1178
. A5
1839
B 899,529
the aboletine diavery
in the French Colonies.
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Alicia de Droguerille


AN
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GENERAL LIBRARY
-OF-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
PRESENTED BY
In. S a kereen
Jo
Jan 24,894





GENERAL LIBRARY
-OF-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
PRESENTED BY
Dr. S.a. breen
Jan 24,894








HT
1178
,A5 5
1839


-



from Drs, a hen
Febr 24 que
REPORT
MADE TO
THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
ON
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
IN THE
FRENCH COLONIES,
BY
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE;
JULY 23, 1839.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
BOSTON:
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.
1 DCCC XL.


From afr. o, a, lore
ins, ou gu
REPORT
de
MADE TO
THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
ON
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
IN THE
FRENCH COLONIES,
BY
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE;
JULY 23, 1839.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BOSTON:
JAMES MUNRO E AND COMPANY.
MDCCCXL.
4


Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE PRESS:
METCALF, TORRY, AND BALLOU.


a
216 sagii
INTRODUCTION.
The Commission, in whose behalf this Report was pre-
sented to the French Chamber last year, was composed of
MM. Baron Roger, De Tocqueville, Count de Sade, Wus-
tenberg de Rémusat, Cadeau-d'Acy, Dugabé, Odilon Barrot,
Viscount de Panat.
The French Executive is more and more impressed with
the importance of the subject, as may be seen by the fol-
lowing report of the Minister of the Marine and the colo-
nies, presented to Louis Philippe in May last, and which
has been approved by his Majesty.
6 SIRE;
“Each day so augments the number and importance of the
questions relative to slavery, as well as to the political consti-
tution of the colonies, and these questions raise difficulties so
serious, that I feel the necessity of submitting them to the
examination of a consulting Commission, chosen from the
members of the primary State bodies. I have the honor to
beg your Majesty's approval of the following nomination.
The Duke de Broglie, President,
The Count de Saint-Cricq,
Peers of France.
The Marquis d'Audiffret,
The Count de Sade,
Wustemberg,
De Tracy,
)
Members of the
Passy, (Hyppolite,)
Chamber of Depu-
De Tocqueville,
ties.
Baron Lepelletier-d'Aulnay,
Bignon,
Baron de Mackau, Vice-Admiral.
The Count de Moges, Rear-Admiral.
Filleau de Saint-Hilaire, Counsellor of State and Di-
rector of the Colonies.


In order to put the reader of M. De Tocqueville's Report
in possession of as complete an idea of the French Colonies
as one page can present, the following statistics are subjoin-
ed. The table is compiled principally from M'Culloch, whose
anthority is Montvéran, Essai de Statistique sur les colonies,
Pièces Justicatives, Nos. 5 and 6.
POPULATION.
Colonies.
Martinique,
Guadaloupe,
Marie-Galante, &c.
French Guiana,
Isle de Bourbon,
Senegal, &c.
Fr. Factories in India,
Census of
1832
1831
1823
1832
1830
1825
1825
Whites. Free Col. Slaves. Total.
9,410 | 18,832 80,753 107,995
10,596 | 10,772 90,743 112,111
2,570
279 11,600 14,440
1,291
2,220 19,173 22,684
20,000 11,500 | 66,000 97,500
240 3,573
12,297 16,110
1,021 107,986 1,194 (110,501
2807 eu 0
45 128
Statement (in Killogrammes) of the products of the French Colonies imported
into France in 1831. The Killogramme is equal to 22 lbs. Avoirdupois.
Sugars of
Wood of
Coffee. Cacao. Cotton. Cloves &c. Anatto. Indigo. Gum. Wax.
all Qual.
all kinds.
Killogr. Killogr. Killogr. Killogr. Killogr. Killogr. Killogr. Killogr. Killogr. Killogr.
87,915,770 2,199,646 168,345 268,935 236,367 82,122 13,036 677,040 | 12,898 1,384,889
achita


REPORT.
THEY, who have hitherto considered the subject of
slavery, have, for the most part, endeavored to show
its injustice or to mitigate its hardships.
The Commission, in the name of which I have the
honor to speak, perceived, from the commencement of
its labors, that its task was at once more simple and
more grand.
It has been sometimes assumed that Negro Slavery
had its foundation and justification in nature herself.
It has been declared that the slave-trade was a benefit
to its unfortunate victims; and that the slave was
happier in the tranquillity of bondage, than in the
midst of the agitation and the struggles that accom-
pany independence. Thank God, the Commission has
no such false and odious doctrines to refute. Europe
has long since discarded them. They cannot serve the
cause of the colonies, and can only injure those plan-
ters who still uphold them.
The Commission has not now to establish the posi-
tion, that slavery can and ought to cease.
This truth
is now universally acknowledged, and one which
slaveholders themselves do not deny.
The question before us has ceased to be a theoreti-
It is at length comprehended in the field of
cal one.


6
practical politics. We are not to consider whether
slavery is evil, and ought to terminate, but when and
how it can best be brought to an end.
Those, who, while they admit that slavery cannot
always continue, desire to defer the period of emanci-
pation, say that before breaking the chains of the ne-
groes we must prepare them for independence. The
black now escapes almost entirely from the salutary
bonds of marriage; he is dissolute, idle, and improvi-
dent; in more than one respect he resembles a de-
praved child rather than a man. The truths of Christ-
ianity are almost unknown to him, and of the morals
of the Gospel he knows only the name.
· Enlighten his religion, reform his habits, establish
for him the family relation, extend and fortify his in-
tellect, until his mind can conceive the idea of the
future, and acquire the power of forethought. After
you have accomplished all these things, you can with-
out fear set him free.
True; but if all these preparations cannot be made
in a state of slavery, to exact that they shall have been
made before servitude can cease, - is it not in other
words to declare that it never shall cease? To insist
on giving to a slave the thoughts, the habits, and mor-
als of a free man, is to condemn him to remain always
a slave.
Because we have made him unworthy of
liberty, can we forever refuse to him and his descend-
ants the right of being free?
It is true, that the conjugal union is almost unknown
among the slaves of our colonies. It is true, that
1 See the statistics of marriage in the documents printed by order of the
Minister of the Marine.


7
our colonial institutions have not favored, as much as
they should have done, the marriage of the blacks. It
must, however, be allowed, that, in this respect, tho
masters have sometimes attempted to do what the law
has not done. But the negroes have generally escaped,
and still escape, this salutary influence.
There exists, indeed, a profound and natural an-
tipathy between the institution of marriage and that of
slavery. A man does not marry when he cannot ox-
ercise marital authority, when his children must be
born his equals, irrevocably destined to the wrotched-
ness of their father; when, having no power over
their fate, he can neither know the duties, the privi-
leges, the hopes, nor the cares which belong to the
paternal relation. It is easy to perceivo that every
motive, which incites the freeman to a lawful union, is
lost to the slave by the simple fact of his slavery. The
several means which the legislature or the master may
use to attract him to that condition, which they have
rendered him incapable of desiring, will always be
without effect.
The same remark may be applied to the other argu-
ments.
How can the reason of a man be enlightened and
strengthened, while we hold him in a state where
reason is useless to him, and where its exercise may be
injurious ? We cannot seriously hope it. Berider, it
is absurd to endeavor to render a laborer active and
diligent, who is compelled to work without wages, and
it is a puerile effort to undertake to endow with disa
cretion and habits of foreight those, whose lot it is
to remain strangers to their own fate, and who we
their future destiny in the hands of another.


