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Show 16 operations. The planter is the spoiled child of his unnatural habits, and has contracted in his indolent and luxurious climate the need of excitement by irritating and tormentiug his slave. . Sir Lionel Smith defended the poor negro gtrls, prey to the licentiousness of the planters ; they . shall not be whipped with tamarind rods, if they do not comply with their master's will; he defended the negro women; they should not be made to dig the cane-holes, (which is the very hardest of the fie ld-work ;) he defended the Bapttst preachers and the stipendiary magistrates, who are the negroes' friends, from the power of the planter. The power of the planters, however, to oppress, was greatet· than the power of the apprentice and of his guardians to withstand. Lord Brougham and Mr. Buxton declared that the planter had not fulfilled his part in the contract, whilst the apprentices had fulfilled theirs; and demanded that tl~e emancipation should be hastened, and the apprenttceshtp abolished. Parliament was compelled to pass addtttOnal laws for the defence and security of the negro, and in ill humor at these acts, the great island of Jamaica, with a population of half a million, and 300,000 negroes, early in 1838, resolved to throw up the two remaining years of apprenticeship, and to emancipate absolutely on the lst August, 1838. In British Guiana, in Dominica, the same resolution had been earlier taken with more good will; and the other islands fell into the measure ; so that on the 1st August, 1838, the shackles dropped from every British slave. 'fhe accounts which we have from all parties, both from the planters, and those too who were originally most opposed to the measure, and from the new freemen, are of the most satisfactory kind. The manner in which the new festival was celebrated, brings tears to the eyes. The First of August, 1838, was observed in Jamaica as a day of thanl(sgiving and prayer. Sir Lionel Smith, the gov- 17 ern or, writes to the British Ministry, "It is impossible for me to do justice to the good order, decorum, and gratitude, which the whole la uoring population manifested on that happy occasion. 'I'hough joy beamed on every countenance, it was throughout tempered '"·ith solemn thankfulness to God, and the churches and chapels were everywhere filled wii11 these happy people in humble offering of prnisc. '' The Queen, in her speech to the Lords and Commons, pratscd the conduct of the emancipated population: and, in 1810, Sir Charles Metcalfe, the new governor of Jamaica, in his address to the Assembly, expressed himself to that late exasperated body in these terms. "All those who arc acquainted with the state of the island, ~\now that our emancipated population arc as free, as ~ndcpcndent in their conduct, as weiJ.conditioned, as mucb In the enjoyment of a-bundance, and as strongly senstole of the blessings of liberty, as any that we know of in nny country. All disqualifications and distinctions of color have ceased ; men of all colors have equal rights in l ~1w, ~nd an equal footing in society, and every man's positiOn 1s settled by the same circumstances which regulate that point in other free countries, where no difference of color exists. lt may be asserted, without fear of denial, that the former slaves of Jamaica are now as secure in al l social rights, as freeborn Britons." He further describes the_ e rection of numerous churches, chapels, and schools, wluch the new population required, and adds that more arc still demanded. The legislature, in their reply, echo the governor's statement, and say, "The peaceful demeanor of the emancipated population redounds to their own credit n nd affords a proof of their continued comfort and pros~ pcrity.'' I said, this event is signal in the history of civilization. There are many styles of civilization, and not one only. 3 |
