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gro children prosper and increase , amj kidnapping though still prevailing tti an afflicting degree , is yet practiced with less and Jess audacity . " For
farther particulars relating to the proceedings of this patriotic and benevolent Society , I must refer to " The Inquirer , " No . 2 , nay present object being to point put a fact equally unexpected and gratifying to me , which
is related in the plan laid down by the Convention , for the " general
emancipation of Slaves . " This fact is , that an experiment for yery materially improving the condition oi the field Negroes in our West-India Islands , has been tried on a scale of sufficient magnitude , and been found not only to answer , but far to surpass the hopes that had been formed of its success .
1 give the account verbatim . ' * The plan now proposed" ( by the American Delegates ) "is not new . It is ^ no Utopian visionary theory , unsupported by experience . It has been successfully tried in the Island of Barbadoes , by the late Joshua Steel , and
the result exceeded his most sanguine expectations , f The first principles of his plan / says Dr . Dickson , are the plain ones of treating the Slaves as human creatures ; moving them to action by the hope of reward , as well as the fear of punishment ; giving them out of their own labours , wages and land , sufficient to afford them the
plainest necessaries ; and protecting them against the capricious violence , too often of ignorant , unthinking , or unprincipled , perhaps drunken men and boys , invested with arbitrary powers , as their managers and drivers . ^ His |> lan is founded in nature , and has nothing in it of rash
innovation . It does not hurry forward a new order of tilings : it recommends no fine new projects or ticklish
experiments ; bat by a few safe and easy steps , and a few simple applications of English law , opens the way for a gradual introduction of a tetter systtern . To advance above 300 : debased field Negroes , who had never before
moved without the whip , to a state nearly resembling that of contented , honqet and industrious servants , aiid often paying them , for their labour ; to triple . in a few years the annual n £ t income of . . his estates— . tfiesfe were great , achievements for an aged man , in an untried field of improvement ,
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pre-MDccupied fry inveterate vulgar prejudices . He has indeed accomplished all that was really doubtful or difficult in the undertaking ; and perhaps all that is at present desirable , either to owner or Slave ; for he has ascertained
as aTr / c /—what was before only known to : ? the -learned as a theory , and to practical men as a paradox—that the paying of Slaves for their labour , does actually produce a very great profit to their owners . **
It must be a matter of rejoicing to every humane heart , to find it proved experimentally , that such a step towards actual emancipation , may at the present time be taken , not only without fear of injury , but with great profit
to West-India proprietors . Had our friend Cooper gone out to Christianize a plantation so organized , we cannot doubt respecting the success that would have attended his judicious and persevering efforts ; and thus it clearly appears , that this hitherto wretched
and degraded race of men * may , even with large pecuniary advantage to their owners , be . rendered comfortable , rational and religious . In another article o £ the c * Inquirer , " ' ( Proceeding's of School Societies , ) we are also informed that * ' a
gentleman of Barbadoes lately made a voyage to England at his own expense , in order fully to understand the Lancasterian system of teaching , and has returned to promote it with his utmost zeal . " The information which I have thus
gained , of bright rays , precursors I trust of freedom ai ) d intelligence , having penetrated into ^ t morality dark regjofl , I hope you vvHl permk me t <> spread through the meaium of your Repository . It cannot but be acceptable to many ; and if any . of your readers have connexions in the Island where
this interesting experiment has been tried , and these great improvements made , I hope they will be disposed to gladden the hearts of the benevolent , by communicating such farther particulars as are within , their present knowledge , or that by inquiry they may be able to procure . .. . MARYHUGHES .
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&& American Society for rfo Abolition < jp Domestic Slavery .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1823, page 98, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1781/page/34/
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