8
- The negroes
Even religion itself can seldom be made to operate
on the slave, and at best its influence is extremely
superficial.
All, who have had occasion to reside in our colonies,
agree in saying, that the negroes are much disposed
to receive and retain religious faith.
are eager for religion,” says the Governor General
of Martinique, in one of his last reports.
It seems certain, however, that the negroes have as
yet conceived only very obscure and unsettled ideas
on the subject of religion. This may be attributed in
part to the small number of priests who live in the
colonies, to the little zeal of some among them, and to
the habitual indifference of the masters on this point.
But these are, it must be allowed, only secondary
causes; the primary cause is still slavery itself.
This is easily understood, and is explained by what
precedes.
In many countries where the Europeans have intro-
duced servitude, the masters have always opposed,
openly or in secret, the preaching of the Gospel to the
negroes.
Christianity is a religion of free men; and they fear,
lest in exciting it in the soul of the slave, they may
also awaken there some of the instincts of liberty.
When, on the contrary, they have had occasion to
call on the priest for his assistance in preserving or-
der, and introduce him among the laborers, he has had
little power, because in the eyes of the slave the priest
appeared but as the substitute for the master, and the
sanctifier of slavery. In the first case the slaves
could not, in the second they would not, receive in-
struction.


9
tin
lepotatis
Moreover, how can we succeed in elevating and
purifying the mind of one, who feels no responsibility
for his own conduct? How convey the idea of moral
dignity to a man, who is nothing in his own eyes ?
With every exertion, it is hardly possible to enlighten
and spiritualize the religion of a slave, whose life is
spent in hard and incessant labor, and who is naturally.
and irrevocably plunged in ignorance by the very tenor
of his condition. It is not easy to purify the life of a
man, who can never know the principal charms of the
conjugal union, who can see in marriage only another
slavery in the bosom of bondage. If the subject be
carefully examined, we shall be convinced, that in most
slave countries, the negro is entirely indifferent to the
truths of religion, or at least that he turns Christianity
into an exciting and gross superstition.
It would seem then hardly reasonable to believe, that
in slavery we can destroy those vices to which slavery
naturally and necessarily gives birth. The thing is
without example in the world. It is only experience of
liberty, liberty long possessed, and directed by a power,
at once energetic and restrained, which can prompt
and form in man the opinions, virtues, and habits,
which become a citizen of a free country. The period,
which follows the abolition of slavery, has therefore
always been a time of uneasiness and social difficulty.
This is an inevitable evil; we must resolve to meet it,
or make slavery eternal.
Your Commission thought that all the means, which
might be employed to prepare the negroes for eman-
cipation, would be very slow in operation, and of ex-
tremely limited utility. They have, therefore, judged,
that little is gained by delay, and have questioned
2


11
“ Emancipation,” says the privy council of Guada-
loupe, (26th December, 1838,)“ is now inevitable, not
only on account of the efforts of the abolitionists, but
as a consequence of the topographical position of our
islands, and their vicinity to the English colonies.” 1
The Governor of Guadaloupe, in his report of the
25th December, 1838, says, speaking of the extra ses-
sion of the colonial council, “ a kind of panic was
excited on this occasion, throughout the country; a re-
port was current that the slaves were disposed to
reclaim their liberty forcibly, if it were not granted by
the first of January. Nothing has happened to coun-
tenance the uneasiness which was manifest. It is cer-
tain, however, that the laborers are agitated by the
hope of approaching emancipation.”
It is easy to conceive, that such a situation is full of
perils, and that it already gives rise to a part of the
evils, which the destruction of slavery may occasion,
without producing any of the benefits, which may
be
expected from liberty. It is no longer a state of regu-
lar and established order; it is a transitory and stormy
condition; the dreaded revolution is already begun.
The planter, who sees this inevitable revolution ad-
vancing upon him day by day, is without definite
prospects, and consequently heedless of the future.
He begins no new enterprises, because he is uncertain
whether he shall reap the fruit of them. He improves
nothing, because he is sure of nothing. He takes no
pains to preserve that which may not always belong to
1 Martinique and Guadaloupe are separated only by a narrow arm of the
sea from Saint Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, and Antigua. All these islands
are visible from each other. Saint Lucia and Dominica having been
French, their example is still more contagious for our islands.


12
him. The uncertainty of their approaching destiny
weighs heavily upon the colonies; it contracts their
intelligence and abates their courage.
It is partly to this cause, that we must attribute the
pecuniary distress in our colonies. The estates and
slaves are without purchasers, because there is no se-
curity for the proprietors and masters.
The same
results were also visible in most of the English colo-
nies during the period, which immediately preceded
the abolition of slavery. Of this we shall be convinced
on reading the discussions of the English Parliament
in the session of 1838.
If this state of things be long continued, it will ruin
the white population, and leave little hope of ever at-
taining peaceably and happily the enfranchisement of
the blacks.
In the gradual and involuntary relaxing of the bond
of slavery, the negro becomes gradually accustomed to
the idea of being feared; he readily attributes all that
humanity accomplishes in his favor to the terror which
he inspires. He becomes a bad slave, without acquir-
ing any of the virtues of the free man ; he loses that
habitual obedience and respect, of which the magis-
trate must avail himself when the authority of the
master is withdrawn.
- The negroes of the Antilles,” say those reports
which are most recent and most worthy of credit, “ quit
their huts almost every night to wander abroad and
abandon themselves to dissipation. It is also during
this nocturnal liberty, that they employ themselves in
robbery and smuggling, and hold their meetings.
When day arrives, they are exhausted and little fit for
work. When the planters are asked why they give


13
1
this liberty, so fatal to their slaves, they reply that they
are unable to prevent it. In short, when the master
demands of his negroes anything that they are unac-
customed to do, they resist, at first by idleness, and,
without further action on his part, proceed to poison
the cattle. The terror of poison is great in this coun-
try; by its power the slave governs his master.”
This terror of poison seems to prevail the most ex-
tensively in Martinique. The Commission have ex-
amined a report by the Governor of Martinique, dated
the 15th March, 1839, in which this functionary attrib-
utes partly to the fear of poison the little interest the
planters take in raising cattle. “ The raising of cat-
tle,” he says, “ is discouraged by poison.”
Humanity and Morality have often claimed, and
sometimes perhaps with imprudence, the abolition of
slavery. It is now a measure of political necessity.
It is better that the crisis should be brought about by
a firm and prudent hand, than to leave the colonies to
be enfeebled and degraded by delay, and at length to
become incapable of supporting it.
Your Commission have been unanimous in the opin-
ion, that the time has come to engage actively in the
final abolition of slavery in our colonies; and they have
thought it their duty to endeavor to devise the best
method of accomplishing that object.
Two general systems have naturally presented them-
selves.
The first gives liberty to the slaves individually, and
by a succession of slow and progressive measures.
The second puts a stop to servitude at once, and for
every slave.
Your Commission, after mature investigation, were


