A Century of Negro Migration | Page 5

fact that the indenture system in southern
Illinois and especially in Indiana was at times tantamount to slavery as
it was practiced in parts of the South.
It must be borne in mind here, however, that the North at this time was
far from becoming a place of refuge for Negroes. In the first place, the
industrial revolution had not then had time to reduce the Negroes to the
plane of beasts in the cotton kingdom. The rigorous climate and the
industries of the northern people, moreover, were not inviting to the
blacks and the development of the carrying trade and the rise of
manufacturing there did not make that section more attractive to
unskilled labor. Furthermore, when we consider the fact that there were
many thousands of Negroes in the Southern States the presence of a
few in the North must be regarded as insignificant. This paucity of
blacks then obtained especially in the Northwest Territory, for its
French inhabitants instead of being an exploiting people were
pioneering, having little use for slaves in carrying out their policy of
merely holding the country for France. Moreover, like certain
gentlemen from Virginia, who after the American Revolution were
afraid to bring their slaves with them to occupy their bounty lands in
Ohio, few enterprising settlers from the slave States had invaded the

territory with their Negroes, not knowing whether or not they would be
secure in the possession of such property. When we consider that in
1810 there were only 102,137 Negroes in the North and no more than
3,454 in the Northwest Territory, we must look to the second decade of
the nineteenth century for the beginning of the migration of the
Negroes in the United States.
[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, pp. 19, 20, 23; _Works of John
Woolman_, pp. 58, 73; and Moore, _Notes on Slavery in
Massachusetts_, p. 71.]
[Footnote 2: Bassett, _Federalist System_, chap. xii. Hart, _Slavery and
Abolition_, pp. 153, 154.]
[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Rise of the New West_, pp. 45, 46, 47, 48,
49; Hammond, _Cotton Industry_, chaps. i and ii; Scherer, _Cotton as a
World Power_, pp. 168, 175.]
[Footnote 4: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, chaps. i and ii.]
[Footnote 5: Jay, _An Inquiry_, p. 30.]
[Footnote 6: Ford edition, _Jefferson's Writings_, III, p. 432.]
[Footnote 7: For the passage of this ordinance three reasons have been
given: Slavery then prior to the invention of the cotton gin was
considered a necessary evil in the South. The expected monopoly of the
tobacco and indigo cultivation in the South would be promoted by
excluding Negroes from the Northwest Territory and thus preventing
its cultivation there. Dr. Cutler's influence aided by Mr. Grayson of
Virginia was of much assistance. The philanthropic idea was not so
prominent as men have thought.--Dunn, _Indiana_, p. 212.]
[Footnote 8: Ibid., p. 254.]
[Footnote 9: Code Noir.]
[Footnote 10: Speaking of these settlements in 1750, M. Viner, a Jesuit

Missionary to the Indians, said: "We have here Whites, Negroes, and
Indians, to say nothing of cross-breeds--There are five French villages
and three villages of the natives within a space of twenty-one
leagues--In the five French villages there are perhaps eleven hundred
whites, three hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages."
Unlike the condition of the slaves in Lower Louisiana where the rigid
enforcement of the Slave Code made their lives almost intolerable, the
slaves of the Northwest Territory were for many reasons much more
fortunate. In the first place, subject to the control of a
mayor-commandant appointed by the Governor of New Orleans, the
early dwellers in this territory managed their plantations about as they
pleased. Moreover, as there were few planters who owned as many as
three or four Negroes, slavery in the Northwest Territory did not get far
beyond the patriarchal stage. Slaves were usually well fed. The
relations between master and slave were friendly. The bondsmen were
allowed special privileges on Sundays and holidays and their children
were taught the catechism according to the ordinance of Louis XIV in
1724, which provided that all masters should educate their slaves in the
Apostolic Catholic religion and have them baptized. Male slaves were
worked side by side in the fields with their masters and the female
slaves in neat attire went with their mistresses to matins and vespers.
Slaves freely mingled in practically all festive enjoyments.--See _Jesuit
Relations_, LXIX, p. 144; Hutchins, _An Historical Narrative_, 1784;
and Code Noir.]
[Footnote 11: Mention was thereafter made of slaves as in the case of
Captain Philip Pittman who in 1770 wrote of one Mr. Beauvais, "who
owned 240 orpens of cultivated land and eighty slaves; and such a case
as that of a Captain of a militia at St. Philips, possessing twenty blacks;
and the case of Mr. Bales, a very rich