towards the infirmary or hospital, calling in at one or two of the houses
along the row. These cabins consist of one room about twelve feet by
fifteen, with a couple of closets smaller and closer than the state-rooms
of a ship, divided off from the main room and each other by rough wooden
partitions in which the inhabitants sleep. They have almost all of them a
rude bedstead, with the grey moss of the forests for mattress, and filthy,
pestilential-looking blankets, for covering. Two families (sometimes eight
and ten in number) reside in one of these huts, which are mere wooden
frames pinned, as it were, to the earth by a brick chimney outside, whose
enormous aperture within pours down a flood of air, but little
counteracted by the miserable spark of fire, which hardly sends an
attenuated thread of lingering smoke up its huge throat. A wide ditch runs
immediately at the back of these dwellings, which is filled and emptied
daily by the tide. Attached to each hovel is a small scrap of ground for a
garden, which, however, is for the most part untended and uncultivated.
Such of these dwellings as I visited to-day were filthy and wretched in
the extreme, and exhibited that most deplorable consequence of ignorance
and an abject condition, the inability of the inhabitants to secure and
improve even such pitiful comfort as might yet be achieved by them.
Instead of the order, neatness, and ingenuity which might convert even
these miserable hovels into tolerable residences, there was the careless,
reckless, filthy indolence which even the brutes do not exhibit in their
lairs and nests, and which seemed incapable of applying to the uses of
existence the few miserable means of comfort yet within their reach.
Firewood and shavings lay littered about the floors, while the half-naked
children were cowering round two or three smouldering cinders. The moss
with which the chinks and crannies of their ill-protecting dwellings might
have been stuffed, was trailing in dirt and dust about the ground, while
the back-door of the huts, opening upon a most unsightly ditch, was left
wide open for the fowls and ducks, which they are allowed to raise, to
travel in and out, increasing the filth of the cabin, by what they brought
and left in every direction. In the midst of the floor, or squatting round
the cold hearth, would be four or five little children from four to ten
years old, the latter all with babies in their arms, the care of the
infants being taken from the mothers (who are driven a-field as soon as
they recover from child labour), and devolved upon these poor little
nurses, as they are called, whose business it is to watch the infant, and
carry it to its mother whenever it may require nourishment. To these
hardly human little beings, I addressed my remonstrances about the filth,
cold, and unnecessary wretchedness of their room, bidding the elder boys
and girls kindle up the fire, sweep the floor, and expel the poultry. For
a long time my very words seemed unintelligible to them, till when I began
to sweep and make up the fire, &c., they first fell to laughing, and then
imitating me. The encrustations of dirt on their hands, feet, and faces,
were my next object of attack, and the stupid negro practice (by the bye,
but a short time since nearly universal in enlightened Europe), of keeping
the babies with their feet bare, and their heads, already well capped by
nature with their woolly hair, wrapped in half-a-dozen hot filthy
coverings. Thus I travelled down the 'street,' in every dwelling
endeavouring to awaken a new perception, that of cleanliness, sighing, as
I went, over the futility of my own exertions, for how can slaves be
improved? Nathless, thought I, let what can be done; for it may be, that,
the two being incompatible, improvement may yet expel slavery--and so it
might, and surely would, if, instead of beginning at the end, I could but
begin at the beginning of my task. If the mind and soul were awakened,
instead of mere physical good attempted, the physical good would result,
and the great curse vanish away; but my hands are tied fast, and this
corner of the work is all that I may do. Yet it cannot be but, from my
words and actions, some revelations should reach these poor people; and
going in and out amongst them perpetually, I shall teach, and they learn
involuntarily a thousand things of deepest import. They must learn, and
who can tell the fruit of that knowledge alone, that there are beings in
the world, even with skins of a different colour from their own, who have
sympathy for their misfortunes, love for their virtues, and respect for
their common nature--but oh! my heart is full almost to bursting, as I
walk among these most poor creatures.
