John Armfield

Chapter three, the amount and extent of the trade.

we have already discussed the causes of the domestic slave trade in this chapter it is our purpose chiefly to consider its amount and extent in this connection our first object will be to determine whether it was carried on as a business before eighteen o eight it appears that there were exchanges of slaves going on among the states and territories before this time but whether this was anything more than of an occasional or incidental nature is a question the statutes of some of the states give some light along this line south carolina in seventeen ninety two prohibited the introduction of slaves either by land or sea delaware however as early as seventeen eighty seven passed a law which recites that sundry negroes and mulattoes as well freemen as slaves have been exported and sold into other states contrary to the principles of humanity and justice and derogatory to the honor of this state this law prohibited their exportation without a permit it seems to have been something more than merely incidental for it was amended in seventeen ninety three as follows that from and after the first tuesday of october next the justice of the court of general quarter sessions and jail delivery or any two of them shall have the like power to grant a license or permit to export sell or carry out for sale any negro or mulatto slave from the state that five justices of the peace in open sessions now have we have evidence to show that by eighteen o two alexandria in the district of columbia had become a sort of depot for the sale of slaves and that men visited it from distant parts of the united states in order to purchase them about this time slaves were in great demand and very high in mississippi and probably also in the new states of kentucky and tennessee however it is not to be supposed that the great increase of the slave population in these sections before eighteen fifteen was due to any great extent to the domestic slave trade there were five causes which may be assigned for this increase of which the domestic trade was probably among the least if not the least no doubt the most important was the immigration of slaveholders with their slaves this immigration was considerable the white population of tennessee and kentucky nearly trebled between seventeen ninety and eighteen hundred and between eighteen hundred and eighteen ten it about doubled and the population of mississippi more than quadrupled between eighteen hundred and eighteen ten slaves also increased in as great a ratio second we consider the south carolina slave trade from eighteen o four to eighteen o seven inclusive from a speech of mr smith of south were sold in the carolinas but that the most of carolina in the united states senate december eighth eighteen twenty we learn that only a small part of the negroes introduced in consequence of this trade were bought by the people of the western and southwestern states and territories third was the natural increase fourth would be the illegal foreign slave trade and fifth is the domestic trade it is impossible to more than approximate the relative importance of these factors however it seems very unlikely that the domestic trade was of much consequence before eighteen fifteen whatever impetus it may have received on account of the demand for slaves just prior to the south carolina trade must have been checked by the consequent heavy importation from abroad for on account of this slaves fell in price as it is said adults at this time generally sold in the southwest at one hundred dollars each if the domestic slave trade had assumed any importance or even if it had been going on at all before eighteen fifteen it seems more than likely that it would have been remarked by travelers many of whom both english and american visited the southwest and other sections of the country during the period in question but so far as we can find none of them make any mention of it whatever the newspapers of the time also are silent in regard to the matter doubtless the rise and development of the trade was hindered or delayed by the war of eighteen twelve but almost immediately after the close of the war it comes into notice and even prominence in eighteen sixteen paul ding in his letters from the south writes of it from personal observation and also tells of a man who had even thus early made money in the business at this time indeed conditions were very favorable to a growth of the domestic trade the general prosperity and the high price of agricultural products especially cotton and sugar caused a great demand for slave labor for the new and fertile lands of the south and southwest in eighteen seventeen and eighteen eighteen the buying up of the negroes for these markets was fast becoming a regular business and it was a very common thing to see gangs of them chained and marching toward the south they were collected from various places by dealers and shipped down the mississippi river in flatboats fourteen of these loaded with slaves for sale were seen at natchez at once about this time the statement was made that eight thousand slaves were carried into georgia in eighteen seventeen from the northern slave-holding states it would seem probable that the greater part of these may have been introduced by immigrants however the slave trade must have been great for on december twenty eighteen seventeen the georgia legislature passed a law to prohibit at once the importation of slaves for sale between eighteen ten and eighteen twenty slaves