Untitled - African American History

CXC HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SLAVERY.
feet liberty. That it failed of its object is universally
admitted, and the emancipationists attributed to this
apprentice system the many evils growing out of this
violent uprooting of an entire social system. The colo-
nists complained bitterly, and their opponents (perhaps
not without cause), accused them of seeking to evade all
of its provisions. They again accused the negroes of
miserable evasions under pretence of sickness and other-
wise. On the day before perfect liberty was granted, the
infirmaries of Jamaica, says an intelligent French
writer, were crowded with negroes professing to be
sick. The next day they were all cured. What worked
this miracle ? The arrival of liberty. 1 The English
abolitionists appealed to Parliament to cut the Gordian
knot and grant immediate freedom. The rights of the
proprietors were laughed to scorn. It is possible that
this movement would have succeeded, but it was ren-
dered unnecessary by the colonies themselves, who, sick
of their apprentices, granted entire freedom before the
day appointed. Antigua
led in this movement con-
temporaneously with the commencement of the system.
Bermuda and other smaller islands followed the example
soon thereafter. Barbadoes came next early in 1838,
others followed, and on 1st August of that year, the
apprentice system ended in Jamaica. Some insignificant
outbreaks had attended its workings, but on the whole it
was effected peaceably. 2
In another place we will examine the results of this
abolition in its effects upon these colonies. It may be
well here to remark, that the character of the slavery of
the negro in the British West Indies and in the United
States, differs widely. That the negroes were not im-
proving physically in the former, is proven conclusively
by the fact, that instead of increasing in numbers, they
1
Cassagnac's Voyage aux Antilles, i ;
2
Report of Due de Broglie, p. 10.
275.