The Liberator

MISCELLANEOUS.

WATCH NIGHT.

The night of the last day of July, 1834 was observed by many of the Methodists as a watch-night for religious worship and thanksgiving. The slaves, who were soon to be free, expressed their joy in shouts of praise, and blessing, and honor, and glory, to God, who had come down for their deliverance. In such exercises the evening was spent until the hour of twelve approached. The missionary then proposed that when the clock on the Cathedral should begin to strike, the whole congregation should fall upon their knees and receive the boon of freedom in silence. Accordingly, as the loud bell tolled its first note, the crowded assembly prostrated themselves on their knees. All was silence, save the deep quivering, half stifled breath of the struggling spirit. The slow notes of the clock fell upon the multitude: peal on peal, peal on peal, rolled over the prostrate throng, in tones of angel's voices, thrilling among the desolate chords, and weary heart strings. Scarce had the clock sounded its last note, when the lightning flashed vividly around, and a loud peal of thunder roared along the sky—God's pillar of fire, and his trump of jubilee. A moment of profoundest silence passed—then came the burst—they broke forth in prayer; they shouted, they sung 'Glory,' alleluia; they clapped their hands, leaped up, fell down, clasped each other in their free arms, cried laughed, and went to and fro, tossing upward their unfettered hands; but high above the whole there was a mighty sound which ever and anon swelled up; it was the utterings in broken negro dialect of gratitude to God.

After this gush of excitement had spent itself and the congregation became calm, the religious exercises were resumed, and the remainder of the night was occupied in singing and prayer, in reading the Bible, and in addresses from the missionaries, explaining the nature of the freedom just received, and exhorting the freed people to be industrious, steady, obedient to the laws, and to show themselves in all things worthy of the high boon which God had conferred upon them.

The first of August came on Friday, and a release was proclaimed from all work until the next Monday. The day was chiefly spent by the great mass of the negroes in the churches, and chapels. Thither they flocked 'as clouds and as doves to their windows.' The clergy and missionaries throughout the island were actively engaged seizing the opportunity in order to enlighten the people on all the duties and responsibilities of their new relation, and above all, urging them to the attainment of that higher liberty with which Christ maketh his children free. In every quarter we were assured that the day was like the Sabbath. Work had ceased; the hum of business was still, and noise and tumult were unheard on the streets. Tranquility pervaded the towns and country. A Sabbath indeed! when the wicked ceased from troubling, and the weary were at rest, and the slave was free from the master! The planters informed us that they went to the chapels where their own people were assembled, greeted them, shook hands with them, and exchanged the most hearty good wishes.

The churches and chapels were thronged all over the island. At Cedar Hall, a Moravian station, the crowd was so great, that the minister was obliged to remove the meeting from the chapel to a neighboring grove.

At Grace Hill, another Moravian station, the negroes went to the Missionary on the day before the first of August, and begged that they may be allowed to have a meeting in the chapel at sunrise. It is the usual practice among the Moravians to hold but one sunrise meeting during the year, and that is on the morning of Easter; but as the people besought very earnestly for this special favor on the Easter morning of their freedom, it was granted to them.

Early in the morning they assembled at the chapel. For some time they sat in perfect silence. The missionary then proposed that they should kneel down and sing. The whole audience fell upon their knees, and sung a hymn commencing with the following verse:

'Now let us praise the Lord,
With body, soul and spirit,
Who doth such wondrous things,
Beyond our sense and merit.'

The singing was frequently interrupted with tears and sobbings of the melted people, until finally it was wholly arrested, and a tumult of emotion overwhelmed the congregation.

The missionary who was present on the occasion, said that the scene was indescribable. During the day, repeated meetings were held. At eleven o'clock, the people assembled in vast numbers. There were at least a thousand persons around the chapel, who could not get in. We were also informed by planters and missionaries in every part of the island, that there was not a single dance known of, either day or night, nor so much as a fiddle played. There were no riotous assemblies, no drunken carousals. GRATITUDE was the absorbing emotion. From the hill-tops and the valleys, the cry of a disenthralled people went upward like the sound of many waters, 'Glory to God, glory to God.' The testimony of the planters corresponds fully with that of the missionaries.
There has been since emancipation, not only no rebellion in fact, but No FEAR OF IT in Antigua.

The following is one of the many testimonies of the planters.
There is no possible danger of personal violence from the slaves; there is no likelihood of their forming conspiracies to injure the whites, because there is no earthly cause for any such thing. Should a foreign power invade our island, I have no doubt that the negroes would, to a man, fight for the planters. I have the utmost confidence in all the people who are under my management; they are my friends, and they consider me their friend. As for insurrection, they have no motive now to prompt them to that.'

H. Armstrong, Esq., of Fitch's Creek.

The same gentleman informed us that during slavery, he used frequently to lie sleepless on his bed, thinking about his dangerous situation—a lone white person far away from help, and surrounded by hundreds of savage slaves; and he had spent hours thus, in devising plans of self-defence in case the house should be attacked by the negroes. 'If they come,' he would say to himself, 'and break down the door, and fill my bed room, what shall I do? It will be useless to fire at them; my only hope is to frighten the superstitious fellows by covering myself with a white sheet, and rushing into the midst of them crying, 'ghost, ghost.''

Now Mr. A. sleeps in peace and safety, without conjuring up a ghost to keep guard at his bed-side. His body guard is a battalion of substantial flesh and blood, made up of those who were once the objects of his nightly terror!—Kimball and Thome's Travels in the W. Indies

Business like. The vote of the Executive Committee for stereotyping Thome and Kimball's report on 'Emancipation in the West Indies' and James Williams' Narrative,' for universal circulation, was passed on Thursday evening, the 5th of April; but from the time occupied by necessary preparatory arrangements the copy was not placed in the hands of the stereotype founders until the Tuesday following, April 10. We now (April 25) have to report that the whole is stereotyped, the 'Emancipation' in 128 pages 8vo. solid brevier type, double columns, and the 'Narrative' in 8 pages 4to; and the first edition, of TEN THOUSAND COPIES of each work nearly printed off, and ready for delivery.

Send in your orders. The press goes night and day, 132 hours in a week.—Emancipator.