in the four states of georgia mississippi tennessee and louisiana in round numbers increased from two hundred and two thousand to three hundred and thirty-two thousand and in some of the other states the increase was about as great during the same time the white population in the states named increased from four hundred and nineteen thousand to six hundred and forty-five thousand by far the greater part of this increase took place after eighteen fifteen to prove this we will take louisiana as an example in eighteen ten she had a population of seventy six thousand five hundred and in eighteen fifteen near the close of the year her population according to monette did not exceed ninety thousand an increase of only twelve thousand but in eighteen twenty it amounted to a hundred and fifty four thousand of which more than seventy three thousand were negro slaves it appears that the slaves in louisiana increased only about two thousand or two thousand five hundred from eighteen ten to eighteen fifteen but between eighteen fifteen and eighteen twenty there was an increase of about thirty seven thousand this wonderful increase in population in the west and southwest is to be accounted for by the fact that after the close of the war of eighteen twelve immigration again set in these directions and as most of the immigrants without doubt were from the older southern states they carried with them the slaves which they had in their native states another source from which this region received slaves at this time was through the operation of the illicit foreign trade it is probable that ten thousand or fifteen thousand a year were thus introduced it therefore seems that up to this time to the domestic trade is due probably only a minor part of the increase of the slave population of this section during the twenties however if we are to give credit to the statements of travelers the trade reached very great proportions baltimore norfolk richmond washington and other places had already become centers agents were placed in these cities to attend to purchase and shipment and thousands and tens of thousands such is the language of an english tourist were purchased in virginia and maryland for sale in georgia louisiana and other states blaine another englishman who visited the united states about the same time is more to the point it is computed he says that every year from ten to fifteen thousand slaves are sold from the states of delaware maryland and virginia and sent to the south basil hall was informed in eighteen twenty seven or eighteen twenty eight that during certain seasons of the year all the roads steamboats and packets are crowded with troops of negroes on their way to the slave markets of the south vessels indeed from the selling states are sometimes seen in new orleans with as many as two hundred negroes aboard this transportation of negroes from the border states to the south and southwest from about eighteen twenty six to eighteen thirty two may be partly accounted for by the probable falling off in the illicit importations and by the fact that cotton and tobacco which were the staples of some of the border states were comparatively low in price making them very unprofitable crops to cultivate in these states the cotton raised in north carolina and virginia decreased almost half during this time while it appears as if the lower price of cotton merely had the effect in the new states to increase the acreage in order to make up for the deficiency in price in the new states there was a wonderful increase in production during this period slaves therefore were of much less productive value in the border states while in the new states the demand for them was scarcely lessened the new orleans mercantile advertiser of january twenty one eighteen thirty says arrivals by sea and river within a few days have added fearfully to the number of slaves brought to this market for sale new orleans is the complete mart for the slave trade and the mississippi is becoming a common highway for the traffic in the summer of eighteen thirty one new orleans imported three hundred and seventy-one negroes in one week nearly all of whom were from virginia in the same year august eighteen thirty one an insurrection of slaves in which a number of white people were murdered occurred in southampton county virginia this caused much excitement throughout the slave states it opened the eyes of the people to the danger of a large slave population it seemed for a while that it would have a very detrimental effect upon the domestic slave trade for several importing states began to consider the advisability of prohibiting the further introduction of slaves two of the largest importing states indeed passed such laws louisiana which in march eighteen thirty one had repealed her law regulating the importation of slaves in november of the same year at an extra session of her legislature enacted a law against their importation for sale and in january eighteen thirty two alabama followed suit the virginia legislature of eighteen thirty one two also took up the question of slavery and with open doors vigorously discussed methods of emancipation and of getting rid of the negro population it was recognized that the value of slaves in virginia depended greatly upon the southern and western markets it was feared that other buying states would follow the lead of louisiana thus cutting off the outlet of virginia's surplus slaves and while the whites were constantly emigrating the rapidly increasing black population would tend to become