A Century of Negro Migration eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 186 pages of information about A Century of Negro Migration.

A Century of Negro Migration eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 186 pages of information about A Century of Negro Migration.

[Footnote 17:  The African Repository, XXI, p. 114.]

[Footnote 18:  The African Repository, XVI, p. 116.]

[Footnote 19:  The African Repository, XVI, p. 115.]

[Footnote 20:  Ibid., XVI, p. 116.]

[Footnote 21:  Speaking of this colony Kingsley said:  “About eighteen months ago, I carried my son George Kingsley, a healthy colored man of uncorrupted morals, about thirty years of age, tolerably well educated, of very industrious habits, and a native of Florida, together with six prime African men, my own slaves, liberated for that express purpose, to the northeast side of the Island of Hayti, near Porte Plate, where we arrived in the month of October, 1836, and after application to the local authorities, from whom I rented some good land near the sea, and thickly timbered with lofty woods, I set them to work cutting down trees, about the middle of November, and returned to my home in Florida.  My son wrote to us frequently, giving an account of his progress.  Some of the fallen timber was dry enough to burn in January, 1837, when it was cleared up, and eight acres of corn planted, and as soon as circumstances would allow, sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, rice, beans, peas, plantains, oranges, and all sorts of fruit trees, were planted in succession.  In the month of October, 1837, I again set off for Hayti, in a coppered brig of 150 tons, bought for the purpose and in five days and a half, from St. Mary’s in Georgia, landed my son’s wife and children, at Porte Plate, together with the wives and children of his servants, now working for him under an indenture of nine years; also two additional families of my slaves, all liberated for the express purpose of transportation to Hayti, where they were all to have as much good land in fee, as they could cultivate, say ten acres for each family, and all its proceeds, together with one-fourth part of the net proceeds of their labor, on my son’s farm, for themselves; also victuals, clothes, medical attendance, etc., gratis, besides Saturdays and Sundays, as days of labor for themselves, or of rest, just at their option.”

“On my arrival at my son’s place, called Cabaret (twenty-seven miles east of Porte Plate) in November, 1837, as before stated, I found everything in the most flattering and prosperous condition.  They had all enjoyed good health, were overflowing with the most delicious variety and abundance of fruits and provisions, and were overjoyed at again meeting their wives and children; whom they could introduce into good comfortable log houses, all nicely whitewashed, and in the midst of a profuse abundance of good provisions, as they had generally cleared five or six acres of their land each, which being very rich, and planted with every variety to eat or to sell on their own account, and had already laid up thirty or forty dollars apiece.  My son’s farm was upon a larger scale, and furnished with more commodious dwelling

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A Century of Negro Migration from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.