Chapter 14

Astley’s Voyages.

“Crimes here are seldom punished with death, unless it be treason and murder. For other faults, the usual penalty is banishment, to which end the king generally sells them to the company, and disposes of their effects at his pleasure. In civil cases, the debtor, if unable, is sold with his family and effects, for the payment of the creditor, and the king has his thirds.”—(p. 59.)

Barbot says, that the Negro kings are so absolute, that upon any slight pretence, they order their subjects to be sold for Slaves, without regard to rank or profession. Thus a Marbut was sold to him at Goree by the Alkade of Rio Fresco, by special order of the Damel, for some misdemeanors. This priest was above two months aboard the ship before he would speak one word.”—(Travels of Barbot, p. 257.)

“The smallest crimes whatever are punished with banishment.—(p. 315.)

Criminal causes are tried by a public Palaver, or Assembly of the head men of the country, and Slavery is the usual punishment; a circumstance which holds out a strong temptation to prefer false accusations, particularly as the African mode of trial furnishes convenient means of promoting purposes of avarice and oppression.—(Winterbottom’s Account, &c. &c.)

Marchais.—In case of the debtor’s insolvency, the king allows the creditor to sell him, his wives, and even his children, for the sum due. Here is also another extraordinary law; if the creditor, before witnesses, three times asks his debt of a person, whom he cannot arrest or sue on account of his dignity or power, and the debtor refuses to pay him, the creditor has a right to seize the first Slave he meets, let him belong to whom he will.

There is but one sort of punishment for offences here, the offender, and all his generation, being made Slaves.

In their proceedings they take no care whether the party be guilty, or deserves to be punished.

Golberey.

It is a striking circumstance, that in Africa, before the Slave Trade was introduced, the punishments for offences generally consisted of mulcts or fines, as is evident from the testimony of Artus, Barbot, Ogilby, Bosman, Loyer, Nyendael, and others, and that nobody was mulcted beyond his ability, except by an accumulation of crimes. Murder and sorcery were punished capitally in some of the countries of Africa, but in others, murder and every species of offence had no other punishment than a fine. If people could not pay these fines, they were disposed of in two ways. Some of them were sent into a temporary banishment in Africa; others were sold into home slavery. Debtors also, who refused to pay their debts, or became insolvent, were sold for the benefit of their creditors, in case their relations would not redeem them, and worked for these at their respective homes. But since this trade has been used, says Moore, allpunishmentsare changed intoslavery: there beingan advantagein such condemnation, theystrainfor crimesvery hard, in order to get thebenefit of selling the criminal. Not only murder, theft, and adultery, are punished by selling the criminal for a Slave, butevery triflingcrime is punished in the same manner.”[61]

Moore gives us a history of some of these crimes. “There was a man, says he, brought to me in Tommany, to be sold, for having stolen a tobacco-pipe. I sent for the alcade, and with much ado persuaded the party aggrieved to accept of a composition, and leave the man free. In Cantore, a man seeing a tyger eating a deer, which he had killed and hung up near his house, fired at the tyger, and the bullet killed a man. The king not only condemned him, but alsohis mother,three brothers, andthree sisters, to be sold. These eight persons were brought down to me at Yamyamacunda. It made my heart ache, says Moore (for this was in the infancy of the Trade) to see them, and I did not buy them.” But it appears in the sequel, that this kind action in Moore did not produce the desired end. “For they were sent, says he, further down the river, and sold to someseparatetraders at Joar, and the kinghad the benefit of the goodsfor which they were sold.”

In estimating the revenues of king Forbana, he mentions[62]“the criminals that were sold,a part of the profitofwhichdevolvedupon his majesty.”[63]“In Africa, says he, crimes are punished either by fines, slavery, or death.Offencesarerare, butaccusations common; because the chiefs frequently accuse for the purpose ofcondemning, thatthey may be able to procure Slaves.”

“The crime of magic is that which the Negro kings and chiefs most frequentlycauseto be preferred against individuals of the lower class,because this crime is punished by slavery, and consequently produces Slaves.”

House of Commons Evidence.

