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ANTI-SLAVERY

MONTHLY REPORTER.

VOL. IV.

ANTI-SLAVERY

MONTHLY REPORTER

VOLUME IV.

Commencing January 1831, and ending December' 1831.

LONDON :

PRINTED FOR THE LONDON SOCIETY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
THROUGHOUT THE BRITISH DOMINIONS.

AND TO BE HAD AT THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, 18, ALDEEMANBURY ;

OF MESSRS. HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY ; MESSRS. ARCH, CORNHILL ; AND OF ALL BOOK-
SELLERS ; AND AT THE DEpOtS OF ALL THE ANTI-SLAVERY ASSOCIATIONS
THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM.

M.DCCC.XXXir.

JIH'IH a

^/Ij^Usjl

LONDON:

PRINTED BY SAMUEL BAGSTER, J UN.
14, Bartholomew Close.

CONTENTS.

No. Page.
LXXIII. — January 1, 1831. Farther Correspondence of the Secretary of
State, Sir G. Murray, with the Governors of the Slave Colonies
of Great Britain, viz :^ — 1. Jamaica; 2. Bahamas; 3. St.^^Chris-
topher's ; 4. St. Vincent ; 5. Tobago ; 6. Crown Colonies gene-
rally; 7. Mauritius , 1 — S-i

LXXIV. — January 5. I. Recent Meetings for the Abolition of Slavery :
— 1. Edinburgh — Mr. Jeffrey — Dr. A. Thomson. 2. Second
Meeting at Edinburgh. 3. Perth. 4. Kelso. 5. Aberdeen.
6. Paisley. 7. Glasgow — Dr. Wardlaw — Dr. M'Farlane. 8.
Scottish Synods and Presbyteries. 9. Bradford — Rev. Mr. Hud-
son. 10. Melksham. 11. Truro, 12. Kingston. 13. Falmouth
— Rev. Mr. Davies. 14. Southampton. 15. Huddersfield. — Mr.
Watt. 16. Hanley and Shelton. 17. Kendal — Rev. D. Jones.
18. Hadleigh. 19. Penzance. 20. Wellingborough. 21. Port-
sea, 22, 'Stowmarket. 23. Reading — Capt. Browne. 24.
Liskeard. 25. Plymouth. 26, Bath — Bishop of Bath and
Wells — Mr. Wilberforce. 27. Bristol — West India Partizans,
28. Second Meeting at Bristol — Mr. Claxton. 29, Derby.
30, Chelmsford. 31. Bii-mingham. 32, Rutland — Mr. G.
Stephen. 33. Durham, 34, Halifax — Rev. R. L. Lusher. 35.
Chesterfield, 36. Salisbury — Dean Pearson. 37. Calne. 38.
Watford. 39. Lincoln. 40. Brighton, 41, Bury St. Edmund's
— Mr. Phillips — Mr. Saintshury — Rev. Mr. Orton . . . 25 — 75

II, Anti-Slavery Petitions to Parliament , . . , 75

III, Donations and Remittances .,...,, 76

LXXV, — February 1, I. Remarks on the Right Hon. R. W, Horton's
Second Letter to the Freeholders of Yorkshire, on Compulsory

Manumission, &c, ......... 77- — 89

II. The Question of Compensation calmly considered . , 89 — 104

LXXVI. — February 15. I, Testimony of Rev, J. M. Trew on Colonial
Slavery: — 1. Administration of Justice; 2, Slave Evidence;
3, Compulsory Manumission ; 4, Arbitrary Punishment; 5.
Marriage ; 6. Rest of the Sabbath ; 7, Religious Instruction ;
8. Emancipation ...,,,... 105 — 119

CONTENTS.

No. Page.

II, Testimony of the Christian Record of Jamaica on Colonial
Slavery : — 1. Profanation of the Sabbath ; 2, Religious Instruc-
tion ; 3. Conduct of Bishop and Clergy; 4. Power of Arbitrary
Punishment, and its dreadful effects; 5. Libertinism of Jamaica;
6. Minutes of Evidence in the Case of the Rev. G.W. Bridges,

and his slave Kitty Hylton 120—143

III. Miscellaneous Intelligence 143 — 144

LXXYII.— March 1. I. Sequel of the Case of Henry Williams, of Ja-
maica 145 — 151

II. Escheated Slaves, and other Slaves, the Property of the Crown 152 — 155

III. Extracts from the Jamaica Watchman : — 1. Mr. Barclay ; 2.
Mr. Wordie; 3. Slave Law; 4. Samuel Swiney ; 5. Lecesne,

&c. ; 6. Mr. Thorpe 155—160

IV. Memorial of the West India Committee .... 160

V. The Christian Remembrancer ...... ib.

LXXVIII. — March 21. I. Authentic Notices respecting the Agriculture
of St. Domingo or Haj^ti, and its Laws relative to Cultivation,
since 1793.

1. Code Rural of 1794 161—167

2. Code Rural of 1798 168—169

3. Constitution of 1801 169—172

4. State of Agriculture, 1794 — 1802, and the effects of Buona-
parte's attempt to restore Slavery in 1802 .... 172 — 177

5. Code Rural of 1826 , . 177—183

6. Recent Communications from Hayti on the State of Agricul-
ture in 1830 183—213

7. Concluding Remarks 213 — 216

li. Resolutions of the Committee of the Leeds Anti-Slavery

Society 216

LXXIX. — Api'il 2. I. Recent Communications from Hayti, continued

from No. 78 ■ . . . 217—246

II. Despatch of Lord Goderich respecting the Case of the Rev.

G. W. Bridges, and his Slave Kitty Hylton .... 246—248

III. Anti-Slavery Petitions 248

LXXX. — May 9. I. Proceedings of a General Meeting of the Anti-
Slavery Society and its Friends, held at Exeter Hall, on Satur-
day the 23rd of April, 1831, the Right Hon. Lord Suifieldin the
Chair, — containing'the substance of the Speeches delivered, and
the Resolutions adopted on that occasion .... 249 — -279
II. Address to the People of Great Britain and Ireland, adopted
* at the same General Meeting 280

LXXXI. — June 1. I. State of Laws and Manners in Jamaica illustrated :
— 1. Presumption of Slavery from Colour; 2. Case of W. O.
Chapman and two Negro Boys ...... 281 — 285

II. Disturbances in Antigua. Prohibition of Sunday Markets . 285 — 288

III. The recent West Indian Manifesto 288

CONTENTS.

No. Page.

LXXXII. — June 25. The West Indian Manifesto^examined : — Abstract
of Ameliorating' Laws, viz. — 1. On Religious Instruction,
Observance of the Sabbath, Baptism, Marriage; 2. Food,
Clothing, Lodging-, &c. ; 3. Labour, Exaction of; 4. Arbitrary-
Punishment; 5. Separation of Families, (Mr. Burge's misre-
presentations) ; 6. Manumission; 7. Slave Evidence ; 8. Right
of Property; 9. Legal Protection 289—316

LXXXIII. — July 12. Official Information respecting the Progress of
Reform in the Slave Colonies of Great Britain during the ast
year: — 1. Jamaica; 2. Nevis; 3. Barbadoes; 4. Antigua;

5. St. Vincent; 6. Trinidad ; 7. Demerara; 8. Berbice; 9. St.
Lucia; 10. Bermuda; 11. Cape of Good Hope; 12. Mauritius.
Conclusion . 317 — 332

LXXXIV. — July 18. Protectors' of Slaves Reports. — I. Demerara : — Ob-
servations of Secretary of State; Complaints of Slaves, cases
of Rosey, George, James, Mrs. Lowe's Slaves, Acouba, and
Fanny ; unjust detention of Slaves in bondage ; arbitrary domes-
tic inflictions ; marriage ; manumissions ; wages of Sunday-
labour . . 333 — 348

LXXXY.— July 25. I. Reports of Protectors of Slaves.— II. Berbice :
— Manumissions; Marriages; Savings' Banks; Domestic
Punishments; Complaints of Slaves, viz. : — Cases of 1. Friday;
2. Georgiana ; 3. Jan Zwart; 4. Christina; 5. Richard ; 6. Ja-
son; 7. Geluk and Coenraad; 8. January; 9. Wilhelmina;
10. Quaco; 11. Paul and others ; 12. Nancy; 13. Peggy; 14.
Adam and others ; 15. Castlereagh ; 16. Johanna; 17. Margaret
and Present ; General Observations on Excess of Labour ; on
Sunday Labour; and on Religious Instruction; Concluding
Reflections .......... 349 sqt

II. Donations and Remittances ...... 368

LXXXVI. — August. Protectors' of Slaves Reports : —

III. Trinidad : — 1. Complaints of Slaves ; 2. Persecutions of
Slaves ; 3. Domestic Punishments ; 4. Manumissions ; 5. Mar-
riages, &c 369—374

IV. St. Lucia: — 1. Domestic Punishments; 2. Complaints of
Slaves; 3. Of Masters ; 4. Manumissions, &c. . . . 374 375

V. Cape of Good Hope : — Punishments of Complainants ; Obser-
vations of the Secretary of State on Protectors' Reports . . 377 384

LXXXVIL— ^Mg-MSt 20. Protectors' of Slaves Reports :—

VI. Mauritius: — 1. Manumissions; 2. Marriage and Religious
Instruction ; 3. Complaints of Slaves against Masters ; 4. Com-
plaints of Masters against Slaves ; 5, Prosecutions of Masters;

6. Prosecutions of Slaves ; 7. General Treatment; Conclusion . 385—420

LXXXVIII. — September 10. I. Recent Communications from Hayti,

continued from No. 79. ........ 42 1 447

II. Donations and Subscriptions ...... 447 448

CONTENTS.

No. Page.

LXXXIX,— October 25, I, TLe Colony of Antigua; its Laws and

Manners 449 — 453

II. Emancipation of Crown Slaves ...... 453 — 455

III. A View of Jamaica Jails 455 — 458

IV. Jamaica Slave Population : Burge versus Buxton . . 458 — 466

V. Laws and Manners of Jamaica illustrated ; — 1. Parochial Reso-
lutions of Revolt ; 2. Jamaica Justice and Lenity . . . 466 — 468

XC. — November 30. I. Report of the Incorporated Society for the Conver-
sion, Religious Instruction, and Education of the Negro Slaves
in the West Indies, for the year 1829 469 — 484

XCI. — December. I. Report of the Society for Promoting Christian

Knowledge, for 1830 . 485 — 487

II. Report of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign

Parts, for 1830 487—491

III. President Jeremie's Four Essays on Colonial Slavery . 491 — 500

IV. Convention with France for Abolishing the Slave Trade . 500

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 73.] JANUARY 1, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 1.

Farther Correspondence of the Secretary of State, Sir
George Murray, with the Governors of the Slave
Colonies of Great Britain, viz : — L Jamaica ; 2. Bahamas ;
3. St. Christophers ; 4. St. Vincent ; 5. Tobago ; 6. Crown
Colonies generally ; 7. Mauritius.

We have already referred in No. 71 (p. 496), and No. 72 (p. 505),
to a volume laid on the table of the House of Commons by Sir George
Murray, on the 16th July, 1830, numbered 676, but which has been
only recently made public. It is entitled " Papers presented to Par-
Hament by his Majesty's Command, in explanation of the Measures
adopted by his Majesty's Government, for the Melioration of the Con-
dition of the Slave Population in his Majesty's Possessions in the West
Indies, on the Continent of South America, and at the Mauritius, in
continuation of the Papers presented in the year 1829, No. 333." We
proceed to give an abstract of them in the order in which they stand.

1. Jamaica.

A letter from Lord Belmore, dated 20th Dec, 1829, transmits a
copy of the new Jamaica Slave Code, to which his Lordship, contrary,
it seems, to his instructions, had given his assent, without appear-
ing to have been conscious that in doing so he was guilty of a derelic-
tion of his public duty. He laments, indeed, one clause in the Bill,
and one only, which he says creates an invidious distinction between
sectarians and ministers of the established church ; but he seems to
have entirely forgotten that he had been absolutely prohibited from
assenting to any law already disallowed by his Majesty, or from pass-
ing any persecuting enactment whatever without a suspending clause.
Now this act of 1829 was nearly the same act, and it embodied the same
persecuting clauses contained in that of 1 826, which had been disallowed
by Mr. Huskisson, and in that of 1827, to which, under the express
orders of the Government, Sir John Keane, then Governor, had refused
his assent. " As the bill," his Lordship says, ," upon the whole,
is certainly more favourable to the Slave that that of 1826, I could not
feel myself justified in refusing my assent to it."

• We have carefully collated the two acts, and we venture to say, that
it would greatly puzzle Lord Belmore to state a single substantial
amelioration in that of 1829, as compared with that of 1826, while we
could specify more than one deterioration. But both laws being
defunct, we need not waste time in analyzing them ; and as to the
course pursued by the Noble Lord, the necessity of any remark of ours
upon his conduct, is precluded by the masterly despatch of Sir G.
Murray, which exhibits a perfect model of calm, firm, and dignified
reproof.

2 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Janiftica.

" In referring," he says, " to your Lordship's general instructions
under the signet and sign manual, accompanying your commission
under the great seal, you will perceive that, in the article numbered 12,
you are required not to re-enact any law to which his Majesty's assent
has once been refused, without express leave for that purpose first ob-
tained. In the instructions addressed by the Earl of Liverpool to the
Duke of Manchester, of the 19th March, 1810, and in Mr. Huskisson's
instructions to Sir John Keane, of the 22d Sept. 1827, and the 22d
March, 1828, it was required, that all laws restraining the liberty of
.religious worship should be passed with a suspending clause. In the
present case, the second of these rules has not been strictly observed ;
and thejirst has been disregarded altogether. Although the Ministers
of the Crown have not thought it right to advise his Majesty to decide
upon an act of so much importance as the present, with reference to
any consideration foreign to the real merits of the law itself; yet I
cannot omit to observe, that the standing instructions under which you
act will, in general, be your best and most secure guide in the admi-
nistration of the government of Jamaica."

After referring to the correspondence which had already passed on
the part of Mr. Huskisson, and afterwards of himself, with the Colonial
Government, he expresses the extent of his disappointment and regret
to find the obnoxious clauses of the act of 1826 renewed. In the act
"of 1829, he says, " I have found one amendment, the value of which
I am happy to acknowledge. It consists in the rejection of the pre-
amble to the clause respecting the contribution of Slaves for religious
objects. The legislature have obviously felt, and have wisely though
tacitly acknowledged, the inexpediency of giving the weight of their
..authority to imputations affecting indiscriminately the character of the
whole body of dissenting teachers in the island."* " The sam.e com-
parison, however, has disclosed the fact, that the restrictions of the
present law are in no respect less rigorous, and that, in one important
particular, they are decidedly more severe than that of the act which
has already been disallowed. Under the act of 1826, members of the
Presbyterian Kirk, or licensed ministers, were permitted to perform
divine worship at any time before the hour of eight o'clock in the
evening, at any licensed place of worship ; and the religious worship
of the Roman Catholics and Jews was not restricted by any limitation
as to the time of the day at which it might take place. The act of
1 829 would entirely abolish these privileges. "f

* The words omitted are the following : " And whereas under pretence of
offerings and contributions, large sums of money and other chattels have been
extorted by designing men professing to be teachers of religion, practising on the
ignorance and superstition of the Negroes in this Island, to their great loss and
impoverishment," &c. But though this calumnious preamble is omitted, the enact-
ment itself, prohibiting all such contributions, stands in undiminished vigour.
And this is the single amendment which Sir George Murray has specified as having
been noted by him on the collation of this act with that of 1826.

f The act of 1829 enacts, that all assembling of Slaves or other persons for
religious purposes " between sunset and sunrise, shall be held and deemed un-
lawful, and any minister or other person professing to be a teacher of religion,

Correspondence with Colo7iial Governments — Jamaica. 3

" The question upon which the Ministers of the Crown have been
called to advise his Majesty is, Avhether enactments will now be as-
sented to, which, little more than two years ago, his Majesty was
pleased to disallow, these enactments having now acquired additional
rigour, and being therefore more distinctly within the reach of the
same objections. In considering the question, it has not been thought
an immaterial circumstance, that a bill, exactly corresponding with the
first act, was passed by the Council and Assembly in 1827, and was
rejected by the officer administering the government of the Colony,
whose conduct in that respect was entirely approved. The present is
therefore the third attempt which has been made in the course of
three years to introduce the law respecting religious worship i?i oppo-
sition to the most distinct and repeated expression of his Majesty's
disapprobation of the principles on which it jiroceeds.'"- — -If this be not
contumacy, we know not what can be so designated. " It would be
impossible," adds the Secretary of State, " without a total sacrifice of
consistency, to sanction the measure under such circumstances ! !"
The act is therefore disallowed.*

Some soothing and complimentary expressions follow respecting the
benefits that would have accrued to the Slaves from other provisions
of the disallowed act ; which, nevertheless, it is remarked, do, " in many
important respects, fall short of the measures which his Majesty has
introduced into the Colonies which are subject to his legislative autho-
rity in his Privy Council." What the benefits here spoken of are, we
confess ourselves utterly at a loss to discover. The variations in that
act from the act of 1816, may be demonstrated to be improvements in
appearance only, and not in reality.

Before we quit Jamaica, however, we must advert to a curious epi-
sode to the main action of the drama. Lord Belmore informs Sir G.
Murray, that the following extract of a letter from the Island agent,
Mr. George Hibbert, dated 4th Feb. 1829, had been read in the
Assembly during the discussion on the persecuting clauses, and decided
the members to pass those clauses : " Sir George Murray declared to
me his great concern and disappointment, that after exerting his ut-
most endeavours to open the door to a settlement (without any painful
sacrifice to either party,) of existing differences between the Govern-
ment at home and our Jamaica Legislature, he should have been met
by our Assembly with such an unbending spirit, as to be satisfied with
nothing less than a submission on the part of Government too dis-

ministers of the established church excepted," acting contrary to this act, shall
forfeit not less than £20 or more than £50, for each offence, or in default of pay-
ment, be imprisoned in the common gaol for one month.

* The reasons given by the Privy Council for the disallowance of this act are,
that " it contains certain provisions respecting religious worship, and respecting
contributions made by Slaves," which were contained in a former act, that of
1826, formerly disallowed, and because the Governor, " by the instructions ac-
companying his commission under the great seal of 20th Nov. 1828, is required
not to re-enact any law to which the Royal assent had been refused, without
express leave for that purpose first obtained, on a full representation of the reasons
aBd necessity of re-enacting such law,"

4 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Bahamks.

graceful to be borne. A very slight amendment of the Slave Bill
Avould (he said) have been quite sufficient, and have served rather as
a pretext for passing it than as a removal of all that has been objected
to against the act of 1826."

In reply to this extraordinary communication, Sir G. Murray, in a letter
dated 8th April 1830, observes, " It can scarcely be necessary that I
should disavov^r the use of any such expressions as Mr. Hibbert has attri-
buted to me. My respect for that gentleman's character compels me
to believe that he made the statement under the influence of no impro-
per motive, although under a total and extraordinary misconception of
what I really said. I cannot forbear to express my regret and surprise
that any gentleman in the House of Assembly at Jamaica should have
attached the slightest credit to such a report, or should have thought
me capable of contradicting, in a private conversation with the Island
Agent, the tenor of my public despatches to your Lordship. It cannot
be too distinctly explained that the views of His Majesty's Govern-
ment, on questions connected with the interests of Jamaica, are to be
learnt through no other channel than that of the Governor of the Co-
lony. The importance of firmly maintaining this distinction, could
not be more strongly illustrated by any case than the present, in which
(through some strange misunderstanding of my expressions,) I have
been represented by Mr. Hibbert as desiring to compromise the great
and immutable principles of religious toleration, by having recourse to
some subtle and insignificant verbal distinction. Such a subterfuge
would ill become any one whom His Majesty had been pleased to call
to a share in his councils."

This is a strain of upright and manly sentiment which will not be
very intelligible to those who have long breathed the moral atmosphere
of Jamaica.

2. Bahamas.

We have from the Bahamas a new slave code, dated in January
1830, which is really nothing more than the renewal, in a somewhat
diversified order, of the wordy and worthless enactments of 1824 and
1826, the barbarousness and inefficiency of which we have already
exposed.* No exposure, however, could be more effectual than that
contained in a despatch of Mr. Huskisson to the Governor, dated 5th
March 1828. The legislature was at length driven, by that despatch,
to correct a few of the more barbarous of the former provisions, espe-
cially in what related to free persons of colour, whom former acts had
degraded almost to the level of the slave. The Governor, Sir J. C.
Smyth, also states, that the new act has removed many of the former
restrictions on slave evidence. But we cannot find that more than two
or three trifling changes of no moment are introduced. The remaining
restrictions are quite sufficient to justify the application of Mr. Huskis-

* See Slave Colonies of Great Britain, p. 4 — 11. Anti-Slavery Reporter, No.
6, p. 50; No. 11, p. 151 ; No. 21, p. 307; No. 28, p. 80; No. 31, p. 150; and
No. 43, p. 345.

Correspondence with Colonial Governments — -^S*^. Kitt's. 5

son's former opinion in his despatch of March 5th, 1828, to the present
law : " On the subject of evidence, the general principle seems to be
recognised that the servile condition of a witness does not prevent the
admission of his testimony. But the rule would appear to be almost
wholly lost in the variety of the subsequent exceptions," It is, in fact,
wholly lost.

The Governor, as is usual in the speeches of Governors, praises the
legislature for what they have done, though that is next to nothing ;
and holds out hopes that in a session or two something will be done
more effectual. His despatch, however, betrays an important secret
of colonial misrepresentation, which is chiefly of use in establishing,
by further evidence, the fallacy of those tales of accumulations of
property by slaves, by which the British public have been long deluded.
He states that the new act has done away with the commission it had
proposed to charge on the money of slaves lodged in Savings' banks,
and to grant them interest upon it at the rate of 6 per cent., in com-
pliance with Mr. Huskisson's suggestion. (They are ready enough to
comply, where nothing is gained to the slave by compliance.) But
the Governor, not well aware of what he was doing, and what a fabric
of falsehood he was destroying,* tells the Secretary of State, " On this
head it is proper that I should explain that both the former charge of
commission and the present interest are equally imaginary. A saving
bank is established by law, but not one farthing has ever been paid
into it. What little money" (little indeed !) " is possessed by slaves,
is invariably laid out again in fowls and vegetables, which they sell
again to the shipping. The saving bank may hereafter be useful, but
as more money is to be made by the little traffic I have explained, the
saving bank, whether charging or granting interest, has hitherto been
equally neglected." Whence this farce of a saving bank for slaves
first sprung it is not easy to imagine. It doubtless arose from those
mendacious tales of the wealth of slaves which, for forty years, colonial
witnesses have been repeating in the face of all truth and all proba-
bility. Slaves, it is true, have sometimes amassed a little money, but
it has only be©n in the case of head slaves, either drivers or mechanics,
or of women earning the wages of prostitution, and saving wherewith
to redeem themselves ; and seldom, if ever, in the case of field slaves
who form the mass of the slave population.

3. >S'^. Christophers.
From this island there is nothing reported in the way of improve-
ment. We have, however, a speech of the Governor's, lauding the steps
taken by the legislature, the real character of which may be seen in
aur Reporter, No. 38 ; and expressing a hope that their future pro-
ceedings will give a triumphant refutation to the calumnies put forth
against them. What then are those calumnies of which the Governor com-
plains ? Do they refer to the case of Lord Romney's slave, Betto Doug-
las? (No. 25.) Or do they refer to a passage in a former despatch of his,
quoted by us, No. 29, p. 112, in which he laments that the legislature

* See Stephen's Delineation, vol. ii. p. 330, &c.

6 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — St. Vincent.

had refused to appoint a guardian of slaves ; " as I feel convinced
that without some provision of the kind the slaves will not have the
protection and support to which their forlorn situation so justly entitles
them?" Or if our review of their late act (see No. 38, p. 270 — 276,)
be referred to, we should be glad to know wherein that review departs
from the strictest • truth. Will it be denied that the following cruel,
oppressive, and barbarous enactments are still in force, viz. Act of
1711, § 4, 8, 9, 10; Act of 1722, § 6, 8, 13, 18 ; and Acts of 1759
and 1790; or that the miserable pittances of food and clothing as-
signed to the slave, and the severity of labour exacted from him, are
still the same as fixed in the Act of 1798, § 1 and § 10 ? The calumny
alluded to must have been gross to exceed the enormity of these and
other enactments of this bepraised colony, the assembly of which, on
the 22d October 1829, scruple not to tell their Governor, that "on
the subject of the amelioration of the slave population" " they presume
to think that no specific matter remains for their consideration."—
What, not although the allowance of food to working slaves in St.
Christophers is not half of what is allowed to runaway slaves imprisoned
in Jamaica; and although the quantity of labour the master may
exact by law extends to fifteen or sixteen hours a day, on the average
of the whole year ? These facts will be found demonstrated beyond
the possibility of denial in the second volume of Mr. Stephen's Delin-
eation of Slavery, just published, chapters iv. v. and viii. In the
appendix to that work, p. 442, may also be found a dreadful case
of murderous and unpunished cruelty, proceeding, for years, in St.
Christophers, and only now dragged to light.
4. St. Vincent.

Sir G. Murray, in reference to the ninth clause of the Slave Code
of this island, passed in December 1825, by which the Sunday markets
were ordered to terminate at ten o'clock in the forenoon, says, he un-
derstands that this law is wholly disregarded, and in practice absolutely
nugatory; and he requests the governor, Sir C. Brisbane, to inform
him what the fact really is. The reply of Sir C. Brisbane is very in-
structive, and throws so much light on the real nature of pretended
colonial reform, and on the colonial prejudice and partizanship of at
least some colonial governors, that we shall give it entire. It is dated
the 22d of May, 1829.

" I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch,
dated the 2nd of April, 1829, relating to the Sunday markets. It is
certainly true that the efforts of the legislature have not been able
hitherto to put down this irregular proceeding ; and such are the in-
veterate habits of the negroes, arising from a long customary enjoy-
ment (as it is estimated by them) of marketing on Sunday, that no-
thing but absolute force will remedy the evil at present complained of.
The slaves consider the abolition of this privilege as one of the greatest
hardships imposed on them ; and I am of opinion that hitherto n©
moral improvement, or more strict observance of the Sabbath has taken
place in consequence. The prices of provisions also are increased to
the great injury of domestic and other slaves in Kingstown, who rely
upon the market for subsistence. Until the negroes shall have ac-

Correspondence loith Colonial Governments — St. Vincent. 7

quired a sufficient degree of religion to induce them to observe the
Sabbath from a principle of morality, they will not give up their habits
of trafficking on Sundays. I have, however, endeavoured to remedy the
evil as far as I can by issuing most peremptory orders to the clerk of
the market, the chief constable, and all others under him, to carry the
law into complete effect."

On several occasions we have dwelt at great length on the unjust
and oppressive policy pursued by the colonial legislatures respecting
Sunday markets, a policy for which they have too ready a sanction in
the unaccountable course adopted on the same subject, in the Orders
in Council for the Crown colonies. We will repeat now what we said
in the Reporter, No. 52, p. 67, when treating of the Act of Grenada,
to prevent holding markets on Sunday. It contains no provision
whatever by which the act can be made to contribute in the very
slightest degree to the amelioration of the condition of the slaves.
They can no longer attend Sunday markets ; but no legal provision is
made for their being able to attend them on any other day. No other
day is given to them ; nor are they on any other day protected by law
from being seized and sold for their master's debts, which would in-
evitably follow, in a great majority of cases, from travelling to market
on 3,ny day but Sunday. To the slave, therefore, without some law
which shall appropriate a certain day to his use, and which shall protect
him on that day from arrest for his master's debts, the pretended ame-
lioration of either abolishing or restricting Sunday markets is a positive
injury instead of a benefit. It is an act of cruel oppression superadded
to all his other wrongs.

This truth has been repeated in the pages of the Reporter, whenever
the same unjust course has been pursued in the legislation either of
the crown or of the chartered colonies. It is impossible therefore that
it should not have attracted notice, and that all parties concerned
should not be fully aware that the only effectual remedy which can be
applied to the evil of a public market on Sunday is not only to fix, by
law, another day for it, but, by law also, to give that day to the slave,
and to protect him, during its course, from being seized and sold for
his master's debts.

The legislature of St. Vincents was perfectly aware of this, and yet
they affect to abolish Sunday markets without a single provision to
render such abolition practicable. Doubtless the slaves consider this a
great hardship, and so it is. And Sir Charles Brisbane though equally
aware of the fact, insults the common sense of Parliament and of the
Secretary of State, by saying " that nothing but absolute force will
remedy the evil at present complained of." What is this but a com-
plete misapprehension, at least, of the real nature of the case ? Is not
then the remedy we have proposed practicable? Has it ever been
tried and found to fail ? Has the slightest rational attempt been made
by this governor, or by the St. Vincent legislature, to facilitate their
own professed intention to abolish Sunday markets ? And yet Sir C.
Brisbane, ofi^ering his counsel on this subject to the Crown, to whom he is
bound to give faithful counsel,tells the Secretary of State that " nothing
but absolute force will remedy the evil at present complained of;" al-

8 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — St. Vincent.

though he naightknow that abetter and more eflPectual remedy, one too
m perfect accordance with the views of his sovereign and ofparUament,
and one unattended with oppression and cruelty to the slave, is in the
power of the legislature over which he presides; and on this he is
nevertheless not only silent in his intercourse with that legislature; but,
in his communications to the minister of the crown, virtually denies that
any such remedy is to be found. It would be difficult for us adequately
to convey our impression of such conduct.

But this is not the only complaint we have to make of Sir C. Bris-
bane as to the discharge of his high functions. He now informs the
Secretary of State of the impossibility which has been experienced
of preserving the sabbath from desecration by the slaves. But in a
letter of his dated only six months earlier, viz. 26th November 1828,
he makes to Sir G. Murray the following statement, a statement which
we scrupled not at the time to affirm to be wholly at war with fact,
(See No. 52, p. 75.) " In St. Vincent, I can testify, and truly de-
clare, that Sunday is, in the fullest sense of the expression, a day of
rest, and that the slaves are as completely exempt as they can be
from co7npulsory labour on that day. No such thing is known, nor
do the masters so rigidly exact the labour of the slaves on the other
six days as to render labour, on their part, necessary for affording the
means of subsistence.'" In the passage above referred to, (No. 52,)
we produced decisive proof that this statement was incorrect. Accord-
ingly, when Sir G. Murray, who appears to have learnt from some other
quarter the real state of the case, in his letter of the 2nd April, 1 829, calls
on the governor for a specific report on the subject, the Governor is
forced to give a flat contradiction to his former statement, by shewing
that the slaves were compelled to traffic on Sunday, no other time
being given them; and he paints the desecration of the Sunday, as an
evil incurable except by absolute force, in as vivid colours as he for-
merly described its repose. Contrast his two letters with each other.
Both cannot be true. In fact neither is true. He seems in the
first case to deny the fact of the desecration of Sunday, lest it should
be supposed the planters did not give full time to the slaves both to
go to market, and to labour for their subsistence during the week.
And when the real facts came to Sir G- Murray's knowledge, and he
is questioned upon them, then he admits what he before denied, and
throws all the blame on the slaves, whose inveterate attachment to
Sunday markets prevents the pious wishes of the planters from being-
carried into effect; whereas he should have pointed out to the displeasure
of the crown and of the country, the irreligious, sordid, and contuma-
cious spirit of the planters which had refused to appropriate to the
slaves any other time for marketing than the Sunday, of which they
had been deprived. The Rev. Mr. Holberton, then officiating as
a clergyman in St. Vincent, complains that he cannot obtain an at-
tendance of the slaves on Sunday, until " their obligation to cultivate
their lands on the sabbath ceases," which obligation he affirms to exist
on all but one or two estates., where ^ day in lieu of Sunday is given.
Now whom are we to believe ; Mr, Holberton who makes this state-
ment; or Sir C. Brisbane, who having first " testified and truly declared"

Correspondence %oitk Colonial Governments — Tobago. 9

that Sunday in St. Vincent was " in the fullest sense of the expression
a day of rest,'' shortly after stultifies his own testimony, by admitting
its constant and notorious desecration, even in the chief town of the
island, attributing it entirely to the irreligion and immorality of the
slaves, when he might have known that it was absolutely forced upon
them by the irreligion, immorality, and cupidity of their masters ?

We are sorry to detain our readers with these details and reasonings.
They are essential to the right understanding of the enormities of this
slave system, which is bottomed in crime and injustice, and can only
be supported by delusive representations on the part of those who live
by it. The artful disguises which are used to veil this mass of iniquity
from the public view must be stripped off, and it can only be done
effectually by such minute examinations as we have now instituted.
f There is, also, in these papers, a letter of Sir George Murray, dated
3d September, 1829, disallowing an act of the legislature of St. Vin-
cent, on Slave Evidence. We can only infer the nature of that act
from the just and able comments of the Right Honourable Secretary.
The law, he says, has been disallowed, " because it introduces a dis-
tinction between the competency of (slave) witnesses, with reference to
the free or servile condition of the person upon the trial of whom their
evidence may be tendered. If the party accused be a freeman, then
the certificate of a religious teacher, that the slave is adequately in-
structed to understand the nature and obligation of an oath is required;
but if the accused party be a slave, then this condition is dispensed
with. There is, however, no valid ground for this distinction. If the
legislature should deem it right to dispense Avith certificates of this
nature in all cases, his Majesty will be advised to sanction a law of
that nature, but the rule which creates the necessity of producing such
certificates must either be maintained in all cases, or abolished in all."
What an impression of the unfitness of the planters for the office of
legislators does such a circumstance convey! The slaves seem far
more fit for freedom than the masters are for legislation.

5. Tobago.

The Governor of this island. Colonel Blackwell,* has transmitted a
new slave act, passed in August 1829, in a letter dated the 23rd of that
month, in which he says, " This Act, I have much satisfactioia in
thinking, embraces nearly all the principal points recommended by his
Majesty's Government — and in as far as unrestricted slave evidence ;
trial by jury, under every circumstance of a criminal nature, similar to
persons of free condition ; with the full means of acquiring every kind
of property, or disposing of it, has surpassed them. The only clause
of any consequence, differing from the draft of the Bill I had the ho-
nour to forward to you on the 30th May last, which has been thrown
out, is that of carrying the whip into the field ; and here I have to ob-
serve, that I may assure you even this measure will be completely
neutralized, since I have the pledge of two gentlemen, who are the
attorneys of the greater part of the estates in this island, that it is their
intention immediately to order a discontinuance of the practice upon

* See No. 29, p. 113.
c

10 Correspondence with Colonial Governnients — Tohatjo.

all the estates over which they hold a charge ; and from the influence
which these gentlemen possess throughout the island, I can have little
hesitation in giving it as my opinion, that the period is not far distant
when the whip in the field will fall into total disuse." — " I am bound
to represent the extremely liberal feeling which very generally exists
throughout the island in favour of the slave population, and which has
been further called into action from the uniform, peaceable, respectful,
and orderly conduct of the slaves themselves. Indeed, crime of any
magnitude is seldom heard of; and that cruelty or unnecessary op-
pression does not exist, can be better proved from the circumstance of
having laid myself out to listen to the complaints of all slaves conceiv-
ing themselves to be aggrieved ; and that no one instance of complaint
has come before me for the last six or eight months."

Now it is really too large a demand on the credulity, either of
Sir George Murray, or the British public, for this gentleman to sub-
stitute the pledge of intention on the part of two planting attorneys,
for the provisions of a law duly sanctioned, as a security for the backs
of 1 3,000 of his Majesty's subjects from the driving-whip; and to desire
us to believe that though those two men could not obtain a law, from
twelve or fourteen of the most intelligent men in the island, prohibiting
the whip in the field, their influence will obtain, from the whole commu-
nity of planters, the disuse of it without the intervention of law. What
a strange estimate must he have formed of Sir George Murray's under-
standing, or of that of the public at large; or how strangely blinded
must he be by colonial prejudice, gravely to bring forward so
feeble a pretext for acquiescing in the pertinacious refusal of the
Tobago planters to put down the driving-whip by law !

But let us examine the correctness of the Governor's statement. He
Says, "This act, I have much satisfaction in thinking, embraces nearly
all the principal points recommended by his Majesty's Government,"
and in some, he adds, it even surpasses them.

Now let us first notice the points of that recommendation entirely
omitted in this act.

The first is the appointment of an independent Protector, who hav-
ing no interest in slave property, shall watch over the interests of the
slave. The high expediency of such an appointriient is fully admitted,
even by the Council of Tobago, in their report of February 12, 1827.
" They can see no good or valid objection to the appointment of such
an officer. Whatever rules may be framed for the protection of the
slave population, it is obvious that they will require some person to
look after their enforcement, as it can never be reasonably expected
that an unpaid magistracy will take upon theinselves, voluntarily, the
obnoxious character of informers. If, therefore, laws are to be made
for the protection of the slaves, there should be a sworn and salaried
officer to watch over their observance."

Fully concurring in these sentiments of the Council of Tobago, we
can see, in so much of this new act as pretends to amelioration, nothing
which is not rendered nugatory by the want of this executory principle.

2. On the subject of Sunday markets and Sunday labour, we should
only have to repeat what is said above, under the head of St. Vincent.

3. The driving-whip is not prohibited by this act.

Correspondence %uith Colonial Governments-^Tobago. 11

4. Females may still be flogged, but improper exposure in flogging
is forbidden.

5. No record of arbitrary punishment is required by it.

6. The provisions for facilitating manumission are wholly rejected.

7. It does not punish cruelty to a slave by authorizing his liberation.

8. The marriage of slaves is subjected to grievous restrictions, and
can only be solemnized by a clergyman. No slave marriage, as far as
we are yet informed, has ever taken place in Tobago. The latest re-
turn that we have seen is Nil.

9. But though there is not one married slave in Tobago, and though
the legislature, by its restrictions, would seem determined to prevent
marriage in all time to come, yet it refuses, in its wisdom, to forbid the
separation by sale of families by repute, as is done in the Crown Co-
lonies, and confines the prohibition, on an island where there is not a
married slave, to slaves legally married — and this, say the planters,
lest by doing so, they should encourage licentiousness ! They have
encouraged licentiousness hitherto by their own example. They have
never taken a step to sanction the marriage of slaves, or to induce
them to marry till the present act was framed, which act throws nearly
insuperable impediments in its way ; and yet they refuse to recognize,
for the merciful purpose of non-separation, those ties which alone they
have encouraged ! Such is West India legislation ! And such Colonel
Blackwell's estimate of what is in conformity with the views of the
British Government ! This act, he says, embraces nearly all the
points which that Government has recommended !

Then as to the only two points which the act even afi'ects to embrace ;
one, though adopted in terms, we mean the law of property, is rendered
inoperative by the want of a protector, or of any authorized channel
for vindicating the slave's rights of property. The other, that of slave
evidence, we trust will be of use, as the provisions on this head seem
to be at least as unexceptionable as those in the Order of Council,
(still remembering that there is here no protector to enforce them) and
therefore the Tobago legislature must have full credit for them. But
still how very far does all this fall short of the representations of the
governor !

But, besides those most important oinissions which we have men-
tioned, we have other complaints to prefer against this new slave
code, of which the governor thinks so highly.

The 41st clause of the Act of August 1823, allowed to the slave for
the purpose of cultivating his provision grounds, one day in every week
from the 1st day of May to the 31st day of December i^^ each year. (See
Papers by command of 1824, p. 101.) This gave to the slave thirty-
five days in the year for his provision grounds. The legislators of
Tobago appear to have repented of this liberality ; for in the 9th clause
of the Act of August 1829, the grant of a day in the week is limited
to the period between the 1st of May and the 1st, not the 31st, of De-
cember, thus cutting off from the slave four days at least, if not five ;
besides which, the owner or manager is permitted to mulct the slaves
four days more, at his discretion, by way of commutation for corporal
chastisement, thus reducing the grant to twenty-six days. Nay, it is
even declared by this new and improved law, that if the gang shall

12 Correspondence with Colunlal Governments — Tobago.

misbehave, or if any owner or manager shall not be able to discover
the perjjetrator " oj" any larceny or depredation or other offence,"
it shall and may be lawful for him " to deprive such gang" (the whole
gang) " or such part thereof as he may deem fit, of one or more of the
days hereby allowed, or of one or more allowances of food, or to defer
serving out of the clothing, &c., as a punishment for the misbehaviour,
or until the perpetrator shall be discovered." And this new and most
iniquitous principle of law, the punishment of the innocent with a view
to the detection of the guilty, is introduced, as an ameliorating provi-
sion, into a slave Act of 1829, and, we fear, may even have received
the sanction of the crown. — Again; in the Act of 1823, ^ 34, owners,
&c., are required to give their slaves sufficient food and clothing (not
specifying quantity) under a penalty of ten pounds for every slave
not sufficiently fed, and ten pounds more for every slave not suffi-
ciently clothed. The present Act, § 9, also requires in the same vague
terms, that every owner shall provide all his slaves " with comfortable
lodging, sufficient food, and decent clothing," and every person who
shall wilfully neglect or refuse to do so " shall forfeit and pay the sum
of forty shillings sterling for every slave not by him provided with
food and clothing." The food and clothing of a slave must cost
little if forty shillings be an adequate penalty to deter men from neg-
lecting to supply them, being also so very much less than was thought
expedient in 1823. The penalty too is the same whether the scanty
supply of food and clothing be for a day, or a month, or a year.
— what value can we affix to such senseless enactments ?

But we are enabled, by the succeeding clause of the Act, ^ 10, to es-
timate what the legislature of Tobago regards as sufficient food and
clothing : for even when a body of complaining slaves shall have satis-
factorily proved their allowance to be insufficient, and the magistrate
interposes ; what is the rule given for his guidance ; in other words,
what is the maximum of food and clothing allowed by law to the slave ?
It is, in the case of food, five quarts of flour weekly for an adult w^ork-
ing slave ; the allowance in Jamaica for a slave confined in gaol being
ten quarts and a half; with the addition of some salt fish in both cases.
The prison allowance of Jamaica is thus more than double the allow-
ance of the working field slave in Tobago ; and even this scanty al-
lowance,whichthe magistrates have no powergiven them to enlarge, they
are armed with a power of abridging at their discretion. They are em-
powered to give the specified allowance, or "so much or such parts
thereof as to the justices in their discretion shall seem meet." A simi-
lar discretion is given as to the annual allowance of clothing, the maxi-
mum of which, to plantation slaves, is six yards of pennistone, six yards
of osnaburgh, and a hat, a blanket being added once in three years ;
making the annual value of the whole, including a third of the blanket,
from fifteen to eighteen shillings. To other than plantation slaves
the maximum of the weekly allowance for subsistence is " money, or
provisions, equivalent to two shillings sterling " (nearly three-pence
halfpenny a day,) and "an annual allowance of one suit of clothing."*
We may conceive to what a state this one suit of flimsy clothing must

* Here we have in fact the slave's maximum of wages in Tobago !

Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Tobago. 13

be reduced before the year has gone its round. And this is the slave
code of Tobago in 1829 ! of that island where the estates of Mr. Keith
Douglas, the champion of West Indian interests, are situated, and of
the humanity of whose legislation he has so often and so loudly boasted
in the House of Commons !

Then we have one clause about religious instruction unaccompanied by
any penalty, or sanction, or any allotment of time or means ; and an-
other, about restraining the number of stripes to twenty by an o^vner or
manager (called overseer in Jamaica,) and six by an overseer (called
book-keeper in Jamaica,) without any specific penalty attached ; while
it leaves the owner or manager at liberty, in cases not cognizable by
laiu, that is, in cases of mere plantation disciplin.e, where he thinks
twenty lashes too little for the offence, to apply to a magistrate who
shall have power to increase the twenty to thirty-nine. — The new Act
continues to sanction that terrible principle of colonial law which
makes a black skin presumptive evidence of slavery; so that every black
man who is not claimed by any owner, and cannot produce legal proof
of his freedom, may be sold into interminable bondage for the benefit
of the island treasury.

We have deemed it right, at this time, to shew the public the exact
progress which colonial reform has made in the .year 1829, as exem-
plified by this act, bearing date in that year, and held forth by a
British governor of one of our colonies, as satisfying almost every re-
quirement of humanity. If he is satisfied, he will find that England
will not be satisfied with such outrages under the pretence of ameliora-
tion ; but will only feel the more strongly the necessity of sweeping
away such a system root and branch.

But, says the governor, in proof of the lenity of the Tobago system,
" I have laid myself out to listen to complaints of slaves, and no
instance of complaint has come before me for the last six or eight
months." In Avhat capacity it is that the governor of Tobago acts in
listening to and redressing the complaints of slaves, he does not in-
form us ; but v/e know that in this very new Act of which he boasts,
and under a system which he applauds as so lenient, there is a clause,
^ 23, that if the complaint of a slave to the justices be found frivolous
and vexatious, such slave so complaining shall be punished by their
order, with stripes not exceeding thirty-nine, or by commitment to hard
labour for a month ; and this not after a trial for the specific crime, or
after being duly arraigned, with time to prepare witnesses, &c. ; but, on
the instant, if the complainant shall not have proved his complaint,
these magistrates not only may, but shall punish such slave as above.
We need not wonder that there are no complaining slaves in Tobago.

But still it may be alleged, that there is in Tobago no fair ground of
complaint. So seems to think the governor Colonel Blackwell. There,
he tells us, there exists generally " an extremely liberal feeling in
favour of the slave popvilation," and that " cruelty or unnecessary op-
pression" actually have no existence there. — The utter fallacy of this
statement, as it respects the Slave law in Tobago, has already been
shewn. Let us now look, for a further and decisive confutation of such
delusive and injurious, because groundless, representations, to the
practical effects of the system on the slave population, — "the peaceable,

14 Correspondence ivith Colonial Governments — Croion Colonies.

respectful, and orderly" slave population, as he terms them, of this
island. Now did it ever occur to him to inquire what proofs were to
be found, in the progressive increase or decrease of that well con-
ducted and meritorious class of persons, of the lenity and kindness
with which they are treated: of the abundance of their food, or of the
mildness of their toil. As he has omitted to do it, we will now apply
this decisive test, both of the treatment of the slaves of Tobago, and of
its governor's capacity to pronounce upon it.

In Tobago, the proportion of the sexes is now, and has long been,
such as is favourable to the increase of population. In 1829, the
males by the Registry were 5,996, and the females 6,757, and this
proportion has little varied for many years. In ordinary circumstan-
ces, therefore, no one wovdd have doubted that a population so cir-
cumstanced must have increased. But what is the fact ? The return
of 1825 gives a population of 13,683 slaves, that of 1829, of 12,723,
exhibiting a decrease of 960 in four years, being very nearly 2 per
cent, per annum. If we go back for ten years, the result will be at
least equally unfavourable. In 1819, the population was 15,470, in
1829, 12,723, being a decrease of 2,747 in that time. Here then we
have an appalling waste and destruction of human life among this
happy, uncomplaining peasantry, which may well lead us to question
the correctness of Governor Blackwell's evidence. But when we
compare this result with that of free blacks in every other part of the
world, and even with slaves in some parts of the world, not devoted to
sugar culture, we shall find that the population of 1819, instead of
having dwindled in ten years to 12,700, ought to have grown to nearly
' 20,000, the difference constituting a waste of human lives, in this petty
possession of Great Britain, arising from the deathful and murderous
system to which we cling with such affection, amounting to upwards
of 7,000.* Can we with our eyes open persist in such a course ? It is
impossible. If we do, the displeasure of the Almighty, the avenger of
the oppressed and desolate, must light upon us. And how know we
that it has not already begun its inflictions ? Are the signs of the times
so illegible ? Are the evils already inflicted, and under which we are
even now suffering, no calls to penitence ? Are the plagues of Egypt
pregnant with no warning ; are they no ensample to us ? And do not
ours proclaim as loudly, " Let the people go " — " undo the heavy
burden; let the oppressed go free."

6. The Crown Colonies.
These papers contain a circular letter of Sir George Murray, dated the
4th February, 1830, addressed to the Governors of Trinidad, Berbice,
Demerara, St. Lucia, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius,
transmitting a copy of the Order in Council of the 2d February, 1830,
consolidating into one all the former orders issued in Trinidad, and
elsewhere, on the subject of Slavery. The substance of this order has
been already given, and its provisions commented upon, in the Anti-
Slavery Reporter, No. 58, to which we must refer our readers. This
order extends, as they are aware, not only to Trinidad, but to the

* The manumissions, if we knew them, would make some slight abatement,
but they have not been returned from Tobago.

Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Croivn Colonies. 15

other five Crown Colonies, some regulations of detail being left to be
filled up by the respective Governors of those colonies, according to
their varying local cirumstances. It is to the manner of framing these
regulations that this despatch of Sir G. Murray chiefly refers.

1 . The Governor is empowered by § 5, to permit the Protector to
hire domestic slaves, only if it be found impossible to hire free domes-
tics ; and Sir George is so impressed with the importance of rescuing
this officer from every temptation to fail in executing the duties of his
office, that he directs the Governor not to dispense with the rule ex-
cept in case of evident necessity, and to no greater extent than may
be clearly unavoidable .*

2. In filling up any temporary vacancy of Protector, the Governor
will appoint no one who is himself an owner of slaves, unless there be
found an absolute impracticability of appointing one who is not.

3. The Governor, on the entire abolition of Sunday markets, is au-
thorised to name another day for the weekly market, and the hours at
which it shall be holden. " On this subject," he says, " you will
consult as far as possible the convenience of the proprietors, and make
such arrangements as you shall think best calculated to induce them
to sanction the resort of their slaves to market." This is really doing-
nothing but trifling with the whole of this important subject. It is
repeating and sanctioning all the inconvenience and even oppression
to the slave, which we have already so fully adverted to in this
number, (see above, p. 7,) in the case of St. Vincent ; and which we
have remarked upon also at large in treating of this subject, in No. 58,
p. 134. Nothing has surprised us more than the course which the
different Secretaries of State have pursued on this point. Their
practical measures seem irreconcileable with their professed principles.

4. The next direction of Sir George Murray we shall give entire, as
it wilhcall for" some observations.

" The general prohibition of the labour of slaves on Sunday, is fol-
lowed by a clause, § 21, which exempts from the rule works of 'neces-
sity.' It is obvious, however, that a general principle, laid down in
terms thus comprehensive, would affbrd occasions for continual evasions
of the law, unless some method were taken to give an authoritative
and more definite interpretation to these expressions. It is therefore
referred to you to define with all possible precision every work of
necessity in which slaves may be employed on Sunday, and to restrict
such employment by such conditions as you may think just. Such a
necessity may arise either from unforeseen accidents, such as confla-
grations, or hurricanes ; or from exigencies of habitual recurrence. Of
course, there can be no good reason why slaves should be exempted
from the obligation, incumbent upon all other members of society, of
labouring on a Svinday to prevent or to arrest the progress of acciden-
tal calamities. But in those cases in which the demand for their
labour grows out of a course of husbandry or manufacture, which
systematically encroaches on the day of rest, the subject must be re-
garded in a different light. A necessity which is thus deliberately

*And yet, in the Chartered Colonies, the only legal protectors of the slaves are
.all slave holders.

16 Correspondence with Colonial Governntents — Crown Colonies.

created by the proprietor, gives him no valid claim on the services of
the slave. The rural and manufacturing economy, however, of sugar
colonies, is not, I fear, at present compatible with an entire cessation
of all such labour on that day ; nor can I hope that the habits of the
cultivator will, in this respect, undergo an immediate change. For
the present, therefore, you will, in the exercise of the power committed
to you, sanction the performance of those agricultural or manufactu-
ring processes, the neglect of which might be attended with serious and
irreparable injury. But, in authorising any such relaxation of the
general rule, you will remember and act upon the principle that these
habitual encroachments on the repose of Sunday, are parts of the colo-
nial system which cannot too soon be abandoned altogether; that ser-
vices of this nature cannot even now be demanded, except with the free
consent of the slave ; and that for every such deduction from the time
secured to him for repose, by the law of religion, the slave is entitled to
some just compensation from the owner to whom his services are ren-
dered."

It is added, that in all proclamations on this subject, the use of
general and vague language is to be avoided, so as to prevent any
fraudulent evasion of the law ; and if such evasions are practised they
must be met by additional and more explicit proclamations.

Now we fully admit that fires and floods and hurricanes, when they
occur on Sundays, may require the utmost exertions of every indi-
vidual to prevent or avert their disastrous effects ; and we do not
absolutely deny that occasions may occur in all countries, in which it
may be necessary to make extraordinary efforts to preserve some
valuable fruits of the earth from destruction. But Ave do deny that
there is, or has been, in the rural and manufacturing processes of sugar
colonies, any thing at all incompatible with the same] observance of
the rest of Sunday, which attends the agricultural processes of this
or of any other country. And we challenge West Indians to shew
wherein the incompatibility exists. We deny its existence altogether.
We are aware that West Indians have often confidently affirmed this
incompatibility, and they seem to have succeeded in persuading Sir G.
Murray and his predecessors, that there is truth in their representa-
tions ; but we know them to be groundless, and we defy them to spe-
cify a single agricultural or manufacturing process which requires any
peculiar encroachment on the rest of the Suiiday beyond what is re-
quired in England or any other country. The cows of a farmer must be
milked on Sunday as well as on Saturday, and coffee may require, in
certain states of the drying process, to be turned on Sunday, but even
this last trivial exception can only be very occasional. But in the
processes of growing and manufacturing sugar there can arise no
necessity for Sunday labour, which is not created by the improvidence
or the cupidity of the owner or manager of the plantation. Such _ ne-
cessity can only arise from one cause, namely, the not stopping the
cutting and the grinding of canes in time to allow the cane juice to be
boiled into sugar, and removed into casks before Sunday arrives. The
time which this process takes is so accurately known, that not the
slightest difficulty could occur, if only managers were disposed to pre-
vent the necessity of Sunday labour, by making the arrangements

Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Crown Colonies. 17

requisite to that end ; and which might be done without the shghtest in-
convenience, except that of somewhat abridging the quantity of sugar
made in a week. If on the present plan of encroaching on the Sun-
day an estate makes twenty hogsheads of sugar in a week, it might, it
is true, if Sunday be not encroached upon, make only nineteen, or

,nineteeen and a half, and this would be the utmost extent of the in-
convenience. But if this is to be made a reason for encroaching at all
on the Sunday, it would be an equally valid reason for taking the
whole of Sunday in order to swell the number of weekly hogsheads to
twenty-one or twenty-two. Fortunately for the slave, the fires must
be all extinguished once in every week. Now whether that be done
at six on Sunday morning, or at six on Saturday evening, or at a still
earlier hour on that day, can make no difference in point of conve-
nience to the master, beyond the lessened amount of his weekly manu-

, facture ; while it obviously makes an immense difference to the slave.
It will appear hence that no ground whatever for the alleged neces-
sity of Sunday labour exists in sugar colonies, which would not equally

, operate in this country on the farmer and the miller, and the manu-
facturer of every description. In fact, the whole is founded in that
insatiable appetite for the exaction of negro labour which forms the
characteristic feature of the West India system, and more especially
of sugar planting ; and not in any circumstances which are not com-
mon to all other countries in all other parts of the world. Had Sir
G. Murray, therefore, been truly informed of the facts of the case, and
not been deluded by plausible and unfounded statements, much of
what he has said on this subject, might have been spared, which will
now be taken advantage of by the planters.

5. The punishments to be substituted for flogging in the case of females
are left to the governor ; only his " object must be to select such modes
of correction as may impair as little as possible the sense of self re-
spect, and may operate rather on the moral feelings than on the bodily
sensations of the sufferer. Every precaution must be taken to deter-
mine the nature and extent of these punishments, so as to prevent
their being made the source of abuse," Sir G. alludes to the frequent
punishment of the offences of women by imprisoning them on Sunday,
by which they are made to suffer severely, losing the advantages and
gratifications of that day, without any deduction of the labour of the
estate ; and which ought not therefore to be permitted by the master's
own domestic authority.'

6. All regulations adopted for executing this and every other part
of the order must be punctually transmitted for His Majesty's ap-
probation.

7. The Protector's half yearly reports are to be made in forms
which are prescribed and annexed to this despatch, and from which
forms no deviation can be permitted. The forms, we think, are ad-
mirably framed.

8. Proof of the delivery of such reports, with their necessary
adjuncts, must precede the payment of the Protector's salary, and
will be required as necessary vouchers by the auditors of public
accounts.

* I am well aware," observes Sir G. Murray in conclusion ' that

18 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Crown Colonies.

there are some topics connected with the condition of slavery which
are omitted in this order, although superior in importance to some of
those which it embraces, among which I may particularly mention the
duration of the daily labour of plantation slaves, their food and
clothing, and above all their religious instruction. If it had been the
design of His Majesty's ministers to frame a complete code for the
government of the slaves, a prominent place must have been assigned
to topics of this nature : but for the present, nothing further has been
contemplated than to consolidate the order in council of the 10th of
March, 1824, and the most valuable of the provisions which have been
engrafted upon it by supplementary enactments, either in Trinidad
or in other separate Crown colonies."

In reference to this last sentence, Sir G. Murray, in a subsequent
circular despatch of the 18th February, 1830, addressed to governors
of Crown colonies, thus directs their attention more distinctly to some
of the objects it embraces.

" With respect to the degree of labour exacted from slaves em-
ployed in agriculture or manufactures. His Majesty's government are
not in possession of such full information as would be requisite to
enable them to make the necessary legislative provisions on the sub-
ject. It has indeed been very generally and confidently maintained
in popular discussion, that the slaves, employed in the culture of sugar,
are engaged either at the field or at the works of the estate, for so
large a part of the day and night, as to have no sufficient period for
natural rest. I cannot of course give credit to statements which ap-
pear in print, and which represent that the slaves on a sugar estate in
full cultivation are habitually employed for fourteen hours, and occa-
sionally sixteen or even eighteen hours out of the twenty-four. But how-
ever exaggerated statements of this nature may be, it is impossible to
doubt that some legislative provision is necessary for the prevention
of abuses in exacting excessive labour from slaves.*

" Enactments conducing to this object have recently been passed
in the colonies possessing legislative assemblies ; f and in the absence

* Well might the humane and liberal mind of Sir George Murray refuse to
believe such statements, and regard them as wild and wanton exaggerations. He
could neither have had access to that body of conclusive and irrefragable evi-
dence by which, from the mouths of the planters themselves, Mr. Stephen in the
2nd volume of his " Delineation" has demonstrated the truth of such of those
statements as might seem the most extravagant and appalling. The matter is
now placed beyond all further question by the appearance of that extraordinary
work. See chapters iv, v, vi, and vii.

t These very enactments establish tlie excessive exaction of labour which Sir
G. Murray deems so incredible. That of Jamaica, which is a fair specimen of
tire others, makes it lawful to exact labour in the field for fourteen hours of the
day with intervals of two hours and a half, making eleven hours and a half of
field labour each day, exclusive of the labour of afterwards collecting and carry-
ing home fodder for the cattle ; and of the nigM work of crop, being an addition
of five hours more in the twenty-four, for four or five months in the year ; and all
this over and above the time for getting up and repairing to the field morning and
noontide, and for returning thence at noon and at night; for preparing food and
for other domestic offices ; all which must be performed during the intervals of
labour, women and men being equally engaged in field labour during the day
and in collecting and carrying fodder for the cattle, and in night work during

Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Crown Colonies. 19

of positive law, a necessitous owner might often be tempted to make
an improper use of his unlimited authority. The nature of the climate
in which the labour of the slave is to be performed ; the constitutional
indisposition to continuous exertion, which so peculiarly characterises
the negro race ; and the difficulty which all men experience in the
steady performance of any labour without the stimulus of wages ; must
concur to endanger the health of a plantation slave when subjected to
improper exertions.*

crop. These various points will be found ably and luminously and conclusively
established in the work of Mr. Stephen just referred to. It would have been
sufficient, however, to have referred to the law of Jamaica on this point, and to
Mr. Huskisson's comment on that law. (See Papers by command, for 1828, p.
5, and Jamaica Act of 1826, § 27, in Papers for 1827, — and Reporter, No. 33,
p. 180.)

*The very circumstances, however, which to the humane mind of Sir G.
Murray form grounds for guarding against the excessive exaction of compulsory
labour, serve in the minds of the planters as the very reasons for employing
brute force to stimulate the labourer far beyond his inclination, and to extract from
him the maximum of toil of which he is capable. We mean the intense and
exhausting heat of the climate, the constitutional indisposition to severe and con-
tinuous labour necessarily produced thereby, and the total absence of the cheering
stimulus of wages. Sir G. Murray seems to think that this indisposition to con-
tinuous labour under a vertical sun, " peculiarly characterises the negro race ; " but
we conceive that Sir George would find it somewhat difficult to state any race
whom it does not characterise, nor any whom it does not characterise in a still
greater degree than the negro race. What can more strongly prove the mysti-
fying influence of the jargon of the new school, of " the philosophy of labour"
established by Major Moody, than that the clear, upright and unsophisticated
mind of Sir G. Murray should be drawn, for one moment, within its sphere, and
should sanction the perfectly groundless dogma that the negro race are peculiarly
characterised by indisposition to continuous exertion under a tropical sun, when all
other races are at least equally, if not more, indisposed to it, and when no other
race does or can encounter it with half the endurance with which it is borne by
them.

We are happy to embrace this opportunity of noticing this subject, on account
of our having just seen a pamphlet from the pen of John Gladstone, Esq., en-
titled, by some strange misnomer, " a statement oi facts " in which an unusual
share of ingenuity is employed to varnish the crime of keeping men in slavery,
and to make the worse appear the better reason. While this writer, who avows
himself to be a considerable slave-holder, seems to agree fully with Sir G. Murray
in holding tire indisposedness of the negro race to continuous labour in the sun,
yet he has found a salvo for the consciences of Christian slave-holders in the
singular discovery, that '' Where it is the duty of the Slaves to work in the field,
such is their disposition and sense of that duty, that the labour is cheerfully per-
formed without ivjury to their health or comforts." (p. 7.) Every syllable in
this extraordinary sentence would furnish comments to fill far more than our
vacant space ; but we must dwell upon it for a few seconds. When then is it
that it becomes the duty of the Negro race to work in the field ? It must be, we
presume, whenever Mr. Gladstone or any other planter chooses, for his own pro-
fit, to send them there. And then the moment this is done, what a wonderful
transformation is effected in their nature and disposition ! The indisposition of
the Negro race to continuous labour under a vertical sun (which we are told was
previously peculiarly characteristic) vanishes ; nay, is so changed, that they are
now cordially disposed to that which they would otherwise as cordially have de-
tested. The moving impulse, Mr. Gladstone tells us, is a sense of duty : a most
exalted and disinterested sense of duty it must be, which excites them so cheer-

20 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Crown Colonies,

" You will therefore direct the Protector of slaves to institute a
careful inquiry into the facts respecting the amount of labour usually
performed by plantation slaves. You will especially direct him to
ascertain at what hour of the morning the daily task is usually com-
menced, and at what hour in the evening it is usually finished ; what
is the ordinary length of the interval of rest allowed during the day ;
whether the rest is generally complete, or whether any duties are then
to be performed for the owner, or for the more immediate advantage
of the slave himself; to what extent labour is required by night ; how
many nights or parts of nights in the week the same slave is usually

fully to work hard under a tropical sun, without wages, to swell the wealth and
minister to the enjoyments of Mr. Gladstone and his brother planters. Nay, such
is the wonderful operation of this motive, that now they labour cheerfully without
injury to either health or comfort, in despite of all the strongest propensities of
their nature, and under the pressure of the most painful and debasing coercion !.
Such are the delusions by which men of sense, and men too who have some feel-
ing of conscience, try to blind their own eyes and steel their own hearts against
the impressions of truth, justice, and humanity, and by which they hope to induce
such men as Sir R. Peel, to whom the letter is addressed, to tolerate for a few
years longer this intolerable mass of iniquity, oppression, and cruelty.

Mr. Gladstone writes his pamphlet in Liverpool, at the distance of 4000 miles,
from his Slaves, not one of whom he has probably ever seen. He is far removed
from the sight of their sufferings, whatever those sufferings may be, and he is
evidently wholly without power to control the conduct of his distant agents. Now
if he had come forward to give us an authentic detail from the Registry of Deme-
rara, and from his own plantation books, of the changes which have taken place
among his Slaves from the time he became possessed of them to the present hour —
of their increase and decrease, and of their daily tasks and allowances, and hours
of day and night labour, and punishments, &c. &c. — he would have done more to
throw light on the subject than by twenty such pamphlets as this. This pam-
phlet, we confess, has served to excite our curiosity on these points, for it has led
us to look back to the memorable period of the Missionary Smith. That truly
excellent Minister of the Gospel, writing, on the 30th of August, 1817, in his
journal given in evidence on his trial, of Mr. Gladstone's estate Success, says,
" The Negroes of Success have complained to me lately of excessive labour and
very severe treatment. I told one of the overseers, they would work their people
to death." Another Missionary, in a letter dated 24th May, 1 824, and which
was given to the public in the same year, in the preface to the debate on the trial
of Smith in the House of Commons, says of this same estate, with which he him-
self also, it seems, was personally acquainted, in allusion to the passage of Mr»
Smith's journal just quoted ; " It (Success) is next above the chapel, and could
be seen from Mr. Smith's house. Ever since it has been put in sugar, the Ne-
groes have complained of hard and late work.'' It was. formerly in coffee.

Mr. Gladstone may, doubtless, dispute the truth of these statements ; but he
was not there himself, and cannot tell that they are false ; but true or false, he
could have no means of preventing them, or of protecting his Slaves from any
treatment to which his stipendiary agent, under whose absolute dominion he had
placed them, might subject them. But if we had never before heard of Mr.
Gladstone or his estates, or of the illustrations which they furnish, the real nature
of Slavery would have been what it is, and would have no less stood in direct
contradiction and falsification of the absurd position in the pamphlet of Mr.
Gladstone, which has given occasion to these remarks, and by which and other
similar statements, that gentleman has laboured to reconcile Sir R. Peel and the
British pubhc to the continuance of that system by which £00,000 of our fellow-
men and fellow-subjects are reduced to the state of brute beasts, to add to the gains ,
of a few individuals.

Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Mauritius. 21

employed ; and during what period of the year nocturnal labour is in
use : you will direct the Protector to report to you the result of these
inquiries, with as much minuteness of detail as may be practicable ;
and you will ascertain whether in the opinion of the most skilful medi-
cal practitioners in the colony, there is reason to conclude that the
labour usually exacted of plantation slaves is unfriendly to their health.
In reporting to me the result of these inquiries, you will communicate
to me your opinion by what regulations any abuses on the part of the
colonial system would be most effectually checked or prevented.

" With respect to the food of slaves which is a general subject of
legislation in the colonies possessing legislative assemblies, you will
also direct the Protector to inquire what is the average nature, amount,
weight, and quality of the food allowed to plantation slaves, male and
female, adults and children respectively, and you will also procure the
opinion of the best medical advisers within your reach, how far the
food so supplied is sufficient to sustain the health and strength of the
labourer,* You will report to me the result of these inquiries with any
such suggestions as may occur to you for the improvement of the law
on this subject.

" You will transmit to me similar information respecting the articles
of clothing usually supplied to plantation slaves, their number and
quality, and their usual cost price ; and upon this subject you will
consider and report to me whether there be any, and if any, what im-
provements required in the law."t

7. Mauritius.

It now only remains to give some view of the correspondence with
the Mauritius ; and if we had wanted any proof of the terrific nature
and effects of the state of Slavery existing in that Island, it would be
abundantly supplied by the papers before us. It is scarcely possible
to paint, or even to conceive the alarm, the indignation, the rage,
which seems to have been excited in the breast of every planter, and
indeed every inhabitant of the Island, by the promulgation of the new
Slave Code contained in the Order in Council ; not the latest con-
solidated Order, but a former and inferior enactment. The clamour
excited in our Western Slave Colonies by the first movements of our
Government in 1823 and 1824, was sufficiently loud and senseless ;
but that of the Mauritius is so much more violent and unreasonable as
to justify the belief, that bad as Slavery is in the West Indies, the state
which it is here sought to reform is far worse. And that this is really
the case, we cannot entertain a doubt, not only when we weigh the
evidence already before the public, with much that is still to be pro-
duced ; but consider the firmly combined resistance by which all classes
have set themselves in determined array against every attempt to in-
vestigate or repress either the crimes of the Slave-trade, or the cruelties
of Slavery. The resistance could not be greater or more resolute if
the attempt of the British Government were, not merely to relax the
reins of their domestic despotism, but to subject themselves, their wives

* See on this head Mr. Stephen's conclusive proofs in the 2d volume of his
Delineation, cliap. viii. and above, p. 13.
f See Mr. Stephen's 2d volume, chap. ix. and above, p. 13.

22 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Mauritius.

and children, to Slavery, with all its abominations. It would seem as
if all their ideas of wrong, and injustice, and inhumanity, were com-
prized in the abridgement of their power of inflicting on their fellow-
subjects stripes, fetters, unsparing labour, imprisonment, and torture,
if not death. If they still persist in their declared purpose of prose-
cuting the Anti-Slavery Reporter, for having calumniated that beautiful
order of things which assimilates, as they tell us, the state of Slavery in
Mauritius to some state of superhuman felicity, they ought at least to
have withheld the revelations which are made in the present papers,
until after the issue had been fairly tried between us. They have
themselves furnished our ample justification, without reducing us to the
necessity of citing any one of our 300 witnesses.

But what has led to all this extraordinary commotion in the Mauri-
tius ? It is the promulgation of an Order in Council containing certain
obnoxious, wicked, and destructive innovations. That they are inno-
vations, however, is of itself the condemnation of the system which it is
proposed to amend; and before any British tribunal no further proof of
its guiltiness could be needed. Such was the resistance excited by
these innovations, that even the gallant general, Sir Charles Colville,
whose courage had been tried in many a hard fought field, was driven
from his purpose, and led, in the face of his instructions, to concede
some essential points of reform. In his letter of the 21st Feb. 1829,
he tells Sir G. Murray, that he had fondly hoped that the delay which
had taken place in promulgating the Order, would have led many of the
Proprietors to anticipate the chief improvements in it, especially as he
felt himself led, by a memorial from many of them " possessing the best
dispositions," to recede in some degree from the express tenor of his
instructions. " Thus, for instance," he observes, " we altogether omit
that article which forbids the use of the cart-whip in the field;" " an
article fraught with danger in the eyes of the Planters," though " the
practice had become almost obsolete from a compact between the
Governor and the inhabitants of the Island." Where is that compact;
what are its terms ; by whom was it signed ; what are its sanctions and
its penalties ? This is a second version of the absurd view taken by
Colonel Blackwell in Tobago, though under still less excusable circum-
stances. Sir C. Colville possessing powers which the other did not
possess. " And now," says he, " we have gone further, in making
altogether illegal the use of the cart- whip as an instrument of punish-
ment, liable to the most serious abuse, as it most certainly was.'"
Now the words of Sir Charles Colville's act (§ 17) are, that men may
be punished " with a whip or rattan, or any other instrument of the
kind, excepting always the chabouk or cart-whip, the use of which as
an instrument of punishment is expressly and altogether prohibited."
And yet this same formidable chabouk is still left by law to be the
chosen instrument for stimulating labour in the field, where men and
women remain equally subject to its infliction. And, even in respect to
regular punishments, we doubt much whether the ingenuity of despotism
will suflTer much to be gained to humanity, while a whip of some form
or other is still allowed, and while the split bamboo may be in-
creased to any degree of thickness, and its edges sharpened to any
capacity of laceration. We cannot, we say, flatter humanity with

Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Mauritius. 23

having gained much by allowing those to retain, for the daily and hourly .
discipline of the field, (nine strokes of it, as we shall see, being permitted
by law on the instant,) the instrument which Sir C. Colville looks upon
it as some compensation to have withdrawn from more regular punish-
ments. What a state of society do such negociations indicate both in
governors and governed ? Yet such a state of society is the result of
Negro Slavery in the Mauritius !

Again, Sir C. Colville has dispensed with the necessity of requiring
a return of punishments arbitrarily inflicted on plantations. He re-
quires, he says, that a record of them should be kept, but not that any
return should be made of that record. But this is to frustrate the whole
intention of the Order. And what is the reason assigned for this most
extraordinary deviation from his instructions ? It is that " in the pre-
sent state of the Island, it would be a measure productive not only of
the greatest discontent, but of positive impracticability, liable to
vexatious prosecutions without end.'' Now, destroy all the other evi-
dence we have of the enormities of Mauritius Slavery, and let this one
sentence remain, and we say, it is utterly impossible to exaggerate its
horrors. The Planters, it seems, are either so low in attainments as
to be incapable of keeping and making returns of the records of their
own arbitrary inflictions ; or they are so wedded to the uncontrolled
exercise of their own despotic powers, as to be unwilling to permit light
to dawn on its exercise ; or they are so conscious of their own inability
to restrain their passions within the rules of law, as to be certain of ex-
posing themselves, by a true record of their proceedings, to endless and
vexatious prosecutions. And yet these are the men, thus sunk in
ignorance, or intoxicated by power, or infuriated by passion, who are to
be permitted to proceed, without any record of their acts, and conse-
quently without any means of inspection, detection, or control, in their
accustomed discretionary use of the chabouk, the whip, the rattan, the
split bamboo, the chain, the fetter, the pronged collar, the brand, and
all the other abominations of this den of darkness ; until generations of
their wretched Slaves shall have been swept into untimely graves, to
be replaced by fresh illicit importations from the shores of Madagascar
or Mosambique.

Once more, the law had allowed only three stripes to be given to a
slave at the moment of committing an offence, in the field for instance.
Sir C. Colville was induced, by the importunity of his respectable
memorialists, to extend the three to nine, and the reason given for this
indulgence is as instructive as is the impatience felt by the planter of the
restraint which the law professed to impose on sudden ebullitions of
passion. " In this we have acted," says the governor, " upon the
conviction of the futility of the smaller, either as a reparation of ill
conduct in the individual, or as a check to himself, or example to
others ; besides that to prevent the infliction of more than three stripes
at the moment, would be to increase to a certainty the punishment of
the slave by twenty-four hours of expectation of it, and probably con-
finement too, in the naturally entertained apprehension of running
away ; while it is too much to expect from our frail nature, that the
master, irritated by the loss of his slave's labour for so many hours,
would not add a few lashes to those he would originally have ordered
him. I have been assured by respectable planters that the allowance

24 Correspondence with Colonial Governments — Mauritius.

of nine stripes will make the infliction of a larger number of raj-e
occun'ence."

That planters should have thus talked and thus counselled was only
en regie ; but that a British general, the governor of a British colony,
the representative of a British monarch, should have listened to such
counsel, and sanctioned such views, is indeed astonishing and most
deplorable. We are ashamed to read such passages as these, and to
know that men capable of assenting to them, and of pleading for them
without a blush, are British functionaries of the highest class ; and
that the country which can degrade itself by tolerating a state of
things requiring such opprobrious discussions is Great Britain. This
state of things cannot be much longer endured. Every principle we
profess as Christians ; every sentiment we are taught to cherish as
Britons ; and every feeling which belongs to humanity itself, rise up
in arms against it, and seal its doom. The decree has gone forth, and
must be obeyed. On this point the voice of the British nation will be
heard ; and will be found irresistible. And let us remember that
these are not dubious details of controverted facts ; they are recorded
proofs, official documents, undeniably establishing, beyond the reach
of controversy or refutation, all we have ever asserted of this vile, and
vicious, nay, diabolical system.

Besides this letter of Sir C. Colville on which we have been com-
pelled so largely to comment, there is another from the same officer
dated the 11th of April, 1829, confessing that all his delays, and con-
cessions, and modifications, had been of no avail in conciliating the plant-
ers. He could not suppose (though such is the fact) that his modified
order would have been met, " in the spirit of forced misrepresentation
and ill will which the remonstrances of all the quarters of the island
exhibit;" several of them, "indecorous enough," and one calling
upon him " to rescind the ordinance and suspend the Protector."
The planters are particularly enraged with the Protector for having
undertaken a duty, which the governor says " they Avere conscious of
having themselves neglected, namely, the instruction of the slaves in
the new laws respecting them."

Many of the remarks which these communications would necessarily
have called forth from Sir G. Murray are entirely superseded by the
transmission in his despatch of the 5th of April, 1830, of the consoli-
dated order of the 2nd of February, 1830, which would place the whole
subject on an entire new footing, and leave no room for further debate
or resistance. The greatest length of time to which the promulgation
of this law can be postponed, after its arrival in the colony, is six
weeks, and beyond that time its execution is, on no account, to be
suspended. We must wait therefore for farther intelligence to judge
of its effect. In the mean time we must defer adverting to some of the
extraordinary statements and remonstrances presented to the governor
by the planters of the Mauritius, and in which their contest for the
continuance of the cart-whip is carried on with a zeal, and perse-
verance, and talent too, which are worthy of a better cause.

S. Bagster, Jun. Printer, 14j Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 74.] JANUARY 5, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 2.

I. RECENT MEETINGS FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY:—

1. Edinburgh — Mr. Jeffrey — Dr. A. Thomson. — 2. Second Meeting at
Edinburgh. — 3. Perth.— 4. Kelso. — 5. Aberdeen. — 6. Paisley. — ■
7. Glasgow — Dr. Wardlaw — Dr. M'Farlane. — 8. Scottish Synods and
Presbyteries. — 9. Bradford — Hev. Mr. Hudson.-^IO. Melksham. — 11.
Truro. — 12. Kingston. — 13. Falmouth — Rev. Mr. Davies. — 14. South-
ampton.— 15. HuDDERSFiELD — Mr. Watt. — 16. Hanley and Shelton. —
17. Kendal — Rev. D.Jones. — 18. Hadleigh. — 19. Penzance. — 20. Wel-
lingborough.— 21. Portsea. — 22. Stowmarket. — 23. Reading — Capt,
Browne. — 24. Liskeard. — 25. Plymouth. — 26. Bath — Bishop of Bath
and Wells — Mr. Wilberforce. — 27. Bristol — West India Pai^tizans. — 28.
Second Meeting at Bristol — Mr. Claxton. — 29. Derby. — 30. Chelms-
ford.— 31. Birmingham. — 32. Rutland — Mr. G. Stephen. — 33. Durham.
— 34. Halifax.— Hew. J?. L. Lusher. — 35. Chesterfield. — 36. Salisbury
— Dean Pearson. — 37. Calne. — 38. Watford. — 39. Lincoln. — 40.
Brighton. — 41. Bury St. Edmunds — Mr. Phillips — Mr, Saintshury —
Rev. Mr. Orton.

II. ANTI-SLAVERY PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT.

III. DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.

I. — Notices of Anti-Slavery Meetings.

The public Meetings that have been held throughout the kingdom
during the last two or three months, for the purpose of petitioning Par-
liament for the Abolition of Slavery, have 'been numerous and important
beyond all former example. We propose to take in the present Num-
ber a general survey of these interesting assemblies ; and although
it is not possible to detail, with any degree of minuteness, the pro-
ceedings of any one of them, or even to attempt an abstract of the
topics discussed, we think it will nevertheless be highly satisfactory
to our readers to see a connected, though very cursory review of the
simultaneous exertions made by our fellow-subjects in aid of our great
cause, at this eventful conjuncture.

Edinburgh.
On the 8th of October, a numerous and highly respectable meeting
of the friends of Abolition was held at Edinburgh, in the Great As-
sembly Room, George Street. The Lord Provost, W, Allan, Esq.
having taken the chair, and opened the meeting with a short address,
the celebrated Mr. Francis Jeffrey (now Lord Advocate of Scotland,)
moved certain resolutions which had been prepared by the Edinburgh
Anti-Slavery Society, expressive of their sense of the evils and miseries
necessarily attendant on the system of Negro Slavery, and their con-

E

25 Edinburgh Anti-Slavery Meeting — Mr. Jeffrey.

viction that there ought to be no further delay in taking measures for
its final and total abolition ; and that, in the meantime, such means
ought to be adopted for mitigating its evils, and for such instruction
and improvement in the condition of the Slaves, as might be best cal-
culated ultimately to fit them for the blessings of freedom. Mr. Jeffrey
entered into a long and luminous review of the various efforts that
had been made in this country for the abolition of the Slave Trade and
Slavery, from the earliest agitation of these great questions to the
present period ; but this historical summary, though distinguished by
comprehensive views and accuracy of detail, we must necessarily pass
over. After adverting to the insolent contumacy of the Chartered
Colonies, in rejecting the Parliamentary Resolutions of 1823, and the
unsatisfactory character even of the reforms that had been introduced
into the Crown Colonies, so that generally speaking the Slaves in the
West Indies were not a whit better in their condition than in 1792, he
clearly demonstrated that, except by the authoritative interposition of
the British Parliament, there was no hope whatever of the abolition of
Negro bondage, or even of any material mitigation of its worst horrors.
Now then, he urged, Avas the time to appeal to this authority, when
we were in the beginning of a new reign, and with the prospect of the
immediate convocation of a new Parliament, with a number of new
members fresh from the contact of their constituents, and to ask if a
case had not been made out calling for its interference. If the
friend^ of abolition were earnest, they had been at least long suffer-
ing ; and now was the time to come forward and express their
opinions, and not to slacken in their efforts until they should obtain
the ultimate triumph — the extinction of Slavery itself — (Applause.)
Mr. Jeffrey then adverted to the various pretexts which had been urged
by those who still resisted the abolition of the foul system of slavery,
and ridiculed the threats of revolt made by some of the colonists, whose
throats, he said, were only preserved from the knives of the bondmen
driven to desperation, by the bayonets which we paid for, and which
assisted them to uphold a monopoly to our prejudice. They defied
and insulted the Parliament of Great Britain, when they pretended
that it had no right to look into their affairs ; and they blasphemously
quoted Scripture texts as an authority for slavery. They offered two
arguments against emancipation : — First, that the slaves were their OAvn
property, and they might do with them what they liked ; and secondly,
that they had treated them well ; and that they were contented and hap-
py, and better off than if they were free. If they could fairly make out
the first position, then he would agree that they should be reimbursed
for their property ; but he did not think that they could make out a
fair claim of property in them. He then referred to various decisions in
the Courts both of England and Scotland, where it had been ruled
that man had no right of property in man. God had given man a
right of property over the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air ;
but had he given him a right of property over his fellow men ? — (Ap-
plause.) If the slave was the property of his master, Avhy did the
property not continue when he brought him to this country ? If he
was his property, like other live stock, then, why might he not kill him

Edinburgh Anti-Slavery Meeting — Mr. Jeffrey. 27

and eat him ? If he was his property at all, he must be so out and
out. But the master, it seems, holds a right of property in every
thing but his life ; and therefore the principle failed in practice by this
one admission. This right of property was all for the benefit of
the one and the injury of the other, since all that rendered life worthy
of keeping was extorted by the one and lost by the other — (Cheers.)
But the masters said their slaves were happy and comfortable as they
were ; and that to liberate would be to injure and not to benefit them.
If this were true, no one had a right to interfere. He accepted the
proposition, but defied them to the proof. His answer was, if that be
true, they, the slaveholders, had no interest in maintaining slavery.
They said they were better fed, better lodged, and better taught than
the lower classes in this country or any country in the world. It
might be so, but the unhappy bondmen did not think so ; and why
would their masters persist in conferring benefits on them which they
did not prize ? Why lavish benefits on so thankless a generation ? —
(Hear, hear.) But how could all this be reconciled with the anxiety
to keep them in a state of bondage ? The reason was, that by doing
so they got, as they imagined, more work out of them than they could
get from free labourers. There were two infallible tests to refer to in
proof of the evils of slavery ; the one was the continued decrease in
the slave population of the West Indies, and the other the amount of
punishments for crime among them. The slave population, within the
last thirty or forty years, had decreased in an alarming proportion,
while the free blacks had gone on multiplying, and had nearly doubled
their numbers in less than forty years. The increase of crime, too,
was to be ascribed to the abject misery of the slave population. From
the records in these islands, it appeared that, in ninety-nine cases of
crime out of a hundred, it was to be ascribed to the evils of slavery
alone. The learned Gentleman then combated the argument, that the
slave in the West Indies was better oft" than the labourers of this
country, and enumerated the various advantages possessed by the
latter over the former. The slave, he observed, had no power of
choosing his master or his work, or changing either of them. He was
at the absolute command of his master, and must do the work ap-
pointed by him. He had no power even to keep his master if he liked
him, for he was liable to be sold to a strange master, who might alter
his course of work at pleasure. He had no voice in the matter. He
was even liable to be sold to pay his master's debts — to be separated
from the members of his own family — he might be sent away, and was
in fact, frequently separated, from his child, or from his wife. The
work required of them too was far more oppressive than any that was
voluntarily performed by the poorest manufacturer in Lancashire la-
bouring for his own offspring — (Cheers.) Their average hours of la-
bour were 15 or 16 out of the 24. And in addition to this, when they
considered the fact that they were driven at their work by the lash of
the cart-whip, a single application of which cut through the skin, and if
repeated, lacerated the flesh, what audacity was it to tell us that they
were contented and happy, and better off" than the common labourers
of this country ! — (Loud applause). Yet this terrible lash was the

28 Edinburgh Anti-Slavery Meeting — Mr. Jeffrey.

necessary accompaniment of their field work, to which they were driven
by it; the power of the master or overseer in inflicting it (blasphemously
parodying the Scripture,) being limited to thirty-nine lashes; — and these
forty stripes save one, the master or overseer might inflict at his own
pleasure, and without challenge. It was impossible to suppose that
human nature was proof against the temptation to abuse a power like
this. In this country, again, for the poorest classes a school was open
where they might be taught letters and morality, and for every soul of
them a minister- was provided at the public expense, to instruct them
in religion. Were the negroes better oif in this respect ? — No ! It
had been the policy of their masters to keep them in brutal ignorance.
They had studiously endeavoured to exclude Christian missionaries
from the colonies ; chapels and meeting-houses had been pulled down
and razed, and even the persons of the ministers invaded and tortured
to the death — (Applause.) As a proof that it was the set purpose of
West India proprietors to put down all attempts to instruct the ne-
groes, he referred to their refusal to appoint any other day than Sun-
day for holding their markets. In consequence of another recent
enactment, no negro was allowed to attend worship at all, between the
setting and rising of the sun ; and as they must work from the rising
to the setting of that luminary, it was evident that they had no time
for worship at all, — for on Sunday they must cultivate their provision
grounds. It was the duty of every man who had been taught to look
his fellow-creature in the face to exert himself to put an end to this
hapless slavery ; and he triisted he had said enough to satisfy all who
heard him that slavery was an abominable curse and crime, and that
the only cure for the evils which he had enumerated was emancipation.
He contended that every pretence which had been made for perpetu-
ating slavery was false and groundless. They were told that if they
emancipated the slaves, they would cut their masters' throats, and
would cut each others' throats. He would answer the slaveholders by
saying — ' They have been in your hands since 1806, and if they were
then brutally ignorant, you have left them so. If they are vicious or
immoral, have not you permitted or encouraged it by your remissness or
your example? If they are revengeful, have not you excited the feeling
by the wrongs you have done them ? If they are unwilling to work,
who but yourselves have taught them to associate industry with feel-
ings of degradation ? ' — (Loud applause.) He contended that any
danger from emancipation was almost or entirely obviated since the
abolition of the slave trade ; as there were now no fresh importations
of men smarting ujider the feelings of being torn from their friends, or
the remembrance of the happy scenes of their youth. The West India
slaves were now all trained to painful industry, and even accustomed
to do some Avork voluntarily for their own behoof. What danger or
diffiGulty would there be, in now doing what the Government of this
country had, thirty-eight years ago, by the mouth of Lord Melville,
declared might be accomplished in. eight years from that date? — (Hear!
hear! hear!) What paltry sophistry could be brought forward against
a resolution, that from the 1st of January 1831, all negro children
born in the West Indies should be free? — (Loud cheers.) Tlie young

Edinburyh Anti- Slavery Meeting — Drs. Ritchie and Thomson. 29

race would then every year afford a strong pledge for the good
conduct of their parents; and he believed that eventually the loss to the
masters would be nothing. — Mr. Jeffrey concluded a speech of more than
two Jiours in delivery, (of the impressive eloquence of which this slight
abstract can convey but a faint idea,) by moving a series of resolu-
tions, on which it was proposed to found a petition to Parliament,
praying for the abolition of negro slavery at the earliest practicable
period; and that all negro children born after the 1st of January 1831,
should be free. The learned Dean* sat down amid loud cheering.

The Rev. Dr. John Ritchie seconded the resolutions, and in the
course of an energetic speech, mentioned that he had recently had the
high honour of putting hishand to a similar petition, as representative of
a court consisting of 300 ministers, conveying to Parliament the senti-
ments of the church with which he was connected, and of all its mem-
bers, in this great and good cause, f

The Rev. Dr. A. Thomson next addressed the meeting in a very power-
ful speech. He praised the proposed resolutions as excellent, so far as
they went, but objected to them as not going far enough. He thought
the word " immediately" ought to be inserted in lieu of " the earliest
practicable period," — the latter being, in his opinion, an expression
which the enemies of emancipation would eagerly grasp at, in order to
delay abolition to an indefinite future period ; for with them the ear-
liest practicable period would always be in the future tense. The
word " immediately" was, therefore, he contended, absolutely neces-
sary. He would beg this assembly to look to the history of this ques-
tion. What had it been, in regard to the philanthropists of this country,
but a history of vain and abortive, though generous, attempts to put
down slavery ? What, in regard to the Government, but a history of
affected or mistaken confidence in Colonial Legislatures and West
India planters — a confidence which had been abused as often as re-
posed in them ? What in respect to the Christian people of this coun-
try, but a history of sad disappointment and delusion ? — What as re-
garded the West India legislators, but a history of hollow professions,
deceitful promises, rebellious doings, principles and maxims which, if
adopted, would go to put off altogether, and for ever, the consumma-
tion so devoutly to be wished, the deliverance of 800,000 individuals
from all the evils and miseries of West Indian bondage ? — (Loud ap-
plause.) Without entering into the details of that history, he trusted
all present would be convinced, that if they did not go farther than
was proposed by the resolutions, they would be compromising the
eternal principles of justice, and putting in their place maxims of ex-
pediency, arrangements of pounds, shillings, and pence, and imaginary

* Mr. Jeffrey was then Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.

f Dr. Ritchie presided as Moderator of the Synod of the Associate Secession
Church, at its last meeting in September, when a petition to Parliament for the
early and total abolition of Slavery was unanimously agreed upon by that vene-
rable body, in their collective capacity ; and congi'egational petitions were, at the
same time, urgently recommended to be sent up by all the churches under
their charge.

30 Edinburgh Anti-Slavery Meeting — Rev. Dr. Thomson.

apprehensions, in opposition to the claims of religion and justice, and
the dearest rights of men — (Applause). If they argued about expe-
diency, that was a point on which the slaveholders would willingly
meet them. They would be glad to divert them from the principle, and
battle with them about expediency. He trusted the country would not
tolerate this for one moment. The slaveholders endeavoured to divert
us from the idea of immediate abolition by expatiating on the evil con-
sequences of such a measure. They talked of the bloodshed and mas-
sacre which would ensue, and the brutal treatment they might expect
from their emancipated slaves ; and yet they tell us that their slaves are
as comfortable and happy as the people of this country. If that be the
case, let us take them at their word, and where will be the danger of
emancipation? Were the slaves to resent injuries they had never suf-
fered, or revenge wrongs that had never been inflicted ? The argument,
in fact, was a mere bugbear. They were afraid, they pretended, of
the risk of bloodshed. He would deprecate as much as any man the
shedding of blood ; but he would rather that some blood v/as shed, if
necessary, than that 800,000 individuals should remain for ever in the
hopeless bondage of West India slavery, which was an infinitely greater
evil than all that could be suffered by their opponents. There was no
comparison between the two evils, if v/e must have one — (Great ap-
plause.) But then, we were told that the slaves were not prepared iov
immediate emancipation. If this was the case, he would say, with the
Learned Dean of Faculty, the fault was their masters'. They had
known for a long series of years the feelings of the British nation, and the
intention of the legislature ; and why were they not prepared ? Just
because they defied the legislature, and did not wish them prepared.
If any evils were really to be apprehended, it was a duty of the legis-
lature to enact such other contemporaneous measures as would provide
against these evils, and accomplish the security of both masters and
slaves. He held that at whatever period the legislature should enact
the abolition of slavery, their duty would only be half done, if they did
not, as far as in them lay, do every thing to promote the temporal wel-
fare as well as the spiritual and eternal interest of the slaves whom they
emancipated. Nothing would be more easy than to make such provi-
sions, and to guard against evils which might arise from the enactment.
It was the opinion of every man that religious instruction was the best
mode of preparing the slaves for freedom ; but he would ask what had
been done in this respect ? The slaveholders professed to allow reli-
gious instruction, but their arrangements made it physically impossible
for the slave to get what they pretended to give ; and the inference he
drew from this was, that they were unwilling that the slaves should be
prepared for emancipation. Dr. T. objected to another point in the
resolutions — that which proposed to secure emancipation by declaring
all the negro children, after a certain date, to be born free. He
thought it was indirectly sanctioning the principle that those born be-
fore that period were lawfully kept in bondage. He suggested other
objections also at some length to this proposition. On the whole view
of the case, he thought the meeting would not do justice to their own
feelings — to the slaves, or to the country — unless they went forward

Edinburgh Seeond Anti-Slavery Meeting. 31

and toid the legislature that they must have immediate emancipation.
They were a free and enlightened christian people, and could judge of
a case like this as well as any legislature on the face of the earth —
(Loud cheers). He would not recommend any violation of the consti-
tution, or advocate the cause of anarchy ; but he would say that they
ought to tell the legislature plainly and strongly, that no man had a
title to property in man ; and that there were 800,000 individuals sigh-
ing in bondage under the intolerable evils of West India slavery, who
had as good a title to be free as they had ; that they ought to be free,
and that they must be made free — (Loud cheering). He was satisfied
that, if they went forward with a petition of this kind, they would let
not only the legislature see, but the West India interest (which he was
sorry to say was a great deal too strong) see that they were no more
to be bamboozled or put off any longer in this great claim of humanity
and justice — (Cheers.) The Rev. Doctor concluded by saying that he
did not wish to divide the meeting by proposing any amendment to the
resolutions ; but merely rose to state his sentiments on the subject.
There was a loud cry, however, in different quarters of ' move, move/
and Dr. Thomson accordingly moved as an amendment, that the word
immediately should be inserted, and the proposition regarding children,
expunged.

This amendment having been seconded, an animated discussion
ensued, in which Mr. James Simpson, advocate, Mr. Wilson, a planter
from Trinidad, and the Lord Provost, warmly opposed Dr. Thomson.
Dr. T. stoutly defended his positions ; and the gentleman who had
seconded his amendment supported him in a speech, which he con-
cluded with the well-known Latin adage, ' Fiat justitia ruat ccelum^
' Let us do justice, be the consequence what it may.' Upon this, the
Lord Provost arose, and left the chair, declaring that he could not, in
his capacity of chief magistrate of Edinburgh, countenance a meeting
where such sentiments were applauded.

This abrupt and uncalled for abandonment of the chair, which no one
present could be induced to occupy in his stead, and some discrepancy
of sentiment on the question of gradual or immediate emancipation,
between a certain portion of the managing committee and the majority
who sided with Dr. T., led necessarily to an adjournment of the meet-
ing. A vote of thanks to the Anti-Slavery Committee and a unani-
mous declaration that no discourtesy was intended towards the Lord
Provost, were however first unanimously adopted ; and a resolution
passed by acclamation, that another meeting should be speedily held
in the same place, to support an energetic petition to Parliament for
the total and immediate abolition of Negro Slavery.

2. Second Meeting at Edinburgh.

On the 19th of October, a second meeting of the friends of Negro
emancipation was held at Edinburgh. An able and well-conducted
newspaper (The Scotsman,) describes it as being one of the largest
and most respectable meetings ever assembled in that intellectual city.
The Great Assembly Room, in which it was held, was crowded to
overflowing. The audience, consisting almost exclusively of the well-

32 Edinburgh Second Anti-Slavery Meeting.

educated and most intelligent ranks of society, amounted to not less
than 1,200 persons, A petition to the legislature, on the principles
of immediate emancipation , was moved by Dr. Thomson, " and sup-
ported " (says the Scotsman,) " by an address, which for clearness of
statement, bold and masterly argument, and an eloquence that kepi
the feelings engaged in the conclusions arrived at by the judgment,
we have never heard surpassed." As this able speech has been since
printed, and may be had on application at 18, Aldermanbury, we need
not here attempt any analysis of it. It deserves, and we trust will
obtain, a very extensive circulation throughout the country.

At this meeting, which was conducted with the most perfect decorum
and unanimity of sentiment, the chair was occupied (in the absence
of Lord Moncrief, the president,) by John More, Esq. advocate ; and
the principal speakers, besides Dr. Thomson, were the Rev. James
Buchannan, Rev. Mr. M'Lean, of Leith, Dr. John Ritchie, Rev. J.
Haldane, Dr. Grenville, and Mr. William Ritchie. At the close of
the proceedings, the formation of a Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, (the
first, we believe, in Scotland,) was announced, comprising amongst its
members many ladies eminent in rank, and distinguished for intelli-
gence and active benevolence.

The petition adopted at this meeting was subsequently signed by
upwards of 22,000 respectable inhabitants ; and has been since for-
warded for presentation to the House of Lords by the Lord Chancellor
Brougham, and to the Commons by Sir T. Denman. The substance
of its prayer is comprised in the following clauses : —

" That the voice of a disappointed and impatient nation now calls loudly for
some prompt and comprehensive measure to redress the bondman's wrongs ; and
that your petitioners, as apart of that nation, can now no longer repress the full
and earnest expression of their conviction, that man cannot hold property in
man ; that slavery is a violation of the principles of natural right, and of the laws
of revealed religion ; that it involves severities on the part of the slaveholder,
and sufferings on the part of the slave, which no laws can prevent ; that to keep
up by taxation a system so essentially iniquitous, ought to be felt as an intolerable
burden, both by the legislature and the people ; that all attempts at palliative
and preparatory measures, while the unjust and immoral principle of the system
remains, must be delusive, and have hitherto only mocked the sufferings of the
slave, riveted the prejudices, and consolidated the opposition of the slaveholder,
and left upon the nation the unmitigated guilt of these flagrant wrongs ; and that
nothing less can satisfy the demands of eternal justice, than the full and absolute
termination of the evil.

" That your petitioners therefore do approach your most Honourable House,
not only with a deep feeling of compassion for 800,000 oppressed and suffering
slaves, but under the heavier pressure of a conscience burdened with the guilt of
participation in the iniquitous oppression ; and with all the energy with which a
petitioning people can respectfully urge a representative legislature, do implore
your most Honourable House in its wisdom to adopt effectual measures for the
immediate and total abolition of Slavery throughout the Colonies of the Empire.

" And that, at the same time, your petitioners, equally anxious for the safety
and improvement of the black population, and for the securing to the white in-
habitants the uninjured and peaceful enjoyment of their legitimate possessions ;
do also petition your most Honourable House, contemporaneously with the de-
cree for the abolition of Slavery, to make such provisional enactments as shall be
necessary or expedient, for protecting the white population, if their safety shall

Meetings at Perth and Kelso. 33

appear to be endangered — for promoting tlie temporal welfare and moral im-
provement of the negroes, and in general for securing the interests of all parties
who may be affected by the great measure of emancipation."

3. Perth.

We shall notice the other principal Anti-Slavery meetings that have
recently taken place in Scotland, before we turn to the other quarters
of the United Kingdom.

On the 13th of October a numerous meeting of the inhabitants
of Perth was held in one of the churches of that city. The chair
was taken by J. Meliss Nairne, Esq. of Dunsinane ; and the meeting
was successively addressed by the Rev. W. A. Thomson, Rev,
Dr. Pringle, Rev. Messrs. Young, Newlands, Jamieson, R. Thom-
son, Mr. James McLaren, and by Mr. Alston, a native of the
West Indies, now resident in Perth. Several of the speeches were
very impressive, and all of them evinced much acquaintance with
the history and effects of slavery. " West Indian slavery," said the
Rev. Robert Thomson, " is a system which gives to one man arbitrary
power over the person and goods and family of his fellow and his
brother ; — it is that which degrades an immortal being to a level with
his beast of burden, and ignominiously associates a living spirit with
his goods and chattels ; — it is that which denounces, denies, or ob-
structs the sacred rite of matrimony ; or, where this blessed union has
been effected, assumes to itself the right of cutting the knot which
God's own finger had tied, and unceremoniously and barbarously se-
parates the wife from the husband, and even the mother from her child ;
— it is that which places the person of the slave entirely under the ab-
solute control of vicious masters, or their agents ; which control is often
used for the corrupting of the young, and the polluting of the most
hallowed relations of life ; — it is that which refuses to man the day of
rest, which God designed for the very beast ; — -it is that which sanc-
tions the use of the cart-whip, and the flogging of females indecently;
-^it is that which allows to be perpetrated with impunity enormities
too odious and obscene even to be named. And this complicated
system of black iniquity and intolerable oppression is supported,
and defended, and continued from generation to generation, by this
free and Christian nation, — darkening our history and degrading our
character, and weighing us down with the guilt of blood, until ' earth
is sick and heaven is weary' of our national wickedness."

The resolutions passed at this meeting expressed " their unalterable
determination to leave no lawful means unattempted for bringing about,
by parliamentary enactment, and at the earliest possible period, the
entire abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions."

4. Kelso.

On the 21st of October an Anti-Slavery meeting was held at Kelso ;
the Rev. R. Lundie in the chair. The Rev. Messrs. Bates, Renton,
M'Cheyne, Hall, and Mr. James Simpson, Advocate, addressed the
assembly; and a petition to parliament was adopted, praying the legis-
lature to adopt effectual means " for paving the way for the reception
of the blessings of freedom ; and to fix a specific time beyond which
slavery should cease to exist in any part of the British empire."

34 Meetings at Aberdeen, Paisley, and Glasgow.

5. Aberdeen,

On the 27th of October a meeting of the friends of Negro emancipa-
tion was held at Aberdeen, a city that has long distinguished itself by
zealous exertion in the Anti-Slavery cause. The Hall in Union Street,
where the assembly met, though capable of containing upwards of a
thousand persons, was crowded to excess, and many hundreds of re-
spectable inhabitants, including some of those who were to have ad-
dressed the meeting, found it impossible to gain admittance. The
chair was occupied by the Rev. Dr. Morrison, of Banchory, who, in an
opening address, deplored the removal by death, since their last meet-
ing in 1 828, of not fewer than seven of the best supporters of the cause,
and, among others, of their late venerable chairman. Dr. Robert Hamil-
ton, distinguished not less by his ardent zeal in the cause of humanity
than by his eminence in literature and political science.

The meeting was successively addressed by several gentlemen, in
animated speeches, evincing in many cases an intimate acquaintance
with the practical details and bearings of the question, not less than
ardour in the high moral and political principles on which, as freemen
and Christians, we are bound to consider it.

The following Ministers of the town and environs were the princi-
pal speakers : Rev. Messrs. Foote, Leith, Spence, Thorbuvn, Simpson,
Angus, Penman, Cocking, Clowes, and Principal Jack, of the Univer-
sity. A petition was agreed upon, " urgently imploring parliament to
proceed forthwith to devise and enact the wisest and best measures for
insuring the early and final abolition of slavery."

6. Paisley.
An Anti-Slavery meeting was held at Paisley, in the Court Hall, on
the 1st of November; James Carlile, Esq, in the chair. It was nume-
rously attended. The subject was discussed with great ability by the
following speakers : J. M, Bell, Esq. Advocate, Rev. Dr. Burns, Rev.
Messrs. M'Diarmid, M'Nair, Baird, Smart, and Kennedy. The speech
of Dr, Burns has since been published in a separate form, and is well
worth the attention of our readers.*

7, Glasgow,

On the 11th of November, a public meeting of the friends of negro
emancipation was held at Glasgow, with a view to petition Parliament,
The chair was occupied by Anthony Wigham, Esq, who opened the
proceedings by an animated address. The Rev. Dr. Wardlaw followed,
in a speech distinguished for high argumentative eloquence. We ex-
tract the following specimen :

" From the defenders of slavery, we hear a great deal about exag-
geration. They allege that some of the facts adduced to impress the
public mind are false, and that others are greatly aggravated. When
they discover one of this description, they make the most of it ; and
would fain adopt, and persuade others to adopt the maxim, ' Ex uno
disce omnes.' And not a few are in danger of applying the maxim,
and of having their sentiment of condemnation thus weakened; so that

* Copies may be had at 18, Alclermanbury.

Meeting at Glasgow — Dr. Wardlaw. 3i

they report the counter-statements they have heard, with minds unset-
tled, and almost reduced to neutrality. They hear the printed journal
of the atrocities of slavery traduced as a parcel of lies, the inventions
and exaggerations of malice ; they have specimens adduced, in which
the falsehood or the aggravation, they cannot but think, is fairly made
out ; and their antipathies to slavery are brought almost to a mere
negation. That exaggerated accounts have been occasionally circu-
lated we may readily admit : it were almost a miracle that it should
be otherwise. But I cannot allow such a charge as that of any thing
like frequent mis-statement to be brought against the printed record
to which I have alluded. The Anti-Slavery Reporter is compiled
under the full assurance that there is an eye of vigilant jealousy which
will closely scrutinise every article, and every particular of every arti-
cle that appears there, and will drag to light, and expose to public
obloquy, every thing that can be detected in the form of mis-state-
ment. Even with this knowledge, strong as is the pledge of veracity
and careful inquiry afforded by it, it would be wonderful that there
never had been a slip. And yet, taking the whole average mass of its
monthly contents for a series of years, the Editors might adopt the
language of the angry patriarch, and say to their keenest and most
virulent inquisitor, ' whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what
hast thou found ? ' But Sir, I will give the objector the benefit of a
large allowance. The facts themselves are so multiplied, that we can
easily afford it. I ask, what is the inference ? Our principle is, that
Slavery is a bad tiling, and ought to be abolished. How stands the
counter-argiunent ? ' You say that Slavery is a bad thing ; but some
of the alleged facts in support of your position have been found exag-
gerated or groundless ; so that ' — So that what ? what is the conclu-
sion ? that Slavery is a good thing, and ought to be continued ?
Unless the premises carry to this, they are nothing to the purpose. But,
alas, for the Logic ! How would it do in application to some other
subjects? Suppose we take Persecution. There can be little doubt,
that occasionally there have been false aiid exaggerated representa-
tions of particular facts in the history of persecution. Individuals
may have been represented as killed, when they were only tortured ;
as tortured, when they were only banished ; as banished, when they
were only imprisoned ; as having lost both eyes, when they only lost
one ; as having been put upon the rack, when they were only thumb-
screwed ; or as having received fifty lashes, when it was only forty-
nine, or even, if you will, none at all ; and a thousand may have been
stated as massacred, when there were only nine hundred. We can
conceive an endless variety of ways in which there may have been
greater or slighter mis-statements. What is the inference ? That per-
secution is a good thing ? or that it should not be condemned and
reprobated so strongly, in the principle or the practice of it, or branded
with quite so deep a stigma of infamy, as, in these happy times of
liberty of conscience, we have learned to affix to it ? I shall only say,
that the one inference would be as good as the other. Both are un-
sound and worthless.

" In the same spirit, Sir, we are many a time assured, that the idea

36 Meeting at Glasgow — Dr. Wardlaw.

we have of the condition of the slaves is a very false one : — that they
are well fed, and well seen to ; that they are on the average better off
than many of the working classes of our own country ; that they do
not feel their slavery, but, if only let alone by officious intermeddlers,
would be merry and happy. But, Sir, keeping to general principles,
I would first of all ask, — looking at the simple fact of 800,000 slaves,
portioned out amongst I know not how many owners and superinten-
dants, — and taking into account the natural and ascertained tendencies
of slavery to degrade on the one side and to harden on the other, — -
whether it be in the nature of things, whether it be within the range
of moral possibilities, that there should not exist an incalculable ac-
cumulation of wrong and outrage ? We are, a priori, prepared to
expect it. On the averages of human nature, we feel satisfied that it
cannot be otherwise ; and that there is a previous verisimilitude in
any tale of horror that comes to us as the product of such a system ;
although such tales there have been, possessing features of atrocity
so hideous, that but for their thorough authentication, they must have
stunned us into incredulity. Keeping to general principles, I ask
farther — slaves being regarded in general simply as so much farm
stock, and estimated by the quantum of bone and muscle, and phy-
sical capability, — am I not right when I say, that similar principles of
treatment are applied to them with those applied to any other animal
machine, in the shape of horse or ox ? Now there are here two sys-
tems of solution for the same practical problem. The problem is, how to
bring the greatest amount of product from the animal's labour, whether
brute or human. The first system is, exacting as much labour as
possible in a short time. The other is, exacting less labour, and
making the animal last the longer. The one method wearing out the
physical powers quickly, but making them the more productive while
they last ; the other, wearing them out more slowly, and gaining in
time what is deficient in toil. Now, the man who knows his own
interest, must know, as a general principle, that whichsoever of these
plans be followed, good feeding and careful treatment are necessary
to its efficiency. But in the case of the slave, as well as of the brute,
it is, in nine cases out of ten, a calculation of interest. And alas !
in how many thousands and tens of thonsands of cases do the hasty,
the capricious, or the malignant tempers, which are either natural,
or produced by the very tendencies of absolute domination, miserably
overcome the principles of mercenary calculation, and make the vic-
tims of that domination feel the yoke to be cruelly galling ? And
even their good treatment, Sir, what is it ? It is just the good treat-
ment of their fellow-labourers, the horse, the ox, and the mule ! And
where is the British peasant, or the British mechanic, from John
o'Groat's to the Land's End, who would, for such feeding and such
treatment, relinquish his freedom, sell himself at a valuation, become
a part of the goods and chattels of another, his absolute property, one
of his live stock, a human brute, to be tasked at his mercy, and dis-
posed of at his pleasure ? Where is the man who would not prefer to
such a condition the free sweat of his brow, were it compensated by no
more than hi!> crust of bread and his mouthful of water ? Think not.

Meeting at Glasgow— Dr. M'Farlane. 37

O think not, that I speak lightly of the sufferings of my fellow-coun-
trymen at home. If the man is to be found who would make such a
choice, he is deeply to be pitied. He has been rendered abject by
the pressure of his condition. But here again, what is the inference?
That because the mere physical condition of some of the negro slaves
is superior (admitting for the sake of argument the assertions of the
West Indians to be true,) to the physical condition of some of our la-
bourers at home, we should therefore let the slaves alone, and that all
our talk about them is the mere cant and whining of sentimentalism ;
and all our zeal, and all our petitioning, and all our efforts, the dri-
velling of a hypocritical enthusiasm, that is careless of distress at our
door, and ' will be meddling ' with what is none of its concerns ? No,
Sir, the legitimate inference is, not that we should give up caring for
the negro, but that we should care more than ever for the suffering
poor amongst ourselves. Sir, from the bottom of my heart, I sigh
over the thought, that there should exist any ground for the degrading
comparison. And sure I am, that if any measures can be brought
into legitimate operation for lifting the burden of poverty and its at-
tendant evils, from any class of our countrymen on whom it heavily
presses, there is not a man on this platform who would not lend heart
and hand to its promotion, who would not be ready to show, that the
friend of the Negro slave is the friend of the British peasant, the friend
of mankind."

The Rev. Messrs. Heugh, Greville Ewing, and Beattie, likewise
delivered long and able addresses ; and the Rev. Dr. Patrick M'Far-
lane, in moving one of the resolutions, adverted to an attack from the
Glasgow Courier, in the following terms : " At the last meeting of the
Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, a petition to Parliament for the abolition
of slavery was agreed to. A Journal, the organ of the West India
interest in this city, has since animadverted on the conduct of the
Synod, observing, that the Ministers of Glasgow derived their stipends
from the prosperity of the West India interest ; and if they effected the
abolition of slavery, they must have their stipends reduced one-half — •
as much as to say : Take care, you are nursed by the West India in-
terest ; and you had better keep in amity with that powerful body.
He came there that day to resist the attack made on the independence
of himself and colleagues. He would tell that Journalist that no
influence should deter him from the right of thinking and acting for
himself; and he would pledge himself for the Ministers of Glasgow,
that they were of the same mind. They held it as their indefeasible
right to act and think for themselves, on all subjects ; and they would
not be frowned down by the most wealthy or powerful body, or by any
influence whatever, from exercising their undoubted privilege. The
writer attempts to alarm them by a reference to pecuniary considera-
tions, but he rejected with disdain the foul insinuation that they were
guided by pecuniary motives. He cast from himself and brethren,
with the utmost scorn and indignation, such an imputation ; his col-
leagues had acted honestly and independently, and they would
continue- to do so. (Applause.) The letter in question was signed
B.C., (which he interpreted, J3efender of the Colonics,) South ^^'clling-

38 Meeting at Glasgow — Dr. M'Farlane.

ton Place. (A laugh.) This redoubtable journalist* — this pampered
and well paid supporter of the West India interest — this declaimer
against the rights of 800,000 black men, and as had been shown, of
white men too — (a laugh) — knew too well that his sophistry would not
do with men of education ; and he therefore attacks what he supposes
to be the weak side of the Ministers of Glasgow ; and he says, in effect,
' Gentlemen, take care of your interests !' It must be a bad cause indeed
which required such support. If the cause was a good one, if it was
consistent with humanity, why did its supporters not appeal to a pub-
lic meeting ? It would be curious to see an advertisement in the
Courier for instance calling a meeting in the Assembly Rooms on
such a day and at such an hour to take into consideration the best
means of perpetuating the ineffable blessing of slavery, not only in
the West Indies, but to extend it over all the nations of the earth !f
(Laughter.)"

* The well known Mr. Macqueen is alluded to.

f ThePro-Slavery party in Glasgow have not ventured to call a pub] ic meeting ; but
they are now assiduously promoting a petition to Parliament, praying for gradual
emancipation. And assuredly, as in the hands of the Planters even amelioration has
been during the last 23 years so gradual as to be in many points actually retrogressive,
we may look for emancipation, under such auspices, at the millennium — andnot till
then. We subjoin two of the clauses of this petition, as illustrative of the tone the
West India party have recently assumed, for the obvious purpose of baffling the aims
of the Abolitionists now, as they succeeded in bafiling them for 20 years in the
question of the Slave Trade, — by plausible pretexts for indefinite delay. Who,
with a knowledge of the actual facts, can read without scorn and indignation their
delusive and mendacious assertions about the pretended " efforts dictated by a
just zeal" " being made to instruct him (the slave) in the principles of a holy
religion and pure morality,'' " under the protectio?i and encouragement of his
owner ".' .' And this they have the matchless effrontery to state, while they are
persecuting (as we still find them doing by the very latest arrivals from Jamaica) both
Missionaries and slaves, even to death, for communicating and receiving religious
instruction ! Marking merely a few of the hypocritical phrases of the following
extract in Italics, we leave our readers to compare such professions with the
general and unvarying treatment of the Slaves, as unveiled in our previous pages,
and in Mr. Stephen's invaluable and unanswerable " Delineation of Slavery."

" That the humanity of resisting the slave's immediate enfranchisement, is ren-
dered still more evident by the fact, that meanwhile, under the protection and
encouragement of his oivner, every effort dictated by a just zeal, and warranted
hy a prudent regard to circumstances, is being made to instruct him in the prin-
ciples of a holy religion and pure morality ; and thus, by elevating him in the
scale of civilization, to fit him for ultimately enjoying in a right spirit that free-
dom, which at present he values only as holding out a prospect of total exemption
from labour, and unrestrained indulgence of those low appetites that always pre-
dominate in the savage character. — That, by allowing the accessaries to civilizatio?i
thus already at work, to operate their natural results in a gradual and peaceable
manner, the Slave will at length become ready to enter on the enjoyment of entire
freedom, without any shock being given to society, or any risk encountered as to
his oiun future destiny : and therefore, since in no other way it is possible to re-
concile the interests of all parties, and avoid either the robbery of the Colonists,
the imposition of an insufferably large compensation-tax on this already over-
taxed country, or a direct violation of the humanity due to the Slave himself, — it
is demanded by right feeling, as well as by sound policy, that a deaf ear should

Scottish Synoda and Presbyteries, 39

A series of resolutions were unanimously adopted, from which we
extract the following : —

" That granting the desirableness, so incessantly pleaded by the slave-holders,
and the advocates of their system, of preparing the slaves, by a previous process
of mental culture, and especially of moral and rehgious instruction, for appreci-
ating, enjoying, and rightly using their proposed freedom, — it is as lamentable as
it is notorious, that by those who urge this plea, no general and efficient measures
have yet been adopted for imparting the necessary preparation, so that were their
intentions to be judged by their conduct, it would seem, with some honourable
and praiseworthy exceptions, as if instead of being in earnest for the attainment of
the ultimate design, they were rather desirous to retain the convenient plea, in
undiminished force, for an indefinite iuturity.

" That the system having grown to such an extent, and involving in it so great
a variety of conflicting interests, it is not reasonably to be expected that any de-
visable scheme of emancipation should be unencumbered with difficulties ; that
those measures are entitled to preference which most effectually combine the two
commands to ' do justly' and to 'love mercy ;' that desirous as we are of the im-
mediate extinction of all slavery, as a violation of the birthright of fellow-men,
and a foul stain on our country's character and honour, we shall rejoice, if, on
mature consideration of claims and consequences, the British legislature shall find
itself in a condition to restore the right, and to wipe off" the stain by one glorious
act of instant liberation ; but should the case still appear as requiring measures
of more gradual operation, it is in our judgment indispensable, that the salutaiy
proposals which have already been approved by Parliament, instead of being any
longer left, in any case, to the discretionary adoption of the colonial authorities,
shall all be rendered imperative by express enactment, and their strict obser-
vance be penally enforced; so that the countiy may no longer be befooled by
unexecuted orders and illusory promises."

8. Scottish Synods and Presbyteries.
Before leaving Scotland for the present, we have to add, with great
satisfaction, that this cause has been advocated by the ministers of
religion, in that country, both of the established church and other de-
nominations, with peculiar zeal and ability. Keeping the question of
slavery, as it ought to be kept, distinct from all reference to party po-.
litics, the clergy of Scotland, generally, have justly viewed it to be
their high duty and privilege to come forward prominently at this im-
portant conjuncture, to instruct and arouse the people under their
charge to petition the legislature. They have also, in several cases, sent
in their own solemn appeal for the abolition of Slavery in a collective
capacity. The Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, as Avas stated by Dr.
M'Farlane, have done so unanimously ; and the Synods of Merse and
Teviotdale, and of Lothian and Tweeddale, by overwhelming majori-
ties. The Presbyteries of Edinburgh, Paisley, Selkirk, and, we be-
lieve, several others, have adopted the same meritorious course ; and
numerous parochial and congregational petitions, promoted by the cler-
gy, have been presented to Parliament. It is but justice to notice, that

be turned to those who, guided only by abstract notions of philanthropy, and
overlooking all considerations of practical wisdom, would precipitate at once a
crisis, which cannot come upon us safely but as the effect of an adequate degree
of civilization, produced by humanizing causes operating through a sufficient length
of years. "

40 Meeting at Bradford — Rev. Mr. Hudson.

the United Synod of the Scottish Secession Church, representing up-
wards of three hundred congreg'ations, led the way, as a religious body,
in this work of justice and mercy.

9. Bradford.

On the 4th of October, a numerous meeting of the inhabitants of
Bradford and its vicinity was held, with a view to address the Throne,
and petition Parliament for the " speedy extinction" of negro slavery.
The Rev. Henry Heap, Vicar of Bradford, was called to the chair;
and the meeting was successively addressed by the Rev. G. S. Bull,
Rev. Dr. Stedman, Rev. Messrs. Hudson, Morgan, Godwin,* and
Fish, in very impressive speeches. The Rev. Mr. Hudson, who is a
Baptist minister, and was formerly a missionary in Jamaica, observed
that the colonists talked much of the evils and perils which might be
apprehended to result from the abolition of slavery in the West Indies ;
but that in his opinion, formed after three years' residence there, these
apprehensions were groundless. After discussing and illustrating
this part of the question at some length, and demonstrating the
futility of the threats of the colonists to rebel and throw themselves
into the hands of the Americans, should abolition be carried in par-
liament, Mr. Hudson detailed some facts of which he had been a
witness, illustrative of the inhumanity with which the slaves were
frequently treated. Among other cruelties, he had" himself seen a
boy laid down to be flogged, and his mother compelled to hold him
whilst his brother administered fifty-two lashes ; and, during the
castigation, the master took the whip from the brother's hand, and
flogged Imn for not flogging hard enough. It was, he added, common
to see women flogged by the drivers with the cart- whip, a terrible instru-
mentfromfive to seven feet long. Notwithstanding the law which forbids
working between seven o'clock on Saturday night and seven on Mon-
day morning, he had frequently seen mills and carts at work on Sun-
day. And who was to inform against the practice ? Self-interest
operated through every heart, from one end of the country to the
other, and therefore it could never be expected that the colonists
would abolish the system by which they were supported. The state-
ment that it would be impossible to evangelize the negroes was false,
because it was founded on the principle that they were not men but
brutes. Indeed he had seen a letter in the Montego Bay Gazette,
published in 1828, \n which the writer held that negroes were neither
men nor brutes, but a certain mixed species !"

10. Melksham.
Early in October an Anti-Slavery meeting was held at Melksham,
when several energetic resolutions were passed, and petitions to both
Houses of Parliament agreed upon. The Rev. Messrs. Hume, Newton,
Johnson, Rogers, Elliot, Honywill, Keene, and Parry ; and Messrs.
Withy, Fowler, Awdry, and Hulbert, respectively addressed the as-
sembly with great efFect. Mr. Withy, in a speech of considerable

* Author of" Lectures on Slavery."

Mectinys at Truro. Kingston, and Falmouth. 41

length, delineated the evils and miseries of slavery, as he had per-
sonally witnessed them a few years ago in the southern states of
America. He had there seen the slaves driven by the Avhip on the
public roads, from place to place, like droves of cattle. He had seen
men, women, and children of all ages, exposed for sale in the public
markets, in the same manner precisely as cattle are exposed in the
fairs and markets of this country ; and, on these occasions, every
regard to decency was set at defiance. That the negroes were en-
dowed with the same intellectual powers as Europeans, had been, he
said, demonstrated to his perfect satisfaction, on his personal obser-
vation of schools in America for black and coloured children, where
he had seen them pass their examinations in the different branches of
literature with ability quite equal to what he had ever witnessed in
our schools at home.

11. Truro.

On the 8th of October, the Annual Meeting of the Truro Anti-
Slavery Society was held in the Assembly Room of that town. Wm.
Tweedy, Esq. was called to the chair ; and the meeting was succes-
sively addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Clarke, Martin, Trist, Moore, and
by Messrs, W. M. Tweedy and W, T. Blair. Several of the speeches
were very able ; but the necessity which our limits impose of restrict-
ing our extracts within narrow boundaries, compels us to pass over this
meeting, like many others, without giving even an outline of the pro-
ceedings. The meeting separated under a deep impression of the
duty of uniting in every legal means of putting an early and total end
to the criminal and degrading system.

12. KinCtSton-on-Thames.

On the same day, (October 8th,) a public meeting to petition Par-
liament for the extinction of slavery, and to establish an Anti-Slavery
Association, was held at Kingston-on-Thames. J. I. Briscoe, Esq. M. P.
was called to the chair, and introduced the business by an appropriate
address. He was well supported by Mr. H. Pownall, in a long and
impressive speech ; and also by the Hon. and Rev. Gerard Noel, Mr.
Joseph Wilson, of Clapham, Rev. A. Churchill, Messrs. Phillips,
Strachan, Palmer, Chalk, &c. An energetic petition was adopted.

13. Falmouth.

On the 11th of October, a meeting was held at Falmouth, with the
view of forming an Anti-Slavery Association, and promoting petitions
to Parliament. The chair was occupied by J. Cornish, Esq. Mayor ;
and the meeting was addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Harding, Davies,
Clarke, Muscut ; and by Messrs. Blair, Bond, Budd,and Dr. Boase. We
must confine ourselves to a brief notice of the valuable testimony of
the Rev. Mr. Davies, respecting West India slavery. Having been
recently a missionary in the West Indies, he gives his evidence as an
eye-witness.

He came forward, he said, to give his voluntary testimony against
West India slavery, as a system unsanctioned by the word of God, re-

42 Meeting at Falmouth — Rev. Mr. Davies.

pugnant to the rights of mankind, and opposed to every good prin-
ciple in human nature. Admitting that some facts may have been
mis-stated, some acts of cruelty unintentionally exaggerated, the colo-
nists had little cause to complain ; for were every thing fairly adj usted
— every inaccuracy corrected, and exaggeration retracted, and, on the
other side, the manifold atrocities brought to light v^hich are now im-
known, the case of the planters would appear miich worse than it does at
present. There were, it is true, some planters who treat their slaves with
humanity — who are careful to restrict the unmeasured use of the whip
— who make provision for their wants — shew them considerable atten-
tion when sick — and even provide for their religious instruction ; but
such treatment, said Mr. D. is the exception, not the general rule, in
the West Indies : by far the greater proportion of the planters are cri-
minal in the sight of God and man. — He maintained that there is no
analogy between the slavery allowed among the Jews and that which
prevails in our colonies, either in origin or practice. A man who
should acquire a slave under the Jewish law, by robbery, as our negro
slaves were acquired, was liable to be put to death. The Jews held a
slave in bondage six years, and then allowed him to go free, with a
provision for his immediate wants. An individual might, indeed,
voluntarily relinquish his right to liberty, and remain in a state of
bondage; but the Jubilee terminated even contracts of that kind.
Was there any thing of the mildness and mercifulness of this species
of servitude to be found in West India slavery ? Again, under the old
dispensation, the Jewish master was directed to give his bondman a
reasonable support, and to treat him with kindness and humanity ;
and no ignominious punishment was to be inflicted upon him, lest
he should appear vile in the estimation of his brethren. But how dif-
ferent was the case in our colonies ! The planters, no doubt, asserted
that the slaves were well provided for. But it is not the case. A poor
slave, on one occasion, told him (Mr. Davies) that he wished to attend
the sacrament, but was afraid to come, because he was compelled to
sell and buy on the Sabbath-dav. Three herrings and a half per week
for himself, and a herring and a half for each child, was not sufficient,
he said, to keep them, and one suit of clothes was not enough for the
year ; and so they were obliged to go to market and thus obtain sup-
port. This was the testimony of an individual making no complaint,
and who was, in fact, a great deal better off than many of his brethren.
One poor man who had been most shamefully treated, after telling-
Mr. Davies his piteous tale, remarked — " Me cannot stand all this for
religion." And these were not solitary instances. — The planters see
no evil in slavery. Their blindness to its evils was one of its most
deplorable effects. Men may see so much and live so long as to lose
the natural sensibilities of humanity, and even come at last to " put
darkness for light, and evil for good." This is the judicial curse of
slavery upon its abettors. Under the old dispensation, so often referred
to by the advocates of slavery, the bondman was respected as a being
accountable to God ; and the master was bound and encouraged to
stimulate him to attend religious worship, and participate in the com-
mon privileges of the dispensation. All the great festivals were days

Meetings at Southampton and Huddersjield. 43

of delight to the slave as well as to the master ; while in the sabbatical
vear the produce of the fields was given to the slave equally with the
other poor of the land. But the very circumstances under which the
West India slaves are compelled to procure their subsistence necessa-
rily occasioned the desecration of the Sabbath.

Mr. Bond, another speaker, said he had resided three years in a
land of slavery, but had not seen enough of it to love it. He ab-
horred it under every form ; and from his own experience could refute
the vile assertion, that the slave is better off than the poor of our own
country. He denied that the slaves are, or can be, happy ; for he had
witnessed the tender mercies of the slaveholders, that they are cruel.
They did nothing for the slave beyond what self-interest imperatively
exacted, and not even always that. Every thing else which justice
and humanity claimed was left undone.

14. Southampton.

A numerous meeting was held at Southampton on the 11th of
October, for the purpose of petitioning for the abolition of slavery.
The chair was occupied by Dr. Nicoll ; and the evils of the system
were fully and ably discussed by the Rev. Messrs. Maurice, Coleman,
Crabb, Wilson, Bettridge, Adkins, Bromley, Genest, and Dr. Clarke.
A petition for " the early and utter extinction of slavery" was agreed
upon.

15. HUDDERSFIELD.

On the same day (Oct. 11) a numerous meeting of the inhabitants
of Huddersfield and its vicinity, was held in the Court House of that
town ; Mr. Beaumont in the chair. The slavery question was dis-
cussed in almost all its bearings, by the Rev. Messrs. Wyndham
Maddan, Boothroyd, Haunch, Eagleton, Bunting, Farrar, Lynn; and
by Messrs. Sutcl'ifFe, ClifF, Watt, Willans, Wilson, and Oldfield.
Several very able speeches were delivered at this meeting, but we can
only quote the following remarks from that of Mr. Watt, in the justice
of which every one acquainted with the practical effects of slavery
must fully acquiesce. — Speaking of the planters, he observed, "It is dif-
ficult to believe it possible that men endowed with the common feelings
of humanity can be guilty of such atrocities towards their oppressed
brethren, far less are we inclined readily to admit that ladies, losing the
delicacy of their sex and the finer feelings of their nature, can witness
these cruelties, and actually order inflictions which produce great
bodily pain to the unhappy sufferers, and deaden the best sensibilities
of their nature. It is difficult to believe such things, although their
existence be undeniable, and therefore many are inclined to think that
the same representations, the same arguments, and the same appeals
that are successful when made to our feelings of mercy and our Chris-
tian principles, will operate in a powerful manner on the owners and
superintendants of slaves, and produce an alteration of conduct. But
it is not always remembered that man is in a great measure the crea-
ture of circumstances, and that very often the character is formed from
the situation ; that the practices of one country, for which there may

44 Meetings at Hartley and Shelton, and Kendal.

be a complete toleration, would be considered as so many atrocities
in another country; that what would revolt the public feeling in our
ov/n land, might attach no disgrace whatever to residents in some
colonial settlement. If this be admitted as true, (and who is there
that knows the world, and has studied human nature, but will admit
the correctness of the description ?) then I think it follows, that what
would be revolting and abhorrent to our feelings in the conduct prac-
tised towards the slaves, and which we would term inhumanity,
cruelty, and barbarity, may be viewed in a very different light, and
called by very different names, by those who live in an atmosphere
differing both, naturally and morally from that which we have the in-
estimable privilege to enjoy. And this view of the subject will go a
great way to explain how we cannot put faith in the owners and su-
perintendants of slaves, and ought to determine us to rely upon their
tender mercies no longer, but with united voices to send our last ap-
peal to the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain, — telling them
respectfully but firmly, that humanity, freedom, and Christianity
require a speedy and utter extinction of colonial slavery."

16. Hanley and Shelton.

The same day (Oct. 11,) an anti-slavery meeting was held of the
inhabitants of Hanley and Shelton, Staffordshire. The chief bailiff,
W. Ridgway, Esq., occupied the chair; and the meeting was suc-
cessively addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Edmonds, Smith, Shuttle-
worth, Newland, Davies, Waterhouse ; and by Messrs. Josiah Wedg-
wood and Griffin. The speakers here, as at almost every similar
meeting of which we have obtained a report, exhibited great know-
ledge of the subject. A petition to the legislature "for the imme-
diate and utter extinction of slavery," was adopted.

17. Kendal.
On the 12th of October, a meeting to petition for "the early and
utter abolition of slavery" was held at Kendal ; Jonathan Hodgson,
Esq., Mayor, in the chair. The assembly, says the ' Westmore-
land Gazette,' was more numerous than was ever witnessed on any
similar occasion. The speakers were the Rev. Messrs. Jones,
Wilson, Rowland, Cousin; and Messrs. Crewdson, Moser, Marshall,
and Benson. Mr. Crewdson introduced the business by a clear
and succinct history of British colonial slavery, from its first introduc-
tion in the reign of Elizabeth to the present day ; and the subject
was subsequently elucidated in a very satisfactory manner by those
who followed. The Rev. David Jones combated the allegation so
often brought forward by the abettors of slavery, that it is a system
countenanced by Scripture. After fully and successfully discussing
this topic, he concluded an eloquent speech as follows : — " In the
bay of Algiers, amid fire and smoke, and ruined works, and slaugh-
tered men, England loudly and solemnly denounced the practice of
slavery ; and why should the same abominable practice be fostered
and perpetuated in the British colonies ? We have interfered on
behalf of the Greeks to establish their liberties ; and the Grand Sul-..

Meetings at Hadleigh, Penzance, and Wellingborough. 45

tan of Turkey has been bound over to keep the peace by the great
powers of Europe. And why should the injured sons of Africa be
neglected? Is it because they cannot, like the Greeks, boast of classic
story, and proudly refer to sages, orators, and heroes, like those of
Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopylse ? Surely, as God has made the
Negro of one blood with all other nations, he has an equal right of
liberty with all. Let us then bestir ourselves in his cause. Let the
British people arise in the greatness of their moral strength, and, de-
voted by Christian principles to the sacred cause of freedom, let them
proclaim it aloud, not only that ' Britons never will be slaves,' but
that ' Britons never will hold slaves ! ' (cheers.) Let them lift up
their voices on high ; our senators will attend to it, and in the islands
far off in the sea, and in the lands across the deep, the slave and
slave-holder shall catch and comprehend the mighty sound ; and the
fetters shall be broken, and the scourge shall be laid aside, and the
badges of bondage shall be trampled under foot, — and the emanci-
pated shall stand erect in the presence of God and of men, in the
holy consciousness of his liberty, while his heart palpitates with gra-
titude for the arrival of the hour when he is reco2:nised throughout
the world as a man and a brother ! "

18. Hadleigh.

An anti-slavery meeting was held at this place on the 13th of
October. The Rev. W. Edge, rector of Nedging presided, and
opened the proceedings by a luminous speech on the anti-scriptural,
unjust, and inhuman character of negro slavery. Several resolutions,
condemnatory of the system, were passed, and a petition to parlia-
ment adopted, after addresses in a similar strain from the Rev. H. J.
Rose, rector of Hadleigh, — Rev. Messrs. Wallace, Edwards, Speare, —
and Messrs. Alston, Staines, Mudd, Pickess, and Mr. Morris, of
Colchester.

19. Penzance.

On the same day, (Oct. 13) a public meeting for petitioning Parlia-
ment to abolish slavery was held in the Town Hall, Penzance. The
chair was occupied by the Rev. N. Tonkin, and various resolutions
were moved and supported by the Rev. Messrs. Le Grice, Harvey,
Townsend, &c. An energetic petition was agreed upon.

20. Wellingborough.

On the 14th of October a similar meeting was held in the Town
Hall of Wellingborough. Charles Hill, Esq., Avas called to the chair ;
and the several resolutions proposed were supported by the Rev.
Messrs. Robertson, Jacomb, Renals, and Sevier; and by Messrs.
Keep, Wallis, Sharman, Marriott, Curtis, and Soames. The follow-
ing is an extract from the petition adopted:

" Your petitioners, in their abhorrence of slavery, denounce it as unnatural,
in violation of human rights, inconsistent with every sound system of national
policy, in opposition to every principle of religion, replete with wrongs and
eruelties to men, and offensive and insulting to God, who has made of one blood
all the individuals of the human race, and with whom there is no respect of

46 Meeting at Portsea — Mr. Minchin.

persons ; and your petitioners avow their conviction that to connive at its con-
tinuance, or to be silent so long as it shall be the reproach of a free and en-
lightened people that it is sanctioned by their laws, would subject them to the
imputation of being insensible to the value of their own rights, and destitute of
the feelings of humanity.

" That your petitioners, strong in the confidence that all unjust restrictions on
the natural rights of mankind, and every denial of their essential claims, will
finally be removed and redressed ; and no less assured that the moral feelings of
the people of the United Kingdom are opposed to the whole system of colonial
bondage; are resolved, never to desist from the employment of all lawful means
to obtain the erasure of the odious and detested name of slave from the statute
book of their country, and to place those of their unoffending and deeply injured
fellow-subjects to whom it is applied, in the possession of the blessings which the
British Constitution recognizes as the birth-right of all within its pale."

21. Portsea.

A meeting to petition parliament " for the entire and speedy aboli-
tion of slavery," was held at Portsea, on the 15th of October. The
Mayor, D. Howard, Esq. presided, and opened the proceedings ; and
the following gentlemen addressed the meeting : — ^The Ptev. Dr. In-
man. Rev. Messrs. C. B. Henville, Macconnell, Martin, Carrtithers,
Watts, Best; Messrs. Minchin, Hoskins, Snooke, Maurice, Elliott,
and Jackson. The speeches evinced the same thorough acquaintance
with the subject, which we have, with high satisfaction, observed to
prevail at almost every similar meeting which has recently been held
throughout the kingdom : a fact which w^e hail as an earnest of early
and entire success for our great cause ; for we are persuaded that
whenever the true character and effects of negro slavery are fully
appreciated by the British people, the national voice will make itself
to be heard in parliament, in a manner not to be longer withstood.
It is on such occasions, when the high moral principles of our nature
vindicate their divine origin, and speak out loftily and loud with the
irresistible energy of collective mind, that v/e recognize the truth of
the ancient adage, Vox populi—vox Dei.

Of the tone and the talent with which the question was discussed
at this meeting, we can admit only a very brief specimen. Mr. Min-
chin observed, that " they were not met to argue the question, whe-
ther man should be the slave of his fellow man — ^whether a man born
of the same common parents, formed by the same great Creator, and
redeemed by the blood of the same common Saviour, may become
the goods and chattels of another. Slavery snot an offence to be
tolerated ; it is a foul, a wretched, and an abom.inable crime to be
abolished. And although the legislature had voted for the abolition,
and Orders in Council had been issued by his Majesty's Government
for the regulation of the colonies in respect to it, and for the amelio-
ration and gradual emancipation of the slave, yet it was a lamentable
fact, that every measure of Government had been opposed and
thwarted, its endeavours frustrated, and its energy weakened, if not
destroyed, by the policy and conduct of those in the colonies inte-
rested in its continuance ; so that it became necessary for the Legisla-
ture again to interfere with its supreme authority. The voice of the

Meeting at Portsea — Mr. Jackson. 47

nation in abhorrence of it would now, no doubt, be expressed from
one end of these islands to the other; and our representatives, who are
in our stead in the great Council of the nation, as they are so chosen
or at least ought to be, by us, are bound, if they do their duty, to
listen to that voice, and vote for the utter abolition of a system which
of itself is an abomination in the empire."

Mr. Jackson, in discussing the objection of the West Indians, that
the planter would suffer injury by emancipation, argued thus : —
" Emancipation v/ill enable the planter to produce at a cheaper rate
by free than slave labour. This may be denied, but how stands the fact ?
Either the planter treats his slaves well or ill : if ill, then emancipa-
tion is necessary on that ground ; but if he give them a sufficient supply
of food, suitable lodging, and proper relaxation, then slave-labour is
as expensive as free, nay more so, because emancipation will render
unnecessary that capital which is now laid out in the detestable
purchase of this ' live stock.' To come more to detail, if the purchase
money is 10,000/., and the wear and tear of human flesh and interest
of money is (as has been asserted) 25 per cent., then there will be an
annual saving of 2500/., by using free instead of compelled labour;
and this is independent of the additional work which would be per-
formed by free men, and the saving of all the expensive machinery of
slave-drivers, overseers, and cart-whips. Hence, doubtless, the rea-
son of the cheaper produce of the East Indies over the West, so that
the latter to compete with the former, requires a larger protecting-
duty.*"

* The point here adverted to is placed in a very striking light, in the following
communication from a respected correspondent : — ■" One chief practical argument
against emancipation which I hear in conversation, and read in West India peti-
tions is, that the slaves will not work for hire in a state of freedom, as they do now
by severity in a state of bondage ; and that consequently property, so far as its worth
depends upon forced labour, will be dimuiished by making labour free. The ob-
jection is usually answered by shewing that, in the end, free labour is more valuable
than slave labour, which I fully believe ; but I submit that it were better for the pri-
vate and the parliamentary advocates of emancipation to meet the objection in
its direct form. Let them say, ' You tell us that you cannot get men to work
by wages, by encouragements, by bribes, by voluntary contracts, however gua-
ranteed by severe legal punishments for the breach of them, as they work now.'
We admit it; we believe it; by your own confession you exact a painful, ex-
hausting, and, in the end, murderous quantum of labour, such as nothing but
brutal severity, the constant terror or infliction of the impending cart-whip, could
extort. Calculating on this exterminating extra toil, you have erected mills, and
machinery, and cultivated land equivalent to it; while you pretended to the
British public, when they urged that your system was too severe, that, so far
from it, the slaves worked with pleasure, and only to an easy and reasonable ex-
tent; they had no more to do than they could do with comfort, with health, with
longevity, and with an increase of population. Now take your choice of your
own opposmg arguments. If their labour is not unjust and intolerable, it can
be secured as well by wages as by stripes ; the slave must eat, and you may make
your bargain with him to work to the extent of his wants, which liberty will in-
crease, but beyond which you have no right to force him to toil. But you now
admit, nay contend, that the necessary work is far too laborious, unremitted, and
murderous to be effected by any means that can be applied to a free man. You

4iS Meetings at Storvmarket and Rending.

22, Stowmarket.

At this place a numerous meeting to petition for the abolition of
slavery, was held on the 20th of October. Mr. R. D. Alexander, of
Ipswich, was called to the chair ; and the assembly was addressed by
the Rev. Messrs. Bull, Ward, Sprigg, J. Charlesworth, Rector of Flow-
ton ; and Messrs. Cobbald and Geo. Bayley. The speakers evinced the
same remarkable knowledge of the slave system, and the same una-
nimity of sentiment in denouncing it, which we have already noticed,
as distinguishing so many similar meetings at this crisis. An ener-
getic petition was adopted.

23. Reading.

On the 21st of October, a meeting to petition for the abolition of
slavery was held at Reading, in the Town Hall. The Mayor, J. J.
Blandy, Esq. was called to the chair ; and the meeting was succes-
sively addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Hulme, Hinton, Langley, Sher-
man, Morris; and by C. F. Palmer, Esq. M. P. Messrs. Ring, Dar-
vall, and Joseph Phillips, from Antigua. The sentiments of the
above speakers were unanimous in support of the petition, which
denounced British colonial slavery as " impolitic, cruel, and unjust,"
and prayed for its abolition " at the earliest possible period."

Mr. Phillips, who had been invited to attend the meeting by the
Committee of the Reading Anti-Slavery Association, gave an account
of his observations on slavery, during a residence of twenty-seven
years in Antigua, and of his persecution and imprisonment for up-
wards of twelve months, by the Assembly of Antigua, for no other
crime than having acted as secretary to a society of Quakers, who

have then deceived us, or attempted, at least, to do so. All you said of your easy
yoke was fraudulent fiction ; and now you turn round on us and ask us to in-
demnify you for your cruelty, to make up to you for the severe extra toil which
you said you never exacted, and which, if we had not been deceived by your
false statements of lenity, we would never have allowed to be extorted.'

" I know of no argument so suicidal as this which the West Indian interest
are now urging, and which, I understand, is to be their sheet anchor in adjust-
ing the question of emancipation. Suppose that it were agreed, that a certain
number of hours are as many as children in a cotton manufactory ought to work ;
that complaints were made that they were forced to work much longer ; that the
proprietors long and constantly denied this ; that at length, to set the matter at
rest, parliament humanely determined to fix the maximum of hours ; and that
then the proprietors turned round and complained that they should be ruined ;
that they had invested property in mills which would be deteriorated if the child-
ren might not work half as long again as all men agreed to be reasonable, but
which they had been accustomed to do up to the present moment. Would par-
liament allow the plea? Would it not be reprobated as preposterous and insult-
ing? I do not mean that the cases are parallel ; for the children, in our mills,
work for wages, and under the control of their parents who are interested in tlieir
welfare, and not as slaves under the lash of a stranger. But the case is so far
parallel, that parliament would not allow the wrong doer to avail himself of his
own falsehood and cruelty to enhance artificially the nominal value of his pro-
perty beyond what it was worth without a violation of justice and humanity."

Meeting at Reading — Captain Browne. 49

made him their agent to distribute money to relieve the necessities of
superannuated slaves, deserted by their owners.*

The most remarkable circumstance, however, attending this meet-
ing, was the speech of a Captain Browne, a Jamaica planter. This
gentleman having arisen in the body of the hall, to reply to the state-
ments of those who delineated the evils of slavery, was politely invited
to mount the platform. He accordingly took his place there, and
delivered a long speech, which was listened to by the meeting with the
utmost attention, and without interruption to its close. As it affords
a fair specimen of the veracity, candour, and modesty of the West In-
dians, in pleading their own cause before the British public, we shall
extract from the Berkshire Chronicle of October 30th, (where a full
report of this speech is given " by particular desire,") the following
passages, — forming as audacious a defence, or rather eulogy, of West
India slavery as we have recently met v/ith.

" In reply to Mr. Hulme, he denied the ill-treatment of the slaves
in the British colonies. He contended that on the contrary they
were treated with the greatest kindness and humanity, from the mo-
ment of their birth to the latest period of their lives. They were
nursed, clothed, fed, and provided for in every way that could possi-
bly contribute to their comfort and happiness. They had medical
aid ; they had spiritual aid ; many of them were in possession of
wealth and luxuries ; and many who had more than sufficient to
purchase their freedom, would not do so, well knowing that if they
did, all the comforts they now enjoyed, and which they received from
their present proprietors, they would have to provide for themselves,
and that when assailed by old age or infirmity, they would be left
destitute. He stated he had been in the colonies — he had witnessed
the happiness of the slaves, and the humanity of the planters. He
denied that they were refused the worship of God, as stated by the Rev.
gentlemaji. He enlarged on the value of the West Indian colonies ; also
on the laws [what laws ?] for bettering the condition of the negroes, as
enacted by Parliament in Mr. Canning's administration in 1823 — and
denied that they had not been obeyed by the colonies, except in one
or two points, and in one or tv/o instances, which no doubt was done,
not with the view of treating the mother country with contempt, but
in the belief that the putting them into execution would endanger
those colonies. He contended that the slavery in the British colonies
was but in name, and not in reality ; and that if emancipation was
declared in the colonies at twelve at noon, martial law must and would
be proclaimed at eight at night, in order to prevent the massacre of
every white person in the colonies. Such a measure would immediately
undo all the humane endeavours of the government to better their
condition, and also the benevolent exertions of the planters to instruct
them in those moral obligations towards each other, which had so
materially tended to their happiness." In referring to the slave trade,
" he also denied the horrors of the middle passage which the Rev.
gentleman so forcibly dwelt upon."

'' In reply to the Rev. Mr. Langley, of Wallingford, who. said

* See notices of the treatment of Mr. Phillips, in Nos, 52 and 53, Anti-
Slavery Reporter ; and in the present Number, p. 69.

H

50 Meetings at Liskeard, Plymouth, Bath.

Captain Browne had stated at Abingdon, that he had offered his ne-
groes their freedom ; he denied having- said so : what he then said
was, that such as had the means of purchasing it, were at full liberty
to do so, but would not."

Instead of replying to the above unscrupulous assertions respecting
the treatment and condition of the slaves, which are in fact too
preposterously mendacious to be seriously replied to, we shall refer
our readers to the facts detailed in every number of the Reporter
illustrative of the actual character and effects of West India slavery,
and especially to the testimony of the Rev. Mr, Thorpe, in No. 71, to
that of the Rev. Messrs. Hudson, Davis^, and Orton, and of Messrs.
Stephen and Phillips, in the present Number, (see pp. 40, 41, 63, 69,
72,) and to numerous other recent witnesses of unquestionable cha-
racter. Above all, if any reader finds himself too uninformed in details
to repel such fallacious assertions, let him peruse Mr. Stephen's second
volume, recently published. It ought to be familiar to every man who
comes forward to support the Anti-Slavery cause.

24. Liskeard.

A meeting to petition for the abolition of slavery was held in the
Town Hall at Liskeard, on the 21st of October. The Rev. John
Leske presided, and opened the proceedings by a long and interesting
speech, which was suitably followed up by addresses from the Rev.
Messrs. Radford, Callaway, Borlase, Dunn, Salter, Dorrington, and
by Messrs. John Allen and W. Pearse.

25. Plymouth.

A meeting was held at Plymouth on the 22nd of October. The
chair was occupied by Mr. R. Bayley ; and the meeting was addressed
by the Rev. Messrs. Nicholson, Rowe, Usher, Hartley, and by Messrs.
Woolcombe, Prideaux, Prance, and Derry.

26. Bath.

On the 22nd of October, a meeting was held in the Assembly Rooms,
Bath, to petition for "the speedy and total abolition of slavery." It
was very fully attended ; and the Bishop of Bath and Wells presided.
His Lordship opened the proceedings by an appropriate address, in
which he maintained that slavery is opposed to the whole tenor and
spirit of the Christian code ; and that it is impolitic as well as un-
christian, and ought to be totally abolished. His Lordship observed,
however, that he was not an advocate for instantarieous emancipation ;
but thought some previous preparation and instruction necessary to
render the slaves fit for the enjoyment of freedom. He was also
favourable to some compensation being made to the slave owners,
hov.'ever defective in a moral point of view might be their title. It
ought ever to be considered that he was the best friend of the slave
who brought forward the most practicable system of emancipation.
His Lordship concluded by expressing the satisfaction he should have
in presenting the petition now proposed to the legislature, and by avow-
ing his hope that the period was near at hand when the slave shall be
prepared for freedom, and when the foul blot which now attaches to
the character of this Christian people, shall be washed away by the
full and final abolition of negro slavery.

Meeting at Bath — Mr. Wilberjhrce. 51

The Rev. J. B. Jervoise, in proposing the first resolution, delivered
an energetic address upon the degrading and destructive effects of
slavery, and on the mockery of the West Indian legislatures professing
to promote the instruction of the slaves in the principles of Christianity,
while they kept them in a state of jyhysical incapability to obey
its precepts. What follows, we copy from the Bath and Chelten-
ham Gazette.

" During the address of Mr. Jervoise, certain persons, who had
fixed themselves on the sinister side of the platform, attempted to
create a disturbance by interruptions, clamour, and hisses. The Rt.
Rev. Chairman, by his mingled suavity and firmness, at length silenced
these expressions of adverse feeling, and succeeded in establishing
order. The motion being put to the vote, Mr. Caldecot, who appeared
to take the lead in this opposition, gave in a paper to the Chair, con-
taining some other propositions ; but the persons who acted with him
were each so desirous to be heard, that a scene of confusion ensued,
the consequence of which was, that we could not gather two consecu-
tive sentences delivered by any one of them. It was at length de-
cided by the Chairman that the regular business of the meeting
shoidd proceed, and that he would, at the proper time, submit Mr.
Caldecot's amendment to the sense of the meeting.

" Mr. Wilberforce then came forward and spoke as follows : — ' My
Lord, I am reminded but too forcibly, both by my bodily and mental
infirmities, that, at my advanced period of life, it is time to retire from
the public stage. But when I heard that your Lordship was to honour
us by taking the chair on this occasion, how could I but wish once
more to raise my feeble voice, and, however faintly, to advocate that
good cause for which I have so often pleaded, and for the success of
which my heart will never cease to feel deeply to the latest moment
of rational existence ! Surely, my Lord, you could have come forward
on no occasion with more perfect propriety than on that for which we
are now assembled. It is one in which you imitate the example, and
act in the spirit of your Divine Master, exercising humanity at once to
the bodies and souls of men — like Him who first fed the hungry, and
then conferred on them the still greater blessings of his own divine
instruction. To a Christian, my Lord, it must be regarded as an
axiom, that an opportunity of doing good is tantamount to a com-
mand to undertake the service ; and surely there never was a greater
mass of misery to be terminated, or a greater amount of good to be
conferred, than by the measure which we are now met together to
support. — Many who have opposed our proceedings have appeared,
mistakenly, to suppose that we rest the propriety of our interference
chiefly on the ground of individual acts of cruelty committed on the
bodies of the slaves. That such cruelties will exist wherever man,
with all the various weaknesses and infirmities of his nature, is pos-
sessed of absolute power, is doubtless undeniable. No man is fit to
be trusted with it, and no man who knows himself would wish to
possess it : and but for rny not wishing to give unnecessary pain to
many who are here present, I could tell such tales of individual injury
And suffering, as would cause the heart of any feeling man to bleed

b'i Meet'uiy at Bath — Mr. Wilberforce .

within him. But it is the system that we wish to change. It has
always been our charge that the slaves, generally speaking, are over-
worked and underfed. I know, and willingly confess, that there are
many individual slave-holders who are men of as much humanity as
any other of their fellow-creatures ; and it is really true that the same
island, Barbadoes, contains persons of our own colour, of the best and
of the worst description of West Indians. But the evils of which I
nov/ complain, the underfeeding and overworking, arise necessarily
out of the system. The greater part of the West Indian proprietors
are resident in this country. However humane they may be, the
slaves are far more affected by the disposition and temper of the
individuals immediately over them — their book-keepers, and more
especially their drivers and other servants on the estate. Nor is this
all. The attorneys or managers naturally wish to render the receipts
as great, and the outgoings as small, as can be effected: and as long
ago as the time of Mr. Long, the Historian of Jamaica, it was stated
by him that there were many managers who got great characters by
raising great crops at a small comparative expense, who in a very few
years stole away like a rat from a barn in flames (such was his own
language), the gang of slaves who had been under such management
having in a great degree perished ; while the manager went to another
part of the island, sure to obtain a service by the credit he had ac-
quired in his former situation. I repeat it, therefore, there is always
a necessary tendency to render the expenses of the estate, by far the
greater part of which consists in the maintenance of the slaves, as
little, and their produce, in other words their labour, as- great as
possible.

" But there is another cause, of but too sure efficiency, which must
have a tendency to produce the ill-usage and degradation of the Negro
race. Their colour, their features, and other peculiarities, which it
might be offensive to specify, infallibly tend to lessen our fellow feeling
for them, and we all know that sympathy is the secret spring of hu-
manity. I grant that in one of our greatest islands the situation of the
slaves has been of late greatly improved in these particulars. I refer
to the great island of Barbadoes. The slaves were there formerly
supported by certain moderate allotments of imported food, and as
the truly worthy agent of the island, and my good old friend, Mr.
Braithwaite, I well remember, told me, when flour (American) was at
a high price, it went hard with the poor slaves, in consequence. The
mode of feeding them has been since changed — the slaves are supported
by a sufficient quantity of land being worked for the growth of provi-
sions enough for them all. And here, I must mention a decisive proof
which this very case supplies of the justice of our position — that the
mortality of the slaves arose from their being underfed in proportion
to their work. While the old system prevailed, the slaves in Barba-
does being chiefly Creoles, and there being many resident owners,
they did not decrease rapidly ; but they barely kept up their number,
which for many years was little less than 60,000. Yet now, Avhen their
quantity of food is increased — and how much more you may judge
when you hear that it is nearly two or three times what is given to

Meeting at Bath. — Mr. Wilberforce. 53

many of the slaves, however hardly worked, in other settlements — they
have increased so rapidly as now to amount to nearly 82,000. I beg
this may be noticed, because it is one of the most important considera-
tions in the whole enquiry.

" But I am ashamed thus to dwell on the bodily grievances of the
slave : great as they are, comparatively speaking, they are the least of
his injuries. The Negroes are our fellow-creatures, immortal beings
like ourselves. It is in this higher character that I am now contending
for their rights. That they should be so long strangers to the in-
stitution of marriage, which they enjoyed even while in Africa — that
they should be sunk into the lowest state of vice, and ignorance, and
degradation — ■ strangers to the ease and comfort of a •Christian
Sabbath — strangers to all the blessed hopes and prospects of Chris-
tianity— my Lord, it is too shocking to think of! and we should not
lose an hour in endeavouring to do away these multiplied wrongs,
by administering the only cure, — their actual admission to that
liberty to which the God of nature has eyititled them, and which,
in its consequences, would give them all the rest. But, then, it is
alleged that their admission to these rights and enjoyments would
bring ruin on the West Indies. A moment's reflection produced in
my mind a strong presumption against the correctness of this position
when it was first urged on me. I could not believe that the prosperity
of one country or class of men could be grounded necessarily on the
misery of another. Knowing, my Lord, the character given us in the
Scripture of the Supreme Being — that He is emphatically declared to
us to be best expressed by Love — I could not conceive it possible, that
it could be requisite to retain any particular race of men in continued
suffering and degradation, in order to provide for the affluence and
for the improvement of the resources of another set of creatures of the
same Almighty hand. I took courage, and proceeded ; and soon I
discovered, as I had confidently hoped, that the path of justice was
also the path of true policy. My Lord, I well remember, that when a
gracious Providence first led us to discover, and endeavour to put an
end to, the manifold injuries inflicted on the negro race, it was then
this argument was first used — " that the abolition of the slave trade
would ruin the West Indies." Old men, your Lordship well knows,
are stated by a great ancient author, with whom your Lordship is well
acquainted, to be naturally prone to speak of the incidents of their
younger years. It was, I have already said, when our proceedings
first began for the abolition of the slave trade in (1788 or 9), that we
were confronted by this assertion, that " abolition of the slave trade
would be ruin :" and I mention it the rather, because the case fur-
nishes two most important arguments for our use at present. First,
it will prove how little people are to be trusted when they are blinded
by prejudice and self-interest : and still more, secondly, how false the
most confident predictions of ruin from any intended measure of im-
provement really prove in the result. When the light of Heaven had
first been shot into that den of darkness, the Slave Trade, in all its
varieties of guilt and misery, I well remember the horror of the House
ef Commons, on hearing of that part of it which respects the situation

^, Meeting at Bath. — Mr. Wilberforce.

of the slaves, in what was called the Middle Passage, during their
transportation from Africa to the West Indies. The House could not
then wait the slow result of the inquiry concerning the cessation of
the slave trade altogether, and resolved immediately to adopt mea-
sures for rendering the condition of the slaves more tolerable while on
shipboard. No sooner did we begin to examine into that condition,
than merchants of the greatest respectability — men of wealth and
station in society — declared that all our ideas of the slaves being un-
comfortable were totally erroneous ; that though they might suffer at
first from being taken from their country and their friends, their
accommodations were all that could be desired ; they were lodged in
suitable apartments ; their food was such as suited their peculiar
tastes and habits ; after their meals they engaged in games of chance ;
the song and the dance were promoted : in short, so happy were
they, that the arrival of a Guinea-ship in the harbours of the West
indies was known by the sounds of the music and the merriment of
her human cargo '. My Loixl, what was the fact ? To express it in
the emphatic language of Lord Grenville — " the slave-ship was found
to contain a greater condensation of human suffering, than it had ever
before been supposed possible to enclose within the same dimensions."
But still more, said the slave-merchant, if you pass any of these regu-
lations, the expenses of the voyage will be increased — the trade now
hangs by a thread, and the ship-owner will infallibly be ruined. The
Bill, however, loas passed, and only a- very short time had elapsed be-
fore it was universally acknowledged to have been one of the greatest
benefits the merchants had ever received.

" Nor were the predictions of our opponents less completely falsi-
fied in the case of the abolition of the slave trade. They with one
voice declared that it would be impossible to enforce the execution of
the law, even by the whole fleet of England, such opportunities for
smuggling were everywhere afforded. But if it could be possible, the
ruin of the islands must inevitably follow. And this declaration was
contained in a communication from the legislature of Jamaica, which
actually crossed in its passage to Europe the vessel that was carrying-
out to the colonies the news of the abolition having actually taken
place. Well, what was the consequence ? In that instance also, but
a few years past, and almost without a dissenting voice, it was acknow-
ledged that the measure had been highly beneficial : and I have been
lately reassured of the fact by the gentleman opposite to me, recently
come from the West Indies, that it is now declared in common parlance
that I have been the greatest friend of the West Indies. Why, then,
may we not hope that their prediction of the ruin, which they say
would follow from the emancipation of the slaves, may also be as
erroneous ?

" Again, it was urged against us, strongly and repeatedly, that the
abolition would inevitably occasion insurrections in the islands, and
thereby the massacre of the whites. It really seems quite providential
that there have been fewer insurrections of any real and serious
amount, since the abolition took place, than almost ever before during
an equal period. But let it not be supposed tha all the dangers here

Meeting at Bath. — Mr. Wilberforce. 55

are on one side. The mortality among- our troops might be dwelt upon,
with too much cause. But I do not wish to dwell on this topic;
'though I must remark that it is most unreasonable (to give it the
softest name) that we do not employ Black regiments, who, I have
been assured by many general officers, are as good troops as could be
employed. But, in truth, the dangers of the islands, from various
causes connected with their neighbours in Hayti and the French'
colonies, are of immense amount. Our colonies appear to me like
that scene of verdure and beauty which displays itself on the exterior
of one of the volcanic mountains. All without is promising and
smiling : but you can already hear low and fearful mutterings and
growlings from the inward workings of the discordant elements ; and
while all appears to be security and comfort, they may break forth and
waste all around with one irresistible course of havoc and desolation.
Every motive therefore conspires to urge us to proceed resolutely in
our present course, and it has become more clear than ever, that any
idea of expecting that the Colonial Assemblies will take the matter
honestly into their hands, is utterly absurd and monstrous. Can it be
reasonable to expect that they will follow the course you prescribe to
them, when they frankly tell you that every step they advance towards
the ultimate point, is in itself an evil, and that their arrival at the in-
tended close would be their utter ruin ? '
" But there is another recent event which proves this point, if possible^
even still more clearly, and one Avhich I mvist say reflects dishonour
on many men of high rank and great influence. I allude to the chiefs of
the West Indians in this country. When Mr. Canning brought forward^
in the year 1823, his measures of amelioration, — in which, though not
at all what we desired, there certainly were many excellent regulations
which would have had a most beneficial effect in improving the con-
dition of the slaves, and preparing the way for their ultimate enjoyment
of liberty, — the chief West Indians both in and out of Parliament then
joined him. His measures were unanimously passed by both Houses
of Parliament ; and the West Indians in this country recommended
them to their friends on the other side of the Atlantic, as being highly
conducive to the real well-being of the planters as well as to the com-
fort of the slaves. And now, could it be believed, that the Colonial
Assemblies having all opposed Mr. Canning's resolutions in almost every
particular, in defiance of the urgent representations of their friends in
England, those friends have now completely changed their language^
and have joined the West Indian Assemblies in opposing the measures
which they formerly had so strongly recommended to their support!
After this, is it not undeniably manifest that we must take the matter
into our own hands ? The people of England must do this work of
mercy. The voice of the country must be raised. It has been raised;
and I trust that it will have its just effect on the Councils of the
Nation, and will prevail on Parliament no longer to delay the striking
off" of the fetters of the slave, and bringing him to the enjoyment of
the just rights of his nature. Much might be said on the opposition
made to Mr. Canning's proposed regulations. There was one especially
to which he trusted no one could object — the disuse of the driving-

56 Meeting at Bath — Mr. Wilberforce.

whip for enforcing labour in the field, and still more for the punishment
of the female sex. He had been made indeed to believe that it was
only used as a badge of authority by the driver, like the Lord Mayor's
sword, or the mace of the Speaker of the House of Commons, a relic
of ancient times. So he had been assured by his West Indian friends
and acquaintances ; and it had been asserted confidently in the House
«of Commons. But no sooner did his recommendation to desist from
its use reach the Colonies, than with one voice they declared they
could not do without it, and more particularly they contended for con-
tinuing to use it upon th.e females. Shame ! shame ! to those who can
so forget the claims of that better part of the human species. In truth,
our present Secretary of State has had a very hopeless task in his cor-
respondence with the West Indian Islands. But it is due both to Mr.
Canning and to Mr. Huskisson to say, that though not acting up to
the extent of our wishes or of their duty, they did in some cases resist
the almost unnatural applications they received from the West Indians;
more especially one for remitting the punishment of one of the most
cruel and barbarous acts that ever was perpetrated by a human being,
when such remission was earnestly desired by the Governor of the co-
lony, who declared that the guilty parties were highly respectable
people — that during their imprisonment, which he wished to be short-
ened, they were visited by the whole community, and were indeed very
humane and well-disposed people. I allude to the case of the Mosses
in the Bahamas : and I cannot conceive any document that can throw
more light than that which is afforded by the account of this whole
transaction, on the state of society in our colonial settlements, and on
the feelings of even the better part of the people concerning the mutual
rights of the masters and slaves. — ^The gentleman opposite to me has
strongly enforced our obligation to give full compensation to those
who may be injured by emancipation. I have never denied that their
claims should be fairly considered, and that, after a full and fair exa-
mination into particulars, any losses fairly chargeable on the effects of
the measures Parliament should adopt, in carrying into execution our
principles, should be fairly made good to them. Yet much is to be
said on this subject. I cannot think that those proprietors who, during
even the latter period of this long contest, have been investing their
property in the South American settlements, merely as a matter of
gainful speculation — greatly to the injury of our own old colonies —
that they should be considered as standing on the same ground
with the inhabitants of our old islands that have gone with us through
our long national contests, who possess their estates, many of
them by old inheritance, and who therefore cannot be considered
as in the same degree answerable for the support of the obnoxious
system. But one reason why I have said less on this subject is,
that the greater part of the West Indians are already almost in-
solvent— at least the depreciation of their property has been greater
than any one could possibly conceive ; and therefore to do real
justice, all their claims should be accurately weighed, and then I
grant that as the crime was common, so also should be the penalty.
Let us then proceed, my Lord, vjith reneiced energy in carrying
into execution one of the greatest acts of mercy that a people had

Meeting at Bath. — Mr. Wilherforce. 51

it ever in their power to perform. Above all, let lis remember, it
is thus only that we can communicate to the poor v/retched slaves the
greatest of all blessings, by introducing among them not only civilization
and knowledge, but, through an acquaintance with their bibles, the
blessed hopes which Christianity holds out to all the sons of men. And
I will indulge the hope that, as in the former instances I lately speci-
fied, we all may here also one day rejoice together in contemplating
the happiness we may have been the blessed instruments of conferring
on these poor degraded outcasts of society. But let us all remember that
we here have no option. Our faculties are given to us, not as a pro-
perty, but as a trust ; and we are bound at our peril to forbear availing
ourselves of the opportunities Providence may place within our reach
of doing justice and shewing mercy, — of lessening the miseries and
augmenting the happiness of our species. Let us only act with an
earnestness and a perseverance worthy of the cause in which we are
engaged. The blessing of Heaven will recompense us ; and we shall
have wiped away a stain justly to be regarded as the foulest blot that
ever dishonoured the annals of a free and enlightened people."

After Mr. Wilberforce had sat down, the meeting was successively
addressed by the Rev. J. Davies, of Rodborough, the Rev. E. Wilson,
the Rev. W. Elliot, of Devizes, and John Shepherd, Esq., of Frome.

The regular business of the meeting having been thus gone through,
Mr. Caldecot, who had at intervals repeated his interruptions of the
proceedings, now contended that his motion should be brought in as an
amendment to the resolution. The paper was read from the chair,
and Mr. Caldecot was proceeding with some further irrelevant re-
marks,— ^when the Rev. Archdeacon Moysey rose, and remarked that as
the sense of several of the speakers was favourable to a remuneration
for such losses as could be actually proved to arise from abolition ; and
as, moreover, the exact nature of that compensation, and the manner
in which it could be effected, was not to be decided here, but in Par-
liameht, it might perhaps be more expressive of the general feeling, and
more consonant to sound policy, to add a clause to the petition itself,
expressive of our confidence in the justice of Parliament, and our wish
to protect as far as possible the established interests of individuals and
property in our colonies. This proposal was acceded to ; and Mr.
Caldecot, and the other West Indian gentlemen present expressed
their approbation of the principle of the petition, as thus amended^
and declared that they would readily sign it.

The petition thus concurred in by the West India party at Bath,
after expressing the deep disappointment of the petitioners at the
results of previous attempts to mitigate slavery and promote its ulti-
mate extinction — " results," it is added, " which have clearly convinced
the petitioners that no effectual means for the relief of the slave popu-
lation are to be expected at the hands of the colonial legislatures,"
concludes by praying the House ^' forthwith to adopt such measures as
may secure the complete abolition of slavery throughout the British
dominions at the earliest possible period, — consistently with the esta-
blished rights of individuals and property in our colonies/'

58 Bristol — West India Partizans.

27. Bristol.

While the Bath Anti-Slavery meeting was thus distinguished by an
amicable compromise between the abolitionists and the West Indians,
a very different scene was enacted on the same day at Bristol. A
public meeting, convened by advertisement, for petitioning Parliament
on this great question, was held on the 22d of October, in the Assembly
Room of that city ; and long before the hour announced for the chair
to be taken, the large apartment was completely filled. A very con-
siderable number of highly respectable ladies were present.

In explanation of the scene that ensued, it is necessary to notice,
that on the preceding day a placard had been posted up throughout
the city, calling upon " The Friends of the Trade of Bristol — of Order
— of all Sacred Institutions — of the Laws — of the Church — of the
State — and of Practical as well as Theoretical Emancipation, to
attend the public Meeting;" and announcing that it was the intention
of the subscriber to bring forward some measures, having for their ob-
ject the accomplishment of the great end in view, "without injury to
any party," This appeal, and a letter to the same effect, which was
circulated principally among tradesmen employed by the West India
interest, were signed " Christopher Claxton." This individual is the
captain of a West India trader, and had rendered himself conspicuous
as an active opponent of Mr. Protheroe, at the late contested election
in Bristol. The announcement therefore of his purpose to oppose
the views of the abolitionists had the intended effect of drawing together
to the meeting a number of persons, who, from various motives, are
inimical to the emancipation of the slaves. This party, among whom
were several sailors, or persons dressed in sailors' clothes, having mus-
tered in considerable strength, took possession of the benches in the
body of the hall.

At twelve o'clock, the gentlemen who were to conduct the pro-
ceedings, having taken their station in front of the platform, which
was crowded with persons of the first respectability, Richard Ash,
Esq. was called jto the chair. This gentleman introduced the bu-
siness by an appropriate address — not however without considerable
interruption from the uproar caused by the West India party. Mr.
W. T. Blair* then rose to move the first resolution and address the

* This gentleman, a retired civil servant of the East India Company, and now
residing in the vicinity of Bristol, has ably advocated the abolition of slavery, at
several recent meetings in the south-west of England. He became practically
acquainted with the evils of slavery during two years' residence at the Cape of
Good Hope ; a colony where, although the system is milder, especially as re-
gards the exaction of labour, than in the British sugar colonies, it nevertheless
produces its usual fruits of bitterness, in the demoralization of the white colonists
and the degradation and wretchedness of the slaves. Mr. Blair is one of several
very able and intelligent coadjutors who have spontaneously come forward at this
eventful period to give their valuable testimony and efficient support to the cause
of early and total abolition, and who have grudged neither personal exertion nor
pecuniary expense in promoting the diffusion of correct information and right
principles on this great question throughout the British empire.

Bristol — West India Partizans. 59

meeting, but was rudely prevented by Mr. Claxton, who pertinaciously
insisted on being heard first, in opposition to the decision of the chair-
man and the opinion of the great majority of the assembly. This in-
solent pretension was supported by his West India " gang" with the
most outrageous violence and vociferation, the authority of the chair
and all decent order being set at defiance. Mr. Blair, in order that
the business might proceed, expressed his willingness to concede to
Mr. Claxton the privilege of first addressing the meeting — but this
concession instead of allaying the tumult, was vociferously hailed as
a victory by the intrusive faction ; and such was the uproar that Mr.
Claxton himself, seeing the indignation of the meeting effectually
roused against him and his partizans, entreated them, but in vain, to
hear Mr. Blair. The disorder increased, and several personal con-
flicts taking place, the ladies became alarmed for their safety and
rushed towards the platform, over which they were handed, and im-
mediately hastened to quit the scene of disturbance. It being now
apparent that the object of the West India party was to produce a
tumult and prevent the business from going forward, the Chairman, by
the advice of several gentlemen, quitted the chair, and announced
that the meeting was dissolved. Several of the adverse party encou-
raged by the result of their opposition, now rushed forward and
attempted to take possession of the platform, and being opposed, a
serious scuffle was about to commence, when Mr. Claxton, apparently
somewhat ashamed of the ruffian conduct of those he had called to
support him, agreed to withdraw with the Chairman and the Com-
mittee.

Still, however, the meeting shewed no inclination to disperse, but ra-
ther, animated with high resentment by this audacious attempt of the
West Indian party to disorganize and defeat their measures, appeared
determined not to give way. At length Mr. Acland succeeded in allay-
ing the tumult, and in persuading the audience to elect another chair-
man and proceed with the business for which they had assembled.
This proposal was carried by acclamation, the West Indian faction were
constrained to give way, and the Rev. Mr. Roaf was called to the chair.
The meeting was then addressed successively by Messrs. Acland, Tripp,
Hall, Howells, Fry, Lovell, Cossens, Dight, &c. and a series of energe-
tic resolutions were drawn up on the spur of the moment, and passed by
an immense majority, declaring, " that the period for the total extinction
of slavery at the earliest possible period having now arrived, a petition
be prepared, embodying the sentiments of this meeting, in order to its
presentation to our Sovereign ; praying his Majesty's most gracious
direction to his ministers immediately to bring into the two houses of
parliament a bill on this great question, which shall accord with the
interests of humanity, the claims of justice, and the often expressed
desires of the people of this country." The meeting then quietly se-
parated.

" When we consider," says the Bristol Mercury, from which we have
abridged the account of this meeting, " that the proceedings from the
moment Mr. Roaf stepped into the chair, were conducted by individuals
who, perhaps, with only one exception, attended without the remotest

60 Bristol — Mr. Claxton.

intetftion of uttering their sentiments, and that the whole was an un-
premeditated ebullition of feeling — we must say that the gentlemen are
entitled to no inconsiderable degree of credit, for the ability they dis-
played, as well as for the readiness and firmness which they evinced on
the occasion ; and which, we should think, could only have resulted
from a firm conviction that the cause they advocate is based on just
principles."

To this iust observation we shall only add, that the striking contrast
displayed in the behaviour of the abettors of slavery to that of the
friends of abolition, at this and several other Anti-Slavery meetings
where the former have intruded and attempted to interrupt the proceed-
ings, can hardly fail to open the eyes of many persons who have too
long allowed themselves to be deluded by the oft-refuted fallacies and
fabrications of the West India partizans. The system of Slavery was
founded in robbery and outrage ; it has been built up through long
years of cruel oppression ; and nov;^, top-heavy and tottering to its fall
under the weight of its own iniquities, its unscrupulous abettors vainly
strive to prop it up by the rotten supports that have heretofore be-
friended them, but which nov/ begin to moulder among their fingers —
namely, by systematic deception, and by a mendacious audacity in revil-
ing their opponents, and in the reiteration of detected falsehood, un-
precedented in the annals of controversy.

28. Second Meeting at Bristol.

The friends of Abolition at Bristol, after the indecorous interruption
of their proceedings on the 22d of October, determined that their con-
stitutional privilege to petition the legislature should not thus be defeated ;
being convinced that with the exception of a small but interested party,
the great body of their fellow-citizens entirely coincided with them in
opinion on this important public question. Another Meeting was accor-
dingly convened on the 9th of November, in the same place; and
Richard Ash, Esq. the same gentleman who had formerly presided,
was again called to the chair. Mr. Claxton, the West India champion,
also, did not fail to attend, with his noisy retainers ; who, though they
did not succeed as before in totally interrupting and disarranging the
proceedings, yet so far prevailed by tumult and uproar as to render the
addresses of most of the speakers almost or altogether inaudible. The
business of the meeting was, however, carried through, and a string of
resolutions passed and a petition to Parliament voted by a large ma-
jority, praying for the utter extinction of Slavery. The meeting was
successively addressed by Mr. Lunell, the Rev. John Leifchild, Messrs.
Howells, Brydges, Blair, George, Herapath, Sanders, and Claxton ; but
such was the clamour kept up by the West Indians, except when their
own chieftain, Claxton, was speaking, that scarcely two consecutive
sentences uttered by any other person could be heard beyond the plat-
form.

Mr. Claxton harangued the audience at great length, and it is said
^ith considerable declamatory talent. He maintained that the condition
of the Slaves was comfortable— that they were generally well treated —
and that much had been done by the colonial legislatures in ameliorating

Meeting at Derby. 61

the severity of former laws. He quoted the opinions of the Duke of
Wellington, Mr, Huskisson, and other statesmen in support of his as-
sertions; and maintained that in Jamaica, Barbadoes, Demerara, St.
Kitts, Nevis, &c. many beneficial enactments had been recently passed
for abolishing Sunday markets, for promoting religious instruction, pro-
viding for age and sickness, and so forth. He contended that the Slaves
were not yet qualified to receive freedom ; but admitted that the Anti-
Savery Society had done much towards their advancement in civiliza-
tion. In fact, his speech, as reported in the Bristol papers, is a strange
inconsistent farrago of candid admission, preposterous assertion, and
dauntless denial ; and it only deserves notice as another specimen of
the tactics of that party of which this man is so zealous a partizan.
After allowing that slavery in the abstract is contrary to the spirit of
our national institutions — that its existence in the dominions of Great
Britain is a blot in our escutcheon — nay more, " that the law that tole-
rates the absolute dominion of one man over another is an abominable
and disgusting law," — he instantly adds, " While mentioning these as
my objections, let it not be understood that I question the planter's right
to his Slave, or his absolute control over him, any more than I question
his humanity generally. Nor do I question the comfort of the Slaves
themselves, or their perfectly contented condition, before you, through
your missionaries, made a crusade across the Atlantic, and worried them
into a different behef, and robbed them of much of their hard earnings
for payments to love-feasts and to keep class, which rather than forfeit,
they would commit robbery to support."

