35 NEGRO AND WHITE MECHANICS. [CHAP. XXII. 



of an extensive and systematic scheme steadily pursued by the 

 Government, of transferring the aborigines from the eastern states 

 to the far west. 



Here, as at Milledgeville, the clearing away of the woods, 

 where these Creek Indians once pursued their game, has caused 

 the soil, previously level and unbroken, to be cut into by torrents, 

 so that deep gulleys may every where be seen ; and I am assured 

 that a large proportion of the fish, formerly so abundant in the 

 Chatahoochie, have been stifled by the mud. 



r The water-power at the rapids has been recently applied to 

 some newly-erected cotton mills, and already an anti-free-trade 

 party is beginning to be formed. The masters of these factories 

 hope, by excluding colored men or, in other words, slaves 

 from all participation in the business, to render it a genteel 

 employment for white operatives ; a measure which places in a 

 strong light the inconsistencies entailed upon a community by 

 slavery and the antagonism of races, for there are numbers of 

 colored mechanics in all these southern states very expert at 

 trades requiring much more skill and knowledge than the func 

 tions of ordinary work-people in factories. Several New England- 

 ers, indeed, who have come from the north to South Carolina and 

 Georgia, complain to me that they can not push on their children 

 here, as carpenters, cabinet makers, blacksmiths, and in other 

 such crafts, because the planters bring up the most intelligent of 

 their slaves to these occupations. The landlord of an inn con 

 fessed to me, that, being a carrier, he felt himself obliged to have 

 various kinds of work done by colored artisans, because they were 

 the slaves of planters who employed him in his own line. &quot; They 

 interfere,&quot; said he, &quot; with the fair competition of white mechan 

 ics, by whom I could have got the work better done.&quot; 



These northern settlers are compelled to preserve a discreet 

 silence about such grievances when in the society of southern 

 slave-owners, but are open and eloquent in descanting upon them 

 to a stranger. They are struck with the difficulty experienced 

 in raising money here, by small shares, for the building of mills. 

 &quot; Why,&quot; say they, &quot; should all our cotton make so long a journey 

 to the north, to be manufactured there, arid come back to us at 



