The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-02-07 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Snt,—The condition (mutual, moral, and religious) of
the negro population in the West Indies, about the time
of emancipation, and also at the present time, must now
occupy our attention, before propounding any system of
education for them, as best suited to their wants, and
most in consonance with the peculiar characteristics of
the negro mind.
In their state of slavery all their nobler faculties were
repressed ; there was no freedom of operation for them ;
but at the same time that this was the case, it must also
be acknowledged that many of their grosser passions were
likewise subdued and kept under.
Thus, at the time of emancipation, the negroes, men-
tally considered, were mere children—a lot of good-
humoured, spoiled children : like children, capable of being
moulded into good or evil, according to the measures
observed towards them ; like children, too, 'requiring at
times to be guided, at times to be coaxed, and at times to
be mastered and forced into the right way. Their con-
dition then depended upon the disposition of their masters.
To be industrious and accumulate money they had no
incentive ; the only incentive to save was, that they might
either purchase their freedom, or provide for a decent
interment at their decease. These were then the only
objects before them ; but it is changed now. They desire,
at the present time, to become proprietors ; to be in-
dependent ; and to be this, in some of the larger islands,
many have betaken themselves to the system of " squat-
ting,' so largely practised in the backwoods of America
and the bush territory of Australia. Negro villages have
arisen in the unfrequented parts of some of the islands.
They have sought independence by isolation and seclusion;
but the far greater number has sought this desirable thing
by honest, hard labour ; winning their daily bread by the
sweat of their brow, as God commanded our first parent
Adam, when he sent him into the world, and also saving
a little money for the purpose of buying land.

Their physical comforts, at the time of emancipation,
were few, and what they had were of a very common kind.
Since then they have greatly increased, both in quantity
and quality. Naturally fond of display, their wearing
apparel is now of a far better description; on Sundays
and fito days the men appear in the best broad cloths,
and the females in the best muslin and cottons ; the
latter are sometimes dressed in such an extravagant
manner as to take up more than a due proportion of the
queen's highway, when going to church. The Kilmarnock
night caps, which used to be so common on the heads of
the men before emancipation, have given place to the best
beaver hats. The negro also desires now that his cottage
should be weather tight, so as to keep out the wind and
rain, and that his bed should be raised from the ground.
This is the best aspect in which their improvements can
be viewed ; morally, their progress has not been so much.
The rights of meum and tuum are still imperfectly under-
stood, and not so much regarded as they should be ;
neither is the obligation to speak the truth, very seriously
entertained. The want of correct religious principles is
still visible among them, and the same debasing belief and
fear of witchcraft and sorcery. In proof of the latter I
have the evidence of a gentleman holding an important
situation under:the British crown. Writing from Jamaica,
to a friend in England, about the end of last August, he
says—" Following your advice, I have repeatedly endea-
voured to open a sort of private school, to teach the
negroes in the evenings, after my own duties are done; but
I cannot get them to come to me ; many of them make
an absurd superstition, their excuse for not doing so, for
when I call them and ask them why they do not come,
they will answer, "Massa, me no able for come." Asking
them, " Why you no able for come ?" they answer, "Hi
masisa, pertly (spirit) will knock me down." They fancy,
he says, that if they go out after nightfall, the "Dappy "
of some defunct white man will meet and knock theta on
the head ; and negroes have frequently related to me
stories, with the greatest assurance, of ghosts having
met black men, and done them serious bodily harm. Even
Mrs P. (his wife's old nurse) still maintains having seen a
ghost three times, and shakes her old head with pity at nay
person who tries to convince her that such things. cannot
be." Such is the testimony of one at present living in
Jamaica, corroborating fully what I have said as to their
superstitious belief in ghosts, witchcraft, sorcery, and so
forth.

Mr. Charles Bennett, in his report of the Island of St.
Lucia, for 1841-2, writing to the Secretary for the Colonies,
says—" How, alas ! (such is his exclamation.) can it be
otherwise in a colony like this (he had before given the
real state of the negroes), where amongst the numerous
proprietory body there is a want of both means and in-
clination to aid in the moral and religious training of the
labourers, and where two proprietors only have as yet
made any endeavours to encourage education, and especially
where, in those who call themselves the `better class,'
rectitude of morals is the exception, not the rule ; and,
consequently, where no other than bad examples are
shown, and shown openly, too, to a race with whom exam-
ple is all powerful." When a gentleman can thus express
himself—not in a private way, but in a public and studied
one—to the minister of the crown in this country, about
the deadness of the proprietors to the subject of education
and its importance to the negroes, in 1842, nine years after
emancipation, what must have been their apathy previous
to that, when men's moral natures had not been so moved
about the iniquitous system of slavery ? Their condition
was what I have stated it to be. Physically they were
men and had to do men's work, or their, backs paid for it:
mentally, they were children, and manifested only childish
habits and actions. Their defects in education has mani-
fested itself in many ways detrimental to their own in-
terests, and also to those of the different islands. No
sooner has the negro got a small piece of land of his own,
than he refuses to work at the very time when his labour
is of most value to the community. When a planter
sends, perhaps, for men,—who have importuned him very
much for work a short time previously, when they wanted
a little money,—and when his estate most needs their
labour, they cannot be had. No ; they must first do their
own little plots before they can work for the planter ; he
may shift as he best can ; and thus the best and greatest
interests of the islands are neglected. " Oh, massa," they
will say to the planter, " what good for you good for us,"
and away they go to their own small plots to cultivate
them, and rear yams, cocoas, and red peas, just sufficient
for their own subsistence, and society may shift for itself.
