“But,” said Mr. North, “slavery impoverishes the soil, makes the whites shun labor, feeling it to be degrading, and it keeps the white children from industrial pursuits, and”—­

“Please stop,” said I, “my dear Sir, and think of what you are saying, and be not carried away by that popular flood of cant phrases.  Now you know that God has given our Southern friends a south country, nearer than ours to the tropics.  Out-of-door labor there is injurious to the white people, as you know.  They are not to be blamed for this.  God has not given them strength to endure exposure to the sun.  Had they a northern climate, in which the labor required by the mechanic arts could be performed with safety and comfort, do you not suppose that they would have the same aptitude and relish as we for handicraft?  Their children cannot be brought up to manual labor to the extent that ours are, because the God of heaven has ordained their lot in a land less favorable than ours to toil.  His providence, making use of the sins of men, has placed the blacks here; you and the rest of the world, who depend upon their cotton, are willing enough to use it in its countless forms, while you reproach your Maker, as I think, for having caused it to be raised as he has seen fit to do.”

“But Oh,” said Mr. North, “free labor is more profitable than slave labor.  You well know how it affects the soil, and that the great price of slaves will in time make the system oppressive to the masters, especially if they are all as considerate as you say they are about selling.”

“The good Aunt has replied to you as to the soil, and we need not distress ourselves about the price of slaves; that will regulate itself.  You well understand,” said I, “that I am not arguing in favor of slavery per se, nor for the slave-trade, nor for the extension of slavery; but I contend that where slavery now exists, no one has yet proposed a scheme which is better than the continuance of ownership, the blacks remaining on the same soil with their present masters.  Nor do I mean to say that the present system must inevitably continue forever.  We must leave future developments in other hands.  Of course there are difficult problems on such a subject as this.  Intelligent Christian gentlemen at the South say that the best schemes which have been proposed by Europeans for the substitution of apprenticed negroes for slaves would make the condition of the negro as far worse than our slavery as the condition of a degraded negro here is below that of his master.  Who will care for him when he is old, or sick?  Granting this apprentice scheme to be arranged without oppression or sin of any kind, I hold that the condition of our slaves owned by masters and mistresses, is better than such a hireling condition, though it have the appearance of liberty.”

“Why so?” inquired Mr. North.