"pied de cinq, six, sept francs, et quelque- in the slave states bears to the aggregate "fois davantage." Governor Mainwaring says, that the price of ordinary free labour in St. Lucia is six livres a day for men, and three for women; and for handicraftsnen nine livres +. Mr. Kilber, Commissary Judge at Havannah, under the Slavetrade regulations, states, that in Cuba, a common field Negro earns four reales de plata (half a dollar) a day, and is fed; the salary of a regular house-servant is from twenty to thirty dollars a month, besides being fed and clothed; and mechanics are paid from ten bits, or reales, to three dollars a day‡. These rates would make, at a medium, 901. a year for wages, supposing them to work the whole week. The average cost of a good slave is about 801., which at 10 per cent., on account of its being a life-interest, is 81. per annum; add 201. per annum for the value of the day and a half which he is allowed for his provision ground, and 101. for clothing, lodging, &c. and we shall find a sum of 401. for the annual out-going, instead of 901. But, when we consider that it is nearly impossible to procure a freeman to work on the sugar plantations, at any price whatever, the difference will be infinitely greater. Much fallacious, or, at best, useless reasoning might have been spared, if this important fact had attracted more attention. The planters have urged the indolence of the free blacks as an objection to manu-mitting the slaves, and a good deal of discussion has taken place on the question, whether the Negroes are naturally more indolent than the whites; as if all men were not indolent, when they have no adequate motives to exertion. On the other side, an argument has been drawn from the greater dearness of land in the free states of America, as compared with the price of soils possessing the same advantages in neighbouring slave states, to shew the superior cheapness of free labour. It does not appear that the fact as stated, rests upon much observation; but, even if it be true, nothing can be inferred from it affecting the case of the West Indies, unless it be shewn what proportion the cost of maintaining and buying the slaves * Economie Politique, vol. i. p. 280, ed. 1817. See Papers laid before Parliament, in explanation of the measures of Government, for the melioration of the Slaves, 1825. Slave-Trade Papers, class A, laid before the House of Commons, 1825. wages of the free cultivators. Inferences have been drawn from the superior cheapness of free labour in Russia and Poland; and from the sort of enfranchisement, which the slaves enjoy in those and other countries, from the masters finding it profitable to assign them task-work in lieu of forced labour. It has, moreover, been alleged, that the wear and tear of a free servant, though equally at the expense of the master with that of the slave, generally costs less, because it is managed by himself. It might be sufficient to reply to the latter argument, that the loss in the wear and tear of a slave is taken into the account at the time of purchase, and diminishes the purchase money, like the chance of death, or the wear and tear of a machine. But it is manifest, that these minor arguments must be unimportant, so long as there is so little approximation between the cost of buying and maintaining a slave in the West Indies, and the wages which the facilities of obtaining food, and the conveniences of the climate would enable him to exact if he were set free. It has been argued, that the increase which has taken place amongst the free blacks, by birth, shews that the Negroes have the same inclination to work diligently as the whites. We have already adduced positive evidence of the contrary; but it may be added, that an increase only proves, that they work enough to procure sufficient means of subsistence to breed on, which we know, from the example of Ireland, will suffice for that purpose, when of the most miserable and limited kind. Adam Smith even avers, that a half-starved Highland woman will breed twenty children. Sugar is raised in Bengal and other parts of the East Indies, it is alleged, at a vastly cheaper rate than in the slave islands; and in the East Indies labour is free. It does not distinctly appear, that labour is altogether free in the East Indies, and if it were, its low price is the mere result of competition; unless the institution of distinct castes of cultivators and labourers may be supposed to exert some influence. According to Mr. Colebrooke, it seems, that slaves may be found in Bengal, among the labourers in husbandry, though in most provinces, none but freemen are so employed. The price of their daily labour, when paid in money, may be fairly estimated at little more than one ana decrease in the quantity of coffee exported sicca, or less than two pence sterling; in the year 1788 and 1822, is nearly as and when paid in grain, it does not in large+. In 1790, it was estimated that the average exceed 14d., the allowance the population, including whites, amounted to a strong labourer being no more than to about 600,000 souls: during the sanone ana*. By the sugar report laid guinary revolution that followed, the civil before the East India proprietors, in 1822, wars to which it gave rise, and the exterit appears, that according to the current minating attack made on the island by rate of wages at Benares, the labourers Bonaparte, it is supposed, that it was di(Coolies) employed in sugar cultivation minished by 200,000; and, accordingly, were paid 3 piece (14d.) per day, for Bryan Edwards states it to be 400,000 in holing; 2 piece (14d.) for manufac- 1805. If we may believe the official turing in one pergunnah, and 2 piece account of