The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 7.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

“ [40] The present condition of Hayti may be judged of from the following well-authenticated facts: its population is more than 700,000, its resources ample, its prosperity and happiness general, its crimes few, its labor crowned with abundance, with no paupers save the decrepit and aged, its people hospitable, respectful, orderly, and contented.¹

The manumitted slaves, who to the number of two thousand were settled in Nova Scotia by the British Government at the close of the Revolutionary War,

” ‘ed a harmless life, and gained the character of all honest, industrious people from their white neighbors.’² Of the free laborers of Trinidad we have the same report. At the Cape of Good Hope, three thousand negroes received their freedom, and with scarce a single exception betook themselves to laborious employments.³

But we have yet stronger evidence. The total abolishment of slavery in the southern republics has proved beyond dispute the safety and utility of immediate abolition. The departed Bolivar indeed deserves his glorious title of Liberator, for he began his career of freedom by striking off the fetters of his own slaves, seven hundred in number.

In an official letter from the Mexican Envoy of the British Government, dated Mexico, March, 1826, and addressed to the Right Hon. George Canning, the superiority of free over slave labor is clearly demonstrated by the following facts:—

1. The sugar and coffee cultivation of Mexico is almost exclusively confined to the great valley of Ceurnavaca and Cauntala Amilpas.