Part 104 (2/2)
It is an immense building, and was crowded in every part of its s.p.a.cious area, galleries and aisles, with a most attentive a.s.semblage of people, of all colors and conditions. Several clergymen officiated, and one of them at the opening of the services read most appropriately the 58th chapter of Isaiah. Imagine for a moment the effect in such an audience, on such an occasion, where were many hundreds of emanc.i.p.ated slaves, of words like these:--”Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” The sermon by the Bishop was, as might have been expected on such an occasion, interesting and impressive. He spoke with great effect of the unexpected progress of freedom, from island to island, from colony to colony, until, with a solitary exception, upon that day the stain of slavery was obliterated forever from every British possession. The progress of education, the gradual reformation of morals, and the increasing thirst for religious instruction, were all dwelt upon with great force, and the glory of all ascribed, as was most fit, to the Great Giver of every good and perfect gift. It was an occasion rich with happy emotions, and long to be remembered as a bright and beautiful spot in the pathway of our earthly pilgrimage.
The close of the day was not less auspicious than its commencement.
In company with Mrs. H., I drove through several of the princ.i.p.al streets, and thence through the most public thoroughfare into the country; and no where could aught be seen to mar the decent and truly impressive solemnity of the day. There were no dances, no merry-making of any sort; not a solitary drunkard, not a gun fired, nor even was a shout heard to welcome in the newborn liberty. The only groups we saw were going to or returning from the different chapels and churches: except in a few instances, where families might be seen reading or singing hymns at their own dwellings.
And now, sir, having arrived at the long looked for consummation of all the labors and prayers of the friends of the slave for so many years, as I cast my eye around this _land of liberty_, how many thoughts crowd my mind? I ask myself--is it indeed finished? And are there none to lament the downfall of time-honored, h.o.a.ry-headed slavery? Where are the mourners? Where are the prognosticators of ruin, desolation, and woe? Where are the riots and disorders, the bloodshed and the burnings? The prophets and their prophecies are alike empty, vain, and unfounded, and are alike buried in oblivion.
And why, in the name of humanity, was not this glorious consummation brought about ages ago?--Is it because the slaves of 1838 are better fitted for freedom than those of fifty or a hundred years since? No one believes it. The only preparation for freedom required in this island, or any where else, in order to put a peaceful end to slavery, is the preparation of heart in the slaveholder to grant deliverance to the captive.
Yours truly,
WM. R. HAYES
P.S. August 9th.--All is quiet, and the utmost good order every where prevails.”
To complete the picture we will give two extracts of letters from eminent Jamaica Attornies to their employers in England, with regard to the turning out to work. It is remarked by the English papers that the Attornies generally in writing to their employers adopt the same strain.
They are all doing well on _their_ estates, but hear that the rest of the island is in a woful condition.--These are the men who are the greatest, if not the only, losers by emanc.i.p.ation; hence their testimony is doubly valuable.
From the British Emanc.i.p.ator, Nov. 14.
LETTERS FROM ATTORNIES.
_Extract of a Letter from an eminent Estate Attorney, in St. Mary's, Jamaica, dated August_ 24, 1838.
”There was nothing whatever done in this parish, or throughout the island, for the first two weeks of the month. In this quarter some estates did a little last week, and have been making more progress since, but the far greater number have not yet done any work; the minds of the people are very unsettled, and full of all sorts of foolish notions, which will continue more or less till we hear of the home government having accepted and approved of our abolition bill, and their views with regard to us.
On several of the estates which have wrought, the people have struck once or twice. We have in this parish ministers of every denomination, and they are all acting very properly; but they do not seem to have as much influence as expected; we must _be as considerate and liberal as possible to secure their confidence_ ourselves. We are in St. Mary's paying the highest rate of wages in the island; 1s. 8d. currency per day nett, with allowances, are generally offered; I am giving here, from sheer necessity, 2s. 6d.
currency per day, without charging any rent in the mean time. In the present state of things when so few estates are doing anything at all, I have much satisfaction in saying that the people here, on ----, a good proportion of them were at work last week, and I have now the mill about making sugar, with every probability, I think of going on satisfactorily; and looking dispa.s.sionately at the great change which has so suddenly taken place, our present difficulties are not much to be wondered at.
Sunday night, 8th Sept.--The foregoing was written, but too late, for the last packet; but as another sails to-morrow, I write you a few lines more. There is, up to this moment, but little material alteration in the state of affairs generally, certainly none for the worse. I have made here twenty hogsheads of sugar since the 1st ult.
