In regard to education, Rev. Theodore Parker gives the following statistics, in his, “Letters on Slavery,” .
In 1671, Sir William Berkely, Governor of Virginia, said, “I thank God that there are no free schools nor printing-presses (in Virginia), and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years.” In 1840, in the fifteen slave States and territories, there were at the various primary schools 201,085 scholars; at the various primary schools of the free States, 1,626,028. The State of Ohio alone had, at her primary schools, 17,524 more scholars than all the fifteen slave States. New York alone had 301,282 more.
In the slave States there are 1,368,325 free white children between the ages of five and twenty; in the free States, 3,536,689 such children. In the slave States, at schools and colleges, there are 301,172 pupils; in the free States, 2,212,444 pupils at schools or colleges. Thus, in the slave States, out of twenty-five free white children between five and twenty, there are not quite five at any school or college; while out of twenty-five such children in the free States there are more than fifteen at school or college.
In the slave States, of the free white population that is over twenty years of age, there is almost one-tenth part that are unable to read and write: while in the free States there is not quite one in 156 who is deficient to that degree.
In New England there are but few born therein, and more than twenty years of age, who are unable to read and write; but many foreigners arrive there with no education, and thus swell the number of the illiterate, and diminish the apparent effect of her free institutions. The South has few such immigrants; the ignorance of the Southern States, therefore, is to be ascribed to other causes. The Northern men who settle in the slaveholding States have perhaps about the average culture of the North, and more than that of the South. The South, therefore, gains educationally from immigration, as the North loses.
Among the Northern States, Connecticut, and among the Southern States South Carolina, are to a great degree free from disturbing influences of this character. A comparison between the two will show the relative effects of the respective institutions of the North and South. In Connecticut there are 163,843 free persons over twenty years of age; in South Carolina, but 111,663. In Connecticut there are but 526 persons over twenty who are unable to read and write; while in South Carolina there are 20,615 free white persons over twenty years of age unable to read and write. In South Carolina, out of each 626 free whites more than twenty years of age, there are more than 58 wholly unable to read or write; out of that number of such persons in Connecticut, not quite two! More than the sixth part of the adult freemen of South Carolina are unable to read the vote which will be deposited at the next election. It is but fair to infer that at least one-third of the adults of South Carolina, if not much of the South, are unable to read and understand even a newspaper. Indeed, in one of the slave States, this is not a matter of mere inference; for in 1837 Governor Clarke, of Kentucky, declared in his message to the legislature, that “one-third of the adult population were unable to write their names;” yet Kentucky has a “school-fund,” valued at 1,221,819 dollars, while South Carolina has none.
One sign of this want of ability, even to read, in the slave States, is too striking to be passed by. The staple reading of the least cultivated Americans is the newspapers, one of the lowest forms of literature, though one of the most powerful, read even by men who read nothing else. In the slave States there are published but 377 newspapers, and in the free, 1,135. These numbers do not express the entire difference in the case; for, as a general rule, the circulation of the Southern newspapers is 50 to 75 per cent. less than that of the north. Suppose, however, that each Southern newspaper has two-thirds the circulation of the Northern journal, we have then but 225 newspapers for the slave States! The more valuable journals — the monthlies and quarterlies — are published almost entirely in the free States.
The number of churches, the number and character of the clergy who labour for these churches, are other measures of the intellectual and moral condition of the people. The scientific character of the Southern clergy has been already touched on. Let us compare the more external facts.
In 1830, South Carolina had a population of 581,185 souls; Connecticut, 297,675. In 1836, South Carolina had 364 ministers; Connecticut, 498.
In 1834, there were in the slave States but 82,532 scholars in the Sunday-schools; in the free States, 504,835; in the single State of New York, 161,768.
The fact of constant emigration from slave States is also shown by such extracts from papers as the following, from the Raleigh (N. C.) Register, quoted in the columns of the National Era.
THEY WILL LEAVE NORTH CAROLINA.
