7965. SLAVES, Metayers and.—
I am
decided on my final return to America to try
this experiment. I shall endeavor to import
as many Germans as I have grown slaves. I
will settle them and my slaves, on farms of fifty
acres each, intermingled, and place all on the
footing of the Metayers (Medietani) of Europe.
Their children shall be brought up, as
others are, in habits of property and foresight,
and I have no doubt but that they will be good
citizens. Some of their fathers will be so;
others I suppose will need government. With
these all that can be done is to oblige them
to labor as the laboring poor of Europe do,
and to apply to their comfortable subsistence
the produce of their labor, retaining such a
moderate portion of it as may be a just equivalent
for the use of the lands they labor, and
the stocks and other necessary advances.—
To Dr. Edward Bancroft.
Ford ed., v, 67.
(P.
1789)
