^ > • .^ >■ ) ;^ > >'-o .J > > > • •i:>jiP^ > ' ■ -> ' >"^ > > > . :>:> :> :> > v ^ » > > > > x» ^ > ^>^ ^ >> :> . ;»> > > ::>>^:s> )^):> > ^^I» ^'5> 553S3 > »:>^> > . 3 1> >s> :> :> > o ^^;^^^ > ^ ^ < ^; LIBRARY n. •jNGRFSS. ^^ ?b UNITED > x>)^> > > » -> > 3» > > g > .*>. ■> ■•> > ^ > > J > ?> :> j> > :> 5 :> :> ^ i> ^ . :> -»> :> 3^) ::^ ^ >:> . ^ 3 >>^ > > > :> •> ^^ ->^ ::> > >•> > ;;> S' ■S> 3 : >^3 ::> ^^ ^ ^^ '^t ■ -> »3 ^ y>%r, 3 )>,^ 5 ^■> > >^ ^ ^>'^^ >^> ^ 3 ^:> \>» 3)^>.> i, > >>3 3.0> ■>)^-:^;;!>> ':> B :])^^ i>DT>- ^>i> ^> >'^ :^X> ^ j-> ^^ , s"^ ^:^ >^ .>!?;» ^^1^?^?J^ ->>> 3 ^>:> _^^ «^ SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT, inr'rhe Sixth Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Am. Anti-Slavery Society will appear in a few days, it will be sent to each member of the Society whose na>ne was enrolled at ■ the Annual Meeting ; and to such Auxiliaries only whose present condition has been or may be made known to the Executive Com- mittee during the year. i f» 4^ THE ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER-EXTRA. o^>it^in^ ; ^i . ^- 1 ) EMANCIPATION IN THE WEST INDIES, IN 183 8. IMPORTANT TO THE UNITED STATES. False prophets were never stiller about their time-detected impostures than are the pro- slavery presses of the United State-s about the results of West India Emancipation. Now and then, for the sake of appearances, they obscurely copy into their immense sheets an incli or two of complaints, from some snarling West India paper, that the emancipated are lazy and wont work. But they make no parade. They are more taciturn than grave-stones. In the following closely printed columns, those who wish to know will find out precisely how the '■^ great experiment" has worked. They will find, 1. The safety of abolition demonstrated — its safety in the worst possible case. 2. That the colonies are prospering in their agriculture. 3. That the planters conferred freedom because they were obliged to by pubHc opinion abroad. 4. That freedom, oven thus imwillingly conferred, was accepted as a precious boon by the slaves — they were grateful to God, and ready to work for their masters for fair pay. 5. That the mass of the planters have endeavoured, from the first, to get work out of the free laborers for as small wages as possible. 6. That many of the attorneys and managers have refused fair wages and practiced extortion, io depreciate (he price of property, that they might profit thereby. 7. Tliat all the indisposition to labor which has yet been exhibited is fully accounted for by these causes. 8. That in spite of all, the ahohtion is workmg well for the honest of all parties. WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 183^ ' The immediate abolitionists hold that the any degree of igp<^rance or debasement to work change from slavery to freedom cannot be too the forfeiture- "i self-ownership, and pronounce sudden. They say that the first step in raising slavery cop^nued for such a cause the worst of tlie slave from his degradation should be that of all, ina!«i'uch as it is the robbery of the poor Re- making hira a proper subject of law, by putting causf be is poor. hira in possession of himself. This position they What light was thrown upon this doctrine by rest on the ground both of justice and expedien- the process of abolition in the Britisli AVcst In- cy, which indeed they believe to be inseparable diea from the 1st of August 1834 to the Ist of With exceptions too trifling to affect the question, June 1837, may be seen in the work of Messrs. tliey believe the laborer who feels no stimulus Thome and Kimball entitled, " EmancipatioB hgtthatofwages and no restraint but that of law, in the West Indies." That light continues to * Irthe most profitable, not only to himself and sa- shine. Bermuda and Antigua, in which th« •cilly at large, but to any employer other than a slaves passed instantaneously out of absolute brutal tyrant. The benefit of tfiis rule they claim slavery into full freedom, are living v,'itiicsses of for every man and woman living within this re- the blessing of heaven upon immediate emanci- public, till on fair trial the proper tribunal fehall pation. In Antigua, one of the old sugar colo- " r of i lienc^ JU have judged them unworthy of it. They deny nies, where slavery had had its full sway there has both the justice and expediency of permitting been especially a fair test of immediatisra, vnd Collected sef. WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. tlie increasing prosperity of the island does the that adopted the principle of immediate cmanci. utmost lionor to the principle. After the fullest pation, have been the facts — and all the facts — inquiry on the point, INIessrs. Thome and Kini- up to the latest intelligence, ball say of this island: — The rest of the colonies adopted the plan pro- " There is not a class, or party, or sect, who do posed by the British government, which, contrary not esteem the abolition of slavery as a special to the wishes of the great body of British aboli- blessing to them. The rich, because it relieved tionists, made the slaves but partially free under them of ''property" which was fast becoming a the name of apprentices. In this mongrel con- disgrace, as it had always been a vexation and a dition they were to remain, the house servants tax, and because it has emancipated them from four, and the field laborers six years. This ap- the terrors of insurrection, which kept them all prenticeship was the darling child of that cxpe- their lifetime subject to bondage. The poor dicncy, which, holding the transaction from whites — because it lifted from off them the yoke wrong to right to be dangerous and difticult, il- of civil oppression. The free colored popula- lustratcs its wisdom by lingering on the dividing tion — because it gave the death blow to the pre- line. Theioffjrc any mischance that might have judicu that cruslied them, and opened the pros- occurred in any part of this tardy process would pect of social, civil, and political equality with have been justly attributable to gradnaUsm and the whites. The slaves — because it oroke open not to 77iim('diatism. The force of this remark their dungeons, led them out to liberty, and gave will be better seen by referring to the nature and them, in one munificent donation, tlieir wives, working of tlie apprenticeship as described in the their chi!dren,theirbodies,theirsouls-everything." book of Messrs. Thome and Kimball. We have In the emphatic language of the Governor, only room to say that the masters universally re- " It was jiniversal 1 1/ admitted thai cm^ncipa.tion garded tlic system as a part of the compensation bad been a great blessing to the island." or bonus to the slaveholder and not as a prepara- In November 1837, Lord Brougham tjius tory school for the slave. By law they wcro summed up the results of the Antigua experi- granted a property in the uncompensated labor ment in a speech in the House of Lords : — of the slaves for six years ; but the same law, by " It might be known to their lordsliips that in taking away the sole means of enforcing this la- one most important colony tlie experiment of in- bor, in fact threw the masters and slaves into a stant and entire emancipation had been tried, six years' quarrel in which they stood on ?ome- InSnitoly to the honor of tlie island of Antigua thing like equal terms. It was surely not to be was it, that it did not wait for the period fixed by wondered if the parties should come out of this the Legislature, but had at once converted the contest too hostile ever to maintain to each other state of slavery into one of perfect liberty. On the relation of employer and cmploj'ed. Thi.'' tiie 1st of August, 1831, the day fixed by act of six yeara of vexatious swinging like a penduhmi Parliament for the commencement of a ten years' over the line between bondage and liberty was apprenticeship, the Legislature of that colony, to well calculated to spoil all the gratitude and glo- thc immortal honor of their wisdo;n, their justice, ry of getting across. and their humanity, had abolished the system of It was early discovered that the masters gene- appr.mticcship, and had absolutely and entirely rally were disposed to abuse their power and get struck the fetters off from 30,000 slaves. Their from their apprentices all that could by any lordships would naturally ask whether the experi- means be extorted. The friends of humanity in mcnt had succeeded ; and whether this sudden Great Britain were aroused, Mr. Sturge, a dis- emancipation had been wisely and politically tinguishcd philanthropist of Birmingham, accom- done. He should move for s:omc returns which panied by Rlessrs. Scoble, Harvey and Lloyd, he would venture to say would prove that the ex- proceeded to the West Indies on a rni.ssion of in- perimcnt had entirely succeeded. He would give quiry, and prosecuted their investigation contcm- tliL'ir lordships .some proofs : First, propcrt}' in poraneously with Messrs. Thome and Kimball, that island had Tmcn in value ; secondly, with a Their Report produced a general conviction in very few exceptions, i^nd those of not greater im- England, that tlic planters had forfeited all claim portanco than occurred .'u England during har- vest, there was no deficiency in the number of laborers to be obtained when la^orers v.'ere v/ant- td ; thirdly, offences of all sorts, fr,?in capital of- fences downwards, had decreased ; ai?d this ap- to retain their authority over the appreni:cos, and the goveruEient was accordingly' petitioned im. mediately to abolish the system. This it was loth to do. It caused inquiries to be instituted ir,' the colonies, especially in Jamaica, with the poared from returns sent by the inspector of evident hope of overthrowing the charges of Mr. slaves to the governor of that colony, and by' him Sturge. The result more than confirmed those transmitted to tiic proper authority here ; ai.'d, charges. The government still plead for delay, fourthly, tlic exports of sugar had increased : du- and brought in a bill for the improvement of iho ring tiic three years ending 1831, the average ap'^'Jrenticeship. In the progress of these |^- yearly export vvas 165,000 cwts., and for thc^ oeedin\'^s. urged on as they were by the licavflu three subsequent years this average had increased high ciithi''siasm of the British nation, man^ oT to 189,000 cwts., being an increase of 21,000 the planters ."Nearly jjcrecived that their rlKHptt^ cwts , or one clear seventh, produced by fret of power during the remaining two years of,.t% labor. Nor were tlie last three years productive apprenticc.'ihip "had become worth less to them Hcasons; for in 1H3.') there was a very severe and than the good will v^^hich they might get by destructive hurricane, and in the year 1836tl»ere voluntarily'^ giving it up. Whether it was this was such a drought that water was obliged to be motive operating in good fait.'»i "r a hope to cscajie imported from Barbados." philanthropic interference for i.Ve future by yield. Of such sort, with regard to both the colonies in<' to it« full claim, and thus gain M clear f\r\d » WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. to oppress unaer the new system of wages, one thing is certain tlie chartered colonies, suddenly, and to the surprise of many, put the finishing stroke to the system and made their apprentices free from the 1st of August, 1838. The crown colonies have mostly imitated their example. The following table exhibits the extent and population of ttiese colonies. o:i Ex- tent, sq. m Population. Possessions. &l White. Slaves. F. Col. (■ Anguilla,t 1650 365 2,388 327 Antigua,* \mi 108 1,980 2.1,537 3 S9i m BalianiaSit 16J9 4,400 4,240 9,268 2.991 c Barbados,! \m!) 166 14,959 82,807 5,146 rt Bermudas,* 1611 22 3,905 4,608 ,73S ■A Dominica, t 17«3 27.3 8J0 15,392 3,606 _o GreHuda,t 1783 T2> 801 24.145 3,786 Jan>uica,t 1655 6,400 37,000 311,6.42 55,000 Alontserrat,t 16;« 47 330 6,262 814 » Nevis.t 1628 20 700 0,259 2,0110 ^ St. Clnistophers,t St. Luoia,t 1032 180?i 6S 58 1,612 972 19,310 13.661 3.'HiO 3,718 St Vincent,t 1783 130 1,301 2.-!,5Hy 2,834 .2 TobagOjt 176 5 187 322 12,556 1,164 «Q Ttiuidadjt 1797 2,400 4 201 24,006 15,956 Tortoli, or > Virgin Isles, t > 1666 800 5,399 607 Total, B. W. I. 14.406 7 J ,328 593,879 105,572 Cape of Good Hope, f I5erbici>t 43 000 35,500 20,f,t5 65,556 29,000 523 Ouiana \ Demararat 1803 3,006 6, .360 ( KssequibOjl Honduras, 1650 62,750 2'50 2,100 2,300 8.000 76,000 15 000 To tal, 129,10-;793,6S0 1.50, .103 The unanimity V!i\.\i which the apprentice- _ ship was given up i.«; a most remarkable and' instructive fact. la the Council and Assembly of Monlserrat; there was an unanimous deci- sion in favor of Emancipation as early as Fe- bruary 1838. In the legislature of Tortola, whicii passed the bill in April 1838, the oppos- in? p.irty was small. In that of Barbados the bill was pa-sed 'on the 15th of May with but 07ie dissenting voice. In that of Jamaica, the bill seems to have been passed on ihe 8Lh ol June, and the Jamaica Times remarks : — " No dissentient voice was heard within the walls of the Assembly, all joined in the wish so often expressed, that the remaining term of the ap- prenticeship should be cancelled, that the ex- citement produced by a law which has done inconceivable harm in Jamaica, in alienating the affections of her people, and creating dis- cord and disaffection, should at once cease. Thank Godi it is now nearly at an end, and we trust that Jamaica will enjoy that repose, so eagerly and anxiously sought after, by all who wish the island well." The^e t"ac:s come down upon the question ol (he safeiy ot ivimediate emancipation with an •a fortiori, a much more then. For it is admitted on all har;d- that the apprenticeship had " alie- nated the affections of the people;" they were in a state less favorable to a quiet sequel, than they were before ine first of August, 1834, yet •he danger was not thought of. The safety was an argument my«yor of emancipation, not 'Emancipated entirely on the lal. of August, 1834, tEinancipatod entirely on ibe l.it. of August, 1838, by vote of the local legislatures in the chartered Colonics ; and by Governor and Council, in the Crown Colonics. against it. The raw head and bloody bone.s had vanished. The following is a fair exhi- bition of the I'eeliiig of the most iiiflueiilial planters, in regard to the safety of the step. From the Barbadian, May 9, 1838. AT A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, IN THE NEW COUKT HOUSE, APRIL 24l!i, 1838. The Lord Bishop rose and spoke as follows : " Mr. Preside7it, and Gentlemen of the Coun- cil, ' I was informed yesterday that, during my absence Jroin this island, the members recorded iheir opinion as to the expediency of absolute- ly abolishing the apprenticeship in August, 1838. I am most anxious to record my entire concurrence in this resolution, but I wish it to be understood that I do not consider the mea- sure as called for by any hanlships, under which the laboreis in i his island are suflering — nor Irom the want of any esseniial comfort — nor from the deprivation of any thing, which a laborer can fairly claiai from his master; still 1 do express my concurrence in the resolution of the board, and I do so on these grounds : that I am satisfied the measure can be safely carried in this island, and if safely, then I leel justly; for I consider the very important inieresis which are involved in the measure. I must confess, too, that I am unwilling the Barbados should be Ijehind any oilier island, especially in a mea- sure which may be carried both safely and just- ly, and where its example may be of such be- neficial consequence. I am just retu red from visiting the Northern Islands of ihe Diocese. I have gone over every part of Torio'a, and though it is far more feriile than the Off In- lands, yet even these arc sufficiently productive for the laborer to raise the lesser and necessary provision of life, — andyetwiih these islands in iheir very face, the Legislature of Tortola has pa'^sed ihe act of abolition. Some of the pro- prietors were opposed to it, but they have now given up their opposition; and I heard, whilst in Antigua, not only that the act had passed, but that on the day of iis passing, or the follow- ing day, some of the leading proprietors rode through the island, and were met by the people with expressions of the utmost gratitude, re- garding the act as a boon granted to ihcm by their masters. At Nevis the act has pa.sscd. At St. Christopher's the council are in fivor of its passing, and with Nevis emancipated in iis vicinity, there is little doubt hut the Act must pass. At Montscrrat also it has passed. At Antigua, which I visited last year, I found that every thing was proceeding quietly and regu- larly. I found too, the planiers in high spirits, and some estates, which had been given up, restored; and the small pitches and tenements of the free pecple, commencing last year, now in a very satisfactory state of cultivation. Ii is po.ssible, indeed, that these last mentioned, unless the population is proporlifuinbly increas- ed, may affect the oultivaion of the larger es- tates, but there they are, and flourishing, as I have described, whilst I was in the island. A contiguous, though abmdoned estate was pur- chased by Sir Henry Martin for about 9,50Oi. WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. cunenry, being 3,000/. more than he had offer- ed a lew yeans previously. To compare Bar- bados wiih any other i.sland, eiiher as to pcpu- lation, wealth, or slate of agriculiure, is un- necessary. 1 have seen nothing like the com- mercial "activity which I saw in the stree s ye.sterday, except at St. Thomas; aiid I feel, therefore, on all ihtse grounds, that the act may be passed safely and justly. At the same lime 1 am not unmindiul or insensible to the siate of public opinion in the mother country, nor to (he m ny new and harassing annoyimces to which toe proprietors may be expsed during a P'utracfed continuance of the apprenticeship. I request that my lull concurrence in the reso- kniori of the council, may hi aecorJed on the minu:es of tliis day's proceedii)gs." Such is the testimoiiy ot a witness in no wi.se warped by prejudice in favor of the anti- slavery party Tlie debases which took place in the legisla- tures of boih Barbados and Jamaica, are full of simi.ar testimony, uttered by men every way qualifitd to bear witness, and under influences which relieve their testimony from every taint of suspicion. In the legislature of Jamaica, on the ques- tion of a Committee to bring ia a Bill, Mr. Good remarked, " He could say that the ne- groes from their general good conduct were* deserving of the boon. Then why ftot give ii with a good heart ? why exhibit any bjd feel- ing ab -ut the matter 1 There were many hunorable gentlemen who hadb'nefitted by the pressure from without, v. ho owed their rank if) socitty and their seats in that huuse to the' mda^^try of the negroes. Why should they now show a bad heart in the ma'ter"? — Nine leuths of the proprietors of this i>lr\nd had de- termined upon giving up the apprenticeship. HunJieds of thousands were to be benefi ted — we/e to take their stations as men of society, nnd he hoped the born wuuld not be retaided by a handful of men who owed their all to slavery." Mr. Dallas said, — " The abolition of the re- maining term of apprenticeship must take place : let them then join hand and heart in doing it well, and with such grace as we now could. Let it have the appearance of a boon from ourselves, and not in downright suhynisoinn to the coercive measures adopted Inj the Biilish Parliamejit." After a committee had been- apixdn.'ed to prepare and b.ing in a Bill lor the ab;diuou of the apprenticeship, a m-m!>er rose anrl proposed tbit the SBth of June should be its terminati^ n. We give his speech as lej/oited in the Jamatca papers, to shuw how f.iiiatical even a slave- holder may become. '•On the members resuming their septs, Mr. FTaut proposed that it b? an instruction to the commitee nproinied lo bring in the bill for abolish ngthe remainder of the apprenticeship, to insert a clause in it, that the operaiion o; that bill should coiii.iicrjce on the 38ih of June, ihai being the day ap.iointed for ihe coronaiion of ilie Cluecn. He Jilt proud in teUi-ng the house th-at he was the rcpresenloiive of the black popu- laHon. lie iras sent there hii the blacks and his other friends. The while Christians had their representatives, the people of color had their representatives, and he hoped shortly to see the day when the blacks would stnd in their own re- presentatives. He wanted the thing done at once. Sir, said the honorable member waxino warm.- It was nonsense to delay ii. It could be done in ihiee lints as he said befoie, dely 1840, and put in 1838. That was all thai they had to do. It it were possible let the thing be done in two words. He went ther to do his duty to his constituents, and he was determined to do so. His black friends louked up to him to protect them — and he would press his mo- tion that all the apprentices in the island should be crowned on the 28 h of June. (Tnunder.ng roars of lau:.hter.) He was as independent as any honorsble member, and would deliver his sentiment, vvitluart caiing who were and who were not pleastd. He was possesstd of pro- peity in- apprentices — he had an estate u-ith nearly two hundred negroes, that he was deter- mined to croicn un the ^Slh of June. (Increased roars of laushier in the house, and at the bar.) He would not be laughed down. His proper- ties were nut encun;bered. He woU;d tjot owe anything on them af er they were paid for, ar'd that he could du. (Loud laughter.) He was determined to have his opinion. As he had said before, the 28lh day of Jun > being fixed for the cornnation ol ail the negroes in the island, ihat is the day they ought to be released from the apprenticesiiip. (Thundering and deafening roars of laughter). (Here the ht- norable member was told tliai the Glueen was to be crowned on that day.) Ah, well, he had made a ra'stake, but he would lell the house the truth, he had made up his mind to give his apprentices freedom on that day, but he did not wish to do it toithcut his neiglibors doing the same, lest they should say he was setting a bad example. He would press his motion to a di- vision. It had been seconded by his honorable friend on his right. — (Aside, " Good, didn't you promise to second ill") The h(>norable men;ber then read his motion, and harided it up lo the clerk." The " mistake" of this liberal descendant of Israel, which excited so much merriment was, after all, not a very unfortunate one, if the " crown" of manhood is more important than that of monarchy. The members objected to so near an approach to v-nmed aiisni, noi, how- ever, be it remarked, on account of the unfit- ness of the apprentices, (^laves) but iheir own convenience. Among those wiio ri. plied to Mr. Hart, was Mr. Osborn, of unmingled African blood, born a slave, and who, we are informed, w'.-is a successful competitor for th.- seat he now occupies against ihe very man who formerly claimed him as property. Mr. Osborn nnd his partner Mr. Jordon were editors rd' the Ja- maica Watchman, and had contended manfully for libirty when it was a dangerous word. Mr. Osborn said : — '' lie was aslonishi d at the gallopinc: liberality which seemed to have seized some lumtutiblc meiidjers. now there was nothing to conend for. Their liberaliiy seemed to have outrun all prudence. Wliere were ihey an i t' eir liberality when it was al- most deatii to broaeli ihe ques'ion of slavery ? What had become of their philanthropy ? Bui no, it was nol cjnvenient 'hen. The stream WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. was too strong for th"rn to resist. Now, how- ever, whea iiie qutsiion was finally seliled, when notlung remained lor them to do, ii was the tiiuG that some honorable gentemen began io clamor their liberalit}', and b.-gau a race, whosh.iuld be the first, or who should have the honor of first tenninutmg the apprentice- ship, lie hoped the motion would be with- drawn, and the discussion put an end to." What had become of the visions of blood and slaugh er 1 Could there be more impres- .•^ive tes imony to the safety of Emancipadon in all, even the west ca-e^ 1 We might add to ihis testimony that of the univer.-al newspaper pres^ of the British We^t India colonies. We have room, ho*ever, to select only from a few of the well known op- ponents of freedom. " We seriously call upon our representatives to consider well all tsie bearings of the question, and if they c-innot resi-t effectually these en- croachments 01 the Imperial G iveniment, adopt the remaining alternative of saving tliemselves from the infliction, by giving up at once and entirely, the iioiu' of contention between u-, Thus only shall we disarm, if anything in rea- son or in nature can, our enemies of their slan- derous weapons of offence, and secure in as far as possible, a speedy an! safe return of peace and prosperity to this " distracted" colo- ny. — Wiihout this sacrifice on our parts, we see no shelter from our sufferings — no amelio- ration of present wrongs — no hype for the fu- ture; but on the contrary, a systematic and re- morseless train liid for the ultimate ruin of every proprietor in the country. With this sacrifice, which cm only be to any extent to a few, and which the wisdom of our legislature may possibly find out some means or other of compensation, W3 have the hope that the sun- shine of Jamaica's prospeiily shall not receive any fuither diminution ; but shall rather dawn again with renewed vigor; when all shall be alike free under the proieciiun ol' the same law, and the same law-givers; and alhh ill be alike amenable to the powers that punish without fa- vor and without aflJection." — Jamaica Standard. " Tnere is great rea'-on to expect that many Jamaica proprietors will anlicipaie the [leriod established by the Slavery Abolition Act for the termination of the apprenticeship. They will, as an act of grace, and with a view to their future arrangements with their negr.oes, terminate the apprenticeship eiiher of all at once, or by giving immi'dirie fr^^edom lo the most deserving; try the effect of this gift, and of the example aftbrded to the apprentices when they see those who have been dischaiged from the apprenticeship working on the esiates for wages. If such a course is adopted, it wili af- ford an additional motive for inducing the I,e- gislatuie 'o consider whether the good feeling of the laborin:? popiihton, and their fuir.rc conn ction with their former employers, may not be promoted by permit' ing them to owe to t>e grace of their own Legi-latiire the termi- naion of the appreniii-eship as soon as the re- quisii? legislation for the new stale of things has bcpi^ adopted." — Jama'ca Dspalch,. Of such sore as this is the testimony from all the Colonies, most abundantly published in the Emancipator and other abolition p .p:-rs, lo the point of the safety oleaiire E nancipaiion. At uie time when ih- slip was t ik u, it was uni- veisally concluiicd ihatso lar from being dan- gerous It pri.mis. d tiie greattsi safety. It would nut only put an end to the danger upprehcnUed Irom the foreign imcrference of the abol tion- ists, but it would conciliate the neffroes .' And we are nut able to find any oce who professes to be disap'iointed vviih the result thus far. The only evil now complameil of, is that ihe new freemen do not in s ime m-tances choose io work on tlie terms ofteied by the planters. They have shed no man's blood 'I'liey have committed no depiedalion. They peaceably obey the laws. Ail this, up to the latest dite, is universally admitted. JNeiiher does any one now pri^-sume to prophesy anything different for the future. INDUSTRY. On the one topic of the industry of the Emancipated people, the West Indian papers give the most conflicting accounts. Some re- present them as laboiing with a'arrity, dili- g-nce and effr-ct wherever "anything like an adequate compensation i> offered. It i? assert- ed by some, and not di nied b/ any authorities that we have seen, that the eniincipated are industriously at work on Ijiose estatts where the mast, rs voluntar^iv relinqui-hed the i.p- prenticeship befoie ih ar>t of August and met their frted people in good faith. But m-s' of the papers, especially in Jamaica, complain grievously that the freed people will work on no reasonable terms. We give a fair spec men from one of the Jamaica papers, on which our political editors choose most to rely for their information : — '' In referring to the state of the country this week, we have still the same tale to tell of little work, and that li tie indifferently done, but ex- orbitantly charged for ; and whi-rever resisted, a general ''sin lie" is the consequ-nce. Now this, whatever more favourab.e compli-xion the interested and sinister motives of (^h rs may attempt to throw around it, is the real state oJ. matters upon nine-tenths of the properties suu- ated in St. James's, Wesimoreiand, ar.d Ha- noveK In Trelawny they appear to bi doing a little better ; but that only arises, we aie confident, from the longer pur.