Our attention was arrested, on Saturday last, by quite a long train of waggons, winding through our streets, which, upon inquiry, we found to belong to a party emigrating from Wayne County, in this State, to the “far West.” This is but a repetition of many similar scenes that we and others have witnessed during the past few years; and no doubt the other, and such spectacles will be still more frequently witnessed, unless something is done to retrieve our fallen fortunes at home.
If there be any one “consummation devoutly to be wished” in our policy, it is that our young men should remain at home, and not abandon their native State. From the early settlement of North Carolina, the great drain upon her prosperity has been the spirit of emigration, which has so prejudicially affected all the States of the South. Her sons, hitherto neglected (if we must say it) by an unparental government, have wended their way, by hundreds upon hundreds, from the land of their fathers — that land, too, to make it a paradise, wanting nothing but a market — to bury their bones in the land of strangers. We firmly believe that this emigration is caused by the laggard policy of our people on the subject of internal improvement, for man is not prone by nature to desert the home of his affections.
The editor of the Era also quotes the following from the Greensboro’ (Ala.) Beacon .
“An unusually large number of movers have passed through this village within the past two or three weeks. On one day of last week, upwards of thirty Waggons and other vehicles belonging to emigrants, mostly from Georgia and South Carolina, passed through on their way, most of them bound to Texas and Arkansas.”
This tide of emigration does not emanate from an overflowing population. Very far from it. Rather, it marks an abandonment of a soil which, exhausted by injudicious culture, will no longer repay the labour of tillage. The emigrant, turning his back upon the homes of his childhood, leaves a desolate region, it may be, and finds that he can indulge his feelings of local attachment only at the risk of starvation.
How are the older States of the South to keep their population? We say nothing of an increase, but how are they to hold their own? It is useless to talk about strict construction, State rights, or Wilmot provisos. Of what avail can such things be to a sterile desert, upon which people cannot subsist?
In the columns of the National Era, Oct. 2, 1851, also is the following article, by its editor.
STAND YOUR GROUND.
A citizen of Guildford County, North Carolina, in a letter to the True Wesleyan, dated August 20th, 1851, writes: —
“You may discontinue my paper for the present, as I am inclined to go Westward, where I can enjoy religious liberty, and have my family in a free country. Mobocracy has the ascendancy here, and there is no law. Brother Wilson had an appointment on Liberty Hill, on Sabbath, 24th inst. The mob came armed, according to mob law, and commenced operations on the meeting-house. They knocked all the weather-boarding off, destroying doors, windows, pulpit, and benches; and I have no idea that, if the mob was to kill a Wesleyan, or one of their friends, that they would be hung.
“There is more moving this fall to the far West than was ever known in one year. People do not like to be made slaves, and they are determined to go where it is no crime to plead the cause of the poor and oppressed. They have become alarmed at seeing the laws of God trampled under foot
with impunity, and that, too, by legislators, sworn officers of the peace, and professors of religion. And even ministers (so called) are justifying mobocracy. They think that such a course of conduct will lead to a dissolution of the Union, and then every man will have to fight in defence of slavery, or be killed. This is an awful state of things; and if the people were destitute of the Bible, and the various means of information which they possess, there might be some hope of reform. But there is but little hope, under existing circumstances.”
We hope the writer will re-consider his purpose. In his section of North Carolina there are very many anti-slavery men, and the majority of the people have no interest in what is called slave property. Let them stand their ground, and maintain the right of free discussion. How is the despotism of slavery to be put down, if those opposed to it abandon their rights, and flee their country? Let them do as the indomitable Clay does in Kentucky, and they will make themselves respected.
The following is quoted, without comment, in the National Era, in 1851, from the columns of the Augusta Republic (Georgia).
FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN GEORGIA.
Warrenton (Ga.), Thursday, July 10, 1851.
