- labour would cost if the field were open, can only be ascertained
by comparing the cost of slave-labour in Virginia with the cost of free-labour in the Free States.
An exact comparison on a large scale I cannot find the means of making, but I have taken a great many notes which lead me with confidence to a few important general conclusions.
Wages.—Many thousand slaves have been hired in Eastern
Virginia during the time of my visit. The wages paid for able
working men—sound, healthy, in good condition, and with no
especial vices, from twenty to thirty years old—are from $110
to $140; the average, as nearly as I can ascertain, from very
extended inquiry, being $120 per year, with board and lodging,
and certain other expenses. These wages must represent
exactly the cost of slave-labour, because any considerations
which would prevent the owner of a slave disposing of his
labour for those wages, when the labour for his own purposes
would not be worth as much, are so many hindrances upon
the free disposal of his property, and thereby deduct from its
actual value, as measured with money.
As the large majority of slaves are employed in agricultural labour, and many of those, hired at the prices I have mentioned, are taken directly from the labour of the farm, and are skilled in no other, these wages represent the cost of agricultural labour in Eastern Virginia.
In New York, the usual wages for similar men, if Americans, white or black, are exactly the same in the money part; for Irish or German labourers the most common wages are 10 per month, for summer, and $8 per month, for winter, or from $96 to $120 a year, the average being about $108.
The hirer has, in addition to paying wages for the slave, to feed and to clothe him; the free labourer requires also to be
