THE INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL, AND MORAL CONDITION OF THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR
IN THE BRITISH COLONIES, HAYTI, AND IN THE UNITED STATES; AND THE
INFLUENCE THEY HAVE EXERTED ON PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN RELATION TO SLAVERY,
AND TO THEIR OWN PROSPECTS OF EQUALITY WITH THE WHITES.
Effects of opposition to Colonization on
Liberia--Its effects on free colored people--Their
social and moral condition--Abolition testimony on
the subject--American Missionary Association--Its
failure in Canada--Degradation of West India free
colored people--American and Foreign Anti-Slavery
Society--Its testimony on the dismal condition of
West India free negroes--London Times on same
subject--Mr. Bigelow on same subject--Effect of
results in West Indies on Emancipation--Opinion of
Southern Planters--Economical failure of West
India Emancipation--Ruinous to British
Commerce--Similar results in Hayti--Extent of
diminution of exports from West Indies resulting
from Emancipation--Results favorable to American
Planter--Moral condition of Hayti--Later facts in
reference to the West Indies--Negro free labor a
failure--Necessity of education to render freedom
of value--Franklin's opinion
confirmed--Colonization essential to promote
Emancipation.
We have noticed the social and moral condition of the free colored
people, from the days of Franklin, to the projection of colonization. We
have also glanced at the main facts in relation to the abolition warfare
upon colonization, and its success in paralyzing the enterprise. This
subject demands a more extended notice. The most serious injury from
this hostility, sustained by the cause of colonization, was the
prejudice created, in the minds of the more intelligent free colored
men, against emigration to Liberia. The Colonization Society had
expressed its belief in the natural equality of the blacks and whites;
and that there were a sufficient number of educated, upright, free
colored men, in the United States, to establish and sustain a Republic
on the coast of Africa, "whose citizens, rising rapidly in the scale of
existence, under the stimulants to noble effort by which they would be
surrounded, might soon become equal to the people of Europe, or of
European origin--so long their masters and oppressors." These were the
sentiments of the first Report of the Colonization Society, and often
repeated since. Its appeals were made to the moral and intelligent of
the free colored people; and, with their co-operation, the success of
its scheme was considered certain. But the very persons needed to lead
the enterprise, were, mostly, persuaded to reject the proffered aid, and
the society was left to prosecute its plans with such materials as
offered. In consequence of this opposition, it was greatly embarrassed,
and made less progress in its work of African redemption, than it must
have done under other circumstances. Had three-fourths of its emigrants
been the enlightened, free colored men of the country, a dozen Liberias
might now gird the coast of Africa, where but one exists; and the slave
trader be entirely excluded from its shores. Doubtless, a wise
Providence has governed here, as in other human affairs, and may have
permitted this result, to show how speedily even semi-civilized men can
be elevated under American Protestant free institutions. The great body
of emigrants to Liberia, and nearly all the leading men who have sprung
up in the colony, and contributed most to the formation of the Republic,
went out from the very midst of slavery; and yet, what encouraging
results! It has been a sad mistake to oppose colonization, and thus to
retard Africa's redemption!
But how has it fared with the free colored people elsewhere? The answer
to this question will be the solution of the inquiry, What has
abolitionism accomplished by its hostility to colonization, and what is
the condition of the free colored people, whose interests it volunteered
to promote, and whose destinies it attempted to control?
The abolitionists themselves shall answer this question. The colored
people shall see what kind of commendations their tutors give them, and
what the world is to think of them, on the testimony of their particular
friends.
The concentration of a colored population in Canada, is the work of
American abolitionists. _The American Missionary Association_, is their
organ for the spread of a gospel untainted, it is claimed, by contact
with slavery. Out of four stations under its care in Canada, at the
opening of 1853, but one school, that of Miss Lyon, remained at its
close. All the others were abandoned, and all the missionaries had asked
to be released,[49] as we are informed by its Seventh Annual Report,
chiefly for the reasons stated in the following extract, page 49:
"The number of missionaries and teachers in Canada, with which the year
commenced, has been greatly reduced. Early in the year, Mr. Kirkland
wrote to the committee, that the opposition to white missionaries,
manifested by the colored people of Canada, had so greatly increased, by
the interested misrepresentations of ignorant colored men, pretending to
be ministers of the gospel, that he thought his own and his wife's
labors, and the funds of the association, could be better employed
elsewhere."
