CUMBERLAND PEN., ST. CATHERINE.--The

conduct of the people in this district generally,

is such as to entitle them to the highest commendation.

Well knowing the inconvenience to

which their masters' customers would be otherwise

reduced from a want of food for their horses

and cattle, they voluntarily went out to work on

the second day, and in some instances on the following,

and supplied the usual demand of the

market, presenting their labor thus voluntarily

given as a free-will offering to their employers.

Comment on such conduct world be superfluous.

The late apprentices of Jamaica have hitherto

acquired honors,

Above all Greek,

Above all Roman fame.

So far as they are concerned, the highest expectations

of their friends have been more than

realized. Let the higher classes universally but

exhibit the same dispositions and conduct, and

the peace and prosperity of Jamaica are for ever

secured.

Morning Journal of August 4.

SAINT THOMAS IN THE EAST.

Up to the moment when the post left Morant Bay, the utmost tranquillity

prevailed. In fact, from the quiet of the day and the circumstance of

droves of well-dressed persons going to and from the Church and Chapels,

I was occasionally deluded, says a correspondent, into the belief of the

day being Sunday. The parish Church was crowded, and the Rector

delivered a very able and appropriate address. The Methodist and

Independent Chapels were also filled. At both places suitable sermons

were preached. At the latter, the resident minister provided an ample

second breakfast, which was faithfully discussed under the shade of a

large tent purposely erected for the occasion. The Rev. Mr. Atkins,

Wesleyan Minister, has proceeded from this place to lay the foundation

stone of a chapel this afternoon, (1st August) at Port Morant, in which

important service he will be assisted by Thomas Thomson, Esq., Church

warden, and Alexander Barclay, Esq., Member for the parish. It is

expected that many thousand spectators will be present at the

interesting ceremony. From all I have been able to learn the changes

among the labourers on the estates in this quarter, will be very

limited, these people being apparently satisfied with the arrangement

for their continued domicile on the respective properties.

Another correspondent writes--"we are very quiet here. The day has

arrived and nearly passed off, and thank God the predictions of the

alarmists are not fulfilled. The Chapels were quite full with a great

many persons in the yards. The Independents are just sitting down to a

feast. The Rector delivered a sermon or rather a string of advices and

opinions to the labouring population, the most intolerant I have heard

for a long time. This parish will, I am quite certain, enjoy in peace

and quietness this happy jubilee."

MANCHESTER.

We learn from this parish that the Churches and Chapels were crowded

many hours before the usual time for beginning service. Several thousand

persons remained outside the respective places, which were much too

small to afford the accommodation. Every thing was quiet and orderly

when the post left.

Says the Jamaica Gazette of Aug. 4th, a paper of the Old School--"In

spite of all the endeavours of a _clique_ of self-interested agitators,

clerical humbug and radical rabble, to excite the bad passions of the

sable populace against those who have been the true friends of Colonial

freedom, and the conservators of the public peace and prosperity of the

country, the bonfire, bull-roast, and malignant effigy exhibited to

rouse the rancor of the savage, failed to produce the effect anticipated

by the projectors of the _Saturnalia_, and the negro multitude fully

satisfied with the boon so generously conceded by the Island

Legislature, were in no humor to wreak their wrath on individual

benefactors, whom the envy of party spirit had marked out as the victims

of truth and independence.

We are happy to give our meed of praise to the decent and orderly

conduct of the sable multitude, and to record that it far excelled the

Loco Foco group of bullies and boasters in decency of propriety of

demeanor. A kind of spree or scuffle took place between donkey-driver

Quallo and another. We don't know if they came to close fisti-cuffs, but

it was, we are assured, the most serious affray on the Course."

The following is the testimony borne in regard to Barbados.

_From the Barbados Liberal, Aug. 4th._

FIRST OF AUGUST.

"It gives us great pleasure to state that, so far as our information

from the country extends, this day was observed in a manner highly

creditable to our brethren. We never ourselves anticipated any riotings

or disorder on the part of the emancipated. A little exhilaration

begetting a shout or two, would not have surprised us; but even this, we

are happy to say, made no part of their manifestation of joy. The day

was spent in quiet piety! In heartfelt, soul overflowing gratitude to

their heavenly Father, whose divine agency had raised up friends in

their necessity, and brought their great tribulation to an end, they

crowded at an early hour to the several churches and chapels, in which

their numbers could scarcely find turning room, and then quietly and

devoutly poured forth their souls in prayer and praise and thanksgiving!

No revellings, no riotings, no drunkenness, desecrated this day. We have

heard from five parishes, and in none of the five have we heard of a

single convivial meeting. From church and chapel they went to their

homes, and eat their first free dinner with their families, putting to

shame the intolerant prejudices which had prepared powder and balls, and

held the Riot Act in readiness to correct their insubordinate notions

of liberty!"

From the New Haven, Ct., Herald.

_"Barbados, Aug. 2, 1838_

Yesterday's sun rose upon eight hundred thousand freemen, on whom

and their ancestors the badge of slavery had rested for two hundred

years. It was a solemn, delightful, most memorable day. I look upon

it as a matter of exceeding thankfulness, that I have been permitted

to be a witness to it, and to be able to speak from experience and

from observation, of the happiness to which that day has given

birth. The day had previously been set apart by proclamation of the

Governor, "as a day of devout thanksgiving and praise to Almighty

God for the happy termination of slavery." The thanksgiving and

praise were most truly sincere, heartfelt and general. It was an

emancipation not merely of the slave but of the proprietor. It was

felt as such; openly acknowledged and rejoiced in as such. Never

have I witnessed more apparently unfeigned expressions of

satisfaction than were made on that day by the former owners of

slaves, at the load of which they had been relieved.

I do not wish to be understood as asserting that previous to the

working of emancipation, the slave proprietors wished the abolition

of slavery. Far from it. But having, though unwillingly, been made

witnesses of the operations of freedom; and having themselves tasted

of the previously unknown satisfaction of employing voluntary and

contented, because _free_ laborers; their minds became enlightened,

softened, changed: and from being the determined opposers, they

became themselves the _authors_ of complete emancipation. I know not

in what terms to describe to you the emotions excited by passing

through the streets of this populous town on that memorable morning.

There was a stillness and solemnity that might be felt. It was

caused by no display of force, for none was to be seen. Here and

there a policeman going his usual rounds, but not a soldier, nor the

slightest warlike preparation of any kind to strike the eye, or

overawe the spirit of disorder.

The spirit that seemed to fill the entire population was eminently

the spirit of peace, good will, thankfulness and joy too deep, too

solemn, to allow of any loud or noisy demonstration of it. Of

course, all stores, shops and offices of every kind were closed. So

also were all places of amusement. No sound of revelry, no evidences

of nightly excess were to be heard or seen. I do not say too much

when I assert that the reign of order, peace, and sobriety,

was complete.

To give eclat to an event of such importance, the Governor had

ordered one company of militia to attend with him at the cathedral.

It is an immense building, and was crowded in every part of its

spacious area, galleries and aisles, with a most attentive

assemblage of people, of all colors and conditions. Several

clergymen officiated, and one of them at the opening of the services

read most appropriately the 58th chapter of Isaiah. Imagine for a

moment the effect in such an audience, on such an occasion, where

were many hundreds of emancipated slaves, of words like these:--"Is

not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bonds of

wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go

free, and that ye break every yoke?" The sermon by the Bishop was,

as might have been expected on such an occasion, interesting and

impressive. He spoke with great effect of the unexpected progress of

freedom, from island to island, from colony to colony, until, with a

solitary exception, upon that day the stain of slavery was

obliterated forever from every British possession. The progress of

education, the gradual reformation of morals, and the increasing

thirst for religious instruction, were all dwelt upon with great

force, and the glory of all ascribed, as was most fit, to the Great

Giver of every good and perfect gift. It was an occasion rich with

happy emotions, and long to be remembered as a bright and beautiful

spot in the pathway of our earthly pilgrimage.

The close of the day was not less auspicious than its commencement.

In company with Mrs. H., I drove through several of the principal

streets, and thence through the most public thoroughfare into the

country; and no where could aught be seen to mar the decent and

truly impressive solemnity of the day. There were no dances, no

merry-making of any sort; not a solitary drunkard, not a gun fired,

nor even was a shout heard to welcome in the newborn liberty. The

only groups we saw were going to or returning from the different

chapels and churches: except in a few instances, where families

might be seen reading or singing hymns at their own dwellings.

And now, sir, having arrived at the long looked for consummation of

all the labors and prayers of the friends of the slave for so many

years, as I cast my eye around this _land of liberty_, how many

thoughts crowd my mind? I ask myself--is it indeed finished? And are

there none to lament the downfall of time-honored, hoary-headed

slavery? Where are the mourners? Where are the prognosticators of

ruin, desolation, and woe? Where are the riots and disorders, the

bloodshed and the burnings? The prophets and their prophecies are

alike empty, vain, and unfounded, and are alike buried in oblivion.

And why, in the name of humanity, was not this glorious consummation

brought about ages ago?--Is it because the slaves of 1838 are better

fitted for freedom than those of fifty or a hundred years since? No

one believes it. The only preparation for freedom required in this

island, or any where else, in order to put a peaceful end to

slavery, is the preparation of heart in the slaveholder to grant

deliverance to the captive.

Yours truly,

WM. R. HAYES

P.S. August 9th.--All is quiet, and the utmost good order every

where prevails."

To complete the picture we will give two extracts of letters from

eminent Jamaica Attornies to their employers in England, with regard to

the turning out to work. It is remarked by the English papers that the

Attornies generally in writing to their employers adopt the same strain.

They are all doing well on _their_ estates, but hear that the rest of

the island is in a woful condition.--These are the men who are the

greatest, if not the only, losers by emancipation; hence their testimony

is doubly valuable.

From the British Emancipator, Nov. 14.

LETTERS FROM ATTORNIES.

_Extract of a Letter from an eminent Estate Attorney, in St. Mary's,

Jamaica, dated August_ 24, 1838.

"There was nothing whatever done in this parish, or throughout the

island, for the first two weeks of the month. In this quarter some

estates did a little last week, and have been making more progress

since, but the far greater number have not yet done any work; the

minds of the people are very unsettled, and full of all sorts of

foolish notions, which will continue more or less till we hear of

the home government having accepted and approved of our abolition

bill, and their views with regard to us.

On several of the estates which have wrought, the people have struck

once or twice. We have in this parish ministers of every

denomination, and they are all acting very properly; but they do not

seem to have as much influence as expected; we must _be as

considerate and liberal as possible to secure their confidence_

ourselves. We are in St. Mary's paying the highest rate of wages in

the island; 1s. 8d. currency per day nett, with allowances, are

generally offered; I am giving here, from sheer necessity, 2s. 6d.

currency per day, without charging any rent in the mean time. In the

present state of things when so few estates are doing anything at

all, I have much satisfaction in saying that the people here, on

----, a good proportion of them were at work last week, and I have

now the mill about making sugar, with every probability, I think of

going on satisfactorily; and looking dispassionately at the great

change which has so suddenly taken place, our present difficulties

are not much to be wondered at.

Sunday night, 8th Sept.--The foregoing was written, but too late,

for the last packet; but as another sails to-morrow, I write you a

few lines more. There is, up to this moment, but little material

alteration in the state of affairs generally, certainly none for the

worse. I have made here twenty hogsheads of sugar since the 1st ult.

We are altogether in an uncertain state, but there are more mills

about, and more work doing _in this district than in any other in

the island_, which might and ought to be a feather in the cap of

Maitter, our late stipe. I have no time to say more now, excepting

that, although I am in great hopes that things will soon generally

improve, and am of opinion that our present difficulties are not to

be wondered at, yet our situation is still so critical, that I dare

not venture to hazard an opinion as to the success of the great

experiment, I repeat, however, again, that we have not seen anything

to disappoint or surprise us, bad as many things are."

_Extract of a Letter from an Attorney in St. Mary's, Jamaica, 24th

August_, 1838

"The services of the stipes are much wanting here; I am paying 10s. a

week for first class, 6s. 8d. for second, and 4s. 2d. for third, for

five days work; they say they will not work on Fridays. However, I have

got people at ---- to work today; they are behaving better than most

others. I hope things will now improve; and it is my opinion that good

estates will do, and others will fall to the ground. Old Mr. Tytte is

dead, and his son Alexander made stipe for the district. The Governor's

speech respecting women has done a great deal of harm. None of the women

want to work. If Lord Glenelg had made such a mistake, he would have

heard enough of it. I wish the Government would take it on themselves to

settle the rate of wages, otherwise two-thirds of the estates will be

thrown up before next year; of course I can stand this as well as any.