congested in the state producing a condition of society alarming to contemplate but these forebodings were far from ever being realized indeed even before the end of the year the conjunction of two causes produced a great demand for slaves and they were soon higher in price than they had been for years first planters from the cotton-growing states visited virginia in great numbers in order to make purchases of slaves doubtless thinking they could buy cheaply as it seemed that on account of the southampton insurrection virginia was determined to get rid of her slaves at all hazards second the most important was the advance in price of cotton this began also in eighteen thirty two it continued to rise for several years and by eighteen thirty six it had doubled in price while by eighteen thirty nine its production also had nearly doubled this increase was due almost wholly to the south and southwest mississippi alone producing nearly one-fourth of the entire crop as a consequence we should expect to note a corresponding briskness in the slave trade such indeed was the case we have no reason to think that more slaves were ever exported to the south from the northern slave states during any equal period of time than there were from eighteen thirty two to eighteen thirty six inclusive of these eighteen thirty six is easily the banner year in eighteen thirty two it was estimated by professor due that virginia annually exported for sale to other states six thousand slaves during the thirties or even before the slave trade was carried on between the selling and buying states with about the same regularity as the exchanges of cotton flour sugar and rice vessels engaged in the business advertised their accommodations one trader john armfield had three which were scheduled to leave alexandria for new orleans alternately the first and fifteenth of each month during the shipping season that the trade had become extensive is evidenced by the newspapers up to eighteen twenty it was very uncommon to find a trader's advertisement in a newspaper but even before eighteen thirty such advertisements had become very plentiful one could hardly pick up a paper published in the selling states especially those of the eastern shore of maryland and eastern virginia without finding one or more these advertisements often continued from month to month and from year to year an example or two may be interesting cash for negroes i wish to purchase six hundred or seven hundred negroes for the new orleans market and will give more than any purchaser that is now or hereafter may come into the market richard c woolfolk cash for negroes we will give cash for two hundred negroes between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years old of both sexes those having that kind of property for sale will find it to their interest to give us a call finnell and freeman the number of slaves currently estimated to have been transported to the south and southwest during eighteen thirty five and eighteen thirty six almost staggers belief the maryville tennessee intelligencer made the statement in eighteen thirty six that in eighteen thirty five sixty thousand slaves passed through a western town on their way to the southern market also in eighteen thirty six the virginia wheeling times says intelligent men estimated the number of slaves exported from virginia during the preceding twelve months as a hundred and twenty thousand of whom about two-thirds were carried there by their masters leaving forty thousand to have been sold the quarterly antislavery magazine july eighteen thirty seven gives the natchez courier as authority for the estimate that during eighteen thirty six two hundred and fifty thousand slaves were transported to alabama mississippi louisiana and arkansas from the older slave states a committee in eighteen thirty seven appointed by the citizens of mobile to inquire into the cause of the prevalent financial stringency stated in their report that for the preceding four years alabama had annually purchased from the other states ten million dollars worth of slave property when the panic of eighteen thirty seven came upon mississippi it was thought it seems to have been caused through the amount of money sent out of the state in the purchase of slaves and governor lynch upon the petition of the people convened the legislature in extra session and in his message to it says the question which presents itself and which i submit for your deliberation is whether the passage of an act prohibiting the introduction of slaves into this state as merchandise may not have a salutary effect in checking the drain of capital annually made upon us by the sale of this description of property the panic of eighteen thirty seven caused a falling off in the domestic slave trade and the low price of cotton which continued until eighteen forty six hindered its revival the falling off in the trade is shown by the fact that the per cent of increase in the slave population of the cotton states was scarcely half as great between eighteen forty and eighteen fifty as during the previous decade the slave trade however seems to have become brisker in eighteen forty three for while only two thousand slaves are said to have been sold in washington in eighteen forty two in eighteen forty three five thousand were sold there it does not necessarily follow however that all these were sent south the increased number of sales was caused by two things the decline in the price of tobacco and the renewed activity in the sugar industry incident upon