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An obvious reason why our railroads may be relied upon for reasonable dividends, when prudently managed as at the present time, is to be found in the fact that they are constructed mainly by slave lab
or; which, for all purposes, not requiring mechanical skill, is undoubtedly the cheapest that can be employed.
No more conclusive evidence of this fact could be desired than that furnished by a comparison to the cost of ours with the cost of roads constructed with a different kind of labor.
Our greatest line of road, from Beaufort Harbor to Cowana (Duck Town) on the Tennessee line, is a distance of five hundred and sixty miles, will, when completed, cost $12, 610,000. Of this line of road, three hundred and forty-eight miles have been actually completed; fifty miles more let to contract, and the remainder, one hundred and sixty-two miles, has been surveyed and careful estimates made of the cost, so that the entire cost of the road, when finished, may be stated with almost exact certainty. On the other hand we find that the Erie road, in the State of New York, some four hundred miles in length, cost $32,000,000. Or, differently stated, the cost of our road will be $22,500, while that of the Erie is $80,000 per mile. A clear profit on the former of $1,550 per mile would give a dividend of 6 per cent, while on the latter it would require a nett profit of $4,800 per mile to give the same dividend.
Like comparison between roads similarly situated will never fail, it is believed, to develope the fact of the superior cheapness of slave labor, when employed in the construction of railroads.
Financially and socially this is an important fact for us. It gives the assurance that our railroad investments will prove dividend-paying stocks, and that the public debt, contracted for the construction of these works, will be finally liquidated thereby. I have an abiding conviction that many of the present generation will live to see our public debt paid off by receipts from railroads, and the roads themselves left unencumbered, yielding a richer revenue to the state than has heretofore been collected by taxation, and superseding, entirely, the necessity for taxation.
The fact is an important one, too, in a social point of view, as it teaches us that there is a proper division of labor, which, if wisely observed, will avoid all possible conflict of interests and enure to the advantage of all. This division consists in the employment of slave labor, where physical force rather than an exercise of the mental faculties is required, and the assignment of that field of labor, demanding the employment of skill and educated reasoning faculties in its profitable pursuit, to the white race, where these qualities are mainly and almost exclusively to be found.
The marshalling of labor upon this principle is dictated, it is believed, by a sound public policy, extending to the development of that variety of the industrial employments, and the perfection of that mechanical and manufacturing skills that go to make up the power of the State, and to that harmony of interests so necessary to every well organized society. (Governor's Message, to the Honorable, the General Assembly of North Carolina [Raleigh: John Spelman, Printer to the State; Doc. No. 1, Ses. 1860-'61], p. 7-8]. Note five important points in Governor Ellis' message:
First, this system of slave labor for public works "is dictated ... by a sound public policy." The State of North Carolina simply had to pursue this course of action, given the fiscal and economic realities.
Third, were slavery to be continued indefinitely, is there any question but that slaves would be the industrial and manufacturing engine of the South, unpaid labor that redounded to benefits for the entire population: let a few work hard at no pay for the benefit of the many who need not exert themselves.
Fourth, with the Governor's comparisons between the North Carolina road and the New York road, one can see that approximately 75% of the cost of these public works consisted in unpaid labor of slaves. When slaves became unavailable for forced labor -- the Emancipation Proclamation was just a few years down the road -- the South reverted to using prisoners for forced labor, most of whom then, and now, were African-American.
Fifth, the potential for this system of forced labor was so fantastic that the entire state could be run with the revenue generated by slaves, that unpaid physical labor force. More money than was ever collected by taxation would relieve the white race of paying any taxes at all, the entire burden of government shouldered by a capitalization created chiefly by the forced labor of slaves.
Think about it, the next time you hear that no public indemnities are owed, because there is no evidence of direct financial reward in the public sector as a result of the forced labor of slaves. And that road from Beaufort to the Tennessee line: that road is highway 70, paralleling Interstate 40, and it is still in heavy use today, almost a century and a half later.
Wendell, NC, USA - For the benefit of those who believe that an indemnity is not owed to the descendants of American slaves, hear now the message by Governor John Ellis to the General Assembly of North Carolina, November 20, 1860:
The rapidly increasing business of our railroads gives the highest assurances that this [Sinking] Fund [$7,663,140 at the time of the message] will prove fully equal to the great purpose for which it was established. After the present year, its annual receipts will probably not fall short of half a million dollars, and may possibly exceed that amount.
Second, the division between physical force (slave labor) and an exercise of mental faculties (the white race) is identified as based on the employment of skill and educated reasoning faculties: as long as education was limited to the white race, the use of slave labor in public works would be required for brute, physical labor.
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