524 United Slates of America, and British West Indies. [MAY, 



meetings, and who encourage the continuance of the foreign slave-trade, 

 by signing senseless petitions for the ruin of our own colonies, we give 

 for their information the following statement of the number of slaves in 

 each state or territory, in the year 1828 ; and we shall afterwards en- 

 deavour to show, on Captain Hall's authority, their present condition, as 

 compared with the slaves in our own colonies. 



In New Jersey the number of slaves, in 1828, was 3,778 



Delaware 2,500 



Maryland 100,000 



Virginia 450,000 



Kentucky 166,000 



North Carolina 235,000 



South Carolina . 288,000 



Georgia ....... .189,600 



Tennessee ...... . 110,000 



Alabama 93,308 



Mississippi ..... . 52,502 



Louisiana 110,502 



Indiana . 304 



Illinois 1,460 



Missouri . 20,800 



Arkansas Territory 2,587 



Florida Territory .... . 5,000 



District of Columbia 6,806 



Making altogether a slave population of . . 1,838,155 



or more than double the whole slave population of the British West 

 Indies ! In two of these states, namely, South Carolina and Louisiana, the 

 slaves considerably outnumber the whites ; and many of our good old ladies 

 at home, who piously attend anti-colonial meetings, and have sugar basins 

 with ff produce of free labour" inscribed upon them, would be shocked 

 at the idea of being supposed to be encouragers of slavery in its worst 

 form, although the clayed sugar which they substitute for the sparkling 

 produce of our own colonies is entirely raised by foreign slaves; and 

 the cottons and muslins, the rice, and various other articles which they 

 consume so profusely, are also wholly the produce of slave labour ! 



From Baltimore Captain Hall proceeded to Washington, the seat of 

 Congress, where he had an opportunity of hearing the slave question 

 discussed to as little purpose as it sometimes is at home. He had also 

 an opportunity of attending the sale of a negro lad by the deputy mar- 

 shal ; " both his parents and all his brothers and sisters, he told me, had 

 been long ago sold into slavery, and sent to the southern states Florida 

 or Alabama he knew not where." We need scarcely add, that the 

 separation of families in most of our own colonies is, by enactment of the 

 legislature, strictly forbidden. 



Although this youth was fortunate enough to be purchased by a person 

 to whom he was known, yet the concluding sentence of the auctioneer 

 held out little prospect of ultimate emancipation. "The lad is yours, 

 sir, a slave for life !" And this assertion was not merely a figure of 

 speech ;- manumission, in some states, being contrary to law, except 

 for great public services ! 



Other circumstances came under the notice of our traveller, affording 