To reply seriously to such stuff as this is of course out of the question :
and yet this man is the recognized leader and champion of the West
India party in Bristol !

He concluded by moving two resolutions, the first in favour of aboli^
tion, " with a fair and equitable regard to the rights of property involved;''
the other containing a claim for " compensation for the value of the
Slave before the agitation of this question reduced the same ; and a
security for the lands and works, in the event of free labour failing, pro-
vided the planter fairly tries the experiment, to be decided by constitu-
tional authorities.'' Of these resolutions the former was passed without
opposition, being quite accordant with the principles of the meeting ;
the latter was thrown out by an amendment referring the subject of
compensation to Parliament.

29. Derby.

On the 23d of October, a Meeting to petition for the Abolition of
Slavery, was held at Derby, in the Town-hall. W. Newton, Esq. late
Mayor of the Borough, having been called to the chair, opened the pro-
ceedings by an impressive address. He was followed by W. Evans,
Esq, who took a masterly review of the present state of the question, of
the actual condition of the Slaves in our West India Colonies, of the
failure of all attempts to obtain real mitigation of the system, and of the
necessity of urging the legislature to adopt effectual measures for speedy
abolition. The Rev. Messrs. J. Thorpe, R. Simpson, G. B. Blackley, Dr.

62 Meetings at Chelmsford, Birmingham, and Oakham.

Forrester, and Messrs. Gawthorn, Longdon, and Strutt, also succes-
sively addressed the meeting.

30. Chelmsford.

On the same day (Oct. 23), a Meeting to petition for Abolition was
held in the County-hall, Chelmsford ; the Hon. J. J. Strutt, in the chair.
The meeting was successively addressed by the Rev. J. Hunt, Rev. Jos.
Grey, Dr. Forrester, Messrs. G. Stephen, Knox, Pownall, Candler, and
Copland, in able and impressive speeches.

31. Birmingham.

On the 26th of October, a Meeting to petition for Abolition was held
at Birmingham ; the Rev. Edward Burn, in the chair. The meeting
was successively addressed by the Rev. Archdeacon Hodson, the Rev.
Messrs. Moseley, James, Marsh, Kennedy, Garbett, Mayers, Thompson,
M'Donnell, East, Hutton, Morgan, and Crowther; and by Messrs.
Smith, Turner, Cadbury, Corn, Sturge, and Harris. Many of the
speeches. were very able, and that of the Rev. Mr. Marsh embraced a
most masterly and comprehensive review of the question in almost every
point ; but it is impossible to find room for an abstract of the arguments,
and it admits not of partial quotation. The following are four of the
seven resolutions unanimously adopted at this meeting, and which may
afford a fair sample of the sentiments that pervaded it.

" That the obstacles which have been raised by the colonial assemblies gene-
rally, and by the planters individually, not only to the accomplishment of the
recorded views and recommendations of the legislature, but to the endeavours
made by various denominations of Christians to improve the moral and religious
condition of the Slaves, have still further strengthened the conviction of this meet-
ing, that actual emancipation must precede any successful efforts to raise "the
character of the negro population.

" That, impressed with this conviction, and believing it to be a duty to use our
utmost exertions to put an end to a system which so flagrantly violates every social
and religious obligation, this meeting deems it right to adopt the principle of
immediate emancipation of the Slaves, accompanied by such temporary regula-
tions alone, as the wisdom of Parliament may deem essential for their well being,
and the preservation of social order.

" That this meeting feels the less hesitation in adopting this principle, inasmuch
as it considers it to have been proved by experience, that, under such regulations,
Slavery may be abolished with perfect safety.

" That, although this meeting is of opinion that no injury, with respect to pro-
perty, will be ultimately sustained by the planters, yet, as the nation has so long
tacitly sanctioned the continuance of this evil, this meeting is willing to recognize
the principle of compensation for such losses as may be proved to have been
necessarily caused by the measures adopted for changing the condition of the
Slaves, and for which Parliament may consider the planters to have an equitable
claim on this country."

32. County of Rutland.

On the 26th of October, a numerous County Meeting was held at
Oakham, for the Abolition of Slavery; the Rev. C. Swann, of Riddling-
ton, in the chair. After some appropriate introductory remarks from
the chairman, Mr. George Stephen, of London, addressed the meeting

Meeting at Oakham — Mr. G. Stephen. 63

in a long and most impressive speech, in which he developed the system
and effects of Slavery by numerous details of the misery and iniquity of
which it is the unfailing source wherever it prevails. After relating
many cases of cruelty and oppression in the West Indies, from recent
authorities, the learned gentleman thus proceeded : — " It is often ob-
jected by our opponents, that we select every case of individual and
peculiar guilt, as a ground of reproach to the West Indian community.
But observe the difficulty under which we labour. We know cases
sufficiently numerous to prove such guilt to be systematic and not indi-
vidual. If, however, we divulge them, without declaring names, we are
charged with falsehood : if we give up our authority, our informants are
subjected to every persecution that malignity can devise, and others are
deterred from speaking. Again, if we state facts upon information not
official, we are threatened with indictments, actions at law, and all the
array of legal prosecution. But I have it in my power, I might almost
say by special providence, to communicate to you on authority that
cannot be questioned, a history of the interior of a colonial plantation.
It belongs to Mr. Wells, of Piercefield, Monmouthshire ; and I mention
his name without hesitation, because I am able at the same time to de-
clare that he was not less ignorant than yourselves of the circumstances
I am about to state. In the year 1812, he let his estate in St. Kitt's,
with a gang of 140 negroes. In 1816, their numbers were reduced to
108, and in 1819, to 86, showing a loss in seven years of not less than
54 lives out of 140, not including births in the interim. (Expressions
of horror.) It is indeed incredible ; but I state the fact on the authority
of the overseer himself. It is recorded in his own handwriting, in a
book in my father's possession, the record being kept as the foundation
of parochial returns. Have I not redeemed my pledge that I would
prove the system of colonial treatment to be a system of daily, even
hourly, murder? How, then, can we, without the guilt of murder,
sanction or acquiesce in its continuance for a single hour 1 or by what
right can we substitute a gradual for immediate emancipation ?"
(applause.) Mr. Stephen then proceeded to quote from the same book,
several cases in which brutal, though not in colonial parlance, illegal
punishment, had been inflicted by the lessee upon Mr. Wells's gang,
and had led to this destruction of life. " But," he proceeded, " dread-
ful as this narrative is, I have yet a tale of horror to unfold, compared
with which all that has been stated is insignificant, — a tale so dreadful
that I would pardon you for disbelieving me if I stated it even on my own
authority. What I have already said, i-elated to the West India colo-
nies : we have another colony where slavery obtains in a yet more
aggravated form. The system is indeed the same ; the characteristics
of slavery, wherever it is found, are always the same. About four years
ago, I was professionally employed by Mr. Buxton to examine the state
of slavery in the Mauritius, with a view to a parliamentary enquiry. I
conducted the examination under the sanction of government, and every
fact that I state has been communicated by witnesses who were cau-
tioned against exaggeration, informed that they might hereafter be called
upon to confirm their statements on oath, and were required to subscribe
their names to the statements. It is on this testimony that I give my

64 Meetings at Durham and Halifax.

tale of horror. My witnesses are nearly 300 in nuniber,~a number
alone sufficient to prove, not cases of individual, but of systematic de-
pravity." Mr. Stephen proceeded to quote the words of several military
men, all to the same effect, and tending to prove that the state of slavery
was one of the lowest degradation and misery. He then gave details
to show the accuracy of their general descriptions. " I am not," said
Mr. Stephen, " deputed by any society to address you. I speak as the
advocate of a class who in this instance have no advocate but me, — no
tribunal to which they can appeal but you. As their advocate I know
no fastidious delicacy, no squeamishness of feeling that should deter me.
It is a shame to speak even of those things which are done by them in
secret; but if I do not mention them, how is the secret to be exposed,
and how the evil to be remedied? They, not I, must bear the blame."
He then proceeded to detail numerous cases of atrocious cruelty perpe-
trated in the Mauritius ; and in every instance mentioned the names of
the witnesses, several of whom were commissioned officers. We cannot
here give any of these details, but refer our readers to a condensed sum-
mary of this evidence in No. 44 of the Reporter. This speech, which
occupied about two hours in the delivery, excited in the audience a very
strong abhorrence of the evils of Slavery.

The meeting was subsequently addressed by the Rev. A. Jenour of
Harringworth, the Rev. J. Wilson of Laxton, the Rev. Mr. Green, of
Uppingham, and the Rev. J. Wing of Cottesmore. Strong resolutions
were passed, and a petition agreed to " for the immediate abolition of
slavery."

33. Durham.

On the same day, (Oct. 26,) a meeting was held at Durham, in the
Town Hall ; the Mayor, T. Chipchase, Esq. in the chair. The subject
was discussed by Dr. Fenwick, and Messrs. Shipperdson and Granger,
in speeches of considerable length and great ability. The meeting was
also addressed more briefly by the Rev. Messrs. Gilly, Matheson, Strat-
ton, and Mr. Bramwell ; and appropriate resolutions were unanimously
passed.

34. Halifax.

On the 27th of October, a meeting to address the King and petition Par-
liament was held at Halifax ; the Rev. Charles Musgrave, Vicar, in the
chair. The business was opened by an admirable address from the
Rev. chairman, which concluded with the following observations : —
" Difficulties, I can well conceive, must await the final settlement of
this question. But we ask for no wrong ; we ask for no act of spolia-
tion in our tenderness for the slave. If under the protection of existing
laws interests have grown up which we hope soon to see expire, we are
prepared to abide by such compensation as the wisdom of parliament
may adjudge. But, while we speak of reparation, let us bear in mind
ourselves, and respectfully but urgently press it on the remembrance of
the legislature, that reparation is primarily due to the slave, (loud cheers.)
— The slave we have deeply wronged. His wrongs we are bound to
redress. And whatever may be the difficulties of the task, we are per-

Meeting at Halifax — Rev. Mr. Lusher. 65

suaded they admit of adjustment — a reasonable and righteous adjust-
ment : indemnity, as far as such may he due to the master; and, at
all costs, deliverance to the slave." (Long continued applause.)

The meeting was successively addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Pridie,
Farrar, Turner, and Lusher ; and by Messrs. Browne, Swale, and Bald-
win. Several of the speeches were very impressive ; but we can only
admit the following passage from the address of the Rev. R. L. Lusher,
a Wesleyan minister : — " A distinction has been made between Slavery
and the Slave Trade, and we have taken great praise to ourselves, as a
nation, that at last the latter is abolished. But, sir, I hold with you,
that the slave trade cannot properly be said to be abolished, while it
exists in its present form in the West Indies. Is not the infernal traffic
carried on there ? Are not immortal beings still bought and sold like
cattle ? Look over a West India newspaper, for instance, and mark the
advertisements you see there. Look at the incongruous mixture of hu-
man beings for sale with timber, cattle, fish, and other articles. First
comes a cargo of cow hides, then three or four or half a dozen fine,
healthy, young male negroes. Next, perhaps, is a tempting offer of a prime
lot of Canadian horses or pigs, and then three or four young female
negroes, followed by a lot of Nova Scotia dried fish. What a disgrace
to the English nation are advertisements and proceedings like these !
Well may this vile system be denounced, (as it has been this day,)
as unchristian and inhuman, (cheers.) Passing over these points,
where is its policy ? What national interests are promoted by it ? It is a
system opposed to all sound principles of legislation — and it is incon-
sistent with the well-being of every state by which it is tolerated. Do
our countrymen, or rather the colonists of our West India islands, com-
plain of their drooping commercial interests? No wonder that they are
smitten with blasting and mildew in this region of slavery, ' which has
become the dark habitation of horrid cruelty.' The curses of milHons
rest on those islands ; and the judgments of Him who is the Avenger
of oppression, hang over them like a thunder cloud. I have never
lived in that land of slavery; but I have had an opportunity of
judging of the intellectual capacity of the blacks, from a residence of
several years in North America ; and I can state, in confirmation of the
preceding speakers, that ' give them liberty, and teach them religion,
and you make them men.' You make them better servants than
ever they were slaves. I speak experimentally, (hear, hear.) I
have had them in the domestic relations of life as nurses for my
children, and in other situations, as well as under my pastoral care ;
and I repeat, give them liberty, and you make way for their moral and
intellectual elevation ; — give them liberty, lest just heaven should per-
mit them to redress their own wrongs, or the Almighty Power, who has
said ' vengeance is mine, and I will repay it,' should undertake their
cause. — ' Give them liberty !' — this cry, I trust, finds a responsive echo in
every heart in this assembly ; — it has become the unanimous voice of
the British nation ; and, I trust, it will soon be the rallying cry in the
British senate. — Give them liberty ! let this prayer be .laid at the foot
of the British throne ; but above all, let it ascend, in fervent aspirations,
to the God of Britain, and who shall dare to say no ?" (Loud cheering.)

K

66 Meetings at Chesterfield and Salisbury — Dean Pearson.

35. Chesterfield.
An Anti-Slavery meeting was held at Chesterfield, on the 28th of
October, and -was numerously attended ; the Rev. T, Hill in the chair.
The Rev. John Thorpe, of Wiggintoii, who had been invited to attend
the meeting, in order to describe the present character of slavery in
Jamaica, gave the result of his personal observations, in a detailed de-
lineation of the practical effects of the system. We have already given
a summary of his valuable testimony in No. 71. After some appro-
priate observations by the Rev. Messrs. Mudie and Wallace, and Messrs,
Booker and Muggleston, a petition for the abolition of slavery, which
the Mayor had already signed, was unanimously adopted.

36. Salisbury.

On the same day, (October 28,) a very numerous meeting of the
friends of Negro emancipation was held at Salisbury. The Very Rev.
the Dean presided, and opened the proceedings by an excellent address.
He expressed his deep regret that such meetings were necessary to
arouse public attention to this most important subject. He joined in
the feeling which was now excited through the country, and hailed it as
an omen of ultimate and complete success. He declared that the vene-
rable Bishop of the Diocese was as warmly interested in this question
now, as when, several years ago, he stood forward as one of the first and
ablest writers against slavery. There were difficulties connected with
the subject, but not greater than those connected with all extended
plans; the most formidable arose out of interest and prejudice, and it
was the duty of every noble and generous mind, to disentangle itself
from these — labouring after a clear and just view of the subject, and de-
liberating upon it with all that seriousness Avhich the dearest interests of
800,000 of our fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects so justly demand.
In condemning slavery he made no charge against individuals — he de-
nounced the system itself, not merely on theory but as practically exhi-
bited— as founded on a cruel invasion of natural rights— hostile to
humanity, justice, and religion. The original crime of men-stealing was
perpetuated in the claims which West Indians made to a property in
their fellow-creatures, as mere chattels; buying and selling, and driving
and punishing men and women also without any control. He could
scarcely speak with any degree of moderation on the subject. He con-
sidered that every one should raise his voice against it, and declare that
this power should be continued no longer. No such state as that of
West Indian slavery had existed in any previous age of the world, and
it only existed now because it was not fully known. It was a state op-
posed to the progress of Christianity ; for, though through the pious
labours of Christian ministers of various denominations, not a few slaves
had become partakers of the Gospel, this was in spite of the system of
slavery, and not at all by its assistance— since all its effects were to de-
grade and brutalize both blacks and whites. The subject had now been
discussed for several years ; recommendations had been tried by parlia-
ment, but they had been scornfully rejected by the colonial assemblies.
The question was, therefore, now thrown upon the country ; and he had

Meeting at Calne. 67

no doubt that the government was well disposed to act with energy,
provided it was supported by the voice of the country. He would leave
the question of compensation to the decision of parliament, when the
great act of substantive justice, the enfranchisement of the negro shall
have been determined. We were called upon to do this as a duty to
ourselves, as an example in the eyes of the rest of Europe, and to avert
those calamities, which we may expect will otherwise follow us — being
assured that on nations as well as on individuals the blessing of God
can only rest where the obligations of justice and religion are fulfilled.
He hoped therefore every one would do his duty ; and if any gentleman
present should differ in opinion from those who would address the
meeting, he would readily hear their opinions, if expressed temperately,
and to the point.

The address of Dean Pearson was followed up and supported by ani-
mated and argumentative speeches by the Rev. Messrs. Chatfield,
Sleigh, Elliott, Johnson, Good, Saffery, Simmonds, Granger, and Rad-
ford; and by Messrs. Atkinson, Baldwin, and Phillips, ylppropriate
resolutions were passed and a petition agreed upoti.

37. Calke.

An Anti-Slavery Meeting was held at Calne, on the 1st of November.
The Rev. W. Money was called to the chair, and opened the business
by an appropriate address. He was followed in a long and eloquent
speech by the Rev. C. Townsend, Rector of the parish, a devoted
and indefatigable friend of emancipation. The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles,
a magistrate of the county and a canon of the church, and eminent also
as a literary man, delivered a most impressive address in aid of the good
cause which he had supported with his pen in early youth. The other
speakers at this meeting were the Rev. Messrs. Elliott and Duboulay,
and Messrs. Blair and Baldwin. The two gentlemen last named had
both been personal witnesses of the condition of the Slaves in our colo-
nies. The following are two of the clauses of the petition adopted at
this highly respectable and interesting meeting : —

" That your Petitioners feel assured no circumstances of pretended expediency
or of policy, can for a moment justify, in the sight of God or man, the continu-
ance of a state of society like that which obtains in the Slave Colonies of the
^British Empire ; — a state of society in which human beings are goaded to labour,
under a tropical sun, by the lashes of the cart-whip — in which they are exposed
to dreadful lacerations and cruel tortures, at the arbitrary will of brutal drivers
and overseers — in which the very women are subjected to indecent exposure and
to public scourging — in which from the excess of labour required of them, the
great body of the people are virtually deprived of the Sabbath, whether as a day
of rest from their toil, or as one to be devoted by them to the duties and services
of Religion ; — a state of society, in which husbands and wives, parents and chil-
dren, may be torn asunder for ever, without an option on their part, or a moment's
warning ; — in short, a state of society so demoralized, that amongst its victims
Christian rites and domestic ties are comparatively unknown — in which matrimony
is the exception, licentiousness the rule ! When your Petitioners contemplate
such a state of society as this, they cannot but feel convinced, that it contains
within itself no renovating principle — no elements of self-adjustment or improve-
ment— but on tlie contrary, tends to corrupt and debase all who come in contact

6G Meetiuys at Watford, Lincoln, and Brighton.

with it, and that little hope can be indulged of any salutary changes being effected
by those who participate in it and become blinded to its enormities.

" Your Petitioners therefore respectfully, but most earnestly pray your honour-
able House, without further delay, to make such enactments as shall at once and
for ever put an end to British Colonial Slavery, and thereby effectually remove
the evils they have enumerated ; that they may no longer be partakers of a system
which is a reproach to their character, both as Britons professing to value free-
dom, and as Christians professing to regard the doctrines and precepts of religion.
And while your Petitioners once more decidedly deprecate any further appro-
priation of the public money to the upholding of Slavery as it now exists, either
directly or indirectly, by means of drawbacks, bounties, or protecting duties ;
yet, after the desirable changes shall have taken place, they declare their readi-
ness cheerfully to contribute their share to make good all losses necessarily
consequent upon such changes, that may be sustained by individuals according
to any arrangement that to the wisdom of Parliament shall seem equitable and
just."

38, Watford.

On the same day (Nov. 1st), a very numerous public meeting was
held at Watford, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament for the
abolition of Slavery ; the Hon. Granville Ryder in the chair. Among
the individuals who addressed the meeting were. Dr. Lushington, Mr.
Serjeant Pell, the Rev. Messrs. Rosdew, Rector, and Blackmore, Curate
of Bushy, — the Rev. John Edwards, of Watford, Josiah Conder, Esq.*
— Chambers, Esq. of Harrow Weald, and other gentlemen from the im-
mediate vicinity. The speech of Dr. Lushington was powerfully im-
pressive ; and the interest excited was unexampled in that town.

39. Lincoln.

On the 10th of November, a numerous and most respectable meeting
was held in the Guildhall, Lincoln, to petition for the abolition of
Slavery. The Mayor, Thomas Winn, Esq. presided; and the meeting
was successively addressed by the Hon. Mr. Melville, the Rev. Mr.
Wayland, of Bassingham, the Rev. Messrs. Milner, Philp, Crapps,
Clegg, Alderman Fowler, and Messrs. Cropper and Thorold.

On the same evening, another Meeting was held for establishing an
Anti-Slavery Society in Lincoln, at which several of the clergy of the
establishment and the principal dissenting ministers attended and took
an active part.

40. BpaGHTON.

On the 16th of November, a public Meeting was held at Brighton,
in order to petition the legislature for " the early and entire emanci-
pation of the slaves in our Colonies," and also for forming an Anti-
Slavery Society and a Ladies' Anti-Slavery Association. S. F. Milford,
Esq. was called to the chair; and the meeting was addressed at
considerable length and with much intelligence by that gentleman, by
Sir Thomas Blomefield, the Rev. J. N. Goulty, Rev. Mr. Geaden ;
and by Messrs. Glaisyer, Young, Wigney, Bass, and Mr. F. Marten,

* Editor of the ' Eclectic Review,' and ' The Modern Traveller ;' in both
which highly respectable works Mr. Conder has ably and unweariedly advocated
the cause of Negro Emancipation.

Meetirty at Bury — Mr. Phillips. 69

of Lewes. Sir Thomas Blomefield and Mr. Milford were elected
Vice-Presidents of the new Anti-Slavery Society.

41. Bury St. Edmunds.

On the 19th of November, an An ti -Slavery meeting was held in the
Guildhall, Bury; " the most numerous public meeting," says the 'Bury
and Norwich Post,' " which has taken place in this town for many
years." The interest was not a little enhanced by local excitement, oc-
casioned by the publication, a few days previously, of a scurrilous pam-
phlet, libellously assailing the characters of the chief persons who were
expected to advocate at this meeting the cause of Negro emancipation,
and more especially those of the Rev. J. Orton, Wesleyan missionary,
and Mr, Joseph Phillips, of Antigua, who had been invited to assist in
the discussion of the subject. This pamphlet was understood (and has
been since avowed) to be the production of Mr. Benjamin Greene, a
well-known pro-slavery champion in that place. The writer did not,
however, appear in person, but sent his friend, Mr. George Saintsbury,
another zealous controversialist of the same party, to defend the cause
of the West India planters.

The proceedings commenced by an address from the chairman, Mr.
R. Dalton, who animadverted with just severity on the vile spirit and
slanderous insinuations of the West India pamphlet. He was seconded
by the Rev. Messrs. Armstrong and Jeula, the latter of whom strongly
advocated measures for immediate emancipation.

Mr, Joseph Phillips, in a speech of considerable length, detailed the
circumstances of his own persecution in Antigua, and gave his testimony
against the evils of slavery. He remarked that he appeared as a speaker
at that meeting under peculiar feelings, as it was in consequence of
a controversy between Mr. Clarkson and an inhabitant of this place,
(Mr. Greene,) that he had suffered imprisonment for 375 days, and ruin,
— not only immediate ruin, but, as far as his enemies could effect it,
prospective ruin, by the blackening of his character, and by endeavour-
ing to prevent his getting a mouthful of bread to support his starving
wife and children. They had resolved to crush him because he advo-
cated the cause of the unfortunate beings whose sufferings he had wit-
nessed during a residence of twenty-seven years in the West Indies. In
consequence of the sudden death of a Moravian missionary, who was
secretary to a society established in England for relieving the deserted
and diseased slaves of Antigua, he had filled the office for four years
without fee or reward. The society had existed tv/enty-four years, and
in that time, as was shewn in a memorial to. the Governor and Sir G.
Murray, it had expended 2500/. in relieving destitute and diseased
slaves, deserted by their masters. The negroes were subject to a loath-
some disease called the black scurvy, and, when attacked, were often
cast out and allowed to beg about the streets. He had often been called
upon as a jury-man to sit upon inquests on their bodies. The Rev. R.
Holberton had established a society for the purpose of giving a daily meal
to those poor creatures; and when he (Mr. P.) left the island there were
about one hundred and ten of them on the list, sixty of whom were des-
titute, diseased, and deserted slaves, and these belonged to only one part

K 2

70 iMeeiing at Bury — Mr. Phillips.

of the island. When brought before'a committee of the House of Assembly,
Mr, Lee, one of the members, asked why he would not give up his pa-
pers ; to which he answered that he thought the committee had no right
to demand them. Before Sir G. Murray's answer upon the case arrived, it
was intimated that he would be discharged if he would apologize to the
House of Assembly ; but he refused to betray his trust, or to give en-
couragement to such inquisitorial proceedings. The demand was gra-
dually reduced to the smallest description of apology. A Mr. Scotland
was requested to speak to him ; but he spurned the idea. At last
they got a person to inform his wife that a mere note would satisfy
them ; but his answer was, that if a piece of waste paper would satisfy
them, he would not give it as an apology ; and he was sure there
was not an Englishman in the room who would not be of the same
opinion. As his character had been aspersed by an inhabitant of
this town, he would request the chairman to read a few testimonials.
[These were accordingly handed to the chair, and read to the meeting.
The first, which was signed by some of those very men who had com-
mitted him to prison, declared his character to be upright and unim-
peachable. The next, signed by two Members of the Assembly and
the Collector of the Customs, was dated April, 1830, and described
him as a pious, honest, and industrious man, who, they were con-
vinced, had been wickedly and unjustly slandered. A third was from
a Justice of the Peace, of the same date, and bore testimony to his strict
probity, conscientious feelings, and lowliness of character. A fourth was
from the Rev. Mr. Newby, a Moravian missionary.] After these testimo-
nials he would leave his cause in the hands of the meeting. He pro-
ceeded to observe that there was no effective law which provided support
for decayed slaves in Antigua, the ameliorating law, which was so much
boasted of, being a mere dead letter. The law provided that whereas
slaves having no owners, or none to be discovered, often became inca-
pable and disabled, the vestry might supply their wants at the public
charge. But Mr. Nev/by had declared before the committee that he
never knew there was such a law, and the whole sum disbursed by the
treasurer of the island on this account did not exceed lOOZ. in twenty-
five years, whilst the society to which he belonged had expended 2500J.
every farthing of which was accounted for, with the name of every in-
dividual to whom it had been paid. The law was intended to blind
the Government and people of this country, and was of no more force
than waste paper. There was an oath which ought to be taken by
managers and proprietors of plantations, that they had duly distributed
the full ratio of provisions ; but in twenty-seven years he had never
known a single instance of its being taken. He had lived on a planta-
tion where it was the common practice of a manager to flog, and
otherwise brutally maltreat women advanced in pregnancy, to chain
negroes together, and in some instances to attach 561b. weights to
their feet. One of the negroes who had been sent to the chained gangs
for some offence, had declared he would rather remain in jail all his
Jife than return to his plantation. He knew some estates where the
slaves were better treated, but in others they were still worse. Mr.
Phillips then mentioned the case of seventeen slaves who ran away

Meeting at Bury — Mr. Saint sbury. 71

from Sir Christopher Codrington's estate, owing to a new attorney having
been appointed; and who were sentenced, some to three, and some to one
month's imprisonment, and to receive thirty-nine lashes at two different
periods. He had interceded in their behalf, being a fellow-sufferer in the
same prison, but io no purpose. Some time after the manager was bound
over for cruelty to a negro. He (Mr. Phillips) was in the Court-house
when a person (whom he named) vvas brought up for trial under a charge
of cruelly flogging a slave, in consecjuence of which he died; but there
being no white or free witnesses against him, the murderer escaped with
impunity : if 500 slaves had. seen it, they would not have been al-
lowed to give evidence. Such is the law up to the present moment in
Antigua. After mentioning the case of a man committed \or Jive years,
without warrant, who was released at his intercession, Mr. Phillips
concluded by assuring the company that West India slavery was the same
now as it ever had been.

Mr. G. Saintsbury requested to be heard in reply to Mr. Phillips,
which was unanimously accorded to him. He maintained that slave
evidence was by no means so generally excluded as had been represent-
ed; that the Barbadoes law of 1829, admitted the evidence of slaves
against whites in all cases of murder, assault, &c. requiring only a cer-
tificate of baptism ; and, even in England, no person was allowed to give
evidence who was not acquainted with the nature of an oath. As for
the detail of cruelties that had been given, in every instance the offence
had been followed by a penalty ; and what more could be expected in
this country. If a case could be adduced in which the offender escaped
with impunity, he would be the first to hold up his hand against the
system.* He admitted there were cases in which he should be grieved
if friends of his were concerned ; but as reference was often made to the
Jamaica papers, he would read from the Courant of last September an
advertisement which he hoped would go a little way in answer to the
charge f that slaves were allowed to perish in the streets of disease. He
then read an advertisement of a " Negro Hospital for Curable Diseases,"
which assured proprietors that the greatest attention would be paid to
the negroes who might be placed in it. To shew that the practice of
branding the slaves was not allowed, Mr. S. cited the case of a person
tried in 1818, for branding his slave Amey in five places, who was sen-
tenced to six months' imprisonment; the Judge commented on his bar-
barity in the strongestterms, and Amey was declared free.J In another

* What does Mr. Saintsbury say to the cases referred to by Mr. Phillips —
to the case of the Rev. Mr. Bridges and his slave Kitty Hylton, and to many
other recent ones detailed in the Anti-Slaveiy Reporter ?

f The charge was made in reference to Antigua, and the facts detailed by Mr.
Phillips. But as regards Jamaica, also, see Mr. Orton's statement, p. 74.

X In this very case the culprit, Joseph Boyden, was indicted not simply
for branding, which is no legal offence in Jamaica, but for " cruelly/, maliciously
and xoantonly iimltreating, by flogging, and marking in five different parts of her
body with the initials of his name and of his estate, a Sambo slave named Amey."
But Mr. de la Beche, himself a Jamaica planter, at the same time that he
refers to this flagrant act of cruelly in his late publication, Notes on Jamaica,
admits the prevalence of branding, at a very recent period. Three slaves on his
own ^stale were branded in 1822 or 1823 ; and the overseer by whose directions

72 Meeting at Bury— Rev. Mr. Orion.

case, of assault, the owner was fined 100/. and lOl. a year ordered (o be
paid to the slave, who v/as declared free. No doubt there was cruelty
in the West Indies, and where was there not? but it was competent to
any individual to give information to the proper authorities; there was
law to punish the offender, and if found guilty he would be punished.
He declared from the bottom of his soul that he v/as not the advocate
of slavery. There was not an individual present who would rejoice at
its abolition more cordially than himself. If it were proposed to him to
erect a state of slavery at the present day, he trusted they would believe
that no one would receive the proposition with greater indignation than
himself, But when he was called upon to alter a state of society which
had existed for centuries, he must be allowed to point out the difficulty
of accomplishing the task.

Mr. Orton requested Mr. Saintsbury to read the name affixed to the
advertisement of the Negro Hospital; which being done, Mr. Orton
observed, that the gentleman named was in immediate connexion with the
Wesleyan Society, and the establishment was an act of almost indivi-
dual charity. Mr. Saintsbury replied that he supposed the party did
not insert the advertisement without reason to expect it would bring
patients. Mr. Orton said the advertisement had appeared 100 times,
and its object was to induce proprietors to send the negroes to a place
where they would be treated with care at a low charge. It was in no
way connected with the estates. He also stated that the slaves were
actually branded ; he had frequently seen them branded with a hot iron.

The Meeting was subsequently addressed by Rev. Messrs, Elven, Free-
man, Orton, Jones; and Messrs. Alexander, Bevan, Hall, and Bayley.

Although we have already given in Reporter, No. 69, a summary of
Mr. Orton's evidence on West India Slavery, yet as the facts adduced
by him on the present occasion were either new, or not before so spe-
cifically stated, being specially called forth to meet the assertions
recently promulgated by the pro -slavery advocates, respecting the fa-
vourable condition of the slaves ; and as we consider Mr. Orton's
testimony, for the reasons formerly mentioned, (See No. 69, p. 442.)
to be particularly valuable and trust-worthy, we make no apology for
inserting the substance of his speech at the Bury meeting. — It had, he
said, been remarked by the Chairman, that too much stress v,?as laid by
some speakers upon particular acts of cruelty. He did not insist upon
sucVi acts, except as evidence of the fruits of the system ; but stood
upon the higher ground that slavery was radically and thoroughly bad
in its basis. He had often conversed with planters and slave owners

it had been done, could not, it appears, be brought to punishment. The fact is,
there is no law against this abominable practice, though it may be punished, as that
or any other act may be, when it is accompanied by sucli circumstances of enormity
as a jury of slave-holders may regard and punish as " cruel, wanton and mali-
cious maltreatment." Branding is commonly performed by using a silver brand
heated with burning spirits; and in this mode it may legally be inflicted by any
ruffian on any man, woman, or child, placed under his authority ; and "brutal
characters," as Mr. De la Beche remarks, " when possessed of power will abuse
it." The Jamaica Newspapers prove that branding is still common. See Negro
Slavery Tracts, No. xv, pp. 158, 159. See also Reporter, Vol. i. p. 254.

Meeting at Bury — Rev Mr. Orton. 73

(amongst whom he knew many kind and humane men) and he had
never found one so unreasonable as to attempt to defend that abomina-
ble system which deprived a man of the greatest blessings conferred
upon him by his Maker. — The natural rights of liberty, property, and
life, were inalienable so long as men acted in conformity with law and
justice ; but his eyes had beheld men sold in the market ; he had seen
human life (and he challenged any man to refute him) made a monstrous
and murderous sacrifice at the shrine of avarice and cruelty ; and the blood
of their fellow creatures cried aloud to heaven for redress. Absolute
power over a fellow creature would always degenerate into cruelty. It
was vain to seek for what were called ameliorating laws from the legis-
lative assemblies : he had seen too many instances where such laws
had proved mere dead letters, and those who ought to be the guardians
of the slaves had been the very persons by whom they had been most
cruelly treated. He should tire the meeting were he to enter into a
detail of those cruelties, and he did not mean to employ them as a
principal part of his argument, but as so many exemplifications of the
enormity of the system, and as a reason for urging at least its early and
entire abolition. He would first take it as a whole, as a system of hard
labour. The toil of the slave was not so excessive for its violent exer-
tion, as in point of constancy and rapidity of motion. A gang ©f from
thirty to fifty men were placed together, some not so strong as others,
though he admitted they were generally selected, as nearly as they could
be, of equal strength; but many were often weak or diseased. These slaves
were placed in a line in the field, with drivers at equal distances, and
were obliged to maintain that line throughout the day, so that those
who were not quite so strong as the others were literally flogged up by
the drivers ; and this in a rapid and constant motion ; — rapidity was
its characteristic. In carrying manure the practice was the same.
With regard to the time they were employed, he had endeavoured 'to
make a correct calculation, and he thought it would be allowed that his
statement was within the mark. He had taken great pains in observing
the time when the negroes were called out in the morning, and the
time when they left the field, and he believed they worked fifteen or
sixteen hours on the average every day of the year. During crop-
lime, which lasted about half the year, from the time that they were
called out, (usually by the crack of the whip,) till they left work, was
at least eighteen hours. This he stated without fear of refutation.
During the other part of the year the average was at least thirteen or
fourteen hours. He maintained that this was cruelty and excessive
labour, in a burning climate, where they well knew that such constant
exertion was not necessary for subsistence. To obtain snch a quantity
of labour coercion was indispensable, and the driver accordingly was
always armed with a whip. It had been said that the whip was a
mere symbol of office, but this was arrant trifling. The missionaries
had stood by, almost boiling over with indignation, whilst the driver was
summarily punishing and lacerating the bodies of his fellow negroes,
without any other whites than themselves to witness it. And this was
in addition to the numerous punishments for petty offences at the
close of the day. Even this might be more tolerable if the slave
were remunerated for his toil, but not only was he not well, provided

74 Meeting at Bury — Rev. Mr. Orton.

for, but he was obliged to make the greatest sacrifices for his bare
subsistence. He admitted that twenty-six days in a year were allowed
for the cultivation of their provision grounds. In the Leeward Islands, he
knew, the negroes were partly fed from their masters' stores, but it was
not so at Jamaica, except during crop, when they had not time to go to
their provision grounds. At other times they had to go to a portion
of mountainous ground, of no value for the cultivation of the cane,
from five to fifteen miles, and in one instance that he had known,
twenty miles distant. They were often so tired and dispirited, that
they would not go, and were flogged to their own grounds by the
driver; their grounds were often robbed or overrun with weeds; and
he had known them to travel thirty miles, with a heavy load, on the
Sunday, to sell the produce at a low rate in order to obtain the little
comforts they required. It was said that the planters supplied their
wants when sick, and it would be bad policy indeed if the same atten-
tion were not paid to them which any one present would pay to his
horse if he were ill, but the negroes would often complain for some
lime before they were admitted to the hospital, or hot-house, and that,
frequently, after being punished, as idle, for complaining. The hospi-
tal was almost invariably the prison of the estate ; they were generally
put into the stocks and allowed to lie on an inclined boarding, to pre-
vent their taking too much exercise, he had been told ; but the impres-
sion had always been made upon him, and upon the negroes also, that
they were thus treated to make the hot-house as undesirable as possible.
In the negroes' huts he had witnessed scenes of distress almost beyond
conception. He had found old negroes in houses nearly falling over
their heads, and their bodies almost eaten up by disease ; and when he
had inquired if their masters did not supply their wants, the answer was
— " No, Massa, me done up; me ask for salt, me ask for salt, but massa
never give salt ;" — (their disease is usually scorbutic) " me have no-
thing but what piccaninny bring to me." In the streets of Jamaica it
was common to see old negroes begging, whose masters had had the
benefit of their youth and strength. — Another instance of the nature of
the system was the intolerable act of religious persecution by which
the slaves were deprived of those blessings which alone could render
their condition supportable. The negro in general was quiet, cowed,
and dispirited by oppression : why then should he be restrained in his
religious principles ? But they all knew that the Missionaries had been
persecuted to martyrdom, and Christianity had been compared to a
cankerworm which would eat out the fruits of slavery. The Mission-
aries had been charged with seducing the negroes into dangerous no-
tions of the rights of men, and with being disturbers of the peace, but
the charge had been honourably disproved in the Courts of Law, and
had fallen with double vengeance on the heads of their accusers. His
brother Grimsdall, whose memory would ever be dear to him, had,
however, sunk a victim to this persecution. He (Mr. Orton) was im-
prisoned in a gaol which had been pronounced unfit for negroes some
years before, and the Marshall at his own risk had released him on
his parole at the end of eleven days, from the fear that his life would
be in danger. He applied for a habeas corpus, and was removed to
Kins-ston, where the Chief Justice immediutelv said he was extremelv

Anti-Slavery Petitions. IS

sorry that he had been placed in such a situation, and ordered him to
be Uberated ; and the Magistrate who committed him was struck olf
the commission. Upon this the actions which had been commenced
were given up, but the proceedings had cost the Missionary Society
£400. The case of Mr. Grimsdall was similar to his own, and the
result would have been the same if he had lived. Many of the negroes
had been^ cruelly punished for attending the worship of God, and on
complaining to the Magistrates had been sent to the workhouse, and
flogged at going in and coming out, as disaffected. Whilst confined
in the gaol he had witnessed barbarities beyond description, in the
workhouse yard, which it overlooked. The Governor of the House of
Correction stood over and watched with the greatest indifference the
cutting up of the negroes. Night and day the crack of the whip was
constantly heard. During the ten days of his fconfinement he (Mr. O.)
scarcely ever slept. One poor woman he saw laid on her stomach, with two
men holding her arms, and a third her head, whilst another herculean
fellow was lashing her naked body. Such occurrences as these ought
to cause excitement, and called upon them to use every lawful means
to accomplish the very speedy and utter abolition of slavery. After
what he had stated, it would be preposterous to compare the condition
of the slaves with that of the peasantry of this country. He admitted
that a few were well treated, but was this a reason for suffering the
vast majority to remain in their present condition ? In the last few
months he had travelled through this kingdom, and he lamented to see
the distress of the English poor. But any attempt to compare the worst
treated of our peasantry with the worst treated slaves, must be grounded
either upon profound ignorance or incurable prejudice. Admitting how-
ever, (for the sake of argument) that their sufferings were equally great, was
it a reason for keeping our fellow creatures in bondage — for refusing to
bestir ourselves for the relief of distress at a distance, because there
was distress at home ? Ought we not rather to beheve that Provi-
dence, by whose power the affairs of all nations were regulated had
permitted this distress in our own country, as a just judgment for our
indifference to the oppression of the negroes? And might not our
consciences tell us — " We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in
that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us and we would
not hear him ? "

Here for the present we must stop, although a large number of Anti-
Slaveiy meetings still remain to be noticed. To these we shall endea-
vour to revert in an early number.

H. — Anti-Slavery Petitions.
From the 17th of November to December 23d, inclusive, eleven
hundred and twenty-five petitions for the early and entire abolition of
Colonial Slavery were presented to the House of Commons. From the
commencement of the session to the Christmas recess, the whole number
presented was three thousand, two hundred and fourteen. A very large
additional number, it is believed, will still be presented before the discus-
sion of the question, in pursuance of the notice given by Mr. Buxton, for
the 1st of March.

76

Donations and Remittances.

III. — Donations and Remittances,

In aid of the Funds of the Anti-Slavery Society, from
4, to December 31, 1830.*

Edinburgh Association

Hull Association _ - _

Mr. Henry Tylor - - - -

Mr. H. M'Farlane, Paisley

G. W. Alexander, Esq. _ - -

Melksham Association - _ -

J. P. Davis, Esq. Tredegar Works

Mr. J. Ross, Chatteris

Richard Poole, Esq. Gray's Ina Square

Rev. Mr. Durrant, Poole

Mr. W. Binns, Poole

Mr. Richard Pinney

Southwark Ladies' Association

Mr. Bowley, Gloucester

Checkley, Croxdon, and Alveton, Staffordshire

Truro Association _ _ _ .

Youghal Association _ . _

North East London Ladies' Association, by Mrs.

Cork Association - - -

W. B. Hudson, Esq. -

Margate Association _ _ _

Richardson Purvis, Esq. Sunbury

Mrs. Purvis, ditto _ _ _

Miss Jane Purvis, ditto

Miss Elizabeth Purvis, ditto

Miss Frances Purvis, ditto

Buckingham Association - - -

Colebrookdale Association

Lewes (Sussex) Association

Salisbury Ladies' Association

Mr. E. Suter _ . - -

Miss Buttrel, of Bellevue, by Miss Prideaux

Rochester Ladies' Association

Rev. W. B. Hayne . - - ■

Banbury Association _ _ -

Darlington Association

Ditto ditto - ^ -

Liverpool Ladies' Association

J. M. Strachan, Esq. Teddington -

J. Harford, Esq. Bristol _ _ -

Bath Association _ _ _

Southampton Association _ _ -

York Ladies' Association

Anonymous from Banbury _ - -

Mr. Jabez Stuterd, ditto

Southwark Ladies' Association

Beverley Ladies' Association

Ditto ditto . - -

y Society, from

Noveml

)er

1830.*

£. s.

d.

- (payment)

21 12

0

(payment)

8 8

0

(annual)

1 1

0

(donation)

1 0

0

(annual)

1 1

0

(donation)

20 0

0

(annual)

1 0

0

(payment)

1 10

0

(donation)

10 0

0

(ditto)

1 1

0

- . (ditto)

1 1

0

(ditto)

0 10

0

- (payment)

6 14

3

(ditto)

0 10

0

(donation)

3 5

0

(payment)

4 4

6

(ditto)

5 0

0

Brightwen (ditto)

2 6

10

(ditto)

10 0

0

(donation)

5 0

0

(payment)

3 0

0

2 years (annual)

10 10

0

2 ditto (ditto)

6 6

0

2 ditto (ditto)

4 4

0

2 ditto (ditto)

4 4

0

(ditto)

2 2

0

(payment)

5 11

0

(donation)

22 10

0

(payment)

10 0

0

(donation)

5 0

0

(annual)

1 1

0

(donation)

1 0

0

(payment)

2 11

0

(annual)

1 1

0

(payment)

1 9

6

(ditto)

7 18

0

(donation)

12 2

0

(ditto)

35 0

0

(payment)

1 2

0

5 0

0

(payment)

20 0

0

(ditto)

7 18

0

(ditto)

2 6

0

(donation)

1 0

0

(annual)

0 2

6

(payment)

1 16

6

(ditto)

5 8

6

(donation)

4 11

6

* This list does not contain the Subscriptions recently paid to the Society's
Collector — which will, however, be entered as usual in the annual list of Sub-
scriptions.

Loudon : S. Bagster, Jun. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 75.] FEBRUARY 1, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 3.

I. — Remarks on the Right Hon. R. W. Horton's Second Letter to the
Freeholders of Yorkshire, on Compulsory Manumission, &c.

IL — The Question of Compensation calmly considered.

L — Mr. Wilmot Horton on Compulsory Manumission.

A SECOND letter from the pen of Mr. Wilmot Horton to the
freeholders of Yorkshire, has made its appearance. There is
appended a brief postscript, in which he promises to take " the
earliest opportunity of correcting the misrepresentations" contained
in our 72nd number, and threatens, Avith somewhat less than his
usual measure of courteousness, "to demonstrate the falsity, absurdity
and bad faith" of our charge against him as " the uniform apologist
of negro slavery, and the abettor and champion of every colonial
abuse." . Now, in the irritation of the moment, Mr. Horton has mis-
taken for a charge against him, our statement of the fact that cir-
cumstances had produced, justly or not, in the public mind, an
impression that he was hostile to negro freedom. If he denies this
fact, we are at issue with him upon it. We did not assert, not being
able to dive into his thoughts, that he was really hostile to Negro
freedom. But we did say, and we say again, that the part he has taken
on this question in public has obtained for him that reputation, and
we must fairly think not very unreasonably. Waiting without dis-
may the proof he has promised of the falsity and bad faith, as well
as the absurdity of this opinion, we shall now confine our attention to
Mr. Horton's second letter, in which, taking as before Major Moody,
formerly employed for years in coercing about a thousand slaves,
for his grand and decisive authority on the subject of free and slave
labour, he proceeds to arraign the abolition party as guilty of a dere-
liction of their duty in not having come forward to take a part in the
inquiry which he thought proper to institute, before the Privy Council,
in November, 1827, on that subject, as connected with the compulsory
manumission clause, which had been introduced into the Berbice
Order in Council. He expresses too, not only very great astonish-
ment at this conduct, but his utter ignorance of the reasons Avhich
could have influenced it. He must here however, allow us to marvel in
.our turn at such a statement, while we adduce it as a further illustra-
tion of the characteristic propensity of this gentleman to employ
himself in combating shadows of his own creation.

78 Mr. Wilmot Horton's Second Letter

As early as the month of December, 1827, immediately bn the
close of the Inquiry, in the Reporter numbered 31, we took occasion
briefly to explain some of the reasons which appeared to us to have
produced that determination ; on not one of which, though he must
have read the article in question, has he condescended to bestow the
slightest notice. For his sake therefore, as well as for the sake of those
to whom his letter is addressed, we will now transcribe the passage.

After a brief review of the effect of the evidence adduced before
the Privy Council on that occasion, we thus proceed.

"Before we conclude this article, it may be expected that we should
make some allusion to a circumstance which occurred in the course of
the inquiry before the Privy Council, and which has been represented
as indicating a backwardness on the part of the abolitionists to sup-
port, by evidence, the views they have promulgated on the subject of
manumission and free labour. On the day on which the evidence for
the petitioners was brought to a close, the newspapers represented
a member of the Council" (who in fact was no other than Mr. W.
Horton himself) " as complaining that no one came forward with
counter evidence. This complaint was supposed to point to Mr.
Buxton and his friends ; and not a few were disposed to infer, from
their having declined the challenge, that they must have done so
under a conviction of the weakness of their cause. What Mr. Buxton
and his friends may think it right hereafter to say from their places in
Parliament, in defence of the line they took on this occasion, v/e pretend
not to anticipate ; but we can conceive many sound reasons which
might have induced them to refuse the call said to have been
addressed to them. Mr. Buxton and his friends, it is well known,
had from the first declined to sanction the proposed inquiry by taking
any part in it. If, however, such a determination had been deliberately
and avowedly adopted by them, before the inquiry commenced, it would
have argued no very consistent or well-formed purpose had they been
provoked, by any such call, to swerve from it ; particularly after the
inquiry had almost reached its termination, and when not the slightest
preparation had been made to fulfil the task said to have been thus pro-
posed to them. We can easily imagine, however, what may have been
some of their reasons both for not complying with any such call, and
for their original determination to take no part in the inquiry.

" 1 . They might have supposed, that the object, from first to last, which
such an inquiry was intended by the petitioners and their supporters to
promote, was delay ; and they might have felt it to have been their
duty to lend no aid, directly or indirectly, to such an object.

"2. They might have conceived, that they had already established their
case to the satisfaction (to say nothing of the public) of both the Par-
liament and the Government of the country; both having, after due de-
liberation and inquiry, so far assented to its truth and justice, as to
resolve, with an unanimity scarcely broken by a murmur on the part
of the West Indians in parliament, to adopt forthwith a variety of the
reforms suggested by Mr. Buxton and his friends, and among the rest
the very measure which was the subject of inquiry.

*' 3. With respect also to the measure at issue, they might have pro-

On Compulsory Manumission, 8fc. 79

duced, as a valid reason for considering it as a settled point, that His
Majesty's government, through the organs of Mr. Canning and Lord
Bathurst, had repeatedly declared it to be " a vital part of their whole
scheme," which '^ could not be dispensed with," and without which
" no system of measures would satisfy the feelings of the country, or
execute the purposes of Parliament;" and that therefore to submit it
at this late hour to a new inquiry, would hardly be doing justice to the
memory of one distinguished statesman, or to the feelings of another;
and still less to their own obligations as men intrusted with the con-
duct of a great cause.

" 4. They might further have pleaded their fears, that if they should
consent to become parties to such an inquiry, they might be virtually
surrendering the pledges already obtained ; at least they might be con-
tributing indefinitely to protract their fulfilment, seeming bound in
consisteTtey4;a wait the result of the inquiry, to which they had con-
sented, before they agitated the subject in Parliament.

" 5. They might also have been of opinion, that having obtained
certain concessions in favour of the slave population, they had no right
to compromise the vital interests of that numerous class, by agreeing
to any proceeding which brought into question, and eventually might
endanger, its full right to each and all of those concessions.

"6. And supposing there Avere no validity in these several reasons,
they might still have been of opinion, that to institute a grave and
solemn inquiry before the King in Council, in order to ascertain what
would be an equitable compensation to a slave-holder for the redemp-
tion of his slave (which was in fact the professed and precise object of
the inquiry), was a course wholly uncalled for ; the question, though a
very fit question to be settled by a court and jury, or by three honest
and impartial appraisers, after a due investigation of the special facts
of each case, being scarcely fit to exercise the legislative functions
either of the Privy Council or of Parliament.

"7. Besides this, they might have thought that, the point more imme-
diately at issue being one, not of fact, but of speculation, to proceed
to settle it by evidence upon oath seemed an anomalous and question-
able proceeding, by which, in certain supposable cases, under the
sanction of that solemnity, a more ready currency might be given to
the effusions of party spirit, passion, prejudice, or selfishness.

" 8. The question at issue also, being one of a speculative kind, they
might have thought, was more likely to be satisfactorily decided by a
reference to general principles ; to official documents exhibiting plain
and unsophisticated facts ; and to the results of historical experience ;
than by a reference to the necessarily contracted and partial observa-
tions of prejudiced and interested individuals.

" 9. They might moreover have thought, that in a case where the
petitioners stood opposed to the concurrent wishes, and to the declared
purposes of the Government and the Parliament, as well as of the
nation, the whole burden of proof lay upon them; but that being a case
which it was impossible to establish by evidence, the attempt to pro-
duce counter evidence would be like fighting with a shadow.

" 10. Mr. Buxton and his friends might further have pleaded, that the

80 Mr. Wilmot Norton's Second Letter

"whole of the statements which they had to produce had been already
placed before the public, and were chiefly drawn from ofKcial docu-
ments, which had either been laid by the Colonial Department on the
table of Parliament, or were to be obtained through that department.*

"11. They might also have seen grounds, from the first, for believing
that the petitioners would not only fail in establishing their own case,
but would, by their statements, give additional confirmation to the case
of their opponents ; and that therefore to meet them by counter evi-
dence, was altogether a work of supererogation.

"12. And if there were any good grounds for such an anticipation
before the inquiry commenced, they must have been abundantly con-
firmed in that opinion before the period of the alleged challenge; as by
that time the failure of the petitioners' case had become matter of
history; and every previous hope, that those views of the subject enter-
tained by Mr. Buxton and his friends, would be strengthened, had been
surpassed by the event, as the preceding pages sufficiently shew."t

Now the above statements, we think, might have satisfied even Mr.
Horton, as we are persuaded they will satisfy the Yorkshire freehol-
ders, and every dispassionate and unprejudiced reader, that there
were not wanting plausible reasons at least for the course pursued by
the abolitionists.

When Mr. Morton's letter of the 25th September, 1827, however,
first reached Mr. Buxton, announcing to him the intention of Govern-
ment to hear evidence before the Privy Council, on the petition of the
Berbice planters, against the compulsory manumission clause, it con-
tained no call upon the abolitionists to come forward, either as parties or
as witnesses, but merely intimated that Mr. Huskisson " supposed it not
improbable that Mr. Buxton might wish to attend on that occasion."
And if so "I should be happy," said Mr. Horton, " to apprize you
in time, or any friends of yours whom you may name, of the period
fixed for the examination." This letter, we repeat, contained no invi-
tation to Mr. Buxton or his friends to be either parties or witnesses in
this inquiry ; still it was supposed that such an inference might be
drawn from it. Pains were, therefore, taken to ascertain the precise
purpose of the Government in sending this notice to Mr. Buxton.
Accordingly Mr. W. Smith applied to Lord Goderich, and to Mr.
Horton on the subject. The result of his conference with the latter is
thus recorded by Mr. Horton himself, in a letter addressed to Mr.
W. Smith, and 'dated Downing Street, October 22, 1827, to the
following eflfect : —
" Dear Sir,

" I am anxious to record in writing the substance of the conversa-
tion which I had the pleasure of having with you on Friday last.

" I then told you, that I had learnt with considerable surprise, that
the information which I gave to Mr. Buxton was construed as an in-
vitation to the abolitionists (if, for the sake of convenience, one may
be permitted to use the phrase) to appear as parties on the proposed

* See especially the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 27, which contained a full
■examination of the whole question.

t Referring to an analysis of that evidence in the same Reporter, No. 31.

On Compulsory Manumission, S^c. %%

inquiry before the Privy Council. I beg to assure you that nothing
could have been farther from the intention of Mr. Huskisson than
such an invitation. The object of my informing Mr. Buxton was,
to give himself, or any other person equally interested with him on
the subject, an opportunity of making their arrangements, 50 as to
attend as auditors, if they chose to do so, at the hearing before the
Privy Council. Indeed, I am not aware by what process Mr. Bux-
ton or his friends could come in technically as parties. I have heard
it said, that they might petition as ' prochains amis ;' I presume to
offer no opinion in point of law as to the capability of so presenting
themselves. But it is not immaterial to consider the circumstances
upon which this inquiry before the Privy Council is founded.

" As I have already told Mr. Buxton, the Berbice petitioners, in
substance, contend that the equitable interests of private property (the
preservation of which the Resolutions of the House of Commons dis-
tinctly contemplated) have not been sufficiently attended to by the
Government, in the measures which they in pursuance of those resolu-
tions have adopted. The Government undoubtedly might have met
such an allegation by refusing all appeal to the Privy Council, and by
informing the parties that they intended rigidly to abide by what they
had done, without consenting to any inquiry on the subject,

" They have, however, decided to take another course ; namely, to
sanction an examination into the specific charge of neglect of the
equitable interests of private property, as contended by the Berbice
petitioners, to be involved in the compulsory manumission clauses. —
The result of that examination may, on the one hand, be either to
prove that the objections of those petitioners are unfounded, in which
case there would be no doubt as to the course which would be to be
taken ; or, on the other hand, to shew that, without impairing the
purpose of the Legislature, as declared in the resolutions of 1823,
other regulations may more satisfactorily accomplish that object.

" The Privy Council will be summoned for Wednesday the 7th
November."

Now it will be for Mr. Wilmot Horton to reconcile this official
letter, which appears to shut out the abolitionists from all title to
appear as parties or even as witnesses, and inviting them merely as
auditors, with the tone of his present letter to the freeholders of York-
shire. That he afterwards invited them to take a part is true, but it was
in the very midst, nay almost at the close of the inquiry ; and that he
then used even taunts to induce them to do so, we admit. But it was
then obviously tco late even to collect the opinions of friends scattered
in different parts of the country, as to the expediency of a compliance^
and still more to prepare a case on so sudden and unexpected a call.

In point of fact, however, no sooner had Mr. Horton's letter of the
25th September, 1827, reached Mr. Buxton than he took measures to
ascertain, by conference or correspondence with his friends, their view
of the expediency of becoming parties to the inquiry, supposing that
to be the purpose or the desire of the Government ; and their unani-
mous decision, even before Mr„ Horton's letter of the 22nd October
was laid before them, was in the negative. The following communica»

82 Mr. Wilmot Hortons Second Letter

tions to Mr. Buxton will shew the general current of opinion among
those friends whom he consulted.

" Assuming," says one of them in a letter dated 12th October, 1827,
" that it is the wish of the Government that Mr. Buxton and his friends
should be parties to the proposed inquiry, I would advise him by all
means to decline it.

"It is true that the original motion which gave occasion to the
debate of May, 1823, was submitted to the House of Commons by
Mr. Buxton. That motion the Government thought proper to oppose.
An amendment was moved by a minister of the crown in the name of
the cabinet. That amendment was carried : and the administration
remained pledged to adopt measures tending to a reform of the West
India system.

" If the ministers have not fulfilled their promise, they have at least
reaped the whole advantage of it. They have quieted the public mind
by repeatedly declaring that they had undertaken the whole work of
amelioration. In Parliament they have repeatedly silenced Mr. Bux-
ton and his friends, by complaining that a question which now be-
longed to themselves was attempted to be taken out of their hands.
The measures which they have pressed on the Colonists were measures
concerted by themselves alone. If they took counsel, it was not with
Mr. Buxton and his friends, but with the most distinguished members
of the West India party.

" These measures however have been opposed by the West Indians ;
and now it is to the very persons for whose motion they substituted
their own amendment, and out of Avhose keeping they have taken the
question, and to whose interference they have so often objected, that,
as is now assumed, they apply to defend a policy for which they alone
are responsible.

" In form, as in substance, the proposition of the Government is
most exceptionable. The appearance of Mr, Buxton before the Privy
Council, would be a violation of every principle which regulates the
proceedings of deliberative or judicial bodies ; an irregularity of which
the Colonists would have to complain, and which the writers who
favour them would know how to turn to account. Clothed with no
recognized character, pretending to no personal interest, he is called
upon to appear as the representative (it is presumed) of a political and
religious party ; or as the advocate of abstract principles. This would
really be a burlesque on the solemnities of such a tribunal.

" The duty of defending the proceedings of the Government belongs
to the Government itself. If any other party be entitled to interfere,
that party is the agent for Berbice ; who, as intrusted with the in-
terests of all classes of British subjects in that settlement, may, with-
out impropriety, demand to be heard in favour of the largest and most
unprotected portion of the population.

" If, indeed, the ministers are desirous to retract the pledge which
they gave in May 1823, their conduct admits of an easy explanation.
By the course now proposed, they extricate themselves from the situa-
tion in which their own policy has placed them, and substitute Mr.
Buxton and his friends in their room. After having so long declared

On Compulsory Mmiumission, ^c. 83

that the question of Negro Slavery was in their own hands, they
restore it to him with whom it originated, but in a state widely diffe-
rent from that in which they received it, encumbered by difficulties
and narrowed by limitations which never would have existed had it
remained in their custody.

" Should Mr. Buxton comply with the wish of the Government, it
will be out of his power to bring forward any legislative measure tend-
ing to accelerate the emancipation of slaves in any of our Colonies.
He will be met, and justly met, by the observation, that, having him-
self agreed to debate the question and to examine evidence upon it
before the Council, he ought to await the decision of that body. Years
may elapse before that decision is announced, a delay which, however
agreeable in prospect to a Government desirous only to shift off, by
daily expedients, the necessity of acting, no person who justly feels
the magnitude of the subject can contemplate without pain.

" If the ministers are desirous to retract their engagement, be it so.
Professed neutrality or open hostility is preferable to secret enmity.
Mr. Buxton and his friends are prepared to fight the battle, but it
must be on ground selected by themselves, not assigned by others.
It must be before the Parliament and the Country. It must be, not on
those principles which the Government has adopted, but on those
which are entertained by themselves, and which, they are firmly con-
vinced, will, when boldly stated, receive enthusiastic support from the
body of the people."

A second communication, bearing the same date, contains the fol-
lowing observations :—

" I am persuaded that Mr. W. Horton is the grand mover in the
afFair of hearing evidence in support of the Berbice and Demerara
Planters' Memorial (on this point indeed Lord Goderich, in what
passed between him and Mr. W. Smith, seems to remove all doubt);
and having given them leave to bring such evidence forward, he seems
now embarrassed as to the mode of proceeding, and his letter to
Mr. Buxton seems intended to relieve him from this embarrassment.
Government could not possibly allow the planters to walk over the
course, and to say what they pleased, against a measure of their own,
without contradiction. This would be to stultify themselves before the
public, and would doubtless also be considered as a betraying of that
cause of reform which they had voluntarily undertaken, when they
forced Mr. Buxton to resign it to them ; as well as a violation of
their pledges to carry that reform into effect. Indeed it seems so ob-
viously the duty of Government to employ their own law officers in
meeting the statements of the objectors, sifting their evidence, and
rebutting their arguments, that it will require some ingenuity to account
for that course not being taken. The Government are the sole depo-
sitories of the reasons which induced them to pursue certain measures,
and they alone therefore are competent to defend those measures ; and
to instruct their own legal advisers for that purpose. It is for them to
defend what they have done. The responsibility of the measures that
have been adopted is entirely theirs, and with them alone therefore
ought to rest the defence.

84 Mr. Wilmot Hortons Second Letter

" I am aware that this is an embarrassing position for a man like
Mr. W, Horton, who has had himself so large a share in the concoc-
tion and conduct of those measures, and I do not wonder he should
shrink from it, and wish to shift the onus on others, as well as to throw
on them the eventual discredit of a weak and inadequate defence ;
especially as he must be aware that in every step that is taken, and in
every word that is uttered, the proceedings will be closely watched
by the abolitionists.

^' Now we cannot wonder that he should wish to escape from such
a dilemma, and that with that view he should be desirous of transfer-
ring to others all the trouble and responsibility of the contest, while he
and his coadjutors remain as calm spectators and umpires between the
conflicting parties.

" In 1823, the abolitionists came forward and were willing fairly to
encounter their opponents in the pursuit of their own views. Govern-
ment, however, authoritatively interfered, and took the matter out of the
hands of the contending parties, and gave certain pledges of practical
measures which they were to accomplish, promising that if they should
be prevented by the contumacy of the colonists from accomplishing
them, they would then come to Parliament for aid and counsel.

" Now that the total inefficiency of the reiterated recommendations
of the Government to the Colonial Assemblies can no longer be denied ,
and that the time therefore is indubitably come when this pledge ought
to be redeemed, it is proposed to pursue the timid course of inducing
Mr. Buxton and his friends in fact to absolve the Government
from the fulfilment of their pledges, and to engage in the contest anew,
and that on far lower and more disadvantageous ground than we
occupied when displaced from it by the interference and the solemn
engagements of the Government.

" We are to be admitted as parties against the colonists, not upon
our own original grounds, but on the grounds on which the Govern-
ment have chosen to take their stand, and from much of which the
abolitionists have dissented, both in principle and in detail.

" It is impossible therefore not to feel it to be a most extraordinary
course for the Government to pursue, that after having almost forcibly
taken the affair out of our hands ; after having uniformly complained
of the very slightest interference on our parts in Parliament; after
having rejected our views and adopted in their stead those of the colo-
nial club ; after having never once deigned to make us parties to their
deliberations, they should now expect that we should volunteer to fight
their battle; that we should undertake the defence of their very
defective measures ; and that we should generously expose ourselves
to the whole ire of the West Indians for their rescue ; and that, armed
with their weapons, and not with our own. There is something really
ludicrous in all this. The authors of the mischief, wrapping themselves
up in the character of indifferent umpires, are to enlist us in the de-
fence and justification, before the king and country, of all their bad
measures, and to set themselves free, by this very proceeding, from all
our claims upon them.

" They are aware of the total contrariety of our views and principles

On Compulsory Manumission, ^c. &5*

to theirs, in making the planters the agents of reform, and that we
have always protested against all measures which proceed upon the
plan of placing the legal condition of the slave at the mercy of his
oppressor. And yet they would have us to become the advocates of
measures which adopt confidence in the planters as their basis^ and
respecting neither the foundation nor framework of which we have
ever once been consulted, and much of which also we disapprove.

" Indeed we strongly protest against the plan of hearing evidence
at all, in a case already decided by the King in council, and sanctioned
by both houses of Parliament, like that of compulsory manumission.
If Government were not convinced of the soundness and expediency
of the measure, they ought not to have adopted and enforced it. And
the responsibility of now abandoning it, or of instituting an enquiry
which may suspend for years the progress of improvement among
800,000 of his Majesty's subjects., and of v/hich the only result can be
delay, must rest with them."

We produce these communications, not for the purpose of justifying
the ground the writers of them took in considering the subject, nor
of defending the correctness of their language and sentiments, but
merely to shew that the subject was deliberately considered, and that
the determination to abstain from all interference in the enquiry bad
at least some shew of reason in its favour. The determination, how-
ever, whether right or wrong, was rendered wholly superfluous by the
letter of Mr. Wilmot Horton to Mr. W. Smith, in which he absolutely
disclaims all such intention as had been ignorantly imputed to him by
Mr. Buxton's friends, and officially shuts out both him and them from
all concern in the matter, except as auditors.

What then, under these circumstances, must have been the surprise
of Mr. Buxton and his friends, when towards the close of the examina-
tion, namely, on the 23d of November, Mr. Horton addressed to Mr.
Buxton, then at Cromer, the letter he has inserted in the pamphlet
we are now reviewing (p. 21), calling upon him to come forward and
take part before the Privy Council; thus in fact seeming to realize all
the surmises which, in his letter to Mr. Smith, he had so formally
disclaimed.

About the same time he also wrote, as he states, to Mr. Macaulay,
strongly urging him to come forward , and to place on record his opinions
on the subject, pressing upon him as a motive for stoearing to their
truth, the Christian obligation he was under of ' doing as he would be
done by.' (p. 23.) Mr. Macaulay, he adds, did not choose to accept
the proposal; and he goes on to express his astonishment at the refusal,
leaving it to be inferred that no reasons had been assigned to him
for this conduct. But as Mr. Macaulay did assign his reasons, Mr.
Horton ought in fairness to have stated them.

Some days before, in a private conversation, Mr. Horton had chal-
lenged Mr. Macaulay to shew that, commercially speaking, the market
iprice of a slave was his fair and proper value. Mr. Macaulay accepted
the challenge, and transmitted to Mr. Horton a paper on the subject,
the substance of which afterwards appeared in the Anti-Slavery R-e-

86 Mr. Wilmot Norton s Second Letter

porter, vol. ii. No. 33, p. 182. It was in a letter acknowledging this
communication, (in which letter Mr. Horton stated that he had dis-
covered " an overwhelming fallacy" in Mr. M.'s argument,) that Mr,
Horton first proposed (notwithstanding Avhat he said to Mr. Smith on
the 22d of October,) that Mr. Macaulay should come forward and
take a part in the inquiry. Mr. Macaulay's reply, dated the 28th
of November, 1827, was to this effect: —

" Knowing the different views which may be taken in all matters of
mere speculation, I cannot wonder that you should dissent from the
paper on the subject of the equitable compensation to be made to the
master on the compulsory manumission of his slave. Though I have
not yet discovered in it the ' overwhelming fallacy ' * which you have
detected, yet I certainly am not disposed vehemently to contend for
its soundness ; and still less should I be disposed, correct though I
believe my views to be, to maintain them on oath.

" This, however, forms by no means my only objection to the pro-
ceeding in which you invite me to take a part. A petition has been
presented by the planters of Berbice against a clause in the Order of
Council for that colony, on the subject of compulsory manumission.
Now to that clause I myself most decidedly object, as outraging both
common sense and common justice, both in its principle and its details.
For even if its details were less objectionable than they are, and it
were framed on the exact model of the Trinidad, or even of the Spanish
law, though I should certainly accept it with gratitude as a great im-
provement on the existing state of things, I nevertheless could not
undertake to plead for it, or to bear testimony in its favour, as consistent
with justice, or as reconcileable to that divine precept to which you
refer as requiring my appearance before the Privy Council — ' Do as
you would be done by.'

" In a conversation with which you lately honoured me, you did
not hesitate to admit that colonial slavery was ' a crime of a deep dye.''
Now it is to this point that I am disposed in the first instance to apply
the above precept. And I think it will not be denied that it is not
doing as Ave would be done by to require that the party suffering from
that crime should indemnify the criminal (let that criminal be either
the planter or the British nation, or both,) for all the present and pro-
spective benefits Avhich he may shew himself to be deriving, or to be
likely to derive from his crime, before that crime shall cease ; — that the
suffering slave should not only yield day by day, to the man who holds
him in slavery, his coerced and uncompensated toil, but should be
driven, as his only and almost hopeless means of deliverance from this
state, to employ the minute and scattered and scanty fragments of his
broken repose to make up to the master the price of his liberty. I
cannot believe this to be just, and I should deem myself to be not
doing as I would be done by, if I came forward in support of such a
system.

Mr. Horton has not yet condescended to point out this overwhelming fallacy.

OH Conipalsory Manumission^ S^c. %%

" Independently, however, of this more general view of the subject,
I am so convinced that the Berbice law will not only produce no prac-
tical benefit to the slave, but actually deteriorate his prospects, that I
should think myself doing wrong were I to appear to take part with it
for one moment.

" I also object to the whole enquiry, as giving an undue importance
to this particular part of the case. While evils without number and of
frightful magnitude are admitted, by the very acts of the Government
and Parliament, to exist in our colonies, and to require a prompt and
effectual remedy, it does not seem right that those evils should remain,
for years subsequent to the admission, unredressed, while Ave have no
question really at issue except that of fixing the fractional parts of the
compensation which may become owing to the planter, in the rare
event of some field slave being able, some ten years hence, to redeem
himself from slavery. We thus seem to be losing sight of all the great.
moral and political questions involved in the subject, amid a cloud of
metaphysical subtleties and abstractions.

" I should think it as reasonable in a London merchant to enter into
a laborious discussion on the nature and value of a paper currency
before he paid his acceptances, as for this great Christian nation to be
deliberating for years on the " incommensurable nature" of the moral
and physical qualities of a set of its injured and oppressed subjects,
before it extends to them that relief which, by every law divine and
human, it is bound to extend to them.

" We do not so act in other matters. The general principle of com-
pensation is also a practice perfectly well understood. The particular
application of that principle belongs not to Government or to Parlia-
ment, but is the proper province of the jury, or of the appraisers called
to examine and decide fairly on all the peculiarities of each special
case.

" There are other reasons which lead me to decline to come forward
to argue such a question on oath. I am perfectly ready at the same
time to furnish the fullest information in my power to his Majesty's.
Government on this subject; and no labour or time or thought whick
I can bestow upon it will be wanting, should I be called upon for that
purpose.

" As you expressed a wish that I would suggest to you any evidence
which might throw light on this subject, I beg to say that it has oc-
curred to me that it would form a most useful supplement to the
testimony already adduced, if you were to call for an exact transcript,
from the registry books under Mr. Amyott's care, of the entries made
there by the sugar planters of Demerara and Berbice since the year
1817. Truth, you may rely upon it, would, by this process, be far
more effectually elucidated than by examining a thousand speculative
witnesses.

" I would also suggest as an useful supplement to Major Moody's tes-
timony on the " affinities and sympathies " existing between master and
slave, and growing stronger from day to day, to which so much of the
slave's " incommensurable vaUxe" is to be attributed, that a list should

BS Mr. Wilmot Hor ton's Second Letter.

be obtained exhibiting the names of the resident, and the non-resident
sugar planters of Demerara and Berbice, with the number of the slaves
belonging to each, and the names and the length of service of the
representatives of the absentees during the last ten or twenty years.
The number of the non-resident planters, I will venture to say, would
be found quite overwhelming. But the force of the " affinities" spoken
of cannot reach across the Atlantic. And if it be argued that in the
master's absence his place is supplied by attorneys and managers and
overseers, then I say, that the brief and uncertain tenure by which
these notoriously hold their offices, is as destructive of the theory in
question as the equally notorious non-residence of the West Indian
sugar planters. Lord Seaford, Mr. Bernal, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr.
Blair, may be very good men, but the idea is utterly absurd of an
influential attachment subsisting between them and their distant slaves,
or between those slaves and their ephemeral agents.

" I have only again to express my readiness to attend your call at
any time, and to assure you of the respect with which I have the
honour to be, " Dear Sir,

" Your very faithful and obedient Sers^ant."

Right Hon. R. W. Horton.

Some farther cori'espondence passed between these gentlemen, which,
it is not necessary to give at length. In reply to enquiries from Mr.
W. Horton, Mr. Macaulay informed him, that " the only publication of
the Anti-Slavery Society which I recollect to have treated this question,
except incidentally, is the ' Examination of the Demerara Memorial.'
(Being the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 27.) I certainly entirely con-
cur in the opinions promulgated in that pamphlet. But yet I cannot
see how they are to be strengthened in their effect by being repeated
or argued on oath." Again — " From the beginning to the end of that
pamphlet it rests entirely on official documents obtained through the
Colonial Office," — " a source of knowledge at least as open to the
servants of the crown as to myself," — " or on works of acknowledged
authority, as Humboldt, Sir Stamford Raffles, &c. And I must still
think that these documents and such writers are the sources to be
mainly relied upon of sound knowledge on this subject."

We have probably said enough to abate the astonishment of Mr.
W. Horton, that both Mr. Buxton and Mr. Macaulay should have
resisted not only his entreaties, but his taunts to induce them to
violate a determination previously and deliberately adopted in con-
currence with their friends, and to which, had no better reasons exis-
ted for it, they would have been necessarily driven by the Right Hon.
Gentleman's own official letter of the 22nd October, 1827. It would
indeed have been a subject of just astonishment, if under such cir-
cumstances, Mr. Buxton or Mr. Macaulay had taken it upon themselves
to act in compliance with Mr. Horton's new and unexpected proposition,
however that gentleman may have exulted in the opportunity of dis-
playing his dexterity in their cross examination, or however they may
have writhed under the torture of such a process,.

The Question of Compensation calmly considered. 89

We have probably also said enough to satisfy the freeholders of
Yorkshire that this second attempt of Mr. Horton to shake their confi-
dence in Lord Brougham and in Lord Brougham's Anti-Slavery associates,
is as misplaced and futile as we have shewn the first to be. We there-
fore take our leave for the present of the Right Hon. Gentleman, and
turn to another part of the discussion which he has raised ; and as
we have been misunderstood upon it, both by friends and foes,* we shall
take this opportunity of endeavouring to obviate their misconceptions.
— We mean the question of

n. — Compensation to the Slave-Owners.

Now it is perfectly true that we have never hesitated to admit, that
the owners of slaves, in the case of their slaves being emancipated by
an act of the British parliament, have a right to prefer, and, if they
can, to establish, a claim to compensation ; and that if they succeed in
fairly establishing such a claim Parliament is bound to indemnify
them.

But we have never admitted, nor indeed do Ave believe, that it will
be in their power to establish such a claim, at least to any material
extent. Still they have a right to do so if they can.

The parties who have suffered so severely by the establishment of
the Liverpool and Manchester rail road, — the coachmasters, the
waggoners, the bargemen, &c., — have undoubtedly the right, if they
choose, to prefer a claim to Parliament for indemnity, and if they can,
to establish the justice of that claim, both by an appeal to general
principles, and by an exposition of the particular facts of their case.
But it would still be for Parhament to judge of the soundness of such
principles as well as of the truth and tendency and relevancy of such
facts ; and to act accordingly in the admission, rejection, or modifi-
cation of the claim that had been founded upon them.

A similar indulgence, but similarly restricted, seems fairly due to
every class of claimants who may think themselves aggrieved by any
measure of national policy ; and we know of no reason which ought
to exclude the owners of slaves from a fair and equitable considera-
tion of their claim to indemnity from the consequences of an act of
emancipation, if such an act should be passed by the imperial legis-
lature. What the result of such an application would be is a perfectly
different question, and must depend on the peculiar circumstances of
the case.

Thus it was in the instance of the slave trade. The proposal to
abolish it was met by petitions from the West Indians at home and
abroad, to the full as strong either as that lately presented by the

* Among the first class, namely, our friends, we are truly glad to number the
author of a Review of Mr. W. Horton's first letter to the Yorkshire freeholders,
which appeared iu the Christian Instructor of Edinburgh, for December, 1830,
and which contains a very able and conclusive exposure of the inanity of the
Right Hon, Gentleman's arguments. We recommend it to his candid atten-
tion.

9'0' Tlie Question of Compensation cabnly considered.

Marquis of Chandos,or that which now lies for signatures at the Jamaica
Coffee-house, claiming indemnity to a very large amount. Seventy
millions sterling was the lowest sum at which in 1792 the planters
rated the injury about to be inflicted on them, and they insisted on
having the indemnity secured before one step was taken towards
abolishing the slave trade. But what was the language at that time
held towards the claimants by His Majesty's government? On the
3rd of April, 1792,Avhen the resolution was first adopted of abolishing
the slave trade, Mr. Pitt, in reply to the clamourers of that day for in-
demnity, observed, that he was very far from meaning to exclude the
question of indemnification, on the supposition of possible disadvan-
tages affecting the West Indians through the abolition of the slave
trade. " But when gentlemen," he added, " set up a claim of com-
pensation merely on general allegations, which is all I have yet heard,
I can only answer, let them produce their case, and if, upon any
reasonable grounds, it shall claim consideration, it will then be the
time for parliament to decide upon it."

Again in 1 807, when a bill for abolishing the slave trade had already
passed the House of Lords, and was actually brought into the House
of Commons by Earl Grey, then Lord Howick, the West Indians
came forward as now to claim compensation. Utter ruin to all their
interests — the total loss of their income and their property — they said,
would be the inevitable consequences of the measure. Not only would
there be insurrection and massacre throughout the whole of our slave
colonies (the very language now employed to frighten the public out
of .their wits) but indemnity would be required to the extent of at
least one hundred millions.* They requested to be heard by counsel,
and counsel were heard at the bar of the House of Commons, as they

* It is highly instructive to look back to the debates of 1791 and 1792, and
of 1806 and 1807, and to observe how the very same topics of alarm and in-
timidation, on the ground whether of apprehended insurrection, or of the enor-
mity of the requisite indemnity, were then called into action which form the
weapons of West Indian controversy at the present hour. They were the argu-
ments or rather the bug-bears employed at that time to terrify Parliament from
performing a great act of national justice. And they are now again resorted to
for the same purpose, and we trust with a like issue as on the latter occasion.
Would any one now believe that in 1807, it was possible that such men as Lord
Eldon, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Liverpool, &c. in the House of Lords, and Lord
Castlereagh, and Mr. Windham, in the House of Commons, should have been
so far deluded by such representations as gravely to adopt them, and to unite in
sounding the loudest notes of alarm throughout the land. Mr. Windham went
even so far as to say, " As those who support the bill are anxious to wash their
hands of the guilt of the slave trade, so 1 am equally anxious to wash my hands
of the dreadful consequences which that abolition threatens to produce." Can
any thing appear more absurd in the retrospect than such language ? And yet it
is the very same language (senseless language we hesitate not to call it) ; — which
is at this very moment, producing among our senators and statesmen, the same
unfounded alarms froiu servile insurrection, and from the overwhelming pecuniary
sacrifices to which we shall be exposed, in order to deter them from an act of at
least equal justice. — Sir R. Peel has recently raised the claim to 140 millions,
doubling that of 1792!!

The Question of Compensation cabnltf considered. 91

had also been at the House of Lords, m support of their extravagant
claims; and their cause was ably pleaded by Mr. Dallas, the late Chief
Justice, Mr. Alexander, the late Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and
Mr. Scarlett, the late Attorney-General, now Sir James Scarlett, But
what on that occasion was the language of Viscount Howick ? It was
to this effect : He did not deny that the apprehended loss which this
measure might eventually cause might become a fair question of
future consideration. — Let those who may conceive themselves entitled
to demand compensation submit their case to the House, and if that
case should be established, the House would never be backward in
listening to the claims of justice : He stated this as a general prin-
ciple. The West Indians, however, were not satisfied with this
assurance, and Mr. Manning, in giving notice that he should proceed
to move for a Committee to consider of the compensation to be
granted, in the event of the Bill passing, to those whose interests
would be affected by it, begged to know from Lord Howick, whether
His Majesty's ministers were authorised to assent to such a proceeding.
Lord Howick's reply was, that it was contrary to the practice of Par-
liament to declare beforehand what might be the amount of compen-
sation to be granted for possible losses by any general measures of
political regulation or national policy which Parliament might adopt,
and that therefore he was not authorised to consent to such a Com-
mittee. The bill accordingly passed without any express provision
being made, beyond this general verbal assurance, for compensating the
eventual sufferers. The doors of Parliament however were left com-
pletely open to their representations. And what has been the result ?
To this hour, after a lapse of twenty-four years, not only has not a
single claim for compensation been established by any one of those
then noisy claimants ; but not one has even been preferred. And yet
the West Indians were quite as loud in their clamours, and quite as
•confident in their statements in 1792 and 1807, as they now are
in 1831.

Now if the misrepresentations and exaggerations employed on that
occasion, must be admitted to have been very gross, and without any
real foundation, and chiefly for the purpose of delaying an act of
justice ; is it not just barely possible, that as the complaining and
opposing parties are the same, and their motives the same, and their
end the same, the fears and alarms they are at this time exciting, both
as to the danger of insurrection, and as to the extent of pecuniary
sacrifice to which the country must necessarily be subjected, may be
as vain and as valueless as those of 1807. We are confident they
will be found to be so ; and that the attempted delusions of the former
period are only now renewed in the hope, which, we trust, will prove
a vain one, of a more successful result.

Let it not be supposed, however, that we mean to retract any thing
we have said, as to the right of the owners of slaves to prefer, and if
they can, to establish their claim to compensation. We admit that
right, as we have always done, in the most explicit manner. But still
we say with Mr. Pitt, and with Earl Grey, that the time for indemnity

92 The Question of Compen&ation calmly considered.

is not yet come, and that it can only be given when injury shall be
proved to have been sustained.

In the case of the abolition of the Slave-trade, that measure of
national policy, v^^hich the planters alleged would ruin them, and for
which they demanded compensation, has proved, by their own admis-
sion, an advantage instead of an injury. They have not only incurred
no loss, but they have been gainers loy the measure. Now surely to
have awarded, on the mere allegation of a set of claimants, compensation
beforehand in such a case, would have been a somewhat proposterous
proceeding. The general assurance that if loss were actually incurred
by the operation of the measure, it would be fairly and equita-
bly considered and liberally indemnified, was all that could be rea-
sonably demanded; and it was, therefore, all which, in the wisdom of
Government and Parliament, it was thought necessary at that time to
concede.

But it is argued that the two cases of the Slave Trade and Slavery
differ very widely, and are, therefore, not to be dealt with on the same
principles.

They agree, however, in some very material respects.

Both the cases are cases of national crime of a very deep dye, and
which ought in justice to be put down at whatever cost. The allega-
tions of danger and loss too are precisely of the same nature ; they are
supported by the same facts and arguments ; and they are put for-
ward by the very same parties, in the one case as in the other.

Are these allegations entitled to more respect in 1831 than they re-
ceived in 1807, when they were proved to be vain and fallacious ? It is
admitted that in the former case the planters were wholly mistaken in
their representations not only as to insurrection but as to pecuniary
loss. Is it clear that they may not be equally mistaken now ?

In the former case, the planters possessed every advantage of local
knowledge to which they can now pretend, and they were alike in-
terested in the result. They were nevertheless altogether wrong in
their anticipations of evil. ' Is it not very possible, nay, is it not very
probable, that they may be wrong also in their present anticipations
of similar evil ?

On the former occasion, the abolitionists affirmed that no evil, but
much good, would result to the planters from the measure they advo-
cated. The planters gave them no credit for this assurance. On the
contrary they reviled them as guilty of fraud and hypocrisy, of rob-
bery and injustice. Nay, they charged them even with cruelty and
inhumanity in disregarding the misery which their rash and ill-advised
schemes of pseudo-philanthropy must necessarily produce.

On the present occasion, the same parties stand in nearly the same
relations to each other. The abolitionists now affirm that not only
the negroes, but the planters also will derive benefit from the conver-
sion of slaves into free labourers. The planters revile them for daring
to say so,; and reiterate, in terms no less unmeasured, their former
vituperations. But in this case as in the former, may not the aboli-
tionists be right and the planters wrong ? May it not prove true that

Tlie Question of Compensation calmly considered. 93.

free labour will be more advantageous to the owner of the slave than
slave labour ? If so, how would the claim of compensation stand ?
Could it in that case be sustained for a single moment ?

Is it not the part then both of justice and of common sense to say
in this, as in the former case — We do not deny the right of the
planters to prefer and to establish their claim to be compensated for
any injury they may sustain from the great measure of national justice
and policy of converting the slaves into free labourers ; we only main-
tain, as in the case of the Slave Trade, that the injury should first be
made to appear, should be stated and proved, and that then it should :
be considered fairly and equitably ; assured that Parliament in that
case will not be deaf to the claims of justice ?

We are not aware of a single argument which can be adduced, in
opposition to this course of proceeding in the present case, which
ought not to have availed in the case of the abolition of the Slave
Trade, which the Planters declared with equal solemnity would infal-
libly fill the Colonies with blood, would instantly change the tenure of
their estates from a fee simple into a life rent, and by rendering all
their other possessions, lands, houses, &c. nearly valueless, would
involve them in utter ruin.

If, however, the abolition of slavery by law should end, on the con-
trary, in improving the income and the property of the Colonial land-
owner, instead of deteriorating them; no one will refuse to admit that
while the Planter would retain, in its integrity, his right to apply for
and obtain indemnity for any injury consequent upon that measure, he
would, in the case we are assuming, not only not have his claim for com-
pensation allowed, but he would not even think of preferring it. He
had a sufficient sense of justice and propriety, in the former case, to
forbear from urging a claim which he felt to be groundless; and so
doubtless would he find himself constrained to act in the parallel case
we are now supposing.

If it should turn out, contrary to all the Planters' forebodings, and
in agreement, as in the former case, with the predictions of the
abolitionists, that no harm shall have arisen to him from the dreaded
change, but rather good; then the consideration of the question of
compensation, (beyond the assertion of the general principle of the
right of indemnity for losses incurred, for which we contend as
strenuously as the Planters themselves,) would not only be premature
but preposterous.

If, for example, the effect should be that by substituting wages for
the cartwhip; the ordinary incentives to industry for brute coercion ;
the restraints of legal authority and of a well regulated police for those
of the unlimited arbitrary power, and varying and unreasonable caprice
of individual despotism ; the slave were rendered happier, and the in-
come of the master larger as well as more stable, who would or could
think of demanding compensation ?

And if the master, driven by this measure to change his whole sys-
tem, were to find himself forced on improvements which he cannot
but admit would be beneficial to him ; — if he should be obliged to
become resident, and thus be spared the ruinous effects of distant

94 The Question of Compensation calmly considered.

agency, and the no less ruinous effects of the unfaithfulness and dis-
obedience of distant agents ; — if the cattle plough,* now almost wholly
unknown in the slave colonies, were brought into general use, and made
to take the place, in tilling the soil, of the wretched hoe in the feeble
hands of men and women ; and proper machinery were also employed
in other branches of colonial husbandry; — if a change of crops, and a
better system of manuring and of general management were adopted ; so
that the soil which, by a kind of judicial blight, never fails gradually to
deteriorate and even to wear out under slave culture should thus gradually
improve ; — if the female part of the population, instead of that constant
and oppressive drudgery which now smites them with the curse of bar-
renness and abridges their lives, thus relieved, were to become like
the females of Mexico and Hayti, of the maroons in Jamaica, and of
the free coloured classes in all the colonies, the mothers of swarming
families ; — if the labouring population should thus, instead of wasting
away as at present from year to year, rapidly increase, and the land,
as population multiplied, should proportionably rise in its value, and
become a source of growing profit to its proprietor; — who shall say,
that if such anticipations were realized any compensation would be
claimable for the extinction of Slavery ? And why may they not be
realized? It is in the power of the Planters to realize them. But
they will not. They are withheld, we speak of the resident Planters,
by their passions, and their prejudices, and their pride, and their indo-
lence, and their inveterate attachment to the habits of a corrupting
despotism, and still more by other circumstances to which we shall
hereafter advert. Therefore they will not. But Parliament must do it
for them ; must impose upon them the necessity of pursuing their own
unquestionable advantage, no less than that of their slaves ; and must
tell them, in language which can neither be misunderstood nor
resisted, that the present ruinous system, n inous alike to the master
and to the slave, must cease; and that they must be compelled by
law to pursue a course, which while it will benefit them, will also res-
cue from bondage, and misery, and death 800,000 of our fellow sub-
jects, now bending beneath their intolerable and unprofitable yoke.

But even supposing that all these anticipations should prove as
visionaryaswebelieve them to be just, still we should say to thePlanters,
You preserve entire your right to indemnity ; you have, from the British
parliament and the British people, the assurance that, if the measure
which they feel it their duty to adopt shall produce the evils you ap-
prehend, not through your own perverse and contumacious resistance
or misconduct, but through the natural operation of the policy that
has been pursued, you shall be indemnified.

Weareaware that it may be alleged, and indeed has been charged upon
us, by our powerful coadjutor in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor,
that we have been far too complaisant to the colonists on this point.
In the year 1823 we proposed, it is true, to the Government, a plan
for redeeming the future children of slaves, and also another for re-

* No people pretending to civilization have ever generally excluded the plough
From cultivation excepting the Colonial Slaveholders.

The Question of Compensation calmly considered. 95

deeming; all female slaves from bondage, at even a high estimate of
their value. These plans, however, must not be considered as implying
that we then took a different view of the principles which govern this
question from what we now take. But we were willing then to waive the
question of the planter's right to such a payment as was proposed, for
the sake of a compromise which, while it granted immediate freedom
to one half of the slaves, would put a certain and definite term to
slavery itself. Considering all the fearful hazards of the case, com-
mitted, unhappily, as the work of reformation had been to the planters,
by the Government and the Parliament, we were then prepared to
accede to such a compromise ; and should have deemed it a cheap
purchase for the certainty of the final termination, in twenty or thirty
years, of that system of cruelty and injustice, of suffering and of guilt,
Avhich we had united to abolish. The case is altered. The nation is
now much more awake to its obligations than it was then ; and if
Parliament be not equally awake to them, we feel confident that it
will become so. Supported by the voice of the country, and appealing
to the eternal and immutable principles of right and wrong, we call
upon our rulers and representatives for justice, bare justice, in behalf
of 800,000 of our fellow men and fellow subjects. This demand may
be denied to us for a time, but it cannot be long withheld. As surely
as the slave trade has been abolished, and as surely as the fetters of
religious liberty have been broken, so surely will slavery also be
abolished ; and every day which delays it unnecessarily, while it in-
creases the chances of those servile convulsions which are idly and
ignorantly dreaded as likely rather to result from emancipation, will
only serve to swell the ranks, and increase the zeal, and stimulate the
exertions of those who, regarding their cause as the cause of God and
of their country, as the cause of religion and justice and humanity, as
well as of the soundest policy, will feel it to be a binding obligation
upon them to press forward, in the face of every obstacle, to its final
triumph.

Even in that case, however, we shall be told, that as all our expec-
tations may not be realized, we may be called to redeem our pledge of
indemnity, and we must therefore be prepared to meet its cost ; — we
must be prepared to pay, for the emancipation which we demand, a full
compensation to the owners of slaves for the human chattels of which
it will deprive them, and which our laws, it is alleged, have authorized
them to purchase and to hold as property. Be it so : we are content
to take this merely commercial view of the subject, and calmly to en,-
quire into the truth of all those exaggerated statements of the market
value of this property, by which the colonists attempt to frighten both
Parliament and people out of the exercise of their humanity and their
justice.

As for the alleged danger of insurrection, if there be truth in history,
in history uncontradicted by any opposing facts, we have already dis-
posed of it in a former Reporter (No. 70), to which we shall have much
more to add, should it be required. We shall now confine our view
to the simple question of the money which the nation must sacrifice,
if, on a full view of all the circumstances of this complicated case, the

96 The Question of Compensation calmly considered.

planters should establish their title to be paid the full market value of
every slave they now possess.

In the year 1823, a very intelligent planter of Jamaica, Mr. Foster
Barham, the possessor himself at that time of about 765 slaves, since
reduced to about 730, published a calm, and on the whole, a tempe-
rate pamphlet on this subject, in which he endeavoured to impress his
brother planters with the necessity of an early compromise of their
claims, feeling, as he did, a firm conviction that slavery could not long
outlive the growing force of public opinion. He seems to have taken
great pains to ascertain what was at that time the average income
arising to the slave proprietary from the labour of their slaves, and he
fixed it at the rate of three pounds per annum for each slave, young and
old, strong and feeble, male and female. According to the estimate
therefore of this acute and interested witness, the net return on the
capital invested in our slave colonies, whether in slaves, in the land
tilled by those slaves, or in the buildings and other materials required
for the purposes of culture and manufacture, might be fairly reckoned
at a rate not exceeding three pounds sterling for each slave.

Taking the number of slaves in all our slave colonies, including the
Cape of Good Hope and the Mauritius, to be 800,000, this would
make the net annual income of the whole of the slave proprietary,
to be £2,400,000.

Considering the interest which the author of this estimate ob-
viously had in raising it as high as his upright mind would allow him
to do, we may fairly assume that, if closely investigated, it would be
found to be above the truth rather than below it. It is notorious also,
that since 1823, the price of almost every article of colonial produce
has materially declined. We seem warranted therefore in reducing his
estimate, and in taking, instead of his three pounds, only two pounds
ten shillings for each slave, which would leave for the annual aggre-
gate of income the sum of two millions sterling. This sum, however,
being derived from colonial possessions, where (putting out of view,
distance, and insecurity, and other drawbacks) interest is never lower
than six per cent, cannot be regarded, in order to be realized in this
country, as worth more than fifteen years purchase, or thirty millions
sterling. Now even if the whole of this sum were to be converted at
par into a 3i per cent, stock, as an indemnity fund, the annual dividend
payable upon it would not exceed £1,050,000 a year. But in fact it
would be only that portion of the whole which was derived from the
slaves, (exclusive of the land, houses, &c. which would still remain in
the possession and usufruct of their proprietors,) that would require to
be thus indemnified, and this could not exceed one half of the whole sum,
or £525,000 a year. And it would be very extraordinary, if with the
command of that abundance of free labour which would be the effect
of emancipation, and with the increased demand for land which the
altered circumstances of the mass of the community must create, the
planter were not, by such a payment, amply indemnified for all and for
much more than all he had been deprived of by the conversion of his
slaves into free labourers.
- But even such an indemnity may not satisfy the slave-owners. We

The Question of Compensation calmly considered. ^7

must be paid, they may say, the market value of all our slaves. Again
we reply, be it so ; and then we enquire, what, even on that principle,
would be the probable extent of the compensation ? , We have care-
fully examined every official document containing data on which to
fix the average market value of slaves, young and old, male and fe-
male, robust and feeble, healthy and diseased, skilled and unskilled,
in the various British slave colonies belonging to the Crown ; and we
do not hesitate to pronounce it on an average of the last fifteen or
twenty years, to be considerably below £30 sterling a head. At
present it is probably much less, and is certainly, under all the cir-
cumstances of the case, not likely to increase. Now if we take the
average market value of slaves to be even as high as £30 each, the
aggregate amount of the value of the whole 800,000 would not exceed
£24,000,000 ; a sum, which converted at par into a 3|- per cent, stock,
would require an annual dividend of exactly £840,000.

But how, it may be asked, is this country, already overburdened
with taxation, to pay £840,000, or even £525,000 a year ? We reply,
that even the larger sum is not more than tv/o thirds, and the smaller
sum not more than one half, of what it now costs us in bounties and
protecting duties to bolster up this criminal and profitless system. And
that too is independent of all the evils resulting from this ruinous
monopoly in checking our commercial intercourse with the British
dominions in the East, with China and the Indian Archipelago ; and
in short with the whole of the tropical world besides. It is inde-
pendent also of the cost of the naval and military expenditure of
British life and British treasure which is required to enforce, at the
bayonet's point, the despotism of the slave-holder. And it is more-
over independent of all the demoralizing influences on our population
at home and abroad, and especially on the master and the slave; and
of all the load of conscious guilt, and the awful consequences of that
consciousness, which the continued toleration of this profligate and
noxious system entails upon us.*

But supposing that the slave-owners should set at nought the consi-
derations we have placed before them; and that, through their influence.
Parliament should be induced still to hesitate in fulfilling the just
expectations of the country, by putting an early period to the evils of
slavery ; and that actuated either by a groundless dread of insurrec-
tion, or by a reluctance to pay the price which may attend the con-
summation of this unquestionable act of justice, they should turn a
deaf ear to the prayers of their constituents ; still there will remain
a variety of minor measures Avhich the Government may see it right
immediately to adopt, and for which no shadow of claim to indemnity
can, on any pretence whatever, be pleaded by the slave-owners. To
a few, and only a few, of these we will now briefly advert ; and our
remarks may tend both to throw some further light on this painful sub-
ject, and to impress still more deeply, on the public, the innate, and

* Besides all its other evils, it may be considered as little better than a mere
system of mendicancy on a large scale. See the paper entitled the Case of the
West India Planters, inserted in the Supplement to the Anti-Slavery Reporter,
No. 61, p. 272.

N 2

98 The Question of Compensation calmly considered.

incurable iniquity of the slave system, and the duty, if delay should
unhappily intervene, of redoubling their exertions for its early and
final extinction.

1 . One of the first of these measures should certainly be the aboli-
tion of all fiscal regulations for the encouragement of slave-grown pro-
duce, in preference to that which is the produce of free labour. It can
hardly be that these should survive even the present session ; or that the
distress of our own population and the claims of our Asiatic fellow-
subjects, (to say nothing of their effect in deteriorating the condition
of the colonial slave, and. in protracting and imbittering his bondage)
should not secure the equalization of the duties on East India and
West India products, and should not also put an end to the mode of
calculating the drawback on refined sugar, exported from this country,
and which has the effect of greatly raising its price to the British con-
sumer. The tax thus laid upon him for the benefit of the sugar
grower is not less, we are assured, than about five pounds per ton on
all sugars consumed in this country or exported in a refined state,
independently of the operation of the protecting duty by which slave-
grown sugar is defended against the competition of free-grown sugar.
The bounty alone, therefore, forms a tax on the country, which goes
into the pockets of the sugar planter, little if at all less than £1,000,000
a year.* Here there can be no shadow of pretence for compensation.

2. Lord Bathust, and all the Colonial Secretaries of State who
have succeeded him, and especially Sir G. Murray, have concurred
with Mr. Canning in maintaining that the slave is entitled to the full and
unbroken enjoyment of the sabbath, "wholly clear from the demands
of the master and the necessities of the slave ;" — a principle which can
only be carried into effect by allowing him an entire day in lieu of the
sabbath, to be applied to the same purposes for which the sabbath
has been, and still is, desecrated by the planters, in open violation of
the authority not only of the Divine law, but of the law of the land.
In no colony, no not even in any one of the crown colonies, has this
principle been carried into effect, though its justice has been over and
over again asserted by the government, and pressed by them on the
attention of the Colonists. The slaves therefore are still denied the rest
of the sabbath, which is still devoted, in common with the other six
days, to the service, not of their heavenly but ''of their earthly
masters. They must still work on that day or starve.

What can have caused the perpetuation of this enormous abuse ?
Can it be that the Colonial Committee have adopted the views of the
Trinidad Council, in their minute of the 9th of July, 1823, that if the
Sunday is wholly given up to the slave, and another day substituted
for the secular uses to which Sunday has hitherto been applied, they
will expect " full compensation for the loss of the additional day" ?
(See papers by command for 1824, p. 105.) We can conceive no
other reason which can have led Lord Bathurst and his successors in

* We are aware that this statement is questioned. We refer our readers for
the elucidation of it to the Reporters No. 17, 22, 24, and 57. Proof of its
truth has often been offered and is still ready to be produced before a committee.

The Question of Compensation calmly considered. 99

office to have failed in their pledges, and to have violated their own
often avowed principles, on this subject. But will Parliament listen to
such a plea as this, a plea as profligate, as the practice which it has been
so long and so vainly sought to reform, is cruel and unjust ? It cannot
be. They can hardly fail to put down as by acclamation so outrageous
an abuse.

3. The main pretence set up by the colonists for refusing the just
demand of freedom for the slaves, is that they must be previously in-
structed and imbued with a sense of moral and religious obligation.
And yet no one law has yet been passed in any colony, not even in the
Crown colonies, for securing to the slave time for such instruction.
Will Parliament tolerate any longer this insincere pretence? Or will they
be desired to mete out to the planter a measure of compensation for
every hour granted for such a purpose ; although the planters have taken
pains to delude Parliament and the public into a belief that they do
actually allow time and means for instruction. In Jamaica a law to
that effect, without a single executory provision, or a single sanction
to enforce it, has stood on the statute book of that island a dead letter
for nearly 140 years. Will Parliament refuse now to supply the pro-
visions and sanctions necessary to give effect to such a law?

4. Such colonial legislatures as have chosen at all to regulate the
allowance of food to the adult field slave, have assigned to him a por-
tion so scanty as to be wholly inadequate to his sustentation ; the
maximum of which, in Tobago, is at the rate of ten pints of wheat flour
weekly (see No. 73, p. 12), and in the five Leeward Islands, eight pints
of the same flour weekly (see No. 38, p. 271) ; while the prison allow-
ance of Jamaica, the allowance to men not Avorking in the field but
confined in prison, is twenty-one pints of the same flour weekly.*
Now if Parliament, regulating itself even by the prison allowance of
Jamaica, which cannot be presumed to be at all excessive, were to
enact that every adult slave should be allowed at the rate of twenty-
one pints of wheat flour weekly, the cost of feeding their slaves in the
colonies we have mentioned, and perhaps in all of them, would be at once
more than doubled. And yet would not this be right ? Would it not
be a provision of the commonest humanity and justice which ought
never to have been left by the masters to be enjoined by an act of
Parliament ? But are the planters to claim compensation, if they should
be compelled to double their scanty allowances, and adequately to feed
the slaves whose labour they are exacting ? Or do they not rather de-
serve reprehension and punishment for their past treatment of the King's
lieges, than compensation for ceasing to starve them ? And yet we
should not be surprised by such a demand, not more surprised at least
than by the demand of the Council of Trinidad, to be indemnified for
granting to the slave the Sabbath which God had given him, but which
they had iniquitously wrested from him andapplied to their own purposes.

5. It will be seen by the same work of Mr. Stephen (chap. iv. v.
and vi.), that the planters had stated, in their evidence before the Privy

* See this whole subject discussed with the clearness of demonstration in Mr.
Stephen's 2d vol. chap, viii.

100 The Question of Compensation calmly considered.

Council and the House of Commons, that the daily labour of the slaves
did not extend to more than eight or nine or ten hours a-day. This was
done with the obvious intention of leading the public to believe that their
labourwasnotexcessive,butmoderate. Mr. Stephen, hower, has proved,
by unquestionable colonial testimony (testimony confirmed by the very
laws of the colonies,) that their labour extends to fourteen, fifteen, and
even, for a great part of the year, to eighteen, and on an average of
the whole year, to sixteen hours a-day; thus at once explaining satisfac-
torily the causes of the barrenness of the female slaves, and the general
waste of negro life, in our slave colonies. Now suppose that Parliament,
adopting the evidence of the planters, not indeed as true, but as a fair
statement of the number of hours which men are capable of labour-
ing in the field, under a tropical sun, were to enact that in future,
under severe penalties, it should not exceed that amount of exaction;
in short, that nine hours of the twenty-four should be the maximum o f
the continuity of the field-slave's labour, whether in the field or out of
it ; what would be the effect of such an enactment on the gains of the
planter ? If this just provision, admitted to be so not only by nu-
merous planters, but by public bodies in the West Indies, were
adopted, what, we say, would be its effect on the gains of the master?
And if this Avere deemed only an act of justice to the slave, which
masters were bound, even by their own shewing, always to have granted
to him, would they think themselves entitled to claim from ParUament
indemnity for this abridgment of six or seven hours a-day of the
slave's toil ? Or if they did, would Parliament listen to the claim ?

We will not now dwell longer on these points, but only remind the
public, that if the slave owners are already reduced, by their own ad-
missions, to a state of extreme distress, and are forced to come to Parlia-
ment, with pressing calls for prompt and effectual relief, in order to
avert their absolute ruin ; what will be their slate, and what will be
the income for which they shall have to claim compensation, when,
instead of being sustained by bounties and protecting dutiesto the extent
of about half of their present estimated net revenue, they shall be de-
prived, as they must soon be, of such an unnatural and injurious
support ; — when, instead of exacting, in fact, seven days' labour from
the slave, they shall be forced to be content with five, and each of
these five abridged of seven hours of their present oppressive length; — ■
when they shall also have to add the requisite time for the instruction
of ihe slaves; — and vv-hen, moreover, the rate of their sustentation must
be more than doubled, at least in any of the colonies from which we have
received correct information on the subject ; — what, we repeat, will
then be ' e income for which they shall be entitled to claim compen-
satio the hands of Parliament and the public ? Will it amount

to a smgle farthing per annum ? We trow not. And even Mr. Wilmot
Horton fully admits th ^ no compensation can be justly claimed for
mere ameliorations.

We have much more reserve on this subje .,hich we may take
an early opportunity of adding. In the mean time we beg to refer
our readers to the letter of a correspondent, on this very subject of
Compensation, in our 2nd Vol. No. 42, p. 329, and more especially to

'The Question of Compensation calmly considered. 101

the exposure, in Mr. Stephen's recent Volume, of the delusions prac-
tised on the public by the Colonists on this subject.

Now, under these circumstances, what ought the Planters to do, — •
not to meet our wishes and those of the country, (that we have hardly
a right to press upon them as a motive,) but to save themselves from
impending ruin ? They ought, we reply, to agree at once to emancipate
their slaves. We verily believe that this is the only remedy which is
within their reach ; and we verily believe that it would prove an effec-
tual one. Let them weigh this suggestion dispassionately without
listening to the prejudices either of their managers or their con-
signees, and we can hardly doubt that an enlightened sense of their
own interests will lead them to coincide in this conviction.

But we have perhaps done injustice to the planters, in addressing
our observations exclusively to them. The great and efficient though
less obtrusive parties, in the delusions practised and the clamours
raised on this subject, are not the planters, but the consignees and
mortgagees of their produce — the merchants of London, Liverpool,-
Bristol and Glasgow — who, while they have themselves been aggra-
vating the distress of the planters, and thriving on their spoil, have
been urging them to raise high the cry of poverty, and the demand
•of further, eleemosynary aid, as well as to urge vehemently their
unqualified claims for compensation. In this way, whatever the
planters' fate may be, the merchants at least will continue to gain
by the protraction of the present system. The net proceeds of their
estates reverting to the planters, may be reduced lower and lower.
Still the merchants will have their interest at 6 per cent, and their com-
missions, double commissions, and their high freights, and their other
advantages, Avhich may be enriching them while the planters starve.
In other lines of trade, the consignee is content with his commis-
sion on the sale price of the article consigned to him, exclusive of
the duty charged upon it by the Government. In the West India
trade the unusual course is pursued of charging commission not only
on the sale price of the article but on that price with the duty super-
added. Suppose a cwt. of sugar to be v>^orth 245. If sold like other
goods the purchaser would pay the duty, and the merchant's commis-
sion of 2| per cent, would be charged only on the sale price. But
this will not content the West India merchant. He claims a right
to pay the duty upon it, which is 24s. more, and he therefore charges
his commission, not on 24s. but on 48s. And this course is pursued
even with respect to sugar refined for exportation, instead of purs -
ing the simple and obvious course of refining it in bond. But this
would be incompatible both with the double commission of the mer-
chant, and with the further advantage arising from the r ^tery in
which this unusual mode of proceeding involves the matter raw-
back, and hides from the public view the large bounty which is thus
secured to the sugar grower.

The consignees, in this way, acquire, on ti.3 one hand, enormous
gains from their dx^^rident borrowers, the enters; while, on the
other, by the mystifying process of the rerining for exportation to
which we have alluded, they aid the planter to obtain from the

102 The Question of Compensation calmly considered.

public the means of paying them. They are therefore in truth the great
opponents of reform ; and what is more, almost the only parties who
have any real interest in opposing it. But the planters are in their
power, and must move and act at their bidding.

Now with respect to this class of persons, who, as we have said,
are really the persons who would chiefly suffer by the desired and
contemplated change of system, what claims have they to compensa-
tion ? We believe that they have none whatever. They have specu-
lated, with a perfect knowledge of all the circumstances of the case,
in this colonial trade, and they must be considered as standing
on precisely the same footing with speculators in every other branch
of commerce, and as bound to abide the result of their speculations
whatever it may be. If such a claim were allowed in their case,
a similar claim might be urged in the case of every improvident
speculator. The uncertainty of the continuance of the slave sys-
tem, and the probability that Parliament and the public would deal
with it and eventually abolish it, has long been a matter of perfect
notoriety. The merchant therefore who has embarked in Colonial
speculations during the last thirty or forty years, has done so with a
perfect knowledge of all his risks. Those risks were well known
to be so great as to have become almost proverbial. Let any man
read the statement already referred to, of " The Case of the West
India Planters," inserted in the Supplement to the Reporter, No.
61, p. 272, giving an authentic view of their perennial distress and
insolvency, from the year 1750 to the present hour. Let him also
read the Reports of the Parliamentary Committees on the commercial
distress of the West Indies in 1807 and 1808, proving, beyond all
question, the miserably losing nature of West Indian investments ;
and say whether any man who should embark his property in such in-
vestments, without taking an ample guarantee against eventual loss,
could have expected that he was ultimately to be indemnified, for his
improvidence in not doing so, by a vote of the House of Commons ?
No man can believe it.

What then was the motive of merchants for embarking in West India
speculation ? Was it their opinion of the permanence of the slave
system, or any assurance given them on that point ? No ; it was
simply the large annual return which they stipulated to receive for
their advances, and which was considered by them, justly or not, as
equivalent to their risks. They have no more right, therefore, to claim
indemnity for their losses, in this instance, than an Insurance Company
would have a right to urge a like claim, if, after having accepted the
stipulated premium, they were called upon to pay the loss against which
they had insured.

The ordinary advantages accruing to the consignee from an advance
of capital on a sugar estate may be estimated at from 12 to 20 per cent,
per annum, including interest at 6 per cent, gains by insurarce, freight,
&c., and commissions on the sugar sent home and the supplies sent
abroad, and in the case of sugar, as we have shewn, (by a dexterous
contrivance operating largely to the public detriment) double com-
missions. If we suppose him to retain the consignments of such an

The Question of Compensation calmly cojisidered. 103

estate for from eight to twelve years, his capital would be replaced,
and all beyond would be the bonus for the sake of which he was con-
tent to encounter the risk of loss.

But would it be just that a speculator of this description should
come with a claim for indemnity in case slavery should be abolished ?
If his speculation has benefited him, the demand would be perfectly
monstrous. If it has injured him, what claim can he have to com-
pensation beyond the thousands of unfortunate speculators, in other
lines of trade, who have been hiirt by their speculations ?

We believe that a very large proportion of the property now vested
in the British slave colonies has been vested in them by speculators of
this description, who have been proceeding in their speculations with
a view chiefly to their own profit and security, rather than with any
view to the permanent interests of either the planters or the slaves, and
with which their own too often appear to be incompatible. In most
cases it would have been obviously the interest of the proprietors of the
soil to have introduced the many improvements in Colonial husbandry
to Avhich we have already adverted. But this would not have suited
the merchant. His commissions both on the sugar imported and the
supplies exported, would thus be abridged. Instead of 12 to 20 per
cent, on his capital he must be content with 10 or 8. If the sugar
crops are diminished, in order to increase the provision crops, or to
promote the rearing of cattle with a view to the use of the plough, he
may threaten to foreclose, and the planter has no option but to submit.

In discussing this question, however, we must not lose sight of the
distinction to be taken between loss incurred by individual and it
may be improvident speculators, and loss to the community. It may
be true that many changes, in the highest degree beneficial to the
community, may be attended with loss to individuals, as in the case of
impioved machinery, rail-roads, &c. &c. and, in the present instance,
by the substitution of free for slave labour, or rather the conversion of
slaves into free labourers. But no man, we think, can doubt that the
general interests of any community would be likely to be promoted by
the conversion of a slave population, acted upon only by the impulse of
the lash, and incapable therefore of rising from the level almost of the
brute, into a free population, accessible to the force of all the motives
which ordinarily urge men to exertion. Much light may be thrown on
this problem, not merely by abstract reasoning, but by the light of
experience ; by a consideration, that is to say, of the facts furnished by
history from the time of the abolition of villanage in England to the
recent abolition of slavery in Spanish America, in Ceylon, in the
Malaccas, and at Bencoolen, where emancipation has been effected
without wading through anarchy and blood. But we will not now
re-open this subject. We have already treated it largely in the Re-
porter, No. 70. The result of the whole is a settled conviction, that
emancipation may be effected, not only without the slightest infringe-
ment of the public peace, but with decided advantage to the real pro-
prietors of the Colonial soil, provided they will only cordially lend
themselves to the introduction of the better system which we recom-
mead.

104 The Question of Compensation calmly considered.

Before we close this long but necessary discussion, we wish briefly to
advert to certain sentiments which were lately reported to be uttered,
in the House of Commons, by that truly enlightened minister. Sir
George Murray. We rejoiced to hear him state that it had been his
effort while in office, and the ultimate end to which he looked in his
Colonial labours, to effect the entire, the total, abolition of slavery; the
conversion, that is to say, of the slaves into free labourers. We have
no doubt that this was his honest purpose. — We understood him also
to intimate that the demand of the Planters to institute a commission
for further examining the nature of Slavery appeared to him wholly
superfluous, and could only lead to delay. It was enough that Sla-
very existed, to induce a British Parliament to take the necessary mea-
sures for its extinction. — He was equally indisposed to entertain the
claim for compensation, not only as being a proposition which was also
calculated chiefly for the purpose of delay, but as being in his view
Avholly uncalled for ; the gradual change which he contemplated of the
slave into a free labourer affording, as he conceived, no ground for such
a claim. — He objected, however, on the other hand, to any very early
measure of emancipation on the ground of its danger, and of its lead-
ing to insurrection. Now it is to this part of his speech that we are
anxious to call the gallant General's attention, Avhile we entreat him
to consider whether his fears be the effect of ill-founded and unex-
amined prejudices, or the result of a fair and candid examination of
the page of history, and of the lessons of philosophy no less than those
of experience. We beg him in this view carefully to peruse the Re-
porter, No. 70, and the authorities there cited, and then dispassion-
ately to consider, whether the dangers which he anticipates are not
much more likely to follow from a protracted discussion of this agita-
ting subject, than from an early and authoritative decision of it in
favour of freedom. May not the dangers arising from sickening delays
and deferred hopes in the case of the slaves, and from continued ex-
citement and irritation on the part of the dominant class, be far more
imminent, than any dangers which could reasonably be anticipated from
the communication of freedom to the slaves by the authority of the state ?
Any contumacious resistance of the masters to the determinations of
the legislature might easily be obviated ; and as for a wanton and
wholly objectless insurrection on the part of the emancipated slaves, —
an insurrection against the very power which had already conferred
upon them the blessing of freedom — conferred upon them all which
they could hope to gain by insurrection — all for the sake of which
they could have any motive to commit a single act of rebellion or
even of insubordination — it seerhs to be the very extravagance of fear
to apprehend it.

Mr, Buxton has given notice that it is his intention to move the
House of Commons on Colonial Slavery on the 1st of March next.

London : S. Bagster, Jim. Printer, 14, Bartiiolomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER

No. 76.] FEBRUARY, 15, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 4.

I.— TESTIMONY OF REV. J. M. TREW ON COLONIAL SLAVERY.—

1. Administration of Justice ; 2. Slave Evidence ; 3. Compulsory Wlanu-
mission ; 4. Ai^bitrary Punishment ; 5. Marriage; 6. Kest of the Sabbath;
7. Religious Instruction ; 8. Emancipation.

IL— TESTIMONY OF THE CHRISTIAN RECORD OF JAMACIA ON
COLONIAL SLAVERY.— 1. Profanation of Sabbath ; 2. Ueligious In-
struction ; 3. Conduct of Bishop and Clergy ; 4. Power of Arbitrary
Punishment and its dreadful effects ; 5. Libertinism of Jamaica ; 6, Mimites
of Evidence in the Case of the Rev. G. W. Bridges, and his slave Kitty
Hylton.

III.— MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

I. — Testimony of Rev. J, M. Trew ok Colonial Slavery.

" Nine Letters to the Duke of Wellington on Colonial
Slavery," were published in the course of the last year, (for Straker,
61, Holborn), by a person who assumed the designation of Ignotus.
They appeared to be written with a thorough knowledge of the subject,
but could obviously be turned to little practical use while they remained
anonymous. V^e have recently learned, however, on satisfactory autho-
rity, that they are the work of the Rev. J. M. Trew, the well known Rector
of St. Thomas in the East, in Jamaica, and who, after a residence of eleven
years in that island, during which he was employed in the able and in-
defatigable and peculiarly successful discharge of his high functions as
a Christian Pastor, returned to this country two or three years ago,
where he has since remained. It had long been a subject of great
regret with many, that a gentleman so competent as Mr. Trew cer-
tainly was to give a correct view of the temporal and spiritual condition
of the slaves in Jamaica, should not have undertaken the task of enlight-
ening the public mind upon it, and should have limited his efforts for
their benefit to the obtaining of subscriptions for the diffusion of re-
ligious knowledge, chiefly by means of oral instruction, among the
slaves of such proprietors as were willing to admit the weekly visit of the
Catechist. It was perfectly obvious however to us, and is now, we sup-
pose, equally plain to himself, that had he succeeded to the utmost ex-
tent of his hopes in raising money for this object, he would have done
little towards the promotion of rehgion among the slaves, until the
various obstacles which now present an insuperable barrier to its pro-
gress shaH be removed. Mr. Trew at first was probably so sanguine as
to expect that much might be done, by means of conciliation, in induc-
ing the planters to favour Christian instruction. He therefore carefully
abstained, in his appeals to the public, from pointing out those evils
of slavery which formed the grand impediments to the communication
and reception of religious truth, but the exposure of which he well

106 The Rev. J. M. Trew's Testimony on Colonial Slavery.

knew would irritate the planters. On these, therefore, he was for a time
systematically silent, hoping, perhaps, that the deference thus shewn to
their feelings would secure to his friendly offers of aid a ready accept-
ance. It would seem that this hope had been frustrated — for Mr. Trew
has at length departed from his system of abstinence frona contro-
verted topics, and comes before the public with a distinct exhibition of
those evils of slavery which farther experience and reflection must
have taught him to be innate and incurable ; and if not wholly in-
capable of being combined with plans of religious instruction, yet
certainly most adverse to their efficiency and success. We presume
that it is some such view of the subject which has at length induced
him to lay before the public the fruits of his matured acquaintance
with the nature and effects of Colonial slavery. Be this as it may, we
hail the appearance of these letters, not only as a highly commend-
able tribute to the claims of conscience on the part of this clergyman,
but as the undoubted testimony, to the truth and fairness of our re-
presentations, of a highly competent, but somewhat reluctant witness.
If we formerly deemed his caution and reserve misplaced, considering
the mighty interests that were at stake, we do not the less appreciate
the value of the sacrifice which a sense of duty has now compelled him
to incur by his present frank and manly disclosures.

He admits, with us, that " slavery is a poisonous root, which, like
the Upas tree, infects with disease and death, and blasts by its perni-
cious breath all who are beneath its influence;" " a curse," which must
" be swept from the earth for ever.'' (p. 4.) But still he affects to distin-
guish between his own more sober and rational view of the subject, and
that which we Anti-Slavery folks entertain, and for which he blames us,
viz. our " pertinaciously asserting it to be a duty paramount to every
other, at once to overturn the whole fabric of slavery, and reckless of con-
sequences, to blot out its name for ever." And yet, what does he really
mean to charge us with by this somewhat splenetic remark ? Does he
mean that we propose any other than legal means of terminating this
acknowledged evil ? Or that we look to any other medium for the ac-
complishment of our wishes than that to which he himself points, namely,
" the collective wisdom of the British Legislature," either for ame-
liorating the condition of " the children of deeply wronged Africa,'' or
for restoring: to them " their natural birth-rio;ht as denizens of the
world ?" (p. 5.) We may not agree with him as to the tardiness with
which the needful changes should be effected, (and of which his own
backwardness in coming into the field is an example, though not a jus-
tification,) but certainly we look to no other human means of effecting
these changes than the enactments of the Legislature, and the vigilance
of the executive government in enforcing them.

1. Our author's first earnest supplication to the Duke of Wellington
is, that he would rescue the administration of justice towards the slave
from the hands of men who, " however great their integrity may be,"
(though how integrity may be predicated of such men as he goes on to
describe it would be difficult to discover,) " have so many strong and
powerful temptations to pervert justice," as to withhold from the slave
the benefit of laws enacted for his protection. There has indeed, he

Administration of Justice — Slave Evidence. 107

admits, been no unwillingness to legislate in a certain sort; but " the
prevailing sentiment being that the act is passed to please the people
of England, the law becomes dead as soon as framed." He illustrates
this by the case of Mr. Stewart, a member of the Assembly of Jamaica,
who, when jeered at for proposing a law to punish working their sugar-
mills on Sunday, candidly replied, " Let the bill pass, and I shall be
glad to know who shall prevent my doing as I please on my own estate
on that day.'' (p. 9.) In Jamaica, he tells us, in the absence of nine-
teen out of twenty of the proprietors, the magistracy is confided to at-
torneys or agents of absentees, to overseers of estates, to jobbers who
live by digging cane holes, to medical men who are paid by the planters
for attending their slaves, and to merchants depending on the planters
for custom. Is a slave cruelly treated ? The magistrate to whom he
prefers his complaint is most probably connected with the estate to
which he belongs in one or other of these capacities. " Is it probable
that any one of these men will possess so much moral courage as shall
induce them, in the teeth of their own interests, and amidst the persecu-
tion of their neighbours, to prosecute the offenders? Or would they
not be much more likely to shift off the meddling with an affair which
promises nothing but the loss of friends or money, and also a stigma
from the whole fraternity of planters?'' This abuse he justly repre-
sents as standing " at the very threshold of colonial improvement, and
as entailing an innumerable train of evils on the planter as well as on
the slave." And he sees no remedy for it but " the appointment of a
stipendiary magistracy," " sustained by men totally unconnected with
slavery, and whose honour and independence of character would qualify
them for the administration of impartial justice," in short, official slave
protectors. The correctness of these statements Mr. Trew affirms
might be established by proof, and illustrated by specific cases, giving the
names and professions of the magistrates of whole parishes. — Against
the change which he proposes he admits that an outcry would be
raised ; but it would be altogether unworthy of notice, while the gra-
titude and subordination of the negro would be secured, by providing
for him " a sure protection against the abuse of power, a refuge against
unjust oppression." (p. 7 — 11.)

2. The second point on which Mr. Trew touches is that of slave evi-
dence, and he shews the aggravated evils arising from its exclusion as
regards the property and the person of the slave. " Any person may,
with impunity, openly, or covertly, rob a slave of the goods which by
law should belong to him, without any redress," (p. 13 ) Again, " the
slave may be flogged, how, and when, and to what extent his master
pleases ;'' and yet, would not his evidence, though ever so faithfully
corroborated by his fellow-slaves, and they too of the most unblemished
reputation, avail to convict, much less to punish the merciless hand
which dealt "the blow, or him by whose commands the limits of the law
were violated. Nor is this all. In the absence of his testimony, the
slave is subject to another and far more grievous debasement. His wife
may be wrested from his embrace by some savage sensualist; his child
may for the same base design be torn with violence from his roof; and
the only friend to whom he can appeal for succour is that omniscient

108- The Rev. J. M. Trew's Testimony on Colonial Slavery.

Being- who has an ear of pity open to ihe negro's cry," (p. 14.) It' it
be said that Councils of Protection will redress such grievances, — yet
lie asks how tliey can, while the law obhges them to reject slave testi-
mony ?_'and he observes, that whenever a man purposes being guilty
of an abuse of power, he will watch his opportunity, and take good
heed to guard against the presence of those by whose evidence he can
be convicted, (p. 15.) Some years ago, a clergyman who was examined
on oath before the Jamaica Assembly on the subject of slave evidence, was
asked, " Have you ever known an instance in which public justice was
defeated through the inadmissibility of slave evidence?" His ansv/er
was, I have; and he related the following case as an example in point:
" ' A white man, the owner of a small plantation, sought to seduce
from the path of virtue a young woman of colour, the natural child of
his own father^ but a slave. The girl, taught by her mother (who had
been instructed by the missionaries in the fundamental truths of reli-
gion) the sinfulness of the act, refused to listen to his solicitations.
The monster placed the girl in the stocks, and renewed his entreaties.
This, however, produced no other effect on the mind of the unhappy
female, than to induce her more strenuously than ever, to resist his im-
portunities. At last, flogging was had recourse to, and the poor pri-
soner was most unmercifully punished. But every artifice that villany
could contrive, or lust invent, was in vain. Virtue triumphed over vice,
and the poor girl was finally released from her confinement. On re-
gaining her liberty, the first use she made of it was to apply to a ma-
gistrate; who, shocked at the cruelty of the treatment she had received,
summoned a Council of Protection forthwith to hear her story. It was
simple, and well authenticated; but, it was the story of a slave.
Gladly would the Council of Protection have punished the monster ;
for the members of it were fully persuaded of the truth of the girl's
statements ; but the law forbade them : and thus, not only was justice
impeded, but guilt of the most appalling and aggravated character
suffered to escape.' — What terms are sufficiently strong to mark the
detestation of every rational man to a case hke this, to which it were
impossible to find a parallel, but in the annals of slavery ? And yet this
part of the evidence, taken before the Committee of the Jamaica Assem-
bly, does not appear on the face of their printed minutes ; and on en-
quiring why it was not reported, I was informed that a discussion arose
in the committee, as to the propriety of expunging this part of the evi-
dence ; and that it was expunged from the minutes accordingly — a
member at the same time observing, ' Are we not cutting a rod to break
our own heads?' " " A farther proof," says the author, is to be found in
the report of a late trial in Jamaica " of sundry slaves for the murder of
their master," contained in the Jamaica newspapers of Sept. 1829. (A
brief account of it will also be found in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 55,
p. 1 C)5.) " It appears," says Mr. Trew, " from the report of this trial, that the
master of these slaves was a man overwhelmed with debt; and that the
sheriff's officer or marshal had in his possession sundry writs for the seizure
of his chattels. His wife and family, from what reason it does not appear,
formed a design against his life ; and in order to effect their horrid pur-
pose, they set to work upon the minds of the slaves, saying that if their

Slave Evidence — Compulsory Manumission — Punishment. 109"

master should survive beyond a certain day, they would be seized by the

sheriff's officer, and themselves and their families sold, and perhaps
separated for ever. The plot succeeded ; and the unfortunate slaves,
maddened by the anticipation of a final bereavement of all that earth
held dear to them, perpetrated the cruel deed. Justice, however, speedi-
ly overtook them : they were tried, condemned, and executed. At the
place of suffering, the unhappy men, when placed on the scaffold, de-
clared that during the time of the murder, the mistress and her sons
were prese?it, walking up and down in the piazza ; and that when their
master awoke from his sleep, crying, help! help! the same persons were
engaged in encouraging the negroes, (having previously given them rum
to drink,) telHng them to seize their master ; and that they seized and
murdered him accordingly. Just as these dying men were about being
launched into the eternal world, they spoke as follows to the surround-
ing multitude — ' Tell massa, thanky — tell him thanky. Tell misses,
and old misses, thanky — for them bring us to this. Them bring us
here. Them cheat we. Them say we must kill massa, else them
would punish us, and marshal would take and sell every one of we.
But we pray every body to pray God to forgive them.' — Here, adds
our author with just indignation, " is a case of the most unheard-of
cruelty covered by the absence of negro evidence. For, admit-
ting the criminality of the slaves to the fullest possible extent, yet
surely the instigators of so foul a conspiracy ought first to have paid
the forfeit of their own lives to the offended laws of the country. But
the freeman escapes the vengeance of the law, and the poor, deceived,
and semi-barbarous slave, meets with an end, the moral guilt of which,
if there be a God in heaven, will grind the freeman to powder." (p. 16 —
19.) And yet these very slaves, thus shut out from testifying against a
free person, are allowed to testify against their fellow-slaves, even in
capital cases. In the case just cited, the conviction and execution took
place on the evidence of slaves.

3. The next point to which Mr. Trew adverts is that of compulsory
manumission ; and here he shews very clearly the great unreasonable-
ness of the objections made to it on the part of the planters, either as
they respect their own interests, or the well being and moral elevation of
the slaves. " Indeed," (he thus concludes his able argument,) " there
does not appear to be any one objection, which can be founded upon
either reason, justice, or the expediency of the case, against the enact-
ment of a law enforcing the manumission of slaves under such circum-
stances ; whilst it involves in it so many likely advantages to all parties,
as to render the immediate adoption of the plan not only practicable,
but highly necessary and expedient." (p. 27.)

4. He next treats of the master's power of punishment, which, of
all the abuses that have ever existed in any country, he regards as
calling most loudly for redress. Over the slave " torn from his home,
compelled to labour against his will without hire," " the law gives his
master, or any man, however base, to whom his master may delegate
that power — an authority the most arbitrary, an authority almost abso-
lute. He may, as often as his anger, or caprice, or revenge dictates,
and without any previous trial, or even without assigning any reason,

ilO Tlie Rev. J M. Trew''s Testimony on Colonial Slavery.

inflict upon liis person, with a common cart-whip, thirty-nine lashes —
not unfrequently to be * brushed out with ebonies,' or, in other words,
to be lacerated by thorns whilst his wounds, yet bleeding from the in-
fliction of" the former punishment, are open to receive them. It is no
libel upon the planters to state these facts ; for however humane and
merciful as individuals they may be, here is a power which no man liv-
ing should possess over his fellow-creature, but which at this very hour
is entrusted to the West India planter. And especially when it is con-
sidered, that both the quantum and the mode of punishment devolves
upon overseers, a class of men, possessing no interest in the slaves be-
yond a mere stipendiary allowance, and removable at the caprice of their
employer. In the heat of passion, or on the impulse of the moment, he
may, without taking time to weigh the circumstances or the merits of
the case, command the slave to be laid down with his face to the earth,
and in the most summary and cruel manner flog him, as he would not
do, though restive, his own pampered steed. Surely it cannot be re-
concileable with the due administration of justice ; surely it cannot tend
to maintain the peace or the stability of the colonies ; neither can it
operate as a moral stimulus to the slave to demean himself submissively
in his present condition, that such monstrous power should be confided
to men who, if they abuse it not, yet have, unquestionably, many strong
temptations to do so." (p. 29).

" How paradoxical, that in one happy portion of the king of England's
dominions, a man may not cruelly abuse his ass, and yet in another por-
tion of the very same possession, man may, with impunity 5 and as spleen
or passion governs him, so despotically lord it over his fellow-man, that
his life has not unfrequently been the sacrifice. Justice, reason, and
humanity, all cry aloud for the redress of this abuse. And how simple
is the remedy 1 Place the power of inflicting corporal punishment in
the hands of the stipendiary magistrate, and henceforth let no man
dare, at his peril, without the intervention of lawful authority, to lay a
finger upon the slave." (p. 30.) But he proceeds —

" It were sad enough to think that such a system of punishment
could be tolerated in the case of men, but doubly so when it is consi-
dered that women likewise are subject to it, under circumstances of the
most shameful indecency. The young and the aged, mothers of fami-
lies, and even those whose hoary locks proclaim length of years, are
openly, and in the presence of the other sex, doomed to the endurance
of ihis disgraceful abuse. Yes ; were it not that I had rather see the
evil corrected by the strong hand of power, on the ground of its barba-
rous and unchristian tendency, than from the exposure of some of its
many enormities, I could point out some of its astounding facts, bearing
upon this point, that would harrow up the soul of any individual
not yet past feeling. But I shall be content at present, without entering
into a minute detail, with merely hinting at the fact, that the unhappy
female, even at that season when nature puts in her claim to more than
common sympathy, is often doomed to suffer from the unrelenting lash;
and, in some cases, with an aggravation of wrong such as were I to re-
peat, no. reader of these letters would credit. But, my lord," (says the
reverend author, addressing the Duke of Wellington,) "it remains for you

Arbitrary Punishment by the Master or his Delegate. Ill

to raise the poor sable slave from the depth of her degradation ; for I
am persuaded you will allow, that every stroke inflicted upon her, sinks
her lower in the scale of being. She may be a mother ! and what will
her children say, as she returns to them bleeding in sorrow ? And her
husband, too ! — if the black man have a heart, oh ! how will it beat,
and rise, and swell with indignation, against the cowardly dishonour
done to the partner of his bed. The wonder is, that nature's feelings
can be bound and enslaved, a^ the body is, when every spring in man's
affections is impelled to burst the barrier and to avenge the wrong.
What a conflict must there be between revenge and fear, as the hus-
band, in silent sorrow (for he dare not give utterance to what is passing
within,) contemplates the scene ; and what lesson do the children
learn, but to desecrate the wretch that made a mother weep ! I know
not a more bitter drop in the whole cup of slavery than this." (p. 32.)

" But it is vauntingly said by some, that when they punish the female
slave the whip is not used, and that rods only, or ebonies, are substituted
for it. And what of this ? Is there not the same scandalous expo-
sure of the person of the female ? And is not this the only difference
between them, that if the wounds are not so deep, they are yet more
abundant? But it is not the fact, that even rods are generally adopted
in the punishment of females. There may be, and there are a few
isolated cases, where some persons, from humanity, but many more from
a view to their own interests, and that they may be thought humane,
have adopted this plan. But in general the female slave knows no dif-
ference from the opposite sex, either as to the manner, or the quantum
of punishment they receive." (p. 33.)

" The law prescribes thirty-nine stripes as the maximum of punish-
ment. This, when contrasted with miUtary usage, will by some be
considered not excessive : but mark the instrument — a whip, the lash
of which is from nine to twelve feet in length, wielded by a powerful
arm, well skilled in the management of it; so much so, that by the
sound of the whip the negro is commonly roused to pursue his daily
toil, the woods resounding with the echo. This instrument, also, is not
unfrequently in the hand of a person in whose breast revenge or jea-
lousy may exist, which serves to nerve the arm that holds it. It has been
attempted to be shewn by some, that the drivers are in general men who
are advanced in years — rather to be distinguished for their venerable
locks, than by their austere countenances ; but this is not the fact. The
driver is commonly an able-bodied negro ; and, from his office and ha-
bits, too frequently possessing less of the milk of human kindness than
other men : dressed in a little brief authority, he feels the full weight of
an office, which enjoins upon him the execution of all his master's com-
mands, whether those commands may be agreeable to his own feelings
or not." " It commonly happens, that the driver will be found ready for
all work, and more commonly converting his office into an engine for
the exercise of the most arbitrary power, and using it for the purpose
of gratifying the worst passions of his nature, rather than that he may
administer in the smallest degree towards befriending his brother in
adversity. Slavery were a lot hard enough to bear, without superad-
ding to its misery the absolute rule of so many masters." (p. 35.)

112 The Rev, J. M. Treiv's Testimony on Colonial Slavery.

5. Marriage among slaves, twenty years ago, was almost wholly un-
known in Jamaica. The promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, then
almost universally prevailed, and still prevails to a very considerable
degree. Among the clergy there existed the most heartless apathy as
to the moral condition of the negro race. The white man's monopoly
extended even to divine worship ; not a single spot in parish churches
being allotted to the slave- Catechetical instruction was wholly un-
known : the negroes were in fact, left to themselves ; so that what from
their own corrupt bias, and what from the frightful example of immora-
lity in the lives of the planters, the slave remained from 1655 till about
twenty years ago, wholly destitute of religion. Since then, the success-
ful labours of the Missionaries (which have also roused the slumbering
energies of the Church,) have produced some change in this respect.
''The principle with which the Missionaries set out, was to exclude from
church membership every individual whose manner of life was not
strictly conformable to the Christian rule. The negro must have dis-
solved every illegitimate connexion, as an evidence of the sincerity with
which he embraced the Christian faith, before the Missionary would
openly acknowledge and receive him into full communion. And such
was the effect produced by this wholesome discipline, that in a very little
time the tone of morality was so raised among the slave population, that
no one ever thought of claiming the privileges of discipleship until all
these, and other pre-requisites of the Christian life, were faithfully ad-
hered to. Hence, marriage is now becoming general amongst the
slaves, and the greater respect in which the participators in this economy
of domestic happiness are held by their fellow-servants over those who
still continue in their heathenish state, is a most convincing proof how
much marriage has contributed to promote their moral well-being and
happiness, and in a considerable degree the interests of the planters
themselves." (p. 33.)

Such in brief is the testimony of Mr. Trew on this point ; but still, he
remarks, there are yet wanting such legal enactments " as may not only
protect his connubial rights from violation, but prevent him from being
separated from the partner of his affection. It is somewhat paradoxical
to think, that after the slave, with the full concurrence of his master,
has been joined in wedlock, and after it has been declared by a lawfully
appointed minister, ' those whom God hath joined together, let no man
put asunder," he may the very next hour be torn from his bride, sold to
the highest and best bidder, and separated from her to the remotest
corner of the land. Nor is there any law in existence at this moment
t6 administer the slightest relief in a case of such an aggravated nature.
Not that I believe separations often take place under such circumstan-
ces. Public opinion, in this matter at least, has done justice to the slave,
and given it against the practice of separation. There are, however,
instanc-es in which it has happened ; nor is there any other hin-
drance to a frequent repetition of the evil, than what is so precarious in
its tenure, the breath of public opinion. At any time, if so disposed,
the proprietor may set up a family for sale ' in lots to suit purchasers.'
The father may be torn from his child — the mother from her infant — ■
the sister from the brother, and the brother from the sister's embrace —

Marriage of Slaves — Rest of the Sabbath. 113

and the wife and the husband, though they may have been companions
in suffering, and bearers of each other's misery for many years, and
though they may have been settled with a numerous and a hopeful fa-
mily, yet, by some untoward change in the circumstances of the estate,
such as the death of a proprietor, or the embarrassment of his circum-
stances, or the passing of the estate into other hands, this once imited
family may, without any previous warning or preparation for the ap-
proaching evil, be scattered to the four winds of heaven, to meet on this
side the grave no more. Surely this is an evil requiring prompt and
complete reform. But the proprietor, and even the manager, possesses
a further power, needing reform also. He may not only separate the
slaves after marriage, but he may withhold his sanction to their mar-
riage, and, without assigning any reason, stand in the way of their indi-
vidual affection. It has been asserted that this power is necessary to
check the licentious disposition of the slave, and to the moral govern-
ment of an estate, as the planter must be the best judge whether the
parties desiring marriage are free from any previous contract, and that
without some such restraint there might be danger of introducing po-
lygamy under the sanction of Christianity itself. But these restrictions
are no less impolitic than inexpedient. Every obstacle that stands in
the way of their marriage should be completely removed, nor should any
objection offered by the planter operate against the slave, unless backed
by the concurrent testimony of the magistrate. It is not impossible, as
such cases have happened, that a master might, from the most unworthy
motives, resist the marriage of his female slave ; and it were a hard case,
surely, that the natural affections of a creature, already bound down by
such weighty obligations, should be farther reduced to so cruel a sub-
jection in order to gratify his mere caprice.

" The protection of the connubial rights of the slave, forms another
subject for legislation. These rights may be violated with impunity.
Instances have occurred in which they have been violated. It is not
presumed that such cases are either common or notorious. It is to be
hoped they are of very rare occurrence. But the freeman may offer this
highest insult to the slave ; and if he be a master over him, he may, if
necessary to the gratification of his sensual desires, imprison, punish,
or otherwise oppress, in order to effect his purpose. It is high time,
then, that a barrier should be raised against this system, and that a wall
of defence should be planted around the connubial rights of the slave,
such as neither the most vicious nor the most arbitrary should be able
to overthrow. Nor can there be a single argument of the smallest
weight offered against the passing of such an act, as v/ould secure to the
slave the fullest and freest enjoyment of these privileges." (p. 37—40.)

6. Mr. Trew next proceeds to ask, " Has the negro a Sabbath on
which to rest ? "

" This is a question often asked, and much controverted. It shall be
answered briefly : — The negro has the semblance of a Sabbath, By
the Jamaica Slave Law, there are penalties attached to the working of
sugar mills on that day. The act specifies, ' That during the crop, not
only shall the slaves, as heretofore, be exempted from the labour of the
estate or plantation on Sundays, but that no mills shall be put about

114 The Rev, J. M, Trews Testimoyiy on Colonial Slavery.

or worked between the hours of seven o'clock on Saturday night, and
five o'clock on Monday morning, under the penalty of £20, to be reco-
vered against the overseer, or other person having the charge of such
place.' Such is the law on the subject; but what is the fact? Every
one knows that sugar-mills are worked on the Sunday, and commonly
at an early hour in the evening ; that magistrates, as well as others, join
in the violation of the law ; and cases have been known to exist, wherein
the very slaves in hospital have been turned out on the evening of the
Sabbath, to supply the place of the negroes absent at church, or at their
grounds, and so worked until the others have returned to relieve them.
Such is the Negro Sabbath.

" By another clause of the Slave Law, the slave is allowed one day
in every fortnight to cultivate his provision grounds, exclusive of Sun-
days, except during crop time, which often lasts six months of the year,
and when, of course, the grounds must be laboured on Sunday, or the
slave perish for want of food. Such is the Negro Sabbath." (p. 43.)

" By an estimate of the number of Sabbaths throughout the year on
which the converted slaves are found to frequent public worship, and
taken from the actual observations of the missionaries, it appears that
they cannot attend oftener than about once in three or four weeks, or
about thirteen times every year — the other Sabbaths being spent in pro-
viding food for their families ; not to mention their occasional fatigue
from the spell of the preceding night disqualifying them from attending.
Such is the Negro Sabbath.

" There are also a numerous class of persons, such as domestics,
cattle-boys, shepherds, watchmen, &c. who seldom, and in many cases
who never have an opportunity of attending religious worship, nor reli-
gious instruction of any kind — not to particularise the numbers of slaves
who, on sugar estates, are almost invariably employed to a late hour on
the Sabbath mornings in ' potting sugar/ and, consequently, debarred
from the public exercises of religion. Such is the Negro Sabbath.

" Following in the train of these evils, next comes the Sunday
market, to which the young and the old, for miles around, resort, to buy
and sell, and barter their several commodities, consuming the entire
day in going to and in returning from market, that they may dispose of
their surplus provisions. Such is the Negro Sabbath.

" The law requiring the master to allow his slave at least twenty-six
days in the year, for the cultivation of his grounds, exclusive of the
Sabbath — often, to suit his own purposes, the master takes that Sabbath
from him, on which alone he could have had the opportunity of receiving
religious instruction, repaying him with a week-day, without any such
privilege. Such also is the Negro's Sabbath.

" Thus the Negro has the semblance of a Sabbath ; but it is such a
Sabbath, as leaves him no other alternative but either to labour his
grounds on that day, or starve; such a Sabbath as his master may de-
prive him of, under the pretext of repaying him with another day, (which
it is believed he commonly does pay him) — such a Sabbath, as, even
when spent to the best advantage, leaves him but a partial share of the
blessings which it was designed to convey, and without any remedy
whereby to secure to himself and to his family its fullest enjoyment.

The rest of the Sahhath. 115

" Now the Slave Code of Jamaica professes the design of giving to
the Negro a Sabbath — a full, complete, and an entire Sabbath, for
rest, and for religious instruction. The preamble in the seventh clause
of that Act runs thus : — '■ Whereas it is expedient to render the Sabbath
as much as possible a day of rest ^ and for religious worship.'' The
Jamaica legislature have expressed in these words all that is required^
that the Sabbath should, as much as possible, be made a day of rest,
and for rehgious instruction. But how, under such circumstances, does
the possibility exist, whilst Sunday-marketing, Sunday-labouring, and
the toil incident to their being often overworked, precludes the slaves
from attending public worship ? In order to make the Sabbath what it
should be, three important changes are necessary to be effected : — The
Negro to be allowed every Saturday throughout the year for the cultiva-
tion of his grounds — Sunday markets to be entirely abolished — and
night-work on sugar estates, that most deadly evil, to be altogether pro-
hibited. A few individuals, more benevolent than others, have already
effected the latter change, and found no reason to repent their having
done so. Of all the evils to which the Negro is liable, throughout the
whole system of slavery, there is not a greater than this — night-work on
sugar estates. In proof of this, my Lord, only look at the facts to be
found in a late return to Parliament, of the average increase and decrease
of slaves for the five preceding years to 1828, on the principal properties
in Jamaica, distinguishing coffee and other plantations from the sugar
estates. We find from these returns, one sugar estate with 663 slaves,
on which there has been an average annual decrease of ten. On ano-
ther, with 242 slaves, a decrease o^ fifteen; and on a third, called Blue
Mountain, the still more fearful waste of human life discovered, in an
average decrease of seventeen Negroes annually out 0/314— or eighty-
^ve slaves, being equal to one fifth of the whole population, cut off in
the space of five years ! The estates of the heirs of John Thorp,
situated in the parish of Trelauney, shew a diminution of numbers,
within the same period, amounting to two hundred, out of a population
of 2809. But on the coffee plantations, where night-work is unknown,
mark the contrast: on a plantation having 214 slaves, the average in-
crease for five years is three per cent, per annum ; and, taking an exten-
sive parish, the staple commodity of which is coffee, the average increase
throughout is not less than three per cent, per annum. Can there be a
more convincing proof of the shocking waste to which human life is sub-
ject on sugar estates, (and owing mainly to the system of night-work,)
than this? And yet to such a system must the man of grey hairs, or
the mother of a numerous offspring, after toiling throughout the day
under the scorching beams of a tropical sun, submit ; and again be ex-
posed to the bleak north wind, to the chilling mists of heaven, or to the
pelting rain; and, when overtaken with sleep, to lie down faint and
weary, and at the risk of a heavy punishment, under the great canopy
of heaven, without another comforter, save Him who pities the oppress-
ed. This evil, in common with Sunday-marketing, must be annihilated
before the Negro can know the full privilege of a Christian Sabbath.
The law must stipulate, fully and clearly, the duration of Negro labour
— unless, indeed, we would perpetuate a system of national suicide, and

116 The Rev. J. M. Treiv's Testimony on Colonial Slavery.

tolerate the farther continuance of an evil, which is annually sweeping
into the eternal world so many hundred souls.

" And who," he asks, " would suffer from an act so gracious and so
merciful ? Surely not the planter. By the abolishing of Sunday mar-
kets he is no loser. He would, upon his own showing, ' render the
Sabbath as much as possible a day of rest ;' and which it cannot ever
be considered, whilst Sunday trafficking absorbs the minds of by far
the greater portion of all classes of the community. The concession
will amount to twenty-six days in the year. But what of this, when
the numerous advantages resulting therefrom, to both master and slave,
are fairly and impartially considered ? And with regard to night-work,
the quality of the sugar manufactured by the half-awakened Negro, can
bear no comparison with what is carefully and diligently prepared under
the broad light of day ; and especially when it is considered that, for
this half-boiled and ill-refined produce, the same tax awaits the planter
in the mother country, as would be paid for an article of the purest ma-
nufacture, to say nothing of the so frequent thefts and depredations
committed by the slaves in the boiling and curing houses, when the
drowsy or drunken book-keeper is OiF his guard. No ; it will be for
the planter to reduce the extent of his cane-field — to pay a more
marked attention to the improvement and quality of his sugars — to en-
deavour to preserve his capital — to lessen all his contingencies to the
lowest possible standard ; and, by such means, bring the labour of the
estate to the level of his own resources ; and find, in the event, the con-
solation of making the burthen of his slave comparatively light, and
easy to be borne.

" But, my Lord, as in all the other improvements upon the slave
system already suggested, so in this case likewise must your powerful
interposition come in to effect these benevolent and necessary changes,
or leave them undone. Be assured, however, of this, that it will be
better, easier, and safer to effect them now, and by an Act of Parliament,
than it probably may be in a few years, should some of those sparks of
liberty, that are now flying throughout the world, descend upon the
combustible materials of which the West is composed, and kindle such
a flame, as may yet cause England to sigh over the tardiness of her
humanity." (p. 43—47.)

7. These invaluable disclosures respecting the Sabbath are followed
by a few remarks on religious instruction. Notwithstanding the ap-
pointment of bishops and clergymen, " not a single obstacle that stood
in the way of the religious instruction of the slave has been set aside.
The master has continued to maintain an authority as absolute over the
soul as over the body of the slave. He has continued to possess the
power of repelling all religious teachers from his estate, no one daring,
without his authority, not the mitre excepted, to set foot upon it, even
on Sundays or Negro-days, to preach, or teach, or otherwise to infringe
upon his prerogative. And in this state things remain in Jamaica
at this very hour. The consequence is, that few masters will consent
to have their slaves instructed at all; that the instruction given, in
ninty-nine out of one hundred cases, is merely oral ; and that the sim-
ple boon of permitting them to learn to read is withheld by their

Religious Instruction of Sla'ves. 117

superiors. And why, my Lord ? The man who would petpetuate the
evils of slavery, and farther entail them upon unborn generations, is
perfectly consistent in such opposition. Knowledge is power: and
could the slaves be held in their original blindness, there would be no-
thing to hinder the master, whilst such ignorance prevailed, from main-
taining the same sovereign and undisturbed authority which he has
been wont to do. But in these days of light, it were impossible to
preclude it from breaking in here and there upon the Negro mind, al-
though the utmost precautions were adopted for keeping it from him.
Knowledge the slave will have, whether his master will or not ; and
hence it more deeply concerns the planter to see that he is instructed
in right principles. There is a powerful evidence that may be adduced
in order to prove the superiority of knowledge (when tempered by re-
ligious instruction) in preserving the peace and security of the colonies.
It is a fact which cannot be disputed, and that may be proved to the
satisfaction of your Grace, that in no single instance in the island of
Jamaica, has a solitary case been knoimi of treason or rebellion being
charged against any of the Negro slaves who have been in church com-
munionwith the ministers of the Establishment, of the Moravian, of the
Wesleyan, nor, as far as can be ascertained, of the Baptist persua-
sions. Whilst it is notorious, that in those districts where rebellion has
raised its anti-christian arm, there has been either a want of fidelity on
the part of the resident clergy, or the unhappy slaves who have been
deluded into conspiracies, have been cutoff from the means of religious
instruction, as well as from a participation in those Christian privileges
placed within reach of their more fortunate brethren. This assertion
is not made unadvisedly ; and the fact is put forth as a powerful argu-
ment why — on the grounds of both political expediency, and of the
personal well-being and security of the whole population of the West
India islands — the Negro should have the most uncontrolled access to
every authorized religious teacher.

" In the island of Antigua, the Negroes have for a long time enjoyed,
in a considerable degree, these advantages. The missionaries have had
access to the slaves at their own houses, and under the sanction of
their masters : chapels of the rudest construction, which in the simple
language of the people have been termed " praise houses," have been
erected by the slaves themselves, where the missionaries have been per-
mitted to attend their followers, at whatever season may suit the con-
venience of all parties. And what has been the result? Have either
discord, or insubordination, or rebellion ensued ? Certainly not. That
island presents to the world, at this very moment, a pattern of what
real rehgion can effect, upon the mind of man under every possible
circumstance of his being. But in Jamaica, things are far otherwise.
There, the representatives of comparatively very few estates, tolerate the
labours of the Christian teacher, and still fewer would admit him to
that confidential intercourse with the slave in his own dwelling which
has been already noticed. Nay more, it has sometimes happened that
proprietors, — and they females too, — less humane than their own re-
sident agents, have expelled the minister without assigning any cause ;
thus preventing him from pursuing his Christian labours on the estate,

11,8 The Rev. J. M. Treio's Testimony on Colonial Slavery .

although the instruction so imparted was without cost, given by a
minister of the Establishment, merely oral, and usually dnrins: the
hours of recreation allotted to the slave. Can it be wondered at then,.
my Lord, that any general attempt to teach the slave to read, should
be construed into any act little short of treason ; that by many of the
planters, the sight of a book in a Negro's hand, should be viewed with
much the same feelings of indignant suspicion, as the Roman Catholic
priest would eye the possession of a Bible by an Irish peasant. Let
these obstacles, then, to the religious instruction of the slave, be done
away for ever.'' (p. 48 — 51.)

"If the design of the missionaries had been to unsettle the Negro
mind, and to rouse him to revenge his wrongs, the die would long ere
this have been cast with the British colonies, and a flame would have
been kindled, which not all the artifice of man could have extinguished ;
and the chain that binds the slave would have fallen off for ever. But
maligned as the missionaries have been, and misinterpreted as their
proceedings are, such is not their office, as the peaceful, and civilizing,
and practical effects already produced through their instrumentality on
the lives of so many thousands, abundantly testify. If there were not
a British bayonet within the whole confines of slavery, strange as the
assertion may seem to be, the Christian missionaries alone, with free
access to the objects of their benevolence, would stem the torrent of
discord at the fountain, and prove to their country a protection against
every internal commotion." (p. 51.)

8. The concluding head of this valuable pamphlet, is entitled " Pro-
spective Emancipation." Mr. Trew does not think it possible that
slavery should continue to exist indefinitely. He holds it to be beyond
the power of Great Britain to make it stand ; and yet he hesitates about
the only remedy, emancipation, and brings forward a proposition of his
own about apprenticeships, which is far more objectionable than any of
the plans he repudiates. The only safe and practicable remedy is an early
emancipation properly guarded from abuse. Even Mr. Trew admits
that " Matters cannot possibly remain longer as they are: indeed it
has been almost miraculous how, amidst the open and avowed enmity
of the colonists towards the mother country, and the abuse so
openly lavished upon their best friends, the slaves should have been so
little affected by it. But it can hardly be expected, that as the crisis
approaches which is to decide whether arbitrary rule or Christian mode-
ration shall preside over the future government of the slave, that their
minds will not participate in the agitation which surrounds them. The
people of England will never relax in their efforts, constitutionally and
perseveringly, to effect their object ; and the resistance offered by the
West India legislatures to the reasonable demands of the mother
country, will not be overcome, but by a bold and determined resolution
of the British government to legislate for the public good, independently
of all consequences." (p. 56.)

The reluctance of Mr. Trew, therefore, to the early adoption of that
great act of justice which shall emancipate the slave, evidently arises
from the influence of those prejudices which he imbibed in the society
of slaveholders, and which the whole tenor of the views he has given of

Prospective Emancipation of Slaves. 119

slavery in the present pamphlet should have led him long since to have
discarded. And, doubtless, he would have discarded them, but for
some little irritations which have unfortunately taken place, and which
have led him to cling with too much tenacity to the only point of separa-
tion between him and those whom he has somewhat hastily charged
with a zeal that is " intemperate," and " without knowledge."

We request of Mr. Trew to point out, in the pages of the Anti-
Slavery Reporter, a single syllable either on the administration of jus-
lice, and the miserably unprotected state of the slave; or on the evils of
rejecting their evidence in courts of justice; or on the benefit of com-
pulsory manumission; or on the demoralizing effects of the absence of
all due encouragement and sanction to the marriage tie ; or on the
slave's cruel privation of the rest of the Christian Sabbath ; or on his
destitution of religious instruction; — which gives a more horrific picture
of the evils of slavery than he himself, after an intimate familiarity of
eleven years with the system, has at length deliberately, yet reluctantly
and hesitatingly, laid before the public. We owe him thanks for this able
vindication of our statements, and for this reparation to the outraged
slave, and we pray God to make it effectual to what we doubt not is his
conscientious object in the work, the termination of the dreadful evils
which he has there so ably, and forcibly, and truly depicted. We, only
implore him to interpose no unnecessary delays to the consummation of
this great act of justice by ringing unmeaning changes on the vague
terms of " anarchy" "confusion," &c. as likely to result from it. He can-
not, we think, seriously entertain such fears. And we, therefore, intreat
him not to impede the effect of his bold and manly testimony by giving
way to undefined and nervous apprehensions, which a fair and unbiassed
consideration of the whole case, divested of his foregone conclusions,
could not fail entirely to dissipate.

Nor let it be forgotten that the parish of Jamaica in which Mr. Trew
resided for such a length of time, and in the pastoral care of which he
took so warm and unceasing an interest, is the very parish in which
Mr. Alexander Barclay also resided, who was the paid champion of the
negro slavery there existing, and whose account of that state is in direct
and irreconcileable hostility with that of Mr. Trew. As the Assembly of
Jamaica and the West India Committee have expended large sums of
money in circulating the mendacious statements contained in Mr. Bar-
clay's bulky volume, and have thus done what they could to delude
the public, we think they are bound, in common honesty, to do away
the effect of that delusion by diffusing, to at least the same extent, the
unimpeachable testimony of Mr. Trew. This however is more than we
can reasonably expect them to do. We may however at least expect
that those whose minds have been influenced by Mr. Barclay's false
representations, to which these two bodies have mischievously given
their sanction, will read the pamphlet of this disinterested and com-
petent witness, that they may be able to estimate the full extent of the
deception which has been practised upon them. We cannot forget that
even Mr. Bernal scrupled not in the House of Commons, to quote this
same Mr. Barclay as a decisive authority in favour of the mildness of
colonial slavery.

1 20 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

II. — Testimony of the Christian Record of Jamaica on
Colonial Slavery.

The views taken of Colonial Slavery by Mr. Trew, we find amply
confirmef.l in a monthy periodical publication, which has recently been
established in Jamaica, entitled the Christian Record.* We have now
before us the first three numbers of that work, from which we propose
to make a few extracts. Our first shall relate to " the profanation of
the Sabbath in Jamaica," — " one of the greatest obstacles to the Gospel
in this island, being acknowledged by almost every one to be the pre-
valent custom of Sunday markets and of Sunday labour " — In Ja-
maica, they say " we have selected the Sabbath for letting loose, in an
especial manner, the evil passions of man's heart, — we have selected it
not as a portion of time wherein to cease from worldly labour, and to
meet our fellow creatures to worship God and to hear his message of
mercy to the penitent, and the denunciations of his wrath to the im-
penitent ; but a portion of time in which to labour, and to meet in the
market place, to conclude our bargains and fix the price of yams, plan-
tains, salt-beef, pork, &c.'' (Record, No. 3. p. 105.)

The following, they state, to be a faithful description of the manner
in which the Sabbath is observed in Jamaica : •

'" On the Sunday mornings every road leading to the towns and mar-
ket stations of the country, is crowded with negroes under heavy loads
of ground provisions, wood, grass, &c. hastening to the Sunday market,
■which itself presents a scene that beggars all description. Every bad
passion of the human heart may there be seen in active operation ; co-
vetousness, cheating, thieving, and extortion are on every side. Anger,
jealousy, and revenge, declare themselves in loud bursts of furious pas-
sion— in revilings, cursings, and fightings, whilst scenes of the most
bestial drunkenness are ail around. Such is the Sunday market — such
is the scene which senators — nay, which clergymen have declared to
be advantageous to the progress of religion." " Such is the scene which
continues through the vphole day. And let it not be imagined that
none are actors in it, but the poor ignorant field negroes of the country.
The domestics of almost every family in the towns, those of clergymen
included, sent to market by their owners, and by their own necessities —

* The first Number was published on the 30th of September last. The
annual cost to subscribers, if called for at the office of the work in Kingston, is
£3. currency, or about 43s. sterling; and if sent by post, £4. currency, or
about 57.S.' sterling. The editors of this work profess to view the subjects of
which they treat " through the medium of the light thrown upon them by the
Word of God ;" and " manfully to fight under the banners of Jesus Christ
against all the enemies to the progress of his religion, who may rise up in their
native Island." While they profess themselves zealous and conscientious members
of the Established Church, and loyal subjects of the state, they hold out the
right hand of fellowship to all, of every denomination, who are really striving to-
gether for " the faith of the Gospel," and they promise fearlessly to advocate
every measure which tends to the temporal and spiritual welfare of their fellow
men, and boldly to denounce whatever is of an opposite tendency. They have
well fulfilled their pledge, and we therefore have pleasure in recommending this
work to the patronage and support of all the friends of religion and of the anti-
slavery cause throughout the kingdom. .

Profanation of the Sabbath. 121

the white and other shopkeepers who retail salt provisions, articles of
clothing, and spirituous liquors — all these are employed under the
sanction of the law — are encouraged, nay, compelled by it, as it now
stands, to desecrate the Sabbath, and break one of the most express
commands of God. At night again, every road is crowded with the
negroes returning from the market loaded with the supply of salt pro-
visions, &c. which their morning sale has enabled them to procure, and
on these roads drunkenness and riot are to be met with at every step.

" Let us now turn to the other branch of the subject, namely,
* Sunday labour.'' But here, we may, perhaps, be met by certain de-
fenders of colonial practices, and be told, in the words of one who has
made himself conspicuous, (Mr. Barclay,) we suspect latterly, not
much to his own satisfaction, that Sunday, if not in regard to market-
ing^ yet in this respect, is, ' strictly a day of rest' But if it is so, vie-
ask, how comes it to pass, that in the country, Sabbath after Sabbath,^
our ears are assaulted, and our peace interrupted by the clang of the
woodman's axe ? If it is so, how comes it to pass, that on every Sab-
bath we see the smoke ascending from innumerable pyres, whereon are
consumed those weeds and bushes, which the negro's industry removes
from the patch of ground he cultivates to support himself and family?
How any one, so well acquainted with the fact as the author referred
to, (Mr. Barclay,) could make so gross an assertion, we pretend not to
explain.

" In opposition to it, we assert, on our own knowledge of the fact,
that the slave is compelled — actually compelled, to labour on the Sab-
bath day." " Nay, it is even the common practice (and if required we
would give names and places where it is so,) to form idlers, thieves, and
vagabonds iapon an estate, into a ' rogues' gang,' and, under the super-
intendance of a ' driver,' to compel them to work a patch of land as pro-
vision grounds for themselves, upon the Sundays, as well as other days
allowed by law.

" We may however here be told, that such Sunday labour is unne-
cessary, as sufficient time is given to the negro during the week, by the
Consolidated Slave Law, for the cultivation of his provision ground. In
reply to this, we require to be informed how many days are secured by
law to the negro from 1st January to 1st July in each year, which is the
principal period for planting negro provisions? ' O,' it will be said,
' this also is the principal period for crop. And then, as no time cayi
be spared during the week, Sunday must of course be taken; for,
making a good crop is of much more consequence than keeping holy
the Sabbath day !' This, at least is the practical language of both
sugar and coffee planters, and a considerable number of Sundays, out
of the fifty-two in each year, are thus provided for at once.

" In confirmation of this, we will mention the argument frequently
used by planters in our presence against encouraging the progress of
religion, namely, that where it has spread among the negroes, they have
been induced to abandon the cultivation of their grounds on Sundays,
and have thus been reduced to want and absolute starvation.

" But this is not all. On sugar estates the slaves are employed, with
few exceptions, during crop, no less than eighteen hours out of every

122 The Christimi Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

twenty-four, on the six days of the week. And if to this be added the
well-known fact, that the law prohibiting * the putting of mills about'
after sunset on Saturday night, or before daybreak on Monday morn-
ing,' is shamefully trampled on, we shall arrive at no very unwarranta-
ble conclusion, in affirming that the slaves, thus occupied in making
sugar during the week, including (to the certain knowledge of the
writer) invasions upon the Sunday, are not likely to be in a condition
for attending, with much diligence and aptitude, to the wakeful duties
of the Sabbath.

" We admit, indeed, that casually, during the crop, the process of
sugar-making is sometimes stayed, and a day given, during the week, to
the slaves, for the cultivation of their grounds. But the principal, and,
in most instances, the only time, which can be devoted to their grounds
by the slaves, during crop, must be stolen from that portion of our ex-
istence which is destined by God, in mercy to us, for sacred purposes.
We may hence be enabled to form a just estimate of the opportunities
which the clergy and other ministers of religion enjoy, of instructing the
great mass of the slave population.

" But we may again be told, that in certain districts vast numbers of
slaves bend their way, every Lord's day, to their several places of
worship. But it is well known, that even in those districts where the
disposition for religious exercises among the slaves is most favourable,
the numbers who do actually attend their several places of worship on
Sundays bear but a very small proportion to those who ought to attend,
and who, there is every reason to believe, would attend, if they had the
opportunity. Consult, in proof of this, the memoranda of those cler-
gymen and other ministers of the gospel, who have apphed themselves,
with diligence, to the instruction and conversion of the slave popula-
tion. It will then be ascertained, that barely one-fourth even of the
Christian professors and catechumens attend their several places of wor-
ship, each Sunday, on an average of the whole year; that is to say,
each attends on the average, thirteen Sundays out of the fifty-two. We
do not make this statement at random; it is supported by stubborn facts.

" Such is the state of things which has existed for more than a cen-
tury ; and even since the bishop a7id an augme7ited number of clergy
were introduced into this island, in the year 1825, including an arch-
deacon, and latterly three rural deans. And yet these have been for
the most part silent ! From time to time, their zeal in instructing the
people is called in question ; yet no one in authority has dared to step
forward and declare what barriers stand in the way of their labours.
They, for the most part, have been willing rather to bear the imputation
of being ' careless shepherds,' unwatching ' watchmen,' or ' dumb dogs
which cannot bark,' than to stand forth, in battle array, against an ano-
maly which exhibits amongst us a Christian bishop, a Christian clergy,
and professedly Christian churches, supported by the state ; and withal,
dooms those churches, to a vast extent, to emptiness, and the Christian
ministrations and ordinances, which the law provides for, to neglect !
Surely it was to have been expected, that this body of ecclesiastics
would have put forth their decided and vehement protest againt this
crying sin !" " But, alas ! and it pains us to record the fact, no protest of

Profanation of the Sabbath — Silence of Bishop and Clergy. 123

this kind has ever been uttered, either by the bishop or archdeacon, or
the rural deans, or by the clergy collectively or individually, with the
exception of perhaps a few.* It is true, a few lukewarm and dishonest
sermons have been preached by others; but we are justified in exclud-
ing altogether these dishonest, aye, dishonest sermons, affecting to re-
commend the observance of the Sabbath, but proceeding from lips rea-
dy to-utter, and which out of the pulpit do utter, the very arguments of
the irreligious in favour of its breach. We have had episcopal charges,
wherein the general duties of the clergy have been dilated upon, and we
must say, for the most part, admirably dilated upon ; but scarcely one
syllable has ever been boldly uttered to the world by the bishop, or his
dignified clergy, against the universal and horrible profanations of
the Sabbath day. — Whispered regrets, and smothered m&hes, we regard
not. Did it never strike the right reverend prelate, who presides over
this diocese, that the clergy, in diligently obeying his Lordship's injunc-
tions, and in performing their duty, must do so to empty pews and
benches, as far at least as a considerable portion of the slave population
is concerned ? Or did his lordship conclude, that it was much easier
to counsel his clergy on general topics, and to recommend to the colo-
nists the building, repair, or keeping clean of churches, than to provoke
the hostility of Sabbath-breaking planters, by openly reproving this
their crying wickedness ; and thus leading on his clergy to make simi-
lar assaults upon the enemies of true religion? In so judging, as to
ease, he certainly judged rightly. But, in the spirit of love, and of so-
licitude unfeigned, for his present real peace of mind, and his eternal
happiness, we would bring to his lordship's remembrance, the truth
contained in this saying of Adalbert, bishop of Bohemia — ' It is an easy
thing to wear a mitre and a cross, but an awful thing to give account of
a bishopric, before the Judge of quick and dead.' We would call to his
remembrance, and to that of his clergy, that solemn question and an-
swer, which are found in the ordination service. In this question, the
bishop asks the candidates for orders — ' Will you be diligent in your
several cures, to drive away all strange doctrine, and viciousness of life,
&c, &c.' The answer given is — ' I will endeavour so to do, God being
my helper.' Bound by so solemn an obhgation, how can the bishop
and his clergy remain silent respecting a system of Sabbath-breaking,
which, to so tremendous an extent, paralyses their labours among the
great mass of the people ? From whatever motive, the clergy generally
do perform their Sunday services almost within hearing of the din of
marketing, or of the clang of the woodman's axe, and yet scarcely any
disapprobation is expressed by them. How long is this to be? Are
there to be no exertions made — no protest uttered against an evil, which
at once is rebellion against the highest authority, and tends the most di-
rectly to destroy those ' for whom Christ died,' by keeping them in their
pagan ignorance ? Oh ! ye right reverend, and reverend fathers ! jus-
tify yourselves to your fellow-colonists, to your sovereign, to the parlia-

* Let the reader recur to our second volume, No. 41, and some following
numbers, and see how our statements are here borne out, notwithstanding the
abuse poured on us at the time by the British Critic, Christian Remembrancer, &c.

124 The Christia7i Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

ment, and to your fellow-subjects of Great Britain ! ye cannot justify
yourselves to God !

" But it will be asked, ' what could they have done V We answer,
they could have spoken and preached against such wickedness. First,
the bishop could have preached against it, which it does not appear he
ever has done. He might have introduced the subject into his public
charges to his clergy; and might have urged the same line of conduct
upon them. The clergy, stimulated and encouraged by his precepts
and example, would have followed, in considerable numbers, the foot-
steps of their diocesan. Thus, at all events, they would have made their
own hands clean ; whilst, under God's blessing upon every honestly
courageous exertion in his service, they would have so roused the in-
dignation of the better portion of the community, so repelled the bold-
ness of the profane scoffer, and the avarice of the abettors of Sunday
markets and of Sunday labour, that we cannot doubt the evils of which
we now complain, would by this time, nearly, if not altogether, have
disappeared. With such facts before us, we feel no hesitation in assert-
ing, that the man" (alluding to Barclay) " who tells us ' there is no oppo-
sition to religious instruction in the island,' affirms that which is mani-
festly untrue : — For the very proof of Sabbath profanation, as it exists
among us, exhibits a system — not isolated cases, but we assert, a system
of opposition to religion, which is more effectual than the swords of per-
secuting tyrants or the flames of Smithfield." (lb. p. 106 — 110.)

It has been a part of the slave law of Jamaica since the year 1696,
that " all the owners and managers and overseers of slaves, shall,
as much as in them lies, endeavour the instruction of their slaves
in the principles of the Christian religion to facilitate their con-
version." How, enquires the Editor of the Christian Record, has this law
been carried into effect ? He agrees with Mr. Trew in affirming that
until lately it has never been at all thought of; and even now that a
Bishop and an increased establishment of clergymen have been ap-
pointed in the island, how, he asks, is instruction given to the slaves ?
And he thus answers his own question.

" By teaching them to repeat by rote the Lord's prayer, creed, and
catechism. These formularies are all admirable in themselves ; but will
it be any advantage to an uneducated negro, that he has had even ' a
form of sound words' crammed into his memory, unless his understand-
ing be also instructed and improved by it? So far is it, we are convinced,
from being of any advantage to him, (as is alleged by those who think
it a good preparation for the ministrations of the clergy), that it is even
positively detrimental ; for he will afterwards find it much more difficult
to attach a just meaning to words, which have frequently passed through
his mind, without making any impression, than if he had never heard
them before.

" If then this species of oral instruction be useless in the hands of
catechists, appointed for the purpose, is it likely to be more effectual
when employed by book-keepers T* Are their habits of life calculated

" * This is a s^istem lately introduced, and which, we fear, is patronised by
many, because it preserves appearances, while it is utterly inefficient."

The Religious Instruction given to the Slave. 12,5

to give additional weight to the formularies of the church ? If it were
proposed, as a general measure, to employ them in teaching morality to
the slaves, vpould not the proposition excite ridicule at least, if not dis-
gust ? Are they then more competent to give instruction ' in the prin-
ciples of the christian religion,' which is the source of all pure morality?

" We do not mean to undervalue the catechetical or conversational
system of instruction, properly so called; we are aware that it is a
pleasing and effectual mode of conveying religious knowledge. But it
can be perfect only when the questions are brought down to the level of
the capacities of the pupil ; when one question is suggested by the an-
swer received to another ; and when the subject is impressed on the
understanding by familiar illustration ; and, obviously, because it is
only thus, that the mind of the pupil can be brought into active exer-
cise. On this system the church catechism, or any other more simple
manual, becomes useful, as text books, to secure attention, on the part
of the catechist, to the fundamental truths of religion ; as standards to
guard against error, as much as possible ; and for the purpose of suggest-
ing topics for inquiry; but in no other way. That oral teaching, as a mean
of general ' instruction in the principles of the christian religion,' must,
however, at the best be but a poor substitute for that of instruction in
reading, especially in regard to the rising generation, will be very evi-
dent on a little reflection. On the oral system, there must be many
active catechists employed, and their labours will be not only unceasing,
but interminable ; for, at the end of twenty years, instruction would still
be but commencing among the population, as is the case now ; and any
intermission of effort would double the labour. The tendency of instruc-
tion in letters, on the contrary, is to multiply and perpetuate itself; for
one person who has learnt to read can, not only himself continually re-
call to memory the religious truths he has learnt, by reference to his
Bible, but may impart the same advantage to others. At the end of
twenty years, therefore, the effect of teaching the rising generation to
read, would be very perceptible.

" But we ask ' to what extent has the command in our law, to instruct
slaves in the principles of the christian religion, been obeyed ?' We are
men of facts — and to answer this inquiry, as well as to secure the gra-
titude of Mr. Barclay for the body of evidence we shall thus adduce in
support of his assertions, we purpose to give, in each of our numbers, a
list of twenty or thirty estates, in one or other of the parishes, shewing
the number of the negroes ; the names of proprietors, and of their repre-
sentatives, if they are absent; and the kind of instruction given on them.
In making out the list, we shall only insert properties to which 100
negroes, and upwards, are attached ; except in cases, where, upon
smaller ones, we may have a gratifying opportunity of recording an ho-
nourable instance of true religious instruction being given." (lb. p. 127.)

The estates specified in this number are the twenty-four first occur-
ring in the list of estates in the parish of St. Andrew, which, from its
immediate vicinity to Kingston, is more accessible, both by clergymen
and missionaries, than most of the other parishes. Of these twenty-
four estates, containing 4891 negroes, there is only one, belonging to
Mr. Wildman, having 140 slaves, on which any reading is taught. On

126 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

nine, containing 1551 slaves, there is some oral teaching occasionally,
that is to say, once a week or fortnight, by a Catechist. On the remain-
ing fourteen estates, containing 2900 slaves, no species of instruction
whatever is given. Among these, we are shocked to find that of the
Hon. John Mais, chief magistrate of the parish, and a member of the
Assembly. He is resident on this very estate, and yet the return is
that no instruction whatever is given to the slaves upon it. We have
a sim.ilar return, we are still more shocked to say, respecting an estate
belonging to the Duke of Buckingham. We presume that it is from
this estate that the Marquis of Chandos, the heir of the Duke of Buck-
ingham, derives his title to fill the chair of the West India Committee.
Now when we recollect the zeal manifested by this nobleman in the
support of the Church of England, while one of the leading antagonists
of the Catholic claims, and the professions of attachment to the interests
of religion which fell from him on that occasion, we marvel greatly
that he should have provided no christian instruction for any one of his
350 slaves. But we marvel at this still more, (if we could now be sur-
prised by any thing in the conduct of colonial partisans,) when we
recollect the resolutions, and the petitions to Parliament, emanating from
the West India body over which the Marquis presides, and with whom he
has expressed his entire concurrence, asserting the necessity of preparing
the slaves for freedom by previous religious instruction ; we say we
marvel greatly when we recollect this, and yet find that at the close of
the year 1830, there is no species of instruction whatever yet provided
for the 350 wretched thralls* who form part of the inheritance of the
Noble Lord who has the honour of standing at the very head of the
West India body. And seeing this, shall we be deemed unreasonable if
we regard the conduct of that noble Lord and his associates as some-
what at variance with their professions; at least as not marked with any
conspicuous traits of a spirit of ingenuousness and fair dealing in their
communications with Parliament and the public? He and they resist
the call of the country for emancipation until they shall have prepared
their slaves for it by education and religious instruction: and yet, even
on the noble Chairman's ov/n estate, the work, after eight years, is not
commenced, and iiis 350 slaves remain, for aught he has done, in the
very darkness of heathenism. We trust this will not be forgotten when
he again urges on the House his claim to compensation.

The Christian Record, in developing these facts, has further directed
us to one main source of the evil, namely, the supineness of the Bishop
of Jamaica, and of many of his clerical brethren, who ought to have
come forward boldly to express what must have been their conviction,
that every mode of instruction which excluded the teaching of the slaves
to read, must prove wholly inadequate.

