Mr. B. visited Dublin Castle a few weeks since, and spent two days in

hearing complaints brought against the manager and book-keeper by the

apprentices. He fined the manager, for different acts of oppression, one

hundred and eight dollars. The attorney was present during the whole

time. Near the close of the second day he requested permission to say a

few words, which was granted. He raised his hands and eyes in the most

agonized manner, as though passion was writhing within, and burst

forth--"O, my God! my God! has it indeed come to this! Am I to be

arraigned in this way? Is my conduct to be questioned by these people?

Is my authority to be destroyed by the interference of stranger? O, my

God!" And he fell back into the arms of his book-keeper, and was carried

out of the room in convulsions.

The next morning we started on another excursion, for the purpose of

attending the appraisement of an apprentice belonging to Silver Hill, a

plantation about ten miles distant from Grecian Regale. We rode but a

short distance in the town road, when we struck off into a narrow defile

by a mule-path, and pushed into the very heart of the mountains.

We felt somewhat timid at the commencement of our excursion among these

minor Andes, but we gained confidence as we proceeded, and finding our

horse sure-footed and quite familiar with mountain paths, we soon

learned to gallop, without fear, along the highest cliffs, and through

the most dangerous passes. We were once put in some jeopardy by a drove

of mules, laden with coffee. We fortunately saw them, as they came round

the point of a hill, at some distance, in season to secure ourselves in

a little recess where the path widened. On they came, cheered by the

loud cries of their drivers, and passed rapidly forward, one after

another, with the headlong stupidity which animals, claiming more wisdom

than quadrupeds, not unfrequently manifest. When they came up to us,

however, they showed that they were not unaccustomed to such encounters,

and, although the space between us and the brow of the precipice, was

not three feet wide, they all contrived to sway their bodies and heavy

sacks in such a manner as to pass us safely, except one. He, more stupid

or more unlucky than the rest, struck us a full broad-side as he went by

jolting us hard against the hill, and well-nigh jolting himself down the

craggy descent into the abyss below. One leg hung a moment over the

precipice, but the poor beast suddenly threw his whole weight forward,

and by a desperate leap, obtained sure foothold in the path, and again

trudged along with his coffee-bags.

On our way we called at two plantations, but found no complaints. At one

of them we had some conversation with the overseer. He has on it one

hundred and thirty apprentices, and produces annually thirty thousand

pounds of coffee. He informed us that he was getting along well. His

people are industrious and obedient, as much so, to say the least, as

under the old system. The crop this year is not so great as usual, on

account of the severe drought. His plantation was never better

cultivated. Besides the one hundred and thirty apprentices, there are

forty free children, who are supported by their parents. None of them

will work for hire, or in any way put themselves under his control, as

the parents fear there is some plot laid for making them apprentices,

and through that process reducing them to slavery. He thinks this

feeling will continue till the apprenticeship is entirely broken up, and

the people begin to feel assured of complete freedom, when it will

disappear.

We reached Silver Hill about noon. This plantation contains one hundred

and ten apprentices, and is under the management of a colored man, who

has had charge of it seven years. He informed us that it was under as

good cultivation now as it was before emancipation. His people are

easily controlled. Very much depends on the conduct of the overseer. If

he is disposed to be just and kind, the apprentices are sure to behave

well; if he is harsh and severe, and attempts to _drive_ them, they will

take no pains to please him, but on the contrary, will be sulky and

obstinate.

There were three overseers from other estates present. One of them had

been an overseer for forty years, and he possessed the looks and

feelings which we suppose a man who has been thus long in a school of

despotism, must possess. He had a giant form, which seemed to be

breaking down with luxury and sensualism. His ordinary voice was hoarse

and gusty, and his smile diabolical. Emancipation had swept away his

power while it left the love of it ravaging his heart. He could not

speak of the new system with composure. His contempt and hatred of the

negro was unadulterated. He spoke of the apprentices with great

bitterness. They were excessively lazy and impudent, and were becoming

more and more so every day. They did not do half the work now that they

did before emancipation. It was the character of the negro never to work

unless compelled. His people would not labor for him an hour in their

own time, although he had offered to pay them for it. They have not the

least gratitude. They will leave him in the midst of his crop, and help

others, because they can get a little more. They spend all their half

Fridays and their Saturdays on other plantations where they receive

forty cents a day. Twenty-five cents is enough for them, and is as much

as he will give.

Mr. B. requested the overseer to bring forward his complaints. He had

only two. One was against a boy of ten for stealing a gill of goat's

milk. The charge was disproved. The other was against a boy of twelve

for neglecting the cattle, and permitting them to trespass on the lands

of a neighbor. He was sentenced to receive a good switching--that is, to

be beaten with a small stick by the constable of the plantation.

Several apprentices then appeared and made a few trivial complaints

against 'busha.' They were quickly adjusted. These were all the

complaints that had accumulated in five weeks.

The principal business which called Mr. Bourne to the plantation, as we

have already remarked, was the appraisement of an apprentice. The

appraisers were himself and a local magistrate. The apprentice was a

native born African, and was stolen from his country when a boy. He had

always resided on this plantation, and had always been a faithful

laborer. He was now the constable, or driver, as the office was called

in slavery times, of the second gang. The overseer testified to his

honesty and industry, and said he regretted much to have him leave. He

was, as appeared by the plantation books, fifty-four years old, but was

evidently above sixty. After examining several witnesses as to the old

man's ability and general health, and making calculations by the rule of

three, with the cold accuracy of a yankee horse-bargain, it was decided

that his services were worth to the plantation forty-eight dollars a

years, and for the remaining time of the apprenticeship, consequently,

at that rate, one hundred and fifty-six dollars. One third of this was

deducted as an allowance for the probabilities of death, and sickness,

leaving one hundred and four dollars as the price of his redemption. The

old man objected strongly and earnestly to the price; he said, it was

too much; he had not money enough to pay it; and begged them, with tears

in his eyes, not to make him pay so much "for his old bones;" but they

would not remit a cent. They could not. They were the stern ministers of

the British emancipation law, the praises of which have been shouted

through the earth!

Of the three overseers who were present, not one could be called a

respectable man. Their countenances were the mirrors of all lustful and

desperate passions. They were continually drinking rum and water, and

one of them was half drunk.

Our next visit was to an elevated plantation called Peter's Rock. The

path to it was, in one place, so steep, that we had to dismount and

permit our horses to work their way up as they could, while we followed

on foot. We then wound along among provision grounds and coffee fields,

through forests where hardly a track was to be seen, and over hedges,

which the horses were obliged to leap, till we issued on the great path

which leads from the plantation to Kingston.

Peter's Rock has one hundred apprentices, and is under the management,

as Mr. Bourne informed us, of a very humane man. During the two years

and a half of the apprenticeship, there had been _only six complaints_.

As we approached the plantation we saw the apprentices at the side of

the road, eating their breakfast. They had been at work some distance

from their houses, and could not spend time to go home. They saluted us

with great civility, most of them rising and uncovering their heads. In

answer to our questions, they said they were getting along very well.

They said their master was kind to them, and they appeared in

fine spirits.

The overseer met us as we rode up to the door, and received us very

courteously. He had no complaints. He informed us that the plantation

was as well cultivated as it had been for many years, and the people

were perfectly obedient and industrious.

From Peter's Rock we rode to "Hall's Prospect," a plantation on which

there are sixty apprentices under the charge of a black overseer, who,

two years ago, was a slave. It was five weeks since Mr. B. had been

there, and yet he had only one complaint, and that against a woman for

being late at work on Monday morning. The reason she gave for this was,

that she went to an estate some miles distant to spend the Sabbath with

her husband.

Mr. Bourne, by the aid of funds left in his hands by Mr. Sturge, is

about to establish a school on this plantation. Mr. B., at a previous

visit, had informed the people of what he intended to do, and asked

their co-operation. As soon as they saw him to-day, several of them

immediately inquired about the school, when it would begin, &c. They

showed the greatest eagerness and thankfulness. Mr. B. told them he

should send a teacher as soon as a house was prepared. He had been

talking with their master (the attorney of the plantation) about fixing

one, who had offered them the old "lock-up house," if they would put it

in order. There was a murmur among them at this annunciation. At length

one of the men said, they did not want the school to be held in the

"lock-up house." It was not a good place for their "pickaninnies" to go

to. They had much rather have some other building, and would be glad to

have it close to their houses. Mr. B. told them if they would put up a

small house near their own, he would furnish it with desks and benches.

To this they all assented with great joy.

On our way home we saw, as we did on various other occasions, many of

the apprentices with hoes, baskets, &c., going to their provision

grounds. We had some conversation with them as we rode along. They said

they had been in the fields picking coffee since half past five o'clock.

They were now going, as they always did after "horn-blow" in the

afternoon, (four o'clock,) to their grounds, where they should stay till

dark. Some of their grounds were four, others six miles from home. They

all liked the apprenticeship better than slavery. They were not flogged

so much now, and had more time to themselves. But they should like

freedom much better, and should be glad when it came.

We met a brown young woman driving an ass laden with a great variety of

articles. She said she had been to Kingston (fifteen miles off) with a

load of provisions, and had purchased some things to sell to the

apprentices. We asked her what she did with her money. "Give it to my

husband," said she. "Do you keep none for yourself?" She smiled and

replied: "What for him for me."

After we had passed, Mr. B. informed us that she had been an apprentice,

but purchased her freedom a few months previous, and was now engaged as

a kind of country merchant. She purchases provisions of the negroes, and

carries them to Kingston, where she exchanges them for pins, needles,

thread, dry goods, and such articles as the apprentices need, which she

again exchanges for provisions and money.

Mr. Bourne informed us that real estate is much higher than before

emancipation. He mentioned one "pen" which was purchased for eighteen

hundred dollars a few years since. The owner had received nine hundred

dollars as 'compensation' for freedom. It has lately been leased for

seven years by the owner, for nine hundred dollars per year.

A gentleman who owns a plantation in Mr. B.'s district, sold parcels of

land to the negroes before emancipation at five shillings per acre. He

now obtains twenty-seven shillings per acre.

The house in which Mr. B. resides was rented in 1833 for one hundred and

fifty dollars. Mr. B. engaged it on his arrival for three years, at two

hundred and forty dollars per year. His landlord informed him a few days

since, that on the expiration of his present lease, he should raise the

rent to three hundred and thirty dollars.

Mr. B. is acquainted with a gentleman of wealth, who has been

endeavoring for the last twelve months to purchase an estate in this

island. He has offered high prices, but has as yet been unable to obtain

one. Landholders have so much confidence in the value and security of

real estate, that they do not wish to part with it.

After our visit to Silver Hill, our attention was particularly turned to

the condition of the negro grounds. Most of them were very clean and

flourishing. Large plats of the onion, of cocoa, plantain, banana, yam,

potatoe, and other tropic vegetables, were scattered all around within

five or six miles of a plantation. We were much pleased with the

appearance of them during a ride on a Friday. In the forenoon, they had

all been vacant; not a person was to be seen in them; but after one

o'clock, they began gradually to be occupied, till, at the end of an

hour, where-ever we went, we saw men, women, and children laboring

industriously in their little gardens. In some places, the hills to

their very summits were spotted with cultivation. Till Monday morning

the apprentices were free, and they certainly manifested a strong

disposition to spend that time in taking care of themselves. The

testimony of the numerous apprentices with whom we conversed, was to the

same effect as our observation. They all testified that they were paying

as much attention to their grounds as they ever did, but that their

provisions had been cut short by the drought. They had their land all

prepared for a new crop, and were only waiting for rain to put in the

seed. Mr. Bourne corroborated their statement, and remarked, that he

never found the least difficulty in procuring laborers. Could he have

the possession of the largest plantation in the island to-day, he had no

doubt that, within a week, he could procure free laborers enough to

cultivate every acre.

On one occasion, while among the mountains, we were impressed on a jury

to sit in inquest on the body of a negro woman found dead on the high

road. She was, as appeared in evidence, on her return from the house of

correction, at Half-Way-Tree, where she had been sentenced for fourteen

days, and been put on the treadmill. She had complained to some of her

acquaintances of harsh treatment there, and said they had killed her,

and that if she ever lived to reach home, she should tell all her

massa's negroes never to cross the threshold of Half-Way-Tree, as it

would kill them. The evidence, however, was not clear that she died in

consequence of such treatment, and the jury, accordingly, decided that

she came to her death by some cause unknown to them.

Nine of the jury were overseers, and if they, collected together

indiscriminately on this occasion, were a specimen of those who have

charge of the apprentices in this island, they must be most degraded and

brutal men. They appeared more under the influence of low passions, more

degraded by sensuality, and but little more intelligent, than the

negroes themselves. Instead of possessing irresponsible power over their

fellows, they ought themselves to be under the power of the most strict

and energetic laws. Our visits to the plantations, and inquiries on this

point, confirmed this opinion. They are the 'feculum' of European

society--ignorant, passionate, licentious. We do them no injustice when

we say this, nor when we further add, that the apprentices suffer in a

hundred ways which the law cannot reach, gross insults and oppression

from their excessive rapaciousness and lust. What must it have been

during slavery?

