116 



NEGRO PROPRIETORS. 



place, it enables them with two or three months of labor 

 upon wages during the cropping of the sugar, and one day 

 in each week devoted to their little farms, to live in com- 

 parative ease and independence. From five acres of land 

 in Jamaica, a negro will supply almost all his physical 

 wants. I have seen growing on a patch of less than two 

 acres, owned by a negro, the bread fruit, bananas, yams, 

 oranges, shad ducks, cucumbers, beans, pine-apple, plantain 

 and chiramoya, besides many kinds of shrubbery and 

 fruits of secondary value. 



I was greatly surprised to find that the number of these 

 colored proprietors is already considerably over one hun- 

 dred thousand, and constantly increasing. 



When one reflects that only sixteen years ago there 

 was scarcely a colored land-holder upon the island, and 

 that now there are a hundred thousand, it is unnecessary 

 to say that this class of the population appreciate the privi- 

 leges of free labor and a homestead far more correctly 

 than might be expected, more especially when it is borne 

 in mind that seven-tenths of them were begotten in slavery, 

 and spent many years of their lives as bondsmen. 



Their properties average I should think, about three 

 acres. They have a direct interest in cultivating them 

 economically and intelligently. The practice of planning 

 their own labor, encouraged by the privilege of reaping its 

 rewards themselves, exerts upon them the most important 



