JAMAICA.[6]
I have placed Jamaica in a section by itself, because emancipation has
there worked less prosperously than elsewhere, and the reasons for it
need some explanation. I have already mentioned causes which were
bringing all the West Indies to ruin, previous to emancipation. These
operated as powerfully in Jamaica as elsewhere. They were cursed with
the same coercive system, which seems ingeniously contrived to make
laborers lazy and shiftless, and to array them in the most stubborn
opposition to their employers. There was among the white population the
same haughty contempt for useful occupations, which inevitably brings
extravagance and dissipation in its train. There was the same expensive
retinue of attorneys, managers, and bookkeepers, with their mistresses,
servants, and horses, to be supported out of the estate. There was the
same neglect and fraud, arising from the absence of proprietors; for
"nine-tenths of the land in Jamaica was owned by absentees, mostly
residing in England." There was the same injudicious system of
apportioning the soil into large plantations, to the utter exclusion of
small farmers; for slavery always renders the existence of a middling
class impossible. There was the same desperate game of borrowing and
mortgaging, ending in universal insolvency. Mr. Bigelow, one of the
editors of the _New York Evening Post_, visited Jamaica in 1850, and
carefully examined into the state of things. He says: "The island was
utterly insolvent the day the Emancipation Bill passed. Nearly every
estate was mortgaged for more than it was worth, and was liable for more
interest than it could possibly pay. It will not be disputed by any,
who are at all informed on the subject, that the whole real estate under
culture in Jamaica, in 1832, would not have sold for enough to pay off
encumbrances. This fact must have been disclosed sooner or later, even
if slavery had been permitted to continue. Bankruptcy was inevitable;
and the rapid depreciation of real estate would, of course, have been
one of the first fruits of such a catastrophe. The Emancipation Act did
not cause, it only precipitated, a result, which was inevitable. It
compelled a balance to be struck between the debtors and the creditors,
which revealed, rather than begat, the poverty which now no effort can
conceal."
The Export Tables show a decrease of sugar, in ten years, ending 1830,
of 201,843 hogsheads.
These drawbacks Jamaica had in common with the other Colonies; except,
perhaps, that the load of debt was somewhat heavier there than
elsewhere. Why then have her complaints been so much louder and more
prolonged, than those of her neighbors? I think the strongest reason is
to be found in the fact that the spirit of slavery was more violent and
unyielding there than in the other Colonies. There was more bitter
hostility between masters and slaves; manifesting itself in shocking
barbarities on one side, and frequent riots and insurrections on the
other. There was a more furious opposition to abolition, and a more
stubborn determination to make it operate badly, if possible. The great
body of the planters had predicted ruin, and they seemed resolved that
they _would_ be ruined, rather than prove false prophets. Dr. Coke, one
of the missionaries, says: "The persecutions we have experienced in
Jamaica far exceed, _very_ far, all the persecutions we have experienced
in all the other islands unitedly considered." Those who opened their
houses to these religious teachers, in many instances, narrowly escaped
being stoned to death. Rev. Mr. Bleby says: "Being determined to
perpetuate slavery, they resolved to do all they could to get rid of
Christianity, and keep their people in heathen darkness. The whole white
population of Jamaica banded themselves together in an Association,
which they called The Colonial Union; the avowed object of which was to
drive every instructor of the negroes from the island. Eighteen of our
churches were levelled with the ground. They dragged the missionaries to
prison, got false witnesses to swear against them, treated them with
brutal violence, and did every thing they could to put an end to their
labors." One of the Methodist missionaries died in a dungeon, in
consequence of the brutal treatment he had received from violent
pro-slavery men.
Another cause for the slow progress of improvement in Jamaica is
assigned by the writer in the _Edinburgh Review_; viz., "the superlative
badness of its government." Taxation has been, and is oppressive, and
the financial arrangements are said to be very injudicious. As late as
1854, the Governor, Sir Charles Grey, declared, "There is no system or
consistency whatever in the conduct of the financial affairs of the
Colony; nor any recognized organ of government, or legislature, which
has the power to bring about effective and comprehensive changes."
There was a small minority of planters and merchants, who regretted the
violence and blind policy of the majority; but they would have risked
their property, if not their lives, by venturing to express
disapprobation. The excitement was prodigiously increased in 1832, by a
formidable attempt at insurrection, in consequence of the numerous
meetings and inflamed speeches of the planters, from which the slaves
got the idea that the British government had made them free, and that
their masters were acting in opposition to it.
Such was the community into which the modified freedom called
apprenticeship was ushered on the 1st of August, 1834. In an address
delivered in Massachusetts, 1858, the Rev. Mr. Bleby said: "I was in
Jamaica when slavery was abolished. This day, twenty-four years ago, I
stood up late at night in one of the churches under my charge. It was a
very large church; and the aisles, the gallery stairs, the communion
place, the pulpit stairs, were all crowded; and there were thousands of
people round the building, at every open door and window, looking in. It
was ten o'clock at night, on the 31st of July. We thought it right and
proper that our Christian people should receive their freedom, as a boon
from God, in the house of prayer; and we gathered them together in the
church for a midnight service. Our mouths had been closed about slavery
up to that time. We could not quote a passage that had reference even
to _spiritual_ emancipation, without endangering our lives. The planters
had a law of 'constructive treason,' that doomed any man to death, who
made use of language tending to excite a desire for liberty among the
slaves; and they found treason in the Bible, and sedition in the hymns
of Watts and Wesley; and we had to be very careful how we used them. You
may imagine with what feelings I saw myself emancipated from this
thraldom, and free to proclaim 'liberty to the captive, and the opening
of prison doors to them that were bound.' I took for my text, 'Proclaim
liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof! It
shall be a jubilee unto you.' A few minutes before midnight, I requested
all the people to kneel down in silent prayer to God, as befitting the
solemnity of the hour. I looked down upon them as they knelt. The
silence was broken only by sobs of emotion, which it was impossible to
repress. The clock began to strike. It was the knell of slavery, in all
the British possessions! It proclaimed liberty to 800,000 human beings!
When I told them they might rise, what an outburst of joy there was
among that mass of people! The clock had ceased to strike, and they were
slaves no longer! Mothers were hugging their babes to their bosoms, old
white-headed men embracing their children, and husbands clasping their
wives in their arms. By and by, all was still again, and I gave out a
hymn. You may imagine the feelings with which these people, just
emerging into freedom, shouted--for they literally _shouted_,
"'Send the glad tidings o'er the sea!
His chains are broke, the slave is free!'"
THE PLANTERS' STATE OF MIND, IN 1837.
