The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-11-25
WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION.


WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION.
We notice many evidences Of improvement
In the condition of the British West Indies.
The radical change in the social economy
which emancipation produced, together with the
depressing effect of repeal of the sugar duties,
which occurred soon after, had the temporary
effect of retarding production; but we are
gratifed TO perceive that the recuperative ener-
gies Of Freedom are beginning to assert their
power, and to give ground for the hope that the
Pecuniary advantages of Liberty will be album
dainty indicated by the emancipated blacks.
In the Island of Barbados, we see 1t stated
that the sugar crop the present year amounts to
10000 hogsheads; whereas, before emancipa-
. ton, the production never exceeded $4,000.
Here, then, is fact which the champions of
Slavery may explain in the best way they can.
The population of the Island is as dense as that
of any part of Europe, and yet its productive
capacity has increased two-fold in less than a
quarter of a century.
There is another point of view in which
the British West India Islands have greatly
improved, which never enters into the cold
calculations of selfish capitalists. We allude
10 the condition of the negroes themselves.
There has not been a day or an hour since
emancipation took place when the condition of
the negroes was not infinitely better than it was
before that event They are better off phys-
cally and morally. Before emancipation, the
poor degraded creatures herded together like
the beasts of the field, and marriage, even the
conventional form of it, which alone can exist
under system of Slavery, was the exception,
rather than the rule. Now, legitimate mar
rage Is the rule, and the former practice the
exception. This great change worth in itself
all the sugar which the Islands ever produced,
has been effected through the fundamentally
of Christian missionaries They have taught
the people to read the Bible, and impressed
upon their minds the obligations Of religion and
morality. which would not have been practical
BILE, even if permissible, while Slavery con
tinued.
We know that it would be in vain to urge
the importance of this change upon the atten-
ton of men who advocate the revival of the
slave trade; but all men, North and South, who
acknowledge the obligations of common mOrali-
ty and conscience, will agree with us in the es-
innate we have placed upon it.
The Improvement in the physical condition
of the negroes is marked $4,000 Of them in
Jamaica have become small freehOlders since
the act of emancipation and this class are be-
ginning 10 gather around them many of the
comforts of civilization.
Not only the West India proprietors, but the
Government of Great Britain, seem to under
rate the social amelioration of the negroes. and
10 look exclusively TO the tables of exports, as
the criterion of success. The truth is, that the
exports of colony serve TO indicate its depend
ence upon the mother country, rather than the
happiness of the people. Before the Revolu-
ton, the exports of Virginia exceeded those of
all New England, and there can be no doubt
that the production of an article of prime mar
ketabl0 value, like tobacco, enabled the planters
10 live in luxury, while tle farmers of the
North were forced into habits of economy and
selfreliance. Virginia imported luxuries in
exchange for tobacco. The North had little to
export, and could therefore import but little.
Poverty and necessity set the wits of the PEG
pile 10 work, and the result has been independ
ence, intellectual and moral Development, and
a proiusion of wealth. which Virginia can never
know while she retains Slavery
The Island of Cuba makes an immense ex
port, because it devotcs all its energies to TIA,
production of one or two articles of great valu,
IN the markets of the world But this is don,
at the expense Of every sort of Improvement
There is no division of labor Every article Of
utility or luxury is imported, and there is nc
trade or occupation in which the genius and in
tenigenee of the people can develop themselves
In TRUTH it is the characteristic of the plantation
system to look to no interest but that of The
planters, and to count nothing as worthy of at
tention except the staple production
The British West Indies are now free. and
the interests of the people should outweigh :
hundred-fold those of the handful of landed pro
prietors. 1t is not merely blunder. but ;
crime, in the English Government, to encourag,
the introduction of more aborers from Alric:
or China. The Islands are already populous-
many of them not behind ireland or Belgium
IN this particular; and ii is a monsirous piec,
of wickedness to crowd more laborers into then
TO compete with the natives. The population
of the West Indies is much too dense, unles
labor should become more diversified; an,
humanity would dictate the colonization q
South America from the Islands, instead q
the importation of coolies for the purpose q
reducing wages to the starving point.
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