lished." Men and women labour together without distinction, but the men in larger proportion than the women, who are generally charged with the duties of the kitchen. The labourers are punishable, by fine and imprisonment, for not fulfilling their contracts; or for absenting themselves without leave, except on Saturdays and Sundays, from the estate on which they have contracted to labour; or for changing their place of abode without a passport; and they are prohibited from keeping shops or exercising trades without a licence, as indeed all persons are; such licences being, in Hayti, one main source of revenue. Such is the general condition of the agricultural labourers of Hayti, in point of law, even according to the evidence to be found in the official report of Mr. Mackenzie. He no where ventures to tell us that they are over-worked or under-fed. Indeed, the very contrary may be inferred from the whole of his writings. We hear not one syllable from him of their want or distress, or of the severity of exaction, or the cruelty of treatment to which they are subject.-But if, turning our eyes from the agricultural class, we take a view of the general state of society in this community of emancipated slaves, we shall find that they have made such advances in the improvement of their social and political institutions, as infallibly indicate great progress in the arts of civilized life. The documents produced by Mr. Mackenzie prove that Hayti possesses a regular constitution of government; a code of laws evidently founded on good sense and justice; an adequate administrative system of jurisprudence; a fiscal establishment, which appears to be well regulated and effective; a well disciplined military force; and a police which seems to give security to person and property. The whole of its laws too are clearly and intelligibly expressed, so as to be level to the capacity of the most ignorant, and, being printed and universally circulated, are accessible to all; so that every Haytian may easily make himself acquainted with all his social, civil, and political rights, relations and duties, while every thing connected with them is open also to the examination and criticism of strangers. This view of the state of Hayti seems to us fairly deducible, from the official documents contained in Mr. Mackenzie's report; and yet it describes the state of a body of about a million of emancipated slaves or their descendants, who, when first emancipated, were in a still more deplorable state of barbarism and incivilization than can be justly predicated of the 800,000 slaves existing in our colonies at this moment. And this is the testimony of an unwilling and hostile witness; and though on that very account it is the more valuable as far as it goes, yet it may be presumed to be less favourable than an impartial witness would have furnished. Such impartial and unprejudiced testimony, of a date considerably posterior to that of Mr. Mackenzie, and after the effects produced by the sense of security, derived from the recognition of their The law is as follows: "Except in the case of lawful defence, he who shall voluntary wound or even strike any one, shall be condemned to a fine of 100 dollars and eight months imprisonment; and the penalty will be doubled where the assault has been committed on women, or aged persons above sixty, or children under fourteen; and even this will be increased if the violence has been committed by a master on his apprentice or hired labourer." independence, in exciting exertion among all classes of the community, had begun to be visible, is now in our possession. But we must reserve for a subsequent number, the full view we have it in our power to give of the actual condition of the emancipated slaves of Hayti at this moment. In the mean time, may we not appeal to those who have followed us in our statements, whether we have not satisfactorily demonstrated the propositions with which we set out; and shewn, that is to say, that when an emancipation of slaves has proceeded from the supreme authority of the state, and has been peaceably acquiesced in by the masters, there has neither been any disturbance of the public peace, nor any inconvenience or distress to the slave, nor any relapse into his original barbarism. And why should we apprehend dissimilar results now? Take, for example, the actual situation, as to the means of subsistence, of the great mass of predial slaves in the island of Jamaica. Besides Sunday, they have twenty-six days in the year allowed them for raising the food required to support themselves and their families; their children, from the early age of five or six, aiding their labours in the provision grounds. The only food given them by their masters consists of a few herrings, which cannot be considered as food, but as mere seasoning. At the present moment, therefore, the predial slaves of Jamaica generally are supported by their own labour, during time equal to one half-day in the week, besides Sunday. If by the labour of that one half-day, they are now, as Mr. Barclay tells us, amply supported, where can be the difficulty of their finding abundant means of sustentation when they shall have twelve such half-days in the week besides Sunday in which to labour? To talk of their starving or suffering privation under such circumstances, is altogether absurd. Though now employed for their master, in the exhausting labour of the field under a tropical sun, for five days and a half at least in the week, during which they are driven by the whip; they continue to feed themselves and their families, as the planters tells us, plentifully, " by the labour of a single half-day in the week;" yet they would have us to believe, that having the entire command of the time now given to the master, as well as of that fragment of it which is called their own, they will suffer from want. But besides this, will the labour of man lose all its value in the West Indies, when he has ceased to be a slave? Will not contracts for labour be as possible, between the owners of estates in Jamaica and their emancipated slaves, as between the planters of Trinidad and the free labourers in that island? Is there any thing which would render such an arrangement as is detailed in the note below, impracticable in In a paper, printed by order of the House of Commons, on the 14th of June, 1827, No. 479, there is given the testimony of Robert Mitchell, Esq. a planter of Trinidad, of nearly thirty years standing, and who was also the civil superintendant of a considerable body of free blacks settled in that island. The account he gives of them is-that each of these emancipated slaves possessed an allotment of land of his own, which he cultivated, and on which he raised provisions and other articles for himself and his family, his wife and children aiding him in the work. A great part, however, of the time of the men (the women attending to the domestic menage) was freely given to labouring on the neighbouring plantations, on which they worked, not in general by the day, but Jamaica, although it is found to work so well in Trinidad? What part of the field labour of the plantations in Jamaica may not be equally made the subject of agreement between the owner of the soil and the labouring class; whether it be the felling and clearing of woodland, or the