THE
HORRORS
JVEGRO SIaJLVERY.
Price One Shilling,
CCS.75SS^i no,
S. GoSNELL, Printer, Little Queen Street.
THE
HORRORS
OF THE
JVEGRO slavery
EXISTING IN OUR
[est fnDtan 3 slante,
IRREFRAGABLY DEMONSTRATED
FROM
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS
RECENTLY PRESENTED TO
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS-
LONDON :
PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, PICCADILLY; MESS. RICHARDSONS,
CORNHILL; R. BICKERSTAFF, ESSEX STREET, STRAND;
AND HAZARD, BATH.
1805.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
Associates of the Boston Public Library / The Boston Foundation
http://www.archive.org/details/horrorsofnegroslOOIond
THE
M O RRO RS
XEGRO SLAVERY,
Be.
In the last Session of Parliament a variety of papers re-
specting the Slave Trade was laid on the table of the
House of Commons, and among them, the following
extract of a letter from Lord Seafqrth, the Governor of
Barbadoes, to Lord Hobart, dated at Barbadoes, the
18th March 1802, viz. " Your Lordship will observe in
the last days proceedings of the Assembly, that the ma-
jority of the House had taken considerable offence at a
message of mine, recommending an act to be passed to
make the murder of a Slave felony . At present the fine
for the crime is only fifteen pounds currency, or eleven
FOUNDS FOUR SHILLINGS STERLING."
It was difficult to conceive a stronger proof of the de-
plorably unprotected condition of the Negro Slaves in
Barbadoes, the oldest and most civilized of our slave
colonies, than is furnished by the above official docu-
ment. In a community where even the life of a Negro
stav$ is estimated at the cheap rate of eleven pounds four
shillings Ucriirtg, and where a proposition to raise its.
legal value to-'gr'Mrice which may be less revolting to Eu-
ropean feelings is. resented as an affront by a grave legisla-
tive assembly ; it -^ould argue an utter ignorance of the
nature of man, and of the principles by which his conduct
is usually guided, to expect that the general treatment of
Negro slaves should be humane and lenient. But we are
not at present reduced to the necessity of inferring, by the
aid of disputable analogies, the practical nature of the
existing slavery, from the state of the laws respecting it.
What might, last year, have been considered by some as
matter of presumption merely, of presumption, however,
sufficiently strong to remove all doubt from unprejudiced
minds, is now matter of fact. We have now the prac-
tice of slavery so graphically described, in some further
documents of unquestionable authority, as to supersede the
necessity of reasoning, and to silence the most deter-
mined stickler for West Indian humanity.
On the 25th of February 1805, a number of addi-
tional papers respecting the Slave Trade was presented to
the House of Commons by His Majesty. To these
papers it is the purpose of this pamphlet to call the atten-
tion of the public, as exhibiting a picture of Negro bond-
age, with which every individual in the kingdom ought
to be made fully --icquainted, who has a heart to hd for
the miseries of his fellow-creatures, or a voice to raise
against that detestable traffic which is the main prop of
colonial despotism.
The first thing which occurs in these papers particu-
larly deserving of notice is a continuation of the corre-
spondence between Lord Seaforth and the Secretary of
Stale. The following is a transcript of it, with the
addition of a few notes intended to illustrate the text :
w Extract of a Letter f torn Lord Seaforth to the Earl
Camden, dated Bar hadoes, i%th November 1804.
<c I also enclose four papers, numbered from number
I to 4, containing, from different quarters, reports
on the horrid murders I mentioned in some former
letters; they are selected from a great number, among
which there is not one in contradiction of the horrible
facts, though several of the letters are very concise and
defective: the truth is, that nothing has given me more
trouble to get to the bottom of than these businesses,
so horridly absurd are the prejudices of the people * ; how-
ever, a great part of my object is answered, by the alarm
my interference has excited, and the attention it has
called to the business ; bills are already proposed to make
murder felony in both the Council and the Assembly;
but I fear they loill be thrown out for the present in the
Assembly ; the Council are unanimous on the side of
humanity.
" {President Ince's Statement.)
"On the 10th day of April 1804, on my return to
Enmore in the evening, I found Mr. Justice Walton and
Mr. Harding, former manager of Prettejohn's estate,
and now the manager of the Society's estate, attached to
* Not of one or two, or of a few individuals, but of the
People.
B 2
the support of Codrington College. Mr. Walton told me
that Mr. Harding had brought before him a man of the
name of Henry Halls, a private soldier in the St. Mi-
chael's or Royal regiment, who had, in presence of Mr.
Harding, in a most wanton, malicious manner, mur-
dered a Negro woman, that he did not know personally,
but had since heard she was the property of Mr. Clarke,
the owner of the estate called Simmons's ; that she was a
valuable slave, and hadjive or six children. Mr. Wal-
ton said, that Halls seemed to be very indifferent about
the crime, and that he had called upon me to know what
was to be done with him, as Mr. Walton said^ in his
situation as a Magistrate, the law of the island admitted
him no jurisdiction or authority over him> and he did not
consider he had a right to commit him to prison without
my order*. Mr. Harding then gave the following testi-
mony : That he was returning from town, and just above
the Line of Pilgrim he overtook several market Negroes,
and this man, Halls, on the road ; he did not know
this man at the time, but he had his musket and bayonet
fixed over his shoulder, and his regimentals, as returning
from the alarm which had arisen that morning, and
discharged at noon j that when he overtook this man it
was not six o'clock in the evening; as he drew near him,
he heard him muttering some words, and saw him run
after some Negroes with his bayonet charged ; that the
woman was on the other side of the road still going up ;
* What can more expressively shew the dreadful state of so-
ciety which prevails in this island, than that a Magistrate should
find himself without the power even of commitment in the case of
a man apprehended in the very act ofperpetratingamost foul and
wanton murder?
and as he came up, this man, Halls, stopped until the
woman came by, and immediately crossed the road, as
Halls made after the woman, and plunged the bayonet
into her lody, when the poor creature dropped, and
without a groan expired. He immediately went to him,
and spoke harshly to him, and said, he ought to be
hanged, for he never saw a more wicked, unprovoked
murder, and that he would certainly carry him before a
magistrate, and that he should be sent to gaol : and he
said, c For what? killing a Negro*?' On which
he got assistance, and brought him to Mr. Walton the
Magistrate, and that he, Mr. Harding, had accompa-
nied Mr. Walton to me, to relate the fact. I told Mr.