^es, a-.id patience of endurance under exorbitant wa'ges, exhibit- ed by the general! y of the mar^agcrs of that parish. Let them wait till th^jy find they can no longer continue making s'.igur at its prcsenl expensive rate, and they wijl then find whether Trelawny is substantially in a better conditio^i than eitlier of the othor panics." — Standard, quoted in ihe Morning Journal of Nov. 2 This is the " tale " indeed, oY a great part of the West India papers, sung to the same hum drum tuiie ever since the first of August ; and so failhful'y echoed by our own pr> .slavery press that niany of our estimable f- How citi- zens have given it up that the great "experi- ment" has turned out unfavorably, and ih it the c dored population of the West Indies are ra- pidly sinkiifr from the condition o( stares to tha*4 of idle freemen. W' re we all in a posi- tion perfectly disinterested and above the peon- WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. liar influfnce ot slaveiy, we mi^ht | erhaps consider ih s- complaints as making for, raiher than against, tlie charactei olthe i:.tnaucipated and 'he caus- of freed in, inasmuci as they p ove tlie funnel slaves to have bo h the di-cie- lion and the s, irit which should cuaractense freemen. Bm to the peculiar optics which abound m ihese United Staie> it iiiiiy be neces- sary to show the entire picture. 'I'o prove in ihe firsi place the f^cneral false- hood of the complaints thems Ives it is only necessary to advert to recent official documeuts. For our present purpose it will be sufficient to refer lo Jamaica. The legi-lature was con- vened on the 3Uth of Octob-r and addressed by the Governor Sir Lionel Smith in a speech of ■which the following extract p.rtains to uur sub- ject : — " Gentlemen of the Council, " Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly, " The most important event in the annals of colonial history has taken place since 1 last had the pleasu>-e ot meeting the lesislatuie of this Island ; and I am hap^y in being able to de- clare that the conduci. of the laboring popula- tion, who wore then tbe objects of your liberal and enlightened policy, entitles them to the highest praise, and amply proves how WELL THEY HAVE DESERVED the boon oj free- dom. *' It was not to be expected that the total ex- tinction of the apprenticeship law wou'd be fol- lowed by an in-tantineous return to active la- ta )r, but feel in'^ as I do the depest intere.-tin the suc'-essful lesult of the great measure n iw in progress, I sincerely C' ng atulate you and the country at la'ge, on the improvement wh ch is diily taking place ii the re-umaion of indus'.ionshabits,\in'l I TRUST THERE IS EVERY PROSPECTOF AGRICULTU- RAL PROSPERITY.' Such i-. the tcsUmony of a Governor who is no stranger in th? West Indies and who was' put in 'he place oi Lord Sligo as more accept- able to the pljnters. But what said the House ol Assemb y in reply ■?— a House made up chiefly ot attornies who had iiiore interest than any other men in the continuance of the old sys- tem, and who, as wll p esenily b ■ shown, « ere rot unwilling to have the " experiment" fail 1 They speak as f jUows : — " May it Please your Excellency, " We, her Majesty's dutiful ami loval sub- jerts, the Assembly of Jamaica, thank your Excellency for jour speech at the opening of the se sion. " The House join your Excellencv in bear- ing testimony TO THE PEACEABLE MAN- NER in which the laboring population have conducted themselves in a state of FREIE- DOM. " It cenainly was not to be expected that so great a change i>i the condition of Ihe people wottld be fo lowed by an immediate return to active lab It. The Hou-e, howr-ver, are wil- ling to believe that some deg'ee of improve- ment is taking place, and they sincerely join in the HOPE expressed by your Exc ell ney. that the agricultural interests of the Island may ultimately prosper, by a resumption of in- dustrious habits on ihe part of our peasantry in their n>=w condition." This .settles th ■ qut stion. Those who will not be convinced by such documents as these that the mass of the Emancipled in Jamaica are ready to do their part in the sy.-lem of free labor, would not be convinced it one lose from the deid to prove it. We are now prepared to investigate the causes of the compla nts, and inquire why in numerous cases the negroes have refused to Work. Let us first go back to the deoa es in the Jamaica Legi-liuire on the passage of the Emancipatioij bill in June, and see wheiher we can discover the temper in which it was passed, and the piospect of good fa'th in its execution. We can hardy doubt ihai some mmbeis, and Some especial! V from whose speeches i n that occasion we have already qui ted, designed really to comer ihe " boon ofireedom." But others spoke very differently. To understand their language we must commence with the Governor's speech at the opening of the ses- sion : — " Gentlemen of the Council, " Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly, " I have called you together, at an unusual season, to take into your consideration the state of the I-land under the Laws of Apprentice- ship, for ihe labouring pcpulanon. " I need not refer you to ihe agitation on this subject ihroughout the Brit sh Empire, or to the discussions upon it in Parliament, where the honorable efforts of ihe ministry were barely found sulhcient to preserve the original dnraiion of the Laws, as an (jbligaiion of the National faith. " I shall lay before you some despatches on this subject. " Gentlemen, " Gfneral agitation and Parliamentary inter, ference have not, I am afraid, yet terminated. " A corresponding excitement has been long going on among the apprentices themselves, but SI ill they have rested in sober and quiet hopes, re'ying on your generosity, that you will ex- tend to them that boi n which has been granted to their class in other Colonies. " Gentlemen of tht Council, " Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Assembly, •"In this posture ofaff.tirs, it is my duty to declare ray sentiments, and disiinctly lorecorn. mend to yon the early and equal abolition of the apprenticeship for all classes. I do so in confi- dence that the apprentices will be found wor- thy of freedom, and that it will operate as a double blessing, by securing also the future in- terests of the p'nniers. " I am commanded, however, to inform you that her Majesty's ministers will not entertain any question of further coi pcnsation. But should your views be opposed to the policy 1 recommend, I would entreat you to conside»" well how impracticable it will become to carr^'j on coercive labor — always difScu't, it wou.d in future fe in peril of constant comparisjn with other ccl nies made free, and with those es- («tes in this island madefree by individual pro- prietors. WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. " As Governor, unaer these circumstances, and I never shrink from any of my responsibi- lities, I ■pronounce it physically impossible to maintain the apprenticeship with any hope of suc- cessful agriculture. " Gentlemen of the Council, Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Asscmbh/. " Jamaica is in your hinds— she requres repo^e, by the removal of a law which has equally tormented the laborer, and disappointed the planter— a. law by which man siill con- strains mm in unnatural servitude. This is her first exigency. Fur her i'lilure welfare she ap- peals to your wisdom to legi>late inthespidi of th3 times, with liberality and benevolence to- wards all classes." When such a man as Sir Lionel Smitn pro- nounced it no long-^-r practicable to carry on co- ercive labor, he must have b^en abold'as well as a ra~h planter who would venture to hold on to the old system under Lord Glene'g's im- provement Act. Accordingly we find some of the staunchest advocates of slavery, men wno had been fattening on the oppression of the ap- prentices up to that moment, the first, and the most precipitate, in their proposals of abolition. Mr. Hyslop, Mr. Guy and others were for act- ing at once on the Governor's speech without relerrm? it to a committee. The former said : ' He believed that a proposition would be ma le to abandon the apprenticeship from the 1st ol August, but he icould say let it be abandonedfrom Sunday ne«et. He would therefore move that the speech be made the order of the day for to- morrow." Mr. Guy said: — " The Governor's speech contained nothing more than what every Gentlemen expected, and what every Gentlemen, he believed, was pre. pared to do. In short he would state that a bill had already been prepared by him, which he in. tended to introduce to.morrow, for the abolition of the apprenticeship on the 1st of August next." Both these gentlemen are well known by the readers of Jamaicapapers as obstinate defenders of slavery. The lat er was so passionately de- voted to the aba>es of the apprenticeship that Lord Shgo was obliged to dismiss him from the post ot Adjutant General of militia. In the ar- dor of his atachment to the " peculiar institu- tion" of getting work without pay, he is report- ed to have declared on a public occa-^ion, that tbe British ministry were a "parcel of rep- tiles "and that the "English nation was fast going to the dogs." In another part of the de- bate :— "Mr.Grv hoped the house would not sro into a discussion of the nature oj the apprenticeship,or the terms upon which it was forced upon us by the government. All that he knew about the mat- ter was, that it was a part and parcel of the compensation. Government had so declared It. In short it was made law. He could not help believing that the hon. member for Tre- lawny, was arguing against the dictates of his own honest heart— that he came there cut and dry with a speech prepared to defend the o-o. oernment." " Mr. Barclay, to whom, some years ago, the planters gave a splendid service of plate for Ms mgenious defence of slavery against the terrible pen of James Stephen, said " it appeared to be the general feeling of the house that the apprentice ship should be done away with. Be that as it may, he was free to say that in that part of thr- isfand he was from, and ccrtaiidy it was a lam-e and wealthy district, the apprenticeship system had icorked ic«Z/, and all panics appeared' ,:,iis- hcd with it He denied that there e.xistcd any necessity to disturb the working of the system It would have gradually glided into absolute ireedom if they were permitted to regulate their own affairs, but the government, or rather the people of England, had forced on the predicament m which they were placed. The ministry could not help themselves— They were driven to vio- late the national compact, not in express words It is true, but in fact. It was, however, the fnr'n- of public opinion that operated in producin.V tlu- change Tiiey were placed in a situation Irom' which they could hardly extricate themselves.— lliey had no alternative, he was afraid, but to mt along vjith the stream." Mr. Hamilton Brown, who at the commence- ment of the apprenticeship came in to a Special Magistrate's court and publiclv told him that un less he and his colleagues ''V/,Z their duty b,/ having recourse to a frequent and vigorous apvlu cation of the lash, there would be rebellion inthf Pfrisji {of St. Ann's .') in less than a month, and all the responsibility of such a calamity jeould rest on their shoulders" .' discoursed in the follow- ing manner. "It was always understood, for the apprenticeship had become marketable. Proper ties had been bought and sold with them, their time had been bought by others, and by them- selves. •' "He had no hesitation in saying, that tlic state, raents which had been made in England again< the planters were as false as //e.7— they had been concocted here, and sent home by a i)arccl of spies in the island. They were represented as a cruel set of men, as having outraged the fcclinna of humanity towards the negroes, or in matters m which they were concerned. This was false He did not mean to deny that there were a few iitstances of cruelty to the apprentices, but then those were isolated cases, and was it not hard that a hue and cry should be raised agaiiiRt the whole body of planters, and all made ^T sutler on account of those few. He would say that ther.- was a greater disposition to be cruel to tlie no. gioes evinced by young men arriving in this island from England, than by the planters. There was, indeed, a great deal of difficulty in restrain. ing them from doing so, but the longer they Vred in the country, the more kind and kvmai'ie thcv became. The negroes loere better off here, than many of the people of Great Brilai",;. and thev would have been contented, had it not been for the injudicious interference of some of the Special Justices. Who had ever heard of nc-rroes being starved to death ? Had they not rca'^'d accounts m the English papers ot men dcstrovino- their wives, their children, and afterwards themselves, because they could not obtain Ibod. They had been grossly defrauded of their j>roperty ; and af- ter doing that, it was now sought to destroy their constitutional rights. He would repeat, they had WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 8 been groasly defrauded of their property." [Here is the true slaveholder, logic, chivalry and all.] Mr. Fratcr s.id, aa.ong other tinners, " He knew tliat it iir.rht be said the bill (Lord Glenelg's) did not go to the extent of freemg the i.egroes-e are about to do ourselves, but he would ask whether we were not driven into the difficult!/ by which we are now surrounded! Had V7c not •been brou-ht hito this alarm>,g position, mto this L/ire«cv,bythe conduct of the British Govern- ment W/U do ice not tell the English nation frankly and candidly, that they agreed to give the planters six years' services of their apprentices as a part of the ionipensation, and ,j they desired to doaivay with it, that we must he paid for it, oth- erwise we Wdl NOT ANSWER FOR ANV CHANGE FOR .NY EVILS vvmcll ARE LIKELY TO ENSUE. Why did the gov. rumcnt force such an obnoxious bill upon us ? They hud in substance done this, they refused to annul the apprenlicship themse-lvcB, it is true, but said, we will place them in a situation that will compel them to do it themselves. He must spy that the Government had acted cowar^Z- ly and unjustly, they had in substance deprived dacm of the further two years' services of their apprentices, agreeably to the compact entered in- to upon a prctc.-;t tliat we had not kept faith with thenf, and now tell us they will give us no com- pensation. He hoped the allusion to it in the ad- dress would be retained." We ben- the patient attention of the reader to still more^of these extracts. The present state ol things in Jamaica renders them very important. It is indispensable to a correct judgment of the resufeofthe experiment to understand in what temper it was entered upon by the parties. >;oth- in- can show tins more clearly or authoritatively than the quotations we are making. We hnd another little torrent of eloquence from the same Mr. Hamilton Brown above quoted. He and Bcvcral otiier gentlemen rose to reply to the state- ments cf RicLrdHiU. a friend of freedom, and Secretary of the S.)ceiil Magistracy. Mr. Brown-" Mr.Chairman I am on my legs, Sir. I say that we have to thank the Special Jus- Uces, and the private instructions which they have acted upon, /or all the evils that have occur. red in the country. Had they taken the law for their (Tuide, had they acted upon that, bu-, and not upon their private instructions, every t.nng would have gone on splendidly, and we should have done well. But they had destroyed thene- eroes with their instructions, ihcyha.d given 1 1, em bad advice, and encouraged them in disobedience to their masters. I say it, Sir, in the face of this c-jmmiltee— I would say it on my death-bed to- morrow, that if the Stipendiary Magistrates had done their duty all would have gone on well, and I told his Excellency that he might then have slept on a bed of mses." Ilerc was one of the abolishcrs of the appren- ticeship wlio held that more flogging would have made it work more "spUndiaiy." Mr. Hugh Frasor Lcfilic, who the February before liad, m hifl pl.icc^ in the Assembly, denominated lh> anti- elavery d.kgafesassembied in London, as "a set of orawl'ng wretches ;" " the scum and refuse ot Bociitv." "'lie wasliingsand scrapings of thoma- nuracluniig districts," ^c. &-C. now delivered him- Btdf of the following : — "//e would ask any man in the Kovsl-, ..,^y, in the country, whether the house had any discretion left to theip in the steps they were about to takej Gould it be denied, that they were driven to the present alternative ? Could they any longer say thev were an independent legislature ? It would be preposterous-absolutely absurd to entcnam any such idea. The apprenticeship had becri forced upon the country as a part and parcel ot the planters' compensation-it had be.n working well, and would insensibly have slided into a state of absolute freedom, had the masters been left alone to themselves. It is now utterly vnpracti. cable to continue it. A most obnoxous measure had been passed by the British parhament, and sent out to this country to be promulgated by the. Governor as the law of the land. The functions of the legislature were put in abeyance, and a British act crammed down their throats. It could not be denied that they were now under a mili- tary Government. He was only sorry that the thing had not been more honestly done ; m his opinion, it would have been better for all classes, for then the government would have taken all the responsibilities which might attend the sudden change they had driven the house to make and find the means of conducting the atrairs of the country into a peaceable and successful state- Let any person look to the excitement lohich at present prevailed throughout the country, couple that with the speech which had been delivered by the Governor, ana say ^f it was any longer prac- ticable to carry on the system oj apprenticeship. With respect to the doctrine which had been broached, that the apprenticeship was not a part and parcel of the compact between the govern- ment and the planters ; that they (the planters) did not possess an absolute, but an mcidcntal right \o the services of their apprentices, he confessed he was at a loss to understand it, be was uica- pable of drawing so nice a distinction He re- peated, the government and nation had made the apprenticesliip a part of the consideration of the abolition of slavery, and having placed us m a situation to render its continuance impracticable, they were bound in honor and co.mnon honesty to coinpensaie us for the two years." Once more, and we have done. Mr. Berry ^^'«*He did not think that because the Governor said they weie not entitled to compensation, that therefore they should give up the claim which they.unqucstionably had upon the British nation for further compensation. He would contend also, that the apprenticeship was one part ol the consideration for the abolition of slavery. He had heard it remarked that the apprenticeship must cease, but it ought to be added that they were compellcd-they were driven to put an end to it by the Government, though they were con- vinced that neither party was at this moment prepared for immediate abandonment Ihe Oo- Tor lor, m his o,.eni„g speech, had to d the hous« that from the igitation at home, and the corroh- ponding agitation wiiich at the present r|oment prevailed hero, it was physically impossible o carry on the apprenticeship with advantage to ,„ist.-rs and labourers. He would take leave to remark, that the apprentices up ","-y^'"-^;'f/"2 well-in some of the parishes had worked ex. ^EST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. treraelj well. Where this was not the case, it was attributable to the improper conduct of the Special Justices. He did not mean to reflect upon them all ; there were some honorable ex- ceptions, but he would say that a great deal of the ill-feeling which had arisen in the country be- tween the masters and their apprentices, was to be traced to the injudicious advice and conduct of the Special Justices. " Such wore the sentiments of by far the major- ity of those who spoke in the Assembly. Such, doubtless, were the sentiments of more than nine-tenths of the persons invested with the management of estates in Jamaica. What, then, if we had heard that nine-tenths of the emanci- pated had refused to be employed ? Could that have been counted a failure of the experiment ? Was there any reason to believe that the planters would not resort to every species of -oppression compatible with a system of wages ? Before proceeding to the question of wages, however, we invite the reader to scan the temper and disposition of the parties of the other part, viz., the laboring population. Let us observe more carefully how tliey behaved at the important period of TRANSITION, Two of the sturdiest advocates of slavery, the Jamaica Standard and the Cornwall Courier, speak as follows : — The Standard says — "On Tuesday evening, (July 31), the Wcsleyan, and we believe. Baptist Chapels, (St. James') were opened for service — the former being tastefully decorated with -branches of the palm, sago, and other trees, with a variety of appropriate devices, having a portrait of her Majesty in the centre, and a crown above. When we visited the Chapel, about 10 o'clock, it was completely full, but not crowded, the gene- rality of the audience well dressed ; and all evi- dently of the better class of the colored and negro population. S'lortiy after, we understand, a very excellent and modern sermon, in all poli- tical points, was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Kerr, the highly respected pastor. The congregation was dismissed shortly after 12 o'clock ; at which hour the church bell commenced its solemn peal, and a few noisy spirits welcomed in the morning of Freedom with loud cheers, and planted a huge branch, which they termed the " Tree of Liber- ty," in the centre of the two roads crossing the Market square." Again the Standard ohscrves, "The long, and somewhat anxiously expected jubilee of Eman- cipation has arrived, and now nearly passed over, with a remarkable degree of quiet and circum- spection. Of St. James's of course, we speak more particularly, — St. James's, hitherto the most reviled, and most unwarrantably calumniated parish, of all the parishes in this unfortunate and distracted colony !" The Co)mL'all Courier says, " The first of August, the most important day ever witnessed in Jamaica, has passed quietly as far as actual disturbance is concerned." The Jamaica Morning Journal, of whose re- cent course the planters should be the last to complain, gives more particular information of ths transition in all parts of the island. We give copious extracts, for to dwell upon such a scene must sotten the heart. It is good sometimes to behold the joy of mere brute freedom — the bound- ings of the noble horse freed from his stable and his halter — the glad homeward flight of tiie bird from its cage — but here was besides the rational joy of a heaven-born nature. Here were SQU.OOO souls set free ; and on wings of gratitude flying upwards to the throne of God. I'herr were the gatherings in the public squares, then- were the fire-works, the transparencies, the trees of liberty and the shouts of the jubilee, but the churches and the schools were the chief scenes, and hymns and prayer the chief language of this great ovation. There was no jriving up to drunken revelry, but a solemn recognition of God, even by those who had not been wont to worship him. His temples v/ere never so crowd- ed. His ministers never so much honored. We give the picture in all its parts, faithfully, and as completely as our information will enable us to do. August 2. " In this city, the day has passed ofi^inthe way in which such a day ought to pass off. With glad hearts and joyful lips, the people have crowded the temples of the living God, and poured out their praises and thanksgivings for the great benefits they had received at the hands of a bene- ficent Providence. That they will continue to deport themselves as dutiful subjects, and good men and women, we have no doubt. From the country we wait with anxious hopes to liear thai everything has gone off with the same peace, an«i quiet, and order, and regularity which have pre- vailed here, and especially that the people have returned to their labor, and are giving general satisfaction. From the same. Among the various waj's of interesting the minds of our newly enfranchised peasantry on the 1st of August, was that of planting a Palm tree emblematical of liberty, and commemorative of its commencement in this island. Both in Kingston and in Liguanea, we understand, this ceremony was performed by the schools and congregations of the " London Missionary Soci- ety." The following Hymn, composed by Mr. Wooldridge, for the purpose, and committed to memory by many of the children, who were treated with cakes and lemonade. Appropriate sermons were preached, both morning and evening, by the Rev. Messrs. Wool- dridge and Ingraham, and in the evening a Tem- perance Society was formed for the district of Li- guanea, when several signed the pledge. The thorny bush we'll clear away The emblem of old slavery — Let every fil)re of it die, And all its vices cease to be. Let indolence, deceit, and theft, Be of their nourishment bereft, Let cruel wrong now disappear, And dee;:nt order crown each year. Proceedings at Trelawnv. — A correspond, ent in Trelawny writes. The first of August was observed by the people so decently aad devoutly, 10 WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. and with such manifestations of subdued, yet grateful icclinjr, tliat they appeared more like a Beject Class of Christians celebrating some holy liay of their church, than a race but recently converted from idolatry, and who were just emerging from the pollutions and degradation ot slavery. Trkat to the Children. — The most interest, ino-and truly exciting scene of all in Trelawny, was the spectacle of some hundreds of liappy chil- dren dining. This feast for them, and for all who had hearts that could sympathise witii the happiness of others, was provided by the Rev. Mr Knibb. Similar scenes were enacted in tlie rural districts. The Rev. Mr. Blyth had, I be- lieve, a mcetiig of his scholars, and a treat pro- videdfor them. The Rev. Mr. Anderson had a large assemblage of his scholars at the school- house, who were regaled with meat, bread, and beverage, and also a large meeting of the adult members of his Church, to every one of whom, who could, or was attempting to learn to read, he gave a book.