"_Aboan_.--The innocent!
_Oroonoko_.--These men are so, whom you would rise against.
If we are slaves, they did not make us slaves,
But bought us in the honest way of trade,
As we have done before 'em, bought and sold
Many a wretch, and never thought it wrong.
They paid our price for us, and we are now
Their property, a part of their estate,
To manage as they please."
At an early hour the party, consisting of Mr Kingston, the master of the
brig, and Newton, set off upon mules for the habitation of the planter.
The sun had illumined the sky, but had not yet made his appearance,
although the golden fringes upon the clouds, which floated in broad
belts in the horizon, indicated his glorious yet withering approach. The
dew moistened each leaf, or hung in glittering pendant drops upon the
thorn of the prickly pears which lined the roads. The web of the
silver-banded spider was extended between the bushes, and, saturated
with moisture, reflected the beams of the rising orb, as the animals
danced in the centre, to dazzle their expected prey. The mist still
hovered on the valleys, and concealed a part of the landscape from their
view; and the occasional sound of the fall of water was mingled with the
twittering and chirping of the birds, as they flew from spray to spray. The
air was fresh, even to keenness, and anyone suddenly wafted to the scene
would little have imagined that he was under the torrid zone.
"How different this is from the ideas generally formed of the climate in
the West Indies!" observed Newton. "In England, we couple it with
unsufferable heat and the yellow fever."
"Your reports are from those who seldom leave the harbours or towns,
where such indeed prevail," replied Kingston. "There is no island in the
Caribbean Sea where the early riser may not enjoy this delightful,
bracing atmosphere. At Jamaica in particular, where they collect as much
snow as they please in the mountains; yet, at the same time, there is
not a more fatal and unhealthy spot than Port Royal harbour, in the same
island."
"Is the plantation we are going to situated as high above the level of
the sea as we are now?"
"No; most plantations are in the ravines, between the hills. The
sugar-cane requires heat. As soon as we are on the summit of this next
hill we shall descend to it."
In half an hour they arrived at the end of their journey, when they
stopped at an extensive range of low buildings, situated at the head of
the valley, which descended to the sea,--now for the first time
presented to their view since they had quitted Bridgetown. The owner of
the estate was at the door to receive them. He was a tall, spare man,
dressed in nankeen jacket and trousers, with a large-brimmed straw hat
upon his head.
"Welcome, gentlemen, welcome. Kingston, how are you?" said he, as they
stopped. "Now dismount, gentlemen; the boys will take the mules. Boy
Jack, where are you? Where's Baby, and where's Bulky? Come here, you
lazy rascals, and take the mules. Now then, gentlemen, I'll show you the
way. I ordered breakfast on the table, as I saw you coming down the
hill."
So saying, the old gentleman led the way through a portico. At the sight
of strangers, the windows underneath were crowded with faces of various
degrees of colour--eyes and mouths wide open, the latter displaying rows
of teeth, so even and so brilliantly white, that they might cause a
sensation of envy to many an English belle.
The party were ushered into a spacious and cool apartment on the
ground-floor, where a table was covered with all the varieties of a
tropical breakfast, consisting of fried fish, curries, devilled poultry,
salt meats, and everything which could tend to stimulate an enfeebled
appetite.
"Now, gentlemen, let me recommend you to take a white jacket; you'll be
more at your ease, and there is no ceremony here. Boy Jack, where's the
sangoree? This is a fine climate, Captain Berecroft; all you have to
attend to is--to be temperate, and not to check the perspiration."
Boy Jack who, _par parenthèse_, was a stout, well-looking negro, of
about forty years of age, now made his appearance with the sangoree.
This was a beverage composed of half a bottle of brandy and two bottles
of Madeira, to which were added a proportion of sugar, lime-juice, and
nutmeg, with water _ad lib_. It was contained in a glass bowl, capable
of holding two gallons, standing upon a single stalk, and bearing the
appearance of a Brobdingnag rummer. Boy Jack brought it with both hands,
and placed it before his master.
"Now, sir, will you drink?" said the planter, addressing Mr Berecroft.
"Thank you," replied Mr Berecroft, "I never drink so early in the
morning."
"Drink! why this is nothing but _swizzle_. Here's your health, sir, I'll
show you the way."
The large goblet was fixed to his lips for upwards of a minute: at last
they unwillingly separated, and the old planter recovered his
respiration with a deep sigh. "Now then, gentlemen, do you take a
little; don't be afraid; there's nothing you mayn't do in this climate,
only be temperate, and don't check the perspiration." At this moment
Newton was startled, and looked under the table.
"I thought it was a dog, but it's a little black child."
"Oh! there's one out, is there? Why, Boy Jack, did I not tell you to
shut them all in?"
"Yes, sar, so I did," said the black man, looking under the table.
