The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1866-01-14
From the London Times
THE JAMAICA INSURRECTEON.
rs lhe Negro Capable ef self Goxernmen. :.

Us Ene Negro Capable Of Self GcvernmeDts
! There can be no doubt that the insnrrao
ton OF the negroes in Jamaica = an event o1
the most se-.0us import. Ii has been at
tended WITH some of the most horrible OUT
RACES that have ever been peTpetrated even
IN that horrible Hand of African lawlessness.
| II the OLD days of slavery the Jamaica he
gro was.noted among his race for his dar-
SeIouS character, and he arose against his
! niaster, nHeer the guidance of the Baptists,
on the very eve of emancipation.
siaee that time this race have been almost
masters themselves They have been
placed on political equality with the whites,
ana fIo1 their vastly superior Numbers they
| have been able to exercise an influence be-
yond what their INTEL: gencc should give
| them in any well governed state =
1hey have had their place in the Legis-
latnre and magistracy; they have been
! favored by the Colonial Office at home sac
cessiye governors have thought 1t necessary
| 10 uphoid them iii almost every difference
win the White population. The generation
winch was freed III eighteen hundred and
thirtv-eight, has been succeeded by another
NLieil mas grown MP under a system the
most favorable for eiiciting. all that was
capable of civilization in the negro nature
They have fine island, about the size of
! Yorkshire. almost to themselves they hay.
received the guidance of Jealous English
p
black mans friend, and who have done ali
IN their power to instruct and elevate him
IheE nave been taught the doct-Iaes, ana
reared as far as possible, in the practices of
christianity. Every child has had a much
better chance Of good education than the
great mass of car poorest classes have in
this country. A climate exactly suited to
them, abundance of land and the most easy
suHpIY OF the wants Of life ought to have
made them the happiest ana most contented
pestSantTy the world ever saw. It seems
however, impOSsib ble to eradicate the origi-
nal Savageness of the African blood
AS long as the black man has q strong
Nhlte government and Il numerous white |
population to control him, he is capable of
living as a respectable member Of society. |
lie can be made quiet and even Industrious !
HY the tear OF the supreme power and by |
he example OF those to whom he necessa- !
rily looks up to. But wherever he attains !
to certain degree of Independence there |
is the fear that he viii resume the barbarous |
life and fierce habits of his African ances- |
tors This has been eminently the case in |
Jamaica. In some OF the smaller islands |
the destiny of the population and the COM
plete occupation of the land have Obliged |
the black people to work steadily for wages
and there has been no reason to coIuut;,FfI of |
their conduct. They are said in such cases
to show reasonable industry crimes of
violence are untreQUent and their ofipnsc-
are only such petty theits as might lie cxS
pect2d from people SO little gifted and
until 0i late years, ST completely neglected. |
In jamaica, however, the circumstance
which to a more highly endowed people
would have been especially adyantapcOus |
have been the causes of failure The negro
has been able to live with little or no work
he has been able to get a patch of land |
readily, and to subsist by wretched culti-
yation Of it ; and the consequence is, that
considering the vast sums that have been
spent BY the English nation in freeing and
and preaching to them, they are
The most unsatisfactory portion of the race
that exists, either in the islands or on the
continent Of the New World. Nearly seven
million sterling Were paid down in eighteed
md thirty-tour to ruin the old proprietors.
md to purchase for these three hundred +
thousand blacks the liberty to SQUAT and I
maroon or to hang about the towns of the .
sland. How all the efforts of philantrODhy
lere ended may be read III our columns to-
lay.
The insurrection appears to have oricina- 4
ed in, and at the latest advc,s to be con
ned to the eastern part of Che island in |
he neighborhood of Morant BAY The
tr0cities committed are not recapitulated =
ere ii Is enough to say that the ucarop. | 81
.Ithout the smallest proVocatiOn, and ex- II
tied only by a tratTicidal hatred of tha 1
hlte man, have broken out into murder y
almost |
hite man they could seize. The CONT | r
ou&e, where a number OF gentlemen were i
session, was attacked, and, except the
DfiorS OF the SCpGy nut iHy, we know | E
)thmg Ill recent times, like the atrocities q
the blacks. Unotfending people. even the 81
inisters Of religion, whose lives had ba<1 r.
'ent IL preaching to theGl, were frichtfuIlv e
utllatud aud then murdered. Women r.
eu as men engaged IL the work OF blood
De writer OF q letter from the island s,xs. q
Eherc Is not white man in St. GEORGES in
% East, OF any one i'll charge of the O..
tes." The design OF the INSURGENTS e,- Tl
emily Las been 10 destroy the whole white in
pulation. What iAeir object in doinr tv
is could he, it is not Necessary to INQUIRE,
7 people so ignorant and SAVAGE were
obaDiy urged OK only by vague feelings of t
tired and desire for plumber.
1t may reasonably be hoped that the rec -,
cnts present in the West Indies. aided nv Al
niorcements from North America ana Nv
e crews OF the vessels on the station, will
able to restore order i'll the island, But
Is evident that such outbreak must
We a most grievous effect, through the an,
which it Will cause to nreva;l
years to come. 1t may be that the fa-ln
tunes o. the island will sink still lower
W that it is known that not even thirty j
lrs Of freedom and full political rights are a#
laoIe OF giving the jamaica negro the
tincts of civilized men That he was in
llglbly lale was known by experience.
&c ii had been necessary to bring coolies
Il round the globe to do the work yvI,icl
refused But 1t might have been boped -
1t he had lost the worst instincts of the
e, and that the atrocities of St Doninoo
qld not be repeated in free and evanrel :
1 jamaica. =
I Il