from which many of the islands have not yet recovered. It was, the
planters said, the second attempt to ruin them, the first having been
the abolition of the slave-trade. The party who brought it about looked
to see their _protegees_ become a contented, hard-working peasantry, in
place of driven cattle, as they called them. The planters, on the
contrary, were morally certain that as free men they would not work, and
without a labour supply their estates would be utterly ruined. The
British taxpayer grumbled at having to pay twenty millions, but this was
a mere sop for the estate owners. With the loss of their human chattels
the plantations in many cases became utterly valueless; for the negroes
congregated round certain centres, leaving most of the outlying places
without enough people to keep up the cultivation. Labour had been
degraded by the system, and now the full effects of such influence began
to be felt.
[Illustration: NEGRESS, GUIANA.]
[Illustration: NEGRESS FISH-SELLERS, GUIANA.]
The compensation money, in many cases, went towards paying off mortgages
and other claims, the holders of which saw the impending ruin and
hastened to save themselves as far as possible. But it was not enough
even for that, for many plantations had liens of half the appraised
value of the land, buildings, and slaves. The last security being
entirely gone the others became worthless, and, as no one cared to
advance money on such risks, the nominal owners could not even get as
much as to pay wages. A plantation valued at perhaps L60,000 a few years
before, and easily mortgaged for half that amount, received L16,000 for
compensation with which to pay off the claim, and then wanted cash to
carry on as well. Banks were established, but only solvent estates could
get help from them, and consequently hundreds were abandoned in the
larger colonies, and hardly one, with the exception of those in
Barbados, could produce as much sugar as formerly. West Indian Nabobs,
who had been getting their ten thousand a year and living in England,
went out to see what could be done. Their incomes were entirely gone,
and with them all hopes for the future. Widows and children lost their
only means of support, and ruin fell on hundreds of families in England
as well as in the West Indies. But not only did this downfall affect the
owners and their relations, but merchants as well. Old firms shook to
their very foundations, while many became bankrupt, to bring suffering
to the homes of thousands who had hardly known of the sugar colonies
beyond the invectives of the anti-slavery society. Many who had been
strong advocates of emancipation now wished they had never said anything
about it, but the die was cast, and there could never again be anything
like the shilly-shallying of the French at Hayti.
[Illustration: CHINESE WOOD-CARRIER.]
[Illustration: EAST INDIAN COOLIE.]
The negroes would not work, and there were no means of forcing them to
do so. The anti-slavery party still had their delegates in the West
Indies to see that the "poor negro" was not oppressed in any way, and
their representatives in Parliament to call the Government to account if
they allowed any vagrancy laws, or even the shadow of a coercive measure
in the colonies. One ordinance after another for this purpose was
disallowed, until every planter was in despair.
[Illustration: EAST INDIAN COOLIE FAMILY.]
[Illustration: COOLIE BARBER.]
To retain their labourers was a matter of life or death. Some continued
the old slave allowances to put them in good humour, but as these made
the negroes independent of wages, the privilege was abused. They took
everything and did nothing in return. Some went so far as to say that
the Queen had promised that their late masters should supply them as
usual, entirely regardless of the amount of work they did. This made the
planters sore. What with one trouble and another the few who survived
the wreck hardly knew how to act. They must not do anything to drive
their people away, for there were many inducements offered by others in
the same predicament. The negro was master, and he knew it. So much
depended on him that he was enticed to labour, by high wages and greater
privileges, until this bidding of one against another produced the very
result which it was intended to avoid.
[Illustration: EAST INDIAN COOLIE GIRL.]
[Illustration: COOLIE WOMEN, BRITISH GUIANA.]
Something had to be done. First, the allowances of those who would not
work were stopped; then their houses and provision grounds were taken
away. Thousands of fruit-trees were destroyed to prevent their living on
mangoes and bananas during the season. Then the planters attempted to
combine to bring wages to a paying level, and this led to strikes of
the negroes. Everything tended to further estrangement until employer
and labourer drifted far apart. In British Guiana the negroes bought
some of the abandoned plantations and established villages; in some
cases they even attempted to carry them on as sugar estates, but as all
wanted to be masters they in every case failed.
