Page:Emancipation in the West Indies.djvu/5

 1793, in St. Domingo; naturally, we should expect a greater success than there; what have the results been? Ask this question of the first man you meet and ten to one his answer will be, 'Emancipation in the British Colonies is a failure." Ask him how he knows this, and he will tell you "he has heard so,— everybody say so." Ask him to give you figures and facts for it, and he is silent. He has not, and the American people generally, have not taken the trouble to spend an hour in the examination of a matter far more important to us, than it has ever been to England. But without authority, without investigation, in the very face and eyes of notorious facts, he continues to repeat what is at once a mistake and a slander. And why? Because in this, as in so many other points, public opinion has been under the control of those insolent planters and their commercial allies at the North, from whose tyranny we are now, thank God! fast freeing ourselves. '"It is opinion, not truth," said Sir Walter Raleigh, "that travelleth the world without passport." Forgetting the prejudices which we have learned from slavery, let us take the testimony,—not of planters and slave-drivers; not of vulgar politicians, aiming at the White House, nor of those profound sages, the traders in cotton and sugar,—no, but of figures,—those impartial reporters, who can neither vote nor hold office, nor buy and sell in any market, but whoso silent statement the slaveholder dreads and hates more than all arguments.

liot il 1)0 sail], lirst. that emancipation was feared and denounced liy niest of the w])ite eoliinist.s, y.'hn;-;e fcai's were sliai'ed to some ex- te/it!)y (he i>i'itish gnveiiiment. Nn Ken- tmtky (Congressman, ui' .W.-w York sm-essioni.-t can exceed in teri'ors or threats the •• West India l>ody of 3ie)-chants wwd I'lanter,-; "' resident in lOiigland. during tiie year Thi-se nohlcni(!n and gentlemen, inti'res'o^d in the sugar trade, predicte'ii as a eonsi/ipicnce uf!  colnnies;" "con.t'usion and;uiai'chy;"' "v.diole districts, indei'il whole coliuiies. ilicv said, '■mii;iit he cemph;tidy depopulated;'" liiev could see liothing in the law proposed ■"i ut confncation of projicrtv. anil the pi'uspi'ct of j all those eahuuities which must reMd.i IVnui a j dissolutioii of the tics ■^■rhich cftuncet tli<:' uid- onies v,-itli the l^ritish Kmpire.'"'* They declared further, that It 'ds not cvo??. ealcidated to advam-e the cond'orts and well- heing of the negro, that it enchingers the cois- tinuance of the colonies tis depcMuleiudes oi the l>i-itish Orown, and. itterly destroys t];c j)ossihilily of their jirodnctive cultivation;" that it would "throw the blacli: population back into a slate of barhari^iui."! These gloomy forebodings have a too fa- mihar sound. .lb")W did tiio event justify them? 'I'he cidonies are still loyal to tlit; iJritisli Crown, as we krutw to ou' 4;ost; they are more ])roduciive tlian btdore euiuneipu- tion; no such coinmeveial crisis took place; the j.)opulation instead of dimiuishing at the rate of r)l)lii) anuially, as it hud done from 1 to l;:>d-l. is increasini;'; anil the. ne<>'roe?. liave made extraordin:'.rv ativauce.s in wealth, civilization, an.d movali'y. There haseertaiis- ly been a decrease in the sugar crop, and there have been many otlter changes, but of these eiii;inci})ation has been but in part the cause. 'J'lie t»ritish (luvernmcnt did not neglect to guard against the imagined dangers, ■Jdiey sent out additional troops, and created a speci;d iiolice; they liiade (.-areful provi.sion, as was thought, for the supply of lahor; and umK-r liic nanu; of indenniity, they distiib- uted niMrly SI DO (>00 UOU among the ])lant- ers, out of which the laborers' wages coul^l be jiaid. until thy new system had beeu fairly tested. The lii'st results of I'unaucipation n.'^tnn- i.-^hed every one. In Antigua, where the slaves inst.antly hecaiue (Iieir oatu masters, the jiuhhe ipn(.'t was r-ompletidy luidisturhed. The fu'st eif August li.appi'iied to fall on Fi'i- day, and it was wisely i'(,-;oived by ilje nias- tvrs. to;i;ive their .'> (Jf.X) slaves a liolida.v until .Monday, t))e 4d). These three day.'* wtne spent by the n-groes — lirst, in j)rayer aiid ilianksgiving to dod Ibr their great (h;- livoiance — thi'U, in expressions of ioy •,ml congratidalion among tiienisedves. (hi .^!on- day, with few exceptions, tiiey returned to their homes, tijok up the .^hovei and the hoe again, ami have ever siiu'c continued to lie pt.-aceful I'iti/ciis. li; tiie other i.-^lands there were snniliir <'vetifs; sc.arct ly a riot occurred, and not a singh' while mati if>st his life. The oidy suili'rers v/ere a fi'w rash tieiifoes, .at Trinidad and Si . < 'hristopiiev's.who attempted M'lMi'riMlinL'-^ "I" Vi.>f Iiiili;! Uc'lv, Ji;. 1','. SO ii.O.'l ..iui;. lS;j;.;,} {!v.;. l:{4