SLAVE LABOK. 207 



100 negroes, from birth to their death, they labored 

 518,638 days ; the number of days supported, 1,045,732. 

 Therefore, the days there would be work done are as 

 1 to 2 of the days supported : 



Therefore, to 2 X 60, . ... 100 cents per week. 



Life assurance, say 400 dollars each, at 3 ) 23 " 



per cent per annum, } 



Medical charges, &c., per week, . . 7 cents per week. 



Total, 130 " 



Or per day, for six days per week, . . 21 cents. 



The expense of superintendence, &c., will make it 

 fu]Jy 25 cents, or more. There is the risk, too, of slaves 

 running away. Therefore, in the due course of time, as 

 the population increases, and planters can go to the 

 market and get laborers when required, and at more 

 reasonable rates, slaves will be less needed and less 

 valued. There can be not the least doubt that slavery, 

 about which men are now disposed to shed each other's 

 blood, and to exterminate each other, will in a few years 

 assume a different feature ; and is it not better to wait 

 with a little patience until labor can be obtained, than to 

 throw the whole country into poverty and confusion, and 

 reduce it to years of bloodshed and extermination, that 

 will inevitably follow and violent measures by aboli- 

 tionists ? Twenty years hence slavery will be a thing 

 very easily dealt with. At present there are but a few 

 leading staples in America ; any to enter into their cul- 

 tivation, it is necessary to retain laborers all the year 

 round. Were there a greater variety of products, it 

 would widen the field for employment, and one crop would 

 come into the barn before the other would be ripe ; and 



