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ee ae, é tutghoy ‘ba bobs (| Che AnteSslavery Record, No.1. MAY 1, 1832. or e Wanaey
I. OBJECTS OF THIS PUBLICATION. =~. » » 4 se « wigs, ab “aI. ABSTRACT OF ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, NO. 92. Ve A ~ A 2 III, NOTICES OF REPORTER, NOS. 93, 94, & Te “othe “4S. } 4 IV. RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMaica :—1, Sanguinary spirit of
the Colonists ; demolition of chapels ; Tae of the Missionaries. 2. The Watchman’s defence of the Missionaries. 3. Treat- ment of Henry Williams. 4. Spirit of the Colonial News- papers. 5. Actual state of affairsin Jamaica. . . . . 2 4
. ¥. MISCELLANEOUS NoTIcEs:—1. West Indies. .2. South Africa. 3. Lectureson Slavery. 4. Death of Mr. Sykes. 5. Mr. Bux- ton’s Motion. 6. West India Committee of Inquiry. 7. General Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society. . . » «1 +. « - Ad
I,—-OBJECTS OF THIS PUBLICATION.
- Tue Anti-Stavery Recorp is issued at the request of many zealous friends of Negro Emancipation throughout the country, and is intended to meet the increasing demand for fresh information on every topic connected with this great question. Its purpose is not to supersede, in any respect, other more important publications of the Anti- Slavery Society, but to act as a useful auxiliary, by supplying, at the cheapest possible rate, intelligence adapted for popular circulation, on a variety of points to which the Society’s Rerporrer cannot always advert. _ The, “scorp will appear on the first day of every month, shouix ; :blic encouragement wagrant it. The price will be Ont Penny; each number cohsisting of twelve pages. The topics will, of course, vary with the current of events; but an abstract, more or less extended according to cir- cumstances, will be regularly given of the Reporters, and of other Anti-Slavery publications, as they issue from the press,—for the information of such readers as, either from necessity or choice, direct their attention more to matters of fact than to the argumentative discussions arising in the progress of the controversy. In a word, the special business of the Ant1-Stavery Recorp will be to collect and communicate AUTHENTIC INTELLIGENCE; while, as its title imports, it will at the same time be a general register of all interesting information connected with the Cause of Negro Emancipation. & f D | ’ ¥ ,
-
Il.—ANTI- ~RTER,' NO. 92.
Turse numbers of A iti-s y Reporter have been issued since the commence»): -esent year; and a fourth will appear in a few de . these, No. 92, is almost exclu- sively occupied / analysis of the new Order in
. Council, dated tor ameliorating the condition of the slaves in | nies. . In this abstract, the points where the pr ».: improved the provisions of the last, are placed di. the reader, and due credit is given to the Government: yunt of them; whilst its serious defi-
ciencies are on the o. «) hand enumerated and deplored.
The ameliorating provisions may be thus briefly stated :—1. The regulations under which Protectors of slaves are placed, are con- siderably improved. 2. Sunday markets are declared unlawful, and a market-day is to be appointed by proclamation: but here a grievous defect appears; no provision is made to give the slaves a right to attend the said market. 3. The driving-whipis abolished and any like instrument. 4. No female slave can be legally punished by flogging, except by sentence of a court or magistrate. 5. Not more than fifteen lashes, at the arbitrary pleasure of the master, can be inflicted upon males in one day. 6. Any slave- holder convicted of having inflicted or authorised illegal or cruel. punishment, shall forfeit his interest in the slave, and be liable to an additional penalty. 7. The marriage of slaves is placed under improved regulations. 8. The slave’s right of property is recog- nised and protected. 9. The separation of families is prohibited, whether by private or judicial sales, in the case of husband and wife, and of parent and child under sixteen years of age, or of these reputed relations. 10. The regulations respecting manu- mission, whether voluntary or compulsory, are improved 3 but still in some points clogged with serious defects. 11. The rules for determining the free or servile condition of persons alleged to be slaves, though improvements on colonial legislation, are in several points extremely objectionable, and especially in recognising, as a’ rule of law, the judgment of Lord Stowel in the case of the slave Grace. 12. The clause for the admission of slave evidence is clear, precise, and satisfactory: it is an unmixed improvement. 13. In regard to food and maintenance, the regulations ameliorate the condition of the slave, but still fall far short of what humanity requires. Forty days only are allowed for the culture of provision grounds, exclusive of Sundays ; a number altogether inadequate to the purpose in colonies like Jamaica, where one salt herring per day is the utmost allowance of food furnished by the master. The slave must therefore continue to desecrate the Sabbath by cudtivat-_ ing the soil for his subsistence, or starve. The observations in the Reporter on this point, and on the scanty allowance of food pro- vided for in Colonies where the slave depends on his owner for support, are very stringent, and particularly deserving of attention. 14. One of the most gratifying provisions of this Order—perhaps the most important of all—is that which restricts the duration of’
4 + ABSTRACT OF REPORTER, NO. 92. $s
the labour exacted from the slave; thereby greatly mitigating the murderous system of forced and protracted toil which is so rapidly depopulating the Sugar Colonies. The hours of labour, exclusive of meal time, are limited to. xine—still quite as much or more than. the human frame can support under the blaze of a tropical sun. 15. The clauses providing for the attendance of the slaves on Divine Worship, are unhappily clogged with certain most injurious and unnecessary restrictions as to time and distance, which go far to render altogether nugatory the benefits doubtless intended by the framers of the Order, and which place the slaves, in many cases, in a worse, state than the intolerant laws which have been often enacted in the colonies. This point is strongly animadverted on by the Reporter. 16. Besides the provisions here enumerated, there are clauses respecting the Clothing and Bedding of slaves, Medical Attendance, Records of Punishments, and a variety of minor points.
In conclusion, the Reporter, giving all due credit to ministers for their benevolent intentions, and for the extent of mitigation likely to be produced by this Ordinance in the Crown Colonies, where it will be authoritatively introduced, clearly points out its important deficiencies even as a measure of amelioration. But in the Chartered Colonies, what prospect exists of enforcing it by fiscal regulations, the mode proposed by Government? Or, if nominally adopted, what hope of its due execution? None what- ever. “ Let it be carefully kept in view,” says the Reporter, “ that the great mass of those to whom the execution of this difficult and delicate experiment is proposed to be committed, are not themselves the proprietors of the slaves, having an interest however remote in their well-being; but hireling attorneys, managers and overseers, men nurtured and hardened amid the practical evils and crimes of slavery, unaccustomed to control their pride, their passions, and their prejudices, and much more likely to be incited by these powerful feelings to wreak their spleen and even ven- geance on the unhappy slaves while still in their power, than to be restrained from violence by any influence arising from the pros- pect of the distant benefit which may accrue to an employer, whom they may never have seen, and in whose prospective gains they have at least no direct participation. An Act of Parliament, and an Act of Parliament alone, can terminate all these difficulties, and wipe away from this land the disgrace and the guilt of such a system.’’
After some further remarks, the Reporter concludes in the follow- ing emphatic words:— And what is the conclusion towhich all this brings us? It brings us irresistibly to this conclusion, that slavery is a wholly untractable and unmanageable subject; and that there is only one way of applying an effectual remedy to its multiplied and still unmitigated evils—namely, its extinction, its total extinc- tion, and the elevation of the slaves to the possession of their rights as men, and their privileges as subjects of the British Crown. Nothing short of this will satisfy the British public; for nothing short of this ean put a period to the miseries of slavery, or deliver this country from the guilt and the crime of continuing to uphold it,”
4 NOTICES OF REPORTERS, Nos. 93, 94, & 95.
Besides the detailed analysis of the above Ordinance, No. 92 contains a copy of Lord Goderich’s excellent “ Instructions to the Governors of Crown Colonies,” and some scraps of recent in- telligence from Jamaica and the Cape of Good Hope.
III.— NOTICES OF REPORTERS, NOS, 93, 94, & 95.
* No. 93 contains an analysis of the New Jamaica Slave Code, passed by the House of Assembly in February 1831. Rea- ders who wish to understand its details must consult the Reporter, or the Parliamentary Paper, (the same which contains the new Order in Council) where it appears in its official form. One sen- tence from the Reporter will suffice to indicate its real character. “ The law, as a whole, we hesitate not to say, will be found to. be a most barbarous enactment, far more worthy of Tunis or Algiers, than of a community calling itself British.”
Some further instructive illustrations of the effect of Slavery on morals and manners in Jamaica, are given in this No. from The Christian Record.
No, 94 is a most important and interesting paper, and ought to be procured and perused by every person who takes any interest in this great question: the cost is only two pence. It contains a re- view of the causes and progress of the late insurrection of the slaves in Jamaica, which has created so much alarm, and which is scarcely yet suppressed; and it proves upon evidence quite incontro- vertible that the planters themselves were the main, if not the exclusive, instigators of this calamitous movement. We can only quote the concluding sentence :—‘* Having brought this ex- amination to a close, we call on the Government and the Parlia- ment and the publie to open their eyes to these statements—te think of the blood that has been causelessly shed, and of the mi- sery that has resulted in a variety of ways from this unhappy event; and would urge upon them, again and again, the obliga- tion it imposes to put a speedy termination to that erime of slavery which is the prolific source of these, and of multiplied evils besides. This country will not and cannot go on to tolerate such abomina- tions, and to continue loaded with the guilt arising from them. SLAVERY MUST CEASE.”
No.95, now issuing from the press, is chiefly occupied by the recent debate in the House of Commons upon the Sugar Duties. On this occasion Lord Howick, in reply to the attacks of the West Indian advocates, entered into a fall exposition of the policy pursued by Government in regard to the Slavery Question, from 1823 to the present period. His speech may therefore be considered as an official statement of the Government Case, and consequently de- serving of particular attention at the present crisis. Mr. Buxton’s manly speech is also of deep and general interest; but we can only refer to the Reporter’s full and correct edition of it.
IV.— RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
Since the account of the Jamaica insurrection, contained in the Reporter No. 94, was published, several additional despatches
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. from the Governor have appeared in the Gazette; and files of newspapers, and many private letters adverting to the late melan- choly transactions, have reached England. The details are far too numerous, and in some points too imperfectly authenticated, to be given at length, even if our limited space admitted of it. When the results are more thoroughly ascertained, the entire subject may perhaps be advantageously taken up again, and carefully examined and commented on by the Reporter. Meanwhile we may briefly notice a few characteristic points.
1. Sanguinary spirit of the Colonists ; demolition of chapels ; peril of the Missionaries.
The insurrection has been for the present suppressed, but with
a very great, and it is alleged a wanton effusion of Negro blood ; and great apprehensions are entertained by reflecting men, that the slaves, while temporarily succumbing to a power which they have neither arms nor military skill to resist in the field, will continue to brood over their wrongs in a spirit of sullen exasperation, watching -for the first favourable opportunity of throwing off the yoke, and of avenging their slaughtered kinsmen and comrades; adopting a course, it is feared, very different from the one they appear to have contemplated on the present occasion. It is but too apparent, at all events, that a most ferocious and blood-thirsty spirit has, during these lamentable occurrences, pervaded the mass of the white popula- tion of the Island ; and their insane rancour against the Missionaries especially, is absolutely appalling, and almost like a demoniac possession. They have pulled down nine or ten Missionary chapels; Magistrates, in some instances, openly encouraging and assisting in the work of destruction; and some of the Missionaries have narrowly escaped with their lives. A private letter now before us, addressed to a London merchant by a gentleman now in Jamaica, {a man of great integrity and intelligence,) mentions that Mr. Bur- chell, the Baptist Missionary, would in all probability have been murdered at Montego Bay (after his papers had been examined by Mr. Barrett, the Custos, and he had been discharged in consequence of nothing whatever appearing against him) except for the inter- vention of the people of colour, who, when he was violently as- sailed by the whites, crowded round him and vowed to repel force by force, and to avenge blood by blood. The same writer states, that besides the chapels mentioned in the Governor’s proclamation as having been destroyed, (namely, those at Falmouth, Montego Bay, Lucea, and Savannah-le-mar,) the Methodist chapel in St. Ann’s, the Baptist chapel in the same parish, and that at Salter Hill, had been pulled down or burnt; and that but for the fear of the coloured population, the chapels in Kingston would, in all likelihood, have shared the same fate. In confirmation of the statement of the Anti-Slavery Reporter, the writer of this letter mentions that, what- ever misconceptions may have existed in the minds of some of the negroes respecting the intentions of the British Government, their procedure in striking work during the Christmas holidays, was without doubt directly occasioned by the conduct of the planters in
6 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
depriving them of the 27th and 28th of Dec., two of the usual holi- days to which by law and custom they considered themselves clearly entitled.
2.“ The Watchman’s” Defence of the Missionaries.
The following brief extract from an article in defence of the mis- sionaries, is taken from the last number that has reached us (dated Feb. 18), of that valuable and well-conducted paper, the Jamaica Watchman :—
“* A hue and ery has been raised by a venal press, first against one missionary, and then against another; still we do not find a single circumstance to criminate them, if we except the testimony of a few rebels and traitors, whose iniquitous acts should at once mvalidate their evidence. Under other circumstances, no reason- able man would listen to their tales; but because they happen to make against the missionaries, men who have been, almost without intermission, persecuted and reviled in this island for many years past, they are greedily caught at, and by many implicitly believed. Tn short, testimony is received against them, which would be scouted and rejected if brought forward against any white man, not suspected of being a saint!
** That the negroes rebelled, and were guilty of acts the most unjustifiable, is admitted; but how their acts can be charged on ‘the missionaries, we leave the prejudiced, the vindictive, and san- guinary to explain. The fact is, a confederacy exists against every thing which savours of religion, and the extermination of Chris- ‘tianity is the object of the infamous coalition. When the Bible is. denounced by a newspaper,* published in the city of Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, as a blasphemous and unchaste book ! can it be wondered at that exertions are being made for the destruction of the places of public worship, and the annihilation of Christianity itself? But let the chapel destroyers, and those who are even now plotting the destruction of those places of worship in this and Spa- nish Town beware; for retributive justice still exists. Those al- ready destroyed are said to have cost upwards of £14,000. This sum will again be raised for the rebuilding of those very places consecrated to the worship of the Most High God, which the hands of fiendish impiety have’ levelled with the ground.” —
3. Treatment of Henry Williams.
Most of our readers are doubtless familiar with the case of the persecuted negro, Henry Williams, detailed and animadverted upon in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. 65,69, and 77. The following is the latest intelligence respecting him. It is extraeted from the Watchman of Jan. 5, 1832:— r commlagon
“The public may no doubt recollect the slave, Henry Williams, who was so severely punished by Mr. Betty, at the instigation o the Rev. George Wilson Bridges, the Rector of St. Ann’s, because’ he refused to attend the ministry of that rev. gentleman, ‘preferring.
* The Jamaica Courant.
. RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 7
that of the Wesleyan missionaries, to which Society he belonged.— This unfortunate slave we understand was, about a month ago, taken from the estate which he had been superintending in the ab- sence of the white people (who were on militia duty), and ques- tioned as to what the missionaries at that-place had preached to them, &c.; but his answers, we are told, were deemed unsatisfac- tory and impertinent, and he was sentenced to receive 340 lashes, the whole of which could not be inflicted, a doctor who ‘was near by, declaring he would die under it. We do not profess to be acquainted with all the particulars of this case of unparalleled barba- rity; but as soon as we are in possession of them, we shall not fail to expose the whole case and its authors to public execration.”
4. Spirit of the Colonial Newspapers.
During the period of the insurrection, most of the Jamaica
newspapers, adapting themselves to the prevailing passions of the colonists, poured forth, day after day, the most outrageous invec- tives against the missionaries, and clamoured loudly in no equi- vocal language, for their summary destruction. The sanguinary ferocity of some of these vehicles of colonial feeling, especially of the Jamaica Courant, and Cornwall Courier, is not less instructive than atrocious. Itexhibits, in its naked deformity, the true spirit of the Slavery System. The following specimen from a number now before us of the latter Journal, may give some faint notion of the sentiments expressed by these papers, and carried into practical execution by the colonial militia :— “ With regard to the punishments by Court Martial, we cannot but highly approve of summary and certain death by shooting all prin- cipals ; but surely the women are not toescape. The women, like the Welch bards, in Edward the First’s time, fan the flame of re- bellion, and if they are to be dealt with leniently, good-bye to the efficacy of this system of punishment.”—-Cornwall Courier, Jan. 11, 1832.
5. Actual state of affairs in Jamaica.
Of the actual state of things in Jamaica, the best account we have yet seen is contained ina letter published in the Morning Chro- nicle of 9th April last. The name of the writer is entirely unknown to us, but we are assured by the editor of the Chronicle, that he is a person of integrity and shrewd observation ;.and independent of any such assurance, the letter carries conviction along with of the correctness of the author’s information and the soundness o his deductions. Altogether, we consider this letter so important, that we shall insert nearly the whole of it, although to the tempo- rary exclusion of a variety of other matters prepared for the present number of our Record.
« Jamaica, Feb. 17.
“ Martial law was dissolved by proclamation on the 5th instant; the insurrection is for the present subdued. There are still a con- siderable number of rebels out ; but, as a body, there is little to be apprehended from them. Should they, however, spread them-
8 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
selves through the country, they might incite others to follow their dangerous example. They are to be ferreted out, and hunted down by the Maroons.
“< It is said that 50,000 negroes were at one time in open rebellion in Cornwall alone: one-half that number would, I fancy, be nearer the truth. As yet we have no authentic details of the ravages com- mitted ; but it is quite certain that the destruction of property has been carried to a frightful extent. Several barbarous murders have been perpetrated, apparently by detached hands, who, perhaps, acted under the impulse of personal feeling towards their victims. The main body of rebels do not seem to have sought the shedding of blood, except in open warfare: they expected to gain their ob- ject by fair contention; had it been otherwise, they might easily have destroyed the entire white population on the estates at the commencement.
“The rebellious disposition which was alarmingly manifested in other parts of the island has also been put down; but whether in consequence of their plot being discovered before it was ripe, or by meaus of the terror-striking examples made of those who were detected or suspected, it is difficult to determine.
“‘ There has been a lamentable, and, I fear, in many instances, an unnecessary waste of human life during this rebellion. Courts Martial, in such times, are not guided by very nice rules of evi- dence, as will be seen by our bloody records. The responsibility, either legal or moral, attached to the decisions of such Courts, is not very oppressive, Execution follows sentence with such cele- rity, that men have no time to adjust the balance of guilt and inno- cence. But summary as are the proceedings of these Courts, there are some men who appear to have considered them much too tedious : several delinquents, or suspected delinquents have been put to death in cold blood, without any manner of trial whatever ! What will be thought in England of the case of Lieutenant Gunn, of the Militia?—honourably and triumphantly accquitted by a Court Martial !* What will be thought of the poor negro-woman’s case who was in company with a body of rebels when surprised by
* Lieut. Gunn, of the Trelawney militia, visited Lima estate, of which he is the attorney, after Sir W. Cotton had been there and given the slaves, who had come in and submitted themselves, as- surance of pardon. Notwithstanding this amnesty, Lieut. Gunn, who came to the place the same day with a party of militia, hay- ing assembled the negroes in the mill-yard, called out from among them John Allen, the second driver, and ordered one of his fol- lowers to shoot him dead on the spot. |
For this act, which was publicly pe and triumphantly avowed, Lieut. Gunn was tried by a Court Martial (consisting, of course, almost exclusively, of his brother officers of the colonial militia, Overseers, attorneys, and planters)—and was by that court most honourably acquitted! The trial is in all the Jamaica papers. ‘« How many (Negroes) may have perished,” says the Watchman, ‘in the manner which Lieut. Gunn adopted, time alone can tell.”
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 9
the Militia ?—She held up her young child as a sort of flag of truce, an appeal to common humanity, thinking the device might save her life !—She was immediately brought down with a shot ; and it was boastingly declared that the aim had been so deliberately taken, that, although the mother was killed on the spot, her child was uninjured! There are many instances of equal enormity : the heart sickens at the contemplation of such scenes.
«“ The system of § military flogging’ has been most ruthlessly and unsparingly adopted all over the island, in cases of inferior delin- quency: this by way of ‘striking terror’ into the rebels: from 100 to 500 have been the number of lashes inflicted. Several are reported to have died after such punishment.—Dreadful reflection, that although confessedly not deserving of death, yet to meet it in the most cruel and agonising form! I like not this mode of ad- ministering justice, which I think has been adopted with far more energy than discretion: it smells too rankly of ‘ the system’—it is not judicious—it is calculated to engender such bitter feelings of revenge as may become dangerous hereafter. Whenever rebellion raises her hydra head again—and I fear the time is not far dis- tant—the first act, to a certainty, will be to destroy, by a precon- certed signal, all the whites in the country parts: this would not be difficult, the proportions being generally fifty slaves to one white; and it is natural to suppose that revenge might prompt the negroes to retaliate by the cruel infliction of the lash prior to execution. The bare possibility of such a contingency ought to instil something like prucence into men’s.minds.
“The rebellion, I am satisfied, is not extinguished—the embers still lie smouldering, ready to be fanned into a blaze at a moment’s notice. I still hold that the fate of the colony is sealed. The means . which might possibly avert that fate, viz. an entire change of the colonial policy, will not be adopted by the colonists; and while they and the British Government are cavilling on the subject, the question will be wrenched out of their hands, and quickly decided by the firebrand and the steel.
“The Governor has been loudly and bitterly censured for having endeavoured to restrain unnecessary carnage—for having prema- turely discontinued martial law before the general thirst for human blood was fully slaked—and for having afforded protection to the missionaries! Had he granted a license to every petty officer of militia to slaughter at pleasure, and had he delivered over the sec- tarians to the tender mercies of their vindictive oppressors, he would no doubt have obtained unbounded popularity.
“T suspect that what is passing will have the effect of destroying every feeling of sympathy in the minds of the British public for the sufferings the planters have endured, and are still doomed to endure.
«¢Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.’
“ Neyer was the adage more completely verified than at this mo- ment in Jamaica. The people are mad, and are evidently bent on committing political suicide. The proceedings against the secta- rians savour strongly of the acts of drunken madmen. Their lives
10 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
are still in jeopardy. As the grounds for suspecting them decrease, the popular fury appears to increase. Their chapels have been destroyed, amidst the savage yells of exultation, in various parts of the island. It is reported that the example will be followed in Spanish Town and Kingston. If attempted, it will fail, and give rise to a serious riot, and perhaps bloodshed. There is reason to apprehend that outrage will not stop here—that nothing less than the blood of the missionaries will appease the insensate vengeance of the people. At the head of the party who are thus madly bel- lowing for slaughter, is the notoriously-infamous *******, He who could expect peace and prosperity to be restored to this coun- try, with such elements of discord at work, must be gifted with a large share of credulity.
‘<T am more and more convinced that the sectarians are inno- cent of any participation in the late rebellion. If they have been in any way instrumental to it, it has been by enlightening the bar- barous ignorance of the slave—by the diffusion of so much know- ledge amongst them, that they are at length become enabled to appreciate the brutal degradation of their present rank in the hu- man family. God knows, I am neither a sectarian nor an admirer of sectarians ; but, much as I dislike their principles, I hate injus- tice and oppression a great deal more; and I aver, without fear of contradiction, that they have done tenfold more towards hu- manizing and civilizing the negro mind than all other classes col- lectively. .
“«¢ What will our House of Assembly do?’—This is a question to which, | fear, a very unsatisfactory answer will be furnished ere many weeks elapse. They are to meet on the 28th. They will, of course, appoint a committee to inquire into and report upon the causes of the late insurrection. It will be attributed to two sources,—the seditious preachings and teachings of sectarians here, and the inflammatory writings of the Anti-Slavery party in Eng- land. But the commitee will overlook one source of their disas- ters, viz. the dissatisfaction prevailing amongst the slaves, arising from the following circumstance :—
‘** The laws for the government of slaves are not commensurate with their advanced state of civilization ; and, what is much worse, even the present laws, such as they are, are totally evaded when attempted to be brought into operation for the protection of the slave; whilst, for the support of the master’s despotic authority, they are strained almost to breaking. It is not in the nature of human events that such a state of things could last. For years have the slaves been waiting patiently and with exemplary forbear- ance for some important change in their debased condition: they have waited in vain—their patience was getting exhausted—and they have emphatically shown what a keen sense they have of the wrongs they have so long endured. The colonists have all along committed one fatal error; they viewed slave amelioration as a ‘mere question between themselves and the parent State ;—they never dreamt of consulting the state of negro feeling on the sub- ject. Because the slaves remained quiescent—because they did
MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 11
not attempt to throw off the galling yoke, they argued that they were satisfied. If they were satisfied, there was no need to improve their condition. And now that they have become restless and dis- satisfied, it will of course be alleged to be very imprudent to make any change; or if change be made, it must be by drawing the reins still tighter!—This is colonial logic.
“ The British Government must at last step resolutely for- ward —break up the babyish junto of mock orators, yclept * The Honourable House of Assembly,’—and in despite of all the voci- feration, bullying, and threatening they may meet with, proceed calmly and firmly to place colonial affairs on something hike a basis of security. The rights of humanity, the ends of public justice, and the real interests of the planters themselves, loudly demand this good work to be accomplished—‘o be executed speedily and with energy.”
V.—Ml1SCELLANEOUS NOTICES.
1. West Indies.—The introduction of the new Order of Council has been resisted in several of the Crown Colonies, especially St. Lucia, Trinidad, and Demerara, by the most seditious and violent proceedings on the part of the whites, with the view of intimidat- ing the Governors from carrying the act into immediate operation, as they are by Lord Goderich’s despatch strictly enjoined to do. The next packet will probably inform us more fully of the results.
2. South Africa.—At the Cape of Good Hope, a conspiracy of the frontier boors to destroy the flourishing settlement of free Hottentot cultivators at Kat River, has been detected, and put a stop to by the Government authorities, when it was on the very point of execution; the boors, mounted and armed for the murde- rous attack, being intercepted within a few miles of the peaceful and unsuspecting native village. The details are instructive, and shall be given in an early number.
‘Meanwhile, the following statement from the South African Ad- vertiser, a paper conducted with eminent talent and integrity, is well worthy of preservation. It has already appeared in the Re- porter, No. 92 :—
“© We speak advisedly :—three thousand Prize Negroes have re- ceived their Freedom, 400 in one day ; but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred: servants found masters—masters hired servants ; all gained homes, and at night scarcely an idler was to be seen. Inthe last month, 150 were liberated under precisely similar circum- stances, and with the same result. These facts are within our own observation ; and to state that sudden and abrupt emancipation would create disorder and distress to those you mean to serve, is not reason; but the plea of any and all men who are adverse to emancipation.”
3. Lectures on Slavery.—During the last nine months, the Agency Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society have exerted themselves with great zeal and efficiency in diffusing sound and accurate in- formation on the Slavery Question, throughout various parts of the kingdom. The beneficial effects of this plan of promoting the in-
12 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.
terests of our cause, become daily more apparent, and more justly appreciated by the country. In an early No. we shall endeavour to give a summary view of what has been by this means effected, and of the wide field that yet remains for future labours.
4. Death of Mr. Sykes.—The cause of the negro has lately lost a tried and valuable supporter in this good and upright man; and all who knew him will cordially concur in the sentiments expressed in the following resolution, passed at a meeting of the Hull Anti-Sla- very Association, of which Mr. Sykes had long been president. _
‘¢ When the Committee call to mind the active part which he took in the House of Commons, in favour of the abolition of Negro Slavery—that he was one of the leading individuals who stood for- ward in its support at the Annual Meetings, and in the Committees of the Parent Society in London ;—when they recollect his strenuous exertions in the country in the same righteous cause, and his readiness in every way, and on all occasions to assist and in- form their own Association, they conceive that they are offering no unmerited compliment to Mr. Daniel Sykes’ memory, in thus re- cording a sentiment (the sincere conviction of their own minds) that as society has lost in him a most distinguished and invaluable mem- ber, the Anti-Slavery cause in particular has to lament a most zealous and efficient advocate.”
5. Mr. Buxton’s Motion.—The discussion of Mr. Buxton’s mo- tion in the House of Commons, for the speedy and total extinction of slavery in the British colonies, has been finally fixed for the 24th of May. It is confidently expected that all sincere friends of that. object, throughout the kingdom, will unite in energetically urging upon their representatives in Parliament, the duty of strenuously supporting Mr. Buxton in the debate and division anticipated at this most eventful crisis.
6. West India Inquiry.—The West Indians have succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a Committee of Inquiry in the House of Lords; to commence its operations, we understand, on the 8th of May. The real object of the colonial party, in pressing for this new Inquiry, after the repeated and conclusive exposures which have been made of the fallacy of their representations, and the false cha- racter of their evidence, is to postpone indefinitely all measures of relief to the slaves, under colour cf an appeal to justice. Such has been their invariable policy ; and the friends of the negro must now look for a corresponding result.
7. General Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society.
A General Meeting of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions, and of the Friends of that Cause, will be held at Exeter Hall, Strand, on Saturday the Twelfth of May, 1832. The Doors will be opened at Eleven o’clock, and the Chair taken at Twelve precisely. pte
Tickets of admission may be had on application at the Society's Office, 18, Aldermanbury ; at Messrs. Hatchards and Son’s, 187, Piccadilly; Mr. Nisbet’s, 21, Berners Street; Messrs. Seeley’s, Fleet Street: and Messrs. Arch’s, 61, Cornhill. .
S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close, London.
Che Anti-Slavery Record.
No. 2. JUNE 1, 1852. ¢ PRICE ONE PENNY. I. GENERAL MEETING OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. . . « . 13
"II. DEBATE ON MR, BUXTON’S MOTION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 14 Il. LIST OF THE MINORITY WHO VOTED WITH MR, BUXTON . . 15 IV. DECREASE OF THE SLAVE POPULATION. 11.06 « 6 « « 16 V. SABBATH=BREAKING IN JAMAICA. . » 2. 2 ‘s 'e 8 «0.2 17
)VI. CASE OF THE JACKSONS: WEST INDIA PROTECTION TO SLAVES. 18
Wil. “DATEST’ WEST INDIA INTELEIGENCE 4 6. 2s ee ie 6 (22
Vill. PETITIONS AGAINST SLAVERY. . 5 0. 0-2 6 ee eee D4 xX.) DEATH OF SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH . XS 2+. 0.0’. ee me ONAGTONe MIND REMITTANCES, 2 ee ee er eb.
I.—-GENERAL MEETING OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
Tae Annual General Meeting of this Society was held at Exeter Hall, on the 12th of May, and was one of the most interesting we have ever witnessed. The spacious hall was filled to overflowing, with an audience consisting almost exclusively of the most re- spéctable and intelligent and religious classes of society, and who appeared animated with an ardour in this great cause ‘which we have on no similar occasion ‘seen surpassed. About three thou- sand persons were present, and many hundreds went away, un- able to obtain admission.
Mr. Stephen, the venerable champion of the Negro—who with Wilberforce, and Clarkson, and Smith, and Macaulay, fought and won the arduous battle for the abolition of the Suave Trang, and who has since rendered such important services in ‘the exist- ing struggle for the‘extinction of Colonial Slavery,—presided-as Chairman. The meeting was addressed successively by Lord Suf-
Mr: Buxton, Rev. J. W. Cunningham, Dr. Lushington, Mr. W. Smith, Mr. O‘Connell, Rev. John Burnett, Mr. Evans, Mr. George Stephen, Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, Mr. Cramp- ton (the Solicitor General for Ireland), Mr. Pownall, and ‘the Rev. J. Ivimey. Many persons of distinction in the Religious and Political world were on the platform. The proceedings were protracted, with unabated interest, to'a late hour of the day. The speeches delivered related chiefly to the general character and effects of Colonial Slavery, and to the present aspect of ‘the ques- tion of Abolition. All of them were impressive and instructive ; several eloquent, in.a very high degree. ‘Our limits do.not admit of @Xtracts ; but, as the proceedings of this-meeting form the subject
B
14 DEBATE ON MR. BUXTON’S MOTION.
of the forthcoming Reporter (No, 96), all our readers have it in their power to obtain with facility the gratification of perusing the whole.
II.— DEBATE ON MR. BUXTON’S MOTION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Mr. Buxton’s motion on the Slavery Question came on for dis- cussion in the House of Commons, on the 24th of May. It was to the effect—‘ That a Select Committee be appointed to con- sider and report upon the measures which it may be expedient to adopt, for effecting the extinction of Slavery throughout the British dominions, at the earliest period compatible with the safety of all classes.in the Colonies.’”
Mr..Buxton.opened the debate with a comprehensive survey of the character and effects of Colonial Slavery ; showing its utter in- compatibility with practical Christianity, and with the religious instruction and civilization of the Negroes; its destructive effects in the Sugar Colonies, by a murderous exaction of labour, through which a decrease of the Slave population, to the amount of 52,000, had been produced in eleven years; the terrible extent of arbitrary flogging with the cart whip—the number of lashes inflicted in our colonies amounting to upwards of 2,000,000 annually ; and the brutalizing effects of the system on the Negroes, as exhibited by the evidence of the planters themselves.
In animadverting on the tone of sentiment prevalent in the West Indies on the subject of religious instruction, Mr. Buxton read several passages from Jamaica newspapers, inciting the colonists to the persecution of the Missionaries. One of these passages was to the following effect: ‘* During the rebellion in Ireland in 1798, which was more religious than political, the chief movers were of the Catholic persuasion ; and, wherever a suspicion existed against a priest, he was seized, bound to the halberts, and flogged till he confessed. He was then tried upon his confession, and either » hanged or shot. Can we have less delicacy towards the vagabonds [Missionaries] who have excited rebellion among our slaves than was observed by the officers of the British army? Let Irish jus- tice prevail in Jamaica, and she may yet flourish.”
In conclusion, he dwelt upon the imminent danger of the utter loss of the colonies by a servile insurrection, whether occasioned solely by the despair of the Negroes of obtaining emancipation from the British Legislature, or directly prompted by the instiga- tion of any hostile power with which we might be at war. On this point he quoted the impressive words of President Jefferson, who although a slave-owner, and full of all the prejudices inciden- tal to his class, yet, as a statesman, foreseeing the calamities of a contest between the slaves and their masters, had thus expressed himself: ‘* I tremble for my country when I remember that God is just, and that his justice may not sleep for ever; that a revolution is among possible events,—and that the Almighty has no attribute that can side with us in such a struggle.” ‘This is the point,” con-
DEBATE ON MR. BUXTON’S MOTION. 15
tinued Mr. Buxton, “that weighs most heavily with me: ‘the Almighty has no attribute that can side with us in such a struggle.’ A war with an overwhelming physical foree—a war with a climate fatal to the European constitution—a war in which the heart of the people of England would lean towards the enemy—involves fearful hazards; but I look on these as light and trivial, compared with the conviction I feel that in such a warfare we could not ask, we dared not expect, the countenance of Heaven.”
The motion was strenuously supported by Messrs. Strickland, ‘Macaulay, Evans, O’Connell, Warburton, Dr. Lushington, and Sergeant Wilde; and opposed by Messrs. Cresset Pelham, Keith Douglas, Sir Robert Peel, Sir George Murray, Sir Charles Wetherell, Mr. Hume, Mr. Baring, Mr. Burge, and Colonel Sib- thorp. Ministers took a middle course; and Lords Althorp and Howick, while they supported the motion for a Committee, con- curred with Sir Francis Burdett, Sir R. Price, and others in urging the adoption of an amendment proposed by Lord Sandon, declaring that all measures for promoting the extinction of Slavery should be in conformity with the Parliamentary resolutions of 1823. Mr. Buxton having declined to accede to this addition, the House divided, when there appeared for the original motion 90, and for the amendment 163. ‘The resolution, as amended, stands thus :-—“ That a Select Committee be appointed, to consider and report upon the measures which it may be expedient to adopt for the purpose of effecting the extinction of Slavery throughout the British dominions, at the earliest period compatible with the safety of all classes in the Colonies, and in conformity with the resolu- tions of this House on the 15th day of May, 1823.”
The Committee, subsequently appointed, consists of the following, persons :—Lord J. Russell, Sir Robert Peel, Sir J. Graham, Sir G. Murray, Mr. Goulburn, Mr. Buxton, Mr. Burge, Mr. W. Evans, Lord Sandon, Lord Howick, the Marquis of Chandos, Mr. A. Johnston, Mr. Marryatt, Mr. G. J. Vernon, Mr. Holmes, Dr. Lushington, Mr. Baring, Mr. F. Lewis, Lord Ebrington, Mr. B. Carter, Mr. Littleton, Mr. Hodges, Mr. Ord, Mr. Fazakerley, and Mr. Alderman Thompson.
Upon the passing of this resolution, injuriously restricted though it be by a special reference to the Resolutions of 1823, we may venture cordially to congratulate the friends of the Anti Slavery cause. The heat of the conflict is perhaps only beginning; but a vantage ground has been gained for the champions of humanity of which it is yet difficult to estimate the full importance ; and the hour of final triumph, though it may not be quite at hand, is evi- dently fast approaching. The friends of the Negro, however, must not slumber, but be up and doing. In both houses of Parliament Interest, Prejudice, and cold-blooded Indifference are strong and mighty, and, in the respective Committees now appointed in these Houses, will muster all their energies to delay what they cannot ultimately ward off—the doom of Slavery. Let then our watch- words be Vigilance, Union, and Determination.
16
DECREASE OF THE SLAVE POPULATION.
TlI. LIST OF THE MINORITY WHO VOTED FOR MB. BUXTON’S MOTION:
Adeane, H. J. Aguew, Sir A. Anson, Hon. G. Astley, Sir J. D. Baring, Sir T. Barnet, C. J, Bayntun, S. A. Benett, John Blake, Sir Francis Blamire, W. Blackney, W. Blunt; Sir C.
Bouvyerie, Hon. Capt.
Boyle, Hon. John Briscoe, John I. Buller, Sir A. Bulwer, E. L. Bulwer, H. L. Caicraft, G. H: Callaghan, Dan., Cavendish, Lord Chandos, Marquis: of Clifford, Sir A. Clive, E. B. Curteis, H. B. Easthope, John Ellis, Wynn Ettwall, R. Evans, Col. Evans, W.. B. Evans, W.
Foikes, Sir W. Gisborne, Thomas
Glynne, H. Godson, R.
Guise, Sir B. W. Halse, James Handcock, Richard Handley, W. F. Harvey, D. W. Hodges, Thomas L. Hodgson, Jobn Hoskins, K. Hughes, Alderman
. Hulse, Sir C.
Ingilby, Sir W. Jephson, C. D. O. Jerningham, Hon. H. Johnstone, A. Kemp, Thomas R. King, E. B. Lambert, J. S; Leader, N. P. Lefevre, C. S. Lemon, Sir C. Lennox, Lord A. Lennox, Lord G. Lennox, Lord W. Lushington, Dr. S. Macaulay, T. B. Mayhew, W. Mills, John Mullins, F. Musgrave, Sir R. O'Connell, Dan.
Pelham, I: C: Pendarves, E. W. Penieaze, J. S. Petre, Hon. E. Phillips, Sir R. Phillips, C. M. Protheroe, E. Pryse,; Pryse Rider, Thomas, Ruthyen, E. S. Sanford. E. A. Skipwith, Sir G. Spencer, Hon. Capt. Stewart, Charles. Strickland, G. Tennyson, C. Thicknesse, R. Throckmorton, R. G. Tomes, John Vernon, Hon. G.. J. Vincent, Sir F Walker, C. A. Warburton, H. Webb, Col. E. Wellesley, Hon. W. T. L. Whitmore, W. W. Wilbraham, G.. Wilks, John Williams, Sir J. H. Tellers. Buxton, T. F. Wilde, Thomas
Col, Gore Langton, Mr. Atherley, and Mr. Morrison paired off in fayour of. der
original motion.
IV. DECREASE OF THE SLAVE POPULATION.
The following summary is taken from Mr. Buxton’s printed ‘« Statement of the Decrease of the Slave Population i in the Sugar
Colonies, drawn up from Official Returns :-—
Antigua E - Decrease i in 11 years d : 868 Berbice : , ditto 9 ditto. : ‘s . . 1,844 Demerara : ditto 12 ditto P ; WA 037 Grenada ; ditto 12 ditto F i ~ - %40% Jamaica : ditto 12 ditto. “ ; - 18,024 Montserrat. . ditto. 11,ditto i aes wad ae Nevis . ; ditto 11. ditto. ; " » foe St. Christopher's. . ditto 10 ditto. : he eee St.Lucia; . 4, ditto; | 18;ditte 905 has a aRAe St. Vincent’s. . ditto 10 ditto ; ; . 1,248 Tobago ‘ ; ditto 10 ditto yee 2,803 Tortola. . ; ditto 10 ditto : vctcrh tauh pias | Trinidad. . : ditto 13 ditto, wil Imi cade ee geo resis Decrease.in the above 13 CAlARaeaed ions average being. aia 11+ years. . , ; : eqetl Haw Mauriting, decrease in 10$ years . 5 i hes Tegra FQ , ; / etenabars) 4 58,864
SABBATH-BREAKING IN JAMAICA. 17 Depvcr. Increase in the two following Colonies, viz.—
Dominica, in 9 years . ; a 11 Barbadoes, in 12 ditto . ‘ . 5,966 5,977 Total decrease in the slave population in the Sugar Co- lonies, on an average of 11 years. . ' - 52,887
V. SABBATH-BREAKING IN JAMAICA.
In the Jamaica “ Christian Record”’ for February 1832, there is an excellent article on the desecration of the Sabbath, addressed “to the Proprietors, Attorneys, and Overseers of Slaves.” The following statement, published on the spot by men of integrity and accurate information, is well worthy the serious consideration of those persons (if there still be any such in England) who at- tempt to reconcile the support or the toleration of Colonial Sla- very with the profession of a strict adherence to religious principles. The writer, addressing the slave-holders, thus proceeds :—
“ You must be aware that the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath-day is broken among the slave population every time that the day arrives. It must be acknowledged that the violation is not occasional, but constant; it is not secret, but open; it is systematic, and the evil reaches from one end of the island to the other. By the order of owners, or overseers, work is regularly done on the Sabbath which might be done on the previous day. Because of the insufficiency of the time allowed to the Negro, he is compelled to spend the whole of every other Sabbath in his own work. All travellers know that the first day of the week is the one when they are sure to see most of the rivers crowded with washerwomen, and the Negro-houses undergoing repairs, and the provision-grounds peopled with workmen. Nor is it possible to say that these remarks belong exclusively to the irreligious part of the slaves. The fact that many of the preachers of the Gospel have service at one place only every alternate Sabbath is to be accounted for by this serious truth—that almost all their slave hearers are prevented from attending the worship of God more frequently.
“ It is evident that, while such a system continues to exist, it must be impossible for the ministers of Christ to explain the FOURTH COMMANDMENT, and to enforce upon the slaves the im- portance of keeping it. If they were to venture upon this sub- ject, and in the course of instruction make use of the same un- modified phraseology as would be adopted in England, they would be making the most straight-forward advances towards an insurrec- tion. They could not begin to urge obedience to God, without at the same time urging disobedience toman. The latter must be done in an indirect manner, and the former directly; but they -must be done, while the law of the Heavenly Master, and that of the earthly one, stand so directly opposed to each other. I very much wish I could succeed in exciting attention to this dilemma
c2
ts se: CASE OF THE JACKSONS OF JAMAICA.
in which a class of well-meaning persons are placed. It is an un- deniable truth that, in a country which is called Christian, the men /who are denominated the preachers of peace, and the servants of Christ, cannot dwell upon some of his instructions for fear of pro- ducing a civil war! Is the slave to be told that he must make the word of God his» guide, or the instructions of his master? If the former, he must expose himself’ either to want, or to a flogging, or to confinement in the workhouse. If the latter, then there must be the guilt of acting in open defiance to the authority of God, and of despising his vengeance, and the consequent responsibility resting somewhere. It is certainly worth while asking with whom it does rest?’ Is it in the preacher, arising out of his cowardice, and: ex- cused by a compromising spirit, because he is not accustomed to _ face severe: persecution and death? Or is it in the slave, or in the proprietor, or the overseer, by whom the time and the labouy of the slave are controlled ?”
VI.—CASE, OF THE JACKSONS: OF JAMAICA.
A remarkable case of cruelty and oppression, exercised by a Jamaica magistrate and his wife upon two female slaves, has re- cently been made public, and claims a prominent place in our Recorp. The cruel treatment of the slaves, however, though sufs ficiently shocking and characteristic of the brutalizing effects of the system, is yet far less revolting than the clear demonstration which this case affords of the absolute and’ entire impunity with which almost any degree of oppression may be perpetrated. in Jamaica by the master upon his bondman, after all the vaunting professions which the planters have recently made of their lenient laws and their still more lenient practice. Above all, it exhibits, in a striking light, the real character and practical use of Jamaica “ Councils of Protection,” and West India Grand Juries. The facts of the case come before us in the authentic shape of an official despatch from the Colonial Secretary tothe Governor of Jamaica, im reply to a despatch from the latter, transmitting various documents connected with this affair. We shall give the deg as far as we can consistently with the brevity our limits presci#™, in the words of Lord Goderich’s despatch, which is dated Nov. 1, 1831:
“Tt appears that the elder of these slaves was the mother of the younger, and that they had both passed their lives in domestic ser+ vice, and without having been employed in field labour. A dia-
logue seems to have taken place between Mrs. Jackson and one of
her children and these women, in which it may be inferred that. the slaves exhibited some violence of demeanour, attended with. lan- guage unbecoming the relation in which they stood to Mrs. Jack- son. It is not without a painful sense of the degrading light'in which the narrative exhibits a lady in Mrs, Jackson’s rank of life,
that I proceed with it. She with her own hands took a ‘‘ supple- —
jack” and flogged the younger slave with it till the instrament
broke. The flogging was then renewed with a whip. On this the —
mother broke out in violent remonstrances, when Mrs. Jackson (in
4
4 s
CASE OF THE JACKSONS OF JAMAICA. 19
terms which I will not venture to transcribe or to characterize) threatened to punish her.. In her renewed remonstrance the mother. stated that her mistress “had flogged her before Christ- mas, and laid her down and. flogged her by the driver.” The daughter is said to, have then been placed. in the corner of the room to stand up the whole day. The mother was placed in the stocks, and kept there ‘two or three weeks, night and day.’ At the end of that time she was carried to the other, stocks, in a place called the hot-house, where she was kept ‘ for about two or three weeks,’ the daughter being placed in those stocks from which her mother had been removed. For no less than four months these unfortu- nate women, though bred as domestics, were employed in the field, and, when not in the field, were confined in the stocks; and both the labour and the confinement were so arranged that, during the whole period of the punishment, they should have no opportunity of speaking to each other. This, protracted confinement in the stocks appears to have been peculiarly strict, and even the Sundays were passed in this dreadful situation. Incredible as it might ap- pear, the mother, even while labouring under fever and ague, was stillkept in the stocks. She had lived for twenty-two years in the service of the family by whom she was. thus treated.
** The younger female, in her evidence, describes herself as haying been beaten with a strap by the hands of Mr. Jackson himself; as| having then been flogged by Mr. Jackson’s orders with a new cat; as having been confined in stocks so narrow as to. wound. her feet; as having been kept there at night for more than six weeks or two months. During her labours in the field, she states her arms, neck, and back, were blistered; that on com- plaint being made of this to Mr. Jackson, he answered merely by a brutal oath, and that he proceeded to send for scissars, with a view to cut off her hair, to compel her to remove from her head, and place round her neck, a handkerchief, which was the only. de- fence from the sun.”
It appears from the evidence that the confinement of these wo- men in the stocks commenced in the middle of January, and that their release did not take. place till the 4th of June,—a period of very nearly six months; and that their release was at length oc- casioned by the interference of another magistrate (Dr. Palmer), to whom a complaint on behalf of these poor females had been
referred. We continue the narrative in the words. of Lord oderich :-—
“ Dr: Palmer immediately. endeavoured to effect the: arrest of the two females, with a view to their protection, pending the ne- cessary enquiry ; and wrote-to Mr. Jackson, to apprise him of the measures which it was intended to take. On receiving that letter, Mr. Jackson seems to have applied to his brother, Mr. Campbell Jackson, who was also in the commission of the peace, to under- take the investigation of the complaint. Mr. C. Jackson accord- ingly summoned the two slaves before him. He has assigned as @ reason for this proceeding that Dr. Palmer had omitted to take dowm in writing the examination of the witnesses. One of the
20 CASE OF THE JACKSONS OF JAMAICA.
complainants is stated to have refused to state her case to Mr. C. Jackson, because he was the brother of the accused; and it is added that Mr. C. Jackson compelled her to enter into such a statement only by threats of punishment. Upon hearing her nar- rative he determined that a Council of Protection should be imme- diately summoned, and with that view addressed to the Clerk of the Peace a letter, directing him to summon such a Council, which, it was observed, ought to meet “ on any day that may be most agreeable to Mr. Jackson.” “ I have further,” observes Mr. C. Jackson, “‘ to remark that the charges preferred by the above- named slaves are vexatious and frivolous.”
“This letter was written on the 6th of June. On the follow- ing day the Council of Protection was accordingly summoned by a third Justice, Mr. Hyslop, and Dr. Palmer was required to at- tend it on the 11th of the same month. Dr. Palmer, having brought the case under your Lordship’s [Lord rare notice, answered this summons by a letter, dated the 8th of June, in which he requested that the meeting might be delayed until the Governor’s opinion should be known. He at the same time pointed out the extraordinary conduct of the Messrs. Jackson in thus transferring the case from the cognizance of himself to that of a junior magistrate, who was the brother of the accused party ; and he noticed, as a reason for awaiting your Lordship’s intentions, that every Member of the Council of Protection virtually owed his appointment to the magistracy to the recommendation of the Custos whose conduct they were required to investigate. The Council, however, met on the 11th of June, when Dr. Palmer moved that the proceedings should be adjourned until your Lord- ship’s answer had been received. This motion was over-ruled by the unanimous voice of the whole body, who then proceeded to investigate the complaints which Mr. Jackson had already declared ‘ frivolous and vexatious.’ ”’
On the examination ‘ much was stated of the insolence of these women, and of the gross impropriety of their language, and much respecting the habitual humanity of the accused parties ; but, to the specific imputations of cruelty, no defence was made or attempted.”
“« The Council of Protection decided that there were not sufficient
grounds for a prosecution ; that neither the letter nor the spirit of
the Law had been infringed; that in cases of confinement the dura- tion of the punishment was not limited by law, the owner being bound only to show that proper support had been given. They however felt bound to declare that, notwithstanding the aggravated insults so repeatedly offered by the complainants, 7¢ would have been desirable that a less protracted punishment had been resorted to by the parties accused, or that they, on finding that confinement had not the effect intended, had brought the slaves to trial before a competent tribunal.”
The comments of Lord Goderich on these proceedings are highly creditable to him as a man and as a British statesman :—
“The preceding recital,” says his lordship, “ scarcely admits of any commentary in that measured tone which it is on every account
i
CASE OF THE JACKSONS OF JAMAICA. 21
so desirable to observe in an official communication of this nature,
A series of the most revolting outrages on humanity were admitted without reserve, or tacitly acknowledged. A perseverance. for several months together in cruelties of the most scandalous charac- ter, on the persons of a young woman and of her mother, were un- hesitatingly avowed.—One of the offenders was the chief magistrate of the district, the other was that magistrate’s wife. A case more urgently demanding the most rigorous enforcement of the law, or appealing more strongly to the compassion and indignation of all
who heard it, could scarcely be imagined. Yet what was the
result? One magistrate, the brother of the criminal, declared. the complaint ‘frivolous and vexatious.’ Four other magistrates, members of the Council of Protection, dismissed it with a sentence fall of harsh expressions respecting the conduct of the injured, party, and with language towards the, offenders conveying nothing. more than the most gentle, and even respectful, dissent from the soundness of the judgment exercised by them on the occasion.
“The crimination of these.unfortunate women, for the use of
insolent and. indecorous language, scarcely. merits serious notice. —Here was a mother compelled to witness the scourging of her daughter with instruments of punishment at once painful and de- grading. The mother was then herself subjected to a chastisement attended with every circumstance-of suffering and indecency ; and was addressed by a lady in Mrs. Jackson’s rank of life in terms too gross for repetition. Culpable as the words extorted by such shameful conduct may have been, the apology was such as should have silenced the reproaches of the owners.. With such a domestic example, what decorum could’ be expected from an ignorant negress? With such a provocation what self-government could reasonably be anticipated from a mother? No condition of life ought to have repressed those emotions with which a parent must witness the infliction, on her offspring, of such great and unmerited suffering.” . _ After this characteristic decision of the ** Council of Protection,” the Governor (much to his credit) ordered the Attorney-General to prefer a bill of indictment against the Jacksons; and the result (scandalous indeed, but not extraordinary, nor without numerous precedents) was—‘ that the Grand Jury ignored the bill.”
We must omit Lord Goderich’s remarks on this part of the pro- ceedings, stringent and unanswerable as they are. The next step was the Governor’s report of the case, with all the documents, to the Colonial Office; and we rejoice to, say that Lord Goderich appears to have done-his duty. He directed the Governor instantly to dismiss the brothers, Jackson, from the magistracy, and to in- struct the Attorney-General to proceed against the culprits (the custos Jackson and his wife) by a criminal information. The result is still unknown.tous. But the slaves—the unhappy slave-women— are still inevitably left in the possession and power of their owners, For. them there appears to be no redress—no_protection—from any human tribunal; nor indeed is any effectual protection of the slave compatible with the existence of slavery, MutTIGATIon is
LATEST WEST INDIA INTELLIGENCE,
»vacticable: SLAVERY MUST BE EXTINGUISHED. We conclude,
out farther comment, with the following observations of Lord
'--,erich, on this deplorable, but (in our opinion) not “ unfor- ately timed ” case :—
‘* This occurrence is no less unfortunately timed than it is me- lancholy. At the very moment when the West India body are complaining, not perhaps without some justice, of the indiscrimi- nate and violent reproaches with which they have been assailed, is brought to light this extraordinary circumstance, that one magistrate perpetrated, and five others concurred to screen from punishment, offences against two helpless females of the most revolting and un- manly character. With the utmost anxiety to protect the colony and its inhabitants from all calumnious imputations, what power of performing that duty with effect is left to myself and others, when the magistracy and official guardians of slaves betray so flagrant a disregard of their domestic and public duties? With what reason or plausibility can it be alleged that the slaves at Ja- maica have no need of additional protection, when, in a case so out- rageous as the present, the Council of Protection would neither pro- secute nor even censure the criminal, andthe Grand Jury would not entertain the indictment?”
VII. LATEST WEST INDIA INTELLIGENCE,
We have received files of Jamaica newspapers up to the 11th of April. They contain much interesting intelligence, of which we can only give a very brief and imperfect abstract. To the slave insurrection has succeeded a state of social anarchy of a singular and ominous character. The whites proclaim their “ Colonial Church Union” expressly organized for the systematic destruction of “sectarian chapels,” and for pressing on the persecution of the Missionaries till they are utterly driven from the island. The people of colour, on the other hand, announce their determination to form * an association for the protection of civil and religious liberty.” Each of these classes has its appropriate organ of the press. The Courant and Chronicle sound the savage war-whoop of the persecut- ing and pro-slavery faction. The Watchman replies in tones of re- solute and wrathful defiance. In short, a fierce civil war is at this moment raging in Jamaica, which, although hitherto chiefly waged with pens dipped in gall, may, it is obvious, with little farther exasperation, soon come to be prosecuted with bayonets reeking with blood. We can only advert very briefly to a few of the re- cent occurrences.
The prosecutions against the Baptist ministers, accused of hav- ing instigated the slaves to rebellion, had signally failed. At the Cornwall Assizes, Messrs. Burchell, Gardner, and Knibb were, in spite of every artifice, triumphantly acquitted. The witnesses,— wretched Negroes engaged in the late rebellion, whose lives had been spared for the sake of their suborned evidence,—entirely © “broke down’’ in court. One of them, named Stennett, who was — brought forward as the principal witness against Messrs. Burchell —
LATEST WEST INDIA INTELLIGENCE. 23
and Gardner, not only recanted his former statements, but declared upon oath, and at the imminent peril of his life, that he had been suborned to give false evidence against these good men, and had been secretly promised a reward of £50 per annum, by certain parties whom he named, as the price of innocent blood !
In spite of this most disgraceful exposure, however, the persecu- tion against the “ Sectarians” continued with unabated fury ; inso- much that, to prevent the effusion of blood, Mr. Burchell had been, by the advice of the Attorney-General, removed first on board a ship of war at Montego Bay, and then sent by an Ameri- can vessel to the United States; while some of the other Baptist Missionaries had taken refuge at Kingston. Wehave also seen a private letter to the Rev. Mr. Dyer, from one of the Baptist Missionaries, dated April 7th, stating that on the preceding night his house had been attacked “by acompany of white men, prin- cipally overseers of estates in the neighbourhood, who came whoop- ing like a gang of savages.”” They were armed with swords, pis- tols, and muskets: they broke open the door, dashed in the winder frames, aad fired two volleys into the bed-room where the wife of the missionary, and her child, two months old, werelying. A free ser- vant, who on their approach had run to alarm the neighbours, was attacked by the brutal ruffians with their swords, and so severely cut thathis recovery was doubtful. They then attempted to set fire to the house ; but, while the remonstrances of the Missionary seemed to restrain some of them for a moment, the alarm had been given to his friends, who hastened to his defence with such promptitude that the assailants retreated precipitately without doing further mischief.
Some faint idea may be gathered of the present state of Jamaica when we add to these circumstances the facts—that the Editor of the Watchman could not leave his own house after dark without an escort of friends to protect him from assassination—that the ma- gistrates in several places had been personally prominent in the destruction of the missionary chapels—and that the leaders of the ** Colonial Church Union’’ were openly, through the newspaper press, calling upon the colonists to complete the goodly work they had begun, in paragraphs such as the following :—‘‘ The sooner we follow the example set us (in Barbadoes) the better. Leave not a place of worship except the established churches of England and Scotland standing.” .
