Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves Part 2

Mr. Steele, having now rent to receive and wages to pay, was obliged to settle a new mode of accounting between the plantation and the labourers. "He brought, therefore, all the minor crops of the plantation, such as corn, grain of all sorts, yams, eddoes, besides rum and mola.s.ses, into a regular cash account by weight and measure, which he charged to the copyhold-storekeeper at market prices of the current time, and the storekeeper paid them at the same prices to such of the copyholders as called for them in part of wages, in whose option it was to take either cash or goods, according to their earnings, to answer all their wants. Rice, salt, salt fish, barrelled pork, Cork b.u.t.ter, flour, bread, biscuit, candles, tobacco and pipes, and all species of clothing, were provided and furnished from the store at the lowest market prices.

An account of what was paid for daily subsistence, and of what stood in their arrears to answer the rents of their lands, the fines and forfeitures for delinquencies, their head-levy and all other casual demands, was accurately kept in columns with great simplicity, and in books, which checked each other."

Such was the plan of Mr. Steele, and I have the pleasure of being able to announce, that the result of it was _highly satisfactory to himself_.

In the year 1788, when only the first and second part of it had been reduced to practice, he spoke of it thus:--"A plantation," says he, "of between seven and eight hundred acres has been governed by fixed laws and a Negro-court _for about five years with great success_. In this plantation no overseer or white servant is allowed to lift his hand against a Negro, nor can he arbitrarily order a punishment. Fixed laws and a court or jury of their peers _keep all in order_ without the ill effect of sudden and intemperate pa.s.sions." And in the year 1790, about a year after the last part of his plan had been put to trial, he says in a letter to Dr. d.i.c.kson, "My copyholders have succeeded beyond my expectation." This was his last letter to that gentleman, for he died in the beginning of the next year. Mr. Steele went over to Barbadoes, as I have said before, in the year 1780, and he was then in the eightieth year of his age. He began his humane and glorious work in 1783, and he finished it in 1789. It took him, therefore, six years to bring his Negroes to the state of va.s.salage described, or to that state from whence he was sure that they might be transferred without danger in no distant time, to the rank of freemen, if it should be thought desirable.

He lived one year afterwards to witness the success of his labours. He had accomplished, therefore, all he wished, and he died in the year 1791, in the ninety-first year of his age.

It may be proper now, and indeed useful to the cause which I advocate, to stop for a moment, just to observe the similarity of sentiment of two great men, quite unknown to each other; one of whom (Mr. Steele) was concerned in preparing Negro-slaves for freedom, and the other (Toussaint) in devising the best mode of managing them after they had been suddenly made free.

It appears, first, that they were both agreed in this point, viz. that the _first step_ to be taken in either case, was _the total abolition of arbitrary punishment_.

It appears, secondly, that they were nevertheless both agreed again as to the necessity of punis.h.i.+ng delinquents, but that they adopted different ways of bringing them to justice. Toussaint referred them to _magistrates_, but Mr. Steele _to a Negro-court_. I should prefer the latter expedient; first, because a Negro-court may be always at hand, whereas magistrates may live at a distance from the plantations, and not be always at home. Secondly, because the holding of a Negro-court would give consequence to those Negroes who should compose it, not only in their own eyes but in the eyes of others; and every thing, that might elevate the Black character, would be useful to those who were _on the road to emanc.i.p.ation_; and, lastly, because there must be some thing satisfactory and consoling to the accused to be tried by their peers.

It appears, thirdly, that both of them were agreed again in the principle of making the Negroes, in either case, _adscripti glebae_; or attached to the soil, though they might differ as to the length of time of such ascription.

And it appears, lastly, that they were agreed in another, and this the only remaining point, viz. on the necessity of holding out a stimulus to either, so as to excite in them a very superior spirit of industry to any they had known before. They resorted, however to different means to effect this. Toussaint gave the labourers one _fourth_ of the produce of the land; deducting board and clothing. Mr. Steele, on the other hand, gave them _daily wages_. I do not know which to prefer; but the plan of Mr. Steele is most consonant to the English practice.

But to return. It is possible that some objector may rise up here as before, and say that even the case, which I have now detailed, is not, strictly speaking, a.n.a.logous to that which we have in contemplation, and may argue thus:--"The case of Mr. Steele is not a complete precedent, because his slaves were never _fully_ emanc.i.p.ated. He had brought them only to _the threshold_ of liberty, but no further. They were only _copyholders_, but _not free men_." To this I reply, first, That Mr.

Steele _accomplished all that he ever aimed at_. I have his own words for saying, that so long as the present iniquitous slave-laws, and the distinction of colour, should exist, it would be imprudent to go further. I reply again, That the partisans of emanc.i.p.ation would be happy indeed, if they could see the day when our West Indian slaves should arrive at the rank and condition of the copyholders of Mr.

Steele. They wish for no other freedom than that which is _compatible with the joint interest of the master and the slave_. At the same time they must maintain, that the copyholders of Mr. Steele had been brought so near to the condition of free men, that a removal from one into the other, after a certain time, seemed more like a thing of course than a matter to be attended either with difficulty or danger: for unquestionably their moral character must have been improved. If they had ceased for seven years to feel themselves degraded by arbitrary punishment, they must have acquired some little independence of mind. If they had been paid for their labour, they must have acquired something like a spirit of industry. If they had been made to pay rent for their cottage and land, and to maintain themselves, they must have been made to _look beforehand_, to _think for themselves and families from day to day_, and to _provide against the future_, all which operations of the mind are the characteristics only of free men. The case, therefore, of Mr. Steele is most important and precious: for it shows us, first, that the emanc.i.p.ation, which we seek, is a thing which _may be effected_. The plan of Mr. Steele was put in force in _a British_ Island, and that, which was done in one British Island, may under similar circ.u.mstances _be done again in the same, as well as in another_. It shows us, again, _how_ this emanc.i.p.ation may be brought about. The process is so clearly detailed, that any one may follow it. It is also a case for encouragement, inasmuch as it was attended with success.