14
of the unanimous opinion, that simultaneous emanci-
pation presented less inconvenience and fewer perils
than gradual emancipation.
This opinion, which, moreover, seems universally ad-
mitted in the colonies themselves, may at first appear sur-
prising. But an attentive examination will soon show,
that it is founded upon reasons which seem unan-
swerable. These reasons have already strongly at-
tracted the attention of the late Commission. " The
system of simultaneous emancipation,” said the reporter,
“appeared preferable.”
All gradual emancipation has, indeed, three weighty
inconveniences:
First. When the government shall at once, and by
the direct and visible operation of her will alone, grant
independence to all the slaves, she may easily, in re-
turn for the new rights which she confers, impose upon
each of them certain peculiar and strict obligations,
and place them at once under temporary regulations,
which shall gradually accustom them to make a good
use of their liberty.
As the change is complete, the whole society being
transformed at the same time, it will not be impossible
to introduce new maxims of government, a new police,
new functionaries, new laws. These laws applying to
all, no one will feel himself injured, none will resist
them. The mother country is prepared to make such
an effort, and the colonies to submit to it.
When, on the contrary, the slaves receive their lib-
erty one by one, and by a concurrence of circumstan-
ces which appear accidental, the social change thus
effected attracts no attention. At each separate en-
franchisement the nature of colonial society is funda-


15
mentally changed, while its exterior form presents no
alteration. The enfranchised continuing to form a
class by themselves, we must create for it special legis-
lation, separate magistrates, a distinct government.
These are undertakings always difficult and often dan-
gerous. It seems more simple and less troublesome to
resort to common law.
Now the common law for a society of slaves does
not at all resemble ours; it were a great error to sup-
abril
pose it.
All who have travelled in those countries where
slavery exists may have remarked, that the social power
interferes less in the affairs of life, and assumes infi-
nitely less responsibility, than in countries where
slavery is unknown. Public authority is not needed
to repress vagabonds and idlers, since the laborer is
always retained in a certain place and kept at work.
Society does not provide for the wants of children,
old men, and the sick; these charges are attached to
slave property. Most police laws are unnecessary;
the discipline of the master takes their place. In slave
countries the master is chief magistrate ; and when the
state has established, maintained, and regulated the
usages of servitude, the largest part of the task is
accomplished.
The legislation of a slave country does not take
into account the existence of a great number of men
at once free, poor, and depraved. It makes no pre-
parations to provide for their wants, to repress their
disorders, and correct their vices.
It is, then, easy for the enfranchised to abuse his inde-
pendence, and lead an idle and vagabond life. At first
this evil is hardly perceptible, but it increases with the


17
taken and is now exclusively performed by slaves.
“ Who does not know,” says the privy council of
Guadaloupe, “ that with regard to labor the past has
compromised the future ? Who does not know the
repugnance of free labor for the continuation of slave
labor ? Who cannot perceive that the simultaneous
employment of these two kinds of labor is a contra-
diction, and an obstacle to the end we should keep in
view, that of reinstating by means of liberty the cul-
ture of the earth, now degraded by slavery ?”
Thirdly. All gradual emancipation has, moreover, the
inevitable effect of leading by a very short path to com-
plete emancipation.
A very recent and very striking example of this
fact has just happened in the English colonies. One
part of the negroes were about to attain their liberty
two years before the rest. As soon as the period ar-
rived for the first, it was found necessary to advance it
to the second, and all took possession of their inde-
pendence together.
It may be fearlessly affirmed, that it will be always
thus in every country where this method is pursued.
When, by means of gradual emancipation, a great
number of negroes have received their liberty, it be-
comes almost impossible to hold the others in a state of
servitude. How shall we compel the free black to
labor by the side of the slave ? How preserve the
obedience of the slave in the presence and in the
midst of free blacks? How maintain the rule of servi-
tude, when the exception of liberty becomes common,
and the hard law of slavery, destroyed in principle for
all, only exists temporarily and partially for a few ?
Hence it happens that a multitude of slaves are
3


19
trious of the slaves, will procure their liberty ; the
women, children, and the aged, the unruly and idle will
be left on the hands of the master. The moral effect
is to a certain extent better, but it also presents great
perils.
It is to be feared that, reduced to feeble and imbecile
agents, the business of labor will be soon deranged ;
forced labor will become unproductive before free labor
is reinstated and organized.
It is true that the principle of redemption has long
existed in the Spanish colonies, and that it does not
appear to have produced there such unhappy results.
But it is of public notoriety in the New World, that,
among the Spaniards, slavery has always been pecul-
iarly softened. We may, moreover, convince our-
selves of this by examining the decrees of the Spanish
kings at a period, when in every European nation the
black code was so strongly marked with barbarism.
The Spaniards, who showed themselves so cruel to the
Indians, have always treated the negroes with singu-
lar humanity. In their colonies the situation of the
black has approached that of the white more nearly
than in any of the others, and the authority of the
master has often resembled that of the father of a
family. The slave, more kindly treated, sighed less
for a freedom, which must be preceded by great efforts.
The legislature granted a privilege, which he seldom
desired to use.
These laws were moreover introduced among the
Spaniards at a time when slavery, establishcd by law
and custom, was the common lot, and seemed to be
the natural destiny of the black race.
looked upon liberty only as a rare and singular state.
The negroes


20
There was no powerful inducement for seizing it.
Now they are excited to it by every motive; now that
slavery is marked by universal reprobation, and ap-
pears only as an abuse of power; now that it is
strongly opposed by general usage and faintly defended
by law ; now that it has become a transitory exception ;
now that liberty is so general and so near, imagination
already kindles at her approach.
Another method of gradual emancipation was also
proposed by the honorable M. de Tracy.
Without destroying slavery in the present genera-
tion, it declares all those children free who may here-
after be born.
This method does not produce those disastrous con-
sequences, which have first been pointed out, but it
presents other difficulties and other dangers.
Since marriage is almost unknown among the slaves,
there is scarcely any natural and necessary connexion,
save between mother and child. This last family bond,
so important to be preserved, is broken, if, while the
child is treated like a free man, the mother remains in
bondage ; if, by a monstrous subversion, the one is
placed lower in the social scale than the other; a state
which outrages nature, and from which no real good
can ever result.
Here, also, the general objections, already brought
forward against gradual emancipation, present them-
selves in full force. In the midst of a preceding gene-
ration held in servitude, how can you obtain the labor
of the young enfranchised generation? How will you
compel the parents to labor as slaves in the midst of
their free children?


