Farming Colonies in the United States

Character of the South Farming Colonies

In the book “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870” (1), W. E. B. Du Bois explained the following: The colonies of this group, occupying the central portion of the English possessions, comprise those communities where, on account of climate, physical characteristics, and circumstances of settlement, slavery as an institution found but a narrow field for development. The climate was generally rather cool for the newly imported slaves, the soil was best suited to crops to which slave labor was poorly adapted, and the training and habits of the great body of settlers offered little chance for the growth of a slave system. These conditions varied, of course, in different colonies; but the general statement applies to all. These communities of small farmers and traders derived whatever opposition they had to the slave-trade from three sorts of motives,—economic, political, and moral. First, the importation of slaves did not pay, except to supply a moderate demand for household servants. Secondly, these colonies, as well as those in the South, had a wholesome political fear of a large servile population. Thirdly, the settlers of many of these colonies were of sterner moral fibre than the Southern cavaliers and adventurers, and, in the absence of great counteracting motives, were more easily led to oppose the institution and the trade. Finally, it must be noted that these colonies did not so generally regard themselves as temporary commercial investments as did Virginia and Carolina. Intending to found permanent States, these settlers from the first more carefully studied the ultimate interests of those States.

Resources

Notes and References

1. W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870” (1893), Longmans, Green and Co., London, New York, Bombay and Calcuta.

See Also

Further Reading

• American Anti-Slavery Society. Reports and Proceedings.
• Lewis and Sir Edward Hertslet, compilers. A Complete Collection of the Treaties and Conventions, and Reciprocal Regulations, at present subsisting between Great Britain and Foreign Powers, and of the Laws, Decrees, and Orders in Council, concerning the same; so far as they relate to Commerce and Navigation, … the Slave Trade, etc. 17 vols., (Vol. XVI., Index.) London, 1840–90.
• Captain Richard Drake. Revelations of a Slave Smuggler: being the Autobiography of Capt. Richard Drake, an African Trader for fifty years—from 1807 to 1857, etc. New York, [1860.]
• William F. Poole. Anti-Slavery Opinions before the Year 1800. To which is appended a fac-simile reprint of Dr. George Buchanan’s Oration on the Moral and Political Evil of Slavery, etc. Cincinnati, 1873.
• David Christy. Ethiopia, her Gloom and Glory, as illustrated in the History of the Slave Trade, etc. (1442–1857.) Cincinnati, 1857.
• James Madison. Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Fourth President of the United States. In four volumes341. Published by order of Congress. Philadelphia, 1865.
• Friends. Germantown Friends’ Protest against Slavery, 1688. Fac-simile Copy. Philadelphia, 1880.
• George M. Stroud. A Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery in the Several States of the United States of America. Philadelphia, 1827.