n
sold for two hundred and thirty pounds. There are more slaves raised in
Virginia and Maryland than they can use in those states in labor, and,
therefore, they sell them at one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred
pounds, as the case may be, for cash. All that Mrs. Tyler intimates in
that letter about slavery in America, and the impression it is
calculated and intended to convey, that they treat their slaves so well,
and do not separate their families, and so forth, is all mere humbug.
[Laughter and cheers.] It is well known that Virginia has more profit
from selling negroes than from any other source. The great sources of
profit are tobacco and negroes, and they derive more from the sale of
negroes than tobacco. You see the temptation this gives to avarice.
Suppose there is a man with no property, except fifteen or twenty negro
men, whom he can sell, each one for two hundred pounds, cash; and he has
as many negro women, whom he can sell for one hundred and fifty pounds,
cash, and the children for one hundred pounds each: here is a temptation
to avarice; and it is calculated to silence the voice of conscience; and
it is the expansion of the slave territory, and the immense mercantile
value of the cotton, that has brought so powerful an influence to bear
on the United States in favor of slavery. [Hear, hear.] Now, as to free
labor coming into competition with slave labor: You will see, that when
the price of slaves is so enormous, it requires an immense outlay to
stock a plantation. A good plantation would take two hundred, or three
hundred hands. Now, say for every hand employed on this plantation, the
man must pay on an average two hundred pounds, which is not exorbitant
at the present time. If he has to pay at this rate, what an immense
outlay of capital to begin with, and how great the interest on that sum
continually accumulating! And then there is the constant exposure to
loss. These plantation negroes are very careless of life, and often
cholera gets among them, and sweeps off twenty-five or thirty in a few
days; and then there is the underground railroad, and, with all the
precautions that can be taken, it continues to work. And now you see
what an immense risk, and exposure to loss, and a vast outlay of
capital, there is in connection with this system. But, if a man takes a
cotton farm, and can employ Chinese laborers, he can get them for one or
two shillings a day, and they will do the work as well, if not bet