“I have no hesitation in saying, that if I have a supply of cash, I can take off any crop it may please God to send.  Having already, since emancipation, taken off one fully sixty hogsheads above the average of the last twenty years.  I can speak with confidence.”—­Letter from S. Bourne, Esq.

Mr. Bourne stated a fact which illustrates the ease with which the negroes are governed by gentle means.  He said that it was a prevailing practice during slavery for the slaves to have a dance soon after they had finished gathering in the crop.  At the completion of his crop in ’35, the people made arrangements for having the customary dance.  They were particularly elated because the crop which they had first taken off was the largest one that had ever been produced by the estate, and it was also the largest crop on the island for that year.  With these extraordinary stimulants and excitements, operating in connection with the influence of habit, the people were strongly inclined to have a dance.  Mr. B. told them that dancing was a bad practice—­and a very childish, barbarous amusement, and he thought it was wholly unbecoming freemen.  He hoped therefore that they would dispense with it.  The negroes could not exactly agree with their manager—­and said they did not like to be disappointed in their expected sport.  Mr. B. finally proposed to them that he would get the Moravian minister, Rev. Mr. Harvey, to ride out and preach to them on the appointed evening.  The people all agreed to this.  Accordingly, Mr. Harvey preached, and they said no more about the dance—­nor have they ever attempted to get up a dance since.

We had repeated opportunities of witnessing the management of the laborers on the estates, and were always struck with the absence of every thing like coercion.

By the kind invitation of Mr. Bourne, we accompanied him once on a morning circuit around his estate.  After riding some distance, we came to the ‘great gang’ cutting canes.  Mr. B. saluted the people in a friendly manner, and they all responded with a hearty ’good mornin, massa.’  There were more than fifty persons, male and female, on the spot.  The most of them were employed in cutting canes[A], which they did with a heavy knife called a bill.  Mr. B. beckoned to the superintendent, a black man, to come to him, and gave him some directions for the forenoon’s work, and then, after saying a few encouraging words to the people, took us to another part of the estate, remarking as we rode off, “I have entire confidence that those laborers will do their work just as I want to have it done.”  We next came upon some men, who were hoeing in a field of corn.  We found that there had been a slight altercation between two of the men.  Peter, who was a foreman, came to Mr. B., and complained that George would not leave the cornfield and go to another kind of work as he had bid him.  Mr. B. called George, and asked for an explanation.  George had a long story to