I have now considered no less than six cases of slaves emanc.i.p.ated in bodies, and a seventh of slaves, who were led up to the very threshold of freedom, comprehending altogether not less than between five and six hundred thousand persons; and I have considered also all the objections that could be reasonably advanced against them. The result is a belief on my part, that emanc.i.p.ation is not only _practicable_, but that it is _practicable without danger_. The slaves, whose cases I have been considering, were resident in different parts of the world. There must have been, amongst such a vast number, persons of _all characters_. Some were liberated, who had been _accustomed to the use of arms_. Others at a time when the land in which they sojourned was afflicted _with civil and foreign wars_; others again _suddenly_, and with _all the vicious habits of slavery upon them_. And yet, under all these disadvantageous circ.u.mstances, I find them all, without exception, _yielding themselves to the will of their superiors_, so as to be brought by them _with as much ease and certainty into the form intended for them_, as clay in the hands of the potter is fas.h.i.+oned to his own model. But, if this be so, I think I should be chargeable with a want of common sense, were I _to doubt for a moment_, that emanc.i.p.ation _was not practicable_; and I am not sure that I should not be exposed to the same charge, were I to doubt, that emanc.i.p.ation _was practicable without danger_. For I have not been able to discover (and it is most remarkable) _a single failure_ in any of the cases which have been produced. I have not been able to discover throughout this vast ma.s.s of emanc.i.p.ated persons _a single instance of bad behaviour_ on their parts, not even of a refusal to work, or of disobedience to orders. Much less have I seen frightful commotions, or ma.s.sacres, or a return of evil for evil, or revenge for past injuries, even when they had it amply in their power. In fact, the Negro character is malleable at the European will. There is, as I have observed before, a singular pliability in the const.i.tutional temper of the Negroes, and they have besides a quick sense of their own interest, which influences their conduct. I am convinced, that West India masters can do what they will with their slaves; and that they may lead them through any changes they please, and with perfect safety to themselves, if they will only make them (the slaves) understand that they are to be benefited thereby.

Having now established, I hope, two of my points, first, that emanc.i.p.ation is _practicable_, and, secondly, that it is _practicable without danger_, I proceed to show the probability that _it would be attended with profit_ to those planters who should be permitted to adopt it. I return, therefore, to the case of Mr. Steele. I give him the prior hearing on this new occasion, because I am sure that my readers will be anxious to learn something more about him; or to know what became of his plans, or how far such humane endeavours were attended with success. I shall begin by quoting the following expressions of Mr. Steele. "I have employed and amused myself," says he, "by introducing _an entire new mode_ of governing my own slaves, for their happiness, and also _for my own profit_." It appears, then, that Mr. Steele's new method of management was _profitable_. Let us now try to make out from his own account, of what these profits consisted.

Mr. Steele informs us, that his superintendant had obliged him to hire all his holing at 3 l. currency, or 2 l. 2s. 10d. sterling per acre. He was very much displeased at these repeated charges; and then it was, that he put his second question to trial, as I have before related, viz. whether he could not obtain the labour of his Negroes by voluntary means, instead of by the old method by violence. He made, therefore, an attempt to introduce task-work, or labour with an expected premium for extraordinary efforts, upon his estates. He gave his Negroes therefore a small pecuniary reward over and above the usual allowances, and the consequence was, as he himself says, that "the _poorest, feeblest_, and by character _the most indolent_ Negroes of the whole gang, cheerfully performed the holing of his land, generally said to be the most laborious work, for _less than a fourth part_ of the stated price paid to the undertakers for holing." This experiment I have detailed in another place. After this he continued the practice of task-work or premium. He describes the operation of such a system upon the minds of his Negroes in the following words: "According to the vulgar mode of governing Negro-slaves, they feel only the desponding fear of punishment for doing less than they ought, without being sensible that the settled allowance of food and clothing is given, and should be accepted, as a reward for doing well, while in task-work the expectation of winning the reward, and the fear of losing it, have a double operation to exert their endeavours." Mr. Steele was also benefited again in another point of view by the new practice which he had introduced. "He was clearly convinced, that saving time, by doing in one day as much as would otherwise require three days, was _worth more than double the premium_, the _timely effects_ on vegetation _being critical_." He found also to his satisfaction, that "during all the operations under the premium there were _no disorders, no crowding to the sick-house_, as before."

I have now to make my remarks upon this account. It shows us clearly how Mr. Steele made a part of his profits. These profits consisted first of a _saving of expense_ in his husbandry, which saving _was not made by others_. He had his land holed _at one-fourth_ of the usual rate. Let us apply this to all the other operations of husbandry, such as weeding, deep hoeing, &c. in a large farm of nearly eight hundred acres, like his, and we shall see how considerable the savings would be in one year. His Negroes again did not counterfeit sickness as before, in order to be excused from labour, but rather wished to labour in order to obtain the reward. There was therefore no crowding to the hospitals.

This const.i.tuted a _second source of saving_; for they who were in the hospitals were maintained by Mr. Steele without earning any thing, while they who were working in the field left to their master in their work, when they went home at night, a value equal at least to that which they had received from him for their day's labour. But there was another saving of equal importance, which Mr. Steele calls a saving of _time_, but which he might with more propriety have called a saving of _season_.

This saving of season, he says, was worth _more than double the premium_; and so it might easily have been. There are soils, every farmer knows, which are so const.i.tuted, that if you miss your day, you miss your season; and, if you miss your season, you lose probably half your crop. The saving, therefore, of the season, by having a whole crop instead of half an one, was _a third source of saving of money_. Now let us put all these savings together, and they will const.i.tute a great saving or profit; for as these savings were made by Mr. Steele in consequence of _his new plan_, and _were therefore not made by others_, they const.i.tuted an _extraordinary_ profit to him; or they added to the profit, whatever it might have been, which he used to receive from the estate before his new plan was put in execution.

