New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-02-01

,here were only 1876 plantations, producing
Ibs Of sugar. 81 $50 Toe. Of coffee and no cotoni
perdent Of which, The social and moral CONDITION % vac
reqroes instead Of being improved, has become ~
in tey worse and with few exceptions they nave suA
into laziness, sensuality and pristine baroarDy'
1t does not appear that the Professor ever visited
British Guinea His statements az to produce are
derived from official documents familiar to u.s. Inc
sceouut he gives of the present condition OF the
Iegro population as compared with its condition
under Slavery, was probably picked upat the tables
of ,be English planters Cor their Overseers rather)
TO vi hon the principal part of the Surnam planta-
tic. belong, and who had an obvious interest IN
believing and repeating everything tending TO throw
diseredii on the working Of emancipation
from information furnished us by an intelli-
CERT and impartial witness, who has an intimate
knowledge of the condition of things in British
G,iana, and in Demerara in particular de-
rived from three years residence there, and
communications subsequently, kept up with the
cobny we are enabled TO speak on this sub
led with at least as much authority as Prot
DrttenhofTer. In reference to the decrease OF su-
eo. coffee and cotton the following facts have an
important bearing. Under the slave system the
total population OF the colony decreased regularly
nj the rate of SO per cent or third OF the whole
in every ten years-of which the natural conse-
ounce was decrease in produce and abandonment
of plantations, which commenced long before the
abolition OF Slavery. The sugar planters, TO sup
ply their diminished gangs, bought up the slaves of
tie coffee and cotton planters, who also suffered
at the same time from foreign competl-
ton and both the coffee and cotton Gull
t;ation had been marked for abandon.
mcrt, before emancipation was thought Of
Since the slaves were emancipated the number OF
births has greatly increased, and the population
usy receives an annual accession from this source
But of course these newborn infants cannot work
in the field, neither do their mothers any longer
work there as before, while the adult population is
still liable to annual decrease, though in dimin-
ishlC ratio. Besides, many of the laborers now
own lands Of their own, and raise provisions in
stead of sugar.
A, TO the deterioration in the condition of the
negroes. the statements ascribed to the professor
are wholly unfounded. Under Slavery they went
eraHy lodged. Now many OF the emanclpated
slaves own houses of their own, better built and
every way more comfortable than the houses OF
many of our Southern cotton planters. They are
well clad and their diet is greatly improved.
large proportion Of the rising generation attend
schools and are taught to read and write, nor can
a country in the world be pointed out where in the
last thirty years the condition of the aboring pop
ulation has been more improved or their character
more elevated than it has been during that period
in British Guiana.
With respect to Surinam, we may remark
that instead of adopting the scheme of perpetual
serface, the Dutch Government has recently con-
verted the slaves into serfs for twelve years only,
after which they to be entirely rce-this twelve
years service being all the compensation which the
masters are to be allowed. 1t is stated, also, in
recent accounts from Europe, that a similar policy
has been adopted as to the Dutch colonies in
the East, where all the slaves are to become abso-
lutely free after the year 1860.