themselves founded on physical distinctions, which are not likely soon, if ever, to be eradicated. Even in States, Massachusetts for example, which displayed most sympathy with the people of colour on the Missouri question, prohibitions are taking place against their becoming residents. They are every where regarded as a nuisance, and must really be such as long as they are under the degradation which public sentiment inflicts on them. They are at the same time rapidly increasing from manumissions and from offspring, and of course lessening the general disproportion between the slaves and the whites. This tendency is favorable to the cause of a universal emancipation."115
To Dr. Morse
Queries.
1. Do the planters generally live on their own estates?
2. Does a planter with ten or fifteen slaves employ an overlooker, or does he overlook his slaves himself?
3. Obtain estimates of the culture of Sugar and Cotton, to show what difference it makes where the planter resides on his estate, or where he employs attorneys, overlookers, &c.
4. Is it a common or general practice to mortgage slave estates?
5. Are sales of slave estates very frequent under execution for debt and what proportion of the whole may be thus sold annually?
6. Does the Planter possess the power of selling the different branches of a family separate?
7. When the prices of produce, Cotton Sugar, &c., are high, do the Planters purchase, instead of raising, their corn and other provisions?
8. When the prices of produce are low, do they then raise their own corn and other provisions?
9. Do the negroes fare better when the Corn, &c., is raised upon their master's estate or when he buys it?
10. Do the tobacco planters in America ever buy their own Corn or other food, or do they always raise it?
11. If they always, or mostly, raise it, can any other reason be given for the differences of the system pursued by them and that pursued by the Sugar and Cotton planters than that cultivation of tobacco is less profitable than that of Cotton or Sugar?
12. Do any of the Planters manufacture the packages for their product, or the clothing for their negroes and if they do, are their negroes better clothed than when clothing is purchased?
13. Where, and by whom, is the Cotton bagging of the Brazils made? is it principally made by free men or slaves?
14. Is it the general system to employ the negroes in task work, or by the day?
15. How many hours are they generally at work in the former case? how many in the latter? Which system is generally preferred by the master? which by the slaves?
16. Is it common to allow them a certain portion of time instead of their allowance of provisions? In this case, how much is allowed? Where the slaves have the option, which do they generally choose? On which system do the slaves look the best, and acquire the most comforts?
17. Are there many small plantations where the owners possess only a few slaves? What proportion of the whole may be supposed to be held in this way?
18. In such cases, are the slaves treated or almost considered a part of the family?
19. Do the slaves fare best when their situations and that of the master are brought nearest together?
20. In what state are the slaves as to religion or religious instruction?
21. Is it common for the slaves to be regularly married?
22. If a man forms an attachment to a woman on a different or distant plantation, is it the general practice for some accommodation to take place between the owners of the man and woman, so that they may live together?
23. In the United States of America, the slaves are found to increase at about the rate of 3 P cent. P annum. Does the same take place in other places? Give a census, if such is taken. Show what cause contributes to this increase, or what prevents it where it does not take place.
24. Obtain a variety of estimates from the Planters of the cost of bringing up a child, and at what age it becomes a clear gain to its owner.
25. Obtain information respecting the comparative cheapness of cultivation by slaves or by free men.
26. Is it common for the free blacks to labour in the field?
27. Where the labourers consist of free blacks and of white men, what are the relative prices of their labour when employed about the same work?
28. What is the proportion of free blacks and slaves?
29. Is it considered that the increase in the proportion of free blacks to slaves increases or diminishes the danger of insurrection?
30. Are the free blacks employed in the defence of the Country, and do they and the Creoles preclude the necessity of European troops?
31. Do the free blacks appear to consider themselves as more closely connected with the slaves or with the white population? and in cases of insurrection, with which have they generally taken part?
32. What is their general character with respect to industry and order, as compared with that of the slaves?
33. Are there any instances of emancipation in particular estates, and what is the result?
34. Is there any general plan of emancipation in progress, and what?
35. What was the mode and progress of emancipation in those States in America where slavery has ceased to exist?
Hon. James Madison, Esq.
Sir.—The foregoing was transmitted to me from a respectable correspondent in Liverpool, deeply engaged in the abolition of the slave trade, and the amelioration of the condition of slaves. If, sir, your leisure will allow you, and it is agreeable to you to furnish brief answers to these questions, you will, I conceive, essentially serve the cause of humanity, and gratify and oblige the Society above named, and, Sir, with high consideration and esteem, your most obt servt,
Answers
1. Yes.
2. Employs an overseer for that number of slaves, with few exceptions.
3. –
4. Not uncommonly the land; sometimes the slaves; very rarely both together.
5. The common law, as in England, governs the relation between land and debts; slaves are often sold under execution for debt; the proportion to the whole cannot be great within a year, and varies, of course, with the amount of debt and the urgency of creditors.
6. Yes.
7-10. Instances are rare where the tobacco planters do not raise their own provisions.
11. The proper comparison, not between the culture of tobacco and that of sugar and cotton, but between each of these cultures and that of provisions. The tobacco planter finds it cheaper to make them a part of his crop than to buy them. The cotton and sugar planters to buy them, where this is the case, than to raise
