“But again I think that the worldly circumstances of the Emigrants would be considerably advanced. The labourers may very easily earn half a dollar per day on their arrival here, and in a couple of weeks, that is, as soon as they fully understand the nature of the work, the able-bodied may make a dollar. A house and garden are given to every labourer. On these particulars Mr. David and the labourers who have returned with him will be able to satisfy you[9].”
[9] Extract from Letter addressed by Rev. J. Blackwell, Wesleyan Minister in Trinidad, to Wesleyan Ministers at Sierra Leone.
Now after looking at such a picture, drawn from the most unsuspected sources, we cannot doubt that, whether for the homeless Negro just rescued from the hold of a Slave Ship, or for the ignorant and uncivilised African who comes down to our Settlements to pick up a small pittance by the hardest labour, and to return with it to his barbarous home, it would be of the highest advantage, it would be the greatest blessing, to make such an exchange. But how is it with the Liberated African of Sierra Leone, who has been enjoying perhaps for years the fostering care of the British Government? Now to that Government, beyond his rescue from the Slave Ship, and emancipation from future Slavery, and a temporary sustenance, and his being placed within the reach of Missionary efforts, to which it has not contributed, the Liberated African cannot fairly be said to owe much. To the invaluable exertions of the Church Missionary Society more especially, and also to a considerable extent, as in all our African Settlements, to the Wesleyan body, the highest praise is due. The former expend nearly 7,000l., the latter nearly 2,000l. annually upon the Religious Instruction of the Colony. By their efforts nearly one-fifth of the whole population, a most unusually high proportion in any country, are at school, and the effects are visible in considerable intellectual, moral, and religious improvement,—very considerable under the peculiar circumstances of such a Colony. But a few ill-supported Schools and one Chaplain is all that has been contributed by the Government to the religious and moral improvement of those of whom she has undertaken the protection, and their social improvement has been unattempted. No Model Farm has been established, no instruction in Agriculture has been afforded. The rate of wages, when any are earned, which is chiefly by a few in the neighbourhood of the towns, is 4d. to 7d. a day, and with this and a little cultivation a sufficient subsistence, though nothing more, is gained. The extent of good soil is limited; the inhabitants wander out of the Colony for the subsistence which they cannot find within it. There is little industry, there are small facilities for trade, as the Colony itself produces little to export save a little arrow-root and ginger, and the River which it commands is only navigable for 30 or 40 miles to any useful purpose, and supplies no article but timber and camwood. With such a climate, therefore, and thus circumstanced, the Colony can never invite the residence of planters or of merchants of considerable capital, or become a favourite with officers, either civil or military, of a higher order. What elements of prosperity, therefore, can it have? The Government has not done much, but under any circumstances the Colony must be an artificial creation. The Government ought to have established a Model Farm, or in some way communicated agricultural knowledge; and we would recommend that it should be attempted even now. But, after all, what is that to the magnificent Model Farms which would surround the African in the West Indies?
We need hardly add more to prove that it would be well for the African, in every point of view, to find himself a Free Labourer in the free British West India Colonies, enjoying there, as he would, higher advantages of every kind, than have fallen to the lot of the Negro race in any other portion of the globe.
We pass the question, though not absolutely to be lost sight of, that, in Sierra Leone, the newly liberated African is a burden to the British Government as well as to himself; and that, in the West Indies, not only would his own condition be improved, but he would become a source of wealth and prosperity to the Empire. But we must not omit the advantage to Africa, of the probable return to her soil of many of her own sons, enriched with civil and religious knowledge, and bringing back with them wealth, and the means of wealth and civilisation; “that reflux of the West upon the East, in moderate numbers, and managed with caution,” in the words of Sir John Jeremie, “to which we must look for the civilisation of the East.”
But Your Committee had next to consider, whether, in achieving this object, any danger existed of creating a real, or plausible suspicion of a real, Slave Trade under another name.—Under proper regulations, they think there is not. A free passage may be offered to the African already settled within the colony, and to the Free Settler or other Native, who shall have remained long enough in the Colony to give the authorities sufficient time to ascertain the circumstances under which he came, and to assure themselves that they were entirely free from all suspicion of fraud or force. To such as thus leave their homes, a free passage back at the end of a certain period, say three or four years, might be promised, with full permission to them to return at any time at their own expense. To the homeless African, newly liberated, the option should be given of settling at once in the West Indies, if he please, with permission to return hereafter at his own cost, or of removing from Sierra Leone, or of remaining in it on the first adjudication, if he undertake for his own maintenance, or can find friends or relations who will undertake it for him.
With regard to the Kroomen, however desirable they may be as labourers, and however advantageous the object may be to themselves, we are not prepared in the first instance to recommend other facilities for emigration than those which we have suggested to be offered to other Natives who might desire to make use of a British Settlement as a point of departure[10]. If they should desire, as it appears that it is not improbable they may, to make a Migration across the Atlantic, with their habits they will find no difficulty in making their way, for the purpose, to Sierra Leone, where some hundreds or even thousands of their brethren habitually reside, some of whom have already emigrated to Guiana, and seem to be as active in the field, as we have long found them to be on the sea, and to be well pleased with the experiment.
[10] On this point, however, we beg to refer to the important evidence of Capt. Denman, who thinks that on account of the peculiar character of the Kroomen, emigration, with common precaution, might be conducted from their coast without risk of abuse. See [Q. 6995], et preced.
If it should hereafter be thought desirable to form any Settlement on the Kroo Coast, however small, it might facilitate arrangements similar to those which we have recommended for the other Settlements. Or they might possibly hereafter be embarked from the Coast itself under the superintendence of a man-of-war. (See Capt. Denman.)
The same door might be opened, under the same precautions, from the Gambia; but with regard to the Gold Coast, the supply of labour there not appearing to be more than necessary for the wants of the country, we would not recommend any peculiar facilities to be afforded.