Three years after this event, Mr. Thome visited Jamaica. He constantly
encountered men full of the old slave-holding prejudices. They gave
doleful pictures of the ingratitude and laziness of the negroes. Things
were bad enough, they said, but they were sure they would be much worse
when the laborers were entirely free, in 1840. It was in vain to try to
comfort them by telling them how well immediate emancipation had worked
in Antigua. They listened incredulously, and returned to their old
statement, that negroes would not work, unless they were flogged. When
they were freed, they would, of course, rob, murder, starve, do any
thing, rather than labor. "There would be scenes of carnage and ruin,
unparalleled in modern times." Mr. Thomson, one of the local magistrates
of St. Andrews, belonged to this old school, who up to the last moment
had resisted any change of system. Yet he wound up his direful
predictions by denouncing slavery. He said man was naturally a tyrant,
and it could not be denied that under slavery the most horrible
cruelties had been practised. He admitted that he had formerly been very
averse to sleeping on any of his estates in the country. If
circumstances compelled him to spend a night there in the midst of his
slaves, he not only bolted the door, but took the precaution to
barricade it. Now, he had no fears. One thing he was ready to say in
favor of negroes; they were a very temperate people; it was a rare thing
to see one of them drunk. Similar admissions were made by other planters
of the old school; but they all persisted in the opinion that there
would be trouble, in 1840, when the masters lost what restraining power
they now had. The very best thing to be expected was that the negroes
"would all retire to the woods, plant merely yams enough to keep them
alive, and before long all retrograde into African barbarism."
It is obvious that men so completely under the dominion of passion and
prejudice were not likely to use power judiciously; and, unfortunately,
the apprenticeship system, which was intended as a salutary preparation
for freedom, proved nothing but a source of exasperation to both
parties. It took from the slaves certain privileges, which the laws and
customs had previously secured to them, and it did not compensate for
this by giving them the stimulus and the advantages of wages. On the
other hand, the new system fettered the masters, to a degree that kept
them in a state of irritation, while it left them power enough to
manifest their ill-temper by perpetual annoyances to their servants. In
the preceding pages I have given the opinion of various planters and
magistrates, that this system worked badly in all the Colonies; but it
was pre-eminently mischievous in Jamaica, because there the disease of
slavery was of a peculiarly malignant type. The laborers were no longer
_property_; and, with hard masters, no _other_ claim to consideration
remained when that was gone. They had made up their minds that the
negroes would all quit work in 1840, and all they cared for was to get
all they could out of their bones and sinews _before_ that time. All
children under six years old were unconditionally free. What consequence
was it to the planters, whether "the little black devils" (as they
called them) lived or died? Among the apprenticed laborers was a mother,
who was let out by her master. Her child became alarmingly ill; and her
employer said it was not his business to provide doctor or nurse. With
the little sufferer in her arms, she went to her master for aid; but he
turned her into the streets. It was the business of the people to take
care of their own "brats," now. She obtained shelter in the house of a
colored man, and there the child died before morning.
A continual system of provocation was kept up. Masters and their white
subordinates would take produce from the provision-grounds of the
apprentices without paying them. In fits of anger, they would sometimes
destroy their little gardens, or take them away when the crops were
growing. The magistrates were overwhelmed with complaints, most of them
of a petty character. An overseer would call out, "Work faster, you
black rascal! or I'll strike you." If the apprentice answered, "You
_can't_ strike me now," he was dragged before a magistrate, and punished
for insolence. The fact that the power of punishment was transferred by
law from master to magistrates proved very insufficient protection; for
the magistrates were generally planters, or the friends of planters. If
one of them manifested a disposition to be humane, or even just, toward
the apprentices, machinations were immediately on foot to get him turned
out of office. The result was, that a large proportion of them were
unprincipled men, the mere selfish tools of despotism. The negroes
expressed it concisely by saying: "If massa say flog 'em, he flog 'em;
if massa say send 'em to de tread-mill, he send 'em." Their common
complaint of magistrates was, "Dey be poisoned wid massa's turtle-soup;"
that being their way of defining the influence of good dinners. One of
the missionaries complained to Mr. Thome, of a whipping machine
ingeniously contrived for torture, and placed very near his house. He
said when news came that the Governor was about to visit the village,
the magistrate caused the machine to be removed and hidden among the
bushes. Mr. Thome was present at a weekly court, where a just and humane
magistrate presided. He says: "Managers, overseers, and bookkeepers, all
set upon him like bloodhounds on a stag. They seemed to gnash their
teeth upon him in their impotent rage. He assured us that he met with
similar indignities on most of the estates, every time he held his
courts. From what we saw that day, we were convinced that only very
fearless and conscientious men could be faithful magistrates in
Jamaica." Mr. Thome tells an anecdote related to him by the special
magistrate in whose presence it occurred. It shows how hard it was, for
men long accustomed to arbitrary power, to submit to the salutary
restraints of law. The magistrate had fined a manager $108 for various
acts of oppression complained of and proved by his apprentices. The
culprit requested permission to speak; which being granted, he broke
forth, in an agony of passion, "O my God! Has it come to this? Is my
conduct to be questioned by these people? Is my authority to be
interfered with by strangers? O my God! my God!" He fell back into the
arms of one of his bookkeepers, and was carried out of court in a
convulsion fit.
The Rev. James Phillippo, who was a Baptist Missionary in Jamaica for
twenty years, says: "During the short period of two years, 60,000
apprentices received in the aggregate one quarter of a million of
lashes; and fifty thousand other punishments by the tread-wheel, the
chain-gang, and other modes of legalized torture. Instead of diminution
of the miseries of the negro population, there was a frightful addition
to them; inducing a degree of discontent and exasperation never
manifested even under the previous system. Had it not been for the
influence of the Governor, the missionaries, and some of the special
magistrates, it would probably have broken out into open and general
rebellion."
THE NEGROES' STATE OF MIND, IN 1837.
While Mr. Thome was travelling in the rural districts, he talked with
many of the apprentices. He says: "They all thought the apprenticeship
very hard; but still, on the whole it was rather better than slavery.
Then they were 'killed _too_ bad.' It was all slash, slash! Now, they
couldn't be flogged unless the magistrate said so. Still, some masters
were very hard; and many of the apprentices were so badly used, that
they ran away into the woods. They should all be glad when freedom came.
"They gave a heart-sickening account of the cruelties of the tread-mill.
Sometimes their wives were tied on the wheel when they were in a state
of pregnancy. They suffered a great deal from that; but they couldn't
help it. We asked why they didn't complain to the magistrates. They
replied, that the magistrates wouldn't take any notice of their
complaints; and besides, it only made the masters treat them worse. One
of them said, 'We go to de magistrate, and den, when we come back, massa
do all him can to vex us. He wingle (tease) us, and wingle us, and
wingle us; de bookkeeper curse us and treaten us; de constable he scold
us and call us hard names; and dey all try to make we mad; so we
sometimes say someting wrong, and den dey take we to de magistrate for
insolence.'
"We asked them what they thought of the household slaves being free in
1838, while _they_ had to remain apprentices two years longer. They
said, 'It bad enough; but we know de _law_ make it so; and for peace'
sake, we will be satisfy. But we murmur in we minds.' One of the
magistrates told us that on several estates the house servants announced
their determination to remain apprentices until the field hands were all
free; giving as a reason, that they wanted all to have a jubilee
together.
"We inquired whether they expected to do as they pleased when they were
free. They answered, 'We couldn't live widout de _law_. In other
countries, where dey is free, don't _dey_ have de law?' We asked what
they expected to do with the old and infirm. They said, 'We will support
dem. Dey brought us up when we was pickaniny, and now we come trong, we
must take care of dem.' We asked whether they would work when they were
free. They replied, 'In slavery time, we work, _even_ wid de whip; _now_
we work till better; what tink we will do when we _free_? _Wont_ we work
when we get _paid_!' It was said so earnestly, we couldn't help
acknowledging ourselves convinced. Some of them had to travel too far to
market, to get back till Sunday. One of them said to us with tears in
his eyes, 'I declare to you, massa, if de Lord only spare we to be free,
we be much more 'ligious. We be wise to many more tings.'"
FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF PLANTERS, IN 1837.
"At Amity Hall, Mr. Kirkland, the manager of the estate, introduced us
to his wife and several lovely children. It was the first and the last
_family circle_ we saw in that licentious Colony. The motley groups of
colored children which we found on other estates, revealed the domestic
manners of the planters. Mr. Kirkland considered the abolition of
slavery a great blessing to the Colony. He said the apprenticeship was a
wretchedly bad system; but things moved smoothly on his estate. He said
the negroes of Amity Hall had formerly borne the character of being the
worst gang in the parish; and when he came to the estate, he found that
half the truth had not been told of them. But they had become remarkably
peaceful and subordinate. He said he looked forward to 1840, with the
most sanguine hope. He believed complete freedom would be the
regeneration of the island. Forty freemen would accomplish as much as
eighty slaves. If any of the estates were abandoned by the laborers, it
would be on account of the harsh treatment they received. He knew many
cruel overseers, and he shouldn't be surprised if _they_ lost a part of
their laborers, or all of them.
"Mr. Gordon, the manager of Williamsfield estate, is among the fairest
specimens of planters. He has a naturally generous disposition, which,
like that of Mr. Kirkland, has outlived the witherings of slavery. He
informed us that his people worked as well as they had done under
slavery; and he had every reason to believe they would do still better
after they were completely free. He said he often hired his people on
Saturdays, and it was wonderful, with what increased vigor they worked
when they were to receive wages. Fifty free men would do as much as a
hundred slaves. He condemned the driving system, which was resorted to
by a great many planters.
"Andrew Wright, Esq., proprietor of Green Wall estate, was described to
us as a very amiable, kind man, who was never known to quarrel with any
person in his life. He had a hundred and sixty apprentices at work, and
said they were as peaceable and industrious as he could wish. He said
where there was trouble with the people, he believed it was owing to bad
management. He was quite confident that his laborers would not leave him
after 1840.
"Mr. Briant, manager of Belvidere estate, said he had had no trouble
with his apprentices. They did as much work, for the length of time, as
they did during slavery; but the law allowed them a day and a half for
themselves, and did not require them to work so early in the morning, or
so late at night. He said the apprentices were not willing to work for
their masters on Saturday, for the customary wages, which were about a
quarter of a dollar. Upon inquiry, we ascertained that the reason was,
they could make twice, or three times as much by cultivating their
provision-grounds and carrying the produce to market. At night, when
they couldn't work on their grounds, he said they worked very cheerfully
for their masters. Where there was mild management, he had no doubt the
negroes would remain and work well.
"In Bath, we met with the proprietor of a coffee estate, who gave a very
favorable account of his laborers. He said they were as orderly and
industrious as he could desire; he had their confidence, and had no
doubt he should retain it after they were entirely free. He felt assured
that if the planters would only conduct in a proper manner, emancipation
would prove a blessing to the whole Colony."
TESTIMONY OF MAGISTRATES IN 1837.
William H. Anderson, Esq., Solicitor General, made a written statement,
from which I extract the following: "A very material change for the
better has taken place in the sentiments of the community, since slavery
was abolished. Religion and education were formerly opposed, as
subversive of the security of _property_; now, they are encouraged, in
the most direct manner, as its best support. Many proprietors give land
for schools and chapels; also subscriptions to a large amount. Had the
negroes been entirely emancipated in 1834, they would have been much
further advanced in 1840, than they can be at the end of the
apprenticeship, through which both masters and servants are laboring
heavily. That the negroes will work, if moderately compensated, no
candid man can doubt. Their endurance for the sake of a very little gain
is quite amazing; and they are very desirous to procure for themselves
and families as large a share as possible of the comforts and decencies
of life. I have not heard one man assert that it would be an advantage
to return to slavery, even if it were practicable; and I believe the
public begin to be convinced that slave labor is not the cheapest. In my
opinion, the negroes are very acute in their perceptions of justice and
injustice. They fully appreciate the benefits of equitable legislation,
and would unreservedly submit to it, where they felt confidence in the
purity of its administration. They are ardently attached to the British
government, and would be so to the Colonial, were it to indicate any
purposes of kindness or protection toward them; but hitherto the
enactments with reference to them have been almost wholly coercive. They
are very desirous for education and religious instruction; no man who
has attended to the matter can gainsay that. Marriage was formerly
unknown among them. Their masters considered them as so many brutes for
labor and increase, and I fear they came to regard themselves so. But
now concubinage is becoming quite disreputable, and many are marrying
those with whom they formerly lived in that relation. The partial
modification of slavery has been attended with so much improvement in
all that constitutes the welfare and respectability of society, that I
cannot doubt there would be an increase of the benefits, if there were a
total abolition of all the old restrictions."
"Cheney Hamilton, Esq., one of the Special Magistrates for Port Royal,
said there were three thousand apprentices in his district. They were as
quiet and industrious as they ever were, and were always willing to work
in their own time for wages. The district was never under better
cultivation. The masters were doing nothing for the education of the
apprentices. Their only object seemed to be to get as much work out of
them as possible. The complaints brought before him mostly originated
with the planters and were of a trivial nature, such as petty thefts and
absence from work. He said if we would compare the complaints brought by
overseers and apprentices against each other, we should see for
ourselves which party was the most peaceable and law-abiding. Real
estate is more valuable than before emancipation. Property is more
secure, and capitalists, consequently, more ready to invest their
funds."
From the written testimony of E. B. Lyon, Esq., Special Justice, I
extract the following: "The estates of the Blue Mountain Valley, over
which I preside, contain 4,227 apprentices. When I assumed the duties of
a special magistrate, they were the most disorderly on the island. They
were almost desperate from disappointment in finding their trammels
under the new law nearly as burdensome as under the old, and their
condition in many respects much more intolerable. But they submitted, in
many instances, with the most extraordinary patience, to evils which
were the more onerous, because inflicted under the affected sanction of
a law, whose advent they expected would have been attended with a train
of blessings. I succeeded in making satisfactory arrangements between
the masters and apprentices; and no peasantry, in the most favored
country on the globe, can have been more irreproachable in morals and
conduct, than the majority of apprentices in that district, since the
beginning of 1835. It has been my pleasant duty to report to the
Governor, month after month, improvement in their manners and condition,
and a greater amount of work than during slavery. That proprietors have
confidence in the future is evinced by the expensive repair of buildings
on various estates, the enlargement of works, and the high prices given
for land, which would scarcely have commanded a purchaser at any price,
during slavery. In my district, the apprentices are invariably willing
to work on the estates for hire, during their own time. In no community
in the world, is crime less prevalent. The offences brought before me
are mostly of a trivial description; such as turning out late, or
answering impatiently. In fact, the majority of apprentices on estates
have quietly performed their duty and respected the laws. The
apprenticeship has, I fear, retarded the rapidity with which
civilization should have advanced, and sown the seeds of a feeling even
more bitter than that which slavery had engendered."
TESTIMONY OF MISSIONARIES, IN 1837.
