Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1853-10-18
REORGANIZATION I'm Jamaivn.

staple argument oil the chlvalrIc uphOlders OF
negro Slavery, is TO point to the. condition of the
Jamaica blacks. We are told that The liberation Of
the slaves there has proved total failure, that they
of than ever, that their condition is pitt.
able, and that the interests of the island are ruined.
After all, il it could be fairly proved that, in their
present state of transition, owing to emancipation,
there a clear deClenson in their morals and
happiness, such as is asserted TO exist, il would
prove nothing in favor OF human bondage. We have
YET 70 learn that because a mans labor produces
more under the lash than without it, he should be
lashed, or that his morals would be improved bv
buying and selling him. We are, far from believing
that any idle Southern geEtlemen among u.s. who
luxuriae in fashionable life either at home or abroad,
should be put into the factory the field, and made
to work under the blows of oVerseer's whip,
although their annual wages would amount TO mil.
lions. We believe in the higher law. We believe
thar no man has right 10 profit by the weakness,
ignorance, poverty Of his neigh bOr, and enslave
him therefor. We scout and contemn, aCcordnply
the logic which tells that the negroes Of Jamaica
produced SO many hogsheads of sugar under the
lash, and that now they produce SO many less. If
we cannot have sugar without slavery, let us do
without sugar. Sugar is sweet, but freedom is
sweetcr. But IL is faiSehoUd TO assert that we
cannot have sugar without Slavery France now
produces, annually, seventy millions pounds weight
Of beet sugar, the result Of free labor, and the guam.
tity is still increasing, and the price coming down.
ii the pandemonIum OF sugar plantations were abol-
ished, our Northern ingenuity would rush TO ill I'D
the vacuum with sugar made from beets, OF some
other substance, and the insenulties and economies
produced by Tree labor would compensate for
the superior sacchaTIne expression of the cane So,
100, it cotton were annihilated, Northern expert
ments ON flax would give us substitute. The idea
that man must be held in bondage on account OF
considerations Of commerce, is worthy of Judas
lscarot-worse in Tact, for he had the good taste to
hang himself after the commission OF his crime
We are led 10 these remarks from an examination
OF the actual workings OF emancipation in jamaica
The slaves there sIht ct simply 10 the laws of
the realm. They amenable to punishment iust
as are the " ites, and no more. Oh course, whats
ever crimes they commit not punished by thrIy.
nine ashes privately the plantation but they are
brought to Trial publicly and legally. il is true There
appear more crimes than formerly, because, under
the slave system, these private matters for the
most part, and expiaed by The whip; now they are
all patent. The same thing obtains under ali des.
pOtisus.
In Russia and Turkey we do mn hear of crimes
10 any extent, because there public newspa.
pers worth speaking of; but we travel from The
East 10 the Wes' and finally arrive on our shores,
we find some two thousand news papers, vivifed by
the magical telegraph, illuminating every dark hole
where wrong is commted-even on our slave plan.
taiions TO some degree. Ii is folly, therefore, for
the defenders Of the huge evil Of slavery to hold IN
ing of the chains Of slaves because Of The increased
crime which has ensued upon such emancipation
When we can tell exactly what was the crime be.
lore emancipation took place, shall be enabled TO
Know really the decension OF morals assumed TO
have taken place. What we do know ofsavery is
that theft rs common with those in bondage, as they
are wanting in personal responsibility and dignity
John Randolph reported that he never knew an
honest slave, except Juba; and we opne that
sanity Uncle Toms are the exceptions, and not the
rule.
The Kingston Journal utterly denies the failure of
emancipation in that island, and we hardly need saw
that such local authority is valuable 1t says from
The example around t,Americans need not be alarm
ed at freeing their negroes lest such step should
be followed by revolt of the liberated. No mighty
change, says The Kingston Journal, was ever known
TO have taken place, so peaceably as the emancipa-
lion in that island and il adds, that very large
number of those who were themselves owned in
1884, are now, in 1858, and have for some time
been the owners Of landed property, some of them
10, comparatively, a considerable extent
According to the same excellent and conclusive
authority the subject, depraved negroes exist in
Jamaica in abundance; for blacks form The greater
portion Of the population, Just in countries where
whites predominant, white criminals abound. But
asserts roundy, and challenges contradiction, that
in the short period Of fifteen years. the race has i'm
proved-not only improved, but progressed beyond
what might have been readily anticipated. "On the
whole, continues authority, ali the example Of
the experiment, as il is called in jamaica is 10 be
invoked, the Americans have not the shadow of an
excuse for continuing slavery in their Southern
States for twelve months longer"
what say our Southern papers TO this3 What
says the Cotton press9 Will they favor US with an
answer. We seek the truth in ihis weghty ques
tea, and not the mere triumph Of argumenl.-Neo
York Tribune