a new duty on sugar this gave rise to a demand for slave labor upon the sugar plantations of the south but it was a very limited demand during this period the decline in the value of slaves was great in some states and it appears very probable there was a general depreciation in value however before eighteen fifty three important things had happened each of which had an effect upon the slave trade first the admission of texas december eighteen forty five second the gradual increase in the price of cotton after eighteen forty five third the discovery of gold in california the first opened a large cotton country to development and the required slave labor could be legally supplied only from the united states the rise in cotton which continued almost uniformly until eighteen sixty caused a new impetus to be given to its culture and the discovery of gold in california infused new life into all the channels of trade in a few years indeed after eighteen forty five the demand for slaves seems to have been greater than the supply a writer in the richmond examiner in eighteen forty nine says it being a well-ascertained fact that virginia and maryland will not be able to supply the great demand for negroes which will be wanted in the south this fall and next spring we would advise all who are compelled to dispose of them in this market to defer selling until the sales of the present crop of cotton can be realized as the price then must be very high owing to two reasons first the ravages of the cholera and secondly the high price of cotton indeed during the fifteen years prior to eighteen sixty the demand for slaves became so great that it caused an increase of one hundred per cent in their price however there was not a great increase in the domestic slave trade according to a custom-house report there were shipped from baltimore in a little less than two years in eighteen fifty one and eighteen fifty two only one thousand thirty three negroes this is certainly not a large showing though it is probable a great many were sent overland to the south from this place during the same time in a speech before the southern convention at savannah in eighteen fifty six mister scott of virginia made the statement that not more than half the lands in the sugar and cotton growing states had been reduced to cultivation and that all the valuable slaves in virginia maryland kentucky and missouri would be required to develop them but at this time the prosperity of the latter militated against the transfer of labor to the cotton-growing states probably the condition in the border states is best described by quoting from a writer in devow's review in eighteen fifty seven the difficulty he says of procuring slaves at reasonable rates has already been severely felt by the cotton planters and this difficulty is constantly increasing the production of rice tobacco wheat indian corn etc with stock raising in those states affords nearly as profitable employment for slave labor as cotton planting in other states they have not as is generally supposed a redundancy of slave labor nor are they likely to have so long as their present prosperity continues the recent full development of the rich agricultural and mineral resources of these states indeed by an immense demand for their staple productions have not only given profitable employment to slave labor but has improved the pecuniary condition of the slave owner and place him above the necessity of parting with his slave property even olmsted inadvertently no doubt gives evidence of the prosperity of virginia a little before this time when he says that in the tobacco factories of richmond and petersburg slaves were in great demand and received a hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars and expenses a year in north carolina also good hands would bring about the same wages though the labor market in the border states was greater than the natural increase of the negro yet it was hardly to be compared to the southern demand as a consequence when debt or necessity or other reason compelled the sale of slaves they were often bought by traders and exported the statement was made by mr jones of georgia in the savannah convention eighteen fifty six that negroes were even then worth from one thousand to one thousand five hundred dollars each and that there were ten purchasers to one seller indeed so great was the demand for slaves at this time that the advisability of reopening the african slave trade became one of the principal topics of discussion in southern agricultural and commercial conventions in fact the vicksburg convention eighteen fifty nine passed a resolution in favor of reopening the african trade the new orleans newspapers during all this period give evidence of the domestic trade it was very common during the shipping season to see advertisements to the effect that the subscriber a negro trader had received or had just arrived from virginia maryland the carolinas or elsewhere with a large lot of negroes which were offered for sale usually the number would be given as fifty seventy-five or even a hundred this would be qualified by the statement that they would be constantly receiving fresh lots the same advertisement would continue in the same paper for months and even years sometimes half a dozen of these could be found in a single issue of a paper it would be impossible even to approximate from this source the number sold during any given time for it is likely the number offered for sale bore but little relation to the actual number sold the