The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-30 00:00:00

NEGRO :EMANCIPATION

GREAT MEETING AT BIRMINGHAM.

On Thursday evening last a great public meeting was held on the
above subject in the Town-hall, Birmingham, convened by the High
BailifFpursuant to a requisition signed by 200 of the most respectable
and influential inhabitants. The ball was crowded to excess, the side
galleries and a small portion of the floor being principally occupied by
ladies. The Chair was surrounded by a number of Clergymen, Dis-
senting Ministers of all denominations, gentlemen, and the higher class
of merchants and tradesmen. The specific object of the meeting was to
take into consideration the propriety of petitioning Parliament for the
immediate abolition of the Apprenticeship System in the British
Colonies.

Soon after six o'clock the Chair was taken by the High Bailiff; W.
SCIIOLFIELD, Esq., who, in opening the proceedings, said that it was
contended that this subject was surrounded with difficulties in conse-
quence of the Act of 1834, by which it was said we had entered into a
contract with the planters. He was not disposed to look upon it in this
light, but more as an Act for regulating the course of public justice. It
was pretty evident that the planters themselves did not treat it as a
contract ; all their energies were exerted to prevent its passing into a
law—the philanthropy of the country, however, proved too strong for
them, and ever since the measure had become law, the planters had
done all in their power to thwart its operation.—(Hear, hear.) The
Emancipation Act was intended to relax the severities of slavery, and
prepare its victims for their full liberty by a system of moral and reli.
gious education. It appeared, however, that neither their physical nor
moral condition was ameliorated, and under these circumstances he
thought it was their duty to seek an immediate abolition of the appren.
ticeship system.—(Cheers.)
Captain C. R. Mooasoss read letters from Sir E. Wilmot, Bart.,
M.P. ; Villiers, Esq., M P. ; Sir Charles Douglas, M.P. ; W. S.
Dugdale, Esq., M.P.; Barneby, Esq., M.P. e the Earl of Darling.
ton, W. Williams, Esq., and other Members of Parliament, and gentle.
men, regretting their inability to attend the meeting in consequence of
prior engagements ; but most of them expressing themselves warmly in
favour of the objects of the meeting.
The Rev. E. HALL moved the first resolution. Meetings of this
kind were extremely useful, for they created an action and re-action of
soul with soul—they created a sympathy which bound man to man,
citizen to citizen, and Christian to Christian, though mountains rose and
oceans rolled between them. Under the Act of 1834 slavery in
the British colonies was nominally in course of. abolition, but they
were but too well aware that it was at present existing in all its hor-
rors. The various communications which they had had from'the West
India islands two years ago, corroborated as they were by testimony
almost daily received, went to establish the appalling fact, that in some
respects it was even worse than before. The address of the Mar-
quis of Sligo himself to the Colonial Legislature broadly stated that
fact, and Lord Mulgrave had also declared that so long as
this system lasts there will be cruelty founded on caprice.
In addition to this they had the testimony of Mr. Sturge, who had vi-
sited the islands for the purpose of witnessing the operation of the
Act, backed as that testimony was by the fifteen missionaries alluded to
by him in his narrative, raised by their sacred character above the
reach of suspicion. All concurred in stating that the apprenticeship
system, whether viewed as a measure of legislation or of morals, had
miserably failed, and had scarcely a redeeming feature about it.—
(Loud cries of " Hear," and cheers.) No slave could leave the estate
on which he laboured without the risk of imprisonment ; they could
not enter into the least hilarity without danger of punishment, nor
could any of them complain to the magistrates with the least chance of
having justice done to them. Under the lash of their merciless op-
pressors no distinction of age Or sex was Made.—(Cries of "Shame,
shame.") Those of them who had not already perused the nar-
rative of James Williams, in which many of these atrocities were
detailed, should lose no time in doing so. As a specimen, he would
mention an act of cruelty inflicted by a magistrate of the name of Raw.
linson, placed there to do public justice. This magistrate was on a
visit to the master of Williams, and observing one of the female ser-
vants sulky and insolent as he termed it, he with his own hands hauled
her to a dungeon, and taking her sucking babe from her arms, flung it
on the ground before her.—(Loud cries of " Shame !") Now, he ap-
pealed to every parent present, what would be their feelings at having
their offspring so served P Did they not shudder at the idea ? and yet
800,000 of their fellow-subjects, many of them fellow-Christians, were
exposed to atrocities like this.—(Hear, hear.) If such things were
suffered to exist, particularly after the grant of twenty millions of
money, and, in addition, a large annual payment for stipendiary magis.
trates, it would be a gross breach of the national honour, a disgrace
to the country, and a blot—he had almost said an indelible one—upon
the British name and history over the whole world.—(Loud cheers.)