" So long,'' observes this writer, " as the bishop and his chief clergy
took pains to advocate mere oral instruction, f representing it as quite

* We call them wretched not without reason ; for besides being slaves,
which is of itself enough, they are a decreasing body.

" t This, by the catechists under the bishop's superintendance, has hitherto
consisted of reading a small portion of scripture to the negroes, and teachingthem
40 repeat the church catechism by rote. See Instructions for Catechists in 1828."

Conduct of Bishop and Clergy as to Religious Instruction. 127

sufficient for the purpose, and, if they did not expressly prohibit, at all
events rather discouraged, the efforts of those who wished to introduce
reading, it is obvious that many of the planters who were favourable to
the inculcation of religious truths, would remain satisfied that they had
done as much as they ought to do, when they admitted oral instruction
to their estates."

" We have been led more particularly into these remarks, by a perusal
of that part of the report of the Conversion Society for the year 1828,
which relates to this island. The bishop is there represented to have
' informed the society, in a recent communication, that very little pro-
gress had been made by the negroes in reading,' and ' that the planters
are not disposed to permit more than oral instruction to be given to the
slaves on their estates.' The inference which the governors of the so-
ciety have no doubt drawn from his lordship's communication is, that he
and the great body of his clergy have been active and persevering in
their endeavours to introduce reading among the slave population, but
have met with opposition from the planters ; — and that his lordship par-
ticipates in the feelings of disappointment which the members of the
society experience at this want of success. Now, we should be sorry
to write harshly of any man, more especially of a dignitary of our vene-
rable church ; but we must say that all this is very disingenuous. It
is, we believe, true enough that the great mass of the planters have been,
and perhaps are now, averse to the instruction of their slaves in reading
(although there are several bright exceptions, the number of which is
increasing daily,) — but we would ask his lordship, who is chiefly to
blame ? We would ask him whether, in any of his charges to the clergy,
in his sermons, or on any other public occasions, he has insisted on the
necessity of, or even strongly recommended, the instruction of the slaves
in reading ; and whether, on the contrary, mere oral instruction has
not hitherto been the theme of his discourse, and the object of his un-
qualified praise ? We would ask his rural deans, whether they have
not (at all events till very lately,) held out ' oral instruction ' as the ne
plus ultra of slave education ? And we might further inquire of his
lordship's chaplains in particular, and indeed of all the clergy in the
island,* with the exception of a few, whether they themselves have not
been the most determined opponents to the introduction of reading
among the slaves ? The truth is, that the bishop, when he first arrived
in the island, knew, as every unprejudiced man of common sense must
know, that permanent and lasting benefit could be produced only by in-
struction in reading; but, on inquiry, he found that strong prejudices ex-
isted among the planters against it. Instead of boldly avowing his senti-
ments, and endeavouring, by steady pereverance, to overcome all preju-
dices, he yielded to them, and became a strenuous advocate for mere
oral instruction ; and whilst some of his clergy were the very persons

u * -yV'ill it be believed that we have heard more than one of these ipinisters of
Christ triumphantly ask — ' Did St. Paul teach reading ?' To men of common
sense, it would seem sufficient to reply by the question — * Did not St. Paul write
his Epistles ? ' "

128 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colordal Slavery.

whose opinions misled him to set the example, the remainder generally
followed it. Yet these very clergymen, with the bishop at their head,
as president, meet once a-year in full committee as a diocesan branch of
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, make speeches, and
import books expressly for the use of the lower orders !"

" It may perhaps be objected here, that the colonists are not generally
opposed to the religious instruction of the negroes; on the contrary,
that a considerable number of them permit and encourage the system
of oral instruction, which we have described. True : but we have rea-
son to fear that the more intelligent of them do so, because they are
well aware of its inefficiency to bring about the proposed end. They
know that mere oral instruction of that kind produces but little effect
upon its subject ; while the ability to read not only exercises a constant
influence over a man's future life, but enables him to confer the same
inestimable privilege possessed by himself upon as many others as he
pleases." (Record, No. 2, p. 37, 38, and 52.)

On another part of the colonial case, the views of the Christian Record
of Jamaica go strongly to confirm the statements of Mr. Trew. In the
second number, the conductors profess to draw the attention of their
readers " to one of the most intolerable of the evils which disgrace and
afflict the colony," namely, " the right, which the ov.'ner of a slave has,
to inflict corporal punishment upon him, at his own sovereign will and
pleasure, a right held under the Slave Law of 1816, still in force, and
confirmed by the acts of 1826 and 1829, had they received the royal
sanction. That this cruel and unjust right is generally, nay, almost
universally exercised, no one, well acquainted with the state of society
in our island, will venture to deny. For our part, we believe there
are very few estates on which the slave is not in daily dread of the lash,
and in many families corporal punishment is commonly inflicted. The
power of punishing is vested in the slave owner, or his representative,
who, by the same law, is constituted the judge of what offences require
corporal punishment, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes. If the privileged
person ventures to go beyond this hmit, he is liable to a fine of not less
than ten pounds, and not exceeding twenty, as well as to a prosecution
in the supreme or assize court, or court of quarter sessions. That this
limit allows abundant opportunity for the gratification of a cruel and
merciless spirit, few we think can doubt.* Some however have ventured
to deny it, and have challenged their opponents ' at a distance,' to sub-
stantiate the charges made against them, of abusing the right thus given
by law. We maintain that the right itself is iniquitous, and the use
made of it tyrannical and oppressive ; and in support of our assertions,
we will describe, as far as decency will allow us, the practice which

" * In proof of this we may remark, that in investigations which take place
before magistrates into punishments given for slight offences, the magistrates fre-
quently characterise the punishment as one of extreme severity, but feel themselves
compelled to dismiss the complaint, because the limit of thirty-nine lashes has
not been exceeded. It is well known that an expert driver can, with a very few
strokes, inflict a most tremendous punishment. We can adduce instances if
required."

Arbitrary Punishments of Slaves described. 129

generally prevails in the exercise of it. We do so, in the hope, that the
painful and disgusting truth may have its effect in arousing just abhor-
rence in the breasts of some, who, never having had the subject exhibit-
ed to them in all its native hideousness, are not avv^are of its aggravated
turpitude ; and may thus lead, ultimately, to the total removal of this
terrible power of punishment from the hands of private individuals. So
far then as our knowledge goes, (and we conceive that our opportunities
of acquiring it, have been sufficient to enable us to speak confidently on
the subject,) the general practice on estates is to begin the day with pu-
nishment. This is commonly for the offence of ' turning out late,' and
the infliction usually consists of several stripes applied to the culprit,
without his clothes having been removed. We grant that it is not in
general a painful infliction; but we contend it is brutalizing in the ex-
treme. It is degrading rhe human being to the level of the beasts that
perish'. Besides this minor punishment, severer ones are commonly
inflicted at the same time, for offences of a graver nature committed
the day before. The day thus generally begins with an awful announce-
ment of power in one party, and of fearful degradation in the other. The
loud crack of the whip, and the piercing cry of the sufferer, proclaim
that the gang are assembled in the field. Nor is this all — the whip, in
a multitude of instances, is in frequent and active exercise during the
day, to hasten the advance of work, although the formaHty of ' laying
the slave down ' is not resorted to. We maintain, and defy contradic-
tion, that in the large majority of instances, the agricultural slave is stimu-
lated to labour by the lash. We make the assertion, on the authority of
the direct knowledge which we ourselves possess, and of the frequent
admissions made by planters in our personal intercourse with them."

" In families resident in the country, the unfortunate domestic slave,
when offending, is committed for chastisement into the hands of an
upper servant, who ties him or her as the case may be, to the nearest
tree, and then handles the weapon of torture. Or the poor wretch is
' sent to the works,' with a command to the overseer to punish. In
towns, the household servant, when correction is deemed needful, re-
ceives it from a fellow servant in some out-office ; or is hurried to the
workhouse, there stretched on the ground, and the person shamelessly
exposed. Thirty-nine stripes, it may be, are then inflicted on him by a
powerful 'boatswain,' armed with a knotted scourge, whose every stroke
causes the blood to start from the unhappy victim.

" Be it understood, too, that the law stipulates for the exemption of
no age nor sex. It merely prescribes the number of stripes, and pro-
vides that no second punishment shall take place in the same day, nor
until the effects of the first are recovered from. Nay, the pregnant fe-
male is not by law exempted. One would have thought that our legis-
lators, moved by the common feelings of our common nature, would
have interposed the protecting arm of the law to shield the female, when
thus situated, from the brutal power of ferocious man. But no — even
she can be laid down, exposed, and fio(jged, in the presence of the as-
sembled population of the estate ! It is true that public feeling, in this
case more humane and merciful in its restrictions than the law, has, in
a great measure, shielded the pregnant woman, known to he such, from

R

130 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

so shocking an outrage ; but still, instances of such barbarity too often
happen, ruining the unfortunate woman's health, and destroying her
unborn child.

" We have endeavoured, in the^e few remarks, to give a brief sum-
mary of the practice throughout the island, and, of course, the case of
the domestic slaves has necessarily claimed consideration ; but it is to
that of the people employed in agriculture, to whom we would chiefly
direct the attention of our readers, because it exhibits, in the strongest
light, the evil efTects of the tremendous power vested in individuals. It
is well known, that the greater number of estates belong to absent pro-
prietors, and that in general the overseers have the uncontrolled domi-
nion of the people on them, unchecked save by an occasional visit from
the planting attorney. Now who are the overseers ? That there are
among them men of education and gentlemanly habits, as well as of
kind and humane feelings, cannot be disputed ; but we fearlessly assert,
that, in general, they are men who have been in the lower grades of
society in the mother country, and who, unused to wield power, or to
claim deference and submission from any class of the society in which
they have lived, are, when elevated to the control of their fellow-mortals,
extremely jealous and tenacious of the absolute authority vested in them
by the law, and of the unqualified submission which it empowers them
to exact. Generally profligate in their manners, and licentious in their
habits, it is impossible that they can command the esteem or respect of
the better disposed negroes, vast numbers of whom are their superiors
in point of outward decency and morality ; a great many, immeasurably
so, in regard of christian feeling ; and not a few, in general shrewdness
and intelligence. The consequences are easily foreseen. The overseer,
conscious of his power, exacts not only implicit obedience, but respect-
ful attention. The negro, in such circumstances, too often finds even
obedience and submission a hard task, but feeling no respect, cannot
always feign it. A word, or even a look, leads to a Jorrent of abuse on
the part of the overseer; and as negroes are but men in their passions,
and the petty tyrant of the day cannot condescend to reason with a
slave, or treat him as a rational being, the result, in most cases, is an
infliciion of punishment to the full extent of his tremendous power !
Indeed, we are satisfied, that a great proportion of the severe punishments
inflicted on estates, are given for ' insolence,' as it is termed, and are the
consequence of some trifling act of insubordination, caused by irritated
feeling. Here then we have the law directly ministering, by means of
the power it confers, to the gratification of the most unruly passions of
the human breast — anger and revenge : and producing evil and misery
to an extent perfectly appalling.

" These statements we make with pain, but nevertheless boldly ; and
so certain are we of their truth, and of our ability to prove it, that we
fearlessly challenge contradiction. The whip, then, we assert to be the
chief stimulus to labour, and almost the only instrument for maintaining
rule among the slaves in this island. By it, the peasant is hastened to
his appointed daily toil. It urges him to exertion, should he flag during
the hours of labour. It is the dreadful means of keeping him in implicit
submission and obedience, and of enforcing the appearance of respect

J)readful Effects of the Power of Arbitrary Punishment. 131

to his overseer, too frequently at the expense of truth and consistency ;
and, lastly, should the peevishness of human nature prompt to impa-
tience or insolence, pregnancy itself not always proves a protection, but
even then it sometimes descends upon the hapless victim, to vv^eaken and
to destroy. In these observations, we contend, that we have been describ-
ing the general, and the prevailing practice of the island ; and in proof
of this assertion, we could adduce the reniarks often, nay, almost con-
stantly heard, in the society of planters.'' " Some persons of known hu-
manity may now and then come forward and state their abhorrence of
such doings, and adduce iheir own humane management in confirmation
of their feelings, and as a proof that the whole extent of the land does
not present one aspect of unmitigated severity on the one hand, and of
suffering on the other. But this, although gratifying, is not sufficiently
redeeming. It only proves that there are some individuals, among the
mass of our white and free coloured population, who are not totally
dead to the decencies and charities of humanized life. They are the
exceptions — and truly they bear but a very trifling proportion to the
class to which they belong. Nevertheless, few as they are, we record
them with thankfulness. They are gratifying when considered as so
many green, though widely detached spots in the arid wilderness around.
Fervently would we pray, that the same Spirit who has in these
displayed his power, would widen and extend his blessed influences,
until the whole of the waste places of our land ' rejoice, and blossom as
the rose.' Pleasing, however, as these things are, and honourable to
the humane individuals to whom we have alluded, we must at the same
time protest against the unfair use made of them by colonial writers,
when extenuating the evils consequent on the present system. Such
writers are tediously minute, in describing these instances of better feel-
ing. They blazon them forth as the true criteria of the prevailing
practices of the island. They are studiously drawn to the foreground
of the picture, and made, as it were, a veil, to shut out the hideous de-
formities that are piled behind.

" We shall now endeavour to trace the effects of the barbarous
power, allowed by the law ; both upon its victim, and upon the pos-
sessor of it.

" First, then, we observe, that the most deplorable eflPect upon the
slave is a general debasement of character, and an utter annihilation,
in male and female, of a sense of shame. The human being, when urged
to his work by brute physical force, will refuse to labour when the lash
ceases to be in active operation. Knowing that any infraction, on his
part, of the rights of property, or indeed the commission of any offence,
is to be met by a punishment, corporal in its nature, there will be induced
a certain recklessness of character, a desperate heedlessness of conse-
quences, which no floggings, however severe and frequent, can lastingly
repress.

" Never, we firmly beheve, were human beings reclaimed from ' the
error of their ways,' by the torture of the body. The lash but strength-
ens the moral malady. The evil of corporal punishment is also shewn
in a way truly painful to every friend to the spread of Christianity. We
allude to the effect it produces, in respect of the ordinance of marriage.

132 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

It consists with our knowledge, that slaves have preferred concubinagfe
to marriage, on the ground that their wives might be indecently ex-
posed, and cruelly flogged. And here it is to be observed, in explanation
and support of this statement, that slaves, however licentious they may
be, regard the marriage tie with a reverence and respect approaching to
superstition. With whatever indifterence they may regard the degrada-
tion of a concubine, we know that they look with horror on the degrada-
tion of a wife! Again, what kind of feeling can be expected to exist
in the mind of a child, who witnesses the shameless punishment of a
parent? Filial respect must be weakened, if not altogether destroyed.
And must not the feelings of the parent, who is constrained to witness
the miserable sufferings of a child, if not hardened into criminal indiffe-
rence, be exquisitely painful ? While we are upon this part of the
subject, we cannot avoid recounting, as a proof that these things are
not the chimeras of a distempered im.agination, but sad realities of truth
and experience, the particulars of an instance of punishment, recently
inflicted in one of our workhouses, by order of the magistrates. It has
been communicated to us by an eye witness, on whose veracity we can
stake our own credit; and, truly, it reflects indelible disgrace upon the
community. Be it understood, however, that we introduce this state-
ment, not in illustration of the main subject of the present article, viz.
the dangerous power of inflicting corporal punishment entrusted by
the- law to private individuals; but in proof that the shameless,
the unnatural exposure of the parent's nakedness to the child,
and vice versd, are no uncommon occurrencess in our island. We

omit names, but are authorized to supply them if required, ' ,

a female, apparently about twenty-two years of age, was then laid
down, with her face downwards; her wrists were secured by cords
run into nooses ; her ancles were brought together, and placed in
another noose; the cord composing this last one, passed through a
block, connected with a post. The cord was tightened, and the young
■woman was thus stretched to her utmost length. A female then ad-
vanced, and raised her clothes towards her head, leaving the person in-
decently exposed. The boatswain of the workhouse, a tall athletic
man, flourished his whip four or five times round his head, and pro-
ceeded with the punishment. The instrument of punishment was a cat,
formed of knotted cords. The blood sprang from the wounds it inflict-
ed. The poor creature shrieked in agony, and exclaimed, ' I don't de-
serve this !' She became hysterical, and continued so until the punish-
ment was completed. Four other delinquents were successively treated
in the same way. One was a woman, about thirty-six years of age —
another, a girl of fifteen — another, a boy of the same age ; and lastly,
an old woman about sixty, who really appeared scarcely to have strength
to express her agonies by cries.' The boy of fifteen, as our informant
subsequently ascertained, was the son of the woman of thirty-six ! She
was indecently exposed, and cruelly flogged, in the presence of her son !
and then had the additional pain to see him also exposed, and made to
writhe under the lash ! — Ham looked upon the nakedness of his father,
and the curse of that father descended upon him. A voice from the
sanctuary has pronounced that a man shall not uncover ' the nakedness'

Dreadful Effects of the Power of Arbitrary Punishment. 133

of his ' near kin.' The law of Jamaica does not forbid, and the brutaJ
practice of Jamaica sanctions, the uncovering of a mother's nakedness in
the presence of her adult son ; and the exposure of that adult son to the
eyes of his female parent ! It is to be observed, to complete the hideous
but faithful picture of the system of slave government, presented to us
by the narrative of this transaction, that these unfortunates received this
punishment for an offence, which their owner, it was strongly suspected,
had compelled them to commit ; and that too, under the terror of the
lash — a circumstance accounting for the cry, ' I don't deserve this/

" Painful and melancholy as is the above detail, we know it to be but
too faithful a picture of what is transacted, from week to week, by order
of the magistrates, within those abodes of human misery and degrada-
tion— the workhouses of our island.

" But let us revert to the especial subject of the present article. The
most appalling evil resulting from the power entrusted by the law to in-
dividuals, of inflicting the severest corporal punishment upon the slave,
is unquestionably the extensive and systematic destruction it occasions
of unborn children! The helpless pregnant woman, as we have said,
may, under the sanction of the law, be subjected to the lash ! We are
enabled to state, from respectable medical testimony, that in nine out of
ten cases, such inflictions are followed by the destruction of the unborn
child. We do admit that generally, when the fact of pregnancy is
known, the individual is exempted from corporal punishment. In a
multitude of cases, however, in which females are flogged, such may be
the fact in its earliest stage; possibly unknown to the female herself;
and it is in these cases, we assert, that this destruction chiefly takes
place. In England, the individual convicted of being accessary to the
destruction of an unborn child, can be punished capitally; but in Ja-
maica, the slave owner may destroy the fruit of the womb, protected by
an act of the legislature. We do not indeed assert that the overseer,
in punishing a pregnant woman, means to perpetrate the foul ofi'ence re-
ferred to — but that such is the actual result of the punishment, in a
multitude of instances, we openly maintain.

" But the effects of this power upon the possessor of it are no less
lamentable than those produced on its victim. The history of the world
clearly demonstrates that the possession of authority seldom fails to call
into active exercise the evil passions and inclinations inseparable from
humanity. Early habit, education, the refinements which civilization
has introduced, have all been found too weak to overcome this terrible
evil. The Bible, by its plain declarations of the corruptions of the hu-
man heart, sends us at once to the root of the matter; — and we who see
things as they are, because we see them on the spot, can testify, that in
Jamaica, abundant evidence may be found to confirm the truth of these
declarations of scripture. We see a system of oppression, authorized
by the law of the land, and carried into tremendous operation by a thou-
sand petty tyrants, who lord it over their suffering fellow beings. We
see this abuse of undue authority producing a re-action upon them-
selves, and while it weakens and destroys their better feelings, bringing^
into exercise, and day by day adding strength to whatever is disgraceful
to human nature, and painful to contemplate in the human heart. Look,

134 The Christian Record of Jamaica oil Colonial Slavery.

for a moment, at the great mass of those possessed of this dangerous
authority. Witness its debasing influence upon themselves. They are
hardened — they are lost to every sense of shame — the kindly feelings of
their nature are extinguished. Deeds that they would, in the land of
their fathers, have shuddered at, and which they did shudder at, on
their arrival in this island, they now daily, unconcernedly, and, it may
be, vindictively commit ! Here indeed is to be found the grave of de-
cency— of all the charities of life — and of all that distinguishes man
from the beasts that perish. Well may v?e say, that education and re-
finement are too weak to oppose successfully this torrent of evil, when
we see the withering influence of this execrable system extending to the
higher and more refined classes of society. The educated female, who,
when in Europe, shuddered at the bare description of many a sad scene
in her native land, when returned to that land, and familiarized to the
exercise of this terrible power, heedless of the considerations of delicacy,
pens with her own hand the order to the overseer, the wharfinger, or the
supervisor of the workhouse, to strip, to bind, and to scourge her hapless
female attendant. With grief we write it, were the files of the over-
seers' houses, of the wharf counting houses, and of the workhouses, ex-
hibited to public view, a sad register would be produced of human suf-
fering, and incontestable proof afforded of the debasing tendency of the
system. By them it would appear, that the young man just entering
upon the world's stage — that the man of taste and refinement — that the
aged mortal tottering upon the brink of the grave — that the mother —
the daughter — the w^fe, can, and do in many instances, exercise this
dreadful power vested in them by the law ; the power to torture their
fellow beings ; and the direct tendency of the mere exercise of which, is
to degrade and demoralize themselves." (lb. p. 76 — 83.)

After observing that the practical operation of the law was best shewn
by particular cases of oppression, the Editor proceeds thus,

" It is not our intention to invoke the aid of any case of cruelty,
where the partial limits prescribed by the law have been clearly ex-
ceeded, because we think it unfair to enlist excitement, by a description
of offences for which the law has furnished the means of redress, while
pursuing the enquiry, whether or not that law is founded on justice, and
sound policy. We shall therefore confine ourselves to the consideration
of those cases of private punishment, for which the law appears to our-
selves, or has appeared to the Magistrates, who are the interpreters of
it, to have provided no remedy. To avoid also the appearance of raking
up the tales of times gone by, we shall advert only to the disclosures of
the last few months, and with most of which the public of Jamaica are
already familiar. Few can have forgotten the details of the case of
Mr. Chapman in St. George's.* The extreme severity of the punish-
ment which he administered to the negro, both by flogging and impri-
sonment in the stocks, with his hands pinioned behind him, until they
became greatly swoln, was established on the fullest evidence. And
what was the offence of which the nearo was accused ? On the shew-

See Auti-SIavery Reporter, No. 68. p. 419 ; No. 69. p. 429 ; No. 71. p. 486.

Dreadful Effects of the Power of Arbitrary Punishment.
f Mr. Chapman's own apoloo-ists, it was merely this :

135

ing of Mr. Chapman's own apologists, it was merely this : being
ordered to ship sugars, he had, without orders from Mr. Chapman, as-
sisted, with the other coopers, in hauhng up the boat during shell-blow
(their own time) and had entertained an expectation that the hour and a
half which he had thus occupied would be repaid to him ; — that after re-»
ceivingasevere flogging for this trivial offence, he had been unable to per-
form his work as usual, which was the cause of the subsequent cruel con-
finement in the stocks. Yet two of the magistrates, before whom the
case was investigated, have since actually published a statement in the
newspapers, in which they attempt to exculpate themselves for having
voted against a prosecuti)n, by saying they considered that ' a smart
reprimand would answer all the ends of justice, and be a warning to
others not to commit thems. Ives in a similar way !' And to this hour
no prosecution of the individual has taken place.

" Another instance has come to our knowledge, although it is not
quite so public. Several women, on an estate, who had young children,
turned out late. For this offence they were most severely flogged.
They complained to a magistrate, who, in conjunction with a brother
magistrate, investigated the case. The flogging was found to have been
one of great severity, and the magistrates considered the offence wholly
disproportioned to it; but, as it was shewn that the limit of thirty-nine
lashes had not been exceeded, they thought it imperative on them to
dismiss the complaint.

" Look again at the case of Mr. Martin, the overseer of Temple-
Hall, in St. Andrew's, which has recently undergone investigation, and
is reported in the Courant of the 27th October. It was proved that the
girl Jane, had been most severely flogged by him, and confined in the
stocks, although the number of lashes given was less than thirty-nine.
Setting aside the cause which the girl alleged for this punishment, which
was shocking enough, and taking the statement of Mr. Martin himself
as to the offence she had committed, we find that it amounted to nothing
more than a saucy answer given to him. That any man, should, for so
trifling an offence, subject so young a girl as she was to the torture of
a night's confinement in the stocks, a flogging with the long whip, by
which she was severely lacerated, and thirty-six hours subsequent con-
finement in the stocks ; nay more should, with unblushing effrontery,
seek to justify the infliction of this terrible punishment, by assigning so
inadequate a cause (under the apparently sincere conviction, too, that it
was an unanswerable defence), might well excite our wonder, did we not
trace, in these very circumstances, the lamentable effects of the arbit-
rary authority vested in such men by the present state of the law. The
magistrates, who were assembled at the council of protection, did their
duty fearlessly and impartially; but, from what we can learn, we fear
that the law is too indefinite to meet the case, and that Mr. Martin will
escape with impunity ! ■

" In all these cases, (and others might be furnished of a similar
kind), something like irregularity, or trifling insubordination, has been
urged as the cause of punishment ; but there are many cases where
acts, meritorious and praiseworthy in themselves, have induced planters
to flog slaves with great severity. Having an inverted notion of right

136 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

and wrong, in some respects, and being invested with arbitrary authority,
they have, not unfrequently, persecuted their slaves on account of their
rehgious opinions. Our fellow-colonists are sufficiently familiar with
the details of the complaint made against the late Mr. Bettv. Let any
one calmly, and without prejudice, weigh the effect of Mr. Betty's
statement, in answer to Mr. Whitehouse's charge, and say, whether the
irresistible inference to be drawn from it, when coupled with the
accusation, is not, that a refusal to give up attendance at the religious
establishment which he preferred, was in reality the only offence with
which Henry Williams stood charged ; and yet Mr. Betty openly, and
in the public papers, asserted his right to punish a negro under his con-
trol, without being called to account. We might enlarge on the ex-
tent of the punishment, to which this slave ^vas subjected in consequence,
but as the poor man who caused it is no more, and we have stated
enough of the case to illustrate our position, we gladly abstain from
further comment upon it.*

" One case more, in reference to the construction put on the limits
prescribed by the 35th clause, and our list is closed for the present. A
council of protection was held at Morant Bay, on the 6th of October
last, to inquire into a case of cruel and illegal punishment, alleged to
have been given by a Mr. Henry Noyes, a blacksmith, to a slave be-
longing to him. The case was brought forward by W. Lambie, Esq.
who stated, on oath, that on the first Saturday in September, the negro
came to him to complain of his master ; that he shewed the marks of
two very severe floggings; that there were spaces of raw flesh, as large
and as white as his hand, on both parts of his body ; that both flog-
gings appeared to have been inflicted at the same time ; and that there
was also an iron collar round his neck. He further mentioned, that the
negro's account was, that he had received both floggings on the same
day; the first with a long whip, and the second, on the shoulders, with
bamboo switches. Mr, Lambie's evidence was corroborated, in all the
main points, by that of another gentleman, who saw the slave on the
same day. On being called on by the council, the negro repeated the
story which he had told Mr. Lambie, and exhibited his person, on which
there were still scars of very severe floggings. Mr. Noyes, his master,
was asked if he had any thing tOTjsay. He stated that he had not
flogged him twice on the same day, but on successive Mondays — the
two last Mondays in August ; and he took on himself all responsibility
in regard to the collar. The council of protection fined Mr. Noyes
£10 for putting on the collar; and £10 for giving a second flogging
before the first had healed; and dismissed the matter If We have

* A very important document, highly creditable to the Colonial Secretary
Lord Goodrich, has just appeared respecting this affecting case. (See House of
Commons paper for 1830 — 1. No. 91.) We hope to give its substance in our
next.

" f In our first number, we explained to our readers, that a council of protec-
tion is a mere court of enquiry, and has no authority whatever to try, or acquit,
or condemn. The duty of these magistrates as a council of protection, was
simply to inquire whether or not there were grounds for the prosecution of the
master ; and how, with the law in their hands, they could take upon themselves

Liber tinistn of Jamaica. 137

given at present only a brief detail of the case, but we may probably
resume the discussion of it. In the meantime, we call the attention
of our readers to the fact ; that the infliction of two very severe
floggings for the same ofi^ence was established, by the admission of the
master, and the decision of the court; and yet, that the sentence was
founded only on the circumstance of the last flogging having been
given before the other had healed. It is therefore to be presumed, that
the magistrates considered the infliction of two punishments, each to
the full extent of the law, for the same offence, in itself legal. We
think this case important on another ground, because it shews that ex-
cessive severity of infliction (which must have been the case here, when
Mr. Lanibie saw ' large spaces of raw flesh, as large and white as his
hand, on both parts of the man's body,') is not, any more than the
repetition of it, considered illegal by the magistrates. Now, in the
answer of the House of Assembly to Mr. Huskisson's despatch, in
1827, it is remarked, ' that if thirty-nine, or any other number of
lashes are inflicted in a cruel manner, the master is liable to exemplary
punishment.' How are we to reconcile this statement with the decisions
of the magistracy in the cases to which we have adverted, and with the
practice throughout the country ? ' But,' it may be replied, ' in all
these cases the law may have been misunderstood, or evaded, by the
authorities.' Grant this ; still we answer, that it is sufficient to estab-
lish our position, if we shew the construction which the law admits of,
in the opinion of those who are the judicial, and ordinary, interpreters
of it. It equally points out the necessity for more explicit and humane
enactments.

" We leave these cases to make their own impression, and we are
confident that if our fellow-colonists will only lay aside, for a moment,
their blind prejudices on this subject, and examine them impartially,
and with attention, they will agree with us, that there exists an im-
perious necessity for the abridgement of a power, so destructive to the
peace and happiness of the peasantry of the country." lb. p. 96 — 99.

One of the most striking papers in this work, is an article entitled
Libertinism of Jamaica. We cannot transcribe the whole of it, but
must be content with a few extracts.

" The excessive prevalence in this island," they observe, " of an unblushing
libertinism among all ranks, from the very highest to the very lowest — the effron-
tery v^ith which it stands forth to public notice — the callous hardihood with which
it is upholden and avowed — are calculated, when fully exposed, to excite the
abhorrence of all pious and moral men against a community, in which a species
of crime, so black and so deeply degrading, is not only tolerated, but universally
cherished ! What will our fellow-subjects in Great Britain feel towards us, when
the picture is faithfully laid before them ?

" Let us endeavour for a moment, to raise the veil from before this disgusting
picture. The simple facts are notorious to us who have lived here for some years, but

summarily to convict, we are at a loss to determine. We presume, however,
that on the principle of conceaUng all flagrant cases of cruelty, which actuates
so many men in the colony, they thought it more prudent to overstep the line of
their duty, as a council of protection, in one respect, by awarding a trifling
punishment, which they had no right to inflict, than simply to act up to it by
sending the case before the world in the shape of a prosecution.

s

138 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colunial Slavery.

few persons, if any, have had the boldness to notice them pubUcly, and our fellow-
countrymen in England have no adequate idea of them. They hardly know that
from the governor (we speak not of the present one) to the slave, an organised system
of open and shameless concubinage has prevailed for generations past, and still
prevails throughout the whole mass of society — exhibiting a congregated accumu-
lation of the grossest moral putrescence, that perhaps any place on the whole
earth can present to view. With the exception of those who are married, (and
not always those) and a few rare instances, members of council, members of
assembly, custodes of parishes, magistrates, common-councilmen, vestrymen, mer-
chants, masters in chancery, doctors, judges, barristers, attornies, proprietors and
attornies of estates, overseers, bookkeepers, clerks, tradesmen, whites, browns,
blacks — all in short have every man his ' housekeeper,' (Jamaica parlance) esta-
blished in open whoredom, living inhis house or attached to it according to circum-
stances. Those connected with the wealthy live in splendour and notoriety, and all
are kept without the slightest attempt at concealment. In the towns they are openly
and avowedly installed in the houses of the great ; the residences of almost all, from
the chief magistrates to those of the lowest grade, presenting the same exhibition —
a mistress and coloured children in abundance. In the country, the proprietors'
mansions exhibit the same features. The overseers' houses have their establish-
ment, and each bookkeper and servant, in more humble imitation, has his atten-
dant. The attorney for estates has his own peculiar friend on the property
favoured with his residence, and a variety of similar subsidiary attachments, pro-
portioned to the number of places under his charge. There is no exaggeration
here. From Morant Point to Negril, this is the system that covers the land."

" The degrading influence of the system on all ranks of the community, is ma-
nifest to the commonest observation. The tone of mere morals is lowered to the
lowest possible degree consistent with the existence of society ; and we confidently
appeal to facts, and to the experience of every sensible and unprejudiced man, be he
religious or not, for the taith of the remark. Indeed let us ask what, generally speak-
ing, is considered in J amaica as moral or immoral ? What is the standard of morality ?
And the absolute inability to give a satisfactory answer, otherwise than to say that
there is no morality, and no standard, except every man's mere will, and the re-
straint of mutual convenience, demonstrates how dreadfully deteriorated the
whole society is. — A few facts are better than argument. Seduction, for example,
is not esteemed a crime in any part of Jamaica. This is proved by its absolute
universality, and by the fact that no lowering in general estimation, in the slightest
degree, of either seducer or seduced takes place. On the contrary, the father
permits, actually permits and encourages his friend to seduce his daughter, of
which we can produce twenty instances in Kingston alone. Neither father, mo-
ther, daughter, nor seducer, suffers in the least — nay, our society has, in its prin-
cipal ranks, men who have so acted, or been sharers, directly or indirectly, in
such transactions. Such in fact are the men who are seated at the tables, and
admitted into the society, of married men of the first station. Such are the men
who fill our ball rooms, and lead to the dance females of the chief rank and pre-
sumed virtue. Such are the men who, while living themselves in open shame,
address themselves to modest women for marriage, when it has become convenient,
and are accepted without compunction, and without their having made even a
pretence of repentance, or change of principle. Such are the men, in whose
houses the Earl of Belmore himself and his countess take up occasionally their
abode.* Again, in a courtof justice we have seen a senator, openly in evidence and
on oath, speaking of his famili/ connexions, and publishing his shame ; and neither
bench, bar, nor public at all surprised, even at the simple impudence of the dis-
closure. But that we expect that our publication may be read by strangers to
the colony, it is a waste of ink to prove the position advanced, that seduction is

" * We do not assert that they have any knowledge of the facts. We vnslf only
to shew the station in society which the individuals hold."

Libertinism of Jamaica. 139

no crime in Jamaica ; almost nine out of ten houses in the towns, and almost every
estate and property throughout the country, containing multitudinous demon-
strations of the fact. But further — so far from being regarded as a crime, it has
been rather considered as honourable, if not meritorious ; and formerly it was
universally, and still is extensively, the feeling among coloured females, that
the state of concubinage was far more respectable, and more to be desired
than that of marriage ; the idea of the latter, if it gained admission to the
thoughts, being ridiculed rather than indulged. If we consider the im-
mense number of persons of that class who feel thus, and act upon the
feeling, some estimate may be made of the enormity of the evil. Advert-
ing further to the practice of the great body of coloured men, who for the
most part (besides the guidance of their own propensities, unchecked by any
example or public restraint) have been led by a natural imitation of their fathers
and superiors in rank, another body of proof is given of the honour done to this
vice. But the weightiest proof, surrounded with the darkest shades, is still be-
hind in the prevalence of the system among the great body of the slave popula-
tion. The master himself, who is responsible to God for the souls of his people,
either lives with some coloured female, perhaps one of his own slaves, or he sys-
tematically seduces every attractive object among his people. It is for the most
part considered by the people themselves an honour and a privilege, and is
attended with substantial advantages to them and their friends. The attornies
and overseers, almost to a man, and the book-keepers, as far as their influence
enables them, pursue the same system. If a married proprietor resides on his
estate, he permits his overseer and white servants to do so without rebuke. Be
it remembered that out of upwards of three hundred thousand slaves in Jamaica,
two hundred and fifty thousand at least are field slaves. Consider then that the
example of their masters, attornies, and overseers, will have its full effect in
governing their own practice, independently of other causes. So that by way of
summary, we may say, that among a mixed population of four hundred thou-
sand, probably upwards of three- fourths of the adults are united in giving honour
to seduction and impurity, over 'marriage' and the 'bed undefiled.' The extent
of the influence on the tone of morals, in every other respect, which such a
reduction of the standard on this point must exercise, can hardly be estimated ;
but we may fairly attribute to it, in a great degree, the almost total absence of any
thing like morality among the people. Sabbath-breaking, blasphemy, infidelity,
alienation from God, extortion, covetousness, strifes, contentions, cruelties, per-
vade the length and breadth of the land : for the habitual and wilful breach of
one of God's laws overturns the barrier of the whole, and renders obedience to
any of the rest a matter of mere chance and convenience.

" Such is a faint representation of this glaring evil and its fruits; and with the
facts before our eyes, we would address a few words to those around us, and
those at a distance, who are interested in, or connected with, our society."

We wish we had time to follow the able writer through the address
which he founds on these terrific facts, to " the Christian Proprietors
of Estates ;" to "the men and women of colour" to his " white fellow-
Colonists;" to his "virtuous countrywomen,'' and to "the Clergy."
But we must abstain, and confine ourselves to a single sentence.

" And now," he asks, " what has any man to say against these truths, or in
support of his daring rebellion against that God, 'who can destroy both body
and soul in hell? ' Surely nothing. No pleas of expediency, convenience, or
necessity, however speciously alleged, will do. They are false and hollow
in themselves — mere clouds to hide the impurity within. Is poverty, or the ex-
pense, the plea against marrying respectably ? Why the answer is palpable
and conclusive ; that what supports two people in an unhallowed union, would
do it in a virtuous one ; and pride and vain glory are no excuses for breaking
the law of God."

140 The Chrcstian Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery .

Now, be it recollfccted, that all these details extracted from the
Christian Record, have been written and pubUshed,not in England, but
in Jamaica; and that the authors of that work challenge the whole
community among whom they reside, to controvert their truth, and
even offer to admit into their pages any evidence that shall prove them
to be unfounded.*

We shall confine ourselves to a single extract more from the pages
of this valuable work. It is contained in the first number, and pro-
fesses to be an authentic copy of the Minutes of Evidence taken before
the St. Ann^s Council of Protection, in the case of the Slave Kitty
Hylton's complaint against her Master, the Rev. G. W. Bridyes.f

'"At a council of protection, holden this ISth April, 1829, before the hon.
Henry Cox, custos, and other justices and vestrymen of the parish of St. Ann,
Kitty llylton, a slave belonging to the Rev. Mr. Bridges, came for%vard and
complained against her said owner for having maltreated her. The Rev. G. W.
Bridges was cited to appear, but in consequence of severe indisposition he could
not attend. Having heard the evidence of Kitty Hylton, ii was resolved, that
in consequence of Mr. Bridges' indisposition, and the evidence warned not at-
tending, Kitty Hylton should be remanded to the workhouse, to be taken care of
and not worked, until a special vestry shall meet on the Uth May, and that all
parties should be summoned to appear on that day.

*' ' At a council of protection holden this 11th May, 1829, before the hon.
Henry Cox, custos, kc. Kilty Hylton, a slave belonging to the Rev. G. W.
Bridges, was brought forward in pursuance of the above written order. The
several notices having been duly served, the council of protection proceeded to
investigate the said charge.

" ' Kitti/ Jiijlton sworn. — States that she belongs to the Rev. Mr. Bridges,
rector of St. Ann's. On Friday, after breakfast, went to her master in the
library, and asked what he would have for dinner, who asked what witness had
done with all the turkeys ; had the turkey killed about 2 o'clock, p. m. When
he saw it killed master was angry ; took her into the pantry, and nailed witness
against the dresser in the pantry, and kicked her with his foot. Witness begged
not to be kicked so severely, as she would buy another turkey, and have it for
the Sunday's dinner. Being asked if any one was present, .she said Miss
Moreland. Was kicked for upwards of an hour; master said he wished he
could see her a corpse, as he hated her so. Called old Charles to pick the

* If the reader will turn to the pamphlet entitled " Negro Slavery, or a View
of the more prominent features of that state of Society as it exists in the United
States, in the West Indies, and especially in Jamaica," published by the Anti-
Slavery Society in 182.3, he cannot but be struck with the identity of of its state-
ments with those now brought forward by Mr. Trew and the Christian Record.
The same remark applies to Mr. Stephen's Delineation of Slavery.

" f On the 1.5lh of April, 1829, the Record states, a council of protection was
assemlJed to investigate Kitty Hylton's complaint against her owner, Mr. Bridges,
due notice having been given to hirn. In consequence of alleged indisposition he
did not appear, and the council of protection was adjourned to the 1 1th of May ;
but not before Kitty Hylton had detailed fully the particulars of her complaint.
Notice of the adjournment was also given to Mr. Bridges. We mention these
facts to shew that he was not taken by surprise, but had ample means and oppor-
tunity afforded him, as well of ascertaining the precise nature of the allegations,
as of procuring evidence to rebut them.

" On the lull of May the council of protection again met, and Mr. Bridges
and the witnesses attended ; and we request that our readers will seriously and
impartially weigh the effect of the proceedings, recorded as they are in the books
of the vestry of St. Ann's — as a monument of the ample protection of the slave ! "

Evidence in the Case of Mr. Bridges and his Slave Kitty Hylton. 141

largest bundle of bamboo switches he could find, which he did ; master fol-
lowed lier and old Charles to the cow pen, and liad her laid down ; he was
standing over witness beating her with a stick, and telling the man to cut
all the flesh off" her ; was going to lie down on the grass, but was ordered
off to the rocks. When master had done flogging her, and witness rose up,
the blood was running do^\-n her heels ; he ordered old Charles to run her
down to tlie pond, and went as ordered ; washed her skin and the blood
off her clothes. Did your master follow you ? No, lie stopped at the cow-
pen. That on her return from the pond her master was pelting her up to
the house with stones. The pond can be seen from the house ; it was about
two o'clock in die day: was struck by her master ai the cow-pen. On her
return from the pond to the house her master was following hev with a stick, but
as he could not catch her he continued pelting her ; on her return to the house
the blood gushed out as bad as ever. Her mistress called for a kettle of water,
which she went to take up. She met her master, he gave her a kick, and told her
to go out and change her clothes. He followed her into the washhouse and beat
her tliere with a stick, and as he was beating her, witness begged and said she had
only two suits, but one was dirty and one was on. He went out of the wash-
house, and locked her up in it, and returned and brought an oznaburgh frock, and
said witness must put it on, and pull otf the one she had on, and made witness
carry it with the handkerchief oftlier head into the kitchen and burn it. Her master
remained there until they were burnt. Mr. Taylor was in the kitchen, and before the
gown ivus done burning, JMists I\Iorrland eanic into the kitchen. Afterwards she
was ordered to cook dinner, and afterwards her master continuing to beat her,
she could not bear it, and she went away, (about five o'clock, p. m., not quite an
hour after the clean frock was put on her) and walked part of the night to Mr.
Raffington's. Miss Steer was in the house and saw witness after her return from
being flogged. Went to Mr. llaftington's and saw him, he was coming down
to Nutshell. He ordered her to come down to his residence at Nutshell on Sun-
day morning, and that he would see her master on Sunday and would speak to
her master. Mr. Ratfington told witness her master had consented to sell her.
On Tuesday morning she went to Mr. Charles Smidi, and he consented to pur-
chase her. On Wednesday morning her master sent for her, being the day she re-
turned from Richmond, and was carried home that day ; he sent a horse, but she
could not ride ; was returning to Mr. Raffington's houso with Mr. Saunders,
who had Mr. Smith's letter, but was hindered from going there by JNIr. Saunders,
who said Mr. Ratfington had ordered that she should not put her foot near his
yard, as she should have gone home before. Went home, Saunders having left
her with the man that was sent for her. Her master did not see her that night ;
got fever, and was lying out of doors. Mr. Coley told witness her master had
desired him to tie her two hands behind her, and put her in the watchman's hut
under the charge of old Charles, which he did. Heard that her master intended
sending her to St. Tiiomas' in the \\ale workhouse from INlr. Coley ; found she
could not bear such punishment, and escaped about three o'clock in the morn-
ing, and went to Industry, having contrived to get loose, and reached there about
four, p. M., on die same day.

" ' Miss Moreland * sworn. — States that she was in the pantry, where sl\o saw-
Mr. Bridges and Kitty Hylton, who was .struck or kicked bi/ him ; but had not
seen any previous flogging. Kitty Hylton said that her master had desired lier
to kill a turkey, and her master said he had not ; but she insisted on it. Saw tJie
woman after she was flogged ; she showed her punishmeyit to witness at a distance ;
she was in the same clothes she had on as diose in which she was sent down to
be flogged ; s/ic saw the clothes burned. Mr. Bridges continued in the pantry
wiUi Kitty Hylton, until the switches were brought up, but she did not see them.

" ' Cross-examined. — She is very provoking; and insolent is the general con-
duct of Kitty Hylton. Being asked if she knew any particular instance of
insolence towards her master and mistress, she declines answering the question.

* Governess in Mr. Bridges' family.

142 The Christian Record of Jamaica on Colonial Slavery.

" ' John Colen ^ sworn. — Knows the woman ; he has been residing with Mr.
Bridges three months, and knows she is a troublesome woman in the house;
knows Mr. Bridges punished her once during that period. Witness ordered her
to be tied on her return, and gave her in charge to the watchman, from whom she
escaped; did not tell the woman she was to be sent to St. Thomas in the Vale
workhouse ; could not, as he knew nothing about it.

" ' Cross-examined.— Saw Mr. Bridges once strike her for insolence ; the
watchman tied her ; was insolent to Mr. Bridges before he struck her ; went at
day-light in search of the woman, and she was gone; sent a watchman in quest.
Have often heard her insolent to Mr. Bridges ; witness is apt to hear her insolence
more than any one else ; has heard her say to Mr. Bridges, ' I will do it when I
think proper,' when ordered by him to perform any duty. There xvtre no marks
on her face; saw her after her punishment; there were no marks on her neck;
would have seen them, as the gown was sufficiently low. She was tied, in case
she should go away, when she was brought back, and he ordered her to be tied
by the watchman where there was a good fire. Witness din not perceive any
black eye, or marks of violence about her neck.

" ' Thomas Raffington, Esq. sworn, — Kitty Hylton came to witness on Satur-
day morning the 4th ; a servant came and told witness a sick woman wanted to
see him ; saw her and her situation ; never saw a female in such a situation ; had
seen the woman before, but did not know her ; desired her to remain at his resi-
dence ; she came to Nutshell. Witness spoke to Mr. Bridges, and requested him
to consent to sell her, which he said he would; afterwards desired her to remain
at Nutshell, and left a woman to take care of her, but she went away. Witness
did not examine her particularly, but she was terribly lacerated, and never saw a
ivoman so ill-treated. Mr. Raffington said he had not ordered her to Nutshell.

" * Charles Smith, Esq. sworn. — On Tuesday morning met Kitty Hylton, and
asked her what was the matter; she said, her master had ' most killed her.'
Witness did not recognise her; she said she was going to Mr, Smith to buy her.
Witness told her to go to Richmond and wait his return ; when witness saw the
woman, she had received a severe punishment, but did not examine her particu-
larly. Several letters read, shewing a disposition to sell the woman to Mrs.
Smith.

" ' Dr. Stennet sworn. — States the woman had two black eyes. When the
woman was sent to the workhouse witness examined her, and saw severe marks
of punishment. If the woman had thirty-nine, she would not have been healed
so soon.

." ' J. Harker sworn. — Saw the woman on the morning of Wednesday. Had
heard a report of a woman being severely flogged. Examined her ; her eyes were
black, as if she had received a severe blow ; her posteriors were very much cut
up ; on the inner part of her thigh on each there were several black marks.

" ' The Hon. Henry Cox sworn. — Kitty Hylton came to witness to complain
against her master, Mr. Bridges. She was very much injured; saw her bruises ;
evidently switching from the nape of her neck to her posteriors. Her face and
thighs dreadfially bruised ; has never seen any thing so severe of the kind ; in
consequence, ordered her before a council of protection.

" ' Mr. Bridges called upon for his defence. Admitted he had ordered the
woman to be switched for her insolence, but denies that he went down _/rom his
house. On the contrary, he had sent her down to be switched by the watchman.

" ' Miss Steerf sworn. — Was at Mr. Bridges on the 2d April ; the dinner was
shamefully cooked, and a part of it was obliged to be sent away. Mr. Bridges
told her he should remember her. On the following day she killed a turkey,
saying to Mr. Bridges she had been ordered to do so. Mr. Bridges told her it
must have been a mistake ; heard she was to have been ])unished ; — switches were
sent for, and she was sent to the watchman for punishment ; saw Mr. Bridges
standing on the top of the hill.

* Servant to Mr. Bridges — ^butler, f Mr. Bridges' witness.

Miscellaneous Intelligence. — News from Jajnaica. 143

" Question to Mr. Colen by Mr. Bridges — ' Had I any other negvo than
Charles, or any other coloured person about me, to punish the woman V Replied

'■ No.'

" ' The justices and vestry having heard the evidence on behalf of Kitty Hylton,
and the evidence on behalf of the Rev. Mr. Bridges, on its being put to the vote
whether Mr. Bridges should be prosecitted or not, it was carried by a majority

of 13 to 4 AGAINST THE PROSECUTION.'

" Such was the result of this council of protection ! In forming a judgment
of the extent of the punishment, the instrument used should not be lost sight of —
the knotted bamboo, which, when used with any force, splits, and its sharp edges
cut like a knife. From any further commentary on the proceedings we at present
refrain, except to point out the decided corroboration of all the strong points of
the woman's statement by all the witnesses, and the absolute admission of them
in fact by the parties examined, and by Mr. Bridges himself, who heard them all
and denied them not ! It is lamentable, for the sake of the most ordinary hu-
manity, and for the sake of the country, that magistrates and vestrymen could
have been found to vote on such a case, founded on such evidence, as the
majority did. Their decision in itself was really of no importance on the merits
of the question ; for any magistrate might still have sent the case to the Attorney-
General ; and it was the duty of Mr. Cox, the custos, impressed as he was with
the conviction that there had been a flagrant violation of the law, to have done so ;
but when considered with reference to the long agitated question, whether or not
the general treatment of the slaves is as it should be, it liecomes of vital impor-
tance ; and if serious consequences to the colony should be the ultimate result
of this case, the community will justly have to blame these magistrates as the
cause." Record, No. l,p. 13 — 17.

III. — Miscellaneous Intelligence.

Wk have received a great mass of information from various slave
Colonies, but principally from Jamaica, since the last Reporter was
published. We can only glance at a few of the points which it em-
braces : —

The assembly of Jamaica, in their displeasure with the Government for
having rejected the Slave act of 1829, vi'ith its anti-christian clauses,
have resolved to take no step whatever to amend their slave law. That
of 1829 was proposed to be re-enacted in its former state, with the ex-
clusion simply of its persecuting provisions ; but after long debates,
which displayed not only an extraordinary degree of heat and asperity,
but gross ignorance of all constitutional principles, and the most deter-
mined hostility to all missionary efforts, it was thrown out by a majority
of 24 to 16. The Assembly are thus fairly at issue with the Govern-
ment and Parliament of this country. They seem to have felt the
perilousness of placing themselves in such a predicament ; having on
one side a numerous population of slaves, possibly excited by the
failure of all hope of seeing their condition alleviated ; and on the
other, the free black and coloured classes generally irritated by the con-
temptuous rejection of their claims to equal rights, and openly proclaim-
ing their willingness to accede to the wishes of Government on the sub-
ject of slavery ; and they could not therefore but be alarmed at the
prospect of standing alone in a conflict with the Government, and also
with both the free black and coloured classes, and the slaves. It appears
to be under some such impression that, in despite of all their ancient and
most inveterate prejudices, they have carried through all its stages, with

144 Miscellaneous Intelligence.

unusual celerity, a bill for conferring on all free black and coloured per-
sons the same privileges, civil and political, with the white inhabitants.
This measure, we have no doubt, will prove in its consequences a most
auspicious one, whatever may have been its motive. The free classes
are too strong in their allegiance to be drawn in to join the whites in a
contumacious resistance to the Government, and therefore this precipi-
tate change of policy cannot but prove highly beneficial in its results to
the general interests of humanity. The Assembly have offered, it is
true, a high bribe to the black and coloured classes, by removing all their
disabilities — but we think they have formed a most mistaken estimate of
those classes if they expect their support in any measures of resistance
to the Government and Parliament of this country. Their passions, we
are persuaded, have here deluded them. We nevertheless rejoice ex-
ceedingly in the event.

The Assembly appear greatly alarmed also by the freedom with which
the periodical press of the Island, and particularly the Watchman and
the Christian Record, canvass the conduct of the planters, and the
nature and effects of slavery, and a bill has been brought in to restrain
it, which has excited very general opposition, particularly on the part
of the free black and coloured people. The bill proposes to give sum-
mary power to magistrates to enter printing-houses and seize types,
papers, &c., and it inflicts on any one convicted of publishing seditious
libels, the punishment of transportation for life. Should such a law
pass in the Island, it could only live until it reached England, where it
must of necessity be disallowed.

The House of Assembly was suddenly and unexpectedly prorogued
by the Governor, probably to give them time to reflect calmly on their
peremptory rejection of all improvement in their slave code.

Messrs. Lecesne and Escoffery, whose names and whose sufierings
are familiar to our readers, had returned to Jamaica, after an exile of
seven long years, and after having received the redress they had sought,
from the justice of this country, for the cruel injuries they had sus-
tained from the government of Jamaica. Their return was hailed with
the utmost joy by the free black and coloured inhabitants.

We deeply regret the necessity under which Mr. Buxton has been
placed, by circumstances both unforeseen and uncontrollable, to postpone
his motion on Colonial Slavery, from the 1st to the 29th of March.

An Index, Title page, 8fc., for the '3d Volume of the Anti-Slaverij
Reporter, are now printed, and may be had; on application to the
Society's Secretary or Clerk, at 18, Aldermanhury .

S. Bagster, Jun. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close,

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 77.] MARCH 1, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 5.

I. Sequel of the Case of Henry Williams, of Jamaica.

II. Escheated Slaves, and other Slaves, the Property of the

Crown.

III. Extracts FROM THE Jamaica Watchman. 1. Mr. Barclay. 2. Mr,
Wordie. 3. Slave Law. 4. Samuel Sioiney. 5. Lecesne, ^-c. 6. Mr,
Thorpe.

IV. Memorial of West India CoMMrxTEE.

V. The Christian Remembrancer.

I. — Sequel of the Case of Henry Williams, of Jamaica,

Our readers cannot have failed to bear in their memories the atro-
cious case of Henry Williams, a slave, that was cruelly persecuted,
and tortured almost to death, by a Jamaica magistrate of the name of
Betty, who, if not instigated to the outrage of which he had been guilty
by the Rev. G. W. Bridges, acted nevertheless, it appears, with his
privity and approbation. The facts of this case are detailed in our
preceding volume. No. 65, p. 356. Those facts having been made
known by the Wesleyan Mission Society to Sir George Murray, he
required Lord Belmore, the governor of Jamaica, to call on Mr. Betty
and Mr. Bridges for an explanation of their conduct. In the No. 69,
of the same volume, p. 431, we gave the determination of Mr. Betty
to afford no explanation on the subject. Since that time, the corre-
spondence upon it, between the local government and the Secretary
of State, has been laid before the House of Commons, and printed, by
an order of the 23d December, 1830, in a paper numbered 9L As
the tenor of this document has been most grossly misrepresented, by
the West India Reporter, the organ of the West India Committee, it
seems incumbent upon us to obviate the misrepresentation, by a
clear analysis of its contents.

We need not go over the statement of the facts of the case, as
brought before Government by the Wesleyan Mission Society. The)
are precisely those which we have already described. Neither need
we repeat the evasive reply of Mr. Betty, in which, without attempting;
to deny a single allegation of the Society, he absolutely refuses to
render to the Secretary of State any explanation of his conduct. The
sequel of this matter, as well as the real bearing of the whole case, will
be best understood by transcribing two letters to Earl Belmore from
the Secretary of State, Viscount Goderich, which form a part of this
correspondence. The first is dated from Downing Street, 9th Decem-
ber, 1830, and is as follows :

"-■My Lord. — Your despatch, dated the 27th of August last, enclos-
ing a copy of a Report from the Attorney General of Jamaica, founded

■ 146 Case of the Slave Henry Williams.

on the answers of the Rev. Mr. Bridges and of Mr. Betty, to the
charges preferred against them by Mr. Whitehouse, (the Methodist
missionary,) has been received at this department.

" I observe that your Lordship entertained the intention of caUing
upon Mr. Whitehouse to substantiate his complaint against Mr. Betty,
by transmitting authentic documents, verified on oath, to the Crown-
office, ' when,' your Lordship adds, ' proceedings will be adopted,
consonant with the principles of British judicature, to obtain a full
and impartial investigation of the matter, so as to ensure a legal con-
viction or acquittal.'

" Your Lordship will do me the justice to believe that I am not less
zealous than yourself to maintain, in all the acts of the executive Govern-
ment, a steady adherence to those principles of impartial justice of
which the ' British judicature' is the great security. I am bound to
add, that I cannot discover in the conduct of my predecessor in office,
in this case, any indication of a disregard of that principle. The con-
stitutional rights of every class of His Majesty's subjects in Jamaica
are, I cheerfully admit, not less sacred than those of the correspond-
ing classes of society in Great Britain; and His Majesty will not,
upon the advice of his ministers, ever assume any authority over the
colonial magistracy which he is not entitled to exercise over the ma-
gistrates of England. The office, both in the colony and in the
mother country, being gratuitous, and attended as it is in both with
much inconvenience and even risk, the thanks of His Majesty's Go-
vernment, and of the public at large, are justly due to those gentle-
men who undertake, and faithfully execute, so onerous a duty. It
must not, however, be forgotten, that the magistracy is a trust, of
which the Crown, through its proper officers, is entitled to demand an
account. A justice of the peace may often make an improper use of
his powers, without exposing himself either to an action or an indict-
ment, or he may, by personal misconduct unconnected with his judi-
cial duties, render himself vmfit to bear His Majesty's commission.
When such cases occur in England, either the Lord Chancellor or the
Secretary of State for the Home Department habitually demands from
the magistrate accused an explanation of his conduct ; and such ap-
plications are never, so far as I am aware, resented by the gentlemen
to whom they are addressed as injurious or unconstitutional. I do
not perceive, therefore, with what propriety Mr. Betty, while profess-
ing deference to the Secretary of State, can peremptorily refuse to
answer his inquiries.

" Mr. Betty can scarcely mean to represent, that the charge
preferred by Mr. Whitehouse was of so insignificant a nature
that even if true it should not have attracted the attention of His
Majesty's Government. He was accused of threatening to send his
slave to gaol if he continued to teach among the Methodists, and with
repeating that threat to the whole body of his negroes. He was re-
presented as having inflicted a very severe flogging on the sister of
his slave, Henry Williams, because she sighed on hearing this threat
addressed to her brother. He was reported to have carried his threats
against Henry Williams into execution,by imprisoning him in Rodney

Lord GodericKs Letter to Lord Belmore. 147

Hall workhouse, in chains, until he was at the point of death. The
slave was said to have been so cut up with severe floggings, that for
several weeks his life was despaired of, and he was ' obliged to lie
upon his stomach day and night, his back being a mass of corruption,'
Mr. Betty was further accused of having ordered the confinement in
prison of a female slave of Mr. Whitehouse's, with an iron collar about
her neck. Lastly, he was said to have preferred against the slave
Henry Williams a false and calumnious charge of theft. Your Lord-
ship will not understand me as intimating any opinion of the truth of
these imputations ; but if, for the sake of argument, they were sup-
posed to be true, Mr. Betty's dismission from the magistracy would of
course be inevitable. It is evident, therefore, that their truth or
falsehood was a fact into which Sir George Murray was not merely
entitled, but was strictly bound to inquire.

" Mr. Betty professes his readiness to meet any charge which may
be preferred against him in a court of justice, where, he says, his
actions will be investigated before a legal tribunal of twelve honest
men. I cannot admit, in the present case, the validity of this excuse
for declining to give the explanations required by my predecessor in
this office. Your Lordship will observe, that Mr. Betty is not so much
accused of acts positively illegal, as of a cruel and unjust use of his
legal powers. I am not aware that he could be put on his trial in any
court of justice for the threats which he is said to have addressed to
his slaves respecting their religious observances. In his own domestic '
establishment he is, I apprehend, by the colonial law, a judge without
appeal of the faults imputed by himself to his slaves, and if he really
thought fit to flog a woman because she sighed at hearing her brother
threatened, such an act of power, revolting though it may be to every
just feeling, would hardly constitute an indictable offence. Even the
imprisonment and the severe floggings of Henry Williams are matters
not cognizable, to any practical effect, in the courts of Jamaica, be-
cause the master's right to whip, and even to imprison his slaves, is
undisputed, and because every court must, in such a state of law,
presume that the punishment inflicted was really deserved, unless the
contrary can be shown. It is not said that Henry Williams ever re-
ceived a greater number of stripes than the law allows ; and to prove
that no offence was committed justifying severe punishment, would be
to establish a negative, in its own nature scarcely susceptible of proof.
The shocking consequences which resulted from his punishment might,
obviously, in a man of delicate health, be produced by a whipping
which should not exceed the legal limitation. Mr. Betty's appeal to
the legal tribunals of the colony, in justification of his silence on this
occasion, is, I therefore think, not fairly made.

" It must further be remembered, that the court and jury before
whom alone Mr. Betty will submit to have his conduct tried, could
not fairly investigate the case, because the law of the island has dis-
qualified the only persons to whom the facts are intimately known,
from giving evidence respecting them. So long as the legislature of
the colony shall maintain the distinction between the evidence of
slaves and of free men, the gentlemen of Jamaica must be content to

148 Case of the Slave Henry Williams.

tjear the incoHvenience to which such a state of law must subject
them. They must not be surprised if the acquittals of the colonial
courts fail to convince mankind of the innocence of the accused
party: and persons invested with any public trust must be called
upon for exculpations which, under a different system of law, it might
be unjust to require.

" It is further to be noticed, that the Secretary of State has no
power to compel Mr. Whitehouse to prosecute Mr. Betty ; and there
may be very sufficient reasons why Mr. Whitehouse, without any im-
peachment of his character, might decline the office of prosecutor.
With the most conclusive moral evidence, he might be defeated, if
his witnesses were- slaves ; or in the humble condition of life to which
he belongs, Mr. Whitehouse may not have the funds necessary for
conducting a prosecution, I therefore cannot concur in the accuracy
of your Lordship's judgment, that this case was sufficiently disposed
of by requiring Mr. Whitehouse to send depositions on oath to the
Crown-office.

" I have entered thus largely into this subject from my anxiety to
place your Lordship in full possession of the principles by which the
conduct of His Majesty's Government will be guided in the present
and in every similar case. While, on the one hand, they will never
attempt to withdraw from the established courts any question pro-
perly falling within their cognizance, or to anticipate the judgment
of those tribunals, they will, on the other hand, demand from every
person holding a commission from the crown, an answer to any spe-
cific charge preferred by a responsible person, and which, though
not capable of a satisfactory investigation in a court of law, may
seriously affect the reputation and character of the public officer so
accused.

" Above all, as the only means of mitigating in any degree the evils
inseparable from slavery, they will in no case consent to the authority
of a magistrate being suffered to remain in the hands of any person
who cannot satisfactorily show that no ground exists for imputing to
him a want of humanity, either in his official capacity or as a pro-
prietor of slaves. It is to the magistrate alone that the latter have to
look for protection from the abuse by their masters of the almost un-
limited power they possess. This protection it is his first duty to
afford, and if, instead of doing so, he is himself under just suspicion
of undue severity, he is evidently unfit for his situation.

" Your Lordship will have the goodness to communicate to Mr.
Betty a copy of the preceding parts of this despatch, acquainting him
that I earnestly hope he will retract his determination to withhold any
answer to the charges of Mr. Whitehouse, and fixing a time within
which that answer will be received, but at the same time apprising
him that if he should see fit to persist in maintaining silence on this
subject, his name will be erased from the commission of the peace,
not indeed as a man guilty of the offences laid to his charge, but as a
magistrate who deliberately withholds from the King's Government
that vindication of himself which it is at once their right and their
duty to require. Your Lordship will, Avithout further reference to this

Lord Goderich's Letter to Lord Behnore. 149

Office, erase the name of Mr. Betty accordingly, if unfortunately he
should not give the required explanations.

" Of course if any legal proceedings should have been taken
against Mr. Betty, no explanation must be demanded from him by
virhich he could be prejudiced in his defence, or which would involve
any question which may be awaiting the decision of any legal tribu-
nal. The preceding instructions have been given on the supposition
that Mr. Whitehouse would be unable or unwilling to prosecute, or
even that a prosecution may have failed, owing to the reasons already
adverted to.

" I concur with your Lordship in opinion, that the answers given
by the Rev. Mr. Bridges, as far as respects the punishment of his
own slaves, and the case of the slave named ' George, 'are satisfac-
tory. Yet even with reference to these cases, I cannot exclude the
remembrance of the fact that the alleged sufferers can neither sue for
damages, nor be heard as witnesses in a criminal prosecution, a state
of law which renders it impossible for the most innocent man effec-
tually to relieve himself from all suspicion when accused of injustice
or oppression towards persons in a state of slavery.

" I have not succeeded in discovering whether Mr. Bridges intends
to admit that he encouraged Mr. Betty to send Henry Williams to
gaol for attending a Methodist meeting. If Mr. Bridges did really
promote or countenance any such proceeding, he must allow me to
remind him that his laudable zeal for the interests of the Church of
England might be much more usefully and effectually exercised in
endeavouring to bring back Dissenters to her communion by gentle-
ness and persuasion. The inutility of all opposite methods, and the
certainty with which persecution counteracts its own design, are
truths which I had hoped it was quite superfluous to inculcate in the
present age of the world."

Immediately after this despatch had been transmitted to Lord
Belmore, the Secretary of State received some farther information on
•the subject from the Methodist Mission Society, which gave occasion
to his making the following further communication to Lord Belmore
dated the 11th of December, 1830.

" Since writing my despatch, dated the 9th instant, in the case of
the complaint of Mr. Whitehouse against Messrs. Betty and Bridges,
I have received from Dr. James Townley, the Secretary, as I under-
stand, of the Wesleyan Methodist Society, a letter, dated the 8th in-
stant, with various enclosures, copies of which I have the honour to
transmit for your Lordship's information.

" Your Lordship will have the goodness to ascertain, and to report
to me, whether the documents which Dr. Townley has transmitted
are accurate copies of the correspondence between your Lordship's'
Secretary and Mr. Whitehouse, and whether they embrace the whole of
that correspondence. Assuming (as I have no particular reason to doubt)
the authenticity of these copies, I cannot conceal from your Lordship
that I have read them with very sincere regret. They not only con-
firm the views which I had myself taken of the probable injustice of

150 Case of the Slave Henry Williams.

disposing of tiiis case by a reference to the legal tribunals, on the
responsibility of Mr. Whitehouse, but they show that the difficulties
to which I have adverted in my despatch of the 9th instant were
fully, though ineffectually, brought under your Lordship's' notice
by Mr. Whitehouse himself. I regret that the remarks of that gen-
tleman, though very clearly and forcibly stated, failed to produce in
your Lordship's mind a conviction of the unreasonableness of impos-
ing upon him the character of public accuser, which he so distinctly
disavowed, and that you were not satisfied of the weight of those rea-
sons by which he urged a reference of the case, either to the Attorney
General, or to the Council of Protection, for further inquiry. The
arguments of Mr. Whitehouse upon each of those topics do not, I
confess, appear to myself susceptible of any satisfactory answer.

" It would be exceedingly unjust were I to hold your Lordship re-
sponsible for the precise expressions of letters written not by yourself,
but by the Deputy Secretary of the island, in giving effect to your
instructions : yet I cannot forbear suggesting to your Lordship the
propriety of admonishing Mr. Bullock to avoid, for the future, in
official communications, apparently written with your Lordship's
sanction, the use of language calculated to inflict unnecessary, and
I must think, in the present case, unmerited pain. Thus, for ex-
ample, when Mr. Whitehouse's letter of the 15th of September was
characterised as ' diffuse and impertinent,' Mr. Bullock justly exposed
himself to the rebuke contained in Mr. Whitehouse's subsequent let-
ter, in which that gentleman obsei-ves that the use of such terms is
' scarcely consistent with civility, or the decorum of official corre-
spondence.' The word ' impertinent' might have been possibly un-
derstood as synonymous with the word ' irrelevant,' rather than in its
more harsh and ordinary sense ; and if such was the meaning, I can
only regret that Mr. Bullock did not disavow the more injurious con-
struction which Mr. Whitehouse very naturally gave to his language.
If these remarks should appear needlessly minute, your Lordship will
bear in mind that the weight of your own official and personal autho-
rity has been used, although probably without your immediate sanc-
tion, to give force to comments still more particular, on the language
and style of address adopted by Mr. Whitehouse. My sense of what
is due to a gentleman engaged in the highly meritorious and painful,
though ill-requited labours of a missionary, has drawn from me the
preceding observations, which have not been written without much
reluctance, because I feel that your Lordship may, perhaps, consider
them as involving some disapprobation of your official conduct.

" I trust that your Lordship will believe that I am desirous and
prepared on every occasion to afford you the utmost support and as-
sistance in my power, and that I am fully alive to the difficulties in
which you are placed, in the present times, in the discharge of the
important and delicate trust with which you have been invested by
His Majesty. But not even my disinclination to augment the em-
barrassment inseparable, in the present state of public opinion, from
the Government of Jamaica, is sufficiently strong to prevent my
pointing out to your Lordship, in the most distinct manner, the ne-

General Observations. 151

cessity of your affording your countenance and protection to the
ministers of religion, while conducting themselves inotTensively, and
the still more urgent necessity for a rigid and impartial scrutiny into
every such abuse of the owner's power as was brought to your notice
by Mr. Whitehouse in the case of Mr, Betty's slaves."

It would be impossible for us to do full justice to the haughty and
supercilious as well as flippant and uncandid tone, which mark the
official letters of the Governor's Secretary to this humble Missionary,
or to the dignified calmness, conscious rectitude, and sterling good
sense of his replications, without transcribing into our pages the whole
of their communications, which would swell the present article beyond
its due bounds. But this is rendered almost superfluous by the merited
and pointed rebuke bestowed on Mr. Bullock by the noble Secretary of
State, and by the just compliment he has paid to the acuteness,
intelligence, and manly conduct of Mr. Whitehouse, forming, as they
do, a most instructive contrast.

Again, what a revolting view of Colonial manners, and still more of
Colonial justice and humanity, does this correspondence exhibit ! All
ranks of public functionaries, from the highest to the lowest, com-
bining to uphold abuse and outrage, and to protect the perpetrators of
them from exposure and punishment, and clinging with the most
passionate attachment to those vile laws, which shut out the oppressed
from all protection against the power and cruelty of the oppressor.
Government and Parliament can no longer turn a deaf ear to the im-
ploring cry of the wretched sufferers. They can no longer forbear from
adopting measures to sweep away such abominations, and to make,
not the planters only, but magistrates, and judges, and governors to
feel that they can no longer, with impunity, persist in that course of
partiality, deception and delusion which has tended to prolong the
reign of a destructive despotism;— which permitted one noble gover-
nor, at the instigation of his advisers, to expatriate, in defiance of
all law and justice, and yet with perfect impunity, several of the most
deserving of the King's subjects in Jamaica ;* and which has now
combined the Government and magistracy of the same island, with the
aid of Mr. Secretary Bullock, to screen from punishment the oppres-
sors and persecutors of Christian Missionaries and their converts.
These things cannot be endured much longer. They must cease ere
long, together with the cruel and criminal system which they are de-
signed to uphold.

Of the part taken by Mr. Bridges in the case of Henry Williams,
or of his vapouring and evasive attempt at vindication, we need say
nothing. His character has already been sufficiently illustrated in
some former numbers, and especially in our last, where the original
minutes of evidence respecting his treatment of his female slave,
Kitty Hylton, will not fail remove all doubts which, might previously
have been entertained respecting him either as a man or as a Chris-
tian minister.

We allude to the case of Lecesne, EscofFery, and Gonville.

152

II. — Escheated Slaves, and other Slaves, the Property of the

Cko\v?s'.

If the reader will take the trouble of turning to our first volume. No.
19, p. 272, he will find a striking exemplification of the evils produced
in the West Indies by the system on which the British government had
too long proceeded in disposing of slaves escheated to the Crown
through intestacy, and the illegitimacy of the children and other re-
lations of intestates. The evil was one of great extent, and it had
gone on unchecked until brought to light chiefly by the instrument-
ality of Governor Maxwell, then of Dominica, about the time when
the recent discussions on Slavery commenced. It then appeared
from inquiry, that the numerous slaves who, chiefly through that pre-
vailing licentiousness which has filled the colonics with persons of
illegitimate birth, had from time to time escheated to the Crown, and
who, by becoming the property of the Crown, had recovered not merely
their original, natural, and inalienable right to freedom, but had ac-
quired, as the king's lieges, legal and constitutional claims to its
enjoyment, were either sold at auction by the Crown, into an inter-
minable bondage, in many of which cases the dearest domestic ties
were recklessly and cruelly torn asunder, (see No. 19, p. 272), the
price of this blood being paid into the king's treasury ;■ — -or they were
given up again, by an order of the Lords Commissioners of his Ma-
jesty's treasury, into the slavery from which they had been providen-
tially released, and assigned as bond-men and bond-women for ever
to the persons whose illegitimacy had barred their inheritance of them
as property. Various representations have been made at diflPerent
times to the Government on this subject, and various delays of office
have been interposed to prevent the final settlement of it on just and
equitable principles. At length, however, we rejoice to say that a
resolution has been recently adopted upon it by the present govern-
ment, (suggested previously by the humane mind of Sir G. Murray),
which is highly to their honour, and which aflTords the country aii
earnest of better views and feelings on the subject of Slavery, than
have at all times swayed our Colonial councils.

We shall first lay before our readers the final resolution adopted
by the Government on this subject, as it is contained in a letter from
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Hon. J. Stewart, to Viscount Howick,
Under Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, dated the
21st of January, 1831.

" My Lord, — Having laid before the Lords Commissioners of his
Majesty's Treasury your letter of the 9th December last, in reply to
one from this Board, on the subject of disposing of slaves escheated
to the Crown, I have it in command to acquaint your Lordship, for
the information of Viscount Goderich, that my Lords have fully con-
sidered his recommendation for the disposal of all slaves escheated to
the Crown, and they concur generally in the views which his Lordship
has expressed on that subject, viz. that slaves escheated to the Crown
ought to be dealt with in the same manner as slaves forfeited to the
Crown under the Slave Abolition Act, as set forth in the Circular
Letter from his Lordship's Department, addressed to the Governors of

Slaves Escheated to the Crown. 153

the several West India Colonies, on the 16th October 1828, respecting^
slaves condemned to the Crown, referred to in Mr. Twiss's letter of
the 6th April 1 830. A consideration of the equitable claims of parties
to the grant of escheated slaves has formed an impediment to any
general arrangement for granting freedom to escheated slaves ; but,
under all the circumstances, my Lords are of opinion that the claim
of the slave to receive his freedom from the King, after having become
legally the property of the Crown, is superior to the equitable claim
of any party to a grant of the slave, by the admission of which he
would be retained in slavery."

In conformity with this resolution a Circular Despatch, of 24th
January 1831, has been addressed by Lord Goderich to the Governors
of all the West India Colonies, except Jamaica, to this effect.

" Sir, — I enclose for your information copies of a correspondence
which has taken place between this Department and that of the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury on the subject of slaves escheated to
the Crown. In conformity with the decision which you will perceive
to have been taken by his Majesty's Government, you will cause any
slaves who may now be in the possession of the Escheator General
for the colony under your government, or of any other person holding
them for the Crown as escheated property, or any slaves who may
hereafter escheat to the Crown, to be forthwith liberated, and dealt
with in the same manner as the captured Africans whose liberation
was directed in Sir George Murray's Circular Despatch of the 16th
October 1828."

Why Jamaica should have been excepted is not very obvious; but it
is greatly to be regretted that it should have been found necessary to
make such an exception, because in that island the evil has been of
a magnitude and extent far exceeding in its proportion all the other
slave colonies. The number of slaves escheated to the Crown in that
island from 1807 to 1820, (paper of 1823, No. 347, p. 134, &c.)was
964, almost all of whom were either sold for the profit of the Crown,
or granted by patent as slaves to different individuals. A return of
the escheats since 1820 was called for by the House of Commons on
the 6th June 1825, to which no return has been made. Of this act
of disobedience the following singular explanation was given by the
Duke of Manchester, in his despatch of the 4th March 1826, (papers
of 1826, No. 353, p. 392). "I have not," says his Grace, " received
from the Solicitor of the Crown, a return of the number and names of
slaves escheated to the Crown, from the 1st January 1821," "al-
though he received notice on the 9th November last to furnish it, and
although an application to him on the subject was again made ; but
I understand he hesitates to comply with my directions, because his
account for furnishing a similar return in March 1823, has been re-
fused payment by the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury."
And who is this gentleman? And is he still the Sohcitor of the Crown ?
And have the Lords of the Treasury borne with his contumacy ? We
beg to call the attention of their Lordships to this refractory officer,
who, though intrusted with the escheats of the Crown, refuses to ren-

k

134 Slaves the Property of His Majesty.

der an account of his trust, till paid for a former return which it could
not have cost him above a few hours to transcribe, as it makes only
seven pages. Thus are the public served in Jamaica ! Is there then
no person there who is bound to render to the Crown, and to Parlia-
ment, some account of the disposal, involving the life and liberty,
of these wretched Escheats ? We trust the matter will no longer be
suffered to sleep ; but that a peremptory mandate will go forth to en-
force the demand of Parliament.

But besides the obvious propriety of extending to Jamaica the
principle which has at length been adopted with respect to Escheats
in other Colonies, we would take this opportunity of remarking, that
there is still another numerous class of individuals to whom the same
principle should forthwith be applied. We mean the large number
of persons, who are, at this moment, held by the Crown, in a state of
Slavery, in various Colonies, but who have as clear a title to freedom
as the escheated slaves, or the liberated Africans, to whom the Escheats
are now assimilated. Of these slaves of the British Crown, (we feel
shame in having so to term them) there are in the Mauritius alone
about 1350, in Grenada about 380, in Berbice 300, in Demerara 270,
in Trinidad, Antigua and Tobago about 170, making in all nearly
2500 souls. Ought these persons to remain any longer in their bond-
age ? Are they not at least as fit for freedom as the multitudes who
have already been raised to the enjoyment of it from the holds of
slave ships, both in the West Indies and at Sierra Leone ? Nay,
are they not unquestionably much more so, many of them being skilful
mechanics or practised house servants, and most of them being
Creoles? The real reason, we believe, for the continued detention of
these persons in bondage, is to be found in the selfishness of too many
of the public functionaries, in the different Colonies, who derive advan-
tage from their services as slaves, and who are therefore generally
opposed to their liberation, and are ready to bring forward all sorts
of untrue pretexts, to induce Government to delay this act of justice,
while the real reason is the convenience and profit which they them-
selves, at much expence to Government, and to the lasting injury of
the poor people, derive from this abuse. In the Mauritius alone
the governor has about a hundred of these Crown slaves in his esta-
blishment. In the same way have the Governors of Demerara and Ber-
bice been supplied with domestics and labourers ; many of them being
also distributed among the various functionaries, civil and military —
and as the expense is borne by the public, much waste and profusion
must be the consequence. — These slaves of the king ought all forthwith
to be declared free, and to have adequate portions of the Crown lands
assigned them. In Antigua, the Bahamas, Berbice, Demerara, Domi-
nica, Grenada, St. Vincent, Trinidad, and other Islands, there is an
abundance of such land still ungranted, of small portions of which
they might forthwith be put in possession, leaving it to them however
to make their election, as to whether they shall cultivate the ground, or
pursue, for their own profit, their present mechanical, or menial em-
ployments.— We perceive, in the paper now before us respecting es-
cheated slaves, a question incidentally mooted as to what shall be done

The Jamaica Watchman — Mr. Barclay — Mr. Wordie. 155

with nearly 400 slaves forfeited to the king in Grenada ; whether
they shall continue to be worked under the whip, as slaves, for his
benefit, on about 1000 acres of land, in the deathful occupation of
sugar planting ; or be given up as slaves to the heirs of those planters
who had incurred the forfeiture. It seems not to have occurred to
any one that the lands they now cultivate, as slaves of the Crown,
might be advantageously allotted to them ; and that they might be
thus converted into a free and happy peasantry, instead of continuing
as now a source of perpetual expence and embarrassment to the Trea-
sury ; of jobbing to individuals; of misery to themselves; and of dis-
grace to the Crown and to the country. We are persuaded that the
present Government only require to have the facts of this and similar
abuses placed before them to insure the application of an effectual re-
medy'.

III, — Extracts from the Jamaica Watchman,
1 , Ik several successive numbers of this work for October and
November last, is contained an able review of Mr, Alexander
Barclay's attempted refutation of Mr. Stephen's " delineation of Co-
lonial slavery," in which the deliberate misrepresentations and falsi-
fications of Mr. Barclay are very fully and satisfactorily exposed, and
justice done to the graphic accuracy of Mr, Stephen's statements.
We need not go over ground over which we have so often conducted
our readers. The appearance of such an article, however, in a
Jamaica journal, constitutes a fact worthy of being recorded. The Edi-
tors charge Mr. B, with having " wilfully and systematically garbled
the statements of Mr, Stephen, Unfairness and misrepresentation,"
they add, " mark every page of his laboured attempt to make ' the
worse appear the better reason,' and although rewarded by a seat in the
legislature of the Island," they deem him bound to come forward, and
at least endeavour to explain " the inconsistencies and contradictions of
which he has been guilty," If he refuses to do this, " there can be but
one interpretation put upon his silence, namely that, aware of the bad-
ness of his cause, and the impossibility of defending it against those
whose personal acquaintance with the minutiae of West India slave
management is equal to his own, he wisely refrains from provoking a,
discussion which must elicit facts utterly at variance with his asser-
tions," Watchman of Nov, 3, 1830.

2, The Watchman of the 10th Nov. 1830, contains some serious
representations respecting the conduct of the Rev. Mr. Wordie, the
minister of the Scotch Kirk in Kingston, which it certainly behoves
his superiors at home to investigate. We mention it for the purpose
of calling their attention to the subject, which is again renewed in the
Watchman of the 15th Dec. 1830. If the statements contained in
these two papers be correct, Mr. Wordie would appear to have laid
himself open to heavy censures from the Church to which he belongs.

3. " The disallowance of the slave law the House of Assembly de-
clares has disappointed their just expectations. How they will make
it appear that their expectations were either just or reasonable, we

156 The Jamaica Watchman — Slave Law — Samuel Swiney.

know not. Common sense, however, declares, that after his Majesty's-
ministers had expressed their determination not to advise the sanction-
ing of any law, which trenched upon the right of every British subject
to worship his Creator, in the way most congenial to his own feelings,
it was neither just nor right, nay, it was ridiculous and absurd in them
to suppose that because they thought differently, his Majesty's Go-
verment would depart from its uniform tolerant course, and gratify
their intolerant and vindictive feelings by consenting to a law which
has hatred to religion and religious teachers, intolerance, and perse-
cution, legibly impressed upon its front !

" It is really laughable to hear such men, as compose the Jamaica
Assembly, declaring in an address to the governor, that they ' con-
sidered that his Majesty's Government would at length be convinced
of the expediency of accepting for the slaves their concessions.'
His Majesty's Government ' convinced of the expediency of accept-
ing concessions,' from whom ? With few exceptions a company of
insolvent debtors ! ! Concessions ! The Assembly of Jamaica grant-
ing concessions to the British Government !" Watchman of Nov. 13,
1830.

4. In our third volume. No. 64, p. 341, an account is given of
the trial and conviction of a poor slave named Samuel Swiney,
for the crime of praying to God, for which crime he was sentenced
by Mr. Finlayson, the chief magistrate of Westmoreland, and then
Speaker of the House of Assembly, to a severe flogging and hard
labour in chains for a fortnight. 'In the Watchman of Nov. 20,
1830, is contained the following letter, respecting this individual,,
addressed to the Editor by the Baptist Missionary Mr. Knibb, which
we are persuaded our readers will peruse with satisfaction, as ex-
hibiting the triumph of persecuted piety.
"Sir,

" It is with much pleasure I inform you that the appeal made on be-
half of Samuel Swiney, which was published in the Struggler, and
copied into your valuable paper, has not been made in vain. By the
last Packet I have received a communication from a friend in London^
from which I extract the following paragraph : —

" The immediate object of my writing is to request that you will
take the promptest measures for the manumission of our persecuted
FRIEND AND BROTHER Samuel Sioincy , and draw on me for the
amount required.''

" It is but justice to add, that the owner, Aaron Deleon, junior,
Esq., has, throughout the whole of this disgraceful affair, acted in
the most noble and disinterested manner ; and on my making appli-
cation to him for the freedom of his slave, he instantly sent the papers
required, accompanied by a donation of £20 towards the emancipa-
tion of his persecuted servant.

" Requesting the publication of this, that my friends in England
may see that I have not lost any time in fulfilling their wishes.
" I remain. Sir, your obedient servant,

"WILLIAM KNIBB."

''Falmouth, Nov. 16, 1830.

The Jamaica Watchman — Lecesjie, Escoffery, and Gonville. 157

5. The Watchman of the 4th of December 1830, contains a full ac-
count of a public dinner given at Kingston, by the coloured inhabitants
of that city, to celebrate the return, from their long and cruel exile, to
their native land, to their families and friends, of Messrs. Leeesne,
Escoffery, and Gonville. The speeches made on the occasion reflect
great credit on the talents and principles, and still more on the right
feelings of the gentlemen who came forward. We can find room only
for one specimen, and it is taken from the speech of Mr. Leeesne him-
self. " Considering the circumstances under which we quitted this
island, and have now, after seven years' exile, returned to it, it may
be expected, as well by our opponents, as by our friends, that we
should offer some public expression of our feelings ; and we are
anxious to satisfy such an expectation, by openly declaring the grati-
tude we feel for the sympathy of the one class, and the sincere dis-
position we entertain to bury in oblivion the wrongs we have personally
sustained from the other. It is, indeed, not easy, on such an occasion
as this, to avoid giving utterance to expressions of that satisfaction
which must naturally fill our breasts ; but we will assure our opponents,
that neither our words, nor our conduct, shall ever express that satis-
faction in a tone of triumph or exultation. I do not say it to you,
but to those who are still disposed to give credit to the fabricated
charges against us, that we never did, for a moment, cherish a wish
or a purpose hostile to the peace of the island, and this, I believe, is
now acknowledged by all parties. It would, indeed, therefore, be un-
grateful, as well as most foreign to our inclinations, now, for the first
time, to act in any manner that might revive a charge, the futility of
which is confessed by his Majesty's Government, in restoring us to
our country. But, my friends, there is a subject on which we may
freely express ourselves, and on which no language can do justice to
our feelings. We left this island under circumstances of degradation
and of ruin. We became suddenly outcasts from society : and all
our prospects in life appeared blighted. Our characters seemed for
ever clouded. Separated from our families — cut off from every re-
source, and expelled from our homes, so suddenly that we had not
time even to make such arrangements as might save the wreck of our
property, or provide the means of redeeming our characters from the
unmerited reproaches to which we were subjected' — all chance of ob-
taining redress was lost, except in an appeal to the equity of the Bri-
tish Parliament. Yet, under these circumstances of accumulated
sufferings, we derived support from the kind sympathy and assistance
of the friends we left behind, many of whom I now see around me ;
and we found protection from those to whom we went with no other
introduction than our misfortunes. This double debt of gratitude can
never be repaid ; and though no acknowledgement of its weight can
diminish it, we rejoice to make it. — Gentlemen, it is inexpedient, for
obvious reasons, to point public attention to individuals in this island,
who have been our friends and benefactors, during our protracted
sufferings; but there is one in England, whose name must not, cannot,
be suppressed. It is to Dr. Lushington we are indebted, under
heaven, for all we now enjoy — our return to our homes — our indemnity

158 The Jamaica Watchman — Lecesne — Rev. John Thorpe.

for our losses — and, above all, our restoration to the credit and good
fame we formerly enjoyed — are derived from his beneficence — from
his energetic advocacy of our case — his firm and reiterated appeals in
our behalf to the House of Commons — and his unwearied exertions in
unravelling the tangled web of accusation in which we were involved.
His reward for this can only be obtained from God. But we earnestly
hope, that that extensive class to which we belong will assist us in
shewing the reverential feeling we shall ever entertain towards him,
by a steady perseverance in that loyalty and good conduct which in-
duced him to step forward as our advocate on this occasion. Believe
me, when I assure you, gentlemen, that of all earthly rewards, this
will be the most grateful to his mind. In attempting to do justice to
Dr. Lushington, we must not forget that it is to the equity of his Ma-
jesty's Government that we owe the success of his exertions. It was
not to be expected, that a case, which, through the instrumentality of
a certain gentleman, had become so complicated in its circumstances,
could obtain immediate attention, or until its merits were fully de-
veloped, could obtain redress. Long, therefore, as our exile has been,
and bitter as have been the privations, and the domestic sufferings it
brought with it, we are far from complaining of its duration. Indeed,
we rather rejoice at it in one view, because it can never be said that
we have been exculpated and indemnified without ^.full, minute, and
patient enquiry into our deserts. Gentlemen, throughout this long
enquiry, his Majesty's Government bore steadily in mind the principle,
that justice must be done without reference to rank, or colour, or
station in the world — and on this topic, a tone of exultation may be
forgiven, not at our personal success — not because we are individually
victors in a political contest — ^but because we, in common with your-
selves, are the subjects of a Government which administers its pro-
tection with an impartial hand. In the humble sphere of life in which
we move in this island, it will be our unremitting endeavour to con-
ciliate the respect of our enemies, (if we still have any) — by firmness,
united with moderation and temper, and thereby prove to the friends
we have made during our absence, that we are not unworthy of the
countenance they have given to us."

6. In our third volume No. 71, p. 477, we have inserted the testimony
of the Rev. John Thorpe, late of St. Thomas in the East, in Jamaica,
now curate of Wiggington, Oxon, to the nature and effects of the
slavery of which he had been there the eye witness, as given in a
speech delivered by him at a public meeting at Cheltenham, on the
7th of October, 1830. This speech is transcribed, verbatim, into
the Jamaica Watchman of the 5th of January, 1831. In the suc-
ceeding Watchman of the 8th of January, the Editor comments upon
it as follows :

" That a speech like the one alluded to, exposing so fully the evils
of slavery in all their hideousness, could have been delivered without
producing a strong feeling in the minds of all, who have either heard
or have read it, it would be taxing our credulity too heavily to believe;
and if we take into consideration, the fact of all Mr. Thorpe's state-
ments being substantially correct, and that he has merely delineated,.

The Jamaica Watchman — The Rev. John Thorpe. 159

without colouring, the evils of the abhorred system, it will be easy to
perceive, that the effect will be deep and lasting, leading to a firm and
unbending opposition to slavery in all its varied forms and gradations.

" Judging from the means which the friends of humanity, in Great
Britain, are using to bring about so desirable a consummation as the
extinction of slavery, it is clear that the spirit to which we have al-
luded, has already spread over the greater part of happy Britain, and
is silently, though securely, working the downfall of a system which
must, ere long, be crushed by its own weight.

" To those who, from self interest, or an over tenacious fondness for
the absolute power with which the system of slavery has invested them,
the inquiry is. How shall we prevent this ? By what means may the
perpetuity of the system be ensured ? Alas ! to these the horizon ap-
pears dark and lowering, and the wished for expedient is sought in
vain. Were we, instead of being opposed, favourable to the system,
and desirous of helping these persons out of the labyrinth, we should
but consider it honest to declare the fulfilment of their wishes impos-
sible, and the inconsistent shuffling and ridiculous attempts that have
been made, and are making, to support it, as tending the more fully
to convince its opponents, that a love of the system, more than the
apprehension of danger from any change, actuate those who are so
loud in its defence, and ready in opposing every amelioratory measure
proposed for their acceptance.

" Do the Colonists really wish to avoid the evils of a sudden
change in the condition of the peasantry ? If they did, they would
endeavour to shake off" the lethargy in which they are sunk ; and, ex-
ercising the little reason which yet remains unsubdued by the monster
prejudice, they would perceive that the system is fast verging to de-
struction, and must soon come to an end. This conviction, once
impressed on the mind, would lead to the conclusion that amelioration
is now the sine qua non of their safety ; and they would take such
measures for the religious and temporal improvement of their negroes,
as would ensure their gratitude and affection, and leave them the vo-
luntary servants of their present masters ; and, instead of a system of
oppression and cruelty, on the one hand, and hatred and dissatisfac-
tion on the other, mutual confidence and dependence would exist,
and the landed proprietors will have the pleasure of witnessing around
them a happy and contented free peasantry, the country improved,
and their own condition rendered more comfortable and secure.

"But, perhaps we maybe told, in the usual ' cant' expressions, that
the negroes are a sleek, well fed, happy, and contented race, possess-
ing comforts far superior to those enjoyed by the British peasantry.
This may be sufficient to gull those who know no better ; but by us
it passes unheeded as the idle wind. Nor is there a planter, or slave
owner in the island, who, if he would but be candid, can deny that
his situation is irksome, vexatious, and disagreeable in the extreme.
How often do we hear them declaring that they are ' tormented out of
their lives' by the negroes, who are ' eternally complaining,' and al-
ways discontented and dissatisfied? Is this, then, a proof of their
being ' well fed, happy, and contented ?' Do these negroes not re-

160 West India Committee. — Christian Remembrancer.

peatedly leave the plantations, in bodies of from forty to fifty, and
sometimes seventy or eighty, and travel eighteen or twenty miles to
Spanish Town to the Goverijor, or to Kingston and other places to
the magistrates, to complain of ill treatment ? Is this a proof of their
being ' happy and contented V Have we not repeatedly heard of
almost all the negroes on an estate having gone, to use the negro
term, ' na bush ;' or, in plain English, run away, and hid themselves in
the woods, or mountainous parts of the country, for days, nay weeks?
Will this also be urged as evidence of their happy and contented
condition? No! the system is bad — it subjects the negroes to
cruelty and oppression, and it transforms the master into a petty
tyrant, and destroys insensibly in his mind the love of justice, and
the feelings of humanity, affection and delicacy, which elevate the
character of man, and make him indeed the noblest work of God !"

IV. — Memorial of the West India Committee.

An elaborate statement from this Committee has recently been
printed by order of the House of Commons, (7th Feb. 1831, No. 120.)
It professes to give to Parliament and the public an authentic
view of " The commercial, financial, and political condition of the
West India Colonies." As this paper abounds in fallacies as gross,
and representations as delusive as any to which even this controversy
has given birth, fertile of imposture as it has been during nearly half
a century, we shall take an early opportunity of exposing some of
them to the judgment they deserve.

V. — ^TiiE Christian Remembrancer.

We have been amused by the clamour raised, and the vituperation
bestowed upon us, this month, by the Christian Remembrancer and
other pro-slavery journals. In our No. 68, (p. 422,) we inserted a
statement, to which we attached credit, respecting a school established
by the Bishop of Barbadoes, in Bridgetown, for both free and slave
children. Our informant had visited this school, and he reported
favourably of it ; but he added, that on the day of his visit he found
many free children, but only three or four slaves present. The Bishop,
seeing this account, and eager to disprove it, has transmitted certified
lists, not of the number of the free and slaves present on the particular
day on which our friend chanced to visit the school, but the number
of each borne on the books of the School Committee, and which
appear to be nearly equal, about 90 of each class. These numbers,
we doubt not, are correctly given ; but still both the Bishop and the
Christian Remembrancer must be logicians enough to see that they
furnish no contradiction to our traveller, who merely asserts, that on
the day of his visit he found only three or four slaves present. It is
obvious indeed, that the slaves would be less likely to attend regularly
than the free. We are glad that the Bishop reads the Anti-Slavery
Reporter so diligently ; and that the Christian Remembrancer, with
all his good will, finds no more to say against it.

London : -S. Basjster, .Tun. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 78.] MARCH, 20, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 6.

I. — Authentic Notices respecting the Agriculture of St. Domingo
OR Hayti, and its laws relative to Cultivation, since 1793. —
1. Code Rural of 1794: ; 2. Code Rural of 1798 ; 3. Constitution of 1801 ;
4. State of Agriculture, 1794 — 1802, and the effects of Buonaparte's
attempt to restore Slavery in 1802; 5. Code Rural o/' 1826 ; 6. Recent
Communications from Hayti on the state of Agriculture in 1830; 7. Con-
cluding Remarks,

II.— Resolutions of the Committee of the Leeds Anti-SiiAvery Society.

I. — Authentic Notices respecting Hayti.

In the Reporter, No. 70, we entered into an examination of the safety
as it respected the public peace, and of the benefit to the Colonial slaves,
of an emancipation legally effected by the supreme authority of the
State ; and we proved, as we think, satisfactorily, that such an emanci-
pation might be effected both safely and beneficially. In the endeavour
to establish this point, we gave a brief historical view of the circum-
stances which had led to the emancipation of the slaves in Hayti, and
of the effects which had followed that event, (Reporter, No. 70, pp.
465 — 473,) and we promised on a future occasion to lay before our
readers some farther details on this important subject. We now pro-
ceed to fulfil that promise, and in detailing, in the first place, the means
resorted to for obtaining agricultural labour from the emancipated slaves,
we shall confine ourselves, for the present, chiefly to the official docu-
ments furnished to us by Mr. Consul General Mackenzie, in his Report
printed by the House of Commons, on the 17th February 1829, and
numbered 18. The earliest in point of date, of these documents,
is a code of regulations issued by the Commissioner of the National
Convention, Polverel, soon after the decree passed for the total and
universal emancipation of the slaves in that island had been proclaimed.
This code which bears date the 28th February 1794, will be found in
the Report of Mr. Mackenzie, p. Ill — 127. The introduction to it
we shall insert entire. But of the regulations we shall merely give an
abstract, the correctness of which may be easily verified by reference to
the parliamentary paper just adverted to.

*' In the Name of the French People.
1. ^' Regulation of Police respecting Cultivation and Cultivators,
" Etienne Polverel, Civil Commissary of the Republic, delegated
to the French Leeward Islands in America, for the purpose of re-esta-
blishing the public order and tranquillity.

"The enfranchisement of the Africans has produced at St. Domingo a
mode of cultivation unknown in France, and of which, even in the Colo-

162 Agricultural Laws of St. Domingo, 1794.

nies, they have not hitherto suspected the possibility. — Agriculture in
France furnishes only raw products. Each of its estabUshments requires
few hands, and few implements of tillage, and has nothing in common
with manufactories designed to increase the value of the raw material.

" In the Colonies moreover they have hitherto only known cultivation
by slaves. A whip, set in motion by the will of the master, has impelled
the movements of the whole establishment. — The establishments are
both agricultural and manufacturing. They not only produce the raw
materials, but they give to them form and value : one family therefore
does not suffice as in France to form an establishment.

" Each establishment contains a numerous population, sometimes ex-
ceeding that of small towns and villages in Europe ; and it is on free
hands and voluntary labour that these important establishments will
henceforward have to depend for their existence and activity.

" Since the abolition of fiefs and tythes, few rural laws are needed in
France. She has probably at present all that are necessary. And in
the Colonies, while there were only masters and slaves, none were re-
quired.

" But to give a uniform direction to large bodies, who require to be
guided, but whom no power has a right to compel ; to induce them to
concur freely to the same end ; to maintain peace and order among
them ; to prevent the abuse of liberty, and to protect effectually the
rights of property, and the productions of industry ; powerfully to ex-
cite that industry, and to make the general prosperity the result of the
greatest gain of each individual ; — to effect all this, there must be rural
laws ; appropriated to the local circumstances ; to the nature of the climate
and its productions ; to the mode of culture which these require ; and to
the civil and political condition, and to the manners and character of
the cultivators.

" May the ready concurrence of the cultivators render unnecessary
the greater part of the rules of this ordinance, that there may no longer
exist in the Colonies but two classes of cultivators — proprietors of the
soil, and cultivators sharing with them in the products of cultivation !
This seems the only means of insuring large incomes to the proprietors,
and freedom and comfort to the labourers ; of preserving the public
peace and order ; and of maintaining liberty and equality for ever.

" The cultivator who does not share in the fruit of his labour is always
looking for the largest wages and the least work ; while the sole interest
of the labourer who shares the produce is to increase that produce, and
consequently to augment his own receipts and the proprietor's income.
And as to the cultivator on these terms, he need not be disturbed respect-
ing the future. The products of the soil must first provide the means of
his subsistence and clothing, even when he shall be unfitted for labour
by age or infirmity.

" The cultivator therefore who shares in the produce is absolutely in-
dependent of the proprietor: he is his equal in all the force of that
term.

" Of all the methods of proceeding which can be adopted for the cul-
tivation of the Colonies, the association of the cultivators with the pro-
prietors, on the principle of sharing in the products of the soil, is that

agricultural Laws of St. Domingo, 1794m 163

which unites the greatest advantages both for the one and the other. It
makes a return to the former slavery for ever impossible'; it establishes
an equality to the greatest extent which is attainable among a civilized
people ; it gives to all classes an equal interest in respecting and protec-
ting property, and in multiplying the products of the soil ; and it solves,
and perhaps alone can solve that problem in politics which has hitherto
puzzled the most intrepid advocates of liberty and equality, and which
may be thus stated — How shall a society be organized so that the un-
equal distribution oj" wealth shall the least affect the liberty and equality
oj" the citizens ; and that liberty and equality shall not tend to anarchy
or to the dissolution of the state ?"*

This introduction is followed by a great variety of riegulations divided
into six heads. 1. Condition of the people. 2. Of cultivators gene-
rally. 3. Of cultivators sharing in the produce (cultivateurs portion-
aires.) 4. Of cultivators for daily hire. 5. Of cultivators by the
month or for a longer period ; and 6. General regulations.

1 . — ' Condition of the People.

1. "There are not, and will not henceforward be in St. Domingo any
more than in France, any but free persons.

2. " Every individual may contract with another for his time and labour,
but he can neither sell himself, nor be sold. The property in his person
is inalienable. The French Republic admits not of Slavery.

3. " The rights of man are equality, liberty, safety, property.

4. " These rights are developed in the Constitutional Act of the French
Republic.

5. "In the present ordinance man is considered only in his agricul-
tural relations, abstracted from those that are civil and political.

6. " He is either a proprietor of the soil, or the cultivator of that which
belongs to another.

7. "Although many men are neither proprietors nor cultivators, yet
here I only distinguish these two classes, the present ordinance being
for them alone.

8. " Neither from this nor from any other distinction can any inequality
arise among men in respect to their natural civil and political rights.
They are all equal in the eyes of the law, as they are by nature. But
besides the general laws which unite and protect all citizens, there exist
peculiar relations between the proprietors of the soil and the cultivators
of it, and it is to these relations alone that the following rules apply.

2. — Of Cultivators generally.

1 . " The cultivators of another person's estate are divided into three
classes ; those who share in the produce, those who are hired by the
year or the month, and those who are hired by the day.

2. " No proprietor nor any representative or agent of his, can, by agree-

* Our readers will judge, as they think proper, of the political economy and
the general reasonings of M. Polverel. These proceed on the assumption that
the profitable cultivation of certain colonial products can only be carried on in
large gangs ; an assumption which the cases of Bengal, of Java, &c., and of
Hayti at the present hour, as will hereafter be shewn, prove to be unwarranted.

164 Agricultural Luivs of St. Domingo, 1794.

merit or otherwise, alter the portion of the produce or other advantages
fixed, for the cultivators working for shares, by the proclamations of the
27th August, and 31st October 1793, and by the regulation of the 7th
instant,* or alter the terms here laid down for persons labouring for
wages, whether by the year or the day," under certain pecuniary
penalties. Mackenzie's Report, p. Ill and 112,

3. — Of Cultivators for shares of the produce.

§ 1 — 7. The ordinary day's labour is limited to about nine hours,
viz. from sunrise to half-past eight ; from half-past nine to twelve ;
and from two to sunset ; and in crop-time it shall be extended to eight
o'clock in the evening. The manager (econome-gerant) of each plan-
tation shall keep an exact account of the days, and hours of the day, in
which the labourers or any part of them shall have been absent from
their work, and shall specify the names of the defaulters, and the time of
their absence; and that time being estimated at three livres a day, for each
man, and two livres a day for each woman, and proportionably for the
hours of absence, the amount, at each distribution of the revenue of the
plantation, shall be deducted from the shares of the defaulters, and
added to thoss of the proprietor, the manager, the overseers, (con-
ducteurs), and the other labourers, not defaulters, in the proportions
prescribed in the proclamation of the 31st October 1793, and in the 30th
and 31st articles of the regulations of the 7th instant. [These are un-.
fortunately wanting.] And if the manager should have omitted to
record any of the defaulters, the amount of such defaults, and an equal
amount deducted from the share of the manager who has been guilty of
the omission, shall be distributed in like manner between the proprietor,
the overseers, and the cultivators not in default.

§ 8 — 13. In cases of exUaordinary urgency, arising from the state
of the crops, certain measures may be taken for extending the period
of labour during the night, beyond the customary hours, so as to pre-
vent the losses that might accrue from inaction.

§ 14 — 35. The overseers shall alone order and direct the labours
of the gang. They alone shall be charged with executing the instruc-
tions of those who administer the affairs of the estate. They are to
rouse the labourers in time to prepare breakfast, and to be at the place
of labour at sunrise. They are to superintend and encourage the la-
bourers, and to limit the hours of rest to those fixed by the regulations,
summoning them to their work or recalling them from it at the proper
hours, and directing and superintending their labours at all times, both
out of crop and in crop time. They alone are to issue, and cause to
be executed, the orders, relative both to cultivation and to the police of
the plantation, which they may receive from those who administer its
affairs, or from, the constituted authorities of the state. The labourers
shall be bound to obey the overseers, and the overseers to obey each
other according to their rank ; but their authority shall be confined to
the cultivation and good order of the plantation. Those labourers,
who in these points, shall formally refuse to obey the orders of the

■ ■ ■*'■ ^ ?Mr. Macke/izie Pias not given ns any of the papers here referred to=

Agricultural Laivs of St. Domingo, 1794. 165

overseers, shall be subject to a month's imprisonment, with labour dur-
ing the day on public works, and shall be deprived, during that time, of
their share of the produce. An inferior overseer disobeying his
superior, shall be punished in like manner, for two months. These
punishments shall be reduced to one half in cases where there has not
been a distinct refusal to obey, but merely a culpable omission. If to
insubordination menaces are added, the punishment of a distinct re-
fusal shall be doubled ; and if to menaces, is added an attempt to strike,
the penalty shall extend to six months m the case of labourers, and to
twelve months in the case of sub-overseers, who shall also be made in-
capable of again exercising any authority, civil, military, or rural. If
the superior should be struck by the inferior, the latter shall be ex-
cluded from any association of labourers working for shares, and shall
be subjected to trial and punishment according to the penal code. If
the majority of the labourers should be guilty of the acts of insubor-
dination just mentioned, besides being liable individually to the punish-
ments above specified, they shall be forced to quit the plantation, the
proprietor being at liberty to replace them by other cultivators. If, on
the other hand, an overseer shall strike one who is under him, or shall
place him by his own authority under restraint, or in prison, he shall be
deprived of his office and declared incapiable of directing free men ;
and if bloodshed or any grave injury should follow, he shall be tried
and punished according to the penal code. The overseers, whether male
or female, of the children shall be punished in like manner, if guilty to
those under their charge of any violence which shall cause loss of life
or limb, or fracture, or wound, or laceration, or excoriation, or contu-
sion, or shedding of blood. In case of quarrels, threats, and provoca-
tions, or acts of violence, among the cultivators themselves, the over-
seers shall place the contending parties under arrest, and endeavour to
reconcile them ; and the aggressors shall be confined to their houses
for three successive Sundays. If the violence or the threats are used
towards women, or aged or infirm persons, the person guilty shall be
punished further with a fine of half his share of the produce of the
plantation ; and if the offence be repeated, he shall be turned off the
plantation and excluded from all other associations labouring for shares;
and if death or wounds ensue, he shall be tried and punished according
to the penal code.

§ 36 — 83. A number of rules are prescribed for punishing, by pe-
cuniary penalties, the theft or appropriation of the common property,
or the use of the horses, cattle, waggons, &c. of the plantation for
their own private ends, by either the proprietor, the manager, the over-
seers, or the cultivators for shares ; the amount to be paid into the
common fund and distributed in the same proportions as the produce of
the plantation. If the delinquents are unable to pay the fine, they
shall be imprisoned and employed on the public works, at daily wages,
till the amount is paid. The same rules apply to purloining the pro-
perty of individuals. A repetition of the offence shall be punished by
being turned off the plantation and declared unworthy of being ad-
mitted into any similar association. Any voluntary injury done to the
property, or the. animals on the plantation, shall be punished in the

166 Agricultural Laws of St. Domingo, 1794.

same manner. Damage done to the crops by pigs, sheep, cattle, or
other animals, belonging to individuals, shall be exacted of the owners ;
and if the animals belong to the plantation, it shall be exacted of the
appointed keeper of them. Strict rules are also laid down for the due
care and distribution of water, whether for common use, or for turning
mills, or for irrigation, with suitable penalties for neglect or transgres-
sion. Persons not residing on the plantation, and guilty of any of the
above acts, shall undergo still heavier penalties.

§ 85 — 89. Every manager neglecting to keep in due form the pre-
scribed registers, or who shall correct or strike any overseer or cultivator,
or who shall cause any other person to do so, shall be deprived of his office,
and rendered incapable of filling such office in future. Every manager
who appropriates to himself any part of the money deposited in the
common chest, shall be punished in like manner, besides paying double
the sum abstracted. The manager, however, shall be protected from
all menace or violence, on the part of the overseers or cultivators, by
the same penalties which are affixed by the clauses 14 — 35, to acts of
insubordination on the part of the cultivators to the overseers.

§ 90 — 99. No cultivator, working for a share of the produce, can be
deprived of his rights during the year for which he has contracted, ex-
cept in the cases expressly mentioned above. A cultivator quitting the
plantation during the year must find a substitute to supply his place,
approved by his fellow labourers ; and if he intends quitting it at the
end of the year he must give two months notice of his intention.
Failing in either of these points, he shall be subject to be imprisoned
and employed on the public works. A cultivator cannot be excluded
from the plantation, at the end of the year, by either the proprietor or
manager, but only by a vote of the majority of the cultivators, of which he
shall have two months notice. An establishment for cultivating by shares
can only be broken up in the following cases : — When a majority of
the cultivators refuse to perform the prescribed conditions ; — when it is
found necessary to expel the body of cultivators, as a punishment for
insubordination ; — or when the cultivators are reduced to less than half
their number, by death, weakness, voluntary retirement, or forcible re-
moval. In these cases the proprietor may form a new association of culti-
vators for shares, or employ labourers for hire by the day or the year ;
but he cannot, even then, turn off the old, the young, or the infirm. If,
however, the association, though reduced in its numbers, shall be able,
two months before the close of the year, to recruit them to three-fourths
of their complement, the proprietor shall not be at liberty to discontinue
the establishment. Whenever the reduced state of the establishment,
or the urgency of the season, puts in peril a part of the crop, or renders
it difficult to prepare for the future crop, the proprietor may strengthen
the establishment by such number of day labourers as he shall judge
necessary, the cost of such hired labour being charged to the common
fund, and being first paid out of the proceeds of the plantation. Every
other cause of difference or quarrel, between proprietors and cultivators,
than those hereinbefore regulated, shall be settled by the course of law
common to all citizens; all, whether proprietors or cultivators, being, in
every other respect, on a footing of equahty. Ibid, p. 113 — 119.

Agricultural Laws of St. Domingo^ 1794. 167

4. — Of Labourers by the day.

The rules with respect to them as to periods of Jabour, submission to
the overseers, peaceableness of demeanour, protection from violence
&c., are much the same as in the preceding chapter, their offences being
punishable by dismissal and loss of wages. They are not, however, to
have overseers (conducteurs) of their own choice, as is the case with
labourers for shares, but are to submit to the overseers already chosen
by such.* — Work from sunset to sunrise, when required, shall be paid
for at the rate of half an Escalin (a ninth of a dollar) an hour in the case
of men, and in the case of women, a third of an Escalin. Ibid, p. 119.

5. — Of Labourers hired by the month or longer.

The hire of field-work by the month is fixed, for men above eighteen,
at four dollars, for women at two dollars and a half, and for persons
from fourteen to eighteen at two dollars, to be paid at the end of the
month. If they quit before the end of their term, they shall forfeit the
wages due. If they are dismissed before the term, they shall be paid
for all the time there is to run. The hire of mechanics and artisans
shall be settled by special contract.

6.^ — General Regulations.

The justices of peace, and their assessors, shall have jurisdiction in
all matters comprised in this ordinance; and where none have been yet
appointed, the jurisdiction shall belong to the military commandants,
and to one or other of them, in all cases of accusation, arrest, and pro-
secution, the necessary papers and proofs shall be sent.

The present ordinance shall be printed; published on three successive
Sundays, in a loud and intelligible voice ; and explained, in the Creole
dialect, during the hours of market, and in the market-place of the
chief place of each parish; and pasted up in all conspicuous and fre-
quented places, and at the chief dwelling houses of plantations. It
shall also be duly registered in all superior as well as inferior courts,
and sent to all the principal officers civil and military, who are all made
responsible for its due execution. Ibid, p. 119, 120.

2. The above Ordinance of Polverel appears to have been in full force
from the time of its promulgation, in February 1794, until the beginning
of August 1798. During that interval Toussaint Louverture had risen to
the chief command ; and it is of this period that Colonel Malenfant, in
a passage cited by us in No. 70, p. 408, speaks when he says, "The
colony flourished under Toussaint. The whites lived happily and in
peace upon their estates, and the negroes continued to work for them."
This statement, as we have shewn, was fully confirmed by General La
Croix, who as well as Colonel Malenfant, served in St. Domingo at the
time. He informs us, in his memoirs of St. Domingo, that the com-

* What resemblance can possibly exist between the conducteur of Hayti and
the driver of Jamaica, the former being thus chosen by the labourers to guide
their labours and protect their interests?

168 Agricultural Latvs of St. Domingo, 1794 — 1798.

missioner Santhonax, who had been recalled to France, on returning
to the colony in 1796, "was astonished at the state in which he found
it." " This," he adds, " was owing to Toussaint, who, while he had
succeeded in establishing order and discipline among the black troops,
had succeeded also in making the black labourers return to the planta-
tions, there to resume cultivation." In the next year, 1797, the same
author tells us that the colony was marching, " as by enchantment towards
its ancient splendour : cultivation prospered ; every day produced per-
ceptible proofs of its progress." The testimony of General Vincent,
another eye-witness, is to the same effect. (See Reporter, vol. iii. No.
70, p. 469.)

The war which had been waged by England in St. Domingo, with such
disastrous expence of blood and treasure, for the purpose of restoring
slavery, and which must necessarily have given birth to great disorders, and
must have extensively interfered with the progress of cultivation, was
now brought to a close. To repress those disorders and to give a
renewed impulse to cultivation, a fresh ordinance was issued on the
3rd of August, 1798, accompanied by an urgent call on all public
functionaries to exert themselves in giving it effect. " In St. Domingo,
as in France," says this address, " royalists and anarchists see, with
dismay, the establishment of constitutional order; and, with a view to
disturb the peace of the colony, try all means of impeding the progress
of cultivation. ' Let us persuade the cultivators,' they say, ' that liberty
consists in doing no work, and if we succeed, we shall certainly restore
slavery, since the colony, yielding no resource, will be abandoned by
the mother country.' But no ! the true friends of liberty will make the
cultivators sensible that labour alone can render them happy, both by
procuring for them in abundance the means of providing for the wants
of their families, and by raising the colony to the degree of splendour
to which it ought to aspire.''

The ordinance itself, which will be found at p. 95, of Mr. Mac-
kenzie's report, premises that since agriculture is the foundation of pros-
perity to a state; — that since, in order to make agriculture flourish, all
possible means must be adopted for assuring to the cultivators the fruit
of their toils ; — that since cultivators and proprietors are authorized to
enter into mutual contracts for a limited time ; — that since by means of a
good police the colonial cultivators may attain to a still greater degree
of comfort than those of France ; and finally, that since the industrious
will derive less from their exertions if their brethren of the same estab-
lishment are permitted to live in idleness and vagrancy ; — therefore
these further regulations are issued.

The regulations spoken of refer to the division of the produce be-
tween the cultivators and the proprietor. The cultivators are to enjoy
a fourth of the revenue of the plantation, from which no deduction shall
be made, on any pretext, either for expences or taxes ; and till this fourth
is paid the proprietor can dispose of no part of the proceeds of the
estate, the share of the cultivators also being conveyed by him to the
nearest place of shipment. Besides this, the cultivators shall have
adequate provision grounds allotted to each family of them, and shall
have medical attendance and medicine at the proprietor's expence. —

State of Agriculture in St. Domingo, 1 7 98— 1 802. 1 69

Proprietors or managers are bound to act as fathers of families towards
the cultivators, and to induce them to form legitimate marriages, by
making them sensible that such unions " are the best means of secur-
ing to themselves the enjoyment of all social blessings ; of obtaining
consolation, care, and assistance in sorrow and sickness; of promoting
that purity of manners which is so essential to happiness and health ;
of rapidly increasing population ; and of extending cultivation and aug-
menting its products." — The hours of labour vary a little from the
former regulation of Polverel. They extend from day dawn to eleven
of the forenoon, with an interval for breakfast ; and from two till dusk
in the afternoon, the mid-day interval extending to three hours. An
exact account is to be kept of the days and hours of attendance of every
cultivator, with a view of regulating accordingly the distribution of
shares. The term of contracts for labour is extended from one to three
years, and they are to be registered gratis by the justices of the peace,
or the municipal officers; and a year's notice must be given mutually by
the proprietor and cultivator of the intention to dissolve the contract.
Penalties are annexed for violating such contracts, and for causing
tumults or disturbances on the plantation, consisting of pecuniary fines,
imprisonment, and labour on the public works. The commandants
of quarters are to superintend the police and to maintain order on the
plantations. — The managers of estates shall have power to give leave of
absence to the cultivator only to the extent of the arrondissement in
which the plantation is situated. Beyond that they must have pass-
ports from the constituted authorities. — Every month these regulations
must be read on the plantations ; and they must be printed and pub-
lished, and fixed up in conspicuous places, and sent to all the authori-
ties civil and military, who are held responsible for their due execution.

3. These regulations on the subject of cultivation appear to have con-
tinued in force until the arrival of the French army in St. Domingo, in
February 1802. We assume this to have been the case from the cir-
cumstance that when Toussaint, on the 2nd of July, 1801, gave anew
constitution to St. Domingo, intended to prevent the restoration of
slavery, and which he employed General Vincent to convey to Buona-
parte, (as related in the Reporter, No. 70, p. 469,) he seems to have
made no change in the regulations respecting agriculture — a presump-
tion that he deemed them adequate to their purpose.

The constitution then given to St. Domingo was the work of a
convention of delegates from the departments assembled at Port-au-
Prince, in May 1801. It is prefaced by a brief exposition of the reasons
which existed for drawing it up, and it is followed by an address to the
inhabitants and to the army, which remain as proofs of the wisdom and
patriotism as well as of the talents of Toussaint and his coadjutors. (See
Mackenzie's Report, p. 122—132.)

The preface states in substance that for a long time St. Domingo had
been a prey to disorders, and was verging to destruction, when the genius
of Toussaint Louverture, by the most judicious combinations, by wisely
framed plans, and by actions the most energetic, rescued it, at one
and the same time, both from its external and internal foes ; sup-

Y

170 Cohstitution of St. Domingo in \S0\. -^Toussaint.

pressed the germs of discord; caused abundance to succeed to wretch-
edness, the love of peace and industry to civil war and idleness, and
security to terror; and subjected the whole to the authority of France. —
The revolution had violently overthrown the whole ancient regime. The
different governments of France had substituted from time to time new
laws, but their inconsistencies, their inaptitude, and their viciousness
were acknowledged by their very framers, and, in the hands of factious
or selfish individuals, had tended rather to inflame than to repress dis-
order. The laws, therefore, became in some cases objects of terror, and
in others of contempt. In France the necessity was felt of an entire
new system for the colonies, adapted to their state, manners, and cir-
cumstances ; and yet how difficult must they find it, acting on partial and
unfaithful reports, at so great a distance, and in a time of maritime war,
to appreciate existing evils and to apply proper and effectual remedies.
The 91st article of the French Constitution* would of itself authorize
the people of St. Domingo in presenting to the Government the laws
which ought to be adopted, if past experience did not prove that it was
their duty to do so. " And what more proper time," they ask, " could be
chosen for such a purpose than this which is made propitious, by the re-
storation of order, by the clearing away of the ruins of the ancient edi-
fice, by the removal of prejudices, and by the calming of passions ; so as
to form one of those epochs for fixing the destiny of a people which
does not present itself but once in an age, and which if neglected may
never recur. The interests equally of the colony and of the mother
country, which are closely linked together, require therefore the insti-
tution of courts of justice; measures for increasing the diminished po-
pulation, and for reviving cultivation and commerce ; and the firmer
union of the Spanish with the French part of the island. They point
out also the necessity of establishing a uniform system of finance, cor~
recting abuses ; the duty of setting the minds of absent proprietors
at ease respecting the safety of their property ; and, in fine, the im-
portance of consolidating and rendering stable the internal tranquillity ;
of augmenting the prosperity the colony now enjoys after the storms
■which have agitated it ; of making every one acquainted with his rights
and his duties ; of extinguishing distrusts ; and of framing a code of
laws to which all affections will be attached, and with which all inte-
I'ests will be interwoven. Such are the motives, in the existing impos-
sibility in which France, engaged in a war with maritime powers, finds
herself of succouring this immense colony, which have decided the
General-in-chief to add to the other benefits he has conferred upon
St. Domingo, that of convoking this Legislative Assembly to propose
to the Government of France a constitution suited to it. The com-
position of the Assembly proves that he has desired to remove from its
discussions all passion and violence, and to avail himself of all the
lights within his reach ; and if it has not fulfilled its task com-
pletely, it has done what circumstances permitted it to do. It could
not venture to propose at once all the changes that are desirable.

* Namely that of 13th December 1799. The words are, "The administra-
tion of the colonies is to be determined by special laws."

Constitution of St. Domingo in 1801. — Toussaint. 171

The colony cannot reach its height of prosperity but by degrees. The
good, to be lasting, must be progressive. In this respect we must imitate
nature, who does nothing with precipitation, but matures by little and
little her beneficent productions. Happy if this first attempt should
.contribute to ameliorate the lot and to merit the esteem and favour of
our fellow citizens, as well as the approbation of France, even if it
should not have attained to perfection. " All the articles of the consti-
tution,'' they go on to say, " have been discussed and adopted without
passion, prejudice, or partiality ; and the form of Government especially,
that has been chosen, has been fixed as the only one fitted, in existing
circumstances, to preserve the peace of the colony, and to restore it to
its ancient splendour. Every two years, however, successive assemblies
will have the opportunity of making such changes as time and exr
perience may render necessary. The Assembly has not the vanity to
believe that it has framed the best possible constitution, but it can assure
its fellow-citizens that all its members have been actuated by an ardent
zeal for the public good, and by the desire to secure the existing quiet
of the colony, to render lasting and to augment its present prosperity,
and to prove their attachment to the mother country."

We subjoin the substance of a few of the clauses of the constitutional
law itself.

§ 3 — 5. There shall be no slaves in this territory ; slavery is there for
ever abolished. There, all men are born, live, and die free. There,
every man, whatever be his colour, is admissible to all offices. There,
there shall be no distinction but that of virtue and talent, and no other
difference of rank but what the law attaches to the exercise of a public
function. The law is the same for all whether it punish or protect.
. § 6 — 11. The Catholic religion is the only one publicly professed.
Every parish shall provide for its worship and ministers, the extent of
whose spiritual jurisdiction shall be prescribed b_y the Governor, and who
are not, on any pretence, to form a body (un corps) in the colony. Mar-r
riage tending to purity of manners, those who practise the virtues of that
state, shall be specially honoured and protected.

§12,13. The constitution ensures personal liberty, and security. No
one can be arrested but by orders formally given by an authorized func-
tionary, nor confined in any but a public prison.* Property is sacred
and inviolable. Every one, by himself or his representatives, has the free
use and disposal of what belongs to, him ; and whosoever interferes with
this right commits a crime against society, and is responsible to the party
injured.

§ 14 — 18. The colony being essentially agricultural, the labours of
cultivation are not to suffer any interruption. Each plantation requires
an association of cultivators, forming as it were the tranquil asylum of
an industrious family, of which the proprietor of the soil, or his repre-
sentative, is the parent, and each cultivator and mechanic a member and
a sharer in its revenues. The governor (Toussaint was named governor

* Those who know that every estate in the Slave Colonies has its own prison,
liable to no inspection from the magistrate, will be able to appreciate the value of
this restriction.

172 State of St. Domingo »w 1801 under Toussaint.

for life,) has power to regulate and repress those changes of domicile
which tend to produce the most injurious effects on the prosperity of the
colony, in conformity with the ordinance of 20 Vendemaire, year 9, and
the proclamation of the 19 Pluviose of the same year: * all proper means
"will be taken by the government to encourage the increase of population,
and the accession of fresh labourers, the Governor being charged to en-
sure the faithful execution of all engagements that may be entered into
with such labourers, f

The remainder of this ordinance, fixing the general constitution of the
government, in its political, legislative, executive, judicial, municipal,
military, and financial relations, is foreign to our present purpose, and
we therefore omit it, with the exception of a clause, 73, which secures to
absent proprietors their rights of property, with the exception of those
who may have been inscribed by the government of France in the
general list of Emigrants, and who have not been erased from it by
the same authority.

4. From the language employed in this code of 1801, and from the ob-
servations which accompanied it as given above, it may be fairly inferred
that the agriculture of St. Domingo had recovered from the state of de-
pression, which the revolutionary convulsion, though which it had
passed, could not have failed to produce ; and that under the influence
of a system, which so regulated the relations of proprietors and cultiva-
tors as to secure to the latter an ample share of the fruits of their in-
dustry, the emancipated slaves of that island had been induced to
resume and to carry on their ordinary labours. They had become co-
partners with the proprietors of the soil in all which that soi! could be
made by their labour to produce ; and they had also become the subjects
of general laws, equally affecting every class of the community, and to
which the proprietor was equally amenable with the humblest labourer
on his plantation. The result appears to have been tranquillity, order,
content, and prosperity. We have already seen the testimony to this
effect borne by General La Croix, and by Colonel Malenfant.t

* This ordinance and proclamation are unfortunately not given by Mr. Mac-
kenzie. " After the most diligent inquiry," he says, " I was unable to find"
them. — ^They were probably called for, by the insurrection of Rigaud, in the
South, which had produced great disorders, and which Toussaint had recently
succeeded in suppressing.

-f- This has been represented, by the enemies of Haytian liberty, as pointing to
importations by means of a Slave Trade ; but there is no doubt it had a reference
to measures for encouraging the influx of labourers from the United States, and the
neighbouring Islands, on some such plan as was afterwards pursued by Boyer.

I Colonel [Malenfant, on the ground of his extensive personal experience,
thus urges, in 1814, the Government of Louis the XVIII. to proceed, in case
they should attempt to repossess themselves of St. Domingo : — " Ordonnez que
les noirs de vos Colonies soient co-partageans. lis ne se revolteront pas, si vous
leur declarez que le parlement ordonne qu'ils recoivent le quart du revenu, pour
fruit de leurs sueurs. lis se jetteront a vos genoux ; ils vous beniront de ce bien-
fait, et la tranquillite sera eternelle dans toutes les colonies." Such a plan, he
adds, would not only establish true liberty, but quadruple the consumption of
French manufactures. (See Des Colonies, par Malenfant, p. 106.)

Again, he says, " Les planteurs verront qu'en accordant a leurs cultivateurs le

Buonaparte s attempt to restore Slavery in St. Do7ningo. 173

That of General Vincent, was, if possible, still more decisive. He
quitted St. Domingo in 1801, and, at that time, he gave the strongest
assurances to Buonaparte that no change of system was required, or
would be beneficial ; that every thing was going on well ; that the white
proprietors were in peaceable possession of their estates ; that cultiva-
tion was making rapid progress ; and that the blacks were industrious,
orderly, and happy.

And such was actually the state in which, in February, 1802, Le-
clerc's expedition found St. Domingo. He^ came instructed to restore
the ancient regime; he nevertheless announced on his arrival a very
different purpose. Buonaparte's first proclamation told the inhabitants,
" Whatever your origin, or your colour, you are all French ; you are
all free, all equal before God, and before the republic." — " If it be said
to you, ' these forces are destined to ravish from you your liberty,'
answer, 'The republic will not permit it to be taken away from us.'"
Leclerc also made use of the strongest assurances to the same effect.
" If the planters should dare to speak of restoring slavery, he would
consume them as the fire consumes the dried canes." But though the
language of their proclamations was thus imposing', their conduct and
deportment were such as sufficiently manifested their perfidy. The
very manner of Lecierc's first approach to Cape Frangais proved it.
Christophe, who commanded at the Cape, wa^ so convinced of it, that
he replied to the summons of Leclerc, " Ou nous prend done encore pour
des esclaves. Allez dire au general Leclerc que les Fran^ais ne
marcheront ici que sur un monceau de cendres, et que la terre les
brulera.'' Having uttered these words, he began the conflagration of
the Cape by setting fire to his own house, which was elegantly decorated,
and thus evinced his determination of resistance.

No less decisive was the conduct of Toussaint. On the 9th of Feb-
ruary, 1802, he wrote thus from St. Mark's, to one of his generals,
Domage, commanding at Jeremie — " I send to you my aid-de-camp,
Chancy, who will communicate to you my sentiments. As Jeremie is
rendered very strong by its natural advantages, you will maintain your-
self in it, and defend it with the courage I know you possess. — Distrust
the whites ; they will betray you if they can. Their desire, evidently
manifested, is the restoration of slavery. I therefore give you a carte
blanche for your conduct : all which you shall do will be well done.
Raise the cultivators in mass, and convince them fully of this truth,
that they must place no confidence in those artful agents who may have
recently received the proclamations of the white men in France, and
would circulate them clandestinely in order to seduce the friends of
liberty. — I have ordered General Laplume to burn the town of CayeSy
the other towns, and all the plains, should they be unable to resist the

quart sur les reveiius, ils auront une autorite plus grande, que toujours, sous ce
regime, ils trouveront la masse de leurs ateliers prete a contraindre les paresseux
(s'il s'en trouve) et meme a les punir, par la raison que si I'un travaillait moins
que I'autre, le cultivateur actif se trouverait leze lors des partages." lb. p. 130.
" II est prouve qu'un liomme qui travaille pour ses propres intercts, le fait
avec plus de zele que celui qui travaille pour autrui sous le fouet toujours prb^
a-le frapper." lb. p. 144.

174 BuonaparJtes attempt to restore Slavery m St. Donanyo.

enemy's force ; and thus all the troops of the different garrisons, and
all the cultivators, will be enabled to reinforce you at Jeremie. — You
will entertain a perfect good understanding with General Laplume, in
order to execute with ease what maybe necessary. — You will employ in
the planting of provisions all the women occupied in cultivation. — En-
deavour as much as possible to acquaint me with your situation. — I
rely entirely upon you, and leave you completely at liberty to perform
every thing which may be requisite to free us from the horrid yoke
with which we are threatened. — I wish you good health. Toussaint

LOUVERTURE.''

These proceedings sufficiently indicate the desperate nature of the
resistance which men who had tasted^ the bitterness of slavery were
prepared to make to those Avho would reimpose its yoke. Even the
prosperity to which the wise and wakeful policy of Toussaint had suc-
ceeded in raising the colony, nay, life itself, was as the dust in the
balance when weighed, in his mind and that of his adherents, against
the return of the cart-whip. Accordingly the conflict proved to be of
such a determined and unyielding character, on the part of the blacks,
as soon convinced Leclerc that even the sacrifice of his whole army
would gain him but a barren and bootless victory. He now saw that,
trusting to the valour and discipline of his veteran legions, he had
thrown off the mask too soon. He therefore suspended hostilities, and
had recourse to negociation. He insidiously held out, as the conditions of
submission, the unqualified freedom of all the blacks, and the complete
amalgamation of the two armies ; the black officers retaining in the
French service the respective ranks they had borne in their own. The
bait succeeded, and for a short time peace and harmony were restored,
and the cultivators resumed their labours. It was on the 24th of April
that Leclerc proclaimed the conclusion of this arrangement, stating its
basis to be, '* liberty and equality to all the inhabitants of St. Domingo,
without regard to colour." And on the 3d of May, we find him writing
to Toussaint, who had previously been outlawed, but whose outlawry
was now reversed, and, in flattering terms, assuring him that a veil of ob-
livion should be thrown overall that had passed. — " You, General, and
your troops, will be employed and treated like the rest of my army,
with regard to yourself, you desire repose, and you deserve it." " I
rely so much on the attachment you bear to the colony, as to believe
you will employ the moments you have of leisure in your retreat, in
communicating to me your views respecting the means to be taken to
make agriculture and commerce again flourish."

In a few weeks from this time, namely in the month of June 1802^
Leclerc, having advantageously disposed matters for his purpose, (the
native troops, and their principal officers being so distributed as he judged
would place them completely in his power, and the cultivators being
dispersed on the plantations,) suddenly caused Toussaint and his family
to be arrested and shipped off for France. At the same time the most
active measures were resorted to for disarming the native troops, and'
for either deporting or savagely butchering their best and most influen-
tial officers. These events operated like an electric spark on the whole
black population of the colony, which was ere long in full insurrection.

Effects of Buonaparte's Invasion on Agriculture. 175

The native officers and troops, who had not already fallen victims to
Leclerc's treachery, escaped and joined the insurgents ; and conflagra-
tion, and unsparing massacre, and the refusal of all quarter, became the
regular order of the renewed hostilities on both sides, to which the
French, who were the aggressors in this war of mutual vengeance and
extermination, added horrors of a still more revolting character. Their
prisoners were drowned by hundreds in the harbours, till pestilence went
forth from their floating carcases ; — or they were thrown alive, men,
women, and children, to bloodhounds to be torn limb from limb and
devoured.* Disease also began to make dreadful ravages among the
French. Leclerc fell a victim to it as early as the close of October

1802, and before the end of the year the French troops were so reduced,
and so hemmed in and confined to their fortified places on the coast,
that all idea of conquest seemed hopeless. The war however was still
carried on with the most savage fury on both sides, the French calling
in the aid of large packs of bloodhounds from Cuba, so that almost the
whole of the Island, with the exception of the mountain fastnesses and
the forts, became one unvarying scene of carnage and desolation. The
buildings and sugar-works were every where destroyed, and nothing
was left, in the plains or accessible parts of the island, which could afford
shelter or sustenance to the invaders. They had now to depend wholly
on supplies from without, and famine soon began to add its ravages to
those of disease and the sword. At length, in the month of December

1803, the island was finally abandoned, a mere handful of the French
troops escaping the destruction which had already overtaken about
60,000 of their fellows.

Thus for nearly two years, with a very brief interval, had a war raged
in St. Domingo, singularly ferocious and vindictive in its character,
and directed latterly more to extermination than to conquest, spar-
ing neither sex nor age, and sweeping away from the whole face of the
plains of that beautiful island every trace of cultivation. So complete
was the extinction of all sugar culture in particular, that, for a time,
not an ounce of that article was procurable. The very roots and fruits
on which subsistence depended were cultivated only in the mornes.
Desolation therefore could hardly be conceived more complete than
prevailed, in 1804 and 1805, over all those parts of the colony which
had formerly been covered with plantations ; and it is well known how
soon the rank vegetation of a tropical climate converts the neglected
plantation into mere jungle.

Is it to be wondered at, that under these circumstances, Hayti should
have ceased to export tropical produce ? And how perfectly absurd,
therefore, are all the reasonings which, by a comparison of the exports
from that island in 1789 with those of 1805, would endeavour to establish
— , . — ■ ■

* The words of Malenfant, writing in 1814, by way of solemn warning to the
French government, fully confirm this statement. They are as follows : " Les
noirs ont le ccEur ulcere par les cruautes qu'on a exercees envers eux; en faisant
noyades a la Carrier ; en les faisant devorer par des chiens, que, pour rendre
plus feroces, on ne nourissait que de chair de noir ; cruaufes, peut etre, au dessus
de celles des Pizarros, des Almagros, feroces conquerants de Perou." p. 122.

176 State of Hayti subsequent to the expulsion of the French.

the inaptitude of a black population for productive industry ! — To se-
cure the means of subsistence in case of another invasion, and to defeat
that invasion if attempted, became now the grand objects of Haytian soli-
citude. It was made a fundamental law of the state, that the moment
an enemy should begin to debark on the shores of the island, that mo-
ment every town on the coast, and every building on the plain, should
disappear, and the whole of the population betake themselves, the wo-
men to the mornes, and the men to arms. And this state of uncer-
tainty and peril, necessarily fatal to all schemes and efforts of prospec-
tive industry, continued to operate, in a greater or less degree, until
the year 1826, when France first renounced her right to attempt again
the subjugation of her ancient colony.

Now in all this long interval what inducement was there to expend
capital in re-erecting sugar works, and in renewing, on the plains of this
island, those large agricultural establishments which had been so com-
pletely destroyed ? As for capital, indeed, it had no existence. The very
means and instruments required for the culture, preparation, manufac-
ture, and safe-keeping of exportable produce were annihilated, and
had now, as it were, to be recreated.

And was not this the very state of all others in which we might have
expected to see realized those prophetic wailings of returning barba-
rism, which, we are told, must infallibly accompany negro freedom ?
But what is the historical fact ? It is, that in spite of all the ruin which
had thus overspread the island; in spite of the innumerable discourage-
ments which combined to obstruct industrious effort, and the employ-
ment of capital in prospective plans of agricultural improvement; in spite
of all the disorganizing and demoralizing circumstances, in which the
people of Hayti have since been placed ; — they have continued to strug-
gle with their difficulties, and have risen superior to them ; they have
continued to improve their social and civil condition ; and instead of
declining in civilization, as we were assured would infallibly be the case,
they have been progressively advancing in it, not only since 1 826, when
their independence was declared, but previously to that period; and a
decisive proof of such advance is to be found in the single fact, that, in
the interval between 1804 and 1824, Hayti more than doubled its
population.

Indeed, no sooner had Hayti had time to breathe after having rid
herself of her fell invaders, than persevering efforts were made to
repair the general devastation, and to give fresh life to agricultural
industry. Mr. Mackenzie has given us in his Report, p. 133 — 136, the
constitution adopted by a legislative assembly, convened by Dessalines,
early in 1805. That constitution received his signature on the 20th of
May in that year. It thus opens : —

" In our own names, and in that of the people of Hayti, who
have legally chosen us as the faithful organs and interpreters of
their will;— in the presence of the Supreme Being, before whom
all are equal, and who has formed so many different kinds of crea-
tures on the face of this globe, only for the end of manifesting his
power and glory by the variety of his works; — in the face of the
entire world, of which we have been so unjustly, and for so long a time,

Present Code Rural of Hay ti. Ill

the rejected outcasts; — we declare that the present constitution is tlie
free, spontaneous, and fixed expression of our minds, and of the general
will of our constituents ; which we submit to the sanction of the em-
peror, our liberator, and refer it to him to carry into execution."

We need not detail the provisions of this constitution, which are much
of the same kind with those contained in that of Toussaint, in 180 J, to
which we have already adverted ; except that it changes the name of
the island from St. Domingo to Hayti: and makes it a fundamental
law, that, with certain specified exceptions, no white shdW hereafter put
his foot on its territory with any claims as master or proprietor (k titre
de maitre ou de proprietaire.) Slavery is for ever abolished, and all are
made equal in the eye of the law, the emperor himself being liable to be
displaced, and treated as an enemy to the state, if he should attempt to
violate this fundamental principle. One of the articles to which we
have already alluded, is thus expressed, " Au premier coup de canon
d'alarme, les villes disparaissent et la nation est debout." — Agriculture,
designated as the first, and most noble, and most useful of employ-
ments, is placed under the special favour and protection of the state,
and is committed to the more immediate superintendance of the minister
of finance and the interior, the laws already existing on the subject being
probably deemed sufficient for his guidance. Those laws were some
years afterwards consolidated, and reduced to a more regular system,
by Christophe, whose code (inserted entire in Mr. Mackenzie's Report,
p. 136 — 145,) differed little in its principles and details from the Code
Rural of Boyer, passed in 1826. (House of Commons papers of 1827,
No. 393.) It is also inserted entire in the Reporter, Vol. L No. 23.
Of this code which is now the law of Hayti, we shall proceed to give an
abstract of such parts as bear upon the existing relation of the Haytian
cultivators, (the ci-devant slaves of St. Domingo) with the present pro-
prietors of the soil. Such parts of the code as have no special reference
to this object, we shall pass over very lightly.*

5. — Abstract of the existing Code Rural of Hayti.

1. All citizens not employed in civil or military service, not engaged
in any lines of business subject to license (patente); or not employed as
working artificers or domestic servants, or in the cutting of timber fit for
exportation ; all in short who shall not be able to shew that they possess
other means of subsistence, shall be bound to cultivate the earth.

2. No one who is occupied in agriculture shall be allowed to quit the
country in order to reside in towns without an authority from the magis-
trate, who shall not give that authority till he has ascertained that the
applicant is a person of good character and correct conduct, and has
the nrieans of subsisting in the place to which he wishes to move. Persons
contravening this law shall be dealt with as vagrants,

3. The children of cultivators are not to be sent to towns to be ap-
prenticed or educated without a magistrate's certificate, which shall how-

* We pass over also entirely the intermediate reigns of Dessalines and Chris-
tophe, and the gigantic schemes as well as ferocious acts of the former, in order
to reach at once the present times, which more immediately affect pending ques-
tions.

I1B Present Code Rural of Hayti.

ever be granted at the request of the proprietor of the place where the
parent resides^ or of the officer of rural police, or of the parent of the
child, under a penalty of twenty-five dollars.

4. Then follow some restrictions as to opening shops in the country,
and some regulations respecting travelling pedlars, the licenses to be
given to those who possess boats, and the tax to be imposed on the rent
of houses erected in the country and not connected with rural establish-
ments. (Reporter, No. 23, .p. 330, 331.)

5. Regulations follow respecting land-marks, boundaries, and estab-
lishments; the cutting down of wood, and the planting of the borders
of rivers with certain trees, with a view to shade ; the precautions to be
used in setting fire to the wood of cleared land, or in savannahs, &c. ;
the manner in which cattle are to be kept, and cottages built on planta-
tions, and for keeping in order the dikes, reservoirs, and conduits of
water for irrigation and other useful purposes. (Ibid. p. 332, 333.)

6. All who carry on the raising of exportable produce, together with
the grain and food, and roots designed for the use of the cultivators, are
hot subject to a land-tax, but only to a tax on the produce got in fit for
exportation. Those who confine their culture to pot vegetables, fruits,
provisions, and fodder, and do not raise articles for export, are subject
to a land-tax to be levied half yearly, on the estimated value of their
produce.

7. On every plantation they shall be bound to cultivate provisions,
&c., sufficient for the sustenance of the persons employed upon it, and
to have them carefully kept, under a penalty of three to fifteen dollars
for each neglect.

8. On every plantation on which the cultivators work for a fourth of
the produce, each shall be bound to have for his personal use provision
grounds, to be cultivated during his hours or days of repose, proprietors
being bound to furnish the land necessary for that purpose.

9. When produce is about to be packed, the officer of rural police
shall have a right to examine it in order to prevent fraud, and if fraud
appears, the produce shall be confiscated. If it should prove to be badly
prepared he shall suspend its removal, and oblige the parties to clean it
anew. Produce cannot be sent oiF for exportation without a permit
from the proprietor. Small pecuniary penalties are annexed to the
breach of these regulations. (Ibid. p. 334.)

10. All cultivators of land the property of another, or persons who
cut timber for exportation, shall be obliged to enter into a contract with
the proprietor or renter ; the contract to be entered into either indivi-
dually, or by the whole body of cultivators collectively. These con-
tracts cannot be for a shorter time than two years on grass and provision
farms, or than three years in the case of farms for growing exportable
produce, nor for a longer term in either of these cases than nine years.
Contracts for wood-cutting cannot be made for a shorter term than six
months, or for a longer term than a year. The contract shall be in
writing before a notary, who shall preserve a minute of it, and it must
express the conditions of the contract, which shall be such, provided
they do not contravene this code, as the parties shall agree upon ; the
neglect of these formalities to be liable to a fine, and to preclude the

Present Code Rural of Hay ii. 179

party guilty of the neglect from bringing any action at law on the sub-
ject. Contracts with cultivators Avho have not fulfilled their previous
contracts shall be void, and such cultivator, besides being subject to a
fine, shall be sent back at his own expense to fulfil his prior contract.

11. Parties working for half of the produce, shall share with the pro-
prietor in an equal half of all fruit, provisions, pulse, grain, &c., on that
plantation. On sugar estates, before the division is made, the proprietor
shall deduct a fifth of the gross produce for the use of machinery, uten-
sils, cattle, &c., and other charges.

12. Parties labouring for a fourth part of the produce, shall have a
fourth part of the gross of all they raise, besides enjoying all they raise,
on their own grounds, during the hours or days of rest.

13. When the crops are prepared and collected, they cannot be re-
moved till a division shall have been made between the proprietor and
the cultivators labouring, whether for a half or a fourth. On sugar
plantations the division of shares among the cultivators shall be made
after the grinding of each piece of canes. On plantations of coffee, cotton,
cocoa, indigo, &c., the division shall take place at the end of the respective
crops ; on those of provision or grain, or in cutting firewood, making
charcoal, and other irregular works, every six months. When the time
of division arrives, the proprietor shall call the officer of rural police to
witness the division. The accounts of the articles or products raised or
manufactured, shall be examined with the vouchers of sales ; the pro-
ceeds reckoned up, and the shares of each person settled.

14. Each of the co-sharers shall be inscribed in the distribution list,
according to their strength and activity, and the time they have worked
in the first, second, or third class, and the whole shall be divided into
quarter shares, half shares, and whole shares. The overseers shall each
have three whole shares. The head sugar boilers, head carpenters, and
heads of other departments shall have two shares. Labourers of the
first class, whether men or women, a share and a half, of the second one
share, of the third three quarters ; children from twelve to sixteen, and
elderly people, half a share ; younger children and infirm persons a
quarter share. The broken money shall go to those who have shewn
most punctuality and diligence.

15. The labourers shall be furnished with daily tickets to shew the
days they were at work, to be replaced by weekly tickets, to be brought
into account when the division takes place.

16. The officer of rural police shall withdraw for himself no part of
the sum to be divided. He shall make a statement of the division, and
make a return of it duly verified, to the Council of the Commune.

17. Proprietors may permit the absence of cultivators from their
homes, for eight days within the Commune. A longer absence must
be sanctioned by the Commandant of the Commune. (lb. p. 335 — 337.)

18. Proprietors, &c. shall behave to the cultivators as good fathers
of families. They shall supply, at their own cost, tools and implements
to cultivators for a fourth, who, if the tools be lost, are bound to replace
them ; and shall supply also the means of conveying the shares of the
cultivators to the place of sale. The labourers for h^lf, shall convey it
thither at their own charge. Proprietors undertaking to sell for the eul-

180 Present Rural Code of Hay ti.

ttvators their fourth or half, shall produce clear vouchers of the trans-
action. When the fourth or half shall be sold by the overseers or the
cultivators on their own account, they shall equally be bound to furnish
proof of their having dealt fairly with the co-sharers. The salaries of
managers shall always be paid by the proprietor, and not' taken from
the shares of the cultivators whether for a fourth or a half. Proprietors
are liable to a fine if they do not contract with a medical practitioner to
attend the cultivators, and do not also furnish the necessary medicines,
to be supplied gratis to cultivators for a fourth, but paid for by culti-
vators for a half. Proprietors are also bound to see that the infant
children of the cultivators are taken care of, and the due number of
nurses appointed for that purpose, whom the cultivators shall be made to
remunerate in proportion to the number of their children. (lb. p. 338.)

19, Cultivators shall be obedient and respectful to proprietors and
managers, and shall execute with zeal and punctuality the labours they
have contracted to perform ; devoting to these their whole time, and
on no account quitting them, or being at liberty to absent themselves,
without leave of the proprietor, except from Saturday morning to Mon-
day at sunrise. On other days they must have a permit from the pro-
prietor for absence if within the commune, but if without, from the
officer of rural police. The cultivators, whether for a fourth or a half,
shall be bound to put the proprietor's portion of the produce in a state
fit for delivery, and convey it to the place of sale, the proprietor fur-
nishing the means of transport.

20. Head men, of parties not exceeding ten, may contract with the
proprietor, and form sub-contracts with the cultivators.

21 . Besides cultivators for shares, persons may engage themselves by
the week, the month, or the job, on such terms as shall be agreed upon,
and while so engaged, must respect and obey the proprietor. When
persons are engaged to assist by the day, week, or job, in the labours
of an estate cultivated for shares, their wages must be deducted from
the mass of the proceeds, before distribution is made to the co-sharers.
If persons so hired do not fulfil their engagements, they shall forfeit
what may be due them.

22, All differences between proprietors and cultivators shall be
carried to the officer of rural police, or the Council of Commune,
and if not settled by them, referred to arbiters ; and if not settled by
them, to the justice of the peace, who shall decide finally. The whole
must be concluded within six days, (Ibid. p. 339, 340.)

23, On every plantation, having more than ten labourers, on which
the proprietor or renter is not resident, there shall be a manager ap-
pointed and paid by him, under a penalty of from ten to fifty dollars.
The duties of the manager are to superintend, for the proprietor, the
labours of the plantation, and he is answerable for any damage he may
cause to the proprietor, by his neglect of his duties. (Ibid. p. 348.)

24. The duties of overseers are to cause the work to be done, by the
labourers entrusted to their care, agreeably to the directions of the
proprietor or manager. Tliey shall be answerable for all absence, or
neglect of work, or disorders, or vagrancy, which they have not
reported to the proper authorities. They shall receive their remunera-

Present Rural Code of Hayti. 181

tion from the share of the produce assigned to the labourers. (Ibid,
p. 349.).

25. The labours of the field shall continue from Monday morning
till Friday evening, except in extraordinary cases, where the common
interests of all require a prolongation of them. On each day the la-
bour shall continue from day dawn till sunset, with intervals of two
hours and a half. Pregnant females shall be employed on light work
only, and shall not work at all in the field after the fourth month, or
for four months after delivery, and then their time of labour shall be
abridged by two hours in the day. No cultivator fixed on a plantation
shall be absent at the times of labour without leave. (Ibid. p. 351.)

26. The cultivators shall be obedient to their overseers, and to tlie
proprietor, manager, &c., in executing the labour they have engaged to
perform. Disobedience or insult shall be punished with imprisonment
according to the exigency of the case, by the justice of the peace.
Cultivators shall also be subject to a like punishment for quitting tbeir
work on working days ; Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays being at their
own disposal. (Ibid. p. 351.)

There are, besides the above, in this code, a great variety of regula-
tions, which are unimportant with a view to our present purpose, on the
formation and management of breeding farms, on the care and tending
of animals, and on the means of obtaining reparation for damage done
by them ; we therefore omit them. We omit also the minute details
respecting the rules for the due administration of the Rural Police,
which is to be conducted under the general superintendence of Com-
mandants of Departments, and under them of Commandants of Com-
munes, by sectional officers of rural police, by rural guards, by the
gend'armerie, and if need be, by troops of the line ; also concurrently
by justices of the peace, Councils of Notables, and of Agriculture.
These have their respective functions assigned to tbem when cases arise
which may require them to interfere; and are also all generally charged
with the duty of giving activity to agriculture and preventing its decay,
repressing vagrancy and disorders of every kind, and giving effect to
the various provisions of the rural law. They are besides to make
periodical reports to their superiors, which are all finally to centre with
the president, so as to exhibit a complete view of each property, of the
nature of its tillage, and of any changes in its cultivation, with lists of
its population. The rural police is also charged with executing the
regulations as to the making and repair of public roads. (Ibid. p. 340
-352.)

Such then is the present rural code of Hayti, which has been repre-
sented by the advocates of colonial slavery as a more harsh and com-
pulsory system than that which prevails in our islands. Will our
planters be content to make the exchange ? Will they be content to
lay down the cart-whip, and to resign their arbitrary power of punish-
ing into the hands of magistrates, acting agreeably to clear and defined
laws ? Will they be further content to adopt as the basis of their
legislation the following principle of the Haytian constitution, which
forms the barrier against all possible abuse of those clauses in the code

182 Present Slate of Ayriculture in Hayti.

rural, which appear the most coercive, viz., ". There can be no slaves
on the territory of the Repubhc. There slavery is for ever abolished.''
Again, " The law is the same for all, whether it punish or protect."
If so we will at once close with them, and gladly consent to their
retaining and exercising over the labouring class, every coercive power
which is conferred on the Haytian proprietor by the Haytian law,

But quitting this part of the subject for the present, it may be well to
ascertain if possible what has been the effect of that system of rural
police, which, with slight variations, has prevailed in Hayti, as we have
seen, since the year 1794. That previous to the invasion of the island,
by Leclerc in 1802, it had produced the best and most prosperous
results, isi proved by the concurrent testimony of all our witnesses.
That fatal invasion changed the scene, and after two years of warfare,
conflagration, and massacre, during which, all cultivation, except in
the mountains for the necessaries of life, was annihilated, and all build-
ings for agricultural or manufacturing purposes, either destroyed by
fire or otherwise left to perish, Hayti remained for some time, of
necessity, in a state approaching to utter desolation. Even when the
government and the people could at length turn from their more
pressing necessities to think of resuming the cultivation of sugar, and
of other exportable produce, on any large scale, how discouraging and
almost hopeless, nay, except in a few cases how almost impracticable,
must have been the attempt ! ^Ye^e they on the plains to re-erect the
sugar-works, and to replant the canes, which another invasion might
destroy in a moment ? Their very safety seemed to require a different
policy, even if they had possessed the means of reviving sugar culture
to any great extent. Although therefore the government gave all the
encouragement in their power to its revival, and renewed the laws for
regulating labour, and insuring to the labourer his proportion of its
fruits, it is obvious that but comparatively few estabhshments of that
kind could be formed with any hope of advantage. The government, at
the very time that they held out such encouragements and re-enacted such
laws, saw the necessity of looking to other means of reviving industry,
and securing the general comfort of the Haytians, than that of drawing
them to form those large establishments which had formerly been alone
thought of as the means of prosperity, but which, under the existing
desolation, and the universal extinction of capital, it was vain to expect
could be but very partially re-established with the slightest prospect of
early benefit. They adopted therefore a new line of policy, suited to the
peculiar exigencies of the case, not only by allotting, to superior offi-
cers, large portions of land on which to renew, if they could, the former
establishments, but by liberally giving smaller allotments to such of the
cultivators as desired to become proprietors, and to cultivate the soil
not for others but on their own account. Accordingly, we are in-
formed by Mr. Mackenzie, on the authority of testimony on which he
relies as correct, (p. 106,) that the Haytian government saw it to be
their true policy to make a general distribution of confiscated lands ;
and thus, '* by the wisdom of the government, the mass of the nation be-
came proprietors." And this is represented as the very circumstance which

Recent Communications from Hay ti. 183

" constituted the national strength against all attempts at invasion,
every individual having property of his own to defend." In corrobora-
tion of this evidence, we have the following statement from Mr. Mac-
kenzie himself, as the result of his own actual observation," The system
of dividing the land into small allotments, in every part that I have
visited, has certainly had the effect of rendering it exceedingly difficult
to collect bodies of labourers, as each individual can either find, or
pretend to find, abundant occupation at home." " The consequence
is, that it is very difficult, if not impossible to carry on sugar cultivation
to any extent." (Ibid. p. 94.) By these farmers, he adds, (p. 105)
" -provisions are cultivated, and poultry and cattle are raised for
home use."

This however is a state of things which Mr Mackenzie seems to de-
plore as a proof of retrogradation in improvement ! He mourns over it,
though it be a state which assimilates the condition of the Haytian
peasant to that of the English yeoman, and he desiderates in its place
the collection of the people into large gangs, in order to prosecute, by
their coerced labour, the growth and manufacture of sugar. But such
a preference, though in itself very unreasonable, was to be expected from
one so familiar with Colonial slavery, and so much interested in uphold-
ing it, as Mr. Mackenzie.

We have now, with the aid of Mr. Mackenzie, brought our historical
view of the progress of Haytian agriculture, or to speak more cor-
rectly, of Haytian legislation on the subject, to the period of the ac-
knowledgement by France of Haytian independence — that is to say, to
the year 1826. The effect of that measure, as exhibited in the present
state of Haytian civilization and improvement, we must ascertain from
other sources ; and we have satisfaction in being enabled to communi-
cate authentic information on the subject. That information has been
conveyed to us in a series of letters from a gentleman who repaired last year
to Hayti, for the purpose of examining the actual state of society and
manners in that interesting republic, and who is now journeying there in
the pursuit of that object. The whole of his researches may probably
appear before the public ere long in another shape. In the mean time,
we must hmit ourselves to a few sketches, drawn from the communi-
cations of this traveller, which may serve to introduce our readers into
the interior of Haytian society, so far as it concerns our present pur-
pose, and prepare them for a more formal and systematic view of this
black republic in its various relations and aspects, natural, civil, politi-
cal, intellectual and moral.

6, — Recent Communications from a Traveller in Hayti.

Port-au-Prince, island of Hayti,
June 25, 1830.

" I arrived at Port-au-Prince on Wednesday the 16th instant. As
this letter is intended merely to communicate to you that I am at last
at my destination, I shall not attempt any minute description of either
scenes or events.

" Being aware that this city had very recently suffered greatly by fire,

184 Recent Commu7iications from Hayli.

I expected to see an unsightly waste of ruin and decay, but the lots are
rebuilt, and many a splendid and substantial edifice, surpassing- those to
be seen in the city of Kingston, in Jamaica, has arisen, as the first fruits
of the security which property enjoys by the recognized independence
of Hayti. As the style in which these buildings have been erected is
very peculiar, being neither copies of the old city, which never exhibited
any thing but mean wooden houses, nor erections of a taste derived from
the old colonists, their external appearance and internal economy will
serve to shew the social progress which this people are making under
the influence of their new political condition. If this single feature in
the appearance of Port-au-Prince has created in my mind agreeable dis-
appointment, the condition of its numerous negro inhabitants, in their
domestic comfort, in their manners, their social deportment, and their
habits of order, has not less pleasantly surprised me.

" 1 have yet, of course, seen little of the inhabitants of the country
except what is presented to my view, by those frequenting the markets.
The market on Saturday, which extends over to the Sunday morning,
presents an assemblage of people who have no affinity with the labouring
population of the slave colonies, but that which they derive from their
common African origin. There is the black skin and the woolly hair,
but there is an elevation of character in the features, which indicates the
working of better motives than fear and submission."

" Some writers have affirmed that the untractable idleness of the
Haytians has led them to consult their ease in all things. If this be so,
we cannot but admire the operation of the motive in the preservation of
that robust health and vigour, which it seems to secure to parent and child,
through the diminished toil they enjoy, and by means of the possession
of numerous well trained and strong limbed asses and horses, on which
they are seen riding to market, and bringing down a prodigious quantity
of agricultural products for sale. The excellent training of the ass, called
here the bourrique, excites no less admiration than his large size, and
the sleek and glossy condition of his make. As his great utility secures
him from ill-treatment, he is neither slow, stupid, nor headstrong.
Trains of from three to six tied together trot on unstimulated by word
or blow from the owner, who rides on one animal, with perhaps his wife
on a second, and his lusty and helpful boy on another. The herds of
these animals must be immense."

" My curiosity has not been confined to what I can see in the streets
of Port-au-Prinee only. I have made an excursion or two just out of
town, to the little cottage settlements on the side of the mountain above
the city. I am told that in the ' ancient Regime,' that is the phrase
here for the old state of things, the plains were a source of so abundant
a return for the industry of the proprietor, that the mountains in this
neighbourhood were comparatively neglected, so that the " Camp des
Fourmis,'' the range of hills so called, extending from Point Laraentin
to the Cul de Sac, were heretofore never cultivated as they are now.
At present they are covered with a thousand small settlements appro-
priated to coffee and provisions, and fruits and vegetables, in which the
advantages of irrigation, presented by the frequent springs bursting from
the mountain ravines, have been diligently attended to in their agricul-

Recent Communications from Hayti. 185

tural economy. The water is trenched over the sunny s«rfaee of each
projecting irregularity of the ridge, and height above height, the cot-
tage of the humble cultivator is seen ; or the substantial country-seat of
the Haytian merchant, with its baths, bowers, and terraced gardens, has
been erected. I shall not here descant upon the fact so well known,
that an article of the Constitution declared that, "au premier coup de
canon d'alarme, les villes disparaitront, et la nation se levera;" but it
is clear, that this circumstance alone must have been sufficient to in-
fluence the small proprietors in fixing their locations, even so near the
city and seat of government, in the mountains, rather than in the plains,
fertile as they are. But if le Camp des Fourmis was the old colonial
appellation for this ridge, it seems to have been prophetically given. Its
swarms of men and women, youths and maidens, and strong-limbed
children, every where seen around the cottages, or fetching water, or
washing linen at the springs, renders it a most significant name. Mr.
Lloyd, a European merchant here, inhabiting a most luxurious but un-
ostentatious retreat, among the small cultivators, gave me, in an even-
ing's ramble among them, a highly characteristic account of the nume-
rous inhabitants of his district. On the death of Christophe, the exciting
alarm-gun, that sound for which every Haytian ear, dreaming or awake,
is eternally open, was heard from the batteries about the city. Instantly
a thousand armed men ready dressed and accoutred for the field, de-
scended from the steeps, as if they crept from the very crevices of the
mountain. Every track-way poured forth its warriors. That single
sight convinced him that the country was lost for ever to the domination
of a European master.

" I will just briefly notice that the planters here concentrate their agri^
culture in little space. They take off a crop of corn between their canes,
and plant peas, potatoes, (not the pomme de terre, but the true patata of
the Indians,) and maize on the same field. They gather their peas
before their potatoes are fit, and dig the potatoes before the corn ripens
and shells its grain — so that much is effected in very little compass.
Food of all kinds, animal and vegetable, is four times cheaper here than
in Jamaica."

" On Sunday morning, (20th instant) at 7 o'clock, his Excellency the
President, was pleased to appoint me an audience. I passed through
the portico of the palace, lined with the officers of his staff, into the hall
of audience. Faces of the deepest black, to the lightest shade, were
among them ; but the black was the most predominant. The saloon of
the palace is a room of excellent proportions, lofty and long. The floor
is of marble, in varied compartments ; the furniture tasteful and elegant,
but not rich. The Secretary-General, who was there to receive me, had
just introduced me to the officers in waiting, when the footsteps of a
person moving over the floor of an adjoining anti-room, announced the
approach of the President of Hayti. His person is small, his manners
perfectly easy, and his deportment graceful. He was plainly attired in
the costume of a general officer, the only mark of particular distinction
being his shoulder belt or bandolier, which was of embroidered crimson
velvet. His address was unaffected and friendly. He seated me by him ;
welcomed, me to Hayti; and expressed, in particular terms, his approba-

2 A

86 Recent Communications from Hay ti.

iioii of the object wluch led me on a visit hither. He gave me the
assurances of his esteem and confidence, to which he was pleased to say
he felt I was entitled, by the high recommendations contained in the
letters I had presented to him."

" The city of Port-au-Prince is built on the declivity of one of the off-
sets of a mountain on its south-side, called le Camp des Fourmis. It is
situated just at the point where the mountain gradually descends, and
loses itself in the extensive plain of the Cul de Sac. As it extends over
the regular surface of a hill of moderate elevation, it exhibits to the tra-
veller approaching it from the sea, an unsightly appearance of high roofs
and low built houses, forming a back ground greatly detracting from the
otherwise beautiful aspect of the new buildings by the shore, with their
arched galleries, piazzas, and turrets, called Belvideres. On the heights
above the town are constructed a line of batteries." " The streets are
spacious, and placed at right angles."

" The old colonists secured a copious supply of water by an aqueduct,
which conveyed to the town a stream from the upland springs. That
aqueduct, with several large fountains, erected in the market and other
squares, to distribute conveniently the essential element to every quar-
ter, still administers to the household wants and uses of the inhabitants.
Open courses on either side of the street, in the paved channels, receive
the surplus stream ; but it does not flow rapidly enough, nor descend
in sufficient abundance to aid the police regulations for the observance
of cleanliness, yet the streets are kept free from all filth, and their gene-
ral condition is very good.

"Port-au-Prince, though by no means a handsome town, is, at this day,
in style, and one may say in splendour, far superior to what it was in the
colonial period of its history. With the wealth of a commerce derived
from the resources of a mighty empire, and the elegance of a highly
refined people, commanding multitudes of slaves to fertilize and embellish
it, its ancient appearance was poor and unprepossessing. In the early
period of its settlement, the houses were constructed of stone; but the
overwhelming destruction sustained from an earthquake, led to a muni-
cipal regulation, by which it remained until lately a city of low, and
unostentatiously, if not meanly erected wooden buildings. The frequent
calamities to which it has subsequently been subjected from fire, and the
immense and valuable property lost in the years 1820 and 1822, by such
devastations, have led the Haytians to attempt providing against the two-
fold liability as they expressed it, of being bouleverse et incendie. They
have commenced re-erecting some of the houses destroyed by these con-
flagrations, with stone, or brick, cased over wooden frames, at once to
sustain the shock of the earthquake, and to repel the action of any fire.
They cover too the roofs with tiles or slates, rather than shingles, and
erect their stores for merchandize with fire-proof terraces, and wrought
iron windows and doors. These buildings have galleries, and arched
colonnades with heavy cornices, and balustrades screening the roofs,
and floors of variegated marble and tiles, in the upper as well as the
lower stories. If continued generally, they will render this city, not
only one of the most elegant in the West Indies, but one in which the
houses will exhibit an interior economy, the very best adapted to the

Recent Comtniinications from Hay ti. 187

necessities of the climate. The marble terraces of the upper floors are
delightful. The sensation of freshness they create, while adding to the
comfort of the body, give an appearance the most gratifying and taste-
ful to the eye. The decorations are appropriate. The rich and varie-
gated mahogany of the country, is manufactured into elegant furniture
by the artizans here. And the French taste of gilded mirrors, or molu
clocks, and porcelain vases filled with artificial flowers, impart to the
dwellings of the simple Haytian citizen, an air of refinement not un-
worthy of Europe. These edifices are the first fruits which the security
of property has yielded since the recognized independence of Haytj.
About fifteen of the houses have been erected within this last two years,
and about thirty others, equal in size and internal convenience, but not
alike cased with stone and brick, have also been built. The lofty
pyramidal roofs of these buildings are finished with the sort of turreted
sky-light called a Belvidere, being intended for the purpose of ven-
tilation, as well as for a look-out ; and while adding greatly to
convenience as a dwelling-house, gives an architectural effect to the
town, at once handsome and picturesque.

"The social progress which the Haytians are making, under the influ-
ence of their new political condition, will be best appreciated by
contrasting these evidences of their domestic state with the numerous
buildings of the old city that yet remain ; whatever may have been the
wealth of the old colonists, whatever their refinement and breeding, the
external appearance and internal economy of their ancient houses,
exhibit an extraordinary disregard to all taste and elegance." "If
such was the ancient city in its time of colonial prosperity, we cannot
wonder that the Haytian, not in the insecurity of their independence,
for that, nature, by the barrier of mighty mountains, had placed beyond
all risk of being overturned, but in the insecurity of property by the lee
shore, daily liable to destruction from the hostile armaments of France,
should be contented to inhabit the old city, not merely without at-
tempting to improve its architectural appearance, but at all times
prepared to leave its enemies nothing but its ashes. As soon, however,
as the acknowledgement of their independence, by the once sovereign
state, placed them beyond the necessity of resorting to that system of
desperate defence, which, by the fiftieth article of their constitution, has
been made an essential element of their liberty, ' that at the first sound
of the alarm gun, the towns should disappear, and the nation should
rise in arms,' houses have been erected of elegant character, and of per-
manent materials. All the prudence which a long futurity of peaceful
possession suggests has been attended to in their construction. We
see, in these facts, the sure evidence of the country's progress in the
arts of civilized life. Unhappily, however, the little wealth of a people
who, estimating liberty above all price, had been contented to endure
poverty in their sacrifices to possess it, has been greatly dissipated, if
not wholly swept away, by the ruin so recently suffered by conflagra-
tion. One third of the city, eight years ago, fell by the destructive
element. Industry has in a great measure repaired this calamity, but
the marks are not entirely obliterated. Ruined walls are still visible,
and the absolute poverty entailed on many families of comparative

188 Recent Communications from Hayti.

opulence, and the diminished fortune of those heretofore esteemed rich,
have retarded the progress of this better spirit.

" Few pubHc objects in Port-au-Prince offer claim to more than
cursory notice. The palace of government is large and convenient, but
not handsome. It is of one story, and situated in front of the parade,
to the south-east of the town. Its entrance is up a fine flight of steps,
leading through a spacious portico into the hall of audience. The floors
of all the public rooms are of black and white marble. The furniture
is tasteful and elegant, but not costly. This building, the residence of
the governor general of the ancient colony, was constructed with more
attention to convenience than effect. The apartments are pleasantly
cool. Its situation, at the edge of a fine plain beneath the moun-
tains, appropriated as a review ground, is unobstructed by buildings
on either side. It has spacious gardens around it, which secure it the
agreeable influence of the sea and land breezes at all tinics, early and
late.

" In front of the entrance gate of the palace, near one of the fountains
of the city, with a single tree of the Palma Nobilis growing beside it, is
the marble tomb of the President Petion. It is a plain edifice, containing
the remains of one, ivho, by his genius, perseverance and valour, having
saved a people, has given to a simple shrine the lustre and importance
of a costly and splendid mausoleum. The Haytians, in their deep af-
fection for his virtues, never speak of him, but with an epithet — as,
" Their father Petion," or as, " The man who never caused a tear, but
when he died." (II ne fit couler des larmes qu'a sa mort.)"

" In a temporary shed, not far distant from this tomb, are sculptured
marbles for a superb mausoleum, lately received from Europe, which it
"is said will displace the existing one, but, consecrated as this is by early
associations, it is to be hoped that it will be preserved as a sacred relic,
standing where it does. The humble character of the present fabricj
erected in the poverty and infancy of the republic, renders it, like the
widow's mite, not less worthy or less acceptable, than splendid offerings
out of the abundant treasury of the rich, since the people who built the
simple shrine, gave freely all that they possessed in the midst of
penury and distress.

" To the north east of the town, in a line with the terraces and foun-
tains, erected in front of what was formerly the residence of the inten-
dant general of the ancient colony, stands the church, a plain humble
building, having a flight of steps at the western entrance, and encircled
by a wooden gallery. It is neatly fitted up within, arched and
supported by square columns, but without any pretensions to architec-
tural regularity.''

" The senate house is one of the new buildings just completed. It is
■well proportioned. The facade has a pleasing eifect, though of no
architectural order. The projecting front is a pediment containing
a sculptured has relief of the tree of Haytian liberty and independence.
It is the Palma Nobilis, surrounded with military trophies. The ground
floor is erected with an arched roof of masonry, supported by columns ;
and contains the senate-hall, w;th side galleries, for the public. In the
upper story are the Bureaus. This house has not yet been opened for

Recent Communications from Hayti. 189

deliberative purposes. It is graced by a full length portrait of the
Abbe Gregoire, in his episcopal robes.

" The Lycee, or public college of the city, is also one of the newly
erected edifices. It is a large plain building, supported on a row
of arches, and has a convenient extent of garden attached to it. The
entire ground floor comprises the school ; it is of large dimensions,
cool and airy.

"The new custom-house, with its warehouse and quay, has been com-
menced some time, but little progress is as yet made in completing it*"

"The mint, and secretary of state's offices, are neat buildings, but not
large. These are among the number of ancient edifices. The arsenal
was destroyed by an accidental explosion, in 1820; nothing but the
workshops exist. There are no magazines. The prison is well arranged.
It is judiciously ventilated, and watered by two fountains ; and has a
garden within its walls. The military hospitals have nothing to excite
particular attention.

"The public fountains are reservoirs discharging their surplus waters
through convenient pipes.'' "The octagonal basin in the city market, is
neat, and surmounted with an elegantly formed Grecian vase. The ter-
raced pond for horses up the town, is highly useful and convenient.
When the government shall be able to carry into eft'ect their determina-
tion of removing the unsightly slates that surround and deform the
market-squares, and erect a substantial circuit of simple sheds on
durable columns instead, the effect will be elegant. At present, all
their intentions in the erection of useful and ornamental public works,
sustain a complete paralysis, by the draining which their treasury
suffers from the French indemnity.

" The city of Port-au-Prince covers a large space of ground. It is cer-
tainly nearly, if not quite, as large as Kingston, in Jamaica; being
a full mile in extent, from the portal of St. Joseph to the barrier
of Leogane ; but it is not estimated to contain more than from twenty
to 25,000 inhabitants, whereas Kingston contains from thirty to 40,000,
a slave community permitting the free to have about them many
attendants, so that each house is more numerously tenanted."

" There are excellent public baths in Port-au-Prince, hot and cold, the
tepid waters are those which common experience has established as best
for the purposes of health in this climate.

"The frequent ornamental cottages embellishing the upland slopes and
little plateaus of the mountain side, which arrested my attention as the
ship approached the harbour of Port-au-Prince, rendering me eager to
view them near, have led me to become an early visitor amid their quiet
and sequestered scenes. If their first aspect impressed ray mind with a
picture in which were to be found variety and beauty, a visit to the spot
realized all the anticipations I had formed by adding to the exuberant
fertility of the soil, and the pleasing variety of the surface, the comforts
of convenient and even splendid habitations. Rivulets, bursting from the
mountain side, were seen winding their transparent courses, through
artificial channels of mason work, so arranged, for the purposes of irri-
gation, as to spread perpetual refreshment and fertility through the ve-
getation of fields and gardens. Heie and there at convenient spots^

190 Recent Communications from Hayti.

the waters were gathered in wells beneath embowered thickets of fruits
and flowers. After filling a reservoir at each dwelling for the purposes
of a family bath, whose refreshment might be sought amid the conceal-
ment of twisted jessamines and roses, — or the rich dense cannopy of
the large granadilla passion flower, in which the thick purple blooms
were broken by the red panicles of the Taheitian rose, and the white
tufts of the frangissance, and of the resida or the tree mignionette, they
poured their surplus waters from one terrace of the declivities to the
other. The dwellings were essentially cottages, with opened and em-
bowered galleries around them. They were large, convenient, and
well furnished. Where the roofs were finished with the picturesque
belvidere, so well adapted for the purposes of ventilation, the external
scene of a sort of Venetian turret arising amid clumps of tropical trees
was very pleasing. The floors were of chequered marble, or of the or-
namental tiles so common in the houses of Paris, The out-offices, such
as the kitchens, stables and servants' residences, diversified by occasional
trees, were spread about, and increased the appearance of substantial com-
fort. There were the residences of the Haytian functionaries, the foreign
merchants, and the more substantial indigenes, who drew their wealth
from the trade of the city, and sought here a change of air, and quiet
repose for themselves and families. The extent of each of these little
farms was ordinarily not more than fifteen acres, and seldom ex-
ceeded twenty. Their products were limited to a copious supply of
fruits and vegetables, for their own domestic use, and of corn and
grass for their horses. The difficulty of obtaining hired labour does
not enable those who could command capital to attempt any cultivation
beyond what is required, for their own family economy, in this sort of
occasional retirement.

" These villas of the more opulent inhabitants are not without their
neighbourhood of small independent cultivators. The patches of corn
fields which spot the forests of the mountains, the thick groves of the
Bananas which line the hollows of the steeps, and the shrubby breaks of
coffee trees which here and there diversify the luxuriant vegetation of
hill and valley, are the agricultural wealth that conceal the domestic
haunts of the Haytian husbandmen. — It is only when the traveller opens
some angle of the ravines, that he sees the cottage itself, situated on
some small plateau within the hollow, and commanding its own stream
of clear and limpid waters, trenched along the upland surface of its own
little quiet property for the purposes of fertility and refreshment. The
frequent gusts and tornadoes which sweep along the abrupt descents of
the mountain, have taught the farmer of the torrid zone, the necessity
of making his provision grounds within these sheltering hollows, as the
Banana (musa paradisiaca etsapientium) the stafFof lifeto the great por-
tion of mankind within the tropics, like all deciduous plants, never
rises from where it falls, but rots as soon as the winds injure its stem,
which is but a frail net-work of cellular water cavities, these plantations
in the sheltering hollows and ravines, are a necessary part of the culti-
vator's economy. The situation which gives security to his food from
the casualties of storms, offers the best protection for his own thatched
cottage. — He builds it therefore, by necessity as much as predilection,

Recent Communications from Hayti. 191

wilhin the cool sequestered valley of the mountains, and finds there in
preference to every other place ' health in the breeze' and * solace from
the storm.'

