The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus Part 92

We met a brown young woman driving an a.s.s laden with a great variety of articles. She said she had been to Kingston (fifteen miles off) with a load of provisions, and had purchased some things to sell to the apprentices. We asked her what she did with her money. "Give it to my husband," said she. "Do you keep none for yourself?" She smiled and replied: "What for him for me."

After we had pa.s.sed, Mr. B. informed us that she had been an apprentice, but purchased her freedom a few months previous, and was now engaged as a kind of country merchant. She purchases provisions of the negroes, and carries them to Kingston, where she exchanges them for pins, needles, thread, dry goods, and such articles as the apprentices need, which she again exchanges for provisions and money.

Mr. Bourne informed us that real estate is much higher than before emanc.i.p.ation. He mentioned one "pen" which was purchased for eighteen hundred dollars a few years since. The owner had received nine hundred dollars as 'compensation' for freedom. It has lately been leased for seven years by the owner, for nine hundred dollars per year.

A gentleman who owns a plantation in Mr. B.'s district, sold parcels of land to the negroes before emanc.i.p.ation at five shillings per acre. He now obtains twenty-seven shillings per acre.

The house in which Mr. B. resides was rented in 1833 for one hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. B. engaged it on his arrival for three years, at two hundred and forty dollars per year. His landlord informed him a few days since, that on the expiration of his present lease, he should raise the rent to three hundred and thirty dollars.

Mr. B. is acquainted with a gentleman of wealth, who has been endeavoring for the last twelve months to purchase an estate in this island. He has offered high prices, but has as yet been unable to obtain one. Landholders have so much confidence in the value and security of real estate, that they do not wish to part with it.

After our visit to Silver Hill, our attention was particularly turned to the condition of the negro grounds. Most of them were very clean and flourishing. Large plats of the onion, of cocoa, plantain, banana, yam, potatoe, and other tropic vegetables, were scattered all around within five or six miles of a plantation. We were much pleased with the appearance of them during a ride on a Friday. In the forenoon, they had all been vacant; not a person was to be seen in them; but after one o'clock, they began gradually to be occupied, till, at the end of an hour, where-ever we went, we saw men, women, and children laboring industriously in their little gardens. In some places, the hills to their very summits were spotted with cultivation. Till Monday morning the apprentices were free, and they certainly manifested a strong disposition to spend that time in taking care of themselves. The testimony of the numerous apprentices with whom we conversed, was to the same effect as our observation. They all testified that they were paying as much attention to their grounds as they ever did, but that their provisions had been cut short by the drought. They had their land all prepared for a new crop, and were only waiting for rain to put in the seed. Mr. Bourne corroborated their statement, and remarked, that he never found the least difficulty in procuring laborers. Could he have the possession of the largest plantation in the island to-day, he had no doubt that, within a week, he could procure free laborers enough to cultivate every acre.

On one occasion, while among the mountains, we were impressed on a jury to sit in inquest on the body of a negro woman found dead on the high road. She was, as appeared in evidence, on her return from the house of correction, at Half-Way-Tree, where she had been sentenced for fourteen days, and been put on the treadmill. She had complained to some of her acquaintances of harsh treatment there, and said they had killed her, and that if she ever lived to reach home, she should tell all her ma.s.sa's negroes never to cross the threshold of Half-Way-Tree, as it would kill them. The evidence, however, was not clear that she died in consequence of such treatment, and the jury, accordingly, decided that she came to her death by some cause unknown to them.

Nine of the jury were overseers, and if they, collected together indiscriminately on this occasion, were a specimen of those who have charge of the apprentices in this island, they must be most degraded and brutal men. They appeared more under the influence of low pa.s.sions, more degraded by sensuality, and but little more intelligent, than the negroes themselves. Instead of possessing irresponsible power over their fellows, they ought themselves to be under the power of the most strict and energetic laws. Our visits to the plantations, and inquiries on this point, confirmed this opinion. They are the 'feculum' of European society--ignorant, pa.s.sionate, licentious. We do them no injustice when we say this, nor when we further add, that the apprentices suffer in a hundred ways which the law cannot reach, gross insults and oppression from their excessive rapaciousness and l.u.s.t. What must it have been during slavery?

We had some conversation with Cheny Hamilton, Esq., one of the special magistrates for Port Royal. He is a colored man, and has held his office about eighteen months. There are three thousand apprentices in his district, which embraces sugar and coffee estates. The complaints are few and of a very trivial nature. They mostly originate with the planters. Most of the cases brought before him are for petty theft and absence from work.

In his district, cultivation was never better. The negroes are willing to work during their own time. His father-in-law is clearing up some mountain land for a coffee plantation, by the labor of apprentices from neighboring estates. The seasons since emanc.i.p.ation have been bad. The blacks cultivate their own grounds on their half Fridays and Sat.u.r.days, unless they can obtain employment from others.

