TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE WEST INDIES, FROM 1840 TO 1859.
Joseph J. Gurney, of England, visited the British West Indies in 1840.
At St. Christopher's, the Solicitor General of the Colony told him that
a small estate on the island sold shortly before emancipation, with all
the slaves on it, for £2,000. He said, six years afterward, it would
sell, without the slaves for £6,000. Mr. Gurney adds: "This remarkable
rise in the value of property is by no means confined to particular
estates." "In this island, the negroes perform a far greater amount of
work in a given time, than could be obtained from them under slavery.
One of my informants said, 'They will do an infinity of work for
wages.'"
Sir William Colebrook, Governor of Antigua, and Mr. Gilbert, a
clergyman, both gave the following testimony to Mr. Gurney: "At the
lowest computation, the land, without a single slave upon it, is fully
as valuable now, as it was, including all the slaves, before
emancipation." Mr. Gilbert told Mr. Gurney that the compensation he
received for his slaves, from the British government, was "a mere
present put into his pocket; a gratuity, on which he had no reasonable
claim. For his land, _without_ the slaves, was at least of the same
value that it formerly was _with_ the slaves; and since emancipation,
his profits had increased."
At Dominica, Mr. Gurney found the emancipated laborers "working
cheerfully, and cheaply to their employers, as compared with slavery."
Concerning the islands he visited, Mr. Gurney says: "The change for the
better, in the dress, demeanor, and welfare of the people, is
prodigious. The imports are vastly increased. The duties on imports in
St. Christopher's were £1,000 more in 1838 than they were in 1837; and
in 1839, they were double what they were in 1838, within £150. This
surprising increase is owing to the demand, on the part of the freed
laborers for imported goods; especially for articles of dress."
In May, 1846, Dr. John Davy, author of a work on the West Indies, and
brother of the celebrated Sir Humphrey Davy, wrote from Barbadoes, where
he was residing, in official and professional employment, to the
well-known Mr. George Combe, of Edinburgh. The letter was published in
_The Liberty Bell_, for 1847, and I make the following extracts from
it:--
"I could wish that those who still approve of slavery, or who may
consider it a necessary evil, would pay a visit to the West Indies,
especially to this island, and witness the effects of emancipation. I am
much mistaken if they would not go back satisfied that the abolition of
slavery has here been, in every respect, advantageous; to the negroes,
to the planters, and to the population generally. I have been in
Barbadoes very nearly a year, and I have conversed on the subject with
proprietors of estates, who formerly owned slaves, with merchants, and
with colored people, who had been slaves. Among them all, there seemed
to be but one feeling; that emancipation was a blessing, and that were
it possible to bring back slavery, all would be opposed to it.
"When slavery existed, there was always fear of insurrection, especially
in times of danger, whether connected with war, or other calamities,
such as fires and hurricanes. Then, it was necessary to have a standing
militia, always ready to act. It was necessary to have beacons and
forts, to give the alarm and afford defence. Now, there is a perfect
feeling of security. The population is considered as one; bound together
by common rights and common interests. The militia has been disbanded,
and is not likely to be re-organized, except on a threatening of war.
Forts are no longer required. Some of them have been dismantled and are
forgotten. Some are converted into stations for the police; a body
chiefly composed of colored men. Prior to abolition, from what I can
learn, crime of every kind was more prevalent; especially robbery. Then,
there was always at large a certain number of runaway slaves, who
supported themselves by nightly depredations, and, occasionally
collecting into large parties, broke into and plundered the houses of
the opulent. Since the abolition of slavery, I have not heard of the
murder of a white man, nor of any instance of revenge taken by the
liberated for cruel treatment inflicted before liberation. I have not
heard of any instances of house breaking, or of robbery, except of a
petty kind, commonly designated as pilfering. The security, as to
property, in which the opulent live here is remarkable. But it is not
surprising, when we reflect on the easy condition of the people
generally. Want is almost unknown, beggars are almost unknown; yet there
are no poor laws, and no provision made by law for the support of
paupers.