" The cultivation of the range of mountains from Point Lamentin to
the valley of the Cul de Sac, on the south side of Port-au-Prince, is, at
this time, much more extensive than it ever was in the period of its
colonial history. The plains were a source of such abundant profit for
the industry of the proprietor, that the mountains in the neighbourhood
were comparatively neglected. At present they are covered with a
thousand small settlements, appropriated to coffee and provisions, and
fruits and vegetables, in which all have secured for their fields the
advantages of irrigation, under the surveillance of a rural police, vAach.
regulates diligently the arrangement and proper keeping of these im-
portant water courses. On the very spots where Christophe, as recently
as in the time of the nascent republic of Petion, after clearing away
brushwood and forest-trees, planted his batteries, and unsuccessfully
invested the city, the cottage of the humble cultivator is seen, or the
substantial country-seat of the Haytian merchant has been erected. All
these are new plantations. Dr. Pinckard, in his Notes on the West
Indies, when speaking of the vicinity of this city, as it appeared in
1797, observes, that 'villas, pens, and country-houses, at a short dis-
tance from the town, are far less numerous around Port-au-Prince than
Kingston in Jamaica. The merchants,' he remarks, ' do not leave
their dwellings, but content themselves with a single establishment,
making the house of business their constant and only place of resi-
dence.' But now " le Camp des Fourrais," (the mountain so called),
once so tranquil and untrodden by the foot of man, that its forests and
caverns successfully concealed the arms, and covered the early assem-
blies of the revolted people of colour; has now, as has been already ob-
served, as if its ancient appellation was prophetically given, its swarms
of men and women, youths and maidens, and strong-limbed children
around its cottage settlements, and by the borders of every stream
that issues from the mountain side."

'' There is a greater equality in the stature of the black inhabitants of
Hayti than among the people of those colonies in which various African
races are yet perceptibly traceable. We do not encounter many per-
sons extraordinarily tall, and many others that are small but well pro-
portioned. The prevalent average of height is about five feet ten inches
among the men, and the women, considered relatively, are taller. They
are well formed, round and firm of limb, seldom corpulent, but never
thin; — they are generally strong and muscular, active in make, and vigor-
ous in body. Their features are essentially African, yet the thick lips,
the large mouth, and the flat nose, less prevail among them than a certain
moderate proportion, which gives no special prominence or largeness of
form to any particular lineaments. Their eyes are fine, their coun-
tenances quick and intelligent, and their teeth preserve the hereditary
peculiarity of Africa, of being always well set, regular, and beautifully
white. Their upright, athletic make, and habitual consciousness of
freedom, reminds the West Indian of the Jamaica Maroon. There is
the same mien — the same gait — the same impression of liberty. The

192 Recent Communications from Hayti.

evidences of age so seldom appear verging beyond fifty years, that a
person, inspecting minutely the companies of their soldiery, as they
muster on the Sunday morning, would take them all for the " elite" of
their youth. The fact is, the old have really passed away. The civil
disco ds of the country, twenty and thirty years ago, yielded such a
harvest of death, that those who were sufficiently matured to take part
in the contests have been eut off, and a young race of inhabitants alone
exists, among whom servitude, and the cruelties of unrequited labour,
are tales of former times. If one sees, occasionally, aged men or women
in the streets, be assured that the dishonouring traces of slavery are
indelibly written in their aspect and their manners."

" In dress, the people of the country, as well as town, appear in gene-
ral attentive to their attire. The prevailing colour of the female
clothing is generally some bright tint, either distributed in broad
stripes, or forming a ground of yellow, blue, or red, diversified by large
flowers. Their head-dress is the graceful turbanet of the Madrass
handkerchief. This sort of tiara, which is peculiar to all classes and
gradations of African and European blood, whilst contrasting admirably
with the shadowy complexions of these tropical climates, combines at
once economy and elegance. Nothing can exceed the propriety of this
costume, both as it regards its use and appearance. A light kerchief
invariably covers the bosom in door and out, with this difference, that
when the person walks in the sunshine it is drawn up, and held half
across the face, until scarce more than the eyes appear, as a screen
against the excessive heat. Umbrellas are used as a shelter for the
head, but no bonnet is in use among them. The covering of the men
is the shirt of blue or pink-coloured check, and the trowsers of sheet-
ing. Sometimes it is simply the trowsers of sheeting, over which is
worn a short frock of the same material, drawn close, and bandaged
round the waist with a coloured handkerchief. The head is generally
among the men as it is universally among the women, encircled by
the handkerchief. The shoe, manufactured from the leather of the
country, is in common use, and forms an extensive and lucrative source
of handicraft industry. Along the piazzas of the shops a large display
of this requisite of personal convenience and comfort, in the traffic
of the market-day, shews the extent to which shoes are in use.
Government has laid a prohibitory duty on the importation of those
ready made. The shoes of Haytian manufacture are of superior workr
manship, and, at the present rate of exchange, average from 4s. Qd. to
7s. Qd. for the men's ; those for the women are lower priced."

" There is- certainly an elevation of character in the countenances of
this people which indicates, as I have before observed, the workings of a
disposition excited by better motives than those of fear and submission."
" A general courteousness and decency prevail among all classes of
the people in Hayti. Shut out from all intercourse with the neighbour-
ing colonies, and enjoying no contact with European society, but
through their communication with the few mercantile residents in
these parts, thev have, notwithstanding, acquired a very remarkable air
of civility and respect; and yet their acquaintance with the manners
of civilized life is very limited through this last channel. The foreigners

Recent Communications from Hayti. ' 193

domiciled among them are, in most instances, without European wives
or European families, and have rather acquired the manners and sen-
timents, and adopted the habits of the society in which they have been
placed, than modified in any respect those they found already existing.

" To me,'' says our traveller, "who have had an opportunity, from my.
birth and long residence in a slave colony, of forming by comparison a
correct estimate of this people's advancement, the general quiet conduct,
and respectful behaviour of all classes here, publicly and privately, is a
matter exciting great surprise. No community however well regulated
can present an aspect of greater order and tranquillity than Port-au-
Prince. The quietness of its streets is never disturbed by scenes of
riot, debauchery, or indecency. If one goes to the fountains where wo-
men, men, and children, are congregated in crowds, one's ears are never
outraged by the language of quarrel or obscenity ; in the markets all is
conducted in peace, with good faith, and mutual courteousness.

" The Haytians very justly observe, that whatever questions may be
raised as to whether their life is one of well directed industry, or of
carelessness, sloth, and ease, they can point to the fact that there is im-
pressed on the people the habit of good manners, and of attention to
their personal appearance, as a striking circumstance within the reach
of the most superficial inquirers. As it neither arises from any system of
severe police, nor is stimulated by any peculiar diligence on the part
of religious instructors, the influence of public devotion not operating
beyond the precincts of the Towns, it can only be ascribed to the eleva-
tion which liberty gives to character, and the increase of happiness and
social comfort which this regard to character incontestably establishes.
The decent demeanour of the people was the first remarkable feature in
Haytian society, which struck the benevolent mind of Robert Owen, when
he landed from the English packet at Jacmel. After noticing the ha-
bitual sense of propriety, which he found every where existing, he de-
clares, and he has written his declaration, that he seeks in his theory of
human happiness and prosperity the attainment of no greater felicity for
mankind, than he found possessed by the inhabitants of Hayti. It was
this opinion which induced Mr. Owen's extraordinary disciple and co-
adjutor, Miss Frances Wright, to visit this country recently, and to place
in the hands of the president of this republic the thirty redeemed slaves
she had purchased in America. Let a person look down on the streets
of Port-au-Prince in the morning, when the families crowd around their
windows and doors to enjoy the first burst of fresh air, after their rising
from repose, and he will perceive them to be early risers, and observers
of great neatness in their attire, even at this very first coming out to
their domestic avocations. He will see them too observing something
like a proper sense of religion, by their frequent going forth carefully
dressed to the daily matin service of their church, and on their feast days
and holidays, by their thronged attendance at public worship. In the
evening as they sit beneath the humble galleries of their public streets
enjoying the relaxations of the day, and forming, around the doors of
their quiet homes, little gaily dressed conversational groupes, with fine,
healthy, lively, and well-fed children around them, let a stranger as he
passes them, and gives and receives the customary good evening, look

2b

194 Recent Communications from Hayti.

at the order and cheerfulness of their dwellings, and he will perceive that
the free mould in which this people are cast is stamped with something
of the moral as well as the physical blessings of liberty and ease."

We shall be excused for inserting the inclosed anecdote, though it
does not quite fall in with our more immediate object in this abstract.

*' August 4th, The other afternoon as T stood under the gallery of Mr.
Wood's store, a merchant of Port-au-Prince, I felt very much inter-
ested in seeing a blind negro of middle age, clean and neatly clad, who
came with an ass-load of coffee bags, that he had been sewing : the kind
of labour by which he earned for himself a livelihood. He was attended
by his two sons, two stoutly formed children, of so near an approxima-
tion in height, that one would call them twins, and reckon their several
ages to be about six years. One of the boys held the halter of the ani-
mal, and led it onward to the store entrance, the other gave his shoulder
to his father's hand, who rested upon it lightly for his guidance, his
other arm being raised to support on his head, a parcel of the same sort
of bags with which his ass was loaded. The father's hands being both
occupied, his little boy had to carry his walking stick, the faithful coco
macaque of the Haytian peasant, a weapon of defence little less effective
than the sword in the hands of a skilful and athletic man. This he
grasped somewhat towards the ferrule, and brandished now and then
with the air of a drum-major, replying as he went on to some remarks
made to him by his parent, but having withal an infantile carelessness
in his demeanour, as if he scarce listened to what was said. The other
lad who had the ass for his companion, had it also for his conversation,
he spoke to it familiarly when he wished to turn towards the right or
left, and between the two such a mutual understanding of good will sub-
sisted, that the words were a sufficient substitute for blows at all times.
In a minute or two they all stopped beneath the piazza. — Each seemed
, to know from a constant habit, the office he had to perform, — The fa-
ther threw from his head the sacks. — The son that guided him untied
them, and delivered them over to be counted. — The boy with the ass
proceeded to slacken his gear, and to unload him ; the father to carry
the bundles within the store. — The ass stood quiet; stretched his leg
and scratched his knee, and then gently shook his sides as he felt him-
self eased of his burthen. — In an instant each was away again in the
same sort of order in which they came, except that the father took his
walking stick and stepped on with confidence, having his hand still on
the shoulder of the little son that guided him as he came, and now guided
him as he went away. The blind man is reputed for his activity and acute-
ness. He knows every body, and every thing, and every where. On
remarking to him that he was happy in his misfortune in having two
such y'ouths to assist him, he oberved that he felt so, for they were in-
deed a help to him. But his better fortune did not rest here ; he was
happy in being the inhabitant of a country in which no man claimed him
as a property, and tasked his person in his heavy visitation with un-
compensated toil. How different would he have been in his affliction in
a slave colony? No inducement would have been created to overcome
the disadvantages of his condition, by one rational exertion for the sup-
ply of his own wants, but many to compel those who held him in fee,

Recent Communications from Hayti. 195

to do it for him and in his dependence to neglect and starve
him into the bargain. His children would neither have brought con-
solation nor help to him. They would have been scourged and worked
for the service of any other than their parent. The tie of filial affection
would have been broken. He would have been a father without sons,
and they sons without a father. This man had lost his eye-sight in the per-
formance of his duties as a soldier. He was now worthless to his country
as a soldier, but he was still useful as a citizen. He earned his bread
by his own industry, and he brought up his children honestly. He
gave to the commonwealth those in whose hearts, duty, affection, good
humour, and the pride of self respect, would work for individual and for
public good. I do not record this instance of industry, and well ap-
plied exertion of the senses under their partial deprivation as an excep-
tion to a general rule. In Hayti I have found at every step of my tra-
vels evidence of the positive blessings of freedom. Its beneficial influ-
ence is so broadly written, both morally and physically, that he that
runs may read, and I have written this as a sort of extreme case, that
one may the better judge, of those that are intermediate. I found from
Mr. Wood's statement that this man in his blindness could, without as-
sistance, earn as much as eight dollars a week by sewing bags; making
a sum equal to four hundred dollars in the year."

" I have frequently been surprised, amused, and gratified, at the
facility with which the people of this infant country, can rise above
their condition, assume the demeanour of courteous life, and act with a
natural ease, an unrestrained feeling, in all the thousand incidents of a
mixed company, as if the best social intercourse had formed their
habits from their youth upward. It is, perhaps, the only country
where you shall take the artizan, his wife and children, the petite
bourgeoise and the grizette of the boutique, and whether in the
ball-room, or in the free sociality of a fete champetre, you shall see
an affability, and frankness so polished and spiritual, as to surprise a
stranger. Mr. Owen observed this when he went on shore at Jacmel,
in his way to Mexico, and thus speaks of it. ' It was a religious
holiday — every thing was new to me, and more new in consequence
of its being the first free coloured population I had ever seen. It
was better dressed, cleaner, more orderly, and more mild and polite
in its demeanour, the one to the other, than any working or trading
people I had ever seen in any civilized country. There was more
urbanity in the expression of countenance than I had witnessed in
Europe and America.' But you shall find this sort of habit not alone
in the towns, but diffused through the country. I have, when travel-
ling, come suddenly upon a cottage settlement amid the forest, and
have been greeted by the bows and curtsies of the children, with a
grace, ease and confidence, which shewed that it was an every day
complaisance, and not depending upon their intercourse with cities, or
their sight of strangers."

" No one who knows the events which placed Hayti in the list
of nations, and the long warfare which fixed thousands of soldiers
in dependance on the productive labour of the country, oppressing,
but not destroying it, checking, but not wholly arresting its progres-

196 Recent Communications from Hayti.

sive improvement, but must see that she possesses an army not to be
cashiered when she no longer demands its services. A course of
reduction since the treaty with France was, however, going on. It
worked safely, because it was prudently restricted to the dismissal of
those who were free from motives of unambitious repose. Men who
had a foretaste that a citizen, living by his own industry, and in the
enjoyment of domestic happiness, was really in an enviable condition
of life, being instigated by those better motives, which preferred the
profits of agricultural labour to the meagre pay, the thievery and
licentious idleness of a soldier, daily asked their dismissal, and daily
obtained it. This mode of disbanding the army was a prudent avoid-
ance of all evils. The number of operative citizens was increased by
men of the best moral quality^ while the army was composed of those
whose very habits placed them most judiciously under the surveillance
of military discipline. As the service, however, was regulated by the
fifth chapter of the Code Rural, with a view to its assisting in the
tillage of the country, by permitting the soldiery to work with
proprietors of plantations by the week, by the month, or by the year,
at contracted prices ; binding them to aid in the labour connected with
the conduits for irrigation, with the wells, cisterns, fences, and enclo-
sures of gardens and savannas, and the general maintenance of order,
without additional payment ; and allowing them to fill their guard
duties, by substitute, at a regulated stipend ; it operated as a never-
ceasing creation of fit objects for the usual conge for dismission.

" Such a system was working silently and well ; 40,000 troops had
been already reduced to 28,000, when the ill-timed reclamation of
Spain for the eastern part put the country in an attitude of prepara-
tion for war, and arrested at once all further reduction of the military
force. It is now occupied in marching and counter-marching through
the republic without seeing an enemy, depriving the plantations of
that labour which the system in practice has made a part of the
exigencies of agriculture, creating ruin in districts from which the
force is deducted, and loss in those to which it is added ; at once
impoverishing the provinces, and exhausting the treasury. A security
against that disposition to the military system growing out of a long
life of war, is now delayed in its progress, but there is no doubt that
it will be eventually attained."

" Hayti has injured herself by venturing to secure her acknowledged
independence from France for a sum so overwhelming in amount as
30,000,000 dollars. The sum itself is enormous, and the peculiar
period at which the event has taken place operates forcibly in aggra-
vating the evil. It blights her destinies as a commercial country, just
when her agriculture was reviving — when the people were appre-
ciating the conveniencies and luxuries of civilized life, and when her
institutions were being formed with the habits of a riper experience.
Her tranquil and useful progress among the free nations of America
is retarded. Her hope of revival consists in that undying spirit
which secures her liberty from ever being annihilated.

' Previous to this deploarble occurrence all the disjointed parts of
the island had been united ; her means had been so developed that

Recent Communications from Hayfl. 197

she could safely count on her revenue for all exigencies. She could
have reduced her army, and by increasing the discipline of a less force,
when she had no internal enemy to grapple with, render them for all
threatened invasion a still more effective resistance than may be
hoped for, ' from the hills and from the multitude of the moun-
tains.' The inherent desire of her inhabitants to improve their
condition was already putting the government on the salutary policy
of a reduction of duties, that by the relinquishm3nt of every burthen-
some impost, the things needful and convenient might be placed
within the reach of the bulk of society. The mass of the population
bore the evidence that a sense of propriety and a more cultivated
taste, was daily extending and daily stimulating their wants. An
eagerness for articles, known by her agricultural people at no previous
period of her history, was generally diffused, and luxuries so merged into
the necessaries of life, that ultimately it was deemed discreditable to
be without them. In this quiet and satisfactory advancement of an
improving population, the French indemnity came, as a tributary
exaction to burthen and oppress every individual. Men were to pay in
money for what they had already earned in blood — contributions were
to be levied for a measure universally obnoxious — three of the prin-
cipal towns refused their quota — districts assumed the attitude of
revolt — the security of property was shaken — its appreciation dimi-
nished— its labour unsettled— the public murmurs became deep and
loud against the pusillanimity of the government, and those who
could not escape the tax sought to lessen the oppression by assuming
such an appearance, and adopting such an expenditure, that there
should be no pretext in the state to increase the exaction." *

"July 19, 1830. I am about to visit the plains of the Cul de Sac.
The result of this visit will be given in my next."

"Before the revolution had changed the fertile plains of the Cul de
Sac to a wilderness, they were so watered and enriched by cultiva-
tion, that they exhibited one scene of perennial verdure — straight
roads and pathways, bordered by the citron, orange, and campeachy
wood, intersected the lands — sugar works spotted the surface at
certain distances ; their numbers at the same time giving them the
appearance of being near to each other. The spacious residences of
the proprietors fronted the highway. The avenues which led to them

* Our traveller, adverting to the statement of Mr. Mackenzie, so much at
variance with the official returns of the census of 1824, which made the popula-
tion amount to 935,000, while Mr. Mackenzie affirms it, in his Report, p. 86,
to be only 423,000, remarks that this gentleman's " Notes on Hayti," (Vol. II.
p. 113 and 114), seem to furnish a solution of the discrepancy. It is true that
423,000 was about the number who were called upon to contribute to the French
indemnity, but this number comprised only those who were capable of labour,
whether men or women, and excluded the young and the old. But for these
exceptions, and had the tax been forced on every head, it is obvious that the
tax would have pressed most heavily on those who were burthened already with
numerous families of infant children. As a proof of this, the number set down
as liable to pay the tax in Port-au-Prince was only 9163, though Mr. Mackenzie
must have been aware that this was not nearly half of the population of that place.

198 Recent Communications from Hayti.

were adorned by trees and flowering hedges ; and the frequent gate-
ways, scarcely more than four or five hundred paces apart, presented
incessant scenes of the busy people, stirring within and without them,
while horses and cattle, waggons and chaises, traversed the roads,
almost without intermission, by night and by day. The mansions
of those who commanded this fertility and opulence were, however,
not lofty. They rose only to the height of one story, with a threshold
elevated above the surface of the soil by a slight terrace, and encircled
by a wide gallery, around which clustered the rich and fragrant
blossoms of the tropics, imparting to them an aspect rather of rural
comfort and ease than of stately pomp and costly elegance. They
were not of mason work, but being built of wood and plaister, on ac-
count of the frequent earthquakes, during the revolution they soon
fell to decay, or rather, what the fire did not destroy, time demolished.
The store-houses, and works of the estate, which stood contiguous to
them, were, however, more solidly constructed. These, crumbling
into ruins, near clumps of the ancient garden trees, sufficiently indi-
cate the vestiges of the power and wealth of the former masters of the
soil, and the beauty that now lies desolate.

" The scene presented to the view of the traveller, however, who
quits the city of Port-au-Prince, to journey on the highway to the
mountains that divide this plain from the valley of the Artibonite,
through a wild waste, is not solitary. On the road he will meet a
multitude of cultivators coming to the city market, with horses and
asses loaded with provisions. He will see waggons with produce
drawn by teams of hardy and healthy cattle, speeding past him. He
may conclude that the people come from the mountains above the
plains, but the waggons and their produce must be from the plains
themselves. If he departs from the high road, and turns to the right
hand through one of the woodland paths, that he perceives diverging
to the upper end of the river, to the mountain glens, or to the banks
of the inland lakes at the head of the plain, he will find himself
entering into open grounds, covered with verdant fields ; he will see
traces every where visible of renewed cultivation ; mansions re-erected ;
aqueducts re-conducting their streams to irrigate the land ; the sound
of water-mills at work ; and cottages no longer deserted, but tenanted
by labourers once more issuing from them to gather in the harvest of
the teeming soil. Where the wild jungle occasionally breaks in on the
restored hedge-rows, if he observes, he will find it aflPording herbage
and shelter to numerous horses and asses that belong to the husband-
men of the districts, and make part of the economy of the plantation.

" On the morning of the 22d July, in company with some half dozen
friends, I paid my first visit to these far-famed plains. The day-break
was faintly streaking the sky beyond the mountains, when we passed
the portal of St. Joseph, and saw before us the steep, bold summit of
the Morne de Grand Bois, rising majestically into the dawn. The road
stretches along the declivity of the sterile line of marl hills, leading
to the celebrated Pont Rouge, a simple wooden bridge, painted red,
where Dessalines was surprised in an ambuscade and killed ; about
two miles further is the pretty habitation of Drouillard, one of the

Recent Communications from Hayti. 199

estates of the President Boyer. The lawn in front was parched, but
the fields to the rear looked green and fertile. It is a sugar estate,
commanding a supply of water, for mill-work and irrigation, from
some of the upland sources.

" On advancing into the forest, we see the water-mill and sugar-
house of Cazeau in ruins, overgrown with wild vines and rank herbage.
A little further on, before we cross the Grande Riviere, we arrive at
a straggling village of cultivators' cottages, with gardens and provision
grounds, recently cleared out of the forest, and, hedged in, form a
sort of bourgade by the side of little streamlets. Passing these, we
come to the Grande Riviere, flowing frettingjy over its bed of stones, a
small, unsightly, shallow stream, that divides itself into frequent
parallel courses, making many river islands. The bounds over which
its winter inundations sweep, are an arid and stony desert. When
we had got about three leagues from Port-au-Prince, we found our-
selves at Croix des Bouquets, at present a large scattered village with
little of either fertility or vegetation around it.

"This once celebrated town of the plains was occupied chiefly by the
artizans, who enjoyed a source of constant and profitable employment
from the wants of its agricultural neighbourhood. Its numerous
coloured population — its proximity to Port-au-Prince— its situation in
the centre of the immense plain of the Cul de Sac — gave it a most
fearful importance in the first shock of the revolution. It was here that
the inhabitants of the mixed race, when every enterprise of liberty had
failed elsewhere, found themselves sufficiently strong to contend in
arms for their civil and political rights, and to obtain them by victory.

" We entered the ancient Bourg at an open space, vvhere, of old, stood
the town market. Every where, amid the wild vegetation, traces of its
former tenements were perceptible. The streets were laid out at right
angles ; and, from the distance to which their vestiges extended, to the
right and to the left, before and behind, the town must have been large,
and its destruction complete. We found groups of well dressed fe-
males, all apparently black, gathering under some trees to attend the
matin service of the church close by, and loitering to gossip and enjoy
the freshness of the opening day. The church itself, a rude edifice, as
simple as a country barn, stood within the protruding remnants of its
old walls, having a wooden cross, a substitute for the ancient Croix
des Bouquets, erected before its entrance. At a little distance onward
to the north, was the old fort, with its circular bastions, built by the
English during their struggle when engaged in the war between the
French planters and their slaves. On the line of the old streets, many
a substantial new house was rising into existence. The frequent
thatched cottages seen among them, were a reparation of old resi-
dences. A municipal regulation at present exists, which prohibits the
re-construction of any tenement of quality less than shingled houses.
The village at the Croix des Bouquets is again rapidly rising into the
importance of a town, but as it stands within the stony district which
borders the Grande Riviere, its immediate vicinity will never exhibit
much tillage. Cultivation is, however, increasing through the plains,
and gardens are seen intermingled with the cottages in the town. The

200 Recent Communications from Hayti.

establishment of the sugar plantations is restoring the ancient villages
of husbandmen, and the shopkeepers already thronging to the Bourg to
supply the neighbourhood with the cotton manufactures of England,
the wines of France, and the linens of Germany, are gathering there
the busy stir of life and industry. Petits cabarets are open in the
market-place, and shops for miscellaneous merchandize, are very gene-
ral through the village streets.''

" Before arriving at Digneron, the farm of Mr. Roper, about three
miles furtljer on, where myself and a party of friends were to sojourn
for the day, and partake of the hospitality of the house, we passed
patches of cultivation near some of the old water courses, but they
rather served to shew than to relieve the apparent desolation around us,
and the solitude into which we had again entered. On turning up to
the right hand from the road, we entered the farm of Digneron. Its
yards, with horses and cattle feeding, and sheds, with ploughs,
waggons, tumbrils and harrows, presented to our view something like
the existence of the systematic tillage of Europe. Digneron is a plan-
tation of one hundred and thirty acres in extent, of which, however,
scarce more than thirty are in cultivation. The greater portion, not re-
claimed from the kind of wilderness to which it was abandoned in the
revolutionary wars, presents an appearance little less than that of an arid
and unprofitable desert. Towards the southern extremity of the lines,
where the fields receive the waters of the Grande Riviere from the old
Basin de Distribution, in common with the neighbouring properties of
Baubain, Morinierie and Caniere, Mr. Roper has subjected thirty
acres of enclosed land to the experiment of plough husbandry.

" These thirty acres are cultivated with the care and economy of an
English farm — a plough drawn by two horses, directed by two Ame-
rican labourers, a man and boy, and superintended by himself, suffices
to keep them in perfect cultivation. A road for the cart passes right
through the centre of his fields. To the right and to the left are ex-
tended his grass lands, with his divisions of yams, patata, manioc, and
corn. To these succeed his plantations of cane, intermingled with
alternate rows of corn, of a later growth than the preceding, and lines
of patatas. There is an obvious advantage in this mixture of other
productions with the sugar-cane, as the maize and the patatas require,
at certain seasons, inspection and care, the time and attention bestowed
upon them is necessarily so much management devoted to the cane
also. Its growth becomes matured by a free circulation of air. It
thrives unincumbered with weeds, and as the dried leaves, which
wither as the joints of the sugar-cane rise up, would check the corn,
or impede the vegetation of the patata, they are stripped off, and thus
the cane receives an attention equal to the care required by the plants
alternately growing with them ; something like a rotation of crops, too,
is secured by this method, and the soil kept from exhaustion. All the
productions are put in with the plough. This implement, at one place,
in turning up the soil opens the cane holes, and at another drills the
trenches for the maize and patata.

" A strong saccharine juice circulates in the succulent vegetation of
that species of convolvulus called the patata, rendering it an important

Recent Communications from Hay ti. 201

article of food for horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, in the economy of a
tropical farmer. This name, assigned it by the Indians of these isles,
has been improperly transferred by the early English navigators to the
Solanum tuberosum. The distinction has always been properly pre-
served by the French and Spaniards. When this convolvulus, whose
leaves closely cluster over the ground, has put forth its pink blossoms,
giving the fields an appearance not unlike that of red clover, the tops,
day after day, are cut, green and fresh for the stied hogs and the pen-
fold cattle and horses. The farinaceous bulbs, that chng hke excre-
scences to the roots, are now fit to be taken up. On the farm of
Digneron the all-useful plough has been brought in aid, to disengage
them from the earth in vphich they are embedded. In the instance of
our visit, Mr. Roper exhibited to us its practical operation in un-
earthing patatas. As it turned up the furrows of the soil, so it bared
them to those who picked them up. Two persons followed with a
basket, and collecting the patatas, cast them into a light cart that
advanced with the ploughman through the field. Nothing could be con-
ceived more expeditious and effectual than this system. The work
that was done in five minutes must have required the labour of an
hour of the usual mode of the hoe. The harrow was afterwards brought
to pulverize the soil, to disengage whatever might remain in the fur-
rowed clods, and to rake out the weeds, which were thus collected with
facility, dried in the sun, and burnt on the spot. I tried the plough
with my own hand, and though unskilled in this sort of labour, found
it perform its work with perfect ease.

" In the process of irrigation the usual cast of the furrows formed
intervals for the streaming waters. When small canals were required
to be cut, the plough performed the office of channelling the earth. The
waters flowed from the sluices through the beds where they were
required, and a temporary dam of the loose mould confined them
where necessary, or excluded them where they were not wanted. The
soil being rendered thoroughly porous by the arable process to which
it was subjected, plentifully absorbed the refreshing moisture, so that
every leaf of herbage, in a season unusually droughty, had the appear-
ance of enjoying the influence of perpetual showers. The bananery
was not in this part of the plantation, but immediately adjacent to the
farm-yard ; a wilderness of acacias, used as a sort of common for the
horses, asses, and cattle, stretching between the fields and the farm.

" Beside the canal from the Grande Rivifere, Digneron was watered
by a small duct from the Riviere Blanche, the lands being situated
between the two streams. It was this rill that supplied the house and
distillery with such water as was necessary.

" The old sugar-mill was still in use. It was for cattle, the tread
being a circular ridge of mason work. It had an extremely rude
appearance from being composed of the boulder Ume stones collected
from the bed of the Grande Riviere, the only quarry of these plains. It
was substantially built, but, with the usual economy of the old colonists,
it was without a covering, so that the people formerly worked, and the
cattle travelled in the open air night and day, at one time exposed to
the heat of the sunshine, at another to the chill of the night dews, (see

2 c

202 Recent Communications from Hayti.

Malenfaint's work on St. Domingo, p. 167.) Under the mass of wall
forming the head of the mill, there was built a cachot or prison, a dark
unaired dungeon for the refractory slaves of the old regime, a specimen
of the severe disciphne of the ancient colony. To the right and left
were recesses for the fires when the dark set in, the means used to
supply light for the night labour.

" The boiling-house had but three boilers, and manufactured only
syrup, which, if carefully clarified in the process of making it, fetched
in the market two dollars of Haytian money a quintal (a cwt.) These,
at the present rate of exchange, are scarce five shillings sterling. The
same weight of syrup, when distilled into rum, realizes three dollars
and a half, making an additional 50 per cent for the additional labour.
The old iron boilers were in use, but, notwithstanding all the economy
of using the old mill and the old materials, the difficulty of procuring
labour to take in the crop and grind it off, rendered the returns
scarcely adequate to the rent and charges. Mr. Roper, in conjunction
with a Mr. Lucas, were renters of this farm for a term of years, from
Col. Rigaud, who had purchased the sequestered property. A quantity
of cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and poultry, gave it the appearance of
being essentially a farm, an appearance increased by the system of cul-
tivation, and by every subordinate circumstance, such as the make of
the carts, and the well-fitted neat harness of the horses, which worked
the vehicles two abreast. Mr. Roper holds other cane lands in the
vicinity.

" As this visit gave me the first insight into the ancient process of
irrigation, I shall describe it here. Though considerable labour had
been bestowed by the ancient colonists in commanding for these plains
a supply of water from the rivers that flow through them, the process
was extremely simple, and the works by no means expensive. When a
stream of sufficient magnitude had been drawn from the river immedi-
ately at its source from the mountain glens, a spacious canal was dug
in the earth at the intersection of a line of estates, extending from the
uplands to the sea shore, which received the descending waters. At in-
tervals regulated by the proximity of each plantation to the principal
fosse, a small reservoir was constructed in mason work, called a basin
of distribution, into which the waters were gathered, and then divided
through smaller ducts in the direction of each proprietor's land. Every
duct was of a dimension relatively equal to the surface of the plantation
intended to be irrigated. The quantity to each was adjusted at the em-
bouchure of the reservoir by square blocks of stone placed at stated
distances to divide the water into the cubic measures to be allowed
them. The rural surveillance regulated by the public was limited to the
canals which passed the stream into the border of each estate ; the
proprietor being left to distribute the supply afforded him in any way
which his own judgment best dictated for agricultural economy. The
upland estates which possessed a sufficient fall of the stream, had aque-
ducts erected on them commanding an overshot of water for the sugar
mill ; but those in the centre of the plain, where there was little irregu-
larity in the stream's descent, being constrained to the use of cattle
mills, merely distributed what they received into rills through gutters

Recent Communications from Hayti. 203

and trenches. There were proprietors f^ho collected the water in the
first instance into tanks of 200 feet in length, and 8 or 10 feet deep,
which they overshadowed by groves of bamboos or other close foliage
to protect them from being exhausted by the sun's rays, and this se-
cured a resource for every exigency whatever. There were others again
who accomplished the same ends by paying largely for a greater num-
ber of cubic inches of water than they were entitled to receive from the
general reservoir. In the districts where cultivation has been renewed
the dilapidated aqueducts have been repaired, the canals reconstructed,
and the basins of distribution restored. In all these instances, whatever
had fallen to decay has been sufficiently redeemed from ruin, to shew
precisely the labour as well as the means used in the ancient process of
irrigation. — Malenfant, p. 279.

" I returned to Port-au-Prince in the evening, determining in the
cloudier month of August, when occasional showers should refresh the
exhausted wild herbage of the plains, and somewhat soften the severity
of the heated atmosphere, to renew my survey of the agriculture at pre-
sent existing in the Cul de Sac.

" On the 5th of August, I again journeyed to the plains, and visited
a friend Letoile, the ci-devant Dumornay Laboule, the Guildiverie, or
distillery plantation of Mr. Jaquemont, a European merchant of Port-
au-Prince. The lands are held on lease for a term of years, and com-
prise 36 carreaus, of which only about 20 acres are as yet in cultiva-
tion. This establishment is not only one of the completest for its size
in Hayti, but perhaps one of the most perfect in the whole West Indies.
The alembic in use is the most approved kind of still recently adopted
in France, in manufacturing the brandies of cognac. Here it is ap-
plied to the distillation of tafia, being capable of being turned also with
the greatest economy of labour and expense to the making of liqueurs.
The distillery is a large, well-erected, tiled building, containing two of De
Rome's patent alembics, of 120 gallons each, and which are capable of
producing eight barrels of the usual spirit every day. They occupy little
space, the coolers being large standing butts, covering two turns of the
worm. The pumps fill a butt of 1 500 gallons, that is of 24 barrels'
capacity, in 41 minutes. There are 18 of these butts, and 6 others of
a less bulk, or of 18 barrels in measurement. The plantation which sup-
plies the syrup to be converted into rum has been only cleared and
estabhshed within 18 months past. The newly planted cocoa palms
and enclosures with fruit trees, have not yet attained any elevation so as
to give variety to the surface. The soil is an intensely black mould, very
light and friable. The plough is to be adopted, the lands are to be
supplied with water from the Grande Riviere, and by an engagement
with the neighbouring proprietor of Cazeau, it receives an augmenta-
tion over that quantity to which it is entitled.

" On emerging, by narrow devious pathways, from the gloom of the
sterile forest, we opened on the bright and fertile scenes of Chateau
Blonde, an estate of which General Lerebour, the Commandant of Port-
au-Prince, is proprietor. We entered a straight, wide roadway of the
plantation, having the refreshing verdure of the cane fields, and the
dome and turret of the sugar mills before us, and leaving on the left

204 Recent Communications from Hayti.

hand as we passed a small group of cottages, the dwellings of the cul-
tivators. They stood towards the open fields, sheltered only by the vc"
gelation of the banana, and though spacious, were neither uniform nor
particularly neat. An aged man repairing the gateway, and one or two
fine featured, healthy bodied, cheerful, well dressed negresses, who ac^
costed us with courtesy and passed on, and a couple of little children
playing in the dust, were the only inhabitants that we met. The fields
extended themselves far away to the right and left covered with canes
of considerable bulk. Here and there gardens of the cultivators con-
taining the patata and yam, the maize and the manioc, were intermingled
with the sugar canes, forming occasional patches planted with great
order and regularity. The Bellcome mountains lowered before us
clothed in the rich verdure and diversified with the variety of aspects
which the broken cultivation of its many small detached settlements
gave to it. The barren cliffs forming the gorge of the valley, through
which the Grande Riviere descended, formed a remarkable feature in the
distant landscape. Hills of steep ascent and of vast altitude rose to the
clouds, dark, shadowy and hazy, forming a back ground to the tilled
fields in which the dark leaved abricot and the plumes of the palma
nobilis in the gardens of Chateau Blond, seemed almost the only trees
that relieved the transitions from the plains to the mountains.

" The proprietor's residence, and the mills, and boiling house, with the
aqueduct, a canal of wood, supported on columns of mason work, form
altogether a quadrangle enclosing the workshops of die estate, such as
the smithy and place for the mill wright. On the left hand of the en-
closure is the polygonal dome erected over a steam sugar mill of eight
horse power, turning horizontal rollers ; while to the right stands a water
mill with vertical ones ; between them is the boiling house, with a tur-
ret in the centre. The whole of these buildings are of mason work,
and constructed not merely substantially but elegantly. The aqueduct
on one side, and a balustrade stone fence on the other, shuts in the
quadrangle. Within this space may be said to be the sugar works.
The proprietor's residence, a neat cottage edifice erected on a platform of
terrace work, with many a flowering shrub around it, and with the usual
accompaniment of the embowered bath formed of the close coup d'air
(a species of convolvulus), clustering with its lilac tinted silver blossoms,
overlooked the whole economy of the mill yard. The whole estate
contains ninety carreaus of land, about two hundred acres, the princi-
pal portion of which are planted in canes, the rest in provisions. About
two hundred men, women, and children in all, are located upon it.

" The island of Jamaica does not exhibit a plantation better establish-
ed than Chateau Blond : whether we consider the resources of the land,
or the mechanical economy by which those resources are commanded,
it is a splendid establishment.

" Every thing is new, — the mills, the boiling house, the aqueducts, the
cottage residence, all are the productions of a few years of slow but
constant labour unassisted by any pecuniary loan, or unincumbered by
a mortgage. In the difficulty of obtaining a number of labourers to get
in the crop of an estate, the proprietor of Chateau Blond has decided
that it will be judicious to accelerate the speed of the boiling house, by

Recent Communications from Hayti. 205

increasing the products of the mill. With this view he has availed
himself on either hand of water and steam machinery, it being easier to
boil quick, so as to check fermentation, than to grind quick so as to
give full occupation to the boilers. As these mills do their work simul-
taneously, the souring of the canes by accumulation is avoided.

" The machinery of this estate, erected at very considerable expence,
is designed not merely for the supply of its own wants in the elabora-
tion of sugar, but for those of the neighbouring plantations which may
be without the means of manufacturing that article. The mulcture, to
use an old feudal term, paid to the proprietor of the mill, is one fourth
of the inspissated juice, when boiled into the syrup of the third copper.
The law limits him to one-fifth in his contracts with his cultivator, but
with any other class of persons he is at liberty to bargain as he can. In
the fore part of the week during crop time they cut their canes, and grind
them off when a sufficiency is accumulated. The labourers, men and
wo.men, in the mill and the boiling house, perform their work occasionally
by night as well as by day. Their scheme of cultivation is to allot
themselves by families, and to cultivate unitedly one division of the es-
tate, receiving the reward of their labour in a portion of what they cul-
tivate and manufacture in their division, according to the prescriptions of
the code rural. It frequently occurs that the number of persons, thus
associated, are not able to proceed with sufficient celerity in the work of
grinding and boiling the proceeds of the number of acres under their
management and tillage, in such case the gangs are obliged to hire
help from their neighbours, or from the other gangs who have no part
in their allotment. In this way the work is conducted in Chateau
Blond. There is in this arrangement, which has originated out of views
of interest and convenience in the cultivators themselves, so much of
calculation individually made, so much of contract mutually entered into,
that it would be the highest absurdity to suppose that such men under-
went any thing in the nature of labour stimulated by any other com-
pulsion than that of the advantage they reap from it. I record this
declaration as a sentiment expressed to me by one of the managing
cultivators, who communicated answers to my questions, and conducted
rae over the property. They select their conducteurs* as an association
would their chairman, or a benefit club their secretary and treasurer,
not to drive them unwillingly to labour, but as one deputed to manage
their collective interest in their bargain with the proprietor of the soil.
As I had expressed a desire to see something of the domestic habits of
the people and of the economy observed in their houses, the friend who
accompanied me to Chateau Blond walked with me under the heat of
the mid-day sun among the plantation cottages. They are so habitual-
ly civil and polite in this country that the intrusion of a stranger on
such an errand as a mere visit of curiosity would have been readily ex-
cused, but we were spared the necessity of soliciting any indulgence by
a negress who sat at the door of her dwelling requesting us to retire
from the sunshine into the coolness and shelter which her cottage would
afford us. We found three females of her family diligently engaged in

* The planters insist that conducteur means the same as their driver ! !

206 Recent Communications from Hayti.

their task of needle work. Beyond the courtesy of a salutation as we
entered and seated ourselves in the chairs set out for us, neither curiosity
at our visit, nor idle attention to our conversation drew them from their
employment. The house was built with a common sitting room in the
centre, and two bed rooms at each end. The furniture, beside chairs,
consisted of a table on which were articles of earthenware, and shelves
on which were other household utensils. The sadlery for their bou-
riques was hung against the wall towards the entrance of one of the bed
rooms, a mat and goat skin were spread upon the floor, upon which the
infant of one of the daughters was sleeping. A compliment to the
healthy lustiness of the child (and it was one which it justly merited,)
brought us by a natural transition to the question of the number of the
family. The father was seated beside us, — but as we were anxious not
to run the risk of false facts respecting population by receiving the ac-»
counts of the offspring of the men which might be by more women than
one, we directed our inquiries to the mother. We found that these
cottagers were then about forty or forty-five years old, that they were
the parents of thirteen children, eleven of whom were living, that seven
were daughters, three of whom were married, and the mothers of five
children in all ; that their husbands were at their avocations in the field,
as were also the male portion of the family, but that the plump fine
limbed little girls whom we saw coming in and out of the cottage were
the younger part of the children. While we were seated here the plan-
tation bell sounded the summons of two o'clock, the signal for such as
had occupation to resume it. — Instantly we heard the carpenters' ham-
mers and masons' trowels renew the sound of labour, and every one
without any altercation or a murmur were again busy at their appointed
toil.

" The children and the young people of this estate are uncommonly
fine looking. In many instances their features and their hair betrayed
a slight mixture with the blood of Europe ; a person of any experience
at all in the characteristic traits of West Indian countenances, knows
that those grades called the Sacatra, the GrifFe, and the Marabon, the
lowest combinations of European mixtures with the peculiarity of body
and complexion of Africa, are very delicately featured, and have a full
silky head of hair, not crisp, but curly and glossy. This sort of emerg-
ing from the African original is very common in Hayti, and I think on
the estate of Chateau Blond, I saw one instance as beautiful in face as
exists any where.

" Beyond the cottages is seen one of the ancient aqueducts, apparently
in excellent condition. The only dilapidations it had suffered seemed
to be in the trough for conducting the water, which was filled with the
earth of decomposed vegetable substances, and overgrown with grass.
Its elevation was found not to give a sufficient fall, and General Lere-
bon preferred constructing in a more convenient situation, the present
aqueduct which occupies a line of five hundred yards. The water of
this district is supplied from a stream of the Grande Riviere, drawn off at
about a league's distance.

" Proceeding southward from Chateau Blond, we approach the low
sterile hills, covered with lignum vitse, ebony, and aloes, which protrude

Recent Communications from Hayti. 207

themselves from below the mountains of Bellcome and La Coupe, and
here bound the plain. Our road lay between rich cane fields, bordered
on either hand with hedge rows of the campeche, leading to Moquet, the
sugar estate of Mr. C. Lacombe. The cottages at the entrance of this
plantation were of very large dimensions — stout healthy children were
playing about them. The water flowed in many a rivulet about the
grounds, and a quantity of poultry, such as geese and turkeys, were feed-
ing every where. An archway through the aqueduct brought us into
the mill yard, and to the proprietor's residence, a large and handsome
terrace and marble floored cottage that overlooked the whole planta-
tion. The mill, the boiling house and aqueduct, were a reconstruction
of the old works, but the distillery was new, being then only in process
of being built. From the situation of the sugar works on a gentle de-
clivity, the boiling house had been erected on arched cavities, which
extended under the yard, and enclosed the furnaces, forming a place for
such cane trash as might be immediately required for the fires. On
account of the very considerable fall of the stream, and the sudden rise
of the land, the water mill was so constructed that all machinery was
concealed from view under a terraced floor beneath the level of the mill
yard. Nothing but the three vertical rollers were to be seen in the
building where the people ground the canes, so that the whole place
looked roomy, clean and compact."

" The proprietor of Moquet, Mr. C. Lacombe, is a white individual.
Having held untainted his fealty to the condition of general liberty,
through all the vicissitudes of the revolution, he is entitled to every
civil right, even by the inhabitants of St. Domingo, at the time of pro-
claiming its independence.

" Before unsaddling our horses, with the intention of resting for the
night at Moquet, we had seized the opportunity, while yet there was an
hour of departing sunshine, to ride out and view the cultivation of the
adjacent estates eastward. Well-trimmed hedge rows lined the public
road on which we travelled, and I heard with interest, that these were
the enclosures of some small sugar farms, the subdivisions of a con-
cessionary grant to a military person, whose family had now parcelled
the inheritance in little properties. They had their separate cottages
sheltered by the luxuriant foliage of the shrubs and trees that administer
food and refreshment in the tropics. They depended on the mills of
their wealthier neighbours for the means of converting the crop into a
commodity for sale, and in that dependance tilled their little fields,
with a sure reckoning of their sugar proceeds, beside what they reaped
in the shape of corn, yams, patatas, manioc, grass, and green vegeta-
bles for the weekly market.

" We turned from the principal road into the cane fields of Dumor-
nay-bellevue. The sugar-house and mill formed a very indifferent
estabhshment, but the cane fields were extensive, and the frequent
gardens of the cultivators large and excellently managed. We saw the
women and children in the fields tilling their separate allotments. The
differing species of vegetables severally occupied different divisions of
the surface, around which a ' bordage' of the mould formed with the
hoe, received and retained (the water, whose rills poured a constant

208 Recent Communications from Hayti.

stream around the precincts of the entire garden. The rich depth of
the stoneless soil — the fresh verdure of its productions — its systematic
tillage and irrigations — gave an appearance of great order and care to
the agriculture of the peasantry. In the fields we found a parcel of
men and boys at work, cutting canes for the mill, under the direction
of the conducteur. They were not drilled in lines, but were working
indiscriminately, and singing like merry reapers at a European harvest.

" After making our inspection, the last gleam of sunny radiance
along the green surface of the level plains warned us to Moquet for the
night. Visiting, however, before we quitted this estate, the cottage of
the conducteur or foreman we had seen in the fields, we had an oppor-
tunity of remarking the domestic condition of another family. Three
of the sons, mere boys, had returned from their day's labour, with
baskets of provisions from the garden, and bundles of herbage for the
asses and stied-hogs about the cottage. The wife had been engaged
all day, at the door of her dwelling, in ironing up the linen of the
family, which she was then carrying within the house. Every thing
had the appearance of substantial comfort, and, if we wanted an evi-
dence of its accompanying wealth, we had it in the alacrity with which
our cottager drew from a bag of money forty dollars, for a purchase
eflPected for him by the friend who had made this visit with me. I
found, upon inquiry, that he too was the father of thirteen children,
all alive, five of whom were then before us. I was informed that
Dumornay had been greatly mismanaged : producing no revenue to the
proprietor, it netted of course none to the cultivators who had worked
on halves, and were abandoning it, as they were at liberty to do, under
the provisions of the code rural, to seek more lucrative employment
elsewhere.

" Aug. 6. By day-break we proceeded to quit Moquet, on our journey
to Digneron, the plantation of the treasurer-general, Mr. Nau. M. La-
combe, and his party of friends, being on an intended visit to the
French consul, at his cottage, in the mountains of La Coupe, and our
road laying partly the same way, we set out together, a large cavalcade
of travellers, and surprised Monsieur Senator L'Espinasse, nearly in the
humble checked camisette of a cultivator, busily engaged in the work
of his sugar refining and sugar distillery. It was a superb manufactory,
erected on a concessionary grant of ten carreaus, partitioned out of the
ancient estate of Moquet ; a grant he had earned by services to his
country. His own plantation of Soissons adjoined to the northward.
The refinery is built just where the low range of hills, at the fort of La
Coupe, merge into the plains. There the sterile uplands cease, and the
fertile lowlands commence. Monsieur L'Espinasse himself conducted
us over the whole establishment. He exhibited both in his manners
and words an enthusiasm for the commercial and agricultural progress
of his country, which shewed that his own success in drawing forth its
resources, under great obstacles, was less a circumstance of gratification
for its individual good, than for its general influence on the spirit and
enterprise of the population. He was a remarkable man, possessed
of that kind of energy of character, which fitted him for great enter-
prises in a young and aspiring country. It was by the elasticity of a

Recent Communications from Hayti. 209

disposition, unchecked by reverses, that he was enabled, through great
toil, to bring his manufactory to its present state of maturity and profit.
The sugar with which his refinery is supplied is entirely drawn from his
adjoining estate. The establishment is very large. On the respective
floors of the building we saw the process of claying the raw or musca-
vado sugar, and that of refining it, and forming it into the lump sugar
of commerce. We observed some loaves, whose whiteness, dryness,
and transparency, and smallness of grain, shewed the matured perfec-
tion of his process — an art which he boasts to have acquired in a
country where almost the simplest elements of sugar making had been
lost in the anarchy of the revolution, without any insight into that
of other countries. His liqueur distilleries occupied a portion of the
same premises.

"We did not stop at Soissons, but heard its mill at work, and saw the
thick wreaths of ascending fire and smoke from the boiling-house,
a little way from the road-side. The frequent thicket of fruit trees in
its vicinity, sufficiently indicated the comfort, if not the splendour,
of the old colonial property.

" In the country districts of Hayti, where no churches exist, there are
yet spots devoted to the sepulture of the dead. These consecrated
places, adorned with many a memorial of affectionate regret, enjoy
a kind of special sanctity from associations of love as well as religion,
and turn aside many a pilgrim, there to offer his evening and morning
incense of prayer and praise. One sees frequently, in the mountain
pathway, crosses adorned with chaplets of fresh flowers, just placed by
the hands of affection, as the matin sacrifice of a holy passion that
survives the cold oblivion of the grave. By the road ascending to
La Coupe and Bellevue, under a kind of grove of forest trees, is one of
these public cemeteries. Tombs and crosses are there seen decked with
many a fading tribute of fresh-gathered blossoms. It looks a pretty,
wild, secluded spot, and the chequering of the white tombs with the
shadows of the pendant foliage, at the first view, excites a sense of
melancholy beauty ; but the charm vanishes upon near examination,
and the offering of early flowers, or coffins in mason- work, under
canopies, painted with most provoking minuteness, and ornamented
with hideous death's heads, is at once destroyed in all its sentimental
charm, by the existence of puerility and bad taste. It was here we took
leave of our friends journeying to the mountains, while we, continuing
our travel in the plains, found ourselves in half an hour at Digneron, the
plantation of the treasurer-general.

" Lands newly denuded of their forest shewed the continual progress
of cultivation. We crossed the Grand Riviere, wide, stony, and deso-
late, having in view the dark mountain gorge, through which it
poured its waters to the plains. A sort of unproductive common
stretched through half-a-mile of our road, where asses were feeding, and
geese swimming in the narrow rills. Clusters of green trees, heavy and
leafy, that rose along the edge of an elevated line, told our approach to
the fertile scenes of Digneron. Ascending a little broken ground, we
beheld before us the long aqueduct on circular arches ; in the groves
of mangoes, oranges, avocados, and other fruits, that, contrasting their
verdure with the dark and rugged mountains, or diversifying the bright

2 D

210 Recent Communications from Hayti.

level space of the outstretched plains, formed green walks and shadowy
bowers. Beside it the proprietor's dwelling, a new, spacious, and
elegant edifice, terraced on a gentle rise, was in front of the mill and
boiling-house. The gardens were extensive. Its avenues rich in um-
brageous foliage and- fragrant blossoms, gratified the senses and soothed
the feelings with enjoyment and repose. The water-mill was similarly
constructed with that of Moquet. There was here the busy stir of
labour. Carts were rapidly passing and repassing with canes from the
fields. The mill wheels were rolling on with their still, dull sound of rush-
ing waters ; while horses, asses, mules, cows, and sheep, pressed eagerly
around the feeding places for the skimmed refuse of the boiling- house.

"This estate comprises three-fourths of the original plantation, es-
teemed of old one of the largest in the Cul de Sac, and reputed at this
time to be one of the best tilled in this district. There are about fifty
families, or two hundred persons, young and old, as cultivators upon
it. Its annual proceeds are 150,000lbs. weight of sugar, and 50,000
of syrup. In 1817 and 1818, it netted about 230, OOOlbs. of sugar, with a
proportionate quantity of syrup and Tafia ; but the propiretor, from the
very indifferent price of the commodity in the market, chooses rather
to diminish its returns than to extend them : one hundred and eighty
acres are in canes.

"After amply partaking of the hospitality of the liberal proprietor of
Digneron, in which wines and fruits, both fresh and conserved, formed
an excellent desert, we prepared to return to the city. While our
horses were being brought up, we visited the cottages situated imme-
diately in the vicinity of the estate's works. We found among them the
same abundance of asses and stied hogs, as elsewhere, and received to
our inquiries similar results to those previously given respecting the
progress of population. In the single cottage we casually entered, we
found a well furnished room, in which the table shewed a fair supply of
crockery ware, with a large tureen in the centre. There was a like dis-
play of saddlery and gear for the market asses, an animal that forms no
unimportant part in the wealth, comfort, and ease, of the Haytian pea-
sant. There was a family of nine children. The cottage housewife
boasted, with some degree of complacent pride, as she exhibited to us
a fine chubby boy of ten weeks old which she held in her arms, that
from the period she became a wife and a mother, she had never lost a
child. She appeared about thirty years of age, and was an extremely
well featured and muscular woman.

** 1830. Aug. 7. We had rested at Moquet for the night, it was
Saturday morning — all toil on the estate had ceased till the following
Monday, according to the regulations of rural rest in the code of agri-
cultural labour. This being the general market-day throughout the
republic, the cultivators were stirring betimes to visit the neighbouring
town and city. 1 observed at the door of the sugar works of Moquet,
some half-dozen panniered asses, and women and men in their clean
market dresses, engaged in the turmoil of apparent traffic. A number
of gourds, recently filled with syrup, were arranged on the ground, or
placed in the panniers; other empty ones were being filled at the
coolers ; and for the syrup so supplied, money was received by the
manager at the boiling-house door. I found these were the cultivators

Recent Communications from Hayti. 211

of the property who came hither to purchase, for the weekly market,
the produce from whose sale they were eventually to draw their division
of property. This is the usual practice. The circumstance is import-
ant, not merely as shewing in part the demands for home consumption,
but as exhibiting, and so it was pointed out to me, a most valuable
moral feature in the existing operation of the rural law. As each per-
son draws a share from the entire proceeds of the estate, it becomes
each person's interest to see that no part of the property be diminished
by theft. Every one is obviously interested in concentrating all his
market purchases at the mills at which he derives a relative profit.
Hence every week of the crop realizes a cash sale of some part of the
proceeds, through the dealings of the cultivators themselves, while a
principle of rigid honesty is established in the management of the gene-
ral concerns. The Haytian proprietor, I am told, never has to com-
plain that the estate is pilfered.

" Our road to town lay along the barren marl hills, through the
dreary forest of aloes, campeachy, and lignum vitse, which every where
cover them. We had observed, while at Chateau Blond, the palm
avenues of Carradeu, to the right, beside these hills. A name so
familiar to us, in the history of the ancient regime, readily drew us from
the road to witness the triumph of retributive justice in the ruins of this
once splendid habitation. The water-mill had been rebuilt, and a poor
harvest was being gathered from the cane fields ; but Carradeu was, in
all respects, a ruin and a desert waste. The mansion where once the
lordly master feasted among his friends, and, in the intoxication of
pride and power, gave those mandates to his trembling slaves which
consigned some to the burning furnace, others to the boiling cauldron,
(see Malenfant on Colonies, p. 172, note,) exhibited only in the remnant
of walls and terraces, the place where once they sheltered his vice and
tyranny. The giant palms, however, whose leafy heads, supported on
stems of a hundred feet, old Carradeu, in the frenzy of the times, sought
to rival by placing the skulls of some fifty slaves he had decapitated
at Auboy on poles by the road-side hedges, still float their green locks
in the sunny breeze. (Lacroix, &c.) The aqueduct forms, by this luxu-
riant avenue of trees, a magnificent line of arches, very picturesquely
varied by an octagonal belfry, now in ruins. The sugar-houses were
erected for effect with circular towers, and are still standing as fine
masses in the landscape. There are tumuli and traces of foundations,
the vestiges of store-houses and of other buildings of the estate. The
orchards and gardens yet yield their annual feast of fruit and flowers,
but they shed ungathered sweets in the wilderness. Perhaps the very
tree under which, day after day, the old man used to sit and watch the
toil of his slaves, and in whose shadowy leaves the negroes believed
there was a charm that inspired his ferocity and wickedness, may be
found growing green and bright — a harmless bower to less haughty
spirits than those of old. There are still existing aged men amid the
ruins who attest the truth of the horrid narratives of the days of
Carradeu. A furnace for pottery was erected in the gardens of the estate,
and visitors who come hither, already filled with marvellous truths, gene-
rally mistake this dungeon-looking building, with its little air holes in
the stone roof, for some of the prison-houses of the proud old colonist.

212 Recent Communications from Hayti.

" I have frequently, in Hayti, heard the characteristic story which
Malenfant relates of this man. Carradeu had taught his negroes, by fatal
experience, that they were never to expect forgiveness in his wrath.
It was the secret by which he had lived great, was dreaded and obeyed.
He had never cut off his right hand by it, but in this instance, he was
going to inflict on himself irreparable injury. There was a valuable
head boiler of his sugar-house, a man whose knowledge and experience
was a source of riches to him, on whom he had inflicted the penalty of
inhumation to the neck in the cold earth. This hfe he was willing and
anxious to save, but it was necessary to make a truce between ipterest
and vengeance. This inconsistency would be fatal to his government
if he forgave once; the dread which the certainty of punishment had
beneficially excited, would lose its effects on the caution and obedience
of his slaves. ' I would not,' said he to a party of ladies at dinner
with him, ' induce this man, whom I must spare, to think that the par-
don for his fault had emanated from me. When I draw my handker-
chief, fall down at my feet and ask mercy of me for him. I will say
he has obtained it by your solicitation, not by my desire, so that, by
being apparently consistent, I may preserve the dread of my unrelent-
ing character with my people.' Carradeu, however, in this instance, had
to deal with one as haughty as himself. The courageous negro, who
had dug his own grave, chanting his death song while he threw up the
earth, felt he had endured a wrong which nothing but death could
requite ; he only wanted an opportunity of revenge. He saw the
prostration of the female guests at his master's feet ; he heard forgive-
ness from his hps for the first time. He could scarcely credit what his
eyes beheld. In the delirium of his sufferings he exclaimed, ' You
shew mercy to me — it is impossible! — you are no longer Carradeu ; but,
if you are, I swear by her who took an oath before God for me, that I
rest not in peace till I destroy you ! Be merciful to me if you dare !'
This presumption and despair were fatal to him. Carradeu silenced the
threat by hurling a fragment of rock at his head. Having dashed out the
brains of his victim, he returned to his convivial friends, saved from
doing an action inconsistent with the character he enjoyed, among his
slaves, of never having forgiven an injury or remitted a punishment.

" We arrived in Port-au-Prince by eight o'clock in the morning,
passing through a numerous train of country people, composed of old
and young, aged persons, youths, maidens, and children, all speeding
away, on their loaded horses and asses, to the Saturday market. Some
had come down from as far as Mirabelais, a distance of fifty miles, to
sell and buy for their household wants."

" I had now seen a great portion of the Cul de Sac, examined its
cultivation, observed its soil, the deep black earth, and the warm,
mellow, hazel-tinted mould. The fertility of these plains is inexhaustibly
great — a little effort puts it into a state of tillage, and the facilities of irri-
gation render it constantly productive. Perpetual spring appears to rest
every where ; but was it not that the Grande Riviere, and the stream of
the Riviere Blanche, directed by the labours of art, pour the refreshment
of their waters through all parts of the surface, the soil, with all the
advantages of its great natural fertility, must have continued an irre-
claimable wilderness. The clouds, attracted by the high mountains

Recent Communications from Hayti. 213

that line the plains to the north and south, seldom shed upon them
light invigorating showers. At stated seasons the rains descend, but
in such torrents that they wash as well as saturate the soil with mois-
ture, and the rivers, increased into floods, Convert the whole district
subjected to their influence into a stony and sterile desert.

" Vast as are the resources of the land, properties, when offered for
sale, bear comparatively a small value. Its wealth, from the very irri-
gation required, can be commanded only by artificial means. The
difiiculty of obtaining labourers, and the great outlay required for the
restoration of the old sugar works, or rather for the erection of new
ones, renders a great capital an essential requisite in the first in-
stance, in order to the establishment of sugar estates on the ancient
system. The people of Hayti, in general, are not sufficiently monied
men for this purpose, and as the labourers are paid not by wages, but
by a portion of the proceeds, it is evident that whatever occurs in
the returns of a sugar estate to disappoint the proprietor, must oc-
casion loss to the cultivator. The progress of sugar tillage, therefore,
on the old plan must always be greatly retarded in this country."*
(To be continued.)

7. — Concluding Remarks.

We must here for the present suspend our extracts from the letters
of our correspondent, hoping ere long to resume them. Those which
we have selected, or may hereafter select, will be found directed almost
exclusively to the object of giving to the public a correct view of
Haytian society, and particularly of the actual condition of the Haytian
cultivators, (the ci-devant Slaves of St. Domingo). Much information is
therefore necessarily postponed, which could not have failed to interest
our readers. Among a great variety of other matters, we have been
obliged almost wholly to omit our traveller's vivid and tasteful descriptions
of the singular country through which he has passed, and which for the
varied beauty and grandeur, and, we may add, sublimity of its scenery,
stands, perhaps, unrivalled by any other region of the globe. But not-
withstanding these and other necessary omissions, and the consequent
imperfection of the sketches contained in the preceding pages, our
purpose in transcribing them would be very inadequately accom-
plished if they failed to leave on the mind of the reader, an impression of
the incalculable benefits which have accrued to the present Haytian race,
from even the convulsive and calamitous emancipation of their progeni-
tors from the bondage under which they had long groaned. As for the
dreariness and desolation which now deform the beautiful plains of that
island, these evils are clearly to be traced, not to the decree of the Na-
tional Convention abolishing slavery, but to the faithless, flagitious, and
detestable attempt of Buonaparte, to reimpose the yoke which that de-
cree had broken. But for this act of perfidy, what might not the
French nation have gained ? — Nay, what might not the ancient pro-
prietors themselves have gained by an unswerving adherence to those
solemn stipulations by which freedom had been guaranteed to the

* Our subsequent extracts will contain an account of successfiil sugar culture
in Hayti, not on the old plan, but by single families, as in Bengal.

214 Recent Communications from Hayti.

slaves in St. Domingo ? And who can very deeply regret the retribution
which has followed in the destruction of the property of the French plan-
ters, and in their total and final expulsion from that splendid posses-
sion?— But have the blacks, who survived the war of extermination
which was waged against them, or have their descendants, any cause
to mourn over the issue of the conflict? If they have gained nothing
else, they have at least gained immunity from the cart-whip. They
have gained relief from the arbitrary inflictions which lacerated the
quivering flesh and writhing limbs of themselves, their wives and daugh-
ters ; and from the coerced labour which reduced them beneath the
level of the beasts of the field, and embittered and wasted their lives
with its unsparing exactions. Their wives and their children are now
their own, and no man now dares to make them the reluctant victims
of his lust, or forcibly to tear them, for his own sordid ends, from the
shelter of the domestic roof, and to burst asunder the dearest domestic
ties, in order to transfer them to strangers. These evils, and many
more which are familiar to our readers, as having characterized the lot
of the St. Domingo bondman ; and which, unhappily, make the colo-
nial slavery, existing in the dominions of the British crown, one of the
foulest blots in the creation of God, — a curse alike on those who inflict
and on those who endure it ; — these evils, and many more, have been
swept from Hayti for ever by this change. Nor let it be supposed that
this is mere idle declamation. — Only open the statute book of Jamaica.
— In the single enactment which there intrusts to every one who
owns a slave, or is the delegate of such owner, the power of inflicting
on the bared body of any man, woman, or child, without trial, without
the intervention of a magistrate, for no defined offence, and without
being even bound to answer for his conduct, thirty-nine lashes of the
torturing cart-whip, we may see an epitome of the horrors of the
system; a system of which the hardening influence on the human heart
is such, that even this bloody and ferocious law is regarded by the
legislators of Jamaica as a demonstration of their humanity. Its very
object is declared, in the preamble of the enactment, to be to restrain
arbitrary punishment. Nay, of this very enactment, the West India
Committee, sitting in London, composed of English gentlemen, with
the Marquis of Chandos at their head, scrupled not, in February, 1830,
to declare, in the face of the world, that they regarded it as an amelio-
rating provision, in which they recognize the " humane dispositions'' of
"the colonial legislatures!" (See Reporter, Vol. iii., No. 59, p. 188,
and No. 60, p. 205.) — Then, if this be the law, the vaunted, the cherished
law of the legislators of Jamaica, explicitly sanctioned by the approba-
tion of the West India body in England, what may we assume will be
the practice ? On this point all question is obviated. The masterly
work of Mr. Stephen, which has recently appeared, has, on the evi-
dence of planters exclusively, dispelled every doubt as to the innate,
malignant, and incurable cruelty and iniquity of that practice — incura-
ble at least except by its utter extinction. Or if we even turn to the
single Reporter of the 1st of January last, (No. 73,) we may there read,
in the testimony of the Rev. Mr. Trew, and other witnesses, equally
respectable and equally competent, the proof of its necessary and inse-
parable abominations.

Recent Communications from Hayti. 215

Now these abominations have ceased to exist in Hayti. There the
chain of slavery, and of that worst of all slavery, the slavery of the skin,
has been broken. There the negro stands erect in all the dignity of
man, and is freed from the fetters which, in our islands, the very colour
of his skin still winds around both body and soul. There black may
now be regarded as the dominant colour, and well has it vindicated its
right to be so. Still however we do not find that the freedom which has
been so gallantly achieved is regarded as an exemption from labour.
Their labour indeed may not be, as in our Islands, excessive. But it
is productive of abundant, and it would appear, growing means of sub-
sistence. Want seems unknown among these emancipated Haytians, and
the rapid progress of population attests the absence of oppressive exac-
tion, and the prevalence of physical comfort, as strongly as the lament-
able waste of negro life in our own colonies establishes the existence of
a condition wholly dissimilar. The civil and political institutions of
Hayti may be imperfect, and may tend to retard among its population
the rapidity of their advancement in the arts of civilized life ; and on
this part of the subject we shall have something to say hereafter : but who
can have accompanied our traveller in his interesting view of Haytian
society even in its lowest grades, without feeling a glow of satisfaction
in the calm and peaceful enjoyment which it exhibits as the actual por-
tion of this long oppressed and afflicted race ?

And may not a state of similar enjoyment be realized in our own
colonies without those convulsive throes which have there issued in the
expulsion of the former proprietors of the soil, and in levelling with the
dust all the monuments of their ancient but abused dominion ? We
think it may. We think that it is in the power of the British parliament
to attain the good, without the evil which, in Hayti, has either preceded
or followed it, or may still adhere to it. The civil contentions and con-
vulsions which agitated Hayti were not, be it remembered, the work of
the slaves, but of their masters, by whose instigation alone were the
former led to mingle in the strife. The English invasion which followed
was literally a crusade for restoring the cart- whip, and it ended, and
we rejoice that it did so, in defeat and disaster to the invaders, and in
fixing for ever the freedom of the slaves. But have the emancipated
blacks abused the liberty which they thus achieved ? There is no
proof of it : all the testimonies we have cited tend to a directly contrary
conclusion. They resumed their labours, and Hayti again flourished in
peace and prosperity, until the perfidy of Napoleon Buonaparte again
clouded the scene. But would the freedom which was thus awarded
to them, in the midst of tumult and disorder, by a dubious, unsteady,
changing, and anarchical government, we ask, have been attended
with greater, or even with any hazards, if it had been conceded to them
in a period of tranquillity, and guarded by all those prudent restraints
and precautions which a wise, and stable, and upright government like
our own, would have had it in its power to adopt ? The apprehension,
therefore, of disturbance to the public peace, from the free and gracious
communication of a similar boon to British slaves at the present hour,
is absurd in the extreme ; and even the fear of its leading to a desertion
of regular but moderate labour, or to a vagrant and dissolute life, or to a
return to barbarism, is effectually dispelled by the example before us.

216 Recent Communications from Hayti.

The regulations by which such results have been obviated in Hayti, are
given above. We have only to gather vyisdom from experience ; and,
with its lessons before us, it were fatuity to contend, that there exists a
single well founded anticipation of evil to deter us from consummating,
at an early period, that great and acknowledged act of national justice,
the imparting of freedom to the slave ; in other words, the conversion
of our colonial bondmen into free labourers. We have now before us
the letter of a gentleman, long resident in Jamaica, dated in Oct. 1830,
and who has under his charge about 700 slaves, fully confirming this
view of the subject. " I believe," he says, " the only effectual remedy
for existing evils to be the entire emancipation of the slaves." " It may
be objected, that such a scheme would infallibly fail, and that the
negroes would wander through the country and become unsettled. I
strongly doubt all this. They would have the same motives to work with
the English labourer. They have wives, children, and aged parents.
They would have every thing to attach them to their domicile, and to
stimulate them to exertion." " They are not the semi barbarians so
often represented by interested writers." " To allege that they are
not ripe for such a change is perfectly absurd."

II. — Resolutions of the Committee of the Leeds Anti-
Slavery Society.
At a Meeting of the Committee of the Leeds Anti-Slavery Society,

held at the Court-House, on Monday, the 2Sth February, 1831 ;

Mr. Robert Jowitt, in the Chair.
Resolved,

1st. That this Committee retain unabated their desire for the ex-
tinction of Negro Slavery, continuing to regard the system as utterly
inconsistent with the principles of religion and humanity ; and as this
object has never been espoused by them from party feelings, so no
changes amongst the ministers of the crown, or the members of parlia-
ment, can lessen their anxiety for its accomplishment, or their firm
determination to persevere with renewed efforts for its attainment.

2nd. That this Committee, and (they are persuaded) the public at
large, would consider it a cause for deep and serious regret, if any
pressure of other business should prevent a subject of such vital im-
portance receiving a full and deliberate consideration and discussion in
the present session of parliament.

3rd. That this Committee, remembering the avowal of attachment to
this great cause, by all the members for this county, confidently expect
that each of them will be found in his place in parliament, on the dis-
cussion of this question on the 29th proximo, in order that the united and
strenuous support of the representation of the County of York, may be
given to the cause of religion, justice, humanity, and sound policy.

4th. That these resolutions be advertised once in each of the Leeds
papers, and that the Chairman be requested to transmit a copy to each
of the members for the county, and to any other members of parliament
whom he may think proper.

Robert Jowitt, Chairman.

S. Bagster, Jun. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 79.] APRIL 2, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 7.

I. — Recent Communications from Hayti, — continued from No. 78, p. 213.

II. — Despatch of Lord Goderich respecting the Case of the Rev.

G. W. Bridges and his Slave Kitty Hylton.
III. — Anti-Slavery Petitions.

I. — Recent Communications fuobi Hayti.
Continued from No. 78, p. "213.

We now resume our extracts from the letters of our Haytian
correspondent, so far as they respect the general aspect of Haytian
society, and the actual condition of the Haytian cultivator. We shall
first insert some general remarks of our traveller on the subject of Hay-
tian sugar cultivation, in addition to those which closed the extracts in
our former number. Having stated his opinion, that, in the existing
circumstances of Hayti, the culture of sugar, on the old plan of large
establishments, conducted by numerous bodies of labourers, collected
on one spot, was likely to be greatly obstructed, he thus proceeds :

" The natural fertility of the country enables the agriculturist to draw
from the same land a continual succession of the same crops, without
deteriorating the soil. The sugar canes, which are permitted year after
year to grow in the same fields, and spring from the same roots,
vegetate so densely, that their growth is impeded by their closeness,
and the dry decaying leaves are never removed. These causes operate
as a continual preventive to economy and good management, circum-
stances so essential, where the influence of freedom, and the facility of
becoming the farmer of one's own fields, have not left for the sugar
growers on a large scale, a surplus of population, whom industry and
good management recommend for employment.

"The estates which can only be rendered productive by the aid
of cattle-mills, are therefore almost all abandoned, as subjecting the
elaboration of the commodity to an expenditure not commensurate with
its price in the market. But where the old aqueducts can becommanded,
or new ones constructed, water-mills have been erected, and the estates
are in vigorous activity, yieldiug a sufficient return at least to encourage
the proprietor to proceed in making the works substantial, in per-
fecting the machinery, and giving spirit to the labour of the cultivators.

'' If the condition of the soil should render it necessary to restore the
exhausted fertility of the lands, and to maintain their profitable tillage, by
a successive change in the crops, and by the pasturage of cattle, it
is evident that necessity v/ould impose such a system on the agricul-
turist as would compel him to adopt the best economy of labour, and

2 E

218 Recent Communications from Hayti. — Siigar culture,

that better mode of cultivation, by which a superior quality of cane
than that in use would be brought to the mill. At present, the waste
consists in employing the few hands which are to be obtained, in
manufacturing a bad article. The canes here grown are really inferior,
and, to aggravate the evil, are often deteriorated in quality, by
lying too long in heaps after being cut, before they are ground and
boiled. The sugar becomes thus so charged with acidity, as to cause
a more than usual quantity of alkali to be necessary to neutralize it for
granulation, an occurrence that greatly darkens its colour and dimi-
nishes its value : or if an attempt is made to preserve it of good tint,
by introducing but little alkali, the grain is so charged with uncrystal-
lized juice as to reader it an infirm and damp compost, not at all suited
for the moist climate of Europe. It would be wise to cultivate little, and
cultivate well, and thus to proportion the end to the means. And in order
to secure a due attention to keeping the canes free to the air, the best
means of their vigorous growth, it would be a prudent arrangement in the
proprietor, to require that the cultivators should establish their gardens
for green crops, such as the patata, the maize, and the yam, in alternate
rows with the canes, instead of having them in separate patches
mingled in the same fields as at present. By this means they would
bring one necessary species of toil and superinlendance in contact with
another. This is Mr. Roper's scheme ; his example should be like-
wise followed in the use of the plough. That implement should be used
on all occasions, as one among many modes of diminishing the requi-
sition of human labour, a circumstance of the very first importance in
a country where it is not easily obtained ; and, wherever it is available,
the system of paying the cultivator by a portion of the proceeds, gives
to all concerned an interest, equal to their respective proportions, in a
system of judicious economy.

" The value of the commodity in the market fixes the price of labour.
Haytian sugar, therefore, cannot command a remunerating price, when
the market is notoriously bad even for the better sort of produce,
elaborated in the slave colonies, with which it must enter into compe-
tition. M.SenateurL'Espinasse, wehave seen, hasresorted torefiningthe
article. By this scheme, bringing as much of home labour as possible
to bear on the value of the commodity and to make part of its profits,
he really produces an article which can enter a European market
in competition with all but English refined sugars ; and if it was not
for the system of drawbacks and bounties, by which this English manu-
facture is enabled to command a continental purchaser, the struggle of
the competitions would be a less difficult one to the Haytian agri-
culturist.''

" When the successful revolution of St. Domingo had incorporated the
slaves with their masters, forming one free united community, equal
before the law, enjoying the same civil rights and liberties, the greater
portion of them remained without any property in the soil, and therefore
subject to a life of labour. The revolution, indeed, gave liberty to every
one, but it only endowed with landed wealth a portion of the people ;
these were the men who had done service to the state; as they were the
warriors, so they were numerous. There were many who had shared

Recent Communications from Hayti. — Appropriation of land. 219

the benefit of freedom thus acquired, without enduring the hardships,
or earning the honours of the struggle. These men had no land of their
own, though, from being once the slaves, they had now become the free
peasantry of the country. With their emancipation from the bondage
that made their life and services the personal property of another, they
had not acquired an exemption from a state of dependency. The pre-
scriptions of the rural code which bound them to agriculture, in the ab-
sence of other and better employment, merely acted on that necessity
which obliged them, as husbandmen, to attach themselves freely to some
fellow-citizen, possessing lands, so as to draw a subsistence from their
labour.

" The divisions of rank, and the relationship of the cultivators and
proprietors, recognized and regulated by the ' code rural,' are but the
recognition of distinctions not created by the law, but arising from cir-
cumstances originating in the events through which they had passed,
and which time must be ever changing.

" In regulating the acquisition of property, the legislature has
deemed it necessary to restrict the minimum of land which a purchaser
can acquire to an estate of fivecarreaus, or fifteen acres; and this being
just deemed a substantial provision for a free man and his family, it can-
not be subdivided. The law thus prescribes that there shall be no pro-
prietor of land under the condition of an independent farmer.* The rest
of the population, whose means cannot reach this measure of wealth,
must have recourse to a life of service for hire, and to them the law has
secured the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour, by a certain portion
in the proceeds of tillage, so as to give them a visible interest in the
progressive improvement of the agriculture on which they subsist. It-
recognizes the cultivator and proprietor for useful subjects in a state of
reciprocal dependency. The negro peasantry may be said to be in the
situation of the ' coloni partiarii,' or the metayers of the feudal times,
with this difference, that the lord is bound to divide every grain with
the metayer, instead of the metayer with the lord ; and the bargain
has a limited duration ; after which, it may be mutually renewed or dis-
solved, a circumstance arising out of the essential freedom of the culti-
vator, and the nature of the proceeds, and of the commodity which the
capital of the one, and the toil of the other, elaborates for the market."
We now return to our traveller's narrative.

" Aug. 8. By day light this day we were to be stirring for a visit to
the highlands of La Coupe, but we loitered about town till the sun was
well up. We met the gardeners of Grand Fond coming with ass loads
of European vegetables and fruits to the market in town. I remarked,
for the first time, that very many of the young females were deeply
pitted with the small-pox, and learnt that the disease, as well as the
measles, had been an importation brought by the American immigrants.
It is computed that in the time these diseases prevailed, not less than
50,000 of the inhabitants perished. Dr. Williamson, formerly the

* It is evident from Mr. Mackenzie's statement, quoted at p. 138 in the last No.
that the number of these independent farmers, or Haytian yeomen, as they may
be called, must be cotisiderable, and they are necessarily a growing body.

220 Recent Communications fi'om Hay ti. — Traveller's Journal.

health officer of Port-au-Prince, tells me, that he no* unfrequently saw
three persons lying dead at the same time in one cottage ; and that the
living could scarcely perform the rites of sepulture. So limited had
been the intercourse of the islanders with the world at large, under that
European policy which shuts them up within the confines of their own
shores, that, in their healthy possession of liberty, every variolus dis-
ease had exhausted itself, and the small-pox was so entirely unknown,
that they had forgotten its very name. When the mortal pestilence
came among them, and swept oif by thousands the young and robust,
the terrified people gave it the appellation of the ' great master,' (le
grand monsieur,) looking upon it as an unprecedented visitation. Since
that time, they have vaccinated their young, and the variolus pock has
been rendered harmless — such has been the better knowledge gained
by dreadful experience.

" As we rose on the gentle and continuous ascent, we looked down
into the ravine beside us, and saw some well built cottages, with corn
fields, and banana grounds.

" La Coupe is a little village situated on the plateau of some marly
mountains, and receives its name from being a sort of short cut, to the
Cul de Sac, into that part of itwhere the Grande Riviere justissues into
the plains ; the soil is stony but fertile ; a stream of water rushes with
vigour from its rocks, dividing itself through numerous channels into the
gardens of the cottagers. The French Consul's place of retirement is
at La Coupe, and I enjoyed its wild gardens in a visit to the hospitable
proprietor from whom the grounds are rented, and whose humble Sun-
day cottage stands within them. From these hills the plains and the
lakes of Cul de Sac are discerned.

" August 9th. Before sunrise we were away through the woodland
roads from La Coupe to Bellevue, to see the plains Mature, a scene de-
scribed to us as one of incomparable beauty. Our road was a narrow
track through vales and defiles, formed by the irregular acclivity of the
mountain. Little coffee settlements and provision plantations skirted
the road side, having quiet humble cottages hid by the fruit trees in the
hollows. Pathways diverged here and there to the successive breaks
above us. The cultivation, without being dense, was frequent. Some
of the lands were newly planted. A settlement belonging to the secre-
tary of state. Monsieur Imbert, was richly verdant with young coffee
trees, cleanly kept, and diligently pruned. One or two of the peasants
of fhe district speeded by us on their mountain palfreys, and we passed
some two or three of the female cottagers, both coloured and black, who
were lively, comely, and well clad. The proprietors here are generally
those small farmers who hold from five to fifteen carreaus of land, culti-
vated in coffee, corn, vegetables, and esculent roots, having a range of
twelve or fourteen miles to the market of Port-au-Prince. We stopped
and conversed with a negro, who had saved a little money by service in
France, and retired here with his wife and son, on a property he had
purchased of five carreaus or fifteen acres, the least extent of land for
which a title can be passed. He had just finished erecting his cottage,
seated on the brow of a hillock, green with maize, patate, and manioc,
having enclosed his ground with an ' entourage' of live stakes of the

Recent Cormmcnicutions from Hayti. — Traveller's Journal. 221

medecinier, one of the Tithymaloides plants. The whole bore evi-
dence of an industry that had reclaimed its fields from the recent
woodland.

" When we had crossed a limpid rivulet that descended a shallow ra-
vine, we entered the newly cleared lands of Mature, a coffee plantation
lately purchased by his Excellency the President of Hayti. The coffee
shrubs are little more than the underwood of upgrown forests of large
timber trees, intermingled with the wild orange, the avocadier (persea
gratissima) the cirouelle (spondias myrobolanus) the abricot (mamea
americano) and the shrubby caimite. Hillside and hollow were being
cleared of the superfluous wood, and the newly pruned trees were fast
assuming all the importance of the old plantation. Lofty latiniers, the
most gigantic of the class of fan palms, and the elegant plumy foliage
of the palmetto royal, were left here and there to enrich the sumptuous
vegetation of the mountain forests.

" Mature is situated in the bold and broken descent of the fort crested
mountain of Bellevue. Green peaks projecting from the principal
range, shut in the landscape to the south east. From the terrace of the
old habitation, embellished with fruit trees, and blossoming shrubs,
grapes, figs, oranges, pomegranates, roses, and jessamines, we looked
down oh the vast extent of the Cul de Sac. The teeming plain was laid
out, like a map before us. — Roads intersected the country, and cottages
and sugar mills spotted the landscape, some in ruins amid the wilder-
ness, and others newly erected sending up their smoke in the midst of
the rich vegetation of verdant cane fields, divided into rectangular
squares by lines of green hedges, and irrigated by the numerous canals
that draw their waters from the stream of the Grande Riviere.

" We returned to La Coupe by mid-day. An annual feast had been
formerly kept there, where the stream rushes from under the rocks by
the hill side, pouring its little cascade by the roots of high and shadowy
trees. The death of the individual who particularly patronized this sort
of propitiation to the waters, had caused a discontinuance of the yearly
benediction for many seasons, and now the people imagining that o«
this account, the rivulet had never flowed as abundantly as heretofore,
the neighbours determined to indulge the popular superstition this year
and to revive the ancient 'barbaco' or 'festival' at the fountain. We
found a party of persons of all classes assembled beneath the shade of a
guazuma tree in the open road, within the sound of the tumbling waters
as they rushed past them, a far more iuspiring music to my ears, than
the beat of the bamboula or rustic drum, to whose measured sounds a
man and woman were figuring the chica dance, and a chorus of girls
singing. The ceremonies of the morning had been a solemn sacrificial
offering of the blood of victims slain for the feast, and of libations of
wine poured out upon the fountain. Whether it was an Indian or African
superstition I could not learn, but it was certainly a vestige of those
heathen adorations, where the pleasant places of wooded hills, cool re-
cesses, and sequestered springs were rendered sacred by offerings to the
rural gods. These observances are still general, as well as the funeral
banquets, where the ' cup of consolation' is drank at the grave in com-
menioration of the dead. The Catholic clergy have endeavoured ta

222 Recent Cotnmimicat ions from Hayti. —Traveller's Journal.

compound with these superstitions, by converting them into Christian
ceremonies. There have accordingly been processions to river sources,
which have converted the heathen oblations into pious offerings for still
continued blessings ; and devout remembrances of the dead, which
have changed the sensual orgies into masses at the grave for the repose
of the soul. Many a needy cultivator hoards his little wealth, that he
may requite himself of this duty to a deceased parent or relative, at
least once before he dies.

" August 10. — We had set off as early as three o'clock in the morn-
ing, with a bright moon and clear starry sky over-head, to visit the cool
uplands, and cultivated valleys of Grand Fond, and to reach the scenes
of the black mountains.

"Our road layover the ascent of the mountains above La Coupe,
and we were gratified, as we proceeded along the high ridges we had to
pass, with the sight of finely cultivated spots, amid the breaks of seques-
tered valleys, or along steeps that seemed scarcely accessible to the
hand of industry. We saw them but dimly by moonlight; but as we
returned, we perceived they were plantations of coffee interspersed with
corn. The cottages had about them gardens arranged with admirable
order, in regular beds, with pathway intervals, kept free from all extra-
neous vegetation, and filled with the esculent vegetables of Europe,
such as the cabbage, the cauliflower, the artichoke, the pea, the onion,
the lettuce, the endive, the carrot, the beet-root, the turnip, and the
potatoe, or more propely the pomme de terre of France, the solanuni
tuberosum of the botanists ; besides these, there were the malvacious,
the liguminous, and sectaminous plants of the tropics, and many more,
such as the melon kind, the manioc or cassava, and the convolvulus patata.
One of the small coffee planters of the neighbourhood passed us on our
road; his horse, though loaded, climbed the steep acclivities of the
mountain with the agility of a cat. I was surprised at the fearless con-
fidence with which he rode over ridges, where a single false step would
have plunged him into the deep ravines many a hundred feet below him.

" When we arrived at the foot of the Morne Noir, the day was just
dawning. We had heard in the copses by the road side, as we tra-
velled, a peculiar kind of lizard, whose sounds so resemble the ham-
mering of a workman on a small anvil, that the people have given it the
name of the machoquet, or the blacksmith ; but when we got among
the woodlands, as the first light of the morning broke, we were sur-
prised by the voice of a remarkable thrush, common only in these lofty
solitudes. Its song was composed of about five notes, but so finely
modulated and combined, and so much like the music of a small pan-
dean pipe, that although I had been prepared by previous information
for the wild melody of thislitde minstrel of the mountains, its sudden
sweetness came upon me with a sense of strange and unspeakable ad-
miration. A hundred of them in the groves about us, were pouring
forth their matin song; many appeared to preserve a sort of harmony
together; and the wild music, as it rose and fell, was repeated with
scarcely any intermission till the sun was fairly upon the heavens, when
the multitude of voices ceased, and the chant of that constant melody,
so much like an artificial song, was continued only by one or two birds.

Recent Communications from Hayti. — Travellers Journal. 223

in the more lonely and sequestered recesses of the forest. We were not
without other woodland songsters. A bird of the finch tribe, warbled
with a shrill and delicate sweetness, like that in the winter notes of the
robin, but they were not as varied. The wild doves breathed their me-
lancholy music from the rocks, and the woodpecker's harsh voice was
heard as it climbed the trees for the morning insects waiting the sun-
shine and the evaporation of the dews, before they took to their wing, or
crept from the holes in which they had nestled for the night.
- " The day dawn felt excessively cold ; my very fingers were shrivelled
into numbness, and my feet cramped with the cold as I dismounted
from my horse. By Reaumur's thermometer there are eight degrees
difference between the temperature of these mountains and the plains.
In the gardens of the district we found the fruits of Europe hanging in
heavy clusters on the trees. Peaches were in wonderful profusion ;
apples and medlars were mingled with oranges and pomegranates. The
roses were beautifully large and fragrant. Geraniums were flowering,
and lilies and myrtles in blossom. The whole tribe of the garden vege-
tables of milder climates was thriving vigorously, and we saw wheat
cultivated for experiment, rearing its head of grain for the autumn.

" Our visit did not extend beyond the coffee plantation of Dronette,
an abandoned property, but about to be rented by the British consul,
Mr. Schenley, from the secretary general Inginac. Its commons, like
all the lands about the black mountains, abound with the white clover,
the same as that of Europe ; but the horses, sheep, and cattle reject it,
having much sweeter herbage to feed upon in the indigenous and na-
turalized grasses of the country.

" A native of France, much respected for his industry and talent as a
gardener, had cuUivated here a beautiful spot, rich in all vegetation. The
sheep of his little farm were in the fold; geese were swimming in the
rivulet that crossed a sort of common by the road, and pigs and poultry
were in abundance,

" We descended the plantation of Kernschoff" close by, where we
breakfasted. It was an old ' habitation,' as the French call an estate
here, recently reclaimed from the forest of wood that had overgrown it
since the revolution. The cottage formed a good roomy dwelling house,
with a bower of the railleton, one of the cucurbitaceous family of plants,
before the door. The circular coffee mill, with its heavy roller had just
been erected, and the glacis for drying the berry, was then employed for
sunning corn and peas. On the hills and in the valleys, the cofi'ee trees
were cleared out and pruned, and where the old shrubs had withered, or
failed to produce abundantly, young ones were being planted. The
gardens had their peaches and apples, and rice and wheat were here
growing experimentally. The vegetables were those of the tropics, as
well as those of the temperate zone, and were intermingled with the
well pruned coffee trees. A waterfall descended down a wooded steep,
to a valley in which the horses and asses wandered. Fir trees grew on
the more exposed uplands ; and poultry, such as turkeys and fowls,
supplied plenty of food for household wants.

" Kernschoff comprises thirty carreaus, of which only two are in
tillage by the proprietor, that is about six acres. The proceeds of these

224 Recent Communications frovi Hayti, — Traveller' s Journal.

six acres average lOOOlbs. of coffee annually; on some occasions as
much has been gathered as 1700lbs. Madame KernschofF is almost
the only tiller of her own farm. The lands were formerly the property
of her husband's father. Being a white colonist, it was sequestered
after the revolution, and has since been repurchased by the present
descendant.

" Two indigene families, of African blood, rent parts of the planta-
tion, which they clear and cultivate upon an arrangement with the
proprietor to proportion the quantity of coffee to be set in, to the quan-
tity of garden appropriated to provisions and vegetables. They have
the use of the mill to pulp their coffee, the half proceeds of which, from
the annual crops, is to be paid as the yearly rent. No Umits are placed
to the quantity of land the renter cultivates, since whatever it is, there
iS- always an adequate increase of rent paid for it, from the half proceeds
of the coffee farm. This is the common method resorted to in Hayti
to restore the cultivation of this staple, under the changes the civil con-
dition of the people has undergone since the revolution. The grounds
of these renters were in excellent tillage. They were laid out vi^ith
great carefulness, the vegetables being set out with as much order as
those of London market gardens. There were at least three quarters of
an acre in cabbages, and half an acre in potatoes alone. As we pro-
ceeded home we saw the wife and daughter of one of the cottagers en-
gaged in picking their crops of peas and corn. They wished us a good
journey as we passed their dwelling. The climate, with the pine trees
and cottage scenery, might have led one to mistake the district for a
mountain prospect in England.

" We had descended a steep pass to cross the vale of the Grand
Fond, bounded by the Bellevue mountains on the one hand, and the
uplands of the Morne Noir on the other. A narrow ridge stretching
from both sides of these chains, but lower than either, is the high road.
To the left hand a dark wooded glen extends to the west. To the east
the valley is more spacious, with small hills and dales, making gentle
inequalities in the cool and shadowy bottom. The summits of the hills
within the valley have each their cottages with cultivation around them.
These are plantations of coffee, fields of corn, manioc, and other vege-
tables, with bananeries in the hollows and declivities. Bellevue, crowned
with its two fortresses, commanding this pass, and overlooking the
plain country to the north, scored as it was with ravines like the fur-
rows of a ploughed field, exhibited on its gentler slopes scenes of pro-
ductive tillage. The whole district of Grand Fond appeared very justly
to be reputed for the beauty of its scenes, the mild salubrity of its
climate, and the excellence of its cultivation. The soil is every where
a deep, mellow, hazel-tinted mould, remarkably light and friable, free
from stones, and inexhaustibly fertile. The plough might pass over
the whole of it,

" When we had arrived nearly abreast of the fortified heights of
Bellevue, a little settlement, being a village of cultivators, appeared in
a gentle vale on the left hand. It was rather a sink in the brow of a
wooded mountain. Fields of maize lined our path to tlie right, from
which a kind of common, where asses fed, descended to the village.

Recent Communicaiions from Hayti— 'Traveller's Journal. 225

Straggling oofFee trees, but well pruned, and full of their harvest of
berries, were glowing here and there through this common, till they
thickened about the cottages into dense and luxuriant plantations. On
the ascents all around the cavity were fields of corn, provisions, and
vegetables. Clumps of trees crowned the bordering heights. Amid
this scene, men, women, and children, were engaged in tilling the
ground; each family in the culture of his own garden and plantation.
As the smoke ascended silently from among the cottages, there seemed
in the whole of this scene a spirit of quiet cheerful toil, presenting a
striking view of domestic happiness. The cottage of the proprietor, a plain
simple residence, stood a little higher up, surrounded by its tilled
grounds, and overlooking the valley. These were the settlements of
Mascaron and Langlade,

" As we descended, the glorious prospect of the plains was spread
before us, lighted by the western sun. The lake marking the frontiers
of the old French and Spanish colonies, with its adjoining scenery;
closed the view to the east. The sea, with its white sand beach, and
the mountains by the Bay of St. Mark, were to the west. Every inter-
mediate object — roads, houses, and plantations were spread out with
wonderful distinctness. The river made its desert belt through the
woods and fields. The mountain of La Coupe, with the white marl
road we had ascended two days before, appeared far below us, and the
sterile hills between it and the plains, lost to >the eye in their character
as elevations, seemed only a wooded border of the champaign country.
A cloud of their misty vapours, which hung over the mid vale, coming
rushing past us before the sea breeze, warned us of the probability of
rain before night-fall. We descended the wooden road by which we
came in the morning, and after dining and baiting our horses at our
friend's at La Coupe, arrived, by nine o'clock that evening, once more
within the heated city of Port-au-Prince, having performed a mountain
journey of about sixty miles since we left it."

" August TjOth. An opportunity presenting itself of visiting the
Spanish frontiers, in company with two friends going into the maho-
gany district, on the banks of the Artibonite, 1 availed myself of it
before the rainy season now near should set in, and departed on a
journey thither in company with them. We quitted Port-au-Prince at
half past eight o'clock in the evening, detei mining to make our halt for
the night at the foot of the opposite mountains. As we should accom-
plish, before our return home, a circuit of nearly eighty leagues over
mountains and through rivers, it became a necessary act of prudence not
to push our horses beyond a sharp walk for the first evening, that we
might start fresh and vigorous the next day. We did not arrive at
Digneron before midnight. The weather was really fine, though the,
moon was obscured, and the sky lightened incessantly. It was a
sparkling and scattered brilliancy — a sort of heat-flashes that precede
the setting in of the autumnal rains.

" We passed through the Croix des Bouquets at about eleven o'clock.
The inmates of its peaceful homes were slumbering in darkness and
silence, a contrast to that eventful period when the fusillade of the
. 2 F

226 Recent Communications from Hay ti — Traveller's Journal.

night sallies were heard, and the conflagration of the neighbouring
fields lighted each combatant to his enemy.

*' Arrived at the farm of Digneron, the bois chandelle, or ignited
torch wood, soon provided us a light for the unsaddling of our horses,
and the disposing of our baggage and accoutrements, for we were
armed in the usual mode of forest travellers in this country, who wear the,
macheat and knife, more for the convenience of cutting through thickets
than for defence; and as to the holsters of our saddles, they were
rather cases for enlivening wines and liquors than deposits for such
deadly missiles as pistols and bullets.

" August 31. By day -break we were on our journey to the pass of
Cabrite. Our road lay into that district of the Cul de Sac formerly
known as les Marecages, or the Marshes. Where of old the pastures
extended, a wood of fan palms stretched a ceaseless shadow of radi-
ated leaves, among which cows, horses, and asses, found shelter and
food. The road had been recently raised beyond the influence of the
periodical floods. It was ramparted between a stockade of hard wood
through the marshes, and rose with a gentle ascent up to a sterile tract
of country that bordered all this side of the plains.

" Before arriving at that turn of the road which winds up the cliffs
of the mountains, and carries us to its accessible summits, we pass a
steep gravelly kind of sand hill, spotted with a few shrubs and trees —
this is the Morne a Cabrila ; at its feet are deposited about fourteen or
fifteen brass ordinance, long guns, and howitzers of the fabric of
Strasbourg and Pisa, with a pyramid of iron balls. They are placed
here to be mounted on this and the neighbouring commanding heights,
in case of emergency. The narrow ascending road, constructed out of
the rocky scarp in 1772 by laborious mining, is entirely overlooked by
the sullen Ferrier Rouge, a cliff" fortress. Both in the ascent and de-
scent of the mountain, and long before an army could gain the interior,
shot and shell from these hill forts would convince them, as they
threaded the glens and defiles, that they indeed walked through the
valley of the shadow of death.

" Between this hill and the mountain a shallow black soil covers the
stony surface where grows the fine fibred aloe, called here the pite,
from which the Haytians have of late prepared a valuable species of
hemp. Formerly the commerce in this commodity was confined to
the Spaniards, whose exportations of it under the name of Cabonya,
from the banks of the Dexaton, annually amounted to 6000 dollars.*

" It is the policy of the Haytians, while they fear an enemy, never to
smooth away too much the asperities of their mountain roads, but to
render all progress slow and laborious through them, that they may
deliberately destroy their assailants. The tediousness of our progress
over them was relieved by the magnificent view we commanded of the
adjacent scenery, and by the loveliness and variety of the flowers
that garlanded the black rocks above and below us.

* " In the American market it realizes 260 dollars the ton. It is unaffected
by frost, and is highly prized for river tackle."

Recent Communications from Hayti — Traveller s Journal. 227

** A turn of the road carried us away from these ' wild and won-
drous' scenes, and we wound through thickets fresh with the morning
dews, till we descended a grassy hollow shut in by the encircling moun-
tains; a rich grazing spot where cows were feeding, and where other
travellers beside ourselves found the luxury of rest.

" The place where we reposed ourselves and breakfasted, was called
the 'fond au diable,'' or the devil's hollow. When we arrived at the
cottage where the corps de garde is stationed, we delivered our pass-
ports to be inspected, and proceeded on. It was here I observed for
the, first time, the mode of preparing the pite hemp. An upright post
in the ground supported another in an inclined position ; a large nail at
the junction of the two, received a bunch of the aloe leaves, which
rested at their outstretched length on the table of the inclined post.
The process of macerating the fibres simply consisted in scraping the
leaves with a blunt knife, used as a currier's tool is in the currying of
leather, only it was drawn towards the person instead of from him.
The process of scraping is continued till the green mucilaginous pulp
is entirely extracted, and the fibrous leaves assume the appearance of a
coarse flax, when they are hung on a line and dried. It is in this state
that it is exported.

" Our road to the fortified village of Trianon, the exit to the moun-
tain pass, leading to the hilly lowlands about Mirebalais, was through
wooded scenes in a rocky defile, richly embowered with foliage and
flowers.''

" We had stopped at a farm to rest ourselves and feed our horses,
before making any further progress on our journey. It was a poor
cottage, but the inhabitants seemed plentifully supplied with food. A
penfold contained cows that had recently calved, and an enclosure by
the hill side, was green with the earing maize, and with all the vege-
table productions of a garden ' potager.' The family were at their
dinner, beneath the shelter of an open ' ajoupa,' a species of hut made
of palm leaves, and used as a boucan or kitchen. They were
grouped, like a party of Indians, around the fire and its cooking
utensils. The robust, fine featured children, dark as ebony, were
entirely naked, their beads and bracelets being the only ornaments of
nature. Boiled and grilled pieces of the sun-dried flesh of the cow,
called ' tasajo,' with bananas, rice, corn, and patatas, composed their
repast.

" Our future journey lay through the hilly and grassy lowlands.
There was scarcely a hollow that we traversed, which had not its rippling
streamlet sheltered by groups of palms and indigenous fruit trees,
among which the orange, the hme, and the guava, were collected, thick
with their golden honours. Occasional cattle sought the shadowed
valleys, and small herds spotted the hills. Farm houses were seen in
the uplands, but few and far apart, for the pasture grounds were not
sufficiently luxuriant to feed large flocks and herds.

" When we had approached somewhat near to the foot of the ma-
jestic mountain, called the Grand Bois, clothed with lofty and scarcely
accessible forests, we crossed a tributary stream of the Artibonite, whose
bowers appeared all fertility and beauty. The graceful palmettos, the

228 Recent Communications from, Hay ti — Traveller's Journal,

sure indication of a deep luxuriant soil, rose in crowded clusters,
mingled with a variety of other trees of picturesque foliage.

" The alluvial soil of the river bed, whose limits were marked by the
extent of their beautiful groves, formed a narrow plain on either bank of
the stream. The hillocks near by vpere crowned with some smart
looking cottages, and cattle and horses, more numerous here than in
the other portions of the savannas, sufficiently shewed the increased
richness of the land.

" Hill and valley, wood and rivulet, still continued to embellish and
diversify our journey, till suddenly we entered the little plain of
Gascoigne, extending along the Fer ^ Cheval to the very foot of the
Montague k Tonn^re. The whole champaign, though now one stretch
of pasture land, was once rich with fields of sugar-cane ; vestiges of
water-courses, and remnants of aqueducts, crossing it from one end
to the other."

" The scenery between the banks of Fer a Cheval, or more properly
the Rio de los Indios, and las Caholas, the nearest town within the
Spanish frontiers, is much more diversified than that of the savannas.
The hills are more irregular, more wooded, and form more picturesque
varieties. The pasture grounds, less bare of detached trees, assume the
appearance of ornamented lawns. Frequent rivulets fertilize the vales.
Canopied by forest and fruit trees of stately stem and splendid foliage,
they present, wherever we crossed their silver waters, bowers of great
elegance and beauty. Groups of cattle and horses enlivened the rural
scene; and cottage farms, with fields of corn and rice, intermingled with
the usual scitaminous vegetation of the tropics, imparted a cultivated
character that seemed to connect the labours of art with that sort of
arrangement seen here in the display of nature.

" We staid to dine at the cottage of one of General Benjamin's cul=
livators, and to rest and feed our horses. Nothing occurred there
worthy of notice, except that we saw the cottage children employed
braying rice in a mortar, the process of disengaging the husk in
this country. A fine field of this grain was growing in an enclosure
close by. Our dinner was served in dishes and plates of earthenware,
with metal spoons, a clean napkin covering the table. I have never
travelled without observing, among the lowest class of the people, a
strict observance of this sort of respect to strangers.

" The night had overtaken us, heavy, dull, and threatening rain ; we
however reached Las Cahobas at about eight o'clock. The road
thither lay through a wooded pass of the Montagne a Tonnere, and
the Morne ci Pierre. It was in the very best condition, dry and gravelly.
A corps de garde is still stationed at the frontier barrier, called, ' le poste
de grosse roche.' We there shewed our passports, and were permitted
to proceed on. It was too dark to observe the inscriptions, ' France,'
* Espana,' on either face of the rock, according to the statement in the
treaty of limits, whei-e this station, numbered 193, is called La Roche
de Neyboue; but they were pointed out to us. A masson, or ceiba tree,
of great height and size, growing by the road, close to the frontier rock,
bears evidence, in the number of balls lodged in its trunk, to the deter-
mined but ineffectual resistance made by the Spaniards, to the occupa-

Recent Communications from Hay ti — Traveller's Journal. 229

lion of their colony, when the revolutionary troops, under Toussaint
L'Ouverture, entered it in 1801, according to the stipulations of the
treaty of Bale. It is by virtue of this acquisition, that General Boyer
has declared, in taking recent possession, that he holds the country,
not by conquest, but by the resumption of a vested, but long dormant
right, coeval with the independence of the old French colony, to whose
fortunes it was united."

" September 1. Las Cahobas is prettily situated; — a grassy plateau,
chequered with cottages, and separated from the dark sierras of the
frontier by a brawling streamlet. An amphitheatre of wood-crowned
hills, half robed in mist, one or two picturesque and shrubless peaks,
and a wild hill or two, barely fertile, with a few trees, close the prospect
on all but one point, where the eye has a glimpse, afar off, of the dark
forests that border the Artibonite. The town contains forty-five
dwellings, and about two hundred inhabitants. It gives name to an
arrondissement of five communes, and though its shops have no pre-
tensions whatever, wood-cutters, carpenters, and blacksmiths, give it
an air of business, and the droves of cattle and horses, passing through
it from the Spanish hatos, to the markets of the maritime districts to
the west, impart to it a transient appearance of bustle. The hospitality
of M. Casaneuve, the juge de paix, had kept us, during the day, in good
humour with the rains of the preceding night, and the mud of the cot-
taged streets ; but by the afternoon, finding it dry and pleasant enough
for a ramble, we curvetted our horses over the turf-covered common
above the town, and crossing the river, visited the sugar-mill and dis-
tillery of Capt. Lerebour. The cane fields were a rich, loamy level of
the stream, abundantly fertile. The rice cultivation was carried on
very extensively. There are two descriptions of the grain, the bearded
and the common eared rice. They generally sow them together, ima-
gining that the serrated spikes of the bearded description, which is said
to be inaccessible to birds, by interlacing with the common kind, pro-
tects it from their rapacity. The sugar-mill of Capt. Lerebour's estate
was a small wooden machine, admirably constructed. The distillery
was a very complete establishment. Not more than ten able cultiva-
tors, male and female, were located on it, having ten carreaus, or thirty
acres of land, in tillage.

" Previous to the last wars of the frontiers, in which it was destroyed,
Las Cahobas is said to have been a very considerable town. Its streets
were planted with palm trees, of which some few yet remain, and its
church, large and splendid in those times, has now nothing but the
vestiges of its two circular belfries existing. The foundations of the
former dwellings extend in a line from the church to the shrubby mound,
where the English soldiery, in their contests, had erected a redoubt.
The traffic in horses, mules, and cattle, and the contraband trade of the
borders, gave wealth to its former inhabitants ; but it owes its recent
rise to the facilities of transport that these immense forests of maho-
gany, from which it derives its Spanish name, receive from the waters
of the Artibonite, the conversion of the old colonies into the present re-
public of Hayti having rendered the embarcadier of its western gulf
accessible to the woodmen.

!^30 Recent Communications from Hayti — Mahogany Forests.

" Since the annexation of the Spanish portion of H^yti, the inhabit-
ants of the ancient French district have found new resources of industry
in the mahogany forests of the valleys of St. Thomas, Banica, and
Guabas ; and the streams of the Bouyaha, the Guayamuco, the Rio-a-
Canas, and the Juan-de-Vera, vfhich pour their tributary waters into
the Artibonite, supplied the means of transporting to the western coasts
the hitherto unavailable wealth of the midland forests. It was to in-
spect the progress of this species of laborious industry, in company
with persons from mercantile houses here proceeding to see the con-
dition of their limber, and its preparation to be floated down by the
floods, that I travelled into these parts. In the rich alluvial loam of
these river banks, thousands and ten thousands of palm trees, from
forests as far as the eye can reach, are intermingled with other trees of
differing foliage, among which the olive-tinted mahpgany is seen to
abound. Here the enterprising wood-cutter, followed by his depend-
ants, employed as fellers and rafters of timber, resort, and purchase
from the Spanish proprietors the trees upon their lands, paying a sti-
pulated price for each tree they fall. The usual average is a dollar
the tree. There is a good deal of competition. The cutters are paid
by the log — the raftsmen by the day. The Artibonite sweeps in its
course with a steady, broad, and rapid flood, presenting no danger ex-
cept in one spot called the Peligro, and the rock of Balthazar, where Its
waters flow through a deep, narrow, and rocky channel, between the
mountain of thunder and the cahos. The raftsmen swim, through days
in succession, after the timber, resting on a float made of the limb of
the bamboo. When all the timber is consigned to the floods, the fore-
man follows in a boat, seeing that none of the logs with his mark have
been neglected by the raftsmen. This labour has necessarily great dif-
ficulties and privations. The pay is good ; but from the very nature
of the adventurous services of these men their morals are very
indifferent.

" The scenery of this district is extremely beautiful. The mountain
heights, far and near, form superb masses in the back ground. The
pastures assume the appearance of sylvan slopes, and ornamented
parks, blending the pine tree with the palm, and uniting the scenery ©f
Europe with the wondrous foliage of the tropics. On descending to
the rivers fertilizing their lands, the grassy dells, and wooded belts and
clumps, with the winding pathways through them, would induce a per-
son to suppose that he traversed the embellished shrubberies of England;
the disposition of trees, fruits, and flowers, seems so judicious, so arti-
ficially and elegantly arranged, and the grassy turf spreads through sun
and shadow so clear and weedless. The frequent chesnuts would
deceive him into this belief, notwithstanding the prevalence of the
palms ; but, he is wandering amid scenes where nature has never
experienced the pruning-hook, and where the Spanish Hatero, poor in
all things but his herds and flocks, feeds his cattle on a thousand
hills.

" On the smaller streams of this district, where the lands run less
into masses of forest, and the soil is light and luxuriant, the little sugar
properties, preparing what is oalied ' raspado,' for the home market,

Recent Communications from Hayti — Small Sugar Farms. 231

abound. A thatched and wattled cottage, on a little rise, with slopes
of garden ground for the ordinary wants of the family, and where trees
and shrubs afford fruit, shadow, and shelter from storms, and give a
sort of snugness to the peasant's home, is encircled by plantations
of sugar-cane, intermingled with fields of rice and corn; round
about these, the uninclosed pastures extend into the savannas. A well
compacted mill, with wooden rollers, and turned by two horses, but
frequently by bourriques, on account of their smaller size enabling
them to wind the circuit of the tread more easily, is situated con-
veniently to the cottager's residence. A shed, open on all sides, and
covering two cauldrons, from one end to the other of which the juice is
ladled, until it arrives at the usual consistence of raspado sugar, is the
remaining building. The whole outlay of these works does not exceed
more than 100 dollars. Conceive a cottage, composed of a husband
and wife, a family of some six children, with one or two persons hired'
occasionally, to cut canes ; imagine the father standing on a platform
under the shed, engaged at the furnaces and boilers ; picture the
mother, and one or two of the stout daughters, at the coolers, or large
shallow trays, scooped out of timber of immense breadth, and laid on
the floor of the shed, engaged with wooden ladles, pouring the granu-
lated juice into moulds of about nine inches long, and two and a half
inches in diameter, composed of the membranous sheaths which en-
velope the trunk of the palma nobilis, at the junction of each of
its trenches with the stem, and called, by the French inhabitants,
' I'attache ;' then view the lesser children bringing and carrying away
these moulds, which may be called their rustic sugar barrels, setting
them in baskets to drain, while the robust sons are engaged in the
garden, or the corn and rice fields ; and you will have a picture repre-
senting the economy of a family making raspado sugar. It receives its
name, I should judge, from the Spanish word, ' raspar,' to scrape,
because it is disengaged in this manner from the mould for domestic
use. Its taste is that of a sugar not entirely boiled. It is extremely
clean, of a good grain, quick and fresh in its flavour, ^d more agree-
able than ordinary sugar, from the quantity of vegetable mucilage in it,
not separated by boiling. It is packed in panniers on horses and asses,
and brought to the town markets. It is the universal sugar of the mid-
land districts. The seasons are so constant in their vicissitudes of sun
and rain, that the family grind every ten days a portion of their canes.
I was informed that about a thousand pounds weight of the article are
produced at each grinding and boiling, and that a family can elaborate
30,0001bs. weight in the year. Admitting it is thirty-three per cent, less
pure than the sugar of commerce, from the prevalence of the mucilage,
that will be 20,0001bs. weight, an extraordinary quantity to be pro-
duced with scarcely any outlay of capital, and subjected to so few contin-
gences, from the use of barrels being dispensed with. Besidethe interest
excited by seeing all this profitable labour, in so important a commercial
staple as sugar, the richness of the scenery, and the verdure of the
landscape, add, as you may conceive, to the picture of comfort and
happiness among these peasant families. The population of this dis-
trict are a fine looking race of people; the men are light in figure, but

232 Recent Communications from Hayti — Haytian Tobacco.

athletic, and the women beautiful exceedingly. The blood of the
Indian, as well as the African, mingles in their veins, being indicated
more in the flow and texture of the hair, than in the contour of the fea-
tures, though it is there perceptible.

" I would wish, before I close this letter, to take this opportunity
of calling the attention of our friends, to the injury which the already
restricted commerce of this country sustains, by the prohibition oT
the import of its tobacco into England, in packages less than of a certain
size. The article cannot be brought to an embarcadier but in seroons
of a comparatively small bulk. To repack, would be to deteriorate the
commodity, and would greatly lessen, by the additional expense, the
chance of fair competition. The tobacco is not inferior to that of Ha-
vanna ; but these restrictions act as a prohibition of the English market.
An exception has been made in favour of Colombia; why not extend it
to St. Domingo? — A similar evil is felt in regard to mahogany, from the
duty being charged on measure instead of on value. The crooked and
branched mahogany is notoriously the best for ornamental furniture,
but it cuts to waste. Merchants will ship none but compact and
squared logs. Hence, the loss on the branched woods is not made up
by an additional price on the trunk, and the market suffers. If the
duty was charged on value and not on measure, it would be otherwise.
— The prohibition of trade with Jamaica, is also a serious injury to the
mahogany market there. I saw vessels at St. Thomas, loading with
St. Domingo mahogany for Jamaica, when the Artibonite timber might
be supplied near and cheap ; and the voyage to St, Thomas is despe-
rate beating against the trade winds. Jamaica would return her pur-
chases in carriages, which she would supply better than the Americans,
because the materials of which they would be made, would be suited
to the climate ; the English carriages are not. Furniture they have
here cheap and beautiful.

" The agriculturist of Hayti would be greatly tempted by a free trade
with Jamaica, and the handicraftsman of Jamaica would find a market
here for much of his industry. Between the Bahamas and north coast
of Hayti, there is a great trade recently opened, by a proclamation of
Sir G. Murray's, the prohibition of the Act not extending to these
islands ; and no injury has occurred to the morals and political feeling
of the slaves of the Bahamas, who come and go freely, for they find, that
Hayti is not a country in which the people live without labour."

" The sun had yet near two hours to its setting when we entered the
mahogany forest of the Agnesera,just where it forms a subsidiary branch
of the Juan de Vera. The woods were thickly intermingled with palms,
the trees, with their thin leafy heads, rising two hundred feet above us.
The forest was deep, dark, and heavy; cold and damp as the last days
of autumn. The fantastic twirls and festoons of the lianes, twining from
tree to tree, suspended their long tendrils, from their lofty roofs, or
dipped them in the stream as they glided among the moss-embroidered
trunks, stretching their branches over their flowery bowers. A cascade
came rushing over the whole breadth of the Juan de Vera, then glided
away so silently, and apparently so motionless, just below the white wall
of the sounding waters, that the mingled and picturesque foliage in a

Recent Commun,ications from Hayti — Traveller s Journal. 233

Hato garden on its banks were seen reflected in the deep blue stream
without a dimple.

" We found a great deal of bulky timber felled and squared, and
dragged out to the edge of the stream, to await the floods that were to
float them into the Artibonite, at some distance off. The forest was chan-
nelled by the tracks through which the cattle had been recently haul-
ing out the wood.

" September 3. — We rested for the night at the cottage of the lieuten-
ant of the rural police, a black person, who treated us with great atten-
tion and hospitality."

" There was a cottage or two on the Hato where we stopped for the
night. Being anxious to see what was the domestic condition of one of
the poorer families of this district, I entered into conversation with a
Spanish female of Indian descent, engaged in some household affairs
under her cobertizo or shed. A guanapanaa-tree, a peculiar species of
acacia, with leaves and pods singularly twisted and tufted like green
tassels at the end of its stem, growing near an orange tree or two, spread
its branches closely as a shelter from the blaze of day. At this hour,
however, the uprising sun levelled a clear stream of light beneath it,
giving a grateful warmth to the chilliness of the morning, so that the
household dogs lay sunning themselves under its leaves, in the very
spot where the shadows would be found * soothing their reveries' at
noon-day. A goat's pen with kids looking through the cercado and
bleating impatiently to be out upon the steeps, stood a little to one side.
The open cottage shed had a half-floored ceiling made of boards of the
palm-tree, to which a rustic ladder of unhewed wood gave access. This
■was a sort of roof loft into which their household utensils were packed
away after use. Large gourds, so large that they formed jugs with
spiggots, basins with handles, and oval tubs of three and four feet
long, were hung about the rafters and posts. Immovable wooden
benches lined the cottage side. The parrot on his perch chattering
his morning salutation to his Spanish mistress; the cats slumbering ;
the children with ' tropic cheeks, suff'used with the sunborn blood,'
playing on the goat skin carpet; the mother pounding the morning
meal, and preparing the fire ; and the athletic father looking out at the
door with a tuft of cotton for the gin which we heard whirling within,
formed altogether a picture of an Hatero's home, in which all was sim-
plicity and poverty, but where there was no indigence. The house con-
tained a centre room, and chambers, where there were beds composed
of stretched cow-hides ; but the open shed was their ordinary sitting
room. We had seen them there the previous evening, seated al-fresco,
and chatting around the flickering light of a fire, that was quickened
with torch wood.

" We journeyed to the Rio Seco. The scenes were still interesting,
beautiful — but not wild. They had that sort of arrangement of
mingled shrubberies, thickets and green lawns, embowering trees, and
sparkling and gliding waters, already noticed. It was pleasant to
see in the nooks of the woodland side, the cottages with their patches
of rice and corn fields around them, and the cattle and horses
feeding out in the green pastures. We sometimes crossed the beds

2 G

234 Recent Communications from Hayti — Traveller' s Journal.

of clear brooks, that came sweeping and murmuring past us, from
among mighty trees, with flowering shrubs overhanging the streamlet.
Sometimes goats, sleek and comely as antelopes, returning home or
wandering out, would rush by us and leap from stone to stone of a
little rivulet, or if the brook was wide, seek where it was shallow,
and make one bound into the stream, and out again. The poultry,
amid the woods, the hens clucking, the turkeys wandering in search,
of the nests of the social ants; the cock, with its rich plumage,
running from one sunny spot to the other, by the solitary water side,;
where the butterflies and insects frequented ; would point out the.
vicinity of woodland settlements, when we saw no other indications,
and give an interest, as if we were strolling in the countries wher.e the.
domestic birds were existing in primeval wildness.

" It is on these smaller streams, where the lands run less into masses,
of forest, and the soil is light and luxuriant, that the little plantations-
abound which prepare the sugar called raspado, for the home market,
as already described. (See above, p. 231.) i

" We visited on the banks of the Rio Seco, another Hatero's cottage.
The children, six in number, were uncommonly fine looking ; there
were four boys, forming the future wealth of the father's plantation.
The elder daughter was already a mother, and lived with her husband
in the same cottage with her parents. The usual furniture, the cotton
gin, and the gourds cut into all convenient shapes, were there. It;
was easy to see that the fictile vases of the Indians, were a mere
imitation of those shapes which the early vegetable bowls and jugs'
had long consecrated to domestic use. The dogs, fierce and full fed,
about eight or ten in number, were a fine breed of the Spanish hound.
Their grounds, by the river side, were extensive, and rice and corn
formed a principal article of cultivation."

" September 5th. — Towards sunset, on the day previous, the sky,
gathering thick over the west and south-east, we determined to remain
all night at the Hato from which we had set out in the morning,
rather than encounter the risk of rain at night-fall by pursuing our
journey. Towards sundown, a shower of hail fell, and the rain poured
heavily during the whole evening and part of the night, coming with
much lightning, and with thunder claps, that boomed loud and dis-.
mally through the whole valley of the river. In the morning, we
proceeded on our journey homewards. Our road coursed its way
through dark forests, rugged hills and dales, ravines and rivulets that
dashed in cataracts. The scenery was wildly beautiful." "Amid these,
wilds, apparently inaccessible for all agricultural purposes, we broke
into spots, whose fertility of soil, sufficiently marked by the prevalence
of the lancewood and palmetto, had drawn settlers into it. We passed
a little village newly formed, and among the inmates of it, found an
American immigrant family, tenanting a comfortable little farm.

" The Artibonite rolled its waters beneath us, in frequent windings
amid the hills, deep and dark. The plain of the Todo-el-mundo,
into which we could see, from some of the heights, was a garden of
palm-trees.

'* When we approached the thunder mountain, a storm, gathering

jRecent Communications from Hayti — Traveller s Journal. 235

fievy and fierce, was sending forth showers and lightning; from;
all sides of its cloud-crowned summit. We heard the rush of
the rains every where, saw its white drifts obscuring, by degree?,
every face of the mountain ; but travelled a full hour before we felt
its wrath : but when it came, there was no moving a foot further, so
we took up our rest, for the night, at a cottage in the ' Petit Fond,'
right at the foot of the surly mountain, glad to be sheltered from a'
tempest that raged unceasingly till the morning. We owed this timely
hospitality to some American wood-cutters, part of the immigrants
from the United States, and found them intelligent industrious men.
They had prepared for us a dinner of fowls, fricasseed and hashed,
into what is here called ' gros bouillon,' before they tendered their
offer of shelter ; and I found an ox-hide stretched on the floor no bad
bed to a wearied traveller."

"The rural superintendant of the Petit Fond, was pointed out to me,
as the father of twenty-two children, by three wives, and his brother,
the father of twenty-three, by six. They were Africans."

" September 6th. — In our journey to the bourg of St. Louis, we tra-
versed the old indigo plains of Sarrasin, now mantled in logwood,
having a deep black vegetable loam for its soil,then crossed the river
Fer a Cheval, rushing angry and muddy, and entered the fortress
town of Mirebalais.

"The town of Mirebalais, known generally as the bourg of St.'
Louis, is seated on a plateau, on the left bank of the Artibonite, •
raised some height above the bed of the river, but leaving the stream
itself just within sight to the northward of it. A little detached from
the rest, is situated the citadel, once intended as the nucleus of an
interior city, for which the situation is excellent. The arsenal and
magazines are a fine range of brick buildings, with a colonnade of
irregular architecture supporting the roof. There are only two well
built houses in the town. The rest are humble cottages, covered with
thatch. The soil of the uplands is arid and poor ; but the plain of
Sarrasin, and the alluvial loam on either bank of the Artibonite, are
productively rich. This district was originally settled in grazing
farms. The land being found favourable for indigo, it became one of
-the principal parishes in which that staple was cultivated by the old
colonists. It was found, from its easy irrigation, admirably adapted
to rice. That article is perhaps still more grown there now, for the
home market, than formerly ; but cotton, is at present, its principal
resource for commerce. The president has there a water-mill for
cleaning that grown by the surrounding cultivators, at a regulated
mulcture. Its circus of mountains, of all hues and forms, gives its
plain a magnificent character, when viewed from the neighbouring
mornets ; but to a person merely journeying through the town, its
aspect of ruined houses, its demolished church, substituted by a'
building within its scattered walls, as humble as a hut ; and its old
place d'armes, wild and green, like a country common, gave, notwith-
standing its citadel and arsenal, a melancholy interest to these
memorials of revolutionary contests and frontier wars, in all which it

2 3(> Recent Communications from Hay ti-^ Traveller s Journal.

so suffered, that it remained, till very recently, abandoned as a
desert.

" We were hospitably entertained during our brief sojourn at Mire-
balais, through the broiling and breathless noon, at the house of Com-
mandant Michel. We found here, in submitting our passports to be
viseed, a circumstance very general through our travels, that an edu-
cated African officiated as inilitary secretary of the district."

" We reached Tiuanon by 3 o'clock. The road was gravelly and
good the whole Avay ; the undulation of the hills gentle, and the
Avhole distance from Mirebalais practicable for carriages. At Trianon
our horses found abundant fodder, and we rested for the night.

" Sept. 7th. — By the morning moon we descended on foot to the
plains. Saw the valley of the lakes enveloped in mist; and reached
Port-au-Prince to a noonday breakfast, sufficiently wearied with our
sunny and stormy journey over mountain and moor."

" Nov. 12th. — We had made up a party to visit the Lake of Assua.'*
" We retraced the wood I had passed heretofore to the higher borders
of the Grand Riviere. The recent rains had given freshness to the
desert, enlivening, with green newness, the fantastic intermixture of the
tree cactus with the delicate foliage of the numerous guaiacum and aca-
cia trees. At Mocquet we received that ready hospitality with which
its cheerful proprietor welcomes his guests ; a welcome, that, in our
case, was tendered as an earnest for a renewed visit when looking
homeward. At Noailles we saw the remains of the aqueduct and mill
houses of the old splendid sugar estate. Its ruin had been complete ;
but the fresh industry, which the proprietor of Mocquet had called
into exercise, was doing something towards renewing its former pro-
ductiveness. We turned in among the cottages of Digneron, the fine
estate of the Treasurer General mentioned before, a very village in
size. We remained at Digneron all night, faring sumptuously."

"Nov. 13th.' — Before day-break we were up for our journey. It
was a melancholy sight, on our road from the Treasurer General's to
the Croix des Bouquets, to see the extent of grounds covered by the
ruins of the old estates. Walls that enclosed rich gardens and farm-
yards were standing desolate, or had their highest purposes of utility
as the circuit to a bananery and thatched cottage of some less ostenta-
tious proprietor than the old colonial lords.

"We passed Vaudreuil and saw its newly erected dwelling-house,
built by the President ; reached the village of Cotard, a cluster of
large sized cottages, on a soil so singularly marly, sandy, and sterile,
that it must have been a lively representation of some of the towns of
the Zahara. Further on we crossed water courses and fine flowing
rivulets, spreading out their floods into the old artificial basins, and
fertilizing fresh settled plantations. At Joineau, the property of
General Lerebour, we saw all the indications of the renewed culture of
the cane on a large scale. The fields looked park-like and pleasant,
and the works wers admirably established. In this vicinity there is a
great deal of newly opened lands and provision grounds, and the road
runs on still dry and excellent..

Recent Commmiieations from Hay ti — Gen. Ckiye-la- Riviere. 237

. "Through a leaf covered pathway, whose lengthened vista shone like
a spot of mysterious light in the distance, we entered into a devious
wild of acacia and log wood, where the blossoms were exceedingly
fragrant. A village of straggling cottages was situated in the midst
of this wood, having a number of old folks, grey and bearded,
stirring about with limbs full of health and vigour."

" We returned to Digneron petit place that evening. Next
morning, the 14th, passing through La Croix des Bouquets in the
high bustle of a thronged market, we proceeded on to Mocquet,
where we spent the remainder of the day, and arrived at Port-
au-Prince at night- fall.

" Nov. 15th. — One of the most remarkable men in Hayti and one
of the most useful and respected of her citizens is General Caye-
la-Rivi^re. Having an opportunity of an introduction to him this
day at a dejeuner, he informed me that Mr. Thompson, the British
Counsel at the Cape, had especially recommended me and my
mission to his notice, and that he felt happy in assuring me of
his willingness to aid me when I should visit his arrondissement.
The district of Grande Riviere in the north, once the most re-
fractory and unprofitable, is said now to present the best evidences
of industry and morality of any portion of the republic, all which
it owes to his energy and patriotism. He is greatly beloved and
as greatly feared by the people he commands. As a soldier he is
a strict disciplinarian, as a magistrate just and severe, as ready to
protect the right, as he is strenuous to punish the wrong. His district,
though an interior section of the country, gives the best agricul-
tural results of any part of Hayti, and he boasts that such is the
habitual sense of honesty of the people in it, that a traveller and
a stranger shall leave his watch on the high road and it will be
brought to him for the discovei'y of its owner. He pays visits to the
houses of the little farmers and planters, to ascertain what relation
the tale of their produce should bear to their land and the numbers
of their families, and such is the paternal persuasiveness of his
government, that he finds no difficulty in urging the people to ac-
complish the highest possible rate. His administration is so strictly
just, that having adopted the scheme of mulcting the community
for all the robberies of which the perpetrators are undiscovered, he
never hears of a theft without, at the same time, seeing the thief
before him. The devotion and love shewn to his person are unbounded*
The inhabitants have found their interest in his strictness, and seeing
that his motives are benevolent,, aid him so strenuously in effecting
all beneficial reforms, that his commands are obeyed as the persuar
sions of a father and a friend. In person he is extremely tall, of
a fine countenance, and in his youth must have been esteemed a
handsome man. He is mild and playful in moments of relaxation
from the duties of his magisterial office; but in the discharge of them
he has

" The grave stern look of men inform'd and wise,
A full command of feature, heart, and eyes,
An awe compelling frown and fear inspiring size." Crabbe,

238 Recent Communications from Hayti — DessaUnes.

He formerly served as a dragoon officer in the French army in
Europe, he has the bold, confidential air of the revolutionary warrior.
His walk is a perfect swagger, and he strides as if he wore the seven
league boots of Jack the giant killer. The people are full of
.anecdotes of him. Bold deeds, and desperate, and heart stirring
stories are the heroic adventures of Caye'la-Rivifere."

^'1830. Dec. 9th. — From the high mountains which compose the
district usually denominated Les Hants de St. Mare, a fertile plain
.extends to the chain of the Cahos, and subsidiary branches of the
mountains of Ennery. A variety of small streams, which the toil of
the ancient colonists had rendered subservient to the purposes of
irrigation, diffused about it an air of artificial beauty and fertility.
Two principal rivers flowed through it. The Ester having its rise in
that part of the Cahos called by the Spaniards the Sierra Prieta, and
by the French the Morne Noire, was to the north, while to the south,
winding its way to the sea along the sinuosities of the neighbouring
mountains, flowed the larger stream of the Artibonite, from which the
intermediate plain derived its name.

" All the ancient colonial territory north of the Artibonite, and
south of its embouchure as far as the mountain torrent of Montroni,
formed the. recently important kingdom of Christophe. One of its
most interesting features is the fortress city of Dessalines, situated
not far from the right bank of the Ester. After the overthrow of the
European domination in the colony, the negroes having rendered
.themselves independent, and sworn solemnly to the act of liberty, at
the Port of Gonaives, Dessalines determined to erect, on the moun-
tain cliffs, a citadel to the whole champaign country, so impregnable
both by the resources of nature and art, as to secure the steady cul-
tivation of the plains, and in defiance of hostilities, the advantages
of the neighbouring coasts. A survey of the remnants of the city,
and of the fortresses on the precipices above it, suggest a high idea
of his power, and of the energy of the people, in the burst of their
enthusiasm, when they first found themselves free and victorious.

" When we consider that not four years elapsed from the period of
the chief command of Dessalines to his death, that amid the toils of
warfare, and under the pressure of the various evils of a commerce-
less country, and an annihilated agriculture, these buildings were
erected, and the immense massy cannons we still see in numbers lying
£very where, were dragged from the sea to the interior, and from the
interior to the mountains, we shall form no contemptible idea of the
energy of this singular man, and of the devotion of the people he
commanded.

" After Dessalines had fallen a victim to the mutiny of the troops,
two rival factions divided the state — Christophe in the north, and
Petion in the south. All the advantages of the new capital having
been estimated from the integrity of the republic, this division arrested
the progress of the city, and ultimately led to its entire abandonment.
There is, however, a cheering interest in contemplating these remains ;
the first regulated eftbrts of an emancipated people, turning from the
wide desolation of war, to pursue the arts of civilized life, in the

Recent Communications frofn Hay ti — Traveller's Journal. 239

l^azardous security of a peace, only calculating the fruits of patient
labour, under the protection of fortresses, which nature as well as art
had rendered impregnable.

" At 7 o'clock we were on our way to make the perilous ascent of
the Innocent, one of the fine mountain batteries that protect the city.
We ascended these heights, computed at 700 feet, in thirty-two>
minutes, and descended in twenty-five. Afterwards we walked inta
the fortress of the Somus, a construction of Petion's, when serving in;
the army of Dessalines. It is a battery with two circular redoubts,
highly defensive, and important on account of containing the spring
of water which supplies the rivulet. This is the Cul-bute. It is
situated a little eastward of the town at the foot of the hills. A valley
rich in verdure, and pretty abundantly cultivated, runs between the
fortress hills and that lower range, by whose bas6 lay our yesterday's
road. ■

"Pursuing the heights above the city of Dessalines, at their
descent into the plains, the road passes along the borders of the La-
goon of the Ester. The soil, subjected to the floods of the rainy-
season, is sandy and unproductive, but in the higher grounds, within
and around the lake, it is equally fertile with any part of the neigh-
bouring plain. These verdant marshes are the feeding grounds of
many herds of cattle, finding shelter from sunshine and rain among
the clumps of acacia and bamboos, festooned with flowered lianes, and
contributing greatly to give life and diversity to the wild aspect of the
country.

** Plantations of cotton, millet, and rice, are seen on the edges of
the Lagoon, and cottages appear coved into the recesses of the forest.
The people, though poor, are cleanly in their dress, and the cows and
calves, and horses and asses with their foals, wandering the woods,
shewed that they were provided with the means of rendering their
distance from the embarcadier markets no material inconvenience.
The gardens of the poorest here, were not suffered to depend on the
periodical rains, but had the mountain springs that would have fallen,
through barren defiles into the lake, conducted through circuitous
channels to the higher grounds, for the purposes of irrigation.

" La Croix is a wide grassy forest road, where formerly a cross was
erected. It passes through ranges of hills, steep, but not lofty, bare
of trees, but covered with a long dry grass, that supplies, in the
moister season, forage for cattle. Two or three provision plantations,
fenced in with a high stockade, from the trespasses of the woodland
herds, were seen along the road, thick set with bananas, corn and
millet.

" The banks of the river Quinte had collected together a few good
houses and cottages, that varied a long line of desolate road to
Gonaives. The women were gathered in the stream at their washing,
and ass-loads of linen were being carried away by the laundresses.
This river being the only one of the plains, and its stream uncertain,
so great a quantity of clothing is occasionally washed on its banks
that it assumes the appearance of a bleach-ground. Its waters flow
through a fine line of bamboos, whose dense foliage and- deep

240 Recent Communications from Hayti — Toussaint L'Ouverture.

shadows, entirely embower it, and render it dark at mid-day. Cotton
plantations are on either hand of the road, but not frequent.

*' Dec. 12. — Since the ruin of St. Mark's, Gonaives, commanding a
more secure and accessible harbour, has risen into some importance,
and is a rapidly thriving district. Its great advantages are the cotton
cultivation of the plains. The mahogany of the Salines, and the
coffee of the neighbouring mountains, more especially since the con-
struction of the escalier road, has enabled the numerous peasant far-
mers of Plaisance, to avail themselves of the market on this side
of the mountain wall supporting the more elevated and fertile in-
terior country of the old department of the north.

" But the great historical interest of Gonaives and its neighbour-
ing mountains is above any accidental importance arising from phy-
sical peculiarities. The rise of Toussaint L'Ouverture may be the
episode of other districts, but that of his fall is the tragic story of
the republic. Between the Quinte and Artibonite, the hills of Ennery
and the mountains of the Cahos, the fortunes of this extraordinary
man were Avrecked, and Gonaives beheld his latest footsteps, and re-
ceived the last prophetic words of liberty , when departing, as a prisoner,
from the country he had emancipated from bondage and raised from
ruin.

" The slave of Breda owed his rise to his own supereminent talents.
His triumphs were over the most indomitable of enemies, those who
confounded social order with tyranny. Yet he reconciled the victo-
rious and emancipated slave to the defeated master. He had quitted
the tumult of civil war when pride and avarice, cruelty, envy, and
revenge alone influenced the minds and excited the actions of men.
His talents and address found means to subdue all passions, and to
convert them to the uses of government, in promoting the public
good. In the place of anarchy and usurpation, was seen the authority
of the laws. Justice was administered with regularity. The revenue
was collected, and agriculture restored. Whilst he humbled the pride
of the ancient colonist, by his own pre-eminence, and in his station
above them presented the practical evidence of the equality of the
Negro and the European ; he flattered the avarice of the old proprie-
tor by securing the benefit of the labour of his former slave. Slavery
was abolished, but the relation of master and servant was recognized.
To the one he gave the right of exacting toil by the operation of fixed
laws, but protected the other from oppression. He balanced while
he preserved all interests, investing every one with a liberty at once
safe to the colony and beneficial to the state. When the world's ad-
miration of his success, had rendered him an object of alarm to the
French republic, his refusal to surrender his authority excited their
suspicions of his fidelity. The expeditionary army was sent out as a
provision against his influence, it being deemed necessary, by the in-
fatuated colonists, at all risks to cancel his power. Toussaint deter-
mined on resistance, because their liberties were menaced. A new insur-
rection broke out. A civil war followed ; and the contest, of which
he became the ever memorable victim, ended in establishing those
liberties for ever.

Recent (Communications from Hayti — Traveller's J'ournal. 241

" The treachery which had made Toussaint an exile, condemned
upon no better testimonV than suspicion, was soon followed by the dis-
turbed tranquillity of the colony. It was evident that every act of the
colonial government was noVv rapidly tending- towards the reestablish-
ing of slavery. The danger, as Christophe expressed it, was not in
the first out breakings of rebellion, for these were feeble and con-
ducted by obscure persons ; but in the general opinion of the blacks-,
who had heard, with dread, of the decree of April 1802, for the
regulation of slavery and the slave trade in the colonies now restored
to France by the treaty of Amiens. The arrest of Toussaint was an
event of July. By the middle of September the once devoted Petion
had taken his measures for revolt, attacked the Cape, and nearly
finnihilated by a single, bold, and decisive blow the sovereignty of
France in St. Domingo."

" In the bay of Gonaives much salt is manufactured. To carry on
the operation of salt raking, square pools are dug in convenient situ-
ations to receive tranquilly the flooding sea waters. The sluices are
dammed up with loam. The water lying to the depth of eight or
ten inches. Large cubic crystals of bay salt are deposited at the
bottom and around the rhargin of the pool. When perfectly desiccated
it is raked out in heaps, and afterwards washed in baskets to separate
from it the impurities brought over it by the prevailing land windsj
from the parched and dusty plains, or whirled from the arid moun-
tains of the neighbourhood. The whole sea coast, between St. Mark's
and Gonaives, is a continuous saline; but at the mouth of the Arti-
bonite these incrustations whiten the surface for many miles. Detached
pools shine like frozen lakes. The salt receives a crimson tint from
the earth of the plain, which is said to be more or less ci-ystallized
with it. Three months are the period of time in which the water
evaporates and leaves a dry crystallized residuum.

" All exported salt pays a duty, that for home consumption none.
The commerce is not of sufficient magnitude to be very productive to
the revenue."

" December 28th.— Judging by the arid appearance of the inouri-
tains skirting the road to the northern plain of Gonaives, and by the
desolate condition of the plains generally, the whole district, to the
Ci'oss roads of Poteau, would scarcely be considered cultivable. Some
good cotton plantations, with the customary intermixture of the millet,
or holcus soyhum lined, however, the road to the right. To the left
were a farm or two, in which the appearance of horses, cows, asseS;,
and goats, feeding in the stockaded yards about the cottages gave a
character of tranquil happiness, as well as productive industry to the
huirible and domestic scene. The entire district, as I have already
remarked, is badly furtiished with water. The military village of
Dolan, about midway between the sea and the mountains, though
forming a cluster of wretched looking cottages, was erected by the
side of extensive fields of cotton and millet, Cultivated by the soldiers,
in very superior condition. The lofty millet was filled with well eared
bunches of com, and the cotton was bursting into blossom, with the
promise of a full harvest.

2 H

242 Recent Communications from Hay ti — Ti-avellers Journal.

" The Bourg of Ennery, celebrated as the favourite retreat ofTous-
saint L'Ouverture, is situated on the banks of a pleasant stream, that
winds through an agreeable mountain valley. The whole road is an
even carriage way, extremely fine, of an ascent so gradual that you
scarcely perceive its rise, is wide and grassy, shadowed by large and
leafy trees. The orange and the sapodilla, with the anana, are com-
mon, and the low shrubs that intervene are generally the coffee of
overgrown plantations. The old habitations, with their divisions of
gardens and fields, were generally marked by fences of the jatropha
curas, or physic-nut of Jamaica.

" Our Avhole road had been a sheltered valley of the stream.
There were seen some cottages situated among bananeries and millet
fields, whose inhabitants found also a harvest in the coffee now grow-
ing wild and frequent in the woods. Near one of these little homesteads
by the road we passed a group of black persons reading a public
paper. One of them, apparently an officer of the rural police, having
overtaken me soon after, conducted me into the village and to the
house of the Commandant, for v;hom I had a letter from the General
of the arrondissement. I have always found the people practising
this sort of civility by the ready suggestion of their own sense of
usefulness and propriety. This person served us at some personal
inconvenience, for he had no sooner seen us at our journey's end, than
bidding us good night, he departed out of the bourgade, at a hasty
gallop, by the same road he had entered it with us.

" The face of the parallel ridges of mountains, betAveen which the
vale of the Ennery river extended, was barren, and though covered
with stunted trees, so parched as to be entirely verdureless. When,
however, we entered the hamlet we perceived signs of fertility in the
white cottages on the uplands to the south, shining in the light of the
full moon, which was just rising as our journey ended, and shewing,
on the clear radiance of the sky it was entering, the foliage of lines
of straggling pine trees that crowned the brows of the mountains.

" 29th. — I rested at a well built cottage, the residence of a worthy
kind-hearted woman. It was such a building as an Englishman
would find among the substantial farmers of York or Lincolnshire,
well furnished, with a floor made of the fine laminated limestone of
the district, laid, not in squares, but in angular fragments, having
the angular spaces filled in with pieces broken to fit, a paved gallery
sheltered the front, ornamented with seats of mason work. There-
collection of the kind attention 1 received while sojourning here, both
in the cleanly accommodation of the house, and in the substantial
and palatable variety of the usual country fare of poultry, and indi-
genous vegetables and fruits, will be cherished by me as among the
many pleasant and unregretted days I have passed in Hayti. The
climate was a fine chill mountain air.

" 30th. — The line of mountains to the southward overlooking the
deep hollow, forming the quiet bourg of Ennery, is the scarped ridge
of the forts of Bayonnai, whose mighty gorge and angular hummocks
are so remarkable a feature in the wild scenes of the plains below.
These lofty eminences clothed with trees and the rich verdure of the

Recent Communications from Hay ti — Traveller s Journal. 243

guinea grass, are embellished with many cottages and plantations
some situated on the brows of the projecting hills, and others in the
low, warm, intervening valleys, and form the homes of families who
have earned an inheritance in the lands they have defended. Viewed
from the vales below, these cultivated uplands appeared not unfre-
quent, but far apart. Groups of the pine trees spotted the pasture
slopes, or sheltered cottages from which the smoke went wreathing
upwards at morning and evening. The voice of the watch dog was
heard, and the shrill cock answered from steep to steep, at the accus-
tomed hours, their ' midnight centinels.' When I journeyed into
these ravines and climbed the successive heights, I soon found these
were but faint evidences of the numerous inhabitants of the rocks,
and of the dense cultivation of the hills and defiles. I seized the
early opportunity which the kind attention of Captain Mouscardy, the
Commandant, in company with the Administrator of the district, af-
forded me to journey on to the frontiers of the old colony. Having
rested for a day, and being provided with a fresh horse, my own being
out at pasture on the hills, we passed through the ruined plantation
of Sansy, where Toussaint L'Ouverture met his children and returned
them to the French Government, when the price of their being restored
to him was the sacrifice' of what he owed to the people, by whose
devotion he had purchased the glory he enjoyed. We descended to
the bed of the river, which here now rolled its full stream over huge
rocks that had fallen from the clifi^s that bordered it. Pine trees
clustered our road in their open coppices of chequered sun and sha-
dow. The neglected coffee formed shrubberies by the way side, and
orange trees and sapodillas bowers about us." " The mild climate
of these mountains under the influence of a serene sky, with hills
clothed with verdure and the cliffs leafed with forests to the clouds, in-
duced me to turn with many a gaze at the white cottages, that every
where presented themselves, amid the culture of the broken surface in
such tranquil and luxuriant happiness. Further, the stream rolling on
its murmuring waters at the foot of glossy-leaved bananeries, pre-
sented the animated scene of horses and cows refreshing themselves,
and tethered calves feeding beneath the expanded branches of the
wild fig trees growing upon its banks. There was every thing to
delight the sight in the novelty and beauty of the landscape, and to
interest the heart in the useful industry of its inhabitants.

"■ Our ride was extended beyond the once fine plantation of La
Riviere, whose extensive ruins and splendid glacis cover the brows of .
the cliffs above the stream. The grassy savannas on the mountain
side once watered by an aqueduct over a deep ravine, still cheer with
their verdure the landscape. A few miserable looking cottages with
banana grounds near them, stand where once the slave village
spread out its numerous roofs. The aspect of this desolation was a
melancholy contrast to the home of the free mountaineer, who now
looked down in avoidance of this once proud beauty in decay, the
lost paradise of some ancient colonist, who '■ must never more walk in
that forbidden place of joy.' We journeyed into the Savanna quar-
ree to the edge of the hill, whose gorge forms the pass to the frontier

244 Recsnt Communications from Hayti — Travellers Journal.

commune of San Miguel of Hispaniola, and then turned into the
rg^vines of the Montague Noire, whose steep, dark cliffs rose before
us in mighty majesty, clear and cloudless.

" Just where a neat unfinished cottage of large size stood, on the
brow of a little hill above the river, with a park of pine trees shelter-
ing it from the winds, and with the dark clrfFs of the Morne Noire at
the back, we turned into the cultivated defiles of the ridge, since the
union of the north and south, parcelled, among a portion of Chris-
tophe's army, in concessionary grants of from five to forty carreaus. We
soon found ourselves commanding an agreeable view of these ravines,
green with newly planted coffee trees covering the slopes, intermingled
with orchards profuse with mangoe trees, avocadiers, sapodillas,
pome canelles, ananas, and oranges : fields of cassada, corn and peas
varied the broad leaves of the musa or banana. The shrubberies
and plantations announced by the vigour of their foliage a strong
power of vegetation in the soil, generally a black mould on a marly
base, peculiarly favourable to the coffee. A brook flowed glittering
through the bottom of the glen. We saw the hills that projected
from the mountain had a scattered cultivation all along, up to the
wooded crest which robed in morning mists and mid-day clouds,
poured down its little silver rills through the ravines, spreading fer-
tility and coolness wherever they swept. The vantage ground, which,
at every turn, ' disclosed the dwelling of the naountaineer,' with the
variegated maze of mount and glen, shewed that the district was well
inhabited. I was particularly pleased with the comfort and sixe of the
residence of a widowed negress, the wife of a cornet named Jean Hector.
His property was a part of the ci-devant habitation Lucassnaix ; but
every thing on the present estate had been recently constructed. I wa*
delighted with the neat and commodious condition of the whole
establishment. On the brow of a bold rise, overlooking, on the back
and front, luxuriant valleys filled with vegetation and tillage, and
wooded all along its summit with trees combining the advantages of
both utility and ornament, stood the capacious cottage, constructed ir*
the usual fashion of the country, with an open gallery in the centre,
having the extremities closed in so as to form closets. The glacis or
terrace for drying the coffee, was, at this time, unemployed, and the.
pulping mill, with its heavy wooden, roller, was laid up in ordinary,
being covered with an envelope of plantain leaves to protect it from,
the sun's heat. The cottages and out offices were arranged along
the same hilly brow. There were the colombier, with its careering
pigeons, going and returning^the stables for horses — the pens for pigs
■^the poultry— all combining to give that farm-like appearance, which,
added to the precise and systematic industry of the spot, shewed
there existed that attention to home comforts which make the social
enjoyments of civilized life. The proprietress was away from home,
and we saw oiily the families, of the cultivators, their wives and chil-
dren, an extremely well dressed, clean, and goodly i-ace. These were.
pursuing their avocations in the shadow of their cottages, drying their
linen, ironing it in the shed of their yard, attending the poultry, or
spreading out the pods of liguminous vegetables in the sunshine to

Hecent Communications from Hay ti — Traveller s Journal. 245

dry in such quantities as shewed that they, were a portion of their
staple productions. The capital with which this mountain farm was
established consisted only in the industry of the people, for they had
had nothing but health and strength to aid them ; but no garden
could be better ordered than the whole ' habitation.' The grounds
were thoroughly weeded, the trees attentively pruned. The planta-
tion comprehended products for the home and foreign markets, and I
was assured by the Commandant, that the three or four families I saw
associated with the proprietress in this culture, bore no adequate pro-
portion to the quantity of land in cultivation.

■' I accepted a present of delicious oranges, brought me by one of
the cottager's daughters ; and taking a turn or two higher up the
mountain, descended through trackways in the wood lands to the
banks of the stream, by whose romantic and pine-sheltered declivities
we had been before travelling. Coming in sight of the ruins of La
Riviere, which looked on this side like a mouldering castle above the
devious stream, we retraced our old pathway homeward, through a
rocky glen of Roche h. Durant and the wilderness plantation of Sansy,
to the quiet hamlet we had left.

'' When, in future years, the agricultural resources of the Artibonite
shall be called forth, and Gonaives be the city of the plains, the
sequestered scenes of Ennery, when the cold wind, in the language of
Scottish song, ' shakes the dark firs on the stay-rocky brae,' will be-
come a favourite haunt of the merchant. Its valleys hemmed in by
towering mountains ; its wood-crowned heights, and precipices of the
bare rock ; its streams chilly and crystal clear ; its wild glens of the
skirting hills, reminded me much of those of the Nith by Knares-
borough. Its grounds which combine the rich and romantic, and its
climate which unites the cool atmosphere of Europe with the bright
skies of the tropics, will not only make it the garden of the peasant,
but the retreat of the citizen. Even at this period it has an interest
to the traveller not unworthy its romantic scenery, by the story of the
fall of Toussaint L'Ouverture, whose estate of Sansy, now lying amid
ruin and desolation, still contains reliques of the man, not indeed
intrinsically worthy of notice, but deserving of respect from associa-
tion, and to be cherished, as simple songs are that are wedded to
sweet airs, or as homely flowers that are prized for their fragrance
only. A humble thatched cot of the meanest kind stands w^iere
stood the house in which he received his children. The glacis of the
estate remains with two or three cocoa nut trees in the garden, the
only ones in this part of the country. The lemon hedges intermingled
with dwarf fan palms line the roads in spots, and the stone belfry
exists, white and solitary, amid the waste. The bell still hangs there,
an epitome of his once history. The iron tongue that regulated the
time of labour and assigned each man his appointed duty, the voice^
that sounded the alarum, the tocsin at which the people mustered,
is heard no more among the hills and rocks. Its occupation is gone, .
and the magical influence which could bring the bustling moun-
tmneers to their useful toil, or marshal them for the contest, under the

246 Lord Goderich on the case of Mr. Bridges and his Slave.

dread of renewed servitude and uncompensated labour, exists a me-
morial of what once stood there in splendour and usefulness.

" 31st. — I descended the plains on the last day of the year, being-
anxious to witness the fete of independence in the town of Gonaives,
and to be present at the festivities at General Beauvoir's, which were
to celebrate the departure of the old year, and the coming of the
new."

Here we suspend our Extracts for the present, referring- for our re-
marks, upon the general tenor of our traveller's communications, to the
last number (No. 78, p. 213 — 216). We think it right, however, once
for all, to apologize, to our readers, for what they may deem the some-
what florid descriptions with which his interesting narrative is inter-
mingled ; — as we were anxious to avoid even verbal alterations wliicli
might affect its genuineness and identity.

II. — ^The Rev. G. W. Bridges and his Slave, Kitty Hylton.

The official statement of the cruelties perpetrated, by Mr. Bridges,
on the person of this wretched female was laid, a few days ago, on the
table of the House of Commons. It is numbered 231 of the present
session.

On comparing this official statement of facts with the minutes of
evidence on the subject contained in our number 76, p. 140, we find
so exact an agreement, that we need not repeat the horrid details.
We are happy, however, now to be able to add the humane and
enlightened judgment of Vicount Goderich on the whole of this in-
famous transaction, as it is contained in his despatch to Earl Belmore
of the 18th February, 1831.

"I have received your Lordship's despatch of the 1st of December, 1830,
enclosing a copy of the proceedings before the Council of Protection, in the
complaints of Kitty Hylton against the Rev. Mr. Bridges.

" Your Lordship was instructed to obtain this information, in my predeces-
sor's despatch of the 23d October, 1829, and the instruction was repeated on the
15th August 1830.

" Obviously desirable as it was that this department should be in full and early
possession of all the documents bearing upon this case, I cannot but express my
regret that your Lordship should have allowed more than twelve months to in-
tervene before you transmitted the copy of the proceedings before the Council
of Protection,

" I have perused this record with feelings of the deepest concern. For a
trifling mistake in the execution of her master's orders, this female slave appears
to have been first violently struck and kicked by her master, and then, by his
directions, flogged with such severity as to have excited the commiseration of
every person who bore witness to her appearance after the' punishment.

"Thomas llaffington, Esq. was sworn ; and deposed, — That Kitty Hylton
came to witness 'on Saturday morning the 4th, a. m. A servant came in, and
told witness a sick woman wanted to see him ; saw her and her situation ; never
saw a female in such a situation : had seen the woman before, but did not know
her name. Witness did not examine her particularly, but she was terribly
lacerated, and never saw a woman so ill treated.'

" Dr, Stennett, who was sworn, states, — That the woman liad two black eyes

Lord Goderich on the case of Mr. Bridges and his Slave. 247

when sent to the workhouse, and that he examined her and saw severe marks of
punishment; but he says, if she had had 'thirty-nine, she would not have been
healed so soon.'

" Mr. F. Harker, sworn ; states, — That he saw the woman in the morning of
Wednesday : ' had heard a report of a woman being severely flogged ; examined
her; her eyes were black as if she had received a severe blow; her posteriors
were very much cut up ; on the inner part of her thigh on each there were
several black marks.'

"The Hon. Henry Cox, sworn; states, — That Kitty Ilylton came to him to
complain against her master, Mr. Bridges. ' She was very much injured ; saw
her bruises, evidently switching, from the nape of the neck to her posteriors ;
her face and thighs dreadfully bruised : has never seen any thing so severe of the
kind.'

" It is further stated, and is corroborated by the evidence of Miss Moreland,
that Mr. Bridges struck or kicked the slave after she had been flogged, as well
as before, and that he caused her to burn the clothes which had been stained with
her blood. The only part of this evidence which is in any decree impugned, is
that of Dr. Stennett and Mr. Harker, to the fact of her having ' black eyes ; '
and all that appears to the contrary is the evidence of ' Colin,' apparently a ser-
vant, or at all events an inmate in Mr. Bridges' house, who says that he did not
perceive marks of violence upon her face.

" When Mr. Bridges was called upon for his defence, all that appears upon the
record is, that he ' admitted that he had ordered the woman to be switched for
her insolence, but denies that he went down from his house ; on the contrary, he
had sent her down to be switched by the watchman.'

"The result of these proceedings was, that 'on its being put to the vote
whether Mr. Bridges should be prosecuted or not, it was carried by a majority
of 13 to 4 against the Prosecution.' And when a Bill of Indictment was never-
theless preferred against Mr. Bridges, by the Attorney-General, under the direc-
tions of the Secretary of State, it was thrown out by the Grand Jury.

" It would be with extreme reluctance that I could be induced to doubt that
the gentlemen who composed the Grand Juiy upon this occasion, performed
their duty conscientiously, according to the terms of the oath which they had
taken ; but I have the opinion of I he Attorney-General for Jamaica before me,
who reported, that having maturely considered the Evidence which had been
offered to the magistrates and vestry, he could feel no hesitation in declaring that
the Grand Jury have committed an error of judgment, which, for every con-
sideration of what is due to the ends of public justice, to their own good repute,
and to the credit of the Colonial Society, is deeply to be deplored.

" Were I to assume the judgment of the Grand Jury to be correct, it would
follow that the Laws of Jamaica afford to the Slave no protection from such
sufferings as those which are shown, by evidence upon oath, to have been under-
gone by the Slave Kitty Hylton.

" With respect to the offender, in this case, your Lordship will readily con-
ceive how much the regret, which I should feel at such conduct on the part of
any person filling a respectable station in society, is aggravated by the circum-
stance of that person being a Minister of the Gospel.

" Unmanly and disgraceful as the conduct of Mr. Bridges would have been,
even had it proceeded no further than the blows inflicted by his own hand, I
should have been willing to seek some apology for it in a momentary ebullition
of anger, however apparently unprovoked, and however unbecoming the sacred
character of his profession. But, for the repeated and persevering cruelty of his
subsequent conduct, I can find no extenuation ; and I can only lament that the
ends of justice have been defeated, and that the crime of Mr. Bridges must be
left unpunished.

" If Mr. Bridges be a Magistrate, your Lordship will lose no time, if it be
not already done, ui erasing his name from the Commission of the Peace."

248 Case of Mr. Bridges and his Slave — Anti-Slavery PeiitioTts.

But even this despatch, creditable as it is to its author, exhibits but
a small part of that illustration which the case affords of the deplor-
able state of law and manners in Jamaica. It is not merely the
perfect impunity of the culprit for " the unmanly and disgraceful"
outrage, as it is well designated by Lord Goderich, of which he had
been guilty, that merits attention ; but his exaltation, by the white
community of that Island, to the rank of a hero and a martyr in the
sacred cause of Colonial slavery. In a former case, that of Lecesne
and EscofFeryj the Governor of the Island, a British nobleman of
the highest rank, was made the instrument in the hands of his own
secretary and the King's then Attorney General, aided by members
both of the Council and of the Assembly, to persecute and cruelly to
crush, without even the form of a trial, those innocent and meritorious
individuals, arid by every expedient of delusion and falsehood to frustrate
their application for redress to the Government and Parliament of
Great Britain. In spite^, however, of all this combined effort by which
they unhappily succeeded in blinding not only the Duke of Manches-
ter and the Commissioners of legal inquiry, but, for a tim6, even the
British Government itself, the injured and outraged sufferers have
at length, through the force of truth, obtained the justification and
the indemnity to which they were fully entitled.

In the case of the Rev. Mr. Bridges, there appears, from these papers,
to have been the Same unhallowed combination of the Governor mis-
led by his secretary, of the Jamaica press, of many of the magistrates,
of the grand jury, and of the community at large, to protect him
from the demands of justice, and to defeat every effort of His Ma-
jesty's Secretary of State, and of the present Attorney General of
Jamaica, to bring him to trial.

And yet it is to men, capable of such conduct, that we are ex-
pected to continue to intrust uncontrolled and uncontrolable power
over the legal rights, the moral and religiovis improvement, the social
and domestic condition, the lives and limbs, the bodies and souls,
and in short, the destinies and entire well being of upwards of 320,000
of our fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects ! It is impossible that
such a proposition can now be entertained by a British Parliament
for a moment. The veil has been torn away,^ and at length light has
shone into this den of darkness and of crime. The British Parlia-
ment can no longer hesitate to interfere, and to pronounce, in a voice
that must be heard, that these abominations shall cease.

III. — Anti-Slavery Petitions.
Mr. Buxton's motion on Colonial Slavery, has been unavoidably
deferred to the 15th instant. To this day, (March 31) the number of
Anti-Slavery Petitions presented in this Session, to the House of Com-
mons, amounts to 5,329.

S. Bagster, Jun. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

ANTI. SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 80.] MAY 9, 183L [Vol. iv. No. 8.

I.— PROCEEDINGS OF A GENERAL MEETING OF THE ANTI-
SLAVERY SOCIETY AND ITS FRIENDS, HELD AT EXETER-
HALL, ON SATURDAY, THE 23rd OF APRIL, 1831, THE RIGHT
HON. LORD SUFFIELD IN THE CHAIR,— CONTAINING THE
SUBSTANCE OF THE SPEECHES DELIVERED, AND THE
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED ON THAT OCCASION.

II.— ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRE-
LAND, ADOPTED AT THE SAME GENERAL MEETING.

I. — Proceedings of a General Meeting of the Anti-Slavery
Society and its Friends, held at Exeter-Hall, on Satur-
day THE 23rd OF April, 1831.

This was the most numerous meeting of the friends of the Anti-
Slavery cause probably ever yet assembled in England under one
roof. The new and spacious Hall -where it met, and which is capable
of containing nearly three thousand persons, was filled to overflowing,
long before the proceedings commenced ; and multitudes went away
without being able to obtain admittance. Among those present, we
observed the following noblemen and gentlemen, viz : — Lords Suffield
and Calthorpe, the Hon. and Rev. G. Noel, Sir James Mackintosh,
Dr. Lushington, Messrs. T. F. Buxton, William Smith, W. Whitmore,
D. Sykes, Daniel O'Connell, Shiel, Briscoe, Weyland, Allen, Pownall,
G. Stephen, Rev. Messrs. D. Wilson, J. W^. Cunningham, Richard
Watson, John Burnett, and many other persons of high respectability.

Lord Suffield, having been called to take the chair, in the unavoid-
able absence of JHis Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, opened
the proceedings.

He assured the meeting that it was with unfeigned diffidence he took
the post of honour, to which, by its kindness, he had been advanced.
He came not there expecting to take any precedence on account of his
rank — or believing that he had any peculiar qualification for that station
on account of anything he could offer in support of the object of the
meeting. He came there without pretension to any other qualification
than the zeal which he possessed for the extinction of slavery. On this,
however, he would assert his right firmly and stoutly, for he yielded
to no man — not even to his Hon. Friend (Mr. Buxton)— in cordial, deep-
rooted, and, he hoped, persevering detestation of that most wretched and
degrading system. It was not his province, as Chairman, to enter at any

2 I

250 General Meeting — Lord Suffield.

length into the subject ; but he felt it his duty to say a few words as to
the constitution and objects of this Society. Although in the abolition
of the Slave Trade, the entire extinction of slavery itself was never lost
sight of, fifteen years were suffered to elapse before this Society was in-
stituted. And why was it instituted ? And how did it originate ? The
high station, the rank, the wealth, the Parliamentary influence of the
West India planters were so great and powerful, that it became ne-
cessary to have some active and well-organized Association to com-
pete with them. He meant no disrespect to the press, to the freedom
of which he was a sincere friend, when he said that it was but too ready
to act, as we are all too prone to act and to speak — for money : and
by writers in the pay of the West Indian Colonists it had been frequently
made the organ of attacks upon the character of those who wished to put
an end to the abominable system of slavery. To meet this influence,
as well as to promulgate well-authenticated facts which were necessary
to be known, and to produce those arguments which should prove that
the friends of abolition were not engaged in an idle speculation, the
formation of such a Society as this became necessary. Such facts and
arguments this Society had furnished ; and he felt convinced that the
public only required to have these brought fully before them in order
to ensure the final triumph of this great cause. He was not one of the
founders of the Society, but he was very early induced to join it, from
his attachment to freedom as an Englishman, and from his sense of
humanity as a man and a Christian : but if he were not a lover of free-
dom, even if he did not believe in Christianity, he should still believe him-
self bound to support this Society from a natural sense of justice and a
deep abhorrence of the hideous effects of slavery. In what did the evils
of slavery consist ? Was it in the personal suffering of the slave — in the
abridgment of human comfort and of human life, and the sad degrada-
tion of human nature, which were incidental to his condition ? Was it
in the separation of the parent from the child, the husband from the
wife, the severing of all social ties — for all these he charged upon the
advocates of slavery ? But he charged more. These poor creatures had
souls like ourselves; and he must say, without presuming to measure
the extent of Divine mercy in another world, that owing to the deplor-
able neglect of moral and religious instruction to the negroes we ex-
pose them to guilt and crime, for which we may be made responsible ;
and he feared that for such crimes the vengeance of Heaven might fall
upon those through whose neglect they had been committed. The
Noble Lord then proceeded to contend, that such power as owners held
over slaves, was in its very nature liable to gross abuse, and could not
be safely trusted to any class of men. He did not mean to say that
there were not men of good and kind feelings among the owners of
slaves. But he maintained, that as a class, the slave-owners are blinded
by their residence in the West Indies ; that they cannot judge of the
effects of the system as others do ; but are led by early habits and as-
sociations to look upon the slaves as so many animals, and not as
being possessed of the same common nature with themselves: and
such, even upon men of the best natural dispositions, were the in-
evitable effects of the slave system. He would not advert, in detail,
to the cruelties which are exercised upon the slaves. That such
atrocities do exist, we had the testimony of undoubted facts. But he
would advert to the one fact of the reversal of the law of nature in the
West Indies. That law is, increase and multiply : but in the sugar
islands there is a diminution of the population to an enormous extent.
This argument was recently brought forward by Mr. Buxton, in Parlia-
ment, and it is unanswerable. Under the very same heaven, and tread-

General Meeting — Mr. Buxton. 251

ng on the very same soil, those who are held in slavery, diminish —
those who are tree, increase. This was proved from the population re-
turns. There was one circumstance worthy of special notice, in regard
to the cruelties practised in the West Indies. It has been said, " Don't
tell us of the cruelties practised in the Colonies ; go and look at the
records of the Old Bailey, and see what cruelties are committed in Eng-
land ; look at the conduct of masters towards their apprentices, for in-
stance." But there was a remarkable difference in the two cases. In
the West Indies, if a man be convicted of the murder of a slave, (which
is no ordinary or easy matter), he maybe fined a sum of money and be
imprisoned for three months ; but then petitions will be sent to this
country to have his sentence mitigated, and when this is not allowed,
and his punishment actually takes place, his case is deeply deplored,
and at the expiration of the period of his confinement, his friends pre-
pare for him a grand fete, and unite in congratulating him on the ter-
mination of his hard punishment ! Now what is the case in this country
when a tyrannical master inflicts cruelties and death on his servant or
apprentice ? He is dragged to Bow- street ; and such is the rage of the
populace against him that the police are called in to protect him ; if he
IS convicted, he is hanged for his crime, while hundreds and thousands
assemble to pour their execrations upon him. Did not this contrast speak
volumes as to the state of feeling in the Slave Colonies ? And should it
not determine us to act with vigour ? "It has been said," added his
Lordship, " that we indulge in these enthusiastic views without any re-
gard to the property of others. I would not designedly injure any man
— but I say, let them prove their damage, and I will be among the first
to repair it. The British public will unite with pleasure to repair any
real damage which may be done by the abolition of this execrable sys-
tem. But the planters shift their ground wonderfully : at one time they
will not hear of compensation at all : at other times they speak of a
sum almost like our National Debt. And then, they wish the compen-
sation to come first. But I say let them do justice first, and then I,
for one, will go to the utmost extent of my power to make up for their
damage." His Lordship sat down amid much applause.

Mr. Buxton observed, that he had to propose a very short, but very
pithy Resolution. It was this — " That the object of this Meeting is the
entire extinction of negro slavery." (Cheers.) He could not address
the Meeting on this occasion without feelings of peculiar satisfaction — a
satisfaction arising chiefly from the contrast of the situation of the friends
of abolition at present with what it had been ten years since. About
ten years ago he attended a meeting — not an assembly like the present
— ^but a meeting composed of a few individuals, who, though of high
character, were not distinguished by rank or influence ; whose forlorn
purpose was to consider whether it was possible to do any thing for the
cause of the negro. Now, however, what was their situation ? That
immense theatre in which they were assembled was not suflicient to
contain the large concourse of respectable individuals who were anxious
to be present at their deliberations, and who were all, he firmly believed,
disposed to assist in promoting the abolition of slavery. But the friends
of that good cause were not limited to that great assembly. He held
in his hand a letter from a prince of the blood royal of England, the
Duke of Gloucester, lamenting that indisposition, and that only,
should deprive him of the happiness and the honour of assisting on
this occasion. (Cheers.) He had also a letter from the Lord High
Chancellor of England (immense cheering), who in his present elevated
situation expressed the same hatred of oppression and detestation of
slavery which distinguished him when he was only the most eloquent

252 General Meeting — Mr. Buxton.

and most powerful commoner in England. He had also a letter from
tlieir excellent friend William Wilberforce, the exertions of whose early
life were crowned with one of the greatest victories that were ever
achieved in the cause of humanity, and who now panted that in the
autumn of his years he might have the happiness of seeing the com-
pletion of a work so nobly commenced. (Great cheers.) But were
these the only grounds of satisfaction which he had on this occasion ?
Were the public at large indifferent to this great work ? Had they not
a proof in the 5,000 petitions already deposited in the archives of Par-
liament, unequivocally declaring that the voice of the people was in
favour of this great cause, and that that ^reat voice would be heard ? *
(Hear, hear.) But what had been heard from the Ministers of the
Crown, within the walls of Parliament? He had thought it his duty to
oppose their wishes as to the bringing on of this question; for he was re-
solved that it should be discussed before a dissolution could take place.
They differed from him as to the time and mode of bringing forward
that discussion ; yet what had been the sentiments expressed by them
on that occasion ? Was it a tame and dastardly intimation, that,
perhaps, at some very distant time, and by some means exceedingly
gradual indeed, it might be expedient to consider whether it might not
be as well, to introduce something like justice into our dealings
with the Negro? — to mix at least a little temperate portion of humanity
in our dealings ? No ; it was a bold and manly avowal on their part,
that the Negroes are men, and that they shall no longer be treated as
brutes — (applause ;) that those whom some, most irrationally and most
presumptuously, have dared to call their chattels, are God's rational
creatures, and entitled, as well as the loftiest amongst us, to a full and
unqualified participation in every natural right and every moral pri-
vilege. (Cheers.) That is the point in which they ought to be looked
at and treated, most assuredly, and there is no distinction but that of
colour. (Cheers.) In point of natural right and of moral privilege,
the lowest Negro is equal to the Noble Lord who now sits in tne chair,
(Cheers.) From the lips of persons closely connected with Govern-
ment, he had heard within these few days, language, sentiments, and
doctrines, which he might actually have mistaken for his own, had they
not been infinitely more eloquently expressed. (Hear, hear.) Now he
might differ with Government as to one point — as to the mode of opera-
tion, as to the best means of attaining a common object. They might
think that the first step ought to be to lighten the chains that bind the
Negro slave — whereas he thought that the first step should be to burst the
chains asunder. (Great cheering.) They might think, and m.ight adduce
very plausible reasons to support their opinion, that we ought in the first
place to mitigate the rigour of slavery, and alleviate the condition of the
Negro — ^while he thought (and it was rather reluctantly that he had
been obliged to come to that decision) that the first thing to be done is
to resort to the eternal principles of justice. (Great cheering.) But if
perhaps they might differ as to the means of attaining the ultimate ob-

* The number of petitions for the Abolition of Slavery, presented to the
House of Commons from the commencement of the Session in October, 1830,
to the Dissolution of Parliament on the 23d of April, 1831, wa» Jive thousand
four hundred uiid eighty four ; — a number far larger, it is believed, than has ever
before been presented in one Session on any other subject of public interests
An alphabetical list of this immense body of petitions, has been carefully ab-
stracted from the Votes of Parliament, and arranged in Counties, with a view to,
publication.

General Meeting— Mr. Buxton. 253

ject, they difFered not at all (and this filled him with unspeakable
satisfaction) as to the object of their common aim — the utter extinction of
slavery, 'the emancipation of every slave throughout the British dominions.
To that they vpere pledged as deeply and decidedly as we ourselves—
and most heartily did he thank them for it. (Great cheering.)

But whatever satisfaction we might derive from the voice of the
people— and he felt the greatest satisfaction in the fact that that voice
had been raised so unequivocally in our cause ;— however grateful we
might be for the declarations of Ministers, who have spoken honestly
on this question ;— and however animated we might feel by the concur-
rence of the great and good in endeavouring to promote our glorious
object; yet all these were feeble and trivial encouragements, compared
with that which we had when we began, and which, he doubted not,
would attend us till we closed our operations— the settled conviction,
namely, that this cause is in unison with the principles of eternal jus-
tice, and with the tenets of the Christian religion ; and that, therefore,
the work will prevail, will prosper, in spite of all adversaries and all ob-
stacles, because (he repeated it humbly but confidently) it is the work
of God himself. (Great applause. )

His noble friend in the chair, had adverted to the debate on the sub-
ject of slavery which recently took place in Parliament. It would be
deception on his part if he did not confess that he looked back to that
debate with feelings of great satisfaction, and of gratitude to some of
those who took part in it. Not to all— nor to some even who took a very
prominent part in that discussion— not for example to his worthy and
learned friend Dr. Lushington— nor to the Attorney-General— did he
presume to tender his gratitude. It was not his cause more than
It was their own cause. He merely did them the justice to suppose
that they would stick to their principles ; and if they had, on that oc-
casion, most ably and eloquently supported him, it was only what he
had confidently expected from them. He knew that no alteration of
circumstances could possibly induce them to abandon those principles.
It was true that amongst the numerous arguments which were urged
for the purpose of persuading him that it was expedient, just at the eve
of a Dissolution of Parliament, to abandon his motion, one Avas to
this effect — " Your old friends are now some of them in office— and
office works a wonderful transformation in human character. When
' in place' men see things in an altered light, looking down, as it were,
from a higher eminence. A mere lawyer, for instance, may hate
slavery as much as he pleases ; but an Attorney-General — and above
all a Lord High Chancellor— whatever might have been their former
prepossessions, must necessarily speak v/ith a becoming courtesy and
reverence of so ancient, so veneralDle, so lawful, and so laudable a sys-
tem as that of slavery!" (Hear, hear.) He however knew the men
better. The circumstance reminded him of a captain of a British ship
of war, who was told that there M^as a disposition to mutiny amongst
his crew, and that he had better not bring his ship into action, as his
men would not fight. "Notfight!" said he, "I shall soon try that." And
he immediately gave directions that the ship should be brought right
into the line of battle. Then addressing himself to the crew, he said,
" Now, my lads, I have been told that I ought not to bring you into ac-
tion, for that you will not fight; but I shall instantly lay you along-
side of one of the enemy's ships, and then let me see if you can be pre-
vented from fighting." (Cheers and laughter.) He (Mr. Buxton) had ac-
ted on the same principle. He had brought his excellent friends alongside
of the enemy, and tight they did, and most nobly too, — and no thanks to
them, for they could not help it. (Hear, hear.) But though he wo\ild not

254 General Meeting — Mr. Buxton.

express any gratitude to his Hon. and Learned Friends, he must offer
his thanks to one who took part in that debate— he meant the Noble
Lord Howick, His speech showed that he had not been idle since he
came into office. His speech was also one of eloquence, and showed very
commendable industry. But though entitled to praise on these accounts,
he gave the Noble Lord far greater credit for this, that though the
son of the Premier — himself too holding office — he threw off, with
noble manliness, all official reserve, and spoke of slavery as a man and
an Englishman ought to speak of a system so inhuman and detestable.
(Cheers.) In what he (Mr. Buxton) had stated in the House on this
subject, he had studiously avoided any appeals to the passions or feel-
ings by any detail of the recent atrocious cases of cruelty to negro
slaves — some of which had been brought to light here only a few hours
before that discussion ; but he owned that he felt it a hard task to abstain
from mentioning some of them : for instance, that of the Rev. Mr.
Bridges, who had cruelly flogged his female servant for the offence of
over-roasting, or under-roasting, (he did not precisely recollect which,)
a turkey which he had for kis Sunday's dinner. Yet so little was thought
of the circumstances of that cruel case, by the local authorities, that, as
he learned by letters received within these two days from Jamaica, this
very gentleman had been, ever since, a frequent guest at the table of
the Governor. Another case which he might have brought forward was
that of the worshipful Mr. Betty, a magistrate, who had flogged a slave
to the very verge of the grave — till the back of the unfortunate man was
one rnass of corruption — and for what ? for presuming to worship his
God in that way which his conscience dictated. There was also the
notorious and rnost revolting case of the Mosses. He owned he had
great difficulty in restraining himself from the mention of these and
similar topics during the discussion in the House. He had, however,
thought it a duty which he owed to the cause, to abstain from such
details, and to confine himself to a dry, dull, stupid statement — as dull
as a parish register, and stupid as a mathematical problem. The only
one merit it had was that it was, in point of fact, a parish register, sworn
to by the West Indians themselves, and proving to mathematical de-
monstration, from official returns of the mortality that existed amongst
the slaves, that this ancient, this venerable, this patriarchal system of
slavery, had caused the destruction — the murder, he might say — of
45,000 human beings in our colonies, in the brief space of ten years!
He had shewn that this system was actually at this moment in operation —
that this deadly and devouring mortality was in hourly operation, com-
pared with which the worst scourges of human nature, — the havoc of
war, the visitations of pestilence and famine, as operating upon the life
of man, were feeble and transient evils. It was a dull and dry state-
ment perhaps ; but it was a convincing one ; and he had not yet heard
any thing in the shape of argument in reply to it. (Cheers.)