Walton that I regretted, with real concern, the deficiency
in our law 5 but that there was a penalty due to the
King f in such cases ; and that, as Mr. Harding had suf-
ficiently substantiated the fact, I would order him to be
committed till he paid the forfeiture, or a suit should be
commenced against him : accordingly he was sent to
prison, where he now remains, and under arrest from
Mr. Clarke's representatives, to be recovered according to
law, and the King's fine, and will possibly be there for
life, as I hear he is not worth a shilling, nor no expect-
ancy ever to pay it. Perhaps, my Lord, it was a stretch
* This short, but significant sentence is of more weight than a
thousand arguments in favour of the mild treatment of Negro
slaves, and furnishes an unanswerable proof, that they are regarded
by their oppressors as a different order of beings from themselves;
and that under the influence of this sentiment they are naturally
enough denied the common rights of humanity, and excluded from
the participation of that sympathy which the sense of a common
mature and a common extraction is calculated to inspire.
f Namely, the eleven pounds four shillings mentioned above.
of power in me to order commitment before a recovery
of the fine ; but the evidence of Mr. Harding, a man of
unblemished character, the circumstances of the case so
horrid, so wickedly deliberate and unprovoked, conspired
to induce me to secure his person until the only remedy
of some punishment could be applied*. Lamentable
indeed is it, that our Assembly (for I cannot allow Legis-
lature to form the word) should look upon such things
with cold indifference, and not provide that just remedy
which the law of God and man in every other civilized
community but this, has in effect, and even upon larger
extent of population and slavery; in Jamaica not the
smallest inconvenience has ever arisen. Surely! surely t
they will be more disposed to hear reason, and to establish
justice ! \
* Mr. President Ince seems properly aware of the illegality of
his proceeding : doubtless Halls also is aware of it; nor should
I be surprised to hear that he has been able to rouse the popular
feeling of the island in his favour, as a man unjustly and illegally
oppressed. To have suffered so severe a punishment as that of
imprisonment, for so paltry an offence as killing a Negro slave,
particularly as his commitment was contrary to law, will be likely
to excite no small degree of virtuous indignation among the Bar-
badians : and the danger lest such an unauthorized lestriction of
the freedom of individuals should grow into a precedent may
possibly call forth the most vigorous resistance. This expecta-
tion seems perfectly justified by what took place some years ago
on a similar occasion in the neighbouring island of St. Kitt's,
where the prosecution of a man of the name of Herbert, who
had treated one of his slaves with the most wanton barbarity, wag
not only not productive of any punishment to the offender,
though the facts were clearly proved, but was likely to have been
followed by very inconvenient effects to the prosecutor, in conse-
quence of the popular clamour which was excited against him-
" To the second query from your Lordship; I believe
the fact relates to the case which was instituted by action
in the Court of Exchequer, before your Excellency left
the Government, as I signed the writ when Chief Baron,
at the suit of Colbeck against Crone; and I understand
judgment has been admitted without being given to Jury,
against Crone in favour of Colbeck; but whether the
King's fine is included in that recovery I really do not
know, and your Excellency may be better informed from
the present Chief Baron or the Attorney General. The
circumstances of that case I do not know exactly ; from
common report, they must have been richly deserving of
the jus per co 11.
(i To the third query. — I never heard any official ac-
count of the case. I understand from inquiry, that the fact,
as to the murder, is true; that the party's name is Thomas
Novvell, a butcher by trade, in the parish of St. Andrew;
and that being in the direct vicinity of the Reverend Mr.
Payne, and the Honourable Colonel Jordan, your Excel-
lency may obtain a more particular account of this infa-
mous wretch, who, I am told, ought to have been re-
moved from society long ago."
"Advocate General's Letter to Lord Seaforth; dated
October 25th, 1804.
" My Lord, October 25th, 1804.
" I have many apologies to make to your Lordship for
not sending an earlier answer to the several questions re-
specting the Negroes who have of late been most wan-
tonly and inhumanly murdered. The delay has been
owing to the difficulty I have met with in procuring any
thing like satisfactory information as to the last of the
cases; and therefore I shall hope for your Lordship's ex—
cuse.
" With respect to the first; a man of the name of
Halls, belonging to the Royal regiment, was returning
home from his exercising duty, on one of his militia
days ; several Negroes were upon the road before him
going on very quietly, and amongst them a woman big
with child. Halls was in liquor, and was constantly
bawling out to the Negroes and abusing them, and telling
them if they did not get out of his way he would make
them. On his beginning to run after them, they all got
out of his reach, except this unfortunate woman ; Halls
ran up to her, and, without the least provocation on her
part, very coolly and deliberately stabled her several times
in the breast ivith his bayonet. The woman, I believe^
was not killed upon the spot, but died soon afterwards,
Mr. Harding, the overseer of the Society's plantation, was
on his way home, and saw the whole transaction ; he im-
mediately secured Halls, and had him taken to gaol,
where he now is.
" As to the second ; Mr. Colbeck, who lived overseer
on Cabbage-tree plantation in St. Lucy's parish, had
bought a new Negro boy out of the yard *, and carried
him home; taking a liking to the boy, he brought him
into the house, and made him wait at table. Mr. Crone
(the overseer of Colonel Rowe's estate, and which is near
to Cabbage-tree) visited Colbeck, had noticed the boy,
and knew him well. A fire happening one night in the
neighbourhood, Colbeck went to give assistance, and the
boy followed him. On Colbeck's return home he missed
the boy ; and as he did not make his appearance the next
day, Colbeck sent round to the neighbours, and particu-
larly to Crone, informing them that the boy was missing,
and desiring them to send him home if they should meet
* Meaning the Slave-yard, where Negroes are exposed to sale
in the same manner as cattle and sheep in Smithfield-market,
9
With htm. Two or three days elapsed, and the poor crea-
ture was first discovered in a gully, near to Colonel Rowe's
estate; and a number of Negroes were soon assembled
about the place. The boy, naturally terrified with the
threats, the noise, and the appearance of so many people,
hid himself under a rock in the gully. By this time Crone
and some other white persons had come up, a fire was
ordered to he put to tlie place where the hoy was, and he
ivas actually 'burnt out. From this hole the boy ran to a
piece of water, ivhich was near, and some of the Negroes
ivent in after him. The boy, it is said, took up a stone
and threw it at one of them. Crone, icho it seems had
brought a gun with him, levelled it at the boy, and shot
him ; and other guns, as I have understood, were also
fired. The poor wretch was then dragged out of the
water, and, without even sending to his master, a hole
was immediately dug, and he was put into it by Crone's
order. 1 have been told that the boy was not quite dead
when he was buried. Colbeck, the owner, soon after-
wards came up, and had the boy taken out of the ground;
and there cannot be the least doubt that Crone must have
known him to be Colbeck's new Negro who had been
missing. A man of the name of Hollihgsworth, it was
said, also fired at the boy, and Colbeck brought his action
in the Exchequer, under the act of the island, against
Crone and Rollings worth. The cause was ready to be
tried, and the Court had met for the purpose, when
Crone and Hollingsworth thought proper to pay double
the value of the boy, and 25Z. for the use of the island,
with all the cost?, rather than suffer the business to go on ;
and this lam truly sorry to say was the only punishment
which could be inflicted for so barbarous and atrocious a
crime. The Attorney General and myself were retained
as counsel for Colbeck, and received instructions to the
10
above purport. The case did not appear so strong against
Hollingsworth ; but T verily believe that, as aganist
Crone, it would have been substantiated by the fullest
evidence. It is due to Colonel Iiowe to observe, that he
was in England when the horrid transaction took place.