"The freed laborers are contented with a shilling sterling (twenty-four
cents) a day for their work, men and women alike. This is sufficient to
supply their wants, and to enable them to have some comforts, and even
luxuries, where the ordinary articles of diet are cheap, and where most
laborers have a portion of land, for which they pay rent. Commonly, on
every estate requiring over a hundred laborers, there is a village,
where those who work on the estate reside. To be near their work is an
advantage to both laborers and proprietors; and it being for the
interest of the latter to attach the former to them, they are dealt with
kindly and liberally. If other treatment is experienced, the laborers
seek employment elsewhere, and have no difficulty in finding it. This,
it must be admitted, is a happy change, and worth some pecuniary
sacrifices; but it is doubtful whether it entailed any such. I have been
assured by many managers of estates, well acquainted with the minute
details of expenditure under the former and the present systems of slave
labor and free labor, that free labor is more economical. I admit that
in some of the islands, especially the smaller ones, the landed
proprietors have been great sufferers, and their estates have become
depreciated in a remarkable manner, owing to a new direction of labor.
But I am disposed to think that their misfortunes have, in great part,
been brought on themselves, by their injudicious conduct. In the first
instance, they paid the freed laborers at a low rate, and thus tempted
them to emigrate to the larger Colonies, where higher remuneration was
offered for labor; as in Trinidad and Demerara. Next, they endeavored to
keep them at home, by allowing them to have as much land as they chose,
and to keep as many cattle as they chose, without payment. This did,
indeed, keep them at home; but its tendency was to keep them from
laboring on the estates of the proprietors. They found it more for their
interest to cultivate land on their own account.
"Sometimes, a single fact will prove more convincing than a multiplicity
of arguments. I will state one fact, of which I am assured on the best
authority. _The value of land in Barbadoes is so much increased since
emancipation, that an estate will now sell for as much as it did
formerly, when the slaves necessary for its cultivation were included in
the purchase._ Who would have believed this to be possible, before
slavery was abolished?
"Now let us compare the moral condition of the population with what it
was previous to emancipation. It is admitted that, in the time of
slavery, planters, attorneys, managers, merchants, etc., were
licentious. Concubinage was common, and not held in discredit. There was
a looseness of conduct and conversation, which could not fail to have an
injurious effect on the mind. Youth was particularly exposed to this
degrading and enervating influence, when there was no check to
indulgence, no call to exercise control; when too often a gentleman's
house was a kind of brothel, and when instances occurred of planters
keeping in slavery their own offspring by slave mothers. From what I
have seen and heard, the higher classes of the white population now
appear to be exemplary in their conduct. A natural change has also taken
place with regard to the emancipated race. Formerly, a colored woman
esteemed it an honor to be the kept mistress of a white man. Now, she
considers it disreputable; and few such connections are found. Marriage
is more common among the black and colored people. The understanding is,
that marriage is right, and concubinage wrong. There is still a good
deal of irregular connection among them; the marriage tie is loose, and
the senses little under the control of principle. But these remarks
apply to the _older_ portion of the population, whose habits were formed
in slavery, when the marriage ceremony was not permitted, and when
chastity was not known, even by name. I believe they do not apply to the
rising generation, a certain proportion of whom have come under the
influence of moral and religious training. The children of the laborers
manifest great facility in learning at school; and the men have great
aptitude in learning whatever they take an interest in, belonging to
their trades and occupations; such as the use of implements in
husbandry, and improved methods in the useful arts."
Dr. Davy states that three-fourths of the laborers in Antigua had
cottages of their own, and small freeholds. Small as that island is,
there were, at the time he wrote, about eighty-seven villages, all built
by emancipated laborers, near the estates on which they were formerly
chattels. He says: "It is a mistake, often committed, to suppose the
African is by nature indolent, less inclined to work than the European.
He who has witnessed, as I have, their indefatigable and provident
industry, will be disposed perhaps to overrate, rather than underrate,
the activity of the negroes."
In 1857, the Governor of Tobago published this statement: "I deny that
the peasantry are abandoned to slothful habits. On the contrary, I
assert that a more industrious class does not exist in the world; at
least, when they are working for themselves."
When Louis Philippe sent Commissioners to the British West Indies, to
inquire into the state of things, with a view to emancipation in the
French Colonies, they published a Report, from which I translate the
following extract: "In Guiana, some planters declare the impossibility
of getting along with the existing system. Others, on the contrary,
assure us that they never want for laborers; they praise the assiduity
of the blacks, and say they produce as much as under the former system.
So much for the _old_ planters. But when we consult the _new_ planters,
men who know coerced labor only by tradition, we find among _them_
entire unanimity. They all tell us that the labor is satisfactory, and
that their agricultural operations succeed well."
