n the West Indies, because
they expected too much. A nation of slaves can not at once be converted
into a nation of intelligent, industrious, and moral freemen." . . . .
"It is not too much, even now, to say of the people of Jamaica, . . . .
their condition is exceedingly degraded, their morals woefully corrupt.
But this must, by no means, be understood to be of universal
application. With respect to those who have been brought under a
healthful educational and religious influence, _it is not true_. But as
respects the great mass, whose humanity has been ground out of them by
cruel oppression--whom no good Samaritan hand has yet reached--how could
it be otherwise? We wish to turn the tables; to supplant oppression by
righteousness, insult by compassion and brotherly kindness, hatred and
contempt by love and winning meekness, till we allure these wretched
ones to the hope and enjoyment of manhood and virtue."[55] . . . . "The
means of education and religious instruction are better enjoyed,
although but little appreciated and improved by the great mass of the
people. It is also true, that the moral sense of the people is becoming
somewhat enlightened. . . . . But while this is true, yet their moral
condition is very far from being what it ought to be. . . . . It is
exceedingly dark and distressing. Licentiousness prevails to a most
alarming extent among the people. . . . . The almost universal
prevalence of intemperance is another prolific source of the moral
darkness and degradation of the people. The great mass, among all
classes of the inhabitants, from the governor in his palace to the
peasant in his hut--from the bishop in his gown to the beggar in his
rags--are all slaves to their cups."[56]

This is the language of American abolitionists, going out under the
sanction of their Annual Reports. Lest it may be considered as too
highly colored, we add the following from the _London Times_, of near
the same date. In speaking of the results of emancipation, in Jamaica,
it says:

"The negro has not acquired, with his freedom, any habits of industry or
morality. His independence is but little better than that of an
uncaptured brute. Having accepted few of the restraints of civilization,
he is amenable to few of its necessities; and the wants of his nature
are so easily satisfied, that at the present rate of wages, he is called
upon for nothing but fitful or desultory exertion. The blacks,
therefore, instead of becoming in