The Jamaica Assembly had resolved not to entertain, during the present session, any proposition relative to the amelioration of slavery ; and the majority evinced the same hatred to the Mission- aries, and the samerebellious contumacy towards the mother country, by which they have long been distinguished. A refusal to grant the usual supplies for the troops, and for the new Governor’s salary, was anticipated as one of the probable results of their wise and temperate deliberations. In most of the other West India colonies the same spirit prevailed, though not as yet manifested in the same strain of audacious folly. Several of them had rejected the Order in Council in the most insolent terms, and others had refused to grant the Government supplies.
24
VIII. ANTI-SLAVERY PETITION’ “ARLLAMENT.
A petition to the House of Lords, a’> «1 »' ‘he General Meet- ing of the Anti-Slavery Society, and sent rouna ior signature among the friends of the cause throughout the country, was returned in a few days with 135,346 names, upon a roll of parchment extending upwards of a mile in length. It was presented by the Lord
Chancellor on the 24th of May. Separate petitions, numerously signed, have also been presented from Edinburgh and several other towns.
IX. DEATH OF SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.
The cause of Negro Emancipation has just lost ane 3 advocate, by the death of Sir James-Mackintosh, whe ent speeches on this subject in Parliament and at public 1ust be familiar to most of our readers. We havea mela: lea- sure in mentioning that one of the last letters written by ames was to the Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, expres... “is re- gret that severe indisposition had prevented him fre.. »\ionding the General Meeting on the 12th of May—ata crisis it was more than ever incumbent on the friends of humani‘ suously
to support the cause.
X:— Donations and Remittances in aid of the Fur he Anti- Slavery Soctety, since the General Meeting, M 1832. i - 4h Collection at the General Meeting 80 15 11 Rey, H. Campbell, Dunkirk House, Minchinhar, (annual) 1 RO Ditto ditto . . (donation) 010 0 Mr. John Rogers, 34, Lombard Street (annual) 010 6 Canterbury Association ; - (payment) 2) oe Contributions from Colebrookdale : e 111059 Nottingham Association . . . . . ( payment) Babes 5 aly Contributions from Horsham : oS 190 Durham Ladies’ Association . . . (dontition) 4°50 Shrewsbury Association . . . . (donation) . 3 5 O TREO. MORO Mec ears Petit (payment) ot too A Friend per Mrs. Bagster id - 0 5.0 Lincoln Association per Mr. W. Brooke (donation). . sO oe Liverpool Ladies’ Association . . . (donation) . 15 0 0
* * It is intended to publish in future, in the Antr-Stavery | Recor, a list of the Donations and Remittances as they are re- ceived from month to month.
The audited accounts of the Receipts and Expenditure of the Anti-Slavery Society for the year 1831, witha list of the Subseribers, | have been printed, and will be issued to yrs. ei with ther Re- | porter for May, No. 96.
oo a ee ee ee ee Sere ee SS ee eee §. Bagster, Jun., Printer,14, Bartholomew Giank, anes
The Anti-Slavery Kecord.
No. 3. 1s Pye BS ES eae S PRICE ONE PENNY.
I. WEST INDIAN DISTRESS eh. Ta one en ee es | Il. RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA: VIZ.
1. The Jamaica Assembly and Earl Belmore , . als a 20
2. Declarations against Slavery, by Mr. Beaumont and Mr. i ee een A 3. Resolutions of the Black Freeholders of Kingston . . 29 4. Report of the Jamaica Assembly on the Rebellion. . . 30 5. Protest of the Baptist Missionaries . . . . . « « 34 6. Protest of the Wesleyan Missionaries . . . . . « 32 | 7. Ferocious Assaults on Rev. E. Baylis and Rev. Mr. Bleby 1b. | 8. Case of Mr. Daly and the Slave Damsel . . « «© ~ S34 | 9. Execution of Negro Prisoners . . « «+ « «© « « 39 | 10. Delegates to England from Jamaica. . ». « « + ib. | 11. Miscellaneous Notices . . « «© «© 2 « « - 36 | 401, DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES « + * «© 6 «© «© ¢ ib,
“\.—-WEST INDIAN DISTRESS,
(Anti-Slavery Reporter, No.'97.)
Tuis tract is an examination of a very voluminous Report of the House of Commons’ Committee “ On the Causes and Remedy of West India Distress, with the Evidence taken.” The writer, in refutation of the exr-parté evidence brought forward on this occa- sion, shows that the distress of the West India planters is neither recent nor peculiar. He proves, on the unanswerable authority of their own advocates and their own official reports, that ‘‘ with oc- casional gleams of prosperity, which have served only to aggravate the planters’ general embarrassments, the whole history of West
India speculation, for the last seventy or eighty years, has been, if
we believe themselves, a succession of losses and disasters of the most extensive and overwhelming description.” He then exa- mines, calmly and ‘in detail, the alleged causes of their present distress, as brought forward by the West Indians to support their claims for public relief; and clearly demonstrates the fallacy or in- sufficiency of those causes. Finally, he exhibits the real causes of West India distress—causes inevitably resulting from the impo- litic and iniquitous system which this nation has too long tolerated in its colonial possessions, and of which the abominations are now too clearly seen to be longer endured by a Christian people.
The argument of the Reporter is, on the whole, in remarkable agreement with the view taken of this subject by Viscount Gode- rich in his despatch of the 5th November last, lately laid before Parliament. “ The existence of severe commercial distress,” says his Lordship, “ amongst all classes of society connected with the West Indies, is unhappily but too evident. Yet what is the just inference from this admitted fact? Not that the body should yield
D
26 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
to despair, but that we should deliberately retrace the steps of that policy which has led to so disastrous an issue. Without denying the concurrence of many causes, it is obvious that the great and permanent source of that distress which almost every page of the history of the West Indies records is to be found in the insiitu- tion of Slavery. Itis vain to hope for long-continued prosperity in any country in which the people are not dependent on their own voluntary labour for support, in which labour is not prompt- ed by legitimate motives and does not earn its natural reward,” &e. And again, “ [ cannot but regard the system itself as the perennial spring of those distresses of which, not at present merely, but during the whole of the last fifty years, the complaints have been so frequent and so just.” ;
eae ee
II.— RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
We have received, by the last packet, files of West India news- papers to the 12th of May. They are filled with intelligence of unusual interest and importance; and we hasten to select a few of the principal topics which most readily admit of being noticed, either in detail or by reference, in our monthly summary.
1. The Jamaica Assembly and the Earl of Belmore.
On the 26th of April the House of Assembly presented an ad- dress to Lord Belmore, on the eve of his departure from the Colony. After some complimentary observations on his Lord- ship’s acceptable and successful administration of the government, the address proceeds in the following terms :—
“‘ We will do no more than advert to the severe distresses under which the inhabitants of the country are at present labouring, be- cause your Excellency is aware of them, and we cannot accuse your Excellency of having contributed to them in any way; but we hope that the local knowledge of the real condition of the slaves of this island, which your Excellency’s residence has enabled you to obtain, will induce your Excellency to declare the honest con- viction of your own unbiassed judgment respecting this important national question, whenever it may be agitated in parliament, and the real nature of which, we believe your Excellency will agree, is not known in Great Britain, and cannot be ascertained but by residence in the Colony, ora solemn parliamentary enquiry.”
Lord Belmore, after some exchange of complimentary courtesies, and whilst declaring his opinion adverse to any sudden measure of emancipation, remarks, in reply to this part of the address, that “‘ The real condition of the slaves, it is true, must be seen to be known, and then it admits of various gradations;’—but ‘“‘ the cause of your present distress results from that policy by which slavery was originally established, and this fine island can never develope the abundance of its resources while slavery continues.”
2. Declarations against Slavery in the Assembly of Jamaica, by Mr. Beaumont and Mr. Watkis. The Jamaica Assembly, in their address to Lord Belmore, assert that the real nature of the slavery question is not known in Bri-
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 27
tain,—intimating that it is only known in the West Indies. Let us, then, hear the declarations which two members of their own body have recently made on this question, in their own House.
A motion was made in the House of Assembly, about the close of March last, for a sum of money to be voted to enable the Rev. Mr. Wordie, of the Presbyterian Church, to proceed to Scotland, in order to enlist in the Pro-slavery cause the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, “ by explaining to them the delusion under which they laboured in respect of slavery.” On this occasion Mr. Beaumont, in opposing the motion, expressed himself in the fol- lowing terms :—
“¢ Not all the energies, nor eloquence, nor talents, nor sophistry of ten thousand preachers of any sect, from this or any other coun- try, will avail to persuade the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland that slavery is a blessing to humanity. Aye, too well do we in Jamaica know what a curse that system is! Legislators of Jamaica, look around you; behold the condition of your own country ; contemplate the acts of other lands; behold the rapid march of free institutions over the civilized world, and say, if by wasting the means of an impoverished and almost ruined island, by establishing a new hierarchy, you can perpetuate slavery here ?” *¢ The decree of nature has gone forth to all the world, and man must obey it. Slavery has heard the award of destruction against her, and her partizans’ efforts will not save her. But they them- selves perhaps may perish under her ruins.” “Are not the lower orders of your free [black and coloured] population (now admit- ted to the same political rights as yourselves) closely connected by the strongest ties of nature with your slaves? Can you prevent — the spirit infused into that class. from breathing its liberty-loving influence into that other class, with which it is allied by the tender-
‘est relations and sympathies?” ‘I merely ask you to see the coming events—‘ casting their shadows before’—and which it re- quires no power of political prophecy to predict.” “Can any preacher of any sect stop this tide of human feeling? Let him first arrest the ebb of the ocean!” ‘To perpetuate slavery you must not alone banish sectarian ministers—you must stop the pro- gress of civilization ; you must not barely fetter—you must destroy the press; you must cease to express your opinions in this House —at your public meetings—at your private tables; you must be yourselves the worst of slaves, in order to perpetuate the slavery of others—of men speaking the same language as yourselves,”
After some observations in exculpation of the “Sectarian Mis- sionaries” from the accusation of being instrumental in exciting the late slave insurrection, Mr. Beaumont proceeded to point out the futility—the disastrous folly—of attempting to continue the same course which they (the planters of Jamaica) had pursued during the last eight years, and of which the results had been so
_ ruinous to their own interests and to the prosperity of the island. _“ Your rule of politics,” he continued, “ must conform to the changes in the public opinion here and in Britain: it must conform to the changes which have taken place in the mass of the people
28 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
for whom you are legislating. Thus it is that you will render your — properties secure: thus it is that you will secure your homes from the firebrand of the incendiary—your lives from the knife of the assassin—your wives, sisters, daughters from pollution. By a wise, a liberal, a just policy, give to each man in the country, be his complexion or condition what it may, an interest in preserv- ing your institutions—in protecting your property; then, and then — only, will you be safe.” ' In the same spirit Mr. Watkis, on the 11th of April, moved for — the appointment of a Committee, to enquire into and adjust the — differences between the Jamaica Legislature and the parent Govern- ment. Mr. W. is agentleman of colour, who has obtained a seat in the Assembly in consequence of the late concession of political rights to the free coloured class, and who has ably joined Mr. Beaumont (the latter formerly a stout opponent, but now apparent- ly a thorough convert to the cause of Negro emancipation), in stemming the foaming torrent of bitter prejudice—of headlong and virulent animosity—which still carries forward that contumacious conclave in their perilous and preposterous career. ‘My object,” said the honourable member, “ in submitting this — motion to the consideration of the House, is to obtain the aid of a © Committee in order to ascertain whether there is not some com- — mon ground of mutual advantage on which the House might be — recommended to co-operate with the parent country in settling, om a final and beneficial basis, the great questions that have given birth : to the unhappy differences which now sever us! That such a set- tlement might be effected, or at all events very much facilitated, E { am firmly convinced, provided the two parties could once be ~ brought into amicable contact. The ultimate aim of my present — motion is to place them, if possible, in this conciliating relation towards each other. Much is in our power, and much will be re-— quired at our hands. To us are confided the very issues of the social destiny—the most solemn trust man could hold for man. And, on the wise and temperate manner in which we discharge this high trust, depend the present safety and future hopes of this community. When, Sir, we regard the advancing state of political philosophy, as well in our own community as in all the civilized na- tions of the globe, it appears to me to be the wildest of hopes to expect, by any efforts in our power, to secure the perpetuation of slavery ; and when again we meditate for a moment on the almost mortal agony through which this country has just and scarcely strug-— gled, it is surely even worse than wild to wish to perpetuate a system which, be it remembered, not in our day and country only, but throughout all times and in all lands where it has existed, has en- gendered the same monstrous brood of evils—has led to the same results of insurrection, woe, and crime. Again, Sir, if we judge by the known principles of human nature, or appeal to the experi- ence of all history, we cannot avoid arriving at the conviction that all governments, founded on the exclusion of the mass from a par- ticipation in political rights, are by the very law of their constitu- tion liable to change; they contain within themselves the elements”
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 29
of their own decay and ultimate destruction. And why? Because they are based on the principles of force and fear—not on those of happiness and love. It is manifest that such governments can be maintained only by the moral influence of superior intelligence or by the coercion of superior physical power. As the Negro ex- changes (which he is rapidly doing) his ignorance for enlighten- ment, the spell wherewith superior intelligence may for awhile have bound the slumbering energies of his soul must dissolve, and, when that enlightenment shall haye attained a certain point, it is clear as the sun at noon that no physical force we can raise will be sufficient to control him. It is impossible, too, to disguise from ourselves the fact that our Negroes have now nearly attained that measure of enlightenment at which they must cease to be slaves ; and, without pretending to the mantle of prophecy, it is not diffi- cujt to predict that, if some steps are not speedily taken, we shall again, and that perhaps soon, have to mourn our ruined fortunes and murdered kindred. Situated therefore as we are, with such dark- ening prospects around us, it assuredly behoves us in timely resigna- tion to descend from our pride of place, instead of brooding over schemes of bootless opposition to a tide of change which we can neither stem nor turn, and in which gathering flood all opposition must eventually be whelmed. If we offer, in a spirit of wise and liberal concession, to co-operate with the British Government, we shall be met with a like spirit of wisdom and concession, from which good must flow to all parties and evil to none. I have been ecient with calumny on account of the very humble part that - [ haye taken in promoting what, in my conscience, I believe to be the real interests of this island. But no persecution, no hate, no calumny shall ever for one instant deter me from expressing and enforcing my opinions through the constitutional organ of this House. Those opinions are the unchangeable convictions of my reason, and, so long as life and opportunity are left me, I will un- ceasingly labour to advance that noblest work—the political and moral regeneration of mankind,” .
Mr. Beaumont seconded the motion.
Mr. Lynch said that agreeably to the resolution entered into at an early period of the sessions, which resolution he read, no mea- sure, having for its object the further amelioration of slavery, could be entertained by the House.
The Speaker, being appealed to, said that the rule did apply — The motion was therefore lost. .
3. Resolutions of the Black Freeholders of Kingston.
On the 16th of April, a public meeting of the Black Free- holders of the town of Kingston was held, and a series of resolu- tions unanimously passed by them, declaratory, 1. of their loyal attachment to the King and Constitution of Great Britain ;— 2. of their desire, “‘ by legal means, to secure to all classes of his Majesty’s subjects in this island the blessings of the free constitution of Great Britain ;”—3. of the falsehood of the in- sinuation that they (the Free Blacks) are “inimical to the amelio- : D2
30 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA,
ration and ultimate emancipation of their brethren in slavery ;”— 4. of their accordance on all material questions with their Coloured Brethren, and their readiness to co-operate with them, and with all liberal and just men, in every constitutional effort for promoting the welfare of all classes in the island ;—-5. that they “ respect the rights of private property not less than they desire the wel- fare of their brethren in slavery ;” and that ‘‘ while looking for- ward to the ultimate emancipation of the slaves, pursuant to the resolution of Parliament and of his Majesty’s Government,” they consider that the best redress for evil is to be found in the effectual melioration of law and the abandonment of illiberat prejudices ;—6. ‘* That not having exercised the right of the elec- tive franchise, by means of a general dissolution of the House of Assembly,” they “ cannot be considered as represented by the legislators by whose laws they are governed ;”—7. “ That, in pur- suance of the foregoing sentiments, they will cordially join their liberal-minded brethren, of every complexion, in any Petition or Memorial to his Majesty, or his Government, for the final settle- ment of the question of slavery, so that the peace and security of the island may at once be established on a permanent basis.” ..q=%
iS
4. Report of the Jamaica Assembly on the late Rebellion.
While these important and premonitory declarations of opinion have been made by two members of the Colonial Legislature within the House of Assembly, by a public meeting of Free Blacks without, and by the late Governor on the eve of his departure from the Colony, what has been the conduct of the Assembly itself as a body? It has been, we regret to say, in perfect accord- ance with the course it has so long and so insanely followed.
On the 26th of April the Assembly ordered the Report of their Committee on the Rebellion to be published in the several papers of the island. This report, accordingly, promulgates to the Colony, and to the British empire, the followimg points, as the solemn de- claration of the Jamaica Legislature, in regard to the causes of *¢ the late rebellion :”—
‘« The primary and most powerful cause arose from an evil excite- ment, created in the minds of our slaves generally, by the unceasing and unconstitutional interference of his Majesty’s Ministers with our local legislature, in regard to the passing of laws for their govern- ment, with the intemperate expression of the sentiments of the pre- sent Ministers, as well as other individuals in the Commons’ House of Parliament, in Great Britain, on the subject of slavery; such dis- cussion, coupled with the false and wicked reports of the Anti-Slavery Society, having been industriously circulated by the aid of the press throughout this island, as well as the British empire.
‘‘ Secondly, from a delusive expectation, produced among the whole of the slave population, by the machinations of crafty and evil-disposed persons, who, taking advantage of the prevailing ex- citement, imposed upon their disturbed imagination a belief that they were to be free after Christmas, and, in the event of freedom being then withheld from them, they ‘ must be prepared to fight for it.’ . A
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA, 31
“Thirdly, from a mischievous abuse existing in the system adopted by different religious sects in this island, termed Baptists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Moravians, by their recognising grada- tions of rank among such of our slaves as had become converts to their doctrines, whereby the less ambitious, and more peaceable, among them, were made the dupes of the artful and intelligent, who had been selected by the preachers of those particular sects to fill the higher offices in their chapels, under denomination of rulers, elders, leaders, and helpers; and, lastly, the public discussions of the free inhabitants here, consequent upon the continued sug- gestions made by the King’s Ministers, regarding further mea- sures of amelioration to be introduced into the slave code of this island, and the preaching and teaching of the religious sects called Baptists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Moravians (but more particu- larly the sect called Baptists), which had the effect of producing, in the minds of the slaves, a belief that they could not serve both a spiritual and a temporal master, thereby occasioning them to resist the lawful authority of their temporal, under the delusion of render- ing themselves more acceptable to a spiritual master.”
The report proceeds to state the amount of damage sustained by the insurrection in the several districts in which the troubles prevailed ; and this damage is estimated to extend in the aggregate to £1,154,583. 2s. 1d.—‘ to which is to be added the sum of £161,596. 19s. 9d, being the expense incurred in suppressing the late rebellion,’—and a further expense, not yet ascertained, for the pay and rations of the Maroons and detachments of mi- litia, who (as it thus appears) are still employed in hunting down such of the insurgents as “‘ have not surrendered themselves, but remain out, and are sheltered amongst the almost inaccessible forests and fastnesses in the interior districts of the island.”
The evidence on which this extraordinary report is founded will doubtless be forthwith called for in Parliament, and laid before the public eye. In the mean while the Baptist and Wesleyan mis- sionaries have inserted in the public papers of Jamaica their so- lemn protest against the charges so audaciously promulgated against their conduct and character. Those protests may be seen at full in a sheet just issued by the Anti-slavery Society, entitled “ Recent Intelligence from the West Indies.” Our limits constrain us to advert to them more cursorily.
5. Protest of the Baptist Missionaries.
Repelling with the highest indignation the calumnious charges against them in the Assembly’s report—‘** charges which cannot be substantiated,” and which “ they dare the Rebellion Committee to prove,” they conclude in the following terms :
‘« Deep-rooted and unbending prejudice has been manifested to- wards them by men from whom they ought to have received protec- tion. Bribery, perjury, and every species of iniquity have been resorted to, for the purpose of criminating the ‘ Baptist missionaries in particular,’ but in vain; and yet the ‘ Rebellion Committee’ have condemned them unheard—have found them guilty on evidence which the missionaries have never been made acquainted with; conse- quently, neither themselves nor their friends have had an opportunity
32 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
of disproving it,—and have condemned, in toto, preaching which they have never heard.
«© These facts, to the enlightened and unprejudiced public of Great Britain, will afford sufficient proof that the ‘ Rebellion Com- mittee’ have merely chosen this apparently favourable opportunity for the purpose of expressing their determined and long-cherished hatred to religion and its propagators, and they will, at the same time, tend to establish, more firmly than ever, the unimpeachable
characters of ‘< Tur Baptist Misstonariks.”’
«« Kingston, May 8th, 1832.”
6. Protest of the Wesleyan Missionaries.
The Protest of the Wesleyans is not less energetic. They de- clare ‘‘ That as neither the Wesleyan missionaries, nor the leaders in their societies, were directly or indirectly concerned in insti- gating, or in any way aiding in the late rebellion, we consider the aforesaid report, as far as it relates to the ‘ Wesleyan Methodists,’ utterly false and unfounded, nearly all the ‘ leaders’ being re- spectable free persons, most of whom are owners of slaves.” They deny expressly that there are any “ gradations of rank” recognised in their societies, in connection with the slaves, but members and ‘leaders,’ of whom they ‘ entertain the highest opinion, and whose conduct is unimpeachable.”
This Protest is stated to be signed by all present at a meeting of Wesleyan missionaries and leaders, convened at Kingston, on the 10th of May, 1832; and copies “ signed by the chairman and secretary in behalf of the seventeen missionaries, and four hundred and forty-six leaders, are directed to be immediately forwarded to the Governor, and also transmitted to the Wesleyan Committee in London, in order to be presented to his Majesty.
7. Further Persecutions.—Attack on the Rev. E. Baylis.—Attack on the Rev. Mr. Bleby.
In our last Number (see page 23) we briefly mentioned, on the authority of a private letter, a ferocious assault on a Baptist mis- sionary. We now find this case detailed in the “ Watchman,” accompanied by a note addressed to the Editor of that journal, by the Rev. W. Knibb, in the following terms :—
«« T have received from tbe Rev. Edward Baylis the inclosed ac- count of the atrocious and blood-thirsty attack made upon him and his family by armed banditti who are now infesting this country, and who, with their associates, have already destroyed property to the amount of twenty thousand pounds, without any measures being adopted to bring them to justice.”
Mr. Baylis’ statement is as follows :—
*¢ On Friday evening, the 6th of April, as we were retiring to rest, a mob of white men, chiefly overseers and book-keepers, armed with
swords, muskets, bayonets, and pistols, rode up to our peaceful habi- ©
tation at Mount Charles, howling as they approached the house like a company of savages. After they had entered the gate of the pre- mises they met with the watchman, a poor faithful old free Negro, who was about to give an alarm. Though he had nothing wherewith to
‘
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 33
defend himself, they fell upon him and cut him very severely with their swords on his head and body, and stabbed him with a bayonet in his side. He now lies in a dangerous state, and fears are entertained of his death. i
_ When these champions of the ‘ Colonial Church Union’ reached the dwelling-house, they commenced their operations by breaking open the door and firing their muskets into the house. They then proceeded to destroy the bed-room windows, forcing in the glass- framed shutters with such violence that the bed on which Mrs. Baylis and our little infant were reposing was literally covered with the frag- ments. They then discharged their muskets and pistols in each of the bed-room windows (but in much mercy our heavenly Father prevented their murderous designs from being accomplished ), while one of them put his arm through one of the windows, took a lighted candle from off the table, and endeavoured with it to set fire to the bed-room. Mrs. Baylis prevented this by putting out the light ere any of the furniture in the room had ignited.
*« After this these murderous members of this church-destroying society demolished the windows in the house, swearing that the house shoald be destroyed that night, while some of them broke open the stores, calling aloud for fire to burn them, but in this they were de- feated.
««T went unarmed to the door and remonstrated with them, when some appeared ashamed of their conduct, but others grew more vio- lent. By this time an alarm was sounded in the neighbourhood, when the wretches made a precipitate retreat. Though we are in a part of the country not thickly inhabited, soon more than three hundred persons, coloured and black, ran to our assistance, and, had not these midnight marauders made off on their horses, the death they had in- tended for us would have doubtless been their lot.
«« The coloured and black population around us are now on the alert, and under their protection we feel ourselves comparatively safe, and are highly thankful to that Divine Being who so mercifully preserved us when exposed to imminent danger.”
The attack on Mr. Baylis was on the evening of the 6th of April, 1832. On the following night, it appears, another Wesleyan Mi- nister and his family were assaulted and maltreated by a gang of ruffians of the same “respectable class.” We extract the following account of it from the Watchman of Apmil 14th :—
«« Between seven and nine o’clock on Saturday evening, the 7th (April, 1832), as the Rev. Mr. Bleby, a Wesleyan minister, and his lady, were sitting to tea at their hired residence in Falmouth, a band of white and one or two coloured ruffians rushed into the house and seized him, using extremely violent and abusive language, calling him a d——d preaching villain, &c. &c.; they then forced Mr. B. to the opposite side of the room, four or five holding him whilst one struck him violently on the head: they were all armed with blud-
‘geons. One of the ruffians brought a keg of tar into the room, and, ‘whilst some held him, others spread the tar with their hands over his head, face, breast, and clothes. Whilst this brutal assault was going on, the fellow named Dobson, who struck Mr. Bleby, attempted to set Mr. B.’s pantaloons on fire, but was prevented by one of the gang. He immediately after applied the candle to the tar on Mr. B.’s breast, but Mrs. Bleby seeing it dashed the candle from his hand, and it went out, In attempting to interpose between the ruffians and Mr,
34 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
B., Mrs. Bleby was seized by one of them and dashed violently on the floor, the effect of which, our informant affirms, she still severely feels. ‘Two of the gang attempted to lock her in the pantry, but she managed to elude their intention. By this time, the alarm having been given, some people came to Mr. and Mrs. Bleby’s assistance, and commenced an attack on the villains who were below stairs; this so alarmed those that were employed above that they left Mr. Bleby, and hastened to the assistance of their fellows, and eventually made their escape, but not until two or three had received the drubbing which they richly deserved—one so much so as to endanger his life. About this time Mrs. Bleby with her child escaped through the crowd, without her bonnet and with one shoe, the villains having first bedaubed her and her child (about five months old) with tar!! Mr. B., who was guarded by a party of coloured and black young men, took shelter in a neighbouring house, Mr. Miller, with a party of the 22nd regiment, soon after arrived on the spot, to whom Mr. B. stated what had occurred, and claimed protection at their hands. Mr, B. was taken to the barracks for the night, and Mrs. Bleby was kind- ly sheltered by the lady of the Clerk of the Peace, who offered her all requisite assistance. On Sunday the attack was to have been renewed, but it did not take place. As a specimen of Falmouth justice, the young men who went to Mr. Bleby’s assistance were disarmed, by authority, and are to-day to be tried by a court-martial
pil the crime of protecting a missionary, his wife, and harmless in- bt
8. Another Council of Protection— Mr. Daly and the slave Damsel.
On the 25th of April a Council of Protection was held at Black River, to investigate the complaint of a female slave, named Dam- sel, against a Mr. Daly, who it appears is a Magistrate anda Quarter-master General of Militia. The slave stated that her master ‘ had stripped her stark naked in the back part of his yard, then burnt all her clothes, and commanded a sentry to march her to the. guard-house, through the streets, in a state of perfect nudity.” These facts were admitted by Mr. Daly. His defence was, that the woman was a person of very bad character, and that he sus- pected she had concealed about her person sundry trinkets which he had lost from time to time. Mr. George Daly, son of the de- fendant, deposed that the defendant had stolen a glass of rum from the sideboard, and that his father had ordered him to put her under charge of the sentinel. Mr. R. Daly, nephew of the defendant, Mr. Walkins, supervisor of the workhouse, a Mr. Isaacs, and Fe- licia, a slave of Mr. Daly’s, with whom Damsel had had a quar- rel, gave evidence that “ Mr. Daly was a good master,” and that they considered the complainant to be “‘an abandoned and profli- gate character.” In fine, the slave-woman’s complaint was com- pletely substantiated, while nothing was proved against her except the stealing of the glass of rum, which it appears was the real cause of her maltreatment. ‘Upon this evidence the Court de-— cided that the complaint was founded, inasmuch as the punishment — complained of was inflicted ; but also felt it a duty incumbent on them to state, as their further opinion, that, the yy having
been proved to be a most infamous and abandoned character, she
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 35
richly merited a more severe punishment, had it been otherwise administered ; and, in conclusion, deemed further proceedings unnecessary.”’— Watchman, May 9, 1832.
9. Execution of Negro Prisoners.
From a letter addressed to the Editor in the same number of the Watchman (April 25), it would appear that the execution of the insurgents was still going on so late as the 3rd of that month, and under circumstances of a very suspicious and revolting cha- racter. The following is an extract :—
«« It will be in the recollection of many of your readers that a few years ago several individuals were tried in the county of Cornwall for the most wretched abuse of magisterial power ever known in the British dominions, viz., the execution of a poor man without trial or hearing, for which crime they well nigh forfeited their lives, and for which they ought never again to have been invested with any degree of authority in one shape or other. But, what will be said, when it is known that some of these very individuals are still permitted to fill an office which they have so disgraced, and to exercise a power so wantonly abused? Some of these identical individuals, who stand branded in the sight of God and man with the crime of murder, are allowed to sit in judgment on others, and to send them by dozens, and by scores, into the eternal world! It cannot possibly be known to the Executive what ravages these men are making, or it would certainly be prevented. There is nothing, I believe, to equal it at the present day on the face of the earth, unless indeed it be in the dominions of the blood-thirsty tyrant Don Miguel. It is soul- sickening to see fourteen or twenty-two poor deluded creatures (of whom it is more than probable some are innocent of any crime, un- less it be that they have, by worshipping God, provoked the ire of a ruthless villain of an overseer) led out, and, without pity or com- passion, launched into eternity. The land is indeed, in an awful sense, filled with blood. It is true, justice requires that some terri- ble examples should be made to deter others from crime ; but no end can possibly be answered by such an indiscriminate slaughter, except it be to gratify that insatiable thirst for blood which these lawless ruffians feel.”’
10. Delegates to England from the Jamaica Assembly.
The Royal Gazette of Jamaica of the 28th April, 1832, an- nounces that the House of Assembly had appointed the Hon. Richard Barrett, Speaker, and the Hon. Abraham Hodgson, mem- bers of their House, to proceed to England forthwith, ‘ for the purpose of laying their grievances at the foot of the Throne for redress.” The object in view is stated to be to * obtain substantial justice and permanent relief against the undeserved calamities” which “ the unjustly oppressed and deeply calumniated inhabitants”
of that island “ now endure and are further threatened with.’*
In plain English, they are sent to protest against any further interference with their treatment of their human live stock—to cla- mour against the Missionaries—and to urge, as a point of “ sub- stantial justice,” the claims of the West Indians to pecuniary re- lef from Government, and to a continuance of the system of
36 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.—DONATIONS, &c.
bounties and protecting duties on slave-grown produce. Is it pos- sible that in the year 1832—and when the abominations of slavery have been so fully unveiled to the British public, they can hope to succeed in such a mission ?
11. Miscellaneous Notices.
The great importance of the intelligence from Jamaica has in- duced us to devote to it almost the whole of the present number; and, after all, there is a variety of topics to which we can merely advert in passing.
1. Mr. Jordon, the Editor of the Watchman, has been tried for a capital felony, for having, in his paper of the 7th of April last, used the following language :—‘ Now that the member of West- moreland (Mr. Beaumont) is on our side, we shall be happy, with him and the other friends of humanity, to give a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together, until we bring down the system by the run, knock off the fetters, and let the oppressed go free.” Mr. Jordon has for the present escaped only by a failure in the proof of editorship.
2. Poor Henry Williams, the persecuted Jamaica slave, has been driven at length, by intolerable usage, to make his escape from prison (in which he had been confined for praying with some of his enslaved brethren), and has absconded.
3. The intelligence from some of the other slave colonies is also highly interesting. In our next number we propose to notice briefly the state of affairs in the Bahamas, Trinidad, St. Lucia, and the Cape of Good Hope. From the last-mentioned colony — we have some grievous cases of cruelty, which ought to be more generally known.
4. The fortieth anniversary meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society was held on the 21st of June, at which the Rev. Messrs. — Philippo and Knibb, Baptist Missionaries, and the Rev. J. Barry (Wesleyan) delivered most interesting addresses respecting the per- secutions in Jamaica, and declared their conviction of the utter incompatibility of colonial slavery with Christianity. III.—DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN AID OF THE FUNDS OF
THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, DURING THE PRECEDING MONTH. ~
- Ae ey Donation from the Society of Friends, from ‘a sub- scription raised to aid in promoting the total abo-
lition of the slave-trade and slavery” . ; - 1000 0 0 P. Sewell, Esq. . : : : ; : 1 tg Ladies’ Association at Newcastle-under-Lyne
(donation) 7 0° °0 William West, Esq., Leeds . A - (donation) 5 0 0 Mrs. Christian ; : ; . (donation) 0 5 0 Mrs. Hannah More : : - (annual) 1° 0g A. R. Barclay, Esq. _. : i . (angualy ~“T1 @ J. Braithwaite, Jun., Esq. . ; ; E ; (pages
S. Bagster, Jun., Printer,14, Bartholomew Close, London.
Che Anti-Slavery MecordD,
No. 4. AUGUST 1, 1832. & PRICE ONE PENNY.
I.—ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, NO. 98 :— 1. Slavery incompatible with Free Institutions for the Masters . 37 2. Liberation of Forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves . . . . 38
3. Persecution of Samuel Swiney . .-. 2 2 6 «© «© «© © « OD, 4. Female Flogging in Jamaica . . . 1... +++. . 89 dS Pogsing kc in the Bahamas 6 enue kmamrrertiors ee TTI OTE i ot abe 7. heport of the Bishop of Jamaica’... 2 ww ww ew tb.
8. Free Black and Coloured Classes . . 1. «. « » + - « «
9. Protection given to Slavesin Jamaica . . . . ». «. «+ « « 2%. iI. ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, NO.99 . . . . «© « «© © « « Wz III.—RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA :—
1. Persecution of ‘The Watchman” SSR a Ee aS
2. Real Causes of the late Insurrection . . « « «© « « « « 41
mS. Persecution of the Missionaries... 0, -..0).,.0. 06 paso sete ely We
IV.—SLAVERY AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE ... «+ « « « 42
Case of Laubscher and Lodewyk . . . «+2 «© + - « ss 43 ¥.—THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW ON SLAVERY stehetews lieu gs Stat) Seat Wie —=DONATIONS ANDOREMITTANCES 9$ 20 60s ee fe we ae 4B
I.—ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, NO. 98.
Tuis number consists of an Abstract of the recent official com- munications between the Colonial Secretary of State and the Colonies, embracing a variety of interesting topics. It is obviously impracticable to give any useful or intelligible abstract of what is itself a condensed abstract of a voluminous and important corre- spondence. We can, therefore, only briefly advert to a few interest- ing points.
1. Slavery incompatible with Free Institutions for the Masters.
In the correspondence respecting the constitution of Trinidad there are some excellent observations by Lord Goderich on the evil effects of entrusting the owners of slaves with legislative privileges. “1 know not,” says his Lordship, ‘‘ how to reconcile the full en- joyment of civil freedom with the maintenance of domestic slavery. In a society of which the law or custom recognizes the relation of master and slave, it is necessary that. the most effective security should be taken against the abuse, not only of the domestic au- thority of the owner, but of all those powers with which he may be entrusted, either as a magistrate or legislator. But experience has demonstrated that a colonial assembly are in reality exempt from all responsibility, and free from all restraint, so long as they fall in with the opimions of the narrow circle to which the choice of members is confined.” )
F
38 OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS
2. Liberation of Forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves.
The official reports respecting the state and conduct of this class of persons since their emancipation are, as far as they go, very gratifying. Distinct accounts are still wanting from several of the colonies, and especially from the Mauritius and the Cape. Lord Goderich’s general remarks on this subject are highly satis- factory. ‘The principles laid down by his Lordship,” says the Reporter, “are principles of general application, affecting the whole question of slavery, no less than that of the disposal of the colonial gang of Trinidad. We say nothing of those higher con- siderations of morality and religion, of humanity and justice, which it is now universally agreed demand that slavery should be abolished. Its profitableness is now the only plea urged even by its advocates for continuing to uphold it. The argument. of Lord Goderich completely demolishes this plea, and proves its impolicy, even on mere worldly and commercial grounds. In short, he shows slavery to be as foolish as it is admitted to be wicked ; and demonstrates that every day which prolongs the evil only adds to the loss which ‘cannot fail to result from it. The pecuniary profit which a few individuals may derive from it must be viewed by the statesman as standing on a similar footing with the gains derived from offences committed against the well-being of society, and which, while they demoralize the individuals who commit them, are a source of loss, as well as of insecurity, to the public at large.”
3. Persecution of Samuel Swiney, a Jamaica Slave.
In the third volume of Reporter, No. 64, p. 341, some account was given of the illegal and cruel punishment of a slave of the name of Samuel Swiney, at Savanna la Mar, in Jamaica, whose only offence was the having offered up a brief prayer to God. For this offence he was sentenced to be flogged, and to work at hard labour in chains for a fortnight. This iniquitous transaction having been brought under the cognizance of the Secretary of State, Lord Belmore was directed to investigate the case and trans- mit the details to the home Government. After a patient examina- tion of the whole of the evidence transmitted from Jamaica on both sides of the question, the original statement of the Reporter, as given on the authority of the Rey. W. Knibb, the Baptist Mis- sionary, was fully substantiated. Lord Goderich, in his final despatch to the Governor, after entering into a full examination of the case, concludes in the following terms :— The principles of justice and toleration, and the interests of humanity, must not be compromised ; and there is no method of correcting such gross abuses of power as those which the present case discloses, except by the removal of the magistrates who have been guilty of them. I am therefore to convey to your Lordship the King’s commands to erase the names of Messrs. Finlayson and Harden (the presiding magistrates) from the commission of the peace.” 7
*
ON COLONIAL SLAVERY. 39
4. Female Flogging in Jamaica.
By-an official extract from the minutes of the House of Assem- | bly of Jamaica, dated Noy. 22, 1831, it appears that, on a motion being made for a Committee to enquire into the expediency of abolishing the flogging of female slaves, a discussion ensued, when the motion was negatived by a majority of 22,—twenty-five voting against the motion, and three for it. This honourable minority consisted of Mr. Beaumont, Mr. Watkis, and Mr. Salmon.
5. Flogging, §c., in the Bahamas.
Some interesting communications from Sir James Carmichael Smith, Governor of the Bahamas, appear in the Parliamentary Papers of 16th March, 1832, containing observations on the state of the slaves, the temper of the whites, &c., for which we must refer the reader to the Reporter, or to the official papers, content- ing ourselves with the following brief illustrations :-—
The Governor expresses his indignation most strongly at one instance of the abuse of arbitrary power, which has just occurred, in the case of ‘a slave named Ben Moss. This man had actually purchased his freedom, but the deed of manumission for effecting it was not yet legally completed. But though nothing “ could prevent Ben from being’a free man the next day, the attorney of the owner availed himself of almost literally the last hour of his expiring au- thority to inflict thirty-nine lashes on this poor, worn-out old man ;” and, though efforts were made to save him “from the pain and ignominy of this cruel flogging,” yet those efforts were used in vain.
Another case is stated by the governor, of an unfortunate female slave, of the name of Phoebe, who underwent two severe floggings, by order of her master, Mr. Wildgoos, in the common jail, and the second of which the police magistrate, ‘though apprized of, yet took no steps to interfere with, or to prevent, although she had not been out of confinement since the infliction of. her first flogging, and consequently could not have done any thing to have deserved a second punishment of so severe and terrible a nature.”’
6. Slave Insurrection.
The communications of the Governors of Barbadoes, Dominica, Grenada, St. Christopher’s, St, Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, and St. Lucia, concurin giving the most favourable views of the orderly and quiet demeanour of the slave population. See Parliamentary Papers, No. 225, of 1832.
‘7. Report of the Bishop of Jamaica.
A report from the Bishop of Jamaica, dated Aug. 1831, on the progress of religion in his diocese, has been printed by an order of the House of Commons.
This report, like those which have preceded it, is of too vague a description to add much to our former information. The Bishop admits that “ from ¢he almost total absence of proprietors, and many other circumstances, he has met with many obstacles to the estab- lishment of schools in the interior parts of the island ;” and that, “ from their vast extent and scattered population, the parishes are
40 OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS,
at present very inadequately supplied with the means of instruc- tion.” He nevertheless bears his testimony, and his clergy concur in it, “ to the intense and earnest desire, on the part of the slaves, for religious instruction.” On this the Reporter remarks :—‘ To what then are we to attribute the difficulties of which the Bishop of Jamaica complains, but to the indisposition of the legislature, and of the proprietors or their agents, to afford to their slaves the time and the means required for the purpose of Christian instruction? The Sunday is still desecrated to secular objects, to marketing and the cultivation of their grounds. But on this paramount obstacle, this infallible proof of the prevalent indisposition to instruct their slaves, namely, the want of a Sabbath, the Bishop still maintains a guarded silence. Though called upon to give a full and detailed account of the progress of religious improvement, he utters not one word respecting this main hindrance to all his efforts and those of his clergy; nor does he once suggest the expediency of its removal by any legislative provision.” 8. Free Black and Coloured Classes.
These classes, it is well known, have been relieved from all their former degrading disabilities, both civil and political, in the different Crown Colonies of Trinidad, Guiana, St. Lucia, Mauri-
tius, and the Cape of Good Hope; and they now stand precisely:
on the same footing as to rights with the white inhabitants. A re- turn has recently been made to the House of Commons, and printed by-its order, of the laws passed by colonial legislatures on this subject. But for an abstraet of these we must refer to the Reporter.
9. The protection given to Slaves in Jamaica by Law, Magistrates, Grand Juries, and Councils of Protection illustrated.
Under this head the Reporter gives the whole of Lord Gode-
rich’s Letter on the case of the Jacksons, of which the details were.
given in our second number.
os
II.—ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, NO. 99. -
‘This number is partly occupied with the recent intelligence from Jamaica, of which a summary abstract was given in our last
Record (No. 3); and partly with a review of the official corfe~
spondence between Lord Goderich and the Governor of Jamaica, on the causes of the late rebellion. This correspondence is very interesting, and thoroughly corroborates our former conclusion— that the insurrection was entirely owing to the madness and wickedness of the whites themselves. We need hardly add that the despatch of Lord Goderich throws utter discredit on the un- founded suspicions of a participation, on the part of the mission- aries, in any measure for aiding or fomenting this disturbance.
III.—RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 1. Persecution of “The Watchman.” : We have received Jamaica newspapers up to the 30th of May.
OO
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 41
It appears that the prosecution of Mr. Jordon, the Editor of the Watchman, for a capital felony, having failed, as we stated in our last number (see p. 36), a bill has been passed in the House of Assembly, under the title of “the Printer’s Identity Bill,” the ob- ject of which is to suppress entirely the expression of any opinion unpalatable to the dominant class. The bill was opposed only by Mr. Beaumont and Mr. Watkis: by the latter in the following terms :—“ I detest the object of this bill not less than I abhor the spirit of those who concocted it. We never should have heard of such a measure, but for the frustration of their diabolical designs on the life of an obnoxious individual, whose only crime was that he had dared, in the face of power and of personal danger, to ad- vocate, with noble independence, the just rights of all classes of mankind. The day I stood up ina court of justice to defend that injured man I shall always number as one of the proudest days of my life. It will always be one of my sweetest reflections to think that I was, in the slightest degree, instrumental to his deliverance. That deliverance, I know, was a bitter pang to his persecutors. They had set forward in full cry in the track of blood. They had whetted their fangs for the slaughter; and it goads them to think that the intervention, even of law, should have screened the victim from their malice.” ‘ But let me solemnly warn hon. members against the courses they are now pursuing. They are plunging on in a spirit of wild and desperate infatuation, which experience has taught us is the certain precursor of destruction. They are seeking to re-establish their former tyranny in all its force ; but such at- tempts cannot succeed ; they will not succeed ; they must cover the contrivers with disgrace, and bring down upon them the merited hatred and vengeance of those whom they seek to injure.”
2. Real causes of the late Insurrection.
“The late unhappy rebellion has been shamelessly ascribed to the British Government, but do not facts assert the contrary ? The withholding or invading the time or days usually given to the Ne- groes—the highly inflammatory parochial resolutions—the delegate meetings—the discussions of the Assembly concerning the Com- pulsory Manumission Bill, and the mysterious, though actually pretended, secrecy of those discussions—these, we fearlessly assert, were the true moving causes of the late insurrection.” — Watchman, May 16, 1832.
3. Persecution of the Missionaries.
“It was convenient not only to arraign us [ The Watchman] and the British Government, but maliciously to involve the character of the missionaries, whose duty consisted in spreading the gospel of truth, and instructing the uninstructed in the nature of those duties which were commanded by the great founder of Christianity. With the most malignant inveteracy was the ‘black catalogue of opprobrium ransacked to furnish epithets by which to brand the name of missionary. Arrested upon mere suspicion, they were treated by their mhuman captors more like beasts or monsters than
F2
42 SLAVERY AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
men. False witnesses were suborned for the purpose of gratifying their murderous inclinations, and an ignominious death awaited them, had condemnation followed. Statements, as false as mali- cious and sanguinary, were fabricated and published, to inflame the minds of those whose judgments were already perverted, and who were acting under the influence of an irrational and feverish excitement. The missionaries, though confident in their innocence, and conscious of having performed their duty as Christian ministers, were charged with being the instigators of rebellion, and of those alleged crimes at which humanity shudders, and paraded under military escorts to prison. ‘¢ But, to confound their base aspersers, all this ended in the full establishment of their innocence; and these lately injured men now appear in the face of the world in that character which adorned their Divine Master. It cannot be denied that imdignities were offered them by their conscienceless .accusers—by those who -gloried in the idea of their approaching execution or banishment. The Rev. Mr. Pfyeffer (a Moravian missionary) was almost starved in prison ; he was hourly subjected to the grossest insults by a ban- ditti who were placed as a guard over his person ; and it is a well known fact (such was the effect of the base treatment he received at the hands of his inhuman keepers) that he was, on the day of his trial, barely recognizable even by his most intimate friends! ‘He appeared before the court with his face swollen, and so debili- tated from starvation that he had not sufficient strength to read a string of interrogatories to be proposed to his false accusers. This ‘meek, peaceable, and sincere Christian missionary, declared to the court on that memorable day that he had not tasted food for the twenty-four preceding hours! And what was the result of the bar- barity exhibited in the person of this gentleman, though there ap- peared some, as in other similar cases, ready to furnish evidence however palpably untrue and contradictory? He was liberated, and his innocence openly acknowledged. In every case in which an attempt was made to criminate the missionaries the same result followed, undeniably demonstrating the rancour and intemperance which actuated their accusers.”—- Watchman, May 16, 1832.
IV.—SLAVERY AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
A small volume, under the above title, was published last year, by the Rev. Wm, Wright, a clergyman of the church of England and a missionary for ten years in the service of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. This publication is highly creditable to the principles and feelings of the ‘author on the subject of slavery, and contains a great deal of very interesting information in regard to the condition of the slaves and the charac- ter of the slave-holders in South Africa. It is, we apprehend, but little known, even among the zealous friends of Negro Emancipa- on ; and we therefore proceed to extract from it one out of man eases of cruel oppression which it contains, given by the author as exhibiting the brutalizing effects of slavery on the slave-holders
CASE OF LAUBSCHER AND LODEWYK. 43
themselves, as well as illustrative of the state of colonial feeling on the subject. Mr. Wright introduces the case we are about to ex- tract, and a variety of other ones, under the head of “ Trials by Jury,” with the following observations :—
« Being now arrived at the most important part of my subject, the trials before the higher tribunals, I shall have to give some un- fortunate instances of cruelty, which have disgraced the country where I had long resided, and for which I still cherish a warm affection ; and I am sorry to say I have not to travel back to a very distarit period in search of these, as they force themselves upon public notice from their very recency and notoriety, conveying a melancholy proof that the state of public feeling on these subjects is not much improved even at the present day. Indeed I never expected much from the ameliorating system. Experience and observation had taught me that slavery was an evil which did not admit of much amendment. The slave, at least, has not hitherto had much benefit from attempted mitigation. It was sure to pro- duce a strong feeling of irritation and excitement, and every new enactment aggravated the evil; the master viewing it as an unjust and unnecessary tampering with his hereditary rights, and in this spirit attempting to counteract the intention of the Legislature by increased severity to his slaves, or by denying to them many little indulgences which he was naturally more gratified in spontaneously dispensing from the treasures of his own bounty, than im having them exacted by the more ungracious process of legislative com- pulsion. Thus only can I account for the state of public feeling which seems now to pervade a community who have been much praised for comparative lenity to those in bondage, and who bear the character of a humane, sedate, and moral people. And I firmly believe that, had there been long since a decisive measure, con- templating at no distant period the eventual abolition of slavery, it would have given more ultimate satisfaction, and have been much less irritating in its effects, than the measures which have been adopted, or any others, however well intended and admirably exe- euted, which had no other apparent end than that of mitigating the unnatural and unmanageable system. .
“ The first case which presents itself on this occasion, not so much from its peculiar atrocity as from the feeling which it created, and the consequences to which it seems to have led, is that of Coenrad Hendrik -Laubscher, who was found guilty before the Supreme Court of an assault committed on Lodewyk, the slave of J. A. Truter, on the 3rd of January, 1830, under the following circum~ stances :—”’
Case of Laubscher and Lodewyk.
In the year 1827 the slave Lodewyk, at that time the property of this same Laubscher, was prosecuted before the Supreme Court, at the instance of his master, by the fiscal, or attorney-general of the colony. The indictment was for a personal assault upon his _ master, which, by the colonial slave law, was a capital offence. The Protector of Slaves, in his official report of the trial, states that the charge was that “‘ Lodewyk had struck his master several blows
A4 CASE OF LAUBSCHER AND LODEWYK:
about the face and head, either with his fist or some hard substance enclosed within his hand, by which Laubscher was severely cut and bruised.”
“¢ The prisoner, having heard the charge, stated that his master, having slept the whole night in his waggon, which was outspanned (unyoked, and the horses allowed to graze), at the Drie Fonteinen, on getting up on a Friday morning called him to put on his shoes; and that, whilst he was so doing, his master said that he hurt his foot, and thereupon kicked him violently on his throat, and struck him several blows ; and, on coming down from the waggon, was reaching his gun, when he (prisoner), being apprehensive that his master intended to shoot him, clasped him round the body to prevent him, when he, Laubscher, in consequence of the horses moving on, fell against some of the iron-work of the waggon, by which his face was much cut and bruised. That he (the prisoner), seeing this, ran off, to get out of the reach of the gun, saying, at the same time, that he did not intend to desert, but that he knew where he would go,—meaning, that he would go to Cape Town to complain of his master’s ill usage: showing at the same time a wound on his head, which he stated to have been inflicted by his master with the thick end of the waggon-whip; that he accord- ingly did come to town for RE Bp Mr. Servaas de Kock caused him to be apprehended ; the said Laubscher having previously arrived in town, and lodged his complaint at the Landdrost’s office.”
Laubscher, in his deposition, affirmed that Lodewyk had struck him on the head and face; and alleged that he had struck Lodewyk with the handle of his waggon-whip in self-defence. Mentor, a slave boy (to whom Laubscher had promised his freedom just before the trial, ) corroborated thisstatement. And upon this evidence— for there was no other witness present—the Court condemned Lodewyk to death! |
From this iniquitous sentence, however, poor Lodewyk was saved by an appeal to the Lieutenant-Governor (the worthy and humane General Bourke), who, as Judge in the Court of Appeals, reversed the sentence and acquitted the prisoner.
General Bourke, however, it appears, could not protect this un- fortunate man from the implacable vengeance of Laubscher. Mr. Wright thus narrates the sequel of the story; giving at the same time, in his Appendix, the whole details of the legal evidence on the subsequent trial of Laubscher, from which his statement is abridged :—
“ But another mode of punishment was in reserve for the ill+ fated Lodewyk, to which I beg the reader’s particular attention. During the period of his imprisonment, Laubscher had sold Lode-
k to one Bester, his son-in-law, under the express stipulation that he should never be allowed again to visit his wife and child- ren, who were still slaves of Laubscher. The children were three in number, aged two, five, and seven years. Bester subsequently sold Lodewyk to Mr. J. A. Truter, under the sane ep Nati But, ‘so strong was good feeling in the bosom of this faithful slave,’ to use the words of the attorney-general, that he braved every per-
CASE OF LAUBSCHER AND LODEWYK. 45
sonal danger to get a sight of his wife and children. With this hope he often wandered up and down near the place of Laubscher, who, it appears, had some suspicion of the unfortunate man’s in- tention, and set men privily to watch and seize him. Twice within the three years he had succeeded in communing with his afflicted wife and family. A third time, too, he had almost succeeded, but this attempt was doomed, by the hard-hearted Laubscher, to be cruelly interrupted. His wife was then asleep with her little ones, but before Lodewyk had time to awaken her he was discovered by Laubscher’s spies. He attempted to hide himself, but was de- tected. On being apprehended he said that there was no occasion to bind him, but ‘that he would go and throw himself at his old master’s feet, and speak a good word to him.’ One of those who had seized him, Weise, Laubscher’s steward, rode forward to ac- quaint Laubscher that Lodewyk was apprehended. It appears that he had been meditating deep and fearful vengeance. He was at the front door, with his walking-cane in his hand ; it was be- tween eleven and twelve o'clock on Sunday night. He asked if they had bound Lodewyk carefully. The steward said that there was no occasion, as he was coming quietly to entreat his pardon. But mercy had no place in this old man’s bosom, He called for his gun, and then ordered the steward to take hold of his cane. When Lodewyk arrived, Laubscher first told his steward to break his legs and arms with the cane; the steward refused ; upon which he ordered the slaves to hold him fast, with extended arms, and commenced the attempt himself. After inflicting numerous heavy blows upon the legs of his timid and unresisting victim, he then commenced breaking his'teeth, saying, ‘ You once broke my mouth also.’ He continued at these operations for half an hour. The cane was sworn to be of the thickness of a good stout walking stick. Wiese, in the mean time, put away the gun. Laubscher then put him in the stocks, in a sitting posture, and in that position gave him twenty stripes with his horsewhip over the shoulders. He then put him in handcuffs, and beat him again, until his whole arm was as blue as his jacket, and all swelled and bruised. Upon this Laubscher, exhausted, retired to rest, leaving the unfortunate wretch in torture scarcely conceivable, covered with wounds and contusions, and screaming with agony. The holes of the stocks in which his legs were fastened were narrow, and raised about nine inches above the level of the floor, obliging him to sit in a very uneasy posture, which, added to the soreness of his knee and arm, caused him to scream out; but, in the words of his own af- fecting narrative, ‘nobody came to relieve him.’ After about half an hour Laubscher relented a little, or rather, as he himself ex- pressed it, recollected himself, and ordered the handcuffs to be taken off. ‘I did not sleep the whole night,’ continued the wretched slave,‘ and cried for a long time, but nobody came.’ At length the morning sun arose, but it was only to witness fresh deeds of cruelty. Lodewyk was released from his confinement, and, on his getting outside the door of his prison, his pursuer was in wait for him. He then ordered him to strip the upper part of his per-
46 CASE OF LAUBSCHER AND LODEWYK.
son, and to place himself flat on the ground, and in that position he scourged him on the naked back with a cat-o-nine tails. He thus received twenty-eight lashes. As soon as he was permitted to rise and put on his jacket, Laubscher again resumed the cane, and made Lodewyk walk several times backwards and forwards between him and the wall, each time repeating his. blow with that weapon. Sometimes he threw the stick at him, when the poor creature was ordered to bring it back, and then he would strike him again with it. During all this time, to use the words of the witness, Weise, who appears to have been a humane man, he re- fused nothing that he was ordered to do, nor did he use any ill language—an instance of patience and forbearance almost incon- ceivable. At length Lodewyk was unable to move, when Laub- scher ordered Weise to mount a horse, and drive him, on foot, handcuffed, to his master’s place, but Weise procured a horse for him. Upon his arrival at his master’s place he was sick and stiff, and was disabled for twenty-two days; and it appeared that he had previously suffered so much, that, even if he had not been fastened in the stocks, he would not have been able to have made his escape on the previous night from Laubscher’s. Laubscher or- dered Wiese, if he made any resistance on the way, to beat him with his sjamboc. In consequence of the state of his right arm he was unable to work at his trade. He could walk a little, but slowly, and with extreme pain. The whole particulars of this affecting trial, of which I have given but an outline, will be found in the Appendix, to which I beg to refer my readers. Suffice it here to say that, after an eloquent address by the attorney-general, the prisoner’s advocate addressed the jury on behalf of his client, when the chief justice delivered a most impressive charge, and the jury, after retiring for half an hour, returned a ‘verdict of guilty, accompanied with a recommendation to mercy, on the ground of the prisoner’s ‘old age and former feelings.’ He was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, and a fine of fifty pounds to the king. “This sentence most men would have considered not too severe ; but those who understand the nature of colonial feelings will not be surprised at being informed that the whole case excited a strong interest—not in favour of the ill-fated Lodewyk, but of his cruel persecutor. An attempt to purchase the freedom of his wife and children by private subscriptions made by a few individuals, of whom I was so imprudent as to be one, together with an anxiety evinced to have some remuneration procured by law, through the” medium of a civil action, for the disabled Lodewyk, called forth the vulgar calumnies of the most scurrilous of newspapers. This same paper, which purports to express the sentiments of the slave — proprietors, passes the warmest eulogiums on Laubscher, describ- ing him as ‘one of the most respectable, peaceful, and friendly farmers in South Africa’ (which his treatment of Lodewyk no doubt evinced!); and again, ‘an able, and, in every respect, a venerable man!’ while, at the same time, the poor sufferer has epithets bestowed upon him as ‘a murderous scoundrel,’ ‘a villain who once attempted to murder his master’ (a crime of which even
WESTMINSTER REVIEW ON SLAVERY. 47
Laubscher never thought of accusing him), ‘ a rebellious slave, for-
merly his (Laubscher’s) property, who was condemned to be hanged
by the neck for having made an attempt on the life of his late mas-
ter,’ &c.; whose cruel vengeance he softens down into the milder name of a ‘perhaps justly excited feeling,’ and makes himself
very witty on the ‘ paradow’ of the chief justice, that. ‘he who
strikes another man’s slave strikes a freeman with respect to him ;’ which surely is nothing but the language of reason and common sense. |
«<The editor of this paper (Suid Afrikaan) pursues the subject, and endéavours to excite hostility against Lodewyk, by giving his history. This article is prefaced by an open and undisguised attack on the writer of the present pamphlet [ Rev. W. Wright], whom he has singled out for his editorial vengeance. Among other inven- tions he broadly states that I had offered my aid to Lodewyk ; and, after much vituperation, which I never thought it necessary to notice, he concludes his attack in these significant and un- equivocal words:—‘SucH IS THE WRONG-HEADEDNESS OF THE JUNTA TO WHICH YOU BELONG, THAT THERE IS NO TREE HIGH ENOUGH WITHIN THE VICINITY oF Cape Town TO HANG YOUR WORTHY PROTEGE AND HIS BENEVOLENT ADVOCATES.’ “ One of this editor’s accusations against those persons is that they had united in an attempt to purchase Lodewyk’s freedom. Although I should have been pleased to join in such an act, it was his family, not himself, that it was intended to manumit, and this only with the voluntary consent of Laubscher; from which object I was diverted by being informed that Laubscher had himself de- signed to make this atonement to his victim and the public ;_ but, if he ever intended to do so, he has not adhered to his design.”
