CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. HOWE. 611 



shore or to the woodlands, and return only in 

 the morning to the plantation, except during 

 the winter months, after the first hard frost, 

 when the country is everywhere habitable by 

 all. This necessarily limits the area which can 

 be tenanted by the whites, and in some States 

 that area is very small as compared with that 

 habitable by the blacks. It is therefore clear 

 that with a free black population, enjoying 

 identical rights with the whites, these States 

 will sooner or later become negro States, 

 with a comparatively small white population. 

 This is inevitable; we might as soon expect 

 to change the laws of nature as to avert this 

 result. I believe it may in a certain sense 

 work well in the end. But any policy based 

 upon different expectations is doomed to dis- 

 appointment. 



4th. How to prevent the whites from se- 

 curing the lion's share of the labor of the 

 blacks ? 



This is a question which my want of fa- 

 miliarity with the operations of the laboring 

 classes prevents me from answering in a man- 

 ner satisfactory to myself. Is it not possible 

 to apply to the superintendence of the work- 

 ing negroes something like the system which 

 regulates the duties of the foreman in all our 

 manufacturing establishments ? 



