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Updated: April 30, 2025
On one estate, six out of eight took this course, on another, twelve out of fourteen, and in some instances, all the non-praedials determined to suffer it out with the rest of their brethren, refusing to accept freedom until with the whole body they could rise up and shout the jubilee of universal disinthrallment. Here is a nobility worthy to compare with the patience of the praedials.
This appears to me to be the only mode of arrangement that would be feasible, unless we resort to money wages, and I should regret to find that such a precedent was established in this instance, for it would only be a forerunner to similar demands at the coming period, when the praedials became free." There were more reasons than one why "money wages" were feared by the Jamaica planters.
The working hours most generally in use in my district are as follows: On most estates, the apprentices work from six to nine, breakfast; from ten to one, dinner rest; from three to six, work. It is almost the constant practice of the apprentices, particularly the praedials or rural portion, to work in their own time for money wages, at the rate of a quarter dollar a day.
"It is my intention, therefore, when the period arrives for any arrangement with them, to offer them in return for such services, the same time as the praedials now have, with of course the same allowances generally, putting out of the question, however, any relaxation from labor during the day, usually allowed field laborers, and understood as shell-blow house people being considered at all times capable of enjoying that indulgence at their pleasure, besides the impossibility of their master submitting to such an inconvenience.
When asked if he thought there would be any serious disaffection produced among the praedials by the emancipation of the non-praedials in 1838, he said, he thought there would not be, and assigned as the reason, that the praedials knew all about the arrangement, and did not expect to be free.
The change which will take place in 1838, in my opinion, will occasion a great deal of discontent among those called praedials which will not subside for some months. They ought to have been all emancipated at the same period. I cannot foresee any bad effects that will ensue from the change in 1840, except those mentioned hereafter.
But there was one complaint he had against them all, domestics and praedials they always hold him to the letter of the law, and are ready to arraign him before the special magistrate for every infraction of it on his part, however trifling. How ungrateful, truly!
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