1834| 496|29,301|17,725,731| Seasons favorable.
1835| 1,115|59,033|10,593,018| do.
1836| 227|46,779|13,446,053| do.
The following are the remarks of the editor of the Jamaica Watchman, on the foregoing, in his paper of April 8, 1837:--
A general return of exports from the island for fifty-three years, ending the 31st December last, and purporting to be extracted from the journals of the a.s.sembly, has been published, and as usual, the decrease in the crops of the respective years has been attributed to the resolutions pa.s.sed by the British House of Commons in 1823, and the abolition of slavery in 1833. It is remarkable that in preparing this table, a manifest disposition is evinced to account for the falling off of the crops in certain years anterior, and subsequent to the pa.s.sing of Mr. Canning"s memorable resolution, whilst opposite to the years 1834 and 1835, is written "seasons favorable." In 1813, the sugar crop fell off 8,000 hhds. compared with the previous year, and we are told in reference to this circ.u.mstance, that there was a storm in October, 1812.
This remark is evidently made to account for the decrease, and perhaps the storm at the close of the previous year was the cause of it. But it is astonishing, and the circ.u.mstance is worthy of notice, that whilst the sugar crop fell off nearly 8,000 hhds. the coffee crop increased nearly six millions of pounds. We should have supposed that the coffee trees would have suffered more from the effects of a storm, than the canes. However, the effect was as we have stated it, whatever might have been the cause. In 1814, the largest coffee crop was made. Again, in 1816, there was a decrease in the sugar crop compared with the year immediately preceding it of nearly 25,000 hhds. And here we have the storm of October, 1815, a.s.signed as a reason. The coffee crop in this instance also fell off nearly ten millions of pounds. In 1822, the sugar crop was reduced 23,000 hhds., and the coffee crop increased three millions of pounds. The reason now a.s.signed is an "extreme drought." The celebrated resolutions relative to slavery now appear to begin to exercise their baneful influence on the _seasons_ and the _soil_ of our island. In the year in which they were pa.s.sed, 1823, 94,900 hogsheads of sugar were made, and twenty millions of pounds of coffee gathered. 1824 came, and the crop, instead of being reduced, was increased from nearly 95,000 hogsheads to upwards of 99,000 hogsheads. The coffee crop was also greater by seven millions of pounds. In 1825, they fall off to 73,860 hogsheads and twenty-one millions. In 1826, the sugar crop rather exceeded that of 1824, but the coffee crop was seven millions less. In 1827, from causes not known to us, for none were a.s.signed, there was a difference of 16,000 hhds. of sugar, and an increase of five millions of pounds of coffee. 1828, 29, and 30, were pretty nearly alike in sugar and coffee crops, and about equal to 1823. The crops of 1831 fell off from 93 to 88,000 hogsheads of sugar, and from 22 to 14 millions of pounds of coffee. No reason is a.s.signed for this reduction. It was during the continuance of the driving system, and therefore no blame can attach to the managers. In 1832, the crop rose to 91,000 hogsheads of sugar, and nearly twenty millions of pounds of coffee. But 1833 comes, and, with it, fresh troubles for the planters. In that ill-fated year, there was a decrease of 13,000 hogsheads sugar, and of ten millions of pounds of coffee. Its sugar crop was the smallest made, with the exception of that of 1825, since 1793, and its coffee crop since that of 1798. But if this determination be alarming, what must be that of the succeeding years. Can we be blamed, if, in a strain truly lachrymal, we allude to the deductions which have annually been made from the miserable return which 1833 gave to the unfortunate proprietors of estates? What boots it to tell us that we have fingered thousands of pounds sterling, in the shape of compensation: and what consolation is it to know, that a hogshead of sugar will now bring thirty pounds, which, a short time ago, was only worth twelve. Let any _unprejudiced_ individual look at the return now before us, and say whether our prospects are not deplorably dull and obscure. If we take the four years immediately preceding the pa.s.sing of Mr. Canning"s resolutions, say 1819, 20, 21, and 22; we will find the average to be 105,858 hogsheads, and if from this we even deduct one fourth for the time now lost, there will be an average crop of 79,394 hhds., being 7,185 hogsheads mere than the average of 1833, 34, 35, and 36; and no one will deny that this falling off of one tenth, (supposing that the hogsheads made during the last four years are _not larger_ than those of 1819 to 1822) is _nearly_, if not _quite equal_ to the increase of price, from twelve to thirty pounds, or one hundred and fifty per cent.
It is true some persons may be disposed to take the four years subsequent to the pa.s.sing of Mr. Canning"s resolutions, say 1823, 4, 5, and 6, and compare them with the four years ending 31st December last.
