^^uWvN:^ AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS STATE OF DELAWARE 1843. ^^ ' ^ 'of TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE: Fellow Countrymen and Citizens, — I hope I shall not be charged with impertinence, if I endeavour to call your attention to one or two sub- jects, of great importance to ourselves and our pos- terity. The voice of admonition, when it comes from a friend, may sometirpes be heard with advantage, even though little may be offered which was not pre- viously known. It must be admitted that the time, now passing over us, is of a very singular character. Pecuniary distress seems to have spread its raven wing over every part of our land. The merchant at his desk, the mechanic in his shop, and the farmer at the plough, have felt and still feel, its withering and benumbing influence. Without war or famine, to de- stroy or withhold the productions of the earth, indus- try languishes and enterprise sickens. May we not, in this case, adopt the opinion, "that affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;" but that there is an overruling Hand, which guides the destinies of nations, and often brings distress upon them, by means which human sagacity can neither foresee nor prevent? At all events, it would be the part of wisdom seriously to examine, whether there are not evils among us, habitually in- 4 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF dulged, amply sufficient to call down upon us, from the hand of a just and sin-avenging God, judgments much heavier than we have yet experienced. Being assured that all unrighteousness is sin, I shall not presume to decide that any particular evil is pecu- liarly offensive in the Divine sight. It is unquestion- ably our duty to correct every vice, when discovered, to which we are addicted. Many of the vices which abound in the world, are chargeable on individuals, rather than on the community in a collective capa- city. Evils, however, which are upheld and main- tained by the laws of the land, are justly attributed to the people at large. If we seriously consider the general character of the laws, at present in force in the State of Delaware, in regard to a point to be hereafter more fully ex- plained, we may justly question whether a people, who were duly impressed with the conviction, " that righteousness exalteth a nation, — but sin is a reproach to any people," would ever have adopted them, or would long tolerate their continuance. I am aware that the subject in question, is often said to be one of delicacy and danger. The danger is freely admitted. But it lies in the thing itself, and not in the discussion of it. We are sometimes in- formed that the subject is an exciting one; and there- fore, we may infer, ought not to be touched. People of weak intellects or irritable temperaments, are gene- rally excited, when their interests or their prejudices are assailed. The craftsmen of Diana were excited, when the apostle taught the people " that they were no gods which w^ere made with hands." And well they might be; for they saw if that doctrine was i THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 5 generally admitted, their trade was ruined. And they probably thought the apostle had no right to interfere with their business, and destroy their means of sup- port. The philosophers of Pisa were excited, when Gallileo taught, that a great w^eight would descend with no greater velocity than a small one, because that doctrine assailed their prejudices, and probably diminished their credit. The excitement in both cases, arose from attachment to error, in preference to truth. And probably we shall find, if we carefully scrutinize the subject, that excitement generally ori- ginates in the same principle. The conduct of Pope Julius was, on one occasion, no less judicious than singular. He ordered all the charges, which were advanced against him and his government, to be laid before him. If true, said he, they will serve for cor- rection; if false, for diversion. A much higher au- thority than Pope Julius, has left us a pointed intima- tion on the same subject: "Every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." The subject of negro slavery, and the rights of the ^"■ coloured race, is one which has excited no small at- tention of latter time, throughout the civilized world. We all know, that strenuous efforts are made in some parts of our country, to prevent the discussion of this question. But like the Grecian senate, which decreed eternal oblivion to the name of the slave who burnt the temple of Diana, and recorded the decree, these ^ efforts furnish the most efl^ectual means of defeating their object. They unavoidably excite the discussion which they are intended to prevent. Wherever we witness an eflfort to suppress inquiry, we necessarily 1* b AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF conclude there is something in the case which dreads exposure, and courts concealment. The early settlers in New England, have been justly reproached with the violation of their own prin- ciples. Having left the home of their fathers to ob- tain the privilege of worshipping God in the way which corresponded with their apprehension of duty, they very soon resorted to rigour, for the purpose of enforcing conformity to their own theological opin- ions ; thus denying to others the rights