APPENDIX.
We have in our possession a number of official documents from gentlemen, officers of the government, and variously connected with its administration, in the different islands which we visited: some of these--such as could not be conveniently incorporated into the body of the work--we insert in the form of an appendix. To insert them all, would unduly increase the size of the present volume. Those not embodied in this appendix, will be published in the periodicals of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
* * * * *
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION FROM E.B. LYON, ESQ., SPECIAL MAGISTRATE.
Jamaica, Hillingdon, near Falmouth, Trelawney, May 15, 1837.
TO J.H. KIMBALL., ESQ., and J.A. THOME, ESQ.
DEAR SIRS,--Of the operation of the apprenticeship system in this district, from the slight opportunity I have had of observing the conduct of managers and apprentices, I could only speak conjecturally, and my opinions, wanting the authority of experience, would be of little service to you; I shall therefore confine the remarks I have to make, to the operation of the system in the district from which I have lately removed.
I commenced my duties in August, 1834, and from the paucity of special magistrates at that eventful era, I had the superintendence of a most extensive district, comprising nearly one half of the populous parish of St. Thomas in the East, and the whole of the parish of St. David, embracing an apprentice population of nearly eighteen thousand,--in charge of which I continued until December, when I was relieved of St. David, and in March, 1835, my surveillance was confined to that portion of St. Thomas in the East, consisting of the coffee plantations in the Blue Mountains, and the sugar estates of Blue Mountain Valley, over which I continued to preside until last March, a district containing a population of four thousand two hundred and twenty-seven apprentices, of which two thousand eighty-seven were males, and two thousand one hundred and forty, females. The apprentices of the Blue Mountain Valley were, at the period of my assumption of the duties of a special magistrate, the most disorderly in the island. They were greatly excited, and almost desperate from disappointment, in finding their trammels under the new law, nearly as burdensome as under the old, and their condition, in many respects, much more intolerable. They were also extremely irritated at what they deemed an attempt upon the part of their masters to rob them of one of the greatest advantages they had been led to believe the new law secured to them--this was the half of Friday. Special Justice Everard, who went through the district during the first two weeks of August, 1834, and who was the first special justice to read and explain the new law to them, had told them that the law gave to them the extra four and a half hours on the Friday, and some of the proprietors and managers, who were desirous of preparing their people for the coming change, had likewise explained it so; but, most unfortunately, the governor issued a proclamation, justifying the masters in withholding the four and a half hours on that day, and substituting any other half day, or by working them eight hours per day, they might deprive them altogether of the advantage to be derived from the extra time, which, by the abolition of Sunday marketing, was almost indispensable to people whose grounds, in some instances, were many miles from their habitations, and who were above thirty miles from Kingston market, where prices were fifty per cent. more than the country markets in their favor for the articles they had to dispose of, and correspondingly lower for those they had to purchase. To be in time for which market, it was necessary to walk all Friday night, so that without the use of the previous half day, they could not procure their provisions, or prepare themselves for it. The deprivation of the half of Friday was therefore a serious hardship to them, and this, coupled to the previous assurance of their masters, and Special Justice Everard, that they were entitled to it, made them to suspect a fraud was about being practised on them, which, if they did not resist, would lead to the destruction of the remaining few privileges they possessed. The resistance was very general, but without violence; whole gangs leaving the fields on the afternoon of Friday; refusing to take any other afternoon, and sometimes leaving the estates for two or three days together. They fortunately had confidence in me--and I succeeded in restoring order, and all would have been well,--but the managers, no longer alarmed by the fear of rebellion or violence, began a system of retaliation and revenge, by withdrawing cooks, water-carriers, and nurses, from the field, by refusing medicine and admittance to the hospital to the apprentice children, and by compelling old and infirm people, who had been allowed to withdraw from labor, and mothers of six children, who were exempt by the slave law from hard labor, to come out and work in the field. All this had a natural tendency to create irritation, and did do so; though, to the great credit of the people, in many instances, they submitted with the most extraordinary patience, to evils which were the more onerous, because inflicted under the affected sanction of a law, whose advent, as the herald of liberty, they had expected would have been attended with a train of blessings. I effected a change in this miserable state of things; and mutual contract for labor, in crop and out of it, were made on twenty-five estates in my district, before, I believe, any arrangement had been made in other parts of the island, between the managers and the apprentices; so that from being in a more unsettled state than others, we were soon happily in a more prosperous one, and so continued.
No peasantry in the most favored country on the globe, can have been more irreproachable in morals and conduct than the majority of apprentices in that district, since the beginning of 1835. I have, month after month, in my despatches to the governor, had to record instances of excess of labor, compared with the quantity performed during slavery in some kinds of work; and while I have with pleasure reported the improving condition, habits, manners, and the industry which characterized the labors of the peasantry, I have not been an indifferent or uninterested witness of the improvement in the condition of many estates, the result of the judicious application of labor, and of the confidence in the future and sanguine expectations of the proprietors, evinced in the enlargements of the works, and expensive and permanent repair of the buildings on various estates, and in the high prices given for properties and land since the apprenticeship system, which would scarcely have commanded a purchaser, at any price, during the existence of slavery.
I have invariably found the apprentice willing to work for an equitable hire, and on all the sugar estates, and several of the plantations, in the district I speak of, they worked a considerable portion of their own time during crop, about the works, for money, or an equivalent in herrings, sugar, etc., to so great a degree, that less than the time allotted to them during slavery, was left for appropriation to the cultivation of their grounds, and for marketing, as the majority, very much to their credit, scrupulously avoided working on the Sabbath day.
In no community in the world is crime less prevalent. At the quarter sessions, in January last, for the precinct of St. Thomas in the East, and St. David, which contains an apprentice population of about thirty thousand, there was only one apprentice tried. And the offences that have, in general, for the last eighteen months, been brought before me on estates, have been of the most trivial description, such as an individual occasionally turning out late, or some one of an irritable temper answering impatiently, or for some trifling act of disobedience; in fact, the majority of apprentices on estates have been untainted with offence, and have steadily and quietly performed their duty, and respected the law. The apprentices of St. Thomas in the East, I do not hesitate to say, are much superior in manners and morals to those who inhabit the towns.
During the first six or eight months, while the planters were in doubt how far the endurance of their laborers might be taxed, the utmost deference and respect was paid by them to the special magistrates; their suggestions or recommendations were adopted without cavil, and opinions taken without reference to the letter of the law; but when the obedience of the apprentice, and his strict deference to the law and its administrators, had inspired them with a consciousness of perfect security, I observed with much regret, a great alteration in the deportment of many of the managers towards myself and the people; trivial and insignificant complaints were astonishingly increased, and assaults on apprentices became more frequent, so that in the degree that the conduct of one party was more in accordance with the obligations imposed on him by the apprenticeship, was that of the other in opposition to it; again with the hold and infirm harassed; again were mothers of six living children attempted to be forced to perform field labor; and again were mothers with sucking children complained of, and some attempts made to deprive them of the usual nurses.
Such treatment was not calculated to promote cordiality between master and apprentice, and the effect will, I fear, have a very unfavorable influence upon the working of many estates, at the termination of the system; in fact, when that period arrives, if the feeling of estrangement be no worse, I am convinced it will be no better than it is at the present moment, as I have witnessed no pains taking on the part of the attorneys generally to attach the apprentices to the properties, or to prepare them in a beneficial manner for the coming change. It was a very common practice in the district, when an apprentice was about to purchase his discharge, to attempt to intimidate him by threats of immediate ejectment from the property, and if in the face of this threatened separation from family and connections, he persevered and procured his release, then the sincerity of the previous intimations was evinced by a peremptory order, to instantly quit the property, under the penalty of having the trespass act enforced against him; and if my interference prevented any outrageous violation of law, so many obstructions and annoyances were placed in the way of his communication with his family, or enjoyment of his domestic rights, that he would be compelled for their peace, and his own personal convenience, to submit to privations, which, as a slave, he would not have been subject to. The consequence is, that those released from the obligations of the apprenticeship by purchase, instead of being located, and laboring for hire upon the estate to which they were attached, and forming a nucleus around which others would have gathered and settled themselves, they have been principally driven to find other homes, and in the majority of instances have purchased land, and become settlers on their own account. If complete emancipation had taken place in 1834, there would have been no more excitement, and no more trouble to allay it, than that which was the consequence of the introduction of the present system of coerced and uncompensated labor. The relations of society would have been fixed upon a permanent basis, and the two orders would not have been placed in that situation of jealousy and suspicion which their present anomalous condition has been the baneful means of creating.