Should this be done, it will be found that the average crop of the previous four years is 91,980 hhds., and if from it is deducted one fourth, there will remain 68,985 hhds., whilst the average of the other four years is 72,200 hhds. Such a mode of comparison must, however, be obviously incorrect; because, in the first place, Mr. Canning"s resolutions had reduced the crops of those years considerably below the average of the years immediately preceding them, and next, because it would show the advantage to be on the side of freedom in the ratio of seventy-two to sixty-nine, which cannot be correct. Besides, in 1824, there was a severe drought, whereas in 1834 and 35 the seasons are reported as being favorable. Again, it is necessary, in inst.i.tuting such an inquiry, to go back more than fourteen years; nor is it a valid objection to this to say, that even during that period a number of estates have been thrown out of cultivation, in consequence of being worn out and unprofitable. "Deplorable," however, as is the "falling off in the yearly amounts of our staple productions, which have decreased,"
gentle reader, according to the despatch, "in an accelerated ratio within the last few years, till in the year 1836, when they do not average one half the returns of former years preceding that of 1823, the year that Mr. Canning"s resolutions for the ultimate abolition of slavery in the British colonies pa.s.sed the House of Commons," still it is a matter of sincere gratification to know, that the sugar planters are better off now than they have been for the last fourteen or fifteen years. With the compensation money a great many of them have been enabled to pay off their English debts, and the remainder very considerably to reduce them, whilst the reduction in the quant.i.ty of sugar produced, has occasioned such a rise in the price of that article as will place the former in easy circ.u.mstances, and enable the latter entirely to free themselves from the trammels of English mortgagees, and the tender mercies of English mortgagees before the 1st August, 1840, arrives. And ought these parties not to be thankful? Unquestionably they ought. Ingrat.i.tude, we are told, is as the sin of witchcraft, and although the table of exports exhibits our fair island as hastening to a state of ruin, and the despatch tells us that "by the united influence of mock philanthropy, religious cant, and humbug," a reformed parliament was _forced_ "to precipitate the _slavery spoliation_ act under the specious pretext of promoting the industry and improving the condition of the manumitted slaves," still we maintain, and the reasonable will agree with us, that we are much better off now than we have been for a long time, and that Jamaica"s brightest and happiest days have not yet dawned. Let the croakers remember the remarkable words of the Tory Lord, Belmore, the planter"s friend, and be silent--"The resources of this fine island will never be fully developed until slavery ceases." The happiness and prosperity of the inhabitants of Jamaica are not contingent, nor need they be, upon the number of hogsheads of sugar annually exported from her sh.o.r.es.
To the foregoing we add the remarks of the editor of the "Spanishtown Telegraph," on the present state of the colony, made in his paper of May 9, 1837:--
"When it was understood that the island of Jamaica and the other British West Indian colonies were to undergo the blessed transition from slavery to freedom, it was the hourly cry of the pro-slavery party and press, that the ruin of Jamaica would, as a natural consequence, follow liberty! Commerce, said they, will cease; hordes of barbarians will come upon us and drive us from our own properties; agriculture will be completely paralyzed; and Jamaica, in the s.p.a.ce of a few short months, will be seen buried in ashes--irretrievably ruined. Such were the awful predictions of an unjust, illiberal faction!! Such the first fruits that were to follow the incomparable blessings of liberty! The staple productions of the island, it was vainly surmised, could never be cultivated without the name of slavery; rebellions, ma.s.sacres, starvation, rapine and bloodshed, danced through the columns of the liberty-hating papers, in mazes of metaphorical confusion. In short, the name of freedom was, according to their a.s.sertions, directly calculated to overthrow our beautiful island, and involve it in one ma.s.s of ruin, unequalled in the annals of history!! But what has been the result? All their fearful forebodings and horrible predictions have been entirely disproved, and instead of liberty proving a curse, she has, on the contrary, unfolded her banners, and, ere long, is likely to reign triumphant in our land. _Banks, steam companies, railroads, charity schools, etc._, seem all to have remained dormant until the time arrived when Jamaica was to be _enveloped in smoke_! No man thought of hazarding his capital in an extensive _banking establishment_ until _Jamaica"s ruin_, by the introduction of _freedom, had been accomplished_!! No person was found possessed of sufficient energy to speak of navigation companies in Jamaica"s brightest days of slavery; but now that ruin stares every one in the face--now that we have no longer the power to treat out peasantry as we please, they have taken it into their heads to establish so excellent an undertaking. Railroads were not dreamt of until _darling_ slavery had (_in a great measure_) departed, and now, when we thought of throwing up our estates, and flying from the _dangers of emanc.i.p.ation_, the best projects are being set on foot, and what is _worst_, are likely to _succeed_!
This is the way that our Jamaica folks, no doubt, reason with themselves. But the reasons for the delay which have taken place in the establishment of all these valuable undertakings, are too evident to require elucidation. We behold the _Despatch_ and _Chronicle_, a.s.serting the ruin of our island; the overthrow of all order and society; and with the knowledge of all this, they speak of the profits likely to result from steam navigation, banking establishments, and railroads! What in the name of conscience, can be the use of steam-vessels when Jamaica"s ruin is so fast approaching? What are the planters and merchants to ship in steamers when the apprentices will not work, and there is nothing doing? How is the bank expected to advance money to the planters, when their total destruction has been accomplished by the abolition of slavery?
