13
General Condition of the People.
months; they are then bound out, as apprentices to trades, or with farmers, till they become of age. They are oftentimes adopted into families soon after their arrival. The next class—single men and women, without, family connexions—these generally seek a home among the people or hire, in various employments. Sometimes the men fill their land, build and make ready for a family. A third class, poor men with families and widows generally commence upon their lands at once, grubbing up, fencing, and building a house. It is remarkable, that men, and even women, with large families dependent on them, often do better than single men and women. Such, in a few years, have good houses, gardens and vegetable fields, while the single hireling is often as poor as on the day of landing. Lastly, those who have means, money or merchandize, with which to commence business, either mercantile, mechanical or agricultural. These, of course, are m a position to do well, with prudence and energy, and even ordinary capacities, and many of them do, but not uniformly. The small amount of money which a few emigrants possess, not unfrequently proves a curse rather than a blessing, as do large; fortunes in this country, and although I am more disposed to advise those having money or means of independent subsistence for a few years to emigrate than those destitute, yet I believe the hitter are quite as likely to do well as the former. A majority of the lest citizens of Liberia left this county poor, entirely dependent on the bounty of the Colonization Society.
From one to three years after their arrival, a majority of immigrants are permanently located on their town lots or farm lands, under their own roofs, humble though they may be, and have around them many of the comforts and even luxuries of life. Their small farms lie contiguous to each other, the houses being almost within hailing distance. A small amount of land only is cultivated for family use, as it yields much more abundantly than in this country. As before stated, their gardens produce a great variety of fruits and vegetables. Comfortable farm-houses can be built for one hundred dollars, and even less, if the lot is well supplied with building material. Many of the farmers live in houses costing a thousand dollars, and some even more. Some houses in Monrovia cost as high as five and even ten thousand dollars.
The country people generally spend their time at home, working on their own land, grubbing, planting or fretting out timber for their own use or market. The men do the out-door work, except digging and pulling vegetables, raising poultry and the like. They generally visit the towns or villages on Saturdays, which is a kind of market day, to make purchases, sell produce, &c. In the towns the greater part of the mercantile business is done in the forenoon, and I may say mechanical business also, for I am forced to confess to the indolence of the Liberian mechanic. Many of the merchants may be called wealthy—not in comparison with those of large cities in this country, but equaling many reputed well-to-do traders in country towns, and far surpassing what they could have been, had they remained here. Several of them live at very considerable expense, and most quite as well as they can afford.