We had some conversation with Cheny Hamilton, Esq., one of the special

magistrates for Port Royal. He is a colored man, and has held his office

about eighteen months. There are three thousand apprentices in his

district, which embraces sugar and coffee estates. The complaints are

few and of a very trivial nature. They mostly originate with the

planters. Most of the cases brought before him are for petty theft and

absence from work.

In his district, cultivation was never better. The negroes are willing

to work during their own time. His father-in-law is clearing up some

mountain land for a coffee plantation, by the labor of apprentices from

neighboring estates. The seasons since emancipation have been bad. The

blacks cultivate their own grounds on their half Fridays and Saturdays,

unless they can obtain employment from others.

Nothing is doing by the planters for the education of the apprentices.

Their only object is to get as much work out of them as possible.

The blacks, so far as he has had opportunity to observe, are in every

respect as quiet and industrious as they were before freedom. He said if

we would compare the character of the complaints brought by the

overseers and apprentices against each other, we should see for

ourselves which party was the most peaceable and law-abiding.

To these views we may here add those of another gentleman, with whom we

had considerable conversation about the same time. He is a proprietor

and local magistrate, and was represented to us as a kind and humane

man. Mr. Bourne stated to us that he had not had six cases of complaint

on his plantation for the last twelve months. We give his most important

statements in the following brief items:

1. He has had charge of estates in Jamaica since 1804. At one time he

had twelve hundred negroes under his control. He now owns a coffee

plantation, on which there are one hundred and ten apprentices, and is

also attorney for several others, the owners of which reside out of

the island.

2. His plantation is well cultivated and clean, and his people are as

industrious and civil as they ever were. He employs them during their

own time, and always finds them willing to work for him, unless their

own grounds require their attendance. Cultivation generally, through the

island, is as good as it ever was. Many of the planters, at the

commencement of the apprenticeship, reduced the quantity of land

cultivated; he did not do so, but on the contrary is extending his

plantation.

3. The crops this year are not so good as usual. This is no fault of the

apprentices, but is owing to the bad season.

4. The conduct of the apprentices depends very much on the conduct of

those who have charge of them. If you find a plantation on which the

overseer is kind, and does common justice to the laborer, you will find

things going on well--if otherwise, the reverse. Those estates and

plantations on which the proprietor himself resides, are most peaceable

and prosperous.

5. Real estate is more valuable than before emancipation. Property is

more secure, and capitalists are more ready to invest their funds.

6. The result of 1840 is as yet doubtful. For his part, he has no fears.

He doubts not he can cultivate his plantation as easily after that

period as before. He is confident he can do it cheaper. He thinks it not

only likely, but certain, that many of the plantations on which the

people have been ill used, while slaves and apprentices, will be

abandoned by the present laborers, and that they will never be worked

until overseers are put over them who, instead of doing all they can to

harass them, will soothe and conciliate them. The apprenticeship has

done much harm instead of good in the way of preparing the blacks to

work after 1840.

A few days after our return from the mountains, we rode to Spanishtown,

which is about twelve miles west of Kingston. Spanishtown is the seat of

government, containing the various buildings for the residence of the

governor, the meeting of the legislature, the session of the courts, and

rooms for the several officers of the crown. They are all strong and

massive structures, but display little architectural magnificence

or beauty.

We spent nearly a day with Richard Hill, Esq., the secretary of the

special magistrates' department, of whom we have already spoken. He is a

colored gentleman, and in every respect the noblest man, white or black,

whom we met in the West Indies. He is highly intelligent, and of fine

moral feelings. His manners are free and unassuming, and his language in

conversation fluent and well chosen. He is intimately acquainted with

English and French authors, and has studied thoroughly the history and

character of the people with whom the tie of color has connected him. He

travelled two years in Hayti, and his letters, written in a flowing and

luxuriant style, as a son of the tropics should write, giving an account

of his observations and inquiries in that interesting island, were

published extensively in England; and have been copied into the

anti-slavery journals in this country. His journal will be given to the

public as soon as his official duties will permit him to prepare it. He

is at the head of the special magistrates, (of which there are sixty in

the island,) and all the correspondence between them and the governor is

carried on through him. The station he holds is a very important one,

and the business connected with it is of a character and an extent that,

were he not a man of superior abilities, he could not sustain. He is

highly respected by the government in the island, and at home, and

possesses the esteem of his fellow-citizens of all colors. He associates

with persons of the highest rank, dining and attending parties at the

government-house with all the aristocracy of Jamaica. We had the

pleasure of spending an evening with him at the solicitor-general's.

Though an African sun has burnt a deep tinge on him, he is truly one of

nature's noblemen. His demeanor is such, so dignified, yet bland and

amiable, that no one can help respecting him.

He spoke in the warmest terms of Lord Sligo,[A] the predecessor of Sir

Lionel Smith, who was driven from the island by the machinations of the

planters and the enemies of the blacks. Lord Sligo was remarkable for

his statistical accuracy. Reports were made to him by the special

magistrates every week. No act of injustice or oppression could escape

his indefatigable inquiries. He was accessible, and lent an open ear to

the lowest person in the island. The planters left no means untried to

remove him, and unhappily succeeded.

[Footnote A: When Lord Sligo visited the United States in the summer of

1836, he spoke with great respect of Mr. Hill to Elizur Wright, Esq.,

Corresponding Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Mr. Wright

has furnished us with the following statement:--"Just before his

lordship left this city for England, he bore testimony to us

substantially as follows:--'When I went to Jamaica, Mr. Hill was a

special magistrate. In a certain case he refused to comply with my

directions, differing from me in his interpretation of the law. I

informed him that his continued non-compliance must result in his

removal from office. He replied that his mind was made up as to the law,

and he would not violate his reason to save his bread. Being satisfied

of the correctness of my own interpretation, I was obliged, of course,

to remove him; but I was so forcibly struck with his manly independence,

that I applied to the government for power to employ him as my

secretary, which was granted. And having had him as an _intimate of my

family_ for several months, I can most cordially bear my testimony to

his trustworthiness, ability, and gentlemanly deportment.' Lord Sligo

also added, that Mr. Hill was treated in his family in all respects as

if he had not been colored, and that with no gentleman in the West

Indies was he, in social life, on terms of more intimate friendship."]

The following items contain the principal information received from Mr.

Hill:

1. The apprenticeship is a most vicious system, full of blunders and

absurdities, and directly calculated to set master and slave at war.

2. The complaints against the apprentices are decreasing every month,

_except, perhaps, complaints against mothers for absence from work,

which he thinks are increasing_. The apprenticeship _law_ makes no

provision for the free children, and on most of the plantations and

estates no allowance is given them, but they are thrown entirely for

support on their parents, who are obliged to work the most and best part

of their time for their masters unrewarded. The nurseries are broken up,

and frequently the mothers are obliged to work in the fields with their

infants at their backs, or else to leave them at some distance under the

shade of a hedge or tree. Every year is making their condition worse and

worse. The number of children is increasing, and yet the mothers are

required, after their youngest child has attained the age of a few

weeks, to be at work the same number of hours as the men. Very little

time is given them to take care of their household. When they are tardy

they are brought before the magistrate.

A woman was brought before Mr. Hill a few days before we were there,

charged with not being in the field till one hour after the rest of the

gang. She had twins, and appeared before him with a child hanging on

each arm. What an eloquent defence! He dismissed the complaint.

He mentioned another case, of a woman whose master resided in

Spanishtown, but who was hired out by him to some person in the country.

Her child became sick, but her employer refused any assistance. With it

in her arms, she entreated aid of her master. The monster drove her and

her dying little one into the street at night, and she sought shelter

with Mr. Hill, where her child expired before morning. For such horrid

cruelty as this, the apprenticeship law provides no remedy. The woman

had no claim for the support of her child, on the man who was receiving

the wages of her daily toil. That child was not worth a farthing to him,

because it was no longer his _chattel_; and while the law gives him

power to rob the mother, it has no compulsion to make him support

the child.

3. The complaints are generally of the most trivial and frivolous

nature. They are mostly against mothers for neglect of duty, and vague

charges of insolence. There is no provision in the law to prevent the

master from using abusive language to the apprentice; any insult short

of a blow, he is free to commit; but the slightest word of incivility, a

look, smile, or grin, is punished in the apprentice, even though it

were provoked.

4. There is still much flogging by the overseers. Last week a girl came

to Mr. H. terribly scarred and "slashed," and complained that her master

had beaten her. It appeared that this was the _seventh offence_, for

neither of which she could obtain a hearing from the special magistrate

in her district. While Mr. H. was relating to me this fact, a girl came

in with a little babe in her arms. He called my attention to a large

bruise near her eye. He said her master knocked her down a few days

since, and made that wound by kicking her.

Frequently when complaints of insolence are made, on investigation, it

is found that the offence was the result of a quarrel commenced by the

master, during which he either cuffed or kicked the offender.

The special magistrates also frequently resort to flogging. Many of

them, as has been mentioned already, have been connected with the army

or navy, where corporal punishment is practised and flogging is not only

in consonance with their feelings and habits, but is a punishment more

briefly inflicted and more grateful to the planters, as it does not

deprive them of the apprentice's time.

5. Mr. H. says that the apprentices who have purchased their freedom

behave well. He has not known one of them to be brought before

the police.

6. Many of the special magistrates require much looking after. Their

salaries are not sufficient to support them independently. Some of them

leave their homes on Monday morning, and make the whole circuit of their

district before returning, living and lodging meanwhile, _free of

expense_, with the planters. If they are not inclined to listen to the

complaints of the apprentices, they soon find that the apprentices are

not inclined to make complaints to them, and that they consequently have

much more leisure time, and get through their district much easier. Of

the sixty magistrates in Jamaica, but few can be said to discharge their

duties faithfully. The governor is often required to interfere. A few

weeks since he discharged two magistrates for putting iron collars on

two women, in direct violation of the law, and then sending him

false reports.

7. The negro grounds are often at a great distance, five or six miles,

and some of them fifteen miles, from the plantation. Of course much

time, which would otherwise be spent in cultivating them, is necessarily

consumed in going to them and returning. Yet for all that, and though in

many cases the planters have withdrawn the watchmen who used to protect

them, and have left them entirely exposed to thieves and cattle, they

are generally well cultivated--on the whole, better than during slavery.

When there is inattention to them, it is caused either by some planters

hiring them during their own time, or because their master permits his

cattle to trespass on them, and the people feel an insecurity. When you

find a kind planter, in whom the apprentices have confidence, there you

will find beautiful gardens. In not a few instances, where the overseer

is particularly harsh and cruel, the negroes have thrown up their old

grounds, and taken new ones on other plantations, where the overseer is

better liked, or gone into the depths of the mountain forests, where no

human foot has been before them, and there cleared up small plats. This

was also done to some extent during slavery. Many of the people, against

whom the planters are declaiming as lazy and worthless, have rich

grounds of which those planters little dream.

8. There is no feeling of insecurity, either of life or property. One

may travel through the whole island without the least fear of violence.

If there is any danger, it is from the _emigrants_, who have been guilty

of several outrages. So far from the planters fearing violence from the

apprentices, when an assault or theft is committed, they refer it,

almost as a matter of course, to some one else. A few weeks ago one of

the island mails was robbed. As soon as it became known, it was at once

said, "Some of those villanous emigrants did it," and so indeed

it proved.

People in the country, in the midst of the mountains, where the whites

are few and isolated, sleep with their doors and windows open, without a

thought of being molested. In the towns there are no watchmen, and but a

small police, and yet the streets are quiet and property safe.

9. The apprentices understand the great provisions of the new system,

such as the number of hours they must work for their master, and that

their masters have no right to flog them, &c., but its details are

inexplicable mysteries. The masters have done much injury by deceiving

them on points of which they were ignorant.

10. The apprentices almost to a man are ready to work for wages during

their own time. When the overseer is severe towards them, they prefer

working on other plantations, even for less wages, as is very natural.

11. Almost all the evils of the apprenticeship arise from the obstinacy

and oppressive conduct of the overseers. They are constantly taking

advantage of the defects of the system, which are many, and while they

demand to the last grain's weight "the pound of flesh," they are utterly

unwilling to yield the requirements which the law makes of them. Where

you find an overseer endeavoring in every way to overreach the

apprentices, taking away the privileges which they enjoyed during

slavery, and exacting from them the utmost minute and mite of labor,

there you will find abundant complaints both against the master and the

apprentice. And the reverse. The cruel overseers are complaining of

idleness, insubordination, and ruin, while the kind master is moving on

peaceably and prosperously.

12. The domestic apprentices have either one day, or fifty cents cash,

each week, as an allowance for food and clothing. This is quite

insufficient. Many of the females seem obliged to resort to theft or to

prostitution to obtain a support. Two girls were brought before Mr. Hill

while we were with him, charged with neglect of duty and night-walking.

One of them said her allowance was too small, and she must get food in

some other way or starve.

13. The apprentices on many plantations have been deprived of several

privileges which they enjoyed under the old system. Nurseries have been

abolished, water-carriers have been taken away, keeping stock is

restricted, if not entirely forbidden, watchmen are no longer provided

to guard the negro grounds, &c.--petty aggressions in our eyes, perhaps,

but severe to them. Another instance is still more hard. By the custom

of slavery, women who had reared up seven children were permitted to

"sit down," as it was termed; that is, were not obliged to go into the

field to work. Now no such distinction is made, but all are driven into

the field.

