They may all be resolved into two, _the laziness of negroes, and their tendency to barbarism_.
[Footnote A: Probably in more instances than the one recorded in the foregoing chapter, the improvidence of the negroes is inferred from their otherwise unaccountable preference in walking six or ten miles to chapel, rather than to work for a maccaroni a day.] i.

They _now_ refuse to work on Saturdays, even with wages.

On this assertion we have several remarks to make.
1.) It is true only to a partial extent.

The apprentices on many estates--whether a majority or not it is impossible to say--do work for their masters on Saturdays, when their services are called for.
2.) They often refuse to work on the estates, because they can earn three or four times as much by cultivating their provision grounds and carrying their produce to market.

The ordinary day's wages on an estate is a quarter of a dollar, and where the apprentices are conveniently situated to market, they can make from seventy-five cents to a dollar a day with their provisions.
3.) The overseers are often such overbearing and detestable men, that the apprentices doubtless feel it a great relief to be freed from their command on Saturday, after submitting to it compulsorily for five days of the week.
2.