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Show 17-l NOTgR ON outrageous cruelty though they arc but few, notwithstan\~ing she has raked ~nd scraped "all ~vcr" the South~ It IS wonderful, the small number of the mstanccs she h ,\S succeeded in finding.* Could any free State, at the North, or in Europe, stand the sweep of such a. drag-net, and come out as free from scath? No one lloubts thnt there arc instn.nccs of cruclty,- horrible cruclty,-at the South, as well as clsewhc.rc. It was not tho cruelty that I had in mind when I domed the possibility of such a character as L.egrce; I ha.d m mmd, amongst other things, the conversatiOn on_ board ~he stc~mboat (vol. ii. pp. 172, 173.) and espe01ally this portiOn of it:- " I used to when I fust begun, h1wo considerable trouble fusain' with ·~m, and trying to make 'em hold out,-doctorin' on 'em up when they 's sick, and givin' on 'em clothes, anc! blankets and what not, trying to keep 'em all sorts o decent a~d comfortablC'. La.w, 't want no sort o' usc ; I lost money on 'em, a.nd 'twas heitpS o' trouble. Now, you sec, I just put 'em straight through, sick or well. When one nigger's dead, I buy another; and I find it comes cheaper and easier, every way." . Now none but a madman ever uttered such superlative nonsense and from the madman the law takes away the control ;f his slaves as well as his other property, and also, of his children. . Mrs. Stowe. tries to justify her putting such language mto tho mouth of Legree, but she fails utterly. She quotes the Report of the Agricultural Society of Baton Rouge, La., for 1829 as stating that tho annual waste of hfc on wellconducted sugar estates was two and a half per cent., over * And among them all, is there one like that from the London Guardin.n, of }<'ebru:~ry 2., (Appendix K. 3, (7.),) and was there c\·cr such a verdict returned in fmch a Cil.SC at the South ? U NCLl~ T OM 'S CA lli N . 175 and above the natural increase. And she adds, "The late Han. J osiah S. Johnson, member of Congress from Louisiana, addressed a letter to the Secretary of the United States' Treasury, in 1830, containing a similar estimate, apparently made toit!t great care, and going into minute details. ?lfany items in this estimate differ from the preceding; but tho estimate of tho annual decrease of tho slaves on a plantation was the same,-rwo AND A IIALF PEH. CENT.!" This is, no doubt, a correct estimate,* but how docs it tally with the hearsay testimony of Mr. Blackwell, and Dr. Demming, that the annual waste of life was 12} to 14 per aent.,-in other words, that the master "could afford to sacrifice a set of hands once in seven or eight years," in· stead of once in forty? And how docs this latter' tally with the statement of Simon L egree, that the waste was from 15 to 50 per cent. ? Mrs. Stowe must excuse me if I prefer the authentic official statement to the hearsay testimony ; especially as I can demonstrate, from lm· own data, tho truth of the one, and the falsehood of the other; that 1s to say, that the planter can afford to sacrifice a set of hands once in forty years, and that he cannot afford to sacri~ cc a set of han~s once in seven years: tho former, she Will of course admit; the latter, I proceed to demonstrate. Mrs. Stowe states, from Professor Ingraham, that tho negroes work during tho season from eighteen to twenty hours, the gang bemg diVIded, at night, "into ti-.Yo watches, * Pc1·hnpa l\Ira. Stowe wilt think it very awful to uso up human life ov~n at t he rat~ of two and a half per cent.: if so, then she must tlunk stone-cultmg, glass-grinding,. house-painting, and a good many other trades_ that might bo mentioned, very awful ones, for they usc up l~m~um hfc at a .ulllch more rapid rate. As to tho sugar c.ulturc, ~orv h vea arc lost m the transportation {by sea) tha.n in tho culti \'a.h on. Query: Did any Yankee aboli tionist while eating his salt fish CYCr reflect how many lives were lost by tho cod-fishory, annua!Jy? ' |