Page:The Barbarism of Slavery - Sumner - 1863.pdf/28

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22 to the census of 1850, the value of property in the

Free States

was $4,107,162,198, while in the Slave States it was $2,936,090,737 or, if we deduct the asserted property in human flesh, only $1,655,9-45,137 showing an enormous difference of billions in In the Free States the valuation per acre favor of Freedom. was $10.47, in the Slave States only $3.04. This disproportion was still greater in 1855, according to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, when the valuation of the Free States was or $14.72 per acre and of the Slave States, $5,770,194,680

we deduct

$3,977,353,946, or if

the asserted property in

human

$2,505,186,346, or $4.59 per acre. Thus in five years from 1850, the valuation of property in the Free States received flesh,

an increase of more than the whole accumulated valuation of the Slave States at that time.

Looking at details, we find the same disproportions. Arkanand Michigan, equal in territory, were admitted into the Union in the same year and yet in 1855, the whole valuation

sas

of Arkansas, including

its

asserted property in

human

flesh,

was only $64,240,726, while that of Michigan, without a single The whole accumulated valuation of slave, was $116,593,580. all

the Slave States, deducting the asserted property in

human

1850, was only $1,655,945,137; but the valuation of New-York alone, in 1855, reached the nearly equal sum of flesh, in

$1,401,285,279.

The

valuation of Virginia, North and South-

and Texas, all together, in 1850, was $573,332,860, or simply $1.81 per than that of Massachusetts alone, which was

Carolina, Georgia, Florida,

deducting acre

human

—being

less

flesh,

$573,342,286, or $114.85 per acre.

The Slave States boast of agriculture) but here again, notwithstanding their superior natural advantages, they must yield to the

Free States

plantations, in the

at

every point, in the number of farms and

number of

acres of

improved lands, in the

cash value of farms, in the average value per acre, and in the value of farming implements and machinery. Here is a short table

Free

States.

—Number of farms, 877,736

acres of

improved

land, 57,688,040; cash value of farms, $2,143,344,437; average

value per acre, $19.83; value of farming implements, $85,736,65S.

Slave States.

—Number of farms, 564,203

acres of

improved