CHAP. XIX.] BLACK MECHANICS. 267 



Indies, and had made up his mind that the English were 

 masters than the Americans. About half of them, therefore, 

 determined to stay in St. Simon s Island, and not a few of the 

 others who accepted the offer and emigrated, had their lives 

 shortened by the severity of the climate in Canada. 



The slave trade ceased in 1796, and but few negroes were 

 afterward smuggled into Georgia from, foreign countries, except 

 indirectly for a short time through Florida before its annexation ; 

 yet one fourth of the population of this lower country is said to 

 have come direct from Africa, and it is a good sign of the prog 

 ress made in civilization by the native-born colored race, that 

 they speak of these &quot; Africanians&quot; with much of the contempt 

 with which Europeans talk of negroes. v 



I was agreeably surprised to see the rank held here by the 

 black mechanics. One day I observed a set of carpenters put 

 ting up sluices, and a lock in a canal of a kind unknown in this 

 part of the world. The black foreman was carrying into execu 

 tion a plan laid down for him on paper by Mr. Couper, who had 

 observed it himself many years ago in Holland. I also saw a 

 steam-engine, of fifteen horse power, made in England by Bolton 

 and Watt, and used in a mill for threshing rice, which had bee,: 

 managed by a negro for more than twelve years without an acci 

 dent. When these mechanics come to consult Mr. Couper 01 

 business, their manner of speaking to him is quite as independen 

 as that of English artisans to their employers. Their aptitude 

 for the practice of such mechanical arts may encourage every 

 philanthropist who has had misgivings in regard to the progress 

 ive powers of the race, although much time will be required to 

 improve the whole body of negroes, and the movement must be / 

 general. One planter can do little by himself, so long as educa 

 tion is forbidden by law. I am told that the old colonial statutes 

 against teaching the slaves to read were almost in abeyance, and 

 had become a dead letter, until revived by the reaction against 

 the Abolition agitation, since w r hich they have been rigorously 

 enforced and made more stringent. Nevertheless, the negroes 

 are often taught to read, and they learn much in Sunday schools, 

 and for the most part are desirous of instruction. 