I am convinced there never was any serious alarm about the consequences of immediate emancipation among those who were acquainted with the peasantry of Jamaica. The fears of the morbidly humane were purposely excited to increase the amount of compensation, or to lengthen the duration of the apprenticeship; and the daily ridiculous and untruthful statements that are made by the vitiated portion of the Jamaica press, of the indolence of the apprentices, their disinclination to work in their own time, and the great increase of crime, are purposely and insidiously put forward to prevent the fact of the industry, and decorum, and deference to the law, of the people, and the prosperous condition of the estates, appearing in too prominent a light, lest the friends of humanity, and the advocates for the equal rights of men, should be encouraged to agitate for the destruction of a system which, in its general operation, has retained many of the worst features of slavery, perpetuated many gross infringements of the social and domestic rights of the working classes; and which, instead of working out the benevolent intention of the imperial legislature, by aiding and encouraging the expansion of intellect, and supplying motives for the permanent good conduct of the apprentices, in its termination, has, I fear, retarded the rapidity with which civilization would have advanced, and sown the seeds of a feeling more bitter than that which slavery, with all its abominations, had engendered.
I am, dear sirs, your very faithful servant,
EDMUND B. LYON, Special Justice.
Extract from a communication which we received from Wm. Henry Anderson,
Esq., of Kingston, the Solicitor-General for Jamaica.
The staples of the island must be cultivated after 1840 as now, because if not, the negroes could not obtain the comforts or luxuries, of which they are undoubtedly very desirous, from cultivation of their grounds. The fruits and roots necessary for the public markets are already supplied in profusion at tolerably moderate prices: if the supply were greatly increased, the prices could not be remunerative. There is no way in which they can so readily as by labor for wages, obtain money, and therefore I hold that there must ever be an adequate supply of labor in the market.
The negroes are in my opinion very acute in their perceptions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, and appreciate fully the benefits of equitable legislation, and would unreservedly submit to it where they felt confidence in the purity of its administration.
There is not the slightest likelihood of rebellion on the part of the negroes after 1840, unless some unrighteous attempts be made to keep up the helotism of the class by enactments of partial laws. They could have no interest in rebellion, they could gain nothing by it; and might lose every thing; nor do I think they dream of such a thing. They are ardently attached to the British government, and would be so to the colonial government, were it to indicate by its enactments any purposes of kindness or protection towards them. Hitherto the scope of its legislation has been, in reference to them, almost exclusively coercive; certainly there have been no enactments of a tendency to conciliate their good will or attachment.
The negroes are much desirous of education and religious instruction: no one who has attended to the matter can gainsay that. Formerly marriage was unknown amongst them; they were in fact only regarded by their masters, and I fear by themselves too, as so many brutes for labor, and for increase. Now they seek the benefits of the social institution of marriage and its train of hallowed relationships: concubinage is becoming quite disreputable; many are seeking to repair their conduct by marriage to their former partners, and no one in any rank of life would be hardy enough to express disapprobation of those who have done or may do so.
WM. HENRY ANDERSON.
Kingston, Jamaica, 24th April, 1837.
* * * * *
The following communication is the monthly report for March, 1837, of Major J.B. Colthurst, special justice for District A., Rural Division, Barbadoes.
The general conduct of the apprentices since my last report has been excellent, considering that greater demands have been made upon their labor at this moment to save perhaps the finest crop of canes ever grown in the island.
Upon the large estates generally the best feeling exists, because they are in three cases out of four conducted by either the proprietors themselves, or attorneys and managers of sense and consideration. Here all things go on well; the people are well provided and comfortable, and therefore the best possible understanding prevails.
The apprentices in my district perform their work most willingly, whenever the immediate manager is a man of sense and humanity. If this is not the case, the effect is soon seen, and complaints begin to be made. Misunderstandings are usually confined to the smaller estates, particularly in the neighborhood of Bridgetown, where the lots are very small, and the apprentice population of a less rural description, and more or less also corrupted by daily intercourse with the town.
The working hours most generally in use in my district are as follows: On most estates, the apprentices work from six to nine, breakfast; from ten to one, dinner--rest; from three to six, work.
It is almost the constant practice of the apprentices, particularly the praedials or rural portion, to work in their own time for money wages, at the rate of a quarter dollar a day. They sometimes work also during those periods in their little gardens round their negro houses, and which they most generally enjoy without charge, or in the land they obtain in lieu of allowance, they seem ALWAYS well pleased to be fully employed at free labor, and work, when so employed, exceedingly well. I know a small estate, worked exclusively on this system. It is in excellent order, and the proprietor tells me his profits are greater than they would be under the apprenticeship. He is a sensible and correct man, and I therefore rely upon his information. During the hurry always attendant on the saving of the crop, the apprentices are generally hired in their own time upon their respective estates at the above rate, and which they seldom refuse. No hesitation generally occurs in this or any other matter, whenever the employer discharges his duty by them in a steady and considerate manner.
The attendance at church throughout my district is most respectable; but the accommodation, either in this respect or as regards schools, is by no means adequate to the wants of the people. The apprentices conduct themselves during divine service in the most correct manner, and it is most gratifying to perceive, that only very little exertion, indeed, would be required to render them excellent members of society. This fact is fully proved by the orderly situation of a few estates in my district, that have had the opportunity of receiving some moral and religious instruction. There are sixty-four estates in my district over twenty-five acres. Upon four of those plantations where the apprentices have been thus taught, there are a greater number of married couples (which may be considered a fair test) than upon the remaining sixty. I scarcely ever have a complaint from these four estates, and they are generally reported to be in a most orderly state.
In the memory of the oldest inhabitant, the island has never produced a finer crop of canes than that now in the course of manufacture. All other crops are luxuriant, and the plantations in a high state of agricultural cleanliness. The season has been very favorable.
Under the head of general inquiry, I beg leave to offer a few remarks. I have now great pleasure in having it in my power to state, that a manifest change for the better has taken place gradually in my district within the last few months. Asperities seem to be giving way to calm discussion, and the laws are better understood and obeyed.
It is said in other colonies as well as here, that there has been, and still continues to be, a great want of natural affection among the negro parents for their children, and that great mortality among the free children has occurred in consequence. This opinion, I understand, has been lately expressed in confident terms by the legislature of St. Vincent's, which has been fully and satisfactorily contradicted by the reports of the special justices to the lieutenant-governor. The same assertion has been made by individuals to myself. As regards Barbadoes, I have spared no pains to discover whether such statements were facts, and I now am happy to say, that not a single instance of unnatural conduct on the part of the negro parents to their children has come to my knowledge--far, perhaps too far, the contrary is the case; over indulgence and petting them seems in my judgment to be the only matter the parents can be, with any justice, accused of. They exhibit their fondness in a thousand ways. Contrasting the actual conduct of the negro parents with the assertions of the planters, it is impossible not to infer that some bitterness is felt by the latter on the score of their lost authority. When this is the case, reaction is the natural consequence, and thus misunderstandings and complaints ensue. The like assertions are made with respect to the disinclination of the parents to send their children to school. This certainly does exist to a certain extent, particularly to schools where the under classes of whites are taught, who often treat the negro children in a most imperious and hostile manner. As some proof that no decided objection exists in the negro to educate his children, a vast number of the apprentices of my district send them to school, and take pride in paying a bit a week each for them--a quarter dollar entrance and a quarter dollar for each vacation. Those schools are almost always conducted by a black man and his married wife. However, they are well attended, but are very few in number.