which they claimed for themselves. And we may rationally in- quire, whether some parts of our conduct are not justly chargeable with an equal, or greater inconsistency. When the government of the mother country, se- venty years ago, commenced a series of measures, which were judged to be encroachments on our natu- ral and chartered rights, the people of this country sought a justification of their opposition to the consti- tuted authorities — not in precedent and prescription, but in the unalienable rights of man. The encroach- ments of the strong upon the privileges of the weak, had furnished precedents enough to support the British parliament in all their invasions. Our fathers had mingled with their loyalty a sprinkling of republican- ism, which led them to investigate the principles of government and the origin of power. They adopted and proclaimed in the face of the world, the import- ant doctrine, that governments were instituted to se- cure the indefeasible rights of man, and that they owe their just power to the consent of the governed. In the promulgation of these noble principles, no distinc- tion was drawn or attempted, between the different races of men. How supremely ridiculous would the THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 7 Declaration of Independence have appeared, if the coloured race, or those of them who were in slavery, and their descendants forever, had been expressly ex- cepted in the general assertion of human rights. And we may observe, that the principles avowed in that momentous document, are not the obsolete doctrines of a former age. They are distinctly recognised in the Constitutions of about three-fourths of the States; and implied in most of the others. In the preamble to the Constitution of Delaware, as amended and adopted in 1831, we find the follow- ing declarations : "Through Divine goodness, all men have, by nature, •the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences ; of en- joying and defending hfe and liberty, of acquiring and protecting reputation and property, and, in genera], of attaining objects suitable to their condition, without injury by one to another; and as these rights are es- sential to their welfare, for the due exercise thereof, power is inherent in them ; and therefore all just au- thority, in the institutions of political society, is de- rived from the people, and established with their con- sent, to advance their happiness." We readily perceive that the principles here avowed, leave no room for hereditary slavery. For it is per- fectly nugatory to pretend that the institution of slavery ever was, or ever could be, formed with the consent of the governed. A clause of nearly similar import, being introduced into the Constitution of Massachu- setts, in 1780, the judges of the Supreme judicial court decided, upon the first case which came before them involving the question of slavery, that under the 8 AN^ ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF new Constitution, slavery no longer existed in the State. In twelve other States of the Union, heredi- tary slavery has been excluded or abolished, either by constitutional provision or by legislative acts ; and probably no person, even moderately conversant with the condition of our country, will venture to assert, that the prosperity of those States where slavery is extinguished, has been impaired by the measure. The contrary, indeed, is generally acknowledged, even among the advocates of slavery. If my object in the present Address, was to argue the question as one of poHcy alone, I could easily show, both by facts and arguments, that the institution of slavery is one of the most impolitic that was ever adopted. But I appre- hend the people of Delaware are too much enlight- ened, to need either facts or arguments to convince them, that a system, so radically unjust, and so dia- metrically opposed to the principles on which the re- presentatives of the thirteen colonies assumed their station among the nations of the world, can never contribute to the honour or greatness of those who support it. Of the fifty-six members who attached their names to the Declaration of Independence, three were repre- sentatives of the State of Delaware. Hence it ap- pears, that the people of this commonwealth, if they aim at consistency of character, ought either to dis- avow the act of their representatives, or to support its principles. The disavowal is now out of the ques- tion, but it is not too late to acknowledge the sound- ness of the doctrine. From the decline of the number of slaves in the State, during the last fifty years, it appears possible that slavery may in time expire with- THE STATE OF DELAWARE. U out legislative action. Yet it is devoutly to be wished, that the inhabitants of Delaware may prove them- selves now, in the middle of the nineteenth century, as enlightened and humane as the Irish clergy were towards the close of the twelfth ;* and that they may expunge from their statute books, while there are sub- jects on whom their benevolence can act, this relic of a barbarous age. It has been frequently urged, in the slaveholding States, where the slaves bear a large proportion to the free, that the abolition of slavery there would en- danger the safety or tranquillity of the State. This argument, even in theory, is destitute of plausibility; and its fallacy