ment of the African race, in the sense that the Haytiens are to be censured for their ignorance. In Africa the race is barbarous. Under the slavery of St. Domingo, no adequate provision existed for their elevation. Freedom brought with it no institutions of learning for the population in general. Their rulers have been military despots-necessarily so; and the youth, like their fathers, have risen into manhood under circumstances that precluded the possibility of progress.

From the best information possessed, it is safe to affirm, that the slaves of the United States are greatly in advance, morally and intellectually, of the free negro population of Hayti.* This assertion will not be disputed; and the fact is not stated to afford an argument in behalf of slavery, but only to illustrate the truth of the position taken by Franklin, that mere emancipation does not necessarily elevate the negro in the scale of humanity. Slavery and freedom are both alike in this respect, where no means of intellectual and moral culture are provided. Consequently, there may be progress under slavery, while the intellect may be at a dead stand-still under freedom. It is in this respect, mainly, that the colored race in the United States have differed so widely from their fellows in all other countries. Limited as the means of improvement may be, which are afforded to the American slave, they are very greatly superior to the advantages enjoyed by an equal number of the blacks in any other portions of the world.

A word of explanation is needed in relation to the present economical interests of Hayti. The amount of its exports, down to 1848, are given on a preceding page. Its total foreign exports, at present, are not accessible, but its traffic with the United States, which is understood to be its principal market, for the year ending June 30, 1860, was as follows: The total value of imports into the United States, from Hayti, was $2,062,723, of which $1,679,657, was for 15,621,751 lbs. of coffee; while the exports to Hayti, from the United States, were, in value, $2,441,905, chiefly provisions. The exports to Dominicana were only $156,054, and the imports from it, $283,098.

*The term "Hayti," is used here to designate the whole Island of St. Do

The effects of emancipation upon Mexico, the South American Republics, and Hayti, in retarding their progress, interrupting their peace, and destroying their prosperity, can now be readily understood by intelligent men. On this question there is no longer any difference of opinion.

SECTION III.-EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIA ISLANDS.

As regards the British West Indies, there is, however, considerable difference of opinion, both in Europe and the United States, in relation to the effects of emancipation, and many contradictory statements have appeared. Generally, the subject has been argued in reference to the economical interests involved some insisting that emancipation has been an economical failure; others, that it has been an economical success. The truth can only be discovered by a careful examination of the leading facts, in the history of the British West Indies, under both slavery and freedom. This we shall proceed to do.

The subject necessarily divides itself into four parts: the productiveness of the islands previous to the suppression of the slave trade in 1808; their productiveness from that date to the passage of the emancipation act in 1833; their productiveness under the apprenticeship system from 1834 to 1838; and their productiveness under freedom from 1839 to the present date, as indicated by the exports.

The statistics can not be obtained for the whole of the British islands, for each one of these periods; for this reason, and because it best represents the results of emancipation, the island of Jamaica is taken. It is, by far, the largest of the whole group, and has been unaffected by great density of population, or the introduction of coolie labor. Sugar being the principal production of the island, the exports of that commodity alone are given. The same degree of reduction occurred as to rum also, which has always been an important article of export. To save space, the average exports for several years together, in most cases, are presented; but in no instance are the figures so collated, as to give an erroneous impression. The few years given separately were extraordinary ones, being either above or below the general average:

1788 to 1791

YEARS.

Exports of Sugar from the Island of Jamaica. *

1772 to 1775..

1793 to 1798.

To comprehend the bearing of the foregoing statistics, it must be borne in mind that the slave trade was prohibited in 1808, and all supplies of labor from Africa suspended; that in 1833 the emancipation act was passed, leaving the negroes, after August 1st, 1834, in the condition of apprentices: and, finally, that emancipation was fully effected in 1838, since which the cultivation of the island has depended upon the labor of the negroes alone no coolies, to any effective extent, having been imported into Jamaica by the planters. The island has thus been dependent upon the emancipated blacks for its cultivation, and has been losing its ability to export, from year to year, until, in the three years ending with 1858, its sugar exportation was reduced to an annual average of 46,456,000 pounds, or more than 191,000,000 pounds less than what it was in 1805. The effect upon the production of cotton was equally disastrous - the exports of that article in 1800 being 17,000,000 pounds, and in 1840 but 427,000 pounds.