In the House of Commons, one might meet with many gentlemen
who would tell us that slavery is the best possible condition for the
Negro, and that that condition is a very happy one. Why, what said
a Gallant Admiral, who was once examined on the subject, and who
stated that he h^td witnessed much of the practice of colonial slavery?
" The condition of a slave," said he, " is so happy, that it is to be envied.
I wish that I myself were a slave." (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) But as
for the advantages and blessings of slavery, of which he had heard so
often, he (Mr. Buxton) was never able to discover them. He had never, to
be sure, been in the West Indies ; but he would just ask one question
of those who eulogized and defended this humane, and commodious,
and comfortable system — how does it happen that it should cause the

General Meeting-^Mr. Buxton. 255

destruction, in ten years, of 45,000 of our fellow creatures ? You
allege that the Negroes are a happy people — happier t'.ian the British
peasantry. We don't contradict you ; we only ask how happens it that
this superlatively happy people, and who enjoy so rnany comforts, do
not increase ? or rather why "do they decrease, while the free black
population is increasing rapidly ? This is the question — and he de-
clared that slavery, with all its merits, must answer for this ; or rather
that we — that the British people, must answer — to our own con-
sciences, and to the God of heaven, for the sanction which we give to
such an enormity. (Hear, hear.) This was the dull — the stupid argu-
ment he had used. He had abstained from bringing forward any par-
ticular cases of cruelty, not that he did not think it right to bring them
forward — but because he thought it might be more convincing to the
judgment of reasonable men to be furnished with a statement of deaths
to the amount of 45,000, within the last ten years, occasioned by the
cruelties of a system of degradation and misery, than by dwelling
upon any particular isolated mstance, however great its enorniity rnight
be. He thought it was in some respects to be lamented, that individual
acts of cruelty should excite more attention, and elicit more sympathy
from the British public, than all the combined evidence of the popula-
tion returns. That case of the Mosses, for instance, had excited, as
undoubtedly it was well calculated to do, a very intense feeling in this
country. In the inimitable despatch of Mr. Huskisson, the whole
picture in all its affecting details, had been brought before us. In the
first line was the mention of " the seventeen nights," the last seventeen
of her existence, which this poor tortured female slave passed in the
stocks ; then the bringing in of her own father to flog her, for even this
refinement of cruelty was not wanting, making the hands of the parent
the instruments of the torture of his agonized child ; then the state-
ment of the amiable mistress, who put red pepper into the eyes of the
wretched victim until she became blind ; then flogging her for being
blind ; then flogging her for pretending to be ill; and at length finding
her dead on the field a few hours after she was released. And what fol-
lowed? Not the irritation of the public, which, in such a case, in this
country, would have required, as had been well observed by his Noble
Friend, the intervention of the police to prevent the infliction of sum-
mary punishment on the offender : no such thing, — but a petition of
the whole white population of the island, praying for the mitigation of
the paltry sentence, on the ground too of the "great humanity" of the
perpetrators of this outrage on human nature; and last of all, a grand
jfete to celebrate their release on the completion of their period of im-
prisonment, as if they had been heroes in the cause of freedom, or
martyrs in the cause of religion. This no doubt was an atrocious case ;
it was almost impossible that any one ingredient of additional atrocity
could be imagined ; and the utmost indignation of which our minds
are capable, is lavished on the foul perpetrators of the cruelty. But
here comes our argument : — That individual case is, after all, but a
trifle compared with the multitude of murders which slavery occasions
as a system ; it is only one murder out of 45,000, which the system
within the last ten years has inflicted. (Hear, hear.) It was an incident
of more graphic and picturesque effect perhaps; but far less conclusive
to the sober judgment of reasonable men than those population returns
which prove the astounding fact, that not merely one, but ten mur-
ders have been perpetrated every day for the last ten years in our own
Colonies, and that this wholesale destruction of human life is still going
on at the same ratio ! Much as he deplored the occurrence of a single
mstance of cruelty and barbarity, he owned he could wish (he knew

256 General Meeting — Mr. Buxton.

not whether the meeting would eo along with him) that such acts of
violence and atrocity were more Frequently made known, in order that
the public attention might be more forcibly called to the horrors of the
system, and the public voice more loudly raised to demand its speedy
extinction. But only look again at the population returns. From these
documents it appeared that two thousand eight hundred and ninety-
two persons, a niimber nearly as great as that of the assembly he then
addressed, had perished in the small island of Tobago within ten years,
by the effects of slavery. If it were said that 2,892 human beings,
charged with no offence, were dragged into the public market, and
there put to the sword, would not the meeting consider it one of the
most appalling acts of barbarity ever perpetrated ? would we not
almost wonder that the earth had not opened to swallow up the perpe-
trators of such an outrage on humanity ? Yet, incredible as seemed the
fact, we were the very people who provided the soldiers to protect those
who caused equal destruction of human life — and who paid, out of
our own pockets, the bounties and protecting duties by which this
odious system, with all its horrible details, was encouraged. And yet
the facts were demonstrably true, that by this system, there were de-
stroyed within the time ne had mentioned — in Tobago, 2,892 ; in
Jamaica, 17,000; in Demerara, 6,000! — But it was unnecessaiy for
him to go through the melancholy detail. He would repeat the as-
tounding truth, in order that they might carry it home with them to
reflect upon, that for this we provided the means- — we paid the troops
— we paid the bounties by which the whole was encouraged.

The result of all his study and all his inquiries into the nature and
effects of slavery was, that he abhorred it more than ever. He hated
slavery from the beginning to the end. In every stage and condition it
was detestable, as founded upon the grossest injustice. See what was
the condition of the Negro slave — condemned to perpetual slavery,
without hope of release; his posterity condemned to the same dreadful
state. And for what : What had he done to deserve this ? Nothing.
His misfortune was made his crime ; his ancestors had been made the
victims of British cupidity — had become the prey of pirates, sent out to
tear them from their country and their friends — to rob them of that
which was dearer to them than life — their liberty ; and because this act
of outrage was committed on the ancestors, the whole of the posterity
were condemned to perpetual slavery ! Or, if any of them should come
to a sense of his degraded condition — should attempt to throw off his
chains, and to assert his claim to the character and dignity of man,
British soldiers were ready to put him to the sword, or British judges to
send him to the scaffold. (Cheers.) To his Reverend friends who might
address the Meeting, he would leave the task of pointing out that other
and still more dreaclful effect of slavery ; by which the slave-owner at-
tempted to shut him out from that portal which God in his mercy
opened to all the human race. Tlie comforts of religion which were
open to, and should be the solace of all, were either wholly denied to
tne slave, or he was so restricted as to religious instruction, that he de-
rived little or no benefit from it. Marriage was not legalized to him—
to him the Sabbath was not yet appointed — Yes ! it was appointed his
market-day. The labour of the week was taken by his owner ; the
Sunday, from want of other time, he was forced to devote to his own
temporal affairs, and to the cultivation of food for his own subsistence.
His owner taught him not the value of a Sabbath in any other sense ;
nay, so far from it, that instances were not wanting in which the slave
was subjected to the lash, for no other offence than that of meeting
and joining in prayer with a few of his poor abject brethren — for doing

General Meeting — Sir J Mackintosh. '2'^^

that which tended most of all to raise him above the degrading condition
to which he was reduced. He would not longer dwell upon these things.
It was impossible for him to express the feelings with which he looked
upon the whole system. The honest and sincere effect of the discovery
of these facts was, that he was more than ever resolved to exert himself
to the utmost for the early and utter extinction of slavery. Hewell reftiem^
beredthe feelings of horror and indignation with which, ni early life, he had
read the history of the extermination of the original inhabitants of South
America by the Spanial-ds. He then thought there never was a people
so atrocious and so wicked as they, and if anybody had told him that
our own countrymen were equally criminal — were participators in simi-
lar cruelties, he could not have believed it possible. Spain, before she
had loaded herself with this atrocious guilt, with this weight of innocent
blood, was a proud and a powerful nation. What had she since be-
come ? From that moment, had she not gradually continued to fall
lower and lower in the scale of nations, till she had reached the present
abyss of her debasement ? In this fate he beheld the punishment for
their atrocities by the hand of God — the vengeance of heaven for the
blood of the helpless. But he would put it to every man's conscience^
are not %ve doing the same thing ? What was the crime of the Spaniards ?
Was it not the extirpation of innocent people ? And what are we doing
in Demerara and Trmidad and our other slave colonies ? We are exter-
minating innocent people. He confessed that he looked upon the per-
mission of slavery one hour longer than is absolutely necessary, and
that necessity limited only by considerations for the Negro, as a crime,
; — a crime of the deepest die — a crime distinct and apart from all others
: — one of those crimes, in short, which, if Scripture is- to be believed,
has called down upon delinquent nations, the severest vengeance of
tieaven.

Sir James Mackintosh said, that he had so often had occasion to
state his sentiments on this, which he considered the greatest of all pub--
lic questions, that he might have contented himself with merely dis-
charging the duty of seconding the motion of his hon. friend. But he
coTild not content himself with a silent or formal discharge of his duty
on such an occasion ; he would, therefore, offer a few observations, al-
though his noble and hon. friends had left but very little to be said by
any one.

He_ had moi'e than once Congratulated the friends of this cause on the
exertions made by females to advance its success. In several parts of
England he had witnessed their zeal, and he had uniformly observed^
that in proportion as they possessed the retiring virtues of delicacy and
modesty, those chief ornaments of woman, in that proportion had they
come forward to defend tbe still higher objects of humanity and justice^
He was sure that their own hearts had already answered any objections
which might be made by a superficial observer with respect to the sup-
posed inconsistency of these various qualities. They felt, which is bet-
ter than any description he could give, that these various classes of vir-
tues flow from the same source, and flow towards the same object ; and
that thus, in all times and places, of the characteristic virtues of their sex,
the one class have served to regulate and sustain the other; while both
combine towards the great object of their destination in the order of
Providence, to humanize the world, to soften the hearts of men, and in^
spire them with that tenderness and humanity to v/hich he now appealed
on behalf of the enslaved Negroes.

It was not his intention in the least degree to depart from that spirit
of cairn and unanswerable argument which was a,dopted by his honour-
able friend on a late occasion in Parliament, and from which he had not
departed on the present occasion ; for he (Sir James) was so far front

2 K

258 General Meeting — Sir J. Mackintosh..

being opposed to the English proprietors in the West Indies, that one of
his chief objects was, to provide for the safety of the European inhabi-
tants there, to rescue them from those dangers which every impartial
eye must see suspended over their heads, to deliver them from those
calamities v/hich will be fatal to their lives and fortunes owing to the
effects of the present system on the character and morality of the slaves.
It was for the sake of every interest — of masters as well as slaves — that
he earnestly desired as speedy an emancipation as it was possible to
adopt. It was in order to prevent one portion of the human race in the
West Indies from being degraded and destroyed, and another from
being barbarised — to preserve the one from bodily, and the other
from moral evils.

His excellent friend (Mr. Buxton) had not dwelt much upon details
of cruelty, and had alluded only in general terms to recent atrocities of
which the narrative had just reached this country, and which probably
were yet unknown to the greater part of the persons who now heard
him. What he should state shortly to the meeting would relate merely
to a very few facts, and these not insulated and detached facts affecting
only the individuals who were engaged in the cruelties they involved.
They would not be at all important in that view ; for mere acts of
atrocity afi'ecting only the characters of the perpetrators, might be found
in any other community. But they were such as to be most intimately
connected with the general character and temper which slavery never
fails to create. They were the most horrible proofs, not of the guilt of
this or that individual, but of the moral effect of slavery, — of the exercise
of despotic power in corrupting and depraving the mind of the owner,
and thus ensuring the misery, degradation, and oppression of the
slave. Slavery first produced horrid passions in the mind of the mas-
ter in order by these to inflict the greatest cruelties on the slave. Its
road, indeed, leads to physical misery, but it is through moral guilt
and atrocity and barbarity of the worst kind, that it travels thither.
(Great applause.) Mr. Buxton had adverted to the dreadful story of
the Rev. Mr. Bridges, a clergyman in Jamaica, who, because his female
slave had roasted a turkey on the wrong day (for that was the specific
offence) had first called her into v/hat is called his library — where, however
he did not seem to have learned many of those lessons which ought to
be the chief object of visits to such a place — and there rebuked her with
stern severity for this enormous offence. She knew his character, and
offered to buy another turkey. He rejected that offer with indignation ;
and proceeded to beat and kick her. A minister of the Gospel to beat
and kick a defenceless v/oman ! — humanity shudders and religion
blushes at the thought. He then ordered her to be severely flogged :
and it appeared that he had another ornament for his house, a gover-
ness for his children, who in order to justify the outrage, and aggravate
the punishment of this wretched slave, observed, that, "she did cook
the dinner yesterday most abominably." Now if this were all it would
only be the atrocity of Mr. Bridges ; and our feeling would merely be
that of horror in prefixing the word Reverend to the name of the man
who could be guilty of sucb an offence ; but unfortunately this is the
smallest part of the story. In the island of Jamaica it had appeared
requisite that certain oflScers should be appointed to protect the slaves
from oppression by their masters. The Assembly of Jamaica declined
to adopt that recommendation ; but they said they would adopt another
institution which would answer the purpose better than that suggested
by the Home Government ; and they formed what they called "Coun-
cils of Protection" in the different districts of the island. Mr. Bridges
was brought before one of these " Councils of Protection," consisting of

General Meeting — Sir J. Mackintosh. 259

17 persons chosen and selected for the professed purpose of protecting
the negroes from-oppression. These persons held a kind of council of
inquiry to decide upon his case ; and examined witnesses, whose testi-
mony was now in onr possession, and which leaves no more doubt of
the aggravated brutality and atrocity of the conduct of Bridges than
could be entertained with respect to the truth of a proposition in geometry.
The result, however, was, that thirteen voted for his acquittal out of the
seventeen, and four only for his conviction. This was the issue of the
pretended Council of Protection — ironically so named. Now there
might be persons who would say, " But you are prejudiced : perhaps these
thirteen were right;; — ^you ought to presume they were, and that your
own predilections have induced you to condemn conduct which was in
reality praiseworthy." But let us proceed a little farther. A statement
of the facts was transmitted to England, and the Governor of Jamaica
received instructions from His Majesty's Government to make inquiry
into the case. The Governor endeavoured to evade the subject, and
he succeeded for a certain time ; but at length he was obliged to refer the
case to the Attorney General of the Colony, Mr. James ; and that officer
gave a most excellent opinion, condemning the Council of Inquiry,
and advising a prosecution immediately to be commenced against
Bridges. It was not, therefore, his (Sir James's) opinion — or the opin-
ion of the Anti-Slavery Society— or of any enthusiastic abolitionist, as
to the guilt of Bridges, and of the still greater guilt of those pretended
" protectors" who acquitted him, that was to be received ; but it was the
opinion of the Chief Law Officer of Jamaica, who though living solely
in the society of West India Planters, listened to his sense of duty and
justice, and in defiance of their violent prejudices pronounced a me-
rited condemnation of this atrocious case. He referred the meeting
to the excellent letter of Lord Goderich and to the papers printed by
order of the late House of Commons, on this case, and which he hoped
would soon be reprinted in such a manner, as that every person who
chose might read and examine them, with the most searching, prying,
suspicious scrutiny. For here he would warn those gentlemen who are
accustomed to repeat from year to year hackneyed phrases respecting
the "exaggerated statements" of the friends of Negro Emancipation,
that this was not a document got up nor published by the Anti-Slavery
Society, nor issued by any of the meritorious persons connected with
that Association, the best proof of whose merits are the calumnies with
which they have been loaded by the friends of slavery. But it is an
official and parliamentary document, containing the papers which were
at last extorted from the Governor of Jamaica by his Majesty's Go-
vernment, and laid upon the table of the late House of Commons, by
whose order it was printed. (Hear, hear.) It would be •\^e]l for any
man in future who denied the natural effect of slavery in corrupting
and depraving the mind of man to read the whole of these papers,
where he would learn that the whole of a great community, from the
highest to the lowest, were so tainted by the baneful influence of the
system in which they are unhappily involved, that they saw in this
case nothing but blame of the prosecution and joy at the acquittal,
(Hear, hear!) It was in the highest degree to be regretted that any
British Governor should have advised the Government at home against
instituting further inquiries into the case, under the pretence, forsooth,
that Bridges was " an indiscreet man, and that it would give a triumph
to the sectarians of his district." What must be the feelings and prm-
ciples of those who look at the case with such views ! When he (Sir
James,) found Bridges thus described, it recalled to him a humorous
passage in which Mr. Addison describes with his usual success a friend

260 General Meeting — Sir J. Maekintosh.

of his who used to observe great moderation and caution in his
language, in so much that he sometimes carried it to the bounds of
absurdity ; and who, having passed some time of the morning in read-
ing Suetonius, with inimitable gravity and composure, said to him in
the evening, that " it must be admitted that Nero was a wag." (Cheers
and laughter.) In the same manner the Governor of Jamaica with the
most inimitable candour and justice towards this rev. gentleman, was
pleased to say, that " it must be admitted that he was somewhat in-
Ssereet r' But the view taken by Lord Goderich was rather different.
With the feelings of an Englishman his Lordship called his conduct
"unmanly and brutal," and directed that "if Mr. Bridges were a ma-
gistrate he should be immediately struck off the commission." (Loud
cheers.)

To another case he would call the attention of the audience, not with
the paltry view of reflecting on individuals, but with the view of exhi-
biting the practical effects of slavery, in the temper and character of
English communities in various parts of the king's dominions, and of
the absolute necessity, were it only for this degrading and pernicious
effect, to abolish a system which creates such diabolical vices. In the
year 1829, Lord Combermere had a plantation in the island of Nevis,
called the Stapleton Estate. When he was governor of Barbadoes",
with all the aid and information that position enabled him to collect,
he had chosen an overseer, named Walley, and servants of various
descriptions, for the management of his plantation, and who had been
so very strongly recommended to him, that he thought he might, with

fierfect satisfaction to his feelings and conscience, return from the West
ndies, leaving, as he imagined, the Negroes of his estate in Nevis,
an example of what could be accomplished by a benevolent master — to
shew how happy even slaves might be rendered by good treatment.
The experiment proved the utmost that such a master could effect, and
how little that amounted to. After all the particular care his lordship
had taken to place suitable persons in charge of the property, what was
the result ? He would not speak of the general effects of mortality ;
but on the Stapleton Estate, which contained 240 slaves at the time that
Lord Combermere unsuspectingly delivered it over to Walley, in two
years and a half forty-four slaves had died. (Hear, hear.) Allowance
being made for the births, the consequence was, according to the most
rigid calculation, that if Walley had continued to administer that
estate for ten years, he would have reduced the number from 240 slaves
to 28. He did not think it worth while to pursue the calculation fur-
ther, but this point of it he must confess struck him with horror. (Hear,
hear.) There was something in human nature which makes particular
cases to take hold more deeply of the feelings than any general state-
ments. In the former there was an approach to individuality, while in
the latter there was something too undefined to strike and permanently
to impress the mind. When there were only small numbers, they are more
easily comprehended, recollected, and reproduced to the imagination,
than in the case of the destruction of great multitudes of men. In the
latter case, we feel as if we perused the page of fictitious narrative,
while the former has, from its very construction, the individual features
of simplicity or truth inscribed upon it. What we can hardly distinctly
conceive or imagine, it is difficult for us to sympathise with. (Hear,
hear.) Here we had the whole system of the West Indies concentrated
within the narrow limits of a private estate. We saw that in two years
and a half nearly one-fifth part of the negroes were destroyed ; and we
saw also under what apparent advantages this vast proportion perished.
Could there, then, he asked, be a more melancholy proof of the

General Meeting — Sir J. Mackintosh. 261

incurable evils of the state of slavery than this, that a person so well

Sualified, so much disposed, to place his Negroes in the happiest con-
ition that their circumstances would admit of, should thus be so
cruelly disappointed ? — that his plantation in Nevis, instead of being,
what he fondly dreamt k. would be, a sort of imaginary paradise, had
become an example which would be cited with abhorrence to the latest
generations of mankind, to prove how little can be effected, in the
case of institutions so detestable as slavery, by the kindness and hu-
mane anxiety and consideration of any individual — and how little,
above all, the respectable part of the West Indians in this country are
aware of the manner in which their authority is opposed, discredit
brought upon their character, and their best intentions defeated, by;
those whom they had selected even with the utmost care to carry them
into effect. (Hear, hear.)

He came now to another stage in those proceedings. The Attorney
General here again did his duty. He presented bills against Walley
for murder and for manslaughter, supported by ample and indisputable
evidence. But Walley escaped from both, either owing to the indis-
position of the inhabitants of that Island to do justice, or to the inade-
quacy of those laws which they had passed, relative to the admissi-
bility of the evidence of slaves. He was acquitted upon all. In order
to prove that his (Sir J. Mackintosh's) indignation at this acquittal
was just, he would refer to Lord Combermere's letter to Lord Gouerich'
on the proceedings, which would fully bear him out. In that letter, he
stated, that Lord Goderich's communications both pained and surprised^
him, for that he had himself visited the estates, appointed new men,
lightened their labour, and thought to give eomfort to his slaves ; but
it was all in vain, as every good effort of his had been blasted by the

{)estilential effects of this immitigable system. One sentence of this
etter would give an indication of the temper and character which was
amongst the worst effects of slavery. It was, " But I cannot expect;
that a jury of St. Kitt's or Nevis will do their duty." And Lord Gode-
rich had properly remarked, that if " the grand juries in the case of
Walley had been right, the consequence was, that the slaves were not
protected by the law." Such, then, were the melancholy features of
this atrocious case. And yet there was nothing peculiarly pestilential
in the moral atmosphere of St. Kitt's or Nevis ; but the general atmos-
phere of all the slave colonies was just what might be expected to
produce results such as were in this case manifested, (Hear, hear.)

Now what was it, he would ask, that we were here meeting to do ?
To contribute by every effort in our power, to put down and to extin-
guish for ever this atrocious and accursed system. An opportunity
was now afforded, of which he would not speak in a political point of
view ; but the opportunity now furnished by the dissolution of Parlia-
ment, he was persuaded this assembly would not suffer to pass with-
out employing it to the best of their power, to obtain once more that
strong and general manifestation of disapprobation and abhorrence of
the system, which the people of England had unanimously expressed
at the last general election, and which, he believed, they were ready to
express again. When, he said, the people of England, he referred to
the people of the British Islands, not meaning to insinuate that any
part of the United Kingdom had evinced less forwardness than ano-
ther in this great cause. (Loud cheers.) He trusted that this demon-
stration of public feeling would be made ; and that at a moment when
such declarations had been made, and such measures proposed by the
king's government, (whether entirely satisfactory to all benevolent men
or not,) he hoped the people would do their utmost to obtain from can-

262 General Meeting — Sir J. Mackintosh.

didates such declarations as might aid a friendly government in putting
an end to this frightful system, at which humanity shudders. (Loud
cheers.) No man was more desirous than he was of adhering to the
strict line of demarcation, which ought to separate all religious allu-
sions from political and civil discussions ; yet ne could not help stating
to the meeting, that in other places, where men claim the character and
feelings of Christians, he had very frequently heard an opinion ex-
pressed, that this cry about Colonial slaves is only the cry of sec-
tarian preachers — of Wesleyan Methodists, of religious enthusiasts and
fanatics of various sects, who pretend to impose their fantastic whims
on the wisdom of Parliament and Government, and who have the pre-
sumption to claim for their fanatical fancies higher consideration than
the greatest interests of the empire. He would not presume to say
much upon this subject ; but if their object was to deliver as soon as
practicable 800,000 slaves in our Colonies, from the condition in which
Kitty Hylton was under Mr. Bridges, and from the humanity of such
overseers as Mr. Walley; — if their object was to prevent the repetition
of such scenes of atrocity, as, upon the credit of most indisputable
authority, had recently occurred ; — if such be their design he should
like to know what could be alleged in fair argument against it. If
it be methodistical or fanatical to contend for the annihilation of such
a system of crime and misery, he could wish that we had in parliament
many more such fanatics — and then a system which insured impunity
to such "indiscretions" as those of a Bridges or a Walley, would
speedily be put an end to.

It had been advanced with ludicrous effrontery that the condition of
the English peasant was worse than that of the West India slave. He
would not stop to ask what would be the universal cry of horror that
would be raised in this country against such masters as the Mosses,
such magistrates as Bridges, or against the power of perpetrating with
impunity suc^ a massacre as Walley has committed on the Stapleton
Estate. (Loud cheers.) But there was an observation which he
would make. The West Indians were at least some centuries behind in
this objection. The people of England knew the facts of the case.
Their ancestors were never indeed subject to the cruelties and unutter-
able abominations of the Bridges and the Walleye, but they had had,
at least, some little share in the " paradise" of middle-age darkness.
We did not find however that there had been any cry to have this " pa-
radise regained." We had not yet heard of any applications from our
peasantry (whatever were their sufferings) expressing by petition or
otherv/ise, their desire to be again bound like their forefathers to the
glebe, and subjected to such paternal authority as that so recently
exercised by the Bridges and Walleys. (Hear, hear.) With respect
to the interference of ministers of religion, of any denomination,,
he would say only this : — he had always understood that there
is . no precept held more sacred in the code ef divine morality,
which is the glory of the Christian religion, than this — "Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself." He would ask whether the main-"
tenance of such a system as West India slavery be likely to afford many
opportunities of compliance with that sacred precept ; and if not, what
could be a more obvious and imperious part of the duty of the teachers
of morality and religion than to inculcate not only the guilt of such
irreclaimable wretches, but of us Englishmen who fancy we are inno-
cent because we do not take a direct part in their guilt, but who are
nevertheless undoubtedly answerable for all the horrors inseparable
from that state of slavery which owes its continuance, in a great mea-
sure, to such connivance. (Loud cheers.) Ifitwere the duty of ministers

General Meeting — -Dr. Lushington. 263

of religion to preach duties in proportion to their importance, no sub-
ject could be more clearly within the sphere of their vocation than that
of endeavouring to raise from lethargy those who fancy that they
have no part in such abominations and cruelties, because, though their
connivance keeps up the system, they themselves have no active share
in its execution. He had a Rev. gentleman in his eye, (the Rev. Rich-
ard Watson) who had discharged that duty himself, and had incul-
cated it on others ; and if the Wesleyans were at present most conspi-
cuous in the cause, the most Sacred principles ought to excite an active
rivalship among all clergymen of every denomination, to consider
themselves never more eftectually the advocates of Christianity, than
when they were promoting the abolition of an institution which makes
it impossible to observe the rules of Christian morality towards nearly
a million of human beings. — (The Rt. Hon. gentleman sat down amidst
loud and long continued cheers.)

The motion was put by the chairman, and unanimously carried.

Dr. Lushington then rose and spoke as follows : —

"I RISE to address you with the deepest feelings of the im-
portance of the present period; knowing, as I do, that upon the result
of what may occur within a short time will depend, in a very great
degree, the continuance of that system which has so long disgraced
England, and inflicted numberless woes on the sons of Africa, — or
the adoption of measures for its complete and utter abolition. For my
own part, in defiance of the threat of being deemed an enthusiast,
disregarding the imputation of imprudence, and of want of reo-ard for
the lives and hberties of the white population, — I profess myself the ad-
vocate for the speedy and entire emancipation of every slave. (Enthusias-
tic cheers.) I am not content to wait till it pleases the good judgment
of their masters — until they, who almost up to the present rnoment,
have defended the system itself, and who contend that on the continuance
of that system is embarked their own earthly prosperity — I am not
content to wait until they shall grant us that boon. Well I kno\Y that
if we depend upon their exertions — if we rely upon their good will — if
we trust to their promises — not one of the vast assembly whom I now
address will live to see the happy day when England shall be able to
boast that slavery no longer prevails in any part of her dominions.

" Some progress indeed we have made ; v.'e have at least obtained an
acknowledgement of the principle of abolition. No longer (and I
heartily rejoice in the fact,) dare the most strenuous advocates in the
House of Commons for the continuance of slavery defend the system
itself, or venture, in the face of that house, and before the public, to
broach those doctrines so long insisted on — that slavery was consis-
tent with happiness, justice, charity, and a regard for the Word
of God. That hour is past. England will not bear it — men of
sense will not endure it. — men of humanity abhor it. (Loud
cheers.) There is not one at this hour, even though he may believe
his own worldly wealth, the comfort of his wife, the advantage of
his children, to be wrapped up in the perpetuation of the system, who
is not compelled to express his abhorrence of it. I well remember the
time when we were entertained with representations of the peace, the
happiness, the tranquillity, the enjoyments of a state of slavery. I re-
member the time v^hen we were told, that the negroes were well fed and
comfortably clothed at the expense of the master — and comfortably main-
tained in old age and sheltered in sickness; having no other return to
make for all these numberless favours, than easy labour for his benefit.
We were taught to believe that there was nothing but merriment and joy
in the West Indies; that the, negroes danced in their chains, and praised

264 General Meeting — Dr. Lushington.

the master under whose domination they lived. — That time, I s?y, is
gone by, and for ever. The time is come when such gross insults to the
common sense and feeling of mankind can no longer be ventured upon.
It is not seven years from this time, when in one of our colonies,-^
perhaps the one in which slavery is existing in almost its most odious
form, — it was publicly announced that slavery was inconsistent with
Christianity ; but what was the conclusion ? — not that slavery should be
abolished, but that Christianity should not be taught. That was the
result to which the wise, the good, the considerate, the merciful^ the
religious men of Demerara came ! It was published in their Gazette —
made known to the world — and thus their disgrace perpetuated. " Can
you," said the words of that publication, " can you rnake your negroes
Christians, and use the words 'dear brother' or 'sister' to those you
hold in bondage ?" Why, what would be the consequence ? The con-
sequence would be " they would conceive themselves, by possibility,
put on a level with yourselves, and the chains of slavery would be
broken." Most true were the words they uttered. There never was
a sentiment truer than this, nor one which, if it ever came to be
carried into practice, would more clearly exhibit its intrinsic truth.
Make the slaves Christians — and (harder task yet!) make the owners of
them Christians, and slavery must speedily cease. I know to what I expose
myself. It will be said, " You slander the West Indians; you give tnem
a character they do not deserve ; large bodies of men ought not to
be ?ubject to such imputations." Mark my answer! — 1696 was the
date of the Jamaica Act, in which it was declared that every slave
oui^ht to be educated and receive instruction in the Christian religion.
This very year they came forward in Parliament and told you, that thev
have renewed that Act ; but they owned at the same time that, it
never had been carried into execution — for one hundred years together !
I make a just charge ; and, I ask again, without the interference of the
British Parliament what hope have we ? What prospect, but that
another hundred years may elapse before that period shall arrive,
when, according to the opinion of these planters, their unfortunate
slaves shall be in a condition, from their religious and moral education,
to receive the boon of freedom. If we postpone it till the masters have
done their duty, we postpone it to an hour that never will arrive,

" I verily, and in my conscience believe, that the time is now come,
"when, with prudent precautions as to the manner, every slave may re-
ceive his freedom without the minutest chance of injury to the rights or
the properties of the other inhabitants. Nay, I go infinitely farther : — I
believe, as far as relates to the property of the white inhabitants, their
.interest will be most materially improved. Instead of living, as now,
in perpetual fear and agitation, — instead of exacting an unwillin;^ and

Erecarious labour under the influence of the lash, they would then
ave a body of labourers, who, if paid but a very small proportion in
the way of hire, would discharge a double duty with satisfaction to
themselves and benefit to their proprietors. And this is the real state
of human nature. There must be some motive to actuate man. You
now actuate him by the fear of the lash, and, alas ! by the infliction of
it. Make him a freeman, and reward him for his labour, and you hold
out to him the very motive which God has designed to actuate man-
kind— the hope of benefiting himself and improving his condition.

"I have little hope in measures of amelioration. I am thankful to His
Majesty's Government for what they have done ; but I look for more. I
expect but slight benefit from what they have done — some little improve-
ment in the state and condition of the negro- — some little acceleration
of the means whereby some few additional mdividuals may acquire their

General Meeting — Dr. Lushingion. 265

ireedom. But the main mass of iniquity, the greatest evils of all— can
never be removed by measures of amelioration, because these evils are,
either by the blessing of; Providence or by its curse, so interwoven with
the system that, so long as it continues, the effects must follow the cause.
I have said before, and I say it again, God hath not permitted man to
say, "Thus far will I proceed in defiance of your word and no farther !"
He has declared, Thou shalt not violate it; and if, in defiance of
mercy, humanity, religion and truth, you will make slaves, you cannot
establish a system of law by which that unfortunate condition can be
safely and effectually regulated. And though it be difficult to escape
from' it, it is but the difficulty which attends all perpetration of crime ;
the greater the off'ence the more difficult is the task of repentance. But
God in his mercy has given you the means if you have the will : if you
have penitence in your hearts, he has promised to give you power to
resist temptation, and finally to put down the atrocities in which you
have revelled.

" The great question is, w^hat is to be done at the present hour ? By
what means can we best accelerate the attainment of the object we have
all now so much at heart ? for I hold it but a w^aste of words to descant
on the evils of slavery, especially to an audience long a^o convinced
of the degradation and wretchedness necessarily attendant on that
condition. Much may. now be effected, but not without great and
strenuous exertions. Some of my friends, who have preceded me, have
said, we will not talk of politics. I could not, I believe, so completely
violate every principle of conscience and sense of right and \yrong which
I possess, as to intrude into this discussion any thing so entirely foreign
from it as relates to the struggle of two conflicting parties. My great
object — the principal object of my life — has been the attainment of the
mighty end of this Society ; and I regard every political object chiefly
as "it may furnish more effectual means of removing the enormous evil
of slavery, and wiping off the disgrace which thence attaches to the
British name. I say that Government have not done all I ask; but they
have gone some way towards it. If I am asked what course v^e ought
to pursue in the ensuing elections, this is my proposal : — When a can-
didate seeks for the favour of an elector, ask him not w-hether he be the
friend of the Duke, or my Lord Grey, or Sir Robert Peel. Let no suph
question be proposed by a friend to Negro emancipation ; but let him
ask this question — " In your heart do you detest, abhor, and abjure
Slavery ?"—(C/?ee/-.$.) Let his next question be — " Will you vote for the
extinction and abolition of the system?" Mark him well^-no general
professions of abhorrence of slavery, no low bows and smiling counten-
ances wull do :— what Englislaman is there who can refrain from ex-
pressing his detestation of slavery ? But ask him whether he Avill lend
his cordial assistance and co-operation to its immediate extinction ?
Should he urge — (for I am pretty well versed in the ingenious shifts with
which candidates evade these questions,) — should he urge this objection
— "Consider the danger to the whites?" Ask him in return, "What
was the result in Mexico where the slaves were emancipated at once ?"
Inquire what are his reasons for apprehending danger. Make him state all
those circumstances which have made such an impression on his mind.
But should he go a step further, and say, " I am an advocate for ame-
lioration, with a due regard to existing interests." If once these words
escape his lips, vote against him. The bitterest enemy, openly avowing
himself, is infinitely less mischievous than that pretended friend. He
prevents your exercising your influence to send to Parliament a
man according to your own heart ; and he goes determined to keep his
promises only in appearance, and to violate them in reahtv. He does

2 L

^6Q General Meeting — Dr. Lushington.

not feel, in its due intensity, abhorrence of the state of slavery ; he
does not feel disgust at its inhumanity ; he does not feel horror at the
degradation and pollution in which it has involved indiscriminately
white and black ; — he will not do for you. But if the answer is, " I be-
lieve slavery to be a violation of the law of God ; I believe it to be in
utter repugnance to every dictate of morality, and to set at nought
every feeling of mercy ; and, feeling it so, I think it my first duty to
erase it from the colonies of Britain;"— if he say, " I know not what it
is to create a freehold in a human being;" — if he say, " that if men
shall make a law establishing such right, they do it in defiance of
the law of God ;" — if he feels the weight of the guilt incumbent on the
people of England; and remembers the extent of suffering which is
hourly and daily, even while I address you, prevalent over 800,000 of
our fellow subjects; — if he say to you, " I am the advocate for the utter
extinction of tiie system ; I long for the opportunity, when by my vote,
influence, and speech, I may declare to the Parliament, to the country,
and to the world, that my object is to relieve my conscience of its guilt,
my country from its foul disgrace, and the Negro from his chains:" — if
such be his replies — xote, I say, /or him. (Immense cheering.)

" Now mark — that aid and assistance can be given by all those v>'hom I
now address, by supporting the proper candidates in various modes,
saving them from the trouble of a long canvass, and preventing the
unnecessary expenditure of money. These are the objects to which I
call the attention of those I now address ; and I wish at the same mo-
ment (would to God I possessed the power of doing it more effec-
tually!) so to impress upon the minds of all who hear me, the descrip-
tion I have just given of men who are persuaded in their heart's core
and conscience that such are the atrocities of slavery, that they may
go home resolving not to comment on the proceedino-s of this day, but
determined and resolved by their deeds, and not their words only, to
shew that the cause is in their hearts, and that exertions according to
their ability shall be made in support of the judgment which their con-
sciences have pronounced. I ask you all to do this. Let no one think
himself insigniticant ; combined effort may do much. And little as the
efforts of a single individual may do towards the ultimate accomplishment
of our aims, yet, at least, he will have relieved his own conscience, dis-
charged his duty to his God, and endeavoured, as much as in him lay,
to benefit his suffering and outraged fellow creatures.

" I shall now take the liberty of proposing that an Address be circu-
lated among those with whom we correspond in the country, for the
purpose of stimulating them to similar exertions : and I am convinced
that the appeal will not be made in vain ; for I am assured in my owii
heart, that however powerful may be the opposition banded against us
elsewhere ; however strenuous the' exertions of those who believe that
their wealth and power depend on the continuance of the system; I am
confident that the great bulk of the people of England, the great body
of the people who liave now received information on the subject — the
whole of those who are accustomed to look into their own hearts and
ask the question, " Am I doing right or wrong ?" — the whole of those
whose principal object of existence is to discharge their duty to their
Creator and to mankind,— all, almost without exception, feel how deeply
at stake is not merely the character of the nation, but the satisfaction
of their own consciences, if they do not contribute every effort which
God in his mercy has enabled them to make for the extinction of
this opprobrious and criminal system.

" I beg to assure this assembly, that if I return to the next Parlia-
ment, I shall return with the most resolute determination, under the

General Meeting — Rev. D. Wilson. 267

blessing of God, to make this cause second to none ; and in my place to
advocate this truth, to support these doctrines which I have now stated ;
and, so far as my feeble means may go, to render all assistance to my
honourable and excellent friend, whom I am proud to call my leader in
this great cause ; to give him every aid, — despite the scoffing of the
scorner — regardless of the outcry that I am a wild enthusiast — regard-
less of the feelings which I know are so constantly entertained by those
who never considered the subject, — that these are the imaginary
portraits of a diseased mind, and not the real state of things existing
in the West Indies. But I hold him an enthusiast who, ignorant of the
subject matter— without taking pains to investigate, imagines that he
has come to the just conclusion ; and, regardless of the ordmary process
of arriving at truth, professes himself at once the advocate of a cause
without being able to explain the reasons of his opinion. And I hold, if
a man has learned what the truth is by patient and deliberate inquiry, —
if he does know the system in all the atrocities of its villany — to speak
mildly, to utter sentiments of woderatioti (as they call it) on the sub-
ject, is to betray the truth — is to suppose that a man of feeling,
nonovir and honesty, can behold these things, and yet talk of them as
if they did not violate the laws of God and man, and outrage the feelings
of every right-minded individual who rightly appreciates them."

The learned Gentleman's speech was cheered throughout by en-
thusiastic acclamations. The Resolution and Address proposed by him
were then read to the Meeting, and unanimously adopted. The Reso-
lution was in the following terms : —

" That the time has now arrived, in which the people of England may give
by their votes, as they have already given by their petitions, eiEcacious assis-
tance towards delivering the Negroes from the evils of Slavery, and the nation
from the guilt of tolerating it ; and that the Address now read be adopted by this
Meeting and circulated throughout the country."*

The Rev. Daniel Wilson, rose to second the resolution. It had beeti
asked, he observed, how far the system of West India Slavery was con-
sistent with the maxims of mercy and the general tendency of Christian-
ity. He held the very question to be an affront — the very thought to be a
slander — the very supposition to show an utter ignorance of the mercy, and
benevolence, and power, which for these six thousand years, the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has been developing in his different
dispensations of religion, till it has been poured forth in all its glory in
the New Testament dispensation, and which taught us that " God is
love, and he that dwelleth in light, dwelleth in God, and God in him."
Before the grace and loveliness of Christianity, — the tenderness
which it infuses — the kindness it inculcates, — the Ir.ws of equity and
justice which it imposes, — before the objects and designs of God in
redemption ; before all these— West India Slavery appeared to be one
of the most intolerable and flagrant and deeply debasing crimes that
can attach to a nation bearing the sacred and glorious name of Chris-
tian, He desired to separate himself from any man professing Chris-
tianity v/ho could hold the lawfulness of West India Slavery. For him-
self he thus publicly made the declaration, which he was ready to
make in any other place, that after having waited,-— culpably waited,
he believed, — for thirty years, in the exarnination privately of this sub-
ject, and in the accumulation of evidence in his mind regarding it ; hav-
ing during that period rather shrunk from any public testimony regard-

* The Address here referred to (for which see page 280 of the present Num-
ber,) was extensively circulated in a separate shape, immediately after the
General Meeting,

268 General Meeting — Mr. O'Connell.

ing this question, and leaving such duty to devolve upon those riaht boti,
gentlemen who advocated the Cause in Parliament; that after Keeping
thus long aloof, when he found, notwithstanding all the disclosures
of the enormous criminality of the system which had forced themselves
upon the attention of the public, that every promise of redress had
been forfeited, every expectation that the wrongs of the Negro might
be righted on the gromidsof political justice, disappointed ; — after seeing
this, his opinion two years ago, completely changed, and he now firmly
believed it to be the duty of every minister of religion to come forward
and join the sacred phalanx who called on the legislature to listen to the
demands of justice and the sympathies of humanity; and on this moral
and religious Question to give their frank, and unreserved, and energetic
assistance. Ministers of every denomination ought to unite here.
Give him the Wesleyan minister, and he was his brother on this sub-
ject, and would cordially give him the right hand of fellowship. There
was not any man bearing the Christian name with whom he would not
join heart and hand in using all means for awakening the consciences of
men, and impressing on their minds the great duty of aiming to put an
end to this horrid system. He was far from being convinced that many
of the most dreadful "visitations of Divine Providence that have lighted
on our country may not have been inflicted in righteous retribution, for
our tardiness, our coldness, our lukewarmness on this great moral
question — the emancipation of our wretched and injured fellow-crea-
tures from West Indian bondage. He would add no more. He had
risen merely that this company might feel assured that it will be more
and more the united ^determination of the ministers of Jesus Christ, in
every division of the Christian church, to relax in no fit effort to give
their testimony and their support on all suitable occasions till the ex-
tinction of this mighty evil shall be accomplished, and the foul stain
be effaced from our country which for so many generations has black-
ened and disgraced it. It never would become him to interfere with
regard to giving votes on political subjects ; but the morning after the
recent debate on Mr. Buxton's motion, he said, " I will turn round to
the ministers directly; I will do all I can do to uphold the first admi-
nistration who have proclaimed simply, honestly, fairly, and determi-
nately, their abhorrence of slavery." (Loud cheers.).

Mr. O'CoNNELL rose to propose an amendment on the motion. He
would substitute the words " Great Britain and Ireland," instead of
" England" merely. Scotland and Ireland felt an equal interest in
this great question with the people of England, and ought not to be
excluded from their share in the Resolution and in the Address which
accompanied it. No man could more sincerely abhor, detest, and ab-
jure slavery than he did. He held it in utter detestation, however men
'might attempt to palliate or excuse it by differences of colour, creed,
or clime. In all its gradations, and in every form, he was its mortal foe.
— He would now explain why he proposed an adjournment of the de-
bate on Mr. Buxton's motion the other evening in the House of Com-
mons ; though he was not then aware that there would not be another
opportunity this session. But the speech of Mr. Burge had filled him
with such disgust and indignation that he could not then have spoken
calmly. " What," said Mr. Burge, ''^ would you come in between a man
and his freehold .'" " I started," said Mr. O'Connell, " as if something
unholy had trampled on my father's grave, and I exclaimed with horror,^
' A freehold in a human being !' — (Loud cheers.) He knew nothing of
Mr. Burge ; he would give him credit for being a gentleman of human-
ity; but if he be so, it only made the case the stronger; for the circum-
stance of such a man upholding such a system showed the horrors of that

General Meeting — Mr. O' ConnelL 269

system in itself, and its effect in deceiving the minds of those who are
connected with it, wherever it exists. Mr, Burge referred to the Jamaica
Assembly, and boasted of the slaves being now admitted to give testi-
mony.* And what had made the difference since 1 824 ? The exertions of
the Anti-Slavery Society. As the friends of abolition in England went
forward they dragged Jamaica along with them. In 1 826, the majority
against that proposition Avas reduced to 23, and in 1828, the bill was
passed to allow slaves who were baptized and instructed to give evi-
dence.f But mark how they coupled this with a resolution not to permit
any man who was not a clergyman of the church of England the power
of baptizing and instructing the negroes in Christianity. This Mr.
Burge justified, and said, who else had a right to judge who were the
safest persons to be intrusted to do this ? The safest persons ! What,
and was it not enough to hold their bodies in thraldom, but must they
usurp the dominion also of the immortal soul ! The safest persons ! and
was that a question for them to decide ? It was a question between the
Christian and his God — and they would not allow the negro to be a Chris-
tian unless according to the shape and fashion they thought fit to pre-
scribe. (Hear, hear.) Oh, the debasing system! It was not enough to hold
in servitude their bones and sinews, and blood and flesh, but they must
have in thraldom also their spiritual feelings and sentiments — they must
prescribe the way in which they shall serve their God who loved and
died for them. — (Loud cheers.) They say the slave is not Jit to receive
his freedom — that he could not endure freedom without revolting. Why,
does he not endure slavery without revolting ? With all that he has to
bear, he does not revolt now ; and will he be more ready to revolt when
you take away the lash ? Foolish argument ! But he would take them
up on their own . ground — the ground of gradual amelioration and pre-
paration. Well, and are not eight years of education sufficient to pre-
pare a man for any thing. Seven years are accounted quite sufficient
for an apprenticeship to any profession, or for any art or science ; and
are not eight years enough for the Negro ? If eight years have passed
without preparation, so would eighty if we were to allow them so many.
There is a time for every thing — but it would seem there is no time for
the emancipation of the slave. Mr, Buxton had most ably and unan-
swerably stated to the House of Commons, the awful decrease in popu-
lation ; that in fourteen colonies in the course of ten years there had
been a decrease in the population of 45,801 — that is, in other words,
45,801 human beings had in that period been murdered by this system
-ytheir bodies gone to the grave— their spirits before their God, In the
eight years which they have had to educate their slaves for liberty, ac-
cording to the resolutions of 1823, but which have been useless to them
— in those eight years, one twelfth have gone into the grave, murdered !
" Every day," continued Mr, O'Connell, " ten victims are thus des-
patched ! While we are speaking, they are sinking — while we are
debating, they are dying ! As human, as accountable beings, why
should we suffer this any longer? Let every man take his own share
in this business, I am resolved, if the people of Ireland send me
back to Parliament, that I will bear my part. I purpose fully to
divide the House on the motion, that every Negro child horn after the
\st of January, 1832, shall be free. — (Loud cheers.) They say, O
do not emancipate the slaves suddenly, they are not prepared, they
will revolt ! Are they afraid of the insurrection of the infants ?

* The assertion for which Mr. O'Connell gives credit to Mr. Burge, we beg to
observe, is an untrue assertion, a false statement.

f But this bill has had no operation. It was disallowed on account of its
wickedly persecuting clauses.

370 General Meeting — Mr. O'Connell.

Or do they think that the mother will tise up in rebellion as she
hugs her little freeman to her breast, and thinks that he will one day
become her protector ? Or will she teach him to be her avenger ? O no,
there can be no such pretence. — We are responsible for what we do, and
also for the influence of our example. Think you that the United
States of America would be able to hold up their heads among the
nations, — the United States, who shook off their allegiance to their
sovereign, and declared that it was the right of every man to enjoy free-
dom— of every man, whether black, white, or red ; — who made this de-
claration before the God of armies, and then, when they had succeeded in
their enterprise, forgot their vow, and made slaves, and used the lash
and the chain ;— would they dare to take their place among the nations,
if it were not that England countenances them in the practice ? And
then look at Mexico ; there the slaves were liberated, not in a time of
peace when they could be watched and guarded, no, but in a time of
revolution and of war. Did they rise up to cut the throats of their
former owners ? Ah, no ! they entered into the society of freemen with
a feeling of generous and deep oblivion of the past ; and continue among
the most useful and peaceful of the inhabitants. — (Cheers.) With this
example — with the splendid instance of one whose name and exploits
would long be held sacred in the annals of freedom, the memorable
Bolivar, who commenced his glorious career of liberty by giving freedom
to 800 Negroes that he possessed himself — sacrificing his fortune, and
consolidating the civil institutions of his country — and who concluded
with the sacred words, " finally I beseech my countrymen never to allow
any distinction in colour to make any political distinction between
them." — (Cheers.) With these examples — and with the example of Bri-
tain before her, America could not long resist ; and we would thus not
only have the happiness of redeeming 800,000 of our fellow-subjects
from slavery, but give to mankind an example that will make the ex-
istence of the system of slavery elsewhere wholly impossible. "-^(Great
cheering.)

He v/as sorry to say that the Press had not done its duty. He
arraigned the press of England of turpitude on this great subject.
Some important discussions lately took place in the House of Commons
on the subject of compulsory manumission, and he looked the next morn-
ing in the papers for what had been said, hoping it would go forth to
the world, but not one word could he find. No doubt the reporters
did their duty, but the blame rests on the editors and proprietors. It
could not be inhumanity — it could not be chance — it must therefore be
something infinitely baser. Now what did he suggest? This, then ;
newspapers of course are mere commercial speculations. Let the
friends of freedom make them good commercial speculations to those
only who protect the cause of humanity. (Loud cheers.) Very little of
that dexterity would soon bring the press to our side. And whether that
should be the effect or not they discharged a duty, which would be a
sufficient reward. This power might be at present a great power
against our prospects ; but let the friends of humanity lay their shoul-
der to the wheel, and it would go concurrently with them.

And were we, he would ask, to endure this disgrace of slavery longer?
Were we not parties to it if we endured it? Did this assembly know
that the slave can still receive thirty-nine lashes without excuse — any
number of lashes v/ith excuse ? He urged them to reflect, how de-
plorable must be the state of things in a community where the ruffians
who flogged Kitty Hylton and Eleanor James were secure of impunity.
Was it not true that in Jamaica women were still cruelly beaten ? And
was this wretched system to be longer tolerated ?

After urging those who heard him, and the electors of England in

General Meeting — Mr. Shiel. f71

general, to do their duty, by supporting such candidates as were
pledged to support the cause of Negro emancipation, Mr. O'Connell
concluded a speech, which had been cheered throughout with the most
enthusiastic acclamations of the meeting, in the following terms ; — " I
will carry with me to my own country the recollection of this splendid
scene. Where is the man that can resist the argument of this day ?
I go to my native land under its influence ; and let me remind you
that land has this glory, that no slave-ship was ever launched from any
of its numerous ports. It has been said, that the Wesleyan Methodists
have been very useful in this great cause : I am glad of it; they may
on some questions have been my opponents, but I must honour the
men who aim to do good, and to show their love to God by their love
to men. It is to their honour, and not to their reproach, that they
have been persecuted. It is my wish to imitate them : we agree on the
general principle of charity, though we differ on matters of faith. I
will gladly join my Methodist neighbour to do good to the poor Negro
slaves. Let each extend to them the arm of his compassion ; let each
aim to deliver his fellow-man from distress. I shall go and tell my
countrymen that they ought not to be laggards in the race of hu-
manity."

Mr. Shiel seconded the amendment of Mr. O'Connell, that "Great
Britain and Ireland" should be substituted for " England." He said, he,
and those v/ho knelt at the same altars as himself, bore as strong an
abhorrence to slavery as its most zealous antagonists in that great as-
sembly. " If a sceptic," said he, "were to ask me, wherefore I feel so pro-
found a sympathy for the children of Africa ; I would answer in the
celebrated response which elicited such plaudits from the instincts of
humanity in a Roman theatre, ' I am a man;' and if a Christian and
not a sceptic, were to put the interrogatory to me, I should raise my
hand and point to heaven. Where is the man familiar with the Gospel
of Christ, the manual of pity and the pattern of kindness — where is
the man who believes in Him who came into the world with the sono's
of angels and the accents of peace, and whose last woi'ds were words
of mercy to mankind — where is the man who has embraced this system,
that will not gladly combine with his fellows in this holy confederacy
of pity and benevolence ? This is a case in which, as far as facts are
concerned, we may all come to an issue. No facts can be more free
from exaggeration ; no facts can be less complicated. In the year
1823, Mr. Canning proposed three resolutions; they were adopted by
the House of Commons without a single dissenting voice ; they were
issued as ordinances to the Crown Colonies, and recommended for
adoption for the Chartered. But were they obeyed ? No ! Jamaica
took the cartel which contained her sovereign's mandate, and shook it,
dripping with the Negro's blood, in England's face ! I shall not go
through the resolutions seriathn. It will be sufficient to show the pro-
minent features of African suffering, in which Government has inter-
posed in vain. The sabbath is not to the Negro a day of rest. He
fulfils upon it the primary malediction, and pours his sweat out of his
forehead depressed in toil to the earth, instead of lifting it up in sup-
plication to heaven. The slave is denied even the miserable privilege
of being a fixture to the estate. He is treated as a moveable,— he is
sold apart from his family. The husband is torn from the wife — the
child is plucked by the hand of heartless vendition from the mother's
arms. The evidence of a Negro is not received against that of a white.
The African father is struck dumb, as the violator of his daughter's
honour takes the Gospel of Christ, and presses it with an Iscariot kiss
to his lips. The cart-whip is still used as a stimulant to labour. It is

272 General Meeting — Mr. Shiel.

the implement which serves to distinguish the few wretched diversities
of slave existence. It announces the tropical morning, and summons
the Negro to his task : its dreadful reverberation peals through the
groves sacred to cruelty, and urges on the labour which ministers to
European luxury through African torture ; it calls the slave to his
shed, or rather to his manger, — it is his matin and his vesper-bell ; its
cracking is a substitute for the curfew, and intimates the brief respite
which is allowed for renovation, in which the Negro is permitted to
forget in a few hours of sleep that he is a slave. Thus the cart-whip,
associates itself with all the varieties of Negro being. It is ever either
in his ears, before his eyes, or on his back. An effort has been made
by Government to put the power of tormenting under some control,
and to prescribe limits^ and regulations to the caprices of cruelty. But
what horrors are at this very moment before us. The records of colonial
judicature are steeped in blood. Two facts are sufficient to illustrate
the entire system. A woman seized her female slave, and, to season
her own appetite for torture, turning epicure in the feast of agony, she
opened the eyelids of her victim, introduced pepper into that delicate
and precious sense, and aspersed it with the subtilest particles of pain.
There is another, and, if possible, a case still more horrible. What
will be said by the apologists for colonial atrocity, of the priest who,
with the very same hand which had distributed the sacramental bread,
and put the commemorative chali<;e in circulation round the altar, per-
petrated an outrage against humanity upon a female slave, a creature
redeemed by the blood of the same God as himself; and for this out-
rage against the instincts of manliness, and this insult to Heaven, he
has been acquitted by a tribunal which, by its implied assent to his
enormities, has become the participator of his infamy, and entitled it-
self to share in the immortality of his crime ? With these facts before
us, what regard shall we pay to those, who tell us, with a saccharine
suavity, and dropping sugar from their mouths, that we can form no
judgment of these matters at the distance of 4,000 miles ? But the
shriek of agonised humanity can traverse 4,000 miles of ocean, and
through winds and over waves pierce into England's heart. I think
that those who have lived in the colonies are, in many respects, the
worst judges. The worst feature of slavery is, that it alike degrades the
slave and vitiates the tyrant. A familiarity with oppression produces
an ossification of the heart — it hardens and petrifies a.11 the sensibilities
of our nature. (Cheers.) It is idle to look to the colonial legislatures
for redress. The experiment has already been made with respect to the
slave-trade. The colonists made it the subject of encomium : to them a
ship wafted from the coast of Guinea with its freight of human agony,
presented an object of moral and picturesque beauty. They insisted
that it was beneficial to the Negroes to be transferred to their merciful
superintendence. They told us that slavery was beneficial to the Afri'
cans themselves ; that they removed them from their own adust ana
barren clime to bring them to a land of unrivalled beauty and plenty.—
They told us such tales as these ; and continued the trade in human
flesh. England waited long; but at last, finding that it was in vain to
expect their concurrence, issued her mighty fiat against that impious
traffic. We are thus taught by experience the futility of looking to
the colonies for an alteration in their system. What then remains ?
To legislate for the colonies. I am not insensible to the obstacles which
may stand in the way of instantaneous liberation, but at all events
means may be taken to nurse the rising African population into liberty.
If we cannot effectually relieve the parents, we may take the cradle
with the Negro child and lay it at the feet of our legislators : if the

General Meeting — Mr. Pownall — Rev. J. Burnett. 273

arm of British sympathy and benevolence is not strong enough to reach
across the Atlantic to rescue the adult from the grasp of the oppressor,
it may yet be able to press the infant negro to its oosom and give it
wholesome aliment, and thus prepare it for future emancipation. I trust
that the time is not distant when the proud aphorism of the poet,
" Slaves cannot breathe in England," shall dilate itself, and spread be-
yond any limit of insular locality, and when English power and English
liberty shall be commensurate. It was the boast of the Spaniard that " the
sun never set on his dominions ;" let it be the vaunt of Britain that the
sun of liberty shines wherever her power exists or her banners wave."

Mr. Pownall congratulated the Society on what they had gained,
but cautioned them against being deceived by Ministers in their pro-
fessions of abhorrence of slavery, and to beware lest the artifice of 1823
should again be practised upon them. He advised them to take the
advice of Dr. Lushington, and to make it their determination not to
rest till a time was fixed after which no subject of the British Govern-
ment should longer be held in bondage. The blast of liberty, he assured
them, would go forth from this country, swell in its progress over 4000
miles, purify the atmosphere of the country to which it reached, and
be wafted back again in grateful praises and thanksgivings.

The Rev. J. Burnett rose to propose the third and fourth resolu-
tions : —

"That the buying, or selling, or holding of our fellow men as slaves, is contrary
to the Christian religion, and to the principles of the British constitution.

"That, under the strongest rational conviction, fortified by the experience of all
ages, that the holders of slaves are, by the very circumstances of their situation,
rendered as unfit, as they have always proved themselves unwilling, to frame laws
for the benefit of their bondmen, this Assembly cannot refrain from avowing their
utter despair of receiving any effectual aid from the Colonists in the prosecution of
their great object."

He said, he recollected the time when all th at was looked for by the friends
of the slaves was the abolition of the African Slave Trade. That object
was gained, and the trade in human flesh was abolished by England, and
partially by other powers. The second period was when only the mitiga-
tion and gradual abolition of slavery was asked for. But the third period
had now arrived, when the, friends of the slave spoke out, and, throwing
away all such timid qualifications, openly demanded that slavery should
cease altogether. (Hear, hear.) They had heard the demand made
that day with a force and feeling which thrilled through this great as-
sembly ; and earnestly did he hope that the appeal might retain its in-
fluence until it had produced the utter extinction of this abominable
system. He would ask whether the assembly which he then addressed,
splendid as it was, did not feel itself degraded in belonging to a country
in which it was found necessary to discuss at the present day the pro-
priety of abolishing slavery. It was a foul disgrace to our country that
such discussions as this took place in the nineteenth century. It was a
stigma on our national glory which must go down with our annals, even
if abolition takes place, and it would never be forgotten that Britain
struggled so long and stoutly to maintain the existence of such a mon-
strous system as slavery in her colonies. (Loud cheers.) Notwithstand-
ing the eloquent speeches they had that day heard — speeches in which
the feelings of the speakers were visibly conveyed to their hearers — not-
withstanding all that had been said of the propriety of emancipating
every slave born after January 1st, 1832, there still remained a consi-
deration on which he should like to express his opinion — What was to
be done with the adults ? Were the fathers and mothers of these free
negro children to be allowed to be left in their chains, to go down in
their present degraded situation to their graves ? Was this generation
to be left until its last man and woman had dropped into an untimely

2m

274 General Meeting — Rev. J. Burnett.

frave ? Was the proposition that had been set forth so touchingly by
Ir. O'Connell to be carried into effect — and was nothing to be done for
the adults ? We were told that they must be educated for freedom.
Through what channel was this instruction to be conveyed ? Was it to
come from the colonists themselves ? He would trust them with no-
thing. If they were persons of whose character and principles we were
ignorant — if he had just arrived from Pekin, or some other distant coun-
try, and had only heard of England's honour, and England's honesty,
he might, looking upon these slave proprietors as Englishmen, be dis-

Eosed to commit to tneir keeping any trust however sacred. But we
new these Colonial Assemblies ; they had been long tried ; they were
opposed to England ; and therefore he would not trust them, as Eng-
lishmen. England was libelled in being associated with them. Some evil
star gave them to England in their birth, and caught them away under its
malign influence to their present abode ; but in being wafted across the
Atlantic they appeared to have lost all the right spirit and feelings of
Englishmen. He would, therefore, leave nothing to their discretion, even
under a penalty for disobedience. We knew well how they could evade,
and combine to evade, and therefore under no security could we trust to
their co-operation. (Cheers.) If he might give his advice, it would be to this
effect — that as Parliament was about to entertain a proposition that no
slave should be born after the 1st of Jan. 1832, so no slave should exist
after the 1st of Jan. 1833. (Immense cheering.) He was glad to find
the Meeting not dissatisfied with the proposition, and disposed to deal
honestly with the adults — by the fathers and mothers of those infants
to whom they were disposed to grant the boon of freedom. This
measure once adopted, he would say to the colonial legislatures, We
will not prescribe to you any particular rules or regulations, but we tell
you that all your present slave population shall be free after a certain
date ; and having apprised you of that circumstance, we leave it to
yourselves, who say you know best how to deal with the Negroes, to
make such legislative regulations as this new state of things shall require.
After January 1833, they will be about your ears, and you will have to
deal with them as freemen. If Parliament did its duty, we should have all
the Attorneys General at their work, endeavouring to promote the great
cause of freedom, and should see none of their class coming here to ef-
fervesce in a spirit of contumacious hostility against the advocates for
the extinction of slavery. But under present circumstances, the colo-
nists and their partisans acted differently. They were not bound to act
reasonably. And why? Because the British people sent soldiery
enough to protect them in their mal-administration.

The Rev. Gentleman adverted to what had been stated by a former
speaker, that we were responsible for the existence of slavery in the
West Indies by the support and encouragement which we gave the
colonists. He fully approved of the catechism which had been sug-
gested by the Hon. and Learned Gentleman for Parliamentary Candi-
dates at the approaching elections, but he would go somewhat farther,
and in addition to making the candidate promise that he would support
this question whenever it came forward, he would also make him pro-
mise that on every occasion when it was discussed he should be in at-
tendance in his place, and nothing should excuse him but the bonajide
certificate of a physician. (Cheers.)

Referring to the words of the motion, he proceeded to contend, that
neither in the principles of the British Constitution, nor in those of
Christianiw, was there any thing which could justify the existence of
slavery. The very foundation of Christianity was hostile to the prin-
ciple of slavery. It was when man was morally enslaved — when he had
sold himself to another master, that the Son of God came down to re-

General Meeting — Rev. J. Burnett. 275

claim him and redeem him. In the Epistle of St, Paul to Philemon
we find that he recommends to him to receive Onesimus his former
slave, " not now as a servant ;" (The word is rendered servant in the
translation, but in the original it means a slave ;) " but above a servant,
a brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in
the flesh and in the Lord." , Onesimus had been a slave, and having rob-
bed his master, went to Rome, where Divine Providence gave him an
opportunity to hear the Word of God from the mouth of the Apostle.
That Word he received to salvation, and the Apostle had sent him back
to his master with the words which he (Mr. Burnett) had quoted, advis-
ing him to receive him as a friend and a brother, and not as a slave.
This was the language of the New Testament, and if the colonists
studied its precepts, they would not if they felt their power permit so
foul a stain on Christianity as slavery to exist. He proceeded to
contend, that even according to the Old Testament, which was a pecu-
liar economy, slavery was prohibited ; in support of which he quoted
the text, " He that stealeth a man, and selletn him, ye shall surely put
to death." He wished the colonial assemblies, who professed to lay
great stress upon passages from the Bible, would look to that book for
every thing, and not select such parts merely as they thought suited them.
He wished they would take the book, the whole book, and nothing but
the book. (Cheers.) If they did, we should not hear them talk so
much nonsense as they now did, in flying from text to text without any
regard to the connexion. The Rev. Gentleman then contended, that
the slavery of the Egyptian house of bondage mentioned in the Old
Testament, though such as ultimately drew down the utmost severity of
Divine vengeance, was light and trivial compared to the slavery of the
present day. He would be ready at once to give up the whole question
if he were not able most satisfactorily to prove, that the slavery of the
people of Israel in Egypt was perfect freedom compared with the
slavery which, now exists in our West India colonies. What was the
statement in the Old Testament ? That seventy came down to Egypt,
and that their descendants settled in the land of Goshen. Where was
the Goshen of the West Indies ? All the West Indies together would
not make one Goshen. But let the colonists mark the result, and
note the stTikin^ contrast which it exhibited, in the conditions of Israeli-
tish and negro slavery. After this kind of bondage had been going on for
400 years, what was the result? Why, that the descendants of the
seventy who went down to Goshen, had increased so much, that at
their going out of Egypt there were 600,000 fighting men. Yet that
was the slavery for which Pharaoh and the Egyptians were so fearfully
punished — an example which it would be well tor the colonists to con-
sider. Let them contrast that immense increase with what had been
stated that day by the Hon. Gentleman who opened the proceedings,
that in the last ten years there had been a diminution of 45,000 in our
colonial slave population. (Hear, hear.)

He then proceeded to a brief examination of the principles of the
British Constitution, which he happily compared to a tree, from which
any excrescence or misguided branch should be cut off" as it arose i
and he went on to show, from the nature of our institutions, the con-
struction of our legislature, our free debates and free discussions, that
slavery was incompatible with the constitution which we enjoy. If slavery
had crept in, and for a time been sanctioned by our legislature, — if man-
stealing had grown up into a profitable trade, it was because the British
lion slept, and was betrayed by his jackalls. Man-stealing was per-
mitted, and slaves were brought in thousands to our colonies, until at
length the clanking of their chains aroused the lion from his slumbers :
but now he shakes the dew-drops from his mane, and raises his terrific

276 General Meeting — Rev. R. Watson.

voice, and the West India hydra trembles before him. When the ob-
ject of this Meeting should be obtained, slavery itself would fall a life-
less corpse, and be buried for ever amidst the triumphant cheers of the
British people. (Cheers.) When the abolition of the slave trade was
called for, it was said, that the colonists afforded a home and a pro-
tection to the negroes; that they enjoyed personal comforts, which
they could not enjoy if left in their own wild and uncultivated state in
Africa. This was the language of the colonists. How did their con-
duct tally with that language ; They bought the slaves to treat them
kindly, they said ; but unhappily their kindness killed them ! Where
was their kindness when they flogged them^ when they branded
them, when they sold them from one to the otner like cattle, and, as
was proved by the returns alluded to, when they destroyed them in
thousands by severity of labour ! (Hear, hear.) This was colonial
kindness ; let it be judged of by its fruits. But when any other parties
but the colonists themselves offered to shew real kindness to the slaves,
by procuring them some mitigation of suffering, some protection from
outrage, they were termed meddling enthusiasts. Indeed, such was
their notion of slavery, that some oi them actually talked of it as a
blessing. Were they disposed to apply it to ug across the Atlantic ?
It would appear as if they were. He attended a meeting some time
ago at the Thatched House Tavern, at which a gentleman got up and
gravely said, that the abolition of the feudal system in so many coun-
tries of Europe was the reason why so many poor were found amongst
them, and particularly in England. Anotner gentleman referred to
the opinion of Fletcher of Salton, that every pauper ought to be
made a slave, and seemed to hint that something of the kind would be
a great improvement in the condition of our poor ; and these sayings
were loudly applauded by the West Indians present. Was it then, he
would ask, to such men that we should intrust the improvement of the
condition of slaves — to men so enamoured of slavery as to dare, within
a hundred yards of the palace of William the Fourth, to suggest its
application to England and Ireland? (Hear, hear.) He then went on
to shew, that in the present age of impetus, in the present state of
public feeling, the cause of abolition must go forward, and would not
cease, until it had carried the influence of British spirit and British
legislation to every part of our colonial possessioris. The cry was
raised, the game was up, the British people were joining in the chorus,
and he hoped a new Parliament would come in at the death, and close
the chase for ever.

The Rev. Richard Watson observed, that tw5 practical objects
had been brought before the meeting. The first was the Address pro-
posed by Dr. Lushington in reference to Parliamentary candidates;
the second, the hint thrown out by Mr. Pownall, that we do not accept
of the plan proposed by Government. He said, that greatly as he con-
fided in the patriotism and public spirit of our present ministiy, and fully
persuaded as he was, that if hope could not be placed in them, no hope
could be reposed in any ministry on this subject, yet he was not
satisfied that the inquiry had not been gone into. Neither was he
satisfied with the plan of ministers. It was bottomed on the Resolu-
tions of 1823 and the ordinances that were founded on them. But
these Resolutions were very suspicious in their origin* They were con-
riected with the name of Mr. Canning, it was true, and perhaps that
name derived much of its splendour from them ; (Hear, hear ;) but when
they came to be looked strictly into and embodied for practical opera-
. tion, they were found to be exceedingly defective. Nor have succeed-
ing governments dealt honestly with them ; for it has come out by
the avowal of some of those statesmen, that it was considered a great

General Meeting — Rev. R. WaUon. 277

error and embarrassment to be pledged to these resolutions. The
plans, then, which are founded on those resolutions can never satisfy
us. So far as they went they were to be applauded and supported by
us ; but unless they went a step farther, unless a period were fixed,
and that not a distant one, beyond which slavery should not continue,
all these preparatory measures would have no good effect. (Cheers.)

He would touch only on another subject. It has been said, that Chris-
tian instruction should be employed in order to prepare the slaves for the
enjoyment of freedom, after some very long period had elapsed. Now
in his (Mr. Watson's) opinion it was impossible to spread Christianity
througn the mass of the slave population so long as it continues in
slavery. Christianity had indeed had some noble triumphs in the West
Indies, but few comparatively amon^the field-negroes. And this was
the great objection to the system. Legislators might give them sab-
baths : but they would be robbed of them practically ; for there was a
power in every planter greater than the power of the British Govern-
ment itself. Christian zeal might multiply missionaries ; and yet none
of these missionaries could enter an estate without leave from the
owner, to instruct his slaves : the consequence was that a variety of
obstacles were continually thrown in the way of the diffusion of Chris-
tianity throughout the population at large. But even if it were possible
to extend Christianity tnroughout the mass of population, those persons
who imagined that it would make the slaves quiet and content with
slavery were greatly mistaken. (Hear, hear.) Christianity would make
better servants, but worse slaves. It creates honesty, industry, and con-
scientiousness ; but it cannot create them without the love of freedom ;
and slavery was felt to be an evil most deeply by the man who had been
brought under the influence of Christianity. (Cheers.) By religion the
mind becomes enlightened, the feelings acute and tender, and the social
relations become more united and strengthened. Would a Christian
father then endure it as well as a Pagan father that his children should
be separated from him ? — that his daughters, whom he had educated
in virtue, should be subdued for pollution by the influence of the whip ?
— a thing most general throughout the slave Colonies : — and if the whip
be employed not merely to cut the flesh, but to cut deeper, to separate
the marriage ties — was it possible that Christianity should teach a
man to tolerate that ? There was no libel so gross as that Christianity
could be made the instrument of defending such an outrage. Our
religion was not a religion to teach slaves to kiss their chains; but
a religion to teach freemen how to use their freedom.

He thought there was now ground for hope and comfort, especially
from this, that a free press had been established in Jamaica : the secrets
of that prison house could no longer be kept ; that mighty engine would
disclose them to the population of the colonies and likewise to this
country. There was hope also arising from the free coloured population,
who had declared that although holders of slaves themselves, as soon as
the British Government required them they would liberate their bond-
men, (loud cheers,) — a circumstance which not only greatly redounded
to their honour, but was of the greatest importance also in the argument
—because it refutes all the objections as to the practicability of eman-
cipation, consistently with the interests and safety of the Colonies.

He placed no confidence at all upon what ministers proposed to do,
unless we could, by our zeal and perseverance, induce them to take
another step, and to Jix a period beyond which slavery shall not exist.
Without that, little or nothing could be effected; for whatever the
legislation of this country might do in the way of amelioration, if it
come through the agency of the colonists, it would be vain and might
be pernicious, — like the pure dew of heaven that descends upon

278 General Meeting- — Mr. Evam — Mr. Stephen.

the manchineel-tree, which is converted into poison, and blackens and
cauterises every thing that has fled to it for shelter. (Loud cheers.)
He had hope however from the ministers themselves; for the spirit in
which they had spoken, and the determination they had shewn as far
as they had gone, warranted a good deal of confidence ; especially when
they should be better supported by the expression of public opinion.
Long might they possess their seats if they would but apply themselves
honestly to this subject; but if they did not, the sooner they fall from
them the better. (Loud cheers.) Let them remember that every admi-
nistration that has ever trimmed with this great question has tumbled to
pieces. (Hear, hear. ) The time was now come when the work must be
done. God himself had heard the cry of this oppressed race ; and he
thought we might say, without being charged with enthusiasm, that
HE himself had come down to deliver them. (Cheers.) And though
the thunders of the firmament might not be audibly directed against
their task masters, as in the case of the Egyptian bondmen, yet there
was a thunder now heard — the thunder of the indignation of a free and
freedom-loving people — a thunder which shall not cease to roll from year
to year until it has forced Avarice to loosen her gripe, and Tyranny to
give up his claim upon the wretched creatures they have so long
held in bondage.

Mr. Buxton observed, that although Mr. Burnett had drawn a very
accurate comparison between the condition of the Egyptian and West
Indian bondmen, there was one point he had overlooked, and one of
which we hear a great deal, namely the subject o{ compensation. Now
there really was compensation in the former case, for the bondmen of
the Egyptians went out laden with jewels of silver and of gold. This
was the compensation given in the case of the E^ptian slaves — and it
was given precisely as it should be. He was a friend to equitable com-
pensation— a little to those who suffer a little — and a great deal to those
unfortunate slaves who have suffered so much.— (Great applause.)

Mr. Evans in proposing the fifth and sixth resolutions, very briefly
addressed the meeting, congratulating them on the evident progress
which this great cause had made, and exhorting them to improve the
present favourable political crisis, and to rest satisfied with nothing
short of a complete and perfect triumph in the entire emancipation of
every bondman in the British dominions. The Resolutions moved by
him were in the following terms :■ —

" That this Assembly consider it incumbent on them to renew the declaration
of their decided conviction, that Slavery is not merely an abuse to be mitigated,
but an enormity to be suppressed ; that it involves the exercise of severities on the
part of the master, and the endurance of sufferings on the part of the Slave, which
no laws can effectually prevent ; and that to impose on the British people the invo-
luntary support of a system so essentially iniquitous, is an injustice no longer to
be endured.

" That the experience of the last eight years has not only furnished additional
evidence of the criminality and indurable inhumanity of Slavery, but has also de-
monstrated incontrovertibly, that it is only by the direct intervention of Parlia-
ment that any effectual remedy can be applied to this enormous evil ; and that it is
the unalterable determination of this Meeting to leave no lawful means unattempted
for obtaining, by Parliamentary enactment, the total abolition of Slavery throughout
the British Dominions."

Mr. Geo. Stephen rose to second the resolutions, and proceeded
to address the Chaijman, [Mr. Buxton, who had been called to the
chair on the departure of Lord Suffield,] in the following terms :—" I
shall not detain the meeting many minutes ; but I have a duty to per-
form of no ordinary kind. I am charged publicly to declare to you the
chairman, and to this great meeting, that there are many who are ab-
solutely dissatisfied with the amendment proposed in the House of

General Meeting — Rev. J. W. Cunningham. 279

Commons upon the motion made by you the other night. I have re-
ceived that commission — not from a parent whose name I cannot men-
tion here without reverence ; — he will declare his sentiments at his own
time : — but I am charged by parties officially connected with many of
the Anti-Slavery Associations throughout the country, to take an op-
portunity of declaring most publicly and most emphatically, that they
aeprecate any appeal to the Colonial Legislatures. You have told us
what their Councils are. You have mentioned the case of the Mosses-^
but I quote the shocking fact from Mr. Huskisson's despatch, that the
most respectable people in the island came forward to testify to the
respectability, and the humanity of those who murdered the slave by
flogging. — (Hear, hear.) Now if this be so, if murder, under the most
cruel circumstances, aggravated murder, entitled those who were guilty
of perpetrating it, to be called the most humane and respectable people
of the island, such views and feelings will not, assuredly, tend greatly
to heighten our regard for the Coloaiial Assemblies themselves. I know
full well that it is fashionable to say, " you don't know the dangers of
immediate emancipation," — but you never hear those dangers specified;
you are told in general terms that there is hazard and danger, but no-
body will venture to say in what that danger consists. Now I may ap-
peal to yourself, Sir, whether I have not some reason for saying that
there is no danger in immediate emancipation, but that there is danger
if emancipation be deferred until the Negroes make common cause with
their free coloured brethren, and emancipate themselves by the sword.
There lies, in my view, the only real danger in the case, and I at least
will declare it, if no one else will. — (Cheers.) It is quite absurd to pro-
vide slaves with rights, to give them privileges, and to declare them in-
capable of asserting those rights, and defending those privileges; to
five them legal powers and subject them to legal incapacity. — (Cheers.)
b refer them to protectors, to magistrates, and councils of protection is
absurd, is trifling. I for one declare that the only council of protection
in which any confidence can be placed, is that before which I have now
the honour to stand. — ^To you I intrust their cause — to your maternal
bosoms I commend their children — to your fraternal affections I com-
mend their fathers ; show yourselves worthy of the trust, and let your
voice be raised in the words of these resolutions, with acclamations that
shall re-echo through the West India Isles, that we will endure this
inhuman, this detestable system no longer!"— (Loud cheers.)

The Rev. J. W, Cunningham said, there ought to be no men more
interested in the cause of this meeting than the Clergy of the Church
of England, and, God helping him, he would give it every aid in his
power. They had been tola that particular instances were most power-
ful ; and supposing he introduced a murderer with a dagger into that
assembly, who before a year would put every one there to death, would
they let him out of doors ? would they talk to him of amelioration ?
No. They would say, seize the monster. Well ; just such a monster
was Slavery, which annually destroyed 4,000 persons in our Sugar Is-
lands. It went farther ; it not only put bodies but souls to death ; wear-
ing out, as far as in its power, the body by intolerable bondage, and
preventing souls from reaching glory. Another word and he was done.
Now was the time for action — for every arm to be raised and every lip
opened to aid the cause of Negro emancipation. The Rev. gentleman
concluded by moving a vote of thanks to His Royal Highness the Duke
of Gloucester, the Patron of the Society, expressive of the regret of the
Meeting for his unavoidable absence, and of the grateful sense they
entertained of the uniform support he has given to the great cause they
were associated to support. The motion was carried unanimously and
with acclamation. The meeting then separated, after also voting thanks
to the Right Hon. Chairman, Lord Suffield.

280
II. — Address to the People of Great Britain and Ireland,

UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED AT THE GENERAL MEETING, APRIL 23.

The Society for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British dominions,
earnestly request your attention to the present state of the question. The Dis-
solution will probably soon take place, when the great body of Electors will be
strongly agitated with discussing the measure of Reform, which has divided the
existing Parliament. At this crisis we entreat you, in the midst of conflict and
excitement, to remember the sacred cause to which, in conjunction with ourselves,
you are solemnly pledged. Upon the exertions now made, as far as human wis-
dom may foresee, mainly depends the continuance or extinction of that system
which has so long prevailed, in violation of all the principles of the British Con-
stitution, and in subversion of all justice, outraging every feeling of humanity,
and utterly repugnant to the precepts of the religion we profess to acknowledge.
We pray you to rouse yourselves to strenuous, persevering and well-organized
exertions ; and we suggest for your consideration, the following measures ; — To
call meetings of your Committees, and to invite to join you all who prefer hu-
manity to oppression, truth to felsehood, freedom to slavery ;• — to appoint frequent
periods for assembling ; to form a list of all the Electors who can be properly
influenced in the approaching contest, each individual answering for himself and
as many more as he can bring to aid : — to make strict inquiries of every Candi-
date, not only whether he is decidedly favourable to the extinction of Slavery,
but whether or not he will attend the Debates in Parliament, when that question
shall be discussed ; herein taking special care not to be deceived by general pro-
fessions of disapprobation of Slavery, but ascertaining that the Candidate has
adopted the determination to assist in carrying through measures for its speedy
annihilation. None look witli greater horror on the shedding of blood, or the
remotest chance of occasioning such a calamity than ourselves ; but we are in
our consciences convinced, and that after investigation the most careful and
scrupulous, that from the emancipation we recommend, no risk to the safety of
the white inhabitants could arise ; on the contrary we verily believe, that the
continuance of Slavery renders desolation and bloodshed much more probable ;
and that if the country does not repent of the sin of Slavery and cast it from
her, it may, by the just retribution of Providence, terminate in a convulsion de-
structive alike of life and property.

On behalf of Candidates who are known to hold these principles, and on be-
half of such Candidates only, we ask your assistance ; and this assistance may
be most powerfully rendered, not merely by votes, but by open and public adop-
tion of the Candiaate on these avowed grounds, by the exertion of lawful in-
fluence, by saving hirn time in his canvass, and by relieving him from expenoe
in going to the poll.

We assure you, that on our part, we will not be backward in our efforts for
the attainment of the same ends ; and we will, from time to time, afford you all
the information we may deem requisite.

In the truth and justice of our Cause we are all confident ; but men must
work by human means. Without strenuous efforts, the gold and combination of
our interested opponents, may leave the cause vsdthout that support in Parlia-
ment which is essential to success, and so continue, for an indefinite period, suf-
ferings indescribable and iniquity incalculable.

We solemnly conjure you to shew yourselves, by your courage, energy, and
perseverance, faithful in the cause of Truth and Mercy, and then, with His aid
to whom all good is to be ascribed, we trust this accumulation of guilt and misery
may be speedily annihilated.

Signed in behalf of the London Committee,

T. F. BUXTON, Z. MACAULAY,

S. GURNEY, D. WILSON, ,

W. WILBERFORCE, R. WATSON,
W. SMITH, S. LUSHINGTON,

T. CLARKSON.

London :— S. Bagster, Jun, Printer, 14, Baitholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 81.] JUNE 1, 1831 . [Vol. iv. No. 9.

I.— STATE OF LAW AND MANNERS IN JAMAICA ILLUSTRATED :
1. Presumption of Slavery from Colour; 2. Case of W. 0. Chapman
and two Negro hoys.
II.— DISTURBANCES IN ANTIGUA.
III.— THE RECENT WEST INDIAN MANIFESTO.

I.— Laws and Manners of Jamaica illustrated.
I . Presumption of Slavery from Colour.
" The Christian Record" of Jamaica, continues to supply valuable
illustrations of the character and effects of Colonial Slavery. The
fourth number of that work which has recently reached us, contains,
among other excellent papers, a letter from a correspondent on the
presumption of slavery from the colour of the skin, one of the mani-
fold iniquities of this most unrighteous system, on which we have
frequently animadverted in the Anti-Slavery Reporter. After some
stringent introductory remarks by the editor of the Christian Record,
his correspondent, who signs himself Robert Grundy, proceeds as
follows :—

" I was in a gentleman's house the other day, and while sitting by myself in
the hall, I took up the Royal Gazette of November 27th, 1830, and read the fol-
lowing advertisement :

« Morant-Bay Workhouse, Oct. 27, 1830.

" Notice is hereby given, that, unless the undermentioned slave is taken out of
this workhouse, prior to Thursday the 23d day of December next, he will, on
that day, between the hours often and twelve o'clock in the forenoon, be put up
to public sale, and sold to the highest and best bidder, at the office of F. and J.
M''Donald, in Morant Bay, agreeably to the workhouse law now in force, for
payment of his fees :

" Emanuel Brown, a creole of Curacao, 5 feet 5\ inches, wears whiskers,
some of his upper front teeth are lost ; says he is free, and that he came to this
island in the schooner Eliza, Captain Tighe, during the American war, and that
his papers are with a negro man belonging to Wheelersfield, named Richard
Saunders ; taken up by the maroons, and committed by Thomas M'Cornock,
Esq., August 2.

" This negro was brought before a Special Sessions of the Peace, on the 6th
September, but could not establish his claim to freedom, having no document
whatever.

" Ordered, that the above be published in the newspapers, appointed by law,
for eight weeks. By order of the Commissioners. F. and J. M'Donald, Sup.

" I had often seen such advertisements before, but, somehow or other, never
thought much about them. This time, however, it came into my mind, all of a
sudden : what a strange proceeding is this ! To buy and sell slaves, some people
say, is bad enough. They tell us it is quite contrary to the Word of God ; but
on that subject I know there are different opinions ; so let it pass. Here, how-
ever, said I to myself, is a man who declares he is free, and nobody comes to
contradict him. He gives a history of part of his life, which surely ought to be
believed, till it is proved to be false. I think this would be good law in England ;

2 N

282 Jamaiea — Presumption of Slavery from Colour.

and I am sure it is no more than justice. But, sir, that it is not law in Jamaica,
the foregoing advertisement fully proves. The man is brought, before what is
called a ' special sessions of the peace,' (though I think that fellow, Wilberforce,
or that other fellow, Macaulay, would give it a harder name, and talk something
about ' pirates ' or ' piracy,') and there we are told ' could not establish his claim
to freedom, having no document whatever.'

" I bought a new pair of trowsers the other day ; but if they brought me before
a * special sessions of the peace,' I am sure, if it must be done by written docu-
ments, I could not establish ' my claim ' to them ; and must go away without
my trowsers. Here, however, is a much greater loss sustained, and that too, by
a still poorer man- — even the loss of his liberty. We all love liberty — indeed
there are no people more clamorous about their's than the gentlemen of Jamaica,
at least if we may judge from what they have been doing, and saying lately. It
is not very long since the magistrates of Trelawuy assembled to resist some 'in-
fringement,' I think they called it, of their rights, attempted by the British govern-
ment; and the worthy justices of St. Thomas in the East, (the very men who
formed what the advertisement calls a ' special sessions of the- peace,') spiritedly
met together, to back their oppressed brethren of Trelawny. It is not very long since
the magistrates of St. Ann's refused even to reconsider their proceedings in the
case of Mr. Bridges, and adopted some flaming resolutions about ' the unconsti-
tutional interference of the colonial secretary.' It is not very long since the
grand jury of Middlesex, in their great anxiety for the defence of their rights and
privileges, zsfreemtn, forgot that they were upon their oaths, 'diligently to en-
quire, and true presentment make :' and refused to go into the case of the
reverend accused, merely making enquiry whether a council of protection had
been held, and ascertaining its decision. And the brave editor of the Courant,
told us then, ' that they had nobly performed their duty, and vindicated the in-
jured rights of their fellow colonists;' and yet, Mr. Editor, if these men, thus
strenuous in defence of their liberty, should be brought before a 'special sessions
of the peace,' I doubt if one among them all could ' establish his claim' to free-
dom by written documents, and, if not, would not the ' special sessions of the
peace' be authorized, upon the principle recognized in the advertisement before
us, first to commit them to the workhouse, and then, secondly, to sell them, for
having put the parish to the expence of board and lodging 1

" From this advertisement I have gained one piece of information, at all events.
I have been taught the meaning of the word ^ slave' in Jamaica. Mind you, it
is said ' unless the undermentioned slave be taken out of this workhouse, &c.' A
slave, then, is a man of very dark complexion, who says that he is free, and satis-
factorily explains, how he came, in the capacity of a freeman, to this happy land,
and whose story no one ventures to contradict, but who ' has no documents ' to
tell it fbr him. This is good, but what I am going to say is better. Some years
ago, if there be any truth in history. Englishmen, and, I believe Creoles too, used
to go to some place away over the seas, called Africa, and there steal free men
to make them slaves. The British government, very properly, I think, forbade
this practice of taking, by force, a man's liberty from him, and declared it to be
piRAcy, that is, the worst species of robbery. Now, I know there is this vast
difference, between the practice of which the advertisement before us records one
example, and the practice declared to be robbery by the king and the people of
England ; that in the former case, the practitioners stay in Jamaica, and that in
the latter, they went to Africa. But, Mr. Editor, will you, who are a learned
man, I am sure, tell us in how many other respects they differ ? for in good truth,
I am unable to say.

" I must just ask two questions, and then have done. Suppose, long after
* the slave ' has been sold, ' the documents' should all be found, and it should
really appear that the man did tell the truth, although he had a black skin;
■what's to become of him ? Is the buyer, (for it is nonsense to say ' owner ') to
lose the price of him, or is the parish, or the 'special sessions of the peace,' to
pay it back again ; or what is to be done ? One more question ; when the ex-

Jamaica — Authentic case of brutal cruelty. 283

penses of ' entertainment ' in the workhouse are all paid, what, after the auction,
is done with the surplus money ? Does it go to the ' special sessions of the
peace ;' or what becomes of it ?"

2. Case of W. 0. Chapman and two Negro boys.

In Nos. 68 and 69 of the Reporter we gave some account of the
cruelties inflicted on a slave by William Ogilvy Chapman, overseer
of Windsor Castle estate, in the parish of St. George's, and of the dis-
graceful conduct of the Council of Protection of that parish in most
iniquitously screening this man from trial, and denying all redress to
the maltreated slave. The Rev. Mr. Hanna, Curate of St. George's,
who had the Christian courage to denounce this case to the public
and to the colonial authorities, was assailed by the public press of the
island (with the exception of the Watchman) with the most envenorhed
obliquy, and held up to colonial opprobrium as a partizan of the
" Saints" and a spy of the Anti-Slavery Society ; and two members
of this same Council of Protection, Mr. Gray and Mr. Maxwell, in an
attempt to vindicate their vote on this occasion, while they were forced
to admit the facts stated by Mr. Hanna, concluded their address to
the public of Jamaica in the following terms :

" We regret exceedingly, that a clergyman of the Established Church," (mean-
ing Mr. Hanna,) " should identify himself with a faction that seeks the destruc-
tion of the Colonies, or that he should have taken such a zealous part in a political
matter, of which he could have only a confused and superficial knowledge by
retail. He ought to recollect that he was sent here not to destroy Temples, but
to build them up ; not to weaken the fabric of our institutions, assailed by every
heartless demagogue, but to add strength and unanimity to them, to preach peace
and good-will to men, and a cheerful obedience to constituted authorities. We
are as feelingly alive to the melioration of our slaves, and at all times ready to
punish wanton severity, as any class in the country, but the rude materials of
which our population are formed, require no small degree of firmness and con-
sistency to maintain the authority of a manager. We have nothing to fear from
Anti-Colonial virulence, if we are true to ourselves : once divided, with so many
irresponsible incendiaries amongst us, and we shall soon see our enemies triumph,
and this beautiful island, now the seat of peace, happiness, and plenty, become
a sterile desert." ,

The conduct of such " slave protectors," in thus screening from
punishment the most intolerable outrages against the slaves, in open
contempt of the inoperative slave laws which they had assisted to en-
act and were vainly sworn to execute, and in thus identifying them-
selves and the planters in general with such delinquents as Chapman,
could not fail to encourage the frequent perpetration of similar enor-
mities ; and we accordingly find by the last arrivals that his for-
mer impunity has led on this man to new excesses of cruelty and
brutality almost incredible even in the demoralizing atmosphere of a
slave colony. The disgusting nature of som6 of the details will pro-
bably prove offensive to many of our readers, but they must not on
that account be suppressed. If it be revolting and abhorrent to our
feelings even to read of such things, with what sentiments ought
we to regard the conduct of those who perpetrate them, or that of the
scarcely less criminal colonial magistrates and assemblies who have
constantly resisted all adequate redress of such abuses until they have
attained a pitch of enormity which renders concealment vain. Mf.

284 Jamaica — Authentic case of brutal cruelty.

Chapman, proceeding from bad to worse, as Mr. Bridges and others
had done before him, has at last brought himself within the jurisdic-
tion of the Attorney General, under such circumstances that even a
Jamaica Grand Jury did not venture to throw out the bill. The
following are the entire details of the case as reported in the Watch-
man newspaper : —

" Rex V. Chapman. — The Attorney-General briefly stated, that this was an in-
dictment preferred against Mr. Chapman for an act of brutal outrage committed
on the persons of two negro boys, who were in a bad state of health from dirt-
eating. He caused these boys to eat their own excrement ; and afterwards com-
pelled them to scourge each other in a very severe manner. He was instructed
to call witnesses who would prove the charges laid in the indictment.

" Mr, Spencer is book-keeper on Windsor Castle estate ; knows the prisoner ;
he was the overseer ; recollects the boys in question ; between the 1 8th and 20th
October, can't be positive, the two negro boys were in the hospital for eating dirt ;
they were ordered out at two o'clock on one of those days by the overseer to
work, but they did not go, and were flogged ; he again ordered them to be
flogged ; witness said, oh ! no, let them alone, they will go to their work to-mor-
row probably ; the house boy said they had dirtied themselves ; Chapman said,
make them eat it ; the house boy, Henry Forbes, said they would not do so for
him; Chapman then came down, took thewhipout of Henry's hand, and caused
them to eat it ; of this he is poshive.

" Cross-examined bj/ Mr. Fanton — Was quite near enough to hear and see what
passed ; knows a person of the name of Donn ; they are brother book-keepers ;
have had several conversations with him relative to this transaction ; had a con-
versation with him prior to the meeting of the magistrates at Golden Grove ; never
told him any other story than the one he had just told ; is positive of the truth of
what he had said.

" Dr. Robertson sworn — Is medical attendant at Windsor Castle ; knows the
two boys ; their condition was very bad ; he recommended Mr. Chapman to
take the boys into the house, in order to their being taken care of and properly
fed ; Chapman said he had nothing to give them, if he had he would. It ap-
peared to him that they were more hungry than any thing else : this is as far as
regards one boy ; the other was reduced to a skeleton, from the want of food ,• I
told Mr. Chapman to take him from the hospital, and give him food ; he said he
had none ; I told him to apply to Mr. Lambie if he had none. On my second
visit to the hospital I found the boys all scratched ; I asked Chapman what was
the matter with them, he said they had been fighting; I thought it veiy strange
that two boys who were almost unable to stand could have been fighting ; they
were all bloody and bruised ; I recommended them to be taken care of axid fed;
medicine could have been of no use whatever. On my third visit there was no
improvement at all in their condition ; one of them was about seven, the other
about nine years of age ; one was naked, the other partially so ; he had some
rags about him.

" Case for the Crown closed.

" Mr. Panton, for the defence, said he had no evidence to offer.
■ " Chief Justice — Gentlemen, you have heard the evidence which has been ad-
duced, and you have also heard that there is no evidence in the defence. The
Court expected that in the course of the cross-examination evidence would have
been elicited of a contrary description — tliis has not been done. The evidence,
therefore, remains uncontroverted — and leaving the case to your honesty and in-
tegrity, we consider further observation fi'om us perfectly unnecessary.

" The Jury, after consulting for a few minutes, without retiring, returned a
verdict of guilty. — Upon which the Attorney-General moved that Chapman be
committed."

On this case the Editor of the Watchman makes the following re-
marks : —

, Disturbances in Antigua. ' 285

" The trial of Chapman is one which cannot be perused with any other feelings
than those of astonishment and disgust — astonishment, that a wretch could be
found in human shape, so depraved as to commit the act of which Chapman has
been found guilty ; and disgust, at the until now unheard-of method of punish-
ment adopted by this man monster.

" We have been repeatedly accused of being unnecessarily severe upon those
who have the management of slaves in the country parishes, and of being violent
in our advocacy of the amelioration of their condition, but we would ask those
who thus charge us with undue severity, whether the tender mercies of such men
as Chapman are not cruelties, and if it be possible to find language sufficiently
strong to express our reprobation of such conduct. It is easy to anticipate the
reply which the advocates for the perpetuity of slavery will bring forward. We
are aware that it will unblushingly be asserted that such are only exceptions to the
general conduct of overseers. A litde, very little acquaintance with the system
will, however, satisfy reasonable men to the contrary. So long as unlimited
power is vested in the hands of men who equally disregard all laws, whether
human or divine, so long will cases of cruelty continue to present themselves.

" Some of our readers, perhaps, remember the remarks which appeared in the
public prints of this city, and the address which the grand jury thought it ad-
visable to present to his honour the chief Justice, in consequence of the open and
honest manner in which he gave expression to his abhorrence of the conduct of
this very individual. We then thought, and so would any man not blindly wedded
to the system of slavery, that the expressions then used reflected credit on the
head and heart of their author.

" Mr. Chapman has managed at last to get himself under the lash of the law.
In August last he committed, with impunity an act which, but for the improper
conduct of the St. George's magistrates, would have been visited with that punish-
ment which it so richly deserved. — It was then thought by the magistrates that
he ' acted more from an error of the head than the heart ; and as it was his first
offence, wished him to be reprimanded.' What eflfect their indulgent conduct
has had is manifest."

II. — Disturbances in Antigua. Prohibition of Sunday
Markets.

Some disturbances have recently occurred among the slave popula-
tion of Antigua, in consequence of the total abolition of the Sunday
Negro Market, without allowing any other period for their accom-
modation. The details have been copied into the London papers from
the Colonial journals, together with additional statements from private
letters, and the whole commented on by most of the newspaper writers
and their correspondents in a strain of wilful, or of ignorant misre-
presentation exceedingly disgraceful to the conductors (with some few
exceptions) of the English daily press. The following extract of a
letter, dated Antigua, April 1, which we copy from the Morning
Herald, gives the leading facts of this " insurrection," as it has been
termed, and exhibits at the same time a fair sample of the truth and
candour of the Colonial partizans on such occasions : —

'' The island has been under martial law since the 21st of last month, and
still is. The Legislature, some short time since, passed an Act doing away with
the Sunday Market altogether, and allowed a certain time (one month) after the
publication, to warn the negroes. They were accordingly warned each Sunday
previous, by the police, that they were not to attend on a Sunday after the month;
but they were very dissatisfied, and expressed themselves in strong language to
the police and magistrates ; in fact, they stated their determination to attend
market on the very day after the time had expired. On that day the magis,-
trates, police consta;ble, &c. attended at *e market-place by daylight in the

'286 Prohibition of Sunday Markets.

morning, notwithstanding which they (the slaves) assembled in great numbers,
armed with sticks, &c. ; nor was the presence of the magistrates, who continued
the whole day in the market, any sort of check upon them ; in fact, they appeared
ripe for any mischief. That very evening Mr. Lydeatt's canes were set on fire, and
during the night several other estates — Pells, Edward's, Rev. Mr. Gilbert's, &c.
The Monday following the Governor had martial law proclaimed, and on the Mon-
day evening a detachment of the 2d Regiment of militia was posted at Briggins,
which they had scarcely reached when six other estates were seen on fire. The
people at home and the clergy here are the sole cause of it. When it was stated
by several planters that if the Sunday market was done away it was but justice
to give the negroes another day, the clergy declared they did not ask another
day. Court-martials are sitting every day. One man was executed yesterday,
and I suppose there will be several others. What is to become of us in this part
of the world God only knows ! It appears to me that the proprietors at home
do not exert themselves sufficiently. When this state of things is to be at an end
I know not."

Such is the statement of the Antigua correspondent : now for the
facts. We shall adopt for the present the account here given of the
conduct of the negroes ; and, supposing that account to be correct,
we maintain that no other result could have been reasonably expected
by the Legislature and Governor-of Antigua, as the natural effect of this
their own preposterous Act of pretended amelioration, but really of
wanton and inexcusable oppression. To allege, as the writer of this
letter has done, that " the people at home" and the clergy in Antigua
have occasioned the disturbances by opposing the granting of another
day to the negroes on which to hold their market in lieu of Sunday,
is one of. those examples of reckless and audacious falsehood, for
which the partizans of slavery have distinguished themselves beyond
any other writers in any other controversy of modern times ; and such
allegations on the present occasion are well worthy of the school in
which M'Queen, Macdonnell, Barclay, Burge, and Co. are eminent
Professors. The simple fact is, that the Antigua Assembly, after long
discussion and by a large majority, passed the Act for the total abo-
lition of the negro market on Sunday without the substitution in lieu
of Sunday, of any other day during the week, although they could
not but be perfectly sensible of the injurious effect of such a partial
enactment in abridging the comforts and deteriorating the condition
of the slaves ; and this oppressive Act the authorities of the colony
thought fit to enforce in defiance of the obvious consequences.

The intolerant and oppressive conduct of the Colonial assemblies,
in every instance where they have attempted to legislate for the obser-
vance of the Sabbath, or the religious instruction of the slaves, has
been a subject of animadversion, even to satiety, in the pages of the
Anti-Slavery Reporter. No farther back than January last, in our
strictures on Sir George Murray's correspondence with the Governors
of Slave Colonies, (No. 73, p. 6.) we made some remarks respecting
the abolition of Sunday markets in St. Vincent's, which will be found
most strikingly applicable to the present occurrences in Antigua.
Familiar as these remarks must be to the majority of our readers, we
are induced to repeat them here verbatim, both because it would not
be easy for us to state in stronger terms our reprobation of the wicked
policy which has on this, as on other occasions, characterised, the pro-
ceedings of the authorities of Slave Colonies ; and also because the

Prohibition of Sunday Markets. 287

passage in question furnishes an unanswerable reply to the unscrupu-
lous allegations of the pro-slavery partizans (whether residing in the
colonies or connected with the newspaper press at home), in menda-
ciously imputing to the Anti-Slavery Society, the advocacy of such
rash, and oppressive, and iniquitous proceedings as have just been
brought vividly under the notice of the British public, by these An-
tigua disturbances.

" Sir G. Murray," (we observed,) " in reference to the ninth clause
of the Slave Code of this island, (St. Vincent's,) passed in December
1825, by which the Sunday markets were ordered to terminate at ten
o'clock in the forenoon, says, he understands that this is wholly dis-
regarded, and in practice absolutely nugatory; and he requests the
governor, Sir C. Brisbane, to inform him what the fact really is. The
reply of Sir C. Brisbane is very instructive, and throws so much light
on the real nature of pretended colonial reform, and on the colonial
prejudice and partizanship of at least some colonial governors, that
we shall give it entire. It is dated the 22d May, 1829.

" ' I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch,
dated the 2nd of April, 1829, relating to the Sunday markets. It is
certainly true that the efforts of the legislature have not been able
hitherto to put down this irregular proceeding ; and such are the in-
veterate habits of the negroes, arising from a long customary enjoy-
ment (as it is estimated by them) of marketing on Sunday, that no-
thing but absolute force will remedy the evil at present complained of.
The slaves consider the abolition of this privilege as one of the greatest
hardships imposed on them ; and I am of opinion that hitherto no
moral improvement, or more strict observance of the Sabbath, has taken
place in consequence. The prices of provisions also are increased, to
the great injury of domestic and other slaves in Khigstown, who rely
upon the market for subsistence. Until the negroes shall have ac-
quired a sufficient degree of religion to induce them to observe the
Sabbath from a principle of morality, they will not give up their habits
of trafficking on Sundays. I have, however, endeavoured to remedy
the evil as far as I can by issuing most peremptory orders to the clerk
of the market, the chief constable, and all others under him, to carry
the law into complete effect.'

" On several occasions we have dwelt at great length on, the unjust
and oppressive policy pursued by the colonial legislatures respecting
Sunday markets, a policy for which they have too ready a sanction in
the unaccountable course adopted on the same subject, in the Orders
in Council for the Crown colonies. We will repeat now what we said
in the Reporter, No. 52, p. 67, when treating of the Act of Grenada,
to prevent holding markets on Sunday. It contains no provision
whatever by which the act can be made to contribute in the very
slightest degree to the amelioration of the condition of the slaves.
They can no longer attend Sunday markets ; but no legal provision is
made for their being able to attend them on any other day. No other
day is given to them ; nor are they on any other day protected by law
from being seized and sold for their master's debts, which would in-
evitably follow, in a great majority of cases, from travelling to market
on any day but Sunday. To the slave, therefore, without some law

288 , West Indian Manifesto.

which shall appropriate a certain day to his use, and which shall protect
him on that day from arrest for his master's debts, the pretended ame-
lioration of either abolishing or restricting Sunday markets is a positive
injury instead of a benefit. It is an act of cruel oppression superadded
to all his other wrongs.

"This truth has been repeated in the pages of the Reporter, whenever
the same unjust course has been pursued in the legislation either of
the crown or of the chartered colonies. It is impossible therefore that
it should not have attracted notice, and that all parties concerned
should not be fully aware that the only effectual remedy which can be
applied to the evil of a public market on Sunday is not only to fix, by
law, another day for it, but, by law also, to give that day to the slave,
and to protect him, during its course, from being seized and sold for
his master's debts.

"The legislature of St. Vincent's was perfectly aware of this, and yet
fhey affect to abolish Sunday markets without a single provision to
render such abolition practicable. Doubtless the slaves consider this a
great hardship, and so it is. And Sir Charles Brisbane though equally
aware of the fact, insults the common sense of Parliament and of the
Secretary of State, by saying ' that nothing but absolute force will
remedy the evil at present complained of.'' What is this but a com-
plete misapprehension, at least, of the real nature of the case ? Is not
then the remedy we have proposed practicable ? Has it ever been
tried and found to fail ? Has the slightest rational attempt been made
by this governor^ or by the St. Vincent legislature, to facilitate their
own professed intention to abolish Sunday markets ? And yet Sir C.
Brisbane, offering his counsel on this subject to the Crown, towhomhe is
bound to give faithful counsel,tells the Secretary of State that ' nothing
but absolute force will remedy the evil at present complained of; ' al-
though he might know that a better and more effectual remedy, one too
in perfect accordance with the views of his sovereign and of parliament,
and one unattended with oppression and cruelty to the slave, is in the
power of the legislature over which he presides ; and on this he is
nevertheless not only silent in his intercourse with that legislature ; but,
in his communications to the minister of the crown, virtually denies that
any such remedy is to be found. It would be difficult for us adequately
to convey our impression of such conduct."

III. — ^The recent West Indian Manitesto.
A Manifesto from the West Indian Body in this country, in the
shape of an Address to the people of Great Britain and Ireland, and
signed by forty-one gentlemen " possessing property in the West
India Colonies," has just been issued, and is now in the course of
being most extensively circulated throughout the United Kingdom. We
shall proceed in our next number, (which will appear forthwith,) to
examine, with due attention, the adventurous statements made by the
framers of this Address, and to analyse what they have given as an
" abstract of the existing laws of our West India Colonies;" and we
pledge ourselves to a complete exposure of the deceptions character of
the representations which have been thus authoritatively sent forth
with most zealous activity, and at enormous expense.

S. Bagster, .luri. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 82.] JUNE 25, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 10.

THE WEST INDIAN MANIFESTO EXAMINED:—

Abstract of Ameliorating Laws, viz. 1. On Religious Instruction, Observance
of the Sabbath, Baptism, Marriage; 2. Food, Clothing, Lodging, S^c; 3. La-
bour, Enaction of; 4. Arbitrai-y Punishment ; 5. Separation of Families (Mr.
Surge's Misrepresentations) ; 6. Wlanumission ; 7. Slave Evidence ; 8. Right
of Proper ti/ ; 9, Legal Protection^

The following Address to the People of Great Britain and Ireland
has been of late most extensively circulated throughout the United
Kingdom by the West India Body in this country. When we say
extensively , we mean by hundreds of thousands.

" Fellow Countrymen ! We, the undersigned persons, possessing property in
the West India Colonies, have seen with regret and astonishment an Address to
the People of Great Britain, put forth by a body of persons styling themselves
the ' London Anti-Slavery Society,' and signed on behalf of that Society by
Messrs. T. F. Buxton, S. Gurney, W. Wilberforce, W. Smith, Z. Macaulay, D.
Wilson, R. Watson, S. Lushington, calling on all the people of this kingdom
who prefer ' humanity to oppression/ — ' truth to falsehood,' — ' freedom to
slavery,' — to support those candidates only to represent them in Parliament, who
have determined upon adopting measures for ' the speedy annihila,tion of slavery ; '
and in that Address they proceed to assure you that ' none look with greater
horror on the shedding of blood, or the remotest chance of occasioning such a
calamity, than themselves ; but that they are in their consciences convinced, after
investigation most careful and scrupulous, that, from the emancipation recom-
mended, no risk to the white inhabitants could arise.'

" Fellow Countrymen ! We also prefer humanity to oppression, truth to false-
hood, freedom to slavery ; but we possess, with our property in the West India
Colonies, the means of correctly ascertaimng the actual state of the Negro popu-
lation. We know, and are ready to prove, that the general condition of the
Slaves has been most grossly misrepresented by tiie London Anti-Slavery Society ;
and we assert, in the face of our country, our well-founded conviction, that the
' speedy annihilation ' of slavery would be attended with the devastation of the
West India Colonies, with loss of lives and property to the white inhabitants,
with inevitable distress and misery to the black population, and with a fatal shock
to the commercial credit of this empire.

" We deny the injurious slander that ' the holders of Slaves have proved them-
selves unfit and unwilHng to frame laws for tite benefit of their bondsmen ;' on
the contrary, out of the various measures suggested by the British Government,
for ameliorating the condition of the Slaves, the far greater pi oportion of them are
now in force imder laws enacted by the Colonial Legislatures. We have desired,
we still desire, and will most actively promote, any investigation on oath which
Parliament shall be pleased to institute, for the purpose of ascertaining what is
the real condition of the slave population — what laws have been passed for their
benefit — what progress they have made, and are now making, towards civiliza-
tion— and what further well-digested measures are best calculated 'to pre;)are
tliem for a participation in those civil rights and privileges which are enjoyed by

2 o

290

West Indian Manifesto — Abstract of Laws.

other classes of his Majesty's subjects' — and this ' at the earhest period compati-
ble with the well-being of the Slaves themselves, with the safety of the Colonies,
and with a fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private property.'

Neill Malcolm.
William Maiming.
John P. Mayers.
Philip John Miles.
John Mitchell.
Rowland Mitchell.
G. 11. Dawkins Pennant.
William Ross.
George Shedden.
A. Stewart.

George Watson Taylor.
Robert Taylor.
John Watson.*

Simon H. Clarke, Bart. John H. Deffell.

Henry W. Martin, Bart. James B. Delap.

W. Windham Dalling, Bart. John Fuller.

William H. Cooper, Bart. Alexander Grant.

William Fraser. Alexander Hall.

Wm, Max. Alexander. Robert Hibbert.

J. L. Anderdon. George Hibbert.

David Baillie. Thomson Hankey.

John Baillie. Isaac Higgin.

J. Foster Barham. Hugh Hyndman.

iEneas Barkly. John Innes.

Andrew Colvile. WiUiam King.

John Daniel. Roger Kynaston.

Henry Davidson. David Lyon.

London, Ajtril, 29lh, 1831.

" The Anti-Slaveiy Society declare —

" That the experience of the last eight years has demonstrated incontrovertibly,
that it is on(y by the direct intervention of Parliament that any effectual remedy
can be applied.'

" And one of the Resolutions proposed to the House of Commons at the close
of the last Session, by Mr. T. F. Buxton, also declared —

" * That, during the eight years which have elapsed since the Resolutions of the
House of Commons in 1823, the Colonial Assemblies have not taken adequate
means for carrying those Resolutions into effect.'

" As it is, therefore, on the express ground of the alleged refusal of the Colonial
Assemblies to take adequate measures for carrying into effect the Resolutions of
1823, that the Anti-Slavery party invoke the interference of Parliament, it has
been thought fit to show what are the existing laws of the several Colonies, and
which laws (with one exception, p. 12, )t are either entirely new, or have been
re-enacted with great improvements, within the last eight years."

These forty-one gentlemen then proceed to give, what they call, an
"Abstract of the existing laws of our West India Colonies" compiled,
they say, from Parliamentary documents. The correctness of this
abstract thus vouched, and the value of the enactments it boasts of,
it shall now be our business to examine.

1. The " Abstract'' commences with a view of the measures said to
have been adopted in Jamaica for the benefit of the slaves, in pursu-
ance of the suggestions of His Majesty's Government; and the first
point which they select in proof of the compliance of the legislature of
this island is that of " Religious Instruction and the Observance of
the Sabbath.'' Now, we should be quite willing to rest the whole merits
of this controversy on the truth or falsehood of the alleged compliance.
The recommendation of the British Government was that Sunday
markets and Sunday labour should be abolished, and a day in lieu of
the Sunday given to the slaves for those purposes. But in what re-
spect has the legislature of Jamaica complied with this suggestion ?
It has given the slaves no day in lieu of Sunday, nor do its present

* We have inserted the forty-one names subscribed to this paper by way of
securing a lasting record of them. They are names -^hich ought not to be forgotten .
t We shall hereafter show how unfounded is this statement.

Religious Instruction — Sunday Markets and Labour. 291

advocates pretend that it has done so. Neither has it abolished Sun-
day markets. On the contrary, it has given them, as the "Abstract"
itself admits, the express sanction of law, by permitting them to be
held and kept open till eleven o'clock. The legislature of Jamaica,
these forty-one gentlemen gravely tell us, has passed a law for the
observance of the Sabbath ; and yet that law, on their own shewing,
makes Sunday markets lawful, permitting them to bekeptopen till eleven
o'clock. The enactment in question, therefore, instead of providing
for the observance of the Sabbath, actually provides, (as if in mockery
of the recommendation of Government and of the wishes of the par-
liament and people of Great Britain,) for the ?ion-observance, for the
desecration of that sacred day. The markets may now by positive law
(a law that had no previous existence in the Statute book of Jamaica)
be kept open for nearly half the Sunday. But even the having
thus legalized Sunday markets for so large a part of the day is only a
small part of the evil consequent on this pretended act of compliance.
The slaves, be it remembered, who bring their produce to be sold in
the Sunday market, kept open by a new and express law till eleven
o'clock in the forenoon, must previously have travelled with their
loads from their residences in the country ; and having consumed half
of the Sunday in this labour, and in effecting their sales and their pur-
chases, must again retrace their weary steps, under a noontide sun, to
their respective plantations, at a distance of five, ten, fifteen, or per-
haps twenty miles from the market-place. Can Sunday, under such cir-
cumstances, be designated with any truth as a day of rest and religious
observance ? Is it not rather absolutely converted, by the pretended
ameliorating enactment itself, into a day of toil and fatigue, into a day
devoted to the most secular of all employments, into a day of pecu-
liar hurry, and distraction, and dissipation ? What period of such
a day, so spent, would it be possible to appropriate with any effect to
the work of religious instruction ? What, then, is it that we have to
contemplate in the statement made to us under the solemn assevera-
tions and the formal attestation of these forty-one gentlemen ? Is it
not something which very much resembles a deliberate attempt to im-
pose on the public by a representation, not which slightly varies from
the truth of the case, but which stands in direct opposition to it ? Those
must have formed a strange idea of the gullibility of that pviblic Avho
could boldly venture to stake their credit on such a statement, a
statement so notoriously contradicted by the very words of the Act,
that they themselves, if they opened their eyes, could not but know,
at the very time they affixed their signatures to this paper, that it was
destitute of even the shadow of truth.

And let it not be here forgotten that the West Indians generally,
nay that many of these very gentlemen themselves, have told us re-
peatedly, and in the strongest terms, that, in their opinion, it is only
by means of religious instruction the slaves are to be improved, or fitted
for freedom ; a consummation which they further profess to desire as
ardently as we do ourselves. And yet, the grand proof they give of the
sincerity of these opinions and these professions, and which proof tliey
render peculiarly prominent by placing it in the very fr©nt of their

292 West Indian Manifesto — Religious Instruction.

present laboured defence, is an enactment which, instead of abo-
lishing Sunday marketing and Sunday labour, and allotting other
time in lieu of Sunday for these purposes, so as to afford to the slaves
their only opportunity of religious instruction, confers for the first
time a legal sanction on the gross and systematic violation of the
SaWoath, by recognising it as the day, the exclusive day of traffic for the
slaves, and thus imposing upon them, as an inevitable effect of the law,
the necessity of undergoing on that day much severe and exhausting
toil.* We put it to the understanding of every impartial man, nay,
we put it to the consciences of the forty-one subscribers to the paper
before us, whether this be a fair, open, ingenuous, and honest course ;
and whether, therefore, both the enactment of the Jamaica legislature
on the subject, and their own attempted vindication of it, do not wear
an air which in the case of less honourable men would be deemed
somewhat akin to imposture ? We dwell on this point the more in-
tently and explicitly, not only because these gentlemen have made
this point a prominent part of their case, but because they have uni-
formly chosen to represent the religious instruction of their slaves as
an indispensable preliminary to improvement and ultimate emancipa-
tion. The legislation however, of Jamaica, of which they boast, and
for which they claim credit with the public, is manifestly so far from
tending to promote religious instruction, that it seems to have been
skilfully adapted to retard, if not wholly to frustrate, that object.

These forty-one gentlemen charge the Anti-Slavery Society with
having most grossly misrepresented the general condition of their
slaves. It is obviously impossible for us to reply to so vague and
mdefinite a charge ; and on that very account, we doubt not, they
have found it convenient to avoid all specification. We, on the con-
trary, in dealing with their statements, wish to avoid mere generalities,
and to grapple with their assertions on the ground of fact and evi-
dence. Such is our course in the present instance. We have proved
by the best of all testimony, namely, by their own, that their defence
is invalid ; and that, notwithstanding their bold affirmations to the

* The forty-one gentlemen who have affixed their names to this paper, will
probably allege that we deal unfairly with the legislature of Jamaica, in not ad-
mitting that it has passed an act, which relieves slaves from arrest for their mas-
ter's debts, not only on Sunday but also on Saturday, and this with \he professed
object of facilitating their attendance on a Saturday market. But of what use is
this pretended indulgence to the slave, while the same legislature who passed this
clause (the only purpose of which seems to be to furnish an argument against the
abolitionists,) has not chosen to appoint the market to be held on Saturday,
or to give Saturday to the slave on which to go to that market. To the slave,
therefore, it is obviously of no use.

Again, what benefit does it confer on the slave to pass a law that he shall
not be required to perform plantation work on the Sunday, when not only, as we
have shewn, the state of the law respecting the Sunday market compels him to
toil and fatigue and secularly on that day, but when the refusal to allot time to
him in lieu of Sunday for cultivating his provision grounds, (which grounds fur-
nish to him and his family their means of subsistence) drives him to the alternative
that he must either labour on that day, or starve ?

Religious Instruction — Baptism and Marriage. 293

contrary, Jamaica has not complied with the suggestions of the Go-
vernment on this most vital point of religious instruction and the
observance of the Sabbath. By the very evidence, therefore, which
they themselves have adduced, and which stands foremost in their
defence, they " have demonstrated incontrovertibly" the truth of our
position, "that the holders of slaves have proved themselves unfit and
unwilling to frame laws for the benefit of their bondsmen ; " and "that
it is only by the direct intervention of Parliam.ent that any effectual
remedy can be applied" to the admitted evils of Colonial slavery;
being the very point, by their own statement, at issue between us.

Now if we have established in this single instance, avowedly one of
the primest importance and of peculiar solemnity, that this " Abstract,"
deliberately framed as it has been, and sanctioned by so many high
names, is nevertheless a deceptions document, calculated to mislead
the public, and to convey false views of West Indian improvement,
we might well be spared from proceeding farther with our inquiry, and
might be justified in at once calling on the public to refuse any longer
to listen to representations so wholly undeserving of regard. — These
forty-one gentlemen lay claim to public attention on the ground that
their possession of West India property affords them the means of
correctly ascertaining the truth. If we were to concede to them this
claim, the concession would neither disprove facts that are incontrover-
tible, nor convert truth into falsehood, though it might add to the
discredit of those whose authority, grounded on the claim of superior
knowledge, should be exerted to that unhallowed end.

But we must not omit to remind the public that the very mistate-
ments which we have now held up to merited reprehension, have been
already, over and over again, exposed in our pages, in terms similar
to those which v/e have now employed. And yet the very same mis-
statements have continued to be repeated, by nearly the same parties,
without a single attempt to disprove those direct charges of deliberate
mistatement we had preferred against them ; those charges, too, being
supported by evidence which they themselves (the West Indians) had
supplied. We might refer, indeed, in order to confirm this heavy
imputation, to the three volumes of the Anti-Slavery Reporter already
published ; but we will only point out at present, to those who wish
(in addition to the statements given in our very last number) to satisfy
themselves of the fact, the Anti-Slavery Reporters, No. 37, and
No. 60. No. 60 especially, contains an unanswered and unanswer-
able exposure of an attempt, under the same title of an "Abstract,"
in many respects similar to the present, and from which, indeed, the
present has evidently, in great part, been borrowed. And this cir-
cumstance; coupled with the uniform and determined policy adopted
by these parties, cautiously to avoid all notice of the specific proofs
we adduce of their deliberate misrepresentations, furnishes, of itself,
no light presumption of the correctness of our statements. These
gentlemen, naturally enough, prefer, in such a case, general and vague
abuse to any thing like distinct refutation.

With respect to the points of baptism and marriage, comprised
"under the general head of religion, it will be sufficient to observe, that

294 West Indian Manifesto Examined.

baptism can be considered of little value if disjoined from the reli-
gious instruction which is, to a great degree, unattainable under the
system which prevails in Jamaica, in regard to the Sabbath; — and
that the law of this Island, relative to marriage, instead of promoting,
serves rather to obstruct and discourage that institution, though it
be the necessary foundation of all domestic and social improvement.
(See Anti-Slavery Reporter, vol. iii. No. 60, p. 193—195.)

The above statement with respect to Jamaica may be considered as
applicable, in one most material respect, to all the Colonies, whether
Crown or Chartered. In none of them, even where Sunday markets
have been abolished, as in the Crown colonies and in Grenada and
Tobago, has a day been given in lieu of Sunday. But even the en-
tire abolition of the Sunday market, and the appointment of another
day for holding markets, will be of no value to the slave unless
the day so appointed shall be made his by law, and unless the slave
be also protected, by law, on that day, from arrest for the debts of his
master. A slave going to market on any day but Sunday may now
be seized and sold for his master's debts. How, then, can he go to
market on any day but Sunday ? Jamaica, indeed, has exempted
him from arrest on the Saturday, but has dexterously contrived to
nullify that provision by refusing to give him the Saturday for the
purposes of marketing and labour.

In the case of the mere limitation of the Sunday markets to nine
o'clock as in Barbadoes, or to ten as in St. Vincent, or to eleven as in
most of the other chartered colonies, the case is equally disadvan-
tageous to the slave as we have shewn it to be in Jamaica. They are
in fact only different modes, under the hypocritical shew of a com-
pliance, of depriving the slave population of the benefit intended for
them by the Government and legislature of this country, in requiring
that Sunday markets and Sunday labour should cease.

The remarks respecting baptism and marriage are also with slight
variations equally applicable to the other chartered Colonies as to
Jamaica ; the regulations respecting marriage being, in general, cal-
culated to discourage rather than to promote that institution.

2. The next topic on which these gentlemen choose to insist as
establishing their claim to humanity, and their fitness to legislate for
their bondsmen, bears this title :

" Food, clothing, lodging, general treatment."
■ Now the highest scale they give us of their estimate of the suffi-
ciency of the essential articles of food and clothing, on which so much
of human comfort necessarily depends, is contained under the head
of Demerara, and is as follows —

" Weekly Allowance of Food and of Clothing, to be given to Slaves in the United
Colony of Demerara and Esseguebo.

" Adult working male or female, to have of salt fish, herrings, shads, mackerel,
or other salt provisions, 2lbs. : if fresh, double the quantity, with half a pint of
salt : one and a half bunch of plantains, weighing not less than 45lbs., or of other
farinaceous food ; 9 pints corn or beans; 8 pints pease, or wheat or rye flour, or
Indian corn meal; or 9 pints oatmeal; or 7 pints rice; or 8 pints Cassava flour;
orSlbs biscuit; or 20lbs. yams or potatoes; or 16lbs. eddoes or tanios, and not

Alloioances of food, clothing, ^c. •295

less. Invalids, and boys and girls from 10 to 15 years of age to have two-tl^iirds,
and boys and girls from 5 to 10 years of age, to have one-half of the above
quantities of salt provisions, and of plantains, or other farinaceous food. Chil-
dren from 1 to 5 years of age, to have one-third of the above' quantity of salt
provisions, and one-third of the quantity- of plantains, or other farinaceous food.

" Yearly Allowance of Clothing : —

'* Working males : 1 hat, 1 cloth jacket, 1 check shirt, 1 pair Osnaburg
trowsers, 2 Salampore caps, 1 razor or knife, 1 blanket every 2 years. Work-
ing females : 1 hat, 1 gown or wrapper, 1 check shift, 1 Osnaburg petticoat, 1
pair of scissors, 1 blanket every 2 years. To invalids and children in propor-
tion."

The allowances of food for the slaves in the Leeward Islands includ-
ing Antigua, St. Christopher's, Nevis, Montserrat and Tortola are
on nearly the same scale, except that the salt fish is reduced to l|lbs. a
week and the fi'esh in proportion, and that a permission is given to
the owner to diminish, with the exception of the fish, even these scanty
allowances by a fifth part, in time of crop. The clothing consists of a
single suit annually. The allowances of Tobago do not differ very
materially from these.

No specific allowances are by law assigned to the slaves generally
in any of the other Colonies excepting the Bahamas. But there,
instead of eight pints of flour a week as in Demerara, &c. the legal
allowance is twenty-one pints for each slave, and instead of seven
pints of rice, fourteen, and instead of one suit, two suits of clothing
yearly.

In Jamaica, though no specific allowances of food are prescribed
by law for the field or working slaves, that is, for the slaves generally,
yet the law of that island, as these /br^7/-owe gentlemen admit, fixes,
as sufficient, the rate of allowance, for slaves confined in gaols or
workhouses, at twenty-one pints of flour and seven herrings weekly.

It cannot be supposed to be the intention of the legislature of Ja-
maica to pamper their criminal slaves, or their apprehended runaways,
by giving them a superabundance of food. On the contrary, the
utmost that justice and humanity could require would be that the
food, aflbrded to these offenders against the laws, should be sufficient.
But when we compare their twenty-one pints of flour a week with the
eight pints allowed in Demerara and the Leeward Islands, to hard
working field slaves, toiling under an exhausting sun from day dawn to
dusk, and often much longer; what must we think of the cruel parsimony
which can have dictated such a law? We marvel what any one of
the forty -one subscribers to this address would say to his being kept
for a single day on such fare as this — a pint and one-seventh, or
about a pound, of raw undressed flour, and three ounces of salt fish a
day ? The utmost such a pittance could do for him would be to
keep soul and body together for a brief space. In truth it is an
absolutely starving allowance, and of itself sufficiently explains the
frightful waste of life in our slave Colonies. Still we think that each
of these advocates of the sufficiency and humanity of this provision, if
he persists in" his plea, is bound fairly to put the matter for once
to the test of a week's experiment in his own case, and to favour the
public with the result. And if not, he is at least bound to refute

29G- West Indian Manifesto Examined.

the authentic facts which Mr. Stephen, in the second volume of his
Delineation of Slavery, has adduced to prove the miserable and
destructive insufficiency of such an allowance as that which is here
held forth as ample. (See his eighth chapter, p. 243 to 341.) " The
shocking and opprobrious result" of the elaborate comparison which
Mr. Stephen has there instituted between the allowances to the field
slaves in the West Indies ; and those to the inmates of our gaols and
penitentiaries, both when idle and when put to hard labour, in Eng-
land ; is thus stated by that able and accurate writer : —

^' The English vagabond or felon, when imprisoned for his crime
has a subsistence which, on the lowest general estimate that can be
formed, is, at least, two-fold superior in nutritious value to that of the
poor West Indian negro, whose freedom has been forfeited by no
crime of his own, but solely by the deep, publicly acknowleged, legis-
latively recorded crime of this enlightened Christian land, perpetrated
against himself or his African progenitors. The one is thus fed
while in idleness. When forced to labour his subsistence is still
greater. The other (the slave), though his forced and permanent
labours are twice as great, has, at best, not half the food. Yet the
former's allowances are limited by the necessity of the case, the neces-
sity of saving him from the wasting of the body, from debility, sickness
and death. What, then, must be the consequences of giving less
than half the subsistence to the ultra-laborious slave ? What they
actually are, my readers have sufficiently seen. They cannot be better
summed up than in the emphatic words of Dr. Collins,* in his Practical
Rules, &c. p. 87, 88, ' With so scanty a pittance, he says, it is, in-
deed, possible for the soul and body to be held together for a consider-
able time with no other resource.' ' They (the Negroes) may crawl
about with feeble emaciated frames,' but ' their attempts to wield the
hoe prove abortive; they shrink from their toil, and being urged to
perseverance by stripes, you are soon obliged to receive them in the
hospital, whence, unless your plan be speedily corrected, they depart
but to 'the grave:' and he goes on to 'aver it boldly,' on the 'ground
of his own experience, that numbers of Negroes have perished annually
by diseases produced by inanition." (Stephen's Delineation, vol. ii.
p. 318.)

We need say no more to prove that West Indian legislation ,
respecting the subsistence of the slaves, does not go very far to es-

* Dr. Collins was an eminent medical practitioner in St. Vincent's, where he
became possessed of many slaves. He was one of the most able and zealous
apologists of the West India system. He published a work entitled " Practical
Rules for the Management and Medical Treatment of Negro Slaves in the Sugar
Colonies," which was so highly valued by some West Indians, that Mr. G.
Ilibbert, the agent of Jamaica, caused an extensive edition of it to be printed
and circulated. It was not till afterwards that the melancholy impression of the
condition of the negro slave, whicli this faithful though indirect exhibition of its
evils was calculated to produce, became fully known to the public. Mr. Stephen
has drawn from it a most remarkable confirmation of every part of the horrid
case which his own masterly Delineation of Colonial Slavery has laid bare to the
eye of the national conscience.

General Treatment — Exaction of Labour. 297

tablish the planters' claim to humanity, or their '' fitness to frame
laws for benefit of their bondsmen/'

As for the legal provision of clothing, it is almost too ludicrous
to be seriously mentioned, were it not for the melancholy conse-
quences which it involves. One suit of clothing in the year, to men and
women ! and of such clothing ! made of the vilest and most flimsy
materials ! What must be the state of this annual suit at tlije close of
the year, if it has indeed been worn and washed during that time ?
Will it be pretended that such an allowance can provide for comfort
or even for decency ? It would be utterly inadequate even to cover
the nakedness of these human cattle, if they have no other resource,
which many of them have not. The whole value of it probably
does not exceed that of the cloth of one of the pampered horses
of any one of the forty-one subscribers to this address.

As for tlifi articles of lodging and general treatment, the terms in
Avhich these are spoken of in the Colonial Acts are too vague to serve
any purpose but that of imposing, by a mere shew of legislation, ut-
terly worthless in itself, on the ignorance of the good people of this
country. As for general treatment, that is obviously to be measured,
not by any vague terms they may employ on the subject, but by the
quantity of food and clotliing secured to the slaves, the labour exacted
from them, the punishments arbitrarily inflicted, the protection given
by law, the instruction imparted to them, and a variety of other par-
ticulars which have already appeared, or will hereafter appear under
their separate heads, and which, united, go to form the aggregate of
what may be called general treatment.*

3. Our forty -one West India advocates produce, in the next place,
the legal regulations respecting labour, as proving " the humanity" of
the planters, and. "their fitness to make laws for their bondsmen." It
might indeed be assumed d priori, that as the benefit of the slave's
labour was to belong to the planter exclusively, and as the slave had
no voice in regulating its amount, the tendency of enactments, framed
and enforced by the interested party, would be to an excess of exac-
tion. And that such has been the actual result, is shewn by this very
^'Abstract," which professes to establish a contrary conclusion.

Taking the new law of Jamaica as a sample of the whole, both because
it is a fair sample, and because its slave population is nearly equal to
that of all the other colonies, what, on the shewing o{ these forty -one
gentlemen, is the state of the case ? The slaves then of Jamaica, as well
as of most of the colonies, are compellable by law, to labour in the
field from five in the morning till seven at night, being fourteen hours
a day, with intervals of two hours and a half, which still leave, even
supposing them to be effective intervals, eleven hours and a half of
field-labour in each day, under the blaze of a tropical sun, which the
planter may exact, and the slave is bound to yield, on pain of the
lash. Eleven hours and a half of compulsory labour in the f eld
during each day, the whole year round ! Was any thing like this

* The reader has only to turn to our last number, p. 283 and 284, for a strik-
ing illustration, in the case of Jamaica itself, of the hunger, and the nakedness,
and the maltreatment incident to Slavery.

2 p

298 West Indian Manifesto — Exaction of Labour.

exaction ever known, even in temperate climates? But then this is only
the labour they may be actually compelled to perform i?i the field.
The additional night labour of crop-time, to which there is no limit,
is expressly excluded from the eleven hours and a half which may be
consumed in field work. The night work of crop-time is over and
above this, and may be estimated at five hours more, namely, from
seven in the evening till midnight for half the gang, and from mid-
night to five in the morning for the other half, alternately. And this
period of crop lasts for from four to six months of the year, according
to circumstances. During those four, five, or six months, therefore, the
slaves may be legally required to be actually employed in plantation
labour, for sixteen hours and a half out of the twenty-four. Thus
much, we repeat it, the law expressly authorizes the master or his de-
legate to exact from them, for the sole benefit of the master. But in
addition to this enormous continuity of labour, it is obvious that there
are various indispensable demands on the time of the slaves, which are
of constant and daily recurrence, and which must greatly abridge
their broken intervals of repose. They must be ready for the field in
the morning, in order to be there at five, and must travel thither in
the morning and afternoon, and must return thence at noon and at
night. They must prepare and cook their raw and undressed food,
collect fuel for that purpose, obtain water, often from a distance, take
care of their children, wash their clothes, and attend to other domes-
tic objects which we need not enumerate ; and for all which it would
be unreasonable to assign less than an hour and a half or two hours
in the day ; thus swelling their time of actual occupation, during
crop-time, to eighteen hours or eighteen hours and a half in the
twenty-four, leaving only five or six for meals and for repose.

During the six or eight months which may remain, exclusive of
crop-time, their case is doubtless mitigated. Still they are liable, even
then, to thirteen or fourteen hours of unceasing employment, indepen-
dently of the time for meals and for repose. Even this, however, is too
luxurious a state of ease and indulgence to be suffered to subsist
without encroachment. Accordingly it is considered, out of crop, to
be, in most cases, a regular part of the duty of the field-slaves, after
the labour of the field is over, (that is, after seven o'clock at night,) to
employ themselves in collecting fodder for the horses and cattle on
the plantation, and in bringing it to an appointed place, to be inspected
and duly deposited, before they are finally dismissed to their rest for
the night.

This most onerous task of grass collecting, in addition to all the
other labours of the day, is seldom alluded to by West Indians. They
seem anxious to hide every trace of it from the knowledge of the
public, and at this we cannot wonder, for it is a most grievous and
wanton aggravation of the miseries of their bondsmen. The following
is the manner in which Dr. Collins speaks of it: — "The picking of
grass in situations where it is most abundant, is a labour more felt and
regretted by the negroes than others much more severe." Again, he
says, " The neglect of grass-picking is another frequent cause of
punishment. On some estates it draws more stripes upon the negroes

Exaction of Labour — Grass Picking. 299

than all their other offences put together, as the lash seldom lies idle
while the grass-roll is calling over." " As it (this grass-picking) is to
be performed when the negroes are retired from the field, and no
longer under the eye of the overseer or driver, it is apt to be neglected.
Besides it encroaches much on the time allotted to their own use; and
even after they have, with much trouble, picked their bundles, they
are frequently stolen from them by other negroes, and their excuses,
however just, are seldom admitted to extenuate their fault." Dr.
Collins strongly recommends some other mode of meeting this want,
if it were only that the negroes might escape the whip, " which," he
adds, " is too intemperately employed on this as on other occasions.
The misfortune is, the whip is always at hand, and therefore supplies
the readiest means of punishing ; for the overseer, having such a
summary mode of balancing ofFenceSj never thinks of any other."
p. 192—205.

The common practice with respect to grass-collecting is, that all the
field slaves shall be compelled, after quitting the field at night, (and
in many cases at noon also,) to collect a bundle of grass, and to pro-
ceed with it to the stable or cattle-pen, and when all are there
assembled, to have their names called over and their bundles examined,
in order to see that they are sufficiently large. If not, or if they fail
to attend this roll-call, they are punished. The bundles are then
thrown into a heap, and the slaves are dismissed. Nor is it only the
demand on the time and labour of the slaves, after the fatiguing toil
of a tropical day, which is to be lamented in this inhuman practice,
but their exposure to the chilling effect, on their heated bodies, of the
night air, and often of the rain, which, when it falls, soaks their
bundles, and streams down from the head, on which these are carried,
over their whole bodies, generating colds, fevers, and consumptions.

Nor is this a practice which belongs only to ancient times, or to the
days of Dr. Collins which are comparatively modern, but which
exists, at the present hour, even in the Crown Colonies. And it will
be found, by the Protectors' returns, which have been laid before Par-
liament, that in Trinidad, Demerara, Berbice, Mauritius, &c. there is
no part of the fatiguing exactions required from' the slaves which
brings down upon them now, as it did in Dr. Collins's time, more fre-
quent floggings than this. The same is the case in most of the other
colonies ; the laws of some of them expressly giving the master a
right to exact this bundle of grass after the labour of the field is
closed.* This practice, however, is neither so onerous nor so uni-
versal in Jamaica as in most of the other colonies. It nevertheless
prevails there to a considerable extent. And wherever it does prevail,
it is unquestionably a practice of the most oppressive and injurious
description, as it respects both the comfort and the health of the
slaves.

* The Act of Grenada expressly provides, that the slaves are not to be com-
pelled to work beyond the period of field-labour, except "in manufacturing such
produce as necessarily requires night or extra labour," or " in the carrying a
bundle of grass or stockmeat from the field to the stable or other place, where
the same is consumed." — They must collect this bundle before they can carry it.

300 West tndian Manifesto — Arbitrary Punishment.

Siich is the general system of labour which, our forty -one advocates
of slavery affirm, proves the '^huiiiahity" of the planters, and "their
fitness" to make laws for the benefit of their bondsmen !

4. The next point we shall advert to is that of arbitrary " piinish-
fnent.'^ Now, the forty -one gentleirien who have undertaken to
vindicate the humanity of the colonial legislatures, and among them
of that of Jamaica, tell us that " the existing laws," of which they
profess to give an " abstract," " are either entirely new, or have
been re-enacted, with great improvements, within the last eight
years." They here make no exception. Now, we beg to ask of
them to point out, uiider which of these classes they mean to place
the clause of the Act numbered by them 36, of which they give
the following abstract, viz : — " No slave shall receive more than
ten lashes, except in presence of owner or overseer ; nor, in such
presence, more than thirty-nine in one day, nor until recovered from
former punishment; Under penalty of £20." This is neither a new
fior an improved enactment. It stands forth in the latest Slave Code
of Jamaica, with precisely the same gtim and ferocious aspect which
it exhibited in the consolidated Slave Act of 1788, arid in every in-
termediate renewal of it ! But let us give the very words of the
clause as it liow stands : they ought never to be lost sight of by
the British public. They bear nOw^ it seems, the date of 1831.

" And IN ORDER TO RESTRAIN ARBITRARY PUNISHMENT, be it further

enacted, that no slave, on any plantation or settlement^ or in any of
the workhouses Or gaols of this Island, shall receive any more than
TEN LASHES at otie time and for one offence, unless the owner, attor-
ney, guardian, executor, administrator, or overseer, of such planta-
tion or settlement, having such slave in his care, or keeper of such
workhouse, or keeper of such gaol shall be present; and that no such
owner, attorney, guardian, executor, administrator^ or overseer, work-
house-keeper, or gaol-keeper, shall, on any account, punish a slave
with more than thirty-nine lashes, at oiie time, or for one offence,
nor inflict, nor suffer to be inflicted, such last mentioned punishment,
nor any other number of lashes on the same day, nor until the delin-
quent has recovered from the effect of any former punishment, under
a penalty of not less than ten pounds, nor more than twenty pounds
for every offence."

Such then is one of the laws which these forty-one gentlemen, the
acknowledged representatives of the West India body, ostentatiously
hold forth to the public, as an evidence of colonial humanity, and as
a refutation of what they term the gross misrepresentations of the
Anti-Slavery Society, when it affirms that " the holders of slaves
have proved themselves unfit and unwilling to frame laws for the
benefit of their bondsmen," and that " the experience of the last eight
years has demonstrated incontrovertibly that it is only by the direct
intervention of parliament that any effectual remedy can be applied."
And yet, what farther evidence can be wanting to establish these po-
sitions than the very existence of such a law, retained, cherished, uu-*
modified, vaunted, not only by its framers, but by their distinguished
defenders. Would the oaths these gentlemen tender, in proof of the
humanity of colonial bondage, efface this revolting enactment, an

Jamaica Laiv of Arbitrary Punishment. 30 i

enactment not dragged from the records of some barbarous age, and
long since become obsolete, but deliberately renewed from time to
time, during a long series of years, after reiterated debate and dis'^
Cussion, in contempt of the strongest recommendations of the crown,
the detiunciations of Parliament, and the indignation of the whole
British nation ; nay more, triumphantly re-enacted by the assembly,
as a part of the Jamaica Slave Code of 1831, and then exhibited,
by forty-one West Indian planters and merchants of the first emi-
nence, as a decisive proof of the humanity of slave-holders, and their
fitness to legislate for their bondsfneli.

But let us contemplate more nearly and particularly the whole
enormity of this clause. We are continually reproached with dwelling
on individual instances of cruelty, which, as they may occur in the
best regulated community, prove nothing as to the general state of
law and manners which may prevail in it. But here we have whole
communities, acting by their representatives freely chosen, strenuously
contending for the continuance of this monstrous and revolting power
of lacerating, at their pleasure, the prostrate bodies of their dependants,
and pertinaciously clinging to it, as if it was their life. They seem to
hug the cart-whip to their bosoms as their glory, their grand badge of
distinction. And not only are those, it would seem, ready to fight for
it, who actually wield it, who exult in its explosions, and whose lust
of power is gratified by directing and witnessing its application ; but
by forty-one chosen advocates of the West India body, residing
among ourselves, mixing in our assemblies, joining our convivial par-
ties, occupying seats in our imperial senate, and claiming the name
and the character of English gentlemen.

And then, over whom, and by whom, is this power, thus fondly che-
rished and thus firmly grasped, thus reasserted in the year 1831 by
the Assembly of Jamaica, and thus defended by no less ihdcn. forty -one
select and distinguished members of the West India body; — over
whom and by whom, we ask, is this power to be exercised ? It may be
exercised over every slave of the 325,000 who inhabit the Island of
Jamaica. Every man, woman, or child, by this law, is subjected to
it. Each and all of them may, by this law, be laid prostrate on
the earth, and have their bared and quivering limbs shamefully exposed
to the common gaze, and torn and mangled with thirty-nine lashes of
the torturing cart-whip. And to all this they are liable, without even the
form of a trial or the order of a magistrate ; at the mere caprice or
bidding of another; for no defined or specified offence; but merely
because the individual, armed with this tremendous power, chooses to
exercise it. — And then who are those to whom the law delegates this
frightful exercise of arbitrary power over the persons of their fel-
lows ? They are, to the extent of ten lashes, every driver or quasi
driver, and to the extent of thirty-nine, every one, whether male or
female, who is the owner of a slave, or to whom such owner may think
proper, at his sole discretion, to transfer or delegate his legal rights of
proprietorship. In short, every oivner, attorney, guardian, executor,
administrator, or overseer, nay every keeper of either gaol or
work-house, is armed, by this law, with the power of thus lacerating
the body of every slave under his charge; at his discretion; without

302 West Indian Manifesto.

being required, by this or any other law, to assign a reason for so
doing ; nay, being actually protected by law, in so doing, from all re-
sponsibility whatever, provided he does not kill or maim his victim.

And yet, as if in mockery of every feeling of humanity and justice,
and as if to mark the pernicious effect of participating in the admi-
nistration, or even in the gains, of slavery, the legislators of Jamaica,
and their forty-one British advocates, continue to maintain that the
very object for which this clause has been framed, is, "in order to
RESTRAIN Arbitrary Punishment'."

Now let us never forget, when considering the degree in which the
boasted limit of thirty-nine lashes may be considered to operate as an
effectual restraint on cruelty, first, the candid declaration of the As-
sembly of Barbadoes in 1826, (when apologizing for its refusal to limit
the number of lashes which an owner might arbitrarily inflict,) namely,
that even "a given number of stripes, in the hands of a relentless
executioner, may, under the sanction of the law, be so inflicted as to
amount to an act of cruelty;" and second, the candid and humane
statement of Mr. Barrett, himself a large owner of slaves in Jamaica,
who, in his place in the Assembly, asserted that the cart-whip was a
base, cruel, debasing, detestable instrument of torture, thirty-nine
lashes of which might be made more grievous than five hundi'ed of
the cat, though the latter was only inflicted after solemn trial, and the
former, " at the pleasure of an individual, at his sole command, as
caprice, or passion," (and he might have added or drunkenness, or
brutal lust) "dictated."

On this head we have confined ourselves hitherto chiefly to Ja-
maica. We will now briefly advert to the other chartered colonies.
In none of them has the flogging of females been abolished by law,
and in practice it is still continued, and in no one more shamelessly
and cruelly than in Jamaica itself, of which recent Parliamentary
papers furnish abundant proof. (See Anti-Slavery Reporter, vol. iii.
No. 71, p. 481, and vol. iv. No. 76, &c.) In the crown colonies,
indeed, this abomination has been prohibited, not by the planters, but,
in spite of their clamorous opposition, by the authoritative mandate of
the supreme government.

Barbadoes stoutly maintained, that " to forbid, by legislative
enactment, the flogging of female slaves, would be productive of the
most injurious consequences." There are, however, ybr^?/-orae eminent
planters who vauntingly tell us, that, by the humane law of that
island, women when flogged, are to be flogged decently, and with the
military cat, and that ^^ pregnant women" are no longer to be
flogged, but merely confined. Could the most inveterate enemy of
the Colonists have imagined, beforehand, that in the year 1827, such
a law could have been unblushingly framed, by a body even of Bar-
badian legislators; and that in 1831, the humanity of it should be
vindicated ^^■^ forty -one English gentlemen? So seems to have thought
the late Mr. Huskisson. In his despatch of the 18th October, 1827,
he observes, that the military cat was an instrument " intended for
the correction of men in the maturity of life, guilty of serious offences.
It would be most formidable, if the young, the aged, and the infirm,
were to be the sufferers. In the case of females," he added, " I

Power of Arbitrary Punishment. 303

should hope that no man could seriously think of resorting to it. The
case supposed of a woman being flogged in an indecent manner, or
of a pregnant woman being flogged at all, would seem to require
some much more severe punishment than a fine of £10 currency."
How must these Barbadian legislators, who had been flogging naked
women all their days with the cart-whip, have laughed to scorn the
squeamishness of Mr. Huskisson, and his horror of the army cat I So
far were they from sympathizing with him, that they solemnly and
officially declare, that to discontinue the flogging of women, would
be inconsistent with " the safety of the inhabitants, the interests of
property, and the welfare of the slaves themselves." And yet these
men are held out to us, by the distinguished jTorfy-ojze, as men of hu-
'manity, ''^ fit to make laws for the benefit of their bondsmen !"

St. Vincent, the Bahamas, and several other colonies, in respect to
severity of punishment, stand precisely on the same footing as Ja-
maica. In some of them we have a similar affectation of decency, in
the flogging of women, as is shewn in Barbadoes. In Grenada, St.
Christopher's, and Tobago, the limitation of stripes has been reduced
from thirty-nine to twenty-five ; and Dominica has substituted the
cat for the cart-whip. As for the laws professed to be passed in a few
of the chartered colonies, for abolishing the driving-whip, they are
nothing more than a gross attempt to blind the eyes of the British
public. The remarks of Earl Bathurst, on that of St. Vincent, are
applicable, with trivial variations, to all of them. " The law," he
says, " is so constructed, that a free-negro may use it (the driving-
whip) with impunity, and even a slave may be employed to use it, if
not carried as an emblem of authority, but as a means of impelling
other slaves to labour. The prohibition, too, extends only to one
description of whip, namely, that which is usually called the cart-
whip. And it is only on the plantation it is prohibited at all. In
other places it may be exhibited even by a slave with impunity."
(Papers by Command for 1827, p. 112.) Is it not an act of deli-
berate dishonesty to pass such a law as this, or to exhibit it when
passed, as a law for abolishing the driving-whip ?

We mean to reserve, for another occasion, some remarks we shall have
to make on the gross violations of the laws humanely passed, by His
Majesty's government, to regulate and restrain arbitrary punishments,
which have taken place in the Crown Colonies, notwithstanding
the appointment of Protectors. In the mean time, we have said
enough on the subject, as it respects the chartered colonies, to in-
validate the testimony of our forty-one West India proprietors, in
favour of the humanity of the planters, and of their " fitness to make
laws for the benefit of their bondsmen."

5. The next point in order, is " the separation of families.'' But
although our forty -one subscribers mention the subject, by way of
swelling, we presume, the number of alleged ameliorations, yet they
do not pretend to aflfirm that any thing effectual has been done to cure
this evil. All they venture to say upon it is, that " where a levy shall
be made of a family or families, each family shall be sold together
and in one lot." This regulation, however, is most obviously nugg,^-

304 West Indian Manifesto — Separation of Families.

tory, so long as levies are permitted without regard to family ties, and
more especially, so long as there is no law to prohibit the separation
of families by private sale.

Mr. Burge, the agent of Jamaica, had indeed the extraordinary
hardihood, on the 15th of April last, to affirm in his place in the
House of Commons, that separations by private sale were not per-
mitted in Jamaica. But the falsehood of this assertion was com-
pletely established by Lord Howick, who exhibited an intimate
acquaintance with this and other parts of the Colonial question, which,
considering the short time he had been in office, excited our surprise
and admiration. His Lordship challenged Mr. Burge to " point out
any clause of any law, in the whole statute book of Jamaica, in which the
practice in question was denounced and proscribed." Mr. Burge, un-
able to meet this challenge, boldly resorted to the subterfuge of saying
that, "the Courts of lawwould set aside the sale;" but this he said with-
out being able to produce a single instance in proof of his allegation,
although the case of separation by private sales is one of constant
occurrence in Jamaica. Mr. Burge too, be it remembered, was actu-
ally the Attorney General of Jamaica, and a member of its legislature,
in December 1826, when it was proposed in the Assembly, by Mr.
Batty, "That it shall not be lawful in cases of sale" (making no dis-
tinction between voluntary sales by the master and sales under legal
process) " to separate married people from each other, or from their
issue if under ten years of age, provided the parties belong to the
same owner ; and it shall not be lawful for any collecting constable,
the provost marshal, or any of his deputies, to levy upon, or sell
them separately." This clause, however, was rejected ; and the only
provision made on the subject was this, that on levies, in execution,
Ik" mothers and children under ten years of age are seized together
they shall be sold together. Some of the speeches on this occasion
throw much light on the state of feeling among the legislators of Ja-
maica. Mr. Brown said, it would be very hard upon a man who
owed a small sum of £50 to have a whole family sold by the marshal.
(The hardship to the slave, was made no account of.) In reply to
Mr. Batty, Mr. Hilton observed (and his opinion prevailed in the
assembly) " that it would be violating the rights of property to dictate
to the master how he should dispose of it : he had a right to sell one
or more of his slaves, according to his wants and inclinations, in the
same way as he had to dispose of any other property. The proposed
clause, therefore, he considered as an invasion of property." (Royal
Gazette of Jamaica, December 1826.)

Now Mr. Burge, we should think, must have been aware of these
occurrences, when, trusting to the ignorance prevailing in the House
of Commons as to the details of Colonial questions, he ventured to
contradict Lord Howick respecting the liability of families to be
separated by private sale, or to affirm that the Courts of law in Ja-
maica would annul such sale. It is difficult to conceive how he, at
least, could have uttered either the denial, or the affirmation, in igno-
rance of its truth or its falsehood.

But can it then be true that the different legislatures of the British

Manumission — Slave Evidence.. 30/>

Colonies should, for eight long years, have contumaciously refused
to adopt any effectual measures for rectifying this crying evil of forci-
bly separating husband and wife, parent and child by sale, for the
convenience, or at the caprice, of an owner ; and that forty-one
English gentlemen, holding respectable stations in society, and some
of them members of the British Parliament, should be found to come
forward before the public to praise the humanity of such legislators,
and to guarantee their "fitness to make laws for the benefit of their
bondsmen ?" Such is the fact, though it is almost too bad for
belief.

6. Our forty-one g'entlemen have taken the trouble of raising a
head for " Manumission ;" but this could not have been with any
hope to establish the claim of the legislators of the West Indies, to be
regarded as willing to comply with the suggestions of His Majesty's
government on this point; since all they have said and done,
respecting it, has only served to prove their determination wholly to
refuse to the slave the right of self-redemption invito domino. On
this subject, indeed, Mr. Burge astonished the House of Commons
by boldly and broadly asserting that slaves were a freehold pro-
perty, which it was unjust to compel a master to dispose of against
his will. " This observation," said Lord Howick in his able reply,
** shocked me more than I can describe. Is it not the ordinary
practice of the British legislature to compel a man to dispose of
his own freehold property when it is for the public convenience ?
Does he mean to say it is unfair to make a man part with his
slave for the value of that slave, when we every day compel a man to
part with his property for the mere convenience of the public? When
for constructing a rail-road or a turnpike- road, we compel any man to
sell property which he has neither acquired nor held by guilt, or with
a shadow of injustice, and this too on the mere ground of convenience,
h it to be said that we are to be barred from pursuing the same course
when justice is concerned, and when the subject of compulsory sale
is that which no man can have acquired, or can retain, innocently — ■
the freedom of an unoffending slave — the birthright of every human
being? I did hear with astonishment this argument of the hon, and
learned gentleman, and though it excited a great sensation in the
House, I wonder it was not infinitely greater." — It was impossible for
any liberal mind to listen to the manly and indignant expostulation
of the noble lord without a thrill of delight.

7. The next head of vindication and apology refers to the '' Evi-
dence" of slaves. Of the law on this general subject, as it exists in
our chartered Colonies, we know not that we could give a more ac-
curate view than will be found in our third volume, No. 65,- p. 370, viz.
" Of the chartered Colonies, Grenada and Tobago have admitted the
evidence of slaves without restriction. In the others the restrictions
imposed on that admission are of such a nature as to render their
apparent concessions perfectly futile and valueless." 0\xx forty -one
gentlemen, however, seem disposed to falsify this statement. Not con-
tent with affirming the fact, which we gladly admit, of the unrestricted
admissiton of slave evidence in Grenada and Tobago, they assert, iot

2 Q

30^ West Indian Manifesto — Slave Evidence.

example, that, by the law of St. Vincent, "Slave evidence, except
against owners, is admissible, as in the case of free persons." Now
that our readers may judge of the misrepresentation which is in-
volved in that assertion, we will here transcribe Lord Bathurst's com-
ment upon this law in his despatch of April 3, 1827, " The law (viz.
the law of slave evidence) excludes," says hisLordship, "the evidence
of unbaptized slaves, and of slaves baptized by any ministers dissen-
ting from the established Church. — It also excludes all slaves not suf-
ficiently known to some clergyman" (a dissenting teacher will not do)
" to obtain from him a certificate of their good character and repute,
and of their being suflficiently instructed in the principles of religion
to understand the nature of an oath. — What is still more objection-
able is the necessity of obtaining a certificate to the same effect from
the proprietor or his attorney, which will prevent the slave being heard
as a witness in any case where the proprietor or attorney has a motive
for preventing it. — The slave cannot be admitted as a witness in any
civil case, and even in criminal prosecutions, he cannot be heard
against his owner, or manager, or his delegates. — The testimony of a
single slave, though supported by the clearest circumstantial evidence,
or even by the testimony of another witness of free condition, would
not, under this act, be sufficient for a conviction. — No public record
is established for registering the names of slaves competent to give
evidence." (Papers by command, part ii. p. 112.) Now our /orfi/-o«e
gentlemen, though they must have been aware that the law had been
thus described by His Majesty's Secretary of State, yet, without
adverting to any one of the many potent objections he had urged
against it, give to the legislature of St. Vincent full credit for com-
pliance with the suggestions of the Government, and describe this
evasive and futile enactment in the untrue and deceptive terms we
have already quoted.*

* We are here forcibly reminded of a very recent attempt, of the same kind,
to mislead parliament on the subject of Colonial Slavery, made by the body of
Colonial agents in this country, and of which, on account of its character, it
seems desirable to preserve some reminiscence.

A paper of forty-six folio pages was laid on the table of the House of Com-
mons, and by that House ordered to be printed, on the 28th of March, 1831,
entitled, " Slave-laws: West Indies," and numbered 301. Notwithstanding its
size, it passed through the press with extraordinary celerity, and was in the
bands of members on the following morning. This paper was naturally pre-
sumed to be some important official document, which government had deemed it
their duty to furnish, in the utmost haste, previously to the discussion on Colo-
nial Slavery, which stood for the very day of its appearance, namely, the 29th of
March. On looking beyond the first page, however, the attentive reader dis-
covered, to his no small surprise, that this paper, though bearing, on its exterior,
some marks of authority, was no official document, but a paper prepared by the
West India agents, and having been transmitted by one of their number to
Lord Goderich, was then m-oved for in the House of Commons, evidently in
the hope that, in this transition through the colonial department, it would somehow
or other acquire, in the eyes at least of superficial readers, a character of authori-
ty, and, reaching them on the very morning of the approaching debate, might
influence the votes of many ; while opponents would have no time to examine

Attempt of Colonial Agents to mislead Parliament. 307

Equally ineffective to its purpose is the new legislation, on the subject
of slave evidence, of Jamaica, as well as that of the other Colonies,
with the exceptions already mentioned. On the law respecting it in
the Jamaica Act of 1826 (being- the same as in the Act of 1831), Mr.
Huskisson, with his characteristic good sense, thus comments: " It ap-
pears to contemplate the admission of the evidence of slaves in those
cases of crimes only in which they are usually the actors or the sufferers,

and expose this new and artful contrivance for giving, to fallacious party state-
ments, an official aspect. A suspicion of this kind appears to liave suggested
itseU' to the mind of Lord Goderich ; and, to prevent his being implicated in a
proceeding so manifestly unf lir and disingenuous, he instructed Lord Howick,
to give due notice of its real nature to all who might otherwise have been
deceived by it. Accordingly, the pseudo-official paper was prefaced by a letter
from Lord Howick to the Colonial agents, telling them, and through tliera the
House of Commons, that Lord Goderich felt it necessary, "for the prevention of
any possible misconception," that he should distinctly apprise them, that Lord
Goderich declined to express any opinion respecting the accuracy of tlie various
" Abstract^' which they had thus transmitted ; — and that his Lordship could
not too distinctly explain, that they were invested with no official authority/, but
must be regarded only as expressing the opinions of the individuals from whom
they emanated.

Notwithstanding this prompt and honourable proceeding on the part of Lord
Goderich, some effect might have been produced by this paper had Mr. Bux-
ton's motion actually come on, as it was intended, on the 29th of March ; but its
unexpected postponement to the 15t]i of April, afforded the requisite time for
discovering the disingenuousness of the proceeding, and for exposing the gross
misrepresentations whicli the paper contained.

This elaborate work of these agents commences with an Abstract of the
Slave law of St. Vincent's of December, 1825, accompanied by an apparently
studied and deliberate misstatement, on the part of the framers, of the sentiments
of his Majesty's Secretary of State respecting it.

" Upon this bill," the agents state, that " the Secretary of State for the colonies
made the following observations, in a letter to the governor of St. Vincent, dated
3rd of April, 1827 : 'His Majesty has observed with satisfaction, the progress
made by these enactments in the measures to be taken for the improvement o.
the state of the slave population. Upon a review of the whole of the law, I am
commanded by his Majesty to express his satisfaction with the general disposi-
tion of the council and assembly to adopt the recommendation addressed to
them on this important subject.' "

Now it cannot be denied that these identical words occur in the Despatch
of the Secretary of State of the 3d April 1827, (inserted in the papers presented to
Parhament by his Majesty's command in 1827, part ii. pp. 110 — 114;) one
half of them being part of the first sentence at the commencement of that
Despatch, and the other half part of a sentence at the close of it; — between
which two detached sentences, three folio pages and a half of observations inter-
vene, of a wholly different character, which the framers of the "Abstract" not only
do not quote, but do not even allude to in the very slightest degree I Thus,
therefore, do they leave, nay, almost force, the reader to infer, that they have fairly
exhibited the judgment of the Secretary of State respecting this law, and that
that judgment is one of unmingled approbation. Whether this was fairly
intended will be best understood by looking at the intermediate observations of
the noble Secretary, Earl Bathurst, consisting of a series of severe animadver-
sions on the different clauses of the Act in question. " His Majestt/," says the

SOS West Indian Manifesto — Slave Evidence.

excluding their evidence in other cases," (indeed in all other criminal
and in all civil cases*) " a distinction which does not seem to rest on
any sound foundation. — There is not any necessary connexion between
the baptism of a witness and his credibility. — The rule which requires
that two slaves shall consistently depose to the same fact, on being
examined apart, before any free person can be convicted on slave
testimony, will greatly diminish the value of the general rule : In
some cases, as that of rape, such a restriction might secure impunity
to offenders of the worst description. — The rejection of the testimony
of slaves twelve months after the commission of the crime would be
fatal to the ends of justice in many cases; nor is it easy to discover
what solid advantage could result from it in any case. — If the owner
of a slave is convicted of any crime on the testimony of that slave, the
Court has no power of declaring the slave free, though it may exer-
cise that power when it proceeds on other evidence. — Highly import-
ant as it is to deprive a slave of every motive for giving false testimony
against his owner, that object might be secured without incurring the
inconvenience of leaving the slave in the power of an owner convicted
of the extreme abuse of his authority. — In rejecting the proposal for a
record of the names of all slaves sufficiently instructed to be compe-

noble Secretary of State, " has observed with satisfaction the progress made by
these enactments, in the measures to be taken for the improvement of the state of
the slave papulation." Thus far the quotation is correct ; but the agents
omit entirely the latter half of the same sentence which runs as follows : —
" But it is at the same time my duty to remind you, that there ai-e several
measures ivhich, though recommended in the instructions approved by the two
Houses of Parliatnent, are either entirely omitted in the bill, or are imperfectly
uccornplished ; and that, unless the legislature of St. Vincent's take them into
their serious consideration, and make some further provision on these subjects, they
will not have satisfied the expectations of Parliament and the public." (Papers
by command, 1827. Part ii. p. 110.) Such is the whole of this garbled sentence. —
Then follow the severe and lengthened animadversions to which we have
alluded, and the substance of which may be found in the Anti-Slavery Re-
porter, Vol. ii, No. 29, p. 116. At the conclusion of them come the words which
the agents have again garbled to make out their case of approbation by the
King's Government. The words they have taken are : '^ Upon a review of the
whole laio, I am commanded by his Majesty, to express his satisfaction with the
general disposition of the Council and Assembly to adopt the recommendations
which have been addressed to them on this important subject." What follows of
the sentence the agents have prudently suppressed ; namely, " But I have it
fwther in command to signfy to you, that his Majesty's expectations will not be
satisfied until the law has been revised and amended with reference to the observa-
tions contained in my present despatch." (Ibid.) But this is only one of a
multitude of apparently studied misrepresentations which this pretended " Ab-
stract" contains ; — a charge we are perfectly ready to substantiate, when called
upon to do so.

* The only crimes even, in the trial of which their hampered and restricted
evidence can be given, are, murder, felony, burglary, robbery, rebellion, treason,
rape ; mutilating, dismembering, branding, or cruelly treating a slave ; seditious
meetings, and the harbouring of runaways.

Slave's Right of Property and Action. 309

tent witnesses, the legislature appear to have neglected the means of
providing a cheap and effectual encouragement to good conduct, and
of investing the religious teachers of slaves with a powerful and legi-
timate influence over them."

With such unansv/erable objections to the wisdom and efficiency of
this law, the West Indians have little reason to boast of it. Butthey give
also an untrue view of its provisions. They say of it that it admits
the evidence of slaves in all criminal cases against all persons ;
whereas it only admits that evidence in some cases; and they wholly
omit to mention some of the most injurious of the restrictions speci-
fied by Mr. Huskisson. — Certainly the Jamaica Assembly furnish no
proof, in this act of legislation, which has been the subject of their
renewed deliberation for five or six years, of their "fitness to make
laws for the benefit of their bondsmen." — 'What hope, moreover, can
exist of a pure and effective administration of justice, where nine-tenths
of the community are placed under so many harassing and degra-
ding distinctions, as to their right of giving evidence in Courts of
justice ? And yet such is the strange perverseness of our Colonial
legislators that their laws admit the evidence of a single slave
unbaptized and unsworn, to convict a fellow slave even in capital
cases, and to doom him to die by the hand of the executioner.

8. The representations of the forty -one distinguished individuals
who have come forward on this occasion, are, if possible, still more
wide of the truth, under the next head of pretended reform, namely,
the slave's ^^ Right of property and Right of action." Their state-
ment, in the case of St. Vincent, for example, is as follows : and as
it varies little from their corresponding statements respecting Ja-
maica and the other chartered colonies, we may take it as the basis
of our remarks : —

§ 5. "Secures to slaves the possession of personal property,* and
guards against its invasion by a fine of £10 (currency), over and above
the property taken from them."

To exhibit the whole deceptiveness of this statement, it will be
necessary to transcribe the very words of this fifth clause, difFei'ing
in nothing material from the corresponding clause in the Acts of Ja-
maica and of other colonies.

" And whereas by the usage of these Islands slaves have been per-
mitted to acquire, hold, and enjoy personal property, free from the
control or interference of their owners; and it is expedient that such
laudable custom should be continued and established by law ; be it
therefore enacted. That if any owner or possessor of any slave, or
any other person whatsoever, shall unlawfully take away from any
slave, or in any way deprive, or cause him to be deprived, of any
species of personal property by him lawfully possessed or acquired ;
such person shall forfeit and pay the sum of £10, over and above the
value of any such property, so taken away as aforesaid ; the same to

* Under the head of Jamaica, the " Abstract" says, that the law " estabhshes
the right of slaves to personal property." The two statements are substantially.
the same.

2 Q 2

310 West Indian Manifesto.

be recovered by warrant under the hand and seal of the justice of
the peace before whom the complaint shall be laid and the facta
proved."

That the full measure of the evasion, deliberately practised in
this enactment, may be duly appeciated by the reader, it will be
proper to place in juxtaposition the 24th clause of the Trinidad
Order of March, 1 824, which Avas evidently before the eyes of the le-
gislature of St. Vincent's, as well as before the eyes of the legisla-
tures of the other Colonies, at the time their new Acts were framed.

§ 24. '^And whereas by the usage of Trinidad slaves have hitherto
been reputed competent in the law, and have in fact been permitted
to acquire, hold, and enjoy property, free from the control or inter-
ference of their owners ; and it is expedient uhat the said laudable
custom should be recognized atid established by law, and that pro-
vision should be made for enabling such slaves to invest such their
property on good security ; be it therefore ordered, that no person in
the Island of Trinidad, being in a state of slavery, shall be, or be
deemed, or taken to be, by reason or on account of such his condi-
tion, incompetent to purchase, acquire, possess, hold, enjoy, alienate,
and dispose of property ; but every such slave shall, and is hereby
declared to be, competent to purchase, acquire, possess, hold, enjoy,
alienate, and dispose of lands, or money, cattle, implements or uten-
sils of husbandry, or household furniture or other effects of such or
the like nature, of what value or amount soever ; and to bring, main-
tain, prosecute and defend any suitor action, in any court of justice,
for or in respect of such property, as fully and amply, to all intents
and purposes, as if he were of free condition." And by another
clause (§ 8.) the Protector is empowered and required in all such
cases to act for the slave and on his behalf. (Papers by command,
1824, p. 151.)

The corresponding terms in the two enactments are given in
italics : a perusal of the whole will, therefore, at once exhibit, in full
view, the evasive tenor of the affected imitation of the Trinidad law
on this subject.

For the deceptive preamble to this enactment the legislatures of
the chartered colonies stand, in some measure, excused by the example
of the Trinidad Code. But that the statement it contains is incorrect,
is abundantly proved by the official Report of His Majesty's Com-
missioner of Legal Inquiry, Mr. Dwarris, himself a considerable pro-
prietor of slaves in Jamaica. That gentleman tells us, that neither
in Barbadoes, Grenada, Tobago, St. Vincent, Dominica, Antigua, St.
Christopher, Nevis, nor Tortola, the nine islands he visited, can slaves
acquire any property by law, except for the benefit of their masters ;
nor can they claim any redress for injuries done them, either by their
master, or his delegate, or even by third parties, except through the
master.* And when in the last of his Reports, the third, at p. 106,

* See Mr. Dwarris's First Report, No. 587 of 1825, pp. 67, 90, 222, 223.
Second Report. No. 276 of 1826, pp. 250, 251, 252. Third Report, No. 36 of
1826—7, pp. 13, 87.

Slave*s Right of Property and Action. 311

he comes to sum up the whole of the evidence respecting the slave's
legal rights of property, he thus expresses himself: "The slaves now
labour under prodigious disadvantages. A slave is under a personal
disability, and cannot sue in any court of law or equity, not even in
respect of injuries done to him by other slaves. A slave cannot pro-
secute in the criminal courts. A slave cannot enter into a recog-
nizance." " Slave evidence is not admitted against freemen, white or
black, even against wrong-doers. In those cases," (namely, against
fellow-slaves,) " where slave evidence is admitted, it very often is not
upon oath." " If the property of a slave is taken from him, he can-
not personally seek redress. His master, it is said, may bring tres-
pass. This, however, is very insufficient; for he also may not ; and
if he does, and none but slaves are present at the infliction of the
injury, as is likely to be the case, there is no satisfactory proof of the
fact. The owner, suing for his slave, must establish his case by com-
petent evidence, and cannot prove the fact by persons under legal disa-
bilities." Mr. Dwarris then goes on to prove, by other considerations,
that from the non-admissibility of slave evidence, " the slave is left
defenceless," and concludes the whole thus: "From all we saw in all
the islands, it wdisthejirm conviction of His Majesty's Commissioners,
that the foundation of every improvement, both as regards the white
and black population of these colonies, must be laid in an improved
administration of justice, and in the admission of slave evidence."*

It may even be true, that in many, if not most cases, the slaves
are allowed to enjoy their peculium without direct control or inter-
ference ; but this by no means affects the question of law. And, as
Mr. Dwarris himself properly intimates, the question for the legisla-
tor is not what is done, but what may be done, in a case of this de-
scription. And that it is always in the power of the master, and may
often be in his inclination, to disturb his slave's enjoyment of property,
is unquestionable. He may do so every time he chooses to sell his
slave, or to permit him (a very frequent occurrence) to be levied
upon for debt or for taxes. He does so whenever he drives him, by
severity, to run away, or whenever, by engrossing his time, he deprives
him of the power of attending to his stock or to his grounds. He
may, and often does, take from him his grounds, and he may, and
often does, kill his stock, without the possibility of redress. (See
House-of-Commons Papers for 1825, No. 476, p. 45, and for 1826,
No. 401, p. 17.) In the Report of the Berbice Fiscal, we find the slaves
of an estate complaining that the overseer had killed all their hogs.

* Even in Trinidad, before the new Code of 1824 was framed, this same
gentleman and Mr. Jabez Hemy, acting as Commissioners of Legal Inquiry in
that Island, had ascertained as follows ; ' The judge of criminal inquiry said,
that a slave could acquire property for his own benefit;' but the chief justice was
of a contrary opinion ; for he said, ' a slave cannot, by the Spanish law, acquire
any property, except for the benefit of his master.' ' In case of property in the
possession of a slave, whether belonging to himself or his master, being wrong-
fully taken from him,.it is only recoverable by the owner.' (House-of-Commons
Papers for 1827, No. 551, p. 29.)

312 West Indian Committee — Slave's Right of Property.

One man, Leander, had ten hogs killed at one time by the manager,
and for complaining of this act he was put in the stocks. The Fiscal,
to whom Leander complained, regrets this harsh proceeding ; which
he does not however punish or redress, but rather extenuates. Here
we have, probably, the accumulations of Leander's whole life
destroyed, in one hour, by the merciless and irresistible ac t of the
petty despot of the plantation; and for this injury there was no redress !
—(Ibid.)

But besides the insecurity of his property, (for property must
necessarily always be insecure in those circumstances of personal de-
pendance and civil disability under which the slave is placed,) the
slave is actually prohibited, even by this vaunted law of St. Vincent,
§§ 81 and 82, from dealing in "sugar, cotton, rum, molasses, cocoa,
coffee, or other goods, or merchandize of any sort, except firewood,
fish, poultry, goats, hogs, grass, fruit and vegetables."* Indeed, in
the colonies having legislatures of their own, the clauses that have
been introduced into their new codes, on the subject of the property
of slaves, are no more than an evasion of the recommendations of
His Majesty. They set out, in general, with a preamble, like that of
St. Vincent, affirming that, by custom, slaves have been allowed to
possess and enjoy personal property. After this preamble, it might
have been expected, that that would have been made their right by
law, which, it is stated, had formerly been enjoyed by permission and
sufferance. The enactment which generally follows, however, is, not
that such custom shall be established by law, but that if any master,
or other person, shall unlawfully take away from a slave, or deprive
him of, what he may be lawfully possessed of, such person (not shall
be punished as a felon, but) shall forfeit ten pounds currency (less
than five pounds sterling), over and above the value of the property.
We are not even told how a slave may lawfully possess property, nor
is any legal title to it conferred upon him. No means of suit are
afforded him, and he is generally debarred from giving evidence in all
civil actions. In short, with scarcely an exception, the provisions on
this point are, it is again maintained, a mere evasion of the king's re-
commendation, and leave the slave in the same helpless and unpro-
tected state, as to all essential rights of property, as he was before
those provisions were enacted.

The insidious clause which we have quoted from the St. Vincent's
Act, on the subject of the slave's rights of property, and which is
nearly word for word the same as that of Jamaica, obviously effects
a complete revolution in the laws of theft and robbery, as they
respect the property of a slave, which would, of itself, be fatal to
his security. But the slave possesses, by law, no rights of property,
for most assuredly this clause gives him none ; while it effectually
excludes him by its very terms from acquiring any interest in land, —
a restriction which is at once harsh, impolitic, and uniiecessary.

* The law is nearly the same in all the colonies, whether crown or chartered;
and a most iniquitous law it is, independently of its being inconsistent with any
valuable right of property in the slave.

Legal Protection of Slaves. 313

Of Jamaica it is further affirmed, by onr forty-one West Indians,
that § 16, " secures to slaves the right to receive bequests of private
property." Never was there a clause framed which more strikingly
exemplifies the evasive spirit of colonial legislation than this; for to
the barren recognition of the right in question is annexed the follow-
ing sweeping proviso : — '^Provided always that nothing herein con-
tained shall be deemed to authorise the institution of any action or
suit at law or in equity, for the recovery of such legacy, or to render
it necessary to make any slave a defendant in a suit of equity."
And even the law of Tobago on this point, though it advances more
nearly than any other to the model of the Crown Colonies, yet is ren-
dered almost equally inoperative with that of Jamaica, by the want
of a Protector, or of any authorised cliannel for vindicating the skive's
rights of property.

Surely, surely, here are no proofs either of the humanity of the
planters, or of their alleged '' fitness to make laws for the benefit of
their bondsmen,'^ but proof enough of studied evasion, and of deli-
berate and flagrant misrepresentation.

9. The only remaining head of the " Abstract" drawn up by these
forty-one gentlemen, which it remains for us formally to notice, in the
way of exposure and refutation, bears the title of " Legal Protection.'"
The Secretary of state had required, as the only effectual means of
securing " legal protection" to the slaves, that a Protector and Guar-
dian of slaves should be appointed, who should not be a proprietor of
slaves, or interested in slave property. The fulfilment of this pro-
posal is thus announced in the " Abstract." St. Vincent, § 25 : — ■
" Magistrates, a Council of Protection. On receiving information of ill-
treatment of slaves, they are bound to inquire, and, if the complaint
be well founded, to prosecute." Jamaica, § 33 : — In cases of mal-
treatment of slaves, " Justices and vestry to be a council of protec-
tion to prosecute offenders," — and so with slight variations in other
colonies.

It seems ^scarcely necessary to expose this stale and idle pretence,
this mockery, of protection, by which the very persons to be guarded
against, the owners or managers of estates, are themselves consti-
tuted the legal guardians of the slaves. Indeed the very clauses which
are here referred to, and which also are not new but old laws,
are so feebly and inadequately framed, as rather to deprive the
slave of the means of protection, than to secure it for him. In case
any justice of the peace shall receive a complaint that any slave has
been wantonly or improperly punished, then such justice may asso-
ciate to himself another justice, who may proceed to inquire, &c. ;
and having inquired, and found the complaint true, " it shall be the
duty of such justices, and they are required, to prosecute the offender
according to law ; " or, if the complaint be found groundless, to pun-
ish the complainant with thirty-nine lashes, &c. : and all this is to be
done by these two justi-ces without penalty, or responsibility, or
record, or report whatsoever. Was there ever such a barefaced im-
position on parliament and the public as to call this protection ? To
prove this, it would be sufficient to refer to the uniform principle

314 West India Mamfesto — Legal Protection.

maintained by government, of placing, in all the Crown Colonies, the
office of Guardian and Protector of slaves solely in the hands of men
disconnected with slavery.