M. Inginac, which supposes (1d.) in two other pergunnahs, for both an unheard-of rate of increase since 1805, processes. This it will be recollected is the population, in 1824, was 935,335. in Bengal, where more sugar is imported How then is this enormous decrease of from Java and China than is exported; the exports of those articles with such an and consequently the wages in the latter immense concurrent increase in populacountries must be still lower. Will a tion to be accounted for? The destrucfree negro of Jamaica work on a sugar tion of the necessary capital, during the estate, continuously, for twopence, or one revolution, and the succeeding wars, penny a day? cannot be objected as an answer; for it would still remain to be shewn, that the Negroes have the inclination to labour. Nor will it suffice to allege, that the Haïtiens labour in raising other kinds of The present condition of Haïti has been referred to in Parliament, to shew that the Negroes will labour when enfranchised; but a scrutiny of the few important facts of which we are in posses-produce; for, in the first place, it must be sion, connected with that island, will shew that they bear out no such conclusion. M. de Marbris states, that previously to 1788, the following quantity of sugar was annually exported from the French part of Haïti: 16,540....Clayed Sugar, 18,518,572.... Muscovadoes, 99,419....Molasses, and no tafia. In 1822, the total export of sugar from Haïti appears, on the autho rity of M. Inginac, the Secretary, to have been only 652,541 lbs., which we will suppose correct, although the extraordinary discrepancy between the accounts of M. Inginac, and the official returns of imports, both into the United States and Great Britain, gives strong reason for suspecting the veracity of that minister. The ⚫ Bengal Husbandry, p. 131. kept in mind, that sugar and coffee are the main products of the planters, and consequently that arguments which refer to other products are irrelevant; and, in the second place, if the argument would hold good, the fact itself is impossible; for it appears, by the statement of M. Inginac, that all the other exports amount to a very small proportion, compared with sugar and coffee. In 1822, according to that minister, the exports were It may be objected, that the produce is consumed at home; but that can be easily shewn to be impossible. If the capital re By a proclamation of Boyer, dated March 20th, 1823, it would appear, that sugar is even Ne voyons nous pas," imported into Haiti. he says, " tous les jours arriver dans nos ports des marchandises sortant des iles dont il est question? Ne savons nous pas que des caboteurs Haïtiens vont y charger à leur bord du sucre, du sirop, du tafia, du rhum, &c. par l'appât d'un gain illicite et les introduisent, en fraude, sur notre territoire contre le vœu de nos lois?" However, we need not place much reliance on this document, as great allowance must be made for vagueness and exaggeration. quired for raising the ordinary produce of the West India islands had not been destroyed in the revolution, it is manifest, that the Haïtiens could not consume all they would be able to raise; since, previously to 1788, when the labouring population was at least one-third less than it is at present, according to M. Inginac's statement, Haïti could afford to export, of sugar and molasses alone, nearly 200,000,000 lbs. after supplying her own inhabitants. If, on the contrary, the capital have been destroyed, which all accounts agree in stating to be the fact, the labour of the Haïtiens must be devoted to raising other articles, or to mining or manufactures, of the existence of which there is not a tittle of evidence. The impossibility of any sudden alteration of slave into free labour, without either ruining the planters, or remunerating them by a heavy indemnity from this country, we therefore consider as indubitable; the loss, however, would not be confined to the mere inability of carrying on the cultivation; the plantationcapital, stock, implements, and the land Itself, must also become worthless; as there would be no other kind of production in which to employ them, nor any hands to carry it on, if there were. An indemnity to the planters, such as the justice of the case would demand, must, in fact, extend to the entire value of the colonies. Although this view of the subject is amply sufficient to shew the necessity of gradual measures, a slight consideration of the effect of immediate emancipation, upon the slaves will exhibit it even more clearly. In their present si tuation, their spirits are broken, and their feelings debased by chastisement, and the want of the most ordinary civil institutions. If they were suddenly set free, they would become a horde of ferocious barbarians, actuated by revenge and hatred to destroy the whites, and devastate their property; or, which is much more probable, would at once sink into a listless inactivity, from which it would be impossible to extricate them. Either alternative is far too dear a price to pay. The proposal of immediate emancipation is most liable to these difficulties; but the two other plans for rapid enfranchisement are more or less exposed to them also. By one of these it is proposed, that all the children born after a certain day shall be free, but that they shall remain with their mothers till they are old enough to labour, when they shall be bound 'as ap-' prentices to the owners for a term of years, as a remuneration for their loss as slaves, and the cost of bringing them up. Now, in the first place, if the child should be disabled, or die before the apprenticeship, or its expiration, the planter's remuneration would be affected: and in the next place, the