"Eh!--it's that d--d little nigger--two-year old Sambo--no possible
keeping him in, sar.--Come out, Sambo."
The child crawled out to his master, and climbed up by his knee: the old
planter patted his woolly head, and gave him a piece of grilled turkey,
with which he immediately dived again under the table.
"The fact is, captain, they are accustomed to come in at breakfast-time;
they are only shut out to-day because I have company. That door behind
me leads into the nursery-yard."
"The nursery-yard!"
"Yes, I'll show it you by-and-bye; there's plenty of them there."
"Oh, pray let us have them in--I wish to see them, and should be sorry
to be the cause of their being disappointed."
"Open the door, Boy Jack." As soon as it was open, about twenty black
children, from seven to three years old, most of them naked, with their
ivory skins like a polished table, and quite pot-bellied from good
living, tumbled into the room, to the great amusement of Newton and the
party. They were followed by seven or eight more, who were not yet old
enough to walk; but they crawled upon all-fours almost as fast as the
others who could walk erect after the image of their Maker.
The company amused themselves with distributing to the children the
contents of the dishes on the table--the elder ones nestling alongside
of the planter and his friends with the greatest familiarity, while the
younger sat upright on the floor, laughing as they devoured their
respective portions.
"Of course, these are all slaves?" observed Mr Berecroft.
"Yes, bred them all myself," replied the planter; "indeed, out of two
hundred and fifteen which I have on the estate, I think that there are
not more that twelve who were not born on this property, during my
father's time or mine. Perhaps, as breakfast is over, you will like to
inspect my nursery."
The planter led the way into the yard from which the children had
entered. It was a square, of about two roods of ground, three sides of
which were enclosed by rows of small houses, of two rooms each; and most
of them were occupied by female slaves, either nursing children at the
breast, or expecting very soon to have that duty to perform. They received
their master with a smiling face, as he addressed a question to each of
them when he entered their abode.
"Now these are all my _breeding_ women; they do no work, only take care
of the children, who remain here until they are eight or nine years old.
We have a surgeon on the estate, who attends them as well as the other
slaves when they are sick. Now, if you feel inclined, we will go round
the works."
The old planter, in a few minutes' walk, brought them to an extensive
row of detached cottages, each centred in a piece of garden-ground, well
stocked with yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, and other tropical
productions. Poultry of all descriptions were scattered in profusion
about the place, and pigs appeared to be abundant.
"Now, captain, these are the cottages of the working slaves. The
garden-ground is allowed to them; and whatever they can make by its
produce, or by their pigs and their poultry, is all their own."
"But how are they subsisted?"
"By rations, as regularly served out as yours are on board of your
vessel, and they have as much as they can consume."
"Are they all single men?"
"No, mostly married to slave girls on the estate: their wives live with
them, unless they breed, and then they are removed up to the nurseries."
"And what work do you exact from them?"
"Eight hours a day--except in crop-time, and then we are very busy; so
that they have plenty of leisure to look after their own interests if
they choose."
"Do they ever lay up much money?"
"Very often enough to purchase their freedom, if they wished it."
"If they wished it!" replied Mr Berecroft with surprise.
"Yes; without explanation, that may appear strange to you, and still
more strange, the fact, that freedom offered has often been refused. A
man who is a clever workman as a carpenter, or any other trade, will
purchase his freedom if he can, because artisans can obtain very high
wages here; but a slave who, if I may use the term, is only a common
labourer, would hardly support himself, and lay by nothing for his old age.
They are aware of it. I have offered emancipation to one or two who have
grown old, and they have refused it, and now remain as heirlooms on the
estate, provided with everything, and doing little or no work, if they
please. You saw that old man sweeping under the portico? Well, he does that
every day; and it is all he has done for these five years. Now, if you
please, we will go through the plantations, and visit the sugar-mills."
They passed the slaves, who were at work hoeing between the canes; and
certainly, if an estimate of their condition was to be taken by the
noise and laughter with which they beguiled their labour, they were far
from demanding pity.
"But, I must confess, that there is something in that cart-whip which I
do not like," observed Newton.
"I grant it; but custom is not easily broken through; nor do we know any
substitute. It is the badge of authority, and the noise of it is
requisite to summon them to their labour. With me it is seldom used, for
it is not required; and if you were captain of a man-of-war, I should
answer you as I did Captain C----; to wit--I question much whether my
noisy whip is half so mischievous as your silent _cat_."
The sugar-mills, stables of mules, boilers, coolers, &c., were all
examined, and the party returned to the plantation-house.
"Well, captain, now you have witnessed what is termed slavery, what is
your opinion? Are your philanthropists justified in their invectives
against us?"
"First assure me that all other plantations are as well regulated as
your own," replied Mr Berecroft.
