The Democratic press. (Eaton, Preble County, Ohio) 1860-1865, 1862-04-03
from the London Atbcn@um. ]
Will Free NEGROES Work ?

dlan COLONIES Where once pros
perity reigned, there is now poverty
and distress; fonrishing towns
have assumed heeharacter of poor
country villages, forests have again
taken possession ofland once in
high state of cultivation, thousands
of families have bednSfpined or be,
come hopelessly q ileSBsAi fhilsfl
the negro, for whose sake sacrifices
so vast have been made, has hith-
erto shown no inclination to take
advantage of the freedom which
the nation generously bestowed
upon him. All the predictions of
our philanthropists have been fall
sified. The negro, unless compelled
by necessity, will not work. If he
can make sufficient money in a
day to cover the expenses of a
whole week, he will only work one
day out of the seven: and he is
moreover Every chary of entering
into any contract OF engagement
that can be enforced by law" The
West Indian planters have since the
daywhich proclaimed freedom toone
and rum to the other, resorted, but
with Indifferent success, to every
measure that could possibly induce
the black to work. Their last ray
of hope was that the protection
given to colonial sugar would be
maintained; but when, in 1915,
free trade swept away this remnant
of an antiquated system, general
despair seized the cane growing
community. We happened to be
in the steamer which took out the
intelligence of the Sugar Act
having passed through Parliament,
ard we'll remember the anxious
faces of those who hastened on
board to know whether their doom
was irretrievably sealed. For a
year or two the energies of the
planters were totally paraIyzed by
the repeated blows aimed at their
prosperity only one or two Of the
smaller islands including Barba-
does, where labor happened to be
abundant, weathered the Storm
Jamaca has to this day not recov-
cred herself. Mr.. E. B. Underhill,
in his new work, "The West In
dies; their Social and Religious
Condition." says:
"There were very few disposed
to take hopeful view of the pros
pets of the country. The newspa-
p,rs, with scarcely an exception,
represent things in their darkest
light; and if we may believe the
statements. increasingly made, ia
maica is hopeIessly ruined. In
the usual course of things, the
inhabitants of country are proud
of their native land, are disposed
to hide her faults, and to apologize
for her weakness. Planters, Off
cials, clergymen, merchants, shop
keepers, seem to take delight in
exposing the worst features Of its
social life, in declaiming against
the lower classes Of the people, in
representing everything as going
to utter decay, and in depreciating
the prospects before them. Moth
ing is right. The Government is
extravagant and bad. The officers
are venal. The Legislature is gov
erned by class interests, and ad-
dicted to log rolling The planters
are poor, the estates worthless, and
their cultivation thrittless and un-
skillful. The people are idle, vain,
improvident, unchaste. Their re-
ligion is hypocrisy. Their social
condition is ore of African bar
barism and dark superstition. In
short, the island is in a state Of
irretrisvable decay. Such is the
picture which is held up to stran-
ger, and no little pains are taken
to make him believe it to be a
faithful representation. There is
much in the appearance of Kings
ton to corroborate this view. Its
wharves are comparatively silent.
The large stores and warehouses
which follow the line of the harbor
are but partially occupied, and be-
tray but few signs of active bust
ness. Some are tenantleSs. Here,
forty years ago, the commerce Of
Central and Southern America had
its entrepot. 1t was the mart where
the productions of the tropical
countries of the West were ex-
changed for the manufactures Of
Europe. That trade has found
other channels. The island of st.
Thomas has partially attracted it
while cargoes are now sent direct
from the mills OF Manchester to
the markets they are intended to
supply. 1t is only in the shipping
season for sugar that activity pre-
walls among the stores, which were
formerly busy the year round with
foreign and inter colonial traffic
The merchant of Central America
rather prefers to avail himself Of
the facilities which steam affords
to visit the marts of Europe, then
to stop halfway at the warehouses