A great dividing line in the history of Jamaica runs across the record
between the years 1834 and 1838. On the further side lay slavery; on
the hitherward side lies the freedom, partially proclaimed on August
1, 1834, and made complete and absolute on a like date in the year of
grace 1838. Amid the noise and gloom of the period from these years
back into the past, it is only here and there that the face and figure
of a son of Africa stands out with anything like clearness or
distinction against the background of historic events. It was in 1494
that the European first came to Jamaica. The island was then
discovered by Columbus. Fifteen years later the Spaniards, who had
meantime harried and slain the native Indians, set to work seriously
to settle in the island. As the Arrowaks withered from the land,
before the cruelty of the conqueror, the African was brought in to
supply slave labor.[211] It is not our immediate task to enquire into
the condition of the slaves during the Spanish occupation, nor does
there exist very much material for answering such an enquiry, but it
may be noted, as an interesting fact, that a black priest was in the
deputation that came forth to negotiate with the British conqueror
when, in 1655, the surrender of the capital city, St. Jago de la Vega,
became a necessity. The Spanish Governor, Don Arnoldi Gasi, sent as
one of his representatives Don Acosta, "a noble Portuguese."
Belonging to his establishment and accompanying him as chaplain was a
Negro priest. His name has not come down to us but we know his fate.
One of the conditions of the surrender was that the Spaniards were not
to attempt to remove their belongings.[212] The town, however,
contained a party, chiefly of Portuguese, hostile to the surrender.
The first article of the capitulation required that all "goods, wares,
merchandizes, or what else upon the said island, be delivered up,
etc., without any deceit, embezzlement, or concealment whatever." A
certain Colonel made bold to drive away into the woodlands all the
cattle he could collect. Don Acosta was not only as a man of honor
shocked at this breach of a solemnly signed agreement, but he had the
painful personal interest in it of being a hostage in the hands of the
British for the due performance of the treaty of surrender. He
therefore, we are told, sent to the Colonel "his priest, a discreet
Negro, to remonstrate."[213] The Colonel put the priest to death, and
apparently suffered no worse punishment for this dastardly act than to
have the cattle he had gone away with discovered and brought back to
the British lines.[214]
When the Spaniards a few weeks after evacuated the island, going by
ship to Cuba, they took the liberty of further transgressing the
treaty made with Penn and Venables, the British commanders, for,
instead of taking their slaves with them, they turned them loose into
the hills, with directions to harass the British as much as was
possible. These slaves formed the nucleus of the Maroons, a body of
mountain warriors whose deeds of daring and battle form a story too
long and too interesting to be dealt with here.[215]
The British speedily introduced African slaves into the island, and,
after a few generations, the population had taken the contour it still
preserves, namely, the pure whites, the colored folk (mixed breeds)
and the pure blacks. For one reason and another, individuals in the
last-named section obtained their freedom. Sometimes it was granted to
them by masters who appreciated some special service rendered.
Sometimes it was bequeathed to them by kind-hearted masters. At times
it was a gift from the state for services rendered in times of
rebellion or other disaster to the commonwealth.[216]
Among the colored element of the population the tendency towards
manumission was even more marked and extensive, for there the white
fathers often not only bestowed freedom on their offspring but
bequeathed to them comfortable, if not ample, means. Our immediate
interest is, however, to be found among the blacks, for it is among
them that we see a face and figure that holds our attention.
Among the earliest Negroes in Jamaica freed because of services
rendered to the state was one John Williams. Under date of 1708, a law
stands on record, the first of its kind, forbidding slave testimony
being received in evidence against two Negroes, to wit, Manuel
Bartholomew and John Williams. This was bestowing on them one of the
vital privileges as a rule confined to whites. Eight years later there
was passed another act extending the privilege to Dorothy Williams,
wife of John, and also to the sons of these two, namely, John, Thomas,
and Francis. Exactly what led to such marked discrimination in favor
of Williams and his family the records have not so far revealed, but
the mere continuation of the concession and its extension suggest that
there was something special about the character and worth of John
Williams, Senior, as viewed by the ruling authorities. Another fact
emphasizes this. John Williams, between 1708 and 1716, had to endure
the rather dangerous hostility of a member of the legislature. This
legislator applied to Williams the term "a black Negro," as one of
contempt. Williams replied with the term, self-contradictory no doubt
but effective enough to rile a Jamaican legislator in the early part
of the eighteenth century. He styled his would-be traducer a "white
Negro." As a result he ran the risk of seeing his valued privileges
withdrawn once and for all. Supported by a few of his friends, the
irate legislator brought the matter before the House of Assembly, and
it was actually proposed that the Act of 1708, the Magna Charta so to
speak of the Williams family, should be revoked. The effort, however,
failed, and it seems reasonable to view that fact as a testimony to
something of worth in John Williams, especially when we find that soon
after his privileges were extended to his wife and his three
sons.[217]
Francis Williams now replaces John, his father, and Dorothy, his
mother, against the background of the past. The Duke of Montague
wished to put to the test some of his opinions about the capabilities
of the Negro. He desired to see whether a black boy taken and trained
at an English school and then at a university would not equal in
intellectual attainments a white youth similarly educated.[218] The
links that would explain how it was that the choice for this
experiment fell on Francis Williams are missing, but there it did
fall. He must certainly have been, as Gardner suggests, "a lively,
intelligent lad,"[219] but that by itself would not fully explain his
being chosen. Someone fairly high up in Jamaica must have been taking
a special interest in the Williams family, and that interest, in view
of the collateral facts, must have been based on something of note in
John Williams, Senior.