21
Your Commission being thus convinced, that uni-
versal emancipation was the least dangerous mode of
destroying slavery, have applied themselves wholly to
the enquiry as to the general conditions and the man-
ner in which this emancipation should be effected.
Your Commission have repelled at once the idea of
assimilating slave property to other kinds of property
protected by law. They do not admit that the restor-
ing of a negro to liberty is a parallel case to that of a
forced exaction of property by the State for the public
good. Man has never had the right of possessing
man, and the possession itself has always been and still
is unlawful.
And even if the principles concerning the use of
property for the good of the community were here
applicable, it is evident that the planter could not, in
accordance with these principles, claim in advance the
reimbursement of the total value of the slave, for in
the place of the slave whom the law takes from him,
it offers him a free laborer. The free workman, it is
true, will only serve for wages; but the slave himself
can only serve on condition of purchase, nourishment,
protection, and clothing, which are wages under anoth-
er form. The property of the planter, then, is not
invaded by the fact of emancipation; he has strictly no
right to an indemnity, unless, by the yet doubtful re-
sult of this emancipation, the negroes refuse to work,
or the wages which they demand for their labor shall
exceed the sum for which their coöperation could be
compelled during slavery.
It is, nevertheless, the unanimous opinion of your
Commission, that it would be neither humane, equita-
ble, nor wise to refuse assistance to the colonies at the
1


23?
2
:~3121O cars
7777702
TE
a small number of laborers, paid according to their
work, than it costs him now, when he is obliged to
purchase, and to support throughout the year a multi-
tude of slaves, a large portion of whom are always un-
productive.
On the other hand, it must be acknowledged, that
the event of so great a social change will always be
attended with uncertainty. Even though the final result
of the great experiment should be satisfactory, as there
are so many just reasons for believing it will be, the
passage from one state to another is never unattended
with danger; it is accompanied with inevitable incon-
venience; it leads to changes in customs and modes of
living always difficult and often burdensome. It is
possible, it is even probable, that, for a time, until the
negro has been trained by new legislation to habits
of labor, the cultivation of estates in the colonies will
be less productive by free, than it has been by forced
labor ; in other words, that wages will be annually more
expensive than the purchase and support of slaves are
at the present time.
To leave the planters to meet this risk alone would
be flagrant iniquity. It is unworthy of the grandeur
and the generosity of France, to cause the principles
of justice, humanity, and reason, so long unrecognised
by her and by her children across the sea, at last to
triumph at the cost of these latter alone, taking to
herself the honor of so tardy a reparation, and leaving
nothing but the expense to her colonists.
injustice has been committed by both, and both should
contribute to repair it.
The Commission likewise considered, that, if this
mode of conduct were not indicated by equity, it would
be dictated by interest.
A great


25
France does not wish to destroy slavery, only to have
the grief of beholding the ruined white man leave the
soil of the colonies, and the blacks relapse into barbar-
ism. She intends not only to bestow liberty on the
enslaved, but to constitute civilized, industrious, and
peaceable societies. She will not refuse to her govern-
ment the means of attaining this end.
France will not forget, that this is a question of lib-
erty, happiness, life to three hundred thousand of our
fellow creatures, who speak our language, obey our
laws, and are even now turning their eyes towards us
as their liberators and fathers. If France believes that
this is the time to regenerate and save those distant
societies, which she has created, and whose fortunes
she has put at hazard by introducing slavery into their
bosom, she will not consider that it becomes the rank
she holds in the world, to compromise by her economy
the success of an enterprise so glorious and so sacred.
The Commission have moreover judged, that the
emancipation could be so conducted, and managed with
such prudence, that the treasury would only be required
to make an advance, and that the nation might, by the
product of enfranchised labor, be saved a portion of the
expense entailed by emancipation. This will be farther
explained. It was therefore the unanimous opinion of the
Commission, that the planters should receive an indem-
nity, the amount of which they cannot yet decide, but
the larger part of which should be paid before emanci-
pation shall be accomplished.
The Commission, however, do not regard indemnity
as the only condition necessary to the success of the
enterprise. There are many others which remain to
be mentioned.
4


26
It is important, first, to direct attention to the kind
of danger that is to be feared.
Many persons, preoccupied by the recollections of
St. Domingo, are led to believe that the emancipation
of the slaves will occasion between the two races, who
inhabit our colonies, bloody collisions, whence the ex-
pulsion or the massacre of the whites may soon follow.
Everything leads to the belief that these fears are
entirely imaginary, or at least much exaggerated. The
Commission have examined with the greatest care all
the documents relative to the enfranchisement of the
slaves in the English colonies, and they feel bound to
declare, that nothing, which has taken place in those
colonies, leaves room to suppose that emancipation
would be accompanied with the disasters which are
dreaded.
England possessed nineteen slave colonies; these
colonies contained in all about nine hundred thousand
blacks or mulattoes, and only about two hundred and
thirty thousand whites. One of these colonies, Jamai-
ca, counted for herself alone three hundred and twenty-
two thousand slaves, and thirty-five thousand whites;
another, Demerara, is situated on the continent, and
surrounded by uninhabited countries, where the negroes
could easily assemble, beyond the reach of the whites.
Emancipation caused and still occasions inconvenience
in the English colonies, but it has nowhere given rise
to great disorders or attempts at insurrection. Yet
England maintains few troops in her colonies, and
emancipation there has been accompanied by circum-
stances, which might have caused disorder and vio-
lence.


27
France has only four colonies. Three of these are
islands of small extent, and the fourth is almost unin-
habited. Upon these islands the entire population is
placed under the constant control of government; it
cannot escape from its action for a single day. The
impossibility of resistance destroys the desire on the
part of the negroes. Slavery, moreover, long softened
in the French colonies, cannot call down the ven-
geance of the blacks on their former masters.
It is not the violent destruction of our colonies,
which is to be feared from emancipation, it is their grad-
ual decay, and the ruin of their industry by the cessa-
tion, the considerable diminution, or the high price of
labor. We have not to dread the massacre of the
whites by the blacks; but it is to be apprehended, that
they will refuse to work with them and for them, or
that they may be contented with a few transient exer-
tions, which, under a tropical sky, may supply the first
wants of man.
This seems the only danger we have to fear; but it is
of serious importance, and must be removed at all
events; for France labors to create civilized societies,
and not hordes of savages. The government, there-
fore, after having acted on the planter by means of in-
demnity, should act on the slave in his turn, by a wise
and prudent legislation, which shall first introduce, and
1 Omitting Senegal, which is only a settlement.
2 The greatest length of Martinique is 16 leagues, and its breadth 7.
The two islands of Guadaloupe, taken together, are from 22 to 23 leagues
long, and about 5 to 7 broad. Bourbon is 14 leagues long by 9 to 10
broad. The surface of Guiana is estimated at 18,000 square leagues, but
this colony as yet has only 5,000 free inhabitants and 16,000 slaves. See
statistics published by the Minister of Marine.