— [HE GAVE A 1500K.] At St. Elizabeth. — At the hour of 10, A. M., there was about 3000 persons assembled at Gros- mond, when the clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Hylton, proposed an adjournment from the Chapel to the .shade of some vv^idc. spreading trees in the com- mon pasture, whither the happy multitude imme- diately adjourned. The morning service of the church having ended, the Rev. Gentleman preach- ed a most impressive sermon from the 4th chap- ter of Zech. Gth verse — " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts " — In his application, he took a brief review of the history of the island — the conquest by the Spanish — the e.xtermination by the Indians — and tile consequent introduction of the negroes from Africa. Ho then adverted to the several insur- rections that had taken place during the period since the conquest by the British, to the last gen- eral rebellion in 1S3;2, in which both himself and many present were deeply interested. Having shown that all these insurrections had been sup- pressed, and had come to nought, he proceeded to point out how through Divine providence Mr. Wilbcrforce was raised up to advocate the cause of the oppressed African, and since that period, step by step, various privileges had been quietly conceded to the colored race, until the final con- summation by the Legislature, in abolishing the last vestiges of slavery on the 1st of August, 1838. The Rev. Gentleman's honorable mention of Mr. Wilberforce appeared to be deeply felt and icknowledgcd by all around. After the service was concluded, the assembled multitude gave three hearty cheers for Queen Victoria, and three for Lord Mulgravc, the first free Governor that ever came to Jamaica. A more decent, orderly, and well-behaved as- semblage could not be seen in any part of the world. The people have indeed proved them- Bclvcs worthy of the ^^ great boon^^ conferred upon tiiem. At Port Maria. — TIk; first of August passed off happily and peaceably. The people felt deeply I lie great blessing that had been conferred on tliem, and behaved uneommonly " ell. All the places of worr^hip were crowded ; indeed, thrice the number would not have contained those who attended, and many of whom could not be accommodated. From the Cornwall Chronicle of Aug. 4. Nothing could give a fairer and fuller confi- dence in the character of the negroes than their conduct on so joyous and trying an occasion, as what they have exhibited during the brief period of their political regeneration. It may be con. sidered as an earnest of their future peaceable demeanor ; the disbelief of the sceptic will thus be put to the blusii, and the apprehensions of the ♦imid allaj'ed. The first of August has passed, and with it the conduct of the people has been such as to convince the most jealous, as well a« t!ie most sanguine of the evil prognosticators, that they are a good and trust-worthy people. There is no doubt but that this day will be held for ever as a sacred anniversary — a new Pcnte. cost — upon which they will render thanks for the quiet "possession of their Canaan" — free from all political oppressions, and that they can sufier only from the acts of their own indiscretion. If ever they were placed in a favorable situation which they could improve, it could not have been equal to the present. — The exercise of modera- tion, however, is now most required, and will be greatly appreciated to themselves at a future time. Cumberland Pen., St. Catherine. — The conduct of the people in th's district generally, is such as to entitle them to the liighest commen- dation. Well knowing the inconvenience to which their masters' customers would be other- wise reduced from a want of food for their horses and cattle, they voluntarily went out to work on the second day, and in some instances on the fol- lowing, and supplied the usual demand of the market, presenting their labor thus voluntarily given as a free-will offering to their employers. Comment on such conduct would be superfluous. The late apprentices of Jamaica have hitherto acquired honors. Above all Greek, Above all Roman fame. ■ So far as they arc concerned, the highest ex- pectations of their friends have been more than realized. Let the higher classes universally but exhibit the same dispositions and conduct, and the peace and prosperity of Jamaica are for ever secured. Morning Journal of August 4. saint THOMAS IN THE EAST. Up to the moment when the post left Morant Bay, tl'.e utmost tranquillity prevailed. In fact, from the quiet of tlie day and the circumstance of droves of well-dressed jiersons going to and from the Church and Chapels, I was occasionally deluded, says a correspondent, into the belief of the day being Sunday. The parish Church was crowded, and the Rector delivered a very able and ajjpropriafe address. The Methodist and In- dependent Chapels were also filled. At both places suitable sermons were preached. At the latter, the resident minister provided an ample second breakfast, which was faithfully discussed und(T the shade of a large tent purposely erected for the occasion. The Rev. Mr. Atkins, Wesley- WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 11 an Minister, nas proceeded from this place to lay the foundation stone of a chapel this afternoon, (1st Aujjust) at Port Morant, in which important service he will be assisted by Tlionias Thomson, Esq., Cliurchwarden, and Alexander Barclay, Esq., Member for the parish. It is expected tliat many thousand spectators will be present at tlie interesting ceremony. From all I have been able to learn the changes among the labourers on the estates in this quarter, will be very limited, tiicse people being apparently satisfied with the arrange- ment for their conti.ued domicile on the respect. ive properties. Another correspondent writes — " we are very quiet here. The day has arrived and nearly pass, ed off, and thank God the predictions of the alarmists are not fulfilled. Tlic Chapels were quite full with a great many persons in the yards. The Independents are just sitting down to a feast. The Rector delivered a sermon or ratlicr a string of advices and opinions to the labouring population, the most intolerant I have licard for a long time. This parish will, I am quite cer. t&in, enjoy in peace and quietness this happy ju- bilee. MANCHESTER. We learn from this parish tiiat the Churches and Chapels were crowded many hours before the usual time for beginnmg service. Several thou- sand persons remained outside the respective places, which were much too small to afford the accommodation. Every thing was quiet and or- derly when the post left. Says the Jamaica Gazette of Aug. 4th, a pa- per of ilie Old School — " In spite of all the en- deavours of a clique uf self-interested agitators, clerical humbug and radical rabble, to excite the bad passions of the sable populace against those vvholiave been the true friends of Colonial freedom, and the conservators of the public peace andprosperity of the country, the bonfire, buU-roa t, and malignant eftigy exhibited to rouse thf; rancor of tlie savage, failed to pro- duce the eff-ct anticipated by the projir-ctois of the Saturnalia, and the negro multitude fully salistied with the boon so generously conceded by the Island Legislaluie, were in no humor to wreak their wra h on individual benefactors, whom the envy of party spirit had marked out as the victims of truth and independence. We are happy to give our meed of praise lo the decent and orderly conduct of the sable multitude, and to record that it far excelled the Loco Foco group of bullies, and blasters in decency and propriety of demeanor. A kind of spree or scuffle took place between donkey-driv- er Gluallo and aniith^-T. We don't know if they came to close fisti-cuff-, but it was, we are as- sured, the most serious affray on the Course." The following is the testimony borne in re- gard to Barbados. From the Barbados Liberal, Aug. 'ith. - First or August. " It gives us great pleasure to state that, so far as our information from the country extends, this day was observed in a manner highly cre- ditable to our brethren. We never ourselves anticipated any riotings or disorder on th" part of the emancipated. A little exhilaration be- getting a shout or two, would not have surpris- ed us ; but evt n this, we are happy to say, made no pin uf their manifestation of joy. The day was spent in quiet piety ! In heartfelt, soul overflowing giaiiiude to their ncavenly Fattier, whose divina agency had raised up friends in their necessity, and brought tneir great tribulation to an end, they crowded ai an early hour to the several churches and chapels, in which their numtiers could scaicely fmd turning room, and then quii lly and d voutly poured forth their souls in prayer and praise and thanksgiving! Mo revellings, no i iotings, no drunkenness, deseciatcd this day. Wc have heard from five parish^-s, and in none of the five have we heaid of a ^i^gle convivial met- ing. Fro n cliuichand chapel they went to their homes, and eat their firsi free dinner with their families, putting to shdme the intolerant preju- dices which h id prepared powder and balls, and held the Riot Act ru readiness to correct their insubordinate notions of liberty !" From the New Haven, Ct., Herald. '• Barbados, Au^^. 2, 1838 Yesterday's sun ro.se upon eight hundred thousand freemen, on whom and their ancestor.s the badge of slavery had rested for two hundred years. It was a solemn, d lightlul, most memo- rable day. I look upon it as a matter of exceed- ing thankfulness, that I have been permitted tn be a witness to it, and to be able to speak from experience and from observation, of the happiness to which that day has given birtli. The day had previously been set apart by proclamation of tliu Governor, "as a day of devout thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God forthe happy termination of slavery." The thanksgiving and praise were most truly sincere, heartfelt and general. It was an emancipation not merely of the slave but ci" the proprietor. It was felt as such ; openly ac- knowledged and rejoiced in as such. Never have I witnessed more apparently unfeigned expres- sions of satisfaction than were made on that day by the former owners of slaves, at the load of which they had been relieved. I do not wish to be understood as asserting that previous to the working of emancipation, tlio slave proprietors wished the abolition of slavery. Far from it. But having, though unwillingly, been made witnesses of the operations of freedom; and having themselves tasted of the previously unknown satisfaction of employing voluntary and contented, because /ree laborers ; their mindr. became enlightened, softened, changed : and from being the determined opposers, they became themselves the fl7//Aorsof complete emancipation. I know not in what terms to describe to you tlie emotions excited by passing through the streets of this populous town on that memorable morn- ing. There was a stillness and solemnity that might be felt. It was caused by no display of force, for none was to be seen. Here and there a policeman going his usual rounds, but not a soldier, nor the slightest warlike jn-eparation of any kind to strike the eye, or overawe the spirit of disorder. The spirit that seemed to fill the entire popula- tion was eminently the spirit of peace, good will, thankfulness and joy too deep, too solemn, to allow of any loud or noisy demonstration of it. Of course, all stores, shops and olfices of every WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. kind w^crc closed. So also were all places of amusement. No sound of revelry, no evidences of nightly excess were to bo heard or seen. I do not sa,y too much when I assert that the reign of order, peace, and sobriety, w'as complete. To give eclat to an event of such importance, the Governor had ordered one company of militia to attend with liim at the cathedral. It is an im- nien.-e building, and was crovvded in every part of its spacious area, galleries and aisles, with a most attentive assemblage of people, of all colors and conditions. Several clergymen olSciated, and one of them at the opening of the services read most appropriately the 58th chapter of Isaiah. Imagine for a moment the efTcet in such an au- diejice, on such an occasion, where were many hundreds of emancipated slaves, of words like these : — " Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the licavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and tjiat ye break every yoke ?" The sermon by the Ei:ihop was, as might have been expected on such an occasion, interesting and impressive. He spoke with great effect of the unexpected pro- gress of freedom, from island to island, from colony to coluny, until, with a solitary exception, upon tiiat day the stain of slavery was obliterated forever from every Britisii possession. The pro- gress of education, the gradual reformation of morals, and the increasing thirst for religious in straotion, were all dwelt upon with great torce, and the glory of all ascribed, as was most fit, to the Great Giver of every good and perfect gift. It Avas an occasion rich vvitii happy emotions, and long to be remembered as a bright and beautiful spot in the pathway of our earthly pilgrimage. The close of the day was not less auspicious tj'.2;i its coinmcnccmcnt. In company with Mrs. H., I drove through .several of the principal streets, and thence through the most public tho- roughfare into the country ; and no where could aught be seen to mar the decent and truly impres- sive solemnity of the day. There were no dances, no merry-making of any sort ; not a soli- tary drunkard, not a gun fired, nor even was a shout heard to welcome in the new-born liberty. The only groups we saw were going to or return- ing from the ditFi rent chapels and ehurche-s : ex- cept in a few instances, where families might be seen reading or singing hymns at their own dwellings. And now, sir, having arrived at the long looked for consummation of all the labors and ])rayers of the friends of tiie f-lave for so many years, as I cast my eye around this l(i7ul of liberty, how many thoughts crowd my mind ? I ask mj'self — is it indeed finished ? And are liiere none to lament *.hc downfall of time-honored, hoary-headed slavery ? Where are the mourners ? Where arc the prognosticators of ruin, desolation, and woe ? Where are tlie riots and disorders, the bloodshed and tJie burnings? The pro])hets and their pro- pin cies are alike empty, vain, and unfounded, and are alike buried in oblivion. And vviiy, in the name of humanity, was not this glorious consummation brought about ages ago ? — Is it bcc^ausc the sl.ives of 1838 are belter fitted for freedom than theisc of fifty or a hinidreil years since .' No one believes it. The only preparation for freedom required in this isl.i.'id, or any where else, in order to put a peaceful end to slavery, is the preparation of heart in the slave- holder to grant deliverance to tire captive. Yours truly, WM. R. HAYES P. S. August 9th.— All is quiet, and the utmost good order every where prevails." t To complete the picture we will give two ex- tracts of letters from eminent Jamaica Attornies to their employers in England, with regard to the turning out to work. It is remarked by the Eng- lish papers that the Attornies generally in writing to their employers adopt tlie same strain. They are all doing well on their estates, but hear 4hat the rest of the island is in a woful condition. — These are the men who are the greatest, if not the only, losers by emancipation; hence their tes. timony is doubly valuable. From the British Emancipator, Nov. 14. LETTERS FROM ATTORMES. Extract of a Letter from an eminent Estate Attorney, in St. Mary's, Jamaica, dated August 24, 1838. " There was nothing whatever done in this parish, or throughout the island, for the first two weeks of tlie month. In this quarter some estates did a little last week, and have been making more pro- gress since, but the far greater number have not yet done any work; the minds of the people are very unsettled, and full of all soils of foolish no- tions, which will continue more or less till wc hear of the home government having accepted and approved of our abolition bill, and tlieir views with regard to us. On st'vcral of the estates which have wrought, the people have struck once or twice- We have in this parish ministers of every denomination, and they are all acting very properly ; but they do not seem to have as much influence as expected; we must be as considerate and liberal as possible to secure their confidence ourselves. We are in St. Mary's paying the highest rate of wages in the island ; Is. 8d. currency per day nett, with allowances, are generally offered ; I am giving here, from sheer necessity, ils. Gd. currency per day, without charging any rent in the mean time. Ill the present slate of things, when so few estates are doing anything at all, I have much satisfaction in saying tiiat the people here, on , a good proportion of tliem ■vA-ere at work last week, and I liave now tiie mi!l about making sugar, with every probability, I Ihink, of going on satisfactorily ; and looking dispa.fsion- ately at the great change which has so suddenly tak< n place, our present difficulties arc not much to be v/ondered at. Sunday night, 8th Sept. — The foregoing was written, but too late, for tiie last packet ; but as another sails to-morrow, I write j-ou a few lines more. There is, uj) to iliis moment, but little material alteration in the state of affairs general, ly, certainly none for the worse. I have inada here twenty hogsheads of sugar .«:iiice the Istuilt. "Wc are altogether in an uncertain state, but there arc more mills about, and more work doing in this district than in any other in the island, which miglit ai'.d ought to be a feather in tlie cap of Maittcr, our late stipe. I have no time to say WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 13 more now, excepting that, although I am in great hopes that things will soon generally unprovc, and am of opinion that our proscut difiiculties aro not to be wondered at, yet our situ-ation is st.ll so critical, that I dare not venture to liazard an opin- ion as to the success of the great cxperiinen',. I repeat, however, again, that we have not st en anything to disappoint or surprise us, bad as many things arc." Extract of a Letter from an Attorney in St. Mary^s, Jamaica, 2Uh August, 1^38. " The services of the stipes are much wanting here ; 1 am paying 10s. a week for first class, 6s. 8d. for second, and 4s. 2d. for third, for five days work ; they say thdy will not work on Fri- days. However, I have got the people at to work to-day ; they are bcliaving better than most others. I hope things will now improve ; and it is my opinion that good estates will do, and others will fall to the ground. Old Mr. Tytte is dead, and his son Alexander made stipe for this district. The Governor's speech respecting women has done a great deal of harm. None of the women want to work. If Lord Glenelg had made such a mistake, he would have heard enough of it. I wish the Government would take it on themselves to settle the rate of wages, otherwise two-thirds of the estates will be thrown up before next year ; of course I can stand this as well as any. The people have behaved well : they did every thing I told them ; they are working on piece-work, which is the best plan." Precisely similar is the testimony of private correspondents and of the public press so far as we have been able to learn, in all the other colo- nies where emancipation has taken place. There is certainly nothing in all th s that indicates a disposition on the part of the emancipated to throw off the employment of their former masters, but much the reverse. We may safely challenge contradiction to the asserlion, that at the expira- tion of the jubilee there were not a s^t of free laborers on earth from whom the West India planters could have got more work for the same money. It may be proper in these days, when the maxims of slavery have so fearfully over- shadowed the rights of man, to say that a man has a right to forbear laboring when he can live honestly without it — or, at all events, he has a right to choose whether he will employ himself or be employed by another. Hence it may turn out that the refusal to labor, so far as there has been any, onlj' serves to prove the more clearly the fitness of t'le laborers of freedom. WAGES. It must have been obvious to every man of reflection that in a change so vast, involving so many laborers, and in circumstances so variou", there would arise almo.st infinite disputes about the rate of wages. The colonies differ widely as to the real value of labor. Some have a rich, unexhausted, and, perhaps, inexhaustible soil, and ^ scanty supply of laborers. Oihers are more populous and less fertile. The former would of course offer higher wages than the latter, for so sudden was the step there could be no common understanding on the point. Again, as we have seen, the planters came into the measure wiih different views. Some anticipated the gonei-d change, and eitlicr from motives of humanity or policy, or more probably of both, ai.opied a course calculated to gain the gratitude and good will of the laborer. — These would offer wages which the less liberal would call ruinous. Many, and it would seem the great body of them in Jamaica, yielded unwillingly to sujierior jiowcr. Thoy saw the sceptre of despotic authority was to be wrested from their grasp. They threw it down, as one may easily believe, resolved to seize the best sub- stitute they could. Tliey would infallibly fall upon the plan of getting the greatest possible amount of wo'-k for the least possible amount of pay. When we consider that even in the oldest, most civilized, and most Christianized free-labor communities, employers are wont to combine to keep down the rate of wages, while on the other hand the laborers throw up work to raise it, we shall not be surprised that there should be things of this sort in Jamaica, liberty being in the gristle. The only help for such an evU is, that there in always a rate of wages wiiich is advantageous to both parties, and things being left to themselvcR, it will at last be found. To the planters and frced-men in settling tho question what wages they should offer and receive, two standards or guides presented themselves, — 1. The rate of wages v.hich had been given in An- tigua since 1834. 2. The compensation that had been demanded by the Jamaica planters them- selves, and adjudged by Ihe magistrates, in case of apprentices buying their own time. Hundreds of planters had declared upon oath what the time ox the apprentice was worth to them. Pos.sibly as sellers, in the elasticity of their consciences, they may have set a higher price than they would be willing to give as buyers. In strict honesty, however, it is difiicult to see why labor should not be worth to them as much in the one case as the other. The rate of wages fixed upon in -\ntigua may be seen by a reference to the Journal of Thome and Kimball to be very inadequate to the wants of the laborer. Free labor is there screwed down to the lowest possible point. The wonder is that the laborers should have submitted to such a scale for a moment. But they had no prece- dent to guide them, no advisers free from the yoke of the proprietary, no valr.ations given by their own masters, and there was every facility for successful combination on the part of tho masters. They must work 'for such wages as the masters pleased to offer, or starve. Say Messrs. Thome and Kimball — " By a grne. ral understanding among the planters, tiic rate is at present fixed at a shilling per day, or a littlo more than fifty cents per week, counting fivu working days." This Antigua scale, and not tlio one they themselves had sold labor by during ihe apprenticeship, became at once the favorite with a great part of tlie Jamaica and Barbados plant, ers. If they in any cases offered higher w-agcs, they made it up by charging higher rent for tho hou-cs and grounds, which the negroes had built and brought under culture on their properties. It was before the first of August that this proced- ure was resolved upon by tin; planters, as we gather from numerous communications in tht papers recommending a variety of modes of get 14 WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. ting labor for less than its natural market value. We Bclect a single one of these as a specimen, by the application to vvhicli of a little arithmetic, it will bo perceived tliat the employer would briiig the laborer in debt to him at the end of the year, though jiot a moment should be lost by sicknes;) or other casualt3\ The humanity of the docu- ment is perfectly of a piece with that of tlic i ^°^™^,j- ,^^ ^,, August with feelmgs LatIdo,Idoopenly,andunyj.e.a hber^^^^ of ly and graUtade. Oh. it wdl be a blessed to express his opimou at this meetmg it he de oi joy M ^^ ^^ ^H ; and my
 .^ .^^^ 
 myself of any complete scale of u ages havm tnai J ^^ ^V^en liberty cast 
 been drawn up, but Ihave been o 10 o 12 ^ts and lucent o P ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^jf,! ,,l,„d 
 