states of maryland virginia and the carolinas were most conspicuous in these advertisements writers on the subject seem to be pretty well agreed that during this period or during the fifties about twenty five thousand slaves were annually sold south from the northern slave states it is interesting to notice in this connection what the census reports have to show but in reading it should be remembered that no account is taken of the sale of slaves except as they took place between the buying and selling states so the sale of slaves between virginia and maryland are not indicated nor those between mississippi and alabama the slave population of alabama arkansas georgia louisiana mississippi south carolina tennessee and missouri in eighteen twenty was in round numbers six hundred and forty four thousand in eighteen thirty nine hundred and ninety seven thousand being an increase of three hundred and fifty three thousand the slave population in the selling states of virginia maryland delaware north carolina kentucky and the district of columbia at the same periods was eight hundred and seventy three thousand and nine hundred and ninety three thousand respectively being an increase in these states of a hundred and twenty thousand total increase of slaves in both sections during the decade four hundred and seventy three thousand from which we deduct fifty thousand due to the illicit foreign trade leaving four hundred and twenty three thousand from natural increase or about twenty eight per cent had the selling states increased at this ratio instead of a hundred and twenty thousand their increase would have been two hundred and forty four thousand this would seem to indicate that at least twelve thousand four hundred annually were carried south during this decade however only the smaller part of these and those of the following decade as well were transported through the operation of the domestic slave trade mr p a morse of louisiana writing in eighteen fifty seven says that the augmentation of slaves within the cotton states was caused mostly by the migration of slave-owners the virginia times in eighteen thirty six says of the number of slaves exported during the preceding twelve months not more than one-third have been sold the others having been carried by their owners who have removed we conclude from these and other sources that at least three-fifths of the removals of slaves from the border slave states to those farther south from eighteen twenty to eighteen fifty were due to emigration thus it is shown that probably five thousand slaves were annually exported by the selling states from eighteen twenty to eighteen thirty by means of the domestic trade in the next decade adding florida to the buying states and transferring south carolina and missouri to the selling list we find that in eighteen thirty and in eighteen forty the buying states had six hundred and seventy two thousand and one million a hundred and twenty seven thousand respectively being an increase of four hundred and fifty five thousand while for the same periods the selling states had a hundred and thirty three thousand and one million three hundred and sixty one thousand being an increase of twenty eight thousand the whole increase therefore was four hundred and eighty three thousand deducting forty thousand due to illicit foreign trade we have four hundred and forty three thousand or about twenty two per cent as the natural increase had the selling states increased at the same rate it would have been two hundred and ninety three thousand for the decade deducting twenty eight thousand we find that two hundred and sixty five thousand can be accounted for only as having been exported deducting three-fifths for immigration we have removing a hundred and six thousand for the domestic traffic an average of ten thousand six hundred per year by eighteen fifty the buying states had another increase of four hundred and seventy eight thousand and the selling states a hundred and eighty thousand total increase from eighteen forty to eighteen fifty six hundred and fifty eight thousand deducting fifty thousand illicitly imported we have six hundred and six thousand or about twenty four per cent total increase accordingly the selling states should have a natural increase of three hundred and twenty six thousand deducting the actual number we have left a hundred and forty six thousand which must have been transported deducting three-fifths on account of immigration there would remain about fifty eight thousand or nearly six thousand per year for the domestic trade adding texas to the buying states in eighteen fifty they then have one million six hundred and sixty three thousand and in eighteen sixty two million two hundred and ninety six thousand or an increase of six hundred and thirty three thousand during the decade and the selling states one million five hundred and forty one thousand and one million six hundred and fifty seven thousand respectively being an increase of a hundred and sixteen thousand total increase of seven hundred and forty nine thousand deducting seventy thousand which were brought in by illicit trade we have a remainder of six hundred and seventy nine thousand or twenty one per cent natural increase from natural increase selling states should have had two hundred and seven thousand more than the actual deducting three-fifths on account of immigration leaves a little more than eight thousand per year sold south annually for these ten years it is very probable that the immigration to the cotton states fell off