This Mission seems never to have been in a prosperous condition. Passing
over to the Eleventh Annual Report, 1857, it is found that the
Association had then but one missionary, the Rev. David Hotchkiss, in
that field. In relation to his prospects, the Report says:
"It has, however, happened to him, as it frequently did to Paul and his
fellow-laborers, that his faithfulness and his success have been the
occasion of stirring up certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, so that
at one time it was thought by some lookers-on that his life was in
danger, and that he might be compelled to leave the scene of his present
labors." He had succeeded, however, in gathering a church of 28 members,
but "on the 21st of June, the house in which the little church worshiped
was burned to the ground. This was undoubtedly the work of an
incendiary, as there had been no fire in it for more than two weeks.
Threats now were freely used against Mr. Hotchkiss and the church, but
he continued his labors, and procured another house, and had it fitted
up for worship. On the 24th of August, this also was burned down. They
have since had to meet in private houses, and much doubt has been felt
relative to ultimate duty. At later dates, however, the opposition was
more quiet, and hopes revived. This field is emphatically a hard one,
and requires much faith and patience from those who labor there."[50]
On the 30th of August, 1858, Mr. Hotchkiss writes: "My wife's school is
in a prosperous condition. She has had nearly forty scholars, and they
learn well. There are numbers who can not come to school for want of
suitable clothing. They are nearly naked."[51]
On a late occasion it is remarked, that "this society seems to meet with
the trouble which accompanies the efforts of other missionary societies
in their endeavors to 'to seek and to save that which was lost.' They
say they find it 'extremely difficult to win the confidence of the
colored people of Canada.'"[52]
But we have a picture of a different kind to present, and one that
proves the capacity of the free colored people for improvement--not when
running at large and uncared for, but when subjected to wholesome
restraint. This is as essential to the progress of the blacks as the
whites, while they are in the course of intellectual, moral and
industrial training:
"Some years ago the Rev. William King, a slave owner in Louisiana,
manumitted his slaves and removed them to Canada. They now, with others,
occupy a tract of land at Buxton and the vicinity, called the Elgin
Block, where Mr. King is stationed as a Presbyterian missionary.
"A recent general meeting there was attended by Lord Althorp, son of
Earl Spencer, and J. W. Probyn, Esq., both members of the British
Parliament, who made addresses. The whole educational and moral
machinery is worked by the presiding genius of the Rev. W. King, to whom
the entire settlement are under felt and acknowledged obligations. He
teaches them agriculture and industry. He superintends their education,
and preaches on the Lord's day. He regards the experiment as highly
successful."[53]
It is not our purpose to multiply testimony on this subject, but simply
to afford an index to the condition of the colored people, as described
by abolition pens, best known to the public. We turn, therefore, from
the British colonies in the North, to her possessions in the Tropics.
West India emancipation, under the guidance of English abolitionists,
has always been viewed as the grand experiment, which was to convince
the world of the capacity of the colored man to rise, side by side, with
the white man. We shall let the friends of the system, and the public
documents of the British Government, testify as to its results, both
morally and economically. Opening, again, the Seventh Annual Report of
the _American Missionary Association_, page 30, where it speaks of their
moral condition, we find it written:
"One of our missionaries, in giving a description of the moral condition
of the people of Jamaica, after speaking of the licentiousness which
they received as a legacy from those who denied them the pure joys of
holy wedlock, and trampled upon and scourged chastity, as if it were a
fiend to be driven out from among men--that enduring legacy, which, with
its foul, pestilential influence, still blights, like the mildew of
death, every thing in society that should be lovely, virtuous, and of
good report; and alluding to their intemperance, in which they have
followed the example set by the governor in his palace, the bishop in
his robes, statesmen and judges, lawyers and doctors, planters and
overseers, and even professedly Christian ministers; and the deceit and
falsehood which oppression and wrong always engender, says: 'It must not
be forgotten that we are following in the wake of the accursed system of
_slavery_--a system that _unmakes man_, by warring upon his conscience,
and crushing his spirit, leaving naught but the shattered wrecks of
humanity behind it. If we may but gather up some of these floating
fragments, from which the image of God is well nigh effaced, and pilot
them safely into that better land, we shall not have labored in vain.
