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Show 34 of sugar be diminished ? Ought not every man to desire the diminution? I do not say that such atrocious cruelty was common in the British Islands. But it was in this department chiefly, that the slaves were exposed to excessive toil. It was to be expected then, that, when left free, they would prefer other modes of industry. Accordingly whilst the sugar is diminished, the ordinary articles of subsistence have increased. Some of the slaves have become small farmers, and many more, who hire themselves as laborers, cultivate small patches of land on their account. There is another important consideration. Before freedom, the women formed no inconsiderable part of the gangs who labored on the sugar crops. These are now very much if not wholly withdrawn. Is it a grief to a man, who has the spirit of a man, that woman's burdens are made lighter? Other causes of the diminution of the sugar crop may be found in Mr. Gurney's book; but these are enough to show us, that this effect is due in part to the good working of Emancipation, to a relief of the male and female slave, in which we ought to rejoice. Before Emancipation I expected that the immediate result of the measure would be more or less idleness, and consequently a diminution of produce. How natural was it to anticipate, that men who had worked under the lash, and had looked on exemp- 35 tion from toil as the happiness of paradise, should surrender themselves more or less to sloth on becoming th.eir own masters. It is the curse of a bad system to unfit men at first for a better. That the par~lyzing effect of slavery should continue after its extmction, that the slave should at the first produce less than before, this surely is no matter of wonder. The wonder is, and it is a great one, that the slaves in the West Indies have, in their new condition, been so greatly influenced by the motives of freemen . that the spirit of industry bas so far survived th~ sys.tem of compulsion, under which they had been tramed; that ideas of a better mode of living have taken so strong a hold on their minds; that so many refined tast~s and wants have been so soon developed. Here IS the wonder; and all this shows, what '~e have often heard, that the negro is more susceptible of civilization fi·mn abroad than any other race of men. That some, perhaps many of the slaves, have worked too little, is not to be denied, nor can we blame them much for it. All of us, I suspect under like circumstances would turn our first free~ dam into a holiday. Besides, when we think, that they have been sweating and bleeding to nourish in all manner of luxury a few indolent proprietors, they do not seem very inexcusable for a short emulation of their superiors. The negro sleeping all day under the shade of the palm tree, ought not to |
