The Anti-Slavery Examiner Volume II Part 30

After an hour and a half's drive, we reached Colliton estate, where we were engaged to breakfast. We met a hearty welcome from the manager, Samuel Hinkston, Esq. we were soon joined by several gentlemen whom Mr.

H. had invited to take breakfast with us; these were the Rev. Mr.

Gittens, rector of St. Philip's parish, (in which Colliton estate is situated,) and member of the colonial council; Mr. Thomas, an extensive attorney of Barbadoes; and Dr. Bell, a planter of Demerara--then on a visit to the island. We conversed with each of the gentlemen separately, and obtained their individual views respecting emanc.i.p.ation.

Mr. Hinkston has been a planter for thirty-six years, and is highly esteemed throughout the island. The estate which he manages, ranks among the first in the island. It comprises six hundred acres of superior land, has a population of two hundred apprentices, and yields an average crop of one hundred and eighty hogsheads. Together with his long experience and standing as a planter, Mr. H. has been for many years local magistrate for the parish in which he resides. From these circ.u.mstances combined, we are induced to give his opinions on a variety of points.

1. He remarked that the planters were getting along _infinitely_ better under the new system than they ever did under the old. Instead of regretting that the change had taken place, he is looking forward with pleasure to a better change in 1840, and he only regrets that it is not to come sooner.

2. Mr. H. said it was generally conceded that the island was never under better cultivation than at the present time. The crops for this year will exceed the average by several thousand hogsheads. The canes were planted in good season, and well attended to afterwards.

3. Real estate has risen very much since emanc.i.p.ation. Mr. H. stated that he had lately purchased a small sugar estate, for which he was obliged to give several hundred pounds more than it would have cost him before 1834.

4. There is not the least sense of insecurity now. Before emanc.i.p.ation there was much fear of insurrection, but that fear pa.s.sed away with slavery.

5. The prospect for 1840 is good. That people have no fear of ruin after emanc.i.p.ation, is proved by the building of sugar works on estates which never had any before, and which were obliged to cart their canes to neighbouring estates to have them ground and manufactured. There are also numerous improvements making on the larger estates. Mr. H. is preparing to make a new mill and boiling-house on Colliton, and other planters are doing the same. Arrangements are making too in various directions to build new negro villages on a more commodious plan.

6. Mr. H. says he finds his apprentices perfectly ready to work for wages during their own time. Whenever he needs their labor on Sat.u.r.day, he has only to ask them, and they are ready to go to the mill, or field at once. There has not been an instance on Colliton estate in which the apprentices have refused to work, either during the hours required by law, or during their own time. When he does not need their services on Sat.u.r.day, they either hire themselves to other estates or work on their own grounds.

7. Mr. H. was ready to say, both as a planter and a magistrate, that vice and crime generally had decreased, and were still on the decrease.

Petty thefts are the princ.i.p.al offences. He has not had occasion to send a single apprentice to the court of sessions for the last six months.

8. He has no difficulty in managing his people--far less than he did when they were slaves. It is very seldom that he finds it necessary to call in the aid of the special magistrate. Conciliatory treatment is generally sufficient to maintain order and industry among the apprentices.

9. He affirms that the negroes have no disposition to be revengeful. He has never seen any thing like revenge.

10. His people are as far removed from insolence as from vindictiveness.

They have been uniformly civil.

11. His apprentices have more interest in the affairs of the estate, and he puts more confidence in them than he ever did before.

12. He declares that the working of the apprenticeship, as also that of entire freedom, depends entirely on the _planters_. If they act with common humanity and reason, there is no fear but that the apprentices will be peaceable.

Mr. Thomas is attorney for fifteen estates, on which there are upwards of two thousand five hundred apprentices. We were informed that he had been distinguished as a _severe disciplinarian_ under the old reign, or in plain terms, had been a _cruel man and a hard driver_; but he was one of those who, since emanc.i.p.ation, have turned about and conformed their mode of treatment to the new system. In reply to our inquiry how the present system was working, he said, "infinitely better (such was his language) than slavery. I succeed better on all the estates under my charge than I did formerly. I have far less difficulty with the people.

I have no reason to complain of their conduct. However, I think they will do still better after 1840."