But we may _hope to do more_. The chief fruit of our labors is to be
sought in the _future_, rather than in the _present_.' It should be
remembered, too, (continues the Report,) that there is but a small part
of the population yet brought within the reach of the influence of
enlightened Christian teachers, while the great mass by whom they are
surrounded are but little removed from actual heathenism." Another
missionary, page 33, says, it is the opinion of all intelligent
Christian men, that "nothing save the furnishing of the people with
ample means of education and religious instruction will save them from
relapsing into a state of barbarism." And another, page 36, in speaking
of certain cases of discipline, for the highest form of crime, under the
seventh commandment, says: "There is _nothing_ in public sentiment to
save the youth of Jamaica in this respect."
The missions of this Association, in Jamaica, differ scarcely a shade
from those among the actual heathen. On this point, the Report, near its
close, says:
"For most of the adult population of Jamaica, the unhappy victims of
long years of oppression and degradation, our missionaries have great
fear. Yet for even these there may be hope, even though with trembling.
But it is around the youth of the island that their brightest hopes and
anticipations cluster; from them they expect to gather their principal
sheaves for the great Lord of the harvest."
The _American Missionary_, a monthly paper, and organ of this
Association, for July, 1855, has the following quotation from the
letters of the missionaries, recently received. It is given, as
abolition testimony, in further confirmation of the moral condition of
the colored people of Jamaica:
"From the number of churches and chapels in the island, Jamaica ought
certainly to be called a Christian land. The people may be called a
church-going people. There are chapels and places of worship enough, at
least in this part of the island, to supply the people if every station
of our mission were given up. And there is no lack of ministers and
preachers. As far as I am acquainted, almost the entire adult population
profess to have a hope of eternal life, and I think the larger part are
connected with churches. In view of such facts some have been led to
say, 'The spiritual condition of the population is very satisfactory.'
But there is another class of facts that is perfectly astounding. With
all this array of the externals of religion, one broad, deep wave of
moral death rolls over the land. A man may be a drunkard, a liar, a
Sabbath-breaker, a profane man, a fornicator, an adulterer, and such
like--and be known to be such--and go to chapel, and hold up his head
there, and feel no disgrace from these things, because they are so
common as to create a public sentiment in his favor. He may go to the
communion table, and cherish a hope of heaven, and not have his hope
disturbed. I might tell of persons guilty of some, if not all, these
things, ministering in holy things."
What motives can prompt the American Missionary Association to cast such
imputations upon the missions of the English and Scotch Churches, in
Jamaica, we leave to be determined by the parties interested. Few,
indeed, will believe that the English and Scotch Churches would, for a
moment, tolerate such a condition of things, in their mission stations,
as is here represented.
Next we turn to the Annual Report of the American and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society, 1853, which discourses thus, in its own language,
and in quotations which it indorses:[54]
"The friends of emancipation in the United States have been
disappointed in some respects at the results in the West Indies, because
they expected too much. A nation of slaves can not at once be converted
into a nation of intelligent, industrious, and moral freemen." . . . .
"It is not too much, even now, to say of the people of Jamaica, . . . .
their condition is exceedingly degraded, their morals woefully corrupt.
But this must, by no means, be understood to be of universal
application. With respect to those who have been brought under a
healthful educational and religious influence, _it is not true_. But as
respects the great mass, whose humanity has been ground out of them by
cruel oppression--whom no good Samaritan hand has yet reached--how could
it be otherwise? We wish to turn the tables; to supplant oppression by
righteousness, insult by compassion and brotherly kindness, hatred and
contempt by love and winning meekness, till we allure these wretched
ones to the hope and enjoyment of manhood and virtue."[55] . . . . "The
means of education and religious instruction are better enjoyed,
although but little appreciated and improved by the great mass of the
people. It is also true, that the moral sense of the people is becoming
somewhat enlightened. . . . . But while this is true, yet their moral
condition is very far from being what it ought to be. . . . . It is
exceedingly dark and distressing. Licentiousness prevails to a most
alarming extent among the people. . . . . The almost universal
prevalence of intemperance is another prolific source of the moral
darkness and degradation of the people. The great mass, among all
classes of the inhabitants, from the governor in his palace to the
peasant in his hut--from the bishop in his gown to the beggar in his
rags--are all slaves to their cups."[56]
This is the language of American abolitionists, going out under the
sanction of their Annual Reports. Lest it may be considered as too
highly colored, we add the following from the _London Times_, of near
the same date. In speaking of the results of emancipation, in Jamaica,
it says:
"The negro has not acquired, with his freedom, any habits of industry or
morality. His independence is but little better than that of an
uncaptured brute. Having accepted few of the restraints of civilization,
he is amenable to few of its necessities; and the wants of his nature
are so easily satisfied, that at the present rate of wages, he is called
upon for nothing but fitful or desultory exertion. The blacks,
therefore, instead of becoming intelligent husbandmen, have become
vagrants and squatters, and it is now apprehended that with the failure
of cultivation in the island will come the failure of its resources for
instructing or controlling its population. So imminent does this
consummation appear, that memorials have been signed by classes of
colonial society hitherto standing aloof from politics, and not only the
bench and the bar, but the bishop, clergy, and ministers of all
denominations in the island, without exception, have recorded their
conviction, that, in the absence of timely relief, the religious and
educational institutions of the island must be abandoned, and the masses
of the population retrogade to barbarism."
