per cent., which is a much more favorable proportion than exists in the other islands. The planters all agree that emancipation has been an entire success. The only drawback is a somewhat singular one, and illustrates the dependent habits which slavery
generates. Under their masters, the slaves were always provided with sufficient medical attendance; but when free, they had not the means or were not prudent enough to secure this, and the consequence has been a great mortality of children, so that the births now scarcely exceed the deaths. An intelligent English traveller, writing on "Antigua and the Antiguans" in 1844, says in regard to the question, whether the freed negro will work, that he has often observed, when a piece of land was to be _holed_ for sugar-cane by task-work, the negroes rising by one or two o'clock in the morning during moonlight, going to the field and accomplishing a usual day's work (300 cane-holes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________ ops-developers mailing list ops-developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ops-developers
