nd
twenty dollars--a difference in favor of each citizen in these five
slave States of one hundred and fifty-three dollars.
I am aware, however, of an opinion that some other non-slaveholding
States, have been much more successful in the accumulation of wealth,
than the six New England States, and that New York, Pennsylvania, and
Ohio, are of this favored number. Lest a design to deceive, by
concealing this supposed fact, should be attributed to the writer, we
will see what the census says as to these three more favored States. By
the census of 1850 we learn that New York, instead of being able to
divide three hundred and sixty-seven dollars with her citizens, as New
England could with hers, is only able to divide two hundred and
thirty-one dollars; Pennsylvania two hundred and fourteen, and Ohio two
hundred and nineteen. These several averages among freemen at the North,
and in New England, stand against the average of five hundred and twenty
dollars, which these five old impoverished Southern slave States could
divide with their citizens.
These facts must astonish our Northern neighbors, so long accustomed to
believe that slavery was the fruitful source of poverty, with all its
imagined evils; and these facts will astonish many at the South, so
long accustomed to hear it affirmed that slavery had produced these
evils, and while they were without the means of knowing, of course they
feared that it was so.
That every thing may appear, however, which will throw additional light
on the subject, I will state that Massachusetts, which is the _richest_
non-slaveholding State, could divide with each of her citizens five
hundred and forty-eight dollars. But on the other hand, South Carolina
could divide one thousand and one dollars, Louisiana eight hundred and
six dollars, Mississippi seven hundred and two dollars, and Georgia six
hundred and thirty-eight dollars, with their citizens.
Rhode Island, which is the next _richest_ non-slaveholding State to that
of Massachusetts, could divide with her citizens five hundred and
twenty-six dollars; one other non-slaveholding State (Connecticut) could
divide with her citizens three hundred and twenty-one dollars. After
this, the next _highest_ non-slaveholding State could divide two hundred
and eighty; the next highest two hundred and thirty-one; the next
highest two hundred and twenty-eight; the next highest two hundred and
nineteen; the next highest two hundred and fourteen d
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