The West Indies in 1837 : being the journal of a visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, and Jamaica; undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the Negro population of those islands / By Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey.

  • Sturge, Joseph, 1793-1859.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The West Indies in 1837 : being the journal of a visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, and Jamaica; undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the Negro population of those islands / By Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    us that about fifteen hundred apprentices attend his chapel, of whom about one thousand are considered to be in membership. An infant school has been estab- lished on the premises. We observed some little chil- dren sitting on the steps of the schoolhouse, although it was at least an hour too early. They often come, we were told, at six o’clock, when their parents go to the field. Another schoolhouse for the older children is about to be erected, partly with aid obtained from the government grant. In the course of the day Joun Scone and JosEPH STURGE met by appointment the superintendent of the Wesleyan mission, and another of their ministers. They professed themselves willing to aid our inquiries “‘as far as was consistent with their instructions from home.’’ In effect, those instructions appeared to us to preclude their giving information as to the physical condition of the negros. They fully confirmed our previous information of the general desire of all classes of the apprentices to learn; and said that they made the best use of the opportunities within their reach. The cost of erecting schoolhouses of simple construc- tion, capable of accommodating one hundred children, is about £25 sterling ; besides land, which averages from £30 to £50 sterling per acre. There is no gene- ral disposition on the part of the planters to encourage education. The local legislature has not yet sanction- ed the legality of dissenting marriages, so that difficul- ties in this respect have rather increased than decreased since 1834. Another individual whom we saw to-day, informed us that the mortality among the free chil- dren had been very great since 1834, particularly in the early part of the new era. This he attributed in part to the prevalence of measles and other epidemics.