The North Star (Rochester)/1847/12/03/Letter from Georgia

LETTER FROM GEORGIA.

The following is from the pen of a correspondent of the Rochester American, supposed to be the former S—F., and shows to what servility and meanness a northern man will stoop to secure the favor of southern men-stealers.

That Georgia has more miles of rail-road in operation, than any other state in the Union may be true—we think it may be fairly doubted. He says, "The happiest people I see here are the negroes." We hardly know how to receive this—one thing we know is that if the slaves are the happiest, the masters must be in a most wretched condition!

 

"Georgia has more miles of railway now in operation than any other State in the Union. Indeed her citizens display far more enterprise than I expected to find when I left Rochester. There are 30 cotton factories in the state, all doing a profitable business. Manufacturing is fast becoming popular, not only in Georgia and in South Carolina, whose leading men have long cherished a kind of cotton-mill phobia.—Twelve miles from Augusta, in that State, a company is now erecting a factory 250 feet in length and 50 in width, of granite, beside two other buildings, 80 feet by 40, saw-mills, dwellings, &c. &c. The concern owns 9000 acres of land, had a good water power, and will build up a flourishing village on a sterile pine plain. The name of the village is "Graniteville."

The corporation of this town has tapped the Savannah above the Falls, and dug a canal 11 miles by which a large volume of water is brought into the city, and presents to the manufacturer a fall of 30 feet. The Savannah is a large river, and of course there is no lack of power. The fourth story of a cotton-mill to drive 10,000 spindles, now approaches its completion. Slaves are not to be employed as operatives. Unfortunately there are too many poor white families at the South seeking employment. It is from this class that laborers are to be drawn without the unpleasant association of blacks.

The happiest people I see here are negroes. Whatever may be the price of cotton and corn, or the injury from the army-worm, rain, or drowth, the blacks have white men who are bound by law to feed, clothe, and house them in exchange for a very small service. Thousands of planters are kept poor because their slaves consume more than they earn.

The most remarkable feature in southern society is the extreme reluctance with which men sell a portion of their slaves, when the number is plainly too large for a plantation of poor land. All suffer together rather than divide, and sever the strong tie of family attachment. In nine cases out of ten, it is the whites, the masters, who feel the evil of slavery, not their happy, laughing, dancing, healthy servants. The rapidity with which they multiply is a caution to those who have no particular affection for the race. The millions of negroes in the United States, one of these days, may be troublesome, whether bond or free.—I could wish that measures were taken to educate them in slave as well as in free states. Had the abolitionists not interferred in the matter, by this time schools for children of color would have been quite as common here as schools for white children. The advantages of the latter arc nothing in comparison with those of the children of the state of New York.—There are many slaves however, who are taught to read and write—the law to the contrary notwithstanding. I have just been shown a written letter from the pen of a girl eighteen years old, who is an educated slave. Her mistress taught her. As the whites rise in civilization, intellectual and moral improvement, they elevate all their servants in an equal ratio. Intelligence and good habits are easily and naturally acquired by children in good society. Place them from infancy to manhood in the society of the ignorant and depraved, and it will be something akin to a miracle if they are better than their instructors.

The sparseness of the settlements at the South, and its poor lands are the great barriers to the general and thorough education of the masses, who must elevate the blacks by their example. The building up of numerous villages of intelligent mechanics, and the creation of markets for fruits, vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, fresh meats, &c. demanding a large number of laborers to cultivate in gardens, and many acres of land, is the way to lay the foundation for good schools, libraries, lyceums, churches, lectures, newspapers, and all the other means and agents for the social, moral, and intellectual advancement of our race. It is not for me to reproach any people for their ignorance and low standard of physical comfort, who from their birth upward have never had a fair opportunity to be better informed.—Give to the children of the South all the social, intellectual, and other advantages possessed by the most favored of the free states, and you will see in twenty-five years a perfect change of opinion on many vital questions. The southern heart is right, and its head is beginning to look and travel in the same direction.

There are too many of the more ignorant people of this quarter of the Union who sustain the administration in its mad idea of conquering and holding as American territory all Mexico. If the scheme shall carry, it will be found that not a slave state can be found west of the Rio-Grande—all will be free. What will the South gain? L.