UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

148 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
sold,there are -more than eightythousand imported
"There were nearlyseven thousand slaves
for sale into the four States of Louisiana, offered in New Orleans market,lastwinter. From
Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. SupposingVirginia alone six thousand were annually sent to
one-half of eightythousand to be sold into the the South, and from Virginia and North Carolina
other S. Carolina,Georgia, and there had gone to the South,in the last twenty
buyingstates,"
the territory of and Florida," we are brought to
three hundred thousand
years, slaves."
the conclusion that more than a hundred and Hon. Henry Clay,of Kentucky, in his speech
twenty thousand slaves were, for some
years previous
before the ColonizationSociety, in 1829, says
:
to the greatpecuniarypressure in 1837,exported
"It is believed that nowhere in the farming
from the to
breedingthe consuming states. portion of the United States would slave labor be
The Baltimore American givesthe followingenerally
employed, if the proprietor were not
from a Mississippi paper of 1837 :
tempted to raise slaves by the high priceof the
"
The report made by the committee of the southern markets,which keeps it up in his own."
citizens of Mobile,appointed at their meeting The New York, Journal of Commerce of October
held on the 1st instant,on the subject of the existing
12th,1835, contains a letter from a Virginian,
pecuniarypressure, states that so largewhom the editor calls " a
very good and sensible
has been the return of slave labor,that purchasesman," assertingthat twenty thousand slaves had
by Alabama of that species of property from been driven to the South from Virginia that year,
other states, since 1833, have amounted to about but little more than three-fourths of which had
ter.million dollars annually.''''
then elapsed.
"
Dealing in slaves," says the Baltimore'(Marj-Mrland)Registerof
1829,has become a large business
legislature of that state,January18,1831 (sea
Gholson, of Virginia, in his speechin the
; establishments are made in several placesRichmond Whig) , says :
in Maryland and Virginia, at which "
they are sold It has always (perhapserroneously) been
like cattle. These placesof deposit are stronglyconsidered,by steady and old-fashioned people,
built, and well suppliedwith iron thumbscrews that the owner of land had a reasonable righ to
and gags,
and ornamented with cowskins and itsannual profits ; the owner of orchards to their
other whips, oftentimes bloody."
annual fruits ; the owner of brood mares to their
Professor Dew, now President of the University product; and the owner of femaleslaves to their
of William and Mary, in Virginia, in his review increase. We have not the fine-spunintelligence
of the debate in the Virginia legislature in 1831 " nor legalacumen to discover the technical distinctions
drawn
2, says (p.120):
bygentlemen(thatis țhe distinction
" A full equivalent being leftin the placeof the between female slaves and brood mares). The
slave (thepurchase-money),
this emigration becomes
legal maxim of partus sequitur ventrem is coeval
an advantage to the state, and does not with the existence of the right of propertyitself,
check the black population as much as at first and is founded in wisdom and justiceỊt is on the
view we might imagine; because it furnishes justice and inviolability of this maxim that the
every
inducement to the master to attend to the master foregoes the service of the female slave,
negroes, to encourage breeding, and to cause the has her nursed and attended duringthe period of
greatest number possibleto be raised." Again: her gestation, and raises the helpless infant offspring.
"
Virginiais,in fact, a negro-raising state for the
The value of the propertyjustifies the expense,
other states. "
and I do not hesitate to say that in its increase
Mr. Goode,of Virginia, in his speechbefore the
consists much of our wealth."
Virginialegislature, in January,1832, said :
Can
"
The superior usefulness of the slaves in the any comment on the state of public
South will constitute an effectual demand, which sentiment producedby slaveryequal the
will remove them from our limits. We shall send
simplereading of this extract,if we remember
them from our state,because it will be our interest
that it was spoken in the Virginia
to do so. But gentlemenare alarmed lestthe markets
ofother states be closedagainst the introduction legislature? One would think the cold
of our slaves. Sir,the demand for slave labor cheek of Washingtonwould redden in its
must increase,'''' SfC
grave for shame,that his native state had
In the debates of the VirginiaConvention,in sunk so low. That there were Virginian
1?29, Judge Upshur said :
hearts to feel this disgrace evident from
" The value of slaves as an articleof property
dependsmuch on the state of the market abroad. the following replyof Mr. Faulkner to Mr.
In this view, it is the value of land abroad,and not Gholson,in the VirginiaHouse of Delegates,
of land here,which furnishes the ratio. Nothing 1832. See Richmond Whig :
is more fluctuating than the value of slaves. A
"
late law of Louisiana reduced their value twentyfive
per cent, in two hours after its passage was that the abolition of slaverywould be impolitic,
But he (Mr. Gholson)has labored to show
known. If it should be our lot, as I trust it will because your
slaves constitute the entire wealth
be,to a y"re the countryof Texas,theirprice will of the state,all the productive capacityVirginia
rise again. "
possesses ; and,sir,as thingsare, I believe he is
Hon. PhilipDoddridge, of in his
Virginia,
correct. He says
that the slaves constitutethe
speechin the VirginiaConvention, in 1829 (Debatesentire
available wealth of Eastern Virginia. Is
_
p. 89),said :
it true that for two hundred years the only increase
'
The acquisition of Texas will greatly enhance
in the wealth and resources of Virginia
tho ?alue of the property in question(Virginia has been a remnant of the natural increase of
slaves)."
this miserable race 1 Can it be that on this
Rev. Dr. Graham, of Fayetteville, North Carolina,
increase she places her sole dependence? Until I
at a Colonizationmeetingheld at that placeheard
these declarations, I had not fullyconceived
in the fallof 1837,said :
the horrible extent of this evil These gen-