14. One reason why the crops were smaller in 1835 and 1836 than in

former years, was, that the planters in the preceding seasons, either

fearful that the negroes would not take off the crops after

emancipation, and acting on their baseless predictions instead of facts,

or determined to make the results of emancipation appear as disastrous

as possible, neglected to put in the usual amount of cane, and to clean

the coffee fields. As they refused to sow, of course they could

not reap.

15. The complaints against the apprentices generally are becoming fewer

every week, but the complaints against the masters are increasing both

in number and severity. One reason of this is, that the apprentices, on

the one hand, are becoming better acquainted with the new system, and

therefore better able to avoid a violation of its provisions, and are

also learning that they cannot violate these provisions with impunity;

and, on the other hand, they are gaining courage to complain against

their masters, to whom they have hitherto been subjected by a fear

created by the whips and dungeons, and nameless tortures of slavery.

Another reason is, that the masters, as the term of the apprenticeship

shortens, and the end of their authority approaches nearer, are pressing

their poor victims harder and harder, determined to extort from them all

they can, before complete emancipation rescues them for ever from

their grasp.

While we were in conversation with Mr. Hill, Mr. Ramsay, one of the

special magistrates for this parish, called in. He is a native of

Jamaica, and has been educated under all the influences of West India

society, but has held fast his integrity, and is considered the firm

friend of the apprentices. He confirmed every fact and opinion which Mr.

Hill had given. He was even stronger than Mr. H. in his expressions of

disapprobation of the apprenticeship.

The day which we spent with Mr. Hill was one of those on which he holds

a special justice's court. There were only three cases of complaint

brought before him.

The first was brought by a woman, attended by her husband, against her

servant girl, for "impertinence and insubordination." She took the oath

and commenced her testimony with an abundance of vague charges. "She is

the most insolent girl I ever saw. She'll do nothing that she is told to

do--she never thinks of minding what is said to her--she is sulky and

saucy," etc. Mr. H. told her she must be specific--he could not convict

the girl on such general charges--some particular acts must be proved.

She became specific. Her charges were as follows:

1. On the previous Thursday the defendant was plaiting a shirt. The

complainant went up to her and asked her why she did not plait it as she

ought, and not hold it in her hand as she did. Defendant replied, that

it was easier, and she preferred that way to the other. The complainant

remonstrated, but, despite all she could say, the obstinate girl

persisted, and did it as she chose. The complainant granted that the

work was done well, only it was not done in the way she desired.

2. The same day she ordered the defendant to wipe up some tracks in the

hall. She did so. While she was doing it, the mistress told her the room

was very dusty, and reproved her for it. The girl replied, "Is it

morning?" (It is customary to clean the rooms early in the morning, and

the girl made this reply late in the afternoon, when sufficient time had

elapsed for the room to become dusty again.)

3. The girl did not wash a cloth clean which the complainant gave her,

and the complainant was obliged to wash it herself.

4. Several times when the complainant and her daughter have been

conversing together, this girl had burst into laughter--whether at them

or their conversation, complainant did not know.

5. When the complainant has reproved the defendant for not doing her

work well, she has replied, "Can't you let me alone to my work, and not

worry my life out."

A black man, a constable on the same property, was brought up to confirm

the charges. He knew nothing about the case, only that he often heard

the parties quarrelling, and sometimes had told the girl not to say any

thing, as she knew what her mistress was.

It appeared in the course of the evidence, that the complainant and her

husband had both been in the habit of speaking disrespectfully of the

special magistrate, stationed in their district, and that many of the

contentions arose out of that, as the girl sometimes defended him.

While the accused was making her defence, which she did in a modest way,

her mistress was highly enraged, and interrupted her several times, by

calling her a liar and a jade. The magistrate was two or three times

obliged to reprove her, and command her to be silent, and, so passionate

did she become, that her husband, ashamed of her, put his hand on her

shoulder, and entreated her to be calm.

Mr. Hill dismissed the complaint by giving some good advice to both

parties, much to the annoyance of the mistress.

The second complaint was brought by a man against a servant girl, for

disobedience of orders, and insolence. It appears that she was ordered,

at ten o'clock at night, to do some work. She was just leaving the house

to call on some friends, as she said, and refused. On being told by her

mistress that she only wanted to go out for bad purposes, she replied,

that "It was no matter--the allowance they gave her was not sufficient

to support her, and if they would not give her more, she must get a

living any way she could, so she did not steal." She was sentenced to

the house of correction for one week.

The third case was a complaint against a boy for taking every alternate

Friday and Saturday, instead of every Saturday, for allowance. He was

ordered to take every Saturday, or to receive in lieu of it half

a dollar.

Mr. Hill said these were a fair specimen of the character of the

complaints that came before him. We were much pleased with the manner in

which he presided in his court, the ease, dignity, and impartiality

which he exhibited, and the respect which was shown him by all parties.

In company with Mr. Hill, we called on Rev. Mr. Phillips, the Baptist

missionary, stationed at Spanishtown. Mr. P. has been in the island

thirteen years. He regards the apprenticeship as a great amelioration of

the old system of slavery, but as coming far short of the full

privileges and rights of freedom, and of what it was expected to be. It

is beneficial to the missionaries, as it gives them access to the

plantations, while before, in many instances, they were entirely

excluded from them, and in all cases were much shackled in their

operations.

Mr. P. has enlarged his chapel within the last fifteen months, so that

it admits several hundreds more than formerly. But it is now too small.

The apprentices are much more anxious to receive religious instruction,

and much more open to conviction, than when slaves. He finds a great

difference now on different plantations. Where severity is used, as it

still is on many estates, and the new system is moulded as nearly as

possible on the old, the minds of the apprentices are apparently closed

against all impressions,--but where they are treated with kindness, they

are warm in their affections, and solicitous to be taught.

In connection with his church, Mr. P. has charge of a large school. The

number present, when we visited it, was about two hundred. There was, to

say the least, as much manifestation of intellect and sprightliness as

we ever saw in white pupils of the same age. Most of the children were

slaves previous to 1834, and their parents are still apprentices.

Several were pointed out to us who were not yet free, and attend only by

permission, sometimes purchased, of their master. The greater part live

from three to five miles distant. Mr. P. says he finds no lack of

interest among the apprentices about education. He can find scholars for

as many schools as he can establish, if he keeps himself unconnected

with the planters. The apprentices are opposed to all schools

established by, or in any way allied to, their masters.

Mr. P. says the planters are doing nothing to prepare the apprentices

for freedom in 1840. They do not regard the apprenticeship as

intermediate time for preparation, but as part of the _compensation_.

Every day is counted, not as worth so much for education and moral

instruction, but as worth so much for digging cane-holes, and clearing

coffee fields.

Mr. P.'s church escaped destruction during the persecution of the

Baptists. The wives and connections of many of the colored soldiers had

taken refuge in it, and had given out word that they would defend it

even against their own husbands and brothers, who in turn informed their

officers that if ordered to destroy it, they should refuse at all peril.

CHAPTER III.

RESULTS OF ABOLITION.

The actual working of the apprenticeship in Jamaica, was the specific

object of our investigations in that island. That it had not operated so

happily as in Barbadoes, and in most of the other colonies, was admitted

by all parties. As to the _degree_ of its failure, we were satisfied it

was not so great as had been represented. There has been nothing of an

_insurrectionary_ character since the abolition of slavery. The affair

on Thornton's estate, of which an account is given in the preceding

chapter, is the most serious disturbance which has occurred during the

apprenticeship. The _fear_ of insurrection is as effectually dead in

Jamaica, as in Barbadoes--so long as the apprenticeship lasts. There has

been no _increase of crime_. The character of the negro population has

been gradually improving in morals and intelligence. Marriage has

increased, the Sabbath is more generally observed, and religious worship

is better attended. Again, the apprentices of Jamaica have not

manifested any peculiar _defiance of law_. The most illiberal

magistrates testified that the people respected the law, when they

understood it. As it respects the _industry_ of the apprentices, there

are different opinions among the _planters_ themselves. Some admitted

that they were as industrious as before, and did as much work _in

proportion to the time they were employed_. Others complained that they

_lacked the power_ to compel industry, and that hence there was a

falling off of work. The prominent evils complained of in Jamaica are,

absconding from work, and insolence to masters. From the statements in

the preceding chapter, it may be inferred that many things are called by

these names, and severely punished, which are really innocent or

unavoidable; however, it would not be wonderful if there were numerous

instances of both. Insolence is the legitimate fruit of the

apprenticeship, which holds out to the apprentice, that he possesses the

rights of a man, and still authorizes the master to treat him as though

he were little better than a dog. The result must often be that the

apprentice will repay insult with insolence. This will continue to exist

until either the former system of _absolute force_ is restored, or a

system of free compensated labor, with its powerful checks and balances

on both parties, is substituted. The prevalence and causes of the other

offence--absconding from labor--will be noticed hereafter.

The atrocities which are practised by the masters and magistrates, are

appalling enough. It is probable that the actual condition of the

negroes in Jamaica, is but little if any better than it was during

slavery. The amount of punishment inflicted by the special magistrates,

cannot fall much short of that usually perpetrated by the drivers. In

addition to this, the apprentices are robbed of the _time_ allowed them

by law, at the will of the magistrate, who often deprives them of it on

the slightest complaint of the overseer. The situation of the _free

children_[A] is often very deplorable. The master feels none of that

interest in them which he formerly felt in the children that were his

property, and consequently, makes no provision for them. They are thrown

entirely upon their parents, who are _unable_ to take proper care of

them, from the almost constant demands which the master makes upon their

time. The condition of pregnant women, and nursing mothers, is

_decidedly worse_ than it was during slavery. The privileges which the

planter felt it for his interest to grant these formerly, for _the sake

of their children_, are now withheld. The former are exposed to the

inclemencies of the weather, and the hardships of toil--the latter are

cruelly dragged away from their infants, that the master may not lose

the smallest portion of time,--and _both_ are liable at any moment to be

incarcerated in the dungeon, or strung up on the treadwheel. In

consequence of the cruelties which are practised, the apprentices are in

a _disaffected state_ throughout the island.

[Footnote A: All children under _six years_ of age at the time of

abolition, were made entirely free.]

In assigning the causes of the ill-working of the apprenticeship in

Jamaica, we would say in the commencement, that nearly all of them are

embodied in the intrinsic defects of the system itself. These defects

have been exposed in a former chapter, and we need not repeat them here.

The reason why the system has not produced as much mischief in all the

colonies as it has in Jamaica, is that the local circumstances in the

other islands were not so adapted to develop its legitimate results.

It is not without the most careful investigation of facts, that we have

allowed ourselves to entertain the views which we are now about to

express, respecting the conduct of the planters and special

justices--for it is to _them_ that we must ascribe the evils which exist

in Jamaica. We cheerfully accede to them all of palliation which may be

found in the provocations incident to the wretched system of

apprenticeship.

The causes of the difficulties rest chiefly with the _planters_. They

were _originally_ implicated, and by their wily schemes they soon

involved the special magistrates. The Jamaica planters, as a body,

always violently opposed the abolition of slavery. Unlike the planters

in most of the colonies, they cherished their hostility _after the act

of abolition_. It would seem that they had agreed with one accord, never

to become reconciled to the measures of the English government, and had

sworn eternal hostility to every scheme of emancipation. Whether this

resulted most from love for slavery or hatred of English interference,

it is difficult to determine. If we were to believe the planters

themselves, who are of the opposition, we should conclude that they were

far from being in favor of slavery--that they were "as much opposed to

slavery, as any one can be[A]." Notwithstanding this avowal, the

tenacity with which the planters cling to the remnant of their power,

shows an affection for it, of the strength of which they are not

probably themselves aware.

[Footnote A: It seems to be the order of the day, with the opposition

party in Jamaica, to disclaim all friendship with slavery. We noticed

several instances of this in the island papers, which have been most

hostile to abolition. We quote the following sample from the Royal

Gazette, (Kingston) for May 6, 1837. The editor, in an article

respecting Cuba, says:

"In writing this, one chief object is to arouse the attention of our

own fellow-subjects, in this colony, to the situation--the dangerous

situation--in which they stand, and to implore them to lend all

their energies to avert the ruin that is likely to visit them,

should America get the domination of Cuba.

The negroes of this and of all the British W.I. colonies have been

'_emancipated_.' Cuba on the other hand is still a _slave country_.

(Let not our readers imagine for one moment that we advocate the

_continuance of slavery_,") &c.

]

When public men have endeavored to be faithful and upright, they have

uniformly been abused, and even persecuted, by the planters. The

following facts will show that the latter have not scrupled to resort to

the most dishonest and unmanly intrigues to effect the removal or to

circumvent the influence of such men. Neglect, ridicule, vulgar abuse,

slander, threats, intimidation, misrepresentation, and legal

prosecutions, have been the mildest weapons employed against those who

in the discharge of their sworn duties dared to befriend the oppressed.