" As to the third : A man of the name of Nowell, who
lives in St. Andrew's parish, as I understand, had been in
the habit of behaving most brutally towards his wife, and
one day went so far as to lock her up in a room, and con-
fine her in chains. A Negro woman belonging to this
man, touched with compassion for her unfortunate mis-
tress, undertook privately to release her; Nowell found
it out, and, as I first heard the story, had the Negro's
tongue immediately cut out nearly by the roots, of which
she instantly died. I "have since been told, that Nowell
had the poor creature's tongue put through a hole in a
door, and cut a part of it off himself', hut that she is still
alive. This case has been told different ways; and I
have not, after many inquiries, been able to satisfy my-
self as to the real truth *. Thus much I have no doubt
is certain, that the wretch, Nowell, has most barbarously
and cruelly used this Negro, merely because she acted 9,
kind and compassionate part towards her mistress.
4f Permit me now, my Lord, as a Barbadian, to return
you my warmest thanks for the zeal you have shewn in
this business ; and I trust the day is not far distant, when,
* If any thing could add to the honor which the shocking bar-
barity of Nowell must excite, it is tht doubt existing, "after many
inquiries" — existing too in the minds of the Advocate and Attorney
General — as to whether this poor creature was alive or dead.
Were there no means of forcing Nowell to produce her? Could
no inquest have been instituted i Dreadful state of things!
11
through your Lordship's exertions, I shall see that act in
our statute-book repealed, which remains a disgrace to my
country.
" I have the honour to be, &c.
" M. CoULTHURST.
« The Right Honourable Lord Seaforth,
&c. &c. fife."
M Extract from the Reverend Mr. Filgrini's Letter to
Lord Seaforth ; dated St. Jameses Parsonage, Sep-
tember 2$th, 1804.
" The man who killed the woman near Pilgrim, is, I
apprehend, named Halls or Halts, one of Sir John Bur-
ney's tenants, and belonging to Saint Michael's regiment
of militia.
" The manager who shot the man in the water is named
Crone, living on Mr. H. Rowe's plantation in Saint
Lucy's parish. The man was an African, a slave to a
Mr. Colbeck, the manager to a neighbouring plantation,
and had accidentally strayed from his master: Crone
seeing him, pursued him with several Negroes ; the poor
creature pelted his pursuers with stones, and at length
took refuge in a pond, where he was inhumanly shot by
the dastardly manager, and taken out of the pond ; I re-
peat, my Lord, what I have heard, though I could hope,
for the sake of humanity, my information has been false,
and buried him while yet alive.
" Nowell, a butcher, living in Saint Joseph's parish, is
the wretch uho murdered the slave for letting his-wife
out of confinement. The circumstances of this horrid
barbarity arc almost too shocking to be related. On dis-
covering the poor creature had been instrumental to his
c 2
12
wife's escape, he obliged her to put her tongue through q
hole in the board, to which he fastensd it on the opposite
side with a fork, and leaving her in that situation for soma
time, he afterwards drew out her tongue ly the roots.
" This, my Lord, is what I have heard relative to the
cases on which your Lordship desires information; and
as I have heard the circumstances I have mentioned from
different persons, told in nearly the same manner, I am
led to suspect that the statement will be found fo be but
too correct." Papers, &c. p. 7-10.
iC Extract of a Letter from the Right Honourable Lord
Seaforth to Earl Camden; dated Pilgrim, yth January
1805.
(! I enclose the Attorney General's letter to me on the
subject of the Negroes so most wantonly murdered. I am
sorry to say, several other instances of the same barbarity
liave occurred with which I have not troubled your Lord-
ship, as 1 only wished to make you acquainted ivith the
subject in general "
€i Copy of a Letter from Mr. Bee dies to Lord Seaforth ;
dated igth November 1804.
" Bay Plantation,
(e My Lord, igth November 1804.
il I have delayed to answer your Excellency's note of
the 19th of September, enclosing queries as to some cases
of cruel murders committed upon Slaves, with the hope
of being able to establish the facts, so as to communicate
them to your Excellency without any doubt of their au-
thenticity ; but, notwithstanding every inquiry, I can
13
make no discovery of the murder which had leen currently
reported io have been committed by one Nowell, of' the
parish of St. Andrew *. The fact is by many supposed
to be true, at the same time that it is denied by others ;
and all that I can ascertain is, that Nowell is in general a
cruel man to his Slaves.
" The militia-man is Halls, of St. Michael's
regiment. Returning from his duty upon an alarm, after
stopping at a dram-shop, where he had drank so as to
be rather intoxicated ; hearing some Negroes singing be-
fore him, who were returning from their daily labour, he
called out to them that he would kill them ; upon which
a Mr. Harding, who was going the same way, told him to
take care what he was about; he immediately pursued the
Negroes, who not supposing that he really intended to do
them any injury, but imagining that what he had said
was in joke, did not endeavour to escape, but as he came
up to them, they separated to make room for him to pass;
the nearest to him being a woman far advanced in preg-
nancy, he ran his bayonet into her, ivithout the smallest
provocation, and killed her on the spot : Mr. Harding and
another gentleman, who were eye-witnesses, seized him,
and carried him before the President, who sent him to
prison.
" In the other case, which happened in the parish of
St. Lucy, two white men were concerned, Crone and
Hqllingsworth. A Mr. Colebeck, the manager of a plant-
ation in the neighbourhood, had some months before
purchased an African lad, who was much attached to his
person, and slept in a passage contiguous to his chamber.
* Had the Attorney General then no means of ascertaining
whether the woman was alive or dead ?
14
On Sunday ni^ht there was an alarm of fire in the planta-
tion, which induced Mr. Colebeck to go out hastily, and
the next morning he missed the lad, who be supposed
had intended to follow him in the night, and had mis-
taken his way. He sent to his neighbours, and to Mr.
