Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-05-21
DEPARTURES-
Fruits OF Negro Emancipation.
,.Iasrosr.Ist .AnHoap.

The island of Jamaica has been an Euro |
pean colony for three hundred and fifty years,
and an English one for over two hundred.
Ii has always been, until of late years, one of
the most productive of the West India Islands.
The slave and the free black and mixed pop
ulation has always been greater in proportion
to the whites than in any OF the other islands
This Island was first discovered by the Span
iartls, May Sd, (old style,) 1892, but they did
not occupy it until 1559, at which time 1t was
supposed to contain about million of people
This population was reduced in few years
by the cruelties and exactions of the Span
iards, to about sixty thousand. No wonder
that the pious Las Casas petitioned that their
places might be filled by the sturder blacks,
that his gentle and docile converts might be
saved from total annIhilatiOn. The island is
remarkable for the unevenness of its surface,
the narrOwneSs of Its valleys, and the height
OF Its mountains, which, in the case of the
Blue Mountain, reaches an altitude of 5000
feet. What makes it of peculiar importance
to England is that its 700 miles of sea-coast
contain many excellent harbors, while it is the
station of her East Indian fleet. Not more
than half of the island is fit for cultivation,
while the rest is used for pasturage, or is COW
cred with the dense growth of the rare and
heavy goods of the tropics. The Island was
ceded by Spain to England in l656, and sugar
planting became the great business of the in
habitants. We find that as early as 1870
there were seventy sugar works upon the
island; IN 1889. there were 429: IN 1868, 65l;
and in the height of its prosperity, in 1871,
there was 761, comprising about one third of
the entire farming land The remainder was
laid out, as now, in coffee, pimento, and pro-
vision grounds.
We give this slight sketch of Jamaica that
our readers, by seeing something of its early
history, NAV judge whether uneducated labor
is not much more lucrative when directed and
controlled by competent authority, than when
left to itself
There are certain persons who, on all occa-
sions, hold up Jamaica as pre-eminent exam
pie of the advantages of making the slave an
equal of his master; and so besotted are they
by this notion. that they do not hesitate to
sacrifice the truth of history. To illustrate
the tallacy of any such assertion, or, rather,
It's falSity, shall give a few facts drawn
from British Blue Books. We are led TO do
tins because we think there many we'll
meaning, honest persons who are imposed
upon by the assertions of tie negrophilists.
The island was the place where the grand
pists was carried out The planters received
about one-third part of 500 900 voted
by the British Parliament so effect the eman-
cipation of the blacks; and it is remarkable
that the average price of slaves in Jamaica
was about double that in some of the other
islands From the year 1890 to the present
time. the whole number of inhabitants has not
materially increased. while the number of uA-
mixed whites has decreased about one-halE
The apprentice system. introduced a the
prelude TO final emancipation. did not increase
the material interests of the island for we
have the testimony OF Mr.. Madden. one of
the Justices sent out from London. in S34 10
see 10 the proper administration OF the law
that living IN Jamaica was nearly double that
in England. The commercial tables of the
island show that even in 1886. the last year
OF the apprenticeship system, the imports
were SIO.57O, so5. and the exports Sl5, ,6O7.-
$50. But in the year of Jubilee. 1887, not
withstandiug the flourish of trumpets a TO how
much free labor would increase the produc-
tons of the island. the imports fell OFT about
two and half millions
In single decade during which the free
blacks had attained To places In the magistracy
and the jury box. and. according TO their ad-
mirerS had remarkable progress in industrial
pursuits. the imports had again fallen off four
and thrcc-quarter millions. and the exports
the enormous sum OF over five millions and a
halt. In another decade. 1857. we find that
these figures are again decreased BY twenty
five per cent. Do these tables need anv com
mentary! Do they not portray, in a simple,
but most effective manner. the ruin OF noble
country by the misguided philanthrophy OF
fanatical men?
Perhaps it may be claimed that the blacks
in freedom consume more of their produc-
tons than they did in slavery. That this Is
no, 50, is shown BY the following comparison
In 1911, among the staples produced were
l27, 75l hogsheads of sugar, 59, ,O9S'puncheons