The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus

by American Anti-Slavery Society

While we feel fully warranted in stating these as the chief causes of the diminished crops, we are at the same time disposed to admit that the apprenticeship is in itself exceedingly ill calculated either to encourage or to compel industry. We must confess that we have no special zeal to vindicate this system from its full share of blame; but we are rather inclined to award to it every jot and tittle of the dishonored instrumentality which it has had in working mischief to the colony. However, in all candor, we must say, that we can scarcely check the risings of exultation when we perceive that this party-fangled measure--this offspring of old Slavery in her dying throes, which was expressly designed as a compensation to the proprietor, HAS ACTUALLY DIMINISHED HIS ANNUAL RETURNS BY ONE THIRD! So may it ever be with legislation which is based on iniquity and robbery!

But the subject which excites the deepest interest in Jamaica is the probable consequences of entire emancipation in 1840. The most common opinion among the prognosticators of evil is, that the emancipated negroes will abandon the cultivation of all the staple products, retire to the woods, and live in a state of semi-barbarism; and as a consequence, the splendid sugar and coffee estates must be "thrown up," and the beautiful and fertile island of Jamaica become a waste howling wilderness.

The reasons for this opinion consist in part of naked assumptions, and in part of inferences from supposed facts. The assumed reasons are such as these. The negroes will not cultivate the cane without the whip. How is this known? Simply because they never have, to any great extent, in Jamaica. Such, it has been shown, was the opinion formerly in Barbadoes, but it has been forever exploded there by experiment. Again, the negroes are naturally improvident, and will never have enough foresight to work steadily. What is the evidence of natural improvidence in the negroes? Barely this--their carelessness in a state of slavery. But that furnishes no ground at all for judging of natural character, or of the developments of character under a totally different system. If it testifies any thing, it is only this, that the natural disposition of the negroes is not always proof against the degenerating influences of slavery.[[A]] Again, the actual wants of the negroes are very few and easily supplied, and they will undoubtedly prefer going into the woods where they can live almost without labor, to toiling in the hot cane fields or climbing the coffee mountains. But they who urge this, lose sight of the fact that the negroes are considerably civilized, and that, like other civilized people, they will seek for more than supply for the necessities of the rudest state of nature. Their wants are already many, even in the degraded condition of slaves; is it probable that they will be satisfied with fewer of the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, when they are elevated to the sphere, and feel the self-respect and dignity of freemen? But let us notice some of the reasons which profess to be founded on fact. They may all be resolved into two, the laziness of negroes, and their tendency to barbarism.

[Footnote [A]: Probably in more instances than the one recorded in the foregoing chapter, the improvidence of the negroes is inferred from their otherwise unaccountable preference in walking six or ten miles to chapel, rather than to work for a maccaroni a day.]

i. They now refuse to work on Saturdays, even with wages. On this assertion we have several remarks to make.

1.) It is true only to a partial extent. The apprentices on many estates--whether a majority or not it is impossible to say--do work for their masters on Saturdays, when their services are called for.

2.) They often refuse to work on the estates, because they can earn three or four times as much by cultivating their provision grounds and carrying their produce to market. The ordinary day's wages on an estate is a quarter of a dollar, and where the apprentices are conveniently situated to market, they can make from seventy-five cents to a dollar a day with their provisions.

3.) The overseers are often such overbearing and detestable men, that the apprentices doubtless feel it a great relief to be freed from their command on Saturday, after submitting to it compulsorily for five days of the week.

2. Another fact from which the laziness of the negroes is inferred, is their neglecting their provision grounds. It is said that they have fallen off greatly to their attention to their grounds, since the abolition of slavery. This fact does not comport very well with the complaint, that the apprentices cultivate their provision grounds to the neglect of the estates. But both assertions may be true under opposite circumstances. On those estates which are situated near the market, provisions will be cultivated; on those which are remote from the market, provisions will of course be partially neglected, and it will be more profitable to the apprentices to work on the estates at a quarter of a dollar per day, raising only enough provisions for their own use. But we ascertained another circumstance which throws light on this point. The negroes expect, after emancipation, to lose their provision grounds; many expect certainly to be turned off by their masters, and many who have harsh masters, intend to leave, and seek homes on other estates, and all feel a great uncertainty about their situation after 1840; and consequently they can have but little encouragement to vigorous and extended cultivation of their grounds. Besides this, there are very many cases in which the apprentices of one estate cultivate provision grounds on another estate, where the manager is a man in whom they have more confidence than they have in their own "busha." They, of course, in such cases, abandon their former grounds, and consequently are charged with neglecting them through laziness.

3. Another alleged fact is, that actually less work is done now than was done during slavery. The argument founded on this fact is this: there is less work done under the apprenticeship than was done during slavery: therefore no work at all will be done after entire freedom! But the apprenticeship allows one fourth less time for labor than slavery did, and presents no inducement, either compulsory or persuasive, to continued industry. Will it be replied that emancipation will take away all the time from labor, and offer no encouragement but to idleness? How is it now? Do the apprentices work better or worse during their own time when they are paid? Better, unquestionably. What does this prove? That freedom will supply both the time and the inducement to the most vigorous industry.