The ---- people have behaved well: they did every thing I told them;

they are working on piece-work, which is the best plan."

Precisely similar is the testimony of private correspondents and of the

public press so far as we have been able to learn, in all the other

colonies where emancipation has taken place. There is certainly nothing

in all this that indicates a disposition on the part of the emancipated

to throw off the employment of their former masters, but much the

reverse. We may safely challenge contradiction to the assertion, that at

the expiration of the jubilee there were not a set of free laborers on

earth from whom the West India planters could have got more work for the

same money. It may be proper in these days, when the maxims of slavery

have so fearfully overshadowed the rights of man, to say that a man has

a _right_ to forbear laboring when he can live honestly without it--or,

at all events, he has a right to choose whether he will employ himself

or be employed by another. Hence it _may_ turn out that the refusal to

labor, so far as there has been any, only serves to prove the more

clearly the fitness of the laborers of freedom.

WAGES

It must have been obvious to every man of reflection that in a change so

vast, involving so many laborers, and in circumstances so various, there

would arise almost infinite disputes about the rate of wages. The

colonies differ widely as to the real value of labor. Some have a rich,

unexhausted, and, perhaps, inexhaustible soil, and a scanty supply of

laborers. Others are more populous and less fertile. The former would of

course offer higher wages than the latter, for so sudden was the step

there could be no common understanding on the point. Again, as we have

seen, the planters came into the measure with different views. Some

anticipated the general change, and either from motives of humanity or

policy, or more probably of both, adopted a course calculated to gain

the gratitude and good will of the laborer.--These would offer wages

which the less liberal would call ruinous. Many, and it would seem the

great body of them in Jamaica, yielded unwillingly to superior power.

They saw the sceptre of despotic authority was to be wrested from their

grasp. They threw it down, as one may easily believe, resolved to seize

the best substitute they could. They would infallibly fall upon the plan

of getting the greatest possible amount of work for the least possible

amount of pay. When we consider that even in the oldest, most civilized,

and most Christianized free-labor communities, employers are wont to

combine to keep down the rate of wages, while on the other hand the

laborers throw up work to raise it, we shall not be surprised that there

should be things of this sort in Jamaica, liberty being in the gristle.

The only help for such an evil is, that there is always a rate of wages

which is advantageous to both parties, and things being left to

themselves, it will at last be found.

To the planters and freed-men in settling the question what wages they

should offer and receive, two standards or guides presented

themselves,--1. The rate of wages which had been given in Antigua since

1834. 2. The compensation that had been demanded by the Jamaica planters

themselves, and adjudged by the magistrates, in case of apprentices

buying their own time. Hundreds of planters had declared upon oath what

the time of the apprentice was worth to them. Possibly as sellers, in

the elasticity of their consciences, they may have set a higher price

than they would be willing to give as buyers. In strict honesty,

however, it is difficult to see why labor should not be worth to them as

much in the one case as the other. The rate of wages fixed upon in

Antigua may be seen by a reference to the Journal of Thome and Kimball

to be very inadequate to the wants of the laborer. Free labor is there

screwed down to the lowest possible point. The wonder is that the

laborers should have submitted to such a scale for a moment. But they

had no precedent to guide them, no advisers free from the yoke of the

proprietary, no valuations given by their own masters, and there was

every facility for successful combination on the part of the masters.

They must work for such wages as the masters pleased to offer,

or starve.

Say Messrs. Thome and Kimball--"_By a general understanding among the

planters_, the rate is at present fixed at a _shilling_ per day, or a

little more than fifty cents per week, counting five working days." This

Antigua scale, and not the one they themselves had sold labor by during

the apprenticeship, became at once the favorite with a great part of the

Jamaica and Barbados planters. If they in any cases offered higher

wages, they made it up by charging higher rent for the houses and

grounds, which the negroes had built and brought under culture on their

properties. It was before the first of August that this procedure was

resolved upon by the planters, as we gather from numerous communications

in the papers recommending a variety of modes of getting labor for less

than its natural market value. We select a single one of these as a

specimen, by the application to which of a little arithmetic, it will be

perceived that the employer would _bring the laborer in debt_ to him at

the end of the year, though not a moment should be lost by sickness or

other casualty. The humanity of the document is perfectly of a piece

with that of the system which would civilize mankind by making

merchandize of them.

To the Editor of the Morning journal.

SIR,--Let meetings be held, not only in every parish, but in every

district of a parish, and let all land-owners, &c., agree not to rent

land under £8[A] per acre, and not to sell it for less than double that

sum. Should a few be found regardless of the _general weal_, let the

proprietary, &c. join and purchase such lands, and if otherwise, it is

presumed the dissentients to the measure would be so small as not to

affect in any material degree the _general_ interest, inasmuch as those

who dissented, from the consequent scarcity of land arising from the

measure, would demand a high rental for their land. The _maximum_ system

appears to be preferable to the _minimum_. I have therefore made choice

of it as a stimulus to the laborers to work _at least_ four days or

thirty-six hours in the week to pay for their rent, &c. &c., _or pay 2s.

1d. for every day's absence_; or, if sick, pay up the labor by working

on the Friday, &c., _and Saturday, if needful_. Weekly settlements with

both parties, or _immediate summary ejectment_, if deemed necessary.

[Footnote A: The sums are in the currency of the islands when not

otherwise specified, that is 7s 6d to the dollar.]

£ s. d.

Rent of 2 acres of land as a ground for

each able adult, at £5 per acre 10 0 0

Do. of house and garden, from £4 to

£10 per annum, say 6 0 0

_Medical attendance, medicine, &c. &c.,

worth £4 per annum_ 4 0 0

Clothing and Christmas allowance per

annum 1 13 4

----------

21 13 4

----------

Four days' or 36 hours' labor in each

week, at 2s. 1d. per day, or 208

days, at 2s. 1d. 21 13 4

If task-work were adopted, or the day's

labor prolonged to 10-1/2 or 12 hours'

labor, 3 days' or 3-1/2 days' labor

_would suffice_, consequently, the

laborer would have 2 or 3 days

in each week to work for extra

wages.

In addition to the above, say pasturage

for a horse, at 4s. 2d. per week per

annum 10 16 8

Pasturage for an ass, at 2s. 1d. per week

per annum 5 6 4

_Run of pasturage and fruit, for a sow,

barrow, or sholt_; IF RUNG IN THE

NOSE, 10_d. per week_; IF NOT RUNG,

1_s._ 8_d. per week; per annum, at

10d. per week_ 2 3 4

The above charges for pasturage might be paid for either _by additional

labor_ or in money, and to a good head-man they might be granted as a

gratuity, and perhaps an additional acre of land allowed him to

cultivate. It would be desirable that the negroes should, when quite

free, work 11 hours per day in the short days, and 12 hours in the

longer ones. I believe the shortest day's labor in England in the winter

months in 10 hours' actual labor, and 12 hours' in the summer, for which

2 hours they are paid extra wages.

_St. Mary's, 8th June, 1838_. S.R.

The date should not escape notice. By this plan, for a few petty

indulgences, _all of which were professedly granted in the time of

slavery itself_, the master could get the entire labor of the negro, and

_seven or eight pounds per annum besides_! Some may be disposed to

regard this as a mere joke, but we can assure them it was a serious

proposal, and not more monstrous than many things that the planters are

now attempting to put in practice. The idea of actually paying money

wages was horrifying and intolerable to many of the planters; they seem

to have exercised their utmost ingenuity to provide against so dreadful

a result. One who signed himself an "Old Planter" in the _Despatch_,

before the abolition of the apprenticeship, in view of the emancipation

of the non-praedials which was to take place on the first of August,

gravely wrote as follows:--

"It is my intention, therefore, when the period arrives for any

arrangement with them, to offer them in return for such services, _the

same time as the praedials now have_, with of course the same allowances

generally, putting out of the question, however, any relaxation from

labor during the day, usually allowed field laborers, and understood as

shell-blow--house people being considered at all times capable of

enjoying that indulgence at their pleasure, besides the impossibility of

their master submitting to such an inconvenience.--This appears to me to

be the only mode of arrangement that would be feasible, unless we resort

to money wages, and I should regret to find that such a precedent was

established in this instance, for it would only be a forerunner to

similar demands at the coming period, when the praedials became free."

There were more reasons than one why "money wages" were feared by the

Jamaica planters. A great many estates are managed by attorneys for

absentee proprietors. These gentlemen pocket certain commissions, for

which reason they keep in cultivation estates which cannot possibly

yield a profit under a system of paid labor. They deem it for their

interest to retain their occupation even at the expense of their

employers. Not a few conceive it for their interest to depreciate the

value of property that they may purchase low, hence they deem it good

policy to refuse wages, let the crops perish, and get up a panic. The

documents we shall furnish will be clear on these points. The great

diversity of practice in the planters in regard to wages, as well as the

reasonable disposition of the laborers, is shown by the following

paragraphs culled from the _Morning Journal_ of August 10:--

"ST. DAVIDS.--A gentleman in the management of a property in this parish,

writes in the following strain to his employer--"I have an accession of

strength this morning. The people are civil and industrious. I have

received letters assuring me that the example of the Cocoa Walt estate

people, has been the means of inducing those on other estates to enter

into the terms proposed"--that is 5s. per week, with houses, grounds,

medicines, &c, &c."

"St. Thomas in the East.--The apprentices on Golden Grove Estate, turned

out to work on Monday, but we have not learnt on what terms. At Mount

Vernon, the property of Kenneth McPherson Esq., they turned out on

Tuesday morning to work for five days in the week, at 10d. per day with

houses, grounds, &c."

"Trelawny--A correspondent writes, every thing is quiet, and the people

would go to work if any bargains were made, but I believe throughout the

parish the people were directed to go to work on Monday morning, without

any previous arrangement, or being even told how much they would be

paid, or asked what they expected. On one estate 1s. 8d. with houses and

grounds was offered and refused. Some of the masters are determined, it

is said, to hold out, and will not consent to give more than 1s. 3d. or

1s. 8d. per day."

"St. Johns.--The people in this parish are at work on most of the

estates without any agreement. They refuse the offer of 1s. 01-2d. per

day, but continue to labor, relying on the honor and liberality of the

planters for fair and reasonable pay. If they do not get these in two

weeks, our correspondent writes, there will be a dead stop. The laborers

fix the quantity of work to be done in a day, agreeable to the scale of

labor approved of by the Governor during the apprenticeship. For any

thing beyond that, they demand extra pay, as was usual under

that system."

"St. Thomas in the Vale--No work, we understand, is being done in this

parish as yet. A correspondent states that some of the overseers and

attorneys wish the people to turn out to work without entering into any

arrangements, which they refuse to do. The attorney for Rose Hall,

Knollis, New Works, and Wallace Estates has offered 1s. 3d. per day, out

of which £5 per annum is to be deducted for houses and grounds. The

offer has been refused. The overseer of Byndloss estate required his

people to work without agreeing as to the rate of wages they were to

receive, but they refused to do any thing without a proper agreement."

"St. Mary's--On some estates in this parish we are informed, and

particularly those under the charge of Richard Lewis, Esq. such as

Ballard's Valley, Timperon's estates, Ellis' estates, &c. and of Charles

Stewart, Esq. Trinity, Royal, Roslin Bremer Hall, &c., and also of James

Geddes, Esq., the laborers are getting from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d. per day.

The same rates are paid upon many outer properties. On many estates the

people have refused to labor, and urge objections against the managers,

as a reason for so acting. They remain and will engage to labor,

provided the obnoxious parties are removed."

How could the people be blamed for refusing 10d. per day, while on "many

properties" they were getting from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d.? Such being also

the valuation which the masters had uniformly placed upon their time

during the apprenticeship?