 its ana iiceauuus jjui^uilo. .- -•-—-. . ■< ■. i 
 
 ditlerent properties,^ h^^^' coursed with ^^ t^J:^S^:^:::^^^^^ 
 
 eral proprietors, and I am g^^f to say hat w ^ L ^etv^r to Hv^ on^erms of friendship and 
 
 some' of them there appears to be a di^po^t^on onde^v our \ ^^^ ^^^^^.^^^when the labour- 
 
 to meet the cliarge fairly f "f J"'™J; f^ receives a proper reni^meration for his .er- 
 
 Those who are more conversan with fipir^ ^/es-when^le employer contemplates the 
 
 than I am, wdl be enabled ^^ .^^^^^y,.™ ^^^^ [uxudance of his well-cultivated fields, may 
 
 owner can afibrdto^r.cfo^^^^^^ SefSi return thanks to a merciM God, for 
 
 his property. 1'^^^^*^ "'^7^^!°''',' Jl"" . ^ke nermittin- the sun of liberty to shme with 
 
 you, do not '\'--^'^,^''y l'''''^^ fJ^%^-''\nroi LX effulgence ! I need scarcely assure you, 
 
 lime and consider the subject for it is one o^ ^ ,„d,, that I will be at all times ready to 
 
 vital interest and importance toaU. lt>ou "^y™-;^ I care not about the abuse 
 
 wantrrf/ourselves and families. In makmg who have been accustomed to place the mos^ 
 
 ^.tr .vrlno^emcnts if there be an attempt to unfavourable constructions on my actions, lam 
 
 Si d you K re'sbt'the attompt by all ?egal wdling to meet the Fopnetors m a spu-.t o 
 
 ^rum 3'^" ' . consider that you are not candour and conciliation. 1 desire to see jou 
 
 "'T'llXsoU^^^^^^ I f^^i'-ly compensated for your labor ; I desire 
 
 3S osreTey^^^^^^ also'to see' yon performing your work with 
 
 Iv rooted oit. You must work for money ; you cheerful industry :, but I would warn you rwt to 
 
 must uav money to your employers for all you be too hasty in entering into contracts, ihmk 
 
 ieceiv- at their hands : a fair scale of wages seriously before you act, and remember, as I 
 
 must be established, and you must be entirely have already told you, that you have now to 
 
 indeaendent of any one. If you continue to re- act not only for yourselves, but tor posterit} . 
 cS tSo allowlnces which iiave been given We give numerous documents from these 
 
 during slavery and apprenticeship, it will go gentlemen, as amon^ the best if not the g. eat- 
 
 abroailthatyouarenot able to take care of est part our fellow citizens ; we trust their te^s- 
 
 yourselves; that your employers are obhged to timony will be deemed the best that could bo 
 
 provide you with these allowances to keep you offered, 
 from starvation ; in such a case you will be 
 
 nothing more than s'.aves.— To be tree, you 
 muist 1)6 independent ; you must receive money 
 for voLU- work ; come to market with money ; 
 purchase from whom you pleas(>, and be ac- 
 countable to no one but that Being above, who 
 I hope will watch over and protect you !— T 
 sincerely trust that proper arrangements will 
 he made before the 1st of August.— I have 
 spoken to nearly four thousand persons con 
 
 LETTER OF EIOHT BArTIST MISSIONARIES. 
 