Joni: TURNER, Esq., seconded the ,resolution, which was as follows :
That this meeting, regarding slavery under every form as repugnant
to the law of God and the spirit of the British Constitution, destructive
alike to the best interests of the master and to the happiness of the slave,
is of opinion that every sound principle of religion, policy, and humanity
demands its utter and immediate extinction."
Mr. G. EDWARDS rose to support the resolution. He thought that
the people of England had allowed themselves to be completely duped
into the payment of twenty millions of money, for which they had had
no equivalent whatever.—(Cheers.) The money had been taken not
from the pockets of the rich, but from the pockets of the hard-working
men of England, who had generously acquiesced, believing, as they
were told, that it would effect the emancipation of the West Indian
slaves. To say the very least of it, the Government had displayed the
greatest want of foresight in this matter; but he believed it was an
atrocious job, got up without regard to the interest of the slave or the
bon sur of the country.—(Loud applause.) The money had been given
to a set of fiends in human shape, whose just reward would have been
something like the treatment they had so long inflicted on their slaves.
They had it from Mr. Sturge, that the Act had done more harm than
good.--(Hear, hear.) He had read the narrative of Williams. and it
appeared that the planters were treating their poor slaves in the most
inhuman manner, resolved to get all they could out of their blood and
bones during the term of what was termed their apprenticeship, and
then turn them out upon society as worthless; and it was for this that
Englishmen had been robbed of twenty milliens of money.—(Hear.)
The resolution was now put from the Chair, and carried unanimously.
Joseen STURGE, Esq., rose to move the next resolution, and was re-
ceived with much cheering. He said—Mention having been made
during the evening of Antigua and Bermuda, where the slave eman.
cipation had been complete, he would state that he had the opportunity
of witnessing the effects which followed instant abolition, and they were
of the most satisfactory character. The liberated negroes were most
industrious and regular at their work—so much so, that on one estate
which he visited, where about one hundred labourers were employed,
the amount paid in wages for a month together did not vary 20s. per
• week.—(Hear, hear.) On another estate the proprietor had netted, by
the system of free labour, the sum of 5,0001., clear of all expenses, in
twelve months.—(Hear, bear.) And the Speaker of the House of As-
sembly had assured him that he believed no man was to be found who
would wish to return to the old system.—(Cheers.) The value of pro-
perty had greatly increased, as an instance of which he mentioned that
whilst he was there an estate which under the old system was valued at
4001., was sold for 2,620/. lie had ascertained how the negroes them.
selves liked it, for that indeed was his object ; and they all laughed at the
idea of going back again under any circumstances.—(Cheers.) He was
an early opponent of the apprenticeship system, and of the grant of
twenty millions out of the pockets of Englishmen by way of compensa-
tion as it was called, considering that the negroes had inalienable rights
of which no law could justly deprive them, and that uncompensated
labour was an injustice which no law could make just.—(Cheers.) They
had been grossly cheated and defrauded, for the negro had not got that
for which the money had been paid. We are now put to the additional
expense of one hundred stipendiary magistrates and a number of troops
to keep up this system, and enforce it at the point of the bayonet.—
(Shame.) Besides all this, they were subjected to other heavy payments
in the shape of bounties and drawbacks, by which the merchant was
enabled to export West India refined sugar, for instance, at 4d. per
pound, which would cost the consumer in this country 10d. In St.
Domingo, where there was free labour, coffee might be had for 425. per
cwt., equal to that for which we paid in the slave colonies to the men
who have received the twenty millions 925. per cwt. Taking into account
this increased tax upon the British public, and coupling it with the cost
contingent on the Apprenticeship Act, it had been computed that we were
paying a tag of 4,000,0001. per annum.—(Hear.) How far the planters
had acted in good faith in carrying into effect the provisions of the Im.
perial Act, which Lord Stanley said they would de if we would consent
to make the proposed loan of fifteen millions a grant of twenty millions,
would be seen by reference to tine Marquis of Sligo's official address to
the House of Assembly in February 1836, in which he enumerated a
great number of subjects connected with the treatment of the negroes,
in direct violation of the Act to which he had expressly called their at-
tention, but of which they had taken no notice. Among these was the
flogging of females, which was still illegally carried on.—(Hear.) No-
thing in the Imperial Act was more strongly prohibited than: this abo.
minable practice of flogging females, yet by an official return he held in
his hand of the punishments inflicted upon the apprentices in the 22
months following the operation of the Act it appeared that out of a po-
pulation of 585,000 there had been 79,000 males and 54,000 females
punished with 563,000 lashes, in addition to other inflictions.--
(Shame I.) This was the liberty for which they had paid twenty millions.