Our readers will perceive, from the above affecting statement, that the Rev. author of this little work, like every other man who in a slave colony ventures to take a decided part on the side of hu- manity and Christian duty, has suffered from calumny and perse- cution. His book contains other valuable matter, to which we may probably revert on an early occasion.
V. Tue Westminster Review on West Inp1an Stavery:
The last number of the Westminster Review (No. 33, for July, 1832) has dealt some powerful strokes at Colonial Slavery in its usual pithy style. We have only space left for the following; but there are several other passages equally good :-—
“ Would it not be a glorious thing, a matter for men to think of on their death-beds with delight, a deed splendid and brilliant in the eyes of foreign nations, and-which would go down to his- tory as of that class of glowing-national acts for which the oppor- tunity was thought confined to the earlier ages of the world,—if the British people, standing on the summit of their success, and on the very ground where their cause was won, should put aside all meaner wrongs and say, ‘ Rid us of one disgrace,—liberate us from one infamy,—let us go home to: our wives and daughters clean men, and not with a conscious dirtiness of soul as payers for our
48 ‘DONATIONS AND’ REMITTANCES.
own dishonour. We demand to be freed from it, not because it is impolitic, but because it is felony. We are honest men, and — should not pay for Burking our fellow citizens. We stand here as we are, till we see an end of Slavery in the Colonies.’” i
“If any man tells you he has been credibly informed the slaves . are happy, ask him if he would believe his informants if they told him the fish in a frying-pan were happy. Can aslave marry ?— Can a slave prevent his children from being sold?—Can a slave give evidence of the rape of his daughter or the murder of his wife, though he saw it with his eyes? Oh, aman who can do none of these must be wondrous happy! Whata‘ cake,’ what a piece of ‘unleavened dough,’ must he be that can be persuaded of it! — An Englishman may lack fresh beef; but what would he think of | a law which made it criminal to have fresh beef in his possession ? — Would this come home to him, and persuade him slaves were comfortable? All this is done, and you, you pay for it; and for no other end to yourselves than that men shall come into your legislature to vote against your happiness. Is it true or not that the West Indian interest has always been in the head and front: of the opposition to your freedom? And how could it be otherwise? Would it not have been a disgrace to have had any interest it could have had in common? Things may be endured to a certain length ; but there are lengths that men who have lived where bells have ¢ knoll’d to church,’ respectable men, well-educated men, de- cent men, men who have the habits of good society, cannot endure —there is a better word—will not. Don’t endure it, then s—you may put it down in two months if you like.” “ Don’t endure it; but hold together like burrs, till you see this foul, indecent, un- manly shame wiped off from you and your posterity.”
4 My. 3
VI.—DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN. AID OF THE FUNDS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, DURING THE PRECEDING MONTH.
£.» sil J. Harford, Esq., Bristol . i ‘ ( payment) 1\.“aeag Lutterworth Association .. i : (payment) .4 10
Chipping Norton. : ( payment) 0 6 North London Ladies’ Association ‘ ( payment) 3 14
Rev. J. Riland, Yoxall . ; : (donation) 10 0 Samuel Key, Esq., Cheshunt . ; (donation) 1 0 Rochester Association . ; (payment) 4 0 Dorking Association : : : (payment) 014 Admiral Austen. , (annual) 1/0 Legacy of the late Mrs. Marriott : 450 0. R. Reynolds, Esq. Farringdon . : (annual). bs 0 Hanley and Shelton Association , . (payment) 6 18 11 Mrs. Allen, Stepney Causeway ( payment) 0 17 North-East London Ladies’ Association ( payment) Qi | Grantham, per Rev. J. Soper. (payment) 1 4 Mrs. Keylock, per S. Thorowgood, Esq. (donation) ye | G. Scrivens, Esq., Clapham. ‘ (donation) 3 0
London :—S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
>
The Anti-Slavery Becory.
No.5. SEPTEMBER 1, 1832. PRICE ONE PENNY.
Page. I.—PUBLIC MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. . . 49 Il,—RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA :— 1. Sentiments of the Free Coloured Population . . . «+ « SO 2. Continued Persecution of the Missionaries . . . + « « «+ Of III.—CONDUCT OF THE PLANTERS OF TRINIDAD . . . « «+ « «© OD IV.—DECREASE OF THE SLAVE POPULATION IN THE SUGAR COLONIES wa Wvotwe OF heporsem, OP A0OY . . eee ww tw
V.— INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES 2S og Rh A a IE BSP Re: VI.—COLONIAL MORALITY 1 G2 SE SRR EE ST SPORT OE TN VII.—JAMAICA WORKHOUSE LISTS ° . 8 e e e . e e e ° 58
VIII.—HYLIAS, THE ABYSSINIAN SLAVE BOY .« « «6 «© « « « 1%. IM.—-DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES. « «© «© «© « « oe « « « 60
eae
I.—PUBLIC MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
On the 15th of August a public meeting of the friends of Chris- tian Missions was held in the Great Room, Exeter-Hall, the Right Hon. Lord Henley in the Chair, “to consider the intelligence re- cently received from Jamaica of the outrages and persecutions endured by missionaries and their converts in that island, and to adopt such measures thereon as might be deemed advisable.” This meeting was a most interesting one; and the audience, which was numerous and highly respectable, appeared to be deeply im- pressed by the statements brought forward. Eminent individuals of almost every denomination of Protestant Christians—mem- bers of the Established Churches of England and Scotland, Independents, Methodists, Baptists, and Friends, occupied the pee and speeches worthy of the occasion were delivered
y those who moved and seconded the several resolutions. But the addresses of the two missionaries Mr. Duncan (Wesleyan), and Mr. Knibb (Baptist), who had personally witnessed the facts they related, produced an overwhelming impression—an impression far more deep than could have been effected by any effort of eloquence alone; though, in truth, there was much of genuine natural eloquence in these addresses. A full report only can give the reader an adequate idea of their importance and of their effect. Such a report the limits of this publication altogether pre- clude; but we have the satisfaction of announcing that a very excellent one has been published in the shape of a penny tract,
G
50 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
by Mr. Bagster, No. 15, Paternoster Row, and may be obtained through the medium of any bookseller.* The following were the Resolutions unanimously adopted :— It was moved by the Hon. and Rev. Gerard Noel, and seconded by the Rev. John Burnet,—
“<4. That this meeting regard with regret and indignation the cruet and determined opposition made to the religious instruction of the Negroes in the West Indies, particularly in Jamaica, as well as the disgraceful outrages lately committed in that Island on the persons and property of innocent, unoffending missionaries, in open violation of the laws of the British Empire, and in direct contravention of the Divine command to preach tle Gospel to every creature.’
It was moved by the Rey. James Dixon, and seconded by. the Rev. John Macdonald,—
«2, That, in the judgment of this meeting, the proceedings in question fully demonstrate that the system of slavery is utterly re- pugnant to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel of Christ, and that, while it is allowed to subsist, there can be no adequate security against the renewal of the persecutions of which we complain.”
It was moved by the Rev. John Dyer, and seconded by the Rev. J. Campbell,—
‘3, That, influenced by these considerations, this meeting feel if to be their solemn and imperative duty to urge upon the Legislature and the Government the adoption of all suitable means for the com- plete and immediate extinction of slavery throughout the British Dominions.”
II.—RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 1. Sentiments of the free coloured population.
We have received files of Jamaica Papers up to the 11th of July. Their contents show that the same spirit of which we have attempted in former numbers to give some idea still continues to influence, with httle mitigation, the mass of the white inhabitants. On the other hand, a large portion of the free coloured population, attached to the “Sectarians” who have been so outrageously and unjustly treated, are inflamed with feelings of deep resentment
* The following is the title of this Tract :-— Religious Persecu- tion in Jamaica. Report of the Speeches of the Rev. Peter Duncan, Wesleyan Missionary, and the Rev. W. Knibb, Baptist Missionary, at a Public Meeting of the Friends of Christian Missions, held at Exeter-Hall, August 15, 1832.”
The announcement states that—the publisher submits this Tract to public notice with the hope that he may assist in the annihilation of Slavery, and calls particular attention to the price he has affixed to it. Those who feel a desire for the extensive diffusion of the matter-of-fact arguments contained im the following Speeches are respectfully reminded that the price per 100 is exactly the same as that adopted by the Religious Tract Society, and British wnt Foreign Temperance Society.” “
al
RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 31
against their persecutors. These two classes therefore (generally speaking) assume the attitude of wrathful defiance or jealous sus- picion ef each other. “ A great portion,” says the Watchman, *‘ of the free inhabitants are personally concerned ; for the chapels wantonly destroyed are their property, and, according to law, every one is allowed to defend his property from pillage and destruction. But their property has been destroyed, and by those too whe talk of mental superiority, who boast of civilization, and perhaps of polished manners. A feeling of detestation against the polished miscreants is therefore engendered, and contempt as well as disunien has taken possession of the minds of hundreds ; and a spirit of resistance is entertained ready to punish further unprovoked aggression. The people of colour have burst the fetters by which they were once firmly bound, and now stand forward the avowed friends of patriotism, humanity, and religion, forming, as they proudly do, a redeeming feature in the present state of colonial society. The loyal class assert their claim to the unrestricted exercise of their political privileges; and at a juncture like the present their voice will be heard on subjects which involve their interests and welfare. In the exercise of their constitutional rights they will therefore present addresses to Earl Mulgrave, pledging themselves te support him in his administration, and particularly in those measures which have for their object the amelioration of the condition of their friends and relatives now in slavery.”
2. Continued persecution of the Missionaries.
The spirit which continues to animate the mass of the planters and other white inhabitants of Jamaica—a spirit of rebellious and insolent defiance to his Majesty’s Government, and of inveterate animosity towards the teachers of the Gospel—will be best appre- ciated from their proceedings, and from the language held by the newspapers which they patronize to advocate their opinions and defend their conduct. The following are a few specimens :—
“Tt was reported in town yesterday that orders have been’ received here to prosecute ‘ adl’ who were engaged in the demoli- tion of the Sectarian chapels. Does Lerd Goderich really wish to make himself more truly ridiculous than he has already done, by his total ignorance of the state of the colonies? Let the attempt be made, and we shall report the issue—we know what the result must be.”’—Jamaica Courant. R ,
«« Lord Goderich may have sent out the orders alluded to in the above ; but we apprehend the Crown officers will find too many stumbling-blocks in the way to enable them to bring to a con- clusion any proceedings they may be called upon to institute ; until the disallowance of the bill of Indemnity, which was passed. last session, is officially received, the orders must consequently remain in abeyance.”—Kingston Chronicle, June 2.
The following is taken from the Kingston Chronicle of July 14th, being an extract inserted in that paper from the Cornwall Courier, with laudatory comments of its own on the conduct of the “* Co- lonial Church Union :”—
52 RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
“The meeting of the Colonial Union, which was held at the Court House, in this town, on Monday last, was one of the most numerous and respectable that has been held in Trelawney for a long time. The unanimity which pervaded it was wonderful— every man seemed bent on accomplishing its objects—the expulsion of the canting crew who have so long preyed on the very vitals of this community, and, with a baseness unparalleled, endeavoured to destroy the country which has afforded them so many ‘ days of fat things.’
‘“¢ These meetings are wormwood and gall to the saints } they feel that by them their influence—‘ their trade’ is destroyed ; and they yell and groan most piteously at the very thought of those words of horror, the ‘ Colonial Union.’ This shows the efficacy of the institution, and proves that it is the only way to get rid of them. “ : ;
“The resolutions were carried by acclamation, and in three quarters of an hour had received a host of signatures. In them- selves they are unexceptionable, especially that one which pledges the Members of the Union to employ no person, of any description whatever, who is a supporter of the Sectarians. The adherence to this resolution will do more to drive them away than could be effected by any other plan; and the sooner the saints are ejected the better for Jamaica.
“ The Colonial Union now numbers within its members all the most respectable inhabitants of the principal parishes in Jamaica. It is gaining a giant’s strength, and will preserve the peace of the country by removing the peace-breakers, the fomenters of sedition, the base spies and emissaries of the Anti-Slavery Society—the Baptist and Methodist Parsons. ‘
«« A general meeting of the Northside Committees of the Union will take place in this town on Saturday the 28th instant.”
A meeting of the same association which was held at St. Ann’s. Bay on the 16th of June, after passing resolutions of similar im- port, proceeded to carry them into effect by mustering their ruffian gangs to prevent the Wesleyan Missionaries, Messrs. Wood and Greenwood, from recommencing their labours among their hearers ‘in that quarter. A mob, of the same description as those they had formerly headed to demolish the missionary chapels in that town, was assembled to destroy the private houses in which the mission- aries were lodged, and to expel, if not to murder, these disciples of the Saviour, for the crime—the unpardonable crime—of teaching his gospel to the slaves !
On the other hand, the people of colour, attached to the cause of missions, prepared to protect their pastors, and to resist the threat- ened attack ; and a serious conflict would probably have ensued had not the missionaries, to avoid bloodshed, thought it their duty to leave the place for a few days. Eventually the persecutors have found it prudent to restrict their measures of hostility to a legal prosecution of these two missionaries, on the ground that they had ~ performed divine service in an unlicensed house ; and though this was a false accusation, since it appears the house was regularly
:
CONDUCT OF THE PLANTERS OF TRINDAD, 53
licensed, Mr. Greenwood was apprehended on the authority of a magisterial warrant ; and, because he refused to enter into recogni- zances not to preach again, he was committed to jail, where he remained immured when the last accounts left the Island.
The following are the remarks of the Watchian on this occur- ence :—
“ Our readers will perceive, by a communication in a subsequent
column, that the Rev. Mr. Greenwood, Wesleyan Methodist mis- sionary, has been committed to gaol at Port-Maria, in the parish ‘of St. Mary, for daring to preach the gospel ! _ * We know that some of our contemporaries, adepts in subter- fuges and avoidances, will tell us it was for refusing to give bail not to preach, and not for preaching; but we know, and so does every man at all acquainted with the state of feeling in this island at present, that the true cause of offence is his having preached the gospel ! \:
« Were we to say that we regret this circumstance, we should be stating that which is untrue. It will, it must tend to keep up the excitement among the religious bodies in England, and be the means of more widely extending and firmly fixing Christian mis- sions in this island, than any thing that could possibly have hap- pened. The enemies of God and religion may appear to triumph for a while; but yet a little while, and their joy will be turned into grief. We sincerely hope that that portion of the free community attached to Dissenting congregations will bear patiently the perse- cutions which are levelled at their ministers. Although they would be perfectly justified in opposing, and we know will oppose, force to force, if any further attempts are made to destroy their property or maltreat their missionaries, still, in cases such as the present, where the parties are magistrates, said to be acting under the law, it is necessary to remain calm and quiet spectators !
“In addition to the foregoing, we beg to state, for the in- formation of the friends of religion in the mother country, that the Grand Jury of Cornwall, like that of Middlesex, have ig- nored the bills sent in to them against the ruffians who entered the premises of the Rev. Mr. Bleby, at Falmouth, assaulted him and his family, and tarred him and his infant child, and attempted to set fire to that gentleman! This act of the Grand Jury will also be productive of good—it will show the people of England, Scot- land, and Ireland, that in Jamaica redress for mob violence is not to be obtained by a Briton and a white man; and, this being the case, they may’easily conceive what sort of redress the black slaves are likely to receive for the persecution and oppression they ar called upon to endure for conscience’ sake.”"— Watchman, July 11.
IIl.—CONDUCT OF THE PLANTERS OF TRINIDAD ON THE PROMUL- GATION OF THE LATE ORDER IN COUNCIL.
The following extract of a letter from a coloured inhabitant of ‘Trinidad to a friend in London places before us very distinctly the state of affairs in that Colony, and shows that the same spirit pre~
— G 3 ‘
54 DECREASE OF SLAVE POPULATION IN THE SUGAR COLONIES.
‘vails there, among the infatuated upholders of Slavery, which has already produced such calamitous scenes in Jamaica :—
‘«« The planters tried every means to get the Governor to suspend the late Order in Council; but, finding that his Excellency was re- solved not to do so, they turned round and began to report the — existence of a revolutionary spirit among the poor slaves. Rumours were spread in town that the slaves were seen marching up and down the streets during the night, and that there was an open in- surrection at Naparama. A deputation of white inhabitants went to the Governor to request him to send down troops, and to pro- claim martial law; but the Governor, being aware of their inten- tions, took a detachment of the Royal (coloured militia), and went down in person; and on his arrival there he found the poor blacks as quiet as ever they were, doing their work. Oh! you cannot conceive what dark plots and machinations these blood-thirsty men are daily framing to ruin, if they possibly can, the unhappy slaves; but, thanks be to God, the slaves are too peaceable, and their ene- mies cannot carry their designs into effect. ‘The Order in Council was promulgated here in the beginning of January, in spite of every Opposition on the part of the Blancos (the whites), who were ex- ceedingly enraged at some of its clauses. They called a public meeting of all the inhabitants, elected a standing committee, adopted resolutions, signed petitions, and made the greatest uproar you can imagine; and concluded by threatening the government, in un- measured language, that, if certain clauses were not altered, they — would renounce their allegiance to the king of England !
‘“‘The people of colour are now signing an address to the — government of England, assuring them of their willingness to stand — by the Mother Country under any circumstances, and setting fortlt their entire disapproval of the sentiments expressed in the name of all the inhabitants of Trinidad. But I am sorry to say that, while our loyalty is manifested, we look around and discover every” place of honour or emolument filled by the very individuals who are now publicly opposing the views of his Majesty’s government! —
“ With regard to the effects which the late Order in Council may — be said to have produced on the minds of the slaves, I am happy — to say that they have not the slightest idea of rebelling; and, if they had, it would have been instilled by the very acts of their masters.”
7,
1V.— DECREASE OF THE SLAVE POPULATION IN THE SUGAR COLONIES.
(Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 100. ) .
This number comprises a detailed View of the Progress of Population among the Slaves in the several Slave Colonies of Great Britain since the first institution of the system of Registra- tion. It was drawn up by Mr. Buxton, from official documents” laid before the House of Commons, and it furnishes unanswerable evidence of the destructive effects of the system of sugar culture prevailing in the British Colonies. In our second No., page 1
DECREASE OF 8LAVE POPULATION IN THE SUGAR COLONIES. 55
we gave the general summary of the results of these calculations, showing the total decrease in the slave population in the Sugar Colonies, on an average of eleven years, to be 52,887. Some slight errors in the calculations having been corrected, the amount of decrease, as now stated in the Reporter, is 52,624.
After answering some arguments of the West Indians, who have attempted to explain the above large decrease on principles which they think may save their system from a share of its opprobrium, the Reporter concludes with the following striking observations :—
“The slave trade ceased in the United States of America, and in the British West Indies, in the very same year, namely, 1808. The relative proportion of imported Africans, on which the West Indians lay so much stress, as accounting for the decrease of their slaves notwithstanding the boasted lenity of their treatment, must therefore have been nearly the same in the two cases. But have the results been the same?
“Tn one of our late numbers (No. 97, p. 102) we have shown that, in 1808, the slave population of the United States must have amounted to about 1,130,000, and that of the British West Indies to about 800,000.
“Tn 1830, after an interval of 22 years, the slaves of the United States amounted by actual census to 2,010,436 ; being an increase of 880,436, or about 80 per cent. in that time.
“Tt appears, from the preceding tables, that, in or about the year 1829, the slaves in all the British West Indies did not exceed 696,441 ; and in 1830, therefore, could not have exceeded 695,000, being a decrease of at least 105,000 slaves in the same period of 22 years. .
“¢ Now, had the British slaves increased during that time, at the same rate with the American slaves, their number, in 1830, instead of being only 695,000, would have been 1,423,317, making the enormous decrease, as compared with the progress of population in the United States, of 728,317,—a waste of life exceeding by nearly 5 per cent. the number of the existing population.
*« A similar result would be produced by a comparison of the progress of population among the slaves with that of the free black and coloured classes inhabiting the same colonies. Had they even increased at the rate of the Maroons in Jamaica, the least favourably circumstanced of those classes, the 695,000 slaves of the West Indies would have grown, in 1830, to 1,240,000, or, if at the rate of the free classes in Trinidad, to 1,500,000.
“These facts constitute a charge against Colonial Slavery which no sophistry can elude. After every deduction which the most elaborate ingenuity can suggest, it will remain under the stigma of being one of the heaviest curses which afflicts humanity, and this independently of the unnumbered political, moral, and spiritual evils, which directly flow from it. And yet here are we, with our Government, and our Parliament, in this land of Christian light and liberty, coolly deliberating whether this curse, inflicted by ourselves on our fellow-subjects, shall be at once removed, or shall be permitted for months or years longer to oppress and deso-
56 INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES:
late one of the fairest portions of the creation of God! How long shall we continue to endure this depressing load of conscious guilt? Let the electors of the United Kingdom see to it. Tury are now on their trial at the bar of the Most High !” .
V,— INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.
We extract the following passages from an interesting article on the instruction of slaves in the ‘ Christian Record’ of Jamaica for March 1832, just received :
«A full investigation of the causes of the insurrection will show that very few indeed, out of the immense multitude of Negroes who ‘ struck for wages,’ belonged to the churches under the care of the missionaries ; and that fewer stall of them have been found en- gaged among the insurgents 5 on the contrary, vast numbers defended their masters’ pr ‘opert ‘y from the spoilers.
‘© Now, will the exhibition of these facts make any impression upon the minds of those who are knotted together to. prevent the peor creatures under their care attending upon their chosen re-—
igious instructors? Most likely not. They are too far gone for that. And, therefore, supposing that their ‘ Resolves’ should be equivalent to, law, it is easy to conceive of the multiplied miseries, ‘the lockings up,’ ‘the workings in and out,’ the floggings with ‘ the long whip,’ the polishings with ebony, the giving of allowance only on the Sunday mornings after nine o’clock, and only giving to those actually present ; the examination of every man found in his best clothes ona Sunday, and then on Monday morning, or some time during the week, ‘ picking his mouth’ (the Jamaica term for the art of finding out or making some cause for punishment), it is easy, we say, to conceive of all ‘these multiplied miseries, which will, in one way or another, be poured out upon the men who shall dare to form for themselves on this subject opinions at variance with those of their owners, their planting attorneys, and overseers.
“It may be said, however, by some in England, that there is no intention thus to persecute the Negroes. And, indeed, here lies the greatest danger; pains, extraordinary pains, will be taken to conceal the real state of things here. But THE PARTIES THEM- SELVES HAVE FURNISHED MEANS TO RENDER ALL THEIR ATTEMPTS ABORTIVE. For the disabusing of the people of England, and opening their eyes to the state of feeling among the Planters, on religion and against its ministers, OUR ISLAND NEWSPAPERS ARE INVALUABLE DOCUMENTs. The Proprietors at home—the whole British nation, will read in them that such an intention as religious persecution is avowed IN PUBLIC ADVERTISEMENTS by the as- sembled Planters in several parishes, more particularly the parishes of Vere, Clarendon, St. Ann’s, and St. Mary’s, &c. I would, therefore, put it plainly and directly to the Proprietors of Estates here, who are resident in the mother country, whether the thus annoying and treating as savage beasts SOME OF THE BEST SLAVES ON THEIR PROPERTIES can at all tend to promote the peace of the country, or advance their pecuniary interests! As- suredly not. And it is their business to put a decided negative
os
© COLONIAL MORALITY. ST
upon any such practice of their attorneys or overseers. Unless they wish their properties to be reduced to ashes by barbarous in- cendiaries, as has recently been done to an alarming extent, so far from banishing religious instruction from their properties, they will adopt more decisive measures to establish it. All that has transpired of the causes of the late rebellion, and a great deal more that is forthcoming, has afforded the most irrefutable evidence that not to instruction, BUT TO THE WANT OF IT—to the absence of Christian feelings in the hearts of both governors and governed, has been owing all the misery and ruin that has fallen upon some of the fairest portions of the island. The error of the Planters has been, that vainly hoping to keep their slaves in brutal ignorance— content to toil under the lash as beasts of burden—they have refused to permit any thing like effectual religious instruction to be given them. Keep them ignorant they could not; and, thanks to their masters and managers, they have acquired knowledge without Christian principle to control and direct it. This is now evident, and will every day become more so.—Instead therefore of con- sidering the late insurrection injurious ultimately to the cause of effectual religious instruction, we confidently expect that it will further it, by teaching proprietors the necessity of having a pea- santry upon their domains who shall have been taught, from the lively oracles of God, ‘to fear God and honour the king.’ It must teach them that, if they would preserve their lives and fortunes, the avowed brutality of the present system of slave-government must yield to the same authority.”
VI.—COLONIAL MORALITY.
The following passage forms the commencement of an instruc- tive article on the Parochial Schools in Jamaica, which appears in the same number of the “ Christian Record.” _
“ Here we have Book-keeper Catechists! fornicating School- masters! adulterous School Committees! and almost every system, and almost every person, connected with the training up of the rising generation, stamped with the Colonial brand—UnsBiusuine Suame!
“Is any one desirous of learning the effect of this our system of education? Let him look round on our Island, and he will be- hold Vice stalking through the land in the light-of each day’s sun ; unabashed because unrebuked ; smiling on all around her as her faithful votaries, and delighted children. He will behold the la- bouring class—the slaves—destitute of principle, untaught to dis- tinguish between virtue and vice, aiid wallowing in the mire of promiscuous sexual intercourse; exhibiting certainly exceptions to this general censure, which indicate that the day-spring from on high has dawned on the hearts of some; but, as a whole, ignorant alike of the spiritual requirements as of the spiritual consolations of the Gospel. He will behold the next class—the people of colour—little distinguished from the Slave in principle or in prac- tice, regarding their disgrace as an honour, and glorying in their shame. And should he then lock to the highest class in the hope
¢
> 58 SAMAICA WORKHOUSE’ LISTs.
of finding an example, or at least a promise, of better things; what will he behold? He will see the great mass outraging de- cency by their shameless concubinage, and defying the God of Heaven by the open profanation of his day, and by a determined hostility to his. religion. He will observe the few who pretend to some degree of principle countenancing and cheering on the rest in their course of infamy ; receiving the adulterer into their fami- lies as an honourable and honoured guest—a fit associate for their wives and daughters! He will find them sitting in committee with the fornicator and the blasphemer, as workers together with God in converting sinners from their sins !”
VII.—SPECIMEN OF JAMAICA WORKHOUSE LISTS. St. Elizabeth’s Workhouse, May 1, 1832.
Thomas Francis, a likely-looking young man, says he is free, and a native of Bermuda; that he came to this island in a vessel called the Lucy, Capt. Phenix; his story is evidently a fabrication, as he bears indubitable marks of his being, or having been, a slave ; his height is 5 feet 8 inches.
Frederick, a Congo, 5 feet 4 inches, marked M Don his shoulders, has large swelled feet, to the estate of Mark Dight, Esq., Manchester.
William Henderson, a middle aged Creole, 5 feet 9 inches, marked apparently I R, diamond on top, on left shoulder, formerly to Mr. Ruddock, Westmoreland, but now to Mr. Smith, Salt Marsh, near Falmouth. A
Robert, a Creole young man, 4 feet 11 inches, long visage, marked H W, P on top, on left shoulder, to Richmond Hill, St. James’s.
| Kingston Workhouse, June 1, 1832.
Elizabeth Dalton, a Creole Negro woman, 5 feet 5 inches, with her two children, Dandy, a sambo boy, and Mary, a mulatto, 3 years old, marked W B on right shoulder, belonged formerly to Mrs. Frances Galloway, a person of colour, St. George’s, but says she was lately sold out of Buff Bay Gaol.
Philip, a Mungola, 5 feet, marked M D on his shoulders, with blotched marks above, and appears elderly, to Mr. M’Dermot, Washington plantation, parish of Port Royal. .f
VIII.—HYLIAS, THE ABYSSINIAN SLAVE BOY. |
About two months ago a black boy was brought to the office of — the Anti-Slavery Society by a respectable tradesman in Liverpool — ‘Street, Bishopsgate, who stated that the lad had sought his pro- — tection under the following circumstances.—He had been brought to London a few weeks previously by a Dutch gentleman, who purchased him as a slave at Batavia. By this master he was treated, he said, as he had been by other masters—as a slave— fondled or flogged, according to the varying humour of his owner ; that he had been many years a slave, but, finding he was free in — England, he wished to be a slave no longer; that his master was
}
going away in a day or two, and he feared would carry him back
:
HYLIAS, THE ABYSSINIAN SLAVE BOY. 59
into’slavery; and that therefore he wished to stay in England, and work for his subsistence here as a free person.
After a careful examination of the circumstances of the case, by Mr. George Stephen, and Mr. Pringle, the boy was received under the protection of the Anti-Slavery Society; the livery which he wore, and which he said belonged to his master, was sent back to the owner, and he was clothed anew at the Society’s expense, and his immediate subsistence provided for.
Next day it appeared from a report in the newspapers that the master (Mynheer Van Cunnighen) had applied to the Lord Mayor. for means to recover his lost or runaway slave; stating that the lad possessed extraordinary talents, spoke seven different languages, and was quite a treasure to him ; that he had treated him as a son rather than as a slave; and that having no family of his own he might perhaps eventually make him his heir, if he were restored to
im. ' ;
Upon seeing this statement in the newspapers, Mr. Pringle waited upon the Lord Mayor and explained to him the actual state of the case ; that the boy told a story respecting his treatment al- together different from M. Van Cunnighen’s; but that the compara- tive accuracy of the conflicting statements of the master and the slave was but a secondary point :—the boy having sought protection from Stavery, or from being carried back into that condition, that protection should be afforded him, if the laws of England could afford it; and that, finally, he, as Secretary of the Anti- Slavery Society, would be responsible for receiving him. The Lord Mayor merely replied that he understood M. Van Cunnighen had gone to the continent, and that he did not see that he (the Lord Mayor) could interfere farther in the matter as it then stood.
Thus rest the claims of the master: the question now is, what can be done for the lad? He appears to be about thirteen or four- teen years of age; and possesses a pleasing aspect and handsome figure, with a docile, acute, and active mind. He can read the English Bible with tolerable ease, and speaks with more or less fluency six or seven languages, among which are Hindostanee, Malay, Dutch, French, and English. He is a native of Abyssinia, and says he was born free, and that his family name is Hylias ; but that he was kidnapped and sold into slavery by the Arabs, who gave him the name of Maboob; and that he was carried by a slave vessel from the port of Massua, on the Red Sea, and travelled through various countries, transferred from one slave-owner to another, till he was brought at length to Java, and became the property of M. Van Cunnighen, the Dutch Consul of China. He gives a very intelligible and interesting account of his adven- tures, of which we shall, in our next No., endeavour to give a brief detail. Meanwhile it has been resolved to place him for. six months upon trial with a respectable teacher at Tottenham, who will zealously attend to his moral and religious as well as his intellectual instruction. But, .as there is. no public fund that can be devoted to this purpose, the means must be found in the liberality of indi- viduals. One gentleman has offered to defray the expenses of his
60 DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.
board and education for the first quarter; and it is hoped that, on
the case becoming known, there will be found others ready to as-.
sist in this work of Christian beneficence. Contributions for his benefit, of whatever amount, will be thankfully received by Mr. Pringle, 18, Aldermanbury; and a statement of their application, together with an account of the boy’s progress, will be printed and sent to each of the Subscribers at the end of six months.
IX,— DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN AID OF THE FUNDS OF THE
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, DURING THE PRECEDING MONTH.
eee. Woodbridge Ladies’ Association (donation) 3 0 Do. Do. . ( payment) 1 16 Leamington Association ( payment) iP Newcastle on Tyne Ladies’ Association (donation) 6 14 Lewes Association ( payment) 417 Bradford Ladies’ Association ( payment) Sein Long Sutton Association ( payment) 5 0 Colebrookdale Association . ‘ ( payment) 3 16 J. White, Esq., Plymouth wt] ig (annual) 1-0 City District Ladies’ Association ( payment) 1 16 Ladies’ Association for Battersea, Clap- ham, &c. : - , i (donation) 5=0 Plymouth Association : (payment) 10 O J. A. Yates, Esq., Leamington ; (donation) 5 0 Stoke Newington Ladies’ Association. ( payment) 1 4 Hereford Association j i ( payment) 212% Whitby Association . ‘ (payment) 215 H, Gerveis, Esq., Ashburton (donation) 10 Miss Caunter, Do. (donation) 0 10 Mr. Field, Do. : (donation) OFS Mr. Watson, Do. . : (donation) 0 5 Mr. Henry Beane, Do. ‘ : (donation) 0.5 Mrs. Kidd, Huddersfield . (donation) 20 0 Southampton Association ( rag mihs 5 10 Contributions from Friends at Hawkeshead 5 0 Legacy of the late Daniel ae a ; 90 0 Messrs. J.and A. Arch . ( payment) 4 14 Tottenham Ladies’ Association . ( payment) 2 12 W. G. Gibson, Esq., Saffron Walden (annual) » Salisbury Association ; (payment) 6 18 Do. B20, 107 te ; ; . (donation) 8 1 Leeds Association : : (payment) 22 91 Do. Do. : . : : (donation) 30 0 Rastrick Association : ( payment) 17.9 Mr. Henry Driver, Chertsey, per “Mr. Lowe (donation) 0 10 The Society of Friends, from a Subscription raised to aid in promoting the total abolition of the Slave Trade and Slavery. ‘ ‘ - 1000 0 0O-.
London :—S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
MORDNANDAO
OOorRrOwomnrhoocoocodcocooonroocoo
——
Che Antislavery Record,
No. 6. OCTOBER 1, 1832. PRICE ONE PENNY. Page
I,—INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA :— 1. Further Persecution of the Missionaries . . ..... 61 2. Affidavit of G. Pritchard, of the barque Juno . ., .. . 62 3. Specimen of the tone assumed by the Colonial Newspapers . 63 4. Colonial Opinions on the Instruction and Emancipation of the Re gs) oe) “oR Bapighiy mies es lieiwe ce cater 1I,—THE JAMAICA CHRISTIAN RECORD, NOS. 3, 4, AND 5 :— 1. The Late Rebellion—Vindication of the Baptist Missionaries 64.
BiContinuance of Slavery . one ewe ee we ot OS 3. Sunday Sights and Occupations . . . - « «© + « « « 66 II. —THE ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, NO. 101 :— ib.
IV.—TRIAL OF H. 0. DREYER, FOR THE MURDER OF THE SLAVE in ed ES SN TPL Rea aegis | 3 V.—NEW-ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY .« « «© «© 2 « « « @ VI.—-INTELLIGENCE FROM MAURITIUS . . « «© © © © «© © «© « @1 ¥II.— INTELLIGENCE FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. «. « « + « « 1d. Misi SAMAUCA ADVERTISEMENTS. ~«.. . © » 2 0 © 0.0 « « 4% {X.--DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES . . 6 «© «© © © « « op) SMe
I.— INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 1. Further Persecution of the Missionaries.
Jamaica Papers have been received tO the 1st of August, from which it appears that the persecution against the Missionaries, instead of abating, becomes every day more general and outrage- ous. Not contented with destroying their chapels and prohibiting them from preaching or teaching in any other place, the Planters have in almost every parish formed themselves into associations, auxiliary to the “ Colonial Union,” for the express purpose of ex- pelling the Missionaries from the Island; and in these most violent and wicked proceedings the local magistracy are in most places prominent as instigators and leaders. Meetings were held of many of these illegal associations during the month of July, and resolutions passed, which for intolerance, and unwar- rantable infringement on the rights of British subjects, are alto- gether without a parallel. ‘The following are specimens of these resolutions, advertised in the Jamaica newspapers :—
“We, the undersigned, most solemnly declare that we are resolved, at the hazard of our lives, not to suffer any Baptist or other sectarian teacher or preacher, or any person professedly belonging to those sects, to preach or teach in any house in towns or in any districts of the country where the Colonial Union extends ; and this we do—maintaining the purest loyalty to his Majesty, King William IV., as well as the highest veneration for the es--
H
62 INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
tablished religion, in defence of social order, and in strict conformi- ty with the laws for the preservation of the public peace—to shield this portion of his Majesty’s island of Jamaica against insurrection and future destruction.” ay. |
“< Resolved,—That we now individually bind ourselves to dis- countenance, in every way, all followers of sectarians, and not to employ, in any capacity whatever, any one professing their doc- trinés, which fatal experience has shown to be fraught with the greatest danger to the peace of our society and the safety of our island. These being our fixed, solemn, and unalterable sentiments, we call upon all our fellow-countrymen to unite in the same, and hereunto subscribe their names’? «> - + + © = + .
At several of these meetings, and especially at a general meeting of the Colonial Union of the Northside parishes, held at Falmouth on the 28th of July, James L.-Hilton, Esq., in the chair, resolu- tions were passed in still stronger terms—That they would expel all sectarians (or Missionaries) from the Island—that they would hold every man their enemy who encouraged them—that they would risk their lives in expelling them, &c. &c.*
2. Affidavit of G. Pritchard, Master of the barque Juno.
An advertisement in the ‘* Jamaica Courant” of June 30, 1832, conveys a striking idea of the extent to which the spirit of Colonial persecution is at present carried in Jamaica. This advertisement consists of an affidavit made by G. Pritchard, Master of the barque Juno, setting forth that certain reports had been industriously cireu- lated, both privately and in the public papers, “to the great and manifest injury of deponent’s character, and highly ruinous to his avocation in trading to this island”—viz. 1. That he had some years ago given intelligence to the Colonial Office, in London, prejudicial to the interests of the Colony ; 2. That he had carried home sums of money from the Missionaries to their societies in Great Britain ; 3. That he had promoted the Wesleyan preachers’ return to St. Ann’s Bay, on the 11th of June, 1832; 4. That he is a spy against, and enemy to, the island.—In rebutting these formid- able and “ ruinous” accusations, Captain Pritchard makes oath, 1. That he never gave any information to the Colonial Office. 2. That he never to his knowledge carried home any sums of money from the Missionaries. 3. That he did not promote the return of the Wesleyan ministers to St. Ann’s, nor invite or receive them on board his vessel ; that they arrived in another vessel, and came on board his ship, with- out his knowledge and in his absence, only for a brief space ; that in this point his guilt only amounted to giving these gentlemen some refreshment, on finding them on board, and afterwards ac- companying them on shore and walking with them to Mr, Watkis’s house, where he left them ; and that, so far from encouraging them to remain, he advised them immediately to leave the bay and go to Kingston or Spanish Town. 4. “ To the fourth allegation he, this
_* Complete specimens of the strings of Resolutions passed at these meetings may be seen in a tract entitled “ West Indian Docu- ments,” just issued by the Anti-Slavery Society. —
- INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. 63
‘deponent, sacredly avers and declares that he is not a spy against, or an enemy to, this island; he solémnly asserts that he has the interest and prosperity of the island at heart ; that he has been, is, ‘and ever will be, ready to stand forward and vindicate the island and its inhabitants when calummated ; that, so far from being an enemy and a spy to the country, he, deponent, has never gone to, or been present at, any public or private meeting of any faction or sect ; that in deponent’s domestic walk in life, in England, he hath always spoken with grateful and gratified feelings of the kindness, attention, and hospitality which he hath experienced in the island ‘during a twenty years’ trading thereto ; that, whenever the colonies were spoken against in his presence, he, this deponent, most warmly advocated their cause, and ‘maintained the JUSTNESS AND SACRED- NESS OF THEIR CLAIMS IN SLAVE PROPERTY—and that they were as equal and as binding as the claims of any one to any other species of property that could be possessed any where.”
We request the reader’s attention to this defence of poor Captain Pritchard, of the barque Juno, as a most instructive document, exhibiting very distinctly the state of colonia} feeling, and showing at the same time the value of the favourable accounts of Negro slavery received from West India traders and other persons con- nected with the Colonies, however respectable their private cha- racters may be.
3. Specimen of the tone assumed by the Colonial Newspapers.
The following paragraph is from the leading article of the same paper which contains Capt. Pritchard’s affidavit :-— — — Lorn Goverrcx.—Our poor imbecile friend Lord Goody ad- mits himself to be perched on the horns of a dilemma. He has ‘ordered the Orders in Council to be adopted without the alteration of a comma in all the Colonies!! In the Legislative colonies his _orders have been not only disregarded but laughed at, as the most absurd and diabolical attempt to enslave free men that ever was attempted. Canhe enforce them, or dare he to persevere further with them ?’—Jamaica Courant, June 30, 1832. . _ Nowifthe vile, unprincipled, and seditious journal from which we
_ have taken the above extract, were treated by the influential classes
in Jamaica according to its deserts, the sentiments to which it gives utterance might well be passed over with silent contempt. But when we find that this very journal is most zealously supported and
_ encouraged by these classes, while they are employing their utmost
:
exertions to put down the Watchman and Christian Record,—that it.is the favoured and chosen vehicle for the announcements of the “ Colonial Union,”—and that its editor (Bruce) has been re- cently selected to be the printer of the confidential Correspondence of a Committee of the House of Assembly with the Island Agent, Mr. Burge,—what opinion must we form of the community of which ‘this paper is the chosen and official organ? Yet vulgar, swaggering, and ferocious, as the reader may perceive it to be from the few specimens we have given in this and former numbers, but a ve
faint notion can be gathered from such specimens of the full extent
64 THE JAMAICA CHRISTIAN RECORD.
of its baseness, and (to use a strong but appropriate term) its atrocious blackguardism. Such indeed is its profligate indecency (apart al- together from its politics) that no respectable family in this country could possibly admit this paper to come within its doors—any more than it could admit those London journals which are printed exclu- sively for the frequenters of the boxing ring and the “ flash house.”
4, Colonial Opinions on the Instruction and Emancipation of
the Negroes.
A writer in the Jamaica Courant, who takes the signature of “ Veritas,” writing against the sectarians, among whom he includes Baptists, Methodists, and Moravians, asks “ What is their object? To instruct the slave; and, when fully instructed, he will fight for his freedom : let no man deceive himself with a vain hope to the contrary. Now, I consider the Negro unworthy of freedom, even if England could afford to purchase his liberty. He isa being of demi-understanding, and will not work but in a state of slavery.” “The Negro is unworthy of the boon of freedom, and will never appreciate it properly ; but would use it to cut each other’s throats, and, if God continue merciful to him, he will never have it.” “ He answers, as far as he is concerned, Plato’s definition of man—an animal with two legs and without feathers.” <<‘ Every man who is not a sectarian hypocrite will acknowledge the Negro’s inferiority ; and every man who is worthy of being allowed to remain in Jamaica will do every thing in his power to chase forthwith from our shores all sectarians, under whatsoever designa- tion. The magistrate who now would vote for the introduction of another in his parish should be marked as a traitor and a scoundrel; and should such a man be found in this parish, tar and feathers shall be his covering, he may rest assured.”—Jamaica Courant, July 7, 1832.
1I.—THE JAMAICA CHRISTIAN RECORD, Nos. 3, 4, and 5 oF NEW SERIES.
In our last No. we gave two short extracts from the Jamaica Christian Record for March last (No. 3 of New Series). This No. has since been analysed in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 101, and its important contents brought fully before the reader under the following heads: viz. 1. Misstatements of Mr. Alexander Bar- clay ; 2. Free Labour Sugar in Jamaica; 3. Instruction of Slaves; 4. Kirk of Scotland in Jamaica; 5. Parochial Schools in Jamaica.
The numbers of the same work for April and May, 1832, have just reached us (Sept. 29), and we hasten to notice briefly their con- tents, and again to recommend this invaluable publication to the efficient support of the friends of truth,- humanity, and the re- ligion of the Gospel, in opposition to unblushing falsehood, mur- derous oppression, and worse than heathen impiety.
1. The Late Rebellion.—Vindication of the Baptist Missionaries.
This is a most important article. It occupies the greater portion — of these two Nos., and is not yet concluded. It is not possible within our limits to attempt any abstract of it; but it may be justly
ie.
THE JAMAICA CHRISTIAN RECORD. 65
characterized as a full, complete, and unanswerable vindication. of the conduct of the Missionaries, and at thesame time a most able, courageous, and overwhelming exposure of the wickedness of their perseeutors. The facts which it brings forward are in many. instances quite astounding, and form most important materials for a true history of Jamaica during the late extraordinary oc- currences,
2. Continuance of Slavery.
The number for May contains a valuable paper on the ‘“ Con- tinuance of Slavery,” addressed to Christian slave-holders, It is written in the spirit of Christian faithfulness, and at the same time of Christian mildness, and is calculated to make a deep im- pression on all slave-holders who retain any serious regard for their duty as Christians. In Jamaica we fear the proportion of such is still very limited; but their number, we trust, is likely to be rather increased than diminished by the recent occurrences, in- asmuch as every man of common honesty and reflection must have seen in a striking light the difference of conduct between those who are the true followers of the Gospel, and the irreligious and blood-thirsty men who, with a view to drive Christianity out of the island, have ranged themselves under the banner of “ The Colonial Church Union.”
The following remarks by the Editors of the Christian Record, declaratory of their opinions in regard to the abolition of slavery, are-well worthy of attention. And “let it be kept in mind that this work is published in Jamaica, is addressed to the community of that island, and challenges contradiction on the spot.”
* For our own parts we beg to avow distinctly our belief that keeping men in slavery is directly opposed to the spirit of the gos- pel, and that were all slave-holders to become Christians indeed the state of slavery would not exist a single moment. But unhap- pily there are many who are, and will still continue, any thing but Christians. We think ourselves, therefore, compelled, in our desire to have it abolished, as a crime against God and our fellow- creatures, to have regard to those measures of precaution and ex- pediency which may be necessary to guard against the evils that would arise from any Adsty and undigested measure of emancipa- ‘tion, through the opposition of unchristian men, and the working of the general depravity of man—a depravity as.strong no doubt in the bosom of a slave as in that of the being who considers him as but one of the live stock of his estate. But at the same time we would record our deliberate belief, founded upon no slight ac- quaintance with, or short experience of, the present race of Negroes in this island, that the measure of emancipation (which aLL AGREE must one day be passed), accompanied by a judicious, and in all its details well defined, enactment for the alteration and
‘government of the newly freed labourers, and with the establish- ment of an effective police, might ru1s pay take effect with perfect safety to all classes of the community, and without one of those evils following which are made the bug-bears.to frighten from the
H 2
66 TRIAL OF H. 0. DREYER, FOR THE MURDER OF A SLAVE-
measure the Christian advocates of truth and justice.. Nay more— if the Negroes are not now fit for such a boon, we believe they NEVER will be. We desire, therefore, to see Christian proprietors not seeking how to reconcile themselves to their possession of their fellow men, but how they may immediately and consistently abandon it. Again we say, the question’ presses—it must be decided soon. We must either go back at once, if we can, to the state of slavery in which we were thriving a hundred years ago,— or at once meet the spirit of the times, and change our unwilling slaves into willing, because properly recompensed, free labourers —or fearful indeed will be the consequent ruin and destitution to all the present proprietors—the very least of them. We say now is the time to make the change—only fix this, and men will be astonished at the easiness and safety with which it will be effected. May the spirit of wisdom and of a sound mind be in all our coun- cils !” 3. Sunday Sights and Occupations. Under this title, in a letter signed “‘ A Poor Curate,” a further exposure is given of the desecration of the Sabbath in Jamaica; the traffic, not of the poor slaves, but of the planters, openly car- ried on throughout the island ; the sugar-works “all life and oc-
cupation ;”’ the scouring of coppers, potting of sugar,.grinding of
tools, carrying of cane-tops; &c. &c. The other articles in these numbers are short, and in general exclusively devoted to religious matters. .
III.—THE ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, No. 101. Exclusive of the analysis of the Christian Record for March, to which we have already referred, this No. contains an interesting summary of the intelligence received on the Religious Persecutions ‘m Jamaica, an Analysis of Lord Goderich’s recent Circular De-
“spatch to the Governors of Sugar Colonies, and the Resolutions of
‘the Anti-Slavery Committee on the present state of the Slavery ‘question.
IV.—TRIAL OF H. 0, DREYER, FOR THE MURDER OF HIS FATHER’S SLAVE, EPHRAIMe '
Own the 17th of May, 1832, Hendrick Oostwald Dreyer, an agricultural proprietor or planter, residing at Alphen, near Wyn-
berg, Cape of Good Hope, was put to the bar of the Supreme |
Court of that Colony, charged with murder, “in having on the
47th of February last, assaulted Ephraim, a slave, then the property
of his father, Mr. Thomas Dreyer, by striking the said slave on the - head with a mallet, by which his skull was fractured, and in con-—
sequence of which the said Ephraim died.” . The case was tried before a jury; the chief-justice, Sir John Wylde, being president of the court, assisted by Mr, Justice Menzies. The prosecution was conducted by the attorney-general, Mr, Oliphant. The trial lasted three days ; and a very full and accurate report of it is giv
-in The South African Advertiser, a Cape newspaper, conducted
’
y
|
TRIAL OF H. O. DREYER, FOR THE MURDER OF A SLAVE. 67
with eminent ability by Mr. Fairbairn, who, in the perilous posi- tion of a colonial journalist, has shown himself for many years, and under the most trying circumstances, the disinterested and de- voted friend of justice, humanity, and true religion.
The principal witnesses were slaves belonging to the same
master. Four of these, Telemachus, Jan, Jacob, and Abraham, were admitted, agreeably to the tenor of the last Order in Council for the Crown Colonies, to give evidence upon oath. Lubin, another slave, on being examined preparatory to being sworn, said that he knew nothing about the existence of a God—* never heard of a God when a little boy—never believed there was a God till now’’—-“‘T do not believe,” he said, ‘« that God will punish me if I do what is wrong or wicked in this life.” Such is the amount of instruction given by many of the ‘‘ Christian colonists” to their bondmen:! Lubin, though an important witness, was rejected on account of his ignorance of religion. Some of the other slaves appear to have been Mahomedans, and had learned the little they knew of God and eternity from the Malay priests.
The facts proved by these four witnesses were briefly as follows.
They were engaged in filling casks from the large vats in their master’s wine store to load a waggon. One of the vats had leaked during the night, in consequence of a cock having been left in it by the neglect, it seems, of the deceased. Young Dreyer, who was in the wine store with the slaves, was angry on account of this leakage ; and, when Ephraim eame in, he (Dreyer) “‘ became red,” as one of the witnesses expressed it, ‘and had been angry fora long time before.” He asked the slave why he had neglected his duty in regard to the casks; and, when Ephraim attempted to ex- ‘cuse himself by pleading want of time, Dreyer said, “ Not so much talk, or you will rue it” (or “ mischief will overtake you”). He then struck the slave on the head with a mallet which he had in his ‘hand, and knocked him down. Three of the witnesses say he fell on the ground on being struck with the mallet.. The fourth says he staggered, but did not fall. He appears, however, to have rallied for a while after receiving the blow, and to have assisted in drawing off the wine. At length ‘¢ Ephraim said he could stand no more—his head was so sore—his eyes grew dim—and he was dizzy.” ‘The master then said he was drunk, and ordered two of the other slaves to take him to the tronk, or “black hole.” As they led him off he staggered and dragged one of his legs along ‘the ground asif paralysed. Dreyer opened the door of the tronk, and when the wounded man had crawled in he locked it with a *padlock. All the four eye-witnesses agree that Ephraim was not drunk but sober when struek with the mallet.
The tronk or “black hole” is thus described by John Locke, >gaoler of Cape Town’prison, who was sent to take young Dreyer into custody :—“ Drs. Fairbridge and Laing, prisoner, Rode the “police officer, and I, went: to the black hole. Found it to bea --small place within the blacksmith’s shop—nine feet long—nine feet high—and three feet six inches broad. It had a wooden door, which, when shut, admitted no light whatever. There was no air-
68 TRIAL OF H. 0. DREYER, FOR THE MURDER OF A SLAVE.
hole in it; at that time it had no slits at top to admit air: I ob-. served that at the time. JI went in and shut the door, and could then see no glimmer of light at all : when the door was shut there was no way for light or air to enter. I am sure the door shut quite close and admitted no light.”
Ephraim was placed in this “tronk’’ about 7 o'clock in the morning. About 1 o’clock the same day old Mr. Dreyer ordered him to be brought out to receive fifteen lashes, his son having told him he was drunk. The slave Jacob, who was employed to bring him to be punished, says that when he brought him out of the tronk into the smithy there was white foam coming out of his mouth and nostrils, and that there was a “rattling in his breast, like the purring of a cat;” that his eyes were closed; that when he set him down he could not sit without assistance, and that he shook him and spoke to him, but he made no reply. Young Dreyer, who was in the smithy beside them, then called out to’ his father that Ephraim was still drunk—and the old man ordered him to be locked up again in the tronk till he was sober. As he could not walk he was carried back by Jacob assisted by Lubin, the slave whose evidence was refused by the court.
In this wretched place accordingly the wounded man was left without medical or other assistance till next morning at 8 o’clock. Young Dreyer then opened the tronk and found him dead. When his father rose he informed him, and the old man went with him to the tronk. . Soon after, two of the slaves were called to look at the body: “There,” said old Mr. Dreyer, ‘‘is the effect of drunkenness!”
The same morning, Mr. Dreyer sent for a surgeon, Mr. H. E. Macartney, to inspect the body; and having told him, on his arrival, that the slave had died of excessive drunkenness, they proceeded to the ¢ronk to make the inspection. According to Mr. Macartney’s own evidence, this was performed in a very super- ficial manner. The corpse was stripped naked, and examined in the * black hole” with the imperfect light afforded by the opened door; and after this inspection ‘“‘ Mr. Macartney gave Dreyer a certificate that the slave had died from suffocation occasioned by drunkenness.”
Here then the affair would probably have ended, as many a similar case has done, had slave evidence been imadmissible, as till very recently it was in almost all our Colonies. But exposure was at hand—though justice, it appears, is still afar off from the haunts of slavery. .
On the day following, which happened to be a Sunday, the slave Jacob, one of the above mentioned witnesses, went off to Cape Town (which is about seven or eight miles distant), and gave in- formation to the police that Ephraim had been murdered by young Dreyer. The next morning early the officers of justice went out, arrested the accused, and disinterred the body of the deceased for further examination. Drs. Fairbridge and Laing, who then in- -spected the. body, stated in evidence that they found the blankets in which it was wrapped stained with bloody serum which issued
TRIAL OF H. O. DREYER, FOR THE MURDER OF A SLAVE. 69
from the mouth and nostrils,—that above the left ear there was a tume™ faction about the size of a crown piece,—that on dissection there was found an extensive fracture of the skull, and below a large coagulum of blood, which “had flowed from them iddle meningeal artery, which was lacerated, and had unquestionably caused death by compressing the brain.”
These were the material facts of the case. There was consider- able discrepancy in the evidence of the four slaves on smaller points, and in that of Jacob a tendency to exaggeration. But all agreed that Ephraim had been struck on the skull by Dreyer with a mallet, and had been confined in the “ black hole” when he was un- able to work any longer. Dreyer’s own voluntary declaration accorded with the evidence of the slaves in every material point except one : he says nothing of the mallet, and states that he only gave Ephraim a shove, before he sent him to the tronk. Several other witnesses were examined, most of whom gave young Dreyer a high charae- ter for humanity to his slaves; but their evidence added nothing of importatice to the facts of the case. That the man’s death was caused by a severe blow on the head, and that that blow was _ Struck by Dreyer in anger, with a heavy mallet, were points on
which the evidence was so full and clear that no English jury could have hesitated one moment to bring in a verdict of Guilty.
