EFFECTS OF FREEDOM ON THE LABORERS.
"In Barbadoes, within the last fifteen years, in spite of the extraordinary price of land and the low rate of wages, the small proprietors, holding less than five acres, have increased from 1100 to 3537. A great majority of them were formerly slaves. This fact speaks volumes. It is certainly an evidence of industrious habits, and is a remarkable contradiction to the prevailing idea that the negro will work only under compulsion. That idea was formed and fostered from the habits of the negro as a slave. His habits as a free man, developed under a wholesome stimulus and settled by time, are in striking contrast to his habits as a slave. None are more ready than the planters themselves to admit that the free laborer is a better, more cheerful, and more industrious workman than the slave ever was under a system of compulsion. These are the opinions of men, who were themselves once violently opposed to freedom, and who still strive to keep the laboring classes in complete dependence; and they are opinions so universal that I have sought diligently, but in vain, to hear them contradicted."
"In St. Vincent, the returns for 1857 show that no less than 8209 persons were then living in their own houses, built by themselves since emancipation. Within the last twelve years, from ten to twelve thousand acres have been brought under cultivation by small proprietors, owning from one to five acres, and growing arrow-root, provisions, and minor articles for export. The statistical returns from which I gather these figures further state that there are no paupers on the island."
"In Trinidad, there is, unquestionably, a certain amount of idleness and vagabondism among the Creole laborers; but I see no evidence that these vices exist in larger proportion among them, than they would exist among any other class of laborers similarly situated. In leaving the estates, the great majority were actuated by a desire to better their circumstances, and to lead a more independent life. Land was cheap and abundant, and they preferred to have their own property, rather than labor at low wages in a condition of precarious servitude. Added to this, the course of the planters contributed greatly to the very evil which they dreaded, and from which they afterward so severely suffered. Instead of endeavoring by liberal terms to induce the laborers to remain on the estates, they commenced, shortly after emancipation, a system of giving less wages, and exacting more work; and when the laborers retired from estate to field work, they were summarily ejected from the houses and lands they occupied on the estates, and their provision grounds were destroyed. The emancipated laborers had, therefore, no resource left but to separate themselves from the planting interest. Five-sixths of them became proprietors of from one to ten acres, which they now own, and which they grow in provisions for themselves and families. To supply other wants, they give casual labor to the estates; but they are free of the estates, and can work for whom they deem the best paymaster. If any doubts that a very large number, a very astonishing number, of the emancipated laborers have become independent proprietors, let him look at the score of villages built up since abolition, and so thickly scattered throughout the cultivated districts of Trinidad that it would be superfluous in me to point them out."
"Antigua hastened in advance of all other colonies to emancipate her slaves. She refused to believe in the virtues of an apprenticeship, or in the doctrine that her bondmen needed a purgatory to prepare them for freedom. Her rulers were wise in their generation. They foresaw that with the substitution of free labor for slave labor much had to be learned, and much to be unlearned; that the success of the new system could only be determined by time and experience; and that an early start in the race was a point to be gained, not to be neglected. Antigua has never had any cause to regret the independent course she then thought proper to pursue. * * * The improved condition of the peasantry is never doubted or questioned in the island itself, and it is well shown by the nature and extent of the imports during late years, as compared with their nature and extent before emancipation. From 1822 to 1832, the average annual value of goods imported by Antigua was £130,000 sterling; in 1858, the island imported to the value of £266,364 sterling. During ten years preceding emancipation, the average number of vessels that annually entered the different ports of the island was 340, and the tonnage 30,000. In 1858, the number of vessels was 668, and the tonnage 42,534. In 1846, there were in the island 67 villages, containing 3187 houses and 9033 inhabitants. All these villages were founded, and all these houses built, since emancipation. In 1858, 2000 additional houses had been built, and the number of village residents had risen to 15,644. At the same period, there were only 299 paupers in the island. The planters of Antigua avow, what is unquestionably true, that by the introduction of a cheaper system of labor, the island was saved, in 1834, from impending ruin."
"With regard to Jamaica, I do not mean to say that the estates have anything like a sufficiency of labor. I merely wish to give point-blank denial to a very general impression, that the Jamaica negroes will not work at all. Nine out of ten rely principally upon their own properties for the support of themselves and their families; but they are willing, nevertheless, to work for the estates, or on the roads, when it does not interfere with necessary labor on their own lands. When the choice lies between the roads and the estates, it is not surprising that they should select the employer that pays best and most regularly. The Jamaica negro gives as much labor, even to the sugar estates, as he consistently can, and it is no fault of his if he cannot give enough. They are a peaceable, law-abiding peasantry, with whom the remembrance of past wrongs has had so little weight that, from the day of emancipation until now, they have never dreamed of a hostile combination, either against their old masters, or the government under which they live; though in the time of slavery, insurrections were numerous and terrible. The condition of the Jamaica peasants in 1860 is a standing rebuke to those who, wittingly or unwittingly, encourage the vulgar lie, that the African cannot possibly be elevated. The dissolute idlers, loafers, and vagabonds, that congregate in Kingston and other towns, are as different from their country brethren, as the rowdy of New York city is different from the honest farmers of the State."
COMPARATIVE CHEAPNESS OF FREE LABOR.
"No Barbadian planter, in 1859, would hesitate to select free labor in preference to slave labor, as in his belief the more economical of the two. Every planter in Jamaica knows from his own books, if they go back far enough, that free labor is cheaper than slave labor. He knows that the cultivation of an acre of cane does not now cost him $40, when in other times it cost him $80. He knows that under slavery, the digging an acre of cane-holes cost from $35 to $45, while under freedom it is from $8 to $15. He knows that under one system 30 per cent. of his laboring force were non effectives, and had to be fed and clothed like the rest; while under freedom no work is paid for that is not actually performed. He knows that a free laborer is not bought, and that the sum he would cost can be otherwise laid out at profitable interest. He knows that it is no longer necessary to make allowance of ten or even fifteen per cent. for death or depreciation. These are facts readily admitted, and whoever takes the trouble to think will see their force."
"If I were asked to point out the chief obstruction to a satisfactory solution of the West India labor question, I should answer, without hesitation, want of confidence between employer and employed. The planters cling unwittingly to the shreds of the system of coercion in which they were once taught to believe. They do not yet recognize the overwhelming advantages of perfectly free labor; for they have checked its development, by imposing upon it some of the heaviest burdens of feudalism and of serfdom. They do not seem to reflect for a moment that the interest of a proprietor is to elevate, not to degrade, his laborer. They have misjudged the negro throughout, and have put too much faith in his supposed inferiority. After the important step of emancipation was taken, they did little to turn it to the best account."
"I came to the West Indies imbued with the American idea, that African freedom had been a curse to every branch of agricultural and commercial industry. I shall leave these islands overwhelmed with a very opposite conviction. I deny that the negroes lack industry, when by industry they can add to their means, or advance their prosperity. The more I saw, the more I became convinced that debt and want of capital, much more than want of labor, had led to the abandonment of so many estates; and be it always remembered, that the burden of debt was incurred before freedom was tested. Freedom, when allowed fair play, has injured none of these colonies. It saved them from a far deeper and more lasting depression than any they have yet known. It was a boon conferred upon all classes of society; upon planter and laborer; upon commerce and agriculture; upon industry and education; upon morality and religion. If a perfect measure of success remains to be achieved, let not freedom be condemned; for the obstacles to overcome were great, and the workers were few and unwilling. If I can stimulate inquiry on a subject so important, and so widely misunderstood as the West India labor question, I shall have achieved all the success at which I have aimed."