Rev. Mr. Crookes, of the Wesleyan Mission, said to Mr. Thome: "In many
respects there has been a great improvement since the abolition of
slavery. The obstacles to religious effort have been considerably
diminished; but we owe that mainly to the protection of British law. I
believe many of the planters would still persecute the missionaries, and
tear down their chapels, if they dared. I abominate the apprentice
system. At best, it is only mitigated slavery. I am convinced that
immediate and entire emancipation would have been far better policy."
The Rev. Jonathan Edmonson, and Rev. Mr. Wooldridge agreed in testifying
that the planters generally, were doing "comparatively nothing to
prepare the negroes for freedom." "Their sole object seemed to be to get
as much work as possible out of them before 1840." "Their conduct was
calculated to make the apprentices their bitter enemies."
The Wesleyan Missionary at Bath said: "There are some bad characters
among the negroes, as there are everywhere, among all classes of people.
But generally they are docile and well behaved. They are eager for
instruction. After working all day, they come several miles to our
evening schools, and stay cheerfully till nine o'clock. Mothers with
sucking babes in their arms stand, night after night, in our classes,
learning the alphabet. If they can obtain even the leaf of a book they
make it their constant companion. They are very easily won by acts of
kindness. Sometimes they burst into tears and say to the missionaries,
'Massa _so_ kind! Me heart full.'"
Mr. Thome says: "While we were at Garden River Valley, we attended
service in the Baptist Chapel, on the summit of a high mountain,
overlooking the sea. Seen from the valley below, it appears to topple on
the brink of a frightful precipice. As we ascended the steep and
winding road, we saw throngs of apprentices, coming from many miles
round, in every direction. The men halted in the thick woods to put on
their shoes, which they brought in their hands up the mountain, and the
women to draw on their white stockings. Mr. Kingdon, the pastor asked us
to address his people, and we cannot soon forget the scene that
followed. We had scarcely uttered a sentence, expressive of our sympathy
with their condition, and our interest in their temporal and spiritual
welfare, before the whole audience began to weep. Some sobbed, others
cried aloud; insomuch that for a time we were unable to proceed. When we
spoke of it afterwards to their pastor, he said, 'The idea that a
stranger and a foreigner should take an interest in their welfare
stirred the deep fountains of their hearts. They are so unaccustomed to
hear such language from white people, that it fell upon them like rain
on the parched earth.'"
JAMAICA BETWEEN 1837 AND 1846.
As time passed on, the conviction deepened in the minds of magistrates,
missionaries, and the more reflecting among the planters, that slavery,
by its very nature, did not admit of any modification. The
apprenticeship system proved "hateful to the slave, obnoxious to the
master, and perplexing to the magistrates." Some of the apprentices
bought their time; and their orderly, industrious habits afterward
confirmed the growing impression that entire emancipation was the _best
policy_. The Marquis of Sligo, the humane and just Governor of Jamaica,
was a large proprietor, and he manifested his sentiments by liberating
all his apprentices. His example had great influence. Public opinion was
again roused in England. Petitions from all classes poured into
Parliament, begging that the apprenticeship might be abolished; on the
ground that the planters had violated the contract; that they did not
use the system as a preparation for freedom, but for purposes of
continued oppression. The result of these combined influences was that
the field-laborers were not held in apprenticeship till 1840, but were
entirely emancipated, with the household slaves, on the first day of
August, 1838. Rev. James Phillippo, Baptist Missionary in Jamaica, thus
describes the day: "On the preceding evening, the missionary stations
throughout the island were crowded with people, filling all the places
of worship. They remained at their devotions till the day of liberty
dawned, when they saluted it with joyous acclamations. Then they
dispersed through the towns and villages, singing 'God save the queen'
and rending the air with their shouts: 'Freedom's come!' 'We're free!
We're free!' 'Our wives and children are free!' During the day, the
places of worship were crowded to suffocation. The scenes presented
exceeded all description. Joyous excitement pervaded the whole island.
At Spanish Town, the Governor, Sir Lionel Smith, addressed the
emancipated people, who formed a procession of 7,000, and escorted the
children of the schools, about 2,000 in number, to the Government House.
They bore banners and flags with various inscriptions, of which the
following are samples. 'Education, Religion, and Social Order.' 'August
First, 1838; the Day of our Freedom.' 'Truth and Justice have at last
prevailed.' The children sang before the Government House, and His
Excellency made a speech characterized by simplicity and affection,
which was received with enthusiastic cheers. The procession then
escorted their pastor to his house. In front of the Baptist Chapel were
three triumphal arches, decorated with leaves and flowers, and
surmounted by flags, bearing the inscriptions, 'Freedom has come!'
'Slavery is no more!' 'The chains are broken, Africa is free!' The
enthusiasm of the multitude was wound up to the highest pitch. They
wanted to greet all the flags; many of which bore the names of their
benefactors, 'Sturge,' 'Brougham,' 'Sligo,' etc. The flags were
unfurled, and for nearly an hour the air rang with exulting shouts, in
which the shrill voices of the 2,000 children joined: 'We're free! We're
free!' 'Our wives and our children are free!'"
Several of the kindly disposed planters gave rural fêtes to the
laborers. Long tables were spread in the lawns; arches of evergreens
were festooned with flowers; and on the trees floated banners, bearing
the names of those who had been most conspicuous in bringing about this
blessed result. Songs were sung, speeches made, prayers offered, and a
plentiful repast eaten. Mr. Phillippo says: "The conduct of the newly
emancipated peasantry would have done credit to Christians of the most
civilized country in the world. They were clean in their persons, and
neat in their attire. Their behavior was modest, unassuming, and
decorous in a high degree. There was no crowding, no vulgar familiarity,
but all were courteous and obliging to each other, as members of one
harmonious family. There was no dancing, gambling, or carousing. All
seemed to have a sense of the obligations they owed to their masters, to
each other, and to the civil authorities. The masters who were present
at these fêtes congratulated their former dependents on the boon they
had received, and hopes were mutually expressed that all past
differences and wrongs might be forgiven. Harmony and cheerfulness
smiled on every countenance; and the demon of discord disappeared, for a
season. On some of the estates where these festivals were held, the
laborers, with few individual exceptions, went to work as usual on the
following day. _Many of them gave their first week of free labor as an
offering of good-will to their masters._ Thus the period, from which
many of the planters had apprehended the worst consequences, passed away
in peace and harmony. Not a single instance of violence or
insubordination, of serious disagreement or of intemperance, occurred in
any part of the island."
After this safe transition to a better state of things, the public were
informed of no troubles in Jamaica for several years, except deficiency
of labor, and diminished production of sugar. Pro-slavery presses, both
in England and America, eagerly proclaimed these deficiencies as the
results of emancipation. But enough has been already said to prove, to
any candid and reflecting mind, that these effects were attributable to
other causes. _First._ Emancipation found nearly all the estates on the
island heavily mortgaged; most of them for more than they were worth.
The compensation money, received from the British government, was soon
swallowed up, the planters hardly knew how. It helped them to pay off a
portion of their long-accumulating arrears, but left them still involved
in pecuniary difficulties. Many of them had not money to pay for labor;
and some, who had it, retained too much of the spirit of slave-holding
to be scrupulous about paying the negroes for their work. Rev. Mr.