 To the Right Hon. Lord Glenelg, &c. 
 . jviy Lord— We feel assured that no apology 
 is necessary, in requesting your attention to the 
 subject of this letter. The official connection 
 which you hold with the colony, together with 
 the peculiar circumstanoes in which its newly- 
 sooken to nearly tour uiousano persou« .un- emancipate,! i.npulation are placed, render it 
 nectS with my ^church, and I have not yet an imperative duty we owe to ourselves to lay 
 learnt that there is any disposition among tlioin before yon nm sen unents 
 trh^avethor present ompoyers, provided thev Having labored m the island for many years, 
 ^S^'^^'^^Wourem^oyor will and liaving been in daily intercourse with the 
 expect from you -rood" crops of su^ar and rum ; objects of our solicitude, we do co\ devoutly 
 Slid whloU. labour to 'give him these, he thankful to ALMinnry Gon, tint he has spared 
 ni.t pay viu such wa^es as will enable you to us to see the d.senthralment of our beloved 
 J ovde yourselves with wholesome food, good flocks; while it gives us mrreased pleasu e to 
 dothing comfortable houses, and every other assure your lordship that they received the boon 
 
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 17 
 
 with holy joy, and that the hour which made 
 them men beheld them in thousands humbly 
 prostrate at the footstool of mercy, implorinl disappointed. I cannot fimi lauguase 
 sufficienily strong to express the commendation 
 due to ihj negroe-; for their steady and good 
 conduct since the 1st of August. Amidst the 
 most trying circums'ances they have exhibited 
 the greate.^t forbearance, and placed their whole 
 reliance on ihe laws for protection. I am satis- 
 fied that no other natioa of fiee men could con- 
 
 duct themselves so temperately and wrll, under 
 similar ciicum-laiices ; and in mv rpiimn, they 
 have proved themsilves ii.finiiely sup rii r lo 
 many of ihose who so lately exercised almost 
 unlimited Cijnirul over them. I declare ti vou, 
 to see such a mass of persons, wh.'se m nals 
 have been little regarded by those who held 
 them in slavery, and without education, lise all 
 at once, and expiess and conduct themselves so 
 admirably, ii wonderlul. When seeking re- 
 dress before the magistrates for wrongs com- 
 miticd by their former owners they have maia- 
 taiued more coolness and (emper than their 
 more fortunate brethren, when mat ers are de- 
 cided against them. There is a hard struggle 
 on the part of the pro-slavery fac iun t j compel 
 the negro to work for little or nothing, in order 
 that the attorneys and overseers may k ep their 
 places as before; and 1 am inlormed, by a gen- 
 tleman whose veracity is not to be doubted, and 
 who i> himself nn attorney, that he can s ill 
 keep his overseer and merchant as in lormer 
 days, draw his own comai'ssions, and send 
 home to hi< employer a very handsome surplus. 
 Under such circum>tances, well may the Iriends 
 of fieedjin cry shame at the opposition which 
 has for so long a time been thrown in the way 
 of liberty, by the-^e West Indians of practical 
 kuDwledge. The facts are, that the absent pro- 
 prietors have been led by the advice th -y have 
 received from their attotneys; and these have 
 had so many ways ot making more than an 
 honest commission, and have so speedily made 
 their fortunes, that as long as they could con- 
 tinue slavery, they have e.verted eveiy influ- 
 ence. The overseer was paid, housed, lei, and 
 waited upon, all at ihe expense of master and 
 slave, besides keeping a fine s uduf hor>es, and 
 as many brood mares at pasture on the pro^ erty 
 as would enable him to dispose of seven or 
 eig it prime mules annually ; and so long as he 
 drove and tormented the poor negro, and made 
 good crops for the attorney's commissions, and 
 supplied his horses with corn, ihesi:: little -per- 
 quisiies were never discovered. Now the pro- 
 prietor will hardly pay for more labor than is 
 absolutely nece-sary to grow and tuanulac ure 
 the produce of his e-r rest, until 
 I see the blaek man stand the same chance at 
 the bar of his country a>the white man. — The 
 nei'roes will not wori< under their former hard 
 task-mai-ters.. They determinaiely resist all 
 solicitations to libor with ihose who treated 
 them ill. They say that the pain is gone, but 
 the mark remains, and I respect them for this 
 proud feeling. * * * * 
 
 *^ * * * * * * 
 
 I have come under his displeasure for taking 
 the opinion of Middleton and McDougal, as to 
 the legality of charging the negro hiieiorhis 
 house and grounds, ior:he three montlis during 
 which ihe notices to quit are lunni- r.— Had 
 we not taken these opinions, what a fo i lul state 
 things might we have been brougln to in this 
 country ! 1 am quite satisfied that no rent could 
 be recovered until ihe expiration of the three 
 months, from which time it would commence 
 to run, and the plaintiff would in law be con- 
 sidered in po-sessionol his lands again, which, 
 in slavery, he was compelled to give to his 
 slave for his support and maintenance. He 
 must re-enter before he could demand rent, for 
 it is impossible for him to prove a contract, or 
 imply one. The negro did not willingly come 
 from Africa, and occupy his land ; he was toi'n 
 from his native land, and compelled by his 
 owner, under laws that took his life, not to quit 
 the land; how therefore can he be considered 
 to have made a contract, or consented to one 1 
 
 FROM THE REV. J. KINGDON. 
 
 Manchioncal, Oct. 9, 1838. 
 In passing through Hector's River great 
 house yard, in my way to my preaching spot, I 
 have the most sensilrle demonstra'ion of the 
 reality of the political change happily brought 
 about ; for that hot-hou.<;e, in which I have seen 
 one of my own members in irons for having a 
 bad sore leg, and in which I have been gro-sly 
 insulted for darins to go to see my poor people 
 — that hou-e is shut up! Delightful, I assure 
 you, are mv feelings, whenever I go by that 
 place, attached to which, too, was the old-time 
 prison, a perfect charnel-house. 
 
 PROM THE REV. S. O0GHTON. 
 
 lAi^cea, October 2, 1838. 
 Unused lo acts of justice and humanity, the 
 Planters, in a moment of mad excitement passed 
 an act to ab lish the accursed system of Slive- 
 rv. The debates on that occasion proved wi h 
 wnat an ill grace they perf 'rmed that scanty 
 act of ju-tiee, and all experience since that 
 period proves how bitterly ihej repent it. It is 
 true, we are not now, as before, distressed by 
 hearmg recitals of barbarous corporeal punish- 
 
 ments, and we are no longer pained by Peeing 
 human b.inss chained to ench othi r by the 
 neck; but, although craeliy has, to a cert lin ex- 
 tent, ceased, oppression has b come ten thou- 
 sand times moie rampant tlian ever Every 
 act whit h ingenuity or malice cm invent, is 
 employed to harass the poor negroes Prior to 
 August Isi, the planter studious'y avoided 
 every thing like an arrangement with the la- 
 borer, an.l when, on the following Monday, 
 they turned out to work, the paltry pittance ot 
 12jd. (7id- sterl ) was all that in tie majority of 
 cases wa< offered for the services of an able- 
 bodied negro, although 2s. 6d. per day (curren- 
 cy), had bef'ie been invariably exacted from 
 them, when thty were desirou-^ of purchasing 
 the remaining term ot the apprenticeship. Of 
 course, the people refu-ed to receive so paltry 
 a remuneration for their labour, and this has 
 laid the foundation for a course of systematic 
 oppression scarcely conceivable. Notices to 
 quit were served indiscriminately on eveiy one, 
 old and young, sick and healthy. Medical at- 
 tendance was refused, and even a dose of phy- 
 sic fiom the Estates' hospitals. Cattle were 
 turned intothe provision-grounds of the negroes, 
 thus destroying their only mean'; of support ; 
 and assaults of the most vvanion and brutal des- 
 ciip;ii n were committed on many of the pea- 
 santry. On one estate the proprietor end his 
 brother assaulted a young man Iti the most un- 
 provoked manner. One presented a pi>tid to 
 his breast, and threatened to shoot him; while 
 the o.her levelled a gun at his head for the same 
 purpose. They were bound over to take their 
 trial at the Gluarter Sessions ; but what hope is 
 there in such a tribunal as that, composed prin- 
 cipally of men engaged in the same reckless 
 course, and banded together by mutual inter- 
 ests! On another estate (Content), the attorney 
 ordered the cattle of a poor man (a member of 
 my Chapel) to be taken up and impounded. It 
 was done, and the man was obliged to pay 6Z. 
 to redeem them ; when, as soon as he carried 
 them back, they were again taken and im- 
 
 Jiounded. The man has been to my house with 
 lis case of oppression, on my return from 
 Kingston. He states that he exhausted his last 
 farthing to redeem the cattle the fi .st time, and 
 was also oblieed to borrow of his friend^; they 
 have now been i.-rpounded five weeks, and un- 
 less he can raise the money to redeem them 
 (upwards of lOL), (hey W'll be sold to pay the 
 expenses. Thus is an honest and worthy man, 
 in a few weeks, stripped of every thii^g which, 
 by years of industry and care, he had accumu- 
 lated for the comlbrt of his old age, or the be- 
 nefit of his family. Yesterday a negro came 
 and informed me that the owner of a ])roperty 
 had told him last year, that he must cultivate 
 more eround, so as to be able to continue pos- 
 session as a tenant J and now that he has done 
 so, another person, saying that he had purchased 
 the property, came a tew days ago, and told 
 him that in three weeks he would drive him 
 from the place. He then ordered a man whom 
 he had with him to climb a bread-fruit tree, 
 and pull the fruit, which he fprcib'y carried 
 away to give to his hogs. But I ' must for- 
 bear: were I to state half the cases of op- 
 pression which have occurred in Hanovei; 
 
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 21 
 
 since August 1st, I should require a volume 
 instead of a sheet. I thiuk, however, I have 
 said enough to prove ihe bitter and rancorous 
 spirit which at pre,-ent animates the planters. 
 Enclosed I send a specimen of another artiface 
 adopted to harass and distress the negroes. 1 hey 
 have adopted ihenolion(sanctioned by the opin- 
 ion of the old Planters' Jackall, Batty, and the 
 Attorney General), that the people ai e liable to 
 pay rent Wbr houses and grounds during the 
 three months' po>se>sion to which the Abo.ition 
 Act entitled them, and notices have been serv- 
 ed on the people, d. mmdinji the mist 'jX^rava- 
 .'ant amouuis for the mi-.erable sheds which the 
 people inhabited. Y..u will perceive that in 
 once case 211. 6s. 9d. has been demanded. 1 Ins 
 conscientious demand was made by John 
 Houcrliton James, Executor and Attorney for 
 Sir Simon Clark. Another is Irom a Mr. 
 Bowen, of Orchard Esiate ; and the third from 
 Mr Brockett, of Hopewell and Content Estates, 
 the p.operty of Mr. Miles, M. P for Bristol. 
 Let ft be borne iu mind that these shamelul and 
 exorbitant demands are ml made, as in Eng- 
 land, on the head of the family only, but on 
 every member loho is able to do the least work, and 
 even litte children have papers demanding 2s. 
 fid. per week for ground, al.h mgh unabe to do 
 the Ica^t thing : one of these I al?o enclose^ 
 
 Ja;naic.,ss. N..tice is hereby Given, That 
 the sum of eisht shillings and four pence, week- 
 ly, will be exacted from you and each ot you 
 respectively, for the houses and grounds at Or- 
 chard Esatp, in the parish of Hanover, from 
 August of the present year, until the expira- 
 tion of the three months' notice, from its period 
 of service to quit; or to ihe period of sur- 
 rendering to me the peaceable possesion ot the 
 aforesaid house and provision grounds. 
 
 J. R. BoWEN. 
 
 Dated this I7th day of Sep. 1838. 
 
 To James Darling and Sarah Darling, oi 
 the parish of Hanover. 
 
 Here then, my dear Sir, you may perceive 
 something of the atrocious proceedings in the 
 island of Jamaica. Pray insert these docu- 
 ments in the Emancipator. Let the Anti-slavery 
 friends know the state of things, and urge them 
 to redoubled diligence. The House of Assem- 
 bly will meet on the 30th instant, and then, 1 
 fear dreadful measures will be taken. A let- 
 ter from Mr. Harker, of the Jamaica Royal 
 Gazet'e, about a forimght since, addressed to 
 Mr Abbott, shows what absolute and cruel sta- 
 tutes they would wish either to act upon, or to 
 make the models t-f new laws. Every act 
 must be watched with the most jealous scru- 
 linv. Experience shows that the planters pos- 
 sess an ingenuity truly diabolical, in twisting 
 and distorting the laws to suit their own sd- 
 iish puipose. Our hope is in British Chris- 
 tians; and we confidently hope every one of 
 ihem will feel the importance of increased di- 
 ligence, lest the great, and long prayed-loi 
 boon of freedom, should become a curse, in- 
 stead of a blessing. The papers will in orm 
 vou of the odium I have drawn on myselt in 
 Lfending the people's rights. That contained 
 in the great mass, only provokes a smile, i 
 know that every friend in England will inter- 
 pret it inversely. I did feel Mr. ■ s 
 
 letter in the Falmouth Post, but he knows his 
 error, and is sorry for it. 1 could have an- 
 swered it, but did not choose to cau-e a divi- 
 sion amongst the lew friends of ihe negro, 
 when they had quite enough to do to withstand 
 the attacks of their enemies. 
 
 FROM TUG REV. J. M. PIIILIPPO, 
 
 Spanish Town, Oct. 13, 1838 
 The following is one of the seven of the 
 same tenor now in my posse^sion, uhich will, 
 in addition to those I forwaided by hi.st mail, 
 inform you of the cause of the late disinclina- 
 tion of the people in some districts to labour- 
 which, with >o much eff'rontery, has been pro- 
 claimed through the public Journals heie :— 
 
 Charles Michael Kelly and "Wife, to J. S. 
 Benbow, Dr. 
 
 1830: July 14th to Sept. 9th. 
 
 1. To the rent of house and 
 
 ground on Casile Kelly 
 plantation, for eight weeks, 
 at 6s. 8d. per week - 3/. 13 4 
 
 2. Richard Kelly and Wife. Same. 
 
 3. E'enor Mercer. Same. 
 
 4. John Ried and Wife. Same. 
 
 5. Mary Ann Christie. Same. 
 
 6. Venus Owen (or such like name) Same. 
 
 •FROM THE REV. J. HUTCHINS. 
 
 Savanna-la-Mn.r, S'pt. 17, 1838. 
 I now, according to promise in my list, send 
 you a few out of the many cases I am almost 
 houily troub'ed with. Some of our w.'uld-be 
 "•real men are, I am sorry to say, haiassing the 
 poor free labourers shamefully ; and should it 
 prove, as I think in some cases it must, ol seri- 
 ous injury to the absentee proprietors, 1 shall 
 publish the cases of grievance brought me, to- 
 gether with the names of the estates, owners, at- 
 torneys, overseers, &c., and leave all partiesto 
 form their own opinion on the subject. 
 
 Amelia Martin, to Retrieve Estate, Dr. 
 1838: August 29. 
 To house and ground, rent at 
 5s. per week, from 1st Au- 
 gust to date - - - 4Z. 
 ♦Alliac Davis, ground rent at 
 
 lOd. per week - - 3 
 
 ♦William Davis ; ditto ditt 3 4 
 
 Al. 6 4 
 
 Thos. Tate, Esq. is Attorney, and Mr. Comry 
 
 Overseer, 
 
 • Boys from 9 to 11, her sons. 
 
 Louisa Patter, to Retrieve Estate, Dr. 
 1838 : Aug. 28. 
 To house and ground from 1st 
 
 Aug. to date - - - 1^ 
 She states she has been sickly so long, that 
 she has no ground in cultivation, and cannot 
 help herself, and has only what yams her Iriends 
 give her. 
 
