The North Star (Rochester)/1847/12/03/Immigration to the West Indies
IMMIGRATION TO THE WEST INDIES.
We take the following from the Annual Report of the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. It shows the necessity of keeping a sharp look-out over those in whose bosoms the haven of slavery has once had a place:
The Committee have frequently of late had to call attention to the mode of supplying the British colonies with foreign laborers, as unjust in principle, unwise in policy, and both inhuman and immoral in its character and tendencies. It should however be distinctly understood that they have never opposed the introduction of immigrants into the colonies, provided the conditions of such immigration were equitable and humane. All that they have required has been that the immigrants should be introduced either at their own expense, or at the expense of those requiring their services; that there should be an equality of the sexes in the immigrants imported; that the immigrants should be free to choose their employers and employments, on their arrival in the colonies; and that as perfect liberty of action should be secured to them as to any other class of the laboring population in the colonies. Instead of this, however, the immigrants except in comparatively few instances, are introduced at the public expense, the emancipated laborers being taxed heavily for this purpose; that the number of males introduced have been in the proportion of ten to one of females; that practically they have no liberty of choice, but are distributed according to the will of the colonial agents, or the wishes of the planters; and they are brought under a system of laws which reduces them to a species of semi-slavery, from which few have the means of escape, at least for five years.
Under the various schemes of immigration which have obtained at Mauritius, there have been introduced, from the year 1834 to 1846, inclusive, no less than 85,000 Coolies, chiefly males, besides several thousands of Malgaches, Chinese, Johannese, and others. Into British Guiana there have been imported, during the same period, of Africans, Coolies, Portuguese, Germans, and others, 33,000; whilst into Jamaica and Trinidad it is not improbable that 26,000 at least have found their way. Yet, owing to the fearful mortality which has occurred, the termination of indentures and contracts, and the return of immigrants to their homes, the cry for fresh immigrants is as loud as ever; and the resources of these colonies are drained to the uttermost to meet the demand, and are even put in pledge for years to come, as in the case of British Guiana and Trinidad, to repay capital and interest, in loans, to be raised for this particular purpose; whilst in Mauritius, funds that were specially devoted to public works, amounting to £300,000, have been misappropriated to immigration, with no prospect of their ever being repaid.
It is now clear however that two sources on which the Government and planters principally depended for a supply of laborers to the three colonies of Jamaica, British Guiana, and Trinidad have either failed, or are too costly to be kept open. The liberated Africans at Sierra Leone, with the exception of those who have recently been captured, refuse to leave that colony; and the expense connected with immigrants from British India is found to be too heavy for the colonies to bear. The Committee expect therefore that when the present season has passed, and the 16,000 Coolies promised have reached those colonies, there will be an end of that kind of immigration to the West Indias.
To meet the loss of supplies from the quarters indicated, the Goverment on the pressing solicitations of the West India body, have determined upon obtaining laborers from the Kroo Coast, Western Africa, and by way of experiment, have fitted up one of H. M. steam-vessels, the Growler, to go thither, and have appointed agents on the coast, to engage and superintend the shipment of Kroomen for Guiana and Trinidad. The Committee have felt it to be their duty earnestly to protest against this new scheme. First, because the Kroo coast is not under British jurisdiction or control; secondly, because the agents are to be paid head-money for obtaining the Kroomen; thirdly, because the Kroomen are, if not absolutely slaves, under the dominion of their headmen or chiefs, so that they can not act as free agents; fourthly, because they will not be permitted by their chiefs to take their wives and families with them; and fifthly, because it will afford a most pernicious example to foreign states, having slave colonies or territories to supply themselves with laborers nominally free, but really slaves, and thereby give a new stimulus to the slave-trade, with all its manifold horrors.
The Committee feel that this important subject demands the most serious attention of British abolitionists, and they hope will meet with their most strenuous opposition.