"If not, they soon will be: it is to the interest of all the planters
that they should; and by that, like all the rest of the world, they will
be guided."
"But still there have been great acts of cruelty committed; quite enough
to prepossess us against you as a body."
"I grant that such has been the case, and may occasionally be so now;
but do not the newspapers of England teem with acts of barbarity? Men
are the same everywhere. But, sir, it is the misfortune of this world,
that we never know _when to stop_. The abolition of the slave-trade was
an act of humanity, worthy of a country acting upon an extended scale
like England; but your philanthropists, not content with relieving the
blacks, look forward to the extermination of their own countrymen, the
whites--who, upon the faith and promise of the nation, were induced to
embark their capital in these islands."
"Doubtless they wish to abolish slavery altogether," replied Berecroft.
"They must be content with having abolished the horrors of it, sir,"
continued the planter. "At a time when the mart was open, and you could
purchase another slave to replace the one that had died from
ill-treatment, or disease, the life of a slave was not of such
importance to his proprietor as it is now. Moreover, the slaves imported
were adults, who had been once free; and, torn as they were from their
natural soil and homes, where they slept in idleness throughout the day,
they were naturally morose and obstinate, sulky, and unwilling to work.
This occasioned severe punishment; and the hearts of their masters being
indurated by habit, it often led to acts of barbarity. But slavery,
since the abolition, has assumed a milder form--it is a species of
_bond_ slavery. There are few slaves in existence who have not
been born upon the estates, and we consider that they are more
lawfully ours."
"Will you explain what you mean by _more lawfully_?"
"I mean, captain (for instance), that the father of that boy (pointing
to one of the negro lads who waited at breakfast) was my slave; that he
worked for me until he was an old man, and then I supported him for many
years until he died. I mean, that I took care of this boy's mother, who,
as she bore children, never did any work after her marriage, and has
since been only an expense to me, and probably will continue to be so
for some years. I mean, that that boy was taken care of, and fed by me
until he was ten years old, without my receiving any return for the
expense which I incurred; and I therefore consider that he is indebted
to me as a bond-slave, and that I am entitled to his services; and he,
in like manner, when he grows too old to work, will become a pensioner,
as his father was before him."
"I perceive the drift of your argument; you do not defend slavery
generally."
"No; I consider a man born free, and made a slave, is justified in
resorting to any means to deliver himself; but a slave that I have
reared is lawfully a slave, and bound to remain so, unless he can repay
me the expense I have incurred. But dinner is ready, captain; if you
wish to argue the matter further, it must be over a bottle of claret."
The dinner was well dressed, and the Madeira and claret (the only wines
produced) of the best quality. Their host did the honours of his table
with true West Indian hospitality, circulating the bottle after dinner
with a rapidity which would soon have produced an effect upon less
prudent visitors; and when Mr Berecroft refused to take any more wine,
he ordered the ingredients for arrack punch.
"Now, Mr Forster, you must take a tumbler of this, and I think that
you'll pronounce it excellent."
"Indeed!------" replied Newton.
"Nay, I will take no denial; don't be afraid; you may do anything you
please in this climate, only be temperate, and don't check the
perspiration."
"Well, but," observed Newton, who placed the tumbler of punch before
him. "You promised to renew your argument after dinner; and I should
like to hear what you have to urge in defence of a system which I never
have heard defended before."
"Well," replied his host, upon whom the wine and punch had begun to take
effect, "just let me fill my tumbler again to keep my lips moist, and
then I'll prove to you that slavery has existed from the earliest times,
and is not at variance with the religion we profess. That it has existed
from the earliest times, you need only refer to the book of Genesis; and
that it is not at variance with our religion, I must refer to the fourth
Commandment. How can that part of the commandment be construed, 'and the
stranger that is within thy gates'? To whom can this possibly apply but
to the slave? After directing that the labour of all the household,
'man-servant and maid-servant,' should cease, it then proceeds to the ox
and the ass, and the stranger that is within thy gates. Now, gentlemen,
this cannot be applied to the stranger in the literal sense of the word,
the hospitality of the age forbidding that labour should be required of
him. At that time slaves were brought from foreign lands, and were a
source of traffic, as may be inferred by the readiness with which the
Ishmaelites purchased Joseph of his brethren, and resold him in Egypt.
"Nay, that slavery was permitted by the _Almighty_ is fully proved by
the state of the Jewish nation, until _He_ thought proper to bring
them out of the house of bondage.
"If, then, the laws of God provided against the ill-treatment of the
slave, slavery is virtually acknowledged as not being contrary to His
Divine will. We have a further proof, _subsequent to the mission of our
Saviour_, that the apostles considered slavery as lawful."
"I remember it: you refer to Paul sending back the runaway slave
Onesimus. Well, I'll admit all this," replied Mr Berecroft, who had a
great dislike to points of Scripture being canvassed after dinner; "and
I wish to know what inference you would draw from it."