[64]Capt. Wilson, of the Royal Navy, says, it is universally acknowledged, and he believes it to be true, that free persons are sold for real or imputed crimes, for the benefit of their judges. Soon after his arrival at Goree, the king of Damel sent a free man to him for sale, and was to have theprice himself. One of the king’s guards, who came with the man, on being asked whether he was guilty of the crime imputed to him, replied, with great shrewdness—he did not conceive that was ever inquired into, or of any consequence.

[65]Dr. Trotter says, that of the whole cargo, he recollects only three criminals in the ship where he was. One of these had been sold for adultery, and the other forwitchcraft, whose whole family shared his fate. The first said, he had been decoyed by a woman, who told her husband of the transaction, and he was sentenced to pay a Slave; but, being poor, he was sold himself. Suchstratagemsarefrequent. The fourth mate of the ship Brookes was so decoyed, and obliged to pay a Slave, under the threat, that trade would be stopped if he did not. The other had quarrelled with one of the Cabosheers. The Cabosher, in revenge, accused him of witchcraft. In consequence of this accusation he was sold with his family. His mother, wife, andtwo daughters, were sentenced with him.|House of Commons Evidence.|The women shewed the deepest affliction; the man a sullen melancholy; he refused his food, tore his throat open with his nails, and died.

[66]Lieutenant Simpson, of the Royal Marines, considered two crimes as almost made on purpose to procure Slaves. These were, adultery, and the removal ofFetiches, (or ofcharms founded on a notion of witchcraft). As to adultery, he was warned against connecting himself with any woman not pointed out to him, for that the kingskept several, who weresent out to allure the unwary; and that, if found to be connected with these, he would be seized, and made to pay the price of a man Slave. As to fetiches, consisting of pieces of wood, old pitchers, kettles, &c. laid in the path-ways, he waswarned to avoid displacingthem, for if he should, the natives, who were on the watch, would seize him, and, as before, exact the price of a man Slave. These baits were laid equally for the natives, as the Europeans; but the former were better acquainted with the law, and consequently more circumspect.

James Morley, 1760 and 1776.—On pretence of adultery, he remembers a woman sold. He learnt that this was only a pretence, from her own mouth, for she spake good English, and from the respect with which her husband, king Ephraim, treated her, when he came on board; whereas, in real cases of adultery, they are very desperate.

Sir George Young, 1767, 1768, 1771, 1772.—Has always heard, that the sovereign or chief of a district generally derives a certain profit from the sale of Slaves.

House of Commons Evidence.

Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq. 1779.—All crimes, in the parts of Africa he was in, were punished with slavery.

James Towne, 1760, 1767.—He has repeatedly heard, both from the accused and accusers themselves, and he believes it common on the coast, to impute crimes falsely for the sake of having the accused person sold.

Parke.

The Moors purchase the fire-arms and ammunition from the Europeans in exchange for Negro Slaves, whom they obtain in their predatory excursions.—Parke’s Travels.

“Some neighbouring and rebel Negroes plundered a large village belonging to Daisy (the king), and carried off a number of prisoners.”—(p. 110.)

“They accordingly fell upon two of Daisy’s (the king’s) towns, and carried off the whole of the inhabitants.”—(p. 169.)

“I passed, in the course of this day, the ruins of three towns; the inhabitants of which were all carried away by Daisy, king of Kaarta, on the same day that he took and plundered Yamina.”—(p. 230.)

“Mansang separated the remainder of his army into small detachments, ordered them to over-run the country, and seize on the inhabitants before they had time to escape.

“Most of the poor inhabitants of the different towns and villages, being surprized in the night, fell an easy prey.

“Daisy had sent a number of people to plant corn, &c. &c. to supply his army; all these fell into the hands of Sambo Sego; they were afterwards sent in caravans to be sold to the French, on the Senegal.”—(p. 109.)

African Population.

Winterbottom.

Winterbottom’s Travels in Africa.—The towns on the seacoast are in general small, and seldom consist of more than forty or fifty houses; but as we advance inland, they become more populous.—(p. 81.)

The villages near the sea coast not only consist of fewer houses than those more inland, but they also shew less neatness and ingenuity in their construction.—(p. 83.)

Teembo, the capital of the Foola kingdom, is computed to contain about 8,000 inhabitants; Laby, the second in size, has about 5,000; and several of those which I have visited in the Soosoo and Mandingo countries, contain from 1 to 2 or 3,000 inhabitants.—(p. 87.)

