The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,269 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4.

The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,269 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4.

Hon. THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH, of Virginia. formerly Governor of that state, in his speech before the legislature in 1832, while speaking of the number of slaves annually sold from Virginia to the more southern slave states, said:—­

“The exportation has averaged EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED for the last twenty years.  Forty years ago, the whites exceeded the colored 25,000, the colored now exceed the whites 81,000; and these results too during an exportation of near 260,000 slaves since the year 1790, now perhaps the fruitful progenitors of half a million in other states.  It is a practice and an increasing practice, in parts of Virginia, to rear slaves for market.  How can an honorable mind, a patriot and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient dominion converted into one grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for market, like oxen for the shambles.”

Professor DEW, now President of the University of William and Mary, Virginia, in his Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature, 1831-2, says, p 49.

“From all the information we can obtain, we have no hesitation in saying that upwards of six thousand [slaves] are yearly exported [from Virginia] to other states.’  Again, p. 61:  ’The 6000 slaves which Virginia annually sends off to the south, are a source of wealth to Virginia’—­Again, p. 120:  ’A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this emigration becomes an advantage to the state, and does not check the black population as much as, at first view, we might imagine—­because it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to ENCOURAGE BREEDING, and to cause the greatest number possible to be raised. &c.”

"Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising state for other states."

Extract from the speech of MR. FAULKNER, in the Va.  House of Delegates, 1832. [See Richmond Whig.]

“But he [Mr. Gholson,] has labored to show that the Abolition of Slavery, were it practicable, would be impolitic, because as the drift of this portion of his argument runs, your slaves constitute the entire wealth of the state, all the productive capacity Virginia possesses.  And, sir, as things are, I believe he is correct.  He says, and in this he is sustained by the gentleman from Halifax, Mr. Bruce, that the slaves constitute the entire available wealth at present, of Eastern Virginia.  Is it true that for 200 years the only increase in the wealth and resources of Virginia, has been a remnant of the natural increase of this miserable race?—­Can it be, that on this increase, she places her solo dependence?  I had always understood that indolence and extravagance were the necessary concomitants of slavery; but, until I heard these declarations, I had not fully conceived the horrible extent of this evil.  These gentlemen state the fact, which the history and present aspect of the Commowealth but too well sustain

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The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.