What, in the name of reason, can be the use of railroads, when commerce and agriculture have been nipped in the bud, by that _baneful weed, Freedom_? Let the unjust panderers of discord, the haters of liberty, answer. Let them consider what has all this time r.e.t.a.r.ded the development of Jamaica"s resources, and they will find that it was _slavery_; yes, it was its very name which prevented the idea of undertakings such as are being brought about. Had it not been for the introduction of freedom in our land; had the cruel monster, Slavery, not partially disappeared, when would we have seen banks, steamers, or railroads? No man thought of hazarding his capital in the days of slavery, but now that a new era has burst upon us, a complete change has taken possession of the hearts of all just men, and they think of improving the blessing of freedom by the introduction of other things which must ever prove beneficial to the country.
The vast improvements that are every day being effected in this island, and throughout the other colonies, stamp the a.s.sertions of the pro-slavery party as the vilest falsehoods. They glory in the introduction of banks, steam-vessels, and railroads; with the knowledge (as they would have us believe) that the island is fast verging into destruction. They speak of the utility and success of railroads, when, according to their showing, there is no produce to be sent to market, when agriculture has been paralyzed, and Jamaica swept to destruction."
The following copious extracts from a speech of Lord Brougham, on the workings of the apprenticeship, and on the immediate emanc.i.p.ation subst.i.tuted therefor in Antigua and the Bermudas, are specially commended to the notice of the reader. The speech was delivered in the House of Lords, Feb. 20, 1838. We take it from the published report of the speech in the London Times, of Feb. 25:--
I now must approach that subject which has some time excited almost universal anxiety. Allow me, however, first to remind your lordships--because that goes to the root of the evil--allow me first to remind you of the anxiety that existed previous to the Emanc.i.p.ation Act which was pa.s.sed in January, 1833, coming into operation in August, 1834. My lords, there was much to apprehend from the character of the masters of the slaves. I know the nature of man. * * * * I know that he who has abused power clings to it with a yet more convulsive grasp. I know his revenge against those who have been rescued from his tyrannous fangs; I know that he never forgives those whom he has injured, whether white or black. I have never yet met with an unforgiving enemy, except in the person of one of whose injustice I had a right to complain. On the part of the slaves, my lords, I was not without anxiety; for I know the corrupt nature of the degrading system under which they groaned. * * * * It was, therefore, I confess, my lords, with some anxiety that I looked forward to the 1st of August, 1834; and I yielded, though reluctantly, to the plan of an intermediate state before what was called the full enjoyment of freedom--the transition condition of indentured apprenticeship.
The first of August arrived--that day so confidently and joyously antic.i.p.ated by the poor slaves, and so sorely dreaded by their hard taskmasters--and if ever there was a picture interesting to look upon--if ever there was a pa.s.sage in the history of a people redounding to their eternal honor--if ever there was a complete refutation of all the scandalous calumnies which had been heaped upon them for ages, as if in justification of the wrongs which we had done them--(Hear, hear)--that picture and that pa.s.sage are to be found in the uniform and unvarying history of that people throughout the whole of the West India islands. Instead of the fires of rebellion, lit by a feeling of lawless revenge and resistance to oppression, the whole of those islands were, like an Arabian scene, illuminated by the light of contentment, joy, peace, and good-will towards all men. No civilized people, after gaining an unexpected victory, could have shown more delicacy and forbearance than was exhibited by the slaves at the great moral consummation which they had attained. There was not a look or a gesture which could gall the eyes of their masters. Not a sound escaped from negro lips which could wound the ears of the most feverish planter in the islands.
All was joy, mutual congratulation, and hope.
This peaceful joy, this delicacy towards the feelings of others, was all that was to be seen, heard, or felt, on that occasion, throughout the West India islands.
It was held that the day of emanc.i.p.ation would be one of riot and debauchery, and that even the lives of the planters would be endangered. So far from this proving the case, the whole of the negro population kept it as a most sacred festival, and in this light I am convinced it will ever be viewed.
In one island, where the bounty of nature seems to provoke the appet.i.te to indulgence, and to scatter with a profuse hand all the means of excitement, I state the fact when I say not one drunken negro was found during the whole of the day. No less than 800,000 slaves were liberated in that one day, and their peaceful festivity was disturbed only on one estate, in one parish, by an irregularity which three or four persons sufficed to put down.
Well, my lords, baffled in their expectations that the first of August would prove a day of disturbance--baffled also in the expectation that no voluntary labor would be done--we were then told by the "practical men," to look forward to a later period. We have done so, and what have we seen? Why, that from the time voluntary labor began, there was no want of men to work for hire, and that there was no difficulty in getting those who as apprentices had to give the planters certain hours of work, to extend, upon emergency, their period of labor, by hiring out their services for wages to strangers. I have the authority of my n.o.ble friend behind me, (the Marquis of Sligo,) who very particularly, inquired into the matter, when I state that on nine estates out of ten there was no difficulty in obtaining as much work as the owners had occasion for, on the payment of wages. How does all this contrast with the predictions of the "practical men?" "Oh," said they, in 1833, "it is idle talking; the cart-whip must be used--without that stimulant no negro will work--the nature of the negro is idle and indolent, and without the thought of the cartwhip is before his eyes he falls asleep--put the cartwhip aside and no labor will be done." Has this proved the case?
