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Show 188 THE r;ONTRAi;T. of follies ; for all work is badly done by people in despair."1 hole t Iu ee hundred slaves must be II. But the w ense of supporting them in . 1 . and the exp . I W maintame< ' ·s vastly grea t er. than it was m t 1e est Your states, 1 . I t hear on excellent autho-rpnse< o ' ' Indies. I was su S th Carolina that the average I I in on ' ' rity, when ate Y • • . l ve on estates where they f . t·tmmg .t s a ' expense o roam ' . t less than 50 dollars per . 11 t ·eated JS no . are hbera Y 1 ' ' d I es at 50 dollars, IS 15,000; Th hundre s av ' . annum. . reem oderati.O n , s s..t ke. , 'a t 30 dollars, and the or take It for 300 slaves represent an rnor- . 9 000 Bot these result IS ·' 1 • Even now th e price of a good male mons cap1ta · Charleston is 1,000 dollars-slave at Sava~nah a;d500 dollars. Take 500 dollars often it has nsen to ' f "'Omen and children, · e 0 n1en, n ' as the average pnc t a capital of 150,000 d your 300 slaves represen_ . 9 000 dol-an . h interest at 6 per cent. IS ' dollars, on wh•c · h 9 OOO dollars for their . I d d to the ot er ' Iars. This a< ;8 000 dollars-a terrible debit indeed support, m~kes '. 1 rofit and loss account. Such a in any mans annu.t P . bv high prices of b rne for a tune , debit may be over o . . ·nons in its nature, 0 ar. but 1t IS rm , rice, cotton, or s g . , . tt sure to produce. I ay . · the end 1t 1s pre Y and rum m . 50 cents per week as wages, 50 free laborers 2 dollais kl f r rent (allowing h·lfa dollar wee Y 0 ' . and charge them a ' d ) nd the result 1s · 1 for holy ays a two weeks m t Je year f" 5 000 dollars. . al expense o ' the small comparative annu, . I lation in figure\ f th1s ca en, Independently however o ll I truth that slave~ we are to remem b er th e co atent ' nn· . uill agitur a Jespe t Coli rura ab erga.stulis pessimum est, ct qmcq tibus: lib. xviii. THE CONTRAST. 189 is wedded to extravagance; whatever may be the particular exceptions, its general tendency is to engender in the slavelwlding population, those habits of indolence and wastefulness, which have, as thou canst not fail to be aware, accelerated the downfall of many a reputable family, and many a noble estate. III. The value of landed property.-As the favorable working of freedom in the West Indies is proved by the rise in the value of property, so I think it must be allowed, that a prorif of the ruinous tendencies of slavery is forced on the view even of the most superficial observer, who travels through Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Thou~ands and tens of thousands of acres, which were once cultivated and productive, have fallen back, under the blight of slave labor, into a wilderness; not indeed, the wilderness of olden times, which teemed with the luxuriance of nature, but one without fertility and without hope. The properties to which I allude, the appearance of which cannot fail to be familiar to thyself, were once doubtless of considerable value; now (notwithstanding the general rule that land rises in value, as a nation rises) they are worth little or nothing. A change for the worse in the appearance of the country is conspicuous enough, even when one passes the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland; but I am told that it is still more striking to the traveller who crosses the river from the state of Ohio, into thy own Kentucky. The soil on either side of the magnificent stream being of equal fertility, the free-banlr (it is said) blooms with prosperity, |