Now comes the most instructive part of the case, viewing the
subject.in its connexion with the system of slavery. The Chief Justice proceeded to charge the jury in an address which occupied nearly seven hours in the delivery; and the jury (most if not all of them being, of course, slaveholders) after about an hour’s con- sideration brought in their verdict. And what think ye, English- men, was the verdict of this Colonial jury? “ Murder?” No such thing. “ Culpable homicide?” By no means! May not a man fracture the skull of his own slave with his own mallet, even though death should ensue, without being stigmatized as a homicide? Such assuredly was the opinion of the Cape jury, and they gave their verdict accordingly. The following are the brief but signifi- cant remarks of the Editor of “ The South African Advertiser” (who probably felt it perilous to speak out more explicitly), which we shall leave the reader to reflect upon without farther comment:
“ The report of the proceedings in the Supreme Court, in the case of ‘ Rex v. Dreyer,’ will be found very full,* and we trust correct. Should there be found the slightest inaccuracy in
any part of it, we shall feel obliged to any gentleman who shall . put itin our power to correct it, or to supply any deficiency, whe- ther material or not. Our wish is to enable the reader to judge of the working of the present system under the present administration of that system. There was nothing peculiar in this case. The eep interest which it excited arose chiefly from the relative situa- tions in society of the deceased, the principal witnesses, and the accused. The verdict of the jury was ‘ Not Guilty,’ which -accorded in our opinion with the spirit of the Judge’s charge.”
* It occupies sixteen closely-printed columns of a paper as large as The Times.
70 NEW ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
V.—NEW ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
We have just received from America a variety of publications upon Slavery in the United States, including a file of “The Li- berator,” an Anti-Slavery newspaper published at Boston. They contain much interesting matter, to which we propose to recur in an early number. Meanwhile, we insert the following animated appeal to the people of the United States from “The New ‘England Anti-Slavery Society,” dated 1832: —
“To prevent the scenes of St. Domingo from being acted here, we call upon the nation to be just. To say that immediate emancipation will only increase the wretchedness of the coloured people, and that we must pursue a system of gradual abolition, is to present to us the double paradox that we must continue to do evil, in order to cure the evil which we are doing; and that we must continue to be unjust, and to ‘do evil that good. may come.’ There is, we believe, but one alternative. The master must manu- mit his slave, or the slave will manumtt himself. We have no doubt that the God of heaven, who is a God of justice, is, at this moment, in his word and providence, setting before the Southern planter this very alternative; and this alternative embraces ‘life and death, a blessing and a curse.’ To choose the first, and say to the slave, BE FREE, is to shut the flood-gates of human woe and of human blood. To choose the latter; and hold the coloured man in vassalage, must, ere long, break up ‘the fountains of the great deep,’ and have a direct tendency to unsheath the sword of ven- -geance, revolution, carnage, and death. On this subject, we can -hardly feel that any language is too strong. We appeal to the better judgment and patriotism of our fellow citizens ; we appeal to the understanding, conscience, and heart; we appeal to all the tender sympathies of humanity and natural affection; we appeal to every citizen, who deprecates. the horrors of St. Domingo and Southampton ; and we conjure every one who is capalile of feel- ‘Ing, or of reflection, to: weigh in an even balance the present evils ‘and inevitable consequences of slavery. In the language of a dis- ‘tunguished statesman and scholar, on another subject, we do but -express the real feelings and sentiments of our hearts on this :—* On this theme, my emotions are unutterable. If I could find words for them, if my powers bore any proportion to my zeal, [ would ‘swell my voice to such a note of remonstrance, that it should reach every log-house beyond the mountains. I would say to the inha- bitants, Wake from your false security : your cruel dangers, your more cruel apprehensions, are soon to be renewed: the wounds, yet unhealed, are to be torn open again: in the day time, your path through the woods will be ambushed; the darkness of mid- might will glitter with the blaze of your dwellings. You are a father—the blood of your sons shall fatten your corn-field: you are a mother—the war-whoop shall wake the sleeper in the cradle.
*¢¢ On this subject, you need not suspect any deception on your feelings: it is a spectacle of horror which cannot be overdrawn. If you have nature in your hearts, they will speak a language,
INTELLIGENCE FROM MAURITIUS AND THE CAPE, 71
comme with which all I have said or can say will be poor and igid.
te To do away the horrors of slavery, and prevent such ravages as are here depicted, we do most earnestly invite the co-operation of our fellow citizens ; and we can hardly conceive how any one is entitled to the name of a philanthropist, or of a Christian, who is either ashamed or afraid thus to show himself 4 FRIEND To HIS COUNTRY AND A FRIEND TO THE BLACK MAN.” . ;
VI.—- INTELLIGENCE FROM MAURITIUS.
Advices from Mauritius to the 15th of July have just been re- ceived. The arrival of Mr. Jeremie, as the bearer of the New Order in Council for the Crown Colonies, has thrown the colony into a state of excitement altogether without a parallel since the period of its acquisition by this country. A desperate determina~ tion seems to have been adopted, on the part of the inhabitants, not to allow that Order to be carried into execution. Meetings were held, and the Governor was besieged with addresses to induce him to suspend its promulgation. As a further indication of the feeling of the inhabitants, the shops were shut, the works suspended in the sugar plantations, and business of every kind put a stop to. In- competent to act with due firmness in this extraordinary state of things, the Governor at length gave way, and it was publicly an- nounced that Mr. Jeremie had taken his departure for England ; in consequence of which the shops all re-opened, and establishments of every description resumed their occupations onthe 14th of July. Even those legal functions with which Mr. Jeremie had been in- vested on leaving England were invalidated. The Court of Justice was summoned to meet on the 14th for the purpose of registering the commission of Mr. Jeremie as Procureur and Attorney-General, but it was declared illegal by the Judges for one individual to hold both those situations.
Surely this extraordinary conduct of the Colonists must deter- mine the Government and legislature of thiscountry to act with adequate vigour and decision in this great question. The slave- holders of the Mauritius are now in the attitude of open rebellion against the British Crown. ;
VII.—INTELLIGENCE FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
We have just received papers and letters from Cape Town to the 25th of July. Our correspondents mention that a spirit of rebel- lious opposition to the Order in Council had been recently evinced in that Colony of a very dangerous description, but had been checked in time by the decision of the local Government. One of our Cape correspondents, a very-able man and a staunch friend to the abolition of Slavery, writes in the following terms :—* If such men as Sir Charles Colville continue to govern the Slave Colonies, we (the friends of Negro Emancipation) shall be placed in a po- sition of the utmost peril. We will do our duty, but, if Governors will-not do theirs, we must-fall. -The-slaves here are perfectly quiet, but they are not, and cannot be, indifferent to the proceed-
72 DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.
ings of the Colonists. Should they rise, all of us must join the military in slaying and hanging them; but heaven and earth will avenge their blood upon us on some future day, for it will be inno- cent blood. Sir C. Colville is evidently a party in the insurrection of the French. If blood be shed he should not be impeached, but tried by a court-martial. Our Governor, Sir Lowry Cole, as you will see, has saved his reputation, and I think the Colony; but things were worse here at one time than they appear in print.’
VIII.—JAMAICA ADVERTISEMENTS. (From the Royal Jamaica Gazette. ) Kingston Workhouse, April 27, 1832. Elizabeth, alias Frances, a Creole Negro woman, 4 feet 10} inches, marked S M D on right shoulder, and has an impediment in her speech, to Miss Mary L. Watt, at Falmouth ; committed on the 24th January, 1832.
Manchester Workhouse, June 13, 1832. Robert Wilson, alias Peter, a Creole, 5 feet 64 inches, marked M, heart on top, on left shoulder, has marks of flogging on right shoulder, two small cuts on his forehead, and the mark of a sore on right leg.
IX.—DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN AID OF THE FUNDS OF. THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY DURING THE PRECEDING MONTH.
| £8. ad John Dickenson, Esq. : . (donation) 5 5 O R. Cartwright, Esq. ; ‘ ‘ (donation) 5 0 0 St. Ives’ Association : : : (payment) * 117 4 West Ham and Plaistow ditto . ( payment) 0 16, 0 Gosport ditto ; : J omen (payment) 111 6 Hertford ditto : peti . (payment) 1° 5 % Cork ditto ‘ : : : : (payment) 10 6 6 Banbury ditto , . ‘ . (payment) 111 0 Ralph Leycester, Esq. . : : (annual) 22 90 Miss Culling Smith : ‘ - (donation) pee ee Mrs. Eardley Childers, wos (donation) 7 ts Beverley Association} ; : ° ( payment) 111 11 Do. Do. : ; ‘ ‘ (donation) ae: ae Staines Do : ‘ ( EH oF a 7 3 Calne Do." tra ‘ ; - (payment 2 are ShrewsburyDo. . . . - (payment) 317 6 Worcester Do. . . . . (payment) 8 8 6 Do. Do. : ‘ wh phd (donation) 10 0 O Bridlington Do. , - " ; ( payment) 2. Be Westerham Do, . «-~ . . (payment) 110 0 Captain Stuart (annual) 100 Collection at Bromyard, per Mrs. E. Gillet (donation) 2 0 0 Devizes Association , ‘ (payment) 4 8 O Mr. H. M‘Farline, Paisley ‘ ; (payment) 10 0 Gravesend Association . . ‘ (payment) 116 0
London:—S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close,
The Anti-Slavery Record.
No.7. NOVEMBER 1, 1832. ¢) PRICE ONE PENNY.
Page. I.— INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA :—
Outrages at Savanna-la-Mar . «© «© ~ + 2 © © © © es II.—THE MAURITIUS INSURRECTION :— Remarks by the Editor of the South-African Advertiser . . . . 75 {1I.—THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY :— «« Letter to Thomas Clarkson,” by James Cropper ; and ‘‘ Prejudice Vincible,” by Capt.C. Stuart . . . 2 6 + ee we ee IV.—DEATH OF JAMES STEPHEN, ESQ... . - + + + + « « © 81
V.— THE ABYSSINIAN SLAVE BOY ° e * e . e . . ° . . . 82 VI.— JAMAICA ADVERTISEMENTS NEEM Soe ne ge ee OO VII.—DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES . . + ++ «© «© «© « « « SF
I.—INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA. Outrages at Savanna-la-Mar.
The Colonial Union of Jamaica continue to prosecute with sin- gular audacity their crusade against the Missionaries. The late arrivals have brought us accounts of a series of outrages at Savanna- la-Mar, commencing in an attempt to drive the Rev. Mr. Kingdon, Baptist Missionary, from that place. Not the shadow of a charge was alleged against Mr. Kingdon. He was residing peaceably at Savanna-la-Mar, without even exercising the functions of his mi- nistry, when he was required forthwith to leave the town. To this demand he replied that as a British subject he had an indisputable right to remain, and that if he was in danger of molestation the magistrates must protect him. This took’place on the 14th of July, being the muster-day of the militia. During the next month threats were continually held out to force him away, which it was resolved to put in execution on the following muster-day. On that day (August the 8th) a meeting of the Colonial Church Union was held at the Court-house, and in the evening the outrageous assault took place. An armed party of fifty or sixty persons marched up the street, exclaiming “ Union for ever,” &c., and commenced a most furious attack on the doors and windows of the house in which Mr. Kingdon lodged. Some females from the widow of an upper apartment threw out hot water on the assailants, which extinguished an ignited rocket placed beneath to blow the house up; imme- diately on which they began firing in at the windows, and continued to do so for some minutes, At length some shots were fired in return, by which three of the rioters were wounded, Attempts were then made to fetch the cannon from the Court-house ; but this they could not effect. Some magistrates (professedly) endeavoured
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74 INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA,
to disperse the mob ; and the mob promised to desist from their outrages if the Messrs. Deleon (who are well known to be among the most respectable coloured people in the neighbourhood) and Mr. Kingdon would leave the house. They agreed, and were fired upon notwithstanding. Happily no life. was sacrificed by this treachery of the rioters, but they wounded one of their own party. Mr. and Mrs. Kingdon were afterwards sheltered by the Custos in his own house at Anglesea, some miles from Savanna-la-Mar, from whence Mr. Kingdon was taken and lodged in gaol, under a war- rant, signed by a magistrate who had at the Court-house moved the resolution for the expulsion of all sectarians. Thus those who had committed these atrocious outrages were not merely suffered, but virtually encouraged, by the local magistracy, to prosecute their mad and murderous career, while the unoffending and perse- cuted parties were treated as criminals and committed to jail!
Nor did the outrages terminate here. After Mr.and Mrs. King- dom had escaped with difficulty from being murdered, the Unionists proceeded to destroy the house in which they had lodged, belong- ing to the Messrs. Deleon, whose only crime was that they had en- deavoured to protect their friend and pastor. After pulling down this house they demolished, in the following nights, several other houses belonging to the same family. These scenes continued dur- ing the nights of the 8th, 9th, and 10th of August. The following extracts from letters written on the spot, subsequent to these events, give some additional details which exhibit a most extraordinary state of society,—a state of things, indeed, which must speedily lead to something: like a civil war, unless the new Governor speedily interfere with firmness and decision. After describing several other outrages the writer continues :—
“¢ Sept. 4th. On Sunday evening last, between the hours of six and seven o’clock, the mob insulted Miss Crooke and Miss Case in the street, and followed them to Mr. Case’s, where they rushed up stairs; and on Mr. Case, a respectable old gentleman, about 70 years of age, interfering, they dragged him down stairs, knocked him down, and otherwise ill-treated him. Last night they attacked Mr. A. M. Touzaline, who was quietly walking by himself, and threatened to tar and feather him. He was compelled to take refuge in the gaol to save his life.
“« Mr. Evelyn, the Collector of the customs at this port, was compelled to leave his residence, in consequence of threats held out to assassinate him, in consequence of his having given testi- mony relative to the late outrages which establishes very material facts against the assailants, the Colonial Church Union party.
“ Mr. Aaron Deleon, sen., has been threatened with the ven- geance of the Unionists, for having given his testimony fairly and impartially before the Commission of Enquiry.
““ One of the younger Deleons, both of whom have been admit- ted-to bail, has been compelled to leave the town of Savanna-la- Mar for safety. His brother, who remained in gaol in consequence of the indisposition of his wife, has been threatened with an attack in the prison.”
THE MAURITIUS INSURRECTION. 75
At another house, attacked by this worse than Bristol mob, on a Sunday night,a Miss M‘Mahon was so much frightened by their violence that she died the following morning. ;
The Governor, on hearing of the commencement of these out- rages, had sent down a body of regular troops to preserve the peace, and a Commission of Enquiry, it seems, had been insti- tuted ; but that any effectual redress can be obtained for the suf- ferers, amidst the prevailing excitement, and with such magistrates and juries as are at present to be found in Jamaica, seems very improbable.
II.—THE MAURITIUS INSURRECTION.
We mentioned briefly in our last number the disturbances that took place at Mauritius on the arrival of Mr. Jeremie, the new attorney-general. We have since received newspapers and letters, both from Mauritius and the Cape, bringing down the accounts of proceedings in the former colony to a somewhat later period. It appears that, on the 5th of June, the rebellious Colonists, who had virtually taken the government of the Colony into their own hands, actually issued an ‘* Order” to the following effect: —‘ No longer acknowledge the tribunals; keep the shops shut; stop all business. Do not recognise the Protector of Slaves nor his assistants, nor pay any impost. Arm the volunteers as fast as possible. Let the assessors go no longer to the court. Stop the sale of all arrack,— so long as Jeremie and Thomas shall be in the Colony.”
And what did the Governor, Sir Charles Colville, do, under these circumstances? Why, three days after, he issued a procla- mation to the black slaves, threatening them with prompt and severe punishment, in the event of any disorders !
Upon these transactions we find the following excellent observa- tions by the able Editor of the South African Advertiser—a jour- nal we have on Other occasions mentioned with high respect :-—
“ The Governor of Mauritius has addressed a proclamation to the ‘ black slaves,’ commanding them to be quiet under pain of summary chastisement and death. No doubt it will have a pro- digious effect, coming as it does from a gentleman who cannot pro- tect his own officers, and who is besieged in his own house. ‘This is the first hint of any thing like disorder in that quarter. Even the rioters have as yet thrown no imputation on their slaves, except that ‘ many of them are half savages, liars, thieves, and drunkards ig
“ But how comes it that the slaves are still half savages? The laws affecting that class of people, which were in force in 1810, when the British took the island, provide for their civilization.”
Here he quotes the king of France’s edict of 1723, and the other enactments formerly in force, which declare that all slaves shall be instructed in the Christian religion, and be baptized ; that no proprietor shall make his slaves work on Sundays or holidays under pain of confiscation of all slaves found at work ; with other provisions prohibiting separation of families by judicial sales, &c.
“‘ With such provisions for religious instruction,” the writer
76 THE MAURITIUS INSURRECTION,
stringently remarks, ‘‘ for the observance of the sabbath and saints’ days, and for the integrity of families, how comes it to pass that, after a lapse of one hundred and twenty-nine years, so many of the slaves are still kept half savages, liars, thieves, and drunkards? One might have thought that the example of their Christian masters alone would have converted them by this time.
“« Since the old system, whatever it was, has failed, why do the planters object so strongly to a new one? It must be painful for them to see daily so much of savage life, so much immorality in their streets, and deforming the whole surface of their fine country. These half savages, if wholly civilised, would certainly be more profitable labourers. A great loss of property must also arise from general theft and drunkenness. Why then resist an improved plan of education, and of a more effective police? But it is use- less to dwell on these points. Their assistance and co-operation in carrying the improved system into practice are-highly desirable, chiefly on their own account; but it will be carried into practice whether they approve of it or not.. ‘The picture of slavery ia the Mauritius contained in the despatches of their governors for many years back (unwilling witnesses as, we regret to say, some of them were), and the reports of the guardians, not to mention the evi- dence of all other credible witnesses, have roused the indignation of all mankind against them. They may abuse the King’s ministers, —they may attempt by the most stupid falsehoods to shake the fidelity of the King’s troops,—they may heap a million of scur- rilities on all the friends of humanity,—they may intimidate their present governor till he brings himself within the range, not of an impeachment, but of a court-martial,—ihey may sit sullen and obstinate till the law rolls over their heads, and crushes them ;— but they cannot arrest the course of British justice for one hour longer. It is not the voice of a party, or of a faction, but the united voice of the whole nation that demends—not vengeance, they are too inconsiderable—but reform. Man shall no longer be worked naked, loaded with chains, or goaded by the whip to “make unrequited exertions, which his scanty and tasteless food render fatal tohim. ‘That is the decree.
‘When we hear of armed resistance, we turn to the history and statistics of Mauritius. Previously to 1810 it was boasted of. as a second Gibraltar. It was said to be impregnable. In the month of November in that year a small foree from India, under General Abercrombie, landed on the east side of it, and advanced towards Poit Louis. The attack had been long expected, and every preparation was made for a vigorous defence. Above 200 pieces of ordnance were mounted on its ports and batteries. After a slight show of resistance it capitulated, and has remained quietly in Our possession ever since.
“The island is about eleven leagues in length, and seven leagues in breadth. The population, according to the census of 1829, amounts to 101,469. Of these 76,774 are slaves; 15,851 free people of colour; and 8,844 are white colonists. The number of slaves, it is well known, is understated.
THE MAURITIUS INSURRECTION. 77
“Tt is this fraction, this thirteenth part of the community, that have bid defiance to the British Government. Suppose their numbers to have increased since 1829. Suppose them now, men, women, and children, to muster 9000 strong. Subtract 4,500 women and female children; for male infants, and boys under age, old men unfit for duty, and sick persons, and persons not quite mad, give 3000; and there will remain 1500 fit for revolt !
“ We know that the whole is gasconade. Had Sir Charles Col- ville chosen to exhibit the spirit of a man he could have checked it in an instant. Had he shipped off to St. Helena half a dozen of those who first talked openly of arming, and of dictating with arms in their hands—had he even, on the landing of Mr. Jeremie, sent two or three of the most seditious of the volunteer mob on board the Jaseur, by this time all had been at rest. But impunity, at least, has carried them to criminal excesses which no government can overlook. We say impunity at least—for we begin to suspect that his own head is turned, and that they have either got or expect to get from him more than neutrality.
“ What was the duty of the governor? For what purpose were two regiments placed at his disposal? For what purpose are four armed vessels anchored in the harbour of Port Louis? For what purpose was he invested with the power and authority of governor and commander-in-chief ?—To sit quietly in his house, until the madness of the rabble shall have covered the island with flames and massacre? In their printed manifestoes, which are circulated all over the island, and intelligible to the slaves as well as to the free, they talk cf St. Domingo; they enlarge upon the horrors which insurrection is said to have produced there ; and they call upon the King’s soldiers to regard themselves only as fellow- citizens—to despise their military oath—to unite with them in re- bellion! And what has the governor done? Has there been a single indictment, a single arrest? In the absence of civil law, has martial law been proclaimed? On the twenty-third of June no- thing whatever had been done—the rabble had every thing at their eet aon and the respectable inhabitants lay at the mercy of acci-
ents.
“Tt is worthy of remark that, though most of our slave colo- nies are at present more or less agitated, and from the same cause, namely, the just and humane regulations contemplated bY Govern- ment in behalf of the slaves, yet the agitation has assumed a totally different character in the two grand divisions of the colo- nies. In those governed by local assemblies, disturbances have arisen among the slaves; in those governed directly by the Crown, sedition is to be found only among the planters. The reason is simple. From the local assemblies the slaves have long ceased to hope for any, even the smallest amelioration of their lot. They have been told, as plainly as words and actions can express the sentiments of men, that, from the assemblies, they have nothing to look for but slavery as it is, and for ever. Complaints or remon- sirances, even when urged only by their friends, bring additional burdens, and more intolerable chains to them. Nor have the
12
78 THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
planters concealed from their slaves that, on this point, they have come to an open rupture with the British Government. Hence their despair. Hence, in conjunction with cruelty and hunger, the late insurrection in Jamaica.
*¢ In the Crown Colonies, on the other hand, the work of ameli- oration is in progress. The slaves know that, however their mas- ters may labour to arrest its course, it will proceed, and terminate in a quiet and happy conversion of slave labourers into free la- bourers. Hence their obedient and orderly conduct even amidst the riots of their owners, as at the Isle of France. This is the picture at present. Amidst such scenes as we have above de- scribed, we dare not hope that it will last.”
What course his Majesty’s Government mean to adopt in regard to the Mauritius white insurgents, we do not precisely know. The black insurgents of Jamaica were recently energetically dealt with. They were instantly attacked by the military—were slawghtered in the field by the troops—hunted in the woods by militia and ma- roons—and numbers were executed by martial law. But if these poor, ignorant, oppressed, and deluded men were guilty—what must be the guilt of the planters of the Mauritius—of the volewe Unionists of Jamaica?
III.— THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Several publications have recently been put into our hands on the subject of the ‘“ American Colonization Society,” which we cannot pass over without some notice. Among these are a work entitled “ Thoughts on African Colonization,” by William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston, Massachusetts; and a thin pamphlet, just published at Liverpool, comprising ‘¢ A Letter to Thomas Clark- son,” by James Cropper; together with a tract entitled ‘‘ Prejudice Vincible,” by Captain C. Stuart. As this Liverpool pamphlet
‘contains a sort of epitome of the case, we shall confine our re- marks more especially to it.
‘‘The American Colonization Society” was instituted in 1817. Its avowed object was to relieve the United States of the Free People of Colour, by planting them in colonies on the coast of Africa or elsewhere. This class of persons are rated at about half a million, and their number is stated to be fast increasing. In the 13th Report of the Colonization Society they are described as ‘ em- phatically a mildew upon our fields, a scourge to our backs, and a stain upon our escutcheon.’ They are also spoken of as being ex- ceedingly dangerous, not merely from their own increasing num- bers, but from their presence being a perpetual excitement to the ‘slaves to become discontented with their own condition. Their removal from America is stated to be therefore mercy to the whites and justice to themselves.
To accomplish this object the settlement of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, was undertaken; and very great exertions have been made, both in America and. in England, to raise funds for carrying on the work of colonization with energy, and ona scale commensurate with the object proposed,
THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 79
«« To this real scheme,” says Mr. Cropper, * of transporting the People of Colour, a professed one is attached, for the ultimate ex- tinction of Slavery, by the transportation of the whole black popu- lation [of the United States] to the coast of Africa; and we are gravely told that 100,000 slaves are ready to be given up, if means can be found of sending them to Africa! A most extraordinary statement, and one for which I believe there is no foundation either in fact or probability.”
In addition to these objects a third has been occasionally brought forward, namely, the civilization of Africa by means of the coloured and black settlers from America. These two latter objects have been more especially pressed upon the attention and Christian sympathy of philanthropic persons in England, by agents of the Colonization Society who have visited this country; and with such success has the scheme been advocated that very considerable sums are reported to have been subscribed in this country in aid of its funds—and among the list of subscribers appear the honoured names of Clarkson and Wilberforce !
Now we must confess that we have for some time regarded this *‘ Colonization Society” with great suspicion. This suspicion was first excited by the very questionable principles avowed by the Society in its own Reports, and by observing that its agents in this country, in addressing the public, held, in several respects, a very different language from that employed in its own authorized reports and addresses published in America. These and other circumstances awakened our suspicions, though they did not appear to warrant our discussing the subject publicly without further in- formation. Such information we are at length provided with ; and the only course we can now conscientiously adopt is to state our full conviction that “ the American Colonization Society” is founded on false and unjust principles, and is promoted by holding out to real philanthropists delusive expectations grounded on deceptive statements ; and, finally, that its practical operations most decidedly tend, not to abolish, but to perpetuate Slavery, and to increase the grievous persecution of the Free People of Colour.
It is not possible within the limits which we must here prescribe to ourselves to adduce full proofs of these serious charges. But one or two extracts will perhaps suffice to induce many of our readers to procure for themselves the Liverpool pamphlet, which alone supplies ample evidence of the true character of this ‘*:Co- lonization Society.”” The language which it addresses to the slave- holding States, among whom, we believe, are now its most numer- ous and zealous advocates, is in the following strain :—
“« The slave-holder, so far from having just cause to complain of the Colonization Society, has reason to congratulate himself that in this institution a channel is opened up, in which the public feeling and public action can flow on without doing violence to his rights. The closing of this channel might be calamitous to the slave-holder beyond his conception; for the stream of benevolence that now flows so innocently in it might then break out in forms even far more disastrous than Abolition Societies, and all their
80 COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
kindred and ill-judged measures.” — Fourteenth Report, pp. 12,13.
Again—“ If none were drained away, slaves became inevitably and speedily redundant.” ‘ When this stage had been reached, what course or remedy remained? Was open butchery to be re- sorted to,as among the Spartans with the Helots? or general eman- cipation, as in South America? or abandonment of the country by the masters? Either of these was a deplorable catastrophe ; could all of them be avoided? and if they could, how? There was but one way, and it was ¢o provide end keep open a drain for the excess of increase beyond the occasions of profitable employment.— Fifteenth Report, p. 16.
In a note upon the above passage, Mr. Cropper forcibly re- marks—“ In contemplating these alternatives, how can we suffi- ciently admire the goodness of God in having provided that the increase of slaves shall necessarily lead to emancipation and incor- poration ! and how can we be sufficiently struck with horror at the deliberate and insolent cruelty of man, in devising schemes like this for the perpetuation of slavery ?”
Captain Stuart brings forward against the Colonization Society the following heavy charges :—1. It is pledged not to oppose the system of slavery. 2. It apologizes for slavery and slave-holders, and speaks peace to their sins. 3. It regards slaves as property. 4. It increases the value of slaves. 5. It is an enemy to the sub- stitution of equal laws for the arbitrary power of the master. 6. It is nourished by fear and selfishness. 7. It avowedly aims at the utter expulsion of the blacks. 8. It disparages, traduces, and per- secutes the free blacks. 9. It prevents their instruction. 10. It deceives and misleads the nation. 11. It makes a disgraceful and criminal compromise between the advocates of the blacks and their oppressors.
These charges we think he has effectually substantiated by ex- tracts from the Society’s own publications in America. And, as we cannot enter farther into the subject at present, we again refer to the Liverpool pamphlet, entreating our readers carefully to in- vestigate the subject for themselves; and, if they come to a similar conclusion with us, let them adopt such a course as (in the words of Mr. Cropper) shall leave ‘“‘no longer any doubt what side is taken by the philanthropists of England.” We conclude with the following remarks from Mr. Cropper’s letter :—
‘¢ But why are slave-holders so anxious to send away free people of colour? Because their slave institutions would be endangered by the competition of respectable free black labourers; and they dread still more their education and advancement in science. If they were desirous to serve the free blacks they would instruct them at home (not a few of them, but every one that they send), and not send them in ignorance to a barbarous country.
“ The disguise is now. removing, and the real tendency of the society is becoming apparent. A bill was reported to the House of Delegates of Virginia for sending the free blacks away by force. But, though this compulsory clause was rejected, it is added that several other motions were made, and decided by majorities, which
a)
Y DEATH OF JAMES STEPHEN, ESQ. $1
amply proved the determination of the House to adopt some mea- sure for the removal of the free blacks. These legislators admit , that the free blacks will not leave the land without some sort of force; which may either be absolute, or by rendering their situation absolutely intolerable.
“‘ These persecuted free blacks view the whole plan with the ab- horrence which is justly due to it, and with which we should view a plan of general transportation from the land of our nativity.
~“ Let us repair the injury which has been done on both sides of the water by this unholy connexion between slave-holders and phi- lanthropists; for, since this scheme has been on foot, its deadening influence on the energies of the friends of humanity in the United States has-been most manifest.
“ Let there no Jonger be any doubt which side is taken by the philanthropists of England. Let them declare their deep feeling of sympathy with these sorely persecuted and oppressed people ; and such an example will be followed in the United States, where the friends of humatity will hasten to leave the ranks of the: op- pressors, and the cause of justice will again flourish.”
IV.—DEATH OF JAMES STEPHEN, ESQ., LATE MASTER IN CHANCERY.
This eminent champion of the Negro, whose health had been for some time in a declining state, died at Bath on the 10th of Oct., in his 74th year. His own iovaluable works on Negro Slavery, and the history of the proceedings both in and out of Parliament, on this great question, furnish his best eulogy and most lasting monu- ment. His name, so long as the annals and the literature of Eng- land are remembered, will be honourably associated, in the veneration of mankind, with those of his distinguished fellow- labourers, Wilberforce and Clarkson.
Mr. Stephen was educated for the bar, and in early life went out to St. Kitt’s, ia the West Indies, where he practised for many years with great success. It was there that he acquired the intimate knowledge of colonial law for which he was justly celebrated, and, from personal observation of the colonial system, imbibed that deep abhorrence of slavery which led him to become one of its most in- defatigable opponents. After his return to England he was brought into Parliament, and became one of the most distinguished members of that band of philanthropists who supported the measures of Wilberforce in the long and arduous warfare against the Slave Trade and Slavery.
He was appointed a Master in Chancery under Mr. Perceval’s administration, and performed the duties of that office with eminent ability for twenty years ; after which period he retired from active life, and spent his latter days in domestic privacy. The only oc- casions, we believe, on which he latterly appeared in public, were at some of the General Meetings of the Anti-Slavery Society. Many of our readers will recollect, with melancholy interest, his
82 THE ABYSSINIAN SLAVE BOY.
venerable appearance and impressive address at the last meeting of the Society in Exeter-Hall. Mr. Stephen was nearly connected with Mr. Wilberforce by marriage, as well as by congeniality of sentiment on most subjects of importance. He was, like that great and good man, a person of most decided and eminent piety; and the devout sincerity of his religious feelings gave a grave and fervid earnestness to his de- meanour on all occasions when a sense of duty led him to take a share in public discussions.
V.—THE ABYSSINIAN SLAVE BOY.
We promised in a former notice (No. 5, p. 58) to give our readers the little history of poor Hylias, the Abyssinian slave boy, as related by himself. The following are the brief and simple de- tails :—
He was born at a small town or village in Abyssinia, which he calls Mombru. His grandfather, whose name was Hylias (or Haileas), he describes as a person of some consequence ; probably one of the elders of the village. His father’s name was Zarasgie, ‘ his mother’s, Goorah. They, as well as the inhabitants generally, were Christians of the Abyssinian church. The inhabitants culti- vated barley, maize, calavances, and melons, and possessed also sheep and cattle in abundance. A river called Myailee (or ~ Maiaili) flowed past the town—probably a branch of the Nile.
Being left an orphan, in consequence of the death of all his family (apparently by some epidemic), the boy Hylias afterwards resided with his mother’s sister in another village. While here, being then, as near as he can guess, about seven or eight years old, he was inveigled by an old woman into a house, and sold to a gang of slave-stealers or kidnappers, by whom that part of the country appears to be infested. These people were Arabs, and carried him off with ten other children and young persons. They travelled, he says, in the night, and concealed themselves by day in the woods and mountain ravines; from which it is obvious that this ‘ trade’ is not openly allowed in the country.
At length they reached Massua, a small port on the Red Sea, where he was put with his companions in bondage on board an Arab vessel, and conveyed to Mocha. Here he was again sold, or transferred to other hands, and carried first to Jidda and afterwards to Muscat. At the latter place he was purchased by an Armenian merchant, who carried him to Bushire, where he pos- sessed a great establishment. By this Armenian he appears to have been hired or lent to an English gentleman, a Dr.Reoch, with whom he lived as an attendant for some time at Bahrein, and who seems to have treated him kindly, and to have commenced his instruction in English reading. He speaks also of a Major Wilson, whom he used to see at this place.
On returning again to the hands of his Armenian owner he was put on board a Dutch vessel, which, after touching at Bombay,
JAMAICA ADVERTISEMENIS. 83
conveyed him to Java; and at Batavia he was purchased by Myn- heer Van Cunnighen, who had been Dutch Consul at China. This gentleman brought him to Bourbon, and afterwards to Mau- ritius, as an attendant on his person ; and it was during a residence of some time in these two colonies that he acquired the knowledge he possesses of the French language—which, however, like the other languages that he has picked up during his wanderings, is mostly colloquial, and of course very imperfect. From Mauritius Mr. Van Cunnighen brought him to the Cape of Good Hope; and he attended this gentleman as his foot-boy during his travels into the interior of that colony, and into the Caffer country. From the statements he gives, as well as from the marks of ill usage left on various parts of his person, he seems to have suffered (especially at Mauritius and the Cape) much harsh and cruel treatment; a circumstance which, with our knowledge of the condition of even the domestic slaves of those countries, does not at all surprise us. His treatment by Arabian Mussulmen and Armenian heretics ap- pears to have been mild and almost parental compared with that he experienced from some subsequent owners. In Cape Town he was taken notice of by some benevolent persons, who wished to obtain his freedom; but, before any effectual steps could be taken to that effect, Mr. Van Cunnighen sailed with him for Europe. The rest of his story is already known to our readers.
He has now been about two months under the tuition of Mr. Ross, teacher of the Lancasterian school at Tottenham; and his progress appears to be such as to afford a very fair prospect of his deriving most important benefit from the continuance of the same advantages for a longer period. Through the liberality of two or three benevolent persons, who are never “ weary in well-doing,” funds have been obtained nearly sufficient to defray the expense of his board, clothing, &c., for the first two quarters. The present little notice, it is hoped, may meet the eye of some others who possess, with the means, the inclination to contribute, in like manner, to- wards the Christian instruction of this interesting and unfortunate youth,
VI.—JAMAICA ADVERTISEMENTS. (From the Royal Jamaica Gazette.)
St. Mary’s Workhouse, May 30, 1832.
Notice is hereby given, That unless the undermentioned slave be taken out of this workhouse prior to Wednesday the 25th day of July next, he will, on that day, between the hours of 10 and 12 o'clock in the forenoon, be put up to public sale, and sold to the highest and best bidder, at the Court House, in Manning’s Town, agreeably to the Workhouse Law now in force, fur payment of his
ees.
James Edwards, a Creole of St. Dorothy’s, 5 feet 2 inches, says he is free. This man has already had three Special Sessions, and can bring forward no documents or proofs whatever as to his free- dom: committed by J. H. Livingston, Esq.
84 DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.
Spanish Town Workhouse, June 23, 1832. Sandy, a Creole, 5 feet } inch, flogging marks on shoulders, right ear bored, says he is a sailor, belonging to the schooner Enterprise, Capt. Hearn. Port Royal Workhouse, June 29, 1832 James Rowley, alias James Bailey, a Sambo Creole, 5 feet 63 inches; no mark; sayshe formerly belonged to Dr. Chas. Gray Reed (deceased) of Camperdown, St. Ann’s, who left him free (but has no documents of freedom), and that Mr. Angus, of St. Ann’s, is Dr. Reed’s Executor. St. George’s Workhouse, July 4, 1832. Joe, a Moeo, 5 feet 13 inch, marked apparently I H. on shoul- ders, a piece of his left ear is cut off, and two of his lower front teeth are lost, to Miss Barnes, a black womau, Port Maria. Agnes, a Creole, 4 feet 73 inches, marked P D on right shoulder, cupping marks on temples, says she belongs to Stephen Hanna- ford, Esq., St. Dorothy’s.
VII.—DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN AID OF THE FUNDS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, DURING THE PRECEDING MONTH.
a} Wolverhampton Association . : (payment) 1 11 Birmingham Association . é é (payment) 7 4 Southampton. Ladies’ Association . ( payment) 1 4 Do. Do. : ; (donation) 5 0 Derby Association . : ; : (payment) 10 0 Manchester Association . 5 4 (payment) 18 11 Mr. James Carpenter A : ; (annual) Lae W. Everest, Esq. . - Bd: (annual) fy C. Elliott, Esq. ; A ‘ : (annual) 22 Epsom Association . , : d ( payment) 4 4 Edinburgh Association. : : (payment) 20 0 D: Dewar, Esq., Dunfermline . , (annual) 4' #69 S. Darton, Esq., Gracechurch-street . (annual) 0 10 Sheffield Association : : ; ( payment) 4 8 Margate Association ; oan (payment) 4 0 Gainsborough Association : ‘ ( payment) 4 8 Do. Do. ; ! s (donation) 15 6 Thomas Babington, Esq. / ( payment) 5 17 Plaistow and West Ham Association. ( payment) 1 17 P. Tbotson, Esq., Poyle, near Colnbrook (annual) to Kingsbridge Ladies’ Association ( payment) 2121 Do. Do: ; ; ( payment) 2°34 Do. a0. a ‘ (donation) os Hemel Hempstead Association ; ( payment) 314. Westminster Ladies’ Association ; (payment) 3 17 Kendal Association . . : - (payment) 4 9 Rastrick Association ; ‘ : ( payment) O 14
London :—S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
+
SOPRPMWRFROAMRMOCCOSDOAGCCOCAGCOACHAS
peat ae
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ry
The Anti-Slavery wecory.
No. 8. S “DECEMBER 1, 1832. . PRICE ONE PENNY. Page
I. EMANCIPATION OF THIRTY THOUSAND HOTTENTOT BONDMEN AT THE | CAPE OF GOOD HOPE = 6 "SS = tS eee! BS II. PREPARATION OF SLAVES FOR FREEDOM -' - - - - - -.- 9 III. BOARD OF CORRESPCNDENCE FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY - - Of IV. DECLARATION OF CHRISTIAN MINISTERS AT LIVERPOOL - - - - 93
V. ADDRESS OF THE SOCIETY OF DEPUTIES OF PROTESTANT DISSENTERS 94 VI. ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, NOS. 102 anp 103 :—
1. Conduct of Emancipated Africans in Antigua - - - - - 95
2. American Colonization Society - - - - - - - = - - 95
3. Correspondence between Sir C. B. Codrington and T. F. Burton, Esq., on the subject of Slavery - - + -- - - 96
Vil. DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES - - - = = - + (se ee 96
I.—- EMANCIPATION OF THIRTY THOUSAND HOTTENTOT BONDMEN AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IN 1828.
In the year 1828 there existed within the colony of the Cape of Good Hope a degraded population of 30,000 souls,* distinct from the free colonists on the one hand, and from the Negro slaves on the other. They were not slaves, in the ordinary or colonial ac~ ceptation of the term; but they were actually held in a state of abject bondage, analogous to that of the Israelites in Egypt, or the Helots in Greece,—being in fact cruelly oppressed, and deprived of almost every civil and social privilege which,distinguishes the state of freedom from that of slavery. These 30,000 bondmen were the Hottentots, the original inhabitants of the country.
In 1652, when the Dutch took possession of the Cape, and be- gan to colonize it, the Hotteutots are described by creditable writers as a numerous people, divided into small communities, and pos- sessed of large herds of cattle, which supplied their principal means of subsistence. In the progress of European colonization, however, a great change gradually took place in their condition.
—-_—-
* In the population tables published in Mr. Geo. Thompson’s work on South Africa, and derived from authentic sources, the Hottentot population of 1825 is rated at 30,546 persons, and that of the free blacks and apprenticed Negroes at 3750.. In the official census for 1830, published in the ‘‘ South African Almanack,” these two classes are stated to amount together to 31,958. This latter estimate, how- ever, is considered to be somewhat below the truth; and the Hotten- tot population of 1828 may therefore be fairly stated at 30,000 in round numbers.
K
86 EMANCIPATION OF THIRTY THOUSAND HOTTENTOTS.
The Europeans (who, as is usual in such cases, had entered the country as friends, and had purchased with a few beads and trin- kets the ground where the fort at Cape Town now stands, as a trading station, and a place of refreshment for their Indian fleets) had gradually acquired possession of the extensive region now em- braced by the Cape colony, including the entire country inhabited by the Hottentot race, with the exception of the arid deserts which afford a refuge to the wandering Namacqua and Bushman hordes, and which are too sterile and desolate to excite the cupidity of any class of civilized men.
But it was not the soil of their country merely of which the Hottentots were deprived in the course of these encroachments. In losing the property of the soil, they also gradually lost the privi- lege of occupying even the least valuable tracts of it for pasturing their flocks and herds. Their flocks and herds also passed, by degrees, entirely into the possession of the colonists. Nothing then remained of which to plunder them, save the property of their Own persons ; and of that, the most sacred and unalienable of all property, they were also at length virtually deprived. The laws enacted by the Dutch legislature for their protection, itistrue, did not permit of their being publicly sold, from owner to owner, as Negro slaves are still sold (like other live stock) in the same colony ; but they were collectively, as a class of men, reduced to a state of de- grading, grinding, and hopeless thraldom, scarcely less intolerable than colonial slavery of the ordinary description.
Their actual condition, so late as the beginning of the year 1828, may be in some measure estimated from the following passage of the Rev. Dr. Philip’s able and eloquent appeal in behalf of this long-oppressed race :—
“The Hottentots, despairing of help from every other quarter, now look to the justice and humanity of England for deliverance. And they now justly and humbly ask why they may not, like the colonists, be allowed to bring their labour to the best market ?— why they should be compelled to labour for two or for four rix- dollars (equivalent to three and six shillings sterling money) per month, when they might be receiving (at least many of them) twenty or twenty-five rix-dollars per month, if permitted to dispose of themselves as a free people?—why they may not be exempted from the cruelties exercised upon them without any form of law? —why they should be arbitrarily flogged in the public prison, upon the mere ipse dixvit of their masters?—why, on complaining of bad usage to a magistrate, they should be put in prison till their master appear to answer the accusation brought against him /—and why they should be flogged if their complaints are held to be fri- volous ?—why they should be liable to punishment at the mere caprice of a magistrate, and without any trial ?—why they should be made responsible for the loss of their masters’ property, and thereby kept in perpetual bondage, without ever receiving any wages !—why they should be treated as vagabonds, and _ their persons be liable to be disposed of at the pleasure of any local func- tionary in whose district they may reside, if they do not hire them-
EMANCIPATION OF THIRTY THOUSAND HOTTENTOTS. 87
selves to a master?—why they should be given’ to any master, by such an authority, without ever having been consulted on the sub- ject?—-why they should be liable to have their homes violated, their children torn from them, and from the arms of their distract- ed mothers, without having the smallest chance of redress ?—why they should be denied, by the justice and humanity of Britain, the boon prepared for them by the Batavian government, when the Cape of Good Hope fell into the hands of the English ?—and why these intolerable oppressions should continue to be imposed upon them, in direct violation of the proclamaticn of the colonial go- vernment, declaring that the original natives of the country, the Hottentots, must be censidered and treated as a free people, who havea lawful abode in the colony ; and whose persons, property, and possessions, ought for that reason to be protected, the same as other free people?””*
In April, 1828, Dr. Philip published his work entitled “ Re- searches in South Africa,” of which the sole object was to disclose to the British government and nation the iniquitous oppression of the Hottentot people, and the persecutions suffered by the mission- aries for endeavouring to instruct and elevate them in the scale of humanity. This appeal, we rejoice to say, was as successful as it was able. In July of the same year an Ordinance was issued by Lieutenant-General Bourke, who then administered the govern- ment of the Cape colony, by the provisions of which the whole Hottentot race within the boundaries of the colony were placed, by law, in respect to every civil and political privilege, on a foot- ing of perfect equality with the white colonists. And, to render this Ordinance more secure, an Order in Council was issued by Sir George Murray in January, 1829, confirming in every point the said colonial Ordinance, and prohibiting any governor or colonial authority whatever to alter or abrogate any of its provisions.
This important measure, accordingly, was carried into effect with- out any opposition in Parliament; for the masters of the Cape Helots fortunately had no representatives there. And it was more- over carried into execution, immediately and at once, without any precautionary or preparatory regulations as respectd the emancipated Hottentots.
We now come to the important practical point of the case, namely, to consider the result of this sudden and total change in the civil and political condition of these thirty thousand bondmen. Let us see, then, what has been the effect of this bold and important measure, ist, as regards the colony generally ; 2dly, as regards the Hotten- tots particularly.
On the promulgation of the emancipating Ordinance, a pro- digious clamour was instantly raised throughout the Cape colony, in which all ranks and classes of the white population joied, Eng-
* See Philip’s Researches in South Africa, vol. i. p. 400, et seq. See also Report of Commissioners of Inquiry on the Hottentot Popula-- tion, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 1, 1830. (No. 584.)
~88 - EMANCIPATION OF THIRTY THOUSAND HOTTENTOTS.
lish and: Dutch, including judges and other-persons high in office, the great majority. of the local magistracy and public functionaries, and the possessors of landed property almost toa man. The ab- solute and utter ruin of the colony from this measure was loudl and. confidently predicted. It was asserted that the fields would be untilled, and the flocks go untended, for want of labourers and herdsmen ; and that the white inhabitants generally would he re- duced to ruin from this cause, and:from being plundered by maraud- ing-hordes.of Hottentot banditti. For it was assumed, as a‘result not to. be questioned, that no Hottentot would work unless com- pelled by coercion, and that the whole race would betake them- selves toa life of idleness, vagrancy, ~see robbery, when no longer held in servitude by compulsory laws. The retrogression: of the race into barbarism (from which by the bye they bad never been elevated, with the exception of those instructed at the missionary institutions) was deplored in terms of eloquent declamation ; and the whole of these calamitous consequences were ascribed, in terms of no measured vituperation, by the “ patriotic’ pamphileteers. and journalists of the colony,* to Dr. Philip and the; missionaries at-the Cape, to Mr. Buxton and the saints at home, and to that ‘silly man,” Sir George Murray, who had been ‘led to. act upon their false and hypocritical representations”!
Such were the predictions and assertions of the South African .“ patriots.’ And how have these assertions been borne out by the conduct of the emancipated Hottentot Helots?) Four years and a half have now elapsed, so that there has been sufficient time -to, observe the effects of the measure. The poor Hottentots do not deal, in pamphlets, or declaim much in newspapers; but: the facts will speak for them; and facts in matters of this sort are ra- ther more worthy of attention than figures. of speech.
The great body of the Hottentot people still remain, just as they, were formerly, servants to the white colonists; but with some essential differences in their condition. They ean no longer be flogged at the mere caprice of the master, if they happen to offend him. They must now be tried and condemned on competent evi- dence by a magistrate, and for a legal offence, before they can be pu- nished. Their children can no longer be forcibly taken from them ; and they can no longer be compelled to serve for inadequate wages, or for none. They form now, in short, a body of free peasantry, instead of being a degraded caste of miserable and op- pressed serfs.
It is indeed true that, on the first promtiladinesl of the Ordinance, a considerable number of families, finding themselves, for the first time, free men in reality, repaired to the several missionary institu- tions throughout the colony, generally from the natural and praise- worthy desire to obtain religious instruction for themselves or for their offspring,—or, it may be, in some cases, from the idle hope of living there in indolence for a season.. But as no encouragement ec Or UU t Sct
-* In their journals, ‘‘ De Zuid Afrikaan,” ‘* De Verzaameler,” ‘* The Colonist,’’ &c. &c., now before us. Foe.
EMANCIPATION OF THIRTY THOUSAND HOTTENTOTS. 89
was given to the vicious at these Christian asylums, and as no | means of subsistence exist there for the idle, the supernumerary re-+ fugees speedily discovered, that their only resource from. starvation was to hire themselves again (though now as free labourers) to the farmers. t
As for the apprehensions, real or pretended, of the colonists, that the Hottentots would betake themselves generally to a life of theft and vagrancy, on being left free to. follow their own course, they have proved perfectly groundless. For a few months at first, perhaps, individual cases of sheep-stealing and petty larceny may have been somewhat more frequent in some of the remote dis- tricts; though that is an allegation far from being satisfactorily made out by their eager detractors. But, if there actually was any tendency to an increase of these crimes, it is at least certain that it was speedily and effectually repressed by the ordinary courts of Jaw, with no other aid than the ordinary police of the country.
In short, the execution of this great measure of national justice and redress, while it has opened the door for the progression of the Hottentot race, and has been of great immediate advantage to them in the important points above specified, has in no other respect in- terfered with the existing arrangements of society; nor have the colonists suffered any loss or even inconvenience from its opera- tion. They have merely hecome, as regards the Hottentots, respon- sible masters, instexd of being irresponsible despots—a change not less beneficial to themselves than to their dependents. And, in’ fact, the case of the Hottentots. clearly demonstrates how greatly it would be for the benefit of the white inhabitants of the Cape, if the emancipation from’ unrequited and coercive labour, which -has been conferred on the 30,000 Hottentots, were forthwith extended to the 35,000 slaves of that colony. No one who knows the ‘cir- cumstances of the:settlement can entertain the slightest doubt of the entire safety of such a measure. A residence of many years there enables the writer of the present article to speak on this point'with » some confidence, .
We leave this case of speedy emancipation for the consideration of those who apprehend that the Negro slaves of the West Indies, if speedily emancipated, will be necessarily thrown into a state of entire social disorganization. The Hottentots of the Cape, with the exception of the few who had been instructed at the missionary institutions, were assuredly not more civilised in 1828 than the Ne- groes of Jamaica. Inthe remote districts, the former were in fact immersed in the thick darkness of heathen barbarism and servile degradation. Yet the change in their civil condition neither re- leased them from the necessity of labour nor roused them to deeds ° of plunder and violence.. Why should we anticipate:a different result in the case of the West India Negroes? Those who know them best, the persecuted missionaries, fear no such result. Let us do justice, and show mercy ; and with a few simple and judicious: regulations, such as the circumstances of the case will suggest to the Legislature, this great problem may soon (with the blessing of God’s good providence) be solved with a celerity anda facility
90 PREPARATION OF SLAVES FOR FREEDOM.
that will probably astonish those not a little who have permitted their apprehensions to be excited by the absurd clamours and fal- lacious representations of the planters and their advocates.
Another great step has been recently taken m the case of the Hot- tentots. A considerable number have been raised to the rank of land- holders, by having lands allotted to them by Government; and the success of this experiment has been such that a short statement of the facts will, we feel assured, not a little gratify the friends of the African race. We hope in our next number to lay a brief detail of them before our readers.
II.— PREPARATION OF SLAVES FOR FREEDOM.
This is a point much talked about by many persons who appear to have thought but little on the subject, or who have very indefi- nite ideas of what they talk about. The following letter, from a much-respected and most intelligent correspondent in South Africa, treats the subject in a lively and striking manner. He writes about what he knows well; and some sarcastic peculiarities of expression (the letter being written without the remotest idea of publication) will not withdraw the reader’s attention from the intrinsic force of the writer’s observations :—
““ Cape of Good Hope, Aug. 18, 1832.
“The King and Mr. Jeremie have been expelled from Mauritius, as the former will no doubt have learned by this time. Why would he send jaws that nobody could obey—without renouncing the devil and returning to justice? The present ministers seem to be plain, well-meaning men, but very imperfectly informed respecting the colonies. Lord Brougham’s own schoolmaster might have taught them that, though the Ethiopian may change his skin, he will never come back to honesty whose passions and ‘ vested rights’ have been long identified with despotism. The master also may tell them, from Horace, that human nature is unchangeable by Or- ders in Council. Even an Act of Parliament will fail, unless the bolt be levelled at the causes instead of the effects of evil. Some of your statesmen speak of slavery; but they are thinking of slave codes. No two things are more distinct. The New Testament is recognised here as a book of authority ; but it has not rescued a single slave from a single outrage.
“As to preparing the slaves for freedom—what is freedom? The slave has been trained to dig, plant, sow, build, reap, and gather im the harvest, and to submit patiently to all the laws which his master obeys, and many more. He requires food, clothes, shelter, and rest ;—he loves his children, relatives, acquaintanees, and friends, with more devotion, and makes more sacrifices for them when sa- crifices will do them good, than any, exeept remarkable men in the upper classes. What preparation is needed to make such a person fit to receive some wages for his labour instead of none? | For that is the seminal difference between personal slavery and personal freedom. It.is a pity that men of mind continue to speak such nonsense in high places. ‘They seem to think that, when the slave
BOARD OF CORRESPONDENCE. 9f
is free from his owner, he is to be freed from the laws of the coun- try and the laws of nature, from hunger and thirst, from the love of safety, convenience, and comfort, from all that human nature desites. Such blunderings are discreditable ; they make one doubt the,sincerity of those who persevere in them.
“* Mauritius has shown what years of ¢ preparation’ have made the slave-owner. Does Parliament mean to practise ‘ preparation’ till all the colonies are equally ‘ ripe?’
“ In this colony ‘ preparation’ has turned out as badly as possi- ble. It has in fact induced the colonists to ruin themselves. The new ‘ Order in Council’ has just been published : whether it shall remain a dead letter, like the last, is indifferent. It cannot, in the hands of such men as are here, in any degree protect the slave from daily cruelties innumerable, and all but intolerable. It may increase them by alarming the pride of the owner, and inflaming his temper. As for crimes, such as homicide and murder, the Cape slave-owner has, both in the grand and petty juries, com- plete protection against the law. ‘This must lead in the end to a general contempt for all law, the loss of personal security, and the dissolution of whatever deserves the name of civil society. These words will have no weight with politicians at home; but we feel and know the evil in its full extent already. ‘To such an excess of bitterness has the slave system degraded the colonial mind, that, from the simple fact of the Editor of the South African Advertiser having approved publicly of ‘compensation as the means of free- dom to the slave,’ there is not a man in the colony against whom they express half so much hatred, or vow so deep a revenge, as against him. ‘This feeling is not confined to the openly bad or vulgar ; even ———— has thrown in his mite to swell the torrent.
“¢ The ‘ Philanthropic Society’* you have heard of. At the last annual meeting, by secret caballing, they threw out of the commit- tee Tredgold, its founder and chief support, Dr. Philip,and several others ; and the thing is now in the hands almost exclusively of the most virulent opposers of its real objects. .
“ For myself, I am patient. I know and see that if man will not effect emancipation, Nature (or, to speak more correctly, Provi- dence) will do it. But, instead of granting compensation, she will exact vengeance. A melancholy prospect! but such has been the order of events ever since the sin of slavery was perpetrated.”
III.—BOARD OF CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE ABOLITION OF COLONIAL SLAVERY.
We have no small satisfaction in stating that an association, consisting of members of the different denominations of Christians, has just been formed in London, under the above title, with a view to assist in promoting the Anti-Slavery cause. The ground which they have taken in this great controversy is a most important one:
* A Society instituted a few years ago at the Cape, for the eman- cipation, by purchase, of female slave children.
92 BOARD OF CORRESPONDENCE.
it is stated, in the circular letter which they have issued, in. the following terms :— :
«“ As members of various religious bodies, we have united together on the broad principle of Christian duty to promote the IMMEDIATE ABOLITION OF CoLontaL Stavery, by which we mean the substitu- tion of magisterial for the irresponsible authority of the master, in connexion with such regulations as Parliament shall deem advisable for the peace and good order of the new state of society. Standing apart from all political alliances, we proceed in this work of right- eousness and mercy onthe ground of religious principle simply, and we ask your concurrence as a minister or disciple of that faith which teaches us to ‘do unto others as we would they should do unto us,’
‘« The state of public feeling is now such as to promise the most triumphant issue to our labours, if the religious part of the electors of the nation can but be induced to exercise their legitimate influence at the approaching elections.
«The success of our cause must, under Providence, depend on the men who may be returned to the next parliament; and we can- not, therefore, but regard it as a solemn duty which Christians owe to their principles, to their suffering fellow-men, and to their God, to use every constitutional means to secure the return of such candi- dates as will engage to support, by their influence and vote, the im- mediate extinction of Colonial Slavery. If this opportunity be lost, years may elapse before another occurs, and the present awakened’ feeling of the country will, in the mean while, be in great danger of subsiding. We are aware of the hesitation felt by a large portion of, the religious public as to the propriety of their taking part in politi- cal matters. But the present question, we submit, is one strictly, religious—one which involves the moral and spiritual interests of a large class of our fellow-subjects. Slavery is as inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity as it is opposed to the happiness of man- kind. Itis a most criminal violation of that law which the Deity has established among his intelligent creatures. Against this per-" version of all order—this bold attempt to destroy whatever is digni- fied and ennobling in human character, it becomes every disciple of) religion, and more especially its public teachers, to raise their, protest.