The shameful treatment of the late governor, Lord Sligo, illustrates

this. His Lordship was appointed to the government about the period of

abolition. Being himself a proprietor of estates in the island, and

formerly chairman of the West India Body, he was received at first with

the greatest cordiality; but it was soon perceived that he was disposed

to secure justice to the apprentices. From the accounts we received, we

have been led to entertain an exalted opinion of his integrity and

friendship for the poor. It was his custom (unprecedented in the West

Indies,) to give a patient hearing to the poorest negro who might carry

his grievances to the government-house. After hearing the complaint, he

would despatch an order to the special magistrate of the district in

which the complainant lived, directing him to inquire into the case. By

this means he kept the magistrates employed, and secured redress to the

apprentices to many cases where they would otherwise have bean

neglected.

The governor soon rendered himself exceedingly obnoxious to the

planters, and they began to manoeuvre for his removal, which, in a short

time, was effected by a most flagitious procedure. The home government,

disposed to humor their unruly colony, sent them a governor in whom they

are not likely to find any fault. The present governor, Sir Lionel

Smith, is the antipode of his predecessor in every worthy respect. When

the apprentices come to him with their complaints, he sends them back

unheard, with curses on their heads. A distinguished gentleman in the

colony remarked of him that he _was a heartless military chieftain, who

ruled without regard to mercy_. Of course the planters are full of his

praise. His late tour of the island was a _triumphal procession_, amid

the sycophantic greetings of oppressors.

Several special magistrates have been suspended because of the faithful

discharge of their duties. Among these was Dr. Palmer, an independent

and courageous man. Repeated complaints were urged against him by the

planters, until finally Sir Lionel Smith appointed a commission to

inquire into the grounds of the difficulty.

"This commission consisted of two local magistrates, both of them

planters or managers of estates, and two stipendiary magistrates, the

bias of one of whom, at least, was believed to be against Dr. Palmer. At

the conclusion of their inquiry they summed up their report by saying

that Dr. Palmer had administered the abolition law in the spirit of the

English abolition act, and in his administration of the law he had

adapted it more to the comprehension of freemen than to the

understandings of apprenticed laborers. Not only did Sir Lionel Smith

suspend Dr. Palmer on this report, but the colonial office at home have

dismissed him from his situation."

The following facts respecting the persecution of Special Justice

Bourne, illustrate the same thing.

"A book-keeper of the name of Maclean, on the estate of the Rev. M.

Hamilton, an Irish clergyman, committed a brutal assault upon an old

African. The attorney on the property refused to hear the complaint

of the negro, who went to Stephen Bourne, a special magistrate. When

Maclean was brought before him, he did not deny the fact; but said

as the old man was not a Christian, his oath could not be taken! The

magistrate not being able to ascertain the amount of injury

inflicted upon the negro (whose head was dreadfully cut,) but

feeling that it was a case which required a greater penalty than

three pounds sterling, the amount of punishment to which he was

limited by the local acts, detained Maclean, and afterwards

committed him to jail, and wrote the next day to the chief justice

upon the subject. He was discharged as soon as a doctor's

certificate was procured of the state of the wounded man, and bail

was given for his appearance at the assizes. Maclean's trial came on

at the assizes, and he was found guilty by a Jamaica Jury; he was

severely reprimanded for his inhuman conduct and fined thirty

pounds. The poor apprentice however got no remuneration for the

severe injury inflicted upon him, and the special justice was

prosecuted for false imprisonment, dragged from court to court,

represented as an oppressor and a tyrant, subjected to four hundred

pounds expenses in defending himself, and actually had judgment

given against him for one hundred and fifty pounds damages.

Thus have the planters succeeded in pulling down every magistrate

who ventures to do more than fine them three pounds sterling for any

act of cruelty of which they may be guilty. On the other hand, there

were two magistrates who were lately dismissed, through, I believe,

the representation of Lord Sligo, for flagrant violations of the law

in inflicting punishment; and in order to evince their sympathy for

those men, the planters gave them a farewell dinner, and had

actually set on foot a subscription, as a tribute of gratitude for

their "Impartial" conduct in administering the laws, as special

justices. Thus were two men, notoriously guilty of violations of law

and humanity, publicly encouraged and protected, while Stephen

Bourne, who according to the testimony of the present and late

attorney-general had acted not only justly but _legally_, was

suffering every species of persecution and indignity for so doing."

Probably nothing could demonstrate the meanness of the artifices to

which the planters resort to get rid of troublesome magistrates better

than the following fact. When the present governor, in making his tour

of the island, came into St. Thomas in the East, some of the planters of

Manchioneal district hired a negro constable on one of the estates to go

to the governor and complain to him that Mr. Chamberlain encouraged the

apprentices to be disorderly and idle. The negro went accordingly, but

like another Balaam, he prophesied _against his employers_. He stated to

the governor that the apprentices on the estate where he lived were lazy

and wouldn't do right, _but he declared that it was not Mr. C.'s fault,

for that he was not allowed to come on the estate!_

Having given such an unfavorable description of the mass of planters, it

is but just to add that there are a few honorable exceptions. There are

some attorneys and overseers, who if they dared to face the allied

powers of oppression, would act a noble part. But they are trammelled by

an overpowering public sentiment, and are induced to fall in very much

with the prevailing practices. One of this class, an attorney of

considerable influence, declined giving us his views in writing, stating

that his situation and the state of public sentiment must be his

apology. An overseer who was disposed to manifest the most liberal

bearing towards his apprentices, and who had directions from the

absentee proprietor to that effect, was yet effectually prevented by his

attorney, who having several other estates under his charge, was fearful

of losing them, if he did not maintain the same severe discipline

on all.

The special magistrates are also deeply implicated in causing the

difficulties existing under the apprenticeship. They are incessantly

exposed to multiplied and powerful temptations. The persecution which

they are sure to incur by a faithful discharge of their duties, has

already been noticed. It would require men of unusual sternness of

principle to face so fierce an array. Instead of being _independent_ of

the planters, their situation is in every respect totally the reverse.

Instead of having a central office or station-house to hold their courts

at, as is the case in Barbadoes, they are required to visit each estate

in their districts. They have a circuit from forty to sixty miles to

compass every fortnight, or in some cases three times every month. On

these tours they are absolutely dependent upon the hospitality of the

planters. None but men of the "sterner stuff" could escape, (to use the

negro's phrase) _being poisoned by massa's turtle soup._ The _character_

of the men who are acting as magistrates is thus described by a colonial

magistrate of high standing and experience.

"The special magistracy department is filled with the most worthless

men, both domestic and imported. It was a necessary qualification of the

former to possess no property; hence the most worthless vagabonds on the

island were appointed. The latter were worn out officers and dissipated

rakes, whom the English government sent off here in order to get rid of

them." As a specimen of the latter kind, this gentleman mentioned one

(special Justice Light) who died lately from excessive dissipation. He

was constantly drunk, and the only way in which to get him to do any

business was to take him on to an estate in the evening so that he might

sleep off his intoxication, and then the business was brought before him

early the next morning, before he had time to get to his cups.

It is well known that many of the special magistrates are totally

unprincipled men, monsters of cruelty, lust, and despotism. As a result

of natural character in many cases, and of dependence upon planters in

many more, the great mass of the special justices are a disgrace to

their office, and to the government which commissioned them. Out of

sixty, the number of special justices in Jamaica, there are not more

than fifteen, or twenty at farthest, who are not the merest tools of the

attorneys and overseers. Their servility was graphically hit off by the

apprentice. "If busha say flog em, he flog em; if busha say send them to

the treadmill, he send em." If an apprentice laughs or sings, and the

busha represents it to the magistrate as insolence, he _feels it his

duty_ to make an example of the offender!

The following fact will illustrate the injustice of the magistrates. It

was stated in writing by a missionary. We conceal all names, in

compliance with the request of the writer. "An apprentice belonging to

---- in the ---- was sent to the treadmill by special justice G. He was

ordered to go out and count the sheep, as he was able to count higher

than some of the field people, although a house servant from his

youth--I may say childhood. Instead of bringing in the tally cut upon a

piece of board, as usual, he wrote the number eighty upon a piece of

paper. When the overseer saw it, he would scarcely believe that any of

his people could write, and ordered a piece of coal to be brought and

made him write it over again; the next day he turned him into the field,

but unable to perform the task (to hoe and weed one hundred coffee roots

daily) with those who had been accustomed to field work all their lives,

he was tried for neglect of duty, and sentenced to fourteen days on the

treadmill!"

We quote the following heart-rending account from the Telegraph,

(Spanishtown,) April 28, 1837. It is from a Baptist missionary.

"I see something is doing in England to shorten the apprenticeship

system. I pray God it may soon follow its predecessor--slavery, for

it is indeed slavery under a less disgusting name. Business lately

(December 23) called me to Rodney Hall; and while I was there, a

poor old negro was brought in for punishment. I heard the fearful

vociferation, 'twenty stripes.' 'Very well; here ----, put this man

down.' I felt as I cannot describe; yet I thought, as the supervisor

was disposed to be civil, my presence might tend to make the

punishment less severe than it usually is--but I was disappointed. I

inquired into the crime for which such an old man could be so

severely punished, and heard various accounts. I wrote to the

magistrate who sentenced him to receive it; and after many days I

got the following reply."

"_Logan Castle, Jan. 9, 1836._

Sir--In answer to your note of the 4th instant, I beg leave to

state, that ---- ----, an apprentice belonging to ---- ----, was

brought before me by Mr. ----, his late overseer, charged upon oath

with continual neglect of duty and disobedience of orders as

cattle-man, and also for stealing milk--was convicted, and sentenced

to receive twenty stripes. So far from the punishment of the

offender being severe, he was not ordered one half the number of

stripes provided for such cases by the abolition act--if he received

more than that number, or if those were inflicted with undue

severity, I shall feel happy in making every inquiry amongst the

authorities at Rodney Hall institution.

I remain, sir, yours, truly,

T.W. JONES, S.M."

'Rev. J. Clarke, &c., &c.'

From Mr. Clarke's reply, we make the following extract:

"_Jericho, January 19, 1836._

Sir--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th

instant.

Respecting the punishment of ---- ----, I still adhere to the

opinion I before expressed, that, for an old man of about sixty

years of age, the punishment was severe. To see a venerable old man

tied as if to be broken on the wheel, and cut to the bone by the

lash of an athletic driver--writhing and yelling under the most

exquisite torture, were certainly circumstances sufficiently strong

to touch the heart of any one possessed of the smallest degree of

common humanity. The usual preparations being made, the old man

quietly stripped off his upper garments, and lay down upon the

board--he was then tied by his legs, middle, above the elbows, and

at each wrist. Mr. ---- then called out to the driver, 'I hope you

will do your duty--he is not sent here for nothing.' At the first

lash the skin started up; and at the third, the blood began to flow;

ere the driver had given ten, the cat was covered with gore; and he

stopped to change it for a dry one, which appeared to me somewhat

longer than the first. When the poor tortured creature had received

sixteen, his violent struggles enabled him to get one of his hands

loose, which he put instantly to his back--the driver stopped to

retie him, and then proceeded to give the remaining four. The

struggles of the poor old man from the first lash bespoke the most

extreme torture; and his cries were to me most distressing. 'Oh! oh!

mercy! mercy! mercy! oh! massa! massa! dat enough--enough! oh,

enough! O, massa, have pity! O, massa! massa! dat enough--enough!

Oh, never do de like again--only pity me--forgive me dis once! oh!

pity! mercy! mercy! oh! oh!' were the cries he perpetually uttered.

I shall remember them while I live; and would not for ten thousand

worlds have been the cause of producing them. It was some minutes

after he was loosed ere he could rise to his feet, and as he

attempted to rise, he continued calling out, 'My back! oh! my back!

my back is broken.' A long time he remained half-doubled, the blood

flowing round his body; 'I serve my master,' said the aged sufferer,

'at all times; get no Saturday, no Sunday; yet this is de way

dem use me.'

With such planters, and such magistrates to play into their hands,

is it to be wondered at that the apprentices do badly? Enough has

been said, we think, to satisfy any candid person as to the _causes

of the evils in Jamaica_. If any thing further were needed, we might

speak of the peculiar facilities which these men have for

perpetrating acts of cruelty and injustice. The major part of the

island is exceedingly mountainous, and a large portion of the sugar

estates, and most of the coffee plantations, are among the

mountains. These estates are scattered over a wide extent of

country, and separated by dense forests and mountains, which conceal

each plantation from the public view almost as effectually as though

it were the only property on the island. The only mode of access to

many of the estates in the mountainous districts, is by mule paths

winding about, amid fastnesses, precipices, and frightful solitudes.

In those lone retirements, on the mountain top, or in the deep glen

by the side of the rocky rivers, the traveller occasionally meets

with an estate. Strangers but rarely intrude upon those little

domains. They are left to the solitary sway of the overseers

dwelling amid their "gangs," and undisturbed, save by the weekly

visitations of the special magistrates. While the traveller is

struck with the facilities for the perpetration of those enormities

which must have existed there during slavery; he is painfully

impressed also with the numerous opportunities which are still

afforded for oppressing the apprentices, particularly where the

special magistrates are not honest men.[A]

[Footnote A: From the nature of the case, it must be impossible to know

how much actual flogging is perpetrated by the overseers. We might

safely conjecture that there must be a vast deal of it that never comes

to the light. Such is the decided belief of many of the first men in the

island. The planters, say they, flog their apprentices, and then, to

prevent their complaining to the magistrate, threaten them with severe

punishment, or bribe them to silence by giving them a few shillings. The

attorney-general mentioned an instance of the latter policy. A planter

got angry with one of his head men, who was a constable, and knocked him

down. The man started off to complain to the special magistrate. The

master called him back, and told him he need not go to the

magistrate--that he was constable, and had a right to fine him himself.