In Jamaica, many fine estates have been, in consequence,
thrown out of cultivation; whole parishes have been de-
serted, and the local taxes fell so low in amount, that the
finances of the whole island have been deranged.
Shrewd observers have confidently affirmed that their
attendance at church on Sundays and fete days arises
more from a desire to emulate their former masters, than
from a pure desire to worship God. It is the custom in
the Romanist churches of some of the islands to put up
the sitting, to public auction once in the .year. In the
sales negro women have been known to purchase sittings
over other people's heads, when their chief object in going
to church has been to display their finery. These people,
when the service is over, then begin to show their con-
gratulations in something like the following style :—" Hi !
Missy Letitia, you well an' ansum to-day." My fader,
Missy Victoria, your gown tail dirty all up." " Chow,
shut your mout, you black nigger," and so on ; while
others, less seemingly devout, but more worldly wise than
those just named, may be seen dealing out mangoes to
thirsty customers, &c. It is the custom, too, for the
small proprietors to go to church mounted ; for the negroes
have each their horse, donkey, pigs, fowls, and goats.
These he has no objections to allow going where they list;
they may go on to his neighbours' grounds and no com-
punctions of conscience will be felt by him in consequence,
so vague are his notions of the rights of individuals to
private property—the meum and tuum of landed proprie-
tors. When any of their live stock dies they do not go
and bury them, but toss them into the streets, and thus a
person entering Kington, from whatever point he may, is
sure to be saluted by the vilest odours and a Babel of
sounds. These odours and sounds arise from the dead
carcases lying the streets, and the live hogs, goats, dogs,
and other animals, which crowd and block up the way.
Another great evil is the light notions entertained
among them of the sanctity of the marriage tie. Polygamy
has been too common among them, and even at this day,
in Jamaica, I have the authority of a gentleman, in whose
veracity I place implicit reliance, for stating, that it is no
uncommon thing for a negro to have two wives. Thus
he has often a large family to provide for, and there being
no law in the island to compel a father to support his
illegitimate children, such as exists in England, he may
turn his back upon a part of his family, and leave the
community at large to provide for them. The consequence
of this is, that the island is, in a measure, overrun by
children who never knew their father. That this should
be the case no one will doubt, who believes in the inherent
depravity of human nature. It has been said, " Give but
corrupt nature rope enough, and it will soon strangle
every principle of God and religion in their tender years."
And taking the peculiar condition of the negroes into
consideration with the circumstances before named, their
base notions of morality and indulgence in passions which
have not been sufficiently repressed by the legislature,
they are only verifying the old adage, and proving the
fallenness of our common nature. We know that through
the neglect of education in England, thousands have, year
after year, been thrown upon the world, corrupting and
corrupted ; their minds have been neglected, their training
has been bad, their hearts no better than moral wastes,
and their hopes vain and deceptive. These classes have
now awakened the attention and sympathies of the public
in their behalf, and in a little time a proper course of in-
struction and training will be adopted towards them, and
their condition raised. To make them what they should
be, a religious education must be given to them, with a
course of industrial training. Religious instruction would
act like a cleansing and purifying stream among them ;
checking the cancer of ungodliness in every form, and
meliorating the bitterness of poverty, disease, and woe,
with which so many of them are afflicted in our highly
privileged.country. So true is it that human nature, left
to itself, will run into all kinds of vice ; thus, in stating
the foregoing about the negroes, I am not degrading them
below other races of the human family. All men living
in the world without God and His religion are the same ;
they are like sheep going astray, turning every one to his
own way. I believe not in that school of philosophy
which denies the negroes certain higher powers of the
mind, because they have not certain physical peculiarities
which other races have. This school has a standard by
which it estimates the quality of the inner man by the
outward one. I believe not in it. God can fill any breast
with noble sentiments, whether it be white or table. That
he has given to the white race such sentiments, and de-
nied them to our black brethren, I will not believe.
Let us look now at the provision made for the religious
and mental instruction of the people in the diocese of
Barbadoes. It is an extensive one, including several of
the islands, and was instituted in 1824. An archdeacon
was appointed in 1837, and a rural-dean in 1840. Dr.
Coleridge was ;the bishop, the Ven. Thos. Parry,
' archdeacon, and the Rev. R.F. King (rector of St. Philip's),
rural-dean. The following are the names of the partshes,
the number of square miles in each, and the amount of
the populatieu. This is IA Barbadoes :--•