4th. Parents have the entire control of their children. The planter cannot in any way interfere with them. The parents have the whole charge of their support.
5th. By an express provision of the legislature, it was made obligatory upon every planter to support all the superannuated, infirm, or diseased on the estate, _who were such at this time of emanc.i.p.ation_. Those who have become so since 1834, fall upon the hands of their relatives for maintenance.
6th. The amount of wages is not determined by law. By a general understanding among the planters, the rate is at present fixed at a shilling per day, or a little more than fifty cents per week, counting five working days. This matter is wisely left to be regulated by the character of the seasons, and the mutual agreement of the parties concerned. As the island is suffering rather from a paucity of laborers, than otherwise, labor must in good seasons command good wages. The present rate of wages is extremely low, though it is made barely tolerable by the additional perquisites which the people enjoy. They have them houses rent free, and in connection with them small premises forty feet square, suitable for gardens, and for raising poultry, and pigs, &c.; for which they always find a ready market. Moreover, they are burthened with no taxes whatever; and added to this, they are supplied with medical attendance at the expense of the estates.
7th. The master is authorized in case of neglect of work, or turning out late in the morning, or entire absence from labor, to reduce the wages, or withhold them for a time, not exceeding a week.
8th. The agricultural laborers may leave the field whenever they choose, (provided they give a month"s previous notice,) and engage in any other business; or they may purchase land and become cultivators themselves, though in either case they are of course liable to forfeit their houses on the estates.
9th. They may leave the island, if they choose, and seek their fortunes in any other part of the world, by making provision for their near relatives left behind. This privilege has been lately tested by the emigration of some of the negroes to Demerara. The authorities of the island became alarmed lest they should lose too many of the laboring population, and the question was under discussion, at the time we were in Antigua, whether it would not be lawful to prohibit the emigration.
It was settled, however, that such a measure would be illegal, and the planters were left to the alternative of either being abandoned by their negroes, or of securing their continuance by adding to their comforts and treating them kindly.
10. The right of suffrage, and eligibility to office are subject to no restrictions, save the single one of property, which is the same with all colors. The property qualification, however, is so great, as effectually to exclude the whole agricultural negro population for many years.
11th. _The main constabulary force is composed of emanc.i.p.ated negroes, living on the estates_. One or two trust-worthy men on each estate are empowered with the authority of constables in relation to the people on the same estate, and much reliance is placed upon these men, to preserve order and to bring offenders to trial.
12th. A body of police has been established, whose duty it is to arrest all disorderly or riotous persons, to repair to the estates in case of trouble, and co-operate with the constables, in arraigning all persons charged with the violation of law.
13th. The punishment for slight offences, such as stealing sugar-canes from the field, is confinement in the house of correction, or being sentenced to the tread-mill, for any period from three days to three months. The punishment for burglary, and other high offences, is solitary confinement in chains, or transportation for life to Botany Bay.
Such are the main features in the statutes, regulating the freedom of the emanc.i.p.ated population of Antigua. It will be seen that there is no enactment which materially modifies, or unduly restrains, the liberty of the subject. There are no secret reservations or postscript provisoes, which nullify the boon of freedom. Not only is slavery utterly abolished, but all its appendages are scattered to the winds; and a system of impartial laws secures justice to all, of every color and condition.
The measure of success which has crowned the experiment of emanc.i.p.ation in Antigua--an experiment tried under so many adverse circ.u.mstances, and with comparatively few local advantages--is highly encouraging to slaveholders in our country. It must be evident that the balance of advantages between the situation of Antigua and that of the South, _is decidedly in favor of the latter_. The South has her resident proprietors, her resources of wealth, talent, and enterprise, and her preponderance of white population; she also enjoys a regularity of seasons, but rarely disturbed by desolating droughts, a bracing climate, which imparts energy and activity to her laboring population, and comparatively numerous wants to stimulate and press the laborer up to the _working mark_; she has close by her side the example of a free country, whose superior progress in internal improvements, wealth, the arts and sciences, morals and religion, all ocular demonstration to her of her own wretched policy, and a moving appeal in favor of abolition; and above all, site has the opportunity of choosing her own mode, and of ensuring all the blessings of a _voluntary and peaceable manumission_, while the energies, the resources, the sympathies, and the prayers of the North, stand pledged to her a.s.sistance.
CHAPTER III.
FACTS AND TESTIMONY.
We have reserved the ma.s.s of facts and testimony, bearing immediately upon slavery in America, in order that we might present them together in a condensed furor, under distinct heads. These heads, it will be perceived, consist chiefly of propositions which are warmly contested in our country. Will the reader examine these principles in the light of facts? Will the candid of our countrymen--whatever opinions they may hitherto hate entertained on this subject--hear the concurrent testimony of numerous planters, legislators, lawyers, physicians, and merchants, who have until three years past been wedded to slavery by birth, education, prejudice, a.s.sociations, and supposed interest, but who have since been divorced from all connection with the system?
