The Freedmen's Book Part 10

"The s.p.a.cious house was filled with the candidates for liberty. All was animation and eagerness. A mighty chorus of voices swelled the song of expectation and joy; and as they united in prayer, the voice of the leader was drowned in the universal acclamations of thanksgiving and praise and blessing and honor and glory to G.o.d, who had come down for their deliverance. In such exercises the evening was spent, until the hour of twelve approached. The missionary then proposed that when the cathedral clock should begin to strike, the whole congregation should fall on their knees, and receive the boon of freedom in silence.

Accordingly, as the loud bell tolled its first note, the crowded a.s.sembly prostrated themselves. All was silence, save the quivering, half-stifled breath of the struggling spirit. Slowly the tones of the clock fell upon the waiting mult.i.tude. Peal on peal, peal on peal, rolled over the prostrate throng, like angels' voices, thrilling their weary heartstrings. Scarcely had the _last_ tone sounded, when lightning flashed vividly, and a loud peal of thunder rolled through the sky. It was G.o.d's pillar of fire. His trump of jubilee. It was followed by a moment of profound silence. Then came the outburst. They shouted 'Glory! Hallelujah!' They clapped their hands, they leaped up, they fell down, they clasped each other in their free arms, they cried, they laughed, they went to and fro, throwing upward their unfettered hands.

High above all, a mighty sound ever and anon swelled up. It was the utterance of grat.i.tude to G.o.d.

"After this gush of excitement had spent itself, the congregation became calm, and religious exercises were resumed. The remainder of the night was spent in singing and prayer, in reading the Bible, and in addresses from the missionaries, explaining the nature of the freedom just received, and exhorting the people to be industrious, steady, and obedient to the laws, and to show themselves in all things worthy of the high boon G.o.d had conferred upon them.

"The 1st of August came on Friday; and a release from all work was proclaimed until the next Monday. The great ma.s.s of the negroes spent the day chiefly in the churches and chapels. The clergy and missionaries throughout the island actively seized the opportunity to enlighten the people on all the duties and responsibilities of their new relation. The day was like a Sabbath. A Sabbath, indeed, when 'the wicked ceased from troubling and the weary were at rest.'

"The most kindly of the planters went to the chapels where their own people were a.s.sembled, and shook hands with them, and exchanged hearty good wishes.

"At Grace Hill, a Moravian missionary station, the emanc.i.p.ated negroes begged to have a sunrise meeting on the 1st of August, as they had been accustomed to have at Easter; and as it was the Easter morning of their freedom, the request was granted. The people all dressed in white, and walked arm in arm to the chapel. There a hymn of thanksgiving was sung by the whole congregation kneeling. The singing was frequently interrupted by the tears and sobs of the melted people, until finally they were overwhelmed by a tumult of emotion.

"There was not a single dance by night or day; not even so much as a fiddle played. There were no drunken carousals, no riotous a.s.semblies.

The emanc.i.p.ated were as far from dissipation and debauchery as they were from violence and carnage. Grat.i.tude was the absorbing emotion. From the hill-tops and the valleys the cry of a disenthralled people went upward, like the sound of many waters: 'Glory to G.o.d! Glory to G.o.d!'"

Mr. Bleby, one of the Methodist missionaries in Jamaica, thus describes the same night in that island:--

"The church where the emanc.i.p.ated people a.s.sembled, at ten o'clock at night, was very large; but the aisles, the gallery stairs, the communion-place, the pulpit stairs, were all crowded; and there were thousands of people round the building, at every open door and window, looking in. We thought it right and proper that our Christian people should receive their freedom as a boon from G.o.d, in the house of prayer; and we gathered them together in the church for a midnight service. Our mouths had been closed about Slavery up to that time. We could not quote a pa.s.sage that had reference even to _spiritual_ emanc.i.p.ation, without endangering our lives. The planters had a law of 'constructive treason,'

that doomed any man to death who made use of language tending to excite a desire for liberty among the slaves; and they found treason in the Bible and sedition in the hymns of Watts and Wesley, and we had to be very careful how we used them. You may imagine with what feelings I saw myself emanc.i.p.ated from this thraldom, and free to proclaim 'liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that were bound.' I took for my text, 'Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you.'

