SEVENTH PROPOSITION.—­Free labor is decidedly LESS EXPENSIVE than slave labor.  It costs the planter actually less to pay his free laborers daily wages, than it did to maintain his slaves.  It will be observed in the testimony which follows, that there is some difference of opinion as to the precise amount of reduction in the expenses, which is owing to the various modes of management on different estates, and more particularly, to the fact that some estates raise all their provisions, while others raise none.  But as to the fact itself, there can scarcely be said to be any dispute among the planters.  There was one class of planters whose expenses seemed to be somewhat increased, viz. those who raised all their provisions before emancipation, and ceased to raise any after that event.  But in the opinion of the most intelligent planters, even these did not really sustain any loss, for originally it was bad policy to raise provisions, since it engrossed that labor which would have been more profitably directed to the cultivation of sugar; and hence they would ultimately be gainers by the change.

S. Bourne, Esq. stated that the expenses on Millar’s estate, of which he is manager, had diminished about one third.

Mr. Barnard, of Green Castle, thought his expenses were about the same that they were formerly.

Mr. Favey, of Lavicount’s estate, enumerated, among the advantages of freedom over slavery, “the diminished expense.”

Dr. Nugent also stated, that “the expenses of cultivation were greatly diminished.”

Mr. Hatley, manager of Fry’s estate, said that the expenses on his estate had been greatly reduced since emancipation.  He showed us the account of his expenditures for the last year of slavery, and the first full year of freedom, 1835.  The expenses during the last year of slavery were 1371_l._ 2_s._ 4-1/2_d._; the expenses for 1835 were 821_l._ 16_s._ 7-1/2_d._:  showing a reduction of more than one third.

D. Cranstoun, Esq., informed us that his weekly expenses during slavery, on the estate which he managed, were, on an average, 45_l._; the average expenses now do not exceed 20_l._

Extract of a letter from Hon. N. Nugent: 

“The expenses of cultivating sugar estates have in no instance, I believe, been found greater than before.  As far as my experience goes, they are certainly less, particularly as regards those properties which were overhanded before, when proprietors were compelled to support more dependents than they required.  In some cases, the present cost is less by one third.  I have not time to furnish you with any detailed statements, but the elements of the calculation are simple enough.”

It is not difficult to account for the diminution in the cost of cultivation.  In the first place, for those estates that bought their provision previous to emancipation, it cost more money to purchase their stores than they now pay out in wages.  This was especially true in dry seasons, when home provisions failed, and the island was mainly dependent upon foreign supplies.