But I discover other ways in which Mr. Steele was benefited, as I advance in the perusal of his writings. It was impossible to overlook the following pa.s.sage: "Now," says he (alluding to his new system), "every species of provisions raised on the plantations, or bought from the merchants, is charged at the market-price to the copyhold-store, and discharged by what has been paid on the several accounts of every individual bond-slave; whereas for all those species heretofore, I never saw in any plantation-book of my estates any account of what became of them, or how they were disposed of, nor of their value, other than in these concise words, _they were given in allowance to the Negroes and stock_. Every year, for six years past, this great plantation has bought several hundred bushels of corn, and was scanty in all ground-provisions, our produce always falling short. This year, 1790, _since the establishment of copyholders, though several less acres were planted_ last year in Guinea corn than usual, yet we have been able to sell _several hundred bushels_ at a high price, and _we have still a great stock in hand_. I can place this saving to no other account, than that there is now an exact account kept by all produce being paid as cash to the bond-slaves; and also as all our watchmen are obliged to pay for all losses that happen on their watch, they have found it their interest to look well to their charge; and consequently that we have had much less stolen from us than before this new government took place."

Here then we have seen _another considerable source of saving_ to Mr.

Steele, viz. that _he was not obliged to purchase any corn for his slaves as formerly_. My readers will be able to judge better of this saving, when I inform them of what has been the wretched policy of many of our planters in this department of their concerns. Look over their farming memoranda, and you will see _sugar, sugar, sugar_, in every page; but you may turn over leaf after leaf, before you will find the words _provision ground_ for their slaves. By means of this wretched policy, slaves have often suffered most grievously. Some of them have been half-starved. Starvation, too, has brought on disorders which have ultimately terminated in their death. Hence their masters have suffered losses, besides the expense incurred in buying what they ought to have raised upon their own estates, and this perhaps at a dear market: and in this wretched predicament Mr. Steele appears to have been himself when he first went to the estate. His slaves, he tells us, had been reduced in number by bad management. Even for six years afterwards he had been obliged to buy several hundred bushels of corn; but in the year 1790 he had sold several hundred bushels at a high price, and had still a great stock on hand. And to what was all this owing? Not to an exact account kept at the store (for some may have so misunderstood Mr. Steele); for how could an exact account kept there, have occasioned an increase in the produce of the earth? but, as Mr. Steele himself says, _to the establishment of his copyholders_, or to the _alteration of the condition_ of his slaves. His slaves did not only three times more work than before, in consequence of the superior industry he had excited among them, but, by so doing, they were enabled to put the corn into the earth three times more quickly than before, or they were so much forwarder in their other work, that they were enabled to sow it at the critical moment, or so as _to save the season_, and thus secure a full crop, or a larger crop on a less number of acres, than was before raised upon a greater. The copyholders, therefore, were the persons who increased the produce of the earth; but the exact account kept at the store prevented the produce from being misapplied as formerly. It could no longer be put down in the general expression of "given in allowances to the Negroes and the stock;" but it was put down to the copyholder, and to him only, who received it. Thus Mr. Steele saved the purchase of a great part of the provisions for his slaves. He had formerly a great deal to buy for them, but now nothing. On the other hand, he had to sell; but, as his slaves were made, according to the new system, to _maintain themselves_, he had now _the whole produce of his estate to_ _dispose of_. The circ.u.mstance therefore of having nothing to buy, but every thing to sell, const.i.tuted another source of his profits.

What the other particular profits of Mr. Steele were I can no where find, neither can I find what were his particular expenses; so as to be enabled to strike the balance in his favour. Happily, however, Mr.

Steele has done this for us himself, though he has not furnished us with the items on either side.--He says that "from the year 1773 to 1779 (he arrived in Barbadoes in 1780), his stock had been so much reduced by ill management and wasteful economy, that the annual average neat clearance was little more than _one and a quarter_ per cent. on the purchase. In a second period of four years, in consequence of the exertion of an honest and able manager, (though with a further reduction of the stock, and including the loss from the great hurricane,) the annual average income was brought to clear _a little above two_ per cent.; but in a third period of three years from 1784 to 1786 inclusive, _since the new mode of governing the Negroes_, (besides increasing the stock, and laying out large sums annually in adding necessary works, and in repairs of the damages by the great hurricane,) the estate has cleared very nearly _four and a quarter_ per cent.; that is, its annual average clearance in each of these three periods, was in this proportion; for every 100 l.

annually cleared in the first period the annual average clearance in the second period was 158 l. 10s., and in the third period was 345 l.

6s. 8d." This is the statement given by Mr. Steele, and a most important one it is; for if we compare what the estate had cleared in the first, with what it had cleared in the last of these periods, and have recourse to figures, we shall find that Mr. Steele had _more than tripled_ the income of it, in consequence of _his new management_, during his residence in Barbadoes. And this is in fact what he says himself in words at full length, in his answer to the 17th question proposed to him by the committee of the Privy-council on the affairs of the slave trade. "In a plantation," says he, "of 200 slaves in June 1780, consisting of 90 men, 82 women, 56 boys, and 60 girls, though under the exertions of an able and honest manager, there were only 15 births, and no less than 57 deaths, in three years and three months. An alteration was made in the mode of governing the slaves. The whips were taken from all the white servants. All arbitrary punishments were abolished, and all offences were tried and sentence pa.s.sed by a Negro court. In four years and three months after this change of government, there were 44 births, and only 41 deaths, of which ten deaths were of superannuated men and women, some above 80 years old. But in the same interval the annual neat clearance of the estate was _above three times more than it had been for ten years before!!!_"

Dr. d.i.c.kson, the editor of Mr. Steele, mentions these profits also, and in the same terms, and connects them with an eulogium on Mr. Steele, which is worthy of our attention. "Mr. Steele," says he, "saw that the Negroes, like all other human beings, were to be stimulated to permanent exertion only by a sense of their own interests in providing for their own wants and those of their offspring. He therefore tried _rewards_, which immediately roused the most indolent to exertion. His experiments ended in _regular wages_, which the industry he had excited among his whole gang enabled him to pay. Here was a natural, efficient, and profitable reciprocity of interests. His people became contented; his mind was freed from that perpetual vexation and that load of anxiety, which are inseparable from the vulgar system, and in little more than four years the annual neat clearance of his property _was more than tripled_." Again, in another part of the work, "Mr. Steele's plan may no doubt receive some improvements, which his great age obliged him to decline"--"but it is perfect, as far as it goes. _To advance above 300 field-negroes, who had never before moved without the whip, to a state nearly resembling that of contented, honest and industrious servants, and, after paying for their labour, to triple in a few years the annual neat clearance of the estate_,--these, I say, were great achievements for an aged man in an untried field of improvement, pre-occupied by inveterate vulgar prejudice. He has indeed accomplished all that was really doubtful or difficult in the undertaking, and perhaps all that is at present desirable either for owner or slave; for he has ascertained as a fact, what was before only known to the learned as a theory, and to practical men as a paradox, that _the paying of slaves for their labour does actually produce a very great profit to their owners_."

