The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-09-02
British Free Negroes.

olIllSA ACC 4NCSAoSSs
We recently published an article on the
condition of the free blacks in the Island of
Jamaica, and gave the authority of the Go
vernon, Sir James Gray, for the statement that
the act of emancipation had proved a curse
TO both whites and blacks, and reduced the
former to ruin and the latter to barbarism.
Our attention is again called 10 the subject
of emancipation and its consequences, by
communication which appears in late num-
Der of Fraser's Magazine, from British
officer. who has resided in the Island of st.
Thomas ever since 1888. The whole article
is replete with reliable information upon the
present condition of the blacks, and shows
the writer to be a man of candsr or expert
ence, Thoroughly acquainted with his SUBJECT
We can only give few extracts which VIII
confirm the truth of our previous statements.
He says: despite the self-laudation OF Eng
land and the position which she assumes as
the benefactress of the negro, It is imperative
on those who would see truth prevail, to dis
turb English complaceney by the affirmation
that, up to the present time, her behaviour to-
wards the black and colored man has proved
a cruelty and a curse She has given him a
boon which, without other and continued be-
nefits, must retain him through generations
in misery and degradation. She has set
beggar on horseback, and now, with benig-
nant supineness, smiles on him as he rides to
to the devil Aye, to the devil! If there
be any meaning in the phrase, as applied to
the selfwilled, the morally deaf, the impro-
vident, the slave of degrading passions, the
being sunk in sloth, and unconscious of
single honorable or even commendable aspi-
ration, then l repeat, are the emancipated
British free negroes riding to the devil AT
ter giving graphic instances of the negro
hatred of labor, and the impossibility of OBJ
tanning from him any systematic or continued
labor by the offer of wages, he continues:
'.In the warehouses, the stores, the fields, or
the sugar manufactures, or as domestic SER
wants, the black population will work just as
much as they like, and after what fashion
they like. They are utterly Indifferent to
praise or censure: if it be their pleasure to
refrain altogether from work, they have it In
their power to do so; or, if they think proper
to take employment, they can always throw
it up, or, to use their own phrase, discharge
their employers the moment the work be-
comes the least irksome. ANY thing like
continuous or regulated labor is entirely out
of the question. AS consequence there IS
of interests between masters and servants.
The two classes are really more separate than
they were in the days of slavery. The ne,
gro, suspicious, slothful, filthy and half-clad
would rather remain degraded as he is than
improve his condition by labor. His moral
state is what might be expected from his ply
steal circumstances. He is grossly Ignorant
and, in most things, dishonest; but more thar
all, his life is brutally sensual. Behold him
then, free as our laws have made him, appa
rently exempt from the lot of other human
beings who are ordained to eat bread in the
sweat of their face; and though son of Ca
naan, far from being servant of servants p
The writer says that in Demerara in 1a4e
and 1s4e, and 1850, murders were of frequent
@ occurrence, and there were several execu
lions. Burglaries took place almost nightly
In ggeneral, however, he admits that the
free blacks do not venture upon the commits
81 on of the higher crimes, but confne them
selves to continual petty offences, and t.
frauds and tricks of rascality in every trans
action. After speaking of their practice o
''squatting'' and building cabins where the,
please and of the difficulty and expense O
removing them by ejectment, he speaks O
the entire IMMUNITY with which the black
may commit petty offences, and then saws
"The negro often makes a living out of tn
property of others without the least dread o
consequences A large portion of the blacl
population, especially in the towns, subsis
without even the pretence Of earning al
honest living. The author was informed b,
most unexceptionable authority that il
Georgetown, Demerara, which contains
population of about 10000, ten thousand per
sons of the lowest order are known not to fol
low any trade or employment whatever. tn,
difficulties and loss of time in prosecuting
~~>~ VIZ AiciCiy AulIiIiIul tnaf follow
convictions, deter most people from seeking
1ne interference of the laws after petty rob.
peries. All know to what extent this is true
even when the negroes are not freel Even
when some newly arrived and unbroken spi
Ut determines to act as he would have done
q. nome, endures the plague and tedium O,
procuring conviction and committal and
then boasts that he has sent the rascally THE,
to jail, the sable subject of his soiicitude and
remarks is laughing in his sleeve. and look
ing forward to one, two, or three months as
fhe case may be, of jolly good times, He
VIII roll with much gusto on the floor, be 4
ior weeks Or months, and find nothing to com
plain of besides being occasionally reused !,
caean his cell He ought not to be Tins ,ef
10 his sioth, On the contrary saenty Of l.
Dor, OF akind which he cannot shirk' wou,,
materially alter his ideas of a prison life n
is going to be fed rather less poorly than 1
Is IN the habit of feeding himself. Heist
be saved the trouble of stealing, growing q
cooking the food. The Legislators have
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