No, my lords, it has not; and while every abundance of voluntary labor has been found, in no one instance has the stimulus of the cartwhip been found wanting. The apprentices work well without the whip, and wages have been found quite as good a stimulus as the scourge even to negro industry. "Oh, but" it is said, "this may do in cotton planting and cotton picking, and indigo making; but the cane will cease to grow, the operation of hoeing will be known no more, boiling will cease to be practised, and sugar-making will terminate entirely." Many, I know, were appalled by these reasonings, and the hopes of many were dissipated by these confident predictions of these so-deemed experienced men. But how stands the case now? My lords, let these experienced men, come forth with their experience. I will plant mine against it, and you will find he will talk no more of his experience when I tell him--tell him, too, without fear of contradiction--that during the year which followed the first of August, 1834, twice as much sugar per hour, and of a better quality as compared with the preceding years, was stored throughout the sugar districts; and that one man, a large planter, has expressly avowed, that with twenty freemen he could do more work than with a hundred slaves or fifty indentured apprentices. (Hear, hear.) But Antigua!--what has happened there? There has not been even the system of indentured apprentices. In Antigua and the Bermudas, as would have been the case at Montserrat if the upper house had not thrown out the bill which was prepared by the planters themselves, there had been no preparatory step. In Antigua and the Bermudas, since the first of August, 1834, not a slave or indentured apprentice was to be found. Well, had idleness reigned there--had indolence supplanted work--had there been any deficiency of crop?
No. On the contrary, there had been an increase, and not a diminution of crop. (Hear.) But, then, it was said that quiet could not be expected after slavery in its most complete and abject form had so long reigned paramount, and that any sudden emanc.i.p.ation must endanger the peace of the islands. The experience of the first of August at once scattered to the winds that most fallacious prophecy.
Then it was said, only wait till Christmas, for that is a period when, by all who have any practical knowledge of the negro character, a rebellion on their part is most to be apprehended. We did wait for this dreaded Christmas; and what was the result? I will go for it to Antigua, for it is the strongest case, there being there no indentured apprentices--no preparatory state--no transition--the chains being at once knocked off, and the negroes made at once free. For the first time within the last thirty years, at the Christmas of the year 1834, martial law was not proclaimed in the island of Antigua. You talk of facts--here is one. You talk of experience--here it is. And with these facts and this experience before us, I call on those _soi-disant_ men of experience--those men who scoffed at us--who laughed to scorn at what they called our visionary, theoretical schemes--schemes that never could be carried into effect without rebellion and the loss of the colonies--I say, my lords, I call on these experienced men to come forward, and, if they can, deny one single iota of the statement I am now making. Let those who thought that with the use of those phrases, "a planter of Jamaica" "the West India interest," "residence in Jamaica and its experience," they could make our balance kick the beam--let them, I say, hear what I tell, for it is but the fact--that when the chains were knocked off there was not a single breach of the peace committed either on the day itself, or on the Christmas festival which followed.
Well, my lords, beaten from these two positions, where did the experienced men retreat to under what flimsy pretext did they next undertake to disparage the poor negro race? Had I not seen it in print, and been otherwise informed of the fact, I could not have believed it possible that from any reasonable man any such absurdity could issue. They actually held out this last fear, which, like the others, was fated to be dissipated by the fact. "Wait only," said they, "till the anniversary of the first of August, and then you will see what the negro character is, and how little these indentured apprentices are fit to be entrusted with freedom." Was there ever such an absurdity uttered, as if my lords, the man who could meet with firm tranquillity and peaceful thankfulness the event itself, was likely to be raised to rebellion and rioting by the recollection of it a year afterwards. My lords, in considering this matter, I ask you, then, to be guided by your own experience, and nothing else; profit by it, my lords, and turn it to your own account; for it, according to that book which all of us must revere, teaches even the most foolish of a foolish race. I do not ask you to adopt as your own the experience of others; you have as much as you can desire of your own, and by no other test do I wish or desire to be judged. But I think my task may be said to be done. I think I have proved my case, for I have shown that the negro can work without the stimulant of the whip; I have shown that he can labor for hire without any other motive than that of industry to inspire him. I have demonstrated that all over the West Indies, even when fatigued with working the allotted hours for the profit of his master, he can work again for wages for him who chooses to hire him and has wherewithal to pay him; I have also most distinctly shown that the experience of Antigua and the Bermudas is demonstrative to show that without any state of preparation, without any indenture of apprenticeship at all, he is fit to be intrusted with his freedom, and will work voluntarily as a free laborer for hire. But I have also demonstrated from the same experience, and by reference to the same state of facts, that a more quiet, inoffensive, peaceable, innocent people, is not to be found on the face of this earth than the negro--not in their own unhappy country, but after they have been removed from it and enslaved in your Christian land, made the victim of the barbarizing demon of civilized powers, and has all this character, if it were possible to corrupt it, and his feelings, if it were possible to pervert them, attempted to be corrupted and perverted by Christian and civilized men, and that in this state, with all incentives to misdemeanor poured around him, and all the temptation to misconduct which the arts and artifices and examples of civilized man can give hovering over him--that after this transition is made from slavery to apprenticeship, and from slavery to absolute freedom, a negro"s spirit has been found to rival the unbroken tranquillity of the Caribbean Seas. (Cheers.) This was not the state of things we expected, my lords; and in proof that it was not so, I have but to refer you to the statute book itself. On what ground did you enact the intermediate state of indenture apprenticeship, and on what arguments did you justify it? You felt and acknowledged that the negro had a right to be free, and that you had no right to detain him in bondage. Every one admitted this, but in the prevailing ignorance of their character it was apprehended that they could not be made free at once, and that time was requisite to train the negro to receive the boon it was intended bestowing upon him.