during the fifties owing to the great prosperity in the border states and it might be fair to reduce the number estimated to have been carried south by immigration to one-third or one-half which would leave ten or twelve thousand per year for the domestic slave trade we feel quite confident that this statistical review of the domestic slave trade based as it is upon the census reports gives a truer idea of the actual amount of the trade between the selling and the buying states than could be got from any other sources chapter three chapter four of the domestic slave trade of the southern states by winfield h collins chapter four were some states engaged in breeding and raising negroes for sale as we now have a somewhat definite idea as to the amount of the domestic slave trade the next questions which naturally claim our attention are were some states consciously and purposely engaged in breeding and raising negroes for the southern market and also what were the sources of supply for the trade the former of these queries is no doubt the most controverted and difficult part of our subject the testimony of travellers and common opinion generally seems to have been in the affirmative a quotation or two will suffice to show the trend the duke of saxe-weimar says many owners of slaves in the states of maryland and virginia have nurseries for slaves whence the planters of louisiana mississippi and other southern states draw their supplies in a narrative of a visit to the american churches the writer in speaking of the accumulation of negroes in the gulf states says slaves are generally bred in some states as cattle for the southern market and the rev philo tower writing about twenty years later draws a more vivid picture not only in virginia he says but also in maryland north carolina kentucky tennessee and missouri as much attention is paid to the breeding and growth of negroes as to that of horses and mules it is a common thing for planters to command their girls and women married or not to have children and i am told a great many negro girls are sold off simply and mainly because they did not have children undoubtedly some planters in all the slave states resorted to questionable means of increasing their slave stock but that it was a general custom to multiply negroes in order to have them to sell is very improbable many of these travellers show prejudice we have wondered therefore whether it were too much to assume that they had more thought for the effect their narrative would produce in the north or in england than for its truth is it not probable that foreigners may have got their information about breeding slaves when in the free states rather than actual evidence of such an industry where the industry was supposed to be carried on it seems at any rate more than probable that the exceptional cases which they found were made to appear as the general rule then too the very fact that some states sold great numbers of slaves was sufficient evidence to some no doubt that they were engaged in the business of raising them for sale it seems very natural that this should be inferred consequently travellers reported that certain sections were engaged in breeding and raising slaves for market they made the accusation that the so-called breeding states were in the slave-breeding business for profit but was it profitable if not why were they in this business a negro above eighteen years of age would bring on an average about three hundred dollars in the selling states from eighteen fifteen to say eighteen forty five sometimes he would bring a little more sometimes less between the age of ten and the time of sale we will suppose the slave paid for his keeping but before that time he would be too small to work there was always some defective stock that could not be sold this taken in connection with the fact that all negroes did not live to be ten years of age probably not more than half we shall be under the necessity of deducting about one-half of the three hundred dollars on this account this will leave a hundred and fifty dollars or fifteen dollars per year for the possible expense of raising him a bushel of corn a month would have been about eight dollars per year for corn fifty pounds for meat four dollars it is not likely he could have been clothed for less than three and the fifteen is gone with nothing left for incidentals we think the above a very fair estimate in eighteen twenty nine the average price of negroes in virginia was estimated at only a hundred and fifty dollars each why did not the border slave states raise hogs instead of negroes bacon was at a good price during that period the fact is the negroes probably increased without any consideration for their master's wishes in the matter a planter could stop raising hogs whenever he might choose but it seemed to be hardly within the province of the master to limit the increase of his negroes and the better they were treated evidently the faster the increase a man who had one or two hundred negroes and had scruples about selling them unless he should be able to add to his landed estate as they increased was in a bad predicament it seemed some such men had the welfare of their negroes at heart and used every means to keep them andrew tells of one a gentleman he says in one of the poorer counties of virginia has nearly two hundred slaves whom he employs upon a second-rate plantation of eight thousand or ten thousand acres and who constantly brought him into debt at length he found it necessary to purchase a smaller plantation