43 



FARMERS' REGISTER— AGRICULTURAL REVIEW- 



his slave is to be respected, and consequently that lie is 

 not required to emancipate him, unless his full value is 

 paid by the state. Let us then, keejiing this in view, 

 proceed to the very simple calculation of the expense ol 

 emancipation and deportation in Virginia. The slaves, 

 by the last census (1830) amounted within a small frac- 

 tion to 470,000 ; the average value of each one of these 

 is §200; consequently the whole aggregate value of the 

 slave population of Virginia in 1830, was $94,000,000, 

 and allowing for the increase sirce, we cannot err far in 

 putting the present value at «! 1 00,000,000. The assess- 

 ed value of all the houses and lands in the £.tate amounts 

 to $200,000,000, and these constitute the material items 

 in the wealth of the state, the whole personal property 

 besides bearing but a very small proportion to the value 

 of slaves, lands, and houses. jNow, do not these very 

 simple statistics speak volumes upon this subject? It is 

 gravely recommended to the state of Virginia to give up 

 a species of property which constitutes nearly one-third 

 of the wealth of the whole state, and almost one-half of 

 that of Lower Virginia, and with the remaining two- 

 thirds to encounter the additional enormous expense of 

 transportation and colonization on the coast of Africa. 

 But the loss of $100,000,000 of property is scarcely 

 the half of what Virginia would lose, if the immutaljle 

 laws of nature could suffer (as fortunately they cannot) 

 this tremendous scheme of colonization to be carried 

 into full effect. Is it not population which makes our 

 lands and houses valuable ? Why are lots in Paris and 

 London worth more than the silver dollars which it 

 might take to cover them ? V/hy are lands of equal 

 fertility in England and France worth more than those 

 of our Northern States, and those again worth more 

 than Southern soils, and those in turn v/ortli more than 

 the soils of the distant West? It is the presence or ab- 

 sence of population which alone can explain the fact. 

 It is in truth the slave labor in Virginia which gives 

 value to her soil and her habitations — take away this 

 and you pull down the atlas that upholds the whole 

 system — eject from the slate the whole slave popu- 

 lation, and we risk nothing in tha prediction, that 

 on the day in which it shall be accomplished, the v,-orn 

 soils of Virginia will not bear the paltry price of tlie 

 government lands in the west, and the Old Dominion 

 will be a ' waste hov/ling wilderness,' — ' the grass 

 shall be seen growing in the streets, and the foxes peep- 

 ing from their holes.' 



" But the favorers of this scheme say they do not 

 contend for the sudden emancipation and deportation 

 of the whole black population ; — they would send ofl' 