servitude, during which he must associate with the slaves, perform the same work, and be exposed to the same treatment, would unfit him for becoming free; so that at its termination, he would sink into the same barbarous inactivity, which would attend a sudden emancipation. By the second plan, it is proposed to buy up all the females. It appears, that the female slaves, including children, amount to about 360,000; and, if 60,000 be excluded as not worth redemption, on account of their advanced age, or infirmities, 300,000, or about three-eighths of the slave population will remain to be purchased, who at 501. each (which is about the average price of women slaves) would, it is supposed, cost 15,000,0001. But there is an important fallacy lurking in this easy calculation. If a commodity be very rare, or if there be no more of it to be obtained, the value is prodigiously enhanced, which would be the case with the female slaves, as they would be the last of their kind. But when we add to this, that the colonies would be deprived at a blow of a large mass of labour, say one-fourth, it is obvious, that the loss which would arise to the planter, from such a sudden diminution of hands, or from the vastly increased expense he would be put to, in supplying the void with free labour, would augment the cost of redemption to an amount far greater than the one supposed, Assuming, however, that this country would be willing to expend so large a sum (and it must be recollected, that it would be a naked loss, as the only means of re-imbursement would be to resort to compulsory labour, which would only be making the females slaves of the government, instead of private owners) what would become of the females themselves? What reason is there for conceiving, that they would not immediately fall into that fatal inactivity, which the climate, the fruitfulness of the soil, and their want of motives for exertion, point out as the two pro bable destiny of the freed Negroes? | education they receive at the Universities, The promoters of this plan suppose, unfit them for such a task; and how far that they will occupy the places of their views of the duties of an instructor wives and daughters of the men slaves: of slaves, fall short of the real standard, but such a speculation supposes vast may be seen from the language of the new changes and improvements-the attach- Bishop of Jamaica:-"It is difficult," he ment of the slaves to the soil-the insti- observes, speaking of the Negroes, "to tution of legal marriages-the insepara- "make sure of their attendance; but psalbility of families, and a train of new " mody and organs have great attractions wants, which would all require a length of " for them." What substantial benefit the time incompatible with the plan itself. slaves can derive from gaping over the Besides, what is to become of the un- liturgy and a sermon, which they are married and the orphans? content to endure, for the sake of the psalm-singing at the end, we are at a loss to conceive. The only way of securing teachers, fit for such a work, is to take them from the lower orders, in this country, or the blacks, and people of colour. Unfortunately, the English Church cannot furnish teachers of such an origin; and the Methodists, and other inferior sects, who are in the habit of sending missions, do not possess the confidence of the colonists, without which no efficient good can be done. What then are the best means of changing the slaves into free labourers, in the way most conducive to their own interests, and the interests of the planters? We have already calculated, that two days and a half, out of seven, will supply them with food, clothes, and lodging. If the slave were married, and had children, a further day and a half might be fairly added; and if we suppose, that he would pass the Sunday unemployed, we shall have four days and a half, occupied, out of six, in providing for physical wants of the kind he feels at present. If wants could be imparted to him, which would demand a further day, it will be found, that he must devote five days out of six to toil, which is the portion of time that large classes of artizans in England expend for the same purpose. But simple as this calculation appears, it supposes the pre-establishment of vast improvements, which we shall now proceed to consider. Ignorance is the great obstacle to the amelioration of the slaves, as of all the rest of mankind. The Government, therefore, have acted very wisely in making instruction the leading feature of their plan. But we have much doubt as to the fitness of the measures, which they have taken for carrying it into effect. The main purpose of teaching the Negroes, is, not so much to communicate knowledge, as to inculcate sobriety, industry, and other habits of civilized men, which can only be taught by the most constant and familiar communication with them on the part of their teachers. Their teachers must, therefore, be more than ordinarily insensible to the disagreeableness of popular instruction; for the character and personal habits of the Negroes will make it a work of the most revolting kind. How entirely the accomplishments of the clergy. men of the Established Church, and the With a view to give the slaves opportunities for religious instruction, the government has proposed-the abolition of Sunday markets; but, we think, with too little precaution. It appears that, in most of the islands, Sunday is the only day allotted to the slaves for attending the markets, and cultivating their provisiongrounds, during the season of crop, which lasts from five to six months. During the remainder of the year, they have another whole day in the week. There is no comparison, as may be