WEST INDIA SLAVERY.
WE are not aware that at some period or another slavery has not existed in every kingdom of the earth. Every schoolboy must re- collect the anecdote of the English slaves, whose handsome persons and ingenuous countenances so captivated GREGORY the Great; and the benevolent pun—more benevolent indeed than witty—which "led to the introduction of Christianity into Great Britain. We do not mention these things from any approbation of slavery, nor because of their novelty, for they have often been adverted to in discussing the subject of this article; but because, by many sincere and honest Abolitionists, the slavery of the West Indies is regarded not only as objectionable in the abstract, but as an anomaly in the consti- tution. An anomaly it may be in the constitution of 1688; but those who look beyond the ra of the Revolution, (which was a cleansing and beautifying and repairing, and not a creative mea- eure),—and who see in'tile main pillars and banding timbers of our political temple the solid heart of oak of their Saxon, and in the figured and fantastical decorations of the roof the labours of their Norman ancestors,—willnotreadily admit that slavery is an anomaly in the constitution of England. The clearing awayer3f this objection will do much to remove another, which is not unfrequently urged by AboRionists. No man, it is said, can have a right of property in his fellow; and thence it is concluded that no injustice would be committed by a law which should emancipate the slaves of the West Indies. Now if we but look back to history; we shall find that the right of the lord over his villein was as legally constituted and as continuously and regularly acknowledged aa any right of pro- perty whatever. And how did that right lapse ?—Not by acts of abo- lition, assuredly, but by the gradual operation of a peculiar provi- sion in the laws respecting villeins. "Slaves cannot live in England:" why ?—Not from any peculiarity in the atmosphere— not from the march of freedom, or any other march—but simply because the holding of a West India slave-master, being different in its character, is not recognized by the English slave-law. Could the owner of Summerset have shown that his right over him wias of the same kind as the right of the lord over the villein, the King's Bench would have defended his title. The decision of Lord MANS- FIELD did not in the slightest degree impugn the right of the mas- ter over the slave ; it merely found, in the case under discussion, that the right had not been made out. If, as has sometimes been done, we deny the title of the master because at some period more or less remote it was established by violence or fraud,—if we take from him, the bona fide holder, the right arising out of undisputed possession,—then we are bound to go further, and to challenge all titles which in their origin were bottomed on violence and fraud. We should like to know how many of the hereditary estates of the noblemen and gentlemen of England would be set free by such a challenge ? Laying aside, therefore, all crazy speculations about the right of the master, let us see how slavery has ceased where it was once general.
Here we cannot cite the example of England, because of the pe- culiar provision to which we have alluded. The old Roman law of partus sequitur ventrem was under the English laws of villein- age reversed ; and the child, instead of being of the condition of its mother, was of the condition of its real or supposed father. On this principle, not only were the offspring of a free father free, but illegitimate children, who in law have no father at all, were free also, the presumption being in favour of the nobler lineage. The Roman law is strictly observed in the West Indies, and therefore the example of England is not in point. Let us take Italy itself. What was the process of gradual emancipation there 1—First of all, the slave was attached to the soil : this is the great step every- where. The The services they had to render to the estate, of which they were fixtures, gradually diminished in value as the aseripti glebee increased in numbers, while the cost of their maintenance augmented in a reciprocal ratio. At last the proprietor found that the maintenance of his slaves cost more than their labour was worth; and in consequence—not from benevolence or fashion, or any transitory or accidental cause, but from the permanent and imperative calls of self-preservation—he was induced to manu- mit them. Now to this point the West Indies have not come, no will they for some time. The obstacle there in the way of any thing like general manumission, is the value of the slave. That value must be diminished before we can look for abolition, or the same enactment which declares the abolition of slavery must compensate the planter for the consequences of abolition. There are, however, many regulations which may accelerate the period when abolition may be carried without compensation and without injustice. A corn.. ruencement, and a most important one, has been made in the legaliz- ing of slave marriages, and in the privileges that accompany mar- riage. The next grand step—and it naturally flows out of the mar riage act, is to convert the whole of the negroes, or at least the whole of the field negroes, into ascriptiglebee. We confess we have never seen anything in the shape of a sound argument against such a mea. sure. We should wish it to originate with the planters, and we • think it will ; but should it originate in the British Senate, we do not think the planters would have the slightest reason to com- plain; for by no calculations that we have been enabled to make, can we perceive that the value of their property would by such means be deteriorated.
There is another measure, to which mighty importance has been attached, and in regard to which it would be difficult to say whether the fears of the one party or the hopes of the other are most ludicrous ;—we allude to the compulsory manumission bill. The Bible Society is, we believe, the most; generally patronized, the most extensively ramified, and the wealthiest that ever existed in the world. None of equal numbers and wealth will probably ever be formed : but grant a manumission society equally nume- rous, equally rich,—and grant that its funds should be applied with- out waste or diminution,—how soon would sueh a society purchase the freedom of the negroes of the West Indies, at the present market price ?—Somewhere about the year 2829, we guess ! So much for any danger on that side. That ever the slaves themselves should effect a general emancipation, is a notion even more extra- vagant. We are indeed told of a Sambo here and a Quashee there that have amassed a pretty peculium ; but what are they to the mass of the improvidents ? The free negTo, it is acknowledged by every body conversant with the West Indies, will not work beyond what his necessities require; (this is the convincing argument against the use of free labour, in the present state of the popula- tion) ; and is it to he believed that the accumulating principle is stronger in the slave than in his free brother?
We revert, then, to the conversion of the field slaves into ascr-ipti glebe, as the essential step id safe and certain and general eman- cipation. The rights of marriage are already conceded ; to these add permanent dorniciliation ; and then comes with rapid strides the grand desideratum—such an increase in the number of labourers, and such a reduction in the price of labour, as shall equal- ize the value of the services of the "thrall" and the nourishment and shelter to which he has a claim. The instant that has come to pass, or rather long before it comes to pass—long before the food and clothing and lodging of the bondman are equal to the purchase of six days' labour of the freeman—the abolition of slavery will take place, not only without opposition from the planters, but with their perfect and cheerful concurrence. If it take place a day sooner, then we must do one of two things,—we must take from the planters the value of that (lay; or we must tax ourselves to pay it. The latter process would be extremely burdensome ; the former exceed- ingly unreasonable ; neither is at all necessary. Time, the great innovator, is slowly and resistlessly maturing the fruit which any attempt at forcing would only serve to render vapid and worthless.
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