Bleby says: "I know hundreds of colored laborers in Jamaica, who labored
on the sugar plantations, and were defrauded of their wages. I knew a
man who had a salary of one thousand pounds ($4,845) from an office
under government, who employed two or three hundred laborers several
months, then took the benefit of the Insolvent Act, and never paid them
a cent. One of those great planting attorneys, who had fifty or sixty
estates under his management, boasted to a friend of mine, that he made
them profitable, by cheating the laborers out of half their wages, by
one method or another. Is it surprising that the colored people should
prefer to raise produce on a few acres of their own, to working on the
plantations without wages? I was in Kingston when the railroad was made.
It was done entirely by the colored people. The manager told me he could
not desire laborers to work better. And what was the reason? Every
Saturday night he paid them their wages."
_Second._ The tenure by which land was held was very precarious, as has
already been explained by Governor Hincks. Planters in such a perverse
state of mind as many were in Jamaica, were, of course, not slow to
avail themselves of this instrument of oppression. When the emancipated
laborers hired a hut and a bit of land on the estates where they had
been accustomed to work, they were required to pay rent several times
over. According to the statement of the Rev. Mr. Bleby, "The employer,
would say to the husband, 'You must pay in labor, for the rent of your
house.' Then he would say the same to the wife; and perhaps to other
adult members of the family. Thus they managed to get rent paid twice,
and sometimes four times over." If the tenant expressed dissatisfaction,
or gave offence in any way, or if his capricious landlord merely wanted
to make him feel that he was still in his power, he was ejected at once,
and obliged to take for his crops whatever the despotic employer saw fit
to value them at. Such tyrannical proceedings were common all over the
island. If a majority of the planters had _intended_ to drive the
negroes away from their estates, and force them "to skulk in the woods
and live upon yams," as they had predicted, they could not have adopted
a policy better suited to their purpose. The negroes, notwithstanding
their strong local attachments, were driven from the sugar estates by
these persecutions; but they did far better than "skulk in the woods,
and retrograde to barbarism," as I shall presently show.
Rev. Mr. Phillippo, writing in 1843, says: "The planters persisted in
their designs, and, at last multitudes of laborers were compelled to
sacrifice their feelings of attachment to their domiciles, and to
establish themselves in freeholds of their own. Hence, and from no other
cause, arose those reports of insolence and idleness, so widely and
perseveringly circulated against the peasantry. It is delightful to add
that the injustice and impolicy of such conduct have now become
generally manifest; so that the causes of mutual dissatisfaction are
now, to a considerable extent, extinct."
An intelligent gentleman in St. Thomas said to Mr. Thome, "The planters
have set their hearts upon the ruin of the island, and they will be
sorely disappointed, if it shouldn't come." But this disappointment was
in reserve for them, and no ingenuity of theirs could prevent it. As
individuals, they suffered for their blind and narrow policy; but public
prosperity began to move steadily onward.
The Lord Bishop of Jamaica, in a circular recommending the establishment
of schools for the emancipated peasantry, dated November, 1838, makes
the following statement: "The peaceable demeanor of the objects of our
instruction, and their generally acknowledged good behavior, are the
natural fruits of being made better acquainted with the saving truths of
the gospel; and no stronger proof can be given of their desire to obtain
this knowledge than the fact that their choice in fixing their
settlements is often influenced by the opportunities afforded for
acquiring moral and religious instruction for themselves and their
children."
Early in 1839, Sir Lionel Smith, Governor of the island, made the
following statement, in an official document: "I have sent numerous
testimonies to England, to show that where labor has been encouraged by
fair remuneration and kind treatment, it has nowhere been wanting."
A part of the outcry concerning want of labor, and the depreciation of
property arose from managers and attorneys, who conducted affairs for
absentee proprietors. They wanted to buy estates themselves, at a low
price; therefore, they irritated and discouraged the laborers, with the
intention of driving them from the estates; and in some cases, they
burned the sugar cane after it was gathered; giving as a reason that,
from scarcity of labor, they could not convert it into sugar, except at
prices which would entail a loss. The statements of such interested and
unprincipled men were eagerly republished by pro-slavery papers in
England and America; but, in this country, it was impossible for friends
of freedom to procure any extensive republication of such testimony as
the following, from the Rev. D. S. Ingraham, pastor of a church near
Kingston, Jamaica, who visited the United States in 1840, and gave the
following written testimony for publication: "Emancipation has greatly
improved the value of all kinds of property. Land near my residence,
which sold for fifteen dollars an acre a short time before emancipation,
has been sold recently for sixty dollars an acre; and had there been ten
times as much for sale, it would have sold readily for that price. I
know of much land that now _leases_ for more money in one year, than it
would have _sold_ for under slavery. Peace and safety have been promoted
by emancipation. It was formerly thought necessary to have six regiments
of soldiers, to keep the slaves in subjection, and also for the militia
to meet monthly in each parish. Since freedom was declared, half of the
soldiers have been removed; and where I live, the militia have entirely
ceased to muster.[7] Emancipation has diminished crime. Jails formerly
well filled, and often crowded, now have few tenants. A part of the
house of correction in my parish is converted into a hospital, and the
bloody old tread-mill is incrusted with rust. Emancipation has promoted
industry. A gentleman, who has been a planter in Jamaica for twenty
years, told me there was undoubtedly far more work done in the island
now than ever before. Indeed, any one can see that such is the case.
Wherever you look, you see the forests giving place to gardens and
cornfields, and numbers of comfortable houses growing up under the hand
of industry and perseverance. Many villages have been built up entirely
since freedom by those who were formerly slaves. A spirit of improvement
has been called forth. Roads and streets are being McAdamized; there are
many new markets in different parts of the country. Agricultural
Societies are forming; and ploughs are coming into use. An overseer
lately told me that he now ploughed upland for canes at one dollar and
seventy-five cents per acre, instead of paying fifteen dollars an acre,
to have it dug up, as formerly. There is a universal desire for
knowledge among the emancipated people. They often send twenty miles in
search of a preacher, or teacher. They have come to me and pleaded with
an eloquence that no Christian could resist, saying: 'Minister, _do_
come and see we! We all ignorant; and so much big pickaniny, that don't
know nothing. _Do_ try for get we a teacher! We will take care of him.'"
Joseph J. Gurney, who visited Jamaica in 1840, says: "The imports of the
island are rapidly increasing; trade improving; towns thriving; new
villages rising up in every direction; property is much enhanced in
value; well-managed estates are productive and profitable; expenses of
management diminished; short methods of labor adopted; provisions
cultivated on a larger scale than ever; and the people, wherever they
are properly treated, are industrious, contented, and gradually
accumulating wealth. Above all, the morals of the community are
improving, and education is rapidly spreading.
"Under slavery, two hundred slaves were supported on the Papine estate;
it is now worked by forty-three laborers. The estate of Halberstadt used
to support one hundred and seventy slaves; now fifty-four laborers do
all the work required. The support of the slaves on this estate cost
£850 annually; the annual wages of the free laborers amount to £607
10s. 3d.
"'Do you see that excellent new stone wall round the field below us?'
said a young physician. 'The necessary labor could not have been hired
under slavery, or the apprenticeship, at less than thirteen dollars per
chain; under freedom it cost only four dollars per chain. Still more
remarkable is the fact that the whole of it was built, under the
stimulus of job-work, by an invalid negro, who, under slavery, had been
given up to total inaction.' Such was the fresh blood infused into the
veins of this decrepit person by the genial hand of freedom, that he had
executed a noble work, greatly improved his master's property, and
realized for himself a handsome sum of money."