"Well, massa," said the negro, "I fine you five shillings on de spot."

The master was glad to get off with that--the magistrate would probably

have fined him £5 currency.]

In view of the local situation of Jamaica--the violent character of

its planters--and the inevitable dependency of the magistrates, it

is very manifest _that immediate emancipation was imperatively

demanded there_. In no other colony did the negroes require to be

more _entirely released from the tyranny of the overseers, or more

thoroughly shielded by the power of equal law_. This is a principle

which must hold good always--that where slavery has been most

rigorous and absolute, there emancipation, needs to be most

unqualified; and where the sway of the master has been _most

despotic, cruel, and_ LONG CONTINUED, there the protection of law

should be most SPEEDILY _extended and most impartially applied_."[B]

[Footnote B: Since the above was written we have seen a copy of a

message sent by Sir Lionel Smith, to the house of assembly of Jamaica,

on the 3d November, 1837, in which a statement of the deprivations of

the apprentices, is officially laid before the house. We make the

following extract from it, which contains, to use his Excellency's

language, "the principal causes, as has been found by the records of the

special magistrates, of complaints among the apprentices; and of

consequent collisions between the planters and magistrates."

"Prudent and humane planters have already adopted what is

recommended, and their properties present the good working of this

system in peace and industry, without their resorting to the

authority of the special magistrates; but there are other properties

where neither the law of the apprenticeship nor the usages of

slavery have been found sufficient to guard the rights of the

apprentices.

First, the magistrates' reports show that on some estates the

apprentices have been deprived of cooks and water-carriers while at

work in the field--thus, the time allowed for breakfast, instead of

being a period of rest, is one of continual labor, as they have to

seek for fuel and to cook. The depriving them of water-carriers is

still more injurious, as the workmen are not allowed to quit their

rows to obtain it. Both these privations are detrimental to the

planter's work. Second, a law seems wanting to supply the estates'

hospitals with sufficient attendants on the sick apprentices, as

well as for the supply of proper food, as they cannot depend on

their own grounds, whilst unable to leave the hospitals. The first

clause of the abolition law has not been found strong enough to

secure these necessary attentions to the sick. Third, in regard to

jobbers, more exposed to hardships than any other class. A law is

greatly required allowing them the distance they may have to walk to

their work, at the rate of three miles an hour, and for compelling

the parties hiring them to supply them with salt food and meal;

their grounds are oftentimes so many miles distant, it is impossible

for them to supply themselves. Hence constant complaints and

irregularities. Fourth, that mothers of six children and upwards,

pregnant women, and the aged of both sexes, would be greatly

benefited by a law enforcing the kind treatment which they received

in slavery, but which is now considered optional, or is altogether

avoided on many properties. Fifth, nothing would tend more to effect

general contentment and repress the evils of comparative treatment,

than the issue of fish as a right by law. It was an indulgence in

slavery seldom denied, but on many properties is now withheld, or

given for extra labor instead of wages. Sixth, his Excellency during

the last sessions had the honor to address a message to the house

for a stronger definition of working time. The clause of the act in

aid expressed that it was the intention of the legislature to

regulate 'uniformity' of labor, but in practice there is still a

great diversity of system. The legal adviser of the crown considers

the clause active and binding; the special magistrate cannot,

therefore, adjudicate on disputes of labor under the eight hour

system, and the consequences have been continual complaints and

bickerings between the magistrates and managers, and discontent

among the apprentices by comparison of the advantages which one

system presents over the other. Seventh, if your honorable house

would adopt some equitable fixed principle for the value of

apprentices desirous of purchasing their discharge, either by

ascertained rates of weekly labor, or by fixed sums according to

their trade or occupation, which should not be exceeded, and

allowing the deduction of one third from the extreme value for the

contingencies of maintenance, clothing, medical aid, risk of life,

and health, it would greatly tend to set at rest one cause of

constant disappointment. In proportion as the term of apprenticeship

draws to a close, THE DEMANDS FOR THE SALE OF SERVICES HAVE GREATLY

INCREASED. It is in the hope that the honorable house will be

disposed to enforce a more general system of equal treatment, that

his Excellency now circumstantially represents what have been the

most common causes of complaint among the apprentices, and why the

island is subject to the reproach that the negroes, in some

respects, are now in a worse condition than they were in slavery."

]

We heard frequent complaints in Jamaica respecting the falling off of

the crops since abolition. In order that the reader may know the extent

of the failure in the aggregate island crops, we have inserted in the

appendix a table showing the "exports for fifty-three years, ending 31st

December, 1836, condensed from the journals of the House."

By the disaffected planters, the diminished crops were hailed as "an

evident token of perdition." They had foretold that abolition would be

the ruin of cultivation, they had maintained that sugar, coffee, rum,

&c., could not be produced extensively without the _whip of slavery_,

and now they exultingly point to the short crops and say, "See the

results of abolition!" We say exultingly, for a portion of the planters

do really seem to rejoice in any indication of ruin. Having staked their

reputation as prophets against their credit as colonists and their

interests as men, they seem happy in the establishment of the former,

even though it be by the sacrifice of the latter. Said an intelligent

gentleman in St. Thomas in the East, "The planters have _set their

hearts upon_ ruin, and they will be sorely disappointed if it should

not come."

Hearing so much said concerning the diminution of the crops, we spared

no pains to ascertain the _true causes_. We satisfied ourselves that the

causes were mainly two.

First. The prevailing impression that the negroes would not _work well_

after the abolition of slavery, led many planters to throw a part of

their land out of cultivation, in 1834. This is a fact which was

published by Lord Sligo, in an official account which he gave shortly

before leaving Jamaica, of the working of the apprenticeship. The

overseer of Belvidere estate declared that he knew of many cases in

which part of the land usually planted in canes was thrown up, owing to

the general expectation that _much less work_ would be done after

abolition. He also mentioned one attorney _who ordered all the estates

under his charge to be thrown out of cultivation_ in 1834, so confident

was he that the negroes would not work. The name of this attorney was

White. Mr. Gordon, of Williamsfield, stated, that the quantity of land

planted in cane, in 1834, was considerably less than the usual amount:

on some estates it was less by twenty, and on others by forty acres. Now

if such were the fact in the Parish of St. Thomas in the East, where

greater confidence was felt probably than in any other parish, we have a

clue by which we may conjecture (if indeed we were left to conjecture)

to what extent the cultivation was diminished in the island generally.

This of itself would satisfactorily account for the falling off in the

crops--which at most is not above one third. Nor would this explain the

decrease in '34 _only_, for it is well known among sugar planters that a

neglect of planting, either total or partial, for one year, will affect

the crops for two or three successive years.

The other cause of short crops has been the _diminished amount of time

for labor_. One fourth of the time now belongs to the laborers, and they

often prefer to employ it in cultivating their provision grounds and

carrying their produce to market. Thus the estate cultivation is

necessarily impeded. This cause operates very extensively, particularly

on two classes of estates: those which lie convenient to market places,

where the apprentices have strong inducements to cultivate their

grounds, and those (more numerous still) which _have harsh overseers_,

to whom the apprentices are averse to hire their time--in which cases

they will choose to work for neighboring planters, who are better men.

We should not omit to add here, that owing to a singular fact, the

falling off of the crops _appears_ greater than it really has been. We

learned from the most credible sources that _the size of the hogsheads_

had been considerably enlarged since abolition. Formerly they contained,

on an average, eighteen hundred weight, now they vary from a ton to

twenty-two hundred! As the crops are estimated by the number of

hogsheads, this will make a material difference. There were two reasons

for enlarging in the hogsheads,--one was, to lessen the amount of

certain port charges in exportation, which were made _by the hogshead_;

the other, and perhaps the principal, was to create some foundation in

appearance for the complaint that the crops had failed because of

abolition.

While we feel fully warranted in stating these as the chief causes of

the diminished crops, we are at the same time disposed to admit that the

apprenticeship is in itself exceedingly ill calculated either to

encourage or to compel industry. We must confess that we have no special

zeal to vindicate this system from its full share of blame; but we are

rather inclined to award to it every jot and tittle of the dishonored

instrumentality which it has had in working mischief to the colony.

However, in all candor, we must say, that we can scarcely check the

risings of exultation when we perceive that this party-fangled

measure--this offspring of old Slavery in her dying throes, _which was

expressly designed as a compensation to the proprietor_, HAS ACTUALLY

DIMINISHED HIS ANNUAL RETURNS BY ONE THIRD! So may it ever be with

legislation which is based on _iniquity and robbery!_

But the subject which excites the deepest interest in Jamaica _is the

probable consequences of entire emancipation in 1840_. The most common

opinion among the prognosticators of evil is, that the emancipated

negroes will abandon the cultivation of all the staple products, retire

to the woods, and live in a state of semi-barbarism; and as a

consequence, the splendid sugar and coffee estates must be "thrown up,"

and the beautiful and fertile island of Jamaica become a waste howling

wilderness.

The _reasons_ for this opinion consist in part of naked assumptions, and

in part of inferences from _supposed_ facts. The assumed reasons are

such as these. The negroes will not cultivate the cane _without the

whip_. How is this known? Simply because _they never have_, to any great

extent, in Jamaica. Such, it has been shown, was the opinion formerly in

Barbadoes, but it has been forever exploded there by experiment. Again,

the negroes are _naturally improvident_, and will never have enough

foresight to work steadily. What is the evidence of _natural_

improvidence in the negroes? Barely this--their carelessness in a state

of slavery. But that furnishes no ground at all for judging of _natural_

character, or of the developments of character under a _totally

different system_. If it testifies any thing, it is only this, that the

natural disposition of the negroes is not always _proof_ against the

degenerating influences of slavery.[A] Again, the actual wants of the

negroes are very few and easily supplied, and they will undoubtedly

prefer going into the woods where they can live almost without labor, to

toiling in the hot cane fields or climbing the coffee mountains. But

they who urge this, lose sight of the fact that the negroes are

considerably civilized, and that, like other civilized people, they will

seek for more than supply for the necessities of the rudest state of

nature. Their wants are already many, even in the degraded condition of

slaves; is it probable that they will be satisfied with _fewer of the

comforts and luxuries of civilized life_, when they are elevated to the

sphere, and feel the self-respect and dignity of freemen? But let us

notice some of the reasons which profess to be _founded on fact_. They

may all be resolved into two, _the laziness of negroes, and their

tendency to barbarism_.

[Footnote A: Probably in more instances than the one recorded in the

foregoing chapter, the improvidence of the negroes is inferred from

their otherwise unaccountable preference in walking six or ten miles to

chapel, rather than to work for a maccaroni a day.]

i. They _now_ refuse to work on Saturdays, even with wages. On this

assertion we have several remarks to make.

1.) It is true only to a partial extent. The apprentices on many

estates--whether a majority or not it is impossible to say--do work for

their masters on Saturdays, when their services are called for.

2.) They often refuse to work on the estates, because they can earn

three or four times as much by cultivating their provision grounds and

carrying their produce to market. The ordinary day's wages on an estate

is a quarter of a dollar, and where the apprentices are conveniently

situated to market, they can make from seventy-five cents to a dollar a

day with their provisions.

3.) The overseers are often such overbearing and detestable men, that

the apprentices doubtless feel it a great relief to be freed from their

command on Saturday, after submitting to it compulsorily for five days

of the week.

2. Another fact from which the laziness of the negroes is inferred, is

their _neglecting their provision grounds_. It is said that they have

fallen off greatly to their attention to their grounds, since the

abolition of slavery. This fact does not comport very well with the

complaint, that the apprentices cultivate their provision grounds to the

neglect of the estates. But both assertions may be true under opposite

circumstances. On those estates which are situated near the market,

provisions will be cultivated; on those which are remote from the

market, provisions will of course be partially neglected, and it will be

more profitable to the apprentices to work on the estates at a quarter

of a dollar per day, raising only enough provisions for their own use.

But we ascertained another circumstance which throws light on this

point. The negroes expect, after emancipation, to _lose their provision

grounds_; many expect certainly to be turned off by their masters, and

many who have harsh masters, intend to leave, and seek homes on other

estates, and _all_ feel a great uncertainty about their situation after

1840; and consequently they can have but little encouragement to

vigorous and extended cultivation of their grounds. Besides this, there

are very many cases in which the apprentices of one estate cultivate

provision grounds on another estate, where the manager is a man in whom

they have more confidence than they have in their own "busha." They, of

course, in such cases, abandon their former grounds, and consequently

are charged with neglecting them through laziness.

3. Another alleged fact is, that _actually less work_ is done now than

was done during slavery. The argument founded on this fact is this:

there is less work done under the apprenticeship than was done during

slavery: therefore _no work at all_ will be done after entire freedom!

But the apprenticeship allows _one fourth less time_ for labor than

slavery did, and presents no inducement, either compulsory or

persuasive, to continued industry. Will it be replied that emancipation

will take away _all_ the time from labor, and offer no encouragement

_but to idleness_? How is it now? Do the apprentices work better or

worse during their own time when they are paid? Better, unquestionably.