Francis received preliminary training in Jamaica, and then was sent to
an English grammar school. Thence he went to Cambridge University.
Only the bare facts of his story remain, like a skeleton, but we can
safely argue that he did not disappoint the expectations of his patron
to any serious extent, for, when the time came for Francis to return
to Jamaica, the Duke of Montague used his influence with some
determination to get his protégé appointed to a seat in the Council,
that his abilities might be fully put to the test. The Governor of
the island with whom the Duke had to do was Edward Trelawny, and this
shows that Williams returned to Jamaica between 1738 and 1748, for it
was between those years that Trelawny held sway. They were stormy
times, and Trelawny was a man with anything but a placid temper or
compliant views. The famous war of "Jenkin's ear," between Britain and
Spain, began in 1738. Porto Bello was destroyed by Vernon and
Cartagena was attacked with troops whose base was Jamaica. In fact,
Trelawny added a Negro detachment to the army employed.[220] In the
quarrels that followed the disastrous failure at Cartagena, Trelawny
had even more than his fair share of the cursing, and it is hardly
surprising to find that a man of such temper, and amid such storms of
fate, was anything but malleable to the Duke's request. The Governor
knew his mind, and it was that setting a black man in the Council
would excite restlessness among the slave population. The Duke's
experiment with Williams was, therefore, not completed as the Duke
himself intended it should be.[221]
Williams settled down in Spanish Town (St. Jago de la Vega), the then
capital of the island, and conducted a school for imparting a
classical and mathematical education. He became known also in the
island, and to some extent abroad, as a poet and the fragments of his
work that have come down to us show that he was at any rate a fair
literary craftsman. Of the sort of man he was personally, we have not
the material for a fair judgment, for we are practically shut up to
surveying the man through the very colored glass that the historian
Long inserts in the loophole of observation he has turned on Williams.
Long, who published his History of Jamaica in 1774, was of the planter
class, and his prejudice on such a matter was probably so complete
that he was not even conscious that prejudice existed. He says of
Williams: "In regard to the general character of the man, he was
haughty, opinionated, looked down with sovereign contempt on his
fellow blacks, entertained the highest opinion of his own knowledge,
treated his parents with much disdain, and behaved towards his own
children and slaves with a severity bordering on cruelty. He was fond
of having great deference paid to him, and exacted it with the utmost
degree from the negroes about him. He affected a singularity of dress
and a particularly grave cast of countenance, to impart an idea of his
wisdom and learning; and to second this view, he wore in common a huge
wig, which made a very venerable figure."[222] The influence of
prejudice on this picture is easily to be detected. There is not a
single line of sympathy through the whole presentation, and it is
something more than probable that there is actual misrepresentation of
facts. Long would repeat what was current in his own circle, without
feeling himself at all bound to investigate the assertions before
setting them down for future generations to read.[223]
That Williams was set in a most difficult position is obvious. It was
one that could only be creditably filled by one highly and
exceptionally gifted, both in intellect and spirit. Still more
difficult was it so to fill that position that he would appear before
an age of wider and sweeter altruistic principles without disfavor in
its eyes. Long credits him with the saying: "Show me a negro, and I
show you a thief";[224] and Gardner, who enters in his behalf a
defence that is in many ways effective, merely says regarding this
accusation: "The race to which he belonged was then almost universally
despised, and the temptation to curry favor with the whites by
denouncing the negroes was too great for him to resist."[225] But it
seems to me that something more deserves to be said on the subject.