I have now proved (_as far as the plan[15] of Mr. Steele is concerned_) my third proposition, or _the probability that emanc.i.p.ation would promote the interests of those who should adopt it_; but as I know of no other estate similarly circ.u.mstanced with that of Mr. Steele, that is, where emanc.i.p.ation has been tried, and where a detailed result of it has been made known, I cannot confirm it by other similar examples. I must have recourse therefore to some new species of proof. Now it is an old maxim, as old as the days of Pliny and Columella, and confirmed by Dr.

Adam Smith, and all the modern writers on political economy, that _the labour of free men is cheaper than the labour of slaves_. If therefore I should be able to show that this maxim would be true, if applied to all the operations and demands of West Indian agriculture, I should be able to establish my proposition on a new ground: for it requires no great acuteness to infer, that, if it be cheaper to employ free men than slaves in the cultivation of our islands, emanc.i.p.ation would be a profitable undertaking there.

I shall show, then, that the old maxim just mentioned is true, when applied to the case in our own islands, first, by establis.h.i.+ng the fact, that _free men_, people of colour, in the East Indies, are employed in _precisely the same concerns_ (the cultivation of the cane and the making of sugar) as the slaves in the West, and that they are employed _at a cheaper rate_. The testimony of Henry Botham, Esq. will be quite sufficient for this point. That gentleman resided for some time in the East Indies, where he became acquainted with the business of a sugar estate. In the year 1770 he quitted the East for the West. His object was to settle in the latter part of the world, if it should be found desirable so to do. For this purpose he visited all the West Indian islands, both English and French, in about two years. He became during this time a planter, though he did not continue long in this situation; and he superintended also Messrs. Bosanquets' and J. Fatio's sugar-plantation in their partners' absence. Finding at length the unprofitable way in which the West Indian planters conducted their concerns, he returned to the East Indies in 1776, and established sugar-works at Bencoolen on his own account. Being in London in the year 1789, when a committee of privy council was sitting to examine into the question of the slave trade, he delivered a paper to the board on the mode of cultivating a sugar plantation in the East Indies; and this paper being thought of great importance, he was summoned afterwards in 1791 by a committee of the House of Commons to be examined personally upon it.

It is very remarkable that the very first sentence in this paper announced the fact at once, that "sugar, better and _cheaper_ than that in the West Indian islands, was produced _by free men_."

Mr. Botham then explained the simple process of making sugar in the East. "A proprietor, generally a Dutchman, used to let his estate, say 300 acres or more, with proper buildings upon it, to a Chinese, who lived upon it and superintended it, and who re-let it to free men in parcels of 50 or 60 acres on condition that they should plant it in canes for so much for every pecul, 133 lbs., of sugar produced. This superintendant hired people from the adjacent villages to take off his crop. One lot of task-men with their carts and buffaloes cut the canes, carried them to the mill, and ground them. A second set boiled them, and a third clayed and basketed them for market at so much per pecul. Thus the renter knew with certainty what every pecul would cost him, and he incurred no unnecessary expense; for, when the crop was over, the task-men returned home. By dividing the labour in this manner, it was better and cheaper done."

Mr. Botham detailed next the improved method of making sugar in Batavia, which we have not room to insert here. We may just state, however, that the persons concerned in it never made spirits on the sugar estates. The mola.s.ses and skimmings were sent for, sale to Batavia, where one distillery might buy the produce of a hundred estates. Here, again, was a vast saving, says Mr. Botham, "there was not, as in the West Indies, a _distillery_ for _each estate_."

He then proceeded to make a comparison between the agricultural system of the two countries. "The cane was cultivated _to the utmost perfection_ in Batavia, whereas the culture of it in the West Indies was but _in its infancy. The hoe was scarcely used_ in the East, whereas it was almost _the sole implement_ in the West. The _plough was used instead of it in the East_, as far as it could be done. Young canes there were kept also often ploughed as a weeding, and the hoe was kept to weed round the plant when very young; but of this there was little need, if the land had been sufficiently ploughed. When the cane was ready to be earthed up, it was done by a _sort of shovel_ made for the purpose. _Two persons_ with this instrument would earth up more canes in a day than _ten Negroes_ with hoes. The cane-roots were also _ploughed up_ in the East, whereas they were _dug up with the severest exertion_ in the West. Many alterations," says Mr. Botham, "are to be made, and expenses and human labour lessened in the West. _Having experienced the difference of labourers for profit and labourers from force_, I can a.s.sert, that _the savings by the former are very considerable_."

He then pointed out other defects in the West Indian management, and their remedies. "I am of opinion," says he, "that the West Indian planter should for his own interest give more labour to beast and less to man. A larger portion of his estate ought to be in pasture. When practicable, canes should be carried to the mill, and cane tops and gra.s.s to the stock, in waggons. The custom of making a hard-worked Negro get a bundle of gra.s.s twice a day should be abolished, and in short a _total change take place in the miserable management in our West Indian Islands_. By these means following as near as possible the East Indian mode, and consolidating the distilleries, I do suppose our sugar-islands might be better worked than they now are by _two-thirds_ or indeed _one-half_ of the present force. Let it be considered how much labour is lost by the persons _overseeing the forced labourer_, which is saved when he works _for his own profit_. I have stated with the strictest veracity a plain matter of fact, that sugar estates can _be worked cheaper by free men than by slaves_[16]."

