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254                 EMANCIPATION IN 
schools are about to be introduced in all the islands; and I am now boarding at a house with a gentleman who arrived from England, two weeks since, fully prepared with funds, and every other requisite, to build up free infant schools in all the islands.
12. "I might go on to speak of marriages among the black and colored; of the observance of the Sabbath; of improvement in their dress; greater domestic comforts, &c.; in regard to all which, the greatness of the change for the better, is, in this country, quite evident and undisputed, however much the desolations which freedom has occasioned in the West Indies may be mourned over by our American patriots?"
13. "You are doubtless aware that the colony of Demarara is comparatively new, and that there is a great call for laborers to subdue and bring under cultivation, that great and fertile territory. (I may here remark that Demarara was on all hands said to be entirely ruined by emancipation; but see how false the notion.) The same thing is now there taking place, that we in America have been always accustomed to see, viz., emigration from the old colonies to the new.
14. "In this way, Demarara is to be supplied with an abundance of free laborers, and thereby immensely benefited; a supply of which, but for emancipation, she could never have obtained in any way short of a revival of the African slave trade, 

                     THE WEST INDIES.              255
But that which I wish to have particularly remarked is this:  The legislature of St. Kitts, and more recently that of this island, has become alarmed at the number of emigrants that are leaving them, all of whom are black, and has passed various laws to restrain emigration, openly and avowedly for the purpose of keeping their laborers among themselves!
15."The policy of these laws is condemned by many here, who contend that labor must be left to find its own market; and a discussion is now actually going on in the newspapers,-one party insisting that there must be laws to check emigration, and the other contending that the object may be more effectually accomplished by raising the wages, providing better houses for their laborers, &c.; the whole dispute being how they shall best be able to keep among them their liberated slaves!"
16. "I spent last evening at an estate about four miles from town. It is one of the finest properties in the island, and the resident manager is reported to be one the most skilful planters in the country. Such is the character of the estate, that when the French admiral visited the island and last year, the governor made a visit with him, for the especial purpose of showing him a specimen of Barbados cultivation, and sugar manufacture.  
17. "There are on the plantation two hundred and eighty apprentices, besides children, the whole

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-20 19:08:41