Astley’s Voyages.

They seldom sell their family Slaves, except for great crimes.—(vol. iii. p. 242)

Some of them have a good many house Slaves, in which they place a great pride; and these Slaves live so well and easy, that it is hard to know them from their Owners, being often better cloathed; especially the females, who have sometimes coral, amber, and silver necklaces and ornaments to the value of £. 20. or £. 30. sterling.

The author never heard of but one that ever sold a family Slave, except for such crimes as they would have been sold for if they had been free. If one of the family Slaves (where there are many) commits a crime, and the Master sells him for it without the consent of the rest, they will all run away, and be protected in the next kingdom.—(p. 267)

Winter-

Winterbottom’s Travels.—Their domestics are in general treated by them with great humanity, and it is not uncommon to see the heir-apparent of a head man sitting down to eat with the meanest of his father’s people, and in no wise distinguished from them by his dress.—(p. 127.)

Captain Wilson, 1783.—The Slaves employed by the Africans live with their Masters, and are so treated as scarcely to be distinguishable from them.

Isaac Parker, 1764.—Dick Ebro’ had many Slaves of his own, whom he employed in cutting wood and fishing, &c. but he treated them always very well.

James Morley, 1760 and 1776.—They treat their Slaves with the greatest kindness, more so than our servants and Slaves in the West Indies.

Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq. 1779.—Slaves are treated so well, eating and working with their Masters, that they are not distinguishable from free men.

James Kiernan,—Persons of property there have a great number of persons under the denomination of Slaves, whom they treat as Europeans would people of their own family.

Parke.

“The Mandingo Master can neither deprive his domestic Slave of life, nor sell him to a stranger, without first calling a palaver on his conduct; or, in other words, bringing him to a public trial.” (p. 23)

“He told me, that he had always behaved towards me as if I had been his father and master.” (p. 68.)

“He sometimes eats out of the same bowl with his camel driver, and reposes himself, during the heat of the day, upon the same bed.”—(p. 155.)

“In all the laborious occupations above described, the Master and his Slaves work together, without distinction of superiority.”

The authority of the Master over the domestic Slaves elsewhere observed, extends only to reasonable correction; for the Master cannot sell his domestic without having first brought him to a public trial before the chief men of the place.”—(p. 286.)

Directly opposite the Irish coast there is a seaport town called Bristol, the inhabitants of which, as well as others of the English, frequently sail into Ireland on trading speculations. St. Wolstan put an end to a very ancient custom of theirs, in which they had become so hardened, that neither the love of God, nor that of the king (William the Conqueror) had been able to abolish it. For they sold into Ireland, at a profit, people whom they had bought up throughout all England, and they exposed to sale maidens in a state of pregnancy, with whom they made a sort of mock marriages. There you might see with grief, fastened together by ropes, whole rows of wretched beings of both sexes, of elegant forms and in the very bloom of youth, a sight sufficient to excite pity even in Barbarians, daily offered for sale to the first purchaser. Accursed deed! infamous disgrace! that men, acting in a manner which brutal instinct alone would have forbidden, should sell into slavery their relations, nay, even their own offspring; yet, St. Wolstan destroyed at length this inveterate and hereditary custom. The historian goes on to state, that from the effect of religious instruction, the people of Bristol not only renounced this vicious practicethemselves, but afforded an example of reform to the rest of England; harsh methods however were resorted to where persuasion was in vain; for one of the inhabitants of Bristol who resisted the good bishop’s reform with peculiar obstinacy, was expelled from the city, and had his eyes put out.

In 1171, on the invasion and conquest of Ireland by Henry II. it was the unanimous judgment of a great ecclesiastical council, called at Armagh, that the event was to be regarded as a providential visitation for their guilt in making Slaves of the English, whether obtained from merchants, robbers, or pirates; and this opinion was regarded as the more probable, because England herself, the natives of which, by a vice common to that nation, had been used to sell their children and nearest relatives, even when not under the pressure of famine or other necessity, had formerly expiated a similar crime by a similar punishment (alluding to the Norman Conquest.) To the honour of the Irish, a resolution was then passed, that throughout the kingdom the English Slaves should be immediately emancipated. I trust their Hibernian descendants, in our day, will shew themselves actuated by a like humane spirit, and that the English will no longer continue subject to that foul stain with which, even in these early days, she was contaminated.

