number of privileged
individuals, whose wealth was permanent, and whose leisure was
hereditary. These leaders of the American nobility kept alive the
traditional prejudices of the white race in the body of which they were
the representatives, and maintained the honor of inactive life. This
aristocracy contained many who were poor, but none who would work; its
members preferred want to labor, consequently no competition was set on
foot against negro laborers and slaves, and, whatever opinion might be
entertained as to the utility of their efforts, it was indispensable to
employ them, since there was no one else to work.

No sooner was the law of primogeniture abolished than fortunes began
to diminish, and all the families of the country were simultaneously
reduced to a state in which labor became necessary to procure the means
of subsistence: several of them have since entirely disappeared, and
all of them learned to look forward to the time at which it would be
necessary for everyone to provide for his own wants. Wealthy individuals
are still to be met with, but they no longer constitute a compact and
hereditary body, nor have they been able to adopt a line of conduct in
which they could persevere, and which they could infuse into all ranks
of society. The prejudice which stigmatized labor was in the first place
abandoned by common consent; the number of needy men was increased, and
the needy were allowed to gain a laborious subsistence without blushing
for their exertions. Thus one of the most immediate consequences of the
partible quality of estates has been to create a class of free laborers.
As soon as a competition was set on foot between the free laborer and
the slave, the inferiority of the latter became manifest, and slavery
was attacked in its fundamental principle, which is the interest of the
master.

As slavery recedes, the black population follows its retrograde course,
and returns with it towards those tropical regions from which it
originally came. However singular this fact may at first appear to
be, it may readily be explained. Although the Americans abolish the
principle of slavery, they do not set their slaves free. To illustrate
this remark, I will quote the example of the State of New York. In 1788,
the State of New York prohibited the sale of slaves within its limits,
which was an indirect method of prohibiting the importation of blacks.
Thenceforward the number of negroes could only increase acco