CHAPTER VI.
SLAVERY AS A POOR-LAW SYSTEM.
In the year 1846 the Secretary of the Treasury of the
United States addressed a circular of inquiries to persons
engaged in various businesses throughout the country, to obtain
information of the national resources. In reply to this
circular, forty-eight sugar-planters, of St. Mary's Parish,
Louisiana, having compared notes, made the following statement
of the usual expenses of a plantation, which might be
expected to produce, one year with another, one hundred
hogsheads of sugar:—
Household and family expenses $1,000
Overseer's salary 400
Food and clothing for 15 working hands, at $30 450
Food and clothing for 15 old negroes and children, at $15 225
1-1/2 per cent. on capital invested (which is about $40,000),
to keep it in repair 600
2,675
50 hogsheads sugar, at 4 cents per pound (net
proceeds) $2,000
25 hogsheads sugar, at 3 cents per pound (net
proceeds) 750
25 hogsheads sugar, at 2 cents per pound (net
proceeds) 500
4,000 gallons of molasses, at 10 cents 400
3,650
Leaving a profit of $975