The city of Bristol is once more exempt from the disgrace of being concerned in the traffic of human beings.

FINISPrinted by Luke Hansard & Sons, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

FINIS

Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

1. The Report of the Privy Council to the King in 1788, and still more the Reports of the Committee of the House of Commons, to which had been referred the various petitions for and against the abolition, and in the Appendixes to which is contained the Evidence at length of the Witnesses who were examined on that occasion. For the convenience of those who might not have leisure to peruse so voluminous a mass of evidence, an abridged abstract of it was made. This occupies two small octavo volumes, and is entitled “An Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence on the Slave Trade. 1790.” It is to be purchased at Phillips’s, George-yard, Lombard-street.—Various Papers and Accounts, tending to give useful information, have also been laid before the House of Commons from time to time. The titles of these will be found in the House of Commons Journals. See especially a voluminous mass of Papers respecting the Slave Trade, ordered to be printed 8th June 1804; and another very important set of Communications from the West Indies, ordered for printing 25th February 1805. See also two very interesting Reports of the House of Assembly of Jamaica.

2. Vide, especially, an Abstract of the Debate on Mr. Wilberforce’s Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1791, and of the Debate on a similar Motion in 1792; both printed for Phillips, George-yard, Lombard-street.

3. Mr. Clarkson’s publications well deserve this epithet, particularly his “Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade.” See also Remarks on the Decision of the House of Commons concerning the Slave Trade, on April 2d, 1792, by the Rev. J. Gisborne.—Much valuable information likewise concerning Africa is contained in Lord Muncaster’s Historical Sketches of the Slave Trade. Again, almost all the principal arguments involved in the discussion concerning the abolition are to be found in Mr. Brougham’s Colonial Policy, stated with that author’s usual ability.—Once more, a valuable Summary of the Arguments in favour of Abolition, and of the answers to the chief allegations of its Opponents (by a writer, whose name, if subjoined to it, would have added great weight to the publication) was published two years ago, printed for Hatchard, and Longman and Rees, entitled, a “Concise Statement of the Question, regarding the Abolition of the Slave Trade.” An Appendix, containing much valuable matter, soon after followed. A valuable publication appeared also some years ago, by a Member of the University of Oxford, now become a dignitary of the church. I might specify several others on particular parts of the case. In short, were it as easy to prevail on mankind to read publications which have been some time before the world, as to peruse a new one, my present task might well be spared.

4. In reading accounts of African wars, the attentive reader will continually meet with expressions such as those here used; which incidentally and undesignedly, and therefore the more strongly prove, that the persons of the natives are regarded as the great booty; and we may therefore not unreasonably infer, that they often constitute the chief inducement for commencing hostilities.

5. Vide evidence of Naval Officers, &c. taken before the House of Commons.—Smith also, who visited the coast in the service of the African Company in 1726, says “The Natives who came off to trade with us were mighty timorous of coming aboard, for fear of being panyard.”

6. Vide Nyendael and Artus of Dantzic, in De Bry’s India Orientalis, &c.—Bosman,—Barbot.

7. Moore, many years factor to the African Company, about 1730, says, ‘Since this trade has been used, all punishments are changed into slavery, there being an advantage in such condemnations. They strain for crimes very hard, in order to get the benefit of selling the criminal. Not only murder, theft, and adultery, but every trifling crime is punished by selling the criminal for a Slave.’

8. Vide Smith’s Voyage to Guinea, p. 266.

9. Surely Mr. Parke, when he suggested this, forgot that experience as well as reason teach us, that we must first abolish the Slave Trade before we attempt to diffuse among the Africans the lessons of peace and love; lest we are asked the same well-known question, and receive the same reply, as the Spanish priest from the poor dying Peruvian, when the Spaniards in America were acting on the plan which is here advised, of at once ravaging and converting: “Are there to be any Europeans in this Heaven, where you wish me to secure a place?” Being told yes, “Then it is no place for Peruvians.”

