ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES.
WILLIAM IV. 1832-1833
At the commencement of this session, the minds of reflecting persons were fixed with intense anxiety on the subject of West India slavery. The excitement attending the reform act, indeed, had not been neglected by the friends of emancipation. Meetings were held and petitions got up: and government found themselves under the necessity of framing a measure for the gradual abolition of the trade in the bones and the sinews of man. The subject was brought before the commons by Mr. Stanley on the 14th of May, when he explained the ministerial scheme in a committee of the whole house. Government, he said, impelled by the force of public opinion, resolved to propose a plan which would insure the extinction of slavery, and manumit not only future generations, but likewise the existing generation, providing at the same time against the dangers of a sudden transition. It was proposed, he said, to place the slave for a limited time in an intermediate state of apprenticeship. He was to enter into a contract, by which his master would be bound to give him food and clothing, or in lieu thereof a pecuniary allowance; for which consideration he, on his part, was to give his master three-fourths of his time in labour, leaving it to be settled between them whether that should be for three-fourths of the week or of each day. The remaining fourth of his time, Mr. Stanley said, the slave would be at liberty to transfer his labour elsewhere; but if he were inclined to give it to his master, then his master would be obliged to find him employment according to a fixed rate of wages. It was a difficult point, he said, to settle the scale of wages; and he could devise no better mode than that of compelling the planter to fix a price on the labourer at the time of his apprenticeship, and by enacting that the wages to be paid by the master should bear such a proportion to the price fixed by him, that for the whole of his spare time he should receive one-twelfth of his price annually. In this manner, he said, the slave and his master would both act in reference to each other: if the master fixed a high price on his negro, he would have to pay him proportionate wages; and if a low price, then upon the payment of that price by any other person on his behalf, the negro would be free. This measure, he continued, must necessarily occasion loss to many of the West Indian proprietors; and, as it was not fitting that they alone should lose by the destruction of this species of property, the legality of which had at least been recognised by parliament, ministers proposed to advance to the West Indian body a loan to the amount of ten years’ purchase of their annual profits on sugars, rum, and coffee, which would amount to £15,000,000. It was for parliament to say in what manner, and upon what condition, that loan should be repaid to the country; it might be considered equal to one-fourth of the proceeds of the slaves’ labour; and with that sum and the other three-fourths of his labour, the planter, at the end of twelve years, would have received a just compensation for the price of his slave, and for all the expense to which the slave might have put him for food and clothing. It was right, however, to state that during that time the planter would have to pay interest for his loan, and to that amount, perhaps, he might be the loser. In conclusion, Mr. Stanley said, he would call upon the house to aid the local legislatures in the West Indies in establishing schools for the religious and moral education of the slave population. He moved the following resolutions:—“That it is the opinion of this committee that immediate and effectual measures be taken for the entire abolition of slavery throughout the colonies, under such provisions for regulating the condition of the negroes as may combine their welfare with the interest of the proprietors: That it is expedient that all children born after the passing of any act, or who shall be under the age of six years at the time of passing any act of parliament for this purpose, be declared free, subject, nevertheless, to such temporary restrictions as may be deemed necessary for their support and maintenance: That all persons now slaves be entitled to be registered as apprenticed labourers, and to acquire thereby all the rights and privileges of free men subject to the restriction of labouring under conditions, and for a time to be fixed by parliament, for their present owners: That, to provide against the risk of loss which proprietors in his majesty’s colonial possessions might sustain by the abolition of slavery, his majesty be enabled to advance by way of loan, to be raised from time to time, a sum not exceeding in the whole £15,000,000, to be paid in such manner, and at such rate of interest, as shall be prescribed by parliament: That his majesty be enabled to defray any such expense as he may incur in establishing an efficient stipendiary magistracy in the colonies, and in aiding the local legislatures in providing for the religious and moral education of the negro population to be emancipated.” The consideration of these resolutions was adjourned to the 30th of May. On that day the first resolution, after considerable debate on the character of the planters, and on the subject of the compensation to be given to them, was agreed to without a division. Sir Robert Peel said that he would have preferred a declaratory resolution, it appearing to him that the co-operation of the colonial legislative was indispensable to tire success of the measure. He doubted the policy of using the words “immediate and effectual measures shall be taken for the entire abolition of slavery throughout the colonies;” they were calculated to raise expectations unwarranted by the measure; it was a great evil in establishing a preliminary resolution. The first impression of any man upon reading this resolution, and especially the first impression of an illiterate and ignorant man would be this:—“You never meant to subject me to coerced labour for twelve years.” The second resolution also passed without a division; but the third, which involved the principle of the compulsory apprenticeship, was met with a direct negative by Mr. Fowell Buxton, on the ground that it was unnecessary and impracticable. It was founded on this assertion—that emancipated negroes would not work, or, at least, would not work more than was necessary to supply the mere wants of life. This opinion he showed by facts was ill-grounded; and he proved to demonstration that the negroes, if free, would work more cheerfully than while enslaved. He moved that the resolution be rejected. He was supported by Mr. Halcomb and Buford Howick, the latter of whom said that it was not necessary as a groundwork for future proceedings; and that, on the other hand, if the house agreed to it, they would pledge themselves to a system of apprenticeship of which they did not yet know the full effect. This was dealing rather hardly by the house; government should avoid calling upon the house, at this stage of the proceeding, distinctly to pledge themselves to do that of which they had not yet heard a satisfactory account. It was easy to talk of apprenticing negroes; but the plan was neither more nor less than a subversion of the existing relations of society in the