The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-07-15
Effects of Emancipation In the West
Indies.


Effects of Emanc GpatIOn Im the We st
Indies. 4
A recent official report to Parliament
from the Governor of Jamaics, says:
al look 1pon it as a settled point, that
the great mass of the emancipated popula-
tion and their descendants are betaking
themselves to the cultivation of the soil on
their own account, either as a source of
profit, or as the mere means of subsistence" !"
" There can be no doubt, in fact, that an
independent, respectable, and, believe,
trustworthy middle class is rapidly form
ing: and | assert my conviction that if the
real object of emancipation was to place
the freeman in such position that be
might work out his own advancement in
the social scale, and prove his capacity for
the full and rational enjoyment of personal
independence secured by constitutional lib
erty, Jamaica will afford more instances of
such gratifying results than any other Land
in which African slavery once existed"
sit would be difficult to conceive" Gays
the London Review, "a wider contrast be.
tween the condition of things as the plan.
ters imagined they would be--the idleness
and debauchery, the ruin and desolatiOn
they were sure would follow the emancipa-
ton of the saves-and those features of
rural industry and domestic comfort, inn
proving agriculture and growing opuence,
awakening intelligence and moral progress,
which are exhibited in the emancipation
colonies. Slavery ives the destroyer;
emancipation is the. restorer. The one
tended Invariably, through its whole his
tory, to impoverishmens and ruin the
other has awakened industry and conf
dence, and laid broad and deep the fouuda-
tions of lasting prosperity and wealth"
But it is alleged that the emancipated ne
groes are idle, and unwilling to work.
How, then, comes it that among the people
who are libelled as "squatters on the land.
of others, there are $4,000 families all
housed in their own cottages; that they
possess not less than 5000 small sugar
mills for man ufacturing their own produce /;
that the accumulated property of the nc
groes in Jamaica, since emancipation,
amounts to e., $685. 900; and three-ifths of
all the cultivated land in that island is the
bona Jfde property Of the colored people
bought and paid for by their own industry
Is it a mark of Incidence and improyidence
that the negroes of Jamaica have nearly
100000 in the savings banks, and of their
apathy, that they support their own relig-
ious institutions at an expenditure of many
thousand pounds, besides contributing to
the aid of foreign missions
EMANCIPATION IN THE WEST INDIES.
In 1888 the act received the royal assent,
which, decreed that slavery should termi {.
nate throughout the British Empire. That
benefcent measure, however, did not extin-
guish the evil at once, but provided for its
gradual cessation. From the first of Au-
gust, 1884, there was to be an apprentice
ship of six years for the praedial, and four
years for the nom p1 adial slaves, all under
six years of age being declared entirely
free on that day. The new law came into
operation at the appointed time, and the
change which transformed hundreds of
thousands of slaves into apprentieed labor
ers, was not only effected without blood
shed or disorder, but in all the colonies the
behavior of the people was most exempla-
ry. Two years after, there were such reVe-
lations of the violations of the new act,
and the cruelties practiced by the planters,
that the British public demanded, with one
voice, that the apprenticeship system should
be done away with, Parliament passed a
bill for Iemedying the defects of existing
laws, and providing increased protection
for the negroes. But, happily, the Legis-
latures of the several islands resolved on
immediate emancipation, and even Jamaica,
which long held out, was obliged to follow
the example of the other colonies.
On the first of August, 1888, the negroes
of the West Indies became free people,
The great change was effected without the
slightest, difficulty or disturbance. Even in
Jamaica, where the slaves had been most
cruelty treated, Sir Lionel Smith, the Gov
ernor refused to call out a single soldier,
or employ even policeman. "The influ-
ence of the religious teachers of the people,
b4e -esoHal raaiEa RANTS -rl9dn---.h:---,'Js--.y
the sovereign" he records, suficed to pre-
serve perfect order in the midst of thi:
great social revolution, and 100000 stdUe'
became freenaen Without a single breach Of III
peace, or the slightest sign Of disturbance.
N, ..,.,, U,ra,gv,ta