SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 273 



age, or who enjoy more of the essential comforts of life, 

 than these so called, miserable, oppressed, abused, starved 

 slaves. 



Upon this point, before I close, I will also summon a 

 few witnesses. But to continue: all experience proves, 

 that as soon as the negro ceases to act in the capacity of 

 a servant, he ceases to be happy and contented, and falls 

 into a state of vice and wretchedness. All experience 

 proves that he does not seek to escape from that capac- 

 ity, except in a few isolated cases, where he is influenced 

 by some real or supposed wrong inflicted upon him, or by 

 the persuasion of some meddling abolitionist, whose de- 

 scriptions of the superior advantages of freedom over- 

 come his weak reason. 



In proof of this I will cite the fact, that in the coun- 

 ties of Maryland adjoining the Pennsylvania line, there 

 are 19,000 slaves, who, notwithstanding their proximity 

 to a free State, and constant contact with abolitionists, 

 continue to be submissive to those who were decreed to 

 hold them in bondage. One of these counties, that of 

 Cecil, contained, in 1840, more free negroes than slaves, 

 and probably more anti-slavery white men than slave 

 owners ; and yet the slaves here adhere to the service of 

 their masters, with nearly the same fidelity that they 

 do in interior counties of South Carolina. 



In the river counties of Kentucky, bordered by Ohio 

 and Indiana, in which are numerous persons ever ready 

 to help the slaves to escape from their masters, there 

 were, in 1800, 8,260 slaves— in 1810, 15,631— in 1840, 

 29,872. This proves that, instead of escaping and dimin- 

 ishing in numbers, they increased more than three fold 

 in forty years. 



Proximity to the free States, facility of egress, to- 

 gether with offered aid in escaping, seem to have had but 

 little effect in inducing any great number of slaves to 

 leave kind masters and comfortable homes, to whom they 

 are as strongly attached as our children are to us and 

 ours. 