The infirmary is a large two-story building, terminating the broad
orange-planted space between the two rows of houses which form the first
settlement; it is built of white washed wood, and contains four
large-sized rooms. But how shall I describe to you the spectacle which was
presented to me, on my entering the first of these? But half the
casements, of which there were six, were glazed, and these were obscured
with dirt, almost as much as the other windowless ones were darkened by
the dingy shutters, which the shivering inmates had fastened to, in order
to protect themselves from the cold. In the enormous chimney glimmered the
powerless embers of a few sticks of wood, round which, however, as many of
the sick women as could approach, were cowering; some on wooden settles,
most of them on the ground, excluding those who were too ill to rise; and
these last poor wretches lay prostrate on the floor, without bed,
mattress, or pillow, buried in tattered and filthy blankets, which,
huddled round them as they lay strewed about, left hardly space to move
upon the floor. And here, in their hour of sickness and suffering, lay
those whose health and strength are spent in unrequited labour for
us--those who, perhaps even yesterday, were being urged onto their unpaid
task--those whose husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, were even at that
hour sweating over the earth, whose produce was to buy for us all the
luxuries which health can revel in, all the comforts which can alleviate
sickness. I stood in the midst of them, perfectly unable to speak, the
tears pouring from my eyes at this sad spectacle of their misery, myself
and my emotion alike strange and incomprehensible to them. Here lay women
expecting every hour the terrors and agonies of child-birth, others who
had just brought their doomed offspring into the world, others who were
groaning over the anguish and bitter disappointment of miscarriages--here
lay some burning with fever, others chilled with cold and aching with
rheumatism, upon the hard cold ground, the draughts and dampness of the
atmosphere increasing their sufferings, and dirt, noise, and stench, and
every aggravation of which sickness is capable, combined in their
condition--here they lay like brute beasts, absorbed in physical
suffering; unvisited by any of those Divine influences which may ennoble
the dispensations of pain and illness, forsaken, as it seemed to me, of
all good; and yet, O God, Thou surely hadst not forsaken them! Now, pray
take notice, that this is the hospital of an estate, where the owners are
supposed to be humane, the overseer efficient and kind, and the negroes,
remarkably well cared for and comfortable. As soon as I recovered from my
dismay, I addressed old Rose, the midwife, who had charge of this room,
bidding her open the shutters of such windows as were glazed, and let in
the light. I next proceeded to make up the fire, but upon my lifting a log
for that purpose, there was one universal outcry of horror, and old Rose,
attempting to snatch it from me, exclaimed, 'Let alone, missis--let
be--what for you lift wood--you have nigger enough, missis, to do it!' I
hereupon had to explain to them my view of the purposes for which hands
and arms were appended to our bodies, and forthwith began making Rose tidy
up the miserable apartment, removing all the filth and rubbish from the
floor that could be removed, folding up in piles the blankets of the
patients who were not using them, and placing, in rather more sheltered
and comfortable positions, those who were unable to rise. It was all that
I could do, and having enforced upon them all my earnest desire that they
should keep their room swept, and as tidy as possible, I passed on to the
other room on the ground floor, and to the two above, one of which is
appropriated to the use of the men who are ill. They were all in the same
deplorable condition, the upper rooms being rather the more miserable,
inasmuch as none of the windows were glazed at all, and they had,
therefore, only the alternative of utter darkness, or killing draughts of
air, from the unsheltered casements. In all, filth, disorder and misery
abounded; the floor was the only bed, and scanty begrimed rags of blankets
the only covering. I left this refuge for Mr. ----'s sick dependants, with
my clothes covered with dust, and full of vermin, and with a heart heavy
enough, as you will well believe. My morning's work had fatigued me not a
little, and I was glad to return to the house, where I gave vent to my
indignation and regret at the scene I had just witnessed, to Mr. ---- and
his overseer, who, here, is a member of our family. The latter told me
that the condition of the hospital had appeared to him, from his first
entering upon his situation (only within the last year), to require a
reform, and that he had proposed it to the former manager, Mr. K----, and
Mr. ----'s brother, who is part proprietor of the estate, but receiving no
encouragement from them, had supposed that it was a matter of indifference
to the owners, and had left it in the condition in which he had found it,
in which condition it has been for the last nineteen years and upwards.
