The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-07-21
VOL. VII.

leaving the landowner and laborer 2Os ~
the amount paid in 1891 by the British III VI
for the products of~the $4,000 blacl !. Peop'e
of jamaica, the Home Government ,oop
less than about eighteen millions Of a III. no
being almost sixty dollars per head and on
for merely experimenting the exchanaas "s
would be quite safe to assert that in ,bos.
each negro, old and young, male and scar year
contributed five pounds--twenty. four dolIa ~ae
TO the maintenance of the British Govorn
This was heavy amount of taxation o.
borne by people limited entirely to ayr;oa Je
ture, and destitute of the machinerv noae.' oui'
for making that productive. If now ~ ay
heavy burden be added the eomu;s.;' va"
freights, insurance, interest and other chez
it will readily be seen that system of ta~ase
80 grinding COULD END NO OTHERWISE r
IN RUIN and that such was the tend.,.s
things, was seen in the steady dmipution " "
production.
" In the three years ending with 1900 =,
average exports were $4,000 hoesbesa, 'us
sugar, $4,000 Puncheons of rum. IL OOo ooa
pounds of coffee; whereas those of the a.
years ending with 1929 were only 90 600 ~
of sugar, $4,000 puncheons of rum. Ia Ooo OSs
pounds Of coffee. Under such system as Ri.
IL hon.
ton was seen in everything connected with
the Island Labor and land were declining ~
value, and the security for the payment Of tba
large debt due to mortgages in England wss
becoming less from year to year. sTSs
planter became at length the mere instrument
In the hands of the exchangers and the co.,
eminent for the destruction of negro moral
intellect, and life ); and finally the Cover
ment measure of releasing the slave f,oro
compulsory service, and approprating a Ger.
tain amount to the payment first, of the mort
gage debts due in England, (which actuaIly
absorbed about nineteen shillings of pva,,
pound, and, second, of the owner, who sve,
ifhe found his land delivered to him free of in
cumbranoe, was in most cases left without
shilling, to enable him to carry on the work
of his plantation. The slaves were set free
but there ertstsd no capital 10 find them employ.
ment and from the moment of emancipation 4
became almost impossible to borrow money ON
mortgage security. The consequences areNseep
in the extensive abandonment of land and IL
the decline of its value Pages $685.
These extracts, eopious as they are, are re-
Jieved of tediousness by their pertinency and
bearing upon the question of Emancipation
in the United States; and, as our correspond.
emit in the Era Of the 18th instant applies them.
to the same question as it affects Cuba.
We will not detain our readers now With
the reflections which must arise clearly and
conclusively from the data which we have
cited. It is most evident from all the facts
and figures, that the system Of Slavery in the
British West Indies was, before 1884, rushing
rapidly to Its own destruction. General bank
ruptcy was impending when the planters had
not left clear shilling's worth of'property in
their 100000 slaves; and that prostration of
trade and decline of productive industry which
is now charged upon the act of emancipation
was NEST obviously inevitable in the regular
course of things. The slave trade was abol-
ished, the laborers were perishing under their
toll, at the rate of one per cent. per annum,
which accelerated as it proceeded, and, in Mr..
Carey's opinion, the destruction of life was
in the year 1929 proceeding at such.a rate,
that, had the system continued as it then eI-
listed, would have totally annihilated the negro
race in half century Page IL.
Now, what is there in West India Emanc
patton TO deter the United States from freeing
their slaves Is life wasted here as there Is
the slave brutalized here as there? Are the
planters and slave-owners in bankruptcy here
as there! Would capital be withdrawn from
production, manufactures and commerce, here
as therel
The facts show progress in our negroes; and
=. a. -a.ssrvo A:s;vn vr their owners, To-
ward that state of things which, according to
the theory of the opponent warrants the en-.
Reimbursement of the chattel laborer, and the
only question, even with them is, whether the
due degree of advancement is reached.
We acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr.
Carey for his able exposition of the history o.
the two oontrasted systems, differing from him
Numerically as to the possibility or proba
bility, intimated rather than asserted, that be
cause "the landowner West Indian has beer
ruined, and the laborer is fast relapsing int
barbarism," the Southern States must follow
in the same direction, if they likewise sdop
the measure Of legal emancipation There il
more actual psrallelism between the system o
Ireland and that of the British Colonies, thar
between that of the latter and that of ou
Southern States and we might as well infe
that freedom had failed in Ireland, and de
monstrated thereby the incapacity of her emf
grants for citizenship here, as to conclpd'
against the safety of negro emancipation south
of Mason and Dixon, because Jamaica has de-
clined in industrial and commercial prosperity
since 1894.
We are not at all surprised that the Emsu
| cipados Of those islands will not work when
free at the rate and under the conditions which
were annihilating their race while they were
enslaved, and We see in the virtual bank
ruptcy of those islands before Emancipation,
as obvious causes for their continuous depres-
sion since as in Ireland we recognise the de-
structivc influence of British oppression. And
no more in the one case than in the other,
whose conditions are 80 much alike, do we lose
faith in the victims because of their present
paralyzing incapacities. Especially we do not
infer the impraeticsbility of freedom and its
prosperity for the people Of either race, IN
happier conditions
Mr.. Carey has not unequivocally committed
himself against the legal emancipation Of our
Southern slaves He has, id fact no sympa-
thy with masterdom in any form; and what
ever may be his doctrine with respect TO castles
and natural difference Of races his system Of
political economy is too scientific and philoso-
phical to be warped by prejudice of color OF
Of kindred. We think moreover, that be VIII
not except to our use of his positions, nor dsci-
dedly refuse our conclusions
There are other subjects embraced IN tns
work under notice, to which We will turn %
soon rs we csn. D.