Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-06-22


aud school houses, as if by magic, dotted
the Islands. Under the new and strange
stimulus of freedom, these schools were
instantly filled with eager pupils, which
drew off another considerable portion of
labor from the plantations. The freed,
men, not willing TO submit to the brutality |
of nvcrseers, who still cherished the feel
ings, and acted as far rs they dare TO do
so on their old habits, acquired under sla-
very, refused to work on the sugar estates,
and found other and more profitable EN-
Payments, thus still further reducing the
number of field hands. In addition to all
this, the negroes there, AS everywhere else,
having passionate fondness for homes of
their own. purchased small tracts of land
for themselves, which they worked with
their own hands, finding it more
profitable as well as more Independent to
do SO, than to work by the year on the es-
tatee of the old propristors. This, again,
reduced still further the number of labor
e,s that could be had TO make sugar. I'm
der the operation of these and other
causes, the natural result Of the new or
der of things, the exports of sugar neces-
sarily diminished. Those, therefore. who
had but ONE IDEA--and that bounded by
the number of hogshea6s exported, could
see nothing on the other side of the pic
ture. The increased happiness of the pco-
pie and the real and substantial prosperity
of the Islands, instead Of giving them sat-
isElc;ion, became torture to them.
But while the exports diminished, the
imports Immediately quadrupled, and have
doubled many times since, clearly demon
s;rating the Increased prosperity of the
Islands, in their increased consumption of
imported goods. FFE
a large portion of the land has passed.
into the possession of the people, who cul
tivate 1t ON their own account. Industry
has become diversified. Every species of
production, Of which tho climate and soil
Is susceptible, IS produced in great profu
sion. Comfortable houses, owned by the
peasantry, and filled and SURROUNDED by
all the comforts of life, have taken the
places of the squalid hu!s of the olden
time. Quiet, order, education, religion,
general progress, and happiness, with vol
untary labor and its attendant thrift, have
taken the places of the boisterous brutality
Of the drivers lash, the sullen stolidity of
unpaid toll, the barbarism of compulsory
ignorance and its consequent superstition
in short, the Islands have received in
exchange, the blessings of freedom and
justice, for the Dlighting, wilhcriny, dam
ming curse of slavery and its inevitable
concomitants.
The world presents no spectacle of a
change 80 radical, of a progress SO rapid,
Of IL prosperity SO firmly based, of hap
pness so widespread and universal among
IL degraded and long oppressed people, as
these same w. l. Islands. And that is the
real trouble with our democracy" The
fact that 100000 negroes can pass from
the condition of slaves to that of freemen,
without disorder or tumult-that they can
show themselves capable of improvement
and progress, is the very thing that of
| lendS them.
But, if the enquirer" really believed,
rs it pretends 10 nave done, that the null
tilude of free negroes already there was
burden which depressed the country, it
acknowledges that the effort to induce the
emigration thithcr, of the same class from
the United States, has etiectually opened
its eyes. And it now secs dire dis
aster to tIe "peculiar institution" from
the building up Of an Industrious, thrifty,
cnterprising and powerful community of
free negroes. For if they demonstrate to
the world their capacity to take care OF
| themselves, what will become of modern
Democracy? The idea is too terrible to
endure, and the howls of impotent rage it
occasions are truly piteous. The thought
that negroes are permitted to bs free any
where is moustrous in the philosophy OF
these self-slyled Democrats but 10 be
really free and beyond the reach of op-
preston. as they are in the West Indies is
uncomfortable. And as the Enquirer"
says. "Ihis Offered matter Of very serious
consideration" The free negroes in this
country ''served TO keep alive the spiritof
abolitonism, and offered inducements, ref
uge and concealment 10 fugitive slaves"
1t would, therefore, be glad to get rid Of
them, but OH reflection it cannot consent
to let them go to Jamaca. "Their trans
fer there" it says, "would ultimately Gre
ate another point of aggravation. Free
negroes in jamaica would become more