British Guiana possesses a superabundance of the most fertile land.
The planters are wealthy, and well provided with the most complete
machinery for the manufacture of sugar. The only deficiency is a lack
of labor. The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. For
example,--on a coffee plantation, called _Dankbaarheid_, in the county
of Berbice, belonging to Mr. Carbery, it was estimated by the owner and
other competent persons in September last, that the crop of coffee on
the trees exceeded one hundred thousand pounds weight. Of this crop,
through deficiency of labor, only forty thousand pounds weight were
gathered. Sixty thousand pounds of coffee on that single plantation,
worth, in the British market, sixty thousand sterling shillings,
or about fifteen thousand dollars, perished for lack of hands to
gather it. It is the same to a greater or less extent, on every other
plantation. Indeed this deficiency of labor is more peculiarly felt
on the sugar estates, upon many of which it is not uncommon for ripe
canes, which if manufactured would have produced the value of several
thousand pounds sterling, to perish in the field for want of hands to
gather it.
There is indeed a great opening for industry of every kind. All sorts
of mechanics are sure of steady employment at wages from one to two
dollars per day, according to their skill. Seamstresses and domestics
are much needed and will find full employment. Any emigrant who can
command a small capital, can open a shop, or set up various kinds of
business to good advantage. Georgetown, the capital, situated at the
mouth of the river Demarara, is a place of about twelve thousand
inhabitants, and furnishes abundant employment in all those branches
of business usually carried on in a commercial town. New Amsterdam,
at the mouth of the Berbice, has about four thousand inhabitants, and
there are besides several villages, containing each some hundreds of
inhabitants.
The greatest demand however for labor is, on the plantations.
Agricultural laborers are always sure of abundant employment and
high wages. The labor of agriculture is of various kinds, and may be
performed by any man accustomed to work, with little or no previous
instruction. It consists principally in cutting up weeds with the hoe,
cutting down sugar-cane, and throwing it into boats on the canals, to
be transported to the sugar-house; tending the sugar boiling; packing
away the sugar; boating it to market; picking and curing coffee, which
is very light work; tending cattle; cutting timber; and a great variety
of other labor, almost all of the simplest kind.
Every laborer on a plantation has a comfortable house, with a plot
of ground annexed, capable of raising a much greater quantity of
provisions and poultry than the laborer can consume. For this he pays
nothing. He is also provided with medical attendance, medicine, and
a support at the expense of the estate, gratis, whenever he is sick.
Fuel is abundant, and close at hand. It is needed only for cooking,
and the laborer has but to help himself. Clothing, which in that
climate is very light, may be amply provided, at one-third the expense
incurred for that article in the United States. So many of the wants
of the laborer are thus supplied, free of expense to him, or at a very
trifling rate, that if he choose to do so, he can lay by a great part
of his wages.
The labor on a plantation is divided into tasks which a laborer of
any activity can easily perform in four hours. The lowest rate of
wages ever paid, is thirty-three and a third cents a task, and very
frequently, much more is given. For cutting cane, attending in the
boiling house, boating sugar, and several other kinds of labor, higher
wages are always paid. The people employed in making sugar, in addition
to their wages, are supplied with food at the expense of the estate.
This is in addition to the laborer's house, provision ground, fuel,
medical attendance, gratuitous schooling for his children, and a
variety of other perquisites. The wages are paid weekly in cash.
I have now before me an original journal, for the month of October,
1839, of the plantation _Thomas_, adjoining Georgetown, owned by Mr.
Carbery. This journal is a printed form, with blanks filled up in
writing, containing an account for each day of the month, of the number
of laborers on the estate; the number actively employed, and in what
way; the number, sick, absent, or otherwise prevented from working; the
work done each day; with all the articles bought, sold or shipped, and
all the money paid on account of the plantation during each day in the
month,--in fact a complete history of all the business of the estate
for that time. Similar journals are kept on every estate by the head
manager, and are transmitted monthly to the proprietor. This excellent
custom was derived from the early Dutch settlers.
