THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 483 



continued in force in the colonies, to which they applied respectively, until the 

 first of August, 183-i-.''' Commfssioners, authorized by the Abolition Act, 

 were sent to the colonies to assess the vahiation of the slaves, on a basis of tlie 

 average price of them during the period 1832-30, in order to determine the 

 proportion of the twenty millions of compensation money that should be paid in 

 each colony.""" But the greater part of the labor of providing for the change 

 which was to take place devolved upon the local legislatures. We shall now 

 undertake to set forth what this Colony did for this purpose. 



Balfour as Lieutenant-Governor. 



Lieutenant-Governor Balfour had begun his administration of the govern- 

 ment without the violent and strong prejudices, on the part of the colonists, 

 which Sir James Smyth had aroused against himself. Once relieved of the 

 presence of the latter, the colonists welcomed the assumption of the govern- 

 ment by the new representative of the Crown. There was no promise of a 

 relaxation of the efforts to give impartial justice to the negroes, whicli had 

 been made by the Executive since the coming of Sir James Smyth. On the 

 other hand the class about to be emancipated very soon found in Balfour as 

 earnest an advocate of tbeir interests as they had had in his predecessor. 

 Fortunately for his relations with the House of Assembly, the flogging of 

 female slaves was done away together with slavery, soon after his assumption 

 of the government. The transition to the new system of apprenticeship was 

 effected during his administration. 



Rumors of the action Parliament was likely to take had reached the 

 Colony. Holders of slaves had feared this from the eai'liest agitation of the 



-=' Circ. Ds., Sept. 4, 1833, and further proclamation issued stating briefly to 

 all classes what Parliament had done. Loc. cit.. and Circ. Ds. of June, 1833. 



=^^Circ. Ds. of Sept. 4, 1833. See report of this commission in Sess. P., 1837-38, 

 p. 329. According to this the average price of slaves in the Bahamas for this 

 period, 1822-30, was £29 18 s. % d. per head; the compensation was £3 2 14 s. 4% d. 

 per head. Bermuda alone, of the West Indian colonies, received less compensation 

 per head for her slaves than did the Bahamas. The highest price received in any 

 colony was in Guiana, where the valuation was £114 lis. 5% d. per head, the com- 

 pensation £51 17 s. 1% d. In the Bahamas there was a total of 1109 uncontested 

 claims for compensation, and 24 claims involving the ownership of 456 slaves, which 

 caused litigation. Of the classes of slaves according to the definition in the 

 imperial abolition act there were 4020 praedials attached, 270 praedials unattached, 

 and 3444 non-praedials, for all of which compensation was awarded respectively as 

 follows: £53,794 13 s. 10 d., £3655 6 s. 6 d., and £61,233 13 s. 6 d. Loc. cit., pp. 

 143-9, 344 and 358. 



