Frontispiece of the First Report of the Select Committee on Sugar and Coffee Planting, 1848. Image courtesy of Bath Library Service.

In 1848 the House of Commons appointed a select committee to investigate the conditions and prospects of sugar and coffee planting in Britain's possessions in the East and West Indies and Mauritius, and to consider what measures could be adopted to relieve the hardship then being suffered.

Among those who gave evidence was the Right Honourable Lord Howard de Walden who owned an estate on the north side of the island of Jamaica and a share in an estate in the south. He was questioned on 28 February 1848. The following extracts are from the minutes of his testimony published in the select committee's third report (14 March 1848). He is responding to questions raised by the committee's chairman about the effect of emancipation on sugar production.

4431. You stated before that your average export of sugar, previous to emancipation, was from 600 to 800 hogsheads? - Yes.

4432. I see by this statement that 303 hogsheads were shipped in the year 1836, and that produce fell to 171 hogsheads in 1837, and 172 hogsheads in 1838; those three last years were years of apprenticeship; how do you account for the falling off in the produce in 1837 and 1838, as compared with 1836? - I presume that must have been from the canes not yielding, owing to the season being unfavourable.

4433. After 1838, which was the expiration of apprenticeship, I observe that a much greater falling off occurred; that the produce fell down in 1839 to 76 hogsheads, and in 1840 to 55 hogsheads? - That must have been caused by the season, but the number of acres under sugar cultivation is the general criterion of the produce of the estate; the sugar cultivation has not been affected so much by the season as by want of labour.

4434. Dose not the crop gathered depend, in some degree, upon the possibility of obtaining a good supply of labour in proper time to gather in the sugar-canes? - Not materially; in general the negroes are sufficiently ready to work during the gathering in of the crop, because they obtain very high wages at that time; in fact, they dictate their terms to proprietors.

4435. You have stated to the Committee what the difference in the produce of the cane-field was before and after emancipation; can you state what the difference is in the outgoing of the plantation previous to emancipation and during apprenticeship, and subsequently to apprenticeship? - No; I do not think I could give any of those details in a satisfactory manner. The principal item, of course, is the payment of wages. You asked me the cause of the falling-off in the cane-field, and I stated that no negroes had left the estate; I may say, and it is a remarkable circumstance, that the population on the estate increased; though at the time of emancipation there were only 800 negroes on the estate, there are now altogether above 1,500 on the estate, and yet, notwithstanding that, it is impossible to command labour enough to put in the extent of cane-field that we should desire to have. There is a cane-field of 500 acres of very fine land, lying contiguous to the works, which it would be a great object to establish, but from want of command of labour we have never been able to establish even 300 acres.

4436. If you had sufficient supply of labour, do you conceive that you could now maintain again the cultivation of 1,100 acres? - Yes, I think so, but not with the present wages; it would not pay with the present wages.

4437. Your difficulties are want of industry, scarcity of labour, high wages, and great opportunities of combination on the part of the labourers? - Yes...

4491. Can you speak to the condition of the negroes both before and after emancipation? - I can say nothing of my own experience as to the state of the negro before emancipation; it is only from hearsay that I can draw a comparison between their state then and their present state, but at the present moment, as far as my observation and my knowledge of the population in other countries go, I should say that I do not know any population in any part of the world that I have visited so much at their ease as the negro population in Jamaica.

4492. What are their tastes? - They are very fond of dress and amusements of all kinds; one of their objects in obtaining a day in the week for marketing is that they consider the market-day as a day of pleasure. One of the reasons why we have found it so difficult to obtain continuous labour has been their taking so many holidays; they like holidays to celebrate emancipation, and they take holidays at Christmas and at Easter, and during those times they are going about the country and galloping about the roads on their horses...

4498. From your experience you come to the conclusion that the greatest mistake possible would be to allow the labourers to purchase freeholds? - Certainly; I should consider it the most mischievous thing possible for the interests of the negroes as well as of the proprietor, because they are tempted in the first instance to buy the best soil which has never been cultivated before; that soil produces in general a fine crop the first year, a less good crop the second year, and of course it deteriorates gradually; and when a bad season comes those people, who have become freeholders, do not like to return to the field to work, and they struggle against adversity, and they are exposed to disease in consequence of their grounds being generally in the mountain districts, the climate of which is not congenial to the negro; they have no money to pay a doctor, and a doctor will not visit them gratuitously; they consequently succumb and are exposed to privations of all kinds as well as diseases; I believe the mortality among the negroes who have bought freeholds has been extremely great...

4500. Can you speak to the moral improvement of the negroes in Jamaica, as regards their education, religion, habits, dress, and marriage? - I believe that they have amazingly improved in every aspect since emancipation; everybody agrees that the change since emancipation has been very remarkable.

4501. What do you say of the local influences of the proprietors, agents, and clergy upon the negroes; have the proprietors much influence over the negroes? - I do not think that the proprietors have a great deal of influence over the negroes except in old established properties. I think that a good deal might have been done in former times had we had an efficient clergy established in the island; it is only of late years that there has been anything like an efficient clergy of the Church of England established.

4502. What influence have clergy of the Church of England at this time over the negro population of Jamaica? - I think the clergy of the Church of England are acquiring daily more influence over the negroes, and certainly they are co-operating with the proprietors in encouraging industry. I think there are other influences, whether we may call them church or religious, which have had a contrary tendency, I should say especially the Baptists. I think that the influence of the Wesleyans has been good, but that that of the Baptists has been exceedingly mischievous.

This account of Walden's evidence to the select committee is taken from Bath Library Service's original edition of the third report. You can read further testimony in the sections on Slavery in Brazil and The Morant Bay Rebellion.