One of the editors of the _New York Evening Post_, Mr. Bigelow, a few
years since, spent a winter in Jamaica, and continues to watch, with
anxious solicitude, as an anti-slavery man, the developments taking
place among its colored population. In reviewing the returns published
by the Jamaica House of Assembly, in 1853, in reference to the ruinous
decline in the agriculture of the island, and stating the enormous
quantity of lands thrown out of cultivation, since 1848, the _Post_
says:
"This decline has been going on from year to year, daily becoming more
alarming, until at length the island has reached what would appear to be
the last profound of distress and misery, . . . . when thousands of
people do not know, when they rise in the morning, whence or in what
manner they are to procure bread for the day."
We must examine, more closely, the economical results of emancipation,
in the West Indies, before we can judge of the effects, upon the trade
and commerce of the world, which would result from general emancipation
in the United States. We do this, not to afford an argument in behalf of
the perpetuation of slavery, because its abolition might injuriously
affect the interests of trade and commerce; but because the whole of
these results have long been well known to the American planter, and
serve as conclusive arguments, with him, against emancipation. He
believes that, in tropical cultivation, African free labor is worthless;
that the liberation of the slaves in this country, must, necessarily, be
followed with results similar to what has occurred in the West Indies;
and, for this reason, as well as on account of the profitable character
of slavery, he refuses to give freedom to his slaves. We repeat, we do
not cite the fact of the failure, economically, of free labor in
Jamaica, as an argument for the perpetuation of slavery. Not at all. We
allude to the fact, only to show that emancipation has greatly reduced
the commerce of the colonies, and that the logic of this result
militates against the colored man's prospects of advancement in the
scale of political and social equality. But to the facts:
The British planters, up to 1806, had received from the slave traders an
uninterrupted supply of laborers, and had rapidly extended their
cultivation as commerce increased its demands for their products. Let us
take the results in Jamaica as an example of the whole of the British
West India islands. She had increased her exports of sugar from a yearly
average of 123,979,000 lbs. in 1772-3, to 234,700,000 lbs. in 1805-6. No
diminution of exports had occurred, as has been asserted by some
anti-slavery writers, before the prohibition of the slave trade. The
increase was progressive and undisturbed, except so far as affected by
seasons, more or less favorable. But no sooner was her supply of slaves
cut off, by the act of 1806, which took effect in 1808, than the exports
of Jamaica began to diminish, until her sugar had fallen off from 1822
to 1832, to an annual average of 131,129,000 lbs., or nearly to what
they had been sixty years before. It was not until 1833 that the
Emancipation Act was passed; so that this decline in the exports of
Jamaica, took place under all the rigors of West India slavery. The
exports of rum, coffee, and cotton, were diminished in nearly the same
ratio.
To arrest this ruinous decline in the commercial prosperity of the
islands, emancipation was adopted in 1833 and perfected in 1838. This
policy was pursued under the plea, that free labor is doubly as
productive as slave labor; and, that the negroes, liberated, would labor
twice as well as when enslaved. But what was the result? Ten years after
final emancipation was effected, the exports of sugar from Jamaica were
only 67,539,200 lbs. a year, instead of 234,700,000 lbs., as in 1805-6.
