254 FARMERS' REGISTER— EXPENSE AND PROFIT OF REARING SLAVES. 



greatly exceed the hire, which is founded on the 

 less demand tor labor at home. 



From these plain and indisputable premises, it 

 will Ibllow necessarily, tliat a monied capital vest- 

 ed in slaves, and those slaves hired out, can yield 

 no profit whatever. It is true that no man ever 

 thought of so using his money: but that does not 

 affect the result of the argument. If it would be 

 unprofitable to make such an investment of money, 

 it is equally unprofitable to keep it so vested, as is 

 done in thousands of cases. Nor is the truth ot 

 the principle effected by the owners retaining the 

 slaves in his own employment, instead of hiring 

 them to others. He maj^ thereby insure their be- 

 ing treated more humanely, but will not obtain 

 much more profit, ibr it is certain that those who 

 hire slaves, on the average f)ay more than a fair 

 price. It should be observed that I allude altogether 

 to slaves employed either in field labor, or other- 

 wise on our farms. The value attached to partic- 

 ular slaves for their moral or mental qualities, or 

 as domestic servants, has nothing to do with the 

 question. 



I will now proceed from general to particular es- 

 timates. The first presented will be a case of the 

 simplest kind, viz: a female slave without children, 

 and whose value and services are not affected by 

 child-bearing. On this supposition a young wo- 

 man of eighteen or twenty years, would sell for 

 ^300, and would bring the unusual high annual 

 hire of -918, or the bare interest on the purchase 

 money. At these rates, it would require that her 

 life should be not only without infirmity, without 

 diseass, (or the cost of it, in physician''s bills,) but 

 also without end, to yield the common profit ot ca- 

 pital to her owner. It requires no farther detail to 

 show that holding such property must be attended 

 with certain loss. But for the purpose of aiding 

 other estimates, let this be considered in another 

 point of view. Suppose the average life of this 

 woman, fit for labor and free from infirmity, to be 

 twenty years; or to continue to thirt\'-eight or for- 

 ty years of age. This must be ample allowance, 

 as her expensive old age is a fair deduction from a 

 longer continuance of her more profitable years. 

 Then to avoid bringing loss to the owner, her an- 

 nual hire, clear of all expenses, should not only 

 pay the interest on -^300, but also as much more 

 as would suffice to repay that amount of capital, 

 by annual payments for twenty years. The sum 

 necessary for both these purposes, (estimated bv 

 the rules for fixing the value of annuities,) would 

 be about iB26 50 — which if received in annual net 

 hire, would reimburse the owner, but not leave a 

 cent of profit. But according to the foregoing sup- 

 position, the annual hire would fall short of that 

 6um by -98 50: and that loss for twenty successive 

 years, would be equal to .^97 40 deducted from 

 the first value of the slave, or nearly one-third of 

 the capital so vested. 



Let us next suppose the far more common case 

 that the female slave at the age of eighteen or 

 twenty begins to bring children, and Tor the twen- 

 ty years that the chance for a lite of labor was sup- 

 posed to continue, is not twelve months together 

 free from pregnancy, or the nursing of an infant. 

 In such a case, or even in any approaching to it, 

 it will be readily admitted that the labor of the 

 mother will not be worth more than her own main- 

 tenance, and consequently that she would bring in 

 nothing as hire: and it is equally clear, that if all 



hire is lost, the whole value of the slave is com- 

 pletely sunk. But it is supposed that this loss is 

 more than compensated by the value of her chil- 

 dren. To test the truth of that opinion will be 

 the object of the next estimate. 



The cost of maintaining a negro child from its 

 birth to ten years of age, in food, clothing, nurs- 

 ing, medical attendance, &c. cannot be less than 

 igiii a year — and that age is as early as the labor 

 of the child can begin to pay for its support. The 

 sum of .914 paid annually for ten years, is worth 

 at the end of that time, .^184 52 — and that amount 

 must be exceeded by the value of the child, to 

 give any profit lor its rearing. Few children of 

 that age will sell for so much — and taking a gene- 

 ral average of sex and value, ii<170 may be as- 

 sumed as a full price, which would make a loss of 

 s^l4 52 on the investment; even if the child lived 

 so long. But there is an equal chance that the 

 child may die before ten years old, Avhich of 

 course would cause a total loss of the previous ex- 

 jienditure. The insurance against so probable a 

 casualty, is a fair deduction from the value that 

 may accrue — and that insurance would probably 

 take off one-fourth of the value of the slave — and 

 make altogether an average loss of $56 on each 

 child born. 



The assumption that it is an equal chance that 

 a child will die before the age of ten j-ears, rests 

 on a comparison of the tables of the probabilities 

 of life, prepared by Dr. Halley from the bills of 

 mortality of Breslaw, and those of London and 

 Northumberland, by Dr. Price. According to 

 these Tables 



At Breslaw, from 1000 births, 661 lived 10 years. 

 London, 28452 " 11582 " " 



Northampton, 11550 " 5675 " " 



The average of which shows less than one-half 

 surviving to the age of ten years. 



Thus, unless the foregoing estimates are very 

 inaccurate, it is manifest that there is certain loss, 

 instead of profit, to be met with in rearing slaves, 

 or in owning females of any kind, whose value 

 depends only on their phj'sical qualities. It was 

 not my purpose to extend the inquiry to the cost 

 and profit of owning male slaves fit for labor. But 

 even as to these, a comparison of selling prices 

 with the net amount of hires, for the probable du- 

 ration of a lifts of a labor, will show that the pro- 

 fits of ownership are commonly and greatly over- 

 rated. 



The foregoing estimates and deductions were 

 written in the early part of 1832, and I have chosen 

 to present them without alteration, although the 

 prices of slaves have greatly varied, and more 

 than once, since that time. Such temporary altera- 

 tions of market prices, in no manner afiect the 

 truth of my plan of estimating value — exce|)t that 

 such fluctuations are, in the general, injurious to 

 the interest of those who hold the property; and 

 can be beneficial only to those who speculate on 

 the chances of the rise and fall of prices. The 

 prices stated above both for hire and sales Oi 

 slaves are believed to be as high as a fair average 

 would indicate — and as high as can be expected 

 of any future average, whether of ten, twenty, or 

 fitly years. These explanatory remarks are per- 

 haps superfluous — but they are offered to prevent 

 hanng hereafler to meet the ready objection, that 