Crone among the rest, to inform them that his African
lad had accidentally strayed from him ; that he could not
speak a word of English, and that possibly he might be
found breaking canes, or taking something else for his
support ; in which case he requested that they would not
injure him, but return him, and he would pay any damage
he might have committed. A day or two after Mr. Cole-
beck was informed that Crone and Hollingsworth had
killed a Negro in, a neighbouring gully, and buried him
there. He went to Crone to inquire into the truth of the
report, and intended to have the grave opened to see whe-
ther it was his African lad. Crone told him a Negro had
bety killed and buried there; but assured him it was not
his, for he knew him very well, and he need not be at the
trouble of opening the grave. Upon this, Colebeck went
away satisfied', but receiving further information, which
left no doubt upon his mind that it was his Negro, he re-
turned and opened the grave, and found it to be so. I was
Mr. Colebeck's leading counsel, and the facts stated in my
brief were as follows : that Crone and Hollingsworth
being informed that there was a Negro lurking in the
gully, went armed with muskets, and took several Negro
men with them. The poor African, seeing a parcel of
men come to attack him, was frightened ; he took up a
stone to defend himself, and retreated into a cleft rock,
where they could not easily come at him ; they then went
for some trash, put it into the crevice of the rock behind
him, and set it on fire ; after it had burnt so as to scorch.
15
the poor fellow, he ran into a pool of water near by 5 they
sent a Negro to bring him out, and he threw the stone at
the Negro ; upon which the two white men fired several
times at him with the guns loaded with shot, and the Ne-
groes pelted him with stones. He was at length dragged
out of the pool in a dying condition, for he had not only
received several bruises from the stones, hut his breast was
so pierced with the shot that it was like a cullender. The
white Savages ordered the Negroes to dig a grave, and
whilst they were digging it, the poor creature made signs
of legging for water, which was not given to him', but as
soon as the grave ivas dug, he was thrown into it, and
covered over, and there seems to he some doubt whether he
was then quite dead. Crone and Hollingsworth deny
this 1 but Colebeck assured me, that he could prove it by
more than one witness ; and I have reason to believe it to
be true, because on the day of trial Crone and Rollings-
worth did not suffer the cause to come to a hearing, but
paid the penalties and the costs of suit, which it is not
supposed they would have done had they been innocent.
" i have the honour to be, 8cc.
" John Beckles *,
<c The Right Honourable Lord Seaforth,
Wb. &c. &c."
One circumstance of the above narrative may not strike
the minds of some readers with its due force, although to
us it appears to be the most affecting part of the whole
case. They may have been led to conceive, that whatever
atrocity there was in the proceedings of Crone and his
companion, yet in Colbeck there was some approxi-
mation to European feeling. But how stands the fact
with respect to -Colbeck ? On being coolly told that a
* Papers, Sec. page 43> 44-
i6 *
Negro had been killed and buried, — told so by the mur-*
derer himself, his neighbour and frequent visitor; — is he
shocked by the tale ? Does he express any horror or in-
dignation on the occasion ? No ! he goes away satisfied
with the assurance, that the murdered Negro is not his own.
Let the reader give its due weight to this one circumstance,
and he will be convinced that a state of society exists in the
West Indies, of which an inhabitant of this happy island
can form no adequate conception. Had it been his horse
instead of his Negro Slave, Colbeck would have been af-
fected in much the same way as he is said to have been.
From this impressive circumstance may also be inferred
the value of West Indian testimony, when given in fa-
vour of West Indian humanity. Mr. Colbeck, for ex-
ample, would naturally enough be spoken of as a man of
humanity by his West Indian brethren, and they would
probably be sincere in giving him that praise. But who
is this man of humanity ? It is one who, hearing that a
fellow-creature has been cruelly and wantonly murdered,
goes away satisfied, because he himself has sustained
no pecuniary loss by the murder ! In truth, the moral
perceptions and feelings which prevail in that quarter of
the globe, are wholly different from those which are found
on this side of the Atlantic. An exception may, indeed,
be made in favour of a few men of enlightened minds ;
but the remark is just as applied to the bulk of the com-
munity— the people, whose prejudices are stated by Lord
Seaforth to be so horribly absurd, as to resist all mea-
sures for remedying this dreadful state of societv.
We shall doubtless hear it argued on the present as
on former occasions, when similar barbarities have been
incontestably proved, that " individual instances of cru-
elty, like those which have now been produced, are no
proofs of general inhumanity. Instances of, at least,
equal atrocity, might be collected from the annals of the
Old Bailey. But how very unjust would it be to regard
these as exhibiting a fair view of the English character ?"
There is, however, a remarkable defect in the analogy
which is here attempted to be established ; a defect which
seems fatal to the argument. In this happy country,
when we hear that crimes have been perpetrated, we hear
also that they have been punished : we have at least the
satisfaction of knowing, that no practicable means are
Jeft vrnattempted for securing the criminals, and bring-
ing them to justice. But is this the case in Barbadoes?
We hear of great crimes indeed; but we hear at the same
time of their impunity. The criminals are not under the
necessity of endeavouring to elude detection, or of screen-
ing themselves from prosecution by concealment: they
even talk of their crimes with a shocking indifference.
The laws themselves conspire to defeat the ends of justice.
We find, not the lawless part of the community, but the
legislative assembly of the island, sanctioning the perpe-
tration of the foulest murders, by their refusal to recog-
nise murder as a felonious act. We find even officers
of the Crown neglecting the obvious duty of instituting
a legal inquest into these murders. To what is this neg-
lect to be attributed ? To the contagious influence of
those prejudices, and of that savage indifference to Negro
life, which evidently pervade the people at large ? Or is it
to be accounted for on the ground that the law has actu-
ally deprived His Majesty's Attorney General, and His
Majesty's Coroner, of the constitutional power of insti-
tuting such an inquest? In either case our colonial
system will stand justly chargeable, not only with out-
p
18
raging every feeling of humanity, but with violating
every acknowledged principle of justice.
But the West Indians and their friends will probably
have recourse to another argument. " Granting," they
may say, " in its fullest extent, the truth of all that you
have stated with respect to Barbadoes, it is yet very unfair
to extend the charge of inhumanity, which is justly
broughtagainst that island, to theWest Indies in general.
The Legislatures of all the other islands have passed laws
which make the murder of a Slave felony ; they have also
provided such salutary regulations ' for the support,' and
i for the encouragement, protection, and better govern-
c ment of Slaves,' as serve to place them in a situation of
even enviable security and comfort."
It will be readily admitted, that the Legislatures of
most, if not ail the islands, with the exception of Barba-
does, have passed laws which make the murder of a Slave
a felonious act. It must also be admitted, that many
regulations have been framed and placed on the insular
statute-books, which, if faithfully enforced according
to their apparent intent, could not fail to produce bene-
ficial results. But have the clauses which contain these
regulations been carried into effect ? Are they any thing
more than a~Blind, intended to conceal from the eyes of
the British public the enormity of our West Indian
system ? Was it ever even in the contemplation of the
lawoivers themselves that these laws should be executed ?
The papers to which so large a reference has already been
made happily contain a distinct answer to these ques-
tions : that answer it will now be proper to state.
