the latter. In fact, so gradually do the lines melt into each other, that the precise limits where slavery ends and freedom begins can hardly be told; — and the reason is, that when the spirit of slavery is broken — when the system, as such, is given up — the monster is in fact dead; the form may remain, but the malicious life is not there. In such case, the remaining bonds, as in New Jersey and Delaware, are little more than nominal.[1]
And this is the way, we conceive, in which slavery is to come to an end in the remaining Slave States of America, — namely, by a gradual decline, similar to
- ↑ We here append a tabular view of the number of slaves in several of what are now the Free States, for every decimal period since 1790, — showing how gradual has been the emancipation: —
1790. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. New Hampshire, 58 8 0 0 0 1 0 Rhode Island, 952 381 108 48 17 5 0 Connecticut, 2,759 951 810 97 25 17 0 New York, 21,324 20,343 15,017 10,088 75 4 0 New Jersey, 11,428 12,422 10,851 7,657 2,254 674 225 Pennsylvania, 3,787 1,706 795 211 403 64 0 Slave-holding States. Delaware, 8,887 6,158 4,177 4,509 3,292 2,605 2,290 Maryland, 103,036 105,635 111,502 107,398 102,294 89,737 90,368 In examining this table we may note that two of the slave-holding States, Delaware and Maryland (if Delaware be properly reckoned among these), are pursuing the me course as the States already free — the number of slaves in Delaware having declined from 8,887 in the year 1790, to 2,290 in the year 1850; while those of Maryland have declined
It is also to be noted as remarkable, that the number of slaves in the Free States should all have reached the figure 0 just at the year 1850 — the middle of the century. By the end of the century, we trust that the number in many more States may have reached the same figure.