This was the delusion which prevailed, and which was stated in the preamble of the statute--the same delusion which had made the men on one side state and the other to believe that it was necessary to pay the slave-owners for the loss it was supposed they would sustain.
But it was found to be a baseless fear, and the only result of the phantom so conjured up was a payment of twenty millions to the conjurors. (Hear, and a laugh.) Now, I maintain that had we known what we now know of the character of the negroes, neither would this compensation have been given to the slave-owners, nor we have been guilty of proposing to keep the negro in slavery five years, after we were decided that he had a right to his freedom. The n.o.ble and learned lord here proceeded to contend that up to the present time the slave-owners, so far from being sufferers, had been gainers by the abolition of slavery and the enactment of the system of apprenticeship, and that consequently up to the present moment nothing had occurred to ent.i.tle them to a claim upon the compensation allotted by parliament. The slave-owners might be said to have pocketed the seven millions without having the least claim to them, and therefore, in considering the proposition he was about to make, parliament should bear in mind that the slave proprietors were, if anything, the debtors to the nation. The money had, in fact, been paid to them by mistake, and, were the transaction one between man and man, an action for its recovery might lie. But the slave-owners alleged that if the apprenticeship were now done away there would be a loss, and that to meet that loss they had a right to the money. For argument"s sake he would suppose this to be true, and that there would be loss; but would it not be fair that the money should be lodged in the hands of a third party, with authority to pay back at the expiration of the two years whatever rateable sum the master could prove himself to have lost? His firm belief was, that no loss could arise; but, desirous to meet the planter at every point, he should have no objection to make terms with him. Let him, then, pay the money into court, as it were, and at the end of two years he should be fully indemnified for any loss he might prove. He called upon their lordships to look to Antigua and the Bermudas for proof that the free negro worked well, and that no loss was occasioned to the planters or their property by the granting of emanc.i.p.ation. But it was said that there was a difference between the cases of Antigua and other colonies, such as Jamaica, and it was urged that while the negroes of the former, from the smallness and barrenness of the place, would be forced into work, that in the latter they would run away, and take refuge in the woods. Now, he asked, why should the negro run away from his work, on being made free, more than during the continuance of his apprenticeship? Why, again, should it be supposed that on the 1st of August, 1840, the emanc.i.p.ated negroes should have less inclination to betake themselves to the woods than in 1838? If there was a risk of the slaves running to the woods in 1838, that risk would be increased and not diminished during the intermediate period up to 1840, by the treatment they were receiving from their masters, and the deferring of their hopes.
My lords, (continued the n.o.ble lord,) I have now to say a few words upon the treatment which the slaves have received during the past three years of their apprenticeship, and which, it is alleged, during the next two years is to make them fitted for absolute emanc.i.p.ation. My lords, I am prepared to show that in most respects the treatment the slaves have received since 1834 is no better, and in many others more unjust and worse, than it ever was in the time of absolute slavery. It is true that the use of the cartwhip as a stimulus to labor has been abolished. This, I admit, is a great and most satisfactory improvement; but, in every other particular, the state of the slave, I am prepared to show, is not improved, and, in many respects, it is materially worse. First, with regard to the article of food, I will compare the Jamaica prison allowance with that allotted to the apprenticed negroes in other colonies. In the Jamaica prison the allowance of rice is 14 pints a week to each person. I have no return of the allowance to the indentured apprentice in Jamaica, but I believe it is little over this; but in Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, it is much under. In Barbadoes, instead of receiving the Jamaica prison allowance of 14 pints a week, the apprenticed negro received but 10 pints: while in the Leeward Islands he had but 8 pints. In the crown colonies, before 1834, the slave received 21 pints of rice, now the apprentice gets but 10; so that in the material article, food, no improvement in the condition of the negro was observable. Then, with regard to time, it is obviously of the utmost importance that the apprentice should have at least two holidays and a half a week--the Sabbath for religious worship and instruction, the Sat.u.r.day to attend the markets, and half of Friday to work in his own garden. The act of emanc.i.p.ation specified 45 hours a week as the period the apprentice was to work for his master, but the master so contrived matters as in most instances to make the 45 hours the law allotted him run into the apprentice"s half of Friday, and even in some cases into the Sat.u.r.day. The planter invariably counted the time from the moment that the slave commenced his work; and as it often occurs that his residence was on the border of the estate, he may have to walk five or six miles to get to the place he has to work. This was a point which he was sure their lordships would agree with him in thinking required alteration.
