Rare Book Monthly

Articles - April - 2003 Issue

Slavery in the United States <br> Chapter 9

none


We learn from the reports of parliamentary committees, and various other sources equally authentic, that the operatives, as they are somewhat affectedly called, in the English manufactories, know not what it is to eat meat; that though they labour, the parent male and female, as well as their little children, from morning till night, and sometimes far into the night, their wages are insufficient to procure for them the necessaries of life, and that a large portion is compelled to resort to relief from the parish.* (We have been informed by a gentleman, once an eminent manufacturer in England, that, on more than one occasion, operatives have entreated to be employed by him, merely at the price of their daily food.) We farther learn, that the children are enslaved, to all intents and purposes, by a system of incessant and unwholesome occupation the most rigid and severe; that they are brought up in utter ignorance; that their morals are entirely neglected, and that, their very nature becomes degraded, their health in a great degree destroyed, by being thus thrust out from all means of mental improvement and healthful relaxation. The Parliament of England has lately interfered in behalf of these unfortunate white slaves, and, by a series of regulations, attempted to place them on a footing which might leave no ground for envying the condition of the black slaves of the South; but no one can be ignorant of the futility of all attempts to restrain the cravings of interest and avarice, or to legislate for the domestic relations of social life. All these cravings operate with the master of the South to produce kind treatment to his slave, who, if he loses his health, not only becomes useless, but a burden; and who, if he dies, is a serious loss. The employer of operatives in an English manufactory will naturally have no other object than to get from them the greatest possible degree of labour at the least possible expense. If he loses his health, it is nothing to him; for he discharges the man, and gets another in his place. If the discharged labourer cannot maintain himself and family, he goes upon the parish; and if he dies, it is no loss to his employer. Every feeling of interest in the welfare of the two classes is therefore on the side of the slave. This feeling, aided by the impulses of the heart and the restraints of conscience, is alone capable of working a revolution in the private intercourse between the master and his family, the employer and the hireling. From all that can be learned, it appears that the legislative interference has produced no radical change: that neither the morals nor the condition of the operatives are improved; but that they still labour, without the adequate rewards of labour, and that a large portion of them is still compelled to resort to the parish, to eke out the scanty means of existence afforded by a life of incessant toil.

The father of a family goes forth by sunrise in the morning, accompanied by his children, to labour at their endless round in the manufactory, and returns in the evening, or late at night, not to enjoy, but to suffer, the fruits of his labour, in the midst of privations of every kind. His food is scanty and miserable, and for a part of this he pays by a degrading dependance on the parish, while his expectations of any future change for the better are as distant and hopeless as those of the hereditary bondman. Such a state must be fatal to his moral and domestic feelings ; and all accounts go to prove their gradual decay among these unfortunate people. The slave of the South is distinguished for the force of his attachments to his parents, his wife, and his children ; but the common working-classes of England are notorious for their total disregard of these sacred feelings. It is stated, in various reports of commissions appointed for the express purpose of investigating the condition and morals of that class of people, that an almost total disregard of the marriage bond prevails among them; that their connexions are for the most part without the sanction of the marriage tie, and broken as caprice or convenience may dictate; that a general licentiousness of intercourse prevails; and that children are only considered as desirable, inasmuch as their multiplication increases the claims of their parents on the parish. All those ties which constitute the cement of social relations are either unfelt, or hang so loosely as to be discarded at pleasure, and the number of illegitimate children is multiplying in a manner which no previous age has exhibited.

Such is a mere skeleton of the evidence adduced from public reports of committees, either of parliament, corporations, or societies, and supported by the testimony of magistrates, schoolmasters, and parish ministers. They may possibly be exaggerated, for such is commonly the case with those exhibitions of misery, ignorance, and crime, which are put forth to the world for the purpose of obtaining its agency in mitigating or removing them. But making all allowances, enough remains to show that, both as regards his morals and his means of happiness, the slave of the South is in a state to be envied by the philanthropic paupers of England, who, we perceive, have held meetings, expressing their deep indignation at the existence of slavery in the West Indies and the United States.

Nor are the other classes of labourers in Great Britain more to be envied by the Southern slave than the operatives in the manufactories. How many thousands of them pass their lives in the coal and tin mines, shut from the light of day, and the sprightly, wholesome air, exposed to those dreadful catastrophes which, at intervals, bury perhaps hundreds in the ruins of an explosion? Do these people pretend to sympathize with our negroes? Without multiplying examples, it is sufficient to state, what is openly asserted by English authorities, that throughout all the different classes of labour, the absence of what the slaves of the South, and their masters too, consider the ordinary and indispensable comforts of life, is a subject of universal notoriety.

Is it for such a country, and such a people, to boast of their freedom, simply because they may not be bought and sold? Does the miserable affectation of liberty, which the operatives in manufactories, and the labourers in mines, and everywhere else, suffer, give them any essential superiority over the well-fed, well-housed, and well-treated slave ? What are the privileges of one of these pauper labourers ? To work all day for a master he dare not disobey, and then beg of the parish a pittance to keep himself and family from starving. It is true, he can go elsewhere in search of another master; but, wherever he goes, unless perchance he seeks this country of " two-legged wolves," of " atheists and blasphemers," the same fate awaits him. To be transported to Botany Bay for shooting or snaring a hare or a partridge ; to pay taxes on the light of the sun, the air he breathes, the ground he treads, and the fire he burns ; to have no more influence in the choice of his rulers, or the making of laws, in fact, than the hereditary slave; to be obliged to work harder than the slave, without sharing any of his comforts, or being relieved from any of his burdens ; and finally, as is the case with millions of Irish labourers, to suffer and starve without any other than the forlorn hope of being liberated from his thraldom by Mr. O'Con-nell, in return for the " tribute" he pays him out of the superfluity of his wants, and the munificence of his penury. A reference to the condition of the lower classes of England and Ireland naturally leads to a suspicion, that the present outcry against slavery in that quarter partly originated from an apprehension that the hard-slaving and half-starved operatives and working-men of those philanthropic countries might, if they knew the real state of the case, flock hither in thousands, and sell themselves to the planters of the South, instead of being compelled, as they frequently are, to commit crimes, in order to entitle themselves to a refuge in the Paradise of Botany Bay.* (The criminal courts in England often present such examples.)

The condition of the peasantry of Germany has been much ameliorated by the regulations of Maria Theresa, Joseph the Second, and, most especially, by the gradual progress of more humane and enlarged views on the part of the landholders, without whose cordial co-operation all laws are nugatory. In the various states composing this great and powerful empire, there are, of course, sensible varieties in the condition of the peasantry and labouring classes, and to particularize them all would be tedious and unnecessary. We shall select those of the ancient kingdom of Hungary, where the rights of the peasantry rest on an ordinance of Maria Theresa, called " The Urbarium; or Contract between the Landlords and Peasants, as fixed by Law." The following items, selected from under the head " Of things forbidden to the Peasants, and of the punishments ensuing thereon" will give the reader a tolerable insight into the situation of that class of people.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions