I will here call upon just one more witness, whose evidence I cite at this point, not merely because, in very few words, having reference to the very heart of the planter's prosperity, it practically endorses all I have said, but for another reason which will presently appear.
First as to the non-slaveholders:—
"I am not aware that the relative number of these two classes has ever
been ascertained in any of the States, but I am satisfied that the non-slaveholders
far outnumber the slaveholders, perhaps by three to one.[1]
In the more southern portion of this region ['the South-west,' of which
Mississippi is the centre], the non-slaveholders possess generally but very
small means, and the land which they possess is almost universally poor,
and so sterile that a scanty subsistence is all that can be derived from its
cultivation, and the more fertile soil, being in the hands of the slaveholders,
must ever remain out of the power of those who have none. * * * And
I lament to say that I have observed of late years that an evident deterioration
is taking place in this part of the population, the younger portion of
it being less educated, less industrious, and. in every point of view, less respectable
than their ancestors."—J. O. B. De Bow, Resources of the South
and West, vol. ii. p. 106.
Again as to the cotton-planters and slaveholders:—
"If one unacquainted with the condition of the South-west were told
that the cotton-growing district alone had sold the crop for fifty million
dollars for the last twenty years he would naturally conclude that this
must be the richest community in the world. * * * But what would
be his surprise when told that so far from living in palaces, many of these
planters dwell in habitations of the most primitive construction, and these
so inartificially built as to be incapable of defending the inmates from the
winds and rains of heaven. That instead of any artistical improvement,
this rude dwelling was surrounded by cotton fields, or probably by fields
exhausted, washed into gullies, and abandoned; that instead of canals,
the navigable streams remain unimproved, to the great detriment of
transportation; that the common roads of the country were scarcely passable;
that the edifices erected for the purposes of learning and religion
were frequently built of logs and covered [roofed] with boards."—J. O. B.
De Bow, Resources of the South, vol. ii. p. 113.
- ↑ It was not long since estimated in the Legislature of Kentucky as seven to one in that State.
