New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-03-02


Of Democracy in America, :" that account has bean
closed by the de-.ructionOf the one or the otner
In the very midst Of this debate, and while these
cries ofreclamston and fear being poured TORN
IN full chorus, the republican government oil lo4o
sprsDg suddenly INTO existence. The continued ef-
istence Of Slavery in the French colonies was felt
to be incompatible with the fundamental ideas on
which that government was based, aud one Of rs
first acts was decree Of abolition. From that iho'
ment to this very little has been heard OF the frencn
colonies. An article in the lst of January number
ofthe Rrrw d, Den1 Monde, furnishes some inter-
estiDg details Of the progress results and present
position Of this social eIperiment.
The Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies
taken in hand by decree of the 4th of March,
164s, was formally declared on the 9th OF April
following. On the 3Othof April ofthe next year an
indemnity was voted to TIE late shareholders, 10 the
amount Of one hundred and twenty six million francs
about twenty-five mill on dollars. The general
mean for the four colonies, Martinique, GuadalouPe'
Guiana and the Isle of Bourbon, or Reunion, 80 1t
is now absuIdly called was Ave hundred and thirty
and sexes; four hundred and thirty francs for Mar
Unique, four hundred and seventy for Gusdaloupe,
ok hundred and eighteen for Guiana, and seven
hundred and five for Reunion. This was somewhat
below the rate Of the English indemnity, which had
amounted on the average 10 six hundred and thirty
i've francs, or shout one hundred and twenty dol
lara. Moreover, the Brtish indemnity was paid at
once in cash, whereas the French indemnity was
pad SIX million france in cash, and the balance In
FIVE per cent stock, reduced shortly after to four
ard half per cent. The British planters also
had the advantage OF high price of sugar at the
time of emancipation, and for several years after;
whereas, when abolition took place in the French
Colonies, the price of sugar WAS hardly remunera-
tive.
The emancipation thus suddenly decreed was
quietly accomplished, and without wasting adrop
of blood, except in Martinique, where some disor-
ders we're perpetrated; not however, BY the Gber-
ated slaves, but by mischievous persons Of the
white race. Nor were even the first days Of the
emancipation attended by any wholesale cessation
Of labor. In Reunion, the laborers now free went
on and scrupulousy fulfilled, without stirring from
their respective plantations the engagement to work
for wages into which they had been persuaded to
enter before their liberty was proclaimed In the
West Indies it was in the midst of the crop season
when emancipation was proclaimed. On many
plantations there were large collections Of gathered
cane, which, unless speedily hurried through the
mills, would ferment but, generally speaking, the
negroes were persuaded to go on with their work
AID to put of their holiday till the crop was over.
1t is true that the laborers soon began to avail
themselves Of their new liberty by removing from
one plantation to another. In this way, consider
able number of plantations especially in Martinique,
were for a time depopulated-generally those we
had been treated with least consideration. But
even apart from this, the negroes seemed for
time to find instructive pleasure in change, pass
ing from plantation to plantation, apparently in
mere spirit Of caprice, as if to show their nde-
pendence-sn evil, however, much more felt in the
West Indies than in Reunion. This, NATURAL
enough, resulted in decided diminuton of tn
crop of sugar, the object to which, in the slave
time, the attention of the planters continues to be
chiefly devoted. The crop i'll the year l847, i,
Martinique Immediately preceding abolition, ha
been forty million kilOe the kilogsamme is
about two pounds and ftth)-and thirty
two million kilogrammes in Guadalupe This,
however, was a very large crop. That Of the
preceding year, 1876, amounting to tweaty five mil
lions for Martinique, and twenty-eight for Guads.
loupe, was much nearer the general average. The
crop of l84e, in the midst of which the emancipa.
ton took place, was nineteen millions and over for
Martinique, and twenty millions and over for Qua
daloupe. In the two following years, in which the
attention of the planters aud even Of the laborers
was also distracted by violent political cOntroysr-
sizes growing out of the new republican instructions
introduced into the Islands, the crop continued
to decline, being for Martinique, in lS49, nine
teen millions; in 1885, sixteen millions; for Gsada-
loupe, seventeen millions and thirteen millions.
These two crops had been put into the ground in
the time of Slavery, and the planters began to eI-
claim that now that the last crop which had shared
the benefits of that system had been gathered, the
sugar cultivation would surely die out However,
they were little Modified by the distribution, in
1850 of the indemnity which, though they chose to
derde it as iusory was after oil not so very short
of the market value of the laborers in the time Of
Slavery, and being thus enabled to pay wages more
promptly, the crop of 1851 rose to tweHty.three
millions for Martinique and twenty for Guadalupe,
ever since which time there has been gradual im-
provement.
In the method of paying their laborers the plant
ers have tried number of experiments, generally
on the metayer plan. Asystem Of this sort-accord-
ing to which the proprietor furnished the lands and
machinery, and the laborers delivered the cane at
Tho mill tba lshorer receiving One.third. the pro-