28
then, if necessary, compel the laborious and manly
habits of liberty.
The Chamber will doubtless expect, that, having
proceeded thus far, in order to illustrate this ques-
tion practically, we should here consider in what man-
ner emancipation has been effected in the English
colonies.
In 1823, the House of Commons resolved that in
ten years slavery should be abolished.
There is nothing to indicate that from this time,
until the liberty of the blacks was proclaimed, the
colonies had made any effort to prepare themselves
for the change, which was announced to them. Most
of them resisted, even obstinately, the attempts made
by the mother country to induce them to take pre-
paratory measures. In many of them, especially in
Jamaica, great embarrassment had long prevailed in
most of the private fortunes.
Under these circumstances, in 1833, the bill of
emancipation passed.
It is well known that the English colonies are not
all subjected to the same mode of government.
The most ancient, like Jamaica, are almost inde-
pendent states; they have political assemblies, which
assume the exclusive right of making laws, and claim
to hold their rights, not from the English Parliament,
but from the king of England alone. The most re-
cent, such as Guiana, have, properly speaking, no rep-
resentative body, and the royal power governs them
almost without control.
It is necessary to bear these facts in mind in order
to understand perfectly what is to follow.
The bill declares, that, from the 1st of August, 1834,


29
slavery should be abolished in all the English colo-
nies; and that the slave should then pass forever from
the control of his master, to be thenceforward subject
to the law alone.
The legislature, however, did not immediately grant
to him all the rights of a free man.
Slaves more than six years old on the 1st of August,
1834, were compelled to remain, during a certain num-
ber of years, attached to their former masters and to
serve them as apprentices.
The term of apprenticeship was fixed to extend to
the 1st of August, 1838, for slaves attached to the
person, and for the much larger number, who cultiva-
ted the fields, to the 1st of August, 1840.2
The agricultural, or predial apprentice, as it is ex-
pressed in the bill, was bound to serve without wages,
for the benefit of a master whom he was not at lib-
erty to leave. But the master could no longer compel
that labor by his own arbitrary will. Between these
two men interposed, for the first time, a magistrate,
charged to watch that neither of the two transgressed
the laws which had been imposed upon them.
The master owed nourishment, lodging, and main-
tenance to the enfranchised as in the time of slavery.
The enfranchised owed to the master forty-five
hours of work a week, or five days at nine hours a
1
Except at the Isle of France, where it was to endure six months lon-
ger; and at the Cape of Good Hope, where the period of abolition was
delayed four months.
2 The reason of this difference is as follows. The legislature has only
imposed certain hours of labor on the agricultural negro, while it necessa-
rily leaves the domestic negro constantly at the disposal of his master. It
appears then just, that the apprenticeship of the second should terminate
earlier than that of the first.


30
day. The remainder of the time was his own. It
was the design of the legislature, that the slave should
employ, in the service of his master, and for wages, the
greater part of the time which was left in each week
at his disposal.
The master was deprived of the power, which he
had hitherto exercised, of inflicting arbitrary punish-
ments. The magistrate alone could punish. But the
magistrate was authorized to inflict corporal chastise-
ment, from which women only were exempt.
In the English colonies, and particularly in the old
colonies, almost the whole of the public functionaries
were chosen from among the planters. The police
was entirely in the hands of the justices of peace,
that
is, of the proprietors. These magistrates, according
to the custom of the mother country, were not paid.
To regulate the new and various obligations imposed
by the bill on the master and the laborer, Parliament
judged it proper to introduce a magistracy in the colo-
nies, which should receive a compensation.
The bill which abolished slavery, created a certain
number of magistrates of this description. These
magistrates who were principally taken from the moth-
er country, had an exclusive, but circumscribed and
temporary jurisdiction.
They could judge only in cases between the appren-
tices and the masters, and their power was to expire
with the term of apprenticeship, on the 1st of August,
1840.
1 Sixty were placed in the single colony of Jamaica, which contained
322,000 slaves; nearly in the proportion of one magistrate for every 5,000
enfranchised. At Guiana there were 15 for 86,000 slaves, or about one
magistrate for every 5,500 blacks.


31
Thus far Parliament confined itself to declaring it
general will. Secondary rules, and the details of the
methods of executing them, were referred to the local
legislatures, in those colonies which had representative
assemblies, and in other cases to the metropolitan gov-
ernment.
Thus it was the executive power of the mother
country, or the legislative power of the colonies, which
was to promulgate all the regulations relative to va-
grancy, to the police, to discipline, as well as to the
details of the respective obligations of the masters and
laborers.
To the measures, which have been mentioned, Par-
liament added another, which was intended to facilitate
their success. It granted to the planters an indemnifi-
cation, which was fixed at the sum of twenty millions
of pounds sterling, or five hundred millions of francs,
for the nineteen colonies.
The first object of this indemnification was to re-
pair the losses which it was supposed that emancipation
would occasion to the proprietors of slaves.
The second was to ensure the concurrence of the
colonial powers.
With this intention the bill declared, that the indem-
nification should only be paid as each colony should
submit to the will of the government, and take in con-
cert with her, the measures which the government
should judge necessary for the effective action of the
bill.
This clause had the anticipated result. All the colo-
nies, even those which had been most clamorous at the
first movements towards emancipation, finally submit-
ted; and each legislature, after more or less hesitation,


32
made the laws and took the measures indicated by the
government as necessarily consequent on emancipa-
tion.
Parliament had declared that apprenticeship should
not continue longer than till August 1st, 1840;. but the
colonies were at liberty to choose an earlier term, or to
reject it altogether.
All the English colonies eagerly embraced the sys-
tem of apprenticeship, excepting one alone, Antigua,
which, profiting by the permission granted by the bill,
declared on the contrary that, from the 1st of August,
1834, the slaves should be admitted, without transition,
to all the civil rights of free men. Hereafter we shall
speak of the result of this solitary attempt on the part
of Antigua. At present our attention is called to the
colonies where the apprenticeship was established.
In all the colonies, and even in England, it was
feared that great disturbance, and possibly great disas-
ters, might immediately follow the proclamation of
liberty. These fears were fallacious. On the 1st of
August, 1834, seven hundred thousand blacks emerged
together from slavery, and without any great commo-
tion. There was not a drop of blood shed, nor one
estate destroyed, throughout the vast extent of the
English colonies. Never has so remarkable an event
been accomplished with such extraordinary tranquillity
and ease.
The same spectacle is continued to this day; and if
the numerous documents, which have been examined
by the Commission, may be relied on, it may be said
that the number of crimes and offences has not in-
creased in the English colonies since the abolition of
slavery. - There is not in His Majesty's dominions,”


33
says the Governor of Guiana, “a more tranquil or
better regulated province than this colony, and yet
there are but two or three whites on each estate. We
have, in all, but thirty policemen, who, if necessary,
seek assistance among the enfranchised blacks, and
these often act as constables without remuneration.
These constables are unarmed. The policemen have
swords; but I intend to take them away soon, that the
last trace of forced obedience may disappear.” 1
This was written in 1835, and under date of the 1st
of September, 1836, we find in another despatch of the
same governor : “For three months the swords of the
policemen have been exchanged for staves." In Gui-
ana there are now thirty-one thousand enfranchised
blacks, scattered throughout an immense territory.
Experience moreover has proved, that the difficulty
does not consist in restraining the enfranchised from
revolt, nor in punishing or preventing crimes, but in
training them to laborious habits. In all the colonies
the beginning of apprenticeship was attended with
difficulty. The negroes, without refusing to labor,
worked ill and carelessly. Without being rebellious,
,
they were undisciplined.
At first the magistrates were compelled to use nume-
rous and severe punishments, which became less and
less rigorous and frequent, as the blacks became accus-
tomed to the new system of labor.
In the first year of the apprenticeship, from the 1st
of August, 1834, to the 31st of July, 1835, the magis-
trates inflicted seven thousand seven hundred and
eighty-six punishments on enfranchised slaves in Bar-
1 Parliamentary Papers, published in 1836, p. 26.
5


