* * * * *
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.