On the plantation, _Thomas_, there are three hundred and twenty-five
acres of canes in cultivation. It appears by the journal above referred
to, that during the month of October, the number of persons employed
on the estate, varied from 163 to 176, of which latter number 89 were
men, 68 women, 14 boys, and 5 girls. Of these, however, only 106, on an
average, were daily at work on the estate. To these laborers there was
paid during the month of October, in weekly payments, $1229 16, or an
average of $11 60, to each laborer, exclusive of house rent, provision
grounds, fuel, medical attendance, and many gratuities beside. It is
to be considered that this average amount of wages was earned by men,
women, boys and girls, including many old people and invalids, who did
but very little, and whose pay was therefore small. It therefore must
be obvious that the more active and industrious of the laborers, earned
from fifteen to twenty dollars, a month.
This single case, which is taken at random, will serve to show how
abundantly the laborer is rewarded. The laborers in this case did not
probably work on an average more than five hours per day. They were
employed in weeding and cutting cane, and making sugar, and a portion
of them as boatmen, watchmen, and mechanics. Though they are all
included under the class of agricultural laborers, only about sixty
out of the hundred and six were actually at work in the fields. Many
more are classed in the journal, "as jobbing and at work about the
buildings," that is, engaged in making sugar, and in a great variety of
other work necessary on such an estate.
To show with what rapidity the laborers grow rich and rise in the
world, I give the following extract from the _Berbice Advertiser_
of Nov. 1839. "ASTONISHING FACT. Some negroes on the east
coast, not a dozen in all, have bought _Northbroke_ (a plantation)
for $10,000, of which they paid down $8,000 last week, the remaining
$2,000, is to be paid this week." "What happiness," the editor justly
observes, "could our colony disseminate through the human species, did
but fresh importations of labor render the cultivation of the great
staples compatible with the formation of black villages and towns." It
ought to be mentioned that the people who clubbed together to buy this
estate had only been free since August, 1838. It may be well to observe
here that land in the colony is abundant and cheap; and every laborer
who is industrious, and will lay by his wages, has it in his power to
become a proprietor within a short period.
That there is no danger of overstocking British Guiana with emigrants
will appear by the following extract from an address of Mr. John
Scoble, delivered at Albany Tuesday evening, Aug. 1st, 1839. He spoke
of "British Guiana, a colony on the coast of South America, and one
which some think will ere long rival in its wealth and population the
State of New York. It is capable of sustaining a population of _forty
millions_, though the actual number of the inhabitants is now only one
hundred thousand."
VI. OFFERS MADE TO SUCH FREE COLORED PERSONS OF THE UNITED STATES, AS
MAY CHOOSE TO EMIGRATE TO BRITISH GUIANA.
Mr. Carbery arrived at Baltimore in September last. He came to the
United States partly for pleasure, and partly for the benefits of a
change of climate. He had been but a few days at Baltimore, when his
attention was attracted by the large number of free colored persons in
that city; the difficulty they seemed to have in gaining a livelihood;
and the discomforts of various kinds to which they are subjected.
Knowing the great want of laborers in British Guiana, and the strong
disposition, existing there, to encourage immigration, it immediately
occurred to him, that by the transfer of a certain portion of the free
colored people of the United States to Guiana, not only might a great
benefit be done to that colony, but what all must regard as of still
greater importance, a boon of vast value might be conferred upon the
free colored people themselves.
Much impressed by these considerations, Mr. Carbery procured a meeting
of several of the free colored people of Baltimore, at which he
proposed to them to select two of their own number, in whom they had
confidence, whom he would send to British Guiana, free of expense, in
order to give them an opportunity to examine the country, to judge for
themselves, and to report to their brethren, what the prospects for
immigrants really are.
The free colored people of Baltimore, upon this suggestion and offer,
organized a Committee of Emigration, of which Mr. Green was appointed
chairman, and selected Messrs Peck and Price, two of their number, as
delegates to visit Guiana. These delegates sailed, free of expense,
in the barque Don Juan, from Boston, on the 21st of December last.
