“hermetically sealed” no more?

labor deficiency in the South

Thanks to Seven Score and Ten, during the Civil War Sesquicentennial I learned about DeBow’s Review, a Southern economic and commercial journal that supported slavery. It advocated secession after Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. 150 years ago this month the journal’s publisher, J. D. B. De Bow, was apparently spending some time up in New York City. He wrote a letter to Benjamin Franklin Perry, the provisional governor of South Carolina, that made the case that the South needed more workers to realize its economic potential. It was a very long letter. Here are some excerpts from The New-York Times October 15, 1865:

THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH.; Necessity of Emigration Letter from J. D.B. De Bow, Esq., to Gov. Perry.

To His Excellency B.F. Perry, Provisional Governor of South Carolina:

SIR: I shall make no other apology for addressing you this communication than is to be found in the fact that you are understood, from recent publications, to have committed yourself publicly and actively in favor of opening the State of South Carolina, and with it the entire South, to the introduction of emigrants upon a liberal and enlarged scale, and the further fact that you are in a position from which a most important influence over the whole question may be exerted.

It has been evident to thoughtful men at the South for a number of years that her career in prosperity and wealth, in comparison with other sections, was greatly retarded by a deficiency of labor; and many among us went so far, even, as to theorize upon the reopening of communications with the coast of Africa and with Asia for the purpose of securing laborers, either as coolies, apprentices, or under some other name. It occurred to scarcely any one that it was practicable, or even desirable, to open the doors to free white immigrants, a prejudice being understood to exist in the minds of such everywhere against coming into competition with slave labor; and even if such prejudice did not exist, influences adverse to existing institutions upon which the prosperity of the South was believed mainly to rest, was likely to be exerted by that competition.

It followed that whilst the Northern and Western States, from the constant stream of hardy and industrious immigrants who were pouring in, exhibited miracles of progress and development, the South, with vast natural resources for mining, manufactures and agriculture, advanced in but the slow ratio of its natural increase, and immense dominions capable of contributing untold treasures to the commerce of the world remained hermetically sealed. …

The slavery question having been settled, by the military power of the United States, and the South having accepted in good faith the solution (slavery being recognized as an issue of the war in which she has lost,) and so framed her legislation as to recognized the negro, in the future, as a freedman, under no other obligation to labor than those which bind every other freeman, of whatever color, it becomes a matter of very anxious inquiry, outside of the social and political questions involved, what effect may be expected upon the great questions of labor and production already disturbed by previously existing causes.

Before going further, it is well to remark, what your own judgment and information will bear me out fully in, that the people of the South, universally, are willing to give a fair and honest trial to the experiment of negro emancipation, which has been forced upon them, and that if let alone, to manage affairs in their own way, and with their intimate knowledge of negro character, and that sympathy with him and his fortunes which is but the natural result of long and close association, everything possible will be done, in good time, for the social, physical and political advancement of the race; clashing as little as practicable at the same time with the great material interests of the country. Those of us who are familiar with the South are well advised that the restoration of slavery within its limits, even were it desired, would now be an impossibility, for reasons induced by the war, and by the subsequent action of the authorities, both State and Federal.

Having adverted to the great deficiency of labor at the South, prior to the breaking out of hostilities, as indicated in the small per centage of lands actually under cultivation, and their low average value, I am sure that no advocate of negro emancipation, however ardent, will expect me to look for my prospect of immediate relief as likely to result from that act. Whether the negro will at all, or with greater energy and productiveness, under the stimulus of freedom, are questions to be determined in the future; but whotever the eventual determination, there must, it is evident, be a period of transition, in which, even under the most favorite circumstances, decline rather than improvement, may be, everywhere expected to manifest itself at the South.

While it must be admitted that experiments in negro emancipation have resulted unfavorably in other counties similarly situated, I cannot but derive hope from the consideration, that there were causes at work in most of those countries which do not exist in our own, which may modify and control the result. I refer to the inferior civilization of the blacks in the case[s] referred to, their small contact with the whites, the great disproportion between the colors, the nature of the climate, requiring little clothing and producing food spontaneously, etc. Taking these facts into account I am not despondent of the result, when time and judicious measures have been allowed to mature a system.