 Susan James, to Albany Estate, Dr. 
 1838: Aug. 28. 
 To house and ground rent at 
 5s. per week, from 1st Au- 
 gu4,todate - - - ),'•:? J 
 Thos. He welt, ground rent - " ^s a 
 Elizabeth James, ditto - - o iJ ^ 
 
22 
 
 WEST IJNDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 Mary Dunn, ditto - 
 Letiiia, ditto * 
 
 10 
 (J 8 
 
 3/. 3 4 
 
 *These are a mother and four children in 
 one house, and with but one ground, they tell 
 me. 
 
 Richard Warren, to Albany Estate, Dr. 
 
 1838 : Aus. 28. 
 To house and ground rent to 
 
 date - - - - IZ. 
 
 Wile 15 4 
 
 Child 10 
 
 2/. 5 4 
 
 * The child is quite young, and in daily at- 
 tendance at one of my schools. 
 
 On this properly, under the same managers as 
 Retrieve, the people state that they are going 
 on shamefully. " The last Sabbath but one, 
 when wc were at service, Stephen Campbell, the 
 book-keeper, and Edward Pulsey, old-time con- 
 stable, come round and mark all for we house, 
 and charge for cbery one of we family. We don't 
 know what kind of fee dis we hab at all ; for wc 
 attorney, Mr. Tate, neber come on we property, 
 leave all to Mr. Comcoy. We peak to him for 
 make bargain, him say him can't make law, 
 and him no make bargain till him heare what 
 law come out in packet. Him say dcm who 
 make bargain are fools ; beside him no call up a 
 parcel of niggers to hold sarvice wid me ; should 
 only get laughed at. So we know not what for 
 do. You are for wc minister, and for we only 
 friend ; and if you did not adwise we to go on 
 work till things settle down, we no lift another 
 hoc. We would left the property." Unless an 
 arrangement is soon entered into, I shall advise 
 them to do so. 
 
 James Grcenheld, to New Ga'.loway Estate, Dr. 
 To one week's rent of house, garden, and 
 
 ground, aad to 5 ditto for his wife, Margaret 
 
 Greenfield, at 5s, per week. £1 10 
 
 J. G. states, ' 1 come for massa. When we 
 make bargain with Mr McNeal, it was a mac- 
 caroni (Is. 8J.) a day, and for we house and 
 ground. Me is able and willing for work, so let 
 ray wife stop home ; so him charge me dcsamn 
 sum for my wife, as for me own house and 
 ground. And den last week me sick and get no 
 money, and they charge me over again, (as above) 
 one week me sick. Mc no able for say what to 
 call dat massa, me sure." 
 
 I leave with you to make your own comments, 
 and to do what you please with the above. Al- 
 tliougli my chapel is .£700 in debt, and my 
 schools, one of 180 and one of IGO scholars, are 
 heavy, very heavy on me, I cannot do other than 
 advise my people to save every mite, buy an acre 
 of land, and by tliat means b:; independent, and 
 job about wherever they may be wanted. 
 
 PIIOM THE REV. T. BURCIIHLL. 
 
 Montego Bay, October 2, 1838. 
 The reason why 1 have not written to you so 
 long, is the intensely anxious time we hive 
 had. 1 feel, however, thai ii is high lime now 
 
 to address you ; for, if our friends in England 
 relax their eflorts, my conviction is, Itiat free- 
 dom will be more in name than io reality, in 
 thiN slave-holding Island. 'I'here is nothing to 
 be feared, if the nuble band of friends who have 
 so long and .so succrsslully stiuggled, will but 
 continue their assistance a shon time longer. 
 The planters have made a desperaie srugglc, 
 and so, 1 have no doubt, will the Hou>e of As- 
 sembly, against the emancipattd negroes. My 
 firm conviction has been, and still is, that the 
 planiers have endeavored, by the offer of the 
 most paltry wages, to reduce the eondiiion of 
 the laborer, and make him as badly od as he 
 was when an apprentice or a slave, that he 
 may curse the day ihai made him Iree. 
 
 I'housh unable to conduct ihe usual services 
 on Sunday ihe 5ih August, at the close I ad- 
 dressed the congregation, urging upon them 
 the n^cessity ol commencing iheir work on the 
 following day, whether arrangements were 
 made between themselves and their masters of 
 not ; as, by so d ling, ihey would put it out of 
 the power of their opponents to say anything 
 evil of them. They assembled, and on Mon- 
 day the 6th thousands turned out to work, and 
 continued to labjr, unless prevented by the 
 Manager, until nrrangemenls were made. 
 
 You will remember, that prior to the 1st of 
 August, a while man who hired out a gang of 
 appi entices to an estate was paid at ihe rate of 
 is. 6d. sterling per diem for each able laborer. 
 The apprentice received the same when he 
 worked for the estate on his own days, Friday 
 and Siturday; and whenever they were va- 
 lued for the purpose of purchasing the remain- 
 ing time of thtir apprenticeship, the planter 
 upon oath stated that their services were wor'h 
 at least Is. 6. pel diem to the estate, and the ap- 
 prentice had to redeem himself at that rate. 
 
 After the 1st of August, the planters dis- 
 covered, that, whilst the properties would well 
 afford to continue the lavish and cxiritvagam 
 expenditure in managing the es'ates, " ii 
 would be certain ruin to the proppriies, if the 
 labourer was paid more ihan 7id. per diem, 
 for the 1st class of labourers, (Jd. the 2nd 
 class, and 4jd. for the 3rd class:" and why 1 
 1 IciidW not why, unless it was because the long 
 oppressed negro was to put the money into his 
 own pocket, and not his white oppressors. This 
 seems to have made all the difference. The 
 above wages were accordingly offered, and re- 
 jected with scoin ; t^ie people feeling the great- 
 est indignation at the atrocious atiempt of their 
 old oppressors to grind them down now they 
 are free, and keep them in a state of degrada- 
 tion. The greatest confusion and ilis'irder en- 
 sued ; the labourers indignant at the conduct 
 of their masters, and the planters eniaged 
 against ihc people, fir pre-uming to ihmk and 
 act for themselves. As a matter of couise, the 
 fury of the planters was directed against half a 
 dozen Baptist missionaries, and as many more 
 friends and stipendiary Masistratc:-; and lean 
 assure you thai the Jamaica f re-s ctinalled its 
 most vituperniive days and came forth worthy 
 of itself. The Desjiatch, or the Old Jamaica 
 Couranl, so w>-ll known in 183-J Ibradvoc iiing 
 the burning of chapels, and the hat ging of 
 missionaries, was quite in the shade. The pious 
 
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 S3 
 
 Polypheme, the Bishop's paper, Avith the Ja- 
 maica Standaidofinlamy and lalsehood, pub- 
 lished in this town, took the lead, and a preity 
 standard it is. Let foreigners judge oi Jamaica 
 by the Jamaica Standaid of August last, and 
 they must suppose it is an island of savages, or 
 a little hell. The press teemed with abuse of 
 the most savage nature against us, and publish- 
 ed the most tiarefdced lies. That, however, 
 you who know the generality of the Jamaica 
 Pres<, will say is nothing new or strange; 
 well, it is not, nor do we regard any statements 
 they make; for no one believes what they pub- 
 lish, and it is a source of gratification to us that 
 we have never forfeited our character or prin- 
 ciples in the estimation of the reflecting, the 
 philanthropist, or the Christian public, by 
 meriting their approbation. 
 
 In the midst of this seemingly general con- 
 spiracy to defraud the laborer of his wages 
 by exorbitant rents, &c. Sir Lionel Smith, the 
 Governor, proceeds from district to district, 
 giving advice to both of the contending par- 
 ties, and striving to promote a mutual under- 
 standing. His testimony to the designs of the 
 planters given to their faces, and not de- 
 nied, is very important ; we give therefore 
 one of his meetings, as we find it reported in 
 the Jamaica papers Here is a rather familiar 
 conversation among some of the chief men of 
 that island — where can we expect to find more 
 authoritative testimony ] 
 
 StR, LIONEI, smith's VISIT TO DUNSINANE. 
 
 His Excellency, Sir Lionel Smith, visited 
 Dunsinane on Thursday last, agreeably to ar- 
 rangements previously entered into, for the 
 purpose of addressing the late apprenticed 
 population in that neighborhood, on the pro- 
 priety of resuming the cultivation of the soil. 
 About two miles from Dunsinane, his Excel- 
 lency was mot by a cavalcade composed of the 
 late apprentices, who were p'^eceded by 
 Messrs. Bourne, Hamilton, and Kent, late 
 Special Justices. On the arrival of his Excel- 
 lency at Dunsinane, he was met by the Hon. 
 Joseph Gordon, Gustos, the Lord Bishop attend- 
 ed by his Secretary, and the Rev. Alexander' 
 Campbell ; the Hon. Hector Mitchel, Mayor of 
 Kingston, and a large number of highly re- 
 spectable planters, proprietors, and attorneys. 
 His Excellency, on being seated in the dwel. 
 ling, said, that from information which he had 
 received from other parishes, and facts gather- 
 ed from personal observation, he believed that 
 the same bone of contention existed there as 
 elsewhere — a source of discontent brought 
 about by the planters serving the people with 
 nwtices to quit their houses and grounds. He 
 did not question their right to do so, or the 
 legality of such a proceeding, but he ques- 
 tioned the prudence of the step. The great 
 change from slavery to unrestricted freedom 
 surely deserved some consideration. Things 
 cannot so soon be quiet and calm. Depend 
 upon it, nothing will be done by force. Much 
 may be by conciliation and prudence. Do 
 
 away with every emblem of slavery; throw 
 off the Kilmarnock cap, and adopt m its stead, 
 like rational men, Britannia's cap of hberty. 
 He (Sir Lionel) doubted not the right of the 
 planters to lent tlicir houses and grounds; in 
 order to be more certain on that head, he 
 had procured the opinion of the Attorney Gen- 
 eral ; but the exercise of tiie right by the 
 planter, and getting the people to work, were 
 very different matters. Much difficulty must 
 be felt in getting rid of slavery. Even in the 
 little island of Antigua, it had taken six months 
 to get matters into a quiet state ; but here, in 
 a large country like Jamaica, could it be ex- 
 pected to be done in a day, and was it because 
 it was not done, that the planters were to be 
 opposed to him 1 You are all in arms against 
 me (said his Excellency,) but all I ask of you 
 is to exercise patience, and all will be right. 1 
 have done, and am doing all in my power for 
 the good of my country. If you have served 
 the people with notices to quit, with a view to 
 compel them to work, or thinking to force them 
 to work for a certain rate of wages, you have 
 done wrong. Coercive measures will never 
 succeed. In Vere, which I lately visited, the 
 planters have agreed to give the people Is. 
 8d. per day, and to let them have their houses 
 and grounds for three months free of charge. 
 His Excellency, on seeing some symptoms of 
 disapprobation manifested, said, Well, if you 
 cannot afiijrd to pay so much, pay v.-hat you 
 can afford ; but above all, use conciliatory 
 measures, and I have not a doubt on my mind 
 but that the people will g-^ to their work. See- 
 ing so many planters present, he should be hap- 
 py if they would come to an arrangement 
 among themselves, before he addressed the 
 people outside. 
 
 Mr. Wellwood Htslop remarked, that 
 Vere and'Kther rich sugar parishes might be 
 able to pay high rates of wages, because the 
 land yielded profitable crops, but in this district 
 it was impossible to follow the example of those 
 parishes. He thought that two bits a day 
 might do very well, but that was as much as 
 could be afforded. 
 
 His Excellency said that in Manchester, 
 where he believed he had more enemies than 
 in any other parish, he had advised them to 
 work by the piece, and it had been found to 
 answer well. 
 
 Mr. HiNTON East said that he would submit 
 a measure which he thought would be approved 
 of. He proposed that the people should be paid 
 5s. for four days' labor; that if they cleaned 
 more than 130 trees per day, either themselves 
 or by bringing out their wives and children, 
 they should be paid extra wages in the same 
 proportion. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Simpson said that he could 
 not afford to pay the rates named by his Ex- 
 cellency. It was entirely out of the question ; 
 that a good deal depended upon the state the 
 fields are in — that his people, for instance, 
 
24 
 
 WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 could, with much ease, if they chose, clean 170 
 trees by half-past three o'clock. 
 
 Mr. Mason, of St. George's, said he was 
 willing to pay his people Is. 8d. per day, if they 
 would but work ; but the fact was that they 
 refused to do so, on account of the stories that 
 "had been told them by Special Justice Fisii- 
 boume ; v/illingly too would I have given them 
 their houses and grounds for three months, 
 free of charge, had they shown a desire to 
 labor ; but vviiat was the lamentable fact ''■ 
 the people would not work, because Mr. Fish- 
 bourne had influenced them not to do so, and 
 he (Mr. Mason) had been a loser of one thou- 
 sand pounds in consequence. He had been 
 compelled in self-defence to issue summonses 
 affainst two of his people. He had purchased 
 his property — it was liis all — he had sacrificed 
 twenty of the best years of his life as a planter, 
 he had a wife and family to support, and what 
 was the prospect before him and them 1 He 
 admitted iiaving served notices on his people 
 to quit their houses — in truth he did not now 
 rare whether they were or were not located on 
 the property — he was willing to pay fair, nay, 
 , high wages, but the demand was exorbitant. 
 He had a servant, a trustworthy white man, 
 who laboured from day-dawn to sunset for 2s. 
 id. per day, and he was quite satisfied. All the 
 mischief in his district had been owing to the 
 poisonous stories poured into the ears of tiie 
 people by Special Justice Fishbourne. If he 
 were removed, the parish might probably as- 
 sume a healthy state ; if allowed to remam, no 
 improvement could possibly take place. 
 
 His Excellency said that the Assembly 
 had passed a law preventing the special magis- 
 trates from going on the estates ; they could 
 not, however, prevent the people fi-om going to 
 them, and taking their advice if they wished it. 
 He had understood that the people had gone to 
 the special magistrates, informing them that 
 the planters demanded 3s. 4d. per week rent 
 for the houses and grounds, and that they had 
 been advised, if such were the case, that they 
 ought to be paid higher wages. He understood 
 that to be a fact. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Simpson said that the people 
 would, he had no doubt, have worked, but for 
 the pernicious advice of Mr. Fishbourne. Ho 
 had heard that the people had been told that the 
 Governor did not wish fhcm to work, and that 
 he would be vexed with them if they did. 
 
 Sir Lionel replied that lie was aware that 
 white men were going about the country dis- 
 guised as policemen, pretending to hare his 
 (Sir Lionel's) authority, tolling the people not 
 to work. He knew well their intention and 
 design, he understood the trick. You are anx- 
 ious (said his Excellency) to produce a panic, 
 to rcfluce the value of property, to create dis- 
 may, in order that you may speculate, by re- 
 ducing the present value of property ; but you 
 will be disappointed, notwitlistanding a press 
 Bends fortii daily abuse against me, and black- 
 
 guard and comtemptible remarks against my 
 acts. I assure you I am up to your tricks. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Simpson would be glad if his 
 Excellency would speak individually. There 
 was a paper called the West Indian, and ano- 
 ther the Colonial Freeman. He wished to 
 know whether his Excellency meant either of 
 those papers. [Some slight interruption here 
 took place, several gentlemen speaking at the 
 same time.] 
 
 His Excellency said he had not come to 
 discuss politics; but to endeavour to get the peo- 
 ple to work, and it would be well for them to 
 turn their attention to that subject. 
 
 Mr. Simpson said he had a gang wlio had 
 jobbed by the acre, and had done well, but it 
 was unfortunate in other respects to observe 
 the disinclination shown by the laborers to 
 work. He wished them to know that they 
 must work, and trusted that his Excellency 
 would endeavour to force them to labor. 
 
 Sir Lionel — 1 can't compel them to do as 
 you would wish, nor have I the power of for- 
 cing them to labor. The people will not suf- 
 fer Ihemselves to be driven by means of the 
 cart-whip. It is the policy of every man to 
 make the best bargain he can. I can say no- 
 thing to the people about houses and grounds, 
 and price of wages. 1 can only ask them to 
 work. 
 
 Mr. Wiles said that the planters were anx- 
 ious to come to amicable arrangements with 
 the people, but they were unreasonable in their 
 demands. The planters could not consent to 
 be injured — they must profit by their proper- 
 ties. 
 
 Mr. Mason said, that the only bone of con- 
 tention was the subject of rent. His people 
 v.'ere outside waiting to be satisfied on that 
 head. He hesitated not to say, that the pro- 
 prietors were entitled to rent In every instance 
 where the laborer was unwilling to labor, and 
 unless that subject was ac once settled, it would 
 involve both parties in endless disagreement. 
 He was not one of those persons alluded to by 
 his Excellency, who circulated misrepresenta- 
 tions for private benefit, nor was he aware that 
 any one in the parish in which he lived had dopo 
 so. All that he desired was the good of the 
 country, with which his interests were identi- 
 fied. 
 
 Sir Lionel — I could not possibly be personal 
 towards any gentleman present, for I have not 
 the honour of knowing most of you. My ob- 
 servations were not confined (o any particular 
 parish, but to the Island of Jamaica, in which 
 the occurrences named have taken place. 
 
 Dr. Rapky, of St. George's — If your Excelr 
 lency will only do away witii a certain magis- 
 trate, things will go on smoothly in the parish 
 of St. George. This gentioman has told tlie 
 people that they are entitled to the lands occu- 
 pied by tiiem, in consequence of which the pa- 
 rish is now in an unsettled state. 
 