On the 4th of October 1804, it appears that Earl Cam-
den addressed letters to the Governors of the different
West Indian islands, requiring from them information on
19
a variety of points. A copy of the heads of information
transmitted to one of the islands, Dominica, will furnish
the reader with a sufficiently clear idea of the nature of
these requirements. It is as follows :
" An account of all the Negro Slaves imported every
vear since 1788, and of the number re-exported in each
year.
** The most authentic and particular account which,
can be obtained, of the number of Negro Slaves, dividing
them into classes of male and female ; children from 1 to
12; youths from 12 to 20, full-grown men and women
from 20 to 60 ; and the aged; and staling, as accurately
as possible, the number in each class respectively : also,
(l An account of the total number of free Negroes and
coloured people.
" N. B. It is desirable that the manner in which the
information is obtained, and the account made up, should
be stated as distinctly as possible.
"You are also desired to transmit at the same time, in
original and duplicate, the following further information,
viz.
" A list and abstract, or general account of all returns,
made upon oath by owners, overseers, or managers, in
pursuance of the 7th and 8th clauses or sections of an
act, passed in December 1788, intituled, s An Act for the
* Encouragement, Protection, and better Management of
* Slaves*.' .
* The 7th clause enacts, that " in order to secure, as far as pos-
sible, the good treatment of the Slaves, and to ascertain the cause of
the decrease of the Slaves, every owner, overseer, &c. shall, in the
month of January every year, deliver in on oath a certificate of the
increase or decrease of the Slaves under his direction, how many
have been born, or how many have died, within twelve months
D 2
20
<c If it appears that no such accounts or returns have
been duly made, or that they have been in any great mea-
sure neglected, you are requested further to send,
" An account or list of all convictions had, and fines
or forfeitures recovered, and of all prosecutions com-
menced against the defaulters, pursuant to the said act of
Assembly.
" If the said returns and accounts have been wholly or
generally neglected, and no prosecutions have taken place
for that cause, you are to send a certificate to that effect.
" .You will also state whether the island had in 1788,
or in 1799, when the act was made perpetual, or yet has^
any and what parochial or established clergy, by whom
the regulations in sections 3 and 4, have been or can be
carried into effect*."
previous thereto, and the cause of the death of such Slaves; which
certificate shall be lodged in Tfje Secretary's office of this island ; for
the filing of which the Secretary shall be allowed a fee of nine-
pence : and if any owner, iffc. shall fail to deliver in such certificate
oh oath at the time appointed', he shall be fined in the sum of fifty
pounds." The 8th clause enacts, that Slaves, convicted of murder,
highway robbery, or burglary, shall suffer death.
* These clauses run thus : " Whereas a knowledge of the doc-
trines, and a due attention to 'the exercise of the duties of the Christian
religion, would tend to improve the morals, and to advance the tem-
poral and eternal happiness of the Slaves, it is enacted) that all-
owners, overseers, &c. shall, on every Sunday on their several
plantations, convene together the Slaves for the purpose of per-
forming divine worship, and shall not fail to exhort all unbaptized
Slaves to receive the holy sacrament of baptism ; and all the un-
baptized children of Slaves shall receive the said sacrament : and
en neglect of these duties the owners, &c. shall be fined in not less
than jpA nor more than 2^1. And all owners, &c. shall encourage
and exhort all Slaves, arrived at years of maturity, and desirous of
entering into a connubial state, to receive the ceremony of Christian
marriage, and in neglect of doing stt shall be subject to a fine t>f "5/."
21
To these inquiries no answer appears to have been re-
turned by c Go/ernors, either of Jamaica or the Ba-
hamas. From those of the. Leeward Islands, St. Vincent
and Grenada, letters have been received, stating the dif-
ficulty of immediately complying with the requisitions of
Earl Camden, but promising to take measures, without
delay, for procuring the desired information. Now here
it may be proper to remark, that with respect to several
important heads of inquiry, particularly those which re-
late to the execution of the-laws enacted for the protection
of Slaves, a very short delay must have been sufficient.-
The Governors, by referring to the Secretary of the
island, or to the clerks of the several courts of record,
could have at once ascertained w nether the legal pro-
visions mentioned by Earl Camden had or had not been
carried into effect. If they had ; a copy of the record
would have been all the answer which was requisite : if
they had not ; it was only necessary to say so, and to state
the reasons of the failure.
This manly and becoming course has been pursued
only in one instance, viz. in that of the Governor of Do-
minica : and his answers, though defective in some im-
portant particulars, yet contain a candid disclosure of
facts, and are therefore calculated to throw considerable
light, not only on the causes which may possibly have
impeded the returns from the other islands, but on the
general state of Negro slavery in the West Indies.
Governor Prevost, in his letter to Earl Camden, repre-
sents Dominica " as distinguished by the laws it has
passed for the encouragement, protection, and govern-
ment of Slaves;" but he goes on to remark, " lam
sorry I cannot add that they are as religiously enforced as
you could luish *." Now this is precisely what has been
* Papers, &c. page 34.
22
asserted, with respect to the laws in question, by the ad-
vocates of abolition, and as strenuously denied by West
Indians. The laws may look well on paper, but they are
inefficient : nay, they were never meant to be otherwise.
jf any one is so extremely ignorant of West Indian
affairs, as not to have been already apprized of this fact,
let him read the following passage in an official letter
of the Governor of Dominica :
" The Act of the Legislature, intituled, c An Act for
' the Encouragement, Protection, and better Government
* of Slaves,' appears to have been considered, from the day
it ivas passed until this hour, as a political measure to
avert the interference of the mother -country in the ma-
nagement of Slaves *. Having said this, your Lordship
will not be surprised to learn the clause seventh of that
* This representation, it may be presumed, is fairly applicable
to all the West Indian Legislatures: indeed it would be unjust'
to them to suppose, that they were less politic and provident
than the Legislature of Dominica. The charge involved in it,
however, is certainly far from being light or trivial, especially as
it is made, by one who is a thorough master of the subject on
which he writes, " having passed many years in the West Indies,
and having been resident in most of the Colonies." P. 34. The
charge amounts to this: that the individuals composing the legis-.
lature's of the Islands, and who we may suppose to be the most
honourable part of the community, have entered into a combi-
nation to deceive the British Parliament and the British public ;
that they have prostituted the solemn legislative functions with
ivhich they were invested, to the promotion of this dishonourable
purpose; and that, with the pretended view of promoting the pro-
tection, security, and comfort of the Negroes, they have framed a
set of laws, the real object of which is not to benefit the Negroes,
but to prevent the mother-country from interfering to mitigate the
cruel oppression under which they groan. The reader must form
his own judgment of persons capable of such conduct.
23
Bill has been wholly neglected*. As to the eighth clause,
it is too intimately connected with the public interest to
be allowed to sleep.
" I am apprehensive you will find the account of all
convictions had, and fines or forfeitures recovered, and
of all prosecutions commenced against the defaulters,
pursuant to the said act, very unsatisfactory ; however,
here, now and then, the act has shewn some signs of
life." P. 36.