We made some inquiries of Dr. Bell concerning the results of abolition in Demerara. He gave a decidedly flattering account of the working of the apprenticeship system. No fears are entertained that Demerara will be ruined after 1840. On the contrary it will be greatly benefited by emanc.i.p.ation. It is now suffering from a want of laborers, and after 1840 there will be an increased emigration to that colony from the older and less productive colonies. The planters of Demerara are making arrangements for cultivating sugar on a larger scale than ever before.

Estates are selling at very high prices. Every thing indicates the fullest confidence on the part of the planters that the prosperity of the colony will not only be permanent, but progressive.

After breakfast we proceeded to the Society's estate. We were glad to see this estate, as its history is peculiar. In 1726 it was bequeathed by General Coddington to a society in England, called "The Society for the promotion of Christian Knowledge." The proceeds of the estate were to be applied to the support of an inst.i.tution in Barbadoes, for educating missionaries of the established order. Some of the provisions of the will were that the estate should always have three hundred slaves upon it; that it should support a school for the education of the negro children who were to be taught a portion of every day until they were twelve years old, when they were to go into the field; and that there should be a chapel built upon it. The negroes belonging to the estate have for upwards of a hundred years been under this kind of instruction.

They have all been taught to read, though in many instances they have forgotten all they learned, having no opportunity to improve after they left school. They enjoy some other comforts peculiar to the Society's estate. They have neat cottages built apart--each on a half-acre lot, which belongs to the apprentice and for the cultivation of which he is a allowed one day out of the five working days. Another peculiarity is, that the men and women work in separate gangs.

At this estate we procured horses to ride to the College. We rode by the chapel and school-house belonging to the Society's estate which are situated on the row of a high hill. From the same hill we caught a view of Coddrington college, which is situated on a low bottom extending from the foot of the rocky cliff on which we stood to the sea sh.o.r.e, a s.p.a.ce of quarter of a mile. It is a long, narrow, ill-constructed edifice.

We called on the princ.i.p.al, Rev. Mr. Jones, who received us very cordially, and conducted us over the buildings and the grounds connected with them. The college is large enough to accommodate a hundred students. It is fitted out with lodging rooms, various professors'

departments, dining hall, chapel, library, and all the appurtenances of a university. The number of student at the close of the last term was _fifteen_.

The professors, two in number, are supported by a fund, consisting of 40,000 sterling, which has in part acc.u.mulated from the revenue of the estate.

The princ.i.p.al spoke favorably of the operation of the apprenticeship in Barbadoes, and gave the negroes a decided superiority over the lower cla.s.s of whites. He had seen only one colored beggar since he came to the island, but he was infested with mult.i.tudes of white ones.

It is intended to improve the college buildings as soon as the toil of apprentices on the Society's estate furnishes the requisite means. This robbing of G.o.d's image to promote education is horrible enough, taking the wages of slavery to spread the kingdom of Christ!

On re-ascending the hill, we called at the Society's school. There are usually in attendance about one hundred children, since the abolition of slavery. Near the school-house is the chapel of the estate, a neat building, capable of holding three or four hundred people. Adjacent to the chapel is the burial ground for the negroes belonging to the Society's estate. We noticed several neat tombs, which appeared to have been erected only a short time previous. They were built of brick, and covered over with lime, so as to resemble white marble slabs. On being told that these were erected by the negroes themselves over the bodies of their friends, we could not fail to note so beautiful an evidence of their civilization and humanity. We returned to the Society's estate, where we exchanged our saddles for the phaeton, and proceeded on our eastward tour.

Mr. C. took us out of the way a few miles to show us one of the few curiosities of which Barbadoes can boast. It is called the "Horse." The sh.o.r.e for some distance is a high and precipitous ledge of rocks, which overhangs the sea in broken cliffs. In one place a huge ma.s.s has been riven from the main body of rock and fallen into the sea. Other huge fragments have been broken off in the same manner. In the midst of these, a number of steps have been cut in the rock for the purpose of descending to the sea. At the bottom of these steps, there is a broad platform of solid rock, where one may stand securely, and hear the waves breaking around him like heavy thunders. Through the fissures we could see the foam and spray mingling with the blue of the ocean, and flashing in the sunshine. To the right, between the largest rock and the main land, there is a chamber of about ten feet wide, and twenty feet long.

The fragment, which forms one of its sides, leans towards the main rock, and touches it at top, forming a roof, with here and there a fissure, through which the light enters. At the bottom of the room there is a clear bed of water, which communicates with the sea by a small aperture under the rock. It is as placid as a summer pond, and is fitted with steps for a bathing place. Bathe, truly! with the sea ever dashing against the side, and roaring and reverberating with deafening echo.

