SLAVERY IN AMERICA.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 187, 15 March 1848, Page 2

SLAVERY IN AMERICA.

THE GOVERNMENT SLAVE SALE. One day last week we copied from the Albanf Evening Journal the advertisement of the Marshal of the District of Colombia, for the sale of islaves to tak* place in Washington on the 13th of July, by order of certain degrees of the District Court in f.avour of the Post Master General, and in favour of the United States, against one Henry Miller. The 'advertisement appeared originally in the Washington Union, the official paper of the Government. The r. emarks of the Albany Journal weie just severe in con.demna<ion of the sate. The matter, however, ought not to pass by without further nolice. It shou'd be kept before the people, and particularly bafore ihe representatives of the people, so that when Congress astern] )les, one of its first acts may be a repeal of the law hy which the United States Government is marie a traffi< ker in slaves, and the price of men and women is placed on deposite in the Treasury oj the Republic. We onch more place this atrocious advertisement in the columes of our paper, that it may be read of men. From the Washington Union, J\ ily 3. " MARSHAL'S SALE." 11 In virtue of five several writs offieri^facias, issued from the Clerk's office of the Circuit ( outt of the district of Colombia for the county of Washington, and to me directed, I shall expose to pu! olic sale, for cash, on Tuesday, the 13th instant, at th 3 south front door of the jail of said county, at the hour of 10 o'clock, A. M., the following property, V iz : — \ " One negro woman, named Elizabeth, about the age of sixty years, and one negro girl, nai lied Caroline, about the ai»e of twenty six years ; seizec I and levied upon as the property of Henry Miller, ai id sold to satisty judicials No. 22 October term, 184G , in favour of the Postmaster General ; also, judicials Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, to June term, 1847, in favour ol the United States, and against the said Henry 1 Vliller. Alexander Hunter,u nter, " Marshal of the Distr.ct of Coli nubia." We do not mean to impute more that o rdinary blame to the parties concerned in this sale. We presume it to be in accoidance with established laws » and therefore, in money parlance, " a fair business transaction." Courts acting under laws which recogi lize humane beings as " properly," have no alternative but to obey the laws. We blu h, however, at the thought that such laws have an existence. They shosild have been swept from our sta'ute book long ago, anid not left to ] pollute its pages with their hated require mrnti. — Our Government sh u'd n 1 imitate the example of the Bey of Tunis, nor the city of Washington rem ain longer a slave mart like Cairo or Havana. The money received by Government for the sale of " the negro woman named Elizabeth, about the age of sixty, and one negro girl named Curoline, about the a|,e of twenty years," should be taken from the treasury and restored to the worthy cleigyman, who of his ow n substance purchased their freedom at the sale. Or else let it be, as in the olden time, appropriated to pu c base a potters' field ; for we read that " the Chief Priest took the silver pieces, and said : ' It is not lawful for us to put them into the treasury, because it is the pi ice of blood.' " The story of this sale will go abroad, throughout all Christendom, to oivr shanie. Let us do what we can to avoid a repetition of the offence, by repealing the statute— #?sto« Atl«s<