"A few minutes before midnight, I requested all the people to kneel down in silent prayer to G.o.d, as befitting the solemnity of the hour. I looked down upon them as they knelt. The silence was broken only by sobs of emotion, which it was impossible to repress. The clock began to strike. It was the knell of Slavery in all the British possessions! It proclaimed liberty to eight hundred thousand human beings! When I told them they might rise, what an outburst of joy there was among that ma.s.s of people! The clock had ceased to strike, and they were slaves no longer! Mothers were hugging their babes to their bosoms, old white-headed men embracing their children and husbands clasping their wives in their arms. By and by all was still again, and I gave out a hymn. You may imagine the feelings with which these people, just emerging into freedom, shouted

'Send the glad tidings o'er the sea!

His chains are broke, the slave is free!'"

But though the dreaded 1st of August pa.s.sed away so peacefully and pleasantly, the planters could not get rid of the idea that their laborers would not work after they were free. Mr. Daniell, who managed several estates in Antigua, talking of the subject, two years afterward, with an American gentleman from Kentucky, said: "I expected some irregularities would follow such a prodigious change in the condition of the negroes. I supposed there would be some relaxation from labor during the week that followed emanc.i.p.ation; but on Monday morning, I found all my hands in the field, not one missing. The same day I received a message from another estate, of which I was proprietor, that the negroes, to a man, had refused to go into the field. I immediately rode to the estate, and found the laborers, with hoes in their hands, doing nothing. Accosting them in a friendly manner, I inquired, 'What is the meaning of this? How is it that you are not at work this morning?'

They immediately replied, 'It's not because we don't want to work, ma.s.sa; but we wanted to see you, first and foremost, to know what the _bargain_ would be.' As soon as that matter was settled, the whole body of negroes turned out cheerfully." Another manager declared that the largest gang he had ever seen in the field, on his property, turned out the week after emanc.i.p.ation. And such in fact was the universal testimony of the managers throughout Antigua.

In the days of Slavery, it had always been customary to order out the militia during the Christmas holidays, when the negroes were in the habit of congregating in large numbers, to enjoy the festivities of the season. But the December after emanc.i.p.ation, the Governor issued a proclamation, that, "_in consequence of the abolition of Slavery_,"

there was no further need of taking that precaution. And it is a fact that there have been no soldiers out at Christmas from that day to this.

Unfortunately the British government had been so far influenced by the representations of the planters, that the plan of emanc.i.p.ation they adopted was a gradual one. All children under six years old were unconditionally free, the magistrates alone had power to punish, and no human being could be sold. But the slaves, under the new name of apprentices, were obliged to work for their masters six years longer without wages, except one day and a half in the week, which the law decreed should be their own. The number of hours they were to work each day was also stipulated by law. This was certainly a great improvement in their condition; but it was not all they had expected. They were peaceable, and worked more cheerfully than they had done while they were slaves; for now a definite date was fixed when they should own all their time, and they knew that every week brought them nearer to it. Still they felt that entire justice had not been done to them. Sometimes white men asked them if they would work when they were entirely free. They answered, "In Slavery time we work; now we work better; den how you tink we work when we _free_, when we get _paid_ for work!" Sometimes people said to them, "I suppose you expect to do just as you please when you are your own masters?" They replied: "We 'spect to 'bey de law. In oder countries where dey is all free dey hab de law. We couldn't get along widout de law. In Slavery time, ma.s.sa would sometimes slash we when we do as well as we could; but de law don't do harm to anybody dat behaves himself. 'Prenticeship is bad enough; but we know de law make it so, and for peace' sake we will be satisfy. But we murmur in we minds."

In the island of Antigua, planters rejected the plan of apprenticeship.