is. sufficiently proved by the experience of the British West Indies. In some of those islands, the slaves were to the whites, in the ratio of fifteen to one ; yet in all of them emancipation was efiected without insurrection or tumult. But were the argu- ment a good one, it has evidently no application to the State of Delaware. According to the census of 1840, the number of slaves was 2,605, being less than one-seventh of the coloured population, and about one-thirtieth of the whole. Nearly seventy years ago, the sagacity of Adam Smith estabfished as a theory, what experience has since amply proved as a fact, that as a general rule, the labour of slaves is dearer than the labour of free- * It is perhaps not generally known, that a trade in slaves was once carried on between Bristol and Ireland, not very unlike to that which is now prosecuted between the District of Colum- bia and the South and West ; and that a council of the Irish clergy, convened at Armagh, in the year 1171, decreed that this trade should be immediately abolished, and the slaves who had been thus imported, set free. — Vide Henry's History of England. 10 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF men. We may, therefore, safely conclude, that the inhabitants of this State have not even a pecuniary interest in the continuance of slavery. And I appre- hend, that if motives of interest were denied their in- fluence, there would be no hesitation in regard to the extinction of this forced and unnatural condition. Whatever arguments may be urged in support of this system, the ruling motive is a real or imaginary inte- rest in its continuance. The slaves are considered as property, and their emancipation is viewed as the abandonment of a right. We ought, however, to re- flect, that no right can be founded on a wrong ; and that no other right of property is so sacred and invio- lable, as the right to our own mental and physical powers. This is indeed the foundation upon which the right of property in anything else is built. The emancipation of our slaves would therefore be, not the surrender of a right, but the abandonment of a wrong. Let our interests and our prejudices be silent, and there will be no difference of opinion among us on this point. It is a remarkable circumstance, that the people of these United States, were the first to proclaim, in a solemn appeal to the world, that all men were created free ; that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are inalienable gifts of the Creator; and that the ju^t powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed; and yet we appear likely to be insu- lated from the civilized world, in their practical denial. Having long felt a deep interest in the character of this State, I can hardly breathe for its inhabitants a more ardent wish, than that they may duly appreci- ate their standing and influence, in the great confede- THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 11 ration to which they belong — and above all, their duty as men and Christians ; and that by extending to others, the same rights which they claim for them- selves, they may prove their plaudits of liberty and the benefits of self-government, to be founded on a just estimate of their value. Although the number of slaves now held in the State is not great, yet to each of the two thousand six hundred thus held, the injustice is intrinsically the same as if the number was ten times as great ; and while the laws continue as they are, Delaw^are must bear the character — may I not say — must bear the odium of a slave-holding State. While the laws sup- port a system which is radically unjust, and which owes its existence to a traffic, now denounced as pi- ratical, the inquiry is comparatively of little import- ance, whether the victims of that injustice are many or few. In the present case, indeed, the fact that the slaves are not numerous, furnishes an argument for the extinction, rather than the continuance of slavery ; for it proves, that no extensive and important interests are concerned in supporting it ; while it leaves in full force, all the objections to slavery which are founded on religious and moral considerations. The system of slavery being essentially a system of warfare, there can be very little cordiality between the masters and the slaves. I freely admit there are examples of mutual attachment between these oppo- site classes ; but these are the exceptions, not the rule. And in this as in other cases, the antipathy is gene- rally stronger on the side of the injurer, than the injured. The man who suffers an injury, may, if he possesses a Christian spirit, forgive it; but the man 12 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF who willingly injures another, can hardly fail to hate the sufferer. The receipt of an injury may call into action the milder virtues ; but the commission of one, naturally produces hardness of heart. We see this most unhappily illustrated, among all slave-holding communities. No stronger evidence of the obdurating tendencies of slave-holding need be asked, than the general character of the penal laws in our Southern States. Among the ancient Romans, the horrible punishment of the cross was inflicted chiefly, if not exclusively on slaves. The sufferer was first lace- rated with rods, and then nailed to a cross, where he sometimes hung for