What does this prove? That freedom will supply both the time and the

inducement to the most vigorous industry.

The _other reason_ for believing that the negroes will abandon

estate-labor after entire emancipation, is their _strong tendency to

barbarism!_ And what are the facts in proof of this? We know but one.

We heard it said repeatedly that the apprentices were not willing to

have their free children educated--that they had pertinaciously declined

every offer of the _bushas_ to educate their children, and _this_, it

was alleged, evinced a determination on the part of the negroes to

perpetuate ignorance and barbarism among their posterity. We heard from

no less than four persons of distinction in St. Thomas in the East, the

following curious fact. It was stated each time for the double purpose

of proving that the apprentices did not wish to have their children

_learn to work_, and that they were opposed to their _receiving

education_. A company of the first-gentlemen of that parish, consisting

of the rector of the parish, the custos, the special magistrate, an

attorney, and member of the assembly, etc., had mustered in imposing

array, and proceeded to one of the large estates in the Plantain Garden

River Valley, and there having called the apprentices together, made the

following proposals to them respecting their free children, the rector

acting as spokesman. The attorney would provide a teacher for the

estate, and would give the children four hours' instruction daily, if

the parents would _bind them to work_ four hours every day; the attorney

further offered to pay for all medical attendance the children should

require. The apprentices, after due deliberation among themselves,

unanimously declined this proposition. It was repeatedly urged upon

them, and the advantages it promised were held up to them; but they

persisted in declining it wholly. This was a great marvel to the

planters; and they could not account for it in any other way than by

supposing that the apprentices were opposed both to labor and education,

and were determined that their free children should grow up in ignorance

and indolence! Now the true reason why the apprentices rejected this

proposal was, _because it came from the planters_, in whom they have no

confidence. They suspected that some evil scheme was hid under the fair

pretence of benevolence; the design of the planters, as they firmly

believed, was to get their _free children bound to them_, so that they

might continue to keep them in a species of apprenticeship. This was

stated to us, as the real ground of the rejection, by several

missionaries, who gave the best evidence that it was so; viz. that at

the same time that the apprentices declined the offer, they would send

their free children _six or eight miles to a school taught by a

missionary_. We inquired particularly of some of the apprentices, to

whom this offer was made, why they did not accept it. They said that

they could not trust their masters; the whole design of it was to get

them to give up their children, and if they should give them up _but for

a single month_, it would be the same as acknowledging that they (the

parents) were not able to take care of them themselves. The busha would

then send word to the Governor that the people had given up their

children, not being able to support them, and the Governor would have

the children bound to the busha, "and _then_," said they, "_we might

whistle for our children_!" In this manner the apprentices, the

_parents_, reasoned. They professed the greatest anxiety to have their

children educated, but they said they could have no confidence in the

honest intentions of their busha.

The views given above, touching the results of entire emancipation in

1840, are not unanimously entertained even among the planters, and they

are far from prevailing to any great extent among other classes of the

community. The missionaries, as a body, a portion of the special

magistrates, and most of the intelligent free colored people, anticipate

glorious consequences; they hail the approach of 1840, as a deliverance

from the oppressions of the apprenticeship, and its train of

disaffections, complaints and incessant disputes. They say they have

nothing to fear--nor has the island any thing to fear, but every thing

to hope, from entire emancipation. We subjoin a specimen of the

reasoning of the minority of the planters. They represent the idea that

the negroes will abandon the estates, and retire to the woods, as wild

and absurd in the extreme. They say the negroes have a great regard for

the comforts which they enjoy on the estates; they are strongly attached

to their houses and little furniture, and their provision grounds. These

are as much to them as the 'great house' and the estate are to their

master. Besides, they have very _strong local attachments_, and these

would bind them to the properties. These planters also argue, from _the

great willingness_ of the apprentices now to work for money, during

their own time, that they will not be likely to relinquish labor when

they are to get wages for the whole time. There was no doubt much truth

in the remark of a planter in St. Thomas in the East, that if _any_

estates were abandoned by the negroes after 1840, it would be those

which had harsh managers, and those which are so mountainous and

inaccessible, or barren, that they _ought_ to be abandoned. It was the

declaration of a _planter_, that entire emancipation would _regenerate_

the island of Jamaica.

* * * * *

We now submit to the candid examination of the American, especially the

Christian public, the results of our inquiries in Antigua, Barbadoes,

and Jamaica. The deficiency of the narrative in ability and interest, we

are sure is neither the fault of the subject nor of the materials. Could

we have thrown into vivid forms a few only of the numberless incidents

of rare beauty which thronged our path--could we have imparted to pages

that freshness and glow, which invested the institutions of freedom,

just bursting into bloom over the late wastes of slavery--could we, in

fine, have carried our readers amid the scenes which we witnessed, and

the sounds which we heard, and the things which we handled, we should

not doubt the power and permanence of the impression produced. It is due

to the cause, and to the society under whose commission we acted,

frankly to state, that we were not selected on account of any peculiar

qualifications for the work. As both of us were invalids, and compelled

to fly from the rigors of an American winter, it was believed that we

might combine the improvement of health, with the prosecution of

important investigations, while abler men could thus be retained in the

field at home; but we found that the unexpected abundance of materials

requires the strongest health and powers of endurance. We regret to add,

that the continued ill health of both of us, since our return, so

serious in the case of one, as to deprive him almost wholly of

participation in the preparation of the work, has necessarily, delayed

its appearance, and rendered its execution more imperfect.

We lay no claim to literary merit. To present as simple narrative of

facts, has been our sole aim. We have not given the results of our

personal observations merely, or chiefly, nor have we made a record of

private impressions or idle speculations. _Well authenticated facts_,

accompanied with the testimony, verbal and documentary, of public men,

planters, and other responsible individuals, make up the body of the

volume, as almost every page will show. That no statements, if

erroneous, might escape detection and exposure, we have, in nearly every

case, given the _names_ of our authorities. By so doing we may have

subjected ourselves to the censure of those respected gentlemen, with

whose names we have taken such liberty. We are assured, however, that

their interest in the cause of freedom will quite reconcile them to what

otherwise might be an unpleasant personal publicity.

Commending our narrative to the blessing of the God of truth, and the

Redeemer of the oppressed, we send it forth to do its part, however

humble, toward the removal of slavery from our beloved but

guilty country.

APPENDIX.

We have in our possession a number of official documents from gentlemen,

officers of the government, and variously connected with its

administration, in the different islands which we visited: some of

these--such as could not be conveniently incorporated into the body of

the work--we insert in the form of an appendix. To insert them _all_,

would unduly increase the size of the present volume. Those not embodied

in this appendix, will be published in the periodicals of the American

Anti-Slavery Society.

* * * * *

OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION FROM E.B. LYON, ESQ., SPECIAL MAGISTRATE.

_Jamaica, Hillingdon, near Falmouth, Trelawney, May 15, 1837_.

TO J.H. KIMBALL., ESQ., and J.A. THOME, ESQ.

DEAR SIRS,--Of the operation of the apprenticeship system in this

district, from the slight opportunity I have had of observing the

conduct of managers and apprentices, I could only speak conjecturally,

and my opinions, wanting the authority of experience, would be of little

service to you; I shall therefore confine the remarks I have to make, to

the operation of the system in the district from which I have

lately removed.

I commenced my duties in August, 1834, and from the paucity of special

magistrates at that eventful era, I had the superintendence of a most

extensive district, comprising nearly one half of the populous parish of

St. Thomas in the East, and the whole of the parish of St. David,

embracing an apprentice population of nearly eighteen thousand,--in

charge of which I continued until December, when I was relieved of St.

David, and in March, 1835, my surveillance was confined to that portion

of St. Thomas in the East, consisting of the coffee plantations in the

Blue Mountains, and the sugar estates of Blue Mountain Valley, over

which I continued to preside until last March, a district containing a

population of four thousand two hundred and twenty-seven apprentices, of

which two thousand eighty-seven were males, and two thousand one hundred

and forty, females. The apprentices of the Blue Mountain Valley were, at

the period of my assumption of the duties of a special magistrate, the

most disorderly in the island. They were greatly excited, and 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. They were also extremely irritated at

what they deemed an attempt upon the part of their masters to rob them

of one of the greatest advantages they had been led to believe the new

law secured to them--this was the half of Friday. Special Justice

Everard, who went through the district during the first two weeks of

August, 1834, and who was the first special justice to read and explain

the new law to them, had told them that the law gave to them the extra

four and a half hours on the Friday, and some of the proprietors and

managers, who were desirous of preparing their people for the coming

change, had likewise explained it so; but, most unfortunately, the

governor issued a proclamation, justifying the masters in withholding

the four and a half hours on that day, and substituting any other half

day, or by working them eight hours per day, they might deprive them

altogether of the advantage to be derived from the extra time, which, by

the abolition of Sunday marketing, was almost indispensable to people

whose grounds, in some instances, were many miles from their

habitations, and who were above thirty miles from Kingston market, where

prices were fifty per cent. more than the country markets in their favor

for the articles they had to dispose of, and correspondingly lower for

those they had to purchase. To be in time for which market, it was

necessary to walk all Friday night, so that without the use of the

previous half day, they could not procure their provisions, or prepare

themselves for it. The deprivation of the half of Friday was therefore a

serious hardship to them, and this, coupled to the previous assurance of

their masters, and Special Justice Everard, that they were entitled to

it, made them to suspect a fraud was about being practised on them,

which, if they did not resist, would lead to the destruction of the

remaining few privileges they possessed. The resistance was very

general, but without violence; whole gangs leaving the fields on the

afternoon of Friday; refusing to take any other afternoon, and sometimes

leaving the estates for two or three days together. They fortunately had

confidence in me--and I succeeded in restoring order, and all would have

been well,--but the managers, no longer alarmed by the fear of rebellion

or violence, began a system of retaliation and revenge, by withdrawing

cooks, water-carriers, and nurses, from the field, by refusing medicine

and admittance to the hospital to the apprentice children, and by

compelling old and infirm people, who had been allowed to withdraw from

labor, and mothers of six children, who were exempt by the slave law

from hard labor, to come out and work in the field. All this had a

natural tendency to create irritation, and did do so; though, to the

great credit of the people, in many instances, they submitted with the

most extraordinary patience, to evils which were the more onerous,

because inflicted under the affected sanction of a law, whose advent, as

the herald of liberty, they had expected would have been attended with a

train of blessings. I effected a change in this miserable state of

things; and mutual contract for labor, in crop and out of it, were made

on twenty-five estates in my district, before, I believe, any

arrangement had been made in other parts of the island, between the

managers and the apprentices; so that from being in a more unsettled

state than others, we were soon happily in a more prosperous one, and so

continued.

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. I have, month

after month, in my despatches to the governor, had to record instances

of excess of labor, compared with the quantity performed during slavery

in some kinds of work; and while I have with pleasure reported the

improving condition, habits, manners, and the industry which

characterized the labors of the peasantry, I have not been an

indifferent or uninterested witness of the improvement in the condition

of many estates, the result of the judicious application of labor, and

of the confidence in the future and sanguine expectations of the

proprietors, evinced in the enlargements of the works, and expensive and

permanent repair of the buildings on various estates, and in the high

prices given for properties and land since the apprenticeship system,

which would scarcely have commanded a purchaser, at any price, during

the existence of slavery.

I have invariably found the apprentice willing to work for an equitable

hire, and on all the sugar estates, and several of the plantations, in

the district I speak of, they worked a considerable portion of their own

time during crop, about the works, for money, or an equivalent in

herrings, sugar, etc., to so great a degree, that less than the time

allotted to them during slavery, was left for appropriation to the

cultivation of their grounds, and for marketing, as the majority, very

much to their credit, scrupulously avoided working on the Sabbath day.

In no community in the world is crime less prevalent. At the quarter

sessions, in January last, for the precinct of St. Thomas in the East,

and St. David, which contains an apprentice population of about thirty

thousand, there was only one apprentice tried. And the offences that

have, in general, for the last eighteen months, been brought before me

on estates, have been of the most trivial description, such as an

individual occasionally turning out late, or some one of an irritable

temper answering impatiently, or for some trifling act of disobedience;

in fact, the majority of apprentices on estates have been untainted with

offence, and have steadily and quietly performed their duty, and

respected the law. The apprentices of St. Thomas in the East, I do not

hesitate to say, are much superior in manners and morals to those who

inhabit the towns.

During the first six or eight months, while the planters were in doubt

how far the endurance of their laborers might be taxed, the utmost

deference and respect was paid by them to the special magistrates; their

suggestions or recommendations were adopted without cavil, and opinions

taken without reference to the letter of the law; but when the obedience

of the apprentice, and his strict deference to the law and its

administrators, had inspired them with a consciousness of perfect

security, I observed with much regret, a great alteration in the

deportment of many of the managers towards myself and the people;

trivial and insignificant complaints were astonishingly increased, and

assaults on apprentices became more frequent, so that in the degree that

the conduct of one party was more in accordance with the obligations

imposed on him by the apprenticeship, was that of the other in

opposition to it; again with the hold and infirm harassed; again were

mothers of six living children attempted to be forced to perform field

labor; and again were mothers with sucking children complained of, and

some attempts made to deprive them of the usual nurses.