10. This is the more astonishing, because it is mentioned by the older writers as well as by more recent travellers, as Captain Sir G. Young and Sir T. B. Thompson, as a term of which the meaning is clear, and the use perfectly familiar. Thus, as a single instance, Smith, after saying “the natives were afraid of being panyard,” (p. 104.) subjoins the meaning in a note,—“To panyar is to kidnap or steal men. It is a word used all over the Coast of Guinea.”

11. The account given of this Slave trade by an almost contemporary historian, will be found in the Appendix.

12. Atkins was a surgeon in the Royal Navy, who visited all the British Settlements in Africa, with the Swallow and Weymouth men of war, in 1721; and whose account is the more to be credited, from his being a disinterested witness, whose testimony also was given before the justice or humanity of the Slave Trade had been called in question.

13. See Parke, p. 26. 290. 356.—So Lieutenant Matthews (an Opponents’ witness, Privy Council Report p. 27.) says, “The Slaves that are purchased before the rainy season commences are employed upon their plantations, and are sold to the Europeans, and sometimes among themselves, from one master to another, after the rice is planted.”

14. Vide Report of the Committee of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, in the Privy Council Report.—Vide also Long’s History of Jamaica.

15. Vide evidence of Mr. Newton, Mr. Claxton, and others.

16. I cannot vouch for the following fact, but it was related at the time with every appearance of authenticity. A few years ago the male convicts suffered very severely during their passage to New South Wales, and if I mistake not, for I speak from memory, several of them at length died from the hardships which they endured. On inquiring into the cause, it was stated to be, that the person whose province it was to provide necessaries for the voyage, had, by mistake, purchased such fetters as were used on board Slave ships, instead of the common fetters for convicts.

17. Vide evidence taken before the House of Commons.

18. Vide the late Publication of a professional Planter.

19. Vide Practical Rules for the Management of Negro Slaves, by a professional Planter. “New Negroes says he, court the warmest situations they can find, nothing less intense than actual fire being too hot for them. Hence we see that when they turn out in the morning, even in the low lands in the West Indies, they embrace their bodies closely with their wrappers to defend them from the cold.”

20. Vide the evidence of —— Botham, Esq. in the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Privy Council.

21. Vide Hume’s Essays, vol. i. page 407. Edinb. 1777. Cadell.

22. The professional Planter’s own words well deserve to be inserted: “For I aver it boldly, melancholy experience having given me occasion to make the remark, that a great number of Negroes have perished annually by diseases produced by inanition. To be convinced of this truth, let us trace the effect of that system, which assigned, for a Negro’s weekly allowance, six or seven pints of flour, or grain, with as many salt herrings; and it is in vain to conceal what we all know to be true, that in many of the islands they did not give more. With so scanty a pittance, It is indeed possible for the soul and body to be held together a considerable portion of time, provided a man’s only business be to live, and his spirits be husbanded with a frugal hand; but if motion short of labour, much more labour itself, and that too intense, be exacted from him, how is the body to support itself.”—“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 into the hospital, whence, unless your plan be speedily corrected, they depart but to the grave. It may possibly be urged in palliation of this practice, that in cases of such short allowance as I have mentioned above, Negroes do not depend upon that solely for their subsistence, but that they derive considerable aid from little vacant spots on the estate, which they are allowed to cultivate on their own account. Though frequently otherwise, this may sometimes be the case; yet even there it is to be observed, that such spots, in the low-land plantations, are capable of producing only for a part of the year, either through the drought of the season or the sterility of the soil, and when that happens, the Negro is again at his short allowance; and having no honest means of eking it out, to make it square with the demands of nature, he is compelled to pilfer.”—The writer goes on to state, that the delinquent, extending his thefts, is detected and apprehended, is severely whipped and chained, and confined; but as neither chains nor stripes, nor confinement, can extinguish hunger, he returns, when released, to the same practices, till, partly from the discipline, partly from scanty nourishment, and colds from exposure during his desertion, he, ten to one, falls into a distempered habit, which soon hurries him out of the world. The close is very remarkable, “Now this was set down as a vicious incorrigible subject, and his death is deemed a beneficial release to the estate.”

23. Vide Privy Council Report—head, Antigua and Barbados—and some following articles.

24. Vide Captain Wilson’s evidence.

25. Vide a late publication on the beneficial effects of Christianity, by the venerable Bishop of London, a prelate in whom, whether in the closet, the pulpit, or the senate, the poor and the oppressed have ever found a zealous, and eloquent advocate.

