OCR Text |
Show 56 ANTIGUA. A drive of eight miles over a flat country, well cultivated, partly with provisions and partly with sugar cane, brought us to " Gilbcrts"-the spacious old mansion, and one of the sugar estates of our friend Nathaniel Gilbert, who, with his pious and agreeable lady, freely offered us their house for a home, during any part of our stay on the island. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the state of the property. His molasses alone, last year, paid the whole expenses of the estate, including labor; the large produce of sugar, which had met with a high price in the British market, was therefore clear gain. Our frirnd is too consistent a Christian to manufacture rum. We understand that he received 25,000 dollars as a compensation for his slaves. He assnred us that this sum was a mere present put into his pocket-a gratuity on which he had no reasonable claim. Since his land, without the slaves, is at least of the same value as it was with the slaves before emancipation, and since his profits are increased rather than diminished, this consequence follows of course; but what figures can represent the relief which he experiences in his own emancipation from the trammels of slaveholding? Our friend has fitted up a neat chapel on his estate, in which we held a religious meeting in the evening, with his black peasantry. The subject which arose before us, was the rest of heaven. The negroes listened with reverent attention, and after our meeting was finished, they broke out, under the guhlance of their belovecl " mistress," into a sweet sounding hymn, which had reference to the same topic. ANTIGUA. 57 Sir Bethel Codrington, an absentee proprietor, whose land borders on "Gilberts," is sai<l to be deriving ~20,00~ sterling, per annum, fi-om his sugar estates m Antigua. Whether this statement ·is exaggerated or not, I cannot say; but there can be no question, that his revenues, ti-om this source, are large. He was a noted advocate, during the late conflict for freedom, in our country, for the continuance of slavery. Circumstances have now proved, that emancipation to him, has been any thing rather than the road to ruin. Nearly the same remark applies to a respectable member of parliament, whose property in Antigua, during slavery, was in decay-unprofitable and, by all accounts, almost ruinous. Now it produces an excellent income. I had the pleasure of viewing his cane fields ; they were in fine order, full of pecuniary promise. I understood from onr friend Gilbert, that, during slavery, half his people were operative at one time, and half dead weight, i.e. doing nothing; when free-dom came, the rate of wages was so arranged by the planters, that the amount paid to the working half should just equal the expense formerly incurred in suyporting the whole body. Thus twenty slaves, at £o per head, per annum, and ten free laborers at £10 per head, per annum, would amount to the same sum of £100. In that case the only saving by the change would result from the circumstance, that each fi-ee laborer, under the inducement of wages, would do mor_e work than a slave by coercion, especially when (as m the case of N. Gilbert) the coercion was gentle. But had om friend's operative portion of slaves been |