When the planters found that the free laborers could neither be

prevailed upon to labor for half-price nor be driven to excesses by such

paltry persecution, they turned their wrath, as had been long their

custom, upon the Baptist Missionaries. Upon Mr. Knibb especially they

laid the blame of giving mischievous advice to the peasantry. And for

the obvious purpose of exciting the thousands of people warmly devoted

to him, to acts of violence, they attempted to burn him in effigy and

actually circulated the report that he had been murdered. Thousands of

his people flocked into Spanish Town, threatening to destroy the town if

the report proved true. But on learning its falsity were easily

persuaded to retire, and did so without being guilty of any excess

whatever. Unmeasured and unceasing have been the attacks of the Jamaica

press upon the missionaries. Upon their shoulders has been laid "the

ruin of that fine island."--They have corrupted the peasantry and put it

in their heads to ask more wages than the estate can possibly give. To

determine the value of the testimony of the missionaries in this case it

is important to know the nature of their influence upon the laborers

touching the question of wages. We are happily furnished with the

required information from their own lips and pens in the Jamaica papers.

_From the Falmouth Post._

REV. W. KNIBB'S ADVICE TO THE NEGROES.

MEETING AT THE "SUFFIELD SCHOOL-ROOM."

On Friday evening last we attended the suffield School-room, in this

town, which, at an early hour was crowded with apprentices and head

people, from upwards of twenty properties, who had met for the purpose

of receiving advice from the Rev. Wm. Knibb, and Special Justice Lyon,

respecting the course of conduct it will be necessary for them to adopt,

on taking their stand in society as freemen. Several gentlemen connected

with the commercial and agricultural interests of the parish were

present on the occasion.

The Rev. W. Knibb commenced by saying, that he attended a meeting of a

similar nature at Wilberforce Chapel, on the preceding evening. He had

thought it better to request the attendance this evening of the head

people, who being the more intelligent would be able to explain to

others, the advice which they would now receive themselves. "I am glad,"

said the Rev. Gentleman, "to see so many persons present, among whom I

notice a few gentlemen who are not connected with my church: I am glad

of the attendance of these gentlemen, for what I do, I do openly, and

any one is at liberty to express his opinion at this meeting if he

desires to do so.

You will shortly, my friends, be released from your present state of

bondage; in the course of a very few weeks you will receive the boon of

freedom, and I would therefore impress deeply on your minds the

necessity of your continuing the cultivation of the soil on the receipt

of fair and equitable wages. I am not aware myself of any complete scale

of wages having been drawn up, but I have been on 10 or 12 different

properties, I have conversed with several proprietors, and I am glad to

say that with some of them there appears to be a disposition to meet the

charge fairly and honorably. Those who are more conversant with figures

than I am, will be enabled to show what the owner can afford to give for

the cultivation of his property. In the mean time I would say to you, do

not make any hasty bargain: take time and consider the subject, for it

is one of vital interest and importance to all! If you demand too high a

rate of wages, the proprietors will be ruined; if you consent to take

too low a sum, you will not be able to provide for the wants of

yourselves and families. In making your arrangement, if there be an

attempt to grind you down, resist the attempt by all legal means; for

you must consider that you are not acting for yourselves alone, but for

posterity. I desire to see every vestige of slavery completely rooted

out. You must work for money; you must pay money to your employers for

all you receive at their hands: a fair scale of wages must be

established, and you must be entirely independent of any one. If you

continue to receive those allowances which have been given during

slavery and apprenticeship, it will go abroad that you are not able to

take care of yourselves; that your employers are obliged to provide you

with these allowances to keep you from starvation; in such a case you

will be nothing more than slaves.--To be free, you must be independent;

you must receive money for your work; come to market with money;

purchase from whom you please, and be accountable to no one but that

Being above, who I hope will watch over and protect you!--I sincerely

trust that proper arrangements will be made before the 1st of August.--I

have spoken to nearly four thousand persons connected with my church,

and I have not yet learnt that there is any disposition among them to

leave their present employers, provided they receive equitable wages.

Your employer will expect from you good crops of sugar and rum; and

while you labour to give him these, he must pay you such wages as will

enable you to provide yourselves with wholesome food, good clothing,

comfortable houses, and every other necessity of life. Your wages must

be such as to enable you to do this; to contribute to the support of

your church; the relief of the distressed; the education of your

children, and to put by something for sickness and old age. I hail the

coming of the 1st August with feelings of joy and gratitude. Oh, it will

be a blessed day; a day which gives liberty to all; and my friends, I

hope that the liberty which it will bring to you will by duly

appreciated. I trust I may live to see the black man in the full

enjoyment of every privilege with his white brethren, and that you may

all so conduct yourselves as to give the lie direct to those who have

affirmed that the only idea you have of liberty is that it will enable

you to indulge in idle habits and licentious pursuits. When liberty

casts her benignant smiles on this beautiful island, I trust that the

employer and the laborer will endeavour to live on terms of friendship

and good will with one another.--When the labourer receives a proper

remuneration for his services--when the employer contemplates the

luxuriance of his well-cultivated fields, may they both return thanks to

a merciful God, for permitting the sun of liberty to shine with bright

effulgence! I need scarcely assure you, my friends, that I will be at

all times ready to protect your rights. I care not about the abuse with

which I may probably be assailed; I am ready to meet all the obloquy and

scorn of those who have been accustomed to place the most unfavourable

constructions on my actions. I am willing to meet the proprietors in a

spirit of candour and conciliation. I desire to see you fairly

compensated for your labor; I desire also to you performing your work

with cheerful industry: but I would warn you _not to be too hasty in

entering into contracts_. Think seriously before you act, and remember,

as I have already old you, that you have now to act not only for

yourselves, but for posterity."

We give numerous documents from these gentlemen, as among the best if

not the greatest part of our fellow citizens; we trust their testimony

will be deemed the best that could be offered.

LETTER OF EIGHT BAPTIST MISSIONARIES.

_To the Right Hon. Lord_ GLENELG, &c.

My Lord--We feel assured that no apology is necessary, in requesting

your attention to the subject of this letter. The official connection

which you hold with the colony, together with the peculiar circumstances

in which its newly-emancipated population are placed, render it an

imperative duty we owe to ourselves to lay before you our sentiments.

Having labored in the island for many years, and having been in daily

intercourse with the objects of our solicitude, we do feel devoutly

thankful to ALMIGHTY GOD, that he has spared us to see the

disenthralment of our beloved flocks; while it gives us increased

pleasure to assure your lordship that they received the boon with holy

joy, and that the hour which made them men beheld them in thousands

humbly prostrate at the footstool of mercy, imploring the blessing of

HEAVEN upon themselves and their country, while, during the night and

joyful day, not a single case of intoxication was seen.

To us, as their pastors, they naturally looked for advice, both as to

the labor they should perform and the wages they should receive. The

importance of this subject was deeply felt by us, and we were prepared

to meet it with a full sense of the responsibility it involved, and

happily succeeded in inducing them to accept of a sum lower than that

which the representatives of the landowners had formerly asserted was

fair and just.

We regret to state, that a deep combination was formed by many of these

_middlemen_ to grind the peasantry to the dust, and to induce, if

possible, the acceptance of remuneration which, by affording no

inducement to the peasant cheerfully to labor, would have entailed

pauperism on him and his family, and ruin on the absentee proprietor. It

was to this circumstance, and not in the least to any unwillingness in

the free negro to work, or to demand more for his labor than it was

fairly worth, that for one or two weeks, in some places, the cultivation

of the soil was not resumed. Upon the planting attorneys, so long

accustomed to tyranny and oppression, and armed with a power over the

land which must prove inimical to the full development of the resources

of this valuable colony, the blame entirely rests.

We suppose that your lordship is fully aware, that the laws under which

the laborer is now placed are tyrannical and unjust in the extreme;

laws, we hesitate not to affirm, which are a disgrace to those who

framed them, and which, if acted upon by a local magistracy, will entail

upon the oft-cheated, over-patient negro some of the worst features of

that degrading state of vassalage from which he has just escaped. We

particularly refer to "An Act to enlarge the Powers of Justices in

determining complaints between Masters and Servants, and between

Masters, and Apprentices, Artificers, and others," which passed the

Assembly the 3rd day of July, 1834, while by police acts, especially one

regulating the town of Falmouth, our people will be daily harassed

and annoyed.

We think it right to inform your lordship, that the greater part of

those who hold the commission of magistrates are the very persons who,

by their connection with the soil, are the most unfit, because the most

interested, honestly to discharge their important duties; while their

ignorance of the law is, in too many cases, equalled only by their love

of tyranny and misrule. Time must work a mighty change in the views of

numbers who hold this office, ere they believe there is any dereliction

of duty in daily defrauding the humble African. We cannot but entreat

your lordship to use those means which are in your power to obtain for

the laborer, who imploringly looks to the Queen for protection, justice

at the hands of those by whom the law is administered. We must, indeed,

be blind to all passing events, did we not see that, without the

watchful care of the home government, the country district courts, held

sometimes in the very habitations of those who will have to make the

complaints, will be dens of injustice and cruelty, and that our hearts

will again be lacerated by the oppressions under which our beloved

people will groan.

We beg to apprise your lordship, that we have every reason to believe

that an early attempt will be made to deprive the peasantry of their

provision grounds--that they will not be permitted, even to rent them;

so that, by producing starvation and rendering the population entirely

dependent upon foreign-supplies for the daily necessaries of life, a

lower rate of wages may be enforced. Cruel as this may appear to your

lordship, and unlikely as it may seem, long experience has taught us

that there is no possible baseness of which a slave-owner will not be

guilty, and no means of accomplishing his purposes, however fraught with

ruin to those around him, which he will not employ.

Should the peasantry be thus treated, we shall feel it our duty humbly

to implore that the lands belonging to the crown may be made available

for their use. Your lordship will remember that these ill-treated people

became not the subjects of her Majesty by choice, though they are now

devotedly attached to her government. Their fathers were stolen and

brought hither. On their native shores they had lands and possessions

capable of supplying all their wants. If, then, after having toiled

without remuneration, they are prevented even renting a portion of land

which has hitherto been esteemed as their own, we shall ask, and shall

feel assured that the boon will not be withheld, that her Most Gracious

Majesty will throw open the lands belonging to the crown, where we may

retire from the tyranny of man, and with our people find a peaceful and

quiet home.

Though still surrounded by obloquy and reproach, though the most abusive

epithets and language disgracefully vulgar has been employed to assail

us, especially by a newspaper known to be under the patronage of a

bishop, and in which all official accounts of his diocese are given to

the world, yet we assure your lordship that, in endeavouring to promote

the general interests and welfare of this colony, we shall still pursue

that line of conduct which is the result of our judgment, and in

accordance with the dictates of our conscience.

In no part of the island are arrangements made so fully or so fairly, as

in those districts where our congregations reside, and in no part are

the laborers more faithfully performing their duty. We deeply feel our

responsibility at the present crisis, and pledging ourselves to your

lordship and the British Government by the sacred office we hold, we

assure you that ceaseless efforts shall still be exerted, as they have

ever been, to promote the peace and happiness of those around us.

In the name and on the behalf of our churches, for the sacred cause of

freedom throughout the world, we unitedly implore your lordship to throw

the shield of Britain's protection over those who are just made her

loyal subjects. All they want, and all they ask, is, that, as they are

raised to the dignity, so they may receive all the rights of man, and

that the nation who purchased them from bondage may fully secure to them

that civil and religious liberty, to which both their unparalleled

sufferings and their unexampled patience so richly entitle them.

We cannot conclude this letter, without expressing the high sense we

entertain of the noble and disinterested conduct pursued by his

excellency Sir Lionel Smith, the Governor of this colony. But for his

firmness, Jamaica would have presented all the horrors of a civil war.

Feeling assured that your lordship will give that attention to this

letter which the subject demands, and with earnest prayer that this

colony, now blest with liberty, may exhibit increasing prosperity, we

are, my lord, your most obedient servants, Signed by

THOMAS BURCHELL

WILLIAM KNIBB

THOMAS ABBOTT

WALTER DENDY

JOHN CLARK

B.B. DEXTER

SAMUEL OUGHTON

J. HUTCHINS

Baptist Missionaries, North Side Union.

[On the foregoing letter the _London Sun_ has the following

observations.]

