St. Croix is an island, about eighteen miles long, situated in
latitude 17° 45' north, longitude--west of Greenwich. It is
almost exclusively devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane, and
the manufacture of sugar molasses, and rum. In a good season it
produces from fifty to sixty thousand hogsheads of muscovado
sugar of the best quality. It is generally calculated that the
molasses and rum will pay all the contingent expenses of the
estates; leaving the sugar for clear income, which at
seventy-five dollars the hogshead, for which it is generally sold
there, in a good season, amounts to three millions seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars. This great revenue is produced by the
careful cultivation of almost every inch of the soil, the estates
generally consisting of but one hundred and fifty to three
hundred acres each; and nearly one hundred negroes being employed
upon each one hundred and fifty acres. The soil is dry and sweet,
producing the best cane, and consequently the best sugar known. I
had heard much of filthiness in the manufacture of sugar and
molasses, but the first view of a St. Croix sugar works
contradicted it. The kettles, the vats in which the sugar is
cooled, the hogsheads in which it is drained, and even the
molasses vats under them, are so perfectly neat and clean, that
no one who has seen them can feel any squeamishness in eating St.
Croix sugar, or molasses either. To look at a vat-full, a foot
deep, just chrystalizing over the surface, and perfectly
transparent to the bottom, would satisfy the most scrupulous upon
this point. There is about twenty-five thousand black, and three
thousand white population. Of course, it is seldom a white man is
seen in riding through the island.
Many of the blacks are free, and the slaves, by the protection
afforded them by the Danish laws, are about as well satisfied
with slavery as they would be with freedom. No slave can be taken
from the island without security for his or her return; masters
cannot inflict punishment without the intervention of public
authority; no slave can be sold against his or her consent,
except with the estate; and cheap and easy provisions are made
for emancipation. Such is the expectation of a general abolition,
that the prices of slaves are only about one fourth as high as in
the United States. In the village of Christianstadt, a large
proportion of the retail trade, and nearly all the mechanical
labour, is in the hands of the free blacks and mulattoes; and the
politeness, intelligence, and ability of some of these, would
surprise those who think their race by Nature unfit for freedom.
Many of them have good countenances, are well behaved, and appear
to evince as much discretion and judgment as whites under similar
circumstances. Some of them hold commissions in the militia
service; one has been promoted to the distinguished situation of
Governor's aid-de-camp; and instead of considering the race as on
a level with brutes, many of the white inhabitants deem them
nearly, if not quite, on a level with themselves. I listened for
a whole evening to a very warm discussion of the question,
whether a lady would be justified in refusing to dance with a
negro or mulatto at a ball; and the negative was not wanting in
supporters.
It is almost surprising, that so small a number of proprietors
should have had the public spirit and perseverance to make such
costly fine roads, not only as public highways whenever needed,
but should also have made a good private road around almost every
estate; beautifully ornamenting both with palm and cocoa-nut
trees, which cut the whole into squares, and add much to the
beauty of the scenery. On each estate there are generally a fine
mansion, a sugar-house, windmill, and plenty of negro-houses, all
situate upon an eminence and interspersed with fruit and
ornamental trees. Little attention is given, however, to the
cultivation of fruits, and, in many places, not an orange will be
seen for miles. Sugar-cane seems to have engrossed the whole
attention of the inhabitants, and crowded out almost every thing
else.--_A Winter in the West Indies and Florida by an Invalid_,
1839, pp. 62-65.