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    cumstances ? The sources of quarrel would be innumerable , and no long period could elapse , ere the blacks , emboldened by their newly acquired freedom , would seek to avenge all former cruelties by a general massacre of the whites . And supposing this not to take place , what is there to prevent the blacks , when

    freed , from leaving the islands , and seeking a land fitter for a lazy life on the Spanish Main or elsewhere ? At all events , the illregulated minds of the whites , when they are balked of their accustomed arbitrary sway , will not be slow to yield motives for black fury . ' You think me no man 1 ' was the exclamation of the poor

    flogged black described by Henry Whiteley . When he shall be 8 freeman , he may , perchance , be stirred to try conclusions of a like kind on his former flogger . It seems very probable that the number of troops are likely to need increasing to meet the future demands for coercion , while the revenue to maintain them will be

    decreasing . It may , perhaps , be deemed advisable to have recourse to the mulatto population as a constabulary force , on the ground of the known hatred subsisting between them and the blacks ; but it will be rather a dangerous experiment , for , like all mixed races , they are despised and consequently irritated , by one side , while they are hated by the other , and as a consequence ,

    they hate both , and are not unlikely to set both together by the ears , for the gratification of private vengeance . But each day knowledge will increase amongst the blacks , and as the expense of keeping them down will increase in the same proportion , while the profits will decrease , it will probably at length be taken into consideration whether the West Indies are at all worth maintaining as colonies ,

    whether it would not be better to give them up altogether to the blacks , and try to make a bargain with them for any amount of payment which may be obtained . Much stress has been laid on the advantages to be obtained in the West Indies after the emancipation of the slaves , by improvements in the modes of working , and thus lightening human labour . That there is room for this , no one will doubt , who takes into consideration the fact , that

    manure—wet dung—is carried to the fields in baskets on negroes ' heads , instead of the obviously improved mode of a cart or even a wheelbarrow . This fact is an evidence of a whole host of coarse and barbarous manipulations , which might be profitably altered . But would they be altered ? I scarce think they would . Improvements in manufactures do not advance too rapidly even in England , with a favourable climate for the developenaent of human

    energy , and the pressure of population to act as an inducement . How , therefore , is it likely that they will take place in a climate which is proverbially adverse to energetic exertion , either of body or mind ? But supposing this difficulty overcome , the West India islands have still other difficulties to contend with ; they are old soils , and consequently not so luxuriant as the new soils of America and India . They are of limited extent , and

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    Abolition of Negro Slavery . 467

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 467, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/27/