Besides, it is manifest that if they did use the whip and were ever so cruelly disposed, it would be physically impossible for them to inflict as much suffering as the drivers could during slavery; on account of the vast numbers over whom they preside.

We learned from the apprentices themselves, by conversing with them, that their condition, in respect to treatment, is incomparably better than it was during slavery.

We were satisfied from our observations and inquiries, that the planters, at least the more extensive and enlightened ones, conduct their estates on different principles from those formerly followed.

Before the abolition of slavery, they regarded the _whip_ as absolutely necessary to the cultivation of sugar, and hence they uniformly used it, and loudly deprecated its abolition as being _their_ certain ruin.

But since the whip has been abolished, and the planters have found that the negroes continue, nevertheless, industrious and subordinate, they have changed their measures, partly from necessity, and partly from policy, have adopted a conciliatory course.
[Footnote A: A fine of sixteen dollars for the first assault, and the liberation of the apprentice after a second.] [Footnote B: Through the complaint of the apprentice to the special magistrate] Barbadoes was not without its insurrections during slavery.