"King William's People:' 113 



Ring's House, 

 Demerary, 22nd October, 1831. 



The Deed of Manumission took the following form ; — 



To all to whom these presents may come Greeting : Know ye that 

 His Most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth hath been 

 graciously pleased by His Royal Command officially expressed by 

 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and communicated by him to 

 William Scott, Esquire, Superintendent of the Crown Slaves in 

 Berbice under date 22nd October, 1831, to impart the Boon of Free- 

 dom to each and every of the Crown Servants (designated in the 

 former Colony of Berbice as Winkel Negroes). 



In pursuance thereof I, William Scott, representing the Lords 

 Commissioners of the Treasury, do manumit, enfranchise, renounce 

 and redeem from Slavery 



(Here follow names) 



Wm. Scott, 

 Superintendent Crown Property. 

 1st November, 1831. 



A Deed of Manumission was given to the head of each family, and 

 embodied his or her name with issue. 



It would be interesting did one know how the Winkel Negroes — 

 liberated from slavery that had never within i - ecent years been irksome 

 — used their freedom. It was an experiment — -far short of the " grand 

 experiment " then in the wind but bigger than anything yet tried in 

 Guiana. Slaves, of course, had been manumitted from time to time from 

 the very beginning. Winkel Negroes, in ones or twos, had similarly 

 been freed ; in April of this year, 1831, we read how my Lords Com- 

 missioners of the Treasury as a reward for good and faithful service had 

 granted Letters of Manumission to the Winkel slaves Arsenie and Truitje 

 with their respective children, ten in all. But these were sporadic manu- 

 missions. They did not count against the mass. This was a bigger thing 

 altogether. 



Unfortunately our information is limited. A philosopher has said 

 that no change ever turned out so well as some people expected or so 

 badly as others feared. It was probably so with the Winkel experiment. 

 In the " Life of John Wray," there is the following extract under date 

 February 18, 1833, from Mr. Wray's Journal : — 



" A few days ago the Bishop of Barbados visited Berbice and held 

 a confirmation. He took an opportunity of visiting the Winkel negro 

 houses, going into many of them, conversing very particularly with 

 the people, inquiring what place of worship they attended, who taught 

 them to read, hearing some of the little children repeat a hymn and 

 Watt's catechism, and expressed his pleasure at what he saw and 

 heard. A report had reached Barbados that they were abandoning 

 the village, would not work, and were allowing their houses to go to 

 ruin ; but he told Mr. Scott, the late Crown agent, that he saw any- 

 thing but deterioration. Mr. Scott told him that a few of the young 

 people had gone to Demerara and other places because they could 