In most cases we shall give the names, the stations, and business of our witnesses; in a few instances, in which we were requested to withhold the name, we shall state such circ.u.mstances as will serve to show the standing and competency of the individuals. If the reader should find in what follows, very little testimony unfavorable to emanc.i.p.ation, he may know the reason to be, that little was to be gleaned from any part of Antigua. Indeed, we may say that, with very few exceptions, the sentiments here recorded as coming from individuals, are really the sentiments of the whole community. There is no such thing known in Antigua as an _opposing, disaffected party_. So complete and thorough has been the change in public opinion, that it would be now _disreputable_ to speak against emanc.i.p.ation.
FIRST PROPOSITION.--The transition from slavery to freedom is represented as a greet revolution, by which a prodigious change was effected in _the condition of the negroes_.
In conversation with us, the planters often spoke of the greatness and suddenness of the change. Said Mr. Barnard, of Green Castle estate, "The transition from slavery to freedom, was like pa.s.sing suddenly out of a dark dungeon into the light of the sun."
R.B. Eldridge, Esq., a member of the a.s.sembly, remarked, that, "There never had been in the history of the world so great and instantaneous a change in the condition of so large a body of people."
The Honorable Nicholas Nugent, speaker of the house of a.s.sembly, and proprietor, said, "There never was so sudden a transition from one state to another, by so large a body of people. When the clock began to strike the hour of twelve on the last night of July, 1834, the negroes of Antigua were _slaves_--when it ceased they were all _freemen!_ It was a stupendous change," he said, "and it was one of the sublimest spectacles ever witnessed, to see the subjects of the change engaged at the very moment it occurred, in worshipping G.o.d."
These, and very many similar ones, were the spontaneous expressions of men _who had long contended against the change_ of which they spoke.
It is exceedingly difficult to make slaveholders see that there is any material difference between slavery and freedom; but when they have once renounced slavery, they _will magnify this distinction_ more than any other cla.s.s of men.
SECOND PROPOSITION.--Emanc.i.p.ation in Antigua was the result of political and pecuniary considerations merely.
Abolition was seen to be inevitable, and there were but two courses left to the colonists--to adopt the apprenticeship system, or immediate emanc.i.p.ation. Motives of convenience led them to choose the latter.
Considerations of general philanthropy, of human rights, and of the sinfulness of slavery, were scarcely so much as thought of.
Some time previous to the abolition of slavery, a meeting of the influential men of the island was called in St. John"s, to memorialize parliament against the measure of abolition. When the meeting convened, the Hon. Samuel O. Baijer, who had been the champion of the opposition, was called upon to propose a plan of procedure. To the consternation of the pro-slavery meeting, their leader arose and spoke to the following effect:--"Gentlemen, my previous sentiments on this subject are well known to you all; be not surprised to learn that they have undergone an entire change, I have not altered my views without mature deliberation.
I have been making calculations with regard to the probable results of emanc.i.p.ation, and _I have ascertained beyond a doubt, that I can cultivate my estate at least one third cheaper by free labor than by slave labor_." After Mr. B. had finished his remarks, Mr. S. Shands, member of a.s.sembly, and a wealthy proprietor, observed that he entertained precisely the same views with those just expressed; but he thought that the honorable gentleman had been unwise in uttering them in so public a manner; "for," said he, "should these sentiments reach the ear of parliament, as coming from us, _it might induce them to withhold the compensation_."
Col. Edwards, member of the a.s.sembly, then arose and said, that he had long been opposed to slavery, but he had not _dared to avow his sentiments_.
As might be supposed, the meeting adjourned without effecting the object for which it was convened.
When the question came before the colonial a.s.sembly, similar discussions ensued, and finally the bill for immediate emanc.i.p.ation pa.s.sed both bodies _unanimously_. It was an evidence of the spirit of selfish expediency, which prompted the whole procedure, that they clogged the emanc.i.p.ation bill with the proviso that a certain governmental tax on exports, called the four and a half per cent tax[A], should be repealed.
Thus clogged, the bill was sent home for sanction, but it was rejected by parliament, and sent back with instructions, that before it could receive his majesty"s seal, it must appear wholly unenc.u.mbered with extraneous provisoes. This was a great disappointment to the legislature, and it so chagrined them that very many actually withdrew their support from the bill for emanc.i.p.ation, which pa.s.sed finally in the a.s.sembly only by the casting vote of the speaker.
[Footnote A: We subjoin the following brief history of the four and a half per cent. tax, which we procured from the speaker of the a.s.sembly.
In the rein of Charles II., Antigua was conquered by the French, and the inhabitants were forced to swear allegiance to the French government. In a very short time the French were driven off the island and the English again took possession of it. It was then declared, by order of the king, that as the people had, by swearing allegiance to another government, forfeited the protection of the British government, and all t.i.tle to their lands, they should not again receive either, except on condition of paying to the king a duty of four and a half per cent on every article exported from the island--and that they were to do in _perpetuity_. To this hard condition they were obliged to submit, and they have groaned under the onerous duty ever since. On every occasion, which offered any hope, they have sought the repeal of the tax, but have uniformly been defeated. When they saw that the abolition question was coming to a crisis, they resolved to make a last effort for the repeal of the four and a half percent duty. They therefore adopted immediate emanc.i.p.ation, and then, covered as they were, with the laurels of so magnanimous an act, they presented to parliament their cherished object.