To show that the apprentices fully estimate the blessings of education, many females hire their apprentice children at a quarter dollar a week from their masters, for the express purpose of sending them to school. This proves the possibility of a voluntary system of education succeeding, provided it was preceded by full and satisfactory explanation to the parties concerned. I have also little doubt that labor to the extent I speak of, may be successfully introduced when the apprentices become assured that nothing but the ultimate welfare of themselves and children is intended; but so suspicious are they from habit, and, as I said before, so profoundly ignorant of what may in truth and sincerity be meant only for their benefit, that it will require great caution and delicacy on the occasion. Those suspicions have not been matured in the negroes mind without cause--the whole history of slavery proves it. Such suspicions are even now only relinquished under doubts and apprehensions; therefore, all new and material points, to be carried successfully with them, should be proposed to them upon the most liberal and open grounds.
J.B. COLTHURST, Special Justice Peace, District A, Rural Division.
* * * * *
General return of the imports and exports of the island of Barbadoes, during a series of years--furnished by the Custom-house officer at Bridgetown.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| 1832 | 481,610 | 6 | 3 |
| 1833 | 462,132 | 14 | 4 |
| 1834 | 449,169 | 12 | 4 |
| 1835 | 595,961 | 13 | 2 |
| 1836 | 622,128 | 19 | 11 |
IMPORTS OF LUMBER.
| Feet. | Shingles. | |
| 1833 | 5,290,086 | 5,598,958 |
| 1834 | 5,708,494 | 5,506,646 |
| 1835 | 5,794,596 | 4,289,025 |
| 1836 | 7,196,189 | 7,037,462 |
IMPORTS OF PROVISIONS.
| Flour. | Corn Meal. |
| Y'rs. | bbls. | 1/2 bbls. | bush. | bbls. |
| 1833 | 21,535 | 397 | 629 | 265 |
| 1834 | 34,191 | 865 | 1675 | 1580 |
| 1835 | 32,393 | 828 | 160 | 809 |
| 1836 | 41,975 | 433 | 823 | 1123 |
| Bread and Biscuits. | Oats & Corn. |
| Y'rs. | hds. | bbls. | 1/2 bbls. | kegs. | bags. | bags. | qrs. |
| 1833 | 49 | 2146 | 30 | " | " | 430 | 50 |
| 1834 | 401 | 8561 | 99 | 57 | " | 100 | 1025 |
| 1835 | 2024 | 10762 | " | " | " | 2913 | 3134 |
| 1836 | 4 | 4048 | " | " | 1058 | 8168 | 3119 |
IMPORTS OF CATTLE, ETC.
| Cattle. | Horses. | Mules. | |
| 1833 | 649 | 462 | 65 |
| 1834 | 549 | 728 | 24 |
| 1835 | 569 | 1047 | 43 |
| 1836 | 1013 | 1345 | 104 |
RETURN OF EXPORTS--SUGAR.
| hhds. | trcs. | bbls. | |
| 1832 | 18,804 | 1278 | 838 |
| 1833 | 27,015 | 1505 | 651 |
| 1834 | 27,593 | 1464 | 1083 |
| 1835 | 24,309 | 1417 | 938 |
| 1836 | 25,060 | 1796 | 804 |
* * * * *
VALUATIONS OF APPRENTICES IN JAMAICA.
"From the 1st of August, 1834, to 31st of May, 1836, 998 apprentices purchased their freedom by valuation, and paid £33,998. From 31st May, 1836, to 1st November, in the same year, 582 apprentices purchased themselves, and paid £18,217--making, in all, £52,216--a prodigious sum to be furnished by the negroes in two years. From the above statement it appears that the desire to be free is daily becoming more general and more intense, and that the price of liberty remains the same, although the term of apprenticeship is decreasing. The amount paid by the apprentices is a proof of the extent of the exertions and sacrifices they are willing to make for freedom, which can scarcely be appreciated by those who are unacquainted with the disadvantages of their previous condition. The negroes frequently raise the money by loans to purchase their freedom, and they are scrupulous in repaying money lent them for that purpose."
The above is extracted from the "West Indies in 1837," an English work by Messrs. Sturge and Harvey, page 86, Appendix.
* * * * *
We insert the following tabular view of the crops in Jamaica for a series of years preceding 1837.--As the table and "Remarks" appended were first published in the St. Jago Gazette, a decided "pro-slavery" paper, we insert, in connection with them, the remarks of the Jamaica Watchman, published at Kingston, and an article on the present condition of slavery, from the Telegraph, published at Spanishtown, the seat of the colonial government.
A GENERAL RETURN OF EXPORTS From the island of Jamaica, for 53 years, ending 31st December, 1836--copied from the Journals of the House.
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e | SUGAR | RUM |LAS| GINGER |
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o | s | | | s | s | | | | | |
p | d | | | n | d | | | | | |
x | a | s | s | o | a | | s | | | |
E | e | e | l | e | e | | l | | | |
| h | c | e | h | h | s | e | s | s | |
r | s | r | r | c | s | k | r | k | k | s |
a | g | e | r | n | g | s | r | s | s | g |
e | o | i | a | u | o | a | a | a | a | a |
Y | H | T | B | P | H | C | B | C | C | B |
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1772| 69,451| 9,936| 270| | | | | | | |
1773| 72,996|11,453| 849| | | | | | | |
1774| 69,579| 9,250| 278| | | | | | | |
1775| 75,291| 9,090| 425| | | | | | | |
1776| | | | | | | | | | |
1788| 83,036| 9,256|1,063| | | | | | | |
1789| 84,167|10,078|1,077| | | | | | | |
1790| 84,741| 9,284|1,599| | | | | | | |
1791| 85,447| 8,037|1,718| | | | | | | |
1792| | | | | | | | | | |
1793| 77,575| 6,722| 642|34,755| 879| | | | 62| 8,605|
1794| 89,532|11,158|1,224|39,843|1,570| | | | 121|10,305|
1795| 88,851| 9,537|1,225|37,684|1,475| | | | 426|14,861|
1796| 89,219|10,700| 858|40,810|1,364| | | | 690|20,275|
1797| 78,373| 9,963| 753|28,014|1,463| | | | 259|29,098|
1798| 87,896|11,725|1,163|40,823|2,234| | | | 119|18,454|
1799|101,457|13,538|1,321|37,022|1,981| | | | 221|10,358|
1800| 96,347|13,549|1,631|37,166|1,350| | | | 444| 3,586|
1801|123,251|18,704|2,692|48,879|1,514| | | | 12| 239|
1802|129,544|15,403|2,403|45,632|2,073| 473| 205|366| 23| 2,079|
1803|107,387|11,825|1,797|43,298|1,416| | |461| 51| 3,287|
1804|103,352|12,802|2,207|42,207| 913| | |429|1,094| 1,854|
1805|137,906|17,977|3,689|53,211|1,328| 133| 167|471| 315| 2,128|
1806|133,996|18,237|3,579|58,191|1,178| | |499| 485| 1,818|
1807|123,175|17,344|3,716|51,812|1,998| | |699| 512| 1,411|
1808|121,444|15,836|2,625|52,409|2,196| | |379| 436| 1,470|
1809|104,457|14,596|3,534|43,492|2,717| | |230|2,321| 572|
1810|108,703| 4,560|3,719|42,353|1,964| | |293| 520| 1,881|
1811|127,751|15,235|3,046|54,093|2,011| | |446|1,110| 2,072|
1812|105,283|11,357|2,558|43,346|1,531| | |151| 804| 1,235|
1813| 97,548|10,029|2,304|44,618|1,345| 382| 874|208| 816| 1,428|
1814|101,846|10,485|2,575|43,486|1,551| 202|1,146|145| 884| 1,668|
1815|118,767|12,224|2,817|52,996|1,465| 574|1,398|242|1,493| 1,667|
1816| 93,881| 9,332|2,236|35,736| 769| 281| 903|166|2,354| 1,118|
1817|116,012|11,094|2,868|47,949|1,094| 203| 916|254|3,361| 1,195|
1818|113,818|11,388|2,786|50,195|1,108| 121| 191|407|2,526| 1,067|
1819|108,305|11,450|3,244|43,946|1,695| 602|1,558|253|1,714| 718|
1820|115,065|11,322|2,474|45,361|1,783| 106| 460|252|1,159| 316|
1821|111,512|11,703|1,972|46,802|1,793| 153| 534|167| 984| 274|
1822| 88,551| 8,705|1,292|28,728|1,124| 9| 442|144| 891| 72|
1823| 94,905| 9,179|1,947|35,242|1,935| 20| 118|614|1,041| 60|
1824| 99,225| 9,651|2,791|37,121|3,261| 5| 64|910|2,230| 52|
1825| 73,813| 7,380|2,858|27,630|2,077| 101| 215|894|3,947| 348|
1826| 99,978| 9,514|3,126|35,610|3,098|1,852| |549|5,724| 517|
1827| 82,096| 7,435|2,770|31,840|2,672|1,573| |204|4,871| 240|
1828| 94,912| 9,428|3,024|36,585|2,793|1,013| |189|5,382| 279|
1829| 91,364| 9,193|3,204|36,285|2,009| 563| | 66|4,101| 168|
1830| 93,882| 8,739|3,645|33,355|2,657|1,367| |154|3,494| 15|
1831| 88,409| 9,053|3,492|34,743|2,846| 982| |230|3,224| 22|
1832| 91,453| 9,987|4,600|32,060|2,570|1,362| |799|4,702| 38|
1833| 78,375| 9,325|4,074|33,215|3,034| 977| |755|4,818| 23|
1834| 77,801| 9,860|3,055|30,495|2,588|1,288| |486|5,925| 116|
1835| 71,017| 8,840|8,455|26,433|1,820| 747| |300|3,985| 486|
1836| 61,644| 7,707|2,497|19,938| 874| 646| |182|5,224| 69|
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d | | |
e | PIMENTO | COFFEE |
t | | |
r |_____________|__________|
o | | | |
p | | | |
x | | | | REMARKS
E | | | s |
| s | | d |
r | k | s | n |
a | s | g | u |
e | a | a | o |
Y | C | B | P |
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1772| | | 841,558|
1773| | | 779,303|
1774| | | 739,039|
1775| | | 493,981|
1776| | | |
1788| | | 1,035,368|
1789| | | 1,493,282|
1790| | | 1,783,740|
1791| | | 2,299,874| August--Destruction of
1792| | | | Santo Domingo.