[Illustration: COOLIE VEGETABLE SELLERS, BRITISH GUIANA.]
[Illustration: EAST INDIAN COOLIES, TRINIDAD.]
As if this were not enough, the British Government went in for free
trade, and allowed foreign slave-grown sugar to compete with that of the
colonies. It seemed as if the French revolutionary cry of "Perish the
colonies!" had now been introduced into the British Parliament. From one
point of view the planters had been amply paid with the compensation
money. Some went so far as to say that twenty millions could have bought
all the estates in the West Indies, implying that the colonists had no
further claim upon them. Even the anti-slavery party would not see that
they were encouraging the slave system in other countries by opening
their markets. This completed the ruin begun by emancipation, but as
long as the principles were adhered to it did not matter.
[Illustration: EAST INDIAN COOLIE, TRINIDAD.]
Most of the remaining plantations now fell into the hands of those who
had liens upon them, and they, not liking to lose their money
altogether, commenced the uphill work of again bringing them into
cultivation. Even a few colonists continued the struggle in hopes of
better times. In Demerara there were two cases where eminent
lawyers--the legal profession, by the bye, doing well when everything
else was on the verge of ruin--spent all their profits in keeping their
sugar estates from utter abandonment. One of these got so heavily in
debt that at one time he could not pay his house rent, and as the
landlord dared not sue him, he had metaphorically to go on his knees and
beg him to quit.
[Illustration: TRINIDAD COOLIES.]
However, the sturdy English spirit survived in a few, and they set to
work to obtain labourers from other parts of the world. At first they
thought of Africa, but the anti-slavery party would not hear of
immigration from the "dark continent," for fear of abuses. Then India
was tried, with the result that a few coolies were brought over by
private parties, notably to Demerara by John Gladstone. But again the
cry of slavery went forth, due to the managers leaving the new-comers in
the hands of their headmen or sirdars. It was charged against them that
they beat their underlings, and of course the planters had to bear the
responsibility. The result was that East Indian immigration was
prohibited for a time. After a hard struggle on the part of the planters
it was renewed, and in the end prevented Trinidad and British Guiana
from utter abandonment.
Besides Hindoo coolies, Chinese were also imported, as well as Maltese,
Madeirans, and a few Germans. At first the negro thought little of this
competition, but when he gradually dropped into the background, with his
missionary friends, he commenced to protest against it. His friends
said, and it was the truth, that there was enough labour in the colonies
to carry on the estates, but the difficulty was that it could not be
depended upon. Then the wages demanded by the negroes was entirely
beyond the means of the planters--the price of sugar would not admit of
them. It was a case of cheap labour or the alternative of giving up the
struggle, and with the East Indians, British Guiana, and Trinidad
recovered from the brink of ruin to become more flourishing in some
respects than in the years immediately preceding emancipation. Jamaica,
the greatest of the British colonies, suffered the most as she got but
few immigrants, and it is only during the last decade that she has again
begun to hold up her head. Without healthy competition with other races,
the negroes sunk back, until they became even more degraded than those
of British Guiana and Trinidad.
In Barbados, on the contrary, the population was so dense that the
freedman must either work or starve. There were no waste lands and few
absentee proprietors, nor were any of the estates abandoned. Labour was
plentiful and cheap; it followed, therefore, that the island soon
recovered from the check and went on prospering. The compulsion of the
whip gave way to the force of circumstances, and the struggle for
existence which ensued has made the Barbadian negro the most industrious
in the West Indies. Not only is he this, but he is, like his former
masters, intensely loyal to Great Britain and "Little England." All the
black, coloured, and white people in the other islands call themselves
Creoles, but he is "neither Crab (Carib) nor Creole, but true Barbadian
born."