days, before he expired. Among all nations where slavery prevails, the slave is regarded as an object of contempt and aversion. The word villain, which is now a term of superlative reproach, designated the slave of the middle ages. The slavery of our time and country, is marked with one unhappy peculiarity. The slaves are of African descent ; and all the coloured inhabitants of the country are the descendants of slaves. By a na- tural, though unjust association, the contempt and aversion usually attached to the slave, are transferred to the race. Though many of them have a strong tincture of the Caucasian variety, yet when any por- tion of the African complexion is visible, the degra- dation of slavery is still supposed to belong to their character. Now, whatever reason, moral or political, may exist, why we should desire to prevent the amal- gamation of the races, there are none, which a Chris- tian can acknowledge, why either class should be treated with injustice by the other. Probably very few persons of common understanding, will gravely THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 13 assert, that the natural rights of nien are to be esti- mated by the colour of the skin, or the condition of their ancestors. Yet when we soberly examine the laws of this commonwealth — not only those which sanction the continuance of negro slavery, but those which relate to the coloured race who are nominally free, we must be convinced, that distinctions are made in the legal condition of the races, which cannot be defended upon sound Christian principles. We can- not fail to perceive that restrictions are laid on the free coloured inhabitants of the State, which we should deem unjust and oppressive, if applied to our- selves. To the character of the laws relative to the people of colour, I am desirous of drawing your particular attention. Let us coolly consider, whether the gene- ral legislation in regard to those people, can be ex- plained in any other way than by referring it to the contempt and aversion above mentioned. And per- haps it will not be improper to inquire, whether there is any more effectual method of rendering them ene- mies to the country, than by treating them as such. As the coloured race compose nearly one-fourth of the population of the State, it would appear that pohcy, as well as justice and humanity, requires that the laws in relation to them, should be purged of every ingre- dient which can weaken their attachment to the go- vernment. Of the laws which maintain the system of slavery, little more will be said ; for I conceive they ought not to he modified, but totally repealed. And whenever the statute books of the commonwealth shall be ad- justed to the principles announced in the preamble al- 2 14 APf ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF ready cited from the Constitution, the word slave must disappear, or stand connected with a negative. Of the laws appUcable to the free coloured race, a few will be cited, to afford an opportunity to reflect on the propriety and necessity of correcting them. By a law of 1787, no slave set free by the laws of Delaware, or the issue of such slave, is allowed to give evidence against a white person. This law would appear to exclude the testimony of coloured persons altogether, when that testimony would ope- rate against a white person. Nothing appears to prevent it from being received against a person of colour, or in favour of a white person. Is not such a law a virtual declaration, that negroes and mulattoes are to be deemed enemies to the whites ? By an Act of 1799, free negroes and free mulattoes are permitted to give testimony in criminal prosecu- tions, when white witnesses cannot be produced. Yet no free negro or mulatto, is permitted to give testimony against a white man, when the object is to prove him the father of an illegitimate child. Did the legislature intend to discourage amalgamation, by securing impu- nity to the licentious white man ? Or did they only design to prevent its legal exposure ? An Act of 1810 provides, that slaves whose free- dom is legally secured, to take effect after a specified time of servitude, shall be deemed slaves until the ex- piration of that time; and the offspring of female slaves so held, born during their period of servitude, shall be deemed slaves— the males till twenty-five, and the females till twenty-one years, and no longer. To this a provision is added, which no doubt was intended to prevent children of this description from being held THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 15 as slaves, beyond the period prescribed. But why are those children allowed to remain in servitude three or four years longer than white ones? And why, during servitude, are they subjected to all the disabilities of slavery? An Act of 1811, to prevent the emigration of free negroes or mulattoes into the State, provides that no free negro or mulatto, not then residing in the State, should thereafter come into it to reside. In case any person of that description shall come in. Justices of the peace are required to command them to leave it ; and in case such negro or mulatto does not leave the State within ten days after being warned so to do, he is liable to a fine of ten dollars, for each week he re- mains beyond the ten days. In case this fine, together with the costs of