They said, "If the negroes _must_ be free, let them be free at once, without any more fuss and trouble." The result proved that they judged wisely for their own interest, as well as for the comfort and encouragement of their laborers. When the negroes found that they were paid for every day's work, they put their whole hearts into it. So zealous were they to earn wages, that they sometimes worked by moonlight, or by the light of fires kindled among the dry cane-stalks.

In all respects, the change from the old order of things to the new went on more smoothly in Antigua than it did anywhere else.

In the islands where apprenticeship was tried, the irritability of the masters made it work worse than it would otherwise have done. All that most of them seemed to care for was to get as much work out of their servants as they could, during the six years that they were to work without wages, and it vexed them that they could not use the lash whenever they pleased. They took away various little privileges which they had been accustomed to grant; while during four days and a half of the week the apprentices received no wages to compensate them for the loss of those privileges. Being deprived of the power to sell the children, they refused to supply them with any food. In fact, they contrived every way to make the colored people think they had better have remained slaves. But if they called out, "Work faster, you black rascal, or I'll flog you!" the apprentices would sometimes lose patience, and answer, "You can't flog we now." That would make the master very angry, and he would send the apprentice to a magistrate to be punished for impudence. The magistrates were the a.s.sociates of the planters; they ate their good dinners, and rode about in their carriages. Consequently, they were more inclined to believe them than they were to believe their servants. The laborers became so well aware of this, that they were accustomed to say to each other, "It's of no use for us to apply to the magistrates. They are so poisoned by ma.s.sa's turtle-soup." It has been computed by missionaries that, in the course of two years, sixty thousand apprentices received, among them all, two hundred and fifty thousand lashes, besides fifty thousand other legalized punishments, such as the tread-mill and the chain-gang.

The planters were full of complaints to travellers who visited the West Indies. If they were asked, "Why don't you emanc.i.p.ate your laborers entirely, and give them wages, as they do in Antigua,--they have no such troubles there?" the prejudiced men would shake their heads and answer: "Negroes will not work without being flogged. We must get what we can out of them before 1840; for when they are their own masters they will rob, murder, or starve, rather than labor."

Planters who manifested a more kind and considerate disposition had pleasanter relations with their servants, and they never found any difficulty in procuring as much labor as they wanted. Some made it easy for their apprentices to buy the remainder of their time; and it was soon observed that those who owned all their time worked faster and better than those who were without that stimulus. The idea gained ground that unconditional emanc.i.p.ation would be better both for masters and servants. The Marquis of Sligo, the humane Governor of Jamaica, set a good example by emanc.i.p.ating all his apprentices. People in England began to pet.i.tion Parliament to abolish the apprenticeship, on the ground that it proved unsatisfactory and troublesome to all parties. The result was that all the apprentices in the British West Indies were made entirely free on the 1st of August, 1838. Mr. Phillippo, a Baptist missionary in Jamaica, thus describes the observance of the day in that island: "On the preceding evening, the missionary stations throughout the island were crowded with people, filling all the places of worship.

They remained at their devotions till the day of liberty dawned, when they saluted it with joyous acclamations. Then they dispersed through the towns and villages, singing 'G.o.d save the queen,' and rending the air with their shouts,--'Freedom's come!' 'We're free! we're free!' 'Our wives and children are free!' During the day, the places of worship were crowded to suffocation. The scenes presented exceeded all description.

Joyous excitement pervaded the whole island. At Spanish Town, the Governor, Sir Lionel Smith, addressed the emanc.i.p.ated people, who formed a procession of seven thousand, and escorted the children of the schools, about two thousand in number, to the Government House. They bore banners and flags with various inscriptions, of which the following are samples: 'Education, Religion, and Social Order'; 'August First, 1838,--the Day of our Freedom'; 'Truth and Justice have at last prevailed.' The children sang before the Government House, and his Excellency made a speech characterized by simplicity and kindness, which was received with enthusiastic cheers. The procession then escorted their pastor to his house. In front of the Baptist Chapel were three triumphal arches, decorated with leaves and flowers, and surmounted by flags bearing the inscriptions, 'Freedom has come!' 'Slavery is no more!' 'The chains are broken, Africa is free!' There were many flags bearing the names of their English benefactors,--Clarkson, Wilberforce, Sligo, Thompson, etc. When these were unfurled, the enthusiasm of the mult.i.tude rose to the highest pitch. For nearly an hour the air rang with exulting shouts, in which the shrill voices of two thousand children joined, singing, 'We're free! we're free!' Several of the kindly disposed planters gave rural _fetes_ to the laborers. Long tables were spread in the lawns, arches of evergreens were festooned with flowers, and on the trees floated banners bearing the names of those who had been most conspicuous in bringing about this blessed result. Songs were sung, speeches made, prayers offered, and a plentiful repast eaten."

