The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-09-16
remarks that may assist You in the better ap
prehension of them.

CRIME.
3. The criminal statistics of Slavery are al
together uEattainabfe for purposes of compari-
son. The petty offences which now 40 greatly
swell the records Of our courts we're mostly
punished by the masters when committed by
slaves, even against others than their mAsters,
it being matter Of common courtesy to apply to
the master, in the rst instance, for Satisfaction
in such cases and hence. generally speaking,
only the more heisous offences, TO which the
power Of the master wss deemed inadequate,
were brought before the public tribunals for
punishmens.I TAis class of crime has certainly
not increased amongat the emancipa.ed slaves
and but for my ipability, for the reason stated,
TO furnish psoof for thu statement, / should not
hesitate to expeess my confident opinion that
crime gsneeany has considerably diminished in
both extent and gravity. q a3s ~
:. We have three police magistrates, two OF
them sittisg daily, in Bridgetown, and one in
each OF tho eleven rural parishes. These adju-
dicAte in Ill summary cases, civil and criminal,
all debts not exceeding fI0 sterling, l$48,) and
trsSpasses and trovers involving an amount not
exceeding 40 shilings. ($960,) being within
their jurisdiction. They are charged, too, with
the preliminary investigstion Of al criminal
cases to be sent before the Superior Courts of
Sessions and Admiralty, &c. Yet, in the rural
at most two days, IN the week, fading that suf
6cient for the business of their respective par
ishes, containing populations varying from
eight to thirteen Thousand inhabitants.
The Court Of Grand Sessions, TO which all
indictments from the police magistrates not
coming within the special jurisdiction of the
Vice Admiralty Court are sent, holds three
terms during the year-in April, August, and
December. The number of cases seldom, on
an average, exceeds thirty-two or thirtythree
at each term. 10 December last, they reached
the very unusual number of fifty fve-namsly,
manslaughter, rape, malicious woundipg,
assault, riot, attempt to administer poison,
mot brought mp by the Attorney General, there
being no title of evidence to prove the infent,)
/ forgery, 81 larcenies. But the aggregate Of
the two preceding terma Was only 45-namsly,
ia August, murder, Convicted of manslaugh
teri malicious injury TO the person, 3 as
sault, setting FIRE to cane field, forgery, 2
utteriBg counterfeit coin, libel, 10 larcenies-
total, ~ and 10 April, rape, manslaugh-
ter, cutting and wounding, opening post
letter, IL larcenies-total, % 20 that the usual
average was still maintained through the year.
You have in these pretty fair view of the
description of crime prevalent among US. lido
not think that, were to run through the cal
endars of the last twenty years, there would be
the offences. The only variation would be in
the numbers, the larcenies being generally in
excess of all the others taken together, and
many of them petty enough to induce the in.
quiry, whether they might not b advantage
ously disposed of by summary process.
With densey packed population of some
10000 souls-the last census, three years be
fore the outbreak of cholera, in 1854, gave
l35,000-just nine-tenths of them colored and
black, I've call the mixed race here colored," W
three 6fths of that population but a. yesterday
liberated from the yoke Of Slavery, and thrown,
their own masters, upon their individual re.
sources, with no provision in Law for the desti.
tute, aged, and in6rm, among them-with such
q population, packed upon an area of 900
acres, these criminal statistics will scarcely,
should think, appear very greatly to our disad-
vantage. At any rate, am free to confess that
/ am altogether ignorant of the existence of any
other community in the world with whose Grim.
inal statistics they would not, all things con
sidered, compare favorably.
PRICE OF LAND
A.. There has been very marked increase in
the value of land since emancipation, and l
should not hesitate to say in consequence of
that measure. Land was only valuable during
Slavery in proportion to the facility of procur.
ing slaves to work it and those who did not
own slaves, or the means to purchase them,
never thought of investing in land beyond the
mere extent of building lot, with more or less
of grounds attached. If, as sometimes hap
peped, the improvident owner of few acres
with few slaves unthriftily sold off the latter,
one by one, it might be, to satisfy present wants,
the land became of little value as q marketable
commodity and if not bought in the end to be
incorporated with some adjoining estate, it not
t1x,r 70 l.
difusing labor, go to speak, and rendering the
purchase of it, according to need, possible to
the small land owner with little capital, at once
enhanced the market value of such lands, and,
by reaction, of land generally through the
Island. Land that, thirty years ago, no one
would have taken as gift, with the obligation
attached of paying taxes for it-sandy beach.
rocky gully sides, and the like, now sell read.
lily, in small allotments, to laborers, at four
hundred dollars per acre, and land of better
quality at an enhanced value of at least so
per cent. In two or three years, the lsborer
contrives, BY grubbing stones, selling, compost
ing, &C., to convert the ugliest and most un-
promising lot into very garden of fruitful.
ness.
Nor is it in small lots alone that this increased
value is apparent. believe that very few
estates that have changed hands since emanci
PATTON have brought much less Wittout the slaves
than they had brought soith them. shall inst
cite one instance, Friendship" in this parish,
St. Michael late purchase of our black friend,
Mr.. London Bourne, which you visited while
here. Containing, by estimation, l50 acres of
land, 1.-THE actual GU nifty now ia 1897 it was
sold near the close Of the Slavery era, with $50
slaves upon it, for El5,000 currency, equal to
about fl0 900 sterling, at the current exchange
OF the day. This was an estimated price, for
land and slaves equally, of ESQ currency per
acre for the one and per head for the other
and so in fact the bargain ran, as usual. Mr..
Bourne bought this estate, q few months ago,
f8,s0O sterling-I need not tell you, without
any slaves upon it. have not doubt he could
sell it today for 100000. This may be thought
an exceptional case, but, even as such, it must
be accepted as afording evidence of the gener.
| al fact OF increase in the value of land since
emancipation, which is all desire to show.
What the actual increase is, on the whole. or
even generally speaking, do not undertake to
determine. Indeed, it would be impossible to
do 90, with any pretension to accuracy, in the
absence of particular data, to which there is no
means Of access.
SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY.
s. There can be no manner of doubt that
| emancipation has given increased security to
person and property. To say nothing of the
slaves themselves, whose persons and such
property - they might possess we're greatly at
the mercy of their MASTERS, and to some ex.
tent of every free man Who cared to do a spiteful
thing, the masters themselves never felt secure,
either in person Or property, against the mach.
nations Of their slaves, aspiring to be free, or
seeking to be avenged for wrongs blandly styled
imaginary" I have heard Of some proprie-
tors WON this feeling Of insecurity drove to
take mp their residence in England, and it