Volume II Part 16 (1/2)
RELIGION.
There are three denominations of Christians in Antigua: the Established Church; the Moravians, and Wesleyans. The Moravians number fifteen thousand--almost exclusively negroes. The Wesleyans embrace three thousand members, and about as many more attendants. Of the three thousand members, says a Wesleyan missionary, ”not fifty are whites--a larger number are colored; but the greater part black.” ”The attendance of the negro population at the churches and chapels,” (of the established order,) says the Rector of St. John's, ”amounts to four thousand six hundred and thirty-six.” The whole number of blacks receiving religious instruction from these Christian bodies, making allowance for the proportion of white and colored included in the three thousand Wesleyans, is about twenty-two thousand--leaving a population of eight thousand negroes in Antigua who are unsupplied with religious instruction.
The Established Church has six parish churches, as many ”chapels of ease,” and nine clergymen. The Moravians have five settlements and thirteen missionaries. The Wesleyans have seven chapels, with as many more small preaching places on estates, and twelve ministers; half of whom are itinerant missionaries, and the other half, local preachers, employed as planters, or in mercantile, and other pursuits, and preaching only occasionally. From the limited number of chapels and missionaries, it may be inferred that only a portion of the twenty-two thousand can enjoy stated weekly instruction. The superintendent of the Moravian mission stated that their chapels could not accommodate more than _one third_ of their members.
Each of the denominations complains of the lack of men and houses. The Wesleyans are now building a large chapel in St. John's. It will accommodate two thousand persons. ”Besides free sittings, there will be nearly two hundred pews, every one of which is now in demand.”
However much disposed the churches of different denominations might have been during slavery to maintain a strict discipline, they found it exceedingly difficult to do so. It seems impossible to elevate a body of slaves, _remaining such,_ to honesty and purity. The reekings of slavery will almost inevitably taint the inst.i.tutions of religion, and degrade the standard of piety. Accordingly the ministers of every denomination in Antigua, feel that in the abolition of slavery their greatest enemy has been vanquished, and they now evince a determination to a.s.sume higher ground than they ever aspired to during the reign of slavery. The motto of all creeds is, ”_We expect great things of freemen_.” A report which we obtained from the Wesleyan brethren, states, ”Our own brethren preach almost daily.” ”We think the negroes are uncommonly punctual and regular in their attendance upon divine wors.h.i.+p, particularly on the Sabbath.” ”They always show a readiness to contribute to the support of the gospel. With the present low wages, and the entire charge of self-maintenance, they have little to spare.” Parham and Sion Hill (taken as specimens) have societies almost entirely composed of rural blacks--about thirteen hundred and fifty in number. These have contributed this year above 330 sterling, or sixteen hundred and fifty dollars, in little weekly subscriptions; besides giving to special objects occasionally, and contributing for the support of schools.[A]
[Footnote A: The superintendent of the Wesleyan mission informed us that the collection in the several Wesleyan chapels last year, independent of occasional contributions to Sunday schools, Missionary objects, &c., amounted to 850 sterling, or more than $4000!]
In a letter dated December 2d, 1834, but four months after emanc.i.p.ation, and addressed to the missionary board in England, the Rev. B. Harvey thus speaks of the Moravian missions: ”With respect to our people, I believe; I may say that in all our places here, they attend the meetings of the church more numerously than ever, and that many are now in frequent attendance who _could very seldom appear amongst us during slavery_.” The same statements substantially were made to us by Mr. H., showing that instead of any falling off the attendance was still on the increase.
In a statement drawn up at our request by the Rector of St. John's, is the following: ”Cases of discipline are more frequent than is usual in English congregations, but at the same time it should be observed, that a _closer oversight_ is maintained by the ministers, and a _greater readiness to submit themselves_ (to discipline) is manifested by the late slaves here than by those who have always been a free people.” ”I am able to speak very favorably of the attendance at church--it is regular and crowded.” ”The negroes on some estates have been known to contribute willingly to the Bible Society, since 1832. They are now beginning to pay a penny and a half currency per week for their children's instruction.”
MORALITY.
The condition of Antigua, but a very few years previous to emanc.i.p.ation, is represented to have been truly revolting. It has already been stated that the Sabbath was the market day up to 1832, and this is evidence enough that the Lord's day was utterly desecrated by the ma.s.s of the population. Now there are few parts of our own country, equal in population, which can vie with Antigua in the solemn and respectful observance of the Sabbath. Christians in St. John's spoke with joy and grat.i.tude of the tranquillity of the Sabbath. They had long been shocked with its open and abounding profanation--until they had well-nigh forgot the aspect of a Christian Sabbath. At length the full-orbed blessing beamed upon them, and they rejoiced in its brightness, and thanked G.o.d for its holy repose.
All persons of all professions testify to the fact that _marriages_ are rapidly increasing. In truth, there was scarcely such a thing as marriage before the abolition of slavery. Promiscuous intercourse of the s.e.xes was almost universal. In a report of the Antigua Branch a.s.sociation of the Society for advancing the Christian Faith in the British West Indies, (for 1836,) the following statements are made:
”The number of marriages in the six parishes of the island, in the year 1835, the first entire year of freedom, was 476; all of which, excepting about 50, were between persons formerly slaves. The total number of marriages between slaves solemnized in the Church during the nine years ending December 31, 1832, was 157; in 1833, the last entire year of slavery, it was 61.”
Thus it appears that the whole number of marriages during _ten years_ previous to emanc.i.p.ation (by far the most favorable ten years that could have been selected) was but _half_ as great as the number for a single year following emanc.i.p.ation!