This new overseer of ours has lived fourteen years with an old Scotch
gentleman, who owns an estate adjoining Mr. ----'s, on the island of St.
Simons, upon which estate, from everything I can gather, and from what I
know of the proprietor's character, the slaves are probably treated with
as much humanity as is consistent with slavery at all, and where the
management and comfort of the hospital, in particular, had been most
carefully and judiciously attended to. With regard to the indifference of
our former manager upon the subject of the accommodation for the sick, he
was an excellent overseer, _videlicet_, the estate returned a full income
under his management, and such men have nothing to do with sick
slaves--they are tools, to be mended only if they can be made available
again,--if not, to be flung by as useless, without further expense of
money, time, or trouble.
I am learning to row here, for, circumscribed as my walks necessarily are,
impossible as it is to resort to my favourite exercise on horseback upon
these narrow dykes, I must do something to prevent my blood from
stagnating; and this broad brimming river, and the beautiful light canoes
which lie moored, at the steps, are very inviting persuaders to this
species of exercise. My first attempt was confined to pulling an oar
across the stream, for which I rejoiced in sundry aches and pains
altogether novel, letting alone a delightful row of blisters on each of my
hands.
I forgot to tell you that in the hospital were several sick babies, whose
mothers were permitted to suspend their field labour, in order to nurse
them. Upon addressing some remonstrances to one of these, who, besides
having a sick child, was ill herself, about the horribly dirty condition
of her baby, she assured me that it was impossible for them to keep their
children clean, that they went out to work at daybreak, and did not get
their tasks done till evening, and that then they were too tired and worn
out to do anything but throw themselves down and sleep. This statement of
hers I mentioned on my return from the hospital, and the overseer
appeared extremely annoyed by it, and assured me repeatedly that it was
not true.
In the evening Mr. ----, who had been over to Darien, mentioned that one
of the storekeepers there had told him that, in the course of a few years,
he had paid the negroes of this estate several thousand dollars for moss,
which is a very profitable article of traffic with them--they collect it
from the trees, dry and pick it, and then sell it to the people in Darien
for mattresses, sofas, and all sorts of stuffing purposes,--which, in my
opinion, it answers better than any other material whatever that I am
acquainted with, being as light as horse hair, as springy and elastic, and
a great deal less harsh and rigid. It is now bed-time, dear E----, and I
doubt not it has been sleepy time with you over this letter, long ere you
came thus far. There is a preliminary to my repose, however, in this
agreeable residence, which I rather dread, namely, the hunting for, or
discovering without hunting, in fine relief upon the white-washed walls of
my bed-room, a most hideous and detestable species of _reptile_, called
centipedes, which come out of the cracks and crevices of the walls, and
fill my very heart with dismay. They are from an inch to two inches long,
and appear to have not a hundred, but a thousand legs. I cannot ascertain
very certainly from the negroes whether they sting or not, but they look
exceedingly as if they might, and I visit my babies every night, in fear
and tremblings lest I should find one or more of these hateful creatures
mounting guard over them. Good night; you are well to be free from
centipedes--better to be free from slaves.