digging of cane holes, or the planting of canes, or the successive weedings of them, or at length, the cutting of them for the mill? And could there be any difficulty in fixing a fair price for these different processes? None whatever. None is experienced in Trinidad. Nor is any experienced in Jamaica itself. Nothing is more common, in Jamaica, than for the owner of a jobbing gang to contract with the proprietor of a sugar estate, for a stipulated price per acre, to execute a variety of these operations. Would there be any more difficulty in contracting with twenty of the emancipated slaves, or with one on behalf of the twenty, to perform, at certain rates, certain quantities of work, the due division of the price being settled by themselves? This is rendered particularly easy in Jamaica, where the exact size of every cultivated field is accurately known, to a rood or a perch; and where the slaves on every estate know well the quality of the soil, and therefore the quantity of it which, for example, could be dug up into cane holes by them in the course of a day. All this is so obvious, that it need not be farther insisted upon; and its practicability is too well established, in the instances of Trinidad and Mexico, Guadaloupe and Hayti, to permit a doubt to rest upon it. By specifying this particular mode of obtaining the labour of emancipated slaves, it is not intended to imply that there are no others. Individual ingenuity, goaded by self-interest, will modify according to circumstances the arrangements and contracts between the parties. It will obviously be the interest of the proprietor of the soil to attract labourers to his estate, or to retain them upon it if already fixed there. And it will be the interest of the labourers to retain possession, on fair terms, of their domicile, in the midst of their relations, and of the provision grounds they have been accustomed to cultivate for their subsistence, and every tree in which their own hands may have planted. A reasonable rent for these possessions might easily be fixed, and would be paid out of the remuneration to which they would be entitled for labour they might perform upon the estate; or the general rate of that remuneration might be modified, in consideration of continuing to by the piece. The rates, at which they contracted to perform such labour, are given. Mr. Mitchell calculates by the quarrie of land, equal to three and one-fifth English acres; and in Trinidad currency, bearing the proportion to sterling of 225 per cent. The quarries, in his statement, being reduced to English acres, and the currency to sterling, the following are the prices which he has told us these emancipated slaves receive for their work, and which, according to him, was well executed : any At these rates, Mr. Mitchell adds that they can earn as much as four shil-, lings a day, but frequently do not earn more than two.-(p. 5.) them these advantages. All these matters would soon be arranged, if there were a willingness on the part of proprietors to adjust them on reasonable and equitable principles. For what can the proprietor of the soil desire more than that his land should be cultivated? It can make no difference to him whether it be done for his own profit, by labourers fairly remunerated, or by the labourers for themselves, they remunerating him by a rent for the use of the soil they cultivate? But it is not our intention, at present, to touch on the case of the proprietors of estates, or on the advantages or disadvantages which they would incur by the proposed change of system. We are prepared, indeed, to show that the advantages of it to them would be great.But we must defer the consideration of that part of the question, having fulfilled the only task we undertook to perform, which was to quiet the fears of such of our friends as apprehend evil, to the slaves themselves, from that kind of emancipation which alone has been thought of, an emancipation by laws which masters and slaves must equally obey, by showing them that such a change involves no ground of alarm for the well-being of the slave; that it will not be likely to lead to any violation of the public peace; that it cannot produce to him either difficulty or distress; and that it will not tend to retard, but to promote his physical comfort and his moral and intellectual improvement. A comparison of the progress of population among the free and the enslaved classes in our colonies, is the best answer which can be given to all those groundless apprehensions which would connect with the acquisition of his freedom, the deterioration of the condition of the emancipated slave. (See Reporter, No. 13, p. 193; No. 23, p. 354; No. 26, p. 14; No. 31. p. 155; No. 40, p. 295; No. 44, p. 374; No. 54, p. 146; No. 62, p. 285–291; No. 66, p. 385, &c. &c.) As for the young children, and the old and infirm, about whom, in case of emancipation, so many humane fears are expressed, be it known that at the present moment, upon the plantations generally, (still taking Jamaica as our example,) these do not now derive their support from the masters. The young children derive it from their parents, and the old and infirm from their relations, chiefly their children. The means of continuing to afford that support would evidently not be diminished, but greatly increased by emancipation. In aid of the Funds of the Anti-Slavery Society, from September 4, to November 4, 1830. Bridlington Association ditto Ralph Leycester, Esq. 67, Portland Place (annual) Chipping Norton Association Camberwell Association Banbury Association (payment) ditto ditto ditto (donation) Percy Ibotson, Esq. Poyle, near Colnbrook (annual) ditto Isaac Crewdson, Esq. Manchester (donation) 1 1 0 316 0 1 14 0 Manchester Association (payment) Anonymous (donation) Wellington (Somerset) Association (payment) Rev. G. Burder (donation) Hanley and Shelton Association (donation) ditto Ditto (payment) Francis Wedgwood, Esq. (donation) Colchester Association (payment) W. S Hathaway, Esq. (annual) Chelmsford Association (payment) Reading Association Stowmarket ditto ditto ditto ditto Tewksbury and Cheltenham Association (payment) Ditto A Hater of Oppression Derby Association (payment) Samuel Thorow good, Esq. (annual) Messrs. H. and S. Blanch, Glastonbury (donation) Hertford Association (payment) (donation) R. W. Cox, Esq. Lawford Hall, Manningtree, Essex (donation) III. MR. STEPHEN'S SLAVERY DELINEATED. 1 0 0 We have never had a more grateful office to perform than that of announcing to our readers the publication of the 2nd volume of Mr. Stephen's "Slavery of the British West India Colonies delineated, as it exists both in law and practice." The first volume, as our readers know, was a delineation of that state in point of law,-the present is a delineation of it in point of practice. We hail its appearance at this crisis of our cause as a token for good; but must limit ourselves at present to this brief notice of its publication, and with earnestly recommending it to general perusal, as a most masterly and triumphant and unanswerable exposition of the practical horrors of the Slave system. No one, we think, can read this work, without uniting in the universal cry of the nation for the abolition of colonial slavery. London: S. Bagster, Jun. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close. |