26. “Are they Slaves?No, they are men; they are comrades; they are humble friends. Are they Slaves? Nay, rather fellow servants; if you reflect on the equal power of fortune over both you and them.”“Were you to consider, that he, whom you call your Slave, is sprung from the same origin, enjoys the same climate, breathes the same air, and is subject to the same condition of life and death, you might as well think it possible for you to seehima Gentleman, as he to seeyoua Slave. In the fall of Varus, how many born of the most splendid parentage, and not unjustly expecting, for their exploits in war, a senatorial degree, hath fortune cast down! She hath made of one a shepherd, of another a cottager. And can you now despise the man, whose fortune is such, into which, while you despise it, you may chance to fall?”—Seneca, Epistle 47, p. 158.

“Were you to consider, that he, whom you call your Slave, is sprung from the same origin, enjoys the same climate, breathes the same air, and is subject to the same condition of life and death, you might as well think it possible for you to seehima Gentleman, as he to seeyoua Slave. In the fall of Varus, how many born of the most splendid parentage, and not unjustly expecting, for their exploits in war, a senatorial degree, hath fortune cast down! She hath made of one a shepherd, of another a cottager. And can you now despise the man, whose fortune is such, into which, while you despise it, you may chance to fall?”—Seneca, Epistle 47, p. 158.

27. Edwards’s History of the West Indies, 4to. vol. ii. page 124.

28. Dr. Pinckard’s Notes on the West Indies, printed for Longman. It ought, perhaps, in fairness to be mentioned, that the Author appears originally to have had no prejudices against the West Indian system.

29. Even before Mr. Long wrote, between thirty and forty years ago, this was a great evil. “And it is inconceivable,” says Mr. Long, “what numbers have perished in consequence of the law for recovery of debts, which permits Negroes to be levied on and sold at vendue. By this means they are frequently torn from their native spot, their dearest connections, and transferred into a situation unadapted to their health, labouring under discontent, which co-operates with change of place and circumstance to shorten their lives.” Long’s Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 435.

30. But a nearer, and more particular view of the manner of working may be necessary to those who have never seen a gang of Negroes at their work:“When employed in the labour of the field, as for example, inholeing a cane piece, i. e. in turning up the ground with hoes into parallel trenches, for the reception of the cane plants, the Slaves of both sexes, from twenty perhaps to four score in number, are drawn out in a line, like troops on a parade, each with a hoe in his hand; and close to them in the rear is stationed a driver, or several drivers, in numbers duly proportioned to that of the gang. Each of these drivers, who are always the most active and vigorous Negroes on the estate, has in his hand, or coiled round his neck, from which by extending the handle it can be disengaged in a moment, a long, thick, and strongly platted whip, called acart-whip, the report of which is as loud, and the lash as severe, as those of the whips in common use with our waggoners, and which he has authority to apply, at the instant when his eye perceives an occasion, without any previous warning. Thus disposed, their work begins, and continues without interruption for a certain number of hours, during which, at the peril of the drivers, an adequate portion of land must be holed.“As the trenches (continues our Author) are generally rectilinear, and the whole line of holers advance together, it is necessary that every hole or section of the trench should be finished in equal time with the rest; and if any one or more Negroes were allowed to throw in the hoe with less rapidity or energy than their companions in other parts of the line, it is obvious that the work of the latter must be suspended; or else, such part of the trench as is passed over by the former, will be more imperfectly formed than the rest. It is therefore the business of the drivers not only to urge forward the whole gang with sufficient speed, but sedulously to watch that all in the line, whether male or female, old or young, strong or feeble, work as nearly as possible in equal time, and with equal effect. The tardy stroke must be quickened, and the languid invigorated, and the whole line made todress, in the military phrase, as it advances. No breathing time, no resting on the hoe, no pause of languor, to be repaid by brisker exertion on return to work, can be allowed to individuals: all artist work, or pause together.”

