THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 565 



gested, but it was not resorted to. Xo palliation of the evil could be secured, 

 as it was not possible to treat with the state of Florida, and the United States 

 government refused to regulate slavery in the States. 



Condition of Labor. 



The Bahamas had long since been abandoned by producers of cotton and 

 there was nothing remunerative which could be grown to any considerable 

 extent, on the exhausted soils of the Colony. In 1845 the Governor wrote 

 that there were no means of employment in agriculture except in a few favored 

 locations."™ The salt industry which was chiefly confined to the Turks Islands, 

 offered employment to the laborers in that group, but in other parts the male 

 portion of the population were engaged in such agriculture as there was, and 

 in fishing, shipbuilding, and many in the uncertain industry of wrecking.""" 

 Meager returns, at best, came from any of these occupations. There was, how- 

 ever, no considerable depletion of the population. Some did emigrate. The 

 stern dealing with the colonists on the slavery question had caused such discon- 

 tent, as to lead to the emigration of discontented persons who found it " impos- 

 sible longer to live here in peace." The restrictions on commerce im- 

 posed by the British Parliament caused others to contrast their own 

 position with that of the freedom of the neighboring States. Some 

 left because of this. American traders coming to Eleuthera enticed away 

 some from that place.""' Those who left the Colony in this manner were mostly 

 white men. As for the negro laborers, not many of them had sufficient means to 

 enable them to emigrate. There was, however, a demand for labor in the sugar- 

 producing colonies, and the people of the latter learned that there were un- 

 employed laborers in the Bahamas. As early as 1838 speculators from Damarara 

 and Guiana began coming to the Colony to make contracts with Bahama 

 negroes for work on sugar plantations elsewhere.""* They offered increased 

 wages and pecuniary advances in order to induce the laborers to engage their 

 services. To the annoyance of the government, some of the inhabitants were 

 thus taken away. Others from Berbice later undertook the same kind of 

 ventures."" These traders wanted only the men, and left their families 

 behind. Some families were thus left destitute of support. Gover- 



"""Mathew to Stanley, No. 135. 

 °^ Loc. cit. 



■"' Colebrooke to Aberdeen, No. 62.' 

 "^ Cockburn to Glenelg, No. 75. 

 ■"' Mathew to Stanley, No. 135. 