‘To the other wrongs of the slave there has lately been added, in some parts of our largest colony, the loss of religious instruction. He is to be deprived of the consolations of religion as well as of the joys of social life. The question has assumed somewhat of a new aspect, or rather the native depravity of slavery has been brought out more distinctly to view by recent occurrences. While slavery tolerated the presence of Christianity, its disciples partially sup- pressed their conviction of the enormity of the system; but that course is no longer left them. Slavery has crossed the path of our
_ holy, faith with an aspect so threatening that our only safety is in its destruction.” .
The Committee consists of ministers of religion and other gentle- men of the highest respectability. They have already opened a most extensive correspondence, and are prosecuting with the greatest assiduity the objects for which they have been associated. We cordially hail them as a band of honoured fellow-labourers in this
; DECLARATION OF CHRISTIAN MINISTERS. 93 good and Christian cause, which we doubt not will derive invalu- able benefits from their zealous co-operation. We earnestly hope ‘that similar associations may be formed forthwith in other large towns, and especially in Edinburgea and Dublin, . ;
The. Secretaries of the Board in London are the Rev. Messrs. J. Dixon, R. Halley, T. Price, and Mr. R. Barrett.
/
IV.—DECLARATION OF CHRISTIAN MINISTERS AT LIVERPOOL. .
A public Declaration against Colonial Slavery and Persecu- tion has been recently issued by a number of dissenting and me- thodist ministers in Liverpool. It isa well expressed and well timed document ; and it is an omen, we trust, of good augury to see such ‘a town as Liverpool,-—formerly the chief commercial arsenal of the accursed Slave Trade,—taking the lead in issuing such a de- claration by the hands of its religious pastors. We warmly re- commend the example to the imitation of conscientious and reli- gious men in other parts of the kingdom. The crisis of the cause has arrived. It is the cause of God and man. against a system of iniquity which loads the conscience and paralyses the industry of the nation. Those who have influence, religious or political, and who use it not zealously and promptly to: assist in strangling this. moral hydra, are surely not free from a deep and solemn. re- sponsibility. What good man would not now be proud to have had a share, however trifling, in abolishing..the slave trade? Yet, thirty years ago, many (alas! too. many) of the’ professors of religion—of the ministers of tie Gospel—were found inactive and luke-warm in that christian controversy ;—not a few were even found in the ranks of those who during an arduous struggle of many tedious years oppcsed the abolition of that execrable traffic. Wealth; rank, interest, and fashion were then leagued to uphold that abomination. Now the Slave Trade has received the just brand of legal infamy—and not one, not even the most audacious advocate of West India Slavery, will venture to utter a word in its defence or palliation. And so will it be, we venture to predict, with Colonial Slavery, and that speedily. Its doom is sealed. A short (we earnestly hope a very short) period will accomplish its extinction, and stigmatize it for ever as a heinous and detestable crime. The Stave Trape and Cotonrat Stavery will stand side by side in our national annals, equal in atrocity, equal in in- famy, to all generations. The very name of Necro Stavery, and the memory of those who have palliated or defended it, will stink in. the nostrils of posterity. But, though its end is obviously ap- proaching, the moral strength of the whole British nation may. yet be required to accomplish its final and effectual overthrow. Now is the time to strike the blow ; and we solemnly call on every man who fears God and loves the human rage to “‘ come up to our help against the mighty.” We place before their eyes the Declaration of the Liverpool ministers, and if they decline or delay to put forth their hand also to help the good work—on their own consciences: be the responsibility.
94 . ADDRESS OF PROTESTANT DISSENTERS.
“ Declaration.
“« We, the undersigned Christian Ministers in Liverpool and its vicinity, think ourselves called on by present circumstances to lay before the public our deliberate opinion on two most important sub- jects,—namely, the evil of British Colonial Slavery, and the Perse- cution of Missionaries, their congregations, and adherents in Ja- maica, as originating in that system.
‘“‘ We are firmly convinced that the system of Colonial Slavery is essentially sinful, because at variance with the great principles and spirit of Christianity—that it is incapable of any such improvement as would justify its continuance—and therefore that it ought to be abolished by legal means, with the least possible delay.
‘¢ The Persecutions in Jamaica, which are as.inconsistent with the gospel of Christ as they are opposed to the spirit of the British con- stitution—to the design of the Toleration Acts—and to the essential rights of our fellow-subjects in the West Indies, we regard as a de- cisive proof of the incorrigible nature of the system of Colonial Slavery, and as an additional reason for seeking its utter extermi- nation.
** We, therefore, earnestly entreat the friends of Christianity, li- berty, and peace, to employ their influence in every’ constitutional way to obtain the speedy removal of this sinful and injurious system, and to insist on the prompt adoption of such measures as shall ef- fectually secure the full and uninterrupted: enjoyment of that re- ligious; liberty in our colonies which the laws of the parent country afford to us.
«¢ John Stewart. John Breese. Moses Fisher. J. J. Carruthers. Jabez Bunting. - John S. Stamp. James Lister. ci _ W. B. Stephenson. Sam. Saunders, James Widows. D.M‘Nicoll. George Smith. Sam. Jackson. John Kelly. Joseph Hollingworth. . Jos. Tunstall.
Thos. Raffles. “Liverpool, Nov. 12, 1832.”
V.— ADDRESS OF THE SOCIETY OF DEPUTIES OF PROTESTANT DISSENTERS,
On the 16th of November a deputation from the Society of Deputies appointed to protect the civil rights of Protestant Dis- senters, had an interviéw with Lord Goderich, at the Colonial’ Office, on the subject of the late outrages in Jamaica, and pre- sented to his lordship an eloquent and energetic address on that subject, praying for the efficient protection of his’ Majesty’s go- vernment “ against the savage violence of men acting either singly: or in concert, by whom that government itself has been calumni- ated, insulted, defied, and, to the extent of impotent threats, ab-. jured.” His lordship, we are informed, received the deputation: with much kindness, and the result of the interview was highly’ satisfactory.
95
‘VI.—ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, Nos. 102 anv 103.
Two numbers of the Reporter have been published during the late month, containing articles on the following topics :—
4. Conduct of Emancipated Africans in Antigua.
It appears that Lord Howick’s favourable notice in Parliament of the conduct of the liberated Africans in Antigua, had stirred up the Colonial agents at home and their constituents abroad to at- tempt to disprove his lordship’s statement. The Council and As- sembly of Antigua took up the subject with great zeal. ‘ Meet- ings were convened, speeches made, resolutions passed, commit- tees appointed, witnesses examined, and a joint report produced, in order to convict both his Majesty’s government and their own governor of misrepresentation. It would almost seem as if the very fate of slavery depended on their establishing the worth- lessness, idleness, and profligacy of the 371 Negroes whom Lord Howick, on the authority of the governor, Sir Patrick Ross, had described as industriously labouring for their own support since they had been thrown upon their own resources.” This induced Lord Goderich to call upon the governor for a further investiga- tion of the facts of the case. ‘The proceedings and results are given in an interesting correspondence, of which a full abstract is pub- lished in the A. 8. Reporter. The sequel of this correspondence is remarkable, and seems decisive of the question mooted by the Antigua agent and his constituents. On the 25th April, 1832, Sir Patrick Ross, in reply to Lord Goderich’s instructions, ‘ on the subject of removing to Trinidad such of the liberated Africans as may have forfeited the privileges derived from the liberty that had been awarded to them,’ observes—
«« It is a cause of satisfaction to me to be enabled to state that the conduct of these people continues so much at variance with the cha- racter given of them in part of the evidence which was laid before the Houses of Legislature, by their joint committee, in November last, that there has not come to my knowledge a single case which could justify mein putting in force the penalty of removing them from a country in which they have been for so many years domiciled.
«‘T beg to inclose some documents, from which your Lordship will observe that the liberated Africans are progressively advancing in moral and religious improvement.
‘« Many of the liberated Africans are members of the Samaritan Society, of the church of the United Brethren, and of a Friendly Society.”
“The governor’s communication is accompanied by gratifying
testimonies, in favour of these poor people, from the Rector of St. John’s, Antigua, Mr. Holberton, and the Moravian missionaries.”
2. American Colonization Society.
No. 102 of the Reporter contains an excellent article under the above title ; to which we refer such of our readers as the brief notice in our last Record may have awakened to further enquiry on this very interesting and extraordinary subject. ‘The facts and
96 DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.
avowals adduced from the American publications, are, to use the words of the Reporter, “really too bad; they make the very blood to curdle in one’s veins 1’
3. Correspondence between’ Sir C. B. Codrington and T’. F. Buz- ton, Esq., on the subject of Slavery.
No. 103, consists of a reprint of this correspondence from the newspapers, with a few additional remarks by the Editor. To such of our readers as have not previously seen these letters, or have . only glanced at them cursorily, we would recommend a peru- sal of this tract.’It will well repay the trouble, and will afford amuse- ment as well as instruction. Sir C. B. Codrington, we have no doubt, now heartily repents that he ever opened the controversy. He had far better have taken a voyage to his West Indian Goshen, his “ Fortunate Isle” of Barbuda!
VII. DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN AID OF THE FUNDS OF THE © ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, DURING THE PRECEDING MONTH.
ee ce Hull Association . ; : : (payment) 516 0 Maidstone ditto ; : : wee (ditto ) 4°96 Rochester Ladies’ ditto. F (ditto ) 414 4 S. H. Marley, Esq., Cheltenham (donation) 1 Le Miss Yerbury, ditto. : ( payment) 2°40 Chatteris Association : : : (ditto) r tiers Noa Stourport ditto : : : ‘4 ‘ditto ) 012 9 Chelmsford Ladies’ ditto . ; (ditto ) beh a Milford Association ; : ‘ (ditto ) AA ie bas Peckham Ladies’ ditto. Q : (ditto ) S217 “7 -Mrs. Wolferston, Tamworth . } (donation) BP IQI0H Thomas Christy, Esq. . ‘ : ( payment) T112°"% Miss Hubbard, Maidenhead . ” (donation) SOD Dorking Association ; : ; (payment) Oe Oa) Cirencester ditto. ; ; : (ditto ) 2 16 10 Dover ditto. : > (ditio) 12 9 .6 W.S. Hathaway, Esq. " é . (annual) 3.3 0 Evesham Association : : ; ( payment ) 3:14 6 Ditto ditto... > ; F (donation) 8 0 0 Sundries, per Mr. Christian : , ; oil? 10 4008 Kingston Association : . (payment ) 018 9 Samuel Hope, Esq., Liverpool 4 (donation) 30 0.0 Willliam Kay, Esq., ditto : - (ditto ) 20 0. .0,. S. N., a Servant Girl ; . : (ditto) 010 0
London: S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
Che Anti-Slavery Record.
No. 9. DECEMBER 3, 1832. © prick ONE PENNY.
{£,.—INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA :— 1. Continuation of Outrages at Savanna-la-Mar . . « . » 9 2. Outrages at Montego Bay. 2 ew ww we lw lw Ce 100 3. Remarks of the Watchman on the proceedings of the Colonial NS Sel usl o, ei eremtel bo Id de 1 crim ties wo weet 4, Conduct of the Governor ; his Reply to an Address of the Pres- byterian Missionaries; his Address to the Westmoreland Mi- litia ; his Speech in a Conference with the Magistrates of St. PARE Lienitals oli Walew slits preg id . a, ',0: ssa heen Dur Present state of the.Colony .) 5. ee wi Fa 3 105 II. —DECLARATION OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF JAMAICA ON COLONIAI. OMe iu ee uke ea ee 8) 11I.——EFFECT OF EMANCIPATION ON THE CULTIVATION OF SUGAR . . 108 2V.—THE MAURITIUS INSURRECTION. 4. «© 2 «© «© 2 2 © « . 408
I.—INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
The arrival of the Jamaica packet, with tiles of colonial news- papers, after the eighth number of our Recorp had gone to press, has induced us to present our readers this month with a supple- mentary number. ‘The interest of the intelligence which these papers bring, down to the 10th of October, will, we trust, be a sufficient apology for an additional tract at the close of the year.
1. Continuation of Outrages at Savanna-la- Mar.
We mentioned in our seventh number the outrages at Savanna- la-Mar, commencing with a ferocious attack upon the house of a coloured gentleman, Mr. Deleon, where Mr. Kingdon the mission- ary was lodged. The Jamaica Watchman of September 15th con- tains the following account of the continuation of these outrages :—
«‘September the 5th.—Warrants being issued against a great many of the Colonial Unionists, implicated in the destruction of the houses of the Deleons, Thomas A. Mitchener, George Davidson, and Thomas Tomlinson, were apprehended, and lodged in gaol. Several of their party being admitted to visit them, a tremendous uproar commenced, and it was reported that. the gaol would be burnt at night. Between six and seven o’clock in the evening, Harry Daw- son, the deputy gaoler, one of the Unionists, was seen armed with a sabre or sword, going towards the gaol. Shortly after, several re- spectable persons went in haste to the house of Mr. A. M. Touzalin, in the Savannah, where the Deleons and a few others were at the time, and informed them that it was reported the prisoners Mitchen- er, Davidson, Tomlinson, &c., would be let out of the gaol, for the purpose of joining the mob in an attack upon Touzalin’s house.
K
98 Outragesat Savanna-la- Mar.
Messrs. Deleons and Touzalin said they did not believe any further violence would be offered to them, but their friends insisted they should quit instantly. They did so, and on their way to secrete them- selves, they called upon Dr. Distin, a magistrate, and mentioned the. circumstance ; he said he would go to the Bay and endeavour to pre- vent the proceedings of the mob. The Deleons, Touzalin, and the other gentlemen had scarcely left Touzalin’s house, before the alarm was given ‘ They are coming, they are coming.’ Mrs. Touzalin, after: leaving her three infants with an old lady in the immediate neigh- bourhood, fled with her sister, Mrs. Aaron Deleon, the younger into the woods, where they remained till a late hour. .The servants fled also in all directions. The mob, finding the gates locked, were for going over them ; but Mr. Thompson, a constable, having pointed out the unlawfulness of such an act, succeeded in preventing them. They went from Touzalin’s, and, meeting Mr. Ralph Barrow,who was walk- ing peaceably, they tarred him. They also tarred several other persons, among whom was a white man named Chemoney, who is now very ill in consequence. He is almost blind. Several houses were stoned. The glass windows of one of Mr. A. Deleon, Jun.’s new houses were smashed in, and the doors (which were handsomely painted), be- daubed with tar. The mob entered the house of Miss A. L. Bell, where were several respectable females, who fled, leaving the daugh- ter of Miss Bell, a child: they beat her head against a part of the house. .The house of Mr. Samuel Case (a respectable old gentle- man, whose head is as white as snow) was attacked; he, his lady, a sickly person, almost bed-ridden, about sixty years of age, and their daughters, had to escape for their lives, and remain out all the night. The houses of Mr. John Johnson and several others were also attacked ; and, when the mob could not find Johnson, they entered his bed-room, tarred his chest of drawers, bedsteads, and sheets, and injured or destroyed whatever they could get hold of. In this mob were recognised Mitchener, Davidson, and Tomlinson, the persons who had been lodged in gaol! ! Several more can be identified.
«« Thursday, the 6th.—About eight in the morning, a great noise was heard at the gaol, and a large flag seen flying. Placards were stuck up, stating that the Unionists should give no bail, but go to gaol, as the gaol would soon be too hot to hold them. At twelve in the day, it was reported they would pull the gaol down and march up to Touzalin’s, murder him, and demolish his house. The Deleons and Touzalin, as well as others, both males and females, were advised. to leave the town, At night the mob assembled, and marched ta Touzalin’s, and jumped over the gates; the inmates of the house fied. They broke open the Negro-houses, searched them; but, not finding any person, they went to the dwelling-house, and endeayvour- ed to force the door, - They entered the residence of Mrs. Valentine, a widow, and tarred a man hired to her, the property of Dr. Distin, and beat him violently. They attacked the house of Miss Touro, a respectable old inhabitant. On their approach she escaped, and re- mained in the open air during the night. The mob committed other atrocities too numerous to mention at present.
«« Friday, the 7th.—Between four and five in the evening, some of the Unionists pulled Mr. David Pennycook off his horse, and tarred him, because he refused to become a member of the Union. Mr. Pen- nycook had just come to the Bay in order to attend muster the next morning.
“Outrages at Scvanna-la- Mar. 99
** His Excellency Lord Mulgrave having received an express from the Hon. J. S. Williams, custos of Westmoreland, arrived with his suite and Sir Willoughby Cotton at Savanna-la-Mar in the evening. His Excellency rode down and looked at the ruins of such of the houses of the Deleons as have been destroyed. On Saturday night a
company of the 84th regiment arrived, and were stationed at the Court-house. : :
«“ On Saturday T. A. Mitchener, having given bail, was released ‘from custody. While Mr. Bucknor and his wife were going to church next morning, Mitchener went into the street and pulled Bucknor’s nose, saying, ‘I will have you yet, my boy.’ Mitchener and his surety have consequently forfeited their recognizances. Mr. Bucknor refused to become one of the Unionists.”
The Watchman of September 29th continues the narrative of these outrages, which were audaciously persevered in even during | the Governor’s stay at Savanna-la-Mar. The details, given from the letter of a respectable resident in that town, are as follows :—
“‘ The members of the Colonial Church Union, I regret to say, are continuing their atrocities. On the night of Wednesday, the 19th anstant, a house in this town, the property ef James Grant, Esq., te-. nanted by Joseph Malabre, was fired, but*tortunately saved by much exertion, ‘The incendiaries, it is said, tarred the house before they fired it.” : *«Mr. Mitchener, whilst going down the street, told Miss Belinda Crooke, a respectable young lady, that he would tar her that night. The Unionists accordingly assembled, went to the house of Miss Sarah Hambersley, whither Miss Crooke had gone in consequence of the threats ; but, not finding Miss Crooke inthe hall, Mitchener or- dered the others to go into the room: they did so, pulled her from under the bed, and tarred her! They endeavoured to take Mrs.God- frey’s infant of three months old out of her arms, and, when they could not, they tarred it! Mr. Frederick Crooke, Mr. John Wixsted, and Miss Eliza Spencer, were also tarred, the former being first stripped. “ On Friday, the 21st, John M‘Koy told James Grant, Esq., a ‘magistrate, that the Union men would tar the custos, and he (M‘Koy), being one of them, would assist. Mitchener told Mr. “Grant he would tar him. On Saturday the custos held a meeting of the magistrates, when Mitchener and others were ordered to the county-gaol ; but they refused to go, and, being aided by other Union- ‘ists, resisted the authorities. They talked of the massacre of the regulars if sent under a guard of them. At night the rioters went to the house of Catherine Woodbine, a defenceless female, and de- stroyed her furniture, &c. At midnight they went to Rockdunda pen, the property of Mr. Aaron Deleon the younger, about three miles out of town. On their approach Mr. Robertson, the overseer, who had gone to bed, hid himself; but, finding they commenced to demolish the house, he came out, when they immediately tied him, and led him away to Coromantee Bridge, on the King’s road, blind- folded him, chopped him on the left arm, and then threw him into the river! Mr. Robertson providentially escaped being drowned ; but it is the opinion of the doctor that his arm will never be of use ‘to him.” *« Tt is perhaps not generally known that Messrs. Aaron and John "Deleon, as well as several others, men of families, are not allowed
100 Outrages at Montego-Bay.
to be in Savanna-la-Mar, not even during the day. The Unionists, to my knowledge, have threatened to do them personal injury ; and
f have learnt that secret resolutions have been entered into, to that
effect. The Deleons were imprisoned under a warrant of Mr. An~
thony Whitelock, on the night of the 9th August; and were released
on bail by a bench of magistrates on Monday, 3rd September, after
an investigation. On Tuesday and Wednesday the mob endeavoured to get hold of them, and on Thursday they left the town. The fol-
lowing Wednesday (12th) those persecuted individuals expecting,
as they said, that all was quiet, returned to their families, but were
not an hour at home when they were compelled again to leave, since
when they have not been here.
‘« Have not things come to a pretty pass, when men, born in the very place, are to be thus treated? The Deleons are merchants, and, with their fathers, possess considerable property, and are con- sidered by the virtuous and good as valuable members of this com- munity. Mr. Aaron Deleon the younger, it is well known, esta- blished a charity school here in 1828: a master was employed at a liberal salary, and a supply of necessary and useful books purchased. ¥ have visited the schoo}, at the examination of the scholars, and, to my knowledge, there were in it upwards of seventy at one time.
«« As regards Mr. John Deleon, it is no secret that the hatred of a certain party originated in his having successfully opposed, at a Public Meeting held here in August, 1831, Mr. Whitelock’s resolu- tions, praying to be absolved from their allegiance to the British Govern= ment: for, although those resolutions were published as having passed the meeting, the majority present was decidedly against them.”
2.—Outrages at Montego Bay.
While these proceedings were going on at Savanna-la~Mar, similar scenes were occurring at Montego-Bay, and are thus stated in the Watchman :—
«On the night of Sunday the 9th instant an attack was made on’ the premises of Mrs. Margaret Renwick, a part of which is occupied by the Rev. Mr, Abbott, Baptist missionary, and family. The per- sons engaged in this breach of the peace said that their object was to get hold of Mr. Dolphy, in order to tar and feather him. It may be™ necessary to state, for the information of our readers, that this gentle- man had arrived at Montego-Bay on the Saturday morning previous, from the mountains of Hanover (whither he had fled for refuge from the sanguinary violence of the Savanna-la-Mar rioters), and been permitted to walk about the town unmolested ; which proves that the attack on Mrs. Renwick’s house on the Sunday night had been regu- larly planned and organized ; and we are assured that. but for the prompt assistance of that lady’s friends, as well as of a great many persons who set their faces against such disgraceful proceedings, the consequences would have been serious.—Two of Mrs. Renwick’s” BROTHERS were leaders of the assailants ; and, though she made a most pathetic appeal to their feelings before the arrival of her friends. | they did not cease their shameful and inhuman conduct. Samuel M. Barrett, Esq.,and Sir Willoughby Cotton, were applied to. The for- mer was prevented from attending by indisposition ; the latter sent a message to Mr. Coates, requesting him, asa civil officer, to do his ue : Mr. Coates then repaired to the spot, and, on being informed of the eause of the riot, told Mrs. Renwick that she should have given up Mr.
* }
Pe
Outrages of Colonial Unionisis. 101
Dolphy when the rioters demanded him. To this she replied by en- quiring whether, had she done so, they would not have murdered him; and the rejoinder was—(mark it! every man who is not a Unionist !—every friend to civil and relizious liberty !)—‘‘ To BE suRE THEY wouLp!”’ So, according to this Colonial Union magistrate, this female ought to have given up an unjustly persecuted individual, to whom she had given shelter from feelings of commiseration, in order that he might be murdered! Mr. Dolphy effected his escape by scaling a wall fourteen feet high at the back of the premises, and sought protection from our independent and patriotic countryman, John Campbell, which was readily afforded him.
“« Subsequently (on Tuesday evening) a second attempt was made to get hold of Mr. Dolphy. This took place at Mr. Campbell’s house, into which the mob rushed, although one of them, a Mr. Bennett, had been informed that Mr. Dolphy was not there. Here however, we are happy to state, the ruffians got what they richly de- seryed—a sound drubbing.
‘*« Mr. Dolphy, in order to prevent a recurrence of such scenes, left Montego-Bay, and is now in this town safe from the persecutions of the Savanna-la>Mar or Montego-Bay Colonial Church Union men.”
«« At Montego-Bay, at half-past one o’clock on the morning of the eleventh instant, a party of the Union men assailed the house in which the Wesleyan Missionary at that place resides. One of the cowardly miscreants, who availed themselves of the stillness and silence of night to cover, as they supposed, their deeds of infamy and darkness, threw a large stone through the chamber window where the missionary, his wife, and child, were ; but providentially the stone was turned aside by the double window-curtains, and it fell a little short of their bed. The splinters of glass flew about in all directions, and the villains ran off, but not so quickly as to prevent their being seen. On the same morning a shop, belonging to a person who has been for some time sick, and obliged to go into the country for change of air, was partly demolished by the same ruffians.”
3.—Remarks of the Watchman.
Upon these outrageous proceedings the Watchman makes the following remarks :—
“« We again assert that the Colonial Union is ‘big with horror’— and that they are bringing upon this colony a series of evils which cannot fail to entail misery and disgrace upen themselves. We call upon every friend of civil and religious liberty to be on the alert, manfully to uphold the majesty of the laws, and resist any and every illegal attempt of the Colonial Church Union. We know the men who constitute this Union; their moral character agrees with theit irreligious and illegal conduct, nor will their vapourings, their mur- derous attempts, go unrequited. As friends of the public peace and internal tranquillity, we bid them beware, lest their proceedings involve them in consequences they pretend not to regard. What do they mean by oppressing those whom they term sectarians? Do they not know that a great proportion of the coloured inhabitants (natives ) of this land are dissenters ? and, however willing they may be to vear the aggressions of the adverse party, there is a point beyond which endutance or passive submission becomes criminal. In charit: we bid the Colonial gentry beware {- Again we say beware! There is
102 Conduct of the Governor.
such a thing among the commonalty as determination—there is such a thing to be provoked as RETALIATION.”
«« With such facts as these [the outrages above detailed ] staring us in the face, can it be supposed that we will remain silent, or that the sufferers will be quiet until they obtain redress of their grievances ? ~—It is as absurd as ridiculous to talk of applying to the magistrates for protection; and for this plain and obvious reason, they are them- selves, with very few exceptions, connected with the Unions ; and the secret, though prime, movers in the outrages complained of.”
‘‘ Before we quit this subject, we must remark that we feel it to be a duty we owe to ourselves and to the Custos of Westmoreland, Mr. Williams, to state that Messrs. Kingdon and Deleons are perhaps in- debted for their existence, at the present moment, to the noble and. humane part he took, and the exertions he used, on the late occasions.”
4. Conduct of the Governor, Earl Mulgrave.
The new Governor of Jamaica, there can be no question, has found it a task of no ordinary difficulty to act at oncé with discre- tion and decision in assuming his important functions, in a com- munity so disorganized as this colony has been by the long im- punity which the persecuting and rebellious faction have enjoyed. In replying to the various addresses which were poured in upon him immediately after his arrival, a tone of extreme caution and moderation was apparent. He evidently felt that he was treading as it were upon gunpowder. As he has become more fully ac- quainted with his position and the circumstances of the country he has gradually assumed a firmer tone. it remains to be seen whe- ther he fully possesses the moral courage required by his position— whether he is qualified to act with the requisite determination, when words of conciliation and of warning fail, and when prompt and resolute action becomes—as it has now become—indispensa- ble for the preservation of civil authority and the prevention of civil war. To this crisis, it is clear from the foregoing details, that matters have actually arrived in Jamaica. The conduct of the governor, therefore, at this crisis, is most important; and we are happy to have, on the whole, a very favourable report to give of it. .
Reply to the Addvess of the Presbyterian Missionaries.
On the 11th of September, in reply to an address from the Scot- tish: Presbyterian Ministers, his lordship significantly remarks—
«¢ Tam duly sensible of the difficulties arising from the disturbed state in which I have found this colony, but trust with you that, by a firm determination to repress violence and to resist the execution of illegal threats, and at the same time an anxious desire to assuage animosities and recommend conciliation, a better understanding may be established among all those who have the good of their country at heart.
“1 am convineed, I hope in common with the vast majority of the inhabitants, that it is by the diffusion, not the suppression, of re- ligious instruction, that tranquillity can be satisfactorily restored.”
Address to the Westmoreland. Militia,
On the 8th of the same month (being on a tour of inspection through the colony) his lordship reviewed the Westmoreland regi-
Speech of the Governor. 103
ment of colonial militia at Savanna-la- Mar. This was at the very period that the outrages above described were in the course of nightly perpetration at that place; and the militia whom his lord- ship reviewed (atleast a large proportion of them) were well known to be among the perpetrators of those atrocities. Passing briefly over what related to their military appearance, his lordship thus addressed them :—
‘«< You may be well assured that in no part of the government en- trusted to my charge, nor at any time, shall a breach of the peace be committed with impunity.”
“«To you I must look, in the first instance, for support, in the sup- pression of any attempt to break the peace, knowing that you will remember that it is for the maintenance of the laws, and to assist in the protection from violence and outrage all who require it, that you are enrolled ; and how much more it becomes the duty of a soldier to be prompt when the persons to be protected are the weak or oppressed. ‘There are those on their march hither [troops of the line] who will be proud to act with you as brother soldiers, but who I know, in their assistance of the civil authorities, and their preservation of the peace of this town (which I am certain will be effective), will never make any distinction of persons. Upon their heads, therefore, whoever they may be who dare to violate the quiet of the community, will rest the dreadful consequence of their audacity.”
Speech in a Conference with the Magistrates of St. James's:
Before leaving Montego Bay, Lord Mulgrave summoned the magistrates of St. James’s parish to a conference; and, after al- luding to the loyal and complimentary addresses with which they had met him on his arrival, he significantly remarks, that, as it is not his own practice “‘ to make professions which he is not pre- pared to fulfil,” he will “as little doubt the sincerity of the assu- rarces then put forward.” “« He will therefore,” he adds, “ not refer ~ to the last disgraceful outrage (the case of Dolphy), as it had been put into a train of legal investigation. It is impossible, however,” he proceeds, ‘ not to observe that there is a violence of party spirit in the town and neighbourhood of Montego Bay, occasionally break-~ ing out in open outrages, disgraceful to the parish, and more especially to the authorities, should they permit them to continue or recur.”
«« For myself, I am determined, whatever the conduct of others- may be, to vindicate the authority of the law. I have assured you most sincerely of my sympathy in the distresses of this parish. You: already know me enough to feel assured that, should the criminal attempts of last winter be repeated, I would repress them with: promptitude and vigour; and, should the influence of my presence be thought desirable to check them at the outset, that I would not hesitate, at any personal inconvenience, to be here the moment I was summoned. But that same energy which I would endeavour to display in saving the extensive and valuable properties of the wealthy, I will, if necessary, exert with equal decision in protect- ing from destruction the humble dwelling of the poorest; and,.
164 Speech of the Governor.
whilst I have means at my command, which under any circuni+ stances would not be wanting, I will not suffer, by any person, whatever may be his station, or under any pretence, however plau- sible it may be thought, outrage on private property to be perpetrated with impunity. Is it possible that, in the parish of St. James’s, which has so lately suffered severely from the temporary triumph of lawless violence, so infatuated an example should be repeatedly held forth to the negroes of the country, of the contempt shown for the rights of private property, by those who ought to know better?
“It is impossible, in looking around me, to believe, or suppose, that gentlemen of station and respectability, and of extensive in- fluence, can be any way connected with such criminal and dis- graceful scenes; but I do desire you to employ that influence, the influence of character and respectability, in engendering a better feeling amongst your neighbours, in reminding ‘your fellow-towns- men that it is upon the regard shown to the rights of property that their security alone rests ; and How can they expect the ignorant ne- gro to respect that right in his own person, which they violate in the dwellings of their neighbours? It is not the wealth of the sufferer which marks the extent of the injury—it is not the igno- rance of the culprit which shows the enormity of the crime. On the contrary, the law cannot choose its victim. better than when he who hus the smallest excuse for error offends against him who has the slightest means of defence.”
After stating the necessity of putting an end to the prevailing anarchy, and suggesting preventive measures to be adopted by the ‘ magistracy, his lordship pointedly and expressively observes that— “the moment a man attempts feloniously to force an entrance into a dwelling-house, under any pretence, either to drag forth a per- son to whom hospitality has been extended, or still more, if it is with the deliberate intention of destroying the dwelling, the life af the assailant, if he persists, after warning, is justly forfeited ; and, of the two, i¢ would be better that one guilty person should perish in the perpetration of illegal outrage, than that the property of the innocent should be destroyed ; yet I trust that, by the adoption on your part of some such plan as I have suggested, so painful an alternative may be avoided. There is nota person in the world who would be more unwilling to adopt extreme measures than my- self; yet, if deprived of that support which I have aright to expect, there is no alternative which, as chief magistrate, I would not prefer to allowing the authority of the law to be despised, ‘the public peace broken, and private property violated, from want of proper energy in calling forth all the powers placed at my com- mand.
“TI havé made no accusation,” he concludes, “I ask for no explanation. I therefore require no reply; but leave you in full confidence, that; as men of integrity and character, you must be anxious for the reputation of. your parish, which the continuance of such outrages would seriously affect; that as men of property and stake in the country you must be most desirous to provide for the peace of your families, and for the security of your dwellings.”
Present State of the Colony. 105
5. Present State of the Colony.
‘This lecture of the governor to the magistrates, which, though pun- gent, is certainly sufficiently mild forthe occasion, addressed as it was to men (magistrates forsooth !) who, with some few exceptions, had been notoriously guilty of either conniving at, or instigating, or personally assisting in these atrocious outrages, appears to have produced some effect. The tone of the seditious press of the colony has been since obviously lowered; and the Watchman states that the ‘« Unionists had been somewhat quieter during the subsequent week.” But his lordship must not flinch, if the occasion demands, to act up sternly to his solemn declaration. If he hesi- tates, or fails to enforce obedience to law, all is over with his authority ; and astate of perilous anarchy, if not of open civil war, will be the inevitable consequence. ‘The oppressive attempts making in other ‘parts of the island, contemporaneously with these occurrences at Montego Bay, to force the coloured militia to join the Colonial Unions, and to disarm those who refused, are pregnant with mischief and peril, and ought to be visited with instant punishment. By their late proceedings the whites have exasperated the coloured class to such a degree that any partiality or vacillation on the part of the executive—another drop of bitterness in the envenomed cup—and it will flow over—in blood! When his lordship talks of “ re-establishing a better feeling between these classes,” the Editor of the Watchman, in language sufficiently indicative of the feelings of his class, thus speaks :—
- The coLourED MAN MUST Nor Loox BAcKWaRD! The retrospect is fraught with the elements of discord.”
‘© The disunion of the classes is neither recent nor temporary—nor can we silently permit his lordship to be misled into a belief that it isso. The task which our revered Sovereign has happily confided to so capable an agent is not the re-union of severed friends—not the suppression of an embryo feud—nor the renewal of an interrupted or broken alliance. No! we beg to tell his Excellency, with the de- ference of respectful esteem, but with the fearless honesty of English- men, thathe is required to reconcile hereditary foes—to combine clash~ ing interests—to unite the persecuted to the persecutors—and (most difficult of all) to compel the latter to forgive those whom they have injured ;—in short, he is called upon to do little less than reconcile antipathies! Yet all this may—it will be effected by the persevering exercise of the firmness and impartiality he has already evinced.”
The same insane and reckless spirit which urged on the French colonists of Haiti to drive the mulattoes to desperation, and kindled civil wars which involved their own extermination, is, in fact, now wildly at work in Jamaica; and unless the executive and judicial powers in the colony are wielded with extraordinary wisdom and firmness, and sustained by the government and legisla- ture at home with a spirit worthy of an enlightened and Christian nation, we dare hardly anticipate an issue other than one most de- plorably calamitous to all parties.
106 ~ Declaration of, the Attorney-General. —
II.—DECLARATION OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL.
A paragraph has been recently most industriously inserted by the West Indian party in many of the provincial papers of Great Britain and Ireland, purporting to be the report of a speech de- livered “on a public occasion” by Mr. O'Reilly, the newly-ap- pointed Attorney-General cf Jamaica. We extract the following copy of it from the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, of November 15, 1832 :—
“Mr. O'Reilly said, he had arrived in this island an utter stranger to its inhabitants, its institutions, and the manners of the country. His instructions, when he left England, were, to ascertain the condition of the Negro, to report it faithfully, and to be the friend and protector of the slave. Faithfully had those instructions been obeyed ; and he could, from ocular demonstration, state, and the fact was undeniable, that Slavery existed but in name. The Negroes weré a well fed, happy people; their condition, in every respect, superior to that of the majority of the peasantry of England. In fact, they enjoyed luxuries which he never could have imagined. The protec- tion of an Attorney-General was not required by the Slaves; for their kindest friend and protector was their humane and generous owner. ‘These were his sentiments. Although but a short time in the Colony, he had witnessed enough to convince him that the cha- racter of the Planter was slandered, and the condition of the Slave misrepresented in Europe.” ~-
Such is the advertisement of the West-Indian party. The ar- rival, however, of the Jamaica papers has now put us in possession of the actual facts, and we request the reader to mark them well.
It appears Mr. O’ Reilly (an Irishman, as his name indicates) had attended a military badl and supper at St. Thomas in the Vale ; and, after partaking freely of West Indian hospitality, had, on his health being drunk, repaid his hosts with aspeech—smacking (as might be expected) of Ivish eloquence and sangaree. The colonial Unionists gave what was termed a report of this speech in the Jamaica Courant and Kingston Chronicle, ingeniously adapted to serve their own purposes; and the editor of the latter paper stated that he considered “ this voluntary confession on the part of the Attorney- General of such importance to the colony that it was his intention to forward numerous copies of his paper which contained it, to the various Editors of London papers, with whom he is in the habit of corresponding, for the purpose of securing its circulation at home.” Thus the pretended speech arrived in England ; and here it under- went another little tampering process. A sentence or two at the commencement, which even in the Courant and Chronicle’s version evinced that it was delivered at a convivial party, were omitted, and it was announced as having been delivered “ on a public occasion, not long since.” |
But with the last packet from Jamaica comes another disclosure. The speech, as given by the Jamaica papers, it seems, was never uttered at all! At least so says Mr. O'Reilly, who has caused it to be publicly denied in the Jamaica Royal Gazette, and has,
Declaration of the Attorney-General. 107
moreover, published the speech which he professes to have really delivered “on the public occasion.” It is as follows :—
“In the perhaps tumultuous expression just now exhibited, he recognised something to him infinitely pleasing: it was warmth of heart, sincerity of feeling. For the kindness from which this arose, he was deeply grateful. True, he was a stranger amongst them—yet, all imperfectly acquainted as he was with their island, in it he had ample opportunity to recognise that beautiful Jamaica so often’ de- scribed to him in England. The people, too, seemed so happy—he would almost say, the very slaves appeared to enjoy themselves more than many poor in the home countries As forthe gentlemen, he had found them full of kind and honourable sentiments ; in them, since his ar- rival, he had frequently experienced intelligent and energetic assist- ants in the protection of slaves. To this country he had come, thus instructed, ‘well in his memory, to hold that Jamaica was an island | of the first consequence in the West Indies, and carefully to remem- ber that, init, every one of his faculties must be devoted to the strictest and most impartial discharge of his duty.’ Firm was his determination faithfully to act on this ; and if to him, then, was at- tached the name of honest, he would have succeeded in the highest ambition ; but, at the same time, if such a line of conduct deserved their approbation, their applause was principally due to those who directed him.”—Jamaica Royal Gazette, for Sept. 15, 1832.
Upon this affair the following appropriate and just remarks are made by the Editor of the Watchman :—
“We are quite amused at the greedy manner in which certain ex- pressions, said to have been used by Mr. O’Reilly, were grasped at, as affording the best possible evidence of the unmixed bliss which the slaves in name enjoy in this their Elysium. The plan resorted to on this occasion, of putting words into a gentleman’s mouth which he never uttered is by no means, a newone. In this instance, however, it failed—entirely failed ; and the chop-fallen Courant has been reducedto the painful necessity of inserting the true and real speech ; and that too without being able to add one single remark by way of note or comment, or in explanation. of the obvious contradiction which it gives to the other.” .... . .‘* What struck us at the time, and we should have supposed would have struck every man who possessed one grain of common sense, was this simple fact —that the Attorney-General, not having seen any thing of slavery, save in this and Spanish-Town, was perfectly incompetent to form any judgment on it, and therefore his testimony, allowing that he did use the expressions attributed to him in the first speech as reported, was perfectly valueless. Had he said what the Courant made him say, he would have laid himself open to the same castigation which was inflicted on the Bishop, who, listening to, and believing the statements of those who purposely surrounded him on his arrival, re- ported on the condition of the slaves, in the same manner as the At- torney-General has been made to do, before he had an opportunity of knowing any thing about them, save from the representations of others. Nor can the condition of the slaves in the towns be urged in justifi- cation of such or similar remarks to those alluded to, inasmuch as they afford no criterion whatever by which to judge of the condition of those on estates or in the country.”
108 The Mauritius Insurrection.
1
III.—-EFFECT OF EMANCIPATION ON SUGAR CULTIVATION.
The following remarks on this point appear in the Watchman of October 3. As the testimony of an intelligent witness, given on the spot, they are well worthy of attention :—
‘Great stress, it would appear, is laid on the abandonment of the cultivation of sugar, as the necessary consequence of emancipation; but upon what evidence this opinion is based we are at a loss to con- ceive. It is readily admitted that the article of sugar will not be cultivated to the extent it is at present; but it does not follow that a sacrifice of property will be the result. At the present moment few properties do more than pay their contingencies, notwithstanding the Immense quantity of sugar produced. In the event of emancipation taking place, smaller crops will be made; but to counterbalance this evil (in the opinion of the planters) there will be a reduction of ex- pence in the production of the article—the absence of risk on the part of the proprietor—a considerable deduction on the duties now paid, to the extent of one half if not more, and the chance of obtaining high prices in consequence of increased consumption, and a decrease in the quantity. Were the Negroes to be freed from all restraints, whether legal or otherwise, then there might be some ground for the fear of sugar cultivation ending, and every man’s property being sa- crificed ; but as such will not be the case, and never was intended to be, it is clear that those fears are absurd, and used merely as bugbears to frighten those who will not, or cannot understand the difference between a transfer of authority from the master to the magistrate, under the guidance of proper laws, and the letting loose 300,000 persons upon the community, with no other restraint upon their con- duct than their own wills.”
IV.—THE MAURITIUS INSURRECTION.
4
Mr. Jeremie has arrived in England; has beena few days in London, making his report and arranging matters with government ; and has sailed again for the Mauritius, with Major-General Ni- colay, the new governor, accompanied by an overwhelming mili- tary force, to maintain the King’s authority and enforce obedience to the laws, in that rebellious den of slave-dealers. A shipof war and transports with troops have been promptly despatched from Plymouth and from Cork ; and Sir Wilham Nicolay, it is under- stood, has received instructions to see the most complete obedience yielded in the case of Mr. Jeremie. This is as it should be, Indecision in this case would have been as weak and culpable as it would have been disastrous. Had Lord Goderich hesitated to do his duty on this occasion, every slave island as large as the Isle of Wight or the Isle of Dogs, would have followed the example. The most extraordinary part of the business is the utter insanity of the Mauritzans (with their 1500 colonial militia) in thus beard- ing the moral majesty of England! But their late governor, (Sir — C. Colville) was weak, and they are wild and wicked—and des- perate from the apprehension of being deprived of the residue (the residue yet alive!) of the human stock feloniously imported during the popular and indulgent administration of Sir Robert Far- quhar. Now they quake—and with some reason—for the conse- quences of their own temeritf.”
The Anti-Slavery Mecory. »
No. 10. JANUARY 1, 1833. PRICE ONE PENNY. Page I.—PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF THE EMANCIPATED HOT- TENTOTS :— 1, lneir Sreneran Condition <-«-.\- - = « « «© = «© + = 19 EEE EE EY Ee here ee ene | >: 3. The Kat River Settlement. .-..- += - +--+ - - + - - 194 Sie MEU EONE AWE BOLDERBs: foi hed 0 he wm i we em AT a ee |. I¥.—?PREATMENT OF SLAVES IN ANTIGUA :— 1. Case of Mr. Marwell’s Negroes - - - - = - = = = =~ 128 @. Case oftheslave Bigo.- -'- - - - + + 5 - «- = - 131 3. Danger of publishing Statements respecting the Treatment of Slaves a ee ee ee 138
I.—PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF THE EMANCIPATED HOT- TENTOTS.
1. Their General Condition.
WE revert to the case of the emancipated bondmen of South Africa. It is a case not only in itself of great interest, but pecu- liarly important at the present moment, inasmuch as it furnishes a striking illustration of the ease and safety with which a large body of disaffected and degraded serfs may be transformed to loyal and rapidly improving free citizens.
We mentioned in a former article (see No. 8, p. 88) that on the promulgation of the emancipating Ordinance of 1628, this class of men were liberated at once from the iniquitous laws, regulations, and
disabilities by which they had been placed under the foot and at the disposal of the white colonists ; and that the predictions of those who maintained that they would generally betake themselves to vagrancy and robbery were completely falsified. There did occur, no doubt, as might have been expected, some slaght temporary incon- veniences and irregularities from the immediate operation of this salutary measure. Some of the farmers, who in their day of power had treated these people like dogs, complained that, owing to their refusal when freed to continue in their service, they, “de Christenen menschen,”’ were obliged to drive their own waggons, and send their children to tend their own flocks—the latter task being consider- ed in that colony too servile for white men to perform. All the crimes, too, which occurred in the provinces were, without hesitation, ascribed to the free coloured class ; and, though the official reports of the Cireuit Courts of Justice told a somewhat different tale, M
122 PRESENT STATE OF THE EMANCIPATED HOTTENTOTS.
a violent outcry was kept up on this topic for a considerable period ; a revocation of the obnoxious Ordinance was clamorously advo- cated; and the enactment of a very severe Vagrancy Law was de- manded, as a measure imperatively required to save the white colonists from ruin. .
Fortunately for the Hottentots—fortunately for the colony, these preposterous clamours were not listened to by the home Govern- ment; and the local authorities, always liable to be too much in- fluenced by the passions and prejudices of the privileged caste in our colonial dependencies, had in this case no power to act on their own discretion. The obnoxious Ordinance was necessarily allowed to take effect ; and, after a time, the fierce vituperations and sinis- ter predictions of the “ South African Patriots,” as they, ludicrously enough, termed themselves, subsided into sulky repose. Their hos- tility, as will presently be seen, was not extinguished ; but the quiet and orderly conduct of the maligned Hottentots left them without any rational pretext for its avowal. The general condition of these emancipated bondmen, after four years of freedom, is described in the following letter, written by a very competent .witness. (a gentleman of great respectability and intelligence, from the dis- trict of Albany), and published in the South African Advertiser for June 16, 1832.
‘* You enquire whether I have not noticed the paucity of crime charged against the Hottentots, and other coloured classes, at the last Circuit; in reply to which, I am happy to say that it has been a matter of remark, and is a fact worthy of record, that crime amongst the coloured population has of late greatly diminished. Not only is the number of the delinquents lessened, but the character of the of- fences charged is of a much lighter cast than heretofore. Thisstate of things might have been anticipated by persons of ordinary sagacity ; but, under the excitement occasioned by the promulgation of the 50th Ordinance, people could not calmly calculate the results to be ex- pected from such an important alteration as an entire change in the condition of one whole class of the community ;—and, because a few of yhat class were found to abuse that liberty of which they all at once found themselves in possession, the colonists were led to complain grievously of the law,—which in fact merely removed unjust disabili- ties from a particular portion of their fellow subjects,—without re- flecting that the evils complained of were only of a temporary cha- racter—the natural results of the re-action.
‘During the last Circuit, Lhave had opportunities of witnessing the conduct of the coloured pdpulation, under a variety of circumstances ; and of hearing a great deal more said respecting it than | actually saw ;—and from the whole 1 may venture. to assert, and the fact is undeniable, that a great improvement is clearly manifest in their moral condition. They are gradually acquiring information ; many display provident habits who formerly paid no regard to the future; and an earnest desire to procure for their children the benefits of education is very generally observable among them. All these circumstances may be overlooked by a casual observer, but they are “ signs of the times,” which inglicate that an important alteration in the state of our society may be looked for; and this will assuredly take place in spite of all opposition to the contrary. .Who, then, would not wash,
| GRANTS OF LAND. 123
amidst changes of whatever nature, to be found ranked with the hu- mane? and how superlatively miserable will that man be who finds himself defeated in his attempts to perpetuate injustice, or to protect cruelty! To the mortification of defeat will be added the pangs of an accusing conscience—to disappointed hopes, self-condemnation.”’
2. Grants of Land.
General Bourke, now Governor of New South Wales, had the honour of issuing and executing the Ordinance for the general emancipation of the Hottentot people. The present Governor of the Cape, Sir Lowry Cole, has enjoyed the privilege of extending the measure of national atonement a step farther. The immense territory now constituting the Cape Colony, of which their fathers had been iniquitously deprived, could not be restored to the Native Race. However acquired originally, it had become, by long pre- scription, the property of the Dutch-African Colonists. Recent wars with the Caffer tribes (whether always justly waged is another ques- tion) had, however, left the Colonial government in possession of a considerable tract of vacant territory on the eastern frontier; and in 1828 a part of this country was appropriated, in small allotments, for a settlement of Hottentot agriculturists.
The justice and expediency of restoring to this class of men some small portion of the country of their forefathers—some few acres of their native soil, had been urged so long ago as 1825, by the writer of this notice, then a resident in South Africa. But the sug- gestion was treated by the chief authorities then with utter scorn ; and formalapplications which were transmitted on behalf of six or eight respectable coloured families, praying for small grants in the newly ceded territory, were regarded (as he afterwards ascertained) as specimens of absurd presumption.* The idea of raising even the most respectable of the coloured race to the rank of burghers, or free colonists, was received with indignation by the Cape Boors, some of whom assured the present writer that they would as soon think of giving land to be cultivated by the baboons as by the Hot- tentots—and that the former would make a better use of it!
Ere long, however, this measure was strongly recommended ‘to the home Government, by Mr. Bigge and Colonel Colebrook, the able and enlightened Commissioners sent out to report on the condi- tion of the colony; and the recommendation appears to have been taken up in a right spirit by Sir George Murray. Injunctions, it is understood, were forthwith transmitted to the Governor to carry the measure into execution; and the result was the immediate colonization of the Kat-River.
* In answer to a requisition of the House of Commons in 1824 (See Parliamentary Papers, 1827—No. 202), for “« Accounts of all grants of land at the Cape of Good Hope made either to Hottentots or Bush- men,’ the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, remarks, that ‘ the applications for land by this class are very rare.’”” And doubtless his lordship stated the fact; for a Hottentot then to have applied for a grant of land would have been considered about as feasible a pro- ceeding as it would be now in Jamaica for a Negro to canvass for a seat in the House of Assembly.
124 THE KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT.
3. The Kat River Settlement. |
We are in possession of detailed accounts of this settlement, in the South African Almanac for 1830 and 1831, in the Graham’s- Town Journal, the South African Advertiser, and other Colonial
“publications of respectability ; but a letter which we have received, within these few days, from a very imtelligent correspondent, who has resided nearly ten years in the colony, and who has himself visited the spot referred to, enables us to present the reader with a much better and more comprehensive view of the subject than we could readily condense from our other materials: a few notes will furnish all that it is necessary to add. The reader will see at once the high importance of the facts in reference to the subject of Negro emancipation, and tothe probability of Africans being orderly and industrious in a state of freedom. .
“* Cape of Good Hope, Oct. 11th, 1832.
«* You are well acquainted with the English emigration to this Co- lony in 1820, and recollect the preparations made for the reception of the settlers; the rations, the agricultural stores and implements, the loans of money granted to them, the kindness of the boors, the forced and unrequited services of the poor Hottentots. Some of the settlers brought money with them, others drew half pay, &c., from Europe. You remember, also, their strifes, their divisions, their discontents, their ill success and sufferings. In short, it fared with the settlers in Albany as it has fared with almost every European settlement in a new country, and as itnow fares with the settlers e: Swan River.
‘* We have recently discovered here, however, that such disad- vantages do not necessarily attend every new settlement. A Colony of native Africans,—of a race always spoken of and treated as the most degraded of the human species, sometimes even classed with the inferior animals,—has at last settled this question,
“¢ You know the Kat River, and its wild glen, bounded on all sides by savage mountains, except where it opens upon the Colony towards. the South. The Caffers were expelled from it in 1828 ; as they had been driven from Albany in 1816 and the following years, to make room for the English. This valley has been granted to the Hottentots, who have now o¢cupied it for about four years. Their numbers in the settlement are about five thousand.* They came from different parts of this immense Colony. No assistance was promised or given to them, except fire-arms for self defence; no preparations were made
* A writer who gives some account of this settlement in the Cape Almanac, says, ‘‘ It had been impossible, for obvious reasons, to be strictly particular in the selection of objects wherewith to com- mence the experiment. Many who had neither property, food, nor recommendation, necessarily got mixed up among the mass. It was pronounced dangerous to arm these people.” —‘* But the consideration that a new stimulus, and a different tone being observed towards them, would place them in a different light in their own eyes as well as in the eyes of the community at large, and would naturally alter the springs of their propensities and actions, raised the Go- vernor above the influence of those alarms. Muskets were ordered to be lent to those who had none of their own, and as much ammunition was issued as was deemed requisite for self-defence,” South African Almanae, for 1831, p. 235,
THE KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. 125
for their reception; no rations, no implements, no sums of money.* The Boors showed no kindness to them. They received no forced or unrequited services. They brought no money with them ; nor did they draw half pay, though some of them had served the King long, and received from his representatives many promises. But to these’ negations I have to add that there have been no strifes, divisions, or discontents among them ; no peculiar sufferings. No case of crime has come from the Kat River before the Circuit Court. Their success has been equal to their industry and good conduct, and neither have ever been surpassed. By patient and judicious labour, with manly mode- ration and Christian temperance, they have converted the desert into a fruitful field.t
«*Such is the difference between rising and falling inthe world. The Englishman, planted in Albany, made himself believe that he had descended from I know not what rank of dignity and promise. The Hottentot, escaped from bonds, stood erect on his new territory ; and the feeling of being restored to the level of humanity and the simple rights of nature, softened and enlarged his heart, and diffused vigour through every limb. He is no longer the timid wretch, submitting to the violence, and yielding to the injustice of the proud, with apparent insensibility. Some time ago, the frontier Boors were assembled by their field-cornets in arms, for the purpose, as Go- vernment was informed, of attacking and destroying this settlement. By the activity of Colonel Somerset they were arrested in their march, and the calumnies invented against the Hottentots, to give a colour to their designs, fully exposed.t I had felt deep anxiety on
* « There were many families who literally had nothing but veld kost (wild roots) to live upon-until a crop was raised, but who nevertheless abstained from the crime (theft) to which Hottentots, in a servile state, are said to be so prone.”” “ All the seed-corn they could procure was comparatively a small quantity.” —S. A. Almanac, for 1831.
+ “‘ Hitherto great activity has been displayed, and the incipient marks of civilization are observable in every direction.” ‘ During the last season, 1831, were produced on the settlement 450 muids of wheat, 1,500 muids of barley, and 400 muids of Indian corn, besides large quantities of caffer-corn, potatoes, pumpkins, sweet cane, and many other provisions. Independently of the labour required in the cultivation of the soil, instances of uncommon exertion are mani- fested in the construction of canals which convey water to irrigate their fields and gardens. In some places these have been carried through the solid rock; in others it has been necessary to cut to the depth of twelve feet to preserve the level; while their entire length throughout all the locations is upwards of 20,000 yards.” Graham’s Town Journal, June 1832.
¢ Theactual contrivers of the diabolical plot to destroy this flourish- ing colony of free Africans have hitherto escaped detection ; but every malignant insinuation that could be devised to promote such a catas- trophe had been, for two years previously, weekly belched forth by “ The Colonist,” “De Zuid Afrikaan,” and ‘‘ De Versaameler,” journals established in Cape Town by the friends of slavery, to support colo- nial bondage and abuse the missionaries—much resembling in all respects the infamous Jamaica Courant.—The overt facts of this con- spiracy were briefly these. About the close of 1831 rumours were
126 THE KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT.
this subject, knowing that, should these two parties ever come into hostile collision, the whole blame and all the evil consequences would fall on the long devoted heads of the weaker party. But a friend of ours, who returned last week from the Kat River, has effectually dis- pelled my apprehensions. Speaking to one of these Hottentots, a shrewd intelligent man, he asked him of their late escape from the Boors. The man laughed and said, ‘ Had the civil authorities applied to us instead of Colonel Somerset, we would soon have relieved the government from all anxiety for our safety. We muster, for any ser- vice in defence of the Colony, 700 able-bodied young men, with guns.* Show us the enemy, and cry tza!’ (Tza is the cry used to encourage a dog to attack.) This closes the argument. I consider the experi- ment complete ; and nothing short of the most infamous mismanage- ment, to call it by no harsher name, on the part of government, can prevent those people from becoming the best bulwark of the frontier, the most loyal subjects, and the happiest people in the colony.
/ ‘I cannot help adding that in this colony of 5000 souls there is no magistrate, lawyer, attorney, doctor, quack, or apothecary, and the opinion is that the longer the appearance of such personages is delayed so much more fortunate will they be. They have two Mis-
industriously circulated, by persons unknown, among the Dutch African boors of the eastern frontier, to the effect that the Hottentots
td
of Kat River were preparing to attack them on New Year’s day.
The Boors promptly assembled in arms under their Veld-Cornets ; and these local functionaries, instead of communicating the information to the government, immediately led their rude militia to attack the Hottentots. Fortunately the frontier Commandant, Col. Somerset, got information of their designs, and marched with rapidity to Kat River. He reached the settlement before them, on New Year’s Day. It was Sunday; and he found the Hoitentots quietly congregated, unarmed, in their different places of worship. In one place there was a congregation of about 500 souls, 109 of whom had just taken the
sacrament. He informed the people of the rumours that had been
spread against them; assured them ,of his perfect conviction of their entire innocence; and taking with him three of their Veld- Cornets, Groepe, Valentyn, and Stoffels (religious and quiet men, all well known to the writer of this article), he rode to meet the troop of Colonial militia, who had by this time approached within view of the settlement. By energetic remonstrances and threats he pre- vailed on these violent and vindictive men to return quietly to their homes ; and on the 11th of January, 1832, a strong proclamation was issued by the Governor, reprehending, in the severest terms, the mis- chievous and irrational conduct of the colonists and their local officers. Had Colonel Somerset acted with less promptitude and energy, this Hottentot settlement would, in all human probability, have been de- luged with innocent blood, and a bitter feud begun between the white and coloured classes, which might have lasted for generations.—See Cape Gazette for January 11th, 1832.