The defeat was a humiliating one, and it produced such a reaction in the island, as well nigh led to the rescinding of the abolition bill.]
The verbal and written statements of numerous planters also confirm the declaration that emanc.i.p.ation was a measure solely of selfish policy.
Said Mr. Bernard, of Green Castle estate "Emanc.i.p.ation was preferred to apprenticeship, because it was attended with less trouble, and left the planters independent, instead of being saddled with a legion of stipendiary magistrates."
Said Dr. Daniell, member of the council, and proprietor--"The apprenticeship was rejected by us solely from motives of policy. We did not wish to be annoyed with stipendiary magistrates."
Said Hon. N. Nugent--"We wished to let ourselves down in the easiest manner possible; _therefore_ we chose immediate freedom in preference to the apprenticeship."
"Emanc.i.p.ation was preferred to apprenticeship, because of the inevitable and endless perplexities connected with the latter system."--_David Cranstoun, Esq., colonial magistrate and planter_.
"It is not pretended that emanc.i.p.ation was produced by the influence of religious considerations. It was a measure of mere convenience and interest."--_A Moravian Missionary_.
The following testimony is extracted from a letter addressed to us by a highly respectable merchant of St. John"s--a gentleman of long experience on the island, and now agent for several estates.
"Emanc.i.p.ation was an act of mere policy, adopted as _the safest and most economic_ measure."
Our last item of testimony under this head is from a written statement by the Hon. N. Nugent, speaker of the a.s.sembly, at the time of emanc.i.p.ation. His remarks on this subject, although long, we are sure will be read with interest. Alluding to the adoption of immediate emanc.i.p.ation in preference to the apprenticeship, he observes:--
"The reasons and considerations which led to this step were various, of course impressing the minds of different individuals in different degrees. As slave emanc.i.p.ation could not be averted, and must inevitably take place very shortly, it was better to meet the crisis at once, than to have it hanging over our heads for six years, with all its hara.s.sing doubts and anxieties; better to give an air of grace to that which would be ultimately unavoidable; the slaves should rather have a motive of grat.i.tude and kind reciprocation, than to feel, on being declared free, that their emanc.i.p.ation could neither be withheld nor r.e.t.a.r.ded by their owners. The projected apprenticeship, while it destroyed the means of an instant coercion in a state of involuntary labor, equally withdrew or neutralized all those urgent motives which constrain to industrious exertion in the case of freemen. It abstracted from the master, in a state of things then barely remunerative, one fourth of the time and labor required in cultivation, and gave it to the servant, while it compelled the master to supply the same allowances as before. With many irksome restraints, conditions, and responsibilities imposed on the master, it had no equivalent advantages. There appeared no reason, in short, why general emanc.i.p.ation would not do as well in 1834 as in 1840.
Finally, a strong conviction existed that from peculiarity of climate and soil, the physical wants and necessities of the peasantry would compel them to labor for their subsistence, to seek employment and wages from the proprietors of the soil; and if the _transformation_ could be safely and quietly brought about, that the _free_ system might be cheaper and more profitable than the other."
The general testimony of planters, missionaries, clergymen, merchants, and others, was in confirmation of the same truth.
There is little reason to believe that the views of the colonists on this subject have subsequently undergone much change. We did not hear, excepting occasionally among the missionaries and clergy, the slightest insinuation thrown out that _slavery was sinful_; that the slaves had a right to freedom, or that it would have been wrong to have continued them in bondage. The _politics_ of anti-slavery the Antiguans are exceedingly well versed in, but of its _religion_, they seem to feel but little. They seem never to have examined slavery in its moral relations; never to have perceived its monstrous violations of right and its impious tramplings upon G.o.d and man. The Antigua planters, it would appear, have _yet_ to repent of the sin of slaveholding.
If the results of an emanc.i.p.ation so dest.i.tute of _principle_, so purely selfish, could produce such general satisfaction, and be followed by such happy results, it warrants us in antic.i.p.ating still more decided and unmingled blessings in the train of a voluntary, conscientious, and religious abolition.
THIRD PROPOSITION.--The _event_ of emanc.i.p.ation pa.s.sed PEACEFULLY. The first of August, 1834, is universally regarded in Antigua, as having presented a most imposing and sublime moral spectacle. It is almost impossible to be in the company of a missionary, a planter, or an emanc.i.p.ated negro, for ten minutes, without hearing some allusion to that occasion. Even at the time of our visit to Antigua, after the lapse of nearly three years, they spoke of the event with an admiration apparently unabated.
For some time previous to the first of August, forebodings of disaster lowered over the island. The day was fixed! Thirty thousand degraded human beings were to be brought forth from the dungeon of slavery and "turned loose on the community!" and this was to be done "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."
Gloomy apprehensions were entertained by many of the planters. Some timorous families did not go to bed on the night of the 31st of July; fear drove sleep from their eyes, and they awaited with fluttering pulse the hour of midnight, fearing lest the same bell which sounded the jubilee of the slaves might toll the death knell of the masters.[A]