After examining with the utmost attention the account
to which Governor Prevost refers (and which is inserted
at page 39), it does not appear that a single fine or for-
feiture has leen recovered, nor a single prosecution com-
menced against defaulters, during the seventeen years
that the act has been, not to say in force, for that would
be ridiculous, but in existence. Of convictions there is
indeed a considerable number, but, with the exception of
two, they are all convictions of Negroes. Of these two,
one is for the murder of a Negro : but the record wh ch
states the conviction, states also that the convict was par--
* If the reader will have the goodness to refer back to p. 19, he
will see with what parade this very clause is introduced into the
Act. It was framed expressly " to secure, as far as ■possible, the good
treatment of the Slaves;" and yet it appears from the first to have
been regarded in the island as an absolute nullity. "It has been
Wholly neglected." Not one certificate has been filed in
consequence of it, nor has one penalty been enforced for the neg-
lect. How different this from the fate of the eighth clause, de-
nouncing the. punishment of death on Negro Slaves guilty of cer-
tain crimes ! This clause, we are told, has not been allowed to s L E E p !
Here we have a lively picture of the nature of West Indian legis-
lation. When laws are directed against the Negro Slave, they
operate with certainty and permanent effect. When enacted in
his favour, they prove dormant from the moment of their birth.
tJoned by Governor' Johnstone. The murderer was &
soldier in the 68th regiment. The other case is that of a
man who was fined thirty pounds currency for ill-treating
a Slave, the property of Doctor Fellan. No other parti-
culars are mentioned respecting this singular trial and
conviction. The sig/is of life, therefore, which have beeii
shewn by this act, as far as regards the protection of
Negro Slaves, must be admitted to be very equivocal.
Governor Prevost refers Earl Camden to a letter froni
the Rev. John Audain, Rector of St- George's, as ex-
plaining " why the clauses 3 and 4 are not carried
into effect." Mr. Audain's letter, however, throws little
light on the subject. He can furnish no returns of mar-
riages,_because (he says) " a very few even of the free co-
loured people marry, and not one Slave since I have been
here. Why they do not, I readily conceive, particularly
the Slaves. Their owners do not exhort them to it, and
they shew no dispositions themselves to alter that mode
of cohabitation which they have been accustomed to."
P. 40.
It appears then, that the 3rd and 4th clauses of this
boasted act are as nugatory as the 7th : tf they are not,"
says Governor Prevost, ct carried into effect*." And
yet if the reader will turn back to page 20, he will find that
these clauses are introduced by a preamble of peculiar
solemnity. They are enacted with the professed view of
<c improving the morals and advancing the temporal and
eternal happiness of the Slaves." What is this but im-
pious mockery? Have they been executed? No. Has a
single penalty ieen enforced for their non-execution ?
* The act requires owners, &c. to exhort their Slaves to marry.
Mr. Audain says, that their owners do not exhort them to it.
«25
No. Surely, after this discovery, it is impossible that such
mere mummery of legislation should continue to impose
on the good sense of the people of Great Britain. They
will see that the difference between Barbadoes, and the
other islands, is in fact merely nominal : and that the
same lamentable deficiency of legal protection, the same
system of unqualified oppression, characterizes Negro
bondage throughout the whole extent of our West Indian
possessions.
Before the pamphlet closes, it will be proper to devote
a few pages to the consideration of a long Report of the
Assembly of Jamaica which forms a part of these papers.
The picture given in that Report of the situation of the
West Indian islands is in the highest degree discouraging;
but it is represented by the reporters as less gloomy than
the truth. " A faithful detail," it is said, p. 26, " would
have the appearance of a frightful caricature ; and unless
speedy and efficacious measures are adopted for giving
permanent relief, by a radical change of measures, we
must suppose that the West Indian islands are doomed to
perish as useless appendages to the British empire."
Credit is represented to be at an end ; the planters, gene=
rally, to be labouring under the pressure of accumulating
debt; and the greatest distress to pervade all classes of
the community. Admitting the fidelity of this repre-
sentation, a question will still arise respecting the causes
which have produced so unfavourable a state of things.
The Report affirms, that it has chiefly been produced by
the enormous duties imposed On West Indian produce 5
by the competition of East Indian sugars; and by the
attempts made to abolish the Slave trade.
The two first points would lead to very lengthened de-
tails, and are foreign from the design of this pamphlet,
E
26
It may be observed, however, in general, that notwith-
standing the labour employed by the reporters to prove
that the additional duties imposed on West Indian pro-
duce fall not on the consumer, as in every other instance,
but on the grower, no peculiarity appears to exist in the
case under consideration, which exempts it from the ope-
ration of the general rule ; a rule which is familiar to the
merest sciolist in political economy. The protecting duties
imposed on East India sugar appear also to be suffici-
ently high to exclude them from competition with West
Indian sugar in the British market. A part of the East
Indian sugar, it is true, is consumed in this country; but
it is a small part, the demand for it being confined to a
few individuals, who are willing to pay a high price for
sugar rather than wound their consciences, by using
what is procured through the oppression of their brethren :
the rest is exported.
The attempts made to abolish the Slave trade operate,
it is said, to the disadvantage of the island, by increasing
the danger of insurrection among the Slaves*, and by dis-
couraging the hope of a permanent supply of labourers.
West Indian property, it is added, is thus so greatly di-
minished in its value, that merchants will no longer ad-
vance money upon it ; and without an advance of
money, the plantations cannot be carried on with ad-
vantage,
* The Slaves* it is affumed, will confound abolition with-
emancipation. But what proof is there of this ? Have they done
so in Virginia ? The Slave trade has been abolished in that state
for near thirty years. Has any such misconception, as is now an-
ticipated, taken place among the Virginian Slaves ? Certainly
not. Experience therefore is against the reasoning of the W«;at
Indian body.
27
The Report, however, overlooks the effect produced on
the value of property in the old islands by the extended
cultivation of Trinidad and Dutch Guiana. But is not
the great and growing rivalry of these colonics a far more
formidable evil than that of the East Indies ? Why then
have they so much insisted on the latter, while the
former, though much more obvious and much more mis-
chievous, is passed over in silence ? Is it that the re-
porters have a sympathy with the owners of Slaves, which
even self-interest cannot overcome; and that they dread
the precedent of cultivating sugar by free men, as is done
in Bengal ? They must also feel that it would have been
greatly to the advantage of the old islands, had they con-
sented to an abolition of the Slave trade fourteen years
ago, before the fertile plains of Guiana had yet been
brought into cultivation by the enormous amount of
British capital, which has been transferred thither.