In the French, Danish, and Dutch colonies labour laws were enforced
after emancipation, and generally with good results. They felt the
change, but not to such an extent as their neighbours, and recovered all
the sooner. Then they were not utterly disheartened by the unhealthy
competition of slave-grown products like the English. Possibly, however,
the British freedman would not have borne coercion, for even the Danes
resented it.
We have seen already that the negroes of the island of St. Croix were by
no means willing to submit to what they considered injustice, and how
they forced on their own emancipation. However, down to 1878 they were
bound to the soil as it were under annual engagements, from which they
were not released without proper notice, even after the term had
expired. They had houses, provision grounds, allowances, and very low
wages, and were bound to work five days a week. The engagement expired
annually on the 1st of October, and on that day those who did not renew
their contract assembled in the two towns of the island for a
jollification, where something like the old "mop" or hiring fair of
England took place.
In 1878 they somehow got the impression that the labour law was about to
be relaxed, but there does not seem to have been any combination among
them to obtain such an end; they were dissatisfied, and that was all.
About the same time the Government were so assured of their peaceable
disposition that they reduced the garrison of Christiansted, the
capital, to sixty men. When the 1st of October arrived the negroes
assembled as usual in Frederiksted, round the rum shops, appearing
good-humoured, although noisy, as such a crowd always must be. Nothing
particular happened until, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, a
cry went up that one of their number had been beaten by a policeman, on
which they attacked the peace officers, and drove them into the fort,
which was police-station and barracks. Some of the principal whites came
out and remonstrated with them, and at first they seemed as if they
would disperse, but just then the police-master, his assistant, and two
soldiers rode into their midst, brandishing swords and ordering them to
move off at once. Infuriated by this, the mob attacked the horsemen with
stones, and drove them back into the fort, which they now stormed. The
British Vice-Consul then went among them, and, after a little parleying,
induced them to go with him to the outskirts of the town. Here he got a
statement of their grievances, which were--first, that their wages were
too low (only ten cents a day); second, that the annual contract was
slavery; third, that the manager of the estate could fine them at will;
and fourth, that if they wanted to leave the island they were
obstructed. Having promised to do all he could for them, the Vice-Consul
begged them to disperse.
[Illustration: BARBADOS.
(_From Andrews' "West Indies."_)]
[Illustration: ST. LUCIA.
(_From Andrews' "West Indies."_)]
They were apparently leaving the town, when a woman came running up with
the report that the man who had been beaten by the police had just died
in the hospital. This made them furious, and all further hopes of their
pacification had to be given up. They invaded the hospital, knocked down
the sick-nurse and a patient who inquired their business, and demanded
to see the murdered man. They were informed that he was not dead but
only dead drunk, and would soon recover if left alone. On being
convinced of this, they again went off and attacked the fort. The
defenders, when assailed with stones, fired over their heads, but this
only made them all the more violent. The outer gate was broken down and
some of the negroes were shot. Just at that moment a planter came up,
intending to enter the fort, and at once they beat him with sticks until
he was nearly killed.
However, the bullets checked them, but only to throw the attack on other
parts of the town. Stores were pillaged and set fire to, until a great
portion of the town was in flames. From some of the stores they took
weapons in the shape of cane-bills, and in one were alarmed for a few
moments by an explosion of gunpowder. The whole of Bay Street was soon
in flames, and like troops of fiends the negroes went dancing round the
fires, in some places pouring on them cans of petroleum if the houses
did not blaze up fast enough. Then the rum casks began to burst, and
streams of burning spirit ran down the gutters, adding to the horror of
the scene. The women were always the most reckless--they danced and
howled with mingled joy and rage. The men added to the din by clashing
their sticks together or against the burning stores, some blowing shells
as a sort of rallying signal. "Our side!" was the watchword, and all who
could not or would not repeat it were severely beaten. Most of the
whites, however, had fled, leaving them entirely unchecked in their
destructive work.