The next topic to which I shall advert relates to the administration of justice; and this large and important subject I cannot pa.s.s over without a word to remind your lordships how little safe it is, how little deserving the name of just, or any thing like just, that where you have two cla.s.ses you should separate them into conflicting parties, until they became so exasperated in their resentment as scarcely to regard each other as brethren of the same species; and that you should place all the administration of justice in the hands of one dominant cla.s.s, whose principles, whose pa.s.sions whose interests, are all likely to be preferred by the judges when they presume to sit where you have placed them on the judgment seat. The chief and puisne judges are raised to their situations from amongst the cla.s.s which includes the white men and planters. But, worse than that, the jurors are taken from the same privileged body: jurors, who are to a.s.sess civil damages in actions for injuries done to the negroes--jurors, who are to try bills of indictment against the whites for the maltreatment of the blacks--jurors who are to convict or acquit on those bills--jurors who are to try the slaves themselves--nay, magistrates, jailors, turnkeys, the whole apparatus of justice, both administrative and executive, exclusively in the hands of one race! What is the consequence? Why, it is proverbial that no bills are found for the blacks. (Hear, hear.) Six bills of indictment were preferred, some for murder and some for bad manslaughter, and at one a.s.sizes every one of these six indictments was thrown out. a.s.sizes after a.s.sizes the same thing happened, until at length wagers were held that no such bill would be found, and no one was found to accept them. Well was it for them that they declined, for every one of the bills preferred was ignored. Now, observe that in proceedings, as your lordships know; before grand jurors, not a t.i.ttle of evidence is heard for the prisoners; every witness is in favor of the indictment, or finding of the bill; but in all these instances the bills were flung out on the examination of evidence solely against the prisoner. Even in the worst cases of murder, as certainly and plainly committed as the sun shines at noon day, monstrous to all, the bills were thrown out when half the witnesses for the prosecution remained to be examined. (Hear, hear.) Some individuals swore against the prisoners, and though others tendered their evidence, the jury refused to hear them. (Hear, hear.) Besides, the punishments inflicted are monstrous; thirty-nine lashes are inflicted for the vague, indefinite--because incapable to be defined--offence of insolence. Thirty-nine lashes for the grave and the more definite, I admit, offence of an attempt to carry a small knife. Three months imprisonment, or fifty lashes for the equally grave offence of cutting off the shoot of a cane plant!
There seems to have prevailed at all times amongst the governors of our colonies a feeling, of which, I grieve to say, the governors at home have ever and anon largely partaken, that there is something in the nature of a slave--something in the habits of the African negro--something in the disposition of the unfortunate hapless victims of our own crimes and cruelties, which makes what is mercy and justice to other men cruelty to society and injustice to the law in the case of the negro, and which condemns offences slightly visited, if visited at all, with punishment, when committed by other men, to the sentence that for his obdurate nature none can be too severe. (Hear, hear.) As if we had any one to blame but ourselves--as if we had any right to visit on him that character if it were obdurate, those habits if they were insubordinate, that dishonest disposition if it did corrupt his character, all of which I deny, and which experience proves to be contrary to the fact and truth; but even if these statements were all truth instead of being foully slanderous and absolutely false, we, of all men, have ourselves to blame, ourselves to tax, and ourselves to punish, at least for the self abas.e.m.e.nt, for we have been the very causes of corrupting the negro character. (Cheers.)
If some capricious despot, in his career of ordinary tyranny, were to tax his imagination to produce something more monstrous and unnatural than himself, and were to place a dove amongst vultures, or engraft a thorn on the olive tree, much as we should marvel at the caprice, we should be still more astounded at the expectation, which exceeds even a tyrant"s proverbial unreasonableness, that he should gather grapes from the thorn, or that the dove should be habituated to a thirst for blood. Yet that is the caprice, that is the unreasonable, the foul, the gross, the monstrous, the outrageous, incredible injustice of which we are hourly guilty towards the whole unhappy race of negroes. (Cheers.) My lords, we fill up the incasare of injustice by severely executing laws badly conceived in a still more atrocious and cruel spirit. The whole punishments smell of blood. (Hear, Hear.) If the treadmill stop in consequence of the languid limbs and exhausted frames of the victims, within a minute the lash resounds through the building--if the stones which they are set to break be not broken by limbs scarred, and marred, and whaled, they are summoned by the crack of the whip to their toilsome task! I myself have heard within the last three hours, from a person, who was an eye-witness of the appalling and disgusting fact, that a leper was introduced amongst the negroes; and in pa.s.sing let me remark, that in private houses or hospitals no more care has been taken to separate those who are stricken with infectious diseases from the sound portion, any more than to furnish food to those in prison who are compelled, from the unheard-of, the paltry, the miserable disposition to treat with cruelty the victims of a prison, to go out and gather their own food,--a thing which I believe even the tyrant of Siberia does not commit. Yet in that prison, where blood flows profusely, and the limbs of those human beings are subjected to perpetual torture, the frightful, the nauseous, the disgusting--except that all other feelings are lost in pity towards the victim and indignation against the oppressor--sight was presented of a leper, scarred from the eruptions of disease on his legs and previous mistreatment, whaled again and again, and his blood again made to flow from the jailer"s lash. I have told your lordships how bills have been thrown out for murdering the negroes. But a man had a bill presented for this offence: a pet.i.tion was preferred, and by a white man. Yes, a white man who had dared, under feelings of excited indignation, to complain to the regularly const.i.tuted authorities, instead of receiving for his gallant conduct the thanks of the community, had a bill found which was presented against him as a nuisance. I have, within the last two hours, amid the new ma.s.s of papers laid before your lordships within the last forty-eight hours, culled a sample which, I believe, represents the whole odious ma.s.s.