The reporters labour to keep out of view the dangers
which threaten Jamaica from the example and proxi-
mity of St. Domingo, and from an increase of the Negro
population in the island ; and they absurdly argue, that
the more the Negro population is increased, the greater
will be the security of the West Indies. As to the plea
so strongly urged, of danger, even from discussing the
question of abolition in the British Parliament, it is ren-
dered almost ridiculous by the circumstance, that the
debates which have taken place on that subject are regu-
larly published, at great length, in the official newspapers
of Jamaica; and that even the present Report, in which
the question of abolition is largely discussed, has been
inserted, by authority of the Assembly, in the Royal
Gazette of that island.
The reporters are greatly displeased that they should
E 2,
28
be thought not to know their own interests, and what
is most likely to promote them. This however is an
imputation which they share in common with a great part
of mankind,, and which particularly attaches to all who,
like them, are engaged in gambling speculations. The
West Indian party, it will be remembered, vehemently
opposed the bills for regulating the Middle Passage, and
yet they have since confessed, that those bills have been
productive of great benefit to their concerns : and had
they not been so infatuated as to oppose, fourteen years
ago, unfortunately with more effect, the abolition of the
Slave trade, they would have been saved the ruinous
competition of Dutch Guiana 3 and they would have had
at this moment the almost exclusive possession of the
sugar-market of Europe.
The reporters insist with much earnestness on their
right to the continuance of the Slave trade, on the ground
of its having been sanctioned by Acts of Parliament. But
is it not absurd to suppose that any Acts of Parliament,
which may have been framed to encourage the importa-
tion of African labourers' into the West Indies, can have
conveyed to West Indians the right of establishing such a
frightful system of oppression as the preceding part of
this pamphlet has proved to exist among them ? What
act can be produced which binds the Imperial Parliament
to uphold a system so outrageously opposed to every prin-
ciple of British policy and of British law ; and not only
to uphold it, but to enlarge its influence by the perpetual
increase of its wretched victims ? Granting that West
Indians have that claim to which they pretend on the
justice and faith of Parliament, the claim attaches to this
country, and not to Africa, which was no party in the
contract.
29
The reporters are very indignant that any of the par-
liamentary orators should have dared to express an opinion
that the Slave trade is " contrary to the principles of
justice and humanity ;" and they add, that " the parti-
cular accusations of oppression, without the means of re-
dress : of avaricious and unfeeling; rigour towards our
Slaves, unrestrained by a sense of interest, or the dic-r
tates of humanity ; heaped upon the inhabitants of the
British West Indian colonies j have been repelled and re-
futed by such irrefragable evidence, that they can now
make little impression, except on the prejudiced and unin-
formed" Page t2.
How far a sense of interest or the dictates of humanity
are capable of preventing unfeeling rigour from being ex-
ercised towards Negro Slaves, 'let the correspondence of
Lord Seaforth, already referred to, testify. If farther evi-
dence were required on this point, that of Governor Pre-
vost might be adduced. He expressly declares (p. 34),
that " the interest of the master in his Slaves' well-being;
is not always a sufficient check." But even supposing
that a sense of interest should operate with the owners
of Negro Slaves in restraining cruel treatment, yet what is
likely to be the operation of this potent principle in cases
where the management of the estates of absent proprie-
tors is left to attornies, whose commissions are enlarged
in proportion to the amount of the crops j and to over-
seers, who hold their office during the pleasure of those
attornies, and whose reputation as planters depends not
on the increase of Slaves, but on the increase of the
yearly produce of the estate ? It is the more necessary to
make the inquiry, because by far the greater part of the
sugar plantations of Jamaica are in this predicament.
Allowing, therefore, that the principle of self-interest
30
possesses all the force which is attributed to it, yet in the
present circumstances of Jamaica its operation on the
whole is more likely to be injurious than beneficial to the
Negro Slaves *.
But what is this " irrefragable testimony" to
which the Assembly of Jamaica refer, as disproving the
allegations of abolitionists? It cannot have been the cor-
respondence of Lord Seaforth with Earl Camden, for that
had not yet been made public. They ought to have
pointed to the chapter and page in which this invaluable
testimony lies concealed. For my own part, anxious as I
am that this great cause should have an impartial hearing,
I still would be willing that it should be decided without
referring to any other testimony than that which has
already been produced by West Indians and their friends.
Even on their own shewing, the charges of " inhumanity
and injustice," at least to the moral perceptions of Eng-
lishmen, are not only not disproved, but incontrovertibly
established. West Indians cannot deny that the Negroes
whom they purchase are procured in Africa by means the
most revolting to humanity and justice. Bryan Edwards,
their own historian and apologist, has said, that to deny
this would be i( insult and mockery." They cannot
deny that the Negroes are transported in fetters to the
West Indies, and there sold like cattle in a fair. Neither
can they deny that the Negroes, being sold, become
the absolute property of their purchaser, who may sepa-
rate parents from children and from each other, and sell
them when and to whom he pleases : that, moreover,
* Suppose a plantation under the management of such a man as
Crone, the proprietor being in England; what a sum of misery
might be crowded into a short space of time !
31
West Indian Slaves have no civil rights whatever, which
are not equally enjoyed by brutes, the parade of laws in
their favour signifying nothing, as has already been
proved, while their evidence is inadmissible in a court of
justice, and while the men who administer those laws have
an interest, real or supposed, in their violation : and that
therefore no effectual limit can be put to the master's
discretion, either as to the quantity of food to be given,
of labour to be enforced, or of punishment to be inflicted.
It is a fact equally undeniable, that the labour of Negro
Slaves is extracted from them, as it is from a team of
oxen, by the lash or the terror of the cart-whip*: that,
in a climate congenial to their own, they nevertheless
decrease so fast as to require constant importations to
keep up their wasted numbers : and lastly, that they
are regarded as an inferior order of beings f; from
which it flows as a corollary that they can have no
claim to a participation in those rights of humanity,
or in that sympathy which men in general are willing to
bestow on those whom they consider as fellow men. Now
these are all points of general notoriety : they are either
distinctly admitted by the West Indians, who have given
evidence before the Privy Council and the House of Com-
mons ; or they are established beyond dispute by written
* This horrid feature of our colonial system prevails uniformly
throughout the whole range of our West Jndian possessions. N©
one can have visited them without knowing that the practice of
driving Negroes at their work by means of the whip is universal i
and yet such is the gross ignorance of the subject prevailing in
this country, that the fact, though as notorious in the West Indies
as that slavery exists there at all, has been sometimes disputed even
in the House oFCommons.
f See Long's History of Jamaica, and, in. addition to many
other proofs which might be adduced, the preceding part of this
pamphlet.