Rev. Henry Bleby has been a missionary in the West Indies for thirty
years. He resided there before emancipation and since. On the 1st of
August, 1858, he delivered an address at Abington, Mass., from which I
extract the following: "Since I have been here, I have heard that
emancipation is understood to have been a failure. I am prepared to give
that statement an unqualified contradiction. In no sense whatever has
the emancipation of the slaves in the British Colonies proved a failure.
I am at present laboring as a minister among the colored churches in
Barbadoes, and I can tell you that never, even in the most palmy lays of
slavery, was there such prosperity as now. This year, a long drought has
lessened the crop of sugar; yet they have raised more than double the
amount of produce they ever raised under slavery; and with no greater
amount of labor, than in the time of slavery. You cannot get an acre of
land, in any part of the island, for less than four or five hundred
dollars. In my own neighborhood an estate of not more than two or three
hundred acres was sold for nearly $90,000 in your money; paid in cash.
The case is the same in Antigua, where I lived three years. A member of
my own church there bought an estate, which was sold under a decree of
Chancery for $24,225. He has taken off three valuable crops, which have
more than repaid the original purchase money; and he has been offered
$48,450 for the property, and refused to take it. _That_ is the kind of
ruin that has come upon the West Indies because of emancipation!
"As for the moral condition of Barbadoes, I believe the criminal
statistics, for the last five or six years, would compare, without
disadvantage, with any country under heaven. We seldom hear of any thing
like serious crimes. Intemperance is not prevalent among the people. I
have a membership of seventeen hundred colored persons, and, during the
last two years, I have not had one single case of intemperance reported
to me. Every sabbath our churches are crowded with people anxious to
receive instruction. I know of no people in the world who will make such
efforts, and exercise such self-denial, to obtain education for their
children, as the people of Barbadoes. One of my colored church members
had just finished manufacturing his little portion of sugar, grown on
part of the half-acre of land on which his house stood, and on which he
raised provisions for his family; and he brought me six dollars in
advance, as school fees for his four children the next twelve months.
It is the only instance I ever knew of a man in _his_ condition
pre-paying the education of his children for a year. It is a falsehood
that emancipation has failed to improve the condition of the colored
race. Throughout the West Indies, in every island, the condition of the
people is incomparably superior to what it was in slavery. Some say if
it has not ruined the laborers, it has ruined the planters. I deny that
statement, as plainly as I deny the other. Emancipation proved a
blessing, instead of a curse, to the proprietors. What I have told you
concerning the prices of land are facts that speak volumes in regard to
the sort of ruin brought upon British planters by emancipation."
Lord Stanley, now Earl of Derby, in a despatch, dated February, 1842,
says: "Experience has shown, what reason would anticipate, that the
industry of the negro, like that of all mankind, is drawn out just in
proportion to the interest he has in his labor." Lord John Russell
declared in one of his public speeches: "None of the most inveterate
opponents of our recent measures of emancipation allege that the negroes
have turned robbers, or plunderers, or bloodthirsty insurgents. What
appears from their statements is that they have become shopkeepers and
petty traders, hucksters, and small freeholders. A blessed change this,
which Providence has enabled us to accomplish!"
Sir Francis Hincks, formerly Prime Minister of Canada, is Governor of
the Windward Islands, which comprise Barbadoes, St. Vincent, Grenada,
St. Lucia, and Tobago. He is distinguished for financial ability, and
practical good sense as a statesman. Being on a visit to England, he was
present at an anniversary meeting in London, August 1st, 1859; on which
occasion, he offered the following resolution: "That, on the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British
Colonies, this meeting joyfully records its satisfaction in the
retrospect of that great act of national justice and sound policy; and
emphatically affirm that the emancipated population of those Colonies
have triumphantly vindicated their right to freedom, and the justice of
the Act of Emancipation, by the signal progress they have since made,
morally, religiously, and politically."
In speaking to this Resolution, His Excellency said: "It is not denied
by anybody in the West Indies that the good results of emancipation on
the social condition of the people have been very great. In Barbadoes,
the progress has been especially marked. I know of no people of the
laboring class anywhere, who have done so much for the education of
their children, as the people of Barbadoes; and results of the most
gratifying character are to be seen in the social habits and mental
acquirements of the people. I believe the planters themselves are
convinced of the good results of emancipation. There can be no doubt in
the minds of any, who investigate the subject, that slave labor is much
dearer than free labor. I wish it to be understood that I have formed my
opinion after full inquiry into the circumstances of every British
Colony, regarding which I could obtain information.