Nothing is doing by the planters for the education of the apprentices.

Their only object is to get as much work out of them as possible.

The blacks, so far as he has had opportunity to observe, are in every respect as quiet and industrious as they were before freedom. He said if we would compare the character of the complaints brought by the overseers and apprentices against each other, we should see for ourselves which party was the most peaceable and law-abiding.

To these views we may here add those of another gentleman, with whom we had considerable conversation about the same time. He is a proprietor and local magistrate, and was represented to us as a kind and humane man. Mr. Bourne stated to us that he had not had six cases of complaint on his plantation for the last twelve months. We give his most important statements in the following brief items:

1. He has had charge of estates in Jamaica since 1804. At one time he had twelve hundred negroes under his control. He now owns a coffee plantation, on which there are one hundred and ten apprentices, and is also attorney for several others, the owners of which reside out of the island.

2. His plantation is well cultivated and clean, and his people are as industrious and civil as they ever were. He employs them during their own time, and always finds them willing to work for him, unless their own grounds require their attendance. Cultivation generally, through the island, is as good as it ever was. Many of the planters, at the commencement of the apprenticeship, reduced the quant.i.ty of land cultivated; he did not do so, but on the contrary is extending his plantation.

3. The crops this year are not so good as usual. This is no fault of the apprentices, but is owing to the bad season.

4. The conduct of the apprentices depends very much on the conduct of those who have charge of them. If you find a plantation on which the overseer is kind, and does common justice to the laborer, you will find things going on well--if otherwise, the reverse. Those estates and plantations on which the proprietor himself resides, are most peaceable and prosperous.

5. Real estate is more valuable than before emanc.i.p.ation. Property is more secure, and capitalists are more ready to invest their funds.

6. The result of 1840 is as yet doubtful. For his part, he has no fears.

He doubts not he can cultivate his plantation as easily after that period as before. He is confident he can do it cheaper. He thinks it not only likely, but certain, that many of the plantations on which the people have been ill used, while slaves and apprentices, will be abandoned by the present laborers, and that they will never be worked until overseers are put over them who, instead of doing all they can to hara.s.s them, will soothe and conciliate them. The apprenticeship has done much harm instead of good in the way of preparing the blacks to work after 1840.

A few days after our return from the mountains, we rode to Spanishtown, which is about twelve miles west of Kingston. Spanishtown is the seat of government, containing the various buildings for the residence of the governor, the meeting of the legislature, the session of the courts, and rooms for the several officers of the crown. They are all strong and ma.s.sive structures, but display little architectural magnificence or beauty.

We spent nearly a day with Richard Hill, Esq., the secretary of the special magistrates' department, of whom we have already spoken. He is a colored gentleman, and in every respect the n.o.blest man, white or black, whom we met in the West Indies. He is highly intelligent, and of fine moral feelings. His manners are free and una.s.suming, and his language in conversation fluent and well chosen. He is intimately acquainted with English and French authors, and has studied thoroughly the history and character of the people with whom the tie of color has connected him. He travelled two years in Hayti, and his letters, written in a flowing and luxuriant style, as a son of the tropics should write, giving an account of his observations and inquiries in that interesting island, were published extensively in England; and have been copied into the anti-slavery journals in this country. His journal will be given to the public as soon as his official duties will permit him to prepare it. He is at the head of the special magistrates, (of which there are sixty in the island,) and all the correspondence between them and the governor is carried on through him. The station he holds is a very important one, and the business connected with it is of a character and an extent that, were he not a man of superior abilities, he could not sustain. He is highly respected by the government in the island, and at home, and possesses the esteem of his fellow-citizens of all colors. He a.s.sociates with persons of the highest rank, dining and attending parties at the government-house with all the aristocracy of Jamaica. We had the pleasure of spending an evening with him at the solicitor-general's.

Though an African sun has burnt a deep tinge on him, he is truly one of nature's n.o.blemen. His demeanor is such, so dignified, yet bland and amiable, that no one can help respecting him.

He spoke in the warmest terms of Lord Sligo,[A] the predecessor of Sir Lionel Smith, who was driven from the island by the machinations of the planters and the enemies of the blacks. Lord Sligo was remarkable for his statistical accuracy. Reports were made to him by the special magistrates every week. No act of injustice or oppression could escape his indefatigable inquiries. He was accessible, and lent an open ear to the lowest person in the island. The planters left no means untried to remove him, and unhappily succeeded.

