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1 Brantz Mayer, The Emancipation Problem in Maryland 1 (1862)

handle is hein.slavery/emancpromd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: THE EMANCIPATION PROBLEM THE following article, contributed originally to the Baltimore American, is republished with a few additional observations, at the request of gentlemen who desire its dissemination in pamphlet form. BRANTZ MAYER. Baltimore, 17th June, 1862. It is evident that the minds of many persons are becoming anxious in regard $o slavery in our state. This fact is presented to us in several ways :-by the alleged insecurity of slave property wherever armies 'or large military forces from Northern States are kept active or in camp in its neighborhood; by direct and indirect dis- cussions in the newspapers, in Congress, and in conversation; by the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; but, chiefly, by the President's recommendation of emancipation with pecuniary aid from the United States. This emancipation,- gradual or rapid,-is virtually the abolition of involuntary servitude in Maryland, and the change of name cannot disguise the facts which may result from the accomplishment of that deed. It is proper that it should be investigated frankly from the beginning with all the light of statistical information; with entire fairness to both races that will be affected by it; and with due knowledge of their peculiar relations in Maryland. Our domestic writers have long ago argued that this was a farming, manufacturing and commercial region; that we were in a transition state by the operation of natural causes alone; and that while our plantations were becoming exhausted under slave culture, the worn-out land in our temperate climate, subdivided among white farmers, under the skillful tillage of modern agricultural science, could quickly be restored to almost virginal fertility. While this of course, would add greatly to the value of our real estate, it was supposed by statesmen that the superior demand for negro labor in the cotton, sugar and rice states, and the healthful progress of colonization in Africa, would gradually free the soil of Maryland from its colored population with- out any of those violent changes which have often operated so disastrously by uprooting the relations of capital and labor. Indeed, it has long been evident to persons unconnected with political agitation, that the slaves of Maryland were diminishing in numbers; that the free colored population was increasing to an alarming degree; that the free-contrary to the hopes of philanthropists-did not emigrate, but remained tenaciously in this state notwithstanding the inducement of absolute freedom in other states; and, finally, that the time was rapidly arriving when the Negro question, rather than the Slavery question or emancipation, would' become of paramount importance in its bearing on labor and taxation in Maryland. Let us examine a table constructed from the census of 1860, just published by the United States Government, showing the movement in our population of Maryland from 1790 to 1860: Census of the year. Slaves. Free. White. 1790 .............................. 103,036 8,043 208,649 1800 .............................. 105,635 19,587 216,326 1810 .............................. 111,502 33,927 235,117 1820 .............................. 107,397 39,730 260,223 1830 .............................. 102,994 52,938 291,108 1840 .............................. 89,737 62,078 318,204 1850 ............................. 90,368 74,723 417,943 1860 .............................. 87,188 83,718 516,128

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