The exports of coffee, during the same year, were reduced to 5,684,921
lbs., instead of 23,625,377 lbs., as in 1805-6; and the extinction of
the cultivation of cotton, for export, had become almost complete,
though in 1800, it had nearly equaled that of the United States. These
are no fancy sketches, drawn for effect, but sober realities, attested
by the public documents of the British government.[57] The Jamaica
negro, ignorant and destitute of forethought, disappointed the English
philanthropists.
In Hayti, emancipation had been productive of results, fully as
disastrous to its commerce, as it had been to that of Jamaica. There was
an almost total abandonment of the production of sugar, soon after
freedom was declared. This took place in 1793. In 1790 the island
exported 163,318,810 lbs. of sugar. But in 1801 its export was reduced
to 18,534,112 lbs., in 1818, to 5,443,765 lbs., and in 1825 to 2,020
lbs.;[58] since which time its export has nearly ceased. Indeed, it is
asserted, that, "at this moment there is not one pound of sugar exported
from the island, and all that is used is imported from the United
States."[59]
The exports of coffee, from Hayti, in 1790, were 76,835,219 lbs.; and of
cotton, 7,004,274 lbs. But the exports of the former article, in 1801,
were reduced to 43,420,270 lbs., and the latter to 474,118 lbs.[60] The
exports of coffee have varied, annually, since that period, from thirty
to forty million pounds; and the cotton exported has rarely much
exceeded one million pounds.[61] At present, "with the exception of
Gonaives, there is not a pound of cotton produced, and only a very
limited quanity there, barely sufficient for consumption; and instead of
exporting indigo, as formerly, they import all they use from the United
States."[62]
According to the authorities before cited, the deficit of free labor
tropical cultivation, as compared with that of slave labor, while
sustained by the slave trade, including the British West Indies and
Hayti, stands as follows:--a startling result, truly, to those who
expected emancipation to work well for commerce, and supersede the
necessity of employing slave labor:
_Contrast of Slave Labor and Free Labor Exports from the West Indies._
SLAVE LABOR.
_lbs. _lbs. _lbs.
_Years._ Sugar._ Coffee._ Cotton._
British West Indies, 1807, 636,025,643 31,610,764 17,000,000[63]
Hayti, 1790, 163,318,810 76,835,219 7,286,126
----------- ----------- ----------
Total 809,344,453 108,245,983 24,286,126
FREE LABOR.
_lbs. _lbs. _lbs.
_Years._ Sugar._ Coffee._ Cotton._
British West Indies, 1848, 313,306,112 6,770,792 427,529[64]
Hayti 1848, very little. 34,114,717[C] 1,591,454[65]
----------- ---------- ---------
Total 313,306,112 40,885,509 2,018,983
Free Labor Deficit 496,038,341 67,360,474 22,267,143
To understand the bearing which this decrease of production, by free
labor, has upon the interests of the African race, it must be
remembered, that the consumption of cotton and sugar has not diminished,
but increased, vastly; and that for every bale of cotton, or hogshead of
sugar, that the free labor production is diminished, an equal amount of
slave labor cotton and sugar is demanded to supply its place; and, more
than this, for every additional bale or hogshead required by their
increased consumption, an additional one must be furnished by slave
labor, because the world will not dispense with their use. As no
material change has occurred, for several years, in the commercial
condition of the islands, it is not necessary to bring this statement
down to a later date than 1848. The causes operating to encourage the
American planters, in extending their cultivation of cotton and sugar,
can now be understood.
In relation to the moral condition of Hayti, we need say but little. It
is known that a great majority of the children of the island are born
out of wedlock, and that the Christian Sabbath is the principal market
day in the towns. The _American and Foreign Christian Union_, a
missionary paper of New York, after quoting the report of one of the
missionaries in Hayti, who represents his success as encouraging, thus
remarks: "This letter closes with some singular incidents not suitable
for publication, showing the deplorable state of community there, both
morally and socially. There seems to be a mixture of African barbarism
with the sensuous civilization of France. . . . . That dark land needs
the light which begins to dawn thereon."
Thus matters stood when the second edition of this work went to press.
An opportunity is now afforded, of embracing the results of emancipation
to a later date, and of forming a better judgment of the effects of that
policy on the question of freedom in the United States. For, if the
negro, with full liberty, in the West Indies, has proved himself
unreliable in voluntary labor, the experiment of freeing him here will
not be attempted by our slaveholders.
Much has been said, recently, about British emancipation, and the
returning commercial prosperity of her tropical islands. The American
Missionary Association[66] gives currency to the assertion, that "they
yield more produce than they ever did during the existence of slavery."
