SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 213 



and Augusta railroad, I hope every traveller who feels a 

 deep interest in the prosperity of our country will pay 

 this place a visit as he passes along. 



I have the details of the item of cost, as I also have 

 notes of several other similar establishments, particu- 

 larly "Vacluse," three miles above; and another large 

 new mill at Augusta, where there is one of the finest 

 water-powers in the country ; also, of Columbus, Georgia ; 

 but I will not now burden your columns. If, however, 

 they should prove to be current, I will, when I see you 

 face to face, give you a few of my notes. 



As I am travelling slowly in my own carriage, (as I 

 have been for six months,) viewing all that I find inter- 

 esting, as connected with my agricultural tour through 

 the South, it will be some weeks before I reach Washing- 

 ton; but then, if not before, I will try to write a more 

 interesting sketch. 



During my journey I have had great opportunities to 

 see negro slavery as it is, and am free to say that all the 

 objections I ever had to the institution must give way to 

 the strong arguments of light and reason, that, at least 

 to the negro, it brings a thousand blessings to one curse. 

 I could tell you facts about the situation of the three hun- 

 dred slaves upon the plantation of Col. Wade Hampton,^ 

 where I now write this, that would go to show the con- 

 dition of these people to be almost inconceivably better 

 than that of thousands of white "freemen" throughout 

 all this region — the same class of people from whence 

 Col. Gregg has drawn his factory operatives, because 

 they are found to be cheaper than blacks; and, for an 

 obvious reason, there are no children, old, sick, or infirm 

 to be supported. They are free, which also means free to 



MVade Hampton, son of General Wade Hampton (1754-1835), 

 born April 21, 1791; died on a plantation near the Mississippi 

 River, February 10, 1858. Acting inspector-general and aide to 

 General Jackson at New Orleans, in January, 1815. Appletons' 

 Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 3:69-70; his Carolina planta- 

 tion is described in The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, 2:164-67 

 (September, 1849), and by R. L. Allen in the American Agricul- 

 turist, 6:20-21 (January, 1847). 