Mr. Phillippo says: "The conduct of the newly emanc.i.p.ated peasantry would have done credit to Christians of the most civilized country in the world. They were clean in their persons, and neat in their attire.

Their behavior was modest, una.s.suming, and decorous in a high degree.

There was no crowding, no vulgar familiarity, but all were courteous and obliging to each other, as members of one harmonious family. There was no dancing, gambling, or carousing. All seemed to have a sense of the obligations they owed to their masters, to each other, and to the civil authorities. The masters who were present at these _fetes_ congratulated their former dependents on the boon they had received, and hopes were mutually expressed that all past differences and wrongs might be forgiven."

On some of the estates where these festivals were held the laborers, with few individual exceptions, went to work as usual on the following day. _Many of them gave their first week of free labor as an offering of good-will to their masters._ Thus the period from which many of the planters had apprehended the worst consequences pa.s.sed away in peace and harmony.

It is now twenty-seven years since the laborers in the British West Indies have been made entirely free; and the missionaries, the magistrates, and even the masters agree that the laborers are much more faithful and industrious under the new system than they were under the iron rule of Slavery. It is true, some of the old planters growled as long as they lived. They had always predicted that freedom would bring ruin on all cla.s.ses, and it vexed them to see the negroes behaving so well. They, however, made the most of the fact that there was less sugar made than in former years. It was their own fault. The emanc.i.p.ated slaves wanted to stay and work on the plantations where they had always lived. But the masters could not give up their old habits of meanness and tyranny. Their laborers could scarcely support life with the very small wages they received; and yet they took from them the little patches of provision-ground which they had formerly had, and charged them enormously high rent for their miserable little huts. It seemed as if they wanted to drive them to robbery, that they might say, "We told you it would be so, if you set them free."

But the freedmen disappointed them. Under all discouragements, they persisted in behaving well. When they found that they could not get a living on the old plantations where they wanted to stay, they went to work on railroads, and wherever they could find employment. They laid up as much as they could of their wages, and bought bits of land, on which they built comfortable cabins for themselves, and laid out little gardens. Their wives and children raised poultry and tended a cow, and carried vegetables and b.u.t.ter and eggs to market, in baskets poised on their heads. With the money thus earned they bought more land and added to their little stock of furniture. Though the men received only from eighteen to twenty-four cents a day, out of which they boarded themselves, they were so industrious and saving that in four years the freedmen in Jamaica alone had bought and paid for one hundred thousand acres of land, and put up dwellings thereon. Mr. Phillippo states, that during that time as many as two hundred new villages of freedmen were formed. These villages generally received the names of benefactors, such as Clarkson, Wilberforce, Thompson, &c. To their own little homes they also gave names indicative of their grat.i.tude and contentment. They called them "Save Rent," "A Little of My Own," "Heart's Love," "Liberty and Content," "Happy Retreat," "Jane's Delight," "Thank G.o.d to see It,"

&c.

Mr. Phillippo says:--

"These free villages are regularly laid out. The houses are small, many of them built of stone or wood, with shingled roofs, green blinds, and verandahs, to shield them from the sun. Most of them are neatly thatched, and generally plastered and whitewashed both outside and in.