1793| 420| 9,108| 3,983,576|
1794| 554|22,153| 4,911,549|
1795| 957|20,451| 6,318,812|
1796| 136| 9,820| 7,203,539|
1797| 328| 2,935| 7,869,133|
1798| 1,181| 8,961| 7,894,306|
1799| 1,766|28,273|11,745,425| Bourbon cane introduced.
1800| 610|12,759|11,116,474|
1801| 648|14,084|13,401,468|
1802| 591| 7,793|17,961,923|
1803| 867|14,875|15,866,291|
1804| 1,417|19,572|22,063,980|
1805| 288| 7,157|21,137,393| Largest sugar crop.
1806| 1,094|19,534|29,298,036|
1807| 525|19,224|26,761,188| March 25th, abolition of
1808| 225| 6,529|29,528,273| African slave trade.
1809|21,022| 1,177|25,586,668|
1810| 4,276|21,163|25,885,285|
1811| 638|22,074|17,460,068|
1812| 598| 7,778|18,481,986|
1813| 1,124|14,361|24,623,572| Storm in October, 1812
1814| 394|10,711|34,045,585| Largest coffee crop.
1815| 844|27,386|27,362,742|
1816| 851|28,047|17,289,393| Storm in October, 1815
1817| 946|15,817|14,793,706|
1818| 941|21,071|25,329,456|
1819| 882|24,500|14,091,983|
1820| 673|12,880|22,127,444|
1821| 1,224|24,827|16,819,761|
1822| 699|18,672|19,773,912| Extreme drought.
1823| 1,894|21,481|20,326,445| Mr. Canning's resolutions
1824| 599|33,306|27,667,239| relative to slavery.
1825| 537|20,979|21,254,656|
1826| 522|16,433|20,352,886| Severe drought in 1824, the previous year.
1827| 3,236|26,691|25,741,520|
1828| 4,003|25,352|22,216,780|
1829| 3,733|48,933|22,234,640|
1830| 5,609|37,925|22,256,950|
1831| 2,844|22,170|14,055,350|
1832| 3,736|27,936|19,815,010|
1833| 7,741|58,581| 9,866,060| Emancipation act passed.
1834| 496|29,301|17,725,731| Seasons favorable.
1835| 1,115|59,033|10,593,018| do.
1836| 227|46,779|13,446,053| do.
The following are the remarks of the editor of the Jamaica Watchman, on the foregoing, in his paper of April 8, 1837:--
A general return of exports from the island for fifty-three years, ending the 31st December last, and purporting to be extracted from the journals of the assembly, has been published, and as usual, the decrease in the crops of the respective years has been attributed to the resolutions passed by the British House of Commons in 1823, and the abolition of slavery in 1833. It is remarkable that in preparing this table, a manifest disposition is evinced to account for the falling off of the crops in certain years anterior, and subsequent to the passing of Mr. Canning's memorable resolution, whilst opposite to the years 1834 and 1835, is written "seasons favorable." In 1813, the sugar crop fell off 8,000 hhds. compared with the previous year, and we are told in reference to this circumstance, that there was a storm in October, 1812. This remark is evidently made to account for the decrease, and perhaps the storm at the close of the previous year was the cause of it. But it is astonishing, and the circumstance is worthy of notice, that whilst the sugar crop fell off nearly 8,000 hhds. the coffee crop increased nearly six millions of pounds. We should have supposed that the coffee trees would have suffered more from the effects of a storm, than the canes. However, the effect was as we have stated it, whatever might have been the cause. In 1814, the largest coffee crop was made. Again, in 1816, there was a decrease in the sugar crop compared with the year immediately preceding it of nearly 25,000 hhds. And here we have the storm of October, 1815, assigned as a reason. The coffee crop in this instance also fell off nearly ten millions of pounds. In 1822, the sugar crop was reduced 23,000 hhds., and the coffee crop increased three millions of pounds. The reason now assigned is an "extreme drought." The celebrated resolutions relative to slavery now appear to begin to exercise their baneful influence on the seasons and the soil of our island. In the year in which they were passed, 1823, 94,900 hogsheads of sugar were made, and twenty millions of pounds of coffee gathered. 1824 came, and the crop, instead of being reduced, was increased from nearly 95,000 hogsheads to upwards of 99,000 hogsheads. The coffee crop was also greater by seven millions of pounds. In 1825, they fall off to 73,860 hogsheads and twenty-one millions. In 1826, the sugar crop rather exceeded that of 1824, but the coffee crop was seven millions less. In 1827, from causes not known to us, for none were assigned, there was a difference of 16,000 hhds. of sugar, and an increase of five millions of pounds of coffee. 1828, 29, and 30, were pretty nearly alike in sugar and coffee crops, and about equal to 1823. The crops of 1831 fell off from 93 to 88,000 hogsheads of sugar, and from 22 to 14 millions of pounds of coffee. No reason is assigned for this reduction. It was during the continuance of the driving system, and therefore no blame can attach to the managers. In 1832, the crop rose to 91,000 hogsheads of sugar, and nearly twenty millions of pounds of coffee. But 1833 comes, and, with it, fresh troubles for the planters. In that ill-fated year, there was a decrease of 13,000 hogsheads sugar, and of ten millions of pounds of coffee. Its sugar crop was the smallest made, with the exception of that of 1825, since 1793, and its coffee crop since that of 1798. But if this determination be alarming, what must be that of the succeeding years. Can we be blamed, if, in a strain truly lachrymal, we allude to the deductions which have annually been made from the miserable return which 1833 gave to the unfortunate proprietors of estates? What boots it to tell us that we have fingered thousands of pounds sterling, in the shape of compensation: and what consolation is it to know, that a hogshead of sugar will now bring thirty pounds, which, a short time ago, was only worth twelve. Let any unprejudiced individual look at the return now before us, and say whether our prospects are not deplorably dull and obscure. If we take the four years immediately preceding the passing of Mr. Canning's resolutions, say 1819, 20, 21, and 22; we will find the average to be 105,858 hogsheads, and if from this we even deduct one fourth for the time now lost, there will be an average crop of 79,394 hhds., being 7,185 hogsheads mere than the average of 1833, 34, 35, and 36; and no one will deny that this falling off of one tenth, (supposing that the hogsheads made during the last four years are not larger than those of 1819 to 1822) is nearly, if not quite equal to the increase of price, from twelve to thirty pounds, or one hundred and fifty per cent.