On a granite slab, fixed in the side of the rock at the bottom of the first descent is an inscription. Time has very much effaced the letters, but by the aid of Mr. C.'s memory, we succeeded in deciphering them.

They will serve as the hundred and first exemplification of the Bonapartean maxim--"There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous."

"In this remote, and hoa.r.s.e resounding place, Which billows clash, and craggy cliffs embrace, These babbling springs amid such horrors rise, But armed with virtue, horrors we despise.

Bathe undismayed, nor dread the impending rock, 'Tis virtue shields us from each adverse shock.

GENIO LOCI SACRUM POSUIT J.R.

MARTIS MENSE 1769"

From the "Crane," which is the name given to that section of the country in which the "Horse" is situated, we bent our way in a southerly direction to the Ridge estate, which was about eight miles distant, where we had engaged to dine. On the way we pa.s.sed an estate which had just been on fire. The apprentices, fearing lest their houses should be burnt, had carried away all the moveables from them, and deposited them in separate heaps, on a newly ploughed field. The very doors and window shutters had been torn off and carried into the field, several acres of which were strewed over with piles of such furniture. Mr. C. was scarcely less struck with this scene than we were, and he a.s.sured us that he had never known such providence manifested on a similar occasion during slavery.

At the Ridge estate we met Mr. Clarke, manager at Staple Grove estate, Mr. Applewhitte of Carton, and a brother of Mr. C. The manager, Mr.

Cecil, received us with the customary cordiality.

Mr. Clarke is the manager of an estate on which there are two hundred apprentices. His testimony was, that the estate was better cultivated since abolition than before, and that it is far easier to control the laborers, and secure uniformity of labor under the present system. He qualified this remark, by saying, that if harsh or violent measures were used, there would be more difficulty now than during slavery; but kind treatment and a conciliatory spirit never failed to secure peace and industry. At the time of abolition, Mr. C. owned ten slaves, whom he entirely emanc.i.p.ated. Some of these still remain with him as domestics; others are hired on an adjoining estate. One of those who left him to work on another estate, said to him, "Ma.s.sa, whenever you want anybody to help you, send to me, and I'll come. It makes no odds when it is--I'll be ready at any time--day or night." Mr. C. declared himself thoroughly convinced of the propriety of immediate emanc.i.p.ation; though he was once a violent opposer of abolition. He said, that if he had the power, be would emanc.i.p.ate every apprentice on his estate to-morrow. As we were in the sugar-house examining the quality of the sugar, Mr. C.

turned to one of us, and putting his hand on a hogshead, said, "You do not raise this article in your state, (Kentucky,) I believe." On being answered in the negative, he continued, "Well, we will excuse you, then, somewhat in your state--you can't treat your slaves so cruelly there.

_This, this_ is the dreadful thing! Wherever sugar is cultivated by slaves, there is extreme suffering."

Mr. Applewhitte said emphatically, that there was no danger in entire emanc.i.p.ation. He was the proprietor of more than a hundred apprentices and he would like to see them all free at once.

During a long sitting at the dinner table, emanc.i.p.ation was the topic, and we were gratified with the perfect unanimity of sentiment among these planters. After the cloth was removed, and we were about leaving the table, Mr. Clarke begged leave to propose a toast. Accordingly, the gla.s.ses of the planters were once more filled, and Mr. C., bowing to us, gave our health, and "success to our laudable undertaking,"--"_most_ laudable undertaking," added Mr. Applewhitte, and the gla.s.ses were emptied. Had the gla.s.ses contained water instead of wine, our gratification would have been complete. It was a thing altogether beyond our most sanguine expectations, that a company of planters, all of whom were but three years previous the actual oppressors of the slave, should be found wishing success to the cause of emanc.i.p.ation.

At half past eight o'clock, we resumed our seats in Mr. C.'s phaeton, and by the nearest route across the country, returned to Lear's. Mr. C.

entertained us by the way with eulogies upon the industry and faithfulness of his apprentices. It was, he said, one of the greatest pleasures he experienced, to visit the different estates under his charge, and witness the respect and affection which the apprentices entertained towards him. Their joyful welcome, their kind attentions during his stay with them, and their hearty 'good-bye, ma.s.sa,' when he left, delighted him.

