Washington sentinel., 1855-02-17
O. 0 IN m unit ate0.
For the Washington Sentinel


TO The Editors Of lie Sentinel:
GENTLEMEN In your paper Of February l5,
was attracted by an article taken from the
Mobile (Alabama) Tribune which article also
appears in the New York Tribune, Zone Of the
rankest Abolition prints in the country,) in re-
lation to the results of emancipation in Ja-
maca. Now, as | have been in that part of
the country, Of which the travelling CORES.
pondent of the New York Tribune speaks,
you would confer a favor by adding this, my
testimony, as corroborating the statements
made by that correspondent.
The Lord forbid that the slaves of the United
States should ever become so sunk in moral de
pravity and wretchedness as the free blacks Of
that once fourishing colony. In 1852, while on
my way home from travelling excursion, the
steamer stopped two days in Kingston for the
purpose Of coaling, and taking in supply Of
provisions. Little did expect to find in that
city, where the boasted freedom had heard
Of in the Island Of Jamaica existed, such
wretchedness, woe, and misery. That the
statements of the letter are true, l have no
doubt, and if Fred Douglass, or his right-hand
man-Horace Greely-will pay visit there,
and see for themselves, / have no doubt, if
they have one spark of philanthropy or Chris
tian feeling, they will cease their crusade
against slavery, and seek some other mode OF
alleviating the condition of those for whom
they pretend to have SO much sympathy.
But to the facts: While was in Kingston,
! saw hundreds of negroes lounging in the sun,
like allgators on the river banks in the dog
days. II was next to impossible to arouse
them to labor, and it was only when the negro
police officers were handsomely paid, that they
could prick the lazaroni to coal the steamer
in which was passenger, though and my
| iellow-passengers were beset by lazy negro
beggars, half clad and seemingly alive with
body insects, which did not induce the near ap-
| proach to them which the abolitionists invite,
but which they themselves delicately shun.
| There are, however, exceptions to the charge
| OF sloth (; for numerous parties OF halfstarved
and badly clad negroes free negroes of course)
importune strangers for the occupation Of Ci.
cerones to show them the town, such as it is,
indicating that everything is going to decay
under the boasted freedom of Fred Douglas,
Horace Greely, and Madam Stowe. Not only
in Kingston, bnt throughout the Island, SO
rich in agricultural resources, a similar blight
is exhibited. Too lazy to labor, or unwilling
to do so without being driven to it by their in.
human negro police officers, they subsist upon
wild fruits and roots and live in the most
filthy lewdness. Merchants with whom con-
versed, said that since the emancipation act was
passed, business had been declining and the
state Of morals among the blacks, had become
worse and worse and further that their eman
cipation was the most unwise scheme that ever
emanated from the English government.
! am at a loss to conceive how any man
with common respect for himself, or the leas,
regard for the good of his fellow man, can ad
vocate the setting free of millions Of slaves in
this land to become pest to society and dis
grace to humanity like those of Jamaica, whom
the British set free, or those in New Granada
whom Boliver delivered from the oppressor tc
become more oppressed and enslaved. May
the Lord forbid, Messrs. Editors that il should
ever come to pass among us, in this our day
and generation. Look on this picture and com
pare il with the well-clad, welfed, and con.
tented slaves of the South, and say if they are
not better of in their present condition. than
the free negroes gf Jamaica.