This day the citizens of the town and county met in the court-house at eight o’clock, A.M. On motion, Thomas F. Parsons, Esq., was called to the chair, and Mr. Wm. H. Pilcher requested to act as secretary.
The object of the meeting was stated by the chairman as follows:
Whereas, our community has been thrown into confusion by the presence among us of one Nathan Bird Watson, who hails from New Haven (Connecticut), and who has been promulgating abolition sentiments, publicly and privately, among our people — sentiments at war with our institutions, and intolerable in a slave community — and also been detected in visiting suspicious negro houses, as we suppose for the purpose of inciting our slaves and free negro population to insurrection and insubordination.
The meeting having been organised, Wm. Gibson, Esq., offered the following resolution, which, after various expressions of opinion, was unanimously adopted, to wit:
Resolved, That a committee of ten be appointed by the chairman for the purpose of making arrangements to expel Nathan Bird Watson, an avowed abolitionist, who has been in our village for three or four weeks, by twelve o’clock this day, by the Georgia Railroad cars; and that it shall be the duty of said committee to escort the said Watson to Camak, for the purpose of shipment to his native land.
The following gentlemen were named as that committee:
William Gibson, E. Cody, J. M. Roberts, J. B. Huff, E. H. Pottle, E. A. Brinkley, John C. Jennings, George W. Dickson, A. B. Rogers, and Dr. R. W. Hubert.
On motion, the chairman was added to that committee.
It was, on motion, Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting, with a minute description of the said Watson, be forwarded to the publishers of the Augusta papers, with the request that they, and all other publishers of papers in the slaveholding States, publish the same for a sufficient length of time.
DESCRIPTION. — The said Nathan Bird Watson is a man of dark complexion, hazel eyes, black hair, and wears a heavy beard; measures five feet eleven and three-quarter inches; has a quick step, and walks with his toes inclined inward, and a little stoop-shouldered; now wears a checked coat and white pants; says he is twenty-three years of age, but will pass for twenty-five or thirty.
On motion, the meeting was adjourned.
THOMAS F. PARSONS, Chairman. WILLIAM H. PILCHER, Secretary.
This may be regarded as a specimen of that kind of editorial halloo which is designed to rouse and start in pursuit of a man the bloodhounds of the mob.
The following is copied by the National Era from the Richmond Times.
LYNCH LAW.
On the 13th inst. the Vigilance Committee of the county of Grayston, in this State, arrested a man named John Cornutt (a friend and follower of Bacon, the Ohio abolitionist), and, after examining the evidence against him, required him to renounce his abolition sentiments. This Cornutt refused to do; thereupon, he was stripped, tied to a tree, and whipped. After receiving a dozen stripes, he caved in, and promised not only to recant, but to sell his property in the county (consisting of land and negroes), and leave the State. Great excitement prevailed throughout the country, and the Wytheville Republican of the 20th inst. states that the Vigilance Committee of Grayston were in hot pursuit of other obnoxious persons.
On this outrage, the Wytheville Republican makes the following comments:
Laying aside the white man, humanity to the negro, the slave, demands that these abolitionists be dealt summarily, and above the law.
On Saturday, the 13th, we learn that the Committee of Vigilance of that county, to the number of near two hundred, had before them one John Cornutt, a citizen, a friend and backer of Bacon, and promulgator of his abolition doctrines. They required him to renounce abolitionism, and promise obedience to the laws. He refused. They stripped him, tied him to a tree, and appealed to him again to renounce, and promise obedience to the laws. He refused. The rod was brought; one, two, three, and on to twelve, on the bare back, and he cried out; he promised — and, more, he said he would sell and leave.
This Mr. Cornutt owns lands, negroes, and money, say fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. He has a wife, but no white children. He has among his negroes some born on his farm, of mixed blood. He is believed to be a friend of the negro, even to amalgamation. He intends to set his negroes free, and make them his heirs. It is hoped he will retire to Ohio, and there finish his operations, of amalgamation and emancipation.
