“From all which he had heard and seen, he was satisfied the experiment of complete emancipation had worked well for the owners of the estates; and the prosperity of the colonies would be greatly increased by it. Landed property, he said, had increased in value in Barbadoes from 25 to 40 per cent. in some districts—and generally in the colonies, from 5 to 25 per cent.”
“There had,” he said, “been a great improvement in the domestic condition of the laborers—they enjoyed more comforts—their huts, or rather hovels, which they formerly occupied, were giving place to more comfortable habitations—they were not willing to wear the poor and cheap clothes which their masters formerly furnished for them—many of the women, instead of toiling in the fields, were now devoted to household duties; and many children, who formerly had been compelled to work in the fields, were now sent to school.
“Enquiries were made of Mr. Scoble, as to the willingness of the blacks to labor for fair wages—as to the state of morals and religion among them—how the aged and infirm poor were supported among them, &c.; to all which Mr. S. gave the most satisfactory answers. In regard to the state of morals, he said, crime had decreased since the emancipation—and he stated many interesting facts in regard to the number of persons confined in prisons in several colonies at his visits in 1836, compared with the number in 1838. The number is now only about half as large as in former years, and most of the offences of the negroes were misdemeanors, petty thefts,” &c.
Similar testimony is furnished in a letter, published in the New York Journal of Commerce, from Mr. Gurney, an English Quaker gentleman, who has lately visited some of the Windward Islands.
He says, “Landed property has risen, and is still rising in value—being decidedly of greater value now than it was six years ago. In Antigua it seems to be a clear point, that the property without the slaves, is now of equal value with the property and the slaves, six years ago, or before emancipation.
“A similar remark applies with still greater force to St. Kitts. R. Claxton, the Solicitor General there, told me that he would not take £6,000 now for a property which cost him only £2,000 six years ago. Indeed, many planters spoke of what they receive in the shape of compensation, as quite a gratuity.
“The unfavorable reports which have been spread of the working of freedom, have generally arisen from persons who are anxious to lay hold of landed property at a cheap rate. A clear proof that all is doing well, is unintentionally given by a gentleman in Antigua, who cries down the system, as having ruined the West Indies, while he strives to purchase all the landed property he can.
“The comforts of the negroes are immensely increased. They are providing themselves with good food and clothing. The evidence of this fact is abundant in every island which we visited. No proof of it can be stronger than the almost doubling of the imports within the last two years. On the whole there cannot be the shadow of doubt that the substantial property of the colonies which we visited is on the increase.”
MEANS FOR ABOLISHING SLAVERY.
I shall now inquire how slavery may be abolished in our land. This is the most difficult part of the subject; and on which I imagine there is, in reality, a great diversity of opinion, even among abolitionists.