Free blacks more degraded than slaves..

CONVERSATION XVIII.

"It is not easy to discern any object to which the pecuniary resources of the Union can be applied, of greater importance to the national security and welfare, than to provide for the removal, in a manner consistent with the rights and interests of the several States, of the free coloured population within their limits."-Gen. Mercer.

In our last conversation, we noticed the general degradation of blacks in this country. The circumstance that there are so few blacks that, with their freedom, avoid poverty and vice, nobly resisting the natural tendency of their condition, has led some to suppose that however undesirable in itself slavery may be, the blacks generally gain little, and in most instances, are great losers, by emancipation !

'It has been asserted that, of free blacks collected in our cities and large towns, a great portion are found in abodes of wretchedness and vice, and become tenants of poor-houses and prisons. As a proof of the tendency of their condition, the following striking facts among others, ascertained a year or two since, have been mentioned: In Massachusetts, where the coloured population is small, being less than 7,000 souls, (only 1-74th part of the whole population,)

about 1-6th part of the whole number of convicts in the state-prison are blacks. In Connecticut, 1-34th part of

Alarming proportion of crime among free blacks.

the population is coloured, and 1-3d part of the convicts. In New-York, 1-35th part are blacks; 1-4th part of the convicts in the city state-prison are blacks. In New-Jersey, the proportion is 1-13th coloured; and of the convicts 1-3d. In Pennsylvania, 1-34th part of a population of more than a million of souls, is coloured; and more than one-third part of the convicts are black.

'I need not pursue these illustrations of the degradation of the free blacks in the non-slave-holding States. It appears from these statements, which I find in the First Annual Report of the Prison Discipline Society, that about one quarter part of all the expense incurred by these States for the support of their institutions for criminals is for coloured convicts. The bill of expense in three of these States stands thus: that is, the expense for the support of coloured convicts for the specified number of years preceding the report from which this schedule is made, is in

This sum was expended in an average of less than eighteen years, on convicts from among a population of only 54,000 coloured persons.

'Illustrations, borrowed from the criminal statistics of the South, would place this matter in a far more unfavourable light. References to the expenses for the maintenance of paupers, would give a similar result.

'Another consideration, and one of great weight with our Southern brethren, in leading them to deprecate the exist ence and increase of a coloured population in their midst, is the contaminating influence which this class spread among

Either colonization or slavery necessary for the present.

the poor and degraded around them. Prostrate and wretched themselves, through the peculiarity of their almost hopeless circumstances, they are a source of envy and restless anxiety to the slave, who, seeing them free from domestic restraint and witnessing the facilities with which they are enabled to indulge their various propensities, are tempted, and corrupted, and often ruined by the contagious influence. Hence, some of the severest provisions of the law, and the most cruel restraints to which slavery is subjected—and hence too the early discouragement, and of late years the absolute prohibition of emancipation except under severe restrictions, in the Southern States.'

'I recollect having been very much shocked sometime since at the remark of Gen. H- that "it would have been better for the free blacks had they been kept in bondage, where the opportunity and the inducements to vice would not have been so great." I did not at the time appreciate the remark.'

'Such is the opinion of many, who I am sure are no advocates for slavery, and who have made sacrifices to their good feelings towards the African, both slave and free. "I am clear," says a distinguished Virginian, who feels a deep interest in the welfare of our coloured population, "that whether we consider it with reference to the welfare of the State, or the happiness of the blacks, it were better to leave them in chains, than to liberate them to receive such freedom as they enjoy."

The condition of slaves themselves, I suppose, would be much ameliorated by the removal of those that are freed, and I should suppose that no one can doubt that our free black population may find themselves much more favourably located in a community by themselves.'

Colonization ameliorates the condition of the slave.

There can be no doubt that colonization has a tendency to ameliorate the condition of the slave; and that it is well calculated to hasten the time when all shall go free who are now oppressed. It has long been a source of regret among many discerning, and well-informed, and christian people, to my own knowledge, that they cannot free their slaves without adding to their wretchedness-throwing, as it were, loose on the community so many materials to be manufac tured into every form of indolence, degradation and vice.'

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I suppose, Pa,' said Henry, that if the immediate emancipation of the whole slave population were to be effected, the situation of the whites at the South would be very far from enviable ?'

It is thought by the South, and by many at the North, that immediate emancipation would render it necessary for the whites to exterminate the blacks, or abandon the southern soil. The late abolition of slavery in the West India colonies is pleaded as a refutation of this idea; but those who are best qualified to judge, assert that the emancipation of slaves upon the West India estates, is a very different thing from the immediate emancipation of two millions of slaves in the southern country; and that, without raising the question of the ultimate effect upon the whites in the West Indies, the banishment of the blacks, or the expatriation or annihilation of the whites would be the necessary consequence in this country.'

The duty of immediate emancipation,' said Caroline, 'would be very plain, I suppose, if the continuance of the system is wrong under any circumstances. The aboli tionists, I believe, view slavery in all cases, as a sin; and

Immediate and universal emancipation ruinous.

suppose it is hardly proper to advise leaving off sin gradually, as convenience dictates.'

'The Rev. Dr. Fisk, President of the Methodist University in Middletown,' said Mr. L., illustrates the consequence of carrying out the views of our abolitionist brethren, by the following anecdote :—

"The eccentric Lorenzo Dow, had by building a milldam across a stream flooded his neighbour's grounds above the dam. They commenced a suit against him, and obtained a verdict in their favour, on the principle that he was invading their rights. This verdict convinced Lorenzo that every moment he kept the water in its present position he was guilty of a legal sin: and on the ground that every man should quit sinning immediately, he at once became a convert to the doctrine of immediate abolition. He accordingly went to work and forthwith abolished (or demolished) his milldam. The immediate consequence of letting off so large a quantity of water at once, was the deluging of the country below, and a great destruction of property. And Lorenzo was taught by a second prosecution and assessment of damages, that his immediate abolition had led him into a greater sin than he was guilty of before."

• We have already noticed,' Mr. L. continued, 'the condition of the free black population in several of the most highly favoured States in the Union. Let me advert to a few other facts: In the State of Virginia the free coloured people are not less than 38,000; and yet of this number, not 200 are proprietors of land! Again, look at their unwelcome reception wherever they go, among the whites; and consider the fact that their presence is regarded as an evil wherever they are. In some States, they are prevented from going by enactments which expose them to a forfeiture of their