Even at the time of our visit to Antigua, after the lapse of nearly three years, they spoke of the event with an admiration apparently unabated.
For some time previous to the first of August, forebodings of disaster lowered over the island.

The day was fixed! Thirty thousand degraded human beings were to be brought forth from the dungeon of slavery and "turned loose on the community!" and this was to be done "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Gloomy apprehensions were entertained by many of the planters.

Some timorous families did not go to bed on the night of the 31st of July; fear drove sleep from their eyes, and they awaited with fluttering pulse the hour of midnight, fearing lest the same bell which sounded the jubilee of the slaves might toll the death knell of the masters.[A] [Footnote A: We were informed by a merchant of St.John's, that several American vessels which had lain for weeks in the harbor, weighed anchor on the 31st of July, and made their escape, through actual fear, that the island would be destroyed on the following day.

Ere they set sail they earnestly besought our informant to escape from the island, as he valued his life.] The more intelligent, who understood the disposition of the negroes, and contemplated the natural tendencies of emancipation, through philosophical principles, and to the light of human nature and history, were free from alarm.
To convey to the reader some idea of the manner in which the great crisis passed, we give the substance of several accounts which were related to us in different parts of the island, by those who witnessed them.
The Wesleyans kept "watch-night" in all their chapels on the night of the 31st July.

One of the Wesleyan missionaries gave us an account of the watch meeting at the chapel in St.John's.