easily supposed, between the value of the slave's labour at different seasons. If we look at the constancy and severity of his work during crop-time, he may be said to be comparatively unemployed at other seasons of the year, as will appear from the following account of the management of the estate of Mr. Hibbert, a large proprietor, in Jamaica, by no means remarkable for exacting an extraordinary amount of labour from his slaves : "During that period, the general plan is to begin the manufacture of sugar on Sunday evneing, and to continue it generally, without intermission, either day or night, till about midnight for about eighteen or twenty hours, to commence of the following Saturday, when the work stops again on the Sunday evening. In order to prevent any interruption of this process during the week, the slaves, capable of labour, are with gangs, or spells, which, besides being both fully some necessary exceptions, divided into two occupied in the various occupations of the plan week. tation during the day, are engaged the whole of Accordingly, no legalized marriages have the night, or alternate nights, in the business of occurred between the Negroes, in auy sugar-making. The labour, during crop-time, is thus equal to six days and three nights in the of the West India islands. Provisions, therefore, ought to be made, not only to legalize such marriages, as recommended by Lord Bathurst, but to prevent the separation of the parties, under any circumstances; like those contained in the Spanish and Portuguese laws, which prohibit even the judicial sale of either party separately. The colonists themselves appear to confess the necessity of such provisions, as, in various of the islands, laws have been instituted for the encouragement and protection of marriages. The planters very reasonably reply to this requisition of the government, that if the time for market and the cultivation of the provision-grounds were changed from Sunday to a week-day, the advantages at present derived from the labour of the slaves, would be diminished by one-fifth or sixth-a sacrifice which they cannot afford to make. What would any proprietor in this country think of a proposition by which he should be called on to surrender fifteen or twenty per cent. of the revenue of his estate, for ever? It is idle to appeal to the statutes which prohibit labour on the Sabbath in this country, to justify such an act. Those statutes have always been a dead letter in the colonies, which are not to be legislated for by the rule of our institutions, but with a view to their actual condition. The answer to the complaint is obvious enough. Let the planters be indemnified by this country, for the partial loss in the value of the slaves. soil. This leads us to consider the important plan of attaching the slaves to the So long as they are exposed to be taken from their dwellings, at any moment, and transferred to other owners, and other abodes, they are deprived of some of the strongest motives to improve themselves. One of the main causes of social amelioration is the security of property. The only property that a slave can possess, is derived from the produce of his provision-ground. But what motives can he have to cultivate it beyond what is required for the moment, unless he feels secure that he shall not lose the fruit of his labours, by being sent to another plantation? Besides, the security of a settled home will obviously be one of the chief means of promoting marriages: as it will render the separation of the married couple impossible. The next great improvement is the establishment of marriages amongst the slaves, which are too obviously important to need remark. One of the chief obstacles which occurs to the institution of marriages, is, when the parties belong to dif. ferent owners. There can be no doubt that such marriages would be attended It must, however, be admitted, that more with loss to one, at least, of the owners, if the object of them were fulfilled; or it good has been anticipated from this meacould not be fulfilled at all. The remedy sure than we can see reason to expect; for for both mischiefs is to allow the wife to some have supposed that, by being attachfollow the husband to his owner, who ed to the soil, the Negroes would become should be allowed to purchase her: if he refree, like the villains of the feudal ages. fuse to consent, the owner of the wife The capitals vested in West India cultiva should have the same facility; and if both tion, and particularly in the cultivation of dissent, the slaves might be sold together sugar, must be very large, and employed to a third party, and the price paid rate- simultaneously, which must be fatal to ably to the owners. Something like this the metayer, or share cultivation, necesprovision is contained in the Spanish Cesary to give the Negroes the small interest dula. Above all things, the consent of the masters to the marriage should not be required. But the main obstacle is the liability of the parties to be separated from each other, or their children, at the pleasure of the owner; for it is out of the question to suppose that marriages will take place, when the married slaves may be afterwards torn from each other and heir families, at the will of third parties See the pamphlet intituled "Negro Slavery." | in the soil, which the villains possessed, as the first step. Such a system supposes a great paucity of capital, or a very limited call for it, on the part of the owner; and, accordingly, we find that it has been only pursued by owners of slaves in employ. ments that require little or none of it. In Brazil, the owner supplies. the slave daily with a certain quantity of provisions + Brougham's Colonial Policy. |