THE JUBILEE OF EMANCIPATION.
[Farm A CORRESPONDENT.] Sra,—At a moment when the British West Indies are passing through a commercial crisis of almost unexampled severity, attributable to causes which are not beyond the control of her Majesty's Government, the attention of the British public is directed to them and their concerns by the cele- bration of the Jubilee of Emancipation. Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of the abolition of slavery; and on that day public writers and public speakers in various parts of the Empire were engaged in debating the question whether the Colonies have retrograded or prospered under— and I beg to move as an amendment the addition of the words" in consequence of "—the new order of things. The discussion must produce a good effect, provided we all bear in mind that be the eeznomieal results of Emancipation what they may, after the lapse of the comparatively short period of fifty years, no man of sense should be heard expressing regret for what was simply an act of justice—and very tardy justice—to a foully wronged and oppressed race. When, in 1785, Clarkson, indifferent at that time to the sufferings of the slaves, and fired merely by the student's ambition to win a prize offered by the Vice-Chancellor of his University, sat down to compose his famous essay, "Anne liceat Invites in Servitntem dare !" his ingenious brain enabled him to produce arguments against the traffic in human blood which were so powerful and convincing
that they made of himself, not merely a convert to the cause of Abolition and its twin-sister Emancipation, but their fearless,
life-long, self-sacrificing champion. And what Clarkson thought and said in 1785 all intelligent persons amongst us will think and say now. No Englishman or English- woman familiar with the history of slavery will feel disposed to discuss the great act of national reparation, whose jubilee we celebrated yesterday, from the standpoint of 2 s. d. But even from that point of view, it would be difficult to show that Emancipation was a mistake ; because, however unsatisfactory may be the prevailing state of things in the West Indies, it would have been in all human probability immeasurably worse were the masses still treated like cattle by a small privileged class calling itself their owners. Indeed, as is abundantly proved by the narratives of such impartial writers as the author of "Scenes in the Caribbean Sea," and the authoress of "Antigua and the Antiguans," by Parliamentary speeches, and by public records preserved in many colonial archives, the slaves were freed when they were, precisely because they had succeeded in making it tolerably clear to the dullest comprehension that they were determined to live no longer in servitude. How they murdered their owners and destroyed their property whenever opportunities offered, we have all read, while malingering was, as we are told, practised on so large a scale that it was no uncommon occurrence for one-half the slaves on a plantation to be laid-up in the sick-house at one and the same time. Add to this profit and loss account, the expenditure incurred for the maintenance of old, and incapable slaves and young children unfit for work, as well as the further losses which the slave-owners periodically sustained in con- sequence of the ravages made in his herd of human cattle by epidemic diseases and the discipline of the cat, and little room will be left in the mind of any rational person for doubting that free labour is, under its worst conditions, no dearer, and far cheaper than slave labour. There is one other reflection too, which to my mind is very important; it is, that the manners of the privileged class have been softened and their minds enlarged by their association with freemen in their capacities as employers of labour ; for who can doubt that the habitual practice of such brutality and unbridled licentiousness as that in which the old slave-holding oligarchy indulged, debased them even below the level of their own slaves or their own oxen.
That the black population of the West Indies do not make the best possible use of their freedom is undeniable. But the same is true, though not in exactly the same degree, of the peasantry of some countries which have enjoyed the blessings of liberty for many centuries. It is equally true that the admission of two millions of black people to the rights of citizen- ship in communities where they had been previously little better than goods and chattels in the eyes of the law, did cause some friction between classes, and that in consequence thereof social and political problems arose which would not otherwise have arisen. But it must not be forgotten that Emancipation was a great social revolution, and that it is the very essence of revolu- tions to displace and replace men and institutions in a manner not wholly satisfactory to everybody. Had all things else been equal, however, the question of Emancipation might have been presented under a somewhat different aspect to-day. But hardly had the communities begun to accommodate themselves to the new departure before they were suddenly called upon to face another revolution, caused by the action of the British Ministry of 1846 in admitting the slave-made sugar of the Spanish colonies into the British markets at the same rate of duty as was being paid on West Indian muscovado. Whatever may be thought of the consistency of the Ministry, and be the advantages of a Free- Trade policy to the consumer what they may, it is pretty certain that this equalisation of the Sugar Duties meant a reduction of nearly 40 per cent, in the British West Indian planter's profits. Forced to limit his cultivation and to reduce his expenses of all kinds, he was soon placed in an unpleasant position towards his labourers, between whom and himself speedily arose misunderstandings which were perpetuated by their descendants, and are at the root of the unpleasant relations existing between the employer and the employed in more than one West Indian colony at the present moment. Certainly the withdrawal of the troops from several of the colonies, and with them the large sums of money which they put into circulation, the reduction of naval dockyards, the appoint... ment of rash and inexperienced governors, the violent constitu- tional changes which have succeeded each other in rapid and be-.
vrildering succession during the past twenty-five years—to find a parallel for which we must go to the South American Republics, where, as everybody knows, the constitutions are in a condition of chronic revolution—have done nothing to promote the welfare of any class in the Colonies, and, by way of mending matters, they are now handicapped in this country by the manufacturers of foreign bounty-fed beet, at the same time that their produce is practically excluded from the American markets by circumstances which are not beyond the control of her Majesty's Government.
