d, clothing, housing and medical
attention, and the further fact that they possessed a peculiarly happy
and light-hearted disposition, all tended to make them especially
valuable to the Southern planters.

It seems that slave labor was looked upon, at a comparatively early
date, as being not only desirable, but absolutely necessary to the
growth and development of the Southern colonies.

For several years after the settlement of Georgia no slaves were
allowed to be used in that colony, but, finding that the colony seemed
to be doomed to failure, the "trustees" permitted the introduction of
slaves and the colony began immediately to prosper.

The following lines attributed to George Whitefield--the famous
minister--in referring to his plantations in Georgia and South
Carolina, give a fair idea of the feelings of the Southern colonists
on the subject of slave labor at that time. He speaks thus about his
Georgia plantation: "Upward of five thousand pounds have been expended
in the undertaking, and yet very little proficiency made in the
cultivation of my tract of land, and that entirely owing to the
necessity I lay under of making use of white hands. Had a Negro
been allowed I should now have had a sufficiency to support a great
many orphans, without expending above half the sum which has been laid
out." How different are his expressions concerning his South Carolina
plantation, where slavery existed: "Blessed be God! This plantation
has succeeded; and, though at present I have only eight working hands,
yet, in all probability, there will be more raised in one year, and
without a quarter of the expense, than had been produced at Bethesda
for several years past. This confirms me in the opinion I have
entertained for a long time that Georgia never can or will be a
flourishing province without Negroes are allowed."

With the invention of the cotton gin slave labor became still more
valuable, the South more prosperous, and the planters verily believed
that cotton was king and South Carolina the hub of the universe.

But, while it is true that the Negro became an indispensable factor in
the material prosperity of the South by his work on the plantations,
yet he did not at that time occupy a position that could be dignified
with the name of farmer. During the days of slavery the Negro occupied
a position more closely akin to that of a farm animal than that of a
farmer. Of course there were exceptions but we are speaking now