The weekly Anglo-African., 1859-08-20
From the Franklin Visitor
SAMUEL R. WARDS LETTERS FROM
JAMAICA
NUMBER ONE.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Nav 7, ,

q. w. REYNOLDS, EsQ.-IHy Dear Slr
You can scarcely conceive how delight
ed l was to receive two copies of your
Visitor" You are the first and only
American editor who has thus exhibited
kind remembrance of me since / came to
this island, in November, 1855.
Having resided here now three years
and a half, can say something about my
adopted country. If you will, shall say
it through your columns, hoping that l
may, at least, interest few of your iuve-
nile readers. If you think otherwise, why,
there is your waste paper basket, and yon-
der is the kitchen fire!
While our laws make no distinction as
to the color of Her Majesty's subjects,
still, for reasons which existed anterior to
emancipation, it is common to speak of our
different classes as white, colored, and
black The first are Anglo-Saxons, of
course, Tor rather that amalgamation of
English, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, Dutch,
Dane, Norman, Saxon, and what not, which
is called Anglo-Saxon;) the second is made
up of the several shades betwixt white
and black; and the last are, like myself,
| uninlSldkdDIo HeSToeS'
From the time of Cromwell's conquest
of the island to the era of emancipation,
all power was in the hands of the whites,
but the colored class received more or less
education-some, indeed, were thoroughly
educated, and, inheriting more or less the
property of their white fathers, they were
qualified, at the time of emancipation, to
enter into the full enjoyment of equal
rights, privileges, and powers, with the
whites.
The blacks were denied all education,
and almost all means of moral and intel
lectual enlightenment Such are always
the demands of slavery. AS a conse-
quence, emancipation found the negroes.
as a whole-there were few in the towns
in better circumstances-as ignorant, and
almost as much heathens, as when they
were first stolen from Africa. Since eman-
cipation, something has been done for the
education of the negroes, and more for
their evangelization, but when / tell that
out of revenue of 100000, our sapient
Legislature doles out but $4,000 year
for the education of the entire population
-400O 0O00-you will not be surprised to
learn that the education of the masses goes
on but slowly.
But as wish to speak more in detail of
the different classes of our population, l
will begin with
| THE WHITE CLASS.
The number of whites now in the is
land, it is said, does not exceed 5000 L
believe the estimate to be pretty correct,
though no census has been taken for seve-
raj years When the slaves were freed,
the great majority of the planters were
vexed and dissatisfied. But few of them
can forgive the British Government for
"taking away their property" albeit they
received g20,O00000 by way of compen-
sation. Indeed, within few days, 1 have
seen two articles in the Planters Organ"
the standard" newspaper, finding fault
with the abolition of the slave trade and
the shortening of the apprenticeship.
From 1888 until this day, they have done
their utmost to prove themselves ruined"
by the Emancipation Act. Having told
this untruth until they themselves believe
it, they have conformed their actions to it.
Hence, among other things, they have
abandoned their estates and gone to reside
in England, or those who have remained
few years, and acquired fortunes, have sold
out and retired from the island, taking ev-
cry farthing of their money, leaving the
island, of course, poorer by so much as
they abstracted from it. None are louder
than they in crying out about the poverty
and ruin" of Jamaica, Sl7ace and because
Of emancipation. 1t twere just the same as
if your farmers of Delaware county should
abandon their farms, allowing them to
grow up with thorns and briars, and, sell
ing everything they owned, should move,
en- ma0SSe, to Albany, because laborers in
Delaware were free. Search the world
over, and you will find no set of farmers
who have so verify played the fool as our
Jamaica planters of the old regime.
But are they ruined 7" Farms here
produce from g5 to ego net profits No
matter what be the cost of cultivation, such
are the net profits. But labor can be had
IN any abundance, at what is the minimum
rate in England, nine shillings per week
in England, where farms net but from 91
to g3 the acre-yet these men are ruinedn
for the want of labor because Of emanci-
patton! Suppose Delaware county farm
ers were suddenly, by some legislative en-
actment, placed in such circumstances that
it would cost them, with proper implements
of husbandry, S15, without them $50 the
acre to raise crops, which would bring
from $40 to $3.50 the acre, who among
them would be ruined" except such as,
from their laziness, deserved to be ruined p
But did emancipation "ruin" our plant
ers2 From the reign of the second
: Charles to this of the first Victoria. Jamai-