ched by hereditary affection and pride to the soil,
elevated by family sanctities, connected by something like kindly ties
with their bondmen, and regarded by these in turn with something of
affectionate fealty, in that case, although it is not likely that the
ruin of the plantations could have been averted, it might have been
delayed and mitigated. Mr. Underhill indeed goes further, and quotes the
testimony of an overseer in the west of the island, that he knew of no
estate managed, since emancipation, by a resident owner, which had not
continued profitable. But a class of hirelings, debased in morals by the
cruel selfishness of their employers, tempted almost irresistibly to
unfaithfulness by the five thousand miles of ocean between them and
their principals, and to recklessness and tyranny by the uncertain
tenure of their places, and connected with the slaves by none but the
grossest and most sordid ties--such management, in such a crisis, when
the ties of old subjection were suddenly dissolved, and the negro stood
independent, and knowing his independence, before his masters, would
have ruined any country under the sun.

As to the present condition of the emancipated blacks, it is certain
that the 7,340 freeholds which had been acquired in 1840, two years
after emancipation, have considerably increased in number. I never heard
of a negro freehold being given up,[8] while I did know of continual
purchases of land by the blacks, either to make new holdings or to
extend old ones.

The parish of Hanover is one in which happily the various classes are in
a good degree united in feeling. The Hanover Society of Industry
prepared a report about three years ago, quoted by Mr. Underhill, which
shows that in that parish about seven eighths of the people are on
holdings of their own, of which 891 consist of 1 acre, 431 of 2 acres,
and 802 average 5-1/4 acres each. Each family on an average consists of
4-1/2 persons, and cultivates something over an acre, securing an income
of about L28. Those who own land are five times as numerous as those who
only hire it. The annual value of produce from the small holdings,
estimated at L28 for each (L2 less than the society's estimate), is
about L60,000. There are, besides, 29 estates having 3,675 acres under
cultivation, and employing 2,760 laborers, of whom two thirds are
females.[9] About one eighth of the population is at work upon them.
These estates average 2,608 hogsheads of sugar,