I shall now show, that the old maxim, which has been mentioned, is true, when applied to the case of our West Indian islands, by establis.h.i.+ng a fact of a very different kind, viz. that the slaves in the West Indies do much more work in a given time when _they work for themselves_, than when _they work for their masters_. But how, it will be said, do you prove, by establis.h.i.+ng this fact, that it would be cheaper for our planters to employ free men than slaves? I answer thus: I maintain that, _while the slaves are working for themselves_, they are to be considered, indeed that they are, _bona fide, free labourers_. In the first place, they never have a driver with them on any of these occasions; and, in the second place, _having all their earnings to themselves_, they have that stimulus within them to excite industry, which is only known _to free men_. What is it, I ask, which gives birth to industry in any part of the world, seeing that labour is not agreeable to man, but the stimulus arising from the hope of gain? What makes an English labourer do more work in the day than a slave, but the stimulus arising from the knowledge, that what he earns is _for himself and not for another_? What, again, makes an English labourer do much more work _by the piece_ than by _the day_, but the stimulus arising from the knowledge that he may gain more by the former than by the latter mode of work? Just so is the West Indian slave situated, when _he is working for himself_, that is, when he knows _that what he earns is for his own use_. He has then all the stimulus of a free man, and he is, therefore, _during such work_ (though unhappily no longer) really, and in effect, and to all intents and purposes, as much _a free labourer_ as any person in any part of the globe. But if he be a free man, while he is working for himself, and if in that capacity he does twice or thrice more work than when he works for his master, it follows, that it would be cheaper for his master to employ him as a free labourer, or that the labour of free men in the West Indies would be cheaper than the labour of slaves.

That West Indian slaves, when they work for themselves, do much more in a given time than when they work for their masters, is a fact so notorious in the West Indies, that no one who has been there would deny it. Look at Long's History of Jamaica, The Privy Council Report, Gaisford's Essay on the good Effects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and other books. Let us hear also what Dr. d.i.c.kson, the editor of Mr. Steele, and who resided so many years in Barbadoes, says on this subject, for what he says is so admirably expressed that I cannot help quoting it. "The planters," says he, "do not take the right way to make human beings put forth their strength. They apply main force where they should apply moral motives, and punishments alone where rewards should be judiciously intermixed. They first beslave their poor people with their cursed whip, and then stand and wonder at the tremour of their nerves, and the laxity of their muscles. And yet, strange to tell, _those very men affirm, and affirm truly_, that a slave will do more work for himself _in an afternoon_ than he can be made to do for his owner _in a whole day or more_!" And did not the whole a.s.sembly of Grenada, as we collect from the famous speech of Mr. Pitt on the Slave Trade in 1791, affirm the same thing? "He (Mr. Pitt) would show," he said, "the futility of the argument of his honourable friend. He (his honourable friend) had himself admitted, that it was in the power of the colonies to correct the various abuses by which the Negro population was restrained. But they could not do this without _improving the condition of their slaves_, without making them _approximate towards the rank of citizens_, without giving them _some little interest in their labour_, which would occasion them to work _with the energy of men_. But now the a.s.sembly of Grenada had themselves stated, that, _though_ the _Negroes were allowed the afternoon of only one day in every week, they would do as much work in that afternoon when employed for their own benefit, as in the whole day when employed in their masters' service_. Now after this confession the House might burn all his calculations relative to the Negro population; for if this population had not quite reached the desirable state which he had pointed out, this confession had proved that further supplies were not wanted. A Negro, _if he worked for himself, could do double work_. By an improvement then in the mode of labour, the work in the islands could be doubled. But if so, what would become of the argument of his honourable friend? for then only half the number of the present labourers were necessary."

But the fact, that the slaves in the West Indies do much more work for themselves in a given time than when they work for their masters, may be established almost arithmetically, if we will take the trouble of calculating from authentic doc.u.ments which present themselves on the subject. It is surprising, when we look into the evidence examined by the House of Commons on the subject of the Slave Trade, to find how little a West Indian slave really does, when he works for his master; and this is confessed equally by the witnesses on both sides of the question. One of them (Mr. Francklyn) says, that a labouring man could not get his bread in Europe if he worked no harder than a Negro.

Another (Mr. Tobin), that no Negro works like a day-labourer in England. Another (Sir John Dalling), that the general work of Negroes is not to be called labour. A fourth (Dr. Jackson), that an English labourer does three times as much work as a Negro in the West Indies.

Now how are these expressions to be reconciled with the common notions in England of Negro labour? for "to work like a Negro" is a common phrase, which is understood to convey the meaning, that the labour of the Negroes is the most severe and intolerable that is known. One of the witnesses, however, just mentioned explains the matter. "The hards.h.i.+p,"

says he, "of Negro field-labour is more in the _mode_ than in the _quant.i.ty_ done. The slave, seeing no end of his labour, stands over the work, and only throws the hoe to avoid the lash. He appears to work without actually working." The truth is, that a Negro, having no interest in his work while working for his master, will work only while the whip is upon him. I can no where make out the clear net annual earnings of a field Negro on a sugar plantation to come up to 8 l.

sterling. Now what does he earn in the course of a year when he is working for himself? I dare not repeat what some of the witnesses for the planters stated to the House of Commons, when representing the enviable condition of the slaves in the West Indies; for this would be to make him earn more for himself _in one day_ than for his master _in a week_. Let us take then the lowest sum mentioned in the Book of Evidence. This is stated to be 14d. sterling per week; and 14d.

sterling per week would make 3 l. sterling per year. But how many days in the week does he work when he makes such annual earnings? The most time, which any of the witnesses gives to a field slave for his own private concerns, is every Sunday, and also every Sat.u.r.day afternoon in the week, besides three holidays in the year. But this is far from being the general account. Many of them say that he has only Sunday to himself; and others, that even Sunday is occasionally trespa.s.sed upon by his master. It appears, also, that even where the afternoon is given him, it is only out of crop-time. Now let us take into the account the time lost by slaves in going backwards and forwards to their provision-grounds; for though some of these are described as being only a stone's throw from their huts, others are described as being one, and two, and three, and even four miles off; and let us take into the account also, that Sunday is, by the confession of all, the Negro market day, on which alone they can dispose of their own produce, and that the market itself may be from one to ten or fifteen miles from their homes, and that they who go there cannot be working in their gardens at the same time, and we shall find that there cannot be on an average more than a clear three quarters of a day in the week, which they can call their own, and in which they can work for themselves. But call it a whole day, if you please, and you will find that the slave does for himself in this one day more than a third of what he does for his master in six, or that he works _more than three times harder_ when _he works for himself_ than when _he works for his master_.

