Page:Emancipation in the West Indies.djvu/10

 11 liiivdiy oxists at all. A sliivo cuiiiot hold projicrly hy uuy .sure litk', nor .secure to iiiiii.-^cir his own wile ami children. The vices thus engendered, cunlinue to poLson so- ciety Idiijj:; after slavei-y i^i desti-oyed. hi is the univer.-'ial te.^itnony ni' travellers, lhat, life is nu)re :-ecure in the !>rilis1i colonies, than dui'ing slavery. In the. iM'eiich colo- nies, wo have .some exact statistics .Before Kinanrij)atioi, 47 out of every 100 crimes brought l)efore the court, were crimes against the j)jrson ; after I'juiancipation, the {iro])or- tioii fell to 21 out of every 100. K^o, too, in regard to |iropert,y. No dou)t there arc more cases of tlieft tried in the courts now than in tlio days when every planter and over.scer held court on his own pi'einis(!s, and a{lniinistered sjieedv justice with the cat. .l>ut all who know, hear wit- ness that there is less thieving As for the increased value attached to pi'operty, we see that !>y the. eagerness whieh tlui negroes show to l.ieconie j)roprietoi'S and taxpayiU'S. In St. Vincent there were in .IS:M, li'i 'iiiO slaves, out of a total po))nlation of 'I't 000 ;}| thiMV are now about oO OOO in all, of whom I. ;")(! ;u'e white-s. The returns for ^^u show th;it S'ii)!) persons whmo then living in their iiwn houses, biiilt by themselves since emancipation. Within the last twelve years from ten to twelve thousand acres have been bi'ought under cultivation by small jiroprie- toi's. (uvning from one to tive acres; and then; lire w> pauj)ers in the island. In (Gre- nada, out of a population of ol) 000, the sin;dl propriutoi's. of whom then; were none befui'e X'AO, 1U)W lunnber 'iOOO, and there are A-u'^ who pay direct tikxes. In the whole Island there ai-e oidy sixty ])aupers. In 'rubago there arO 15 fiUO black and col- ored persons, of whom lioOO are freeholders, and 2800 pay direct taxes, in St. Lm-ia till' l.ilai.'k'. and colored people number over 24 (M!0. of whom 204;') are freeholders, and 4ii:) pay taxes, in Antigua, out of ^Ul.- 000 inhabitants, 1544 were living in IS-VS in houses built .since emancip:ition, and there were but 20*,) paupers in the island. in damaica, ;)0 000 pei's(jns have become pro- ]iri(!tors since emancipation. So nuich for the second test. in t lie four l''reni-h colonies, from ISoT to l-SdT. (hero were marriao'cs of slaves HI a population of 2:}.") 000 ; in nine years after emancipation there were iJl^-jtiS niar-
 * v'i>('irni, iiu'l Si.nvi'll, ]ni. 7'J-S<).

riages, or about twenty-fivo tinies as many. iM'om all the I slands we have similar accounts, Jiulgcd bythe.se tests, then, civilization i.s making swift progress amonir the negroes of the Antilles, instead of the barbarhssn pre- dicted by the planters. We come now to the third expiu'imcnt of abolition, — that of 1848, iii tho l-'rench and ].)anish colonies. It .should be said, in pas.s- ing, that we haveoinitted to notice the eman- cipation of negi'O slaves in Coliunl.'ia. (luati- mala, Mexico, ami the South Anun-ican re- publics, all which took jilace bet wetm 182!. and I8ii0. have not dwelt on these facts, nor have we itu-luded tlie .-laves in the nundier mentioned above, because we have found so few data concerning th.em. I'la.iir nund.ier must have been some hundi'cds of thousands ; the otdy evidence we have fomid respecting the coiulilion of the freedmen, h in the testimony of Vice Admira! l''h;ming, in 1 802. before the Ibjuse of (, nnmns.'" The Admiral visited ('.araccas in 1828, S(^ven years after emancij)atiun there;, ami again afterwards; he says: "My opinimi. from wliat 1 s.aw, is, that the black ])o]iida- tion are mak'ing rapid ])rogre.^s towai'd civili- zation. 'l'h(!y maint.ain themselves piul'eclly well, without any assistance, either from their foianer ma.^ters, or fn.im the t bivernment.' ' "(ienoal l*eyaj)ga, one of the (Ien»;r;ds at (ar;iccas. was a |>erfectly black man, a <;om- ])lete negro; he was a very well educated j)crson, and well rea.d in Sj)anis!i literatui'e ; he was a ve.ry extraordina.) y man. Many I'lnglish oilicei'S wei-e scrvinij; r.ndi.u' him ; I knew many olhei' black olliccrs of V(!iy con- siderable ai,;(pjirements, in Caraccas. " Ad- miral b'leniing, lie it obsei'ved, was an ollicer in the Spanish Navy, and had |)cculiar fatali- ties for learniuii; the condition of the oeonle of Columl.)ia. Gen. IJnlivar had biongtit about eiaancipation. having jjrevioii.^ly freed his own slaves. Doubtless, the same testi- mony might lie given, i;oma!rning ^hixico and the other Spani;di republics. It is well known that the inde.])endiuii;e of Tt'xas wa.s secured m.ainly by Au'.ericau slavidiolders, who were unwilling to sulintit t<.>t!)e Mexican law against slavmy. We hav(! already mr.Mitioned how slavery was abolislieil by the .Va'inn.al ( 'on V(ntioii. of I'l'.ance, and n^ston'd by .Xapdlcon at iho i-oA of the rii-hest t4 all tlu; enloiiic^.s — St. Pomingo. i'higlish tMaiip.n.'.-ts still fartlier ' Qiiotwl ill Ttic Tnuii.-f (l.uiuloii) .Miirch i'l,