The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus Part 101

Wesleyan Chapel, Antigua.

" " New, ".

" Missionary Society.

Wesleyans in Antigua.

" in Barbadoes.

" in Jamaica.

Whip banished.

Whipping Post.

White lady.

Wilberforce, opinion of.

Wickham, Richard S.

Willis, George, Esq.

Willoughby Bay Examination.

Wolmer Free School.

Women abandon the field.

" condition of.

Woolridge, Rev. Mr.

Wright, Andrew, Esq.

THE ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER--EXTRA.

EMANc.i.p.aTION

In The

WEST INDIES, IN 1838.

IMPORTANT TO THE UNITED STATES.

False prophets were never stiller about their time-detected impostures than are the pro-slavery presses of the United States about the results of West India Emanc.i.p.ation. Now and then, for the sake of appearances, they obscurely copy into their immense sheets an inch or two of complaints, from some snarling West India paper, that the emanc.i.p.ated are lazy and won't work. But they make no parade. They are more taciturn than grave-stones.

In the following closely printed columns, those who wish to know will find out precisely how the "_great experiment_" has worked. They will find,

1. The _safety_ of abolition demonstrated--its safety in the worst possible case.

2. That the colonies are prospering in their _agriculture_.

3. That the planters conferred freedom because they were _obliged to_ by public opinion abroad.

4. That freedom, even thus unwillingly conferred, was accepted as a precious boon by the slaves--they were grateful to G.o.d, and ready to work for their masters for fair pay.

5. That the ma.s.s of the planters have endeavoured, from the first, to get work out of the free laborers for as small wages as possible.

6. That many of the attorneys and managers have refused fair wages and practiced extortion, _to depreciate the price of property_, that they might profit thereby.

7. That all the indisposition to labor which has yet been exhibited is fully accounted for by these causes.

8. That in spite of all, the abolition is working well for the _honest_ of all parties.

WEST INDIA EMANc.i.p.aTION, IN 1838.

The immediate abolitionists hold that the change from slavery to freedom cannot be too sudden. They say that the first step in raising the slave from his degradation should be that of making him a proper subject of law, by putting him in possession of himself. This position they rest on the ground both of justice and expediency, which indeed they believe to be inseparable. With exceptions too trifling to affect the question, they believe the laborer who feels no stimulus but that of wages and no restraint but that of law, is the most _profitable_, not only to himself and society at large, but to any employer other than a brutal tyrant.

The benefit of this role they claim for every man and woman living within this republic, till on fair trial the proper tribunal shall have judged them unworthy of it. They deny both the justice and expediency of permitting any degree of ignorance or debas.e.m.e.nt to work the forfeiture of self-owners.h.i.+p, and p.r.o.nounce slavery continued for such a cause the worst of all, inasmuch as it is the _robbery of the poor because he is poor_.

What light was thrown upon this doctrine by the process of abolition in the British West Indies from the 1st of August 1834 to the 1st of June 1837, may be seen in the work of Messrs. Thome and Kimball ent.i.tled, "Emanc.i.p.ation in the West Indies." That light continues to s.h.i.+ne.

Bermuda and Antigua, in which the slaves pa.s.sed instantaneously out of absolute slavery into full freedom, are living witnesses of the blessing of heaven upon immediate emanc.i.p.ation. In Antigua, one of the old sugar colonies, where slavery had had its full sway there has been especially a fair test of immediatism, and the increasing prosperity of the island does the utmost honor to the principle. After the fullest inquiry on the point, Messrs. Thome and Kimball say of this island:--

"There is not a cla.s.s, or party, or sect, who do not esteem the abolition of slavery as a _special blessing to them_. The rich, because it relieved them of "property" which was fast becoming a disgrace, as it had always been a vexation and a tax, and because it has emanc.i.p.ated them from the terrors of insurrection, which kept them all their life-time subject to bondage. The poor whites--because it lifted from off them the yoke of civil oppression. The free colored population--because it gave the death blow to the prejudice that crushed them, and opened the prospect of social, civil, and political equality with the whites. The _slaves_--because it broke open their dungeons, led them out to liberty, and gave them, in one munificent donation, their wives, their children, their bodies, their souls--everything."

