Even the difficulties above enumerated (slight as they were, and unworthy to be named in connexion with such a great moral change) were but temporary. The governor of Jamaica, after five months’ trial of emancipation, declares, in his address to the Assembly, “Not the slightest idea of any interruption of tranquillity exists in any quarter; and those preparations which I have felt it my duty to make, might, without the slightest danger, have been dispensed with.” By recent news, we learn that the planters finding the system of coercion was likely to be ruinous to their own interest, offered the apprentices 2s. 6d. per day for extra work. The enemies of abolition prophesied that nothing would induce the negroes to work more than they were actually compelled to by law, and that the crops would perish for want of gathering. But the result proved otherwise. As soon as wages were offered, they came forward eagerly, and offered to do more work than the planters were willing to pay for. We have the testimony of one of their magistrates, that as soon as this system was tried, “their apparent indifference was every where thrown off, and their work carried on in a steady, persevering, and diligent manner.”
Q. And how was it in Antigua and Bermuda, where they gave up the apprenticeship system, and tried immediate and unqualified emancipation?
A. In those colonies not the slightest difficulty, of any kind, has occurred. The Antigua journals declare, “The great doubt is solved; the highest hopes of the negroes’ friends are fulfilled. A whole people, comprising thirty thousand souls, have passed from slavery into freedom, not only without the slightest irregularity, but with the solemn and decorous tranquillity of a Sabbath.” The Christmas holidays were always seasons of alarm in the slave-colonies, and a military force was always held in readiness; but the Christmas after emancipation, the customary guard was dispensed with. Up to the present time, every thing remains perfectly tranquil in Antigua; and a negro is at the head of the police in that island. The population consists of 2,000 whites, 30,000 slaves, and 4,500 free blacks.
Q. Yet people are always saying that free negroes cannot take care of themselves.
A. It is because people are either very much prejudiced or very ignorant on the subject. In the United States, colored persons have scarcely any chance to rise. They are despised, and abused, and discouraged, at every turn. In the slave States they are subject to laws nearly as oppressive as those of the slave. They are whipped or imprisoned, if they try to learn to read or write; they are not allowed to testify in court; and there is a general disposition not to encourage them by giving them employment. In addition to this, the planters are very desirous to expel them from the State, partly because they are jealous of their influence upon the slaves, and partly because those who have slaves to let out, naturally dislike the competition of the free negroes. But if colored people are well treated, and have the same inducements to industry as other people, they work as well and behave as well. A few years ago the Pennsylvanians were very much alarmed at the representations that were made of the increase of pauperism from the ingress of free negroes. A committee was appointed to examine into the subject, and it was ascertained that the colored people not only supported their own poor, but paid a considerable additional sum towards the support of white paupers.
Q. I have heard people say that the slaves would not take their freedom, if it were offered to them.
A. I sincerely wish they would offer it. I should like to see the experiment tried. If the slaves are so well satisfied with their condition, why do they make such severe laws against running away? Why are the patroles on duty all the time to shoot every negro who does not give an account of himself as soon as they call to him? Why, notwithstanding all these pains and penalties, are their newspapers full of advertisements for runaway slaves? If the free negroes are so much worse off than those in bondage, why is it that their laws bestow freedom on any slave, “who saves his master or mistress’s life, or performs any meritorious service to the State?” That must be a very bad country where the law stipulates that meritorious actions shall be rewarded by making a man more unhappy than he was before! Some months ago, I had a conversation with a woman, who went from Boston to Tuscaloosa, in Alabama. She was the wife of a Baptist clergyman, professed to be a pious woman, and was considered as such. I found her an apologist for slavery, but was not aware at the time that she actually owned slaves. She maintained that freedom was the greatest curse that could be bestowed on a slave; and when I attempted to put the case home to her conscience, she, for consistency’s sake, declared, that she should be quite as willing to die and leave her own little son in slavery, as to leave him a free laborer at the North. She said if she had a hundred slaves, she should treat them all kindly, and endeavor to make their condition comfortable. I replied, “I am willing to believe that you would do so, madam; but in case of your death, or of any pecuniary distress in the family, the poor slaves would be divided among heirs, or seized by creditors; and then who can tell into whose hands they may fall? The condition of the slave depends on the character of the master; and that is entirely a matter of accident”. The pious woman rejoined, “Oh, I should take care of that. If they were good, faithful servants, they would find at my death that papers of manumission had been duly prepared.” “But you told me that freedom was the greatest curse that could be bestowed upon a slave,” replied I: “Now is it possible, madam, that you would leave, as your dying legacy to good and faithful servants, the greatest curse you could bestow?”
Q. Do you suppose they really believe what they say, when they declare that slaves are happier than freemen?
A. I leave your own republican good sense to determine that question. Governor Giles of Virginia did not take that ground in his address to the Legislature in 1827. Speaking of punishing free blacks by selling them as slaves, he says: “Slavery must be admitted to be a punishment of the highest order; and according to every just rule for the apportionment of punishment to crimes, it would seem that it ought to be applied only to crime of the highest order!”
But even if it were true that the slaves were as happy and contented as slave-holders try to represent them—what would it prove? It would merely prove that they had fearfully brutalized immortal souls before they could be happy in such a situation. Edmund Burke said very truly, “If you have made a happy slave, you have made a degraded man.”