35
greater obstacles in the disposition of the masters than
in that of the former slaves. It can hardly be doubted,
on reading the documents which have been laid before
the Commission, and particularly the regulations, re-
searches, memoirs, and periodicals or newspapers of
the planters themselves, that, discontented with the
change imposed by the mother country, they had first
attempted to govern enfranchised negroes as they had
done while they were slaves, and then sought to re-
venge themselves for the resistance, which this mode
of conduct had occasioned. This may be perceived
particularly in the colonies, whose institutions render
them most independent of the government. Few colo-
nial laws have been enacted at Jamaica since the act
1 It would, moreover, be very unjust to judge all the English slave colo-
nies by Jamaica. Not only is Jamaica a very large and very populous
island, since it is about 64 leagues long by 25 broad, with 427,000 inhabi-
tants, 392,000 of whom are negroes, but the population there assumes a
peculiar character, which is nowhere else found in the same degree.
Almost all the proprietors of Jamaica are absentees. The management
of their affairs is entrusted to agents, who only remain on the estates long
enough to enrich themselves. The same agent is generally charged with
the management of several estates. Some are mentioned in the Parlia-
mentary Documents, who have as many as 10,000 negroes under their or-
ders. The administration of these agents was in general very severe.
They could not superintend the conduct of their inferiors, and they took no
interest in the black population confided to their charge. It appears cer-
tain, that in almost every place where the proprietors were resident, the
transition from slavery to apprenticeship was easy; which seems clearly
to indicate that the greatest obstacles proceed from the whites, and not from
the blacks. This same idea, moreover, is often found in the correspon-
dence of the English governors, and chiefly in that of the governors of
Guiana and Jamaica. We find especially the following expression in a
despatch of the governor of Guiana, dated the 18th of November, 1835;
“ Upon every estate where the apprentices are complained of, it has been
invariably found, upon examination, that the overseers or agents had either
killed the negroes' hogs, or ruined their gardens; that the hours of labor


37
colonies the whites, in spite of the prayers of the ne-
groes and the counsel of the governors, persevered in
forbidding their apprentices to labor more than seven
hours a day, which deprived them of every advantage
they might hope from the free labor of Saturday.
In most of the colonies, and particularly in Jamaica,
discord and jealousy soon arose between the former
masters and the enfranchised blacks. There was a
concealed, but constant struggle between them.
In all the colonies a double effect was perceptible.
The blacks soon showed great confidence in the me-
tropolitan government and the salaried magistrates.
On the other hand, these magistrates were exposed to
the dislike and animadversion of the planters. It often
happened, that the colonial courts imposed fines upon
them, which were paid from the metropolitan treas-
ury.
In spite of these unfortunate circumstances, it must
be acknowledged that apprenticeship has not produced
the great evil, which the planters expected, that is, the
cessation of labor.
In the English documents we see, that in the begin-
ning of apprenticeship most of the planters insisted,
that it would be necessary to abandon the cultivation
of sugar.
It is certain that, during the apprenticeship, the pro-
duction of sugar did not sensibly diminish in the English
colonies. In many of them it was much increased.
At Guiana, the produce of 1836 exceeded in value
that of 1835 by about twelve millions. The governor
1 See Lord Glenelg's Speech pronounced in 1838, and the Bill of April
18th of the same year, the object of which was to provide a remedy for
this abuse.


38
announced, on the 17th of September, 1836, that “since
the abolition of slavery, the value of property had pro-
digiously increased in the colony."1
We find also in the same documents relative to this
colony, that in the course of 1836 and 1837, the num-
ber of marriages quarterly was about three hundred,
and the number of adults or children frequenting schools
had increased to nine or ten thousand.
These facts are the more remarkable, because at
Guiana more than one fourth of the enfranchised blacks
were born in Africa, and were acquired by means of
the slave trade.
Most satisfactory results were also obtained in the
island of Antigua, where absolute liberty had been
granted by the masters themselves in 1834. The tran-
sition from slave to free labor was accomplished in this
colony with astonishing facility. Good will never hav-
ing ceased to reign between the whites and the blacks,
the latter remained voluntarily with their former mas-
ters, and did not seek to obtain exorbitant wages.
Mr. Halley, commander of the government-brig Bis-
son, having been sent, in December, 1838, to examine
the state of Antigua, made the following report.
“ Daily wages are moderate, and nearly correspond
with the former cost of supporting the slave. The
situation of the proprietors is satisfactory; they are
unanimous about the good effects, which result from
emancipation, and which they congratulate themselves
on having hastened. From that time plantations and
estates are in demand; they may be said to have
doubled in value, since they can be sold at a higher
price than when slaves were attached to them.”
1 Parliamentary Documents, published in 1836, pp. 135, 475.


39
These are admirable results; but it would be danger-
ous, it must be allowed, to expect them elsewhere ; for
the situation of Antigua is very peculiar.
The island of Antigua contained, at the time of
emancipation, but 29,370 slaves, 4,066 free blacks, and
2,000 whites; in all 35,436 inhabitants. This popula-
tion, small as it is, covers the whole surface of the coun-
try. Almost all the estates in Antigua were occupied ;
all were private property. Population there was almost
as crowded as in Europe. The negro was therefore
compelled to labor or to starve. At Antigua, moreover,
(and this cause is still more efficient than the other in.
the eyes of the man who can feel and reason,) slavery
has always assumed a form of peculiar mildness, and
the masters themselves have made great efforts to im-
prove the character of the negroes and to conciliate
their affection. It may be remembered, that they alone,
in 1834, chose that their slaves should pass from bond-
age to perfect freedom, thus sacrificing the gratuitous
labor which the Emancipation Bill permitted them to
exact for six years. This fact is sufficient to explain all
that preceded and followed it. Men, who are capable
of such conduct in the midst of their slaves, prove that
they have been masters full of gentleness and compas-
sion; and it may easily be conceived that they have not
met with rebellious freed men.
Things were in this state in the English colonies in
the beginning of the year
1838.
At this time public opinion in England was again
agitated; numerous popular meetings took place; va-
rious propositions were made to Parliament with the
view of softening the fate of the apprentices, and de-
livering them from the violence which some of the


40
planters, especially in Jamaica, were accused of using
towards them. This gave birth to the bill of the 18th
of April, 1838, the object of which was to grant new
securities to the enfranchised. But they went yet fur-
ther.
The apprenticeship was to end for the artisan or
domestic negroes on the 1st of August, 1838; for others
the act had fixed the term two years later.
A law was proposed in Parliament and was about to
be passed, giving liberty to all the negroes on the 1st of
August, 1838.
The efforts of the ministry stopped the passage of
the law; but the moral effect was produced, and it
became impossible to prolong apprenticeship. The
English government felt bound to state this new neces-
sity to the colonial authorities, and to invite their sub-
mission.
These events aroused the black population of the
colonies, and produced in most of the planters great
surprise and deep irritation.
Many transactions had taken place in the English
colonies, on the supposition that apprenticeship would
continue until 1840, and its premature dissolution in-
jured large interests.
On the other hand, the colonies perceived that, in
the face of the manifestations of opinion in the mother
country, it would be very dangerous to refuse to a part
of the blacks the liberty, which the others received.
This would have been very difficult, even with the
support of public opinion in the mother country; it
was impossible to attempt it after what had just passed
in England.