prosecution, shall not be paid, he is to be sold to any inhabitant of the State, for such term as will satisfy the fine and incidental charges. Upon the expiration of this servitude, he is to be deemed a non-resident, subject to the repetition of a similar pro- secution. A free negro or mulatto, — except a seaman or w^agoner, in the service of a citizen of Delaware — now residing in the State, who shall leave it during six months, shall, in case of return into it, be consi- dered a non-resident. A person hiring or harbouring a free negro or mu- latto, after being legally notified that he is a non-resi- dent of the State, is subject to a fine of five dollars, for each day the negro or mulatto is employed. Courts of Quarter Sessions are required to give this Act in charge to grand juries, at every court. An exception is made in favour of persons who had once resided in the State, but were then absent, in 16 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF case they should bring a certificate of good conduct, from one or nnore Justices of the peace where they had resided ; and in case such certificate is approved and endorsed by two Justices of the county, in which such negro or mulatto purposes to reside, and recorded in the Register's office, within one month after his re- turn to the State. Negroes and mulattoes unlawfully taken out of the State, may return without penalty. If such restrictions were applied to any other class, we should probably be unanimous in reprobation of the law. According to this law, a man who has the misfortune to be a negro or mulatto, though he may hold real property in Delaware, and be a native of the State, if he marries a woman of his own colour, from an adjoining State, cannot take her to reside with him, without exposing her to the danger of being sold into servitude, or himself to the payment of a ruinous fine. If a coloured man should be engaged for a year with an inhabitant of another State, he loses the privilege of again residing in Delaware, un- less he can obtain a certificate of good conduct, signed by one, and approved and endorsed by two other Jus- tices of the peace; and such certificate may be granted or withheld at pleasure. Numerous cases are easily imagined, in which coloured people may suffer very vexatious oppression under the operation of this law; not for any crimes, real or imaginary, — but because they are not white. Does it become a Christian community to maintain such a law ? By an Act of 1826, a suspicious coloured person, who may be found travelling through the State, with- out a pass signed by a Justice of the peace, or other officer of the place from which he came, renewed by THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 17 a Justice of the places through which he has passed ; or who cannot give a satisfactory account of himself, may be committed to prison as a fugitive slave, and dealt with according to the law of 1816. This Act is to be given in charge to grand juries, at their seve- ral sessions. The Act of 1816, to which the above reference is made, provides that a person apprehended as a fugitive slave, must be taken before a Justice of the peace — who, if he thinks proper, may commit such supposed fugitive to prison. The Sheriff is then required to advertise the reputed fugitive for six wrecks; and if at the end of that time, the owner does not come and take him away, the Sheriff is di- rected to discharge him, without the payment of any costs. Fugitives so committed, are not to be given up to a claimant, without the authority of a Justice of the peace, nor during the night, under a penalty of five hundred dollars. These laws, I freely admit, are not so severe on the coloured race, as those which exist a little farther south ; yet, if we could suppose ourselves placed in their stead, we should consider the protection afforded a very inadequate one. It is not easy to define exact- ly, what is meant by a suspicious person. Any col- oured person who is poor, ignorant and friendless, may be suspected. A person of that description, if he ventures to travel where he is not known, however peaceably he may conduct, may be suspected of pre- ferring freedom to slavery, and may be unable to give a satisfactory account of himself, especially if those who examine him should not wish to be satisfied. Such an one, though obnoxious to no charge, may be committed to prison on mere suspicion ; there to lie 2* 18 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OP six weeks, while the advertisements of the sheriff are circulating through the Union. If within that time no person shall appear, whom this supposed fugitive has been heretofore compelled to serve without wages; and if nobody shall choose to establish a claim, by bribing or perjury, which a Justice of the peace may think sufficient, — the prisoner, having passed his six weeks in jail, is to be discharged without paying his captors for arresting, or the Sheriff for detaining him. Redress for false imprisonment, or remuneration for loss of time, seems not to have been thought of. The office allotted to the Sheriff is certainly not a very honourable one. And we observe, that a single Justice of the peace is authorized to give up such a suspected fugitive to any claimant, whose demand he may con- sider sufficient. In other words, — he may decide with- out appeal, the question of