We do not know whether Williams' epigram was a sober opinion or merely
one cast off in a fit of irritation, that moment of "haste," which
even the Psalmist knew, when he was led to sweep all mankind in under
the term of "liar." But, further, if Williams was the deliberate
sycophant and racial toady Gardner strives to shelter behind his
shield of excuse, how was it that he had not won from the planter
party, whose voice reaches us through Long, a more softened if not a
more favorable opinion? There must have been some marked independence
of spirit about a man who cut himself off thus on the one side and on
the other. He was an educated man, placed in a false position; cut off
by the narrowmindedness of the educated men around him from the
environment for which training and education had fitted him. Had his
savage epigram employed the term "slave," instead of "negro," and that
was practically what it meant, it could stand as a thought-compelling
truth, pointing beyond the slave to the tyrant system that made the
slave.
Gardner, whose history was published in 1876, was, by class, of the
missionaries, and by disposition a liberal, and a conscientious
liberal. His estimate of Williams is thoroughly well-intentioned, and
not wholly inadequate. It lacks subtlety, rather than sympathy. I
cannot help hoping that time will bring to light material by which
something may be attempted regarding the personality and character of
Francis Williams, nearer what one feels instinctively is the truth
than the outline at present holding the field.
Francis Williams has been mentioned as the author of the song:
"Welcome, welcome, fellow debtor," but on what grounds, beyond
tradition, it is not clear. We have, however, a Latin poem which is
indubitably his work. It was addressed to General George Haldane, who
arrived in Jamaica as Governor, April 17, 1758. It is panegyric, after
the fashion of the eighteenth century, that is excessively so, but
there are lines in it worth remembering. It is thus inscribed:
Integerrimo et Fortissimo
Viro
GEORGIO HALDANO, ARMIGERO,
Insulæ Jamaicensis Gubernatori;
Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes billicarum,
In cumulum accesserunt,
CARMEN.[226]
DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum (_e_)
Cuncta per extensum læta videnda diem,
Excussis adsunt curis, sub inagine (_f_) clara
Felices populi, terraque lege virens.
(_g_) Te duce, (_h_) quæ fuerant malesuada mente peracta
Irrita, conspectu non reditura tuo.
Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet
(_h_) Hæsurum collo te (_i_) _relegasse_ jugum,
Et mala, quæ diris quondam cruciatibus, insons
Insula passa fuit; condoluisset onus
Ni victrix tua Marte manus prius inclyta, nostris
Sponte (_k_) ruinosis rebus adesse velit.
Optimus es servus _Regi_ servire _Britanno_,
Dum gaudet genio (_l_) _Scotica_ terra tuo:
Optimus heroum populi (_m_) fulcire ruinam:
Insula dum superest ipse (_n_) superstes eris.
Victorem agnoscet te _Guadaloupa_, suorum
Despiciet (_o_) merito dirutà castra ducum.
Aurea vexillis flebit jactantibus (_p_) _Iris_,
Cumque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.
Crede, (_q_) menum non est, vir _Marti_ chare! (_r_) _Minerva_
Denegat _Æthiopi_ bella sonare ducum.
Concilio, caneret te _Buchananus_ et armis,
Carmine _Peleidae_ scriberet ille parem.
Ille poeta, decus patriæ, tua facta referre
Dignior, (_s_) altisono vixque Marone minor.
(_t_) Flammiferos agitante suos sub sole _jugales_ (_u_)
Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.
Hoc demum accipias, multa fuligine fusum
Ore sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.
Pollenti stabilita manu, [(_w_) Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit]
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nulus inest animo, nullus in arte color.
Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsam
_Cæsaris occidui_, candere (_x_) _Musa_ domum?
(_y_) Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris,
(_z_) _Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris!_
Integritas morum (_a_) _Maurum_ magis ornat, et ardor
Ingenii, et _docto_ (_b_) _dulcis in ore decor_;
Hunc, mage, _cor sapines, patriæ_ virtutis amorque,
(_c_) Eximit e sociis, conspicuumque facit.
(_d_) Insula me genuit, celebres aluere _Britianni_,
Insula, te salvo non dolitura (_e_) patre!
Hoc precor; o (_f_) nullo videant te fine, regentem
Florentes populos, terra, Deique locus!
FRANCISCUS WILLIAMS
(_e_) _Aspice venturo lætentur ut omnia Sæclo. Virg. E._
iv. 52.
(_f_) Clara seems to be rather an improper epithet joined to
_Imago_.