Dr. Stewart said to Mr. Gurney, "I believe, in my conscience, that
property in Jamaica, _without_ the slaves, is as valuable as it formerly
was _with_ them; and I believe its value would be doubled by sincerely
turning away from all relics of slavery to the honest free working of a
free system."
A despatch from Sir Charles Metcalfe, read in the House of Commons,
1842, declares: "The present condition of the peasantry of Jamaica is
very striking. They are much improved in their habits, and are generally
well-ordered and free from crime. They subscribe for their respective
churches, and are constant in their attendance on divine worship,
wearing good clothes, and many of them riding on horses. They send their
children to school, and pay for their schooling." "It appears wonderful
how so much has been accomplished in the island, in building, planting,
digging, and making fences. The number of freeholders, who have become
freeholders by their own industry and accumulation, amounted in 1840 to
7,340."
The _Jamaica Morning Journal_ in February, 1843, says: "It is gratifying
to observe the impetus which has been given to agricultural and literary
societies. We do not recollect ever to have seen such vigorous efforts
put forth for the improvement of the people and of agriculture, as have
been within the last few months."
Rev. Mr. Phillippo, writing in the same year, says: "The term indolent
can only be applied to the black population in the absence of
remunerating employment; and even then they work on their own
provision-grounds. Jamaica peasants are seldom seen lounging about,
loitering along the roads, or spending their money at taverns and other
similar places of resort. As for the great bulk of the people, making
allowance for climate, no peasantry in the world can display more
cheerful and persevering industry. In the time of slavery, unrestrained
licentiousness was the order of the day. Every estate and every negro
hut was a brothel. Now, marriage is the rule and concubinage the
exception. Although every trifling infraction of the laws (contrary to
former usage) is now publicly known and punished by magistrates, empty
jails, and the absence of serious offences from the calendar of the
courts, are sufficient evidence of the general decrease of crime."
The _Jamaica Morning Journal_, March, 1843, says: "Our readers will be
surprised and pleased to learn that for the last five days not a single
prisoner has been committed to the cage in this city [Kingston]. We
record this fact with great pleasure, as we believe such a circumstance
never before occurred since the building of the city."
Rev. Mr. Bleby says: "Before I left Jamaica (which was previous to
1848), no less than 50,000 colored people had become freeholders, as the
fruit of their own industry. We are told these people will not work. How
did they obtain these freeholds then? Some of them have mahogany
bedsteads and side-boards in their houses. How do they get such
furniture, except as the result of their own toil?"
JAMAICA AFTER 1846.
Now we are coming upon sad times. It has been stated that the West
Indies had the monopoly of sugar in the British market, at an immense
cost to the consumers. This had frequently called out remonstrances from
the British people; and in 1846 government repealed the tariff, which
excluded other countries from competition. The result was a sudden and
great fall in the price of sugar. "In 1840, sugar sold in bond at 49s. a
cwt. ($11.86.) In 1848, it had sunk to 23s. 5d. ($5.65.") The result was
many millions of dollars less in the receipts for their crops; and that
was far from being the worst feature in the case. Business in the West
Indies had for generations been carried on upon credit; and now credit
was gone. The writer in the _Edinburgh_ thus states the case: "The vast
capital requisite for the production of sugar had been annually advanced
by merchants in London, on the security of the crops. But, of course,
when it was known that sugar had fallen so enormously in value, the
merchants took fright, and the credit of the planter was gone. He was
embarked in transactions on which a vast capital had been laid out, and
which required a vast capital to carry them on; and capital he could not
obtain." The suffering was dreadful. Thousands of families accustomed to
the luxuries of wealth were reduced to poverty, without any of the
habits that would have enabled them to bear it bravely. Their cry of
distress resounded through the world. Pro-slavery presses in England and
America exultingly proclaimed, "Behold the effects of emancipation?" and
people without examining the subject, echoed the railing accusation. But
one very important circumstance was overlooked; viz., that when this cry
of distress arose, _slavery had been abolished fourteen years, and the
apprenticeship had been abolished ten years_. By a little examination
they might have ascertained that, previous to the repeal of the tariff,
things were going on prosperously in the West Indies; which is
sufficiently indicated by the fact that just before the blow came, they
had been making an outlay to produce larger crops; a circumstance which
rendered the blow all the heavier. Even Jamaica, with all her wretched
mismanagement and financial disorders, was _beginning_ to be prosperous,
in consequence of emancipation, as we have shown.
Of the fall of property, subsequent to the repeal of the tariff some
estimate may be formed from the following item. In 1838, the La Grange
estate was sold for £25,000 ($121,125); and in 1840 the Windsor Forest
estate sold for £40,000 ($193,800). In 1850, both those estates sold
together for £11,000 ($53,295).
Mr. Bigelow, of the _New York Evening Post_, who visited Jamaica in
1850, says: "It is difficult to exaggerate, and still more difficult to
define the poverty and industrial prostration of Jamaica. The natural
wealth and spontaneous productiveness of the island are so great, that
no one can starve, and yet it seems as if the faculty of accumulation
were suspended. The productive power of the soil is running to waste;
the finest land in the world may be had almost for the asking; labor
receives no compensation; and the product of labor does not seem to know
the way to market."
The soil still continued to be owned chiefly by absentees; an
unincumbered estate of any size or value was hardly to be found; and
since the depreciation of property, it was impossible to borrow money,
to any considerable extent, on Jamaica estates.
Mr. Bigelow informs us that "Jamaica imports, annually, 70,000 barrels
of flour; 90,000 bushels of corn; 300,000 pounds of tobacco; and 10 or
12,000,000 feet of lumber and sawed stuff. They have magnificent
forests, but not a sawmill on the island. Even their bricks they import.
They pay extravagant prices for articles, which could be cultivated in
Jamaica with the utmost ease and abundance. Butter is 37½ cts. a pound;
milk 18¾ cts. a quart; flour from sixteen to eighteen dollars a barrel;
etc. Nothing apparently can be more unnatural than for the people of
this island, in their present poverty-stricken condition, to be paying
such prices for daily food; yet nothing is more inevitable, so long as
the land is held in such large quantities, and by absentee landlords.
Till recently, such a thing was never known as a small farm of fifty or
a hundred acres to be put under culture for profit."
As the planters and their advocates were continually complaining that
wages were ruinously high, Mr. Bigelow made it a subject of special
inquiry. He says: "To my utter surprise, I learned that the wages of men
on the sugar and coffee plantations ranged from eighteen to twenty-four
cents a day; and proportionably less for women and children. Out of
these wages the laborers have _to board themselves_. Now, when it is
considered that flour is eighteen dollars a barrel, eggs from three to
five cents a piece, and ham twenty-five cents a pound, does not this cry
of high wages appear absurd? Was the wolf's complaint of the lamb, for
muddying the stream below him, more unreasonable? Are wages lower in any
quarter of the civilized world? Four-fifths of all the grain consumed in
Jamaica is grown in the United States, on fields where labor costs more
than four times this price, and where every kind of provision, except
fruit, is less expensive. The fact is, the negro cannot live on such
wages, unless he ekes them out by stealing, or owns a lot of three or
five acres. He is driven by necessity to purchase land and cultivate it
for himself. He finds such labor so much better rewarded than that he
bestows on the lands of others, that he naturally takes care of his own
first, and gives his leisure to the properties of others.
