negro exquisite outshines the white. The
newspapers of Virginia are beginning to
complain of "insolence and insubordination"
among the negroes, owing, they say, to
the undue privileges granted by their masters,
and to their over-familiarity with them. But
this complaint does not seem very well
founded; for one seldom hears of any instance
of resistance or self-assertion among the
most favoured blacks.

Mr. Olmsted * followed a negro-funeral out
of Richmond, the capital of Virginia. A
hearse drawn by two horses; six hackney-coaches
following; "six well-dressed men
mounted on handsome saddle-horses, and
riding them well," in the rear of them; and
twenty or thirty women walking on the causeway.
Among them all not a single white
person. When they came to the burial-place
they found the interment of a child almost at
an end. The new-comers set down their coffin
and joined in the labours of the preceding
party, until the little grave was filled in and
moulded over. When this was completed,
one of those who had been handling a spade
sighed deeply, and fervently offering up a pious
ejaculation, exclaimed, in the same breath,
Now— you, Jim— you! see yar; you jis lay
dat yar shovel cross dat grave— so fash— dar,
yes; dat's right." The coffin, which had been
placed on the tools, as on trestles, was lowered,
and the funeral began. One of the men stepped
to the head of the grave, and holding up a
handkerchief, as if it were a book, pronounced
a short exhortation, as if he were reading from
it. But it was genuine and touching,
notwithstanding, certain grammatical lapses;
and free, though overlooked, for form's sake,
by a police-officer.

*A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States; with
Remarks on their Economy. By Frederic Law
Olmsted.

Slave-labour— Chattelhood— revenges itself
on its employers in the negligence and stupidity
with which it is performed. So widely different
to the labour of even the least energetic
or industrious free man— white or black—
who works for himself, and whose zeal or
laxity reacts only on his own destiny. The
free negro works with a very different will
to the slave; and the slave puts an energy
and a power into his "overtime" labour
(which is allowed in some of the slave states)
which no amount of coaxing or flogging can
get him to put into his master's. Valuable
horses starved and neglected; new tools
wilfully broken, and no persuasion sufficient
to introduce anything lighter or more convenient
than the clumsy old hoe, which is made
to do every kind of work; the most entire
want of forethought, care, management,
economy, and reliableness— in short, of every
virtue usually looked for in a labourer—
these are the characteristics of slave labour.
A negro, oiling the wheels of a railway-train,
will hold his can so that a stream of oil, costing
perhaps a dollar and a-half a gallon, will
be wasted on the ground the whole length of
the train. Post-horses left to the care of
negroes will be neither groomed nor fed, and
are more likely to die of hunger than not.
Large fires will be recklessly made on the
floor of a wooden hut, and very often a whole
range of cabins will be burnt down. Negroes
will carry heavy weights the entire round of
a field, where even an Irishman would cut
across the corner, and take one step for
their hundred. But nothing could make the
negro to do this if he has been accustomed to
go round the field; plodding slowly in single
file, and losing hours over the work of
minutes. Nothing can exceed his attachment
to old habits; unless it be the intense
stupidity with which he clings to them. Yet,
masters, more stupid perhaps, dread their
slaves becoming too smart; because this
begets in them a habit of taking care of
themselves; which, once fairly established,
will, they believe, destroy the very life of
slavery. The problem with the Southern
planters is, how to make his negro a good
labourer without letting him become so clever
and so self-reliant as to be able to take care
of himself. At present, so rare are the
instances of profitable self-care among the
negroes, that the slaves of aristocratic families
think themselves a great deal better off
than the free negroes; "dirty free niggers
got nobody to take care of 'em!" they say,
contemptuously, when exulting in their own fine
clothes, good food, and wealth of spending
money. It is one of the worst vices and
most demoralising characteristics of slavery
to honour and love its condition. As a body,
slaves desire to be free; and often talk of
the time when they shall gain their liberty;
and they are restless; and the better educated
among them full of hope or of discontent,
according to their temperaments; but the
pampered house-slave is generally content
with his condition.

If it could be proved that slavery does not
pay, the slave question would soon be settled;
and what Mr. Olmsted saw on a free-labour
farm in Virginia goes some way to prove that
slavery is not an economical kind of service.
The owner was an abolitionist and freed
his slaves, from political and religious
motives. Since then he had employed free
men, and had found their labour cheaper
and more efficient than that of slaves;
cheaper, because of the high price of slaves
now in Virginia, and more efficient, because
done with energy and intelligence; qualities
only to be found in labour that has a direct
influence on the labourer. The slaves who
had been freed, and who had gone chiefly to
Africa, had succeeded very well. Some had
attained wealth, and almost all were prospering
both in morals and condition. But, said
this abolitionist, the negroes in America are
all of a higher character than the native
African. There has been so much intermixture
of white blood that very few are "full