of good land in another county which he continues to cultivate for no other purpose than to support his negroes sometimes men who were in prosperous circumstances would buy land as fast as their slaves increased and settle them upon it slaves were seldom sold until they were over ten years of age consequently if it were true that the border states made a business of breeding and raising them for sale we should naturally expect to find in these states a much greater proportion under ten than in the buying states to determine the truth of this we shall have recourse to the census reports the states of virginia maryland kentucky and north carolina in eighteen thirty had in round numbers nine hundred and eighty four thousand slaves of which three hundred and forty nine thousand were under ten years of age and six hundred and thirty five thousand over this shows that in these states there were a hundred and eighty two over ten years of age to every one hundred under ten taking an equal number of the principal cotton-growing and slave-buying states say georgia mississippi alabama and tennessee we find that they had three hundred and forty six thousand over ten and a hundred and ninety six thousand under ten consequently for every hundred and seventy six of the former they had one hundred of the latter therefore at this time the principal so-called slave-breeding states had a smaller number of slaves under ten years than an equal number of buying states the numbers it will be seen differ as the ratios one hundred to one hundred and eighty two and one hundred to one seventy six in eighteen forty there were in the southern states about two million four hundred and eighty six thousand slaves of whom about eight hundred and forty four thousand were under ten years of age on an average therefore of one hundred under ten to every one hundred and ninety four over taking each state separately we find that virginia had just an average having one hundred of the former two hundred and ninety four of the latter maryland one hundred to every two hundred and three delaware one hundred to two hundred and eighteen district of columbia one hundred to two hundred and eighty kentucky one hundred to one hundred and seventy-nine North Carolina, 100 to 176, Missouri, 100 to 172, South Carolina, 100 to 205, Louisiana, 100 to 267, Mississippi, 100 to 206, Florida, 100 to 220, Georgia, 100 to 188, arkansas one hundred to one ninety five tennessee one hundred to one seventy and alabama one hundred to one ninety thus it is shown that the buying states of alabama georgia and tennessee each had more children in proportion to their slave population than virginia and that maryland and delaware had about the same proportion as the buying states of mississippi florida and arkansas it would hardly be fair however to compare the district of columbia with louisiana in eighteen sixty we find that the proportion of slave children under ten years of age is much less in all the states than in eighteen forty in virginia at this time there were one hundred under ten years of age to two twenty seven over that age delaware one hundred to two thirty three maryland one hundred to two twenty nine kentucky one hundred to two o four south carolina one hundred to two twenty four north carolina one hundred to two hundred and two missouri one hundred to one ninety georgia one hundred to twenty one louisiana one hundred to eighty five mississippi one hundred to forty two texas one hundred to two hundred and nine arkansas one hundred to nineteen tennessee one hundred to two hundred alabama one hundred to twenty one and florida one hundred to twenty four this schedule shows that the buying states which had a greater number of slave children in proportion to their slave population in eighteen sixty than virginia maryland and delaware were georgia arkansas tennessee alabama texas and florida it is noticeable in both schedules that the state of louisiana is an exception the proportion of children there was much less than in the other states this is probably due to the strenuous work on sugar plantations it is also noticeable that the western states had the greatest proportional number of children which is to be accounted for by the healthfulness of the climate and by its being a rich and prosperous farming region where negroes were well fed and probably free from the malarial ailments of some other sections the conditions therefore were very favorable to the prolific negro race we think it would be only natural that one should expect to have found in virginia and maryland which have had to bear the brunt of the accusation of breeding slaves the greatest proportion of children not only because of the reiterated accusations but also on account of the exportation of adult slaves from these states which had the tendency to heighten the proportion of children in these states and lessen it in the states to which the slaves were carried with regard to slave breeding schaffner a native of virginia says from our own personal observation since we were capable of studying the progress of human affairs we are of opinion that there is less increase of the slaves of the so-called breeding states than of the more southern of gulf states we doubt if there exists in america a slave-owner that encourages the breeding of slaves for the purpose of selling them nor do we believe that any man would be permitted to live in any of the southern states that did intentionally breed slaves with the object of selling them Southerners generally have denied the accusation.