It is said, also, in the _Edinburgh Review_, that existing facts "show
that slavery was bearing our colonies down to ruin with awful speed;
that had it lasted but another half century, they must have sunk beyond
recovery. On the other hand, that now, under freedom and free trade,
they are growing day by day more rich and prosperous; with spreading
trade, with improving agriculture, with a more educated, industrious and
virtuous people; while the comfort of the quondam slaves is increased
beyond the power of words to portray."[67]
Now all this seems very encouraging; but how such language can be used,
without its being considered as flatly contradicting well known facts,
and what the American Missionary Association, Mr. Bigelow, and others,
have heretofore said, will seem very mysterious to the reader. And yet,
the assertions quoted would seem to be proved, by taking the aggregate
production of the whole British West India islands and Mauritius, as the
index to their commercial prosperity. But if the islands be taken
separately, and all the facts considered, a widely different conclusion
would be formed, by every candid man, than that the improvement is due
to the increased industry of the negroes. On this subject the facts can
be drawn from authorities which would scorn to conceal the truth with
the design of sustaining a theory of the philanthropist. This question
is placed in its true light by the _London Economist_, July 16, 1859, in
which it is shown that the apparent industrial advancement of the
islands is due to the importation of immigrants from India, China, and
Africa, by the "coolie traffic," and not to the improved industry of the
emancipated negroes. Says the _Economist_:
"We find one of the Emigration Commissioners, Mr. Murdock,[68] in an
interesting memorandum on this subject, giving us the following
comparison between the islands which have been recently supplied with
immigrants, and those which have not:
_Sugar, pounds. The _Sugar, pounds.
_Number of three years before the last three
Immigrants._ Immigration._ years._
Mauritius 209,490 217,200,256 469,812,784
British Guiana 24,946 173,626,208 250,715,584
Trinidad 11,981 91,110,768 150,579,072
"With these are contrasted the results in Jamaica and Antigua, where
there has been very little immigration:--
_Sugar, pounds. _Sugar, pounds. The last
The three years after three years._
apprenticeship._[69]
Jamaica 202,973,568 139,369,776
Antigua 63,824,656 70,302,736
Here, now, is presented the key to the mystery overhanging the British
West Indies. Men, high in station, have asserted that West India
emancipation has been an economic success; while others, equally
honorable, have maintained the opposite view. Both have presented
figures, averred to be true, that seemed to sustain their declarations.
This apparent contradiction is thus explained. The first take the
aggregate production in the whole of the islands, which, they say,
exceeds that during the existence of slavery;[70] the second take the
production in Jamaica alone, as representing the whole; and, thus, the
startling fact appears, that the sugar crop of the last three years in
Jamaica, has fallen 63,603,000 lbs., below what it was during the first
three years of freedom. This argues badly for the free negroes; but it
must be the legitimate fruits of emancipation, as no exterior force has
been brought into that island to interfere, materially, with its
workings. In Mauritius, Trinidad, and British Guiana, it will be seen
that the production has greatly increased; but from a very different
cause than any improvement in the industry of the blacks who had
received their freedom--the increase in Mauritius having been more than
double what it had been when the production depended upon them. The
sugar crop, in this island, for the three years preceding the
introduction of immigrant labor, was but 217,200,000 lbs.; while, during
the last three years, by the aid of 210,000 immigrants, it has been run
up to 469,812,000 lbs.
Taking all these facts into consideration, it is apparent that West
India emancipation has been a failure, economically considered. The
production in Jamaica, when it has depended upon the labor of the free
blacks alone, has materially declined in some of the islands, since the
abandonment of slavery, and is not so great now as it was during the
first years of freedom; and, so far is it from being equal to what it
was while slavery prevailed, and especially while the slave trade was
continued, that it now falls short of the production of that period by
an immense amount. In no way, therefore, can it be claimed, that the
cultivation of the British West India islands is on the increase, except
by resorting to the pious fraud of crediting the products of the
immigrant labor to the account of emancipation--a resort to which no
conscientious Christian man will have recourse, even to sustain a
philanthropic theory.