"Let me deal at once with the popular delusion that the African Creole
is naturally indolent; for that it _is_ a delusion, I have no doubt
whatever. My opinion is in accordance with all that I have heard from
the clergymen of the various Protestant churches, as well as from those
of the Church of Rome. It is likewise in accordance with the opinions
expressed by the stipendiary magistrates generally, as I have found them
in official documents. A Barbadoes proprietor, who stands high in the
estimation of all who know him, writes to me thus: 'There never was a
greater mistake, than to suppose the negro will not work for hire. No
man is more sensitive to that stimulus, or works more readily, more
cheerfully, or more effectually, for the hope of reward. It is perfectly
astonishing how much a negro can do, when he is under the influence of a
wholesome stimulus; and how little he will do, when that is removed.'"
Gov. Hincks said: "I willingly admit that there has been a considerable
withdrawal of labor from sugar cultivation in some of the Colonies,
owing to a variety of causes. Among those causes, I am inclined to think
that, next to the _tenure of land_, the _insolvency of the proprietors_
has been the chief. I have never been able to trace an instance in which
an estate has gone out of cultivation owing to want of _labor_; but I
have heard of many cases in which estates have been abandoned for want
of _capital_; and of some estates on which the laborers have been
dismissed with wages several months in arrear. The only wonder is, that
with such a land-tenure as that which exists in the West Indies, a
single laborer has remained on the sugar estates. It is a tenure by the
month, subject to ejectment by the owner. If the tenant has notice to
quit, while his crops are growing, he is obliged to take for them
whatever price the proprietor appraises them at. If the tenant himself
gives notice of intention to leave, he is obliged to sacrifice his crops
altogether. The obvious tendency of this is to drive laborers from sugar
cultivation to places where they can get land of their own. If I were
proprietor of a sugar estate, I would devote one-fourth, or one-third,
of the cane land on the estate to the laborers. I would give them a good
tenure; for instance, leases renewable forever, with a right to buy, at
such a number of years' purchase as might be agreed upon. I would make
it the interest of my laborers to occupy, or buy, land near my cane
lands, instead of at a distance. I would trust to their admitted
sagacity to cultivate the product that would _pay_ them best. I would
have a labor market at my door; and I would have the spare time of my
laborers employed in growing a a product, which must be brought to my
works to be manufactured. Even if the result should be that all my land
was rented or sold, I should still make ample profit by my manufactory.
Such, however, in my opinion, would not be the case. The large
proprietor would still be the principal cultivator of the land, and the
small one would combine labor on the estates with labor on his own land
in growing the cane; as is the case in Barbadoes. But this common-sense
view of the subject has not been generally taken. In Barbadoes alone so
far as my knowledge extends, the laborers on the large estates cultivate
the sugar cane on their own grounds; and this is one of the reasons why
the laborers in Barbadoes cannot be attracted elsewhere. There, the
laborer is dependent on the proprietor for the manufacture of his little
crop of canes, while the proprietor is dependent on him for labor, when
it is required. This mutual dependence has produced the best results."
When Gov. Hincks visited Canada, April, 1859, he received an address
from the Association for the Education of the Colored People. I make the
following extract from his reply: "While it is my own deliberate
opinion that a very large amount of labor now wasted in the West Indies,
or less profitably employed, could be obtained for the cultivation of
sugar, I am not prepared to admit that the success of the great measure
of emancipation is to be tested in this way. The true test, it seems to
me, is the progress of the African race. The best proof of the industry
of that race is that large numbers have acquired, and are acquiring,
large properties. They are amenable to the laws, anxious for the
education of their children, and good and loyal subjects to the queen.
There is still vast room for improvement; but I certainly concur in the
following statement by the Lord Bishop of Barbadoes, a prelate esteemed
and respected by all who have the advantage of his friendship: 'I
certainly think we have great reason to say, especially in Barbadoes,
that the advantages resulting from the abolition of slavery have been
quite as great as we could reasonably expect, in so short a time; much
greater, indeed, than the most sanguine among us, I believe, ever
anticipated.'"
Mr. Charles Tappan, of Boston, visited the West Indies, in the autumn of
1857; and in January, 1858, Gov. Hincks wrote him a letter, dated
Barbadoes, in answer to some questions that had been addressed to him.