Meanwhile the police-master had sent to Christiansted for assistance,
and while he waited the mob again assailed the fort and again without
success. All through the night the disturbance continued, and it was not
until six o'clock in the morning that a small band of twenty soldiers
arrived. At their first volley the mob dispersed, flying precipitately
from the town to carry the riot all over the island. Two soldiers left
in charge of a waggon were killed; and on learning this the soldiers
were roused to a state of fury almost as great as that of the rioters.
They hunted them from one plantation to another, invaded their huts,
stabbed through the mattresses, and killed every negro who came in their
way, without taking the trouble to inquire whether they had been
concerned in the affair or not. Three hundred prisoners were taken, and
on the 5th of October a proclamation was issued calling on all the
negroes to return to their houses or be treated as rebels, after which
the disturbance was quelled. Twelve hundred were sentenced to death, and
a Commission of Inquiry was sent out from Denmark, the result of their
report being that the obnoxious labour law was repealed.
We have been thus particular in our account of this riot, because it
exemplifies the character of the negro and is a type of such
disturbances in other colonies. There is generally some ill-feeling at
the bottom, but as a rule no conspiracy beforehand. When the
dissatisfaction reaches a certain point, little is required to raise the
passions of the black man, and that little thing is almost sure to
occur. Unlike the European, he does not proclaim his grievances, except
in a general way, among his own people--he has not yet arrived at that
stage where civilised man uses the platform and press. It follows,
therefore, that his passions smoulder for weeks and months, until some
trifle--often a misunderstanding--brings them to the surface.
At St. Croix there does not appear to have been anything like race
prejudice, or that envious feeling which makes the negro think himself
down-trodden by his rivals; but that is a characteristic of most riots,
and is strikingly exemplified in two that have taken place in Demerara.
After the emancipation the negro in British Guiana became of less and
less importance as more and more immigrants arrived, until he grew quite
sore. No longer could he demand extortionate wages, for the labour
market was virtually governed by the current rates paid to the coolies.
These people, however, were quite able to hold their own, and the negro
knew this; it followed, therefore, that he vented his spite upon the
most inoffensive people in the colony.
The Portuguese from Madeira came to British Guiana absolutely destitute
just after the failure of the vines on their island. They found the
negro more prosperous than perhaps he has ever been since, for this was
the time when, if he worked, he could always save money if he chose. In
fact, many did so, and bought land which is still in the hands of some
of their descendants, on which houses much superior to those now in
existence were erected. The Portuguese could not endure the hard labour
of sugar-planting, but soon found openings as small shopkeepers or
pedlars. Hitherto there was little competition in these businesses, but
the few who carried them on were negroes or coloured persons. These were
soon ousted out, and the Portuguese became almost the only small trader
in the colony. This was a grievance to the negro, who could not see that
he himself reaped the benefit--certainly he took advantage of the
reduced prices while abusing the sellers.
At the beginning of the year 1856 the negroes of Georgetown were excited
by the arrival of an anti-Popery agitator, who had become notorious in
England, Scotland, and the United States. John Sayers Orr, known as "the
Angel Gabriel," because he blew a trumpet to call the people together,
was a native of Demerara, and soon found out what a strong antipathy to
the Portuguese existed among the people. This suited his ideas exactly,
for were they not Roman Catholics--the very body which he had been
declaiming everywhere against?
Soon his horn-blowing brought crowds into the market square every
Sunday, where his harangues roused his hearers to such a pitch of fury
that the authorities became alarmed. He was therefore arrested, brought
before a magistrate, charged with convening an illegal assembly, and
committed for trial. This committal of the popular hero was the spark
which set all the negroes' passions in a blaze, but, strange to say,
they did not attack the authorities. Their spite was against the
Portuguese, and soon almost the whole colony was the scene of a general
raid upon their shops. Hardly any escaped, but one after another was
broken open and the goods either carried away or destroyed. Some went so
far as to use the Governor's name, as if he had authorised the raid, and
in this way got ignorant people in the country districts to help them to
seize boats, provisions, and even the produce of the farms of the
obnoxious Portuguese.