It is true some persons may be disposed to take the four years subsequent to the passing of Mr. Canning's resolutions, say 1823, 4, 5, and 6, and compare them with the four years ending 31st December last. Should this be done, it will be found that the average crop of the previous four years is 91,980 hhds., and if from it is deducted one fourth, there will remain 68,985 hhds., whilst the average of the other four years is 72,200 hhds. Such a mode of comparison must, however, be obviously incorrect; because, in the first place, Mr. Canning's resolutions had reduced the crops of those years considerably below the average of the years immediately preceding them, and next, because it would show the advantage to be on the side of freedom in the ratio of seventy-two to sixty-nine, which cannot be correct. Besides, in 1824, there was a severe drought, whereas in 1834 and 35 the seasons are reported as being favorable. Again, it is necessary, in instituting such an inquiry, to go back more than fourteen years; nor is it a valid objection to this to say, that even during that period a number of estates have been thrown out of cultivation, in consequence of being worn out and unprofitable. "Deplorable," however, as is the "falling off in the yearly amounts of our staple productions, which have decreased," gentle reader, according to the despatch, "in an accelerated ratio within the last few years, till in the year 1836, when they do not average one half the returns of former years preceding that of 1823, the year that Mr. Canning's resolutions for the ultimate abolition of slavery in the British colonies passed the House of Commons," still it is a matter of sincere gratification to know, that the sugar planters are better off now than they have been for the last fourteen or fifteen years. With the compensation money a great many of them have been enabled to pay off their English debts, and the remainder very considerably to reduce them, whilst the reduction in the quantity of sugar produced, has occasioned such a rise in the price of that article as will place the former in easy circumstances, and enable the latter entirely to free themselves from the trammels of English mortgagees, and the tender mercies of English mortgagees before the 1st August, 1840, arrives. And ought these parties not to be thankful? Unquestionably they ought. Ingratitude, we are told, is as the sin of witchcraft, and although the table of exports exhibits our fair island as hastening to a state of ruin, and the despatch tells us that "by the united influence of mock philanthropy, religious cant, and humbug," a reformed parliament was forced "to precipitate the slavery spoliation act under the specious pretext of promoting the industry and improving the condition of the manumitted slaves," still we maintain, and the reasonable will agree with us, that we are much better off now than we have been for a long time, and that Jamaica's brightest and happiest days have not yet dawned. Let the croakers remember the remarkable words of the Tory Lord, Belmore, the planter's friend, and be silent--"The resources of this fine island will never be fully developed until slavery ceases." The happiness and prosperity of the inhabitants of Jamaica are not contingent, nor need they be, upon the number of hogsheads of sugar annually exported from her shores.
* * * * *
To the foregoing we add the remarks of the editor of the "Spanishtown Telegraph," on the present state of the colony, made in his paper of May 9, 1837:--
"When it was understood that the island of Jamaica and the other British West Indian colonies were to undergo the blessed transition from slavery to freedom, it was the hourly cry of the pro-slavery party and press, that the ruin of Jamaica would, as a natural consequence, follow liberty! Commerce, said they, will cease; hordes of barbarians will come upon us and drive us from our own properties; agriculture will be completely paralyzed; and Jamaica, in the space of a few short months, will be seen buried in ashes--irretrievably ruined. Such were the awful predictions of an unjust, illiberal faction!! Such the first fruits that were to follow the incomparable blessings of liberty! The staple productions of the island, it was vainly surmised, could never be cultivated without the name of slavery; rebellions, massacres, starvation, rapine and bloodshed, danced through the columns of the liberty-hating papers, in mazes of metaphorical confusion. In short, the name of freedom was, according to their assertions, directly calculated to overthrow our beautiful island, and involve it in one mass of ruin, unequalled in the annals of history!! But what has been the result? All their fearful forebodings and horrible predictions have been entirely disproved, and instead of liberty proving a curse, she has, on the contrary, unfolded her banners, and, ere long, is likely to reign triumphant in our land. Banks, steam companies, railroads, charity schools, etc., seem all to have remained dormant until the time arrived when Jamaica was to be enveloped in smoke! No man thought of hazarding his capital in an extensive banking establishment until Jamaica's ruin, by the introduction of freedom, had been accomplished!! No person was found possessed of sufficient energy to speak of navigation companies in Jamaica's brightest days of slavery; but now that ruin stares every one in the face--now that we have no longer the power to treat out peasantry as we please, they have taken it into their heads to establish so excellent an undertaking. Railroads were not dreamt of until darling slavery had (in a great measure) departed, and now, when we thought of throwing up our estates, and flying from the dangers of emancipation, the best projects are being set on foot, and what is worst, are likely to succeed! This is the way that our Jamaica folks, no doubt, reason with themselves. But the reasons for the delay which have taken place in the establishment of all these valuable undertakings, are too evident to require elucidation. We behold the Despatch and Chronicle, asserting the ruin of our island; the overthrow of all order and society; and with the knowledge of all this, they speak of the profits likely to result from steam navigation, banking establishments, and railroads! What in the name of conscience, can be the use of steam-vessels when Jamaica's ruin is so fast approaching? What are the planters and merchants to ship in steamers when the apprentices will not work, and there is nothing doing? How is the bank expected to advance money to the planters, when their total destruction has been accomplished by the abolition of slavery? What, in the name of reason, can be the use of railroads, when commerce and agriculture have been nipped in the bud, by that baneful weed, Freedom? Let the unjust panderers of discord, the haters of liberty, answer. Let them consider what has all this time retarded the development of Jamaica's resources, and they will find that it was slavery; yes, it was its very name which prevented the idea of undertakings such as are being brought about. Had it not been for the introduction of freedom in our land; had the cruel monster, Slavery, not partially disappeared, when would we have seen banks, steamers, or railroads? No man thought of hazarding his capital in the days of slavery, but now that a new era has burst upon us, a complete change has taken possession of the hearts of all just men, and they think of improving the blessing of freedom by the introduction of other things which must ever prove beneficial to the country.
The vast improvements that are every day being effected in this island, and throughout the other colonies, stamp the assertions of the pro-slavery party as the vilest falsehoods. They glory in the introduction of banks, steam-vessels, and railroads; with the knowledge (as they would have us believe) that the island is fast verging into destruction. They speak of the utility and success of railroads, when, according to their showing, there is no produce to be sent to market, when agriculture has been paralyzed, and Jamaica swept to destruction."
* * * * *
The following copious extracts from a speech of Lord Brougham, on the workings of the apprenticeship, and on the immediate emancipation substituted therefor in Antigua and the Bermudas, are specially commended to the notice of the reader. The speech was delivered in the House of Lords, Feb. 20, 1838. We take it from the published report of the speech in the London Times, of Feb. 25:--
I now must approach that subject which has some time excited almost universal anxiety. Allow me, however, first to remind your lordships--because that goes to the root of the evil--allow me first to remind you of the anxiety that existed previous to the Emancipation Act which was passed in January, 1833, coming into operation in August, 1834. My lords, there was much to apprehend from the character of the masters of the slaves. I know the nature of man. * * * * I know that he who has abused power clings to it with a yet more convulsive grasp. I know his revenge against those who have been rescued from his tyrannous fangs; I know that he never forgives those whom he has injured, whether white or black. I have never yet met with an unforgiving enemy, except in the person of one of whose injustice I had a right to complain. On the part of the slaves, my lords, I was not without anxiety; for I know the corrupt nature of the degrading system under which they groaned. * * * * It was, therefore, I confess, my lords, with some anxiety that I looked forward to the 1st of August, 1834; and I yielded, though reluctantly, to the plan of an intermediate state before what was called the full enjoyment of freedom--the transition condition of indentured apprenticeship.