Eleven females have been flogged, starved, lashed, attached to the treadmill, and compelled to work until nature could no longer endure their sufferings. At the moment when the wretched victims were about to fall off--when they could no longer bring down the mechanism and continue the movement, they were suspended by their arms, and at each revolution of the wheel received new wounds on their members, until, in the language of that law so grossly outraged in their persons, they "languished and died." Ask you if a cringe of this murderous nature went unvisited, and if no inquiry was made respecting its circ.u.mstances? The forms of justice were observed; the handmaid was present, but the sacred mistress was far away. A coroner"s inquest was called; for the laws decreed that no such injuries should take place without having an inquiry inst.i.tuted.
Eleven inquisitions were held, eleven inquiries were made, eleven verdicts were returned. For murder? Manslaughter? Misconduct? No; but that "they died by the visitation of G.o.d." A lie--a perjury--a blasphemy! The visitation of G.o.d! Yes, for of the visitations of the Divine being by which the inscrutable purposes of his will are mysteriously worked out, one of the most mysterious is the power which, from time to time, is allowed by him to be exercised by the wicked for the torment of the innocent. (Cheers.) But of those visitations prescribed by Divine Providence there is one yet more inscrutable, for which it is still more difficult to affix a reason, and that is, when heaven rolls down on this earth the judgment, not of scorpions, or the plague of pestilence, or famine, or war--but incomparably the worse plague, the worser judgment, of the injustice of judges who become betrayers of the law--perjured, wicked men who abuse the law which they are sworn to administer, in order to gratify their own foul pa.s.sions, to take the part of the wrong-doer against his victim, and to forswear themselves on G.o.d"s gospel, in order that justice may not be done. * * * * My lords, I entirely concur in what was formerly said by Mr. Burke, and afterwards repeated by Mr. Canning, that while the making of laws was confined to the owners of slaves, nothing they did was ever found real or effectual. And when, perchance, any thing was accomplished, it had not, as Mr. Burke said, "an executive principle." But, when they find you determined to do your duty, it is proved, by the example which they have given in pa.s.sing the Apprenticeship Amendment Act, that they will even outstrip you to prevent your interference with them. * * * * Place the negroes on the same footing with other men, and give them the uncontrolled power over their time and labor, and it will become the interest of the planter, as well as the rest of the community, to treat the negro well, for their comfort and happiness depend on his industry and good behavior. It is a consequence perfectly clear, notwithstanding former distinctions, notwithstanding the difference of color and the variety of race in that population, the negro and the West Indian will in a very few generations--when the clank of his chain is no longer heard, when the oppression of the master can vex no more, when equal rights are enjoyed by all, and all have a common interest in the general prosperity--be impressed with a sense of their having an equal share in the promotion of the public welfare; nay, that social improvement, the progress of knowledge, civility, and even refinement itself, will proceed as rapidly and diffuse itself as universally in the islands of the Western Ocean as in any part of her Majesty"s dominions. * * * *
I see no danger in the immediate emanc.i.p.ation of the negro; I see no possible injury in terminating the apprenticeship, (which we now have found should never have been adopted,) and in causing it to cease for slaves previous to August, 1838, at that date, as those subsequent to that date must in that case be exempt. * * * * I regard the freedom of the negro as accomplished and sure. Why?
Because it is his right--because he has shown himself fit for it--because a pretext or a shadow of a pretext can no longer be devised for withholding that right from its possessor. I know that all men now take a part in the question, and that they will no longer bear to be imposed upon now they are well informed. My reliance is firm and unflinching upon the great change which I have witnessed--the education of the people unfettered by party or by sect--from the beginning of its progress, I may say from the hour of its birth. Yes; it was not for a humble man like me to a.s.sist at royal births with the ill.u.s.trious prince who condescended to grace the pageant of this opening session, or the great captain and statesman in whose presence I now am proud to speak. But with that ill.u.s.trious prince, and with the father of the Queen I a.s.sisted at that other birth, more conspicuous still. With them and with the lord of the house of Russel I watched over its cradle--I marked its growth--I rejoiced in its strength--I witnessed its maturity--I have been spared to see it ascend the very height of supreme power--directing the councils of the state--accelerating every great improvement--uniting itself with every good work--propping honorable and useful inst.i.tutions--extirpating abuses in all our inst.i.tutions--pa.s.sing the bounds of our dominion, and in the new world, as in the old, proclaiming that freedom is the birthright of man--that distinction of color gives no t.i.tle to oppression--that the