* <« Col. Encuianp has visitedthe Kat River Settlement, and, wish- ing to know what force could be drawn from that quarter on an emergency, he found 700 able-bodied men capable of bearing arms: The whole population is estimated at between four and five thousand. The presence of a resident magistrate is very much desired there.” —South African Advertiser, Sep. 8th, 1832.
‘
THE CAPE SLAVE-HOLDERS. 127
sionaries, whose chapels are always well filled, and several schools crowded with orderly and acute children.* They are all, or nearly all, members of a Temperance Society. One unfortunate woman, a daugh- ter of your former acquaintance, the old chief Boesak, being an in- corrigible drunkard, was cut by the whole population, and withdrew out of mere shame from the settlement. What a contrast is this to Albany, Graham’s Town, and Port Elizabeth ! +
“«Is there any reason to think that rising in the world—a restoration to the level of humanity and the simple rights of nature—would not have a similar effect on the slave ? The emancipation of one, or of a few, while the class remain degraded, is not a fair experiment. The solitary wretch is excluded from all society, even from that of his late and only companions, the slaves. From partial emancipation we have no right to expect any thing but individualruin. The trial must be made on the whole class at once. And, if I know any thing, I know this, that Nature, Justice, the Creator of man, will vindicate their own honour, and amply redeem their pledges—pledges written on every page of human history, on every page of revelation, and. confirmed by all I have ever seen of human affairs.”
II.—THE CAPE SLAVE-HOLDERS.
** Our slave-owners here have held a meeting in Cape Town, whereat their orators spouted in Dutch what no mortal ever heard in any other tongue. They marched in a body of about 700, I think, to Government House, and held a parley with his Excellency. But Sir Lowry had the Mauritius before his eyes, and rejected their request—which was only to renounce his allegiance, violate his military oath, and submit to be broke for their sake. This proposal was worthy of themselves as individuals, and worthy of
* «Their loyalty and attachment to the British government are beyond suspicion ; and it may not be uninteresting to state that at the last receipt of taxes they contributed to the revenue a sum of 2300 Rix-dollars. All the ordinances of religion are punctually attended to by them, whilst in their families, and in the more public transac- tions of life, they evince an extensive practical acquaintance with the requirements of Christianity. Education is in great repute, and a manifest desire to give their children the benefit of instruction is a feeling every where observable. Two Infant Schools have been established, and are well attended.” —Graham’s Town Journal, June, 1832.
t The prevailing vice of the Hottentots in a servile condition was drunkenness ; butthese African landholders, it appears, have already extirpated this vice from their settlement. They have not only eagerly promoted the establishment of a Temperance Society, but actually petitioned the Governor not to permit any one to hold lands, or reside in their district, who should, in opposition to the wishes of the community, venture to open a canteen for the sale of spirituous liquors. (See Speech of the Rev. Dr. Philip, at a Missionary Meeting in Cape Town, Jan. 11th, 1832.) Yet these are the very people who only four years ago, and for generations preceding, were held forth by their oppressors to universal scorn, as the most indolent, debased, and brutalized family of the human race, and utterly unfit to be en- trusted with the common rights and privileges of humanity.
128 CASE OF MRy MAXWELL'S NEGROES.
their caste and their cause. However, they committed no outrages, and dispersed with due decorum, after appointing a committee to out-argue Lord Goderich, and shake the Anti-Slavery Society by the neck. In truth, they area foolish and very small faction of this com- munity, and, when they speak as if they were the whole colony, they only excite ridicule here. What their lies—(for their writers and orators not only practise, but seriously and elaborately defend lying, as you will seein their organ, the ‘ Zuid Afrikaan,’)—what their lies, I say, may effect in Downing street, remains to be seen.” Letter from Cape Town, Oct. 13, 1832.
III.—-THE MAURITIUS.
‘¢ T have read the account of the various Anti-Slavery meetings, held in May, with renewed hope. The English people are now using right words. Emancipation now, or the loss of all the Colonies in a few years, are the alternatives. Mauritius is no longer a British pos- session. The Governor is merely the organ of a Committee, who are openly acknowledged and obeyed. Mr. Jeremie’s arrival was only the pretext. The plot was laid many years ago, and the removal of Mr. D’ Epinay, who is at the head of the movement, risked its disclosure. This you may rely upon; but you will soon have a full account from head-quarters.”—Letter from a Correspondent.
IV. TREATMENT OF SLAVES IN ANTIGUA. 1. Case of Mr. Maxwell’s Negroes.
Some extraordinary disclosures of the secrets of the house of bondage have been brought us by the last Leeward Island Mail. Without further preamble we proceed to give a brief statement of the principal facts.
It appears that a complaint had been some little time since pre- ferred to Sir Patrick Ross, the Governor of Antigua, on behalf of the slaves on the estate of Richmond, in that Island, belonging to William Maxwell, Esq., stating that their legal allowances of food and clothing had been for a long period withheld from them by the manager. The case wasreferred by the Governor to Mr. Scotland, a magistrate, for investigation ; and was ultimately brought by the Attorney-General before the Court of King’s Bench, on the 3rd of October, 1832. The testimonies of Mr. Scotland, of Mr. Suther- land, manager of the estate for four years, up to the 14th of May last, and of Mr. Ledeatt who succeeded Mr. Sutherland, supported by the plantation journals, furnished proofs which could not be refuted or resisted, that the complaints of the slaves were too well founded ; and the defendant’s counsel was ultimately forced to admit the facts to the full extent charged.
It was proved that, from the 29th of April 1831 to the middle of September 1832, that is sixteen months and a half, not a single garment, nor a single yard of cloth, had been distributed to the slaves on this estate. It was further proved, and admitted, that the salt provisions prescribed by the Melioration Act of Antigua,
CASE OF MR. MAXWELL’S NEGROES. 129
had been entirely withheld for forty weeks out of seventy-three, that is, in the period between the 29th of April 1831 and the mid- dle of September 1832. For the withholding of the clothing, it appears, the law has affixed no penalty. For the failure to supply the provisions the penalty is 10s. per week for each slave. The number of Negroes being 310, the sum legally forfeited amounted to £6200 currency. These were the chief facts of the case.
The King’s Attorney-General, who appeared as the public pro- secutor, and who seems to have properly performed his duty on the occasion, claimed a verdict in accordance with the Colonial law. The case was clear: the facts were admitted. The jury, though neatly half of them were planters, and though they delayed till next day to bring in their verdict, finding no subterfuge, finally convicted the defendant in the full penalty. But mark the issue. The counsel for the defendant moved an arrest of judgment, on the ground that Mr. Gilchrist was unable to furnish these supplies, owing to ‘‘ the smallness of the crops and the heavy incumbrances with which the estate was burdened.” This preposterous plea was finally admitted by the court, and the verdict of the jury nullified, by a majority of four justices against two. The names of the four judges who concurred in this decision were, the Hon. S. O. Baijer, Hon. T. F. Nibbs, Hon. B. E. Jarvis, and J. Black, Esq. The dissentients were the Hon. R. W. Nanton, and Hon. M. H. Daniell.
We have abstracted the above facts from The Antigua Free Press of Oct. 4th and 11th, 1832. This journal is conducted with ability and independence, by Mr. James Scotland, a gentleman who has suffered much persecution from the dominant faction in that Colony, for his defence of the oppressed and exposure of abuses, and who was recently released from an iniquitous imprisonment, by an order from his Majesty’s Government. This writer states that, besides the grievances mentioned in the indictment, the slaves on Richmond estate have for four years been obliged to purchase their own hoes. and bills ; the cost of the former being 6s. 9d. and of the latter 4s. 6d. currency.
Upon this case and its result, the Editor of the “‘ Free Press” makes the following remarks :—
«« After the decision of the 3rd instant, who will have the effrontery to say that there is any law to which the afflicted Negro can flee for redress or relief from wanton cruelty, whether by the lash, or fetters, or starvation? Ifour statutes, such at least as provide for the well- being of those people, have no more power of coercion or restraint than a burnt thread, then 28,000 of His Majesty’s subjects, our fellow-men and countrymen (though sable), are, in a sense, out- lawed, and abandoned to the capricious wills and passions of their superintendants, without any certain defence against wrong. Ifthe vaunted Melioration Act has been so unhesitatingly vacated, what pledge is there that any other slave-protecting law will be respected ? __ {A great and decided advantage has been given to the emancipa~ tionists: indeed, what other argument can they need to rouse the British nation, in order to effect the immediate accomplishment of
130 © - ‘CASE OF ‘MR, MAXWELL’S’ NEGROES,
their views, than the story of Richmond’s Negroes and the impunity of their attorney? Boasts of humanity and of the adequacy of our laws will henceforward bring upon us only taunts and reproaches, Where, it will be enquired, were your humanity and decency when, but for their own industry and modesty, upwards of three hundred Negroes might have been, exposed to the inclemencies of sun and wea- ther, and have traversed the country in perfect nudity ? Was this a proof of your generosity and attention to the comforts of your slaves, to allow them to be robbed, for so long a time, of the only savoury morsel which the law provides to render their other insipid food palatable! What are your laws? mere pie-crust, made to be broken. The judgment in question will form an admirable item among the facts in support of the West Indian claims, before the Committee of the Lords. For we presume that Sir’ Patrick Ross will consider it incumbent upon him to transmit, by the earliest opportunity, a minute account of the whole testimony adduced at the trial, and more particularly of the decision of the bench, which is, we doubt not, unparalleled in the annals of British judicature.
‘It is hardly necessary to mention that three of the four judges who gave their sentences for an arrest of judgment are proprietors ; the tribunals of |these countries, as is generally known, being almost exclusively engrossed by planters, a circumstance which we have fre« quently remarked upon, as extremely unfavourable to slave com- plainants. It was natural for those gentlemen to feel themselves in some measure identified with Mr. Gilchrist in interest. Indeed, it seemed evident to us, from a conversation which occurred during the trial, that there was a leaning, perhaps of compassion, to the defend- ant. And if reports, from persons well acquainted with the ma- nagement of estates, be true, it is wonderful that any of the bench should oppose the solicitor-general’s motion. For we have been informed that there is scarcely a plantation in the island on which the provisions of the Melioration Act, respecting the article of food, are complied with.”
This case is also given in detail in “The Weekly Register,” another Antigua Paper, edited by Mr. Loving, a highly respectable and intelligent gentlemen of colour, who lately visited England as a deputy from the people of his class in Antigua, and who was called to give evidence on the Slavery question before the Com- mittee of the House of Commons. Mr. Loving, in his paper of the 9th Oct., makes the following among many other stringent ob- servations :—
_ «The defendant, in this case (Mr. Gilchrist), is an elderly gentleman of the old school of colonial policy; and it is perhaps less fortunate for ' the reputation of the colony, than ‘any other consideration, that he has been always moving in the highest circles, that he is a magis- trate, and, what is more, that he has, for many years, been one of our Grand Jurors. Every body must have heard or read of the ini- quitous presentation by the Grand Jury of the editor of the Free’ Press (Mr. Scotland), because it was expedient that such a ‘ radical’ writer should expiate his sins in a prison.—But did any body ever hear of a Grand Jury in any West India colony making it their busi- ness ‘to discover and present such planters as maltreated or dealt cruelly with their slaves? No, And why? Because such enquiry
. CASE OF THE SLAVE BIGO. SF,
must lead to facts like those which formed the subject of the recent prosecution,
‘‘Here is a capital handle for Mr. Buxton and the abolitionists. What stronger proofs can they require for urging the extinction of slavery than the facts now produced 1—namely, a planter omitting for a considerable time to give his slaves the allowance prescribed by the local laws ; and the very expounders of those laws—the Judges of the courts in the colony—agreeing to divest the slaves of their just rights, by setting aside the verdict of a jury, nullifying a statute law for the protection of the rights of those slaves, and suffering a public delinquent to escape with impunity. Will it now be contended that the slaves ought not to have a Protector employed by his Majesty’s Government, and uninfluenced by colonial prejudice? or will it be said that the appointment of English judges is not vitally necessary to protect the strong against the weak, and to mete out a fair measure of justice to every man?
«« Much has been said and written about the ‘sleek, fat, well-fed slaves’ of these colonies, as a set-off to what has been frequently reported to the.contrary on the opposite side of the question.—But what will Master M‘Queen and his tribe say to this case? Will he carry it to England and lay it before the Committee of the House of Commons, in his examination as the delegate of the island of St. Kitt’s ?”
2. Case of the Slave Bigo.
Various individual complaints of cruelty and oppression are given in these Antigua papers, but we cannot at present find rcem for more than the following brief abstract of one case :—
This was a complaint of maltreatment of a slave named Bigo, which after being dismissed by one magistrate (Mr. Shiell), and taken up by another (Mr. Scotland), was brought before the Grand Jury, by the Attorney-general, on the 27th of September.
Bigo is a mason, and had been allowed to work off the estate since 1822, upon paying six dollars per month, till the present manager, Mr. Bourne, came into office, who demanded eight dol- lars. Being unable to pay up this sum, Bigo was put in confine- ment, with his feet in the stocks. He escaped, and complained to Mr. Shiell; was dismissed; taken back to the estate, and again confined in the stocks, from the 7th to the 10th of September. From the 10th to the 13th, he was forced to work in the field during labouring hours, but was locked up at noon and night with his feet in irons (wooden stocks having the holes for the ancles lined with iron). During this period he was fed on foongee, her- ring, and water alone. When told that he was thus punished for the non-payment of four dollars he was indebted to the estate, he said, “if he was to be killed by punishment, he might as well be killed at once, that every body might know that Mr. Bourne had put him to death.” For this “insolence” he was tied .up and flogged with thirty lashes. He was then conveyed to the dungeon, and confined with both feet in the stocks lined with iron. In the evening as he was groaning from pain in the side, and cramp com- ing on in the neck and stomach, Mr. Taber, the overseer, ordered one of his legs to be released. He remained with one foot in the
132 DANGER OF PUBLISHING THE TREATMENT OF SLAVES.
stocks till the 15th, when he again escaped, and made his com- plaint to Mr.Scotland. ‘‘ The testimonies of four other witnesses,” says the Free Press, ‘‘two of whom were called by Mr. Bourne (Mr. Taber the overseer, and the head driver), admit or confirm these facts, and scarcely vary even on the most trifling points.” The case was brought, by the Attorney-General, on the 25th of September, before the Grand Jury: and they ignored the bill. Now, let the reader recollect that these specimens of “slave pro- tection” are from Anticua—Antigua, which perhaps, of all our West India Colonies, makes the highest pretensions to good and kind treatment of the Negroes, and which has recently prosecuted and imprisoned several respectable individuals for venturing to speak publicly of some cases that seemed to be exceptions from the assumed condition of Negro beatitude !
3. Danger of publishing Statements in the Colonies respecting the treatment of Slaves.
The Editor of the “‘ Antigua Free Press,” in replying to a cor- respondent, who demands of him to ‘state facts” In support of his general charges regarding the treatment of plantation slaves, makes the following observations :-—
«‘ Where the treatment of slaves by their owners or overseers is in question, the writer well knows that what he requires is neither practicable nor safe. The knowledge of facts can be de- rived only from persons employed on estates ; and to publish them would cause the instant discharge of the informants, who could hardly escape detection, and be equivalent to an interdict ab agua et igne against them, or sentence of perpetual banishment from the island. With respect to ourselves, a;prosecution would be insti- tuted, and we should passthrough'the hands of a grand jury, three- fourths of whom are planters, and of a petit jury, more than one half of the same profession, to a bench exclusively so, with one solitary exception.
“ And who does not know the vengeful and implacable spirit of the conservators of the old system?, We have felt 1t. Surely then it is hardly fair to demand facts [except when they appear upon judicial evidence]; and it would be little short of madness in us to particularize them in the face of such dangers. We are com- pelled, therefore, to deal only in generals, when it is necessary to touch the internal management of sugar-properties.”
* * Some interesting articles of intelligence, from Jamaica and other colonies, together with recent home intelligence respecting the progress of the Anti-Slavery Cause, are necessarily postponed to the next number of the Anti-Slavery Record, which will be put to press in a few days.
London: S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Partholomew Close,
-_—"
The AntiSlavery Record.
No. 11. JANUARY 25, 1833. © | PRICE ONE PENNY.
Page.
I.—REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON THE Be IMeMOMPOrr STA VER Vemee eles MRE eS ee BBS
II.—REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS ON SLAVERY 135
WII. —RECENT PROCEEDINGS IN JAMAICA, Viz.—1. Opening of the House of Assembly.—Address to the Governor. 2. Lord Mulgrave’s Reply. 3. The Assembly’s Rejoinder. 4. Religious Persecutions 137
IV.— PROCEEDINGS AT TRINIDAD so bk ka, 6 tase heme V.—-SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF FREE LABOUR IN ANTIGUA 141 WI.—-_DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES . 2. « © «© © «© « « « « 143
I.—REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON THE EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY.
This important Report was issued a few weeks ago. The minutes of evidence embraced by it extend to 655 closely printed folio pages, and are contained in avolume ordered to be printed on the 11th of August, 1832, and distinguished by the number 721. Of this voluminous mass a clear and complete Analysis has just been issued by the Anti-Slavery Society, in a pamphlet which forms No. 104 of the Reporter, and which has also been published in a separate form. To that Analysis we now earnestly refer our readers; and, instead of offering any observations of our own upon it, we borrow, with much satisfaction, the following remarks from an article in a contemporary: journal, written, as we have reason to believe, by an able and zealous friend to our common cause, and to every cause that has its basis in true religion and en- lightened humanity.
«If we have any readers in whose mind there lurks the shadow of a doubt as to the safety, the expediency, or the duty of imme- diately abolishing the condition of slavery, they owe it to themselves, and to the cause of humanity, to procure and make themselves thoroughly acquainted with this important document.
«© The main points of the enquiry referred to the Committee em- braced the following two propositions :—1. That the slaves, if emancipated, will adequately maintain themselves by their own la- bour; and, 2, That the danger of withholding freedom from the slaves is greater than that of granting it. The ‘ fair and equitable considera- tion of the interests of private property, as connected with emanci- pation,’ were not investigated by the Committee. In fact, this con- sideration ought not to be allowed for one moment to embarrass the settlement of the question, for three obvious reasons: First, the Negro, at least, as Mr. Alers Hankey very properly observed, owes nothing to the planter, and the victims of our national guilt ought not to con-
N
134 REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
tinue to suffer, ‘while we are haggling about the pounds, shillings, and pence. Secondly, when it is finally determined that slavery shall cease, it will be quite time enough to go into the consideration of those special cases of hardship which may possibly require an equitable remedy. The claim to compensation is ‘at present urged only as an argument ad terrorem, as it was during the agitation of the slave-trade question; the justice and the impracticability of com- pensation being insisted upon in the same breath. But for what is the slave-holder to be compensated—for the loss of his power over the person of the Negro, or for the loss of his command over the la- bour of the Negro? If for the former, he may just as reasonably claim compensation for every abridgment of his arbitrary power by humane enactments. If for the latter, he has to prove that his com- mand over that labour will be taken away, or even diminished, by the abolition of slavery. Thirdly, let it be but admitted, what the evi- dence condensed in this pamphlet triumphantly establishes, that the slaves will, if emancipated, maintain themselves by their labour, and that no danger would result from granting them freedom,—it follows that the abolition of slavery would be in two respects a boon to the planter: first, by cheapening labour (free labour being always cheapest) ; and, secondly, by extinguishing the element of danger which is always generated by slavery, and with it both the conscious _ feeling of insecurity and the cost of protection. Should it appear that the interests of private property, the value of all legitimate property, are enhanced by the change in the condition of the slave (which itis our firm belief that, ultimately at least, they would be), the claim for equitable and reasonable compensation would be brought within very narrow limits.
«« West Indians, and many persons who are less excusable for the prejudice, have so long been in the habit of considering the Negroes as so much stock that they consider the proposal to raise them to the social level of men as tantamount to robbing them of so many head of cattle. They forget this trifling difference between the human herd employed upon their plantations and the live-stock of a farm: the Negro is of no use except for his labour. He cannot now, in the British islands at least, be bred for a foreign market. He yields neither milk, flesh, wool, horn, nor hide. An old Negro is a burden to the pro- prietor. A dead Negro is worth something less than nothing. His musclesand sinews alone are valuable, when set to work by the cart- whip and other apparatus. Now, asthe property in the person of the Negro is valuable simply as giving a command over his physical la- bour, if that command can be secured without the proprietorship, which is in itself a burden, what does the slave-holder lose by giving up his whole stock? What more than a gentleman who should give up his carriage-horses, on condition of being furnished with the use of horses by the jobber, on cheaper terms than he could maintain his own in the livery-stable, taking into account the chances of loss by death, the veterinary surgeon’s and farrier’s bills, and the other at- tendant expenses ?
“« Or let us suppose that the gentleman’s horses had died, or that they were found to be stolen property, to which he could not make a valid or legitimate claim ;—he loses, it is true, the market price of the horse, but he saves the amount, perhaps, in the first or second year of his adopting the cheaper, though less dignified, method of hiring, Is he greatly to be pitied ? f
REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 135
«But if to hold men in slavery be a crime,—call it a national crime or an individual crime,—the only preliminary question ought to be, Can it be abolished without injury to the great sufferers by that crime, or without a disproportionate punishment falling upon the guilty principals in that crime? Admitting that the whole nation partici- pates in the guilt, as originally an accessary,—thatit has, in former times, sanctioned and encouraged slavery, and the slave-trade too,— that the feeling of its moral turpitude is a feeling of modern growth,— for this its sin, greatly a sin of ignorance, this nation has been punished in various ways—hias been mulcted, and taxed, and injured in its best interests, has been deprived of its American colonies, which, in retaining that fatal legacy of slavery, have clung to a curse that is now beginning to work upon the vitals of the States. But what punishment is not due from God and man to those guiltier prin- cipals in the crifie who, when a whole nation has at length waked to repentance, deaf to all remonstrance, after forty years’ warning— persist in heaping fresh wrongs and injuries upon the victims of their oppression, stigmatizing the sentiments of common humanity as cant and hypocrisy, persecuting the ministers of religion, and defying the very Government that protects them in theircrimes? We invoke no human vengeance upon Jamaica, but we know wuo has said, ‘I will repay. Our anxiety is that England should not continue to be in- volved in the guilt of tolerating the continuance of the wrong. 4
“ The time is come for the settlement of the question. If slavery is not now abolished, it will be the fault of Christians in this country. Nothing can much longer delay the abolition but the supineness. or mistakes of the friends to emancipation.” é ss *
«« Again, we say, let every friend, to the cause be on his guard ; and, in order to this, let him arm himself at all points against de- lusion, by distinct, clear, thorough information. It is placed within his reach at so small a cost of money or labour that he will be inex- cusable if he neglect to furnish himself with it. This single number of the Reporter will supply him with a mass of evidence, which will probably satisfy him as tothe expediency, as well as the justice, of an early, not to say immediate, emancipation. If not, let him not rest till he has obtained complete satisfaction ; and then let him not rest till he has followed out his convictions by every constitutional means of giving effect to the decisions of his conscience and the feelings of his heart.’””—The Patriot, Jan. 23.
II.—REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS ON suMery.
Tus Report has also been issued, and is comprised in two large folio volumes. No analysis of it having yet been published by the Anti-Slavery Society, we in the meanwhile solicit our readers’ attention to the following observations, extracted from the concluding paragraphs of the Reporter, No. 104, above re- ferred to :—
«« Having now given to the public a faithful abstract of the volu- minous evidence laid before the Committee of the House of Commons in the last Session, before we proceed to lay before them the still © more voluminous evidence taken by the Committee of the House of Lords, we would beg to make a few brief observations on the present state of the Slavery Question.
136 REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
‘« That the abolitionists have fully established their case in evidence, no disinterested and candid manwho reads the preceding pages with attention will venture to deny. They have shown, not only that the slaves will incur no risk of suffering want by emancipation, but that their speedy emancipation affords the only rational prospect of pre- serying the public peace, and of securing the permanent interests of the planters themselves.
‘« That this view of the subject will not be shaken, but, on the con- trary, will be amply confirmed by the result of the evidence which, under far different auspices, and with far different objects, was laid before the Committee of the House of Lords, we take it upon us most unhesitatingly to assert. And to this result we should come, even if we were to confine our view solely and exclusively to the pro-slavery part of the case as by them exhibited.—A pamphlet, however, has just appeared, certainly the production of no feeble pen, which, mean-~ while, may be perused by every man who feels an interest in this great question; and it will at least render the unavoidable delay that must take place in abstracting the whole of the evidence of the House of Lords, containing 1394 closely printed folio pages, less a subject of regret than it otherwise would be. And here the West Indians will have no right to complain, because, though the review of our anonymous author be ex parte, it is nevertheless an exhibition of their own evidence exclusively, leaving out of view the adverse testimony.
‘« The pamphlet to which we allude, and to which we leave, in the mean time, the task of repelling the objection that we have produced only a part,of the evidence brought before parliament, bears the quaint signature of Legion—and is entitled ‘A Letter ta His Grace the Duke of Richniond, Chairman of the Slavery Committee of the House of Lords, containing an Exposure of the Character of the Evidence on the Colonial side produced before the Committee.’—It is printed for Bagster, 15, Paternoster Row.
‘«* Now, we mean not to be considered as justifying the style or cer- tain expressions of this able and caustic writer; but what we mean confidently to affirm is this, that he has completely overthrown the whole weight and credit of the pro-slavery evidence brought forward in the Committee of the House of Lords; so that we may argue on the basis of that produced before the Committee of the House of Com- mons, without the slightest apprehension that any inference, which may be fairly deducible thence, shall be refuted by that of the Lords’ Committee.
«Tf, then, we are right in affirming that the abolitionists have provedtheir case, and that colonial slavery, admitted to be a crime of the deepest dye, may be abolished forthwith without injury to the great sufferers by that crime, and without danger either to the public peace, or, but by their own fault, to the persons and property of the planters, there can then exist no adequate mative for a day’s delay in proceeding to its extinction. Such delay, indeed, is to be deprecated, not more on account of the slaves than on that of their masters ; the prolongation of the miseries of the former being only an increase of” the risks, both as to life and property, of the latter.
‘‘ The simple ground, however, on which we are disposed, and in- deed can alone consent to place the question is this, Colonial Slavery is in itself a crime of the greatest enormity, besides being the parent of innumerable other crimes. It is an outrage on every principle of humanity and justice, and a flagrant violation of the spirit and pre~
RECENT PROCEEDINGS IN JAMAICA. 137
cepts of Christianity. From the moment that this its real nature has been recognised there could exist no plea for permitting it to con- tinue for an hour, but a well-founded apprehension of injury to its victims from abolishing it. This apprehension, however, the off- Spring not of reason but of mere prejudice, has now been demon- Strated to be unfounded, and that with a clearness and force of evidence which cannot be resisted. What remains therefore for a Christian Government and Parliament to do but to pronounce its immediate and utter extinction, accompanying the measure by such wise and just precautions as may obyiate the alarms of the most timid?”
IIIT.—RECENT PROCEEDINGS IN JAMAICA :—
i. Opening of the House of Assembly.— Address to the Governor.
Tue Jamaica House of Assembly has commenced its first session under the new Governor, in a manner truly characteristic. Lord Mulgrave, in his opening address, adopted a tone well calculated to calm the effervescence of party spirit, and to lead this Assembly, had its members possessed a single particle of sane reflection, to resume their legislative functions with some degree of grave de- liberation—with some sense of solemn responsibility, ‘“‘ The spirit with which I thought fit to open your Sessions,” says his Lordship, “was one which, there is none among you can doubt, was con- ceived in the most conciliatory spirit, nor do I believe that any one has thought of accusing it of containing one word at variance with such a spirit. It broached no theory; it required no sacrifice. It announced only for the present a boon anda concession; and, for the future, patient examination at home, and a determination on my part to report faithfully and fully from hence.’”” The Address of the House of Assembly, in reply to the opening speech thus referred to, is nevertheless conceived in a spirit, and expressed in a tone, of even higher and more insolent presumption than usual. They dwell on the miseries inflicted by the Negro insurrection ; but they say not one word of the far more inexcusable outrages of the whites, in destroying the chapels of the Missionaries, and in persecuting them, and their unoffending families and friends, in the atrocious manner detailed in our late numbers. They disclaim being a party to the parliamentary enquiry obtained at the instance of the. West India proprietors in England. They declare that as they “never did recognise the Parliamentary Resolutions of 1823,” as they “never did admit the right of the House of Commons to legislate on the internal affairs of Jamaica, even when the West Indies were indirectly represented in Parliament” [by the nomination borou ghs |, they ‘ never can concede that a House of Commons which is to exist upon the principle that actual representation should be the founda- tion of legislation can justly claum to legislate over” THEM, And the rest of their address is in a similar tone !
2. Lord Mulgrave’s Reply.
The Governor's reply is exceedingly creditable to him, and is calculated strongly to increase our confidence in his fitness for the N 2
438 RECENT PROCEEDINGS IN JAMAICA.
perilous crisis in which he has been called upon to act. It touches on the several topics adverted to by the House with much talent, spirit, and discretion; and is couched in a tone of grave and dig- nified rebuke. We regret that our limits only admit of our quoting one or two sentences ; but, as it has appeared in most of the leading English newspapers, this is of less consequence. Adverting to their denial of the right of the House of Commons to legislate on the internal affairs of Jamaica, his lordship expresses himself in the following emphatic terms :—
* For all your established privileges, I shallalways maintain the most inviolable respect. But as the representative here of your sovereign, and of mine, | cannot listen to the declaration of any such doubt ad- dressed to me, without asserting, in the most unequivocal terms, the transcendent power of the Imperial Legislature, regulated only by its own discretion, and limited only by restrictions they may themselves have imposed. The long experience of the past, as to a right which has always existed, is your best security for the future, that it will never be exerted but in extreme cases ; and no one would deplore more than myself, should imperious necessity ever require such direct interference. But it is unfortunate, at this moment, that you should not have rather preferred a temperate appeal to the justice, than a vain denial of the rights of the British nation. The undis- turbed consciousness of strength on the part of a great and generous people is the surest safeguard that the micest sense of equity will continue to act as a self-imposed restraint on the exercise of uunsual but indisputable power.”’
3. The Assembly’s Rejoinder.
To this speech the’ Assembly, in a second address presented on the 8th of November, reply in a similar strain of professed loyalty but of real defiance, reiterating in the most unqualified terms their denial of the authority of the British legislature to interfere with their affairs. ‘Such a doctrine” they boldly declare to be “ sub- versive of the acknowledged rights, as it is dangerous to the lives and properties, of his Majesty’s faithful and loyal subjects of this island, who, although they acknowledge the supremacy of a com- mon Sovereign over the wholeempire, never can admit such supre- macy in one portion of his Majesty’s subjects residing in the parent state over another portion of their fellow subjects resident in Ja- maica.”
If this assumption of the Jamaica Assembly be tenable, every chartered colony of Great Britain must be equally independent of Parliamentary legislation as the kingdom of Hanover—a doctrine sufficiently preposterous.—Surely it is full time that the ridiculous vapouring and contumacious insolence of these colonial incurables should be put an end to by decisive legislative measures from home.
4. Religious Persecution.
The persecution of the ‘ Sectarians,” and the virulent oppo- sition to the effective religious instruction of the slaves, though somewhat restrained in outward violence, still continued, by the
latest accounts, to prevail in Jamaica, with little or no diminution of real animosity.
PROCEEDINGS AT TRINIDAD. 139
The plan now adopted by the Colonial Church Union, and by the colonial magistracy, who are, with few exceptions, its zealous sup- porters, for rooting out the Sectarians, as they term the Baptists and Methodists, is to refuse the missionaries licences to preach in their respective parishes, and if they venture to preach (as they are legally warranted to do without any such local licence) to commit them to jail upon the pretext that they are preaching without a licence. In pursuance of this plan, the Rev. Messrs. Burton and Rowden have been committed to jail in St. Thomas in the East, the Rev. Mr. Kingdon at Falmouth, and other missionaries in different quarters. What course will be adopted by the supreme judicial and executive authorities of the island, in regard to this and other oppressive proceedings, remains to be seen.
IV.—PROCEEDINGS AT TRINIDAD.
Many of our readers are aware that prosecutions were some time ago instituted, by his Majesty’s Attorney-General, in Trini- dad, against certain persons in that island who had for several years been guilty of carrying on an inter-colonial slave trade, by fraudulently importing slaves from Barbadoes and other colonies, in contravention of the Act of Parliament. The inducement to this felonious traffic arises from the high value of slaves in Trinidad as compared with the colonies whence the Negroes are thus imported. Trinidad is well adapted for the culture of sugar, and that culture is there strenuously prosecuted ; whilstin Barbadoes sugar is cul- tivated only to a limited extent, and in the Bahamas not at all. The consequence is that in the Bahamas the slaves are increasing rapidly, and in Barbadoes they are slowly increasing ; while in Trinidad, where there is an enormous growth of sugar and a cor- responding exaction of severe labour (diurnal and nocturnal), the consumption of Negro life is also enormous: the slaves in fact decrease in number with frightful rapidity ; and thus, from the con- sequent high prices, there arises a strong temptation to elude, for the sake of gain, the Act of Parliament, and to introduce, by in- genious devices, new supplies of human cattle from what may be called the breeding colonies, to supply the constant wear and tear of the Trinidad plantations, Accordingly it was discovered some little time ago that a very considerable number of slaves had been thus illicitly introduced ; and the Attorney-General was directed to insti- tute proceedings against the infractors of the law—a law purposely enacted to prevent such nefarious transactions as those referred to. Those proceedings, which were of course met by every obstruction which colonial chicanery could throw in the path of justice, had been for some time pending,—when, as appears by the Trinidad papers, the following extraordinary occurrence took place.
On Sunday, the 12th of November, 1832, the office of the Re- gistrar of the Vice Admiralty Court in Port of Spain was feloniously entered, and the whole of the documents, evidence, &c., relating to the proceedings pending before the court for illicit im- portation of slaves, carried off. An investigation having been
4140 PROCEEDINGS AT TRINIDAD.
set on foot, the premises of two persons of the names of Porter and Wilson, who are described as “ partners in the well-known mer- cantile firm of Robert Neilson and Company, of Trinidad,” were searched by the police, and one of thew slaves carried before the Attorney-General for examination. Messrs. Porter and Wilson, it appears, then proceeded to the office of the Attorney-General, and, after using very outrageous and threatening language to that officer, forcibly carried away their slave with them. The Attorney-General, thus insulted and braved in the prosecution of his duty by the very persons specially suspected of the delinquency under mvestigation, applied for support to the Governor and the Chief Justice. A warrant was then issued for the apprehension of Porter and Wilson, and the military were ordered to hold themselves in readiness should any commotion ensue. That this precaution was not causeless was soon obvious. The white population of the town appear, from the accounts in the Trinidad newspapers, to have been in a high state of excitement. They surrounded the premises of Porter and Wilson, apparently to prevent their arrest, and afterwards escorted them in tumultuous array when they proceeded next day to offer bail for their appearance. Bail was accepted, and thus for the present the matter rests. The abstracted papers have not been re- covered.
The mob, who thus supported and cheered on Messrs. Porter and Wilson to insult and defy the Attorney-General, consisted, says the Port of Spain Gazette, of ‘an immense number of the respect- able inhabitants, comprising planters, merchants, professional men, &e., each feeling the proceedings of the previous day as a personal insult to himself.” This journal speaks in very magniloquent terms of the patriotic indignation of the Trinidad colonists on this occa- sion, their warlike attitude, and their keen appetite for blood. “‘ The tiger,” says the editor, “ was roused within them,” “and, had the men under arms made their appearance in the streets of Port of Spain in hostile array that afternoon, the sun’s last rays would have fallen on blood and human carcases!”
We do not, of course, attach any great weight to language of this sort from a * Colonial Patriot.” We have been long enough ac- customed to the “ King Cambyses’ style,”’ in which these writers fume away on their little stage. But at the same time when we recollect that, with few exceptions, the ‘respectable white po- pulation” in our principal slave colonies manifest a decided dis- position to make common cause with the ruffians who thus act in outrageous defiance of all law and authority, and when we reflect on the criminal and disgraceful acts instigated by similar journals, and perpetrated by the ‘respectable white population” in Jamaica, the Mauritius, the Cape, and elsewhere,—we confess we see in the madness of these reckless men extreme peril for the Colonies. From that cause we apprehend far greater danger than from the wearing out of the long-tried patience of the Negroes. The mad- ness of the Colonists now seems to assume the portentous aspect of judicial infatuation. Quem Deus vult perdere/ They seem determined to convince the slaves, every whiere else as well as in
ENCOURAGEMENT OF FREE LABOUR IN ANTIGUA. 141
Jamaica and the Mauritius, that loyalty to the King and obedience to the laws are incompatible with obedience to their masters. The practical results of this conviction, when it once becomes general, may be readily anticipated. In the wise and decisive measures of the King’s Government in regard to the slaves, and in the steady loyalty and enlightened good sense of the free coloured class, who are fortunately a numerous and powerful body in all our principal colonies, we see the only human means of averting the fearful cala- mities which the white colonists are doing their utmost to draw down upon their own infatuated heads.
In the present instance itis reported, upon good authority, that great efforts were made to induce the free men of colour, who con+ stitute the mass of the Trinidad militia, to make common cause with the whites, in braving the King’s authority. But that class of men repelled with indignation and disdain the msidious attempts to involve them in such a criminal course. ‘* They know perfectly well,’”’ says the Colonial Observer (a journal edited, we believe, by a gentleman of that class), “the delicate position in which they are placed.’ But ‘they can and will think for themselves. They
‘will never show an example of disobedience to the slaves; and, wherever the British banner may be unfurled, they will be found ready with heart and hand for rue KING AND THE Law.”
V.—SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF FREE LABOUR IN ANTIGUA.
In our last Number we gave some details from the Antigua. newspapers of the working of the system of Slavery. We now revert toa subject of a more cheering description, brought under our notice by the valuable journal of Mr. Loving. It appears that a society was established at Antigua, on the 21st of September, 1832, under the title of the ‘ Antigua Benevolent Society for the Encouragement of Industry.” This association, which is patronized by several persons of respectability and influence in the island, pro- poses for its object the colonization of unoccupied lands by free labourers, without distinction of colour; at least no such distinc- tion is mentioned, though it is obvious that the great mass of such labourers must be composed of free persons of colour and emanci- pated Negroes. ‘The report speaks with confidence of the success of the scheme, and of the great benefits likely to be derived from it to the community in general, by the improvement of agriculture, and the profitable cultivation of many articles not at present pro- duced by the colony. A necessary accompaniment they state to be a sufficient grant of public land by the Colonial legislature, for the permanent location of the free cultivators. But this they seem to have no doubt of attaining; and a considerable subscription has already been raised for setting the plan fairly on foot. The insti- tution is altogether highly creditable to the Colony, and shows that, in spite of the demoralizing and barbarizing influence of slavery (of which the cases recently detailed afford such melancholy evi- dence), there is yet within the island a redeeming portion of that
142 ENCOURAGEMENT OF FREE LABOUR IN ANTIGUA.
“salt of the earth,” without which a community speedily dissolves into a state of moral putrescence, and becomes “ only fit to be cast into the dunghill.” To the comparative extension of religious in- struction, by which Antigua has been privileged beyond any other West India colony, is doubtless chiefly to be ascribed the salutary formation of this praiseworthy institation.
Mr. Loving, who is himself one of its founders, and a member of the managing committee, makes the following remarks, in ari article devoted to this institution, in his Weekly Register of Oct. 2, 1832 :—
‘¢ The institution is unquestionably one of paramount importance to this island in every respect; and, if we view it with an eye to those great changes which the West Indian colonies are destined ere long to undergo, in their political as well as social condition, an acknowledgment of the positive utility of such an association cannot be refused by any person, even of moderate understanding. That free labour must supersede slave labour at no remote period, who will attempt to deny? That the finger of Divine Providence is now directed to this stupendous change, who will venture to ques- tion? Seeing, therefore, as far as human foresight will permit us, that a free peasantry will eventually supplant the old system, is it not fit, and necessary, and wise, that we should prepare for the event by all the means in our power?”
“The society of which we are now speaking will, we trust, pave the way for a general cultivation of the soil by free labour, and familiarize us to the practicability of the plan. During our Stay in England we were informed by Lord Howick, upon our application to him, that the crown lands in the conquered colonies would, without hesitation, be granted to the free people of any of the colonies to be worked by free labour. The subject did not ex- tend to the chartered islands, because there are no crown lands in them but such as form the sites of the garrisons, and it therefore rested with the Colonial governments to extend this boon to their Own population.* We feel it our bounden duty to call upon every coloured man—upon every black man—to put his shoulders to the wheel, and with hand and heart assist in propelling this im- portant undertaking. These are the men whom we call upon, be- cause they or their posterity are to be the chief gainers by it. We conjure them, as they value their reputations, their respectability, and the well being of the community at large, not to halt in coming forward with their mite in the completion of this good work.”
“Tt is unnecessary to look back at other days. We desire to look forward, and have abundant testimony in our possession to prove that free labour must succeed in every country where it is encouraged by the public authorities.”
»* A short but important Government Notice appears in the Ba- hama Gazette of the 3rd Oct., directing ‘‘that, in any future grants of land made by the Crown, a condition be inserted for the forfeiture of the grant on proof of the land having been at any time (subse- quent to the date of grant) cuLTIVATED BY THE LABOUR OF SLAVES.”
oa DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.
448
VI. DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN AID OF THE FUNDS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIEi1Y, DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER, 1832.
Nottingham Ladies’ Association - Camberwell ditto ditto Mrs. Kernaway, Charmouth
* Wolverhampton Association Collection at panies
G. F. Angus, Esq. - Tottenham Ladies’ Mewsctitiin Whitby Association .
Alton Ladies’ ditto
Kendal ditto ditto
The Misses Harrison, Sheffield The Rev. M. M. Preston William Smith, Esq. (2 years) Society of Friends’ Anti-Slavery Fund Horncastle Association
Rey. John Pain
Mr. T. S. Harvey
Ditto :
Southwark Ladies’ Association
aries received by the Collector during the year
Mrs. E. R. Fox (for 2 years) J.M. Strachan, Esq. (2 years) G. G. Babington, Esq. (2 years) The Hon. G. D. Ryder 2 W. A. Garratt, Esq. (2 years) J. G. Barker, Esq. (2 years)
( payment)
(ditto ) (annual) ( payment) (donation) “(ditto )
( permet) (ditto ) (ditto ) (donation ) (ditto ) (annual) (annual)
( payment) (donation)
(payment ) (donation)
( payment )
The Most Hon. the Marquis of f Cholmondely
Rev. E. G. Marsh :
The Hon. G. V. Harbord John Kitching, Esq. _..
The Right Hon. Lord Henley (2 years) J. 1. Griscoe, Esq.,M.P. . R. Marsden, Esq. : Colonel Thompson
Rev, H. G. Watkins
Samuel Carter, Esq. .« Richard Cockle, Esq.
Richard Phillips, Esq. .
J. C, Symes, Esq. . , Mrs. Archdale Palmer .
Rev. Josiah Pratt
John Arch, Esq.
Arthur Arch, Esq.
A. Saunders, Esq.
Mr. Sheriff Peek
Edward Forster, Esq.
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144 DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES. ©
James Peek, Esq.
William Peek, Esa.
Rey. Dr. Pye Smith .
Rev. T. Sheppard
Rey. E. Bickersteth . John;Dickenson, Esq.
Henry Tyler, Esq.
Joseph -Tylor
Sir J. Kennaway, Bart.
William Allen, Esq. -
A Witley adult scholar, per Mr. Nesbit J.T. Barry, Esq.
John Bell, Esq.
Joseph Beldam, Esq.
William Edwards, Esq.
- Messrs. Christy
Miss P. Dawes.
J. Cardale, Esq. ‘
Rev. J. Ivimey
Joseph Neatby, Esq. ‘ ' — Bousfield, Esq. ; : ° Thomas Sturge, Esq.
Rey..T. Galland
His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester 2 years) 2
Hon. and Rev. B. Noel (2 YEAS ig William Crawford, Esq. . George Stacey, Esq. Mrs. “Mary Stacey . Rev. Joseph Fletcher, D. D. William Pollard, Esq. Rev. R. Watson Mrs. Wrench Joseph Wilson, Esq. @ years) Rev. Dr: Dealtry T. F. Buxton, Esq., M. P. John Capper, Esq. G. W. Alexander, Esq. . Mr. S. Bagster, Jun. A. Janson, Had. sy' 4 Charles Field, Esq. (2 years) CS BRG: Woodd, sac oi -D. Coates, Esq. Rev. S. C.-Wilks (2 years) R. Barrett, Esq. ; J: Barrett, Esq.* . Peter Bedford, Esq.
4 ies Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
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The Anti-Slavery Mecord.
No. 12. FEBRUARY 25, 1833. PRICE ONE PENNY. Page.
I.—-SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ViZ. 1. Remarks of Edinburgh Review ° 7 , ; ~- 145 2. Mr. Stwart’s description of Slavery in South Carolina - 146 3. The Planter and the Doctor. ‘ . . ; . 147 4. Treatment of slaves at Charleston ; : : . ibid. 5. epurreent Sentiments on Slavery ; Revie : - 150 6. Slavery in Georgia . ‘ . ° ; , : - ibid. 7. Slavery at New Orleans . F ‘ 151
8. American Legislation for Slave and Free Coloured Population 152 9. Treatment of the Free Coloured class . “ ; . ee
10. General Remarks . ¥ , : ; é : - 154 Ii.—COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE , a = 5 * emo 11I.—HOME INTELLIGENCE . 5 “ ‘ = 5 «aback. IV.— DONATIONS AND REMIITANCES . . sib hes
I.—SLAVERY IN-THE UNITED STATES.
A work has just appeared entitled ‘‘ Three years in North America, by James Stuart, Esq.,” which furnishes many striking and instructive illustrations of the treatment and condition of the slaves and free people of colour in the United States. The work is written throughout in a remarkably calm and candid style ; and, with the exception of the slave-holding states, exhibits the institu- tions and social condition of the American people ina very fa- vourable point of view. A large portion of its pages is occupied in defending them on several points from the less friendly repre- sentations of other travellers. But on the subject of slavery Mr. Stuart attempts not to defend the Americans. Slavery is indeed the PLAGUE Spot of the Union; and, if not speedily healed by an atoning ablution of a very different character_from that of the vile * abstergent lotion’ so diligently advertised by the Doctor Solo- mons of the ‘American Colonization Society,’ it can scarcely fail to be, sooner or later, washed out in blood, and avenged by the most dreadful calamities to that nation.—We cannot perhaps better introduce Mr. Stuart’s notices than by the following passage from the last number of the Edinburgh Review.
1. Remarks of Edinburgh Review.
*« In the Southern States, slavery exists in its worst form, and to a frightful extent. The Americans have successfully maintained ‘ that rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God ;’ but it would seem from their practice that they meant this to be understood of whites only ; and that one of the ‘ sacred rights’ for which they braved the power of England was the right to oppress and trample on such of their fellow men as happened to be bornblack. The abolition of the slave trade by the Americans is, we are sorry to say, rather nominal than
“real. There is a Guinea within the Union. It was recently estimated 0
146 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
that every year from 10,000 to 16,000 slaves were sold by the more northerly slave-holding states, and exported to Louisiana and those more tothe south. Itis no uncommon thing for husbands and wives, mothers and children, to be, on such occasions, separated from each other ; and the cruelties thus inflicted have frequently provoked the most dreadful outrages. And yet the great majority of the white inhabitants, and the legislature, seem all but insensible of the existence of this tremendous evil. The increase of the black population in the southern states is more rapid than that of the white ; so that, even if the present order of things could be maintained for a few years, it must sooner or later come to an end; and the blacks, if they be not restored to their rights as men, and voluntarily admitted to partici- pate of the privileges now engrossed by the whites, will probably establish their freedom and equality by an appeal to the sword. Under these circumstances, it might be expected that efforts would be every where in progress for the improvement of the slaves, and for preparing them for the enjoyment of rights which reasonable men cannot fail to see must ultimately be conceded to them. But the very opposite conduct is pursued; the slaves are treated as if they were wholly powerless, and as if nothing were to be apprehended from their deep-rooted desire of vengeance, or from the justice of Provi- dence. ‘The accounts which Mr. Stuart gives of the behaviour of the whites towards the blacks in the Carolinas, Georgia, and other Southern States, are alike disgraceful to the Americans and afflicting to humanity. Every possible effort is made, not to instruct, but to exclude them from instruction. The blacks are prohibited from attending the schools kept by white persons; and in 1823 the grand jury of Charleston proclaimed as a ‘ nuisanee the numbers of schools kept within the city by persons of colour, expressing their belief that a city ordinance, prohibiting under severe penalties such persons from being public instructors, would meet with general approbation.’ Such an ordinance was of course soon after issued !
«« There are no doubt many instances to the contrary, but, on the whole, those most favourable to the southern Americans must admit that, speaking generally, they treat their slaves with the most revolt- ing inhumanity.”
2. Mr. Stuart’s description of Slavery in South Carolina.
‘‘ My stopping place was on a rice plantation, so unfavourably situated during the unhealthy season of the year that the planter and his family always leave it. The slaves were numerous, and were, I had reason to believe from what I afterwards heard, as well treated as they generally are in this country; but it did not seem to me that their want of education, and the want of ordinary comforts, place them in a situation much removed from the brutes. They had little clothing, all of one drab colour, and not one of them had bed-clothes. T had full leisure to talk with them, but of course I was bound to do so with prudence. All of them, however, with whom I had an opportunity of conversing, declared themselves unhappy and miserable in their situation. A certain task is allotted to each of them, and, if this is not done, they are subjected to one of three punishments, whipping, wearing irons, or putting in the stocks. I was told here, on authority which seemed to be quite unquestionable (that of a wealthy planter who lived in this neighbourhood), that a planter, whose estate is at no great distance from the high road which
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 147
I was travelling, was in the habit of punishing his slaves, when he thought that they required severe discipline, by putting them in coffins, which were partly nailed down, and that this punishment had again and again resulted in the death of the slaves. The gentleman who communicated this information to me spoke of it with horror ; but upon my asking him why such conduct was not punished, since. it was known in the neighbourhood, by virtue of the law, which de- clared the killing of a slave to be murder, he replied that his neigh- bour took very good care of himself: the punishment was inflicted only in the presence of slaves, whose evidence was inadmissible. He added, however, that the coffins liad been seen, and that the slaves, who it was said had lost their lives, had disappeared, and that no - doubt was entertained that their deaths had been occasioned by their being shut up in coffins. The same person who has recourse to this savage punishment works his slaves on Sundays, though contrary to law, taking care that no white man sees them.’’—Vol.ii.pp. 118, 119.
«« T have seen enough to be satisfied that, generally speaking, the slaves are brought up in such ignorance, as well as in a way so repug- nant to moral feeling, in the earlier part of their life, that it is sur- prising to see so many marks of civilization among them. Marriage among them is generally allowed; but, where a young man has a fine family, the planter very often, with a view to the increase of his stock, forces him to have many wives :. and in the same way married females are often obliged to receive more husbands than one, as the planter may order. In fact, the slaves are as much obliged to obey the commands of their masters in respect to sexual intercourse as any thing else, the effects of which upon their morals may be easily conceived. Such a system is no doubt discouraged by many of the masters whose dispositions are humane; but that this evil does exist to a great extent is unquestionably true.” —Vol. li. p. 120.
3. The Planter and the Doctor.
In travelling through South Carolina, Mr. Stuart fell into the company of “a very wealthy and well-known planter of that state, not by any means a young man,” and of a medical man of the neighbourhood. He thus describes their conversation :—
*«« The planter and the doctor seemed to be on intimate terms, which rendered their conversation tolerably unreserved. The doctor asked the planter what could have induced him to stay at such and such a plantation during the unhealthy season. I shall never forget the sang froid with which the question was answered by his friend. . He said he found that half a dozen of the girls could not longer be trusted without a husband, for one of them had been already seized by the blacksmith at his gate, and that he thought it was not only for his interest, but that of the plantation generally, that he should be the first husband. This answer, of course, gave rise to a great deal of merriment among the friends ; and the doctor, who gave us accounts of his management of his own slaves of a similar kind, of course ad- mitted the validity of the reason. In the course of the conversation which followed, it turned out that this planter was frequently waited upon at table by his own children, and had actually sent some of them tothe public market to be sold as slaves !”’—Vol. 11. p. 127.
4. Treatment of Slaves at Charleston. Passing over several passages descriptive of the grievous oppres-
148 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
sion of the free people of colour, we find Mr. Stuart again advert- ing to the treatment of the slaves in the following terms :—
‘‘T was placed in a situation at Charleston, which gave me too frequent opportunities to witness the effects of slavery in its most aggravated state. Mrs. Street (the mistress of the hotel) treated all the servants in the house in the most barbarous manner; and this although she knew that Stewart, the hotel-keeper here, had lately nearly lost his life by maltreating a slave. He beat his cook, who was a stout fellow, until he couldno longer support it. He rose upon his master, and in his turn gave him such a beating that it had nearly cost him his life; the cook immediately left the house, ran off, and was never afterwards heard of,—it was supposed that he had drowned himself. Not a day, however, passed without my hearing of Mrs. Street whip- ping and ill using her unfortunate slaves. On one occasion, when one of the female slaves had disobliged her, she beat heruntilher ownstrength was exhausted, and then insisted on the bar-keeper, Mr. Ferguson (a Scotchman) proceeding to inflict the remainder of the punishment. _Mrs,. Street in the mean time took her place in the bar-room. She instructed him to lay on the whip severely in an adjoining room. His nature was repugnant to the execution of the duty which wasimposed on him. He gave a wink to the girl, who understood it and bellowed lustily, while he made the whip crack on the walls of the room. Mrs. Street expressed herself to be quite satisfied with the way in which Ferguson had executed her instructions; but, unfortunately for him, his lenity to the girl became known in the house, and the subject of merriment, and was one of the reasons for his dismissal before I left the house ;— but I did not know of the most atrocious of all the proceedings of this cruel woman until the very day that I quitted the house. I had put up my clothes in my portmanteau, when I was about to set out; but, finding it was rather too full, I had difficulty in getting it closed to allow me lock it; I therefore told one of the boys to send me one of the stoutest of the men to assist me. A great robust fellow soon afterwards appeared, whom I found to be the cook, with tears in his eyes ;—I asked him what was the matter? He told me that, just at the time when the boy called for him, he had got so sharp a blow on the cheek-bone, from this devil in petticoats, as had unmanned him for the moment. Upon my expressing commiseration for him, he said, he viewed this as nothing, but that he was leading a life of terrible suffering ;—that about two years had elapsed since he and his wife, with his two children, had been exposed in the public market at Charleston for sale,—that he had been purchased by Mr. Street,— that his wife and children had been purchased by a different person, and that, though he was living in the same town with them, he never was allowed to see them ;—he would be beaten within an ace of his life if he ventured to go to the corner of the street. Wherever the least symptom of rebellion or insubordination appears at Charleston onthe part of a slave, the master sends the slave to the gaol, where he is whipped or beaten as the master desires. The Duke of Saxe Wei- mar, in his travels, mentions that he visited this gaol in December 1825; that the ‘ black overseers go about everywhere armed with cow hides ; that in the basement story there is an apparatus upon which the Negroes, by order of the police, or at the request of the masters, are flogged ; that the machine consists of a sort of crane, on which a cord with two nooses runs over pulleys ; the nooses are made
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 149
fast to the hands of the slave and drawn up, while the feet are bound tight toaplank; that the body is stretched out as much as possible, — and thus the miserable creature receives the exact number of lashes as counted off.—The public sale of slaves in the market-place at Charleston occurs frequently. I was present at two sales where, es- pecially at one of them, the miserable creatures were in tears on account of their being separated from their relations and friends, At one of them, a young woman of sixteen or seventeen was separated from her father and mother, and all her relations, and every one she had formerly known. This not unfrequently happens, although I was told and believe that there is a general wish to keep relations together where it can be done.
** The following extract of a letter from a gentleman at Charleston, to a friend of his at New York, published in the New York news- papers while I was there, contains even a more shocking account of the public sale of slaves here :—‘ Curiosity sometimes leads me to the auction sales of the Negroes, A few days since I attended one which exhibited the beauties of slavery in all theirsickening deformity, The bodies of these wretched beings were placed upright ona table,—their physical proportions examined ,—their defects and beauties noted, ‘A prime lot, here they go!’ There I saw the father looking with sullen contempt on the crowd, and expressing an indignation in his counte- nance that he dare not speak ;—and the mother, pressing her infants closer to her bosom with an involuntary grasp, and exclaiming, in wild and simple earnestness, while the tears chased down her cheeks in quick succession, ‘ I can’t leff my children! I won’t leff my child- ren!’ Buton the hammer went, reckless alike whether it united or sundered for ever. On another stand I saw a man apparently as white as myself exposed for sale. I turnedaway from the humiliat- ing spectacle.