We are altogether in an uncertain state, but there are more mills about, and more work doing _in this district than in any other in the island_, which might and ought to be a feather in the cap of Maitter, our late stipe. I have no time to say more now, excepting that, although I am in great hopes that things will soon generally improve, and am of opinion that our present difficulties are not to be wondered at, yet our situation is still so critical, that I dare not venture to hazard an opinion as to the success of the great experiment, I repeat, however, again, that we have not seen anything to disappoint or surprise us, bad as many things are.”
_Extract of a Letter from an Attorney in St. Mary's, Jamaica, 24th August_, 1838
”The services of the stipes are much wanting here; I am paying 10s. a week for first cla.s.s, 6s. 8d. for second, and 4s. 2d. for third, for five days work; they say they will not work on Fridays. However, I have got people at ---- to work today; they are behaving better than most others. I hope things will now improve; and it is my opinion that good estates will do, and others will fall to the ground. Old Mr. Tytte is dead, and his son Alexander made stipe for the district. The Governor's speech respecting women has done a great deal of harm. None of the women want to work. If Lord Glenelg had made such a mistake, he would have heard enough of it. I wish the Government would take it on themselves to settle the rate of wages, otherwise two-thirds of the estates will be thrown up before next year; of course I can stand this as well as any.
The ---- people have behaved well: they did every thing I told them; they are working on piece-work, which is the best plan.”
Precisely similar is the testimony of private correspondents and of the public press so far as we have been able to learn, in all the other colonies where emanc.i.p.ation has taken place. There is certainly nothing in all this that indicates a disposition on the part of the emanc.i.p.ated to throw off the employment of their former masters, but much the reverse. We may safely challenge contradiction to the a.s.sertion, that at the expiration of the jubilee there were not a set of free laborers on earth from whom the West India planters could have got more work for the same money. It may be proper in these days, when the maxims of slavery have so fearfully overshadowed the rights of man, to say that a man has a _right_ to forbear laboring when he can live honestly without it--or, at all events, he has a right to choose whether he will employ himself or be employed by another. Hence it _may_ turn out that the refusal to labor, so far as there has been any, only serves to prove the more clearly the fitness of the laborers of freedom.
WAGES
It must have been obvious to every man of reflection that in a change so vast, involving so many laborers, and in circ.u.mstances so various, there would arise almost infinite disputes about the rate of wages. The colonies differ widely as to the real value of labor. Some have a rich, unexhausted, and, perhaps, inexhaustible soil, and a scanty supply of laborers. Others are more populous and less fertile. The former would of course offer higher wages than the latter, for so sudden was the step there could be no common understanding on the point. Again, as we have seen, the planters came into the measure with different views. Some antic.i.p.ated the general change, and either from motives of humanity or policy, or more probably of both, adopted a course calculated to gain the grat.i.tude and good will of the laborer.--These would offer wages which the less liberal would call ruinous. Many, and it would seem the great body of them in Jamaica, yielded unwillingly to superior power.
They saw the sceptre of despotic authority was to be wrested from their grasp. They threw it down, as one may easily believe, resolved to seize the best subst.i.tute they could. They would infallibly fall upon the plan of getting the greatest possible amount of work for the least possible amount of pay. When we consider that even in the oldest, most civilized, and most Christianized free-labor communities, employers are wont to combine to keep down the rate of wages, while on the other hand the laborers throw up work to raise it, we shall not be surprised that there should be things of this sort in Jamaica, liberty being in the gristle.
The only help for such an evil is, that there is always a rate of wages which is advantageous to both parties, and things being left to themselves, it will at last be found.
To the planters and freed-men in settling the question what wages they should offer and receive, two standards or guides presented themselves,--1. The rate of wages which had been given in Antigua since 1834. 2. The compensation that had been demanded by the Jamaica planters themselves, and adjudged by the magistrates, in case of apprentices buying their own time. Hundreds of planters had declared upon oath what the time of the apprentice was worth to them. Possibly as sellers, in the elasticity of their consciences, they may have set a higher price than they would be willing to give as buyers. In strict honesty, however, it is difficult to see why labor should not be worth to them as much in the one case as the other. The rate of wages fixed upon in Antigua may be seen by a reference to the Journal of Thome and Kimball to be very inadequate to the wants of the laborer. Free labor is there screwed down to the lowest possible point. The wonder is that the laborers should have submitted to such a scale for a moment. But they had no precedent to guide them, no advisers free from the yoke of the proprietary, no valuations given by their own masters, and there was every facility for successful combination on the part of the masters.
They must work for such wages as the masters pleased to offer, or starve.
<script>