the freedom or slavery of a man. And yet, in other cases, the jurisdiction of such office is limited to claims of fifty dollars ; and his judgment is not absolute, if the sum in controversy exceeds five dollars and thirty-three cents. Do the people of Delaware suppose that the freedom of a coloured person is worthy of no stronger guard, than claims to property of the value of six dollars ? An act of 1832, prohibits free negroes and mulat- toes, from owning or possessing any gun, pistol or warlike instrunient, whatever, — under a penahy of five dollars ; but with the proviso, that any Justice of the peace, upon a certificate from five or more re- spectable and judicious citizens, that a negro or mu- latto is a person of fair character, may grant a permit to such free negro or mulatto, to have and use a gun or fowling piece. But this permit must be annually renewed. THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 19 To this provision there would, probably, be no very serious objection, in case the white people were willing to come under similar limitations. The same law prohibits meetings of free blacks, after ten o'clock P. M., under a penalty often dollars; unless under the direction of three respectable white men, who shall be present during said meeting, after that hour. In case of inability to pay the fine, every such negro to be sold to the highest bidder, for any term not exceeding three years. Non-resident black persons are prohibited, under a penalty of fifty dollars, from preaching or holding meetings for religious worship, without the license of a Judge or Justice of the peace on recommendation of five respectable citizens. Could such provisions as these be justified in this age and in this country, if the objects of them were white ? An act of 1827, prohibits the exportation of slaves, under a penalty of 8500. Yet authority is given to persons removing with their families to reside in any other State, to take their slaves with them. Now, does not this provision open a door for considerable exportation? If a man removing with his family beyond the limits of the State, may take his slaves with him, he may do so if he has no family except his slaves. A man but loosely connected with any fixed place of residence, may frequently remove into and out of the State ; taking care, while in it, to fur- nish himself with a competent number of domestics, whom he may not need after removing to reside in some other State or Territory. Whether this expe- dient is actually adopted to evade the law, is a question 20 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF which I shall not undertake to decide ; but I think I may safely assert, that as long as men and women continue to be deemed merchantable articles in the State, expedients will be found to evade any law which the legislature can enact, prohibiting their ex- portation ; in case the price of slaves in other States furnishes a sufficient inducement. Twenty-three years have passed away since the African slave-trade w'as declared piracy by the laws of the Union; and more than sixteen, since the ex- portation of slaves was prohibited by the laws of Delaware; yet, how Httle do we hear of the arrest or execution of pirates under the former, or the collection of fines for the violation of the latter. That Ameri- can citizens participate largely in the guilty traffic, is too clearly established to admit of a doubt ; and from the continued diminution of the slaves in the State of Delaware, with but a very moderate increase of the free coloured population,* there is reason to fear that the internal traffic in slaves so extensively prosecuted in the States a little farther south, derives some of its victims from the State of Delaware. * That the decline of the slave population is not wholly pro- duced by emancipation, may be fairly inferred from the following statistical facts. From 1820 to 1830, the decline in the slave population in Kent county, was 477 ; while the increase of the free coloured race was only 130 ; being 347 less than the de- crease of the slaves. From 1830 to 1840, the decrease of the slaves in the same county, was 166 ; — increase of the free col- oured 164. In Sussex, the great slave county of the State, the slaves were diminished during the same period, 281 ; while the free coloured race were also reduced 154. These facts suggest a suspicion, that the same depleting process is going on clandes- tinely in the southern counties of Delaware, which is prosecuted without disguise in Maryland and Virginia ; in the latter of which, the slave population was reduced between 1830 and 1840, upwards of twenty thousand. THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 21 Now, fellow citizens, as my object is not agitation, but sober reflection, desiring your present and future happiness, I seriously solicit for this subject the cool and candid examination which its importance de- mands. Every man exercises an influence for evil or good, within a circle of greater or less extent; and happy will it be for those who, in the evening of life, can review the labours of their day with the pleasing conviction, that their influence has been employed to promote the virtue and happiness of their fellow-men. If upon due consideration it should appear, as I think it must, that the laws of the State, in relation to the coloured race, are