When Andrew Stevenson of Virginia was minister to England, he was, upon one occasion, taunted by Daniel O'Connell with belonging to a state that was noted for breeding slaves for the South.

He indignantly denied the charge, and in 1839, the editor of the Cincinnati Gazette was much abused for asserting that virginia bred slaves as a matter of pecuniary gain nehemiah adams a clergyman went south in the early fifties biased against slavery but says the charge of vilely multiplying negroes in virginia is one of those exaggerations of which the subject is full and is reduced to this that virginia being an old state fully stocked the surplus black population naturally flows off where their numbers are less it would seem that these states are not only practically freed from the charge of multiplying slaves and raising them for market as a business but that as a rule they did not sell their slaves unless compelled to do so by pecuniary or other embarrassments.

To discard it so publicly is to declare that the nation that demanded everything of then has broken its side of the bargain.

I'll catch up with John Armfield from Fair Care for Veterans, who is quoted today as saying Australia asks extraordinary things of the men and women who serve in its Defence Force.

We ask them to surrender freedoms that other Australians take for granted.

We ask them to accept risk, separation from their families, injury and ultimately the possibility that they may be required to give their lives.

Two, end the low-balling of veterans.

And three, fix the system at DVA.

John Armfield is a former Navy clearance diver.

He's now part of Fair Care for Veterans.

Veterans and their families have lost faith in the Minister.

Former Royal Australian Navy diver and fair care for veteran spokesman John Armfield said this, I enlisted under the Navy values of courage, honour, honesty and loyalty, yet you fail to display humility.

any of these values, Minister.

How can the Minister continue as Minister for Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel if he cannot uphold defence values?

What an appalling insult made worse by falling on the very eve of Vietnam Veterans Day.

The fallout was so toxic that when I spoke with vets advocate John Armfield on the program, the Prime Minister's office had to intervene.

You're not gonna believe this, Chris.

We've just been summoned to the Prime Minister's office and just walking in there now after the last press conference with, uh, Senator Matt Canavan and Michael McCormack.

The number is 13-1269.

On the guest list this morning, veterans rep John Armfield will not just stand up for Vietnam vets on the show today, but wait until you hear about the farcical behavior of the Veterans' Affairs Minister Matt Keogh in Canberra yesterday as he tried to avoid meeting with John and a group of other vets over the ceiling Labor's placed on their access to health services.

Now, the changes announced in the budget are farcical, but the way Keogh ran for cover is even more farcical.

Still on this special day, which is also the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, we will hear from former platoon commander Dave Sabben, and what a recollection he has of such a horror-filled battle where they were undermanned but still were victorious.

But veterans advocates say that that deal is now being broken, pointing to changes to Allied Health funding, delays in claims, and concerns about the way injured veterans are being assessed and treated.

They're taking those concerns to Canberra this week, calling on the government to honor its commitment to those who served.

John Armfield, spokesman for Fair Care for Veterans, is also leading the Coalition of Veterans' Voices delegation in Canberra.

They are there today.

Williams, a Washington dealer, boasted in 1850 that he made $30,000 in a few months.

It is said the firm of Franklin and Armfield of Alexandria made $33,000 in 1829.

In 1834, Armfield of this same firm was reputed to be worth nearly $500,000, which he had accumulated in the business.

Ingram tells of a man who had amassed more than a million dollars in this traffic.

More instances might be given, but this is enough to show that the traffic was profitable.

During the 30s, or even before the slave trade was carried on between the selling and buying states with about the same regularity as the exchanges of cotton, flour, sugar, and rice.

Vessels engaged in the business advertised their accommodations.

One trader, John Armfield, had three which were scheduled to leave Alexandria for New Orleans alternately the 1st and 15th of each month during the shipping season.