But let us hear the judgment of Mr. Commissioner Dwarris, when
speaking of this very clause ; for it stood in the St. Vincent's Act of
1821, as it does in that of 1825, and in the Jamaica Act of 1816, as
in that of 1831. There is " no other magistracy, board, or council,
to discharge the delicate duty of investigating the complaints of
slaves (whether of cruelty, oppression, excess of work, or subtraction
or deficiency of food or clothing,) except the attorneys or managers
of estates. Hence the salutary provisions of the Slave Act are in
danger of being rendered ineffectual." (House-of-Commons Papers,
No. 276 of 1826, p. 24.) — One magistrate testifies to the commis-
sioner, that he recollected only two complaints of slaves for ill-usage
in three years. (lb. p. 23.) Can this be matter of surprise, when
thirty-nine lashes are ready for the unsuccessful complainant ?

It is impossible to place in a clearer light, the uselessness of such
provisions as those which are now boasted of by our forty-one sub-
scribers to the manifesto, than has been done by Mr. Huskisson in his
despatch of September 22, 1827. "The council of protection," he
says, "cannot be considered an effectual substitute for the office of a
distinct and independent protector. It will consist of those indivi-
duals over whom the protector was to exercise his superintendance.
Their duties are limited to the single case of extreme bodily injury,,
and are to be discharged only if they think proper. The periodical
returns required from the protector upon oath are not to be made by
this council, nor are they even bound to keep a record of their pro-
ceedings. No provision is made for executing the duties of the office
in different parts of the colony, on fixed and uniform principles ;
and the number of f»ersons united in this trust is such as to destroy
the sense of personal and individual responsibility."

The truth is, that Jamaica, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, and the other
colonies, under the nam.e of legal protection to the slaves, have ac-
tually contrived to give protection and immunity to the oppressors of
the slaves. Against whom is protection for the slaves required ? Is
it not against their masters and managers ? But to whom is their
protection confided by the legislatures of Jamaica, &c. ? To these
very masters and managers, who, in fact, compose the entire of the
magistracy, and of the parish vestries. Surely the term protection does-
not necessarily involve the principle of protection. On the contrary^
it involves, under the laws we are considering, the extinction of that
principle : for if the purpose had been to divest the slaves of all pro-
tection, no more effectual device could have been framed for ac-
complishing that object, than the insidious enactment in question.

Nor, we apprehend, are we singular in this opinion. If we mistake
not, such is the clear and unambiguous judgment of Lord Howick, as
expressed in his powerful speech, on the 15th of April last, in reply to
Mr, Burge, the late Attorney General and the present agent of
Jamaica, and one of the avowed framers of one at least of the falla-
cious abstracts we have been examining. " Of the many extraordinary

Lord Howick on the Legal Protection of Slaves. 315

propositions," (proceeding from Mr. Burge,) " none astonished me so
much," said his lordship, " as the remark that in Jamaica the council
of protection answered the same purposes as 'a protector;' for I
thought I knew, on very competent authority, that councils of pro-
tection were no substitute for the office of protector, as established in
the Crown Colonies. It so happens that in the year 1826, Lord
Bathurst sent out the heads of certain bills, formed on the order in
council, which he wished to be regularly drawn up by the law officers
of the crown, and laid before the different Assemblies. To the draft
of a bill appointing a protector, which was accordingly prepared by
the law officers of Jamaica, was appended the following note signed
by William Burge, Attorney General, and Hugo James, Advocate
General : ' We have not considered ourselves called upon to notice
in the draft of this bill, either by way of repeal or otherwise, that part
of the 25th section of the consolidated slave law, which constitutes
the justices and vestry of each parish a council of protection, because
the duties assigned to that body are of a nature perfectly- distinct
from, those which are committed to the protector and guardian of
slaves by the provisions of this bill.' I fully concur," added his lord-
ship, "in this opinion, and I think it most able and just. A council
of protection is a mere device for dividing the responsibility among a
number of individuals ; it is a protection to the oppressor, not to the
oppressed. A numerous council of planters can venture to stifle pro-
secutions which would be instituted were the responsibility of re-
fusing to do so to rest on a single individual only. I firmly believe
that in the case of Kitty Hilton, a case which I have recently been
compelled to lay on the table of the House with mingled feelings of
regret and shame and horror, I firmly believe that no one of those
individuals who voted as members of the council of protection, and,
by a large majority, declared against a prosecution, would have come
to such a decision if he had been called upon singly to pronounce
upon the case : he v/ould have feared to incur the undivided responsi-
bility."

But be it remembered that Kitty Hilton's tase is but one out of
many which have lately encumbered the table of the House of Com-
mons, in proof of the utter worthlessness of these boasted councils of
protection, and of the utter unfitness therefore of the planters to
make laws for the benefit of their slaves. We will not now enter
further into them than to refer the reader to the following passages
which have recently appeared in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, viz :
vol. iii. No. 64, p. 341 and 345 ; No. 66, p. 373 ; No. 68, p. 416 and
419 ; No. 69, p. 429—441 ; No. 71, p. 481—495 ;— vol. iv. No. 76,
p. 134—136; and No. 79, p. 246.

But this is not all. Every packet which arrives from the western
world comes fraught with fresh tidings of horror to the same effect,
and the difficulty we now feel pressing upon us is to find time and
space for communicating to our readers the accumulated proofs of
the inveterate and incurable evils of slavery, and especially of that state
of utter destitution of legal protection, in whiclr the slaves are un-
happily placed, by leaving the work of legislating for them, a work

316 . West Indian Manifesto — Conclusion.

for which parliament alone is competent, to be performed by the
planters.

We have thus gone through the principal heads of the " Abstract"
on which the West Indians found their claim, not only to the for-
bearance but to the confidence of the parliament and people of
England, and we think we have proved that it is so far from sup-
porting that claim, that it furnishes the very strongest demonstra-
tion of the unfitness of the planters to legislate for their slaves, and
that it is only by the direct intervention of Parliament that any effec-
tual remedy can be applied to the evils of colonial bondage. And
yet we have left wholly unnoticed a multitude of mistatements con-
tained in this Abstract, which are either the blunders of ignorance,
or the wilful perversions of fact. It would be endless to notice even
a tythe of these. On a future occasion we may resume the subject.

But before we conclude, we are anxious to remind our readers
that this " Abstract" exhibits to them only what our forty-one gen-
tlemen deem the favourable side of West Indian legislation. We
cannot commend their taste, indeed, in the selection. Still their
object was to give us a succinct view of those Colonial improvements; —
of those beauties in short of Colonial legislation, which raise the slave's
enjoyments far above those of the British peasant, and which are to
serve as convincing proofs that the West Indians were maligned and
slandered by the Anti-Slavery Society when it pronounced them
" unfit and unwilling to frame laws for the benefit of their bondsmen,"
and affirmed that it was a task which could only be eflfectually ac-
complished " by the direct intervention of Parliament." Had they
chosen to give, not only what they regard as the light side of the
picture but the dark side also ; to give in short, a just, imj^artial, and
unsophisticated whole length portrait, as it were, of the entire legal
condition and liabilities of the Colonial slave, it would form a pretty
exact counterpart, or rather amplification, of another Manifesto,
namely, the Anti-Slavery Manifesto, dated the 1st of October, 1830,
entitled " a Brief View of the nature and effects of Negro Slavery
as it exists in the Colonies," with copies of which the forty-one
authors of the West Indian Manifesto may be supplied on application
at the Anti-Slavery office.

Tim and all other publications of the Society, may he had at their Office,
'k'Q, Aldcrinctnbilry ; or at Messrs. Jiatchurd's, i87, Piccadilly, and Arclis, Corn-
hill. They may also be procured, through any bookseller, or at the depots of the
Anti-Slavery Society throughout the kingdom.

Ixindoii : S. Bitg'.tftr, .]un. Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 83.] JULY 12, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 11.

OFFICIAL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE PROGRESS OF RE-
FORM IN THE SLAVE COLONIES OF GREAT BRITAIN DURING
THE PAST YEAR. I.Jamaica; 2. Nevis ; 3. Barbadoes ; ^.Antigua;
5. St. Vincent; 6. Tiinidad ; 7. Demerara ; 8. Berhice ; 9. St. Lucia;
10. Bermuda; 11. Cape of Good Hope ; \2. Mauritius. Conclusion.

We are greatly in arrear with our readers. We have now before us
a large and accumulating mass of official information, which strikingly
illustrates the untractable nature of colonial slavery, but which the
pressure of other matters, not admitting of delay, has hitherto prevented
us from analyzing with due care. The first of these documents which
we shall notice was presented to Parliament hy His Majesty's com-
mand, on the 10th of March last, and is numbered 230. It consists of
ihe usual annual exposition of the measures pursued by His Majesty's
Government for ameliorating the condition of the slave population in
the British colonies, being a continuation of a similar paper presented
in 1830, and of which we inserted an abstract in the Anti-Slavery Re-
porter, No. 73. We propose to give a like abstract of the paper now
before us.

1. Jamaica.

The communications from this island, for the year, are almost en-
tirely con-fined to a case of grievous oppression, brought to the know-
ledge of Viscount Goderich by Mr. Wildman, a proprietor of several
plantations, and the unquestioned facts of which, as we collect them
from this official document, af« to the following effect.

Eleanor James, an elderly female slave, belonging to one of Mr.
Wildman's estates, called Low Ground, in the parish of Clarendon, had
sold a pig to a Mr. Macdonald, the owner of a neighbouring plantation,
called North Hall. The payment having been unduly delayed, Eleanor
James went, on the evening of the 28th November, 1829, to North
Hall, accompanied by a fellow slave, named Joanna Williams, and ap-
plied to Mr. Macdonald for the money owing to her. Mr. Macdonald,
instead of complying with this reasonable demand, instantly ordered her
to be taken a short distance from his dwelling house, and there, he him-
self superintending the^ process, to be laid down prone on the earth and
flogged. She was flogged by two drivers in succession ; first with a
whip, and then with a switch ; and being then raised from her prostrate
position, her wounds were washed with salt pickle. One witness
counted 200 stripes, as having been inflicted upon her before the pickle

2 n

318 Progress of Colonial Reform — Atrocities in Jamaica.

was applied ; the lash of the whip with which she was flogged having
been previously dipped in water to add to its efficiency. Mrs. Mac-
donald, the wife of Mr. M., and a young lady, the sister of Mrs. Mac-
donald, and a white young man, a Mr. Mackae, were in the house at the
time the order to flog Eleanor James was given by Mr. Macdonald, with
whom the young lady interceded for her in vain. The first driver
whom Mr. Macdonald employed not flogging her to his satisfaction, he
called another, named Edward, to execute his sentence. While Eleanor
James was undergoing this merciless infliction, she asked for vvater ;
Mr. Macdonald said, with an oath, that " no water should be given to
her ; he did not care if she died on the spot." She was then sent to
the negro houses of North Hall; and next morning Mr. Macdonald sent
her two dollars, (probably meant as the payment of his debt,) and or-
dered her off the property. She immediately went home to Low Ground,
and there told her tale, and exhibited her lacerated person.

The severe illness, both of Mr. Taylor, the attorney of Mr. Wildman,
(then in England,) and of the overseer of Low Ground, prevented them
for some time from proceeding to take the necessary steps for the legal
investigation of this atrocity. A neighbouring magistrate, however,
Mr. John Macleod, was requested to interfere; and Eleanor James
waited upon him, along with Mr. Bellow, the book-keeper of Low
•Ground, and stated her complaint; but this magistrate declined all in-
terference, and recommended that an application should be made to
Mr. Townsend, the clerk of the peace for Clarendon, who resided at a
distance of thirty miles from Low Ground. On the parties arriving,
however, at Mr. Townsend's, he was found incapable of acting, being
confined to bed by a serious accident-

As soon as Mr. Taylor, who resided near Kingston, had recovered
from his illness, he repaired to Clarendon, and applied to Mr. French,
the custos of the parish, to summon a council of protection to investi-
gate the outrage. The council of protection met, and did nothing.
Two more councils of protection were subsequently summoned, with
the same result. At length, a fourth council of protection, which was
formed on the 19th of April, 1830, having examined the case, came to
the conclusion, " That the subject matter of this complaint is not pro-
perly cognizable by the council of protection ; but that the owner of
the slave Eleanor James has his remedy against the person or persons
inflicting the punishment, if a slave or slaves, by indictment in the slave
court ; if by a free person or persons, by indictment in the quarter ses-
sions, or grand court."

Mr. Taylor, finding himself thus baffled in his eftorts to procure re-
dress, laid the whole matter before Earl Belmore, the governor. By him
it was referred to the attorney general, Mr. James, whose opinion was pro-
nounced uponittothefollowingeffect: — that having perused the affidavits,
&c. relative to the complaint of Eleanor James, he must express his in-
ability to comprehend the principle on which the resolution of the council
of protection was framed; that the owner's right of appeal to other tri-
bunals for redress ought not to have suspended the functions of that
council, whose bounden duty it was (looking at the law of the island)
to have investigated the complaint, and, if there were grounds for pro-

Progress of Colonial Reform — Atrocities in Jamaica. 319

secution, to have submitted the same to the proper judicature ; for if
the owner's right to bring the complaint before other tribunals were to
withdraw it from the cognizance of the council of protection, no case
could exist in which its power of investigation might not be arrested,
and be rendered a mere nominal institution, without the slightest benefit
to the slaves, for whose protection it was specially intended. — He added,
that he was not aware that the governor could now aid Mr. Taylor, ex-
cept by expressing his disapprobation of the conduct of the council of
protection for their culpable neglect in not bringing to trial a party im-
plicated in conduct so inhuman and barbarous; and that Mr. Macleod
was still more amenable to the governor's censure, for referring the
slave to the clerk of the peace, at a distance of thirty miles, instead of
acting promptly on the complaint, and summoning before him, as a
magistrate, witnesses who were then on the spot, (but who had
since, it seems, either died or left the island,) and binding them over in
recognizances for the ensuing court.

" Thus," observes Mr. Taylor, " every effort was abortive, and thus
it has been proved that an attorney for an absent proprietor may, for
months, persevere in his attempts to obtain redress for an act of oppres-
sion committed on a slave under his charge, but unavailingly. The
strong impression made on my mind," he adds, " by the conduct of
the Clarendon magistracy, coupled with similar proceedings of other
parochial authorities, is, that councils of protection are a mockery, and
that, so long as slave evidence is rejected by the law, the slave has
scarcely the shadow of protection from ill treatment."

We need not point out how opportunely these observations of Mr.
Taylor, as well as the whole details of this atrocious case of Eleanor
James, serve to falsify the statements of the West India Manifesto, espe-
cially under the head of " legal protection,'' which we have so fully
examined in our last number (p. 313.)

Lord Goderich having placed all these circumstances fully before the
governor. Earl Belmore, thus concludes his despatch : — " I have now to
desire that your Lordship will inform me whether, in conformity with the
advice of the attorney general, you conveyed the expression of your dis-
pleasure at their conduct to Mr. Macleod, or to Messrs. French, Dunn,
Macwilliam, Macnaught, Turner, Macartney, Eraser, and Coleman, the
magistrates who were present at the council of protection on the 19th
April, 1830, and to the six vestrymen, or to such of them as concurred
in the resolution of that council. If your Lordship adopted the advice
of the attorney general, I am to request that you will transmit to me a
copy of the communication made to them. If you did not adopt his
advice, you will be pleased to report to me your reasons for rejecting
it." — The gentlemen whose names are here given were still in the ma-
gistracy of Jamaica at the close of 1830.

2. Nevis.

Many of our readers will probably recollect the atrocities perpetrated
in this little island about twenty or twenty-one years ago by a person of
the name of Huggins, which excited at the time the universal though

320 Progress of Colonial Reform — Atrocities in Nevis.

bootless indignation of Parliament and the country.* The papers laid
on the table of the House of Commons in 1831 that are now before us,
have brought to light a parallel even to these almost obsolete atrocities,
which is of a much more recent date, and which adds another pregnant
proof, to the many already produced, not only of the unmitigated lot of
the colonial bondsman, but of the incurable viciousness and the deep
criminality of the whole system of our colonial slavery.

It appears by a variety of official details, transmitted to the Secretary
of State by the Governor of the Colony, that on a sugar plantation
called Stapleton's, belonging to Lord Combermere, which had been en-
trusted by him to the management of a person of the name of Walley,
a dreadful mortality was discovered to have taken place among the slaves
belonging to it. Their number, in about three or four years, namely,
between 1826 and January 1830, had decreased from 249 to 190, being
a decrease of 59, or from 22 to 24 per cent, in that time; or about seven
or eight per cent, per annum. And this frightful mortality appears to have
been caused not by any epidemic disease, nor by such acts of violence
as put a speedy term to the suiFerings of its victims, but by a gradual
process of exhaustion; by the excessive exaction of daily labour; by the
parsimonious abridgment of daily food ; by a system of lingering torture,
which extinguishes human life as it were by inches; and leaves the un-
happy sufferers no refuge from their misery but the grave.

In January 1830, a board of magistrates was appointed to investigate
the conduct of Mr. Walley, which appears to have continued its sit-
tings for three or four weeks. This board consisted of Messrs. W.
Pemberton, G. Bucke, Lockhart Gordon, Charles Pinney, Peter Hug-
gins, and J. Ede. The following are some of the facts elicited by their
hiquiry : —

One witness, William Huggins, who had been an overseer for seven
months under Mr. Walley, stated on oath, that the gang on Stapleton'^s
estate turned out as soon in the morning as they could see to work, and
left ofF work in the field at sunset, to go to collect grass for the cattle.
Each negro was obliged to bring a load of grass at noon, and another at
night. A quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, he said, was the time
allowed at breakfast ; two hours were allowed at noon.f Sometimes,
when the work was urgent, they had not breakfast-time and noon-time
on the same day. The gang worked at breakfast and noon-time both in
and out of crop occasionally, but not very often ; the negroes complained
of this. They worked very hard while he was on the estate, and some of
them he thought beyond their strength ; those who were the most able kept
lip their rows ; the others were pushed to keep up with them. He added,
however, that he thought they had sufficient time; at least they had the
same time that was allowed on other estates. He had seen some of

* A full account of these atrocities is preserved in the Fifth Report of the
African Institution, and may also be found in tiie Records of the House of
Commons for 1811, (No. 204).

f The time required for grass collecting at noon was taken, we presume, from
these two hours, thus shortening the noon-tide interval.

Progress of Colonial Reform — Atrocities in Nevis. 321

the gang exhausted from fatigue. Sometimes in the morning almost
hulf the gang went up to Mr. Walley, complaining that they were
sick, and Mr. Walley selected and sent back to the field those whom
he thought able to work. The driver was unnecessarily severe : he
would sometimes give the slaves from three to a dozen stripes. Mr.
Walley would sometimes find fault with the driver for not having
had a sufficient quantity of work done, when he (the driver) would
push the negroes. There were nine deaths on the estate while he lived
there, which he conceived to be a great number : the people who died
were generally much swollen. Many of them, young and old, ate dirt.
The slaves were generally addicted to this practice. He did not think
that the stocks at Stapleton's were more severe than other stocks,
though he thought the holes were rather smaller, and the negroes com-
plained that they cut their legs. He had never known negroes worked
so hard any where else, or yet so well fed. He did not mean to say
that Mr. Walley was the cause of the death of any of the negroes. — The
witness seemed to wish in parts of his evidence to extenuate Mr.
Walley's conduct, denying that he punished the slaves severely, and
affirming that the negroes were well fed. Such an assertion, however,
was obviously at variance with the fact of the general prevalence among
them, of dirt-eating, a vice issuing in the fatal disease called mal (Testo-
mac, and which is well known to be caused by low and scanty diet.

The general statements of Mr. Huggins were confirmed by the medi-
cal persons who attended the estate, and who added some further
particulars of ill treatment and neglect. The sick, it was said, were
not attended to as they ought to have been ; they often complained of
it. The sick were not allowed to remain in the sick house till perfectly
cured, and, contrary to medical orders, were repeatedly sent out to
work before they were so ; and in consequence they were apt to return
to the sickhouse in a worse state than before. In particular instances,
where animal food was ordered, the order was not attended to. Mis-
carriages were also frequent : these might have been prevented had the
women been kept quiet; but this was not done. Deaths generally pro-
ceeded from dirt-eating, or mal d'estomac, and this disease seemed to
arise from debility, caused by hard labour, (Mr. Walley being anxious
to put in large crops,) exposure to cold, want of nourishment, and indi-
gestible or ill-dressed food. One medical gentleman testified that he
had known the negroes to have been at one time for six weeks without
provisions, except what they themselves could procure. — :[Nevis is one
of the foreign-fed colonies ] And yet these very medical men spoke of
the goodness of the allowances given to the slaves by Mr. Walley, and
of his supplying them, when ill, with meat and wine ; adding that the
negroes never complained to them of severe punishment, or of want of
food, or of any harsh or harassing treatment ; and an overseer of the
name of Souch, who lived three years under Mr. Walley, even eulogized
his mode of treatment. He said Mr. Walley flogged the slaves only
as other people usually flogged them. He did not think that the ne-
groes on this estate were over-worked ; they did- not work harder than
other negroes. Mr. W., he said, had even increased their allowance from
six pints a week to eight. — But even eight pints a week, be it re-

322 Progress of Colonial Reform — Atrocities in Nevis.

membered, is but a starving allowance for a working or indeed for any
slave.

We confess that these extenuating and apologetical opinions, indicat-
ing as they do what is the prevalent feeling on the subject of negro
treatment, when they are looked at in connexion with the unquestioned
facts of this case, produce on our minds a stronger impression of the
wretchedness of the slave, than even the most cruel inflictions to which
he is subjected. They seem to prove that the hearts not merely of in-
dividuals, but of the white community at large, are steeled against sym-
pathy with the negro, who is regarded, and even spoken of by them,
not as a fellow being, but as a brute.

Hitherto we have confined ourselves to the evidence of the general
treatment by Mr. Walley of Lord Combermere's slaves, as given on
oath by witnesses who were white. Besides these, several slaves were
examined, whose testimony went more into detail. They stated that the
dirt-eaters had broad wooden collars placed round their necks. [We pre-
sume, to prevent their hands from reaching their mouths.] One of them,
William Noble, had one of these collars fastened round his neck ; he
was heard to cry out with the pain produced by its tightness. The collar
was at last taken off, but in three hours he died. — One witness stated
that a vyoman slave, named Frances, was placed in the stocks three days
and three nights. The first day both legs were in the stocks; she cried
all day. Mr. Walley at night ordered the witness to release one leg, but
she was never out of the stocks during the three days and nights.
Frances said she was sick, and had fever, and could not work : Mr.
Walley ordered her into the stocks : she looked sick. After three days
she consented to go to work, and did not come to the sick house again
for a week. — When witness put this woman's leg into the stocks, the
hole proved too small : in about an hour she cried that her leg was cut.
Mr. Walley could hear her cry, for he was at hand ; but he gave no
orders about her (ill night, when by his desire one leg was taken out ;
then the witness saw that it was cut. Frances was stated to be a very
sickly negro, having a flux of blood. She also died.

We shall give the details of only one other case as deposed to by five
or six slaves. — Eneas was fireman on Stapleton's estate. Mr. Walley
flogged him four times in one day, with his own hands. He flogged
him because the fire in the boiling house was not good. He flogged
him on his bare back. The number of stripes in the first three
floggings is not deposed to ; the fourth flogging in that one day con-
sisted of fifty stripes. After receiving them he was sent back to make
fire, and when done was afterwards locked up. Next week he again
made fire, but complained of pain. Mr. Walley found fault with the
fire he made, and told the overseer to flog him v/henever the fire was
bad. The overseer did so. He had the fever upon him on the Satur-
day when the overseer flogged him. On the Tuesday after, he went to
Mr. Walley complaining he had fever ; but the driver, in Mr. Walley's
presence, flogged him out of the yard. He was locked up in, the stocks
and died on Saturday night.

On a view of the result of this investigation by the board of magis-
trates, six indictments were preferred against Mr. Walley by the law

Progress of Colonial Reform — Atrocities hi Nevis. 323

officers of the Crown, one for murder, two for manslaughter, and three
for maltreatment. But they were either ignored by the grand jury, or
failed from the nonadmissibility of slave evidence.

The whole of these proceedings were communicated by the Secretary
of State to Lord Combermere. His Lordship professed to feel deep
horror of the inhuman and abominable conduct of his manager, Mr,
Walley. He has not, however, explained to Lord Goderich, how he
came to place, in that man's hands, the uncontrolled power over his
slaves with which he appears to have been invested. Lord Combermere
says he had friends on the spot (namely, Governor Maxwell, and Mr.
Swindall) who knew how anxious he was to promote the welfare and
happiness of his negroes. Did he give them authority to interfere? Or
was he not aware of the liability of his slaves to suffer from oppression?
Mr. Walley's atrocities had been proceeding, for several years, un-
checked by any one. Nay, we find that so long ago as the 1st of May,
1827, this very Mr. Walley, then the manager of Stapleton's, was
actually indicted for the murder of a slave, named Davis, belonging to
that estate ; and that the indictment was then, as now, thrown out by
the grand jury. Now it does seem strange that Lord Combermere
should have been unapprized of this transaction; or, being apprized of
it, that he should have suffered Mr. Walley to remain in charge of his
slaves for about three years longer, until he had killed off nearly a
fourth of them. His conduct, in 1827, appears to us to have been quite
as abominable and inhuman as in subsequent years. We have before
us the evidence taken upon it, on the 9lh of ^pril, 1827, by two magis-
trates, Mr. Claxton, and Mr. Gordon, and though the indictment
founded upon that evidence was ignored, it is prima facie no less de-
cisive of Walley's guilt, than the evidence taken three years later by
another bench of magistrates, and of which Lord Combermere has ex-
pressed himself with so much just indignation. The evidence of 1827
is to the following effect : —

Richard Anderson, overseer on the estate says, that on Tuesday the
23d March, Davis was sent to the estate as a runaway, by Mr, Marr.
He appeared very weak. Gave him victuals, and put him to pull the
fuel to the copper holes on that evening. He was sent, the same even-
ing, to the sick house, where he remained till the Tuesday following,
when he was brought to the boiling house to pot sugar. Tuesday
evening he vv'as sent back to the sick house ; he had refused to work ;
said he was not able. Next day, Wednesday, he was sent to the field.
On Wednesday evening he died.

The evidence of Anderson was confirmed by Clement Souch, another
overseer on the estate.

Robert Washington, the Coroner, heard that a negro had died
suddenly on Stapleton's, Went to hold an inquisition on the Saturday
after ; found the man buried ; had the body dug up ; returned a ver-
dict, ' Died by the visitation of God ;' examined witnesses by whom it
was proved that Davis died on his way from the field, being unable to
walk farther. No medical man saw him till he was dead. There were
no marks of violence.

Alexander, a slave belonging to the estate, was told, on Wednesday

324 Progress of Colonial Reform — Atrocities in Nevis.

at sunset, to carry Davis to the sick house. Davis had been in the
field all day ; and had been the day before at the works. He com-
plained all day ; could not work, could not eat. The driver put
another negro in the row with him ; gave him a few licks in the morn-
ing, and at noon four more to force him to work. Took him to the
Mountain estate ; he could not walk; was obliged to lead him; helped
him as far as the upper windmill where he died. Witness went for
help ; when he came back, Davis was dead ; there was no one with
him when he died. The day he was sent home he was put to make
fire ; and the day after sent to assist at the works ; he was unable to
do any thing. Sunday he was in the sick house, Monday and Tues-
day about the works, the last day (Wednesday) in the field; was
locked up every night in the sick house ; was burled on Friday, and
dug up again on Saturday."

Two physicians testified that there were no marks of violence on
Davis, but that he was much emaciated.

Thomas Marr sent Davis home to Mr. Walley ; thought him in a
very weak and low state: did not consider him capable of working, only
fit for the sick house.

Such was the evidence against Walley in 1827.

Various other cases of cruelty, occurring in Nevis, were recently
brought forward for trial ; but they met with the same fate as those
of Mr. Walley from the Nevis Grand Jury. But we cannot give the
details, and must be content with the light thrown on them by Lord
Goderich, who thus comments upon them in a despatch to Governor
Maxwell, of the 4th December, 1830.

" Your despatches of 7th July have been received, and I have
perused the evidence they contain of systematic cruelty and oppression
with feelings which I will not trust myself to express. Entirely parti-
cipating in the indignation with which you regard the atrocities perpe-
trated by Mr. Walley, I no less fully concur with you in regretting that
all attempts to obtain justice should have been defeated by defects in
the recent slave code of Nevis, and by the inefficient administration of
the law in that island. The failure of four of the prosecutions against
Walley is attributed to the act ibr the admission of slave evidence of
October, 1728." " The inconvenience of such an enactment, and its
inconsistency with sound principles of legislation, did not escape the
notice of Sir G. Murray when that act was under his consideration."
(See his despatch of 10th September, 1829.) " I regret to find that
the practical mischief resulting from it has been experienced much
sooner and more extensively than had been anticipated.''

" The rejection, by the grand jury of Nevis, of the bills of indictment
preferred in so many cases of alleged cruelty perpetrated against slaves
on different plantations, when viewed in reference to the previous de-
positions, has unavoidably produced on my mind the painful conviction
that the gentlemen of the colony have not correctly understood their
duties as grand jurors. I cannot permit myself to believe that persons
in their station of life could be insensible to the sacred obligations of
the oath they had taken ; and though I am not disposed to attribute
to them such prejudices as would prevent the dispassionate exercise of

Progress of Colonial Reform — in Barbadoes, Antigua. 325

their judg-ment in questions of such serious moment, I cannot but feel
that the course they have pursued in this matter is calculated to pro-
dyce a very painful and unsatisfactory impression in this country."

" You will consult with the law officers of the Crown how far it may
be possible to file criminal informations in those cases where bills of in-
dictment against Walley and others have been rejected by the grand
jury. I would particularly direct your attention to the cases of Davis
and Harriot Simpson j and of George Tobin and Monmouth, punished
by Mr. Cousins. In the last of these cases the grand jury, not content
with throwing out the bill, thought proper to find, on their oaths, that it
was 'frivolous and vexatious.' I apprehend that this finding was entirely
beyond their province, and the previous examinations would almost
irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the bill was improperly rejected."

" I perceive that on the investigation in Walley's case, a large ma-
jority of the magistrates present deliberately quitted the bench, and
abandoned the inquiry with which they had been charged. On an
occasion of so much importance, some very serious cause ought to
have existed to justify such a secession, and you will have the goodness
to ascertain and report what that cause may have been."

Lord Goderich concludes with expressing his earnest hope that the
gentlemen of Nevis may derive from these proceedmgs, a lively impres-
sion of the absolute necessity of affording more ample protection to the
slave population, and of providing more effective means for the punish-
ment of offences against them.

It seems scarcely possible that his Lordship or any rational man, who
l^nows the facts of the case, can now cherish such a hope. Nay, can a
single doubt be entertained that it has at length become the proper and
exclusive, the clear and incumbent duty of Government and Parliament
no longer to commit this work to planters, but to perform it themselves ?

3. Barbadoes.
All we have from this colony is the draft of a bill on slave evidence,
proposed and agreed to by the Council, but not yet adopted by the
Assembly.

4. Antigua,
The Governor of Antigua has only had to announce, that on the 22d
of January last, a Bill on slave evidence, and one for abolishing Sunday
markets, were in progress. The latter alone has since, it appears,
passed into a law, but with provisions so extremely defective as to have
produced to the slaves, as we have seen, (No. 81, p 285,) evil instead
of good.

5. St. Vincent.
The only advance in the reform of their Slave Code, made by the legis-
lature of St. Vincent, is the removal of some of the restrictions which in
their Act of 1825 had been placed on the evidence of slaves. That
evidence is now to be admitted in all civil as well as criminal cases,
excepting those in which their owners are concerned.

6. Trinidad.
The new Order in Council of February 2, 1830, came into operation
m this Colony on the 23d of April, 1830.

2 s

32G Progress of Colonial Reform — Demerara.

7. Demerara.

The new Order in Council of February 2, 1830, came into operation
in this Colony on the 14th of May, 1830. Sir Benjamin D'Urban, the
Governor, accompanied its promulgation by a farther ordinance, in which
he not only supplied certain omissions in the Order of February, but
considerably modified some of its provisions. These modifications, which
he appears to have adopted on the advice of planters, are for the most
part highly objectionable ; and some of them, we are happy to find, have
been very properly disallowed by His Majesty.

One of these new provisions, which we are sorry to see has not been
disallowed or even reprehended, is that which enacts that provisions
and clothing are to be furnished to the slaves agreeably to an annexed
schedule ; being the very schedule we have inserted in our last number,
p. 294. To permit this provision to stand as the law of Demerara, would
be to give His Majesty's sanction to an actually starving allowance for
the slave population of this Colony — an allowance, as we have already
shewn, which is less than half of what is necessary for their due sub-
sistence. How Sir B. D'Urban should have permitted himself to be so
imposed upon by the misrepresentations of the planters as to adopt this
parsimonious and utterly inadequate scale of allowance for the slaves,
we know not : but we trust that the eyes of His Majesty's government
will be open to the cruel consequences which must result from its con-
firmation. To confirm it would be to sign the death warrant of many of
His Majesty's subjects, and would indicate a most opprobrious inattention
to the comfort and well-being of the whole slave population throughout
our Colonies, which we are very far indeed from imputing to the Colo-
nial Secretary. The precedent v/ould be most disastrous. Lord
Goderich, we cannot doubt, will revise this part of the Governor's
supplementary regulations. It can only be necessary that he should
candidly investigate the matter in order to be convinced of the shame-
ful imposition which has thus been attempted upon him, and of the
duty of repelling, with the severest reprehension, this cruel and oppres-
sive frustration of His Majesty's benevolent purposes. The food and
clothing of the slaves are points of the most essential moment to their
life, and health, and well-being ; and we hesitate not to say, that if this
schedule is henceforth to be permitted to regulate the amount of their
allowances, it will be productive of an infinity of evil ; and may more than
counterbalance all the advantages which can be hoped for from the
other provisions of this Order. Having in our very last number dwelt
on this subject at some length, it cannot be necessary for us to enlarge
upon it any further at present. We will only repeat that the allowance
thus sanctioned by law, as we are ready to prove, is, for adult la-
bourers, absolutely a starving allowance. It does not amount to half of
what is requisite for the comfortable subsistence and the due clothing of
the working slaves.*

* In No. 82, there appears an ambiguity in the extract respecting the allowance
of food, kc, printed at the bottom of page 294, which, though it is correctly
transcribed from the original, seems to require explanation. The passage is —
^' One and a half bunch of plantains, weighing not less than 45lbs., or of other
farinaceous food; 9 pints/' &c. Now it would almost seem from this that the

Progress of Colonial Reform — in Demerara. 327

A provision is introduced by the Governor to prevent slaves from
quitting the estates to vi^hich they belong, on Sundays, without leave
from the owner or manager, to which the Secretary of State justly ob-
jects, unless it shall be qualified by a regulation which shall authorize
them to resort to any licensed places of worship on that day.

A farther provision is introduced, empowering the owner to employ
Sunday morning, until eight o'clock, in delivering to the slaves their
weekly allowances. To this provision, the Secretary of State also ob-
jects, unless it can be proved to be unavoidable. But is it not perfectly
obvious that no such proof can be exhibited ? Why must two or three
hours of Sunday be occupied with a distribution which could, with equal
facility, be made on two or three hours of any other day ? It is wholly
impossible that necessity can, with any truth, be pleaded here. The
only question that can arise is, shall two or three hours of the week be
taken from the time of the master, or two or three hours of the
Sunday from that of the slave, or rather from that of God, for this
necessary but wholly secular employment ?

Another clause in the Governor's supplementary enactment, retaining
all those unnecessary and most unjust restrictions on slave evidence,
which disgraced the former Order, is positively and peremptorily de-
clared to be inadmissible, " The object of the new Order in Council,"
says Sir G. Murray, " is to abolish all distinctions respecting the ad-
missibility of slave evidence which turn upon the servile or free condi-
tion of the witness. His Majesty cannot sanction any enactment which
encroaches upon the simplicity of this rule. Respecting the evidence
of slaves, it is at once needless and undesirable that any addition what-
ever should be made to the enactments contained in the Order in
Council."

The Secretary of State further requires, that a record should be kept
of all other punishments which may be substituted for flogging in the
case of males, and for which record no express provision has been made
by the Governor's ordinance.

He also disallows a clause, introduced by the Governor, for em-
powering the Fiscal, on the application of the owner, to inflict, at his
discretion, on the slaves, a greater punishment than the owner himself
is allowed to inflict, *' It is impossible," says Sir G, Murray, with ad-
mirable judgment, " to recognize a class of offences at once too grave
for the domestic forum, and too light for the judicial tribunal; — offences
which are to be punished by the magistrate without being previously
defined by the law. Such rules rather confound than establish solid
distinctions between different degrees of criminality."

The Governor pleads strenuously for reserving to the planter the
power of compelling his slaves to perform such work on the Sunday as
potting sugar, picking coffee or cotton during crop, or turning and
drying of coffee or cotton ; and he has promulgated a regulation to
that effect. Sir G. Murray, however, most justly disallows this provi-
sion, and requires that all such work on a Sunday should be matter of

"9 pints," &c. were additional, which is not the case. To convey the true
meaning the passage ought to stand thus : — " One and a half bunch of plantains,
or, in lieu of this, other farinaceous food, as 9 pints," &c.

328 Progress of Colonial Reform — i?i Berbice, Si. Lucia.

choice and not of compulsion. " After giving every attention to your
remarks on this subject, I cannot concur in your opinion that the slave
should be deprived of his free agency upon the question of engaging
systematically in any kind of agricultural labour on Sunday." The
same principle most obviously, and still more forcibly, applies to the
work of distributing to the slaves their allowances on a Sunday, to
which we have just adverted.

Sir G. Murray, moreover, requires that successive punishments
should not be inflicted on females without a due interval between them ;
and he objects to permitting the punishment of stocks during the night,
or of confinement during the hours of noon with task work; — " be-
cause such punishments," he says, "diminish that degree of repose
which is absolutely essential to enable a woman to undergo her daily
labour in the field with a due regard to health."

The wisdom and considerate humanity of these observations are
highly honourable to Sir G. Mun-ay. — After correcting some minor de-
viations from the rules laid down in the Order in Council, and reducing
the enormous fees required on the appraisement of slaves for manumis-
sion, from £30 sterling to 15 guilders, or about 25s. sterling; he
concludes with requiring Sir B. D'Urban to revoke his proclamation,
which His Majesty cannot allow ; and to substitute for it a new procla-
mation in which the various corrections he has pointed out shall be
introduced.

In our last number we succeeded in demonstrating the unfitness of
the planters to make laws for the benefit of their bondsmen. The de-
tails into which we have now entered will serve to indicate a similar
•inaptitude, in such British Governors as either submit to the dictation,
or rely on the ad-vice, of the owners of slaves.

8. Berbice.

The course which has been pursued by the Governor of Berbice is so
nearly the same with that pursued by Sir B. D'Urban in Denierara,
with whom he was desired by the Secretary of State to take counsel,
that it will not be necessary to enter into the details of it. The varia-
tions in the supplemental Orders, issued in the two Colonies, are so
slight, as not to call for specification. The Governor of Berbice has,
however, in these variations, somewhat improved on his model ; and he
has been so judicious as to exclude entirely, from his enactment, the
miserable scale of allowances of food and clothing, which has been so
opprobriously introduced into the law of the sister colony.

The comments of the Secretary of State on the supplemental Or-
der of Demerara, and its disallowance by His Majesty, are of course
equally applicable to the case of Berbice.

9. >S'^. Lucia.

The acting governor of this colony, Col. Farquharson, on the 7th
of April, 1830, acknowledges the arrival of the new Order in Council,
which he follows up, on its promulgation, with two supplemental ordi-
nances, containing some clauses which appear liable to serious objec-
tion. In what light they will be viewed by His Majesty's Government
we are unable to say, as they are not accompanied by any remarks of
the Secretary of State ; but we cannot doubt that some of the clauses will

Progress of Colonial Reform— in Bermuda, CapeofOood Hope. 329

be disallowed, especially the regulation for compulsory labour on the
Sunday, and the revival of some sanguinary provisions of the ancient
Slave Code of the Colony. Among the habitual emergencies which the
governor considers as justifying compulsory labour, on the Sunday, are
specified, the grinding and boiling off" of the canes and juice remaining
from the preceding evening; (as if there could exist any necessity for
cutting more canes on Saturday than could be ground and boiled on
Saturday) ; the plucking, drying, or preserving of coffee; and also such
manufacturing labour as is rendered necessary by the state of the sea-
son ! — Females may be punished by owners and managers with hand-
cuffs and solitary confinement; and by a magistrate they may be punish-
ed, for a tnonfh, either with the treadmill or other hard labour ; or
with labour in chains on plantations and public works ; or with soli-
tary confinement. — The penalties on fugitive slaves are cruelly severe.
A slave striking his owner is liable to death ; or striking any free person,
to imprisonment and hard labour for life. — A variety of actions also,
not criminal in free persons, are severely punishable as misdemeanors
when done by slaves. — Any offence committed by an emancipated
slave against his former owner is to be more severely punished than
against a stranger. — British born slaves, manumitted in a foreign country,
shall not be considered free in St. Lucia, unless the manumission is
confirmed by the proper authorities. Are they then in such cases to
be reduced again to slavery ? There are other regulations which we will
not stop to notice; but which seem out of place in a supplemental
'.order, intended merely to give effect to the Order in Council ; but some
pf those we have mentioned seem most outrageous.

10. Bermuda.

We have nothing announced from this Colony, except the renewal of
its very imperfect Slave Act for one year more.
11. Cape of Good Hope.

The Order in Council of the 2nd of Feb. 1830, came into operation
in this colony on the 26th of August, 1830. Its announcement was
accompanied by various subsidiary regulations promulgated by the
governor, Sir Lowry Cole. One of these regulations, which professes
to secure Sunday to the slave, goes, in the opinion of Lord Goderich,
virtually to abolish the day of rest altogether. The works which Sir
Lowry Cole has classed as works of necessity on that day comprise
" ploughing and sowing the land, and completing other agricultural
operations," " reaping and securing the crops," " pruning vines,"
" gathering and housing grapes," " making (manufacturing) wine,"
" going on journeys, carrying letters, &c." By sanctioning such pro-
visions as these the very object in the Order in Council would obviously
be defeated. Lord Goderich, therefore, requires the governor to revoke
the proclamation which authorises them. He requires him also to
revoke the regulations for confining slaves on the whole or part of
Sunday, and to define more exactly than he has done the minimum of
food, clothing, &c. with which they are to be provided.

Sir Lowry Cole shews a singular reluctance to take from the planters the
power of corporally punishing females, or of imprisoning them on Sun-
days, and, as formerly in the Mauritius so now at the Cape of Good

330 Progress of Colonial Refortn — in Mauritius.

Hope, he argues the point against the Secretary of State with an
earnestness which would be quite amusing were it not for the considera-
tion, that men capable of thus feeling and reasoning should be chosen
to superintend and carry into effect reforms of the kind intrusted to Co-
lonial Governors. If Governors thus feel and reason what are we to ex-
pect from the planters? "Corporal punishment of females is objected to,"
says Sir L. Cole, " as tending to lower and impair the sense of re-
spect"— and he goes on gravely to admonish his Majesty's Secretary
that " there is nothing which lowers and degrades the female character
so much as debauchery and dissipation" — and these, he is of opinion,
would be repressed by corporal punishment and imprisonment on
Sunday. — Does Sir Lowry Cole then believe (it would seem so !) that
stripping women bare, and exposing their denuded persons to the com-
mon gaze, and then lacerating their flesh with a whip or a cat is the best
way to heighten their modesty; or that shutting them up on Sundays in
a dark room is the best way to improve their morals ? Happily Lord
Goderich takes a view of the matter very different from that of the Go-
vernor. He on the contrary, is of opinion, that Sir Lowry Cole's plans
of discipline would at once perpetuate and increase the evil which he
aims to cure. In reply also to Sir Lowry's argument, that deferring the
punishment of a slave over Sunday till Monday would place the pro-
prietor " in a most unchristianlike position on the day of worship and
rest," Lord Goderich well observes that, " if the punishment be merited,
I cannot discover why the purpose of inflicting it should be regarded as
unchristian : and if unmerited, or if inflicted merely from motives of
revenge, it is alike contrary to the principles of religion, on whatever
day of the week it may take place.''

12. Mauritizis.

The Order in Council of the 2nd February, 1 830, did not come into
operation in the Mauritius until the close of September in that year.
The supplementary order of the governor, Sir Charles Colville, which
accompanied it, fixes Saturday as the market-day instead of Sunday ; but
the terms it employs are such as leave it in the master's option whether
the slaves shall be exempted from plantation labour on Saturday, so as
to have the power of attending ihe Saturday market. " Masters," the
Order says, " may, and are hereby recommended to send such of their
slaves as may have for sale, whether on their own or their master's
account, articles of furniture, live stock, provisions, &c. ; and in par-
ticular to grant this permission to those among their slaves, who, by
their general conduct and attention to their work, have merited the in-
dulgence and favourable consideration of their masters, for the better-
ing the condition of themselves and families. Slaves will not be admitted
to the said market unless furnished with a pass ticket from their master
or manager." A very large latitude is also allowed for the compulsory
labour of slaves on Sunday. The works said to be of necessity and
which may be compelled are such " works of agriculture, fabrication,
or manufacture" as cannot be delayed or postponed without loss to the
proprietor, a point of which he or his manager appears to be left the
sole judge. The slaves, it is true, are to be paid for such labours, but
it is a matter not of choice but of compulsion to perform them if re-

Progress of Colonial Reform — in Mauritius. 331

quired. Besides this, a power is reserved to the master of employing
his slaves regularly and constantly, on the Sunday morning, till eight
o'clock, without any remuneration.

We cannot but feel confident that these various regulations, with
respect to Sunday labour and Sunday markets, will be annulled by His
Majesty's Government, and a better system substituted. Sunday mar-
kets may be abolished as in the Mauritius, but of what benefit is their
abolition to the slave if his attendance on the Saturday market, instead
of being made a matter of legal right, is left wholly dependent on the
caprice of his master. This is not giving him time in lieu of Sunday for
marketing and labour. Besides, these regulations not only put it in the
power of the master to work his slave in the field for six days in the
week without any intermission ; but to take from him also, absolutely
and systematically, the three best hours of the Sunday without any
remuneration ; and further to compel him, for fixed wages, if the master
shall so will, to employ the rest of Sunday in plantation labour. This
state of things, we are persuaded, will not be permitted to continue.

The only letter of the Secretary of State, addressed to Sir Charles Col-
ville, is dated the 28th of February, 1831, and is entirely confined to one
point, namely the continued employment of chains, collars, and fetters
as instruments of domestic punishment. The disgraceful ordinance of
the Governor which sanctioned them is now disallowed ; and Lord
Goderich, in announcing this fact, adds, " I cannot conceal from you
the regret with which I have perused it." Sir G. Murray, in a despatch
of the 8th May, 1829, had conveyed in the strongest terms his dissatis-
faction with any such use of chains, collars, &c. in the full persuasion that
the local government of the Mauritius would have passed an ordinance
for their entire prohibition, observing that he should only interpose in
case that expectation should be disappointed. " After such an intima-
tion," says Lord Goderich, " it was scarcely to be expected that a second
ordinance should be transmitted, for his Majesty's approbation, which
authorises the chaining together of women and boys of the age of fifteen,
and the chaining boys apart from each other, whatever be their age."
" No attempt is made to determine the form of these instruments
except that the collar should not have three branches ; but two branches
are amply sufficient to inflict extreme distress on the wearer. No pro-
vision is made as to the length of time these instruments are to be borne,
or the crimes for which they are to be put on." — In consequence of this
persevering refusal of the local authorities, an Order in Council was
passed on the 22nd of February last, absolutely prohibiting, under a
penalty of from £20 to £100, and imprisonment from one to six months,
the use of all such instruments of torture; which Order Sir Charles
was directed to promulgate the moment he received it. Lord Goderich
expresses great concern at the necessity of this fresh interference ; but
he adds, " the paramount considerations of justice and sound policy
have silenced all minor objections." And he closes his despatch with
impressing upon Sir Charles Colville, " the indispensable obligation of
withholding, in future, his sanction from measures opposed to the prin-
ciples of His Majesty's Government, as such sanction cannot fail to
impose on His Majesty an office the most invidious and irksome. It
were far better to encounter at once whatever obloquy or discontent
you might incur by a frank opposition to such measures, than to sub-

33"2 Progress of Colonial Reform — Conclusion.

ject yourself to the responsibility of adopting, and his Majesty to the
painful duty of disallowing them."

From the Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Honduras, Montserrat, St.
Kitts, Tobago, and Tortola, there is no report whatever of any kind on
the subject of reform during the past year ; and the reports from
the other twelve Colonies, of which we have already given the sub-
stance, cannot be considered as very exhilarating. They not only indi-
cate no real progress in the work of reform, but, in general, they exhibit,
in characters of deepened malignity and horror, the innate, and, we
firmly believe, incurable evils of Colonial slavery.

But the picture now presented to our readers, revolting and disgusting
as it may be, is loveliness itself when compared with some of the details
which we have yet to place before their view, in the analysis which we
propose to give, in succeeding numbers, of the official Reports from the
Protectors of slaves in the Crown Colonies of Great Britain. Here at
least we have the advantage of seeing the evils of the system with less of
the disguise which it has hitherto worn in all the slave Colonies, and
which it still wears in the chartered Colonies. And it will be admitted that
our growing acquaintance with its real, and unsophisticated features,
does not tend to abate, but to aggravate its loathsomeness and defor-
mity, its criminality and guilt.

And is such a state of things to be permitted to continue even for
another year, in despite of the five thousand five hundred pe-
titions, which, during the last session, conveyed to Parliament the
reiterated, and unequivocal, and concurrent expression of the feelings
and wishes of the British people on this subject ? The foregoing six-
teen pages contain, we believe, a too faithful analysis of all the im-
provements which are exhibited in the last annual Report of the
Colonial Minister, zealous as he has shewn himself to effect improve-
ment.— And what heart but must sicken in the contemplation of its
details?- With some slight exceptions, the progress of our cause,
judging by the practical results now brought before us, seems rather to
have retrograded than advanced. And is it not most afflicting, that, at
the very moment we are thus called to mourn over our deferred, and
almost bankrupt hopes, we should learn that fresh propositions have
been made, and are entertained in Parliament, for extending farther
eleemosinary relief to the determined upholders of this vicious sys-
tem ? — The earnest, the almost universal prayer of the British people
to Parliament, has been that it would adopt effectual measures for ex-
tinguishing, throughout the King's dominions, the crime and the guilt
of slavery, and thus effacing from the national character the foul and
malignant stain which it inflicts. These petitioners will certainly, we
apprehend, not be satisfied, if instead of proceeding to comply with
this reasonable solicitation. Parliament should now call upon them to
maintain, by faither premiums, and encouragements; and in fact, by
farther contributions, to prolong and to aggravate those very evils which
they deplore, and against whicli they have so long and so loudly pro-
tested ; — those unchristian, unconstitutional, and murderous practices,
which, from their inmost souls, they do utterly reprobate and abhor.

London: Printed by S. Bagster, Jun. 14, Bartholomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 84.] JULY 18, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 12.

PROTECTORS' OF SLAVES REPORTS.— I. Demerara— Ofoerrafjoras
of Secretary of State ; Complaints of Slaves, cases of Rosey, George, James,
Mrs. Lowe's Slaves, Acouba, and Fanny ; unjust detention of Slaves in
bondage ; arbitrary domestic inflictions ; fnarriage ; manumissions ; wages of
Sunday labour.

In our last number we promised our readers some analysis of the
official Reports printed by the House of Commons, which had been
transmitted to the Colonial office, by the officers appointed by His
Majesty, in the several Crown Colonies, under the title of Protectors
to watch over the interests of the slaves and to guard them from op-
pression and wrong. They are six in number, viz. : — 1st. Demerara ;
2nd. Berbice ; 3rd. Trinidad ; 4th. St. Lucia ; 5th. Cape of Good
Hope ; 6th. Mauritius. We shall take them in their order.

1. Demerara.

We have often longed to be admitted to a full view of the interior
economy of Demerara plantations. The horrific revelations of the Fis-
cal of Berbice, in 1825, served to sharpen our curiosity, which was still
further excited by the apparent reluctance of the public functionaries
in the adjoining Colony to disclose the secrets of the prison-house,
and thus to open the eyes of the public, and even of Government it-
self, to the real condition of its slave population. The appointment
of a Protector of slaves, in Demerara, bound to make periodical re-
turns of all matters incident to his office, led us to hope for a full
elucidation of their state. But his early reports were of the most
meagre and vmsatisfactory description, as we have already shewn.
(See vol. ii. No. 43, p. 355 ; and vol. iii. No. 54, p. 142 ; and No.
66, p. 386.) Still enough was necessarily told to excite suspicions
that the flattering generalities conveyed by the Protector respecting
the contented appearance and happy state of the slaves of Demerara,
could not be perfectly consistent, at least according to our European
notions of happiness and content, with some broad facts of the case.
The punishments, for example, of a single year, inflicted on this
happy peasantry, when they came to be added up, amounted to about
20,500, the whole number of plantation slaves — men, women and
children, being under 62,000. We learn, too, from the new law of
Demerara, so much vaunted by the forty-one authors of the West
India Manifesto, that the legal weekly sustenance of each adult la-
bourer is fixed at what is equivalent to two pounds of herrings and
eight pounds of raw flour, and the yearly amount of clothing is one

2 T

334 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Demerara.

hat, one shirt, one jacket, and one pair of trowsers, for the men; and
one hat, one gown, one shift, and one petticoat, for the women ; — of
which quantities, boys and girls of fifteen years of age and under, are
allowed two thirds, and boys and girls of ten years and under, one
half. How the planters contrive to halve the hat, the trowsers, or the
petticoat, we do not pretend to guess. Still, in the teeth of these
facts ; — of this scanty food and scanty clothing, — and of these 20,000
inflictions of the whip or the stocks, — we are gravely assured by the
Protector, that he " cannot refrain from remarking on the contented
appearance of the negroes, (of Demerara) and that from his oppor-
tunities of judging, they generally have every reason to be so."

In addition to these inconsistencies, on looking into the Reports of
the Protector, there appeared an absence of all details respecting the
nature and the issue of any complaints made to him by the slaves of
maltreatment by their owners or managers. It was deemed necessary,
therefore, to call for " Copies of the proceedings and decisions in each
case of complaint between masters and slaves, which came before
him, whether the proceedings may have terminated before the Pro-
tector himself, or may have been referred to Colonial magistrates, or
other public officers or courts." As a compliance with this call, we
have now placed before us a detail of the transactions of this descrip-
tion, which occurred in Demerara during a single year, namely, from
the 1st of May, 1829, to the 30th of April, 1830. But on the 1st of
May, 1829, the Protector, Col. Young, had already been for three
years in the execution of his important functions, and yet of the
similar transactions of those three years, no details are given, nor is
any reason assigned for their being withheld. Certainly if they shall
prove to be as rich in valuable information as the details, now before
us, of the complaints and the results of those complaints which were
preferred to Col. Young during the fourth year of his administration,
it would be highly expedient that they also should see the light.
There seems no adequate cause for permitting the proceedings of
the Protector, during the three years which preceded the 1st of May,
to sink into oblivion, while those of the year following that date are
given to the public. Even if an objection should be raised to the
expence of printing them, there can be no objection made to their
rigid examination, either by a committee or in some other way. It
would seem to be unjust to the slave population of Demerara, if,
after having seen the present specimen of their general condition, and
their sad destitution of legal protection, measures were not taken to
investigate the transactions of the first three years, as well as those
of the fourth, of Colonel Young's protectorate.

The omission to which we have now adverted had attracted the
notice of Sir George Murray ; and in a despatch of the 2nd Septem-
ber, 1829, he called upon the Protector to supply it, remarking at the
same time, that it had been stated by the Protector, that the com-
plaints of slaves had not been numerous. — " Unfortunately, how-
ever," he. adds, " the same statement cannot be made respecting the
number of punishments. They amount to the extraordinary number
of 10,207, during one half year, upon a population of 61,626. The

Observations of the Secretary of State. 335

infrequency of complaints, under such circumstances, must either im-
ply a great consciousness of criminality on the part of the slave, or
some distrust of their prospect of redress for any injuries they may
have received. In either case the result is much to be lamented."

In consequence of this mandate of Sir George Murray, and of the
subsequent Order of the House of Commons, we have now before us
the complaints of the slaves of Demerara, for a single year, those
being still withheld which had been made and disposed of previously,
that is to say, prior to May, 1829. The impression produced on the
minds both of Sir G. Murray and Lord Goderich, by this too tardy
developeraent of the nature and result of those complaints, as given
in the Protector's Report of his transactions for the first half of that
period, namely, from the 1st of May to the 31st of October, 1829,
may be collected from the following passages in a despatch of the
Secretary of State, of the 30th of November, 1829, a despatch which
seems to have been drawn up by Sir George Murray, though signed
by Lord Goderich. After a variety of striking and judicious obser-
vations on the unsatisfactory nature of many of the Protector's de-
cisions, the Secretary of State thus concludes his despatch : — " These
observations are far from being the whole which the Record of the
proceedings of the Protector, in the complaints of slaves, has sug-
gested." (He had before said, in allusion to them, that " the protec-
tion afforded by such proceedings as these, must be all but nugatory.")
" I avoid adding to the length of this despatch, by the repetition of
remarks, which, though specially applicable to some cases selected for
comment, may be justly used to characterise the proceedings gener-
ally." (We shall quote, hereafter, some of those generally charac-
teristic remarks.) " The witnesses examined are in general few, and
they are not those from whom the most impartial testimony was to be
expected. Points essential to a correct understanding, remain with-
out elucidation. There is no appearance of assistance or advice, or
indeed of opportunity, having been afforded to the slaves, to substan-
tiate their allegations ; and even when apparently substantiated, it is
in very few instances that the claims of justice, and the provisions of
the law, seem to have been satisfied in the result.

" On a review of the general character of the proceedings, if I am
compelled to comment upon them with severity, I am not the less
anxious that my comments should be understood as having reference
to Colonel Young, solely in his quality of Protector. The office is an
extremely arduous one, and very peculiar qualifications are required
for it. I would much rather attribute Colonel Young's decisions, in
many of the cases which have come before him, to the want of
a habit of weighing evidence, and of the penetration -v^hich such
a habit generates, than to the want of an equitable mind. But from
whatever cause the inefficiency proceeds, and whatever be the value
which might attach to the services of Colonel Young in other situa-
tions, I cannot consent that he should continue in the office of Pro-
tector, whilst I remain under the conviction of his unfitness for it, to
which his recent proceedings have led me. Under such an ad-
ministration of the slave ordinance, as these proceedings appear to

336 Protectors^ of Slaves Reports — Demerara.

evince, I cannot, indeed, but entertain the most serious doubts
whether in the many important provisions depending for their execu-
tion upon the Protector, that ordinance be not almost devoid of prac-
tical effect.* Some of the details to which it has been my painful
duty to advert in this despatch, present sufficient indications of the
responsibility which I should assume, were I not to require either that
these doubts be forthwith removed, or that the office of Protector be
intrusted to other hands. You will, therefore, grant the Protector
six months leave of absence, that he may return to this country
to explain his conduct ; and until a final decision be taken as to his
resumption of the office, you will make the best selection in your
power of a person to execute the duties provisionally.

"You mustallow me, in conclusion, to advert to the despatches from
yourself, which have accompanied the Protectors' reports. These des-
patches have in general notified their transmission, and have contained
little or no comment upon them. Sensible as I am of the vigour and
penetration with which every inquiry is pursued which it devolves
upon yourself personally to conduct, I cannot suppose that the im-
perfections of those conducted by the Protector would have escaped
your observation, had you conceived yourself called upon to revise
them. I am thus induced to believe that you have considered such a
revision as not intended to constitute any part of a Governor's duty,
I take this occasion, therefore, to request as one of the most important
functions of your government, the exercise of such a superintendance
as shall ensure the proper execution of the office of Protector of slaves.
Without the most watchful performance of this duty, it is not to be
hoped, that the law for bettering the condition of the slaves will be
effiectually administered. It is obvious that an immediate revision by
the Governor, followed by a prompt resumption of imperfect investi-
gations, must obviate many evils which are beyond the reach of re-
medy after such a lapse of time as must unavoidably intervene before
the final revision by the Secretary of State."

We trust that a copy of this well timed admonition has been sent
to every governor of a slave colony within the dominions of the crown.

It would be impossible to enter very fully and particularly into the
various complaints which are contained in the Protector's report, or
are adverted to in the despatch of the Secretary of State, as occurring
during the twelve months, from 1st May, 1829 to 30th April, 1830.
They amount to above 100, and occupy upwards of 130 closely printed
folio pages. All we can hope to do is to give a fair sample of them,
and for that purpose we shall select a few which will convey to our
readers a tolerably correct idea of the rest.

1. Case of Rosey, (No. 5, p. 48.)

May, 1829, appeared Rosey ; says, she belongs to Plantation
Grove, on the East coast; says, that on Tuesday last, the 12th of
May, she got a pain in her bowels while at work in the field ; that

* This would probably have appeared three years sooner, had the returns
of the complaints of slaves and their results, been regularly made.

Complaints of Slaves — Case of Rosey ; Case of George. 337

she lay down, and that Mr. Henry Chapman, the manager, saw her
and asked, what ailed her ? She told him ; but he ordered her to go
on with her work, and struck her with a small stick and then with
his fist, which knocked her down. He then had her hands tied behind
her and sent her home, and kept her in the stocks three days and three
nights, and kept her sucking child from her during that time, and
that in consequence of her child not being given her to give it suck,
her breasts swelled very much. The doctor saw her and gave her
some medicine for the bowel complaint. The manager afterwards
wanted to confine her at night, but she hid herself. She left the
estate last night, but did not ask for a pass!

The Protector summoned Mr. H. Chapman to appear and sent
complainant to gaol. On the 23rd both attended at the office.

Mr. Chapman (the party accused) admitted, that he came to the
field and saw the woman sitting down. On asking what was the mat-
ter, she would give no answer. He gave her a slap in the face in
consequence of her great impertinence. She was not confined in the
stocks, but in one of the rooms of the hospital ; her child is sixteen
months old, and had previously been in the yaws house : it had been
thought fit to be weaned before it was sent thither with the yaws.

To this verbal statement he added a written statement of his over-
seer to the eflfect of confirming all he himself had said, and denying
his having struck her with a stick, or knocked her down ; and adding
that she and her husband were always dissatisfied and disaflPected, and
that Mr. Chapman had always passed over their misconduct.

The result of this investigation is thus given by the Protector.
" Complaint dismissed."

'^ On this case," says the Secretary of State, " I must make a re-
mark, which might be applied to a majority of these investigations,
that the only parties examined are those from whom the truth is least
likely to be elicited, the party complaining, and the party against
whom the complaint is brought. It does not appear to be denied,
however, in this case that the woman who complains was sick, and
that she was struck by the manager. The degree of violence used is
disputed ; and this is no doubt a point which will always be disputed,
and cannot be ascertained; and the law is therefore more necessary to
be enforced which forbids that a woman should be struck at all. The
woman's allegation that she was confined in the stocks is disputed, but
it is not denied that she was confined three days and nights ; and
that during this confinement an infant at the breast was not admitted
to her. I am unable to discover on what ground the Protector dis-
missed the complaint."

2. Case of George. (No. 14, p. 58.)

This case will be sufficiently understood by transcribing the sub-
stance of the comment of the Secretary of State. The complaint.
No. 14, is that of George against Mr. Thierens, for detaining him in
slavery, he being free from birth. His statement is, " that his mother,
Laura, was the daughter of the Indian woman Urina, of the Harno
tribe; that his father was a slave of Mr. Trotts, and head driver on

338 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Demerara.

Plantation Laurencia where his mother lived, and was always con-
sidered a free woman ; that after her death, which happened while
George was a child, Mr. Trotts took him and his sister as slaves, his
sister having now alive a son named Remy; that after Mr. Trotts died,
they were retained in slavery by his wife, and at her death became
the property of her nephew, Mr.Thierens, in whose possession they still
are. George referred to two persons who can prove his descent from
the free Indian woman Laura ; and said, that five years ago they had
claimed their liberty and were assisted in doing so by the Crown Ad-
vocate, Mr. Gordon, who told them to return to the estate, and at
the end of six months they should be manumitted ; but the promise
had not been fulfilled."

Mr. Thierens maintained that the claim of George to freedom was
unfounded ; that he only thought of it when in liquor ; that at all
other times the whole family had declared themselves contented and
satisfied with their lot, and had even disclaimed any pretensions to
their freedom, and this before two witnesses who certified the same in
writing, but without giving the names of the disclaiming slaves.

The Protector's decision on this case was "dismissed; the claim
being withdrawn by the parties themselves, and acknowledged by
them to be unfounded, and that it was only made whilst under the
influence of spirituous liquors."

Upon these facts, the Secretary of State observes to the following
effect, " It appears to me that this case has been disposed of in too sum-
mary a manner. The statement of alleged facts, on which the claims
to freedom were founded, is distinct and specific. It is in no single
particular disproved or even contradicted by the opposite party. Con-
sidering the presumable ignorance of the negroes, and the means of
persuasion" (and it may be added of intimidation) " a master may be
supposed to possess, the abandonment of their claims formerly may be
accounted for without any necessary inference of invalidity. One of
the principal motives for establishing a Protector of slaves is deduced
from the apprehension that the slaves may not be capable of forming
a just judgment of their own interests, or in a condition to act for
themselves. But the two negroes, George and his sister, who are said
to have disavowed their pretensions to freedom, are not the only per-
sons whose freedom was in question. Remy, the child of the female,
would be equally entitled to freedom if George's statement were sub-
stantiated. It was the duty of the Protector, therefore, in this case,
to take every means for substantiating the statement, and obtaining
the freedom which would be the result. If any who might be so made
free should desire to remain with Mr. Thierens and work for him as
they now do, it would, of course, be in their power to offer him
their services. You will direct the Protector to resume this case,
and also require from Mr. Gordon, the Crown advocate, a report upon
it." — In the course of the inquiry, Mr. Thierens had intimated that those
claimants of freedom would not be able to subsist by their own indus-
try. The Secretary of State acutely remarks, that " any exercise of
industry that can make a slave of value to his master must be over
and above that which is necessary to procure his own subsistence."

Complaints of Slaves — Case of James — of Mrs. Lowe's Slaves. 339

3. Case of James. (No. 21, p. 63.)

This case, the Secretary of State remarks, " exhibits evidence of an
habitual violation of a most important provision of the slave ordi-
nance ; that namely Avhich exempts the slave from labour on the Sun-
day ; and yet it appears to have entirely escaped the notice of the
Protector of slaves, whose only note upon the case is in tw^o words
at the end of the proceedings, * Complaint dismissed.'"

James's story was to this effect : On Friday he had been throwing
green megass, (the sugar cane after the juice had been expressed by
grinding and which is used as fuel when dry) out of doors, the megass
houses being fall. On Saturday he was ordered to the field, leaving
the green megass of the preceding day out of doors. His Saturday's
task not having been finished he was ordered to finish it on Sunday
morning before receiving his allowance. It occupied him till eleven
o'clock. He was then obliged to put into the house the megass which
had been left out on Friday, and which occupied him till six at night,
when he went with the rest of the people to throw grass for the cattle.
The driver, however, charged him with not having housed his full
share of the megass, and ordered him to the stocks on Sunday night.
He denied the charge and got away, and did not go to the stocks.
On Monday, however, he was put into the stocks and next day was
flogged. The complaint of James was for having been unjustly
flogged, not for having been made to work all Sunday. Of this last
circumstance the Protector took no notice and dismissed the complaint
of injustice as unproved. " But this point," observes the Secretary of
State, " is of far less consequence than the practice here incidentally
disclosed" by a transaction " which shows that negroes are considered
punishable for not having completed, on the Sunday, tasks which they
have been either unwilling or unable to perform on previous days."
Having shown that this fact stands on the clear and unquestioned evi-
dence of two drivers as well as of James himself, and is not denied by the
manager, the Secretary of State remarks in conclusion, " It is obvious
that if this practice be suffered to prevail with impunity any quantity of
labour may be exacted from the slave on Sunday by nominally assign-
ing it to the Saturday. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, that either
under the existing law, or by a supplementary enactment (if such be
required) this practice be totally and effectually put down. I cannot
close without calling your attention to the negligence of the adminis-
tration of the slave ordinance, by which such a system has been al-
lowed to escape notice, although by the examinations consequent on
this complaint, it had been distinctly brought within the view of the
Protector."

4. Case of the slaves of Mary Lowe. (No. 33, p. 72.)
The facts established in evidence in this case were to the following
effect: Mrs. Lowe, of lot No. 17, Essequibo (called Westbury,) was
much addicted to drunkenness : she was also guilty of great cruelties
to her slaves. In February 1829, she cut the wrist of her female slave
Present's right hand with a broken cup, and afterwards unmercifully

340 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Demerara.

beat her for going to a neighbouring estate to get it dressed : the
hand being still so bad that it was likely she would never have the
use of it again. In June 1829, she tied up a little girl called Elvira,
by both her hands to the beam of the gallery, from eight a. m. to one
p. M. and flogged her unmercifully while thus suspended. The girl
fainted three times before she was cut down, and her hands still bear
the marks of it, and her fingers are contracted in consequence. Some
time before, she tied up a little boy called Shigh in a similar manner,
from nine a. m. to six p. m. and the boy lost the use of his hands for
some days. She had repeatedly taken a female child of Present's,
about seven months old, by the neck like a kitten, and thrown her a
distance of two or three yards on the floor, and over the gallery, to
the hazard of the child's life. She often chased her slaves with a
knife to stab them, and they only escaped by running out of the way.
For years she had not given her slaves their allowance of clothing or
food. She had now (21st Aug. 1829,) been in town for several weeks,
and her domestics, four in number, have had nothing to live upon
since she had been from home, but the fish they might catch in the
trenches, or what they might get from neighbours. The slaves are
prevented from complaining to the Protector, of the cruelty and bad
treatment they receive from Mrs. Lowe, by the influence of her family
over them. A neighbour of her's, a Mr. Mackintosh, testified further
that her cruelties had increased so much of late, as to call for inter-
ference. Having no outbuildings, the negroes slept in her own house,
and she had been in the habit, in rainy weather, of driving them out of
the house, some being infants, in the middle of the night, to wander
about for refuge.

All that was done by the Protector in this case, was, to get the
Court of Justice to take, from Mary Lowe, the charge of the slaves,
and to place them under a Curator.

The comments of the Secretary of State on this case are to the
following effect. " I have perused the proceedings with extreme pain,
and I am compelled to express my most serious displeasure at their
result. The woman complained against, Mary Lowe, was unable to
bring forward a single witness to negative any of the circumstances
proved against her on the evidence of relatives and others. It is
proved that she was an habitual drunkard, and her slaves appear to
have been continually suffering from her cruelty and violence, and
sometimes in imminent danger of their lives." " Complaints
were made to the Assistant Protector, Mr. M'Pherson, but he always
desired the slaves to go away, when they came to complain ; and even
when directed by the Protector to inquire into the case, the answer
was, that " for a great length of time back he had had no communica-
tion, directly or indirectly, with Mary Lowe, and he would certainly
like to have no words with her." The Secretary of State then proceeds
to consider whether there was any ground for attributing insanity, as
this would form the only excuse, if it were true, for the Protector's
conduct, and he comes to the conclusion that she exhibited no proof
of any other mental alienation than excessive drunkenness might be
expected to produce. " But mere drunkenness," he adds, " cannot be

Case of the Slaves of Mrs. Lowe — Case of Acouha. 341

sidmitted as any plea to protect this woman from the punishment due
to her crimes. Nothing but distinct evidence of contemporaneous
insanity could justify the exemption of such an offender from the
severest punishment which the law awards upon conviction of such
offences: and the proof of insanity which might justify such an
exemption, would equally justify, and indeed render imperatively
necessary her confinement for life as a criminal lunatic. All that has
been done in this case is to take away from Mary Lowe the care of
her slaves, and place them in the hands of a Curator. I confess my-
self totally at a loss to account for the appearance of insensibility to
the claims of justice which is presented by this result. The omission
to bring this worn an to trial is grounded on a mere conjectural inference
which is not supported by even a single allegation of her having been
deranged at the time when the crimes were committed." " You will
lose no time in causing any steps which may be consistent with the
law of the Colony, to be taken for prosecuting Mary Lowe. You
will also institute the strictest inquiry into the conduct of the As-
sistant Protector, Mr. M'Pherson, who is said to have I'efused to
receive the complaints of Mary Lowe's slaves,"- — " and vmless he ex-
plain his conduct to you in a satisfactory nianner, you will supersede
him without further reference to me."

5. Case of Acouba. (No. 45. p. 91.)

Acouba, a woman sickly and full of scrofulous sores, belonging to
Mr. Sills, stated, that her master was too bad. He beat her with a
stick, on Friday and on Saturday. Having lost some money he said
she must find it, and not finding it, she was put into the stocks in^
order to be taken to gaol. — Mr. Sills said, he had merely touchedh^r
with a whip. The surgeon of the gaol certified that she was afflicted
with severe ulceration of the right cheek, and that her right eye was
in a very high state of inflammation, and that without great care she
would lose it. The only result of this case was, that Mr. Sills en-
gaged to have her properly attended to in her own house, stating that
the expense of keeping her in the gaol hospital was too much for him
to pay, and she was then delivered up to him with a direction to com-
ply strictly with his engagement. " This same woman Acouba," ob-
serves the Secretary of State, had about seven weeks before " in her
own behalf, and that of her brother afflicted like herself with sores,
and that of her husband also diseased, complained of being kicked
and beaten by Mr. Sills, and of no medical attendance being afforded
them. The issue of that case was, that ^ the Protector having found
tlie statements of the complainants as to insufficiency of food and
allowance to be incorrect,' (though how they were found to be so does
not appear, unless by the mere denial of Mr. Sills,) ' dismissed the
complaint, directing Mr. Sills to provide them with such medical at-
tendance and care, as they stood in need of.' The inefficacy of this
direction," the Secretary of State goes on to observe, " might have
taiight the Protector that something more was required than a repeti-
tion of it. And if the beating of the sick woman was denied in the
former case, the Protector cannot have attached any weight to the

2 V

342 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Demerara — Case of Fanny.

denial in the latter, which was accompanied with an admission that
he had * merely touched her with a whip.' The protection afforded
by such proceedings as these," the Secretary of State adds, " must
be all but nugatory."

6. Case of Fanny, (p. 149.)

The complaint of Fanny was, that she had been tied, both hands
and feet, laid down and flogged with a horsewhip by order of her
mistress, for not having found and brought back a boy who had run
away, and in search of whom she had been sent. The complaint was
corroborated by two witnesses, from whose evidence, and the admission
of the accused, it further appeared, that the complainant had been put
in the stocks for two days and two nights before the flogging; and that
both these punishments were for the same offence, which was another
violation of the law. The owner did not deny that she had caused
the woman to be flogged, and only alleged that the punishment had
been slight, and that the slave had not been tied, in which latter cir-
cumstance she was contradicted by the woman she had employed to
inflict the punishment ; yet the only result of this case is, that the
Protector not thinking it expedient to institute a prosecution, cau-
tions the owner not to repeat the offence. " I am at a loss to discover,"
says the Secretary of State, " by what authority the Protector thought
himself empowered to decline instituting the prosecution," He says,
" the chief object of the complaint was, to prevent a repetition of
similar punishment on the complainant, who stated that to be her
object in preferring it. Even supposing this to have been the only
desire of the complainant, the duty of the Protector was not only, or
mainly, to satisfy the complainant, but to vindicate the law, and to
shew that it could not be broken with impunity. The allegation that
the flogging was slight, rests merely on the evidence of her who or-
dered, and her who inflicted it. You will therefore direct the Protec-
tor to reconsider the case with a view to the prosecution of the de-
fendant; and you will caution him against assuming in future an
authority to remit the exaction of fines incurred by a contravention of
the Slave Ordinance."

Cases occur frequently of persons held in slavery, though freed by
the will of their owners. The Secretary of State comments upon
them with just severity, and desires that legal provision may forthwith
be made, to prevent such flagrant injustice in future.

But it would be endless to go over the whole of the black catalogue
before us. We can only give, as we have said, a sample of them, one
in each twenty or twenty-five cases, occurring in a single year, in De-
merara, under all the discouragements which exist there to prevent
slaves from complaining against their owners ; for into the hands of
those owners they are always returned, with the likelihood of expe-
riencing treatment still more vexatious and annoying, though perhaps
less directly illegal than what had led to the complaints. And this is a
sample of only one year of the Protector's administration. If the
remaining three years should prove equally fruitful of complaints of
the same kind, and of complaints attended with similar results, what

General Domestic Punishments. 343

a fearful spectacle of cruelty and wrong would it not exhibit to the
view of the British public ; and all this over and above the eighteen
or nineteen or twenty thousand domestic inflictions of the whip or of
the stocks, which occur yearly, at the mere arbitrary pleasure of the
300 or 320 owners or managers of plantations, who, in this boasted
land of content and enjoyment, have the uncontrolled power, within
certain limits, and within those limits without the slightest responsi-
bility, of punishing their fellows with stripes and imprisonment. And
for what description of crime are they thus permitted to punish them?
We may form some idea of this from the following computation of the
inflictions of two whole years, as contained in the returns of the Pro-
tector, viz : — For stealing sugar canes, plantains, &c. (the effect pro-
bably of the scanty food allowed by their masters,) yearly inflictions
to the extent of about 1 ,000. — For insubordination ; insolence ;
stubbornness; disobedience; absconding and skulking; false pre-
tences of sickness ; not being at work in time ; loss of labour by
drunkenness; not finishing tasks; laziness; neglect of duties ; care-
lessness, &c. yearly inflictions to the extent of 16,500; the remain-
ing yearly inflictions being made up of quarrelling and fighting with
each other ; infidelity to husbands ; seducing wives ; dancing with-
out leave on Sundays ; telling lies ; neglecting sores, &c. to the ex-
tent of about 1,200 cases.

The average number of stripes inflicted upon the male culprits, is
stated to be between nineteen and twenty. Reckoning the males
punished in a year, on the average, at about 12,000, we have an
amount of 240,000 lashes arbitrarily inflicted in this single colony in
the course of a year, by about 300 or 320 owners or managers, chiefly
managers, the owners being mostly absent.

The exact returns of punishments, for the first four half years, viz. :
from Jan. 1, 1828, to Dec. 31, 1829, are as follows : —

Date.

Males.

Females.

Total.

Jan. 1,

to June 30,

1828,

6,092

3,962

10,054

July 1,

to Dec. 31,

1828,

6,542

3,665

10,207

Jan. 1,

to June 30,

1829,

5,666

3,044

8,710

July 1,

, to Dec. 31,

1829,

5,682

2,967

8,649

Total on two years, 23,982 13,638 37,620
Among the punishments we observe some of portentous moment.
In the first half year 62 drivers are punished for neglecting their duty,
and allowing the gang to be idle ; in the second, 83 ; in the third,
49; in the fourth, 68. — What a tremendous influence must these ap-
plications to the driver's sensibility of pain, exert on the fears of the
gang under him, in stimulating them to labour !

In the last half year of the above series the Protector has given
us a list of the plantations, amounting to 305, and having a popula-
tion of 59,492 slaves, on which the above 8,649 punishments had
been inflicted in the course of six months. The returns from some of
the estates are quite appalling. On the following estates, with the
annexed population, there have been in six months the number of
punishments also annexed, viz : —

344

Protectors of Slaves Reports — Demerara,

Plantation.

Tenezferme

Ostend

Mes Delices

La Bonne Intention

Lusignan

Mon Repos

New Tyle

Covent Garden

Arcadia

Little Diamond

Task gang

La Penitence

Le Repentir

Huis I'Diaren

Velvoorden

Maryville

Amsterdam

Hermitage

Endeavour

Claremont

Hoop en Vries

Retrieve

Belfield

Drill

Zealand

Walton Hall

Sparta

Byadeny

Woodcutting

Sans Souci

Grove

Annandale

Ver Eeniging

Groenveld

Anna Catharina

Vreed en Hoop

Nouvelle Flandre

Potosi

Kkin Poudereyen

Vreed istin

Reenestein

Maria's Lodge

Manager,

Gordon

Parke

Tighe

Danket

Laud

Stewart

Hood

Dunkin

Dunkin

Loof

Macpherson

Rush

Rush

Beatty

Van Eeden

Bayne

Frankland

Roberts

Jeffery

Marshall

Read

Simeon

Easton

Gardner

Morris

Kean

M. Lennan

Couchman

Frazer

Reid

Chapman

Nicholson

Douglas

Kleyn

Schultz

Grant

Murray

Reid

Vollerelde

Jellicoe

Leslie

McDonald

Population.

59

24

13
290
439
464

95

78

88
240

45
315
129
276
149
192
278
107
218
176
171
186

23

103

9

325

278

43

46

30
125
249
118
215
266
550
222
108
338
222
105

99

Punishments.

52

21

11*
129
188
292

57

57

30
100

63
148

74
149

72

83

64

35

68

57

71

56

11

38

10

94

71

21

23

17

29

53

29
181
114
157

63

31
185

79

56

34

We observe that in the case of Mary Lowe, the owner of Westbury,
there is not only no return of punishments, but her property stands
(p. 5.) as one of those honourably distinguished as being exempt from
punishment. Nov/ when we look back to p. 340 of this Reporter,
aod read the authentic account there given, of this woman's syste-
matic cruelties towards her slaves, we are at a loss to reconcile it

* And yet this property of " Mes Delices," with precisely the same number of
slaves, stands, by some accident, among the plantations exempt from punishment,
though eleven punishments appear to have been inflicted on the thirteen slaves
belonging to it in the last half year.

General Domestic Punishments. 34^

with the fact of this exemption. We must suppose that either the
return sworn to by her overseer of the absence of all punishment, was
a false one, or that there is that kind of irregularity and uncertainty
in these returns which diminishes greatly their value. We can hardly
doubt that during the two years for Avhich we have the returns before
us, the punishments inflicted by Mary Lowe must have been many
and severe. Otherwise the extreme measure of judicially depriving
her of all further control over her slaves, on account of her continued
cruelties, would hardly have been resorted to. And if there be any
ground for such a suspicion in this case, what confidence can be en-
tertained that the returns, generally, do not fall short of the truth in
their exhibition of the number of punishments actually inflicted.
There is no danger of exaggeration in the contrary direction. — It is
only by tracing such manifest though apparently trivial errors to their
source, that we can succeed in discovering and correcting irregulari-
ties of perhaps far more extensive prevalence.

The number of settlements or gangs stated to have been exempt
from all punishment, during the above period, amounts to from 40
to 48, and the slaves attached to them, to from 1,020 to 1,100, the
particular settlements not being always the same. The result is that
settlements, containing about a sixtieth part of the plantation slaves,
or a seventieth part of the whole slave population of the Colony, are
exempt in each half year from punishment. This is something, though
not much, for which to be thankful.

Our estimate of the value of this list of exemptions, we must con-
fess, has been greatly lowered by the two discoveries we have just
made ; one that the settlement of " Mes Delices," with its thirteen
slaves, which stands among the exemptions, appears in another return
with eleven instances of punishment on these thirteen slaves in six
months ; the other that Mary Lowe, distinguished above others for
her cruelties, should appear in this list, as if her seventeen slaves had
never been visited with the slightest infliction. Who can tell how far
this inaccuracy may extend ; or whether the apparent immunity of
the slaves may not, in this and in many other cases of even a more
hopeful kind, to which we are about to advert, be more an effect of
the perjury than of the hvmianity of the master or manager. How is
it possible to divest ourselves of such a painful suspicion in the case
of persons capable of perpetrating such outrages on their fellow-crea-
tures, as we are continually called to witness ? Truly there is no cura
to be found for the evils of slavery but in its extinction.

There appear also in this list, 21 plantations out of 305, in which
the number of punishments has been comparatively small, not more
than three per cent, in the half year. These are

Plantation.

Mundenburgh
Carpenter gang
Bel Air
Montrose
Belle Plains
Houston

Manager,

Population.

Punishments.

Lindsay

47

1

Smith

42

1

Carpenter

215

5

Simpson

292

7

Whitehead

293

7

Russell

857

14

346 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Marriage — Manumissions, 8fc.

Plantation.

Manager.

Population.

Punishments.

Providence

Read

651

15

Blenheim

Cox

337

7

Richmond Hill

Hart

320

9

Endeavour

Macfarquhar

130

2

Zorg

Bishop

285

8

Golden Fleece

Bruton

444

2

Abram's Zuil

Ross

116

3

Devonshire Castle

Banbury

486

10

Perth

Macpherson

128

2

Caledonia

Smith

109

3

Essex

Edwards

220

4

Helena

McLaren

371

5

Windsor Forest

McNeil

491

11

La Grange

Webster

282

6

Woodcutter

Mathison

118

3

Still we cannot forget that Mary Lowe was returned as having in-
flicted no punishment at all upon her slaves.

The number of marriages reported to have taken place from the 1st
of July, 1828, to the 1st of May, 1830, is 129.

The number of slaves certified as competent witnesses from the 1st
of July, 1828, to the 30th of June, 1829, is 172.

The number of manumissions from the 1st of November, 1828, to
the 1st of May, 1830, appears to be 354.*

We observe, that in a great many instances of manumissions, and
even in many cases which would seem wholly to preclude the necessity
for such an exaction, the parties manumitted are obliged to give
security for not becoming burdensome to the Colony. This security
is exacted, in at least fifty cases, from persons who are stated to have
been free from their birth ; but who are now for the first time put into
the legal possession of their freedom, by being registered as free.
But it does seem a great injustice to impose the performance of so
onerous a condition on persons who appear to have been free born,
before that liberty, which has always been their right, shall be legally
secured to them. So, in many other cases of slaves who have manu-
mitted themselves or their children by the fruit of their own industry ;
and in one case of a daughter who paid the price of her mother's
redemption ; as well as in many cases of manumission by deed of
gift ; security of the same kind is, as it appears to us, most unreason-
ably exacted from the parties. We think it would be well if the Pro-
tector were made to specify his reasons in every case for interposing
so very serious an obstacle in the way of manumissions. Some ex-
cellent remarks of Earl Bathurst on this subject will be found in a
letter to Sir Ralph Woodford, contained in the papers laid before
Parliament by His Majesty's command in 1825 ; in which he gives a
clear opinion against the exaction of bonds of maintenance in most of
the cases in which they seem to have been required in Demerara.
We recommend that despatch to the consideration of all Protectors.

* We do not pretend to explain the causes of the discrepancies in the different
dates of these returns.

Wages of Sunday Labour. 347

At tlie close of Col. Young's latest report is inserted the copy of an
advertisement of his in the Gazette to the following effect : —

" Notice. " OJice of Protector of Slaves, May 15, 1830.

" In obedience to the orders contained in the fourth clause of the
Lieutenant Governor's proclamation of the 29th of April, 1830, I
hereby fix

" One bit (4|c? sterling) per hour for potting sugar.

" One bit (ditto.) per hour for turning or drying coffee or

cotton.
" Picking a basket of coffee v^eighing 701bs. gross, three bits

(l5. 0|c?. sterling.)
" Picking a basket of cotton vi^eighing 301b. gross, three bits (ditto.)
" To be the lowest rate of wages for labour on Sunday in the above
works.

" (Signed) A. W. Young, Protector of Slaves.''

On this notice Lord Goderich remarks, " As the principle for fixing
the rate of wages on Sunday was so fully explained in Sir G. Murray's
despatch of the 2nd of Nov. 1829, I conclude that Colonel Young has
followed the rule there laid down, in his present scale."

Now it is quite impossible that any two things should be more
widely at variance than this notice of the Protector and the principle
laid down by Sir G. Murray in his despatch of the 2nd of Nov. 1829,
respecting the wages to be allotted to the slave for Sunday labour ;
and as the matter is of the utmost importance to the poor slaves, we
shall be excused, we trust, for going into it at some length.

On the 1st of May, 1827, Colonel Young communicated to govern-
ment the following notice, on the subject of the wages of slaves for
Sunday labour, as having been issued by him.

" Rate of wages fixed by the Protector for the labour of slaves in the
picking of coffee or cotton, during the time allowed them by law."-
(viz. Sunday.)

" Coffee two bits (8^d. sterling) for every basket of 101b.

" Cotton one bit (4|<^. sterling) for every basket of 101b.

" N. B. Six baskets of coffee is the average labour per diem.

" (Signed) A. W. Young, Protector of slaves."

In commenting on this notice on its first appearance, (see our 2nd
vol. No. 43, p. 357.) we were struck chiefly with the very unreason-
able amount of the quantity of labour which Colonel Young assigned
as an average task for a slave by the day, namely 60lbs. of coffee ; and
we then proved from the very best evidence, and which there has been
no attempt to contradict, that it was double the fair and reasonable
amount. If the Protector felt himself thus authorised to specify 601bs.
as the fair average of a day's labour, when it was proved that 301bs.
was the fair average task, it was obvious that he could not punish the
planters for oppression, if, following his own scale, they were to exact
from their slaves the larger instead of the smaller quantity. The
Protector was therefore required to produce the grounds on which he
had proceeded in stating that to pick 60lbs. of coffee was "the average
labour," (of course, a moderate task) for a slave " per diem."

To this part of the case the Protector has ^iven no answer. The

348 Protectors' Reports — Demerara — Wages of Slaves on Sunday.

only point on which he attempts to defend himself (See Vol. iii. No.
66, p. 387,) is, his having fixed the wages so lo^v as %\d. for each
basket of coffee of lOlbs. weight. He produces, indeed, the testimony
of a planter, who states the proper price for picking a basket of coffee
to be a guilder, 17c?. sterling, being double what he had fixed; but
then he excuses his reducing the price to 8|c?. a basket, by the con-
sideration of the relation in which the master who gives him food,
clothing, &c. stands to the slave, who ought therefore to work for half
the price that strangers might reasonably be expected to pay him.

We need not say that Sir G. Murray in his letter of the 2nd Nov.
1829, most decidedly repudiated such reasoning, and inculcated on
the Protector the clear obligation of fixing, for the slave's Sunday, the
rate of labour which would be given, at any time, to persons in a con-
dition to make an independent contract. " Errors of this nature," he
adds, (evidently adopted from the fallacious views communicated to
him by the planters) " would, if repeated, abate that full confidence
which it is necessary his Majesty's Government should repose" in the
Protector.

And yet how very strange and utterly inexplicable, on any hypothe-
sis we can frame, is the result to which all this discussion, and all this
solemn admonition, have brought the Protector.

In May, 1827, he fixed the price of picking 101b. of coffee at Sfo?.
sterling, being only half of what planters told him it was worth.

In May, 1830, he fixes the price of picking 701b. of coffee at4|c?.
sterling, being only half the rate which he fixed, on the former occa-
sion, for picking a seventh part of that quantity, namely lOlb.

The price of picking 701b. of coffee at the rate of May, 1827,
instead of 4:\d. would have been nearly 5s. and in the judgment
of the respectable planter, whom Colonel Young consulted, nearly
IO5. The unquestionable evidence adduced by Mr. Alexandet Mac-
donnell, Secretary of the Demerara Committee, (See Vol. ii. No. 43,
p. 358.) would make the picking of 701b. of coffee the very maximum
of two days' labour for an able negro, in " the most favourable cir-
cumstances," coffee being " plentiful ;" and for this amount of labour
the Protector now assigns 4:\d. as a fair price, that is about 2d. for
the slave's whole Sunday !

But it is endless attempting farther to unravel this tangled web.
All we are sure of is, that not only has not the Protector succeeded in
approximating to the principle laid down by Sir George Murray ; but
he has departed from it to an almost infinite distance. It will be for
him to explain, what no one else can, by any possibility, explain, the
reasons on which this last notice, so contradictory of all that went
before it, has proceeded.

We have detained our readers too long, though, we hope, not un-
profitably, with the single case of Demerara. We could have en-
larged our extracts from the complaints of the slaves, so as to have still
more fully illustrated the wretched circumstances of the slave popula-
tion in that Colony ; but we fear to fatigue our readers, and we are
anxious to hasten on to the other reports still lying before us.

London ;—S. Bagster, Jun, Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 85.] JULY 25, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 13.

I. REPORTS OF PROTECTORS OF SLAVES.— II. Behbice.— Manumis-
sions ; — Marriages ; — Savings' Bank ; — Domestic Punishments ; — Complaints of
Slaves, viz. Cases of 1. Friday ; — 2. Georgiana; — 3. Jan Zwart ; — 4. Chris-
tina;— 5. Richard; — 6. Jason; — 7. Geluk and Coenraad; — 8. January;
9 .Wilhelminu ; — 10. Quaco; — 11. Paul and others ; — 12. Nancy; — 13. Peggy ;
14. Adam and others ; — 15. Castlereagh ; — 16. Johanna; — 17. Margaret and
Present ;- — General Observations on Excess of Labour ; — on Sunday Labour ;
and on Religious Instruction; — Concluding Reflections.

II. DONATIONS AND REMITTANCES.

I. Reports of Protectors. — II. Berbice.

The Report of the Protector of Slaves in Berbice, (numbered 262)
comprises Returns of his proceedings for twenty months and a half,*
commencing the 1st of October, 1828, and terminating the 14th of
May, 1830, on which day the new Order in Council of February 2,
1830, came into operation.

The number of Manumissions effected in that time was 92, of
which 29 consisted of persons liberated from an illegal bondage, in
which many of them had been long held, though fully entitled to their
freedom, either as the descendants of Indian mothers, or on other
grounds. The number that may properly be said to be manumitted,
therefore, either by the will of the master, or by purchase, is reduced
to 63.

The number of Marriages of slaves, in the same period, was 26.
The sums deposited in the Savings' Bank by slaves, chiefly me-
chanics belonging to Government, amounted to 1,.543 guilders, of
which 1,297 guilders had been withdrawn. The amount remaining in
deposit, at the end of the above period, was 5,014 guilders.

The following is the number of Domestic Punishments inflicted
on the plantation slaves of Berbice, during a period of two years, from
Jan. 1, 1828, to Dec. 31, 1829, viz :—
Date.
Jan. 1, to June 30, 1828,
July 1, to Dec. 31, 1828,
Jan. 1, to June 30, 1829,
July 1, to Dec. 31, 1829,

12,644 8,596 21,240

The punishments, therefore, inflicted in Berbice during these two
years, at the caprice of the master or manager, amounts to more in

* The returns of domestic punishments embrace a somewhat longer period.

2 X

Males.

Females.

Total.

3,054

1,775

4,829

3,320

2,313

5,633

3,173

2,499

5,672

3,097

2,009

5,106

350 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Berbice — Domestic punishments.

number than the whole population of the Colony, which, by the last
return, was nearly 21,000. But this is far too favourable a view of
the case. No Record is kept, nor any return made to the Protector,
of the punishments inflicted by proprietors who are not possessed of
six slaves or upwards, and these may be in larger proportion than the
others. The numbers so circumstanced must, therefore, be withdrawn
from the whole population in order to give the real number of slaves
included in this return. Besides these, if we deduct the young under
eleven years of age, and the invalid and aged, who are not likely to
have been visited with the infliction either of the cart-whip or of any
of its substitutes, the number of the remaining plantation slaves,
among whom these 21,240 punishments must have been distributed,
probably did not exceed ten or eleven thousand at most. So that it
is as if each individual slave in this Colony, who, from his age and
circumstances, is liable to be included in the Record of punishments,
had undergone the penalty of the cart-whip or the stocks, at least
once in each year. Can we even fancy any state of society more
thoroughly degraded than this ? Now all these punishments are in-
flicted without trial, not by a judge or magistrate, but at the bidding
of any ruffian who may own a slave, or who may be employed to su-
perintend the labour of a slave, and who may thus punish men,
women and children, his fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, made
in God's image, and redeemed by the blood of Christ, for any offence
real or imaginary, or for no offence ; the said ruffian being, within cer-
tain limits, if he so please, in his own person, sole prosecutor, witness,
judge, jury, and executioner. And let us note the nature of some of
those undefined and undefinable looks, words, or actions which these
notoriously low, ignorant, violent and licentious individuals, are autho-
rized, not only to punish by stripes and stocks, but actually to create
and constitute crimes. They are such, for example, as " disobedience,"
"insolence," "insubordination," "abuse," "neglect of duty," "neglect
of prayers," " idleness," " laziness," " eating dirt," " lying," " lewd-
ness," " indecency," " swearing," &c., — offences defined by no statute,
requiring no evidence, but resting alike, for proof and for punishment,
on the sense of justice and the humane feeling of slave-owners, or slave-
drivers. — Such is society and such is law in Berbice, a British Colony,
subject to the direct and uncontrolled legislation of His Majesty and
his Council ; for the law which sanctions these violations of humanity
and justice is theirs; and on their Jiat alone it depends whether all
these abominations shall cease, or shall continue to grind to the very
dust thousands of His Majesty's subjects, and to load this nation and
its government with guilt and crime. It is absolutely sickening to
think of it ! But to proceed.

We come now to the complaints preferred, by slaves, to the Protec-
tor between the 1st of September, 1828, and the 14th of May, 1830,
when the new Order in Council came into operation.

1. By turning to our 2nd Vol. No. 43, p. 362, the reader will find
the case of a slave of the name of Friday, who, having a trade, and
being allowed to hire himself out, had accumulated some money, and
being unable, we presume, under the then existing laws of the Colony

Complaints of Slaves — Case of Friday. 351

to purchase his freedom, had invested it, through the medium of a
trustee, in a piece of land, and on that land had erected ahouse which
cost him 2,000 guilders. Of this house and land his master, Mr.
Emery, had taken forcible possession, and dying in 1821, had left it
to his concubine, Mary Emery. Mr. Hill, Friday's trustee, might
indeed have opposed this iniquitous appropriation and disposition of
the property, but he was timid, and did not wish to interfere between
master and slave. It was not until the arrival of a Protector at Ber-
bice, in 1826, that Friday had any hope of obtaining the slightest re-
dress for this cruel wrong and robbery. He accordingly applied to
the Protector, who, after calling in vain on Miss Emery to produce
her title to the house and land, proceeded to institute a suit against
her on Friday's behalf, through Mr. Daly, the King's Advocate.
Mr. Power, the Protector, was forced by ill health to quit the Colony
for a time. On his return, in August, 1828, he found that no steps
had been taken to vindicate Friday's rights, and the reason given for
this neglect by the King's Advocate was, that there was, in his
opinion, no proof to substantiate Friday's claim, Friday himself
having, since Mr. Emery's death, been sold, together with Mr. Emery's
other property, to other parties. The Protector, not acquiescing in
this view of the case, brought the matter, through the medium of
another advocate, Mr. Firebrace, before the Court of Civil Justice,
Mr. Daly then appearing as the advocate of the defendant, Mary
Emery. The case was very ably argued by Mr. Firebrace, who exposed
the gross iniquity of the whole transaction, as well as the base subter-
fuges, false pleas, and equivocations, by which it had been sought to
defeat the just rights of the poor slave. The result of the trial is thus
announced, in a letter from Mr. Firebrace to the Protector, dated
February 1, 1829. (We should wish to have seen the sentence of the
Court.) — " I have the honour to inform you that the first Marshal of
the Colony has, this day, put the slave Friday in possession of the
house and land decreed to him by sentence of the Honourable Court
of Civil Justice, dated the 23d of January last. The defendant in
the above cause, Mary Emery, having tendered possession of the pro-
perty in dispute, previous to the costs awarded by said sentence being
taxed, I directed such tender to be accepted under special reservation
of the right of proceeding in execution (should it be deemed ne-
cessary) to compel payment of such costs. His Excellency has
referred the account to the Court of Civil Justice for taxation, at its
next ordinary session in April. The poverty of the defendant makes
it very doubtful whether the amount can be recovered from her. It is
therefore my intention to memorialize the Council of Government to
pay the same." (No. 262, of 1831, p. 15.)

Not a word is here said of the arrears of rent owing to poor Friday,
with interest for the eight years during which the land and house had
been in the occupancy of Mary Emery ; nor of the further arrears
which may have occurred prior to the death of Mr. Emery, and for
which his heirs, executors, and assigns, if he has any, must be con-
sidered as equitably liable. We trust that the Protector will be in-
structed to look farther into this matter.

352 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Berbice.

In the earlier stages of this case, the Fiscal, to whom it had been
submitted, refused to interfere, on the alleged ground that, at the time
Friday was divested of his house and land, a slave could not, by law,
hold any property. What an untruth then did the Council of Ber-
bice put into the mouths of His Majesty and his Privy Council, when
they suggested as a correct preamble to the 27th clause of the Slave
Ordinance for Berbice, of the 25th of September, 1826, the following
words: —

" Whereas, by the usage of this Colony, persons in a state of
slavery have hitherto been permitted to acquire, hold, and enjoy
property free from control ; and it is expedient that the said
custom should be recognized, and as far as need be, established by
law : Be it therefore enacted," &c. What is this but a deliberate
fraud ?

We dwell upon this incident at more length, as furnishing a decisive
refutation of that barefaced imposture, we mean the Abstract appended
to the West Indian Manifesto, by forty-one distinguished West In-
dians, and particularly of that part of it which affirms the right which
the slave has always had to the acquisition, possession, and enjoy-
ment of property. The country, and Parliament too, we trust, will at
length come to understand the value which is to be attached to the
statements of men who subsist by a system of oppression, thus upheld
and protected by deceit.

2. Georgiana, belonging to Plantation Reliance, complained
(September, 1828) that for not finishing her task she was placed in
the stocks, her failure to do so arising from debility, caused by her
having been worked for the preceding eight days on the treadmill. —
And at the same time four other women belonging to the same estate,
Mersey, Sally, Sibella, and Dido, complained of having been
placed in the stocks for refusing to water the canes after they had
finished the day's task that had been allotted to them. The complaints
were against Mr. Gray, the manager. The only witnesses heard in
his behalf, as to these facts, (we omit some collateral but irrelevant
matters) were Mr. Gray himself, the party accused, and his driver,
William, both of whom denied their truth. On this most unsatisfac-
tory of all defences ; — the mere plea o{ 7iot guilty; — the Protector
decided as follows, "Taking into consideration that eight days work
on the treadmill had not had any effect upon the conduct of Georgi-
ana, to which, upon recommendation of the local magistrate, she had
been sent for her past misconduct" (the very circumstance to which
Georgiana attributed her debility and her consequent inability to finish
her task) " the Protector ordered her to be deprived of all her finery,
and not allowed to wear any other than the estate's working dress
until her behaviour is improved ; to be confined solitarily from Satur-
day evening to Monday for one month;" (working of course in the
field all the rest of the time) " and on the next Christmas holidays
also to be in solitary confinement ; — the four other women to be
placed, for three hours, in the public stocks next Sunday." — Ibid. p. 23.

Sir George Murray appears to have viewed this sentence in the same
light that we do. " Under all the circumstances of the case," he

Complai?its of Slaves — Case of Georgiana and Jan Zwart. 353

observes, " I am disposed to think that this punishment was at once '
injudicious and unduly severe. The inefficacy of the treadmill to
improve her conduct ought not to have been admitted as a reason for
increasing the severity of the second punishment." — Ibid. p. 45.

3. On the 6th of October, 1828, Jan Zwart, belonging to Mr.
Barnstedt, stated that he was sold at the Cruysburg sale, and was then
separated from his wife and two children, the youngest then only four
months old ; that Mr. CuUey purchased his wife and children ; that
he was bought by Mr. Barnstedt and sent to work with a task gang on
a sugar plantation, the estate he had been sold from being a coffee one ;
that he could not eat or rest for the grief this separation occasioned
in his heart ; that he had been born on Cruysburg, and that his eldest
brother who had also been born there was now sold to a different
owner ; and that about forty more slaves were sold under similar cir-
cumstances.— Ibid. p. 23.

This complaint was referred by the Protector to the Fiscal.

On the 7th of November, 1828, Jan Zwart re-appeared before the
Protector, complaining that the Fiscal to whom he had gone had
given him no redress. The Protector wrote to the Fiscal on the sub-
ject, but received no answer. On the 12th of January, 1830, Jan
Zwart again applied to the Protector, and was again sent by him to
the Fiscal. The Fiscal committed him to gaol, and next day sent
him with a letter to Mr. Barnstedt, his owner, residing at Plantation
7\ugsburgh, of which he was the manager. Mr. Barnstedt put him,
(Jan Zwart,) into confinement in the hospital, where he was locked up
for a week without any food, so that he would have been starved had
not a woman Avhom he knew on the estate brought him some ; and on
the 20th of January, Mr. Barnstedt sent him as a prisoner in custody
to a distant plantation. But on the way thither, and while his keeper
slept, Jan Zwart effected his escape, and on the 23rd of January again
presented himself at the office of the Protector, who summoned all the
parties before him. On the 28th of January the Protector received a
letter from the Fiscal stating, that he had taken the utmost pains to
induce Mr. Barnstedt to sell Jan Zwart to Mr. Culley, the owner of
his wife and children, but had failed, the parties not agreeing about
price ; and that as no positive law had been infringed by the sale in
question (the sale not having been judicial) he could institute no cri-
minal prosecution with any effect.

On the 2nd of February 1829, the parties met at the Protector's
office, when Mr. Barnstedt substantially admitted the material parts
of Jan Zwart's allegations, namely, as to his having been sold separate-
ly from his wife and children ; as to his having been closely confined
in the hospital of Augsburgh plantation, but because he was sick,
(though no medical man saw him) ; and as to his having been sent off
thence to a place distant four days journey from the estate on which
his wife and children resided ; and again the Protector called upon
the Fiscal to interfere. The Fiscal, however, maintained that in all
this there was nothing contrary to law, and to justify himself in that
view of the case, he referred it to certain commissaries of the Court of
criminal justice, who, (as he tells Mr. Power in his letter of the 11th

354 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Berbice.

of February,) having investigated the complaint of Jan Zwart, found
it to be without foundation, the evidence, in their view, not affording
grounds for prosecution, and the conduct of Jan Zwart in bringing this
unjust accusation against his master, being also extremely reprehen-
sible ; notwithstanding which, he (the Fiscal) did not mean to visit his
conduct with any further punishment, than that of giving him a severe
admonition, and then returning him to his master. — ^The Protector,
with becoming spirit, protested against this decision in the strongest
terms, and especially against either any punishment of any kind being
inflicted on the complainant, or his being removed to such a distance
from his wife and children. He wrote, at the same time, to the Gover-
nor, requesting a copy of the examinations taken by the Commissaries,
and urging the farther detention of Jan Zwart for a few days until he
had perused them.

The Governor, though agreeing in opinion with the Commissaries
and the Fiscal, and thinking that Mr. Barnstedt was entitled to have
his slave forthwith restored to him, yet yielded to the Protector's re-
quest, so far as to direct the farther detention of the complainant.

On the 14th of February, 1829, Mr. Power addressed to the Go-
vernor a letter, from which we deem it right to give some copious
extracts : —

" I complain not," he says, " of the decision of the Commissaries;
but I cannot disguise that the manner in which the Fiscal brought the
complaint before them was not calculated to elucidate the justice of
the case. Had I known of the Commissaries being appointed, I
should have solicited to attend the examination, and to be examined
on oath, with my clerk, Mr, Hart, as to the conduct of Mr. Barnstedt
at my office, and the attempted prevarication of February, (his sole
witness). Mr. Hart and myself had seen Jan Zwart on the very day
that he went to Augsburg. He was not then sick, quite the contrary.
But the Ordinance itself indicates the mode of proving, before a Court
of Law, the sickness of a slave ; for it requires that a book shall be
kept in every hospital, in which the names and treatment of all slaves
shall be entered by the medical attendant under a penalty for every
omission. But in the proceedings before the Commissaries, neither
the registry, nor the medical attendant, was produced. Now Jan
Zwart is admitted by all to have been confined in the hospital for eight
days. He was so, either as an invalid, or for punishment. That he
was not an invalid is proved by his not having been visited by the
doctor, or furnished by him with medicines. Am I not justified then
in declaring that he was so confined because he had complained to me
of a great wrong, and sought the redress of the law. Besides is it not
most extraordinary, that this alleged sick man, without the aid of
physician or medicine was quite well enough to be transported to Wil-
lems Hoop, the moment the boat had arrived to remove him?"

In a former parallel case, that of Mr. Nixon, the Receiver General
of the Colony, (see Vol. ii. No. 43, p. 364.) " Your Excellency," pro-
ceeds the Protector, in calling to it the Fiscal's attention, described
this separation of families to be " so much at variance with what I
have always considered to be the usage of the Colony, and must be so

Complaints of Slaves — Case of Jati Zwart. 355

prejudicial to its interests, that I think it necessary to call your atten-
tion to it, if it have not, (as I hope) already attracted your notice."
And the Fiscal admitted in his reply that, " though not prohibited by
any specific ordinance, it was nevertheless contrary to the usage and
custom of the Colony."

" Here then is the case of Jan Zwart, returned, by the manager of
Cruysburg, as living at that period in reputed marriage with his wife
Beata, and one child proceeding from that marriage. The Fiscal in-
deed states, it was proved to him, (but of this I know nothing) that Jan
Zwart himself, at the sale, requested to be sold with his mother, since
dead. But Jan Zwart could not exercise any such option. No man
can at his pleasure orphanise his child, or disengage himself from his
paternal obligations ; the child at least could be no party to such a
disposition, and as his Protector, I protest solemnly against the princi-
ple and the precedent."

" I feel that in the dreadful alternative of separating either from
mother or from wife, a negro may suffer under a great conflict of
feelings ; but the law which wishes to hallow and encourage the fide-
lity and permanence of conjugal ties, sternly deprecates the facility
of divorce, a pregnant source of immorality wherever it has been toler-
ated. It was but the other day that a negro belonging to Mr. Gallez,
before his honour the Fiscal, wished to be sold with his mother, rather
than with his wife and children. Every gentleman present remon-
strated with him on such an option, and told him that it could not be.
What is the value of that reputed marriage record, which, as contra-
distinguished from the proceedings of other Colonial governments, has
entitled your Excellency's government to the thanks of the people of
England, if the first overt act, after its reception at the Protector's
office, should prove to the world that, practically, it was a delusion in
England, and a dead letter in Berbice.

" I also complain to your Excellency, that the poor negro, Jan
Zwart, has not only been torn from his family, but that for having
complained of his wrongs in the most clear and consistent manner,
he is now to be banished to the remotest extremity of the Colony,,
with as much chance of an occasional interview with his family as if
he were transplanted to the banks of the Oronoque." " And I must,
in justice to him, say, that he bears a most excellent character, his
name never appearing on the last four punishment records, saving
once, and that for the offence of allowing a person to pass in a punt
with him, from town, without a pass." " WillemsHoop too has no pro-
vision grounds ; is never visited by any of the legally qualified medical
practitioners of the Colony ; and is so distant from plantains that the
Negroes complain of insufficiency of food, though engaged in severe
labour. It is considered as a punishment to send Negroes thither,
being wholly out of the range of magisterial protection; — and yet this
is the destination selected, by Mr. Barnstedt, for a valuable Negro,
who, though injured himself, has been guilty of no offence. May I
then hope that your Excellency will not permit the exercise of such a
power to Mr. Barnstedt, which was refused by the Fiscal to Colonel
Nixon and Dr. Monro, though the distance to which, in that case,

356 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Berbice — Case of Christina.

the slave was to be removed, was not more than twenty-one miles : I
cannot account why a distinction should be made by his honour" in
this case — " but there are some records in the criminal jurisdiction of
this Colony, which require a public officer to look, with considerable
vigilance, at any course of proceeding which affords to Mr. Barnstedt
the opportunity of exercising his caprice or his vengeance."

In consequence of this able representation the Governor forthwith
issued" instructions to the Fiscal, to take such immediate measures as
the law might direct for the purpose of annulling the sale of Jan
Zwart, separate from his family." — Ibid. p. 32 — 37.

The case of Jan Zwart being thus com.mitted by the Governor to the
Fiscal, Mr. Daly, the King's Advocate was employed to bring it before
the Court of civil justice ; and on the 10th of February, 1830, that
Court decided it in favour of the defendant, Mr. Barnstedt, and
against the complaining slave, whose claim to be reunited to his
family the Court rejected, condemning him, at the same time, in the
costs of suit. — (Ibid. p. 103.) These costs will probably fall either
on the Protector or on the government, as the slave of course must be
unable to pay them. — And is there indeed no remedy for this viola-
tion of every principle of right ? Must the people and the parliament
of England and the king himself submit to this outrage committed in
his name ?

We have given this case also at length, as an undeniable refuta-
tion of another of the falsehoods put forth by our forty-one West
Indian representatives, under the head of the non-separation of fami-
lies.

There are several other complaints of the same description, arising
from the same sale of Cruysburg, namely, that of Alabaster, (p. 24.)
that of Flora and her three children, (p. 40.) in which case the con-
duct of the unconscious purchaser is highly honourable to him ; and that
of Jan Brook, the purchaser of whom (Mr. Ross) refused to sell him
to Mr. Prass the purchaser of his relations, though offered the price he
had paid for him, and he sold him to another man, Mr. Patterson, for
a larger sum. — (p. 52.)

4. On the 27th of October, 1828, Christina, belonging to plan-
tation Nieuw Vigilantie, stated her case as follows : — My father was
an European, a Dutchman, manager of this plantation on which I
was born. My first husband (keeper, viz.) was Mr. J. V. Mittelholzer,
the brother of my present manager, with whom I lived for a year and
a half, when he went to Europe and got married, I had by him two
children who are still slaves. I was brought up a domestic, and was
never used to field labour. Last year I came down to complain to Mr.
Manrenbrecker, one of the attorneys of Vigilantie, with whom I re-
mained employed as a sempstress till the other day, when he sent me
back to the plantation ; and, on my return, Mr. H. C. Mittelholzer,
the present manager, ordered me to work in the field, to which I have
never been brought up or used.

The Protector communicated this case to the Fiscal, adding, " I
cannot withhold from your honour my opinion, that it exhibits a system
of manners that baflfles all my past experience." The Fiscal, in his

Cases of Richard, Jason, Geluk and Coenraad, and January. 357

reply, admits that slaves, with European blood on the paternal side,
are not usually treated as predial slaves, but chiefly as domestics or
mechanics ; but adds, that there is no law to prohibit their being em-
ployed in the field. Of course, poor Christina had no redress, but is
one of the many victims who even now realise what was supposed
the imaginary tale of Incle and Yarico. Ibid, p. 24.

5. Richard, complained that his master, F. E. Overeem, had both
flogged him most causelessly, and also flogged him without the legal
intermission of time between the offence, and the punishment. This
last fact could not be denied ; but the Protector having admitted Mr.
Overeem to swear that he was ignorant of the law requiring such an
intermission, (a fact perfectly incredible) consented to forbear to pro-
secute for the penalty, both because he promised not to repeat the
offence, and because he being poor, the penalty and costs of the suit
would ruin him.

We should have deemed this a very strong inducement for enforc-
ing the penalty, as it must have issued in the forfeiture of Richard
to the crown, and his consequent liberation.

We well recollect another Mr. Overeem, who was once mana-
ger of Sandvoort, and who about fourteen or fifteen years ago
inflicted upon a poor Christian negress called America, then pregnant,
150 lashes of the cart-whip, for saying something which he deemed
insolence to a worthless woman who was his concubine. The account
of this horrid transaction, for which he suffered the mild infliction of
three months imprisonment and a fine of £20 sterling, is officially
given in the Parliamentary Papers for 1818, No. 433.

6. On the 10th of February 1829, Jason belonging to Mr. Ter
Reehorst, stated that his master does not allow him either Sunday or
noontide, and that he does not provide him with the usual allowance
of food ; and that he is obliged to beg provisions for his subsistence.
To avoid a prosecution, the master consented to hire him out.

7. On the 11th of February 1829, Geluk and Coenraad, be-
longing to Mr. Lantz, and hired to Mr. Barnstedt, at Willems Hoop
plantation, states that they are employed in cutting timber, and are
not properly fed either with plantains or salt fish ; and it was impossible
they should perform such hard labour if not properly fed. The plan-
tains too which were given them were so bad that they deranged the
bowels ; and when they got sick, they had no doctor to visit the
estate. (This is the same estate to which Jan Zwart was sent.)
The Protector referred the matter to the Fiscal, but his decision has
not yet been given. Ibid. p. 38.

8. On the 12th of February 1829, January, a boy belonging to
Barrack-master Sherburne, complained that his master almost starved
him, and treated him in a most cruel manner, beating him for pilfer-
ing bread to satiate his hunger. The boy's emaciated state induced
the Protector to send him to the gaol where he might be properly fed.
The starving was denied by Mr. Sherburne, and no illegal punishment
was proved to have been inflicted. The boy's appearance, however,
bore such evident marks of harsh treatment, Mr. Sherburne too having
been already before the Protector for similar conduct, that the Pro-

2 Y

368 Protectors' Reports — Berbice — Cases of Wilhelmina, and others.

lector ordered him to remain in gaol till his master could dispose both
of him and his mother. The sale was effected on the 20th February. —
In short, such was the hardship of his lot, that slavery under any other
master who might chance to bid for him at an auction, was deemed
to afford a chance of relief. Ibid, p. 39.

9. On the 3rd of March 1829, Wilhelmina, belonging to James
Blair, Esq., M. P., stated that her mother was an Indian, named
Annatje, and her father a white man, a doctor, residing at Anna Cle-
mentina, named Prange. Annatje died when Wilhelniua was very
young. Wilhelmina then became the slave of Mr. George, and was
afterwards sold along with his estate, (Plantation, No. 17, West-
Coast,) to Mr. Blair. After Mr. Blair bought her, he took her to
Barbadoes, and had her taught needle-work that she might provide
for herself; in the intention she thinks of giving her her freedom.
But, Mr. Blair dying, she was sent back to the Colony. Wilhelmina
having established these facts in evidence, the Protector took the ne-
cessary steps for her liberation, and in August 1829, she, her two
daughters, and two grand children were made free. Ibid, p. 50.

10. On the 27th of April 1829, Quaco, belonging to J. P. Dehnert,
complained that going up the river in a boat with a free man named
Christian, Christian, being in liquor, quarrelled with him, and then
complained to Mr. Dehnert that Quaco had been saucy. In conse-
quence of this charge he received twenty-five lashes on Saturday,
April 18th. After having been flogged, he said he would go to the
Protector to complain of being wrongfully punished. The driver re-
ported the threat to Mr. Dehnert, who, on the very same day, caused
him to be laid hold of and flogged with twenty-six lashes more ; after
which he was placed in the stocks till the Tuesday following. These
facts being proved, the matter was referred to the Fiscal for prosecu-
tion. Mr. Dehnert was convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned in
the common gaol for a month, and to pay a fine of 500 guilders,
(about £35 sterling,) with costs of suit, &c. Ibid, pp. 51 and 67. .

11. On the 29th of June 1829, Paul, Anthony, and Bonaparte,
belonging to plantation D'Edward, complained that on Saturday last,
after finishing their tasks, the manager Mr. D'Hankar ordered them
to plant coffee ; but having already finished their tasks for the day,
they did not obey this order, and were flogged in consequence. A
similar complaint was made by Chanton, Julia and Philida, be-
longing to the same plantation that, for the same act of disobedience,
under the same circumstances, they were punished with six hours in
the stocks. The manager's excuse was, that though their task had
been set, he had desired them to break off for other more urgent
work, but they had refused. The result was, that the manager was
simply admonished in future to fix the tasks the day before ; and that
the slaves were told they must not refuse to obey any orders issued
to them by the manager. Ibid, p. 55.

12. Nancy stated that she was kept by Mr. Macdonald, manager
of plantation Waterloo, and was with child by him. Going to Water-
loo, she found Clarissa in Mr. Macdonald's bed, and going to strike
her for this provoking infringement of her rights, was herself beaten

Cases of Nancy, Peggy, Adam, Castlereagh, and Johanna. 359

by Clarissa. Mr. Macdonald then interfered and drove Nancy out
of the house with a horse-whip, Clarissa's mother also beating her
with a shoe. The Protector reprobated in strong terms the disgrace-
ful nature of this transaction, and referred the complaint to the Fis-
cal, who had not yet decided upon it. Ibid, p. 57.

13. Peggy stated that her mother was made free by Mr. Katz,
but that neither her mother's freedom nor her own, nor that of her
three children, whose fate followed her's, had been properly secured.
The Protector finding that the names neither of Peggy, nor her three
children were inserted in the Slave Registry, summarily ordered
their freedom to be declared and properly secured to them. Ibid.

14. On the 19th of August 1829, Adam and four other slaves, be-
longing to plantation Reliance, complained that as they were throw-
ing grass on the preceding night, some indecency was committed
which raised a laugh among the slaves, and which the overseer con-
sidered as insolence to himself. Mr. Gray, the manager, not being
able to discover the person who had thus offended, selected these five
men and put them in the stocks, threatening to punish them if they
did not discover the offender. They either could not or would not
name him. They were therefore flogged. This case was referred to
the Fiscal, that he might decide whether there was ground to prose-
cute Mr. Gray for punishing five men because they refused to dis-
close the author of an indecent act. The result of this reference has
not yet been given. Ibid, p. 61.

1.5. On the 8th of March 1830, Castlereagh, belonging to Mr.
Bond, complained that yesterday he had been put in the stocks, and
his mother Margaret in the stocks in the dark hole, in which she
was still confined, their common crime being that they had not Mr.
Bond's breakfast ready for him in proper time. The Protector sent
his clerk to Mr. Bond, who, on his return, reported that having ob-
tained the key of the dark-hole, he had there found Margaret with
both feet in the stocks, shut up in a dark room, eight feet by five,
having no window, nor any opening for the circulation of air. The
Protector went immediately to the Fiscal and obtained Margaret's re-
lease. Mr.' Bond was prosecuted and condemned to pay a fine of 150
guilders, (£10 12s. 6d. sterling) and the costs of suit. Ibid, p. 111.

16. On the 24th of March 1830, Johanna, belonging to planta-
tion Reliance, complained that last week she was placed in solitary
confinement for not finishing her task. On Monday she again left her
task undone, and was confined at night in the bed-stocks. Being
threatened next day with further confinement if she did not finish her
task, she had come to complain of its excess. It was indeed, she
admitted, not half of what others performed, but then, she was preg-
nant, and as she advanced in pregnancy was less able to work. She
thought she ought not in that state to be confined in the bed-stocks. —
Mr. Gray the manager, was desired to consult the doctor, and to pro-
ceed in respect to Johanna by his directions. Ibid, p. 112.

17. On the 27th of April 1830, Margaret and Present com-
plained that, though they were old and infirm, their master Andrew
Ross, gave them the same tasks as the other slaves, and, if they did

360 Protectors' Reports — Berbice — Case of Margaret.

not perform it, confined them in the public stocks. Present exhibited
her feet affected with the Elephantiasis, and complained of the pain
she endured from confinement in the public stocks. The doctor of
the estate admitted the impropriety of confining her in the public
stocks which require a standing position, and thought that she should
be placed in bed-stocks in a reclining position ! Truly, the tender
mercies of this doctor are somewhat cruel. And this seems to have been
all the redress these poor old invalid women received ! Ibid, p. 113.

These are only specimens of the 129 cases of complaint brought
before the Protector, and of which we have any returns. We need
not repeat the observations they are calculated to excite, and which
we have too frequently been called to make in reference to this colony.
And if such be the state of things in Crown Colonies, what must it be
in the others, where there are no responsible protectors ; where the
secrets of the prison-house are revealed, when they are revealed, only
by accident ; and where there is therefore none of that restraint, aris-
ing from a fear of publicity, which is now made more or less to at-
tach to the administration of the slave-laws in the Crown Colonies.

A few observations arising out of this report, remain still to be made.

1, We have been charged with incorrectness in what we have at
different times asserted, respecting the night-work exacted from the
slaves in crop-time. It had been proved, to Sir G. Murray's satisfac-
tion, that the planters were in the habit of employing their slaves, at
the works on their plantations, during a great part of the night.
But, " however culpable may have been this conduct," I fear, he
says, "that there is no ground to expect that they could be prosecuted
to conviction ; as it appears, with sufficient clearness, that this offence
is not punishable under the Berbice Ordinance of September 1826 ;
nor can I find that any earlier law of the Colony has denounced any
penalty for misconduct of this nature. This defect in the law cannot
however be too speedily supplied. You will therefore avail yourself
of the earliest opportunity for proposing a Supplementary Ordinance
for defining the hours of repose to be enjoyed, by all plantation slaves,
during each night in the week ; and for punishing all persons, who,
during those hours, may employ such slaves in any species of labour."
{Ibid, p. 104.) This peremptory instruction was issued by Sir G.
Murray, on the 24th of November 1828 ; but hitherto we have seen
no copy of any such Ordinance, and we fear, therefore, that it has
not been enacted. But, whatever be the fact in this particular in-
stance, during the past year, as far as Berbice is concerned, the cor-
respondence serves to illustrate what we have said as to the gross
frauds practised by the Colonial Legislatures, and by the planters ge-
nerally, respecting that most important point the exaction of slave-
labour. The laws generally, on the subject, whether in the Chartered
or in the Crown Colonies, limit only the hours of labour in the field,
and that limit is regulated only by the possibilities of the case. In
Jamaica, and in most other Colonies, it embraces the hours from five
in the morning till seven at night, with intervals of two hours or two
Jiours and a half; (every hour in short, in which a glimmering of light

' Getieral Observations — Night work — Sunday Labour. 361

can be had to direct the slave's labour in. the Jield.) But his labour
does not therefore cease with those hours. There is no limit to ex-
actions out of the field, except the will of the master, or the physical
capacity of the slave. Half the night, or even the whole of the night,
(the ten hours in short left free from the field) may be exacted in
crop-time, at the pleasure of the master, not only on sugar, but also
on coffee and cotton plantations. Here, as we have said, there is no
limit except the will, or rather the cupidity, of the master, and the power
of endurance of the slave. And yet, in all the pleadings of the West
Indians in favour of the ease and happiness and comfort of the slave's
lot, this monstrous aggravation of his toils and his sufferings is
wholly lost from the view. — The same tortuous policy is pursued out
of crop, and means are found, without violating any law, to encroach
on the hours of the slave's repose, by unnoticed but cruel exactions;
such, for instance, as collecting and carrying grass for the cattle, and
other operations not requiring day-light; as bringing home on their
heads plantains, wood for fuel, materials for building, &c. The reader
may remark above at p. 359, the incidental mention of '■^throwing
grass," and in the record of punishments now before us, we find forty-
two instances of punishment for the specific offence of " neglecting to
throw grass" after the labours of the field have closed; and this,
without a single comment, or one note of reprehension, either from
the Protector, or from those to whom he is amenable. The unlimited
power of the master, in the exaction of labour, is thus further illus-
trated in the following passage of the Report before us. "The in-
crease of punishments" (in 1828, says the Protector,) "is most pro-
bably to be attributed to a very large coffee crop in comparison with
former years, and where" " every effort was made by the planter to
obtain his fullest share of labour according to" (that is compatible
with) law." ibid, p. 9. "How ineffectually the law restrains the master,
we have already seen.

But this remark further illustrates one of the positions which we have
always maintained, and which we have been abused for maintaining,
as if it were paradoxical and untrue ; namely, that such is the in-
nate viciousness of this system as to render the fertility of soil, the
productiveness of crops, and the various elements of the prosperity
of the planter, a bitter curse, instead of a blessing to the wretched
slave. (See Reporters, Vol. i. No. 17, 19, 22, 26, 35, Supplement to
No. 61, &c.)

And here, be it remembered, that the forty-one distinguished West
India proprietors, in their recent Manifesto, have had the boldness to
proclaim, in defiance of the known facts of the case, that the exaction
of the labour of the slave is effectually limited by law, no less than
by the humanity of the planters, and by regard to their own interests.
2. Another point on which we have often dwelt, but hitherto with
little effect, has been the regular and systematic violation of the Sab-
bath, and the determination of the planters not only to appropriate
to themselves all the hours of the six days of the week which they
can extort from the nerves and sinews of their bondmen and bond-
women, but to forego no means of evasion which may give them

2 Y 2

362 Berbice — General Observations — Sunday Labour — Religion.

the power of encroaching upon the Sabbath of the slaves. Not
content with withdrawing from them, on the groundless plea of neces-
sity, the ready plea of all tyrants, the three best hours of that sacred
day, for the purpose of distributing to them their miserable weekly
allowances ; and with compelling them also to labour on the Sunday,
whenever the state of the crops may seem to them to require it ; they
have further discovered, that, by employing Sunday as the special
season of punishment, they shall be able to preserve, unbroken, the
continuity of week-day labour, and thus swell their guilty gains.
And they would have succeeded, by artful misrepresentations, in ob-
taining the concurrence of the Protectors in all the Crown Colonies to
this most unholy appropriation, but for the resistance of the Secretary
of State. Of the opprobrious tendency to this new desecration of
the Sabbath, some remarkable proofs will be found in the Reporter,
No. 83 ; and the Berbice Report, which we are now considering, adds
to their number. — " It is evident," says Sir George Murray, " from
this Report, that Sunday is frequently made a day of domestic
punishment. This is a practice open to so many abuses that the
owner should never be permitted to resort to it without the previous
sanction of a magistrate;" (Ibid. p. 44) — and never, we submit with
all due deference, even then. The Sunday must of necessity be in-
cluded in any term of imprisonment which exceeds six days ; but
surely the magistrate, if he be also a planter, should be absolutely
prohibited, in all cases where the imprisonment is for a shorter period
than a week, to include the Sunday ; a provision of the utility of
which our estimate will not be lessened, when we come to consider,
which we shall now proceed to do, the facts these papers disclose re-
specting the state of religion and religious instruction among the
slaves of Berbice ; facts which, with slight variations, are equally ap-
plicable to every slave Colony belonging to this Christian land.

3. On the 25th of September, 1829, Mr. Beard, the Governor of
Berbice, thus writes to Sir G. Murray : — " It certainly is deeply to be
lamented that no measures should yet" (at the close of 1829) " have
been adopted to afford religious instruction to the generality of the
slave population, more particularly to the junior part of it. There
are but two clergymen, one of the Established Church, the other from
the London Misssionary Society, in the Colony ; and as it is impossible
for them to extend their labours beyond the town, the great mass of
the slave population is unavoidably left in its original state of pro-
found ignorance. 1 he improvements adverted to by the Protector,
with the exception ot granting an extra day in the week to the slaves
to cultivate their provision grounds" — (without which, let it not be
forgotten, all talk of improvement is mere hypocrisy, and all attempt
at improvement, utterly futile and worthless, an evasion and a
mockery) — " have long since been generally agreed to by the Coun-
cil."— (A council of planters will of course agree to any proposal
which, in existing circumstances, can have no practical effect, and
will not deprive them of one hour's labour of any one of their slaves.
Thus is the Government, and the Parliament, and the British public,
gulled and cheated by a profession of zeal for religion.) — The Gover-

General Observations — Religious Instruction. 363

nor adds, that " at their next Session, I will not fail earnestly to
bring the subject again before the Council." Did not the Governor
know, at the time he wrote them, that these were vain and delusive
words? (Ibid. p. 45.)

About the same period, (viz.: in Sep. 1829,) the Deputy Protector,
Mr. Bird, thus addressed the Governor: —

" I beg leave to bring under your consideration the uninstructed
state of the slaves in Berbice ; a state of little perceptible difference
from that of their African forefathers. I had hoped, on inquiry, to
learn from the ministers of religion, that some plan was in agitation,
if not already actually on foot, for conveying to them a knowledge of
the principles of Christianity, and for affording, to the young at least,
an opportunity of acquiring the first elements of education." He
thus gives the result of his inquiries. " From the Lutherans," he
says, " I have received no answer, nor do I believe they are able to
afford one by any means satisfactory. Mr. Wray, the missionary, is
the only person who has set himself zealously to work in disseminating
knowledge among the slaves. He has proved plainly the necessity
which exists for improving their minds, and that means of instruc-
tion and opportunities," (time, viz.) " alone require to be provided,
for there is every desire on the part of the slaves, under much disad-
vantage, to seek tuition. To his letter on this and other subjects,
connected with the improvement of the slaves, I beg to solicit your
attention, and particularly to the very general violation of the Sab-
bath, by its being made, especially, a day for secular pursuits in the
cultivation of provision grounds, the sale of stock, attending markets,
Sf-c." (doubtless including, in this &c. the three hours of Sunday
morning given regularly and systematically to the distribution of the
allowances of the slaves.) " This perversion of what ought to be kept
sacred is now, (viz. in September 1829) at its height, and the prac-
tice is not likely to decrease, unless the legislature should interfere,
and grant to the slave some other portion of the week, to make those
additions to his comforts, which he does not expect to receive from
any other source than the efforts of his own industry." Ibid, p. 46.

The inclosure in this letter from the Rev. T. Rowland, the one
Clergyman of the Church of England, is to the following effect : —

" The short period I have been resident in this Colony, makes it
impossible to answer your inquiry as satisfactorily as I could wish.
With respect to the slave population of this Colony, I believe that,
since the passing of the New Code in September 1826, their improve-
ment is very limited, and the number converted to Christianity very
few." " The Predial negroes are entirely loithout instruction. The
Winkel negroes, in this respect, are better off. Indeed, they are the only
ones within reach of instruction." " Many of them attend Mr. Wray
at his missionary chapel ; and the children, to the number of forty, go
to a daily school, and their progress is very satisfactory. The children
in the first class read very well, and are very perfect in the Church
Catechism." (And yet Mr. Wray is a Dissenter.) '' There are also
some domestic slaves taught to read and write by some one in the
family where they reside ; but the number is not great. There is no

364 Slave Protectors' Reports — Berbice.

means of instruction provided by the established Church, for the
slaves. There is no accommodation in my church but for very few.
Shortly after I came here, I gave public notice, that if any proprietor
should ivish, or allow, their slaves to be instructed in the principles of
Christianity, I should be happy to devote one afternoon each week
for that purpose. / attended a few times, but none came."

This is very instructive. Not a proprietor was found in Berbice,
who either ivished or would permit, one of his slaves to attend on
Mr. Rowland. On Sunday afternoon, he might possibly have col-
lected a few ; but the afternoon of a week-day, a day of labour, was
too valuable to be thrown away in hearing of God, and Christ ; of
heaven and hell ; of souls perishing, or of souls to be saved !

Next comes Mr. Wray's communication to the Protector. We
mean to give some large extracts from it. He says,

" I am happy to observe that the change in the moral and religious
conduct of many slaves, during the last three years, has been very con-
siderable. A very great desire of improvement, and particularly to
read and to say the catechism, has been manifested by a great num-
ber on various plantations. I have distributed 1,000 spelling-books,
and a far greater number of catechisms, since February 1827, chiefly
to slaves, and upwards of 50 copies of the Scriptures, since June 1828.
The country slaves labour under great disadvantages : they can have
no regular teacher to instruct them in reading ; yet some make con-
siderable progress, as they possess great perseverance, and get any one
that can to give them a lesson. One negro told me last Sunday, that
when any of the sailors went on the estate he asked them to give.
him a lesson."

" I beg to state that you might be of great service to the cause of
Christianity, if you could use your influence with government that
those heathenish dances and music, which are always accompanied
with drunkenness, should be removed from the Sabbath to some other
day of the week. They entirely unfit even those who wish to wor-
ship God, to do it v/ith peace and devotion. It is a disgrace to the
Christian community that tioo Sabbaths in the year should be legally
set apart for dissipation and African dances and songs : and it is ge-
nerally intimated in the Royal Gazette, that this dissipation is to
begin at eight o'clock on Saturday night, and till Monday night at
Easter ; and till Sunday night at Whitsuntide. I know of nothing
that has a greater tendency to demoralise the slaves, and keep up
their African customs, than this. Surely some other day of the week
could be given them in lieu of Sunday to practise their African songs
and dances, and to get drunk. Nothing has a greater tendency to
perpetuate heathenish superstitions than thus legalizing for them these
two, and sometimes three, Sabbaths in the year. The abolition of
Sunday markets is also an object worthy of your exertions, as they
are a great obstacle to the moral and religious improvement of the
slaves. How can these poor heathens believe the fourth command-
ment to be a part of the word of God, when they see our laws and
customs in direct opposition to it ?

" One proof of the good effects of the ameliorating influence of

General Observations. — Religious Instruction — >-Rev. J. Wray. 365

Christian instruction, is the abolition of the superstitious practices of
Obeah, which were once so prevalent, and which, according to the
planters themselves, as well as of the negroes, had the most unhappy
effects on the minds of many," and of their rites " in honour of the
dead," which are attended with "great expense and superstitious cere-
monies. I could give many instances of slaves converted from the
belief and practice of these superstitions." " Formerly these things
were very prevalent even among the Winkels," (his own peculiar
charge,) " but they are now abandoned ; at least they never come
under my notice." "Except within a few miles of town, instruction
has made but little progress : the negroes are yet in heathen darkness,
and without the knowledge of the gospel. The estates high up the
river, and all along the west bank of it, as well as on the east and west
coasts have no means of instruction, and of course remain as ignorant
as ever. And if I may judge of the state of the other slaves up the
river, from the gross darkness in which we found the Crown negroes, ,
on plantations Dankbaarheid, Dageraad, and Sandvoort, they are sad
indeed. From the free access I had to these negroes, for the short
time they were in possession of His Majesty's commissioners, I had an
opportunity to become acquainted with their ignorance and moral
darkness."*

* This commission was appointed in 1811. The commissioners were Mr.
Wilberforce, Mr. Stephen, Mr. Long now Lord Farnborough, Mr. Vansittart
now Lord Bexley, Mr. W. Smith, and Mr. Gordon, deceased ; and under their
control and sanction, the conduct of the commission was placed in the hands of
Mr. Z. Macaulay. It was but for a short space that the commissioners were
permitted to retain their power ; but short as that space was, their efforts were
thwarted, not only by the local government, but by the government of the day at
home, to a degree which almost wholly marred their purposes of benefit to the
1,200 slaves committed to their care. And they had the mortification not only
of witnessing the frustration of the hopes with which they entered upon their
office, but of having to endure a load of unmerited reproach for failures which
were brought about by the very persons who calumniated them, but were attri-
buted to their misconduct. In 1814 or 1815 ihe three estates were taken out of
the hands of the commissioners and transferred to the Dutch government, and by
it sold to English speculators. All Christian instruction, and all religious edu-
cation were instantly banished from among the slaves, and the whole manage-
ment reverted to the ancient system, from which it had been the effort of the
commissioners to redeem them. The records of the Berbice Fiscal will shew
some of the sad consequences which have resulted from the change. — But
though the three estates were restored to the Dutch, there remained, in the chief
town of the colony, a body of slaves belonging to the Crown, called the Winkels,
consisting chiefly of mechanics of different kinds. To these, when they were re-
placed, by the commissioners, in the hands of the government, the Rev. Mr. Wray
was continued as the religious instructor. He had been engaged by the com-
missioners, at the commencement of their undertaking, to superintend the religious
interests of all the poor people entrusted to their care. When the estates were shut
against his benevolent exertions, Mr. Wray still continued to instruct the
Winkels, and his efforts among them have been marked by extraordinary zeal
and diligence, and have been attended with gratifying success. But for the ap-
pointment of Mr. Wray to this station, not one spark of Christian light would
have found its way into Berbice. The only germ of Christianity which exists
there may be traced to Mr. Wray, and to the commissioners who nominated and

366 Berbice — General Observations — Rev. J.Wray.

" Some time back a slave was sent to me to examine him, that I
might furnish the requisite certificate of his being qualified to take an
oath ; but I found he knew no more about God, or Christ, or the
Christian religion, than one of the untaught Indians : and that he
had never been in a place of worship : and indeed how could he, for
there was no place within his reach." " I had hoped that an ecclesi-
astical establishment would have prepared the way for the more exten-
sive usefulness of Christian missionaries, by the abolition of Sunday
markets, and the establishment of schools for the slave children, so
that they would have been prepared to receive and read the scriptures.
But, in this colony, I have to lament that not a single institution, not
a single school, has arisen from that appointment."

" With respect to the instruction afforded by this mission to the
slaves of the colony, you will form an idea from the returns I now
send. In the three years since Sept. 1826, 91 adults, and 71 children
have been baptized. In the three preceding years, 31 adults, and 10
children. Those denominated children, are boys and girls who have
learned the catechism, and received instruction. As no slaves are
baptized by me, till instructed in the doctrines and duties of Chris-
tianity, and till they give some evidence of a change of conduct, I
trust some have become converts, and any who act contrary to the
rules of the Gospel -are censured, reproved, or excluded (from the
communion.) The number admitted to the Lord's table in the last
three years is 39 ; one has been excommunicated for immoral conduct.
In the three previous years only seven slaves had been admitted to
the Lord's Supper. In the Sunday School there are about 110 slaves,
all learning to read. A number of these belong to the crown, many
of whom read well in the Bible, and also religious tracts. Many of
them being taught in a day school, the time in the Sunday School is
chiefly occupied in religious instruction, the scholars committing to
memory considerable portions of catechisms, the scriptures, and
hymns. They attend for the same purpose every Wednesday afternoon.
A class of adult slaves also read the Bible in the Sunday School, and
also on Tuesday evening. Many of Mr. Blair's slaves, on the West
coast, are learning to read , and a few can read easy parts of the New
Testament. They attend chapel when they can get a conveyance
across the river; and, during the Christmas and Easter holidays, a few
of them spent all their time in the school-room or chapel, in prefe-
rence to joining in heathenish customs."

Now is it not marvellous that, after the attention of parliament and
the public has been drawn, for years, to the state of our slave colonies;
— after the repeated pledges of reform which have been given by
the government, and the volumes of admonition which have been

supported him; and if their maligned commission had produced no other benefit,
they would feel abundantly repaid for every sacrifice of time and trouble, and for
all the obloquy it drew upon them, by the present aspect of the mission so hap-
pily established by Mr. Wray, and so successfully conducted, through years of
trial and difficulty, to its present hour of advancing prosperity.

Concluding Rejections. 367

written by our Secretaries of State; — and after all the assurances
conveyed from year to year, to parliament and the public, of pro-
gressive improvement ; — is it not, we repeat, most marvellous that,
in the year 1831, we should be doomed to witness, in a British Colony,
not forty days sail from the British shores, scenes such as those which
the preceding pages exhibit to our view ? But such is slavery ; and
slavery too, not such as West Indian enactments alone have made it.
Let us here do the West Indians justice. The laws of Berbice are
the laws, not of Colonists, but of the British crown. The laws which
sanction most of the outrages we have had the pain of disclosing, and
recording, are laws emanating from the King in Council, passed, we
fear, under the influence of Colonial delusion, while wiser and safer
counsels, which would at least have saved the nation from some of
the opprobrium which now attaches to it, and spared some of the blood
which now stains our hands, and makes its appeal to heaven against this
guilty land, have been contemned and rejected.* In the chartered
colonies, there may be some semblance of excuse for the toleration of
the crimes which have there been perpetrated, though it be only the
semblance. But, in Berbice and the other Crown Colonies, the go-
vernment have themselves been the lawgivers. The law, for example,
which has permitted a few owners or managers of estates, without
judge or jury or form of trial, to inflict 13,000 floggings, in two years,
on the adult males of Berbice, and to imprison in stocks, and to im-
mure, in dark and solitary dungeons, equal to its whole adult female
population ; — the law which has enabled the master to grind down the
slave with exactions by day and by night; — the law which puts it in the
power of the master to deprive his slave of the blessed rest of the
Sabbath, and to shut him out from the light of heaven itself ; — the law
also which leaves the master free almost to starve his slave, and even
to kill him by inches ; — this law is the work, not of the planters of Ber-
bice or of the other Crown Colonies, but of the government of Great
Britain; of the King in his supreme council ; of the ministers of the
British throne.— And shall such laws, we ask again, be continued
even for another year? If so, the time is surely come for the people
of this Christian land, to protest still more loudly than they have yet
done, against these abominations; — to wipe their own hands at least of
this foul stain; — and perseveringly to employ their utmost exertions,
and their unceasing prayers in labouring to break every yoke, and to
deliver every British slave from his bitter bondage. From our present
rulers, indeed, we look for better things. They seemed to have been
raised to power, on a former occasion, in order to abolish the British
Slave Trade. We trust, that, under the Divine blessing, they will
now be made the honoured instruments of extinguishing British slavery
also.

* Mr. Wilmot Horton, than whom there can be no more competent witness,
told us, in his letters to the freeholders of Yorkshire, that it was the deliberate
and systematic plan of the administration under which he acted, to seek the ad-
vice and concurrence of ;tfae planters, with respect to then- measures of reform, but
to exclude from all communication of their purposes, the advocates of the wretch-
ed slave.

368

n. — Donations and Remittances in aid of the Funds of the
Anti-Slavery Society, from January 1, to May 14, 1831.

£. s. d.
The Rev. T. Gisbome . (Donation) 5 0 0
Scarborough Association . (Payment) 10 0 0
Liverpool Association . (Ditto) 20 16 0
Rev. M. M. Preston (Ann. Subscription) 5 0 0
"Whitby Association . (Payment) 5 8 6
Beading Ladies' Association (Ditto) 5 0 0
Surrey Association . (Ditto) 5 7 0

W. Everest, Esq. (Annual Subscription) 110
Camberwell Association . (Payment) 2 7 0
Manchester Ladies' Association (Donat.) 30 0 0
Ditto Ditto . . (Payment) 5 12 0

Sunderland Association . (Ditto) 5 8 0
Berkhamstead Ditto . (Ditto) 2 2 0

Hanley and Shelton Association(Ditto) 6 16 6
Mr. Joseph Davis, Taunton (Donation) 10 0
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Ladies' Associa-
tion . . . (Ditto) 8 17 5
Chipping Norton Association (Payment) 2 7 0
Devizes Association . (Ditto) 3 12 0
Mrs. Kennaway, Charraouth (Donation) 10 0
Mr. Jonathan Barrett . (Annual) 10 0
William Hall, Esq. Cheltenham(Ditto) 2 2 0
Miss Yerbury, Ditto . (Ditto) 2 2 0
Miss Finch, Ditto . . (Ditto) 110
A Friend, per the Record Newspaper

(Donation) 10 0
Worcester Associatioa . (Payment) 20 2 6
Penzance Ditto . . (Ditto) 4 17

Ditto Ditto . (Donation) 0 18 5

Boston Association . (Payment) 7 18 0

Doncaster Ditto . . (Ditto) 7 5 6

Ditto Ditto . . (Donation) 1 14 6

Mr. Sarjeant, March, Isleof Ely(Paym.) 2 0 0
Rt. Hon. Lord Calthorpe (Donation) 30 0 0
Leeds Association . (Payment) 21 13 5

Taunton Association . (Ditto) 20 10 0

Miss Allen, Stepney Causeway (Ditto) 2 9 0
T. E. Dicey, Esq. Clay brook Hall (Ann.) 5 5 0
Rev. T. Gailand . . (Ditto) 110
Cirencester Association . (Payment) 10 17 4
Salisbury, Calne, Melksham, Devizes,

&c. Ladies' Association (Donation) 25 0 0
A Friend . . . (Ditto) 2 0 0

Stoke Newington Ladies' Association

(Payment) 1 12 8
F. Munro, Esq. Lower Bedford Place

(Annual)
John Dickenson, Esq. . (Ditto)
Archdeacon Corbett (5th Donation)

Edward Tipton, Esq. (3rd Donation)
Nicholas Broughton, Esq. (Donation)
A Friend, by 1. P. . . (Ditto)
Gracechurch Street Ladies' Association
(Payment)
Contributions from Litchfield, per W. G.

Bird, Esq

Woodbridge Ladies' Association (Donat.) 5 0 0
Ditto Ditto . . (Payment) 3 15 0

Neath and Swansea Association (Ditto) 8 17
Rev. J. Fisher, Clifton Campville, Staf-
fordshire . . (Donation) 0 10
Tottenham Ladies' Association (Payment) 3 13
Plaistow and West Ham Ladies' Asso-
ciation . . . (Ditto)
Ilitchin Association . (Ditto)
Mr. Franks, Clapham . (Donation)
Mrs. Hoare . . (Payment)
Mr. Thomas Whitwell, Peterborough

(Donation)
Huddersfield Ladies' Assoc. (Payment)
Rev. W. M. Bunting, Huddersfield

(Annual)
Mr. J. Burnley, Gomersal
Ross Association
Ditto Ditto
Mrs. Pearson, Salisbury

Nottingham Ladies' Association (Paym.) 0 11 0
Colebrookdale Association (Ditto) 5 15 6
Ix)ndon Ladies' Association (Donation) 50 0 0
Kendal Association . (Payment) 7 13 8
Rochester Ditto . . (Ditto) 4 6 0

Taunton Ladies' Association (Donation) 5 0 0
Sheffield Ladies' Ditto . (Payment) 10 6 6

1 0
1 0
0 0

110
3 13 6

0 17
8 7
0 10
0 4

(Ditto)
(Payment)
(Donation)

(Ditto)

0 10 0

6 15 0

5 0 0

10 0

£. s. d.

T. R. Guest, Esq. per Mr. Vatchell,

Cardiff . . (Donation) 110

Mr. Vatchell, Cardiff . (Payment; 1 10
Aberdeen Association . (Payment) i7 17
Alton Ladies Ditto . . (Ditto) 2 3
Joshua Strangman, Esq. 17, Cheapside

(Annual)
Kingston Ladies' Association (Payment)

A. B (Donation)

Peckham Association . (Payment) 6 16 4
Worcester Ladies'Association (Donation) 6 0 0
Colchester Association . (Payment) 14 16 9
Leicester Ditto . . (Ditto) ; 5 8

Halifax Ditto . . . (Ditto) 10 6
Hertford Ditto . . (Ditto)

Gainsboro' Ditto . . (Ditto)

Legacy of Mrs. Macdonald, of Lymin
ton, by the Rev

7
0

2 2 0
1 14 11
0 5

0 4

Millard

22 10

Lymington Association . (Payment)
Mr. J. Marriage, Maldon . (Ditto) 0 12 0
Bridport Association . (Ditto) 3 13 0

Miss Crouch, St. Ives . (Ditto) 0 10 8

Margate Association . (Ditto) 1 14 3

Westminster Ladies'Association (Ditto) 5 16 1
London Ladies' Depository, Grace-
church Street . . . (Ditto) 9 5 6
Chelmsford Ladies' Association (Ditto) 16 4 2
Ditto Ditto . (Donation) 10 0 0

Birmingham, Woodgreen, &c. Ladies'

Negro Friend Society (Payment) 7 7 0
MissPrideaux . . . (Ditto) 10 0
Hull Association . . (Ditto) 11 14 6

Mrs. Archdale Palmer, Cheam (Annual) 110
Rastrick Association . (Payment) 0 14 0
North East London Ladies' Association

(Payment) .3-2 7
R. Purvis, Esq. Sunbury . ' "
Mrs. Purvis, Ditto .

Miss Jane Purvis, Ditto
Miss Elizabeth Purvis, Ditto
Miss Frances Purvis, Ditto
Chesterfield Association
H. Upcher, Esq.
York Ladies' Association
Ditto Gentlemen's Ditto
Williami:vans,Esq. M.P .(2 yrs. Annually) 4
Mrs. Roberts, Charmouth, Dorset, (Don.) 20 0 0
Peckham Association , , (Ditto) 20 0 0
Birmingham, &c. Ladies' Negro Friend

Society (Ditto) 60 0 0

Committee of the Society of Friends, for
the entire Abolition of the Slave-
I'rade and Slavery (Ditto) 1000 0 0

Hanley and Shelton Association (Ditto) 10 10 0
Jliss Yerbury, Cheltenham (Payment) 3
Birmingham Association .
Kendal Ditto' .

Ditto Ladies" Ditto
Carl'isle Association
Joseph Sturge, Esq. Birmingham (Ditto)
Collection at Public Meeting

2 2

(Annual)

(Ditto)

(DIttol

(Ditto)

(Ditto)
(Payment) 0 18 0
(Donation) 10 10 0
(Payment) 2 16 0

(Ditto) 5 12 0

(Ditto) 19 16 0

(Donation) 12 0 0

(Ditto) 8 0 0

(Ditto) 10 10 0

20 0 0

78 12 11

Dorking Ladies' Association (Payment) 0 8 0
North London and Islington Ladies'

Association , . (Donation) 20 0 0
George Long, Esq. . . (Ditto) 110
Mr. Bousfield, Manor Place, Walworth

(Annual) 10 0
North Staffordshire Ladies' Association

(Donation) 15 0 0

Bridlington Association . (Ditto) 7 8 6

A Friend .... (Ditto) 20 5 0

Southampton Association (Payment) 7 16 0

Tottenham Ladies' Ditto (Ditto) 2 12 0

Maidstone Association . (Ditto) 4 3 6

Mr. Gibson, Saffron Walden (Donation) 10 0

JohnBarton,Esq.ofStoughton (Ditto) 5 0 0
Rev. A. Brandram . . (Annual) 110

Rev. J. Riland, Yoxall . (Donation) 4 4 0

A. B. G. Wood, Esq. . (Donation) 10 0
Mrs. Taylor, Hackney (Subscription) 0

Mrs. Clack, Hackney
Anonymous
Gosport Association

(Subscription) 0
(Donation) 0 2
(Payment) 1 16

The list of Donations and Remittances will be completed in our next Number, up to
the Donations of June.

London : Printed by S. Bagster, Jun. 14, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 86.] AUGUST, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 14.

PROTECTORS' OF SLAVES REPORTS.

III. Trinidad. — 1. Complaints of Slaves ; 2. Prosecutions of Slaves ; 3. Do-
mestic Funishments ; 4. Manumissions; 5. Marriages, Sfc.

IV. St. Lucia. — 1. Domestic Punishments ; 2. Complaints of Slaves ; 3. (f
Masters ; 4. Manumissions, ^x.

V. Cape of Good Hope. — Punishments of Complainants ; Observations of the
Secretary of State on Protectors' Reports.

The Report of the Protector of Slaves in Trinidad, Mr. Glostei^ in-
cludes a period of two years, from the 25th of June, 1828, to the 24th
of June, 1830. We proceed to lay the substance of it before our
readers.

1. Complaints of Slaves against their Oioners, ^c.

Of these complaints, neither the number nor the nature is stated
by the Protector, Avith the exception of four cases, occurring during
tlie above period. No reason is given for omitting the usual par-
ticulars respecting the other cases. We have therefore very scanty
means of forming any judgment as to the legal protection afforded
to the slave population of Trinidad. Those four cases however, to
which the Protector has confined his details, lead us only the more
to regret his complete silence with respect to the others.

The first is a prosecution against Francisco Benites, for illegally
flogging, in March, 1830, a female slave named Dominga Perez,
whom he was charged to have beaten with a supple jack in different
parts of her body, so as to lacerate her person, at the same time
throwing her down and kicking her. The accused was found guilty,
and condemned to pay a fine of five pounds sterling. Upon this
sentence Lord Goderich remarks, that the offence appears to be of
an importance disproportioned to the very light fine with which it was
punished. (Papers of 1831, No. 262, p. 87.)

The second charge is against Mrs. Eliza O'Brien, for cruel and
illegal treatment of two slaves named Noel and Joe alias Louis
HuGGiNS. The facts proved in evidence appear to be as follows : —

First with respect to Noel. Noel died in May, 1829. He had had
a large ulcer on one of his legs for a long time, for at least six years.
He was a runaway and a thief, and as such was usually confined at
night with a chain. The chain was upon him when he died. This

2 z

370 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Trinidad — Case of Noel.

chain had been put upon him by Mrs. O'Brien, to prevent his runhing
away during the night. During the day, he worked in the custody of
another slave who kept watch over him. He had been brought back
as a deserter two or three weeks before he died, and the sore on his
leg was then in a very bad. state ; indeed, it could never get cured.
The chain was fastened by means of an iron hoop, which was fixed
round his leg, and to which the chain was attached. Noel used to
break open his mistress's store, and steal therefrom rum, salt pork,
butter, flour, plaintains, &c. He was often put into the stocks, and
had handcuffs on him, and was shut up at night in the farine-house,
chained to prevent his getting away. The chain was a grappling
boat, chain, fixed round one of his feet, and then passed through
handcuffs round both his wrists, and fastened to a post. He was
thus chained and handcuffed on the night previous to his death. He
often worked in the day time with the chain round his leg, a part of
the chain being carried over his shoulder. Noel had been a pasture
boy, but when the sore on his foot became bad, and he could not go
after the mules, he was put to work about the yard. He did not get
his allowances regularly. Sometimes he got half a pint of farine
(cassada flour) and a piece of salt fish, and when he let a mule get
away, he had none at all, and he then used to run away and steal.
His mistress did not feed him as she ought. He used to steal be-
cause he was hungry.

The evidence in the case of Joe alias Louis Huggins, was to this
effect. Mrs. O'Brien was the proprietor of an estate called Bermuda,
on which she resided, Joe belonged to that estate as did also Noel.
He died in December, 1828. He was much swollen before his death.
The house in which he lived was in a low situation, and was a very
bad one ; a part of it was uncovered, which caused it to be very wet.
Joe had been a driver, and had been punished with confinement in
the stocks by Mr. O'Brien, before his death which had happened
shortly before, for getting drunk, and allowing the negroes to neglect
their work. The stocks consisted of a rod of iron with pieces of iron
or fetters to contain the feet. Joe was always very sickly, and in the
month of December, 1828, he became so ill, that Mrs. O'Brien had
him removed from his own bad house, and had a room assigned him
under her own house, where he was placed occasionally in the stocks;
there was a bed in Joe's room, consisting of a door with a palliasse
laid over it, but the room was only boarded on the windward side :
it was open on the others. Mrs. O'Brien, for a time, refused to believe
that Joe was ill. She said that it was laziness that ailed him. Even
when he was brought up to her house, he was so weak that he could
not walk, and a mule was sent to bring him up. When he came, he
told his mistress he could not walk, and was unable to go after the
negroes in the field. She told him again it was laziness, and he should
be put in the stocks till he was well. She then had Joe put in the
stocks, in a room under her house, which was open on all sides but
one, and into which the rain beat and wetted him. On Tuesday he
was brought to this room, and he died on the following Monday. On
the morning of the day on which he died, two of the witnesses saw him

Case of Joe — of Michel Rohson — ofM. de St. Aigne's Slaves. 37 1

in the stocks at breakfast-time, and he died soon after in his bed in
the stocks. On the Monday night preceding, one of the witnesses
heard Joe " bawling out" a great part of the night, and begging
water for God's sake : the witness gave it to him : he was then in the
stocks.

The evidence for the defence in both these cases, consisted in ge-
neral praise of the humanity of Mrs. O'Brien towards her slaves. She
was kind to them, and fed them abundantly, and caused them to be
tended well in sickness. Several witnesses also deposed to their never
having seen either Noel in chains, or Joe in stocks, and that neither
of them, even when in extremis, had complained. But no attempt
was made to impeach the credibility of the adverse witnesses, or to
disprove their statement of the facts that are detailed above.

On this evidence the judges pronounced the following extraordinary
sentence. " The court is unanimously of opinion, that there is no
evidence to support the present prosecution. The accused must be
discharged." (Ibid. p. 70.)

Upon this case Lord Goderich makes the following remarks. The
Protector we hope will not misunderstand their lenity. " In the
cases of Noel and Joe, the property of Mrs. O'Brien, who are said to
have died while in confinement, I think that the medical attendant
of the estate should have been called upon to state, whether he
had been required to visit the slaves, and especially whether his
opinion had been taken on the illness of Joe, who seems to have
been originally confined on the supposition that his sickness was
feigned. If there be no medical attendant on the estate, this circum-
stance itself should have been brought to notice by the prosecution.
I regret to observe, that both these slaves appear to have been
interred, without any investigation in the nature of a Coroner's in-
quest." (Ibid. p. 86.)

The third case was one in which Louis Layet was prosecuted for
having inflicted an excessive and illegal punishment, with the cart
whip, on a slave named Michel Robson, inflicting forty lashes of it
on his bare posteriors, after he had been laid prostrate on the ground,
and tied and fastened to pickets.

These facts were proved in evidence by the prosecutor, and no
counter evidence was given on the part of the accused.

The court, by a majority of three to one on some of the charges,
and on the rest unanimously, pronounced him guilty, and condemned
him to pay a fine of £150 sterling, with the costs of suit, and to be
imprisoned till the fine was paid. (Ibid. p. 71.)

A fourth case is stated as having come to the knowledge of the
Protector, the circumstances of which were as follows, viz. ; Mr. St.
Aigne, the proprietor of Perseverance Estate, in the quarter of Guapo,
was charged with having caused four of his female slaves to be flogged
by the driver with the cart-whip, on their naked posteriors, as they lay
stretched on the ground fastened to pickets, and their persons exposed.
One of the punishments was inflicted for bringing grass too late. Mr.
de St. Aigne having quitted the Colony, no prosecution could be in=
stituted again«t-him. (Ibid. p. 60.)

372 Protectors Reports — Complaints and Prosecutions oj" Slaves.

All the other cases, how many soever they be, are thus summarily
disposed of, viz. : —

Half year ending the 24th of December, 1828. " The complaints
preferred by slaves against their owners have not varied in complexion
or increased in number, and no case of a serious nature has come
under the Protector's observation." (Ibid. p. 3.)

The report of the half years ending the 24th of December, 1829,
and the 24th of June, 1830, is nearly to the same purport. (Ibid,
p. 40, and 58.)

The report of the remaining half year ending the 24th of June, 1829,
varies materially, inasmuch as the Protector states that in that half
year the complaints preferred by slaves had " become more nu-
merous," " The increase," he adds, *' is to be attributed to the cir-
cumstance that the busiest time of the crop season happens during
these six months, and at that period planters are obliged to exact
the full quantum of labour which their slaves are bound by law to
perform." Ibid. p. 2 ; — and that is, as we have seen, to work all day
and all night too, if their physical powers will endure the exaction.
Our readers may refer to what we have already said on this very
subject, in our last No. (85) pp. 360 and 361.

2. Criminal Prosecutions against Slaves.
Here Lord Goderich remarks on the impropriety of some of the
sentences pronounced on the convicted slaves. One man is con-
demned to two punishments of thirty stripes each, and to be worked
on his owner's estate at his usual work, with an iron chain attached
to one of his legs, for two years ; and another is condemned for a theft
to one hundred lashes, and to work in iron shackles for two years.
Working in chains, under the control of a responsible overseer, as in
the case of Government convicts, his Lordship observes, may be a sa-
lutary punishment ; but where it is enforced for years, in the perfor-
mance of a daily task, under no other superintendance than that of
the manager of a plantation, it is likely to become an excessive in-
fliction. Courts of justice maybe influenced by consideration for the
master's interests in this mode of punishment, but his Lordship can-
not admit the policy of exempting owners from the inconvenience to
which, as a general condition of society, all persons are subjected by
the off'ences of those under their domestic authority. (Ibid. p. 86.)

3. Domestic Punishments.
Besides the complaints of slaves against their masters, we have to
notice the half-yearly returns of punishments arbitrarily inflicted, by
owners or managers, on the plantation slaves of Trinidad, during the
period comprised in this Report. They are as follow, viz. Punish-
ments of male slaves 5,064 — of female slaves 2,860 — in all 7,924.
Among these we observe about 100 inflictions for " neglecting to
throw grass" after the labour of the field is over. (See our last No.,
p. 361, and No. 82, p. 298.) A frequent offence is styled " break-
ing hospital." Lord Goderich seems surprised at this new species of
crime, especially as it seems to be visited with an unusual severity of
punishment, as many as 40 lashes being sometimes inflicted on

Trinidad— Domestic Punishmettts — Manumissions. 373

offenders of this class. But strangely enough, in the economy of
West Indian plantations, the hospital, his Lordship and the public
ought to be informed, is also made the place of imprisonment; nay
the stocks and the bilboes for confining criminals, or those who have
been undergoing the scourge, and are smarting and groaning with
their bleeding wounds, are actually placed in the very same apart-
ments with the sick and the dying. We are only beginning to ac-
quire some knowledge of the interior of West India plantations. The
reader may consult on this particular the second volume of Mr. Ste-
phen's Delineation, p. 362 — 371.

Lord Goderich, however, has overlooked the circumstance of the
great frequency with which domestic punishments by whipping ex-
ceed the utmost limit allowed by law to be inflicted at the master's
discretion. That limit is 25 lashes, and yet these returns abound
with punishments of 40 lashes, and not one word of explanation is
given by the Protector as to the cause of this excess, or as to the
grounds of its impunity.

4. Manumissions.
The manumissions in two years, from 25th June, 1828, to 25th
June, 1830, have been only 108. One cause of this appears to be
the enormous sums at which the slaves who are desirous of redeeming
themselves are often appraised, and the very obvious unfairness of
the whole proceeding. We find one slave appraised at £250 by one
appraiser, and £173 by another, and the umpire fixing his price at
about the middle point between the two, namely, £216. But the
poor man could only produce £147. Now this slave was a planta-
tion slave belonging to the Hon. Ashton Warner, the chief justice ;
though how the chief justice came to be possessed of slaves, after the
solemn declaration made by Mr. Canning and Lord Bathurst in Par-
liament, in 1826, that the offices of governors, judges, fiscals, &c.
should not be filled by slave-holders, seems to require some explanation.
Sir George Murray takes no notice of this circumstance. He never-
theless adverts to the unfairness apparent on the face of the proceeding,
and the very loose and random mode pursued in these appraisements.
Before Sir George's observations, however, could reach Trinidad, the
lowest valuation, £173, the slave having contrived to scrape together
that sum, was accepted, and he set at liberty, the indulgence being
ascribed to his good conduct during crop. — Again, a female slave,
Heloise Joseph, belonging to Andre Blazing, is appraised by one ap-
praiser at £260, and by the other at £130, the umpire fixing the price
at £216. It is added, " This sum she is unable to produce." It is
perfectly obvious that in this whole proceeding there must be gross
unfairness and partiality. Even the lowest price is high for female
plantation slaves, — nearly double, indeed, the average they usually
bring at public sales, which furnish the true criterion of value.
The system of appraisement, therefore, seems to have become, in Tri-
nidad, a system of injustice and oppression, and ought to engage the
attention of the Government. Manumissions have of course dimi-
nished as prices have been unfairly raised; and if they shall continue
thus to advance, manumission will become wholly unattainable.

374 Protectors' Reports — St. Lucia — Complaints of Slaves.

5. Marriage.
One marriage has been celebrated in two years.

6. Savings' Bank.
The sums paid into the Savings' Bank are very trifling ; the whole
amount deposited being under 1800 dollars.

7. Religion.
Not one syllable is said on the subject of religious instruction, or
on the grant to the slaves of a day in lieu of Sunday, for marketing,
and labour in their provision grounds.

IV. — St. Lucia.
1. Domestic Punishments.
The whole number of domestic punishments in the year 1828 was
1012, the respective number of males and females not being speci-
fied. In the year 1829 the total number was 1125, being a consi-
derable increase over the former year. (Papers of 1831, No. 262,
p. 4, and 10.)

2. Complaints of Slaves against Masters.

There is under this head a remarkable defect of specific detail,
especially in respect to the evidence on which the decisions were
adopted. — Two ladies, Miss Eddington and Miss Jordan, are made to
pay a fine of 100 dollars for flogging a female slave named Sarah. — •
A Mr. Eusebe is condemned to three months' imprisonment and the
costs of suit, for severely wounding his slave Poncette with a cutlas ;
and the sufferer is ordered to be sold to another master. — Mr. Dugard
having abandoned an infirm slave, his property in the slave is confis-
cated, and he is condemned to pay a quarter of a dollar a day for the
slave's maintenance during life, and also to pay the costs of suit. —
Mr. Maccullom, for cruelty to his slave Faiance, is fined 100 dollars. —
Mr. J. Toulouse, for allowing the whip to be carried into the field, is
fined 20 dollars. — Madame Lafitte, who illegally punished a female
slave, and her son, who inflicted the punishment, are fined 100 dol-
lars.— In several cases of complaint, however, stated to be unfounded,
that is to say, we presume, not proved, punishment, and sometimes
very severe punishment, is inflicted on the complainant : in two cases
100 lashes ; in another 50 lashes, and labour in the chain for 18
months ; and in others slighter punishment. The principle on which
these punishments are inflicted is, as we, and as successive Secretaries
of State have often stated, most unjust and oppressive. Still the op-
probrious practice continues. We need not wonder, therefore, that
the cases of complaints by slaves are rare in St. Lucia.

3. Complaints of Masters against Slaves.

These are much more numerous ; for there is no infliction of stripes
or chains on the master when he fails to substantiate his com^
plaints. And in such cases too the punishments are often most revolt-
ingly severe ; 40, 60, and even 100 lashes are frequently awarded to
runaways, with the addition of a month or two of solitary confine-

Complaints of Masters against Slaves. 375

ment, or of labour in the chain for three, six, and even twelre
months. In one case of desertion, the slave, Timotiie, belonging to Mr.
Bertrand,is punished with 100 lashes and three years' labour in chains.
In another, a female, Lucienne, belonging to Mr. Trotte?-, is con-
demned to endure 40 lashes, and to be worked in a chain for two
years on Mr. Trotter's estate. The same female slave is a second
time tried for the same offence, and to her former dreadful punish-
ment are added 60 lashes more, and three years of the chain.
Another female slave of Mr. Trotter s. Rose Anne, is condemned to
100 lashes. Two other female slaves are punished with severe
floggings ; one named Lucette, belonging to Madame de St. Croix,
with 100 lashes and two months' solitary confinement. In another,
QuACow, belonging to Mr. Goodsir, and Ann, to Mr. Leuger, are
condemned to 100 lashes each, and the former to two years, and the
latter to three years in the chain. Nay, we have another slave, Caraibe,
belonging to the same Mr. Leuger, condemned " for running away
twice, and remaining absent the last time three months and a half, and
until apprehended," " to receive 200 lashes, and to work three years
with a chain on the estate." This is perfectly horrible. And will it be
believed that this Report contains a list of 48 such punishments ?

Then, besides these inflictions for the venial offence of running away
perhaps from the mere dread of punishment, we have one man, Lean-
DER, belonging to Mr. Goodsir, condemned to 40 lashes and eighteen
months of chain-labour on the estate, for stealing some of his master's
salt fish and rum ; and awoman,RosALiE, belonging to the Hon. James
Muter, condemned to 60 lashes, and two years of labour in the chain
on Mr. Mwfer's estate, for stealing " ground provisions" — for stealing
the food with which she ought to have been abundantly supplied. — •
A slave, Thomas Chase, and his wife, Queen, belonging to Mr. Cas-
till, of the 35th Regiment, are found guilty of insubordination and
disobedience. He is condemned to 40 lashes and three months
cachot, but the pregnant state of the wife prevents punishment being
inflicted on her. — Surely it was not without reason that in No. 83, p.
329, we denounced the recent Supplementary Ordinance of the Go-
vernor of St. Lucia, as inflicting punishments cruelly severe, and as
being in some of its regulations most outrageous.

Besides these observations on the returns which we have now be-
fore us, we find Lord Goderich very justly commenting " on the great
apparent disproportion which they exhibit between inflictions bearing
the same name. Thus 200 lashes and three years work with a chain,
are awarded as a punishment for running away twice, and remaining
absent the last time three months and a half; whilst, in another case,
the punishment for running away and remaining absent sixteen years,
is 40 lashes and a month in the stocks. (Ibid. p. 40.)

His Lordship further remarks on " the great prevalence in St. Lucia
of the punishment of working in chains, which seems to be in-
flicted for every variety of period from one month to three years, and
as well by the authority of the magistracy as of the courts of justice.
I have to desire, that in future the Protector will give some more ac-
curate return oT the punishment conveyed by the words ' the chain,'

376 St. Lucia — Manumissions — Marriages.

which do not sufficiently distinguish between slaves sentenced to work
in chains on their OAvner's estates, and those sentenced to work in the
public chain-gang. The former mode I consider to be plainly objec-
tionable. The regulations of labour in chains is a trust which cannot
with safety be confided, indiscriminately, to the managers of planta-
tions ; " (ought it to be confided to them at all ? ) " and although such
sentences may exempt owners from the ill-consequences of offences
committed by their slaves, I am not sure that, in any state of society,
it is desirable that persons should be relieved from the connection of
their own interest with the good conduct of those under their in-
fluence." (Ibid. p. 41.)

To solitary confinement as a punishment for one and two months,
he also objects, as likely to cause a very undue measure of suffering ;
and he requires information as to all the various circumstances of
each confinement.

No one can complain of the harshness of these observations. On
the contrary, it is difficult to feel quite satisfied that the continuance
of the outrages which provoked them should have been allowed to
depend on any explanation which can be given. They are absolutely
intolerable. Why might they not have been peremptorily denounced
and prohibited in St. Lucia as well as in Mauritius ? (See No. 83,
p. 331.)

4. Mammiissions.

Between the 1st of Jan. 1828, and the 31st of Dec. 1829, being
two years, 135 slaves were manumitted. Of these, 47 were freed by
the voluntary act or bequest of the owners ; 32 under the compulsory
manumission clause, at prices varying from 72 to 700 dollars; 13
were manumitted by voluntary agreement with their masters, on
paying what was considered an equitable price ; 3 obtained their
freedom from not having been registered, and of 39 no account is
here given of the causes of their manumission. Besides Avhich, the
number of children baptised for freedom is 16.

5. Marriages.

The number of slave marriages, in two years, is only two.

One thing remarkable in this Report is the discontent of the slave-
owners at being deprived of the privilege of using the driving-whip in
the field. (Ibid. p. 22.)

But a still more remarkable circumstance is that, in a colony, where,
previous to 1827, the decrease of the slave population had been
rapidly progressive, there has recently appeared to be an increase, a
small indeed, but still a satisfactory increase. We attribute, for our
own part, this change to the zeal, activity, and vigour with which the
Chief Justice, Mr. Jeremie, enforced the laws of this colony, de-
fective as those laws are. He has now, we are sorry to say, quitted that
important station, which he had filled so honourably to himself and so
beneficially to the slaves of St. Lucia. We shall soon see whether,
the impulse which his presence appears to have given to milder treat-
ment is to be perpetuated under his successor.

Protectors' Reports — Cape— Punishment of Complainants. 377

V. — The Cape of Good Hope.

The returns from this Colony embrace the period from the 25th of
June, 1827, to the 25th of December, 1829, being a period of two
years and a half.

One of the most painful circumstances in this report is that, al-
though the Secretary of State has, from time to time, condemned the
practice of punishing complaining slaves who fail to substantiate their
complaints, the practice is still continued to a frightful extent. It was
denounced in a despatch to the Governor of so early a date we be-
lieve as September, 1828. On the 29th of August, 1829, we find Sir
George Murray again remonstrating on this point. " Throughout all
these Reports," he says, " cases continually recur in which slaves
preferring groundless complaints against their owners are forthwith
punished as criminals. I have had occasion to advert to the subject
in my former communications to you. It may be sufficient for the
present to observe, that these reports leave no room to doubt that
great injustice is frequently committed by this practice. I must
again, therefore, press upon the Council of Government of the Cape
of Good Hope the necessity of rendering the punishment of a slave
for groundless complaints dependent upon the master preferring and
proving, in each case, a distinct and specific charge that the imputa-
tion made by the slave upon himself was both false and malevolent ;
and the law should distinctly prescribe the measure of punishment
fo be inflicted on slaves convicted of calumnies of this nature." A
strong illustration of the inconvenience of the practice is then given in
the case of Lea, who was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and
payment of costs, because the magistrates thought the charge false
and unfounded. Papers of 1831, No. 262, Part V, p. 15.

On the 15th of June, 1830, Sir G. Murray again recurs to this
subject, and expresses his dissatisfaction with the long list of cases of
persons punished for preferring groundless complaints. Nay, on the
20th of December, 1830, we find Lord Goderich still lamenting that
the practice is continued " of inflicting severe punishments on
slaves who fail to substantiate complaints which they may prefer
against their masters." " Now although it may be necessary and even
just to punish a slave who has been proved to have falsely accused
his master of an offence, which, if proved, would subject him to
punishment, yet it strikes me as cruel and imjust to condemn a slave
to twenty-five or thirty lashes, or to solitary confinement for a certain
number of days on low diet, for failing to prove that which the slave
was unable to substantiate, but which is not, therefore, proved to
have been false. The effect of such a practice must be to deter slaves
from preferring any complaints which they cannot substantiate by
credible witnesses, and consequently encourage instead of checking
oppression and injustice." Ibid. p. 27.

It certainly seems extraordinary that the repeated instructions and
remonstrances of His Majesty's Government on this point should
have been so strangely neglected at the Cape of Good Hope. But
we suppose the next report from that quarter will bring us a laboured

3 A

378 Protectors Reports — Cape of Good Hope.

defence of the practice of punishing, without even the form of a trial,
slave-complainants who fail to prove their complaints ; just as we had,
on a late occasion, from Sir Lowry Cole, the Governor, (see No. 83,
p. 330,) an ingenious vindication of female flogging on the ground of
its preventing the debasement of the female character. We think it
is much to be regretted, that in cases so deeply involving the rights of
justice and humanity, the language employed by the Government in
conveying its wishes should not be sufficiently distinct and decisive
to convey their full meaning and to admit of no evasion. A feeble
or ambiguous phrase may cost the slave population of a Colony a year
or a year and a half of protracted injustice and oppression.