««* At another time I saw the concluding scene of thisinfernal drama. it was on the wharf. A slave ship for New Orleans was lying in the stream, and the poor Negroes, handcuffed, and pinioned, were hurried off in boats, eight at a time. Here I witnessed the last farewell,— the heart-rending separation of every earthly tie. The mute and agonizing embrace of the husband and wife, and the convulsive grasp of the mother and the child, who were alike torn asunder—for ever! It was a living death,—they never see or hear of each other more. Tears flowed fast, and mine with the rest.’
‘ Charleston has long been celebrated for the severity of its laws against the blacks, and the mildness of its punishments towards the whites for maltreating them. Until the late law, there were about seventy -one crimes for which slaves were capitally punished, and for which the highest punishment for whites was imprisonment in the penitentiary.
«© A dreadful case of murder occurred at Charleston in 1806. A planter, called John Slater, made an unoffending, unresisting slave, be bound hand and foot, and compelled his companion to chop off his head with an axe, and to cast his body, convulsing with the agonies of death, into the water. Judge Wild, who tried him, on awarding a sentence of imprisonment against this wretch, expressed his regret that the punishment provided for the offence was insufficient to make the law respected,—that the delinquent too well knew that the arm which he had stretched out for the destruction of his slave was that to which he alone could look for protection, disarmed as he was of
0 2
150 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
the right of self-defence. But the most horrible butchery of slaves which has ever taken place in America was the execution of thirty- five of them on the lines near Charleston, in the month of July 1822, on account of an alleged conspiracy against their masters. The whole proceedings are monstrous. Sixty-seven persons were con- victed before a court, consisting of a justice of the peace, and free- holders, without ajury. The evidence of slaves not upon oath was admitted against them, and, after all, the proof was extremely scanty.
Perrault, a slave, w io had himself boeh brought from Africa, was the chief witness. He had been torn from his father, who was very wealthy, and a considerable trader in tobacco and salt on the coast of Africa. He was taken prisoner, and was sold, and his purchaser would not give him up, although three slaves were offered in ‘his stead. The judge’s address, on pronouncing sentence of death on this occasion, on persons sold to slavery and servitude, and who, if they were guilty, were only endeavouring to get rid of it in the only way in their power, seems monstrous. He told them that the servant who was false to his master would be false to his God,—that the pre- cept of St. Paul was ‘ to obey their masters in all things,’ and of St. Peter ‘ to be subject to their masters with jall fear,’—and that, had they listened to such doctrines, they would not have been arrested by an ignominious death.”—Vol. il. pp. 141—147.
5. Jefferson’s Sentiments on Slavery.
«« The existence of slavery in its most hideous form, in a country of absolute freedom in most respects, is one of those extraordinary anomalies for which it is impossible to account. No man was more sensible of this than Jefferson, nor more anxious that so foul a stain on the otherwise free constitutions of the United States should be wiped away. His sentiments on this subject, and on the peculiar situation of his countrymen in maintaining slavery, are thus given in a communication to one ‘of his friends :—*‘ What an incomprehen- sibie machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprison- ment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, andthe next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must await with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full,—when their groans shall have involved hea- ven itselfin darkness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and, by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or at length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality.”’—Vol. ii. p. 147.
These are impressive words, and well calculated, one would think, to make an American, while glorying in his country’s grow- ing greatness, tremble for his country’s awful guilt,
6. Slavery in Georgia.
On passing into the State of Georgia, Mr. Stuart Pang no alle- viation in the condition of the Negro race. At Savannah he thus speaks of them :—
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 151i
‘* One individual here gave me an account of the treatment of the slaves very much resembling what I had witnessed at Charleston, I was prepared to expect this, from observing that the city councils of Savannah had lately passed a law, imposing a tax of 100 dollars on free persons of colour coming to that city. Can there be a more atrocious violation of the principles of liberty than is contained in such a regulation as this, which may render it impossible for a free man even to visit his father or mother at the point of death ?—but the prohibition is positive in Louisiana and South Carolina.’’—p. 154,
Again at Columbus, in the same state, he observes :—
** Cutting off the ears and the pillory are punishments for slaves sanctioned by the legislature of Georgia; but the universal punish- ment is whipping. The infliction of this punishment, to the extent of twenty lashes on the bare back, is deemed, in a great variety of cases, of insufficient moment to claim the intervention even of a sin- gle magistrate. Any white person, a drunken patrole, an absconding felon, or a vagabond mendicant, is supposed to possess discretion enough to interpret the laws, and to wield the cow skin or cart whip for their infraction; and should death ensue by accident, while the slave is thus receiving moderate correction, the Constitution of Georgiakindly denominates the offence justifiable homicide.”—p. 164.
7. Slavery at New Orleans.
On reaching New Orleans, in Louisiana, the traveller still finds the same system operating in all its hideous deformity.
««The cleaning of the streets is performed under the direction of overseers, by slaves chained together, and with hardly any clothes on their backs, sent for the purpose, at the discretion of their mas- ters, as a punishment for some delinquency, whether real or supposed. The masters generally receive about one shilling sterling per day for each slave thus employed.” —Vol. ii. p. 235.
*« T have already mentioned,” he continues, ‘that all the waiters in the hotels where I lodged were slaves, but they were not posi- tively ill-treated, like the unfortunate creatures at Charleston. They had no beds, however, to sleep upon—all lying like dogs in the pas- sages of the house. Their punishment was committed by Mr. Lavand to Mr. Smith, the clerk of the house, who told me that never an evening passed on which he had not to give some of them stripes ; and on many occasions to such an extent that he was unable to per- form the duty, and sent the unhappy creatures to the prison, that they might have their punishment inflicted there by the gaoler. No- thing is more common here than for the master and mistresses of slaves, when they wish them, either male or female, to be punished, to send them to the prison with a note to the gaoler specifying the number of lashes to be inflicted, Ifthe master so orders it, the slave receives his whipping laid flat upon his face upon the earth, with his hands and feet bound to posts. In passing the prison in the morn- ing, the cries of the poor creatures are dreadful. I was anxious to eet into the inside of this place; but, though a friend applied for me, I did not succeed. Mr. Smith told me that he was very desirous to leave his situation, merely because he felt it so very disagreeable a duty to be obliged to whip the slaves.
«< There were about 1000 slaves for sale at New Orleans while I was there. Although I did not myself witness, as I have done at
152 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
Charleston, the master or the mistress of the house treating the slaves with barbarity, yet I heard enough to convince me that at New Or- leans there are many Mrs. Streets. The Duke of Saxe Weimar, who was at New Orleans in 1826, and who lodged in the boarding house of the well known Madame Herries, one of the best boarding houses at New Orleans, has given a detailed account of the savage conduct of this lady to one of her slaves, which I transcribe in his own words : —‘ One particular scene, which roused my indignation in the highest manner, on the 22nd of March, I cannot suffer to pass in silence, There was a young Virginian female slave in our boarding house, employed as a chambermaid, a cleanly, attentive, quiet, and very regular individual. A Frenchman residing in the house called in the morning early for water to wash. As the water was not instantly brought to him, he went down the steps and encountered the poor girl, who just then had some other occupation in hand. He struck her immediately with the fist in the face, so that the blood ran from her forehead. The poor creature, roused by this unmerited abuse, put herself on her defence, and caught the Frenchman by the throat. He screamed for help, but no one would interfere. The fellow then ran to his room, gathered his things together, and was about to leave the house ; but when our landlady, Madame Herries, was informed of this, in order to satisfy the wretch, she disgraced herself by having twenty-six lashes inflicted upon the poor girl with a cow-hide, and refined upon her cruelty so much that she forced the sweetheart of the girl, a young negro slave who waited in the house, to count off the lashes upon her. This Frenchman, a merchant’s clerk from Montpelier, was not satisfied with this. He went to the police —lodged a complaint against the girl—had her arrested by two constables—and whipped again by them in his presence.’’—pp. 240 —242.
«¢ Every thing I saw in my perambulations and rides in the neigh- bourhood of New Orleans confirmed me in the belief that the slaves, especially the females, are in general cruelly treated in respect to the tasks allotted to them, and the stripes and degradation to which they are subjected.” —p. 249,
«While 1 was at New Orleans, a slave was hung there for some trifling offence ; but none of the newspapers took the slightest notice of the execution, the editors being naturally afraid that their doing so might be construed into an offence against the law passed a few days previously.”’—p. 244. |
‘«« They conceive that the increasing numbers of their slaves require more coercive laws, and greater severity of treatment; and are pro- ceeding on this principle, every year increasing the hardships of their almost intolerable situation, and adding new fetters to those which are already too heavy for them to wear.”’—p. 251.
8. American Legislation for Slave and free Coloured Population.
Such is Mr. Stuart’s picture of slavery, as it in practice exists at this moment in the Southern States of America. The laws of these States, in regard both to the slave and free coloured population, are beyond measure oppressive and tyrannical. When he was at Richmond, in Virginia, ‘a law was in progress for preventing the free men of colour from being educated. It passed the House of Representatives, but was rejected in the Senate by a small majority.”
,
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 13
The following are specimens of Georgia Legislation :—
«« In case any slave or free person of colour teach any other slave or free person of colour to read or to write either written or printed characters, the free person of colour or slave is punished by fine and whipping; and a white person so offending is punished with a fine not exceeding 500 dollars, and imprisonment in the common gaol. Any slave or free person of colour, or any other person, circulating pa- pers or bringing into this State, or aiding in any manner in bringing into the State, papers exciting to insurrection, conspiracy, or resistance, any of the slaves or free persons of colour, against their owners or the citizens, is to be punished with death.”’—Vol. ii. p. 163.
In Louisiana the laws respecting the slaves and coloured popu- lation are as tyrannical as at Charleston or in Georgia.
«The State Legislature (says Mr. Stuart) have now, on the 16th and 17th days of March (1830), passed two Acts, not many days before 1 reached New Orleans, containing most objectionable provi- sions. The first Act provides,—‘ 1. That whosoever shall write, print, publish, or distribute any thing having a tendency to create discontent among the free coloured population of this State, or insubordination among the slaves therein, shall, at the discretion of the Court, suffer death, or imprisonment at hard labour for life.-—2. That whosoever shall use language in any public discourse, from the bar, the bench, the stage, the pulpit, or in any place, or in private discourse or con- versation, or shall make use of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the free coloured population in this State, or to excite insubordination among the slaves therein, or whoever shall knowingly be instrumental in bringing into this State any paper, pamphlet, or book, having such tendency as aforesaid, shall, at the discretion of the Court, suffer at hard labour not less than three years nor more than twenty years, or death.—3. That all persons who shall teach or permit, or cause to be taught, any slave in this State to read or write, shall be imprisoned not less than one nor more than twelve months.’—The second Act provides for the expulsion from the State of all free people of colour who came into it subsequently to the year 1807, and inflicts a high penalty on “any white man, the author of written or printed papers within the State, or who shall use any lan- guage with the intent to disturb the peace or security of the same, or relative to slavery, ‘ or to diminish that respect which is commanded to Free people of colour for the whites.’ ’’—Vol. ti. p. 242.
9. Treatment of the Free Coloured Class.
The above are only a few specimens of American legislation for the coloured population. Mr. Stuart’s second volume furnishes many as bad or worse than these; yet even Mr. Stuart appears to have been made acquainted with but a limited portion of the atro- cious enactments affecting this class of men. We shall revert to this subject ere long in connection with the proceedings of the ‘* Colo- nization Society.” The present work, nevertheless, contains a good deal of valuable information in regard to the condition of the free coloured class. Their treatment is worse than disgraceful to free America: it is atrocious. At Charleston, on visiting the race- course, Mr. S. saw the free men of colour struck by the whites with their horse-whips, and driven away like dogs. ‘‘ No wonder,” he says, “ that these people thirst for vengeance. Here there were at leasttwo men of colour for every white person, yet they were obliged
154 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
to submit to treatment which the white man dared not even to have threatened to a person of his own colour.” At page 140 he gives some further shocking details of the treatment of this unfortunate class of men, whose condition is in some respects if possible worse than that of their enslaved brethren. Even in the States where slavery does not exist, and where the free coloured caste are not oppressed by such Draconian laws as those we have referred to, their condition is still most deplorable, owing to the practical de- gradations and disabilities inflicted upon them by the unchristian prejudices, the savage antipathies, entertained by the white Ameri- cans generally to the coloured races. Numerous instances of this are given in these volumes.
10. General Remarks.
“And this is America! These are the fruits of reason and philosophy in a republic founded on the ‘ rights of man,’ and glorying in the political equality of its citizens, while every sixth individual is a soodra, the victim of a prejudice as senseless, of injustice as enormous as ever disgraced a heathen nation!” We quote these words from an excellent article, entitled the ‘“‘ Claims of the Blacks,” in the Eclectic Review for the present month, which we warmly recommend to the perusal of our readers; and we cannot close the present subject more appropriately than by adding to our extracts from the work of Mr. Stuart the following passage from the same article :—
‘«Jn the political and moral effects of slavery, and its contingent dangers, the crime carries with it in some degree its own punishment ; and nothing can more strikingly illustrate this than the present as- pect of things in the United States. There we have all classes af- fecting to deplore its existence in the heart of society as a calamity, yet refusing to repent of or to abjure the sin. There, by a mon- strous inversion of sentiment, we find it seriously maintained that it is the slave-holders, not the slaves, who are to be commiserated, as being, by an unhappy necessity, involved in the system. The whites, not the blacks, who are a ‘nuisance,’ are to be pitied. There is a sense, perhaps, in which this may be partially true. The injurer is more to be pitied than the injured, the criminal than the sufferer ; and that perversion of moral feeling which seems to have spread, like a contagion, from the south to the north, through all the classes of American society, has something in it more frightful than the physical degradation of the blacks themselves. The plague-spot, slavery, has infected every thing within reach of contact. Its effects are seen in the morbid pride, the tremulous apprehension, the short- sighted efforts of the whites. Slavery, in America, has rendered the constitution a lie, changed nature into an enemy, made the increase of population a tremendous evil, and occasioned the increase of know- ledge and virtue in the proscribed caste to be dreaded as a still greater evil, Hatred and fear, mingled with a portion of national shame, form the scourge with which slavery is at this time lashing the Americans. But this is not all. The existence of profitable slavery in the southern states, of unprofitable slavery in the middle states, and of a caste, the offspring of abolished slavery, in the north- ern and middle states,—is the principal origin of the widening breach between the different sections of the Union. It is this circumstance which renders their several interests all but incompatible. The seeds of
COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE—HOME INTELLIGENCE. 155
discord which are now ripening into open conflict have been sown by slavery. We consequently find the slave states the most tena- cious of their sovereignty, while almost all the great slave-holders are anti-federalists. Nine states out of the twenty-four have now no slaves ; and four more, in the middle and western sections, compa- ratively few. But, in the remaining eleven, the slaves, who num- bered in 1790 less than 700,000 throughout the union, now amount to 2,010,000, haying nearly trebled in forty-two years ; and of these about a million are concentrated in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, between the Potomac and the Alatamaha. With the growth of the slave population has grown the anti-federal feeling, in which Washington foresaw the probable cause of the disruption of the fede- racy, and the downfal of the fair fabric he had so greatly contributed to consolidate. Thus is the curse of slavery preying on the vitals of the constitution. But will it entail no other national punishment upon those who persist in ‘ founding their prosperity on the misery and degradation of others?’ ‘Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord.’
«©From America we turn to England, with feelings of mingled hope and intense anxiety. Upon the English soil the slave is free. The British legisl is the arena in which the monster Slavery must be dragged forth to receive its death-blow. The attention of both hemispheres is fixed upon the approaching contest. It is not Ja- maica slavery only, but Carolina slavery, Cuba slavery, Brazilian slavery, that it depends upon the decision of Great Britain to ex- tinguish. Five millions and a half of slaves are awaiting the verdict that shall find and proclaim them—Men.”
II.— COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Tue preceding details respecting slavery in America have occupied so much of our allotted space this month that we can do little more than advert to otherinteresting topics. From Jamaica our intelligence comes down to about the 10th of January. Christmas had passed over in tranquillity—at least so far as regards the slaves; but the House of Assembly had manifested so determined a disposition to thwart and insult the Home Government, and to nullify all the Go- vernor’s endeayours to enforce the observance of the laws and to pro- tect the oppressed, that His Excellency had been forced to dissolve that contumacious conclave on the 15th of December. Previously to their dissolution the Assembly distinguished themselves, in their usual way, by rejecting, by great majorities, and with much vulgar abuse, a petition from several ministers of the established church for the abolition of Sunday markets and Sunday labour, and also a similar petition from the Scotch Presbyterian missionaries. Mr. Jordan, the Editor of the Watchman, had been liberated from prison by an order from His Majesty’s Government.
The recent intelligence from our other slave colonies exhibits much heart-burning and contumacy on the part of the slave-holders generally, but is not in other respects of any particular importance.
JII.— HOME INTELLIGENCE.
Unper this head we have much to say, and on various topics; but we must of necessity still postpone our purpose, Much has been done and is now doing for our cause throughout the country, by the valuable services of the lecturers employed by the Agency Anti-
156 DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.
’ Slavery Society. Much has also been done by religious bodies, and much by individual zeal. The real aspect and character of Colonial
Slavery have been fairly unveiled; and a universal feeling of utter
abhorrence of the system now pervades the British nation, from its
centre to its furthest extremities, The nation has already effectively
declared its sentiments on this question by the election of a very
large proportion of representatives pledged to the entire extinction
of slavery ; ; andit only now waits (and with the most intense anxiety )
the ‘developement of the plan of emancipation recently announced
by His Majesty’s Government—to spgak ouT, in loud remonstrance,
if the course pursued be other than ‘‘ satisracrory,”’ but in terms of the warmest gratitude and support to the aie ery if they adhere
fully and strictly tO RIGHT PRINCIPLES.
1V.—DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES IN AID OF THE FUNDS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, DURING THE MONTH OF JANUARY, 1833.
CooOonmooOoOCOOOs
Anti-Slavery Fund placed at the Disposal of Messrs. irs, Josiah Forster, George Stacey, and Richard Barrett 300 0 Stoke Newington Ladies Association . ( oe ment 5 rs J. S. Elliot, Esq. é ; 5 AEE | Miss Dymond, Taunton . 0 14 F, Munro, Esq. ‘ ; < 4 ectad Me 4 Folkestone Association . ‘ ; ( ner 0 12 Staines Association . ; : (payment) 10 Devonshire Square Dorcas Society , ( payment) 18 York Ladies’ Association . ( payment) Contributions from Margate per Mr. A. R. Newby . Mr. Samuel Allen, Amersham . , (annual) Liverpool Ladies’ Association . i (donation) 2 Reading Association ; (payment)
A Friend, per Miss L. Prideaux - (donation) A Friend to the Cause, per Mr. Fewster (donation) Thirsk Association, per Mr. T. Smith (donation)
4 0 2 4 4 0 eet 5 0 5 0 0 ro oO 5 0 0 sien ark | Tewkesbury Association . : (payment ) 716 0 Wisbeach Association . : : (payment ) 7. 2 Od Colchester Association . : ( payment) 8s dyad Manchester Ladies’ Association ; ( payment) 3.12 9 Mr. Moline, Uxbridge. ; : ( payment) 0.2600 Rev. E. G. Marsh. ; : . (annual) t» dDav€ Brigg Association. , , ‘ (donation) SiiuGs «6 Rey. A. Brandram . 2 ; ; (annual) ¥ opie Mr. Hill ? (annual) 1° $0 Contributions from Bridgewater,per Mr. J. Thompson 210 0 Hanley and Shelton Association , ( payment) 6 16 11 Do. Do. : ; (donation) “slid its Leicester Association / : . (payment) 5 00 Rochester Ladies’ Association . - (payment) 214 6 Hemel Hempstead Association . ‘ (payment) 110 0 Collection at Sway ‘: : : (donation) O13 30 Worcester Association . . ; (payment) et. ae
London :—S,. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
The Anti-Slavery Record.
No. 13. MARCH 30, 1833. © — price oNE PENNY.
THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS, A SLAVE BELONGING TO EARL ROMNEY.
Tue readers of the Anti-Slavery Reporter will probably recol- lect the case of Betto Douglas, a female slave of St. Kitt’s. The facts of that case, so far as they had been made the subject of official enquiry, were disclosed to the public nearly six years ago in a parliamentary paper, dated May 1, 1827, (No. 187,) com- prising the details of a judicial investigation, and a correspondence on the subject between the governor, General Maxwell, and Earl Bathurst, then colonial secretary. An abstract of the facts thus elicited, was given in the Anti-Slavery Reporter for June, 1827. (No. 25, Vol. II., pp. 1—7.) It will be necessary to recapitulate the principal points of the case, as it then stood, as a necessary introduction to some subsequent*correspondence respecting this unfortunate woman, which we consider it our duty nov: to submit to the public.
Betto Douglas isa mulatto slave, the property of the Earl of Rom- ney. In the early part of her life she had been kept in concubinage by a white man, probably the attorney or overseer on the estate, such being, with very rare exceptions, the common practice of the whites connected with plantations in all our slave colonies. By this connexion the mulatto slave woman had two sons, who were mestees, as that lighter-coloured class of mulattoes are called ; in fact, almost as white as Europeans. From 16 to 20 years ago, application was made to Lord Romney, it appears, by Mr. Goldfrap, one of his Lordship’s attorneys in St. Kitt’s, asking his consent to the sale of Betto Douglas’s two sons, with a view, as it would seem, to their manumission. Lord Romney, as he himself states, under- stood this application to be on behalf of the father of the boys, and gave his consent on certain conditions, which he has specified. From some cause, unexplained, this arrangement was not com- pleted ; and the children of the European father and mulatto mother remained in slavery. There appears, however, to have been a conviction on the part of Mr. Goldfrap, that Lord Romney had consented to the manumission of Betto Douglas, and had issued orders to his riew attorney (Mr. Goldfrap having ceased to be his Lordship’s agent) to that effect. The same conviction had been impressed on the slave woman herself, so that she remained under the firm persuasion that Earl Romney had granted her manu- mission, but that it was withheld from her by his agent, Mr. Cardin.
As old age advanced upon her, the condition of this poor woman became worse and worse. Formerly she had been allowed to reside in a house, apart from the estate, and had been strongly recommended by Mr. Goldfrap (as he himself states in a letter to Governor Maxwell) to the favourable consideration of her noble owner. But Mr. Cardin now exacted from her a certain sum (three dollars and a half per month,) for Lord Romney. She frequently remonstrated with Mr. Cardin, as she states, upon the
P
158 THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS.
hardship of this exaction,and declared her inability, by any honest means, to raise this monthly rent. But the attorney was inexora- blé: he refused to abate one sixpence of the prescribed sum, and for several years exacted it, partly by threats, and partly by dint of temporary confinement ; the woman’s children assisting in pay- ing up her occasional arrears.
This continued till the beginning of 1825, when, her resources having failed, and being hard pressed for the arrears by Mr. Car- din, and haying the assurance of his predecessor, Mr. Goldfrap, that Lord Romney had given a promise of her manumission, Betto Nouglas, by Mr. Goldfrap’s advice, presented a petition to Gover- nor Maxwell, praying for his interposition in her behalf.
General Maxwell, with his characteristic humanity, immediately instituted an enquiry into the case; but as no satisfactory proof could be produced of Lord Romney’s intention to enfranchise this poor woman, her claim was of course rejected, and she was advised by the Governor to return to her duty on the estate of her nobie owner.
After her failure in this appeal, Mr. Cardin insisted on Betto Douglas going on hire, in order that she might continue the monthly payment of three dollars and a half as formerly. This, it would seem, she objected to, alleging her inability to make up that sum. Mr. Cardin, in no wise mollified, as may be supposed, by her appeal to the Governor, was inflexible in his demand. He first threatened her with being flogged and sent to work in the field ; but her age and infirmities apparently precluding the execution of that species of coercion, he carried her to Earl Romney’s estate, and confined her in the stocks. She was thus confined, with one foot in the stocks night and day, or at least for twenty hours in each day, from the 17th of May to the 2nd of December, 1825, being a period of six months and eleven days. (See Parliamentary Paper of May 1, 1827.)
Some rumour of this severe treatment having reached the Gover- nor, he called upon the magistrates to enquire into the circum- stances; in consequence of which the slave was liberated from the stocks, and some sort of investigation of her treatment was gone into. But on this, as on similar occasions, the magistrates, them- selves planters, somehow or other found that they “could not decide the question of the punishment being excessive ;” and with some reprehension of the “ insubordination” the slave woman’s conduct had evinced, they directed her “ to be returned to the estate, and placed at such light work as Mr. Cardin might please to direct.”
Another effort was made by Governor Maxwell and the Attorney General to obtain some legal redress for this poor woman. A bill of indictment against Mr. Cardin forillegal treatment was preferred in the Court of King’s Bench. The result was worthy of a West Indian grand jury: they not only unanimously ignored the bill, but in a special presentment they expressed in very characteristic terms “ their regret that a prosecution should have been founded upon so frivolous a complaint,” “whereby the feelings of an honourable, humane, and respectable man, have been considerably wounded unnecessarily, and his character (which from the evidence before us
$
THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS. 159
appeared unimpeachable) attempted to be assailed.” They fur- ther express “ indignation” at the course of proceeding adopted, and at the waste of time and money in investigating “ such frivolous and unfounded complaints.” (Parl. Paper, as above. )
We have no space for remark on these proceedings. The reader will find them duly commented upon, both by Earl Bathurst and by the editor of the Anti-Slavery Reporter, in the number of that work already referred to. The result was that the oppressed negro-woman was re-consigned to the tender mercies and con- siderate care of Earl Romney’s “ honourable, humane, and re- spectable” agent, who not merely escaped censure, but received high eulogy from this immaculate grand jury of St. Kitt’s. And so ended this act of the drama of poor Betto Douglas.
The transactions which we have thus adverted to occurred in the year 1825 and the beginning of 1826, and first became known to us onthe appearance of the Parliamentary Paper above referred to. Upon the publication of the case in the Anti-Slavery Reporter for June, 1827, some interest was excited in behalf of Betto Douglas in the breasts of benevolent individuals, and some fruitless attempts were made, as we have heard, to purchase her freedom, either in England or the West Indies. Meanwhile we had accidentally heard a report that the wretched old woman had escaped the gripe of the “ humane” Mr. Cardin, by absconding from the estate; but it was not till the autumn of 1831 that we had any positive and precise information on the subject. The following letter, addressed to the secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, brought Betto’s un- happy case once more under our immediate attention:—
«¢ St. Kitt’s, 8th August, 1831.
« Sir,—Permit me most respectfully to request the favour of your kind interference in my behalf with the Earl of Romney, to whose estate 1 am a slave; but from the following circumstances am compelled te absent myself from the property.
« The attorney and manager of Earl Romney’s estate, Mr. Cardin, has already (as you are aware from the facts which have been pub- lished respecting him) treated me in the ....... . +. manner, which forced me to abscond from my little hut and family, and to seek shelter among the charitable and humane, by whose kindness I have been enabled to remain in covert for six years. I am now far ad- vanced in life, and have two sons on the estate, who are suffering .. wht eat se wetew cede ces Tee re Pe Cen Sd iDels dees | Hie con- stant expression is, that he only wants to catch me for one half hour, and then he does not care what becomes of me. This threat conveys to my mind such dread that I dare not present myself to him, but have, through a friend, offered to give Mr. C. a fair valuation for my freedom. ‘This friend (with no assistance of mine, for God knows my poverty and distress, both mental and pecuniary), has collected and tendered £100 currency, which is considerably beyond my value, being * years old, and an invalid withal; but even this enormous price cannot tempt this man to forego his desire.
ane maaan
* So left blank in the letter. Her age, we understand, is now somewhat above sixty years.
$60 =~, THE CASE QF BETTO DOUGLAS.
*« All attempts to soften the obstinate ...... intentions of Mr. Cardin are in vain; and, unfortunately for persons in a state of slavery, this island affords us no remedy at law which could compel Mr. Cardin to sell me. My only hope is in prevailing on some kind person in England to make intercession with the Earl of Romney that he would be pleased to write out instructions to Mr. Cardin to liberate me, if not without compensation, for a reasonable sum. It is necessary that I state this caution should also be taken (otherwise I very much doubt that his Lordship’s intentions will not be carried into effect) that his Lordship will be pleased to condescend to write to you, Sir, to say he has done so, which you can, if you please, for- ward to any gentleman whom you may know in this island. I am, Sir, of all beings just now the most wretched. ‘The prevailing poverty of the times cramps the means of those on whom I am de- pendent; and my situation prevents me from exerting myself to obtain my own living. These circumstances, dear Sir, must shortly drive me from my retreat into the hands of Mr. Cardin; and my God knows I dare not ........-..+..+- 1implore you then, Sir, in the name of God, in the name of humanity, to use your utmost en- deavours to get me released from my present most galling state. I could get employed by families travelling to England as an attendant, but this door is also shut upon me. By your kind assistance, how- ever, under God, I trust | may some day im person be able to return my grateful thanks to those good people who have taken an interest in my cause. Till then, and waiting with muchanxiety and humility your answer, I remain, honoured Sir, your very humble seryant,
** EvizABETH DouGLas, 4 ‘‘ Commonly called Berro Doveias.”
‘« My two sons are mestees ; but Mr. Cardin at this momewt has them working at carrying ashes from the copper-hole, from between two and three in the morning until five or six, when they are driven up into the mountains, where they remain all the live long day in the scorching sun, cutting wood. ‘The troubles, my geod Sir, which beset me are more then my nearly worn-out frame cansustain. May 8 Lord reward you tenfold, and all who advocate my truly distress-
ul case,
On receipt of this communication, Mr. Pringle immediately addressed the following letter to the Earl of Romney, inclosing 2 copy of the letter from St. Kitt’s, |
‘* Office of the Anti-Slavery Society, “18, Aldermanbury, London, 11th November, 1831.
‘‘ My Lorp,—I have the honour to inclose the copy of a letter re- ceived by me this day by post from St, Kitt’s. It is written in the name of Elizabeth or Betto Douglas, a negro woman, formerly resi- dent, aS a slave, on your Lordship’s property, and whose ease has formerly attracted public attention. The letter is obviously not written by tue woman herself, but probably by some person at her desire. Who that person may be I am totally unable to say, nor can I profess to vouch for the truth of the facts and allegations which the letter contains.
«J transmit an exact copy of the communication to your Lord- ship, under the impression that your ‘feelings of humanity will in- duce you to adopt suitable measures for ascertaining the truth of the
f THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS. 161
statements; and that if they prove, on reference to unsuspicious tes- timony well founded, in whole or in part, that your Lordship will act with promptitude and efficiency for the relief of this poor unhappy woman. ‘© | have the honour to be, &c. «*THomas PrinGuz, Secretary.”
‘To the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Romney.”
To this communication his Lordship returned the following reply :—
** Hastings, November 19, 1831.
‘‘Srr,—I have had the honour of receiving your letter, enclosing a copy of one from Betto Douglas to you, at this place, where, of course, I have not access to any papers, so as to give dates and quote notes accurately, but can depend upon my memory for the points.
** From what has occurred with regard to this woman, I cannot consider that what she says is to be depended on; and, as a proof that she either has deceived herself, or is imposed upon by others, as to what she has reason to expect from Mr. Cardin, I can inform you, that it is several weeks since I received a letter from him, stat- ing that he had an offer from some person whom he named, but whose name I do not recollect, of £100 currency for Betto Douglas, and also stating that it was far beyond her value. There is, therefore, no ground for the suspicions against him on that subject. In answer, I told him to decline it, for these reasons :—Such an arrangement ought to be the consequence of good conduct, which is not her case. Till that application she had claimed to be entitled to her freedom, for which there was no foundation. When on the estate, she refused to do the lightest work which would be an acknowledgement of her not being free ; and, at last, some years ago, she absconded from the estate, and, as she tells you, is stillin covert. You will, [ am sure, see that a person who has so acted, has not entitled herself to any particular favour. Another reason was, that that which she ought not to receive as afavour, loughtnot to be induced to do bya prospect of pecuniary advantage to myself. Considering that for a long time, while on the estate, she refused to do anything, and that she has been absent several years, during which she might have made some return for her maintenance, I cannot be anxious, with any view to profit, that she should, when old, return to the estate. Should she not do so, 1 hope that those whg have encouraged her to abscond, and have supported her in her covert, will feel it their duty to continue to maintain her to the extent of the £100 currency, or more, if ne- cessary. Should they, however, not do so, she can return to the estate, where she would be maintained and properly treated.
** It is singular that I should have had occasion, long since, to pay particular attention to the welfare of Betto Douglas and her children. Between fifteen and twenty years ago, as I believe, Mr. Goldfrap applied to me to consent to the sale of her two sons, stating them to be mestees, nearly white. I do not recollect whether he stated on whose behalf, but I concluded it to be on behalf of the father, who- ever he might be. To this I did not object, annexing however, in a letter, two conditions. One was, that they should not be sold with- out the consent of their mother. Having always considered one of the worst calamities incident to the state of slavery to be the forcible separation of families, I would not consent that this woman who, hay-
P 2
\
162 THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS~+
ing been the object of the licentious passion of some white man, had become the mother of two boys, should be the victim of a possible regard on the part of the father for the boys, which regard didjnot appear to extend to herself; because the probable consequence of separating them from her without her consent, would have been to make the remainder of her life miserable. The other condition was, that if the transaction was completed, the effect should be, not the sale of them to another person (probably the father), but their manu- mission ; because every objection which can be urged against the existence of slayery as a system, or to the relation of master and slave between individuals, is, in my opinion, infinitely enhanced by the revolting and unnatural combination of the relation of master and slave with that of parent and child. Upon this,—and, I therefore suppose, in consequence of these conditions being required by me,— the matter was dropped, and the boys continued on the estate. One; I know was, and I am not sure whether both were, brought up to a trade. Of the conduct of one I remember having some time ago a favourable account ; of the other I do not recollect hearing any thing particular.
«Tt is evident, that if Betto Douglas had then been entitled to her freedom, there would have been no occasion for my first condition ; or, if a proposal had been made for the purchase of her manumission, I should have ‘assented to that as readily as to the manumission of her boys. The case is, however, reversed, after her systematic and determined refusal to admit any control or authority, and after that refusal has been carried effectually into practice by her absconding from the estate and remaining in covert ;—because however much: one may lament the existence of slavery as forming a part of the scheme of society in any country, yet it is evident, that-where it is established it cannot be left to the decision of any individual either to admit or to reject the control of a master. If one can claim such @ right, every other is equally entitled to it.
** With regard to Mr. Cardin, I must observe, that the charges or insinuations against him are made in the name of a person wkose conduct has not entitled her to credit; that some of them are such as one cannot conceive a man of common sense or common prudence (even putting out of the question any better motives) to have given grounds for; and that that which is the main object of the letter, about which such strong insinuations are made, and so many precau- tions suggested,—which is the only one that can at present be tried by the sure test of’ experience,—has by that test been completely negatived; as he has fully communicated to me the offer which has been made.
‘‘T shall communicate to Mr. Cardin what has passed ;—and I shall also convey to him my desire and express directions, that in the event of Betto Douglas returning to the estate, she should be treated and employed, in all respects, according to due consideration of her sex, her age, her strength, and her conduct ;—that in every case, however trifling, relating to her conduct and treatment, past. and future, where itis practicable, recourse should be had to the decision of the magistrates;—and further, that, on any such occasion, my earnest request and confident hope may be expressed to the magis- trates, that, in justice both to Betto Douglas herself and Mr. Cardin, they will, in consideration of the circumstances of her cage, allow their time to be occupied even with questions apparently of a very
THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS. 163
trifling nature, which, in the case of others, would with propriety be decided by the authority of an attorney or manager. ‘¢T have the honour ‘to be, &c. “< To Thomas Pringle, Esq. «« Romney.”
On receiving this letter, our decided impression was that it ought to be immediately published, with the foregoing details. and a suitable commentary, for the benefit of the Anti-Slavery cause. But some faint hopes which we still entertained, that Lord Romney might be at length prevailed upon to relent from the determination he here avows, and to release his bondwoman from the terror of his attorney’s tender mercies, induced us, for the sake of old Betto herself, to refrain from any further exposure of this disgraceful ease. But all such hopes having utterly vanished, and the poor creature’s life being now at stake, from the effects of her present situation, we feel compelled to submit the whole details to publie inspection.
It is not necessary to waste our time in combating the general argument by which Lord Romney attempts, in this singular letter, to justify, and eyen to claim credit for, his decision not “to let the prisoner go.” That enfranchisement should only be the reward of those who have “entitled themselves to particular favour,”—and that it may be lawfully withheld from others, even where the price, or double the price, of the human chattel is tendered,—are pro- positions which neither we, nor many of our readers we believe, will be disposed to accede to, quite so readily as his Lordship appears to expect. But waiving all discussion of the question of “ Compulsory Manumission” we join issue with Lord Romney in re- gard to the present case, upon its own special merits. And we beg to enquire, in the first place, how it has happened, that his Lordship throughout the whole of this long epistle, has not so much as once ad- verted to the facts connected with the case of Betto Douglas, print- ed originaliy by order of the House of Commons, and afterwards analysed and commented upon in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 25. Mr. Pringle, in addressing Lord Romney, refrained, out of delicacy to his Lordship, from alluding in other than very general terms to those notorious facts. But we must now stand excused for using greater plainness. We must beg leave to remind Lord Romney, that there were other grounds than the mere assertions of poor Betto Douglas, for being suspicious of this Mr. Cardin, whom he has been pleased to retain as his favoured and confidential agent. For in spite of the successful exertions of the magistrates and grand jury of St. Kitt’s in his favour (as already detailed), the governor of the colony, in transmitting the documents to the Home Government, did not fail to advert to “the strong evidence” they contain “of the illegal treatment of the old woman;” and Earl Bathurst, then colonial secretary, in still more explicit lan- guage, declared that he regarded as established “the fact of Betto Douglas having been actually confined night and day in the stocks, for a period of six months ;”’ and proceeded to comment in terms of severe displeasure upon the conduct of the magistrates, and the extraordinary presentment of the grand jury, which he says he had ‘perused with extreme surprise.” (See Parl. Paper, as above.)
164 THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS.
Now it does appear to us passing strange, that with the know- ledge of all this—(for, independently of the Parliamentary Paper so often referred to, with which Lord Romney can hardly be sup- posed unacquainted, we ourselves transmitted to his lordship the Anti-Slavery Reporter containing the abstract of the case)—it does, we say, appear to us most strange, that Lord Romney, thus know-' ing the declared opinions of Governor Maxwell, of the attorney- general of St. Kitt’s, and, above all, of His Majesty’s secretary of state for the colonies, respecting his agent’s former proceedings in regard to this old woman, should venture to treat all doubts respecting Mr. Cardin’s lenient behaviour to her, if once more in his power, as quite inadmissible: 1st, because, contrary to her apprehensions, Mr. Cardin had actually communicated to his Lordship the offer to purchase her freedom; 2ndly, because Betto Douglas is not, in his opinion, entitled to credit; and 3rdly, be- cause some of the charges or insinuations against Mr. Cardin “ are such as one cannot conceive a man of common sense or common prudence to have given grounds for.” And yet this Cardin is the very man who, only a few years before, had kept this same Betto Douglas in the stocks for six months continuously, because she declared her- self unable to make up the miserable monthly pittance, exacted from the very dregs of her age and feebleness to swell the lordly revenues of her noble owner! After this, it is somewhat too much for Lord Romney to speak of this respectable” attorney of lis as a man whose mild treatment is not even to be suspected. It is really too cruelly preposterous for his Lordship thus to talk, in a tone of hu- mane complacency (which after what has passed sounds in our ears like bitter sarcasm), of communicating to Mr. Cardin what has passed, with instructions “ that, in the event of Betto Douglas re- turning to the estate, she should be treated and employed, in all’ respects, according to due consideration of her sex, her age, her strength, and her conduct;” and, as a full and unquestionable security, ‘‘ that in every case, however trifling, relating to her con- duct and treatment, recourse should be had to the decision of the magistrates.” — The magistrates / that most impartial and immacu- late body, namely, who so honourably distinguished themselves jn this very case, in the transactions above stated, of 1825-26 !
Again, Lord Romney tells us, in terms of evident self-compla- cency, that he had “ had occasion, long since, to pay particular attention to the welfare of Betto Douglas and her children ;” and
whe goes on to relate how he had refused to sell this woman’s children to their own father, unless the mother also were purchased, and the whole manumitted, lest their possible separation should “‘ make the remainder of her life miserable.” Willingly giving Lord Romney due credit for the good feeling which he claims in - regard to this transaction, we must at the same time express our surprise to find that his Lordship’s sense of what was due to justice and humanity did not lead him one step farther. If the father of Betto Douglas’s children could not be brought to purchase the freedom of the mother as well as of the boys, (and if he was, as is most probable, a person connected with the estate, the noble owner’s influence in such a matter must have been almost irresistible, )—
THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS. 165
why, we may fairly ask, did his Lordship not step forward and grant to his injured bondwoman, the unprotected victim of “ the white man’s licentious passion,” that freedom which her seducer refused or failed to purchase? It appears that his agent, Mr. Goldfrap, had received from his Lordship’s correspondence, and had communi- eated to the woman herself, the conviction that her noble owner had actually consented to take this step in her behalf. But'since that proved to be an erroneous conviction—since that was too costly a sacrifice for Lord Romney’s benevolent concern for ¢ the welfare of Betto Douglas,”—-surely, now that she is old and infirm, and incapable of making any “ return for her maintenance,” his Lordship might, without dread of doing any thing that would injure either his interest or his character, have ventured to grant her (her full ala ae digg being offered) the small indulgence of passing her few remaining days in tranquillity, free from the gripe or the terror of the task-master !
We come now to the sequel of Betto Douglas’s history.
Some time after the receipt of Lord Romney’s letter, we received a confidential. communication from a correspondent in St. Kitt’s, acquainting us with the name of the person who had written the letter of August 8, 1831, signed by Betto Douglas, and who proved to he an individual whose high respectability afforded the most satisfactory guarantee for the accuracy of the information conveyed in that letter, Our correspondent also mentioned who were the parties who had offered the ample pecuniary ransom for Betto’s freedom, and had been refused by Lord Romney’s express orders to Mr. Cardin; and added that the friends of the poor woman, upon this utter failure of all exertions to obtain her enfran- chisement, would have advised her to deliver herself up to her owner’s agents, had there existed any security for obtaining redress in case of further ill-treatment. But no such security existed ; for by the ameliorated slavery act recently passed in the colony, al- though slave evidence was professedly admitted, the colonial legis- lators had taken care to insert a provision that ‘ slaves shall not give evidence in any case wherein the interest of their proprietor, or his or her attorney, or manager or director, is in any way con- cerned.” Of course any degree almost of oppression or cruelty might be perpetrated upon a slave without the possibility of obtain- ing legal proof. Betto Douglas dared not, under such circum- stances, trust herself in the power of Mr. Cardin, and remained in hiding. |
The same correspondent, on the 28th of July, 1832, writes in the following terms :—
“ This poor woman is still out of Mr. Cardin’s reach; and as nothing can be done for her here, she will remain in secret exile from her family and her master, until something can be done in England. Lord Romney has received the ex-parie statement of Mr. Cardin, and. has come to his conclusions upon it alone. Is this a candid or a creditable course for a British legislator—for a humane or an honour- able man to take? General Maxwell, our late governor, Major Wil- liams, his nephew, and the Rev. Mr. Hendrickson, of the established church, are all now in England. Will Lord Romney not condescend
166 THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS.
to hear their opinion of this deplorable case? Ifitsreal merits were known to him, it is hardly conceivable that the noble, owner would still refuse poor Betto’s pardon. If her continued absence is alleged as a deep offence, I ask how she can be expected to place herself voluntarily in the power of a man from whom she has already suffered the usage detailed in the documents transmitted by Governor Max- well to the Colonial Office in 1826,”
«‘ Lord Romney’s negroes have this moment come in with a com- plaint against Cardin for being under fed.”
About two weeks ago we received another communication, dated the 18th and 25th of January, 1833, from which the following are extracts :—
«« That unfortunate woman, Betto Douglas, is now labouring under the accumulated misery of being an exile, in want, and in sickness ; and is in her secrecy with persons quite unable to provide for her (scarcely indeed for themselves), and who are unacquainted with the requisite medicines to administer for her relief. The little contribu- tion which my means enable me to make, is now I believe the only source from which this persecuted woman derives the means of sub- sistence. It is my opinion that she cannot hold out much longer. Deprived of every opportunity to take even the exercise necessary to keep up health; almost deprived (from the unavoidable closeness of her confinement from the sight of the hunters of Mr. Cardin) of breathing a pure air, the constitution of a younger and stronger wolan than Betto would break down. The darkness of night and the disguise of her person alone afford her occasions of visiting her confidential friends, in order to relate to them the renewed sufieriggs that have been her portion since their last meeting. She was so seriously ill some few weeks ago that she was on the point of deli- vering herself up to Cardin, lest she might die with the persons in whose house she is now sheltered, and so expose them to the penalty of the act against harbouring runaway slaves. A few hours gave her complaint a favourable turn: she is now convalescent, and continues, for the present, beyond the reach of her oppressors.
‘It is indeed melancholy that the Imperial Parliament does not at once take some decided step in this most important question. While delay exists, there is coeval with it unparalleled distress to thousands of human beings. Or if the total extinction be unattainable now, surely there cannot be any objections to amending the flagitious evils of the system. It is contended that the rights of the slave are pro- tected by the colonial magistracy. How far thisis true will be readil seen by considering first, of whom are the magistrates (the majority composed ?—Planters. Who is there, when a negro or a gang of ne- groes complains,‘to advise them as to whether they are rightly dealt by or not?’ Who to see that their meanings are properly understood, and that they understand what is said to them in turn?—WNo one. Whose especial duty is it to see that the provisions of any act which may be passed in theirfavour are observed by their owners !— Noone.”
*€ January 25th, 1833.—I opened the inclosed for the purpose of reading its contents to Betto, who came to me last evening with the full determination of giving herself up to Mr. Cardin. 1 have, however, prevailed upon the person with whom she is, to keep her until I hear from you in reply to this. In the meantime I allow for her maintenance 2s.6d. per week. It willindeed be a most pain-
: THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS. 167
ful and deplorable thing if ultimately this poor creature shall be com- pelled to throw herself upon the commiseration of Cardin.”
«*Cardin, the elder, it is reported, is about to retice from the management of Lord Romney’s estates. He is, however, to be suc- ceeded by his son, towards whom the Negroes appear to entertain a strong dislike. One of the estates under the direction of this young Cardin is called Lambert’s. The whole of the slaves belonging to this property came to town, upon his returning to live at Lambert’s, and declared that they had one and all determined not to live under him again. Their complaints may be justly founded or otherwise ; but if just there is no redress. The removal of an obnoxious manager rests solely with the owner or his attorney. The owner is in Eng- land, and knows nothing about his slaves except through the reports of his manager or attorney—and this attorney is Cardin the elder.
«« The dislike of the people to young Cardin, from whatever causes it arises, must be very strong indeed, since they preferred the alter- native of taking refuge in the woods, where they remained fourteen davs._ How the work of the estate could go on—stock starving, and the canes growing over ripe—is a subject for the consideration of the non-resident proprietor. He will be the sufferer in purse; but the poor slaves will assuredly suffer in being forced to make up for the lost time.” en
Now let the reader just take a calm retrospect of the facts of this case, which in so many different points illustrate most distinctly the character and effects of Colonial Slavery. ‘
First, we have the mulatto bondwoman, Betto Douglas. Born in slavery, the daughter of a slave, though the offspring also of a free European, she becomes, at anearly age, ‘‘ the object of che licentious passion of some white man ;”’—in plain words, the concubine of some plaatation attorney, overseer, or book-keeper, who, whether she were a willing object or otherwise, possessed such means of enforcing com- pliance as no poor creature in such circumstances could well be ex- pected to resist. Ofher treatment while in this capacity we have no account. It may have been indulgent, or it may have been brutally cruel,—the alternative depending entirely on the disposition, or des- potic caprice, of her white keeper. We shall, however, suppose it to have been indulgent. To this man she becomes the mother of two boys—‘‘ mestees, nearly white.’”’ The freedom of these boys the father wishes to purchase ; and the attorney, who negociates the busi- ness, recommends the mother also to the owner’s favourable con- sideration. The noble owner consents, upon certain conditions. The transaction is not cempleted,—whether from want of means or want of inclination does not appear,—and both mother and children remain Earl Romney’s property ; but with an understanding, it appears, on the part of Mr. Goldfrap, the manager, that his lordship had given his consent to the free manumission of Betto Douglas. A change at this juncture takes place in the management of the estate : Mr. Gold- frap ceases to be Lord Romney’s agent, and Mr. Cardin succeeds to the charge. Poor Betto’s condition becomes worse. The new agent exacts from her a monthly rent for the noble owner, and treats her claims to freedom, upon an alleged promise of his lordship, with contempt. The exaction of the monthly rent of 3} dollars is continued so long as the woman and her sons can manage to make it up.
Then follow her ineffectual remonstrances to the attorney; her fruitless appeal to the governor; her confinement for six months in the stocks ; the mock investigation by the magistrates ; the indictment of Mr. Cardin by the attorney-general ; the indignant presentmext of the grand jury; the absconding of the miserable old woman from the estate ; the unsuccessful attempts to purchase her manumission ;,
168 THE CASE OF BETTO DOUGLAS.
the fruitless appeals to the justice and humanity of Earl Romney ; and, lastly, her present situation, as described in the letters from St. Kitt’s. And this is the history, be it remembered, not of a plantation slave, daily driven’ to hard labour under the lash, but of one of those ‘‘ domestic favourites’? whose bondage is represented as alto- gether nominal—who are described as fettered only by silken chains, and, like the pampered minions ofa Turkish haram, knowing no severer duty than to minister to the pleasures and share in the luxuries of their indulgent lords. Such have been the fairy tales of the West Indian Elysium, from Bryan Edwards down to Henry Coleridge, and F. W. N. Bailey. But, alas! the real picture of the house of bondage exhibits a far other spectacle, as it lies plainly unveiled to us in the melancholy histories of Betto Douglas, and Mary Prince, and Kitty Hilton, and of a hundred other victims of colonial ‘‘ humanity,’’ now sufficiently familiar to the anti-slavery public.
Upon the conduct of the magistrates and grand jury in this case it is unnecessary to offer any comment. It is in harmonious accordance with what, under the circumstances, we should expect, and with what we actually have found in a thousand other instances. And such results, indeed, we must look for, wherever slavery is permitted to exist, so long as human nature remains the same.
The attorney, Mr. Cardin, has been declared by a grand jury of St. Kitts, to be ‘‘an honourable, humane, and respectable man;”’ and, taking these terms in their colonial acceptation, we do not in the least question the propriety of their application. There is no charge against Mr. Cardin that can inculpate him in the general opinion of his colonial compatriots, or that has in any degree injured him, so faras we perceive,in the estimation of his noble employer, Earl Romney. He appears, in fact, to have only done what both his employer and his fellow coloni3ts considered him to have been fully warranted to do, in what he refused, exacted, or inflicted. Even the confinement of the slave woman for six continuous months in the stocks cannot be regarded as at all impeaching his claims to the colonial title of ** hu- mane ;’”’ for Governor Maxwell, in his despatch to Earl Bathurst on this case, observes, in reference to the general sentiments of the planters of St. Kitt’s, that ‘‘ this sort of confinement being a common usage, it is from custom considered justifiable and proper.” Upon the allegations respecting Mr. Cardin in the recent letters from St. Kitt’s, we found no conclusion. Let them for the present stand as ex-parte assertions merely. We judge of this man’s conduct exclu- Sively from the facts developed in the official documents published S1X years ago; and such as that evidence exhibits it, we consider to’ be the character of this ‘‘ respectable’’ attorney of St. Kitts ; and such the character of the system of which he has the misfortune to be an administrator, and, in one sense, also the victim.
Lastly, let us look at the attitude assumed by the noble absentee slave-owner in this affair. It is, indeed, a melancholy, a humiliating spectacle! The compelling power of the stocks, the dungeon, the cart-whip, put in requisition to wring from the toil of a worn-out wretched female, a pittance of nine pounds a year to swell his princely revenues! And then, when the poor victim, after much endurance, makes her escape from his lerdship’s stocks, his lordship’s drivers, his lordship’s ‘‘ humane”’ attorney,—and, from her miserable concealment, implores him to accept a ransom for permission to close in tranquillity the evening of her troubled life,—what is the view ot the case taken by the enlightened British Peer? Does he then relent, and ‘‘ let the prisoner go?’ No! he regards her attempt to claim her liberty as an offence not to be forgiven. He condemns her either to remain a wretched fugitive, or to return to the tender mercies of that attorney, and the protection of those magistrates, to whose form er conduct he thus deliberately gives his sanction—and in whose repu- tation he is, therefore, doubtless well content to share.
London: S$, Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
The AntieSlaverp Wecord.
No. 14. _APRIL 18, 1833. © pricr ONE PENNY.
Page. Ie ADDRESS ON SLAVERY: BY JAMES DOUGLAS, ESQ. - - - - 169 Ii. THE SINFULNESS OF COLONIAL SLAVERY. - - - = = = = 175 III, THREE MONTHS IN JAMAICA, IN 1832 - - - - - - - 178 IV. STATE OF THINGS IN JAMAICA IN MARCH, 1835 - - - - 179 ¥. DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES - - - - - - - = = = 180
ADDRESS ON SLAVERY: BY JAMES DOUGLAS, ESQ.
Mr. Douglas, of Cavers, the representative of a Scottish Border family of old feudal renown, but who has himself achieved far nobler distinction as a worthy champion in the public field of Christian duty, has at length, to our high gratification, come for- ward with zealous activity in aid of the Anti-Slavery cause. This gentleman has recently delivered lectures on Slavery, oz addresses - at public meetings, upon this, together with the subjects of Sabbath Protection and Church Reform, in the principal towns of his native county (Roxburghshire), and has diffused correct information and just sentiments on the subject through the remotest dales of that pastoral district with such success, that petitions to Parliament for immediate abolition have been already sent up from every parish in the county, much more numerously signed than even those for the Reform Bill. They were signed, in fact, as we happen to know from undoubted authority, by the whole male and adult population, with scarcely an exception, except in éwo, or perhaps three classes. ‘And who were these? We blush to name them—the landlords, the clergy, and, in some cases, the tenants,—the latter anxiously professing their full concurrence in the petitions, though they withheld their signatures! These exceptions supply ample matter for melancholy reflection, were this the time or place to indulge it: but that is not our present business; we proceed with the matter before us.
Mr. Douglas has published in Edinburgh, in the shape of a pamphlet, the substance of some of his addresses at these public meetings ; and we hasten to enrich our pages with a few passages from this excellent and eloquent publication, which we trust will speedily be reprinted in London, and widely diffused, as it well deserves to be, throughout the British empire. The following extracts speak a language which will find an echo in every well- toned mind: we need not encumber them with comment :—
“The West Indies are an example that the laws of God are never neglected with impunity, and that no lasting prosperity can be based upon injustice and human misery. Whether we look to the wretched slaves, the bankrupt planters, or their creditors the merchants, who lend out their money upon usury, in vain sought to be wrung out of the tears and blood of wretched men, or to that
Q
170 DOUGLAS'S ADDRESS ON SLAVERY.
portion of the British army which, to the disgrace of this country, forms the only solid support of a system as impolitic as it is unjust, —we every where behold the curse of an avenging God pressing heavily upon the abettors of this slavish tyranny, which is without its equal in atrocity, either in ancient or modern times. The command of God to the parents of the human race, to replenish the earth and possess it, which has overcome all other preventive checks to population, disease, misery, and vice, is yet found too weak to resist the overwhelming evils of Colonial Slavery. The ill-gotten treasure of the planter is his gang of slaves, and these slaves are perishing under the lash of their short-sighted oppressors, While the West Indies are dispeopling of their inhabitants, their fertile soil itself is striken with an increasing barrenness,—the necessary effect of slave cultivation. Britain, in addition to a new load of guilt, has a new load of taxes, in the shape of bounties and preferences to the inhumanity and folly of employing slave instead of free labour ; and its commerce is restricted, and its workmen unemployed, in order that the planters may continue to extort labour by the cart-whip, instead of paying the labourer his justly merited wages. If there is a spot in existence (except the regions of eternal punishment) where all things are contrary to the mind and laws of God, we must certainly find it in the West Indies, where property is robbery; labour, tyrannous exaction; law, merciless oppression; governors, murderers and men-stealers ; and where all things are conducted, not according to the maxims of a wise and holy Being, but according to the devices of the enemy of human happiness,—the envier, in his own abyss of misery, of all prosperity, and who, in the triumph of evil over good in the West Indies, glories that he has still unlimited power in one corner of the world, though even there, while one well-wisher to humanity remains on earth, neither he nor his adherents can hope any longer to keep ‘his goods in peace.’” ha hl ik <' sadh pe
‘¢ The slaves are claimed as the property of their owners. ‘ Man can have no property in man.’ The very claim to such a property strikes at the root of all property whatsoever. God is the pro- prietor of all things, because he is the Creator of all things. Labour stamps a right of property upon the objects on which it is exercised, because it creates their value. God having only given the raw elements, and having appointed that the art and labour of man should work them into their useful applications, has thus given to man a right of proprietorship, by making him a fellow- worker with himself. God creates, and man forms. But no man can assert a right of property in the involuntary labour of other men, without vitiating the title on which all his own property rests. By such a claim he shakes the foundation upon which civil society is built, and introduces a universal system of robbery and wrong. Man can have no property in man. The slave-holders aro therefore men-stealers, for Wrong by repetition can never be- come right, but, by continuance, is only a more intolerable and excessive wrong.” we Sains tel hy go
“‘ Tt is argued from the Bible by the slave-owners—who, alas !