"Every arrival from the West Indies but strengthens our conviction, that

there never will be happiness, security, or peace for the emancipated

negroes, so long as the administration of the laws, and the management

of the plantations, are continued in the hands of those white officials

whose occupation, previous to the passing of the emancipation act,

consisted in torturing and tormenting them with impunity. They cannot

endure to witness the elevation to the rank of free, intelligent, and

well-behaved fellow-citizens, of a class of beings whom they were

accustomed to treat a myriad of times worse than they did the "beasts

that perish." Having pronounced them incapable of civilization, and

strangers to all the better feelings of our nature, they deem it a sort

of duty to themselves to employ every artifice to neutralize or retard

every measure calculated to ameliorate the moral and social condition of

the negro race. Several of the colonial agents have powerful inducements

to the provocation of some insurrectionary outbreak, on the part of the

colored population. In the first place, such an _emute_ would fulfil

their predictions with regard to the passing the Emancipation Act, and

so establish their reputation as seers; and in the next, it would lead

to the sale of many of the plantations at one-sixth their real value,

and so transform them from agents to principles, as they would not fail

to be the purchasers. That such is their policy cannot, we think, be

doubted for a moment by those who will take the trouble to peruse a

letter addressed by eight Baptist missionaries, long resident in

Jamaica, to Lord Glenelg, which will be found in another part of _The

Sun_. These missionaries, we are assured, are men of irreproachable

lives, of indefatigable Christian zeal, and of conversation becoming

persons whose sacred office it is to preach the gospel of peace. That

their representation will produce a powerful effect upon the minds of

the people of this country, we feel as confident as we do that our

gracious Queen will concede any boon in her royal gift, necessary to the

welfare of her colored subjects."

The following are a series of letters to Mr. Sturge, published in the

British Emancipator for Nov. 28, 1838. The one from a Special Justice

clearly developes the principal causes of the backwardness of the

laborers. The testimony of this letter to some important facts will be

fully confirmed by that of the Governor of Jamaica. The evidence of

extortion submitted by the missionaries is so explicit, that we beg the

attention of the reader to all the details. Remember the experiment

involves the claims of millions to that without which life is little

better than a curse. Every thing hangs on the inquiry whether the

emancipated or their former masters are chargeable with whatever there

is of _ruin_ in the "fine island" of Jamaica. Says Mr. Sturge, in laying

these letters before the public, "it should be clearly understood that

the fee simple of all negro houses in Jamaica is not worth £10 each on

an average, and that their provision grounds have been brought into

cultivation by the negroes themselves in their _own_ time."

Extract of a letter from a Missionary:--

Savannah-la-Mar, Sept. 8, 1838.

MY DEAR SIR,--You are probably aware that the following question has

been submitted by the Governor to the Attorney-General for his opinion:

(copy.)

(No. 844.) King' House, Aug. 27, 1838.

SIR,--I am desired by the Governor to request you will give your opinion

for general publication. 1st. Whether in instances of notices to quit

their houses and grounds, having been served upon the late apprentices,

they are liable to be made to pay rent for the occupation of such house,

during the three months allowed by law?

(OPINION.)

They are.

(Signed,)

D O'REILL.

We shall soon see the evil effects of this opinion, it being generally

previously understood that the late apprenticed population would not be

liable for rent until the three months had expired, after receiving

notice to quit.

As a specimen of this being made an instrument of great oppression in

the hands of managers of estates, I would state that two notices were

yesterday brought to brother Hutchins for his inspection; one was served

upon David Clarke, a labourer, on King's Valley estate, in this parish.

On the back of the notice to quit was written as under;--

"The rent of your house and grounds is twenty-one pounds six shillings

and eight pence, per annum, commencing 1st of August, 1838, if legal."

(Signed) J. H. JONES.

Mr. Sturge appends the following West India accounts, which be says are

in his possession by which it is evident that the planters are bringing

their laborers in debt to them, by a spirit of shameless extortion.

Charles Duncan to John Dixon, Dr.

1838. Sept. 15. To rent of house

and ground, from 1st of August to

date, 6s. 8d. per week. 2 3 9-1/2

Cr. By balance, five days, 1s.8d. per day 0 8 4

-------------

1 15 5-1/2

Charles Brown, to John Dixon, Dr.

1838. Sept. 13. To rent of house

and ground, 6s. 8d. per week,

from 1st Aug, to date. 2 1 10

Charge for running a sow and pigs,

from 1st Aug. to date, 2s. 6d. per

week 0 15 8-1/2

-------------

2 17 6-1/2

John Alfred Bullock to John Dixon, Dr.

1838. Sept. 15. To rent of house

and garden, from 1st of Aug.

to date, 6s. 8d. per week, 2 3 9-1/2

Rent of provision ground, 5s. per

week, 1 12 6

Pasturage, two weeks, for an ass,

6s. 3d, per month, 0 3 4

Two hogs, 1s. 8d. per week, 1 1 10-3/4

-------------

5 1 6-1/4

Cr. By two days' labour, 1s.

8d. per day 0 3 4

-------------

4 18 2-1/3

LETTER TO MR. STURGE, FROM A SPECIAL JUSTICE.

_Jamaica, Oct. 12th, 1838._

Freedom has brought with it the blessings we anticipated; and as we

progress in civilization we shall all be happier. I have ever been

sanguine as to its beneficial results, and I am not in the least

disappointed. I cannot find language sufficiently strong to express the

commendation due to the negroes for their steady and good conduct since

the 1st of August. Amidst the most trying circumstance, they have

exhibited the greatest forbearance, and placed their whole reliance on

the laws for protection. I am satisfied that no other nation of free men

could conduct themselves so temperately and well, under similar

circumstances; and in my opinion, they have proved themselves infinitely

superior to many of those who so lately exercised almost unlimited

control over them. I declare to you, to see such a mass of persons,

whose morals have been little regarded by those who held them in

slavery, and without education, rise all at once, and express and

conduct themselves so admirably, is wonderful. When seeking redress

before the magistrates for wrongs committed by there former owners they

have maintained more coolness and temper than their more fortunate

brethren, when maters are decided against them. There is a hard struggle

on the part of the pro-slavery faction to compel the negro to work for

little or nothing, in order that the attorneys and overseers may keep

their places as before; and I am informed, by a gentleman whose veracity

is not to be doubted, and who is himself an attorney, that he can still

keep his overseer and merchant as in former days, draw his own

commissions, and send home to his employer a very handsome surplus.

Under such circumstances, well may the friends of freedom cry shame at

the opposition which has for so long a time been thrown in the way of

liberty, by these West Indians of practical knowledge. The facts are,

that the absent proprietors have been led by the advice they have

received from their attorneys; and these have had so many ways of making

more than an honest commission, and have so speedily made their

fortunes, that as long as they could continue slavery, they have exerted

every influence. The overseer was paid, housed, fed, and waited upon,

all at the expense of master and slave, beside; keeping a fine stud of

horses, and as many brood mares at pasture on the property as would

enable him to dispose of seven or eight prime mules annually; and so

long as he drove and tormented the poor negro, and made good crops for

the attorney's commissions, and supplied his horses with corn, these

_little perquisites_ were never discovered. Now the proprietor will

hardly pay for more labor than is absolutely necessary to grow and

manufacture the produce of his estate; and these gentlemen must

henceforth look to their own resources, for the payment of servants to

attend and take care of their own interests and comforts. An overseer's

situation on an estate making 300 hogsheads, was calculated in slavery

to be equal to 2000l. a year. Indeed no man in any town could have lived

in such luxury for that sum. If the proprietor would only come out, and

live prudently, he would save all this by residing on his property,

which he could easily manage by employing, for extra wages, his former

steady head people. _They_, from long residence, know the best manner of

working the land; and, as to the manufacture of sugar, they are the

persons who have _all their lives_ been working at it. The most

important part of an overseer and book-keeper's business was to make use

of their _eyes_. The negro had to make use of his legs, arms and

strength; and, in nine cases out of ten, his brains kept the white

people in their situations, by preventing matters from going wrong.

I perfectly coincide with you, as to the propriety of the negro speedily

becoming possessed of the elective franchise. In Antigua there is very

little more land than is in cultivation for the estates, but here it is

widely different; and they are beginning to settle themselves by

purchasing small lots very fast. At Sligoville there are nearly fifty

new freeholders. The negroes are taught to do this by the perpetual

worry of their employers, threatening to oust them on every trifling

occasion, and withholding part of their wages on the plea of

non-performance of work.--The root of all evil is the Assembly and the

Juries. Nothing requires greater alteration; and I shall never rest,

until I see the black man stand the same chance at the bar of his

country as the white man.--The negroes will not work under their former

hard task-masters. They determinedly resist all solicitations to labor

with those who treated them ill. They say that the pain is gone, but the

mark remains, and I respect them for this proud feeling.

* * * * *

I have come under his displeasure for taking the opinion of Middleton

and McDougal, as to the legality of charging the negro hire for his

house and grounds, for the three months during which the notices to quit

are running.--Had we not taken these opinions, what a fearful state

things might we have been brought to in this country! I am quite

satisfied that no rent could be recovered until the expiration of the

three months, from which time it would commence to run, and the

plaintiff would in law be considered in possession of his lands again,

which, in slavery, he was compelled to give to his slave for his support

and maintenance. He must re-enter before he could demand rent, for it is

impossible for him to prove a contract, or imply one. The negro did not

willingly come from Africa, and occupy his land; he was torn from his

native land, and compelled by his owner, under laws that took his life,

not to quit the land; how therefore can he be considered to have made a

contract, or consented to one?

FROM THE REV. J. KINGDON

_Manchioneal, Oct. 9, 1838._

In passing through Hector's River great house yard, in my way to my

preaching spot, I have the most sensible demonstration of the reality of

the political change happily brought about; for that hot-house, in which

I have seen one of my own members in irons for having a bad sore leg,

and in which I have been grossly insulted for daring to go to see my

poor people--that house is _shut up_! Delightful, I assure you, are my

feelings, whenever I go by that place, attached to which, too, was the

old-time prison, a perfect charnel-house.

FROM THE REV. S. OUGHTON.

_Lucea, October 2, 1838._

Unused to acts of justice and humanity, the Planters, in a moment of mad

excitement passed an act to abolish the accursed system of Slavery. The

debates on that occasion proved with what an ill grace they performed

that scanty act of justice, and all experience since that period proves

how bitterly they repent it. It is true, we are not now, as before,

distressed by hearing recitals of barbarous corporeal punishments, and

we are no longer pained by seeing human beings chained to each other by

the neck; but, although cruelty has, to a certain extent, ceased,

oppression has become ten thousand times more rampant than ever. Every

act which ingenuity or malice can invent, is employed to harass the poor

negroes. Prior to August 1st, the planter studiously avoided every thing

like an arrangement with the laborer, and when, on the following Monday,

they turned out to work, the paltry pittance of 12-1/2d. (7-1/2d.

sterl.) was all that in the majority of cases was offered for the

services of an able-bodied negro, although 2s. 6d. per day (currency),

had before been invariably exacted from them, when they were desirous of

purchasing the remaining term of their apprenticeship. Of course, the

people refused to receive so paltry a remuneration for their labour, and

this has laid the foundation for a course of systematic oppression

scarcely conceivable. Notices to quit were served indiscriminately on

every one, old and young, sick and healthy. Medical attendance was

refused, and even a dose of physic from the Estates' hospitals. Cattle

were turned into the provision-grounds of the negroes, thus destroying

their only means of support; and assaults of the most wanton and brutal

description were committed on many of the peasantry. On one estate the

proprietor and his brother assaulted a young man in the most unprovoked

manner. One presented a pistol to his breast, and threatened to shoot

him; while the other levelled a gun at his head for the same purpose.

