The Continental Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 3, March 1862 | Page 2

exhibiting the strength of the
Union, and the weakness of slavery in the mountain districts of the
South,' which is well worth careful study at this crisis. Let the reader
take the map and trace on it the dark caterpillar-like lines of the
Alleghanies from Pennsylvania southward. Not until he reaches
Northern Alabama will he find its end. In these mountain districts
which form 'the Switzerland of the South,' a population exists on whom
slavery has no hold, who are free and lovers of freedom, and who will

undoubtedly co-operate with the Union in reestablishing its power. This
'Alleghania' embraces thirteen counties of North Carolina, three of
South Carolina, twenty of Georgia, fifteen of Alabama, and twenty-six
of Tennessee.
According to Humboldt and other writers on climatology, an elevation
of two hundred and sixty-seven feet above the level of the sea is
equivalent in general influence upon vegetation to a degree of latitude
northward, at the level of the ocean. Therefore we are not surprised to
learn from Olmsted that 'Alleghania' does not differ greatly in climate
from Long Island, Southern New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 'The usual
crops are the same, those of most consequence being corn, rye, oats and
grass. Fruit is a more precarious crop, from a greater liability to severe
frosts after the swelling of the buds in the spring. Snow has fallen
several inches in the month of April.'[A]
The Western Virginia portion of Alleghania, which in the
counter-secession programme of its inhabitants was to have formed the
State of 'Kanawha,' embraced in its total population of 284,796 only
10,820 slaves. Its area is 4,211 square miles larger than the entire State
of Maryland. With this we have 'Middle Virginia,' in the valley of the
Shenandoah, which extends east of the main Alleghany range to the
Blue Ridge. This region also is broadly distinguishable in respect to
slavery from the Atlantic counties. With 200,262 freemen according to
the census of 1850, it has only 44,742 slaves, and there is reason to
believe that this population has largely diminished in favor of freedom.
Yet again we have the mountain district of South-western Virginia,
where in its ten counties the proportion of freemen to slaves is nearly
ten to one, or 76,892 to 8,693. As regards internal resources, beautiful
scenery, and all that conduces to pleasant life and profitable labor, this
portion of Virginia far surpasses the eastern division, and will
eventually attract the great mass of immigration.
The reader is aware that Eastern Kentucky, embracing the counties
along the western base of the Cumberland Mountains, 'has nobly
responded to the cause of the Union.' 'They represent a population
which from the first outbreak have been on fire with loyal zeal,

repudiating all sympathy with this war of slavery against the Union.'
The proportion of slaves to freemen in these counties, according to the
census of 1850, is as follows:--
COUNTIES FREE SLAVE Letcher, 2,440 62 Floyd, 5,503 149 Harlan,
4,108 123 Whitley, 7,222 201 Knox, 6,238 612 Perry, 2,972 117 Clay,
4,734 515 Breathitt, 3,603 170 Morgan, 7,305 187 Johnson, 3,843 30
Lawrence, 6,142 137 Carter, 5,000 257
In contrast to this healthy, temperate Eastern Kentucky, 'a portion of
the great central district of mountain slopes and valleys,' let the reader
turn to the secession hot-bed of the State. He will find it the largest
slaveholding district of Kentucky. It is worth noting that secession is
matured in the slave regions, for though it is popularly identified with
slavery, they are not wanting among its leaders--no, nor among their
traitorous and cowardly sympathizers here at the North--who constantly
assert that secession is simply a geographical necessity, and slavery
only a secondary cause--that the South will, in fact, eventually
emancipate, and that race and latitude are the great fundamental causes
of national difference, constituting us in fact 'two peoples.' How
completely false and puerile are all these assertions, appears from an
examination of the mountain region now under discussion.
Of all these sections of 'Alleghania,' none is of more importance to the
Federal Union than East Tennessee. Immensely rich in minerals, with a
healthy and agreeable climate and much rich soil, it is one of the finest
countries on earth, lying under the temperate zone, and developes the
most extraordinary physical perfection in the human form. Its
proportion of slaves to freemen is no greater than in the other mountain
regions of the South--its area is about equivalent to that of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island united. In considering
this with the loyalty of its inhabitants, and in studying 'Cumberland
Gap,' the great natural highway of the Alleghany Range, the observer
appreciates with pleasure the remark of Secretary Chase, who, in a
recent interview with certain eastern capitalists, disclaimed on behalf of
the Government and of General M'Clellan any purpose