When the question came before the Colonial Assembly similar discussions ensued. The abolition of slavery was now seen to be inevitable. The only alternative presented to the colonists was the apprenticeship system, or immediate, unconditional emancipation. When the question came to this issue in the Antigua Assembly, both bodies _unanimously_ passed a bill in favor of _immediate emancipation_; on the ground that it was the wisest _policy_. The first of August, 1834, was the day fixed by Parliament for the Abolition Act to go into effect. As the time approached, a heavy cloud lowered over the minds of most of the white population. A merchant of St. John's told Mr. Thome that several American vessels which had lain in the harbor, weighed anchor on the 31st of July, through actual fear that the island would be destroyed on the following day; and they earnestly entreated the merchant to escape with them, if he valued his life. Many planters believed it would be unsafe to go out in the evening, after emancipation. Some timid families did not venture to go to bed on the night of the 31st. They waited anxiously for the hour of midnight, fearing that the same bell which proclaimed "Liberty throughout the land, to _all_ the inhabitants thereof," would prove the signal for general conflagration, and massacre of the white inhabitants.[3] FOOTNOTES: [1] It is about as large as eight common New England towns. [2] It must not be inferred from this statement that the system of slavery was more cruel in the West Indies, than in other sugar-growing Colonies and States. Wherever _sugar_ is produced by slave-labor, there is always an awful destruction of negro life, owing to the severely hard pressure of work, continued night and day, during one particular season of the crops. [3] There were in Antigua, at that time, 1,980 whites; 29,537 slaves; and 3,895 free colored people. CHAPTER II. ANTIGUA, AFTER IMMEDIATE, UNCONDITIONAL EMANCIPATION. When the clock _began_ to strike twelve, on the 31st of July, 1834, there were nearly 30,000 slaves in the island of Antigua; when it _ceased_ to strike, they were all freemen!