Page:Emancipation in the West Indies.djvu/12

 1 3 Thoro v:ia a tlerangernent. uf eonimcrcn and aurieiilt.urc fitr a i'vw years. Tlio trade of the oiilunie.s fidl olf -lU pur cent, in l!>4>>, a.s ciuiniarcd with 18-17, NYliidi was a vory prn.s- piMdus year. At the .^uunu time, llie trade of j'ranee tell ufY '.15 percent. Fnan 1848-53 there i.s a falling oil uf! percent., as eoni- jiared with the live years liefure J'^mancipa- tion ; but in the live sul.ise([uent years, from 18r)'J-,')7, tiiere is a gain of nearly 50 })er cent., and the four euhmies are steadily guin- ing in wealtli and nuud)ers. We have al- ready ;;j)iiken of the edoct of slave)y to di- minish pDpulation in the West Indies. Since einanei])atin, this tendency hasbecii checked in the French colonies, thongh it still con- tinues in some of the I'higlisli islands. The ])opdation of the .i''rench ])ossessions, in iSoi;. was oTO 'M ; in 1840, it had iallen to liT 4 048 ; in I8.")G, ithad risen tu o87- 8lil, exclusive of innnigration.§ The Dutch colony of Ouiana, where slaves are still held, gives a most atrocious example of (his loss of popidation.il About .ib'OO there were 80 00'* slavtis there, producing an aniui.-il value of $7 OOO 00<) ; in 1845 there were but 4:-), "285 slaves and 1)712 free blacks; u decrease of 4ii per cent, in 45 years, or, if we include the free ))lacks, of ;;»4 ])or cent. ]>ut these 4':) U0 slaves oidy pro- duced in :1845 a value of ^.r700 000. " Of 017 plantations Oo have i)een abandoned.*!' and the pi'oducfion lias fa.Iien awiiy nine-tenths; yet I'aiiancipatioii b.as never troubled the .Dutch sut2;ar orowers. Fn.im the .l,)anisb colonies since l;iiianclj)a- tion we have few statistics, but those arc all fijvorid)le to freedom. AV'e know that St. Thomas is a rich emporium, and that Santa (_'ru/, fiourisiies. Some dis(jrders, by which the negroes were the greatest suHerers, attended omanci]i;).tion ; l)ut they were occasioned by tiie ill temper ot the planters, and were soon ("jiueted by the excellent goverinnent. For the pa.st ten vears we hear no tidings of tu- Jiuilt or distress from theut. In 1850 when Theoiloro .Parker visited Santa Crux, and St. Thomas, a member of his family wrote thus of the freed siaves:jj|| "[ often tliink how delighted you wcmld be with the results of!''jmancipiition, as wc see then all around us, and have abuncbuit op- portunity to examine them ; twenty llK)u.sand § Oncliiii. Tome I., p. 271*, liSci' CiM.'liiii, 11.. )) 2ii7. "il'iTtii Heportof tlio Ain. A. S. .Socictv, N. V., IMl— i). peo])lo raised at once from the condition of cattle to that of res].H)nsible beir.gs, — jiro- teeted and assist.e(.l, if need ]je, by the Gov- ernment. The thrifty and indn.-trious al- ready succeed in laying up enough to put them forward in the world, build a comibrta- ble litf.le home in tov.'u, and briiiL!; their children up to trades. They have great pride in being independent Tl'^J are gradually ac([uiring a pride of niati'imoiiy. A noble young man liere, an I'lpiscopal minister, has cstablislied a day school for the c(dored children of his jiarish, and I. was never so pleased with any .school 1 have ever visited. The nro<j;ress has been surprising nideed. "Here, a:^ elsewhere," says Cochin, "Slav- ery did no good, and .i'iinancipation no harn.i. A hurricane, or the change of a single degree in the thermometer, would have bad an in- iluenee more hurtful and more lasting, lliau the fortunate relea.se of 25 000 or ;J0 000 meii, unjustly enslaved." In the single Swedish island of St. .Bar- tiiolomew, there were in 184, 5ol slaves, out of a popularion of 1700. These have all since been freed by purchase gradually made by King O.scar, $10 000 a year having been voted for this purp(jse by the SNVcdi.-h Far- liamont. Ve have no intormation about the eflccts ; if they had been bad, we sliould, no doubt, iiave heard of it. AV'e have now spoken of the condition of all the West India Islands wdiere .Kmancipa- tion has taken place. It has been slmwu that all from which, we have statistics, exce})t Jamaica and llayti, are more wealthy than during shivery, und that all, without excep- tion, are increasing their trade and produc- tion ; that the ruin of llayti and .Janiaica. so {ar as it exists, is owing to nnmy other cau^eH than J'jmaiicipation, — chiefly in the one case, to the cruel policy of Napoleon, and the un- gi}nerons course of I'rance, Sjiiun, and the Lnited States, — and in the other, tc* the folly of the planters, and the evils begotten by slavery. It has ])een .shown, too, bow delu- sive is the assumed i)rosperity of (.uba and I'orto Jiico — islands now nassin^ throuifh the hot fit of the slaveholding fever, but which must .soon be let blood by iMnancipatiun, as in llayti, or pa.ss into the ague lit and mel- ancholy decline of the Dutcli colonies, which slavery still curses. It has been shown that the negro is not bloodthir.stv, that be is not idle, that he i.s ca])ablo of civilization. Let us add that he ia not a pauper, — cuntraiy to
 * ! Kiliiibnrgli Uovi.'w, April, 1H50.