It is much to be regretted in this Report that the whole of the
details respecting the complaints of slaves and masters, their trial
and punishment are omitted. We have little more than the general
statements of the Protectors and the general comments of the Secre-
tary of State — but a great part of both is scarcely intelligible to the
reader from the absence of all specific details. The same remark
applies to the cases of claims for freedom, and also to the manumis-
sions affected. We are referred to Appendixes which are not given.

No marriages or baptisms have been solemnized at the Cape of
Good Hope ; and one of the Protectors affirms that there is an indis-
position in masters to encourage them.

Education and Religious Instruction appear to be at a very low ebb.

The only manner in which we can supply the extreme defectiveness
of detail in this report is by transcribing a part of the despatches of
the Secretary of State, which will afford at least a glimpse of the evils
of slavery in this Colony. In his despatch of 29th of August, 1829,
Sir G. Murray thus addresses Sir Lowry Cole : —

" The cases of Frederica and Jauna, Carel and Mey, Clara and
Malatie, illustrate the necessity of establishing by law a rule decisive
of the question, in what cases persons who are slaves de facto must,
in the absence of positive evidence of their legal condition, be pre-
sumed to be slaves de jure ? The rule should be, that, to make good
his title, the asserted owner should carry back the proof of it to the date
of the Abolition of the Slave trade, viz. the first of January, 1808;
proof having been brought forward to this effect on the part of the
owner, the rule should be reversed, and the title of the master should
be regarded as completely established, unless the slave should be able
to aduce evidence to prove his title to freedom. You will propose to
the Council the enactment of a law to this effect.

" It appears that Gabriel, who was claimed as a slave by Mr. Horak,
was set at liberty after a servitude of two years and a half, on the
ground that he was really a free man ; but no justification of having
thus held a free man in slavery is made by Mr. Horak on the face of
this Report ; nor does it appear whether Gabriel received any com-
pensation for his services. You will cause inquiry to be made into
these circumstances, and report to me the result.

"In the Report from the District of George (First Report), a long
series of eases occur ; in all of which the prosecutor, on behalf of the
slave, abandons the case, and the plaintiff (meaning I presume the

Remarks of the Secretary of State. 379

slave) is condemned to pay the costs. Some further explanation i§i
necessary of this reiterated and uniform failure of these prosecutions.
" In the Report from the district of Stellenbosch three cases are
stated in which aged slaves, past their labour, were abandoned by their
owners on the ground of their inability to maintain them. I should
infer from these cases that no provision is made by law for the sup-
port of an aged and worn out slave in cases where the owner is
unable to discharge that duty. Supposing the inability of the owner
to maintain his slave to be completely established to the satisfaction
of some competent authority, but not otherwise, the burthen must
fall on the public at large ; and if the law has not already provided
for such cases, the subject should be brought under the consideration
of the Council of Government.

" In the Report of the Deputy Protector of Uitenhage, seventeen
distinct cases occur in which slaves, having complained of ill-treat-
ment, were, sent back to their masters with a severe punishment. The
similarity of the result in all these cases suggests the necessity of some
further inquiry being made into the nature of the complaints, and the
circumstances which led to so many failures.

" The case of J. J. Villiers, charged with the murder of his slave,
affords a strong illustration of the inconvenience of the rule adopted
by the Supreme Court, by which all persons ignorant of the English
language are debarred from serving as jurors.

" In the Second Report occurs the case of the slave Sara, in which,
though the owners were proved to have used an illegal instrument in
her punishment, they not only escaped with impunity, but the party
complaining was decreed to pay the costs. It is necessary that some
explanation should be afforded of this singular result of the prosecution.

" In the case of the slave Jack the owner was fined £6, although,
pending the proceeding, he had taken upon himself to punish the
slave for preferring the complaint. I fear that the law will fall into
contempt if it can be set at defiance, with no greater inconvenience
than that of sustaining so trifling a punishment.

" From several cases before alluded to, it would appear that severe
punishments are imposed upon slaves who fail to make out fully that
there have been sufficient grounds for their complaints ; but by this
case it would appear that a master who has inflicted a punishment
upon a slave pending a proceeding escapes with a very light punish-
ment. The contrast which here so obviously shows itself in the prin-
ciples which guide the administration of justice towards masters and to-
wards slaves requires the most serious consideration of the Government.

" In the last case comprised in the Second Report, a slave appears
to have been punished with one year's imprisonment to hard labour
for the offence of riding a horse without the permission of the owner, it
being distinctly stated that there was no proof of any intention to steal
the animal. This would seem to be a punishment of extraordinary
severity, and some additional information on the subject is necessary
for the vindication of such a sentence.

" In the Third Report, a case occurs in which the owner of a slave
is stated to have lost his services for eighteen months, and to have in-
curred an expense of £100 in resisting a claim to freedom, in which

380 Protectors' Reports — Cape of Good Hope.

the slave was at last unsuccessful. Such a statement would seem to
imply some very considerable defect in the administration of justice,
mto which an inquiry should be made.

" In the same Report, it appears that the Assistant Guardian was
unable to compel the attendance of the person against whom the com-
plaint had been made by his slave. If authority to enforce obedience
to a citation of this nature is not possessed by this officer himself, nor
placed within his reach in some other functionary, the law must be de-
fective, and will require revision ;• but the nature of the difficulty is
not sufficiently explained to enable me to issue any instructions on
the subject for your guidance.

" Numerous cases occur in this Report in which slaves are con-
demned to be fed in prison on what is termed ' conjee soup,' and other
unusual articles of diet. I presume therefore that this aliment is either
less palatable or less nutritious than the ordinary food of slaves ; but
if such be the case, it would seem to be a most injudicious species of
punishment. You will inquire into the subject, and adopt such mea-
sures as, in the result of those inquiries, may appear to you necessary
for the correction of any abuse which may be found to exist respecting
the diet of slaves in prison ; and I request that you will also inform
me what is the nature of the diet above mentiond.

" In the same Report, a person named Flynch appears to have been,
sentenced to a fine of £5, with the costs, for punishing a slave boy five
times within twenty-four hours, with a severe instrument, a penalty
which would seem quite inadequate to such an outrage.

" A case of similar lenity seems to have occurred in the instance of
Mrs. D. Necker. This woman and her son, after beating a female in
such a manner as to produce several lacerated wounds on the back and
breast, for an offence described by the terms * insolence and imperti-
nence,' was subjected only to a fine of £5, a punishment bearing no
proportion to the magnitude and aggravated nature of the crime.

" The case of Brits, in the same Report, is a still more extraordinary
instance of lenity towards a great offender. This man was sentenced
to pay £5 ; yet the slave appears to have been repeatedly beaten
until his person was wounded, and in the intervals of the punishment
Brits is proved to have rubbed salt into the wounds. The inhuman
cruelty manifested by this wanton aggravation of the sufferings of the
slave was sufficient, not merely to justify, but to require, that the
offender should be punished to the utmost extent which the law in
such a case would have sanctioned.

" In the three preceding cases I have observed, with regret, an ap-
parent disposition to shelter from merited punishment persons who
have no claim whatever to compassion. It will be your duty to make
an early inquiry into this subject, with a view to ascertain to what cir-
cumstance this seemingly very misplaced lenity is to be attributed,,
and how the recurrence of similar decisions may best be prevented for
the future.

" In the case of the slaves Dattat, Rachel and Amilie, a conviction
is recorded for bullock stealing; the evidence, as it appears on the
face of this Report, does not amount to any proof of the crime.

" The Report from the Assistant Guardian at Worcester is a mere

.. Remarks of the Secretary of State. i l .. 381

catalogue of names, from which no useful information can b6 collected.'
This officer must be admonished of the necessity of transmitting a
much more complete account of his proceedings." Ibid, p, 15 — 17.

Again on the 15th of June, 1830, Sir G. Murray thus writes : —

" I now proceed to make such remarks as I think necessary on th^
Guardian's Report.

" 1st. In the case of Marietje, it is not proved or alleged that the
punishment was private, nor that it was inflicted oh the shoulders.

'" 2d. In the case of Regina, there is no proof or suggestion that
the punishment inflicted on the female slave was conducted in the
manner required by law. A fine of 5s. was the only punishment in-
curred in this case, by a young man who appears, at his mother's
command, to have beaten a girl with undue severity. It will no doubt
strike you that such a punishment is out of all proportion to so un-
manly an offence.

" 3d, A long list of cases is again brought forward of persons who
are punished for preferring groundless complaints. Some of them
are enumerated in the margin. It is unnecessary to trouble you with
any remarks on this subject, because the rule which is to be hereafter
observed respecting the punishment of persons preferring improper
complaints is now laid dowri by the new slave code-

" 4th. The Reports from the Assistant Protectors in the country
districts are in general so slight and superficial, that it is impossible
to derive from the perusal of those documents any distinct view of the
manner in which the law has been carried into execution. Nor, in-
deed, are the Reports of the Protectors themselves exempt from a
similar fault. The new Order, however, having prescribed the form
in which all reports are to be compiled, with the information whicTi
they are to convey, and having rendered the delivery of reports in
that form essential to the payment of the Protector's salary, there is
no reason to apprehend the recurrence of this fault hereafter ; nor
would it answer any useful purpose to comment any further on the
subject at present.

" 5th. I am surprised and grieved to find that the habit of punish-
ing slaves by a diet less nutritious or less palatable than that which
they usually receive still continues. Thus the slave Manissa was sen-
tenced to live on rice water for eight days ; the slave Maria, on con-
jee soup for four days ; Phillida, on the same diet for eight days, and
Ponto, for four days.

" You must take effectual measures for discountenancing such bar-
barous punishments.

" 6th. In a long list of cases, enurherated in the margin, the claims
of slaves to their freedom appear to have beeri, for the present at
least, practically defeated, on account of the want of a solicitor to
undertake the prosecution, and on account of the expenses with which
the judicial proceedings would be attended. The difficulty arising out
of the want of a proper advocate and solicitor of these claims has, I
apprehend, been already obviated by my instructions that the Attorney-
general of the colony should act in this capacity in all slave cases.
The difficulty arising from the expense of judicial proceedings will in
part be surmounted by the powers given to you in the new Order.

382 Protectors* Reports — Cape of Good Hope.

But it will probably be necessary also to suggest to the Judges of the
Supreme Court the propriety of exercising their powers, by laying
down a few short and simple rules for the more expeditious and
economical conduct of processes of this nature ; with the ample
powers enjoyed by the Judges, it is indeed a matter of surprise that
they should not have earlier applied a remedy to a grievance of so
serious a character as this.

" 7th. Passing from these general statements to the specific cases
which require notice, I observe, first, that in the case of January, the
owner of the slave was punished with a fine of only 2Z. for having
kicked the slave in the eye, in such a manner as to produce serious
injury. The precise amount and duration of the injury are not ex-
plained ; but it is not more needless than painful to have to observe,
that for an act of such brutality the punishment was totally inadequate.

" 8th. Apollos, a slave boy, having been sentenced to receive 125
lashes, for a calumnious complaint against his owner, Mr. Huskisson
demanded a copy of the proceedings in that case. (Vol. iii, No. 54,
p. 140.) It appears that a copy has been procured, but it is not
transmitted with these papers. It is a singular oversight, that an ex-
planation furnished in consequence of the Secretary of State's instruc-
tion should still be withholden, and I desire to know the cause of this
neglect.

" 9th. The case of Roset raises the questions, "Whether a slave can
purchase his own freedom at a public auction ? and Whether a duty
is payable upon such a transaction ? Each of these questions is set
at rest by the recent Order in Council.

" 10th. The case of Philida cannot be more conveniently stated
than in the words of the Report itself. They are as follow :

" 'The complaint of ill-treatment was not proved, but as the de-
fendant stated ihdit he gave the complainant about ten or twelve lashes
with a double bullock strap on her naked back, after having tied her
to a cart, the Assistant Guardian referred to the 13th Article of the
Ordinance No. 19, and stated, that he left it to the decision of the
Court whether any free children are punished in this manner in the
schools : whereupon the magistrate declared the defendant not guilty,
and sentenced the complainant to a solitary confinement of eight
days on conjee soup.'

" It really cannot be necessary to occupy your time with any com-
ment upon this extraordinary decision ; but you will ascertain and re-
port to me the name of the magistrate who possesses such peculiar
notions of his judicial duty.

" 11th. The case of the boy Frederick is stated ; from which it ap-
pears that a Mr. Douw punished the boy before he had recovered
from an illness, and that the boy having fainted during the punish-
ment, Douw left off for a while, but on the recovery of the complain-
ant again continued the punishment. These facts are said to have
been proved by two slaves, and to have been partly acknowledged
by the defendant. The magistrate, however, dismissed the case for
want of proof. The evidence on which this decision was founded
must be produced.

" 12th. It appears that a slave boy named Damon received fifteen

Remarks of the Secretary of State . 383

lashes for preferring a groundless complaint, although the magistrate
admitted that the instrument with which the boy had been punished
was improper, and warned the defendant to use it no more.

" 13th. In the same district (Stellenbosch), several cases occur
(see the cases of Rosie, Sara, Absalom, Jephta, Gallant, Adam and
Frederick, Arend, Silvester, Goliath, Sevier, Achilles, Africa, Daphne)
in which severe punishments were inflicted for non-substantiation of
complaints preferred by slaves against their owners ; such, indeed,
seems to be almost the invariable result of all applications of that
nature. I think myself, therefore, called upon to desire that you will
transmit to me a statement of the evidence on either side upon which
this long series of punishments was grounded ; no system would
seem better calculated to deter the slaves from availing themselves
of the protection and advantage promised to them by the law.

" I now proceed to the Report of the Protector of Slaves for the
Eastern District.

*' This officer has made some preliminary remarks which seem
highly deserving of attention. He observes, that many complaints
which seem groundless are not so in reality ; for that a slave, sus-
taining an injury from his owner, has extreme difficulty in procuring
the evidence of his fellow-slaves : living under the domestic authority
of the same owner, they reasonably dread that some pretext will be
found for punishing them for having given their testimony against
him. Yet, as appears from the same Report, to prefer a complaint
which is not substantiated by evidence is regarded as a serious offence,
and punished accordingly. In the case of Manuel, the slave was
condemned on this account to receive no less than forty-five lashes ;
and in the case of Gallant, the number of lashes was reduced to
twenty-five in consequence, as is said, of the age of the offender.

" Nothing can more strongly illustrate the necessity of the altera-
tion which has been made in this part of the law ; but these two
cases are so peculiar, that I think it absolutely necessary to desire
that you will transmit to me more minute reports respecting them.

" 15th, The recent Ordinance of the Cape of Good Hope for re-
gulating the proceedings against persons accused of crimes denies
them the right of being assisted by counsel on the preliminary ex-
aminations. This rule, which would seem perfectly proper in ordinary
cases, is scarcely compatible with justice in the case of slaves. Their
ignorance, and the influence of the owner in cases where he is con-
cerned, seem to require that in every stage of the proceedings they
should be assisted by an adviser capable of interpreting their meaning
and assisting their judgment. It will, therefore, be right that you
should bring the remarks of the Protector on this subject under the
consideration of your Council, in order that some method may be de-
vised for rescuing slaves from the disadvantages to which they are at
present subject on a preliminary examination.

" 16th. I notice a case which would seem seriously to impugn the
wisdom of the Rule by which His Majesty in Council has prohibited
any purchase of freedom if effected with money given for that pur-
pose. It appears that the father of a slave contributed his whole
property, amounting to 450 rix-dollars, to secui-e. to himself the

384 Protectors^ Reports — Cape of Good Hope.

society of his child. Under the recent Order this would be illegal.
Yet I suppose no person would deliberately maintain that the law
ought to prevent an act of so much self-denial or parental tenderness.
The father who sacrificed the earnings of his whole life to rescue his
child from slavery is surely not likely to train that child in evil courses,
nor can society at large have any real interest in preventing the repe-
tition of such enfranchisements.

" 17th. There further occurs the case of a Hottentot, called Claas
Dampies, who was tried for inflicting upon a slave named Cupido a
piinishment of singular barbarity. The offence imputed to Cupido
was that he had poisoned his master, and the object of the punish-
ment was to induce him to confess that crime. The Hottentot was
convicted, and received a severe punishment ; but the owner, who, if
one of the witnesses speaks truth, authorized the punishment, was not
even put on his trial.

" 18th. In the case of C. C. Molder, who was indicted for stabbing
a slave, all the evidence would seem to sustain the charge, and there
is not one word in contradiction to it ; yet the verdict acquits the
prisoner. Some explanation is necessary of so irregular a result,
which the presiding judge will probably be able to furnish.

** 19th. The Report contains the details of the very scandalous
case of a slave named Jephta. It is stated that this man's master
had a child by a Hottentot woman named Tray ; that the master first
induced the Hottentot Claas to marry this woman, and then prevailed
on the slave Jephta to repudiate his own wife, and to marry Tray,
though her Hottentot husband was still alive. This is said to have
been done to conceal the master's connection with this woman. The
complaint ended in the punishment of Jephta^ with a severe whip-
ping, because he had, in obedience to the Protector, driven his
master's cattle home pending the complaint. For this act he was
accused before the district judge, who paid no attention to the ex-
cuse urged by the Protector, that the slave had acted under his, the
Protector's, orders. The magistrate who pronounced this decision
must be called upon for an explanation of his conduct.

" 20th. The Report further contains a long series of cases from
which no useful information whatever can be derived ; they contain
nothing more than a statement of the names of the parties, the nature
of the accusation, and the result of these proceedings ; but it is the
less important to notice these defects at present, since they will be
corrected hereafter by the recent Order in Council." Ibid. p. 20 — 22.
■ And yet the West India Manifesto boasts of the fitness of the
holders of slaves to frame laws for the benefit of their bondmen ! ! !
Erratum in No. 84.

Ill the Anti-Slavery Reporter No. 84, p. 348, there occurs an error which it is
requested that the reader will correct, viz. —

Lines 24, 25, and 26, should runtlius;

" In May 1830,- he fixes the price of picking 70lb. of Coffee at Is Od f sterling,
being only a half more than the rate which he fixed on the former occasion for pick-
ing a seventh part of that quantity, namely, lOlb.
vLine 28 for 4Jrf read Is Ofrf.
' Line 35 fdr A\d read Is 0^., and for 2d read 6d.

LondoB": S. Bagsteir, Jiifi. Printer, 14; Bartliolomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 87.] AUGUST 20, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 15.

PROTECTORS' OF SLAVES REPORTS.— VI. Mauritius.
1. Manumissions; 2. Marriage and Religious Instruction ; 3. Complaints of
Slaves against Masters : 4. Complaints of Masters against Slaves ; 5. Prosecutions
of Masters ; 6. Prosecutions of Slaves ; 7. General Treatment; Conclusion.

We now come to the last but not the least horrific of these reports.
It occupies 330 pages, and embraces a period of fifteen months,
namely, from the 20th of March 1829, to the 24th of June 1830.
The manumissions embrace nine months more.

1. Manumissions.

The manumissions which have been effected between the 20th of
June 1828, and the 24th of June 1830, a period of two years, amount
to 1011. We are sorry to perceive in one case (p. 312) that a sum
of 400 dollars was paid to the government for the manumission of a
female slave; and, in another case, that a man named Martineau
purchased, also of the government, his wife Agnis, and two children,
and paid her price by a slave given in exchange, (p. 321). It is some
compensation for such proceedings, that twenty of the government
slaves were gratuitously manumitted, and we trust, that ere this time,
all of them have been made free.

" Part of these enfranchisements," observes the Protector, (p. 169)
*' have been applied for by individuals who have lived for many years
in a state of freedom under the sanction of either a deed of gift, or
the last will of their owner, or the purchase of their own freedom ;
but, such purchases being then illegal, the slave was compelled to
content himself with permission to labour, until he possessed sufficient
means to defray the expense of the heavy tax then payable on enfran-
chisement."

The Protector further states, that, " in many of -the cases where he has
been called to interfere, instances of the most culpable neglect, on the
part of executors and procurators, have come to his knowledge, where-
by slaves have been deprived of their liberty for years after the death
of their benefactor, and in some cases have remained in slavery for
life, leaving a hapless progeny in the same state of bondage, at an age
too young to be sensible of, and without friends to assert, their title
to the boon bestowed on their parents ; and this has gone on . until
even a third generation has borne the yoke entailed upon it by fraud
and injustice." (p. 6.)

The Frotectcr also remonstrates strongly and justly against the
iniquity of requiring bonds from masters for the maintenance of young-
slaves whom they may be disposed to manumit, and he instances a

3 B

386 Protectors' Reports — Mauritius — Manumission — Marriage, S^c.

case where the master was willing to manumit a mother and her
children, but was prevented by the requisition of such a bond.

Some cases of grievous oppression, not only on the part of indivi-
duals, but of courts of justice and officers of justice, so called, will
appear in a subsequent part of this abstract, if we can find room for
them.

2. Marriage and Religious Instruction.

Nothing can be more melancholy than the information conveyed by
the Protector on this subject. Two marriages only have taken place,
and the almost total absence of religious and moral instruction, he
observes, forbids the hope of their emerging from their state of barba-
rous ignorance and moral debasement. He makes no exception from
this gloomy description, except with respect to the government slaves,
and the estates of Captain Dick and Mr. Telfair. The government
slaves, in number about 1300, and Captain Dick's, about 60, are only
orally instructed by the Rev, Mr. Jones, (of whom more hereafter,) and
of this oral instruction the Rev. A. Denny well observes, (p. 211,) that
its results are, and he fears must be, unsatisfactory, because "when-
ever the individual is removed from the continual mechanism of this
oral teaching, his impressions cannot be kept alive by recurring to the
written word of God, or to the liturgy. This kind of knowledge can
only be retained by the drilling of the catechist, and will infallibly be
lost when circumstances prevent his constant attendance in the house
of God." On Mr. Telfair's estate alone are the slaves taught to read
and WTite. Two hours are given to the elementary instruction of about
eighty children, so as to enable them to read the Bible and write. Mr.
Telfair is the only person in the Colony who permits elementary in-
struction to be given to his slaves, (p. 55.^) With these exceptions,
says Mr. Denny, there are here about 70,000 slaves in a state of entire
" heathen ignorance in every thing that relates to God and goodness."

One letter addressed to the Protector by a gentleman, a planter
apparently, to whom he applied for information, contains the following
frank admission. " Je dois a la verite de vous dire que non seulement
I'instruction religieuse n'y a fait aucun progres mais que meme on ne
s'en occupe pas le maindrement ." (p. 213.)

3. Complaints of Slaves against Masters, Sfc.

This head occupies a very large portion, indeed, about one-half of
this bulky volume, there being no fewer than 220 cases, occurring in
the course of fifteen months, which are there detailed. It would be
obviously altogether impossible to give any thing more than a cursory
glance at a part of these cases, some of them exceeding in enormity
almost any thing which even the annals of slavery, fruitful as it has
been in crime, have presented to us, excepting in the case of Mauri-
.'tius itself.

1. (March 20, 1829.) — Jeanne belonging to Madame Biipre, com-
plained of severe and cruel treatment. She had charge of the poultry,
and yet had to work in the field, but when the poultry were missing,
she was required to pay for them, and having no money, she was beat

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 387

with a stick and a shoe, and her pig taken from her for payment : that
she was also compelled to work on Sunday. On the evidence, it ap-
pears, of Madame Dupre alone, the complaint was pronounced to be,
beyond doubt, altogether groundless, and Jeanne was sentenced by the
Protector, to a week's solitary confinement and hard labour. (No. 1,
p. 15.)

2. JoAKi, (March 31, 1829, No. 2, p. 15,) belonging to M. Che-
neau, complained of being beaten with 25 lashes on his breech, because
he quitted his work in a heavy shower ; that he received two other
floggings for causes equally frivolous ; and that he had been worked
on Sunday till noon. On the denial of M. Cheneau of the charge of
flogging, and on the testimony of an assistant protector to the general
humanity of that gentleman, and on the ground of a medical certificate,
the Protector not only dismissed the complaint, but sentenced the
complainant to receive 25 stripes in the presence of all the other slaves
of the plantation. (Ibid.) Lord Goderich observes on this proceeding,
" Not even a denial is given of the alleged employment on Sunday, of
which no notice is taken by the Protector.'' Besides, " there is nothing
like admissible evidence for the defence, except the medical certificate;
and I am not aware that the absence of marks of punishment on the
person of a black is a proof that none had been inflicted." At all events,
he thinks that the Protector was not justified in awarding this punish-
ment ; and desires Sir C. Colville to convey to him a caution not to
rely impicitly on the assurances he may receive from assistant Protec-
tors, who are generally planters and the neighbours of those com-
plained against, and to be equally wary as to the certificates of medical
men, whose prosperity depends on their employment by the planters."
(p. 90.)

3. Henry, aged ten years, (No. 4, p. 16,) complained against his
mistress Marie Sarde, of his being ill-treated, and ill-fed, and made to
work on Sundays. Marie Sarde's defence consisted in her own decla-
ration and that of her manager, that her slaves were kindly treated and
abundantly fed ; and that the boy was a bad boy, full of malice, and a
thief. On this declaration the boy's complaint was pronounced false in
every point, and for this and for bad behaviour, he was punished with
twelve stripes, and warned to behave well in future to his kind and
considerate mistress. The Protector says the boy looked fat, and this
circumstance he viewed as presumptive evidence against him. What
can more shew the degraded, nay, brutal condition of the slaves than
such a remark, from a man who appears, in other cases, not destitute of
humanity ? (p. 16.)

On this case Lord Goderich remarks, — " But for the frequency with
which the cases occur, where the decisions appear to rest on the mere
declarations of the defendants and those under their control, (decisions
too, not only for the acquittal of the defendants, but for the punishment
of the complainants,) I should have thought it superfluous to remark,
that the uncorroborated declarations of the parties concerned, can sub-
stantiate nothing. It is absolutely necessary that attention should be
paid to the ordinary rules of evidence, and to the principles which are in
common use, wherever justice is administered. It is also necessary

388 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

that the Protectors and assistant Protectors should confine themselves
to their proper functions, and not take the opportunity of a complaint
to inflict punishment for misbehaviour alleged to have occurred ante-
cedently." (p. 91.)

4. On the 3rd of April, 1829, (No. 11, p. 19,) a slave girl, aged
about five years, named Rosalie, belonging to Mr. Collier of Port
Louis, was larought to the Protector's office, her hands tied behind her,
and her mouth gagged with a piece of cotton stuff, and a small cord.
Mr. ColHer admitted he had so treated the child for having told a
falsehood, a punishment always adopted by himself and family towards
young slaves detected in similar offences, and said he saw nothing
severe in such punishment. The Protector admonished Mr. Collier
not to repeat the offence, and dismissed the complaint, (p. 20.)

5. April 10, 1829. Melanie, aged 35 years, belonging to
Mademoiselle Descia, stated that her mistress obliges her to leave
home to seek for work, and to bring her four francs every day, whether
she have been employed or not ; and to satisfy this demand, which she
is always beaten for not fulfilling, she is forced to sell her clothes, so
that she is almost without any. Miss Descia said it was all false, and
the Protector believing, therefore, the complaint to be groundless,
directed Melanie to be punished by ten days of solitary confinement,
and at the same time recommended it to Miss Descia not to impose the
necessity upon her slave of bringing her four francs a day, as it might
induce her to obtain it by theft, or other improper means — though
doubtless it was by those improper means chiefly that Melanie could
hope to meet the exactions of her mistress, (p. 21.) "This," says
Lord Goderich, " is one of those cases, in which none but ex parte evi-
dence is given, but which results, nevertheless, in the punishment of
the complainant" — a severe punishment too !

5. Aglae, (No. 18, p. 23,) a female aged 22, belonging to the same
lady, M'dd. Descia, complained, on the 12th of April, 1829, of hav-
ing been severely flogged by her mistress, though in the fourth month
of her pregnancy ; of being compelled, on pain of punishment, to earn
four francs a day for her mistress ; of being obliged to work on Sunday ;
and of not having sufficient time allowed for repose. To these com-
plaints Mademoiselle replied, not by any evidence in disproof of their
truth, but by various counter-charges of theft, swindling, marooning,
&c., not one of which was she able to prove ; and yet the Protector
did not deem it necessary to send the case to the Procureur General
for prosecution. " I must observe," says Lord Goderich, " that in this
case, the Protector seems to have ill understood the nature of his func-
tions. He had not to inquire whether the slave had committed theft,
or any other offence imputed to her. If opportunity was to be given to
the mistress to prove this, then justice would have demanded an in-
quiry whether her mistress did really compel her to go forth in search
of employment, and bring back four francs a day, whether she might find
employment, or not. If that were so, theft, on the part of the slave,
might be considered as compulsory, and the guilt of it to belong to the
mistress."— Probably, however, it was prostitution, and not theft, on
which the mistress relied for the four francs a day. '* But in truth,"

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 389

adds his Lordship, " these were not questions properly before the Pro-
tector. If the slave were guilty, there was a tribunal before which to
bring her. The protector had only to ascertain simply whether the
mistress had broken the law. Whenever it is ascertained, or even
when there is a presumption that the law has been broken, it is no part
of the Protector's intended functions, that he should exercise a discre-
tion to dispense with the prosecution ; nor am I able to discover the
reasons by which he Avas guided in the discretion which he exercised in
this particular case." (Ibid. p. 92.)

7. Eight Slaves of Sieur Delois complained to the assistant Pro-
tector, (April 13, 1829, No. 19, p. 24,) of insufficiency of food, and
being compelled to work on Sundays. The assistant Protector reported
that Delois had denied the charge as to food, and had supported the
denial by proof. He denied also the charge as to Sunday labour. The
Protector, in considering this report as proving the complaint to be
false and malignant, ordered his assistant to punish the eight slaves
with thirty lashes each, in the presence of the whole gang. Lord Gode-
rich observes, that the charge of Sunday labour is denied but not dis-
proved ; and that he can discover no proof of the malice ascribed by
the Protector to the complainants. " I am therefore surprised," he
says, " to find that they were sentenced each to receive thirty stripes."
" Upon the evidence before me, I see no sufficient ground for sanction-
ing punishments thus severe ; and it is impossible for me to approve of
the Protector's having pronounced such a sentence, without any inquiry
of his own, by which he should have obtained a personal knowledge
that every opportunity and assistance had been afforded to the com-
plainants to bring forward evidence on their side and substantiate their
complaint." (Ibid. p. 92.)

8. Nanette, a girl about twelve years, (No, 20, p. 24,) slave of
Sieur Ganien, complained that her mistress was continually beating her.
She had to clean the room, bathe the infant and walk with it, work at
the needle, and bring water ; her food too being insufficient. Last
Saturday she was severely flogged. This charge was denied, and heavy
counter-charges preferred against the girl, but the surgeon testifiea
that he found marks of severe punishment on her breech, arms, and
shoulders, and the Protector himself saw, in her reduced and emaciated
state, a sufficient proof of her being insufficiently fed. The case was
therefore denounced to the Procureur General. The master suffered
judgment to go by default, and was fined in the lowest penalty of 20Z.

9. CupiDON, aged 55, complained (April 15, No. 21, p. 25,) that
his master M. /. /. Amelin, had severely flogged him with fifty stripes,
for not doing his work, though too unwell to work; that he now labours'
under fever; that he is made to work on Sundays as on other days,
from four in the morning till seven in the evening, and has not sufficient
food, or sufficient time for his meals. The medical gentleman testified
that he bears marks of severe punishment, and labours under extreme
and general debility; his weakness being so great, says the Protector,
as to prevent his standing up. He was sent to the hospital, and in the
mean time his master was applied to, to answer the complaint. His
reply, while he admits to have inflfcted a flogging, is a declaration, un-

390 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

supported by any proof, but accompanied as is usual with heavy counter-
charges, that the charge was false, and demanding that Cupidon should
be punished for his false complaint. In a few days, however, the slave
died in the hospital ; the surgeon reporting of him that he died from " a
depraved habit of body, paralysis and other constitutional causes, and
not from any punishment inflicted on his person." The Protector in-
formed the master of this event, and thus, he adds, "terminated the in-
vestigation of the matter." — " It is incumbent upon me," observes. Lord
Goderich on this case, " to express the surprise and displeasure which I
have felt, that a case which, as it appears upon this record, inevitably
gave rise to the suspicion that inhuman cruelty had been perpetrated,
should have been pursued no further, although there was no apparent
grounds for leaving the claims of public justice unsatisfied. The slave
had named the witnesses of the punishment he alleged himself to have
received, and the master had admitted the infliction of a punishment ex-
ceeding that allowed by law ; moreover, the whole of the circumstances
affording as they did, a strong presumption of abuses in the habitation
of the slave owner, demanded immediate and searching inquiry." (Ibid.
p. 93.)

10. Elizabeth, aged 30, slave of Mademoiselle Lachelle, (April
22, 1829, No. 25, p. 29,) was ordered by her mistress to rise very early
on last Sunday morning to iron linen, which was interrupted by her
being sent to accompany another young lady to church. On her return,
she resumed her ironing, at which she was kept till six in the evening
without any nourishment. On her remonstrating against this severity,
her mistress flew at her, caught her by the hair, pushed her against the
planks of the room, struck her with her fist, and kicked her about the
body, and then told her to go and complain if she chose. The mistress
was called, and, by her mere denial, (there being no external marks of
the blows and kicks,) satisfied the Protector that the whole statement was
false. " He therefore, severely reprimanded the negress, and returning
her to her mistress, dismissed the complaint." This is Mauritius
justice !

11. Denis, aged 19, complained, (No. 26, p. 29,) that his master
M. Bourgault Ducondray, caused the driver to flog him with a switch
on the breech, in the field, because he was lazy and did not work. This
was evidently against the Ordinance forbidding coercion by flogging in
the field. And yet, the Protector, convinced, by Mr. Bourgault's state-
ment, of the false and frivolous nature of the complaint, directed Denis
to be returned to his master, and to receive, in the presence of the gang,
twenty-five lashes, the assistant Protector attending and impressing
upon the assembled slaves, " the determination of the Protector to put
down by severe punishment every thing like insubordination or neglect
of duty towards their masters, more particularly when their alleged com-
plaints are proved to be of so groundless a nature." This is Mauritius
protection !

12. Ten Slaves of Madame Ligerau, complained, (No. 27, p. 29,)
of having neither Sunday, nor their hours of repose during the day, nor
time even to take their meals ; that they are obliged to rise at three in
the morning, and to work from that time till nine at night, the darker

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 391

hours of the time being employed in collecting grass for tlie cattle. A
son of Madam Ligerau denied, on her behalf, the charges generally, but
admitted that the slaves worked till eight on Sunday morning, in collect-
ing grass, and that they had the same hours for meals as the other plan-
tations, namely, two hours for dinner, and three quarters of an hour for
breakfast. The driver and a free man residing on the estate confirmed
this testimony, eulogized the lady, and certified the bad character of the
complainants. The Protector, convinced of the groundless nature of the
complaint, ordered three of the ringleaders to receive twenty-five lashes
each, five others to be confined in the stock six nights, (working of course
all day) ; and the other three (wornen) to be confined separately for four
successive Sundays. On this sentence Lord Goderich remarks, that it
was far too severe, even had their complaints been as groundless as the
Protector adjudged them to be. " But in this case," he adds, " the
very terms of the defence prove that the slaves had good reason to com-
plain of not having the full lime allowed them by law for meals, since
the article (§ 20) assigns an hour for breakfast, and even the owner's son
does not pretend that the custom of the estate was to allow more than
three quarters of an hour. There has thus been, upon the showing of
the defendant a daily contravention of the law, by each contravention
of which the owner had incurred a penalty of not less than one nor
more than five pounds. No notice is taken of this, while the slaves are
punished for a groundless complaint." " The negligence of the Pro-
tector on this point is the more reprehensible as the time allowed to
these slaves for meals is said to be the same as that allowed to those
on the neighbouring estates, which would show that an habitual and
extensive violation of the law prevailed in the district. I am to desire
that you will direct the Protector to ascertain, by the most strict and
comprehensive inquiry throughout the Colony, whether the law on this
head be observed or not." (Ibid. p. 94.)

The Secretary of State makes no comment on the admitted infraction
of the Sabbath.

13. Augustine, aged 22, belonging to Mo-demo'iseWe Lalotie Egro7i,
complained, (29th of April, 1829, No. 28, p. 30,) of being ill-treated;
of being flogged on her breech with thirty stripes ; of being chained and
fastened to one of the rooms where she is obliged to work at her needle
night and day, having even passed several nights at work without the
least repose; of having received a blow with a stick which broke one of
her teeth ; and of being badly fed, and having no rest, not even on Sun-
days. The mistress admitted the chaining, and did not deny the thirty
stripes, but denied having struck Augustine with a stick. We entirely
participate in the surprise expressed by Lord Goderich at finding this
case " to have been dismissed by the Protector with a severe reprimand
to the slave, and a threat of punishing her severely if she should oflTend
again in like manner.'' And yet no ofience whatever appears to havei
been proved against her. ^

14. Prosper, the slave of Madame Cliezal complained, (No. 29, p.
30,) of having been punished with sixty stripes; and of being compelled
to work on Sunday without pay. In this case tl-icre is much contra:-

392 Protectors of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

diciory evidence ; but the result of the whole, even if we take only that
for the defence, we perfectly agree with Lord Goderich, is that three
articles of the Slave Ordinance, namely, §§ 14, 15 and 17, had been
violated. " It is clear," observes his Lordship, " that Prosper had
sufficient reason to complain of illegal punishment, and in all probability
of illegal compulsion to labour on the Sunday. It is, therefore, with
serious displeasure that I find the result of the proceedings stated as
follows : — ' The Protector is of opinion that the complaint is altogether
groundless.' ' Prosper has also been found to have been guilty of much
ingratitude to his mistress, and to have suborned two negresses to sup-
port his false accusation.' I no where find on the record, the proof to
which the Protector here alludes ; he proceeds, ' complainant is there-
fore ordered by the Protector to receive thirty lashes on the estate of his
mistress, and in the presence of the other blacks.' I know not," adds his
Lordship, " to what to attribute a result so utterly at variance with that
to which the law and justice of the case would seem equally to have
led."

15. Fifteen Slaves, belonging to Madame de Bissy, complained
to the assistant Protector of bad treatment, (No. 30, p. 32.) He was
displeased that so many should have come to him, and directed three
to be selected to state their grievances, and the others to return to work.
The three delegates complained in the name of the rest, of not being
allowed time even to attend to the calls of nature ; of being compelled
to labour on Sunday ; and of being insufficiently provided with food.
The manager of the estate, Rozemont, being sent for by the assistant Pro-
tector, denied the truth of the complaint. These facts being laid before
the Protector, he came to this extraordinary conclusion. " The Pro-
tector views the case as one in which the law authorizes him to make
an example of the complainants, they not only having brought a false
and frivolous accusation against the manager, but having also aggravated
the offence by their tumultuous conduct ; and in order, therefore, to
suppress the least tendency to insubordination, he directs that \\\e fifteen
slaves shall be punished on the estate, in the presence of all their com-
rades, with thirty lashes each ; the assistant Protector to be present,
who is to take the opportunity of impressing, on the minds of the slaves,
that the only terms on which they may hope for the Protector's support,
(which he is always ready to afford, when their complaints are well
founded) is the quiet and full discharge of the duty they owe their
masters and those placed in authority by them."

" This case," says Lord Goderich, " affords a striking example of the
severity with which the Protector has thought it necessary to punish
frivolous complaints. He calls them, indeed, false as well as frivolous,
but of their falsehood I see not the slightest evidence. The only witness
is the manager himself, (the accused); and I do not find that even he is
at issue with any of the complainants in any point.'' — " So far from the
complaint being false, there seems to have been an adherence to truth,
which is the more remarkable when it is considered to how little the
truth amounted. Moreover, had the complaints been false, the falsehood
could scarcely be imputed to any other than the three selected to make

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 393

the statement when the Protector refused to receive it from a greater
number, AH the fifteen slaves M^ere ordered to be punished, each with
thirty lashes of the cat o'nine tails," (Ibid. p. 95.)

16. A lady of the name of Sturbel seems by the cruelty of her treat-
ment, and the severity of her exactions, to furnish abundant occupation
to the Protector. On the 22nd of April 1829, (No. 32, p. 33,) Adeline
a negress of 23 years of age having two children, and Pieuue Louis
a boy of 14, complained of their mistress, that though she herself
punctually performs the usual task allotted to those negresses who have
no children to nurse, yet she is beaten because Pierre Louis whose ten-
der age incapacitates him for it, does not do as much. The work they
are employed in, is making bags of certain leaves for holding sugar,
co(Fee, &c., four of these bags being a full day's task. For this failure
of Pierre, Adeline says, she received from the driver on Wednesday
last, 25 stripes of a large cane on the breech. On Sunday, Madame
Sturbel made her eldest child Elizabeth (now three years and a half,)
work in collecting the leaves for the bags; and not being satisfied with
her work punished her with twelve stripes of the same cane. On Mon-
day therefore she came v/ith this child, and the other who is at the
breast, to the Protector to complain. She had not gone first to the
assistant Protector of the quarter Savanne for fear of being sent back
to her mistress, who obliges her and the other negresses to make each
a sack on Sunday morning on pain of being placed in the block. Pierre
also stated that the four sacks assigned to him is more than from his
age and want of strength he is able to accomplish, and that for not ac-
complishing it, he is beaten on the breech, and that on Wednesday last,
he received 25 stripes in the presence of four negresses, Madame Sturbel
herself being also present at the punishment. The surgeon certified that
both Adeline and Pierre had been flogged on the breech though not
with much severity. The main facts were proved by all the v/itnesses,
and admitted even by Madame Sturbel herself, who stated that she ge-
nerally carried a cane in her hand, with which, besides the punishments
inflicted by her orders, she had given the complainant and her child
several stripes. The Protector referred the case involving, as it did,
various infractions of the Slave ordinance, to the Procureur General. It
remained undecided on the 30th of June, 1830.

In eight other instances in the course of fifteen months, does the name
of Madame Sturbel appear charged with excessive exactions of labour,
and with severe and illegal punishments. All are of a very atrocious
description, but we must confine ourselves to one or two.

17. Jea^nie, (No. 6. p. 121,) had excessive tasks given her, for not
completing of which she was severely punished with flogging; She
complained to the Protector and on that occasion was sent to the hos-
pital. At the end of a month she was sent back to her mistress, who
attached her to a chain fixed to a large stone in a shed, where she had
remained chained ever since, (about 12 months,) during which time shehad
been weekly flogged with 30 lashes of the cart-whip, and 125 strokes of
a cane, for not furnishing four sacks a day, which it is impossible to do,
especially as she had been a house servant and unaccustomed to this
kind of work. Three other negresses were now chained in the same shed

3 c

394 Protectors^ of Slaves Reports — Mauritius

where she was, and there sewed their sacks, being kept "au secret." In
addition to the cruelties inflicted on Jeannie, she is not allowed to see
her own son when he conies to visit her. She is allowed half a pound of
boiled rice a day. She is made to work all Sunday, and is made to rise
to work on other days at three in the morning. She had miscarried while
kept in chains through the floggings given her, by her mistress, while
pregnant. She further charged Madame Sturbel with having driven
some of her slaves to suicide. Julia had poisoned herself and her
two children; Lolo had drowned herself and her two children in a pond
on the estate, and Nod a youth of 14 had hung himself. Some of these
charges were denied by Madame Sturbel — but enough was proved to
form a ground of prosecution. She was therefore denounced to the
Procureur General. 1. For having kept Jeannie in irons twelve months
chained to a block, during which time she miscarried. 2. For flogging
her with the cart-whip and other instruments, the marks of which she
bore on her body. 3. For not allowing sufficient food. 4. For com-
pelling her to work on Sundays. 5. For exacting the excessive task
of making five vacoa sacks a day and punishing its non-performance. —
For these offences she was condemned in the penalty of £33 with costs.
It is not said what became of Jeannie. She was of course returned to
her mistress.

This is the only case in which we can find that Madame Sturbel's
crimes were visited with even the slightest punishment.

In the complaint against Madame Sturbel first mentioned, that of
Adeline, it does not appear that any punishment followed the prose-
cution that was ordered; but some time after, viz. on the 1st of October
1829, (No. 58, p. 55,) we find this same slave again complaining to the
Protector that she had been put into chains attached to a heavy log of
wood, as soon as she had been sent back after her former complaint;
and that the exactions of excessive labour, that had then been com-
plained of, were renewed so that she had not time to eat her meals.
The chains, having been removed from the limbs of the complainant at
the Protector's office, were found to be four feet and a half in length ;
they were attached to the right ancle by a ring; and the other end
was fixed to a large billet of wood, the weight of the whole being
55 pounds.

18. A youth of 16 years named Julian accompanied Adeline, and
had similar complaints to make against Madame Sturbel. The chains
found upon him weighed altogether 18 pounds. The two cases were
referred to the Procureur General, but the result is not given. Various
other offences of this lady (see No. 80, p. 170 ; No. 83, p. 172 ; No. 3,
p. 252 ; No. 39, p. 268 ;) were treated by the Protector with a most
unpardonable lenity. This seems also to be the impression of Lord
Goderich. He blames the Protector for so lightly dismissing the complaints
against her, no notice whatever being taken of her numerous infractions
of the law by compelling her slaves to work on Sundays ; nor can he
understand on what grounds the protector considered Madame Sturbel
a fit object of lenity, when there were so many proofs of the excessive
quantity of labour she was in the habit of exacting (p. 222.) Lord
Goderich adverts (p. 223) to another complaint against this lady for

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 395

overworking her slave Celestine (No. 32. p. 351) in which it comes
out that the girl had been chained to a stone for twelve months, and had
been released only on the new year's day preceding. "As Madame
Sturbel seems far from an indulgent mistress," adds his Lordship, " I
regret that the Protector did not notice this statement." (p. 223.)

In short this person appears to have been proceeding, during the
whole period of the present report, in the perpetration of atrocities, any
one of which, if repeated, should have led to the liberation of her suf-
fering slaves from her merciless dominion. But she still retains it, and
seems to retain, along with it, her standing and estimation in Mauritius
society; and the only penalty we can discover she has yet incurred has
been the fine of £33, mentioned above.

19. Eleven slaves of Mr. Castera (No. 33, p. 35,) bring many
grievous complaints against their master, some of which seem exag-
gerated, but many of which are partially admitted by him and his
manager, especially the floggings, and the Sunday labour, and the abridge-
ment of the legal hours of repose. Yet the Protector condemns these
men to 25 lashes each, and two women to solitary confinement from
Saturday evening till Monday morning for four successive weeks, for
having preferred complaints which the Protector deemed groundless.
A part of their complaints however, was found not groundless ; but it
only led to a reprimand and a caution against future offences of the
same kind. " Equal justice," Lord Goderich well observes, " would
seem to require that when both parties are found in fault, either both
should be pardoned, or both punished. But when slaves have just
reason to complain, they should not be very severely visited for exag-
geration. It is scarcely to be expected that persons in their uninstructed
condition will avoid the error of mixing truth with falsehood, especially
when they have before them the example of a faithful statement being
severely punished for amounting to too little." (p. 95.)

These observations, however, just as they are, hardly meet the enor-
mity of this case as it stands proved, or even as it was admitted by the
manager. The examining surgeon testified to many marks of punish-
ment on both men and women, but said the marks were old ; but how
old, whether a week, or a month, or six months, does not appear ; and
of one of them, a female, who appears to have been recently flogged,
Estasie, he said, that she was weak and emaciated, and apparently ill-
fed ; and of another, that she was old, and should be exempt from la-
bour. The working on Sunday was distinctly admitted, and yet the Pro-
tector's reprimand was confined to the single point of irregularity with
respect to hours of repose.

20. Lord Goderich states the complaint of Rosalie against her
master Julien to be (No. 35, p. 37) that she is obliged to work harder
than her present ill state of health can support ; that when she tells
her master so, he beats her with a stick and tells her she shall work ;
that her sight being defective she sometimes fails to see clearly that
which her master wishes to have done, and that he then throws snufF
into her eyes ; in short, that she is afraid to return to his house. The
surgeon states, that she exhibits very slight marks of punishment, but
that she is affected with paralysis, and is debiUtated to such a degree that

396 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

he would recommend her being sent to the Hospital. And yet, the Pro-
tector expressed himself satisfied that that part of the complaint which
alleged ill-treatment was groundless. " It is not stated," adds his Lord-
ship, " how this is reconciled with the marks of punishment, which
would seem to be conclusive evidence of an infraction of the law."
(p. 96.)

21. Alfrida, 15 years of age, complained (No. 37, p. 38.) of ex-
cessive punishment, by her master, M. Gaud, of Port Louis. She had
been stretched on the ground and severely flogged on several occasions;
and yet the Protector, overlooking this direct violation of the Ordinance
which forbids the flogging of women, found reasons for not punishing
the master but for punishing the complainant. She was ordered to be
confined in solitude for four Sundays.

22. We mention the case of Jean, (No. 38, p. 39,) belonging to
M. D^Aubigny, of the Quarter Flacq, chiefly because, though a great
part of his complaint appears to be disproved, yet the statement of M.
D'Aubigny himself, and of his numerous witnesses, clearly establish
the general, open, and avowed infraction of the law relating to Sunday
labour. M. D'Aubigny states, that his slaves rise at daybreak, during
the week, and that on Sunday morni7ig, they only bring in the quan-
tity of grass necessary for the cattle, which work, with cleaning the
cattle, never employs them later on that day than eight o'clock — that is,
for three hours at least after daybreak. — The slaves too, whom he produces
to testify in his favour, state as a proof of his humanity that, on Sun-
days, they always finish their " corvee" by eight o'clock. The Protec-
tor takes no notice of this. But he punishes the complainant, a man
50 years of age, with 50 stripes of the cat,

23. Nanette, and her two children, Marcelin and Victoire,
complained, in May, 1829, (No. 1, p. 120,) of the Widow Morell, that
she had obliged them to work on the last two Sundays. On the first
of these she had given to each of them 25 strokes, and then made them
dig the whole day. On the second of the two Sundays, she had again
flogged all three with 25 lashes each, and then placed them in the
stocks, without food, till the following morning, obliging them to work
all the time in making bags. They complained also of insufiicient
food. Madame Morell denied a great part of the charge ; but it ap-
pearing clearly that she had flogged two females, that she had flogged
both them and the boy without the required witnesses, and without
any entry in the Record Book, and had left them without food in the
stocks, a prosecution was instituted against her, and she was fined
£80 with costs.

24. The case of Jeanne, aged 22, and her three children, (No. 2,
p. 121,) we mention not for the purpose of detailing the particulars of
her complaint, which are sufficiently horrifying, though in some points,
they are contradicted ; but of bringing before our readers a new con-
trivance of Mauritius ingenuity, in the way of torture, called the "bar
de justice." We call it new, not because it may not have long existed^
but merely because, though it appears, from the sequel of the present
report, to be of very frequent use, it was not before noticed in any of the
accounts we have seen of the various cruelties practised in this colony.

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 397

The "bar de justice" would seem to be a kind of moveable stocks or bil-
boes, so contrived however that the slave cannot run away with it; and
as it may be brought even into a parlour or drawing-room, the lady
of the house or plantation may have her vagabond or libertine semp-
stresses placed securely at their tasks before her. This Jeanne, for
instance, we are told as a proof of the lenity of Madame Amedei
D'Emerez^ received no other punishment than confinement in the "bar
de justice," being kept at needlework in a room, and fed from her mas-
ter's table. Jeanne nevertheless complained to the Protector of this
" bar de justice," but he declined to interfere with it, as it did not, he
says, " come within the meaning of the Chain Ordinance" — meaning
that vile ordinance of Sir Lowry Cole, since repealed, which pre-
scribed the maximum in weight of the chains or fetters with which men,
women, and children might be loaded, at the owner's or manager's
discretion.

25. Thirty-one slaves belonging to Bois Rouge, appeared to com-
plain of their manager, M. Audillard, (No. 16, p. 130.) The Protector
leprimanded them for coming in so large a body, and, after choosing
two or three to represent their grievances, sent the others back to the
plantation. The deputies then stated that they were daily punished for
almost nothing; that they worked at "corvee"* from three in the morn-
ing, and when that was finished they worked from six in the morning till
eight in the evening. They had no time allowed them to take their
food, &c. The Protector states, as the result of his inquiry, that the
falsity of the complaint having been completely established, the two ring-
leaders were severely punished, one with thirty, and the other with twenty-
five stripes; and the negresses were ordered to be confined for four suc-
cessive Sundays. Lord Goderich cannot discover the proofs of falsity
to which the Protector refers, nor the grounds on which the negresses
were selected for imprisonment ; and as for the assertion of a conspiracy
existing among the slaves, there appears, he says, no farther proof of it
than their having left the estate in a body ; while the fact of a former
complaint having been preferred from the same estate may, with as much
probability, be referred to injustice on the part of the masters, as to in-
subordination among the slaves.

26. Alexis, a slave belonging to the same estate of "Bois Rouge,"
complained of having been punished with forty lashes of a cart-whip,
by M. Audillard, the manager, and then put into chains, which, on
being weighed, were found to exceed the limits of the Ordinance. Dr.
Hart also certified, that Alexis had both sides of his breech ulcerated
from the effects of punishment, and that he was affected with disease.
The facts alleged by Alexis, were nevertheless stoutly denied by the
manager, the driver, and another slave ; and, notwithstanding the sur-
geon's less equivocal though still reluctant testimony, the Protector
considered the charge of excessive punishment as not borne out. He,
however, prosecuted the manager for his breach of the chain ordinance,
and he was fined £2 with costs. (No. 20, p. 132.)

* This word seems to he used in Colonial slang, for certain extra works, as
collecting grasSj &c.

398 Pi'otectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

27. Aglae, belonging to Madame Ligerau, complained that her
mistress flogged her because the cat broke two plates. The charge of
flogging being proved, the lady was prosecuted, and made to pay £20
with costs. (No. 24, p. 136.)

28. Eugenie complained (No. 25, p. 136,) of her mistress, Madame
Bueginot, having beaten her for not going to her work, though she was
very ill at the time. The doctor certified to her ill-health ; " she la-
bours," he says, " under a high degree of fever and severe pain in her
head and bowels." Yet, on Madame Bueginot's own denial, the case
was dismissed, with a caution to the lady. Lord Goderich justly blames
this decision, (p. 223.)

29. Anne, aged 27, says Lord Goderich, complained of having been
severely beaten and kicked by her mistress, at a time when she was far
advanced in pregnancy. Dr. Hart testified to the marks she bore of ill-
treatment, which, in her state, might have endangered her life. The
charge was denied by the mistress, by three of the slaves, and even by
Anne's daughter, Sidonie, of eight years old. This last witness, how-
ever, on being desired to speak the truth without fear, trembled, and
asked if her mistress was Avithin hearing. Being told not, Sidonie,
with much emotion,, stated that on Sunday morning last, her mistress
had scolded her mother much, and, taking her by the hair and ears, had
given her many blows on the face, kicked her on all parts of the body,
and beat her with a cane. In the evening she was sent to call her
mother, and the same treatment was repeated. She did not say this at
first, because her mistress had told her to say that her mother had not
been beaten, but that the mark on her face had been caused by falling
against the back of the door ; and she had said so at first lest she
should be punished when she got home. The Protector, Mr. Thomas,
says, that on fully investigating the case, though Anne has much cause
of complaint, he does not send it to trial fearing the evidence may fail
through its contradictory tendency. Mr. Thomas, remarks his Lord-
ship, has here " assumed a discretion which did not pertain to him, and
which in this instance was not beneficially exercised. No doubt could
exist that the defendant had not only been guilty of the offence laid to
her charge, but of the still more serious and deliberate crime of su-
borning a child to bear false testimony against her own mother. I can-
not, injustice to the court, assume that it would have been deceived by
the evidence to be tendered to it. I must suppose that with the ad-
vantage of the facts already elicited by the Protector, the court would
have found means, by cross-examination, to extract the truth from the
witnesses. I am compelled, therefore, to signify to you my disappro-
bation of the conduct of the Protector in this instance." (pp. 140 and
223.) This case furnishes a very instructive solution of the otherwise
unaccountable contradictions, which pervade the whole mass of the evi-
dence given, in the course of the investigation of the 220 cases brought
before us in this Report.

30. The next case, that of Emile, a boy of 12 years of age, be-
longing to Madame Gondreville, closely resembles the last. Dr. Hart
certified that he had extensive marks of laceration on both sides of his
breech, two or three on his arm, and two or three on his back, and that

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 399

the punishment had been inflicted with great severity. On the morning
on Avhich he Avas brought to the Protector, (August 13, 1830,) he had
been sent by his mistress to the jail to be punished; but the keeper
observing his lacerated state, refused to inflict any farther punishment,
and conducted him to the Protector's office. But notwithstanding
all this, on the denial of a son of Madame Gondreville, and "of some
slaves, that the complainant had been punished except hy being put
to work in chains fastened to the girdle of another negro, the Pro-
tector comes to the conclusion that, the complaint being proved false,
the boy shall receive ten stripes, and would have received more but for
his tender age ! Is it possible to read such things without shuddering
at their enormity ? Lord Goderich expresses a similar feeling. (No. 33,
p. 141, and p. 223.) — Similar cases, in which the decisions of the Pro-
tector are marked with the most manifest injustice, abound, and we for-
bear to multiply them. — And not only are the slaves, for the most part,
denied all redress, but often very severely and unjustly punished for
their complaints, merely because the parties accused deny their truth, or
bring vague and irrelevant counter-charges against the complainants.

31. The following case (dated 20th Oct. 1829, No. 68, p. 161,) is
selected from a great number of a similar kind, to illustrate some
farther enormities of the Mauritius system. Bazille, aged 55, be-
longing to Sieur Nozaic, stated, that having been brought to the Bagne
or jail for running away, he had been sent thence to his master's
estate ; but that, in consequence of his advanced age and general infir-
mity, he had been exempted from the corporal punishment usually in-
flicted on maroons or runaways when sent from the Bagne. Here then
we learn, and the fact is manifest from the frequent incidental allusions
made to it throughout these proceedings, that a slave taken up and
committed to the Bagne, by the police or otherwise, is there usually,
and as a matter of course, punished with flogging. The extraordinary
frequency of marooning in this colony, arising evidently from the
general severity of treatment and the excess of labour to which the
slaves are subject, must tend greatly to multiply such punishments ;
and yet they are seldom mentioned except incidentally, and do not, as
far as we can discover, form the subjects of any regular record or re-
port. The list of floggings, we apprehend, would thus be every exten-
sively enlarged. But ought not such a list to be given ? Ought the
Bagne, the place of daily and almost hourly inflictions, to be exempted
from this salutary exposure ? Not only should the name of the slave,
in all such cases, be given, but the name of the master and estate, and the
particulars of the offence of marronage and its alleged cause ; the cir-
cumstances of his age, appearance, and marks of former punishment;
and the chains, collars, or fetters fastened upon him when brought
thither, together with the punishments inflicted at the Bagne, and the
authority by which it was so inflicted. We should thus have opened
to us a new and pregnant chapter of the horrors of Mauritius slavery.

But to return to Bazille. He had no sooner reached the estate of
his master, with the whole skin which the commiseration of the keeper
of the Bagne had permitted him, contrary to the usual practice, to carry
home with him, than he was put into the stocks by his master's orders,

Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

and on the following morning was flogged, with a martinet dipped i?i
tar^ in the presence of his master and the other slaves, to the extent, it
is said, of about 100 lashes, and then sent to work during the day, and
confined in the stocks at night, till he made his escape and came to the
Protector. Dr. Hart having examined him, certified that he found upon
him extensive ulceration on both sides of his breech from unusually severe
punishment ; that he appeared in bad health ; and that being unfit for
any work at present, he ought to be sent to the hospital till the ulcers
on his breech are healed. The only defence of the master was, that
he had flogged Bazille, but not with sufficient severity to produce these
appearances, and that he must either have received a flogging during
his marronage, or that the slight flogging recently given by him had
opened old wounds.' The case was referred to the Procureur-General.
The result had not been given on the 30th of June, 1830.

32. Solon, belonging to M. Bestel, (No. 74, p. 166,) on lately re-
turning to his master from the Protector's office where he had preferred
a complaint, with a charge that he should not be punished for com-
plaining, had nevertheless been, on his return, put in the stocks and
beaten, and made to work all day, and confined all night, being made
on Sundays to work with the slaves who were in chains. M. Bestel
admitted that " Solon did work on Sundays with others of his slaves"
(he does not say how many) " who were in chains, not however as a
punishment, but to indemnify him in some slight degree for their time
lost in marronage." For not complying with the Protector's former in-
junction, and for working his slaves on Sunday, M. Bestel was de-
nounced to the Procureur-General, but the result is not yet known.
'*It is not stated by the Protector," says Lord Goderich, " whether he
was denounced for Solon s individual case, or for the general practice
of making his maroon slaves work on Sundays." (p. 225.)

33. Sixty-one slaves belonging to M. Brue, of the estate Wolmar,
in the Quarter Riviere Noire, (No. 81, p. 170,) came on the 24th Nov.
to complain to the Protector. All were sent back to the estate but two,
Egisse and Porphyre, both drivers. They stated that they were ob-
liged to begin work at three in the morning, and did not leave oflT till
seven in the evening ; that the corvee on Sunday lasted till nine in the
morning, and they could not enjoy Sunday or employ it in procuring any
little comforts they might require, as they were again made to muster at
four p. M ; and that the females were flogged the same as the men. It
was admitted that the slaves worked from four in the morning and finished
at sunset. The flogging was denied on the part of the master, but
proved in the case of the two women. The muster on Sunday at four
p. M. was admitted ; and the corvee till nine on Sunday morning not
denied. No record book was kept on the estate. — The result was^ that
Egisse and Porphyre were condemned to be put in a chain for three
months, and a prosecution was instituted against the master only for
flogging the two women and for keeping no record book ; no mention
being made of the admitted Sunday work. The result is not stated.

" In concluding my remarks," says Lord Goderich, on this section of
the complaint book, "I have to observe, that in some instances in which
the Protector had sentenced slaves to receive what appeared to me a

Crsmplaints of Slaves against their Masters. 401

severe punishment, for preferring false or malicious complaints, I have
omitted observing upon it, both because his attention was repeatedly
called to the subject in my Despatch of the 15th January, 1831, and
because the Order in Council of 1830, will have deprived him of the
authority to inflict such punishments.''

34. On the 18th Dec. 1829, Fiiancois, belonging to M. Marchal^
(No. 91, p. 175,) presented himself at the office at three in the morn-
ing, with his hands fastened together behind him by means of thumb-
screws, fixed so tight as to have penetrated the flesh quite to the bone,
and caused considerable swelling and inflammation of the hands and
arms. He also stslted that another slave named Loff, had been
punished precisely in the same manner by his master, and was now
confined on M. Marchal's premises. A surgeon being sent for, the
thumb-screws on Francois were filed off". Lord Goderich gives tlie
following abstract of the facts of this case, which appear proved in
evidence. We have abridged this abstract.

About twenty-four days ago, Francois neglected his work, and ab-
sented himself for a whole day. The following day he was arrested and
carried to the police, whence his master caused him to be conveyed
home, and immediately fixed thumb-screws on his tViumbs, and placed
both his feet in the stocks. At night he was taken out of the stocks,
and with the thumb-screws still on, placed in a machine called a carcan,
which consists of two pillars with a cross plank affixed at a man's
height from the ground, to which he was attached by means of an iron
collar, three inches broad, fastened to the plank by staples and pad-
locks, where he remained standing all night, and in the morning was re-
leased and placed again in the stocks for the day. He was thus treated
alternately night and day for a fortnight, when M. Marchal sent him
to his plantation at Petite Riviere, with the thumb-screws always on, to
be flogged ; but being unable from ill health to visit the plantation,
sent for him back last Saturday and treated him as before, Bein"*
unable to use his hands, he was sometimes fed by one of his comrades-
Loff was treated in the same manner. The thumb-screws were screwed
fio tight as to cut the flesh almost to the bone, and cause great pain.
About four days ago he announced himself to Ibe ill, and he was taken
out of the stocks and placed in the hospital, whence last evening he had
escaped, leaving Loff there with his thumb-screws on. M. Marchal
himself put the thumb-screws on them, and conducted them night and
morning from the carcan to the stocks. They had only two meals a
day, consisting of a pound of boiled maize. Several of his comrades
had been subjected to the same punishment, but not for so long. It was
M. Marchal's ordinary mode of punishment. No surgeon is attached
to the establishment. A warrant being issued for Loff, he was no-
where to be found, and the carcan was found to be destroyed.

" The defence of M. Marchal," Lord Goderich observes, " bears
strong marks of prevarication, though he does not contradict Francois
in a single point of any importance ; " whose statement indeed is con-
firmed by other witnesses, and the surgeon certifies " that Francois is
in great danger of losing his right thumb which is in a state of gan-

402 Protectors of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

grene, and of losing also a portion of the left ;" and expresses an ap-'
prehension that tetanus may ensue.

Marchal being prosecuted, the result was that he was condemned to
pay a fine of £50, to be imprisoned three months, and to forfeit the two
slaves. On this sentence Lord Goderich remarks, *' It is not without
great regret and disappointment that I find so trifling a punishment
awarded for these atrocious cruelties. I have in vain searched for any
circumstance which might afford a palliation of his conduct or throw a
suspicion on the evidence against him." " I am entirely at a loss to
understand upon what ground this inadequate punishment was in-
flicted." " If the utmost powers of the law had been evoked, there
would have been ample means of visiting him with a very severe pun-
ishment. The maximum penalty indeed that can be awarded for a
misdemeanour is £200, and six months' imprisonment. Had this been
inflicted for each offence, it might have constituted an adequate pun-
ishment, especially if followed up by a declaration of incompetency to
hold or manage slave property for the future, as provided by the Slave
Ordinance, clause 30. This provision does not seem to have been ever
alluded to in any of the proceedings, though, if this case did not call
for an application, it is difficult to conceive any cruelty, not amounting
to a deprivation of life, which would justify its application. I fear it
will now be too late to take measures for obtaining such a sentence.''
" You will desire the Protector to explain on what grounds he origi-
nally refrained from taking this step.'' The slave LofF appears to have
been found, but no explanation is given of his disappearance. (Ibid.
p. 227.)

S5. The case of a boy Edward, ten years, (No. 93, p. 178,) com-
plained that his master, Ganier, and his mistress, maltreated him in a
variety of ways. The surgeon certified that he had on his shoulders
and back innumerable marks of recent punishment, and that his breech
was in a state of ulceration from recent flogging. The case was referred
to the Procureur General, but the result is not giveui

36. Heloise, aged 18, is proved (No. 93, p. 179,) to have been
flogged and otherwise maltreated by her master, M. Hubert, and her
mistress, though pregnant. This case was also disposed of in the same
way as the last.

We now come to the complaints of the year 1830, which are eighty-
six in number, and not less revolting than those of preceding years.
Among these the following case stands most disgustingly forward. It
is the case of the Rev. R. E. Jones, second civil chaplain, and chap-
lain to the forces at Mauritius, but better known in this country as one
of the compurgators of Mr. Telfair, and as one of the witnesses of the
happiness of the slaves in general in the Mauritius, and particularly oh
the estate of Bel Ombre. In this very report, at p. 213, we find him,
on the 23rd of December, 1829, writing to the Protector with apparent
interest, of the advances of the slaves under his care in moral and reli-
gious improvement, and of his own efforts among them. The following
statements will shew the difference which may exist between vague
professions of philanthropy and real humanity.

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 403

37. Jack, a Malgache slave, aged about 32 years, belonging to the
Rev. R. E. Jones, residing at Terre Rouge, in the quarter of Pample-
mousses, appeared at the office on the 10th of March, 1830, and stated,
that he quitted the estate of his master this morning, to complain of hav-
ing been flogged, although he had committed no offence. He had been
falsely accused to his master of having stolen a dollar from a negress,
Marthe, and he, without making further inquiry into the fact, ordered
the driver, Isidore, who himself is very severe, to give Jack twenty-five
stripes of a cane on his breech, his hands and feet being held by four
slaves. He, as well as the other slaves, rise at half-past three in the
morning, to work in the garden, cut grass, or clean the cattle-yard,
ceasing at six in the evening. He has not a sufficiency of food, the
ration being less than a pound of rice and one manioc a day. He is
allowed but half an hour for breakfast and one hour for dinner ; nei-
ther has he Sunday to himself, for if not employed with the cattle he is
out with his master's carriage. His wife, Cecile, was flogged with a
cane by order of his master, on the 29th of December last, (six days
after his report to the Protector,) marks of which punishment Cecile
still bears. The certificate of Dr. Hart is, that having examined Jack,
he finds both sides of his breech considerably swollen and painful,
particularly the right side, from whence a great portion of the skin has
been removed. Both exhibit marks of recent punishment, having been
flogged with a rattan this morning by his master ; and he cannot sit
down, nor bear the contact of his clothes.

The further evidence taken with respect to this complaint elicited
.some further information with respect to Mauritius slavery, as practi-
cally exemplified on the plantation of the Rev. R. E. Jones,— for he
has, it seems, himself a plantation.

" Marthe, a Creole, aged 15 years, states, that on Sunday night last
she slept in Jack's hut, and that in the morning when she awoke she
found a dollar missing ; that Cecile told her. Jack had taken it ; but
beyond this she has no proof of his guilt. Declarant works on the es-
tate from four o'clock in the morning until six in the evening ; children
like herself have one pound of rice -per diem as their rations ; while the
grown-up slaves have the same quantity of rice, and one manioc ; that
their 'breloque' (the interval of labour so called) is half an hour for
breakfast, sometimes two and sometimes one hour for dinner. In the
Sunday corvee they are employed from four until ten o'clock in the
morning, in cleaning the premises, and cutting grass for the cattle.
On being interrogated as to the manner in which the female slaves of
her master are punished, declarant states, that about two months past
she was flogged with several stripes of a cane on her breech by the
driver Isidore, by order of her master, laid on the ground with her
hands and feet held by Combo and Romeo ; this punishment was in-
flicted at the instigation of her mistress, who charged her with having
stolen a rupee found in her possession, although the same had been
given to declarant by her father on new-year's-day. Declarant saw
another negress, named Cecile, flogged in the same manner about the
middle of January last, by order of her master, who was present at the
punishment, because she had struck a child called Mathurine.

404 Protectors^ of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

" * I certify,' says Dr. Hart, ♦ having examined Martha, a slave be-
longing to the Rev. Robert Jones, and find she has, on both sides of
her breech, shght marks of punishment, which she states were inflicted
about a month ago ; having been flogged by order of her master.'

" Cecile was then examined ; she denies having ever told Martha
that Jack had stolen her dollar ; but corroborates all else deposed by
the preceding declarant, with reference to working hours, food, and
Sunday corvee ; differing only in stating, that the slaves have regularly
two hours allowed for dinner, instead of sometimes having but one, as
stated by Martha. With respect to the corporal punishment said to
have been inflicted upon her, she states, that about three weeks after
new-year's-day, she received from the slave Troupereau, five stripes of
a cane on her breech, by order of "her master, her hands and feet being
held by four blacks, because she gave the child Mathurine, who had in-
sulted her, a * soufiiet.' Declarant recollects the punishment inflicted
on Martha, which was similar to that suflered by herself.

"Tlie slaves Bon Miguel, Troupereau, Romeo, Coutoubin, and Isidore
the driver, corroborate the statement of Cecile, with reference to food,
hours of work, and Sunday corvee, and the manner in which female
slaves are punished. Troupereau adds, that it was himself who inflicted
five or six stripes of a cane on Cecile, in the manner described, and by
the order of his master. Romeo states, that he was present at the pun-
ishment of both negresses. Coutoubin was present at the punishment
of Cecile ; and Isidore flogged Jack by his master's order, and also
Martha.

" Joseph Romeo, a free man, overseer of the blacks belonging to the
Rev. Mr. Jones, was then examined. He states, that he was present at
the punishment of Jack, three days ago; that he also witnessed that of
Martha, about a month past, inflicted under the circumstances stated
by the other declarants ; but, with respect to the punishment of Cecile,
he knows nothing.

" Result : —With respect to the punishment inflicted upon the slave
Jack, although inflicted with some severity, there has been no other
infringement of the law than that the registration of it in the Punish-
ment Record Book does not contain all the particulars required by the
Ordinance, No. 43 ; a more correct observance of which, Mr. Jones was
recommended to adopt for the future. Upon application from that
gentleman for the return of his slave, an order was given by the Protec-
tor for his discharge from the Civil Hospital, whither he had been sent,
in consequence of the certificate of the examining surgeon.

" A similar recommendation was made to Mr. Jones, with reference
to the other charges contained in Jack's complaint ; viz, first, of being
over-worked ; secondly, of insufficiency of food ; thirdly, of want of
time for repose and meals ; fourthly, of being employed on Sunday
corvee a greater length of time than is allowed by law ; " for it would
seem, that this cruel and impious exaction is allowed by law.
" With respect to the fifth charge, that corporal punishment had been
inflicted upon the negresses Cecile and Martha, and which is fully
established by evidence, the Protector denounced the infraction in the
first case, to the acting Collector of Customs, to be dealt with as he

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 405

might think proper, Cecile being a government apprentice, and there-
fore under that officer's special superintendance ; whilst the infraction
of the Ordinance, No. 43, in the case of Martha, was denounced to
the Procureur General for prosecution accordingly ; wherein Mr.
Jones, allowing judgment to go by default, was fined in the penalty of
£20 sterling."

" I shall have occasion,'' says. Lord Goderich to the Governor, *'to
address you in a subsequent despatch, on the subject of the complaints
of the slaves of the Rev. Mr. Jones, I shall only, at present, express
my sincere regret that any clergyman should have laid himself open
to such charges, more especially in a community like that of the Mauri-
tius, where so much influence must naturally attach to the conduct of
a minister of religion, placed in the situation occupied by Mr. Jones."

It is now explained how Mr. Jones, Captain Dick, and others, them-
selves slave-holders, were led to come forward in favour of the treat-
ment of the slaves on Bel Ombre, and in the Mauritius generally.

38. It will be recollected, that in the year 1821, when certain cruel-
lies were asserted to have been committed on Bel Ombre, the managing
co-partner in that estate was a Mr. Blancard, (see Vol. II. No. 44.)
This name recurs in the present Report. On the 23rd of February
1830, Adonis, (No. 35, p. 266,) complains that his present masters,
Messrs. Blancard and Thevenin, of Riviere du Rempart, do not allow
him sufficient food ; that he has no intervals for meals ; that with the
other slaves he is called to work, at four o'clock in the morning, and
does not leave off until from seven to eight o'clock in the evening; that
the Sunday corvee lasts till ten or eleven o'clock, and is used for the
purpose of putting sugar to dry, after which, there is a Sunday evening
corvee; that although unwell, complainant is compelled to work like
the healthy blacks, and is often beaten by Auguste, Bazile, and by a
free man named Bonhomme ; that lately a slave named Baptiste, of
Mr. Basset's, hired by Thevenin, was beaten by the regisseur named
Hypolite, with a stick until his arm swelled, when, instead of obtain-
ing for that slave medical advice, Thevenin put him into the stocks ;
and that a slave named Thomas is often maltreated, and his hut vexa-
tiously searched without just cause.

" The Sieur Thevenin, in his reply to this charge, swears, that the
blacks on the estate receive two meals of boiled rice, with either salt
meat or brfede, (one for breakfast, one for dinner,) and at night each
receive half a pound of rice uncooked.

" On being asked the quantity of each meal, he said, the quantity is
not measured nor weighed, but each slave has as much as he can eat.

" Declarant states, that his slaves rise at four and go to work at
five o'clock, and continue till sun-set, after which they cut each a bun-
dle of grass and bring it to the court ; that the Sunday corvee lasts till
eight o'clock, and is availed of for putting sugar out to dry ; and on
being told, that such was not lawful, answered, he did it in order to
avail himself of the fine weather; that complainant's statement with
respect to his treatment when unwell, is very idle ; that at present there
is not any hospital on the plantation, but declarant intends to build

406 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

one ; and that the commandeur sometimes gives complainant a few
strokes of the cane when he is lazy."

Several slaves are examined whose evidence slightly varies in some
parts. They all agree however that the Sunday corvee lasts, at least,
from four to eight in the morning, and is renewed in the evening for
cutting grass : a part of the Sunday morning being employed in putting
out sugar to dry in the sun. As to food, the statements vary a little,
but is stated generally to be about a pound and a half of boiled rice a
day. They vary also as to the precise extent of the abridgment of the
hours of rest, but the utmost that is pretended is an hour and a half
for dinner, and forty-five minutes for breakfast, instead of the legal
time of two hours for the former, and one hour for the latter. As
to the daily period of labour in the field, it seems to be agreed that it
extends from four in the morning till sunset, and then, that they must
cut and bring home grass for the horses and cattle. They complain
much of the ill-treatment of Th^venin especially, who flogs them for
the most trifling fault; and, if they complain of being ill, they are im-
mediately put in the stocks.

The Protector having duly considered this complaint, and the inves-
tigation of the assistant Protector of the quarter, is of opinion that
much disorder reigns on this estate, and that the provisions of the
Ordinance, No. 43, not having been strictly complied with, it would be
his duty to denounce the same for prosecution, but this being the first
complaint from this estate, which has but recently come into the
hands of its present proprietors, he vpishes to give them an opportunity
of remedying the evils. With this view they are reprimanded, and
strictly enjoined to be more circumspect in future.

The lenity of the Protector in this instance was far from producing its
intended effect, for on the 17th of March following, the same slave Adonis
presented himself to the assistant Protector of the district, to complain
" of being confined in the stocks immediately on his return from this
office, where he had lodged a complaint against his master; (on the 23d
of February last,) that, before being put into the stocks, he was beaten
with a cord by the Sieur Blancard, jun., who asked him who had advised
him to go and complain. Since that time he has been confined, without
having a sufficiency of food allowed him. Jean Louis put complainant into
the block, by order of his young master, and the Sieur Thevenin knew
him to be there, because he came into the hut, and gave him several
stripes of a cord on his back. These blows left no marks, the cord
being large, and therefore only causing a swelling. All the blacks on
the estate know him to have been so confined, particularly Thomas,
Jean Louis, Leveille and Hypolite. Complainant was confined when
the assistant Protector inspected the slaves of the estate, and was only
released at that time by the commandeur Auguste, for the purpose of
being inspected. He escaped by the assistance of his comrade Leveille,
and would have destroyed himself, had he not succeeded in getting away,
not being able to support the ill-treatment to which he is exposed.''

The slaves named by Adonis, confirm his testimony ; and the Sieur
Thevenin produced twenty-one other slaves in his defence, but they all

Complaints of Masters against Slaves. 407

declared the complaint of Adonis to be true. He was punished for
complaining to the assistant Protector. They are all ill fed on the estate.
They have not sufficient time for repose, and are ill treated by M. Th^-
venin. None of these facts are rebutted. The decision of the Protector
is thus given, but the case has not yet been brought to trial.

" It being clearly proved that the punishment inflicted on Adonis,
was in opposition to an injunction from the assistant Protector of the
quarter, who, in the examination of a previous complaint from the said
slave, found sufficient grounds to induce him to issue the injunction'in
question, and as Messrs. Blancard and Th^venin have, in inflicting this
second punishment, as well as in not registering it, contravened the law,
the Protector denounced the parties for prosecution accordingly."

We beg our readers to compare the proofs above exhibited of the
actual treatment of Mauritius slaves in 1830, with the general view
given by us of that treatment in our second volume, p. 377. We cannot
but remark their precise identity, much as we have been assailed with
calumny for having published it.

39. Maria Louisa, (No. 13, p. 256,) complained, (13th of January
1830,) that her master, M, Nid, of Port Louis, refused to give her the
medical care she required. She is obliged to work, though suffering
much pain from a wound in her foot, caused by running a nail into it
eight months ago. She has received several kicks and slaps from her
master and mistress during her illness ; and she prefers complaining to
remain longer in such misery. The surgeon certifies that she " has
elephantiasis of both legs with extensive ulceration of right little toe,
and a loss of its phalanges." M. Nid as usual denied the charge of
ill-treatment, and declined to receive the negress again ; " but on
being remonstrated with by the Protector, he agreed to receive her and
to treat her with all necessary attention." — Not a very hopeful promise !

40. Romeo, (No. 17, p. 258, 22d January, 1830,) " a Mozambique
slave, aged 25, complains against his master, M. Gustave Mayere, of
Port Louis, for having inflicted upon him twenty-five stripes of a cane
immediately after his return from the Police prison, where he had al-
ready undergone confinement and corporal punishment for the offence
of marronage.

" The fact in this case being clearly proved, M. Mayere was de-
nounced for an infraction of the Ordinance 51."

41. " Louise, a Creole negress, aged 25, says, that her master, M.
Lapiere, caused her to be punished with twenty-five stripes of a mar-
tinet, by the econome, named Francois, on her return from marronage ;
that she is often beaten by her master and mistress, and for this reason
it was that complainant marooned.

" M. Lapiere admits that he did punish Louise with nine stripes of
the martinet on her return from marronage on the 19th instant; that
he was ignorant of the law prohibiting such punishment, and did not
register it, thinking himself not called upon to do so, inasmuch as the
number of lashes inflicted did not exceed nine. The Econome and
several slaves proved the punishment to have been inflicted, and that it
was limited to nine lashes. M. Lapiere was denounced to the Pro-

408 Protectors* of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

cureur General for prosecution for an infraction of the Ordinance, No.
43, and also for not having kept a Register of Punishments.'

42. Henry, (No. 20, p. 259, 25th January, 1830,) a slave boy, aged
about 10 years, has been sent to the office by the Chief Commissary of
Police, with chains on his legs. He says, that his master, the Sieur
Franchin Neptune, of Tamarius, in the quarter of Riviere Noir, directed
the slave Prosper to put these chains upon him, about three weeks
past, for having lost a small barrel, with which he had been sent for
water.

" The Sieur Neptune positively denies the charge, and says, Henry
is an exceedingly bad boy, a constant thief and maroon. Declarant has
not kept a Register Book of Punishment. Prosper (the commandeur)
also denies having put the said chains on complainant ; and Jean
Pierre, another slave of Sieur Neptune, declares the same thing.

" Result : — Notwithstanding the contradiction given by the master
and his slaves to the declaration of Henry, the Protector conceives it
his duty to denounce the parties to the Procureur General for a contra-
vention of the 2d Article of the Ordinance, No. 51, in having put
fetters upon a slave under 15 years of age.''

43. " On the 12th of February, a band of nineteen'slaves, male and
female, appeared before the Protector from M. Lambert's of Riviere du
Rempart estate, to complain of ill-treatment received from M. Collet^
the econome of the establishment. All excepting Paul (a domestic
servant) declare that they have not a sufficiency of food, having only
two maniocs and half a pound of rice per day each ; that they have
not time to take this food, being allowed half an hour for breakfast and
one hour for dinner ; that on Sunday they rise at day-light, clean the
stables, and then go to work in the fields until nine o'clock, after which
they each bring a bundle of grass and then a bundle of cane heads for
the cattle, thus prolonging their hour of Sunday labour until eleven
o'clock, and sometimes even later ; that in addition to this, at five in the
evening they again make two journeys for grass for the cattle, and after
that, are not allowed to leave the court-yard on a Sunday ; that the
muster bell is rung three times every night between ten and one o'clock;
that they work in heavy rains, are continually struck and annoyed by
the regisseur with a ' martinet en peau ; ' that the negress Casy was
punished some time past with a number of stripes on the shoulders, for
having begged pardon for her son while he was under the same descrip-
tion of punishment ; and the negress Rosine was confined in the stocks
during the time she was with child. Complainants did not know they
erred in leaving the estate of their master in a band, or they would not
have done so ; they fancied the complaint,. if brought before the Pro-
tector by one or two slaves only, would not have been so readily be-
lieved, as if they all appeared to attest it.

" Complainants were immediately returned to the estate of their mas-
ter, and the assistant Protector of the district was instructed to repair
to the plantation, and there make a full and minute investigation of the
circumstances complained of. The Result was as follows : The master
was reprimanded for the nightly musters, and cautioned against a re-

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 409

currence of a custom so vexatious to the slaves. He was denounced
for prosecution for flogging his negress Casy, and severely reprimanded
for having confined Rosine in the stocks whilst pregnant. He was also
admonished for exacting two corvees on Sunday, one only being per-
mitted by law." (Is it permitted by law ?) " With respect to the other
points of the complaint, they were proved to be false," (p. 261.)

"It is not stated," observes Lord Goderich, "in this case why the
.master was not denounced for. prosecution for exacting a double corvte
on Sunday, as well as for flogging his female slave Casy.'" (p. 328.) Is
a single corvee on Sunday then legal, and what is a single corvfee ?

44. "Adeline, a child, aged about 9 years, and belonging to M.
Gautier, of Port Louis, states, that she marooned on the day before
yesterday, and complains that her master, the said M. Gautier, beat her
on Sunday last with a ' martinet de peau,' for not having well cleaned
the house ; complainant does not recollect how many lashes she re-
ceived, but states, that she was beaten in the presence of her mistress,
and the negresses Adelaide and Adele; complainant further states, that
she has no other clothes than what she now appears in.

" The surgeon certifies having examined Adeline, a child about 8
years old, and finds she has on her shoulders and back several marks
of recent punishment, which she states were caused by her master
having flogged her with a ' martinet en peau,' about six days ago. I am
of opinion that her punishment was severe, and more than a child of
her age should receive ; she appears also badly clothed.

" Result : — The Protector having examined this complaint, finds
there is no evidence upon which to bring it into Court, although there
is no doubt of the child having been beaten severely by its mother, who
admitted the fact, stating that the girl is an incorrigible thief, and diso-
bedient to the last degree; and also, that she always punishes her when
in fault, either of her own accord or by her master's orders. She was
recommended to use more moderation in future in her corrections, and
by no means to use the cat for that purpose. The master was after-
wards cited to come to the office to take cognizance of the Protector's
decision, but refused to do so ; and after allowing a reasonable time for
that purpose, the child was sent back to him, with an injunction that
she was not to be punished or in any way molested for having brought
this complaint, the want of evidence alone being the cause of its not
being denounced." (p. 267.)

Lord Goderich cannot approve of this decision. " I am not aware,"
he says, " on what ground he considered himself authorized to de-
cide on the sufficiency or insufficiency of the evidence, which was a
question for the Court. ^' (p. 328.)

45. On the 22nd March 1830, " Jean Francois, a Creole slave be-
longing to the Sieur Bruneau Marquet alias Cottry* of Grand Port,
presented himself before the Assistant Protector of that quarter, to seek
protection from the ill treatment to which he is exposed. Complainant
states, that on Sunday last he was sent to the Sieur Bignoux, of Plain
Bois, for a sack of maize; that not finding M. Bignoux at home, he

* See vol. ii. p, 390.
3 E

410 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

waited until about nine o'clock in the morning, when complainant re-
turned without having fulfilled the object of his commission ; that his
master seeing him come back without the maize, took a stick, and beat
him with fury, whilst complainant in vain protested his innocence, and
begged mercy; the wife of the Sieur Bruneau interfering at this time,
intreated her husband not to give way to passion in such a manner, but
to direct a commandeuv to punish Jean Francois, if he had committed a
fault requiring it. To this remonstrance, however, he was equally deaf,
continuing to beat complainant until he was perfectly exhausted, and
afterwards repeating the punishment, sometimes with a stick, and some-
times with a piece of rope; swearing at the same time that he would
murder complainant with his own hands. Complainant was then put
into the stocks by his master, who tied his hands behind him, and then
fastened them to a neighbouring tree, thus placing him in a position so
painful, that by the evening he could no longer support it. M. Bruneau
then liberated his hands, and left him in the stocks, under the charge
of Narcisse, another of his slaves; but this latter going to work early
on the following morning, afforded to complainant an opportunity to
escape. He further states, that whenever any poultry happens to be
missing from the yard, himself and comrades are obliged to work all
Sunday. That the ordinary corvee on that day lasts until nine o'clock,
and that in the afternoon they make another corvee, in order to supply
the cattle with grass. The medical certificate is as follows.

" ' Je, soussinge, chirurgien du Port Sud Est, y demeurant k Mahe-
burg, certifie avoir, sur la requisition de M. le Commissaire Civil du
quartier, visite le noir nomme Jean Francois, qui est blesse sur difFer-
entes parties du corps, tant anterieures que posterieures, par des coups
de batons et de cordes, qui ont dechire la peau, avec contusion dans
plusieurs points, et notamment sur la partie anterieure de I'epaule droite
et posterieure des deux epaules, et superieure de I'epaule gauche, et un
coup violent, avec contusion, sur la branche et I'articulation de la ma-
choire du cote gauche: I'ensemble de ces blessures n'ofFre pas de
danger.

" ' Mahebourg, le 22 Mars 1830. (signe) P' B" Jalabert.'"

Cottry backed by some of his slaves denied the charge, recriminated
on Francois, charging him with theft and drunkenness. The slaves all
said they had not seen the punishment, but had heard of it, and all
but two agreed that a Sunday corvee is exacted of them in the after-
noon also.

" Result : — This case has been denounced to the Procureur Gene-
ral for prosecution, as an infraction of the 29th Article of the Ordinance,
No. 43; for although the master denies the charge of having exercised
any unusual severity in the punishment of the slave, it fully appears,
by the Surgeon's certificate, that great violence must have been used to
cause the wounds exhibited on the person of complainant, and which,
in contradiction to the assertion of the master, are represented as having
been caused by blows of a stick as well as of a cord. The slave for
several days after his appearance before the assistant Protector, was in
a state of such suffering as to render him incapable of being removed to
Port Louis ; and when he did present himself at the Protector's Office,

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 411

the marks described by the examining Surgeon, were still apparent on
his person.

" With respect to the afternoon corvee, as it was admitted by some
and denied by others of the witnesses examined, the master was in-
structed as to the workpermittedby law"(is it so?) "on Sunday morning,
and strongly recommended to regulate his establishment accordingly."

Such a recommendation is feebleness itself, (p. 276.)

46. April 6th, 1830. "Eight slaves belonging to M. Mullet, of
Port Louis, and let by him to the Sieur Menaze of the quarter of Flacq,
complain of being: deprived of their hours of repose ; and state, that
no sooner have they commenced their meals, than they are again called
to work ; that they are only allowed three manioc cakes per diem each ;
that' they are obliged to work in the rain, and when ill, are sent to la-
bour, under a threat of being confined in chains, if they refuse."

The charge is denied by the accused, who brings before the assistant
Protector a number of slaves to confute it, by whose testimony, he is
satisfied the complaint of the eight complainants is false, and proceeds
from laziness, and a desire to avoid their work. The Protector directed
the two chiefs of the band to be punished with twenty stripes each, the
other males to receive ten each, and the women to be ponfined fifteen
nights and on Sundays, (p. 280.)

47. April 8th, 1830. " Laurent, a Creole slave, about 30, com-
plains that his master, M. Bestel, of the quarter of Plaines Wilhems,
put upon him the collar and chain which he (complainant) now wears,
"without his being able to imagine the cause of such punishment : that
his master returning from the sauvanne about five weeks past, and find-
ing that the slave Bazille had marooned, immediately ordered com-
plainant and his comrade Jacques to be chained together, giving as a
reason, that Bazille had marooned, and he had no doubt but they would
soon do the same; in this state they were confined at night in the
stocks, and obliged to work on Sunday ; they in vain remonstrated
against this treatment. Bazille, however, having returned from marron-
age, they again requested to be liberated, and were a second time sent
away without being heard, upon which they marooned, and having
broken their chain on the road, complainant came direct to this office
to make the present statement. That part of the chain left on the
person of complainant was found to weigh seven pounds and a half.

" The Sieur Ferre, regisseur of the estate of M. Bestel, appeared^'at
the assistant Protector's Office, and declared his entire ignorance of
the reason for which complainants were confined in the chain described ;
it was by M. Bestel's orders, and about a month past, that this punish-
ment took place; it is false, however, that complainant was ever con-
fined in the stocks, as declared by him, or that he was made to work on
Sunday during the period he was in chains.

" Result : — The real weight of the chain put upon this black could
not be ascertained, because, by his own statement, it appears that he
and another slave were chained together, and they broke the chain, but
what portion of it remained on the other black who did not accompany
Laurent to this office cannot be known, and therefore it is impossible to
say whether the master has committed a breach of the law or not ; the

412 Protectors^ of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

master was, however, sent for, and, in addition to the statement given
by his regisseur in the answer to the complaint, he admitted that he did
put the chain upon Laurent and his comrade, to prevent their maroon-
ing, which they are in constant habit of, and not for any crime they had
committed. The Protector could only reason with him upon the injustice
of. putting men in irons under a suspicion that they would maroon : but
he failed of making any impression upon M. Bestel, who declared that
he should continue to treat all his maroon slaves in the same way, and
that there was no law to prevent it. This last is certainly the case,
there being no limits to the time an owner may keep his slave in chains ;
the man was therefore returned to his master." (p. 281.)

" I trust," says Lord Goderich, " that the Order in Council of Feb.
1830, will be found sufficient to prevent such a practice: but if not, you
will not hesitate to put down by an express proclamation so unjust a
line of conduct as that of punishment in anticipation of an offence."
(p. 328.)

48. Frontin on the 16th April, 1831, (No. 66, p. 284,) stated that
he had been suspended by his arms to the mast of a boat, and put in
chains. This is denied by the master and crew, who affirm he was only
secured from marooning or doing mischief to the vessel, being a bad
and desperate character. The surgeon however, certifies that he ' has at
the bend of both arms, above the elbows, a circular mark or ulcer, and
one also at the wrist of the same description.' The Protector pro-
nounced the complaint false and malicious, and ordered him to be
punished with 25 stripes on his master's habitation. And yet, says
Lord Goderich, " if these ulcers resulted from the tying of his arms, it
is clear the cords must have been so tightened as to cause considerable
pain, and that the punishment must have been of a cruel nature."
(p. 328.)

49. On the 26th of April, 1830, " Desire, a Creole, aged 24 years,
appeared at this office, carrying in his hand irons, which he states he
this morning removed from his ancles, and having on his neck an iron
collar, attached to a heavy weight by means of a chain. He complains
of these being put upon him by his master M. Vasseur, of Port Louis,
because he does not make three pair of ladies' shoes per diem, which is
impossible for him to do, being also employed as cook, and often in
selling milk. These chains were fixed upon complainant about twelve
days past.

" The weight of the chains and ' sabots' were found to exceed that
permitted by law, the former being 9, and the latter 4|lbs. The weight
to which the chain was attached is 52lbs., it was used for the purpose
of preventing complainant's escape from the room in which he was em-
ployed, and was fixed in that room,"

His master, as usual, denies or extenuates all. The result is that " from
further inquiry made by the Protector, it would appear that the slave is
a worthless marooning character. The master having, however, infringed
the law regulating the weight of chains in such cases, has been denounced
to the Procureur General for prosecution accordingly." (p. 287.)

50. On the 4th of May, 1830, (No. 72, p. 288,) " Clementine, a
Malgache negress, complains, that her master, the Sieur Sen^que, of the

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 413

(quarter of Grand Port, immediately after the death of his late concubine,
compelled complainant, against her inclination, to live with him in adul-
tery; partly from fear of bad treatment, and partly by being forbidden to
see her husband in the camp. In December last, she discovered that the
Sieur Senfeque had connection with another of his slaves named Zeline ;
that therefore she availed herself of this opportunity to get rid of her
master's familiarities, to which she had great repugnance, and to rejoin
her former husband ; that the Sieur Seneque seeing this, became fu-
rious, so as to strike complainant with his fist, and cut off her hair, and
then put her in the stocks ; and a little time after he shut her up in
prison, obliging her to go thither by blows of a branch; complainant
has been ever since December thus confined, except when sent out
under escort, to make vacois sacks, of which her master obliges her to
complete four per diem ; that she has for some time expected to be
released from this durance, but in vain ; she therefore yesterday escaped
the vigilance of her guards, and went to the assistant Protector to com-
plain. She named Martin, Zirondelle, Babet, Grenade, Samedi,
Lafleur, Leandre, Ladouceur and Hortense, as witnesses to the truth
of all she stated."

The different persons here named confirm the main points of the
complaint, Clementine had been in confinement ever since December,
and the black who prepares the food for the pigs prepares food also for
Clementine. Clementine had long been her master's concubine, but
since December she had been shut up in prison and Zelina had become
his concubine.

" The Sieur Seneque, in his reply to this complaint, says, that Cle-
mentine does not speak truth when she states that he compelled her to
live with him after the death of her mistress (who was also his concu-
bine), because he called her one evening to a place behind the kitchen,
and said, ' I have many children, and it is not my intention to take
into keeping a free woman ; if you will live with me, I will take care of
you, and give you all that you may want or desire ; and if you should
have a child and your conduct correct, I will render you happy.' — To
w^hich she replied, ' If, for some time, my conduct has been incorrect,
it was for the sake of getting something to support myself; but if you
will give me such things as 1 may stand in need of, I promise you to
be very prudent and correct, and I say so to you from the sincerity of
my heart.' Declarant then accuses Clementine of having stolen certain
linen and some gold rings, belonging to one of his family; and says,
that it was in consequence of this robbery committed by an inmate,
who ate and drank at his table (as complainant did) that he thought it
right to punish her with six months' confinement in an airy granary.
Her work was to make four sacks per diem, Sundays excepted. But this
task however she never completed ; nor was she employed in any manner
whatever during a whole month, when she complained of being unwell.
She had double rations of food, and that always ready cooked. Her
declaration, therefore, with respect to food is false, as it must also be
evidently made to appear by her personal condition. And her only
object in making this complaint is revenge, well knowing that her bad
conduct \vill prevent her ever returning to live in declarant's house.

3 E 2

4 1"4 Protectors of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

*' When the master's letter was read, charging Clementine wit!)
having- stolen linen belonging to her young mistress, she replied, that,
in fact, sick of the brutality of her master, caused by his new taste for
Z^line, she frequently secreted herself, but never for more than two
days ; that with regard to stealing her young mistress's linen, she stat-
ed, that it is true a shift of her young mistress was found in her box ;
but that the shift was a long time in the possession of Florine, a negress
of her master's, from whom she received it in pledge for payment of fifty
sols, which she had lent to Florine ; that when she wished to prove
this fact to her master, by appealing to Florine, he refused to allow it.

" Result : — From the minute investigation made into this case, it
appeared that the Sieur Seneque had confined the negress Clementine
rather from a motive of resentment, for infidelity towards him, than as
a punishment of the theft committed : and as the explanation he has
given of the transaction, only shows the great immorality of his con-
duct, even in the midst of his numerous family, the Protector felt it his
duty to direct the assistant Protector of the quarter to impress upon
the mind of the Sieur Seneque, the highly reprehensible manner in
which he has neglected the duties of a master, by thus demoralizing his
slaves, and setting them so pernicious an example, against all laws,
human and divine.

" The negress was retnrned to her master, who was, at the same time,
strictly enjoined not to molest her in any the slightest manner for the
complaint she had preferred against him."

In commenting on this characteristic transaction, Lord Goderich
requires the Governor " to transmit, for his information, a copy of the
law which gave the master a right to imprison his slave for an indefinite
length of time, without assigning a reason, and apparently without the
sanction of a magistrate." (p. 329.)

51. On the 21st of May, 1830, (No. 75, p. 290,) " Antoine, a
Mosambique, aged 37. years, and belonging to the Sieur Castera, of
Flacq, complains of being obliged to work on Sundays until three or
four o'clock, p. M. without being remunerated ; that he has not suflB-
cient time for meals, and works from before day-light, till six o'clock
p. M., and is then obliged to cut grass until gun-fire ; that for the last
month complainant and his comrades have been obliged to stay all day
and take their meals on the spot where they work, though not far from
the court ; that neither he nor his comrades who came lately here to
complain, got any new clothes at Christmas, and their master said, they
should have none, because they carried a complaint against him ; it is
now cold weather, and for want of such clothes they are obliged to
cover themselves with gunny bags.

" The Sieur Castera declares, that his slaves never work later than
nine o'clock a. m. on Sunday ; that they have sufficient time for meals,
as the time is regulated by the commandeur without his interference,
that they never go to work before day-light, and quit it at sun-set; that
sometimes (but not always, as Antoine says), and when they work near
the road where there is grass, they cut and bring a bundle of grass
each, and leave it in the cattle-yard on their way to their huts ; that
they are kept from the court-yard all day, only at such time as they

Complaints of Slaves against their Masters. 415

work at' Three Tslots,' which is very distant from the plantation ; they
therefore then eat upon the spot where they work, and they also sleep
there in sheds made on purpose for them, and that this has been the
case for the last sixteen days ; the complaint of not receiving clothes,
is admitted by the master, but he qualifies it, by stating that it was not
with the intention of depriving them of the clothes altogether, but
merely to make them feel his displeasure, and the difference he made
between his slaves of good conduct and themselves.

"The above was confirmed by the testimony of the rest of M. Castera's
slaves, and the clothing verified by the assistant Protector, as also the
good condition and clothing of all the slaves.

" Result : — Antoine was sentenced to sleep seven nights in the
stocks for mingling falsehood with his complaint, this being the second
time he has done so ; the master was at the same time strongly remon-
strated with, and recommended to a strict observance of the law regu-
lating the hours of ' breloque,' which, in the evidence before the Pro-
tector, do not appear to be regulated upon so just a principle towards
the slave as they ought to be, inasmuch as it is the duty of the master,
and not of the commandeur, to see that the time accorded by law is
granted."

On this occasion Lord Goderich remarks, "I have read this decision
with serious disapprobation. That the slave actually had cause for
complaint is admitted in the ' Result' of the Protector, which T have
quoted above ; yet in spite of his own decision, the Protector sentenced
him to a severe punishment for aggravation. If the slave was to be
punished for his offence, equal justice required that the irregularities of
the master should not escape with impunity ; but exaggeration in pre-
ferring a complaint when unaccompanied by malice, is an offence of a
venial nature, when the uneducated state of the complainant is taken
into consideration."

52. On the 26th of May, 1830, (No. 76. p. 291,) " Adolphe, a
Malgache, aged about 34, who presented himself at this office on the
31st of March, complaining of ill treatment received from his master
the Sieur Ithier, of the quarter of Flacq, now states, that on his return
from hospital, his said master, after threatening him with punishment,
tied him to a ladder, and there kept him from morning until noon,
without, however, striking him ; that the work he is obliged to do is
too severe for his present weak state of body, it being that of clearing
away underwood on the estate ; that having represented this to his
master, he Avas desired to return to his work without receiving the
slightest commiseration ; declarant left the estate three days past, and
could not present himself earlier, on account of the difficulty he ex-
perienced in walking.

" The following is an extract from the Certificate of the examining
Surgeon : — ' Nous avons examine et avons reconnu et constate le
nommfe Adolphe, Malgache, age d'environ, 34 ans, ^tre atteint d'une
fi^vre hectique, avec ocdfeme des extremites inferieures, ce qui nous le
fait juger en danger ; cet 6tat exige des soins prompts et assidus. Nous
n' avons reconnu aucunes traces de corrections rfecentes sur cet individu,
que nous ayons trouve mal v^tu.'

416 Protectors' of Slaves Reports — Mauritius.

" Complainant was immediately sent to hospital for medical treat-
ment.

" On the same day appeared the Sieur Ithier, declaring that Adolphe
had made a false statement.

" Vendredi, another slave belonging to Sieur Ithier, declares, that
complairiant was tied to the ladder, as he has said, but it was only for
an instant, in order to frighten him, after which he was sent to collect
grass ; declarant says, that his master is certainly not a kind one ; but
in the present instance Adolphe has no cause whatever of complaint,
for he is an idle slave, always unwilling to do his duty, and much given
to pilfering," Yet he was very ill, as is proved by the surgeon.

" Result: — In this complaint there does not appear," says the Pro-
tector, " sufficient proof of ill treatment ; and as there is an action
already against the master for ill treating the same slave, these papers
were submitted to the Substitut du Procureur General, to be produced
in aggravation of damages, but he did not think them necessary."

53. On the 11th of June, 1830, (No. 86, p. 295.) " Edmond, a
Mozambique slave, belonging to the Sieur Dalais, of the quarter of
Grand Port, complains, that he is the least liked of all the slaves by
his master ; that the slaves all work on Sundays, without being remu-
nerated ; that he is compelled to rise at midnight, or at the first crowing
of the cock, to work; that his mistress owes him 16f dollars, for two
pigs he sold her (having sold them to her for 20| dollars, of which he
has received only 4 dollars), which she refuses to pay, under pretext
that he had stolen a bottle of arrack.

The testimony of the slaves examined on this charge is very contra-
dictory ; but Mr, Dalais declared, " that certainly Edmond was less
esteemed by him, as he truly said, and for the very reason, that his
conduct was very bad and idle, yet he had the same privileges as his
other slaves, to rear pigs, &c. That with regard to Sunday-work, he
obliged those to do such work who had been idle, and had not finished
their task-work ; and he did this as a punishment rather than flog
them ; and even this Sunday work is never exacted but after repeated
acts of idleness."

The Protector dismissed the complaint as false, punishing Edmond
with twelve stripes for bringing it.

On this case Lord Goderich observes, that " it appears that the
slaves on the estate to vphich he (Edmond) belongs, are worked on
Sunday, when they have been idle during the week ; this is stated to
have been adopted as a punishment instead of flogging. Desirable,
however, as it may be to avoid, as much as possible, the necessity of
corporal chastisement, it is quite impossible to permit the adoption of a
mode of punishment, which is not only illegal, but which gives the
master a direct interest in the punishment of his slave."

His Lordship thus concludes his observations on these details.

" On a review of the three Reports from the Protector of Slaves for
Mauritius, on which I have had occasion to animadvert in succession
since I assumed the seals of this Department, I cannot but come to the
conclusion, that His Majesty's intentions in favour of the slaves, have

Comments of Lord Goderich. 417

been most imperfectly carried into effect. I say this with every dispo-
sition to charge upon Mr. Thomas no larger share of the responsibility
for their defective operation than what, upon a full consideration of
the difficult circumstances in which he has been placed, and with all
allowances for the novelty and unpopularity of his office, may be found
properly to belong to him. The law which he has had to administer
was in itself imperfect. The enactment of the Governor in Council,
which varied in so many essential respects from the model which had
been prescribed, was the only law in force down to the latest period to
which the last of these Reports reaches. And although I hold it to be
the duty of the Protector in general to point out all defects of the law
which are shown in the course of its operation, and respectfully to sub-
mit to the Governor the measures which appear to him to be necessary
to render it complete and effectual, yet this was a duty which did not
devolve upon him in respect of omissions and qualifications advisedly
made by the Governor, when, in the exercise of his discretion, dispen-
sing with a strict obedience to His Majesty's commands.

" The Protector is, therefore, wholly irresponsible for defects so
arising : and in regard to some others, he has not failed to offer proper
suggestions of the means which might be employed to cure them. I
am aware, also, that the Protector, in addition to the necessary diffi-
culties of his situation, has met with obstructions from Law officers of
the Crown, whose duty it was to have assisted him to the best of their
ability ; nor (you must allow me to add) am I satisfied that your own
authority was by any means so actively and decisively used as it might
have been, to correct the negligence or remove the opposition of others'.
The Protector thus standing alone, and with no other assistance than
that of the usual magistracy, for the investigation of cases lying beyond
his immediate cognizance, could not fairly be expected to succeed in
giving complete effect to the law ; and 1 am willing to believe that the
deficiencies which, thus circumstanced, he has evinced, are only such
as, with experience and due assistance and support, he may be enabled
in future to supply. But I cannot too earnestly request you to be
aware yourself, and to impress upon him, that an operation of the Slave
Law, so partial and feeble as that which these Reports exhibit, if in
some measure excusable hitherto, could not longer continue without
exciting the serious displeasure of the King's Government. The opera-
tion of the law must be carefully watched with reference to its spirit
and purposes ; and whatever obstacle is found to defeat its efficacy,
must be promptly and completely removed. I must request you to let
it be understood by all Law Officers of the Crown and other public
servants, that they are expected to give their cordial support to the
Protector ; and I, on ray part, will make the best selection in my
power of persons to act as his assistants, for the administration of the
law in the rural districts.

" When the hands of the Protector shall have been thus strengthened,
and when he shall have had from you the active support, as well as
the sedulous superintendence, which I trust that you will see the neces-
sity of affording, I shall hope to receive Reports much more satisfac-
tory than those which it has lately been my duty to examine. But I
cannot regard the Report which has formed the subject of my present

418 Mauritius — Prosecutions of Masters.

despatch, otherwise than as a renewed illustration of the necessity
which I have heretofore pointed out, of a strict revision, by yourself, of
the whole of the Protector's proceedings, and especially of that portion
of them which is recorded in the Complaint book."

Here then we close these frightful details; but can we close them
without inviting our readers to look back to our second Volume,
No. 44, for the picture there given, of the Negro Slavery existing in the
Mauritius ? The vocabulary of vituperation was nearly exhausted by
Sir Robert Farquhar, Mr. Irving, and Mr. Hudson Gurney in the House
of Commons, and by Mr. Telfair and his scores of zealous compurgators
in the Mauritius, in denouncing that picture as false and calumnious.
But is not the truth of every syllable we then uttered, in the way of
general description, substantiated to the very letter in the details now
officially given to Parliament and the public ? And is there a single
fact we have adduced, to prove either the cruelty of the planters, or the
iniquity of the administration of the slave laws in 1819, 1820, and
1821, which does not find its parallel and therefore its complete warrant
and justification in the daily scenes exhibited at the Protector's Office,
in Port Louis, during the years 1829 and 1830? We were threatened
with prosecution by the assembled body of Mauritius planters, and
funds were raised for the purpose. We smiled at the threat; nay, we
invoked its execution. What could we require more ardently than the
opportunity of establishing, by legal testimony, the horrors we had been
constrained to denounce as exceeding in enormity even those of the
Corders and Thurtells of England, or the Burkes of Scotland ? And
will it be believed in after ages ; nay, will it be believed in twenty years
from this time, that such things could have been perpetrated in any
corner, however remote, of the British dominions, and under the eye of
British Governors ; and that those who attempted to expose them to
the indignation of Parliament and the public, and to invoke the interpo-
sition of British power and justice, for the protection and rescue of
these otherwise hopeless and helpless victims of oppression, should have
been branded in the British House of Commons, and by the British press,
as libellers and calumniators, as false and malignant, as the enemies of
truth, justice, and humanity ? Let the light which has been thus shed
on their conduct and motives, only serve to animate them to further
exertions until this scourge, which afflicts and desolates so many of
the fairest portions of the earth, shall have received its final and
eternal condemnation.

5. Prosecutions for breaches of the Slave Law.

Of the 222 cases of complaints preferred by slaves against their
masters, seventy-two only had been sent to the Procureur General for
trial. Of these, fifty-one had not yet been brought to trial; or remained
undecided, notwithstanding the length of time which had elapsed. In
one case, the individual accused was acquitted ; and, in the other twenty
cases, the parties were found guilty, but in almost every instance were
sentenced to the very mildest penalties which the law admitted. Lord
Goderich comments, with manifest dissatisfaction, on this misplaced
lenity, which in so many cases led the Court to inflict only the minimum
penalty, and the Procureur General to acquiesce without appeal in such

Prosecutions of Masters and Slaves — General Treatment. 419

a course. But this has been by no means the only reprehensible circum-
stance in the conduct of this public functionary, Mr. Foisy, and his
deputy M. Marcy, who have seemed much less anxious to aid the
Protector by their counsel and authority, than to throw impediments in
his way. His Lordship has therefore ordered the dismissal from office
of both these gentlemen, their places to be supplied by men more
worthy of confidence.

6. Criminal actions against Slaves.

The number of these is 175, but the account of them is very im-
perfect from the gross neglect of theProcureur General, in not giving due
notice of committal and trial to the Protector. Many of the accused
also appear to have been kept for long periods in gaol without being
brought to trial. — It is difficult to judge of the result of these trials, few
particulars being given and no part of the evidence being detailed. We
meet, however, with some punishments of great severity, as one, two, four,
and even twelve years of chains. And in one case, a negro sentenced
to death for the murder of a negress, has his punishment commuted
into twenty years of chains " on the ground of insufficiency of proof
of premeditation." If so, the crime was not murder at all, and ought
not to have been visited as such. One slave was arrested in Oct. 1829,
tried in March, 1830, and acquitted; and yet not discharged for thirty-
five days after.

7. General Treatment.

The regulations as to food, clothing, time for meals, &c., as appears
by the statement of the Protector, and indeed as might be inferred from
the details already given, it is to be feared, are deplorably neglected.
" There is scarcely a complaint made by the slave against his master,
which does not contain a charge of being badly fed." The Protector
thinks (but we believe on insufficient data) that the charge is false in
most instances of this kind ; but he admits that in all suspicious cases
he has been compelled, from the difficulty of proof, to content himself
with admonishing the parties. " The same observation applies to the
time allowed for meals." " With respect to clothing, it is generally
bad, and if the planters were requested to give their slaves a shirt and
trowsers once a year," (for even this seems too much for a Mauritius
planter to give) " the indecency which meets the eye so often, might pro-
bably be obviated." " They also complain often of being compelled to
work on Sundays beyond the time required by the ordinance" — Why is
any such time required?) " The Protector is of opinion that this will
continue to be a source of complaint and discontent, unless the Sunday
corvees" (gathering food for horses, oxen, &c. and cleaning them) " be
directed to be performed on Saturday."

It seems particularly unfortunate in the case of the Mauritius, that
the governors who have been successively appointed to the command of
that island since the period of its capture, with the exception of gene-
rals Hall and Darling, who held the office but a short time, have ap-
peared disposed to take part with the planters against the slave. We
have seen the conduct pursued by Sir Robert Farquhar, during his long
administration, (see Nos. 42, 44, 49, 50, &c.) We have heard Sir Lowry
Cole, pleading for the continuance of female flogging, and sanctioning

420 Concludi?ig Rejiections.

the use of chains by private authority ; and we now have Sir Charles
Colville pursuing, in some respects, a similar course ; enlarging to nine
the lashes a master may summarily inflict without delay or witness, and
permitting the use of the whip in the field. Farther proofs of a similar
spirit occur in the present report. The Protector had pointed out to
Sir Charles Colville the cruel oppression consequent on the use of the
instrument of punishment called the " bar de justice," described above.
In communicating the observations of the Protector to the Secretary of
State, he subjoins this remark, (p. 58.)

" I doubt if the bar de justice is as objectionable an engine of pun-
ishment as the Protector imagines, and some punishment must be
retained for those who will not earn their master's food without it."
Their master's food ! !

To this extraordinary remark, Lord Goderich replies as follows :

" With respect to the instrument of punishment called the 'bar de jus-
tice,' if the terms of the Order in Council be not construed to extend to it,
a local Ordinance must be passed, expressly for its abolition. I have
not overlooked the doubts which you express of the impropriety of this
mode of punishment, but I am unable to adopt them. The Protector's
objection to it, that it may be continued indefinitely, without occasion-
ing the master any loss of the slave's labour, is, in my opinion, con-
clusive. It is a mode of punishment, in the application of which, it is
not the interest of the master to be merciful." (p. 87.)

Lord Goderich deems it necessary further to admonish Sir Charles
Colville, on the duties of his high and responsible office.

" I cannot," he says, " but suppose that the contents of the Com-
plaint Book had nearly escaped your notice, as otherwise many of the
cases which it contains, must have extorted from yourself the serious
attention which it has devolved on me to bestow upon them. But the
revision of these proceedings is an important function of your govern-
ment, and it is obvious that that which is finally to be executed by me,
must be too late to retrieve many of the errors which might not be
beyond remedy if discovered at the moment and on the spot." (p, 89.)
Lord Goderich further disallows his objections to the immediate in-
stitution of a court for the summary recovery of debts due to slaves, on
the ground that the inconvenience arising from the want of such a
tribunal was common to them and the rest of the population : " I can-
not imagine," says his Lordship, " that the rest can feel it in an equal
degree with the slaves." " Their defenceless condition lays them pecu-
liarly open to injustice on this point," and " I regret you did not act on
the Protector's suggestion. You will take forthwith the necessary mea-
sure for the erection of this tribunal."

We now close these disgusting details, furnished to His Majesty's
Government by the officers whom they have placed as Protectors of the
slaves in the various Crown colonies. And what a picture do they ex-
hibit of the state of society in all of them ; in Demerara, Berbice,
Trinidad, St. Lucia, the Cape of Good Hope, and above all in the
Mauritius!!

ERRATUM.
In No. 83, p. 324, line 15 from bottom, for 1728, read 1828.

S. Bagster, Juii. Printer, 14, Bartliolomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 88.] SEPTEMBER 10, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 16.

I.— RECENT COMMUNICATIONS FROM liAYTL—( Being the

Journal of a Travelltr in that Island.)
II.— DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS.

I. — Recent Communications from Hayti, — Continued from
No. 79, p. 246.

November 27th.*" " I departed this day from Port-au-Prince, on
my journey to the North, at about four o'clock, with a gentle stirring
breeze and starry sky, and the moon just setting. The Portail of St..
Joseph not being opened at this hour, I was compelled to ascend the
marly heights near by, availing myself of a circuitous track, before I
could get beyond the barrier. The morning being Saturday, the weekly
market-day, a large concourse of the country people had assembled
ready for the opening of the gates. The horses and asses were restino-
beneath the loaded Macontes, and men, women, and children, were
seated dozing in groups to the amount of some hundred persons, by
the side of their wearied animals. We were obliged to pick our way
through these knots of persons, and did not find the obstructions less
when we got fairly on the road, the continued companies of marke-
ters, pressing on in cavalcades of twenties, thirties, and fifties, cover-
ing the whole space of the highway five deep, with horses and asses
burthened to treble their natural bulk, crossing and recrossing our
path, as they sought their road through the more beaten tracks after
the recent autumnal rains. I attempted to form some calculation of
the number of loaded animals I had passed, between the city gate
and ihe cross road of Drouillard, when I quitted to the West, the
principal thoroughfare of the plains — and found they must have
amounted to no less than three hundred.

" There was some cultivation to the right-hand and the left of the
road leading to the ford of the Grande Rivifere. It ceases here to
flow a wide shallow current through unembowered borders. The
stream was narrow and deep above and below the ford, entirely
sheltered with full foliaged forest-trees, making altogether a pretty
road scene. Some spacious well-built newly erected cottages were
on its northern bank, and some very respectable looking provision,
plantations, with a few cane fields."

* The portion of the journal from this date to that of the 29th of November
inclusive, viz. the journal of the 27th, 28th, and 29th, of November 1830, was
accidentally omitted in its proper place. It ought to have come in, in No. 79,
at p. 238, between the journal of the 15th of November and the 9th of Decem-
ber 1830.

3 F

422 Recent Communications from Hayti.

" We now began to approach the dark purple mountains that run
east and west, northward of the plain, but turned westward, parallel
to them at Cibert.

" Cibert is a place celebrated by the contest which after the death of
Dessalines, proved disastrous to Petion, in his struggle with Chris-
tophe for the presidency of the republic. The Old French Colony
was after this event divided into two states under the government of
the Rival Chieftains. It was through the neighbouring morass, ex-
tending to the foot of the mountains as they stretch out in headlands
to seaward, that Petion made his perilous escape in a fisherman's
boat, without a single adventurer to accompany him. Gaining the
opposite shores of the bay, he there gathered a little army of followers,
who soon after triumphed, in the south, over his more powerful an-
tagonist."

" On rising from the marsh lands of the Cul-de-Sac, to gain the road
at the foot of the first marly promontory, we arrive at the ' stinking
springs,' or ' sources puantes.' Their appearance immediately im-
presses the mind with their extraordinary qualities. Beneath the
rocks of the mountains issues, with a bubbling'motion, water clear as
a spotless crystal, flowing over a bed of earth so brightly green, that
the most brilliant emeralds cannot exceed it in lustre. As the waters
flow on with a silent rapid current, amid small jagged rocks, con-
creted from its own deposit, breaking and diversifying its course, it
throws up, from the green slime of its channel, masses of yellow
earth. These accumulate on its surface, sink again into the depths
from which they rose, or stopping, then moving suddenly onward
adhere to the banks. A sepulchral odour scents the whole atmo-
sphere. There springs no vegetation on its banks, but in the midst
of the little islands which the meandering waters make, the sombre
red mangrove, a tree of elegant foliage, with crimson bark and olive
tinted leaves, grows here and there solitarily, like a tree of life planted
by the waters of death. Neither bird, nor beast, nor insect is seen
there; and no creature, but the solitary traveller speeding away from
the spot as if it bore a curse. The sound of the freshening sea is
heard, but not seen, murmuring with a constant roll. Behind, the
bright blue mountains stretch far away, seeming a perilous journey
into unknown plains ; and before, the rocky road winds into a wilder-
ness.

"A rocky promontory, a small bay with pellucid waters, a few
mangroves standing into the sea ; palms and agaves ; torch thistles,
opuntias, lobed cartuses and acacias, with the distant mountains, and
the ocean ; a picture just beyond the ' sources puantes,' form the
last pleasingly extensive prospect, between the Cul-de-Sac and Arca-
haye. A hill by the road-side near it, just within the barren district,
bears vestiges of the encampment of Christophe's rear guard when he
retreated before Port-au-Prince, in March, 1812. After a hot and
dreary ride, large many-coloured troops of goats, lying out in the
road and browzing in the wilds, where they thrive on the aromatic
plants, brought us to some poor looking dwellings, where a good
stream of water was sufiicient to nourish patches of provisions and

Traveller's Journal. 423

grass for a few cattle. Here beneath a rock of marl, barren and
parched, a fine spring called Source Malta, pours out another tran-
sparent flood. The grove of tall trees, which shadow this rivulet, was
the resort of the animals of the neighbourhood.

"Other travellers who had been making their repast by these shades
descended like myself to refresh themselves and horses at this fountain
in the desert. Here we found the birds chanting their wild songs,
and insects and reptile life rejoicing, amid flower and foliage, that they
had found a green island in the wilderness. The freshness and fra-
grancy of this spot was a striking contrast to the scene we had so
lately left by the waters of the ' stinking springs.'

"To Boucassin is a sultry journey, not long but tedious, occasionally
with more depth of soil, but for the want of streams to irrigate it,
producing the same desert vegetation."

" Boucassin was formerly a small nucleus of houses and lime kilns.
The canals of irrigation crossing the road here gave it a little cultiva-
tion, but the soil is stony and sterile. There are yet some large
bananeries, and some few cottages, but finding that I could not obtain
grass for my horses, I was obliged to proceed on and rest, through the
sultry noon, within the confines of what is properly called the plain
of Arcahaye.

"The principal portion of this once fertile plain lies desolate. The
amphitheatre of dark verdureless hills that bound it, bearing on their
brows the evidence of irreclaimable sterility, would scarcely lead to
the supposition that it had been once the most abundantly produc-
tive district of the Colony. The sombre yellow and purple crags, the
wild and dismal precipices that rise with a commanding elevation,
served then however to heighten, by contrast, the green beauty of
fields which patient labour and artificial canals had rendered fertile
and fresh. The earth is a deep alluvial soil, very light, a mixture of
marl and vegetable mould. It is traversed by large ravines which
we twice crossed in the journey. The frequent small bridges that
covered the water courses were broken, and no longer receive the col-
lected streams of the uplands. During the divisions of the monarchy
of the North and the Republic of the South, all the lands that lay
by the borders of the sea, between Montroni and Boucassin, were a
sort of neutral ground, abandoned to waste and destruction. The
President has however established, since the union, three sugar pro-
perties between Boucassin and Arcahaye, called Manegre, Guariche,
and Torcelle. Menagre and Guariche, are passed on either hand, the
former having a good set of works, and both are well fenced in with
campeche hedges, in the best verdure and condition. The streams
here pour abundant floods through the fields, and keep the roads
moist in the driest season. These cultivated spots, amid the hungry
wilds around them, were like Milton's light, serving to make dark-
ness visible. Were it not for them, such is the abandoned condition
of fields said to have produced heretofore 20,000lbs. weight of sugar
to the carreau, that scarcely a demarcation would exist at this day be-
tween fertility and barrenness.

"L' Arcahaye is a little town 6n the sea, pleasantly commanding a

424 Recent Communications from Hay ti.

view of the gulf betwen Leogane and its own shores, and rendered
agTeeable by the passing and repassing of the ships to the port of the
city. In the time of the Colony it contained seventy houses covered
with shingles ; some spacious, and galleried all round. The high road
to St. Mark's lay through it. Its great resource was its embarcadiere
for the produce of the plains ; the marchandes or shopkeepers, find-
ing here also an advantageous market for their commodities among its
large population of cultivators, and the numerous fishermen, who re-
sorted to it as a convenient locality for Port-au-Prince. At present it
contains none of its ancient buildings except its church, a large edifice,
situated in the centre of the town. The broad slanting buttresses
which support its walls, give it the appearance of an immense tent,
the temporary encampment of some shiek of the desert, with his
hord of bedouin retainers arranged about him ; for the enclosure of
ill looking huts which forms the square, is the most miserable speci-
men of a town I have yet witnessed. A few of the trees which bordered
the place d'armes yet remain, and the ruins of the old foundations
break through the earth, and enable the eye to trace the lines of its
former streets. There are now some half a dozen well built houses
erected in it. There is no Commune, the principal body of its popu-
lation being the provision gardeners, who take advantage of the sea,
on whose confines their lands are situated, to convey in small sailing
boats their produce to the weekly market of Port-au-Prince. It is
estimated a distance of about twenty-six miles of water. It was here
that some of the earliest meetings of the planters were held when they
determined to invite the occupation of St. Domingo by the British
troops ; — an occurrence that brought nothing but misfortune, dis-
grace and disappointment, undertaken as it was, to bring back the
Colony to the domination of the slave master, after years of successful
revolt had shaken his authority to the dust.*

" On my arrival in Arcahaye, I had waited at the Commandant's for
the purpose of having my passport examined, but learning from a
female reclining at length on her mat beneath the shadow of a tree
before his cottage, that he was not then in town, and not expected
before sunset, and determining, if possible, to proceed on my journey
at a seasonable hour the following day, I was willing to profit by the
day light, and rambled about examining every where, and enquiring
into every thing. I had set myself down to sketch a view of the
church, with the broad crimson glare of the setting sun flicker-
ing on the surface of the sea, and had nearly finished the drawing,
when a dragoon soldier came to me, and with a great air of deference
and respect requested I would accompany him to the commandant,
who seeing me a stranger in the town, with a book, taking notes, was
anxious to learn whence I came and what I was doing. The pro-
duction of my passport, and the assurance I had observed that was
required from me in waiting on him at the " place" immediately on
my arrival, scarcely sufficed to relax his brow of austere authority,

* See Malenfant's remarks on this event, and on one of its principal promoters,
Lapointe, a native of L'Arcahaye.

Traveller s Journal. 425

inasmuch as I did not wait jTor him; but the production of the presi-
dent's letter, and the secretary general's introduction to every officer
of distinction in my route, drew from him a shower of apologies for
his suspicion. Our mutual explanations, in all which I had no reason
to complain of any departure from the most deferential behaviour on
his side, ended in offers of service, and the sentimental declaration
(when he understood the object of my mission) that though Hayti
did not dread her enemies, she indeed, needed the helping hand of
her friends. I certainly thought Arcahaye a pretty fair evidence of
the extent to which she would have to tax their indulgence.

" November 28th. It was the Sunday market, and the village mar-
chandes had their stalls of cloths set out with cottons of the prevail-
ing patterns. A large body of well dressed country people were one
while devotees at the church, and at another, sellers and purchasers
in the market place.

" The president has a fine estate, called Poids le General, near the
town, on which are located some of the Americans, brought to the
Republic and left in his care by the philanthropist Miss Frances
Wright, the rest being upon the neighbouring properties I heive al-
ready mentioned. Here also are about eight families of other Ameri-
can settlers,* who have just taken up a lease of lands for about seven
years. These I visited this morning; they have now about twenty-five
acres in tillage, and as many more cleared for pasturing their cows and
asses. They are a fine race of sturdy, plain, intelligent men. Their
lands are in excellent order ; for the want of campeache only tem-
porally fenced in, but well stocked with provisions, canes and corn.
They related to me the history of their disasters since their arrival in
Hayti. Destitute of experience as agriculturists, they had expended
their little capital in fruitless endeavours to establish themselves on
the locations given them by the government. Being irritated by dis-
appointment, they imprudently abandoned their settlements and pro-
ceeded to the capital ; but finding few opportunities there, this rash-
ness aggravated their distresses to absolute destitution. In this state,
these eight families becoming accidental acquaintances, they determined
on trying a scheme of united industry, within reach of the market of
the city, willing to be contented with moderate expectations from
patient industry. With a fund among them all of not more than ten
dollars Haytiau currency, about twenty shillings sterling, they pur-
chased tools, cleared a stretch of the forest on the borders of the cane
fields of Poids le General, and diligently pursuing the system of industry
which experience warranted them in considering the best, they have
found themselves in the enjoyment of comparative comfort and com-
parative wealth. They have cows, pigs, and poultry, adequate for their
sustenance, and their surplus produce conveyed to Port-au-Prince,
by water, and sold there, yields them the easy means of supplying
their extraordinary household wants. They had not yet reaped their
canes ; but the president's mill grinds them on a payment of one

The names of three are Stokeley, Watkins, and Alexander.

426 Recent Communications from Hayti.

quarter of the fabricated syrup, the other three-quarters being added
to their general stock. They spoke contentedly of their fortunes, but
regretted the absence of religious instruction, and of schools for their
children, as serious privations to men, whose prudent and reflecting
habits had taught them to look at these things as the most impor-
tant considerations of life. They however said they felt no occasion,
under all the sufferings they had endured since they quitted America,
to regret that they had left a country whose policy towards them
had rendered their days a source of continued bitterness — an existence
in which the past brought no pleasing recollections, and in which the
future was cheered by no redeeming or consolatory hope.

"Poids le general was but a moderate walk from the town of L'Ar-
cahaye. I was returning on foot from thence when I was overtaken on
the road by Colonel Fremont, who learning I was in the town had
come in search of me to offer me the hospitality of his " habitation."
Thither I proceeded with the intention of remaining all night, and
occupying the afternoon in seeing as much of the plains as I could
survey on a short excursion.

" Colonel Fremont is the unmixed descendant of an ancient free
black family of Grand Goire, or Miragonne, whose merit had pro-
cured for them, even in the prejudices of the ancien regime, the dis-
tinction of the fleur de lys. The Colonel is a person of considerable
talent, and a close and subtle reasoner. He was nominated to the
important and confidential service of a mission to France, to settle the
definitive treaty guaranteeing the independence of the republic. His
estate in the Arcahaye arrondissement is a portion only of the old sugar
plantation of Cotard. An infructuous attempt has been made to re-
establish it. It is however worthy of a visit for its extensive gardens,
richly planted in fruit trees, particularly in well selected grape vines.
Colonel Fremont has devoted great attention to the construction of
hedges, the whole grounds are very minutely subdivided with cam-
peche, planted in double rows with a small rill of water running be-
tween, so as to ensure their healthy and rapid growth under a most
exhausting sky. I observed here trees grafted by a very peculiar pro-
cess. It consisted in planting side by side, two judiciously selected
young trees, of the requisite affinities, such as the shaddock and the
sweet orange for instance, and by interwreathing the stems, in a simple
rope plait of two layers, and pressing the bark one upon another effect-
ing their union, and thus communicating the requisite interchange of
meliorating sap. The process is simple, speedy, and secure in its effects.

" November 29th. I passed by moonlight the walls of Poids la ra-
vine, and the grassy plains of Les Vases, with its tranquil cottages,
and extensive white ruins like a feudal castle of old, embayed in the
dark rough mountains of the Mardi gras. The vestiges in Les Vases
which seemed so large and magnificent, unless the moon's radiance
deceived me, must have been the sugar works of a highly valuable
estate. The situation was beautiful, though on the verge of one of
the most dreary tracts in the whole department of the west.

"I had now traversed the whole of the plain of L' Arcahaye. Under
the Indian Caciques, this district was a part of the province of Cahaya,

Traveller s Journal. ATI

a dependency of the principality of Xaragua. Its agricultural capa-
bilities drew the attention of the French colonists to irrigating it, at a
time when the four rivers, des Matheux, de I'Arcahaye, des Bretelles,
and du Boucassin, had poured their streams during many years of
European domination from the ravines of its arid mountains, through
fields scarcely less parched and unproductive. By a judicious distri-
bution of these four rivers, the coerced labour of a numerous population
converted the dry waste into a magnificent garden. The plain situ-
ated in an amphitheatre, by the sea side, has five leagues from east to
west. The cantons of Les Vases, and le Boucassin, being its two ex-
tremities, and L'Arcahaye and les Bretelles its centre. Its soil was
light, a marly friable earth, the alluvial deposit of the neighbouring
mountains. It formerly contained 48 sugar estates of from forty
to twenty carreaux in extent. Indigo and cotton were also cultivated
where the earth was less reclaimable. By one species of laborious
tillage or the other, the whole plain was covered with productive vege-
tation. If what Moreau de St. Merey says be true, that they re-
planted after the second rejettons, the toil must have been excessive
to those whose destiny it was to till the fields. When I passed
through this district which, I have remarked already, comprised the
frontier of the two divisions of the north and south, when Christophe
and Petion were opposing chieftains, the agriculture was in that
abandoned condition inseparable from a long series of hostile con-
flicts, during which the population had fled. The insecurity in which
they must necessarily have lived, the uncertainty of ever reaping the
produce of their tillage, rendered it a useless hardihood to remain, or
folly to indulge a resolution to out-brave danger and disquiet, when
only success must have tempted the predatory incursions of an
enemy.* In contemplating the desolateness which now so generally
reigns, though it is melancholy to perceive how much a civil war has
with a destroying arm, wrought all this devastation, there are other
causes which must be taken into account. Before these plains gave
their extraordinary harvest of productive industry, they yielded very
little of indigenous vegetation. They were covered with plants rather
ligneous, than arborescent. The riant foliage of those gardens which
succeeded them, was fed by never-failing springs. As soon as they
were deserted, the canals became choked up with the herbage the
waters attracted. The fruit tree, as well as the herb, perished for the
want of that care and salutary moisture, by which they might be said,
to have been created in such a soil. The earth, once more laid bare
to the action of a burning sun, on a coast where the breezes of the
sea are faint, tardy, and inconstant, beneath mountains whose dry
rocks are only at long intervals of days and months, sheltered by a
cloud, has become in some circumstances hard, in others pulverulent,
but in all desert and dry. The periodical rains, that now alone
moisten it, rapidly evaporate. Cultivation is now limited by the

* The last calamity that L' Arcahaye sustained, when it was left a complete
heap of rains, was by the retreating army of Christophe in 1812.

428 Recent Communications from Hayti.

scantiness of the inhabitants, and though the tranquillity of the coun-
try has in some instances induced the former proprietors to return,
and even has led adventurers among them, the poverty of the people
enabled them to do little more than raise provisions for their own sub-
sistence, and for the city market. We have seen that agriculture
here depends wholly on irrigation, that the long droughts which in
this district more than any other succeed the abundance of the peri-
odical rains, renders artificial means absolutely essential to make the
fields productive. To restore the ancient works is a labour of vast
expense, and whatever prudence might suggest, or a wise economy
inculcate, the sight of the ruins of what the unrequited toil of slavery
raised, freedom which looks to an adequate return for its labour, and
without which it cannot be stimulated into action, must, as long as it
is associated with poverty, continue to gaze at the vestiges of former
laboriousness, and lament at the destruction which each day of neg-
lect increases without attempting to remedy it.

" The sun almost immediately rose after the lingering lustre of the
setting moon had faded away. The hills that I had ascended from
Les Vases, formed the high road leading to the torrent stream of
Montroni, a construction of the year 1751. It rises and sinks inces-
santly, traversing thickets of the bromelia, the aloe, the acacia, the
opuntia, the cactus, and the cercus, interspersed with the yellow
leaves of the gomier, and the dark verdure of the guiacum. The
mountains, which are a frightful scarp of precipices, covered with dry
grass and ragged arborescent vegetation, were just lighted on their
tips by the yellow radiance of the morning sun. They range from
east to west, a little northward, so that their mighty masses were long
enveloped in shadow. The air being remarkably dry and clear, they
stood forth a huge dark embattlement, so near and distinctly shadowy
to the eye, that it seemed as if a stone cast at them might have
half reached their summit, and rebounded again to the spot where I
was passing. It was a sort of awful consciousness of really being at
the foot of the mountains. They appeared an impenetrable barrier.
From the side from which I beheld them there seemed to exist no
ravine to render them practicable to the human foot. These are the
heights of Matheux, which Le Croix traversed from the more acces-
sible side of the mountain, with the division of Boudet after the fight
of the Cr^te a pierrot, to dislodge the bands of Charles Belair. His
narrative is a comparative detail of the diflficulties of these rocks, with
those he surmounted when he gained with the French army the passes
of the Alps, by the passage of Splugen. ' Crags and glens, ' he ob-
serves, ' are similar every where in the Alps, the trees are of uniform
height and the thickets accessible. In these tropical regions, the
underwoods are thorns, and the trees of an altitude so immense, that
where the eye can scarely measure them, the arm can remove them
only by the assistance of time as well as labour.' With the increasing
day light they still retained their desolate sublimity. For a succes-
sion of miles there was the same awful dreariness. The eye rested
unrecreated by a single soothing object. The beaten track Avhich
formed the road, was a pathway amid angular fragments of rock, so

Travelle'i 's Journal. 429

extremely fatiguing, that I found it a relief to get down and walk.
The geology presented a tabular and a compact limestone as the
structure of the mountains. It was here I first had an opportunity of
inspecting the pita, or cabuya aloe in blossom. A silver green bell
shaped flower, terminating in a petal of five points, that drooped its ar-
rowy head over the road, 25 and 30 feet above its stiff radiated leaves,
among the feathered tribes which relieve the solitariness of this journey,
though few yielded any melody. The elegant bird, the Taco, with azure
grey plumage and tufous wings — crept like a cat along the stems of the
large trees'in search of insects. The wild doves chanted their me-
lancholy descants amid the steeps, and a small species of hawk deli-
cately formed, and prettily marked with dappled plumage, rose and
descended with rapidity, from some conspicuous branch of a tree, to
its prey, the numerous lizards and insects which make these deserts
their abode. They are very numerous in all this district. I have
never seen them hovering for their quarry.

" A jutting angle of this range of mountains descends in a rugged
steep to the sea, just before entering Montroni. This was the first
post within the territory of Christophe, and none could pass or re-
pass the guard, constantly stationed here, without incurring a dan-
gerous suspicion from the King's officers.

" Notwithstanding the barren aspect of the mountains of L'Arcahaye
on the southern side, those which looked towards the interior are said
to be highly fertile, and though wild, are picturesque and beautiful.
The cofiee plantations of Mattheux and Fond Baptist are still ex-
cellent, and in the district called les Oranges, beyond the Morne
Terrible, a number of American families have established habitations
which universal report represents as admirably cultivated.

" L'Arcahaye is remarkable for fish and wild fowl. The aquatic
birds, such as the Becasse and Becassin (Woodcock and Snipe), and
the Duck and Teal, are numerous in the autumnal season, and afford
days of agreeable shooting to parties from the city. There are abund-
ance of wild doves at all times.

" Montroni, a dry and barren declivity of the mountain, bears the
vestiges of aqueducts and the ruins of sugar works ; an evidence of
how much its ancient appearance was diflferent from its present con-
dition. Here I rested through the noon at a way side cottage. Of
the stone bridge that strided the high banks of the torrent, only a
small fragment remains. Its destruction was effected by some extra-
ordinary floods, not many years ago. I observed in its stream, (a
cataract wildly rushing to the sea), a curious evidence of the patient
labour with which the small fry ascend the rivers. Thousands were
clustered on the rocks of the fretful torrent, to which they adhered
by their slime, and worked their way from stone to stone, using the
extremity of their bodies like the scull of a boat, steering through the
intermediate tranquil basins with amazing rapidity, and ascending the
stream by shoals. It was an amusing as well as interesting exhibi-
tion of the simple processes of instinct ; the school of observation in
which the Indian of old learnt all his philosophy.

" The hill of Montroni is a congeries of calcareous pebbles of great

'3 (>

430 Recent Communications frohi Hayti.

densitv, but the level point of land below, which its river irrigates, is
brilliantly verdant. The prospect of this plain in crossing the river
opens pleasantly with a few cottages, on the banks of one of the arti-
ficial rivulets, under the shelter of some large and well leafed trees.
The road now descends to the sea shadowy and cool, with frequent
brooks washing across it in little cascades, on which the bamboos and
the campeache spread their branches, having the blue and the yellow
convolvulus wreathed among them in tufted blossom. There is some
cultivation here amid trimmed hedge rows, and the fine buildings of
Deloge, another of the President's plantations, (an object I had re-
marked when tacking day after day in the channel of St. Mark's,) en-
abled me to recognize familiarly every scene I had dwelt upon when
I first beheld, at a near view, the shores of Hayti. The road diverges
from the sea shore over the Cape of St. Mark's within a line of sandy
hills. A small sombre lake of miry waters, which we passed within
the bosom of these hills, is at this time visited by the numerous wild
ducks in their periodical irrigations. Beyond this lagoon Bois-neuf,
a property of General Bonnet's, is pleasantly situated by the fresh
-sylvan scenes of the brook of Rosseaux. The cultivators' cottages
enliven the road on one hand, and the waterworks of the estate on the
other. One of the many crosses which the pious toils of Father
Ambrosio, the worthy cure of St. Mark's, had caused to be erected to
awaken a devout spirit among the people, stands beneath a grove by
the side of the streamlet. The hills here have a gentle undulation of
campeache woodlands. A fine laminated free stone skirts the high-
way, and forms frequently the very surface of the road. The scene
is altogether agreeable — a lime kiln and a cottage or two are the only
evidences of inhabitants, the lands not being generally fertile.

I reached the sea on the other side of the Cape, just as the sun was
setting, and the full moon rising over the Vigie of St. Mark's. Its white
walls, the remains of all that was once magnificent, shone lonely and
splendid in the meek lustre of the evening. The winds were dying
away, and the lulling ocean rolling its sullen waves glittering to
the beach. Not a boat burthened its waters ; so much was the city
changed.

" Near the southern Portail stands the cemetry, an uninclosed spot,
cleared away from the thickets. At the gate of the fosse a lazy cap-
tain of the guard, stretched on his evening mat, from which he would
not deign to rise, demanded my passport. With the most provoking
minuteness he spelt over every word, still lying on his back. Order-
ing the horses to be turned about, he examined, in this position, their
marks and descriptions — a laxity of discipline which the republic
tolerates, but which no man dared to indulge in, when St. Mark's
was a frontier city, and Christophe was king."

The Reporter No. 79, p. 238 to p. 246, contains the sequel of this
Journal from the 29th of November to the 31st of December, 1830.
We proceed to insert that part of it which follows the latter -date.

"January 1, 1831. — I attended the entertainment of the previous
night at the General's, given at the joint expence of some of the best

Traveller s Journal. 431

Haytian families in the town : it Avas a ball, at which were present
visitors of all complexions — the fair features of European hills, and
the black of African deserts. There were the usual succession of
French quadrilles, and the national dance, the caraibine. The ladies
were attired with the simple elegance which peculiarly characterizes
the country; all was hilarity, tempered by that polite cordiality
which makes the best sort of intercourse in social life. Towards
morning, the company took leave of the good and respected General,
with the usual French benediction for the opening year, and then re-
tired to their devotions at the church ; the Catholics always celebrat-
ing at this period in the vicissitudes of revolving time.

" In the morning, at daybreak, the military assembled in the Place
d'Armes of Gonaives, to celebrate the fete of Independence. The
General, accompanied by his staff, and the civil authorities in their
respective costumes of ceremony, escorted by a detachment of the
national guard, and preceded by one of the regimental bands, as-
cended the altar of the country, as it is called ; a sort of rostrum in
the centre x)f the church parade, erected in every city, town, and
village of the Republic. Here a speech was delivered by the son of
General Beauvoir, a well-educated black person, in which the usual
themes of liberty and independence were expatiated upon, and the
duty inculcated of making every sacrifice to maintain both inviolable."

" January 4. — I rode along the Carenage this evening, and climbed
the Morne Blanche, in a visit to Fort Castries. The building is in
ruins, but the situation defensible ; the mound on which it is erected,-
at the mouth of the inner harbour, being scarcely assailable from the
sea. The hill is entirely detached from the main land. Had any
points of the uncastellated rock been gained, loop-holes, thick set in
the walls of the fortress, were intended to facilitate the resistance
of the garrison. Within the mangrove shoals, Avhich embay the
Carenage, are deep narrow inlets, where the largest vessels may lie
close beneath the cliffs of the battery. Little peninsulas stretch
along the beach to seaward, forming secure harbours for small craft,
should strong winds from the shore render the Carenage difficult to
be gained. No person can view the capabilities of the Gonaives
bay without interest.

" January 5. — A funeral of the wife of the Lieut. Colonel this
evening, the most ostentatiously splendid of any I had witnessed in
Hayti, would lead me to describe their ceremonies of respect to the
dead in this place.

" All the principal inhabitants of the town attended. The females
were in white, with the never omitted coiffure of mourning, the white
kerchief ; the gentlemen in half-mourning, white and black ; the
public functionaries, both civil and military, following the family in
full costume. The company spread themselves in the rear, in an irre-
gular assemblage, among whom were interpersed a number of females
bearing lighted tapers of wax. The whole was preceded by one ol
the servitors of the priest, bearing the crucifix ; then came the ser-
vant of the altar, With the chalice of burning incense. The priest,

432^ Recent Commiuiications from Hayti.

with the chanters of the funeral service on either hand, followed.
After these came four female bearers, holding the pall by each cor-
ner, the body being already in the church, where it had lain in state.
The military band headed the whole cortege.

" The church, with the corpse lying in state, had been already
illuminated, with a great profusion of candles. While the service,
both in the church and out of it by the grave at the cemetery, was
being read, the whole female congregation knelt. It was conducted
with great order and decorum, and no sound heard but the shrill and
sudden scream of an aged and disconsolate mother, weeping for her
child, ' because she was not, and refusing to be comforted.'

" January 6. — I journeyed along the borders of the Quinte this
afternoon. The stream had entirely disappeared, nothing but the
bare round pebbles being to be seen. I passed through little De
Cahos, a village of cottages, pleasantly situated amid a few palmettos,
and by the side of fine fields of millet and cotton, with well planted
enclosures of campeache, and proceeded on to Cocherel, one of the
estates under the management of Toussaint when Governor, but now
desolate. The adjoining property of the officer of the Rural Police
was admirably cultivated, and the little cottage and farm-yard, with its
thatched out-buildings, and hut-formed pigeon-house, afforded an
agreeable picture of simple and humble life. The soil of this district.
IS a deep dark mould, and, notwithstanding the deficiency of water,
highly fertile. The old aqueducts, which a few years ago commanded
a stream of refreshing waters, stood dry ; their canals bordered the
woodland roads. I re-crossed the river-bed, and returned into the
town by another route, after a ride of three leagues.

" January 8. — I was surprised just now, in coming from the mar-
ketj by a voice behind me, telling me that the whole town had sent
' bon jour' to me. I looked round, but not immediately recognizing,
the person who addressed me, I was disposed to walk on, thinking I
was in error as to my being the object of regard, when the person
stepping two paces forward, accosted me with the remark, that per-
haps Monsieur did not readily recognize, in his present dress^ the
guide from the mountains the other day. I now saw that it was in •
deed the same modest, good natured countenance, for he scarcely ever
spoke without such a shew of his white well-set teeth, as bespoke a
soul full of benignity and careless joy ; he was, however, no longer
en militaire, but dressed in his turbanet, with his broad straw hat, and
jacket of peasant green, and white trowsers, with his ornamented
stick. His week of guard service had been up, and he was now a
simple cultivator, attending the market for the sale of his recolte and
the stocking of his cottage. Repeating the former salutation, he
begged to know how I had been since he came . down to town with
me, assuring me that all my village friends at Ennery, feeling an in-
terest in my prosperity, would be rejoiced to hear of my continued
health ; then with the usual ' grace a Dieu,' for every acknowledge-
ment of daily blessings, he parted from me, with the easy genteel
bow of a weli-bred man, though one of the merest peasants of the

Traveller s Journal. 433

mountain, and with that free, brisk, erect walk, impressed by the ha-
bitual consciousness of liberty, a trait of character never wanting in
the demeanour of the Haytian.

" I would remark here, that every village in Hayti may be said to
be garrisoned, at least every small township or bourgade is a military
post, under the command of a Colonel or Captain Commandant, with
a suitable guard, who, besides regulating all matters connected with
the order, appointment, and duty of the soldiery, assists the civil au-
thority in the execution of justice. Nothing but the dress, the small
sword (briquet), and the body accoutrements of the soldier, are in
his own custody. His arms are deposited in the guard-room of his
Captain, from whence they are taken at the times of the periodical
musters, the rendezvous of each company being the Captain's house.
It is only a portion of the regiment that is on constant duty. As
the residence of every Captain is a sort of arsenal, a guard appointed
from his company performs duty there, as at a cazerne or barrack ,
for a week. The whole company being subdivided into guards, and
each taking his turn of periodical duty, it occurs that there are long
intervals when the men are relieved from the exactions of military
life. In these intervals, they are employed in handicraft labour, or
in the cultivation of the land, and assume generally the habits of the
people — the ' jaquet' of the artizan, or the 'varais' of the cultivator.
By this arrangement, their utility as citizens is increased, but their
spirit and discipline, as an effective militarybody, materially neutralized.
Their pay and allowance not being as much as the earnings of a day
labourer, many of those who think time of value, and the happiness
of life something better than the luxury of repose, when their time
of weekly guaixi recurs, are indulged Avith the permission to
pursue undisturbedly their avocations, by paying for a substitute,,
under special arrangement with the Captain. This circumstance
affords an opportunity for extortion, both from the soldier under
command, and from the revenue ; in the first place, by exacting
more than is allowed the substitute, by some shew of unwillingness tO'
grant the relief required ; secondly, by pocketing the money without
employing such substitute ; and thirdly, by reporting to the Colonel
' a fulfilment of duty on the part of the individual, either in person or
by a locum tenens — drawing the pay of a soldier on guard whose
omissions have subjected him to a forfeiture of it, and pocketing
that too.

"January 11. — Taking leave of my generous and kind hearted
friends at Gonaives, I departed on my journey to the Cape. My road
was by the carrefour of the Poteau, mentioned before as the
highway to the great northern city. We left the Ennery road to the
right hand, and pursued the windings of La Coupe to the Escalier,
of which I had heard so much, both for the wonders of art and of
nature, that I felt a sort of joy that I was now on my way to traverse
it. The sterile thickets, on either side of the road, shewed many of those
trees I had either taken or mistaken for ebony, with beautiful thick
spreading heads, small leaflets, dense and darkly green, but armed
with numerous intermediate thorns. We crossed the Ennery river,

434 Recent Communications from Hayti.

winding between the mountains above the plains, to gain, by a cir-
cuitous route, its passage to the sea.

" From la Coupe a Pintade to the summit of the Escalier, if the
distance from Gonaives to the church of Plaisance be truly stated at
fourteen leagues or forty-two miles, are four leagues of wearisome
mountain journey ; but the toils of the traveller are infinitely repaid
by the grandeur of the scenery. Rocks, foliage, and water are
intermingled with the striking effects of human labour and skill, by
which a wild ravine of crags and precipices has been made a perfectly
practicable road.

" The pass of the Escalier is a rocky glen, washed by a stream that
breaks into a multiplicity of small falls over the bare masses of the
mountain, so that the whole river is a continuous cataract. In the
bottoms and along the more practicable steeps of the ravine are oc-
casional coffee plantations and bananeries, some formed from the
reoccupation of the old estates, but others newly formed, a fact suffi-
ciently indicated by the young and regularly set trees. A few cottages
are on the steeps, and at one little dwelling place, in the shelter of the
vale, we saw a female busily engaged in bleaching wax, the product
of the wild honeycomb. When within about five miles of the summit
of the chasm glen, the scene begins to assume all those features of
the grand and terrific which the crags surmounted by overhanging
trees, the roar and rush of the torrent river, the wild creepers winding
their flowery cordage from branch to branch, the shadowed cliffs,
the bright leaves below, and the brighter skies above, could give to it.
The first impressive picture that arrests the sight, is the long line of
stupendous wall, formed by the cliffs of tabular limestone, crowned
by a border of forest trees, that twine their fantastic roots amid the
blossoming shrubs into the crevices, waving their foliage above you,
like shrubbery on a ruined battlement. Here the noonday breeze
rushes past with a cooling and solitary murmur, and the river, whose
concealed waters sweep audibly at the foot of the cliff, is seen glitter-
ing in daylight a little further on by the side of some magnificent
wild fig trees, standing out in the middle of the dell, with their
heads flickering in the sun. The whole scene here is varied and
romantic, and with a group of mountaineers descending in their many
coloured dresses and coiffed heads, winding on their way from shadow
into light as when I saw it, has a character somewhat more embel-
lished, but equally savage with some of the wildest scenery that Sal-
vator Rosa ever painted. Beside the occasional travellers that we
met, to convince us that these rocks had their inhabitants, we saw,
from distance to distance, women washing clothes at the stream, and
children and grown people with their gourds and calabas cruches of
water, threading the steeps up to the wild coffee shrubberies above the
dell. After crossing the stream, at the last intersection of the road, v/e
soon reached the district peculiarly termed the Escalier. The pathway
had been already suflficiently steep and rugged, the horses having to
pick their way painfully among the broken rocks of the torrent, but
from the first moment of reaching the narrow chasm with its bare white
precipices of compact lime stone, some hundred feet in height, the road

Traveller s. Journal. 435

is a paved wall, filling half the space between cliff and rock, the other
half being a conduit for the mountain torrents, that rush down the
precipitous descent in the seasons of rain with great violence and
rapidity. The ascent is frightfully steep, but its difficulties have been
most judiciously and elaborately overcome by a zig-zag pathway, in a
space almost as narrow as a stair-case. Away now go the rider and
his horse, mounting incessantly upwards as if he were climbing by a
' ladder to the skies above, till suddenly he opens into slanting steeps
covered with trimmed coffee shrubs darkly green, and gaining the
sunny summit of the gorge, sees a cluster of quiet cottages, and finds
himself gazing from a high mountain upon one of the most beautiful
valleys in creation. The romantic magnificence of the scene is won-
derfully increased by the unexpected manner in which the wild and
difficult journey leads to it ; and something like the silent surprise of
enchantment engrosses the mind when first surveying it. Those who,
in reading the history of Rasselas, have endeavoured to picture the
scene of the Happy Valley, may have succeeded in forming an ideal
similitude of this assemblage of magnificence and beauty. The
ancient colonists, to express its charms, gave it the name of the vale
of Plaisance.

" The Escalier is the recent construction of Colonel Thomas, a
Negro of the English Island of St. Christopher's, a meek, intelligent,
but simple and uneducated man. It exhibits consummate skill, and
a wonderful degree of patient labour. The immense masses of rock
which filled the bottom of the chasm, were reduced to fragments by a
fortunate process, discovered by mere accident, but advantageously
applied to the erection of the road. The trees which filled the path-
way, and which it was necessary in the first instance to clear away,
could only be removed from the hollow glen by burning them where
they were felled. In the progress of this labour it was found that the
huge rocks of limestone, heated by the fire, had broken into shivers
after a shower of rain, and now lay in a heap of small fragments
where formerly they stood an immoveable mass. This accidental
discovery enabled the director of the works not merely to overcome
every obstacle, but to apply the materials, so conveniently gathered
on the spot, to the walling and paving of the chasm, and thus to build
a road, where they had thought they should have been compelled to
create one by mining. Perhaps the Commentators on the March of
Hannibal over the Alps, described in Livy as effected by dissolving
the rocks, will find the apparent incredibility of the story sufficiently
explained away, by the process of pouring water on the heated lime-
stone, as practised by another African in constructing another Alpine
road, the Escalier of Plaisance.

" The scenery of Plaisance valley and mountains owes nothing of
its surprising charms to contrast with the barren dreariness of
Gonaives, though certainly the green freshness of the hills and vales,
and the bright azure of the cloud capt mountain peaks are in perfect
opposition to the sterile steeps and embrowned savannas I had been
so recently acquainted with. The scenery is in itself surpassingly beauti-
ful and enchanting. The majesty of the surrounding hills, the fertility of

436 Recent Communications from Hayti.

the outstretched valleys, the distant mountains light yet ' darkly deli-
cate,' the vegetation riant and fresh, the cottages neat and standing-
out prominently on the little jutting eminences that push into the
principal valley, have that sort of singular richness and diversity seen
in pictures that are rather more Chinese than Indian.

" The road wound with frequent short angles down the face of
the mountain into the valley, between cottages and garden hedges.
The soil was a bright red earth, the product of an aluminous deposit
spread over a bed of sandstone of fine compact lamina. The valley
was traversed by a clear stream, one of the branches of the 'Trais
Rivieres.' It was bordered by bamboo thickets, clumps of eugenia,
shrubberies of wild chesnuts in blossom, and orange trees heavy with fruit,
having the palm and a multiplicity of other foliage intermingled ; but
those first particularised were especially prevalent. At first the stream
came murmuring on a mere brook, eventually it increased to a river,
sometimes tranquil and sometimes flowing rapidly. There was a good
deal of wood in progress of being cleared in the valley and about
the hills as we passed ; the smoke of the burning ascending up-
wards in frequent dense volumes in many places. We overtook a
group of persons carrying up towards the bourgade a log of timber,
£fty feet in length. The labourers were all men, but superintended
.by a negress, astride on horseback, with the broad peasant hat on her
head, and a manchet or small cultivator's sword in her hand. She had
with her on foot a girl about fifteen years of age, evidently her daugh-
ter, who was engaged in repeating her orders to the men. I was
pleased with the ingenious scheme devised for carrying this log of
wood. The timber rested on a sort of cradle supported on the shoul-
ders of the men, who came trotting onward up the hill as fast as I
could ascend it at an amble on my horse. I imagine the balk of wood
was drawn out of the forest in this shape for some newly erected farm
close by, for they turned out of the road to the bourg, singing as they
went, and shortly after I ceased to hear their voices.

" Plaisance town, which we had seen opposite us when we first
beheld the valley, is what in England would be called a pretty and
respectable looking village, having some very well built houses in it.
ft is actually within the valley, but stands high, overlooking other
valleys to the east and west. From the Escalier gorge it seemed
seated on the mountain side, so much is distance abridged by the
attenuated air and brilliant sun of these climates. There is not much
cultivation perceived in its immediate vicinity. Upon remarking this
eircumstance it was explained to me that the plantations were mostly
on the banks of the Trois Rivieres, lower down to the westward, where
the general average of the recolte was considered high for the popu-
lation. I entered the town at about four in the afternoon. A body
of cultivators, or small farmers, were assembled opposite the house
of the juge de paix, in their customary country dress, the low little-
rimmed hat, sheeting trowers, and camisette. I presume they Avere
convened there on some judicial investigation.

" January 12th. — I rested at Plaisance for the night. In the morn-
ing so dense a fog had covered the whole valley,- hiding the neigh-

Traveller's Journal. 437

bouring mountains, that I found it impossible to proceed on my
journey till the sun was well up in the heavens. At about nine
o'clock, the white mists began to roll themselves in cloudy masses away
to the summit of the mountains, and the hills within the vale to
appear like green islands in an ocean of vapour — white as the snow
drift. All was restless and in incessant change. At one time near
objects alone appeared : perhaps it was the pinnacled cliff that
' swelled from the vale and midway cleared the storm,' with a single
cottage on its side built like an hermitage, looking down on some
tranquil lake, dotted with the islets, and encircled with green mea-
dows and woodlands, all lighted by the golden sun ; then sud-
denly, like the changing of a dream, the misty magic came sweeping
by, and transformed the near landscape into distant scenes of crags
and mountains, for the huge masses, looming dull and indistinct
through their vapour, seemed thrown back into the horizon many
miles. The peaked summits were reared far above the rolling clouds
that rose in fleeces and detached themselves from the ocean of vapour
which overspread the valley. In the rainy season these misty visita-
tions are never witnessed in the hollows, but, curtaining the upland
steeps only, reek from the earth like smoke from out of the forest.
In the sunnier season of the year if they pass off gradually they be-
token uninterrupted sunshine from dawn to night-fall ; but if they
dissipate rapidly at daybreak the rain may be expected in a few
hours after. In my case they gave the promise of a bright and
cloudless day, so I mounted my horse by half-an-hour after nine, and
threaded the road by the side of the hill, watching with delight, every
wonderful transformation which the drawing of the cloudy curtain
opened to me.

" My journey among these mountains presented a varied succes-
sion of stupendous prospects. Deep wooded glens commanded a long
vista, among far off and misty peaks, forming a magnificent distance.
Little pleasant farms were on the platforms of the declivities, amid
provision and coffee plantations, with winding paths through them,
climbing the blue summits of the hills. Men and women were dili-
gently weeding their grounds, which were generally extremely clean,
and neatly and regularly planted. Malangas or taios were here
more cultivated than I had generally seen them. The road mean-
dered unceasingly along the mountain side, neither ascending nor de-
scending ; but traversing at each angle little rivulets that gushed
across the way, and then tumbled in cataracts down the river, foam-
ing over the rocks in the glen below. The scenery of these cataracts
presented rocks of black ophite, fringed with bamboos and creepers
interspersed with the palmanobilis. One of these little road side cas-
cades was to my eyes extremely beautiful. The rocks had formed a
sort of natural cavity like a grotto in a bower of splendid overarching
bamboos, where the broad leaf of the trumpet tree was seen in con-
trast with its delicate foliage. A few large leaved wild gourds hung
from the cliffs and the wild Indian-shot shed its crimson blossoms
by the streamlet. The bamboo was prevalent all about these moun-
tains, forming clumps on the crests of many of them, and intersecting

3 H

438 Recent Communications from Hayti.

them frequently in straight lines^^the boundary marks, I presume, of
some of the old proprietorships, for they now waved their plumes
amidst the forest.

" The road descends to Camp-Coq, a little auberge within a grassy
hollow on the river bank, kept by a very garrulous old woman, who
was vastly loquacious respecting the natural resources of hill and
valley, crag and glen hereabout. On my bringing from among the
boulders and rocks of the river massive specimens of iron ore, and
proving it to be so by shewing the wonders of the magnet, she told
me, that a belief had long prevailed, that there was gold in the hills,
and then it was said to be copper only ; she now verily believed it
was nothing but iron, and though that was not quite as good as dis-
covering gold, she thought ' il etait mellieur que le cuivre,' being to her
experience an infinitely more useful metal. The people of this coun-
try seldom see any copper utensils. Their vessels and implements
being all of iron, old Madame Babilliard (by a curious coincidence
such was really her name), was very right in consoling herself with the
wealth of iron mines so near her own door. The specimen is a foliated
blue ore, crystallized with prismatic quartz, extremely pure and mas-
sive. I saw none of the yellow oxide nor the pyrites ; but this last
must have been occasionally found to induce the supposition that
there was gold or copper. A fine grove of bombax, a species of tree
cotton, covers the ravine in which the masses of ore lie as common as
other fragments. The trees were thick in blossom, with large flowers
of orange and scarlet spotting their broad silver green foliage from
top to bottom.

" The road to Limbe is all level, winding by the river of its own
name, which we occasionally forded. It is broad, but shallow, and
forms agreeable landscapes with the neighbouring mountains. There
are some very fine coffee plantations by the way side, very attentively
pruned, and encircled by well kept campeache hedges. The grassy
woodland road is extremely agreeable, and the sea breeze wafts
through the valley a healthy freshness, very remarkable to one
journeying from the plains of the South. Cottages and plantations
increase in frequency as we approach Limbe. They are seated within
trimmed hedges, and among fruit trees as thick as groves, and indi-
cate the possession of very enviable comfort. We met in our way
groups of men and women, all respectably clad in white, returning
from a funeral. They accosted us as we passed with the usual serious
sort of politeness common every where.

" Limbe is a large, clean, quiet town ; the two public buildings, the
general's residence, and the ' place,' are very conspicuous, with their
broad shady galleries and tiled roofs. The church exhibits a neat
frontage among the cottages westward. Around the Avhole bourg the
broad leaves of the plaintain trees expand themselves in the sun. The
magnificent peak of Mount Calumet is a. very picturesque object, over
the buildings from the grassy square.

" Finding that the commandant, Colonel Cincinnatus Le Comte, to
whom I brought letters, was not at Limbe, but at his habitation on
the road, some four miles onward, I preferred going thither, rather

Traveller's Journal. 439

than staying at the town for the night, as I at first intended. It being
not more than the turn of the afternoon, I felt I should be able to
stroll about the fields, and see something of the cultivation of this
commune, A woody road over the river, in which the ca'imitier with
its velvet brown foliage was common, brought us to some well planted
coiFee fields. The shrubs formed an even-pruned plain of leaves, be-
neath groves of fruit trees. Cocoa nuts, avogados, palms, bread
fruits, bananas, pommes de cannelles, mangoes, ca'imifiers, corossols,
sapodillas, oranges, &c. &c. were all intermingled, and shaded
the coffee, whilst they freely admitted the circulation of the air. This
is the usual mode of husbanding the plants in the warmer districts.
The cottages were in the midst of this profusion of plenty and cool-
ness, and the plantations succeeded each other, side by side, by the
road on to the carrefour of the Coup of Limbe, where are situated the
newly cleared lands and enclosed fields of Colonel Cincinnatus.

" Colonel Cincinnatus Le Comte was formerly a chevalier of Henry
king of Hayti, and a chamberlain of the palace. After exhausting
the last years of his life in this service, the fate of Christophe threw
him on the favour of the republic, with all the disadvantages of one
who had been associated in the dignity and fortunes of its enemy.
Being recently placed in the command at Limbe, in the district in
which his properties are situated, he has found an opportunity of
using the pruning hook, while he wears the sword, to repair the lost
fortunes of his family, and the wasted years of his manhood. His
leisure is now spent in restoring the patrimonial estate of Le Comte.
The ruins of the ancient sugar works, with their tower and arches,
standingby the road, appear like the remains of some of the old monastic
edifices of England. The grounds are in progress of being made en-
closed pastures, a scheme by which they will be prepared for any species
of industry, which more enlarged and more favourable relations of
commerce may open to the country hereafter, whether it be in corn and
pulse, or in cattle and sheep, for all which the market at present affords
so limited a demand as not to make either an object of great or ex-
clusive attention. Sugar is not worth the outlay, and coffee already
absorbs the industry of every body. The general neglect of inclo-
sures in Hayti is a great obstacle to its agricultural prosperity.
They are now, however, much more attended to than heretofore. The
rural law has made due provision for an observance of this requisite eco-
nomy, and in many districts, such as the Artibonite and the heights
of St. Mark, it is rigidly enforced by the general in command. The
' entourages' are of campeache. The penguin, a species of bromilia, so
generally used in Jamaica, is so seldom seen here as almost to justify
the assertion, that it is never resorted to.

" The neighbouring estate of Paris, once a splendid sugar planta-
tion, is at present subdivided in donationary grants, and devoted to
the growth of coffee and provisions ; but Chateau Neuf, close by, is
still a large well established cafFeterie.

" On ascending the gorge of Limbe, after looking down with de-
light on the rich vale traversed by its fertilizing river, with the lordly
peak of the Calumet, girt with its coronet of morning clouds, rearing

440 Recent Communications from Hayti.

itself over all, another and a wondrous scene suddenly opens to the
view. A mountain, whose base is about five miles in extent, and
its height four thousand feet, a forest-mantled succession of pre-
cipices, stands detached by the sea side. Beneath, an extensive
basin, like a lake with a narrow channel to the ocean, so sweep-
ing into the main land as to give the mountain the appearance of a
peninsula, spreads its glittering surface at its feet, bordered with a
labyrinth of green thickets. Between the ranges of mountains, from
whose descending pathway I looked down upon this scene, the nar-
rowest portion of a plain, indenting the sea some fifty miles eastward,
at one time the richest and most luxuriant spot beneath the sun, was
spread out in all the rude diversity of forests and wild meadows, still
a vast and splendid prospect.

" There are some neat, clean farms, not discreditably cultivated in
provisions for the city market; but they are not very frequent. In
the present forests, the campeache or logwood is the prevailing timber,
and in clearing the land, has the advantage over the wilderness of the
Cul-de-Sac, in repaying the labour of felling it. The agriculture did
not seem by any means so systematic and efficient here generally as
that about Port-au-Prince ; and the people, though cheerful, evidently
appeared, by the kind and quality of their clothing, a less opulent
class than those who frequent the city of the south.

" On this road, the citadel of Kmg Christophe is descried, crowning
the summits of the Ferrier Mountain, with its head far above the roll-
ing clouds. This wonder of that extraordinary man might be called
literally a castle in the air, if it had not stood a monument of some-
thing more melancholy than his folly.

" The Haut du Cap village is a sorry anticipation of the proud city,
once graced with the title of ' Queen of the Antilles,' It is a congeries
of way-side cottages, grafted on the ruined walls of the old garden
houses. A good wheelwright's shop and smithy, similar to that of an
English country village, is the best specimen of its industry. Three
or four handsome little country houses are seen at the foot of the
mountain, before arriving at it. It was at the bridge here that the
royal army met the rebels of Richard, and refusing to fight, decided
the fortunes of the house of Christophe.

" The barrier of the Haut du Cap is the only road into the city. It
is a wall neither thick nor lofty, perforated with a number of loop
holes, and extending from the Estuary of the Haut du Cap river, which
flows at the foot of the mountain, to the mountain itself, which here
descends to seaward in a few green mornettes. The city is seen at
some distance, having the grassy park of the Fossette, basking its
green turf in the sun, dotted with some fine trees of the senna des
Indes, or the pois chaca. There are a couple of pretty clumps of
these trees, having the palmira raising its head in picturesque contrast
among them, just as you get within the park. The road is a high
bank, straight and broad, entering the city by the Rue Espagnol.

" The destructive elements with which the Revolution worked its
progress from bondage to liberty, is seen in the line of ruins that
face this park, having a fountain in front. The city of the Cape is

Traveller's Journal. 441

indeed nothing but the shell of its ancient grandeur ; but even here,
where restoration promises the least, the eye is cheered by the sight
of workmen engaged in rebuilding, in an equally shewy and substan-
tial style, some of the ancient private edifices. A ride along the Rue
Espagnol, presents a view of most of its former splendid public
buildings, though it is by no means one of the better order of streets.
The general effect on entering it, the intermixture of single and
double storey houses, Avhite with stucco, and its rough pavement, have
much the appearance of the High Street of Northampton, with some-
thing less than even its little commerce and bustle. It is certainly
much more European than Indian, in its general aspect. The exten-
sive convent, with double arches, filling nearly the three sides of a
■quadrangle ; the noble line of barracks or cazernes, as the French
by a more appropriate name call them, with an entrance gate,
exquisitely chaste in design, and the palace of the old proud aristo-
cratical Governors, with the melancholy remnants of its terraced
lawns and gardens, form a succession of ruins to the left hand— the
monuments of revolutionary violence. Decending to the bord de mer,
just by the walls of the new palace, commenced in the same style of
grandeur as the old buildings, by the late Negro King, the portal of
the ancient church, a really superb and stately edifice, is seen rearing
its sculptured front in magnificent decay.

" The streets are all laid out regularly, paved but not well paved,
and with the customary inconvenience of French cities — wanting a
foot-path or trottoir. The houses are mostly of two stories, but
seldom of three. As the little plain between the sea and the moun-
tain, was too confined to admit of much width for streets, they
are consequently without piazzas or galleries ; but the houses have,
in some degree, been compensated for the inconvenience, by being
furnished with iron balconies and verandahs, forming a kind of corner
gallery to two faces of the front, in the manner of Venetian and
Italian houses ; besides these there are balconies for enjoying the air
at the middle windows. The roofs are furnished with heavy cornices,
and the fronts of the houses are very generally ornamented with
pilasters. The shop-keepers, merchants, and dealers, contrived to
remedy the want of shade at mid-day, by stretching canvass awnings
from side to side of the streets ; for which purpose, rings and hooks
had been built in the walls, and a similar practice is still observed by
the present inhabitants. The general effect of the city is uniformity
and elegance ; the materials of the buildings are stone and brick, but
covered with cement, w^ashed with a white border on the mouldings,
the cornices, and pilasters, and with a light stone-yellow elsewhere,
■except the basement- wall, which is universally rubble. The whole
appearance, is that of neatness and cleanliness. In this respect it is
•in perfect contrast with Port-au-Prince.

" January 20. — Individual enterprise is doing its best to restore the
ruined dwellings to a habitable condition, and the roofless walls, that
■pretty plentifully intersperse the city, standing out like ragged beggars
amid well-dressed company, as if their decayed gentility had entit-
led them to be tolerated, are daily diminishing in number.

3h2

442 Ree€nt Communications from Hayti.

" January 28. — The Cape was certainly once a magnificent
city, and is now as much superior to Port-au-Prince as St.
James's to Wapping. Mr. Thompson, the British Consul here, and
myself, explore it every evening. At this time, the Haut du Cap
mountain is frequently a surly jade, and like a true Haytian as she is,
wears a kerchiefed head, hut we do not care for a little rain. At
present the far off pyramidal ranges of the Ferrier, St, Raphael, and
Hispaniola, are obscured from sight, or only dimly seen; but when
their magnificent outlines are lighted by the clear evening sky, and
the few villages, towns, and habitations of the plain, glitter in the
setting sun, there is an extent and diversity of scenery quite enough
to supply unwearying objects of contemplation to the dullest eye.

" In our rambles we have not discovered any spot more favourable
for a general and commanding view of the city, than a portion of the
projecting base of the mountain, whose cliffy promontory shuts in the
northern end of many of the streets as a Cul de Sac. Its elevation is
about double the height of the neighbouring roofs.

" The only considerable buildings in a state of occupancy are the
Custom-house, the Arsenal, and the Magazine. The Custom house is
a private dwelling, recently repaired and roofed. It was erected by
Moyse, the nephew of Toussaint L'Ouverture as a palace, in all the
magnificence of a colonial lord, a pride which as much filled the
minds of the emancipated Negroes at that period of the revolution as
the dominant Europeans before it. This costly edifice was never more
than half built, but with that half it is a large and massive building.
Standing by the sea side near the principal wharf, it has been judi-
ciously applied to the purpose of a Custom-house. The Arsenal and
Magazine of arms, whose roofs by the side of the chimneys of the
public bake-house are immediately under the eye ft-om the cliff, com-
manding a fine general view, are the well constructed ancient build-
ings still kept in perfect condition.

" A cluster of ruins whose roofless walls of simple architecture
are seen in the upper parts of the town, immediately beneath the
mountain, are the palace of Government ; the tower looking build-
ing behind it, the chapel of the Cazerne; and the long pile of blue and
red roofs beyond, the Convent. The eastern Fa9ade of the palace
must have had an appearance of stately elegance when its white plain
extension of windows and pilasters* were broken by the foliage of
tropical trees in the entrance gardens. Here the Council of the
Colony held their sittings, and the Senechaussee, the Admiralty, and
the administration their bureaux, and the different Greffiers kept their
registers. It was formerly the lodge of the Jesuits : a subterranean
passage from it to the Convent has been recently discovered. In
1768 the Jesuits' lodge being purchased by the Government, the
present building now embellishing the city with its ruins was com-
pleted five years after. It was constructed in the usual style of
French edifices, with a cross light, so that though it looks extensive it
is narrow, and not in, reality a very spacious building. The back ga^-

* This Fafade has forty-four perforations of windows and doors.

City of the Ccipe.

dens are still in cultivation, and are large, with an agreeable intennix-
ture of fruit trees.

The splendid suit of baths by the ravine a Dorcet still show the
conipleteness of the whole economy and arrangement observed in a
bnilding which contained nsually not less than 1500 soldiers. To the
north immediately adjoining are the reinains of the military hospital,
a stately edifice, still perfect in all things but the Government house,
a ruined villa closing in one side of a grassy square, called the Chaniip
de Mars, in the midst of which stands the palm, the tree of Haytian
liberty and independence, and by it the childish absurdity of the Autel
de Patrie, a platform that sets every thing in the shape of taste, ele-
gance, or propriety at defiance.

" Still gazing down from the cliffy promontory on the city with its
deserted streets and ruined walls, green with flowery groups of mangoes
and other fruit trees growing within thero, the roofless church rears,
its majestic portal in the place d'armes before you. The whole de-
tails of its architecture are distinctly seen from this spot.

" After I had stood some time this afternoon with the British con-
sul, looking down at the city from this steep, which appeared once to
have had its garden and belvidere, the coolness of the air, and the
settled aspect of the evening, was quite a temptation for us, to ex-
plore some of the hills and ravines of the larger movuitain.

" Our pathway conducted us up a ravine, where some ininiense
rocks had fallen and formed a sort of agreeable grotto. Here we dis-
covered some of the covered springs that conveyed water to the city^
and admired the judicious artificial falls composed of the blue serpen-
tine rock, an imperishable grit, which conducted the upland torrents
through determinate channels to the sea. It was interesting to see
how, for a succession of years, these cataracts of the rainy season had
swept over them, without fretting a single particle of the stone. It
resists both the action of fire and water. We climbed on to a little
valley, completely shut out by the hills from all sight and sound of
the city. We found the remnant of fruit and flower gardens,, that
had been elaborately levelled into grassy plateaus, but tenanted only
by some aged negro, who had acquired by undisturbed occupancy
some sort of title to the spot. We saw in our walk some of those im-
mense masses of rock which, detaching thernselves from the snmmit,
had rolled down the declivity and bedded sonie portion of their angles
in the debris of the lower steeps, and only waited the action of fresh
floods to loosen them from their resting places, and send them thun-
dering with perilous inipetuosity to the plain below.* If the variety
of wild plants on these crags and in these ravines supplied little to
interest one, the mineralogy would afford amusen^ent enough to alle-
viate all fatigue.

