Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-11-12
[From the Correspondent Of the Washington Cuion.l
Effect of the Abolition OF Slavery I'm
the Island of Jamaica.

the Island of j amaica.
wish it were in my power in few words
without dwelling too long on n most unpleas
ant subject to convey To you an adequat,
idea of the poverty. misery, and degradation
which the emancipation of the slaves has
brought upon country which the anti
slavery papers in the United States basely
represent as an example for emulation.
cannot think of these shameless falsehoOds
without feeling an Indignation which it would
ill-becOme me to express in adequate Ian.
guage. | am induced to bring the subject
before you by observing in the colonial news
papers extracts from some anti-slavery publ.
cation respecting Jamaica which has recently
appeared in the United States.
Nothing can be more untrue than the sup
position that the idle, dissoute. and criminal
population of Kingston presents an unfavor-
able contrast to that of the country. In the
interior, where the whites are thnly scatter
ed, the police insufficient, where example for
good is wanting, where the means of subsist-
ence for man in savage state is abundantly
provided by the liberal hand Of nature the
negroes give themselves up to African idle
mess, Obsceuty, and vice, without the shadow
sof restraint which exists in towns; and d.
sease, the consequence of their crimes and
fcarelessness, is gradually thinning their num-
bers. | have Just returned from a visit in
the Parish of lietcalfe, one of the most fer
tile and once one of the most hourishing ar
Ericultural districts of the island. L spent
some days on what was once coffee planta-
ton. producing from seventy to one hundred
jhogsheads of coffee. IL is now overgrown
with wood and almost impenctrable jungle.
the exubcrant production of a fertile soil
abandoned to the culture of nature; and the
whole district is so infested with the silver
tick as To have become almost uninhabitable.
From the property referred to may be seen
five coffee plantations, or rather the ruined
mansions of five abandoned coffee plantations,
(which once gave al Income 10 their respec-
tive owners of from two to five thousand
pounds year. Not a coffee tree is now cul-
tivated in the district; the proprietors have
gone; some of them are in great poverty in
England. some have died beggars, and others
have left the country or sunk into obscurity
Somewhere; no one knows what has become
of them. Their succes-ors-the negroes
with abundance of the finest possible soil
around. them which they caa cultivate for
their own profit, live in squalid idleuess, pre-
serring to sleep in the sun and satisfy the
cravings of hunger with wild fruits to the
sasy labor required for the cultivation of gar
len yepctabEs--articles now IN "A eat demand
at high prices In the towns. Such is the
iearth there of every article requiring the
imost trifiing exertion of foreIhought and in
uiustry that WIS compelled to bring from
Kingston "A horse luld ii with Inlcrlofa corn
Intended for the food OF the animal on which
u rode as we'll as his own CONSUMPTION. sAa
r The silver tick, which / have mentioned
,lboyc. was solittle kaOwn in the island in
he DAYS OF cultivators that the oldest in
,abitants are il general totally uuacquainted
Nth it. ~ a.s
s This island. like Trinidad aud British
,.Iiana. is abont 20 set ol foot plan OF
immigration from India, all perhaps China.
6 order TO supply the deficiency of labor
nutfercd by agricaitarists. There could not
Ie,e a better proof Of the worthiesshess OF the
..sgro as a free laborer- No such deficiency
xisted prior 10 the emancipation. although
Aewice the number vi estates now worked were
Then In full cultivation, and although the pre-
ent agricultural and ether Industrial pro-
puets of tn, isIand are bat third Of what
rebey then were. You will understand the
iiaase of the deficiency OF labor now unques-
gfouabIy existing anen informed thas The
uI,borers on the plantations have not yet
turned out for work since The first Ut the
Saontb. having been all this time engaged in
celebrating the Anniversary holidays Of their
eImancipation; and that, tfier last Christmas,
10 work was done on the plantations until
rue middle of February. By the illst-inen-
kaoned holidays The planters, Il u estimated,
,st a fourth of their crops, owing 10 the d.
,inution of saccharine matter Ia The canes
II nd the rayages IF cane rats. 5000
:, II The traveller VINO lands IN any Of the sea
,ls,rt towns Of Jamaica finds a collection Ut
Huins whose cAlen' ai0He 'na''"'e' '''' 'sa' "