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Show 114 DESPOTISM: even upon the managem~nt ?f thei~. own estates. Their sole business is, to recmve the mcome.and to spend it. Another class of the free populauon obtain a livelihood by acting as ovl'rseers or viceroys for their richer neighbors. They are t.ht~s saved from the degradation of manuall~bor; but It Is a hard se~vice by which they earn the1r bread . . So hard, that ~t is very seldom performed to the sat1sfact10n of theu employers. 'l'he planters give a terrible character of the overseers as a class. Accordmg to their account, the overseers as a general rule, are i~norant, stupid, obstinate, negligent, drunken and dishonest.. .t:or their ianorance they are hardly to blame, constdermg what ~eanty means of education this class enjoy. Stupidity and obstinacy are the natural frmts of Ignorance. Negligence and drunkenness the_y learn f~or:n their employers; and if over~cer~ are dishonest ~t IS little to be wondered at, cons1denng the temptatwns and opportunities by which they are surrounded, and the total confusion of all 1deas of nght and wrong, justice and injustice, which the nature of their employ-ment is likely to produce. . . . . The third and largest div1s10n of the pnvlleged class, compelled by absolute want to the disgraceful necessity of manual labor, work wtth an unwtlhngness as great as that of the slaves, and with still less of efficiency. The produce of thCJr labor IS very small. In general it is hardly suffic1ent to support them m that rude and semi-barbarous condJtwn to whiCh they have been accustomed. The disastrous effects of slave-holding upon free industry, are particularly obvious in the families of the small planters, and of those farmers. who poS'eSS but five or six slaves. 'l'hese slaves sn{hce to perform the labors of the farm, and when the land is fert1le the owner of it lives in a rustic plenty. A fam1ly of sons grows up around him. l-Ie has no occasiOn for their assistance on the farm, and if ~e had, thre_y woul~ regard the labor as an intolerablcd1sgrace. I he boy grow up in idleness, with little or no education, be- TN AMERICA. 115 cause there is no system of public instruction, and the fa~her cannot afford to sen~ them to a distance in pursmt. of schools. They arnve at man's estate withont havmg been bred to 'I"Y regular employment. Each has h1s horse, h1s dog and his gun; and while the father hves the sons have a home; they spend their time in huntmg, ?r m ndmg about tho country, or at horseraces, frolics, barbecues, or political meetings. 'rhcre are thousands of young men in Kentucky and Tennessee m th1s unhappy predicament. Full of spirit and ambition, active, capable, eager for some honorable employment ; but condemned by the social system of wh1ch they form a part, and by the unhappy prejudices agatnst. useful inclu~try which that system engenders, to an Idleness wluch presently becomes as irksome to themselves, as it is fatal to the public prospenty. When habit has made indolence inveterate and when they are too old to apply themselves with zeal or success to a new course of life, the death of the father. cuts off the support they have hitherto enloyed: I:!Js property divided among a numerous famIly, g1ves but a pittance to each. That pittance is soon spent. Want stares the unhappy sufferers in the face. r~1~-wy l?~e by degrees .tl~eir standing and respectablilty. I he weaker spmted among them sink down to the lowest depths of poverty and vice. Those of more energy emigrate to the new states of the far west, and having escaped the charmed circle in which they were so long bound up, they develop a new chara~ter, and like the.ir fathers before them, by means of tl~e1r .own personal mdustry, they bring a farm into culuvatwn and gradnally acquire wealth. But if they have settled m a slave state, that wealth is generally mv~sted m slaves; and their own chi ldren are bred up m that same style of helpless indolence of which they th~mse lves were so ncar becomino- the victims land wh1ch their children perhaps will not so fortunate~ Y escape. 1 Thus it appears that one plain and obvious clicct of t >e slave-holdmg system is, to deaden in every c!ass |