" By a track different from that we climbed, we entered in our
descent another rent of the mountain, where there were other covered
water courses leading to the fountains of the city, and arrived at the
great ravine, in which there are some breaks of cultivation. On a

* Moreau de S. Mevy relates some pf these occurrences in vol. i. p. 600.

444 Recent Communications from Hayti.

little spot of ground within the gorge of this ravine, made flat by a
terrace of loose stones, stands an open temple, a pyramidal roof on
plaistered columns, containing a cross and image of the holy Virgin.
Here devotees assemble, morning and evening, at their penitential
vrorship. A large congregation were at prayers at the time we
passed, with the parochial cure officiating. It is usual for passengers
to make some trifling donation here, as alms for the maintenance of
the poor infirm and aged persons whom the vicar-general has distin-
guished as objects of charity. At the foot of this temple, right within
the ravine, are some old ruined arches, like grottoes ; and somewhere
thereabout stood a wall, into which the bodies of the princes were
thrown, after their murder in the prison. When they had remained
festering in the pestilential atmosphere some days, (for during the law-
less interregnum of the revolter Richard, all feared to identify them-
selves by sympathy with the fate of Christophe and the fallen fortunes
of his throne and family,) the terror-stricken inhabitants mustered
up sufficient courage to cast stones upon their bodies as they walked
past, and thus hid from the sun the shame and horror of their assas-
sination, whilst it still distressingly survived in their hearts and me-
mories. The republican government have never taken any step to
reclaim their corses from their dishonoured grave, though they pre-
tend their unmerited fate has claimed and received their pity. The
fact is, they were secretly glad at the calamity, as cutting off root and
branch, sire and son, the house of Christophe, and thus extinguishing
the hopes of a monarchical government. These princes were greatly
beloved, and really deserved the affection of the people, from a kind
and generous disposition which characterised them. They were ta-
lented, and in their youth and innocence became victims for their
father's crimes.

" In our way homeward, a visit to M. Ballardelle, the French
consul, who occupies one of those pretty little houses with a garden
about it which we had observed from the hill, gave me an opportunity
of seeing some fragments of the marble statues, with which the gates
and gardens of the colonists had been embellished, when the city of
the Cape bore the reputation of ' Queen of the Antilles.' These de-
corations were certainly costly. They were of a very pure white
marble; but cut rather in a bold than a correct style.

" January 29.^ — I am annoyed by the incessant smack of whips
which precedes the Carnival of the Mardi-gras. I have been long re-
sident in a country where this sound is the accompaniment of humi-
liating human suffering, and I cannot hear this prelude of a feast
without shuddering at it as the wonted accompaniment of pain and la-
mentation. Whilst I make this remark, it will not, I think, be con-
sidered an incident of forced association to mention, that Haytian
parents seldom flog their children. One may sit for months together
in the house and never be disturbed by the street annoyance of
crying urchins, and unforgiving and unfeeling mothers. The children
too, it is a remarkable fact, are not generally of a very playful
temperament; they are of a sedate habit, having about them no-
thing melancholy, but simply quiet and silent, not reserved ; re-

City of the Cape. 445

quiring to be drawn out into the usual artless communicativeness
of youth and infancy ; yet not awkward and shy, being rather full of
confidence, and quite au fait at what constitutes the propriety of be-
haviour. They are seen in the shops at a very early age, and perform
their little duties of attention and service with a great air of polite-
ness, good nature, and usefulness. In the church you will see them
engaged at their infantile orisons, with as much devout demeanour
as the most heart-stricken penitent there. They are really drilled
into very good habits, both at home and at school, without the aid of
coercion and harsh speaking. The whip is an abhorrence, and to in-
flict it, as a disgraceful chastisement, is a high crime and misdemean-
our in Hayti. But I know it can be said, and there are many that
can prove it, that all the youths above the condition of cultivators
and little farmers, exhibit an early propensity to indolence and de-
pravity. This is undoubtedly true, but inasmuch as it is not equally
true that those who are engaged in agriculture present similar indi-
cations of ripeness and rottenness, it is evident that this great social
evil springs out of the want of occupation. In the towns where this
mass of corruption is depraving the people, there are no means of
useful employment but those which flow from the activity of com-
merce. Merchants, shopkeepers, and artizans, form the community.
Few Haytians have either capital or influence to take their station in
the first class. Their educated youths may, however, find a means of
creditable and respectable livelihood as clerks in the counting-houses ;
and at the table of European merchants see the value of preserving
those habits which had early recommended them to confidence and
occupation ; but unhappily, in the midst of all this, comes the mili-
tary system, drafting them into the regiments of the line, to herd with
ignorance, indolence, and vice ; to be marched from Cape Delmarie
to Sumana, from south to north, from east to west, to be encamped
in plains and mountains, savannas and forests, and lose all sense of
the usefulness of activity in the listless luxury of repose. In the terms
of the law, they may escape this military liability, by marrying early,
and conducting business on their own account; but that has its evils,
its perils, and difficulties. The shopkeeping interest is all absorbed
by the marchandes — women who have large families to maintain by
their industry, and who, by ^le honourable and punctual manner in
which they fulfil the terms of the credit given them, have secured,
exclusively, the confidence \,he European merchants. The know-
ledge that this loose morality prevails among the men, puts them out
of all competition with the women in mercantile favour and indul-
gence. They may turn brokers, intermediate buyers, merchants,
and farmers. There, as the lightest conscience makes the lightest
labour, their depravation finds its most congenial company, and dis-
sipation its delight ; so that the moment they commence being in
some measure industrious, is the moment when they confirm their
habits, and sink deepest in respectability and credit. The artizans
having moved, from beginning to last, more humbly ; having walked
on more equably, and possessing a trade ; having escaped the very
military liabilities which others have incurred, have exemplified the
imperishable truth which has made the contentment of mediocrity a

446 Recent Communications from Hayti.

proverb. They have survived the storm and the ealm, and sailed with
a prosperous breeze between the two.

" Knowing all these facts, and impressed with the conviction that
these people are only the creatures of uncontrollable circumstances,
inert because they have no occupation, and lax in their discipline be-
cause they are thrust into improper association, I should plead
strenuously for the opening of the Jamaica trade, assured, that in
rendering them more useful to themselves and their country, they will
be made more important to our commercial interests. Any person
acquainted with the agricultural condition of our Jamaica colony,
knows, that during the period when the staples of sugar and coffee
yielded great returns on capital invested in their culture, the whole
labouring population were devoted to that and nothing else ; but
that since these articles have had to struggle with the ordinary com-
petition of the market, they have so sunk in value, that they yield not
sufficient interest for the original outlay. The onerous responsibilities
which the planter had incurred, however, with the merchant, in the
progi-ess of his difficulties, has left him no option in the employment
of his slaves. Sugar may to him be a dead loss, but he stands
pledged to his mortgagee for the proceeds its fields yield under the
existing system, which has enabled him to stake his labourers as
a security for his debt. The price of colonial produce, in the time of
accidental prosperity, had led him into the fatal economy of being
dependent on foreign importations for the food of his slaves. Had
he been led to cultivate corn, rice, peas, and beans for them, he had
not merely supplied the wants of his own estates, but the wants of the
neighbouring towns. He would indeed have had less land in sugar,
but now that commodity is at a loss, he would have been the gainer
by it. Hayti has immense plains, fit for the kind of tillage required
by the food in demand in the Jamaica market. She has a popula-
tion, who without diminishing her present recoltes of coffee, or her
existing exports of cotton, could devote a considerable portion of un-
occupied time to the production of pulse and grain. She has, in her
military establishments, an unemployed population, which must, when
disbanded, make labour cheap. She has advantages in her agricul-
tural system — ^her process of irrigation, her facilities of transport, by
the cheapness of horses and cattle, which would enable her to pro-
duce the commodities with little expenditure of capital ; and lastly,
her lands are of so light a soil, so even and so fertile, that a system
of plough-husbandry, and of general aid by machinery, would enable
her existing population so to extend their resources, that she would
command the market, simply by the cheapness of her productions.
Her competition would be with the United States of America ; but if
her corn, which is better, is found at the same time cheaper, and her
rice, which is firmer and more nutritious than that raised on the swampy
plains of Carolina, be already more approved of, she has nothing
to dread from undertaking the struggle for rivalry with countries op-
pressed by the burthen of slave-labour.* Thus much for the effects

" * Haytian rice is usually half the price of the American, in a Haytian
jmarket."

Recent Communications from Hay ti — Habits of the People. AAl

of an open trade with Jamaica on her tillage ; its influence on her
pasture farms, and its creation of a mercantile community of small
capitalists, I shall discuss another time.

" January 31. — I scarcely ever climb any of the points of elevated
land above the little plain of the city, without seeiiig objects to interest
me. To-day the Consul and I took a little wild walk, through tracts
which the human foot had first beat into an indented path, and the rains
excavated into a narrow ravine. We find ruins of habitations, and gar-
dens that had been formed, wherever the view had been particularly
commanding. The Fossette, with its roads and green lawns, speckled with
trees, had a pleasing happy sort of character, enlivened with stirring
people, strolling sheep and cattle, and loaded horses and asses coming
and going ; and the point of low sand, and marshy level, within which
the Estuary of the Haut de Cap river flowed tranquilly and bright,
with its dark mangrove borders, and one or two palm and date trees,
and its hill-fortress, not far distant, was very pretty. The setting
sun lighting the pinnacled mountains, and shining on the most un-
frequented spots of verdure around the ruinous buildings of the plain,
seemed to give it an air of tillage, without its really boasting of much
that was either of the useful or profitable sort. I thought some of the
massy buildings of the city, ruinous as they were, were unusally
grand. We saw them at their angles, so that two sides of their front
were exposed to view, which, perhaps, increased their apparent magni-
tude. The plain is for the most part entirely neglected and unregarded,
except as pasture, and its appropriation to this purpose was rather to
be inferred from the cattle partially seen grazing on a few naked spots
beneath the eye, than from any systematic attention to meadow mak-
ing. The wood was spread in continued dark lines and patches, and the
cultivation, such as it was, was much more as provision-grounds than
as corn-fields ; though the splendid estate of Duplau was a pro-
minent object, beyond the magazines and cottages of Petite Anse, on
the shores of the bay."

(To he Continued.)

II. — Donations and Remittances in aid of the Funds oi" the
Anti-Slavery Society, from May 14, to August 3, 1831.

Mr. T. G. Parker, Uppingham .

Mr. John Parker, ditto

Mr. E. Kemp, ditto

Rev. J. Green, ditto

Sundries from Uppingham

Liskeard and East Cornwall Association

Ditto ditto

Berkhampstead Association . . ,

Brighton ditto •

Rochester Ladies' Association

Ditto ditto

Edward Vale, Esq., 6, College Street, Chelsea

Colebrookdale Association

Thomas Piper, Esq., by Rev. J. Burnett

Mrs. Pugh, by Mrs. Pownall

£. s.

d.

(annual)

2 2

0

(ditto)

1 1

0

(ditto)

0 10

6

(ditto)

0 10

6

(donation)

0 12

6

(ditto)

10 0

0

(payment)

r 0

0

. . (ditto)

2 16

0

(ditto)

7 7

0

(ditto)

2 16

0

(donation)

5 0

0

(ditto)

5 0

0

(ditto)

15 11

10

(ditto)

10 10

0

(ditto)

0 10

0

448

Donations and Subscriptions.

Residue of a Collection made by Mrs. Pownall at Epsom

Stroud (Gloucester) Association

Coventry Association

Liverpool ditto

Ditto Ladies' ditto

Mrs. Hannah More .

Horsham Association

Westerham ditto

Ditto ditto

Milford Association .

Leominster ditto

Ditto ditto

Mr. G. Withey, Melksham

Dover Association

Calne ditto

Mr. G. Hall, Staindrop, Darlingt

Captain Stuart,

Mr. Philip Sewell .

Truro Association

Southwark Ladies ditto

Croydon Association

Ditto ditto

G. T. Clarke, Esq.

Camberwell Ladies' Association

A. R. Barclay, Esq.

Mr. G. Jelley

Lincoln Association

Hull ditto

Fordingbridge ditto

R. Reynolds, Esq. Farringdon

Levi^es Association

Rochester ditto

Margate ditto

Beverley Ladies' ditto

North London and Islington Ladies' Association

T. W. Austin, Esq.

Bury Association

Alton Ladies' ditto

Gracechurch Street Ladies' ditto

Banbury Association

Ladies Anti-Slavery Society for the Emancipation and

Relief of Negro Slaves for Battersea, Clapham, and

their respective neighbourhoods ,
Anonymous . .

Staines Association . .

Southampton ditto
St. Ives ditto . .

Edinburgh ditto
Colebrookdale ditto
Bath ditto . , .

Rastrick ditto

Stoke Newington Ladies' Association
Tottenham ditto ditto

Westminister ditto ditto

Miss Harriet Sutherland

/

(donation)

(payment)

(ditto)

(ditto)

(donation)

(annual)

(donation)

(ditto)
(payment)
(ditto)
(ditto)
(donation)
(payment)
(ditto)
(ditto)
(donation)
(annual)
(ditto)
(payment)
(ditto)
(ditto)
(donation)
(annual)
(payment)
(annual)
(ditto)
(payment)
(ditto)
(ditto)
(annual)
(payment)
(ditto)
(ditto)
(ditto
(ditto)
(annual)
(payment)
(ditto)
(ditto)
(ditto)

£. s. d.

3 0 9
12 6

4 18 0
30 0 0
25 0 0

1 0 0
4 14 6
10 0

2 9 0
0 11 2

3 19 2
25 0 0

0 7 0

10 0 0

6 6 0

0

0

1

1

7

0
0
0
0
6

2 10 6
5 0 0
110

0 4 6

1 1 0

0 10 6
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14 8 0

1 17 11
10 0

14 4 4

3 12 0

2 0 9

3 12 0
3 1 10
10 0
3 18 4
2 13 0
18 5
1 16 0

(donation) 25 0 0

(ditto) 2 5 8

(payment) 6 0 6

(ditto) 10 0 0

(ditto) 2-0 6

(ditto) 15 0 0

(ditto) 5 8 0

(ditto) 20 0 0

(ditto) 3 7 0

(ditto) 2 2 10

(ditto) 4 10 9

(ditto) 5 8 0

(donation) 5 G 0

London:— S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, U, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER

No. 89.] OCTOBER 25, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 17.

T. — The Colony of Antigua ; its Laws and Manners.
IL — Emancipation of Crown Slaves.
III. — A View of Jamaica Jails.

IV. — Jamaica Slave Population: Burge versus Buxton.
V. — Laws and Manners of Jamaica illustrated. — 1. Parochial. Resolu-
tions of Revolt. — 2. JamaiciLJ7istice and lenity. ^

I. — The Colony of Antigua; its Laws and Manners.

Of all the slave colonies belonging to the British Crown, that of
Antigua has evinced the most contumacious resistance to the reiter-
ated calls of the government to pass laws for the improvement of the
condition, both of the free black and coloured classes and of the
slave population ; and in this resistance they have had the active co-
operation of most of the public functionaries in the service of His
Majesty, and the negative encouragement, at least, to be derived
from the supineness and neutrality of the Governor, His Majesty's
representative in that island. This contumacy has been accompa-
nied at the same time by the most unfounded representations of the
lenity of their slave laws, and the humanity of their administration ;
and these untruths have not been denied and exposed as they ought
to have been by the Governor, whose duty it was to undeceive the
government ; on the contrary they have been upheld and accredited
by the general tenor of his official correspondence.

We shall be ready, when called upon to do so, to establish the'
truth of these grave imputations, by the clearest evidence. In the
mean time we shall confine ourselves to one or two circumstances of
recent occurrence in Antigua, which will serve to illustrate the exist-
ing state of law and manners in that much vaunted Colony.

In the month of June last, a letter was addressed, by a highly re-
spectable individual, to Sir Patrick Ross the Governor, informing
His Excellency that the cruelties of some of the planters, in Antigua,
had arrived at so alarming a height as to m.ake it necessary for the
public authorities of the Island to adopt measures to put down such
flagrant and wanton enormities, and particularly calling upon him to
institute an inquiry into the treatment of the slaves on Friar's H 11
estate, the property of Captain Haynes of the Royal Navy, whose
manager had been guilty of repeated acts of cruelty, for the confirma-
tion of which the writer referred to persons residing in the immediate
neighbourhood of Friar's Hill. He further informed His Excellency
that a young pregnant slave had been brutally treated by the
manager of that estate, and afterwards confined in a horrid dungeon,

3 I

450 State of Law and Manners in Antigua — Cruelties.

from which she was only released when the manager was courteously
informed by a magistrate, that he should be under the necessity of
visiting the estate to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the rumour.
The Governor's correspondent further informed him, that on this same
estate were erected two dungeons, ingeniously contrived for the tor-
ture of slaves, one of very small dimensions and so imperfectly ven-
tilated as to produce the most suffocating effects ; and another where
the slaves lie on their backs with their limbs stretched out, and loaded
with iron fetters, in one or other of which, slaves had been confined for
months in succession, and one for two years or more. The general
mode of punishing slaves on that estate, he further stated, to be at-
tended with circumstances of peculiar aggravation, both in the man-
ner of tying them up, and in the entire nakedness of the sufferers.

This statement was referred by the Governor to the investigation of
a magistrate of the name of Nibbs, Mr. Nibbs, who is himself a
considerable planter, took the humane and neighbourly precaution of
notifying to the manager of Friar's Hill the nature of the commission,
with the execution of which the Governor had intrusted him, and the
precise time when he should visit the estate. The result of this visit
was such as might have been expected. The report of the rrragis-
trate was exculpatory of the manager.

The Governor, however, having been given to understand that the
report of this magistrate was considered as having, but very im-
perfectly, fulfilled the ends of justice, the investigation was renewed
by two other magistrates, whose report was strangely at variance
with that of Mr. Nibbs. They not only inspected the alleged dun-
geons, but examined with great care a number of witnesses. The
result is thus given in the Antigua Free Press of the 18th of August,
1831. "It appeared that in the loft of a store building, about sixty
feet long, Mr. Haynes, (that is the manager's name) had divided off
a small room about six or eight feet square, for the purpose of con-
fining delinquents. This was constructed in the south-west corner,
which is the hottest. On the south side of this room the roof declines
to within two feet of the floor, so that no person can stand erect but
at the north side. It is entirely without ventilation, the wooden par-
titions being carried up quite to the roof; the only aperture being the
door, which of course is shut when a culprit is immured there. All
light is excluded except through two small holes in the floor, ap-
parently bored by an auger, for the purpose of admitting the arms of
a shackle below. There was another dungeon under the overseer's
house, provided with stocks for the feet, and a manacle for one hand.
When the latter is used, the prisoner must necessarily lie extended on
his back upon a wooden cabin. One witness deposed that he had
seen several persons confined in both places; among others, an elderly
man, named Johnny, who had been punished in the latter dungeon
for the period of fifteen months, under suspicion of having set fire to
a trash stack. Hannibal, also an incorrigible runaway had been locked
up in the same place for a greater space of time. They were taken
out during the working hours, and put up in the intervals and at
uight. The magistrates, Mr. Horsford and Mr. Scotland, animad-

Oppression of Slaves as to Sunday Markets. 451

verted severely on the former place of confinement. The difference
of opinion between these gentlemen and Mr. Nibbs, respecting
the room in the loft, is astonishing. The two former condemned it in
the strongest terms as a place of confinement for human beings, while
Mr. Nibbs, according to the evidence of Mr. W. Farmer, approved
of it, and did not think any openings necessary. But is it not ex-
traordinary that a magistrate, nay, a man in his senses, should con-
sider openings unnecessary in a room, which had not a breath of air,
or a particle of light, and where our fellow creatures might be im-
mured for an indefinite time ?

The only other circumstance to which we shall allude, as proving
the bad spirit which prevails among the dominant party in Antigua,
is their pertinacious refusal, notwithstanding the earnest admonitions
of His Majesty's government,* to allow to their slaves any time for
marketing during the week, in lieu of the Sunday market, which has
been taken away. It seems as if they were determined to drive their
wretched slaves into rebellion, in order to gratify, at one and the same
time, their pride, passion and cupidity, and their hatred both of the
slaves and of the friends of the slaves in this country. A few extracts
from the Antigua newspapers will set this infatuated and reckless
spirit in a clearer light.

" The true and only cause of the late conflagrations, was the dis-
appointment of the slaves, in not having a market day given them in
lieu of Sunday. Had insurrection been their purpose, would they
have remained quietly, each gang on their master's property ? No
doubt they would have collected together in numbers for mutual de-
fence and aggression, and destroyed, not a few canes, but lives. Not
a single instance however occurred, of violence being offered to any
white person, male or female, and many of the latter were un-
avoidably left by their husbands and parents altogether unprotected,
at the distance of many miles from the nearest military post. The
persons arrested on suspicion of being incendiaries were extremely
few, only about 16 out of 28,000 slaves, and of these not more than
two or three were convicted, only one capitally, and he on circum-
stantial evidence. It did not appear by the examinations, that there
was any thing like combination, and no proof was afforded of an in-
surrectionary spirit. On the contrary with the exception of the actual
incendiaries, the most quiet and orderly disposition was manifested by
the whole; and the fact of their remaining at home, and proceeding
in their usual labours without the superintendance of white men (for
these were under arms) entitles them to every credit, confidence and
indulgence." — Antigua Free Press, July 28, 1831.

" Again, for some time past the complaints of plantation slaves,
chiefly from the deprivation of any regular time for their marketing,
in lieu of Sunday, which the late law has put an end to, have been
increasing. — On Saturday last. Government House was beset with
gangs of Negroes from Bendall's estate, and Sir Christopher Cod^

* It is to be regretted that Government has not also given an example, in
their legislation for the Crown Colonies, in accordance with this admonition.

452 Antigua — oppression as to Sunday Markets.

rington's (Skerrett's) ; on Sunday morning those from Friar's Hill
made their appearance ; and last night His Excellency was again
troubled with those of Gray's Belfast. — Former complaints we suffered
to pass by, in the hope, that something would be done to compensate
the slaves for the loss of their only time of traffic, and although humane
proprietors, and directors of estates have made liberal and proper allow-
ances to this end, the great majority are still left without a like indul-
gence ; that this is absolutely necessary, is beyond a doubt, it being
unnatural to suppose, that the negroes upon one estate will rest satis-
fied without even half a-day out of seven, which they can call their
own, when they see their neighbours who happen to be blessed with
a more conscientious director, enjoying advantages and indulgences,
from which they are debarred. Two gentlemen, Mr. Warner and
Mr. Jarvis, as soon as the law abolished Sunday markets, volun-
tarily gave their whole gangs Saturday, for the purpose of traffic,
&c. With these, and many other similar examples, some general
plan ought to have been adopted, — but after a lapse of five months,
which has brought forth nothing to satisfy the slaves, their complaints
have now multiplied to an alarming degree, and we are convinced
that nothing but an act of the legislature will put the matter at
rest." — Antigua Weekly Register, August 9, 1831.

" We are just informed, that notwithstanding the Royal Proclama-
tion, and that by His Excellency, which have been distributed through
the country, enjoining orderly conduct upon the slaves, and prohibit-
ing their coming in gangs with complaints, the slaves of Harvey's
estate, under Mr. Briggs, are now proceeding to the Government
House, in a body of between 2 and 300. We understood before, that
they had refused to work on Saturday last, and had, as it is termed,
taken the day. — We again warn our rulers of the necessity of grant-
ing a day, and fixing it by law. Without this concession urged by
His Majesty's government, and demanded by prudence, and the cir-
cumstances of the country, we fear, that the spirit of discontent and
irritation will not be allayed, though proclamations be daily issued."
— Antigua Fiee Press, August 18, 1831.

"We stated in our last, that four gangs of slaves had come to town,
with complaints to the Governor. His Excellency referred these to
as many different magistrates for a hearing. With the result of three
of these examinations we are unacquainted ; but have understood,
that they were dismissed as unfounded or trifling. At the fourth we
were present ; by which it appeared, that the Negroes (Skerrett's, Sir
C. Codrington's) were never allowed the full noon-time cessation from
labour, as appointed by law, having only one hour and a half instead
of two. It was proved also that the manager, Mr. Gale, punished a
number of them improperly. He was accordingly bound over to an-
swer at the Sessions. With regard to the intermission of work at
noon, Ave have reason to believe, that the lawful period of it is
abridged on almost every estate in the country ; the bell for turning
in being rung at twelve o'clock, and that for turning out at half, or a
quarter, past one. This certainly demands redress, particularly when
it is considered, that on some occasions half an hour of the time

Emancipation of Slaves belonging to the Crown. 453

allowed is consumed in going to, and returning from, the negro
houses ; and more particularly as the proprietors and attorneys are so
tenacious of every moment which the law authorises them to exact
from the slaves." — -Antigua Weekly Register, Aug. 23, 1831.

II. — Emancipation of Crown Slaves.

On the 17th of August last a conversation took place in the House
of Commons the subject of which we record with unfeigned and un-
mingled satisfaction.

Mr. Burge. — I wish to ask the noble Lord, the Under Secretary
for the Colonies, opposite, a question relative to the Order that has
been sent out relative to the emancipation of the Crown slaves. I
wish to know whether Government took pains to obtain full informa-
tion on the subject, before they sent out the order to emancipate those
slaves, and particularly by consulting those connected with these
islands ? I wish also to know whether any, and what steps have been
taken for the future regulation and maintenance of those slaves who
are to be emancipated ? The House is aware that at present the Crown
has to payall the expenses of those slaves ; but it is possible, now they
have been emancipated, that they may become chargeable to the dif-
ferent parishes in which they reside in those islands, unless some
provision has been made for them. I think that the islands should
have been protected from having any burdens imposed on them on
this account.

Lord Viscount Howick. — In answer to the questions of the
honourable and learned gentleman, I beg to state, that Government
did not send out or issue orders for the emancipation of the Crown
slaves, until they had obtained the best information on the subject,
and until that information had been fully considered. Besides this,
I can inform the honourable gentleman, that all necessary precautions
have been taken by the Government to guard against unfortunate
consequences, by making a provision for those slaves in case of ne-
cessity. We certainly did not apply for information in the quarter to
which the honourable and learned gentleman has alluded, because it
was felt that those persons did not possess any peculiar sources of
information on the subject. With respect to the results which the
honourable Member seems to anticipate will arise from the step that
has been taken, I am happy in being enabled to state, that the ex-
perience of the past, fully warrants our pursuing the course that we
have adopted. I trust that the precautions we have now taken, will
provCj as they did on the former occasion, quite unnecessary. The
House is aware, that in 1828, orders were sent out to the island of
Antigua, to emancipate the captured negroes belonging to the Crown
in that island. This was accordingly done, and was immediately
followed by a great reduction in the Government expenditure in that
Colony, and at the same time no evil has resulted from that measure.

Some years ago, the charge for the maintenance of the captured
negroes in Antigua was £8,000 per annum; but immediately after
their emancipation, this expense was materially reduced, and I am

454 Emancipation of Crown Slaves.

happy to say, that it is now not more than £1000 a year. This charge
also will yearly decrease, as it is principally for the support of those
who are old and infirm. The House will recollect too, that it is much
wiser to emancipate those who have long been in the Colony, and
who have been accustomed to habits of industry, than it was to
liberate the captured negroes. If therefore, the measure carried into
effect respecting the latter, was successful, the presumption is, that
the present course will be attended with an equally happy result. I
understand that the Crown slaves in several of the Colonies, and more
especially Antigua, Berbice, and Demerara, are well able to maintain
themselves in a state of comparative comfort, as most of them have
been brought up to some trade. I cannot let this opportunity pass
without reading an extract from a letter written from the Governor
of Antigua, on the subject of these Crown negroes. That gentle-
man says : —

" It affords me much satisfaction in being able to state, that during
the five months that have elapsed since the Crown slaves were set at
liberty, there has not been a single complaint of their conduct, — not
a single charge has been brought against any one of them before a
magistrate, — not one of them has made application for relief on ac-
count of poverty, or other ground; but they have all been occupied
industriously in providing for their own maintenance."

The report of the Governor of Antigua of the 371 captured negroes
who were suddenly emancipated, is equally favourable. No confusion
resulted from this comparatively large iDody being liberated, for I
believe all of them were enabled to obtain employment. Now, the
number of the Crown negroes, in the isle of Antigua is thirty-six, and
they are all Creoles. If, therefore, no evil resulted from the emanci-
pation of the large number I have mentioned, is it likely any confu-
sion will arise from the smaller number? I ask, is there any danger
that these thirty-six Creoles will occasion embarrassment, when the
371 negroes did not occasion any? again the expence of supporting
the 36 Crown slaves in Antigua was £430; now this charge will be
saved, as there is every reason to believe that they will be able to
maintain themselves without any assistance.

With respect to the expence of the crown slaves, in some of the other
islands, I will, with the permission of the House, state a few circum-
stances. The number of the crown slaves, in Jamaica, is 372, and the
annual charge is about £1,700 a year. In the colony of Berbice, there
are nearly 300 crown slaves, the annual expence of which is some-
what more than £500 a year. Again, in the Mauritius, there are 1200
crown slaves, the expence of which is rather more than £4,000 per
annum. Now, it is obvious, that it is desirable that this expenditure
should be saved to the country if possible ; and I think I have stated
sufficient facts to shew that this can be done with perfect security. —
I have not the least doubt in my own mind, that all these slaves will
be able to maintain themselves without assistance, and that they will
become useful members of the communities to which they belong. I
will here observe, that in consequence of what occurred in the House
a few nights ago, a gentleman of the name of Wray, has wi'itten a

A view of Jamaica Jails. 455

letter to Lord Goderich on the subject of the crown slaves in Berbice.
This gentleman states, that he was for many years a Missionary in
that colony, and was much engaged in the instruction of the crown
slaves. He says, most of them are good tradesmen, and could, if
liberated, maintain their families in comparative comfort ; that the
greater portion of them can read, and that they take the greatest care
in bringing up their children. He adds, that six crown slaves were
liberated three years ago, that he has watched the conduct of them
since, and that more industrious and sober workmen could not be
found. He concludes with stating, that he anticipates the most bene-
ficial results from the course that he understands has been adopted,
of liberating the crown slaves in the colonies ; and that he has no
doubt they will be able to maintain themselves without any expence to
the Government. I can, for my own part, only add, that it has
always been understood that the crown slaves in these colonies should
be emancipated as soon as it could be safely done. I think that that
time has now arrived, and that Government was called upon to take the
step they have now done. That the crown slaves could be safely
emancipated, we have the concurrent authority of many persons well
acquainted with the subject. I hold it, therefore, to have been the
duty of Ministers to adopt that course as speedily as they could.

in. — Jamaica Jails.

On the 16th of July, 1830, was laid on the table of the House of
Commons a Return, No. 673, which we ought to have noticed long
ago. It is a Return of " all persons confined in the different jails
and workhouses of the island of Jamaica, on the 1st of January, 1829,"
specifying also various particulars respecting them. The Return does
not appear to be complete, the workhouse of St. Thomas in the Vale
being omitted. In the other workhouses there were incarcerated, as a
punishment for crimes of which they had been convicted, no fewer than
491 persons. Of these three were white seamen imprisoned during
twenty days for refusing to do their duty on shipboard, but not one
free black or coloured person. The slave convicts consequently
amounted to 488. Of this number 174, namely, 146 men, and 28
women, were condemned to hard labour in chains for life ; the sole
crime for which they incurred this frightful punishment was that of
absconding from their master's work, in other words, that of running
away from the cart-whip, for six months or more.

There is a further list of persons condemned for the same crime, to
imprisonment and hard labour for periods varying from one to twelve
months, many of whom were further subjected to receive thirty-nine
lashes at the beginning of their prescribed term of imprisonment, and
thirty-nine lashes more at the conclusion of it. Of this class there
Avere 82, namely, 63 men, and 19 women. Sixteen more had been
committed to jail as runaways, who asserted themselves to be free,
but not being able to produce documentary evidence of their freedom,
they were condemned, although no one claimed them as slaves, to be
sold as slaves for the benefit of the island, in discharge of their jail

456 A view of Jamaica Juils.

fees, and in repayment of the cost of feeding them in prison. Besides
these, there are many confined for such crimes as abusing or offiering
violence to white or free people; and riotous behaviour; and also for
thefts, and robberies of various grades ; and not a kw whose names
and owners are given, but whose offences are not specified ; but who
were placed there, we presume, by their owners by way of undergoing
the wholesome discipline of a Jamaica workhouse ; the word solitary
being affixed to some names, meaning, probably, solitary confinement,
while certain floggings to be inflicted are attached to the names of
others.

Our attention was especially arrested by the great number con-
demned to hard labour for life, not only for the crime of running
away, of which class there are 174, but for other crimes which we
should deem too light to be visited any more than that of absconding,
with such a terrible infliction as this, an infliction scarcely inferior in
severity to that of death itself. Among them we remark (pp. 3 and 8)
the offence of petit larceny, visited in two cases with imprisonment
and hard labour for life, and the same offence in another case (p. .5)
sentenced to six months' hard labour, with thirty-nine lashes at going
in, and thiity-nine lashes at coming out. This last is a common
measure of punishment for stealing. For assaulting or offering vio-
lence towards a white person (pp. 7 and 15) the sentence is imprison-
ment and hard labour for life. A female slave (p. 8) is condemned
to the same terrible punishment for " assaulting her master." Another
woman for "offering violence to her owner" (p. 13) is condemned to
six months' hard labour, and to thirty-nine lashes at going in and the
same number at coming out.

We observe, in a great many instances, that the sentence of im-
prisonment and hard labour for life, is inflrcted not by a regular slave
Court, but by three magistrates, and that in certain parishes the
names of the same three persons almost continually recur in visiting
those they call " incorrigible runaways" with this dreadful punish-
ment. But surely it is scarcely consistent with the principles of Eng-
lish law, that it should be in the power of three men, unassisted by' a
jury, to inflict such a tremendous severity of punishment on any of
the King's subjects, whether black or white. In all those cases the
owners too are indemnified for the slaves thus condemned to im-
prisonment and hard labour for life, by being paid their appraised
value.

In one of the parishes, St. Catherine's, the superintendant of the
workhouse has favoured us with a sketch of the moral qualities of his
prisoners (p. 9). The whole number under his care is 59, of whom 49
are condemned to imprisonment and hard labour for life, almost all
of them for running away ; the majority are said to be "ill-behaved,"
and " disorderly." But nearly one-half of the number are described
by the superintendant as "well-behaved," "well-behaved and steady,"
"well-behaved and attentive," " well-behaved and obedient," "well-
disposed and quiet," "well-disposed, obedient, and quiet." It seems
strange, that men of whom such a character can be given with truth,
should be kept in chains and subjected to imprisonment and hard

A view of Jamaica Jails. 457

labour for life. But such is the necessary result of the system of
Colonial Slavery. It is not merely the idle, and the contumacious,
and the vicious vpho are tempted to run avpay from their masters ; but
the timid and the industrious; those who shrink not from moderate
labour, but from the pain and laceration of the cart-whip. They have
committed some unintentional offence for which they are threatened
with, or have cause to dread, punishment. They escape to the woods
to avoid the infliction of the lash, and are prevented by terror from
returning. At length they are apprehended, tried for running away,
and condemned to imprisonment and hard labour in chains for life,
their only crime being, that they shrunk from the lacerations of the
cart-whip, inflicted not by due course of law, but at the caprice of
any unfeeling ruffian who happened to be the owner or the overseer.

The 488 cases given in this Return, be it remembered, are quite in-
dependent of all the apprehended deserters that crowd the advertise-
ments in the daily newspapers of the Island ; and all the slaves levied
upon by the Marshal for the master's debts, or by the collector for
taxes due by the master, and who are committed to the jail or to the
workhouse till claimed or sold. They consist chiefly of the slaves who,ou
one specified day — thelstof January, 1829, were undergoing the punish-
ment inflicted upon them for some public crime, by some public Court,
or by the order of three magistrates. But besides these, and over and
above all the other classes we have mentioned as crowding the public
jails or workhouses of this one island, on every estate there is a jail
or place of confinement, of whose inmates no Record is kept, but who
are incarcerated and flogged at the mere caprice of the owner or over-
seer, without the intervention of any magistrate, and without respon-
sibility to any magistrate, provided it cannot be proved by legal evi-
dence, and in Jamaica slave-evidence is not admitted, that the legal
limit of 39 lashes has been exceeded. And as for confinement in the
stocks or bilboes of the plantation, the law affixes no limit to its dura-
tion, nor provides any means of visitation or inspection. These places
of confinement are wholly withdrawn from the public eye. No Record
is even required to be kept of flagellations, however severe ; and to
such flagellations and to such confinement every man, woman and
child, of the 330,000 slaves of Jamaica, is liable, every day in the
year, without the possibility of redress, if only the person who inflicts
the punishment is prudent enough to limit his stripes to thirty-nine ;
or to take care, if he exceeds that number, that no free witness is
present. The Slave Code now in force in Jamaica is at this day sub-
stantially the same as that of 1816.

The apparent improvements since that time amount to nothing; to a
mere pretence and mockery of amelioration, calculated to hoodwink
the eyes of the British public, but conveying to the slaves no ad-
ditional immunity from injury and outrage, nor any additional pro-
tection either of person or property, nor any additional security from
the intensity and continuity of such coerced labour as the master may
choose to exact, or from the scantiness and insufficiency of the food
and clothing he may choose to allow.

3 k

458 Jamaica Slave Population — Burge versus Buxton.

These positions, we challenge all the advocates of Slavery, in or
out of Parliament, to disprove.

IV. — Jamaica Slave Populatiok; Burge versus Buxton.

Our readers cannot have forgotten either the luminous statement on
the subject of the slave population of the West Indies by Mr. Buxton,
on the 15th of April last, or the contradiction attempted to be given
to it by Mr. Burge, the Colonial Agent of Jamaica, The controversy
has attracted the notice of that able periodical work, the Christian
Record, published in Jamaica; and in its Eighth number, which has
just reached us, there has appeared the following article, which appears
decisive of the controversy as to the deadly nature of slavery in Ja-
maica, at least as far as sugar culture is concerned.

The following are extracts from this powerful, and, as it appears to
us, irrefutable article : —

" When the report of Mr, Buxton's last speech in the House of
Commons, on the Slave question, was received in this country, we,
and many others, were not a little startled at the assertions made in
it respecting the rapid rate at which the slave population of the
Colonies is now being ' emancipated ' by death. We were our-
selves inclined to doubt the accuracy of his information, and we
heard many stigmatize his assertions as being ' false,' and declare
that -they ' could not be correct.' Others, however, seemed to admit
the fact of a decrease ; but then, without hesitation, they accounted
for it by the great number of manumissions, or by the regularly
recurring * accidents ' of ' measles, typhus fevers, pleurisies, and
small pox.' But the question appears to us to be one of the deepest
interest ; and one that ought not to be, and cannot be, disposed of
thus easily. If the facts of the case are known really to be as Mr.
Buxton represents, there can no longer be a question as to the evil
arising from the present system of slave management, and, indeed,
from slavery itself ; and surely it will only need to set them clearly
before the colonists themselves, to remove centuries of the prejudices
they entertain against the adoption of those measures which are cal-
culated, and intended, gradually to change their present race of
annually decreasing bond slaves, into an increasing free peasantry.
Those prejudices are all rooted in the avarice of the human heart.
The apprehension of a ' loss of property' is that which gives them all
their strength, and renders them invulnerable to the soundest argu-
ments of reason, and to the most forcible appeals of humanity and
religion. If, then, it can be clearly shown to the colonists that, upon
the very system they so tenaciously adhere to, that which they much
dread in changing it, viz. 'a loss of property,' must follow, since it has
for years been perishing under it; the very ground of their prejudices
will be removed, and we may reasonably expect that their feelings
of self-interest will all be then enlisted in favour of the ameliorating
measures, which we have advocated, and which the British govern-
ment seems determined to enforce. Viewing the matter in this light,
we have taken considerable pains to procure correct and authentic

Jamaica Slave Population — Burye versus Buxton. 459

infornaation as to ihe facts of the case, in reference to the slave popu-
lation of our own island. Thanks to the ' Triennial Returns,' we
have obtained such as cannot be questioned, and may be implicitly
relied on. It is also easily to be verified by any one who may choose
to take the trouble. But before we communicate this information to
our readers, it is necessary that we should make a few observations
on the subject of population generally, to enable those who have not
been in the habit of considering such subjects, fully to comprehend
the importance of that information, and to arrive at just conclusions
froiB it."

After some allusions to Mr. Malthus's Theory of population, and
the facts that population in the United States doubles in about twenty-
five years, and in New Spain in twenty-seven or twenty-eight years,
and in the old countries of Europe in forty or fifty years ; the writer
thus proceeds : —

"But what must be the extent of the influence of ' peculiar causes
of mortality,' in a country where ' the labour of a few days is suffi-
cient to obtain a supply for the wants of a whole year ;'* and, with
reference to a population, to whom, in consequence, mere prudential
restraint, on account of the want of subsistence, is unknown ; when we
find that the great mass of this very population is not increasing , so
as to double in fifty, or even a hundred years, but decreasing at a
rate by which it will be utterly extinct in about a hundred ? The fact
is one of the most appalling nature — but fact it is. The slave popu-
lation of Jamaica, upon the sugar estates, forming the great bulk of
the people, is, we are satisfied, actually dying off at nearly that rate !

" Now, it is so manifest, that this is not occasioned in Jamaica in
the slightest degree by the operation of the check of ' moral restraint,'
that it would be a waste of time were we to point out its absence.
We must go at once to those of ' vice and misery,' to discover the
causes of this result. Under the former head, then, are classed ' the
sort of intercourse which renders some of the women of large towns
unprolific ; a general corruption of morals with regard to the sex,
which has a similar effect ; unnatural passions, and improper acts to
prevent the consequences of irregular connections.' Under the latter
are included ' all the causes which tend in any way prematurely to
shorten the duration of life ; such as unwholesome occupations, severe
labour and exposure to the seasons, bad and insufficient food and
clothing, bad nursing of children, excesses of all kinds, great towns
and manufactories, the whole train of common diseases and epidemics,
wars, infanticide, plague, and famine.' With regard to the first (with
the exception of unnatural passions), it is admitted that these vices are
greatly prevalent among the slaves, and doubtless they exercise a very
great influence in checking among them the increase of population ;
but that they are sufficient to account for its extraordinary decrease, we
cannot, by any means, allow. What is the case with the Maroons? Are
not those vices as prevalent among them ? And yet we find that the
Maroons are increasing ; and that, in a geometrical progression, which,

* See Barclay, M' Queen, &c. &c.

460 Jamaica Slave Population — Burye versus Buxton.

■we believe, on accurate inrestigation, would be found nearly equal to
that of the United States, or, at all events, to that of New Spain. It
remains, then, that we must look for the great causes of this fearful de-
population of our estates under the last head, — that of ' ynisery.' We
beg our colonial reader not to cast our pages from him here, with the
disgust of prejudice ; but, like a reasonable being, dispassionately
to investigate the subject, interesting as it is to him in every point of
view, and see whether he can possibly discover any other causes for
the facts which the tables we annex exhibit, than those to which we
attribute them,- — arising out of the state of slavery, and the system
of slave management, which now i^revails among us.

" To those who would endeavour to evade the force of the argu-
ments, drawn from the fact of a decrease, in favour of ' amelioration
and final emancipation,' by ascribing it to * the great number of
manumissions,' and to periodical visitations of ' diseases and epi-
demics,' we answer, as to the former cause, that it does not in any
degree affect the question ; for it is to the decrease, occasioned by the
excess of deaths over births, that we confine it. Besides, we find,
that the number of manumissions is by no means so great as has
lately and very generally been supposed. Our tables show, that
among a population averaging 4731, there were only thirty-one manu-
missions in twelve years, being at the rate of one per annum in 1833
people. As to the latter cause, the periodical visitations and epide-
mics, these have, in all countries, more or less, affected the increase
of population, and have been considered in the calculations made upon
it. It becomes imperative on these persons, then, if they would have us
attach any weight to their assertions, clearly to shew, by documents
as authentic as our tables, that these visitations have indeed been
more frequent, and more destructive to human life, in Jamaica, than
in any other portion of the globe ; — and further, that the annual de-
crease, on each particular estate, has actually occurred under such
aw/iMa/visitation. Until this is done, the assertion can only be re-
garded as one of those shallow pretexts, and gratuitous assumptions,
to which prejudice resorts when pressed by arguments, and over-
whelmed by facts.

" In Mr. Burge's speech, in reply to Mr. Buxton, we find the de-
crease attributed to the number of old Africans in the country; but
we are utterly at a loss to discover how this accounts for it. Who
were the progenitors of the creole slaves among us ? Besides, Afri-
cans, in Africa, notwithstanding all the drainings of constant wars,
and the slave trade, increase rapidly. If, when transported to Jamai-
ca, they cease to do so, to what shall we ascribe it ? Ought not Mr.
Burge to htive seen the irresistible conclusion ? In Africa they were
free, in Jamaica they are slaves ! But there is another fact which most
conclusively proves that neither to the dying off of the unprolific
Africans, nor to the periodical visitations of ' diseases and epidemics,'
can this decrease of the slave population be ascribed. It will be
found by our tables, as we proceed from the sugar districts into those
of the coffee properties and pens, that the slave population on these
last is increasing in some cases ; and we suspect precisely in propor-

Jamaica Slave Population — Burge versiis Buxton. 461

tion as the chain of their bondage has been lightened ; whilst, in all,
it is not decreasing at any thing like the rate at which the slaves are
dying off under the systems pursued on sugar estates ! And must we
not conclude, that these systems, in which the general slave system
is carried to its perfection, are the true causes of this waste of human
life — of this ' loss of property V If not, we request the advocates of
things as they are to point out to us what are ; not in the old way of
gratuitous assertion, conveyed in abusive language towards their
opponents, but by well authenticated facts, and such calm, dispas-
sionate reasonings on them, as may convince men who are engaged in
the investigation of a most important subject, and are really desirous
to arrive at the truth, uninfluenced by prejudice or passion.

" The limits of our publication, and the labour of preparing the
tables, preclude our giving more, at one time, than the extracts from
the returns of one district. We have commenced with the sugar
estates in the Plantain-Garden-River district of St. Thomas in the
East ; and have done so because, confessedly, this among the sugar
districts, is ^ the most favoured one in the island.' As we travel to
other districts this character will be found to have been justly given
to it, if we are to take as a criterion the greater decrease of population
in the others.

Table I. gives the actual results of the Triennial Returns, made on
oath by the managers, &c. of the whole of the sugar estates, except
one, in the district. Table II. shows, at one view, the number of
births and deaths during the whole period of twelve years ; exhibits
the rate of increase and decrease per annum, calculated on an average
of the population at three returns of 1817, 1823, and 1829; and also
the actual decrease, by death, of the population, at the end of that
period. In bringing this out, we have deducted the total number of
births from the total number of deaths, excluding both the increase
and decrease by other causes. Attention to this will be necessary, in
verifying our calculations. Table III. gives the population of the
maroons during the same period, (according to the returns made by
the superintendants to the House of Assembly), together with its ac-
tual increase, and the rate per annum, as calculated on it. The
Returns do not shew the number of maroons (and it is not a small
one) who have renounced their privileges, and are now merged in the
general mass of the free population. Could this have been ascer-
tained, the result would, of course, have exhibited a greater increase,
and a more rapid rate, nearly in proportion to that of the United
States.

" In considering Table II. we beg our readers to keep the following
facts in mind, and to compare them with those exhibited in the table.
Of course, increase of population must depend on the excess of the
births over the deaths. Accordingly, in New Spain, the annual
average of births is one in seventeen ; of deaths, owing probably to
peculiar causes, one in thirty : in the United States, of births one in
nineteen ; of deaths one in forty. The proportion varies in the
different countries of Europe, but it may be stated as commonly of
births, one in twenty, to deaths, one in thirty-five or forty

3 K 2

462 Jamaica Slave Population — Burge versus Buxton.

'' We fully expect, in publishing these tables that, among a certain
class, the insane cry already raised against us will be swelled into a
still louder burst of passion. We know that we shall be charged with
having prepared them for the purpose of affording Mr. Buxton, and
other ' anti-slavery fanatics,' the means of carrying on their ' warfare
against the lives and properties of the colonists.' But the time is
coming, and perhaps is not far distant, when our countrymen will
think more justly of us, and will acknowledge those to have been their
best friends who are now endeavouring to open their eyes to the evils
of their present systems, and to what is, after all, their true interests,
even in a pecuniary point of view. The actual loss of property, by
decrease of population, on the seventeen sugar estates mentioned in
Tables I. and II. has been, in twelve years, (averaging negroes during
the whole of that period at £60) £33,600.* And what ' compensa-
tion,'have these proprietors received for it, from the system of ma-
nagement under which, as there is too much reason to conclude, it

has perished ? Let them calculate its advantages.

* * *■ * * * * *

" Since the preceding remarks were written, the report of a com-
mittee of the vestry of St. Thomas in the East, of which Mr. Barclay
was chairman, in answer to Mr. Thorpe's statements, has been pub-
lished. We find there an attempt made to account for the decrease
in the slave population. It is asserted, that for the ten years previous
to the abolition of the slave trade, a great number of African negroes,
chiefly adults, were imported into this island. Assuming the year
1802 as the mean period of their arrival, and thirty years to be their
average age at that period, it is supposed that they would be now ap-
proaching the age of sixty, and the inference is drawn that this satis-
factorily accounts, in the course of nature, for the decrease. The
theory is an ingenious one, and, as the cause it is meant to support
requires ingenuity, the most is made of it ; for, besides forming the
basis of Mr, Burge's reply, to which we have adverted, we find that it
had been previously put forth to the world in Mr. Barclay's book.
We question, however, the accuracy of the data assumed ; for although
we believe that a great number of negroes were imported at the period
mentioned, we understand that they were chiefly young people, and
that the average age of eighteen or twenty would be much nearer the
truth. Besides, we are satisfied that the mortality among the African
negroes has not been at all out of proportion to the general mortality
on the sugar estates, especially when it is considered that deaths, in
the ordinary course of nature, by old age, are to be expected among
them, rather than among the Creoles, twenty-four years having elapsed
since they were imported. For instance, we would request Mr. Bar-
clay to examine the Registry Returns for the Rhine estate, of which
we believe he is now the manager, and he will find, that of one hun-

* " If we add to this loss the value of 1,218 negroes, which ought to have
been the increase of a population averaging 4j731, at the rate at which the ma-
roons have increased ; and estimate that value at only one half the above average
of £60, the totalloss which has been sustained will amount to £70,146 !"

Jamaica Slave Population — Burge versus Buxton. 463

dred and twelve negroes who have died on that property in twelve
years, thepopulation averagingone hundred and eighty-eight; seventy-
one were Creoles, and only forty-one Africans ! !* But, admitting the
facts which have been assumed, and that a greater mortality, in
proportion, is thus caused, we deny the inference that the decrease
of the population is therefore satisfactorily accounted for. Our readers
will at once perceive, that the decrease must depend, as we have al-
ready stated, not on the deaths alone, but on the relative proportion
of the deaths to the births ; and we are satisfied, that the accession
of a considerable number of people in the prime of life, would, in the
course of a lapse of thirty years, tend more powerfully to the increase
of any population, than a much larger number added by birth. A
little reflection will convince any reasoning man, that the progressive
annual increase of population by birth, thence arising, in the lapse of
years, ought, at the end of the period, to do much more than counter-
balance the annual decrease by death ; especially if he adverts to the
fact discovered by observation and experience, that not above three-
fourths on an average, of the children born survive the early years of
infancy. Now, can it be said, that at any given time, during the last
-thirty years, our slave population, generally, has exhibited any thing
a^pproaching to the progressive increase, whichought to have been the
natural result of the influx of adults at the commencement of that
period? On the contrary, is it not a well known fact, that during that
period, on many sugar estates in the island, the population has been
almost renewed by ^mrchase ?

" But if we are to ascribe the decrease to the natural dying off of
a large body of Africans, imported at a particular period, how comes
it, that although there are as many (if not more) Africans on the
coflee plantations and pens, in proportion to their population, as on
the sugar estates, the decrease on the former bears no proportion to
that on the latter ? In proof of this we have added two other tables,
Nos. IV. and V. shewing an abstract of the Registry Returns, and the
increase and decrease on the principal coffee plantations in St. Thomas
in the East. The coffee properties in that parish are chiefly in the
Blue Mountain district, and all of those mentioned in our table, ex-
cept three, are situate there. We have added three properties in the
Plantain-Garden-River district, namely. Bachelor's Hall pen, belong-
ing to the same owner, and under the same manager as Golden-Grove
estate, and the only two considerable properties- (not sugar) in that
district, Green-Castle and Horse-Hill. Bachelor's Hall pen exhibits
a decrease; but let our readers compare the rate with that of Golden-
Grove, f

" Notwithstanding, then, the arguments of the committee of the

" * It is a striking fact, that if all the deaths of Africans on this estate are ex-
cluded from consideration, and those of Creoles only reckoned, there will still be
an excess of deaths over births during the tivelve years."

" f On the pen, the actual decrease, during twelve years, has been at the
average rate of one per annum in every 415.15. On the estate one per annum
in every 86.58."

464 Jamaica Slave Population — Burge versus Buxton.

vestry of St. Thomas in the East, we contend that the tables, Nos, II.
III. and V. and comparative statements of results which we have de-
ducted from them, completely bear iis out in our assertions ; and ex-
hibit the most decisive proofs of the evil influence of the general
system of slave management, and of the peculiar aggravation of that
system on the sugar estates.

" While, however, we cannot withhold from our readers these una-
voidable conclusions from the whole of the documents laid before
them, it is gratifying to us to direct their attention to the fact, that
since 1 823, during the latter half of the period embraced by them,
the number of deaths has been smaller, and the number of births has
been greater, than during the preceding six years ; from whence we
infer- some partial relaxation of the system on the sugar estates. We
do hope and trust that it is but an earnest of further amelioration.

" In an unfeigned spirit of love, we once more implore all con-
cerned, to put away from them all bitterness and clamour ; and to
examine, dispassionately, into the system and its effects. — If they
will but do so, we are quite convinced they will cease to regard, with
feelings of irritated, and irritating, opposition, the measures that are
recommended to their adoption for the present amelioration and ulti-
mate total abolition of that system, at the earliest moment compatible
with the safety and real happiness of both bond and free.

" For ourselves we most solemnly declare, that we have no other
object in view than the promotion of those interests and that happi-
ness. We feel strongly upon the subject, because we are deeply con-
vinced of the accuracy of the facts, and the correctness of the view
we have taken of them. But we have been anxious throughout this
article to repress our feelings on it, and to avoid every thing like a
strong expression of them, by which unnecessary pain would be given
to the advocates and supporters of the present system, and we hope
that we have succeeded. The system itself we cordially detest, be-
cause we consider it detestable ; but for those whose unhappy lot it is
to administer it, we have none other feeling than that of Christian
love and charity ; and we gladly confess our belief that by far the
greater number of them do so, and are strenuous for its continuance
from mere prejudice and habit — and because they know not its real
character and effects. We earnestly pray that our endeavours to en-
lighten them may be received in the spirit in which they are made,
and be blessed to them."

It would occupy too much space were we to transcribe at full
length all the tables annexed to the preceding remarks in the Chris-
tian Record. We must confine ourselves to an Abstract of them ;
but that Abstract will exhibit the general results as clearly and ac-
curately as if we had gone through all the intermediate censuses of
the slave population from 1817 to 1829.

Slave Population of Jamaica.— Burge versus Buxton. 465

TABLES I. AND II.

Parish of St. Thomas in the East — Plaintain- Garden-River

District Sugar Estates

a

a

" «

3
a

§1

Is

1

^

ESTATES.

OWNERS.

^i
tr

> s

O cS

a

a

.S3

.2

"^6

Tj- .!>.

£

5

«

rt

<

a

"Is

3

Golden Grove .

A. Archdeckne .

761

659

10

7

8

206

303

Chiswick . , .

J. and T. Burton . .

201

181

32

1

27

78

Winchester . .

T. Cussans . . . .

344

327

108

125

Amity-Hall . .

Heirs of T. Cussans .

299

228

4

4

5

65

131

Stoakeshall . .

Heirs of A. Donaldson

207

178

2

2

bb

84

Rhine • . • .

Sir E. H. East, Bart.

195

173

26

2

3

68

112

Duckenfield . .

Priscilla Franks . .

341

376

7Q

5

4

113

145

Dalvey. . . .

Sir A. Grant, Bart. .

173

166

8

4

1

64

74

Plaintain Garden

River . . .

Harvey and Co. . .

226

227

22

3

1

15

92

Friendship . .

Lambie and Co. . .

184

173

58

69

Hordley . . .

Heirs of M. G. Lewis

282

247

1

70

104

Arcadia . . .

R. Logan . . . .

133

103

30

29

89

Whelersfield . .

T. W. Milner . . .

286

297

112

101

Potosi . . . .

J. M'Queen

258
204

197
164

3

2

69
49

130

Philipsfield . .

N.Phillips . . . .

90

Pleasant Hall .

Ditto

270

228

2

2

68

106

Holland . . .

G.W.Taylor . . .
Total

598

634

1

236

199

4972

4558

213

31

27

1472

2032

TABLES IV. AND V.
Coffee Estates in the same District.

ESTATES.

OWNERS.

a

s

5
■a

a

e

3

b"

<

s

OS'S

i

a
1

s

.3
S

Bachelor's Hall .

A. Archdeckne . . .

140

135

1

7

43

47

Green- Castle . .

J. Kelly

267

245

2

88

108

House Hill . .

Heirs of J. Kelly . .

142

136

47

53

Barracks . . .

S. Francis . . . .

55

73

35

17

32

Newington . ,
Island Head . .

Elmslie

160
61

174
127

1
69

3

2
3

70
46

57
43

Greenfield . .

E. M'Indoe . . .

80

80

1

1

2

25

23

Moffalt, &c. . .

K. M'Pherson . . .

109

240

115

4

71

51

Wakefield, &c. .

P. M'Farlane . . .

41

62

44

4

22

41

Ben Lomond . .

T. Ross

111

130

50

30

New Monkland .

J. Telfair . . . .

188

222

3

100

69

Old Monkland .

100

93

26

33

Newfield . . .

Thompson . . . .
Total

100

104

2

35

33

1554

1821

267

5

27

640

629

4C6 Laws and Manners of Jamaica Illustrated.

TABLE III.

Returns of Maroons.

STATIONS.

Number

in

1817.

Number

in

1820.

Number

in

1823.

Number

in

1826.

Number

in

1829.

•2 j;

Actual increase by birth
over the decrease by death,
renunciatiou of privi-
leges, lSjc. in the 12 years.

ha

Charlestown . .
Moore Town . .
Scot's Hall . .
Accompong . .

316

402

77

236

325

410

67

298

367

426

68

303

361

540

67

306

385

550

86

313

^23

1031

1100

1164

1274

1334

1176.33

303

46.58

The general result is that in 12 years the decrease on the Sugar
Estates is 12§ per cent, while on the Coffee Estates there is, in the
same period, an increase of \~-g per cent., and among the Maroons
of 30^ per cent.

V. — Laws and Manners of Jamaica illustrated.

We take up one of the latest numbers of the Royal Gazette of
Jamaica, bearing the date of September, 1831, and we there find some
pregnant proofs that all we have said of the general state of Society
and of the miserably unprotected state of the negro population, is
amply borne out by the ordinary every-day occurrences in that great
Colony, containing a half of the West Indian slaves living under his
Majesty's dominion.

1. Parochial Resolutions of Revolt.

We will commence our extracts with the resolutions unanimously
agreed to " at a very numerous and respectable meeting of the in-
habitants of the Parish of St. Ann's, convened by his Honour the
Custos, on the 6th day of August, 1831." Of how many this numer-
ous and respectable meeting consisted we are not told, but as the
entire white population of the parish, including men, women, and
children amouiits only to about 700, and the women and children
must be considered as hors de combat, the numbers could not have
been very formidable not more certainly than 250, while the slaves
in that one parish amount to 24,000. And yet the oligarchs seem to
have been determined to make up in noise and bluster what they
want in strength and real efficiency. The following are their resolu-
tions, and they form a tolerably fair sample of the spirit in which the
other parishes of the Island, each possessing the same average of force
with which to make good their threats of resistance, have acted : —

" Resolved, That we, the Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Ann, have repeatedly
expressed our warmest indignation at, and abhorrence of^ the oppressive measures
pursued by the British Government towards the We.st India Colonies.

" Resolved, That this expression of our sentiments, as well as those from other
parishes, have been utterly disregarded, and, coupled with the marked neglect
which the remonstrances of the House of Assembly have suffered, convince us
that nothing is to be gained by further supplication or submission.

" Resolved, That while there was a hope of conciliating our implacable foes,
we acquiesced cheerfully in the conduct of our Legislature, but it is now evident

Parochial Resolutions of Revolt — Justice and Lenity. 467

that the concessions yielded by that body have been successively obtained under
pledges and promises on the part of Ministers, * to abstain from all future inter-
ference in our local concerns, which pledges have been violated in every instance
— giving us thereby convincing proof that perfidy and determined oppression, as
far as regards the Colonies, are the ruling principles of the British Cabinet.

*' Resolved, That hitherto, under the most marked infractions of our rights
and principles, we have been loyal. Our attachment to the Mother-country has
indeed long, very long, outlived her justice, and it would now be with grief that
we should divest ourselves of a feeling which * has grown with our growth, and
strengthened with our strength,' but when we see ourselves scorned, betrayed,
devoted to ruin and slaughter, delivered over to the enemies of our country, we
consider that we are bound by every principle — human and divine — TO RE-
SIST.

" Resolved, That we duly appreciate the good intentions of his Excellency
the Governor, in the communication made by him from tlie Colonial Office to
his honour the Custos, and this day laid before this Meeting ; but past experience
compels us to view it as another instance of a pledge from Ministers, which will
never be redeemed, nor do we consider that they are disposed to stem the torrent
of public clamour, which has been raised against the Colonies.

" That this Colony has already gone great lengths in ameliorating the condi-
tion of our slaves, in the spirit of the Resolutions of the British House of Com-
mons of 1823, and that before going further we have a right to expect that his
Majesty's Ministers should perform their -part, by shewing in what manner the
right of private property is to be considered.

" Resolved, That this Meeting considers it highly necessary and expedient, at
the present alarming crisis, to act in unison with every Parish in the Island, and
begs leave to recommend the immediate formation of Committees by the respec-
tive Parishes, from which one General Committee may be appointed, to meet in
some convenient place, and draw up a Petition to his Majesty, humbly beseech-
ing him to redress our grievances, and interpose his authority to prevent the
violence and injustice with which we are threatened, and also to adopt such
measures, in conjunction with the other Colonies, as the welfare of the whole
may appear to require; and we do hereby invite the other Parishes to commu-
nicate with the Parochial Committee now to be chosen by this Meeting, for the
furtherance of our common interests, and the protection of our lives and pro-
perties.

" Resolved, That the Magistrates, Vestrymen, and other inhabitants, now
present, do pledge themselves to provide the funds necessary for carrying the
foregoing Resolutions into effect.

" Resolved, That the Chairman be requested to sign the foregoing Resolutions,
and that they be published one month in the County Papers of this island, in
the John Bull, and in the Glasgow Courier.

" HENRY COX, Chairman and Custos of St. Ann's."

2. Jamaica Justice and Lenity.

We extract the following piece of intelligence from the Royal
Gazette, which professes to have transcribed it from the Montego Bay
Gazette, of the 20th August, 1831 : —

"A negro woman slave, belonging to Millennium estate, in this parish,
(St. James's, the property of F. B. Gibbs, Esq.) came to the Police
Office on Monday, to complain that her master had infringed the law,
by insisting that she, the mother of eight children, and, therefore,
' given up by the country,' should still perform estate's labour. Her
complaint and appearance, however, appeared distinctly at variance,
she presenting, in the latter, any thing rather than the symptoms of
having been overworked, or ill-treated. Their worships, nevertheless,
after justly admonishing her, ordered a letter to be written to her

468 Jamaica Justice and Lenity.

owner, advising him to excuse her from any other than light work.
Having been repeatedly accused of reporting the decisions of the
magistrates, in the determination of negro complaints, with an invi-
dious intent, in justice to ourself, and in proof of our desire to be
governed by the conscientious impulses of Avhat we consider an im-
perative duty, we must say, that a more frivolous complaint than the
one now adverted to, we never heard, and that our surprise was ex-
cited that it should have been passed over so leniently as it was. For
the infliction of the lash in the correction of females, we are no advo-
cates, but a little solitary confinement, or hard labour in the work-
house, we really consider would have proved a very necessary and
wholesome corrective in this instance."

And yet this opinion is gravely given in a popular journal, and
echoed in another popular journal, in the face of an Act of the Le-
gislature of Jamaica, to the following effect : —

" And in order that further encouragement may be given to the in-
crease and protection of negro infants, be it enacted, That every
female slave who shall have six children living," (this poor woman it
seems had eight) " shall be exempted from all hard labour in the field
or otherwise ; and the owner of every such female slave shall be
exempted from all manner of taxes for such female slave ;" " and a
deduction shall be made for all such female slaves from the taxes of
such owner, by certificate of the justices and vestry; Provided,
nevertheless, that proof be given on oath, to the satisfaction of the
said justices and vestry, not only that the requisite number of children
together with the mother are living, but also that the mother is
exempted from all manner of field or other labour, and is provided
with the means of an easy and comfortable subsistence."

In the face, however, of this clear and unambiguous enactment,
Messieurs the magistrates repudiate the legal claim of this poor
mother of eight children, and confine themselves to a mere recom-
mendation to her owner that he would excuse her from any other than
light work. The editorial organ of public opinion, however, repre-
hends the magistrates for their misplaced indulgence. He pronounces
the application to be frivolous — the application of the mother of eight
living children, to be relieved from labour, in strict accordance with
the law of the land — and complains that she should not have been
visited with the lash ; (thirty-nine incisions of the cart-whip on the
shamelessly bared body of the mother of eight children ! ! !) or with
solitary confinement ; or at least with a period of hard labour in the
workhouse chain ; as "a very necessary and wholesome corrective"
for such unheard-of insolence, as having dared to make such an ap-
plication, for, he says," her appearance" exhibited " any thing rather
than the symptoms of having been overworked or ill-treated." — ^The
brute, that is to say, looked sleek and well-fed, and was in tolerable
flesh.— As for her legal rights, they are of no estimation whatever in
the eyes either of this Jamaica Editor, or of the magistracy of St.
James's. — Is not this a case for the Secretary of State to investigate ?

Printed by SamuelBagster, Jun., 14, Bartnolomew Close. London.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER

No. 90.] NOVEMBER 30, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 18.

I.— REPORT OF THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR THE CON-
VERSION, RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION, AND EDUCATION OF
THE NEGRO SLAVES IN THE WEST INDIES, FOR THE
YEAR 1829.

II.— FOUR ESSAYS ON COLONIAL SLAVERY, BY JOHN JEREMIE,
ESQ., LATE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COURT OF
ST. LUCIA.

I. — Report OF THE Society for the Conversiox, &c., of Negro
Slaves for 1829.

In our former Volumes we reviewed the Reports of this Society for
1827 and 1828. Our review excited the keen displeasure and called
forth the loud vituperations of certain rash and injudicious friends of
the Society, who ventured to deny the correctness of our statements,
and to impugn our motives, and to load us with obloquy for having
exposed, in their true colours, the vague, unsatisfactory, blinding and
delusive representations, which its Governors were led, by an incau-
tious and misplaced confidence in their Colonial correspondents, to
publish, and to sanction by their high authority. The facts disclosed
in the course of this controversy, and the triumphaiit defence of our
statements against the assaults of the British Critic and Christian
Remembrancer of that day are, doubtless, in the recollection of many
of our readers, and we trust have issued in good. We must refer
those, who take any interest in the subject, to the preceding pages of
our work, and particularly to Our first Volume, No. 13, p. 189 ; to
our second Volume, No. 30, p. 33 ; No. 41, p. 309; Supplement to
No. 44, p. 397 ; No. 47, p. 445 ; and No. 48, p. 469 ;— to our third
Volume, No. 56, p. 167 ; — and to our present Volume, No. 76, p.
113 and 127 ; No. 85, p. 362, for information upon it.

We have now before us the Society's Report for 1829; and we shall
proceed to give a brief analysis of its contents, and first of the ac-
count of the Society's proceedings in the Diocese of Jamaica, con-
taining a slave population of about 330,000; only premising that it is
our intention to confine our view principally to what appears to have
^been done for the conversion and instruction of the slave, and not of
the yVee population, following the Report, step by step, through the
different parishes of the Island.

1. Kingston, (7,000 slaves.) A chapel of ease is building to con-
tain 1,200 persons. As to schools, so utterly vague, notwithstanding
our former admonitions and warnings, is the Report respecting them
which is here given, that it is impossible to find out whether a single
slave is taught to read in the whole parish. Woolmer's free school, with

3 L

470 Co7ivcrsion Society — Jamaica' — Kingston, St. Andreic.

its 240 scholars, is only 'iov i\\Q free. There are five Sunday schools
in which 450 are taught to read, but whether there are in them any,
or if any, how many slaves, we are not informed. A Branch school
of industry gives instruction to 100 children, but whether free or
slaves does not appear. The principal school of industry contains
267 children, of whom 182 are free and 85 are slaves. They are
divided into six classes, of which three appear to be taught to read ;
and the other three to be taught nothing but the Church catechism.
For any thing that is stated to the contrary, every one of the 85 slaves
who attend this school may belong to these latter classes. If this be
unjust to the institution the fault lies with the reporters. The presump-
tion, however, is strengthened by the tenor of its rules. The first rule
is, that the school shall be " for the education of poor white, brown,
and black children." The second prescribes, that " the education of
the children shall be confined to reading and oral instruction ; and
that a portion of each day shall be devoted to learning some useful
handicraft trade, under tradesmen appointed for the purpose;" which
second rule was thus amended in February 1829. " M\ free children
shall be instructed in writing and arithmetic, but no slaves without the
permission of their owners." Another rule permits " all subscribers"
of four dollars annually " to nominate children for education." Thus,
then, the 85 slaves who attend may be taught for this trifling expense
some handicraft trade, not for their own profit, but for that of their
owner, and may, at the same time, be positively debarred by him
from any other instruction or education but what is oral. The lan-
guage of the report too confirms this presumption. The institution, it
is said, " has been instrumental in the instruction of many j^oor chil-
dren," poor being a term which, in the slave Colonies, is applied only
to the free. Again, " a large proportion of those educated in this
school are reflecting credit on the institution by the exemplary dis-
charge of their duty in the stations which they fill." None of
these can be slaves. In short, the whole account is apparently a
studied sophistication of the plain facts of the case ; we do not mean
by the Governors of the Society, but certainly by their correspondents.
— (pp. 4 and 45.) ' .

The Governors complain, that they have not received that support
from the friends and advocates of West India improvement, which
they were led to expect. But what true friend or enlightened advo-
cate of the reform of the slave system can conscientiously contribute
to support such vague, uncertain, and ambiguous proceedings ? It is
vain to hope for it.

2. »S'^. Andrew, (15,000 slaves.) We have given some account of
the state of religious instruction in this parish in a late number of our
work, (No. 76, p. 125.) The present report exhibits but slender
marks of improvement. Almost all the good effected seems due to
the zeal, not of the Conversion, but of the Church Missionary Society,
aided by the laudable efforts of Mr. Wildman, the Proprietor of Papine
estate. On another estate, Clifton Mount, belonging to Mr. Hamil-
ton, the slaves are instructed by the overseer, under the superintend-
ance of the Curate ; but " a prejudice continuing to exist against ad-

St. George, Portland, St. David, Port Royal, St. Thomas in East. 471

mitting persons of colour on estates as teachers," in other words, a
prejudice continuing to exist against religious instruction altogether ;
little seems to be doing, in this parish, even in the way of catechetical
instruction. A chapel has been opened in the mountains which will
contain 300 persons.

3. St. George, (12,000 slaves.) Here again the Church Mission-
ary Society seem the efficient agents, both with the slaves and the
Maroons. At the parish church the attendance (without specifying
numbers) is said to have doubled, and a Sunday school for free and
slave to be established. Two more chapels are projected, and three
estates are visited by the Rector.

4. Portland, (8,000 slaves.) The Church Missionary Society
seem also to be active in this parish, and " some of the children have
made such progress as to enable them to become teachers of others,
and thus to afford considerable assistance in disseminating religious
knowledge." Thirteen estates, small and great, are visited by the
Curates. The school for the Maroons, at Moore Town, seems pro-
mising. The attendance at church is said to be crowded to excess.

5. St. David, (7,500 slaves.) A chapel has been erected for 250,
and about 100 children attend the Sunday school. The rector's
report is said to be altogether favourable. And yet we find only
three estates about to be placed under instruction, although the clergy
are said to have free permission to visit and examine the children. as
often as they may think proper. The plan of appointing book-keepers
instead of catechists to teach the children is here recommended ; a
plan which we shall hereafter consider.

6. Port Royal, (6,000 slaves.) Six estates are visited ; and an ad-
vance in religious knowledge is said to have taken place : but there
is an absence of all specification.

7. St. Thomas in the East, (24,000 slaves.) The Methodists had
done much in this parish, before Mr. Trew and Mr. Stainsby com-
menced their labours among the slaves. And it must be admitted
that their united exertions, for a time, gave a considerable impulse to
the progress of religious instruction. The present report however ex-
hibits symptoms of a very material decline in this respect. Mr.
Panton the curate, and the Church Missionary Society, seem alone to
stem the downward course of instruction as connected with the esta-
blishment. Mr. Archdeckne has erected and endowed a chapel on
his estate of Golden Grove for 600 persons, entirely at his own ex-
pense. The number of slaves catechised on estates has fallen off from
3,600 to 1,320, and the Sunday school has declined from 140 to 80
of all ages. This " lamentable falling off," the Auxiliary Conversion
Society of St. Thomas in the East very feelingly deplore, (p. 8, and
p. 57.) They nevertheless carefully abstain from tracing out its real
causes, except by referring to the want of funds. The real causes
however lie much deeper. They are to be found in their studied
avoidance of any open and manly exposure of the true obstacles to
success ; in their undue concessions to the prejudices of the planter ;
and in their fundamentally defective plans of instruction. While
such a system is pursued they can obtain it is clear no eftective sup-

472 Conversion Society — Jamaica — St. Catherine. Vere.

port from the religious public in this country, and from them alone is
any effective support to such a cause to be expected. To this hour
the Auxiliary Conversion Society for St. Thomas in the East main-
tain that absolute and unbroken silence, respecting the almost total
want of the sabbath for the slaves, which first excited our animadver-
sions on their proceedings, and which has blighted ; and will continue
to blight every attempt they may make to extend the influence of Chris-
tianity, so long as they continue to say not one word for the honour
and sacredness of the Christian sabbath. The Parent Society has in-
deed at length assumed a bolder tone on this question, and we rejoice
in it. They permit the Rural Dean of the county of Surrey, in Ja-
maica, the Rev. Mr. Campbell to say, under their sanction, that " it
is to be regretted, and must be confessed, that the profanation of the
sabbath, generally, still continues to be the opprobrium of our com-
munity, and is the great obstacle to the increase of religion," p. 3.

8. St. Catherine, (7,500 slaves.) The Report from this parish has
a reference chiefly to the free. Mr. Dallas the curate offered his ser-
vices, by a circular, to the proprietors, but with one exception they re-
jected the offer. He has commenced, however, a Sunday school for

-reading, at which 97 attend, 5Q of whom are slaves. A catechist insti-
tution, by which we presume is meant an institution for training cate-
chists, has been formed, which bears on its list 308 names, but of whom
only 30 attend on week days, and 50 on Sundays. In this institu-
tion the singular rule is adopted of confining the master of it to "oral
instruction :" — a most ingenious device for training teachers to teach
nothing. This restraint, the report hopes, will soon be removed, and
then it predicts that the institution will be more numerously attended.
On four estates a few children are taught by fellow slaves who have
been at the school of industry for ten months. These teachers of
others, however, cannot possibly have themselves learnt to read in that
time. Two of these estates belong to Lord Seaford, (p, 10,) a Go-
vernor of the Conversion Society ; and the instruction is said to be
daily at each, it being significantly added " but the plantation hours
are not encroached upon." His lordship's agent takes care, that is
to say, that none of the labour of his slave children shall be lost by
his lordship's freak, for so he probably regards it, that they should be
taught the Lord's prayer and the catechism. — And this is the report
from the parish of St. Catherine, comprising Spanish Town the seat of
the Government, and in the centre of which stands the House of As-
sembly, and the palace of Lord Belmore, the representative of his
Majesty !

9. Vere, (7,500 slaves.) From this parish nothing is reported
worthy of notice, excepting the laudable zeal of Mr. Wildman, ox\
whose'cstate resides a catechist from the Church Missionary Society.
The children who are all under his care, the report observes, " are
remarkable for their proficiency in reading, and for their knowledge
of the catechism compiled by Mr. Trew ;" and all Mr. Wildman's ar-
rangements bear " ample testimony to his earnest desire to promote
religious knowledge among his slaves." And yet it is remarkable tiiat
the Bishop who, here and elsewhere, swells the report of his progress

St. Dorothy, Clarendon, Sti Thomas in the Vale. 473

with the details of the labours of the Church Missionary Society, has
of late been pursuing towards its agents not the most friendly course.
Besides this, two proprietors and two attorneys of estates in Vere,
(viz. Pusey Hall, Ashley Hall, Milk Spring, and Morelands,) express
a desire to have their negroes instructed ; and 35 persons attend a
Sunday school and are taught to read.

10. St. Dorothy, (5,000 slaves.) The report from this parish is
sufficiently meagre. Though the proprietors are held up as more
generally alive to the necessity of affording their slaves religious in-
struction, yet all their efforts seem to end in utter abortion.

11. Clarendon, (17,000 slaves.) In this large parish we find only
the same Mr. Wildman whom we have already more than once had
occasion to eulogize, and a Mr. Pacifico, labouring effectively in the
religious instruction of their slaves. The curates indeed speak of the
growing disposition of the planting attorneys to introduce instruction
generally, and even of the perceptible improvement that has taken
place (according to the testimony of overseers) in the moral conduct
of the slaves, in consequence of their (the curates) exertions with
them. This testimony we do not cotmt much upon, especially as we
cannot find that the curates visit more than four of the estates. The
chapel they say is well attended, and the Sunday school children
make fair progress, but no particulars are given.

12. St. Thomas in the Vale, (12,000 slaves.) The report from
this parish states that on 29 plantations about 885 children, and 484
adults receive instruction chiefly by means of book-keepers belonging
to the estates ; a plan which appears to have originated with the Rev.
Mr. Barton, the rector of this parish, and to have met with favour not
only from his superiors in the church but from the planters also.
Doubtless, if instruction is to be conveyed to the slaves at all, this is
precisely the plan which, on account of its incongruousness and ineffi-
ciency, the reluctant planters would prefer to any other. Care is
taken, however, that it shall be the slave's own time and not that of
the master which is appropriated to this mockery of religious instruc-
tion. The evening is devoted to it. The Bishop and some of his
clergy highly eulogize this new invention — but for ourselves we must
regard it as a death blow to the hope of diffusing either the knowkdge
or the practice of Christianity among the slaves.

In a former number of our present volume (No. 76, p. 124,) we
have already briefly touched on this subject. After adducing the tes-
timony of the Christian Record, a very able periodical work published
in Jamaica itself, to the inefficiency of the general plan of catecheti-
cal instruction, as pursued in that island, we quoted the following
passage : — " If then this species of oral instruction be useless in the
hands of catechists appointed for the purpose, is it likely to be more
effectual when employed by book-keepers ? Are their habits of life
calculated to give additional weight to the formularies of the church ?
If it were proposed, as a general measure, to employ them in teaching
morality to the slaves, would not the proposition excite ridicule, at
■least, if not disgust ? Are they the men competent to give instruction

474 Conversion Society — Jamaica — St. Thomas in the Vale.

in the principles of the Christian religion, which is the source of all
pure morality?"

Now, however, this scheme, ridiculous and disgusting as it may
have appeared when first projected, seems to be now actually adopted
as a general measure, and is recommended and sanctioned by the
bishop and many of his clergy. The editors of the Christian Record
have deemed it incumbent upon them, therefore, to recur to the sub-
ject, and in the fifth number of that able and useful work, (published
in January, 1831,) we have a very powerful exposure of its injurious
tendency, from which we shall now make a few extracts. The writer
exhibits it as a system " which under a show of ' facilitating the in-
struction of slaves,' is likely to undermine and destroy the slight and
very defective structure Avhich the friends of religion have hitherto
been able to erect for this purpose. So great are the difficulties, and
so strong the prejudices, which we have to encounter, in forming and
executing our plans ; and so eagerly will those, with whom we have
to contend, catch at any substituted schemes, which appear less effec-
tive, and therefore less obnoxious, that it is the duty of every man,
whose heart is right in the cause, to raise his voice against this perni-
cious system, calculated only to blind and to deceive. I mean the
system of teaching the Church Catechism by Book-keepers."

The difficulty with which even a well-instructed English child can
be made to comprehend the Catechism of the Church, is well known
to all who have been engaged in the task. What then is to be ex-
pected in the case of the negro child ? " Suppose him," says the
writer, "to be so well instructed as ' to be able to repeat the Cate-
chism from beginning to end/ so little is he able to comprehend its
language, that, instead of having gained spiritual knowledge, he will
merely have learnt to repeat by rote a certain set of words without
meaning. And this is by no means the only, nor the worst, mischief
that will have been done. He will have learnt to attach inadequate
or improper meanings, or perhaps no meaning at all, to words, in
which the doctrines of religion, and the way of salvation, are after-
wards to be explained to him. Thus, the teaching of the catechism,
instead of being, as it is intended to be, an assistance, will rather be
found a hindrance, to the clergyman in his addresses from the pulpit.
His instructions and exhortations will, in consequence of the frequent
recurrence of a certain jingle of words, to which the catechumen has
been accustomed, carry little more meaning with them than the tink-
ling of a cymbal.

" It may be said, that this is equally true of every catechism, in
which the doctrines of religion are taught. It certainly is true, to a
certain extent, of every compilation of that nature ; but a simple
catechism, expressed in pl>ain language, and requiring little explana-
tion, would obviously be more suitable. It would be impossible, per-
haps, to compile one requiring no explanation ; and, if it were pos-
sible, I do not think explanation should be dispensed with, since it
excites attention, and tends to impress more deeply the religious
truths to be conveyed."

Book-keeper Catechists. 475

M" Is it right, then," he asks, " to select book-keepers as a proper
channel for conveying the spirit of religion, who manifestly do not
feel, in most cases do not even understand it themselves ? Consider
for a moment the general character of this class. — Are they persons
from among whom any father of a family, who had a regard for the
spiritual welfare of his children, would select their religious instruc-*
tor ? The bare supposition is sufficiently absurd : it requires no an-
swer. For, be it remembered, that I am not speaking of individuals,
but of a class. There may be individual exceptions — there may be
some among them fit for this responsible office — and I hope there
are ; but that is by no means their general character. To suppose a
father, such as I have mentioned, having no particular knowledge of
any individual to guide him, turning to that class as the most likely
to afford him such an instructor, would be to suppose a man bereft of
common sense. Then why should we select those as instructors of
our negroes, whom it would be madness to choose as instructors of
our children ? Men are in the habit of supposing that any one can
become a teacher of religion. But let us judge by analogy. Should
we give credit for any thing, but arrogance and presumption, to the
man who should propose to teach a science or a trade, with which we
saw him to be unacquainted ?

" By parity of reason, a teacher of morality must himself be moral.
What is precept, when opposed by example ? How apt are we to
confound the teacher with his doctrine ! When it is our own lot to
be placed under the spiritual guidance of one, whose character we do
not respect, how loth are we to attend his ministry ? — How frequently
do we mingle with our disapprobation of his conduct, a distaste for
his doctrines, though we may know them to be correct ? If we then,
with all our pride of judgment and discrimination, are guilty of this
inconsistency, we surely ought not to expect from the negro, who, we
know, possesses extraordinary quickness of perception in discovering
the faults and the failings of those who are placed over him, a greater
power of discriminating between them and the correctness of the
lesson than we ourselves evince.

" A teacher of doctrines, so unpalatable to worldly men, as are
those of the Gospel, should be independent of all but spiritual supe-
riorSo Even clergymen are too often afraid to bear a plain testimony,
lest they should give offence. What then is to be expected from the
book-keeper, who is so much under the command of the overseer ?
His bread- — his character — in his to him more important profession,
depend greatly on his retaining the good will of his overseer. The
overseer then, if he is unfriendly, has it in his power to render nuga-
tory the few efforts he maybe inclined to make. This is no imaginary
case, but one which I know is of frequent occurrence.

" It is highly desirable that a teacher shoidd never appear in any
other light before his pupils, as they must lose much of their respect
for him, when they see him in a less dignified situation. Now, the
book-keeper does constantly appear in another character, and in
lights by no means calculated to increase the respect or affection of
the negroes. He is the watch upon their actions — the informer

476 >S^^ Mary, St. Ann, Si. John, Treluwney, St. Elizabeth, SfC.

against their faults and misdeeds; and, consequently, the frequent
cause of their detection and punishment."

Such is the book-keeper system, which has obtained the patronage
of the Bishop of Jamaica, and through him of this Society ! And can
it be wondered at that the friends and advocates of negro improvement
should not support and countenance such a system by their contribu-
tions ? Few, if any, of these pretended instructors of our enslaved
brethren in the word and ways of God are to be found who are not
living in the open and notorious violation of the laws of chastity, and
of the sanctity of the Lord's day ; and yet these are the men to whom
the Bishop of Jamaica and his brethren of the Conversion Society
intrust the exposition and inculcation of the scriptural faith, and the
Christian practice, tauc:,ht and enjoined by the formularies of the
Church of England. These things ought not so to be ; and we con-
jure the Governors of the Society not to be led, by ill-advised repre-
sentations from abroad, any longer to yield to such a system the
sanction of their high authority.

13. St. Mary (25,000 slaves.) The congregation at chapel in-
creases, and the curate visits six estates. The maroons at Scott's Hall
are instructed by a catechist.

14. St. Ann (24,000 slaves.) This is the parish of the Rev. PVlr.
Bridges. The congregation increases at a chapel ; nothing is said of
the parish church : another chapel is building, and a third is pro-
jected.

15. St. John (6,000 slaves.) A chapel is building ; and the book-
keeper system is partially adopted by the rector.

16. /"reZatt^ne?/ (26,000 slaves.) "The island curate Acs visited "
11 plantations. A school (it is not said by whom attended) which
teaches reading, makes slow progress. A chapel is projected.

17. St. Elizabeth {\%,QQO &\^-ve&.) Until chapels are erected, tem-
porary places are licensed for worship. The curate bears testimony
to the improved moral state of the negroes, but it is not obvious
whence it can arise. No particulars are given.

17. St. James (24,000 slaves.) There are two reports from this
parish, why we know not. One states in vague terms that one or more
chapels are projected ; that " every facility is given to the curate for
visiting estates ; and that children are brought on Sunday to church to
be catechised." And yet the number instructed on estates during the
year is only 126, and at church 99, (p. 17.) The other report speaks
of the parish church being improved, a chapel projected, and three
estates, besides Lord Seaford's, being visited by the island curate, A
catechist attends two estates ; he " has hitherto met with little en-
couragement, though the rector has offered him to all the proprietors,"
(p. 19.)

19. Hanover (22,000 slaves.) Attendance in church " has much
increased." Two new chapels are projected. Twenty children, of
whom some (it is not said how many) are slaves, are instructed by a
Mr. Clarke in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In a Sunday-school
" the number of slaves learning to read, of whom two are taught
arithmetic and writing, has been doubled in the year:" (this maybe 20

Convet'sion Society — Barbadoes. 475'

or 200.) An evening school for slaves (the master's time is too pre-
cious) meets twice a week, and are " taught the church catechism and
the use of letters," (p. 20.)

20. Manchester (17,000 slaves.) The report from this parish is
taken up by the Bishop in liberally recommending the zeal of the United
Brethren to the imitation of his own clergy. " Their number," he
says, " is small : I heartily wish their establishment were more nume-
rous and more efficient." — The curate attends two estates, and the Rev.
Mr. Stainsby instructs the negroes at his house till schools are formed.
He says that, generally speaking, slave marriages are not opposed,
" unless the parties belong to different properties. The state of the
whole population, however," he adds, " whether slave or free is, in
this respect, degraded and degrading to an awful extent."

We have omitted the occasional notices of the increase of marriages
which this report contains, as they are not very specific. They are
usually accompanied however with a qualification that marriage is not
favoured by the master, without whose permission it cannot take place,
unless the parties belong to the same estate. Now this is a great
evil. It is notorious that great numbers of slaves living, on separate
estates, are connected together, and have families. And yet, the
owners of these slaves oblige them to continue in lawless concubinage
even when they are willing and perhaps conscientiously desirous to be
united, in Christian wedlock, with the mothers of their children or the
objects of their attachment, merely because the estates on which they
respectively labour may be a mile or two distant from each other.

21, Westmoreland (21,000 slaves.) The report from this parish
is of the usual general but vague tenor as to improvement and atten-
dance at church and chapel, and in Sunday-schools. Mr. Fidler, the
curate, teaches the free school, which engrosses his time so much
(there being 187 scholars,) that he can no longer visit any estates.

Having thus gone over the whole of the Jamaica report, and pointed
out some of the circumstances which sufficiently account both for the
Society's want of success, and for its want of support, we proceed to
the diocese of Baubauoes anb the Leeavard Islands. — The Bishop
transmits to the Society the copy of a circular letter addressed to his
clergy, in which he conveys to them his views of their pastoral duties,
but we presume it is only a supplement to former charges. He recom-
mends to them, among other things, a more frequent and unrestricted
intercourse with the slaves ; and he adds, ^' With respect to the mas-
ter, I am unwilling to anticipate any objection on his part to the
freest intercourse between his people and their lawful spiritual
advisers." And can the Bishop say this with perfect sincerity, after
his experience of five years in the West Indies, or even consistently
with some parts of this report ?

The Bishop has also transmitted sixteen reports of subsidiary socie-
ties, but with the exception of two that are auxiliary to the Conversion
Society, they seem all intended for the free and not for slaves.

1. ^ariocZoes (82,000 slaves.) The report from this island is as
melancholy as can well be conceived. The promises of former reports

3 M

478 Conversion Society — Barbadoes, Antigua.

are so far from being realised, that the state of things seems to have
rapidly deteriorated in 1829, notwithstanding the Bishop's solemn
warning, in his consecration sermon, against " continuing to turn the
Lord's day into a day of marketing and trafficking." The rector of
St. Lucy, the persecuted Mr. Hart, complains still more heavily on
this point. " Subordinate white servants," he observes, " as well
as slaves, are employed, especially during the time of crop, in the
business of the plantation to so late an hour of the Sunday morning
as to prevent their attendance on public worship. The Sunday mar-
ket, which appeared to be discountenanced in 1828, has been revived,
during the year 1829, to such a degree that slaves are seen, during the
greater part of the day, passing by the church with articles of traffic.
Sunday dancing is promoted as a matter of gainful speculation by the
individual who makes the necessary preparation for it, and is carried
to an injurious extent. The dancing commences at an early hour in
the afternoon, with flags flying, drums beating, and such a savage
uproar, that a stranger would think himself any^vhere rather than in
a Christian land ; and, every thing considered, nothing can be a more
glaring violation of the Divine commandment — nothing can be more
injurious to the morals of the younger slaves, especially the females —
nothing can present more temptations to fraud, stealing, and every
other vice than Sunday dancing, as it has been going on during the
year 1829 among the slave population. This state of things is much
to be regretted, as dances on the Sabbath are prohibited by law, and
all marketable articles offered for sale on that day are liable to be
seized," (p. 26.)

Here v/e have a fair sample of Colonial legislation ! The laws are
made to blind England, not to reform the West Indies. It is not for
us to connect this awful state of combined iniquity and hypocrisy,
this mockery of law divine and human, with the awful calamity which
has recently befallen this Island ; but surely neither the clergy nor the
planters of Barbadoes ought to disconnect them.

With the exception of an affecting detail, given by Mr. Hart, of a
Christian negress, belonging to his congi'egation, cut off" by consump-
tion at an early age, we find little in the report to relieve the
gloom of the foregoing exhibition of the moral state of this Colony.
We hear indeed of two or three new chapels ; of several estates
where instruction is daily given to the children; of increased atten-
dance at church ; and of the improved observance of the Sabbath.
But is not such vague general description greatly at war with the
admitted facts of this opprobrious case, and at best but a slender
compensation for it ?

2. Antigua and Barbuda, (30,000 slaves). A long report from an
auxiliary of the Conversion Society in this Island enters into much
detail; and, while it exhibits a considerable decline in the schools pre-
viously established, seems to reproach the Church Missionary Society
-as the cause of that decline, for having unexpectedly withdrawn its
funds from their support. We cannot admit the fairness of this
insinuation. The Moravians and Methodists had long laboured
sucpessfidlv, in the conversion and instruction of slaves in this Island,

Conversion Society — Antigua. 479

before the Church of England had thought of caring for their souls.
A single missionary was after a time sent thither by Bishop Porteus,
then President of the Conversion Society. He was a quiet, inoffensive,
and somewhat timid man, anxious mainly to gain the good-will of the
planters, and to avoid all collision with them. He married a lady of
the Island, and thus became an owner of slaves, a circumstance
which could not fail to influence his feelings, and his tone, on the
subject of slavery and its adjuncts, Sunday profanation, concubinage,
&c. &c. At a later period the Church Missionary Society entered on
this field of service, and supported schools at considerable expense,
which flourished under the teachers they selected. All of these who
were really efficient, were more or less attached to the Methodist
body, among whom most of them had acquired their religious im-
pressions, and the zeal and piety which qualified them for usefulness
as teachers. When the Bishop arrived out in 1825, he issued a set
of rides for the teachers of all the schools in which his episcopal au-
thority was recognized, but the most efficient instructors of the Church
Missionary Society's schools generally refused to subscribe to them.
The Bishop adhered to his rules, and some of the teachers therefore
withdrew. Persons were substituted who were not very fit for the
office they undertook, and some of whom were said to be even openly
immoral in their lives.* The Church Missionary Society pressed, on
the one side, by their episcopal allegiance, and on the other, by a
conscientious reluctance to employ their funds in maintaining
teachers whom they could not approve, quietly withdrew from this
scene of action, and left their schools with the Bishop and his Arch-
deacon, by whom they were undertaken; but they soon fell off. — Now
we cannot greatly blame the Church Missionary Society for the line
they thought it proper to pursue. We confess we should have acted
differently ; we should have acted as they themselves have done with
success on another somewhat similar occasion ; they should have ap-
pealed to the Government on this undue and unseasonable interference
of episcopal authority, and their flourishing schools might have con-
tinued to flourish. We trust, however, that wiser and more discreet
counsels are beginning to operate in Antigua; and we observe with
great satisfaction that Mrs. Cable and others, formerly employed by
the Church Missionary Society, have been restored to efficiency under
the Bishop, notwithstanding their leanings to Methodism. On the
whole therefore, we trust, that things may revive under the Rev. Mr.
Holberton, (the new Archdeacon) who appears to actwithmuch zeal and
judgment, while he complains of the grievous obstacles which impede
his progress. He has commenced a plan of employing, on the estates,
under his own superintendence, slaves who have themselves learnt to
read, and are in other respects worthy of the trust, to instruct their
fellows ; a plan which will also give permanence to instruction at a
small cost, as it will no longer depend on the supply oi white catechists;
and not be necessarily so much interrupted, as it has hitherto painfully

* See Vol. ii. No. 41, p. 325, and the supplement to No. 44, p. 404.

480 Conversion Society — St. Christopher s, Montserrat, Nevis^

feeen by the season of crop. It is obvious that if this plan of em-
ploying instructed slaves, capable of reading well, and who are
themselves under the influence of religion, to instruct their fellow
slaves, should be generally adopted, improvement may advance at a
much more rapid rate than heretofore.

Mr. Holberton, however, speaks of the unhappy continuance of the
Sunday market. This was in 1829, before the iniquitous act had
passed, which forbade markets on Sunday, but gave no other day
for them. The Sunday market was held just beneath his church, and
it operated as a strong temptation to draw off many who would other-
wise attend the school and the worship at church on that day. And this
strange approximation of church and market seems not to have been
confined to this parish. In others the market is stated almost to adjoin
the church, and, both having been held on the same day and at the same
hours, the fact sufficiently explains one grand cause of clerical failure.
But how came the clergy to be so long silent on the subject? — Another
great hindrance to the progress of instruction is, that the slave children
are only allowed either their noontide interval of labour, or the even-
ings after the toil of the day is over, in which to receive it. No time
on which the proprietor has a claim is in general appropriated to this
object. " We have in fact no choice of time. We must either take
the evening, or let the work alone." p. 32. Such is the language of
the report; — and that under such circumstances the slaves should still
attend instruction is no feeble proof of their intense desire for it^
The report speaks of the great increase of marriages, but when we
look to particulars we find only fourteen in the year.

A hopeful commencement of instruction appears to have been made
among the slaves at Barbuda, a dependency of Antigua.

We have omitted such parts of this report as have no reference to
the slaves but only to the. free ; not that we do not take an interest in
the free as well as in the slave population, but our peculiar object, as
an Anti-Slavery Society, is the extinction of slavery.

3. St. Christopher, (19,000 slaves). The part of the Report which
relates to the slave population of this island consists chiefly of cate-
chetical visits to the estates. The Committee, indeed, of the St.
Christopher's auxiliary admit, very candidly, that " they cannot in
so many words define the benefits which arise from this mode of in-
struction ; yet they are persuaded it is tacitly effecting much good in
those estates on which it is most regularly maintained, especially
when conducted by the Rector, or a person in holy orders." We are
not told of how many estates these conditions may be predicated.
Three only are mentioned in which the proprietors have established
schools where the younger children are allowed to attend during any
of the customary hours of labour. About fourteen marriages of slaves
have taken place in this Island also.

4. Montserrat, (6,000 slaves). This Island seems in a state of
great destitution as to church room, though the slaves are said to
evince a great disposition to attend divine service. There are several
Sunday schools.

5.. Nevis, (9,000 slaves). Here also we hear of the want of church

Tortola, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago, ^'C: 481

room. In the Sunday schools all, whether adults or children, are
taught to read. This seems creditable to Nevis ; but not a word is
said of the number of slaves attending. It is probably very small, as
the report contains the following remark, " The state of the slaves is
such as to demand a close attention upon the estates, before reforma-
tion, to any considerable extent, can be expected ; and catechetical
assistance is greatly needed."

6. Tortola^ (5,000 slaves). The only remark we have to make
respecting this Island is, that there having been here no place of
worship, nor minister of the Established church until a late period,
we are told that " the number of slaves separated from the church is
greater in the Virgin Islands, than in any other of this diocese." In
other words, the Methodists have been zealously supplying in Tortola
the church's lack of service, and have succeeded in converting a
large proportion of its slave population, while the church of England
was asleep. But is this case peculiar to Tortola? Might not nearly similar
language have been employed, with equal truth, as to Nevis, Montser-
rat, Antigua, St. Kitts, Grenada, St. Vincents, &c. &c. ? Without
the efforts of Methodists and Moravians Christianity would have
been almost as much unknown to the Negroes, in those British Islands,
at the period of the Bishop's appointment, as it now is in Japan.

7. St. Lucia, (13,000 slaves). No Protestant church has yet begun
to be erected.

8. St. Vincent, (24,000 slaves). The Report amounts to Nil.

9. Grenada, (27,000 slaves). The Report from this Island gives
no information that is definite as to the progress of instruction among
its 27,000 slaves ; but, in the dearth of religious intelligence, it steps
aside to tell the public of the improvements in the temporal condition
of the slaves. " By the Consolidated Slave Bill in this Colony, the
use of the whip in the field is abolished ; nor is it suffered to be
carried or used by the driver under any circumstances." Now this
statement has not even truth to recommend it. The exact words
of the enactment to which this clergyman so confidently alludes will
be found in our first Volume, No. 11, p. 159, and will be seen to
be a mere evasion of the object professed to be secured. The Go-
vernors of the Society ought to have known better than to have given
currency to this misrepresentation, the adoption of which is an addi-
tional indication of the prevalence among them of the Colonial feel-^
ing we formerly ventured to impute.

10. Tobago, (12,000 slaves). Some progress is said to be making
in the work of instruction, but it would seem to be very slow ; and
except in one case, we hear nothing of the measures, but only of the
dispositions, of proprietors, to do something in future years towards
that object. In the one excepted case thirty-four children are taught,,
(quere daily ?) and on Sunday, the old and young are instructed
both morning and evening, (quere, how many ?)

11. J)eme?^ara, (70,000 slaves.) The church of St. John has been
opened. A Sunday School has been established in St. Swithin, and
" a desire is manifested to hear the word of God;" but the negroes
attend irregularly. In St. Matthew a dwelling-house lias been tern-

482 Conversion Society — Demerara, Bermxida.

porarily fitted for Divine service, capable of holding 600, and the
Rector, the Rev. L. Strong, has been permitted to use another dwell-
ing-house, 15 miles higher up the river, for lecturing to the numerous
free people on its banks.

12. Bermudas, (5,000 slaves.) The Archdeacon, Mr. Spencer,
makes, on the whole, a favourable report of progress in these islands.
A Branch Association has been formed " to encourage and promote,
by all advisable means, the moral and religious instruction of the
slaves and coloured population in the Colony." This would all have
been well, had not the Governors of the parent Society chosen to ob-
trude, rather ostentatiously, upon the public notice, the speech deli-
vered on this occasion by the venerable Archdeacon, who, " with
that graceful deportment and persuasive eloquence which are so pe-
culiarly and emphatically his own, addressed the highly respectable
assembly that was present." An extract from his speech will explain
the ground of this flattering compliment.

" It has been contended," said the venerable Archdeacon, " that
to give to a slave the knowledge and the aspirations of a Christian,
is to incapacitate him for a state of slavery, and to render him dissa-
tisfied with his lot. Gentlemen, if this were really fact — if Christianity
were so utterly and absolutely opposed to slavery as to be, by no
means and under no circumstances, reconcileable to it, I should
not hesitate to declare, that, as Christian men anxious to pro-
mote the kingdom of our blessed Lord, we should no longer be at
liberty to deliberate on the matter, but we should be constrained, by
every obligation of our common faith, to give the Gospel to the poor,
though the gift should be necessarily accompanied with a full, free,
immediate, and unqualified emancipation. Fortunately , however,
for both parties concerned, this is not a correct statement of the case.
Christianity and slavery have long co-existed ; they grew together in
the times of our Saviour and his Apostles, and the writings of the lat-
ter contain numerous and excellent instructions for the conduct both
of master and slave, under that relationship. The most sanguine of
the abolitionists are so well convinced of this fact, that, far from
wishing to christianize the slave as a probable step to his manumis-
sion, they are generally opposed to his education, because they well
know that, in exact proportioii to his improvement, will be the dimi"
nution of that powerful interest now excited among a large class of
people of England for compulsory, and, I had almost said, unjust
emancipation.

" Gentlemen, let us only detach the question of education from
the question of emancipatioii, and we shall see our way more clearly
through the clouds which prejiidice has spread around us. My own
prepossessions, feelings, principles, are all strong against the state of
bondage which prevails throughout a great portion of the world ; but,
finding the evil too large and deeply rooted to be eradicated, I am
content that it should be mitigated. Situated as the colonies are, if
I could with a breath pronounce freedom to every slave in the West
Indies, I would ivithhold the utterance of that breath, from a con-
viction that, in his present state of mental degradation, liberty would

Speech of Archdeacon Spencer of Bermuda. 483

be to him, instead of a boon and a blessing, a burden and a curse.
All that v/e propose is, to alleviate the hardship of his lot by that kind
consideration for his welfare which characterises the people of this
colony ; and by giving to him that spiritual knowledge and spiritual
liberty to which he has an undoubted claim, and wherewith his and
our Saviour hath made him free.

'' In adverting to the special objects of this Association, I would
briefly suggest that the instruction which we communicate to the
slaves should be purely of a moral and religious character, and should
be bestowed preferably on the young. If writing be objected to, I
would be willing to give it up, as not essential to our grand object ;
if adults may not be spared from their daily labours, I would be
content that our schools should be occujned by their children. By
proceeding in the reasonable and conciliatory course which the Scrip-
tures themselves indicate, I have no doubt that we shall soon efface
the prejudices of those among our adversaries who are so wise and
candid as to be open to conviction ; and from the opposition of the
unreasonable and uncharitable we shall have little to dread."

Now we must think that the doctrine of the venerable Archdeacon,
respecting slavery, however suitable it may have been when delivered
to an audience in the latitude of Bermuda, will hardly pass for ortho-
dox in England. The Governors of the Society might therefore have
spared the publication of this effusion of colonial zeal, were it only
from regard to the interests of the charity. And not only is the Arch-
deacon's doctrine as unscriptural and heterodox, as its direct con-
trariety to the plain precept of Jesus Christ, " all things, whatsoever
ye would that men should to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is
the law and the prophets," can make it ; but the venerable Arch-
deacon's concessions to colonial prejudices are, to the full, as liberal
as the most zealous slave-holder could desire. But we have a still
heavier complaint to bring against the venerable Archdeacon. It is
that of having most unwarrantably calumniated his brethren. He has
charged, and that untruly, " the most sanguine of the abolitionists,"
with a wish that the slaves may not be christianized, founded on the
basest of motives. Such a charge, in the case of any other person,
less entitled to respect, we should pronounce to be a gross libel, a libel
contradicted alike by the known character of the persons so libelled,
and by their large and liberal contributions to every honest, and judi-
cious, and scriptural effort for the moral and religious improvement
of the enslaved negro. Can he have read the writings of Mr. Wil-
berforce, or of Mr. Stephen, for example? Or does he exclude
them from the list of sanguine abolitionists ; or if he does not, will
he dare to include them in his charge ? Let him consider what they and
their associates have done for the Crown slaves in Berbice ! Let him
consider their early, zealous, and unceasing efforts, still perseveringly
exerted, to secure a Christian Sabbath to the slave ! Let him look at
their support of the West Indian missions of the Methodists, and of
the United Brethren ! Let him further examine the names attached to
the lists of the Church Missionary Society, a late but still an effective
labourer in this corner of the Christian vineyard ! And then let him

484 Conclusion.

blush for his unworthy and unjust imputations. — And, not content
with thus injuring and degrading them, as far as " his graceful and
persuasive eloquence" could effect that object, he does not spare even
His Majesty's Government, but brands with the epithet of unjust
that very measure of compulsory emancipation which they have delibe-
rately devised and adopted, and which they have pledged themselves
to parliament and the public to carry into effect in all the colonies
belonging to the Crown. No body of Governors, not tainted with
colonial feelings and interests, could have given their imprimatur to
such a speech as this. It is a death blow to every hope of that
** support" which they so much desiderate, and of the want of which
they so feelingly complain, " from the friends and advocates of West
Indian improvement."

But why, it may be asked, do we thus visit, with the severity of our
animadversions, this particular Society ? Why do we overlook the
reports of other and similar bodies ? Are there no defects in the pro-
ceedings of the Church Missionary Society ; of the Missionary Society
of the United Brethren, of the Methodists, of the Baptists, and of the
London Missionary Society ? These, however, at least, are not sus-
tained, as this is, by any grants of public money. Neither the Mo-
ravian bishops, nor the ministers and catechists of the Methodists,
and Baptists, and Independents, nor yet those of the Church Mis-
sionary Society, are paid from the public purse, nor are their churches
or chapels reared, in any measure, at the public expense. We there-
fore have a right to scrutinize somewhat more closely the proceedings
and the pretensions of this particular Society than those of the others.
At the same time we have not been backward in time past, nor shall
we be backward in time to come, in animadverting freely on any de-
viation from the right path, of which theymay also be guilty, in the con-
duct of their great and sacred undertaking. We have already more
than once warned some of them of their unfaithfulness, in not boldly
denouncing the obstacles which mar their usefulness and impede their
Christian progress; in yielding too much to their fears; and conced-
ing too much to colonial feeling and colonial prejudice in their high
and holy warfare ; and we hope not without effect. We agam call upon
them to bear in mind the awful responsibilities of their undertaking ;
to rise superior to the abject fear of man ; and to consider singly what
their duty to God, and to the Saviour whose kingdom they have so-
lemnly bound themselves to promote, requires at their hands. We
shall, erelong, resume the subject, and particularly notice the Report
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which has only
reached us as this sheet was going to press.

11. — '^ Four Essays on Colonial Slavery, by John Jeremie, Esq,
LATE First President of the Royal Court of St. Lucia."

We have barely space to announce the appearance of this truly sea-
sonable and excellent production, which throws a flood of fresh light
on the actually existing state of Slavery in the West Indies. It is
published by Hatchard and Son.

Loudon :— S, Bafcster, Jun. Printer, 14, EarthoUnntw Close,

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 91.] For DECEMBER, 1831. [Vol. iv. No. 19.

I.— REPORT OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN
KNOWLEDGE, For 1830.

XL— REPORT OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATING THE GOS-
PEL IN FOREIGN PARTS, For 1830.

III.— PRESIDENT JEREMIE'S FOUR ESSAYS ON COLONIAL SLA-
VERY.

IV.—CONVENTION WITH FRANCE FOR ABOLISHING THE
SLAVE TRADE.

I. — Report of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge.

In our last number we reviewed the Report of " the Society for
the Conversion, Religious Instruction, and Education of the Neg'ro
Slaves in the West Indies." The Report now before us is that of a
Sister Society so closely connected with the former, that the portion of
it which relates to the slaves in the West Indies, (that alone to which
we mean to direct the reader's attention,) may be considered as a short
abstract of the Conversion Society's report, being derived from nearly
the same sources. The general tenor of the two being thus substantially
identical ; our notice of this one need be but brief. — After stating
that they had received " ample proof of the rapid progress of Christian
knowledge (in Jamaica,) especially among the coloured and negro po-
pulation," and that the demand, consequent on this progress, for bibles,
prayer-books, &c. was great, the Society tell us that, " this demand
seems to have arisen, in a great measure, from the success which has
attended the measures which have been taken for educating the slave
population, especially that for instructing them by means of the book-
keepers and catechists on the estates." — This would imply that the
book-keepers and catechists were employed in teaching the plantation
slaves to read; for otherwise it is not obvious how their teaching could
have increased, in any great measure, the demand for books. But are
book-keepers and catechists generally employed, or even permitted,
to teach the slaves to read ? The very contrary stands proved in our
last number. If this fact be denied, let the plantations be named on
which reading is taught to the slaves by either book-keepers or cate-
chists, and let the number of slaves on such plantations, so taught, be
given. But, indeed, the Appendix to this very Report is decisive on
the point- The only return we find in it is from the Deanery of
Middlesex, containing eight of the twenty-one parishes into which
the island is divided, and there, it is expressly stated, that the instruc-
tion given by the book-keepers is oral.

On the pernicious effects of the system of employing book-keepers
as organs of religious instruction, and especially of such instruction

3 N

486 Society for Christian Knoxaledge. — Book-keeper system.

orally conveyed, we have said so much in our last number that it seems
unnecessary to add one word upon it. We cannot, however, quit it
without expressing our regret that the Society for promoting Christian
knowledge should have been induced, by the representations of their
colonial correspondents, to give it their sanction. We have already
assigned our reasons, and we need not now repeat them, for regarding
the plan which has been thus sanctioned as much more calculated,
generally speaking, to impede than to promote the diffusion of sound
moral and religious knowledge, and, still more, of correct moral and
religious practice, among the slaves.

Since the Report of the Conversion Society was reviewed in our
last number, our attention has been called to an article in the Chris-
tian Record of Jamaica, (for April 1831, No. 8,) which remarkably
confirms all the observations we have ventured to make upon it, and
even goes beyond us, in depreciating the good effected, among the
slaves, by means of that Society. The Editor exhibits, among other
things, a document which, if it be true, is decisive on the subject ; and
he boldly challenges an investigation of its correctness. It is a detailed
and specific enumeration of the slaves in Jamaica, who, in 1829, were
receiving a " lettered and effective education," " in connection with
the established church ;" and it amounts on the whole, out of a popu-
lation of 330,000, to 601, " of whom 391 are educated by the Church
Missionary Society, and 210 by the bishop and the rest of the esta-
blishment." That is to say, for an annual sum of about 9,600Z. ex-
pended from the public purse on the ecclesiastical establishment of
Jamaica, aided by the funds of the Societies for the Conversion of
Slaves and for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 210 negro slave-
children are being taught letters, so as to be put in the way of being
able to read their bibles !

There is also in the same able work a paper on the proceedings of
the last mentioned Society which peculiarly claims the attention of
that venerable body, as well as that of its ally. In particular, the
editor recurs again to that '' book-keeper system," which we have ven-
tured to reprobate. " Whilst on the one hand," he says, "■ the
bishop and his dignified clergy have been strenuous in urging the
necessity of all school-masters and catechists for the negroes being
placed under episcopal authority, a considerable number of book-
keepers are now employed in giving instruction, entirely independent
of it, whose moral conduct, for the most part, is utterly detestable ;
that is to say, if cursing and swearing, lolioredom, drunkenness. Sab-
bath-breaking, &e., are detestable." "These are the characteristics,
we fearlessly repeat, of the greater number of those who, under this
system, are employed in the instruction of the slaves ; and we as un-
waveringly assert, that to expect any thing from such instructors,
save contempt of religion, would be like expecting to ' reap grapes of
thorns, or figs of thistles.' "

The venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, can-
not too early, or too anxiously, attend to this and other suggestions
directly addressed to them in this valuable publication.

The Editor of the Christian Record also traces the increase of

Propagation Society — Codrinyton Estates. 487

marriage among the slaves, to the progress, and to the influence ot
the instructions either of the Church Missionary Society, or of the
Moravians, the Methodists, or other Dissenters ; the performance of
the mere ceremony of marriage being the work of the regular clergy,
they alone being authorized by law to perform it.

Not a word is said in this report of the open disregard or gross
profanation of the Sabbath, which still prevails almost universally
throughout the West India islands.

II. — Report of the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts, for 1830.

We refer our readers to our second volume, No. 45, p. 416 — 427 ;
No. 47, p. 457—461 ; and No. 48, p. 475—483 ; and to our third
volume, No. 5Q, p. 170 — 174; for what has already passed respect-
ing the plantations cultivated by slaves which are held in trust by
this Society in the island of Barbadoes. It is with unfeigned satis-
faction that we trace in their latest report, which now lies before us,
decided symptoms of improvement in their system of management.
The following are the resolutions which were unanimously adopted at
a Meeting of the Society, on the 31st of January, 1831: —

" The Society, being desirous of affording all possible encourage-
ment to the Slaves on the Codrington Estates to enter into lawful
wedlock, and of connecting it with the great object of their gradual
manumission, in order that their religious and moral conduct may
lead the way to freedom, have adopted the following regulations :
and their agricultural attorney will be instructed to do all in his power
to give effect to their benevolent intentions :—

" 1st. Slaves married according to the rites of the Established
Church, and continuing to live together, to be entitled to exemption
from compulsory labour one day in the week — such privilege to be
forfeited by either party who may desert the other, or be guilty of
immoral conduct.

" 2d. All Slaves to be allowed to purchase one or more days' ex-
emption from compulsory labour, until they are completely enfran-
chised: every encouragement to be given them to employ such day or
days with profit and advantage to themselves. The time of exemp-
tion from labour thus granted to, or purchased by, married women, to
be so distributed as best to promote domestic habits and the comforts
of their families.

" 3d. A man and his wife to be permitted to purchase their joint
freedom, for one or more days, at two thirds of the price which would
be paid for the freedom of the two if separately purchased. .

" 4th. Freedom, so purchased, to be transmitted as an inheritance,
to all the children born in lawful wedlock.

" 5th. Manumissions to be granted from time to time to such
Slaves as shall have recommended themselves to favourable notice by
continued good conduct; preference, in case of equally good conduct,
being given to those who have purchased for themselves the greatest
number of days.

*' 6th. Task labour by the Slaves on the estate to be adopted a&

488 Propagation Society — Codrint/ton Estates.

far as is practicable, and returns to be made quarterly to the Society
of the extent to which this measure has been carried, and of its results.

" 7th. Although it appears that the use of the whip in the field,
and as an instrument of female punishment, has already been discon-
tinued on the Society's estates, and that offences are punished by
moderate confinement, it is thought right to direct in express terms,
first, that the whip shall not be carried into the field as a stimulus
to labour, or as an emblem of authority ; and secondly, that females
shall in no case be punished by whipping.

" 8th. The manager to insert in a book, kept for the purpose, an
account of every punishment, the age and sex of the Slave, the time
and place of commission, the extent of punishment, by whom au-
thorised and inflicted, and the witnesses present ; an attested copy of
the book to be transmitted half yearly to the Society through the
Bishop of Barbadoes.

'* 9th. The Slaves never to be removed from the estate by sale.

" 10th. Writing and arithmetic, as well as reading, to form part
of the customary instruction in the schools on the estate.

"11th. With a view to provide a safe place of deposit for the
savings of the Negroes, the agricultural attorney to be directed to
take measures for the establishment of a Savings' Bank under the
guaranty of the Society." (p. 167.)

To these resolutions are annexed in the Report the following ob-
servations : —

" Such are the chief provisions which have been made for the
moral and religious improvement, and for the gradual emancipation
of the Slaves on the Codrington Estates, Many of them, it should
be remembered, are now in operation, and the Society are fully
pledged to carry the whole of them into effect, and to adopt, from
time to time, such further measures as may be likely to accelerate
the complete emancipation of the Slaves. They are willing to hope,
that they may thus be made an instrument of extensive and perma-
nent benefit to all classes of their West Indian fellow subjects, both
by the measures which they themselves adopt, and by the example
afforded to others, of an honest endeavour to satisfy the claims of hu-
manity and religion, and to qualify the Slave for the great blessing
of freedom, by lessons which may also prepare him for everlasting
happiness in heaven. The Society are resolved to proceed in the dis-
charge of their duty upon these principles and with these intentions,
and look with humble confidence for the Divine blessing upon their
honest endeavours." (p. 169.)

Had these resolutions, and the observations which accompany them,
been all that this report contained, on the subject of the Society's
slaves, we should have contented ourselves (while we overlooked any
dubious or questionable provisions) with expressing our satisfaction
generally in witnessing such an advance towards the adoption of
sounder principles, and a more consistent conduct, on the part of
this venerable body ; and we should have abstained from the re-
marks which certain other passages in this Report compel us re-
luctantly to subjoin.

1. The first point to which we shall advert is Ma?' r tag e. With

Propagation Sooiety'^Codrington Estatei. 489

no disposition whatever to question the zeal of the venerable Society
to promote marriage among their slaves, we still feel the want of some
more distinct and specific details on this essential point. In a letter,
indeed, from the Rev. J. Packer, the chaplain, dated July 8, 183(>,
we are told that on the 28th of May he had solemnized three mar-
riages, and another on the very day he wrote, making a total of
four ; being all that we can discover to have ever taken place on these
estates containing nearly 400 slaves. In another part of the same
letter, Mr, Packer thus expresses himself: " The general attendance
at chapel, I am concerned to say, on ordinary Sundays is not so full
as could be hoped or expected ; it is, however, not smaller than
usual, and I look and pray for its increase. The congregations on
festivals are always overflowing. There is one cheering circumstance —
the congregation at evening service is larger than ever, and is princi-
pally composed of those who attend most constantly in the morning,
so that what I may truly call my congregation is steady and con-
stant ; and among these are many of the married people, some of
whom I am sure to see every Sunday morning and evening in their
seats." (p. 161.)

Again, on the 30th of June, 1830, the Bishop of Barbadoes writes
thus : "The Society will be happy to know that marriages are be-
coming more frequent. Some of the older and more influential
people who had been long living together faithfully, set the example,
and the younger are beginning to follow it." (p. 165.)

Now this language both of the bishop and of the chaplain would seem
to imply that more marriages than three or four must have taken place
before they wrote ; and yet we cannot discover that a single marriage
had ever occurred prior to the 28th of May, 1830, when three
were solemnized, a fourth occurring only on the 8th of July after
the bishop's letter was written. A list of all marriages with their
dates would have obviated this ambiguity, and have been satisfac-
tory to the subscribers.

2. There is the same vagueness and uncertainty as to the number
of the slaves who attend divine service, or who are receiving, or
have received, a sufficient degree of education, to enable them to read
the Bible with intelligence. Such specifications could not fail to be
gratifying to the public, especially as the Society, we rejoice to ob-
serve, state, that " they can show that the negro is capable of in-
struction, for they have instructed him; and that he is susceptible of
the same devotional feelings, and maybe brought under the controlling
influence of the same divine laws, as ourselves." (p. 164.)

3. The venerable Society have thought it their duty, probably
with a view to their own vindication, but, as we conceive, very gra-
tuitously and unseasonably, to advance certain speculations of their
own on the subject of colonial slavery, which we cannot altogether
pass by without remark. " At once to enfranchise their slaves," they
pronounce to be "a step which, they believe, would be followed by
more suffering and crime than have ever yet been witnessed under the
most galling bondage ;" while, by making provision, as is now doing,
" for their gradual emancipation ; and by the introduction of free

490 Propagation Society — Codrinyton Estates,

labour into the Colonies," the Society will " afford an example which
may lead to the abolition of slavery, without danger to life and
property." This example, it is further added, will " shew the
planters how they may gradually enfranchise their slaves without de-
struction to their property " while " to emancipate them suddenly and
indiscriminately would only be to injure the objects of our just and
charitable solicitude." (p. 163, 164,)

Disposed as we are to give the venerable Society the very fullest
credit for the sincerity of these sentiments, we must still take
leave, with all deference and respect, to consider them to be not
only uncalled for, but to be the result of prejudices which arise, in part,
perhaps, from the peculiar circumstances in which they themselves
have been, and are still placed ; but which, we are quite sure, are at
war both with the christian principles of their own institution, and with
all the results of experience which are applicable to the case. It will
not be necessary for us to repeat, in this place, the facts and the
arguments which, in our third volume, No. 70, we have already ad-
duced in support of a directly opposite conclusion, — but, referring the
venerable Society to that article, we think we have a right to challenge
them to produce a single proof, in support of their confident and un-
hesitating assumption, that the extinction of personal slavery, by law,
and with the willing and concurrent consent of the master, will be
productive of the disastrous effects they have chosen to ascribe to it.
We know of no such evidence. We never have heard of such evidence;
all the evidence indeed being the other way. We think therefore, that
we may fairly call on them, and on all who would retard for a single
day the deliverance of their fellow-creatures and fellow- subjects from
bondage, to produce proof, if they can, which shall satisfy the pub-
lic, and their own consciences, that an emancipation of slaves, (how-
ever " sudden and indiscriminate ") proceeding from the legal autho-
rities of the state, and not only unresisted, but cheerfully acquiesced
in by the master, has ever, in any one instance, led either to public
disorder, or to the unhappiness and discomfort of the slaves, or to the
deterioration of their moral, intellectual, and political condition.

But not only are the venerable Society'sviewsof this subject in direct
and unwarranted contrariety to this last proposition, but they cast
a severe censure on the conduct recently pursued by the Government
of the very Monarch whom, in almost the same breath, they have been
loyally addressing on his accession to the throne of his ancestors.
Six months have scarcely elapsed since that Government, on a mature
consideration of all the circumstances of the case, and of all the
objections that had been urged against the measure, issued orders for
the full and unqualified emancipation, at once, of about two thousand
slaves of whom it found itself unhappily possessed, and who were placed
in circumstances infinitely less favourable than those of the slaves
of the Propagation Society. On the point at issue, nothing can be more
clear and explicit than the opinions expressed by Viscount Howick,
speaking on the behalf of His Majesty's Government; and they form
a singular contrast to those which are promulgated in the report before
SIS. Instead of anticipating, with the Society, from such a measure

Jeromes Four Essays on Colonial Slavery. 4-91

" more suffering and crime than have ever yet been witnessed under
the most galling bondage"* — instead of anticipating, with them, danger
and destruction to life and property ; his Lordship says, " I have stated
sufficient facts to shew that it can be done with perfect security. I
have not the least doubt that all these slaves will be able to maintain
themselves without assistance, and that they will become useful mem-
bers of the community to which they belong." Mirror of Parlia-
ment of 17th August, 1831.

Now even had these speculative opinions, of the distinguished per-
sonages who govern this Society, been better founded than we have
shown them to be, it would only have been respectful towards their
royal patron, to have somewhat qualified their denunciations against
a measure which his Majesty's ministers had adopted, and were at
that very moment carrying into effect; and which, we may take for
granted, those ministers would neither have proposed nor executed,
but in the entire conviction that it would not issue in the destruction
of life or property, or " in more suffering and crime than had ever
yet been witnessed under the most galling bondage."

Had not our remarks already extended to such a length, there still
remain some minor points in this report, to which, and particularly
to the occasional tone of the Bishop's communications, we should have
thought it right to advert; but we forbear, as by this time our
readers have sufficiently learnt to appreciate the value of eulogistic
representations of the felicity which characterises Colonial Slavery,
even when proceeding from the pen of a bishop, or of a bishop's seci'e-
tary, on the other side of the Atlantic.

III. — Mr. Jeremie's Four Essays on Colonial Slavery.

We could do no more in our last number than announce the ap-
pearance of this highly important work. We propose, in this num-
ber, to make our readers better acquainted with both it and its author.
He was appointed Chief Judge of the Royal Court of St. Lucia, in
October, 1824. Up to that time he had never been led to give his
thoughts to the question of slavery. As, however, he was going to fill
an important station in a slave colony, he was induced to attend an
Anti-Slavery Meeting which took place about that time ; but here, he
tells us, he was so struck with the absence of facts and evidence to esta-
blish the alleged iniquity of slavery, that the impression produced by
his attendance was unfavourable to the cause of abolition. This was
in 1824. — On reading over the recorded proceedings, however, of this
very meeting, on his return to Europe in 1831, he states it as a sin-
gular circumstance that his views had been so greatly altered, by the
intermediate experience he had had of slavery, that there was not a
sentiment then uttered which he could not now fully adopt. — The
error of Mr. Jeremie, in the first instance, was his misplaced expecta-
tion that, at a popular meeting of abolitionists, the whole chain of the

* Strong words these ! The Society must indeed have formed very inadequate
conceptions of what Colonial bondage has been, and still is.

4&i Jereniie^s Four Essays on Colonial Sla^mry.

evidence was to be exhibited which was necessary to conyince one
wholly uninformed on the subject of the real nature and effects of
slavery. He ought to have been aware that the members of the
Anti-Slavery Society had previously satisfied their minds on that
point ; and that they had now met, not to discuss or settle the evidence
which had led them to join that Society, but to learn what progress
had been made, or what hindrances had arisen, in the pursuit of their
object ; and to animate each other to perseverance in it. All those
facts, with which Mr. Jeremie admits that he was still unacquainted,
were familiar to them, and having been previously ascertained, were
naturally assumed as the basis of their proceedings. When after-
wards he himself had had an opportunity of witnessing the truth of their
premises, which he then doubted or disbelieved, he no longer hesitated
as to their reasonings or conclusions. — It would be thought very unrea-
sonable in any one who should attend a meeting of a Bible Society in
this country for the first time, were he to question the propriety of
its object, merely because the members present did not enter on a full
exposition of the evidence of the truth of the book they had united to
circulate ; thisbeing a pointonwhich theirown minds hadpreviously been
made up. The case of this Anti-Slavery meeting was strictly parallel.
The persons composing it required no proof as to the real nature and
effects of Slavery : they had made up their minds on that point';
and they had met, not to discuss its merits, but to co-operate in
putting a period to its evils.

Thus prepossessed against the cause of the abolitionists, Mr. Jeremie
repaired to St. Lucia, and there, for a time, what he saw and heard
served to confirm his unfavourable prepossessions. He consulted, he
tells us, the best colonial information ; he even made a tour of the
Island that he might see things with his own eyes, so as to ascertain
for himself the actual condition of the slaves ; and yet at the end of the
first year of his residence, he was confirmed in his impression that the
allegations of the abolitionists, respecting the general cruelties of
the slave system, were downright misrepresentations ; and this impres-
sion, which he scrupled not to avow oflftcially, was laid on the table
of Parliament.*

For the remarkable revolution which has since taken place in the
views of Mr. Jeremie, on this subject, he then proceeds to account,
and the whole of his statement is, as we shall see, highly instructive.
But before we proceed to dwell upon it, it may be proper briefly to
glance at some of the difficulties which such honourable and disin-
terested men as Mr. Jeremie are likely to encounter, in acquiring, even
after a considerable residence in the Colonies, an adequate idea of
the evils of slavery. We shall then be better able to appreciate those
favourable views of the Colonial system which have frequently been
given to the public by men filling the most eminent stations in
society.

In the first place, as Mr. Jeremie well observes, (p. 5.) it was not
until lately that " the slave enjoyed the liberty of freely communica-

* See our Second Volume, No. 29, p. 113.

Jeremies Four Essays on Colonial Slavery . 493

ting with his protectors, or was invested with any of those rights
which have rendered him, in any degree, independent of his manager."
Again, — " With whom," he asks, " do men of high rank and station
associate ; with the master or the slave ; the merchant or the domes-
tic ? Whose hospitality do they share ; in whose amusements do they
partake; whose assurances alone can they receive ? Are West Indians
alone expected to expose their sores ; to reveal, for their visitor's en-
tertainment, the secrets of their plantations ; to exhibit the dungeons,
the collars, and the cart-whips?" But (you will perhaps be told by
them) " they have inquired of the slaves themselves. But the slave
could not bear witness if he would; nor did he dare if he could."
" I once," adds Mr. Jeremie, "thought with them. But now that
their condition is so far amended as that their evidence can be heard,
and that Protectors are given them in v;hom they can confide, then
comes out the sad truth." (p. 35.) " The more exalted, therefore, the
station of the individual," our author goes on to argue, " the fewer
are his opportunities of ascertaining the truth; and the longer his
residence, without such opportunities, the more obstinate will he be
rendered in error. Nor can this point be too strongly put. Very
lately appeared in the public prints a glowing certificate, in favour
of things as they stood thirty years ago, from one of Britain's most
distinguished heroes. And yet, who, at this moment, defends things
as they then stood ? Not one of their own advocates! " " What, then,
does such a certificate prove but that the system is still indefensible,
or that Nelson," and with him others of the same class, " knew
nothing of it." " Nelson was not a Protector of slaves. His duties did
not bring him into contact with the slave labourer ; he knew nothing
of the interior of a plantation ; " except only as information was to
be acquired at the dinner table of the planters.

" This again," he proceeds, " is an answer to not a few of those
lively productions with which the press has recently teemed. What
opportunity had the writers, attached to a garrison,* or forming part
of a clerical dignitary's suite, to become familiar with the condition of
the slave ? Take that which has had the largest circulation. — The
author of ' Six Months in the West Indies,' (Mr. Coleridge) mentions
St. Lucia, describes its scenery, the sentiments of its inhabitants, the
progress of its government. He was there about an hour, saw ships
in the out bays, although these, with perhaps one exception, can have
been but cocoa-nut trees. To reach the pavilion, (the Governor's
house) he ascended rather better than half way up a moderate sized
hill ; he fancied himself in the clouds ; and, to complete the illusion,
saw stars in the fire-flies. Much of this arose, no doubt, from a wish
to give point and brilliancy to his narrative ; v/as meant good-
naturedly ; and expected to be received with every proper allowance.
But he who reflects how seriously the interests of humanity may

* This alludes to a work bearing the name of " Bailey," entitled " Four Years
Residence in the West Indies" — certainly, from beginning to end, a tissue of
gross (we do not say wilful) misrepresentations.

3 o

494 Jeremie's Four Essays on Colonial Slavery.

thus be compromised, cannot but regret that talents and wit and good
intentions have been so pei^verted."*

More than four years ago (see our Second Volume, No. 30, p. 135)
we ventured to pronounce a judgment, not very dissimilar to Mr.
Jeremie's, on this gay but mischievous publication. " Its effect," we
then declared, " whatever might have been the writer's purpose and
motive ; and these we did not mean to arraign ; had undoubtedly
been, greatly to deceive and mislead the public."
But to return to Mr. Jeremie : —

Scarcely had his favourable judgment of slavery, above referred to,
been transmitted to England and laid before Parliament, than a suc-
cession of circumstances occurred of a nature which led him gradually,
but at length completely, to change the whole current of his opinions
on this subject, and to force from him the reluctant admission of his
having misconceived, and officially misrepresented, the real state of the
case. It will be impossible for us to follow him through the whole of
these most interesting but revolting details ; we must confine our-
selves to a mere sample of them.

The New Slave Code, drawn up by Mr. Jeremie, and by which
something like protection was extended to the slave, had scarcely
been promulgated, when a negro came before him with a collar
riveted round his neck, from which projected three prongs of ten
inches in length ; and at the end of each of these, three smaller
prongs of an inch long. This collar, with its double set of prongs,
was attached to a chain reaching to fetters surrounding his ancles.
His back and limbs also were wealed from neck to foot, and the
sufferer declared that he had been kept thus collared, and enchained,
and fettered, by night and by day, for some months ; during which
he constantly worked in the field, and on his return from it, was im-
mured in a solitary cell.— How the man could have lived in this state
for months it is difficult for us to conceive : the collar with its prongs,
must have made it impossible for him to lie clown. — His crime was
running away.

Three gentlemen of reputed humanity, the Procureur du roi, and two
commandants of quarters, were sent by Mr. Jeremie to investigate the
affair. Their written report not only left the complainant's statement
unshaken, but brought to light the fact that, on the same estate, were
three other men similarly collared and fettered, and a woman covered
with sores and in chains, which chains she had worn for nearly two
years. They further reported, (by way of extenuation as it would
seem) that the collars, &c. were of the same description as those in
use in the Island ; and that the estate, (the estate on which these abo-
minations existed) ^'' was well managed ; and that the arrangements
upon it were good I .'" All this took place in 1826.

These torturing collars were put down by proclamation, as was also
the following mode of punishment, which was found in use on the same
estate as a substitute for female flogging, then recently forbidden. " The

* And yet it is from the flimsy work of this flying voyager that the West In-
dian lleporter has had to borrow its motto.

Jeremies Four Essays on Colonial Slavery. 495

women were hung by the arms to a peg, raised so high above their
heads that the toes alone touched the ground ; the whole weight of
the body resting on the wrists, or on the tips of the toes." (p. 6.)'

The offending parties in these cases underwent the penalties of the
new law.

About the same time a cause came on, in appeal, before Mr. Jere-
mie, in which a manager sued a proprietor for his wages, and the pro-
prietor pleaded, as a set off, the value of two of his slaves killed by
the manager. In the proprietor's counter-statement, after several
items of trifling amount, as soap, cash, candles, &c. came the fol-
lowing, being by far the largest, viz. —

" For the value of John the Cooper, flogged to death by you, and
then buried in the cane piece, 400 dollars."

" For the price of the negress Mary Clare, who died by bruises
received from you, 300 dollars."

In the recorded judicial proceedings on which this appeal was
grounded, the proprietor's extraordinary claim of a deduction, on ac-
count of two of his slaves having been murdered, is met, on the part
of the manager, with a levity still more extraordinary. " He had ex-
pected," he said, " objections that might cause delay in the payment
of his wages, but he did not anticipate a jjayment in this coin." It
is not the manager, he argues, who is to bear the loss of proprietor's
Negroes. If the defendant hadhad any legal rights of this kind he might
long since have made use of them. " The speculation is new," he
adds, " but it will not take." The two articles, therefore, of" John
the Cooper" and " Mary Clare," amounting jointly to 700 dollars,
are decidedly objected to by the manager. — The pleadings on the other
side were in the same strain of disgusting levity, the proprietor telling
the manager that the " coin" was not so bad as he would make it, as
he must have forgotten his own note of hand for 300 dollars, the
price he had agreed to pay for killing Mary Clare. His note to this
eflfect was actually produced; and awitness was also brought forward to
prove the flogging to death of John the Cooper. — With all these facts
and pleadings before him, the judge of first instance, who had tried
the cause, and from whose decision the appeal had been brought, dis-
cussed them as mere matters of account. He allowed the note of
300 dollars, for the murder of Mary Clare by his bruises, to be de-
ducted from the amount of the manager's wages ; but he considered the

* The substitute for female flogging ordained by the Trinidad Order (the
Model Order) and thence unsuspectingly introduced by Mr. Jeremie into St.
Lucia, and there legalized by the code which he himself (unaware of the nature
of the instrument) had framed, was scarcely, if at all, less severe than that which he
had put down. We mean what are called " Field stocks," and which Mr. Jeremie
asserts that he found might become " the most cruel picketing." " They are,"
he says, " in the shape of a pillory ; the hands are inserted in grooves which may
be raised to any height above the head, and the feet in other grooves at the bottom ;
the toes alone being made to touch the ground. The body is thus suspended in
mid-air, its whole weight resting on the wrists and toes. In Trinidad they fix
leaden weights to the wrists which add considerably to the torture. These
field stocks are a legalized substitute for the whip, and even pregnant women are
not exemj^ted from it." "What," asks Mr. Jeremie, ''h?s humanity gained ?" p. 7.

4f)6 Jeremies Four Essays on Colonial Slavery.

proof in the case of John the Cooper to be insufficient. While the
cause was before Mr. Jeremie, and after the appeal had been re-
argued in the same tone and spirit which had prevailed in the inferior
courts, the manager died, and further proceedings as to his crime
were necessarily stayed.

But who was the proprietor who had been defendant in this action ?
He was Mr. Jeremie's own immediate predecessor in office as chief
justice, for thirteen years, during a part of which this very cause had
been undergoing public discussion, and he was then one of his asses-
sors ; — nor was he removed from a seat in the Royal Court, but on
the application of Mr. Jeremie, to that eflPect, for some other offences
against the Slave law.

Such was the kind of protection and justice, observes our author,
which, at the time of his accession to office, he found meted out
" by both courts, and by nearly all the higher authorities." — " That
two men should venture thus to traffic in murder is in itself awful ;
but even this is outdone by the calm indifference with which the plead-
ings, the account itself, and the very judgments, prove the case to
have been contemplated" by the whole community.

The fact of overworking the slaves, which has always been alleged,.
by the abolitionists as a main cause of their decrease, was so stout-
ly denied by the white community of St. Lucia, and even by the
most respectable among them, that Mr. Jeremie could not hold out
against what appeared to be the overwhelming weight of evidence on
the point, and for a long time he was disposed, in his official com-
munications, to defend the planters from this charge. But at length
his attention was called to an estate, the attorney of which was a
member of the Privy Council, and the manager of which was looked
up to as a leading man of his class, and was a frequent guest in the
highest society in the Island. The complaint was,' as usual, of ill-treat-
ment on the side of the slaves, and, on the part of the manager, of in-
subordination. The result of the inquiry was that it was proved, and in-
deed admitted, that the gang had, in the course of the preceding crop

" been divided and worked as follows : they worked twenty-four hours each
spell, rested six, worked twelve ; rested twelve, worked twelve ; rested six, then
again worked twenty-four and rested six, and so on ; — there being three spells or
watches, two in the field, and one in the boiling-house ; and the latter working
twenty-four hours in succession, and resuming their labour in the field next
morning. Now, deduct, from these six hours, the time necessary to cook their
victuals (for no time was allowed them for meals), to clean themselves, to take
their meals, to undress and dress themselves, and families, if they had any ; and
what remained for rest? When the fact was thus placed beyond question, other
estates were at once mentioned where the same practice was adopted ; and so
little was it thought of, that, in an inquiry to which the attorney of the estate
was a party, this very manager was examined, and expressed his surprise at being
charged with cruelty, since, as he says on oath, this happened but seldom, and
when it did occur, he had always allowed his slaves to take six hours rest in the
course of two days. In other words, his management was lenient, as he never
had worked his gang more than forty-two hours together !

" Such is practical slavery, and such the difficulties which prevent detection,
even by tliose most thoroughly conversant with the subject."

We cannot afford space to follow Mr. Jeremie through various.

Jeremie's Four Essays on Colonial Slavery. 497

other details of the most revolting kind which compelled him to aban-
don his former, and adopt his present, views of the general spirit and
character of communities, demoralized and debased by the practice
of slavery.

" In short," observes Mr. Jeremie, " the principle, which seems to have been
universal, was best expressed by a gentleman, on his son's being arrested on a
charge of killing one of his Negroes. His remark was, ' What a noise about a
brute!' (Quel bruit pour un animal.') — and, with this, every thing is explained.
Once assume that a gang of Negroes is nothing more than a drove of cattle, and
all these cases will be so many offences under Mr. Martin's act,"

The effect of the enormous power possessed by the proprietor, he
adds, is such as to render him callous, not only to the life of his in-
feriors, but of his equals, and this truth Mr. Jeremie illustrates by
the following occurrence : —

" Six months after I was in the country, a case of infanticide was reported to
me : A new-born child had been found in a ditch, choked with earth, and its
mouth split from ear to ear, — it was still alive. The case was forthwith inquired
into with all the spirit and zeal that a subject of the nature merited ; but so far
from carrying public opinion with me, this interference was deemed very unrea-
sonable and uncalled for. The expressions I actually heard were ' Why meddle
with such nonsense ?' (' quelles niaiseriesf) and as nonsense thething seemed to
be treated. I, however, persisted, and issued a warrant against the mother, a
young lady of property and rank, and this was deemed pure brutality. She re-
mained some weeks in the island, residing openly at her relative's, a public
officer; but seeing I was determined to brave the consequences, she withdrew un-
molested to Martinique."

We will now turn to another feature of Colonial policy connected
with Mr. Jeremie's change of sentiment, and which it is especially
necessary, at the present moment, to place in its true light. We al-
lude to the convenient use, so often made by the Colonists with a
view to obstruct the progress of reform or to prevent the interference
of the Mother Country, of rumours of plots among the slaves; which
rumours are supported by every species of fraud and falsehood, and
even in some cases by the most wanton destruction of Negro life.
Indeed, no sooner had the public interest been excited in favour of
the slave than plots were fabricated, and even streams of blood shed,
apparently for no other purpose but to alarm the timid in this coun-
try, and to bring odium on the abolitionists. — We might here refer,
among other Colonies, to Barbadoes, Demerara, Jamaica, and Antigua,
and still more recently to Tortola. In some cases, indeed, the slaves
had been goaded into something like turbulence, and then the Negro
blood unsparingly and unresistingly shed has become the proof of their
rebellion. In other cases the proofs are only to be found in judicial
proceedings, involving a perversion of all the forms of law, and a dis-
regard of all the principles of justice. In other cases mere groundless
rumours and alarms have proved sufficient for the slave-holders' pur-
poses.

The authentic details given by Mr. Jeremie, on this subject, are
extremely curious and instructive, and as they may serve to give the
British public some faint idea of the extent and audacity of the im-
postures of this kind practised, by the holders of slaves, for the preser-

498 Jeremie\s Four Essays on Colonial Slavery.

vation of their unhallowed power, we shall dwell upon them at some
length.

When Mr. Jeremie, in 1826, first began to execute the law which
he had framed, and which the planters had vainly hoped would have
remained a dead letter, such reports were spread of discontents, in-
subordination, and even actual mutiny, that the principal officers of
the Government were employed to investigate them ; and they found
them to be pure inventions, (p. 6.)

At a later period, when from the collusive and unfaithful conduct
of the local government, as has been most clearly established in evi-
dence, a hope was diffused throughout St. Lucia that both Mr. Jere-
mie and his measures of reform might happily be got rid of, an ex-
tensive conspiracy was formed for that purpose, the course of which
is thus described by our author : —

" Rumours the most unfounded were at once set afloat, estates were specified
where the gangs were in utter disorder, nine or ten especially, and one of them,
where owing to the slave law having avowedly been neglected, the manager had
been cautioned. This estate was said to have been abandoned by the Negroes ;
some (o have ffed — the whole to have so neglected their duty, that the produce
had diminished from sixteen to three hogsheads per week. The slaves, it was
said, had fled to the woods, mountains, and ravines ; — Negroes had been taken
up with large bundles of newspapers of the precise year when the slave law was
promulgated, (1826,) and it was added, that gangs from the most distant and
unconnected quarters had struck, and had also sought refuge in the woods after
destroying their master's property, as manufacturers destroy machinery at home.
"Accordingly, militia detachments were sent out, headed by field officers, in
addition to two permanent detachments, in various directions, in search of the
insurgents : five were sent out from one quarter, — three from a second, — three
from a third, — three from a fourth ; and thousands of ball cartridges were dis-
tributed throughout the country. The white troops were to be quartered on the
refractory estates ; and the planters in one of the quarters and its neighbourhood
were desired to turn out with their best negroes ; this description of force alone
amounting to several hundred men.

" Next, the Governor himself went into the mountains, with a numerous staff,
to point out the exact plan of operations by which that insurrectionary move-
ment was to be put down. Then a militia order was to be issued, and read at
the head of the detachments, comparing these various convulsions, (' though it
had not quite reached that height,') to the melancholy period of 1796, when it
cost Great Britain 4,000 men, headed by Abercrombie, to restore order in St.
Lucia alone.

" Now, what was the fact ? In the whole of that part of the island, where the
Governor had taken on himself the direction of the troops ; where these detach-
ments under their colonels, had scoured the woods, mountains, and ravines ; it
appeared there were exactly eight negroes in the bush, including females. The
bundles of newspapers were a piece of wrapping paper, about the size of a man's
hand, on which an ignorant slave had made a few crosses, and produced as his
pass. The story of the destruction of property was a pure fiction. The specific
complaints proved to be worse than frivolous, and the only gang, where there
had been the least movement, was one with respect to which the proprietor, on a
subsequent enquiry, has been proved never, since the promulgation of the slave
law, to have clothed his negroes, and where they had been made to get up to la-
bour in the field by moonlight. On that occasion, fifteen had left their owner in
the evening, and had presented themselves in the morning to the next planter, to
intercede for them. He had done so, and they had returned quietly to work be-
fore any of these extraordinary measures were taken.

Jeremie's Four Essays on Colonial Slavery. 499

" In short, it was proved, that throughout the island only the usual average, 5
in 1,000, (taking the whole slave population) which is probably less than in the
best disciplined regiments in the service, were away from their estates; and this
too was at the very commencement of crop, when the number of runaways is
always largest.

" Again, in October, another panic was attempted to be created but was put
down. Indeed, throughout the year, endeavours in every shape were made to
prove the impracticability of continuing these new regulations.

" But how did the matter end ? By placing beyond question the advantages
resulting from them."

This was done by means of a public inquiry, instituted by Mr.
Jeremie, (the details are too long for insertion,) which not only served
"to disprove, oii the testimony of the planters themselves, all the alle-
gations of injury arising from the new slave code, but to extort from
them a reluctant admission of the past prevalence of many of the evils
which that code was specially intended to obviate. The whole of
these details are well worthy of careful consideration.

But it is impossible for us to follow Mr. Jeremie through all the
topics of his Four admirable Essays, which embrace 1. " The Ge-
neral Features of Slave Communities ;" 2. " The General Theories
involved in the consideration of the question of Slavery, as Colour,
Climate, Monopoly, Free labour ;" 3. " The Ameliorations intro-
duced into St. Lucia, and practicable elsewhere;" and 4. "The
Results of the Measures hitherto adopted, and a view of the further
steps to be taken to promote the final annihilation of slavery."
Under each of these heads we find a copious fund of valuable obser-
vations, the result of reflection and experience, on which we shall
probably have hereafter to draw very largely. We were particularly
, gratified by Mr. Jeremie's able and conclusive confutation, or rather,
we may say, demolition, in his second Essay, of Major Moody's absurd
and mischievous theory of " the philosophy of labour," which, for a
time, so strangely beguiled and bewildered even the acute though
paradoxical mind of Mr. Wilmot Horton.

We must content ourselves with two brief extracts from this part
of his work. The first respects the free people of colour, the second
the negro race.

"A young gentleman, the son of a judge of that island, by a dark coloured
woman, had received from his father a good plain education at Liverpool ; he
spoke English and French, and wrote both languages with ease and fluency; but
being, from his descent, inadmissible to any office of respectability, his father
had had the good sense to bring him up to a respectable trade, that of a watch-
maker. Soon after I arrived at St. Lucia, this young man was recommended to
me as a clerk. Having kept him in that capacity for six years, an opportunity
offered of bringing him to the bar. He accordingly obtained a commission ;
and I have the satisfaction of knowing that this young gentleman is now one of
the leading advocates of the court and enjoying, in a high degree, the public
confidence."

" To proceed to a still more striking instance of the capacity of the Negro : —
It happened that several slaves took refuge from Martinique, where the slave-
trade is avowedly carried on, to St. Lucia, in 1829. This caused a discussion,
the effect of which was to make it generally known, that on a foreign slave's
reaching a British colony, he, by Dr. Lushington's bill, becomes free ; and in con-
sequence of this discussion, several, exceeding 100 in number, came over in the

500 Convention with France on the Slave Trade.

year 1830. Here were persons leaving a country of unmitigated slavery ; persons
precisely in. the condition in which cur whole slave population may be supposed
to have been some thirty years ago, by those who maintain that the condition of
the slave has improved ; — here were persons described by their government as
incendiaries, idlers, and poisoners. When I left the colony in April last, some
were employed for wages in the business they were best acquainted with ; some
as masons, and carpenters ; some as domestics; others in cleaning land, or as
labourers on estates ; whilst about twenty-six had clubbed together and placed
themselves under the direction of a free coloured man, an African — one of the
persons deported from Martinique in 1824. These last had erected a pottery at
a short distance from Castries : they took a piece of land, three or four cleared
it, others fished up coral and burnt lime, five or six quarried and got the stones
and performed the mason-work, the remainder felled the timber and worked it in;
and the little money that was requisite was supplied, in advance, by the con-
tractor for the church, on the tiles to be furnished for the building. This pottery
was completed, a plain structure, but of great solidity, and surprising neatness.
Thus had they actually introduced a new manufacture into the country, for which
it was previously indebted to our foreign neighbours, or to the home market. All
this had been effected simply by not interfering with them, by leaving them en-
tirely to themselves: they were mustered once a month, to shew that government
had an eye on them, and then allowed full liberty. One man only was sick in
the hospital, and he was supported by the contributions of his companions."

It appears that, in the small Colony of St. Lucia, containing only
13,000 slaves, 2,360, more than a sixth of the whole, belong to
the coloured class ; and that in the town and port of Castries, the
same class own more than half the rental of the town, and a full
half of the registered shipping both in number and value.

Approving so highly as we do of the general scope and tenor of
Mr. Jeremie's work, it is but right that we should apprise our readers
that there is a point or two on which his views and ours are not strictly
coincident. We allude more particularly to the subject of compen-
sation. Our differences, it is true, are not very wide, but even if they
were, we should hardly deem it necessary now to enter upon them.
They will be obvious at first sight to any one who will take the trouble
of reading Mr. Jeremie's pamphlet, pp. 116 — 122, and comparing with
them No. 75 of our present volume, pp. 89 — 104. — We conclude with
most w^armly recommending the work to our readers, our brief sketch
being wholly inadequate to convey a due impression of the value of its
important information, which will abundantly reward the time re-
quired for its perusal.

IV. — Convention with France abolishing the Slave Trade.

We hail, with satisfaction and delight, the announcement, in the
King's Speech at the opening of the present Session of Parliament,
of a conventioiT with France for the effectual suppression of the Afri-
can Slave Trade, the basis of which is the " concession of reciprocal
rights, to be mutually exercised, and which will enable the naval
forces of the two countries, by their combined efforts, to accomplish
an object which is felt by both to be so impoitant to the interests of
humanity."

London ;— Printed by Samuel Bagster, .Tnn., 14, Bartholomew Close.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER,

Vol. IV.

Aberdeen, Anti - Slavery Meeting at,

34.
AbolitionistSfTwceedings of, 250, 251,

491.
Acouba, a Slave of Demerara, 341 .
Agricultural Laws of Hayti, 161.
Agriculture in Hayti, 161, 217, 241,

244, 426, 440.
Allan,W., Lord Provost of Edinburgh,

25, 31.
Amelioration of Slavery, 252, 264, 269,

276, 277.
America (United States of,) Slavery in,

270,
American Emigrants in Hayti, 235,

425.
Antigua, 69, 117, 285, 295, 325,449,

453, 478—480.
Anti-Slavery Meetings, 25 — 75.
Anti-Slavery Petitions, 32, 45, 67, 75,

248, 252, 332.
Anti-Slavery Reporter, Defence of,

22, 35, 77, 106, 1 19, 160, 292, 468.
Anti-Slavery Resolutions, 29, 33, 39,

59, 61,62, 216, 250—279.
Anti-Slavery Society, Proceedings of,

249—280, 289, 292.
Appraisement of Slaves : See Manu-
mission.
Arbitrary Power, effects of, 36.
Arbitrary Punishment, 11, 13, 22, 23,

28, 109, 128—136, 214, 300—303,

350, 372, 388—406.
Archdeckne, Mr. of Jamaica, 471.
Ash, Mr. 58.

Bahamas, 4, 295, 303.

Bailey, Mr., 493.

Baptism of Slaves, 293, 308.

Barbadoes, 52, 294, 302, 325, 477,

487—491.
Bishop of, 160, 477, 479,

489, 491.
Barbuda, 478, 480.
Barclay, Mr. Alexander, 119, 124,

125, 155, 462.
Bar de Justice : See Stocks.
Barnsted, Mr. of Berbice, 353—356.
Barrett, Mr. of Jamaica, 302.
Barton, Rev. Mr., 473.
Barham, Mr. Foster of Jamaica, 96.
Bath and Wells, Bishop of, 50.
Bath, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 50.
Bathurst, Lord, 303, 307.
Beard, Mr. Governor of Berbice, 362.
Belmore, Lord, 1, 3, 145, 246, 259,

318.
Bel Ombre, in Mauritius, 405.
Berbice, 77, 328, 349—366, 454.
Commissioners on Crown

Slaves in, 365.
Petition from, 81 .

Bermudas, 329, 482.

Bernal, Mr., M. P., 119.

Betty, Mr. of Jamaica, 136, 145, 254.

Bird, Mr. of Berbice, 363.

Birmingham, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,

62.
Blackwell, Colonel, 9, 11, 13, 14. -^
3 P

502

i>;dex to anti-slavery reporter, vol. IV,

Blair, Mr. W. T., 58, 59.

Blancard, Mr. of Mauritius, 405—407.

Bolivar, General, 270.

Bond, Mr., testimony on Slavery by,

43.
Bookkeeper CatecJiists, 474 — 476, 485.
Bounties and Siigar Dudes, 98.
Bowles, Rev. W. Lisle, 67.
Boydcn, Joseph, 71.
Boyer, President of Hayti, 185, 199,

229.
Bradford, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 40.
Branding of Slaves, 71.
Bridges, Rev. G. W., of Jamaica, 140,
145, 149, 151, 246—248, 254,258,
262, 476.
BngAf OK, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 68.
Brisbane, Sir C, 6—8, 287.
Bristol, Anti-Slavery Meetings at, 58,

60.
Brovgham, Lord, 251.
Browne, Captain, account of Slavery

by, 49.
Bullock, Mr. 150.
Buonaparte, 173, 213, 215.
Burge, Mr., 268, 269, 304, 305, 314,

315, 453,458—466.
Burnett, Rev. John, 273.
Burns, Rev. Dr. 34.
Bury St. Edmund's, Anti-Slavery Meet-
ing at, 69.
Buxton, Mr. T. F., 78, 80, 81, 144,
248, 250, 251, 258, 260, 269, 278,
458—466.

Cable, Mrs., 479.

Caldecot, Mr. 51, 57.

Calne, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 67.

Campbell, Rev. Mr., 472.

Canning, Right Hon. G., 55, 271.

Cape of Good Hope, 50, 329, 330,

377—384.
Cape Hayti, City of, 440,
CatecJiists, 473—476, 485.
Caye-la-Riviere, General, 237.
Chains, Fetters, and Collars, use of,

331, 370—372, 375, 399, 408, 411,

412, 494.
Chapman, Mr., of Jamaica, 134, 283.

Chandos, Marquis of, 126, 214.
Chelmsford, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,

62.
Chesterfield, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,

66.
Children, Redemption of, 94: See

Emancipation.
Christian Knowledge, Society for pro-
moting, 484—487.
Christian Record of Jamaica, 120 —
143, 144, 281, 458—466,473, 474,
486.
Christian Remembrancer, 160.
Christina, a Slave of Berbice, 356.
Christophe, 173, 177, 191, 238, 241,

422, 427, 429, 439, 444.
Church Missionary Society, 470, 471,

478, 486, 487.
Claxton, Captain Christopher, 58, 60.
Clothing of Slaves : See Food.
Code Rural of Hayti, 177, 196, 219.
Codrington Estates, in Barbadoes,

487—491.
Codrington, Sir Christopher, Case of

his Slaves, 71.
Coffee, Cultivation of, in Hayti, 221,

223.
Cole, Sir Lowry, 329, 378, 419.
Colen, John, 142.
Coleridge's Six Months in the West

Indies, 493.
Collins, Dr., 296, 299.
Colonial Reform, progress of, 1 — 24 :

See Legislation.
Colour, presumption of Slavery from,

13,281.
Coloured Population : See Free Co-
loured Population.
Colville, Sir Charles, 22, 24, 330, 420.
Coinbermere, Lord, 260, 320, 322,

323.
Compensation to Slave Owners, 56, 61,

64, 67, 89—104, 500.
Complaints of Slaves, 13, 160, 314,
336—342, 350—360, 369, 374,
377—384, 386—417.
Compidsory Manumission : See Manu-
mission.
Concubinage : See Libertinism.
Conder, Mr., 68.

INDEX TO AjSfTI-SLAVEllY REPORTER, VOL. IV.

503

Conducteurs of Hayti, 164—167, 180,
205.

Conversion of Negro Slaves, Society
for the, 127, 469—484, 486.

Cox, Mr. of Jamaica, 142, 143, 247.

Crown Colonies, 14 — 24.

Croxun Slaves, 154, 453.

Cruelties in Slave Colonies, 40, 41, 63,
64, 70, 71, 75, 108, 132, 134—136,
140, 146, 251, 254, 255, 258, 260,
272, 283, 317—325, 336—345,
349—360, 369—371, 374, 379,
386—418,449, 494.

■ in Hayti, 175, 211.

Cul-de-Sac, in Hayti, 197, 226.

Cultivators (free), 163, 168, 177, 185,
217, 219.

Cunningham, Rev. J. W., 279.

Dallas, Rev. Mr., 472.

Davies,Kev. Mi,, testimony on Slavery
by, 41.

Decrease of Population : See Popula-
tion.

De la Beche, Mr., 71.

Deleon, Mr., of Jamaica, 156,

Demerara, 20, 256, 257, 294, 326—
328, 333—348, 454,481.

Deninan, Sir Thomas, 253.

Denny, Rev. Mr., of Mauritius, 386.

Derby, Anti-Slavery Society at, 61.

Dessalines, 177,198,238, 239.

Dick, Captain, of Mauritius,' 386.

Dominica, 303.

Donations and 'Remittances, 76, 368,
447.

Douglas, Mr. Keith, M.P., 13.

Driving System : See Whip.

D'Urban, Sir Benjamin, 326, 328.

Durham, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 64.

Divarris, Mr., 310, 314.

Edinbw^gh, Anti-Slavery Meetings at,

25, 31.
Electors of Great Britain, Appeal to,

265, 266, 280.
Emancipation, fitness of the Negroes

for, 28, 30,92, 104, 172,215,277,

453, 489—491.

Emancipation, Immediate, 29, 31, 32,
104, 252, 263, 278, 279, 489.

■ Gradual or Prospec-
tive, 118, 279,488.

of Children, 28, 30,

269, 273.

of Females, 95.

Emery, Mr. and Miss, of Berbice, 350.
Escheated Slaves, 152 — 155.
Evans, Mr. W., M.P., 61, 278.
Evidence of Slaves, 9, 11, 107, 147,
305, 325, 327, 493.

Falmouth, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,
41.

Families, Separation of: See Separa-
tion,

Fanny, a Slave of Demerara, 342.

Farquarson, Col., 328.

Farquhar, Sir Robert, 418, 419.

Females, Punishment of, 11, 17.

Fidler, Rev. W., 477.

Finlayson, Mr., of Jamaica, 156.

Flogging: See Whip.

Flogging of Females, 11, 70, 75, 110,
129, 132, 135, 302, 317, 330, 342,
369, 389, 393,409, 495.

Food, Clothing, and Lodging of Slaves,
12, 21, 42, 52, 70, 99, 294—297,
321, 326, 333, 357, 403, 405, 408,
419.

France, Convention with, 500.

F7'ee and Slave Labour compared, 47.

Free Coloured Population, 14, 157,
499.

Free Days for Slaves, 1 1 .

Free Labour Cultivation, 161, 169.

Fremont, Colonel of Hayti, 426.

French, Conduct of, in Hayti, 169 —
175.

Friday, a Slave of Berbice, 350.

George, a Slave of Demerara, 337.
Gladstone, Mr. John, 19.
Glasgoiv, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 34.
Gloster, Mr., of Trinidad, 369.
Gloucester, Duke of, 251, 279.
Goderich, Viscount, 80, 145, 153, 246,

259, 306, 319, 329, 347, 371, 375,

377, 387, 417.

504

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL. IV

Gonville, Mr., 157.
Grass-Picking, Labour of, 298, 320,
361, 391, 396, 405, 408, 410,414.
Greene, Mr., 69.

Grenada, 155, 299, 303, 305, 481.
Grenville, Lord, 54.
Grey, Earl, 90.
Grimsdale, Rev. Mr., Missionary, 75.

flarf/eigA, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 45.

Halifax, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 64.

Hanley and Shelton, Anti - Slavery
Meeting, 44.

Hanna, Rev. Mr., 283.

Marker, Mr. F., of Jamaica, 247.

Hart, Rev. Mr., 478.

Haynes, Capt., of Antigua, 449.

Huyti, 161—183.

Recent Communications from

aTraveller in, 183—216, 217—246,
421—447.

Condition and Character of the

Inhabitants, 191, 217, 219, 221 —
224, 227—230,232—234, 237, 242,
445, 446.

(^ee Agricultural Laws, American
Emigrants, Boyer, Cape Hayti,
Caye-la-Riviere, Code Rural, Chris-
tophe, Coffee, Conducteurs, Cruelties,
Cul-de-Sac, Dessalines, Fremont,
French, Indigo, Irrig(\tion,L,aCroix,
Labour (Free), Le Clerc, Legisla-
tion, Mahogany, Malenf'ant, Petion,
Population, Poi't-au-Prince, Rice,
Roper, Salt, Santhona.v, Spanish Dis-
trict, Sugar, Thumb-screws, Tobacco,
Toussaint.)

Haytian Children, 444.

Hejnp, cultivation of, in Hayti, 226, 227.

Henry, Mr. Jabez, 311.

Hibbert, Mr. George, 3, 4.

Holberton, Rev. Mr., 69, 479, 480.

Horton, Mr. R. Wilmot, 77—89, 369,
499.

Hospitals for Slaves, 74.

Howick, Viscount, 254, 304 — 306, 453,
490.

Huddersfield, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,
43.

Hudson, Rev. Mr., Testimony on Sla-
very by, 40.

Huggins, Mr., of Nevis, 319, 320.
Huskisson, Mr., 1, 4, 80, 255, 302,

307.
Hylton, Kitty, 140, 246, 315.

Jamaica, 107,108,117,120, 145,153,
232, 246, 248, 254, 256, 258, 277,
281, 294, 295, 317—319, 455 — 468,
469, 485.

, Assembly of, 119, 143, 155,

269, 291, 301, 302, 309.

-, Bishop of, 122, 126, 472,473,

476, 477, 486.
-, Jails of, 455 — 453.

-, Libertinism of, 137, 477.
-, Slave Code of, 1—3, 18, 143,

155, 214, 269, 297, 301, 307, 313,
314.

Jackson, Mr., 47.

James, Mr., Attorney-General of Ja-
maica, 259, 318.

James, a slave of Demerara, 339.

James, Eleanor, 317 — 319.

Jeffery, Francis, Lord Advocate of
Scotland, 25.

Jeremie, Mr., Chief Judge of St.
Lucia, 376, 484, 491—500.

Joe, alias Louis Huggins, a slave of
Trinidad, 370.

Jones, Rev. David, 44.

Jones, Rev. R. E., of Mauritius, 386,
402—405.

John the Cooper, and Mary Clare,
cases of, 495.

Justice, administration of, in Slave Co-
lonies, 106, 108, 128, 147, 259, 261,
310, 322, 324, 325, 371, 372, 418,
467, 468, 494.

Indemnification to Slave Owners : See

Compensation.
Indigo, cultivation of in Hayti, 235.
Irrigation, cultivation by, in Hayti,

191, 202.

Kelso, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 33.
Kendal, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 44.
Kingston -on- Thames, Anti-Slavery

Meeting at, 41.
Knibb, Rev. Mr., 156.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL. IV.

505

La Croix, General, 16f, 428.

Labour (Slave), exaction of, 17, 18,
27, 42, 47, 73, 99, 115, 121, 256,
297—300, 320, 360, 391, 400, 403,
405, 408, 414, 415, 496.

(Free), in Hayti, 164, 169,

179, 218.
Lambie,Mt. W., 136.
Lecesne and Escofferi/, Messrs., 144,

157, 248.
Le Clerc, General, 173 — 175.
Leeds, Anti-Slavery Society at, 216.
Legislation in Slave Colonies, 1 — 24,

214, 272, 274, 285, 289, 297—

316, 325—332, 478.
• in Hayti, 161, 169, 171,

176, 177.

Libertinism, in Slave Colonies, 137,
477.

Lincoln, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 68.

Liskeard, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 50.

Long, Mr., of Jamaica, 52.

Lowe, Mary, of Demerara, case of her

Slaves, 339, 344—346.
Lloyd, Mr., of Hayti, 185.
Lusher, Rev. Mr., testimony on Slavery

by, 65.
Lushington, Dr., 157, 263—267.

Macaulay, Mr. Z. 85, 88, 365.
Macdonald, Mr., of Jamaica, 317.
Mackenzie, Mr., Consul-General, 161,

164, 183, 197, 219.
Mackintosh, Sir James, 257.
M'Farlane, Rev. Dr., 37.
Macpherson, Mr., of Demerara, 340.
M'Queen, Mr., of Glasgow, 38.
Mahogany, forests of, in Hayti, 230,

232, 240.
Mais, Mr. John, of Jamaica, 126.
Malenfant, Colonel, 167, 172, 212.
Manchester, Duke of, 1 53, 248.

Manifesto: See West Indian Mani-
festo.

Manumission (Compulsoiy), 77, 109,
305, 373.

Manumissions, 328, 346, 349, 373,

376, 385, 487.
Marchal, Mr., of Mauritius, 40 J.

Marriage of Slaves, 11, 112, 256,

293, 346, 349, 374, 376, 378, 386,

487, 488.
Marsh, Rev. Mr., 62.
Martin, Mr., of Jamaica, 135.
Mauritius, 21 — 24, 63, 330 — 332,

385—420.
Maxwell, Governor, 152.
Melksham, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 40.
Mexico, 270.
Minchin, Mr., 46.
Missionaries, treatment of, 74.
labours of, 112, 117, 118,

145—149, 362,363,471,479,487.
Montserrat, 295, 480.
Moody, Major, 19, 77, 87, 499.
Moravians, 477, 478, 484, 487.
Moreland, Miss, 141, 247.
Mortality : See Population.
Mortgages of Slave property, 101.
Moss, Mr. and Mrs., of Bahamas, 56,

254, 255, 279.
Moysey, Archdeacon, 57.
Murray, Sir George, 1—4, 6, 9, 18,

19, 104, 145,152, 324, 327,328,

331,334,352,360, 362, 377, 381.
Musgrave, Rev. Charles, 64.

Negroes : See Emancipation, Slaves.
Nelson, Lord, 493.
Nevis, 260, 295, 319—325, 480.
Neivby, Rev. Mr., 70.
Nibbs, Mr., of Antigua, 450.
Night Work, 360 : See Labour.
Noel, a Slave of Trinidad, 369.
Noyes, Mr. H., 136.

O'Brien, Mrs., of Trinidad, 370.
OXomiell, Mr. Daniel, M.P., 268.
Order in Council, of Feb. 2, 1830, 14,

Orto7i, Rev. Joseph, testimony on Sla-
very by, 72.

Overeem, Mr., of Berbice, 357.
Overseers, character of, 130, 138.
Owen, Mr. Robert, 193, 195.

Packer, Rev. Mr., 489.

506

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPOKTER, VOL. IV.

Faisley, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 34.
Pa?i<ow, Rev. Mr. 471.
Pearson, Dean, of Salisbury, 66.
Penzance, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 45.
Perth, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 33.
Persecuting Clauses in the Jamaica

Slave Code, 1—3.
Petion, President of Hayti, 241, 422.
P ever ell, Etienne, 161 — 167.
Philosophy/ of Labour, Major Moody's,

19,499.
Phillips, Mr. Joseph, testimony on

Slavery by, 48, 69.
Pinckard, Dr., 191.
Pitt, Right Hon. W., 90.
Plots, in Slave Colonies, 497.
Plough, use of, in Colonial cultivation,

94, 218.
Plymouth, Anti-Slavery Meeting at 50.
Population (Slave), decrease of, 14,

27, 115, 255, 320, 458—466, 496.

of Hayti, 176, 184, 197.

Port-au-Prince, 183, 186, 421.

Porteus, Bishop, 479.

Portsea, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 46.

Power, Mr. 351, 353, 354.

Pownal, Mr., 273.

Press, Periodical, conduct of, 250,270.

Privy Council Inquiry, on Slavery, 77.

Propagation Society, 487 — 491.

Property in Slaves, 26, 268, 305.

Property, Slave's right of, 309, 350—

352.
Pro-Slavery Partizaiis: See West In-
dian Pa7'tizans.
Protection, Councils of, 108, 136, 140,

150, 246, 258,283, 313, 318.
Protectors of Slaves, Office of, 10, 15,

17, 24, 313,333—336, 493.

Reports of, 332—420.

Provision Grounds, cultivation of, 11,

74, 114, 121.
Punishments of Slaves, 333, 343—346,

349, 367, c72,o74, 379, 455—458.

Raffingtoji, Mr., 142, 246.
Reading, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 48.
Religious Instruction of Slaves, 13, 28,
30,74,99,112,114,116,122,126,

128, 256, 264, 286, 290, 362— 366>
386, 468—484, 485—489.

Religious Persecution, 74, 156.

Rice, cultivation of, in Hayti, 229.

Ritchie, Dr. John, 29.

Robertson, Dr., of Jamaica, 284.

Roper, Mr., of Hayti, 200, 218.

Rosey, a slave of Demerara, 336.

Ross, Sir Patrick, 449.

Rowland, Rev. Mr., of Berbice, 363.

il«</arjc? Anti-Slavery Meeting, 62.

Sabbath, Observance of, 113, 120, 122,
290, 327, 361, 363, 364, 478.

Saintsbury, Mr., 69, 71.

Salisbury, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,
66.

Salt, manufacture of, in Hayti, 241.

Santhonax, Commissioner, 168.

Savings' Banks for Slaves, 349, 374,
488.

Schools in the West Indies, 469 — 484 :
See Religious Instimction.

Scottish Synods and Presbyteries, 39.

Sec ford. Lord, 472.

Secession Church, in Scotland, 29.

Separation of Families, 11, 112,303 —
305, 353—356.

Shiel, Mr., M.P., 271.

(Sic/c«ess, treatment of Slaves in, 321.

Sills, Mr,, of Demerara, 341.

Slavery, Colonial, Jewish, and Egyp-
tian compared, 42, 275, 278.

, demoralizing and hardening

effects of, 43, 52, 72, 130, 131,134,
151, 214,250, 256, 260, 272, 322,
332, 354—359, 493—500.

inconsistent with Christianity,

253, 256, 264, 267, 275, 277, 482
—484.

-, Presumption of, from Colour,

13, 281.
Slaves, Condition of, 36, 52, 60, 65,

69, 72, 131, 151, 250,254, 256, 260,

262, 263, 272, 281, 296, 311, 360,

458—466,491—500.
Slave Trade, 53, 89, 500.
Smith, Mr. W., 80, 85.
Smith, Mr. C, of Jamaica, 142.
Smith, Missionary, 20.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL, IV.

507

Smyth, Sir J. C, Governor of the Ba-
hamas, 4, 5.

Societies: See Anti-Slavery, Conversion,
Church Missionary, Propagation.

Southampton, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,
43.

Spaniards, cruelties of, in South Ame-
rica, 257.

Spanish District of Hayti, 225.

Spencer, Archdeacon, 482.

Spencer, Mr., of Jamaica, 284.

Stainsby, Rev. Mr., 471, 477.

St. Christopher's, 5, 63, 261, 295, 303,
480.

St. Domingo : See Hayti.

Steer, Miss, 142.

Stennet, Dr., 142, 246.

Stephen, Mr. James, sen., 155, 214,
296,483.

Stephen, Mr. George, 62, 278.

Stewart, Mr., of Jamaica, 107.

Stewart, Mr. J., 152.

St. Lucia, 328, 374—376, 481, 491—
500.

Stocks, Use of, 135, 321, 322, 337,
341, 352, 359, 360, 370, 401, 406,
409,413,495.

, Mauritius Bar de Justice, 397,

420.

Stowmarket, Anti-Slavery Meeting at,
48.

Sturhel, Madame, of Mauritius, 393.

St. Vincent's, 6, 286, 294, 296, 303,

306, 307, 309, 325,481.
Suffield, Lord, 249.
Sugar, manufactory of, 16.
, cultivation of, in Hayti, 200,

204, 207, 208, 210, 211, 217, 230.
, effects of culture of, in British

Slave Colonies, 14,27, 115, 255,

320, 458—466.
Sunday Markets, 6, 7, 15, 114, 120,

285, 290, 292, 294, 330, 451, 478,

480.
Sunday Labour, 15, 28, 74, 98, 114,

121, 292, 329, 330, 339, 405, 408,

416.

, Wages of, 347, 361 .

Swiney, Samuel, of Jamaica, 156.

Taylor, Mr,, of Jamaica, 318.

Telfair, Mr., of Mauritius, 386, 418.

Thomas, Mr., Slave Protector at Mau-
ritius, 398, 417.

Thompson, Mr., British Consul in Hayti,
237.

Thomson, Rev. Robert, 33.

Thomson,-Rev. Dr. A., 29, 32.

Thorpe, Rev. John, 158, 462.

Thumb-screws, use of, in Mauritius,
401.

Tobacco, cultivation of, in Hayti, 232,

Tobago, 9, 10, 256, 303, 305, 481.

Torto/a, 295,481.

ToussaintL' Ouverture, 167 — 174, 229,
240, 242, 243, 245.

Townley, Rev. Dr. James, 149.

Townsend, Rev. Charles, 67.

Treiv,Rev.J.M., 105—119,214,471,

472,
Trinidad, 257, 310, 325, 369, 374.
Truro, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 41.

Vincent, General, 173.

Walley, Mr., of Nevis, 260, 262, 320

—325.
Wardlaw, Rev. Dr., 34.
Warner, Mr. Ashton, 373.
Watchman, Jamaica Newspaper, 144,

155, 284.-
Watford, Anti-Slavery Meeting at, 68.
Watson, Rev. Richard, 263, 276.
Wellingborough, Anti-Slavery Meeting

at, 45.
Wellington, Duke of, Nine Letters to,

on Slavery, 105.
Wells, Mr., Case of his Slaves, 63.
Wesley an Methodists, 262, 271.
Wesleyan Missionaries, 1^5 — 149 : See

Missionaries.
West India Committee, 119, 126, 145,

160, 214, 289.
West India Manifesto, 288, 289 — 316,

352, 361.

West Indian Partizans, 19, 38,47,49,

51, 57, 58, 60, 69, 71, 289, 306.
West India Planters, Distresses of, 100.
, Resolutions of,

466.

-, Petitions of, 38.

508

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY KEPORTER, VOL. IV.

West India Repojter, 145.

Whip, use of the, 9, 10, 22, 27, 73, 75,
110, 111, 129, 146, 162, 214, 270,
300, 320, 371, 373, 376, 388—406,
488, 494.

Whitehouse, Rev. Mr., 136, 146, 148.

Wilberforce, Mr., 51, 252, 483.

Wildynan, Mr., 125, 317,470, 472,473.

Williamson, Dr., of Hayti, 219.

Williams, Henry, of Jamaica, 136, 145.

Wilson, Rev. Daniel, 267.

Windliam, Mr. 90.
Withey, Mr., 40.
Wordie, Rev. Mr., 155.
Wray, Rev. Mr., 363— 365.
Wright, Miss Frances, 193, 425.

Yorkshire, Mr. Horton's Second Letter

to Freeholders of, 77.
Young, Colonel, 334, 335, 347.

Zwart, Jan, a Slave of Berbice, 353 —
356.

Printed by Samuel Bagster, .lun., 14, Rartliolomew Close, London.

i. f\ L mn4^
,:JAN 3 1912