DOUGLAS'S ADDRESS ON SLAVERY. ~ 17
seldom quote the Bible to a better purpose—that slavery is per- mitted, if not sanctioned, in Scripture, not only by the example of the patriarchs, but by the Mosaic precepts.
‘The truth, however, is, that the Bible does not sanction slavery ; ét only sanctions its mitigations and restrictions. The legislation of Moses on this head goes to this one point—not to establish slavery, but to temper it, and in many instances to terminate it. God, by the hands of Moses, gave such a constitution to the Israelites, that even the most mitigated form of slavery could exist to no extent amongst them. By this constitution, after having once settled in Canaan, they were disqualified fron# carrying on offensive wars, till the changes in their government that occurred about the time of David, and had, consequently, no prisoners of war to dispose of as bond- men; and, by the agrarian law of Israel, slavery was rendered altogether unprofitable; for who, in his own hereditary garden would employ the wasteful labour of the slave, when with ease he could cultivate his own estate by his own free, intelligent, and pro- ductive efforts? Slavery can only be profitable in an ill-peopled country, and in a new soil; but Canaan, before the Israelites entered it, was already fertile by artificiat means, and, both before and after its conquest by Joshua, was crowded with population: The slave-owners appeal to the Bible when it suits their purpose so todo; but they would not, we presume, wish the laws of Israel revived, by which it was decreed, that ‘ he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.’ And if revelation has not abolished slavery positively in direct terms, it has done so in effect, commanding every man to love his neighbour as himself.
“The injustice, then, of the West Indian system is manifest from this—that man, by right, can have no property in man: but the whole West Indian system is founded on a property in man; hence, with them, wrong must be right, and right wrong. The order of nature is perpetually reversed—the rule of eternal justice for ever violated. What is praised in Britain is execrated in the West Indies; what is here the object of reward, is there the sub- ject of punishment. The very laws themselves are the worst part of the system, being a violation of all law. There the innocent become the victims, and the criminals are the judges and the legis- lators. Tyrants alone talk of liberty and independence, and those who have the hearts of Tell and of Bruce, must either live branded as slaves, or be massacred like dogs. In Britain all presumptions are in favour of liberty,—in the West Indies of slavery. Whoever touches the soil of Britain is free; whatever black, without the required certificates, touches the soil of the West Indian Islands, is according to the proper form, seized, put into ‘the cage,’ adver- tised ten days, and, ‘if no owner or claimant appear,’ is sold to pay the expenses; so that, if he has no master upon his arrival,
e is sure by this admirable process to find one sooner or later.” —pp. 13—15.
Mr. Douglas proceeds to answer the inquiry, for whose profit
does this miniature of hell exist? Not, according to their own
172 DOUGLAS’S ADDRESS ON SLAVERY.
shewing, for that of the planters, As far back as the twenty years from 1772 to 1792, the committee of the Jamaica Assembly re- ported, that there had been in the course of that time 177 estates sold for debt, and 55 thrown up: while, at the end of that’period, 92 estates remained in the hands of creditors. Their present bankrupt condition is, then, of too long standing to be ascribed to anti-slavery agitation with the slightest, shadow of truth. Not for the profit of the merchants: the merchant, for the most part, prefers the risk of losing his money to the greater risk of becoming the proprietor of the mortgaged plantation.
“Tf, then,” continues Mr. Douglas, “neither the planters nor the merchants are gainers by the; colonial system, is Britain a gainer? If squandering life and money be a gain to her,—if adding to her taxes, and providing graves for her soldiers,—if be- coming a party to wrongs which are crying to Heaven for ven- geance, be gain to Britain, then has she found in the West Indies an inexhaustible treasure. If it be for her advantage to uphold a body of men ready to plead for every abuse, so that their own enormities may remain untouched, such a corps she has had during many a sitting of Parliament. It is to be hoped, under a reformed Parliament, the case is different ; but it was formerly calculated that the West India interest alone supplied fifty-six members of the House of Commons, the well-disciplined phalanx, the constant advocates of corruption, ready to support any ministry that would connive at their violation of all laws divine and human.
“« While things continued in this state, little could be hoped from the British Legislature ; but now that public opinion is allowed to bear upon the election of members of Parliament—now that the public voice possesses the means of commanding. attention—we may hope that a speedy end will be put to this most absurd and eruel waste of British blood and treasure in the West Indies.
“No folly could be equal to the folly of Britain,-to say nothing of inhumanity, if the present ruinous system is continued even during the course of another year ;—it is the supineness of the British nation alone that can permit to slavery a longer existence, and can suffer her own burdens to be inereased, in order to enable the planters to continue to extort a prolongation of their present ruinous misgovernment, out of the aggravated wrongs of the wretched Africans.
“The most extravagant individuals find their vices the most costly of their luxuries, and nations are most impoverished by their, political crimes. 'The West Indies have proved one great source of debt and expenditure to Britain. We may depend upon it, that nothing but the bounties and protections granted year after year upon West Indian produce could have enabled the slave- holder to compete with the labour of free men in the East Indies, and on the African coasts. It is out of the pockets of this nation, heavily as we are taxed, and grievously as we complain of our burdens, that the money comes, which enables the West Indian planter, with his monopoly and bounties, to resist the natural effects of that universal law which dooms to unproductiveness
DOUGLAS'S ADDRESS ON SLAVERY. 173
the labour of slaves, and curses with barrenness the soil, however fertile, where the labourer is deprived of his just share of the pro- duce. Had slaye-labour in the West Indies been left to the un- troubled laws of nature, slavery would by this time have died a natural death throughout the British colonies. But Britain inter- cepts this benevolent provision of the Auther of nature for the emancipation of slaves ; and, by bounties and taxes, wrung out of the productive labour of free men, prevents the unproductiveness of compulsory labour from telling to its full extent in favour of the slaves ; while two-elevenths of her whole military force go to the maintenance of that unjust and inhuman tyranny, usurped by a handful of white men over thousands of their fellow creatures,
‘¢ By an elaborate and moderate computation, the military and naval expenses of maintaining the West India Islands in a state of slavery, especially if the Mauritius and the Cape are added, cannot fall shoit of two millions sterling annually. The duties and draw- backs on sugar have been estimated, with equal care, at one million two hundred thousand pounds sterling ; and, if we add the loss that we suffer from excluding the productions of the, richest coun- tries of the east, the total amount of Britain's loss cannot possibly be much overstated at four millions a-year. When England is so anxious about economy that even the reduction of a few thousands a-year is esteemed a matter of great moment, and members are forced to make all sorts of excuses to their constituents for not voting in favour of any measure which would produce a saving of even an inconsiderable sum, shall four millions a-year be quietly suffered to be wasted, and wasted upon a system alike destructive of British property and British life ?
“<The loss of money, however, be it ever so great, cannot com- pare with the cruel waste of life occasioned by sending our soldiers to these pestilential regions, whose very atmosphere is, in many cases, death to the uninured whites, and certain loss of health to all. In 1826, of the eighty-three regiments then in the British ser- vice, twenty were placed in the West Indies, being only three less than the number of those which were then stationed in distracted Ireland, (excluding the reserved corps,) and only six less than are in Ireland at this present eventful crisis. While twenty regiments were required for the West Indies} nine were deemed sufficient for Britain. If we inquire against what enemy so large a force was accumulated, we find the West Indies threatened with no danger from without ; their only danger was from within. The British fleet had possession of the sea; Britain was at peace with the world ; but slavery could not be maintained without the presence of a force, which might have spread the influence of Britain over the farthest east, but which, without a battle or an enemy, was wasting away under the influence of a West Indian climate.
“ In June, 1829, when Parliament ordered the returns to be laid before them of the mortality of our army in the West Indies, those returns were withheld; and Parliament acquiesced in the non-pro- duction of them, on the implied understanding that they contained details too horrible to meet the public eye.
174 DOUGLAS'S ADDRESS ON SLAVERY.
“ The then Secretary of War, Sir Henry Hardinge, was reported to have said, that the inspection of these returns would? ‘be too horrifying for the public.’ What, then, are we to think of the iron nerves of those rulers who can calmly surrender their fellow- citizens to evils too horrible to be contemplated ?
“ Will the Secretary of War exult in having nerves to execute that which the body of the nation®are not supposed to have nerves to bear the recital of? But has Britain much cause to rejoice in rulers who possess so extraordinary a pre-eminence above their fellcw-citizens, in the intrepidity with which they can contemplate human life unprofitably squandered away? Anxiously, however, as they were concealed, a part of those horrors have transpired. The then Secretary of War is understood to have allowed that, out of three regiments, consisting of 2700 men, sent to one of the islands, one-third had perished in one season! If the choice had been offered to those unfortunate regiments to decline the cuty, on the condition of having every third man of them shot upon the spot, they would have been gainers, had they preferred the horrible alternative: they would have been spared the previous pangs of wasting sickness, they would have died in their own land, and in the sight of their frieads, bedewed with their tears and buried by their hands. Nor let us suppose that the loss of these regiments was limited to a third. Death did net cease his work the following years, though his havock may be most dreadful on the first. Who more might have perished, or what feeble remnants of these devoted regiments might have returned to their country, is known only to the Secretary of War, and those of his colleagues who have nerves to face the greatness of the disaster. No doubt, if the present colonial system were abolished, we might still be obliged to keep up some military force in the West Indies; but a much less might suffice, and the regiments might mainly consist of blacks, upon whom the climate does not produce such baleful effects, and who might relieve the white troops of the most wasting part of their duty ; but, while slavery exists, so large a white force is absolutely ends to maintain the system of compulsory labour and the aS.
“The planters, indeed, in their rage against our legislature for the very moderate restrictions it has attempted from time to time to impose upon their cruelties, talk loudly of asserting their inde- pendence. How capable they are of doing so, is abundantly evident from the fact, that when, upon an alarm of insurrection, they flew to arms, their bullets were found not to have been adapted to the bore of their guns; and upon another occasion, they were forced to entreat a British vessel accidentally lying off the ccast, to come near to the shore, that the terror of her cannon might awe into obedience the slaves, whom they had it not in their power to reduce to submission by their own efforts. These are the men who threaten to shake off the British yoke, and are enraged at the mention of any interference between them and their property! When they talk of rising against Britain over their san- garee, no wonder their slaves talk of rising against them. Without
THE SINFULNESS OF COLONIAL SLAVERY. 175
the arm of power which Britaim has stretched over them, it stands to reason that a handful of white men could not have restrained thousands of blacks from asserting the natural rights of humanity ; and but for her ill-judged bounties and protections, they must long since have thrown up their plantations in despair. ‘There are not two thousand sugar planters, and they receive one million two hundred thousand pounds of British money, to enable them to set the laws both of nature and humanity at defiance. These magni- ficent paupers, by the help of Britain, can at once evade the bene~ volent provisions of nature, and blaspheme the hand that feeds them; for a part of their pensions are allotted to a secret fund, which rewards the hired invective, calumny, and falsehood, of the advocates of slavery in Britain.”—pp. 17-24.
We conclude with the following paragraph, trusting that few of ‘our readers will be content without purchasing and perusing the pamphlet itself :—
“* We pray for immediate abolition, because gradual emancipa- tion is now out of the question. The planters themselves have solved the difficulty ; they have left us no alternative between im- mediate emancipation, or certain insurrection. Gradual, means step by step, but the planters will not take the first step towards emancipating the negroes. Education and religion are the pre- paratory measures which have long been pointed out as the safest and surest mode of fitting the slaves for the blessing of freedom. Education, however, (except teaching them to repeat the church catechism by rote,) the planters deny to their slaves, and the teachers of religion they every where persecute or forcibly expel. The planters are, indeed, preparing a gradual abolition of their own, but it is one not to our British tastes. They are gradually abolishing slavery, because they are gradually exterminating the slaves. They have proclaimed but one liberty for them, and that is, tothe death. The grave has been the only door of emancipa- tion opened to these wretched beings by their masters, and it has opened its mouth without measure. The time for gradual emanci- pation is past ; to attempt any such process now, would be only to irritate both the planters and the slaves, and hasten the dreaded crisis of insurrection. It is safer to grant all than to grant a part ; to make the slave completely free, than to give him merely such a portion of freedom as should make him more impatient of the remaining restrictions.” —p. 29.
Ii.—THE SINFULNESS OF COLONIAL SLAVERY.*
A highly eloquent and impressive discourse has been published by the Rev. R. Halley, classical tutor at Highbury College, under the above title, in which the marked distinction between the ancient and modern slavery, as to its origin and principles, is very forcibly
“©The Sinfulness of Colonial Slavery. A lecture delivered at the nionthly meeting of Congyegational Ministers of Churches, Feb. 7, 1833. By Robert Halley. London, 1833.”
176 THE SINFULNESS OF COLONIAL SLAVERY.
exhibited ; and the author, having clearly proved that slavery is incapable of vindication on the ground of Jewish precedent or the tacit sanction of scripture, proceeds to depict, in a strain of animated and indignant eloquence, the murderous efforts and “exceeding sinfulness” of British Colonial Slavery. We can only give one or two brief specimens ; but these will be sufficient, we trust, to induce many of our readers to peruse the whole discourse.
*¢ And for what do we thus sacrifice the lives of the blacks and the morals of the whites? Is it for commercial purposes only? Is it our costly immolation before the shrine of avarice? Is gain our godliness? There seems hardly that pitiful pretext. The gains of slave-labour are daily diminishing. ‘Your gold and silver is can- kered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shali eat your flesh as it were fire. Behold, the hire of your labourers, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”
‘‘This murderous diminution is, I readily admit, not so much chargeable upon individuals, as it is the crime of us all, for it is undoubtedly indispensable to the continuance of the system. Increase is destructive of slavery. Did slaves multiply in anything like the natural proportion of a race of men, without any prudence or fore- thought of their own, receive their daily food in exchange for their daily labour, there would soon be an excess of labourers above all demand, and no price beyond his ordinary food could be afforded for the hire ofa servant. By this easy process, I apprehend, villanage was terminated in England and most of Europe; and we have with us the testimony of all history, ancient and modern, when we assert that, wherever slavery is perpetuated, this great and benevolent law of Providence has been, and must have been, though always with harsh measures and intense misery, reversed and abrogated.”
After adverting to the attempts of the Egyptians to check the multiplication of the Israelitish bondmen, to the periodical mas- sacres. of the Helots by the Spartans, and to the servile wars of the Romans and other ancient nations, the author proceeds—
*« Who does not see that even now, in North America, through the facility of procuring food and comparatively easier toil in cultivating cotton and tobacco, the increase of the slaves is so augmenting the amount of labour as silently, but certainly, to diminish the money value of each : and though the timidity or avarice of the American is attempting every scheme to convert humanity into brutal nature— though he holds two millions of human beings, among whom marriage is unknown, the protection of law denied, schools prohibited, and, I am ashamed to add, in some States, by recent enactments unparalleled in Moscovy or Spain, religious instruction forbidden; yet the fecun- dity of the negro is working out the emancipation of his race; every child from its birth is melting some link in the monstrous chain; and though the scheme of colonizing Liberia, by abstracting slave-labour from the market, may faintly oppose this formidable influence, and the thousands transported yearly to die in the cultivation of sugar amidst the swamps of Louisiana may defer the doom of this hateful system, yet even now the mass is growing too heayy for its founda- tion ; and those dissonant murmurings of bondage in the temple of freedom, and of penal laws worthy of the inquisition in the land of
THE SINFULNESS OF COLONIAL SLAVERY. 177
religious liberty, and of awful impiety in the country of revivals, willissue,in an explosion, the reverberation of which over the Mexican Gulf, unless anticipated by wise and Christian legislation, may shake society into atoms through all our islands, and involve in the ruins of slavery the property and lives of the whole white population. America to be safe must be virtuous enough to emancipate her slaves, or wicked enough to introduce the midwives of Egypt, the crypteia of Lacedemon, or the night-work of Jamaica.
«« But I check myself. Who are we to reprove the Americans? We must wash our own hands of the blood-stain before we dare hold them up as witnesses against them. We may not be so bad as they are ; yet we are far too deeply involved to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all authority. Wetherefore entreat you, we conjure you, by every principle, both of humanity and religion, in the crisis of approaching discussion, to circulate information, and personally merging all political considerations, to aid those who are determined promptly and conscientiously to do this great: work of justice and mercy. Let us be determined to dash to shivers this frightful like- ness of ‘ Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood,’ which avarice, the besetting sin of a commercial community, has raised in every sugar-plantation throughout the British dominions.” °
«‘Freemen, patriots, philanthropists, Christians, lovers of the Sabbath, friends of missions, our appeal is made to you. For the sake of our country, what a weight of guilt does she bear !—for the sake of our brother missionaries, whose chapels are in ruins, and whose flocks are scattered without a shepherd—for the sake of our religion, how reproached through the cruelties of its professors !—for the sake of our brethren and sisters in hard bondage, and their and our com- mon Saviour, who will accept the act of kindness done for them as though it were done unto himself,—promptly and firmly unite, in the benevolent spirit of your religion, to procure a legislative enactment, commensurate with the demands of justice and mercy ; abandon the gain of oppression and hire of the labourers now in your storehouses. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evils of your doings; cease to do evil; learn to do well. So shall the blessing of him that was ready to perish come upon you. ‘The great national reproach will be rolled away, and Britain become an example to the world of the strength of religious principle nobly triumphing over the avarice and heartlessness of commercial speculation. The slavery of France and Holland would soon fall; and even America, with her mass of wretched bondsmen, could hardly fail to wash her hands in innocence, did she feel the execrations of a liberated world fall upon her crimes.
‘* But if we forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?—and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it !— and shall not he render to every man according to his works? Shall not he, who drowned the Egyptian slave-masters in the Red Sea, and doomed their house of bondage to become the basest of kingdoms,— shall not he, who condemned his people Israel to exile and silent anguish by the river of Babylon, for just so many years as they and their fathers had neglected the merciful provision of releasing their servants on the Sabbatical year,—shall not he, who called up the fierceness of the Medes against great Babylon, and brought down to the grave her king from the midst of his revels, because ‘he opened not the house of his prisoners,’—shall not he, whose providence in
178 ; THREE MONTHS IN JAMAICA.
every age is a perpetual commentary upon that text, ‘ Woe unto him that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work,’—shall not he, who in our own times humbled the eagles of Buonaparte before ill-disciplined negroes, when they made all Christendom tremble,—who amidst the tears of us all, blotted out Poland from the map of Europe, when her serfs were slaves, and her nobles claimed to be their proud proprietors,—who has broken the bastions of Algiers, and quenched her fiery crescent in the blood of her sons, that she can never any more make gainful traffic by the man- stealing of her corsairs and the flesh of her captives ;—shall not he,— but I dare not anticipate his judgements, when he cometh out of his place to make inquisition for blood, which I hope our rulers and people are preparing, notto encounter, but to avert, by timely repent- ance, and listening to his voice, while it gives an awful sanction and emphasis of thunder to the piercing cry of the negro from across the Atlantic, ‘Am I not a man anda brother!’ ‘ Yet now your flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as your children, and.lo! you bring into bondage our sons and our daughters, and our dauge'ters
are brought into bondage already, neither is it in our power to redeem them,’ ”’
III.—THREE MONTHS IN JAMAICA, IN 1832.
A pamphlet, under the above title, and comprising the author’s account of the facts that fell under his observation during a resi- dence of seven weeks on a sugar plantation, has been most opportunely published by Hatchard, and a cheap reprint of it put into extensive circulation by the Anti-Slavery Society. It is pro- bably already in the hands of most of our readers; and we shall leave it, therefore, without a single comment, to produce the deep impression it is well calculated to make upon every mind not absolutely dead to human feelings; only just observing that the character of the author, Mr. Henry Whiteley, for strict integrity, and the most scrupulous veracity, is altogether unimpeachable. This important point is fully established, not merely. by the high testimonials which accompany the pamphlet itself, but likewise by the assurances to the same effect that have been subsequently received by Mr. Buxton from Mr. Sadler, late’ M. P. for;Newark, to whom Mr. Henry Whiteley is well known,—and also by several persons of the highest respectability from the proprietors of that very plantation on which he resided, and of which he has so vividly pourtrayed the worKING SysTEM. Weare well assured, moreover, from other unquestionable sources, that revolting as this picture is, of slavery as it now exists in Jamaica, (and it is indeed a most shocking one,) the writer has still not told the worst—his sense of decency, in fact, having withheld his hand from fully lifting the, veil which shades from English eyes the loathsome licentiousnesst the moral putridity, of this horrible system. But looking merely a Mr. Whiteley’s matter of fact delineation of West Indian Slavery in 1832,—we ask the British people, we demand of the British Parlia- ment, how DARE ye, as men who must answer to God, permit this system to exist one hour longer !
179° IV.—STATE OF AFFAIRS IN JAMAICA IN MARCH, 1833.
Files of Jamaica papers have reached us up to the 6th of March, A. proclamation of the King, having been promulgated by the Governor, putting down those illegal and outrageous associations, the Colonial Unions, (a measure which ought to have been adopted twelve months ago, when they first appeared,) the rancour of the planters had been exhibited in almost every mode short of absolute armed rebellion; if, indeed, their madness can be said to have stopped short of that limit. In one place the governor had been hung in effigy ; in another, insulted in person. In several parishes the king’s proclamation had been torn down, with every mark of contumely, and the treasonable declarations of the Colonial Church Union displayed in its stead. In the parish of St. Ann’s, Mr. Hilton, who claims the honour of being “the father of the Colonial Church Unions,” (which honour, however, he must in justice share with the Reverend Mr. Bridges, the owner of Kitty Hilton,) having in his capacity of Major-General of the St. Ann’s Western Regiment of militia, signed certain seditious (or rather rebellious) resolutions, as chairman of the Colonial Union, in defiance of the royal pro- clamation, the Governor after indulgently affording him an oppor- tunity to apologise or recant, dismissed him from the command of the regiment. The Lieut.-Colonel of the regiment, Hamilton Brown, (the same person who is mentioned in Mr. Whiteley’s re- cent pamphlet,) having been called to account for a seditious address on Hilton’s dismissal, attempted to insult the governor while he tendered his resignation. But Earl Mulgrave, with the spirit and decision he has on all similar occasions manifested, soon showed that he knew how to deal with this vulgar insolence. Lieut.-Col. Brown, instead of receiving the acceptance of his resignation, re- ceived, through the military secretary, orders to muster his regiment. After a paltry attempt to intimidate the governor, he obeyed. Earl Mulgrave, accompanied by his personal staff only, rode into the midst of the regiment, drawn up in hollow square—addressed them in a dignified speech, and then dismissed Lieut-Col. Brown from His Majesty’sservice. On this occasion, an audacious attempt was made by Hilton, Brown, and a few others, to induce the militia to mutiny; but a large proportion being men of colour, the regi- ment stood firm, though one or two inferior officers misconducted themselves, and are reported to have been also subsequently dismissed.
Meanwhile, the excitement of the planters was extreme. Mr. Cox, the custos of St. Ann’s, had tendered his resignation. . The newspapers continued to overflow with the most virulent abuse of Earl Mulgrave, and of the home government, and the most violent determination was evinced by the Unionists to persist in their lawless outrages. The missionaries, Nicholls and Abott, and Mr. J. L. Lewin, were in goal; the two former for preaching and the latter for allowing the use of his house for that purpose. The workhouse negroes were employed in digging up the very foundation-stones of the Baptist chapel in Savannah-la-Mar, which had been formerly destroyed. The Unionists talked openly,
180 DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.
it is said, of “‘ decapitating the Executive,” of “ transferring their allegiance,’ and such like outrageous fooleries.
These proceedings have forced at last the London daily press, (so long and discreditably behind the general feeling of the country on the slavery question,) to speak out in strong reprobation of the conduct of the colonists, The Globe of this day (April 15th), adverting to “the superlative extravagance and vulgarity” of the Jamaica Unionists, observes with indignant scorn :— These are the sage and deliberate personages, be it understood, who require the legislature and civilization of the mother country to leave the pro- gression of the slave to the enjoyment of the general privileges of humanity exclusively to them! We will not say that violence and brutality towards legal authority and superior rank necessarily im- ply a still more unshackled display of the same qualities to those who
cannot resist them, but it is impossible not to have a strong leaning to that opinion.”
Donations and Remittances in aid of the Funds of the Anti-
Slavery Society, during the months of February and March, 1833.
fee buts £. 8. d.
Liskeard Association (donation) 25 0 9 Long Sutton Association (payment) 114 0
Jo. oO. (payment) 711 0 Leamington do, (do.) 08 0 Southampton do. (do.) 496 Whitby do. _ + (do.) nit. o Hereford 0. (do.) } 0 26 North East Loudon Ladies’ Asso. (do.) 2 7 7 Stroud, (Gloucester) do. (do.) 10 0 0 | Charlbury eg do.) ei UO Lewes, (Sussex) do. (do.) Chir wees Wellington (Salop) Asso. (do.) me & Woodbridge do. (do,) 117 2 |. Messrs. Arch 4 do. ig a
Do. do. (donation) 4 210 | Gravesend Association (do.) 0 8 0 Colebrookdale do, (payment) 2 O 6 Lincoln do, (do.) 21410 Baldock do, (do.) 2 4°79 Ross do. (do.) 119 0 §. Lhorowgood, Esq. (annual) 10 0 } Rev. W. Fletcher (annual) 010 6 Derby Association (payment) 18 0 0 North London & Islington Ladies’ Cirencester —_ do. (do.) 3'16 8 Association (payment) 512 3 Westminster Ladies’ do, (do.) 4 110 Huddersfield Ladies’ Asso. (do.) 816 0 Brentwood Association do.) 214 3 Mr. J, Burnley, Gomersal (annual) 010 0 Lymington do, (do.) 11¢ 3 | Reading Association (payment) 315 7 Rochester do. (do.) | ine) ‘Tonbridge do. cdo.) $8 3 "Truro do. (do.) 310 0 Do. do, (donation) O 311 Bridport _ do, (do.) 268 4 Derby do. (payment) 3 0 9 Alton Ladies’ do. (do.) x hs Frome do. (donation) 110 O Do. do. do, (donation) 3 00 Berkhamstead do. (payment) 019 6 Halifax Association (payment) 1213 9 | Stafford do, (do.) 2) 3 1L Society of Friends at Ross(donation) 5 O 0 0. do. (donation) 21 4 Baptist Congregation at do. (do.) & 6 3 Notttingham Ladies’Asso.(payment) 014 9 Spalding Association (payment) 3 1,10 | St. Ives,Hunts)do. do. (do.) 111 4 W,Hall, Esq.,Cheltenham(annual) 2 2 0 Do. do. do.donation) 3 0 0 Miss Yerbury, do. (do.) 2 2 0 | John Mann, Esq.,Somersham(do,) 200 H. Butlin, Esq. — do. (do.) L070 Mr. Thomas Leigh, Earith (do.) 010 0 Cheltenham (payment) 116 6 Mr. J. llett do. (do,) 05 0 Joseph Sturge, Fsq. = (do.) = 7:15 OO Holbeach Association (payment) 6 6 6 Kingston Ladies’ Association(donation}5 0 0 | Gloucester — do. ~- do.) 209 Newcastle on Tyne (payment) 911 0 Mrs. Ann Hopkins Smith, Olney, B. <s - , (donation) O 2 0 ucks . |. (donation) 50 0 0 Peckham Ladies’ Associationpayment) 3 10 8 | Sunderland Association (payment) 4 0 0 Grantham do, _ do. (do.) 319 10 Tottenham Ladies’ do. (do.) 115 0 Dorking Association (do) 015 0 Bristol Association (payment) 20 0 0 Calne 0. (do.) 1 4 9 | Contribution from Plaistow(donation)12 0 0 Leeds do. (do,) 210 8 Doncaster Association (payment) 318 0 W. Oldfield, Esq., York (donation) - 2 0 0 Do. : 0. (donation) 1 2 0 ‘Thomas Key, Esq. ao. (do.) 5 0 0 | Calne, Devizes, Melksham, &c, Fe- soils Gays Esq.,do. __ (do.) 25 0 0 male Association . . . 100 0 Sundry smatl sums from York(do.) 8 0 0 | York Association (payment) 7 6 0 ‘Truro Association (payment) 4 8 6 | Malton Association (do.) 119 0 James Quilter, bq. (annual) 1 1 0 | Anti-Slavery Fund placed at the Brighton Association (payment) .716 0 disposal of Messrs. Josiah Fors- © Sevenoaks ao. (do. 2 oO ter, -George Stacey, & Richard
Do. do. (donation) 2 9 0 Barrett fs
. . - 500 0 0
gee a ec London :—S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
The Anti-Slavery Record.
No. 15. JUNE 6, 1833. PRICE ONE PENNY.
Page. I,—A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN HAYTI, AND
OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THAT ISLAND IN REGARD TO INDUSTRY
SNE COMMERGE Gorl spores) we) Rec tm ee st Re 181 11.—STATE OF THE LIBERATED AFRICANS AT SIERRA LEONE, IN 1832. 188 III. —SLAVERY AND FREE LABOUR IN HONDURAS - - = 7 77 192
I.—ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN HAYTI, AND ITS PRESENT STATE.
Tuereare few topics connected with the history of slavery upon which so much misrepresentation has been successfully propagated by the West India party, as that of the revolutionary wars of Hayti and of the present state of that country. Even inthe House of Com- mons, at the present moment, the case of Hayti is boldly brought forward by almost every speaker on the side of the planters, as the great bugbear to alarm the legislature against any scheme of early and entire emancipation. We therefore gladly insert a brief statement of the facts of the case of Hayti, furnished by a friend (himself a native of Jamaica) who has recently returned to England, after a residence of two years in that island, during which he made a laborious journey through every district of the country, for the _ express purpose of carefully investigating the character, habits, and condition of its inhabitants. Some of this gentleman’s valuable communications on these subjects have been already published in the Anti-Slavery Reporter ; and for various interesting details we must refer to that work. ur limits, on the present occasion, only admit of our giving the short historical and statistical abstract which follows :—
“ The revolutionary history of St. Domingo embraces a political division of three periods.
“4. The conflict of contending factions for a free constitution, commencing with the declarations of the provincial assemblies 3 extending through the period of the convocation of a general Colonial Legislature by the King’s Order of January, 1790 ; and terminating with the departure of the Colonial deputies for France in August of the same year. .
“2. The liberation of the slaves; a division of history com- mencing with the struggle for political rights by the free people of colour; comprising the full recognition of the liberty of the ne- groes, when an attempt to conquer the island was made by the British Government; and extending to the general settlement and
rosperous administration of the colony under the government of
oussaint L’Ouverture. - «3, The war of independence ; beginning with the arrival of Buonaparte’s invading armament under Le Clerc, in 1802; followed by the perfidious arrest and deportation of Toussaint L’Ouverture ; and terminating with the final expulsion of the Europeans from the island ; to which the recent recognition of the independence of Hayti by France is the sequel.
R
——soe——“—s—s:::::C A BOLTON OPP SLAWERY IN HAYLIE,
“Tt is this last murderous contest which is usually confounded in England with the struggles of the second period,—incidents totally distinct in their origin, their character, and their objects.
“It was in 1791 and 1793, before the emancipation of the slaves had been contemplated, that the great massacres and con- flagrations took place which make so frightful a picture in the his- tory of the island ; and all these calamities were caused, not by giving liberty to the slaves, but by quarrels between the Colonial factions of royalists and revolutionists, who, to wreak their ven- geance more effectually on each other, called in, on both sides, the aid of their negro slaves. The bands of armed negroes who at that period filled the north of the island with terror and desolation, ac- cording to the testimony of all contemporary historians, were origi- nally put in motion by the royalists to put down the revolutionists, but more particularly by the Jesuits to uphold the authority of the church, then threatened in the colony, as well as in France, with annihilation.—As the dissensions between the partizans of the king and the people became more vehement, the revolters acquired force and consistency ; and the insurrection, which at first was mistaken for a tumultuary effort of the slaves for liberty, was soon found to be organized for other objects quite unconnected with negro emanci- pation. The insurgents designated themselves the ‘ Gens du Roi,’ and expressly declared that they were in arms for the maintenance of the King’s authority, and for enforcing respect to the church. They openly avowed the cause for which they contended by wear- ing the white cockade; and it soon became apparent that men of more political calculation than the slaves had taken advantage of the mutual animosity which these factious contests had engendered to maintain by this means their own ascendency.
“Tn the midst of these events monarchy had been overthrown in France, and the public acts of the nation began to be dated from the first year of the Republic. Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud, having been ordered to repair as Commissioners to St. Domingo with a body of troops, in order to enforce the decrees of the Na- tional Convention for the establishment of peace between the con- tending factions in the colony, formed a Council of Government called a ‘ Commission Intermediare,’ consisting of twelve members, six of whom were white, and six persons of colour. This Council took the place of the Legislative Assembly ;—but the appointments of coloured men in it, and certain other nominations to civil and military places, being obnoxious to the whites, serious disaffec- tion was manifested by the planters against the Commissioners. Galbaud, at this juncture, ini consequence of the declarations of war against France which followed the execution of Louis XVI., being sent out as Commandant General, finding the authority of the Commissioners but partially respected, endeavoured to sub- vert it entirely. This attempt led to a most sanguinary con- test in the streets of the city of the Cape. The Commissioners in this emergency called to their aid (so few were their resources) not merely the felons in the prisons, but the black insurgents denomi- nated the ‘Gens du Roi;’ Galbaud having the seamen in the harbour,
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN HAYTI. 183
a strong party of the inhabitants, and the Cape militia, to support his pretensions. The conflict lasted for three days, from the 21st to the 23rd of June, 1793. The negro adherents of royalty, Jean, Francois, and Biassou, rejected the call of the Commissioners ; but a chief named Macaya, and another called Pierrot, with up- wards of 3000 of the royalist slaves, entered the town, and fresh slaughter ensued. Eventually Galbaud, with many of the Colonists, retired to the United States; and the Commissioners, left to re-es- tablish order, put into effective discipline the armed negroes, who had been liberated on condition of joining their standard.
““The extensive concession of Liberty which this event brought about in the department of the north, resulted in the entire libera- tion of the negroes in that division of the Colony; but the general emancipation of the slaves throughout the Colony was an effect produced hy other concurrent causes. A mightier auxiliary, apparently, on behalf of the royalist planters, than any that had yet taken part in the contests, now entered the field. Just as the rash attempt of Galbaud to dispossess the Commissioners of their authority had led to the partial emancipation of the revolted ne- groes in the north, the British Government undertook their ill- starred crusade in support of slavery in St. Domingo,—a measure which precipitated the very event it was intended to avert.
“For ample details to elucidate the manner in which this act bore on the wmmediate and general enfranchisement of the negroes, I might quote at length the narrative of Bryan Edwards (an unexceptionable witness on such a point) relative to the preparatory negociations with the Governor of Jamaica for a capitulation. ~ I must, however, content myself with a brief extract from his work on these affairs. The Republican Commissioners had brought with them from France 6000 troops, which, added to the national force already in the Colony, and the militia of the country, consti- tuted a body of 14,000 or 15,000 effective men, to whom were joined the deserted slaves he had enfranchised. This force, amount- ing altogether to about 22,000 effective men, being necessarily dis- persed in detachments throughout the different provinces, was become on that account little formidable to an invading enemy. ‘ Aware of this circumstance,’ says Bryan Edwards, ‘ the Commis- sioners, on the first intimation of an attack from the English, re- sorted to the desperate expedient of proclaiming all manner of slavery abolished ; and the negro slaves became from thencefor- ward a free people, on condition of resorting to their standard.’
“ The departments of the south and the west were quiet, and cultivation flourishing, when this general measure of liberation, rendered inevitable from the application of the planters to the British government, was resorted to. The regulations of Santho- nax and Polverel, declaring liberty to the slaves, were issued in August, September, and October, 1793, and the last in February, 1794. In the same month (February, 1794), the French Conven- tion passed its decree abolishing slavery throughout the whole of the French colonies; but that decree, on its arrival in Hayti, found
184 ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN HAYTI.
the negroes already free; a fact it is important for the reader to mark, as even Sir Robert Peel, in a recent speech, has represented the Haytian blacks as emancipated by a wild vote carried by ac- ¢lamation in the French Convention.
_ After this event, when Toussaint, the negro chieftain and successful general in the expulsion of the English, was governor of St. Domingo, ‘the colony,’ says Malenfant, ¢ flourished; the whites lived happily and in peace on their estates, and the negroes continued to work forthem.’ And La Croix informs us that when Santhonax, who had been recalled to France by the government, returned to the colony in 1796, he was astonished at the state of prosperity in which he found it at his return. ‘The colony,’ he says, ‘ marched as by enchantment towards its ancient splendour ; cultivation prospered ; every day produced perceptible proofs of its progress. The city of the Cape, and the plantations of the North,’ the scenes of factious carnage and destruction in the first movements of the revolution, ‘ rose up again visibly to the eye.’ General Vincent, in his remonstrances to Buonaparte, to dissuade him against the fatal expedition to Hayti, declared that ‘the blacks now free were industrious, orderly, and happy;’ and he conjured him ¢ not to reverse this satisfactory state of things.’
“The story of the expedition of 1802 fills one of the most melancholy pages in history. Whatever may have been its original intention with respect to its distinguished victim, Toussaint L’Ouverture, its object eventually was the restoration of slavery in St. Domingo. But even here it was not until the struggle was for life as well as liberty, that it assumed the character of a contest of ‘rebellion, conflagration, and massacre.’ In thesameyear, 1802, just when the affairs of the French colony were drawing to their fatal crisis by the defection of Petion and the death of Le Clerc, my father visited the city of the Cape. As his ship stood into the harbour, they were passed by the Swiftsure man of war, then bearing the body of the deceased Le Clere to France for sepulture. On the same day Rochambeau entered the city to take upon him- self the government. A disastrous battle had just been fought on the entrance of the barrier of the Fossé, the last contest in which the Haytians ranged themselves in order of battle, but not the last in which they were victorious. Ever afterward their struggles were in the nature of a guerilla warfare, in which the French found neither hope nor mercy.
““The mysterious disappearance of persons remarked for their liberality, their talent, or their influence, as well among the French as among the mixed race, had roused Petion to his own danger, and in saving himself to save the remnant of the people. These secret assassinations were not the act of the government, but what the desperation of the colonists was then doing secretly, Rocham- beau did not hesitate to adopt as a public policy. From this time the horrible ‘Noyades’ commenced. They were pursued with most un- relenting perseverance, till the scheme of feeding the blood-hounds with human victims gave them an opportunity of satisfying both
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF HAYTI. 185
their cruelty and hatred. The cold-blooded deeds which my father saw in the streets by day, leading him to consider his stay on shore at night imprudent and unsafe, he became an eye-witness on board his vessel of the midnight drownings. The morning used to show hundreds of victims dead upon the waters. At this time the white Colonists were penned up, with but little food, within the walls of the city, and so reduced for the means of de- fending themselves that they had been obliged to take the orna- ments from the balconies to convert into bullets. However, they went on as if madness should alone be a plea for their atrocities.
“Tn 1804, after a contest of two years, scarcely a colonist was to be found in the island. What the sword spared, retaliatory ven- geance destroyed. It was about'this time that Dessalines’ terrific proclamation came forth, in which he avowed he had committed ‘crime for crime’—inflicted ‘ cruelty for cruelty ’—‘ death for death,’—all these he had dealt out, if it had been possible, with a more relentless hand and a more ferocious spirit. The country, which industry had made blooming like a paradise, was already desolate. The ancient master was remembered only in the bones that strewed the places of slaughter; his dwelling had been given to the flames, and desolation was spread over the fair fields once his possession.
«¢ Having taken this historical retrospect, the facts of which, ab- stracted from the accurate work of General Pamphille La Croix, are incontrovertible, I now proceed to lay before the reader the following statistical details, compiled from authentic materials and careful observation during my own recent researches in Hayti :—
“ In the several districts of the republic, known under the titles of the northern, southern, western, and eastern divisions, there are distinct features in the industry and resources of the people.
*‘In the south, the agriculture comprises the production of coffee,—the culture of the sugar cane, principally for the making of taftia, the ordinary rum of the country,—and the cultivation of cacao. A little mahogany is cut in Jéremie; campeachy is pro- duced every where; and some braziletto exported from Jacmel.
» “In the western division, coffee, sugar, cotton, and cam- peachy wood, some cabuya, or pite fibre, with the mahogany of the Spanish frontiers, brought to the mouth of the Attibonite, include every variety of its industry. The sugar in this dis- trict, like the taffia in the south, is wholly consumed in the home market.
“In the north, coffee is almost the only commodity exported. All the splendid sugar estates, in and about the plains of the Cape, which formed so valuable a constituent part of the national domains in the time of Christophe, may be said to be entirely abandoned for all foreign commerce. At the time of the union of the north and south they were parcelled out in donations to general officers, who had not the means of continuing their profitable culture on the large scale in which the estates were re-formed. They have been,
R 2
186 INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF HAYTIW
therefore, so much reduced that the establishments, in only a few instances, present the old average of productive industry, ‘and whatever sugar they grow and manufacture finds a consumption at home. This species of industry has, however, been replaced by an increased culture of coffee, nearly commensurate to that abstraction from the commerce of the country created by the abandonment of the sugar estates. This may be made plain by one or two facts.
“‘ Whilst Christophe held the sovereignty of the north, all the productions of the northern and southern face of the mountains running through that part of Hayti formed the commerce of the Cape. On the union, which took place at his death, that part of the exportable produce which was shipped at the port of Gonaives was participated in by the merchants of Port-au-Prince, and has been now nearly absorbed by them. If, therefore, the sugar of the plains being taken away from the trade of the Cape, a considerable portion of the Gonaives’ commerce was lost to it besides, and if it had nothing to depend upon but the former quantity of coffee grown on the northern face of the mountains, its mercantile im-+ portance must have been so very considerably reduced as to have become a mere trifle, compared to what it was. To counterbalance this, new resources of industry have been created in a district of the north, which, in Christophe’s time, was scarcely cultivated at all. In the arrondissement of La Grande Rivitre, which comprises Grand Rivitre, properly so called, Ste. Susanne, Valitre Dondon, and St. Raphael, the energy of one single man, General Kayer La Rivitre, who commands here, has in twelve years enlarged the coffee culture to such an extent, that this arrondissement alone fur- nishes more than one-tenth of all the exports of that commodity from Hayti. By this means, when Gonaives by increasing the commerce of Port-au-Prince decreased that of the Cape, the rela- tive value of the Cape trade has been maintained by the new culti- vation in Grande Riviére. The bourg of Ste. Rose, at about fifteen miles from the city of the Cape, now forms the great retail market of the northern district.
“The eastern division comprises the Colony of Hispaniola. Its commerce includes mahogany and tobacco, a little cacao, guaiac, or lignum vite, and a small quantity of ornamental wood. Its great resource at one time, the cattle trade, since the closing of the Ja- maica market, is now only indicated by the number of hides shipped from it. Its supply of cattle to the neighbouring markets is reduced to an occasional vessel from St. Thomas’s for the Wind- ward Islands, and sometimes to a vessel from the Bahamas. A little gold, amounting to about one thousand ounces yearly, is col- lected from the rivers of the district, viz. the Yaqui, the Cibao, the Rio Verde, and the Jayna. |
‘In systematic agriculture the north surpasses the south; and the eastern division, in those parts about St. Jago in which tobacco is cultivated, has no rival any where in the West Indies, for the neatness, econemy, and good management of the agricul- turist. Tobacco, from its value being centered in the growth and quality of its leaf, and in the care and attention requisite to secure
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF HAYTi. 187
a good ee awakens in the cultivator a diligence and industry extremely fayourable to good habits; hence, among other causes, it is that the Spanish inhabitants of Hayti are a peculiarly estimable part of the population.
« The whole value of Haytian exports annually may be rated, at their lowest estimate, to amount to one million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling.
«Of the above amount of its commerce England is estimated to engross somewhat more than one-third, and the remainder is divided between France, Germany, and America; the commerce with the United States nearly approaching in value that with England.
“There are other articles of agriculture in.addition to those already enumerated as commodities of exportation, which are cul- tivated on a large scale for the home market, and which might be extended advantageously for the consumption of the neighbouring islands, if the markets were open to Haytian industry. These are peas, beans, corn, and rice.
The following details are taken from authentic documents :—
«4829. Vessels entered 521; cleared out, 445.
Amount of import duties in 1828. . $921,242 1829. . 879,874
Decrease . . $41,368
Comparison between the receipts and general expenses of 1828 and 1829. |
General receipts for 1828, $2,598,167; general expenses, $2,656,291.
General receipts for 1829, $2,423,229; general expenses, $3,144,830.
Of this sum $1,231,721 are computed army expenses.
Excess of expenditure over income for 1829, $721,601.
Balance of money in the chest of the Republic, 1829, $1,300,000.
Coffee exported in 1828 . . . 43,576,047 Ibs. 1829 . . . 39,968,210 lbs.
Decrease . - - 3,607,837 Ibs.
Cotton exported in 1829. . . 1,019,655 Ibs. Mahogany in 1829 . . . . 4,314,151 feet.
“¢ Computed amount of exports for 1832, by the Custom House books :—
Coffee. Port-au-Prince . : . 18,000,000 lbs. Gonaives : ‘ . 2,500,000 Cap Haitien . . ~ 8,000,000 Jérémie. : 3 . 3,000,000 Les Cayes . : ; . 8,000,000 Jacmel 2 . . 5,000,000 Partie del’ Est . : . 5,500,000
50,000,000 Ibs.
188 STATE OF THE LIBERATED AFRICANS
Oottone sy. ¢; . } ! . 1,500,000 Ibs.
Mahogany . ; ¢ ; . 6,000,000 feet. Tobacco . " F F j q 500,000 lbs. Cacao ‘ ; 4 ‘ : ¢ 500,000 lbs. Dye Woods. ’ ‘ / . 5,000,000 Ibs. Hides : t é P e . 80,000
Tortoise Shell . : , : j 12,000 Ibs. Cigars. : 500,000
‘The value of the crop of coffee is estimated at not less than one million sterling. The duties realised on this sum, first by the imports required to purchase it, and secondly the exports which are subjected to an exaction of 13 dollars in the thousand, is esti- mated at 25 per cent. on the value of the crop. This would give £250,000 on the coffee. This at 7 Haytian dollars to the pound sterling, makes 1,750,000 dollars of revenue realised by this com- modity alone.
“ Mr. Stanley, in his late speech on the intended measure of slave emancipation, has satisfactorily pointed out the reasons of the re- duced exports of sugar from Hayti. ‘If we consider,’ he says, ‘ the horrors of their long struggle for liberty, the jeopardy and the destruction of property, the driving out of all capital formerly em- ployed in the cultivation of the island, the ruin of every species of manufacture, and the subsequent distribution of the land into small portions, we shall not be surprised at the state of that staple there at this time.’ In addition to these reasons, however, it should be remembered that Hayti at this day has only just replaced, by natural increase, the population destroyed in the revolutionary wars. She could not, therefore, even had the plantations still existed as perfect as before, or had her people been capitalists to re-establish them, have exhibited the same productive results as during the period of her Colonial prosperity. In 1804, it has been computed that the calamities of war had reduced her population to about 300,000 souls. At the present time, opinions vary as to its exact amount, but the lowest calculation makes it much more than double that of 1804.
‘“¢ Hayti maintains a standing army of 40,000 men. She is pro- hibited from all commercial intercourse with the neighbouring colonies, so that, beside being heavily burthened with an unpro- ductive soldiery, the enterprise of her inhabitants is very unfairly repressed; yet her commercial relations with Europe and America equal more than one-half of our export trade with all our West India Colonies put together. In the two districts of Le Borgne and La Grande Riviere, where the rate of industry is the highest, that is, where the quantity of exportable produce is the greatest for the number of their respective inhabitants, there are neither prisons nor prisoners, the commission of a crime being scarcely heard of.”
II.—STATE OF THE LIBERATED AFRICANS AT SIERRA LEONE.
A small volume entitled “‘ Records of a Voyage on the Western Coast of Africa,” which has just appeared, furnishes some interest- ing information respecting the condition of the liberated negroes at
AT SIERRA LEONE. 189
Sierra Leone. The author is Mr. Peter Leonard, who served as a medical officer on board His Majesty’s ship Dryad, while that vessel was employed on the west coast for the suppression of the slave trade, during the years 1830, 1831, and 1832. The book relates principally to the infamous traffic in human beings, which, to the disgrace of Christendom, still continues to demoralize and desolate unhappy Africa ; but, as that subject does not fall within the scope of our present purpose, we limit our extracts to the fol- lowing satisfactory account of the negroes taken by our cruisers on board the slaving vessels, and, located as free settlers at Sierra Leone :—
“The unhappy inmates of the holds of slave vessels brought to Sierra Leone are landed and lodged in the Liberated African Yard, as soon as it is ascertained beyond a doubt that the vessel has been legally captured, which is sometimes not done for several days.” “< Ifany epidemic prevails among them, which very frequently hap- pens, they are landed, on the representation of the surgeon to the courts, immediately on the vessel’s arrival, and lodged in the laza~ retto, near Kissey. Here they remain until recovery, and until arrangements are made for locating them. After adjudication, a portion of ground, generally in the vicinage of one of the numer- ous villages in the colony, having been marked out by the govern- ment surveyor, or other person appointed by the governor, suffi- ciently large for the purpose of erecting huts, and maintaining the newly manumitted slaves, they are taken to the spot by the superin- tendent or an assistant, and employed in clearing it, and in cutting wood for building, and grass for thatching their future residences ; and while so employed, they are lodged in a depét in the village, or in the houses of the inhabitants, if they choose to receive them.”
“During the first six months after their arrival in the colony, they are fed and clothed by Government, each receiving for this purpose twopence per diem, which is found quite adequate to their wants; and after having completed the erection of their huts, which it takes but a short time to accomplish, they are employed at any public works that may be going forward, being permitted, during part of the six months, to cultivate the piece of ground allotted to them ; the assistant superintendent of liberated Africans, before leaving them entirely to their own guidance, supplying them, from an extensive depdt or store kept for that purpose, situated in close proximity to the slave yard, with articles of dress and cooking utensils, together with a quantity of esculent seeds and plants, such as Indian corn, and cassada, to rear for their future support. They are all much gratified on receiving these necessaries, consider- ing themselves enriched. .
“The articles at present supplied to each male emancipated slave on his location cost about £1. 10s., which, together with his six months’ allowance of twopence a day, make the whole of the mere personal expense of each male adult to [fis Majesty's Govern- ment amount to about £3. The daily allowance is, of course, ex- tended in the case of persons who from age or infirmity are in- capable of supporting themselves. Females receive twopence aday
190 STATE OF THE LIBERATED AFRICANS
for three months only, and as many of the children as possible above a certain age, on condemnation of the vessel, are apprenticed out, as has been already stated, to persons of respectable appear- ance in the colony. With the exception of those negroes recently arrived, who from the excessive crowding, and the bad quality and scantiness of the food and water, are almost always filthy, ema- ciated, and covered with disease, the manumitted slaves appear in general to be clean in their persons, sleek and well fed, and ve well satisfied with their condition. After a short stay in the colony, the industrious are occasionally permitted to cultivate patches of waste land in the country besides their own allotted piece of ground, with the understanding that their occupation of the former shall be temporary. By selling the produce of this they are enabled to obtain many of the comforts, and a few of the luxuries, enjoyed by their European neighbours.
““Some idea may be formed of the actual condition of these people from a short description of Murray Town, a village two or three miles west of Freetown, erected in April, 1829, and peopled with three hundred and twenty-six Africans just imported, placed here under the management of a discharged black soldier of the Royal African Corps. It comprises four wide streets—the huts ranged on each side, and separated from each other by pieces of cultivated ground. Each hut is formed in the following manner :— Poles about ten or twelve feet long are stuck deep in the ground, about a foot and a half apart, in the form of a square of twelve or fourteen feet, leaving vacant spaces for one or two windows, and two doors of common size; one in front, and the other behind. Round these poles, to the height of six feet, dried twigs are wattled 80 as perfectly to resemble a coarse basket. The outside of this is plastered over with red clay, and the roof made quadrilateral, peaked, and thatched with long rye-grass. The floor is the bare ground unpaved and unboarded, and in most of them a clay wall is run up so as to form two apartments; and thus the house is finished. The situation of the windows is, in many of them, neither supplied with glass nor shutters: the weather is so hot they want neither. I have always made it a practice to enter these humble dwellings and converse with the inhabitants, who are very thankful for any attention shown to them bya white person. They seem to like very much to be taken notice of and spoken to. ‘ How do you do to-day, Maamé? is always answered with a ‘tankee, Daadeé,’ accompanied with a half curtsey and many smiles of satis- faction. I observed, during these visits, that the furniture of the houses in this town in general consisted of a cane or bamboo sofa or bed place, with cane mats or round clumps of wood to sit on in room of chairs ; a few plates, bowls, calabashes, wooden spoons, and several cast-iron pots and kettles. In some of the houses there were even small mirrors to be seen, and several articles of ‘finery in dress hung up. In most of them there was a bin of cocoas, besides numerous heads of Indian corn strung together and hung up to dry, baskets of cassada, which several of the inhabi- tants were cleaning and pounding into tapioca, and calavances, all
AT SIERRA LEONE. 191
ready for market. The huts have no chimney, and the burning log for the purpose of cooking is placed in the middle of the floor, and the smoke allowed to find its escape where it may. In the vicinity of this little village the ground is thoroughly cleared and well cultivated. Let it not be forgotten that these people have been established’ barely two years : those who have been longer in the colony are in proportion better provided with necessaries and comforts.
“A great many of the liberated Africans are employed as la- bourers in the wood trade of the river, receiving five dollars a month as wages. Many more have been taught to employ themselves as artisans, and several are engaged daily as labourers in Freetown, and in the different villages of the Peninsula. From all that I have observed, there appears to be no lack of industry among those who have been for some time in the colony, and little can be ex- pected for a considerable period from men just escaped to light and liberty, from the dreadful privations of a slave-hold. They are acute and active in bargaining, and they do not appear to be by any means deficient in intelligence. It is unfair to take, as a criterion of the natural abilities of the liberated African, the ap- parent stupidity of those who have been imported at an advanced age. We all know how difficult it is, even among ourselves, to learn or improve after a certain period of life, and to get rid of bad habits which have grown with us. How much more difficult must it be to do this, and also to acquire new notions and habits at an advanced period of life, where no ray of light had ever shone upon the mind, where the habits were savage, and where the onl ideas which the individual possessed did not extend farther than his casual wants and necessities ! .
“It is among the children of these people brought up in the colony that their mental capacity is to be judged of; and the children in the Government schools at Freetown, as well asin those of the villages, appeared to me to be equal in intelligence and ac- quirements to European children of the same age. The liberated Africans have not certainly made that progress in civilization which might have been expected, when we consider the trouble that has been taken and the money that has been lavished for this purpose by the mother country ; but this is not,attributable to any defect of natural ability among them, but to a variety of contingent circum- stances, among which not the least obvious is the continued im- portation of their countrymen into the colony, whose barbarous habits they have, in some measure, been weaned from, but to which, from early association, they will naturally be prone to recur.on observing them practised by the new camers, for whom, as country- men, they must feel a strong attachment, and with whom, speak- ing the same language, and having recently left their own paternal Jand and much-regretted homes, they must feel the strongest in- clination to associate. Another cause of their tardy improvement may have been the frequent change, by death or otherwise, of go- vernors and superintendents, and the adoption of different methods
of management, or perhaps mismanagement, consequent upon these changes.” —pp. 85—92.
192 SLAVERY AND FREE LABOUR IN HONDURAS.
‘** In Freetown there are two government schools, on Bell’s sys- tem, for the education of black children of every race, maroons, settlers, and liberated Africans. In the male school there are at present three hundred and eighty-five pupils, divided into ten classes ; in the female school, two hundred and sixty-four, into eight classes. The boys are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic only ; the girls, besides these, are instructed in needle-work. Every at- tention seems to be paid to their instruction; and, besides being remakable clean, neatly dressed, and well-behaved, the progress they have made in these rudimental branches of education de- serves the highest praise. I examined several classes in each school, and studiously compared the acquirements of the liberated Africans with the other children. There was no perceptible differ. ence. The lights and shades of intellect seemed to bear much the same proportion among them, as among the children of our own labouring classes at home. For the age of these children, their progress under the system of education adopted seems to be very rapid.”"—p. 59.
“< Two things are worthy of remark among these poor Africans : Great external respect is paid to the Sabbath. The blacks on that day are clean and neatly dressed, the religious meetings are well attended, and the busy clamour of the week is hushed into a solemn stillness, more impressive even than the calm serenity which pervades every thing on that hallowed day in our own free and happy land. No doubt the missionaries deserve the credit of this. The other fact is that, although spirits are remarkably cheap in the colony, I have never seen, in all my excursions among them, a single liberated African in a state of intoxication. I wish I could say aw for their civilized brethren.”—p, 94.
VMs rgeey ' 'Tf1.—sLAVERY AND FREE LABOUR IN HONDURAS.
An inhabitant of Honduras, in a letter dated Belize, and ad- dressed to the Editor of the Jamaica Watchman, after adverting, in terms of strong reprehension, to the late outrageous proceedings in Jamaica, makes the following observations : —
“T feel persuaded that, were slavery abolished, and the system of free labour introduced, those who have been slave-holders would feel their minds more at ease, and would consequently be more happy and independent. It is true they may not be able to live so extravagantly as they have been accustomed to do : but they will have fewer risks to encounter, and, what is of far greater moment, peace of conscience.
‘<Tn this country (Honduras) slavery is almost at anend. Our contiguity to the independent States of Spanish America, where all become free who enter their towns or settlements, has a wonderful effect in making the owners kind and humane. Our negroes go where they please, either by land or water, and in lieu of them the Charibs from Truxillo, Omoa, and other places, come as labourers ; so that, when a slave-holder loses a slave, he hires a Charib in his room, until he has all free labourers.”
London :—S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.
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