32
documents which the West Indian Legislatures and Go-
vernors have officially furnished. That they are confirmed
in some important particulars by the papers which have
now been reviewed, will scarcely be controverted. If,
however, the bare statement of the above facts, facts, let
it be remembered, resting on West Indian testimony,
should amount (as it will appear to do to all who have not
been accustomed to breathe the moral atmosphere of our
Slave colonies) to a charge of i( injustice and inhuma-
nity," of <e oppression," and " unfeeling rigour," against
the West Indian system, then surely the bold and unqua-
lified assertion that such a charge has been " refuted by
irrefragable testimony 3" has no foundation on which to
stand.
The reporters have incidentally introduced into their
Report a comparison between the state of the Negro
Slaves and that of u the oppressed peasantry" of Bengal.
After giving an exaggerated representation of the wretch-
edness of the latter, they add, Ci such is the situation of
twenty millions of free subjects of the British empire in
India, whilst its legislature is hunting for imaginary
misery* in the West Indian colonies, where the lot of
the labourer is a thousand times more fortunate." P. 18.
I would here ask the framers of this Report a few ques-
tions, which may serve to throw light on the comparison
which they have instituted. Do they not know that the
Bengal peasant is not dragged from his own country by
* Imaginary misery! Am I then wrong in having attributed to
West Indians a different set of moral perceptions from those
which prevail among the inhabitants of Great Britain ? If at the
time when this Report was framed the reporters were ignorant of
the horrors which have recently taken place in the West Indies,
they' could not be ignorant that such horrors might be practised
with impunity.
33
force or fraud, loaded with fetters, chained to the deck,
or stifled in the hold of a Slave-ship; bartered as a mere
implement of agriculture; separated at the pleasure of
another from his wife and children ; worked under the
lash without the liberty even of pausing in his toil, but at
the bidding of the driver; and liable to be punished to
any extent, and with any circumstances of cruelty, which
the caprice of his master may direct ? Do they not know
that the Bengal peasant is not punishable by any other
sentence than that of the law, after a regular trial and
conviction ; that his person and property are as fully se-
cured to him as those of the Governor General of India ;
and that he is the sole judge both of the labour and the
food which suit him ? There is only one answer which
can be returned to these questions ; and that answer will
prove it to be no better than absolute mockery in the
Assembly of Jamaica thus to compare the condition of
the Bengal peasant with that of the Negro Slave.
But this is not all. The reporters enter into tedious
calculations to shew how much higher the wages of the
Negro Slave are than those of the Bengal peasant ; but
they omit to advert to one very material point of difference
between them. The wages of the Bengal peasant are
paid to himself: he labours for his own benefit solely.
But it is to his master, and not to himself, that the wa^es
of the Negro Slave are paid. From his thankless toil
must be extracted, not only the means of his own sub-
sistence, but the means of pampering the luxury, swelling
the pomp, gratifying the avarice, or discharging the debts
of his owner. And when the circumstances in which
the planters are now placed have been considered, it can-
not be expected that a very ample proportion of the Slave's
earnings should be applied to his own sustentation,
F
34
especially as that proportion, whatever it may be, depends
entirely on the will of an insolvent, or nearly insolvent
master.
The reporters complain; that they were not permitted,
in the session of 1804, to produce fresh evidence at the
bar of the House of Commons in favour of their right to
a continuance of the Slave trade. But would any evi-
dence which they could produce contradict that state-
ment of the, "nature of West Indian slavery which they
themselves have already furnished, and by which its in-
justice and inhumanity are clearly demonstrated? And
supposing they had been hardy enough to do- this, would
any credit have been due to such contradictory testi-
mony ? Besides, what confidence can the British Par-
liament or the British Public repose in the declarations of
West Indians, even if they should sanction those decla-
rations with all the solemnity of an oath j when it ap-
pears from the acknowledgment of Governor Prevost, and
from the concurring testimony of their own records, that
the most honourable men among them could so far forget
their high obligations as legislators, as to join in a com-
bination to deceive the Government and the Legislature
of this country, and to obtain credit to themselves for
humanity, by passing laws which they meant at the time
to be wholly inoperative ?
I shall only detain the reader while I notice one more
argument in favour of the Slave trade which is contained
in this Report. The continuance of importations, it is
affirmed,, will not increase the disproportion of Blacks
and Whites so much as the abolition would. This is an
argument not very level to common understandings; but
the reasoning on which it is built is of this kind. If the
Slave trade were abolished^ the number of adventurers
35
who repair to the West Indies in the hope of amassing a
fortune would be diminished, and consequently the white
population would decrease. But supposing the number of
adventurers who go out with such large expectations were
diminished, does it follow that an equal number, with
more moderate views, might not be procured to supply
their place ? While emigrations to America are so fre-
quent and numerous, might not a part of them, with
proper encouragement, be easily diverted to the filling- of
vacancies in Jamaica ? The planters of that island, how-
ever, are far from feeling, on this point, the solicitude
which they express. Several proofs of this might be
given. In the first place, do they not almost universally
refuse to employ on their estates, in any capacity, white
men who are married and have families ? If they really
wished to increase the number of whites, would not men
with families be the most desirable persons to employ ?-
Another proof is, that although there is a law of the island*
requiring the proprietors of estates to maintain a certain
number of white servants in proportion to their slaves
(about one white to thirty slaves), yet the tax, which is
payable in case of a deficiency in that number, is so low,
that it is in general a gain to the proprietor to pay the tax
rather than to procure the individuals. Jn short, it is no-
torious, notwithstanding the language employed in the
Report, that no pains have been taken to remedy the dis-
proportion of the black and white population.
The true reason, however, of this argument is to be
found, not in the increased danger which will result to the
island from abolishing the Slave trade, but in the con-
stitution of the Jamaica Assembly. That Assembly
(though containing a small proportion of wealthy
planters) is chiefly composed of such adventurers as are
35
alluded to in theReport, and for whose privileges so mucri-
solicitude is manifested : viz. either merchants who are
concerned in the sale of Slave cargoes, or agents employed
to manage the estates of absent proprietors j to whom are
added a few insolvent proprietors of sugar estates, largely
indebted, perhaps, to those very merchants and agents.
Now it is the voice of these adventurers which is heard on
the, present occasion, and not that of the real proprietors
of Jamaica. The real proprietors, if their voice could be
heard, would probably speak a different language ; and
we see that in some cases they do so. Many of them are
sensible, that, added to the fatal rivalry of Guiana, the
true cause of their embarrassment (as their historian Long
has well shewn), and the grand source of their danger
also, is the continuance of the Slave trade : and if they
were not influenced by prejudice or party connexions, or
deterred by the threats of creditors, or duped by the mis-
representations of agents, they would follow the example
which Mr. Barham has set them, and take that part
which prudence and policy concur with justice and hu-
manity in dictating ; 1 mean the part of forwarding a
legislative abolition of the Slave trade, as the only safe
and practicable, and at the same time effectual remedy,
which can be applied to the dreadful evils of our colonial
system.
THE END.
S. Gosnell, Printer, Little Queen Street.