* * * * *
Dear E----. This morning I paid my second visit to the infirmary, and
found there had been some faint attempt at sweeping and cleaning, in
compliance with my entreaties. The poor woman Harriet, however, whose
statement, with regard to the impossibility of their attending properly to
their children, had been so vehemently denied by the overseer, was crying
bitterly. I asked her what ailed her, when, more by signs and dumb show
than words, she and old Rose informed me that Mr. O---- had flogged her
that morning, for having told me that the women had not time to keep their
children clean. It is part of the regular duty of every overseer to visit
the infirmary at least once a day, which he generally does in the morning,
and Mr. O----'s visit had preceded mine but a short time only, or I might
have been edified by seeing a man horsewhip a woman. I again and again
made her repeat her story, and she again and again affirmed that she had
been flogged for what she told me, none of the whole company in the room
denying it, or contradicting her. I left the room, because I was so
disgusted and indignant, that I could hardly restrain my feelings, and to
express them could have produced no single good result. In the next ward,
stretched upon the ground, apparently either asleep or so overcome with
sickness as to be incapable of moving, lay an immense woman,--her stature,
as she cumbered the earth, must have been, I should think, five feet seven
or eight, and her bulk enormous. She was wrapped in filthy rags, and lay
with her face on the floor. As I approached, and stooped to see what ailed
her, she suddenly threw out her arms, and, seized with violent
convulsions, rolled over and over upon the floor, beating her head
violently upon the ground, and throwing her enormous limbs about in a
horrible manner. Immediately upon the occurrence of this fit, four or five
women threw themselves literally upon her, and held her down by main
force; they even proceeded to bind her legs and arms together, to prevent
her dashing herself about; but this violent coercion and tight bandaging
seemed to me, in my profound ignorance, more likely to increase her
illness, by impeding her breathing, and the circulation of her blood, and
I bade them desist, and unfasten all the strings and ligatures, not only
that they had put round her limbs, but which, by tightening her clothes
round her body, caused any obstruction. How much I wished that, instead of
music and dancing and such stuff, I had learned something of sickness and
health, of the conditions and liabilities of the human body, that I might
have known how to assist this poor creature, and to direct her ignorant
and helpless nurses! The fit presently subsided, and was succeeded by the
most deplorable prostration and weakness of nerves, the tears streaming
down the poor woman's cheeks in showers, without, however, her uttering a
single word, though she moaned incessantly. After bathing her forehead,
hands, and chest with vinegar, we raised her up, and I sent to the house
for a chair with a back (there was no such thing in the hospital,) and we
contrived to place her in it. I have seldom seen finer women than this
poor creature and her younger sister, an immense strapping lass, called
Chloe--tall, straight, and extremely well made--who was assisting her
sister, and whom I had remarked, for the extreme delight and merriment
which my cleansing propensities seemed to give her, on my last visit to
the hospital. She was here taking care of a sick baby, and helping to
nurse her sister Molly, who, it seems, is subject to those fits, about
which I spoke to our physician here--an intelligent man, residing in
Darien, who visits the estate whenever medical assistance is required. He
seemed to attribute them to nervous disorder, brought on by frequent child
bearing. This woman is young, I suppose at the outside not thirty, and her
sister informed me that she had had ten children--ten children, E----!
Fits and hard labour in the fields, unpaid labour, labour exacted with
stripes--how do you fancy that? I wonder if my mere narration can make
your blood boil, as the facts did mine? Among the patients in this room
was a young girl, apparently from fourteen to fifteen, whose hands and
feet were literally rotting away piecemeal, from the effect of a horrible
disease, to which the negroes are subject here, and I believe in the West
Indies, and when it attacks the joints of the toes and fingers, the pieces
absolutely decay and come off, leaving the limb a maimed and horrible
stump! I believe no cure is known for this disgusting malady, which seems
confined to these poor creatures. Another disease, of which they
complained much, and which, of course, I was utterly incapable of
accounting for, was a species of lock-jaw, to which their babies very
frequently fall victims, in the first or second week after their birth,
refusing the breast, and the mouth gradually losing the power of opening
itself. The horrible diseased state of head, common among their babies, is
a mere result of filth and confinement, and therefore, though I never
anywhere saw such distressing and disgusting objects as some of these poor
little woolly skulls presented, the cause was sufficiently obvious.
