THE WHITE SLAVE.
When we dropped anchor in the port or road of Carlisle Bay we were
boarded by a number of gentlemen, who welcomed the Captain, asked
him the news, and drank with him. I meantime kept in my cabin,
knowing that I must shortly come forth; and presently I heard the
boatswain's pipe, and the order to all the prisoners to come on
deck. Then one knocked softly at my door. It was the Captain.
'Madam,' he said, with a troubled voice, 'it is not too late. Suffer
me, I pray you, to enter your name as one of those who died on the
voyage. It is no great deception: the villain Penne will alone be
hurt by it; and I swear to take you home, and to place you until
better times with honest and Godfearing people in London.'
'Oh! Sir!' I replied, 'tempt me not, I pray you. Let me go forth and
take my place among the rest.'
He entreated me again, but, finding that he could not prevail, he
suffered me to come out. Yet, such was his kindness to the last that
he would not place me with the rest, but caused his men to give me a
chair on the quarter-deck. Then I saw that we were all to be sold.
The prisoners were drawn up standing in lines one behind the other,
the men on one side and the women on the other. The hardships of the
voyage had brought them so low that, what with their rags and dirt,
and their dull scowls and savage faces, and their thin, pale cheeks,
they presented a forbidding appearance indeed.
Three or four gentlemen (they were, I found, planters of the
island) were examining them, ordering them to lift up their arms,
stretch out their legs, open their mouths, and, in short, treating
them like so many cattle: at which the women laughed with ribald
words, but the men looked as if they would willingly, if they dared,
take revenge.
'Faugh!' cried one of the planters. 'Here is a goodly collection
indeed! The island is like to become the dust-heap of Great Britain,
where all the rubbish may be shot. Captain, how long before these
bags of bones will drop to pieces? Well, sweet ladies and fair
gentlemen'--he made a mock bow to the prisoners--'you are welcome.
After the voyage, a little exercise will do you good. You will find
the air of the fields wholesome; and the gentlewomen, I assure you,
will discover that the drivers and overseers will willingly oblige
any who want to dance with a skipping-rope.'
There were now twenty or thirty gentlemen, all of them merchants and
planters, on board, and a man stepped forward with a book and pencil
in hand, who was, I perceived, the salesman.
'Gentlemen,' he said, 'this parcel of servants' (he called them a
parcel, as if they were a bale of dry goods) 'is consigned to my
care by Mr. George Penne, of Bristol, their owner. They are partly
from that city and partly from London, though shipped at the port of
Bristol. A tedious voyage, following after a long imprisonment in
Newgate and Bridewell, hath, it is true, somewhat reduced them. But
there are among them, as you will find on examination, many lusty
fellows and stout wenches, and I doubt not that what you buy to-day
will hereafter prove good bargains. They are to be sold without
reserve, and to the highest bidder. Robert Bull'--he read the first
name on the list--'Robert Bull, shoplifter. Stand forth, Robert
Bull.'
There arose from the deck where he had been lying a poor wretch who
looked as if he could hardly stand, wasted with fever and privation,
his eyes hollow (yet they looked full of wicked cunning). The
planters shook their heads.
'Come, gentlemen,' said the salesman, 'we must not judge by
appearances. He is at present, no doubt, weak, but not so weak as he
looks. I warrant a smart cut or two of the whip would show another
man. Who bids for Robert Bull?'
He was sold after a little parley for the sum of five pounds. Then
the speaker called another, naming his offence as a qualification.
No pillory could be more shameful. Yet the men looked dogged and the
women laughed.
The sale lasted for three or four hours, the prisoners being knocked
down, as they say, for various sums, the greatest price being given
for those women who were young and strong. The reason, I have been
told, is that the women make better servants, endure the heat more
patiently, do not commonly drink the strong spirit which destroys
the men, and, though they are not so strong, do more work.
[Illustration: '_This I did, and so stood before them all
bareheaded._']
Last of all, the man called my name. 'Alice Eykin, Rebel. Stand
forth, Alice Eykin, Rebel.'
'Do not go down among them,' said the Captain. 'Let them see at once
that yours is no common case. Stand here.'
He led me to the top of the ladder or steps which they call the
companion--leading from the waist to the quarter-deck.
'Madam,' he said, 'it will be best to throw back your hood.'
This I did, and so stood before them all bareheaded.
Oh! ye who are women of gentle nurture, think of such a thing as
this: to stand exposed to the curious gaze of rough and ribald men;
to be bought and sold like a horse or an ox at the fair! At first
my eyes swam and I saw nothing, and should have fallen but that the
Captain placed his hand upon my arm, and so I was steadied. Then
my sight cleared, and I could look down upon the faces of the men
below. There was no place whither I could fly and hide. It would be
more shameful still (because it might make them laugh) to burst into
tears. Why, I thought, why had I not accepted the Captain's offer
and suffered my name to be entered as one of those who had died on
the voyage and been buried in the sea?