Mr. Sturge here proceeded to relate some acts of barbarous cruelty
committed whilst he was in the Islands, and then adverted to the nar-
rative of James Williams, which had now become an official document,
fora Commission had been ordered to investigate the truth of the states
xnents contained in that extraordinary production ; and by the last mail
from Jamaica the Report of that Commission had been received, under
date of the 21st of October last, and in which the Commissioners say
to the Governor, " In reporting upon the general results of this ex.
tended inquiry, it has become their duty to state, that the allegations
of James Williams's narrative have received few and inconsiderable
contradictions, whilst every material tact has been supported and cor-
roborated by an almost unbroken chain of convincing testimony."—
(Hear, and cheering.) He (Mr. Sturge) had received, by the same
mail, a private letter, which assured him, that not only were the state.
ments of Williams fully borne out, but that the Commissioners had
brought to light many unheard of atrocities. (Mr. Sturge here read
some extracts from the narrative of Williams, which produced a great
'sensation in the meeting, and evidently excited feelings of the strongest
indignation.) •He then continued—ln a conversation he had with
the late Governor of Jamaica, the Marquis of Sligo, he had undestood
him to say that he had sent home thirty cases of female flogging ; not
knowing, however, whether he was at liberty to state the fact, he had
written to the Marquis on the subject, and had recently re-
ceived his reply, in which he stated that he had sent home certainly
above thirty cases of female flogging. In February of the present year
be (Mr. Sturge) visited one of the gaols where these horrors were going
on, and on inspection of the visiting magistrates' book he found that
no magistrate had visited the place fur four months, the last visit being
in 1836—(Hear, hear, hear)—and he mentioned as a fact that one
of these visiting magistrates was found drunk in the streats.—(Hear
and shame.) They might be aware that a deputation of gentlemen
deeply interested in the welfare of the negroes had, lately waited
on Lord Glenelg, urging upon the Government the necessity of
the immediate abolition of the apprenticeship system ; and his Lord.
ship had replied in writing that after two years-and-a-half of anxious
and minute attention to the details of the subject, he was of opinion
that the measure recommended " would have the effect of producing
irritation, excitement, and disappointment throughout the West India
,colonies, and would thereby present a serious obstacle to the success of
the constant and unremitting endeavours of her Majesty's Government
to secure to tine apprenticed population the enjoyment of the immediate
rights to which they are legally entitled." The meeting would see from
this that nothing was to be expected from Government unless demanded
by the people.—(Hear, hear.) Ha must confess that he regretted to
see in a speech of Lord Brougham on this subject, a few days ago, that
his Lordship stated that there was no doubt matters had been exagge.
rated. Now all he could say was, that so far as he (Mr. Sturge) pas
concerned, such was not the fact-- (Loud and repeated cheering)
although he knew be had been designated by interested parties,
both here and in the colonies, by no very measured epithets. It
was his intention to write to Lord Brougham and challenge
him to mention a single fact which he (Mr. Sturge) had ex-
.aggeratecl.—(Loud cheering) His Lordship, too, he thought, was a
little misled in citing the increase of exports to the West India colonies
since the passing of the Imperial Act as a proof of the physical improve-
ment of the negroes. Before this was proved, he should submit that it
was.incumbent on his Lordship to ascertain whether the additional ex.
ports were of articles consumed by the negroes or their masters.—(Loud
cries of "hear, hear.") One of his correspondents stated that the gene-
rat opinion now-prevailing was, that the full emancipation of the slaves
could not be protracted, without the greatest danger, beyond 1838 ;
and that if it were, he believed that " Liberty or Death !" would be the
motto of the negro population.— (Cheers.) There was one part of the
:resolution to which he must allude, where it depreciated the appoint-
anent cf a Parliamentary Cemmittee of Inquiry. Upon the face of it this
would appear'as though they were afraid of the truth, which was, how-
ever, by no means the case. The fact was that these Committees were
worse than useless. in the year 1835 one was appointed, some of the
Members of which were deeply interested iu the present system ;
arid after a long sitting they came to the conclusion, almost as a