Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
The meaning of this passage is, that the black population of our
colonies ought no longer to be permitted to dwell in perfect
idleness in their provision grounds, rearing pumpkins for their own
consumption, without regard to the cultivation of the sugar-cane.
As we have already remarked, this view is somewhat of the latest;
nevertheless truth, like repentance, can never come too late to
be received. Divorced from the folly of his speech, Mr Carlyle's
sentiment is sound. Twenty millions of British money, wrung from
the hard-taxed labour of our people, were given--for what? Not only
to emancipate the Negroes, but to place them in such a position
that they could effectually control their former masters--our own
colonists and countrymen, to whom our faith was solemnly plighted
for the maintenance of their privileges and commerce. Let it be
granted that slavery was a gross sin, was it incumbent upon us to
elevate the emancipated Blacks so high, that they could control the
labour market--to give them the status of untaxed yoemen, without any
security for the slightest manifestation of their gratitude? It was
more than preposterous that those whose freedom was purchased should
be placed in a better position, and invested with more immunity from
labour and want, than the great bulk of the people who made the
sacrifice in order to secure that freedom; and the result has amply
demonstrated the gross folly of the scheme. There are thousands, nay
millions of men in Britain and Ireland, whose lot, compared with
that of the emancipated Blacks of Jamaica, is one of speechless
misery--and yet their cry to be relieved from a competition which is
crushing them down to the dust, is unheard and uncared for amidst
the din of contending politicians, and the perpetual hum of the busy
proselytes of Mammon.
Here we cannot forbear from quoting a characteristic passage from
Mr Carlyle's tracts. The idea is not original, but the handling
is worthy of Astley's humourist; and we commend it to the special
attention of all free-trading philanthropists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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