The Beaumont Project Platt Family Tree |
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Ralph Clarence
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Birth Notes: http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/8566800/person/5038715095 Death Notes: http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/8566800/person/5038715095 Sources of information or noted events in his life were: • Web Based Info. http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/8566800/person/5038715095 • General Comment. Full text of "Natal, Cape of Good Hope. A grazing, agricultural, and cotton growing country.Port Natal, January 28th, 1848. Esteemed Friend, \emdash So many years having elapsed since you were acquainted with me, you will perhaps have forgotten the request you made when I was about to leave England for Africa, that I should write and give you any information that lay in my power respecting the " Sons of Africa." The object of my now writing, is to give you and the Society of Friends generally, (if you think the information of any value,) some idea of the vast field that Natal presents to Christian benevolence for the improvement of the human race.Natal is, in my humble opinion, a key designed by the great Giver of every blessing for the opening and civilization of the interior of this vast continent ; so few parts, on either the east or west coast of Africa, are sufficiently healthy to offer a reward to" European enterprise and industry. With regard to Natal, I can speak from experience, having a large family, all of whom enjoy perfect health: it is decidedly more healthy than Cape Town, and although nearer the Tropic, Europeans find no difficulty in following the plough, or other agricultural work. Natal, unlike many, or most parts of theold colony, is well watered. Rivers that are flowing throughout the year intersect the country in every direction; both the hills and valleys are always covered with thick grass. Although the Society of Friends do not send out missionaries, yet, I have thought for some time past that if a small body of them were in this country, forming cotton and indigo plantations, where schools could be established for the instructions of the natives who would be living on the plantations at their own kraals, a system of this kind might bemore advantageous, and perhaps, more successful than many or most of the missionary institutions have proved. I have observed that industry does not appear to be, in general, sufficiently inculcated. If Friends were to come here, they might make it (as it were,) a mercantile speculation. Agriculturists might come with the express object of cultivating the land, and the Friends as a body defray the expense of having schools established, say one to six or eight plantations, so as to be central; a moderate degree of labor, and attending the school, might go hand in hand. Cotton and indigo are particularly well-adapted to the climate; both are indigenous. Of indigo there are many varieties; one or two appear superior to that generally cultivated in India. Mr. Lindley, one of our American missionaries, who was brought up on a cotton plantation, his father being a cotton-planter in America, has often told me that he believes the cotton here to be 50 per cent, more productive than in America, where it is sown every year: here it lasts many years, being a perennial. He has said that he never saw anything like it, and it is his opinion, that Natal is the finest country in the whole world for cotton. If such is the case, could not a death-blow be struck at American slaverv? Here we have thousands of blacks willing to work for three or four shillings per month; and these people when guided by proper management work well. There is no question that Natal could supply the greater part of the cotton required; we only want English enterprise; of capital, it wants but little. One reason why this colony offers a more favorable field than many others is, that there would be no interference with the rights of any other tribe. The present natives are nearly all emigrants or refugees from interior tribes; the Aborigines were exterminated some years since, by a Zooloo chief. The Fingoes on the frontier of the Cape colony were a remnant that escaped. In conclusion, I would remark, that the government are desirous of affording every facility to emigration. A cotton Company has lately been established in Cape Town with a capital of twenty thousand pounds. The government have granted to the company, land for every British emigrant brought into the district of Natal, in the proportion of two shillings per acre; and valuing each emigrant at ten pounds, that is 100 acres for every emigrant. I do not feel myself competent to do this subject justice, but I have written from a sense of duty, feeling that the Society of Friends would be conferring incalculably more benefit on the sons of Africa, by forming a settlement here, than by anything else they could do. The natives here are an agricultural race, and make good servants. Owing to cotton thriving so remarkably well, a farm two hours' ride from the bay, that was sold for three hundred pounds only a few months ago, and thought then to be a good price, was purchased to-day for fifteen hundred pounds ; the purchaser is daily expecting one hundred and sixty German emigrants to put on it. Any information I can furnish will be done with the greatest pleasure. Believe me, yours sincerely,(Signed,) RALPH CLARENCE. • General Comment. National Archives of South Africa • General Comment. Copy of his son, Wilberforce Clarence's, death notice dated 14 Jan 1929 in RAB's possesion. Ralph married Ann Lawton. (Ann Lawton was born in 1820 and died in 1902.) |
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