The
planters of Trinidad were sure that no free Negroes would ever work,
and therefore that the slaves in question would, if made free and
settled among them, support themselves _by plunder_. Sir Ralph Woodford,
however, the governor of the island, resisted the outcry of these
prejudices. He received them into the island, and settled them where he
supposed the experiment would be most safely made. The result has shown
his discernment. These very men, formerly slaves in the Southern States
of America and afterwards emancipated in a body at Trinidad, are now
earning their own livelihood, and with so much industry and good conduct
that the calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died
away.
A third case may comprehend those Negroes, who lately formed what we
call our West Indian black regiments. Some of these had been originally
purchased in Africa, not as slaves but recruits, and others in Jamaica
and elsewhere. They had all served as soldiers in the West Indies. At
length certain of these regiments were transported to Sierra Leone and
disbanded there, and the individuals composing them received their
discharge _as free men_. This happened in the spring of 1819. _Many
hundreds_ of them were _set at liberty at once_ upon this occasion. Some
of these were afterwards marched into the interior, where they founded
Waterloo, Hastings, and other villages. Others were shipped to the Isles
de Loss, where they made settlements in like manner.
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