Summary
MR. Clarkson having to his own satisfaction, settled the point that the Colonial proprietors have no legal title to their Slaves, and consequently that they should receive no compensation for them when taken away, proceeds to dwell upon the safety of emancipating the Negroes, and the superior cheapness of free labour. To establish this point, he adduces several instances in his own way. It is impossible to follow Mr. Clarkson in every line, but I shall bring his statements into as narrow a compass as possible, and do so without misrepresenting or mistating them. In every instance that he has adduced, the fact will be found to be the reverse of what he states.
The first instance of emancipated negroes having answered the expectations of their friends, which Mr. Clarkson adduces, is the case of the Nova Scotian blacks, or rather the blacks which were enlisted into our service, in our revolted provinces, during the American war. These “two thousand and upwards in number, comprehending men, women, and children,” were, says he, after having settled in Nova Scotia, a very improper climate, ultimately “conveyed to Sierra Leone. There they realized the object in view; and they are to be found there, they or their descendants, most of them independent, and some of them in affluent circumstances, at the present day.”
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- West India Colonies , pp. 151 - 175Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010