“Gentlemen,
“As the works of this yard are now nearly completed, I beg leave to offer a few observations which have occurred to me, upon the subject of the black labourers belonging to the establishment. Many of these people have been in His Majesty’s service since 1808; and consequently have, according to the present arrangement for recaptured slaves, only five years to serve; but from the opinion given by your solicitor, transmitted in your letter of the 28th May, 1816, they are even at this time susceptible of liberation.
“It becomes a matter of serious importance to provide for these people the means of obtaining an honest livelihood, and of making them useful members of society, when they shall be no longer under control. And it appears to me that so desirable an end may be effected, without putting His Majesty’s government to any expense, by the means which I take the liberty of submitting for your consideration.
“We find from experience, that the lower classes of all descriptions of men who have been long accustomed to restraint and dependence, no sooner find themselves their own masters, and in possession of a considerable sum of money, arising perhaps from a long course of industry, than they are involved in great danger, and generally become entangled in difficulties, for want of some decided line of conduct to pursue. The blacks would be particularly liable to this exposure, unless care be taken to prepare them for liberty by a superintendence of their concerns, and by introducing them to it gradually.
“There are amongst our labourers several who have become good masons, brickmakers, blacksmiths, excellent caulkers, tolerable carpenters, and expert boatmen, and who consequently, if kept in industrious habits, are well calculated to provide for themselves.
“There are belonging to the Naval department, by right of purchase, and totally independent of the Colonial Government, pieces of ground, not required for any purposes connected with the dockyard, nor likely to be required however extensive that establishment may become, from their situation; a part lying behind the Commissioner’s garden, and part beyond the Naval Hospital at the south of the town.
“I should propose that a part of this ground should be laid out in small lots, say twenty feet by sixty, contiguous to each other, and appropriated to as many individuals as the Board might contemplate the discharge of. Upon each lot a small house should be built by the black artificers themselves, to whom two days in the week should be given up for that purpose. The stone and the clay are on the spot; the roofing would be the only expensive part, which being furnished out of the refuse wood in the yard, useless for any other purpose, might be paid for by the smallest annual sum by the occupant, say one rix dollar[21] per month.
“As soon as six of these houses are finished, as many of the most deserving men should be put into possession of them; not discharged altogether from the service, but bound to work in the yard whenever called upon; and of the expediency of this the Commissioner should be the judge. The Commissioner would make this of course dependent entirely upon their good conduct, in their new situation. When he found them persevering and industrious, he would naturally leave them in the uninterrupted exercise of their employment; those on the contrary who were disposed to be idle, he would call more frequently to the task work in the yard, and to such as proved incorrigible, he would revoke the indulgence altogether, putting the more deserving into their room.
“The days on which they were permitted to work for themselves they would of course receive neither pay nor provisions from the yard. Thus by degrees a most useful and industrious body of men may be comfortably settled beyond the reach of want, in the exercise of habits of industry, immediately under the protection as well as the control of their officers. The ground-rent of these buildings would be a retaining fee, by which their services could be called for upon any emergency, such as a fire, or ships driving on shore, and for which they might receive a stipulated sum. They would continue to receive the same religious instruction from the chaplain of the yard, and from the schoolmaster, as when actually belonging to His Majesty’s service.