Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-11-14
Tho Opera tIOns of she Negroes In

The Operations OF the Negroes y"
an N ie Jamaica. 0 ai bln-p+
sGiye to the emancipated Negroes the
same political privileges that are enjoyed
by White men, and you thereby open to
them the way to thrift integrity, human-
ityIand morality; but if You shall refuse to
do this they must continue chained to de-
graded life. is in effect the plea urged by
those who are the avowed champions OF
the welfare Of the emancipated slaves.
Their plea is susceptible of but one con-
struction, and that is that they hole to the
opinion that the development OF the chris
tlan virtues and the higher faculties OF man
alone dependupon the exercise of the elee-
tive franchise and Che holding OF Office. Inc
assumption is justifable that men may
even be yirtuous, frugal and thrifty with
utbeing in the enjoyment OF the same po-
litical privileges with other men living In
The same community with them.s The Ne
eroes In the South who were held In con-
ditIon of slavery are now free-free to labor,
and To live of of the fruits Of their labor
free to make their own contracts-free 70
support their own families-free from the
serv,le condition that IL was said debased the
Intellect and blunted the moral sensiollities
of the African. They are now turnlsneu
AN opportunity to give to their intellect
elevation and publication to their moral
sensibilities. TO confer upon them at this
time the privilege of suffrage will neither
serve as a spur to their intellect nor as an
element of publication to their moral sense.
That we are not venturing an unauthorized
opinion we propose to show. The slave
trade was interdicted in Jamaica by the
British Government in 1908. IN 1888 Eman-
cipation was decreed in that Island by the
same Government; with the decree OF
Emancipation was coupled provision that
the emancipated slaves should be held to
an apprentice system for twenty years; DhC
In 1888 that provision was rescinded ana
the emancipated slaves were put upon
oerfect political equality with the Whites.
The political barriers that hitherto existed
between them was stricken down and swept
out Of the way. Those emancipated slaves,
themselves and their progenitors, were OF
the same race as our emancipated slaves.
From the same country they came; OF like
mental capacity, and moral appreciation
thew are, whom it was said slavery had
degraded, debased and demoralized. Ihey
were not fresh importations from Africa at
the time the decree of Emancipation went
into effect. Between the going into efect
of that decree and the prohibition OF the
slave trade in the Island, there was period
Of twenty-five years-a quarter OF CEN
tury. Whether they were more deoased,
more blunted in their moral perceptions
than the race from which they sprung in
Africa, is immaterial. 1t is sufficient to
know that in five years after their Emanci-
patton, they were considered worthy py
the British Government to be exalted into
q political equality with the White people
in the Island. Here is point to go to as
certain how far or how completely those
emancipated slaves justified the confidence
reposed in them by the British Government.
Thirty years elapsed between the prohiopi--
tion of the slave trade and the elevation Of
the emancipated slaves to a political equal
ityiwith the Whites, and since their eleva-
tion to that equality twenty-seyen years
have passed-more than quarter of CEN
tdry. There, therefore, has been ample
time in which to test the question whether
the Black is the equal of the White Man,
The experiment has been full and complete.
There have been no drawbacks to 1t nor Inn
pediments thrown in the way. p.as
What Is the result9 The Island of Ja-
'maica Is among the most fruitful upon the
face of the globe. The average annual ex-
ports from the Island from 1903 to 1907, were
2lI,139,2OO lbs. of sugar, &c, ,426 P. Rum, 49,
625,377 lbs. coffee, and from that date the
expectations continued to decrease, until
in,lS4s they amounted to only 67,539, 200
lbs. sugar, %, ,l94 P. Rum, 1884, 92l lbs. coli
Zee. We have not at hand any statistics by
which we can ascertain the expectations for
afew years past, though they must have
run down to nominally nothing. The
London Times in 1853, in speaking of the
results of Emancipation in Jamaica, used
this language: = ~. z .-',.o~' 81
s.The Negro has not acquired, with his
freedom, any habits of industry or morale
ty. His independence is but little better
than that of an uncaptured brute. Having
accepted few of the restraints OF civiliza-
tion, he is amenable to few of Its necessi-
ties; and the wants of his nature are 80 cas-
ily satisfied, that at the current rate OF
wages, he is called upon for nothing but
fitful or desultory exertion. The Blacks,
therefore, instead of becoming intelligent
husbandmen, haze become vdgrants and squat
ters, and IL is no,o dpWeheaded that ,clth the
failure Of cultiudtion IN the Island totH come the
failure Of its resources for i,structtng or con-
trolling its population. So imminent does
this contamination appear, that memorials
have been signed by classes of colonial So
cietY hitherto standing alOof from politics,
and not only the bench and the bar, but the
bishops, clergy, and ministers of all de-
nominations In the Island, without excep-
tion, have recorded their conviction, that,
IN che absence of timely relief, the religious
and educational institutions Of the Island
must be abandoned, and the masses of the
population retrograde to barbarism."
Several years since, Mr.. BIGELow, then
one of the editors of the NJ. Euenirg Post,
spent winter in Jamaica, andin reviewing
the returns published by the Jamaica House
Of Assembly, in 1858, in reference to the
ruinous decline in the agriculture of the
Islands and citing the great quantities Of
lands that had been thrown out of cultiva-
-