The riot was ultimately quelled, but not before the damage amounted to
over a quarter of a million dollars. Hundreds of prisoners were
captured, but beyond the shooting of one policeman there does not appear
to have been any serious casualties, neither were there any executions.
It is interesting to note that the idea of poisoning, which is connected
with Obeah superstition, was conspicuous here as in the Berbice slave
insurrection. One black man charged a Portuguese with threatening to
poison his customers with the provisions he sold them; but all the
satisfaction the negro got was a reprimand from the magistrate.
The second great riot in Georgetown is notable for its similarity to
that at St. Croix. The feeling of antipathy to the Portuguese still
continued, and the negro had a special grievance on account of the
reprieve of a murderer of that nationality. If he had been black he
would have been hanged, they said--it was colour prejudice. However, no
disturbance took place for several months, and even then it only came
about through a misunderstanding. A black boy buying a cent roll of
bread in the market, snatched one of the penny rolls instead, when the
Portuguese stall-keeper struck him down with a stick. The boy was taken
up senseless and carried to the hospital, while his assailant through
some misunderstanding was not arrested. At once there was a cry of
"Portugee kill black man; Binney (the clerk of the market) let he go,"
and they began to assail the clerk with sticks and stones.
The police arrived, dispersed the mob, and shut up the market, but this
only led to their scattering throughout the city. The report that the
black boy was dead was carried into every yard, and at once swarms of
women and boys, with comparatively few men, began to smash the
Portuguese shops. The authorities did next to nothing, beyond sending
out a few special constables, armed only with sticks, to fight against
overpowering crowds better provided with weapons than themselves. The
consequence was that for two days Georgetown was in the power of
thousands of negroes, and damage resulted to the amount of nearly fifty
thousand dollars. The disturbance was finally checked by arming the
police, and issuing a proclamation that they were authorised to fire on
the rioters. Not a single shot was fired, however; the threat was quite
sufficient for the purpose.
It will be seen from these cases that of late years the negroes have
not perpetrated such massacres as once characterised their
insurrections, but the insurrection at St. Thomas-in-the-East in Jamaica
seems to show that the old spirit was not dead in 1865.
For several years previous Jamaica had been much depressed--in fact, she
had hardly begun to recover from the ruin which followed emancipation.
Then came a two years' drought, which caused some distress among the
people, who had no other means of support than what was derived from
their small provision fields. The Baptist connexion was very strong in
the island, and Dr. Underhill, the Secretary of its Missionary Society,
went out, and on his return published reports blaming the Government for
the distress, which he appears to have highly exaggerated. This tended
to produce more dissatisfaction and to give the negroes an object on
which they could vent their feelings. In one of Dr. Underhill's letters
he said the people seemed to be overwhelmed with discouragement, and
that he feared they were giving up their long struggle with injustice
and fraud in despair. Thus a feeling was produced which only required
some little incident to bring on a serious disturbance.
On the 7th of October a black man was brought up for trial before the
Custos of St. Thomas-in-the-East, when a somewhat orderly mob marched
into the town to, if possible, release the prisoner. They crowded round
the court-house and made such a disturbance that one of them was taken
in charge, only, however, to be rescued at once by his friends. Nothing
more was done on that day, but warrants having been issued for the arrest
of the leaders, their execution was forcibly resisted. The negroes now
seem to have planned a general rising and issued notices calling their
people to arms. "Blow your shells, roll your drums; house to house take
out every man! War is at us; my black skin, war is at hand. Every black
man must turn at once, for the oppression is too great." They were, they
said, ground down by an overbearing and oppressive foreigner, and if
they did not get justice would burn and kill.