A vessel from Jamaica brings intelligence to the 24th of
Sep- tember. It is extremely unsatisfactory, and goes far towards establishing the fact that the apprenticeship portion of the Eman- cipation Act is a failure. The Negroes had very generally refused to work. One of the principal planters in the parish of St. Anne writes as follows to the Kingston Chronicle.
"The apprentices in this parish are daily becoming more insolent and lacy; so much so, that a great change, for the better or worse, must soon take place. They are not earning fivepenoe per diem. This the master cannot stand."
l3imilar accounts from other parts of the island are published in the Jamaica newspapers. But the Negroes do not content them- selves with refusing to work. On the estate of Mr. CUTHBERT at Belvidere, they were guilty of open outrage. The Kingston Gazette supplies the following particulars of a fire, and the con- sequences of attempting to punish the Negroes who were the authors of it.
" The fire on Belvidere was happily got under at about eight o'clock at night ; and the police force and a militia guard were stationed on the property during last night. The apprentices attempted to rescue the prisoners, but were repulsed. " The cause of this affair is said to be this—The Stipendiary Magistrate had visited the estate on the day above-named (September 20th), an had ordered several of the apprentices, who had been guilty of misdemeanours, to receive corporal punishment on the estate. It had been stated to Mr. Lyon, in the early part of the morning, that the people on the estate were extremely unruly ; in consequence of which, he ordered the police force to be on the property, and when the punishment was to be inflicted on the delinquents, a body of them prevented the order of the Magistrate from being carried into effect. Imme- diately Mr. Lyon had left the property, a messenger was sent to him, stating that the apprentices had set fire to the work. On being informed of this, Mr. Lyon applied to another Magistrate at Morant Bay to turn out the Militia: but that gentleman, thinking he had not the power, applied to the Clerk of the Peace for advice; who informed him that the senior officer on the Bay could order out the companies that were there. This order was therefore given ; and two companies, with the constabulary force, mounted on horseback, proceeded to Fselvidere, where they apprehended the ringleaders. These men were marched off to Morant Bay Gaol ; although an attempt was made to rescue them by their fellow apprentices, and who were with difficulty repressed even at the point of the bayonet."
At Spanish Town, " the rising spirit of insubordination and in- cendiarism liad created the utmost alarm." Of the Stipendiars Magistrates, more than half had died from over-exertion and anxiety. They seem to have been but ill qualified for the duties they had to perform. The demand of the Negroes is for absolute freedom, which they believe has been granted them by the King of England. They ridicule the idea of apprenticeship being free- dom, and claim exemption from flogging when they choose to be lazy. The logical Blacks ask, why, if they are really free, they should be flogged, more than " Buckra men." Instead of smooth- ing the way to entire freedom, there is reason to fear that the ap- prenticeship scheme will render it necessary to postpone the day of actual emancipation. There is danger in playing even Negroes false; they know the difference between the name and the sub- stance of liberty —between liability to and exemption from the cart- w hi p.
The Marquis of SLIGO appears to have been active and discreet in his exertions to quell disorder. It is said that he has repre- sented strongly to the Ministry the necessity of making some im- portant changes in the machinery of the Emancipation Act.
It must not be supposed that in all cases the Negroes have been unprovoked aggressors. In some instances, it is stated, they have been grievously sinned against. Altogether, it would seem that the people of England will get small value for their irrevocable twenty millions.
Previous page