It was published in the _National Era_, and some other papers. I make
the following extracts from it. "With regard to the complaint against
the negroes, that they are indolent, and have abandoned the sugar
plantations, I admit that, in several of the British Colonies, the
planters would generally vehemently maintain the correctness of the
charge. I am, however, bound to affirm that, after a most patient
investigation, I have been unable to arrive at such a conclusion. There
is no doubt that the condition of the laboring class in Barbadoes ought
to be worse than in any of the other Colonies; for land is exorbitantly
dear, being from $400 to $600 an acre; while wages are from tenpence to
a shilling (twenty-four cents) a day. There are only five working days
in the week, except during crop time. With all these disadvantages, the
small proprietors in Barbadoes, those holding less than five acres of
land, have increased in sixteen years, from about 1,100 to 3,537. I
doubt very much whether such a proof of industrious habits could be
furnished with regard to a similar class of laborers in any other
country in the world. I adduce this remarkable fact to prove that there
has been no want of industry in this island, on the part of the Creoles
of African descent.
"In all those Colonies where the sugar estates have been partially
abandoned, we must look to other causes than the indolence of the
laborers. In all those Colonies, land is abundant and comparatively
cheap; and I need not remind any one acquainted with the settlement of
land in America, that where land is abundant and cheap, labor will be
scarce and dear. The negroes in Guiana and Trinidad pursue the same
course as poor Irish emigrants in Canada, or the United States; they
endeavor to get land of their own, and to become proprietors instead of
laborers. Unfortunately, the planters have never adopted a policy
calculated to retain laborers on their plantations. At least, such is my
opinion. I am fully convinced that the abandonment of the estates is
more owing to the tenure, on which alone planters would lease land, than
to any other cause.
"In this island, there can be no doubt whatever, that emancipation has
been a great boon to all classes. The estates are much better
cultivated, and more economically. Real estate has increased in price,
and is a more certain and advantageous investment, than in the time of
slavery. The proprietor of an estate, containing three hundred acres of
land, twelve miles from the shipping port, informs me that the estate,
during slavery, required two hundred and thirty slaves, and produced on
an average, one hundred and forty hogheads of sugar. It is now worked by
ninety free laborers, and the average product the last seven years has
been one hundred and ninety hogheads. During slavery, this estate was
worth £15,000 ($72,675); under the apprenticeship, it was sold for
£25,000 ($121,125); the present proprietor purchased it a few years ago,
for £30,000 ($145,350), which I have no doubt he could obtain for it at
any moment. I could multiply instances, where the results have been
similar.
"The improvement which has taken place in the religious condition of all
classes, and the progress of education, are quite equal to what could
have been reasonably expected. You have yourself made the acquaintance
of men, who were once slaves, who are now in independent circumstances,
and enjoying a large share of public respect. It is impossible to
compare the present statistics of crime with those during slavery; for
then the great bulk of ordinary offences, such as petty thefts and
assaults, were not brought before magistrates, but summarily punished by
managers and overseers on the estates. That there is much greater
security for person and property now, than during slavery, does not
admit of a doubt."
Never was an experiment more severely tested, than that of emancipation
in the West Indies. It seems as if God intended to prove to the world
that the vitality of freedom was indestructible. In addition to the
general state of insolvency to which slavery had reduced the planters,
and the difficulties attending the commencement of all great changes in
the social system, there were an unusual number of fortuitous
calamities. In 1843, an earthquake made dreadful devastation in the
Leeward Islands. Out of one hundred and seventy-two sugar mills in
Antigua, one hundred and seventeen were demolished, or nearly so. A
third of the houses in St. John's were flung down, and the remainder too
much injured to be habitable. Then came a hurricane which blew down
churches, uprooted trees, destroyed a great many houses and huts, did
immense damage to the sugar canes. And the crowning misfortune of all,
was a series of severe droughts, year after year. Between 1840 and 1849,
there were only two seasons when the crops did not suffer terribly for
rain. Under such a combination of disasters the anxieties and sufferings
of West India proprietors must have been very severe indeed; and there,
as elsewhere, there were plenty of people ready and eager to attribute
all their troubles to emancipation. Yet such is the recuperative power
of freedom, that Commissioners who went to Guiana in 1850, to inquire
into the condition of things, reported: "Every symptom of change for the
better is apparent. Cultivation has extended and crops increased. The
laboring population are working more steadily, and evince signs of
speedy improvement."