(_g_) _Te duce_, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri
_Irrita_, perpetua solvent formidine terras.
_Virg. E._ iv. 13.
(_h_) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of
government and public offices from _Spanish Town_ to
_Kingston_, during the administration of governor Kn----s.
(_i_) Pro _relevasse_.
(_k_) Quem vocet divum populus _ruentis_
Imperi _rebus. Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. ii.
(_l_) Mr. Haldane was a native of North Britain.
(_m_) Tu Ptolomaee potes magni _fulcire ruinam_. Lucan.
_Lib._ viii. 528.
(_n_) This was a promise of somewhat more than antediluvian
longevity. But the poet proved a false prophet, for Mr. Haldane
did not survive the delivery of this address many months.
(_o_) Egerit _justo domitos_ triumpho.
_Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. xii.
(_p_) _Iris._ Botanic name of the _fleur-de-luce_,
alluding to the arms of France.
(_q_) _Phoebus_, volentem prælia me loqui
Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra
Ne. _Hor_.
(_r_) Invita Minerva. _Hor. de Art. Poet._
(_s_) _Maronis altisoni_ carmina.
_Juv. Sat._ xi. _ver._ 178.
(_t_) _Flammiferas_ rotas toto cælo _agitat_.
(_u_) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this for _jubara_, fun beams.
(_w_) This is a _petitio principii_, or begging the question,
unless with Mr. Pope,
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
"Whose body nature is, and God the Soul."
But,
"Far as creation's ample range extends,
"The _Scale_ of sensual _mental_ powers ascends."
(_x_) Mr. Williams has added a _black Muse_ to the Pierian choir;
and, as he has not thought proper to bestow a name upon her, we
may venture to announce her by the title of madam Æthiopissa.
(_y_) _Vade salutatum_ subito perarata parentem
Litera. _Ovid._
(_z_) See his apophthegms before mentioned.
(_a_) _Maurus_ is not in classic strictness proper Latin for a
_Negroe_.
(_b_) _Mollis_ in ore decor. Incert.
(_c_) Me _doctarum_ ederæ præmia frontium
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
_Secernunt populo. Hor. Lib. I. Od. 1._
(_d_) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere. _Virg._
(_e_) Hic ames dici _pater_ atque princeps. _Hor._
(_f_) Serus in coelum redeas, _diuque_
_Lætus intersis populo. Hor._
This is Long's translation:
To
That most upright and valiant Man,
GEORGE HALDANE, Esq;
Governor of the Island of Jamaica;
Upon whom
All military and moral Endowments are accumulated.
An ODE.
AT length revolving fates th' expected year
Advance, and joy the live-long day shall cheer,
Beneath the fost'ring law's auspicious dawn
New harvests rife to glad th' enliven'd (_g_) lawn.
With the bright prospect blest, the swains repair
In social bands, and give a loose to care.
Rash councils now, with each malignant plan,
Each faction, that in evil hour began,
At your approach are in confusion fled,
Nor, while you rule, shall rear their dastard head.
Alike the master and the slave shall fee
Their neck reliev'd, the yoke unbound by thee.
Ere now our guiltless isle, her wretched fate
Had wept, and groan'd beneath th' oppressive weight
Of Cruel woes; save thy victorious hand,
Long fam'd in war, from Gallia's hostile land;
And wreaths of fresh renown, with generous zeal,
Had freely turn'd, to prop our sinking weal.
Form'd as thou art, to serve _Britannia's_ crown,
While _Scotia_ claims thee for her darling son;
Oh! best of heroes, ablest to sustain
A falling people, and relax their chain.
Long as this isle shall grace the Western deep,
From age to age, thy fame shall never sleep.
Thee, her dread victor _Guadaloupe_ shall own,
Crusht by thy arm, her slaughter'd chiefs bemoan;
View their proud tents all level'd in the dust,
And, while she grieves, confess the cause was just.
The golden _Iris_ the sad scene will share,
Will mourn her banners scattered in the air;
Lament her vanquisht troops with many a sigh,
Nor less to see her towns in ruin lie.
Fav'rite of _Mars!_ believe, th' attempt were vain,
It is not mine to try the arduous strain.
What! shall an _Æthiop_ touch the martial string,
Of battles, leaders, great achievements sing?
Ah no! _Minerva_, with th' indignant _Nine_,
Restrain him, and forbid the bold design.
