first fruits differed so widely from prophecy, that new causes had to be sought to explain the result. These were found in this tardy system of gradual emancipation. Immediate and unconditional manumission was the only panacea. We have seen how soon it followed. The world knows its results, and none are more ready to acknowledge the utter failure of the entire scheme, than the enlightened statesmen and patriots of England. This is not attributable to their want of statesmanship or foresight. The whole secret of the failure was their utter ignorance of the negro character. The same legislation for a body of oppressed Saxons or Celts, would have been productive of blessings commensurate with the sacrifices made. But for the negro, they labored not only in vain but to his injury.

There is but one testimony as to the present condition of the British West Indies. "Magnas inter opes inops," is the lamentable condition of them all, and "daily they are sinking deeper and deeper into the utter helplessness of abject want." Taking Jamaica, the largest and most visited, as a standard (ex uno, disce omnes): "Shipping has deserted her ports; her magnificent plantations of sugar and coffee are running to weeds; her private dwellings are falling to decay; the comforts and luxuries which belong to industrial prosperity have been cut off, one by one, from her inhabitants; and the day is at hand when there will be none left to represent the wealth, intelligence, and hospitality, for which the Jamaica planter was once so distinguished.'

1

The condition of the Colonies has been frequently the subject of investigation by committees of the British Parliament; and huge volumes are filled with the evi

'Bigelow's Notes on Jamaica (1850); The West Indies and North America, by Robert Baird (1849); The State and Prospects of Jamaica, by Dr. King; Colonies Etrangères, by Schoelcher; Gurney, on the West Indies; Cassagnac, Voyage aux Antilles; Negromania, by Campbell, and opinions of Knox, Franklin, and others, cited by him.

dence taken before such commissions. Legislative palliatives and cures have been exhausted in seeking to restore prosperity to these rich dependents of the crown. Despairing of ever infusing industry and thrift, where nature implanted idleness and improvidence, resort has been and is now being had to the introduction of Coolies from East India, to supply the labor necessary for an island amply supplied, could it be brought into requisition; and even a modified resumption of the importation from Africa meets with favor from British statesmen, substituting (nominally, as it must be) voluntary for involuntary emigration.

Not alone in material wealth has been the decline of these once flourishing colonies. The condition of the negroes physically, intellectually, and morally, keeps pace with this downward tendency. Their numbers are annually decreasing from disease, the result of uncleanliness, and from want, the result of improvidence. crease of crime is proportionate with the spread of misery. Chapels and schools are abandoned, and faithful teachers and missionaries have returned in despair to Europe.1

In

If the reports of travellers and the local newspapers can be relied on, these islands have not yet reached the lowest depth of degradation and misery to which they are doomed. Every year but adds to the desolation, physical and moral.

The other British possessions upon which the decree

1 See Reports of Missionaries, made in 1849, quoted by Dr. King, p. 111; The Slave-Trade, Foreign and Domestic, by Carey, p. 27.

2 See numerous quotations, in Mr. Carey's work, pp. 25-35; also an instructive statement, by the West India Association of Glasgow, made April 14th, 1853; and found in New York Herald, May 31, 1853. From the official documents attached, it appears that from 1832 to 1847, 605 sugar and coffee plantations, containing 356,432 acres of land, and affording employment to 49,383 laborers, had been entirely abandoned. From 1848 to 1853, 513 more, containing 391,187 acres, were totally or partially abandoned.

of emancipation took effect, have experienced the same results. A graphic account of Guiana is given in the report of a commission, appointed in 1850, to inquire into its state and prosperity. "The most ordinary marks of civilization are fast disappearing," and the prediction is made of "its slow but sure approximation to the condition in which civilized men first found it.""

In Southern Africa the effects have been equally disastrous. Though the British residents at the Cape keep up a flourishing trade, the agricultural interests have suffered for want of laborers, and the farms have run to waste. The same effects followed the Emancipation Act at Mauritius, and Coolies have been introduced to supply the place of former laborers. The free blacks everywhere were idle, unreliable, vicious, and thievish.3

The same results have followed the experiments of abolition made in the West Indies by other European nations. In the Danish colonies, where the slaves were well treated, the free negroes are described as living in "the greatest poverty, filth, and wretchedness." The prosperity of the island is in the same degree diminished.