In the first part of this Tract it has been mentioned that in twelve
years, during slavery, the laboring class in eleven of the islands had
_decreased_ more than 60,000. In the twelve years following
emancipation, in ten Colonies there was an _increase_ of more than
54,000. That fact alone is a significant indication of the vast change
for the better in their condition.
The following statistics I copy from an able article in the _Edinburgh
Review_, April, 1859. They are quoted from the Colonial Reports:--
_Barbadoes._ In ten years, "between 1842 and 1852, increase of
sugar exported, is 27,240 hogheads." The Report for 1851, states,
"There has been more sugar shipped from this island this year, than
in any one year since it has been peopled; and it is a remarkable
fact that there will be more _laborers_' sugar made this year, than
previously. By laborers' sugar is meant that raised by the negroes
on their own patches of ground, and sent to the proprietor's mill
for manufacture." The Report for 1853 announces "vast increase in
trade. So far the success of cultivation by free labor is
unquestionable." Report for 1858: "A great increase in the value of
the exports." "The large proportion of land acquired by the
laboring classes furnishes striking evidence of their industry."
_Bahamas._ In 1851, the Governor reports, "a great and important
change for the better," in the condition of the people; which he
mainly attributes to "improved education." The rapidity with which
these islands are advancing is indicated by the fact that the
exports and imports increased in one year, from 1854 to 1855,
£102,924 ($498,666.78).
_Grenada._ Returns in 1851 and 1852, show an increase of trade,
amounting to £88,414 ($428,355.83). Report of 1858: "Contentment
appears to pervade all classes of the community." "A proprietary
body, of considerable magnitude and importance, has already risen
from the laboring class." "State of the finances most
satisfactory." "A greatly extended surface is covered by sugar
cultivation." A considerable increase is noted in the exports of
sugar, rum, and cocoa. Some remarks on the want of labor.
_Antigua._--Reports for 1858: "Satisfactory evidence is afforded,
by the Revenue Returns, of increase of trade and mercantile
business, consequent upon the revival of agricultural prosperity."
(There had been a depression in consequence of a great fall in the
price of sugar in 1847.)
_Dominica._--Report for 1853: "The steady maintenance of production
is full of promise as to the future." Report for 1857: "The exports
show a considerable increase." "Very considerable increase in
revenue, and an equally marked improvement in the amount of
imports." In the Report for 1858, the Governor speaks of the
growing independence of the laborers, manifested "in the small
patches of canes, and little wooden mills here and there dotting
the plains around."
_Guiana._--In 1852, the Governor reports that the fall in the price
of sugar, in 1847 and 1848 (owing to the repeal of the tariff), was
"so sudden and enormous, as to have almost annihilated the Colony,
at that crisis." But he goes on to state that "the revenue is now
flourishing, population augmenting, education spreading, crime
diminishing, and trade increasing."
_Montserrat._--In 1853, the Governor reports "increase of
confidence, enterprise, and industry." "The improved and improving
state of the community is allowed on all hands." "No island in
these seas exhibits a more decisive tendency to social and moral
regeneration and improvement. The rural population are quiet,
contented, and orderly."
_Nevis._--(This is a very small island; about the size of a common
New England town.) Report for 1857: "The roads appear as if the
greater part of the population had new clothed themselves; and in
the harbor, so often deserted, I now count ten ships of
considerable burden." "There appears now to be at work an
industrious spirit of improvement."
_St. Kitts._--Report for 1856: "A larger quantity of sugar is
produced now than in the time of slavery" (though on a smaller
area). Report for 1858: "The agricultural prospects of the island
are most encouraging. Its financial condition continues
satisfactory; so do the education returns. Attendance in schools is
steadily increasing. Crime is steadily diminishing. In one year,
from 1856 to 1857, trade increased £106,233" ($514,642.88).
_St. Lucia._--Report for 1853: "At no period of her history, has
there been a greater breadth of land under cultivation, than at the
present moment." Between the four years ending 1842, and the four
years ending 1856, the increase of sugar exported was 1,803,618
pounds.