Such treatment was not calculated to promote cordiality between master

and apprentice, and the effect will, I fear, have a very unfavorable

influence upon the working of many estates, at the termination of the

system; in fact, when that period arrives, if the feeling of

estrangement be no worse, I am convinced it will be no better than it is

at the present moment, as I have witnessed no pains taking on the part

of the attorneys generally to attach the apprentices to the properties,

or to prepare them in a beneficial manner for the coming change. It was

a very common practice in the district, when an apprentice was about to

purchase his discharge, to attempt to intimidate him by threats of

immediate ejectment from the property, and if in the face of this

threatened separation from family and connections, he persevered and

procured his release, then the sincerity of the previous intimations was

evinced by a peremptory order, to instantly quit the property, under the

penalty of having the trespass act enforced against him; and if my

interference prevented any outrageous violation of law, so many

obstructions and annoyances were placed in the way of his communication

with his family, or enjoyment of his domestic rights, that he would be

compelled for their peace, and his own personal convenience, to submit

to privations, which, as a slave, he would not have been subject to. The

consequence is, that those released from the obligations of the

apprenticeship by purchase, instead of being located, and laboring for

hire upon the estate to which they were attached, and forming a nucleus

around which others would have gathered and settled themselves, they

have been principally driven to find other homes, and in the majority of

instances have purchased land, and become settlers on their own account.

If complete emancipation had taken place in 1834, there would have been

no more excitement, and no more trouble to allay it, than that which was

the consequence of the introduction of the present system of coerced and

uncompensated labor. The relations of society would have been fixed upon

a permanent basis, and the two orders would not have been placed in that

situation of jealousy and suspicion which their present anomalous

condition has been the baneful means of creating.

I am convinced there never was any serious alarm about the consequences

of immediate emancipation among those who were acquainted with the

peasantry of Jamaica. The fears of the morbidly humane were purposely

excited to increase the amount of compensation, or to lengthen the

duration of the apprenticeship; and the daily ridiculous and untruthful

statements that are made by the vitiated portion of the Jamaica press,

of the indolence of the apprentices, their disinclination to work in

their own time, and the great increase of crime, are purposely and

insidiously put forward to prevent the fact of the industry, and

decorum, and deference to the law, of the people, and the prosperous

condition of the estates, appearing in too prominent a light, lest the

friends of humanity, and the advocates for the equal rights of men,

should be encouraged to agitate for the destruction of a system which,

in its general operation, has retained many of the worst features of

slavery, perpetuated many gross infringements of the social and domestic

rights of the working classes; and which, instead of working out the

benevolent intention of the imperial legislature, by aiding and

encouraging the expansion of intellect, and supplying motives for the

permanent good conduct of the apprentices, in its termination, has, I

fear, retarded the rapidity with which civilization would have advanced,

and sown the seeds of a feeling more bitter than that which slavery,

with all its abominations, had engendered.

I am, dear sirs, your very faithful servant,

EDMUND B. LYON, _Special Justice._

Extract from a communication which we received from Wm. Henry Anderson,

Esq., of Kingston, the Solicitor-General for Jamaica.

The staples of the island must be cultivated after 1840 as now, because

if not, the negroes could not obtain the comforts or luxuries, of which

they are undoubtedly very desirous, from cultivation of their grounds.

The fruits and roots necessary for the public markets are already

supplied in profusion at tolerably moderate prices: if the supply were

greatly increased, the prices could not be remunerative. There is no way

in which they can so readily as by labor for wages, _obtain money_, and

therefore I hold that there must ever be an adequate supply of labor in

the market.

The negroes are in my opinion very acute in their perceptions of right

and wrong, justice and injustice, and appreciate fully the benefits of

equitable legislation, and would unreservedly submit to it where they

felt confidence in the purity of its administration.

There is not the slightest likelihood of rebellion on the part of the

negroes after 1840, unless some unrighteous attempts be made to keep up

the helotism of the class by enactments of partial laws. _They_ could

have no interest in rebellion, they could gain nothing by it; and might

lose every thing; nor do I think they dream of such a thing. They are

ardently attached to the British government, and would be so to the

colonial government, were it to indicate by its enactments any purposes

of kindness or protection towards them. Hitherto the scope of its

legislation has been, in reference to them, almost exclusively coercive;

certainly there have been no enactments of a tendency to conciliate

their good will or attachment.

The negroes are much desirous of education and religious instruction: no

one who has attended to the matter can gainsay that. Formerly marriage

was unknown amongst them; they were in fact only regarded by their

masters, and I fear by themselves too, as so many brutes for labor, and

for increase. Now they seek the benefits of the social institution of

marriage and its train of hallowed relationships: concubinage is

becoming quite disreputable; many are seeking to repair their conduct by

marriage to their former partners, and no one in any rank of life would

be hardy enough to express disapprobation of those who have done or

may do so.

WM. HENRY ANDERSON.

_Kingston, Jamaica, 24th April, 1837_.

* * * * *

The following communication is the monthly report for March, 1837, of

Major J.B. Colthurst, special justice for District A., Rural Division,

Barbadoes.

The general conduct of the apprentices since my last report has been

excellent, considering that greater demands have been made upon their

labor at this moment to save perhaps the finest crop of canes ever grown

in the island.

Upon the large estates generally the best feeling exists, because they

are in three cases out of four conducted by either the proprietors

themselves, or attorneys and managers of sense and consideration. Here

all things go on well; the people are well provided and comfortable, and

therefore the best possible understanding prevails.

The apprentices in my district _perform their work most willingly_,

whenever the immediate manager is a man of sense and humanity. If this

is not the case, the effect is soon seen, and complaints begin to be

made. Misunderstandings are usually confined to the smaller estates,

particularly in the neighborhood of Bridgetown, where the lots are very

small, and the apprentice population of a less rural description, and

more or less also corrupted by daily intercourse with the town.

The working hours most generally in use in my district are as follows:

On most estates, the apprentices work from six to nine, breakfast; from

ten to one, dinner--rest; from three to six, work.

It is almost the constant practice of the apprentices, particularly the

praedials or rural portion, to work in their own time for money wages,

at the rate of a quarter dollar a day. They sometimes work also during

those periods in their little gardens round their negro houses, and

which they most generally enjoy without charge, or in the land they

obtain in lieu of allowance, they seem ALWAYS well pleased to be fully

employed at _free_ labor, and work, when so employed, exceedingly well.

I know a small estate, worked exclusively on this system. It is in

excellent order, and the proprietor tells me his profits are greater

than they would be under the apprenticeship. He is a sensible and

correct man, and I therefore rely upon his information. During the hurry

always attendant on the saving of the crop, the apprentices are

generally hired in their own time upon their respective estates at the

above rate, and which they seldom refuse. No hesitation generally occurs

in this or any other matter, whenever the employer discharges his duty

by them in a steady and considerate manner.

The attendance at church throughout my district is most respectable; but

the accommodation, either in this respect or as regards schools, is by

no means adequate to the wants of the people. The apprentices conduct

themselves during divine service in the most correct manner, and it is

most gratifying to perceive, that only very little exertion, indeed,

would be required to render them excellent members of society. This fact

is fully proved by the orderly situation of a few estates in my

district, that have had the opportunity of receiving some moral and

religious instruction. There are sixty-four estates in my district over

twenty-five acres. Upon four of those plantations where the apprentices

have been thus taught, there are a greater number of _married_ couples

(which may be considered a fair test) than upon the remaining sixty. I

scarcely ever have a complaint from these four estates, and they are

generally reported to be in a most orderly state.

In the memory of the oldest inhabitant, the island has never produced a

finer crop of canes than that now in the course of manufacture. All

other crops are luxuriant, and the plantations in a high state of

agricultural cleanliness. The season has been very favorable.

Under the head of general inquiry, I beg leave to offer a few remarks. I

have now great pleasure in having it in my power to state, that a

manifest change for the better has taken place _gradually_ in my

district within the last few months. Asperities seem to be giving way to

calm discussion, and the laws are better understood and obeyed.

It is said in other colonies as well as here, that there has been, and

still continues to be, a great want of natural affection among the negro

parents for their children, and that great mortality among the free

children has occurred in consequence. This opinion, I understand, has

been lately expressed in confident terms by the legislature of St.

Vincent's, which has been fully and satisfactorily contradicted by the

reports of the special justices to the lieutenant-governor. The same

assertion has been made by individuals to myself. As regards Barbadoes,

I have spared no pains to discover whether such statements were facts,

and I now am happy to say, that not a _single instance_ of unnatural

conduct on the part of the negro parents to their children has come to

my knowledge--far, perhaps too far, the contrary is the case; _over

indulgence_ and _petting_ them seems in my judgment to be the only

matter the parents can be, with any justice, accused of. They exhibit

their fondness in a thousand ways. Contrasting the actual conduct of the

negro parents with the assertions of the planters, it is impossible not

to infer that _some bitterness is felt by the latter on the score of

their lost authority_. When this is the case, reaction is the natural

consequence, and thus misunderstandings and complaints ensue. The like

assertions are made with respect to the disinclination of the parents to

send their children to school. This certainly does exist to a certain

extent, particularly to schools where the under classes of whites are

taught, who often treat the negro children in a most imperious and

hostile manner. As some proof that no decided objection exists in the

negro to educate his children, a vast number of the apprentices of my

district send them to school, and take pride in paying a bit a week each

for them--a quarter dollar entrance and a quarter dollar for each

vacation. Those schools are almost always conducted by a black man and

his _married_ wife. However, they are well attended, but are very few

in number.

To show that the apprentices fully estimate the blessings of education,

many females _hire their apprentice_ children at a quarter dollar a week

from their masters, for the express purpose of sending them to school.

This proves the possibility of a _voluntary_ system of education

succeeding, provided it was preceded by full and satisfactory

explanation to the parties concerned. I have also little doubt that

labor to the extent I speak of, may be successfully introduced when the

apprentices become assured that nothing but the ultimate welfare of

themselves and children is intended; but so suspicious are they from

habit, and, as I said before, so profoundly ignorant of what may in

truth and sincerity be meant only for their benefit, that it will

require great caution and delicacy on the occasion. Those suspicions

have not been matured in the negroes mind without cause--the whole

history of slavery proves it. Such suspicions are even _now_ only

relinquished under doubts and apprehensions; therefore, all new and

material points, to be carried successfully with them, should be

proposed to them upon the most liberal and open grounds.

J.B. COLTHURST, _Special Justice Peace, District A, Rural Division_.

* * * * *

_General return of the imports and exports of the island of Barbadoes,

during a series of years--furnished by the Custom-house officer at

Bridgetown_.

£. s, d.

1832 481,610 6 3

1833 462,132 14 4

1834 449,169 12 4

1835 595,961 13 2

1836 622,128 19 11

IMPORTS OF LUMBER.

Feet. Shingles.

1833 5,290,086 5,598,958

1834 5,708,494 5,506,646

1835 5,794,596 4,289,025

1836 7,196,189 7,037,462

IMPORTS OF PROVISIONS.

| Flour. | Corn Meal. |

Y'rs.| bbls. |1/2 bbls.| bush.| bbls.|

-----+--------+---------+-------+------+

1833 | 21,535 | 397 | 629 | 265 |

1834 | 34,191 | 865 | 1675 | 1580 |

1835 | 32,393 | 828 | 160 | 809 |

1836 | 41,975 | 433 | 823 | 1123 |

-----+--------+---------+-------+------+

| Bread and Biscuits. |Oats & Corn.|

Y'rs.| hds.| bbls.|1/2 bbls.|kegs.|bags.| bags.| qrs.|

-----+-----+------+---------+-----+-----+------+-----+

1833 | 49| 2146| 30 | " | " | 430| 50|

1834 | 401| 8561| 99 | 57 | " | 100| 1025|

1835 | 2024| 10762| " | " | " | 2913| 3134|

1836 | 4| 4048| " | " | 1058| 8168| 3119|

-----+-----+------+---------+-----+-----+------+-----+

IMPORTS OF CATTLE, ETC.

Cattle. Horses. Mules.

1833 649 462 65

1834 549 728 24

1835 569 1047 43

1836 1013 1345 104

RETURN OF EXPORTS--SUGAR.

hhds. trcs. bbls.

1832 18,804 1278 838

1833 27,015 1505 651

1834 27,593 1464 1083

1835 24,309 1417 938

1836 25,060 1796 804

* * * * *

VALUATIONS OF APPRENTICES IN JAMAICA.

"From the 1st of August, 1834, to 31st of May, 1836, 998 apprentices

purchased their freedom by valuation, and paid £33,998. From 31st May,

1836, to 1st November, in the same year, 582 apprentices purchased

themselves, and paid £18,217--making, in all, £52,216--a prodigious sum

to be furnished by the negroes in two years. From the above statement it

appears that the desire to be free is daily becoming more general and

more intense, and that the price of liberty remains the same, although

the term of apprenticeship is decreasing. The amount paid by the

apprentices is a proof of the extent of the exertions and sacrifices

they are willing to make for freedom, which can scarcely be appreciated

by those who are unacquainted with the disadvantages of their previous

condition. The negroes frequently raise the money by loans to purchase

their freedom, and they are scrupulous in repaying money lent them for

that purpose."

