Climates of the South in Their Relation to White Labor [pp. 166-173]

166 CLIMATES OF THE SOUTH.
ART IV.-CLIL[ATES OF THE SOUTIt IN THIEIR RELATIONS TO
WVIIITE LABOR.
CHARPACTERISTICS OF THE NEGRO RACES-THEIR FUTTURE AT TIIE
SOUTH-W,HITE LABOR IN ITS CONFLICT WITHI BLACK-ADAPTA TION OF THE SOUTH TO IMM311GRATION AND ITS SPLENDID
FIELDS FOR FUTURE ENTERPRISE.
TIIE following contribution to our pages is madcle by D,. J. C. Noit, of Mobile,
a most distinguishled physician, mrnedical statistician and scientific writel-, the
author in conjunction wvith Gliddou of the celebrated work entitled, "Types of
Mankind." Dr. Nott hlas resided a third of a century at Mobile, and is profoundly fatmiliar with all the laws relating to tlIe sanitary condition, mortality
and( longevity of the whlite and black races of the South, and his authority on
such matters is paramount. We referred to his investigation in a letter addressed
b)y us in the January number of the REVIEW to Governor lPerry, of South Carolila. The position which we took in that letter is amply sustained by hit, and
we commend this letter to tho,ughltful menr in eveiy part of the Unionll. We then
said and repeat:
"By far the larger portion of each of the Southern States is well adapted to white
labor, and actual mortuary returns indicate a muchl i higlier degree of physical
health in these localities than in the New England and North-western States...
The region referred to etrbraces neatly the whole (f the great Stattes of Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Texas, three-fourthls of Georgia lland
Arkansas. one-half of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Florida."-EDITOR.
To J. D. B. DEBow, EsQ:
S'/,-The question of labor, for the production of the great
staples of the Southern States is nlow the all-absorbing one
with us, and you ask for mrny views onl the subject, particularly
the results of my professional observation, inll regard to the
adaptability of the white race to field labor in our cotton and
sugar riegions.
Every reflecting man that has studied the past history of the
ne,gro, and spent as I have, half a century in daily contact
-witlh the race, must apprehenld that fi'eed blacks cannot be
relied upon as an agricultutal population, a(nd that emnancipation must ultimately result in t-heir extermination.
Itn order to shiow that I have no cherished theory to maintain,
or no prejudices of education to combat, I will lerIe repeat what I
hiave been saying and publishling for twenty years past. I have
alwayvs been an emnancil)ationist at hleart have been utterly
opposed to the slave trade-have imaintained that every people
capable of self-goverhnment had a rig,ht to liberty, and( have
again and again said to the few slaves that I have owned,
"Whenever you think you can do better without rne than
with mic I will pay your expenses to Boston or Liberia."
Nevertheless I have not been an abolitionist; for the reason