To a _Buchanan_ does the theme belong;
A theme, that well deserves _Buchanan's_ song,
'Tis he, should swell the din of war's alarms,
Record thee great in council, as in arms;
Recite each conquest by thy valour won,
And equal thee to great _Peleides'_ son.
That bard, his country's ornament and pride,
Who e'en with _Maro_ might the bays divide:
Far worthier he, thy glories to rehearse,
And paint thy deeds in his immortal verse.
We live, alas! where the bright god of day,
Full from the zenith whirls his torrid ray:
Beneath the rage of his consuming fires,
All fancy melts, all eloquence expires.
Yet may you deign accept this humble song,
Tho' wrapt in gloom, and from a faltering tongue;
Tho' dark the stream on which the tribute flows,
Not from the _skin_, but from the _heart_ it rose.
To all of human kind, benignant heaven
(Since nought forbids) one common soul has given.
This rule was 'stablish'd by th' Eternal Mind;
Nor virtue's self, nor prudence are confin'd
To colour; none imbues the honest heart;
To science none belongs, and none to art.
Oh! _Muse_, of blackest tint, why shrinks thy breast.
Why fears t' approach the _Cæsar_ of the _West!_
Dispel thy doubts, with confidence ascend
The regal dome, and hail him for thy friend:
Nor blush, altho' in garb funereal drest,
_Thy body's white, tho' clad in sable vest_.
Manners unsullied, and the radiant glow
Of genius, burning with desire to _know_;
And learned speech, with modest accent worn,
Shall best the sooty _African_ adorn.
An heart with wisdom fraught, a patriot flame.
A love of virtue; these shall lift his name
Conspicuous, far beyond his kindred race,
Distinguish'd from them by the foremost place.
In this prolific isle I drew my birth,
And _Britain_ nurs'd, illustrious through the earth;
This, my lov'd isle, which never more shall grieve,
Whilst you our common friend, our father live.
Then this my pray'r--"My earth and heaven survey
"A people ever blest, beneath your sway!"
The following translation of this poem has been supplied by Mr. E.J.
Chinock, M.A., LL.B.:
A Poem in Honour of
Sir George Haldane, Knt.,
A most virtuous and brave man,
Governor of the island of Jamaica, on whom all the endowments of
morals and of warlike virtues have been accumulated.
Since the Fates wish the year should come at last, all the joys
which are to be seen through a lengthened day are present. The
people having shaken off their anxieties, are prosperous under a
bright image, and the land flourishing under law. While thou art
ruler, the useless things which had been done by an ill-advising
mind will not return at thy appearance. Therefore, all the
people, even the rabble, will see that thou hast removed the yoke
clinging to their necks, and the ills which the guiltless island
has formerly endured with dreadful tortures. The burden would
have been excessively painful did not thy victorious hand,
previously renowned for valour, wish of its own accord to aid our
state going to ruin. The British King has no better servant than
thou art, whilst Scotland rejoices in thy talent. Thou are the
best of heroes to prop up the fall of a nation; while the island
survives, the memory of thee will also survive. Quadaloupe will
recognise thee as her conqueror, and will deservedly despise the
plundered camps of its governors. The golden Iris will weep for
her boastful standards, and together with her inhabitants will
groan for the conquered towns. Believe me, it is not in my power,
O man, dear to Mars! Minerva denies to an Ethiopian to celebrate
the wars of generals. Buchanan would sing thee in a poem, he
would describe thee as equal to Achilles in counsel and in war.
That famous poet, the honour of his country, is more worthy to
relate thy exploits, and is scarcely inferior to the majestic
Virgil. We live under an Apollo driving his own flame-bringing
team. Every kind of eloquence is lacking to slaves. Receive this
at any rate. Though poured forth from one very black, it is
valuable, coming from a sonorous mouth; not from his skin, but
from his heart. The bountiful Deity, with a hand powerfully and
firm, has given the same soul to men of all races, nothing
standing in his way. Virtue itself, and prudence, are free from
colour; there is no colour in an honourable mind, no colour in
skill. Why dost thou fear or doubt that the blackest Muse may
scale the lofty house of the western Caesar? Go and salute him,
and let it not be to thee a cause of shame that thou wearest a
white body in a black skin. Integrity of _morals_ more adorns a
_Moor_, and ardour of intellect and sweet elegance in a learned
mouth. A wise heart and a love of his ancestral virtue the more
remove him from his comrades and make him conspicuous. The island
(of Jamaica) gave me birth; the renowned Britons brought me up;
the island which will not grieve while thou its father art well.
This I pray: O may earth and heaven see thee without end, ruling
a flourishing people.[227]