41
All the colonies therefore consented, but with a bad
grace and with regret, to abolish the apprenticeship in
their territories after the 1st of August. Many were
late in determining on this step. At Trinidad it was
only on the 25th of July, 1838, that the planters could
resolve on the measure.
Complete liberty was then proclaimed in all the Eng-
lish colonies on the 1st of August of the same year.
It is almost useless to remark, that it was under the
' most unfavorable circumstances that can be imagined.
It burst upon them amid the irritation and the em-
barrassment of the masters. The negroes became entire-
ly free at the very moment when their complaints against
the whites had just been brought out, and sometimes ex-
aggerated, in the political assemblies of the mother
country. There was no preparation for this new liber-
ty. In many of the colonies the instructions of the
English government did not arrive until many months
after the apprenticeship had been abolished. The
colonial authorities, left to their own discretion, hastily
arranged the first necessary measures.
Nearly a year has elapsed since this great and for-
midable experiment was made. The result of ten
months only is already known. This time is too short
to form a decided opinion. Already, however, some
important truths are established.
It is certain that absolute liberty, like apprenticeship,
has been received in all the English colonies with joy,
1 Liberty was granted on the 1st of August, and it was not until Sep-
tember that the orders of council, intended to regulate the state of the poor,
to organize the police, to repress vagrancy, to fix the relations between
laborer and master, were transmitted to the colonies dependent on the
crown. Parliamentary Papers, published in 1839, p. 4.
6


42
but without disorder. It is equally certain that the
freed negroes have nowhere manifested that taste for a
wandering and savage life, which seems to have been
expected. They have, on the contrary, appeared much
attached to the places in which they had lived, and to
the habits of civilization which they had already con-
tracted. “It is a remarkable fact,” says Captain Hal-
ley, in a report already quoted, dated the 3d of De-
cember, 1838, “that at Jamaica, (the most exposed of
all the colonies,) emancipation took effect without dis-
order and without disturbing the tranquillity of the
island. The negroes have exhibited no inclination to
fly from civilization, or withdraw to the interior or to
the forests. In general they have remained on the
estates where they already lived.”
As to the nature and duration of their labor, the
Commission has examined such contradictory docu-
ments, assertions so opposite to each other, that they
could form no opinion with entire certainty. Let us
take, however, a general view of the present state of
the English colonies.
In those colonies, where the population is large in
proportion to the territory, as at Barbadoes, Antigua,
and St. Christopher, the negroes, having no other re-
source but labor, work well and for moderate wages.
In colonies, which do not possess this advantage,
where the country is very fertile, and easily cultivated,
as at Guiana and Trinidad, the negroes have demand-
ed exorbitant wages, and often for interrupted labor;
1 We find, it is true, by the official reports, that in 1838 the culture of
sugar was more abundant than in 1836 or 1837. In 1836 it amounted to
4,099,095 cwt., in 1837, to 3,344,863, and in 1838, to 4,124,162. But it is
difficult to draw a conclusion from these figures, the cane gathered in 1838
having been planted and cultivated during the apprenticeship.


43
yet the proprietors are able to continue the cultivation
of the soil with profit.
But in Jamaica, where the culture of the cane is
naturally expensive, on account of the exhaustion of
the land, or of the difficulty of transporting the pro-
duce to market, where the negroes can easily live
without working for the whites; in Jamaica, and in
islands placed in analogous circumstances, the blacks
work less, and much less constantly, since the cessation
of slavery than before that period, and the prospects
of the sugar trade are doubtful.
This unfortunate situation seems to arise from vari-
ous causes, which might have been avoided. It must
be attributed in the first place to the unhappy rela-
tions, which, during the apprenticeship, were estab-
lished in most of the colonies, between the masters
and the enfranchised blacks. The jealousy and hatred,
which then arose, now render the equitable regulation
of wages extremely difficult. It is evident that, while
the planter almost always endeavored to reduce the
wages of the negro below the real value of his labor,
the negro was exorbitant in his demands.
As not
only opposite interests but secret enmity existed be-
tween these two men, it is almost impossible that a
good understanding should ever be established between
them.
The reluctance shown by the blacks to constant la-
bor, in the service of the great proprietors of the soil,
may likewise be explained by the circumstance of their
being themselves small proprietors.
Almost all the earlier enfranchised of the English
colonies have retained the gratuitous enjoyment of the
cabin, which they inhabited during slavery, and the


garden which they were then allowed to use. Each of
them possesses such a field; it occupies a part of his
time, and is sufficient for almost all his wants. The
negro prefers to labor for himself, in its cultivation,
rather than work on the lands of another. This may
be the more easily understood, as there is something
analogous to it in those countries of Europe where the
land is much divided. The small proprietor, occupied
upon his own estate, is with difficulty persuaded to
grant his services to his neighbor, the rich farmer. It
is thus that, in most of our provinces, the number of
laborers daily decreases, and their assistance becomes
more precarious.
If it be thought necessary to the cultivation of colo-
nial produce, and to the continuation of the white race
in the Antilles, that the services of the enfranchised
negro may be permanently hired by the great proprie-
tors of the soil, it is evident that we should not create
for him a domain, where he can easily live by laboring
for himself alone.
The Commission would fail in their duty, if, after
having explained to the Chamber, somewhat in detail,
the manner in which the English Government has con-
ducted emancipation, and what has thus far been the
result of the enterprise, they did not endeavor to draw
from these facts light by which to guide ourselves.
It has been seen that the parliament of Great Britain
chose to pour into the hands of the planters the whole
amount of the indemnification, when once the colonies
had acquiesced in the principle of emancipation, and
before emancipation was accomplished.
This last provision of the law has been much criti-


45
cised in England. It has been said, that "it would have
been wiser and more prudent to retain for a time in
the hands of the State a portion of this capital; and
that in distributing it beforehand to the colonists the
government deprived itself, from the beginning, of a
powerful means of holding them in dependence on her,
and insuring their concurrence.”
These criticisms seem reasonable, when it is consid-
ered that, from the period when the indemnification
was paid, a silent but incessant struggle arose between
the colonial legislatures and the government, a struggle
which has not yet ceased.
The Emancipation Bill had subjected to apprentice-
ship only those children, who were more than six years
old. All under that age were immediately considered
free.
It does not appear that any measure was taken to
secure to these latter suitable means of education.
This must be considered as a great error.
Children
should either have been left in the same situation with
their parents, or the State should have charged itself
with their superintendence and instruction. In leaving
them to themselves, and thus abandoning them to
chance, great embarrassment has been created for the
present, and possibly great danger prepared for the
future.
The measure of apprenticeship was also severely
criticised in England. Eminent statesmen condemned
as well the principle as the measure. They have said,
that no compulsory labor whatever could prepare a
man for free labor, and that liberty only can teach us
to be free. Others, while they admit the necessity of
1 See among others the speech of Lord Howick, 3d of March, 1830.