But what is to be done in the meanwhile is a point of grave interest, and one which will occupy a prominent place at the meeting of the State Legislatures during the present Winter. Is there anything to be accomplished, and what, beyond the adoption of such local measures as relate to the status of the negro and his character as a producing agent?

There is but one answer, and that may be condensed into a few words:

The South must throw her immense uncultivated domain into the market at a low price; reduce the quantity of land held by individual proprietors, and resort to intelligent and vigorous measures at the earliest moment, to induce an infl[u]x of population and capital from abroad, This is entirely practicable.

blockaded no more; open to immigrants? (Charleston Wharf, Library of Congress)

Farms. Over 1,000 Acres.

Kentucky……………………… 943 33

Louisiana………………………. 1,553 467

South Carolina…………………. 9,400 2,718

Michigan………………………. 3,181 80

Ohio………………………….. 1,055 19

Pennsylvania…………………… 1,044 17

Rhode Island…………………… 2,250 16

The staples of the South are of such inestimable value to the commerce of the world, that they have, in the past, and promise beyond all contingency in the future to, come into triumphant competition with those of every other country upon the face of the earth. …

In what manner, then, shall we proceed to invite capital and population to the South? I answer: Consult and abide by the experience of those States and communities which have grown populous and rich by the success which attended their efforts to secure immigration. …

Feeling convinced that the German States will be the chief source from which any large number of immigrants can be expected, I addressed a note recently to CHARLES L. FLEISHMAN, Esq., a gentleman well known to the country for his agricultural and scientific labors in the service of the Patent Office, who has spent much of his life in Europe, and written several works upon the United States in his native German, which have exercised a wide influence upon the immigration question, and in reply have received a lengthy letter which will appear in the next number of my Review, but from which I will briefly extract at present. Mr. FLEISHMAN says:

“You put to me the question, ‘What is the best plan for drawing the attention of the German emigrants to the advantages which the South offers to settlers?’ In answer, I say that the Southern States should, as soon ai possible, publish a detailed and full account of their various resources; of the weather and its influence on the constitutions of men coming from northern latitudes; of the lands, and their present condition as to fertility and titles; of the various products which can be raised; of the best locations for the culture and fruit in general; and an account of the existing, railroads and canals, and also of the commerce, and the various branches of industry, to be carried on there, &c.”

Mr. FLEISHMAN says, further, that the Germans do not aim to become merely day laborers, but landowners; that, in general, they prefer to go where other Germans have gone before, and where their own language is spoken; that they never cease to be Germans; that they love the soil they cultivate, love freedom and independence, hate aristocracy, and are not only good formers, but mechanics and artisans. They all have more or less money and personal property, with which they buy lands or undertake trade. He says:

“The South must establish similar institutions to those that we find in the North for the protection and assistance of emigrants; they must protect them from runners and rapacious boarding-house keepers. The South must establish hospitals and almshouses for the sick and needy; it must establish cheap and regular rates on railroads and canals to emigrants, and do everything to show that it is not only anxious to see the Germans come among them, but they must also satisfy their former governments that the South is in earnest to fulfill the obligations which a call for settlers imposes upon any government or society.

The States engage in an enterprise entirely new to them. It will require wise measures not to begin wrong. Should they displease the first settlers, they may rest assured it will be long before they succeed again to get them away from the old Western track. …

The whole subject, Sir, is one of so much interest to us all, that it would afford me great pleasure upon this creation to elaborate it more at length, but I am admonished that the time and space are not at my control. At an early day I will resume the subject, and illustrate is with a variety of statistical data, which I have collected with some care.

With great regard, your obedient servant,

J.D.B. DE BOW.

No. 40 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, Thursday, Oct. 12, 1865. …

You can indeed read the whole letter in DeBow’s Review

Once again a Southern man states that the war put an end to the slavery question once and for all, sort of like duel.

According to the Wikipedia link in the first paragraph, Benjamin Franklin Perry served as governor of South Carolina from June 30, 1865 until November 29, 1865, when the new state constitution was adopted.