But the Island of Barbadoes is an exception. It is said to have suffered
no diminution in its production since emancipation, and that this result
was attained without the aid of immigrant labor. The _London Economist_
must be permitted to explain this phenomenon; and must also be allowed
to give its views on the subject of the effects of emancipation, after
the lapse of a quarter of a century from the date of the passage of the
Emancipation Act:
"We are no believers in Mr. Carlyle's gospel of the 'beneficent whip' as
the bearer of salvation to tropical indolence. But we can not for a
moment doubt that the first result of emancipation was, in most of the
islands, to substitute for the worst kind of moral and political evil,
one of a less fatal but still of a very pernicious kind. The negroes had
been treated as mere machines for raising sugar and coffee. They were
suddenly liberated from that mechanical drudgery; they became free
beings--but without the discipline needful to use freedom well, and
unfortunately with a larger amount of practical freedom than the
laboring class of any Northern or temperate climate could by any
possibility enjoy. They suddenly found themselves, in most of the
islands, in a position in many respects analagous to that of a people
possessed of a moderate property in England, who can supply their
principal wants without any positive labor, and have no ambition to rise
into any higher sphere than that into which they were born. The only
difference was, that the negroes in most of the West India islands
wanted vastly less than such people as these in civilized
States,--wanted nothing in fact, but the plantains they could grow
almost without labor, and the huts which they could build on any waste
mountain land without paying rent for it. The consequence naturally was,
that when the spur of physical tyranny was removed, there was no
sufficient substitute for it, in most of the islands, in the wholesome
hardships of natural exigencies. The really beneficent 'whip' of hunger
and cold was not substituted for the human cruelty from which they had
escaped. In Barbadoes alone, perhaps, the pressure of a dense
population, with the absence of any waste mountain lands on which the
negroes could squat, rent free, was an efficient substitute for the
terrors of slavery. And, consequently, in Barbadoes alone, has the
Emancipation Act produced unalloyed and conspicuous good. The natural
spur of competition for the means of living, took the place there of the
artificial spur of slavery, and the slow, indolent temperament of the
African race was thus quickened into a voluntary industry essential to
its moral discipline, and most favorable to its intellectual culture."
In further commenting on the figures quoted, the _Economist_ remarks:
"These results, do not of course, necessarily represent in any degree
the fresh spur to diligence on the part of the old population, caused by
the new labor. In islands like Trinidad, where the amount of unredeemed
land suited for such production is almost unlimited, the new labor
introduced cannot for a long time press on the old labor at all. But
wherever the amount of land fitted for this kind of culture is nearly
exhausted, the presence of the new competition will soon be felt. And,
in any case, it is only through this gradual supply of the labor market
that we can hope to bring the wholesome spur of necessity to act
eventually on the laboring classes. Englishmen, indeed, may well think
that at times the good influences of this competitive jostling for
employment are overrated and its evil underrated. But this is far from
true of the negro race. To their slow and unambitious temperament,
influences of this kind are almost unalloyed good, as the great
superiority in the population of Barbadoes to that of the other islands
sufficiently shows."
The _Economist_, in further discussing this question, favors the
introduction of a permanent class of laborers, not only that the
cultivation may be increased, but because there is "no doubt at all that
if a larger supply of labor could be attained in the West Indies,
without any very great incidental evils, the benefit experienced even by
the planters would be by no means so great as that of the negro
population themselves;" and thinks that "the philanthropic party, in
their tenderness for the emancipated Africans, are sometimes not a
little blind to the advantages of stern industrial necessities;" and
that, "what the accident of population and soil has done for Barbadoes,
it cannot be doubted that a stream of immigration, if properly
conducted, might do in some degree for the other islands."
Lest it should be thought that the _Economist_ stands alone in its
representations in relation to the failure of negro free labor in
Jamaica, we quote a statement of the Colonial Minister, which recently
appeared in the _New York Tribune_, and was thence transferred to the
_American Missionary_, February, 1859:
"The Colonial Minister says: 'Jamaica is now the only important sugar
producing colony which exports a considerable smaller quantity of sugar
than was exported in the time of slavery, while some such colonies since
the passage of the Emancipation Act have largely increased their
product.'"