not in accordance with the great principles on which our government is professedly founded, — nor with the doctrines of the Christian re- ligion, which teach us to do to others as we would wish others should do to us, then it is obvious, that the civil and religious duty of the citizens of Dela- ware, requires the exercise of such influence as they respectively possess, to promote and secure a meho- ration of those laws. PHILANTHROPOS. APPENDIX —*»•••*«— My design in the foregoing address was to call the attention of my readers to the moral questions con- nected with slavery, and the treatment of the coloured race ; yet it will probably be interesting to some of them, to view the operation of slavery on some of the great interests of society. There are but few objects of greater importance in any country, and more especially in republican ones, than the proper education of youth. I am not about to expatiate upon the effects which slavery is known to produce on the habits of those who from infancy are accustomed to inhale its atmosphere. These ef- fects were depicted many years ago, in strong colours, by a writer of well known celebrity, who was him- self a slave-holder, and who had abundant opportunity to observe the effects which he so vividly portrayed. My purpose is, to exhibit a few statistical facts, which clearly prove, that the first elements of instruction are less generally diffused among a slave-holding than a free population. To bring this matter near home, I shall compare the state of knowledge, as represented by the census of 1840, in the different counties of Delaware, and in the adjoining counties where slaves are, and where they are not held. The first column contains the number of white persons over 20 years of age ; — the second, the number of those who cannot read and write ; — the third, the relation which the un- instructed bear to the whole ; — and the fourth, the number of slaves to one hundred white persons. APPENDIX. '23 No. of slaves Whites 3 over 20. No. of uneducated. Ratio. to 100' whites. New Castle, 12845 529 Ito 24i 2 Kent, Del. 7457 1913 1 " 4 nearly 3 Sussex, 8546 2380 1 " 3i 84 Chester, Pa. 26183 751 1 " 35 ] nearly Delaware, " 9006 51 1 " 176 Cumberrd,N.J. 6226 162 1 " 38 Cape May, " 2347 10 1 " 235 Salem, « 6747 327 1 " 21 Cecil, Maryland, 6483 249 1 " 26 10 Kent, " 2636 199 1 " 13 49 Queen Ann, " 2821 371 1 " 8 64 Talbot, 3080 443 1 " 7 61 Dorchester, " 4938 1045 1 " 5 41 Somerset, " 5234 561 1 « 9 47 Worcester, " 5223 565 1 " 9 30 Here we may observe, that in all those counties where no slaves are held, with the exception of Salem, the number of white persons over twenty years of age who cannot read and wlite, bears a smaller ratio to the number who can, than in any county where slaves are held ; and this exception applies only to New Castle and where but few slaves appear. That this is not an accidental coincidence of slavery and ignorance, is easily shown, by a comparison of the numbers in the slave-holding and non-slave-holding States. If we compare New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with Delaware, Maryland and Virgi- nia; or Ohio with Kentucky, or Massachusetts with South Carolina, we still find the same indications of the effect of slavery upon the education of the free. No. of slaves Whites over 20. No- of uneducated. , Ratio. to 100 whites. New York, 1155522 44452 Ito 26 8 New Jersey, 166964 6385 1 " 26 i Pennsylvania, 765917 33940 1 " 22 Delaware, 28848 4822 1 " 6 ^ Maryland, 154442 11817 1 « 13 28^' Virginia, 329954 58787 1 " 6 60 Ohio, 638938 35394 1 « 18 Kentucky, 242974 40018 1 « 6 31 Massachusetts, 403761 4448 1 " 91 S. Carolina, 111663 20615 1 " 5^ 126 24 APPENDIX. This table requires no comment ; still the darkest part of the picture is not yet exhibited. The single State of South Carolina contains more white persons, over twenty years of age, who cannot read and write, than the six New England States. Although the white population of these States amounts to 2.212.165 and of South Carolina to 259.084. The States north of Mason and Dixon's line, contain a white popula- tion of 6.618.758, of whom 97.816 over 20 years, cannot read and write. But Virginia and North Carolina, with a white population of 1.225.838, con- tain 115.396 of similar description. The nuuiber of whites over 20 years of age who cannot read and write, in the State of Tennessee, exceeds by more than a thousand, the number of like character in New York and the six eastern States ; and yet the white population of Massachusetts alone, is greater by eighty-eight thousand than that of Tennessee. If we inquire into the effect of slavery on the in- crease of the white inhabitants, its deleterious charac- ter is still apparent. Indeed, the growth of the free States, in wealth and population, is a subject of alarm with the supporters of slavery. Of the adjoining States, Kentucky and Ohio, there appears nothing but the pressure of slavery, to retard the advance of the former with the same rapidity as the latter, — yet mark their relative progress. In 1810, the white inhabitants of Kentucky numbered 324.237, — while those of Ohio amounted to 223.361. In 1840, we find in Kentucky 590.253 whites,— and in Ohio, 1.502.122. Thus, in those thirty years, the white population of Kentucky increased 82 on the 100 ; and of Ohio, 556 on the 100. MB - 9 8. FINIS. . '^^ « " = -