The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-04-03
CHARLES TON.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 8, 1867.
FREE NEGRO LABOR.

WEDNESDAY, MORNlNG, AThlL . LOOT
FREE NEGRO LABOR.
ssThe Ordeal of Free Labor in the British
est Indies is the title of highly instruc-
tive volume, recently published by MIR. Will
LIAM G. SEwELL,-one of particular interest at
this time to us of the unreconstructeo ooutn-
ern States. That the history OF the britasn
West Indies is, in many cases, analogous TO
ours is so obvious, that for thirty years, ever
since the abolition of slavery in those Islands,
Jamaica has been standing repertory, from
which editors, orators and pamphleteers drew
their illustrations. OF course, as is always Inc
case in such controversies, each party found
confirmation of its own preconceiVed theory IN
contemplating the history Of those colonAes'
since the emancipation of their slaves This
may seem strange. Can the same tree oeaF
both sweet and bitter fruit ? let 1t ls not
whit more strange than those angry and never
ending controversies the world has witnessed
for upwards of eighteen centuries, where "
see opposite sects and parties, each strenuous
ly contending that it's own, and no other, is
the true rendering of the sacred text.
The West Indies were like these Southern
States in many respects, and unlike them IN
others. In order, therefore, to draw any useful
lessons from their history, it is first necessary
that we should be well acquainted with that
history, and not rely upon loose Impressions on
the one hand, nor allow ourselves to be msled
by books written for partisan purposes. MI
sEwEIL appears to have been as nearly unbl-
assed as can be expected from an intelligent.
contemporary Of those stirring questions that
have uprooted our social and political system.
He says he went to the West Indies with no
cherished theory of his own on the subject OF
slave or free labor, and that he regarded the
question of the comparative value and success
of free over slave labor as one purely CONNER
cial. He was, at the outset of his investiga-
tions, of opinion that emancipation had ruined
those islands; but the result Of his labors seems
to be altogether different from that Of other
travellers and writer's who have preceded him.
BE it remembered he distinctly disavows
ssphilanthropical'' and fanatical prejudices. He
says that with the exception of Jamaica all the
islands are wealthier and more prosperous
than they were thirty years ago,-that if they
produce less sugar, this deficit is more than
sounterbalanced by other articles of export,
that even sugar can be cultivated with more
economy by free than by slave labor, and
that. the Jamaica sugar estates had reached
their az ne long before the Emancipation Act,
and had commenced steadily to decline.
!ssThe embarrassments of the planters in those
days." he says, .swere owing to heavy incum-
brances, to want Of capital, to. extravaganza
and absenteeism. In 1892, before the abolition
Of the slave trade, the Jamaica House of Rep
resentatiyes reported that within twenty years
1877 estates had been sold for debt. Again in
1907 the same body reported thatin the 1--WE
years preceding the abolition of the slave trade
65 estates had been abandoned. In 1881 it
was the policy of the planters to prove the ex-
pense of slave labor, and to show that without
the slave trade they could not produce sugar as
it was produced in those islands where the
traffic was not prohibited. In the parliamsn-
tary blue books of the day, we find the most
elaborate statistics Of the cost of slave labor,
and among other items of their expensive
system, one which fixed the average number of
non effective slaves on an estate at 80 and 40
per cent, was strenuously urged"
Mr.. SEwELI says that the planters have now
become thoroughly reconoiled to free labor,
and consider the present system more profitable
than the old method Of cultivating with slaves.
True, very many of the West India estates
were abandoned, but he thinks If the indo-
lence of the negro were one cause, a second
may be found, as history proves, in the mort
cages with which they were burdened, and
third, as practical observation will demon
strate, in the uncertain and impolitic relations
that have existed since emancipation between
landlords and tenants.
He then goes on to show how the present
system works in Barbados, where 100000
acres out of an area of 100000 are under cul-
tiyation,-and the population per square mile
is greater even than in China, where the aver
sge price Of land is $500 an acre, and where,
| therefore, the laborer must make his choice
between steady, uninterrupted work, al low
wages, or starvation. These facts, we believe,
are known to our readers, but can in no way
be considered as an example either Of the less
populous West India Islands, OF serve as atype
of what we may expect to see in our States;
but Mr.. sEwELL gives many statistics to show
that free labor in the main is now working
well in the West Indies, and that it is more
economical than slave labor. He asserts it to
be an erroneous idea that, unless compelled to
work, the negro will lie all day in the sun
and live on piece Of sugar cane; that he
witnessed nothing in the British West Indies
giving any countenance 70 it. He says: ':The
uneducated, uncivilzed negro has undoubtedly
many faults of character and defects Of intel
lect, and will be lazy aud thriftless, too, be-
fore he has acquired the habit, or felt the
responsibility of working for his daily bread.
But when he comprehends that responsibility,
as he does comprehend it now in the British
West Indies, he will work readily enough"
With the exception of Jamaica, Mr.. sEwEII
thinks free labor has in all the British West
India islands proved decided success. The
decline Of Jamaica he attributes to other causes
than emancipation. Yet Jamaica undoubtedly
approaches the circumstances in our Southern
States more nearly than any Of the other isl
lands, with this exception, however, very much
| in ol,r favor that we have q much larger white