They were bound over to take their trial at the Quarter Sessions; but

what hope is there in such a tribunal as that, composed principally of

men engaged in the same reckless course, and banded together by mutual

interests? On another estate (_Content_), the attorney ordered the

cattle of a poor man (a member of my Chapel) to be taken up and

impounded. It was done, and the man was obliged to pay 6l. to redeem

them; when, as soon as he carried them back, they were again taken and

impounded. The man has been to my house with his case of oppression, on

my return from Kingston. He states that he exhausted his last farthing

to redeem the cattle the first time, and was also obliged to borrow of

his friends; they have now been impounded five weeks, and unless he can

raise the money to redeem them (upwards of 10l.), they will be sold to

pay the expenses. Thus is an honest and worthy man, in a few weeks,

stripped of every thing which, by years of industry and care, he had

accumulated for the comfort of his old age, or the benefit of his

family. Yesterday a negro came and informed me that the owner of a

property had told him last year, that he must cultivate more ground, so

as to be able to continue possession as a tenant; and now that he has

done so, another person, saying that he had purchased the property, came

a few days ago, and told him that in three weeks he would drive him from

the place. He then ordered a man whom he had with him to climb a

bread-fruit tree, and pull the fruit, which he forcibly carried away to

give to his hogs. But I must forbear: were I to state half the cases of

oppression which have occurred in Hanover since August 1st; I should

require a volume instead of a sheet. I think, however, I have said

enough to prove the bitter and rancorous spirit which at present

animates the planters. Enclosed I send a specimen of another artifice

adopted to harass and distress the negroes. They have adopted the notion

(sanctioned by the opinion of the old Planters' Jackall, Batty, and the

Attorney General), that the people are liable to pay rent for houses and

grounds during the three months' possession to which the Abolition Act

entitled them, and notices have been served on the people, demanding the

most extravagant amounts for the miserable sheds which the people

inhabited. You will perceive that in once case 21l. 6s. 9d. has been

demanded. This conscientious demand was made by John Houghton James,

Executor and Attorney for Sir Simon Clark. Another is from a Mr. Bowen,

of _Orchard_ Estate; and the third from Mr. Brockett, of _Hopewell_ and

_Content_ Estates, the property of Mr. Miles, M.P. for Bristol. Let it

be borne in mind that these shameful and exorbitant demands are not

made, as in England, on the head of the family only, but on _every

member who is able to do the least work_, and even little children have

papers demanding 2s. 4d. per week for ground, although unable to do the

least thing: one of these I also enclose.

Jamaica, ss. Notice is hereby Given, That the sum of eight shillings and

four pence, weekly, will be exacted from you and each of you

respectively, for the houses and grounds at Orchard Estate, in the

parish of Hanover, from August of the present year, until the expiration

of the three months' notice, from its period of service to quit; or to

the period of surrendering to me the peaceable possession of the

aforesaid house and provision grounds.

J. R. BOWEN.

Dated this 17th day of Sep. 1838.

TO JAMES DARLING and SARAH DARLING, of the parish of HANOVER.

Here then, my dear Sir, you may perceive something of the atrocious

proceedings in the island of Jamaica. Pray insert these documents in the

_Emancipator_. Let the Anti-slavery friends know the state of things,

and urge them to redoubled diligence. The House of Assembly will meet on

the 30th instant, and then, I fear, dreadful measures will be taken. A

letter from Mr. Harker, of the Jamaica Royal Gazette, about a fortnight

since, addressed to Mr. Abbott, shows what absolute and cruel statutes

they would wish either to act upon, or to make the models of new laws.

Every act must be watched with the most jealous scrutiny. Experience

shows that the planters possess an ingenuity truly diabolical, in

twisting and distorting the laws to suit their own selfish purpose. Our

hope is in British Christians; and we confidently hope every one of them

will feel the importance of increased diligence, lest the great, and

long prayed-for boon of freedom, should become a curse, instead of a

blessing. The papers will inform you of the odium I have drawn on myself

in defending the people's rights. That contained in the great mass, only

provokes a smile. I know that every friend in England will interpret it

inversely. I did feel Mr. ----'s letter in the Falmouth Post, but he

knows his error, and is sorry for it. I could have answered it, but did

not choose to cause a division amongst the few friends of the negro,

when they had quite enough to do to withstand the attacks of

their enemies.

FROM THE REV. J. M. PHILIPPO.

_Spanish Town, Oct. 13, 1838._

The following is one of the seven of the same tenor now in my

possession, which will, in addition to those I forwarded by last mail,

inform you of the cause of the late disinclination of the people in some

districts to labour--which, with so much effrontery, has been proclaimed

through the public Journals here:--

Charles Michael Kelly and Wife, to J.S. Benbow, Dr.

1830: July 14th to Sept. 9th.

1. To the rent of house and

ground on Castle Kelly

plantation, for eight weeks,

at 6s. 8d. per week. 3l. 13 4

2. Richard Kelly and Wife. Same.

3. Elenor Mercer. Same.

4. John Ried and Wife. Same.

5. Mary Ann Christie. Same.

6. Venus Owen (or such like name). Same.

FROM THE REV. J. HUTCHINS.

_Savanna-la-Mar, Sept. 17, 1838._

I now, according to promise in my last, send you a few out of the many

cases I am almost hourly troubled with. Some of our would-be great men

are, I am sorry to say, harassing the poor free labourers shamefully;

and should it prove, as I think in some cases it must, of serious injury

to the absentee proprietors, I shall publish the cases of grievance

brought me, together with the names of the estates, owners, attorneys,

overseers, &c., and leave all parties to form their own opinion on

the subject.

Amelia Martin, to Retrieve Estate, Dr.

1838: August 29.

To house and ground, rent at

5s. per week, from 1st August

to date 4_l._ 0 0

[A]Alliac Davis, ground

rent at

10d. per week 3 0

[A]William Davis; ditto

ditto 0 3 4

-------------

4_l._ 6 4

-------------

Thos. Tats, Esq. is Attorney, and Mr. Comry

Overseer,

[Footnote A: Boys from 9 to 11, her sons.]

* * * * *

Louisa Patter, to Retrieve Estate, Dr.

1838: Aug. 28.

To house and ground from 1st

Aug. to date 1_l._ 0 0

She states she has been sickly so long, that she has no ground in

cultivation, and cannot help herself, and has only what yams her

friends give her.

* * * * *

Susan James, to Albany Estate, Dr.

1838: Aug. 28.

To house and ground rent at

5s. per week, from 1st August,

to date 1l. 0 0

Thos. Hewett, ground rent 0 13 4

Elizabeth James, ditto 0 13 4

Mary Dunn, ditto 0 10 0

Letitia, ditto[A] 0 6 8

-------------

3l. 3 4

-------------

[Footnote A: These are a mother and four children in

one house, and with but one ground, they tell

me.]

* * * * *

Richard Warren, to Albany Estate, Dr.

1838: Aug. 28.

To house and ground rent to

date 1l. 0 0

Wife 0 15 4

Child[B] 0 10 0

-------------

2l. 5 4

-------------

[Footnote B: The child is quite young, and in daily attendance

at one of my schools.]

* * * * *

On this property, under the same managers as Retrieve, the people state

that they are going on shamefully. "The last Sabbath but one, when we

were at service, Stephen Campbell, the book-keeper, and Edward Pulsey,

old-time constable, come round and mark all for we house, and charge for

ebery one of we family. We don't know what kind of fee dis we hab at

all; for we attorney, Mr. Tate, neber come on we property, leave all to

Mr. Comeoy. We peak to him for make bargain, him say him can't make law,

and him no make bargain till him heare what law come out in packet. Him

say dem who make bargain are fools; beside him no call up a parcel of

niggers to hold service wid me; should only get laughed at. So we know

not what for do. You are for we minister, and for we only friend; and if

you did not advise we to go on work till things settle down, we no lift

another hoe. We would left the property." Unless an arrangement is soon

entered into, I shall advise them to do so.

James Greenheld, to New Galloway Estate, Dr.

To one week's rent of house, garden, and

ground, and to 5 ditto for his wife, Margaret

Greenfield, at 5s. per week. £1 10 0

J.G. states, "I come for massa. When we make bargain with Mr. McNeal, it

was a maccaroni (1s. 8d.) a day, and for we house and ground. Me is able

and willing for work, so let my wife stop home; so him charge me de same

sum for my wife, as for me own house and ground. And den last week me

sick and get no money, and they charge me over again, (as above) one

week me sick. Me no able for say what to call dat massa, me sure."

I leave with you to make your own comments, and to do what you please

with the above. Although my chapel is £700 in debt, and my schools, one

of 180 and one of 160 scholars, are heavy, very heavy on me, I cannot do

other than advise my people to save every mite, buy an acre of land, and

by that means be independent, and job about wherever they may be wanted.

FROM THE REV. T. BURCHELL.

_Montego Bay, October_ 2, 1838.

The reason why I have not written to you so long, is the intensely

anxious time we have had. I feel, however, that it is high time now to

address you; for, if our friends in England relax their efforts, my

conviction is, that freedom will be more in name than in reality, in

this slave-holding Island. There is nothing to be feared, if the noble

band of friends who have so long and so successfully struggled, will but

continue their assistance a short time longer. The planters have made a

desperate struggle, and so, I have no doubt, will the House of Assembly,

against the emancipated negroes. My firm conviction has been, and still

is, that the planters have endeavored, by the offer of the most paltry

wages, to reduce the condition of the laborer, and make him as badly off

as he was when an apprentice or a slave, that he may curse the day that

made him free.

Though unable to conduct the usual services on Sunday the 5th August, at

the close I addressed the congregation, urging upon them the necessity

of commencing their work on the following day, whether arrangements were

made between themselves and their masters or not; as by so doing they

would put it out of the power of their opponents to say anything evil of

them. They assembled, and on Monday the 6th thousands turned out to

work, and continued to labor, unless prevented by the Manager, until

arrangements were made.

You will remember, that prior to the 1st of August, a white man who

hired out a gang of apprentices to an estate was paid at the rate of 1s.

6d. sterling per diem for each able laborer. The apprentice received the

same when he worked for the estate on his own days, Friday and Saturday;

and whenever they were valued for the purpose of purchasing the

remaining time of their apprenticeship, the planter upon oath stated

that their services were worth at least 1s. 6. per diem to the estate,

and the apprentice had to redeem himself at that rate.

After the 1st of August, the planters discovered, that, whilst the

properties would well afford to continue the lavish and extravagant

expenditure in managing the estates, "it would be certain ruin to the

properties, if the labourer was paid more than 71/2d. per diem. for the

1st class of labourers, 6d. the 2nd class, and 41/2d. for the 3rd

class:" and why? I know not why, unless it was because the long

oppressed negro was to put the money into his own pocket, and not his

white oppressors. This seems to have made all the difference. The above

wages were accordingly offered, and rejected with scorn; the people

feeling the greatest indignation at the atrocious attempt of their old

oppressors to grind them down now they are free, and keep them in a

state of degradation. The greatest confusion and disorder ensued; the

labourers indignant at the conduct of their masters, and the planters

enraged against the people, for presuming to think and act for

themselves. As a matter of course, the fury of the planters was directed

against half a dozen Baptist missionaries, and as many more friends and

stipendiary Magistrates; and I can assure you that the Jamaica press

equalled its most vituperative days, and came forth worthy of itself.

The Despatch, or the Old Jamaica Courant, so well known in 1832 for

advocating the burning of chapels, and the hanging of missionaries; was

quite in the shade. The pious Polypheme, the Bishop's paper, with the

Jamaica Standard of infamy and falsehood, published in this town, took

the lead, and a pretty standard it is. Let foreigners judge of Jamaica

by the Jamaica Standard of August last, and they must suppose it is an

island of savages, or a little hell. The press teemed with abuse of the

most savage nature against us, and published the most barefaced lies.

That, however, you who know the generality of the Jamaica Press, will

say is nothing new or strange; well, it is not, nor do we regard any

statements they make; for no one believes what they publish, and it is a

source of gratification to us that we have never forfeited our character

or principles in the estimation of the reflecting, the philanthropist,

or the Christian public, by meriting their approbation.

In the mulct of this seemingly general conspiracy to defraud the laborer

of his wages by exorbitant rents, &c. Sir Lionel Smith, the Governor,

proceeds from district to district, giving advice to both of the

contending parties, and striving to promote a mutual understanding. His

testimony to the designs of the planters given to their faces, and not

denied, is very important; we give therefore one of his meetings, as the

find it reported in the Jamaica papers. Here is a rather familiar

conversation among some of the chief men of that island--where can we

expect to find more authoritative testimony?

SIR LIONEL SMITH'S VISIT TO DUNSINANE.

