Page:The Barbarism of Slavery.djvu/36

 during the last three years, 1857, 1858, and 1859. In the Free States there were 9560; in the Slave States, 1449 — making a difference of 8111 in favor of Freedom. The number in Free Massachusetts was 972; in Slave South-Carolina, 39. The number in Free Connecticut, small in territory and population, was 628; in Slave Virginia, large in territory and population, 184.

From all these things we might infer the ignorance prevalent in the Slave States; but this shows itself in specific results of a deplorable character, authenticated by the official census. It appears that in the Slave States there were 498,026 native white persons over twenty years of age who can not read and write, while in the Free States, with double the white population, there were but 248,725 native whites over twenty years of age in this unhappy predicament. In the Slave States the proportion was 1 to 12; in the Free States it was 1 to 58. The number in Free Massachusetts, with a population of nearly a million, was 1005, or 1 in 517; the number in Slave South-Carolina, with a population under three hundred thousand, was 10,580, orl in 7. The number in Free Connecticut was I in 277; in Slave Virginia, 1 in 5; in Free New-Hampshire, 1 in 201, and in Slave North-Carolina, 1 in 3.

Before closing this picture of Slavery, where the dismal colors all come from official figures, there are two other aspects in which for a moment it may be regarded:

1. The first is the influence which it has on emigration. It is stated in the official compendium of the census, (page 115,) that those persons living in Slave States who are natives of Free States are more numerous than those living in Free States who are natives of Slaves States. This is an egregious error. Just the contrary is true. The census of 1850 found 609,371 in the Free States who were born in the Slave States, while only 206,638 born in the Free States were in the Slave States. And since the white population of the Free States is double that of the Slave States, it appears that the proportion of whites moving from Slavery is six times greater than that of whites moving into Slavery. In this simple fact is disclosed something of the aversion to Slavery which is aroused even in the Slave States.

2. The second aspect is furnished by the character of the region on the border-line between Freedom and Slavery. In