The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-02
THE WEST INDIES AS THEY WE'RE
AND ARE.


The Edinburgh RecieD for April contains an
article with the above title which cannot fail to
make profound impression upon the public
mind of the United States, as well as of Eng
land. For dozen years it has been the fash
ion, with heartless politicians on both sides OF
the Atlantic, to speak of I" the failure of West
India emancipation" as one of those great,
broad, historical facts, about which there can
be no dispute. In vain have the special organs
of the Anti-Slavery canse protested that the
seeds of ruin and decay in the Islands were
sown by Slavery, that the planters were bank
rupt or hopelessly involved in debt before
emancipation took place, and that the cruelty
of Slavery was rapidly exterminating the black
population. These statements have scarcely
received passing notice at the hands of the
friends of Slavery. With their habitual infatu-
alton, prejudice, and ignorance, the more hon.
est portion of them have probably never heard
these counter statements while the interested
demagogues have either denied them fatty, or
treated them with silent contempt.
We congratulate the friends of Freedom,
therefore, upon the appearance of this vigorous
and searching article in the Edinburgh Recie'o.
It will be read by tens of thousands in the slave
as well as the free States, whose inveterate pre-
JUDGES will not allow them to open an Anti
Slavery newspaper, nor to credit statement
emanating from such quarter. The COM
manding position which the ReUiesc has occu-
pied for fifty years in the world of Letters, Sc
cures for it the attention of all who aspire to
enter the charmed circle of literature; and
every educated STAKEHOLDER would regard it as
a stigma upon his fair fame, to be without the
Edinburgh Reciep. We need not commend to
the special notice of the class, the able article
on the West Indies. The subject is too deeply
and permanently interesting to them to be
passed over or neglected, and we feel assured
that it cannot fail to enlighten many honest
minds, which have for years CROPPED in the
thick darkness of ignorance and prejudice.
The Recieao presents powerful array of we'll
authenticated facts in support of its positions (;
and the candid mind cannot retain a lingering
doubt, after weighing them, Of the bene6cent
results which have flowed from Emancipation.
In the first place, he states, upon the authori-
ty of official statistics, that there was rapid
diminution of the slave population going on
prior to the act of emancipation, and that that
act Of justice has been followed by an equally
rapid increase of population. This fact alone
is worth all the sugar that the islands ever did OF
will produce, in the estimation we will not say
of Christians merely, but OF honest men. There
are eighteen islands. In eleven of these there
was diminution of population in twelve years
preceding the act of emancipation, amounting
to the appalling number of 60,2l8, viz from
558,l to 497, 1915. Had similar returns been
made from the remaining seven colonies, the re
viewer estimates that the decrease must have
been little, if at all, short of 100000. 1t is an
easy sum in arithmetic to ascertain, at this
rate, how long it would have taken to exterlni
nate the negro race in the islands. We may
remark, that the same process of determination
is now going on in Cuba with still greater
celarity and it would long since have freed
that island from Slavery, by the destruction OF
the negro race but for the constant recruits that
are brought in from Africa. The negro popu-
lation is consumed, by the infamous system OF
Slavery which prevails there, every seven years
and yet the shameless advocates of Slavery
propagandism, such as Senator Benjamin, hold
up the prosperity of Cuba for the admira-
ton of a civilized world. American Slavery is
bad enough; but it is negro paradise, par
ticularly in the more northern slave States
when compared with Slavery in the West In.
dies. 1t were better thousand times that the
production of sugar and coffee should forever
fail from the earth, than that the fendish cru
city which exterminates whole race every
seven years should be kept in existence. Even
Benjamin, in his speech in defence of the &C
QUESTION of Cuba, stated this fact, in regard tc
the destruction of the negroes, and relied upon
it as an argument for annexation. But is there
any reason to suppose that the permanent
habits of the Islanders would be changed, OF
that the detestable slave trade would be sup
pressed, by annexation On the contrary, We
maintain that the traffic, even if not legalized
would enjoy greater immunity in the Union
than under Spanish dominion.
The reviewer says, with emphasis, that
Whatever there may be said for West Indian
Slavery, this damning thing must be sale
against it, that the slareS tcere dying oft"
But emancipation took place, and, notwth
standing the embarrassing circumstances which
attended the act, the best consequences imme
diately followed. The negroes-released from
the terrible ordeal Of Slavery, from the merci
less lash of the overseer, fsom cruel overwork
ing and half feeding-began to increase anC
multiply. " In the next twelve years. says tn,
reviewer, "there was an increase of 54,O7(
in the number of the negroes of but ten colo
MES, (no returns having been sent from tn.
larger ones.') We may add, that, allowing .
corresponding rate for the larger colonies, tn,
total increase of population in the twelve year
must have been considerably above one hun
bred thousand Here, then, is the contrast
between Slavery and Freedom. In a dozel
years, the one system destroys and reduce
population ut the rate of twenty per cent
while the other fosters the increase of popuia
ton in still greater ratio.
A comparison of Freedom and Slavery. AZ !
regards the production of sugar, shows result
which promise to be, at no distant day, equal
favorable to the former. Emancipation tool
place in 1884. The following brief extrac
from the RevieW viii show the retrograde con
dition of things prior to thai period;
q In the Eve years ending with 1925, the 81
port of sugar from Jamaica was 5S5, l72 hogs
heads, but had fallen to 493, 784 in the fiv
years ending With 1890 decrease of no les
than 81, 1888 hogsheads, Nay, in the ten year