Recently, however, a certain class of writers while admitting that the prosperity of the West India islands had been greatly reduced for some time after emancipation — have represented them as rapidly recovering from their depressed condition; and that they are now exporting a greater amount of products than they had done while slavery prevailed. The AMERICAN MISSION

* These statistics, up to 1836, are taken from a table in Martin's British Colonies, a work of great research, the facts of which are derived from official sources. The exports for 1839 to 1843, and 1846 to 1848, are from the letters of Mr. Bigelow, of the N. Y. Evening Post, in Littell's Living Age, 1850, No. 309, p. 125; and those from 1856 to 1858 are from the London Economist, July 16, 1859.

ARY ASSOCIATION, in its report for 1857, gives currency to the assertion that "they yield more produce than they ever did during the existence of slavery." Mr. C. Buxton, in the Edinburgh Review, April, 1859, insists that

Existing facts "show that slavery was bearing our colonies down to ruin with awful speed; that had it lasted but another half century, they must have sunk beyond recovery. On the other hand, that now, under freedom and free trade, they are growing day by day more rich and prosperous; with spreading trade, with improving agriculture, with a more educated, industrious, and virtuous people; while the comfort of the quondam slaves is increased beyond the power of words to portray.

"Now all this seems very encouraging; but how such language can be used, without its being considered as flatly contradicting well-known facts, and what the American Missionary Association, Mr. Bigelow, and others, have heretofore said, will seem very mysterious to the reader. And yet, the assertions quoted would seem to be proved, by taking the aggregate production of the whole British West India islands and Mauritius, * as the index to their commercial prosperity. But if the islands be taken separately, and all the facts considered, a widely different conclusion will be formed, by every candid man, than that the improvement is due to the increased industry of the negroes. On this subject the facts can be drawn from authorities which would scorn to conceal the truth with the design of sustaining a theory of the philanthropist. This question is placed in its true light by the London Economist, July 16, 1859, in which it is shown that the apparent industrial advancement of the islands is due to the importation of immigrants from India, China, and Africa by the coolie traffic,' and not to the improved industry of the emancipated negroes. Says the Economist:

"We find one of the Emigration Commissioners, Mr. Murdock, † in an interesting memorandum on this subject, giving us the following comparison between the islands which have been recently supplied with immigrants, and those which have not:

Mauritius is not in the West Indies, as the maps will show, but in the Indian

Ocean.

†The statement was made at a meeting which met to consider the evils of the Chinese and coolie system of immigration into the West Indies and Mauritius.

"With these are contrasted the results in Jamaica, where there has been very little immigration. In the three years after apprenticeship, Jamaica produced 202,973,568 pounds of sugar, while in the last three years corresponding to the last column of the above table, the production of sugar was only 139,369,776 pounds.'

"Here, now, is presented the key to the mystery overhanging the British West Indies. Men, high in station, have asserted that West India emancipation has been an economic success; while others, equally honorable, have maintained the opposite view. Both have presented figures, averred to be true, that seemed to sustain their declarations. This apparent contradiction is thus explained. The first take the aggregate production in the whole of the islands, which, they say, exceeds that during the existence of slavery; * the second take the production in Jamaica alone, as representing the whole; and thus the startling fact appears, that the sugar crop of the last three years in Jamaica, has fallen 63,603,000 pounds below what it was during the first three years of freedom. This argues badly for the free negroes; but it must be the legitimate fruits of emancipation, as no exterior force has been brought into that island to interfere, materially, with its workings. In Mauritius, Trinidad, and British Guiana, it will be seen that the production has greatly increased; but from a very different cause than any improvement in the industry of the blacks who had received their freedom the increase in Mauritius having been more than double what it had been when the production depended upon them. The sugar crop, in this island, for the three years preceding the introduction of immigrant labor, was but 217,200,000 pounds; while, during the last three years, by the aid of 210,000 immigrants, it has been run up to 469,812,000 pounds.

"Taking all these facts into consideration, it is apparent that West India emancipation has been a failure, economically considered. The production in Jamaica, where it has depended upon the labor of the

They must refer to slavery in its later years, after the suppression of the slave trade. Previous to that event, the production of Jamaica was more than 75 per cent. greater than at present.