30. But a nearer, and more particular view of the manner of working may be necessary to those who have never seen a gang of Negroes at their work:

“When employed in the labour of the field, as for example, inholeing a cane piece, i. e. in turning up the ground with hoes into parallel trenches, for the reception of the cane plants, the Slaves of both sexes, from twenty perhaps to four score in number, are drawn out in a line, like troops on a parade, each with a hoe in his hand; and close to them in the rear is stationed a driver, or several drivers, in numbers duly proportioned to that of the gang. Each of these drivers, who are always the most active and vigorous Negroes on the estate, has in his hand, or coiled round his neck, from which by extending the handle it can be disengaged in a moment, a long, thick, and strongly platted whip, called acart-whip, the report of which is as loud, and the lash as severe, as those of the whips in common use with our waggoners, and which he has authority to apply, at the instant when his eye perceives an occasion, without any previous warning. Thus disposed, their work begins, and continues without interruption for a certain number of hours, during which, at the peril of the drivers, an adequate portion of land must be holed.

“As the trenches (continues our Author) are generally rectilinear, and the whole line of holers advance together, it is necessary that every hole or section of the trench should be finished in equal time with the rest; and if any one or more Negroes were allowed to throw in the hoe with less rapidity or energy than their companions in other parts of the line, it is obvious that the work of the latter must be suspended; or else, such part of the trench as is passed over by the former, will be more imperfectly formed than the rest. It is therefore the business of the drivers not only to urge forward the whole gang with sufficient speed, but sedulously to watch that all in the line, whether male or female, old or young, strong or feeble, work as nearly as possible in equal time, and with equal effect. The tardy stroke must be quickened, and the languid invigorated, and the whole line made todress, in the military phrase, as it advances. No breathing time, no resting on the hoe, no pause of languor, to be repaid by brisker exertion on return to work, can be allowed to individuals: all artist work, or pause together.”

31. Vide Evidence taken before the Committee of the House of Commons.

32. Dr. Pinckard’s late publication adds some painful instances of this sort to others contained in the evidence of very respectable men.

33. Vide House of Commons papers.

34. The very words which I am now writing suggest to my mind another possible explanation of the conduct of the Assembly of Barbadoes. Possibly the majority, in rejecting the Governor’s proposition, acted not so much from their own judgment and feelings, as from deference to those of the bulk of the community. Considering that, as is stated above, it must be regarded as a part of their duty to set the tone of public judgment and feelings, this would not be a very creditable plea; nor have I found any hint of it in the papers laid before the House of Commons; but, on the contrary, an expression of resentment against the Governor, with an intimation of the danger of interfering between Master and Slave. But as the idea in question has occurred to me, I think I should scarcely be acting candidly in suppressing it.

35. Long’s History of Jamaica, vol. ii. page 406.

36. The passage to which I allude, contains such important truths, and bears so strongly on the point now under discussion, that I shall take the liberty of inserting a large part of it. I should place it in the Appendix, but that, for various reasons, I wish not to introduce in the Appendix any article respecting the West Indian branch of the subject.“To superior morality I lay no claim; but I understood my interest, and happily, interest and morality were not in that case, as in many others, at variance. I lost very few Negroes in comparison with other gentlemen, even of such as were purchased out of Guinea yards, and surprisingly few of the infants born on the estate.“It may be urged, as an objection to this system of management, that the expence attending it would be too great to be defrayed with such a portion of the produce of the estate as it is consistent with prudence to apply to that object alone. That the expences of estates will be considerably larger than at present I admit, because it is proposed that the Negroes should be fed and clothed more liberally than they now are, and be more indulged during their indisposition; whence an excess of expence, and an apparent decrease of income: But let it be remembered at the same time, that an expenditure, when judiciously applied, is not a waste, but the investment of a capital with a view to productive return. It will be found so in this case; for, when Negroes are so treated, there will be fewer sick than in the common mode of management, and they will certainly be enabled to make much more vigorous efforts when engaged at their labour; for they will be more robust of body, more alert and contented in mind, so that, performing more work, the gross income of the estate, far from being reduced, will necessarily experience a considerable increase. But not only the gross income will be greater, but it may be presumed that fewer Negroes will die, and that more will be born, so as to afford a reasonable hope that your number may be kept entire without any foreign recruits; whence a saving in itself, probably equivalent to the extraordinaries incurred by the proposed melioration of their treatment; and the balance at the end of the year, so far from being against the planter, will probably be in his favour. Were it, however, otherwise, who would not submit to a small pecuniary loss, for the inappreciable advantage resulting from a mind contented with itself, and conscious of no neglect of duty? As to those who are unfortunately in such a situation, with respect to incumbrance and credit, as to be disabled from supplying their Negroes as they ought, it behoves them to consider whether by the utmost their undue savings can effect, they can possibly be retrieved from their embarrassments, and if they can, they ought seriously to ponder on the consequence by which their relief is to be obtained; that it must be by the blood of their own species—a horrid thought; and if they cannot, how much better would it be for them to surrender at once their property to their creditors, and to repose in the humble, though exquisite enjoyment of ease of mind, and a fair name, and to trust to recommendations for a future subsistence, which, in the West Indies, is never denied to the industrious, while it is frequently conferred on the undeserving.”