Emancipation in the British West Indies.— Last Sunday was the annivenary of one of the most remarkable and important cventi of modern times, the elevation at once of eight hundred thousand human beinga, from the condition of beasts of burthen to that of men- To the people of Great Britain belongs the im. mortal honor of having been the first to venture upon immediate and unconditional emancipation on an extensiTe scale. They weie told, to deter from the act, that it would nurely be followed by bloody irsurrections, that the liberated slaves would in a few year* become barbarians, and the Colonies a mere wilderness—but so far were they from being moved by these representations, that they not only forced the Governxnent to pass the anti-slavery Bill, but cheerfully submitted to a heavy permanent tax, that the planteis might be paid the full value of their slaves— hardly stopping to abk whether they had any right to demand compensation. The British nation have crimes enou» h to answer for, Heaven knows, but of the emancipation of their slaves, we may surely say— thit was an act which could have iprung only liom the nublest anl purest of motives, and for which its anthors richly merit the warmekt thanks and gratitude of the friends of freedom all over the world. It is now about nine years since the slaves in the British West Indies were tramformed by Act of Parliament, into freen en. They probably outnumbered the Whites in the proportion of ten to one— they were ignorant, degraded, licentious— for how wa» it passible for them to be otherwise ? They certainly could have had no great affection for their masteis and overseers, for the lash is not a very potent inspirer of love— yet they were all set free at once, made, in the eye of the law, the equals of their oppressors—and what have been the results of this perilous experiment ? Not in» surrection, not pillage, not massacre, not the still further degradation of the Negro— but entire peace, a remarkable absence of crime, increased industry on the part of the laborers, as a whole, and a great and steady advance in their moral and intellectual condition. Schools have been established, ruarriage has become honorable, hoaie and family comforts are beginning to be appreciated, and in regard to diet, clothing, dwellings all the comforts of civilized life, there has been a vast improvement upon the frightful condition — both moral and physical, in winch emancipation found them. The results of the noble experiment have put to shame all the predictions of those who were opposed to its trial, and proved conclusively, th.it wherever there are Negro slaves, they may bs emancipated at once with pei feet safety, without the slightest danger of tumult or bloodshed. But it is said the British Colonies are not so prosperous as they were before emancipation, as is proved by the fact that the exportation of sugar has fallen off. Suppose it has— the Negroes themselves have now bpcome large consumers of sugar— the increase of the Colonial demand for the article, since emancipation, is no doubt greater than the decrease in the quantity exported. A home maiket hut grown up. Again, in the days of slavery, everything was saenfked to the raising of sugar. Now, the Negro women employ a reaso.iable portion of their time in attending to their domestic concerns, the children are in school, and the men have their gardens to cultivate. The people are free, and they find it for their comfort and interest to attend to othsv matters, as well as to the vising of sugar. If we are not mistaken, the impoits into the Colonies have been eveiy year increasing since emancipation, and if this be so it would seem to show beyond d question, that the wants of the people and then means of gratifying them, arc also steadily increasing. But, to take ev^n the very wont view of the cjse — ■which is clearly not the correct one— suppose that the u hole produce of the Colonies fs less now than it was in the days of ilavery, that the Negros reaily pei - form lfss labor than they did under the stimulus of the lash, even such a state of things would fu:nish not a shadow of an argument against emancipation. Nobody pietends to deny that the eight hundred thousand colored people in the Butish West Indies have gaiued infinitely by their change of condition from slavery to freedom— and of what possible consequence, we ask, are a few hogsheads more or less of sugar and molasses, in comparison with the happiness of nearly a million of human beings > Just none at all. At any rae the people are a thousand fold better off, and that is surely enough to warrant every friend of his race in rejoicing that freedom has been proclaimed. But, as we said above, we believe that the Colonies so far from being less prosperous, are, in pvery sense of th 3 word, greatly more so than they ever were befoie, and that their prosperity is every day increasing. , In suj.po t of this opinion we give the following extiact from the Trinidad Spectator, on "the effects of Nsgro Emancipation:" — The slaves constituted formerly the weilth of the planters— now, as free and remunerated laborers, they are the soul of our island commerce, and, as such, are the wealth of our merchants. Let us look back at the commercial revolution which has taken place in Trinidad since the dawn of freedom. The sigm of comparative wealth among the laboring people every where appear. The change in their condition libs greatly simulated trade of every description. Mechanic trade*, of every class have increased above a hundred fold the lower orders of society — are rapidly rising in respectability and wealth, and piomiae at no distant day to act an impoitant part m the internal trade and the affairs of the Colony. In consequence of the potsession of money by the people, our island imports have increased 10 a rao^t surprising extent in the course of a few years.— Boston Inquirer. Noun: Conduct and Hard Fate. — We heard a ■ day or two since the story of a bard-working, mclustiious Irish servant girl, who having amassed the sum of & 100, from her scanty earnings, sent the whole of it to her lather, mother, and sister in Ireland, with a message desiring them to come to this City, where she would provide for them a moie comfortable home than their straitened circumstances would permit them to enjoy in their Native iEland. Word came over to her that they would embark immediately. The noblehearted creature rented a small- hut, comfortable tenement and furnished it, to the extent of her limited means, with necessary furniture, food and fuel. Iv due time the parents and sister arrived, and joined herself and brother hers— and the meeting, under such circumstances, of the reunited family, was one inexpressibly joyful. The most sanguine hopes and the brightest wishes of the affectionate, self-sacrificing daughter and siwter, were fully accomplished. Those she loved were through her single eflbits, rescued from the combined miseries of pinching poverty and gaunt famine, and were all gaiheied about her at last in a humble but comfortoble home, in ti land of peace and plenty. But theirtuppincsb was short lived indeed. The parents had brought with them the seel of the pebtilencethnt la^es in many portions of Ireland, consequent upon hunger, bad i'ood, exposure ; and boon uiter tliea arrival here, one uf'er the other fell victims to its virultnce, and the poor bioken hen ted girl, in a few thort weeks, has followed father, mother, brother and Mhter to their giaves, arid once more is alone in the la >d of her adoption, without a relative to condole with her on her berea\eBaem,— Albany Slutestnun,