Down in the waist the gentlemen gazed and gasped, in astonishment.
It was no new thing for the planters to buy political prisoners.
Oliver Cromwell sent over a shipload of Irishmen first, and another
shipload of those engaged in the rising of Penruddock and Grove
(among them were gentlemen, divines, and officers, of whom a few yet
survived on the island). But as yet no gentlewoman at all had been
sent out for political reasons. Wherefore, I suppose, they looked
so amazed, and gazed first at me and then at one another and then
gasped for breath.
'Alice Eykin, gentlemen,' said the salesman, who had a tongue
which, as they say, ran upon wheels, 'is a young gentlewoman, the
daughter, I am informed, of the Rev. Comfort Eykin, Doctor of
Divinity, deceased, formerly Rector of Bradford Orcas, in the county
of Somerset, and sometime Fellow of his college at Oxford, a very
learned Divine. She hath had the misfortune to have taken part in
the Monmouth Rebellion, and was one of those Maids of Taunton who
gave the Duke his flags, as you have heard by the latest advices.
Therefore, she is sent abroad for a term of ten years. Gentlemen,
there can be no doubt that her relations will not endure that this
young lady--as beautiful as she is unfortunate, and as tender as
she is beautiful--should be exposed to the same hard treatment as
the rogues and thieves whom you have just had put up for sale.
They will, I am privately assured'--I heard this statement with
amazement--'gladly purchase her freedom, after which, unless she is
permitted to return, the society of our Colony will rejoice in the
residence among them of one so lovely and so accomplished. Meantime,
she must be sold like the rest.'
'Did Monmouth make war with women for his followers?' asked a
gentleman of graver aspect than most. 'I, for one, will have no part
or share in such traffic. Are English gentlewomen, because their
friends are rebels, to be sent into the fields with the negroes?'
'Your wife would be jealous,' said another, and then they all
laughed.
I understood not until afterwards that the buying and selling of
such a person as I appeared to be is a kind of gambling. That is to
say, the buyer hopes to get his profit, not by any work that his
servant should do, but by the ransom that his friends at home should
offer. And so they began to bid, with jokes rude and unseemly, and
much laughter, while I stood before them still bareheaded.
'Ten pounds,' one began; 'Twelve,' cried another; 'Fifteen,' said
a third; and so on, the price continually rising, and the salesman
with honeyed tongue continually declaring that my friends (as he
very well knew) would consent to give any ransom--any--so only that
I was set free from servitude: until, for sixty pounds, no one
offering a higher price, I was sold to one whose appearance I liked
the least of any. He was a gross, fat man, with puffed cheeks and
short neck, who had bought already about twenty of the servants.
'Be easy,' he said, to one who asked him how he looked to get his
money back. 'It is not for twice sixty pounds that I will consent to
let her go. What is twice sixty pounds for a lovely piece like this?'
Then the Captain, who had stood beside me, saying nothing,
interfered.
'Madam,' he said, 'you can put up your hood again. And harkee,
Sir,' he spoke to the planter, 'remember that this is a pious
and virtuous gentlewoman, and'--here he swore a round oath--'if
I hear when I make this port again that you have offered her the
least freedom--you shall answer to me for it. Gentlemen all,' he
went on, 'I verily believe that you will shortly have the greatest
windfall that hath ever happened to you, compared with which the
Salisbury Rising was but a flea-bite. For the trials of the Monmouth
rebels were already begun when I left the port of Bristol, and,
though the Judges are sentencing all alike to death, they cannot
hang them all--therefore his Majesty's Plantations, and Barbadoes
in particular, will not only have whole cargoes of stout and
able-bodied servants, compared with whom these poor rogues are like
so many worthless weeds; but there will also be many gentlemen, and
perhaps gentlewomen--like Madam here--whose freedom will be bought
of you. So that I earnestly advise and entreat you not to treat them
cruelly, but with gentleness and forbearance, whereby you will be
the gainers in the end, and will make their friends the readier to
find the price of ransom. Moreover, you must remember that though
gentlemen may be flogged at whipping-posts, and beat over the head
with canes, as is your habit with servants both black and white,
when the time of their deliverance arrives they will be no longer
slaves but gentlemen again, and able once more to stand upon the
point of honour and to run you through the body, as you will richly
deserve, for your barbarity. And in the same way any gentlewomen
who may be sent here have brothers and cousins who will be ready to
perform the same act of kindness on their behalf. Remember that very
carefully, gentlemen, if you please.'
The Captain spoke to all the gentlemen present, but in the last
words he addressed himself particularly unto my new master. It was
a warning likely to be very serviceable, the planters being one and
all notoriously addicted to beating and whipping their servants.
And I have no doubt that these words did a great deal towards
assuring for the unfortunate gentlemen who presently arrived such
consideration and good treatment as they would not otherwise have
received.