[Footnote A: When Lord Sligo visited the United States in the summer of 1836, he spoke with great respect of Mr. Hill to Elizur Wright, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Mr. Wright has furnished us with the following statement:--"Just before his lordship left this city for England, he bore testimony to us substantially as follows:--'When I went to Jamaica, Mr. Hill was a special magistrate. In a certain case he refused to comply with my directions, differing from me in his interpretation of the law. I informed him that his continued non-compliance must result in his removal from office. He replied that his mind was made up as to the law, and he would not violate his reason to save his bread. Being satisfied of the correctness of my own interpretation, I was obliged, of course, to remove him; but I was so forcibly struck with his manly independence, that I applied to the government for power to employ him as my secretary, which was granted. And having had him as an _intimate of my family_ for several months, I can most cordially bear my testimony to his trustworthiness, ability, and gentlemanly deportment.' Lord Sligo also added, that Mr. Hill was treated in his family in all respects as if he had not been colored, and that with no gentleman in the West Indies was he, in social life, on terms of more intimate friendship."]

The following items contain the princ.i.p.al information received from Mr.

Hill:

1. The apprenticeship is a most vicious system, full of blunders and absurdities, and directly calculated to set master and slave at war.

2. The complaints against the apprentices are decreasing every month, _except, perhaps, complaints against mothers for absence from work, which he thinks are increasing_. The apprenticeship _law_ makes no provision for the free children, and on most of the plantations and estates no allowance is given them, but they are thrown entirely for support on their parents, who are obliged to work the most and best part of their time for their masters unrewarded. The nurseries are broken up, and frequently the mothers are obliged to work in the fields with their infants at their backs, or else to leave them at some distance under the shade of a hedge or tree. Every year is making their condition worse and worse. The number of children is increasing, and yet the mothers are required, after their youngest child has attained the age of a few weeks, to be at work the same number of hours as the men. Very little time is given them to take care of their household. When they are tardy they are brought before the magistrate.

A woman was brought before Mr. Hill a few days before we were there, charged with not being in the field till one hour after the rest of the gang. She had twins, and appeared before him with a child hanging on each arm. What an eloquent defence! He dismissed the complaint.

He mentioned another case, of a woman whose master resided in Spanishtown, but who was hired out by him to some person in the country.

Her child became sick, but her employer refused any a.s.sistance. With it in her arms, she entreated aid of her master. The monster drove her and her dying little one into the street at night, and she sought shelter with Mr. Hill, where her child expired before morning. For such horrid cruelty as this, the apprenticeship law provides no remedy. The woman had no claim for the support of her child, on the man who was receiving the wages of her daily toil. That child was not worth a farthing to him, because it was no longer his _chattel_; and while the law gives him power to rob the mother, it has no compulsion to make him support the child.

3. The complaints are generally of the most trivial and frivolous nature. They are mostly against mothers for neglect of duty, and vague charges of insolence. There is no provision in the law to prevent the master from using abusive language to the apprentice; any insult short of a blow, he is free to commit; but the slightest word of incivility, a look, smile, or grin, is punished in the apprentice, even though it were provoked.

4. There is still much flogging by the overseers. Last week a girl came to Mr. H. terribly scarred and "slashed," and complained that her master had beaten her. It appeared that this was the _seventh offence_, for neither of which she could obtain a hearing from the special magistrate in her district. While Mr. H. was relating to me this fact, a girl came in with a little babe in her arms. He called my attention to a large bruise near her eye. He said her master knocked her down a few days since, and made that wound by kicking her.

Frequently when complaints of insolence are made, on investigation, it is found that the offence was the result of a quarrel commenced by the master, during which he either cuffed or kicked the offender.

The special magistrates also frequently resort to flogging. Many of them, as has been mentioned already, have been connected with the army or navy, where corporal punishment is practised and flogging is not only in consonance with their feelings and habits, but is a punishment more briefly inflicted and more grateful to the planters, as it does not deprive them of the apprentice's time.

5. Mr. H. says that the apprentices who have purchased their freedom behave well. He has not known one of them to be brought before the police.

6. Many of the special magistrates require much looking after. Their salaries are not sufficient to support them independently. Some of them leave their homes on Monday morning, and make the whole circuit of their district before returning, living and lodging meanwhile, _free of expense_, with the planters. If they are not inclined to listen to the complaints of the apprentices, they soon find that the apprentices are not inclined to make complaints to them, and that they consequently have much more leisure time, and get through their district much easier. Of the sixty magistrates in Jamaica, but few can be said to discharge their duties faithfully. The governor is often required to interfere. A few weeks since he discharged two magistrates for putting iron collars on two women, in direct violation of the law, and then sending him false reports.

