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WEST INDIES. 



may arise from this great measure, but it is grati- 

 fying to know, that, on the whole, the change has 

 been accompanied with less confusion than might 

 have been anticipated, and every month brings an 

 increase of favourable tidings regarding the work- 

 ing of freedom. 



On the immediate emancipation of the negroes, 

 one main cause of difference between them and their 

 employers was the rents exacted from them for 

 their houses and provision grounds. The third 

 clause of the apprenticeship abolition law gave the 

 free labourers the use of their houses and grounds 

 for three months ; that is, they could only be 

 ejected after a three months' notice to quit, pre- 

 scribed by the act. The planters, with few excep- 

 tions, seized on this as a means of obliging the la- 

 bourers to work at low wages. Instead of en- 

 deavouring to conciliate the affection of these 

 friendless beings, by allowing them to remain in 

 their houses at a moderate rent, they immediately 

 issued notices to quit, or demanded rents of so ex- 

 orbitant an amount, that they often exceeded the 

 entire wages which the negroes were offered for 

 their labour. In many cases rent for house and 

 grounds was charged for every individual in a fa- 

 mily. In other cases, labour was agreed to be 

 taken in commutation of rent; hut this led to end- 

 less quarrels, for managers did not scruple to turn 

 a family of labourers adrift in order to get rid of 

 demands for wages incurred ; and when the negroes 

 complained, they were told to seek redress where 

 they pleased. The disquietude arising from this 

 cause lasted for six months at least after the day of 

 liberation, and reacted most severely on the pro- 

 prietors of the sugar plantations, for, while the 

 quarrel existed, comparatively little was done to 

 prepare the ground for the next crop of canes, 

 and the produce, therefore, in 1839 was about a 

 tenth less than formerly. Indeed the estates re- 

 ceived such a shock in the end of 1838, and the 

 beginning of 1839, that it is calculated that it will 

 require three years to enable them to reach their 

 former condition. This should be kept in mind by 

 the friends of freedom, so that they may not be 

 drawing unfavourable conclusions as to emancipa- 

 tion, if, for a year or two to come, the sugar crop 

 should be deficient, and that article should conse- 

 quently bear a high price. 



At length the quarrel respecting rents and wages 

 terminated, and the negroes diligently applied them- 

 selves to their work, which, in fact, they had been 

 willing to perform, perhaps with some few excep- 

 tions, from the very first. But it was observed 

 that fewer labourers wrought in the fields than 

 formerly, and that they in general wrought only five 

 days in the week. This excited many fears, and 

 no little clamour. It was construed into a love of 

 idleness in a portion of the population. Those 

 who knew better, showed that it was simply a re- 

 sult of freedom ; it was proved that the able-bodied 

 man who was now free, in some instances did 

 double his former amount of labour, the excess 

 forming a provision for the weaker beings who de- 

 pended on him for support. The following is 

 magistrate Fishbourne's report on the subject: 

 " During slavery and apprenticeship, one-third of 

 the people residing on estates were considered in- 

 capable of, and were exempted fronn, labour. 

 Seventy out of one hundred slaves or apprentices 

 was considered a fair proportion. Of those seventy, 

 probably one-third was composed of the pregnant 

 women, or mothers of large young families, the 



very old or very young, sickly or ulcerated individ- 

 uals, and domestics, &c., who, if deducted, would 

 leave about one-half of the gross strength of the 

 estate, or about fifty effective labourers. The de- 

 crease, therefore, of the number of effective field- 

 servants is not so large as those not acquainted 

 with plantation economy might imagine, on being 

 told that not above half the people on an estate 

 now work in the fields." 



On the other hand, the emancipation act ef- 

 fected a number of striking cures. A missionary 

 writing from Jamaica says, " The old and infirm, 

 who for many years did nothing, and were exempted 

 from all labour, have suddenly become young and 

 strong; the lame walk, and the blind see; sickness 

 is all but fled from every estate; the hot-house, or 

 estate's hospital, is a deserted mansion ; the medi- 

 cines, bottles, and parcels are all covered with dust, 

 and the doctor on many estates absolutely dis- 

 carded. Whole hosts of the sick, diseased, and 

 lame have been suddenly restored ; and the magic 

 tinkle of an English shilling has wrought a cure 

 more lasting and complete than was ever accom- 

 plished by the skill of the most learned and skil- 

 ful doctor." 



With regard to the question as to the compara- 

 tive expense of free labour and compulsory labour, 

 it would appear that the former will eventually 

 turn out the cheapest of the two to the planter. 

 Mr Grant, a stipendiary magistrate, enters into 

 some calculations respecting the cost of cultivation 

 on a property which had at one time 350 slaves. 

 The expense of free labour which it required in 

 five months was L.240, 14s. 4d., and for the same 

 space of time, the expense of apprenticeship, or 

 slave emergencies, would amount to L.7^5, leaving 

 a balance in favour of the expense required for free 

 labour of L.484, 5s. 8d.; " and the late deficiency 

 law required five people, besides the overseer, doing 

 militia duty, to be employed at salaries, and main- 

 tained on the property. The saving effected by 

 the change in this particular is very great. The 

 book-keepers are now dispensed with. The super- 

 cession of a free system has been a great relief to 

 the owners of unproductive properties. They 

 were bound to give the prescribed allowances to 

 their slaves, without reference to their own pro- 

 fits. To illustrate this position, I can point out a 

 property on which were settled 100 slaves. The 

 lowest estimate of expenditure on their account is 

 L.500 a year, and the possession, notwithstanding 

 the high price of produce, has of late years regu- 

 larly increased the owner's debt. Since 1st August 

 to 31st December, the labour account has amount- 

 ed to L.99, 4s. 2d. The usual cultivation has been 

 carried on and improved ; the pastures, hitherto 

 neglected, are cleaned ; and about thirty acres of 

 coffee, which had grown up to the state best de- 

 scribed by ' ruinate,' have been opened. The pro- 

 duce, small as it is, now secured, will pay all the 

 expenses of the plantation, and, even in this first 

 year of experiment, place the proprietor on a bet- 

 ter footing than under a continuance of the pre- 

 vious system he ever could have hoped for." 



In the report of Messrs Lyon, Dillon, and Kelly, 

 March 1839, a similar evidence is afforded: "With 

 regard to the assertion that the sum paid for labour 

 is so high as to render it impossible that the returns 

 of sugar-planting can sustain it, it is only necessary 

 to say that experience has proved that the expen- 

 diture varies from L.3, 10s. to L.5 per hogshead. 

 The planter, therefore, has it in his power to com. 