 Sir Lionel — Who is the magistrate ! 
 
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838, 
 
 25 
 
 T)r Rapkt— Mr. Fishbourne. 
 Sn- LioNEL-I am afraid I cannot please you. 
 Tlfe qSS of possession of lands and houses 
 has fort rpresent been settled by the opinion 
 oni!? AttorLy^General, but it is stdl an unde- 
 termined question at law. There are many 
 "In'the island who are ot opinion tha^^^ti^^ 
 le'nslature had not so intended ; he (Sir Lionel) 
 w£ at a loss to know what they meant ; see- 
 bo- however, some members ol the assembly 
 prfsenlperhaps they would be disposed to give 
 
 'I^lZI^ said, that It was the mton 
 tion of the legislature that rent should be paid. 
 H "tbou.htirtair that Is. 8d. per day should be 
 ^Werei tlie people to work t ve days m t e 
 week, they returning one day s labor tor the 
 hnime:? and trrounds. ■ i ^u * 
 
 Mr Special Justice Hamilton said that 
 comp aS had been made to him, that in many 
 Sees where the husband and ^vafe lived m 
 the ame house, rent had been demanded o 
 both The laborers had, in consequence, been 
 thrown into a state of consternation and alarm, 
 E accounted for the unsettled state of seve- 
 ral Soonrties-a serious bone of contention nad 
 n consCence been procluced He held a no- 
 tice in his hand demanding of a laborer the 
 enormous sum of 10s. per week for house and 
 So™d. He had seen other notices in which 
 is 8d. and 5.. had been demanded for the same 
 He did not consider that the parties issmng those 
 notices had acted with prudence. 
 
 Mr Htslop explained-He admitted the 
 charge, but said that the sum was never rnten- 
 
 't?i5:.Sr2tihe was aware of what wa. 
 aoin^on ; he had heard of it. It was a policy 
 whicli ought no longer to be pursued. 
 
 We have given the foregoing documents, full 
 and mifed, that our readers might fairly 
 j^d.e fSr themselves. We have "ot picked 
 here a sentence and there a sentence, buo let 
 Se Governor, the Assembly, the MisBionanes^ 
 and the press tell their whole story. Let them 
 be read, compared, and weighed. _, ,^., 
 
 We mi^ht indefinitely prolong our extracts 
 from the West India papers to show, not only 
 fnTegrd to the important island of Jamaica but 
 
 Barbados and several other «.f "^f' t^J^^he 
 former masters are alone guilty of the non- 
 woAing of the emancipated, so far as they re 
 fS to work. But we think we have already 
 pToduced^roof enough to establish the following 
 
 points: — 
 
 1. That there was a strong predisposition on 
 the nart of the Jamaica planters to defraud theu: 
 aboSers of their wages' They hoped that by 
 S\Z before they were driven quite to the 
 E tt;emity, by t4 tide of public sentrnent 
 in England, they should escape from all pMan 
 
 thropic interference and f "^^^^l^"'^^' ^^nPa 
 able to bring the faces of their unyoked pea- 
 gantry to the grmdstone of inadequate wages, 
 a That the emancipated were not only 
 
 peaceful in tlieir new freedom, but ready to 
 ^a nt an amnesty of all past abuses, and enter 
 cheerfully into the employ of their former mas- 
 ters for reasonable wages. That in cases where 
 disagreement has arisen as to the rate of daily 
 or weekly wages, the labourers have been rea- 
 dy to engage in task work, to be paid by the 
 piece, and have laboured so efficienUy and pro- 
 fitably— proving a strong disposition tor mdus- 
 try and the acquisition of property. 
 
 3 That in the face of this good disposition ot 
 the 'laborers, the planters have, in many cases, 
 refused to give adequate wages. 
 
 4 That in still more numerous caees, mclud- 
 in"od, ndmor.ished and dismissed 
 
 from tli(- Ut to tbeXlst .\ueu-t ~43 
 
 Ditto from the 1st lo 3i)lh September HR 
 
 Ditto from the l&t to 15tli October SO 
 
 Grand Total 414 
 
 "NOTE. 
 " It may be proper to remark that the aocompsuyin^ 
 General Abstract for August, September, and tothelSti? 
 October, 1837, does not include complaiuts jireferrcd a:.J 
 heard before the Local Magistraicrs during those months 
 for such offences — viz. for misdemeanors, petty dubt^ 
 assaults and peity thtfts — as were tint cognisable by the 
 Special Justices j so that estimating these offences— the 
 number of which does not appe.xr in the Abstract for lfi37 
 — at a similar number as tiiat enumerated in the Abstr.'ict 
 for 1833, the actual relative difference of punishii.eiitE be- 
 tween tlie two and a hall nionlhs iu 1SS7 and those in 
 1838, would thus appear: 
 
 " Surplus of Apprentices punished in 1837, as 
 
 above 2633 
 
 " Ofl"ci;ccs iu August, September, and to the 
 15ih, October, 1837 heard before the General 
 Jiiitices of ilio Peace, and ectiraated as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 Petty thefts 75 
 
 Assaults 143 
 
 Misdemeanors 98 
 
 Petty Debts 19— 303 
 
 Actual surplus of piinislimcnt in 1837, 3169 
 From the Journal of Commerce. 
 Letter from W. R. Hays, Esq. Barbados, W. I 
 to Rev. H. G. Ludloic, of New Haven. 
 
 . Barbados, Dec. 26, 1838. 
 I gave you in my last, some account of the 
 mannrr in which the first day of emancipation 
 came and went in thi.s Island. We very soou 
 afterwards received similar accounis from all 
 the neighboring islands. In all of them the day 
 was celebrated as an occasion " of devout 
 thanksgiving and prai^c to God, for the happy 
 termination of slavery." In all of them, the 
 change tookplace in a manner highly creditable 
 to the emancipated, and intensely g.-'aiifying to 
 the frcnds of liberty. The quiet, good order, 
 and solemnity of the day, were every where re- 
 markable. Indeed, is it not a fact worth re- 
 memberipg, that wheieas in former years, a 
 single day'A relaxation from labor was met by 
 the slaves wilh t-houtirg and revelry, and mer- 
 rv-making, yet now, wh^3n ihe last link of slave- 
 ry was broken f.irever, sobriety and decorum 
 were especially the order of the day. The per- 
 lect order and subordination to the laws, which 
 marked the fir^t day of Au2ust,areyet unbroken. 
 We have now nearly five months' experience 
 of entire ■ emancipation ; and I venture to 
 say, that a period of more prof und peace never 
 existed in the West Indies. There, have been 
 disputes ab ut wagos, as in New England and 
 in other free count: ies; but no concert, no 
 combination even, liere;. and the only attempt 
 at a combination was among the planters, \o 
 keep down wages— and that but for a short 
 timeonly. 1 will not enter particul-.uly intoihc 
 question's whether or not the people will cor- 
 tinue to work for v;ages, whether thev will re- 
 main quiet,— or on the other hand, uhether the 
 Island will be suffered to become desolate, and 
 the ficed slaves relapse into barbarism, &c. 
 These things have been sp"culated a^out, and 
 g'oomv predictions have bad ibeir day: the 
 time has now rome for the proof. Pe p'e do 
 not buy land and houses, and lent property for 
 long terms of years, in countrifs where life is 
 insecure, or where labor cannot be had, and the 
 tendency of things is to rnin and duay. In 
 short, men, in their senses, do not embark on 
 board a sinking sliip. Confid. nee is ihe very 
 soul of prosperity ; of the existence oi this con- 
 
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 29 
 
 fidence in this Island,the immense operations in 
 redl esiate, since the first of Augu-i, are abund- 
 EQt pro if. There are multitudss uf instaoces 
 in wh ch estates have sold lor Sii"^0,000 more 
 than was asked for them six months ago ; and 
 and yet at that time they were co sidered very 
 high A proprietor v. ho was peisuailed a few 
 weeks since to part with his estate lor a 
 very large sura of money, went and bought 
 it back again at an advance of $1)600. A great 
 many lon^ leasesof properly have been entered 
 into. All estate cailea ' Edg.^combe," men- 
 lioiiedby Thome and Kimball, has been rented 
 for 31 ye.irs at 35~500 ( er annum. Another 
 called th : " Hope" lias been rented for 10 years 
 at £3000 sterling, equal to fcOGOO per annum. 
 Another, after being rented at a high price, 
 was re let, by the lessee, who became entirely 
 absolve 1 from the contract, and took $16,000 
 for his bargain. If required, I could give you 
 a host of -similar cases, with ihe names of the 
 parties. Bat it seems unnecessary. The mere 
 impuLse given to the value of property in ihis 
 island by emancipation, is a thing as notorious 
 Acre, as Ihe fact ol emancipation. 
 
 But, are not crimes more irequent than be- 
 fore 1 I have now before me a Barbad js 
 newspaper, printed two weeks since, in which 
 the fact is stated, that in ail the county prisons, 
 among i population of 80,000, only tico pris- 
 oners were confined for any cause whatever ! 
 
 " But," says a believer in the necessity cf 
 Colonization, '' how will you get rid of the 
 negroes T' I answer b/ adverting to the spec- 
 tacle which is now witr.essed in all the Islands 
 of the former proprietjrs of slaves, noiv employ- 
 ers of free laborers, using everv endeavor to 
 prevent emigration. Trinidad, Demcara, and 
 Berbic-, iraai laborers. The former has pass- 
 ed a law to pay the pa'^sage mone',' of any la- 
 barer who comes to the Island, leaviu? him free 
 to choose his employment. D-meiaraand Ber- 
 bice have sent Emigration agents to this and 
 other iilmds, lo induce the laborers to join 
 those colonies, offering high wages, good treat- 
 ment, &". On the o her hand, Barbados, 
 Grenada, St. Vincent, and all the old and po- 
 pulous islands, individually and collectively, by 
 lesislative resolves, legal enactments, &c. &c. 
 — loudly protest that tney have not a man to 
 iparc! What is still better, the old island pro- 
 prietors are on every haid building new houses 
 for the peasantry, and with great forethought 
 addini: to their comfort; knowing that they 
 will thereby secure their contentment on their 
 native s )il. As a pleasing in-^tance of the good 
 nnder^iinding which now exists between pro- 
 prietors and laborers, I will mention, that 
 ^reat numbers of the former were in town on 
 rite 24;h, buying upp irk, hams, rice, &c. as pre- 
 sents for their people on the ensuing Christ- 
 mas; a day which has this year passed by 
 mid scenes of quiet Sabbath devotions, a 
 ..'.riking contrast to the tumult and drunkenness 
 of form T times. I cannot close this subject, 
 without beating my tcstim ny to the coneet- 
 ness of the sta:emen's made by our country- 
 men, Thome and Kimbiil. They were hig^h- 
 ly esteemel here by all cUT^ses, and had free 
 acees.s to every source of valuable information. 
 
 If they have not done justice to the subject ot 
 their book, it is bicause the manifold blessings 
 of a deliverance fiom slaveiy are beyond the 
 powers of language to lepresent. W hen I at- 
 tempt, as I have done in this letter, lo enumer- 
 ate a few ol them, I know not where to begin, 
 or where to end. One mu I sec, in order to 
 know and feel how unspeakalbe aboon these isl- 
 ands have received, — a boon, which is by no 
 means confined to the cmancipattd shives ; but, 
 like the dews and rains of heaven, it lell upon 
 all the inhabitants of the land, bond and Iree, 
 rich and p or, t(gcther. 
 
 it is a common thing here, when you hear 
 one speak of the b nefits of emancipation — the 
 remark — thai it oughi to have laken place long 
 ago. Some say fifty years ago, some twenty, 
 and some, that at any rate it ought to have tak- 
 en place all at once, wi-hout any apprentice- 
 ship. The noon-day sun is'not clemer than 
 the fact, that no preparation was requiied ou 
 the pari of the slaves. It was the dictate if an 
 accusing conscience, that foretold of bloodshed, 
 and burning, and devas.ation. Can it be sup- 
 posed to be an accidental circumstance, that 
 peace and good-will have uniformly, in all the 
 colonies, followed the steps of emancipation. 
 Is it not father the broad seal of atie&tationto that 
 heaven born principle, " It is safe to do right " 
 Dear broiher, if you or any other friend to 
 down trodden humanity, have any lingering 
 fear that the blaze of light which is now goins: 
 forth from the islands will ever be quencoed, 
 even for a moment, dismiss that Tar. The 
 light, instead of g- owing dim, will continue to 
 brighten. Your prayers for the safe and hap- 
 py introduction of freedom, upon a soil long 
 trodden by the foot of slavery, may be turned 
 into praises — for the event has come to pass. 
 When shall we be able to rrjoice in such a con- 
 summation in our beloved America ■? Howl 
 longtosee a deputation of slaveholdeis making 
 the tour of these islands. It would only be ne- 
 cessary for them to use their eyes aud ears. 
 Argument would be quite out ot place. Even 
 an appeal to p.'inciple— to compassion— to the 
 tear of God — would not be needed. Self-in- 
 terest alone would decide them in favor of im- 
 mediate emancipation. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 W. R. HAYES. 
 
 DEMERARA. 
 
 SPEECH OP THE GOVERNOR, ON OPENING THE-SF.V 
 SION OP THE COURT OF POLICY. SEPT. 17, 1838. 
 
 From the Guiana Royal Gazette- 
 " I should fail in my duty to the public, and 
 perhaps, not re-pond lo the expectations of your- 
 selves. Gentlemen of the Colonial Section of 
 this Honorable Court, did I not say a few words 
 on the Slate of the Colony, at thi-; our first meet- 
 ing afi er the memorable first ol August. 
 
 " We are now approaching the close of the 
 second month since that daie— a sufficient time 
 to enable us to jud?e of the good disposition of 
 the new race of Freemen, but not perhap>ofihe 
 prosperity of the Colony. If is a proud thing 
 for the Colonists — Proprietois and Emplovers — 
 that nothing has occurred to indicate a want of 
 
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 Ijood fieling in the great body of the laborers. 
 It is I reducible to ihem, satisfactory lo their em- 
 ployeis, and coi fi^uuding lo those who aniici- 
 paied a contrary state of affairs. 
 
 " That pirlial changes of location should 
 have laKen place, cannot surprise any reasona- 
 ble mind— that men who have all their lives 
 b.-en subject to connpulsory labor should, on 
 having ihis labor left to their discretion, be dis- 
 p.-sed at first to relax, and, in some instances, 
 loially abstain from it, was equally to be expect- 
 ed. But we have no reason to despond, nor to 
 inragine that, because such has occurred Id 
 iome districis, it will continue. 
 
 " It is sufficient that the ignorant have been 
 undeceived iu their exaggerated notions of their 
 rights as Freemen : it was the first step towards 
 re-UNiption of labor in every part of the Colony. 
 The patient forbearance of the Employers has 
 product d great thanges. If some Estates have 
 been di appointed in the amount of labor per- 
 formed, others again, and I have reason to be- 
 lieve a great number, are doing well. It is well 
 known that the Peasantry have not taken to a 
 wanderii g life : they are not lost to the culti- 
 vated parts of the Colony: for the reports 
 hiihei to received from the Superintendents of 
 Rivers and Creeks make no mention of an aug- 
 uieuted population in the disiant parts of their 
 respective dis' riots. 
 
 " I hear of few commitments, except in this 
 town, where, of course, many of the idle have 
 ti eked from the country. On the East Coast, 
 there has been only one case brought before the 
 High Sherift''s Court since the 1st of August. 
 In the last Circuit, not one ! 
 
 " With these facts before us, we may, I trust, 
 anticipate the continu- d prosperity of the Colo- 
 ny ; and though it be possible there may be a 
 diminution in the exports of the staple commo- 
 dities in this and the succeeding quarter, yet 
 we must take into consideration that the season 
 had been unfavorab'e, in some districts, pre- 
 vious to the 1st August, therefore a larger pro- 
 porti(nof the crops remained uncut ; and we 
 may ask, whether a continuance of compulsory 
 labor would have produced a more favorable 
 result ■? Our united efforts will, I trust, not be 
 warning to base individual prosperity on the 
 welfare of all." 
 
 The Governor of Demerara is Henry Light, 
 Esq., a gentlemen who seems strongly inclined 
 to court the old slavery party and determined to 
 shew his want of affinity to the abolitionists. In 
 another speech delivered on a similar occasion, 
 he says : 
 
 *' Many of the new freemen may still be said 
 to be in their infancy of freedom, and like chil- 
 dren are wayward. On many of the tsinli.s ihty 
 have repaid ihe kindness and forbearance of 
 their masters ; on others they have continued 
 to take advantage of (what 1 the kindness and 
 forbearance of their masters 1 Wo.) their new 
 condition, are idle or irregular in their work. 
 The good sense of the mass gives me reason to 
 hope ihai idleness will be the exception, not the 
 rule." 
 
 The Barbadian of Nov. 28, remarks, that of 
 six districts in Demerara whose conditicn had 
 been reported, ^re were working favorably. In 
 
 the sixth the laborers were standing out tor 
 higher wages. 
 
 TRINIDAD. 
 
 In the Jamaica Morning Journal of Oct. 2d 
 and 15th, we find the fjllowing paragraphs in 
 relation lo this colony: 
 
 " Trinidad. — The reports from the various 
 districts as to the conduct of our laboring 
 population, are as various and opposite, the 
 (Standard says, to each other as it is possible for 
 them to be. There are many of ihe Estates on 
 which (he laborers had at tiist gone on steadily 
 to work which now have scarcely a hand upon 
 them, whilst upon others they musiera greater 
 force than they could before command. We 
 hear also that the people have already in many 
 instances exhibited that propensity common lo 
 the habits ot common life, which we call squat- 
 ting, and to which we have ahvays looked for- 
 ward as one of ihe evils likely to accompany 
 their emancipation, and calling for the earliest 
 and most serious attention of our Legislature. 
 We must confess, however, that it is a subject 
 not easy to deal with safely and effectually." 
 