I have now shown, first by the evidence of Mr. Botham, and secondly by the fact of Negroes earning more in a given time when they work in their own gardens, than when they work in their master's service, that the old maxim "of _its being cheaper to employ free men than slaves_," is true, when applied to the _operations and demands of West Indian agriculture_.

But if it be cheaper to employ free men than slaves in the West Indies, then they, who should emanc.i.p.ate their Negroes there, would _promote their interest by so doing_. "But hold!" says an objector, "we allow that their successors would be benefited, but not the _emanc.i.p.ators themselves_. These would have a great sacrifice to make. Their slaves are worth so much money at this moment; but they would lose all this value, if they were to set them free." I reply, and indeed I have all along affirmed, that it is not proposed to emanc.i.p.ate the slaves _at once_, but to prepare them for emanc.i.p.ation _in a course of years_. Mr.

Steele did not make his slaves _entirely free_. They were _copyhold-bond slaves_. They were still _his freehold property_: and they would, if he had lived, have continued so for many years. They therefore, who should emanc.i.p.ate, would lose nothing of the value of their slaves, so long as they brought them only to the door of liberty, but did not allow them to pa.s.s through it. But suppose they were to allow them to pa.s.s through it and thus admit them to freedom, they would lose nothing by so doing; for they would not admit them to freedom till _after a certain period of years, during which_ I contend that the _value of every individual slave_ would have been _reimbursed_ to them from _the increased income of their estates_. Mr. Steele, as we have seen, _more than tripled_ the value of his income during his experiment: I believe that he more than quadrupled it; for he says, that he more than tripled it _besides increasing his stock_, and _laying out large sums annually in adding necessary works_, and _in repairs of the damage by the great hurricane_.

Suppose then a West India estate to yield at this moment a nett income of 500 l. per annum, this income would be increased, according to Mr.

Steele's experience, to somewhere about 1700 l. per annum. Would not, then, the surplus beyond the original 500 l., viz. 1200 l. per annum, be sufficient to reimburse the proprietor in a few years for the value of every slave which he had when he began his plan of emanc.i.p.ation? But he would be reimbursed again, that is, (twice over on the whole for every individual slave,) from a new source, viz. _the improved value of his land_. It is a fact well known in the United States, that a certain quant.i.ty of land, or farm, in full cultivation by free men, will fetch twice more money than the same quant.i.ty of land, similarly circ.u.mstanced, in full cultivation by slaves. Let us suppose now that the slaves at present on any West Indian plantation are worth about as much as the land with the buildings upon it, to which they are attached, and that the land with the buildings upon it would rise to double its former value when cultivated by free men, it follows that the land and buildings alone would be worth as much then, that is, when worked by free labourers, as the land, buildings, and slaves together are worth at the present time.

I have now, I think, pretty well canva.s.sed the subject, and I shall therefore hasten to a conclusion. And first, I ask the West Indians, whether they think that they will be allowed to carry on their present cruel system, the arbitrary use of the whip and the chain, and the brutal debas.e.m.e.nt of their fellow-creatures, _for ever_. I say, No; I entertain better hopes of the humanity and justice of the British people. I am sure that they will interfere, and that when they _once take up the cause_, they _will never abandon it till they have obtained their object_. And what is it, after all, that I have been proposing in the course of the preceding pages? two things only, viz. that the laws relating to the slaves may be revised by the British parliament, so that they, may be made (as it was always intended) _to accord with, and not to be repugnant to_, the principles of the British const.i.tution, and that, when such a revision shall have taken place, the slaves may be put into _a state of preparation for emanc.i.p.ation_; and for such an emanc.i.p.ation only as may be compatible with the joint interests of the master and the slave. Is there any thing unreasonable in this proposition? Is it unreasonable to desire that those laws should be repealed, which are contrary to the laws of G.o.d, or that the Africans and their descendants, who have the shape, image, intellect, feelings, and affections of men, should be treated as human beings?

The measure then, which I have been proposing, is _not unreasonable_. I trust it _would not be injurious_ to the interests of the West Indians themselves. These are at present, it is said, in great distress; and so they have been for years; and so they will still be (and moreover they will be getting worse and worse) _so long as they continue slavery_. How can such a wicked, such an ill-framed system succeed? Has not the Almighty in his moral government of the world stamped a character upon human actions, and given such a turn to their operations, that the balance should be ultimately in favour of virtue? Has he not taken from those, who act wickedly, the power of discerning the right path? or has he not so confounded their faculties, that they are for ever frustrating their own schemes? It is only to know the practice of our planters to be a.s.sured, that it will bring on difficulty after difficulty, and loss after loss, till it will end in ruin. If a man were to sit down and to try to invent a ruinous system of agriculture, could he devise one more to his mind than that which they have been in the habit of using? Let us look at some of the more striking parts of this system. The first that stares us in the face, is the unnatural and destructive practice of _forced labour_. Here we see men working without any rational stimulus to elicit their exertions, and therefore they must be followed by drivers with whips in their hands. Well might it be said by Mr. Botham to the Committees of Privy-council and House of Commons, "Let it be considered, how much labour is lost by the persons overseeing the forced labourer, which is saved when he works for his own profit;" and, notwithstanding all the vigilance and whipping of these drivers, I have proved that the slaves do more for themselves in an afternoon, than in a whole day when they work for their masters. It was doubtless the conviction that _forced labour was unprofitable_, as well as that there would be less of human suffering, which made Mr. Steele take away the whips from his drivers, as _the very first step necessary_ in his improved system, or as the _sine qua non_ without which such a system could not properly be begun; and did not this very measure _alter the face of his affairs in point of profit in three years after it had been put into operation_? And here it must be observed, that, if ever emanc.i.p.ation should be begun by our planters, this must be (however they may dislike to part with arbitrary power) as much a first step with them as it was with Mr. Steele. _Forced labour_ stands at the head of the catalogue of those nuisances belonging to slavery, which oppose the planter's gain. It must be removed before any thing else can be done.