46
1
an apprenticeship, condemn the system which was
adopted.
Your Commission incline to the latter opinion.
They consider that a time of trial, during which the
negroes, already possessing many of the privileges of
free men, are still compelled to labor, is indispensable
to accustom the planters to the effects of emancipation,
and to allow them to introduce in their customs, and
their methods of culture, the various changes which
emancipation may produce.
They consider this intermediate state as not less
necessary to advance the education of the black
popu-
lation, and to prepare them for liberty.
So long as absolute slavery exists, the master does
not suffer the public authority to intervene between him
and his slave. His will is law, and the slave knows no
other. This is the very essence of slavery. It may
be imagined that, so long as slavery is not abolished,
government will find a thousand difficulties in acting
upon the black and preparing him for liberty. The
same obstacles do not exist when the negro, no longer
belonging to the white man, is only bound to labor for
a time on his account.
On the other hand, when the last traces of servitude
are at length effaced, and the negro is raised to the
rank of a free man; when he has already tasted abso-
lute independence, and believes that he has nothing
more to expect from the magistrate, and little to fear,
social power loses its control over his will, his opinions,
and his habits.
But while the promised liberty is not yet complete ;
while the respect and obedience nurtured in slavery are
still maintained by forced labor ; while, at the same


47
time, the soul of the slave is elevated by the approach
of independence, the action of power is easy and effi-
cient. The planter no longer rejects the hand of gov-
ernment, and the negro yields to its influence without
difficulty and without regret. He does not yet see in
the magistrate a master, but a guide and a liberator.
It is the most favorable moment to found that empire
over the minds and the habits of the black population,
and acquire that salutary influence, which will be neces-
sary to direct them when they shall be entirely free.
Your Commission has therefore decided unanimous-
ly, that it is necessary to place an intermediate and
transitory state between slavery and liberty, and dili-
gently considered what that state ought to be.
It seems that, in establishing apprenticeship, the at-
tention of the English was turned to the continuation
of labor alone ; an immense interest, undoubtedly, but
not the only one. The Emancipation Bill contains no
general and efficient measure to promote the education
of the young apprentices, and the moral improvement
of the adults. There is no attempt to cherish emula-
tion among them, nor to lead them gradually through
successive stages to the enjoyment of complete inde-
pendence.
Apprenticeship was to remain to the last such as it
was first established. At the end of six years, as dur-
ing the first year, the apprentice could have the free
use of his labor, and the privilege of receiving wages,
but one day in the week at most.
In the English system of apprenticeship, the property
of the planter in the black man is not in fact wholly
destroyed; the State has only regulated and limited the
use of it. The negro is still compelled to labor with-


49
He should have, moreover, throughout his appren-
ticeship, the use of Saturday and the possession of a
piece of land sufficient for his support. With these
facilities he can maintain himself.
As to the children, they will continue to be supported
by the proprietor under a contract of apprenticeship,
which shall ensure to him their services until the
age
of
twenty-one.
He shall also have charge of the aged slaves and of
sick laborers. There will be regulations to establish
uniform habits in this respect.
These measures, which should satisfy the demands of
humanity, would be favorable to the planters them-
selves; and it is believed they would gain in labor, in
security, and prospects, much more than they would
lose in money.
The Commission are not called on to discuss the
details of this plan, nor to propose its adoption to the
Chamber; but it is their duty to state that the princi-
ples on which it is founded have been unanimously
approved.
In the English system, the slave was made by law
the apprentice of his' former master. The master lost
a part of his power; he retained the rest. His was not
a borrowed power; he continued to exercise it in
virtue of his former right. The government interfered
1 The same obligation was imposed on the masters by the local regula-
tions of Antigua. “ The local government of Antigua,” says Captain Hal-
ley, in his report of the 13th of December, 1838, “has adopted wise
measures, dictated by a highly commendable humanity, relative to the aged
and all the infirm who cannot maintain themselves. They have decreed
that all such individuals shall remain at the charge of their former own-
ers."
7


50
only to regulate the use and prevent the abuse of this
right.
A part of the embarrassment attending apprentice-
ships has proceeded from this source.
The Commission have decided, that it would be infi-
nitely more conformable to the interest of the negroes,
as well as of the planters, to destroy at once every
relation which has existed between the master and his
slave, and to transfer to the State the guardianship of
all the enfranchised population. This method of pro-
ceeding has many considerable advantages.
Inevitable inconveniences accompany the change
from slavery to liberty. If possible, they must not even
seem to be imposed on the enfranchised negro by his
former master. In such cases it is wise to have the
whole responsibility, with the power, in the hands of
the government.
The State becoming thus the protector of the enfran-
chised slaves, it is left free to take the best and the
most speedy method of preparing them for the com-
plete possession of independence. It can impose those
conditions, which it may judge indispensable, and com-
pel their submission to the requisite trial before they
are left wholly to their own responsibilty. It is free to
direct, according to circumstances, those measures
which may diffuse instruction among them, regulate
their habits, and efficiently promote marriage. These
measures, emanating from the State, and not from the
former masters, will not cause those sentiments of dis-
trust and hatred, the fatal effects of which we have
seen in the British colonies. Imposed on the white as
the conditions on which he is to receive the laborer's
services, and on the black as the price of independence,
they will be easily admitted and strictly executed.


51
The Commission have also approved the idea of
wages.
Wages are a just indemnification for the sacrifices
of the State. They are useful to the black; for inde-
pendently of the comfort which he derives from them,
they make him feel the advantages of labor, and estab-
lish its respectability in his eyes. The absence of wages
is the stamp of slavery.
Wages, in fine, have the advantage of depriving the
planters of all pretext for the unjust suspicions, which
they have sometimes entertained of the metropolitan
government.
By means of wages the pecuniary interest of the
State is evidently bound to the support of a productive
labor in the colonies, and wages consequently form, in
the eyes of these colonies, the strongest guarantee for
the exertions of the government to encourage labor.
The Commission are therefore convinced that a
system of apprenticeship, founded upon the basis which
has been suggested, would conciliate at once the claims
of the Treasury and the interests of the planters. In
this system, moreover, they find the happiest combina-
tion, which could be adopted in favor of the blacks,
that race oppressed and degraded by slavery, which it
is the duty and the honor of France to civilize, enlight-
en, and improve, as well as to enfranchise.
Upon all the great points, which have been present-
ed for the consideration of the Chamber, the decisions
of the Commission were unanimous; they were divided
only on the form of expressing their opinions.
Many of the members have thought that the Com-
mission, after having rejected the plan proposed by the
honorable M. de Tracy, should confine themselves to a











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