Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-11-16

Instead OF progress, we meet ruin, devastation,
and impoverishment.
The British act of abolition took effect Au-
gust |, 1884, by reducing them to apprenticed
laborers until 1888 and 1910; but, finally, We
are informed by Mr.. Mccullough, owing to the
clamor to be free, the entire emancipation
took place August /, 1888.
in 1890, Jamaica produced 9l,l3l hogs
heads of sugar; in ls45, only 47,926-or
decrease of nearly 100 per cent. In 1884 it
produced 81, 756 hogsheads. In 1888, the last
year of apprenticeship, and five years after
its glorious commencement, it fell to 69,6l3,
or nearly 20 per cent. in four years. But
when abolition came, its opening glories were
realized in decline from 69,6l3 hogsheads in
1888, to II, 926 in 1915, or a decrease of more
than 30 per cent. in seven years.
mthe article Of rum the decline has been more
than 100 per cent. from 1888, before abolition to
1913, after it. In molasses, the decline is nearly
as great. In cotton, the production fell from
1909 bales, in 1888, to t,oenty.four bales in
1913. In coffee, from 5,704, 4s2 pounds in 1888,
W i'f-o;ooo, III 1910, VI W one lourtn Vi ltS
former production!
Estates have fallen in value to less than one
half their former price; and, in many places,
hare been abandoned as membranes. ....
The ruin of Hayti, by abolition, is still more
awful ".#,.t.
In 1889, before abolition, in 1901, a few years
after that event, and in lS4l, the following were
the productions of Hayti, and the amounts:
clayed Sugar. Mussevndo. Coffee Cotton.
1852 1852 4ssa1 ssses ,sssSss 9s
1871. 1863 34,l14,7l7 1,5sl,4 54
Is comment necessary Do not these figures
present the argument conclusively?
But the result in Hayti is still more dread,
full. African barbarism has erected its stand
ard of supremacy, and even now threatens, un-
der the lead Of the black intrigue, the extinction
of the white race, and of European civilization
in one of the finest of the West Indies
And this is the scheme of the British cabi-
net for the Spanish island of Cubal To Afri-
canize Cuba is to destroy it! We quote from
McCullough's Commercial Dictionary-an en-
inent political economist of Great Britain-in
confirmation of this assertion:
"We believe, indeed, that it will be found
wholly impossible, except under peculiar cir
cumstances, to cary on the culture of sugar on
its present plan, in tropical countries, by the
agency of really free laborers. Hayti, for
merly the most important and productive of all
the sugar colonies, does not now produce a
single cwt of sugar. Mexico is also fast re-
lapsing into the most deplorable barbarism;
and experience seems to show that some sort Of
modified slavery, or, which is the same thing,
of compulsory labor, is indispensable to the
successful prosecution of industry in tropical
countries. 1t is to this that the extraordinary
increase i'll produce in Java is to be ascribed;
and how much soever we may cry out against
the slavery of the United States, there cannot,
we apprehend be a doubt that its existence,
how Objectionable soever in many respects, is
necessary to the cultivation of the southern
States. It is the same in Cuba and Brazil.
Were their slaves emancipated, may it not be
fairly presumed that they would gradually, and
not very slowly, sink into the state of Mexico
and Hayti?"
Such are the views of British writer natu.
rally prejudiced against slavery, but testifying
to its indispensableness to the southern States
and to Cuba.
Shall Cuba then be Aficanized? or shall it
be permitted, in the language above quoted, to
"sink into the State of Mexico and Hayti?'
With such results before us-and in view of
our deep interest in its destiny-we answer, as
will the people Of the country, it cannot be
permitted. The motive of British policy is
wrong, selfish and hostile, we must oppose it
earnestly and, if need be, forcibly.