Year: 1862

BRANDON HILL STATION, JAMAICA,


W. l., April 20, 1862.


To the Editor Of the Independent


"Can the emancipated slaves take care
of themselves ?" is doubtless question
of great interest to Christians in America
at the present time.


have lived two years and q half as
missionary under the American Mission
ary Association in the mountains of Ja-
maica, eighteen miles from Kingston,
right in the midst of a settlement of the
emancipated slaves of this island, and
after much careful observation, and after
having good insight into their charac-
ter, habits, and life, I am prepared to say
that the slaves in America, if emancipa-
ted, aciN take care Of themselves. They
do it here, and they will do it anywhere,
only give them an opportunity. They
not merely live here, but they Hve accu.
They have everything sufficient to make
them comfortable and happy. know the
people here are not a lazy people They
are Industrious.


Most of the people in the vicinity
where live, arc obliged to obtain living
by renting land, at from four to five dol
lars per acre per annum, at distance Of
from three to four miles, over very diff
cult road from their homes, to which
they have to 60 nearly every day to their
labor; and the produce of their land
they are obliged to carry on the backs of
mules (oftentimes on their own heads
eighteen or twenty miles to market Not
withstanding this manner of living would
discourage me, and | am sure it would
almost any white person, yet they live so,
and live comfortably, and they are as we'll
satisfied with their lot as men generally
are. / know of no one, who is not sick
or disabled, but that gets good living
| have not seen one that got his living by
stealing, or in any other dishonest man
ner. ! am fully assured, from careful
observation of the people here, that the
slaves, if emancipated, will prove an in
dustrious, hard-laboring people. They
will take care of themselves and do it
honestly.


Many suppose they are naMraly lazy
and indolent, but know from what |
have seen they arc not. They may be un-
der slavery, where they have no induce
ment to labor. But who can blame them?
There is no training in the world so cal
culated to make men lazy as the system
of slavery; but give to them their liberty;
let them have the inducement that other
men have to labor; let them know that
they can work for themselves, and that
the fruit of their labor will be their own,
and they will show themselves nearly
equal to any other class of people in en-
ergy and industry.


On one occasion, when q number of our
people were together, asked them, know
ing they had tried the experiment, if they
thought the slaves, if emancipated, could
and would take care of themselves; and
in manner expressive of their great joy
and delight in the freedom they possessed,
and without any hesitation, they gave a
very decided answer in the affirmative


There need be no fears that they will
feel they have been doomed to labor long
enough, and now that they are free they
will enjoy time of ease and rest When
they are free and know they can labor for
themselves, they will rejoice in the priv
ilegc, and they will set themselves at
work in good earnest and believe they
will be more industrious and accomplish
far more as freemen than they have done
as slaves.


i believe they have done 50 here, but
it is not to be seen in the exports or on
the large estates although do not be-
lieve these have suffered materially as the
result of emancipation); but it is to be
seen in their own improved manner Of
living and in the comfortable cottages