Chapter I: Preface

If my countrymen, particularly my countrymen of the South, still more particularly those of them who are non-slaveholders, shall peruse this work, they will learn that no narrow and partial doctrines of political or social economy, no prejudices of early education have induced me to write it. If, in any part of it, I have actually deflected from the tone of true patriotism and nationality, I am unable to perceive the fault. What I have committed to paper is but a fair reflex of the honest and long-settled convictions of my heart.

In writing this book, it has been no part of my purpose to cast unmerited opprobrium upon slaveholders, or to display any special friendliness or sympathy for the blacks. I have considered my subject more particularly with reference to its economic aspects as regards the whites--not with reference, except in a very slight degree, to its humanitarian or religious aspects. To the latter side of the question, Northern writers have already done full and timely justice. The genius of the North has also most ably and eloquently discussed the subject in the form of novels. Yankee wives have written the most popular anti-slavery literature of the day. Against this I have nothing to say; it is all well enough for women to give the fictions of slavery; men should give the facts.

I trust that my friends and fellow-citizens of the South will read this book--nay, proud as any Southerner though I am, I entreat, I beg of them to do so. And as the work, considered with reference to its author's nativity, is a novelty--the South being my birth-place and my home, and my ancestry having resided there for more than a century--so I indulge the hope that its reception by my fellow-Southrons will also be novel; that is to say, that they will receive it, as it is offered, in a reasonable and friendly spirit, and that they will read it and reflect upon it as an honest and faithful endeavor to treat a subject of enormous import, without rancor or prejudice, by one who naturally comes within the pale of their own sympathies.

An irrepressibly active desire to do something to elevate the South to an honorable and powerful position among the enlightened quarters of the globe, has been the great leading principle that has actuated me in the preparation of the present volume; and so well convinced am I that the plan which I have proposed is the only really practical one for achieving the desired end, that I earnestly hope to see it prosecuted with energy and zeal, until the Flag of Freedom shall wave triumphantly alike over the valleys of Virginia and the mounds of Mississippi.

H. R. H.

JUNE, 1857.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

CHAPTER I.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES 11

Progress and Prosperity of the North--Inertness and Imbecility
of the South--The True Cause and the Remedy--Quantity and
Value of the Agricultural Products of the two Sections--
Important Statistics--Wealth, Revenue, and Expenditure of the
several States--Sterling Extracts and General Remarks on Free
and Slave Labor--The Immediate Abolition of Slavery the True
Policy of the South.

CHAPTER II.

HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED 123

Value of Lands in the Free and in the Slave States--A few Plain
Words addressed to Slaveholders--The Old Homestead--Area and
Population of the several States, of the Territories, and of
the District of Columbia--Number of Slaveholders in the United
States--Abstract of the Author's Plan for the Abolition of
Slavery--Official Power and Despotism of the Oligarchy--
Mal-treatment of the Non-slaveholding Whites--Liberal
Slaveholders, and what may be expected of them--Slave-driving
Democrats--Classification of Votes Polled at the Five Points
Precinct in 1856--Parts played by the Republicans, Whigs,
Democrats, and Know-Nothings during the last Presidential
Campaign--How and why Slavery should be Abolished without
direct Compensation to the Masters--The American Colonization
Society--Emigration to Liberia--Ultimatum of the
Non-slaveholding Whites.

CHAPTER III.

SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY 188

What the Fathers of the Republic thought of Slavery--Opinions
of Washington--Jefferson--Madison--Monroe--Henry--Randolph--
Clay--Benton--Mason--McDowell--Iredell--Pinkney--Leigh--
Marshall--Bolling--Chandler--Summers--Preston--Fremont--Blair--
Maury--Birney. Delaware--McLane. Maryland--Martin. Virginia--
Bill of Rights. North Carolina--Mecklenburg Declaration of
Independence--Judge Ruffin. South Carolina--Extracts from the
Writings of some of her more Sensible Sons. Georgia--Gen.
Oglethorpe--Darien Resolutions.

CHAPTER IV.

NORTHERN TESTIMONY 235

Opinions of Franklin--Hamilton--Jay--Adams--Webster--Clinton--
Warren--Complimentary Allusions to Garrison, Greeley, Seward,
Sumner, and others.

CHAPTER V.

TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS 245

The Voice of England--Opinions of Mansfield--Locke--Pitt--
Fox--Shakspeare--Cowper--Milton--Johnson--Price--Blackstone--
Coke--Hampden--Harrington--Fortescue--Brougham--The Voice of
Ireland--Opinions of Burke--Curran--Extract from the Dublin
University Magazine for December, 1856--The Voice of Scotland--
Opinions of Beattie--Miller--Macknight--The Voice of France--
Opinions of Lafayette--Montesquieu--Louis X--Buffon--Rousseau--
Brissot--The Voice of Germany--Opinions of Grotius--Goethe--
Luther--Extract from the Letter of a living German writer to his
Friends in this Country--The Voice of Italy--Opinions of
Cicero--Lactantius--Leo X--The Voice of Greece--Opinions of
Socrates--Aristotle--Polybius--Plato.

CHAPTER VI.

TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES 258

Introductory Remarks--Presbyterian Testimony--Albert Barnes--
Thomas Scott--General Assembly in 1818--Synod of Kentucky--
Episcopal Testimony--Bishop Horsley--Bishop Butler--Bishop
Porteus--John Jay--Anti-slavery Churchman--Baptist Testimony--
Rev. Mr. Brisbane, of South Carolina--Francis Wayland--Abraham
Booth--Baptists of Virginia in 1789--Methodist Testimony--John
Wesley--Adam Clarke--Extracts from the Discipline for 1784, '85
and '97--Catholic Testimony--Pope Gregory XVI--Pope Leo X--The
Abbe Raynal--Henry Kemp.

CHAPTER VII.

BIBLE TESTIMONY 275

The Bible an Anti-Slavery Text-book--Selected Precepts and
Sayings of the Old Testament--Selected Precepts and Sayings of
the New Testament--Irrefragability of the Arguments here and
elsewhere introduced against Slavery.