The planters were full of complaints to travellers who visited the West Indies. If they were asked, "Why don't you emancipate your laborers entirely, and give them wages, as they do in Antigua,—they have no such troubles there?" the prejudiced men would shake their heads and answer: "Negroes will not work without being flogged. We must get what we can out of them before 1840; for when they are their own masters they will rob, murder, or starve, rather than labor."
Planters who manifested a more kind and considerate disposition had pleasanter relations with their servants, and they never found any difficulty in procuring as much labor as they wanted. Some made it easy for their apprentices to buy the remainder of their time; and it was soon observed that those who owned all their time worked faster and better than those who were without that stimulus. The idea gained ground that unconditional emancipation would be better both for masters and servants. The Marquis of Sligo, the humane Governor of Jamaica, set a good example by emancipating all his apprentices. People in England began to petition Parliament to abolish the apprenticeship, on the ground that it proved unsatisfactory and troublesome to all parties. The result was that all the apprentices in the British West Indies were made entirely free on the 1st of August, 1838. Mr. Phillippo, a Baptist missionary in Jamaica, thus describes the observance of the day in that island: "On the preceding evening, the missionary stations throughout the island were crowded with people, filling all the places of worship. They remained at their devotions till the day of liberty dawned, when they saluted it with joyous acclamations. Then they dispersed through the towns and villages, singing 'God save the queen,' and rending the air with their shouts,—'Freedom's come!' 'We're free! we're free!' 'Our wives and children are free!' During the day, the places of worship were crowded to suffocation. The scenes presented exceeded all description. Joyous excitement pervaded the whole island. At Spanish Town, the Governor, Sir Lionel Smith, addressed the emancipated people, who formed a procession of seven thousand, and escorted the children of the schools, about two thousand in number, to the Government House. They bore banners and flags with various inscriptions, of which the following are samples: 'Education, Religion, and Social Order'; 'August First, 1838,—the Day of our Freedom'; 'Truth and Justice have at last prevailed.' The children sang before the Government House, and his Excellency made a speech characterized by simplicity and kindness, which was received with enthusiastic cheers. The procession then escorted their pastor to his house. In front of the Baptist Chapel were three triumphal arches, decorated with leaves and flowers, and surmounted by flags bearing the inscriptions, 'Freedom has come!' 'Slavery is no more!' 'The chains are broken, Africa is free!' There were many flags bearing the names of their English benefactors,—Clarkson, Wilberforce, Sligo, Thompson, etc. When these were unfurled, the enthusiasm of the multitude rose to the highest pitch. For nearly an hour the air rang with exulting shouts, in which the shrill voices of two thousand children joined, singing, 'We're free! we're free!' Several of the kindly disposed planters gave rural fêtes to the laborers. Long tables were spread in the lawns, arches of evergreens were festooned with flowers, and on the trees floated banners bearing the names of those who had been most conspicuous in bringing about this blessed result. Songs were sung, speeches made, prayers offered, and a plentiful repast eaten." Mr. Phillippo says: "The conduct of the newly emancipated peasantry would have done credit to Christians of the most civilized country in the world. They were clean in their persons, and neat in their attire. Their behavior was modest, unassuming, and decorous in a high degree. There was no crowding, no vulgar familiarity, but all were courteous and obliging to each other, as members of one harmonious family. There was no dancing, gambling, or carousing. All seemed to have a sense of the obligations they owed to their masters, to each other, and to the civil authorities. The masters who were present at these fêtes congratulated their former dependents on the boon they had received, and hopes were mutually expressed that all past differences and wrongs might be forgiven."
On some of the estates where these festivals were held the laborers, with few individual exceptions, went to work as usual on the following day. Many of them gave their first week of free labor as an offering of good-will to their masters. Thus the period from which many of the planters had apprehended the worst consequences passed away in peace and harmony.
It is now twenty-seven years since the laborers in the British West Indies have been made entirely free; and the missionaries, the magistrates, and even the masters agree that the laborers are much more faithful and industrious under the new system than they were under the iron rule of Slavery. It is true, some of the old planters growled as long as they lived. They had always predicted that freedom would bring ruin on all classes, and it vexed them to see the negroes behaving so well. They, however, made the most of the fact that there was less sugar made than in former years. It was their own fault. The emancipated slaves wanted to stay and work on the plantations where they had always lived. But the masters could not give up their old habits of meanness and tyranny. Their laborers could scarcely support life with the very small wages they received; and yet they took from them the little patches of provision-ground which they had formerly had, and charged them enormously high rent for their miserable little huts. It seemed as if they wanted to drive them to robbery, that they might say, "We told you it would be so, if you set them free."
But the freedmen disappointed them. Under all discouragements, they persisted in behaving well. When they found that they could not get a living on the old plantations where they wanted to stay, they went to work on railroads, and wherever they could find employment. They laid up as much as they could of their wages, and bought bits of land, on which they built comfortable cabins for themselves, and laid out little gardens. Their wives and children raised poultry and tended a cow, and carried vegetables and butter and eggs to market, in baskets poised on their heads. With the money thus earned they bought more land and added to their little stock of furniture. Though the men received only from eighteen to twenty-four cents a day, out of which they boarded themselves, they were so industrious and saving that in four years the freedmen in Jamaica alone had bought and paid for one hundred thousand acres of land, and put up dwellings thereon. Mr. Phillippo states, that during that time as many as two hundred new villages of freedmen were formed. These villages generally received the names of benefactors, such as Clarkson, Wilberforce, Thompson, &c. To their own little homes they also gave names indicative of their gratitude and contentment. They called them "Save Rent," "A Little of My Own," "Heart's Love," "Liberty and Content," "Happy Retreat," "Jane's Delight," "Thank God to see It," &c.
Mr. Phillippo says:—
"These free villages are regularly laid out. The houses are small, many of them built of stone or wood, with shingled roofs, green blinds, and verandahs, to shield them from the sun. Most of them are neatly thatched, and generally plastered and whitewashed both outside and in. They now have looking-glasses, chairs, and side-boards decorated with pretty articles of glass and crockery. Each dwelling has its little plot of vegetables, generally neatly kept; and many of them have flower-gardens in front, glowing with all the bright hues of the tropics. The groups often presented are worthy of the painter's pencil or the poet's song. Amid the stillness of a Sabbath evening, many families, after their return from the house of God, may be seen gathered together in the shadow of the trees, which overhang their cottages, singing hymns, or listening to the reading of the Scriptures, with none to molest or make them afraid."
Mr. Charles Tappan of Boston, who visited Jamaica several years after emancipation, writes:—