Book Description

Excerpt from The Danger of Delay, and the Safety and Practicability of Immediate Emancipation: From the Evidence Before the Parliamentary Committees on Colonial Slavery The following are a few Extracts from the Evidence given before the Slavery Committee of the Two Houses, in the last Parliament. Many more of a similar character might be added, but the object being to disseminate the Evidence on the Danger of Delaying Emancipation in an abridged form, the Publishers have contented themselves with extracting some of the most prominent passages. The Duke Of Manchester. Q. When your Grace left the Island, was not a feeling of security generally prevailing throughout the Colony in the minds of the Whites, and of a confidence and attachment between the Slave and the Master? A. There was certainly a degree of confidence individually; you felt yourself perfectly safe in your own house. You were not afraid of any thing individually among the Negroes, but you were always aware, or suspecting that if an opportunity offered, they would, of course, naturally try to emancipate themselves; but, in fact, perfectly secure yourself. You have never thought of shutting a door or window on account of any want of security. In the night time, of course, whenever an opportunity offered, we were perfectly aware they would rise. Q. Your Grace means personally safe? A. Personally safe, certainly. Q. The object of the question was whether there was a general state of confidence in the Island at the time your Grace left it, with regard not only to individual security, but the security of property, or was there any feeling of an insurrectionary kind among the Slaves? A. It was very strongly suspected almost all the last year I was in the Island; something of the kind, and there were two or three attempts, but still that did not alter the situation of private security. Q. Dis any of the feelings your Grace has described of an unsettled state appear to arise out of the ill treatment of the Master to the Negroes? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.