We shall see hereafter that the results in South America, Mexico, and Central America, exhibit a negro population in the same abject condition."

'Lord Stanley's Letters to Mr. Gladstone.

2 United States Japan Expedition, i, pp. 99–101, 103; The Cape and the Kaffirs, by Harriet Ward.

3 United States Japan Expedition, 103, 109.

4 Cor. of N. Y. Herald, Nov. 9th, 1855; Brougham's Colonial Policy, Bk. IV, Sect. 1.

5 Dunn's Sketches of Guatemala.

CHAPTER XV.

EFFECTS OF ABOLITION IN THE UNITED STATES.

THE number of negroes emancipated in the United States was comparatively small, but the effects do not vary materially as to their condition, from those already noticed. The fact of their limited number, as well as the additional facts, that previous to their emancipation they were employed but little in agricultural pursuits, and that the nature of the agriculture of the Northern States of the Union was illy suited to this species of labor, protected the prosperity of those States from the depressing influences experienced elsewhere from the abolition of slavery. That their physical condition does not compare favorably with that of the slaves of the South is evident from the decennial census of the United States, showing a much larger increase in the latter than in the former. No surer test can be applied.'

1

'In order to obtain accurate information, I sent a circular to the Governors and leading politicians of the non-slaveholding States. I received answers as follows:

Maine, Hon. I. J. D. Fuller.

Vermont, Hon. J. Meacham.

Connecticut, Gov. Pond, and Hon. O. S. Seymour.

Rhode Island, Hon. B. B. Thurston.

New Jersey, Gov. Foot.

New York, Hon. S. G. Haven.

Pennsylvania, Hon. E. D. Ingraham.

Indiana, Gov. Wright.

Illinois, Gov. Matteson, Hon. W. A. Richardson.

Iowa, Judge Mason, Hon. Mr. Hern.

Michigan, Gov. Parsons.

Notwithstanding the very labored efforts made for their intellectual improvement, taken as a body they have made no advancement. Averse to physical labor, they are equally averse to intellectual effort. The young negro acquires readily the first rudiments of education, where memory and imitation are chiefly brought into action, but for any higher effort of reason and judgment he is, as a general rule, utterly incapable.1

I extract from their answers:

Maine. "The condition of the negro population varies; but is very far below the whites."

Vermont. "Their condition and character have great varieties. They are not in as good condition as the whites."

Connecticut.-Gov. Pond says: "The condition of the negro population, as a class, is not thrifty, and does not compare favorably with the whites. There are many, comparatively speaking, who are industrious." Rhode Island. "They are, generally, industrious and frugal."

New Jersey." Their condition is debased; with few exceptions very poor; generally indolent."

New York.-"The condition of the negro population is diversified,— some prosperous, some industrious. They have no social relations with the whites. Generally on about the same level that whites would occupy with like antecedents."

Pennsylvania.—“I deem the condition of the negro population, in this State, to be that of a degraded class, much deteriorated by freedom. They are not industrious."

Indiana. "They are not prosperous. The majority of them are not doing well. We have sent off thirty or forty this year to Liberia, and hope to send off one hundred or more, next year, and finally to get rid of all we have in the State, and do not intend to have another negro or mulatto come into the State."

Illinois." As a class, they are thriftless and idle. Their condition far inferior to that of the whites." (Gov.) "About the towns and cities, idle and dissolute, with exceptions. In the rural districts, many are industrious and prosperous." (Mr. Richardson.)

Iowa.-"Very few negroes in Iowa. Far above the condition of those met with in our Eastern cities."

Michigan." Tolerably prosperous.

tion."

Far behind the white popula

1 Maine.-" -“Admitted into the public schools with the whites. Very far below them in education."