See what mischiefs it leads to, independently of its want of profit. It is impossible that forced labour can be kept up from day to day without injury to the const.i.tution of the slaves; and if their health is injured, the property of their masters must be injured also. Forced labour, again, sends many of them to the sick-houses. Here is, at any rate, a loss of their working time. But it drives them also occasionally to run away, and sometimes to destroy themselves. Here again is a loss of their working time and of property into the bargain. _Forced labour_, then, is one of those striking parts in the West Indian husbandry, in which we see a _constant source of loss_ to those who adopt it; and may we not speak, and yet with truth, as unfavourably of some of the other striking parts in the same system? What shall we say, first, to that injurious disproportion of the articles of croppage with the wants of the estates, which makes little or no provision of food for the labourers (_the very first to be cared for_), but leaves these to be fed by articles to be bought three thousand miles off in another country, let the markets there be ever so high, or the prices ever so unfavourable, at the time? What shall we say, again, to that obstinate and ruinous attachment to old customs, in consequence of which even acknowledged improvements are almost forbidden to be received? How generally has the introduction of the plough been opposed in the West Indies, though both the historians of Jamaica have recommended the use of it, and though it has been proved that _one plough_ with _two sets of horses_ to relieve each other, would turn up as much land _in a day, as one hundred Negroes_ could with their hoes! Is not the hoe also continued in earthing up the canes there, when Mr. Botham proved, more than thirty years ago, that _two_ men would do more with the East Indian shovel at that sort of work in a day, than _ten_ Negroes with the former instrument? So much for _unprofitable instruments_ of husbandry; a few words now on _unprofitable modes of employment_. It seems, first, little less than infatuation, to make Negroes carry baskets of dung upon their heads, basket after basket, to the field. I do not mention this so much as an intolerable hards.h.i.+p upon those who have to perform it, as an improvident waste of strength and time. Why are not horses, or mules, or oxen, and carts or other vehicles of convenience, used oftener on such occasions? I may notice also that cruel and most disadvantageous mode of employment of making Negroes collect gra.s.s for the cattle, by picking it by the hand blade by blade. Are no artificial gra.s.ses to be found in our islands, and is the existence of the scythe unknown there? But it is of no use to dwell longer upon this subject. The whole system is a ruinous one from the beginning to the end. And from whence does such a system arise? It has its origin in _slavery_ alone. It is practised no where but in the land of ignorance and slavery. Slavery indeed, or rather the despotism which supports slavery, has no compa.s.sion, and it is one of its characteristics _never to think of sparing the sinews of the wretched creature called a slave_. Hence it is slow to adopt helps, with which a beneficent Providence has furnished us, by giving to man an inventive faculty for easing his burthens, or by submitting the beasts of the field to his dominion and his use, and it flies to expedients which are contrary to nature and reason. How then can such a system ever answer? Were an English farmer to have recourse to such a system, he would not be able to pay his rent for a single year. If the planters then are in distress, it is their own fault. They may, however, thank the abolitionists that they are not worse off than they are at present.

The abolition of the slave trade, by cutting off the purchase of new slaves, has cut off one cause of their ruin[17]; and it is only the abolition _of slavery which can yet save them_. Had the planters, when the slave trade was abolished, taken immediate measures to meet the change; had they then revised their laws and subst.i.tuted better; had they then put their slaves into a state of preparation for emanc.i.p.ation, in what a different, that is, desirable situation would they have been at this moment! In fact, _nothing can save them, but the abolition of slavery on a wise and prudent plan_. They can no more expect, without it, to meet the present low prices of colonial produce, than the British farmer can meet the present low prices of grain, unless he can have an abatement of rent, t.i.the, and taxation, and unless his present poor rates can be diminished also. Take away, however, from the planters the use and practice of slavery, and the hour of _their regeneration_ would be begun. Can we doubt, that Providence would then bless their endeavours, and that _salvation_ from their difficulties would be their portion in the end?

It has appeared, I hope, by this time, that what I have been proposing is not unreasonable, and that, so far from being injurious to the interests of the planters, it would be highly advantageous to them. I shall now show, that I do not ask for the introduction of a more humane system into our Colonies _at a time when it would be improper to grant it_; or that no fair objection can be raised against the _present moment_, as _the fit era_ from whence the measures in contemplation should commence. There was, indeed, a time when the planters might have offered something like an excuse for the severity of their conduct towards their slaves, on the plea that the greater part of them then in the colonies were _African-born_ or _strangers_, and that cargoes were constantly pouring in, one after the other, consisting of the same sort of beings; or of _stubborn ferocious people, never accustomed to work, whose spirits it was necessary to break_, and _whose necks to force down to the yoke_; and that this could only be effected by the whip, the chain, the iron collar, and other instruments of the kind. But _now_ no such plea can be offered. It is now sixteen years since the slave trade was abolished by England, and it is therefore to be presumed, that no new slaves have been imported into the British colonies within that period. The slaves, therefore, who are there at this day, must consist either of Africans, whose spirits must have been long ago broken, or of Creoles born in the cradle and brought up in the trammels of slavery.

What argument then can be produced for the continuation of a barbarous discipline there? And we are very glad to find that two gentlemen, both of whom we have had occasion to quote before, bear us out in this remark. Mr. Steele, speaking of some of the old cruel laws of Barbadoes, applies them to the case before us in these words:--"As, according to Ligon's account, there were not above two-thirds of the island in plantations in the year 1650, we must suppose that in the year 1688 the great number of _African-born_ slaves brought into the plantations in chains, and compelled to labour by the terrors of corporal punishment, might have made it appear necessary to enact a temporary law so harsh as the statute No. 82; but when the _great majority_ of the Negroes were become _vernacular, born in the island, naturalized by language_, and _familiarised by custom_, did not _policy_ as well as humanity require: them _to be put under milder conditions_, such as were granted to the slaves of our Saxon ancestors?" Colonel Malenfant speaks the same sentiments. In defending his plan, which he offered to the French Government for St. Domingo in 1814, against the vulgar prejudice, that "where you employ Negroes you must of necessity use slavery," he delivers himself thus:--"[18]If all the Negroes on a plantation had not been more than six months out of Africa, or if they had the same ideas concerning an independent manner of life as the Indians or the savages of Guiana, I should consider my plan to be impracticable. I should then say that coercion would be necessary: but ninety-nine out of every hundred Negroes in St. Domingo are aware that they cannot obtain necessaries without work. They know that it is their duty to work, and they are even desirous of working; but the remembrance of their cruel sufferings in the time of slavery renders them suspicious." We may conclude, then, that if a cruel discipline was _not necessary_ in the years 1790 and 1794, to which these gentlemen allude, when there must have been _some thousands of newly imported Africans_ both in St.