_St. Vincent._--In 1857, the Governor describes "a really sound and
healthy state of the Colony at present, and a cheering and
promising prospect for the future." He describes the rising
villages, the growing number of freeholders and leaseholders, and
the steady progressive increase in the value of imports. In one
year, from 1856 to 1857, imports and exports increased £156,633
($758,886.88); and he expressly attributes it to "increased
cultivation and prosperity." In 1858, he describes the Colony as
"in a most satisfactory state." "Agricultural operations largely
extended." "Anticipations of continued progress and prosperity
fully realized."
_Tobago._--The accounts had been dismal in 1852 and 1853; but an
improved financial system was adopted in 1856, the result of which
was a Report in 1858 announcing a "marked improvement in the
revenue returns." The Governor describes the laborers as
"well-behaved and industrious."
_Tortola._--This island, under slavery, exported 15,559 cwt. of
sugar. Now it exports none at all. But the change is wholly an
advantage. It is remarkably well adapted for the raising of stock.
"The people, with few exceptions, are owners of cattle, which they
dispose of to great advantage." "The laborers appear fully sensible
of the advantages of education to their children, and the latter
manifest a great desire to benefit by the opportunities offered
them."
_Trinidad_ is highly flourishing. In 1852, the crop was the largest
ever shipped from the island; and it has been extending since. The
whole trade greatly increased since slavery. The Report for 1853
speaks of "marked improvement in the cultivation of the sugar
estates." Export of sugar rose from an average of 310,797 cwt.
under slavery, to 426,042 cwt. in the seven years ending 1854.
The writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ says: "These specific accounts of
the several islands are borne out by the statistics and Reports that
relate to our West Indies _en masse_. Lest it should be thought that
these extracts are carefully culled, to produce a particular impression,
and that if the reader had the _whole_ Reports before him, he would find
complaints and lamentations, we may at once say that they appear to us
to be fair samples of the views entertained by the Governors, and also
by other gentlemen acquainted with the West Indies. The language of
complaint is no longer heard. Throughout these Colonies, hope and
congratulation seem to have taken the place of irritation and despair.
In all cases, the later the Report, the more gratifying it is found to
be.
"To men of business, one fact will seem almost enough by itself to show
the sound commercial state of these Colonies; viz., that, in the year
1857, the Colonial Bank received bills from the West Indies to the
amount of more than £1,300,000 ($6,298,500); and less than £8,000
($38,760) were returned. Nor was there a single failure in the West
India trade, during the severe commercial crisis of that year.
Furthermore, coffee, cotton, wool, sugar, rum, and cocoa, are all
exported in increasing quantities. The total exports from Great Britain
to the West Indies in 1857 were valued at half a million more
($2,422,500) than the average of the preceding ten years."
Mr. C. Buxton made a speech in the British House of Commons, March,
1859, in which he said: "Because labor is free, and trade is free, the
West Indies are now rising to a pitch of wealth and happiness unknown
before. It would be impossible for me to lay before the House the
immense mass of evidence, which demonstrates that fact. I am assured of
it by mercantile men, I find it strongly set forth in the Reports from
the Governors of the Islands, and in the statistics furnished by the
Board of Trade. In the four years between 1853 and 1857, there has been
an increase in the exports and imports of the West Indies and Guiana of
£4,500,000 ($21,802,500). Considering what mere specks these islands
look on the map of America, it is astonishing that their trade to and
fro, in the year 1857, should actually amount to £10,735,000
($52,011,075). It is altogether absurd to suppose this prosperity is
owing to the immigration of a few thousand laborers; and in fact the
islands which have received no immigrants are quite as flourishing as
those that have. Interested parties describe the negroes as barbarous
and idle; but I find ample evidence that they are living in a high
degree of industry and comfort; though I admit that they somewhat prefer
working on freeholds they have purchased, to laboring for hire."
The _Edinburgh Review_ concludes its array of evidence, by saying: "A
long and thorough investigation of the case has borne us irresistibly to
the conclusion that, merely as a dry question of _economy_, emancipation
has _paid_; that it was an act of prudence, for which we, as a nation of
shopkeepers, need not blush before that golden god, whom we are thought
to worship so eagerly. Slavery and monopoly were bearing the West Indies
to ruin. Under free labor and free trade they are rising to wealth. They
are yearly enriching us more and more with the wealth of their fertile
soil. Instead of being the plague of statesmen and the disgrace of
England, they are becoming invaluable possessions of the British crown.
Never did any deed of any nation show more signally that to do right is
the truest _prudence_, than the great deed of Emancipation."