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Show 46 all cry out, Give us the bread and water ? Would we not rather see our fair city levelled to the earth, and choose to work out slowly for ourselves and our children a better lot, than stoop our necks to the yoke? So we all feel, when the case is brought home to ourselves. What should we say to the man, who should strive to terrify us, by prophecies of diminished products and exports, into the substitution of bondage for the character of freemen. In the preceding remarks I have insisted that Emancipation is not to be treated as a question of profit and loss, that its merits are not to be settled by its influence on the master's gains. 1\Ir. Gurney however maintains, that the master has nothing to fear, that real estate has risen, that free labor costs less than that of the slave. All this is good news and should be spread through the land ; for men are especially inclined to be just, when they can serve themselves by justice. But Emancipation rests on higher ground than the master's accumulation, even on the rights and essential interests of the slave. And let these be held sacred, though the luxury of the master be retrenched. 2. I have now finished my remarks on a topic which was always present to the mind of our author-the alleged decrease of industry and exports since ' , 47 Emancipation. The next topic to which I shall turn, is his notice of slavery in Cuba. He only touched at this Island, but evidently received the same sad impression which we receive from those who have had longer time for observation. He says: "Of one feature in the slave trade and slavery of Cuba, I had no knowledge until I was on the spot. The importation consists almost entirely of men, and we were informed that on many of the estates, not a single femal'e is to be found. Natural increase is disregarded. The Cubans import the stronger animals, like bullocks, work them up, and then seek a fresh supply. This surely is a system of most unnatural barbarity." This barbarity is believ,l'd to be unparalleled. The young African, torn from home and his native shore, is brought to a plantation, where he is never to know a home. All the relations of domestic life are systematically denied him. Woman's countenance he is not to look upon. The child's voice, he is no more to hear. His owner finds it more gainful to import than to breed slaves; and still more has made the sad discovery, that it is cheaper to " work up" the servile laborer in his youth and to replace him by a new victim, than to let him grow old in moderate toil. I have been told by some of the most recent travellers in Cuba who |