 'Trinidad, -The Standard says : " The state 
 of the cultivation at present is said to be as far 
 advanced as could have been anticipated under 
 the new circumstances in which the Island 
 stands. The weather throughou' the month ha.> 
 been more than usually favorable to weedine. 
 whilst there has also been sufficient rain to 
 bring out the plants ; and many planters hav- 
 ing, before the 1st of August, pushed on their 
 weeding by free loior and (paid) extia tasks, 
 the derangement in their customary labor 
 which has been expeiienred since that period^ 
 does not leave them much below an average 
 progress." 
 
 " Of the laborers, although they are far from 
 being settled, we believe we may say, that they 
 are not wt>rking badly ; indeed, c mpared with 
 those of the sister colonies, they are both more 
 industrious and more disposed to be on good 
 terms with their late masters. Some few es- 
 tates continue short of their usual compliment 
 of hands ; but many of the laborers who had 
 left the proprietors, have returned to them, 
 whilst many others have changed their locality 
 either to join iheir relations, or lo return to 
 their haunts off rmer days. So iar as we can 
 learn, nothing like insubordination or com- 
 bination exists. We are also happy to say, that 
 on some estates, the laborers have turned their 
 attention to their provision grounds. There 
 is one point, however, which few seem to com- 
 prehend, which is, that although free, they can- 
 not work one day and be idle the next, ad libi- 
 tum." 
 
 Later accounts mention that some thousand;? 
 more of laborers were wanted to take o(l' th*> 
 cro]), and that acommiitee of immigration had 
 been appointed to obtain them. [See Amos 
 Townsend's letter on the last page.] So it seems 
 the free laborers are so good they want more 
 of them. The same is notoriously true of De- 
 merara, and Berbice. Instead of a colonization 
 spirit lo get rid of the free blacks, the quarrel 
 among ihe colonies is, which shall get the mo.«i. 
 It is no wonder that the poor negroes in Trini- 
 
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 31 
 
 dad should betake themselves to squatting. The 
 island is thinly peopled and the adinioisiratiou 
 ot justice is horribly corrupt, under the gov- 
 ernorship and judgeship of Sir George Hill, 
 ihe well known defaulter as Vice Treasurer 
 of Ireland, on whose appointment Mr. O'Con- 
 rell remarked that " delinquents might excuse 
 themselves by referring to the case of their 
 judge." 
 
 GRENADA. 
 
 " Grenada— The Gazette expresses its grati- 
 fication at being able to record, that the ac- 
 counts which have been received from several 
 parts ot the country, are of a satisfactory na- 
 ture. On many of the properties the peasan- 
 try have, during the week, evinced a disposi- 
 tion to resume their several accustomed avoca- 
 tions, at the rates, and on the terms proposed 
 by the directors of the respective estates, to 
 which they were formerly belonging; and very 
 little desire to change their residence has been 
 manifested. Oae of our correspondents writes, 
 that 'already, by a conciliatory method, and 
 holding out the stimulus of e.xtra pay, in pro- 
 portion to the quantity of work pt-rformed 
 beyond that allowed to them, he had, ' suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining, for three days, double the 
 former average of work, rendered by the la- 
 bors during the days of .-lavery ; and this, too, 
 by four o'clock, at which hour it seems, they 
 are now wishful of ceasing to work, and to ena- 
 ble them to do so, they work continuously from 
 tile time they return from their breakfast. 
 
 " It is one decided opinion, the paper named 
 says, that in a very short time the cultivation 
 of the cane will be generally resumed, and all 
 things continue to progress to the mutual sa- 
 tisfaction of both empl'.yerand laborer. We 
 shall feel indebted to our friends for such in- 
 fjrmation, as it may be in their power to afford 
 lis on this important subject, as it will tend to 
 I heir advantage equally with that of their la- 
 borers, from \(ie same being made public. We 
 would wish also that permission be given as to 
 mention the names of the properties on which 
 matters have assumed a favorable aspect." 
 
 Jamaica Morning Journal of Oct. 2. 
 " Grenada. — According to the Free Press, it 
 would appear that ' the proprietors and mana- 
 gers of several estates in Duquesne Valley, and 
 elsewhere, their patience bring worn out, and 
 seeing the cultivation of their estates gjing to 
 ruin, determined to put the law into operation, 
 by compelling, after allowing twenty-three or 
 twenty-four days of idleness, the people ei'her 
 to work or to leave the estates. They resisted ; 
 the aid of the magistrates and of the consta- 
 bulary force was called in, but without effect, 
 and actual violence was, we learn, used towards 
 those who came to enfirce the law. A Ivices 
 were immediately seni down to the Executive, 
 despatched by a gentleman of the Troop, who 
 reached town about half past five o'clock on 
 Saturday morning last. We believe a Privy 
 Council was summoned, nnd during the day, 
 Capt. Clarke of the 1st West-India Regiment, 
 and Government Secretary, Lieut. Mould of 
 the Royal Engineers, and Lieut. Costabodie of 
 the 70th, together with twenty men of the 70ih, 
 
 and 20 of the 1st West India, embarked, to be 
 conveyed by water to the scene of insubordina- 
 tion. 
 
 " ' We have not learnt the reception this force 
 met with, from the laborers, but the results of 
 the visit paid them were, that yesterday, there 
 were at work, on four estates, none: on tleven 
 others, 287 in all, and on another ail except 
 three, who are in the hands of the magistrates. 
 On one of the above properties, the great 
 gang was, on Friday last, represented in the 
 cane-piece by one old woman ! 
 
 " 'The presence of the soldiers has had, it 
 will be seen, some efTecf, yet still the prospects 
 are far from encouraging ; a system of stock 
 plundering, &c. is prevalent to a fearful desree, 
 some gentlemen and the industrious laborers 
 having had their fowls, &c. entirely carried 
 off by the worthless criminals ; it is consola- 
 tory, however, to be able to quote ihe following 
 written, to us by a gentleman : " Although 
 there are a good many people on the different 
 estates, still obstinate and resisting either to 
 work or to leave the properties, yet I hop ■ that 
 if the military are posied at Samaritan for some 
 time longer, they will come round, several of 
 the very obstinate having done so already." 
 Two negroes were sent down to goal on Mon- 
 day last, to have their trial for assaulting the 
 magistrates. 
 
 " ' Such are the facts, as far as we have been 
 able to ascertain them, which have atiended a 
 rebellious demonstration among a portion of 
 the laboring population, calculated to excite 
 well-founded apprehension in the whole com- 
 munity. Had earlier preventive measures been 
 adopted, this open manifestation of a spirit of 
 resistance to, and defiance of the law, might 
 have been avoided. On this point, we have, in 
 conempt of the time-serving reflections it has 
 drawn upon us, freely and fearlessly expressed 
 our opinion, and we shall now only remark, 
 that matters having come to the pass we have 
 stated, the Executive has adopted the only 
 effective means to bring affairs again to a 
 healthy state; fortunate is it for the colony, that 
 this has been done, and we trust that the effects 
 will be most benefieial." 
 
 TOBAGO. 
 
 The following testifies well for the ability of 
 the emancipated to take care of themselves. 
 
 " ' Tobago. — The Gazeite of this Island in- 
 forms us that up to the period of its going to 
 press, the account^ from the country, as to the 
 disinclination of the laborers to turn out to 
 work are much the same as we have given of 
 last week. Early this morning parlies of them 
 were seen passing through town in various 
 directions, accompanied by their children, and 
 carrying along wiih them their ground pro- 
 visions, stock, &c. indicating a change of lo- 
 cation. Whilst on many estates where per- 
 emptory demands have been made that work 
 be resumed, vr the laborers should leave the 
 estate, downright refusal to do either the one 
 or the other has been the reply ; and that replv 
 has been accompanied by threat and menace of 
 personal violence against any attempts to turn 
 them out of their houses and grounds. In the 
 transition of the laborers from a state of bon- 
 
32 
 
 WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION, IN 1838. 
 
 dage to freedom, much that in their manners 
 and deportment would have biought them 
 summarily under the coercion of the stipendia- 
 ry magistrate, formerly, may now be practised 
 with impuni:y ; and the fear is lest that nice 
 discrimination betwixt restraints just terminat- 
 ed and rights newly acquired, will not be 
 clouded for some time, even in the minds of 
 the authorities, before whom laborers are likely 
 to be brought lor their transgression. Thus, 
 although it may appear like an alarming con- 
 federacy, the system of sending delegates, or 
 head men, around the estates, which the !a- 
 bjrers have adopted, as advisers, or agents, to 
 promote general unan->'''v; it must be borne 
 in mind that this is perlc justifiable ; and it 
 is only where actual viol h?s been threat- 
 
 ened by those delegates s' those who 
 
 choose to work at under wb' .h. ,i the au- 
 thorities can merely assure tlie. . of their pro- 
 tection from violence.''— Alorning Jovr.jOct. 2. 
 The Barbadian of November 21, says, " An 
 agricultural report has been lately made of the 
 windward dis^ict of the Island, which is fa- 
 vorable as to the general working of the ne- 
 gi oes." The same paper of November 28, says, 
 " It is satisfactory to learn that 7nan7/ laborers 
 in Ttbago are engaging more readily in agri- 
 cultural operations." 
 
 ST. VINCENT. 
 
 "Saint. Vincent. — Our intelligence this 
 week, observes the Gazette of 25lh August, 
 from the country district's, is considerably more 
 favorable than for ihe previous fortnight. In 
 most of the leeward quarter, the people have, 
 more or less, returned to work, with ihe ex- 
 ception of very few estates, which we decline 
 naming, as we trust that on these also they will 
 resume their labor in a few days. The same 
 may be said generally of the properties in St. 
 George's parish ; and in the more oxiensive 
 district of Charlotte, there is every prospect that 
 the same example will be followed next week 
 particularly in the Caraib country, where a few 
 laborers on some properties have been at work 
 during the present week, and the explanation 
 and advice given iham by Mr. Special Justice 
 Ross has been attended with the best effect, and 
 we doubt not will so continue. In the Biabou 
 quarter the laborers have resumed work in 
 greater numbers than in other parts of the parish, 
 and the exceptions in this, as in ether districts, 
 we hope will continue but a short time." 
 
 The Barbadian of November 21, sjieaks of 
 a " megass house" set on fire in this island 
 which the peasantry refused to extinguish, and 
 adds that but half work is performed by the 
 laborers in that parish. " Those of the adjoin- 
 ing parish," it says, " are said to be working 
 satisfactorily." In a subsequent paper we no- 
 tice a report from the Chief of Police to the 
 Lieuienant Govenor, which speaks favorably 
 of the general working of the negroes, as far as 
 he had been able to ascertain by inquiry into a 
 district comprising one-third of the laborers. 
 
 The New York Commercial Advertiser of 
 February 25, has a communication from Amos 
 Townsend, Esq., Cashier of the New Haven 
 Bank; dated New Haven, February 21, 1839, 
 
 from which we make the following extract. He 
 says he obtained his information from one of 
 the most extensive shipping houses in that city 
 connected with the West India trade. 
 
 " A Mr. Jackson, a planier from St. Vincents, 
 has been in this city within a few days, and 
 savs that the emancipation of the slaves on that 
 island works extremely well; and that bis 
 plantation produces more and yields a larger 
 profit than it has ever done before. The eman- 
 cipated slaves now do in eight hours what was 
 before considered a two-days' task, end he pays 
 the laborers a dollar a day. 
 
 "Mr. Jackson further states that he, and Mr. 
 Neljon, of Trinidad, with another gentleman 
 from the same islands, have been to Washing- 
 ton, and conferred with Mr. Calhoun and Mr. 
 Clay, to endeavour to concert some plan to get 
 colored laborers from this country to emigrate to 
 these islands, as there is a great v:ant of hands. 
 They offer one dollar a day for able bodied 
 hands. The genilemen at Washington were 
 pleased with the idea of thus disposing of the 
 free blacks at the South, and would encourage 
 their efiorts to induce that class of the colored 
 people to emigrate. Mr. Calhoun remarked 
 that it was the most feasible plan of colo- 
 nizing the free blacks that had ever been sug- 
 gested. 
 
 " This is the amount of my information, and 
 conaes in so direct a channel as leaves no room 
 to doubt its correctness. What our southern 
 champions will now say to this direct testimo- 
 ny from their brother planters of the West In- 
 dies, of the practicability and safety of imme- 
 diate enxancipation, remains to be seen. Truly 
 your's. Amos Townsexd, Jun. 
 
 ST. LUCIA. 
 
 Saint Lucia. — The Palladium states thai af- 
 fairs are becoming worse eveiy day with the 
 planters. Their properiies are left without la- 
 bourers to work them ; their buildings broken 
 into, storesand pioduce stolen, ground provis- 
 ions destroyed, stock robbed, and they them- 
 selves insulted and laughed at. 
 
 On Saturday night, the Commissary of Po- 
 lice arrived in town from the third and fourth 
 districts, with some twenty or thirty prisoners, 
 who had been convicted belore the Chief Jus- 
 tice of having assaulted the police in the exe- 
 cution of their duty, and sent to gaol. 
 
 "It has been deemed necessary lo call for 
 military aid with a view ol humbling the high 
 and extravagant ideas entertained by the ex- 
 apprentices upon the independence of their 
 present condition; thirty-six men of the first 
 West India regiment, and twelve of the seven- 
 ty-fourth have been accordmglv despatched; 
 the detachment embarked yesterday, on board 
 Mr. Muter's schomor, the Louisa, lo land at 
 Soufriere, and march into the interior." 
 
 In both the above cases where the military 
 was called out, the provocation was given by 
 the whiter. And in both cases it was afterwards 
 granted to be needless. Indeed, in the quell- 
 ing of one of these factitious rebellions, tha 
 prisoners taken were two white men, and one 
 of them a manager. 
 
 ,A 
 

 
 ?> :> r> j>>>> '3) 
 
 3 ' ^i> ^«> z> :> .>^. >. 
 
 3 ) > 3>3 :> >:)3 
 
 ■ D ^ ?^^ ^^ ^>^ v<> ^ > ^^"^ "2» ^ 1^ ^ -^ 
 >s> -:> ^ :> .> t:>t> > >:) ^ ;) ^ .>«> ^^ ^ ^?^ > ^>;^ ^ 
 
 If 
 
 "3) 
 
 
 5) A 1>^)> 
 
 
 
 
 > 3 
 
 :3> v>^. 
 
 )!:> ^>55> ^^^r>>^^> ">!>)> loy ^>'> 
 
 ,;T^- >»7> "3T)3 '3':^ '>iS> ^aO)> :^'^ 
 
 > 'jy :>^i> T> 3 :> v> 3 o oc> > ^ >> 
 
 >^'Z>^L> 3>i>^>3^"^ :»^.»yr- '^^^ ^ 
 
 
 
 ) £> 
 
 
 . ) y>. ^^/^^ z> z> :>y}) :>3> ^ •. 
 
 > r^ >)5> ^^ - ^- ^'S* Jfr2> 5 C 
 
 
 i> ;:» Ji 
 
 » :» J 
 o .:» jai 
 
 >> ■r5> ■ 3111 
 
 
 
 
 
 -Jfc ^> '^^ ■ 
 
 J 
 
 --«^^ „_--^ 
 
 
 
 »»' J> 
 
 '-^ : 
 
 > 
 
 ^ ■"> 
 
 :> J 
 
 » ,^-. 
 
 '^ ^ 
 
 > 
 
 Z> > 
 
 • :> '. ^ 
 
 » ' 
 
 ► '::> — 
 
 '^ 
 
 > 
 
 ► :> 
 
 '!:> 
 
 > 
 
 ► :> 
 
 '^ ■ 
 
 :> 
 
 •)-> 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 '^-^ Z» 
 
 )y>x> .D' ■'•» ■:>■.>>:> :>. x> 
 
 
 
 
 ,J?> J) ", O ' 
 
 
 
 
 > ^ > > 
 
 
1> 0!>>^Z* 
 
 "»::>. til) 
 
 
 ^ ^-^ 
 
 
 > >> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 3 J ^ 
 
 ^1 X^^ 
 
 3 ;^7 
 
 
 
 
 
 > yy>' 
 
 i> 3 
 
 > 3 
 
 3 J. > 
 
 > £a^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 »> 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 » '^ "■' 
 
 & > 
 
 > 
 
 )> ," 
 
 ^■'■ 
 
 > 
 
 J> r- 
 
 
 '-* 
 
 ^^ i^ 
 
 
 !* 
 
 >:> -^ 
 
 1 
 
 -> 
 
 "^^, 
 
 >> '^ 
 
 J 
 
 s 
 
 
 ^> J 
 
 J 
 
 _> 
 
 >^ 3 
 
 J 
 
 > 
 
 » ::j 
 
 > 
 
 :> , 
 
 
 'J '3 
 
 ") ■. 
 
 ^9 
 
 > ^ 
 
 ') ■ , 
 
 ^ 
 
 > . 
 
 ' :^ 
 
 ) 
 ) 
 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 .^< 
 
 w 
 
 y 
 
 ' ; 
 
 J ;; 
 
 v^ :3>L»"C> 
 
 ^3::>. »>x> ^^>: ^^ ' 
 
 ^^o> 
 
 .>>-3 .;; 
 
 > ' > 
 
 > > 
 
 
 -#-iF>^ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 |i I II I ||i| 
 
 012 026 173 3