FARMERS' REGISTER— LABOR OF SLAVES. 



763 



quiring longer and longer periods, as the land is 

 more and more exhausted, that land will become 

 comi)arative]y fertile by its own inherent re- 

 cui)erativ'e powers; but this process is slow, fre- 

 quently exceeding half a century. 



To attempt improving with the hope of suc- 

 cess, the fields must be laid ofi'into separate shifts, 

 drained, clovered and plastered, if the nature of 

 the soil is suitable, and the manure collected and 

 saved by great labor and attention. 



Most of our fiirmers are in debt, and compelled 

 to have immediate returns for the discharge oJ" 

 those debts; all of their available labor and funds 

 must be applied to that end; and to effect it, they 

 are forced to cultivate the richest spots, which yield 

 the greatest profit — leaving out the poorest shifts 

 that produce little or no nett income to pay off 

 j)ressing demands. They are not able to spend 

 their money in purchasing clover seed and plaster, 

 nor their labor, in manuring the poor shifts, drain- 

 ing, enclosing, and reducing the farm to a proper 

 •state. They must overcome these difficulties by a 

 long course of economy and industry. 



Besides these natural difficulties, which are in- 

 cident to the cultivation of every country, there is 

 one which is peculiar to our own state, and has 

 generally been overlooked. I refer to the demand 

 tor slaves in the west and soutli, which materially 

 affects the prosperity of our own state. It has 

 been generally supposed that this demand, by 

 raising their price in our own market, would be 

 highly advantageous to the country: and it would 

 imdoubtedly be so, if there were a superabun- 

 dance of slaves for the cultivation of the whole of our 

 lands, and a consequent overjjlus of labor after the 

 highest state of improvement. In such a state of 

 things, which could not have occurred in the 

 course of half a century, and probably never 

 would, the most fertile lands must have risen so 

 high, that it would be an object to cultivate and 

 improve those of a poorer quality, until a denser 

 population and a constantly increasing demand 

 would compensate the farmer for the improvement 

 cif the poorest soils. The greater the quantity of 

 produce annually made in any country, the greater 

 must be its profits, and consequentlj^, its prosper- 

 ity; and the greater the quantity of labor which it 

 can command or is employed in it, the greater 

 must be that produce. Hence, whatever detracts 

 from this quantity of labor, equally reduces the 

 prosperity ol" the country, unless it is overstocked 

 witii population. In this view then, it must be 

 prejudicial to the interests of the country to carry 

 into another state its laboring population. 



But regard it in another aspect. It is well 

 known to every person, that the greater fijrtility of 

 the soils in the west and south, their suitability to 

 the production of cotton and sugar will always en- 

 able the farmers of those sections to give a higher 

 price for negroes, than the farmers of our own 

 state — for the simple and obvious reason, that they 

 can make larger profits from the produce of their 

 labor. These profits, other things being equal, 

 are almost always greatest in newly settled coun- 

 tries; and are here greatly increased by the supe- 

 rior fertility of the soil, and the enhanced value of 

 its productions. So much larger are the profits of 

 slave labor there, that they sell for nearly double 

 the price which we can afford to give for them, — 

 The effect of this is already plainly perceptible; 

 our slaves are carried there by thousands, and we 



cannot even enter into competition with them for 

 their purchase. At sheriffs, executor's, and ad- 

 ministrator's sales; in every sale where the cupidity 

 or necessity of the owner makes him ask a high 

 price, or if the slave is forced into market, he is 

 purchased almost invariably by a trader. As the 

 number of slaves diminishes, the demand for their 

 labor will increase according to their scarcity, both 

 at home and in other markets, until they become 

 so dear that little or no profit can be made by pur- 

 chasing them on the richest liirins — and none 

 whatever on those farms of a poorer quality. The 

 traders will continue to purchase and to give high 

 prices, and to rise in their bids, until the owners of 

 poor lands first, will be thrown out of competition; 

 then the owners of the next best lands, and so on, 

 until the tiirmers on the richest and best improved 

 estates will not be able to give the exorbitant 

 prices and realize any profit. The farmers having 

 poor lands will see that they can make greater pro- 

 fils by selling than by working them ; hence they will 

 sell all they can spare, stoplhe cultivation of the 

 poor shifts and confine themselves to the richest 

 spots; the residue of the plantation being left to 

 waste and lie unproductive. Such must be the 

 fate of all the poor spots when the wages of labor 

 are too high to enable the farmer to make some 

 profit by working them; for it is absurd to ."luppose 

 that any person will employ his ca|)ital or his la- 

 bor, where it yields him no profit. Their price 

 here is not regulated by our profits, but by the pro- 

 fits of their labor in other states. If tobacco tlills 

 to tour dollars a hundred, and wheat to fitly cen!s 

 a bushel, it would cause no fall in the price of ne- 

 groes — for they are already far above their value 

 in our own markets, according to the present prices 

 of our produce. The variations in the price of our 

 produce, the decline or improvement of agricul- 

 ture in this state, will not alfect their price so long 

 as cotton and sugar continue high. Their value 

 is regulated by the articles produced in other states 

 — their price here, by the competition of the traders 

 to those states; and if we made no profit by their 

 labor they would sell no cheaper, lor the traders 

 could get just as much tor them as if our tobacco 

 and wheat sold high. We must regard their va- 

 lue as fixed, and dependant upon the pr'ce of pro- 

 duce, not ol' our own, but of others. There will 

 then, be two values for the same slave through- 

 out our state; his nominal value, or what he is 

 worth to theti-ader, which depends on the price of 

 the produce of the west and south — his real value, 

 or what he is worth to one of our farmers, to be 

 employed here, which is much heloxo the trader's 

 price. We must, however, alwa3's give more than 

 the real value for the negro,"' because we have to 

 bid against the trader. What then, must be the 

 necessary consequence? As we are, from adven- 

 titious circumstances, compelled to give more for 

 negroes than they are really worth, and as this 

 high price is entirely independent of the profits of 

 their labor, their profits will be diminished. The 

 farmer here will make smaller profits by agricul- 

 ture upon all qualities of land, which cannot, 

 for the reasons before stated, make the slaves fall 

 in price. For however email his profits here, that 

 does not lower his price. The value of land must 

 of necessity be reduced when the profits derived 

 from its cultivation are lessened ti^om any causes; 

 capital will in consequence be withdrawn from 

 that employment and invested in more proiluctive 