chains now loosened must be struck off, and even the marks they have left effaced by the same eternal law of our nature which makes nations the masters of their own destiny, and which in Europe has caused every tyrant"s throne to quake. But they need to feel no alarm at the progress of right who defend a limited monarchy and support their popular inst.i.tutions--who place their chiefest pride not in ruling over slaves, be they white or be they black--not in protecting the oppressor, but in wearing a const.i.tutional crown, in holding the sword of justice with the hand of mercy, in being the first citizen of a country whose air is too pure for slavery to breathe, and on whose sh.o.r.es, if the captive"s foot but touch, his fetters of themselves fall off. (Cheers.) To the resistless progress of this great principle I look with a confidence which nothing can shake; it makes all improvement certain--it makes all change safe which it produces; for none can be brought about, unless all has been accomplished in a cautious and salutary spirit. So now the fulness of time is come; for our duty being at length discharged to the African captive, I have demonstrated to you that every thing is ordered--every previous step taken--all safe, by experience shown to be safe, for the long-desired consummation. The time has come--the trial has been made--the hour is striking: you have no longer a pretext for hesitation, or faltering, or delay. The slave has shown, by four years" blameless behavior and devotion, unsurpa.s.sed by any English peasant, to the pursuit of peaceful industry, that he is as fit for his freedom as any lord whom I now address. I demand his rights--I demand his liberty without stint, in the names of justice and of law--in the name of reason--in the name of G.o.d, who has given you no right to work injustice. I demand that your brother be no longer trampled upon as your slave. (Hear, hear.) I make my appeal to the Commons, who represent the free people of England; and I require at their hands the performance of that condition for which they paid so enormous a price--that condition which all their const.i.tuents are in breathless anxiety to see fulfilled! I appeal to his house--the hereditary judges of the first tribunal in the world--to you I appeal for justice. Patrons of all the arts that humanize mankind, under your protection I place humanity herself! To the merciful Sovereign of a free people I call aloud for mercy to the hundreds of thousands in whose behalf half a million of her Christian sisters have cried aloud, that their cry may not have risen in vain. But first I turn my eye to the throne of all justice, and devoutly humbling myself before Him who is of purer eyes than to behold any longer such vast iniquities--I implore that the curse over our heads of unjust oppression be averted from us--that your hearts may be turned to mercy--and that over all the earth His will may at length be done!
INDEX.
ABSCONDING from labor, Accident in a boiling house, Aged negro, Allowance to Apprentices, "Amalgamation,"
American Consul, (_See Consul_.) American Prejudice, Amity Hall Estate, Anderson, Wm. II. Esq., Anguilla, Annual Meeting of Missionaries, Antigua, Dimensions of, " Sugar Crop of, Applewhitte, Mr.
Apprais.e.m.e.nt of Apprentices, Apprentice, provisions respecting the, Apprenticeship compared with slavery, Apprenticeship System, " Design of, " Good effect of, " No preparation for freedom, Apprenticeship, Operation of, Apprenticeship, Opinion of, in Antigua;--in Barbadoes;--in Jamaica, Apprentices liberated, Apprentices" work compared with slaves Archdeacon of Antigua, " of Barbadoes, Aristocracy of Antigua, Armstrong, Mr. H., Ashby, Colonel, Athill, Mr., Attachment to home, Attorney General of Jamaica, Attendance on Church August, First of
Baijer, Hon. Samuel O., Baines, Major, Banks, Rev. Mr., Baptist Chapel Baptists in Jamaica, Barbadoes, Barbuda, Barber in Bridgetown, Barclay, Alexander, Esq., Barnard, Samuel, Esq., Barrow, Colonel, Bath, Bazaar, Bell, Dr., Belle Estate, Bell not tolled for colored person, "_Belly, "blige_ "em to work,"
Belmore, Lord, Belvidere Estate, Benevolent inst.i.tutions of Antigua, Bible Society, Bishop of Barbadoes, Blessings of Abolition, (See _Morals_, &c.) Blind man, Boiling House, Bookkeepers, Slaver of, "Bornin" Ground,"
Bourne, Mr. London, Bourne, Mr. S., (of Antigua,) Bourne, Stephen, Esq., (of Jamaica,) Breakfast at Mr. Bourne"s, " at Mr. Prescod"s, " at Mr. Thorne"s, Briant, Mr., Bridgetown, Brown, Colonel, Brown, Thomas C.,
C., Mr., of Barbadoes, "Cage,"
Cane cultivated by apprentices on their own ground, Cane-cutting, Cane-holing, Cecil, Mr., Cedar Hall, Chamberlain, R., Esq., Change of opinion in regard to slavery, Chapel erected by apprentices, Character of colored people, Cheesborough, Rev. Mr., Children, care of, (See _Free_.) Christmas, Church, Established, Civility of negroes, Clarke, Dr., Clarke, Hon. R.B., Clarke, Mr., Cla.s.sification of apprentices, Codrington Estate, Coddrington, Sir Christopher.
Coffee Estates.
College, Coddrington.
Colliton Estate.
Colored Architect.
" Editors.
" Lady.
" Legislators.
" Magistrates.
" Merchants.
" Policemen.
" Population.
" Proprietor.
" Teachers.
Colthurst, Major.
Complaints to Special Magistrates.
Concubinage.
Condition of the negroes, changed.
Conduct of the Emanc.i.p.ated on the first of August.
Confidence increased.
Conjugal attachment.
Consul, American at Antigua.
" " at Jamaica.
Constabulary force, colored.
Contributions for religious purposes.
Conversation with a negro boatman.