"Of course, it requires no little energy and self-denial for a negro,
upon such wages, to lay up enough to purchase a little estate; but if he
does get one, he never parts with it, except for a larger or better one.
I was greatly surprised to find the number of these colored proprietors
already considerably over 100,000, and continually increasing. When one
reflects that only sixteen years ago there was scarcely a colored
landholder on the island, it is unnecessary to say that this class of
the population appreciate the privileges of free labor and a homestead
far more correctly than might be expected; more especially when it is
borne in mind that seven-tenths of them were born in slavery, and spent
many years as bondmen. Their properties average, I should think, about
three acres. They have a direct interest in cultivating them
economically and intelligently. The practice of planning their own
labor, encouraged by the privilege of reaping its rewards, exerts upon
them the most important educational influence; the results of which will
soon be much more apparent than they now are."
Pro-slavery writers declare that these negro farmers have not raised
five pounds of sugar a year for exportation. But does that prove they
are lazy? Where butter is 37½ cts. a pound, eggs from three to five
cents a piece, onions 12½ cts. a pound, and other provisions at the same
rate, they can turn their land to better account, than to enter into
competition with sugar makers. When the same system is introduced that
Gov. Hincks mentions in Barbadoes, they will doubtless turn their
attention to raising sugar canes.
There is much evidence that there is no actual want of labor in Jamaica,
though it has doubtless been alienated from the large sugar plantations.
Firstly, by the harsh and unjust treatment of many of the planters.
Secondly, by the state of bankruptcy in which emancipation found them,
and which rendered them unable to pay for work. Thirdly, and probably
the strongest cause for all, was the inability of the laborers to hire
land on their estates, with any degree of security. Mr. Charles Tappan,
of Boston, who visited Jamaica in 1858, says: "The alleged want of labor
is a false cry. Where labor is said to be deficient, it can be traced
to causes within the planters' control to remove. Of these, insufficient
wages, unpunctual payment of the same, or no payment at all, are stated
to be the chief." "In conversing with planters, I learned that laborers
can easily be obtained for a fair compensation and kind treatment. But
it is a fact that the emancipated much prefer to work on their own few
acres of land." Mr. S. B. Slack, an old native resident of Jamaica,
writes thus to Mr. Tappan in 1858: "With few exceptions the planters now
acknowledge that emancipation was a blessing. Some soreness was felt at
the commencement; and it was manifested in the injudicious acts of
ejecting laborers from the cottages they had occupied since infancy, and
destroying their provision-grounds, which led them to purchase freeholds
of their own, and thus become independent of their labor on the estates.
But if the negroes are as lazy as they are represented, how is it that
in the construction of a new road across the island more laborers can be
obtained than are required? How is it that the Water Works Company are
sure to have competitors for employment? How does it happen that the
Railway Company are equally well off for labor? The answer is, because
the laborers are liberally and punctually paid; and they are willing to
work, when they are sure to obtain the reward."
Sir Charles Grey, who was Governor of Jamaica, in 1850, says: "There are
few races of men who will work harder, or more perseveringly, than the
negroes, when they are sure of getting the produce of their labor."
The Free Villages, which have sprung up since emancipation are described
by all travellers as a new and most pleasing feature in the scenery of
the West Indies. In the days of slavery, laborers generally lived in
thatched hovels, with mud walls, thrown together without any order or
arrangement. A few calabashes, a water jar, and a mortar for pounding
corn, mainly constituted their furniture. As the women were driven into
the fields to toil early and late, they had no time for household
cleanliness. These negro dwellings looked picturesque in the distance,
nestling among palm-trees and tamarind groves; but, like slavery itself,
they would not bear a close inspection. As you came near them, the
senses were offended by decaying vegetables, and nauseous effluvia.
Now, the laborers live in Free Villages, regularly laid out. The houses
are small, many of them, built of stone or wood, with shingled roofs,
green blinds, and verandahs, to shield them from the sun. Most of them
are neatly thatched, and generally plastered and whitewashed outside and
in. They now have looking-glasses, chairs, and side-boards decorated
with pretty articles of glass and crockery. Each dwelling has its little
plot of vegetables, generally neatly kept, and many of them have
flower-gardens in front, glowing with all the bright hues of the
tropics. In 1843, Mr. Phillippo said that, by a rough estimate, the
number of these villages in Jamaica was about two hundred, and the
number of acres of land purchased was not less than 100,000. It was
estimated that in the course of four years, the emancipated apprentices
had paid £170,000 ($823,650) for land and buildings. And that was done
when wages were from eighteen to twenty-four cents a day, out of which
they boarded themselves! And these were the people who, the
slave-holders were so sure would "skulk in the woods, and live on yams,"
rather than work, after they ceased to be flogged!
The names of these villages give pleasant indication of the gratitude of
the colored people toward their benefactors. They are called Clarkson,
Wilberforce, Buxton, Brougham, Macaulay, Thompson, Gurney, Sligo, etc.
The names given to their own little homes have almost a poetic interest,
so touching and expressive is their simplicity. The following are
samples: "Happy Retreat;" "Thank God for it;" "A Little of my Own;"
"Liberty and Content;" "Thankful Hill;" "Come and See."
Joseph J. Gurney visited Clarkson Town in the winter of 1839, and has
recorded that he was "delighted with its appearance, and with the
manners, intelligence, and hospitality of the people." Mr. Phillippo,
who was familiar with these villages, says: "The groups often presented
are worthy of the painter's pencil, or the poet's song. Amid the
stillness of a Sabbath evening, many families, after their return from
the house of God, may be seen gathered together in the shadow of the
trees, which overhang their cottages, singing hymns, or listening to the
reading of the Scriptures, with none to molest or make them afraid."
Mr. Charles Tappan says: "On landing at Kingston, I must confess I was
half inclined to believe the story so industriously circulated, that the
emancipated slave is more idle and vicious than any other of God's
intelligent creatures; but when I rode through the valleys and over the
mountains, and found everywhere an industrious, sober people, I
concluded all the vagabonds of the island had moved to the sea-shore, to
pick up a precarious living by carrying baggage, begging, etc.; and
such, upon inquiry, I found to be the fact. Wherever I went in the rural
districts, I found contented men and women, cultivating sugar cane, and
numerous vegetables and fruits, on their own account. Their neat,
well-furnished cottages compared well with the dwellings of pioneers in
our own country. I found in them mahogany furniture, crockery and glass
ware, and shelves of useful books. I saw Africans, of unmixed blood,
grinding their own sugar cane in their own mills, and making their own
sugar. I attended a large meeting called to decide the question about
inviting a schoolmaster to settle among them. There was only one man who
doubted the expediency of taking the children from work and sending them
to school. One said: 'My little learning enabled me to see that a note,
given to me in payment for a horse, was not written according to
contract.' Another said: 'I should have been wronged out of forty pounds
of coffee I sold in Kingston, the other day, if I hadn't known how to
cipher.' Another said: 'I shall not have much property to leave my
children, but if they have learning, they can get property.' Another
said: 'Those that can read will be more likely to get religion.' All
these people had been slaves, or were the children of slaves. I saw no
intoxicated person in Jamaica; and when it is considered that every man
there can make rum, it strikes me as very remarkable."
Here we have the germ of that middling class, which is the best reliance
in every community, and which can never co-exist with slavery.