The result of their mission is not yet known, the agents not having
returned,--nor indeed has Mr. Carbery yet heard of their arrival in
the colony. The news however of their arrival and reception is daily
expected.
In the mean time certain letters which Mr. Carbery had previously
written to his friends in Guiana, giving an account of the numbers
and the condition of the free colored people in the United States, had
excited great attention and sympathy there. A public meeting was held
in Georgetown the capital; an "Immigration Society" was established,
and a very large sum of money was at once subscribed to form a fund for
paying the expenses of all such immigrants as may choose to go to that
colony. Of this sum, a considerable amount has been already remitted
to Mr. Carbery, who is appointed Agent of the Society for the United
States, to be applied towards the outfit of emigrants,--the Society
undertaking to pay the charter or passage money on the arrival of the
vessels, and to make all necessary arrangements for the entertainment
and comfort of the immigrants, until such time, as they may select some
regular employment. Mr. Carbery is assured that should the colored
people of the United States or any part of them, be induced to accept
the offer he now makes, any amount necessary to carry his proposals
into effect, will be furnished as it may be needed.
As the agent of the above society Mr. Carbery offers to transport,
from the United States to British Guiana, free of any expense to
themselves, together with their baggage, all such sober and industrious
free colored people as shall see fit to embrace this opportunity,
so rare and extraordinary, of at once relieving themselves from the
great disabilities and disadvantages under which they now labor, and
of securing not only a comfortable subsistence, and perhaps wealth,
but what is of far greater importance, both for themselves and their
children,--a full participation in all the rights, privileges and
immunities of freemen, and a standing and consideration in society,
which at present is wholly beyond their reach.
_Mr. Carbery is also authorized by the society to guarantee to all
emigrants, who may accept his offers, maintenance at the colonial
expense, and comfortable and commodious lodgings, until they shall
succeed in obtaining such employment as they may prefer._
Transferred to a country which opens a vast field to labor, and to
all sorts of enterprise, relieved from a weight of prejudice which
now rests so heavily upon them, the free colored people of the
United States would have an opportunity which they do not now enjoy,
of proving, that when allowed to share the same moral and social
advantages, they are able successfully to compete with the white man.
It is indeed difficult to realize the effect often produced upon a
man's conduct and character, when he is removed from the withering
effect of the distinction of caste, and raised to an equality of
political and social privileges. Persons, who if they remain in the
United States, will be confined all their lives to menial and obscure
stations, by emigrating to British Guiana, which they may do in twenty
days, and without spending a cent, will alter the whole course and
prospect of their lives. With industry, application, and sobriety,
they will have a moral certainty of rising to a comfortable competency
if not to wealth, and of filling with pleasure to themselves and
benefit to the community, a respectable station in society. Surely
these considerations ought to have great weight with all,--but more
especially with the young, who are just coming forward, and with those
fathers and mothers who have families of children growing up about them.
There is now opened to the free colored people of the United States,
a city of refuge in Guiana, of which it is to be hoped they will not
fail to avail themselves; and Mr. Carbery has reason to anticipate,
should the free colored people of the United States, and those persons
upon whose advice and opinions they most confidently rely, be led to
take the same view of the matter which he does, that his visit to
the United States may result in great good to a large body of his
fellow men, who at present are cut off from many of the chief benefits
of society, and by the unfortunate operation of circumstances over
which they have no control, are subjected to influences which crush
their energies, break their spirits, and prevent them from rising
to affluence or consideration. Relieved from these impediments,
transferred to a country where they will be secured in the enjoyment of
equal social and political rights, they will become new creatures, and
many of them will display talents and capacity of which they are not
now suspected.
Mr. Carbery, however, has no desire to induce any colored person, to
emigrate to Guiana, who is not well satisfied, and whose friends are
not also satisfied, that it will be for his benefit to go. Deeply
impressed as he is with the manifold advantages which the free colored
people of the United States may derive from closing with his proposals,
he submits them to the candid consideration of those concerned,
expressly desiring that before being adopted by any body, they may be
subjected to the closest scrutiny, and most rigorous investigation.