In the emphatic language of the Governor, "It was _universally admitted_ that emanc.i.p.ation had been a great blessing to the island."

In November 1837, Lord Brougham thus summed up the results of the Antigua experiment in a speech in the House of Lords:--

"It might be known to their lords.h.i.+ps that in one most important colony the experiment of instant and entire emanc.i.p.ation had been tried.

Infinitely to the honor of the island of Antigua was it, that it did not wait for the period fixed by the Legislature, but had at once converted the state of slavery into one of perfect liberty. On the 1st of August, 1834, the day fixed by act of Parliament for the commencement of a ten years' apprentices.h.i.+p, the Legislature of that colony, to the immortal honor of their wisdom, their justice, and their humanity, had abolished the system of apprentices.h.i.+p, and had absolutely and entirely struck the fetters off from 30,000 slaves. Their lords.h.i.+ps would naturally ask whether the experiment had succeeded; and whether this sudden emanc.i.p.ation had been wisely and politically done. He should move for some returns which he would venture to say would prove that the experiment had entirely succeeded. He would give their lords.h.i.+ps some proofs: First, property in that island had risen in value; secondly, with a very few exceptions, and those of not greater importance than occurred in England during harvest, there was no deficiency in the number of laborers to be obtained when laborers were wanted; thirdly, offences of all sorts, from capital offences downwards, had decreased; and this appeared from returns sent by the inspector of slaves to the governor of that colony, and by him transmitted to the proper authority here; and, fourthly, the exports of sugar had increased: during the three years ending 1834, the average yearly export was 165,000 cwts., and for the three subsequent years this average had increased to 189,000 cwts., being an increase of 21,000 cwts, or one clear seventh, produced by free labor. Nor were the last three years productive seasons; for in 1835 there was a very severe and destructive hurricane, and in the year 1836 there was such a drought that water was obliged to be imported from Barbados."

Of such sort, with regard to both the colonies that adopted the principle of immediate emanc.i.p.ation, have been the facts--and all the facts--up to the latest intelligence.

The rest of the colonies adopted the plan proposed by the British government, which contrary to the wishes of the great body of British abolitionists, made the slaves but partially free under the name of apprentices. In this mongrel condition they were to remain, the house servants four, and the field laborers six years. This apprentices.h.i.+p was the darling child of that expediency, which, holding the transaction from wrong to right to be dangerous and difficult, ill.u.s.trates its wisdom by lingering on the dividing line. Therefore any mischance that might have occurred in any part of this tardy process would have been justly attributable to _gradualism_ and not to _immediatism_. The force of this remark will be better seen by referring to the nature and working of the apprentices.h.i.+p as described in the book of Messrs. Thome and Kimball. We have only room to say that the masters universally regarded the system as a part of the compensation or bonus to the slaveholder and not as a preparatory school for the slave. By law they were granted a property in the uncompensated _labor_ of the slaves for six years; but the same law, by taking away the sole means of enforcing this labor, in fact threw the masters and slaves into a six years'

quarrel in which they stood on something like equal terms. It was surely not to be wondered if the parties should come out of this contest too hostile ever to maintain to each other the relation of employer and employed. This six years of vexatious swinging like a pendulum over the line between bondage and liberty was well calculated to spoil all the grat.i.tude and glory of getting across.

