The West indies in 1837

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JAMAICA.

excited public attention, in consequence of circumstan­ ces which are elsewhere alluded to.* Soon after the first of August, he purchased his freedom by valuation for two hundred and nine pounds ; and has since been employed as the overseer of the Lenox estate. He has recently purchased seventy acres of land for him­ self, on which he observed, " I employ as many laborers as I can get, and I find the free negros work far better and more cheerfully than the apprentices, and give more satisfaction. The negros will do any thing for money. On Lenox estate, the task is one hundred and four caneholes a day. They will occasionally do two days work in one, or more frequently three days work in two, and work for money on the leisure day." His testimony as to the effect of slavery on the free classes is equally striking ; " in consequence of labor having hitherto been considered a degradation, many of the free colored people will stand a poor chance, (after 18401 in competition with the best disposed and most indus­ trious apprentices, which is the reason that they are so hostile to Emancipation, as they see plainly that some of the negros will rise above them. There are many who have only two or three apprentices, upon whose labor they chiefly subsist, and fall themselves in con­ sequence into idle habits and drunkenness." In the course of the day J. S T U R G E proceeded to Black River, which is the town and port of St. Eliza­ beth's, where he visited the jail and workhouse. There were about fifty inmates, of whom six were life con­ victs. The treadmill is one of English construction. The prisoners sentenced to this punishment are put upon it for half an hour three times a day, a pun* S e e A p p e n d i x F , Sec. ix.


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