The Vigilance Committees were after another of Bacon’s men on Thursday; we have not heard whether they caught him, nor what followed. There are not more than six of his followers that adhere; the rest have renounced him, and are much outraged at his imposition.
Mr. Cornutt appealed for redress to the law. The result of his appeal is thus stated in the Richmond (Va.) Times, quoted by the National Era.
MORE TROUBLE IN GRAYSON.
The clerk of the Grayson County Court having, on the 1st inst. (the first day of Judge Brown’s term), tendered his resignation, and there being no applicant for the office, and it being publicly stated at the bar that no one would accept said appointment, Judge Brown found himself unable to proceed with business, and accordingly adjourned the Court until the first day of the next term.
Immediately upon the adjournment of the Court, a public meeting of the citizens of the country was held, when resolutions were adopted expressive of the determination of the people to maintain the stand recently taken; exhorting the Committees of Vigilance to increased activity in ferreting out all persons tinctured with abolitionism in the county, and offering a reward of one hundred dollars for the apprehension and delivery of one Jonathan Roberts to any one of the Committees of Vigilance.
We have a letter from a credible correspondent in Carroll County, which gives to the affair a still more serious aspect. Trusting that there may be some error about it, we have no comments to make until the facts are known with certainty. Our correspondent, whose letter bears date the 13th inst., says: —
“I learn, from an authentic source, that the Circuit Court that was to sit in Grayson County during last week was dissolved by violence. The circumstances were these. After the execution of the negroes in that county, some time ago, who had been excited to rebellion by a certain Methodist preacher, by the name of Bacon, of which you have heard, the citizens held a meeting, and instituted a sort of inquisition, to find out, if possible, who were the accomplices of said Bacon. Suspicion soon rested on a man by the name of Cornutt, and, on being charged with being an accomplice, he acknowledged the fact, and declared his intention of persevering in the cause; upon which he was severely lynched. Cornutt then instituted suit against the parties, who afterwards held a meeting and passed resolutions, notifying the Court and lawyers not to undertake the case, upon pain of a coat of tar and feathers. The Court, however, convened at the appointed time; and, t
rue to their promise, a band of armed men marched round the court-house, fired their guns by platoons, and dispersed the Court in confusion. There was no blood shed. This county and the county of Wythe have held meetings and passed resolutions sustaining the movement of the citizens of Grayson.
Is it any wonder that people emigrate from States where such things go on?
The following accounts will show what ministers of the gospel will have to encounter who undertake faithfully to express their sentiments in slave States. The first is an article by Dr. Bailey, of the Era, of April 3, 1852.
LYNCHING IN KENTUCKY.
The American Baptist, of Utica, New York, publishes letters from the Rev. Edward Matthews, giving an account of his barbarous treatment in Kentucky.
Mr. Matthews, it seems, is an agent of the American Free Mission Society, and, in the exercise of his agency, visited that State, and took occasion to advocate from the pulpit anti-slavery sentiments. Not long since, in the village of Richmond, Madison County, he applied to several churches for permission to lecture on the moral and religious condition of the slaves, but was unsuccessful. February 1st, in the evening, he preached to the coloured congregation of that place, after which he was assailed by a mob, and driven from the town. Returning in a short time, he left a communication respecting the transaction at the office of the Richmond Chronicle, and again departed; but had not gone far before he was overtaken by four men, who seized him, and led him to an out-of-the-way place, where they consulted as to what they should do with him. They resolved to duck him, ascertaining first that he could swim. Two of them took him and threw him into a pond, as far as they could, and, on his rising to the surface, bade him come out. He did so, and, on his refusing to promise never to come to Richmond, they flung him in again. This operation was repeated four times, when he yielded. They next demanded of him a promise that he would leave Kentucky, and never return again. He refused to give it, and they threw him in the water six times more, when, his strength failing, and they threatening to whip him, he gave the pledge required, and left the State.
Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe Page 709