Domingo and in the English colonies, it cannot be necessary _now_, when there have been no importations into the latter for _fifteen years_.

There can be no excuse, then, for the English planters for not altering their system, and this _immediately_. It is, on the other hand, a great reproach to them, considering the quality and character of their slaves, _that they should not of themselves have come forward on the subject before this time_.

Seeing then that nothing has been done where it ought, it is the duty of the abolitionists to _resume their labours_. If through the medium of the abolition of the slave trade they have not accomplished, as they expected, the whole of their object, they have no alternative but to resort to _other measures_, or to attempt by const.i.tutional means, under that Legislature which has already sanctioned their efforts, the mitigation of the cruel treatment of the Negroes, with the ultimate view of extinguis.h.i.+ng, in due time and in a suitable manner, the slavery itself. Nor ought any time to be lost in making such an attempt; for it is a melancholy fact, that there is scarcely any increase of the slave population in our islands at the present moment. What other proof need we require _of the severity of the slavery there, and of the necessity of its mitigation?_ Severe punishments, want of sufficient food, labour extracted by the whip, and a system of prost.i.tution, conspire, _almost as much as ever_, to make inroads upon the const.i.tutions of the slaves, and to prevent their increase. And let it be remembered here, that any former defect of this kind was supplied by importations; but that importations are _now unlawful_. Unless, therefore, the abolitionists interfere, and that soon, our West Indian planters may come to Parliament and say, "We have now tried your experiment. It has not answered. You must therefore give us leave to go again to the coast of Africa for slaves." There is also another consideration worthy of the attention of the abolitionists, viz. that _a public attempt_ made in England to procure the abolition of _slavery_ would very much promote their original object, the cause of the abolition of the slave trade; for foreign courts have greatly doubted our sincerity as to the latter measure, and have therefore been very backward in giving us their a.s.sistance in it. If England, say they, abolished the slave trade _from moral motives_, how happens it _that she continues slavery_? But if this _public attempt_ were to succeed, then the abolitionists would see their wishes in a direct train for completion: for if slavery were to fall in the British islands, this event would occasion death in a given time, and without striking any further blow, to the execrable trade in every part of the world; because those foreigners, who should continue slavery, no longer able to compete in the markets with those who should employ free men, must abandon the slave trade altogether.

But here perhaps the planters will say, "What right have the people of England to interfere with our property, which would be the case if they were to attempt to abolish slavery?" The people of England might reply, that they have as good a right as you, the planters, have to interfere with that most precious of all property, _the liberty of your slaves_, seeing that _you hold them by no right that is not opposed to nature, reason, justice, and religion_. The people of England have no desire to interfere with your _property_, but with your _oppression_. It is probable that your property would be improved by the change. But, to examine this right more minutely, I contend, first, that they have always a right to interfere in behalf of humanity and justice wherever their appeals can be heard. I contend, secondly, that they have a more immediate right to interfere in the present case, because the oppressed persons in question, living in the British dominions and under the British Government, are _their fellow subjects_. I contend again, that they have this right upon the ground that they are giving you, the West Indians, _a monopoly_ for their sugar, by buying it from you exclusively _at a much dearer rate_ than _they can get it from other quarters_.

Surely they have a right to say to you, as customers for your produce, Change your system and we will continue to deal with you; but if you will not change it, we will buy our sugar elsewhere, or we will not buy sugar at all. The East Indian market is open to us, and we prefer sugar that is not stained with blood. Nay, we will pet.i.tion Parliament to take off the surplus duty with which East Indian sugar is loaded on your account. What superior claims have you either upon Parliament or upon us, that you should have the preference? As to the East Indians, they are as much the subjects of the British empire as yourselves. As to the East India Company, they support all their establishments, both civil and military, at their own expense. They come to our Treasury for nothing; while you, with naval stations, and an extraordinary military force kept up for no other purpose than to keep in awe an injured population, and with heavy bounties on the exportation of your sugar, put us to such an expense as makes us doubt whether your trade is worth having on its present terms. They, the East India Company, again, have been a blessing to the Natives with whom they have been concerned. They distribute an equal system of law and justice to all without respect of persons. They dispell the clouds of ignorance, superst.i.tion, and idolatry, and carry with them civilization and liberty wherever they go.

You, on the other hand, have no code of justice but for yourselves. You _deny it_ to those who _cannot help themselves_. You _hinder liberty_ by your cruel restrictions on manumission; and dreading the inlet of light, _you study to perpetuate ignorance and barbarism_. Which then of the two compet.i.tors has the claim to preference by an English Parliament and an English people? It may probably soon become a question with the latter, whether they will consent to pay a million annually more for West India sugar than for other of like quality, or, which is the same thing, whether they will allow themselves to be _taxed annually to the amount of a million sterling to support West Indian slavery_.

I shall now conclude by saying, that I leave it; and that I recommend it, to others to add to the light which I have endeavoured to furnish on this subject, by collecting new facts relative to Emanc.i.p.ation and the result of it in other parts of the world, as well as relative to the superiority of free over servile labour, in order that the West Indians may be convinced, if possible, that they would be benefited by the change of system which I propose. They must already know, both by past and present experience, that the ways of unrighteousness are not profitable. Let them not doubt, when the Almighty has decreed the balance in favour of virtuous actions, that their efforts under the new system will work together for their good, so that their temporal redemption may be at hand.

THE END.

Printed by Richard Taylor, Shoe-Lane, London.