VISIT TO COLONEL ASHBY'S.

We were kindly invited to spend a day at the mansion of Colonel Ashby, an aged and experienced planter, who is the proprietor of the estate on which he resides. Colonel A.'s estate is situated in the parish of Christ Church, and is almost on the extreme point of a promontory, which forms the southernmost part of the island. An early and pleasant drive of nine miles from Bridgetown, along the southeastern coast of the island, brought us to his residence. Colonel A. is a native of Barbadoes, has been a practical planter since 1795, and for a long time a colonial magistrate, and commander of the parish troops. His present estate contains three hundred and fifty acres, and has upon it two hundred and thirty apprentices, with a large number of free children.

His average crop is eighty large hogsheads. Colonel A. remarked to us, that he had witnessed many cruelties and enormities under "the reign of terror." He said, that the abolition of slavery had been an incalculable blessing, but added, that he had not always entertained the same views respecting emanc.i.p.ation. Before it took place, he was a violent opposer of any measure tending to abolition. He regarded the English abolitionists, and the anti-slavery members in parliament, with unmingled hatred. He had often cursed Wilberforce most bitterly, and thought that no doom either in this life, or in the life to come, was too bad for him. "But," he exclaimed, "how mistaken I was about that man--I am convinced of it now--O he was a good man--_a n.o.ble philanthropist_!--_if there is a chair in heaven, Wilberforce is in it_!" Colonel A. is somewhat sceptical, which will account for his hypothetical manner of speaking about heaven.

He said that he found no trouble in managing his apprentices. As local or colonial magistrate, in which capacity he still continued to act he had no cases of serious crime to adjudicate, and very few cases of petty misdemeanor. Colonel A. stated emphatically, that the negroes were not disposed to leave their employment, unless the master was intolerably pa.s.sionate and hard with them; as for himself, he did not fear losing a single laborer after 1840.

He dwelt much on the trustiness and strong attachment of the negroes, where they are well treated. There were no people in the world that he would trust his property or life with sooner than negroes, provided he had the previous management of them long enough to secure their confidence. He stated the following fact in confirmation of this sentiment. During the memorable insurrection of 1816, by which the neighboring parishes were dreadfully ravaged, he was suddenly called from home on military duty. After he had proceeded some distance, he recollected that he had left five thousand dollars in an open desk at home. He immediately told the fact to his slave who was with him, and sent him back to take care of it. He knew nothing more of his money until the rebellion was quelled, and peace restored. On returning home, the slave led him to a cocoa-nut tree near by the house, and dug up the money, which he had buried under its roots. He found the whole sum secure. The negro, he said, might have taken the money, and he would never have suspected him, but would have concluded that it had been, in common with other larger sums, seized upon by the insurgents. Colonel A.

said that it was impossible for him to mistrust the negroes as a body.

He spoke in terms of praise also of the _conjugal attachment_ of the negroes. His son, a merchant, stated a fact on this subject. The wife of a negro man whom he knew, became afflicted with that loathsome disease, the leprosy. The man continued to live with her, notwithstanding the disease was universally considered contagious and was peculiarly dreaded by the negroes. The man on being asked why he lived with his wife under such circ.u.mstances, said, that he had lived with her when she was well, and he could not bear to forsake her when she was in distress.

Colonel A. made numerous inquiries respecting slavery in America. He said there certainly be insurrections in the slaveholding states, unless slavery was abolished. Nothing but abolition could put an end to insurrections.

Mr. Thomas, a neighboring planter, dined with us. He had not carried a complaint to the special magistrate against his apprentices for six months. He remarked particularly that emanc.i.p.ation had been a great blessing to the master; it brought freedom to him as well as to the slave.

A few days subsequent to our visit to Colonel A.'s, the Reverend Mr.

Packer, of the Established Church, called at our lodgings, and introduced a planter from the parish of St. Thomas. The planter is proprietor of an estate, and has eighty apprentices. His apprentices conduct themselves very satisfactorily, and he had not carried a half dozen complaints to the special magistrate since 1831. He said that cases of crime were very rare, as he had opportunity of knowing, being local magistrate. There were almost no penal offences brought before him. Many of the apprentices of St. Thomas parish were buying their freedom, and there were several cases of apprais.e.m.e.nt[A] every week. The Monday previous, six cases came before him, in four of which the apprentices paid the money on the spot.