The first of August arrived--that day so confidently and joyously anticipated by the poor slaves, and so sorely dreaded by their hard taskmasters--and if ever there was a picture interesting to look upon--if ever there was a passage in the history of a people redounding to their eternal honor--if ever there was a complete refutation of all the scandalous calumnies which had been heaped upon them for ages, as if in justification of the wrongs which we had done them--(Hear, hear)--that picture and that passage are to be found in the uniform and unvarying history of that people throughout the whole of the West India islands. Instead of the fires of rebellion, lit by a feeling of lawless revenge and resistance to oppression, the whole of those islands were, like an Arabian scene, illuminated by the light of contentment, joy, peace, and good-will towards all men. No civilized people, after gaining an unexpected victory, could have shown more delicacy and forbearance than was exhibited by the slaves at the great moral consummation which they had attained. There was not a look or a gesture which could gall the eyes of their masters. Not a sound escaped from negro lips which could wound the ears of the most feverish planter in the islands. All was joy, mutual congratulation, and hope.
This peaceful joy, this delicacy towards the feelings of others, was all that was to be seen, heard, or felt, on that occasion, throughout the West India islands.
It was held that the day of emancipation would be one of riot and debauchery, and that even the lives of the planters would be endangered. So far from this proving the case, the whole of the negro population kept it as a most sacred festival, and in this light I am convinced it will ever be viewed.
In one island, where the bounty of nature seems to provoke the appetite to indulgence, and to scatter with a profuse hand all the means of excitement, I state the fact when I say not one drunken negro was found during the whole of the day. No less than 800,000 slaves were liberated in that one day, and their peaceful festivity was disturbed only on one estate, in one parish, by an irregularity which three or four persons sufficed to put down.
Well, my lords, baffled in their expectations that the first of August would prove a day of disturbance--baffled also in the expectation that no voluntary labor would be done--we were then told by the "practical men," to look forward to a later period. We have done so, and what have we seen? Why, that from the time voluntary labor began, there was no want of men to work for hire, and that there was no difficulty in getting those who as apprentices had to give the planters certain hours of work, to extend, upon emergency, their period of labor, by hiring out their services for wages to strangers. I have the authority of my noble friend behind me, (the Marquis of Sligo,) who very particularly, inquired into the matter, when I state that on nine estates out of ten there was no difficulty in obtaining as much work as the owners had occasion for, on the payment of wages. How does all this contrast with the predictions of the "practical men?" "Oh," said they, in 1833, "it is idle talking; the cart-whip must be used--without that stimulant no negro will work--the nature of the negro is idle and indolent, and without the thought of the cartwhip is before his eyes he falls asleep--put the cartwhip aside and no labor will be done." Has this proved the case? No, my lords, it has not; and while every abundance of voluntary labor has been found, in no one instance has the stimulus of the cartwhip been found wanting. The apprentices work well without the whip, and wages have been found quite as good a stimulus as the scourge even to negro industry. "Oh, but" it is said, "this may do in cotton planting and cotton picking, and indigo making; but the cane will cease to grow, the operation of hoeing will be known no more, boiling will cease to be practised, and sugar-making will terminate entirely." Many, I know, were appalled by these reasonings, and the hopes of many were dissipated by these confident predictions of these so-deemed experienced men. But how stands the case now? My lords, let these experienced men, come forth with their experience. I will plant mine against it, and you will find he will talk no more of his experience when I tell him--tell him, too, without fear of contradiction--that during the year which followed the first of August, 1834, twice as much sugar per hour, and of a better quality as compared with the preceding years, was stored throughout the sugar districts; and that one man, a large planter, has expressly avowed, that with twenty freemen he could do more work than with a hundred slaves or fifty indentured apprentices. (Hear, hear.) But Antigua!--what has happened there? There has not been even the system of indentured apprentices. In Antigua and the Bermudas, as would have been the case at Montserrat if the upper house had not thrown out the bill which was prepared by the planters themselves, there had been no preparatory step. In Antigua and the Bermudas, since the first of August, 1834, not a slave or indentured apprentice was to be found. Well, had idleness reigned there--had indolence supplanted work--had there been any deficiency of crop? No. On the contrary, there had been an increase, and not a diminution of crop. (Hear.) But, then, it was said that quiet could not be expected after slavery in its most complete and abject form had so long reigned paramount, and that any sudden emancipation must endanger the peace of the islands. The experience of the first of August at once scattered to the winds that most fallacious prophecy. Then it was said, only wait till Christmas, for that is a period when, by all who have any practical knowledge of the negro character, a rebellion on their part is most to be apprehended. We did wait for this dreaded Christmas; and what was the result? I will go for it to Antigua, for it is the strongest case, there being there no indentured apprentices--no preparatory state--no transition--the chains being at once knocked off, and the negroes made at once free. For the first time within the last thirty years, at the Christmas of the year 1834, martial law was not proclaimed in the island of Antigua. You talk of facts--here is one. You talk of experience--here it is. And with these facts and this experience before us, I call on those soi-disant men of experience--those men who scoffed at us--who laughed to scorn at what they called our visionary, theoretical schemes--schemes that never could be carried into effect without rebellion and the loss of the colonies--I say, my lords, I call on these experienced men to come forward, and, if they can, deny one single iota of the statement I am now making. Let those who thought that with the use of those phrases, "a planter of Jamaica" "the West India interest," "residence in Jamaica and its experience," they could make our balance kick the beam--let them, I say, hear what I tell, for it is but the fact--that when the chains were knocked off there was not a single breach of the peace committed either on the day itself, or on the Christmas festival which followed.
Well, my lords, beaten from these two positions, where did the experienced men retreat to under what flimsy pretext did they next undertake to disparage the poor negro race? Had I not seen it in print, and been otherwise informed of the fact, I could not have believed it possible that from any reasonable man any such absurdity could issue. They actually held out this last fear, which, like the others, was fated to be dissipated by the fact. "Wait only," said they, "till the anniversary of the first of August, and then you will see what the negro character is, and how little these indentured apprentices are fit to be entrusted with freedom." Was there ever such an absurdity uttered, as if my lords, the man who could meet with firm tranquillity and peaceful thankfulness the event itself, was likely to be raised to rebellion and rioting by the recollection of it a year afterwards. My lords, in considering this matter, I ask you, then, to be guided by your own experience, and nothing else; profit by it, my lords, and turn it to your own account; for it, according to that book which all of us must revere, teaches even the most foolish of a foolish race. I do not ask you to adopt as your own the experience of others; you have as much as you can desire of your own, and by no other test do I wish or desire to be judged. But I think my task may be said to be done. I think I have proved my case, for I have shown that the negro can work without the stimulant of the whip; I have shown that he can labor for hire without any other motive than that of industry to inspire him. I have demonstrated that all over the West Indies, even when fatigued with working the allotted hours for the profit of his master, he can work again for wages for him who chooses to hire him and has wherewithal to pay him; I have also most distinctly shown that the experience of Antigua and the Bermudas is demonstrative to show that without any state of preparation, without any indenture of apprenticeship at all, he is fit to be intrusted with his freedom, and will work voluntarily as a free laborer for hire. But I have also demonstrated from the same experience, and by reference to the same state of facts, that a more quiet, inoffensive, peaceable, innocent people, is not to be found on the face of this earth than the negro--not in their own unhappy country, but after they have been removed from it and enslaved in your Christian land, made the victim of the barbarizing demon of civilized powers, and has all this character, if it were possible to corrupt it, and his feelings, if it were possible to pervert them, attempted to be corrupted and perverted by Christian and civilized men, and that in this state, with all incentives to misdemeanor poured around him, and all the temptation to misconduct which the arts and artifices and examples of civilized man can give hovering over him--that after this transition is made from slavery to apprenticeship, and from slavery to absolute freedom, a negro's spirit has been found to rival the unbroken tranquillity of the Caribbean Seas. (Cheers.) This was not the state of things we expected, my lords; and in proof that it was not so, I have but to refer you to the statute book itself. On what ground did you enact the intermediate state of indenture apprenticeship, and on what arguments did you justify it? You felt and acknowledged that the negro had a right to be free, and that you had no right to detain him in bondage. Every one admitted this, but in the prevailing ignorance of their character it was apprehended that they could not be made free at once, and that time was requisite to train the negro to receive the boon it was intended bestowing upon him.
