Labour and Colonisation — The Plantation System. 29 



advantages in the primitive conditions of our ancestors, but they are 

 outweighed by those of our own time. In a progressive world we become 

 less faulty but never reach perfection, and therefore we shall always find 

 things to be amended. The point is that we may ask ourselves whether 

 we are not better off in every stage than we were in that previous. 



The stages in progress of the plantation slave are not hard to realise. 

 First, he was generally a slave in Africa to a master who often suffered 

 from famine and could hardly feed himself. In many cases parents sold 

 their own children to get a little corn. Second, he was forcibly carried 

 to a new country where hunger was almost unknown because every 

 planter was bound by interest as well as law to keep his labourers in 

 working order. 



It was no doubt a painful upset to the savage African to cross the sea 

 knowing nothing of what would happen on the other side, but when he 

 became settled among fellow-countrymen he soon recovered and became 

 as happy as the rest. That he was happy in his own way was certain, 

 for only a few remembered Africa. There was always a feeling of 

 superiority in those negroes who knew their work and a certain amount of 

 contempt for the later arrivals. The Creole always despised the African 

 and we find the same feeling still existent in Surinam towards the bush 

 negro. 



The system of the plantations may be compared with that of British 

 factories ; both were of great economic value in spite of their defects. 

 Under them there was certainly coercion, but it was for the good of the 

 community. This common welfare has to be considered ; some would 

 exclude the individual altogether, but this should not be done for pure 

 socialism could never be a real success. The desire for mastery which 

 means property and its control is man's great instinct and can never be 

 ignored. Under certain circumstances, however, where the balance of the 

 individual and the community cannot be kept even, the labourer is coerced 

 for the good of all. This is done in every community by the law which 

 compels a man to work for his family, and in some where mendicants are 

 punished. It is evident that we all have duties to the State and that we 

 are coerced to perform them. 



Every plantation was a model State, and also a family. 

 The master was a governor of the paternal type and his 

 labourers children to be rewarded or punished when considered 

 necessary. The whole was the result of circumstances, and probably 

 the best that could be done. The master was not in the same 

 position as the factory-owner, who could discharge his men or take 

 on extra hands when he required them. His slaves and later, his immi- 

 grants, were always with him and must be provided with work. If he 

 paid no wages to the slaves the cost of his supplies and other expenses 

 were always the same and there was virtually no possibility of economis- 

 ing. This was of more advantage to the labourer than to the master 

 for his food and other comforts were certain and there could be no 



