536 United States of America, and British West Indies. QMAY, 



a train for amelioration as the nature of so dreadful a state of things ad- 

 mits of, it must be allowed,, that in point of general intelligence, religious 

 knowledge, moral feeling, and personal property, the slaves of the United 

 States are, at least, a century behind those of the British Colonies We 

 hear nothing from Captain Hall of their being in possession of property 

 in any shape ; whereas, heads of families, in our own colonies, if at all 

 industrious and prudent, generally possess, not only considerable sums 

 in money, but also furniture, utensils, live stock, &c., which property 

 they bequeath to their families, with as much certainty that the latter 

 will enjoy it as if they were equally as independent as their masters. One 

 anecdote, illustrative of good feeling in a wealthy negro, is thus related 

 by Mr. Barclay. 



" About a month before I left Jamaica, in May last, an old negro, be- 

 longing to Chiswick estate, named Joseph Marriott, called upon me one 

 Sunday morning ; and, after the usual salutation and good wishes, said, 

 ' Come to trouble massa, if massa so good.' ' What is it about, Joseph,' 

 said I, ' what can I do for you ?' 



" ' I wish to free my wife, Sophy, belonging to Barking Lodge estate, 

 if massa will stand my friend.' 



" I replied that I would with pleasure do what I could for him. ' But 

 has not Sophy/ I added, ' some children not yours ? Will Mr. Forsyth 

 (the manager) agree to part with her from the estate without the children?' 

 ' ' ' I free them all, if massa will stand my friend, no 'fraid for me.' 

 " Thinking he meant by ' standing his friend,' and ' not to be afraid,' 

 that he wanted assistance in money, I said I would assist him to a mo- 

 derate extent, but that the mother and so many children would be a 

 heavy purchase, and I asked what he himself thought would be the value 

 put upon them : ' two or three hundred,' said he, with all the sangfroid 

 imaginable. Somewhat surprised at his manner, I observed that it 

 might be thereabout, and if he made so little of that sum, I supposed 

 there would be no great difficulty in the matter. Upon which the old 

 man put his hand in his pocket, and threw down upon the table two 

 hundred pounds in gold, telling me he had more money placed out, which 

 he would have ready by the time I could get the matter settled for him." * 

 The affair, by a friendly process, was arranged accordingly. " Here," 

 says Mr. Barclay, " is a wealthy slave purchasing the manumission of a 

 woman with a large family, not even of his own caste, for they are mu- 

 lattoes, who has yet no wish to change his own condition." We could 

 adduce many other instances of the wealth of the slave population, amongst 

 whom the missionaries contrive to obtain some good pickings.t We 

 will state only another instance to show the nature of the property, inde- 

 pendent of coin, possessed by slaves in the smaller islands. A prize offered 

 by the agricultural society of Grenada, to the head of a family of slaves 

 " who shall produce certificates of being possessed of the greatest quantity 

 of domestic stock, and of having the most beneficially worked and productive 

 gardens" was gained by Charles of Munro's Bacolet estate, who possessed 

 eleven pigs (four of them large), a sow, twenty-eight fowls, besides rabbits 

 and pigeons. Four gardens, in which were six hundred and eighty-five 

 plantain trees, thirty-five in full bearing, five hundred and eighty-eight 



* Effects of the late Colonial Policy, &c., by Alexander Barclay, Esq. Smith, Elder, 

 and Co. 1830. 



f Effects of the late Colonial Policy, &c. pp. 27 to 35. 



