23
land, 54,970,427; cash value of farms, $1,117,649,649; average value per acre, $6.18; value of farming implements $65,345,625.
Such is the mighty contrast. But it does not stop here. Careful tables place the agricultural products of the Free States, for the year ending June, 1850, at $858,634,334, while those of the Slave States were $631,277,417; the product per acre in the Free States at $7.94, and the product per acre in the Slave States at $3.49; and the average product of each agriculturist in the Free States at $342, and in the Slave States at $171. Thus the Free States, with a smaller population engaged in agriculture than the Slave States, with smaller territory, show an annual sum total of agricultural products surpassing those of the Slave States by two hundred and twenty-seven millions of dollars, while twice as much is produced on an acre, and more than twice as much is produced by each agriculturist. The monopoly of cotton, rice, and cane-sugar, with a climate granting two and sometimes three crops in the year, are thus impotent in the competition with Freedom.
In manufactures, the failure of the Slave States is greater still. It appears at all points, in the capital employed, in the value of the raw material, in the annual wages, and in the annual product. A short table will show the contrast:
Free States. — Capital, $430,240,051; value of raw material, $465,$44,092; annual wages, $195,976,453; annual product, $842,586,058.
Slave States. — Capital, $95,029,879; value of raw material, $86,190,639; annual wages, $33,257,360; annual product, $165,413,027.
This might be illustrated by details with regard to different manufactures — whether of shoes, cotton, woollen, pig-iron, wrought-iron, and iron castings — all showing the contrast. It might also be illustrated by a comparison between different States; showing, for instance, that the manufactures of Massachusetts, during the last year, exceeded those of all the Slave States combined.
In commerce, the failure of the Slave States is on yet a larger scale. Under this head, the census does not supply proper statistics, and we are left, therefore, to approximations from other quarters; but these are enough for our purpose. It appears that, of the products which enter into commerce, the Free
