It would be desirable that the negroes should, when quite free, work 11 hours per day in the short days, and 12 hours in the longer ones.

I believe the shortest day's labor in England in the winter months in 10 hours' actual labor, and 12 hours' in the summer, for which 2 hours they are paid extra wages.
_St.Mary's, 8th June, 1838_.

S.R.
The date should not escape notice.

By this plan, for a few petty indulgences, _all of which were professedly granted in the time of slavery itself_, the master could get the entire labor of the negro, and _seven or eight pounds per annum besides_! Some may be disposed to regard this as a mere joke, but we can assure them it was a serious proposal, and not more monstrous than many things that the planters are now attempting to put in practice.

The idea of actually paying money wages was horrifying and intolerable to many of the planters; they seem to have exercised their utmost ingenuity to provide against so dreadful a result.