"That I was just coming to: I assert that my property in slaves is
therefore as legally mine as my property in land or money; and that any
attempt to deprive me of either is equally a _robbery_, whether it be
made by the nation or by an individual. But now, sir, allow me to ask
you a question, show me where liberty is?--Run over all the classes of
society, and point out one man who is free?"
Mr Berecroft, who perceived the effect of the arrack punch, could not
refrain from laughing, as he replied, "Well, your friend Mr Kingston, is
he not free?"
"Free! Not half so free as that slave boy who stands behind your chair.
Why, he is a merchant; and whether he lives upon a scale of princely
expenditure, whether wholesale or retail, banker, or proprietor of a
chandler's shop, he is a speculator. Anxious days and sleepless nights
await upon speculation. A man with his capital embarked, who may be a
beggar on the ensuing day, cannot lie down upon roses: he is the
_slave_ of Mammon. Who are greater _slaves_ than sailors? So are
soldiers, and all who hold employ under government. So are politicians:
they are _slaves_ to their tongues; for opinions once expressed, and
parties once joined, at an age when reason is borne down by enthusiasm,
and they are fixed for life against their conscience, and are unable to
follow its dictates without blasting their characters. Courtiers are
_slaves_, you must acknowledge."
"I beg your pardon," interrupted Kingston, "but I perceive that you make
no distinction between those enthralled by their own consent, and
_against_ it."
"It is a distinction without a difference," replied the planter, "even
if it were so, which it is not, but in particular cases. The fact is,
society enthrals us all. We are forced to obey laws, to regard customs,
to follow the fashion of the day, to support the worthless by
poor-rates, to pay taxes, and the interest of a debt which others have
contracted, or we must go to prison."
"And the princes and rulers of the land--do you include them?" inquired
Newton.
"They are the greatest of all; for the meanest peasant has an advantage
over the prince in the point on which we most desire to be free--that of
the choice in his partner in life. He _has none_, but must submit to the
wishes of his people, and trammelled by custom, must take to his bed one
whom he cannot take to his heart."
"Well, by your account, there is nobody free, unless it be _Liberty_
herself."
"Why, sir," rejoined the planter, "to prove to you that I was correct
when I asserted that there was no such thing in this world as liberty,
paradoxical as it may appear, Liberty is but Liberty when in _bondage_.
Release her, and she ceases to exist; she has changed her nature and
character; for Liberty _unrestrained_ becomes _Licentiousness_."
"Well," said Mr Kingston, laughing with the rest at this curious remark,
"as you have now arrived at your climax, with your leave we will go to
bed."
"Have I convinced you?" demanded the planter, taking the tumbler from
his lips.
"At least you have silenced us. Now, if you please, we will put on our
coats and retire to our apartments."
"Yes--do," replied the other, who was not very steady; "do--or you may
check the perspiration. Boy Jack, where are the lights? Good-night,
gentlemen."
The negro led the way to a large room with two beds in it, for Newton
and the master of the brig. Having first pointed out to them that there
was a jug of sangoree, "suppose gentlemen thirsty," he wished them
good-night, and left the room.
"Well, Newton," said Mr Berecroft, as soon as they were alone, "what do
you think of the planter?"
"I think that, considering his constant advice to be temperate, he
swallowed a very large quantity of arrack punch."
"He did indeed; but what think you of his arguments?"
"I hardly can say, except that none of them were sufficiently convincing
to induce me to be a slave proprietor. We may perhaps, as he asserts,
have contented ourselves with the shadow instead of the substance; but
even the shadow of liberty is to be venerated by an Englishman."
"I agree with you, my boy. His discourse did, however, bring one idea
into my head; which is, that there is a remarkable connection between
religion and slavery. It was in a state of bondage that the Jews were
prepared to receive the promised land; and whenever they fell off from
the true worship, they were punished by captivity. It was through the
means of slavery that the light of the true faith was first brought to
our island, where it has burnt with a purer flame than elsewhere; for,
if you recollect, the beauty of some English children exposed for sale
at Rome, assisted by a Latin pun, caused the introduction of
Christianity into Great Britain; and who knows but that this traffic, so
offensive to humanity, has been permitted by an Allwise Power, with the
intent that some day it shall be the means of introducing Christianity
into the vast regions of African idolatry?"
"True," observed Newton; "and the time may not be far distant."
"That it is impossible to calculate upon. _He_ worketh by His own
means, which are inscrutable. It was not the cause of virtue, but a
desire that vice might be less trammelled, which introduced the
Reformation in England. The more we attempt to interfere with the
arrangements of the Almighty, the more we shall make evident our own
folly and blindness, and His unsearchable and immutable
wisdom.--Good-night, my boy."