This was the delusion which prevailed, and which was stated in the preamble of the statute--the same delusion which had made the men on one side state and the other to believe that it was necessary to pay the slave-owners for the loss it was supposed they would sustain. But it was found to be a baseless fear, and the only result of the phantom so conjured up was a payment of twenty millions to the conjurors. (Hear, and a laugh.) Now, I maintain that had we known what we now know of the character of the negroes, neither would this compensation have been given to the slave-owners, nor we have been guilty of proposing to keep the negro in slavery five years, after we were decided that he had a right to his freedom. The noble and learned lord here proceeded to contend that up to the present time the slave-owners, so far from being sufferers, had been gainers by the abolition of slavery and the enactment of the system of apprenticeship, and that consequently up to the present moment nothing had occurred to entitle them to a claim upon the compensation allotted by parliament. The slave-owners might be said to have pocketed the seven millions without having the least claim to them, and therefore, in considering the proposition he was about to make, parliament should bear in mind that the slave proprietors were, if anything, the debtors to the nation. The money had, in fact, been paid to them by mistake, and, were the transaction one between man and man, an action for its recovery might lie. But the slave-owners alleged that if the apprenticeship were now done away there would be a loss, and that to meet that loss they had a right to the money. For argument's sake he would suppose this to be true, and that there would be loss; but would it not be fair that the money should be lodged in the hands of a third party, with authority to pay back at the expiration of the two years whatever rateable sum the master could prove himself to have lost? His firm belief was, that no loss could arise; but, desirous to meet the planter at every point, he should have no objection to make terms with him. Let him, then, pay the money into court, as it were, and at the end of two years he should be fully indemnified for any loss he might prove. He called upon their lordships to look to Antigua and the Bermudas for proof that the free negro worked well, and that no loss was occasioned to the planters or their property by the granting of emancipation. But it was said that there was a difference between the cases of Antigua and other colonies, such as Jamaica, and it was urged that while the negroes of the former, from the smallness and barrenness of the place, would be forced into work, that in the latter they would run away, and take refuge in the woods. Now, he asked, why should the negro run away from his work, on being made free, more than during the continuance of his apprenticeship? Why, again, should it be supposed that on the 1st of August, 1840, the emancipated negroes should have less inclination to betake themselves to the woods than in 1838? If there was a risk of the slaves running to the woods in 1838, that risk would be increased and not diminished during the intermediate period up to 1840, by the treatment they were receiving from their masters, and the deferring of their hopes.
My lords, (continued the noble lord,) I have now to say a few words upon the treatment which the slaves have received during the past three years of their apprenticeship, and which, it is alleged, during the next two years is to make them fitted for absolute emancipation. My lords, I am prepared to show that in most respects the treatment the slaves have received since 1834 is no better, and in many others more unjust and worse, than it ever was in the time of absolute slavery. It is true that the use of the cartwhip as a stimulus to labor has been abolished. This, I admit, is a great and most satisfactory improvement; but, in every other particular, the state of the slave, I am prepared to show, is not improved, and, in many respects, it is materially worse. First, with regard to the article of food, I will compare the Jamaica prison allowance with that allotted to the apprenticed negroes in other colonies. In the Jamaica prison the allowance of rice is 14 pints a week to each person. I have no return of the allowance to the indentured apprentice in Jamaica, but I believe it is little over this; but in Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, it is much under. In Barbadoes, instead of receiving the Jamaica prison allowance of 14 pints a week, the apprenticed negro received but 10 pints: while in the Leeward Islands he had but 8 pints. In the crown colonies, before 1834, the slave received 21 pints of rice, now the apprentice gets but 10; so that in the material article, food, no improvement in the condition of the negro was observable. Then, with regard to time, it is obviously of the utmost importance that the apprentice should have at least two holidays and a half a week--the Sabbath for religious worship and instruction, the Saturday to attend the markets, and half of Friday to work in his own garden. The act of emancipation specified 45 hours a week as the period the apprentice was to work for his master, but the master so contrived matters as in most instances to make the 45 hours the law allotted him run into the apprentice's half of Friday, and even in some cases into the Saturday. The planter invariably counted the time from the moment that the slave commenced his work; and as it often occurs that his residence was on the border of the estate, he may have to walk five or six miles to get to the place he has to work. This was a point which he was sure their lordships would agree with him in thinking required alteration.
The next topic to which I shall advert relates to the administration of justice; and this large and important subject I cannot pass over without a word to remind your lordships how little safe it is, how little deserving the name of just, or any thing like just, that where you have two classes you should separate them into conflicting parties, until they became so exasperated in their resentment as scarcely to regard each other as brethren of the same species; and that you should place all the administration of justice in the hands of one dominant class, whose principles, whose passions whose interests, are all likely to be preferred by the judges when they presume to sit where you have placed them on the judgment seat. The chief and puisne judges are raised to their situations from amongst the class which includes the white men and planters. But, worse than that, the jurors are taken from the same privileged body: jurors, who are to assess civil damages in actions for injuries done to the negroes--jurors, who are to try bills of indictment against the whites for the maltreatment of the blacks--jurors who are to convict or acquit on those bills--jurors who are to try the slaves themselves--nay, magistrates, jailors, turnkeys, the whole apparatus of justice, both administrative and executive, exclusively in the hands of one race! What is the consequence? Why, it is proverbial that no bills are found for the blacks. (Hear, hear.) Six bills of indictment were preferred, some for murder and some for bad manslaughter, and at one assizes every one of these six indictments was thrown out. Assizes after assizes the same thing happened, until at length wagers were held that no such bill would be found, and no one was found to accept them. Well was it for them that they declined, for every one of the bills preferred was ignored. Now, observe that in proceedings, as your lordships know; before grand jurors, not a tittle of evidence is heard for the prisoners; every witness is in favor of the indictment, or finding of the bill; but in all these instances the bills were flung out on the examination of evidence solely against the prisoner. Even in the worst cases of murder, as certainly and plainly committed as the sun shines at noon day, monstrous to all, the bills were thrown out when half the witnesses for the prosecution remained to be examined. (Hear, hear.) Some individuals swore against the prisoners, and though others tendered their evidence, the jury refused to hear them. (Hear, hear.) Besides, the punishments inflicted are monstrous; thirty-nine lashes are inflicted for the vague, indefinite--because incapable to be defined--offence of insolence. Thirty-nine lashes for the grave and the more definite, I admit, offence of an attempt to carry a small knife. Three months imprisonment, or fifty lashes for the equally grave offence of cutting off the shoot of a cane plant! There seems to have prevailed at all times amongst the governors of our colonies a feeling, of which, I grieve to say, the governors at home have ever and anon largely partaken, that there is something in the nature of a slave--something in the habits of the African negro--something in the disposition of the unfortunate hapless victims of our own crimes and cruelties, which makes what is mercy and justice to other men cruelty to society and injustice to the law in the case of the negro, and which condemns offences slightly visited, if visited at all, with punishment, when committed by other men, to the sentence that for his obdurate nature none can be too severe. (Hear, hear.) As if we had any one to blame but ourselves--as if we had any right to visit on him that character if it were obdurate, those habits if they were insubordinate, that dishonest disposition if it did corrupt his character, all of which I deny, and which experience proves to be contrary to the fact and truth; but even if these statements were all truth instead of being foully slanderous and absolutely false, we, of all men, have ourselves to blame, ourselves to tax, and ourselves to punish, at least for the self abasement, for we have been the very causes of corrupting the negro character. (Cheers.)
