308 



humboldt's citba. 



[Note. — The error of the social theory here stated 

 has been demonstrated by the sad experience of 

 Jamaica. The change in the condition of the blacks 

 in that island was made in accordance with the 

 requisites here laid down, as far as it was possible to 

 accord with them. The transition of the slaves to 

 the condition of freemen was gradual, and the amal- 

 gamated community attained the right of self-govern- 

 ment without the violent fluctuations of civil com- 

 motion ; yet it has been found that an intelligent and 

 free agricultural people did not succeed the slave 

 population; that the numbers and influence of the 

 intelligent white population have -steadily and 

 rapidly decreased, and threaten to become wholly 

 extinct ; that the freed negroes are relapsing from 

 the semi-intelligent state they had attained under the 

 rule of the whites, and are retrograding toward bar- 

 barism ; that the supply of agricultural labor, and 

 consequently, the product of agriculture, has largely 

 diminished: that commerce has dwindled away; 

 and that the social condition of the blacks has sunk 

 to an unhappy prevalence of sloth, misery, and 

 want. 



Co-existent with this decline in the material 

 welfare of the inhabitants of Jamaica, a decline in 

 their moral condition has been experienced. Religion 

 has waned ; churches have been closed ; schools 



