94 



INDEMNIFICATION MONEY. 



If the premises upon which this argument is based were 

 sound, it would be conclusive evidence to many minds, of 

 the impolicy of emancipating the slaves, but when it is 

 considered that the island was utterly insolvent the day 

 the emancipation bill passed, that nearly every estate was 

 mortgaged for more than it was worth, and was liable for 

 more interest than it could possibly pay, the question as- 

 sumes a very different aspect. Yet such was the fact. 

 It will not be disputed by any who are at all informed 

 upon the subject, that the whole real estate under culture 

 in Jamaica 'in 1832, would not have sold for enough to 

 pay off its encumbrances. This fact must have been dis- 

 closed sooner or later, even though slavery had been per- 

 mitted to continue. Bankruptcy was inevitable, and the 

 rapid depreciation of real estate, would of course have 

 been one of the first fruits of such a catastrophe. 



Had the indemnification money paid for the slaves been 

 sufficient to pay off the debts of the island, and emanci- 

 pated the planters from the tyranny of usurers and mort- 

 gagees, it is possible that they might have kept out of 

 debt, and thus have escaped some of their heaviest ex- 

 penses. They could have bought in the cheapest, and 

 sold in the. dearest market, and they could have escaped 

 many heavy commissions to which their obligations to the 

 foreign commission merchant compelled them to submit. 

 But as it was, they actually purchased their credit. They 