7. The negro grounds are often at a great distance, five or six miles, and some of them fifteen miles, from the plantation. Of course much time, which would otherwise be spent in cultivating them, is necessarily consumed in going to them and returning. Yet for all that, and though in many cases the planters have withdrawn the watchmen who used to protect them, and have left them entirely exposed to thieves and cattle, they are generally well cultivated--on the whole, better than during slavery.

When there is inattention to them, it is caused either by some planters hiring them during their own time, or because their master permits his cattle to trespa.s.s on them, and the people feel an insecurity. When you find a kind planter, in whom the apprentices have confidence, there you will find beautiful gardens. In not a few instances, where the overseer is particularly harsh and cruel, the negroes have thrown up their old grounds, and taken new ones on other plantations, where the overseer is better liked, or gone into the depths of the mountain forests, where no human foot has been before them, and there cleared up small plats. This was also done to some extent during slavery. Many of the people, against whom the planters are declaiming as lazy and worthless, have rich grounds of which those planters little dream.

8. There is no feeling of insecurity, either of life or property. One may travel through the whole island without the least fear of violence.

If there is any danger, it is from the _emigrants_, who have been guilty of several outrages. So far from the planters fearing violence from the apprentices, when an a.s.sault or theft is committed, they refer it, almost as a matter of course, to some one else. A few weeks ago one of the island mails was robbed. As soon as it became known, it was at once said, "Some of those villanous emigrants did it," and so indeed it proved.

People in the country, in the midst of the mountains, where the whites are few and isolated, sleep with their doors and windows open, without a thought of being molested. In the towns there are no watchmen, and but a small police, and yet the streets are quiet and property safe.

9. The apprentices understand the great provisions of the new system, such as the number of hours they must work for their master, and that their masters have no right to flog them, &c., but its details are inexplicable mysteries. The masters have done much injury by deceiving them on points of which they were ignorant.

10. The apprentices almost to a man are ready to work for wages during their own time. When the overseer is severe towards them, they prefer working on other plantations, even for less wages, as is very natural.

11. Almost all the evils of the apprenticeship arise from the obstinacy and oppressive conduct of the overseers. They are constantly taking advantage of the defects of the system, which are many, and while they demand to the last grain's weight "the pound of flesh," they are utterly unwilling to yield the requirements which the law makes of them. Where you find an overseer endeavoring in every way to overreach the apprentices, taking away the privileges which they enjoyed during slavery, and exacting from them the utmost minute and mite of labor, there you will find abundant complaints both against the master and the apprentice. And the reverse. The cruel overseers are complaining of idleness, insubordination, and ruin, while the kind master is moving on peaceably and prosperously.

12. The domestic apprentices have either one day, or fifty cents cash, each week, as an allowance for food and clothing. This is quite insufficient. Many of the females seem obliged to resort to theft or to prost.i.tution to obtain a support. Two girls were brought before Mr. Hill while we were with him, charged with neglect of duty and night-walking.

One of them said her allowance was too small, and she must get food in some other way or starve.

13. The apprentices on many plantations have been deprived of several privileges which they enjoyed under the old system. Nurseries have been abolished, water-carriers have been taken away, keeping stock is restricted, if not entirely forbidden, watchmen are no longer provided to guard the negro grounds, &c.--petty aggressions in our eyes, perhaps, but severe to them. Another instance is still more hard. By the custom of slavery, women who had reared up seven children were permitted to "sit down," as it was termed; that is, were not obliged to go into the field to work. Now no such distinction is made, but all are driven into the field.

14. One reason why the crops were smaller in 1835 and 1836 than in former years, was, that the planters in the preceding seasons, either fearful that the negroes would not take off the crops after emanc.i.p.ation, and acting on their baseless predictions instead of facts, or determined to make the results of emanc.i.p.ation appear as disastrous as possible, neglected to put in the usual amount of cane, and to clean the coffee fields. As they refused to sow, of course they could not reap.

15. The complaints against the apprentices generally are becoming fewer every week, but the complaints against the masters are increasing both in number and severity. One reason of this is, that the apprentices, on the one hand, are becoming better acquainted with the new system, and therefore better able to avoid a violation of its provisions, and are also learning that they cannot violate these provisions with impunity; and, on the other hand, they are gaining courage to complain against their masters, to whom they have hitherto been subjected by a fear created by the whips and dungeons, and nameless tortures of slavery.

Another reason is, that the masters, as the term of the apprenticeship shortens, and the end of their authority approaches nearer, are pressing their poor victims harder and harder, determined to extort from them all they can, before complete emanc.i.p.ation rescues them for ever from their grasp.

While we were in conversation with Mr. Hill, Mr. Ramsay, one of the special magistrates for this parish, called in. He is a native of Jamaica, and has been educated under all the influences of West India society, but has held fast his integrity, and is considered the firm friend of the apprentices. He confirmed every fact and opinion which Mr.