The Daily Dispatch: November 11, 1863., [Electronic resource]

The Paradise of negroes.

Barbadoes, February 13th, 1860. --Besides the large class of those who work with some degree of regularity, five days in each week, at 20 cents a day, (8 hours in a day,) and live as they best can, there are many — indeed a multitude — who do but little work and have no regular occupation. In this class are included the 73,000 in the whole island, and over 12,000 in Bridgetown, who are reported in the last census as having no "fixed employment." It is claimed that these figures might be materially reduced. However this may be, the class is large beyond all precedent in my experience. You meet with them everywhere, of every age, and of both sexes, on the highways, in the open fields, upon the beach, and in every by-path. They wander about, sit upon the stones, recline against the walls and trees, or stretch them selves in the sun. However persevering, you cannot escape their presence. I have sought faithfully for a private walk, where I could stroll by myself, feeling that I was alone; but all in vain. A day or two ago I thought that possibly I had found one. Just above the "rock" (a few rods from our house,) the shore is low and accessible. When the tide (which rises from two to three feet,) is out the sea leaves uncovered a long line of sandy beach. It is smooth as a house floor, and when still damp is so unyielding that one's foot-prints can scarcely be seen. The sand itself is pure and white as the driven snow. This morning I started to try the secluded beach. As I was just about to step from the "rocks" upon the hard sand there lay in my way the outstretched form of a negro, sound asleep, the sun blazing full in his face. At a little distance was a company of girls, half or two-thirds grown; two were in bathing; another was trying to drown a blind puppy; another was ducking a shiny baby some 18 or 20 inches long, the water sliding off as it would from a roll of butter. Further on was a big boy stooping over and looking between his legs, his entire wardrobe consisting of half a coffee sack, fastened round the neck. Close by sat a lean fellow upon a stone, looking into the sea, his countenance "the pictured of philosophic unconcern. Here I struck off for the bushes, but my progress was interrupted by chattering, half clad women and children lying around. After this new experience, I very naturally concluded that the negro was indeed omnipresent, and returned home. The class of which I am speaking may be most conveniently seen in Bridgetown. Where they go when the streets are deserted no one knows; but a stir in the public places, like that occasioned by a runaway horse, or the slipping of a barrel of sugar into the "Kanash," calls them all out. Several hundred are often gathered in a few minutes. They drink too much liquor, if they can get it, and live mostly by petty thieving. A dealer in old metals Dought of one of them the same piece of copper three times in one day. They rarely commit the grave offences of robbery and murder. O'Nights they dispose of themselves in strange ways. Water-pipes for the new aqueduct have lately been piled on the burnt district. Into those they crawl to sleep.

This argues with the universal workings of free niggerdom wherever the precious experiment has been tried. A shipmaster who visited the free West India Islands, states that neither for love nor money could he induce any of the lazy black loafers who were congregated on the shore to row him off a short distance to his ship. Their principal amusement seemed to be what they called the "cigar game." Each man laid down a cigar and put a drop of molasses on it. This of course attracted the flies, and the first cigar that a fly alighted on won the pile for its owner! They were too lazy to do their own gambling. And it is for such a race as this that the South is sought to be desolated, and the world turned upside down.