162
DECREASE OF CRIME.
equally suspicious-, quarrelsome, and uncivil. Still there are many and great excuses to be made for them, when we consider how short has been their life of freedom !—how untutored their minds are !—how debased has been their state I —the very beast that eats the grass of the field has, in times past, been equally esteemed with the negro ! Many planters, as well as other intelligent individuals, have affirmed to the truth of the statement, “ that negroes are more easily managed as free men, than they were as slaves ;" and certainly such persons ought to be better judges than myself, whose intercourse with the negro population is, of course, more restricted. Crime is also said to'have decreased—that is, in offences of the higher character. We seldom or ever hear of a murder, or arson ; but petty faults, such as small thefts, breaking canes, breaches of contract, and insolence to their employers, swell at times into a large amount. Still it must be remembered, such is not a proof that misdemeanours are more frequent in freedom than they used to be during slavery. The reason that these minor violations of the law appear to have increased is, that under the present system all defaulters are brought before a magistrate, and their offences thus published in the eyes of the world ; whereas, in days of slavery, their owner was their judge and corrector, the whip their punishment, and they received their corporeal chastisement without any notice of the event reaching the ears of any stranger. It is true, as I have already remarked more than once, the negroes are a class of individuals very difficult and tiresome to deal with ; the greatest patience is requisite in order to bear with their strange and harassing dispositions. It is now ten years since I first came among them ; and although great part of that time has been spent in England, I have lived long enough in Antigua to know what negroes are. I have studied their characters in every point, and well as I would wish to speak of them, truth obliges me to confess I have found them to be very far from perfect. Still I glory in emancipation, for I looked upon slavery as a foul and