The above is extracted from the "West Indies in 1837," an English work

by Messrs. Sturge and Harvey, page 86, Appendix.

* * * * *

We insert the following tabular view of the crops in Jamaica for a

series of years preceding 1837.--As the table and "Remarks" appended

were first published in the St. Jago Gazette, a decided "pro-slavery"

paper, we insert, in connection with them, the remarks of the Jamaica

Watchman, published at Kingston, and an article on the present condition

of slavery, from the Telegraph, published at Spanishtown, the seat of

the colonial government.

A GENERAL RETURN OF EXPORTS _From the island of Jamaica, for 53 years,

ending 31st December, 1836--copied from the Journals of the House._

___________________________________________________________________

. | | | | |

d | | |MO-| |

e | SUGAR | RUM |LAS| GINGER |

t | | |SES| |

r |____________________|_______________________|___|____________|

o | s | | | s | s | | | | | |

p | d | | | n | d | | | | | |

x | a | s | s | o | a | | s | | | |

E | e | e | l | e | e | | l | | | |

| h | c | e | h | h | s | e | s | s | |

r | s | r | r | c | s | k | r | k | k | s |

a | g | e | r | n | g | s | r | s | s | g |

e | o | i | a | u | o | a | a | a | a | a |

Y | H | T | B | P | H | C | B | C | C | B |

___________________________________________________________________

1772| 69,451| 9,936| 270| | | | | | | |

1773| 72,996|11,453| 849| | | | | | | |

1774| 69,579| 9,250| 278| | | | | | | |

1775| 75,291| 9,090| 425| | | | | | | |

1776| | | | | | | | | | |

1788| 83,036| 9,256|1,063| | | | | | | |

1789| 84,167|10,078|1,077| | | | | | | |

1790| 84,741| 9,284|1,599| | | | | | | |

1791| 85,447| 8,037|1,718| | | | | | | |

1792| | | | | | | | | | |

1793| 77,575| 6,722| 642|34,755| 879| | | | 62| 8,605|

1794| 89,532|11,158|1,224|39,843|1,570| | | | 121|10,305|

1795| 88,851| 9,537|1,225|37,684|1,475| | | | 426|14,861|

1796| 89,219|10,700| 858|40,810|1,364| | | | 690|20,275|

1797| 78,373| 9,963| 753|28,014|1,463| | | | 259|29,098|

1798| 87,896|11,725|1,163|40,823|2,234| | | | 119|18,454|

1799|101,457|13,538|1,321|37,022|1,981| | | | 221|10,358|

1800| 96,347|13,549|1,631|37,166|1,350| | | | 444| 3,586|

1801|123,251|18,704|2,692|48,879|1,514| | | | 12| 239|

1802|129,544|15,403|2,403|45,632|2,073| 473| 205|366| 23| 2,079|

1803|107,387|11,825|1,797|43,298|1,416| | |461| 51| 3,287|

1804|103,352|12,802|2,207|42,207| 913| | |429|1,094| 1,854|

1805|137,906|17,977|3,689|53,211|1,328| 133| 167|471| 315| 2,128|

1806|133,996|18,237|3,579|58,191|1,178| | |499| 485| 1,818|

1807|123,175|17,344|3,716|51,812|1,998| | |699| 512| 1,411|

1808|121,444|15,836|2,625|52,409|2,196| | |379| 436| 1,470|

1809|104,457|14,596|3,534|43,492|2,717| | |230|2,321| 572|

1810|108,703| 4,560|3,719|42,353|1,964| | |293| 520| 1,881|

1811|127,751|15,235|3,046|54,093|2,011| | |446|1,110| 2,072|

1812|105,283|11,357|2,558|43,346|1,531| | |151| 804| 1,235|

1813| 97,548|10,029|2,304|44,618|1,345| 382| 874|208| 816| 1,428|

1814|101,846|10,485|2,575|43,486|1,551| 202|1,146|145| 884| 1,668|

1815|118,767|12,224|2,817|52,996|1,465| 574|1,398|242|1,493| 1,667|

1816| 93,881| 9,332|2,236|35,736| 769| 281| 903|166|2,354| 1,118|

1817|116,012|11,094|2,868|47,949|1,094| 203| 916|254|3,361| 1,195|

1818|113,818|11,388|2,786|50,195|1,108| 121| 191|407|2,526| 1,067|

1819|108,305|11,450|3,244|43,946|1,695| 602|1,558|253|1,714| 718|

1820|115,065|11,322|2,474|45,361|1,783| 106| 460|252|1,159| 316|

1821|111,512|11,703|1,972|46,802|1,793| 153| 534|167| 984| 274|

1822| 88,551| 8,705|1,292|28,728|1,124| 9| 442|144| 891| 72|

1823| 94,905| 9,179|1,947|35,242|1,935| 20| 118|614|1,041| 60|

1824| 99,225| 9,651|2,791|37,121|3,261| 5| 64|910|2,230| 52|

1825| 73,813| 7,380|2,858|27,630|2,077| 101| 215|894|3,947| 348|

1826| 99,978| 9,514|3,126|35,610|3,098|1,852| |549|5,724| 517|

1827| 82,096| 7,435|2,770|31,840|2,672|1,573| |204|4,871| 240|

1828| 94,912| 9,428|3,024|36,585|2,793|1,013| |189|5,382| 279|

1829| 91,364| 9,193|3,204|36,285|2,009| 563| | 66|4,101| 168|

1830| 93,882| 8,739|3,645|33,355|2,657|1,367| |154|3,494| 15|

1831| 88,409| 9,053|3,492|34,743|2,846| 982| |230|3,224| 22|

1832| 91,453| 9,987|4,600|32,060|2,570|1,362| |799|4,702| 38|

1833| 78,375| 9,325|4,074|33,215|3,034| 977| |755|4,818| 23|

1834| 77,801| 9,860|3,055|30,495|2,588|1,288| |486|5,925| 116|

1835| 71,017| 8,840|8,455|26,433|1,820| 747| |300|3,985| 486|

1836| 61,644| 7,707|2,497|19,938| 874| 646| |182|5,224| 69|

. | | |

d | | |

e | PIMENTO | COFFEE |

t | | |

r |_____________|__________|

o | | | |

p | | | |

x | | | | REMARKS

E | | | s |

| s | | d |

r | k | s | n |

a | s | g | u |

e | a | a | o |

Y | C | B | P |

________________________________________________________________

1772| | | 841,558|

1773| | | 779,303|

1774| | | 739,039|

1775| | | 493,981|

1776| | | |

1788| | | 1,035,368|

1789| | | 1,493,282|

1790| | | 1,783,740|

1791| | | 2,299,874| August--Destruction of

1792| | | | Santo Domingo.

1793| 420| 9,108| 3,983,576|

1794| 554|22,153| 4,911,549|

1795| 957|20,451| 6,318,812|

1796| 136| 9,820| 7,203,539|

1797| 328| 2,935| 7,869,133|

1798| 1,181| 8,961| 7,894,306|

1799| 1,766|28,273|11,745,425| Bourbon cane introduced.

1800| 610|12,759|11,116,474|

1801| 648|14,084|13,401,468|

1802| 591| 7,793|17,961,923|

1803| 867|14,875|15,866,291|

1804| 1,417|19,572|22,063,980|

1805| 288| 7,157|21,137,393| Largest sugar crop.

1806| 1,094|19,534|29,298,036|

1807| 525|19,224|26,761,188| March 25th, abolition of

1808| 225| 6,529|29,528,273| African slave trade.

1809|21,022| 1,177|25,586,668|

1810| 4,276|21,163|25,885,285|

1811| 638|22,074|17,460,068|

1812| 598| 7,778|18,481,986|

1813| 1,124|14,361|24,623,572| Storm in October, 1812

1814| 394|10,711|34,045,585| Largest coffee crop.

1815| 844|27,386|27,362,742|

1816| 851|28,047|17,289,393| Storm in October, 1815

1817| 946|15,817|14,793,706|

1818| 941|21,071|25,329,456|

1819| 882|24,500|14,091,983|

1820| 673|12,880|22,127,444|

1821| 1,224|24,827|16,819,761|

1822| 699|18,672|19,773,912| Extreme drought.

1823| 1,894|21,481|20,326,445| Mr. Canning's resolutions

1824| 599|33,306|27,667,239| relative to slavery.

1825| 537|20,979|21,254,656|

1826| 522|16,433|20,352,886| Severe drought in 1824, the previous year.

1827| 3,236|26,691|25,741,520|

1828| 4,003|25,352|22,216,780|

1829| 3,733|48,933|22,234,640|

1830| 5,609|37,925|22,256,950|

1831| 2,844|22,170|14,055,350|

1832| 3,736|27,936|19,815,010|

1833| 7,741|58,581| 9,866,060| Emancipation act passed.

1834| 496|29,301|17,725,731| Seasons favorable.

1835| 1,115|59,033|10,593,018| do.

1836| 227|46,779|13,446,053| do.

The following are the remarks of the editor of the Jamaica Watchman, on

the foregoing, in his paper of April 8, 1837:--

A general return of exports from the island for fifty-three years,

ending the 31st December last, and purporting to be extracted from the

journals of the assembly, has been published, and as usual, the decrease

in the crops of the respective years has been attributed to the

resolutions passed by the British House of Commons in 1823, and the

abolition of slavery in 1833. It is remarkable that in preparing this

table, a manifest disposition is evinced to account for the falling off

of the crops in certain years anterior, and subsequent to the passing of

Mr. Canning's memorable resolution, whilst opposite to the years 1834

and 1835, is written "seasons favorable." In 1813, the sugar crop fell

off 8,000 hhds. compared with the previous year, and we are told in

reference to this circumstance, that there was a storm in October, 1812.

This remark is evidently made to account for the decrease, and perhaps

the storm at the close of the previous year was the cause of it. But it

is astonishing, and the circumstance is worthy of notice, that whilst

the sugar crop fell off nearly 8,000 hhds. the coffee crop increased

nearly six millions of pounds. We should have supposed that the coffee

trees would have suffered more from the effects of a storm, than the

canes. However, the effect was as we have stated it, whatever might have

been the cause. In 1814, the largest coffee crop was made. Again, in

1816, there was a decrease in the sugar crop compared with the year

immediately preceding it of nearly 25,000 hhds. And here we have the

storm of October, 1815, assigned as a reason. The coffee crop in this

instance also fell off nearly ten millions of pounds. In 1822, the sugar

crop was reduced 23,000 hhds., and the coffee crop increased three

millions of pounds. The reason now assigned is an "extreme drought." The

celebrated resolutions relative to slavery now appear to begin to

exercise their baneful influence on the _seasons_ and the _soil_ of our

island. In the year in which they were passed, 1823, 94,900 hogsheads of

sugar were made, and twenty millions of pounds of coffee gathered. 1824

came, and the crop, instead of being reduced, was increased from nearly

95,000 hogsheads to upwards of 99,000 hogsheads. The coffee crop was

also greater by seven millions of pounds. In 1825, they fall off to

73,860 hogsheads and twenty-one millions. In 1826, the sugar crop rather

exceeded that of 1824, but the coffee crop was seven millions less. In

1827, from causes not known to us, for none were assigned, there was a

difference of 16,000 hhds. of sugar, and an increase of five millions of

pounds of coffee. 1828, 29, and 30, were pretty nearly alike in sugar

and coffee crops, and about equal to 1823. The crops of 1831 fell off

from 93 to 88,000 hogsheads of sugar, and from 22 to 14 millions of

pounds of coffee. No reason is assigned for this reduction. It was

during the continuance of the driving system, and therefore no blame can

attach to the managers. In 1832, the crop rose to 91,000 hogsheads of

sugar, and nearly twenty millions of pounds of coffee. But 1833 comes,

and, with it, fresh troubles for the planters. In that ill-fated year,

there was a decrease of 13,000 hogsheads sugar, and of ten millions of

pounds of coffee. Its sugar crop was the smallest made, with the

exception of that of 1825, since 1793, and its coffee crop since that of

1798. But if this determination be alarming, what must be that of the

succeeding years. Can we be blamed, if, in a strain truly lachrymal, we

allude to the deductions which have annually been made from the

miserable return which 1833 gave to the unfortunate proprietors of

estates? What boots it to tell us that we have fingered thousands of

pounds sterling, in the shape of compensation: and what consolation is

it to know, that a hogshead of sugar will now bring thirty pounds,

which, a short time ago, was only worth twelve. Let any _unprejudiced_

individual look at the return now before us, and say whether our

prospects are not deplorably dull and obscure. If we take the four years

immediately preceding the passing of Mr. Canning's resolutions, say

1819, 20, 21, and 22; we will find the average to be 105,858 hogsheads,

and if from this we even deduct one fourth for the time now lost, there

will be an average crop of 79,394 hhds., being 7,185 hogsheads mere than

the average of 1833, 34, 35, and 36; and no one will deny that this

falling off of one tenth, (supposing that the hogsheads made during the

last four years are _not larger_ than those of 1819 to 1822) is

_nearly_, if not _quite equal_ to the increase of price, from twelve to

thirty pounds, or one hundred and fifty per cent.