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Show "(" . -'"""'"~- ' 60 OESPOTIS!\1 in our Northern prisons and penitentiaries. The~r food is less savoury, less abunda_nt, and far less va:lous -and a certain variety of diet seems as csscntm to l;ealth as it is agreeable to th? ta_ste. The work demanded of them is far more fat1gumg and severe, the time of labor is longer, the clothing with whi_ch they are supplied is far less comfortable; _m~d _thcu c~posnre far more trying. 'rhat sort of d~sc1phne wh1ch we have fixed upon as the most tcmblc and exemplary pnnishment of crime,--or rather a dtsctplmc much more severe than that -is the regular, constant, perpetual condition of a' large proportion of our fe\Jowconntrymen at the south. What has been observed with respect to food, applies with equal force to physical_cond_ition in ~eneral. 'rhat which is sufficient to sustam existence, IS by no n1cans sufficient for comfort, or for pleasure. Life may be supported, and protracted under such a series of prhrations that 1t ceases to be any thmg but a con-tinuity of suffering. . . That the physical condition of the slaves IS far Inferior on an average to that of the free, may be m~de evident by some statistical consideration~. Durmg the fifty years from 1790 to 1840, the wh!te population of the United States had a uniform mcreasc at the rate of thirty-five per cent. in each period of ten years; while during the same time the sl~vc popula· tion increased at the rate of only t\venty-mnc pcrcCI_lt· Iu the period of ten years, from 1830 to 1840, while the free population increased 34.6 per cent., the sl_avc population increased only 23.8 per c_ent.; a otri_kmg proof of the alteration for the worse, 111 the cond1t10n of the slaves, produced by their transfer to the cotton fields of the far south. The increase of the white population by immiOTation from abroad, could not have amodnted, durin°cr those ten years, to more than " f · e over ftve per cent.; sti!lleaving a balance o 1ncreas An the slave populatiOn of more than seven per cent. f examination of the returns of the recent census 0 1850 would alford results not materially different IN AntERICA. 61 Now . it Is to be recollected that there are certain prudentu~l checks, as they are denominated, constantly ?peratrmg to retard the increase of the white populatiOn: rhe extent to which these checks operate, even m. thos.e parts of the country in which the white popula~10n mcrea~es. with ~he greatest rapidity, will be obv1ous, when It 1s considered, that in the state of Ne\V York, as appears from the rcsnlts of the State census, in 1825 and in 1835, out of all the women in. the state between the ages of sixteen and forty-five, that ts, of an age to bear children, two jiftlts arc nnmarrJed. Among the slaves, these prudential checks arc totally u~lkn.own. Th~re .is nothing to prevent them !ro~ YJC_Idmg to the mstmcts of nature. Child-bearmg IS stn!lulated and encouraged by the masters, and so far as 1t depends upon the mere production of children, the slave population ought to increase two fifths faster than the free. Ins tead of doubli1~o- once in twcnty-~ve years, it ought to double oncc0 in fifteen years.. ~f the increase is kept do.wn to the former level, 1t JS only because disease and death a rc bnsier among the slaves than amon()' the free; and as the slaves escape all thos~ kinds of diso:ders which spring from luxury and ~ver-mdulgcncc, th1s greater mortality can on.ly l?e ascnbcd to g_reater severity of labor, and to destitution of the physical supports of life. It IS often argued that self-interest alone is enough to m~ke the master attentive to the lives and health of hts sla~es i on the same principle that he provides conlfor his horses, and fodder for his cattle. But that pr~vtdent an.d cnli.ghtcned economy which makes a P~~!ent sacnfice for the sake of avoiding a future g d ter loss, however it may be genera\\y recommcnd~ v and applauded, IS but seldom practised; and he ho IS famlltar wlth the domestic management of the sout~dern stales, must kno\v that of all places in the wor ' It IS least practised there. • d" An anecdote is related of a Virginian planter who Ischarged his overseer, because sufficient cattl~ had 6 |