His Excellency, Sir Lionel Smith, visited Dunsinane on Thursday last,

agreeably to arrangements previously entered into, for the purpose of

addressing the late apprenticed population in that neighborhood, on the

propriety of resuming the cultivation of the soil. About two miles from

Dunsinane, his Excellency was met by a cavalcade composed of the late

apprentices, who were preceded by Messrs. Bourne, Hamilton, and Kent,

late Special Justices. On the arrival of his Excellency at Dunsinane, he

was met by the Hon. Joseph Gordon, Custos, the Lord Bishop attended by

his Secretary, and the Rev. Alexander Campbell; the Hon. Hector Mitchel,

Mayor of Kingston, and a large number of highly respectable planters,

proprietors, and attorneys. His Excellency, on being seated in the

dwelling, said, that from information which he had received from other

parishes, and facts gathered from personal observation, he believed that

the same bone of contention existed there as elsewhere--a source of

discontent brought about by the planters serving the people with notices

to quit their houses and grounds. He did not question their right to do

so, or the legality of such a proceeding, but he questioned the prudence

of the step. The great change from slavery to unrestricted freedom

surely deserved some consideration. Things cannot so soon be quiet and

calm. Depend upon it, nothing will be done by force. Much may be by

conciliation and prudence. Do away with every emblem of slavery; throw

off the Kilmarnock cap, and adopt in its stead, like rational men,

Britannia's cap of liberty. He (Sir Lionel) doubted not the right of the

planters to rent their houses and grounds; in order to be more certain

on that head, he had procured the opinion of the Attorney General; but

the exercise of the right by the planter, and getting the people to

work, were very different matters. Much difficulty must be felt in

getting rid of slavery. Even in the little island of Antigua, it had

taken six months to get matters into a quiet state; but here, in a large

country like Jamaica, could it be expected to be done in a day, and was

it because it was not done, that the planters were to be opposed to him?

You are all in arms against me (said his Excellency,) but all I ask of

you is to exercise patience, and all will be right. I have done, and am

doing all in my power for the good of my country. If you have served the

people with notices to quit, with a view to compel them to work, or

thinking to force them to work for a certain rate of wages, you have

done wrong. Coercive measures will never succeed. In Vere, which I

lately visited, the planters have agreed to give the people 1s. 8d. per

day, and to let them have their houses and grounds for three months free

of charge. His Excellency, on seeing some symptoms of disapprobation

manifested, said, Well, if you cannot afford to pay so much, pay what

you can afford; but above all, use conciliatory measures, and I have not

a doubt on my mind but that the people will go to their work. Seeing so

many planters present, he should be happy if they would come to an

arrangement among themselves, before he addressed the people outside.

Mr. WELLWOOD HYSLOP remarked, that Vere and other rich sugar parishes

might be able to pay high rates of wages, because the land yielded

profitable crops, but in this district it was impossible to follow the

example of those parishes. He thought that two bits a day might do very

well, but that was as much as could be afforded.

His EXCELLENCY said that in Manchester, where he believed he had more

enemies than in any other parish, he had advised them to work by the

piece, and it had been found to answer well.

Mr. HINTON EAST said that he would submit a measure which he thought

would be approved of. He proposed that the people should be paid 5s. for

four days' labor; that if they cleaned more than 130 trees per day,

either themselves or by bringing out their wives and children, they

should be paid extra wages in the same proportion.

Mr. ANDREW SIMPSON said that he could not afford to pay the rates named

by his Excellency. It was entirely out of the question; that a good deal

depended upon the state the fields are in--that his people, for

instance, could, with much ease, if they chose, clean 170 trees by

half-past three o'clock.

Mr. MASON, of St. George's, said he was willing to pay his people 1s.

8d. per day, if they would but work; but the fact was that they refused

to do so, on account of the stories that had been told them by Special

Justice Fishbourne; willingly too would I have given them their houses

and grounds for three months, free of charge, had they shown a desire to

labor; but what was the lamentable fact? the people would not work,

because Mr. Fishbourne had influenced them not to do so, and he (Mr.

Mason) had been a loser of one thousand pounds in consequence. He had

been compelled in self-defence to issue summonses against two of his

people. He had purchased his property--it was his all--he had sacrificed

twenty of the best years of his life as a planter, he had a wife and

family to support, and what was the prospect before him and them? He

admitted having served notices on his people to quit their houses--in

truth he did not now care whether they were or were not located on the

property--he was willing to pay fair, nay, high wages, but the demand

was exorbitant. He had a servant, a trustworthy white man, who laboured

from day-dawn to sunset for 2s. 1d. per day, and he was quite satisfied.

All the mischief in his district had been owing to the poisonous stories

poured into the ears of the people by Special Justice Fishbourne. If he

were removed, the parish might probably assume a healthy state; if

allowed to remain, no improvement could possibly take place.

His EXCELLENCY said that the Assembly had passed a law preventing the

special magistrates from going on the estates; they could not, however,

prevent the people from going to them, and taking their advice if they

wished it. He had understood that the people had gone to the special

magistrates, informing them that the planters demanded 3s. 4d. per week

rent for the houses and grounds, and that they had been advised, if such

were the case, that they ought to be paid higher wages. He understood

that to be a fact.

Mr. ANDREW SIMPSON said that the people would, he had no doubt, have

worked, but for the pernicious advice of Mr. Fishbourne. He had heard

that the people had been told that the Governor did not wish them to

work, and that he would be vexed with them if they did.

Sir LIONEL replied that he was aware that white men were going about the

country disguised as policemen, pretending to have his (Sir Lionel's)

authority, telling the people not to work. He knew well their intention

and design, he understood the trick. You are anxious (said his

Excellency) to produce a panic, to reduce the value of property, to

create dismay, in order that you may speculate, by reducing the present

value of property; but you will be disappointed, notwithstanding a press

sends forth daily abuse against me, and black-guard and contemptible

remarks against my acts. I assure you I am up to your tricks.

Mr. ANDREW SIMPSON would be glad if his Excellency would speak

individually. There was a paper called the West Indian, and another the

Colonial Freeman. He wished to know whether his Excellency meant either

of those papers. [Some slight interruption here took place, several

gentlemen speaking at the same time.]

His EXCELLENCY said he had not come to discuss politics, but to

endeavour to get the people to work, and it would be well for them to

turn their attention to that subject.

Mr. SIMPSON said he had a gang who had jobbed by the acre, and had done

well, but it was unfortunate in other respects to observe the

disinclination shown by the laborers to work. He wished them to know

that they must work, and trusted that his Excellency would endeavour to

force them to labor.

Sir LIONEL--I can't compel them to do as you would wish, nor have I the

power of forcing them to labor. The people will not suffer themselves to

be driven by means of the cart-whip. It is the policy of every man to

make the best bargain he can. I can say nothing to the people about

houses and grounds, and price of wages. I can only ask them to work.

Mr. WILES said that the planters were anxious to come to amicable

arrangements with the people, but they were unreasonable in their

demands. The planters could not consent to be injured--they must profit

by their properties.

Mr. MASON said, that the only bone of contention was the subject of

rent. His people were outside waiting to be satisfied on that head. He

hesitated not to say, that the proprietors were entitled to rent in

every instance where the laborer was unwilling to labor, and unless that

subject was at once settled, it would involve both parties in endless

disagreement. He was not one of those persons alluded to by his

Excellency, who circulated misrepresentations for private benefit, nor

was he aware that any one in the parish in which he lived had done so.

All that he desired was the good of the country, with which his

interests were identified.

Sir LIONEL--I could not possibly be personal towards any gentleman

present, for I have not the honour of knowing most of you. My

observations were not confined to any particular parish, but to the

Island of Jamaica, in which the occurrences named have taken place.

Dr. RAPKY, of St. George's--If your Excellency will only do away with a

curtain magistrate, things will go on smoothly in the parish of St.

George. This gentleman has told the people that they are entitled to the

lands occupied by them, in consequence of which the parish is now in an

unsettled state.

Sir LIONEL--Who is the magistrate!

Dr. RAPKY--Mr. Fishbourne.

Sir LIONEL--I am afraid I cannot please you. The question of possession

of lands and houses has for the present been settled by the opinion of

the Attorney-General, but it is still an undetermined question at law.

There are many persons in the island who are of opinion that the

legislature had not so intended; he (Sir Lionel) was at a loss to know

what they meant; seeing, however, some members of the assembly present,

perhaps they would be disposed to give some information.

Mr. S.J. DALLAS said, that it was the intention of the legislature that

rent should be paid. He thought it fair that 1s. 8d. per day should be

offered the people to work five days in the week, they returning one

day's labor for the houses and grounds.

Mr. SPECIAL JUSTICE HAMILTON said that complaints had been made to him,

that in many instances where the husband and wife lived in the same

house, rent had been demanded of both. The laborers had, in consequence,

been thrown into a state of consternation and alarm, which accounted for

the unsettled state of several properties--a serious bone of contention

had in consequence been produced. He held a notice in his hand demanding

of a laborer the enormous sum of 10s. per week for house and ground. He

had seen other notices in which 6s, 8d. and 5s. had been demanded for

the same. He did not consider that the parties issuing those notices had

acted with prudence.

Mr. HYSLOP explained--He admitted the charge, but said that the sum was

never intended to be exacted.

Sir LIONEL said he was aware of what was going on; he had heard of it.

"It was a policy which ought no longer to be pursued."

We have given the foregoing documents, full and ungarbled, that our

readers might fairly judge for themselves. We have not picked here a

sentence and there a sentence, but let the Governor, the Assembly, the

Missionaries, and the press tell their whole story. Let them be read,

compared, and weighed.

We might indefinitely prolong our extracts from the West India papers to

show, not only in regard to the important island of Jamaica, but

Barbados and several other colonies, that the former masters are alone

guilty of the non-working of the emancipated, so far as they refuse to

work. But we think we have already produced proof enough to establish

the following points:--

1. That there was a strong predisposition on the part of the Jamaica

planters to defraud their labourers of their wages. They hoped that by

yielding, before they were driven quite to the last extremity, by the

tide of public sentiment in England, they should escape from all

philanthropic interference and surveillance, and be able to bring the

faces of their unyoked peasantry to the grindstone of inadequate wages.

2. That the emancipated were not only peaceful in their new freedom, but

ready to grant an amnesty of all post abuses, and enter cheerfully into

the employ of their former masters for reasonable wages. That in cases

where disagreement has arisen as to the rate of daily or weekly wages,

the labourers have been ready to engage in task work, to be paid by the

piece, and have laboured so efficiently and profitably--proving a strong

disposition for industry and the acquisition of property.

3. That in the face of this good disposition of the laborers, the

planters have, in many cases, refused to give adequate wages.

4. That in still more numerous cases, including many in which the wages

have been apparently liberal, enormous extortion has been practiced upon

the laborer, in the form of rent demanded for his hovel and provision

patch--£20 per annum being demanded for a shanty not worth half that

money, and rent being frequently demanded from _every member_ of a

family more than should have been taken from the whole.

5. That the negroes are able to look out for their own interest, and

have very distinct ideas of their own about the value of money and the

worth of their labour, as well as the best methods of bringing their

employers to reasonable terms. On this point we might have made a still

stronger case by quoting from the Despatch and Standard, which assert

numerous instances in which the labourers have refused to work for wages

recommended to them by the Governor, Special Magistrates, or

Missionaries, though they offered to work for 3s. 4d., 5s., or a dollar

a day. They are shown to be rare bargain-makers and not easily trapped.

6. That the attorneys and managers have deliberately endeavoured to

raise a panic, whereby property might be depreciated to their own

advantage; showing clearly thereby, that they consider Jamaica property,

even with the laborers, irreclaimably free, a desirable investment.

7. That in spite of all their efforts, the great body of the laborers

continue industrious, doing more work in the same time than in slavery.

_The testimony to his very important point, of the Governor and House of

Assembly, is perfectly conclusive_, as we have already said. A house

that represents the very men who, in 1832, burnt the missionary chapels,

and defied the British Parliament with the threat, that in case it

proceeded to legislate Abolition, Jamaica would attach herself to the

United States, now HOPES for the agricultural prosperity of the island!

Indeed no one in Jamaica expresses a doubt on this subject, who does not

obviously do so _for the sake of buying land to better advantage_! Were

the colony a shade _worse_ off than before Emancipation, either in fact

or in the opinion of its landholders, or of any considerable portion of

persons acquainted with it, the inevitable consequence would be a

depreciation of _real estate_. But what is the fact? said Rev. John

Clark, a Jamaica Baptist Missionary, who has visited this country since

the first of August, in a letter published in the Journal of Commerce:--

"The Island of Jamaica is not in the deplorable state set forth by your

correspondent.--Land is rising in value so rapidly, that what was

bought five years ago at 3 dollars per acre, is now selling for 15

dollars; and this in the interior of the Island, in a parish not

reckoned the most healthy, and sixteen miles distant from the nearest

town. Crops are better than in the days of slavery--extra labour is

easily obtained where kindness and justice are exercised towards the

people. The hopes of proprietors are great, and larger sums are being

offered for estates than were offered previous to August, 1834, when

estates, and negroes upon them, were disposed of together."

