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hardly exists at all. A slave cannot hold property by any sure title, nor secure to himself his own wife and children. The vices thus engendered, continue to poison society long after slavery is destroyed.
It is the universal testimony of travellers, that life is more secure in the British colonies, than during slavery. In the French colonies, we have some exact statistics Before Emancipation, 47 out of every 100 crimes brought before the court, were crimes against the person; after Emancipation, the proportion fell to 21 out of every 100.
So, too, in regard to property. No doubt there are more cases of theft tried in the courts now than in the days when every planter and overseer held court on his own premises, and administered speedy justice with the cat. But all who know, bear witness that there is less thieving As for the increased value attached to property, we see that by the eagerness which the negroes show to become proprietors and taxpayers. In St. Vincent there were in 1884, 22 266 slaves, out of a total population of 27 000[1] there are now about 80 000 in all, of whom 1.500 are whites. The returns for 1857 show that 8209 persons were then living in their own houses, built by themselves since emancipation. Within the last twelve years. from ten to twelve thousand acres have been brought under cultivation by small proprietors, owning from one to five acres; and there are no paupers in the island. In Grenada, out of a population of 33 000, the small proprietors. of whom there were none before 1830, now number 2000, and there are 4578 who pay direct taxes. In the whole Island there are only sixty paupers. In Tobago there are 15 500 black and colored persons, of whom 2500 are freeholders, and 2800 pay direct taxes. In St. Lucia the black and colored people number over 24 000, of whom 2045 are freeholders, and 4603 pay taxes. In Antigua, out of 36. 000 inhabitants, 15 644 were living in 1858 in houses built since emancipation, and there were but 299 paupers in the island. In Jamaica, 50 000 persons have become proprietors since emancipation. So much for the second test.
In the four French colonies, from 1837 to 1847, there were 1754 marriages of slaves in a population of 285 000; in nine years. after emancipation there were 38 468 marriages, or about twenty-five times as many. From all the Islands we have similar accounts.
Judged by these tests, then, civilization is making swift progress among the negroes of the Antilles, instead of the barbarism predicted by the planters.
We come now to the third experiment of abolition,—that of 1848, in the French and Danish colonies. It should be said, in passing, that we have omitted to notice the emancipation of negro slaves in Columbia, Guatimala, Mexico, and the South American republics, all which took place between 1821 and 1830. We have not dwelt on these facts, nor have we included the slaves in the number mentioned above, because we have found so few data concerning them. Their number must have been some hundreds of thousands; the only evidence we have found respecting the condition of the freedmen, is in the testimony of Vice Admiral Fleming, in 1882, before the House of Commons.[2]
The Admiral visited Caraccas in 1825, seven years after emancipation there, and again afterwards; he says: "My opinion. from what saw, is, that the black population are making rapid progress toward civilization. They maintain themselves perfectly well, without any assistance, either from their former masters, or from the Government." —General Peyanga, one of the Generals at Caraceas, was a perfectly black man, a complete negro; he was a very well educated person, and well read in Spanish literature; he was a very extraordinary man. Many English officers were serving under him; knew many other black officers of very considerable acquirements, in Caraceas. Admiral Fleming, be it observed, was an officer in the Spanish Navy, and had peculiar facilities for learning the condition of the people of Columbia. Gen. Bolivar had brought about emancipation, having previously freed his own slaves. Doubtless. the same testimony might be given, concerning Mexico and the other Spanish republics. It is well known that the independence of Texas was secured mainly by American slaveholders, who were unwilling to submit to the Mexican law against slavery.
We have already mentioned how slavery was abolished by the National Convention of France, and restored by Napoleon at the cost of the richest of all the colonies-St. Domingo. English conquests still farther