. One of the gentlemen observed that
it was a very common saying with them--"_Me nebber leave my bornin'
ground_,"--i.e., birth-place.

An aged gentleman in St. John's, who was formerly a planter, remarked,
"The negroes have very strong local attachments. They love their little
hut, where the calabash tree, planted at the birth of a son, waves over
the bones of their parents. They will endure almost any hardship and
suffer repeated wrongs before they will desert that spot."

Such are the sentiments of West India planters; expressed, in the
majority of cases, spontaneously, and mostly in illustration of other
statements. We did not hear a word that implied an opposite sentiment.
It is true, much was said about the emigration to Demerara, but the
facts in this case only serve to confirm the testimony already quoted.
In the first place, nothing but the inducement of very high wages[A]
could influence any to go, and in the next place, after they got there
they sighed to return, (but were not permitted,) and sent back word to
their relatives and friends not to leave Antigua.

[Footnote A: From fifty cents to a dollar per day.]

Facts clearly prove, that the negroes, instead of being indifferent to
local attachments, are peculiarly alive to them. That nothing short of
cruelty can drive them from their homes--that they will endure even
that, as long as it can be borne, rather than leave; and that as soon as
the instrument of cruelty is removed, they will hasten back to their
"_bornin' ground._"

THIRTEENTH PROPOSITION.--"The gift of unrestricted freedom, though so
suddenly bestowed, has not made the negroes more insolent than they were
while slaves, but has rendered them _less so_."--_Dr. Daniell_.

Said James Howell, Esq.--"A short time after emancipation, the negroes
showed some disposition to assume airs and affect a degree of
independence; but this soon disappeared, and they are now respectful and
civil. There has been a mutual improvement in this particular. The
planters treat the laborers more like fellow men, and this leads the
latter to be respectful in their turn."

R.B. Eldridge, Esq., asked us if we had not observed the civility of the
lower classes as we passed them on the streets, both in town and in the
country. He said it was their uniform custom to bow or touch their hat
when they passed a white person. They did so during slavery, and he had
not discovered any change in this respect since emancipation.