Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/109

Rh white paupers relieved appears to be twentynine: of the other class, four: being in proportion of fourteen to one.

"In short, in a population of free black and colored persons amounting to from eighty thousand to ninety thousand, only two hundred and twentynine persons have received any relief whatever as paupers during the years 1821 to 1825; and these chiefly the concubines and children of destitute whites; while of about sixty-five thousand whites, in the same time, sixteen hundred and seventyfive received relief The proportion, therefore, of enfranchised persons receiving any kind of aid as paupers in the West Indies, is about one in three hundred and seventy: whereas the proportion among the whites of the West Indies is about one in forty; and in England, generally one in twelve or thirteen—in some counties, one in eight or nine.

"Can any one read these statements, made by the colonists themselves, and still think it necessary to keep the negroes in slavery, lest they should be unable to maintain themselves if free?

"In 1823, the Assembly of Grenada passed a resolution, declaring that the free colored inhabitants of these colonies, were a respectable, well behaved class of the community, were possessed of considerable property, and were entitled to have their claims viewed with favor.

"In 1824, when Jamaica had been disturbed for months by unfounded alarms relating to the slaves, a committee of the legislative assembly declared that 'the conduct of the freed people evinced not only zeal and alacrity, but a warm interest in the welfare of the colony, and every way identified them with those who are the most zealous promoters of its internal security.' The assembly confirmed this favorable report a few months ago, by passing a bill conferring on all free black and colored persons the same privileges, civil and political, with the white inhabitants.

"In the orders issued in 1829, by the British Government, in St Lucia, placing all freemen of African descent upon the footing of equal rights with their white neighbors, the loyalty and good conduct of that class are distinctly acknowledged, and they are declared 'to have