Time is thus casting light upon the question of the capacity of the
African race for voluntary labor. Jamaica included 311,692 negroes, at
the time of emancipation, out of the 660,000 who received their freedom
in the whole of the West Indian islands. This was but little less than
half of the whole number. It was a fair field to test the question of
the willingness of the free negro to work. But what is the result? We
have it admitted by both the _Economist_ and the Colonial Minister, that
there has been a vast falling off in the exports from Jamaica, and that
a spur of some kind must be applied to secure their adopting habits of
industry. The spur of the "whip" having been thrown away, the remedy
proposed is to press them into a corner, by immigration from India and
China, so that the securing of bread shall become the great necessity
with them, and they be compelled to labor or starve, as has been the
case in Barbadoes. This is the opinion of the _Economist_, always
opposed to slavery, but now convinced that the "slow, indolent
temperament of the African race" needs such a "spur" to quicken it "into
a voluntary industry essential to its moral discipline, and most
favorable to its intellectual culture."
The West India emancipation experiments have demonstrated the truth of a
few principles that the world should fully understand. It must now be
admitted that mere personal liberty, even connected with the stimulus of
wages, is insufficient to secure the industry of an ignorant population.
It is intelligence, alone, that can be acted upon by such motives.
Intelligence, then, must precede voluntary industry. And, hereafter,
that man, or nation, may find it difficult to command respect, or
succeed in being esteemed wise, who will not, along with exertions to
extend personal freedom to man, intimately blend with their efforts
adequate means for intellectual and moral improvement. The results of
West India emancipation, it must be further noticed, fully confirm the
opinions of Franklin, that freedom, to unenlightened slaves, must be
accompanied with the means of intellectual and moral elevation,
otherwise it may be productive of serious evils to themselves and to
society. It also sustains the views entertained by Southern
slaveholders, that emancipation, unaccompanied by the colonization of
the slaves, could be of little value to the blacks, while it would
entail a ruinous burden upon the whites. These facts must not be
overlooked in the projection of plans for emancipation, as none can
receive the sanction of Southern men, which does not embrace in it the
removal of the colored people. With the example of West India
emancipation before them, and the results of which have been closely
watched by them, it can not be expected that Southern statesmen will
ever risk the liberation of their slaves, except on these conditions.
FOOTNOTES:
[49] Mr. Wilson, the Missionary at St. Catharines, still remained there,
but not under the care of the Association.
[50] 11th Annual Report, pages 36, 37.
[51] _American Missionary_, October, 1858.
[52] _African Repository_, October, 1859.
[53] _African Repository_, January, 1858.
[54] Page 170.
[55] Extract from the report of a missionary, quoted in the Report, page
172.
[56] Extract from the report of another missionary, page 171, of the
Report.
[57] The average exports from the Island of Jamaica, omitting cotton,
during the three epochs referred to--that of the slave trade, of slavery
alone, and of freedom--for periods of five years, during the first two,
and for the three years separately, in the last, will give a full view
of this point:
_Years of Exports._ _lbs. Sugar._ _P. Rum. lbs._ _Coffee._
Annual average, 1803 to 1807,[A] 211,139,200 50,426 23,625,377
Annual average, 1829 to 1833,[A] 152,564,800 35,505 17,645,602
Annual average, 1839 to 1843,[A] 67,924,800 14,185 7,412,498
Annual exports, 1846,[B] 57,956,800 14,395 6,047,150
Annual exports, 1847,[B] 77,686,400 18,077 6,421,122
Annual exports, 1848.[B] 67,539,200 20,194 5,684,921
[A] _Blackwood's Magazine_ 1848, p. 225.]
[B] _Littel's Living Age_, 1850, No. 309, p. 125.--_Letter of Mr.
Bigelow_.
[58] Macgregor, London ed., 1847.
[59] _De Bow's Review_, August, 1855.
[60] Macgregor, London ed., 1847.
[61] Ibid.
[62] _De Bow's Review_, 1855.
[63] 1800.
[64] 1840.
[65] 1847.
[66] American Missionary Association's Report, 1857, p. 32.
[67] The West Indies as they were and are--_Edinburgh Review_, April,
1859.--The article said to be by Mr. C. Buxton.
[68] The statement was made at a meeting which met to consider the evils
of the Chinese and coolie system of immigration into the West Indies and
Mauritius. It is not stated whether the amounts given are the whole
production or only the exports.
[69] The reader will remember that the Emancipation Act, of 1833, left
the West India blacks in the relation of apprentices to their masters,
but that the system worked so badly that total emancipation was declared
in 1838.
[70] They must refer to slavery in its later years, after the
suppression of the slave trade. Previous to that event, the production
of Jamaica was more than seventy-five per cent. greater than at present.