 only the increase, and thereby keep down the popula- 

 tion to its present amount, while the whites increasing 

 at their usual rate, would finally become relatively so 

 numerous as to render the presence of the blacks among 

 us for ever afterwards entirely harmless. Tliis scheme, 

 which at first to the unreflecting seems plausible, and 

 much less wild than the project of sending off the 

 whole, is nevertheless impracticable and visionary, as 

 we think a few remarks will prove. It is computed that 

 the annual increase of the slaves and free colored jDopu- 

 lation of Virginia, is about six thousand. Let us first, 

 then, make a calculation of the expense of purchase and 

 transportation. At $200 each, the six thousand will 

 amount in value to $1,200,000. At $30 each, for trans- 

 portation, which we shall soon see is too little, we have 

 the whole expense of purchase and transportation 

 §1,380,000, an expense to be annually incurred by Vir- 

 ginia to keep down her black population to its present 

 amount. And let us ask, is there any one who can se- 

 . riously argue that Virginia can incur such an annual ex- 

 pense as this for the next 25 or 50 years, until the 

 whites have multiplied so greatly upon the blacks, as 

 in tlie opinimi of the alarmists for ever to quiet the fears 

 of the community? Vain and delusive hope, if any 

 were ever wild enough to entertain it ! Poor old Vir- 

 ginia, the leader of the poverty stricken team, which have 

 been for years so heavily dragging along under the into- 

 lei'able burthen of the Federal Government, must in- 



evitably be crushed whenever this new weight is impos- 

 ed on her, in comparison with which federal exactions 

 are light and mild. We should as soon expect the Cha- 

 mois, the hardy rover over Alpine regions, by his unas- 

 sisted strength, to hurl down the snowy mantle 

 which for ages has clothed the lofty sunmit of Mont 

 Blanc, as that Virginia will be ever able by her own re- 

 sources to purchase and colonize on the coast of Africa 

 six thousand slaves for any number of years in succes- 

 sion. 



" But this does not develope to its full extent the mon- 

 strous absurdity of this scheme. There is a view of it 

 yet to be taken, which seems not to have struck very 

 forcibly any of the speakers in the Virginia Legislature, 

 but which appears to us of itself perfectly conclusive 

 against this whole project. We have made som.e efforts 

 to obtain something like an accurate account of the num- 

 ber of negroes every year carried out of Virginia to the 

 south and south-west. We have not been enabled to 

 succeed completely ; but from all the information we 

 can obtain, we have no hesitation in saying, that up- 

 wards of six thousand are yearly exported to other 

 states. Virginia is in fact a negro raising state for other 

 states; she produces enough for her own supply, and 

 six thousand for sale. Now, suppose the government 

 of Virginia enters the slave market, resolved to pur- 

 chase six thousand for emancipation and deportation, is 

 it not evident that it must overbid the southern seeker, 

 and thus take the very slaves who would have gone to the 

 south ? The very first operation then of this scheme, 

 provided slaves be treated as property, is to arrest the 

 current which has been hitherto flowing to the south, 

 and to accumulate the evil in the state. As sure as the 

 moon in her transit over the meridian arrests the cui-- 

 rent which is gliding to the ocean, so sure will the ac- 

 tion of the Virginia government, in an attempt to 

 emancipate and send off 60CO slaves, stop those who 

 are annually going out of the state ; and when 6000 are 

 sent off in any one year, (which we never expect to 

 see,) it will be found on investigation that they are 

 those who would have been sent out of the state by the 

 operation of our slave trade, and to the utter astonish- 

 ment and confusion of our abolitionists, the black popu- 

 lation will be found advancing with its usual rapidity — 

 the only operation of the scheme being to substitute our 

 government, alias ourselves, as purchasers, instead of the 

 planters of the south. This is a view which every le- 

 gislator in the state should take. He should beware 

 lest in his zeal for action, this efllux, which is now so 

 salutary to the state, and such an abundant source of 

 wealth, be suddenly dried up, and all the evils of slavery 

 be increased instead of diminished. If government 

 really could enter with capital and zeal enough into the 

 boundless project, we might even in a few years, see the 

 laws of nature reversed, and the tide of slavery flowing 

 from the south in Virginia, to satisfy the philanthropic 

 demand for colonization. The only means which the 

 government could use to prevent the above described ef- 

 fect, would be either arbitrarily to fix the price of slaves 

 below their market value, which would be a clear 

 violation of the right of property, (which we shall pre- 

 sently notice,) or to excite a feeling of insecurity and 

 apprehension as to this kind of property, and thus dis- 

 pose the owner to part with it at less than its true va- 

 lue: — but surely no statesman would openly avow such 

 an object, although it must be confessed that some of 

 the speakers even who contended that slaves should 

 ever be treated as property, avowed sentiments which 

 were calculated to produce such a result. 



"It is said, however, that the southern market will at 

 all events be closed against us, and consequently that 

 the preceding argument falls to the ground. To this we 

 answer, that as long as the demand to the south exists, 

 the supply will be furnished in some way or other, if 

 our government do not unwisely tamper with the sub- 

 ject. Bryan Edwards has said, that ' an attempt to 

 prevent the introduction of slaves into the West Indies 

 would be like chaining tlie winds, or giving laws to the 