colonies, and organising an untried system, the adoption of which must be attended with difficulties. His objection to the provision was, that the labour of the negro was, for the greater part of his time, to be obtained by direct compulsion; his opinion was that the negroes would be in a worse condition at the termination of the experiment than they were at the present moment. Ministers replied that the question was not, as it had been represented, merely one of gradual or immediate abolition; no matter what might be the period of apprenticeship, whether ten or twelve years, from the moment the bill passed, slavery in the British colonies, in its offensive and essential features, was for ever annihilated. The bill recognised the rights of property; it conferred freedom from corporal punishment; it respected the domestic ties of the negro in their tenderest relations; and it ensured to him a considerable portion of the fruits of his own labour: with these great enactments surely it was not too much to say that slavery, in its obnoxious features, could not be said to exist. Mr. Buxton, having been assured that the resolution did not bind the house to any particular period of compulsory labour, withdrew his motion to reject it, and proposed to insert words declaring that the labour was to be for wages. He withdrew this likewise; but Mr. O’Connell insisted on dividing the house on the original resolution, when it was carried by three hundred and twenty-four to forty-two. The fourth resolution, respecting the compensation to planters, was attended with still greater difficulty. The original proposal was a loan of £15,000,000, for which they were to pay interest; but ministers found such stern opposition from the West India planters, that they were compelled to convert this loan into an absolute payment of £20,000,000. Mr. Stanley, after admitting the difficulty of ascertaining what the amount of compensation ought to be, moved that “Towards the compensation of the West India proprietors, his majesty be enabled to grant a sum not exceeding £20,000,000, to be appropriated as parliament may hereafter think fit.” This proposition called forth much opposition and many amendments; but it was finally earned by a majority of two hundred and ninety-six against seventy-seven. The fifth and last resolution was carried by a majority of two hundred and ninety-six against seventy-seven; and the whole were then sent to the peers, who agreed to them on the 25th of June. On the motion for going into committee on the bill brought in pursuant to the resolutions, Mr. Buxton again discussed the question of compulsory apprenticeships. He moved, that it be an instruction to the committee that they shall not, for the sake of the pecuniary interests of the masters, impose any restraint or obligation on the negro which shall not be necessary for his own welfare, and for the general peace and order of society; and that they shall limit the duration of any temporary restrictions which may be imposed upon the freedom of the negroes, to the shortest period which may be necessary to establish, on just principles, the system of free labour for adequate wages. He was supported by Lord Howick and Mr. Macaulay, who before had opposed him on the same question, but who now declared that he had an insurmountable objection to the transition state, which was to be interposed between the cessation of slavery and complete freedom. If it could be proved, he said, that any restraint was proposed, the effect of which was to improve the morals of the negro, to promote his habits of industry, and to enable him better to discharge the duties of a freeman and citizen, he would give his assent to such a restraint; but he thought that the restraint was not laid upon the negro, as it ought to be, with the sole view of improving his character: one of the objects was, not his own advantage, but as a compensation to the planter. In reply, Mr. Stanley said that the compensation was of two sorts: one was a sum to be paid down now for the remission of one-fourth of the labour of the slave, and the whole would be paid by the end of twelve years, when the negro would be completely free. The sum to be paid to the colonies was taken with reference to the estimated value of the slave, and to the interest of money: taking that value at £30,000,000 for 800,000 slaves, would give £37 10s. for each. It was not extravagant to say that such a sum was about the average value of a slave. He went on to say that one-fourth of the labour of the negro was to be taken from the master, and placed at the disposal of the negro himself; but for the remaining three-fourths he was to be maintained by the master. Now the maintenance, taken at a moderate average, was calculated at fifty shillings each; this for 800,000 negroes would be £2,000,000 per annum, and the one-fourth of this would be £500,000; and this at the end of twelve years would make a great difference in the sum to be paid to the master. Calculations would show that if the value of £30,000,000, or £37 10s. each were taken, and the interest of money calculated at six per cent., the sum to be paid to the master would be £27,000,000; but if the value of the slaves were taken at £24,000,000, and the interest of money at six per cent., £15,000,000 would be the sum to be paid to him. Besides this, the allowance for the advances for the support of the slave would, at ten per cent., amount to £3,406,000; at eight per cent., to £3,786,000; and at six per cent, to £4,900,000. This would show that the apprenticeship materially came into the account, in estimating the compensation to the master for his loss; and the compensation would not be made in a state of slavery, but in a state of comparative freedom. Mr. Stanley said that if the West India proprietors were asked what they thought of the plan of apprenticeship, they would say that they could not go on without it; and that without the application of such a principle in the bill, the colonies would go to ruin, and the proprietors be reduced to beggary. In fact, he said, if Mr. Buxton’s motion should be carried, he must be prepared to see the whole frame of civilization in the colonies destroyed, and a state of things brought about which, however they might in time settle down into some improvement, must at least begin in barbarism. On a division, Mr. Buxton’s amendment was lost by a majority of only seven, one hundred and fifty-one having voted for it, and one hundred and fifty-eight against it. The result of this division convinced government that they must make some concession on this point; and on the following day Mr. Stanley resolved to reduce the period of prodial apprenticeship from twelve years to seven, and of non-prodial from seven to five years. This was adopted, and clauses were added, empowering the commissioners for the management of the national debt to raise the money by a loan, specifying the manner in which the operation was to be conducted after which the bill passed. In the upper-house some amendments were added to the bill, which did not affect its substance, and these were finally agreed to by the commons. Thus the dark spot of slavery was wiped out of the British annals; we had no slaves at home, and now it was nobly resolved that we should have none abroad—that wherever Britain’s power was felt, mankind should feel her mercy also.