“To superior morality I lay no claim; but I understood my interest, and happily, interest and morality were not in that case, as in many others, at variance. I lost very few Negroes in comparison with other gentlemen, even of such as were purchased out of Guinea yards, and surprisingly few of the infants born on the estate.

“It may be urged, as an objection to this system of management, that the expence attending it would be too great to be defrayed with such a portion of the produce of the estate as it is consistent with prudence to apply to that object alone. That the expences of estates will be considerably larger than at present I admit, because it is proposed that the Negroes should be fed and clothed more liberally than they now are, and be more indulged during their indisposition; whence an excess of expence, and an apparent decrease of income: But let it be remembered at the same time, that an expenditure, when judiciously applied, is not a waste, but the investment of a capital with a view to productive return. It will be found so in this case; for, when Negroes are so treated, there will be fewer sick than in the common mode of management, and they will certainly be enabled to make much more vigorous efforts when engaged at their labour; for they will be more robust of body, more alert and contented in mind, so that, performing more work, the gross income of the estate, far from being reduced, will necessarily experience a considerable increase. But not only the gross income will be greater, but it may be presumed that fewer Negroes will die, and that more will be born, so as to afford a reasonable hope that your number may be kept entire without any foreign recruits; whence a saving in itself, probably equivalent to the extraordinaries incurred by the proposed melioration of their treatment; and the balance at the end of the year, so far from being against the planter, will probably be in his favour. Were it, however, otherwise, who would not submit to a small pecuniary loss, for the inappreciable advantage resulting from a mind contented with itself, and conscious of no neglect of duty? As to those who are unfortunately in such a situation, with respect to incumbrance and credit, as to be disabled from supplying their Negroes as they ought, it behoves them to consider whether by the utmost their undue savings can effect, they can possibly be retrieved from their embarrassments, and if they can, they ought seriously to ponder on the consequence by which their relief is to be obtained; that it must be by the blood of their own species—a horrid thought; and if they cannot, how much better would it be for them to surrender at once their property to their creditors, and to repose in the humble, though exquisite enjoyment of ease of mind, and a fair name, and to trust to recommendations for a future subsistence, which, in the West Indies, is never denied to the industrious, while it is frequently conferred on the undeserving.”

37. Vide Privy Council Report, Part III. Jamaica, A. No. 5.

38. Edwards’s History of the West Indies, vol. ii. p. 20.

39. Edwards’s History of the West Indies, vol. ii. p. 18.

40. It is a mistake however to suppose, that, from any natural or moral infirmity, the Negroes are not as willing as the people of other countries to perform ordinary out-of-doors work for hire, as free labourers. This was decisively proved both in the Sierra Leone and Bulam Colonies. Vide Sierra Leone Company’s Report; and Beaver’s African Memoranda. This fact, through inadvertency, was not inserted in its proper place; but it ought not to be left unnoticed, because several authors have confidently stated the contrary as an undoubted fact. Their works were in general, I believe, written before the publication of the intelligence from Sierra Leone and Bulam.

41. Vide Privy Council Report, Nov. 12th 1788; 2d Report of the House of Assembly of Jamaica.

42. Institute schools for their children.

43. Why should not a right of giving evidence, with perhaps some other civil distinctions, be granted to any Slaves who have lived creditably in the marriage state, for three or five years. They might think little of these distinctions at first; but accompany them with some outward mark, and they will produce their effect. No distinctions are more impressive, than those which are arbitrary, and the essential nature of which is little understood.

44. See the publication of Mr. Canes, a most experienced and benevolent West Indian proprietor.

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