The Governor, in one of our earliest interviews with him, said, ”the great crime of this island, as indeed of all the West India Colonies, has been licentiousness, but we are certainly fast improving in this particular.” An aged Christian, who has spent many years in the island, and is now actively engaged in superintending several day schools for the negro children, informed us that there was not _one third_ as much concubinage as formerly. This he said was owing mainly to the greater frequency of marriages, and the cessation of late night work on the estates, and in the boiling houses, by which the females were constantly exposed during slavery. Now they may all be in their houses by dark.
Formerly the mothers were the betrayers of their daughters, encouraging them to form unhallowed connections, and even _selling_ them to licentious white and colored men, for their own gain. Now they were using great strictness to preserve the chast.i.ty of their daughters.
A worthy planter, who has been in the island since 1800, stated, that it used to be a common practice for mothers to _sell their daughters_ to the highest bidder!--generally a manager or overseer. ”But now;” said he, ”the mothers _hold their daughters up for marriage_, and take pains to let every body know that their virtue is not to be bought and sold any longer.” He also stated that those who live unmarried now are uniformly neglected and suffer great deprivations. Faithfulness after marriage, exists also to a greater extent than could have been expected from the utter looseness to which they had been previously accustomed, and with their ignorance of the nature and obligations of the marriage relation.
We were informed both by the missionaries and the planters, that every year and month they are becoming more constant, as husband and wife, more faithful as parents, and more dutiful as children. One planter said that out of a number who left his employ after 1834, nearly all had companions on other estates, and left for the purpose of being with them. He was also of the opinion that the greater proportion of changes of residence among the emanc.i.p.ated which took place at that time, were owing to the same cause.[A] In an address before the Friendly Society in St. John's, the Archdeacon stated that during the previous year (1835) several individuals had been expelled from that society for domestic unfaithfulness; but he was happy to say that he had not heard of a single instance of expulsion for this cause during the year then ended.
Much inconvenience is felt on account of the Moravian and Wesleyan missionaries being prohibited from performing the marriage service, even for their own people. Efforts are now making to obtain the repeal of the law which makes marriages performed by sectarians (as all save the established church are called) void.
[Footnote A: What a resurrection to domestic life was that, when long severed families flocked from the four corners of the island to meet their kindred members! And what a glorious resurrection will that be in our own country, when the millions of emanc.i.p.ated beings scattered over the west and south, shall seek the embraces of parental and fraternal and conjugal love.]
That form of licentiousness which appears among the higher cla.s.ses in every slaveholding country, abounded in Antigua during the reign of slavery. It has yielded its redundant fruits in a population of four thousand colored people; double the number of whites. The planters, with but few exceptions, were unmarried and licentious. Nor was this vice confined to the unmarried. Men with large families, kept one or more mistresses without any effort at concealment. We were told of an ”Honorable” gentleman, who had his English wife and two concubines, a colored and a black one. The governor himself stated as an apology for the prevalence of licentiousness among the slaves, that the example was set them constantly by their masters, and it was not to be wondered at if they copied after their superiors. But it is now plain that concubinage among the whites is nearly at an end. An unguarded statement of a public man revealed the conviction which exists among his cla.s.s that concubinage must soon cease. He said that the present race of colored people could not be received into the society of the whites, _because of illegitimacy_; but the next generation would be fit a.s.sociates for the whites, _because they would be chiefly born in wedlock_.
The uniform testimony respecting _intemperance_ was, that it _never had been one of the vices of the negroes_. Several planters declared that they had rarely seen a black person intoxicated. The report of the Wesleyan missionaries already referred to, says, ”Intemperance is most uncommon among the rural negroes. Many have joined the Temperance Society, and many act on tee-total principles.” The only _colored_ person (either black or brown) whom we saw drunk during a residence of nine weeks in Antigua, was a carpenter in St. John's, who as he reeled by, stared in our faces and mumbled out his sentence of condemnation against wine bibbers, ”--Gemmen--you sees I'se a little bit drunk, but 'pon honor I only took th--th-ree bottles of wine--that's all.” It was ”Christmas times,” and doubtless the poor man thought he would venture for once in the year to copy the example of the whites.
In conclusion, on the subject of morals in Antigua, we are warranted in stating, 1st., That during the continuance of slavery, immoralities were rife.
2d. That the repeated efforts of the home Government and the local Legislature, for several successive years previous to 1834, to _ameliorate_ the system of slavery, seconded by the labors of clergymen and missionaries, teachers and catechists, to improve the character of the slaves, failed to arrest the current of vice and profligacy. What few reformations were effected were very partial, leaving the more enormous immoralities as shameless and defiant as ever, up to the very day of abolition; demonstrating the utter impotence of all attempts to purify the _streams_ while the _fountain_ is poison.
3d. That the abolition of slavery gave the death blow to open vice, overgrown and emboldened as it had become. Immediate emanc.i.p.ation, instead of lifting the flood-gates, was the only power strong enough to shut them down! It restored the proper restraints upon vice, and supplied the incentives to virtue. Those great controllers of moral action, _self-respect, attachment to law, and veneration for G.o.d_, which slavery annihilated, _freedom has resuscitated_, and now they stand round about the emanc.i.p.ated with flaming swords deterring from evil, and with cheering voices exhorting to good. It is explicitly affirmed that the grosser forms of immorality, which in every country attend upon slavery, have in Antigua either shrunk into concealment or become extinct.
BENEVOLENT INSt.i.tUTIONS.
We insert here a brief account of the benevolent inst.i.tutions of Antigua. Our design in giving it, is to show the effect of freedom in bringing into play those charities of social life, which slavery uniformly stifles. Antigua abounds in benevolent societies, all of which have been _materially revived_ since emanc.i.p.ation, and some of them have been formed since that event.
THE BIBLE SOCIETY.