They now have looking-gla.s.ses, chairs, and side-boards decorated with pretty articles of gla.s.s and crockery. Each dwelling has its little plot of vegetables, generally neatly kept; and many of them have flower-gardens in front, glowing with all the bright hues of the tropics. The groups often presented are worthy of the painter's pencil or the poet's song. Amid the stillness of a Sabbath evening, many families, after their return from the house of G.o.d, may be seen gathered together in the shadow of the trees, which overhang their cottages, singing hymns, or listening to the reading of the Scriptures, with none to molest or make them afraid."

Mr. Charles Tappan of Boston, who visited Jamaica several years after emanc.i.p.ation, writes:--

"On landing at Kingston, I must confess I was half inclined to believe the story so industriously circulated, that the emanc.i.p.ated slave is more idle and vicious than any other of G.o.d's intelligent creatures; but when I rode through the valleys and over the mountains, and found everywhere an industrious, sober people, I concluded all the vagabonds of the island had moved to the sea-sh.o.r.e, to pick up a precarious living by carrying baggage, begging, &c.; and such, upon inquiry, I found to be the fact. Wherever I went in the rural districts, I found contented men and women, cultivating sugar-cane, and numerous vegetables and fruits, on their own account. Their neat, well-furnished cottages compared well with the dwellings of pioneers in our own country. I found in them mahogany furniture, crockery and gla.s.s ware, and shelves of useful books. I saw Africans, of unmixed blood, grinding their own sugar-cane in their own mills, and making their own sugar.

"I attended a large meeting called to decide the question about inviting a schoolmaster to settle among them. There was only one man who doubted the expediency of taking the children from work and sending them to school. One said, 'My little learning enabled me to see that a note, given to me in payment for a horse was not written according to contract.' Another said, 'I should have been wronged out of forty pounds of coffee I sold in Kingston the other day, if I hadn't known how to cipher.' Another said, 'I shall not have much property to leave my children; but if they have learning they can get property.' Another said, 'Those that can read will be more likely to get religion.' All these people had been slaves, or were the children of slaves. I saw no intoxicated person in Jamaica; and when it is considered that every man there can make rum, it strikes me as very remarkable."

One of the most striking characteristics of this colored peasantry is their desire to obtain education for themselves and their children.

After a hard day's work, women would often walk miles, with babies in their arms, to learn the alphabet. With the first money they can spare they build school-houses and chapels and hire teachers. They also form charitable societies and contribute money to help the aged and sick among them. In the days of Slavery they herded together like animals; but now it is considered disreputable and wrong to live together without being married. In the days of Slavery they wore ragged and filthy garments, but freedom has made them desirous of making a neat appearance. Their working-clothes are generally well mended and clean, and they keep a pretty suit to attend meeting and other festival occasions. They are very careful of their best clothes. When they go to dances, or social gatherings, they carry them in a basket, nicely folded and covered up, and put them on when they arrive; and when they are about to return home they again pack them up carefully. When they have far to walk to meeting, over rough and dusty roads, they carry their shoes and stockings till they come in sight of the church.

This is not at all like what the old planters prophesied, when they said that if the negroes were freed they would skulk in the woods and steal yams to keep them from starving. But all that silly talk has pa.s.sed away. Everybody in the British West Indies acknowledges that emanc.i.p.ation has proved a blessing both to the white and the black population. There is not a planter to be found there who would restore Slavery again, if his own wish could do it.

FOOTNOTE:

[7] The northern part of Great Britain is called Scotland, the southern part England. The entire people are called British.

THE LAST NIGHT OF SLAVERY.

BY JAMES MONTGOMERY.

Let the floods clap their hands!

Let the mountains rejoice!

Let all the glad lands Breathe a jubilant voice!

The sun, that now sets on the waves of the sea, Shall gild with his rising the land of the free!

Let the islands be glad!

For their King in his might, Who his glory hath clad With a garment of light, In the waters the beams of his chambers hath laid, And in the green waters his pathway hath made.

Dispel the blue haze, Golden Fountain of Morn!

With meridian blaze The wide ocean adorn!

The sunlight has touched the glad waves of the sea, And day now illumines the land of the FREE!

MADISON WASHINGTON.