Most of the planters, however, were violently opposed.

Many of them declared that emancipation could not and should not take place.

So obstinate were they, that they would have sworn on the 31st of July, 1831, that emancipation could not happen.

_These very men now see and acknowledge the benefits which have resulted from the new system_.
The first of August passed off very quietly.

The people labored on that day as usual, and had a stranger gone over the island, he would not have suspected any change had taken place.