting and sewing cotton, and cotton hose. About 800 lbs. of yarn remain to be yet appropriated, and with some of the goods above mentioned, are at the store of J. Mott, Philadelphia, unsold. The Society has been disappointed in obtaining a supply of shirtings and calicoes, in consequence of an error in spinning the above cotton. Information has been receivd from Washington, North Carolina, that many farmers in that section of country have commenced the cultivation of Mexican cotton, without the aid of slaves. They find it well adapted to the soil, yielding a greater quantity per acre, and being of a quality superior to all other kinds, in length and fineness of staple. Many stores continue to be maintained in Philadelphia, and elsewhere, at which most articles necessary to the comfort of life may be obtained; some at as cheap a rate as slave commodities, and others at but a trifling enhancement. A new source has been opened for the obtainment of RICE. Several farmers in North Carolina, who cultivate their lands without the intervention of slave labor, have spots of ground suitable for the growth of this grain, which they occasionally occupy for that purpose. Lacking a ready market for the sale of the produce, they have needed a stimulus to more energetic exertion. We rejoice to say, that measures have been adopted for purchasing a quantity of the rice thus raised, and it is hoped that the circumstance of a new market being opened, will prove greatly encouraging to those who, in the midst of a slave-holding population, are engaged to cultivate the soil by free labor only. In no manner, it is believed, can the cause of abolition be so effectually subserved, as by bringing free into open and vigorous competition with slave labor, ON THE SOIL OF SLAVERY ITSELF. The following communication to the Society, which we are permitted to publish, will be read with interest.--G. To the Committee of the Free Produce Society. GENTLEMEN,--Agreeably to your request, I herewith present you with a statement of the amount of our prchases of free sugar and molasses, during each quarter of the present year. At the same time that we have been desirous to promote the increase of the consumption of these goods, we have used our utmost endeavors to facilitate the means of procuring them, and have left no step untried, by which we thought it likely that information respecting them might be obtained. Since our last report, we have opened a correspondence with a merchant in Porto Rico, from whom we have since received twelve hogshead of sugar, of which we have satisfactory evidence from different individuals, that it was produced by free labor. The planter, who manufactures it, is a Creole or Spaniard, who will neither keep nor hire slaves--but derives his assistance from the natives of the island. He, at present, raises about one hundred hogsheads per annum. We have lately received from the same source, ten hogsheads of molasses, of an excellent quality, and have made arrangements to obtain a regular supply of the sugar-house molasses from the city of New York, whence we also receive the lump and loaf sugar, of a superior quality. You are well aware of the great difficulty under which we have been labouring to procure free rice, of good quality, having hitherto been entirely dependant upon the East Indies, from whence the supplies are uncertain, the quality very indifferent, and the price extravagantly high. It is with much pleasure I inform you, that we have made arrangements with a respectable citizen of North Carolina, to procure for us a regular supply of the article raised by free labor in that State. He informed us that several of the farmers of that place, who had spots of land suitable for the culture of the article, had employed them for that purpose--but the quantity each one brings into the market being necessarily small, is beneath the attention of merchants, and is purchased by the citizens for their own consumption, an or about the same prices as that produced by slave labor. We expect to obtain a supply of the article in about a month or six weeks, when we shall be on a par with the consumers of the slave rice, both in quality and price, viz: five cents per lb. We have for a considerable time past, had a regular supply of smoking and chewing tobacco, and of segars manufactured from Kentucky tobacco, which was accompanied with a certificate, testifying to its having been raised by free labor--also chocolate made of the St. Domingo cocoa, and all other articles that can be obtained. Although we have been endeavouring to obtain these goods on the most advantageous terms, so as to have the prices as near to those of the slave goods as possible, we have carefully avoided having any dependance upon sources in which we did not feel the most implicit confidence. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Genius of Universal Emancipation 4:8, p. 58 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 10.30.1829