Pleurisy, or a tendency to it, seems very common among them; also
peri-pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, which is terribly prevalent,
and generally fatal. Rheumatism is almost universal; and as it proceeds
from exposure, and want of knowledge and care, attacks indiscriminately
the young and old. A great number of the women are victims to falling of
the womb and weakness in the spine; but these are necessary results of
their laborious existence, and do not belong either to climate or
constitution.
I have ingeniously contrived to introduce bribery, corruption, and
pauperism, all in a breath, upon this island, which, until my advent, was
as innocent of these pollutions, I suppose, as Prospero's isle of refuge.
Wishing, however, to appeal to some perception, perhaps a little less dim
in their minds than the abstract loveliness of cleanliness, I have
proclaimed to all the little baby nurses, that I will give a cent to every
little boy or girl whose baby's face shall be clean, and one to every
individual with clean face and hands of their own. My appeal was fully
comprehended by the majority, it seems, for this morning I was surrounded,
as soon as I came out, by a swarm of children carrying their little
charges on their backs and in their arms, the shining, and, in many
instances, wet faces and hands of the latter, bearing ample testimony to
the ablutions which had been inflicted upon them. How they will curse me
and the copper cause of all their woes, in their baby bosoms! Do you know
that little as grown negroes are admirable for their personal beauty (in
my opinion, at least), the black babies of a year or two old are very
pretty; they have for the most part beautiful eyes and eyelashes, the
pearly perfect teeth, which they retain after their other juvenile graces
have left them; their skins are all (I mean of blacks generally)
infinitely finer and softer than the skins of white people. Perhaps you
are not aware that among the white race the _finest grained_ skins
generally belong to persons of dark complexion. This, as a characteristic
of the black race, I think might be accepted as some compensation for the
coarse woolly hair. The nose and mouth, which are so peculiarly
displeasing in their conformation in the face of a negro man or woman,
being the features least developed in a baby's countenance, do not at
first present the ugliness which they assume as they become more marked;
and when the very unusual operation of washing has been performed, the
blood shines through the fine texture of the skin, giving life and
richness to the dingy colour, and displaying a species of beauty which I
think scarcely any body who observed it would fail to acknowledge. I have
seen many babies on this plantation, who were quite as pretty as white
children, and this very day stooped to kiss a little sleeping creature,
that lay on its mother's knees in the infirmary--as beautiful a specimen
of a sleeping infant as I ever saw. The caress excited the irrepressible
delight of all the women present--poor creatures! who seemed to forget
that I was a woman, and had children myself, and bore a woman's and a
mother's heart towards them and theirs; but, indeed, the Honourable Mr.
Slumkey could not have achieved more popularity by his performances in
that line than I, by this exhibition of feeling; and had the question been
my election, I am very sure nobody else would have had a chance of a vote
through the island. But wisely is it said, that use is second nature; and
the contempt and neglect to which these poor people are used, make the
commonest expression of human sympathy appear a boon and gracious
condescension. While I am speaking of the negro countenance, there is
another beauty which is not at all unfrequent among those I see here--a
finely shaped oval face--and those who know (as all painters and
sculptors, all who understand beauty do) how much expression there is in
the outline of the head, and how very rare it is to see a well-formed
face, will be apt to consider this a higher matter than any colouring of
which, indeed, the red and white one so often admired is by no means the
most rich, picturesque, or expressive. At first the dark colour confounded
all features to my eye, and I could hardly tell one face from another.
Becoming, however, accustomed to the complexion, I now perceive all the
variety among these black countenances that there is among our own race,
and as much difference in features and in expression as among the same
number of whites. There is another peculiarity which I have remarked among
the women here--very considerable beauty in the make of the hands; their
feet are very generally ill made, which must be a natural, and not an
acquired defect, as they seldom injure their feet by wearing shoes. The
figures of some of the women are handsome, and their carriage, from the
absence of any confining or tightening clothing, and the habit they have
of balancing great weights on their heads, erect and good.