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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 $1,655,945,137 — showing an enormous difference of billions in favor of Freedom. In the Free States the valuation per acre 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 $5,770,194,680; or $14.72 per acre; and of the Slave States, $3,977,353,946, or if we deduct the asserted property in human flesh, $2,505,186,346, or $4.59 per acre. Thus in five years from 1850, the valuation of property in the Free States received an increase of more than the whole accumulated valuation of the Slave States at that time.
Looking at details, we find the same disproportions. Arkansas and Michigan, equal in territory, were admitted into the Union in the same year; and yet in 1855, the whole valuation of Arkansas, including its asserted property in human flesh, was only $64,240,726, while that of Michigan, without a single slave, was $116,593,580. The whole accumulated valuation of all the Slave States, deducting the asserted property in human flesh, in 1850, was only $1,655,945,137; but the valuation of New-York alone, in 1855, reached the nearly equal sum of $1,401,285,279. The valuation of Virginia, North and SouthCarolina, Georgia, Florida, and Texas, all together, in 1850, deducting human flesh, was $573,332,860, or simply $1.81 per acre — being less than that of Massachusetts alone, which was $573,842,286, 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 at every point, in the number of farms and plantations, in the 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, $2,148,344,487; average value per acre, $19.83; value of farming implements, $85,736,658.
Slave States — Number of farms, 564,203; acres of improved
