ld be found in Africa, that would be the appropriate
destination for the unhappy race among us. Some are sanguine that
the efforts of an existing Colonization Society will accomplish
such a provision; but a very partial success seems the most that
can be expected. Some other region must, therefore, be found for
them as they become free and willing to emigrate. The repugnance
of the whites to their continuance among them is founded on
prejudices, themselves founded on physical distinctions, which
are not likely soon, if ever, to be eradicated. Even in States,
Massachusetts for example, which displayed most sympathy with the
people of colour on the Missouri question, prohibitions are
taking place against their becoming residents. They are every
where regarded as a nuisance, and must really be such as long as
they are under the degradation which public sentiment inflicts on
them. They are at the same time rapidly increasing from
manumissions and from offspring, and of course lessening the
general disproportion between the slaves and the whites. This
tendency is favorable to the cause of a universal
emancipation."[12]

TO DR. MORSE

March 28, 1823

_Queries._

1. Do the planters generally live on their own estates?

2. Does a planter with ten or fifteen slaves employ an
overlooker, or does he overlook his slaves himself?

3. Obtain estimates of the culture of Sugar and Cotton, to show
what difference it makes where the planter resides on his estate,
or where he employs attorneys, overlookers, &c.

4. Is it a common or general practice to mortgage slave estates?

5. Are sales of slave estates very frequent under execution for
debt and what proportion of the whole may be thus sold annually?

6. Does the Planter possess the power of selling the different
branches of a family separate?

7. When the prices of produce, Cotton Sugar, &c., are high, do
the Planters purchase, instead of raising, their corn and other
provisions?

8. When the prices of produce are low, do they then raise their
own corn and other provisions?

9. Do the negroes fare better when the Corn, &c., is raised upon
their master's estate or when he buys it?

10. Do the tobacco plante