The question which many, perhaps most, persons will be ask- ing at the present moment is not, however, what material progress have the Colonies made since or in consequence of Emancipation, but—Have they any tale of moral progress to tell ? It affords me much pleasure to state, after fourteen years' experience of public affairs acquired as editor of two leading colonial journals, that certain types of crime have very sensibly diminished, and that in many colonies a capital conviction is the rarest of rare occur- rences. Thanks to the earnest and persistent efforts put forth by the religions bodies at work in the colonies, who have in recent years been aided by legislative subsidies, a large per- centage of the people can both read and write ; but until some arrangement has been made for training the boys and girls who attend the public schools to habits of industry, their book- learning must continue to prove the delusion and snare that only too many of the rising generation have found it. While droves of young gentlemen and young ladies who have been taught in our elementary schools to read, write, and cipher, as far as long division, are to be met every day and all day in the towns and villages doing nothing with all their might, every trade and industry is languishing for want of labour. The apprentice, arrayed in spotless osnaburgh, punctual, capable, and obedient, as the men of fifty years ago knew him, is now as extinct a species of animal as the mastodon. The consequence is, that, as a respectable mechanic recently said to me, " If things go on at this rate we shall have no carpenters or masons very shortly."
But what of the men and women, you ask ? Are they intelligent ? Are they industrious Are they honest? Are they moral ? Do they make good husbands and wives ? I answer that the ordinary West Indian peasant is shrewd, but not very intelligent, for he possesses little or no acquaintance with any subject which is not directly connected with his own pecuniary interest, that he is rather pert to his superiors, easily provoked to anger, and prone to revenge, which usually takes the shape of injuries to property, and altogether not the most amiable of mortals ; but he is capable of forming a deep attachment, and to anyone in whom he " believes " he will render disinterested service. Fond of "going on the spree," and incurably addicted to sauntering when he is ostensibly at work, he habitually wastes a great deal of his own and his employer's time ; and what is even more irritating than his un- trustworthiness is his seeming inability to understand his error, his invariable answer to all reproof being that he was born free. One of his chief failings, as the criminal statistics show, is petty larceny ; and the Registrar-General's returns disclose the equally unwelcome fact that although marriages of convenience are pretty fashionable among the lower orders, the majority of recorded births are those of illegitimate children. The truth is, that the peasant's notions of his domestic obligations are very lax. I regret very much to have to say that in the island of Antigua, of which.' am a native, and where the planters alone of all the West Indian slave-holders generously waived the four years' appprenticeship from 1834 to 1838, which the law permitted them to enforce, the loss of infant life from sheer parental negligence is usually something frightful. Here the population, which has frequently been supplemented by im- migrants, has remained stationary during the past fifty years. The alarming infantile mortality, which had for so many years gone on unchecked, arrested the serious attention of the Govern- ment and Legislature last winter, and two remedial measures were passed, from the operation of which I anticipate much good. If our peasantry were an ill-paid, ill-used class, as they are sometimes represented by persons of a lively imagination, an excuse might be found for their dislike of manual labour of all kinds ; but they are not. The West Indian agricultural labourer, who, unlike his English compeer, incurs no expense for coal, gas, or warm clothing, because he lives in a land of perpetual summer ; who gets his rum, his sugar, his fruit, and his fuel gratis on the estate where he works for about thirty hours per week ; who grows his potatoes, peas, and pumpkins
on land which he appropriates, or for which he pays a nominal rent ; who, if he be indentured, like the Coolie and Chinese immigrants, who have been the salvation of the larger colonies, receives, in addition to the privileges enumerated, one shilling per day in money, a cottage to live in, free of expense, and medical attendance, free of charge, when he is ill,—is very far from being an oppressed being. Indeed, it would be an ex- ceedingly difficult task to oppress a man so very irritable, high- spirited, and litigious. Why is it that many of the Portuguese,. who were imported thirty years ago to work on the estates for the same rate of wages which the native labourer scorns, are to- day large merchants and proprietors of estates ? I think that all reasonable men must be driven to the conclusion that our people are not fully alive to their duties towards themselves and others. And yet, Sir, although these things are so, the black population of the West Indies is a church-going and, as the clergy inform me, a fairly tithe-paying people. Of course, there are many worthy individuals to whom the general description I have given of the people does not apply. I know some very: honest and skilful black and coloured tradesmen, and I may remark en parent hire, that the lowest wages paid in the colonies to a journeyman carpenter or stonemason is eight shillings per week, the highest fourteen shillings ; blacksmiths earn a little more, and shoemakers and tailors usually less. Black and coloured gentlemen are to be found in the West Indies filling positions of honour and emolument, and deservedly respected by all classes. We have black and coloured barristers, clergymen,, merchants, public officials, managers, overseers, and clerks, and let me add that they are usually able to hold their own. To the honour of the white population be it recorded that they are now, whatever they may have been fifty, forty, or thirty years ago, the true friends of the people ; being invariably more ready, as I know from experience, to recognise and reward the merit of the classes whom they are sometimes ignorantly and maliciously accused of attempting to keep down, than those classes them- selves are to aid and advance the interests of each other. / cannot conclude this long letter, which, after all, leaves unsaid' much that I should have liked to have laid before your readers, better than by admitting that it was in the colonies I first learned to feel that respect for the English gentleman whichr since I have resided in this country has ripened into warm. esteem.
37 Wray Crescent, Tollington Park, N. J. A. H. HILL.
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