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of youth in vain, unless we also give time for application; we have heard it remarked to some employers, that it would be commendable to congress to shorten the hours of labour in factories; the reply was: it would be an infringement on the rights of the people. We know the average number of hands employed by one manufacturer to be, at the lowest estimate, fifty men, women, and children. Now, the query is whether this individual, or this number employed by him, is the people. It is not our intention at present, to undertake a thorough discussion of this interesting subject, but rather to give some hints on the subject, which, we hope, may attract the notice of your readers, and be the means of arousing some abler pen to write on the matter; for we think it is high time the public should begin to notice the evil that it begets. We see the evil that follows the system of long labor much better than we can express it; but we hope our weak endeavors may not prove ineffectual. We must acknowledge our inability prevents us from expressing our sentiments fluently, at present, but we hope to appear again in a more correct manner.

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PART V. SLAVERY AND THE WEST

PART V. SLAVERY AND THE

WEST

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CHAPTER XI

THE GATHERING CLOUD

SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES

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The prevalence of slavery in the colonies in the seven- 71. The peteenth and eighteenth centuries was chiefly due to the tition of the Georgia coloneed of laborers for the cultivation of the soil. A scanty nists for slavery, 1738 population, without manufactures, the colonists, especially in the South, had to work large areas of land to produce the tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo, and food-stuffs to exchange in Europe for their luxuries and many of their necessities. So, for example, the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, in their Proposals to First Settlers," in 1663, offered "to the owner of every negro or man slave brought thither to settle within the first year 20 acres and for every woman negro or slave 10 acres of land."1 James Oglethorpe, founder of the neighboring colony of Georgia, was opposed to slavery on moral grounds, and immediately after the granting of the charter of Georgia the inhabitants were ordered "not to hire, keep, lodge, board, or employ within the limits of the Province any Black or Negro." Nevertheless the

1 Peter Force, Tracts, Vol. IV, No. 2, p. 25. At the census of 1790, Massachusetts was the only state to report no slaves. The list of slaves in New York in 1755 (excluding the counties of Albany, New York, and Suffolk) fills twenty-four pages of O'Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. III, pp. 844-868.

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economic pressure of the need for laborers was so great that five years later the following petition was sent to the Trustees of the colony:

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOURS ;

We whose Names are under-written, being all Settlers, Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Province of Georgia, and being sensible of the great Pains and Care exerted by You in Endeavouring to settle this Colony, since it has been under Your Protection and Management; Do unanimously join to lay before You, with the utmost Regret, the following Particulars. ... We have most of us settled in this Colony in Pursuance of the Description and Recommendation given of it by You in Britain; and from the Experience of residing here several Years, do find that it is impossible that the Measures hitherto laid down and pursued for making it a Colony can succeed. None of all those who have planted their Land have been able to raise Sufficient Produce to maintain their Families in Bread kind only, even tho' as much Application and Industry have been exerted to bring it about as could be done by Men engaged in an Affair on which they believed the Welfare of themselves and their Posterity so much depended; . . . so that by the accumulated Expences every Year, of Provisions, Cloathing and Medicines, for themselves, Families and Servants, several hath expended all their Money, nay, even run considerably in Debt, and so been obliged to leave off Planting and making further Improvements. . . . This being now the general State of the Colony, it must be obvious that People cannot subsist by their Land, according to the present Establishment; and this being a Truth resulting from Tryal, Practice and Experience, cannot be contradicted by any theorical Scheme or Reasoning. The Land then, according to the present Constitution, not being capable to maintain the Settlers here, they must unavoidably have recourse to and depend upon Trade: But to our woful Experience likewise, the same Causes that prevented the first, obstruct the latter; for tho' the Situation of this Place is exceeding well adapted for Trade, and if it was encouraged, might be much more improved by the Inhabitants; yet the Difficulties and Restrictions, which we hitherto have and

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