If some capricious despot, in his career of ordinary tyranny, were to tax his imagination to produce something more monstrous and unnatural than himself, and were to place a dove amongst vultures, or engraft a thorn on the olive tree, much as we should marvel at the caprice, we should be still more astounded at the expectation, which exceeds even a tyrant's proverbial unreasonableness, that he should gather grapes from the thorn, or that the dove should be habituated to a thirst for blood. Yet that is the caprice, that is the unreasonable, the foul, the gross, the monstrous, the outrageous, incredible injustice of which we are hourly guilty towards the whole unhappy race of negroes. (Cheers.) My lords, we fill up the incasare of injustice by severely executing laws badly conceived in a still more atrocious and cruel spirit. The whole punishments smell of blood. (Hear, Hear.) If the treadmill stop in consequence of the languid limbs and exhausted frames of the victims, within a minute the lash resounds through the building--if the stones which they are set to break be not broken by limbs scarred, and marred, and whaled, they are summoned by the crack of the whip to their toilsome task! I myself have heard within the last three hours, from a person, who was an eye-witness of the appalling and disgusting fact, that a leper was introduced amongst the negroes; and in passing let me remark, that in private houses or hospitals no more care has been taken to separate those who are stricken with infectious diseases from the sound portion, any more than to furnish food to those in prison who are compelled, from the unheard-of, the paltry, the miserable disposition to treat with cruelty the victims of a prison, to go out and gather their own food,--a thing which I believe even the tyrant of Siberia does not commit. Yet in that prison, where blood flows profusely, and the limbs of those human beings are subjected to perpetual torture, the frightful, the nauseous, the disgusting--except that all other feelings are lost in pity towards the victim and indignation against the oppressor--sight was presented of a leper, scarred from the eruptions of disease on his legs and previous mistreatment, whaled again and again, and his blood again made to flow from the jailer's lash. I have told your lordships how bills have been thrown out for murdering the negroes. But a man had a bill presented for this offence: a petition was preferred, and by a white man. Yes, a white man who had dared, under feelings of excited indignation, to complain to the regularly constituted authorities, instead of receiving for his gallant conduct the thanks of the community, had a bill found which was presented against him as a nuisance. I have, within the last two hours, amid the new mass of papers laid before your lordships within the last forty-eight hours, culled a sample which, I believe, represents the whole odious mass.
Eleven females have been flogged, starved, lashed, attached to the treadmill, and compelled to work until nature could no longer endure their sufferings. At the moment when the wretched victims were about to fall off--when they could no longer bring down the mechanism and continue the movement, they were suspended by their arms, and at each revolution of the wheel received new wounds on their members, until, in the language of that law so grossly outraged in their persons, they "languished and died." Ask you if a cringe of this murderous nature went unvisited, and if no inquiry was made respecting its circumstances? The forms of justice were observed; the handmaid was present, but the sacred mistress was far away. A coroner's inquest was called; for the laws decreed that no such injuries should take place without having an inquiry instituted. Eleven inquisitions were held, eleven inquiries were made, eleven verdicts were returned. For murder? Manslaughter? Misconduct? No; but that "they died by the visitation of God." A lie--a perjury--a blasphemy! The visitation of God! Yes, for of the visitations of the Divine being by which the inscrutable purposes of his will are mysteriously worked out, one of the most mysterious is the power which, from time to time, is allowed by him to be exercised by the wicked for the torment of the innocent. (Cheers.) But of those visitations prescribed by Divine Providence there is one yet more inscrutable, for which it is still more difficult to affix a reason, and that is, when heaven rolls down on this earth the judgment, not of scorpions, or the plague of pestilence, or famine, or war--but incomparably the worse plague, the worser judgment, of the injustice of judges who become betrayers of the law--perjured, wicked men who abuse the law which they are sworn to administer, in order to gratify their own foul passions, to take the part of the wrong-doer against his victim, and to forswear themselves on God's gospel, in order that justice may not be done. * * * * My lords, I entirely concur in what was formerly said by Mr. Burke, and afterwards repeated by Mr. Canning, that while the making of laws was confined to the owners of slaves, nothing they did was ever found real or effectual. And when, perchance, any thing was accomplished, it had not, as Mr. Burke said, "an executive principle." But, when they find you determined to do your duty, it is proved, by the example which they have given in passing the Apprenticeship Amendment Act, that they will even outstrip you to prevent your interference with them. * * * * Place the negroes on the same footing with other men, and give them the uncontrolled power over their time and labor, and it will become the interest of the planter, as well as the rest of the community, to treat the negro well, for their comfort and happiness depend on his industry and good behavior. It is a consequence perfectly clear, notwithstanding former distinctions, notwithstanding the difference of color and the variety of race in that population, the negro and the West Indian will in a very few generations--when the clank of his chain is no longer heard, when the oppression of the master can vex no more, when equal rights are enjoyed by all, and all have a common interest in the general prosperity--be impressed with a sense of their having an equal share in the promotion of the public welfare; nay, that social improvement, the progress of knowledge, civility, and even refinement itself, will proceed as rapidly and diffuse itself as universally in the islands of the Western Ocean as in any part of her Majesty's dominions. * * * *
I see no danger in the immediate emancipation of the negro; I see no possible injury in terminating the apprenticeship, (which we now have found should never have been adopted,) and in causing it to cease for slaves previous to August, 1838, at that date, as those subsequent to that date must in that case be exempt. * * * * I regard the freedom of the negro as accomplished and sure. Why? Because it is his right--because he has shown himself fit for it--because a pretext or a shadow of a pretext can no longer be devised for withholding that right from its possessor. I know that all men now take a part in the question, and that they will no longer bear to be imposed upon now they are well informed. My reliance is firm and unflinching upon the great change which I have witnessed--the education of the people unfettered by party or by sect--from the beginning of its progress, I may say from the hour of its birth. Yes; it was not for a humble man like me to assist at royal births with the illustrious prince who condescended to grace the pageant of this opening session, or the great captain and statesman in whose presence I now am proud to speak. But with that illustrious prince, and with the father of the Queen I assisted at that other birth, more conspicuous still. With them and with the lord of the house of Russel I watched over its cradle--I marked its growth--I rejoiced in its strength--I witnessed its maturity--I have been spared to see it ascend the very height of supreme power--directing the councils of the state--accelerating every great improvement--uniting itself with every good work--propping honorable and useful institutions--extirpating abuses in all our institutions--passing the bounds of our dominion, and in the new world, as in the old, proclaiming that freedom is the birthright of man--that distinction of color gives no title to oppression--that the chains now loosened must be struck off, and even the marks they have left effaced by the same eternal law of our nature which makes nations the masters of their own destiny, and which in Europe has caused every tyrant's throne to quake. But they need to feel no alarm at the progress of right who defend a limited monarchy and support their popular institutions--who place their chiefest pride not in ruling over slaves, be they white or be they black--not in protecting the oppressor, but in wearing a constitutional crown, in holding the sword of justice with the hand of mercy, in being the first citizen of a country whose air is too pure for slavery to breathe, and on whose shores, if the captive's foot but touch, his fetters of themselves fall off. (Cheers.) To the resistless progress of this great principle I look with a confidence which nothing can shake; it makes all improvement certain--it makes all change safe which it produces; for none can be brought about, unless all has been accomplished in a cautious and salutary spirit. So now the fulness of time is come; for our duty being at length discharged to the African captive, I have demonstrated to you that every thing is ordered--every previous step taken--all safe, by experience shown to be safe, for the long-desired consummation. The time has come--the trial has been made--the hour is striking: you have no longer a pretext for hesitation, or faltering, or delay. The slave has shown, by four years' blameless behavior and devotion, unsurpassed by any English peasant, to the pursuit of peaceful industry, that he is as fit for his freedom as any lord whom I now address. I demand his rights--I demand his liberty without stint, in the names of justice and of law--in the name of reason--in the name of God, who has given you no right to work injustice. I demand that your brother be no longer trampled upon as your slave. (Hear, hear.) I make my appeal to the Commons, who represent the free people of England; and I require at their hands the performance of that condition for which they paid so enormous a price--that condition which all their constituents are in breathless anxiety to see fulfilled! I appeal to his house--the hereditary judges of the first tribunal in the world--to you I appeal for justice. Patrons of all the arts that humanize mankind, under your protection I place humanity herself! To the merciful Sovereign of a free people I call aloud for mercy to the hundreds of thousands in whose behalf half a million of her Christian sisters have cried aloud, that their cry may not have risen in vain. But first I turn my eye to the throne of all justice, and devoutly humbling myself before Him who is of purer eyes than to behold any longer such vast iniquities--I implore that the curse over our heads of unjust oppression be averted from us--that your hearts may be turned to mercy--and that over all the earth His will may at length be done!
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