there? There has not been
even the system of indentured apprentices. In Antigua and the
Bermudas, as would have been the case at Montserrat if the upper
house had not thrown out the bill which was prepared by the planters
themselves, there had been no preparatory step. In Antigua and the
Bermudas, since the first of August, 1834, not a slave or indentured
apprentice was to be found. Well, had idleness reigned there--had
indolence supplanted work--had there been any deficiency of crop?
No. On the contrary, there had been an increase, and not a
diminution of crop. (Hear.) But, then, it was said that quiet could
not be expected after slavery in its most complete and abject form
had so long reigned paramount, and that any sudden emancipation must
endanger the peace of the islands. The experience of the first of
August at once scattered to the winds that most fallacious prophecy.
Then it was said, only wait till Christmas, for that is a period
when, by all who have any practical knowledge of the negro
character, a rebellion on their part is most to be apprehended. We
did wait for this dreaded Christmas; and what was the result? I will
go for it to Antigua, for it is the strongest case, there being
there no indentured apprentices--no preparatory state--no
transition--the chains being at once knocked off, and the negroes
made at once free. For the first time within the last thirty years,
at the Christmas of the year 1834, martial law was not proclaimed in
the island of Antigua. You talk of facts--here is one. You talk of
experience--here it is. And with these facts and this experience
before us, I call on those _soi-disant_ men of experience--those men
who scoffed at us--who laughed to scorn at what they called our
visionary, theoretical schemes--schemes that never could be carried
into effect without rebellion and the loss of the colonies--I say,
my lords, I call on these experienced men to come forward, and, if
they can, deny one single iota of the statement I am now making. Let
those who thought that with the use of those phrases, "a planter of
Jamaica" "the West India interest," "residence in Jamaica and its
experience," they could make our balance kick the beam--let them, I
say, hear what I tell, for it is but the fact--that when the chains
were knocked off there was not a single breac