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with the accidental exception of New Bedford,[1] when emancipation took place the process was left incomplete, and of all cities, north or south, she most fears amalgamation.
The evils of slavery are in proportion to its density. In South Carolina, which is the part of the United States where it was most dense, these evils, especially in their effect on the Whites, were more distinct and apparent than in any other State. The South Carolinians were the most despotic of our slaveowners, and they were the first to secede in order that they might remain such undisturbed. But great as were these evils in our slave States, where the Whites always outnumbered the Blacks, they were infinitely greater in the West Indies, and especially in St. Domingo, where the Blacks, in a much greater degree, outnumbered the Whites. The most comprehensive evidence of this is to be found in the fact that, in the United States there was a natural increase in the slave population, while in the West Indies the reverse was the case, to a remarkable degree. A slave, when landed in the United States, always found there at least two Whites to one Black; for before the introduction of the cotton gin, which was not until after the abolition of the slave trade, the temptation was not great to drive plantation work, or to increase the number of slaves. He came at once into such multiplied contact with Whites that, though he was taught nothing, he learnt much. His African superstitions soon died out, or became greatly diluted; camp meeting exercises took their place; his games and dances were assimilated to those of white people, and his spontaneous songs, unlike those of the West India negroes, which mostly relate to eating, satire and venery, early became emotional and religious. The first tincture of Christianity
- ↑ According to the census of 1860, the proportion of the colored to the white population in the cities named below, was as follows:
Boston
New York
Philadelphia,1 colored to 77⅔ white.
1 colored“ to“ 63½ white“
1 colored“ to“ 24½ white“
In New Bedford, at the same census, the proportion was found to be one colored to 13½ white. The comparatively large number of colored people in that city is said to be due to the special kindness with which runaway slaves were received there, and to the fact that it afforded them a somewhat safe place of refuge, because it was out of the main line of travel.
