The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign | Page 9

may be regarded as calling upon us now to follow in the footsteps of
that nation, it is proposed to examine into the working of the act by
which the whole negro population of the British colonies was, almost at
once and without preparation, invested with the right to determine for
whom they would work and what should be their wages--or were, in
other words, declared to be free.

CHAPTER IV.
OF EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH COLONIES.
The harmony of the universe is the result of a contest between equal
and opposing powers. The earth is attracted to the sun and from the sun;
and were either of these forces to be diminished or destroyed, chaos
would be the inevitable result. So is it everywhere on the earth. The
apple falls toward the centre of the earth, but in its passage it
encounters resistance; and the harmony of every thing we see around us
is dependent on the equal balance of these opposing forces. So is it
among men. The man who has food to sell wishes to have a high price
for it, whereas, he who needs to buy desires to have it cheaply; and the
selling price depends on the relation between the necessity to buy on
one hand, or to sell on the other. Diminish suddenly and largely the
competition for the purchase of food, and the farmer becomes the prey
of the mechanic. Increase it suddenly and largely, and the mechanic
becomes the prey of the farmer; whereas a gradual and gentle increase
in the demand for food is accompanied by a similar increase in the
demand for the products of the loom and the anvil, and both farmer and
mechanic prosper together, because the competition for purchase and
the competition for sale grow together and balance each other. So, too,
with labour. Wages are dependent upon the relation between the
number of those who desire to buy and to sell labour. Diminish
suddenly the number of those who desire to sell it, and the farmer may
be ruined. Diminish suddenly the number of those who desire to buy it,
and the labourer may become the slave of the farmer.
For almost two centuries, men possessed of capital and desirous to
purchase labour had been induced to transfer it to the colonies, and the
government secured to them the right to obtain labourers on certain
specified terms--such terms as made the labourer a mere instrument in
the hands of the capitalist, and prevented him from obtaining any of
those habits or feelings calculated to inspire him with a love for labour.
At once, all control over him was withdrawn, and the seller of labour
was converted into the master of him who was thus, by the action of the

government, placed in such a situation that he must buy it or be ruined.
Here was a disturbance of the order of things that had existed, almost as
great as that which occurs when the powerful steam, bursting the boiler
in which it is enclosed, ceases to be the servant and becomes the master
of man; and it would have required but little foresight to enable those
who had the government of this machine to see that it must prove
almost as ruinous.
How it operated in Southern Africa, where the slave was most at home,
is shown by the following extracts from the work of a recent traveller
and settler in that colony:--[13]
"The chain was broken, and the people of England hurraed to their
heart's content. And the slave! What, in the meanwhile, became of him?
If he was young and vicious, away he went--he was his own master. He
was at liberty to walk to and fro upon the earth, 'seeking whom he
might devour.' He was free: he had the world before him where to
choose, though, squatted beside the Kaffir's fire, probably thinking his
meal of parched corn but poor stuff after the palatable dishes he had
been permitted to cook for himself in the Boer's or tradesman's kitchen.
But he was fain to like it--he could get nothing else--and this was
earned at the expense of his own soul; for it was given him as an
inducement to teach the Kaffir the easiest mode of plundering his
ancient master. If inclined to work, he had no certain prospect of
employment; and the Dutch, losing so much by the sudden
Emancipation Act, resolved on working for themselves. So the virtuous,
redeemed slave, had too many temptations to remain virtuous: he was
hungry--so was his wife--so were his children; and he must feed them.
How? No matter."
These people will work at times, but they must have wages that will
enable them to play much of their time.
"When we read of the distress of