The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-03-10

Notwithstanding we have not sugar planter
| among us.
But, sir, aside from the fact that the cultiva-
ton of sugar may have suffered somewhat con-
siderably in the British West India islands,
| where this great experiment of emancipation
has been tried, that beyond that it has been a
failure | utterly deny, and / do not stand here
10 speak without the book upon that subject.
| ] hold in my hand a report made to the British
House of Commons in 1857, entitled Accounts
and Papers" The first piece of evidence to
which desire to call the attention of the SEN
ate is copy of dispatch from Governor F..
Murray to the Right Honorable H. Labouchere,
dated Bermuda, June l8 1885," | think the
Senator will find that every authority which /
quote to him is older and later than those
which he gave to the Senate in the remarks
which he submitted. Governor Murray, in his
report, says:
Sir: | have the honor to transmit the Blue
Book for the year 1855.
" am happy to report that the general state
and prosperity of the colony is satisfactory ;
that is strongly exemplfed by the fact, las
you will perceive by the tabular returns that
the exports have increased in value, when com
pared with last year, from f25,56 to f4l APO,
and that the imports have increased from
el20,3S9 to el62,556. To this sum must be
added imports to the value of 1882 for the
use of her Majesty's military and naval forces,
and that of the convict establishment, making
the total imports Ell 1888. There has also
been an increase in the revenue, notwith
standing that the dd calorem per centage duty
on imports had been reduced one per cent
Agricultural and commercial enterprise are
steadily augmenting, and improved habits of
industry are observable among the people
generally"
Il r
report made from Lieutenant Governor Short
land to Governor Hincks, dated the 10th day
of June, 1856, and written from Tobago. He
says, in this report:
/ our EXcellency submits to me the ques-
ton relative to the employment of the negro
| population not engaged in the culture of
sugar-'w whether they are industrious, or, as
represented to be the case in some colonies,
! abandoned to sothful habits, and content with
the mere necessaries of life The negroes of
this island cannot be termed slothful or aban-
doned they bear the character of being order
ly and well disposed, and, / believe, deservedly
so. The black and colored classes have ac-
quired considerable amount of property
| Many have raised themselves to the position
of lessees Of sugar estates, and spirit of en-
I ulation seems to be on the increase. l am
aware of offers having been made to propri-
~etOrs by the negroes to rent Estates and to re-
pair the works at their own cost indeed, in one
instance, three negroes have taken the lease
of an abandoned sugar works, and have re-
paired both the mill and the boiling house
Several other instances might be adduced of
equal enterprise. am not, however, prepared
To say that the negro, as class, can be called
industrious, in the true sense attached to the
word. He is not fond of continuous labor"
This is what the Governor says, and in that,
| would add, he is not singular:
:" But, when working for himself, taking the
average of year, he performs considerable
quantity of work. When working for hire, he
. gives his employers the smallest quantity he
finds will be submitted to. The struggle, too,
never ceases he must be constantly urged
forward or he would fail to work. Neverthe-
less, am induced to extend to him decided
preference over all other laborers for general
2 purposes in tropical climate"
next read from the report of the Colonial
Secretary to Lieutenant Governor Shorthand,
dated June s. 1856, and some memoranda at
tached thereto, | believe, by the stipendiary
magistrate. Speaking still of the island of
Tobago he says:
" The fact that a great majority of the negro
population whether plantation laborers or
otherwise-have, since emancipation, left the
| plantation negrohouses, and acquired COM
| Portable residences of their own. may be taken
as prima fdcie evidence that they are indus
triouS and saving. No man, contented with
the mere necessities of life, will work, and
save up money to buy a piece of land and
erect house, and pay the taxes to which he
thereby subjects himself | have been up
wards of twenty years in Tobago, and | deny
that its peasantry are abandoned to slOthful
habits. | assert, on the contrary, that more
industrious class does not exist in this world
H., 4, ~
no reason, either, for employers on estates to
find fault. In the face of our taxation, Sd
day is not a very remunerative wage to la
bOrers whose employers in Great Britain are
comparatively untaXed for the produce which
they extract from Tobago. Better wages will
procure an increase of work. a minimum of
wages naturally purchases a minimum in re-
turn, and prompts the peasantry to labor for
themselves rather than for their employers"
The next is a report from Antigua, another
Of the British West India islands. | read from
a dispatch from Governor Hamilton to the
Right Honorable IL. Labouchere. Governor
Hamilton says:
Although there has been great diminution
in the value of tropical produce, and the labor
Of the plantation cultivation has proved in va
rious years unremunerative, yet, upon the
whole, the success of the cultivation by free
labor, of the valuable staple commodities of
the West Indies, in welpeoplcd colonies, is
demonstrated by the results produced in this
island, as well as in the neighboring island of
Barbados; and experience has sufficed TO
convince the public mind that there is no suf-
tcient cause for dependency in the agricul-
tural condition of the West Indian colonies"
Here is another colony, not one of the West
Indies, but one in which the experiment of
the abolition of Slavery has been made-Mauri-
thus. What ] am about to read is taken from
a report of Governor Hgginson, dated May l3,
1856. He says:
"Our sugar crop, for the past year, reached
one hundred and two thousand tons, and that
now about being reaped promises to be still
more abundant. Should the season continue
as favorable as it has hitherto been, the com
: ing crop may be estimated at not less than
one hundred and twenty thousand tons-about
double that exported in 1850; and as large
tracts of cultivable land still lie unreclaimed,
only awaiting the hand of the husbandman.
provided nothing occurs to obstruct the steady
influx of immigrant labor, it is hardly possible
to estimate the limit of producing power at
tainable within another FIVE years."
These are all official documents, sent to the
House Of Commons by the Governors of those
islands. But have later and a more minute
authority. Last year, in 1858, a gentleman re-
siding in Boston addressed series of queries
| to Governor Hincks, Governor of the five Wind
ward Islands; and will read you an extract
from his answer:
a" GOVERNMENT HOUSE, BARBADOS.
January 9, 1858.
Ny DEAR SIR: Willingly comply with your
request, that | should communicate to YOU
the opinions which l have formed as to the
results of the abolition of Slavery in the Brit
ISL West Indies, as well in their bearing on
| the civilization of the emancinatnd CLASSES o.