The fall of sugar as we have said prostrated the West Indies for a time;
and no Colony was so badly situated to sustain it as Jamaica, with her
overwhelming debts, her wretched management, her financial disorders,
and her laborers alienated from the sugar estates by persistence in
treating freemen as if they were slaves. Lord Sligo stated, in an
official report, that many of the planters threw estates out of
cultivation in 1832, because they were so sure that the negroes would
not work after the Act of Emancipation had passed. Then, when the fall
of sugar came in 1847 a great many planters were obliged to abandon
their estates, from inability to borrow money to carry them on. Mr.
Bigelow states that, in 1850, there were 400,000 acres of sugar and
coffee plantations abandoned to weeds and under-bush.
But there is a recuperative power in Free Trade, as there is in Free
Labor. The West Indies soon began to rise from the severe but temporary
pressure, occasioned by the repeal of the Tariff. In some cases property
passed out of the fettered hands of bankrupts to those, who being
unincumbered, could take a fair start; while some of the old proprietors
learned wisdom from experience, and managed more judiciously. Even
Jamaica is coming in for her share in these beneficial changes. That her
waste places are beginning to be restored is indicated by the following
article from the _Kingston Morning Journal_, 1857: "On Monday last, the
roads leading to Great Valley estate presented a lively appearance. Men
and women, old and young, strong and weak, were all hastening toward a
common point of attraction. Gaudy handkerchiefs were flying from
flagpoles, the people were singing and dancing, and every thing gave
token of a day much honored by the peasantry. It was no wedding or
merry-making. They were in working clothes, with hoes and pickaxes on
their shoulders. From every track and by-path came individuals to
increase the crowd. All seemed happy and in haste. All were sweeping
toward the gate of the Great Valley works. We said to an old man, whose
head was white with the frost of eighty winters: 'Hallo! where are all
these people going?' Taking off his cap, he answered, 'Me good buckra,
me neber expect to see him Great Valley da rise. Him goin' for 'tablish
cane; make sugar agin. Good for we all. Eberybody for help.' 'But you
are too old to do any thing.' 'Da true, me massa. Me no hab trong. But
me must do someting. Me fetch water. Me heart trong, do me han' weak.'
To another we said: 'Where are you taking that cart-load of cane-tops
to, my man?' 'To the Great Valley, sir. They are going to establish the
sugar estate again; and I am carrying them all the cane-tops I have, to
plant.' We said to a woman with a great bundle of cane-tops on her head,
'Are you going to the Great Valley, too?' 'Yes, sir. It's a great day
for us all. Everybody must help.' To another, who headed a group of
seventy or eighty children, we said, 'Where are you going, my friend?'
'I am the master of Pondside school, sir. The girls and boys all begged
a holiday, to carry cane-tops to the Great Valley, and help them dig
cane-holes. A new proprietor has bought the estate, and everybody wants
to help him.' 'But don't you think there will be difficulty in procuring
labor?' 'No, sir, not a bit; if the people are treated honestly and
kindly. The new proprietor has a kindly way with him, and treats the
people encouragingly; and a kind word goes a great way with our people.
But I must follow my scholars. You can hear by their noise that they
have already joined the digging party, there where the flags are
flying.' And sure enough the ringing sound of children's shouts and
laughter was borne joyously on the breeze.
"Great Valley is a noble estate of 4,000 acres, pleasantly situated
between hills. It was formerly considered the second estate in the
parish of Hanover. Now the works looked like some venerable ruin.
Windows broken, chimneys tumbling, roofs falling in, lightning-rod
swinging to and fro, carts and trucks rotting in the middle of the yard,
the noble tank filled up with weeds, among which wild ducks were
floating. But these ruined walls are to be rebuilt. The solitary places,
now musty with mould and decay, will soon be filled with a busy throng,
and the pleasant perfume of sugar-boiling will replace the unwholesome
vapors. It is a pleasant prospect; and seems an omen of more prosperous
days for our Island of Jamaica."
Between 1853 and 1855, there was an increase in exports to the amount of
£166,049 ($804,507.40).
The Governor, in his report for 1855, says: "I feel more confident of
the ultimate restoration of prosperity than I ever did before."
The Governor, in his speech at the opening of the Legislature, 1858,
says: "A still progressive increase, both in the quantity of the staple
exports, and in the amount of revenue derived from duties on articles of
consumption, indicate a gradual improvement in the productive industry
of the Colony." He alludes to a succession of dry seasons, that have
diminished the crops; and yet with that very serious drawback, the
exports were increasing. He admits that complaints still came from the
old plantations of a deficiency of continuous labor; which he says he
can readily believe, from the "admitted fact that the portion of the
agricultural peasantry, who, with their families, industriously and
systematically apply themselves to the independent production of sugar,
and other staples, is day by day increasing."
When Lord Belmore, the Governor in 1832, said to the Jamaica Assembly,
"Depend upon it, gentlemen, the resources of this fine island will never
be fully developed, until slavery is abolished," he gave them very great
offence. The grandsons of the men he offended will see his prediction
verified. Even amid all the desolation and discouragement in 1850, Mr.
Bigelow says: "I made extensive inquiry, but I did not find a man upon
the island who regretted the Emancipation Act, or who, if I may take
their own professions, would have restored slavery, if it had been in
their power."
Ernst Noel, who writes from Jamaica to the _New York Times_, in the
winter of 1860, says: "It is an undoubted fact that the exportation of
coffee in Jamaica has declined from twenty-five and thirty millions to
five and six millions; but it is also an undoubted fact that where one
pound was used in the island prior to emancipation ten are used now.
[Every laborer has his cup of coffee now.] It is my firm conviction that
there is no such great discrepancy between the amount _grown_ at the
time of emancipation, and the amount now grown; especially when the
extent of _exhausted_ coffee land is taken into account. The same
statement will apply with much greater force to provisions of every
description. It is undoubtedly true that most of the large coffee
properties formerly in cultivation have been abandoned, or turned to
other uses. Coffee requires new land; and the clearance of fifty acres
of wood is a Herculean enterprise for coffee planters, among whom want
of _capital_ prevails as much as among sugar planters. But whatever
_large_ coffee planters may say about their profits and losses, it is a
notorious fact that thousands and thousands of settlers grow the
delicious berry to advantage; as any merchant engaged in the trade will
be able to testify. They come to the towns and villages with one, two,
six, or a dozen bags, and in this way many a cargo is made up for
foreign ports."
The same writer says that several experienced planters, to whom he
proposed questions concerning investment of capital in that island,
assured him that profits from ten to twenty per cent might be securely
counted upon.
NOTE.--In Mauritius, a fertile island in the Indian Ocean,
belonging to Great Britain, the sugar crop, during the last ten
years of slavery, averaged 68,741,120 lbs. annually. During four
years, after emancipation, beginning with 1845, the average crop
was 171,122,500 lbs.; an increase of 102 millions of pounds
annually; nearly 150 per cent in favor of free labor.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] The population of Jamaica, at the time of emancipation, was 87,000
whites; 311,692 slaves; 55,000 free colored people.
[7] During slavery, the military defence of the West Indies annually
cost England £2,000,000 ($9,960,000). For the single insurrection of
1832, in Jamaica, it cost the government $800,000: and private property
was destroyed, to the amount of $6,000,000.