Again, as in Jamaica commerce rests wholly upon agriculture, _its_

institutions can only flourish in a flourishing condition of the

latter.--What then are we to infer from an imposing prospectus which

appears in the island papers, commencing thus:--

"Kingston, October 26, 1838

Jamaica Marine, Fire, and Life Assurance Company.

Capital £100,000,

In 5000 shares of £20 each.

It has been long a matter of astonishment that, in a community so

essentially mercantile as Jamaica, no Company should have been

formed for the purpose of effecting Insurance on Life and Property;

although it cannot be doubted for an instant, that not only would

such an establishment be highly useful to all classes of the

community, but that it must yield a handsome return to such persons

as may be inclined to invest their money in it," &c.

Farther down in the prospectus we are told--"It may here be stated,

that the scheme for the formation of this Company has been mentioned to

some of the principal Merchants and _Gentlemen of the Country_, and has

met with decidedly favourable notice: and it is expected that the

shares, a large number of which have been already taken, will be rapidly

disposed of."

The same paper, the Morning Journal, from which we make this extract,

informs us: Nov. 2d--

"The shares subscribed for yesterday, in the Marine Fire and Life

Insurance Company, we understand, amount to the almost unprecedented

number of One Thousand Six Hundred, with a number of applicants whose

names have not been added to the list."

The Morning Journal of October 20th in remarking upon this project

says:--

"Jamaica is now happily a free country; she contains within herself the

means of becoming prosperous. Let her sons develope those resources

which Lord Belmore with so much truth declared never would be developed

_until slavery had ceased_. She has her Banks.--Give her, in addition,

her Loan Society, her Marine, Fire, and life Assurance Company, and some

others that will shortly be proposed, and capital will flow in from

other countries--property will acquire a value in the market, that will

increase with the increase of wealth, and she will yet be a flourishing

island, and her inhabitants a happy and contented people."

Now men desperately in debt _might_ invite in foreign capital for

temporary relief, but, since the _compensation_, this is understood not

to be the case with the Jamaica planters; and if they are rushing into

speculation, it must be because they have strong _hope_ of the safety

and prosperity of their country--in other words, because they confide in

the system of free labor. This one prospectus, coupled with its prompt

success, is sufficient to prove the falsehood of all the stories so

industriously retailed among us from the Standard and the Despatch. But

speculators and large capitalists are not the only men who confide in

the success of the "great experiment."

The following editorial notice in the Morning Journal of a recent date

speaks volumes:--

SAVINGS BANK.

"We were asked not many days ago how the Savings Bank in this City was

getting on. We answered well, very well indeed. By a notification

published in our paper of Saturday, it will be seen that £1600 has been

placed in the hands of the Receiver-General. By the establishment of

these Banks, a great deal of the money now locked up, and which yields

no return whatever to the possessors, and is liable to be stolen, will

be brought into circulation. This circumstance of itself ought to

operate as a powerful inducement to those parishes in which no Banks are

yet established to be up and doing. We have got some _five_ or _six_ of

them fairly underweigh, as Jack would say, and hope the remainder will

speedily trip their anchors and follow."

We believe banks were not known in the West Indies before the 1st of

August 1834. Says the Spanishtown Telegraph of May 1st, 1837, "_Banks,

Steam-Companies, Rail-Roads, Charity Schools_, etc., seem all to have

remained dormant until the time arrived when Jamaica was to be

_enveloped in smoke_! No man thought of hazarding his capital in an

extensive banking establishment until Jamaica's ruin, by the

introduction of freedom, had been accomplished!" And it was not till

after the 1st of August, 1838, that Jamaica had either savings banks or

savings. These institutions for the industrious classes came only with

their manhood. But why came they at all, if Emancipated industry is, or

is likely to be, unsuccessful?--In Barbados we notice the same

forwardness in founding monied institutions. A Bank is there proposed,

with a capital of £200,000. More than this, the all absorbing subject in

all the West India papers at the present moment is that of the

_currency_. Why such anxiety to provide the means of paying for labor

which is to become valueless? Why such keenness for a good circulating

medium if they are to have nothing to sell? The complaints about the old

fashioned coinage we venture to assort have since the first of August

occupied five times as much space in the colonial papers, we might

probably say in each and every one of them, as those of the non-working

of the freemen. The inference is irresistible. _The white colonists take

it for granted that industry is to thrive_.

It may be proper to remark that the late refusal of the Jamaica

legislature to fulfil its appropriate functions has no connection with

the working of freedom, any further than it may have been a struggle to

get rid in some measure of the surveillance of the mother country in

order to coerce the labourer so far as possible by vagrant laws, &c. The

immediate pretext was the passing of a law by the imperial Parliament

for the regulation of prisons, which the House of Assembly declared a

violation of that principle of their charter which forbids the

mother-country to lay a tax on them without their consent, in as much as

it authorized a crown officer to impose a fine, in a certain case, of

£20. A large majority considered this an infringement of their

prerogatives, and among them were some members who have nobly stood up

for the slave in times of danger. The remarks of Mr. Osborn especially,

on this subject, (he is the full blooded, slave-born, African man to

whom we have already referred) are worthy of consideration in several

points of view. Although he had always been a staunch advocate of the

home government on the floor of the Assembly are now contended for the

rights of the Jamaica legislature with arguments which to us republicans

are certainly quite forcible. In a speech of some length, which appears

very creditable to him throughout, he said--

"Government could not be acting fair towards them to assume that the

mass of the people of this island would remain in the state of political

indifference to which poverty and slavery had reduced them. They were

now free, every man to rise as rapidly as he could; and the day was not

very distant when it would be demonstrated by the change of

representatives that would be seen in that house. It did appear to him,

that under the pretext of extending the privileges of freemen to the

mass of the people of this country, the government was about to deprive

them of those privileges, by curtailing the power of the representative

Assembly of those very people. He could not bring himself to admit, with

any regard for truth, that the late apprentices could now be oppressed;

they were quite alive to their own interests, and were now capable of

taking care of themselves. So long as labor was marketable, so long they

could resist oppression, while on the other hand, the proprietor, for

his own interest's sake, would be compelled to deal fairly with them."

Though it is evidently all important that the same public opinion which

has wrested the whip from the master should continue to watch his

proceedings as an employer of freemen, there is much truth in the speech

of this black representative and alderman of Kingston. The brutalized

and reckless attorneys and managers, _may_ possibly succeed in driving

the negroes from the estates by exorbitant rent and low wages. They

_may_ succeed in their effort to buy in property at half its value. But

when they have effected that, they will be totally dependent for the

profits of their ill-gotten gains upon the _free laboring people_. They

may produce what they call idleness now, and a great deal of vexation

and suffering. But land is plenty, and the laborers, if thrust from the

estates, will take it up, and become still more independent. Reasonable

wages they will be able to command, and for such they are willing to

labor. The few thousand whites of Jamaica will never be able to

establish slavery, or any thing like it, over its 300,000 blacks.

Already they are fain to swallow their prejudice against color. Mr.

Jordon, member for Kingston and "free nigger," was listened to with

respect. Nay more, his argument was copied into the "Protest" which the

legislature proudly flung back in the face of Parliament, along with the

abolition of the apprenticeship, in return for Lord Glenelg's Bill. Let

all in the United States read and ponder it who assert that "the two

races cannot live together on term of equality."

Legislative independence of Jamaica has ever been the pride of her

English conquerors. They have received with joy the colored fellow

colonists into an equal participation of their valued liberty, and they

were prepared to rejoice at the extension of the constitution to the

emancipated blacks. But the British Government, by a great fault, if not

a crime, has, at the moment when all should have been free, torn from

the lately ascendant class, the privileges which were their birthright,

another class, now the equals of the former, the rights they had long

and fortunately struggled for, and from the emancipated blacks the

rights which they fondly expected to enjoy with their personal freedom.

The boon of earlier freedom will not compensate this most numerous part

of our population for the injustice and wrong done to the whole

Jamaica people.

The documents already adduced are confined almost exclusively to

Jamaica. We will refer briefly to one of the other colonies. The next in

importance is

BARBADOS

Here has been played nearly the same game in regard to wages, and with

the same results. We are now furnished with advices from the island down

to the 19th of December 1838. At the latter date the panic making papers

had tapered down their complainings to a very faint whisper, and withal

expressing more hope than fears. As the fruit of what they had already

done we are told by one of them, _the Barbadian_, that the unfavourable

news carried home by the packets after the emancipation had served to

raise the price of sugar in England, which object being accomplished, it

is hoped that they will intermit the manufacture of such news. The first

and most important document, and indeed of itself sufficient to save the

trouble of giving more, is the comparison of crime during two and a half

months of freedom, and the corresponding two and a half months of

slavery or apprenticeship last year, submitted to the legislature at the

opening of its session in the latter part of October. Here it is. We

hope it will be held up before every slave holder.

From the Barbadian of Dec. 1.

Barbados.--Comparative Table, exhibiting the number of Complaints

preferred against the Apprentice population of this Colony, in the

months of August, September and to the 15th of October, 1838; together

with the Complaints charged against Free Labourers of the same Colony,

during the months of August, September and to the 15th of October, 1838.

The former compiled from the Monthly Journals of the Special Justice of

the Peace and the latter from the Returns of the Local Magistracy

transmitted to his excellency the Governor

APPRENTICESHIP.

Total of Complaints vs. Apprentices from the

1st to 31st August 1837. 1708

Ditto from the 1st to 30th September 1464

Ditto from the 1st to 15th October 574

Grand Total 3746

Total number of Apprentices punished from the

1st to 31st August 1608

Ditto from 1st to 31st September 1321

Ditto from the 1st to 15th October 561

Grand Total 3490

Total compromised, admonished and dismissed

from 1st to 31st August 105

Ditto from the 1st to 30th September 113

Ditto from 1st to 15th October 38

Total 256

Deficiency in compromised cases in 1837 comparatively

with those of 1838 158

Grand Total 414

FREEDOM.

Total of Complaints vs. Labourers from the

1st to the 31st August 1838 582

Ditto from the 1st to the 30th September 386

Ditto from the 1st to the 15th October 103

Total 1071

Comparative Surplus of Complaints in 1838 2675

Grand Total 3746

Total of Laborers punished from the 1st to

the 31st August, 1838, 334

Ditto from the 1st to 30th September 270

Ditto from the 1st to 15th October 53

Total 657

Comparative surplus of punishment in 1837 2833

Grand total 3490

Total compromised, admonished and dismissed

from the 1st to the 31st August 248

Ditto from the 1st to 30th September 116

Ditto from the 1st to 15th October 50

Grand Total 414

NOTE.

It may be proper to remark that the accompanying General Abstract

for August, September, and to the 15th October, 1837, does not

include complaints preferred and heard before the Local Magistrates

during those months for such offences--viz. for misdemeanors, petty

debts, assaults and petty thefts--as were not cognizable by the

Special Justices; so that estimating these offences--the number of

which does not appear in the Abstract for 1837--at a similar number

as that enumerated in the Abstract for 1838, the actual relative

difference of punishments between the two and a half months in 1837

and these in 1838, would thus appear:

Surplus of Apprentices punished in 1837, as

above 2833

Offences in August, September, and to the

15th, October, 1837 heard before the General

Justices of the Peace, and estimated as follows:

Petty thefts 75

Assaults 143

Misdemeanors 98

Petty Debts 19--835

Actual surplus of punishment in 1837, 3168

From the Journal of Commerce.

_Letter from W.R. Hays, Esq. Barbados, W.I. to Rev. H.G. Ludlow, of New

Haven_.

BARBADOS, Dec. 26, 1838.

I gave you in my last, some account of the manner in which the first

day of emancipation came and went in this island. We very soon

afterwards received similar accounts from all the neighboring

islands. In all of them the day was celebrated as an occasion "of

devout thanksgiving and praise to God, for the happy termination of

slavery." In all of them, the change took place in a manner highly

creditable to the emancipated, and intensely gratifying to the

friends of liberty. The quiet, good order, and solemnity of the day,

were every where remarkable. Indeed, is it not a fact worth

remembering, that whereas in former years, a single day's relaxation

from labor was met by the slaves with shouting and revelry, and

merry-making, yet now, when the last link of slavery was broken

forever, sobriety and decorum were especially the order of the day.