The island of Barbadoes, as many people know, is one of the Caribby
Islands. It is, as to size, a small place, not more than twenty
miles in length by fifteen in breadth, but in population it is a
very considerable place indeed, for it is said to have as many
people in it as the City of Bristol. It is completely settled, and
of the former inhabitants not one is left. They were the people
called Indians or Caribs, and how they perished I know not. The
island had four ports, of which the principal is that of St. Michael
or the Bridge, or Bridgetown, in Carlisle Bay. The heat by day is
very great, and there is no winter, but summer all the year round.
There is, however, a cool breeze from the sea which moderates the
heat. A great number of vessels call here every year (there is said
to be one every day, but this I cannot believe). They bring to the
island all kinds of European manufactures, and take away with them
cargoes of Muscovada sugar, cotton, ginger, and logwood. The island
hath its shores covered with plantations, being (the people say)
already more thickly cultivated than any part of England, with fewer
waste places, commons, and the like. The fruits which grow here are
plentiful and delicious--such as the pineapple, the pappau, the
guava, the bonannow, and the like--but they are not for the servants
and the slaves. The fertility of the country is truly astonishing;
and the air, though full of moisture, whereby knives and tools of
all kinds quickly rust and spoil, is considered more healthy than
that of any other West Indian island. But, for the poor creatures
who have to toil in the hot sun, the air is full of fatigue and
thirst; it is laden with fevers, calentures, and sunstrokes. Death
is always in their midst; and after death, whatever awaits them
cannot, I think, be much worse than their condition on the island.
After the sale was finished, the Captain bade me farewell, with
tears in his eyes, and we were taken into boats and conveyed ashore,
I, for my part, sitting beside my purchaser, who addressed no word
at all to me. I was, however, pleased to find that among the people
whom he had bought was the girl Deb, who had been my maid (if a
woman who is a convict may have a maid who is a sister-convict).
When we landed, we walked from the quay or landing-place to a
great building like a barn, which is called a barracoon, in which
are lodged the negro slaves and servants before they go to their
masters. But at this time it was empty. Hither came presently a
certain important person in a great wig and a black coat, followed
by two negro beadles, each carrying a long cane or stick. After
commanding silence, this officer read to us in a loud voice those
laws of the colony which concern servants, and especially those who,
like ourselves, are transported for various offences. I forget what
these laws were; but they seemed to be of a cruel and vindictive
nature, and all ended with flogging and extension of the term of
service. I remember, for instance--because the thought of escape
from a place in the middle of the ocean seemed to me mad--that, by
the law, if any one should be caught endeavouring to run away, he
should be first flogged and then made to serve three years after
his term was expired; and that no ship was allowed to trade with
the island, or to put in for water, unless the captain had given
security with two inhabitants of the island in the sum of 2,000_l_.
sterling not to carry off any servant without the owner's consent.
When these laws had been read, the officer proceeded, further, to
inform us that those who were thus sent out were sent to work as a
punishment; that the work would be hard, not light; and that those
who shirked their work, or were negligent in their work, would be
reminded of their duties in the manner common to Plantations; that
if they tried to run away they would most certainly be caught,
because the island was but small; and that when they were caught,
not only would their term of years be increased, but that they
would most certainly receive a dreadful number of lashes. He added,
further, that as nothing would be gained by malingering, sulking,
or laziness, so, on the other hand, our lot might be lightened by
cheerfulness, honesty, and zeal. A more surly, ill-conditioned
crew I think he must have never before harangued. They listened,
and on most faces I read the determination to do no more work than
was forced from them. This is, I have learned, how the plantation
servants do commonly begin; but the most stubborn spirit is not
proof against the lash and starvation. Therefore, before many days
they are as active and as zealous as can be desired, and the white
men, even in the fields, will do double the work that can be got out
of the black.
Then this officer went away followed by his beadles, who cast eyes
of regret upon us, as if longing to stay and exercise their wands
of office upon the prisoners' backs. This done, we were ordered to
march out. My master's horse was waiting for him, led by a negro;
and two of his overseers, also mounted and carrying whips in their
hands, waited his commands. He spoke with them a few minutes, and
then rode away.
They brought a long cart with a kind of tilt to it, drawn by two
asses (here they call them assinegoes), and invited me courteously
to get into it. It was loaded with cases and boxes, and a negro
walked beside the beasts. Then we set out upon our march. First
walked the twenty servants--men and women--newly bought by the
master; after them, or at their side, rode the overseers, roughly
calling on the laggards to quicken their pace, and cracking their
whips horribly. Then came the cart in which I sat. The sun was high
in the heavens, for it was not more than three of the clock; the
road was white and covered with dust; and the distance was about six
or seven miles, and we went slowly, so that it was already nigh unto
sunset when we arrived at the master's estate.
Thus was I, a gentlewoman born, sold in the Island of Barbadoes for
a slave. Sixty pounds the price I fetched. Oh! even now, when it is
all passed long since, I remember still with shame how I stood upon
the quarter-deck, my hood thrown back, while all those men gazed
upon me, and passed their ribald jests, and cried out the money they
would give for me!