It was early discovered that the masters generally were disposed to abuse their power and get from their apprentices all that could by any means be extorted. The friends of humanity in Great Britain were aroused, Mr. Sturge, a distinguished philanthropist of Birmingham, accompanied by Messrs. Scohle, Harvey, and Lloyd, proceeded to the West Indies on a mission of inquiry, and prosecuted their investigation contemporaneously with Messrs. Thome and Kimball. Their Report produced a general conviction in England, that the planters had forfeited all claim to retain their authority over the apprentices, and the government was accordingly pet.i.tioned immediately to abolish the system. This it was loth to do. It caused inquiries to be inst.i.tuted in the colonies, especially in Jamaica, with the evident hope of overthrowing the charges of Mr. Sturge. The result more than confirmed those charges. The government still plead for delay, and brought in a bill for the _improvement_ of the apprentices.h.i.+p. In the progress of these proceedings, urged on as they were by the heaven-high enthusiasm of the British nation, many of the planters clearly perceived that their chance of power during the remaining two years of the apprentices.h.i.+p had become worth less to them than the good will which they might get by voluntarily giving it up. Whether it was this motive operating in good faith, or a hope to escape philanthropic interference for the future by yielding to its full claim, and thus gain a clear field to oppress under the new system of wages, one thing is certain the chartered colonies, suddenly, and to the surprise of many, put the finis.h.i.+ng stroke to the system and made their apprentices free from the 1st of August, 1838. The crown colonies have mostly imitated their example.

The following table exhibits the extent and population of these colonies.

Possessions. Date of Extent. Population acquisit. sq. m. White Slaves F. Col.

Anguilla[B], 1650 . . . 365 2,388 327 Antigua[A], 1632 108 1,980 29,537 3,895 Bahamas[B], 1629 4,400 4,240 9,268 2,991 Barbados[B], 1625 166 14,959 82,807 5,146 Bermudas[A], 1611 22 3,905 4,608 738 Dominica[B], 1783 275 840 15,392 3,606 Grenada[B], 1783 125 801 24,145 3,786 Jamaica[B], 1655 6,400 37,000 311,692 55,000 Montserrat[B], 1632 47 330 6,262 814 Nevis[B], 1628 20 700 9,259 2,000 St. Christophers[B],1632 68 1,612 19,310 3,000 St. Lucia[B], 1803 58 972 13,661 3,718 St. Vincent[B], 1783 130 1,301 23,589 2,824 Tobago[B], 1763 187 322 12,556 1,164 Trinidad[B], 1797 2,460 4,201 24,006 15,956 Tortola, or Virgin Isles[B], 1666 . . . 800 5,399 607

Total, B.W.I . . . 14,466 74,328 593,879 105,572 Cape of Good Hope, . . . . . . 43,000 35,500 29,000 Berbice[B] . . . . . . 523 20,645 1,161 Guiana Demarara[B] 1803 . . . 3,006 65,556 6,360 Essequibo[B], . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Honduras, 1650 62,750 250 2,100 2,300 Mauritius, . . . . . . 8,000 76,000 15,000 Total. . . . . . . 129,107 793,680 159,393

[Footnote A: Emanc.i.p.ated entirely on the 1st. of August, 1834.]

[Footnote B: Emanc.i.p.ated entirely on the 1st. of August, 1838, by vote of the local legislatures in the chartered Colonies; and by Governor and Council, in the Crown Colonies.]

The _unanimity_ with which the apprentices.h.i.+p was given up is a most remarkable and instructive fact. In the Council and a.s.sembly of Montserrat, there was an unanimous decision in favor of Emanc.i.p.ation as early as February 1838. In the legislature of Tortola, which pa.s.sed the bill in April 1838, the opposing party was small. In that of Barbados the bill was pa.s.sed on the 15th of May with but _one_ dissenting voice.

In that of Jamaica, the bill seems to have been pa.s.sed on the 8th of June, and the _Jamaica Times_ remarks:--"No dissentient voice was heard within the walls of the a.s.sembly, all joined in the wish so often expressed, that the remaining term of the apprentices.h.i.+p should be cancelled, that the excitement produced by a law which has done inconceivable harm in Jamaica, in alienating the affections of her people, and creating discord and disaffection, should at once cease.

Thank G.o.d! it is now nearly at an end, and we trust that Jamaica will enjoy that repose, so eagerly and anxiously sought after, by all who wish the Island well."