The perfect order and subordination to the laws, which marked the

first day of August, are yet unbroken. We have now nearly five

months' experience of entire emancipation; and I venture to say,

that a period of more profound peace never existed in the West

Indies. There have been disputes about wages, as in New England and

in other free countries; but no concert, no combination even, here;

and the only attempt at a combination was among the planters, to

keep down wages--and that but for a short time only. I will not

enter particularly into the questions, whether or not the people

will continue to work for wages, whether they will remain quiet,--or

on the other hand, whether the Island will be suffered to become

desolate, and the freed slaves relapse into barbarism, &c. These

things have been speculated about, and gloomy predictions have had

their day; the time has now come for the proof. People do not buy

land and houses, and rent property for long terms of years, in

countries where life is insecure, or where labor cannot be had, and

the tendency of things is to ruin and decay. In short, men, in their

senses, do not embark on board a sinking ship. Confidence is the

very soul of prosperity; of the existence of this confidence in this

Island, the immense operations in real estate, since the first of

August, are abundant proof. There are multitudes of instances in

which estates have sold for $20,000 _more_ than was asked for them

six months ago; and yet at the time they were considered very

high. A proprietor who was persuaded a few weeks since to part with

his estate for a very large sum of money, went and bought _it back

again_ at an _advance_ of $9600. A great many long leases of

property have been entered into. An estate called "Edgecombe,"

mentioned by Thome and Kimball, has been rented for 21 years at

$7500 per annum. Another called the "hope" has been rented for 10

years at £2000 sterling, equal to $9600 per annum. Another, after

being rented at a high price, was relet, by the lessee, who became

entirely absolved from the contract, and took $16,000 for his

bargain. If required, I could give you a host of similar cases, with

the names of the parties. But it seems unnecessary. The mere impulse

given to the value of property in this island by emancipation, is a

thing as notorious _here_, as the _fact_ of emancipation.

But, are not crimes more frequent than before? I have now before me

a Barbados newspaper, printed two weeks since, in which the fact is

stated, that in _all_ the county prisons, among a population of

80,000, only _two_ prisoners were confined for any cause whatever!

"But," says a believer in the necessity of Colonization, "how will

you _get rid_ of the negroes?" I answer by adverting to the

spectacle which is now witnessed in _all_ the Islands of the former

proprietors of slaves, now _employers_ of _free_ laborers, using

every endeavor to _prevent_ emigration. Trinidad, Demerara, and

Berbice, _want_ laborers. The former has passed a law to pay the

passage money of any laborer who comes to the Island, leaving him

free to choose him employment. Demerara and Berbize have sent

Emigration agents to this and other islands, to induce the laborers

to join those colonies, offering high wages, good treatment, &c. On

the other hand, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent, and all the old and

populous islands, individually and collectively, by legislative

resolves, legal enactments, &c. &c.--loudly protest that they have

_not a man to spare_! What is still better, the old island

proprietors are on every hand building new houses for the peasantry,

and with great forethought adding to their comfort; knowing that

they will thereby secure their contentment on their native soil. As

a pleasing instance of the good understanding which now exists

between proprietors and laborers, I will mention, that great numbers

of the former were in town on the 24th, buying up pork, hams, rice,

&c. as presents for their people on the ensuing Christmas; a day

which has this year passed by amid scenes of quiet Sabbath

devotions, a striking contrast to the tumult and drunkenness of

former times. I cannot close this subject, without beating my

testimony to the correctness of the statements made by our

countrymen, Thome and Kimball. They were highly esteemed here by all

classes, and had free access to every source of valuable

information. If they have not done justice to the subject of their

book, it is because the manifold blessings of a deliverance from

slavery are beyond the powers of language to represent. When I

attempt, as I have done in this letter, to enumerate a few of the, I

know not where to begin, or where to end. One must _see_, in order

to know and feel how unspeakable a boon these islands have

received,--a boon, which is by no means confined to the emancipated

slaves; but, like the dew and rains of heaven, it fell upon all the

inhabitants of the land, bond and free, rich and poor, together.

It is a common thing here, when you hear one speak of the benefits

of emancipation--the remark--that it ought to have taken place long

ago. Some say fifty years ago, some twenty, and some, that at any

rate it ought to have taken place all at once, without any

apprenticeship. The noon-day sun is not clearer than the fact, that

no preparation was required on the part of the slaves. It was the

dictate of an accusing conscience, that foretold of bloodshed, and

burning, and devastation. Can it be supposed to be an accidental

circumstance, that peace and good-will have _uniformly_, in _all_

the colonies, followed the steps of emancipation. Is it not rather

the broad seal of attestation to that heaven born principle, "It is

safe to do right." Dear brother, if you or any other friend to down

trodden humanity, have any lingering fear that the blaze of light

which is now going forth from the islands will ever be quenched,

even for a moment, dismiss that fear. The light, instead of growing

dim, will continue to brighten. Your prayers for the safe and happy

introduction of freedom, upon a soil long trodden by the foot of

slavery, may be turned into praises--for the event has come to pass.

When shall we be able to rejoice in such a consummation in our

beloved America? How I long to see a deputation of slaveholders

making the tour of these islands. It would only be necessary for

them to use their eyes and ears. Argument would be quite out of

place. Even an appeal to principle--to compassion--to the fear of

God--would not be needed. Self-interest alone would decide them in

favor of immediate emancipation.

Ever yours,

W.R. HAYES.

DEMERARA.

SPEECH OF THE GOVERNOR, ON OPENING THE SESSION OF THE COURT OF POLICY,

SEPT. 17, 1838.

From the Guiana Royal Gazette.

"I should fail in my duty to the public, and perhaps no respond to

the expectations of yourselves, Gentlemen of the Colonial Section of

this Honorable Court, did I not say a few words on the state of the

Colony, at this our first meeting after the memorable first

of August.

We are now approaching the close of the second month since that

date--a sufficient time to enable us to judge of the good

disposition of the new race of Freemen, but not perhaps of the

prosperity of the Colony. It is a proud thing for the

Colonist--Proprietors and Employers--that nothing has occurred to

indicate a want of good feeling in the great body of the laborers.

It is creditable to them, satisfactory to their employers, and

confounding to those who anticipated a contrary state of affairs.

That partial changes of location should have taken place, cannot

surprise any reasonable mind--that men who have all their lives been

subject to compulsory labor should, on having this labor left to

their discretion, be disposed at first to relax, and, in some

instances, totally abstain from it, was equally to be expected. But

we have no reason to despond, nor to imagine that, because such has

occurred in some districts, it will continue.

It is sufficient that the ignorant have been undeceived in their

exaggerated notions of their rights as Freemen: it was the first

step towards resumption of labor in every part of the Colony. The

patient forbearance of the Employers has produced great changes. If

some Estates have been disappointed in the amount of labor

performed, others again, and I have reason to believe a great

number, are doing well. It is well known that the Peasantry have not

taken to a wandering life: they are not lost to the cultivated parts

of the Colony: for the reports hitherto received from the

Superintendents of Rivers and Creeks make no mention of an augmented

population in the distant parts of their respective districts.

I hear of few commitments, except in this town, where, of course,

many of the idle have flocked from the country. On the East Coast,

there has been only one case brought before the High Sheriff's Court

since the 1st of August. In the last Circuit, not one!

With these facts before us, we may, I trust, anticipate the

continued prosperity of the Colony; and though it be possible there

may be a diminution in the exports of the staple commodities in this

and the succeeding quarter, yet we must take into consideration that

the season had been unfavorable, in some districts, previous to the

1st August, therefore a larger proportion of the crops remained

uncut; and we may ask, whether a continuance of compulsory labor

would have produced a more favorable result? Our united efforts

will, I trust, not be wanting to base individual prosperity on the

welfare of all."

The Governor of Demerara is HENRY LIGHT, Esq., a gentlemen who seems

strongly inclined to court the old slavery party and determined to shew

his want of affinity to the abolitionists. In another speech delivered

on a similar occasion, he says:

"Many of the new freemen may still be said to be in their infancy of

freedom, and like children are wayward. On _many of the estates_ they

have repaid the kindness and forbearance of their masters; on others

they have continued to take advantage of (what? the kindness and

forbearance of their masters? No.) their new condition, are idle or

irregular in their work. The good sense of the mass gives me reason to

hope that idleness will be the exception, not the rule."

The Barbadian of NOV. 28, remarks, that of six districts in Demerara

whose condition had been reported, _five_ were working favorably. In the

sixth the laborers were standing out for higher wages.

TRINIDAD.

In the _Jamaica Morning Journal_ of Oct. 2d and 15th, we find the

following paragraphs in relation to this colony:

"Trinidad.--The reports from the various districts as to the conduct of

our laboring population, are as various and opposite, the Standard says,

to each other as it is possible for them to be. There are many of the

Estates on which the laborers had at first gone on steadily to work

which now have scarcely a hand upon them, whilst upon others they muster

a greater force than they could before command. We hear also that the

people have already in many instances exhibited that propensity common

to the habits of common life, which we call squatting, and to which we

have always looked forward as one of the evils likely to accompany their

emancipation, and calling for the earliest and most serious attention of

our Legislature. We must confess, however, that it is a subject not easy

to deal with safely and effectually."

TRINIDAD,--The Standard says: "The state of the cultivation at present

is said to be as far advanced as could have been anticipated under the

new circumstances in which the Island stands. The weather throughout the

month has been more than usually favorable to weeding, whilst there has

also been sufficient rain to bring out the plants; and many planters

having, before the 1st of Augus, pushed on their weeding by free labor

and (paid) extra tasks, the derangement in their customary labor which

has been experienced since that period, does not leave them much below

an average progress."

"Of the laborers, although they are far from being settled, we believe

we may say, that they are not working badly; indeed, compared with those

of the sister colonies, they are both more industrious and more disposed

to be on good terms with their late masters. Some few estates continue

short of their usual compliment of hands; but many of the laborers who

had left the proprietors, have returned to them, whilst many others have

changed their locality either to join their relations, or to return to

their haunts of former days. So far as we can learn, nothing like

insubordination or combination exists. We are also happy to say, that on

some estates, the laborers have turned their attention to their

provision grounds. There is one point, however, which few seem to

comprehend, which is, that although free, they cannot work one day and

be idle the next, _ad libitum_."

Later accounts mention that some thousands more of laborers were wanted

to take off the crop, and that a committee of immigration had been

appointed to obtain them. [See Amos Townsend's letter on the last page.]

So it seems the free laborers are so good they want more of them. The

same is notoriously true of Demerara, and Berbice. Instead of a

colonization spirit to get rid of the free blacks, the quarrel among the

colonies is, which shall get the most. It is no wonder that the poor

negroes in Trinidad should betake themselves to squatting. The island is

thinly peopled and the administration or justice is horribly corrupt,

under the governorship and judgeship of Sir George Hill, the well known

defaulter as Vice Treasurer of Ireland, on whose appointment Mr.

O'Connell remarked that "delinquents might excuse themselves by

referring to the case of their judge."

GRENADA.

"GRENADA--The Gazette expresses its gratification at being able to

record, that the accounts which have been received from several parts of

the country, are of a satisfactory nature. On many of the properties the

peasantry have, during the week, evinced a disposition to resume their

several accustomed avocations, at the rates, and on the terms proposed

by the directors of the respective estates, to which they were formerly

belonging; and very little desire to change their residence has been

manifested. One of our correspondents writes, that 'already, by a

conciliatory method, and holding out the stimulus of extra pay, in

proportion to the quantity of work performed beyond that allowed to

them, he had, 'succeeded in obtaining, for three days, double the former

average of work, rendered by the labors during the days of slavery; and

this, too, by four o'clock, at which hour it seems, they are now wishful

of ceasing to work, and to enable them to do so, they work continuously

from the time they return from their breakfast.'"

"It is one decided opinion, the paper named says, that in a very short

time the cultivation of the cane still be generally resumed, and all

things continue to progress to the mutual satisfaction of both employer

and laborer. We shall feel indebted to our friends for such information,

as it may be in their power to afford us on this important subject, as

it will tend to their advantage equally with that of their laborers,

from the same being made public. We would wish also that permission be

given as to mention the names of the properties on which matters have

assumed a favorable aspect."

_Jamaica Morning Journal of Oct. 2_.